Chapter 305

“Are you feeling any better? You can’t have fully recovered yet.”

“…I’m fine.”

“If it gets too hard, take a rest. You may still be young, Team Leader Seok, but if you keep pushing yourself, you’ll wear yourself down.”

“I have no excuse.”

Lee Jungryong shot a glance at Go Jun, who answered with a pale face, and clicked his tongue inwardly.

I never expected him to go down so easily.

Go Jun was the most useful blade Lee Jungryong possessed.

Although his abilities were not known outside their circle, Lee believed that fewer than five people in all of Korea could stand against him.

Of course, two of those people were Cheon Taemin and Lee himself.

To take him down in a single move… He exceeded my expectations.

Lee could no longer deny it. He had underestimated Jin Taekyung and the Peace Guild.

The gap in strength was laughable, yet he was the one who kept getting humiliated.

His gaze settled on Go Jun’s bowed head.

“Go Jun.”

Go Jun looked up. Lee calling him by name meant this was a conversation between Master and Disciple, not between the Vice Guild Master and his Head of Security.

“Yes, Master.”

“You are the Disciple I poured my heart and soul into training. Never forget that.”

“I have never forgotten it for a single moment. You are more than a parent to me, Master.”

Lee Jungryong nodded at the unwaveringly loyal answer.

Go Jun fell short as a Disciple in many ways, but his loyalty was second to none.

Lee had held off until now in the faint hope that it would not be necessary…but the time had come to sharpen his blade further.

“You were not defeated. You merely fell. I will give you the strength to rise again.”

“Strength, you say?”

“For now, that is all you need to know. I will make you strong enough to defeat Jin Taekyung with your own hands.”

“…!”

Go Jun’s body trembled as he bowed deeply.

“Thank you, Master.”

“Always remember that your Master believes in you.”

Despite his warm voice, Lee Jungryong’s eyes had sunk to unfathomable depths.

Oblivious to that fact, Go Jun raised his flushed face. By then, the faint sound of someone approaching could be heard beyond the door.

“He’s finally here.”

Go Jun frowned at Lee Jungryong’s mutter.

“He missed the agreed-upon time.”

“Let it go. He’s only in the first year of his term. He wants to enjoy it while he can, before he becomes a lame duck.”

“Even so, to keep you waiting…”

“Team Leader Seok. Remember your position.”

“Understood.”

Go Jun returned from Lee Jungryong’s Disciple to the Ares Guild’s Head of Security and fell silent.

Not long afterward, the door opened and five or six people entered.

The middle-aged man leading them strode toward Lee Jungryong and extended his hand.

“I apologize for keeping you waiting. Traffic was particularly bad today. It reminded me once again how valuable an escort vehicle can be. Ha ha.”

His manner was courteous yet confident. He was someone who could offer his hand first to Lee Jungryong, the de facto leader of the Ares Guild.

The middle-aged man wearing the Korean flag pin on his chest had every right to do so.

Lee Jungryong shook his hand with a faint smile.

“Think nothing of it. Thank you for making the trip, Mr. President.”

Baek Hanseong, the twenty-seventh President of Korea and the youngest person ever elected to the office at the age of forty, nodded.

“It’s been a while, Vice Guild Master Lee. Is this the first time we’ve met since my inauguration at the beginning of the year?”

“That’s right. We seem to be meeting more often than I expected.”

“Pardon me? Ha ha.”

Baek Hanseong let out a dry laugh at Lee Jungryong’s answer.

He knew full well how much power the man before him wielded.

People even said that Korea had two presidents and that the Ares Guild House was another Blue House.¹

He never once visited the Blue House during the previous president’s term.

The major Guilds were impregnable fortresses built from power and wealth.

And Lee Jungryong, the man who held the Ares Guild in the palm of his hand, enjoyed a status surpassing even that once held by the heads of the chaebol conglomerates.

There were two reasons Baek Hanseong could meet with such a man now, even unofficially.

First, he was still early in his term and enjoyed the full support of the people. Second, they had a matter in which they could help each other.

“They say people become more relaxed as they grow older. I suppose that doesn’t apply to me.”

“You really are refreshingly direct.”

Baek Hanseong understood the meaning behind Lee Jungryong’s subtle remark and held out a pristine white document envelope.

“An unofficial diplomatic letter from Chairman Xiao Yang.”

“Unofficial, as expected.”

