They Choose to Stay
Department Head Im opened his mouth after hearing the D-Team leader's words.
"Ah, I heard about that last time. But will it work? Taking a healer who hasn't even run an E-rank dungeon into a D-rank one."
"Oh, of course. There's a real joy in raising them, actually. Looking at her growth speed, if I take her she'll climb up in no time. From the Awakened's own perspective it'll be good too. The money coming in is on a completely different level, isn't it? Our team's healer's contract isn't ending anytime soon, so there's plenty of time to raise Lee Donggeul."
Right in front of me, these bastards of a department head and D-Team leader were scheming to snatch Lee Donggeul away.
These fuckers—whose property did they think they were eyeing?
My blood pressure spiked so hard my face felt ready to burst.
At this rate my entire plan would collapse.
I'd been intending to raise female Awakened who suited my tastes into money-making slaves and enjoy the good life, and these assholes dared to interfere!
I needed to say something, fast…
"Ah, from our team we'd like to take that Kim Isol? We're short on close-range dealers, and someone of her caliber should be decent enough. Her mana looks a bit lacking, but she's a fresh Academy graduate chick, so she'll grow quick. Types like that grow faster when they play with the big kids, after all."
"Then we'll yield on the others and take Baek Hwayeon. With our team her growth will be fast, and more importantly, as a ranged class the team synergy will be excellent—she'll be relatively safe."
It wasn't just one or two of them.
Had I been too impatient?
Should I have raised them more slowly?
I'd only just boosted Kim Isol's mana, and now I was about to lose her without even getting proper use out of her. What a waste.
Hyenas, the lot of them.
In that moment I finally understood exactly how Senior An Sora had felt.
Fucking bastards I'd chew up and spit out if I could.
No one called out any of Senior Kim Chan-il's Awakened.
That made no sense.
Senior's team was an F-Team running E-rank dungeons.
If anyone should be pulled first, it should be them—that was the normal order of things.
I'd watched the presentation and combat footage from Senior's team right before my own. The hunting ground had been an E-rank dungeon so the difficulty was a bit higher, but looking purely at the Awakened's abilities, they weren't on a drastically different level from ours.
That was how much I'd grown my own team, after all.
Even so, there was a proper order to these things.
If the skill levels were similar, shouldn't the ones who'd joined the company earlier get priority?
I wanted to spit that irritation out in words.
Even if it was in front of the superiors.
"Um…"
I'd always been the type to blurt out whatever emotions or words were sitting inside me, and that habit had put me through more than a few twists and turns.
Even standing in front of the strong—Awakened who could kill me if they felt like it—I'd never managed to keep my mouth properly shut.
Maybe the reason was something like this.
After the incident that took my family, I'd wanted to become strong.
But I never had.
Even so, just because I was a little weak, I had no desire to live a life of groveling in front of the strong.
Especially not in front of Awakened.
Maybe the resentment ran deeper because I'd been screwed over by them so many times.
Or maybe I just hated that the heroes I'd dreamed of turned out to be such trash-tier pieces of shit.
And yet I was still a coward, so the humiliating experiences at their hands weren't just one or two.
Not long ago Kim Isol herself had put me through exactly that.
I'd wanted to fix this personality of mine.
Because one day I might run into a real lunatic and get beaten to death for a single wrong word.
Standing up to the strong and refusing to submit might look cool, but in terms of actually surviving it was nothing but a liability.
So I should have been watching my mouth all this time…
But the situation had reversed.
I no longer had any intention of fixing this personality.
Hell yes—I was going to say what needed saying.
Humiliation?
I'd gained the power to speak with my head held high.
I had no plans to take humiliation from anyone ever again, and if I somehow did, I would pay it back several times over without fail.
"May I say something?"
Besides, this was a situation where I absolutely had to speak up.
This was a problem that needed to be challenged and settled.
I had zero intention of sitting here like an idiot watching them snatch my entire rice bowl away.
If I'd had the money I would have quit this company ages ago, but it wasn't that time yet, so I still kept the bare minimum of manners as I spoke.
