You Have Been Invited to the Auction House of the Gods - Chapter 12

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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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12

 

 

“So… you want me to join the guild you made?”

 

I looked at Kim Jin-woo with an incredulous expression.

 

“Yes!”

 

Kim Jin-woo nodded his head.

 

‘This kid is really innocent.’

 

For the first scout offer I received after Re-Awakening, it was quite refreshing.

 

A guild isn’t something that can just be created on a whim.

 

No, creating one was easy.

 

Even a high school student had made a guild.

 

However, to be officially recognized, it had to pass the Association’s review.

 

‘And how much money does that cost…’

 

His family seemed quite well-off, but unless you were a major conglomerate, just covering guild maintenance costs was overwhelming.

 

And in this situation, a high school sophomore was making an offer to me, an F-rank Hunter.

 

Ha, even a passing dog would laugh.

 

“Can you cover the guild maintenance costs?”

 

“Of course. I’ve already prepared a guild building in Jongno.”

 

Whether there was a building or not wasn’t the important thing.

 

“Guild members?”

 

“I’d like to have you as the first member of my guild, hyung.”

 

So he was alone.

 

I couldn’t help but sigh.

 

Seeing my poor reaction, Kim Jin-woo opened his mouth as if playing his trump card.

 

“Actually, my grandfather is the chairman of Hanwoori Group.”

 

“Hanwoori?”

 

This was quite surprising.

 

Hanwoori was one of the leading corporations in the domestic food industry.

 

From the Poo Ramen I had posted on Golden Fragrance to Spicy Stir-fried Noodles, they held a considerable share of the Global Market’s ramen market.

 

It was a brand that no citizen of South Korea could be unfamiliar with.

 

‘Hanwoori…’

 

But that was as far as it went.

 

It wasn’t that I disliked Kim Jin-woo.

 

The kid was both respectful and kind.

It even felt like I had gained a much younger brother.

 

But that was different from reality.

 

A guild was ultimately one massive business.

 

It didn’t matter that his family was a corporate chairman.

 

No matter how much funding he could pull together, guild management was something else entirely.

 

Even if Hanwoori directly created a guild and made me an offer, I’d have to think about it…

 

Join a guild with just one high school student?

 

If I had lived an ordinary life, making a hundred concessions… I might have at least considered it.

 

I would have had enough leisure to indulge in youthful romance and ambition.

 

But how could my life have been ordinary?

 

Above all, I had something I needed to resolve.

 

Elixir.

 

Before Mother’s illness got worse, I needed to become Golden Fragrance’s highest-grade member as soon as possible.

 

“Well, it was nice meeting you. Let’s see each other again if we can.”

 

“Oh come on, hyung! You’re so impatient, at least listen to the conditions first.”

 

Kim Jin-woo grabbed me with a good-natured smile.

 

His persistence was really something else.

 

“If you really don’t like it, please just stay with the guild for 1 year, just 1 year. I’ll pay you a proper signing bonus.”

 

‘Tsk…’

 

There are mainly two reasons people become hunters.

 

Money and fame.

 

Since he has plenty of inheritance to receive, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing this for money, and he doesn’t seem to want fame either.

 

The most plausible theory is…

Maybe he treats hunter work like some kind of game.

 

If you look at dungeon exploration from a distance, it does resemble a game.

 

Rich crazy bastards do want different kinds of thrills.

 

It was quite unexpected that he didn’t quit being a hunter even after nearly dying in a dungeon a few days ago.

 

No, maybe that’s exactly why he’s trying to recruit trustworthy people into his guild?

 

The problem is that I’m the only trustworthy person in that bastard’s guild.

 

“Alright, let’s go in and hear it.”

 

Let’s at least listen to what he has to say.

There are quite a few restrictions if I want to work alone.

I should consider joining a guild at least once.

It wouldn’t be bad to hear Kim Jin-woo’s market evaluation of me, since he’s experienced me firsthand.

 

“As you may have noticed, my guild was established with support from Hanwoori.”

 

If you have money, creating a guild isn’t a problem at all.

 

However, to maintain that guild continuously, you must pass the Association’s evaluation.

 

One year after establishment, and then once every 5 years after that.

 

The evaluation after one year is especially important.

 

That evaluation determines whether the guild survives or not.

 

Until then, it’s just a temporary guild, not an official one.

 

‘So that’s why he proposed the one-year period.’

 

If you fail to pass the one-year evaluation, the guild is automatically disbanded.

 

“This is confidential, but actually, Grandfather is thinking of entering the dungeon business.”

 

“Hanwoori is getting into dungeons?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Hanwoori recently raised their stock price quite a bit with new products developed using materials obtained from dungeons.

 

In fact, that’s why the price of by-products shot up.

 

‘Now they’re thinking of jumping in directly?’

 

There are two ways for corporations to obtain dungeon materials.

 

Purchasing through the Association or commissioning guilds.

 

Commissioning guilds could be cheaper than Association market prices, but the costs weren’t exactly low either.

 

Most importantly, the big problem was that those costs weren’t consistent.

 

You could tell just by looking at how prices skyrocketed after the new product announcement.

 

“So you’re going to create your own guild and become self-sufficient.”

