The Legendary Necromancer Is a Hunter Management Agency Civil Servant

TLNHS 7

by Sylvie Hart 🪐

Chapter 7

S-Rank Seal.

Collect information after defeating the boss on the 40th floor of the Tower.

Stage 1 — Seed of Growth

Effect: Increases the owner’s growth rate by 100%.

Stage 1 Quest in Progress: Guide 1>

[Landlord! What did you get?]

“The Seed of Growth. It says it increases growth speed by 100%.”

[What? That’s only Stage 1?? Are you freaking kidding me?!]

I inserted the two remaining Essences as well.

Perhaps because the stage had increased, this time the progress only went up by 5% at a time.

[A growth buff?? No wonder the world’s No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 ranked players all have Legendary-grade titles! It’s one law for the rich and another for the poor!!]

Cha Junhyuk, looking deeply wronged, grabbed at his hair.

[Isn’t something like this supposed to only appear when a new class is registered in the Tower?!]

[Our landlord is special, after all.]

The female ghost nodded to herself before approaching me and asking,

[Landlord, we’ve finished the raid. Are we going straight home now?]

“No.”

[Then what are we doing?]

Chae Seonhwa looked at me with eyes full of anticipation.

“We’re sightseeing.”

[Waaah!]

[Not bad.]

Cha Junhyuk said that while casually wiping his nose.

He seemed pleased, too.

[Where should we go first?]

[Horse meat! Horse meat!]

“All right, let’s go. We’re going to eat horse meat.”

Eating local specialties was like pouring water into the soil of the local economy.

Therefore, it was perfectly commendable for a government employee to consume local specialties while on a business trip.

Sizzle—!

Sizzle, sizzle.

The horse meat was grilling to a delicious golden brown.

There was also horse-meat yukhoe and soup.

The ghosts were already completely absorbed in their horse-meat feast.

[The yukhoe just melts in my mouth!]

[Kuuu! So refreshing~!]

Once again, I ordered two separate bowls of rice.

When I placed a pair of wooden chopsticks upright in each bowl and set them down, the ghosts each claimed a chair and sat down.

There was only one difference from before.

“Excuse me…”

“Yes, what is it?”

Today, the restaurant owner was joining us.

There was no private room here.

“Um… Are you not going to eat that rice?”

The owner, who had been making horse-meat rolls behind the counter, stopped and looked at me worriedly.

“It’s for a memorial.”

“…Ah!”

After that, the owner didn’t say another word.

To break this awkward atmosphere, the best thing to do was place another order.

In capitalist terminology, this was also known as icebreaking with money.

“We’ll have another order of yukhoe, shabu-shabu, and braised ribs.”

“Yes! Just a moment, please.”

The owner brought us another plate of horse-meat rolls and, as a complimentary service, placed two bowls of glutinous rice on the table.

“I don’t know what happened, but… stay strong.”

Perhaps a song along the lines of Mother Hated Horse Meat was playing in the owner’s head right now.

“Thank you.”

[Glutinous rice!]

[It’s so chewy!]

Well, as long as our ghosts were happy, that was enough.

[I’m stuffed with horse meat all the way up to my throat!]

[I can’t eat anymore!]

It was three hours after we entered the horse-meat restaurant when the ghosts finally made that declaration.

[It’s starting!]

[The caramel popcorn is delicious!]

Today was Saturday.

And it was currently 8:38 p.m.

The day had finally arrived.

[Weekend means chicken and beer!]

[What’s that sprinkled on top of the chicken? It’s totally my kind of thing!]

The table in front of the sofa was covered with a proper feast: chicken, pizza, jokbal, popcorn, and even ice cream.

[Landlord! Grab this!]

Cha Junhyuk pointed at a wine bottle.

“Why?”

[I’ll show you something amazing! Hurry!]

As soon as I picked up the wine bottle, Cha Junhyuk began gathering his strength for some reason.

[Haaap!]

Cha Junhyuk swung the edge of his hand forcefully toward the bottom of the cork.

[I touched it!]

Pop!

The cork shot high into the air as if by magic.

[Wow! That’s amazing!]

[Pour it! Drink it! Cheers! Cheers!]

Our house was practically a festival right now.

Even so, everyone’s eyes remained fixed on the TV in the living room.

The lottery drawing was about to begin.

As soon as the MC finished speaking, a famous celebrity pressed the button with a hand wearing a golden glove.

The colored balls began spinning spectacularly.

The numbers from 1 to 45 were clearly visible.

[It’s starting! It’s starting!]

[Looks like they’re drawing the numbers now!]

Tararararararak—!

<Let’s find out the first lucky number. Number 23!>

[Oh!]

