WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 49: 049

──────

After returning to reality,

I opened my status window.

[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 19)]

[29,040 Points]

I muttered under my breath.

“Hmph. Only twenty thousand Points again? Even this much Point income is starting to feel trivial.”

That was a lie.

This feels amazing!

I was earning several thousand more Points with every floor I climbed.

Every day, I was saving more citizens of the Republic of Korea!

Just wait a little longer, King Korea.

This body will save you.

Anyway, I had finished climbing safely.

It was time for today's routine.

-Click!

I quickly took a picture and made a post.

[Post Title: Newbie climbed Floor 19 today...]

[Author: Blue Dot]

(A picture of loot boxes nearly filling the living room)

Newbie went to Floor 19 today...

It was a mountain climbing map.

But there were way too many Orcs in the mountains...

So I just killed them all.

This time, I tried using Protective Aura while training martial arts.

I think I kind of like it?

It literally grinds up those Orc bastards.

It was strange, I felt like a human blender.

Anyway, today's earnings!

1,024 Orc axes.

101 Orc Warrior armor sets.

29 Orc Shaman ring sets.

29,040 Points.

A total of 785.6 million won...!!!

My earnings are increasing by over 100 million won every day!

My Points are increasing by five thousand every day too.

Truly exponential growth...!

But...

As my earnings and loot keep increasing,

I don't really have anywhere to store all this stuff.

Today's loot weighs four tons.

I really should start preparing to move soon.

But I haven't saved enough money for where I want to move yet.

So I'm going to earn for a few more days.

Haah... I wish someone would just donate money to me for free.

Then I could move where I want right away.

Hmm, I'm not that hungry today.

I'll just blend up some tomato juice and go to sleep.

└Yesterday it was Million Volt Napalm Lurker Railgun, and today it's Protective Aura Human Blender? This bastard's concept doesn't discriminate between people and objects.

└What's Protective Aura? Never heard of it.

└└Blue Dot: You don't know Protective Aura? A person should have some culture, tsk tsk. Go read some martial arts novels. How can you not know Protective Aura? What a person lacking in common sense.

└└Getting called lacking in common sense by an actual insane bastard is fucking humiliating.

└Four tons my ass lol. If it was four tons, the floor would collapse. How would you keep that in your house? Even if you're faking pictures with AI, bring a more realistic number.

└└Blue Dot: It's a semi-basement with no floor below it, so it didn't collapse. But the floor heating pipes burst. That's why I need to move quickly...

└└Fix the floor before you move out.

└└Blue Dot: Of course. I'm not some shameless person who wrecks a house and runs away lol.

└└A guy writing fake posts is talking about conscience?

└Where are you moving to?

└└Blue Dot: My ultimate goal is to move into the huge mansion in Hannam-dong that used to belong to the head of a major corporation. The price dropped to less than half, so if things go well, I think I can buy it below the official assessed value.

└└A mansion used by the head of a major corporation would still cost tens of billions of won. How are you buying that lmao?

└└Blue Dot: No, I calculated it. A week should be enough. I've saved 3.4 billion won already, and if I earn for a week at this rate, I think I'll make over 10 billion more. If I save around 15 billion won and negotiate well, I should be able to buy a decent mansion.

└└Ten billion in a week lmao.

└└Blue Dot: Ah... Is my target a little low? If things go well, I could make even more than that. Should I raise the target? Should I just go all the way and buy a 30 billion won house? But then it'd be too big and hard to clean...

└└Stop talking bullshit, you crazy bastard.

└└High Floor Hunters have to climb for a year just to barely make tens of billions, what the fuck do you mean ten billion in a week?

└Leave him alone. Dream big.

└Hunter Gallery is full of depressing posts, so even this nonsense is better than nothing.

└└For real lol. It's nothing but bastards saying the country's going to collapse, so at least this guy helps lighten the mood a little.

└└Better stupid than depressing, agreed.

└└Blue Dot: Calling it stupid is harsh. I'm always serious.

└└Don't feed the troll.

...

“Hunter Gallery is full of blind people again today.”

Clicking his tongue, I read through the comments from the common rabble.

As expected.

Not a single person could see through to the truth.

Still, it couldn't be helped.

Human eyes were not meant to stare directly at the sun.

That was why they couldn't properly behold the greatness of this body, the Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter!

But not everyone on Hunter Gallery was a blind man with open eyes.

Among them was someone who had noticed at least a little of my greatness.

└HunterNet: You'll reach Floor 20 soon. We're looking forward to having you join the Raid Team.

