Different from Last Week! The Rampaging Competitive Conquest Battle!!
In the Hunter Association, the atmosphere had grown explosive.
“Is this acceptable? This many injured hunters—how is this acceptable?! Huh? Mr. President!”
“What on earth is the association doing? Did you really not see this coming, Mr. President? If you didn’t know, that’s disappointing. If you did know… that’s even more disappointing!”
“I told you back then, no matter how hard the Bureau pushed, we had to reject the competitive conquest battles at all costs. Ha… Look at this mess. We’re all going to be ruined.”
As the guild representatives hurled sharp criticism at the association president, one person stepped forward. The room fell silent as if on cue.
She was, after all, the one who had suffered the greatest damage from this incident—the representative of the Core Guild.
Unlike the others who had been shouting in agitation, she was eerily calm. It wasn’t that her anger was small. On the contrary, she was so furious that only cold white ash remained where her rage had burned.
“Mr. President.”
“Go ahead, Representative.”
“First, look at this. These are the medical certificates for our injured. See them with your own eyes and then make your judgment.”
The danger level of wounds inflicted by humans and those inflicted by monsters existed on completely different dimensions. There was the risk of infection, and the ‘magi’ monsters carried was fatal to humans.
That was precisely why potions were indispensable. No matter how trivial the wound, once struck by a monster you had to drink a potion to purge the magi from your body.
In any case, the damage suffered by the Core Guild after taking a direct ambush from the Haemu Guild was beyond imagination.
They couldn’t even call them bruises. Fractures were nothing—over half the team suffered torn muscles, and the raid leader who had bought time for his teammates to retreat had nearly sustained permanent bodily damage.
“The orc legions that swarmed us numbered five groups total. Their estimated strength exceeded 1,500. The Haemu Guild used those 1,500 orcs to strike the exact moment our raid party was exhausted after nine straight hours of hunting.”
“……And the Haemu Guild.”
“Do you know what they said to me? They expressed regret. Said they had no choice. But the truly absurd part? I actually understood where they were coming from.”
The Haemu Guild had been thoroughly crushed by the ‘fucking bastard’ next door and failed to recruit any proper healers during the off-season. The only healers left in their guild were basically non-combat masseuses and physical therapists.
In that situation, Manwang had released the poison?
Just as that fucking bastard had said, it was fatal. A situation where you had to strike first or be struck.
This atmosphere now permeated the entire league, and the Core Guild representative pinned the cause squarely on the association president, who currently sat with his mouth clamped shut.
“Officially they’re saying one month, but the doctor told me that with rehabilitation it’ll be closer to six weeks.”
“……”
“Our main members need rest as well. The result is that we’ll have to field substitutes for two upcoming competition matches.”
“……”
“Mr. President, please say something. Weren’t you the one who fought so passionately to protect hunters’ rights and interests?”
“Hoo……”
The president rubbed his face with dry hands.
Did they think he had wanted this picture? The deal between the association and the Bureau had been to expand the regular roster in exchange for increasing the number of matches, including the competitive conquest battles.
Thanks to that deal, the president had even succeeded in securing Bureau support for a portion of the base salaries of regular roster members.
That was why his claim of ‘a grand decision to give new hunters more opportunities!’ had been accepted despite the increased competition.
Yet after only one match.
After just one round of competitive conquest battles, everything had flipped upside down.
“‘Even if competition increases, it won’t be as brutal as the old days,’ ‘This is a new era, it won’t be that rough, just focus on stamina management’… And what happened? It’s actually rougher than before? Incredible. How does every single prediction miss the mark so completely?”
“Ah! One thing the president said was correct. The rookies will indeed get more opportunities. Once all the current main members are ground to dust, we’ll have no choice but to give them chances, right? If you actually foresaw things reaching this point, I can only offer my sincere admiration.”
It was a clear miscalculation.
That was why the president could not utter a single word even as the representative openly mocked him.
“Do you know why the president has kept his seat for ten years? It’s purely because of his ability. No matter how much he took, no matter how closely he worked with Han Jeong-do, we left him in place because we trusted that ability.”
But now that ability had proven faulty?
Then there was no longer any reason to keep him in that chair.
“The day before yesterday, Representative Lee Shin said something interesting. That the Bureau has drawn its sword. Against hunters who failed to fulfill their duties and the guilds blinded by money who enabled the situation.”
“We will be watching whether the president can protect us from that blade.”
Even as the representatives flowed out like the tide, the president’s mouth remained firmly closed until the end.
“……Hoo.”
Slumped on the sofa like a deflated doll, he stared at the nameplate on his desk. The spot that had once seemed so naturally his now looked impossibly distant.
An era of upheaval.
A cruel age had arrived in which anything that could not adapt—regardless of rank—would be culled.
And the first sacrifice had just been chosen.
Meanwhile, while every league stakeholder, guilds included, scrambled desperately not to be weeded out, the man who had flung that door wide open was making moves no one had expected….
* * *
B University Hospital.
Nurse Park Ju-hee was enduring an especially headache-inducing lunch break today.
“Hey, big news, big news! There’s some huge event happening this afternoon!”
“Wait, I heard about it too! Some incredibly famous person is visiting the hospital. The whole place has been buzzing since morning.”
“Wasn’t it supposed to be some big shot? The director—who we barely ever see—came in early today, so I assumed that was it?”
“No way, it’s not that.”
“It must be a singer. Or maybe an actor?”
“Isn’t it that guy?! The trot singer who’s super hot right now……”
Strange rumors had been circulating through the hospital since morning.
Apparently there was some event scheduled today and the person they were bringing in was a massive ABC-level heavyweight….
The reason Park Ju-hee’s head hurt was this endless game of telephone. The conversation had been going for hours now, yet there wasn’t a single scrap of actual evidence!