[Yes!]

A good start.

The numbers Chae Seonhwa had given me were 5, 6, 12, 23, 26, and 38.

I had placed three lottery tickets side by side in front of us and waited for the next number.

[Oh! Oh!]

[Wow!!]

So far, this was within the expected range.

[It’s right! What do I do?! My hands are shaking!]

[Take some Cheongsimwon!]

I took out one of the Gongjindan pills I had been saving for emergencies. Someone had given them to me as a gift before, saying they were good for the heart.

[This looks expensive… The packaging is fancy, too. Are you really sure I can have it?]

[Hey! Swallow it already! Breathe!]

[Whew…! Ah! Whew! Ah…!]

“……”

Whatever was happening on our side, the broadcast continued.

[What do we do!!! What do we do?!]

[Hahahaha! Ahahahahaha! Are we moving into a mansion now?]

[Kyaaaaaaah!]

[We did it! This is it!!!!!!]

By this point, the years that had passed seemed to flash before my eyes like a revolving lantern.

As expected.

It had been the right choice not to give up on my dream.

But even if I bought an apartment along the Han River, I would continue working as a civil servant.

After all, the most important thing in life was stability.

And this was also a promise I had made to my mother.

From now on, I could put my mind at ease and steadily save my salary…

I was making plans for the future when the long-awaited final number came rolling out.

The ghosts were holding hands and raising them high into the air when—

<Today’s winning ball is! Number 1!>

[Huh?]

[…What?]

Chae Seonhwa blinked repeatedly at the screen.

Then she quietly came over to my side and checked the lottery tickets laid out in front of us.

[…Huh?]

There was no way.

That was clearly what her expression said.

“……”

[You really went all out! You really did! Wow, Chae Seonhwa! I didn’t take you for that kind of person. And after making such a big fuss! Where’s your conscience? You’re absolutely shameless!]

[Th-that… No, I mean…]

“Next week, we’re going to the Gangwon Province Tower again.”

[Of course! We have to! Let’s go! And on the way back…]

Cha Junhyuk clicked his tongue and looked at Chae Seonhwa with pity.

[Uh, wait… Just… Just a moment!]

[Why? Got something to say? Is this your final defense?]

[Second place! It’s second place! I only got one wrong!]

“No.”

[…What? Why? Why not?]

The reason came from the TV.

[Bo… bonus ball?]

[You didn’t know? To get second place, you have to match five numbers plus the bonus ball.]

[Where does it say that!!!]

[Go over there and complain.]

[But still, I…]

[How much do you get for third place? Does it even reach a million won? You probably spent more than a million won just on the food you ate that day!]

With an expression of utter injustice, Chae Seonhwa whimpered in a tiny voice.

[…B-but I still got them right…….]

[Got what right?]

[The lottery numbers….]

[Huh?]

[Those are lottery numbers too! I didn’t get first or second place, but… still!]

The more Chae Seonhwa spoke, the more confident she became.

[Why does everyone only remember first place?! Third-place winners are people too! Even the person in last place is a person! Look! There’s a person here, too! People came before money, not money before people!!!]

At this rate, she looked ready to invoke universal human morality next.

“I think we should go to the Gangwon Province Tower first next week.”

[I agree.]

[What? G-Gangwon Province?! No! If you abandon me, I’ll become a bound ghost! I’ll stay attached to this house forever and never, ever leave! I’m serious, I’m really serious!!!]

With Chae Seonhwa’s desperate cries, today’s festival came to an end.

[Landlord, you’re going to Ganghwa Island today?]

I was leaving the house to attend the memorial ceremony when Cha Junhyuk blocked my way.

“Yes.”

[Then does that mean the Seed Quest will end today?]

“We’ll have to go and see.”

If we were lucky, we could solve it in one go. Otherwise, we’d have to come back again.

[If you need our help once you’re there, enter the Tower immediately.]

[Ah! That’s right!]

If things worked the same way as the experiment we conducted in Jeju Island, the ghosts in the corners of our house would be summoned immediately upon entry.

Cha Junhyuk folded his arms with a satisfied expression.

[Anyway, Landlord, for the next 100 days, every hunter in South Korea is going to worship you! The next time you enter the Tower, it’s going to be absolute chaos.]

[For 100 days? Why?]

[Whenever a new class is registered in a country’s Tower, a Tower Buff normally appears, you know? It’s called the Growth Buff.]

[The Growth Buff?]

[Yeah. It’s similar to the seed you obtained, but its effect is a little weaker. It only increases growth by 50%.]

[Why does that matter?]

[It gets renewed whenever someone who possesses a Unique-grade or higher title enters. But there’s a condition.]

“Do I have to generate a seed?”

