Chapter 106. Isn't That... Brainwashing? (2)

Lee Yeon-Hwa silently watched as the youngest—and arguably cutest—member of the Shine Guild munched noisily on a piece of jerky.

At just twenty, Hunter Chae Ye-Rin had undergone Awakening and faced more than her fair share of challenges. She had awakened a skill called Jewel Priestess, which required her to sacrifice expensive gems to use. The effect of the skill changed depending on the gem she offered.

As the number of skills she could use expanded greatly with additional sacrifices, countless guilds tried to recruit her despite the high cost of investment. In the end, Chae Ye-Rin chose to join the Shine Guild, but not before enduring quite a rough time. Each day, recruiters from different guilds came knocking. Some foreign guilds even offered to sponsor her citizenship.

Naturally, the government had leaped into the fray too. A Hunter capable of wielding dozens of Skills was too valuable to ignore.

Oh dear, Ye-Rin's mother is going to be shocked...

Lee Yeon-Hwa thought, her heart heavy with concern.

It was Chae Ye-Rin's mother who had rescued her from the brutal tug-of-war of recruitment. She had regularly volunteered at an orphanage every weekend, where she had met Lee Yeon-Hwa. They worked together to pull her daughter out of that chaos.

Perhaps sensing the stare, Chae Ye-Rin turned her head mid-chew. "

Hmm?

Uh... Guildmaster, do you want some too?"

She pulled out a small square paper box from her pocket. It was charming, with a delicate design. If it weren't missing the ghastly warning images[1], it would look exactly like a cigarette pack.

The box made Lee Yeon-Hwa's eyes widened as she was struck with an ominous thought. How could she look at Chae Ye-Rin's mother in the eyes now?

"Wha-what is that?" she blurted.

"Ah, the

motherokker

gave it to store my jerky."

"Motherokker?"

"Motherfucker Kim Ki-Rok. We call him that for short."

While Lee Yeon-Hwa stood frozen, mouth agape, Chae Ye-Rin casually opened the paper pack with one hand. With a swift flick of her wrist, she pulled out a piece of jerky and held it out to her Guildmaster.

"It's delicious. Try it. This jerky was made with his Cooking Skill, so it even boosts your stats."

"N-no, I'm good, thanks."

"But it's really good," Chae Ye-Rin mumbled softly, popping the jerky into her mouth.

She sat down cross-legged, chewing away as she scratched her throat.

Lee Yeon-Hwa changed the topic. "Miss Ye-Rin, what level are you now?"

"Level 67. I went up again just now, probably from chopping up the boss during the Gate clear."

She had gained sixteen levels in just a month. Impressive. At this rate, she'd be ready to join the next Gate clear. But that wasn't the issue.

Chae Ye-Rin got a notification on her phone and looked at the screen to see who it was. "Oh, it's Mom."

Lee Yeon-Hwa flinched, glancing at Chae Ye-Rin. She felt troubled thinking of the shock Chae Ye-Rin's mother—that kind, gentle woman who was always volunteering—would feel at what her daughter had become.

***

While Lee Yeon-Hwa stared blankly at the girl who had gone from sweet to full-blown delinquent, the Guildmaster of Baekdusan Guild was watching his own guild's reformed troublemakers.

They sat reading reports with perfect posture, hands on their knees and backs straight. Was he seeing things? No, they were actually

reading

reports. The whole scene felt more like a military barracks than a Hunter's expedition tent.

One of the troublemakers spoke up. "Guys, I'm heading to the restroom. Guildmaster, requesting permission to leave for the restroom. Guildmaster Kim Ki-Rok said we start in five minutes, so we've got three minutes and thirty seconds left."

"Uh, yeah... okay."

They were reporting to him. These same troublemakers who'd once had zero teamwork were now reporting their every move.

Suddenly, Jang Baek-San heard Lee Mi-So address him from the side. "Guildmaster."

"Huh? What is it?"

"Do you think they might be possessed?"

"What?"

"No, really... How else do you explain this? How could their awful personalities completely change in just one month?"

She wasn't wrong.

The three who had been dispatched to the DG Guild were infamous nuisances of the Baekdusan Guild. Their teamwork wasn't just lacking, it was nonexistent. They once threw punches at a Hunter for merely brushing shoulders with them at a Gate entrance. Getting drunk, causing scenes, getting arrested—it was all routine for them. They regularly "donated" to the state by way of fines.

