Chapter 18
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Explosive Growth, and Opportunity - 3
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“Haaah!”
Lee Hyun-wook let out a ragged breath.
Each time he exhaled, gray smoke billowed out, just like it had from Gwak Jin-cheol.
The room was already filled with thick smoke.
Yet the fire alarm remained silent, as he had taped over the sensor.
‘It’s almost over.’
He rolled off the bed and began to crawl somewhere.
His target was the refrigerator.
He finally reached it and, with a trembling hand, pulled out a bottle of water.
*Gulp— Gulp— Gulp— Gulp—*
With every swallow of cold water that traveled down his throat and reached his stomach, white steam hissed into the air.
The furnace was functioning properly, melting and boiling everything that entered his body. And then, absorbing it completely.
‘I feel like I’m going to die.’
The thought crossed his mind countless times, but he knew it wouldn't happen.
He had already experienced this pain several times before.
He slowly scanned the messages floating before his eyes.
- Current Controllable Metal Weight: 17,499g
It was now a staggering 17.5kg.
If he were to manipulate 300g daggers, he could move about 60 of them simultaneously. In that case, the force behind each dagger would be roughly equivalent to him swinging one with his own hand.
His metal detection ability had also improved, allowing him to sense a 500g piece of metal from 135 meters away.
‘Thirty-six hours…’
That was how long he had been cooped up in this room, absorbing nothing but metal. In that time, the 11kg of metal piled on the floor had vanished without a trace.
But the aftereffects were severe.
Green lines stood out on his skin. For some reason, the color of his blood vessels had changed.
- Warning! You have been ‘poisoned’ by various types of toxins.
“Grrrgggh…”
A tingling numbness, a stinging ache, nausea, dizziness—all of it tore through his body.
He was suffering from poisoning after swallowing metal enchanted with a poison attribute.
However, these symptoms were part of an adaptation process.
- Level 2 Poison Resistance is being generated. (81%)
‘It’s working as it should.’
Resistance had three levels, and with each increasing level, the status effects and damage from poison would decrease. Beyond that, he would gain ‘immunity,’ becoming a body that could not be killed by most poisons.
Of course, achieving that would require swallowing an amount of poison that was truly beyond imagination.
‘…For now, Level 2 is enough.’
That wasn't all.
- Congratulations! You have succeeded in your 1st Potential Breakthrough and acquired a ‘Characteristic Skill.’
Each time his metal control surpassed a certain threshold—10kg, 100kg, 1,000kg—he would be granted a ‘Characteristic Skill.’ He had just passed the first of those gates.
The skill he obtained was…
[Skill Information]
- Name: Metal Shatter
- Rank: D
- Effect: Consumes mana to ‘shatter’ a certain amount of metal.
* Mana consumption varies depending on the mass of the target.
‘As expected, I got just what I needed.’
He caught his breath and pushed himself up.
He reached a hand toward the nail clippers resting on a table in the corner of the room.
*Voom—*
The nail clippers floated into the air.
‘…Shatter.’
The moment he thought it,
*Cra-a-ack!*
With a series of sharp cracks, the nail clippers exploded.
Like a piece of wood being ground into sawdust, the fragments shot out in all directions, scratching the wallpaper, the table, and the bed.
*Sh-sh-sh-shk!*
A few pieces even flew toward Lee Hyun-wook’s face.
*Whoosh!*
Just as his face was about to be torn apart,
*Voom—*
The fragments stopped dead in the air.
They began to fly in a circular pattern, following his gaze, before neatly stacking themselves on the table.
He was lucky it was just a small pair of nail clippers. If he were to shatter a sword several times larger… no, if he were to apply this to tens of kilograms of metal, the destructive power would be beyond imagination.
“Hoo, good…”
He forced a smile, enduring the feeling of his body being crushed.
***
Lee Hyun-wook stood at Yeongdeungpo Station.
- 11:31 AM
Nineteen hours until he had to return from leave.
