Chapter 34: Paradise (1)

The morning after the Seoul Station incident, Kwon Oh-Jin headed to the association after his daily training routine.

Knock, knock.

“Yes, come in.”

Inside Han Jun-Man’s office, documents were piled up even more than usual.

“What is all this...?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked.

Han Jun-Man greeted him with a bright smile, despite obvious signs of fatigue on his face.

“

Haha!

There was quite an incident yesterday, wasn’t there?”

True.

By publicly revealing his affiliation with the association, Kwon Oh-Jin knew he had likely stirred up quite the commotion.

“The internet is going wild over you, Oh-Jin. Did you see it yet?”

“No, I haven’t really checked.”

Kwon Oh-Jin chuckled as he sat down.

Han Jun-Man made two cups of coffee and placed them on the table.

“Just this morning, we received calls from sixteen different guilds. Eight of them even sent sponsorships to the association.”

“Wait, in just one day?”

Han Jun-Man burst into hearty laughter.

“

Haha!

In this industry, you have to move fast to survive.” He sipped his coffee and continued with a more serious tone. “But with this incident, the fact that you’re an apostle of the North Star has also spread.”

It was within expectations. No matter how much the association tried to control the media, there was no way the news wouldn’t get out after Kwon Oh-Jin took down a massive monster in front of so many people.

“I figured as much.”

“I apologize. We really tried our best to keep it under wraps, but...”

“

Haha,

that’s alright.”

For Kwon Oh-Jin, keeping his identity hidden was only a temporary measure to buy him time until he gained enough power.

It would’ve been ideal to keep the secret until I reached at least four stars, but what’s done is done. Now, it’s time to use the name value of the North Star to my advantage.

He was the sole apostle of Vega the Weaver. With that title, there was nothing he needed to fear.

“By the way... the articles say that you asked the people you saved for money...?” Han Jun-Man cautiously asked.

“

Oh,

th-that’s...

Um...

”

There wasn’t much he could say about that. Even though it wasn’t his doing but Vega's, to others, it probably looked like his summoned creature was demanding a reward on his behalf.

I’m probably getting trashed like crazy right now.

This was exactly why he had avoided reading any articles from the other day.

“That turned out to be a brilliant move.”

“Huh?”

What kind of nonsense is that?

“They're saying you're

tough on the outside but soft on the inside

. People are eating it up.”

“Huh?”

What the fuck am I being called?

“

Hmm?

You didn’t see the article from Cheonlian Daily yesterday?”

“No, I didn’t...”

“Take a look at this.”

Han Jun-Man held out a tablet.

Right on the front page was a dramatic shot of Kwon Oh-Jin saving a child who had fallen to the ground, captured from a perfect angle.

His jaw dropped.

When did they even take this?

The image captured him landing in front of the fallen child, surrounded by crackling blue lightning, his clothes billowing dramatically. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it looked like a scene straight out of a movie.

“The comment you made when you saved that child has become quite the sensation.”

“What comment?”

All I said was to run fast.

“

Huh?

When you saved the child, you said, 'I’m not necessarily doing this to protect you', didn’t you?”

Uh, no. I didn’t say that.

“And then,

bam!

You covered the child with your coat!”

I wasn’t even wearing a coat. Isn’t that obvious from the picture?

“And right before you turned away, you whispered in a low voice, ‘Hurry... Run away!’”

Your job is to write articles, not novels.

“Thanks to all that, even your asking for money became a hot topic.”

"...”

“It gave off the feeling that you were only making people think that you saved the child for money—”

“

Ah

, okay. I got it.”

Wow. I spent my whole life scamming people, and now that I’m the one being scammed, I’m fucking speechless.

Imagining how his past victims must have felt gave him a headache. Though, in this case, being the victim was somehow working out in his favor.

“Who wrote that article?”

“A reporter named Ko Kwang-Hyun.”

So it was that bastard? Come to think of it, he was the only one there. I’ll have to pay him a visit later.

Though it was somewhat embarrassing, it helped him avoid a negative image.

If I play my cards right, he could be pretty useful in the future.

Being the apostle of the North Star would naturally attract public attention. A connection with someone in the press would be convenient, whether intentional or not.

“By the way, this recent incident caused quite a stir in

Paradise

as well. After all, a monster suddenly appeared in the middle of the city...”

Hearing the word "Paradise" reminded Kwon Oh-Jin of why he had come to the association today. He took out black mutant Starstones and placed them on the table.

“This is...?”

“These are the Starstones I got from the giant and the Reptilians.”

“There’s quite a few of them.”

Han Jun-Man inspected the pile of Starstones. Most were only the size of a coin, except for the one from the giant.

“I want to sell these,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

“Hmm.”

Han Jun-Man squinted as he examined the Starstones spread out on the table.

