The Cursed Blacksmith Who Regressed - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 7

“Inagawa?”

“Yes, Inagawa is also one of Japan’s three major Yakuza guilds. However, Inagawa, being traditional Yakuza, absolutely despises Sumiyoshi, which is modern Yakuza. So take this opportunity to establish connections with Inagawa. Instead of money, send Daesan’s weapons for their members to use under the pretext of prototype testing, and you’ll naturally be able to build connections.”

In China, there’s a term called guanxi.

Guanxi goes beyond simple human relationships to mean social connections, networks, and trust-based relationships – in Korea it’s called “backing,” and in Japan it’s called “connections.”

Connections comes from the English word “connection” and has the most similar meaning to guanxi.

Perhaps that’s why Jang Hae-hyeon showed resistance to the idea of making connections with Yakuza.

Since Daesan was from an independence movement family.

“I know well that Daesan is from an independence movement family. But now is the time to tactically use the enemy of our enemy. This isn’t selling our conscience or our beliefs. When you fix the barn after losing the cow, it’s already too late. Right now we need to save the cow first. Only then can we avoid getting entangled with Yakuza in the future.”

Choi Hyun looked straight at Jang Hae-hyeon as he spoke.

Jang Hae-hyeon met Choi Hyun’s eyes for a while, then nodded.

“You’re right. Justice without power is just incompetence. Then we’ll do as you say. Manager?”

“Yes.”

“Contact Park Jeon-mu who’s currently in Japan and tell him to meet with people from Inagawa. Tell him I’ll give detailed instructions.”

“Understood.”

As the manager left with the phone, Jang Hae-hyeon offered his business card.

“I’m sorry, I was so flustered I couldn’t even give you my business card.”

“It’s fine. I don’t have business cards anyway, so it was okay. Please contact me when this matter is resolved. I’ll help you solve the next problem then.”

“The next problem?”

“Isn’t it true that when one problem is solved, another one appears? At that time, I’m thinking of two cards as consulting fees. One card as a contract fee, and the other after the work is finished. I’ll wait for your contact.”

Choi Hyun took Jang Hae-hyeon’s business card, bowed lightly, and left the President’s Office.

Jang Hae-hyeon wanted to stop him, but since he had cleanly finished his business and left, no words came to mind to detain him further.

After Choi Hyun left, the in-house lawyer who had been present asked Jang Hae-hyeon.

“President, what’s that guy’s identity? He’s barely twenty years old, but the aura he gives off is like a veteran who’s been through everything.”

“I’m not sure either. It’s like I was possessed by a ghost.”

“But is it really true? That Yakuza are involved in this incident?”

“That’s…”

We’ll have to wait and see.

However, somehow he wasn’t worried.

Because Choi Hyun’s eyes didn’t look like they would lie.

And much later, the response that came back from Japan was surprisingly exactly as Choi Hyun had said.

“Inagawa sent people to investigate and confirmed that Sumiyoshi’s Jendero is indeed holding Shirai President’s family hostage.”

“What did you say?”

Jang Hae-hyeon got goosebumps all over his body.

Even if it was a fact he already knew, sometimes when you directly confirm it, the shock can hit twice as hard.

This was one of those times.

“I’ll make the call. And…”

Jang Hae-hyeon thought for a moment, then said to the manager.

“That person named Choi Hyun who left earlier, please assign someone to investigate him separately.”

“Understood.”

Jang Hae-hyeon became increasingly curious about Choi Hyun.

* * *

After leaving Daesan, Choi Hyun took a taxi back to his neighborhood.

Then, as he was about to go home, he suddenly noticed a local barbecue restaurant.

“Meat…”

After thinking for a moment, Choi Hyun entered the barbecue restaurant alone and sat down.

Sizzle-

The meat was cooking.

It was a proper meal with stew and rice all set up.

It had been so long.

During the final three years as the end approached, he had mostly survived on survival rations.

‘I had lived cutting out the concept of fine dining.’

Fortunately, all the survivors were awakened ones, so they didn’t need much food.

Once you reached a certain level, your body could survive for over a month without eating, sleeping, or drinking.

But that was literally just surviving, not living like a human being.

So everyone fought monsters while eating special survival food made by the production team members, and whenever they had time, they talked about food.

After all, one of the things that tormented people the most was related to the three basic desires.

In that sense, what was mentioned most often back then was the pork belly right in front of him.

Choi Hyun looked at the cooking meat and recalled the faces of his old comrades who used to cry out for grilled meat.

Choi Hyun even ordered soju and poured himself a glass.

Then he placed the soju glass in front of the rice bowl he hadn’t touched yet and quietly observed a moment of silence for them.

* * *

After finishing his hearty meal, Choi Hyun stopped by a mart to buy a bag of apples before heading straight home.

Then, after showering, he accessed the Korean Hunter Association on his phone and registered for the hunter exam.

Fortunately, he had regressed at a good time – the next day was the first exam, the written test.

After completing the exam registration, Choi Hyun took out the apples he bought from the mart and sat on his bed.

Then he turned on the stopwatch on his phone and started juggling.

He started with two apples.

Whoosh- Whoosh- Whoosh- Whoosh-

Then three.

Then four.

Choi Hyun increased the number of juggling objects this way.

As the number increased, the juggling range became wider and wider, and finally when the number of apples spinning in the air reached 15, the thrown apples reached a point where they almost touched the Gosiwon ceiling.

