I'll Just Teach You Shunpo

The former Vice Guild Master's faction still had people left in the guild.

Or rather — they had.

They were opportunists, keenly attuned to which way the wind was blowing. And once they heard what Hyeonseok had accomplished, they understood the board had flipped completely.

Do Hyeoncheol stood with his arms folded and watched the line of people arrayed in front of him.

"Aigoo, it's been far too long, Vice Guild Master. You haven't forgotten my face, have you?"

"Good of you to come. It's been so long I nearly forgot it. After my 'retirement' was decided, you never once showed yours."

The marketing team lead paled and started to cough.

"Ahem — ahem! Haha, well, that former Vice Guild Master fellow worked me to the bone, you see..."

"Right. Then I suppose I can work you just as hard?"

"O-of course!"

The flattery that followed came in every flavor imaginable. They groveled, trying to scrub away the sin of having picked the wrong side.

Do Hyeoncheol looked them over and let out a long, satisfied breath.

Who'd have thought I'd spend my later years basking in my son's glory.

Who could have predicted it? That washed-up Do Hyeoncheol would end up the man whose signature rubber-stamped everyone else's biggest approvals. A toothless tiger who couldn't even climb the Tower anymore.

"Hehe, if you could look kindly on the marketing branch expansion this time..."

"Ah... I believe our HR team's budget expansion proposal went up for approval today. If you could possibly..."

Thanks to his son, Do Hyeoncheol was getting to wear every hat in the building.

Good. This is very good...

A deep relief settled over him, the kind that comes when a long, hard chapter of a life finally closes the way it should.

Advance Guild's top-floor conquest team. Among them, the melee dealer: Kang Minji.

Jo Paldeok took her call and headed for the hotel at once.

He met her in the corridor.

"Guild Master..."

Food was smeared all over her. She looked a wreck. Jo Paldeok's fist clenched.

"Zhang Xuan got high again."

"Room 506. I'm sorry..."

"No. You did well. This isn't on you."

He opened the door to 506. The reek of alcohol and a sickly-sweet chemical tang rolled out to meet him. Bottles, leftover food, and syringes lay scattered across the floor.

Zhang Xuan was sprawled on the bed, half-undressed, snoring, his body twitching in little spasms.

He sensed the presence in the room and his eyes snapped open.

"Ah, Kang Minji, seriously! Get lost!"

He rubbed his bleary eyes and hurled a liquor bottle. Jo Paldeok plucked it out of the air.

Kang Minji was a Hunter — something like that wouldn't leave a mark on her. But coming from a teammate, it was a humiliation all the same.

"I told you not bother me when I rest! How many times I have to say!"

Then he dumped out a torrent of Chinese nobody in the room was meant to understand. Curses, no question.

"Zhang Xuan."

At that single word from Jo Paldeok, Zhang Xuan froze solid.

"G-Guild Master?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Even looking straight at Jo Paldeok, his eyes wouldn't focus. A nameless foam clung to the corner of his mouth.

"Uh... resting. Like you ordered..."

"You sucked down that much yesterday and it still wasn't enough?"

"Inside I hold back as much as I can, just a tiny bit..."

"Staying clean for the three-month contract was the condition of your naturalization."

There wasn't even disappointment left in Jo Paldeok's voice. Eight confirmed incidents in three months.

"You need a clear head to clear Floor 54. Walk in, stay clean, and use your Tracking skill. Is that really so hard?"

"I will, I know I have to..."

Zhang Xuan's skill was essential for Floor 54. That was the only reason they had taken him despite every other condition he failed to meet. And because this was the top-floor conquest team, the nation had poured enormous support into him as well.

"I told you. This attempt actually matters. If we fail this time, the next one is the last."

"Y-yes. I know..."

"And you couldn't even wait that long?"

An addict's reasoning defied ordinary imagination. He had gotten high inside the Tower, in the middle of a raid.

Hunters were not ordinary people. They could endure drugs to a point — a superhuman body pushed back against the chemicals. A few months should not have been difficult.

And still Zhang Xuan had not held out. Or perhaps he simply had not tried.

"If you can't stay clean this time either, the Korean government will hold you responsible for the Collapse."

Zhang Xuan flushed with rage at that. He sat up, swaying.

"I told you already! I can clear it even on drugs!"

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"That's the third time you've said that. You've tried it. You know better than anyone you cannot clear it high."

"No... haah. Getting high and doing it is easier than holding out, okay? This time it really work, okay? Why you don't believe me? You people can't even clear it without me anyway!"

Kang Minji let out a wounded breath. She had lost count of how many times she had watched this exact scene.

"Look, we are outside Tower right now. I work so hard, I just want rest a little — you think you can oppress me like this? You respect me!"

"We contracted, clearly, that you would stay clean for three months."

"Stop talking about something already finished. Koreans have zero flexibility? Promises change with the situation! Who else you going to contract if not me?!"

Kang Minji couldn't take any more. Tears welled in her eyes, so unlike her, and she finally snapped.

"Hey! That's enough!"

"YOU that's enough!"

A child's comeback. His Korean wasn't fluent enough for better, and the tone of it was already nauseating.

Every ugly thing Zhang Xuan did, banking on that skill of his — they had been through it more than once. And still there was no way out. Because Korea needed Zhang Xuan.

"Do you have any idea how far Hunters' reputations fall every time your pathetic behavior makes the news? Don't you even read the comments?"

"I see them till I sick of them. How racist this country is — I see it till I sick of it! You think you can push me around because I am Chinese? If this is China, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I lock up every last one of those commenters! You too!"

"That isn't discrimination, it's..."

Kang Minji pressed her fingers to her forehead. There was no getting through to him anymore.

"This is my final warning as Guild Master, Zhang Xuan. If you are caught using again from tomorrow on, we will pursue legal action under the contract. And..."

"Go ahead. Then who you take on the raid? Huh?"

Zhang Xuan flinched at that ice-edged warning. Kang Minji and Jo Paldeok left the room without another word.

The door shut. Zhang Xuan muttered curses in Chinese and glared at it.

Fucking Koreans. I'm sick of this hate-filled country too.

Then he unlocked his phone and went looking for the hate comments, stacking the anger higher in his chest with every line. He could have simply not looked. It wasn't that easy. It was just like the drugs.

This piss-ant little country. I don't like it either.

But he couldn't go home. He was a wanted Hunter criminal.

At least it hadn't been a violent crime. He was a drug offender. That was the only reason there had been any room to negotiate with Korea in the first place.

The drugs had packed Zhang Xuan's head with persecution fantasies. But he also knew exactly what kind of weapon he was holding.

They said getting aid from other countries isn't easy right now either.

The fiftieth floors were a little special. Unless you had overwhelming force, you absolutely needed Tracking.

Which was why every holder of the skill stayed busy running expeditions for other nations. Changing a Hunter's nationality, however, carried a three-month cooldown in the system. And it was a rare skill — there were only a handful of them to begin with.

By an ugly coincidence, this was the stretch of time when every circumstance and every cooldown had stacked on top of each other.

Except for exactly one country. And that country's price was one Korea would find very hard to pay.

In the end they'll have to cling to me.

Zhang Xuan picked up his phone, his hands trembling from the high, a vicious little smile spreading across his face at the thought of forcing the Guild Master to his knees.

News of the failed raid went public.

"Did you hear, Master?"

"The internet's going completely insane."

The hate comments poured in.

The public's fury climbed without a ceiling, and the anxiety swelled right along with it.

"It was Zhang Xuan again."

How many failures now, because of that bastard. And it had finally come all the way to a Collapse crisis.

"How do you even get high in there?"

"If the teammates just agree, you can exit the Tower safely. That's why this raid wrapped so fast, apparently."

"Ugh..."

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On some level, I could even understand the psychology of going that far off the rails.

"The 50s are pretty brutal without Tracking."

"You know about the upper floors?"

"Yeah."

"Well — I suppose that information's all public by now."

The reason I knew was HunMae. But it had been such a meticulously researched game. As the number-one player, I had the clear strategies down cold. The theme of the fiftieth floors was sniping.

"All kinds of ranged attacks come pouring down, but the ultra-long-range sniping is the real problem."

"Is that so?"

Getting to the objective while blocking everything was impossible. You had to intercept the enemies.

"But the distance is so far you can't pinpoint the snipers' positions. That's why you need Tracking."

"Ah, so that's what it was? I was wondering why they were clinging to that bastard so hard."

You just had to put Tracking on your team's ranged dealer.

"Then the dealer's attacks are guaranteed to hit the target."

Games really were this useful.

"If someone had Shunpo, they could've just cleared it solo. Shame."

If you had Shunpo? You just leapt over and cut them down. It moved you behind their head automatically.

"Whoa... how do you know all that? You sound like you've gone in and come out a few times."

But Shunpo didn't exist in reality. It was a technique you could only learn through my ability — effectively Jeong Sangguk's unique skill. There was a reason Shunpo had been a terminal-tier utility skill in HunMae.

If Father were here, we wouldn't even need Tracking. He could block every last sniper shot. But I never expected Diagnosis wouldn't work...

I remembered the first day I awakened. I'd tried to look at Father's status window then, too, but it told me the gap was too wide and showed me nothing. I'd forgotten about that and gotten ahead of myself.

Still. Now I have a goal.

The "gap" meant the Master's level. In other words, floor count. That was how it had worked in HunMae — you couldn't handle a character too far above the Master's own level.

If I climb high enough...

Someday, I might be able to fix Father. A legend climbing the Tower again. That hope had just been born.

Not that any of it would help with the Floor 54 clear.

"Ugh, maybe I should go evacuate too... wait. Ah!"

"What's wrong?"

Why hadn't I thought of that?

"I can just teach them Shunpo!"

"What?"

The new ability that had unlocked as a commemorative reward for clearing Floor 15. Transfer.

"The way you talk, people would think Master is a Shunpo user."

"I am, though?"

"What?"

"Hit me."

Jo Youchan whipped a lightning flick at me. I slipped behind him. Whoosh—

"Huh? Huh?!"

"Why do the good ideas always come a beat late? Am I getting forgetful?"

"H-how?!"

"Hm?"

Jo Youchan's eyes went wide enough to split. Oh, right — this was the first time I'd ever used a skill in front of this kid.

"H-how can you use that, Master?!"

"I picked it up watching Mr. Jeong Sangguk use it."

It wasn't exactly a lie.

"There's no way that's possible... wait. Don't tell me Heavenly Exploding Strike too?"

We were way past the point of hiding it. I sparked current through my hand and gave it a light swing; a small clap of thunder rolled off my knuckles. Jo Youchan stared at it, dazed.

"That's impossible. Heavenly Exploding Strike is a unique skill..."

"Unique skills are only unique because a second one hasn't been found yet. They're not special in themselves. Just rare."

"I-I know that, but."

Awakened skills worked the same way. You didn't necessarily have to awaken that specific one to use it.

Jeong Sangguk's Evasion was the example. Honestly, who couldn't do that? Anyone who learned it picked it up as a regular skill. Jeong Sangguk had simply been granted Evasion naturally from the moment he awakened.

Technically, Heavenly Exploding Strike really is "unique."

That one was a HunMae original, after all.

Jo Youchan's eyes grew serious as he watched the current crawling over my hand.

"Grabbing onto Master really was the best decision of my life. To think I'm not alone anymore..."

"What's that supposed to mean. Anyway, set up a meeting with the conquest team's melee dealer for me."

"If Master calls for her, won't she come?"

"Ah. Right, of course."

I was a Special Advisor now. I'd forgotten that again.

Kang Minji is a higher-floor Hunter than even Father, but...

I waited for her in the meeting room.

If HunMae is anything to go by, Transfer should work on High Floor Hunters too. It wasn't designed for your own disciples in the first place — it was for trading skills between players.

Korea's Floor 54 conquest team had seven members. Two of them were Advance Guild: Uncle Jo Paldeok and Kang Minji. I'd heard she was a model student with fierce loyalty to the guild.

They said she used to follow Father closely.

She was one of the next generation he had raised. I remembered seeing her now and then when I was little — the pretty noona who used to hover in the doorway of Father's office, fidgeting.

She was wearing a school uniform back then.

Middle school, probably. Time had a way of getting away from you. A moment later, Kang Minji came in.

"Special Advisor?"

"Ah, yes. Hello."

"Hello..."

I shook her slender hand. Oof. Awkward. Even more so because we'd met in that vague, half-remembered way years ago.

Wow. She's way prettier than she used to be.

Prettier than she looked on television, even.

"Um, but... what brings you..."

Her personality seemed just as timid as ever.

"I heard the Floor 54 raid is hitting a wall. I came to offer some help."

"Help?"

Kang Minji's expression grew complicated — the obvious question of what someone like me thought he could do about a problem even the nation couldn't solve, tangled up with a flicker of expectation, because she had heard about Jo Youchan and Jeong Sangguk.

Then her eyes went wide and bright.

"C-could it be! Do you know a Tracking skill holder?"

That wasn't it.

Alright. Let's see how Transfer actually works.

The status window told me I couldn't view hers, the same as with Father. I activated only the Transfer system.

I didn't need the assassination effect. Kang Minji was a more than capable melee dealer.

Yes.