Baekseong Group (1)
Baekseong Group (1)
Even though the weapon meant for his guild was destroyed, the Supreme Swordsman showed no reaction.
That was because the value of the 23-enchantment legendary weapon that would soon be in his hands was far more precious than the destruction of some 21-enchantment piece of junk.
"...Is this a dream?"
The leader of the HammerKing team, who had lost his own dream right before his eyes, was also dumbfounded.
"It is dream?"
His own greatest success in life had also been a 23-enchantment.
Back then, a player with an immense amount of money had brought hundreds of Transcendental Enhancement Stones.
They had only managed to secure one after destroying dozens of legendary weapons.
The cost consumed back then was in the tens of billions.
But now, what on earth is this....
The silence in the competition hall was broken by the voice of the announcer who had finally come to his senses.
- Ahem, with the destruction of the HammerKing team's weapon, at this very moment, the OppaPantySaranggae team proudly takes the victory with a 23-enchantment legendary weapon!
Followed by a thunderous roar of cheers and applause.
The award ceremony began.
The attention was focused squarely on A-yeon.
The HammerKing team, whose weapon had been destroyed, didn't even make it to the rankings, let alone 2nd place.
The Fragment of God, the original objective, was handed over by the Supreme Swordsman.
A-yeon accepted the fragment in her capacity as the winner.
Dohyun, who was in the role of an assistant, clapped from behind.
'...What is this.'
A-yeon was confused.
She had never received this much attention in her life, and besides, this wasn't an achievement she had accomplished with her own strength.
She was no different from any other blacksmiths scattered here.
Just an ordinary person who happened to have a good brother.
A beneficiary of an absurd trait called Probability Manipulation.
She had just emptied her mind and swung the hammer, and ended up creating a 23-enchantment legendary weapon.
To the many players who didn't know that fact, OppaPantySaranggae looked like an unapproachable genius.
- Now, OppaPantySaranggae-nim. You successfully completed a 23-enchantment weapon without failure, something no one expected. Are you not disappointed?
"...Yes?"
- After all, it's a 23-enchantment legendary weapon. If you sold it, you could make a profit of tens of billions in Korean won.
It was a bit disappointing.
If she had made the weapon alone without Dohyun's existence, she might have just run away with it right there.
A-yeon knew the importance of money, after all.
However, A-yeon's wealth was effectively the same as her brother Dohyun's wealth.
And if Dohyun was around, he could mass-produce weapons of this level.
"...Wouldn't I just be able to make another one?"
A-yeon said it without much thought, intending to convey that meaning.
But to the people, it sounded like the confident ambition of a genius.
- Truly an answer worthy of a genius. You raised it three levels in a row from 21 to 23; was that also a performance? Even at 22, the victory would have been certain.
"...Uh."
She didn't know why he kept talking to her.
A-yeon wasn't a person who talked very often.
If you had to label her MBTI, she was an INTP.
A-yeon looked at Dohyun with desperate eyes.
He was just smiling and clapping.
"...I, I suppose you could see it that way."
- I am very much looking forward to this player's future. That's all for now, this has been Monbat, the commentator for the World's Best Blacksmith Tournament!
The closing remarks of the competition.
The enthusiastic atmosphere had now faded.
Players began to leave the competition hall one by one to go about their business.
The group approached Dohyun and A-yeon, who had finished the event.
"Dohyun-ah, you worked hard!"
The first one to run over was Yoon-seo.
Perhaps because she was a Rogue class with high agility, she was already surprising him from behind.
"Congratulations, Dohyun-ah."
On the other hand, Ha-rin walked over quietly, as befitted her status as a conglomerate heiress.
But she couldn't hide her excitement either.
To these two, it was as if their own little web novel author had suddenly hit #1 on the real-time rankings.
The work was what received the attention, but the real protagonist was the author who created it.
Seeing Dohyun, the hidden protagonist of the competition, being praised, they couldn't suppress the fluttering in their hearts.
"You were so cool today."
A flirting attack that continued without a break.
A-yeon, who was watching the scene quietly, felt a bit gloomy inside.
That was when Su-a spoke up sharply.
"...A-yeon-ah, you worked hard today too."
"Huh?"
"Making a 23-enchantment weapon, it was really cool. You were the best."
She had assumed that since Ha-rin and Yoon-seo were only praising Dohyun, who had helped out, A-yeon must be feeling left out.
Su-a had been smug, thinking she was the only one who truly cared for A-yeon.
"But Oppa did all the hard work?"
"Eh?"
In reality, A-yeon had been feeling restless because there was no room for her to squeeze in between the two of them.
Dohyun pulled A-yeon's shoulder toward him.
"Praise A-yeon too. I just clicked my trait, but it was A-yeon who put in the effort and swung the hammer."
Only then did Ha-rin, looking at A-yeon, clap her hands.
"That's right, A-yeon-ah, you worked really hard too. It must have been tough."
The atmosphere became harmonious.
Su-a, who was left alone, was dumbfounded.
She was still being hated by A-yeon.
"You look like you don't know why you're here."
Yoo Seol spoke to Su-a.
"I feel the same way."
Was it a sense of camaraderie?
As someone who had never been in a relationship, it was very uncomfortable for her to watch her master flirting with a man at work.
Especially since it was Ha-rin, who had rejected her even when she had pushed her shoulder toward him so many times.