I turned to Department Head Im.
"I'm sorry, but isn't this a bit much? Why are you only taking all of my team members?"
"Ah, Team Leader Kang, you still don't know? Deputy Head Park hasn't told you yet?"
Told me what?
I hadn't heard a single thing.
Department Head Im shot Deputy Head Park a look, and Park opened his mouth.
"Ah, look at me. I was so busy yesterday I must have completely forgotten, Department Head. Really. Sorry about that, Team Leader Kang."
I stared hard at Deputy Head Park, waiting to hear whatever the hell he was about to say.
Let's hear what kind of conversation these people had been having behind my back, deciding things however they pleased…
"Ah… our company, you see. Calling it 'this opportunity' would be disrespectful to the dead. With Team Leader An Sora's F-Team going through dissolution procedures after the Hwaseong Gate incident and disappearing, we were thinking of disbanding all the F-Teams. So with the company president and…"
Ah, so the whole "commute to the dungeon yourselves" thing really had been a way of telling the Awakened to leave on their own?
They should have just said it straight—rookies like us wouldn't have figured it out otherwise.
"…after careful consideration, we made the decision. But then you went and did excellent work this time. You took our rookies and hunted an F-rank dungeon boss, didn't you? That changes the story. Letting go of promising young Awakened with such bright futures would be a loss for the company, wouldn't it? So we decided to break up your team entirely and slot them into the empty spots on the D-rank and C-rank teams. Sorry I didn't tell you in advance, Team Leader Kang."
"Then…"
"Ah, and we decided to keep Kim Chan-il's team. Our company decided to maintain only one F-Team. We originally thought about eliminating them all, but we decided to keep at least one. Sponsorship money came in, you see."
"Deputy Head Park. That matter is, ahem…"
"Ah… pretend you didn't hear that part."
From the company's perspective, F-Teams were an investment looking toward the future.
No matter how many E-rank and F-rank dungeons you ran, it was a 99.9 percent loss-making business.
In fact, the more you ran them, the more the losses snowballed.
But companies like ours couldn't secure talent capable of running C-rank or D-rank dungeons any other way.
So they'd been maintaining them until now…
Had the Hwaseong Gate incident hit that hard?
No—this wasn't the time to worry about the company.
My own team was about to be blown apart right now.
"We'll send Jang Yong to Kim Chan-il's team and the remaining three to D-Team…"
"Wait a minute. Then what about me?"
"Hmm… Team Leader Kang, you'll go back under Kim Chan-il. Don't make that face, man. We're taking you along. Going back under someone will be tough, but we won't cut your salary."
What the fuck kind of bullshit was this.
I was so stunned I lost the ability to speak.
What was I supposed to do?
Go back under Senior Kim?
I didn't want to.
But there was no way out.
If I wanted to quit and start my own company, I'd need at least enough capital for a single initial mana-coated suit and weapon rental before I could even try anything.
As for Awakened, I could just grab any women and make them or seduce them with my ability, but money was something I had no way of producing.
Equipment rental fees weren't pocket change, and why would any gear company lend out that kind of expensive equipment based on trust alone?
You'd need a security deposit of several billion won just to borrow anything.
"But isn't this a bit excessive? The Awakened themselves—there's no way those kids will agree."
"We're offering them more money. Why wouldn't they? Team Leader Kang, calm down and take a seat."
"Then let's ask them right now. I'll go call them."
"Haa… Fine. You stay here, and Kim Chan-il—sorry, but could you go call Team Leader Kang's Awakened?"
"Yes."
In the end Senior Kim went out in my place.
But why send him instead of me?
Because they were worried I'd coordinate stories with the Awakened ahead of time if I went?
Fucking…
Surely those kids wouldn't leave me, right?
How much mana had I raised for them?
Still, a sliver of anxiety remained.
They might think it didn't matter if they went to another team, as long as they met me on their days off for mana reinforcement.
