Hong Sunggoo let out a sigh after he ended the call. “So, the four bills were actually 4,000,000.”

He’d thought 200,000 won was a bit cheap for saving someone’s life. He really had been underestimating the price of his life too much.

“Even someone like me is worth 4,000,000 won.”

He had been saved twice, so it was four bills. It was 4,000,000 won.

“Ha, this isn’t how I should be spending my time.”

Sunggoo let out a tired sigh. It had been only two months since he had become an Awakened. He had worked without a single break, but he had only earned around 200,000 won. Even that hadn’t been enough, so he’d had to scrape and borrow to come up with the remainder. 

How am I going to come up with 3,600,000 won?

“I guess this is the only way.”

He had prepared this just in case. Sunggoo gathered up the pile of documents he’d been working on and left to catch a taxi.

He got out near Sadang Station, and hurriedly entered the café named Angel Angel. He looked around and found Woojin sitting near a corner.

Sunggoo bowed, “Big brother. How are you doing?”

The two of them had left the dungeon together and only parted ways around lunch.

It’s only been a couple of hours. What’s up with him?

Woojin eyed him, “You came? So, why did you insist on coming here yourself?”

Sunggoo sat rigidly, “It was the right thing for me to do.”

Woojin shrugged, “That’s alright. Just leave after you give me your account number.”

“Huh-ook.” Sunggoo’s face turned pale from fright. 

Is he trying to return my money? Does that mean he doesn’t need money, and I’m going to die?!

Sunggoo remembered how indifferent Woojin had seemed when he killed Bae Dohsoo and his party members only a couple of hours ago. 

He immediately got on his knees,  “Big brother. Please spare my life.”

Woojin was taken aback, “Huh? Why are you being like this?”

Sunggoo’s head smacked the floor in his haste to prostrate himself, “I promise I’ll pay back all the money I’m short on. Just give me a little bit more time.”

Sunggoo’s reaction drew the attention from the people in the café.

“What? What’s going on? Is he a gangster?”

“It looks like he took out a private loan.”

“Tsk tsk. He must have taken out a private loan and used it all.”

Woojin frowned when he heard the murmurs. He had no idea what Sunggoo was trying to accomplish by attracting attention. 

Woojin’s tone turned irate, “If you don’t want to die, get up and sit down.”

“Yes, sir!” Sunggoo immediately sat across from Woojin, “Big brother, to be honest, I have no way of gathering 4,000,000 won right now. But if you give me a little time, I promise I’ll come through.”

“4,000,000?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ha-ah….”

Woojin leaned back against his chair as he sighed. His fingers tapped absentmindedly against the table.

Ddok, ddok.

Sunggoo swallowed dryly. Woojin frowned at Sunggoo sitting in front of him on tenterhooks.

He had wanted 40,000 won, so he’d asked Sunggoo to send four bills. However, the latter had misunderstood it as 400,000 won. If that wasn’t enough, he had further misunderstood and was now under the impression that he owed Woojin 4,000,000 won.

Kids these days think on large scales.

How could someone misunderstand one bill as 100,000 or 1,000,000?

It seemed he had thoroughly misunderstood his situation. Well, if he was under a misunderstanding, then of course he would…

“How long do you want me to wait for you?”

…have to take advantage of the misunderstanding.

Sunggoo spoke as if Woojin’s words had been the starting pistol of a race. If a stranger had seen him, they would’ve thought he’d been born with a talent for talking.

Sunggoo brought out his documents, “Please look here.”

Woojin’s forehead furrowed as he picked up the documents Sunggoo pushed forward.

<Improvement of the Awakened Ability and Corresponding Income Report.>

When his ability manifested, Sunggoo had recorded how much he had earned on the first day he became an Awakened. As he became more familiar with his ability, it slowly evolved, and his income had steadily increased.

He had even made a graph to accompany his figures. He’d added details of the dungeons he’d attempted, including a count of the number of monsters he had faced.

In essence, he’d created a detailed portfolio of himself.

As Woojin leafed through the portfolio, Sunggoo continued talking, “I earned 200,000 won in the last two months alone. From here on out, my income will continue to increase, and I will be able to obtain the rest of the money soon.”

Woojin was still idly turning pages, “How long?”

Sunggoo silently swallowed, “I can guarantee I will have it within twenty-five months.”

Woojin’s tone was dry, “Isn’t that too long?”

Sunggoo rushed to reply to Woojin. It really felt like he’d awoken to a new set of talents when his life had been placed on the line.

He pushed forward a second set of documents, “This is why I thought of a second method.”

