The Price of Dissent (5)

Park Ho's mouth hung open.

No, what kind of bullshit was this?

Sure, he'd voiced complaints — but when had he ever tried to strip the man of his position as raid leader?

"Guild Master, it's not just the tip-offs. Look at these articles too."

"Articles?"

"Yes, just swipe to the side and they'll come up."

Swish.

Park Ho swiped the screen with his thumb, and the articles his staff had compiled scrolled out one after another.

"This is insane!"

This made no sense whatsoever.

How much time had even passed since the tip-offs went public, and the masters of three separate guilds had already released official statements?

"This was planned from the start."

No wonder things had felt off.

Every time he'd gone to see them lately, they'd greeted him with something wary lurking in their eyes. Perhaps there had been a spy among them all along.

And the most suspect figure at this very moment—

Drrring—

Park Ho immediately called Ahn Gijeong and Hwang Juwon, the executives of Ilwol.

Neither picked up.

That settled it.

You're abandoning me?

Driven by spite, he called again and again with stubborn persistence.

Hwang Juwon answered in a voice thick with annoyance.

"Hyungnim! What is the meaning of this!"

- What do you think it means? I warned you like an adult, didn't I? Told you to keep your head down.

"Even so, this is going too far. You plant baseless rumors and then coordinate everyone's official statements at the same time?"

- They weren't baseless.

"……!"

- And honestly, you idiot, what good would ever come of us locking horns with Baek Jinwoo? You're itching for a fight because Baekho's clinging to its untouchable number-one spot. Ilwol was always the weakest of the Big Three to begin with. Baek Jinwoo personally gives us ten hours of consulting a week — we should be on our knees thanking him, and instead you pull a stunt like this? Your greed has crossed the line. Way past it.

"You'll regret this."

- Regret?

"While Arirang and Carpe Diem climb, Ilwol will collapse right along with Baekho. What, you didn't even think of that?"

Hoo. Hoooo!

Park Ho, unable to contain his fury, took several deep breaths right there on the spot.

- Regret, huh. We'll see.

Click.

A faint chuckle from Hwang Juwon filtered through before the line went dead.

What the hell.

Had he just cut off communication unilaterally?

When had a nobody guild like Ilwol ever dared treat Baekho with such disrespect?

"You son of a—!"

CRASH!

Park Ho flung his phone against the wall before he could stop himself.

Only the poor employee watching helplessly from the sidelines paid the price.

The Ilwol executive office.

"What did he say?"

When Guild Master Ahn Gijeong asked from beside him, Vice Guild Master Hwang Juwon let out a hearty laugh.

"He says we'll regret it. Threatening that if we don't follow his lead, Ilwol will end up discarded too."

"Hmmmm. Guild Master Park Ho knows one thing and misses two."

"He can't help it. He doesn't have the faintest clue who's been pulling strings behind the scenes."

Hwang Juwon leaned back in his chair and tilted his head toward the ceiling.

What a fool.

Pride in being Korea's greatest guild?

That kind of thing only mattered while your strength held. From the moment they'd witnessed Baek Jinwoo's true power, the only correct move had been to bow their heads low.

What did pride feed a man, exactly?

"That said, Yoo Jia of Yubaek… she truly is terrifying."

"You're telling me. Even I was floored."

In fact, before the public statements went out, Yoo Jia had come to Ilwol herself.

Smiling sweetly, yet with her eyes brimming with murderous intent — enough to make even the seasoned veteran Hwang Juwon flinch.

She'd laid it out the moment she arrived: Baek Jinwoo intended to settle things by simply cutting Baekho from his consulting, but she couldn't bring herself to stop there — she'd already drawn up plans to rip Baekho out by the roots.

And along with it came a half-veiled threat.

There was no neutrality.

They would pick a side. One or the other.

She had declared total war on Baekho, and anyone who refused to help would be treated as an enemy.

"Extraordinary confidence, isn't it? That 'no neutrality' line… it means if we fall out with her, she might just drown us along with Baekho."

"Hyungnim is right. Park Ho's simply an idiot. If you're going to provoke someone, you size them up first. It was a fight he could never win from the start — and judging by what she's prepared, it's no amateur operation either."

From stirring public opinion to burying an opponent's statements before they could land, everything had been flawlessly staged.