“Yes. As you know, that’s how it is.”

The People’s Republic of China. As its formal name suggested, China remained a deeply rooted communist state.

The Communist Party leadership wanted neither unrest among the people nor any loss of faith in the Party.

“You’ve managed to conceal damage on that scale. I’m not sure whether to call that impressive.”

“If the truth comes out, all of China will descend into chaos. By then, there will be no going back.”

Among the tiny number of people who already knew the truth, however, the incident was being called the Sichuan Catastrophe.

The Chinese Communist Party leadership had announced that a major earthquake had struck and deployed the People’s Liberation Army to seal off the surrounding area.

“A Lich, was it? That Named Monster ended up helping China’s Central Committee, albeit unintentionally. I hear even satellites from the United States can’t see what’s happening inside.”

“It’s spatial distortion magic. Extremely powerful spatial distortion magic.”

“I see. I’m still completely ignorant when it comes to magic.”

“It may have helped the Central Committee, but it will have a negative effect on the war situation. We have no idea what is actually happening in there.”

Unlike his unhurried voice, Lee Jungryong’s eyes raced across the words on the documents.

A short while later, after confirming everything, a quiet mutter escaped between his lips.

“Thirty A-rank Hunters and two hundred B-rank Hunters…”

The documents from China were a contract to hire them as mercenaries and resolve the crisis.

They also contained one clause that Lee Jungryong could not overlook.

“They singled me out.”

President Baek Hanseong nodded.

“They say the Central Military Commission strongly insisted on it. They believe the Ares Guild and your role, Vice Guild Master Lee, will be decisive in this matter.”

“I imagine so. The situation must be growing desperate enough to spiral out of control.”

“As you know, China has a great many Hunters, but relatively few of them are truly elite.”

“That has always been China’s problem.”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Lee Jungryong’s fingers slowly tapped the documents. A calculator was whirring inside his head.

The forces China had requested amounted to twenty percent of the Ares Guild’s total strength.

No. If Lee Jungryong joined them, that figure rose to fifty percent. Fewer than twenty S-rank Hunters existed in the entire world, and each one was an absolute powerhouse.

They must be desperate.

This was not the first offer China had made.

Three days earlier, Lee Jungryong had held a secret meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Korea. The footage shown alongside the proposal had far surpassed his expectations.

That was tremendous magic.

The ability to command more than several thousand monsters. Magic with overwhelming destructive power.

It was on an entirely different level from the Liches he had encountered during the Great Cataclysm. He had seen only a single spell, but that had been more than enough to grasp the danger this incident posed.

However…

Danger always comes with a commensurate reward.

Establishing a foothold in a dictatorship was never easy.

The Sichuan Catastrophe was a disaster to some, but an opportunity to others. And the terms China had offered were sweet—so sweet that Lee worried one of his competitors might seize them first.

As long as I’m there, this operation cannot fail.

Having reached his decision, Lee Jungryong finally spoke.

“I accept China’s proposal.”

“That is a wise decision.”

A smile appeared on President Baek Hanseong’s lips.

If the Ares Guild made a major contribution to resolving the crisis, it would yield considerable diplomatic benefits as well. As someone who wanted to achieve something significant during his term, Baek could not have been more pleased.

“I’m the one who should be grateful that I can help my country and Your Excellency. However…”

Baek Hanseong’s smile faded at Lee Jungryong’s next words.

“I heard a rumor that similar proposals were made not only to the Ares Guild, but also to several of the other ten largest Guilds in Korea.”

…

“I know it’s an unfounded rumor. But I thought I’d ask you, just in case.”

After a brief silence, Baek Hanseong answered.

“It seems a baseless rumor has leaked out. Nothing of the sort will happen.”

At that moment, the chief secretary standing behind Baek Hanseong thought to himself:

I’ll have to remove tomorrow’s unofficial meeting with the heads of Korea’s ten largest Guilds from the schedule.

Only after pruning away those irritating stray branches did Lee Jungryong smile brightly.

“Just as I thought. I understand. I’ll select the necessary personnel immediately.”

But Baek Hanseong was not finished.

“The rumor about the ten largest Guilds is false, but it isn’t entirely baseless.”

Lee Jungryong paused while gathering the documents.

“What do you mean?”

“Among the Guilds that received China’s proposal, there is one that does not belong to the ten largest Guilds.”

“Don’t tell me…”

A sudden thought flashed through Lee Jungryong’s mind.

