The Children of God Evolve
All of it was going exactly as planned.
Lee Shin was confident. To flip this league on its head, he only needed two things.
『Park Su-bin VS Baek Yeon-woo』 Nickname Contest Video #1
『Yu Ri-ra VS Hwarang』 Nickname Contest Video #2
That was more than enough.
Everyone already knew they were strong.
They were the starting members of Mir Guild, the team that had rewritten the record books with an undefeated run and the highest points in the round. Yu Ri-ra, the Queen of Survival who had held her own in Korea’s notoriously brutal bottom lane 2v1 matches. Baek Yeon-woo, the crazy top-laner who debuted the same year he awakened and sliced through every single top laner in the league. And finally Park Su-bin, the final boss of Mir, the monster who had even blocked the Divine Archer, Korea’s ultimate weapon.
Staff, experts, casual fans, even rival supporters who had nitpicked the rankers—everyone knew. Those kids were insanely strong!!
So no one was surprised by raw power anymore. They had seen it too many times.
Yet even those who had steeled themselves were left speechless after watching the videos.
This… this was straight-up cheating!!
The kids who were already monsters had evolved into super monsters in just a few days.
How long had it been since the Asia League finals? And they had all changed this much! If Pokémon evolved this fast it would be considered cheating and broken.
While third parties screamed in shock, what about the Yongbung fans?
They didn’t even need to say anything.
Watching Park Su-bin’s milky-white giant transform into a mechanical form—
Watching the light in Baek Yeon-woo’s hand morph—
Watching Yu Ri-ra’s lightning trick show with her pistols—
If sea levels had risen, it was only because of the tears poured out by the Yongbung fans.
The galleries, fan cafes, and every community online had turned into an ocean of tears.
It wasn’t just because they were strong.
To the fans, these videos were a growth drama.
Park Su-bin had represented the Sacred Bone Youth team, but when you looked at it, all the Children of God were One Club hunters who had debuted in this very guild.
Of course, one couldn’t deny there was a fair amount of obsessive fawning mixed in… but if you watched the videos and didn’t get flashbacks of their debut days overlapping with their growth story, then you clearly weren’t a true Yongbung yet.
That was why one thing was made perfectly clear.
A post had gone up as an official fan club notice.
It was an official statement. Anyone who argued would be killed without mercy.
By the time the league fans had amicably(?) gone off to pick new nicknames, Lee Shin’s hidden purpose finally started getting bites.
Just saying “the video” was enough. No one asked which one.
Everyone already knew.
After the initial wave of shock passed, the hunters’ reactions roughly split into two groups.
The playoff members focused on Lee Shin’s training methods that had turned the Children of God into this.
The All-Star starting members were already thinking up countermeasures while worrying about facing those monsters.
Finally, the rankers who formed the core of each team didn’t even waste time chatting—they ran straight to their guilds.
They burst into the representative’s office and declared:
“Look at this! We need to reinforce our power, unnie!”
* * *
There were two women in the room.
One was a bespectacled woman who had covered the entire table with pads and was passionately explaining. The other sat across from her, complaining about exhaustion while sipping red ginseng liquid mixed with magic herbs.
“Unnie, look at Park Su-bin. That mechanical giant isn’t just a summon. It’s his ability and his avatar. It doesn’t disappear! Look here where it shows—”
“Haa, Eun-seo-ya.”
“The light sphere didn’t vanish. All the things the light sphere could do can now be done with these parts. Do you understand what that means? His already horrifying defense is going to get even stronger—”
“Hey, Eun-seo-ya.”
“Baek Yeon-woo, this pattern is the key, look. It was clearly a dagger when he swung it, but the moment the attack landed it turned into a greatsword, right? It’s a timing trap. When you calculate his attack speed, he’s doing this three or four times per second—”
“Yeo Eun-seo, let unnie talk for once!”