As one of them got up to head to the bathroom, his shoulder bumped into someone passing through the door.

"Ah, my apologies," said the man entering the meeting room.

The former delinquent shook his head. "No, I should be the one apologizing. I should've stepped aside, with how narrow the doorway is. I'm a Hunter, so I'm worried I might've hurt your shoulder... Are you okay?"

He was apologizing not to a woman, but a

man.

It was a younger civilian no less. In the past, he'd have responded with his fists. But now? He was not only apologizing, he looked genuinely concerned.

"Are they really possessed?" Jang Baek-San muttered.

They say sudden change in a person is a sign that death is approaching...

A baffled laugh escaped Lee Mi-So's lips as she looked past Jang Baek-San at the Hunters sitting stiffly upright. "Oppas."

The three simultaneously raised their heads to look at her and answered in unison. "Yes, Senior Mi-So."

"Senior?"

"Even if you joined three months earlier, a senior is still a senior, right?"

"Well, yes, but..."

Lee Mi-So—the guild's mascot, the beauty, and various other nicknames the trio had once used—had never, not even once, been called "senior" by them. All she could do now was stare blankly at her so-called juniors, just as Jang Baek-San had done.

"Senior?" she repeated, incredulous. "Uh, uh. No. Can you just address me like before? That's really weird."

The two Hunters answered simultaneously with a stern look, "We won't."

"We are Hunters who risk our lives fighting monsters," one said.

"A single mistake can lead to death," the other added.

"That's why the chain of command must never be broken."

"Especially not inside the Gate, which is our battlefield."

"We must uphold this system even outside the Gate."

"To survive."

"In the war against monsters."

In just a month, the seed called teamwork had been planted in them. And it hadn't just sprouted, it had grown into a towering tree.

Five minutes later, the Hunter who had gone to the bathroom returned, and at the same time, Kim Ki-Rok walked into the meeting room.

"Oh! Everyone's here," he exclaimed.

It was hard to believe, but in the short time he had been in charge of them, he had turned a kind, timid woman into a tough, jerky-chewing college girl. As for the Hunters who used to "donate" fines every month, they had become warriors who lived and died by his command.

The troublesome trio rose from their seats, now disciplined like Spartans, with their heads slightly bowed toward Kim Ki-Rok.

"I must be going crazy..." Jang Baek-San muttered as he looked at the scene.

***

The meeting started with an explanation from Kim Ki-Rok. "Kim-Lee-Bae of Baekdusan Guild are..."

"Wait a minute, who?" Jang Baek-San interjected, confused.

"Kim Gwang-Hyun, Lee Tae-Jun, Bae Jin-Chul. Among Kim Ki-Rok and the Kids, they're known as the Kim-Lee-Bae Brothers."

"Ah, I see."

Kim Ki-Rok nodded. "Since the Kim-Lee-Bae Brothers awakened with powerful skills, they lacked teamwork. So, I had to drill some into them."

"How?" Jang Baek-San asked, leaning in.

"As you saw earlier, in order to ensure the rapid growth of our kids, we hunted all the monsters inside the Gate. And we didn't stop until we had fully cleared the Gate."

"Without any rest?"

"We can't afford to rest. Although we gave up on additional stat increases for the sake of rapid growth, we haven't given them up entirely. Because of that, we have to sacrifice a bit of our physical and mental well-being. It's the only way to gain additional stats. Anyway, that's why our kids have been continuously fighting on the front lines for a long time."

"Continuously fighting..." Jang Baek-San muttered.

Kim Ki-Rok smiled brightly. "That's right, they fought without rest."

"Without

any

rest?"

"Yep."

Jang Baek-San paused for a minute, taking the information in. "What does that have to do with teamwork?"

"I don't intervene unless things get very dangerous. In other words, even if the wall collapses and monsters break through and surround our kids, I don't step in."

"Really? Isn't that dangerous?"

"No one has died so far."

"So... people have gotten hurt, then."

"We have potions. And we have Ji-Hee. Injuries are no big deal for us."

As Jang Baek-San stood there, momentarily at a loss for words, Lee Mi-So quietly raised her hand. "Guildmaster."

"Yes, Miss Mi-So?"

"Does Ji-Hee have a healing skill?"

