Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Gugang International Hotel Gate Prevention Request
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A gate emergence warning has been detected in the C-rank zone between floors 6 and 13 of the hotel building.
Five gate cores need to be sniped and destroyed.
One of them has been requested to the Lion's Castle Archery Club.
This is an urgent situation, so a prompt response is requested.
Gates are broadly divided into two types.
The first are those that persist indefinitely.
Among the gates held by South Korea, [Cocro Island] is a prime example.
These are gates that don't disappear even after completing quests or defeating the boss.
No matter how many times you clear them, you can challenge them again to hunt monsters and gather resources, so they could be called inexhaustible gold mines.
The East Asian Gate Conference is held every two years precisely to compete over ownership of these perpetually persisting gates.
In other words, they are rare gates that appear only about once every two years per region.
‘All other gates by far are one-time occurrences.’
These gates appear randomly and vanish the moment specific conditions are cleared.
If there's damage to life or property due to a gate, nine times out of ten it's from a one-time gate.
The city of Grishi, where Master Song had resided, had collapsed due to frequent one-time gates.
But lately, humanity was building up immunity to one-time gates.
Because they had developed the technology to detect precursor signs before they emerged.
In particular, cities with association branches or major guilds stationed there detected over 90% of one-time gates in advance and prepared accordingly.
‘Usually, they form assault teams to clear them immediately upon emergence...’
In this case, the best option is to prevent the gate from forming at all.
Especially since signs of a gate were showing inside the hotel building.
Gugang International Hotel was a whopping 50-story structure.
If floors 6 through 13 collapsed, the entire building could come crashing down.
If it had been signs of an A-rank or higher gate, they might have attempted a raid even at the cost of sacrificing a building worth tens of billions...
‘Losing a building like that to a mere C-rank gate would be insane.’
Yeah, the situation made sense.
There was just one part that didn't sit right.
"...At this critical juncture of whether to let a hotel worth tens of billions get destroyed or save it, you're entrusting it to students? Are there really no decent snipers left in South Korea?"
The fact that such a massive request had come to a mere school club.
No Jun-yeop bristled.
"Did you forget my nickname is Future Bow Saint? I'm better than most active pros, so they can trust me with it."
"You're worse than Kang Jae-hyeok at shooting."
"Th-that's just because that guy's freakishly good..."
"If the Gugang Group trusted the captain's skills, they would've made it a 'named request.' But your name isn't mentioned even once here, is it?"
"......"
No Jun-yeop shut his mouth after taking back-to-back hits from Baek Do-jin and Chae Da-hee.
Jang Yeon-ju let out a sigh.
"It seems like they're targeting me."
"Definitely..."
Jae-hyeok understood immediately.
Meanwhile, Do-jin and Da-hee tilted their heads.
Hae-rin, having already lost interest, sat by the window and began counting stars.
"They're probably thinking of dragging in my grandfather."
Jang Yeon-ju explained.
"My grandfather's in secluded training. There's no way to request him directly, so they're trying to pull me in to get word to him."
Once someone enters seclusion, they cut off all contact from the outside until they achieve their goal.
But few were heartless enough to ignore family matters.
Especially the Bow Saint, who had been famous since his youth for cherishing his family.
If he heard that his 'talentless granddaughter' was participating in a mission to select the top snipers, he'd probably come rushing out immediately.
He'd step in himself just to save face for his granddaughter.
"Jang Yeon-ju, you could just not participate, right?"
No Jun-yeop said indifferently, and Jang Yeon-ju shrugged.
"Once the Archery Club participates, the Gugang Group will leak false info that I'm joining too."
"Just call home and explain it's bullshit. No phone? Lend me yours?"
"...They won't believe me."
Jang Yeon-ju scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
All while cursing her younger self, who always lost all sense of proportion whenever archery was involved.
"Tch..."
No Jun-yeop fell silent.
He couldn't mock the past Jang Yeon-ju, who had dreamed of becoming the Bow Saint despite her lack of talent.
He loved shooting too much himself.
How heartbreaking and frustrating must it be to lack talent in something you love?
As a genius, he couldn't even imagine it.
"......"
Hae-rin, tearing her gaze from the window, stared blankly at Jang Yeon-ju.
Envious of her for having family who would come running at the news.
Looking at the same person, some pity them, others envy them.
"The break room's full of nothing but candy. Stock some chocolate starting tomorrow. That's an order from the acting manager."
And some were utterly oblivious.
For Jae-hyeok, who was newly realizing why human relationships were so tricky, every moment was a lesson.
Tap tap. He drummed the table and got to the point.
"This sounds like a request we'd be better off rejecting based on the description alone. So why show it to me specifically?"
It was true that Jae-hyeok had demanded priority on Archery Club requests.
But since the request came through them first, the club could easily deceive him.
Yet Jang Yeon-ju had openly shown him this one, which put her in a tough spot.
