A New Abode (1)

A single qualifying match had turned Baek Jinwoo ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into a hero in the eyes of the entire nation.

Hoo-ung, hoo-ung!

And yet he never slacked on his training, not for a second.

As always, he made his way to the open lot, released his summons, and worked steadily through his bodyweight routine.

"Lean too hard on strength training, My Lord, and your power will grow while your agility stagnates and your flexibility decays. Balance is what matters most."

"Okay, okay."

Drenched in sweat, Baek Jinwoo held his form anyway, eyes blazing with grim resolve.

'The truth of it was—'

There was exactly one reason Baek Jinwoo had been able to display such overwhelming competitive power.

'South Korea's level was simply too low.'

Leaving aside the nations that claimed the Five Emperors, even a mid-tier country — he might not have lost to them, but he couldn't have dominated every single moment.

'Hungyo's or Doldori's damage would have come up short.'

Ramba, at least, was fine. He'd fitted her with graduation runes that would hold firm for a decade or more. It was the rest of his summons that were the problem: every one of them wore mid-grade or upper-grade runes enhanced to no more than a middling degree.

'Time to start fitting their runes in earnest.'

The first step of that plan was floor 20 of the Tower of Ordeal. Only by going there could he craft another B-grade Guaranteed Summoning Scroll — and from it, pull the most legendarily broken summon of all time, the Rune Dwarf.

'And the day dungeons should start moving up to upper grade soon, too.'

The day dungeon specialists — Combat Sheriff, Priest of Radiance, Lava Drake, and the rest — had leveled up considerably, and with the new skills they'd acquired under Hungyo's intensive training, upper grade was well within their reach now.

Every morning, Baek Jinwoo received Yoo Jia's report at the training ground.

Morning greetings, a workout, and a full business briefing, all rolled into one — in effect, the Yubaek shareholders' meeting was convening in the mountains every single day.

Yoo Jia, having just finished a round of exercise with Hungyo assisting, wiped the sweat from her face with the towel she'd brought along.

"Here."

Baek Jinwoo pulled a chilled bottle of water from the cooler and tossed it over.

"Hoo-ah, hoo-ah... Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Gulp, gulp.

The sight of her tipping the bottle back, cool water sliding down her throat, looked for all the world like a celebrity filming a commercial.

"Ahh, that hits the spot, Jinwoo."

"Yes?"

"I think it's about time we started preparing to move the training ground."

"Oh?"

Baek Jinwoo's eyes went wide. He'd heard about the construction of a new training ground, but it was already complete?

"It should all be finished within the week."

That was far ahead of schedule — and every bit of it was thanks to Baek Jinwoo. The moment his name hit the headlines, the construction firms had gone all in, concentrating every piece of equipment and every worker they had on the project.

"We're preparing for the family to move in at the same time, too."

"You've been toiling away without saying a word."

"No, no! You're the one working hard, Jinwoo. Oh, and—"

Waving the compliment away with a laugh, Yoo Jia brought up the next item on the agenda.

"The nation has promised us a truly enormous subsidy."

"Oh? How much are we talking?"

"One trillion won in national tax money per national team member! And the captain gets an extra trillion as a special privilege, for two trillion in total! They must have wrung the budget dry to scrape together eleven trillion. It's unprecedented, honestly."

"Whoa."

Trillions? And two trillion for him alone?

South Korea had once drawn up budgets exceeding six hundred trillion won, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lately it had been stumbling badly. The economy had flatlined after the national team sank to the very bottom of the World League. The national debt was still staggering, and the bills that needed paying piled up like mountains. And yet, in the middle of all that, the government had thriftily scraped together eleven trillion won.

It said everything about how desperately this administration had staked itself on the coming World League.

"There are conditions, though."

"Conditions?"

"The allocated budget has to be approved through headquarters and spent strictly on player growth. And naturally, you can't take the support and then naturalize somewhere else."

"Ah, that much is only fair."

He hadn't the slightest intention of spending the people's hard-earned taxes on private luxuries. There were plenty of runes, summons, and materials he genuinely needed to buy, anyway.

And besides — he had no desire to betray the country his family called home.

"And one more thing."

"That's a lot of conditions."

"Haha, well, when this much money changes hands..."

She had a point. This wasn't just big money — it was trillions.

"What is it?"

"Once a week, there's a national team assembly. You're the captain, so you'd lead the other nine members — train them, run practice matches. The schedule is open to negotiation, but I'd expect you to coach for at least ten hours each session. That's the responsibility that comes with the extra trillion."

"Once a week, ten hours..."

Things were about to get busy, truth be told. The day dungeons needed setting up, and the Tower wasn't going to climb itself.

But if they were paying?

Then consulting was more than doable.

"Once a week — when, exactly?"

"That's for the national team members to work out among themselves, but if you set it, I doubt anyone would object."

"...They'd listen to me?"

"Don't be absurd. Have you not seen the rankers' interviews?"

"No, I haven't?"

In fairness, he had tried searching his own name online a few times in the beginning, but he'd given it up. There were too many reasons to count. Every community, the entire world, was talking about him — and the feed kept resetting with new posts faster than he could read. About an hour in, his stomach had turned, and he'd shut it off.

What did the world's gaze matter, anyway?

'What matters is me, right here, right now.'

And by that measure, he was woefully lacking. National hero? Jinugod? The Baek Jinwoo of today hadn't recovered even ten percent of his past glory, his past power.

