The Seed of Discontent
It was a story from quite some time ago.
After matches, Park Jeong-seok would often take the younger tankers from his line out to clubs. That day was no different—he headed straight for the club as usual.
“Hyung-nim, something light for me.”
“I’ll just get whatever.”
“Huh? Park Jeong-seok?! You’re the hunter Park Jeong-seok, right?”
“Ahaha, hello.”
“Wow, this is our first time seeing a real hunter! Can we sit with you? We’re Yongbung fans!!”
“Sure, go ahead. Want me to buy you a round?”
In a club like this, there was no need to wear rose-tinted glasses.
Tankers stood on the absolute front line, facing monsters head-on. They absorbed attacks and protected their teammates. Throughout the start and end of every battle, they took the most damage and had to endure it all.
The frontline was always a mess of spraying blood, flying flesh, and bodily fluids. The stench was unbearable, and the monsters—with their grotesque forms—emitted every foul odor imaginable. The dizziness was so bad that many tankers had to take medication just to function.
That was only the first hurdle a tanker faced. The first. There were second, third, fourth… Tankers constantly confronted endless trials for as long as their hunter careers lasted.
It was a burden that those who had never experienced it could never understand. And that burden eventually broke people.
It wasn’t for nothing that the tanker position was considered one that only certain personalities could handle. It was also why tankers tended to have unusually short careers.
That was why Park Jeong-seok took his younger tanker brothers to clubs like this—to help manage their stress. If Lee Shin or Kim Jong-pil had known about his efforts, they probably would have thanked him and given him a bonus. At least, that’s what he liked to believe.
But as always, once the alcohol went in, the mouth loosened. And the mouth was the root of all evil.
“Whoa! So you’re the one managing all the tankers, oppa?”
“Yeah, our Jeong-seok hyung is the first-line captain.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
“Then Subin must know too! Subin’s a tanker as well.”
“!!”
“!!”
“…….”
“Hey, why would Subin be a tanker…! Haha, bro, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Haha… Let’s head out. Hyung, I’m gonna go dance.”
“…….”
This was a problem that was bound to explode eventually.
Technically, the tanker was Park Jeong-seok, and he was responsible for the guild’s first line. But in reality, the hunter with the greatest defensive power in the Mir Guild was Park Su-bin.
His pinpoint shields, created using multiple light spheres, held overwhelming superiority not just in pure defense but in range and every other aspect. On top of that, he could generate ‘arms’ for both offense and area control.
Comparing the two was almost disrespectful.
In fact, the Mountain King had begun placing Park Su-bin on the front line in critical battles instead of Park Jeong-seok.
Whether it was a competitive raid or a regular one—if Park Su-bin could do it better than Park Jeong-seok, it would be stupid not to use him.
Park Jeong-seok acknowledged it too.
Subin was incredible. A real genius. The kind of talent that made you gasp in awe.
But knowing something with your head and accepting it with your heart were two different things. Resentment piled up quietly, forming a hard knot. It had taken root deep in his chest like a seed.
And then, like a sudden downpour, the ‘coincidence’ arrived.
While his younger brothers were off enjoying the stage, Park Jeong-seok sat alone emptying his glass. A woman in a bright red dress slid into the seat beside him.
“You’re Park Jeong-seok, correct?”
“??”
“Fancy running into you here. Nice to meet you. I’m Choi Seul-gi from the Haemu Guild’s recruitment team. Do you have a moment?”
The seed of discontent had already begun to sprout long ago.
·
·
Time passed. The Mir Guild achieved its legendary promotion, and while everyone else went overseas or took vacations, Park Jeong-seok never left his officetel.
“The conditions have improved since last time. Salary tripled. Guaranteed starting position in competitive raids and a vice-captain spot. If you bring your entire line, we’ll even guarantee you the raid team two captain position. Not bad, right?”
“……I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know? We’ve already gone over everything. Why are you acting like this?”
Choi Seul-gi from Haemu Guild’s recruitment team glared at him while drying her wet hair.
“Look, Jeong-seok. Noona likes you, you know that, right? Let me give you some real advice. If you stay like this, you’re going nowhere.”
