SWNOVELXO Chapter 99 - A Small Snowball (3)
Chapter 99. A Small Snowball (3)
A man with glasses scanned through the documents in his hand.
One by one, unbelievable figures flowed out from his lips.
“Rabbits, 312 pelts, deer, 421 pelts…”
As soon as the number of pelts collected by the first place was announced, a wave of murmurs spread.
“How, how many?”
“Is this a joke?”
The murmurs grew louder, reaching a climax when the wolf count was announced.
“Wolves… 142 pelts.”
“…?!”
“142 wolf pelts?”
An exclamation of shock erupted.
Even though the man with glasses could have quieted the commotion, he chose not to impose any restrictions.
Because even as he announced the results, he was inwardly clicking his tongue.
‘…That guy is insane.’
The participants in this quest consisted of 80 for rabbits, 35 for deer, and 20 for wolves.
When the pelts distributed to each participant were added up, it came to 4,000 rabbit pelts, 700 deer pelts, and 200 wolf pelts.
And yet, the person in first place alone had collected 421 deer pelts and 142 wolf pelts.
Not clicking his tongue would have been stranger.
‘If you consider the pelts collected from the Hell Training Camp… this is practically a monopoly by one person.’
Judging by the distribution of the collected pelts, they were concentrated on the higher-point pelts.
It was clear to anyone that the first place had ignored the rabbits, which yielded fewer points, and focused solely on the deer and wolves.
Of course, 312 rabbit pelts were by no means a small amount.
Even compared to Gunther, who was in second place, there was a difference of more than a hundred pelts.
However, the problem was that the tally didn’t end there.
A final bombshell was dropped on the still-astonished cadets.
“Nine bear pelts… and finally, one tiger pelt.”
The murmurs among the cadets were immediately silenced by the mention of bear and tiger pelts.
The shock was so great it left them speechless.
‘W-what pelt?’
‘Bear? And even a tiger?’
‘Good… grief.’
Everyone’s thoughts froze.
When the pelt-collecting quest had just begun, they had boldly declared that they would catch bears and tigers without knowing anything.
But after ten days of hellish nights, that bravado had long since vanished.
‘He actually… caught them?’
The bears and tigers that appeared at night were like grim reapers, leading the cadets into hell and instilling an unopposable fear.
And yet, those grim reapers had been caught.
Not just one, but so many of them.
The cadets were left in a daze, unsure whether to believe it or not.
For a while, the cadets’ thoughts remained paralyzed until they were brought back to reality by the point tally that followed.
It was another shock that snapped them back.
“Total points earned, 19,017,000.”
When an unimaginable number came out, the cadets’ eyes were about to pop out.
“N-nineteen million!”
“Gah?!”
The units themselves were different compared to the second place.
To begin with, could an individual even collect close to 19 million… no, 20 million points?
But there was a fact that all of them had momentarily forgotten.
Someone reminded them of it.
“Wait a minute… T-the first place gets double points, right?!”
“Gasp?!”
Only then did the others remember the special prize for first place.
One of them quickly finished calculating and mumbled softly.
“Then it would be a total of… 38,034,000 points.”
Although it was a soft murmur, everyone heard it.
Faced with such a colossal amount of points, everyone’s mouths hung open in astonishment.
After the final tally and ranking announcement of the pelt-collecting quest…
The entrance to the Forest of Animals, which had been tightly closed for ten days, was finally opened wide.
From within, people staggered out in droves.
“I just want to sleep.”
“I want… to take a bath.”
“I’m hungry…”
The continuous tension and shock…
And the relief that it was finally over brought the accumulated fatigue of the past ten days crashing down on them.
No wonder the cadets kept groaning.
While most of the cadets hurriedly left, quite a few still lingered at the entrance of the Forest of Animals.
As if they were waiting for someone.
Most of them were those who had not gained much from this quest.
Cadets who couldn’t even secure food for tomorrow.
It was obvious who they were waiting for.
‘With 38 million points… surely he could lend us a little, right?’
‘Enough to buy food for a day… no, maybe just 10,000 points!’
To those left behind, Poppy, who had a whopping 38 million points, was nothing less than their last hope.
So they waited eagerly for Poppy to come out.
But…
“…Why isn’t he coming out?”
Time passed—10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour.
No matter how long they waited, Poppy did not appear.
The main character, Poppy, who so many were desperately waiting for…
Instead of heading outside, he was running toward the center of the Forest of Animals, to the tiger’s territory.
Of course, Arin was running alongside him.
Clatter-
After running for quite a while, they finally reached the tiger’s domain.
Waiting there to greet them warmly was someone who had arrived first.
“Ah, the esteemed ones have had a long journey! Must have been tough!”
Yuri welcomed them with a cheerful voice, spreading his arms wide in greeting.
But the greeting was brief.
He immediately got down to business, extending his hand with a stern expression.
“My points—are they safe?”
His face, now hardened, clearly conveyed his determination: “If you’ve messed with my points, I won’t let you off easy!”
It was practically a threat written all over his face.
Grrrr—
Even though the Mad Dog bared his teeth in front of them, Arin and Poppy remained unfazed.
Instead, they responded confidently.
“Oh? Are you threatening us now?”