It was shocking!
Frankly, the ‘some event’ could be the jaw-dropping spectacle they were describing, or it could just be the religious gathering from two weeks ago.
The same logic applied to ‘ABC.’
It could be Father A delivering his usual kind sermon, Actor B paying a courtesy visit to a hospitalized patient, or suddenly Idol C showing up to twerk.
‘Actually, let’s just put A, B, and C on one stage together. Deliver a sermon while shaking hands, then twerk in the background. That would be wild.’
Of course, she understood why the commotion had started.
Today was Monday. To shake off the wriggling Monday sickness, office workers needed gossip. Chattering excitedly about nonsense until quitting time was a hundred times better than writhing in your seat waiting for the clock to hit five.
But for the naturally cynical Park Ju-hee, it was pure torture. Having meaningless chatter ringing in her ears was exhausting.
Her colleagues, who knew her personality well, swarmed her like bees the moment they saw her tired expression, purely to tease her.
“Look at Ju-hee wilting away. Hehe.”
“Yeah, she looks drained.”
“You don’t know girl talk? Girl talk!”
“I’m literally here, aren’t I? You guys handle the talk part.”
“Whenever we talk about Mir Guild your eyes sparkle, but the moment it’s everyday stuff you wither. Look, just saying the word Mir brought the light back to her eyes.”
“That and this are completely different.”
“Ju-hee is a Yongbung. We have to protect her. Hehe.”
“This girl is a natural-born Yongbung. The whole family. Dad, older brother, herself—everyone.”
“Ahem.”
“Ugh, please stop being proud of that, Park Ju-hee……”
Then one colleague grinned at her and dropped the line.
“But Ju-hee, did you hear? There’s a rumor the person coming to today’s event is Representative Lee Shin.”
“?!”
For a moment she was stunned…
—As if.
“Who’s spreading such ridiculous nonsense?”
It wasn’t even worth asking if it was true.
Who was Lee Shin?
Rank one in value, rank one in evaluation, rank one in league standings. The leader of Korea’s most prestigious guild.
Also rank one in wealth, rank one in charm, rank one in eloquence—a genius representative who embodied Korea.
The peerless commander known as the Mountain King had said, “The only person I can truly communicate with is our representative.” He was currently dominating every meta.
The chief mage of the Olympus Magic Tower had assessed that “His choice to be a guild representative is a loss for humanity,” as he opened new horizons in the world of magic.
The being announcing the end of the old era and the birth of the new.
The icon of change, the god of the guild world. That was Lee Shin.
And such a person was coming to their hospital??
Even his weekly broadcast was such an honor that she wanted to bow her head. Park Ju-hee simply laughed off her colleague’s joke.
Yeah.
At least until she ran into them on her way back to the ward.
“I’m nervous. Everyone ready? Agent 2, Agent 3, Agent 4.”
“Hohot! Agent 3 is fully prepared, Agent 1.”
“Um… Representative……”
“Ahem! Agent 2!”
“Th-that, Agent 1, can we please just act normal……”
“Agent 2, you dare talk back to me!”
“You dare talk back!”
“Hey… If you’re embarrassed, just stay quiet like me.”
Trench coats, fedora hats, black sunglasses covering half their faces. People loudly broadcasting ‘I am a suspicious person!’ with their entire bodies were standing right beside the sign where Park Ju-hee worked.
Naturally, she approached them with a stiff expression……
“Excuse me, what exactly are you doing here? I don’t know your purpose, but this area is……”
She was about to sharply warn them that she would call security if they didn’t leave immediately.
Then her eyes met the person in the lead.
!!!!!!
Park Ju-hee froze solid.
Her eyes widened until they looked like they might tear.
Even though most of his face was hidden, the overwhelming beauty still broke through.
The jawline, the lips, the bridge of the nose, and even the eyebrows and slightly drooping eyes visible above the sunglasses.
It was impossibly familiar. She had seen it yesterday, the day before, and it might as well have been her computer wallpaper at home.
And it was.
The identity of Agent 1, who was covering his mouth with his hand, was none other than……
“Shh.”
Lee Shin.
God had descended!
“What’s your name?”
“P-Park Ju-hee.”
“Good. Pretty Ju-hee.”
A moment later, sunglasses identical to Lee Shin’s were placed over Park Ju-hee’s eyes.
“From now on, you are Agent 5.”
* * *
A hospital was a space that possessed its own magic power.
A tired, boring kind of magic power. The debuff of lethargy that made you exhausted just from seeing patients and deleted entire days.
What made this debuff vicious was that it stacked.
One day felt different. Two days felt different. A whole month felt different again.
Lee Shin believed this was due to the unique nature of a place called a hospital.
— “Shin, if you’re busy you don’t have to come.”
— “Go home and sleep. Why sleep in this cramped place, Shin.”
— “Ah, look at this. There’s no spot left for the IV needle.”
It was supposed to be the most hopeful space for healing illness and saving lives, yet the reality Lee Shin had experienced was cold.
Patients in pain and guardians forced to watch. And above all, the hospital bills that slowly tightened around their throats.
What was needed in times like these was laughter.
Even if forced, they had to laugh and chatter to escape the suffocating reality even for a moment. Only by reassuring each other that they were okay could they endure the difficult road ahead.
That was why Lee Shin had come here today.
“Is everyone gathered?”
Park Su-bin, Yu Ri-ra, Baek Yeon-woo, the nurses gathered with Park Ju-hee, and even the pediatric ward doctors who had been urgently called.
In the solemn atmosphere, eleven people—no, eleven agents.
The peculiar detail was that every single one of them was wearing the sunglasses Lee Shin had gifted them.
“Today, we will become the children’s laughter.”
Lee Shin slightly lifted his sunglasses and declared.
“Operation name—commence.”