The Countdown to Madness
Park Seong-cheol, a thirty-two-year-old office worker, was the picture of perfection in almost every way.
“Good morning, sir. You look tired—here’s your coffee. Haha. Lunch is on you today, boss.”
“Hmm? Oh! That report? I finished it yesterday. Here you go. Just submit it as-is. Take a quick look.”
His smile never faltered. No matter how hard you looked, you’d never find a single wrinkle of discontent on his face. And he was so capable that even his superiors treated him with kid gloves, terrified he might jump ship.
Yet this man—perfect in skill, perfect in character—had one secret no one knew about…
His room was packed wall-to-wall with Mir Guild uniforms and signed memorabilia.
That’s right.
The single stain on his otherwise flawless record was that he was a hardcore Yongbung-i.
It must have been twenty years ago. On an unusually sunny day, ten-year-old Park Seong-cheol had been lured to the stadium by his father’s promise of tonkatsu.
Was it the electrifying sensation of feeling a gate’s magic field for the first time? Or had that pathetic guild somehow popped every performance-enhancing pill in existence and played like they were possessed that day? Either way, Park Seong-cheol’s first experience was indescribably thrilling.
That was how he became a Yongbung-i. That was why he had cheered for the Mir Guild for twenty straight years.
And the result?
They had crashed and burned like dogs.
“Let’s see… another bountiful harvest today, I bet?”
Fresh from a crisp shower, Park Seong-cheol cracked open a beer can, took a sip, and clicked his mouse.
The Mir Guild Gallery loaded, and as always, the board was overflowing with hellfire-level memes and otherworldly profanity.
It was a bumper crop. A bumper crop of absolute bullshit.
This was what a Yongbung-i’s life looked like.
A stinking sewer born from twenty years of rotting defeat. No matter how much fresh water you poured in, it made no difference. Spouting anything normal here was equally meaningless.
“Fuck” was a greeting. Hunting for the word “dog” in every sentence was routine.
To talk with these people, you had to go insane with them. And by the time this place started feeling comfortable, you would discover the miracle of spitting out hellfire memes as naturally as breathing—memes that would get you buried alive in normal society with a single sentence.
“That’s why I tried to escape.”
Like the heroine of some viral meme, Park Seong-cheol had tried to cast off the shackles of defeat and misery to chase happiness.
When that national team degenerate Lee Shin suddenly appeared and threw away Yang Pan-seok—the guild’s last hope—Seong-cheol felt his blood boil and hyperventilation rising in his throat. If he kept sucking on this doomed guild, he really might not live to see old age.
So he had even posted the legendary “I’m leaving because this place sucks” thread, swearing this time he would escape the abyss for good…
Yet here he was, still clutching a beer and cackling at the gallery’s dog-tier memes.
“Heh heh heh. This is exactly why I can’t quit.”
For the record, he had considered stanning another guild.
Since leaving the league entirely wasn’t an option, he had imagined that cheering for a guild that had been cruising smoothly for years—unlike Mir—would solve all his problems.
For example, the neighboring team that had climbed from the 5th Division all the way to the 3rd Division in just four years despite being a newborn guild.
But it was impossible.
After twenty years marinated in hellfire spice, every other guild tasted bland. It was like eating pork soup without the salted shrimp—something was just… missing.
In the end, like a salmon returning to its birthplace, he had circled back to being a Yongbung-i.
It was all because of that damned stimulus threshold.
Anyway.
“Still no news from these bastards? You guys are really going all out. I kind of want to crack your skulls open. The season opener is right around the corner—how the hell can you still have zero registered hunters?”
Park Seong-cheol checked the league’s official site for Mir Guild’s roster. Nothing.
At this stage of the Stove League, it was common sense for guilds to strengthen their rosters. It was simply the natural order of things.
Apparently that common sense didn’t apply to Mir Guild.
Not a single transfer announcement had been made. Even after they had kicked out Yang Pan-seok and the entire raid team!
Just in case, he visited the homepage…
D-DAY
What the hell was that D-Day even for? Was this guild really going to end up exactly as everyone predicted?
A snort escaped Park Seong-cheol’s lips. Then another.
The league schedule was right in front of them, yet they had zero registered hunters, no recruitment announcements, and their official homepage was under construction.
It was dizzying. Absolutely dizzying.
“Yeah… this is the Mir Guild alright.”
Look at that—his head was already spinning. As expected from a doomed guild. He had believed in them.
A pastime that drove him just as insane as the smell of someone’s scalp on a calm day. Today, too, the Mir Guild was overflowing with the frenzied curses of its Yongbung-is.
Maybe that was why.
Not a single one of them noticed.
00:05:00…… 00:04:59…… 00:04:58…….
That lonely D-Day counter on the homepage was counting down to today.
00:01:00…… 00:00:59…….
The moment the timer hit one minute amid everyone’s indifference—
Every outdoor electronic billboard across Seoul and the entire country switched off at once.
Small screens, massive screens, bus stops, highways—every single display went dark. For an instant, the entire Korean peninsula seemed to lose all its light, as if a nationwide blackout had struck.
What’s going on?
While people scrambled to figure out what was happening, numbers began rising on the darkened screens.
5.
Drivers speeding down the highway turned their eyes to the displays.
4.
People waiting at bus stops turned their eyes to the displays.
3.
Those strolling through the night streets.
2.
Even the city centers that never slept.
1.
With every gaze now fixed on the same place—
The billboards across the country began to flicker, starting from the guild homepage.
And from the center of the dark screens, something slowly emerged as the blackness peeled away…
“A person?”