“Why do we need words! Once teamfights start, our kids can’t stop Baek Yeon-woo. And that’s not all! They can’t stop Ri-ra either! Looking at their movement trajectories and instantaneous speed, our current members couldn’t stop them even if they died and came back to life!!”
“Yeo. Eun. Seo!!”
“Un. Nie!!”
That’s right.
This was the Royal Sword Guild.
The woman with the tired face and the headache was none other than representative Joanna Lee. The woman who had suddenly stormed in, shoved analysis data in her face, and was practically screaming was Guardian Yeo Eun-seo.
No matter how much of a ranker and raid leader she was, charging at the representative like this was clearly rude. But Yeo Eun-seo was that desperate.
Because it looked like this unnie still didn’t fully understand the situation.
That was why she was still saying things like this even now.
“Eun-seo-ya, what you’re ultimately saying is we need to reinforce our power, right? We’re already doing that? We’re going to recruit a new top and bottom laner this time. And look, unnie is working hard to get you new equipment too.”
“Haa… see, I knew this would happen. Unnie, when did I ever ask you to change my equipment? When did I ask for a new top and bottom? I told you before…”
“I know! Heuk-seong, Challenger Guild’s Heuk-seong, Gong Ju-in!! You’ve been singing that song until your throat is raw—how could I not know?!”
Heuk-seong Gong Ju-in.
It was the transfer Yeo Eun-seo had been demanding nonstop.
She had dreamed of the combination between herself and Heuk-seong for a long time and had constantly appealed for it.
However, Joanna Lee’s answer had always been the same.
“They’re not selling Heuk-seong. Challenger would have to be crazy to sell her. And think about it, Heuk-seong is a mid-laner. We already have the resource called Gwang-geom in mid. You’re not seriously suggesting we bench Gwang-geom for Heuk-seong, are you? That can’t be right, hmm?”
The fact that Heuk-seong Gong Ju-in was Challenger Guild’s franchise star, and that her position was mid-lane.
At those two points, even Yeo Eun-seo had nothing to say.
Because it wasn’t wrong. Logically, that was correct.
But everything changed after the Brazil expedition. More precisely, after her conversation with Lee Shin…
People often described the comparison between Guardian and Mountain King like this:
Guardian of offense and Mountain King of defense.
But Lee Shin had firmly shaken his head at that.
Rapid battlefield design and short-term decisive battles at unpredictable timings.
What even the peerless commander Mountain King yielded to was precisely…
Although the necromancer Heuk-seong was evaluated as having weaker offensive power compared to other rankers, her battlefield control was top-tier even on the world stage, let alone in Korea.
Lee Shin spoke with absolute certainty, as if he had seen it himself.
Honestly, Yeo Eun-seo had felt a sting in her eyes at that moment. Lee Shin had genuinely believed in her and supported her.
Even though they were competitors, he had spent hours discussing the Guardian and Heuk-seong combination with her, and he still answered her emails with questions even now.
‘At least he wasn’t as half-hearted as this unnie.’
She had felt it ever since she saw Yu Ri-ra at the national team camp, but Lee Shin truly cared for his hunters.
He never spoke of the impossible, and if a problem arose he rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward.
Yet the woman in front of her, Joanna Lee, only kept saying “It can’t be done. It can’t be done.” To have less faith than Lee Shin, whom she had only spent a few days with, despite having spent so much more time together…
That might have been why Yeo Eun-seo had actively accepted Lee Shin’s opinion.
“…Bring Heuk-seong. Then I’ll move to supporter. And I’ll personally persuade her to change position to jungler.”
“!!”
A duo that could move fluidly no matter the variable and find a path even in the most frustrating situations…
According to Lee Shin, it was the strongest short-term decisive battle duo. The only rival to the Volcano Duo.
Yeo Eun-seo wanted to realize the ideal she had discussed with Lee Shin, the genius of this league.
No… she had to realize it.
Yeo Eun-seo took off her glasses and spoke firmly.
