Chapter 16: Different from Before (3)

Having spent a lot of gold, Jiho ran out of what he had, so he ended up using the gold in the guild’s shared funds. Since the items weren’t for himself but for the guildmembers, it didn’t matter anyways. After continuously buying like that, Jiho almost emptied out the shared funds as well.

If it continues this way, it might be difficult to run the guild next month but… Jiho has a plan.

‘I just have to sell the stone.’

The stone from Seon Tae Woong that has an estimated worth of 1.2B gold. 

The starting bid set by the auction hall was 1B gold. Since there are a lot of hunters with production skills these days, stones that can be used as ingredients are popular items. As long as a good fight breaks out, Jiho can hope for 2.5B gold.

Of course, selling a stone with three attributes for 2.5B gold was a minus. But, even if he wants to prove the stone’s worth, there’s no way to do so.

Jiho doesn’t have time to figure things out slowly. He needs the gold to rise to S-rank quickly. 

That’s why he gave it out at a low price, despite knowing that it could be sold for higher. It hurt, but he decided to feel satisfied with the fact that he bought other items at a low price too. A so-called victory of the mind.

As time passed, the rank of the items continued to increase.

Once it got to this point, all the items were rightly evaluated and sold at just prices, so there wasn’t much for Jiho to buy.

‘No, but there is something I want to buy though.’

Jiho thought of his own item that was probably in his office in the guild.

Jiho had originally collected items that strengthened the body. However, now that his skills have completely switched over to those of a support hunter, his equipment has to change as well.

The equipment Jiho wants are those that will increase MP, replenish mana, or store mana. 

The new skills that Jiho gained are all based on his MP. Although he can absorb mana from his surroundings and strengthen others, because dungeons are of another world, it would be good to have a piece of equipment to store his collected mana.

Of course, in order to buy equipment, he needs to sell the stone first. After that, he has to make sure to save enough gold for if he signs a high-ranking hunter.

He should sell the stone first before spending the rest of the money.

Although the gold is usually given at the end of the auction, since this was Chungram Department Store, he should be able to get the gold first and pay for the items later…

While tapping away at the calculator in his head, Jiho continued to focus on the auction to see if a useful item would appear.

As the auction continued for a while, there was a sudden disturbance outside of the auction hall. 

Because a piece of useful equipment had appeared, Jiho was too focused on that to care about what was happening out there.

Other hunters called out prices higher than Jiho. Right when Jiho, after doing the math, gave up and sighed.

Someone sat down in the empty seat next to him.

Jiho immediately scowled. 

The seat next to him should have been reserved; who was sitting there?

‘Was I recognized?’

There was a high possibility that the person was a reporter who snuck in or a hunter that had a grudge against him. There were a couple of times where that had happened before.

Jiho turned his head to the person next to him with the intent to quietly chase him away.

But the person Jiho saw in front of him was someone he was much more familiar with than a reporter or hunter.

“… Joo Yiwon?”

“Hi, Honey.”

Joo Yiwon smiled with satisfaction at Jiho’s surprised face.

Jiho’s brain turned quickly as he looked over Yiwon.

Yiwon shouldn’t have had a dungeon raid today.

Maybe he came after taking care of a sudden fissure. Yiwon was wearing his signature armor on top of a three-piece suit. Although it looked like a long, black coat, it was an SS-rank piece of armor that could absorb most magic attacks.

“Why’re you here?”

If he came after fighting, he should be tired; why is he not resting?

Jiho swallowed down his words of concern and pushed the top of his cap down. If he talks with Joo Yiwon, then other people know that the person sitting here is Jiho. Jiho firmly rejects annoying situations. 

Seeing that Jiho was being wary of his surroundings, Yiwon threw a glance around.

Even though it was only a slight glance, all of the hunters Yiwon’s eyes touched thought Yiwon had met eyes with them.

Yiwon’s eyes filled with a gold light. A murderous aura so strong that a normal person would’ve fainted, plunged straight down. It was so strong that even hunters had a hard time enduring it.

The hunters that were looking their way slowly turned their heads back to the auction as if they were running away. 

Yiwon smiled with satisfaction as he turned back to Jiho. 

“I came because I wanted to see you, Honey.”

“I don’t want to see you at all though.”

Jiho said harshly.

It had only been a week since Yiwon had ordered him to stop being a hunter. At that time, because of the shock from Seon Tae Woong’s press conference, he had sent Yiwon off without bringing it back up, but Jiho still carried a grudge.

“I’m sorry about that time.”

The sudden apology wasn’t trustworthy at all. As Jiho’s eyebrows twitched, Yiwon lowered his eyes. 