And fourteen hours until ‘that incident’ occurred.
‘There’s one more thing to do before then.’
Lee Hyun-wook had two main goals for this leave.
The first was to drastically increase his ‘metal control’ and, furthermore, to secure a stable supply of metal. That had been neatly resolved by striking a deal with Master Kang Jeong-du, just as planned.
And the second was…
‘…Money.’
Money. A simple, yet most crucial word. He needed it.
‘There were many reasons we lost to the Villains, but the core issue was money.’
Gordon Price’s ‘dark money’ had moved beneath the surface, buying power, hiring Players, and acquiring items.
Slowly but surely, he had taken complete control of everything.
‘It’s impossible to have more wealth than Gordon Price, but I at least need enough not to be swept away by his money games.’
Lee Hyun-wook calculated his own assets.
‘I have about 7 million won left in my bank account…’
Then there were the three Rank 5 Orbs exchanged for reward points and one Rank 3 Orb he got from the orc. A rough estimate put their total value at around 11 million won.
‘A total of 18 million won…’
It was pathetic.
Even if he scraped together every last penny of his net worth, compared to Gordon Price, the owner of <Blue Tree> who was already worth tens of trillions at this point, it was less than a drop in the bucket.
However, knowing the future meant knowing where and when money would gather.
‘I know which industries will boom after the upcoming 4th Wave.’
In other words, if he invested in those ‘stocks’ early, even a small sum would soon snowball.
‘But I won’t be able to pay attention to that whole process myself.’
He could manage a small amount online at first, but as the sum grew, the time required for the work would inevitably increase.
Moreover, countless incidents were still to come, most of which would require him to fight for his life, so he needed to focus on improving his abilities and training.
He needed someone to manage his assets professionally.
Someone who was sharp with the flow of money, diligent in their work, and above all, trustworthy…
‘…There’s one person who comes to mind.’
His name was Park Cheol-su, Lee Hyun-wook’s high school senior.
‘Right now, he’s just running a small guild, but in the future, he becomes the top Player agent.’
Moreover, as an ‘analyst’ type Player who would later lead the charge, he was also the benefactor who found the ‘method to increase abilities’ for Hyun-wook, something Hyun-wook himself hadn't known for a whole decade.
‘After Kang Hee-seol, he’s the second human resource I need to secure.’
Perhaps people were an even more important resource than money.
***
As Lee Hyun-wook stood in front of the <Hope Guild> office on the second floor of a rundown commercial building near Singil Station,
*Crash!*
The sound of something shattering came from inside.
“Hey, fuck! Hyung! Seriously, don’t make me hit you!”
It was a threatening voice.
‘That voice… it’s Lee Won-cheol.’
That was the name of a thug who was a high school classmate of Lee Hyun-wook.
And the person he was threatening was none other than… the Guild Master, Park Cheol-su.
‘That guy was one of Park Cheol-su’s biggest headaches.’
Park Cheol-su was a senior to both Lee Hyun-wook and Lee Won-cheol in high school.
Although he was a senior, there was a significant eight-year age gap. By the time Hyun-wook and Won-cheol graduated, Park Cheol-su was already working as an assistant manager at a famous guild.
Then one day, through an introduction from the vice-principal, who had once been Park Cheol-su’s homeroom teacher, their connection began when Park Cheol-su agreed to help out his much younger junior Players.
‘Among the people I know, few were as altruistic as Cheol-su hyung…’
He helped the juniors he connected with to the very end. In fact, one of the reasons he decided to start his own guild like this was to take care of the juniors who had nowhere else to go.
‘But that kindness… Lee Won-cheol repaid with a stab in the back.’
Lee Hyun-wook took another step toward the office door.
Then he heard Park Cheol-su’s voice—a voice that seemed to be groveling, unbecoming of a Guild Master.
“Well… Won-cheol, you know we didn’t get many requests this month… I even had to dip into my savings to pay your salaries. I’m really sorry, just bear with me a little longer.”