"Take a look at these articles."

Yoo Jia tapped at her phone, then held it out with a flourish. The headlines read roughly as follows:

Good grief.

This was mortifying. Why was everyone fawning over him like this?

"You know about this side of things too, right, Jinwoo? All the Jinugod talk."

At that, Baek Jinwoo's expression stiffened ever so slightly. Yoo Jia, however, paid it no mind.

"The domestic rankers already think of you as Jinugod. You've proven it with skill, and you carry the symbolism, too. It's a situation where they can't afford not to follow you."

"I see."

Reading her expression, Jinwoo caught on.

'She's one hundred percent certain, isn't she.'

He would have to come clean someday. Just not to the world — not yet. To Yoo Jia, though, it seemed fine. They were in the same boat, after all.

"What do you think, Jia?"

"Yes?"

"Do I really seem like Jinugod to you?"

"..."

Yoo Jia, who had turned that very question over more times than she could count, nodded at last.

"Honestly... I'd had my suspicions since way back. It was only a hunch, mind you. But by now, I've gathered a fair degree of certainty."

"Haha."

Baek Jinwoo scratched his head. Fair enough — never mind clever; anyone who hadn't figured it out by now would have to be an outright fool.

'Why did I have to pick Jinugod of all nicknames?'

Seen through adult eyes, it was an excruciatingly embarrassing name — enough to make the hair on his arms stand on end.

"Yes, that's right. I did raise the Jinugod account back on Baeo. I'm sorry. I lied that I'd only played for a year, so I wouldn't stand out early on."

"I knew it...!"

"But I'm not ready to make it official to the world just yet. I want to save that for when I've recovered at least half of my old strength."

Nothing in this world was more dangerous than fame without the power to back it. People speculating about the Jinugod connection was an unavoidable consequence of the name itself, but confirming it outright was another matter entirely.

"I understand exactly what you mean."

"I'll hold the national team assemblies on Saturdays. Sundays need to stay free for rest."

"Ooh, yes! I'll pass that along to the rankers!"

"And."

"Yes?"

"For the time being, I'll be focusing on floor 20 of the Tower of Ordeal."

"...Floor 20."

For reference, the world's number one, Rachel, sat on floor 29 — and only after three years of grinding like a woman possessed. In Korea? Not a single ranker had cleared floor 20. And here he was, stepping up to break it, plain and proud.

'Goosebumps.'

Yoo Jia felt as though she might lose her mind, her whole body tingling. Was this what it felt like to watch a living legend carve his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠name into history right before your eyes?

"Wonderful! If you need anything — anything at all — call my direct line, anytime!"

A week passed.

First, the upper-grade day dungeon grind rotation had been safely locked in.

'He could run the highest grade too, but...'

The efficiency was abysmal. Each clear dragged on far too long, so hammering out upper-grade runs quickly and often was simply better value. In all likelihood, not a single player at this point in time was running highest-grade rotations.

His records, naturally, were the best in the country — and as his reward, he had received 21 upper-grade summoning scrolls.

"Summoning scroll window."

The moment he murmured the words, the window popped open.

Every last junk scroll had already been offloaded to the market through Baek Ajin. As for the Ultimate Summoning Scrolls, the plan was to hoard as many as possible and crack them all open in a single glorious haul.

And so, as things stood, two conditions stood between him and floor 20 of the Tower of Ordeal.

'Hungyo's semi-graduation runes — and Pokryongi's Pokryongsul: Yeom, the Detonation.'

Yeom was the critical one. It was the third stage of the art, coming after Yeon (Accumulation) and Byeon (Transformation). Where Yeon stacked Blast Dragon Waves one atop another, and Byeon reshaped those waves into new forms, Yeom unleashed everything that had been stored up in a single, devastating burst.

The floor 20 boss was the king of all vampires, the primordial vampire — Dracul (S-rank). The creature was weak to fire, which meant one thing: it had to burn to death in a single strike of Yeom.

'First, though...'

Pokryongi had yet to master even Byeon; Yeom was still a distant summit. So for now—

'Let's start by fitting Hungyo's semi-graduation runes.'

True graduation runes would only become possible once he'd obtained the Rune Dwarf. For now, semi-graduation runes would have to suffice.

And besides — Baek Jinwoo happened to be sitting on the colossal asset of two trillion won.

He intended to pour every last won of it into Hungyo.

"There's a highest-grade rune out there called the 'Versatile Rune.'"

"Ah! The Versatile Rune! I know it! It's super famous!"

Baek Ajin's voice came crackling through the phone.

"Get your hands on some for me. Loop in Jia, too. As many as you can."

"Whoa — you want me to source those?"

She was flustered. Could anyone blame her?

Like Ramba's Light Speed Runes, this was a limited rune — and one that raised every ability evenly across the board, with attached stats that bordered on the absurd. What's more, a rune could normally carry at most four stat options, yet this Versatile Rune alone bore ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠six. An all-rounder's dream: whatever summon equipped it, this rune drew out their absolute peak.

"That thing's insanely expensive, you know. There's barely any supply on the market."

"Exactly."

Baek Jinwoo smiled.

"Which is exactly why we buy it above market price."

The rune was in high demand — so high that entire nations were in an uproar trying to secure it.

"How many do you even need...? Six, obviously? To activate the set effect?"

"No."

Baek Jinwoo shook his head.

"Eighteen."

He needed exactly three sets. The reason for that would be explained later, when the opportunity arose.