Job Change Quest (1)
Shin Dong-hoon used to be a soldier.
Before coming to Busan, he was stationed at Wangsimni Station, primarily on guard duty, and just before the full-blown monster apocalypse began, he was a sergeant under the Capital Defense Command.
And not just any sergeant-he was in the final stage of his service, right before discharge.
The day he went on his final leave, the monster apocalypse broke out, throwing the world into chaos.
He had planned to hang out in Seoul with his buddies and grab a drink-that ended up being a huge mistake.
Because of that, he couldn't return to his hometown of Jeju Island where his parents were, and he ended up being stranded in Seoul.
With the declaration of a national emergency, they were all called back to duty, and from that day on, the war against monsters began.
Their mission: assist with the evacuation and rescue of civilians.
They didn't really accomplish anything.
After all, they had never trained for a situation like this.
Every building they entered was filled with corpses and swarming with orcs, while outside, monsters tore tanks apart like toys.
And the ultimate disaster-an enormous cyclops, the size of a building.
Watching that thing smash buildings was like witnessing the embodiment of destruction itself.
No matter how tightly he gripped his gun, it was utterly useless against something of that scale.
KWA-GWANG-GWANG-GWANG!!!
With a thunderous roar, buildings were obliterated. Shin Dong-hoon ran for his life.
KUUUUUUNG-!
And the giant chased him.
He wanted to run faster, but his body wouldn't cooperate.
It was like trying to move underwater-every motion was sluggish, and his limbs refused to obey.
"If this keeps up, I'll die...!"
Eventually, his legs gave out completely.
A shadow of death loomed over him.
When he slowly looked up, he saw a massive foot falling toward him.
"No...!"
Death was inevitable.
"I can't die like this...!"
With desperate will, he resisted the oncoming death.
But-
KWA-A-A-AANG!
"Gah!"
-!!!
With a scream, Shin Dong-hoon jolted awake, momentarily disoriented.
The softness of the blanket, the plush mattress, the sunlight streaming through the balcony window...
Only after confirming all of that did he grasp the situation.
"...A dream?"
No-it wasn't just a dream.
It had really happened to him.
He had awakened just in time under the foot of the giant and barely survived, eventually joining the Wangsimni refugee shelter, where he had managed to survive until now.
And now-
"I finally made it here."
Utopia. Paradise. Heaven.
He'd been living here for a week, but it still didn't feel real.
A peaceful bed where he didn't have to worry about monster attacks was amazing enough—but that wasn't all he'd gained here.
A savory smell was drifting from outside the room.
When he opened the door, he found his junior from the same unit, Lee Jun-ho, preparing breakfast.
The source of the aroma was the electric rice cooker, steaming away.
PSSHHHH-
As he stared blankly at the steam rising from the cooker, Lee Jun-ho greeted him.
"Sergeant Shin, you're up."
"Yeah, did you sleep well?"
"Slept like a baby, sir."
Shin Dong-hoon wandered into the kitchen and asked,
"What's for breakfast?"
"Doenjang-guk (soybean paste soup), sir."
"Again?"
"If you don't like it, make your own, sir."
"...Thanks. I'll eat it."
""
Shin Dong-hoon sat at the table and looked around the kitchen.
Electric rice cooker, refrigerator, pots, bowls-all the basic necessities. These were already here from the start.
The temporary house they had been assigned came fully equipped, and everything was available for their use.
Electricity and running water were working, and they had city gas for cooking.
The most shocking part? None of this was special treatment for him and Lee Jun-ho as Awakened.
Everyone was living under similar conditions.
In fact, many people said their lives were even better now than before the apocalypse. That said it all.
"Where in the world is the electricity and gas coming from?"
All the national facilities that managed electricity, gas, and water had collapsed.
Unless they were somehow completely self-sustaining, the fact that those utilities were still available made no sense.
And that wasn't the only thing he couldn't understand.
The fact that the network was connected was a trivial matter.
"Open Exchange."
Ding!
The holographic window that popped up in front of his eyes was like a system straight out of a sci-fi novel.
Amazingly, if you purchased something from here-
Ziiing-
-it would materialize in reality.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
"Oh! Sky Blue Marlin sashimi!"
"Gotta eat a hearty breakfast.'
""
"Keh- As expected of Divine Serpent. Thanks for the food!"
But that wasn't the only mysterious thing.
Things like stores replacing convenience stores or supermarkets, and dungeons entered to earn money, were beyond comprehension.
After busily working his chopsticks for a while, Lee Junho finally opened his mouth.
"Ahh. Food tastes best when someone else is paying."
66
""
Shin Donghoon, stuffing his mouth full of sashimi, spoke to Junho.
"Junho, have you ever heard of a 'hunter'?"
When Junho shook his head, Shin continued.
"It's a job. This stuff-they said it didn't come from a store. If it did, they'd have to sell it for even more. No profit margin. So then, where do you think all this came from?"
He gave a knowing smile toward Junho, who was blankly staring at him, and asked:
"You know what happens when someone with citizenship hunts a monster, right?"
After a moment of thought, Junho replied,
"...Doesn't it just disappear?"
"Right."
Shin Donghoon paused for a moment before continuing.
"But this sashimi is from a freshly caught monster. Where do you think they got it?"
"Uh... Did they buy it from someone without citizenship who hunted it?"
"Nope. You think someone without citizenship has that kind of luxury? They're barely scraping by as it is."
