Ahn Sang-Min bowed his head once more. Then he quickly gave instructions to Hyun Gi-Cheol.
"Hyun, grab the contract and the stamp." "Yes!"
The preparations were done in a flash. Once the two had hurriedly left the office, Baek Yoon-Ho quietly asked the male employee beside him.
"What's going on? Why is Section Chief Ahn moving so aggressively like that?"
The male employee sent a look for help to the female employee next to him. But she shook her head too. I don't know either, her eyes said.
'Ugh...'
The male employee hemmed and hawed before finally scratching the back of his head and answering with difficulty.
"That's... I'm not really sure..."
He had braced himself for the president's wrath to come crashing down. But to his surprise, Baek Yoon-Ho said nothing.
'So he's been hiding something from even his subordinates?'
Baek Yoon-Ho stroked his chin. The person who had played an enormous role in growing the Baekho Guild to where it was today was none other than Section Chief Ahn Sang-Min. If even that man was going to such lengths...
'Is our Section Chief Ahn about to pull off another big one?'
A smile bloomed on Baek Yoon-Ho's face.
***
'What kind of coffee is this bitter?'
Jin-Woo furrowed his brow. He had ordered an espresso thinking of vending-machine coffee, but it was more like a potent herbal tonic than actual coffee. And on top of that, why was it so expensive?
'Six thousand won? That's enough for a bunch of canned coffees...'
He was trying to figure out how many packets of stick sugar it would take to make this bitter thing taste anything close to canned coffee when the café door chimed open and Ahn Sang-Min and Hyun Gi-Cheol stepped inside.
"Over here."
Jin-Woo raised his hand. Ahn Sang-Min and Hyun Gi-Cheol had been scanning the shop, and upon spotting him their faces lit up with delight. Their expressions were exactly like Heungbu's when he finally cracked open the gourd brought by the swallow.
"I didn't expect to see you again so soon."
Ahn Sang-Min greeted him as he sat down across from Jin-Woo, while Hyun Gi-Cheol gave a nod and took the seat beside Ahn Sang-Min. Jin-Woo returned the greeting with a slight nod of his head. Strike while the iron's hot, as they say. The moment Ahn Sang-Min sat down, he immediately pulled out a contract.
"Let's discuss the terms first."
He was practically radiating his eagerness to close the deal. But Jin-Woo shut it down right away.
"I didn't come here today for the contract."
Ahn Sang-Min's hand, which had been reaching for the contract, froze. Hyun Gi-Cheol looked puzzled as well. Ahn Sang-Min asked in a posture so stiff it looked like someone had pressed the pause button on him.
"Then what brings you to the Baekho Guild...?"
The bigger the hope, the bigger the disappointment. A top-tier new recruit had walked right up to the guild of his own volition, only to turn down a contract the moment he saw one. Had he changed his mind in the meantime? As doubt continued to mount, Jin-Woo calmly spoke up.
"I came here to help you two." "Excuse me?" "What?"
Ahn Sang-Min and Hyun Gi-Cheol had nearly identical reactions. The two glanced at each other, then shifted their gazes back to Jin-Woo. In stark contrast to the flustered pair, Jin-Woo continued in an even tone.
"You mentioned that your attack squads have been clearing out all the C-rank Gates, which has made it difficult to train the new recruits." "Yes. We can't very well take new Hunters to upper-level Dungeons when we can't even reserve C-rank Gates." "That's why I'm here."
Ahn Sang-Min tilted his head.
"I'm not quite following..."
Deciding that this was enough of a lead-up, Jin-Woo finally got to the point.
"I'd like to sell three of our reserved C-rank Gate clearance permits to the Baekho Guild."
"Oh—" Hyun Gi-Cheol let out a short gasp. The two Baekho Guild members could now grasp Jin-Woo's true intentions. Ahn Sang-Min slipped the contract back into its folder and raised a question.
"If you wanted to help us, wouldn't it be better not to reserve them in the first place?"
Jin-Woo shook his head.
"I'll need a steady supply of C-rank Dungeons for a while yet." "Then why today specifically...?"
Jin-Woo gave a bright smile.
"Obviously, because I want to help the two of you who are struggling."
Should he take this at face value? Right before the calculator in Ahn Sang-Min's head could even start whirring, Jin-Woo's explanation continued.
"Of course, I'm only making this concession today specifically. We can't keep putting off our own plans either. If you miss this opportunity, it'll be quite a while before you can reserve C-rank Gates again."
His attitude was reminiscent of a home shopping host announcing that stocks were running low.
'Hmm...'
Ahn Sang-Min fell into thought. Gates didn't only appear in the metropolitan area. If all else failed, they could go down to the provinces to train the new recruits. But doing so was likely to ruffle the feathers of the local guilds and attack teams. And that wasn't all. It would give ammunition for major regional guilds—the Myungsung Guild of Honam, the Knight Order Guild of Yeongnam—to look down on them. They could earn the reputation of being an incompetent guild that couldn't even train its own recruits in its own territory.
'Hmm... calling it a reputation might be too generous?'
Because it was plain fact. In any case, what new recruit would want to join a guild that other prestigious guilds were laughing at? That was why a guild's image mattered.
"Very well."
After much deliberation, Ahn Sang-Min reached a sound conclusion.
"Go ahead and sell us the permits. Three C-rank Gates is just right. How much for all of them?"
The Baekho Guild had plenty of money too. But there was no point getting into a bidding war with Yujin Construction, and more importantly, they didn't want to push too hard for fear of souring relations with Jin-Woo. So if Jin-Woo was handing over the Gates of his own accord, wasn't that a blessing? The price, however, was anything but a blessing.
"Three hundred million per Gate, so nine hundred million total." "Guh!"
