The New National Team (5)

Baek Jinwoo grinned as he accepted the list of successful applicants from Yoo Jia.

Of the two bundles of files, one applicant's name was familiar.

Kang Geonho. So he had made it in the end.

He'd known all along that Geonho utterly outclassed Hwang Juwon in raw physicality and game sense. That he'd even cleared Yoo Jia's mind-reading ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠screening was a mild surprise.

Looks like he really does live by that conviction he showed back then.

Yes. That alone earned him a berth aboard the ark called SKY. Accepted!

And Song Yeonhee? Now that was a name he'd never heard before. She was a ranker, granted, but hardly the caliber to have entered the qualifiers, no?

"Hungyo."

"Yes, My Lord."

"This one. Remember her?"

With a swish, he held up the photo printed on the file.

Song Yeonhee. Female, twenty-three. A year younger than Baek Jinwoo or Hong Ari.

Not bad. Age hardly mattered when it came to handling a recruit—but the younger they were, the more alive their senses. Ki Jaehyeok and Kang Jiho proved as much. Weren't those two developing at a breakneck pace?

"I remember her. This one carries the Heavenly Heart Body."

"Heavenly Heart Body? What's that?" Another special constitution now?

"A constitution heaven crafted with particular care—a born prodigy destined to excel at whatever she sets her hand to."

"Ooh, there's such a thing?"

"It is not as special as the name suggests. It is no once-in-a-millennium constitution like that girl with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, or Hwang Jiwoo's Flame Body... Still, it appears in perhaps one person out of ten thousand."

"Huh. Is that so?"

Baek Jinwoo found the whole notion fascinating. To think a person's gifts were fixed from birth. Life really was unfair.

One in ten thousand, huh... Korea's population sat around fifty million, so that meant roughly five thousand such people in this country alone. Far more abroad, presumably.

"Furthermore, she also bears the Limitless Body."

"What? Both of them?" Constitutions could stack? Then again—Limitless Body. That one sounded even cooler, didn't it? "And what's that one?"

"It means perfection across every discipline, with no lean toward any single one of them. A body typically born to Weapon Masters or martial artists versed in a thousand different arms. Since her technique stays balanced on all fronts, she should perform admirably as a player as well."

Ooh. He didn't follow every detail, but it sounded like they'd landed a genuinely solid player.

The problem was... only two had made it through.

Which left the national team one player short. They would have to scout someone new from somewhere, or fall back on the Rank 11 player who'd washed out in the qualifiers...

None of that sat right with him. Baek Jinwoo could only rest easy when things were done cleanly. If he was going to train the entire national team, then he wanted every last member to be SKY—people he could teach with his whole heart as his own disciples, people who would never, ever betray him.

No helping it, then. There was exactly one option: bring Hwang Jiwoo—the one he'd privately judged not yet ready for the national team—straight into the guild and train her properly.

After a brief moment of deliberation, Baek Jinwoo nodded. All right. They would do it that way. Even then, they would surely post a far better league result than before.

Roughly two months remained until the World League! It was time to lock in serious training, summon builds, and rune configurations. And then—

"Hwang Jiwoo."

"Yes, Jinwoo!"

Baek Jinwoo called her over and made an offer. He'd been watching her all this while, he said, and she was performing to his full satisfaction. Her effort deserved rewarding—so, how about it: any interest in joining SKY?

"M-me?"

So stunned was she that Hwang Jiwoo clapped both hands over her mouth.

SKY? As if she of all people could not have heard of it. Wasn't it the hottest topic rocking all of Korea these days!

Truthfully, she had wanted to submit an application too. But because of his promise—that if she gave a hundred days of honest effort, he would take her as his disciple—she had held back.

Some people did ask, you know. Wasn't it agony, having to spend every day glued to the Fire Dragon Mage? But she had never once thought such a thing. Hwang Jiwoo was genuinely happy. If anything, the thing that grew harder with every passing day ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the thought that this life might someday have to end.

"...If I join SKY... can I keep living here?"

"Of course. We'll house your whole family, hand you an enormous salary, and naturally the training grounds stay open to you."

Whaaaaat! Joy came pouring down over her, and her whole body shuddered with it.

"And you'll keep teaching me yourself, Jinwoo?"

"Of course."

Baek Jinwoo nodded with a smile. "SKY guild members are all my disciples by default. And, as it happens, Korea's national team."

"N-national team too?!"

Ahh. The strength drained from her legs, and Hwang Jiwoo plopped down on the spot, folded like a frog.

Right. This round of applications was about filling SKY's roster, sure—but its main purpose was national team selection, wasn't it?

Really? I could become a national team player?

What was this. Don't tell her it was a dream? Just in case, she pinched her cheek and stretched it. It hurt. Thankfully, it seemed this was no dream.

In truth, this was the scene she replayed in her head every single day. Making it as a player, joining a major guild, rising into the ranks, playing for the national team! She had even vowed that someday, without fail, she would make that dream real. And now the chance had come knocking—this early.

But one thing still nagged at her!

"Is it really okay for a nobody like me to be on the national team? People are going to flame me to death."

"Oh? So you'd rather skip the national team to avoid a little flaming?"

"No, no! That's not what I meant!" Hwang Jiwoo waved her hands in a flustered panic, then took a deep breath to settle herself. "I'll do it. I'll absolutely do it."

