Harsh Realities of the Off-Season
Cherry blossoms in full bloom. From the budding sprouts, bright yellow forsythias peeked out, and mountains and fields alike filled with people enjoying picnics and flower-viewing. Naturally, everyone thought the same thing.
It was spring.
And.
It was the off-season.
“Alright, everyone. Winter has finally passed and spring has arrived. Oh, that’s not a metaphor. I mean it literally—spring is here!”
Lee Shin’s voice, announcing the start of the meeting, was nothing short of cheerful.
After all, the third-division tutorial grind was over. The real Guild War League was about to begin.
A world where power clashed against power, ruled by beasts.
Just thinking about the new content being added made his chest swell. Lee Shin’s face flushed red with excitement.
“Since it’s the start of a new season, let’s go in strong. Mir……”
“Representative!”
“Whoa, you startled me.”
But that energy was cut short by Chae Dong-ha, who had burst through the door.
Lee Shin looked at the man gripping the doorknob, panting with bloodshot eyes.
“Now that I think about it, you’re late, hyung. You owe a fine.”
“This isn’t the time for that!”
“What? What’s going on? If it’s not something that would shock even me, I’m actually going to get angry.”
And I don’t get shocked easily.
Lee Shin crossed his arms and looked down at him with a bold declaration.
Chae Dong-ha caught his breath, then exhaled sharply.
“The Bureau just called……”
“And?”
“They said our guild’s promotion is going to be difficult.”
“Right, promotion is difficult……”
Huh?
“What?”
Why……?
* * *
The conference room.
Lee Myeong-hwan gazed at the podium with a relaxed expression.
The coach stood on stage, giving a presentation.
Yet something felt off. Compared to Lee Myeong-hwan’s leisurely demeanor, the coach’s face was ashen. He was visibly tense.
Looking around, everyone else looked just as bad. Only one person was speaking, but cold sweat was the norm, and everyone fidgeted, barely daring to breathe.
Of course they did.
This was Dynasty Guild’s first meeting after narrowly failing to promote to League 1.
In short, it was a stage for the losers to make excuses.
Plenty of excuses were offered. “We lacked focus.” “We learned from our defeat.” “With this experience, we’ll do better next time.” Blah blah blah……
Even the pathetic, miserable excuses failed to stir any reaction on Lee Myeong-hwan’s face.
Because that pig’s fate had already been decided.
“That’s enough. I’ve heard plenty. Secretary Jang.”
Lee Myeong-hwan raised a hand and lightly cut the speaker off. At his words, the secretary bowed and opened the conference room door.
Lee Myeong-hwan silently pointed with his finger.
Then he spoke.
“The exit is that way.”
Get out.
He had issued an order to leave.
“R-Representative, y-you’re joking, right? I’m Coach Kim. I’ve been loyal to Dynasty Guild for twenty years……”
“Secretary Jang.”
“Please leave.”
“Representative!!”
The coach struggled, but was dragged out by the burly men in black suits.
Click. The door shut behind him.
The meeting—or rather, the hearing, or the death row inmate’s final plea—continued.
“Next, the head scout will present.”
“……!!”
This was a guild’s spring. This was the off-season.
The off-season from those Stove League dramas?
Where the heroine clenches her little fist and cheers, “Try again next year!” “You can do it!” to those who fell short, while the male lead pretends to be indifferent but secretly supports them from behind in a romantic off-season??
Bullshit.
In this massive business market where hundreds of billions, trillions, and eventually quadrillions of won changed hands, looking for romance was absurd from the start.
Except for the few guilds that won or promoted, the vast majority in this ruthless winner-takes-all league were losers.
And because so much was at stake, someone had to take responsibility for defeat.
That was why romance vanished from the off-season, and why it had to be so merciless.
“Remember this. Incompetence is a crime. Whether it’s a coach stuck in outdated tactics, a scout who recommended such a coach, or a recruitment team leader who handed out long-term contracts based on that scout’s words—every one of them deserves life imprisonment in my eyes. HR Director.”
“Y-Yes!!”
“The three positions vacated today will be filled by these people. They’ve proven their abilities in the Japanese league, so make sure to take good care of them, HR Director. Understood?”
“U-Understood! I’ll take full responsibility!”
With that, Lee Myeong-hwan fired the coach, head scout, and training coaches alike, wrapped up the meeting, and entered his office.
He locked the door, roughly yanked open the cabinet, pulled out a bottle of whiskey, and poured it straight into his mouth.
Glug glug.
“……Those pig bastards! Second place? You think second place is something to be proud of?”
Did those pig bastards outside even know how desperately he had needed the opportunity they’d missed?
To him, the league wasn’t just a league. It was a war for the empire called Ido Group.
In this situation where the board’s raccoons were watching which side to back, he had to prove his own worth to earn their favor. Through league results.
That was why Lee Myeong-hwan looked so pathetic now.
Just days ago, he had been leading this war.
But now that he’d missed promotion to League 1, none of it mattered. He had lost everything.
Someone might say it.
That the league was never easy to begin with, and promoting within a year of acquisition was nearly impossible. That finishing second in the division was still an incredible achievement.
In fact, his other cousins who had been in League 2 had also tanked.
Sure.
If everyone had truly tanked, then by the logic of relative happiness, Lee Myeong-hwan’s foul mood might have improved slightly.
But there was one person who hadn’t.
The one who had pulled slightly ahead.
“Lee Shin, that bastard……”
Among all the guilds Ido Group had reached out to, only Lee Shin’s Mir Guild had promoted.
And not just any promotion—they had shattered every existing guild record with 38 consecutive wins.
It was an achievement so great that dismissing it as merely “League 4” only made oneself look more miserable.
“The old man is already enough of a headache. If this makes even the board lean toward him……”
Absolutely not!
