Chapter 564

When a company grows, what’s the first thing it should do?

Everyone would answer differently, but every CEO has a dream tucked away somewhere in their heart.

Build a headquarters of their own.

Or should I call it an expansion in this case?

I was walking through the Guild House when I stopped and looked down at the work going on below.

“Hey, can somebody lift these materials with gravity magic?”

“All right, listen up. Any former tanks here? Hands up.”

“Me.”

“Over here, too. Why?”

“Why do you think? I’m putting you to work. Five F-ranks, over here. Bring an E-rank or two as well.”

Grrrind. Boom!

Smooth marble rose and fell through the air, while every swing of the muscle-bound giants’ sledgehammers smashed apart the solid concrete walls.

More than a hundred workers bustled about. They were all Awakened, which probably explained their astonishing pace.

Of course, their wages were astonishing too. But to a young tycoon with deep pockets, they were pocket change.

“The Guild House is getting cramped now that we have more people.”

Team Leader Choi had dropped that remark a few days ago and immediately taken action.

I’d heard he bought up all the nearby land, paying above market value for it, and started a massive expansion. I wasn’t going to argue.

It’s not my money.

Besides, I had other uses for my own money.

My fifty trillion won¹ in untaxed assets was shrinking bit by bit as I spent it, but what I’d used so far was a drop in the ocean compared to what remained.

Fifty trillion won¹…

Even thinking about it again, it was an absurd amount of money. Like the figure of a man gradually approaching from beyond the corridor.

Swoosh.

A huge man glided through the air like a ghost and spoke without warning.

“Hey, I watched the press conference.”

“…?”

Wait. What are you doing here, hyung?²

I stared at Magic Johnson in disbelief before I finally managed to speak.

“What is it?”

“Why?”

“Why? That’s what I want to ask you. Why are you here again today?”

“I had something to take care of.”

“You didn’t come to use the bathroom, did you?”

“Of course not. I came to give Choi something. I figured I’d check on the progress while I was here.”

“Do you put emails in your cereal and eat them?”

“You’re not uncomfortable because I’m here, are you?”

“You didn’t think I was comfortable, did you?”

Magic Johnson let out a heavy sigh at my immediate reply.

“Hey, Jin. Harsh words hurt sensitive people like me.”

“…Hurt?”

I looked at his thick neck and iron-hard, bronze-colored arms.

He looks like a knife couldn’t cut him.

Damn, that Black dude is jacked.

With a build like that, he could quit being a mage and become a melee Hunter right now.

I wasn’t exaggerating, either. Search for “Magic Johnson’s staff,” and you’d get page after page of videos. Practically everyone knew the story of how he’d caved in an ogre’s skull with a single blow from a staff made for casting magic. People in fitness communities were still arguing over how much the thing weighed.

And he’s calling himself sensitive? Give me a break.

Magic Johnson caught the meaning of my lingering stare and shook his head.

“Not my body. My heart. The heart’s what matters, Jin.”

“Someone with a sensitive heart wouldn’t have survived the Great Cataclysm. You’re still alive and people call you a hero because you’re strong.”

“Hmm. I can’t tell if that was a compliment or an insult.”

“Take it as a compliment.”

Magic Johnson gave me a suspicious look, then went on.

“Anyway, I watched the press conference. There was a lot to read into it.”

The press conference…

I scratched the back of my head, embarrassed.

The official Blue House³ press conference I’d attended at the President’s request had caused an enormous stir. I’d heard domestic viewership had topped seventy percent, and it had made headlines abroad too.

Even two days later, related searches were holding firm near the top of the real-time rankings. They’d probably still be there a week from now.

“The broadcast mishap probably helped, and the ratings were pretty good. I didn’t know you watched it, Johnson.”

“What you’re up to is always news in the United States, Jin. President Baek’s final words must have meant a great deal to certain people. Me included.”

“Oh, that.”

“I wondered why he was praising Mr. Lee so much. Then he landed one hell of a blow, didn’t he?”

“Well, I wasn’t the one who landed it… But I bet it got under Go Jun’s skin.”

We weren’t living in the Warring States period,⁴ but anyone inheriting an organization that big still needed legitimacy.

And Go Jun, the new Vice Guild Master of Ares Guild, didn’t have much of it.

“Ares Guild is a vast empire. Even if he inherited the shares according to the will, he didn’t inherit all of Mr. Lee’s influence. If they had shared blood, he would at least have met certain expectations in Asian society. But he doesn’t, does he?”

“Lee Jungryong did have a son, but I heard he died young. He was an ordinary person who never Awakened, though, so he couldn’t have succeeded Lee even if he were still alive.”

Modern Guilds were like Murim sects. A bookish scholar couldn’t become the Sect Leader of Huashan; a Guild Master needed the power and authority of a Hunter.

Magic Johnson knew that as well as anyone. He nodded.

“True. Sseokkochoon, on the other hand, has the skill, whatever his faults as a person. I heard he passed the S-rank Hunter qualification assessment with an incredible score. The news got buried almost immediately under everything else that’s been happening, of course.”

“His name is Go Jun, not Sseokkochoon. And anyway, that bastard was Lee Jungryong’s Head of Security.”

“That’s nowhere near enough. He needs the support of the other founding heroes who made Ares Guild what it is today. But…”

“He didn’t have time.”

“Exactly. Time. Mr. Lee probably wrote that will to prepare for the worst without ever imagining he’d die so easily.”

But he had died in the end, and Go Jun had inherited the crown before he could firmly establish himself as the successor.

