Chapter 24

In Jamsil, South Korea, there was a hotel suite located in a building called the Landmark of Korea. Min Young-Hoon sat alone inside the room on a wide sofa and drank strong whiskey straight from the bottle. A hideous scar on his left cheek twitched.

“Ha-!”

Thinking of the situation that transpired only a moment ago made him feel so ridiculous that he was about to go ballistic.

“It’s ridiculous that the majority of the masters of the top ten guilds are such cowards…”

Min Young-Hoon clicked his tongue as he wrote them off as cowards without any hesitation. In fact, Young-Hoon was confident in himself because of his position and ability. He was the vice master of the Heaven Guild and an S-rank level thirty player. Heaven guild was considered the second strongest among Korea's top ten guilds.

A week ago, he had sent an email to all of the top ten guilds. The contents explained that lately, the Comet Group was preparing to enter the hunter guild market and that the guilds needed to work together to prevent this from happening.

Young-Hoon had rented a hotel suite worth more than ten million won a night for the meeting and even prepared his own plans. However, none of the masters from the guilds actually showed up to the meeting. Although Min Young-Hoon had contacted everyone and confirmed that the masters didn’t have anything special planned—except Oh Hyun-Woo who was the master of Heaven Guild and was away—none of them showed.

Six guild masters sent agents instead, and all of them were at least directors of the guilds. The masters were conscious of Young-Hoon’s nickname “Mad Dog” and his reputation. However, none of the agents looked happy about the meeting. To be more precise, they showed up to this meeting looking as if they wanted to escape from it as quickly as possible. They kept trying to avoid looking at Young-Hoon’s face.

Actually, Young-Hoon knew why things turned out this way.

‘

They are scared of the Comet Group, I mean Choi Woo-Jae.

’

Young-Hoon ground his teeth and clutched his bottle tighter.

"Why are they afraid of one dying old geezer..."

It was true that the old man was a legendary figure as head of the Comet Group and displayed extremely fast development after awakening at such a late age. However, wasn’t he still an old man in the end?

Min Young-Hoon really couldn’t understand this situation.

‘

If my hyung-nim

were here at this time…’

No, the situation would be the same.

On the contrary, Young-Hoon started this all because it was easier for him to proceed without Oh Hyun-woo. After all, this was more of his personal problem. He at least wanted to prevent the Comet Group from entering the guild market somehow, but it didn’t work out the way he imagined. Just as he put his head into his hands, which now was pounding with a headache, the hotel door opened quietly. A young woman with long wavy hair and high heels entered the room with elegant steps.

“Huh? Were you drinking? I guess things didn't go as you planned.”

The woman clicked her tongue while speaking to Young-Hoon. She was speaking casually to him, even though he made even the top ten guild masters feel some pressure when speaking to him.

“...cking.”

After hearing Young-Hoon mumble a curse under his breath, the woman frowned and sat opposite of him. She crossed her legs and asked.

“Do not curse. What happened?”

Young-Hoon slowly raised his head and looked at her. His eyes were filled with burning heat.

“Did you really just ask what happened? Everyone was scared and ran away,” Young-Hoon spoke angrily. “Choi In-Young, it seemed like they would even bark if your father told them to. Woof woof, woof woof.”

“That’s enough. You’re being pathetic.” Choi In-Young, the fifth oldest member of the Choi family, scolded him as she rolled her eyes.

“I know,” Young-Hoon responded.

He grabbed the whiskey bottle and placed it against his lips once more. When he tilted his head backward, In-Young jumped out of her seat and stole the bottle.

“Why-…!”

Before Young-Hoon could even say a word, In-Young lowered her head and kissed him. Her tongue slipped past his lips like a snake.

“Mmm….”

Young-Hoon groaned and gradually calmed down. In-Young slowly swept her hair behind her ears, then withdrew from the kiss. Her eyes shone fiercely.

“Calm down, Young-Hoon. Calm down and think about it. I know this is frustrating, but you must stop this somehow. You know that if my father makes a guild, it’s obvious that he will allow my second sister to take over as the master. That would effectively wipe out any opportunity for me.”

