Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Life had become far too extreme.

People had said that in every era, but now that Gates had appeared, the phrase carried a slightly different meaning.

In Korea, ‘Hunters’ mainly referred to people who crossed into North Korea to hunt monsters.

‘Was it four years ago? We closed every Gate that had opened across the country.’

South Korea had been fairly lucky.

For one thing, the country was small, and it had a relatively high number of Hunters for its population.

Because of that, they had succeeded in clearing every Gate that opened throughout the nation.

New Gates still appeared from time to time, but most were cleared immediately, so the country was effectively safe.

Almost every nation in the world operated its Hunters this way.

In the end, there were only two outcomes.

‘Either you clear every Gate that appears in your country and close them, or you fail and the country collapses.’

There was no third option.

Either most of the civilians survived, or they all died.

If a Gate remained open, monsters gradually accumulated inside.

Then, once it reached a certain threshold, boom-! It burst.

Once monsters poured out of the Gate, the surrounding area turned into hell in an instant.

‘North Korea is the obvious example. They still have more than a few Gates they haven’t managed to close, so I heard the area around the 38th parallel is still hell.’

That was why Korean Hunters went into North Korea.

The North Korean region had already become a monster paradise, transformed into a Demonic Realm.

The South Korean government had established defensive lines along the Imjin River, Hantan River, and other natural barriers, barely managing to stop monsters from pushing down from the north.

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that monsters of different species formed their own ecosystem, killing one another as well.

Thanks to that, they weren’t surging south in endless hordes.

Anyway.

‘Awakened people are Hunters who kill monsters in the end. Basically, you have to kill monsters that can casually tear a person apart if you want to make money or raise your stats...’

And in the middle of all that, Haejin had a much bigger problem of his own.

[Class: God-Tier Landlord]

“How am I supposed to kill monsters?”

Even support classes like Healers had at least some basic offensive skills.

They could call down lightning from the sky, or at the very least enchant weapons with holy power.

But no matter how hard Haejin looked, there wasn’t a single combat skill among his abilities.

“What am I supposed to do with this? Damn it, God. Charge monsters rent or something? Oh, right! Too bad I don’t own any land or buildings!!”

He folded his arms and glared into empty space.

He had awakened, sure.

But this looked completely useless in combat, which was a problem.

* * *

Shut away in his room.

Haejin racked his brain as hard as he could.

Then suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind like lightning.

‘Wait. Now that I think about it, haven’t I played a game with a similar concept?’

He remembered a game he had played not long ago.

It was one he had enjoyed before starting the real-estate tycoon he was currently playing.

A game called <​Demonic Realm Survival>.

‘The concept was pretty unusual.’

The protagonist was a Hunter who had become stranded in a Demonic Realm that was practically another world, and the goal was to survive there.

You slowly built up civilization while hunting monsters, and the ending came when you finally returned to modern society.

Put simply, it felt like the Hunter version of a zombie apocalypse game.

‘And the most important thing in Demonic Realm Survival was... a safe base.’

It was a survival game, so staying alive came first.

That part in particular was very similar to reality.

A Demonic Realm wasn’t necessarily just forests and open wilderness.

Take North Korea, for example. Pyongyang had been completely overrun by monsters.

But houses, apartments, commercial buildings, and so on.

Most of the buildings people had constructed were still standing, though half-ruined.

Of course, many had become monster nests or were wrapped in unknown plant monsters, so actually using them was out of the question.

“Hmm, if I do this right, I feel like I might be onto something.”

He organized his thoughts.

-A safe base, the most important thing for survival.

-A real-estate tycoon where land makes money.

-And his own skills after awakening as a God-Tier Landlord.

“Hmm?”

They were starting to fit together.

“This... could it actually work?”

* * *

Beep!

“That’ll be 4,800 won.”

“Card.”

“Yes, payment went through. Thank you.”

Even after awakening as a God-Tier Landlord, he still needed to make money.

If he had gotten a proper class, he honestly would have quit his part-time job on the spot, but right now that was impossible.

His shift was starting anyway, so Haejin headed to the convenience store near his home.

“Haah... Almost done, at least.”

Haejin worked the night shift at a convenience store.

He couldn’t leave until six in the morning, when the sun was already coming up.

Normally, he would have had to walk about twenty minutes to get home.

‘I got a skill, so I might as well use it.’

But now, he didn’t have to.

[Go Home]

-Allows the user to move to any property they own at any time.

-Only the skill user and items in their possession can be transported.

-Traveling with other people is impossible.

Using the ‘Go Home’ skill was simple.

Before opening any door, all he had to do was activate the skill and then open it.

Creak-!

“Ooh!”

He opened the convenience store’s stockroom door, stepped through, and found himself at home.

‘This is amazing. Isn’t this basically teleportation? Maybe it’s better than I thought?!’

The tiny semi-basement room Haejin lived in obviously wasn’t property he owned. It was rented.