Ahn Sang-Min and Hyun Gi-Cheol both let out sounds that were somewhere between a groan and a gasp.
"That's too—"
Hyun Gi-Cheol was about to interject, but Ahn Sang-Min quickly held him back. It had been the same when they last met. When the price didn't work out, Jin-Woo had bluntly ended the conversation without a second thought. This was, in a way, a windfall that had fallen into their laps. If they let this one go, they'd be stuck waiting ages to reserve C-rank Gates, or worse, having to train recruits out in the provinces.
'Let's at least try to negotiate before we call it off.'
Walking away this quickly was a shame. But even so, three hundred million per Gate was an outrageous price. The going rate Yoo Jin-Ho's team was paying for permits was around a hundred million. Being asked to pay triple that was unreasonable. The other party had to know that.
'He probably threw out a high number on purpose to leave room for haggling.'
Come to think of it, what Baek Yoon-Ho had said before they left the office came back to him.
-Whether it's a hundred million or two hundred million, you reserve those Gates no matter what!
This was essentially the president's green light. Every employee in the Second Management Division had heard it, so backing out later would be difficult. Ahn Sang-Min swallowed hard and made a counteroffer.
"Three hundred million is a tough price for us. How about two hundred mil—" "Deal."
Before Ahn Sang-Min could even finish his sentence, Jin-Woo extended his right hand. Ahn Sang-Min instinctively grasped it.
"I-Is that it? It's done?" "Yes. Two hundred million per C-rank Gate. Send the money to my account."
Something about the way this was wrapping up felt almost too easy, but regardless, from Ahn Sang-Min's perspective, this was a stroke of good fortune. He gave Jin-Woo's hand a light up-and-down shake and bowed his head.
"Thank you." "Don't mention it."
Jin-Woo flashed a broad smile as well. Ahn Sang-Min felt as though a great weight had been lifted. At the very least, the new-recruit training problem was solved, and his relationship with Jin-Woo had improved a little further.
'Trust is the foundation of business.'
That's right. You build relationships little by little like this, and eventually they'll come around. No one spits on a smiling face, and no one ignores a gift. Ahn Sang-Min clenched his fist in silent triumph. Jin-Woo was the first to rise from his seat.
"Well, I'll see you next time. Oh, and here."
Jin-Woo returned the tumbler he had brought in a shopping bag to its original owner.
"Thanks for the drink. It was really good." "I'm glad it suited your taste."
Hyun Gi-Cheol blushed as he accepted the shopping bag. Jin-Woo left the café right after. Once he was well out of earshot from Ahn Sang-Min and Hyun Gi-Cheol, he sent a message to Yoo Jin-Ho. After a brief, cheerful ringtone, Yoo Jin-Ho's excited voice came through.
-Hyung-nim, the money came in. Six hundred million really came through? "..."
Jin-Woo smiled wordlessly in quiet satisfaction. The deal had been a success. He had bought clearance permits that were about to go to waste and sold them at double the price. The profit was enormous. Yoo Jin-Ho asked, sounding amazed.
-Hyung-nim, how did you pull this off? Where did you sell those C-rank Gates? "Trade secret." -What? "Get some rest, and I'll see you the day after tomorrow."
While Yoo Jin-Ho was still sputtering, Jin-Woo calmly hung up. Click. That evening. The Second Management Division office. Hyun Gi-Cheol hurriedly found Ahn Sang-Min.
"Section Chief! Section Chief!" "What?"
Ahn Sang-Min pulled his eyes away from his monitor. Hyun Gi-Cheol, looking frantic, pointed to his phone screen.
"Look at this!" "What is it?"
Ahn Sang-Min squinted at the phone screen.
'This is...?'
The official Hunter's Association website, accessible only to registered Hunters. It displayed the locations of reported Gates and served as a real-time exchange where clearance permits were sold.
"What the— There are leftover C-rank Gates in our territory?" "Yes. And all the winning bids are under ten million won." "No way..."
Ahn Sang-Min realized his mistake.
"Yoo Jin-Ho's team didn't book a single one today."
Come to think of it, what Sung Jin-Woo had said yesterday came back to him.
-I have time on Thursday.
Tomorrow was that Thursday. Yoo Jin-Ho's team had never planned a raid for today in the first place. Without knowing that, they had gone and bought the permits at an inflated price.
"Heh..."
A dry laugh escaped Ahn Sang-Min. The clues had been there all along—he had just realized them too late. It was his own mistake. And yet, ironically, thanks to that mistake, he had succeeded in calming the president's rage.
"We've been had, Section Chief."
Just then, a message arrived. Ding-dong. The sender was Sung Jin-Woo.
[We each got one over on the other. Let's call it even on the tailing incident.]
'He's not someone you can take lightly, that's for sure.'
Ahn Sang-Min swallowed a laugh inwardly. If, as Jin-Woo said, this could wash away the bad blood that had remained between them, then from his and the Baekho Guild's perspective, there was nothing to complain about. The ultimate goal was winning Jin-Woo over. The amount spent today wasn't exactly a fortune for the Baekho Guild.
'Let's just call it an investment in Sung Jin-Woo.'
If only the returns would match the investment. Ahn Sang-Min smiled as he gazed at the message, then closed his text inbox.
***
After sending the message, Jin-Woo looked around. There was no one in sight. The surroundings were all forest. He had deliberately chosen a remote hillside with few passersby for a safe quest run. The current time was 5:44 PM. No one would be hiking at such an odd hour, and his location was far off the marked trails in a clearing.
'Shall we begin?'
Jin-Woo opened his message box.
[Will you accept the Job Change Quest?] (Y/N)
The message appeared before his eyes as if it had been waiting for him.