Sss. Hooo.
Only the soft sound of breathing drifted through the hospital room. Standing guard at the door, I watched the others focus on circulating their qi and regulating their breathing.
Their cross-legged postures had been awkward at first, but they were gradually getting the hang of it.
Not bad.
Team Leader Choi, Butler Kim, Song Song, and finally Im Kkeokjeong.
Before sunset, all four had succeeded in completing a complete circulation. Before long, they were able to perform the Small Circulation on their own.
Not bad for a first step. No, this is better than I expected.
None of the others possessed energy as vast as Team Leader Choi’s, but Butler Kim and Song Song were mages. They were already adept at handling mana and adapted quickly.
The biggest surprise, however, was someone else.
Im Kkeokjeong.
I thought he’d struggle for a while…
I’d forgotten. Im Kkeokjeong was the only Second Awakener among everyone I knew. Had it come from grueling effort? Or a stroke of heavenly luck?
Whatever the reason, Im Kkeokjeong had already once broken past the limits given to him.
Maybe there was a reason he underwent a Second Awakening.
Judging by what he had shown me, Im Kkeokjeong might have the greatest potential for growth.
He was still a D-rank Hunter. He had plenty of steps left to climb.
I won’t have to worry about the aftereffects of his injuries, either.
Repeatedly circulating his qi would naturally improve his Muscles and Bones and Sinews and Meridians.
If Im Kkeokjeong could overcome the psychological issues, such as his trauma, he would be able to return to the Guild before long.
And then…
The Guild will have changed quite a bit by then, too.
The changes had already begun. Lee Jungryong had drawn the knife hidden up his sleeve and turned it against us. Now he owed us compensation for it.
With that compensation as its foundation, the Peace Guild would achieve astonishing growth. These people needed to stand at the forefront.
Someone had to run the Guild. Someone else had to identify talented, trustworthy people and turn them into loyal members of the Peace Guild.
And those people would be given martial arts.
We need blades of our own.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, Team Leader Choi finished his Small Circulation and opened his eyes with an exhale. A sharp gleam flashed through them.
Starting with him, the others opened their eyes one after another.
Ding.
System
Thanks to your excellent instruction, several people have reached One Star in the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique.
The Title Trainee has changed to Training Instructor!
A martial arts drill instructor, huh.
Was this heaven telling me to work them to death for a while?
I grinned at the people still savoring the afterglow of circulating their qi.
A week passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, Lee Jungryong and the Peace Guild secretly concluded their negotiations, two more mutated Gate incidents occurred, and a post on a Hunter community site drew a great deal of attention.
How I Got Hired by the Peace Guild
I’m a C-rank Hunter who used to work on the Security Team of a certain Guild.
I was originally with a major Guild, but my senior coworker was such a pain in the ass (he’s a traitor to the country) that the stress got too bad. I quit a few days ago and was browsing job sites when I saw that the Peace Guild had opened its general recruitment. So I applied on a whim, you know?
Then I didn’t hear anything back, so I figured I’d been rejected.
I already knew their selection process was brutal, so I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place.
But they contacted me after two weeks and told me to report to work tomorrow!
Anyone else starting with me tomorrow, raise your hand!
└ (Best comment): You only submitted an application to the Peace Guild and got hired? Hahahahahaha. Some unemployed bastard’s sitting there writing a web novel.
└ ???: Hyung.1 This bastard’s laughing.
└ ???: Leave him alone. At least let him dream about joining the Peace Guild.
└ That ending.
└ The OP is seriously an idiot. If you’re going to write fiction, at least make it believable. The Peace Guild rejected people from the top teams of major Guilds, but some C-rank Security Team guy sends in an application and gets hired? Hahaha. Thanks for the laugh.
└ Is it really that brutal?
└ I applied this time, and the competition was 47:1. They even made us take personality and aptitude tests before the interview.
└ What the hell? Personality and aptitude tests? Is this high school?
└ Proof that the Peace Guild thinks Hunters are weaklings.