At the same time, Baek Hanseong opened his lips.

“The Peace Guild, to which Hunter Jin Taekyung belongs.”

“…!”

Lee Jungryong’s face hardened.

Again. Once again, that bastard was getting in his way.

Those three syllables—Jin Taekyung—were beginning to irritate him even more than the name Choi Minwoo.

“That is rather inconvenient.”

Lee Jungryong’s voice rasped like sandpaper.

That green president, with a shelf life of only five years, had known about this and done nothing to stop it.

Lee was aware of the new president’s anti-Ares political leanings, but wasn’t this tantamount to openly making an enemy of him?

Suppressing the shout threatening to burst out of him, Lee Jungryong spoke.

“When there are too many boatmen, the ship ends up on a mountain.”

“I’m aware.”

“Your Excellency, this is not a matter that can be handled so simply…”

Baek Hanseong’s calm reply cut him off.

“The owner of the boat personally called for those boatmen. There was nothing I could do.”

“The owner of the boat… Surely not?”

“Yes. Chairman Xiao Yang named them personally. He specifically requested that Vice Guild Master Lee, the Ares Guild, and Hunter Jin Taekyung all participate.”

“…!”

Lee Jungryong’s eyelids trembled.

At the sight, President Baek Hanseong felt the same thrill he had experienced when he defied everyone’s expectations and won the presidential election. Suppressing the smile threatening to escape, he glanced down at his watch.

“The Peace Guild is a very small operation, so perhaps that’s why they prepared so quickly. They should already be aboard their flight by now.”

—You treacherous human.

“Wow. So this is first class.”

—I was wrong to think you merely treacherous and foolish. I humbly apologize.

“Damn, these cushions are incredible. What kind of alcohol do they have?”

—You are mad. A lunatic. A mad bastard. A crazy fuck!

“Look how spacious these seats are. I could live here.”

—You insane human! Don’t go!

God, he’s noisy as hell.

Pretending not to hear the Skeleton Warlord screaming inside my Inventory, I asked Team Leader Choi, “How much does one of these cost?”

Team Leader Choi launched into his answer as if he had been waiting for me to ask.

“This new model from Focke-Wulf, the German aircraft manufacturer renowned for its outstanding technology—”

Here we go again.

I hurriedly cut him off before he could start explaining the history of Focke-Wulf’s founder.

“I don’t know if it’s Focke-Wulf or Pokémon Black Friday, but I’m asking how much a plane like this usually costs.”

“An aircraft like the one we’re on now should cost a little over one hundred billion won.²”

“Hmm. I should buy one.”

Anyone who overheard me would have stared at me as if I were insane.

But it wasn’t impossible.

I recalled the conversation Team Leader Choi and I had shared only a few hours earlier.

“It’s a shame, but please tell Grandpa Jongseok³ I can’t go.”

“It isn’t Grandpa Jongseok. It’s Chairman Xiao Yang. In any case, that is unfortunate.”

I’m sorry too. Promoting my name and raising the Guild’s standing both sound good, but that place is a bit much.

They offered ten billion won.

How much?

Ten billion won. If you go beyond the promised period of one week, they’ll calculate an additional ten billion won per week.

Weekly pay? T-ten billion won a week?

It can’t be helped.

B-but I’m still not going. With thousands of monsters and a crazy skeleton mage, even I have to draw the line. It’s not like I’m some money-crazed bastard.

They say they’ll pay fifty trillion won to whoever kills the Lich.

Ah, now I suddenly feel like eating something spicy. I hear Sichuan cuisine is incredibly hot and savory…

…

Fuck it. Let’s go.

All the preparations were completed at lightning speed. Only Team Leader Choi and I would be leaving for China.

Chairman Xiao Yang had only wanted me in the first place anyway.

This isn’t about the money.

I was going solely to help the suffering people of China and raise the Guild’s standing.

With my face full of noble resolve, I turned to Team Leader Choi.

“But, Team Leader Choi.”

“Yes?”

“If I make fifty trillion won⁴… Do I split that with the Guild too?”

…

“Let’s settle this before we go. Money matters need to be handled cleanly.”

Team Leader Choi stared at me in disbelief before answering.

“We’ll split it nine to one.”

This guy was something else too.

As we stared at each other like we were both human garbage, an announcement came over the cabin speakers and the private jet sent by China began to take off.