Daddy is too Strong-Chapter 54

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Yong-Yong was watching TV and clicked his tongue. “This world...”

His ears suddenly perked up upon hearing someone walking down the apartment hallway. A large stride and a fast pace—only one person on the third floor walked like that.

“It’s Master!” Yong-Yong exclaimed and hurriedly ran to the front door, his tail wagging furiously as he waited for the door to open.

A moment later, there was the sound of someone entering the door code, and the front door swung open.

There stood Do-Jun and Karsiel.

Overcome with joy, Yong-Yong leaped at Do-Jun with tears of excitement.

“Master! I missed...”

But in that instant, Do-Jun instinctively twisted his body to avoid Yong-Yong, and the mini dragon flew out the door and over the third-floor railing.

“Youuuu?”

Yong-Yong’s voice faded in the distance as he fell down three stories. Do-Jun closed the door without a second thought.

“I’m home.”

Upon hearing Do-Jun’s voice, Yoon-Hee turned off the gas stove, took off her apron, and walked toward the entrance.

With a slightly surprised expression, she said, “Weren’t you supposed to be on your trip until tomorrow?”

“That was the plan, but the job finished early. What’s for dinner?”

Taken aback by Do-Jun’s question, Yoon-Hee stammered, “W-would you like to wash up first?”

“Alright. But, what’s for dinner?”

“It’ll be ready as soon as you wash up.”

She gave an awkward smile as she gently pushed Do-Jun toward the bathroom and quickly scanned the pot on the gas stove. It was a vegetable hotpot with only tofu and a few veggies floating around.

She couldn’t possibly serve only grass to Do-Jun, who had worked hard away from home.

“Take your time in the shower. Around two hours would be great!” she said.

Do-Jun was left speechless.

He glanced over at Karsiel, who had returned to her baby dragon form. She has gotten dusty from roaming around the Core with him.

“Might as well wash Karsiel too. Oh, and when Yong-Yong comes back in, send him to the bathroom as well.”

***

The water overflowed as Do-Jun sunk into the bathtub. He glanced over at Yong-Yong, sitting in the corner with his back to Do-Jun. He was sulking because Do-Jun had evaded him earlier.

“I told you it wasn’t on purpose,” Do-Jun tried to explain.

“That is a pathetic excuse.”

It seemed Yong-Yong was quite hurt by it.

Ignoring him for now, Do-Jun turned to Karsiel. She was watching Yong-Yong cautiously.

“You get in, too,” Do-Jun said.

“Eh? Choose carefully, Karsiel. Is it me or Master? Who do you think you’ll spend more time with?”

After glancing at Do-Jun and Yong-Yong, Karsiel slipped into the bathtub without hesitation.

“You could’ve at least pretended to think about it... Sigh.”

Yong-Yong shuffled to the bathtub and climbed in to sit on Do-Jun’s lap. His pouty face quickly relaxed as soon as he got in the warm water.

“This is heaven.” He sighed with contentment.

“You said it, Lord Izaas.”

Do-Jun chuckled as he watched Yong-Yong’s expression soften as if he hadn’t been upset two seconds before.

***

After finishing his bath, Do-Jun emerged to see a dining table piled high with dishes. The spread resembled something from a high-end traditional Korean restaurant, with a wide variety of dishes.

“Is there something special today?” Do-Jun asked, pleasantly surprised by the menu.

“I thought you might be tired from your trip, so I prepared a lot to help you recharge.”

“You didn’t have to prepare so mu—”

Just as Do-Jun was about to say it wasn’t necessary, he saw Yoon-Hee’s face, looking at him with an expression that seemed to ask for his approval.

Swallowing his words, Do-Jun smiled and said, “I feel energized already. Thanks.”

“Of course! Hope you like it, Father.” Yoon-Hee beamed as she sat down in the chair across from him.

Meanwhile, Yong-Yong had been staring blankly at the mountain of food on the table with his mouth open. He urgently spoke to Do-Jun. “M-master. Please, don’t ever leave us again. I’m begging you.”

“Hmm?”

The difference in the quality of meals when Do-Jun was home versus when he wasn’t was night and day.

“Yong-Yong,” Yoon-Hee called out in a low voice, smiling. Hearing her voice, Yong-Yong slowly turned to look at her.

“Enough talking. Eat.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Noticing the strange atmosphere between the two, Do-Jun tilted his head in confusion.

“By the way, what did you have for lunch today?” Yoon-Hee asked him.

“Well, um...” Do-Jun fumbled for an answer, avoiding eye contact.

Karsiel, on the other hand, recalled the taste of the ramen she and Do-Jun had at the rest stop and broke into a happy smile.

“We had ramen. It was delicious... hup.”

Karsiel hurriedly covered her mouth with her front paw as she remembered Do-Jun’s warning to keep their lunch between them.

“What...?”

Yong-Yong’s face was buried in the meat in his bowl. He looked up with wide eyes, evidently shocked. He couldn’t believe that Karsiel, who was below him in the pecking order, had tasted the rare and precious ramen he had never tried.

“Ramen?” he said, shocked.

“I’m sorry,” Do-Jun said.

Yoon-Hee sighed deeply. “It’s okay. Once in a while is fine.”

Do-Jun thought she was about to let it slide for a second, but he was well off the mark.