She should have gone for it when she told her to.
If she hadn't hesitated for years and had just gone to meet Dohyun right away.
If she had just followed her advice, she could have had him all to herself.
Now, she was in a position where she had to share him with other women.
As someone who strictly calculated gains and losses, Yoo Seol found that aspect inconvenient.
It wasn't that she was uncomfortable with Dohyun's character or his Harem, but rather the inconvenience of opportunity cost.
'Well, I guess it's fine if she's happy.'
The impression of Dohyun remained a good one for Yoo Seol as well.
He was a person so kind that he stood out among everyone she knew.
A person with no flaws, except for the fact that he attracted a lot of women.
Actually, being too kind was a flaw.
He tended to show kindness even when there was no benefit to himself.
A good example was that he consistently donated large sums to child welfare facilities like orphanages.
A bad example was the news that he had decided to support even his half-brother.
The latter, in particular, was hard for Yoo Seol to understand.
He was the son of the mother who had abandoned him.
He didn't harbor hatred for the fact that she had taken his mother away, and yet he was helping him.
Even if that brother was terminally ill.
In the first place, a person who is going to die will die.
He was practically a stranger with no relation.
How could a person act so kindly when there was no benefit at all?
After everyone had finished logging out.
Yoo Seol had time to speak with Dohyun one-on-one.
They often had this time to discuss future moves in Phantastia.
She had effectively become Dohyun's executive assistant.
"...So those materials are hard to find even in the Auction House, so I'd like to ask the Baekseong Group."
"I will look into it immediately. Then, the Mythic-grade weapon production...."
"Yes, I plan to leave it to A-yeon."
After finishing the talk about Phantastia, Yoo Seol asked personally.
"Hmm, is there any special meaning to helping people? I just do it."
He had plenty of money.
Dohyun said he helped because he could get his hands on it.
But you were helping others even when you didn't have money.
Yoon-seo and A-yeon, their lives would have been no surprise if they had died long ago if not for Dohyun.
"Helping my mother's family? That's just because Dohan is pitiful. In the first place, my mother is already going downhill on her own without me doing anything, so there's no need to touch her."
Recently, Yoo Seol had informed Dohyun of how close his biological mother's family was to ruin.
It wasn't a money problem, but a problem between the couple.
The title of having abandoned the son she already had seemed to be something her new husband couldn't easily overlook.
"The son is dying. The husband is asking for a divorce. I acquired the company."
And the ex-husband is cheating.
"My mother's life is quite tragic, too."
Yoo Seol wanted to retort that it wasn't tragic, but rather reaping what she had sown.
If you abandon your son and erase him from your memory, you deserve to be punished.
Hasn't the existence of God been proven in the world?
That's how it should be.
"How distressed must she have been to come and see the charnel urn of her ex-husband, whom she had erased from her memory for her whole life?"
Dohyun clicked his tongue.
"Still, isn't it too self-sacrificing to risk your life in Phantastia just because of that half-brother?"
"My wish in the first place was health. It's not really because of Dohan. That kid just became a catalyst for solidifying my resolve."
A few days before meeting Dohan, Dohyun was afraid that something might happen to the three people he cherished every day.
He just didn't want to feel that emotion again.
Dohyun thought his own principles of action were reasonably logical.
"Other people would probably think the same as me, right?"
On the other hand, Yoo Seol reached a different conclusion.
'...This person, he doesn't know that he is kind.'
Even after going through such terrible things, the person himself is pure white.
One can resent their parents, but one cannot hate them.
Actions that would come as salvation to someone else were just natural things for Dohyun.
He shows kindness as naturally as breathing.
If you asked him about the worst thing he had ever done in his life, he would probably answer that it was the swear word he spat at Ha-rin.
And he would be fiercely regretting that moment.
'...I really can't understand it.'
How could such a person be born in a family where he was abandoned by his biological mother and suffered child abuse from his biological father?
He is truly the exact opposite of herself.
To Yoo Seol, who had buried her parents with her own hands, Dohyun looked like a saint.
'Well, I guess that's why the young lady is so deeply in love with him.'
The only man Ha-rin, who hadn't taken much interest in anything, kept by her side.
If he hadn't been that kind of person, Ha-rin would have lost interest quickly.
"There are two important pieces of news I must tell you."
"What are they?"
"One is that all preparations for Yoon-seo-ssi to live in Korea have been completed."
Now she could live with Dohyun.
If she periodically gets her condition checked at the Korea University Hospital, there would be no worries about her illness.
And the other one is.
"The other is that the wedding schedule with the young lady has been set."
"...Do I really have to do it?"
"It can't be helped. The eyes of the Baekseong Group looking at Dohyun-ssi are not normal."
"The Chairman is on my side."
"Since he stepped back from the front lines after getting older, his influence isn't what it used to be."
They couldn't look favorably upon Dohyun, an outsider, having the Baekseong Group in the palm of his hand.
No matter how much he possessed a Myth-grade trait.
In the first place, they were also displeased with Dohyun winning and the Chairman regaining a youthful body.
Marriage was an unavoidable matter.
"Will you be alright? You've been having a hard time lately, and if there's interference at the group level...."
Dohyun shrugged his shoulders.
Unlike the past, he had many reliable allies.
"If things go south, I'll just become a major shareholder myself."
Because infinite money was with him.