<Dungeon Attack Business Plan.>

Woojin frowned as he threw the documents on the table, “Why don’t we just talk?”

Sunggoo immediately started to explain, “With big brother’s abilities, you’re fully capable of attacking dungeons above one and two stars. This would also increase your revenue by a significant margin. If you form a party with me, I can point out the highly profitable dungeons and it would only be a matter of a few months before I can repay the 4,000,000 won.”

From what Sunggoo had observed, Woojin was most definitely not an F Rank, no matter what his card said. He was capable of soloing a two star dungeon, so how could he be F Rank?

Anyways, the profit from the higher ranked dungeons were fundamentally on a different level. One could earn 4,000,000 in a matter of days if one really put one’s mind to it.

This would be the best plan for Sunggoo. He wouldn’t dare attempt a high rank dungeon by himself, but it was possible with Woojin.

He just had one problem he had to resolve.

Woojin mused aloud, “Does that mean you want to comfortably mooch off me?

“No. There’s a third method.” Sunggoo started laying out his final solution as if nothing had happened, “During this period, I will work as big brother’s manager.”

Woojin quirked an eyebrow, “Manager?”

Sunggoo nodded, “Yes. All Awakened with a slightly higher rank travel with one. There are even support departments solely dedicated to them at guilds. The manager takes care of duties like selecting the dungeons, making reservations, selling Bloodstones and more. The manager even drives the Awakened around.”

Woojin understood, “So they are basically servants.”

Huh? It’s essentially true, but why do I have such an unpleasant feeling?

Sunggoo agreed, “Your analysis is correct, big brother...”

Woojin had an amused expression when Sunggoo finished his explanation. It looked like Awakened managers operated in the same way as celebrity managers. It wasn’t a bad proposal for Woojin.

Woojin’s lips started to twitch, “Since you don’t have the money, you want to work it off with your body.”

Ah, correct.

Sunggoo confirmed, “You are spot on, big brother.”

Woojin thought for a moment before he opened his mouth, “Alright. For how long?”

Sunggoo replied instantly, “Big brother should decide.”

“One year.” Woojin decided, “I would feel a little bit bad if you worked for free, so I’ll give you a little bit of money on the side.”

Sunggoo abruptly stood up from his seat, “Thank you. Thank you very much, big brother.”

Woojin waved him off, “Uh-ooh. No, I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

After all, he could have just taken back the 360,000 won. Yet he wanted to live the life of a servant.

***

Jaemin woke up with a burning thirst in his throat.

“Ooh-ook.”

He looked around blearily. He was on his bed.

His memory started to piece itself together, and the events of last night started to slowly come back to him.

He had waited a long time for Woojin, who had gone out to buy more alcohol. He started taking sips from his soju cup, and had fallen asleep on the table…

So, why was he in his bed?

“Huk!”

He still had his shirt on. Jaemin hurriedly peeked underneath his blanket. He still had his pants on. He poked his butt, but he didn’t feel any pain.

“Whew.”

Thank you. Our Father, who art in heaven…. Ah…

When his nervousness melted away, he started to climb to his feet since he had to go to the restroom. As he swung his feet off the bed, he saw Woojin lying on top of a blanket placed on the floor.

He looked around and found two empty bottles of soju on the kitchen table. It seemed that Woojin had also fallen asleep after drinking by himself.

“I guess he really is a kind big brother.”

Jaemin felt relieved. As he was about to head towards the restroom, Woojin let out a groan.

“Ooh ooh ooh.”

Woojin had curled up, and his body was trembling.

“Is…is he sick?”

Jaemin stretched out his hand to touch the curled up Woojin. Before his hand could make contact, he felt a sharp shock.

“Aht. That stings.”

Jaemin was so surprised that he sat back down on his bed. Maybe it was the static shock, but he started seeing a hallucination.

Grey shapes twisted around Woojin, slowly swimming in and around him. Some were jet black, but none were clearly defined.

Jaemin’s eyes swam out of focus, and he could only look on dumbly.

Ghost? A sprite? Or a hallucination?

He felt a thick hatred and resentment towards life. No, it felt like the source of all evil.

Fear.

Jaemin’s dilated eyes rolled up in his head, and he fainted back onto his bed.

“Ooh ooh ooh.”

Woojin let out a moan, his body drenched in cold sweat. His face was taut and drawn, as if he was trying to endure unrelenting pain. It looked like an evil spirit was trying to possess him.

Necromancer.

He who opposes the laws of nature. He who denies death.

Eventually, he who is tormented by death’s curse.

Woojin continued to groan.