The All-Time Best Talent was F-Class Purification - Chapter 21

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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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21
Chapter 21 – An Elite Talent Awakened as an F-Rank Purifier
The woman standing before the door stepped inside. Up close, she exuded an aura far sharper than what any screen could convey. Her gaze swept past Park Jae-jung with casual indifference before fixing upon me, standing behind him.
“Hunter Park Jae-jung. And…”
Her eyes lingered on my work clothes.
“The other registered resident of this house. You’re Lee Tae-hyun, correct?”
I nodded, feigning surprise.
“Yes, that’s right. Who are you?”
She produced an identification card from her pocket.
[Chief Appraiser Lee Ji-young, Hunter Association]
“Let me get straight to the point.”
She tucked away her credentials and fixed me with an unwavering stare.
“We’ve detected that the sale proceeds from a 100% pure control core that was auctioned at Central Auction yesterday flowed into the bank account of Park Jae-jung, the registered owner of this residence.”
She took another step closer.
“I’ll ask you directly. Where did that item come from?”
Her question was like a razor-sharp blade—the kind that would cut through any lie. Park Jae-jung tried to step forward to shield me, but I raised my hand to stop him.
I couldn’t afford to show panic or hesitation here. That would be the posture of the guilty. I hadn’t committed any crime—I simply possessed exceptional ability.
I answered with composed ease.
“I found it.”
“…Pardon?”
“I found it in a Dungeon. I was incredibly fortunate.”
At my brazen response, Lee Ji-young’s eyebrows twitched. She fell silent for a moment, then her gaze shifted to the open Workshop door behind me.
“Found it through sheer luck, you say…”
She twisted her lips into a smile.
“It seems that luck of yours is overflowing into that Workshop as well. Would you mind if I took a look?”
She posed it as a question, but her feet had already crossed into the Living Room. The investigation team members standing behind her were ready to follow her lead.
This wasn’t an investigation—it was a hunt. And we were the prey she had marked.
I clenched my hands clasped behind my back. Sweat seeped into my palms. Yet I fought to maintain composure in my expression.
“By all means. There’s nothing to hide anyway.”
I stepped aside, and Lee Ji-young brushed past me. From her came a subtle fragrance mingled with the palpable, threatening pulse of magical power.
Crisis was crossing the threshold into the Workshop.
The moment Lee Ji-young entered the Workshop, the very air shifted. She moved with the ease of someone entering her own private chamber, yet each step carried a razor-sharp precision that seemed to rake in every detail of her surroundings.
Her eyes swept across the mountains of scrap metal piled on the Floor—rusted swords, dented armor, staffs with severed mana circuits. To any casual observer, it was unmistakably a junkyard.
“You have quite the unique hobby. I was told this was Hunter Park Jae-jung’s residence, but I had no idea you were running a salvage operation.”
Park Jae-jung moved to respond, but I silenced him with a glance. This was my moment to act. I stood calmly beside the workbench to face her.
“We’re poor Hunters. We can’t afford new equipment, so we thought we’d try to repair and reuse what others have discarded.”
“Repair and reuse, you say…”
She let out a derisive snort. Then, with her leather-gloved hand, she picked up a C-rank mithril dagger resting on the workbench. It was an item I had just finished purifying, its surface still rough from incomplete finishing work.
“Repair something like this? A piece of refuse with its mana circuits completely burned out?”
She was about to set the dagger down dismissively. But in that instant—
Whoooosh—
The air trembled faintly as Lee Ji-young’s eyes began to glow with a deep crimson light. Like burning rubies, an intense, profound red flooded her gaze completely.
[Eye of Truth]
A legendary skill that only the Association’s chief Appraiser could awaken. An absolute ability to pierce through illusions, to discern hidden value and true essence.
Her hand, gripping the short sword, froze in mid-air.
Her crimson eyes penetrated the blade, traced the hilt, and delved into the flow of mana coursing through it. Her previously indifferent expression began to shift. Contempt transformed into confusion, confusion into astonishment…
“…What on earth is this?”
She lifted the short sword again in disbelief, holding it up to the light. On the surface, it appeared worn and shabby, but what the Eye of Truth revealed within was entirely different. The severed circuits were perfectly reconnected, and pure mana without a single impurity flowed unobstructed to the blade’s tip.
“Answer me. What is this? The exterior looks like a C-rank on the verge of disposal, but the internal mana conductivity is B-rank, no—higher than that. And the mana wavelength is identical to the control core that appeared at the Auction House.”
She was a professional, and she could not be deceived.
“I simply… repaired it well, that’s all.”
I answered deliberately vaguely. It wasn’t yet time to reveal everything.
“Repaired it well? This?”
Lee Ji-young swept her gaze across the other equipment hanging on the Wall. Her Eye of Truth scanned the entire Workshop. In that instant, her face went pale.
“This too… this too… all of it?”
Each restored piece of equipment was shattering her understanding of what was possible.
“Don’t lie to me! This isn’t within the realm of repair!”
She shouted. The investigation team members standing behind her tensed, their hands moving toward their waists.
“Even with modern mana engineering technology, it’s impossible to perfectly regenerate circuits that have already burned out like this. And this purity… it’s as if the metal itself has been reborn.”
She gripped the short sword tighter and stepped toward me. The pressure was considerable, but I did not retreat.
“Who are you people, really? Are you using illegal artifacts? Or did you steal forbidden techniques from the Dungeon?”
She was painting us as criminals. The situation was on a knife’s edge. I saw Park Jae-jung’s hand move toward the Giga Shield at his back. But I maintained my composure. More than that, I sensed this moment was an opportunity.
