CH 151 Unexpected

Sorry about the last one I did bladder and post the wrong chapter.

.....

..

Today's meme is here. [ ]

....

As the hours passed, it became evident that Park Kyung-Hye wholeheartedly welcomed Esdeath into her family. She spoke about the future, of weddings and grandchildren, and Esdeath couldn't help but smile at the genuine affection and happiness that radiated from both mother and son.

In that hospital room, a beautiful bond was forged, uniting Jin, Jin-ha Esdeath, and Park Kyung-Hye as family. The love and acceptance they shared created a new chapter in their lives, one filled with hope, laughter, and the promise of a bright future together. And as they talked and laughed, it was clear that this meeting marked the beginning of a journey that would forever change their lives for the better.

***

It was a new day a new time.  

'I finished the Daily Quest.'

Feeling light-hearted, Jin began searching the internet.

Where he was in his room Esdeath was in his underground layer practicing and mastering her power,  as she was greatly motivated after she saw how Jin had grown just in seven days.  

And she was obliged to do this if she wanted to stand beside him. 

I have two days to the to settle the matters of outside as after they were over I will restart my grind again. He decided to gather more information on the world events to see if there is anomlity during this time period, so he switched on his computer.

'Heok?!'

As he browsed through the available information on the gates and goods, that came out of gates Jin's eyes grew wider and wider.

'….The minimum starts in the hundreds of millions, huh.'

Was that all? Items that looked okay to his eyes commanded an average of several dozen billion.

'Then again….'

To Hunters, good equipment was like their lifeline.

There was no need to even mention the obvious fact that using better, more expensive equipment made you safer.

Most Hunters made quite a bit of coin, and when given the chance to buy tools that would allow them to hunt faster and safer, was there a reason for them to hold back with their money?

Jin could clearly understand it. Indeed, he could, but that didn't change the fact that he was taken by surprise.

Seeing the pricing of various artefacts and tools, but he yet to mind any changes in the world and any unusual artifacts.  

That opinion was from the perspective of a normal person. As a Hunter, it fell far, far too short.

He had around 110 billion dollars in cash saved up in the banks. If he were to purchase artefacts he wanted, he could easily do it but still he won't able to purchase more then 100 of them.  

Now that he was the seller, Jin-

's expression rapidly changed.

'Needing a lot of money to buy an artefact means that I can sell my own artifact at a sky-high price.'

I do have too many daggers and swords gems and bows.  

But again daggers were part of my aesthetics or should build that I build around myself so selling even minor ones would be a great shame. 

Click.

He moved the mouse and continued to search, until the list of the magical tools currently on sale appeared on the monitor.

'.....'

No matter how hard he searched, he could not find a single artefact that seems to be out of order.  

'Man, these prices for the magic tools are no laughing matter, aren't they?'

When he thought about it, though, the boost of 20% was not small at all. Only the upper tier, no, the very best Hunters out there, would be able to afford such an expensive artefact.

However, with their already-excellent strengths being enhanced by 20%? The difference would be quite incredible to behold. The high-ranked Hunters knew this point as well, so no wonder they were prepared to shell out big bucks for them.

Actually, he could frequently spot the goods being on sale only a moment ago suddenly sporting a 'Sold' tag.

The '20%' artefacts were selling out fast like this, so….

Finding nothing abnormal in the market With a satisfied smile on his face, 

However, he had no way of approaching this elusive black market at all. Well, there was a limit to the information one could find on the internet, after all.

So he was thinking of formation some connections with the black market.  

'I mean, if you can't access it via a couple of mouse clicks, it shouldn't even be called the black market anymore.'

Jin leaned against the back of the chair.

Two days. It was a bit too short to do anything substantial, and maybe a bit too long to do nothing but lounge around at home and he didn't even had any plans of doing it.

Feeling half-interested, Jin moved the mouse cursor to the recruitment noticeboard in the Hunter forums.

Click.

One click later, and countless recruitment notices filled up his monitor. He quickly noticed a flood of requests from various freelancer raid teams searching for temps nearby this area.

'....'

The reason for this was simple. When he and Yu Jin-Ho monopolised every rank C Gate nearby for and a lot of B and a few A rank gates after a little while, many raid teams temporarily lost their livelihood.

Perhaps as a rebound, the raid teams that had been sitting idle during that time suddenly went into an energetic overdrive in the last few days. Especially with the annulment of two new S-rankers of South Korea.  

As now many hope to reawaken.  

Jin smiled wryly and changed the page.

'Well, I won't level up anymore in rank C dungeons, anyway.'

It took him one full day to level up once in the very last rank C dungeon he entered. No, never mind one day, he actually needed nearly two days for that single level up. And his current level was higher than that time by 40.

If there was a gauge for the experience points, then the needle wouldn't even budge.

'Rank C Gates have no meaning to me anymore….'

Unfortunately, he couldn't find a single recruitment offer for raiding higher ranked dungeons. However he was looking for the other thing.

Freelancer raid teams trying to clear high ranked dungeons was akin to them killing themselves. And the large Guilds wouldn't really recruit temporary members like this, either.

Still, one would never know.

' it's still didn't showing up is due to me being late or Should I change the search parameters?'

Jin changed the search condition and had it display only the results with 'high-ranked dungeons'.

Click.

Even though he was hoping, he wasn't expecting much at all.

However…

'…..Huh?'

Something did pop up the thing he was looking for. 

***

"You're a rank E?"

"Yes."

"You've never done anything like this before?"

"No, never."

"Well, uh… your speciality is?"

"I'm a close-quarter combat type. Who can also fight in long range"

'Well, that's just bullshit.'

The foreman wearing a hard hat swept his gaze up and down over Jin.

