Let Me Show You Reality
[1:30 PM]
Still half-asleep, Jeong-Hoon glanced at the time and rubbed his eyes.
"…?"
An impossible hour to be waking up. Ever since becoming Gaju he had never slept this late, so he could scarcely believe it. Not that Jeong-Hoon had suddenly become an early riser; Butler Ju simply woke him every morning without fail.
Knock. Knock.
"Have you risen, sir?"
Jeong-Hoon, still puzzling over the anomaly, nodded as the knock sounded and Butler Ju entered.
"Uh, is something wrong?"
"…Ahem. I merely knocked and came in as any normal person would."
Butler Ju took Jeong-Hoon's question to mean Why are you knocking now when you never used to? and cleared his throat. Yesterday's knock from Park Jin-Yang had made him realize a fault he had never noticed, and he had resolved to correct it. Yet as head butler he still had his pride, so he papered over the past as if it had never happened.
"No, that's not it. Look at the time."
Jeong-Hoon, who had only been joking about the knocking the day before and hadn't given it another thought, held out his phone and pointed at the clock.
"You retired only at six this morning, so I was simply waiting for you to wake."
"…Ah, right. That happened."
Butler Ju's words brought back the marathon negotiation with the President the previous night, and Jeong-Hoon nodded. It had been a dense, rapid-fire session in which he had even used the breaks as excuses to consult separately with the vassals and align their positions. Exhausting as it had been for him, President Seong Hyeon-Jang had charged in with the resolve to settle everything on the spot, leaving Jeong-Hoon no choice but to match that pace.
"So when did they say they'd announce it? Yesterday he looked ready to draw his sword."
"…It has already been announced."
While Jeong-Hoon had been lost in sleep, the Hunter Association reform bill forged through the back-channel talks had already been made public. Startled, he looked around, realized something was missing, and snapped his fingers.
Knock-knock.
"Pardon the intrusion. I've brought tea."
As if on cue with the snap of Jeong-Hoon's fingers, Lee Young knocked and entered the guest suite.
"…Did the Twelve Vassals get together while I wasn't looking and agree to start knocking from now on?"
"We have only done what we always do."
While Lee Young prepared the tea with her usual air of perfect composure, Jeong-Hoon rose from the bed and moved to the sofa.
"Butler Ju, turn on the TV."
At the snap of Jeong-Hoon's fingers, Butler Ju operated the remote. The only reason Jeong-Hoon bothered asking was that he had no idea which channel carried the news at this hour. At this time of day he was normally training or occupied with something else; he had never simply sat in front of a television.
"Reform of the Hunter Association is certainly necessary. However, this particular reform bill shows the government refusing dialogue and—"
A political talk show filled the screen, various panelists already deep in debate. Jeong-Hoon shook his head—not because the commentary irritated him, but because he was still only half awake.
"Yesterday… what exactly did we settle on the…"
"The tea is ready, Gaju."
As Jeong-Hoon waved his hands vaguely, trying to dredge up the memory, Lee Young set the freshly prepared tea before him.
"…Thank you, Head Maid."
One sip, and his mind slowly began to turn. The terms of the negotiation rose to the surface.
"It was the Ministry of Awakened Innovation, wasn't it? They already announced that?"
Jeong-Hoon asked, recalling the heart of yesterday's talks. Butler Ju and Lee Young both nodded.
The Ministry of Awakened Innovation. They had claimed they would reform the Hunter Association; instead they had torn it out by the roots. The Association would revert to a private organization, while a brand-new cabinet-level ministry would be established and the Association's functions transferred to it. That was the core of the plan.
"They kept insisting on putting 'Dungeon' in the name, yet in the end they went with Ministry of Awakened Innovation?"
"Given how strongly Gaju felt about it, even the President had little choice."
Butler Ju answered with a nod.
"If they had refused, I was ready to flip the entire table."
"The fact that you did not flip it from the outset already demonstrates remarkable restraint."
Jeong-Hoon nodded and sipped his tea. Merely recalling yesterday's negotiation made his head throb.
The moment he saw the President's draft, Jeong-Hoon wondered whether the man was joking with him.
It was so out of touch with reality that Jeong-Hoon almost suspected the President had no grasp of how the world worked.
