Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Tampering (2)
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The next morning, Miracle Management's cramped office was so packed there wasn't even room to stand.
This place, which normally wouldn't see so much as a fly buzzing in, was now filled to the brim with the heavyweights who dominated Korea's hunter industry.
The scouting team leader from Sun Guild, one of the nation's top ten guilds.
The chief agent from Star Entertainment, the largest management company in the business.
And executives from various mid-tier guilds whose names anyone in the know would recognize instantly.
They sat uncomfortably on worn-out sofas and folding chairs, glaring at one another.
Invisible sparks seemed to crackle in the air.
The tension was thick enough to cut.
Not a single one of them spoke first.
They eyed each other warily, racking their brains on how to snag Lee Jia ahead of the competition.
Siwoo sat at the representative's desk, watching the scene impassively.
It was amusing.
Just yesterday, these same people had treated his business card like trash and slammed the door in his face.
Now here they were, walking in on their own two feet, sipping the instant coffee he'd handed out while stealing glances at him.
Disgusting.
A surge of hot anger boiled up inside him. But Siwoo didn't let it show.
He schooled his expression, locking down his emotions tight.
Lashing out now would just make him look like a weakling venting inferiority to them.
To crush them, he needed not emotion, but overwhelming power and logic.
They weren't paying Siwoo any mind.
To them, he was practically invisible.
Just the young CEO of a small newbie agency who'd lucked into an A-rank hunter.
The kind of pushover who'd roll over and hand over Lee Jia the moment they slapped a wad of cash across his face.
That was how they saw him.
Their focus was solely on how much the rival guilds beside them were willing to bid.
Siwoo waited silently. The first one to move loses in this game.
The prolonged silence dragged on until the stuffy air in the narrow office grew heavy, and finally, someone whose patience had run out spoke up.
"Ahem."
With a fake cough, a man in a crisp suit turned toward Siwoo.
It was Executive Director Choi from Star Entertainment, Korea's largest hunter management firm.
"CEO Han. We get that you're busy, but we're all people whose time is money. How long do you plan on making us wait like this?"
The words were polite enough, but thorns laced his tone.
As if to say, How dare a nobody like you keep us waiting? Arrogance dripped from every syllable.
His remark was the spark.
Grumbles erupted from all sides.
"He's right. When's Hunter Lee Jia coming out? We'd like to speak with her face-to-face."
"Sun Guild has a generous offer. At least let us set up a meeting."
"Let's cut to the chase."
The office turned rowdy like a marketplace in seconds.
Only then did all eyes turn to Siwoo.
Siwoo slowly set down his teacup.
The faint clink carried an odd weight that dominated the room.
He leaned back in his chair and scanned them coolly.
"You all seem awfully interested in our hunter."
At his low voice, Executive Director Choi snorted.
"It's not interest. We're worried, that's why we're here."
"Worried?"
"You know it too, CEO Han. She's an A-rank re-awakened hunter. She's not someone who can be properly managed in... this kind of rundown setup."
Choi openly swept his gaze over the cramped office, smirking.
He was blatantly dismissing Siwoo.
"For Hunter Lee Jia's future, shouldn't she be swimming in bigger waters? Staying tied to your firm won't maximize her value. Joining a place like our Star Entertainment, with its solid systems—that's the real path for a hunter."
It was a plausible pretext.
Hidden beneath the hypocrisy of "for the hunter's sake" was a blatant threat: hand over our hunter.
Just dressed-up greed for their own profits.
"Exactly. She's too valuable to rot away in a place like this."
"She should at least join a major agency or a big guild like our Daesung."
They all chimed in, piling on.
Every word dripped with contempt for Miracle and Siwoo.
Bang!
Siwoo slammed his fist on the desk, and silence fell instantly.
The rowdy scouts stared at him like startled rabbits.
As if a lowly small-agency CEO had no business pounding desks.
Siwoo fixed them with cold, sunken eyes.
"So."
His voice dropped low.
"To 'maximize her value,' you ignored the laws and rules and tried tampering?"
"...What?"
"Because our company is small and worthless, you figured laws don't apply and went for the backdoor tampering. Is that it?"
He spat each word with deliberate force.
Tampering.
The moment the word hit the air, the room froze solid.
A few agents' pupils visibly shook.
Hunter Management Act, Article 32: Prohibition on Prior Contact.
Contacting or soliciting a transfer from a hunter under contract for one year or more without the original agency's consent.
This was the most sensitive, lethal taboo in the hunter industry.
"You ignored it because you could afford to. Isn't that right?"
No one could answer Siwoo's shout right away.
They knew it too.
Tampering wasn't some minor offense.
It was treated as a major crime that destroyed industry order.
If tampering charges were proven and the association issued penalties, the guild or agency faced at least a three-month ban on recruiting new hunters.
