The Opening Match
As the opening match was finalized, fans, hunters, guilds, the Bureau, and everyone connected to the league were steeling themselves with renewed resolve.
Meanwhile, Lee Shin sat alone in an empty Chinese restaurant, quietly lifting a glass to his lips.
Suddenly, a scene from an old noir film he had seen long ago flashed through his mind. Dim lighting, a bottle of baekgal. Wasn’t that one also set in Busan? Lee Shin tilted the glass back in one smooth motion, then swished the liquor around in his mouth like mouthwash.
At that moment—
Ding-ding-ding—
The door opened with the jingle of an old-fashioned bell.
The person who entered was an elderly gentleman wearing a fedora. It was the Mountain King, Kim Jong-pil.
He’s here.
Lee Shin spoke in a grave tone.
“Godfather, what does the Godfather say…”
“You want me to talk nonsense again?”
“Ahem. I was just trying to set the mood.”
“Have a seat.” Lee Shin grinned in his usual mischievous way and gestured to the spot across from him. Kim Jong-pil sat down and filled his own glass with baekgal.
“What would you like? The food here is decent.”
“Let’s get the stir-fried chili peppers.”
“Boss, one order of stir-fried chili peppers, please. And extra flower buns.”
After placing the order, Lee Shin clapped his hands. The watch on his wrist flashed, and in an instant, a barrier spell sealed off the area around them.
“So, what’s this about? Calling me out all of a sudden.”
“Aw, come on. Do we really need a reason to meet up? Tsk, I suddenly feel so distant. Are you getting tired of me alre—”
“Cut the crap.”
Kim Jong-pil downed his drink and spoke grumpily.
“We saw each other the day before yesterday, yesterday, and this morning. Of course I’d be curious if you suddenly asked to meet in private. Especially when you said it should just be the two of us, without Dong-ha or the kids.”
“I just felt like drinking…?”
“Then you’d barge into my house and start charming my wife with that ‘108 Flirty Techniques to Win a Woman’s Heart’ nonsense you always talk about.”
“Hehe.”
“Stop bullshitting and just tell me.”
He was right.
If you had to name the person who had spent the most time with Lee Shin throughout the entire stove league, it wasn’t his right-hand man Chae Dong-ha, nor his left-hand woman Yun Cho-a.
It was Kim Jong-pil right here.
Even during that brutal training camp, the two of them had stuck together for at least three hours every single day. Their chemistry was so well-known within the guild that it had become something of a legend.
So why call him out like this all of a sudden?
Lee Shin filled the empty glass and began to speak.
“I probably won’t be twisting myself into knots like I did in the past during this year’s regular season.”
“So I should understand that as you stepping back from raid team operations?”
“Stepping back is a bit too extreme. I’ll still participate in important matches.”
“Taeyang, Shinhwa, Kirin?”
Lee Shin nodded silently.
Instead of asking ‘why?’ with his mouth, Kim Jong-pil asked it with his mind.
In that instant, everything flashed through his thoughts in reverse order: the ranker announcement, the training camp, the Super Team relay, the academy… every single thing, big or small, that Lee Shin had interfered with.
And when his thoughts finally reached the last event—the South American incident…
“You bastard…”
Kim Jong-pil’s astonishing intellect had already found the answer.
“You’re planning to focus seriously on external activities now. And that’s going to be about this league, isn’t it?”
“…What makes you think that?”
“Because you’re projecting your influence outward.”
He emptied his glass and continued.
“A lot of people call you impulsive and instinctive, but that’s completely wrong. You’re a calculating bastard who moves according to a plan from start to finish.”
And the center of every calculation Lee Shin made had always been the same.
The guild.
“The guy I know started by slowly expanding his radius of action with the guild at the center. During League 4, he reorganized the guild. In League 3, he began properly consolidating the fans. And in League 2, he finished laying the groundwork.”
“Interesting. Then when do you think he detonated that groundwork?”
“You’re asking even though you already know? Obviously it was the Woongjindan. That’s when the money really started pouring in.”
“Hehehe, this is exactly why I can’t escape you, sir. You understand my heart too well.”
When the Woongjindan was released, the guild gained financial freedom. It gave Lee Shin the power to complete whatever picture he wanted to paint.
“A normal representative would have stopped there. For a single guild, it would have been perfect. But you kept moving.”
“That’s right. I kept moving.”
“You suddenly flew off to America and completely overhauled the guild.”
“Could you call it sophisticated management, please?”
“Even back then, I vaguely sensed it. That you weren’t just aiming for the championship right in front of you, but something much bigger.”
And that something was probably—
“This league. Not just the Korean league, but the entire world league.”
Kim Jong-pil’s eyes sparkled as he spoke. Lee Shin nodded as if deeply moved and clapped his hands.
Clap, clap, clap.