But perhaps because he had a legitimate lease agreement, it fortunately seemed to count as ‘property under his ownership.’

‘Whew... Okay. If that’s the case, I might actually be able to get some decent use out of my other skills too.’

During the boring convenience-store night shift, he had come up with one idea after racking his brain.

And now he intended to test it.

He quickly changed clothes, then hurried out of the house.

“Today, I’m going to real estate!”

Of course, he didn’t mean residential real estate in Seoul or Gyeonggi Province.

If he had enough money to buy a home in the capital region, he wouldn’t have been worrying about any of this in the first place.

‘I looked it up earlier, and apparently there are people selling houses and land near monster-occupied zones.’

Haejin was targeting provincial areas near North Korea.

They bordered the defensive line, so everyone had evacuated, leaving land that had been abandoned for years.

The towns had fallen into ruins where monsters roamed freely. Even so, the buildings people had constructed were still there, damaged though they were

And when he checked real-estate websites, to his surprise, there were actually people selling those properties.

‘For example, Cheorwon in Gangwon Province. This seems like the best option for now.’

Not a single person lived in Cheorwon anymore.

Monsters that had pushed down from the Demonic Realm that North Korea had become were still wandering around.

Hunters were conducting extermination operations, but since the area lay north of the Hantan River, it couldn’t be protected by the current defensive line built around the river.

That was why Cheorwon had been completely abandoned long ago.

‘Even if it’s a smashed-up ruin, it’s still real estate, right?’

Haejin intended to buy one.

Of course, he had no idea whether it was actually possible in practice.

But surely it was worth trying, at least.

It didn’t look easy, but he planned to charge straight in and see what happened.

* * *

He bought one.

For just one million won, no less—and not merely a house or a piece of land, but an entire pension.

“Waaah... I’m a building owner now... Ahahaha.”

The moment he arrived in Cheorwon, he walked into a random real-estate office, and within five minutes, the contract was signed.

Even though he was buying a building in an area civilians were completely prohibited from entering, the middle-aged realtor didn’t ask Haejin a single question.

If anything, she just smiled at him as though she had found an easy mark.

[XXX-XX, Odeok 4-ri, Dongseong-eup, Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, ‘The Forest Pension’]

[Owner: Lee Haejin]

As he left the real-estate office, he stared blankly at the papers with his name printed on them.

He really had become a building owner.

And the owner of a five-story pension overlooking the beautiful Hak Reservoir, at that.

“Well, damn.”

It had been so much easier than expected that he almost couldn’t believe it.

-You have acquired new real estate!

-The list of available properties has been updated!

Of course, this meant he had now perfectly fulfilled the conditions for his skills to apply.

Sure, it was a crumbling ruin in the middle of a monster nest.

But it was still property he had obtained through a ‘legitimate’ contract.

[Owned Properties – 1]

[Leased Properties – 1]

The owned property was the pension he had just purchased, while the leased property was the semi-basement studio where Haejin lived.

“Now then... this is where it really starts.”

He had spent a precious one million won.

Now it was time to see whether he could get his money’s worth.

There happened to be a public restroom near the real-estate office.

After making sure no one was watching, he entered the restroom and grabbed the door handle.

“Let’s go home!”

He activated the skill and pulled the door open.

And beyond it.

“It, it worked!”

Instead of the foul-smelling restroom, a village thick with trees and grass stretched out before him.

He had transported himself to the pension he had just purchased.

Haejin calmly looked around first.

“So this is Odeok 4-ri.”

A large reservoir lay ahead.

The clear water sparkled under the midday sun.

But unlike the peaceful-looking reservoir, the surrounding area was a wreck.

Far in the distance, he could see an abandoned convenience store, along with a gas station blackened as though it had burned.

Behind them stood plenty of buildings, including a school and various shops.

Back before Gates existed, the area had been popular for group trips and tourism, so despite being in the countryside, it had been fairly well developed.

Besides, this was the center of town.

“The pension’s in better shape than I expected too.”

Since it had been dumped on the market for one million won, he had assumed it would be completely destroyed.

There were plenty of broken walls here and there, but the structure itself was still standing and had retained its shape.

And perhaps because everyone had fled in a hurry, furniture and all sorts of miscellaneous items still remained inside.

The same was true of Odeok 4-ri as a whole.

Everyone had simply evacuated in a rush. The bones of the village remained intact.

“Yes, this is it! Damn, this is exactly what I wanted!!”

It was exactly as he had imagined.

No, the village was actually in far better condition than he had expected, and as Haejin looked around, he could barely contain his excitement.

And for good reason.

“I’m quitting that damn convenience-store job right away. From now on, I’m...”

Without looking back, Haejin bolted toward the abandoned convenience store.

The house? The pension?

Who cared?

The whole reason he had bought this property, and Haejin’s actual plan, was—

Hunting monsters? No, no. Not a chance.

Looting ruins? Yes, yes!! Now we’re talking!

“I’m changing classes to Scavengerrrr---!!”

That had been his plan all along.