'For a rank E, he's got a pretty impressive physique but did he really think people would believe him, doesn't he? His eyes look okay, too. But it doesn't matter I really in need of workers"

Jin patiently waited for the answer from the foreman.

The foreman returned Jin's Hunter licence and smiled jovially.

"Hahaha. There are quite a few people similar to you here, Mister Jin. Don't be too nervous and let's get along well."

The foreman ahjussi was over forty years old, yet he was overflowing with energy. As an added bonus, he even sported a cool moustache, too.

"You can wait here until everyone shows up, Then, you can go inside. And don't forget your equipment, too."

"My equipment….?"

"You can pick up any one of those lying on the ground over there."

"…..Okay, got it."

Jin nodded his head while looking at the pile of pickaxes on the ground.

It was at this point that another ahjussi with a towel draped behind his neck hurriedly approached the two men.

"Mister Bae! Our team is also hurting for manpower, so how can you take people away willy-nilly like that??"

"Aigoo~. That many people's fine for the retrieval team. Hey, will you take responsibility when a problem occurs during the operation and we miss the Gate closing down?"

"Even then!"

The moustached ahjussi spun the towel ahjussi around and grinned at Jin.

"Mister Sung? Why don't you take five over there? This fella and me, we gonna have a bit of chat."

"Hey, why don't we just hash it out right over here? Where are you planning to take me now?"

"C'mon, my man. Come with me for a sec."

The two ahjussis disappeared to somewhere while arguing with each other.

'The other ahjussi is from the retrieval team, huh…. There are many old men here'

Na I shouldn't call someone old when I am pretty old myself, after all with my former life saying at 23 and Jin being 24 you could already add up it I should even be older then them.  

Does it means I won't be able to bang young girls?  No I shouldn't age gap as matter to confined myself into it after all I know plenty women who much older then they look.

In the complex realm of the multiverse, where the boundaries of age were blurred and reality itself could bend, Jin couldn't help but contemplate the fascinating intricacies of time and experience. Surrounded by a myriad of characters and creatures, each with their own unique age and appearance, Jin found himself in a peculiar situation.

His musings meandered into uncharted territory as he contemplated the implications of this age paradox. It brought him to an intriguing crossroads—a crossroads where age became a mere number, a negligible factor in the grand scheme of things.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of countless fictional characters who exemplified this concept. "Age is just a number," he concluded with a wry smile. "Take, for instance, a certain  Demi-Goddess with the appearance of a 13-year-old girl or the dragon goddess who could effortlessly shift her form while retaining her loli appearance. Such themes are prevalent in the realms of DXD and Fate."

In the boundless multiverse, where the norm was anything but, Jin found comfort in the diversity of characters who challenged the conventional boundaries of age and appearance. With the fusion of his previous life's experiences and the infusion of potent dragon essence, he possessed a unique perspective—a perspective that extended his lifespan by millennia.

"Considering my regenerative healing factor, Kandiaru's Blessing and the perpetual evolution of my stats," he contemplated, "I might as well be immortal. Every cell in my body brims with vitality, making me an embodiment of eternity."

As he embraced his newfound agelessness, Jin couldn't help but reveal a more personal inclination. "It's not about loli figures for me," he admitted with a grin, "I'm drawn to the allure of older women—the mature and captivating milky milf types."

Yet, his introspection didn't stop at age and preferences. He delved into the concept of free will. "Do you dislike being constrained by the expectations of others?" he asked himself, pondering the boundaries that society often imposed.

"To tell the truth," he confessed, "I don't like that, yes."

Do you dislike running on rails laid by others?

Again I don't like that, yes."

That's what I mean, simply put. Even if I have the will to get married myself, for some reason, when the will of more than one person, a stranger, intervenes, my motivation is reduced. Eventually, I get sick of it. I'm a natural.

I'm like, "I can re-lay it out myself, you know?

With newfound clarity, Jin asserted his independence. "That's what truly matters. Laws may seek to control, but I am the law itself, and age is but a number. In grand scheme of things"

In the sprawling tapestry of the multiverse, age, appearance, and societal norms were mere brushstrokes on a canvas of endless possibilities. As Jin traversed this intricate landscape, he did so with the wisdom of a culture person or cursed with culture and the unyielding spirit of someone who refused to be confined by the expectations of others.

Jin quickly shook off the distracting thoughts about how he could fuck women and looked in front.  

The sizes of high-ranked dungeons were so great that a single raid team couldn't do everything in one go. That was why the labour was divided.

The raid team that cleared the dungeons, the mining team that mined minerals from the dungeon's interior, and finally, the retrieval team tasked with collecting the remains of the fallen monsters.

Both the mining and the retrieval team entered the dungeon once all the monsters inside except the boss were eliminated.

Jin applied to the mining team.

'….Wait, is this all the so-called equipment there is?'

With a somewhat unconvinced expression, Jin picked up one of the pickaxes. Even though it was faint, he could sense the flow of magical energy in it.

'Huh. It's got great magic energy insiold-fashionedechnology that utilised electricity didn't work inside dungeons. Because of that, the old fashioned tools like this pickaxe were used instead, with magic energy enhancing their performance.

'…..'

Once he held the pickaxe tightly, he felt certain. It was not for nothing that Hunters in the mining team were roundly berated by others as dungeon miners.

Jin shifted his gaze over to the Gate. A giant hole was silently floating in the air. A Gate with a humongous size that no rank C Gates could even hope to compare filled up Jin's vision.

'So, that's at least a rank of A++ Gate….'

That guy was his second reason for showing up here today.

'I want to see her with my own eyes and collect some dangerous beasts.'

Even though they think all the monsters inside – except the boss, of course – were dead, he knew the real deal was still playing a waiting game.