“Unnie. No, Representative. As raid leader, I formally request this. Please recruit Heuk-seong Gong Ju-in. If not, I will not renew my contract this time.”
“!!”
* * *
Meanwhile, at the same time, a similar situation was unfolding at Challenger Guild…
“Representative, are you really going to sell her? At this timing?”
Funnily enough, Heuk-seong Gong Ju-in was also showing a video while talking about “timing.” It was Mir Guild’s promo video.
“We were always mid-to-low tier, but this time we reached mid-tier. It was the best record since our guild was founded. And you want to sell our starting top laner Yeon-jae?”
She was right.
At the end of the league, Challenger Guild had finished 9th.
It was the best record in guild history. Although it had been overshadowed by Mir Guild’s overwhelming performance, some experts had even called them the second protagonists of the league.
Yet instead of reinforcing their power, the guild was trying to sell it off. And not just anyone—a starting All-Star member.
The representative scratched his head awkwardly and said,
“The Americans were extremely aggressive. The transfer fee and conditions are good… and in return we’re getting the long-life player you liked. You know how hot he is right now, right? He’ll definitely do well.”
“Representative.”
“I know. I know what you want to say. But it couldn’t be helped.”
“Why?”
“This guy, Baek Yeon-woo, has changed the trend. It’s in the video too. From now on, tops will be divided into two types. Those who can stop this guy, and those who can’t.”
Give up on shaky feet and attack power and turn the top lane into a pure tanker with perfect thick armor to block everything.
That was the representative’s choice, which was why he planned to sell the existing top laner.
Gong Ju-in expressed her doubt.
“Isn’t that not a choice to win, but just a struggle not to lose?”
“……”
“Why isn’t there an option to fight back?”
“Haa, Ju-in-ah. If you watch the video you’ll understand. To fight that guy head-on, we’d need to bring in at least rankers like Sword Master, Spear Demon, or Fist King.”
“……”
There was no money.
He didn’t say it out loud, but both the representative and Gong Ju-in knew the reality.
“Ju-in-ah. You know this. Our guild is fundamentally a selling guild. We discover prospects, raise them, sell them, then raise new prospects. It’s a virtuous cycle. That’s why our guild is called Challenger.”
Challenger.
Never become arrogant. Always stay humble.
Always do your best with the mindset of a challenger.
This was Challenger Guild—challenging the majors with nurtured rookies rather than expensive transfers. And the irregular that had come out of that process was none other than Heuk-seong.
Gong Ju-in had always been proud of that word, but for some reason today it felt suffocating.
“That’s how we got results.”
“Well, I’m not sure if we can do it again this season.”
“Raise them, sell them, raise them, sell them. Then when do we ever get to shine?”
“We’re already shining. Ju-in-ah, reaching the majors is a big deal. The hunters below are dying to step on this stage.”
“I want to go to the playoffs.”
“Let’s go. Who knows? Another genius like you might appear…”
“When? When will they appear, Representative?”
She had worked hard and produced results. She had been happy and held hope.
But every time a season ended, they were back to square one. Suddenly, Gong Ju-in remembered her conversation with Lee Shin.
The limits of a selling guild, and her own loyalty to that selling guild.
Lee Shin had truly felt sorry for her. That was probably why he had given her a sixty-page training manual.
“Heh.”
“…Ju-in-ah?”
“Representative, what do you think about the nickname Heuk-seong?”
“It’s cool.”
“Is it?”
Gong Ju-in let out a small laugh and stood up.
“You said we don’t have money, right? I’ll make sure to bring in a fat transfer fee.”
“…Ju-in-ah?!”
* * *
Guardian Yeo Eun-seo “If you stop, you’ll only fall behind. I’m still hungry.” Hints at transfer?
Heuk-seong Gong Ju-in leaves beloved Challenger to find new nest. “I was happy, but I think it’s time to leave for further growth.”
·
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Two rankers at once? The league is undergoing a seismic shift!
Again! Again?! Another massive Stove League!!