Once the details of the joint raid had been finalized, Won Myunghoon rose from his seat.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Hyung, you’re leaving already?”
“It would’ve been nice to have a drink together.”
At Jin Taekyung and Im Kkeokjeong’s regretful tones, Won Myunghoon gave them a genial smile.
“I still have work to do. I’m technically the Guild Master—I can’t cause a mess and then be the only one having fun.”
“Ah, right.”
After he put it that way, no one could stop him.
Telling the others not to see him out too far, Won Myunghoon left the Peace Guild House. He walked along leisurely as he pulled out his phone.
After a few rings, someone answered.
“Yes, CEO.”
“I finished the arrangements. We’re doing the joint raid tomorrow at two in the afternoon.”
“That was quick.”
“The bait is good. When would people like them ever get the chance to enter an A-Rank Gate?”
“Haha. That’s true.”
“We’re only bringing one team from our Guild. You’ve told the guys to keep their mouths shut, right?”
“Do you not trust me? I handpicked only the ones who know how to follow orders.”
“That’s why you’re Team Leader 1. I’ll be back right away, so choose the list of people participating tomorrow and have it ready.”
“Yes, sir. What about the Peace Guild?”
“Here?”
Won Myunghoon gave a short laugh and continued.
“I came just in case, but it’s a complete mess—a hodgepodge. They’re a bunch of nobodies without even a proper hierarchy. What could a Guild with only five members possibly accomplish?”
“Even excluding Jin Taekyung, they have three B-Rank Hunters.”
“Still, that’s all they have. The old man sitting there as Guild Master looks like a figurehead. The Team Leader and the woman are former Ares Guild members, but they aren’t worth worrying about. The other one is even D-Rank.”
“D-Rank? Tomorrow’s work should be easy, then.”
“Easy?”
The amusement in Won Myunghoon’s voice vanished, leaving it cold.
The sudden change in atmosphere seemed to make the person on the other end flinch. He hurriedly added,
“CEO, that’s not what I meant.”
“Team Leader 1—no, Jonghun.”
“…Yes.”
“Let’s stay sharp. Why do you think I’m personally running Gates at my age? Am I wrong?”
“I’m sorry.”
“All right. If you understand, do better from now on. Watch what you say.”
“Understood, CEO.”
“All right. See you later.”
After ending the call, Won Myunghoon took out his lip gloss and applied it to his lips.
He was at an age when he would be entering his forties in only a few months.
He spent hundreds of millions of won every year maintaining his appearance, but there was no deceiving time.
“I’m going to be back in the media for the first time in a while. Maybe I should stop by the salon today.”
Muttering in a voice too quiet for anyone to hear, he climbed into the sports car parked by the roadside.
The thought of facing those disgusting monsters again after so long put him in a foul mood. But when he imagined the smooth road that would open up before him afterward, he began humming to himself.
The next morning, Jinho hyung sat across from me at the table, unable to take his eyes off his phone screen.
“You haven’t even eaten. What are you looking at so intently?”
“Your articles.”
“Again?”
“What do you mean, again? I never get tired of looking at stuff like this.”
Anyone watching him would have thought the articles were about Jinho hyung, not me.
These days, checking the public reaction and reporting it to me had become part of his daily routine. He was practically my manager.
“People like you. There are tons of articles about Won Myunghoon, too.”
“Of course there are.”
“You two look good together. So heartwarming… I wish Lord Fuck would swear at me, and so on.”
“……”
“There’s even a guy asking to be tied up and beaten.”
The world really was a big place, full of crazy people.
I was so dumbfounded that I searched for myself directly. Articles about me were overflowing across the Internet, along with all kinds of nicknames and edited images on countless online communities.
There was even a post summarizing my exploits sitting prominently on the best-posts board.
A Summary of Lord Fuck’s Exploits So Far.txt
Hi. I’m an unemployed guy in my thirties.
I was thinking hard about what useless thing to do today when I became curious about Lord Fuck. Most people who know anything about him probably already know all this, but I figured there might be some people who don’t, so I wrote it up.
I couldn’t be bothered to move my fingers much, so here’s the short version.
Awakened as F-Rank at twenty. Spent seven years getting run even harder than a brand-new private, then reawakened.
But the Hunter Association played its trap card, so he was measured as C-Rank at the time. The accepted scholarly consensus is that the Hunter Association is full of idiots.
The bewildered Lord Fuck was snared by an unknown Guild called the Peace Guild.
