The New National Team (1)
A night deepening into darkness.
Baek Jinwoo climbed to the rooftop of his home and folded himself into a lotus position.
"Huuuuuh."
A slow breath in.
"Hooooooh."
And out, just as slow.
He kept the rhythm going, checking whether he could sense qi in his meridians and dantian, exactly as Hungyo had taught him.
Nothing yet.
Did qi truly exist? His summons used the stuff, so it had to be real — but could a player actually wield it? Any sensible person might have doubted. Baek Jinwoo did not. The finest teacher he knew, Hungyo, was the one who had taught him.
And there was no need to rush anyway. The Geoncheong Heart Method was for his health, his stamina, his senses... the fighting itself was his summons' job.
Which was, naturally, how the stray thoughts crept in.
The first was Yoo Jia.
Honestly, she's incredible.
Hers was an ambition deeper than he'd imagined. He'd assumed she would be content building Yubaek — but the moment guilds came up, her eyes had changed completely.
When he'd suggested taking it slow about recruiting ten guild members, she'd come back mere hours later with a full plan: his four disciples and every one of Ilwol's executives brought under their banner, and beyond that, a proposal to fill all ten national team slots with SKY members.
Not bad.
The domestic stage was cramped anyway. Once the World League ended, they would be playing on the world stage, so tidying up the domestic scene under one unified guild couldn't hurt.
Yoo Jia will handle all the complicated parts regardless.
All Baek Jinwoo had to do was fill SKY with people he liked and consult for them. Hwang Juwon, Ahn Gijeong — he'd taught them both, and neither had been bad. Their instincts weren't exceptional, but they had a veteran's savvy.
Anyway, that was Yoo Jia's proposal. Better yet, she said: sway public opinion, drive the four Baekho members off the national team, and put Oh Seon-young in their place. And the three slots left after that? Hold interviews for SKY's founding members — open applications to the existing rankers!
But will it actually go our way?
Truthfully, he had his doubts. This was Yubaek all but single-handedly deciding Korea's national team — there were fairness concerns, and no way the industry's countless movers and shakers would simply stand by and watch.
Yet Yoo Jia had told him not to worry. Everything would be fine. She intended to hold a press conference tomorrow about the discord rumors, and all he had to do was deliver the script.
A press conference, huh.
Hoooooh.
A short, metallic snort escaped Baek Jinwoo's lips mid-breath.
All he'd done was wake from sleep after a car accident, and his entire life had changed. Money? A house? A car? Things people once envied were now his ordinary everyday.
Sometimes a strange thought crossed his mind.
What if I already died, and this place is heaven...
Nah. As if.
Even if it were true, nothing would change. His senses were vivid. The air was fresh. Baek Jinwoo was, without question, living in the present.
In any case — having someone as brilliant as Yoo Jia at his side was a blessing in itself. For now, he intended to follow her lead and see where it went.
The next day.
"Put this on, please."
Yoo Jia spread out a handsome suit and held it up against his body.
"Ooh, expensive really is best. The bearing is on a whole different level."
"What are you even saying?"
"What do you mean? Clothes, obviously. Don't tell me you were planning to show up to a press conference in the cotton tee you train in?"
"..."
Without another word, Baek Jinwoo took the suit and went to change.
Click!
When the door swung open and Baek Jinwoo stepped out—
"Wow."
Clap, clap, clap!
Yoo Jia applauded. Baek Jinwoo was the sort of impossibly handsome man who could pull off anything, but the formal suit suited him on another level entirely.
"As expected of you, My Lord."
"...When did you get here?"
"It has been nearly five hours, so I came to recharge — and in that instant, I witnessed a most precious scene."
"You've gotten chattier lately."
Whoosh!
Baek Jinwoo dismissed Hungyo, then summoned him straight back. Resetting the summon duration! The summons called it "recharging."
"So I wear this, and just say what's in the script you gave me, right?"
"Yes. No questions — only the official statement. Have you memorized the script?"
"Roughly. It's shorter than I expected..."
"Hehe. What is there to say at length? Hit the key points and make your exit — that's all."
He had no idea how things would unfold, but apparently delivering those lines would take care of everything. There was no reason not to.
A low buzz filled the air.
Maehwa Hall — one of Seoul's premier venues. The press conference room was packed with people. The national team discord rumors were already making enough noise on their own, and now the man at the center of it all, Baek Jinwoo himself, would step up and speak. No one could have looked away if they tried.
Two chairs stood on the stage — one for Baek Jinwoo, the star of the event, and one for Yoo Jia, the moderator.
"Ah — we will now be closing the hall doors."
Every invited journalist was already seated. Fortunately, not a single reporter in the room was bold enough to arrive late to a press conference promising a guaranteed exclusive.
How much time had passed?
"We will now hear the statements of national team captain Baek Jinwoo and Yubaek CEO Yoo Jia. Kindly remain silent."
With the announcement, the stage door creaked open—
Ka-chak-kak-kak-kak!
The sound of camera shutters flooded the room.
Thud. Thud.
