Korea-Japan Friendly Match (1)
Kra-kaaang!
Lund brought his hammer down in a steady, rhythmic beat.
Drip, drip.
His brow, meanwhile, was streaming with sweat.
Masterpiece Crafting.
The supreme latent talent that had once left Lund with no choice but to be quarantined!
At Lv.1, the Rare and Unique runes he could produce were strictly fixed in number.
Here is the list of Masterpieces available for crafting.
Berserk (Rare), Versatile (Rare), Howling (Rare), Emperor (Rare), Trinity (Unique)
Five per level. Reaching Lv.2 would unlock five more, and so on.
The runes on that list demanded materials on an entirely different scale from anything ordinary crafting could touch — but the success rate was a flat one hundred percent.
Jackpot.
Back in the day, it was precisely this Masterpiece Crafting that had let Jinugod seize the world's number-one spot by an overwhelming margin.
Heh heh heh.
Baek Jinwoo found it harder and harder to smother the grin that kept blooming across his face.
Just picture it: summons decked out from head to toe in nothing but the finest runes that place could produce.
Crazy, right?
And those were runes that only he, in all this world, could make.
Which meant that by crafting them and handing them out only to whoever he chose, he could command staggering power!
I'll take my time making them all eventually, but first—
"Hungyo."
"Yes, My Lord."
"Come here."
Baek Jinwoo promptly reclaimed the Versatile Rune Hungyo had been wearing.
Then—
"Lund, what materials would you need to make a top-grade Trinity Rune?"
"Heh heh, just give me a moment."
Here are the materials for the Top-Grade Trinity (Unique) Rune.
Reinforced Top-Grade Versatile Rune ×1, Top-Grade Versatile Rune ×2
Just as I thought.
Nothing had changed.
Three Versatile Runes to forge a single Trinity Rune!
"Don't tell me you're already handing me the chance to put Masterpiece Crafting to work?"
Lund's eyes sparkled.
For a blacksmith, nothing in this world beat the joy of swinging a hammer — and the rarer and harder the job, the greater the thrill.
"Why even ask? Here you go."
Baek Jinwoo shook out all eighteen prepared Versatile Runes in a clattering pile.
"H-holy—! Eighteen Rare runes? And they're all Versatile!"
Lund let out a shriek of pure happiness.
Starting right out of the gate with Unique-rune crafting would pile up enormous proficiency.
"Can you start right away?"
"Of course! Figure a day per rune, so just wait six short days!"
"Okay, get to it."
The timing was perfect.
This was the launching point from which they would vault clean over the world rankers and become an insurmountable wall in earnest.
Lately, the entire culture inside Arirang and Carpe Diem had flipped on its head.
Everyone exercises. No exceptions!
Officers and rank-and-file guild members alike were made to build basic stamina and strength.
"Why's he making us do this all of a sudden?"
"We just need to raise our summons well. Why on earth do we have to work out...?"
"Guild Master says do it, so what can you do? When he says jump, you jump."
They were given a grace period, and anyone who failed to meet the mark earned a warning.
Three warnings on record?
Expulsion, naturally!
The players had no choice but to hold their noses and fall in line.
After all, what could possibly be more humiliating than clawing your way into a major guild only to get cut for skipping workouts?
Even the guild entrance tests had been revamped to weight fitness scores heavily.
"Should've been like this from the start."
Hoo.
Oh Seon-young murmured, wiping away sweat as she exhaled.
Baek Jinwoo's four disciples, herself included, were heading back after wrapping up another satisfying day of training.
These days, it wasn't only the players who trained.
The summons trained right alongside them.
Naturally, Hungyo presided over every session, and the summons had been set to treat his word as absolute law.
"Sis."
Hong Ari called out to Oh Seon-young.
"Hmm?"
"Honestly, don't you feel robbed?"
"Of what?"
"If you redid the team match, you'd make the national team, no question."
"...I suppose I would."
If she could turn back time, she'd have steered clear of Baek Jinwoo from the very start.
And then she'd have cruised onto the national team without a hitch.
"But honestly? More than robbed, I feel satisfied."
She meant every word.
She was a wolf devotee through and through.
Every single one of her summons was a wolf.