“……Because of Subin?”
“Yeah. Park Su-bin is a mid-laner who eats tankers for breakfast. His very existence denies yours. Who stood on the absolute frontline in the final round of the top 50?”
“……Subin.”
“And what role did you play?”
“…….”
He had been assigned a ‘supportive’ role to stop the Berserker’s infiltration.
“That’s your future in the Mir Guild.”
It felt like only yesterday he had received the League 4 overall MVP award, yet in League 2, Park Jeong-seok had only earned MVP once.
As Park Su-bin grew stronger, the opportunities for Park Jeong-seok to shine were shrinking.
“Don’t misunderstand—this isn’t because you’re lacking. I’m not just saying this. Your current market value is excellent. Solid fundamentals, powerful burst damage, good judgment, and leadership. You have every talent a modern tanker should possess.”
It wasn’t a lie. Park Jeong-seok’s market evaluation was genuinely outstanding.
With such a strong foundation, depending on how he was developed, he could become a classic tanker or even a high-activity ‘Hwarang’-style fighter.
An unbloomed talent.
——Which made him a lottery ticket worth scratching for any guild confident in their development program.
The problem was the monster he was being compared to. The kind of once-in-a-generation genius that experts unanimously agreed would become world-class within five years.
“If you stay here, you’ll be a side character for the rest of your life. Want me to be more extreme? I’m not even sure you’ll make the starting lineup for competitive raids next season. Do you really think your representative will just let you sit around?”
By now, no one in the guild world doubted Lee Shin’s genius.
Would a man like Lee Shin leave someone as replaceable as Park Jeong-seok alone? Wouldn’t he rather put a different weapon in that spot?
“This is why I say you’re lucky. The Bureau made that announcement, didn’t they? This might be your once-in-a-lifetime chance. The competitive raid format is the perfect time to maximize your market value.”
“…….”
Suddenly, Park Jeong-seok remembered the day he first joined the Mir Guild.
The day he had been dismissed as nothing more than a ‘tool’…
They talked about family and being on the same team now, but Park Jeong-seok knew better.
Lee Shin was cold at his core. No one calculated the guild’s profit and loss more precisely than he did.
In a situation like this, could Park Jeong-seok really stay in the competitive raid starting lineup next year?
He wasn’t worried about raids. He knew his own value well enough.
But everyone agreed—the flower of the league was the competitive raid.
Whether you made it onto the field or not determined a hunter’s class.
She’s not wrong.
Whether he went to Haemu Guild or not, staying still like this would get him nowhere. He needed to take action.
And fortunately, the market was on Park Jeong-seok’s side.
The proof was Choi Seul-gi, who was currently applying lipstick.
That’s why she’s clinging to me so persistently.
Choi Seul-gi had claimed she contacted him because she was interested, but Park Jeong-seok didn’t buy it. At first, she had probably just been trying to extract information about the Mir Guild through him.
But after the Mir Guild’s promotion and the Bureau’s announcement, she had immediately switched gears and was now trying to pull both Park Jeong-seok and his entire line.
It’s a golden opportunity to weaken the Mir Guild’s forces while strengthening their own entry.
It was an obvious scheme, yet Park Jeong-seok let out a small chuckle.
Did it matter?
What mattered to him right now was that the top guilds were this desperate for hunters.
In other words, if Park Jeong-seok wanted to have a showdown with Lee Shin, the market would support him…
Only now.
After closing his eyes and thinking for a long time, Park Jeong-seok finally picked up his phone and made a call.
“Where are you all? I’ll send you the address. Gather here.”
Time Remaining Until Transfer Window Closes: 14 days
* * *
The Mir Guild’s raid team had two main lines.
One centered around Lee Hye-jung, and the other—the Park Line—centered around Park Jeong-seok.
At first, it had simply been those who disliked alcohol gathering with Lee Hye-jung, while the heavy drinkers followed Park Jeong-seok. The groups had started as “alcohol trash” and “alcohol lovers,” but gradually evolved into proper lines.
Park Jeong-seok had expanded his control over the line through his unique brand of empathetic leadership. He had enough pull to get his younger siblings, who were enjoying vacation overseas, onto planes with a single phone call.