└ On the other hand, their basic allowance and incentives are incomparably higher than anywhere else.
└ Please think of me as a weakling.
└ Come to think of it, the Peace Guild must be loaded. People are even transferring over from major Guilds.
└ Exactly. I heard they have exclusive rights to more than twenty Gates alone.
└ (OP): I’m the person who wrote this. I just called HR, and they said I was hired because Jin Taekyung told them to hire me.
└ Hahahaha. How would Lord Fuck even know an unemployed loser like you? Stop writing fiction and go to sleep.
└ Thanks for the web novel. I enjoyed it.
└ By the way, are there any decent web novels these days?
└ I recommend Login Murim. It’s pretty good once you get through the early modern-world chapters.
└ Welcome, Zerobic.
└ That bastard author has been serializing it for ten years and hasn’t released extra chapters even once.
Under normal circumstances, the post would have been dismissed as the ramblings of an attention seeker.
However, the post proudly took first place in the weekly rankings, accompanied by countless recommendations and comments from people making a pilgrimage to the site.
All because of another post uploaded the following evening.
Guys, that web-novel villain from yesterday was for real;
I’m one of the people who got accepted by the Peace Guild this time. Today, I was touring the Guild house with the other new hires when I saw Lord Fuck, you know?
I was just watching him from a distance, terrified by the majesty of him dragging around slippers with the soles torn off, when he suddenly made a U-turn, grabbed one of us, and asked if he was from the ** Guild Security Team.
The dopey-looking guy said yes, and Lord Fuck started laughing like a maniac, yelled, “Irasshaimase!”2 and all that shit, then left.
I knew Lord Fuck had a weird personality, but he seems to be an even bigger lunatic than I imagined.
(Photo attached.)
I’m posting all the proof before I go so nobody says I’m lying.
└ (Best comment): I’m the person who got the best comment last time. In apology, I’m going to perform a full-body prostration and leave.
└ Looking at the proof photo, I think this might actually be real…?
└ Wait, what? How does a C-rank Hunter from a Security Team end up at the Peace Guild?
└ It actually happened…
└ (OP): The web-novel villain was assigned to the Security Team instead of a raid team.
└ Oh, then I can see why they’d take him. At that level, it’s not even nepotism. He basically just changed jobs.
└ They say Korea runs on blood ties, regional ties, and school ties. I guess he’s only human, but I’m still a little disappointed in Lord Fuck.
└ Who the hell are you to be disappointed?
└ Here’s why the bastards bashing Lord Fuck are idiots: Lord Fuck walks around in slippers with the soles peeling off because he donated almost his entire fortune to establish a foundation for Gate victims.
└ The comment above is stating facts. Anyone insulting Lord Fuck needs to be beaten half to death with a slipper before they’ll come to their senses.
└ Keep showing people goodwill, and they’ll start thinking you’re Dooly.3
└ But where did the OP go? Tell us more.
└ (OP): I’m on my way to a company dinner.
└ A welcome party for the new hires?
└ (OP): Yeah. I’ve already been in the car for an hour. We must be going pretty far.
└ Oh. Is Lord Fuck coming too?
└ (OP): Yeah. But I don’t see the Guild Master or any of the other Team Leaders.
└ The Peace Guild must be great at team building. Maybe it’s because they’re still a new Guild?
└ (OP): I’m not sure about that, but… the atmosphere feels kind of bad. I asked a Senior who joined earlier than me, and he told me to sleep as much as I could on the way there.
└ Why?
└ Maybe the company dinner is going to last a long time. Who likes drinking with people they aren’t even close to?
└ (OP): Maybe? Oh, I think we’re here.
└ Don’t drink too much. And don’t forget to come back with the rest of the story.
└ Have fun!
└ (OP): It looks like a good restaurant. I’m looking forward to seeing what we’re having for dinner, haha. I’ll be back soon.
That was the OP’s final comment.
“We’ll be having dinner inside a Gate.”