A B-Rank Gate erupted while he was going to work in a tracksuit, dragging along slippers. He chewed through the ogres by himself and saved hundreds of people.
His life turned around. On the day he received his A-Rank Hunter ID, he made that remark in front of fifty thousand people. Acquired the title “Lord Fuck.”
That’s about it. I didn’t write anything about his family because I might get sued.
A few media outlets have already been taken down. An unemployed thirtysomething like me would be nothing by comparison. If a complaint lands, I’ll get a Mom’s Touch across the back, so cut me some slack.1
I ate doenjang jjigae for breakfast, scratched my balls, and scribbled this together.
My first thought after reading it was simple.
It’s way too short.
If I listed everything I had experienced while traveling between the modern world and the Murim, even a hundred pages wouldn’t be enough.
Well, they’re ordinary people who don’t know anything, so I suppose this is a natural reaction.
I scrolled down through the densely packed comments.
Of course, I couldn’t read all several hundred of them, so I looked at only a few of the best comments.
(Best comment) Fuck. I love him.
└ I saw Lord Fuck live, and he really swore more colorfully than my grandma. Did he attend some kind of swearing academy?
└ But it feels natural. You can’t hate him.
└ There have been some pretty innocent and nice people who appeared on TV as A-Rank Hunters, but none of them were this down-to-earth. Lol.
└ Yeah, that’s why people like him. Looking at the stories he told in the interview about when he was an F-Rank Hunter, he seems to have suffered like crazy. Maybe that’s why.
└ Personally, I liked that he went on a raid right after leaving the Association. It felt like he was focused on a Hunter’s real duty instead of money.
└ Agreed.
(Best comment) So what happened to him transferring to the Star Guild? I’d rather he just transferred.
└ Completely untrue. He kept sucking up to Won Myunghoon in every interview, so he went to see him once, and the story got distorted.
└ Suck… up?
└ That’s today’s joke.
└ This Lord Fuck does it for free.
└ There are so many crazy bastards.
(Best comment) Lord Fuck already has a permanent get-out-of-criticism pass, and Won Myunghoon is suddenly getting hard-carried by the collar.
└ Seriously. I’d even forgotten Won Myunghoon’s name. I vaguely remember seeing an article a few years ago saying he was cleared in that case.
└ Wasn’t he popular? Why did he get buried?
└ He was. He was at his peak while he was active, but the problem was that it was too short. By today’s standards, his persona was too predictable, and his acting wasn’t anything special… He only got famous because one of his songs became a hit, and he had tons of fans who were only into his face. There are still plenty of people sucking up to Won Myunghoon. Jin Taekyung’s the same.
└ Suck… up?
└ This guy is that guy from the comment above. Anyway, apparently the Peace Guild and Star Guild are doing a joint raid today. I’m looking forward to it.
The netizens’ overall reaction was favorable.
Apparently, appearing on the news once or twice and doing a few magazine interviews had made an extremely good impression.
The public reaction to Myunghoon hyung isn’t too bad, either.
Was it nostalgia?
Although he had gradually been forgotten because of an unpleasant incident, there were still plenty of people who remembered Won Myunghoon.
Jinho hyung sitting across from me was one of them.
“Don’t forget to get Won Myunghoon’s autograph, okay?”
“Got it. I’m going to get a callus in my ear.”
I gave a halfhearted answer to Jinho hyung, who was fluttering like a teenage girl, then stood up.
Since we’d eaten breakfast late, it was already past ten in the morning. We had to leave soon if we wanted to finish the final checks before the raid.
“Damn it. If I were a Hunter, I’d be going on a raid with Won Myunghoon, too.”
Jinho hyung muttered sadly, his face full of envy.
To be honest, I was a little nervous myself.
An A-Rank Gate with Myunghoon hyung.
It would be my first time challenging an A-Rank Gate, but I was also excited at the thought of raiding alongside an old idol of mine.
I never thought I’d live to see a day like this.
I left the house with my heart fluttering.
If mid- and low-level Gates were grains of sand, an A-Rank Gate was a massive boulder.
Even in Korea, a country famous for having many Gates despite its small territory, there were few A-Rank Gates. As a result, competition for raids was fierce.
For the Peace Guild, which still had only five official Guild members, this was unquestionably an opportunity that would be extremely difficult to obtain.
And yet…
Why is everyone so relaxed?
Even I, who considered myself the strongest person here, had to swallow nervously. But Team Leader Choi, Butler Kim, and Song-i looked as calm as if they were going to the neighborhood supermarket.
“Did they change this to a B-Rank Gate without telling me?”
