Chapter 10: The Headstart(1)

What would make for the most annoying morning? It could be a phone alarm set last night which was especially loud today. Perhaps it was the hair that got too oily overnight. Or it might be the irritating fact that today was another work day.

—Wake up! Get off your ass right now!

“Ah, would you please be quiet...”

—I’m going to sing you my favorite song from back home until you wake up. Keep in mind that I learned how to use the Soundwave Strike before I died. It only took me one verse to make thirty soldiers’ heads explode!

Everyone was wrong. The worst way to start a day was with the endless chattering of a ghost who failed to find eternal peace.

—Do you know what time it is? It’s time to get up already!

“What time is it?” I squinted at my smartphone lock screen, which showed me that it was 4:01 A.M. in a fancy font. “It’s still four in the morning, Mr. Crazyhead!”

—No, no. Even bugs are already up and wriggling. You’re weaker than bugs, so you should get up earlier.

“You’re just bored because you can’t sleep!”

—I don’t know what you’re talking about. The Guardian avoided my eyes.

“Wow. This is why the Sword Star always wakes up at four in the morning and trains! It’s not because he’s diligent. It’s you, talking his ears off!”

—Fine, I woke him up because I was bored. Are you happy now? But it’s good for you to regularly train early in the morning. You know what? You should be grateful to me, honestly. Get on the floor and bow to me.

“I-I want to kill you...”

—Hehe. But you can’t because I’m already dead. If you have a problem with that, you can die! Oh, yeah. you can’t stay dead, can you. You’re practically a zombie. From now on, I’m going to call you Kim Zombie, not Kim Gong-Ja.

“Shit.”

The ghost in my tiny studio just kept yapping. I couldn’t bear it and ended up putting on my jogging suit and headed outside for the sake of my mental health. It was still dawn, so the sky was dark as I jogged. The Guardian floated beside me.

“Huff, huff...”

—Zombie, I told you this before, but you have zero gifts except for your dogged tenacity. I usually like to train people from scratch, but you have zero basis to scratch from because it’s somewhere down in the abyss.

It had already been three days since I had copied the Sword Constellation from the Sword Star. Meanwhile, I had hunted Yoo Soo-Ha one more time and actively avoided the Sword Star. At the same time, I had been training according to the schedule that the Guardian had made for me.

—You technically have the gift of an abyss. Gosh, isn’t it cool? I envy you!

“Huff... I’m running... Huff. Don’t interrupt me...!”

—What I’m saying is that you need a special lesson, but it’s going to be expensive. In order to get the lesson, you need to be ready.

The Guardian grinned.

—Let’s go and win ourselves the lottery, Zombie.

***

The guild called the Merchant Association, also known as the MA, was led by the Countess, the Rank 3 Hunter. Since she was the only one who could export and import goods from the outside world, she was a one-man company. With her ability, the MA was the leading guild in the Tower’s economy. It was one of the reasons why the MA was the only guild that could issue lotteries in Babylon, the Tower’s first-floor city.

“Excuse me.” I tapped on the desk.

“Yes, Mr. Hunter. How may I help you?”

“I’m here to collect my winnings for the lottery.”

“Ah, you must have won the MA Happy Lottery!” The desk assistant with a cat-eared hat clapped in delight.

“Yeah, one thing led to another.”

“Congratulations!” The desk assistant bowed and gave me a business smile that resembled a sunflower in full bloom.

—Hey, I’ve always been curious about this. Why do they wear cat-eared hats?

The guild leader has cats of her own, I told the Guardian.

—Even if she likes cats, people normally don’t put cat-ears on other people. I bet that she’s a perv.

Does it matter right now?

I was pretty sure that the desk assistant also thought that his hat was stupid as fuck. However, he was just a desk assistant. Even if the guild leader told him to wear cockroach antennas on his head, he had to suck it up and wear it. On the bright side, he didn’t have to suffer alone. The guild uniform he was wearing was unisex...