“......”

"You said you want to marry me, and said you are going to make me the chairman of the Comet Group as the wedding present. Aren't you going to keep your promise?”

"So here I am doing all this to keep my promise," said Young-Hoon with a sigh.

In-Young sat on Young-Hoon’s lap and smiled with her eyes.

“So don't get too emotional and try to do things too quickly. Take your time. Got it?”

Her soft touch passed carefully over Min Young-Hoon's head. Young-Hoon’s eyes were burning and his hand slowly headed toward her chest. In-Young lightly pushed his hand away and spoke with a shining gaze.

"I'm just saying this because you said it didn’t go well, but I just thought of a good plan."

“What plan?” Young-Hoon asked.

He licked his lips as if he felt a bit regretful.

“My brother Yu-Seong, the ninth child of the Choi family,” In-Young began to explain her plan.

“Choi Yu-Seong?”

“Yeah, I heard he’s been out hunting alone lately.”

“So what?”

“My father doesn’t show it too directly but I know that he does value Yu-Seong quite a lot. And it seems like he’s been favoring him more recently.”

"It was quite controversial when your father protected him when he went around causing trouble,” Young-Hoon remarked.

“You know, Yu-Seong doesn’t know but my father isn’t someone to do things like that.”

“Yes, I know that very well.”

Wasn’t that why most of the top ten guild masters were so scared? That was why today’s meeting ended up failing.

“Can’t you think of anything you can do after hearing what I’ve said so far?” asked In-Young.

“About what?”

In response to Min Young-Hoon's rebuttal, In-Young smiled with her eyes. Then she sat opposite him again.

“Yu-Seong’s awakening went to his head. He’s been a bit arrogant, and he’s been a bit annoying lately.”

“Then what, kill Choi Yu-Seong?” asked Young-Hoon as his eyes widened in surprise.

“Hey, when did I ever say such a scary thing?”

“Or do you want me to kidnap him or something? Then threaten the old man to stay out of the guild market if he wants to save his son? You really think it's gonna work?” Young-Hoon seemed skeptical

No matter how much the father cared about Yu-Seong, their opponent was Choi Woo-Jae, known to be cold-blooded. He would snort and tell them to do whatever they wanted to do.

“Well, I bet it would work for at least a bit,” In-Young disagreed. Her thoughts were different from Young-Hoon's.

“Even my oppas don’t know how much that cunning old man cares about Yu-Seong,” she continued.

"Then that makes it even more clear that we shouldn’t. If we mess with Yu-Seong, I’ll be dead too.”

The fact that he cursed the other guilds didn’t mean that he was not afraid of Choi Woo-Jae at all.

"Who told you to do it yourself? You have lots of followers under your command. And you also have me,” In-Young said as she pointed to herself with her index finger. It seemd as if she was frustrated.

“Even if doesn’t care about me as much as he cares about Yu-Seong, my father still cares about me quite a lot,” she continued.

“....”

"And there's no need to kill or hurt him. You don’t have to lock him up somewhere either. He’s still my brother. Do you think I would want to do such horrible things to my younger brother? Just take him to a place that's hard to reach for a while. We just need to make my father focus on that."

“And if I do that, what happens?” questioned Young-Hoon.

"Do you think my oppas would act any differently than me? We’re all working together and making the guild business collapse,”

“It would just be stalling for time.”

In-Young sneered at Young-Hoon’s words and placed the bottle she took away from him on the table. Then she stood up.

“I can take care of that. Meanwhile, there’s no need to do something you don’t want to do. It just means… that’s all your feelings towards me amount too. At least, that’s what I will be forced to think.”

In-Young showed a sweet smile and left the suite as if she had no regrets. It looked like she really had expected nothing from him.

After she left, Min Young-Hoon looked casually at the closed door. He lifted up the bottle again and muttered.

“...Bitch.”

Before he knew it, his hand found and picked up the phone that was thrown somewhere on the sofa.

