I Just Subscribed and It’s the Best Hunter of All Time - Chapter 66

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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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#Episode 66.
Baek Jin-woo contacting me wasn’t particularly rare.
Most communications from the Association came through him, and he occasionally sent friendly messages.
What I hadn’t anticipated was the content of the message itself.
‘There’s someone who wishes to meet you.’
This was the first time Baek Jin-woo had offered to introduce me to someone.
And for good reason—he never bothered me with trivial matters.
If he had constantly sent me messages about high-ranking Association officials wanting to meet, or various other people requesting meetings, I would have blocked his number long ago.
‘This person probably isn’t ordinary.’
Considering Baek Jin-woo’s approach so far, it didn’t seem like he’d propose anything disadvantageous to me.
His determination to keep me in Korea was unmistakably clear.
So who could it be?
“Hmm.”
I pondered, but nothing came to mind.
I stroked my chin and realized something.
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, there was an easy and quick solution. I picked up my phone and sent a reply immediately.
I simply asked who wanted to meet me.
There was no reason to overthink it when I could just ask.
After sending that reply, I went to the kitchen and prepared a light breakfast.
Recently I’ve been ordering delivery out of laziness, but occasionally I cook for myself.
Though all I really do is boil some stew and eat it over rice.
I used to think that once I earned enough money, I’d eat delicious food at every meal, but now that I had the means, I found I didn’t particularly care.
To be precise… aside from The Tower and Tower-related matters, nothing else really captured my interest.
Even now, my mind was occupied with whether I should climb immediately after reaching The Tower, visit my Territory, or meet with the Heavenly Demon first.
Ding!
Just as I put the stew on the heat, a message arrived—a reply from Baek Jin-woo.
―The successor of the Aegis Guild, ‘Maria’.
Upon reading that reply, my eyes narrowed.
“Ah.”
And I immediately recalled where I’d seen that name.
“Maria. That Maria.”
Maria from Aegis.
The other Awakener I’d met while climbing The Tower. We’d even gone to the Hidden Floor together.
I was certain I’d meant to reply to her last time, but I’d forgotten again.
It wasn’t intentional—I’d simply been too busy lately.
I spent most of my days in The Tower, barely sleeping in reality.
‘But did Maria come to Korea?’
I hadn’t been following the news recently, so I was completely unaware of Maria’s visit to Korea. I made a puzzled expression, then sent a reply.
―Yes. I’ll meet with you.
I had been planning to make contact with Maria anyway.
This time, a reply came immediately.
―We plan to use a conference room within the Association. Please let us know your preferred time, and we will arrange transportation accordingly.
Preferred time, she said.
Was she saying I could come right now?
‘There’s no reason to put it off.’
I sent a reply asking, “Would it be possible to meet right away?”
This time, the response took a bit longer—about three minutes.
―We’ve sent a vehicle.
Upon reading the message, I rose from my seat immediately. I headed to the bathroom for a quick shower, then changed into clothes suitable for going out.
Ding.
Just as I finished, a message arrived—it was from Baek Jin-woo, informing me that the vehicle had arrived in the basement.
The moment I saw the message, I headed outside and took the elevator straight down to the basement.
Upon arriving at the Underground Parking Lot, I could see Baek Jin-woo standing near the elevator entrance alongside several people in business suits.
“Good morning. We have a vehicle prepared for you over there.”
“Ah, yes.”
I nodded and followed Baek Jin-woo toward the parked vehicle.
As I got in, Baek Jin-woo took the front passenger seat and spoke.
“Thank you for accepting our sudden request.”
“Not at all. But what is this about? And doesn’t the Association typically discourage me from making contact with foreign individuals?”
Baek Jin-woo answered without hesitation at my direct question.
“That’s correct. Most overseas contacts seeking to meet with you are typically for scouting purposes.”
His voice remained calm and measured.
“If the purpose isn’t scouting, it becomes far more dangerous. There are those who have their eyes on you.”
“By ‘have their eyes on me,’ do you mean what I think you mean?”
“Yes.”
Baek Jin-woo answered honestly to me, whose expression had grown slightly tense.
“If they cannot recruit you to their side, they would prefer to eliminate you instead.”
“That sounds rather threatening.”
“It may be uncomfortable to hear, but I thought it best to be frank about such matters. After all, it concerns your personal safety.”
I fell silent for a moment before speaking.
“Are there many such people?”
“No, not many. Most are still hoping to recruit you somehow. A powerful Awakener is valuable to national strength, after all.”
Baek Jin-woo continued in his measured tone.
“The scouts expect that while you remain within Korea’s grasp now, once your value has sufficiently increased, you will eventually move toward whoever offers better terms.”
“Then those who wish to eliminate me are different?”
“They are those who have already judged that they cannot win against you in future competition.”
“So, as you mentioned before, they’ve concluded that if they cannot have you, elimination is preferable.”
“Precisely. Of course, as I said, their numbers are not particularly large.”
“Still, it’s dangerous either way.”
“…Yes.”
Baek Jin-woo didn’t deny it.
“There was a reason I recommended the residence where you currently live.”
This time, I nodded in acknowledgment.
My current dwelling was difficult for outsiders to enter carelessly, and could be considered safe in many respects.
If someone were to target me…they would likely do so when I was out and about rather than inside my home.
Awakeners cannot fully exert the same powerful abilities outside The Tower as they can within it.
While not entirely defenseless, even powerful Awakeners could die pathetically.
This is why artifacts command higher prices.