But he maintained a delicate distance so they never actually touched the ceiling.

Choi Hyun continued juggling while sitting.

‘The world record before the first great catastrophe was a maximum of 14 objects at once, and for consecutive throws, the maximum was 34 times with 11 objects.’

That’s why he juggled with 15 apples.

Not only that?

The number of juggling throws had already surpassed 34 times.

Choi Hyun widened his eyes and concentrated.

Then, not long after.

[ Repeated and mastered action. ]

[ You have perfectly and accurately performed high-difficulty juggling that no one else has succeeded at. ]

[ Conditions have been met. ]

[ You acquire the skill ‘Dexterity’. ]

He was able to acquire the Dexterity skill.

But even so, Choi Hyun didn’t stop.

He continued juggling.

His arms were starting to tingle and his eyes felt like they would pop out.

Although he had become an awakened one, he was still level 1 and hadn’t invested his acquired bonus stats anywhere.

Choi Hyun concentrated.

He concentrated and concentrated again, and an hour passed.

That’s when it happened.

[ Tremendous concentration. ]

[ Your concentration is so unparalleled that it could be called obsession. ]

[ Conditions have been met. ]

[ You acquire the skill ‘Super Focus’. ]

He acquired another skill.

Seeing the notification, Choi Hyun finally stopped juggling and collapsed backward onto the bed.

Thud thud thud-

The apples fall and roll scattered across the floor.

His forearm feels like it might burst, beyond just being numb.

But it’s fine.

Because he acquired the two skills he was aiming for.

Choi Hyun checked the information of the two skills he had obtained.

[ Dexterity ]

– Type : Skill

# A skill that can be obtained by those who use fast and precise hand movements.

# Effects occur for all hand-related actions: reduced stamina consumption, increased speed, enhanced power, and accelerated experience gain.

[ Hyper Focus ]

– Type : Skill

# By momentarily displaying tremendous concentration, effects occur for all actions requiring focus: reduced stamina consumption, increased speed, enhanced power, and accelerated experience gain.

Choi Hyun smiled lightly after seeing the information.

Following Footwork, now Dexterity and Hyper Focus – these were all basic foundations for future growth and essential preparations like cheat keys needed for ultra-high-speed development.

That’s when it happened.

Buzz-

His phone vibrated.

A text message had arrived.

It was a notification that Daesan had deposited the remaining 1 billion won.

‘Good timing.’

After confirming the deposit, Choi Hyun immediately turned on his phone and accessed a toto site.

Toto refers to sports lottery, and while there are legal toto operations run by the government, there also exist illegal toto sites operated privately.

What Choi Hyun accessed among these was the legal toto run by the government called ‘K-Toto’.

‘K-Toto is legal, but the maximum betting amount is only 1 million won and the maximum payout ratio is only 5 times at best.’

That’s why it’s less popular compared to private toto sites.

However, the biggest advantage is that since it’s run by the government, there’s no worry about getting scammed out of money.

Still, compared to the past, both betting amounts and payout ratios had increased considerably.

After searching through K-Toto betting categories, Choi Hyun was able to find the Hunter Exam category scheduled for tomorrow.

‘K-Toto, which used to only do sports toto, has created many categories related to players after the Great Upheaval.’

The Hunter Exam category was one of them.

Hunter Exams existed once every quarter to ensure a smooth supply of hunters, and Choi Hyun found the first written exam results category for this quarter and began setting up his bet.

Naturally, Choi Hyun’s name wasn’t on the list of betting candidates.

No matter how legally K-Toto operates, you need some level of fame to get your name listed in such places.

But that’s fine.

Unlike other categories, for Hunter Exams, bettors can directly register an applicant’s name in the category.

‘When I first heard about it, I thought the structure was quite unique.’

But this structure is possible because Hunter Exam toto doesn’t simply divide betting results into pass or fail, but rather determines results by things like the top scorer or perfect scorer of this quarter’s exam.

So to put it bluntly, if an applicant is confident they can claim the top spot, they can register themselves and make a self-bet without any problem.

‘Even so, the maximum betting amount is only 1 million won and the payout ratio is only 5 times.’

After registering his name, Choi Hyun left K-Toto and accessed ‘Totoland’, a private toto site.

Totoland was the largest private toto site in the country and was naturally illegal.

But despite this, Totoland had been operating for quite a long time and its operators had never been caught, because there was someone from a major domestic conglomerate family backing Totoland.

‘And a very bad guy is protecting them from behind.’

The very same guy who caused the Daesan Guild to collapse.

That’s why he deliberately chose Totoland.

While there were many ways for him as a regressor to achieve financial freedom, it would be more beneficial to the world in many ways to take down one garbage villain while also getting revenge for his partner.

‘Found it.’

Choi Hyun was able to find the same category on Totoland as on K-Toto.

However, the difference from K-Toto was that Totoland had no limit on maximum betting amounts and the maximum payout ratio was 10 times.

The structure was the same as K-Toto.

Single-match format, where you lose all your betting money if you don’t pick the top scorer.

The payout ratio itself wasn’t very high compared to other categories.

Because among Hunter Exams, the written exam has a somewhat easier difficulty level compared to other categories.

Choi Hyun raised the corners of his mouth in a smirk, created an account, and made a phone call somewhere.

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