“It’s a man.”
It was a man.
Thick waist, squared shoulders, a solid back.
The silhouette walking through the pitch-black darkness was unmistakably a man’s back.
The darkness was silent. And it was long. It felt suffocatingly dizzying, like watching a guild’s endless dark age.
Yet the man pressed forward in silence.
He searched for sound in the quiet darkness and for a path in the dizzying darkness.
It was as if his entire body was saying:
I simply took the wrong road. There is definitely an exit in this darkness.
Just like over there.
A faint light shimmered where the man pointed.
Small and fragile, and therefore precious—the only escape that could end this long dark age.
The man advanced.
And the moment he took that step—
Flash!
A pure white spotlight illuminated a stage, where another man stood waiting.
A man in a white suit extended his hand. The man who had cut through the darkness took it.
Black and white.
The instant their contrasting figures met—
The camera zoomed out.
The faces that had been hidden until now were revealed.
And then—
“What?”
Park Seong-cheol watching on his monitor, everyone watching the billboards, and all those absorbed in this unprecedented show froze in shock at the same time.
Because the two men holding hands were—
Lee Shin and Kim Jong-pil.
Both of them were smiling.
They had lost their minds.
It was legendary.
““Wooooooooo!!””
““We did it!!””
A thunderous roar erupted inside the Mir Guild office. Everyone hugged each other, jumping up and down in excitement. Even Lee Shin mixed into the crowd, his body trembling.
“Yes! This is it! This is what I’m talking about! Fucking beautiful!”
Actors, directors, production—he had even squeezed money out of his grandfather for those billboards.
This was the greatest showcase in the history of the Korean guild scene. It would be remembered for generations.
“Good. Very good.”
There was no time to dawdle.
They had shocked the market. Now they had to ride this momentum for all it was worth.
A sharp glint flashed in Lee Shin’s eyes. He hopped up onto the table with a light leap. “Attention!” he shouted, stomping his foot. The cheering front office staff instantly turned to look at him.
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s calm down. It’s still too early to pop the champagne.”
He pointed like a host on a variety show.
Only then did the guild members snap back to their senses and begin reporting in.
“Mir Guild is currently number one on every portal site’s real-time search rankings.”
“For reference, Lee Shin is in second and the Mountain King is in third!”
“Every community board is flooded with stories about us!”
“Not just the broadcasting stations we contacted—reporters from other networks are calling nonstop.”
“Even the magazine company we interviewed with before…”
The reports poured in without pause.
Attention. Interest. Hot topic. Issue.
It didn’t matter what label they used now.
What mattered was that, for this moment, they had captured the eyes and ears of the entire country.
In Busan. In League 4. A fallen prestigious guild!
“Our Mir has been reborn. We’ve undergone a complete transformation and emerged as a sleek baby dragon with shiny new scales.”
Coo, I’m baby Mir.
This was the critical period. A dragon’s future spouse was decided by how well it ate and grew during its growth phase!
Lee Shin scattered the stack of documents he had prepared in every direction.
The story of his visit to Mount Geumgang, the conversation he had shared with Kim Jong-pil, the process of recruiting the Mountain King—it was all information the public would eat up.
Therefore—
“Now! It’s time to devour all the topics we’ve scattered everywhere. Swallow them whole and chew thoroughly. We will digest this buzz and grow our size in one go!”
The time they had been given was until the regular season began.
“Hold on tight. There are no brakes on the bus I’m driving.”
Vroom vroom.
The jaws of hell had started their engine.
D-7
We will unify all communication channels through SNS. Take the information we provided earlier, spice it up with some fun editing, and spread it across social media.
“SNS, sir? Not reporters or the homepage?”
“No no no~ Who watches TV these days? Let’s go cool and sexy. A young guild that approaches fans through SNS. It has that vibe, right? Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
D-3
“How are the preparations for the Mountain King’s inauguration ceremony this afternoon? Is it true that a terrestrial broadcaster is coming?”
“The MBS broadcasting team is currently checking their equipment.”
“Um… it looks like they also want to do a personal interview with the representative.”
“Of course we’ll do it. Obviously. In fact, invite every media outlet that wants us—even women’s magazines from beauty salons.”
“Understood.”
“Hoo… I’m getting emotional. As some of you may know, Yeongdo was my hometown. I ran around the mountains and the sea a lot as a child.”
“It has always bothered me that there wasn’t a proper guild in my hometown. That’s why those words moved me even more. Let’s return to our beginnings. Let’s grow again and revive. That was the message.”
“I am truly honored to return to the city that engraved my purest memories. And I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Representative Lee Shin for giving me this chance.”
“I swear on the honor of the Mountain King. This season, Mir Guild will be promoted.”
“First, let’s get this out of the way. Let’s stop talking about Yang Pan-seok now. (laughs)”
“Promotion? Honestly, our Mountain King was being way too humble. Let’s be real—is promotion even a question? I’m looking at three years. Promotion, promotion, promotion. Triple promotion! Mir Guild is heading to League 1 in three years.”
“A lot of you are asking about the roster… Just a second, where did I put it? Ah, here it is. This paper contains our finalized roster. Curious?”
D-0
1st — Busan — 87 points
2nd — Seoul — 71 points
3rd — Seoul ….
4th — Seoul ….
…
13th — Gyeonggi ….
Busan’s Mir Guild has risen to the top of the League 4 Power Rankings by recruiting the world-class Mountain King. It is the first time a provincial guild has claimed the number one spot in the power rankings since 199X…