Shocking News in the Guild World
Shocking news tore through the guild community like wildfire.
The fourth-ranked Shinseong Group in the business world had become sponsor to a 3rd Division guild.
Had anything like this ever happened before? No need to think about it. It never had.
Mid-sized or slightly successful companies had done it, but a corporation of this caliber attaching itself as sponsor was an absolute first.
That alone was astonishing enough, yet what truly blew people’s minds was something else entirely.
It wasn’t just anyone. It was Lee Shin. The eldest grandson of Lee Do Group repeatedly saying “Dea is fantastic” in every article was nothing short of shocking and terrifying.
And then came the follow-up article riding the wave of that very topic.
Once the scale of the sponsorship leaked out, the topic exploded beyond control.
In reality the contract was plastered with clauses like “penalty and termination in case of failure to promote,” but since the parties involved kept their mouths shut, the public had no way of knowing.
Thanks to that, Lee Shin, Shinseong Electronics, and Mir Guild simultaneously claimed the top three spots on real-time search rankings.
Naturally, the most awkward position in all this belonged to Lee Do Group.
It wasn’t just any guild. It was one Lee Do had saved, fed, and raised with its own money, now snatched away by none other than Shinseong. At Chairman Lee Sang-byuk’s roar of rage, the executives who had been dragged out of bed shrank their necks in fear.
Especially Lee Young-bin, who had dawdled even after opinions were raised. He got his joints crushed in a way he hadn’t experienced since he was twenty, utterly humiliating his pride.
Lee Shin was immediately summoned and the contract pushed through.
“…You little bastard.”
“Whoa, stay back. Put that hand down. I’m leaving?”
“Sit down…”
“How much did you see?”
Of course, there were no conditions attached here whatsoever.
It was no secret that Lee Shin and Chae Dong-ha had danced a victory tap dance in front of Lee Do headquarters after sealing the deal.
·
·
In the end, Lee Shin had taken both the number one and number four business groups’ electronics divisions—rival companies—into his embrace.
* * *
A short while later, Lee Shin returned to Seoul for the ‘Dea’ advertisement shoot.
There was nothing particularly difficult about it.
He simply wore his usual suit trousers and shirt, draped a varsity jacket bearing Mir Guild’s dragon emblem over his shoulders, walked forward, turned around, and crossed his arms.
Finally, he flashed the brightest smile he could muster at the camera closing in.
Gasps erupted.
“Wow…”
“It’s a painting…”
Even the ad team, who had seen every top star imaginable, couldn’t look away. The director especially was losing his mind.
“Beauuuutiful! Nice guy. Perfect. Good, good. Oh my god. To think such a subject existed in this world. I shot it, I did!”
For some reason the director smelled of butter from his clothes alone and kept clapping while reacting like a full-on foreigner.
“Mister Shin, why on earth haven’t you come over to this side with that face? I’m not joking—you could make it in Hollywood.”
“Thank you.”
“If we placed your guild members behind you in that last shot and pulled the camera back with a zoom-out… Holy shit! Look, I got goosebumps. Call me if you’re interested. You belong on this side. You absolutely have to come this way.”
At that moment, someone cut the director off.
“Hey Jimmy, that’s enough. You’re making the representative uncomfortable. Representative Lee, this way please.”
The head of marketing who had signed this sponsorship had come to the set in person to escort Lee Shin.
“I’m sorry. That director is talented, but he spent so much time in America and Europe that he doesn’t understand Korean sensibilities.”
“It’s fine. It was entertaining. By the way, what brings the head of marketing all the way here?”
“I wanted to thank you personally and thought we might have lunch together.”
“Personally thank me?”
“Haha, about this sponsorship. It received very favorable evaluations within the group on multiple fronts.”
From the marketing director’s perspective, the sponsorship with Mir Guild had been close to a gamble.
Setting aside all the reasons, the other party was a 3rd Division guild.
It wasn’t as if the group lacked its own guilds—there were two in-house teams, first and second string—yet here they were signing a sponsorship with an outside guild, and a 3rd Division one at that. He could have been called a sucker and no one would have batted an eye.
In fact, one of his rivals had used this contract as ammunition to tear into him. However, the few higher-ups who learned the contract’s specific details ended up openly defending the director instead.