Striding confidently through the white glare of the flashes, Baek Jinwoo and Yoo Jia drew involuntary clicks of the tongue from the reporters. These were the hottest figures to turn Korea upside down this year! And their looks were nothing ordinary, either.
Whew, they look sharp.
A match made in heaven, honestly.
Are they players or celebrities?
The reporters were Korean citizens too. The absurd performances Baek Jinwoo had unleashed in the qualifiers flashed through their minds.
Someone like that got complaints?
Honestly, this one is entirely Park Ho's fault.
Park Ho? More like Park Pushover, that bastard.
Public opinion had already tilted completely. What if some reporter ran an article bashing Baek Jinwoo? Given his current standing, not just the reporter but the entire outlet could be ruined. So what announcement could possibly be worth a press conference in this climate?
"Good afternoon. I am Yoo Jia, CEO of Yubaek."
Yoo Jia took the microphone first.
"The reason we have invited you all here today is to make Yubaek's official position on the national team discord rumors perfectly clear. Accordingly, we will be omitting the question-and-answer session."
"...I'm sorry — no questions?"
"You invite this many people and take no questions? Isn't that going a bit far?"
A few hot-tempered reporters spat out their complaints, but Yoo Jia ignored them. No rule anywhere required a press conference to guarantee an official Q&A.
A nod. When Yoo Jia looked to Baek Jinwoo and dipped her head, he rose from his seat. The grumbling vanished as if by magic, and every eye locked onto him. Baek Jinwoo now possessed a charisma that could bend a crowd to his will by mere presence.
"Ah, ah."
After a light mic test, Baek Jinwoo drew Yoo Jia's prepared lines from memory and began to read them out, clear and deliberate.
"Hello. I am Baek Jinwoo. First, I will confirm the rumors of discord with the Baekho executives exactly as reported. As for why I said I could no longer work alongside Baekho Guild — I believe you all understand."
Thanks to the opinion war that had raged for weeks, the public already knew most of it. What complaints Park Ho had voiced. Why Baek Jinwoo had cut Baekho from his consulting. The public understood that much.
But.
The evidence of the political scheming Park Ho had orchestrated afterward — along with the witnesses' audio recordings — was more than enough to drag him straight into the abyss.
"The World League is a stage so demanding that even ten players united in heart and purpose can barely scrape a respectable result. Watching him run his schemes behind our backs, I found I simply could not bring myself to say, 'Let's do this together.'"
He's right. He's right.
Most of the reporters nodded along in agreement.
"And so, I would like to make a proposal."
A proposal? What kind of proposal?
Ka-chak-kak-kak-kak!
The shutters erupted once more.
"Exercising my authority as captain, I intend to reorganize the national team roster."
"..."
"Rebuild the national team?"
"Is he cutting every Baekho player?"
"...He'd go that far?"
As the crowd buzzed, Baek Jinwoo smiled.
"If that were all it took, I would stake my position and everything Yubaek owns on this promise: a semifinal finish or better at this World League."
"...!"
The s-semifinals?
The reporters' jaws dropped. The statement alone was an exclusive!
"...Korea — the team that got knocked out in the preliminaries every single year, never mind the round of sixteen — in the top four?"
"Is that even possible? There are only three months left until the League?"
"And it's not as if Baek Jinwoo can carry that alone..."
The public still didn't know Baek Jinwoo's true strength. They knew exactly one thing for certain: that he was the strongest in the country! And that this World League was Baek Jinwoo betting everything he had! Bluntly speaking, Baekho Guild hadn't shown a thing in the past three years!
"I will say only this much. The judgment, I leave to the people."
The authority to select the national team rested with Player Headquarters, after all. But even Headquarters could not move recklessly without the people's consent — their seats were public offices.
Whoa. This is enormous.
What a frightening man. He understands the people's hunger for the World League better than anyone alive.
Honestly, who cares whether the Baekho guys make the team or not? If the players who can actually perform get to play, that's better for us.
Taken to its extreme, today's Korea was a place where countless people would argue it didn't matter if a criminal sat on the national team, so long as they reached the round of sixteen. The nation's economic fortunes rose and fell with its World League ranking. It was a matter of putting food on the table. And Korea was starving.
The press conference was a success. The footage aired live, and public opinion turned favorable.
The prevailing sentiment was simple: Our Jinwoo can do whatever he wants!
Nice.
Yoo Jia pumped her clenched fist in a fierce little celebration. Everything was unfolding exactly as she intended. True, she had worked with her staff to shape the early current of opinion — but everyone did that much, didn't they?
Beep, beep-beep!
Yoo Jia, having wrapped up her errands, was just about to get into her car when—
THOOM!
A monstrous creature with blades for hands planted itself in front of the car.
"Huh?"
A familiar summon.
"You there."
From nearby, Baekho's four executives came walking out. Kang Geonho, glowering, brooding darkly over something. And behind him, Park Ho and the remaining two executives.
"We have some things to discuss, don't we?"
Park Ho's lips were trembling with fury.