Three months might sound short, but in a world where new dungeons popped daily and hunters died constantly, being unable to replenish ranks was no small matter.
Falling behind rival guilds, stock plunges, image damage, defections from existing hunters.
It was a make-or-break issue for the company.
Especially fatal for management firms trading in talent.
Choi, momentarily flustered, flushed red and shot to his feet.
"Hey, CEO Han. That's going too far. Tampering? You calling us criminals? What's your evidence for that slander?"
He even jabbed a finger accusingly, thrashing about.
The other scouts snapped out of it and joined in.
"Right! That's defamation!"
"Got proof? Proof we made contact?"
"Calling a courtesy call tampering? Don't be ridiculous!"
They were shameless. Deny it and it goes away—that was their attitude.
With Lee Jia keeping quiet, there'd be no evidence anyway.
And they were confident they could buy her silence with money.
An A-rank like her wouldn't be content with a shabby agency like this, they figured.
Ha.
Siwoo let out a hollow chuckle at how predictably it was unfolding.
Beasts think they're the hunters until the trap snaps shut.
"Evidence?"
Siwoo opened a drawer under the desk.
He pulled out the thick stack of documents Lee Jia had handed him yesterday and tossed them onto the desk.
Thud!
The heavy sound drowned out the noise.
Siwoo flipped open the cover and began speaking slowly.
"Star Entertainment, exclusive contract proposal. 5 billion signing bonus, penalty fee covered. Sun Guild, scouting offer. Gangnam penthouse provided, plus guaranteed first-team leader position."
"...!"
"Daesung Guild, backroom contract. Proposal to set up a paper company for tax evasion."
Siwoo lifted each document, shaking them as he named the offending guilds.
"Let's see... Executive Director Choi? This seal yours? Ink's not even dry. Team Leader Park from Sun Guild? This text history—your number, right? 'CEO Han Siwoo is incompetent, ditch him.' Quite the way with words."
A deathly silence blanketed the office like a bucket of ice water.
The scouts' faces drained of color.
Choi, cocky moments ago, just gaped soundlessly.
Cold sweat poured down everyone's backs.
They never imagined it.
That Lee Jia had turned down all these offers—hundreds of billions in temptation—and brought them straight to Siwoo.
Impossible for a normal hunter.
Hunters who turned down money bait were rare as hen's teeth.
"How..."
"No way... she turned all this down?"
Murmurs of dismay rippled through.
They were finally grasping it.
That they'd walked right into the tiger's den.
And that tiger was now baring its fangs.
But it wasn't over yet.
Stopping here would let them slink off and lawyer their way out somehow.
He had to choke them out for good.
Ensure they'd never eye Siwoo or his hunter again.
Siwoo checked his watch.
Right on cue, the door at the back of the office creaked open.
Creeeak.
All eyes snapped to it.
Heeled shoes clicked steadily across the floor.
A man in a sharp navy suit stepped out.
His hair slicked back like a blade, cold metal-rimmed glasses.
A briefcase in hand.
He strode over with an icy expression and stood beside Siwoo.
Adjusting his tie, he shot a razor-sharp glare over his glasses.
A dry, emotionless gaze, like he was looking at insects.
"CEO Han."
The man spoke.
His parched voice chilled the air further.
"These the ones?"
Short words, heavy impact.
Choi's face turned ashen, the other scouts trembling like they'd seen the grim reaper.
They knew who he was.
How could they not?
Kang Cheol-min, team leader of the Korea Hunter Association's Legal Audit Team.
The man infamous for chewing bones and all once he bit down—public enemy number one in the industry.
The one Siwoo had called last night.
His most reliable card from a decade of scouting connections, prickly but solid.
Kang glanced over the documents on the desk and spoke in his rigid, no-frills tone.
"Evidence is overflowing. This is enough for not three months, but a six-month business suspension."
"...!"
"Violation of Association Audit Regulations Article 7. Fair Trade Act violation. Interference with business, too. A full combo gift set."
Kang pulled a thick stack of complaints from his briefcase and set it on the table.
Thump. It sounded like a judge's gavel.
"No settlements after filing, right?"
Kang asked Siwoo.
Siwoo nodded, arms crossed, flashing a cold smile at the quivering hyenas.
"Yeah. No plans for that."
Stifled groans finally burst out.
"Oh no..."
"It's a trap..."
The sneers and arrogance were gone, replaced by utter despair of the hopelessly trapped.
Siwoo leaned back in his chair, savoring it.
Now the positions were perfectly reversed.
The once-scorned Miracle and Siwoo were the A-party; the condemned waited as utter B-parties for their sentence.
"Well then."
Siwoo tapped the desk with his fingers.
"Shall we start the real negotiations? Of course, on whether to file these complaints or not."