And I couldn't exactly announce right here that if they stopped being my team members I'd never see them again and there'd be no more mana boosts.
My mouth went dry and my insides burned.
Irritation surged up.
I was dying to know what the hell they would say.
"Is it over now?"
Led by Kim Isol, the kids filed into the conference room.
Whether it was because of the few words I'd said during my presentation, all of them looked pleased and the atmosphere was good.
I'd only exaggerated their abilities so we could go for E-rank dungeons, but these simple-minded kids had bought it completely.
"I have an official notice for the Awakened under Team Leader Kang Junghyeok."
Because it was an official matter, Deputy Head Park spoke very politely to the young Awakened.
But it was a notice, not a request for opinions…
It pissed me off, but in the end it would be fine as long as our Awakened rejected the entire notice.
"The team you currently belong to is being dissolved. Kim Isol, Baek Hwayeon, and Lee Donggeul will each move to D-Team, and Jang Yong will move to the F-Team led by Team Leader Kim Chan-il."
Jang Yong aside, the other three looked greatly pleased.
Of course they did—they'd suddenly skipped E-rank dungeons and were being sent straight to D-rank ones.
Company treatment and earnings would be on a completely different level.
On top of that, because the C-Team and D-Team leaders had heaped praise on them while watching the footage during my presentation, they were under the delusion that they were actually overflowing with skill.
Were they really this dumb?
By the way, even Jang Yong was getting ignored by our own company?
What the hell was going on?
That was when Kim Isol opened her mouth.
"What about that guy?"
She pointed a finger at me and asked Deputy Head Park.
So I was "that guy" now?
She wouldn't even call me Team Leader?
Ah… because I wasn't a team leader anymore?
But she did at least know my full name properly, right?
The question rose, but I decided to just watch quietly.
"Ah, Team Leader Kang will go under Team Leader Kim Chan-il and support the F-Team."
"Yeah? Then I'm going to that team too."
"Excuse me?"
"I said I'm going to that team too!"
That idiot…
The answer I'd been hoping for came out of her mouth.
Kim Isol… fuck.
Why are you making me tear up like this.
I felt a warm, sticky surge of emotion welling up from deep in my chest.
Moisture rapidly gathered at the corners of my eyes.
Right after her, Baek Hwayeon and Lee Donggeul also spoke up.
"I… also want to go to that team…"
"Can't I go to the team Team Leader Kang is on too? I don't want any other team…"
I truly felt rewarded.
Even if the scenery they were looking at was different from mine, it didn't matter.
Even if they weren't looking at the person named Kang Junghyeok but thinking of me as a mana-raising machine, that was fine.
You fucking bitches.
I love the hell out of you.
Alright, now that the Awakened have come out like this, what are you going to do, you rotten Department Head Im?
I glared at Department Head Im with my eyes wide open so the tears wouldn't fall.
Cancel the team dissolution right fucking now!
"Huh… well now."
"Um, everyone. If you go to D-Team your base salary goes up and you also receive incentives based on performance. If you wish we can even rewrite the contracts…"
Department Head Im only let out a hollow sigh, and Deputy Head Park tried to persuade them.
But Kim Isol didn't so much as blink.
"Forget it. I don't want any team that doesn't have that guy."
"But…"
"I said no!"
At Kim Isol's shout, everyone wore troubled expressions.
It wasn't because of her rude behavior.
Awakened with that kind of prickly personality were overflowing in our company.
There had to be at least ten of them.
The real reason they looked troubled was that every single one of the rookie Awakened had chosen me.
And because this goddamn meeting was flowing in a completely different direction from the plan they'd set up.
In the end Deputy Head Park turned to me and asked,
"Team Leader Kang, what's going on here?"
Once again, it wasn't me who answered—it was Kim Isol.
"You dumbass. We got strong because that guy was there."
"That's right. Without Team Leader I never would have been able to use heal more than ten times."
"I… feel the same. My archery as well…"
Cute little things.
If I could have my way, I wanted to dote on all three of them at once tonight.
Rawr!