A car pulled up and stopped outside the window, and someone set down a case.
"Just a moment. I'll go pick up the item."
A short while later, he returned and opened the case.
"A sleeve-type shoulder guard. The outer shell is—"
He picked up a drill and brought it straight to the shoulder guard, then pressed the button. A harsh grinding sound rang out, but there was no visible damage to the shoulder guard.
"Hunters are always on the move, aren't they? It also prevents things like your dominant shoulder getting dislocated."
In appearance, it closely resembled the kind of shoulder protector worn to prevent injuries during exercise. It was a bit unfortunate that it only protected one shoulder, though.
Inside the guard was a simple mechanism: it could store emergency medicine, and by pressing a button, the drug would be administered immediately in a crisis.
"Pretty usable, wouldn't you say? Of course, if you don't like it, you can sell it back and we'll transfer the amount minus the processing cost."
At Choi Seung-gi's words, I nodded.
"I'll pay the processing cost and additional fee and use it myself."
"Oh, that won't be necessary. You haven't received your share yet, have you, Hunter Yoo Chan-seok?"
It hadn't been that long since the incident on Gyodong Island, after all.
"We'll just count that as us taking our processing fee and extra charge."
After answering, Choi Seung-gi let out a breath and grinned.
"Man, that's a relief. I was worried I might've been sticking my nose where it didn't belong."
It wasn't really overstepping. I needed additional equipment anyway. Still, there was something I was curious about.
"Even if you prepared this, I might not end up signing a contract with you."
At my words, Choi Seung-gi shrugged.
"Then I was planning to send it as a gift. Hunters who are just starting out usually struggle due to lack of equipment."
As he spoke, Choi Seung-gi glanced at my reaction.
"I don't really mind."
After all, the money you could make from selling byproducts torn from monster corpses wouldn't have been that enormous. It was only a Grade-3 Corruption Source.
Getting a piece of equipment that looked this sturdy from it was actually a net gain.
"Now that I've received a gift, let's talk about the contract."
Choi Seung-gi let out an "Ah," then spoke to me.
"I'll start with the most important part—the ratio. We'd like to take 30%."
"That's higher than the standard junk dealer's commission."
At my comment, Choi Seung-gi nodded.
"The more that falls to us, the higher our credibility becomes. Could you see it that way?"
"What do you mean?"
At my question, Choi Seung-gi swallowed and stirred the ice in his glass with a straw.
"My personal belief is that people who are well fed are less likely to get ideas of betrayal."
"I don't think that's wrong."
Loyalty and trust are proportional to how much someone is paid. You can't expect absolute loyalty by handing out pocket change.
"In return for the higher commission, we will never touch your spoils. In fact, even with a 30% cut, the company's share ends up being the same as other companies'."
"Then does the rest go to the personnel dispatched to recover the spoils?"
At my question, Choi Seung-gi nodded.
"Even if someone tried to skim hunters' spoils, they'd have to resort to smuggling in most cases. If enough cash is already in your pocket, there's no reason to risk prison by pulling something that stupid."
It was a reasonable argument. When I looked over the contract he handed me, it clearly specified exactly how much the company would take and how much would go to the dispatched personnel.
"The reason I'm asking for a 30% split is very clear. It's not about squeezing out a little extra money."
"It sounds like that ratio is also why you came in person."
At my words, he shook his head.
"That's another reason. I came in person because I really want to secure you, Hunter Yoo Chan-seok."
"That's nice to hear."
At my words, he burst out laughing, then quickly put on a serious expression again.
"Please, sign the contract. Compared to Blue Wrench, we're smaller in scale, but we don't get called a laggard in this line of work."
"If you come in this humbly, doesn't it put you at a disadvantage in negotiations?"
To my question, he replied,
"Well, sure—it does put us at a disadvantage. We're not number one in this industry. And among newly started hunters, Yoo Chan-seok is without a doubt our top recruitment priority."
When he put it that frankly, there was nothing for me to argue with. And it wasn't wrong, either.
"Usually, once junk dealers sign a contract with a hunter, they stick together for life unless something serious happens."
It was a relationship built on mutual trust. Once you found a junk dealer you could rely on, there was little reason to switch. In other words, if they failed to secure me now, there was a high chance they'd never get another opportunity.
"Then how about we start with a 40% split and a three-month short-term contract?"
At my words, Choi Seung-gi lifted his head and looked at me.
"A short-term contract…."
"It's just a test run—to see how things feel."
The ratio wasn't that important. It was only three months, after all. If we worked together and it didn't feel right, being tied down by a long-term contract would just be more exhausting.
It was like buying groceries. Just because the price per kilogram is cheap doesn't mean it's always the best deal. If you live alone and buy five kilograms of onions just because they're cheap, you'll end up throwing most of them away when they rot.
Raise the split, work together for about three months, and if things seem good, switch to a long-term contract and renegotiate at the originally requested 30%.
"Understood. This isn't how business is usually done, but—"
Choi Seung-gi thumped his chest with both hands, his eyes shining.