“Kim Jong-pil, the man of demonic charm. You’ve captured me again. Seriously, Dong-ha hyung needs to work harder.”
It was as if he had read Lee Shin’s mind. Every single point was correct.
“Sir, do you remember when I first came to find you?”
“Mt. Geumgang?”
“Yes.”
“I remember.”
“Compared to the league back then, how is the league now?”
“Well… it’s fun.”
“It’s fast, exciting, passionate, and full of drive. It drives the fans crazy and makes the hunters fight with everything they have. Thanks to that, the guilds are getting crushed a bit, but that’s just something we have to endure for the sake of this league.”
Anyway.
Lee Shin slammed his empty glass down and spoke with firm determination.
“All of that is thanks to me.”
“I can’t deny it.”
“I really like this league. The hunters, the guilds—everything about it is so lovable I can barely stand it. I can say this with confidence. There is no one in this world who understands and loves this league more than I do.”
Therefore—
“We’re going to devour this league.”
And also—
“We’re going to elevate this league.”
Up there.
It was subtly different from what he had told Lee Sang-byuk.
Not ‘I’ but ‘we.’ Not a question but a certainty.
By resolving the South American incident, he had clearly imprinted his influence on the Bureau.
The Super Team relay, created by mobilizing the chairmen of the four major groups, had firmly planted pillars in this league.
His connection with Rothschild had opened the path to Europe, and the training camp had created solid footholds in the largest markets—America and China.
The preparations were complete.
Now it was time to stretch outward.
Naturally, the center of it all was Mir Guild.
And here, the Mountain King Kim Jong-pil was Mir Guild itself, alongside Lee Shin.
“Honestly, with this much power, we won’t lose to anyone except the four major guilds.”
“I agree.”
“With Chae Dong-ha in the front office and Kim Jong-pil on the raid team, the guild will sail smoothly.”
“I agree with that as well.”
“Then what I need to do for the guild is already decided.”
Lee Shin’s brutally objective self-assessment would never allow him to rest. The moment he closed his eyes, he could see all the events he hadn’t enjoyed and all the hunters he hadn’t met yet flickering before him.
Having power and influence yet choosing to stop was a sin. That was what Lee Shin believed.
“I’m hungry. No, even if I’m not hungry, I have to be hungry. Beyond Korea, to Asia, and then to the world. With great power comes great responsibility. Shouldn’t the representative of the Great Huangmir possess ambition on that same scale? Don’t you think so?”
“Hah, look at this brazen bastard. At least that mouth of yours is ranker-tier.”
“Hehehe. With the greatest mouth in the world, I’ll lead you out into the world, sir. The protagonist of the world—man, that sounds killer.”
“I don’t know about you, kid.”
“You’re clearly enjoying this.”
When Lee Shin held out his glass with a laugh, Kim Jong-pil smiled as if he couldn’t help it and raised his own.
The two glasses clinked together. Just like the first drink they had shared on Mt. Geumgang.
“Oh, right. So about that. Starting with this opening match, I’m planning to try something interesting…”
Take a look at this.
The moment Kim Jong-pil saw the list Lee Shin pulled from his coat, his eyes widened so much they looked like they might tear.
“You brazen son of a bitch?”
“Puhahahahaha!!”
Meanwhile, the Royal Sword Guild was also completely absorbed in preparing for the opening match.
“Kids! Why is setting up a power meeting taking all day? Hurry up! Huh?”
“Someone called MBS! Now everything’s tangled and it’s such a hassle!!”
“Team Leader! PR Team Leader!! The Director is on the phone!! Yes, that broadcasting station!”
“When did Japan say they’d send the equipment?? Still…? You idiot, move.”
Mir Guild had seized not only the Korean champion title from last season but the Asian champion title as well.
On top of that, with the cheat key known as the Giant God now unleashed, Mir Guild’s opening match wasn’t 99.9% confirmed—it was 100% confirmed.
Naturally, the eyes of fans and stakeholders turned to the opponent. Just who would the Bureau send against that insane dragon?
And when the Bureau’s choice was revealed to be the Royal Sword Guild, people looked at them with nothing but pity…
Yet the reaction from Royal Sword’s own fans wasn’t bad at all.
One might think they had all collectively lost their minds from excessive shock, but it wasn’t a joke. The atmosphere really was like that.
Because the other teams hadn’t exactly been sitting idle either.
The representatives weren’t fools. After their meeting with Bureau Director Kim Mi-young, they had felt a sense of crisis.
The league was changing. The world’s attention was focusing on the Korean league. One only had to look at the noticeably higher broadcasting rights fees compared to last year to see it.
To hold their ground in a league developing like this, they had to do something. And that something was the power reinforcement listed above.
On top of that, a few stakeholders offered a different perspective on the opening match…
Thanks to that, Royal Sword fans couldn’t help but feel a collective surge of excitement.
