Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 40
Hyeonjun’s eyes snapped open.
A white ceiling.
A faint scent drifted into his nose.
‘Where am I?’
He was lying on a bed, enclosed by curtains.
He realized at once that he was in a hospital room.
‘Why am I… ?’
Hyeonjun traced back his memories.
After he killed the Minotaur, a splitting headache had suddenly hit him, and he’d blacked out.
‘Is it because of Analysis?’
It wasn’t as if he’d moved enough to collapse from exhaustion.
And the Minotaur hadn’t struck him, either.
If there was a cause, it could only be Analysis, which had brought on headaches several times before.
‘And I didn’t even gain a new skill this time.’
It seemed he’d overused Analysis, and that had become his downfall.
Looking at it another way, it was only natural.
A skill that broken couldn’t be used without limits.
‘From now on, I need to control how much I use it.’
Hyeonjun sat up.
Just as he was about to climb out of bed, the Key he’d nearly gotten hold of at the Ruins suddenly came to mind.
‘Speaking of which, where did the Key end up?’
How had he even gotten here in the first place?
Had the Awakening Management Bureau stepped in?
Or was it another Hunter who’d come in after the Key?
‘Surely I wasn’t disqualified?’
It was an exam where anyone who failed to leave within the set time got expelled.
Hyeonjun climbed out of bed, his face tight with worry.
Chak-rark!
That was when the curtain was yanked aside and someone appeared.
“Oh. You’re awake.”
It was Seong Sohui.
Kim Changdong was standing behind her.
“Are you alright?”
“If I weren’t, would he be up? Here.”
Answering Kim Changdong’s question, Seong Sohui tossed a box at Hyeonjun.
Hyeonjun tilted his head and opened the box.
Inside, a golden key glinted.
“Oh?”
It was the very Key he’d lost right before his eyes.
Hyeonjun looked at Seong Sohui as though he couldn’t quite believe it.
Seong Sohui was surely aiming for first place.
If she had been the one who picked up the Key, I’d have thought she would never give it up.
“What’s with that look? You act like it’s a shock that I’m handing the Key over.”
Seong Sohui crossed her arms and laughed.
She seemed to think he was joking.
“Yeah.”
“What?! I’m not that unreasonable, you know!”
The moment Hyeonjun agreed, Seong Sohui’s brows knotted and she flared up.
Apparently, in her own way, she’d meant it as a joke.
As Hyeonjun tucked the Key away, he gave her a thumbs-up.
“Thanks.”
“Hmph. You should’ve done that from the start.”
“Please take this as well.”
Kim Changdong handed him a large box.
Inside were the equipment, Magic Stones, and assorted loot that Hyeonjun had been carrying.
“This is from Han Chanwoo and those guys, right? They were making a huge fuss earlier, demanding it back.”
“I turned them down flat. They jumped us first and lost, so if they want it back, they’ll have to fight for it.”
“Heh, they kept trying to grab it by force, so I gave them a little scare.”
The two of them puffed out their chests and said it with a proud, boastful look on their faces.
Hyeonjun chuckled and asked.
“Did you two bring me all the way here?”
“Yeah. If it weren’t for us, you’d have been disqualified, you know?”
“Thanks. For holding onto the key, and for helping out. All of it.”
“Just words? Hand over the key.”
“That’s a bit much to ask.”
“Tch.”
“I’ll go get the medical staff.”
Before long, Kim Changdong returned with a doctor in a white coat.
After a few simple tests, Hyeonjun was free to leave the infirmary.
‘So that’s where I was. The medical room.’
A medical facility tucked inside the training complex.
Given how sprawling the training grounds were, the medical wing rivaled a small hospital.
“So you’re awake.”
Just as he stepped out of the medical room, Nam Jaewoon appeared.
He must have rushed over the moment he heard Hyeonjun had come to.
“The other two are free to head back to their quarters.”
Kim Changdong and Seong Sohui turned to leave.
They looked unhappy about it, but they obeyed Nam Jaewoon’s instruction without complaint.
“Hunter, please follow me.”