"What exactly is this supposed to be?"
He did not even finish reading. He simply fixed the President with a razor-sharp glare, making no effort to hide the hostility in his voice. Cold sweat beaded on the President's forehead.
"It is only a draft. And since it was written from our side's perspective, it is naturally skewed in our favor."
"In our favor? You think this is still at that level? This is highway robbery with the knives put away."
In broad strokes the plan simply transferred the Hunter Association's duties to a newly created government ministry. The family had already braced itself for that the moment the Association fell under state control, and Jeong-Hoon had accepted it as well. Even so, the document was packed with provisions he could never tolerate.
First: mandatory Awakened testing for every citizen aged twenty and above.
"Is this a proposal to introduce a caste system into a democratic nation?"
"It is solely because of the danger posed by unregistered Awakened."
"If the government itself drives mandatory testing, this country will become an Awakened-dominated society overnight. Mr. President, do you by any chance share Nova's ideology?"
This was an entirely different matter from voluntary registration. At present Awakened might face social discrimination, but they were still treated as a privileged class. If the state began hunting for them with single-minded zeal, the unspoken belief that Awakened are superior to Non-Awakened would surface in the public mind. Visible castes of Awakened and Non-Awakened would solidify overnight. That was why Jeong-Hoon went so far as to compare the proposal to Nova and made no effort to hide his disgust before moving on to the next offensive clause.
Second: overhaul of the guild system. Only hunters holding a government-recognized veteran license—Guild Master licenses—would be permitted to found a guild.
"Does this even make sense?"
"Guilds do require oversight. Their moral hazard has already reached critical levels."
True enough; cases like So-Hyeon's proved how severe the abuse of power by certain guilds had become. Jeong-Hoon did not deny it.
"Even so, this only benefits the government. As I read it, the real intent is to turn every guild into an extension of the government's army."
Only hunters friendly to—or already subservient to—the government would be allowed to form guilds. The moment the rule took effect, guilds would become the state's hunting dogs. To keep their licenses, they would have no choice but to display pro-government leanings.
Third: S-class and higher Awakened would be designated as special management subjects under newly enacted law. The stated purpose was to build an emergency contact network of high-tier Awakened so their cooperation could be secured more easily. In practice it meant that any S-class or above could be conscripted into hunter duties regardless of personal will—even without hunter registration.
"Which lunatic brain came up with this draft system?"
Worse, the clause would sever Jeong-Hoon's own limbs. Every one of the Twelve Vassals was S-class or higher, and every one of them had registered openly as an Awakened. Once they fell under special management, the government could lawfully monitor every move they made. What freedom would that leave him?
"I know it is excessive. But as the recent terrorist incident demonstrated, the power of S-class and higher Awakened is indispensable in emergencies."
"Then ask for cooperation. Do not try to dominate them."
Jeong-Hoon snapped the retort and shifted his gaze to the clause that had enraged him most of all.
Fourth and final: transfer of the Hunter Association's S-class measurement authority to the government. The instant he read it, Jeong-Hoon understood why the President had come to him—and his anger ignited.
This was the one clause that could never be realized without him. Even if the rest were rammed through by force, this required Lumen's absolute cooperation—no, Lumen's permission. One of the primary reasons Lumen still wielded lasting influence over the Hunter Association was precisely its proprietary S-class measurement technology.
An S-class Awakened was a fundamentally different being. The ranks S, SS, and SSS were not playful labels. Crossing the threshold into S-class meant breaking through a wall. Profound changes followed; the individual became something wholly distinct from anything up to A-class. That was why the rank existed, and why the higher tiers above it were named as they were. Unlike monsters, whose ranks simply measured raw strength, an Awakened's S-class could not be determined by output alone. Set the bar by raw power and countless A-class would suddenly become S-class. The measurement method itself was an entirely separate technology.
"Korea is called a hunter superpower, yet the reality is that most of the critical technology still depends on Lumen. So that we do not fall behind other nations, could you not transfer the technology out of patriotic duty?"
Sensing Jeong-Hoon's fury, the President tried to seize the initiative. Jeong-Hoon simply shook his head.
"Butler Ju. Tell the President the reality."