In that case, how could Representative Joanna Lee’s evaluation not skyrocket?
She was savoring the praise directed at her with a satisfied expression.
“Goddess Anna, huh? Hehe. Anyway, this is pretty fun.”
When she failed to catch Guardian, she had been treated worse than a ten-year-old cockroach. Now she had transformed into a savior who had desperately protected a guild that had been burning with no dreams or hope.
These netizens really were something. You had to give them credit for their pot-like mentality.
Joanna Lee’s smile carried a hint of chill for a moment before she noticed the person in front of her and quickly put on her business smile again.
“Jong-yu, you should come see this sometimes when you’re bored. It’s really entertaining.”
“……”
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop joking and just answer your question.”
“Please answer first.”
That’s right.
The person sitting across from her was the Light Sword, Jong-yu. He was the core of the Royal Sword Guild after Guardian’s departure and its raid leader.
And right now, Jong-yu was asking about the ‘atmosphere’ that had taken over the guild.
“It’s natural for stakeholders to make a fuss before the opening match, and there’s nothing wrong with fans holding onto baseless expectations… The problem is that the guild itself has gotten swept up in that atmosphere and is now overly excited?”
“That is correct.”
The reason Jong-yu had come to the representative’s office was because of a conversation he had overheard between the transfer players.
After finishing training and entering the waiting room, he had heard the transfer players evaluating their opponent. At that moment, Jong-yu instinctively realized something had gone very wrong.
“They said we just need to stop the Mountain King and the Flower Knight. They genuinely believe the Korean Bureau is pushing those three kids for the sake of league popularity.”
“Sigh… Jong-yu, please understand. They came from Japan.”
“I’m not here to debate whether their evaluation is right or wrong. What I want to say is that this subtle atmosphere floating around the front office is affecting the raid team’s discipline. Isn’t this atmosphere something you deliberately created, Representative?”
“You… noticed?”
The Light Sword Jong-yu was famous for his stoic personality and few words. She had thought he lacked awareness, but apparently not.
Joanna scratched her head awkwardly and honestly admitted her mistake.
“It was to shake off the sense of defeat. I thought repeatedly injecting artificial confidence would boost their motivation. It seems I went a little overboard. I apologize.”
“Why?”
“Hmm. I wasn’t planning to say this originally, but now I have to. Please keep this between us, Jong-yu. I know exactly how big the power gap is between Mir Guild and our guild.”
“Are you saying we will lose?”
“Of course not. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Just listen.”
Mir Guild and Royal Sword Guild.
In terms of power, coordination, and every other aspect, the difference between the two guilds was stark. And that was the view of most people.
To be honest, everyone except our own fans probably thinks the same, right?
But that was precisely why Joanna saw it as an even greater opportunity.
“Those so-called Children of God will be completely hyped up. Don’t you think? Being top ten rankers in their early twenties—if they weren’t excited, they wouldn’t be human, they’d be bodhisattvas.”
“We’re aiming for that moment of carelessness. You know I borrowed Legendary items from Japan, right? Our plan is simple. We land one lucky punch! That’s it.”
On a tilted playing field, winning would bring even greater rewards.
That was why, just like how Kirin Guild had used the Baekhwageom against Park Su-bin last season, Joanna Lee had prepared items specifically tailored to counter Mir Guild’s starting five for the opening match.
If everything proceeded according to raw power, it would be a duel, not a team competition.
“Unfortunately, you were left out of the rankers this time, Jong-yu.”
“……”
“Honestly, what the transfer players said isn’t entirely wrong. Do you really think those kids reached those ranks purely on skill?”
“……”
“Even the Bureau admits it. They say rankers aren’t an absolute indicator of strength. Can you really say those kids didn’t receive help from the Bureau?”
“……”
He didn’t answer, but the way the Light Sword’s hand tightened showed his emotions clearly.
As expected, provoking his pride was the right move.
Joanna Lee smiled with satisfaction.
“Let’s cause a scene together. Let’s show those rookies what’s what.”
“Let’s do it.”
With the representative and raid leader solidifying their resolve, the Royal Sword Guild completed every possible preparation for a giant killing.
And finally, the morning of the opening match dawned.
And the fate placed before them was—
Jungler: Mountain King Kim Jong-pil.
AD Carry: Blitz Yurira.
And then—
“Top lane is Mir 2nd Team’s tanker Choi Soo-pil. Support is Shinhwa’s healer, Princess Seo Ye-na. And finally, mid lane—”
“Lee Hye-jung!! It’s 2nd Team Leader Mommy Lee Hye-jung!!”
The screen split to show the bewildered Royal Sword Guild and Lee Shin rolling around on the floor in laughter.
“Puhahahahaha!”
Professor Lee’s Grinning Laboratory is now ON!!