Hyeonjun fell into step behind Nam Jaewoon.
They arrived at a conference room.
Inside, a middle-aged man rose to greet Hyeonjun.
“A pleasure to meet you, Hunter. I’m Choi Jaeil, Director of the Awakening Management Bureau.”
An unexpected figure.
Hyeonjun bowed his head, caught slightly off guard.
“Hello. I’ve watched a lot of your old footage.”
“My old footage? That was quite some time ago, wasn’t it…”
“I’ve always had a keen interest in this field, you see.”
Choi Jaeil laughed, clearly pleased.
Hyeonjun hadn’t expected to be remembered for his past glory.
“So that’s how you managed those feats. I’ve been following your progress. Truly impressive.”
“I just got lucky.”
“Ha. Do you really think luck alone could account for that?”
Nam Jaewoon pulled out a chair and gestured for Hyeonjun to sit.
Once Hyeonjun was seated, a spread of refreshments was placed in front of him.
‘They must want something from me.’
It was courtesy bordering on uncomfortable.
A bureau director and a senior official of the bureau wouldn’t treat an E-Rank Hunter this deferentially without some purpose behind it.
‘Maybe they’re about to suggest I join the Bureau.’
“Are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Good to hear. You must be tired, so I’ll get straight to the point. We’d offer you the best possible treatment. Would you consider becoming a Bureau Hunter?”
Both the hidden agenda and the substance of the offer were exactly what he’d expected.
Hyeonjun shook his head firmly.
“That’s not going to work.”
“We’d permit you to take on private Hunter work as well, and we’d take full responsibility for your life after retirement.”
“No, thank you.”
Permission for private work would mean nothing.
They’d work him to the bone, leaving no time for anything of his own.
The same went for retirement.
Earning big while he was young was the only retirement plan worth having.
“So you’re aiming for a major guild, I take it.”
“Well, something like that.”
“It sounds like you have some other goal in mind…”
“Actually, it doesn’t have to be a major guild. Anywhere that pays well will do.”
“Ah… yes, that would be difficult as a Bureau employee.”
A dungeon pays better than a hunting ground.
The Bureau rarely sends its people into such dungeons, so their earnings are naturally capped.
Of course, one can enter independently by joining a guild that has picked up a subcontract for a Closed Gate, but the take is smaller than what you’d earn by signing on with a guild and running raids.
“Then how about this? You create a guild of your own, Hunter.”
“A guild?”
It was an idea he had never considered.
Then again, the cost and requirements for founding a guild were steep enough to make most people hesitate.
“As you know, all guild-related work is handled by the Management Bureau. Setting up a guild for you would be no trouble at all.”
“You really don’t need to go that far…”
“In exchange, I’d like you to promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t join another guild from here on out. Especially not a large one.”
Hyeonjun felt a sense of déjà vu.
He felt as though he’d heard a similar offer once before.
‘Michuhol Guild, that was it.’
They had offered him a substantial sum in exchange for not joining a large guild for the next year.
Even though he’d turned them down, he still remembered clearly the staggering one billion won they had tried to give him.
‘I get it with Michuhol Guild since they’re rivals, but why the Bureau?’
The Management Bureau and the guilds.
In some respects they could be seen as competitors, but taken as a whole, the two groups existed in a symbiotic relationship.
Structurally speaking, a portion of a guild’s income ultimately became the Bureau’s revenue.
“What’s the reason?”
“I’m afraid I can’t explain that in detail.”
“You must be well aware how strange it is to set a condition about not joining large guilds and then refuse to explain why.”
“Hmm…”
Choi Jaeil stroked his chin.
He nodded, as if he found the point fair.
“I can’t go into the specifics, but there is a possibility that they could become a force that threatens the nation in the future.”
“…Excuse me?”
It was a reason he had never imagined.
It sounded as though they would one day become a terrorist organization.
“Are the large guilds actually cooperating with villains or something?”
“I can’t tell you anything beyond that for now.”
“….”
“If you insist on joining a guild, I’d recommend a smaller one over a large one. Otherwise, I can help you found one.”