After thinking it over for a bit, Junho urged him,
"Stop dragging it out and just tell me. Is it related to that hunter job you mentioned?"
"Bingo."
"Huh?"
"There's a profession called 'hunter.' Their job is to prevent the monster corpses from disappearing."
"Whoa..."
"How about we try becoming hunters too?"
"Come again?"
Shin Donghoon picked up another piece of sashimi and said,
"I'm saying-how about we get in on this business too?"
.Sorry, but don't we have to leave the safe zone to hunt monsters?"
"Yeah."
"So you're saying we'd have to leave Busan?"
"Right. To catch something like a Sky Blue Marlin, you'd have to go as far as Gimhae or Gadeokdo."
"Where's that?"
"Not too far. Thirty or forty minutes by car from here?"
Junho put down his chopsticks and let out a deep sigh.
"Wouldn't it be better to just stick with raiding the Orc dungeon?"
As awakened beings, they had frequent encounters with monsters, and their previous achievements had earned them permission to enter the Orc dungeon.
In fact, they'd already cleared it twice without taking any damage.
"Monster level's about the same as Orcs, but this gig gives us extra profit. It's actually safer than dealing with Orcs."
"How can it be safer if the level's the same?"
Shin Donghoon replied with a confident smile.
"Remember when you got your citizenship?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"And that wall-like thing we saw back then?"
"Yes."
"They say the reason this place is a safe zone is because a transparent wall protects the area. It's like an enormous invisible dome covering everything."
Gesturing with both hands to show the dome, Shin continued.
"But here's the thing. This transparent dome blocks all attacks coming from outside, but it doesn't stop attacks going from the inside out."
Junho quickly grasped the meaning of his words and asked back,
"...So you're saying it's possible to hunt monsters from inside the safe zone?"
"Exactly. It's a way to make money that's way less dangerous than hunting orcs. Plus, you can even start a business with monster corpses as a bonus."
"Hmmm...!"
If it was true, it was a tempting offer.
After all, orc hunting wasn't exactly safe.
And most importantly—
"I heard that even if you change your class to Hunter, you can quit any time. Though it takes about a month to get a new class again."
It was basically like having no penalty.
You could try it, and if it didn't work out, just stop.
"Got it. So how do I get this Hunter class?"
"You have to meet him in person."
"...Meet who?"
"Kim Jaehyun."
Lee Junho's eyes widened as he asked,
"H-Him?"
"Yeah."
"Holy crap."
In truth, Shin Donghoon's real goal wasn't just to make money by becoming a Hunter-
it was to meet Kim Jaehyun in person.
Shin Donghoon said,
"Aren't you curious?"
"...Curious about what?"
"Kim Jaehyun. What kind of person he is."
"Well, I guess I am..."
"Then let's go meet him ourselves."
***
[The level of the Job Research Center has increased.]
[Research for the 'Warrior' class is now available.]
[Research for the 'Sharpshooter' class is now available.]
By assigning more clay dolls to make it a team of 10, the construction efficiency doubled, allowing the building to be completed quickly.
Should I level it up right away?
[To level up this facility, 3 clay dolls will be required for the construction period (14 days).]
[Would you like to upgrade the Job Research Center to Level 3?]
[Yes / No]
No.
Even with the efficiency doubled by assigning 10 clay dolls, it would still take a week.
To reach level 5-where Priest class research would become available-it
would take at least a month of continuous construction.
Since I have to wait anyway, I should complete the currently available research before leveling it up. I'll start with Warrior.
[Would you like to begin research on the 'Warrior' class?]
[Yes / No]
Start right away.
Ding!
[Warrior]
Research in progress...
Time remaining: 11 hours 59 minutes 58 seconds
Compared to the Hunter class research, which only took about 3 hours, this one was taking significantly longer.
I'll start the level 3 upgrade after finishing the Sharpshooter research too.
With that thought settled, I stopped focusing on the Job Research Center and turned my attention to the Eye of the Absolute.
There were two main tasks I was currently focused on:
The reclamation of Seoul, and monitoring the newcomers.
The Seoul reclamation was proceeding smoothly.
Centered around the forward base at Konkuk University Station, the surrounding monsters were being cleared out, gradually expanding the safe
zone.
There were various reasons why we weren't aggressively eliminating all the monsters in Seoul.
One reason was that some powerful monsters, which had established
dominion over certain areas, were actually suppressing weaker ones like orcs and goblins.
For example, in the area near Jamsil where all the influential monsters like Eisenblade had been hunted down, the number of civilian casualties had increased.
Without the strong monsters acting like an umbrella, the orcs and goblins began running wild, putting survivors-who had been barely hanging on by hiding in buildings-at serious risk.
Boss-level monsters should be dealt with more cautiously.
For now, rescuing survivors was the top priority rather than hunting bosses.
As for the second task-monitoring the newcomers-it was being done constantly, with special attention paid to Awakened individuals.
Part of it was to scout for potential vassals, but more importantly, because depending on how they used their powers, they could become extremely dangerous.
By analyzing their conversations and daily behavior, I could assess their character and prepare for any potential incidents.
This applied to ordinary citizens too.
While the scrutiny wasn't as thorough as with the Awakened, I still kept an eye on them just in case.
Time flew by.
[The research on the 'Warrior' class has been completed at the Job Research Center.]
Right around the time the Warrior research was completed-
[Mr. Jaehyun. A group of people wishing to change their class to Hunter has arrived.]
It was the group led by Shin Donghoon, who had been under close
observation.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]