"Well, through her, we have the abilities of Kan Cho-Woo, the Archwizard spirit who can use healing magic, and Miss Ayl, a High Elf spirit who can use species-specific magic to increase recovery using the power of nature."

"Ah!"

Kim Ji-Hee helped spirits reclaim the power they had when they were alive, and in many ways, that power could be considered an extension of her own natural talent.

"Of course, since we're using the ordinary mana Ji-Hee possesses, not the pure mana of a High Elf to fuel the species-specific magic, the effect is halved... but healing magic is still healing magic."

Lee Mi-So nodded as if she understood. "I see."

Kim Ki-Rok continued. "On the first day, our Kim-Lee-Bae brothers caused an accident. Even though I had explained the strategy and tactics to them in advance, they went off on their own to hunt monsters. As a result—"

"What was the result, Guildmaster Kim Ki-Rok?" She cut in, eyes wide.

He gave her a look. "If you keep interrupting, I'll get bored and stop talking. And then we'll all just sit here in silence."

Lee Mi-So laughed, and Jang Baek-San sighed.

"So, what was the result?" he asked.

"We were almost wiped out. I had made it clear that no one rests until the Gate is cleared. That meant we had to follow the strategy and tactics to clear the Gate safely. But the Kim-Lee-Bae brothers ignored that. They went off on their own, and the wall was destroyed. The kids stationed on the wall got surrounded by monsters. We were on the brink of annihilation."

"And you're saying they changed after that incident?"

"How could they? They acted completely shameless. They said my methods were too dangerous, that I was trying to kill them, and so on."

"So?"

"Like a teacher sending report cards directly to parents to stop students from hiding them, I thought about doing the same, sending recorded battle videos of our Hunters to their guilds."

"You ended up showing everyone this video?"

"That's right. After that, the Gate was cleared by Hunters, excluding the brothers, and it was a complete success."

Even with Kim Ki-Rok and the other DG Guild members supporting from the rear, the Gate clear had been so intense that the others wondered if they would survive. Naturally, the three brothers received death stares from the other dispatched Hunters. It was then they began to realize how crucial it was to follow the strategies and tactics Kim Ki-Rok demanded.

"The brothers only properly joined the Gate clear five days after that incident. They were so dissatisfied with the situation that they refused to participate."

Jang Baek-San blinked a few times with wide eyes. "Huh? That's news to me."

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Kim Ki-Rok nodded. "Yes. Because I didn't tell you."

"Why?"

"On the tenth day of the dispatch, the Kim-Lee-Bae brothers rejoined the raid again."

"They did?"

"Yes. Remember I said I recorded their battles? I didn't just send the videos to the guilds that dispatched the Hunters, I shared them in a group chat with all the dispatched Hunters. Naturally, they saw them too."

Watching their fellow Hunters grow in skill and level through those videos while they sat idle had to sting their pride.

"In addition, I sent out each dispatched Hunter's level in the group chat."

The differences in skill and level quickly became obvious.

"They had all been dispatched to the DG Guild on the same day, but the gap in ability was already clear. Even the prideful Kim-Lee-Bae brothers couldn't keep skipping Gate clears."

"What happened in the end?"

"The Hunters were repeatedly thrown into battles that required intense cooperation. And the brothers? They were put exactly where cooperation mattered most, that is—"

"

Ha!

That is?"

"They were placed on the front line, clashing with monsters more than anyone. There—"

"There?"

"They sat through lectures given by warrior spirits or spirits who've experienced war firsthand. After nearly getting their comrades killed by their recklessness, those three spent their rest time listening to these lectures. Among the spirits helping Ji-Hee, there's a knight who specialized in leading large-scale battles."

Jang Baek-San realized with a sinking feeling that his skeptical theory might actually be true.

Kim Ki-Rok continued. "Their willpower was already worn down from constant fighting. The lectures, infused with mana, easily broke through their mental barriers. Simply put, the content stuck in their heads better than normal lectures. It

stays

with them."

"Uh, um... Guildmaster Kim...?"

"Yes?"

Jang Baek-San paused, taking it all in. "You know, isn't that... brainwashing?"

"No. It's just that the particular lectures emphasizing the importance of teamwork were the ones that got stuck in their heads, coincidentally."

That's the very definition of brainwashing...

Jang Baek-San thought.

1. This is referring to the graphic health warnings commonly found on the pack of cigarettes that depict organ damage, cancers, etc. ☜