“The quality isn't that great except for these two.”

One was from the fleshy giant, and the other was from the black slime giant he took down at the gate in Mokdong. Naturally, the Starstone from the fleshy giant was much larger.

“How much do you think the pile will go for?”

“Hmm...”

Han Jun-Man lifted one of the Starstones and continued, “Actually, the price of mutated Starstones has dropped significantly these days.”

“They have?”

“Yes. There’s been a sudden surge in mutants recently, so the market is flooded with their Starstones.”

That was news to Kwon Oh-Jin.

“We’re still investigating it, so there hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but rumor has it the supply has increased by nearly ten times.”

Could this be connected to the Black Star Celestials?

“Even so, you do have lots of them, and the size and quality of these two are pretty great. I’d say you could get at least four billion won, maybe even more.”

“I see.”

That’s more than enough.

With that much, Kwon Oh-Jin could exceed his goal and have some left over.

“I’d like to sell these quickly.”

“Quickly?” Han Jun-Man asked.

“Yes. Preferably within a few days.”

“It would be challenging to sell all of this in a few days," Han Jun-Man added. “The market for mutated Starstones is oversaturated, and buyers have been cautious lately.”

“In that case, how about you give me three billion won up front, and the association can keep the rest of the profit.”

“Sorry?”

Han Jun-Man blinked in disbelief. Was Kwon Oh-Jin really offering to forfeit at least a billion won in profit?

He's not the type of person to do that.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Even in their short acquaintance, Han Jun-Man had seen just how shrewd Kwon Oh-Jin could be when it came to squeezing money out of contracts and commissions.

Why would he do this?

“Can you make it happen?”

“

Ah

, yes, of course! With those terms, we’d be happy to handle it.”

“Great.”

Han Jun-Man had a mountain of questions, but he held them back.

“Alright. I’ll have three billion wired to your account by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Thank you,” Kwon Oh-Jin nodded with a faint smile. “

Oh,

one more thing. Could you repair this for me?”

He placed his wire shooter on the table.

“Is it not working?”

“No, it’s just that one of the wires snapped.”

“

Oh,

that won’t take long to fix.”

“Sorry about bringing it back for repair after just one day.”

“Haha, no worries! Given what you went through yesterday, it’s understandable.”

Han Jun-Man shook his head as he grabbed the wire shooter.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“No, that’s it for now,” Kwon Oh-Jin said, standing up to leave.

“

Oh

, wait a moment. I have something for you.”

“Huh?”

“Remember what you requested earlier?”

“Ah.”

He remembered his special request at the time of ordering his equipment.

“I’ve prepared it in the highest quality.”

Han Jun-Man placed an elegant, meter-long black case on the table.

“How much was it?”

“It came to about 17 million won.”

“Give me a sec,”

Kwon Oh-Jin pulled out his phone to make a transfer.

“It’s alright, I can just deduct it from the profit you’re handing over to us.”

“Hmm...”

Kwon Oh-Jin hesitated briefly but then nodded. “Alright, let's do that.”

Since he was already giving up some profit from the Starstones, he was essentially purchasing it with his own money. He carefully took the black case that Han Jun-Man handed over.

“And one more thing.”

“There’s more?”

He cocked his head and looked at Han Jun-Man, who handed Kwon Oh-Jin a card bearing the association’s emblem. The card featured a photo of him along with some personal details.

“This is...?” he asked.

“It’s a special-agent license from the association.”

“What? Special agent?”

Holy shit, he’s giving this to me?

Special agents of the association were on par with elite operatives. While the association was often dismissed, special agents were a different story. These licenses were only granted to Awakeners who had proven themselves within the organization. Moreover, the role came with significant investigative authority—special agents could stop anyone on the street for random checks if they wanted to.

Doing something like that would get you fired the same day, though.

But that was the level of power the title carried.

“This is... quite unexpected.”

“Haha, it’s a bit early, but we could make it happen because of the Chairman’s positive push for it.”

Given Kwon Oh-Jin’s sudden rise to fame after the recent incident, it seemed the association was trying to secure him before he moved to another major guild.

Still, it hasn’t been long since I joined the association, and they’re giving me this already? Just how desperate are they?

“Alright, I’ll take it for now.”

Kwon Oh-Jin saw no reason to refuse since they were just giving it to him.

“Well, I’ll be going now.”

“Take care,” Han Jun-Man said.

Kwon Oh-Jin stepped out of the association building into bright sunshine. With a sigh, he turned on his phone and opened his banking app to check his balance.

Seven billion.

Since three billion would be coming in tomorrow, he had saved up a total of ten billion won.

“I’ve got enough,” he said with a trembling voice. He turned and started walking.

Kwon Oh-Jin had reached the end of his path to

Paradise

. There was now only one step left.