Chapter 145
Translator: uly
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Being a Guild Master Isn't Enough with Just the Game
Ga-hyun glanced over the fancy patterns on the teacups and plates that Je-hyun had just bought.
"Because of your grandfather, I couldn't go to a big corporation, but this one good thing came out of it."
Click. Click.
Kim Je-hyun, who had been neatly setting the dishes on the table and taking photos, paused and looked at Ga-hyun.
"Uh, yeah? What?"
"No need to drink alcohol."
"Oh, right. Our company doesn't really do booze at company dinners anyway. Well, honestly, it tastes like crap."
"Who drinks booze for the taste at first? You end up drinking it once you start working in society. Sigh. Home is still the best and most comfortable. Kwon Ho-seong was nagging me to go to a second round, but I did well escaping."
"Ho-seong should've known better. Not thinking about the people waiting for Yu Ga-hyun at home."
Ga-hyun laughed.
Then she glanced at Hellcannon and Yugeon with a pleased smile.
Ga-hyun had lost her father early and grown up alone with her mother. Coming home to a house full of people waiting for her felt incredibly good.
"Can I call my heroes?"
"Do whatever you want."
"I want to call Messiah and dress him and Yugeon in matching twin costumes. Their ages look about right now."
Yugeon, who had been grabbing snacks without even touching his tea, flinched and looked at Ga-hyun.
He seemed uneasy for some reason.
The wide terrace table had been bought by Je-hyun for when Ga-hyun's bound heroes crowded the place, and it was quite large.
Lenox lifted his teacup and quietly observed the four of them.
Then he looked out the window.
"……."
This was a completely new and fascinating world to Lenox. The technology was less advanced than where he came from, but it seemed plenty convenient and abundant.
If his world had gone back to before it essentially ended, it might have looked something like this.
"How does it feel to be in a world that hasn't fallen yet, Lenox?"
Lenox turned his head to look at Ga-hyun.
Her appearance as Kaisha had changed a bit, and they called her by a different name, but it wasn't hard to tell it was the same person.
"I don't fully understand what kind of world this is yet, but I'm watching with interest."
Lenox had come from another world, and this wasn't the Babel Tower, so the auto-translator no longer worked.
Even so, using his magic abilities, he could understand others' words by grasping the specific intent behind them when they spoke, and convey his own words in the same way.
However, since 'writing' lacked 'intent,' he couldn't interpret 'text.'
Ga-hyun smiled and opened her mouth.
"That's a relief. I'd like you to accompany me to Open's inauguration ceremony in a few days. Say what needs to be said to Open, and give us some general advice about that world."
Thanks to the hunters frequenting Babel Tower Channel 1004 who had measured the time difference, they could time the inauguration perfectly.
"Sure."
Hearing Lenox's reply, Ga-hyun turned to Hellcannon.
"And Hellcannon."
"Yes."
"I want you to be the hero mascot for my company."
"!"
He didn't know what a 'hero mascot' was, but Hellcannon tensed up at Ga-hyun's first serious mention of a 'position,' straightening his back.
Ga-hyun quietly smiled and extended her hand to Hellcannon.
Hellcannon's eyes widened in surprise at her action, but he grabbed her hand before it got any later.
Ga-hyun's expression lit up with happiness.
'I want to kiss the back of his hand.'
Right before entering the Babel Tower, Hellcannon had personally requested a place from Ga-hyun.
Ga-hyun looked at Hellcannon with deep, lingering eyes and said,
"E&H's heroes are a mix of soldiers and entertainers. I'll design it based on each hunter's preferences, where to emphasize. You can't conquer the world in the 21st century with brute force alone. Besides, your image is really good."
There had been incidents where heroes from the game harmed real-world hunters and civilians, but it was widely known that Hellcannon had helped the hunters.
Ga-hyun planned to promote images of otherworlders like Hellcannon and Lenox helping people in this world to improve perceptions and actively utilize hero manpower in real situations.
