Laborer Mr. Kim Reaps Sweet Rewards with Auto-Hunting - Chapter 80

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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 80

A new feature of the Worker Management Center.

[Subcontractor Dispatch Location Registration / Management]

I’d been curious about what this was.
But when I opened it up, an unexpected result appeared.

“Obtain rewards based on activity at the dispatch location….”

What kind of activity I’m supposed to do.
What kind of rewards they’ll give.
I still don’t know.
I’ll have to check it directly to get the full picture.

“Let me open this up and see.”

How do I do it?
Simple.
Tap.
Just press it and it appears.
Like this.

——-
Subcontractor Dispatch Location Registration / Management

1. Truth’s Eye
– Currently Registered Dispatch Location: None
※ Recommended: China (0.27%), Korea (0.05%)
2. Revolutionary Talent Brigade
– Currently Registered Dispatch Location: None.
※ Recommended: North Korea (93%)
——-

“Hmm…….”

I get the general idea.
So basically.

“I just need to register at the dispatch locations shown in the recommendations.”

Truth’s Eye goes to China.
Revolutionary Talent Brigade goes to North Korea.
I still don’t know what the percentages mean.
But let me register according to the recommendations first.

[Register Dispatch Location]

[Truth’s Eye – China]
[Revolutionary Talent Brigade – North Korea]

[Are you sure you want to register?]
[You can change your dispatch location after receiving compensation at least once.]

Oh.
I can change it later?
In that case, well.
No need to overthink this any further.

“After all, these are countries where I was already active anyway.”

Done. Confirmed.

[Dispatch Location Registration Complete]

Okay.
Registration’s finished.
Let me take a quick look at what’s changed.

——-
Subcontractor Dispatch Location Registration / Management

1. Truth’s Eye
– Current Registered Dispatch Location: China
2. Revolutionary Talent Brigade
– Current Registered Dispatch Location: North Korea
——-

“Oh… quite a bit has changed, hasn’t it?”

First, the dispatch location registration is done.
And right below that.
A Dispatch Reward claim option appeared.

※ Time Until Dispatch Reward Collection
– 6 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 47 Seconds

[Dispatch Rewards accumulate differently based on the Subcontractor’s performance and the influence exerted on the Dispatch Location.]

Can’t claim it right now.
Too bad.
So I’ll have to wait roughly seven days to collect.

“One-week intervals then.”

That’s pretty long.
If it’s like this, I’ll have to wait a week to find out what it is.
What exactly are they giving that takes this long…?
I tilted my head curiously and glanced down again.

“Hmm?”

Something appeared below the Dispatch Reward claim section.

[Dispatch Gauge: 0]

Dispatch Gauge?
What’s this?
No explanation popped up?

[Dispatch Gauge]
[One of the rewards obtainable through Subcontractor Dispatch Rewards. By collecting gauge, you can dispatch Workers to S-Rank Dungeons and above that have not yet been discovered.]

Ah, there it is.
But what’s the point of this…?

* * *

The Dispatch Gauge—one of the rewards from subcontractor missions.
Accumulate enough gauges, and you can dispatch Workers to S-Rank Dungeons and beyond.

“So you’re saying there are Dungeons higher than S-Rank?”
“Yes, sir. That’s correct.”

Seriously.
This guy really is something.
You should’ve told me earlier.
Just—like that.

“My apologies, sir. The rule is that I can only share information once you’ve come close to discovering it yourself.”

There it is again—that damned rule.
Sigh.
Can’t help it.
It’s not like our Workers refused to tell me out of spite….
But now I’m genuinely curious about something.

“What are the names and difficulty levels of Dungeons higher than S-Rank? At the current level of our Workers, we’d clear them easily, right?”
“That is….”

Why the hesitation?
Don’t tell me….

“I apologize, sir. That information is not yet….”
“Ah….”
“However, I believe it will become clearer once the Workers grow stronger than they are now.”

Stingy. Genuinely stingy.
Honestly, by this point the restriction should be lifted.
But it’s holding firm.
Todd mentioned it once.
When an information restriction kicks in, the mouth shuts tight.
Still, well.

“I get the gist of it, anyway.”

The Dungeon names?
I don’t know.
Probably something like SS-Rank or thereabouts.
Truth is, I don’t care much about that.
I’ll find out when I get there anyway.
What actually had me curious was….