"Regarding the nations that possess S-class measurement technology and other related techniques… Lumen maintains branches in every one of them."
At Jeong-Hoon's snap of the fingers, Butler Ju delivered the devastating fact with calm precision. Hearing it, President Seong Hyeon-Jang finally grasped the truth.
Until now every corporate tycoon he had met, no matter how powerful, had instinctively bowed before the President of the Republic. When the government pushed a policy, corporations died. Businessmen therefore had no choice but to kneel. Jeong-Hoon was different. The President had assumed the young man was simply a rich, spoiled brat who did not understand how the world worked. The reality was otherwise. To Jeong-Hoon, Korea was merely one country among many with which he could do business.
"So then—shall we stop playing games and negotiate properly?"
Jeong-Hoon spoke with quiet force. The stunned President could only nod blankly.
Watching the broadcast and replaying yesterday's negotiation in his mind, Jeong-Hoon confirmed that every detail of the public announcement matched the agreement without the slightest deviation, and nodded.
"I was half-afraid they might try something underhanded, but it seems we're fine."
"Once a man has seen reality, he no longer has the nerve for games."
The first clause—mandatory Awakened testing—had been revised into an annual opportunity for every citizen aged twenty and above to receive free testing. Since testing was already free, the practical difference seemed small; yet those who took the test once a year would now receive paid leave and bonuses. Full implementation still required amendments to labor standards and other statutes, so it could not take effect immediately.
The second clause fixed the Guild Master license requirements at three years of hunter experience or A-class rank and above.
The third clause was simply deleted. It had been non-negotiable from the start.
The fourth was likewise struck out.
And the provisional name "Dungeon Development Department" had, under Jeong-Hoon's unyielding insistence, become the Ministry of Awakened Innovation.
The government's role is not dungeon business. It is mediation between Awakened and Non-Awakened citizens.
That was Jeong-Hoon's conviction. "Dungeon Development Department," whatever the justification, gave the impression that the state intended to throw itself into the dungeon industry, and he had disliked it intensely.
"Huh? There's no announcement about the PS Association."
"…They appear to have judged the timing premature."
Only the first two revised items and the transfer of Hunter Association duties had been made public. Jeong-Hoon shook his head. He had not simply erased the last two clauses out of spite. As the President had said, an organization capable of responding to true emergencies was necessary. In place of the third and fourth clauses, therefore, something new had been created—something that would also secure Lumen a massive share of influence.
A special emergency-response organization called the PS (People Saver) Association would be established. It would be a non-profit funded by donations from the state, corporations, and guilds. Not only hunters but any Awakened could join, and members would receive a modest monthly activity stipend. In return, they would be obligated to cooperate whenever the PS Association was called to an emergency. The family had also agreed to transfer its S-class measurement technology to the new body.
Once the Ministry of Awakened Innovation came into being, Awakened registration and dungeon affairs would fall under government control, while the Hunter Association would function purely as an interest group representing hunters. That left the family needing a new organization through which its influence could flow strongly—one capable of exerting leverage over both government and hunters alike. By founding the PS Association, the family intended to seize that leadership. "Technology transfer" was only a polite phrase. In practical terms, the moment the PS Association was born it would become a subordinate arm of the family. It would also serve as an excellent smokescreen through which the family's military power could be projected openly.
"It really was a magnificent plan."
"I never want to hold another nonsense free-for-all press conference again."
Jeong-Hoon shook his head vigorously, remembering how he had simply said whatever came to mind during the press conference held to manage the fallout from the rescue operation.
"After lunch, prepare for us to go out."
"Where will you be going, sir?"
"If they think the timing is premature, then we'll simply advance the timing. Dragging this out until they change their minds would be a disaster."
"Do you intend to storm the Blue House?"
Jeong-Hoon, half-risen from the sofa, nearly toppled at Butler Ju's words.
"What? Why would it be that?! We're going to Diana!"
The way to advance the timing was to manufacture public opinion. And manufacturing public opinion required lobbying. Lobbying required both funds and information. Funds they possessed in overflowing abundance. Information, however, remained incomplete. Therefore Jeong-Hoon intended to take full control of Diana—the family's intelligence network.