Hyeonjun fell into thought.
‘Honestly, that doesn’t sound like a real reason…’
That large guilds might turn into terrorist groups.
By any common sense, it was hard to understand.
Still, since the one saying it was Choi Jaeil, he couldn’t simply dismiss it as nonsense.
‘Would someone who fits the word hero better than hunter say something like that for no reason?’
Choi Jaeil.
He had once worked as a hunter before joining the Awakened Police Bureau and becoming an Awakened officer who hunted down villains.
The villains he had apprehended alone could fill a fair-sized prison.
He had received lucrative scouting offers from major guilds both at home and abroad, but refusing them, saying his strength existed for the nation and its people rather than for himself, was a well-known anecdote.
‘What should I do.’
Hyeonjun’s worry deepened.
Becoming the master of a guild.
At first glance, it sounded like nothing but a good thing.
But if he thought about it for even a moment, he could see it offered little real advantage.
‘A closed gate, that is, a dungeon, isn’t something you can enter just because you belong to a guild.’
When a closed gate appeared, the rights to it belonged to the guild that had won the dungeon management bid for that region.
Dungeons they failed to clear were passed down to subcontractors, and becoming one of those subcontractors was no easy feat either.
‘Moving from the primary subcontract to the secondary subcontract does happen now and then, but it’s rare enough to count on one hand.’
Calling it a secondary subcontract was really just a matter of grabbing whatever guild was available in the area and dumping the job on them.
‘Unless you start from secondary subcontracts and gradually build a reputation, it’s hard for a newcomer to gain a foothold in the market.’
Unless closed gates suddenly started multiplying.
Under current conditions, even if he became a guild master, it wouldn’t make much difference to his immediate earnings.
‘There are advantages to belonging to a guild, but right now it’s too early for that.’
After agonizing over it, Hyeonjun reached his decision.
“Isn’t there any other condition besides founding a guild?”
“Go on, tell me.”
What he needed right now was the runes required to reach D-Grade, or a massive sum of money.
But there’s a clear limit to that kind of in-kind compensation.
“About the Auction House fee benefit given as the orientation reward. Please raise its cap and extend its duration.”
The existing benefit for ranking first was a full waiver of Exchange fees for one month, up to 3 billion won.
That was already substantial, but Hyeonjun had his eyes on something further down the road.
“A fee benefit?”
“If you’re barring me from joining a major guild, shouldn’t you at least give me something of that size in return?”
“You’d receive a guild, and with it, a fee benefit, right?”
“But that benefit changes depending on the rank, doesn’t it?”
The fee benefit attached to a guild varies with the guild’s rank.
Simply founding a guild wouldn’t make the fees drop dramatically on the spot.
‘Raising a guild’s rank takes forever, and guild funds are hard to spend as personal money.’
Even the smallest guild is registered as a corporation.
There was even the unprecedented risk of slaving away to earn money only to find you couldn’t spend it.
“Hmm. Please wait a moment.”
Choi Jaeil left the conference room together with Nam Jaewoon.
They came back about ten minutes later.
Choi Jaeil took his seat across from him again, his face unusually grave.
“Hunter. About the promise not to join a major guild. Can you truly keep it?”
“I’ll decide once I see what I’m being offered.”
“Ha, I see.”
Here he sat face to face with the Director of the Management Bureau.
Any ordinary low-rank Hunter would have been inclined to simply nod along.
Hyeonjun made it plain, with a firm resolve, that he would not be won over easily.
‘He’s no ordinary man.’
Choi Jaeil had no way of knowing.
That the path Hyeonjun had walked through life was what had made him this stubborn.
‘At least three times.’
Hyeonjun had already settled on a rough figure in his head, then opened his ears wide.
Before long, Choi Jaeil opened his mouth.
“The cap will be unlimited. And the duration will be extended permanently.”
“……!”
“On top of that, we’ll also grant you eligibility for the various welfare benefits the Bureau provides to its affiliated Hunters.”
Hyeonjun’s eyes went wide.
It was a proposal that far exceeded anything he had anticipated.
He was left completely speechless.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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