The Trade That Shook the League
The alarm blared obnoxiously. Rrrrr— Rrrrr—
Lee Shin’s hand flopped onto his phone like a dead fish.
It was a weekend morning. He opened his eyes inside the bedroom of his officetel apartment.
The ceiling that greeted his half-lidded gaze felt unfamiliar. How long has it been…?
The fact that a guild’s schedule during the season was murderous enough to kill was common knowledge even among civilians.
Raid—Guild War—Raid—Guild War…
A true wheel of death that never gave anyone a chance to breathe.
In this cycle, while the raid teams were certainly being ground down, the ones truly getting shredded were the front office staff.
Today it was logistics and supplies for raids, phone glued to the ear. Tomorrow it would be preparing for the Guild War with power analysis.
And once the match ended? That wasn’t the end. The PR team’s phones would be on fire. And that wasn’t all—there were fan events to attend in between for the local supporters.
Just two days ago, Lee Shin had been shaking his butt on stage at the Jagalchi Festival in time with the zzarara music.
It had been busy. Truly…
Of course, if he voiced any of these thoughts out loud, Chae Dong-ha’s retort would come flying immediately.
Does the representative have thorns in his mouth if things are too normal? He keeps bringing in spectacular workloads, so isn’t it the poor front office that’s dying? This is all your fault!!
That was why Lee Shin had opened his eyes in his bedroom for the first time in nearly a month.
If things kept going like this, he was going to get bitten to death by the dark-circle-covered front office zombies. So the entire guild had decided to take this weekend off.
These kids have no sense of style. In this busy modern society, dark circles are attractive too. Don’t they know the decadent aesthetic?
Anyway, after always crashing on the sofa in the guild duty room or the representative’s office, being properly embraced by a real bed for the first time in almost a month made it impossible to… get up… zzz…
SLAP!
“Get a grip!”
Whew, that was close.
“Yongyong, curtains.”
When the voice assistant drew back the blackout curtains, Lee Shin rose, following the warm sunlight that poured in.
Maybe because he so rarely got to rest on weekends, the first thought that popped into his head was What should I do? But for now, he decided to follow his instincts.
Whatever happens, happens.
A few moments later…
“One mixed, with salted squid and shrimp paste here.”
“Thank you.”
Before he knew it, a man’s potion had been placed in front of Lee Shin.
Steam rose gently. The rich, savory aroma made him hum in satisfaction. Krruu—
At that moment, his eyes instinctively searched for something. Once toward the glass next to the seasoning tray. Once toward the refrigerator full of soju.
…Forget it.
If the person sitting here had been the thirty-something Lee Shin who used to light up the nights with Goo Di, he would have already pulled that out and wet his throat. But the person here was the twenty-something representative of a top guild.
From across the room, the country’s future—clearly a soccer club—were already whispering, “Hey, isn’t that Lee Shin?” No matter how much of a my-way-or-the-highway guy he was, drinking in broad daylight in front of kids was a bit much.
Look at me, protecting the nation’s promising youth like this.
“Thank you for the meal, boss. It gets tastier every time.”
“Aigoo, if it suits your taste, then I’m the one who should be grateful, Representative.”
“And please put the table over there on my bill too.”
“That table, you mean…?”
“The kids in uniforms over there.”
“Ahhh…”
When he left the store while cheerfully sipping yogurt, the kids bowed deeply through the window.
“Thank you!!”
“We’ll eat well!!”
Good. Very upright.
People complained these days that kids weren’t kid-like anymore, but seeing that, it seemed purity was still alive.
He coolly waved his hand.
Instead of a suit, he wore a tracksuit. Instead of dress shoes, slippers. His hair was annoying to wash, so he’d tied it back with a hairband. The naïve stroll was actually quite nice.
“I’ve been living too busily.”
A leisurely weekend.
The sunlight was nice, and the fluttering breeze felt good. It was slowly becoming autumn; the color of the leaves was deepening.
Things he had missed while being so close by now stood out with this newfound free time.
That’s right. People weren’t machines. They had to rest while living. No one was chasing him—why had he lived so frantically?