Flaming? If it meant a spot in SKY, she'd gladly swallow it a hundred times over. A thousand.

If I just train in earnest here, I'll be a ranker within a year. Guaranteed. She simply knew. Anyone who trained here would feel it. Hungyo was systematic; Baek Jinwoo was her spiritual pillar. And with everyone around her throwing themselves into training, that atmosphere seeped into her of its own accord.

"You'll do it?"

"Yes!"

"Even if you do, the hundred-day contract stays in place."

"Of course!"

Watching her answer so briskly, Baek Jinwoo snorted a quiet laugh.

Yes. Dragging the team forward on sheer powerhouse talent alone would be its own problem—and Korea had no true masters to begin with. But once they learned to walk, who knew? Before long, they might be flying all over the map.

Okay! The national team was decided. All that remained was the announcement, and then serious preparation.

"Oh, but..." That was when Hwang Jiwoo asked, a touch hesitantly, "Would it be all right to tell my parents I made the national team?"

"Ah." Baek Jinwoo smiled and nodded. "Go ahead. They were bound to find out anyway."

The next day, the national team was announced.

The reaction was an uproar.

A few voiced their complaints, but...

The prevailing mood, though, was: nothing to be done about it—let's believe in them just this once! And the center of all that chatter, without question, was Hwang Jiwoo.

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The entire community was abuzz with talk of Hwang Jiwoo. Absolute pandemonium!

And her family home? It was in just as much of an uproar.

"Dad."

Hehe. Giddy as could be, Hwang Jiwoo placed the call. She'd wanted to share the wonderful news the moment it broke, but training had left her no room. For her, nothing came before powering through training! Well, that, and looking after Pokryongi, who was training hard in her own right.

"Sweetie, sweetie, my darling daaughter!"

Missing her, apparently—he answered the phone in a bright, cheerful voice. "Sweetie."

"Yeah?"

"I saw something amazing today, you know?"

"What?"

"I was watching TV, and they announced a brand-new national team! And guess what—our daughter's name was on that list? Same last name and everything! Hwang. Ji. Woo. Isn't that something?"

"Haha, Dad, about that..."

She was just about to declare, That's me!—proudly, at that—but her father's chatter showed no sign of stopping.

"Seeing this sort of thing makes Dad feel a little guilty sometimes. Why did I have to name you Jiwoo? Honestly, it's so common now, isn't it? But when I picked it, it was a wonderfully rare, unisex name. These days it's so popular that everyone and their dog is named Jiwoo."

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"'Everyone and their dog'... Dad, that's a bit harsh."

"Hahaha, kidding, kidding! Our daughter's name is the best in the world! Anyway, sweetie! Are you settling in all right over there?"

"Dad, that's not what's important right now."

"Not important? What kind of talk is that! Yubaek may be a giant of a company, but! You can't even clock out—you're cooped up there working around the clock—what on earth could matter more than that!"

His daughter had battled one minor illness after another since she was small. She wasn't much for socializing either, so whenever she was out somewhere, his worries were never just one or two—and already over a month had passed since he'd last seen her at home. Naturally, he couldn't help but worry.

"You have to promise not to freak out, okay?"

"What are you stalling for? Out with it."

"Actually... that's me."

"That? What is this kid going on about now."

"That national team announcement. Hwang Jiwoo. It's not someone with the same name. It's me."

"Huh?"

What was she saying now?

"...What did you say?"

Her dad's buoyant voice plummeted in an instant. It was the voice of a man frozen solid in shock.

"You... made the national team?"

"Yeah. It just sort of happened."

"Just sort of happened? Is this for real?"

"Yeah. For real."

"You're not pulling my leg, are you?"

"It's not a joke at all. My info's already all over the community. Go check for yourself."

"..."

Stunned, her dad scrambled into the community and searched. And then—

"...It's real."

He confirmed it: his daughter had been telling the truth.

Good grief. Honestly, he couldn't wrap his head around it. Since when did the national team start taking any random dog off the street? His daughter had been an utterly ordinary player—what skills could she possibly have to earn a national team spot! Faced with this unbelievable reality, her dad couldn't get another word out.

"Actually, I've been getting special training here lately. I guess Jinwoo took a liking to me. He even gave me an insanely expensive summon as a present... He said my hard work was admirable and told me to give the national team a shot."

"Then..." Her dad, gripping the phone tighter, swallowed dryly. "Then you're in that new guild too—SKY, or whatever it's called?"

"Yeah."

"The one with the astronomical salaries, where Baek Jinwoo is guild master and they cover all your runes and summons...? The one that only takes national team players?"

"Why do you keep asking? I just told you. I made the national team."

"Khh— khhrrgh!"

Through the phone came the sound of her dad foaming at the mouth.

"D-Dad?"

What now! Don't tell me he'd actually fainted from the shock? From somewhere deep in the receiver, her mother's voice drifted in—Honey? Honey!

"Dad, are you okay?! Snap out of it!"

Before long—

"Sweetie, he's fine."

Her mother had picked up the phone. "Yes, well, your father is flat on his back right now, grinning like an idiot. Aigoo, that hopeless man! What on earth did you say to set him off this time?"

Haah. Hwang Jiwoo let out a long sigh.

I worried over nothing. Honestly, her dad. What a goofball.