And of course, stubbornly committing to one species meant gaps and weaknesses were inevitable.
Lately she'd felt those limits so keenly that she'd even toyed with the idea of abandoning her one-species principle.
But then?
Ever since Baek Jinwoo became her master, every last one of those worries had evaporated.
What an extraordinary man.
Using nothing but wolf-type summons, he not only papered over every fatal weakness — he taught her how to turn those very weaknesses into counters.
And more than that?
The wolves under Baek Jinwoo's control existed on another plane entirely.
She didn't need anything else. She felt she could die content just copying what she'd seen.
She was certain of it.
Keep this up a little longer, and Arirang would overtake Baekho.
Beneath Baek Jinwoo would stand Arirang — and Carpe Diem.
"Thank you."
Oh Seon-young looked at Ki Jaehyeok.
"Huh?"
Ki Jaehyeok blinked.
"It's thanks to you two. Because you suggested we all come here together back then, Ari and I were able to grow this much."
"Aw, come on. Why get all sentimental out of nowhere?"
"I mean it."
If she had never met Baek Jinwoo, she would have been weeded out as the years went by.
National team? Please.
She might have struggled just to keep her ranker status.
But now?
Honestly, she felt she could give Kang Geonho — Korea's Rank 1 — a real fight.
Naturally.
Trading blows with Baek Jinwoo every single day, then suddenly facing Kang Geonho one-on-one?
Her stomach was already settled.
It felt as though the pressure had simply ceased to exist.
"If you mean it, then buy us dinner. All of us."
"Dinner?"
"Yes. You know the place, right? That huge chicken restaurant that just opened across from Yubaek City."
"...?"
"Rumor has it Jinwoo's father is the one running it?"
What?
The father of Player Baek Jinwoo?
Oh Seon-young's eyes went wide.
And Ki Jaehyeok had already been sitting on intel that precious?
She felt genuine gratitude toward Baek Jinwoo — the kind that would have her helping him, no strings attached, if he ever asked.
But Baek Jinwoo was perfect.
Frankly, he was doing so spectacularly well that her help was about as useful as a drop in the ocean.
"Let's go. It's on me."
And into all that, his family had opened a chicken restaurant?
Oh, she could not let that slide.
Especially not when it was Baek Jinwoo — famously devoted to his family!
Then she would simply lavish the place with her patronage!
I might as well feed the wolves while I'm at it.
Rankers made serious money.
All the more so for the vice guild master of a major guild.
Chicken?
She could order mountains of it without a second thought.
She'd go today and run up a tab of a good hundred million won.
"Welcome in!"
Boomed a greeting from Park Jeonghun in his apron.
He was Baek Jincheol's friend.
He'd spent years loading and unloading packages at a logistics center until Baek Jincheol's invitation made him co-owner of a chicken restaurant.
The equity split, naturally, was ninety percent Baek Jincheol and ten percent him.
"Huh? Hong Ari and Oh Seon-young...?"
Park Jeonghun's eyes went round as saucers mid-greeting.
The four customers who had just walked in were simply too famous.
"Ki Jaehyeok and Kang Jiho, too...!"
All four were rankers so renowned that any South Korean who didn't know them might as well have been a spy.
So it's true.
Gulp.
Park Jeonghun swallowed hard.
The truth was, he'd already heard.
That Baek Jincheol's son was the one and only Player Baek Jinwoo.
He'd been so floored at the time that for a good while afterward he'd gone about his days unable to close his gaping mouth.
After that, Park Jeonghun swore fealty to Baek Jincheol.
Fealty, schmealty.
What he'd truly resolved was never, ever to leave the man's side.
Calculating? Sure. But for an ordinary person, it was the only choice there was.
That's a golden connection right there.
If he just stayed glued to that side of the family and skimmed even the faintest dusting of crumbs off the top, three generations of his descendants would live fat and happy.
Only a fool would throw away a chance like that.
"Right this way! I'll show you to the best seats in the house."
"Thank you. The person who runs this place, by any chance...?"
When Oh Seon-young asked cautiously—
"Hahaha, you mean our Jincheol!"
Baek Jincheol.