Lee Shin almost imagined himself going to work tomorrow morning and declaring, “From now on, let’s live like humans and actually rest on weekends!”
If only the radio in the snack shop beside the crosswalk hadn’t been on.
— “Huh? Oh… My goodness. We’ve received unbelievable news. Just moments ago, a colossal super trade between League 1 and League 2 has been completed.”
Lee Shin froze mid-step. Like a broken doll, he creakily turned his head toward the radio.
“!!”
The snack shop owner, who had noticed Lee Shin, flinched and quickly turned up the volume.
“!!”
The couple who had been stealing glances at him stopped walking and held their breath.
— “Huk! Baekgeom Guild? Weren’t they third place last season?”
— “Three seasons ago they were competing with Kirin Guild for first.”
— “Whoa, a trade between a top League 1 title contender and a League 2 guild? What on earth is happening?! Hurry! Hurry up and tell us!”
— “Tell us already. I’m getting dizzy here!”
Gulp—!
Time and space had stopped.
Even the people who had crossed the street couldn’t lift their feet, as if caught in a spiderweb.
— “They’re acquiring Ssaurabi Kang Han-bi and Hwarang Kim Yu-shin in exchange for three promising ranked players and the legendary item, Nene-kirimaru!!”
“!!”
“!!”
“!!”
Ssaurabi and Hwarang?!
Surely not the rankers we’re thinking of?!
As if on cue, every citizen who had frozen in place turned their eyes toward Lee Shin…
And Lee Shin was smirking, the corner of his mouth twisted upward.
“That’s a bit much.”
His short vacation was over.
It was time to return to the real Lee Shin.
He broke into a run while pulling out his phone.
“Dong-ha hyung, you saw it, right? I’ll contact Mountain King-nim. Gather the entire power analysis team.”
“Taxi! To Mir Guild, please.”
The ridiculous big trade had thrown League 2 into chaos.
* * *
Armed Guild Representative Office.
From beyond the door, anger, irritation, disappointment—every kind of negative emotion—seeped out.
“Do you have a brain or not? How could you handle things like this?! How could you miss a major incident of this scale?! Do you have any idea what kind of impact this will have on our guild?!”
Considering the usually gentle and refined Ryu Jae-seok who never once raised his voice, this furious appearance was utterly alien. Yet every single front office employee listening to the uproar could only understand.
Even the team leaders standing before Ryu Jae-seok with their heads bowed deeply had to admit it. They had nothing to say even if they had a hundred mouths.
A colossal trade between 2nd place in League 2 and 3rd place in League 1.
They had been hit by this historic event while wide awake.
“Go on, explain. Give me a reason why you people should keep your positions. Convince me. Come on.”
Ryu Jae-seok threw his coat to the floor and sat down, desperately holding back his rage. The team leaders, who had been watching him nervously, saw the recruitment team leader step forward first.
He briefly bowed his head and apologized before immediately getting to the main point.
“We believe the trade originated from Baekgeom Guild.”
True to its name ‘One Hundred Swords,’ this guild with the unique concept of being composed entirely of swordsmen had two cores.
Sword Master and Ghost Slayer.
Rank 3 and Rank 9 respectively. Hunters more than qualified to represent the Korean league.
And it was from the Sword Master that all of this had begun.
“At the time, the Sword Master openly expressed strong dissatisfaction when a front office employee he was close with was fired during the off-season.”
Complaining over something as trivial as a friend?
It sounded like childish behavior unfit for anyone beyond elementary schoolers looking for a playmate, but surprisingly, such things happened quite often in this industry.
Mental management was crucial for high-tier hunters, and friends with whom rapport had been built were an indispensable part of that.
After all, there was even a hunter in the European league who paid his friends eight-figure salaries just to hang out with him for the sake of his mental health.
“Although the commotion was quickly settled once it became known that the employee had been fired for the illegal act of embezzlement, it seems their relationship had already gone sour at that point.”
“If Baekgeom Guild, in order to appease the disgruntled Sword Master, went so far as to strongly desire the Nene-kirimaru he had been singing about for so long… then everything about why they accepted this skewed trade makes sense.”
