Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 

“There are two ways. You can get them to come to you of their own accord, or you can go out and scout them yourself! But realistically, the second option is impossible, so we’ll have to get them to come here. We need to put out a recruitment notice.”

“How do we post one?”

At my question, Brownie flew high into the air. Then, without warning, it began shouting loudly into the empty air.

“Wind fairies! I’ve got a job for you!”

I quietly watched what Brownie was doing.

A short while later, a breeze blew around us, and small creatures that looked as though they were covered in thin cloth began appearing one by one. They were exactly the same size as Brownie.

“We’re recruiting new employees. Spread the word for us.”

“Pay up.”

“H-How much?”

“How far do you want the word to spread? The farther it goes, the more expensive it’ll be.”

The wind fairies had rather prickly personalities.

Brownie turned to look at me.

“How far should we spread the word? If we hire these little guys, they’ll spread the news that we’re recruiting employees. Of course, it’ll cost us accordingly.”

So these fairies served as a recruitment platform.

“What’s the cheapest option?”

At my question, the wind fairies looked at me with contempt.

“Just around this area. Within an hour’s travel from the dungeon. That’ll be 1,000 eon.”

“What determines an hour’s travel?”

“An hour on foot for you.”

If I walked for an hour… I could cover about four kilometers. So they were saying they’d spread the word only within that range. I wondered if that was about twenty laps around a sports field.

Our dungeon’s current budget was only 100,000 eon. We had to spend it as frugally as possible.

“Then, for now, please spread the word within an hour’s travel.”

“Pay up.”

Among the coins Brownie had given me, a few were made of different materials and had different designs engraved on them.

They were probably coins of different denominations, but the problem was that I couldn’t pick out exactly 1,000 eon myself.

With no other choice, I placed all the coins I had on my palm and spoke to the wind fairy.

“Take what you’re owed.”

The fairy flew over with an annoyed expression and picked up a single silver coin, cradling it against its chest. Despite its expression, the way it held the coin made it obvious that it treasured it quite dearly.

A silver, octagonal coin was worth 1,000 eon. Noted.

“Next time you hire us, spend a little more generously. What’s 1,000 eon supposed to be?”

“Of course we’ll spend more once our dungeon becomes successful! And didn’t you say it’s hard for you guys to make money these days, too? Stop grumbling and go do your job!”

After the grumbling wind fairies left, Brownie flew over to me, fuming.

“Those guys are low-ranking fairies who can only get jobs like this themselves! And yet they look down on us!”

“Do you think they’ll spread the word properly?”

“Fairies always work according to the compensation they receive. They’ll spread the word, at least.”

But then something occurred to me.

“Is it okay not to make the recruitment notice more detailed? We only told them that we’re hiring employees. What if someone comes after hearing the announcement, only to be disappointed because the conditions don’t suit them?”

“Only lousy guys pay attention to rumors spread by low-ranking wind fairies anyway.”

Brownie said this while mimicking crossing its arms with its short limbs.

“If you want to lure in truly impressive monsters, you need to hire at least a high-ranking fairy. Those guys would probably charge a million eon to spread the word within an hour’s distance.”

“So money really is everything……”

“Now we just have to wait a day, and applicants will come pouring in!”

I looked at the exterior of the dungeon. At least on the outside, it looked perfectly fine.

A dungeon that looked good on the surface but was hollow and lacking in substance……

If I described this dungeon as a company, it was no different from a startup that had just been founded.

It was even lower than a small or medium-sized enterprise.

I’d run away from a shitty little company, only to end up at a startup……

No! Even all the major corporations started out as startups, didn’t they? It’s too early to be disappointed.

I mentally organized the dungeon management manual I’d learned from the fairy so far.

The dungeon needed to gather two kinds of resources.

One was money for actual operations, and the other was fear, which would increase the dungeon’s notoriety and strengthen the Demon King.

Both resources could be obtained from adventurers who challenged the dungeon.

Therefore, we had to come up with ways to draw adventurers into the dungeon.

“Will monster applicants really come pouring in?”

“Of course! This is a large dungeon operated directly by His Majesty the Demon King himself, after all. It’s different from those run-of-the-mill instant dungeons!”