These days, famous as the father of Baek Jinwoo.
Hearing Park Jeonghun toss around that man's name like a drinking buddy, Oh Seon-young's expression grew if anything more deferential.
"Yes, that's right. We'll be ordering plenty today!"
"Heh heh, wonderful!"
Deeply moved, Park Jeonghun bowed his head low.
They say her personality is made of ice, but she's downright sweet.
As expected.
You had to take everything the media said with a grain of salt.
"I'll fry it up nice and crispy for you!"
Baeksi Chicken was a sizable operation.
The entire three-story building at the choicest spot across from Yubaek City belonged to the restaurant, and the staff was plentiful.
It couldn't be helped.
Yoo Jia had personally arranged every last detail.
The third floor in particular was reserved as VIP space, set aside for rankers and celebrities who found rubbing shoulders with the general public uncomfortable.
Oh Seon-young's party headed that way.
"Eat as much as you like. Feel free to summon the wolves and feed them too."
"What's gotten into you, Sis? Our kids eat a lot..."
"That's the point."
The more they ate, the better.
It would send the day's sales soaring.
"You two order big as well. Hungyo says that after a brutal workout, you're supposed to eat hearty."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"So we can really go all out on the order?"
Ki Jaehyeok and Kang Jiho lit up like kids on a field trip.
They were in the middle of placing their order when—
Rattle!
The door slid open and a group strode in.
Four of them, and from the snatches of their conversation, they sounded Japanese.
"Japanese?"
Hong Ari tilted her head.
"What are Japanese players doing here?"
It was a little strange.
This wasn't Seoul or some famous tourist destination — it was Hanam.
What were the odds of Japanese visitors wandering into the sparsely populated development zone at Geomdansan, of all places?
The group, escorted by the third floor's resident staff, appeared to be being shown into another room — which happened, of course, to be right next door.
And that was the moment.
Grrr.
Oh Seon-young's Fenrir (A-rank) let out a low growl.
"Huh."
Hong Ari blinked.
"Looks like they're players? And pretty strong ones, too."
Fenrirs had a gift for sensing threats.
And what did that mean?
That those Japanese were formidable in their own right.
"Shh, shh! Easy. Come here."
Oh Seon-young tried desperately to soothe her wolf.
Whoever they were,
making strangers uncomfortable with a summon in a public place was just plain rude.
Grrrrr...
"Tch. Stubborn thing won't listen."
Since coaxing wasn't working, she simply recalled it outright.
No chicken for you.
"What's their deal?"
Hong Ari was curious.
Didn't the whole thing stink?
Japan was a nation solid enough to be called one of the world's five great summoning powers...
And players from a country like that were loitering around Yubaek, of all places?
It couldn't have been stranger.
Knock, knock.
Then it happened.
"Excuse me?"
One of the Japanese men rose and rapped on the door.
Strangely enough, his words arrived already translated.
"You seem to be fellow players. If it's no imposition, might I have a word?"
"..."
The four rankers traded glances.
A peculiar silence hung in the air.
"There may have been some misunderstanding. I am Takahashi Shusuke, of Japan."
Takahashi Shusuke!
Hong Ari's and Oh Seon-young's eyes went wide.
A household name.
Japan's Rank 3 — a heavyweight sitting at World Rank 30!
Why would a man like that be here?
Everyone within the world's top 100 was classified as a person of interest and kept under a nation's strict management.
Because if one of them ever turned to terror, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Of course,
if a monster of Shusuke's caliber set out to commit an act of terror with real intent, South Korea would be utterly helpless.
This was, after all, the country that had failed to properly clean up even a gang of former domestic rankers.
For that matter, Kang Geonho, the nation's Rank 1, sat outside the world's top 100 to begin with.
Rattle!
In the end, Ki Jaehyeok rose and slid the door open.
There stood a middle-aged man, an interpreter bird perched on his shoulder.
Figures.
So that bird was what had been rendering the translation all along!
The middle-aged Takahashi Shusuke radiated presence.
He was quite handsome, with a powerfully built frame.
"A Japanese player — a world-class ranker, no less. What business brings you to this part of town?"
Hong Ari rose from her seat to ask, her expression brimming with vigilance.