Before she was an investigator for the Association, she was an Appraiser. Her eyes gleamed like those of a mad collector, reacting instinctively before beautiful, perfect objects. I needed to provoke that desire.
“Team Leader.”
I spoke first.
“Would you listen to me for a moment? We’re not your enemies.”
I pulled out another object I had hidden beneath the workbench. A B-rank Flame Gauntlet I had purchased yesterday, half-melted. Now it was perfectly purified, radiating a brilliant red light even more radiant than a new one.
“Would you appraise this as well?”
I tossed the gauntlet to her. She caught it reflexively. And once more, the Eye of Truth blazed.
“This is a Flame Gauntlet? A model discontinued five years ago… how is its condition more perfect than an unused item?”
Her confusion reached its peak. I seized the opening.
“It’s neither illegal nor smuggled. It’s simply my talent.”
“Talent?”
“Yes. A talent for breathing life back into dying things. If I had to name it… I’d call it Purification.”
I gestured toward the scrap metal filling the Workshop.
“This world discards so many things. They’re treated as garbage simply because they’re damaged, contaminated. I found that wasteful. So I began the work of restoring their true essence.”
At my brazen yet plausible explanation, Lee Ji-young fell silent. Her eyes darted between the gauntlet and me. In her mind, criminal suspicion and the miracle before her eyes were locked in fierce struggle.
“If what you’re saying is true…”
After a long silence, she finally spoke.
“Then you’re disrupting the ecosystem of the entire Hunter market right now. If items that should be dead come back to life and flood the market, every existing equipment manufacturer will go bankrupt.”
“Call it innovation, not disruption.”
I countered with confidence.
“And you know as well as I do, Team Lead. What Hunters need right now isn’t expensive, hard-to-find new products. They need affordable, high-performance equipment that will save their lives in the moment. I’m simply meeting that demand. Is that a crime?”
My words struck home. The Hunter Association existed to protect Hunters’ safety and interests. My business threatened the established powers, but it was salvation for the vast majority of Hunters.
Lee Ji-young couldn’t counter. She set the gauntlet down on the table and exhaled deeply. Her sharp momentum crumbled. She had no choice but to accept it—the man before her wasn’t a criminal, but an unpredictable variable with unmanageable power.
“…So, what do you want?”
Her question. The beginning of negotiation.
“It’s simple. Just leave us alone.”
“What?”
“We haven’t committed any crimes. We legitimately purchased discarded materials and repaired them with my skills. We’ll pay our taxes properly. So we’d prefer no surveillance or interference from the Association.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You want me to leave someone with such dangerous technology unsupervised? This is a matter that requires state-level management.”
“Management, or confinement, you mean.”
I laughed coldly.
“You plan to lock me away and make me repair equipment like a machine? Then unfortunately, my ability might not function depending on my mood. The moment I’m forced, this technology disappears.”
It was a bluff. But she didn’t understand the principle behind my ability, so she had no choice but to believe it.
“Instead, let me make a proposal.”
I took a step closer.
“All the renewed products we create will receive official Hunter Association certification before hitting the market. And I’ll have you, the Chief Appraiser Lee Ji-young, handle that certification work exclusively.”
“What?”
Her eyes widened.
“From your perspective, it’s not a bad deal, is it? The world’s first and only dedicated Appraiser for high-purity restoration equipment. There’s no better achievement for your career than this, wouldn’t you say?”
I stimulated both her professional pride and ambition simultaneously. Her standing within the Association, her honor as an Appraiser. It was bait she couldn’t refuse.
“And from the Association’s perspective, you’d be bringing us into the system where you can monitor us, so you’d have peace of mind. It’s a win-win for everyone, isn’t it?”
Lee Ji-young crossed her arms and glared at me. But there was no more hostility in her gaze. It was the cold, calculating look of a business partner weighing options. She surveyed Park Jae-jung, me, and the Workshop around us. Then the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
“Quite presumptuous for an F-Rank.”
She gestured to her investigation team members.
“Withdraw.”
“T-Team Lead? But the investigation…”
“No grounds for suspicion. It’s just a simple repair workshop. I vouch for it.”
The team members were bewildered, but they followed the Chief Appraiser’s order without question. As they filed out through the Foyer, Lee Ji-young turned back to me.
“I accept your proposal. But I have conditions.”
She placed a business card on the workbench.
“Send me a list of everything you produce from now on. I’ll personally verify each item and assign its grade. If even one defective product appears, or if I catch you doing anything shady behind my back…”
She made a throat-cutting gesture with her finger.
“Then it won’t be the Association coming after you—I’ll bury you myself. Understood?”
It was a chilling warning, but to my ears, it sounded like a victory fanfare. I smiled and nodded.
“I’ll remember that, Team Lead.”
She snorted dismissively and left without looking back.
Silence settled over the Workshop. Park Jae-jung collapsed onto the sofa as if his legs had given out.
“Phew… I really aged ten years just now.”
He wiped the sweat from his brow and shook his head. I picked up her business card from the desk. [Chief Appraiser of the Hunter Association, Lee Ji-young]. This card would now become the most powerful guarantee protecting our business operation.
“Now that the interference is gone, we’ve gained a formidable backing as well.”
I smiled broadly at Park Jae-jung.
“Jae-jung. Now, let’s really go sell some goods.”
Crisis had transformed into opportunity. We were now backed by the massive banner of the Hunter Association, fully prepared to seize control of the market.

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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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