“You’re saying getting stronger is the safest bet, right?”
“Yes, sir. That’s correct.”
“Okay. That’s all I needed.”

A way to grow stronger.
Before, it was murky.
How could we advance past Highest Rank?
It wasn’t like we could just sweep up matching Artifact Fragments.
But now?

“A path has opened up.”

By accumulating Dispatch Gauge, we can send Workers to Dungeons that haven’t yet been discovered.
Even to those ranked S and above.
Then what if we scout it first before going?

“Whether it’ll work or not, I’ll have to try it and see.”

If it does, we could sweep up whatever Artifact Fragments we want.
I’m already looking forward to this.
Exactly.

“I think it’s time we started expanding our Subcontractors.”

Dispatch Rewards.
They accumulate differently depending on the Subcontractor’s performance and the influence wielded at each Dispatch Location.
What does that mean?
The more, the better.
Why?

“Because this is a form of Auto-Hunting too.”

No need to go myself?
None at all.
Register the Subcontractors.
Let them operate at the Dispatch Locations, and we’re done.
So there’s no reason to refuse.
The more the better, after all.

“Please reach out to those organizations in India and Egypt we discussed last time.”

* * *

A conference room in Tokyo, Japan.

“We’ve received a reply from Korea’s Awakener Management Bureau.”
“Have we? What does it say?”
“A rejection, apparently.”

What?
Another rejection?

“Sigh…”

Japan’s Prime Minister.
Miyamoto Hayato exhaled heavily.
How many times was this now?

“I don’t understand. We certainly presented reasonable terms this time—why on earth would they refuse?”
“Still, England, China, and Russia have all reportedly rejected them as well…”

No.
That’s not even a fair comparison.
Are we the same as them?
Those Five Great Powers—what can we do about them?
They apparently demanded conditions that were utterly unreasonable.
China is practically hostile relations.

“Japan, by contrast, asked for considerably less than those Five Great Powers, and our relationship with them should be…”

Ah.
There is something that bothers me, though.
The operations we conducted in North Korea and a few other nations—that may have caught their attention.
But then, North Korea is North Korea.
You’re South Korea, after all.
—thinking as much, I sent commission requests several times, and yet here we are.

[Weapon Crafting Commission – Japan / Result: Rejected]

Each time, rejected without hesitation.

“Well… Prime Minister.”
“What is it.”
“There’s something you may have overlooked.”
“What’s that.”
“Looking at the commissions we planted in several Southeast Asian nations—they’ve been rejected as well.”

Right.
That’s true, isn’t it.

“So they’ve all been rejecting us? Continuously?”
“Yes, sir.”

Damn it.
Then it’s caught everywhere, isn’t it.
No matter how you slice it, this is absurd.
To reject us so thoroughly?
This won’t do.

“Surely we cannot indefinitely be swayed by a single Hunter—we are Japan, after all.”
“That may be true, but… the methods…”

It’s unclear.
But there isn’t a lack of methods entirely.
The Prime Minister, Miyamoto Hayato, nodded and spoke.

“What we’re short on is a pool of Hunters, not international influence, wouldn’t you say?”
“Indeed, sir.”

Fair’s fair—I must concede the point.
Japan?
We lack talented Hunters.
No wonder we couldn’t even make the Five Great Powers.
We haven’t even produced anyone who’s reached the 61st floor.
But.
Once you enter the realm of politics and economics?
We’re not so incompetent as all that.

“Especially our influence among Korean politicians remains quite intact, so let’s make use of that.”

Korea and Japan.
Being close, we’ve always exchanged considerable influence back and forth.
We’ve sown plenty of seeds among their politicians.
Now it’s time to harvest.

“And China, though they’re struggling considerably at the moment, remains formidable if you look only at their underlying strength. Since they’re being looked down upon now, the timing is perfect.”

In fact, don’t they have even more grievances?
Word is they’ve been rejecting requests all this time.
If Japan and several other nations add pressure?
How will he possibly manage it.

“There is, however, the risk of offending him in the process, is there not?”
“Ha, what do you mean. No matter how extraordinary the Manager’s abilities, he is but a single individual.”
“But there are rumors that China thought the same way….”
“Ah, China?”

What happened in China.
Prime Minister Miyamoto knows about it.
But….

“Those fools are different from us.”

We didn’t do anything so outrageous that heaven and earth would condemn us.
What if he drives his blade through us because of it?
Just because his mood is displeased?