Murmurs rose from all around at my declaration.
“Excuse me?”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, but did I hear you correctly?”
“I think you said we’re having dinner at a Gate. I must have misheard.”
“Ah, right.”
I didn’t even need to look at their faces. The ones having that innocent conversation were the new hires on their first day.
The people who had joined only two or three weeks earlier, however, reacted differently.
“I knew this would happen.”
“Ah, fuck…”
“Good thing I brought potions.”
“Hyung,1 do you have any arrows to spare?”
“Yeah. I brought an extra two hundred for emergencies, just in case.”
“Then could I get a hundred?”
They hadn’t joined even a month apart, but their reactions were worlds apart.
The veterans swore under their breath like they were sighing, then swiftly pulled armor and equipment from their backpacks.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Was this how a teacher felt?
A satisfied smile spread across my face at the results of repeated training.
I turned toward the greenhorns who still had no idea what was happening and asked,
“You all brought everything with you, right?”
The new hires nodded.
“Uh, yes. You told us to bring it all, so…”
“Put your bags down, take out your equipment, and put it on.”
“Excuse me? Is this some kind of mock battle?”
“Mock battle, my ass. You don’t improve much doing that. Real combat is best.”
“…?”
Suspicion crept into their innocent eyes.
“Then, perhaps…”
“Are we really going into a Gate?”
“Yes. A raid to celebrate joining the Peace Guild! What do you think? Sounds great, right?”
“…”
“The new people don’t seem too excited. What does everyone else think?”
The people I’d worked to the bone for the past few weeks gritted their teeth and shouted.
“That’s a wonderful idea!”
“As expected of King Taekyung.”
“Wow. This. Is. Great!”
Hmm. Just as I thought.
This was also the effect of learning. They clearly remembered what had happened to the few brave souls who had openly contradicted my opinions.
The logic of we can’t be the only ones who suffer had probably played a part as well.
Exactly. Everyone should suffer together.
If the new hires were Pomeranians, the others were already Tosa mastiffs.4
With the atmosphere blazing with the determination to die together, the new hires hesitated before shouting,
“B-But nobody told us about this! The notice said we’d only be doing a simple workshop for the first week after joining the Guild…”
“Yes. This is the workshop.”
“What Guild holds a workshop inside a Gate? For an entire week!”
“The Peace Guild.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Does everyone else think so, too?”
I turned my head slightly. The Senior Tosa mastiffs4 who had tasted hell for several weeks bared their teeth and shouted.
“Why wouldn’t it make sense? It does! Absolutely!”
“Obviously this is a workshop!”
“Who rents a vacation house for a workshop these days? You’re supposed to bond by killing monsters together inside a Gate!”
“We can’t be the only ones getting fucked!”
That last shout was so blatant it bordered on desperate. Hearing it forced me to reflect deeply.
I guess I need to work them even harder.
They couldn’t be allowed to think of this as suffering. I planned to condition—or rather, train—them until they accepted all of it as perfectly natural.
“All right, everyone quiet!”
Ding.
System
The effect of the Title Training Instructor activates!
The trainees who heard your shout become tense!
“Form ranks!”
“Form raaanks!”
“Too quiet! Form ranks!”
“Form raaanks!”
Even after repeating the command back in unison, they all looked dazed.
I smiled at their bitter expressions.
“Now, follow me inside in order. Left foot. Left foot.”
Clack! Clack! Clack!
The human train set off toward the Gate.
Footnotes
-
Hyung is a Korean term a man uses to address an older brother or an older male acquaintance. ↩ ↩2
-
Irasshaimase is a Japanese greeting used to welcome customers into a shop or restaurant. ↩
-
Dooly is a Korean cartoon dinosaur whose catchphrase is “Hoi!” The line plays on the similar sound of hoi (“goodwill”) and means that repeated goodwill can be taken for granted. ↩
-
The Tosa mastiff is a Japanese dog breed developed for fighting. ↩ ↩2
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