“Pardon me for asking, but have you checked the date of the lottery? Your winning isn’t collectible if it’s been over two years since your purchase.”

“It’s okay. It’s from last week,” I replied.

“I’m glad to hear it!”

I had bought it as soon as I had gotten possessed by the Guardian. I had to win one anyway, and the Guardian kept on lecturing me about how I needed capital to start from.

“Then I’ll get to the identity verification process right away. Oh, by the way, which place did you win with your lottery?”

“First place.”

“Excuse me?” the desk assistant instinctively asked.

“I won first place. You can check the numbers here.” I pointed to a section on my lottery ticket.

An electric sign board that said “MA Happy Lottery’s First Place Winner” was hung above the desk assistant’s head. It displayed the accumulated amount—fifty-three thousand gold—like a casino slot machine. If I converted it to the currency back home, it was around five and a half billion won[1].

—It’s easy to earn money, right? The Guardian hummed in the now-silent MA headquarters.

“...The numbers have been confirmed,” the assistant fumbled, obviously bewildered. “P-please give me a moment, Mr. Hunter. I’ll go get the person in charge.”

“Take your time.”

The assistant hurriedly walked away. I could see some people stealing glances at me as they talked among themselves. Judging from their envious eyes, it looked like they had heard me when I said I had won first place.

—Is this okay, Zombie? Someone might shank you in a dark alley tonight, the Guardian commented, eyeing the same Hunters.

“I have a plan.” I shrugged. “Besides, it’s not something I can hide.”

All of the Hunters who won the lottery were recorded, including Yoo Soo-Ha, the Fire Emperor. That was how I learned that he had won it twice in a row before.

People are going to find out sooner or later, so it’s better to be done with it.

The MA was the one who had to sell the lottery tickets, so they would suffer more than I would from a rumor that people who won their lottery were going to get assassinated.

After a moment, a man dressed in a much fancier uniform approached me and bowed. “Thank you for your patience, Mr. Kim Gong-Ja. My name is Arthur Taylor; I’m in charge of the MA lottery.”

He was very polite, although he was still wearing a cat-eared hat.

“My title is Safekeeper. For convenience, I would appreciate it if you could call me by my title.”

“I’m Kim Gong-Ja. You seem to have a title that suits your affiliation very well.”

“Haha! I hear that a lot.” The Safekeeper smiled good-heartedly. “Please follow me upstairs.”

Although he was perfectly polite, having a title meant that he was one of the top 300 Hunters. A Class F Hunter like me would normally never be able to look him in the eyes, but he continued to be polite.

—Zombie, you’re a guest worth fifty thousand gold. Of course he’s polite. You know, I’ve been thinking about it—you seem to be touched too easily. Maybe it’s because you never received anyone’s approval? Remember when I told you you had a gift for dying the other day? Your eyes went all teary. It was pitiful.

The ghost killed my mood once again.

Ah, please shut up. Please, I hissed.

—A man shouldn’t be easily impressed. Take after me. Think that everyone in the world exists to serve you.

No matter how bad things got for me, I would never take after the Guardian or Yoo Soo-Ha. Come to think of it, both of their titles ended with the word “emperor.” Perhaps having that word in their titles meant they were all wackos.

“Um, excuse me, Mr. Kim. Is something wrong...?” the Safekeeper asked as he guided me upstairs. He seemed rather cautious of my mood.

“It’s nothing,” I immediately answered, eager to quash any suspicions of my sanity. “My mind wandered for a moment.”

“Oh, I see.” The Safekeeper heaved a sigh of relief. “You didn’t look too good, so I was worried that I’d made a mistake without realizing it. I’m relieved to hear that I haven’t offended you...”

What? Is he an angel? I wondered.

—Tsk, tsk. You’re too easy. Too easy.

Ignoring the heartless ghost’s nagging, I followed the Safekeeper into a VIP meeting room. The table was already piled high with gold coins; it looked like another employee had already set everything up.

The Safekeeper smiled. “These are your winnings, Mr. Kim.”