It was a comment from the HunterNet administrator.

I smirked.

‘Has this guy been watching my activity the whole time?’

So he did know how amazing this body was.

To think he had been obsessively stalking me like this.

I casually replied.

└└Blue Dot: I'll join if I feel like it lol. Can I use the invitation code you sent me before?

└└HunterNet: Yes. Enter the code on the Raid Team board on the HunterNet site and complete the verification.

└└Blue Dot: Hmm, should I join or not? Should I join or not? Ah, but I have a porter I bring around with me. Can this person join too?

└└HunterNet: After Blue Dot joins first, you can create a personal invitation code and send it to your porter. Raid Team invitation codes are single-use. Also, if Blue Dot leaves, that person will be removed as well, so please keep that in mind.

└└Blue Dot: Aha, got it.

It seemed the Raid Team had even stricter security than HunterNet.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘But... if I join the Raid Team, won't they realize I'm not a fraud?’

I had been active on Hunter Gallery with the persona of an attention-seeking troll who posted vicious fake stories.

If I joined the Raid Team after verifying my climbing floor,

couldn't people realize I was an extraordinary Hunter?

After thinking it over, I shrugged.

“Eh. That's not very likely. They'll probably just think some High Floor Hunter is playing around on lower floors while using a persona on Hunter Gallery.”

A Hunter who climbed one floor every day.

That was clearly beyond common sense.

It was as absurd as believing fairies existed in real life.

So even if I verified my status window and joined the Raid Team,

they would probably think something like:

‘Wow, this person's really dedicated to their concept. Did they verify it with an old picture? Maybe some unknown High Floor Hunter is pretending to be on Floor 20?’

It was far more “reasonable” to think an unknown High Floor Hunter was obsessed with a crazy persona than to believe there was truly an Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter climbing one floor every day in real life.

And honestly...

‘Even if people find out I'm an amazing Hunter, it might not matter much.’

My information had already leaked to another country.

Thanks to the National Intelligence Service screwing up, this body's personal information had reached the United States.

Now that the United States knew,

it was only a matter of time before other major powers, like China, Europe, and Russia, noticed my existence too.

There was nothing strange about security being breached twice or three times after it had already been breached once.

Korean telecommunications companies had proven that fact themselves, hadn't they?

So it didn't seem necessary to obsessively hide my information as much as before.

Information that had been exposed once

was bound to spread everywhere someday...

‘I'll just focus on hiding the fact that I'm a wizard as much as possible.’

Still, I intended to hide the fact that I was a wizard somehow until I reached the High Floors at Floor 31.

Being known as Korea's sixth Hard-rank Hunter was acceptable enough.

But if people learned I was a wizard, who knew what they might do to me?

Even I was scared of human experimentation...!

Anyway, Hyeji and the fairy had gone home too.

“Should I sleep soon?”

After quickly showering and changing clothes, I went to bed.

I had climbed the Tower without any trouble today and cleared Floor 19.

Tomorrow was Floor 20.

The floor where the Orc Warlord appeared.

I closed my eyes.

* * *

How long had it been since I went to bed?

Late at night, near dawn.

‘What is this? I feel something.’

My eyes snapped open.

Something had been caught by my spiritual senses.

That was why I woke up.

Focusing on my senses, I thought to myself.

‘Someone's picking the lock on my front door.’

Now that I had reached Floor 19,

my spiritual senses had developed far beyond what they were before.

Inside the Tower, where mana was abundant, I could clearly perceive everything within a radius of over a hundred meters.

Even in reality, where mana was faint,

I could vaguely sense things within a radius of more than ten meters.

And something's movements had been caught in those senses.

The place where I sensed movement was right outside the front door.

At first, I wondered if my sister was outside...

but that didn't seem to be the case.

The presence felt different to begin with.

It was also moving quietly while suppressing every bit of sound.

-Click.

The front door opened.

I sensed someone entering our home.

Slowly, I got out of bed.

I was angry.

‘Is it a thief? You bastard. If you're going to steal, rob a rich neighborhood, like some huge mansion in Hannam-dong. What could there possibly be in a semi-basement like this?!’

They said the crime rate was rising by the day because the Republic of Korea was on the verge of collapse.

Was this thief another example of that?

Either way, it was outrageous.

To dare step into the residence of this body, the Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter.

I couldn't forgive this...!

I would personally swing the club of love and teach that thief some manners!

-Swish!

I grabbed the staff propped beside my bed and headed into the living room.

“You damn thief! You're about to die... Huh?”