“Hungry?”
“Is that what this is?”
“Hungry?”
At the mere few words they uttered, Yuri’s expression melted away.
The Mad Dog wagged his tail slightly.
“Oh no, a threat? What a scary thing to say! I was just wondering about my points…”
“Your points?”
“…I mean, I was just worried about our points being safe!”
Yuri laughed awkwardly, but inside, he was grumbling continuously.
“Damn… If it weren’t for that elixir, none of this would have happened.”
He had planned to receive the elixir from Greta, but the situation got tangled up when she was suddenly assigned a long-term mission.
To solve this predicament, Yuri sought out Poppy and Arin.
When he first went to meet them, Yuri had been full of confidence.
‘Whether you look at it from the front, the back, the side, or lying down, no matter how you look at it, I am definitely the first place in this quest.’
If so, there was a high possibility that Poppy and Arin would take second and third places.
But, since no one knows how things in this world will turn out, there was no rule that someone else wouldn’t show up with even more points than them.
So, Yuri briefly explained his situation and made a proposal to the two of them.
[“Anyway, even if you get second or third place, you’ll only get an extra 50% or 30%… So, why not just add your points to mine and we’ll both get an extra 60% each?”]
And in exchange, he asked them to help with the pelt tallying work on his behalf.
This was a deal that was beneficial not only to Poppy and Arin but also to Yuri.
The two of them would gain far more than the extra points awarded to second and third places.
Yuri would receive their assistance and, on top of that, could gain unearned income from their points.
To Yuri, this seemed like a perfect proposal with no reason for rejection.
But, lo and behold.
“No. Too troublesome.”
“I’m hungry.”
Poppy and Arin both rejected Yuri’s proposal.
Without even a moment of hesitation.
Thinking he might have offered too low of a commission, Yuri, with a heavy heart, raised it from 60% to 70% and made a second offer.
Yet, they still refused.
They didn’t seem the least bit regretful about it.
Yuri realized something at that moment.
‘…The scariest thing in the world is someone without greed.’
Or rather, correction:
‘Ghosts come first.’
Next were those without greed.
He had no idea how to persuade people who had no desires.
While Yuri was wracking his brain, the two made a counterproposal.
They would keep the commission at 60% but wanted Yuri to do one thing for them.
‘What do you want?’
‘Find us a house.’
‘A house? You still haven’t found a place to stay? Then where have you been living all this time?’
‘Outdoors.’
‘For a whole month?’
“Yeah, or we would sleep in any cave that caught our eye… but sometimes beasts would pop out. Ugh.’
“…No wonder you always show up with strange animal hairs all over you. But why ask me to find a place for you?’
‘Because you’re so… particular…’
‘Particular?’
‘…No, because you seem thorough. If you don’t like it, just refuse; we can refuse too.’
“Oh no, how could I refuse! I’ll find you a place as if it’s my own home, so just wait!”
Frankly, Arin and Poppy’s proposal wasn’t bad from Yuri’s perspective either.
In fact, it was good.
He had originally proposed a 70% commission on the second offer.
But now, he only needed to provide a house, and they would settle for 60%.
‘Poppy and Arin have 6 bear pelts.’
If converted to points, that was 3 million, and 10% of that would be 300,000 points.
By finding them a place to stay, he could save 300,000 points, and achieve what he wanted at the same time—why would Yuri refuse?
So now, here he was…
“Yes, it’s our points, for now!”
“You’re absolutely right! It’s still our points! Hahaha!”
The power dynamic had completely reversed.
Until he could get his points back, Yuri had no choice but to flatter them, forcing a smile as he asked.
“So, where are my—no, our points?”
Arin, who had enjoyed teasing Yuri for a while, decided to draw a line, as she roughly guessed how Yuri might react if she kept teasing him further.
She then pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Yuri.
“Here.”
“…What is this?”
“Our points.”
“This scrap of paper? Haha, are you playing some kind of joke…?”
“How were you planning to carry so many points? If you take that to the bank, they’ll exchange it for points. That Black Sword Corps guy with the glasses told us.”
“…Was that true?”
Yuri quickly snatched the paper.
He skimmed over the part about paying points to whoever brought the certificate.
His eyes focused, carefully reading the numbers on the paper.
“One, ten, hundred, thousand…”
And finally.
“…A million, ten million…”
When Yuri saw the number in the tens of millions, his hands trembled with excitement and emotion.
‘This… this is my point.’
Would it fly away if the wind blew?
Would it tear if he gripped it too tightly?
Would the letters get smeared by his sweat?
His hands, nervously clutching the paper, shook uncontrollably.
Seeing this, Arin asked.
“What’s wrong? Should I hold it for you?”
“B-back off! Stay away from our precious points, you devil!”
“…Seriously?”
Despite Arin’s disdainful glance, Yuri paid no mind.
Instead, he fidgeted with a nervous expression.
“The bank… I have to get to the bank.”
Holding onto this piece of paper seemed like it might give him a heart attack before anything else.
And he was eager to quickly embrace his precious points.
With that desperate thought in mind, Yuri sprinted away.
“Ah, wait! Take me with you!”
“I’m… I’m hungry!”
And right behind Yuri, Poppy and Arin hurriedly chased after him.