YEAR: 2030
DATE: 21st of June
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
The alarm blared obnoxiously.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
A groggy man stirred beneath a tangle of blankets, his messy hair sticking out in every direction.
"Ugh... turn that off..." he muttered.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
With a grunt, he slapped his hand down on the alarm clock, silencing it. He sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Yawning, he stretched his arms wide and dragged himself out of bed. "Already time for work?"
The red digits on the clock glowed 6:05 AM.
He moved through his morning routine—brushed his teeth, slipped in his contacts, took a quick shower, and dressed in a clean office suit, the usual.
He arrived at work around 7:00 AM sharp and made his way to his cubicle. Next to it was a silver-glinting name tag that read: "Shin Jae-Won."
Where did he work, you might ask? Shin worked for the Dragon Guild, the number one guild in Korea, as a Gate Manager. Basically, his job was to monitor all the gates that emerged across South Korea and place bids on them using the maximum budget allocated for each gate level.
He was a scrawny man, barely putting any effort into his appearance—not that he had the time for it anyway. His workdays ran from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night. Thirteen hours. Every shift.
And the worst part? He only made ₩173.5 million a year (roughly 125,000 USD).
To most people, that might sound like a decent living, but ever since gates started bringing in new resources, inflation had gone through the roof. With prices skyrocketing, even that kind of salary barely covered rent and food.
The reason for the pitiful pay? Almost all of a guild's revenue went straight to the awakeners, also known as hunters. Office workers were usually those too weak to fight. Either low-ranked awakeners (E-rank) or completely unawakened nobodies, like Shin.
"Still as grim as ever, huh?" a voice said as a man strolled into the cubicle, tossing an arm casually around Shin's shoulder.
"Yeah..." Shin muttered. "But I really need to focus today, Ji-hoon. You know it's one of the two days in the year when atmospheric mana peaks."
"Alright, alright, I won't bug you too much today," Ji-hoon replied with a smirk. "Just make sure to eat. You're starting to look anorexic."
Shin let out a soft laugh, waving him off before settling back into his usual blank expression. He turned to face his monitor, his eyes already locked in.
He would spend the entire day staring at his screen.
"A-Rank gate... bid. B-Rank gate... bid. S-Rank gate... bid."
The Dragon Guild was massive. Large enough in numbers to deploy multiple strike teams capable of raiding several high-level gates in a single day. Gates below B-rank, however, were handled by the government and distributed to smaller guilds. That kept monopolies in check, at least on paper.
Even still, guilds couldn't go wild. There were bidding caps, gate limits, daily quotas. Everything strictly regulated by the Korean Hunter Association under the authority of the national government.
Shin kept working without pause.
"A-Rank... B-Rank... B-Rank... A-Rank... SS-Rank-"
His eyes suddenly widened. "SS-Rank?!"
Anomalies like that were rare, even on high-mana days such as today. Across the entire globe, maybe one or two showed up. He grabbed the phone and immediately dialed.
Click.
"Hello, this is Minseo Kwon, secretary of the Dragon Guild speaking."
"H-hello. Shin Jae-Won, Gate Manager. We've got an SS-Rank gate in Seoul. How much should I bid?"
There was a pause. Muffled voices spoke in the background.
"The Guild Master has authorized maximum payment. Cancel all current bids immediately. Send the coordinates through the application."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Shin quickly withdrew all other bids and submitted the SS-Rank gate's location. He placed the maximum allowed bid: ₩100 billion, about $72 million USD.
The Dragon Guild wasn't worried about other Korean guilds. SS-Rank gates were open to globalbidding. And while the host country got priority, international guilds—especially from the United States—weren't bound by the same spending limits. The real competition came from them.
A moment later, the phone beside him rang again.
"Hello, this is Shin Jae-Won of the Dragon Guild."
"Good afternoon. This is the World Hunter Union. The Dragon Guild has been granted priority to raid the SS-Rank gate. However, upon completion, the guild must surrender 20% of all materials obtained. Should the raid fail, the gate will be reclassified as an open dungeon. Do you acknowledge and accept these terms?"
"Yes," Shin replied.
"Good. The raid permit has been registered to the Dragon Guild. You have 48 hours."
Click.
He opened the guild's internal application system and submitted the raid permit. It was immediately approved. Outside the window, movement buzzed through headquarters as strike teams began to assemble.
The first, second, and third strike teams were deploying—the best the guild had to offer. Each squad was led by no fewer than three S-Ranks. The first strike team had both the Guild Master and Vice Guild Master, the only two SS-Ranks in the entire guild.
Shin sipped his coffee quietly, watching them gather from behind the glass.
"Must be nice," he thought. "To be awakened..."
The glory, the power, the perks... even the ability to save others. But dwelling on it only made his chest ache. Shin knew his place. He wasn't a hero. He was a bystander. A spectator whose only role was to watch and hope.
Twelve hours passed.
The strike teams returned battered and bloodied but victorious.
The news lit up: new high-class artifacts had been discovered. The raid was a success.
Shin sighed. "Oh, to be one of them…"
He glanced at his watch. His shift had ended long ago.
With a tired groan, he shut down his station, packed his bag, and headed home. Just another invisible cog in the machine.