“If it comes to that, even if I die by some remote chance, I can still sway public opinion to call him a blood-crazed butcher, so it should be fine.”
“Hah….”
“But surely it won’t come to that.”

Honestly, what are we lacking?
We made offers equal to any other nation.
The operation we sent into North Korea?
That’s nothing.
It wasn’t directly aimed at Korea anyway.
As for weapons—the same applies.
We couldn’t even smuggle them out in the first place.

“So go ahead and proceed with it.”
“Yes, understood.”

* * *

The Ganga Protector Alliance.
In Korean—the Ganga Protector Alliance.
Its purpose is exactly what the name says.
Recovery of all Indian territories, including the Ganges River.
But.

“Commander, this is serious. The mad monsters are expanding their territory and closing in again today!”
“Sigh… What about casualties?”
“Thankfully, there are none yet….”
“Well, that’s a relief. Above all else, life is precious. Tell them to pull back immediately if there’s danger.”
“Commander, if we retreat just a bit more from here, we’ll be near the border….”
“Better that than death. Pass the order right away. That’s a direct command.”
“I hear and obey!”

For some time now, they’d done nothing but retreat.

“At first, we could actually hold our ground….”

The man they called commander.
Bikram exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
The Manager.
Ever since that benefactor and hero had resolved the S-Rank Dungeon.
India had undergone many changes.
Hunters from across the world gathered.
And they’d begun gradually, painfully, to rebuild.
The problem was.

Ding!
[Notification: Ralph Carter of the United States has become the first to advance to the 70th Floor of the Chaos Tower.]
[From this moment forward, the world will change.]

That’s right.
Everything changed after that global announcement.
New Delhi, barely rebuilt.
A tower rose at its very center—

Roooaaarrr!!

And then the monsters started pouring out.
Worse than that?
After the tower transformed, they became even stronger.
We tried everything to hold them back—
But now we’ve reached our limit.

“Manager, I’m sorry. This homeland you saved for us—I wanted so badly to restore it….”

India’s hero, the Manager.
Or so I’d heard.
He apparently crafted weapons at bargain prices.
But India?
We can’t afford even that.
A person ought to have some dignity.
How can I file a Commission when I have nothing to give in return?
Egypt’s in the same boat, I’m told.

Ding!

Huh?
A notification from the Awakener Network?

[A Commission has arrived.]

What is this?
A Commission, out of the blue?
I tilted my head in confusion and opened the Awakener Network.
I figured it must be a mistake—

“The one who filed this Commission is… the Manager? He wants to meet?”

What in the world?
What is this about?

* * *

“Put pressure on Korea together, he says.”

Li Wei, Director of China’s Central Awakener Management Bureau.
He scratched his head.

Why did he have to handle this personally?
What was the Chairman even doing….
And then there’s this.

“Are the Japanese bastards insane?”

No.
If they want to die, let them die alone.
Why drag us into their mess?

He exhaled slowly.

Why would China be any less frustrated?
Honestly, they should be even more so than Japan.
At least Japan has some economic breathing room.
But China?
They have nothing.
No materials, no resources, nothing at all.
They were already stripped clean when that S-Rank Dungeon broke through—paid out as compensation.
And the Manager took it all.

“He tears everything away and then refuses the compensation because he doesn’t like what’s offered?”

This is…
Of course I understand it well enough.
This isn’t merely a matter of compensation—it’s a punishment.

A low, bitter sound escaped him.

“Zhang Zhuan, Liu Hao. Because of those damned fools….”

Still.
I have to find some path forward, however I can.
Li Wei is different from those incompetent predecessors of his.
We’re not close, but.
Bowing a little for China’s security? That’s hardly difficult.
Not difficult at all.

“You said the North Korean faction left the Chairman’s seat vacant.”

Just the Chairman’s position?
No.
I heard all the power holders were purged.
The Revolutionary Talent Brigade filled that void instead.

“And behind them stands the Manager.”

This…
If things go well, this might be my chance to earn his favor.

“For now, I’ll have to go to Korea in person and meet with the Central Awakener Management Bureau director.”

Meeting the Manager himself would be ideal, of course.
But that’s impossible.
If I meet the director and learn the Manager’s intentions through him—
That should be sufficient.
As for Japan?

“I’ll refuse them outright.”

And beyond that.
I need to carry this news to Korea myself.
I won’t be caught off guard playing dumb about it.

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