"I'll make you want to consider a long-term contract."
"I hope so. Finding another junk dealer later would be a hassle."
We proceeded to draw up the contract on the spot. After that, he immediately held something out to me. It was the gun-shaped chip implanter that Kim Min-jae had previously used for marking.
"It contains 150 microchips inside, and I'll give you another 150 as emergency backup. If you ever run out, contact us anytime and we'll send more."
"I look forward to working with you."
With that, the junk dealer I'd be working with was decided. On top of that, I'd even picked up a cabin usage pass as a bonus, so it was a pretty satisfying meeting overall.
Now all that remained was to head to Tsushima for real. After finishing the contract, I packed my things and headed to the rendezvous point where I was to meet Han Sang-a.
It might sound obvious, but there was no regular passenger ferry to Tsushima.
There simply wasn't one. With a Grade-2 Corruption Source sitting there in plain sight, no sane civilian vessel would agree to go anywhere near it.
So we had to rely on the help of the Busan Maritime Police.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
"No, the honor is ours. We're glad to be of assistance."
Name recognition. Whatever the reason, I was a hunter who had been in the media. That was part of why I wanted to become famous in the first place.
Under normal circumstances, there would have been countless questions, and they wouldn't have agreed so readily. But with my level of public recognition, many procedures were simply skipped.
After securing their cooperation to send a vessel to Geoje Island, I met up with Han Sang-a.
"You look refreshed."
At my comment, Han Sang-a wore an expression like she wasn't sure how to respond.
"I wasn't expecting an answer."
After meeting up with Han Sang-a, we headed to Geoje High School. There was a port not far from the school, so once the meeting was over, we could immediately board the vessel provided by the Maritime Police.
When we arrived at the high school, the gazes of the people waiting at the entrance all turned toward us. They all looked fairly old—the youngest among them seemed to be in his late forties.
"Thank you so much for offering your help."
"Hey, Hyeon-i's father, ain't that the guy who was on TV?"
An old man holding a bottle of makgeolli in one hand said this to another old man beside him as he looked at me.
"Looks like it."
While I listened to the murmurs spreading through the crowd, a few people came up and tightly grabbed both of my hands.
"Our folks went out to sea and never came back…"
Unlike the people whispering about seeing me on TV or making idle remarks, the faces of those who approached me directly looked desperate.
"First, there's one thing we need to make absolutely clear."
At my words, the attention of the roughly fifty people gathered there focused on me.
"I need to know exactly what it is that you want."
"What kind of talk is that supposed to be?"
What kind of talk, indeed.
"Removing the Corruption Source, or rescuing the people who were captured. If I can only do one of the two, which should I prioritize?"
It was a matter of priorities. Saving people first, or eliminating the Corruption Source first. Depending on the situation, it might be possible to do only one.
In that case, how was I supposed to act?
At my question, everyone fell silent, glancing around cautiously. And only then did I fully understand what was really going on.
In other words, the people gathered here seemed to fall into two broad groups.
Those who actually had family members taken to Tsushima Island, and fishermen who, out of fear, could no longer put out to sea. Those were the two types.
"Well, that is…"
You could tell just by looking at their faces. Some were glaring fiercely at others, while some avoided eye contact and mumbled, watching the reactions around them.
Without dragging things out any further, I moved on to my next question.
"How do you know they were captured alive?"
The chances were higher that they were dead.
"There's someone who escaped. Over there—Baek Hospital, was it? I heard they took him there."
From what I gathered by listening to the man who had regained consciousness, it seemed they'd heard that the people who were taken hadn't been killed and were still alive.
The claim that the captured fishermen were still alive was probably true.
"Even if that's not the case, you'd at least feel some peace of mind if we could recover the remains of the deceased, wouldn't you?"
At my words, I saw people nodding. Roughly seventeen of them. That meant the rest were those too frightened to put their boats to sea.
"Well… to reduce the damage, shouldn't we smash the hole that's spewing out those monster bastards first?"
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting? So you're saying it's fine if all the people taken over there just die?"
Before the argument could escalate further, I quickly cleared my throat.
"Alright, I understand the situation."
In the end, the choice was mine anyway. It wasn't like those people were going to grab weapons, get on boats, wipe out all the monsters, and rescue the captives themselves.
"Right, right. Surely our esteemed Hunter will make the right call on his own, won't he? We just have to trust you."
At that, I gave a bitter smile inwardly.
"Rescuing survivors is the priority. If there are no survivors, then I'll at least secure the remains."
We already had the cooperation of the Busan Maritime Police. If we secured survivors or remains, they could be sent to Geoje first by boat, and the removal of the Corruption Source could be handled afterward.
"Hey now, the dead matter too, but shouldn't the living come first? Shrimp season's coming up, and if we can't take our boats out—"
"Is now really the time to be worrying about damn shrimp, you bastard?!"
They were about to start fighting again. Listening to them, I stepped in and said,
"I'll do everything I can."
"But… are you sure just the two of you can really pull this off?"