[Exactly! That’s it!]

[There’s something like that? Then the landlord gets 150%, right?]

[That’s right! The moment the landlord enters the Tower, it activates! So feel free to brag about it as much as you want! If you don’t say anything, nobody will know!]

Leaving Cha Junhyuk laughing heartily and Chae Seonhwa clapping her hands behind me, I left the house.

Those two ghosts actually got along surprisingly well.

August 21.

The day the first Tower in South Korea collapsed, resulting in the massacre of every resident of Ganghwa Island.

Every year on August 21, a memorial ceremony was held in Ganghwa Island.

But this time, the employees of the Hunter Management Agency were on an official out-of-area assignment at the very uninhabited island where the Tower had collapsed.

We observed a moment of silence in front of the lowered national flag hanging from the flagpole.

Afterward came the Director’s instructions.

“Let’s see. There are six of us here, so spread out and each dig up just three chunks of soil. Everyone got a hand trowel and a zipper bag, right?”

The Director looked at the employees on the uninhabited island.

“Yes!”

There were six of us here in total: the Director, four field agents who had been specially recruited, and me.

The Hunter Management Agency was growing larger by the day.

As soon as the interior construction was completed, around a hundred civil servants who had been working for central government ministries in Sejong City were transferred here as if they had been waiting for the opportunity.

“They had already been assigned before the statement was announced.”

That was the Director’s brief explanation.

That was why they hadn’t recruited ordinary citizens during the President’s briefing.

In addition, thirty-two Awakened individuals who had previously been working under the National Intelligence Service and the military were transferred to the Hunter Management Agency.

According to the records, they had all transferred to the Hunter Management Agency on the same day I joined. Interestingly, every one of them had dual identities.

They were essentially black agents.

Perhaps because of that, they only showed their faces at the office about once a week.

And now, Soo-ah and I also had dual identities.

A few days ago, the Director had spoken up in Soo-ah’s office.

“For now, Administrative Officer Lee and Soo-ah are both members of the Audit Office.”

“Yes, understood.”

“And you’re also black agents.”

“Are you talking about having a dual identity?”

It was a setup I’d seen in a British spy drama before.

“That’s right, exactly. Administrative Officer Lee knows his stuff.”

The Director smiled proudly at me.

“Real treasures are supposed to be hidden in plain sight, after all. You catch them off guard!”

In the Director’s words, it was a sort of bluebird theory.

“Your performance bonuses and rewards will also be paid under your black-agent identities for now, so keep that in mind. They’ll be paid in cryptocurrency. Ah, and also…”

The Director handed me a stack of documents.

“Mana Stone prices have been plummeting lately, and it looks like the Association might be manipulating the market somehow. So…”

“Yes, sir. Please go on.”

“There’s something I’d like you to take care of personally. I want you to visit a dungeon. It’s called the Course Dungeon, and it’s in Samseong-dong.”

“Understood. Just leave it to me.”

“If you think it might be dangerous, don’t get involved under any circumstances. Understood, Administrative Officer Lee?”

Of course.

That was exactly what I intended to do.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

And so, Soo-ah and I became the Hunter Management Agency’s newest black agents.

The Director continued speaking as he stood in front of the flagpole on the uninhabited island.

“Good. Then we’ll meet back here in thirty minutes. We also have to go to Ganghwa Island, so make sure you’re back on time.”

The memorial ceremony itself was originally held in Ganghwa Island.

However, because we needed to collect soil, we’d specifically come all the way out to this uninhabited island.

In fact, the memorial ceremony had been an annual event organized by the Hunter Association under the name “Remembrance Ceremony.” Starting this year, however, our Hunter Management Agency had taken over.

For now, we were simply following the procedure the Hunter Association had used.

“There’s no need to change everything right from the first year. The bereaved families would find it unfamiliar, too.”

That was the Director’s policy.

It was an understandable decision.

The memorial ceremony had been held for more than ten years, and suddenly turning it into a shortened affair could easily make it seem insincere.

As a newly established Hunter Management Agency, there was no reason to take on such a risk from the very beginning.

Before gathering the soil, I looked around the uninhabited island.

This wasn’t simply a small rocky island.

It was larger than I’d expected, with a river running across the island and mountains visible in the distance.

An island where no one simply lived.

At this size, it made sense that a Tower had appeared here.

I was thinking this as I looked toward the place where the Tower had once stood.

What is that?

It was an area that had been reduced to nothing but barren ruins.

Only a few stones lay scattered around, but there was a faintly glowing patch of earth there.

Could it be?

The remains of the collapsed Tower mentioned in the Seed Quest… Could that be what it was talking about?

Chapter 7

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