She'd even called him here specifically, hoping he'd check it out.
"Because you're the Archery Club's overseer."
I'm not trying to deceive you.
Jang Yeon-ju nailed it down firmly, then added,
"And the Gugang Group has a really bad relationship with the association. Before they developed their own gate detection capabilities, they got fleeced out of astronomical sums by the association for decades. They pay tons in taxes but get no benefits, just more extortion, so it's no wonder there's bad blood."
It was a side effect of the government failing to control the association.
While most advanced nations' associations served their citizens and businesses almost like public service, the South Korean association was busy scheming ways to squeeze money.
The association claimed that massive capital was needed for their aces to endure 'brain tribulations' and gain the strength to withstand them, and that more such aces would strengthen the nation...
But if you had to extort someone just to endure a brain tribulation and transcend, were you really an ace?
‘Useless bastards.’
The association was one of the organizations that had thoroughly plundered what his father had built.
If they'd at least improved their lives through robbery, it might be time to show some fitting behavior, but with no sign of improvement, Jae-hyeok felt immense disgust.
He even thought smashing the association and rebuilding it was his first mission.
It was the moment his eyes turned pitch black like an abyss, as he struggled to suppress his boiling killing intent.
"The worse their relationship with the association, the more likely they'll want to build a good one with you, Jae-hyeok. Assuming you've proven your skills, of course."
Jang Yeon-ju revealed the most crucial reason.
As the Bow Saint's granddaughter, she could access more information than most if she wanted.
She also knew about the re-review the association had pushed to expel Jae-hyeok from school.
Meaning she understood his relationship with the association.
"The association is annoying as hell. It'd be fun to screw them over."
Surprisingly, No Jun-yeop's reaction was favorable too.
He often participated in association-hosted shooting tournaments, and it seemed he'd suffered plenty from their bullying.
Jae-hyeok let out a hollow laugh.
"So we should accept the request? What if it disturbs the Bow Saint's seclusion?"
"I'll explain it well. If he still comes rushing out because the Gugang Group tricked him despite my explanation, then that's on Grandpa, nothing I can do."
She shook her head, saying she'd blame her grandfather, not the Gugang Group, and Jae-hyeok pointed out the most important issue.
"But do we even have the capacity to pull this off?"
"Huh...?"
"I hear gate generation mana aggregates are hard to spot with the naked eye. Plus, the mana storms are so intense that aiming is tough and projectiles lose a lot of power."
To prevent a gate's emergence, you had to locate and destroy every single 'core' generating it.
And a C-rank gate had a whopping five cores.
Miss even one, and the operation fails.
"With your skills, Jae-hyeok, it should be doable, right? We're only handling one of the five cores, so plenty of time buffer."
"If the Gugang Group is going to such lengths to lure out the Bow Saint, the other four snipers probably aren't that reliable. Worst case, we might have to handle two or more."
Above all, Jae-hyeok had no intention of leaving school lightly.
The reward was huge, and allying with a major corporation sharing a common enemy in the association was tempting...
But to him, 'survival' was paramount.
"Did you guys forget about me? The Future Bow Saint can just shine."
"You really confident?"
"...Teach me some archery."
No Jun-yeop swallowed his pride and asked to learn.
Even for the Future Bow Saint, destroying gate formation cores was no easy task.
Seeing his reaction confirmed it for Jae-hyeok.
"This isn't a problem solvable at student level to begin with. It's clearly just a ploy to lure out the Bow Saint, so better to reject it."
As Jae-hyeok concluded, Jang Yeon-ju nodded.
She hadn't liked this request either.
She'd just asked his opinion because it might help him.
"Seed Team members, assemble at the shooting range."
After skimming the rest of the requests Jang Yeon-ju had brought and picking a few, Jae-hyeok jerked his chin at his teammates.
"Who's on the Seed Team?"
Baek Do-jin blinked.
"You."
"...?"
This time, not just Do-jin but Da-hee was shocked too.
"Our team's called Seed? W-when did you decide that?"
"Just now. Me."
"Seed? Sounds like you're mocking my height, saying it's seed-sized! Lame! No way! If you're gonna name it yourself, why ask our opinions in the first place!"
"F-For once, I agree with Do-jin sunbae."
"Depending on what flower we bloom into, this team name will gain deep meaning."
Brushing off the complaints, Jae-hyeok led the way.
Looking forward to how his teammates would react to 'brain tribulation.'
Flinch!
Hae-rin, with her keen senses, detected the killing intent and startled, but Do-jin and Da-hee hadn't yet realized their fate.
Oblivious that provoking Jae-hyeok would do them no good, they kept grumbling.
Soon, in the now-quiet clubroom with just the two of them left, Jang Yeon-ju and No Jun-yeop muttered.
"The Archery Club jinx just came to mind."
"The one where rejecting a big corporation's request always brings an even bigger one?"
"Makes me uneasy..."
"Me too...."