“Hey, I don’t know about all that. It’s the Master’s job to find quality work so the guild members can go out and earn money, right? Who are you blaming for not doing your job properly?”
Lee Hyun-wook peeked through the slightly ajar door.
A burly figure in a leather jacket, Lee Won-cheol, blew cigarette smoke across the desk, right into the face of a man in a wrinkled shirt, Park Cheol-su. It was a display completely devoid of manners.
“Cough! Cough! W-Well, I kept looking for jobs, but you guys rejected all of them…”
“Ah, goddammit, seriously!”
Park Cheol-su flinched in surprise at Lee Won-cheol’s shout.
“Hyung! Is being an event security guard a real request? Huh? Seriously, it’s so fucking embarrassing…”
“…”
“You have to bring us decent requests so me and the guys can work with a sense of mission! Fucking hell, a security guard? Are you serious? Right, guys?”
As Lee Won-cheol said that and turned around, three men sitting on the sofa nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, that’s right! I want to do ‘Gate operations’ like other guilds.”
“Seriously, work has been so boring lately.”
“Honestly, I’m thinking about just going to another guild.”
Those three were guild members recruited by Lee Won-cheol; they were practically his minions.
‘Even back then, while the Guild Master was Park Cheol-su, the real power was Lee Won-cheol.’
At the time, Lee Won-cheol was a Player with considerable potential. He had reached C-rank just three years after his awakening.
And so, bloated with arrogance, Lee Won-cheol had become blinded by greed and decided to repay kindness with betrayal.
‘Even his methods were incredibly petty and dirty.’
He would secretly harass guild members he didn't like until they quit, then fill their spots with his own lackeys, slowly devouring the guild and seizing control.
All of this happened while Park Cheol-su was dithering due to various personal issues. In the end, Won-cheol swallowed the guild whole and sold it off to another guild.
Lee Hyun-wook didn't wait any longer and opened the door, stepping inside.
*Ting-a-ling— Ting-a-ling—*
As the bell on the office door rang, Park Cheol-su instinctively shot up from his seat.
“Oh, welco— huh?”
“Oh? Hyun-wook!”
“Ha, what’s this now…”
Three people recognized Lee Hyun-wook.
Park Cheol-su, Lee Won-cheol, and Kim Ji-yeon, a female classmate who worked as the guild’s administrator.
“Hey, Tin Can Controller, what brings you here?”
Lee Won-cheol said, flicking his cigarette ash onto the floor.
The relationship between Lee Hyun-wook and Lee Won-cheol had not been good for a long time.
In fact, it was quite bad.
“Hyun-wook, it’s been a really long time… Have you been well?”
Kim Ji-yeon asked, breaking the momentarily awkward atmosphere.
Lee Won-cheol snorted in response.
“How well can a fucking soldier be doing?”
“…”
“Ah, I wouldn’t know since I went straight into a guild, but a bottom-feeder’s life is pretty much what you’d expect…”
Lee Hyun-wook said nothing. He just walked in naturally and sat down on one side of the sofa. He then glanced around the office before his eyes met Park Cheol-su’s.
“Cheol-su hyung, I came because I have something to tell you. Are you busy?”
“Ah, uh, well, Hyun-wook, right now is…”
“—Hey!”
At Lee Won-cheol’s sudden shout, all eyes except Hyun-wook’s darted to him.
“...Forget what you have to say, you fucking punk. Shouldn't you at least say hello when you see an old friend? I’ve said a few things to you, and you just ignore all of them? You annoying bastard…”
At those words, Lee Hyun-wook’s gaze, which had been fixed on Park Cheol-su, slowly shifted to Lee Won-cheol.
“…Lee Won-cheol.”
“What, you bastard! Why are you lowering your voice all serious-like?”
“I’m not your classmate. I’m a guest asking the Guild Master a question, so you shut your mouth.”
In an instant, a vein bulged on Lee Won-cheol’s forehead.