Did the dungeon’s association with a Demon King make it feel like a major corporation to monsters?

Or, since a Demon King was like the king of monsters… was it more like a public corporation?

Brownie said we only needed to wait about a day.

In the meantime, although the dungeon was completely empty, I thoroughly inspected every corner and made plans in my head for how to run the place.

I had to make this work somehow. I’d squeeze my brain for ideas while thinking about the ten billion won.

My first night on a dirt bed was nothing short of dreadful.

“Ugh… Once I make a lot of money, the very first thing I’ll buy is a proper bed.”

Every muscle in my body was screaming with soreness.

I’d set up my room inside the office. It was a fantastic arrangement that would let me start work the moment I woke up.

If my former company president had known, he probably would have given me a standing ovation for my outstanding devotion to the company. But it wasn’t as though I’d had any other options in the first place.

“I need to conserve the lighting……”

The dungeon’s light sources were limited. Torches hung at regular intervals, softly illuminating the darkness, and apparently, they’d been included as a complimentary extra when the dungeon was purchased.

Strangely enough, they were all magically created flames that continued burning without any fuel.

However, their brightness was weak, so they couldn’t illuminate large areas.

I removed one of the torches hanging in the corridor and brought it into the office.

And because I needed to bring that light into my room, I had no choice but to set up my sleeping area inside the office itself.

“Did you sleep well? Hurry up and get ready! The job applicants are waiting outside!”

“What? Already?”

Brownie had said applicants would start pouring in after a day, but I hadn’t expected them to arrive so quickly.

“If they’d been waiting, you should’ve woken me up earlier. Haven’t you kept them standing around for too long?”

“Heh-heh. You don’t understand anything. This is all part of the test!”

“A test?”

“We’re checking their compliance! If they can’t complain even after waiting for a long time, they’ll probably endure overtime, workplace bullying, and unreasonable workloads later, too. It’d be a waste of time to hire someone who’ll cry and run away just because the work is hard.”

I stared at Brownie, dumbfounded.

You little bastard, did my former company president die and reincarnate as you or something? I feel like I should peel you open and check.

“And the fact that they endure hardship means they’re desperate, doesn’t it? Even if we pay them peanuts, they’ll work like slaves.”

The word devil nearly escaped my lips, but I barely managed to swallow it.

“I… want to run a company… or rather, a dungeon, in an extremely humane way.”

I’d had enough of black companies. I wanted to work for a normal company!

“What does humane mean?”

“I mean that I want to treat my employees properly.”

“Really? But you only have 100,000 eon in operating funds. You spent 1,000 eon yesterday, so now you have 99,000 eon.”

“…The applicants must be waiting. Let’s hurry.”

“No, you stay here. I’ll bring them in.”

Brownie tapped the desk a few times, then zipped outside.

A short while later, I began hearing a commotion outside, along with the footsteps of several people approaching.

“Everyone, wait here! You’re first in line, number one! Come in one at a time when I call your number!”

Brownie barked orders with great authority.

With my heart pounding, I peeked through the crack in the door, then hurriedly shut it and sat back down.

All kinds of ferocious-looking monsters were swarming outside… I felt like looking for a god I didn’t even believe in.

What would happen if the interviewer fainted upon seeing an applicant?

I desperately wanted some Cheongsimhwan, a traditional calming medicine. There probably wasn’t any Cheongsimhwan in this world, was there?

“Are you ready? Should I send them in? Oh, and I brought the applicants’ résumés. They’ll come in according to the order they’re stacked in.”

Brownie placed a thick stack of papers on my desk. There were quite a few of them.

“Hoo, hoo… I can do this. I have to make it work.”

I took deep breaths, trying my best to calm myself down…

“Ten billion, ten billion……”

I repeated ten billion like a mantra. To my surprise, my mind quickly settled down.

“Okay, send them in.”

At my permission, the door opened.

“Good day to you. Clatter.”

A skeleton wearing battered armor approached with a creaking sound and bowed politely.

I barely managed to suppress my scream. There was a human skeleton right in front of me, looking frighteningly realistic.

…If the applicant standing before me had just had muscles and skin attached to those bones, it would have been a perfectly ordinary interview.

With trembling hands, I picked up the topmost sheet of paper.