“...It’s incredible.”

Over fifty thousand gold coins drank in the light from the ceiling and brightened up the room. Just looking at it got my blood going. I wasn’t sure if they had staged this for dramatic effect, but it was working extremely well.

“You’re free to take all of this gold or buy a safe in the MA to store your winnings. How would you like to proceed?”

“Mmm...” I tried to pull myself together.

Money is really tempting.

However, I aimed to reach the zenith and become so famous that everyone would envy me. Money was just a means to get there.

I should be the one who controls my money, not let it control me. Don’t let it happen, Kim Gong-Ja.

I regained my composure and slowly nodded. “I’ll store it in the MA safe.”

“That is a truly wise choice, Mr. Kim!” the Safekeeper quickly shouted. “That is what I personally recommend to all the winners. I understand that you would want to take it yourself, but there are always people who harbor ill intentions...”

“And...” I paused. “...I would like to become an honorary member of the MA.”

“Pardon?”

“The position of a second-class honorary member costs ten thousand gold, yes?” I approached the table and put my hand on the pile of gold. The gold coins sparkled with a seductive light, but I already knew another kind of golden light that was more tempting. For the sake of my future, I was going to invest as many gold coins as necessary.

“I’ll pay in full right now.”

The Safekeeper carefully observed my face. “Mr. Kim... you aren’t part of any guild yet. Is that correct?”

“That is correct.”

A Hunter didn’t join a guild just to hang out with other Hunters. The biggest reason was to receive the guild’s protection. Although the Hunter Management Bureau and Watchmen League existed to maintain Babylon’s order...

I might get attacked the second I let my guard down.

The fact that the Fire Emperor and Sword Star had killed me was proof enough of how dangerous it was in Babylon. Compared to a developed country in the outside world, this city was lawless.

I shouldn’t be an idiot and walk down the Fire Emperor’s path.

The Fire Emperor had been full of himself, so it wasn’t hard to deduce what he had done after winning the lottery twice in a row. Yoo Soo-Ha wouldn’t have paid a protection fee to any guild; no doubt he’d gone off to have fun with his money since it was rightfully his and his only.

That’s why people try to assassinate him.

It was pathetic. There was no need to make an enemy out of the major guilds.

“...Understood, sir.” The Safekeeper pulled out a notebook and wrote something down. “Anyone can become an honorary member of the MA with the right price. I’ll instruct one of the employees to issue you a second-class honorary member’s identification card.”

“Oh, yeah,” I went on. “And I’m living in a cheap studio, so I would be very grateful if the MA could recommend temporary accommodations for me. Of course, I’ll pay the right price.”

The Safekeeper noted down my requests.

“The media will likely try to find out who won first place in the lottery. You don’t have to tell them my real name, but it would be great if you let them know I’m an honorary member of the MA.”

The Safekeeper stood there and gave me a dazed look for a moment. “Y-you’re very thorough, sir.”

“It’s a dangerous world, isn’t it? I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“...It is. You’re right.”

—Zombie, it looks like he was thrown off guard because he thought you were a pushover. Ah, this is fun. This is why I never get bored of watching elites flounder. The Guardian guffawed behind the Safekeeper.

What? You’re the one who tsked me because I’m touched too easily. It’s romance when you do it, but it’s adultery if other people do it?[2]

—Did I do that? I don’t remember, so I probably didn’t do it.

Wow. How could he be like that? I should never become like him.

—Well, anyhow, you seem to be doing a good job on your own. I was worried that I’d have to change your diapers too, but it looks like you’ll be fine. The Guardian grinned.

If only you weren’t a smooth talker...

—What? You’re smiling too.

That was right. Although I grumbled, I was happy.

Of course, I’m just getting started.

I had died 4090 times to go back 4090 days. It was time to enjoy the privileges of a returner that I hadn’t got to enjoy because of my revenge on the Fire Emperor.

1. About four million USD ☜

2. The raw is ? ???????. It’s a Korean saying about double standards. ☜