After one more harrowing raid that goes sideways, Joohee tells Jinwoo she’s retiring from hunting and moving back in with her parents. Her reasons are sound, understandable, and releatable, and while the puny past Jinwoo might’ve argued more for her to stick it out, this stronger, less emotional Jinwoo wishes her well, promising to meet up with her if he’s ever in her neck of the woods.
Despite thinking very soberly these days, Jinwoo isn’t so heartless he’d invite Joohee to join his quota “Strike Team”, which as assembled buy Jinho is a thrown together mix of people who can’t go on raids or are hard up for cash, including Han Song-yi, a high schooler and his sister’s classmate. They all get three million per gate to sit around outside the gate as Jinwoo and Jinho go into the dungeon on their own.
The random hunters assembled to sit around don’t know quite what to make of this, but they’re also not about to turn down that cash. And just a half-hour into what should be at least a two-hour raid, Jinho and Jinwoo come out unscathed, and the gate collapses, which can only mean the boss was defeated. Before they can pick up their dropped jaws, it’s on to gate two of three they’re tackling for the day.
Jinho and Jinwoo’s strike team make the equivalent of $60,000 that first day, so it’s a given that they all come back for day two, day three, and so on. All the while, Jinho is able to harvest mana crystals while Jinwoo continues leveling up and gaining skills. The Stealth mode he gained from defeating Kang is particularly useful, if a bit unsporting. This gate-speedrun sequence has a lively pace and fun swagger to it.
All the C-Rank Gates being bought up attracts the attention of Ahn Sangmin, a mid-level recruiter for the White Tiger Guild. At first he almost seems like a cop abot to expose Jinwoo, but he’s actually eager to make him a valuable member of the guild, as he’s reasonably certain this “E-Rank” hunter reawakened. One night, Ahn and his subordinate give Jinwoo a slight start as they introduce themselves.
Over coffee in a public place, Ahn lays down the brass tacks: he thinks he’s perfect for White Tiger and wants him to join, and is willing to pay him double what Yoojin Construction is offering. Jinwoo states that even at a discount, that would mean paying him over 50 billion yen. He then engages his stealth, demonstrates his power, and gets the truth from Ahn about how he found out about him: he was looking into who was buying up so many C-Rank gates.
Rather than walk away from their meeting with nothing, Jinwoo gets Ahn to agree to pay 600 million yen for three of the C-Rank gates Yoojin controls. The next morning, after they paid Jinwoo, Ahn learns that Yoojin only ever had three gates, and there are plenty more that are going for as low as 50 million.
Ahn gets a text from Jinwoo saying they’re now even after Ahn spied on him. Ahn concedes that Jinwoo played his hand well, and now has his contact info for future opportunities. As for Jinwoo, he’s taken a day off for a “Job-Change Quest” for which he’s now a high enough level to pursue. With Hwang’s S-Ranked brother possibly targeting him, he’s gotta get even stronger than he already is.
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