Along with the rising rush of alcohol came a surge of crisis awareness.
Are you just going to sit still? This won’t do.
Do something, now!!
Lee Myeong-hwan’s hand, gripping his phone, moved on its own to find a number.
The call connected immediately.
“Sumi, I need you to step in.”
And so, a few days later.
The call from the Bureau sent Mir Guild into an uproar.
“……Promotion is going to be difficult?”
* * *
An emergency meeting was held at Mir Guild.
Once Lee Shin took his seat in the conference room filled with every team leader and above, the meeting began.
“Alright, let’s get this over with quickly since everyone’s busy. Vice Guild Leader Chae Dong-ha, what do you mean promotion is going to be difficult?”
Chae Dong-ha stepped forward.
“Exactly as it sounds. The Bureau informed us that due to concerns over Mir Guild’s ‘financial soundness,’ promotion in our current state is impossible.”
The most common nickname for the Guild War League was “the greatest show on Earth.”
It was a league that drove all 6 billion people on the planet into frenzied enjoyment and competition, which was why absurd amounts of capital flowed through this market.
The league’s Bureau was extremely reluctant to control this massive market.
Any business not in violation of the law was allowed, and they didn’t interfere in transactions between guilds.
Even if a single guild threw money around to scoop up every MVP, or outright acquired another guild, they wouldn’t say a word.
However, reluctance didn’t mean they turned a blind eye to everything. The Bureau’s stance was clear.
A guild must be run like a guild.
In business terms, a certain portion of a guild’s operating funds must be generated directly by the guild itself.
This was collectively referred to as “financial soundness.”
“The Bureau expressed concern that our revenue structure is unstable and that excessive spending has created cash flow risks. They wrapped it up nicely, but the conclusion is simple: build a proper revenue model.”
It wasn’t that they were telling them not to accept funds from their parent company. On the contrary, they could accept even more.
But there was one condition: you must also earn money on your own.
However, this raised one question.
The newly appointed finance team leader voiced his doubt.
“Um, I’m new here so I’m a bit confused. You said excessive spending is the problem…… so why didn’t they point it out earlier? I mean, why didn’t they say anything when we brought in the Mountain King?”
Even at the time of his recruitment, the Mountain King’s value far exceeded that of Mir Guild. The gap had been so overwhelming that comparison itself felt presumptuous.
In other words, if the Bureau wanted to nitpick financial soundness, they should have done so when the Mountain King was recruited.
But now?
Chae Dong-ha gave a simple answer that made everyone understand.
“Because we’ve only just reached League 3—the third division.”
“Ah~!”
Exclamations erupted from various places.
Those who already knew nodded in understanding.
That was right.
The guilds the Guild War League Bureau tacitly acknowledged started from League 3 at minimum. Now that Mir Guild had reached League 3, the Bureau was recognizing them as a proper “guild” and pressuring them to follow the rules.
Lee Shin, who had been tapping his finger, moved the meeting along.
“Alright, let’s continue where we left off. The Bureau is nitpicking our financial soundness, and if we can’t resolve this……”
“If we can’t…… they said they’ll have no choice but to reconsider our promotion.”
“……??!!”
The unusually hardline stance shocked many people.
What? Reconsider promotion? After everything they’d done to achieve it, they were going to take it back? Was that even allowed? The conference room erupted into chaos in an instant.
But not everyone was confused.
Jeong Sun-dong, the Guild Leader, with his characteristically good-natured face, lived up to his “Network King” nickname even in this situation, while Kim Jong-phil, the Raid Leader whose career was legendary in itself, remained calm as if they had already anticipated this.
“It’s a common warning, so there’s no need to be too concerned. And there’s no need to view financial soundness in such a negative light. There are considerable benefits to running guild businesses, such as tax deductions and various ancillary cost treatments.”
“Since this is a rite of passage upon entering the third division, there’s no veto. We’ll have to take visible action. For example, Kirin Guild’s first business was a small resort.”
Chae Dong-ha quickly picked up where the two left off.
“Exactly as they said. Mir Guild now needs its own business. However, there’s one thing we must be careful about. We can’t run a business on the same scale as other third-division guilds—just for show.”
“Why not?”
“Why is that?”
“Because……”
“It’s because of me.”
“……!!”
“……??”
All eyes turned to Kim Jong-phil.
He shrugged as if he had expected this.
“My market value is included in the guild’s assets. Naturally, the percentage we need to generate through business increases, and the bar for financial soundness rises accordingly. Isn’t that right, Vice Guild Leader?”
“……That’s correct.”
In simple terms, because they had greater assets, they needed to generate even more revenue.
“To summarize, our guild needs to pursue a business that generates the highest possible revenue and posts the strongest results on paper.”
The meeting had reached its conclusion. Now it was time for the decision-maker to speak. Everyone’s gaze turned to Lee Shin.
Clap clap.
Lee Shin clapped his hands to draw attention.
“Alright, I’ve heard everyone. In the end, Mir Guild needs its own business too.”
This off-season’s task was clear.
As Chae Dong-ha said, they needed a large, impressive business that could generate massive revenue and results—enough to cover even the Mountain King’s price tag.
“So I’ve been thinking, and I believe this is perfect for us.”
Lee Shin scrawled something on the whiteboard.
Franchise.
“A franchise that’s large in scale and can definitely generate revenue, even if not necessarily profit, would meet all the conditions, wouldn’t it?”
But despite Lee Shin’s enthusiastic declaration, there was no reaction.
The employees avoided his gaze. Among them, Chae Dong-ha’s eyes were downright cold.
Because.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for the Representative to bring up business matters.”
You already failed at that, didn’t you?
Especially with franchises.
“Did I?”
Of course, this Lee Shin had no idea.