 

“Exactly right.”

 

For a corporation like Hanwoori, directly creating a guild isn’t a big problem.

 

“Even though I’m young, I’ve run actual operations several times, so I’ve been through quite a lot more than you might think, hyung.”

 

Kim Jin-woo continued with a rather serious expression.

 

“I’ve been thinking that I want to fill my guild with trustworthy people.”

 

“And so?”

 

“I want to recruit you first, hyung.”

 

He’s chosen me as the first card for the guild that will become the foundation of Hanwoori Group’s dungeon business.

 

“Hyung, you just need to put your name on it. I’ll handle all the administrative work. You just need to explore dungeons with me occasionally.”

 

That’s not a big problem.

 

“And first, how about 1 billion for the signing bonus and 5 billion for a 2-year contract?”

 

“…”

 

Those were quite shocking terms.

 

The kind of money that decent mid-tier guilds would only offer to A-rank hunters.

 

‘At least he’s considering me to be A-rank or higher.’

 

It seems he made this judgment after seeing me take down the Raid Leader in the Abandoned Subway Dungeon.

 

A re-awakened A-rank Hunter. And if there’s still room for growth?

 

‘So it wasn’t a lie when he said he’d been through all sorts of experiences.’

 

Even if he looks innocent, it seems the blood of an entrepreneur doesn’t go anywhere.

 

’10 billion won…’

 

It was higher than average, but it wasn’t an excessive amount either.

 

Just the right amount considering growth potential.

 

I quietly set down my coffee cup.

 

‘The amount of gold being supplied from lower dungeons has been decreasing lately.’

 

In fact, the gold drop rate in the lower dungeons I’d been through last week was noticeably declining.

 

Even if I raise my Hunter rank, the number of higher dungeons the Association allocates is limited.

 

No matter how much I prepare alone, it’s difficult to get assigned to B-rank or higher dungeons.

 

But with a guild, it’s a different story.

 

Moreover, what’s behind that guild is Hanwoori.

 

The ‘Poo Ramen’ and ‘Spicy Stir-fried Noodles’ that had good reactions in Golden Township were all products from this company.

 

If I could supply products regularly through Kim Jin-woo…

 

It was an opportunity to secure a stable supply source.

 

I could also develop new products or necessary items.

 

It would be incomparable to going around convenience stores and large discount stores like now.

 

I raised my head.

 

“What about my position? Would I enter as something like a vice guild master?”

 

Kim Jin-woo would be the guild master.

Even when corporations create guilds and recruit Hunters, they don’t give positions higher than vice master.

That’s how much authority the guild master has.

If something goes wrong, the entire guild could be taken over.

 

Of course, they could file a lawsuit, but even if they won, only an empty guild with all the Hunters gone would return.

 

The data proves this.

 

So when corporations create guilds, they try to place someone related to them in the guild master position, even if they’re not a Hunter.

 

That was why Kim Jin-woo sat in the guild master position despite his young age.

Among Hanwoori’s direct family, Kim Jin-woo was the only one who had awakened.

 

Knowing this fact well, I was thinking they’d give me a reasonably free position.

 

But it seems I underestimated Kim Jin-woo’s innocence.

 

“Huh? You should be the guild master, hyung.”

 

At those words, I instinctively held my forehead.

Does this kid even know what he’s saying?

 

I repeated to myself internally.

 

Still, the kid is kind…

The kid is kind…

And he has a lot of money…

 

“Aren’t you registered as the guild master?”

 

“That kind of administrative procedure would take 5 minutes at most.”

 

“No, what I mean is… sigh…”

 

I let out another sigh.

 

“You continue being the guild master.”

 

It doesn’t matter who becomes the guild master anyway.

 

Honestly, I’d rather pass on such a troublesome position.

 

“But I have conditions.”

 

“Just say anything, hyung!”

 

“Receive an A-grade in the one-year evaluation.”

 

“Well… it’ll take time to build up achievements, but with you here, hyung, it’s definitely possible.”

 

Kim Jin-woo answered confidently.

 

“And raise the current guild rank to B.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Kim Jin-woo was startled.

 

A Guild’s rank follows the Guild master’s rank.

 

Kim Jin-woo, who was destined to become the Guild master, was C-rank.

 

And since he had just been promoted after the Abandoned Subway Dungeon achievement, he was a brand new C-rank Hunter with ink still wet on his Hunter License.

 

To reach B-rank Hunter required 20 Dungeon clear records.

 

“So… I have to continue being the Guild master…”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“It hasn’t even been a day since I became C-rank, but I need to get promoted?”

 

“That’s right. I’m planning to finish it within a week. Of course, I’ll help you too.”

 

“If I’m not misunderstanding… you’re saying the two of us will run B-rank Dungeons 20 times in a week?”

 

“You understood correctly.”

 

Once we set a goal, we had to act on it immediately.

 

I got up from my seat.

 

“What are you doing? Aren’t you getting up? If we want to run 20 rounds, we won’t have enough time even if we start now.”

 

Kim Jin-woo’s face grew paler and paler.

 

Because he realized I was the type of person who would really do exactly that.

 

“Hyung, hyung-nim…”

 

***

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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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