Being Head of Security was proof that he had been one of Lee Jungryong’s closest aides, but there were many difficulties involved in inheriting an enormous organization like Ares Guild.

Even with Lee Jungryong’s will, it would not be easy for elderly veterans to respectfully serve a fresh-faced man in his thirties as their superior.

On top of that, Go Jun himself had rapidly fallen apart since Lee Jungryong’s death.

And in the middle of all that, his legitimacy was openly denied during an official Blue House³ press conference with seventy percent viewership…

President Baek Hanseong’s remark had been both subtle and sharp.

He had indirectly criticized Ares Guild over the Mutated Gate while praising Lee Jungryong’s achievements and presenting me as the man who would carry on his legacy.

The whole thing was staged.

The press conference had been a joint production by President Baek Hanseong, who had shown an anti-Ares stance since his days as a lawmaker, and Team Leader Choi.

They’d won over reporters, fed them questions, and steered the conversation where they wanted it to go. The script and cast had been prepared from start to finish.

If Lee Jungryong had still been alive, they would have scrapped the plan. But Go Jun lacked the power to put down the new underdog’s rebellion, so we finished the shoot without a hitch—with a domestic rating of seventy percent and the foreign press shining its spotlight on us.

“Either way, it’s another small victory. We should have a glass of champagne. Where’s Choi?”

“He was busy before, but lately he’s been swamped. If we’re lucky, he might be in his office.”

“He’s not.”

Magic Johnson shrugged.

“I just stopped by there on my way here.”

“Ah. Something else must have come up.”

That was nothing new. Team Leader Choi might have held a team leader’s title, but he’d effectively been the Guild Master from the start. By now, the public saw him that way too.

He was probably one of the busiest people in Korea.

“Hey, Jin. Want to walk with me?”

“Sure. As long as we stay away from secluded spots.”

“You’ve gotten funnier.”

“…”

“…Tell me that was a joke.”

I walked faster without answering. Magic Johnson followed, stepping through the air as if he were floating, and grumbled.

“Jin, why do you keep making me out to be some kind of weirdo?”

“Because you keep saying weird things.”

“I’m joking, obviously. Besides, I have preferences. You’re not my type. That guy over there, maybe.”

I followed his gaze to a tall, handsome man walking past.

“I haven’t seen him before. New Guild member?”

“Someone might mistake you for a member of our Guild. How many people here do you even know?”

“That’s ridiculous! You think I wouldn’t remember a handsome man like that?”

“…”

Why is he so adamant about it?

He had an uncanny eye for this sort of thing. I sighed and answered.

“I don’t really know his name, but he is new. C-rank, I think?”

“I don’t know who his former Guild Master was, but he must be crying tears of blood. With looks like that, he’d draw plenty of attention. He could do well as a star Hunter.”

“His former Guild Master is probably crying blood over something else. He was humiliated at the press conference.”

“Oh. Then was he…?”

“Yeah. He used to belong to Ares Guild.”

Leaving Ares Guild for Peace Guild meant more than a simple transfer. Magic Johnson seemed to understand.

“Living proof that the impregnable fortress is starting to shake. How many have come over from Ares so far?”

“Not many. Around ten.”

“The number isn’t the point. It proves a crack has opened.”

I gave a small nod. If outsiders could see the crack, it was probably much bigger on the inside.

Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that Go Jun sent him deliberately as a spy.

That was why he had been accepted only after a thorough verification process, and I heard they planned to deploy him in actual operations little by little.

Even with the System, I couldn’t read people’s minds. Team Leader Choi’s intelligence network would be a great help there.

“What’s that place?” Magic Johnson asked. “The security looks serious.”

I’d been walking in silence, lost in thought. I looked up and saw the titanium-alloy door he was pointing at.

“Oh, that? It’s a training room.”

“The training room? A training room?”

“Yeah.”

“My goodness. What kind of training room needs security like that?”

Magic Johnson gave an incredulous laugh.

“Five overlapping spells? I can understand not wanting anyone to watch you train, but isn’t that excessive inside a Guild House?”

“Who knows?”

I kept my answer short. The room had been prepared for only a handful of people.

More specifically…

For people training in the Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique.

I hadn’t even told Magic Johnson about it. Access was limited to Team Leader Choi, Butler Kim, Song Song, and Im Kkeokjeong.

“Judging by the security, it doesn’t seem like a space open to every Guild member.”

I nodded at his observation.

“That’s exactly right. It’s for the Guild’s founding members, including me.”

“Hmm. A secret, then. Now you’ve awakened my curiosity as a mage.”

“Put it back to sleep.”

“That’s cruel. I can’t even take a quick look?”

I hesitated, then waved him off.

“No. Someone’s inside.”

“Who? Choi?”

“No.”

A sudden bitterness came over me.

“Someone who needs to train more desperately than anyone.”

“…?”

“There is someone like that.”

I couldn’t see him now, but I could picture him clearly: a middle-aged Hunter training over and over, sweat pouring off him like rain. He tried harder than anyone to act as though he was fine, even as he willed himself back onto his feet with his spirit brutally crushed.

Maybe it’s time to start that…

The thought that flashed through my mind slowly took shape as Magic Johnson spoke again.

“Can’t be helped. Give this to Choi when you see him.”

“Huh? Give him what?”

“This.”

Swoosh.

A small object slipped inside my clothes on a faint current of qi.

I felt the chip and looked up. The Grand Mage’s face had turned grave.

“It’s not just Korea and the United States. Magical power readings are soaring all over the world. Up seven percent from last year. That lucky number has never felt so ominous.”

“…!”