The moment I saw the thief,

I had no choice but to be surprised.

They looked completely different from what I had expected.

‘A white person? A woman? And she's wearing a suit?’

Standing stiffly in the living room was a blond, blue-eyed white woman.

She wore a neat suit.

She held a briefcase in her right hand and something like a pocket watch in her left.

It was strange.

‘Are thieves global these days? Why is a Westerner, and a woman at that, robbing someone else's home?’

Korea really had become globalized.

It was an era when even the thief robbing a semi-basement was a white woman, not just the celebrities on television.

But I, Baek Jiho,

was an Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter and a peak martial arts master,

a politically correct person who respected the diverse sexual preferences of individuals,

and the current Longbow Apache.

The very embodiment of political correctness!

Even if the thief was a woman rather than a man, I wouldn't let her off!

“You thief bastard! Instead of thinking about earning money honestly, you're going around robbing other people's homes...! How pathetic!”

“Huh? Baek Jiho? Don't tell me you can see me...? That can't be. My concealment should be...?”

“I'll fix that rotten attitude of yours!”

I swung my staff.

I hit her very lightly, since she could die if I made a mistake.

My staff struck the woman's head.

-Crash!

Something shattered.

Then fragments of some kind fell in a shower.

When I looked, a gem inside the thief's necklace had broken and spilled out.

Wait, I hit her head, so why did her necklace break?

Then the woman cried out with a shocked expression.

“H-how did you destroy a Grade 2 Guardian Stone in one hit...!”

“What? You're fine after taking that? Are you a Hunter?”

“Baek Jiho! I'm actually from the United States...”

“Be quiet!”

-Thwack!

I hit the woman's head with my staff again.

She seemed to have endured the last hit too well, so I hit her a little harder.

But it must have hurt a lot.

“Ghk...!”

-Thud.

The woman collapsed and fainted from a single round of staff treatment.

Fortunately, she didn't seem dead. Her chest rose and fell regularly as she breathed.

Panting, I looked down at her.

“What? Why is this person's head so hard? Are you a Hunter? Why would a Hunter be stealing in the middle of the night...?”

As I spoke, I slowly had no choice but to close my mouth.

I had been too flustered to notice earlier,

but something had occurred to me.

A white woman in a suit, carrying a briefcase...

That was an extremely unusual appearance for a thief.

The expensive necklace that had shattered the moment I hit her with my staff.

It had probably been a defensive artifact.

That strange pocket watch she had dropped.

Since I could feel Blue Motes from it, that was probably an artifact too.

Her physical durability had reduced an attack that would have cracked an ordinary person's head like a watermelon to nothing more than a mild concussion.

She seemed to be at least a Middle Floors Hunter.

And finally,

the word “United States” that she had cried out before collapsing...

A white American woman in a suit had secretly come to find me in the middle of the night, carrying multiple artifacts.

I was starting to get an idea.

“...First, let's find out who she is.”

Rustle, rustle.

I searched through her clothes and belongings.

What I found were a few objects that were probably artifacts.

And a wallet.

I opened it and checked her identification.

[DEPARTMENT OF STATE / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA]

[ELENA LEE]

[ECONOMIC OFFICER]

[EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, SEOUL]

“United States Department of State, Elena Lee, Economic Officer... The U.S. Embassy... You're a diplomat?”

The ID stated that she was a diplomat affiliated with the United States Department of State.

But would a diplomat be a Hunter and carry artifacts around?

No way.

Could this be a fake identity?

Like the CIA...

“...”

It probably was.

There was no way an American diplomat would come to my home alone in the middle of the night while carrying artifacts.

She was probably an intelligence agent posing as a diplomat, or something like that.

“Seriously, what the hell is going on?”

First, I looked at the identification.

Then I turned my head and looked at the unconscious woman.

Then I looked at the identification again, and then at the unconscious woman once more.

There was a huge bump on the top of her head, and it looked really painful.

I muttered quietly.

“Korea's National Intelligence Service, the United States too... Why are intelligence agencies all so incompetent?”

The National Intelligence Service had screwed up security and leaked information.

The United States had gotten bonked on the head by me and was sleeping like a log.

Intelligence agencies were truly bizarre.

In movies, agents were always portrayed as incredibly impressive elites.

But you guys were people in the end too, huh?

One good smack to the head and you dropped right over.

Honestly...

“First, I should call Han Seonga.”

No, but what were those National Intelligence Service idiots doing?

Didn't you say you were protecting me?

An American agent got all the way into my house in the middle of the night without any trouble. What the hell were you people doing?

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried