9. Welcome, Yoon Sol (2)
"So this whole building—fifteen floors above ground, three below—really belongs to Revenant... Wow. That's impressive."
Yoon Sol marveled aloud as she studied the directory posted inside the elevator.
"You didn't happen to glance at the directory on your way up?"
"Ah... I was so nervous riding up that nothing really registered."
We had just left the guildmaster's office on the top floor and were riding back down.
"Uh, um. You want me to join the guild? Really? I mean, I'm a freelancer right now, but..."
When I'd made my offer, Yoon Sol had squirmed and agonized over it for nearly thirty seconds before she finally managed...
"I-I'm not turning it down or anything, but... could you at least tell me what kind of guild it is first...?"
...and that was all she'd been able to say.
"Honestly, it's quite a bit smaller than the guild building I originally had in mind."
"Oh, really?"
"Compared to the headquarters of a mega-guild like Taehwa, it's on the modest side. I plan to relocate somewhere bigger eventually."
"Wow. Using a building like this as a temporary headquarters. Leave it to the chaebol class..."
By now Yoon Sol had relaxed considerably, enough for the conversation to flow naturally between us. The formal speech stayed, though.
"For now, floors 15 through 7—including my own office—are slated for the hunters' private offices and meeting rooms, so they're still vacant."
Ding.
The elevator stopped at the sixth floor.
"So let's start with the floors that are finished."
We stepped out together onto the 6th floor.
"This floor houses our Research & Analysis Team. It collects and analyzes statistical data—raid footage, hunter stats, equipment, skill performance, and so on—and provides our hunters with the consulting they need."
"Ooooh..."
Yoon Sol marveled at the rows of massive screens, computers, and shelves of reference books packed into every room beyond the glass partitions.
"Ah, Guildmaster."
Just then, an employee in a suit passing through the corridor recognized me and gave a polite bow.
"Team Leader Lee. Hard at work, I see."
"Haha, I'm only doing my job during business hours, sir. But who might this be beside you?"
"A hunter here for a look around Revenant."
"Hello. I'm Yoon Sol."
"Ooh! Our very first hunter at last...! A pleasure! Lee Jeonghyeok, team leader of Revenant's Research & Analysis Team."
"Ah—no. She hasn't actually signed anything yet."
Team Leader Lee, however, had already convinced himself that Yoon Sol was one of us, and launched into a full-blown oration on the excellence of Revenant's research facilities, the sheer breadth of our archives, and how lavishly I'd spared no expense on equipment.
"You've made an excellent choice, Ms. Yoon Sol!"
Having made all that noise, he waved a hand and vanished down the opposite end of the corridor like the wind.
"Wow. He's... quite a character."
"A very passionate man. I scouted him at considerable expense. And while he did embellish a few things, it's true that I put real care into R&D when I founded Revenant. He's just saved me the trouble of explaining it myself."
"I see..."
"Shall we head down to the next floor?"
And so we kept riding the elevator down, one floor at a time, as I walked Yoon Sol through the rest of Revenant's facilities.
We toured the equipment storage room, a conference hall slated for press events, and a number of other spaces.
"Whoa! The cafeteria looks like some trendy Instagram hotspot!"
"Instagram hotspot... Well, I suppose that's one way to describe it. We did put a lot of care into the interior."
But of everything we saw, the facility that drew the biggest reaction from Yoon Sol was Revenant's cafeteria, which occupied the entire second floor.
"If I sign with Revenant, does that mean I get to eat here every day?"
"Yes. All meal expenses are fully covered."
"Wooow! ...Good grief, and they've got Korean, Western, Japanese... I can just pick whatever I'm in the mood for?"
After the cutting-edge facilities I'd poured hundreds of billions of won into, having the cafeteria take home the biggest reaction was a touch deflating.
With the second floor wrapped up, we passed through the first-floor lobby and headed below ground.
Our final destination: Basement Level 3.
"I'm afraid I can't show you Basement Levels 1 and 2—they're still under construction. But I can promise you this: it's likely to be the facility you'll like most of everything we've seen today."
"Really? Somewhere even better than the cafeteria..."
So the cafeteria really was her favorite, huh. Haha. This girl.
Well, that was bound to change once she saw what came next.
"Now, allow me to present it."
The elevator doors slid open, and Basement Level 3 revealed itself.
"This is Revenant's Training Center."
"..."
At the sight spread out beyond the doors, Yoon Sol stepped out in a daze, utterly spellbound.
The lowest basement level—a colossal training facility spanning nearly eighteen thousand square feet.
A floor engineered sturdier than any bomb shelter, built to withstand the training of hunters.
Every inch of it, from the layout of the equipment to the interior finishing, I had personally designed with the hunters in mind. It was, if I did say so myself, my life's masterwork.
"Virtual combat simulation rooms. A live-combat sparring cage. Facilities that could stand toe-to-toe with any major guild's... but the part you'll like most is probably..."
I led her past the various simulation rigs and the enormous ring until we reached our destination.
"—it's this hunter-grade gym, isn't it?"
Picture a huge, state-of-the-art fitness center, and you'd have a pretty good idea.
Machines of every kind, each designed to train a different part of the body, lined up as neatly as cars in a parking lot.
Except the weights ran on a completely different scale.
Calibrated for hunters with superhuman physiques, the machines started at a minimum of 100 kilograms.
And these weren't cheap props with inflated numbers slapped on just for show, either.
"This..."
Yoon Sol, still gazing blankly at the machines, drifted over to a nearby chest press.
"...That's a Lahrregen, isn't it? German-made. The top manufacturer of hunter-grade machines."
"That's right. Every piece was imported at a very steep price."
"..."
With a bewitched look in her eyes, Yoon Sol stroked the machine ever so gently, as if it might break if she so much as breathed on it.
And when she turned her gaze back to me, her eyes were shining beyond all measure.
"Um... can I try one of these?"
"Pardon?"
"Woah! Unbelievable. Seriously, incredible! I'm actually meeting a Lahrregen in the flesh! The very same Lahrregen machines you only ever see in a famous hunter's training vlog..."
Before I could stop her, Yoon Sol had swiftly dropped into the seat, inserted the weight pin, and begun adjusting her posture.
"Hoo... hoo... What would it actually feel like to lift on a Lahrregen, I wonder...? And little old me, the very first to try it? Wow. Seriously. No way I can resist this."
By now her eyes had gone past sparkling and into the territory of outright madness.
"Ms. Yoon Sol. Of course I'd love to let you use it..."
I glanced at her bandaged left shoulder.
"...Not in that condition, I'm afraid."
"Oh."
Only then, a beat too late, did Yoon Sol look down at her own shoulder—and promptly sank into despair, as though the world itself had ended.
"I can't?"
"No."
"Really...?"
The look on her face. She wasn't a puppy separated from its owner, for crying out loud.
Left with no choice, Yoon Sol rose from the machine.
Instead, as if determined to make up for it with a proper look-see, she spent nearly an hour and a half admiring every single machine—even everything in the free-weights section—before finally donning a satisfied expression and boarding the elevator back up to the guildmaster's office.
"So, what did you think of Revenant?"
"You're really going to recruit someone as shabby as me to a place this prestigious...?"
"Pfft—!"
"Excuse me?"
"Ah, my apologies. In any case, I'm glad it won you over."
"Yes. Never mind the national training center I used to go to—even against a top-three guild's facilities, this place doesn't fall short one bit, even if it is a little smaller. Especially the workout facilities. Wow. This place is just unrivaled, period."
She rattled all that on excitedly, then...
"...Ah, not that I've actually been inside them. I'm just comparing what I've seen on YouTube and the like..."
...she added, looking sheepish at the end.
"Of course. This guild was built with the Baekmyeong Group's name on the line."
"...Honestly, it's so much better than I'd imagined that it barely feels real. And on top of that, a guild where the staff all work so hard—a truly first-rate operation..."
For the record, hiring for non-hunter staff was already well underway.
Naturally, employees across every department—including Team Leader Lee, whom she'd met earlier—were at their posts even now, and Yoon Sol had watched them at work with her own eyes.
"It really does seem you're taken with Revenant."
"Yes!"
Okay. She was nearly all the way over.
Now then—time to hammer in the stake.
"Everything you've seen today—all of it—is waiting for you at Revenant, Ms. Yoon Sol."
"!"
"That is, if you become our guild's very first contracted hunter. And besides... you never did get to try those machines, did you? You'll have to fix that."
"!!"
"Ms. Seohyeon."
Once again, I held out the papers Seohyeon had given me, presenting them to Yoon Sol.
"Of course, I fully understand that this is a weighty decision—one your entire hunter career hinges on. So I won't pressure you to choose right this moment. Go home, take your time, and think it over."
"..."
"I'll hand you the contract as well—feel free to have a lawyer review it. I'm confident the terms are among the very best in the industry. ...Hm?"
But something about Yoon Sol's expression was strangely off.
Her face was far from bright, as though something were gnawing at her.
Strange. Was there anything today she hadn't been happy with...?
"Ms. Yoon Sol?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just lost in thought."
I'd been certain the plan was flawless, but an unexpected variable had apparently slipped in.
"Hmm... Um. Honestly? I'm genuinely happy you're offering me this. Getting to join a guild with the absolute best facilities, with a proper, upstanding guildmaster at its head..."
"I see. Then what's giving you pause?"
"Well... the offer is just so perfect, and that's exactly what's bothering me."
"...!"
"On someone like me—an unaffiliated hunter with nothing special to her name. Ah, sure, there are people who fancy themselves fans and repost my photos on social media without permission just for my looks... but when it comes down to it, I'm simply a B-rank hunter."
...I see. I think I understood what she was getting at.
"And besides, you saw how I acted during the last raid, didn't you? Made a fuss about helping someone else, and all I did was drag the whole team down for it. Meanwhile, look at Yunha unnie. Even in the middle of all that, she coolly followed your orders and pulled the team out of trouble."
So the offer was so tempting it had tipped her over into suspicion instead.
Her confidence had likely taken a hit after the last raid as well.
"I-I know it's unseemly to cling like this to the very person who saved my life... but could you please answer just one last question for me?"
Slowly, she lifted her head and met my eyes.