Currently, not just in Korea but worldwide, heroes popping out from the game’s otherworld were vital mercenary forces for guilds.
Of course, combat was combat, but Fullminak's bound heroes, mostly stationed in Midgard's southern and eastern regions, were so handsome, pretty, and cute that it felt wasteful to use them only for fighting.
Ga-hyun gazed at Hellcannon with ecstatic eyes.
My beloved ultimate bias.
"……."
Caught in her blatantly obvious stare, Hellcannon froze red-faced without a word to say, when a voice suddenly cut in.
"Interesting."
It was Lenox who spoke.
"Who will oversee that business? If there's no suitable candidate yet, consider me. I'd like to give it a try."
Ga-hyun's eyes widened, and all eyes at the table turned to Lenox.
"You?"
"Yes. 'Entertainer' seems like a profession that implants certain intents into the public through image, right?"
"…Well, something like that."
Most people thought of dancers and singers when hearing 'entertainer,' but Ga-hyun's vision aligned more with Lenox's words.
Provide joy through various entertainments, farm faith, and burrow into people's hearts.
Bring joy to the masses while solidifying Fullminak's position.
Lenox said,
"I've been made the successor to the previous supreme leader and lived my whole life as the central nation's god. No one is more accustomed to creating and maintaining an image."
"……."
Instead of answering, Ga-hyun picked up her teacup and stared at Lenox.
War prisoner.
That was Lenox's current position in a nutshell.
Ga-hyun didn't know him well yet, and there was no real trust between them.
Asking for an important role at E&H was naturally overstepping.
It was like a trust level 1 newbie demanding a trust level 99 spot.
She was glad he was proactively choosing work that suited him since he promised to help, but……
Ga-hyun set down her teacup and said,
"You know why I'd hesitate."
"You allowed this dangerous contract despite not trusting me. You hold my lifeline. What more do you need? It's just a proposal based on what I can do, so please consider it."
Lenox's words were incredibly persuasive, shaking Ga-hyun's resolve bit by bit.
Ga-hyun stared at him, imagining him as E&H's executive, widely promoted.
As someone who had reigned as a world's 'god' his whole life, his dignified demeanor, natural white silver hair, and blue eyes would be one-of-a-kind worldwide.
Suddenly, E&H becomes a global luxury brand.
It was an enticing mask.
Lenox, enduring Ga-hyun's blatant scrutinizing gaze as she weighed it carefully, added,
"If you share your ideas in detail, I can help concretize the business and advise on governance methods. That's exactly what I did in the central nation."
Overseeing it all.
Lenox was born and bred a ruler and leader.
"Of course, it would've been better if Lea were here. That guy was a genius at inspiration especially."
Lenox continued.
"Before Lea went to the forest, he was a fountain of inspiration for ruling the central nation. He came up with countless ideas."
"Lea did?"
"Until that coincidental forest trip, Lea was an incredibly ruthless designer of hells. A truly vicious and genius outlaw."
"Really?"
As soon as Lea came up, Ga-hyun showed immediate curiosity and asked.
"What happened after Lea came back from the forest?"
"He refused to use his talents for controlling people or handling test subjects."
"I see. He must've learned the value of life in the forest."
Lenox hadn't chosen the topic intentionally, but Lea was practically the only link between him and the two people here now.
Je-hyun, sensing the mood, hurriedly brought more tea and snacks.
As the atmosphere relaxed, Ga-hyun and Lenox's conversation shifted from business to chit-chat.
Lea provided specific inspirations and visions for reading the future, while Lenox handled realization in reality and governance methods.
In their stories, the siblings' roles divided roughly like that.
From their birth in the central nation, Lea's changing perspective and growth, their conflicts and respect, their paths afterward, and the current conclusion—it flowed naturally.
Ga-hyun listened intently, fascinated by Lenox's tales.
"Ahaha! Lea was the type to reform unexpectedly! He was a real troublemaker as a kid!"
"Yeah. That guy was a bundle of mischief. He loved pranking people, pulling a lot on me and the clan."