“However, you should try to avoid it if possible. You know ramen seasoning contains artificial MSG, which isn’t good for your health, right? Also, the sodium content in one pack of ramen exceeds the daily recommended intake. If you frequently eat high-sodium foods, you’re at risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to complications like heart failure, myocardial infarction, angina, osteoporosis, and...”

The family received a mini-lecture that went on for more than twenty minutes.

***

Monday, 3 PM.

“Coffee’s here.”

Do-Jun entered the conference room, where papers were scattered messily across the table.

Hyuk-Soo had been reviewing the budget sheet. Hearing Do-Jun’s call, he stretched, stood up, and said, “Let’s take a break, Chief.”

“Good idea. Man, this is exhausting.” Cheol-Soo stretched his neck and received the corporate card from Do-Jun.

Do-Jun pulled the coffees from the cardboard tray and placed one in front of Cheol-Soo and another in front of Hyuk-Soo.

He then picked up one of the documents titled “Plan for Purchasing Equipment for Contract Hunters.”

The Fissure Management Division had a budget category dedicated to providing equipment for contract Hunters. Each year, about 1.5 billion won of the budget was allocated for Hunter equipment, allowing them to purchase suits, weapons, and accessories for the contracted Hunters.

Unlike previous years, when they signed a wholesale price contract with the Korean National Smithy and made bulk purchases based on equipment grades, this year, the manager issued a special directive to participate in the Smithy auctions, which ran three times a year, for a chance to acquire higher-grade equipment. As a result, Do-Jun and the other staff were busy preparing for this event.

The previous year’s auction results and documents detailing the equipment up for bid were on the table. A comparison analysis contrasting the equipment purchased through wholesale contracts with the equipment that could potentially be obtained through the auction was also pinned to the whiteboard.

Unlike purchasing items with pre-determined prices, auctioned items didn’t have a set price, so thorough preparation was essential. They were especially keen to avoid the worst-case scenario of overpaying for low-grade equipment.

“Their marketing is no joke. This feels more like gambling than an auction,” Cheol-Soo remarked.

“They want us to bid without even showing us the item stats. This is definitely gambling at this point. It reminds me of those gacha games I used to play.”

While acquiring high-grade equipment through the auctions seemed promising, there was one big problem. Bidders had to judge the value of the equipment based solely on its appearance, as the Korean National Smithy didn’t disclose the stats for the equipment they put up for auction.

There were some extreme results where low-grade equipment was bought for several billion won.

“Looking at last year’s results, D-grade items made up over sixty percent of all auctioned items. So how about we limit our bids to 30 million won at most? That way, even if we hit a dud, our losses won’t be too bad,” Cheol-Soo suggested.

“You make a good point, Chief, but...”

Listening to the conversation between Cheol-Soo and Hyuk-Soo, Do-Jun recalled the time he had attended training at the Hunter’s Bureau and had received the unidentified artifact box.

Back then, Do-Jun used his qi sense to examine the artifact the instructor was holding and detected a powerful energy. Knowing this, he volunteered to give a presentation to receive the reward.

Just as he had sensed, he ended up with a valuable item.

Is this something others can’t notice? Do-Jun wondered.

The auction results showed instances where D-grade equipment was purchased for over 7 billion won.

Considering that the winning bidder was an A-grade Hunter, it seemed even those capable of handling mana well found it challenging to judge the equipment’s grade based on appearance alone.

“I think it’s worth a shot,” Do-Jun muttered.

Hearing this, Cheol-Soo turned to look at him. “Worth a shot?”

Do-Jun nodded, and Cheol-Soo brightened as he saw his confident demeanor.

“So what’s your plan?”

***

The next day, at the Korean National Smithy, an annex building located within the grounds of the Hunter’s Bureau.

Although it was not even nine in the morning, the Korean National Smithy building was already packed with people, most of whom had gathered to participate in the auction.

“It starts at 10, right? Let’s head inside.”

With about an hour left before the auction began, Cheol-Soo looked over at the third auditorium, twenty meters away.

They had already checked in at the counter and received their seat assignments, so entering early wasn’t a problem.

Once inside, Cheol-Soo took a seat marked “F-13” while Hyuk-Soo and Do-Jun sat beside him.

Do-Jun pulled out a device resembling a remote control. It had a number pad, and the number 68 was attached to the armrest of his chair.

Looks like this is the bidding device.

In the front, the stage was concealed behind a curtain.

Thirty items were to be auctioned today, which were likely being prepared behind the curtain.

Considering that each auditorium had seating for a hundred people, it was possible that some participants might leave the auction empty-handed.

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After an hour, the large curtain drew back, revealing the stage, the auctioneer, and the first piece of equipment: a bow decorated with intricate floral patterns. Murmurs quickly filled the room.

“That looks pretty good.”

“Let’s just watch for now.”

“Hmm...”

The auctioneer picked up the microphone and announced, “We’ll begin the auction shortly.”

“Chief, you said you’d leave it to me, right?” Do-Jun said as he turned to Cheol-Soo.

“Huh? Y-yeah,” Cheol-Soo answered as he recalled what Do-Jun had said the day before.

“I’ve got a sixth sense for these things.”

At first, he had been a bit taken aback by the statement.

However, upon reflection, he realized that luck played a significant role in securing valuable items at low prices anyway. Seeing how confident Do-Jun was, Cheol-Soo and Hyuk-Soo decided to trust him entirely for this auction.

“We’ll start the bidding at one million won.”

The auction was on.