“It’s because I was worried. You were always sick when you were young. And I don’t like seeing you have a hard time either. Even if you get the reassessment and everything goes well, being a hunter isn’t easy. You could be in danger again.”

“I’m good.”

Jiho cut off the long string of words. No matter what Yiwon says, Jiho wasn’t thinking of stopping here. After being weak, to stop here after gaining a useful skill? Impossible.

Seeing Jiho’s eyes filled with determination, Yiwon let out a sigh.

“You bought a lot from the auction. Are you really thinking of continuing as a hunter?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Just quit. What’s so fun about this for you to keep doing it?”

Jiho was fed up from the non-stop words of persuasion. For the person saying all this to be the hunter working the hardest in the world…

Trying not to be loud since they were in the auction hall, Jiho leaned himself in closer to Yiwon. 

“F*ck, who’s the one who said he wanted to quit and become a supportive wife why are you telling me to quit? You do whatever you want, you should be the one to quit instead!” 

Jiho fumed after quietly biting out all of his words.

Yiwon looked at Jiho quietly before his lips rose in a smile. He suddenly placed his hand on Jiho’s waist. Before Jiho, who was shocked, could push it off, Yiwon pulled Jiho close.

Even though Jiho punched Yiwon and tried to push himself away, it seemed that Yiwon didn’t even feel the slightest bit ticklish. Instead, he smiled and whispered in Jiho’s ear.

“Have you finally decided to be supported by me?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“I want to retire too but it looks like I’ll have to push it back. Instead of marrying and supporting my husband while leaving him to danger, I would rather forgo the marriage. Since I love Jiho.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Or should we create an accident here?”

Yiwon whispered slyly. Even Jiho, who usually brushed Yiwon’s words off as nonsense, could hear that his voice was dangerous.

Jiho stopped hitting him and looked. Yiwon grinned. 

“We do something here that Jiho won’t be able to raise his head to. We’ll probably be considered dead by society, but it’s better than actually dying, isn’t it?1 I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life.”

What kind of accident would have them considered dead by society?

Jiho’s head instantly filled with blood red. Was he thinking of creating a massacre here?2 Yiwon’s not that crazy of a bastard, but looking at his shameless attitude right now, Jiho could tell that the accident wasn’t anything good. 

“If you do that…”

“Do you know what “that” is for you to be saying that?”

“It’s obvious…”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking of right now, but I’m pretty sure your idea and my idea are very different from each other.”

“Whatever it is, don’t. Let go.”

Crazy bastard.

As Jiho continued to punch and show his rejection, Yiwon let go. Jiho pressed down his cap that had lifted and looked around.

It didn’t seem like anyone was looking but… they were probably caught already when they started bickering.

Yiwon had only been here for a few minutes, yet Jiho was exhausted.

Jiho pulled his chair back and created a lot of distance between himself and Yiwon. Instead of caring about Yiwon, Jiho turned his gaze to the items coming up to auction.

“So you’re going through with it to the end…”

“…”

Jiho didn’t answer and continued to ignore him. Yiwon eventually let out a long sigh.

“Well, if you want to do it, there’s nothing I can do. Keep being a hunter.”

“I was going to do it anyway, even if you didn’t give me permission, okay?”

As Jiho glared at him, Yiwon smiled slightly.

“Jiho won’t even marry me, but I’ll still try my best to support you.”

“Bullsh*t…”

As he cursed, Jiho turned his gaze back to the side.

The magic stone that Jiho had brought was being introduced for auction.

In an instant, Jiho’s eyes sparkled from excitement.

The price at which that stone is bought at will determine the budget going forward. No matter what price it sells at, it will be high, but it still has to be sold at the highest price possible.

Jiho sat up straight from the worry on how much the stone would go for.

“Is that yours?”

“Yeah.”

Jiho answered shortly. During that exchange, the price of the stone was rising slowly. If it continued this way, the price of the stone might even pass 2B gold. It was a price quite satisfactory.

At that time, Yiwon, who had been watching quietly, stepped up.

1,300,000,000; 1,300,005,000; the price that Yiwon offered for the stone that had slowly been rising was…

“30, 30B gold has appeared.”

It was a shocking bid well over 10 times the amount of the previous bid.

Even the experienced auctioneer stuttered from shock.

Everyone went quiet from the bid that had suddenly increased by tens of times.

The gazes that hadn’t been able to look in this direction before slowly moved back. The only person who would spend 30B gold on a stone that would have been sold for about 1-3B gold was Joo Yiwon.

There was, of course, no one to call a higher number.

In the end, Jiho’s stone was auctioned off at 30 billion.