Legendary items went beyond enhancing a hunter’s output and could influence the battlefield itself. They were perhaps true tactical weapons.
Therefore, there was no doubt that Nene-kirimaru was a legendary sword that could not be adequately described with mere words like ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’
But trades were always relative.
One had to look at what was placed on the other side of the scale.
“The named rankers Ssaurabi Kang Han-bi and Hwarang Kim Yu-shin. Typically, the top 20 in each country are called rankers. Their rankings are 20th for Ssaurabi and 16th for Hwarang.”
In Korea, famous for its high level of competition, they were two of the strongest twenty.
No matter how great a legendary item was, putting it up against those two clearly felt like a stretch.
But hadn’t he just said it? In trades, everything was ultimately relative.
“No matter how much of a national-treasure-level weapon Nene-kirimaru is, it cannot compare to rankers. Especially if it’s two of them… it makes even less sense.”
“Even if we generously assume it was the off-season, we would have understood. If there was some unknown trouble with those two and they did a fire sale to handle it quickly… something like that.”
But it wasn’t even that.
Then there was only one answer.
That sword carried something else of even higher value. A value great enough to give up two rankers…
And that could only be—
“The only thing that makes sense is that it was to win back the estranged heart of the Sword Master. The domestic ranking 3rd, the Sword Master himself.”
They had taken a loss in order to turn the heart of the third strongest hunter in Korea at present.
This was the closest thing to the correct conclusion they could reach with the information currently available to them.
Ryu Jae-seok interlaced his fingers, pondered for a moment, then turned his head to one side and spoke.
“Power analysis team. Nothing to say?”
At Ryu Jae-seok’s gesture, the power analysis team leader stepped forward.
His complexion was far worse than the recruitment team leader’s. The bluish pallor on his face seemed to show just how desperate the current situation was.
“…Ssaurabi Kang Han-bi is a hunter with the most unique style in the league, freely switching between long-range and close-range combat.”
Mid-range with a short sword. Close-range with a long sword.
A carry who switched between two patterns.
“When he holds a short sword and pressures from mid-range, he becomes a speed star. With his extreme evasion, he dodges nearly all attacks from ordinary carries.”
“Conversely, when he closes the distance with a long sword, he becomes a one-hit-kill swordsman. His iaijutsu can instantly kill even decent tanks in a single strike.”
Offensive power.
Kang Han-bi was called top class in the league in that single category.
Honestly, comparing him to the current Armed Guild’s carry was impossible.
No, even Yu Ri-ra of Mir—whose carry power was said to be the strongest—would likely be unable to show her presence in front of Kang Han-bi.
However.
Even though Kang Han-bi already left them breathless, the person who made the power analyst the most despairing was someone else.
Rank 16, Hwarang Kim Yu-shin.
“He is a hexagonal top tank, evaluated as the most perfect hunter in South Korea.”
There were sometimes hunters whose value was difficult to judge by ranking alone.
Hwarang Kim Yu-shin was exactly that.
There were tops stronger than Kim Yu-shin. There were tops tankier than him. There were tops who initiated better than him.
But.
“There is no other top who can do everything alone like him. That is why Kim Yu-shin became the national representative who wears the Korean flag on his chest.”
To a power analyst who needed to find weaknesses, a hunter like Hwarang Kim Yu-shin was truly a devil. Because there was genuinely no gap to be seen.
As he spoke, the power analysis team leader’s despairing face loosened just a little.
Because he saw hope? No—because he had given up. Giving up made things easier.
While there was no such thing as absolute in competition, sometimes there was.
This was a case where the match itself could not even be established.
That was the current situation. The current Dynasty Guild’s squad would be a clear upper-tier team even if placed directly into League 1.
Perhaps. No, without a doubt.
“At present, Dynasty Guild is stronger than Mir Guild.”
A squad stronger than Mir Guild, which was running away with an overwhelming first place in League 2.
Honestly, it was questionable whether even Mountain King would be able to compete if he returned to his original position.
Lee Myeong-hwan’s Dynasty was strong.