And the most terrifying part of all? Countless politicians, ministers, vice-ministers, and business magnates standing behind Yoo Jia like a wall!

"By the way, what are we doing about that offer?"

"SKY, you mean?"

Yoo Jia was planning to launch a new guild — the permit was already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠secured.

And she'd extended Ilwol an opportunity.

What kind of opportunity?

A chance for exactly two executives — Ahn Gijeong and Hwang Juwon — to join SKY.

A reward, she'd said, for not falling for Baekho's schemes and instead choosing to leak information to her side.

"Haaah, that's the problem, isn't it."

Joining meant abandoning Ilwol.

But Yoo Jia had thoughtfully offered a solution for that too.

Install the guild's third-ranking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠member as the new Guild Master of Ilwol while retaining a stake in the guild — in plain terms, use a figurehead boss.

That way they'd be SKY members and still control Ilwol as a subsidiary organization.

"I think it's a golden opportunity. From what I hear, Arirang and Carpe Diem are joining SKY the same way…"

"So if we join, we get trained by Baek Jinwoo personally as well?"

"Yes — they're even handing out residences in YooBaek City. For our entire families, no less."

"Now that's genuinely tempting."

Tempting — and frightening.

Yoo Jia.

She was ruthless, without question.

Having her as an enemy wouldn't just be exhausting. It felt like the kind of thing that could destroy a man's entire life.

And there was something else at the end of the plan she'd presented.

A proposal to purge Baekho from this World League's national team entirely and rebuild the roster from SKY members alone.

If that happened…

Park Ho would be finished. Utterly ruined.

Receiving every curse the public could hurl at him, dropped from the national team, and possibly even forced to return the trillion won he'd pocketed.

Would MK and Mirae Group simply stand by then?

They might well take their frustrations out on players like Park Ho or Kang Geonho, pinning every crime imaginable on them — real or invented — and leaving them to rot in prison for the rest of their days.

After all, who in this world had no skeletons in their closet?

"Haaah… SKY."

The sky of South Korea.

"Gijeong-ah. Isn't that so?"

"Sir?"

"We're Ilwol, aren't we. The sun and the moon."

"We are."

"And the sky has always held the sun and the moon within it."

"Ha. So we're joining?"

"Well, what choice do we have? If we want to keep the national team meal ticket going, we join."

Hwang Juwon smiled gently.

A seasoned man, he — unlike Park Ho — knew how to read the tide and ride it.

Yoo Jia had made her decision.

From the moment the Baekho Guild had appeared before Baek Jinwoo and behaved with such insolence, she'd resolved to tear the organization out by its very roots.

And so she'd gone to see the Daesung Strategic Planning Team.

The place where her father worked.

"Dad."

"Ah, there's my girl!"

The moment she entered, a man turned to regard his beautiful daughter with the reverence of a subordinate greeting a superior. That man was Yoo Daehwan.

The eldest son of founding chairman Yu Byeong-cheon, and all but confirmed as the next successor.

The succession battle with his brothers had once been brutal — until Yoo Jia built Yubaek and put Baek Jinwoo squarely in her father's corner, cementing his position beyond dispute.

The notoriously stubborn Yu Byeong-cheon had even handed over a portion of his shares with a hearty laugh. What more needed to be said?

So how precious must his daughter look to him now?

In truth, Yoo Daehwan had begged her time and again to arrange a meeting with Baek Jinwoo.

And she'd deftly deflected each time, saying Jinwoo wasn't fond of that sort of thing.

"So. You're always so busy, but what brings you all the way here?"

His daughter was still in her twenties.

As her father, Yoo Daehwan wished she'd come visit for personal reasons now and then instead of only work.

"There's something I want to ask you."

"Anything! Ask away!"

"Well, you see…"

The corners of Yoo Jia's mouth twisted, and out came an absolutely staggering question.

"Can I stomp Baekho into the ground?"

"I'm sorry — what?"

Yoo Daehwan's jaw dropped.

Baekho?

That Baekho, the one he knew?

One of the Big Three, the guild hailed as the single greatest force in South Korea — and she wanted to crush it?

And behind it stood its backers, the rival corporations MK and Mirae?

The very companies locked in a love-hate struggle with Daesung.

"To bring down Baekho, I'll need to operate a little… dirtily. And for that, I need your help, Dad."