"Hey, it's me. There’s something you should do for me. The risk is quite high. The target is one of the Choi family members of the Comet group.”

Min Young-Hoon tapped the back of his cell phone with his index finger in spite of himself. He looked nervous somehow.

***

Choi Yu-Seong’s results from the last five days hunting were certainly not negligible, especially with the effects of the hunting experience boost potion and the Star Factor assisting him.

『Name: Choi Yu-Seong

Age: 20

Type: All-Rounder

Rank: E

Level: 38

Retention History:1

Special Skills: Star Factor Quality E, Fusion E

General Skills: Stylish F, Eye of Replication E, Spark E, Insight E, Vision-Reinforcement F, Physical-Reinforcement F, Dodge Roll F

Current Disabled Skill Space: No space left. If necessary, you can delete and overwrite normal skills except for the initial skills. 』

In the early evening, Yu-Seong returned home and sat at the table after taking a shower. He couldn’t stop smiling the entire time.

‘If it’s like this, I'll be able to achieve a D rank within a month.’

It wasn't only his level either; as his skill experience increased, his skills' ranks had also risen. The pace of leveling had slowed down compared to the first day, but he didn't care much about that. The growth rate was naturally designed to slow as time passed by. Moreover, the most surprising thing about the results was that he had used the hunting experience boost potion on only two of the last five days.

In fact, that was the only decision he could make.

Yu-Seong currently had no Karma points left, and he had only five bottles of the hunting experience boost potion. However, he wasn’t worried about it too much. He already sent a few people to obtain the materials needed to remake the potion. The materials he needed were items that players usually didn’t purchase. Also, even though items that appeared insignificant were sometimes traded for high prices in the dimensional stores, he could still get his hands on them. As such, he was certain that he would be able to procure a sufficient amount in the near future.

'Using the Jin sibling’s Karma points is not an option.’

The Jin siblings would lend him the Karma points if he asked, but this was something that he wouldn’t consider as an option.

There were so many ways that Karma points could be used directly to strengthen the player.

And of course, he wasn’t desperate to obtain the potions by hindering the Jin sibling’s growth. They would grow stronger and continue to be great allies to him.

His current method of leveling up wasn’t bad either. Actually, it was plenty fast enough. Realizing this, Yu-Seong's mood improved day by day.

'Now I just need to sort out about collecting supporters.’

Yu-Seong saw Chae Ye-Ryeong, who was getting ready to go home.

And just in time, Yu-Seong’s eyes met her eyes, though she had already been staring at him. She had a tiny body. She smiled awkwardly and lowered her head with an anxious expression.

"I am heading home now," said Chae Ye-Ryeong.

"Good work today, see you tomorrow," Jin Yu-Ri called out to her.

“Goodbye.” Jin Do-Yoon also said his farewell.

Ye-Ryeong smiled and waved at their goodbyes. Then she stopped her brisk pace and looked back.

“Oh, umm… sir,” Ye-Ryeong trailed off.

“Yes?”

Ye-Ryeong didn’t leave right away as usual. She looked at Yu-Seong.

"My younger siblings wanted me to give you their thanks."

“...Sorry?”

“The truth is that I don’t have any parents, but I have three younger siblings.”

The Jin siblings and Yu-Seong’s eyes quivered after the unexpected admission from Ye-Ryeong. However, the three felt something different. First, Jin Do-Yoon couldn’t stop his eyes from quivering after discovering the truth. He couldn’t help but think of how young she was. Naturally, he felt sympathy for her.

On the other hand, Yu-Seong and Yu-Ri were already aware of Ye-Ryeong’s situation through their own methods. However, the two had not predicted that Chae Ye-Ryeong would say it herself. They did not expect that she would have the courage to tell her story because she was too young and carried a lot of burdens on her shoulders.

"My life has improved a lot thanks to the two of you and you, sir. Recently, I was able to move out from the top of the shantytown and into a small apartment. I also heard from the real estate woman that unnicame and asked them to lower my new apartment’s rent,” said Ye-Ryeong.