Team Leader Choi answered in his usual calm voice.
“It is an A-Rank Gate.”
“Then why are you all so composed? Did everyone secretly take Cheongsimhwan?”2
“Song-i and I have been to plenty of them. Back when we were with the Ares Guild.”
“Ah. Right.”
Ares was the greatest Guild in Korea—no, in Asia—and a major Guild recognized throughout the world.
Its strength was one thing, but it was also made up entirely of elites. There was no reason they couldn’t handle an A-Rank Gate.
“And as for Butler Kim…”
At Team Leader Choi’s words, Butler Kim smiled broadly.
“I saw more than enough of them during the Great Cataclysm.”
“……”
“Back when I was active, monster armies used to pass along the highways, and packs of drakes flew through the sky. Things like that.”
What the hell? That was terrifying.
As expected of someone from the Great Cataclysm generation. His level of experience was on an entirely different scale.
Butler Kim was publicly known as a B-Rank Hunter, but he was actually powerful enough to make Im Chunsoo—an A-Rank Hunter and the Guild Master of Sangdong Guild—do physical-training exercises.
What on earth is someone like him doing here?
Team Leader Choi and Butler Kim’s true identities and relationship remained a mystery.
They knew I was curious, yet still refused to tell me. They must have their reasons.
That aside…
I turned my gaze toward the last remaining Guild member.
The one person I had been most worried about. Contrary to my expectations, Im Kkeokjeong was leaning back against the car seat with a calm expression.
“Are you all right?”
“Of course I’m all right—urrrgh!”
“……”
Fine, my ass. You’re nervous as hell.
Perhaps he knew it himself, because he quickly pulled out the black plastic bag he had brought in advance and buried his face in it.
After finishing a bout of retching, Im Kkeokjeong muttered with a deathly pale face,
“I’m fine. Really.”
Kkeokjeong hyung might have been fine, but I wasn’t. The very act of letting a D-Rank Hunter enter an A-Rank Gate was a dangerously reckless decision.
“Uh, I’m only saying this just in case…”
As soon as I cautiously began speaking, Im Kkeokjeong shook his head.
“No. The Guild Master and Team Leader gave me permission, too. I can’t keep imposing on everyone forever. I need to gain some experience.”
“Hmm.”
“Taekyung, I have a wife and children. I’m already past the age where I can make decisions based on pride or childish impulses. Even if something happens…”
“Ah, I understand. That’s enough.”
I hurriedly cut him off before he could keep saying ominous things.
He must have been worrying a lot lately because his rank was so much lower than those of the other Guild members, but he had taken it far too far.
“We’ll go in safely and come out safely. The Star Guild is sending two A-Rank Hunters, too. And Myunghoon hyung used to be a ranker.”
Between the two Guilds, there were four A-Rank Hunters and over ten B-Rank Hunters. They had more than enough strength to compensate for Kkeokjeong.
Team Leader Choi nodded as well.
“Nothing will happen.”
He was a cautious man. If he had decided to let Im Kkeokjeong participate, it was because he had the confidence that it would be safe.
“Yeah. It will.”
A faint smile appeared around Im Kkeokjeong’s mouth.
That was when the tall buildings outside the car window began to come into view.
It looked like an entire village—or even a small city.
The residents and guards there were soldiers carrying firearms and Hunters decked out in expensive equipment.
“Wow.”
Unlike me, who let out an exclamation, Team Leader Choi frowned.
“This place…”
After looking around at the view outside, Team Leader Choi turned toward the driver.
He was driving the limousine bus Won Myunghoon had sent especially for us.
“I think you may have come to the wrong place.”
“What? That can’t be.”
The driver opened his eyes wide, as if he had no idea what Team Leader Choi meant.
“The A-Rank Gate, The Black Wyvern’s Nest. This is the right place. I entered it into the GPS and came straight here.”
“The Black Wyvern’s Nest? There must have been some mistake. Won Myunghoon said…”
“Who’s Won Myunghoon? I work for the bus company, so I don’t know him. I came exactly where I was told to go.”
The voices of Team Leader Choi and the driver buzzed in my ears.
Suddenly, my stomach began to churn, and a sharp pain throbbed through my head.
Amid the confusion, a roar I had heard three years ago shook my mind.
“Kyaaaaaaar!”
Blackened eyes and a tongue sharp as a blade.
The wingbeats of the creature that had brought down the cave and the claws that had torn my teammates to pieces rose vividly in my mind, blurring my vision.
The Black Wyvern.
To think we’d meet again like this.
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