Swish.

She handed over a stack of documents.

And what was written there was even more mind-boggling.

Tip-offs planted through the securities world. Hired cyber wrecker crews. Information funneled to YouTubers drawn from both ruling and opposition press circles — all the way up to hiring a digital funeral director to permanently shut the enemy's mouths!

Page after page catalogued endless methods for socially burying Baekho and its leader, Park Ho.

But that wasn't all.

"……How on earth did you even get all this?"

The tax evasion routes and various corruption trails of Baekho — along with MK and Mirae — were compiled in full, material Daesung itself had never managed to dig up.

"I can't move alone. And Dad, if you want Grandfather's complete acceptance after this… you need this too, don't you?"

Smirk.

Why was it that Yoo Jia's smiling face looked nothing short of angelic in that moment?

"Heheh. Hahahaha!"

Yes. This was it.

With this in hand, they could trample Baekho into the mud at will, and the enemy would never dare lay a finger on them.

"Our daughter's all grown up."

"I grew up ages ago. Don't get sentimental now."

"All that's left is marrying you off well."

"Huh? Where did that come from?"

"Hurry up and arrange that meeting with Baek Jinwoo already."

"Not this again! Anyway — I've delivered the files! The rest is your job, Dad!"

Face flushing red, Yoo Jia hastily gathered herself and whoosh! — she was gone.

"Heh. That kid."

Yoo Daehwan tapped the documents lightly.

Baekho had dared bare its teeth at Baek Jinwoo?

Then naturally, those teeth had to be torn out, ripped from the jaw, and thrown away while the beast still drew breath!

"How dare anyone lay a hand on our son-in-law?"

Yoo Daehwan's eyes burned like embers.

Like father, like daughter.

"You fucking—! FUUUUCK!"

Crash! Boom! Smash!

The furniture ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the Baekho executive office began to break apart one piece at a time.

Park Ho was running wild through the battlefield his office had become.

Public opinion had already flipped completely.

'B' had been confirmed as Park Ho's initial. With the World League right around the corner, the masses raged like fire — who the hell was a mere player, no raid leader at all, toManufacturing discord within the team?

Every community on the internet churned with talk of internal strife, and Baekho transformed from a guild that had merely voiced complaints into the trashiest organization in the nation.

A small minority did stand by Baekho, of course.

The conspiracy-minded. The chronically suspicious.

But they were vanishingly few. Against the Yubaek side — with its massive fanbase and the full force of the media behind it — victory was never going to be easy.

Park Ho reached out to these holdouts, urging them on.

Claim it was all Yoo Jia's fabrication. Claim it was the work of a hidden cartel conspiring in the shadows.

But their voices never once caught the community algorithms.

Someone was throttling them with surgical precision.

And then, quite suddenly, a wave of bitterness washed over Park Ho.

For three years they'd cheered him, worshipped him — and now, of all times, they turned their backs?

A national petition had even gone up demanding Baekho be removed from the national team entirely.

It was a bolt from the blue, plain and simple.

"…In a single day."

Park Ho's heart could not have been more desolate.

It was unfair.

All he'd done was ask, fairly and openly, that they be taught together. How had things spiraled to this?

Worse, watching the public seize the moment to spew nothing but hatred — without ever hearing his side — filled him with something close to disillusionment.

"Rotten to the core, this country."

Park Ho clenched his fists.

Two roads remained now.

Take revenge with force — or tell them all to eat shit and emigrate.

He was a ranker, after all. Surely a backward nation somewhere would welcome him with open arms?

"…Fuck."

No. That wasn't it.

Why should he be unjustly driven out of the land that raised him?

"Geonho-ya."

"Yes?"

"Gather every ranker we have."

"Haah… what are you planning now?"

Kang Geonho had already resigned himself entirely.

At first he'd hated Park Ho enough to kill him, but what could anyone do about it now?

Except—

"Yoo Jia. We're going to pay ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that bitch a visit."

At those words, even Kang Geonho couldn't hold back the eruption.

Promoting Baekho's loyal members to ruin hadn't been enough — now the woman wanted to drag them down the road to hell itself?

This is wrong.

Kang Geonho gritted his teeth.

Perhaps.

Perhaps the moment had come — the moment when he would have to abandon the Baekho he had bled for all these years.