Artifacts function reasonably well outside The Tower as well.
After organizing my thoughts to that point, I spoke.
“In any case, then you’ve determined that Maria, who came to visit this time, is free from such dangers.”
“That’s correct.”
The successor of the United States’ premier Guild wouldn’t personally attempt to assassinate me.
And if she had come to scout me, the Association wouldn’t have stepped in to introduce her directly like this.
“We made a separate contract that she would absolutely not bring up scouting. She said the purpose was purely business dealings and personal conversation.”
“I see.”
I nodded.
It seemed Baek Jin-woo didn’t know the full details either.
Vroooom―.
Even as we spoke, the vehicle continued steadily along the road.
I asked several more questions afterward, and by the time I’d heard all the answers.
A familiar building came into view ahead.
The Association’s building.
The vehicle headed directly into the building’s Underground Parking Lot.
“Please proceed this way.”
I followed Baek Jin-woo’s guidance to the location where Maria was waiting.
That location was a fairly spacious conference room on the fifth floor of the Association.
Knock, knock―.
Baek Jin-woo knocked on the door himself, and it slid open.
I looked beyond the open door.
A familiar-faced woman stood deep within the austere conference room.
It was that Maria I had seen in The Tower.
“Hello.”
The moment our eyes met, Maria bowed her head slightly and spoke.
Despite being outside The Tower, I understood her words perfectly. Yet she wasn’t speaking Korean.
“A translation artifact?”
“That’s right.”
Maria answered while gently touching her earring.
Among the various artifacts, some possess translation functions.
It wasn’t particularly rare, but given its high value, the price wasn’t cheap either.
As Jung Han-sung walked into the conference room, the door closed behind him.
Inside the conference room remained Maria, Jung Han-sung, Baek Jin-woo, and Maria’s associates.
“Thank you for coming so readily. Please, make yourself comfortable.”
Maria offered her gratitude to Jung Han-sung first.
Her tone was far more businesslike than it had been inside The Tower. But Jung Han-sung saw no reason to pretend otherwise either.
‘If I act like we know each other here, who knows what the Association might think.’
Besides, Maria hadn’t made any effort to acknowledge their prior acquaintance either, so there was no real reason for him to be the first.
So Jung Han-sung simply nodded without further comment and took a seat at an empty spot.
“I understand the purpose is a transaction.”
“That’s correct.”
Maria nodded at his words.
“If you have any clues regarding the Hidden Floor, we’d like to purchase them.”
“Clues regarding the Hidden Floor, you say?”
“Yes. We’ve assessed that someone of your caliber would have acquired additional clues about the Hidden Floor by now. Exceptional climbers tend to see what others cannot and find what others cannot locate.”
Jung Han-sung crossed his arms.
Well, Maria was right—he did possess several clues about the Hidden Floor.
Some Hidden Floors could only be entered once before becoming inaccessible to anyone else, while others could be accessed multiple times.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any clues worth trading.”
But all the Hidden Floors Jung Han-sung knew of were one-time only.
There simply weren’t any clues suitable as transaction material.
Yet Maria responded without concern to his answer.
“Even one-time entries are acceptable. Our goal is to analyze existing Hidden Floor entry triggers and discover additional Hidden Floors through that analysis.”
“Hmm.”
If that was the case, then there were indeed several things worth trading.
But first, there was something he needed to ask.
“What would the compensation be?”
“We have detailed documentation regarding compensation.”
Maria spoke thus and gestured to a man standing nearby, who produced a document and handed it to Baek Jin-woo.
“May I take a moment to review it?”
“Ah, yes.”
Baek Jin-woo sought Jung Han-sung’s permission, then accepted the document and reviewed its contents right there on the spot.
A brief silence followed.
“There are no issues with the documentation.”
He handed the document back to Jung Han-sung.
Only then could Jung Han-sung examine the document’s contents.
As Maria had said, the compensation was laid out in meticulous detail according to various circumstances.
Which floor the Hidden Floor was discovered on. How detailed the clues were. And so forth.
It felt as though every conceivable scenario had been accounted for.
‘And the compensation is quite generous.’
It was at least twice as high as I had anticipated—suspiciously so, as if the Association had deliberately inflated the compensation to encourage me to share information.
But that hardly mattered to me. After all, Baek Jin-woo from the Association had already given his approval.
“Understood. Let us proceed with several transactions.”
So I agreed to the deal.
Besides, the Hidden Floors I had already cleared held little significance for me.
I would be ascending countless more floors ahead, and there was no reason to return to floors I had already conquered.
‘I’ll need to exclude any Hidden Floors with linked connections, though.’
I was continuously discovering related Hidden Floors in real time, after all.
There was no reason to risk selling information about those.
After that, the conversation became more detailed, and just as we were approaching the conclusion,
“Would it be acceptable to receive the clues while equipped with a sound-dampening artifact?”
Maria asked Baek Jin-woo as she retrieved an artifact.
Baek Jin-woo responded in a measured tone.
“Yes. However, if you breach the contract, this meeting ends immediately.”
“Understood.”
With that acknowledgment, Maria activated the artifact.
A low hum resonated through the air.
A blue barrier spread outward, and all sound abruptly ceased.
It felt as though only Maria and I remained in this space.
In that silence, Maria spoke.
“The reason I came here personally is not only to trade information, but to make you a proposal.”
I watched carefully, wondering if she was about to breach the contract immediately, but she continued.
“Once I reach Floor 40, I would like to work in your Territory.”

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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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