In their world, people were artificially created from superior gene combinations, and god-like clans like Lenox's were mostly made as adults.
But the previous supreme leader added an 'adolescent phase' to Lea and Lenox for 'mental stability.'
That's why Lea and Lenox had many childhood memories.
Ga-hyun smiled and said,
"It would've been nice if Lea came here too."
Lenox didn't answer at first, then after seriously pondering, replied after quite a while.
"Who knows. I doubt that guy would've left the forest."
"…Yeah."
Lea was the forest's master, after all.
Ga-hyun suddenly remembered something and took off the necklace Lea had given her via Open.
Contrary to Open's words that it would help, it had only provoked hostility from the rampaging Lenox, but Ga-hyun still thought keeping it was the right call.
Now, as she built a friendly relationship with Lenox through business, was the perfect time to give it to him.
Ga-hyun held out the necklace.
"Take it."
Lenox stared at Lea's memento before accepting it.
"……."
Clink.
"Lea said you'd rule that world well."
At Ga-hyun's words, Lenox looked slightly surprised but quickly accepted, opening the locket necklace and looking at the photo.
"A precognition?"
"Seems like it. The Lea I saw loved the test subjects who fled to the forest like her own children—a truly warm and kind person, no, god."
"……."
"With the divinity inherited from Lea, I'll become a god who protects and loves people too, so watch over me."
Lenox lifted his gaze from the photo in the locket and looked at Ga-hyun.
His excessively perfect facial balance, white silver hair, and blue eyes created a cold aura, but the look in Lenox's eyes as he gazed at Ga-hyun held a spring breeze-like gentleness.
Ga-hyun smiled and said,
"From what I hear, it's similar to what you did before, so you're interested. Being accustomed to implementing someone's ideas makes me trust you more."
The education to become a 'god' in the central nation was akin to 'royal' training in Midgard, so Lenox was well-drilled in managing dignity and image.
If given a similar role in this world, he was confident he could excel.
"Follow me around from now on and observe how things work. Of course, you'll need to study this world's languages too. I'll buy you a phone, so adapt diligently here."
At Ga-hyun's words, Lenox smiled for the first time since arriving in this unfamiliar world and replied.
"I will."
* * *
Even after becoming World Ranking 1st, my days didn't change much.
Blissfully fangirling over my ultimate bias Hellcannon as usual, occasionally spacing out over Lenox's statue-like face, dressing Yugeon and Messiah as a cute boy-girl pair for photos and videos to fawn over, then dozing off with my head on Elfer's lap……
Fucking blissful days.
"Ah, seriously, if I pocket like 100 billion won, I wanna quit being guild master and go live on some island like this every day."
It was the exact same routine as always.
In Midgard too, unless it was siege war time, I lived like this every day.
The only difference was that everything I did only in the game had become reality.
I'd declared a break for now to everyone, but there were countless things to do if I stepped up.
"Viva Bipa Online."
"……."
Today too, Lenox, studying Korean and reading the newspaper by the sunny window, gave me a look full of things to say as he glanced over.
I was lying on the spacious sofa with my head on Elfer's lap.
A delicious smell wafted from the kitchen—soon Hellcannon and Valen would call me to eat.
Sensing Lenox's feelings, I said,
"Don't worry, Lenox. Even if I go live on an island, I'll make sure to give you a spot. Your looks spec is world heritage level."
A while ago, having realized Lenox's usefulness, I made a heart with my fingers, but Lenox from another world probably didn't get the gesture.
Lenox turned back to his studies at my words.
As befitting items rolling around in a chaebol heir's house, everything Lenox used was top-grade.
His mechanical pencil movements were exceedingly elegant.
Kim Je-hyun, smitten by Lenox's grace, offered up all the best stuff in the house and even called a professional stylist to custom-fit luxury clothes.
Seeing that, I left Je-hyun a short comment.
'You've finally decided to go gay, huh.'
'No way?!'