At the same time, the three men sitting on the sofa, Lee Won-cheol’s loyal lackeys, began to glare at Lee Hyun-wook with hostility, and a heavy tension settled over the entire office.
“Hahaha… This F-rank bastard must have gotten beaten up in the army and lost his old memories… I was already in a shitty mood, but hoo— you’re fucking dead after I finish this.”
“…”
“Our Hyun-wook, you came because you wanted to get beaten up like in middle school, right? Huh?”
Lee Won-cheol spat out all sorts of curses, then stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the desk.
“I’m already done. Too late to run, you bastard.”
Then, he lifted the ashtray, brought it to his mouth, and hawked up phlegm from his throat.
“Haaack! Ptui!”
But…
“…Huh? Uh? What the!”
He had clearly spit into the ashtray, but the glob of phlegm had landed on his own thigh. And the aluminum ashtray he was holding…
*Voom—*
…had slipped from his hand and was now floating serenely in mid-air.
The left side of Lee Won-cheol’s face twitched.
It was obvious to anyone that this was Lee Hyun-wook’s doing.
“Ha… Lee Hyun-wook, you, you son of a bitch…”
Lee Won-cheol kicked his chair back and stood up, then stomped toward Lee Hyun-wook.
“…You’re really dead!”
As a ‘Fighter’ class Player, he could hold his own even without a weapon. He was even confident he could win in a bare-handed fight against an orc.
“Woah, Won-cheol, no!”
“Hey! Don’t do it!”
Park Cheol-su shot up in alarm, and Kim Ji-yeon shrieked, but there was no stopping him.
But in that moment, something truly strange happened.
*Shhh-lk!*
Lee Won-cheol’s pants, his belt with the skull buckle, came undone in the blink of an eye.
“Huh?”
As if someone had pulled them, they dropped to the floor, taking his pants down with them.
And just like that, Lee Won-cheol’s yellow Winnie the Pooh boxers were exposed for all to see. What’s more…
“…Ugh!”
Lee Won-cheol tripped over his own fallen pants and tumbled to the ground with a thud, creating a ridiculous scene.
“…H-Hyung-nim!”
That wasn’t the end of it.
The belt moved like a snake, slithering over his butt and thighs to tightly bind his two ankles together.
*Shhh-lk!*
Without lifting a single finger, he had bound his legs in an instant.
“Ugh, this, this, you bastard! Hey! What are you doing! Get him!”
Lee Won-cheol’s furious scream rang out.
But the three loyal lackeys on the sofa couldn't do a thing.
“Uh, uhhh…”
They just stood up awkwardly, their eyes wide as they darted back and forth between Lee Hyun-wook and Lee Won-cheol.
“Uh…”
Throughout the entire event, Lee Hyun-wook hadn't moved an inch from his relaxed position on the sofa.
He didn't even spare Lee Won-cheol a glance, instead speaking in a very calm voice.
“Cheol-su hyung, I don’t have much time. Can we talk for a moment, right now?”
And while he spoke, the bizarre scene continued.
*Sss-sss-sss-sss—*
From the black bag Lee Hyun-wook had set down, gray lines began to crawl out on their own. They writhed like living snakes, approaching Lee Won-cheol, who was flailing on the floor.
They were steel cables, commonly known as wire ropes.
*Sss-sss-sss-sss—*
“Aaaah! What is this! H-Help me!”
The sight of thick steel cables slithering as if alive was truly grotesque.
Lee Won-cheol struggled, trying to escape, but he didn't even have time to pull up his pants.
Four strands of steel cable coiled around Lee Won-cheol’s body like anacondas.
“…Ugggghhh!”
Watching Lee Hyun-wook subdue the C-rank, level 21 Player Lee Won-cheol without lifting a finger, the people of the Hope Guild could only stare with their mouths agape.
Park Cheol-su slowly nodded his head.
“O-Okay, Hyun-wook… You’ve changed a lot… What did you want to talk about?”