This time, Yu-Seong looked surprised at Yu-Ri. He was wondering what Ye-Ryeong meant by saying thank you to ‘the two of you’ as well. Now he had an answer to one of his questions.

“And Jin Do-Yoon oppa asked the aunties to give me the leftover side dishes whenever I go home."

Suddenly, Do-Yoon’s face turned red. He had not known the details of her situation before now.

He helped her because he figured that she was going through hard times if she had to work at her age.

“It was nothing. That woman didn’t need to tell you that though,” said Yu-Ri.

“Hem, hm.” Do-Yoon cleared his throat.

Yu-Ri turned her eyes to the ceiling while fumbling her hands in the air while Do-Yoon kept looking at the ground.

“You both….” Yu-Seong began. He looked at the two with a big but pleasant smile.

“And sir?” Ye-Ryeong called out Yu-Seong.

“Yes?”

"To be honest, I thought you might be a bad guy like the rumors said.”

“You said ‘thought,’ in the past tense, so that means that you don’t think that way anymore. In fact, that’s a good thing right?” asked Yu-Seong.

“Yes!” answered Ye-Ryeong in a proud and loud voice. She then bowed her head to Yu-Seong.

"Now, I'm really grateful. Thanks to you, my younger siblings’ faces are brighter and their health has improved a lot. It’s all because of you, master. My siblings said they are truly grateful to you. They said they wanted to thank you personally but I said that I would say it for them because I know you are busy.” continued Ye-Ryeong.

Yu-Seong scratched his cheek.

"I'm rather grateful to hear that."

He knew it well because he was originally an orphan. It was not easy to have such a kind heart after experiencing hardships at such a young age without a parent. However, not only Chae Ye-Ryeong, but all her younger siblings were still warmhearted. He felt his own heart warming.

‘

All I did was to give her some money, and it wasn’t even that much.

’

Moreover, that was still something like a future investment strategy of his, but the returns he gained today made him feel quite strange.

"Thank you very, very much. It's not enough, but I'll do my best. Then I’ll see you tomorrow as well!" Ye-Ryeong spoke with a laugh.

Her eyes seen through her hair were filled with joy. Such a pure, innocent appearance was refreshing.

Choi Yu-Seong and the Jin siblings also laughed with her. Ye-Ryeong bowed once again and ran outside. Her face had turned red, perhaps embarrassed.

Only the three of them were left.

"I actually... I didn’t understand why you hired her,” said Yu-Ri.

“Is that why you went all the way to her house and tried to help her?” replied Yu-Seong.

"Those are two separate matters. I just felt so bad for the kids."

Yu-Ri did not ask Yu-Seong how he knew about Chae Ye-Ryeong's family situation.

Since it was Yu-Seong that decided to hire her, Yu-Ri would try her best to thoroughly investigate her. It was just how she was. She always crossed the Ts and dotted the Is. And fortunately, Chae Ye-Ryun did not seem to be particularly displeased with this.

“Continue on, so?”

"I just thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to help her, even though it could end up meaningless.”

"It turns out that the young master already knew all the facts,” said Do-Yoon.

“Uh…Sort of?” responded Yu-Seong.

Do-Yoon looked at Yu-Seong after hearing Yu-Ri’s explanation. His eyes were sparkling and likely to even start crying soon.

"I'm very... very proud of you, young master," said Do-Yoon.

"No way! Brother, are you crying?” asked Yu-Ri.

"No, I was just a little touched."

"That's what crying means. How old are you?” Yu-Ri picked on Do-Yoon.

Looking at the two, Yu-Seong couldn't explain that he hired her because he knew that she would develop outstanding abilities in the future. There was definitely something that Choi Yu-Seong felt from this incident.

“I’ve done a good deed.”

It was something he had never thought about before since he never had the luxury of having something to give. For the first time, he learned what it was like to do something for others.

1. Hyung-nim is meant to be spoken from one male to an older male in a more respectful way

2. address towards an older brother in Korea

3. an address towards an older sister in Korea