A penthouse pool villa in Yangyang.
The members of the Mir Guild’s Park Line trickled in one by one.
“Hyung, if you’d told us a little earlier it wouldn’t have killed you. I almost died trying to get a plane ticket.”
“Weren’t you in Japan? You could’ve just swam over.”
“Oppa, he would’ve sunk halfway.”
“By the way, when is Jeong-seok oppa getting here?”
While they were cracking silly jokes in the swimming pool, Park Jeong-seok appeared from the other side wearing swim trunks.
“Thanks for all coming.”
“If hyung calls, of course we come.”
“That’s right. You called us, oppa.”
“We’re the Park Line, aren’t we?! Loyalty!!”
The entire tanker line—the core of any raid—was present. Along with them were the equally vital supporters and healers, plus the reserve players.
Including Park Jeong-seok, a total of nine hunters had gathered.
Park Jeong-seok nodded in satisfaction and opened his mouth.
“I called you all here because there’s something I want to say. What do you think about the current state of the guild? Speak freely.”
“…….”
“…….”
Here it comes.
Everyone gathered here wasn’t stupid. They understood exactly what this meeting was about. The fact that they had still shown up meant they were willing to get on the same boat as Park Jeong-seok.
“Honestly… it’s not great.”
“Yeah. Everything’s too focused on just a few people.”
“Hey, since it’s just us, let’s drop the politeness. To be exact, it’s all centered on Subin and Yu Ri-ra.”
“I’m just a reserve, but even I think this is too much. Subin makes sense since he’s a local and an original member, but Yu Ri-ra feels so random.”
“She’s kind of annoying.”
“No situational awareness either, hehe.”
They had eyes too. Park Su-bin was untouchable. Anyone with eyes could see he was a genius. But Yu Ri-ra honestly wasn’t on that level. When she hit her peak she pierced the heavens, but when she hit rock bottom she drilled straight into the earth’s core. That made her seem relatively easy to criticize.
“That sniper rifle they gave her recently. It was insanely expensive, right? How much was it again?”
“Even if we added up all the equipment we’ve received, we still couldn’t afford it.”
“Honestly, the representative’s favoritism is way too much. The Mountain King doesn’t seem interested in stopping it either.”
“Agreed. The favoritism is insane.”
Favoritism.
Park Jeong-seok instinctively realized that was the perfect point of resonance.
“The reason I gathered you is because of that favoritism. If things continue like this, only a small minority will monopolize all the opportunities. The rest of us will just be extras.”
The expansion of the entry roster would only make it worse.
While it might create more opportunities, on the flip side…
“The more people there are, the less support the rest of us will receive if the current favoritism continues. The gap will only widen. This is dangerous.”
Assuming the current stance was maintained, more members meant higher maintenance costs. That inevitably meant less resources for individuals.
Everyone’s expressions darkened.
Of course, outsiders would probably curse them.
They had risen from a league where they couldn’t even find jobs to League 1. Shouldn’t that be enough?
But for those who could see the summit right in front of them, that wasn’t enough. When glory seemed like it was just an arm’s reach away, who could judge rationally?
Park Jeong-seok had aimed for exactly that—their desire.
“I’ll step forward and demand fair opportunities.”
“You, hyung?”
“Oppa?!”
“Yes. Opportunities should be fair. You and I deserve that kind of treatment.”
Salary increases, guaranteed competitive raid appearances, better equipment support, and so on.
The younger members were moved. From their perspective, even though Park Jeong-seok’s starting position was already guaranteed, he was still fighting for them. He was a grateful older brother.
Of course, Park Jeong-seok had his own calculations.
In a time when hunters are this scarce, the fact that this many of us are moving together is power in itself. No matter how great Lee Shin is, he can’t ignore this.
Especially now, when they were busy expanding the entry roster. If Park Jeong-seok made demands, even Lee Shin would have no choice but to sit down at the negotiation table.
And in the end…
Guaranteed starting position. As long as I get that…
There would be no need to leave the guild.
* * *
However.
“You can’t do it together? Then go ahead and do that.”
“……?!”