“Higher-ups?”
“The directors, of course. The chairman was quite pleased as well.”
“Oh?”
The instant the absurd clause about paying a penalty even if promotion failed was inserted, the group effectively bore zero risk.
At this point the director had already become a legendary con artist. People were lining up to ask exactly how he had sweet-talked Lee Shin into adding that clause.
The chairman went even further. Good, that Lee bastard got exactly what he deserved! he had rejoiced.
On top of that, the unexpected buzz created by the tangled relationships between Lee Shin, Mir Guild, Lee Do, and Royal had the chairman personally coming over to pat the director on the back.
“See? I told you it would definitely become a hot topic.”
“You were right. I doubted you, Representative.”
“Looks like you’ll have to treat me properly this time.”
“Haha, as much as you want.”
“I’m kidding. What’s that between us? Let’s just grab some soju.”
“Soju again? Did soju murder your family? Don’t you ever get tired of it?”
“Aww, I love you too much.”
Hahahahaha.
The two men laughed with their arms around each other’s shoulders. Eyes naturally gathered toward them.
In front of Lee Shin the director might seem like a good guy, but no one on set could even meet his eyes. This was the same man who worked with ten-million-view actors and idols who frequently topped the Billboard charts.
People from another world.
The gazes directed at Lee Shin and the director filled with longing for the uppermost class.
“So, did you tell the chairman that I wanted to meet him personally?”
“I did deliver the message, fortunately.”
“Did you pass on what I said?”
“Well…”
“The reaction wasn’t very enthusiastic, I see.”
“He was interested. It just felt too out of the blue.”
“As long as you told him, that’s enough. Let’s finish the shoot first. You’ll stay until it’s done, right? Don’t forget this when we finish.”
Lee Shin mimed downing a shot of soju, then walked toward the filming crew. The director chuckled at the sight.
Thinking the man really was charming in many ways, he ordered his subordinate to reserve a nice meat restaurant. He even cleared out an entire floor so it wouldn’t be noisy.
Unfortunately, all their hard work went to waste.
Because he had arrived.
Creak—!
The door opened and men in black suits quickly entered, securing the perimeter. The one who appeared to be their leader soon announced in a deep voice.
“The chairman is here.”
“…!”
Starting from rice cookers, moving on to radios, washing machines, and TVs.
He had devoted his life to overturning the white goods market that Japan had dominated, and thirty years later he had finally accomplished that great feat.
The living proof of South Korea’s white goods industry.
Chairman Kang Do-kyung had entered the room.
“Chief Choi! I told you not to do embarrassing things like that for me.”
Oh dear, it’s fine. Work, work. I just stopped by, so keep working.
When Chairman Kang Do-kyung waved his hand dismissively, the people awkwardly returned to their places. In the middle of it all, the marketing director came running in his socks.
“Chairman, you’ve arrived.”
“Oh, Director Yang, you were here too?”
“Yes. What brings you here?”
“I was out for a walk nearby and thought I’d drop in for coffee. Is that all right?”
“Of course. I’ll have it brought right away. Two creams, two sugars, coming up immediately.”
“Good. You’ve been great at making coffee since you were young. I’m counting on you.”
While the director grabbed a teaspoon for the first time in a while, Chairman Kang Do-kyung simply sat in silence, watching the shoot.
But his presence was on another level. Ten-million-view actors broke into cold sweat, the rapper who usually screamed without fear of the world turned into an innocent kitten, and even the chatterbox butter-scented director was rendered speechless. That was the presence of Kang Do-kyung the man.
In the end, someone had to step forward.
And the only person in the room who didn’t shrink under Kang Do-kyung’s aura was, of course, Lee Shin.
“Jimmy?”
“Y-yes?”
“You’ve roughly got my parts shot, right?”
“Yeah, more or less.”
“We can fix it later when we shoot the group cut down in Busan, yeah?”
“W-well, sure?”
“Then let’s do mine then. I’ll take this grandfather out for a bit.”
“Uh… yeah…”
Leaving the stuttering director behind, Lee Shin walked straight ahead.
At the end of that path waited Kang Do-kyung.
How many people in this land could refer to Kang Do-kyung as “that grandfather”? Even at the highest estimate, you could count them on one hand.
Lee Shin bowed politely.
“Allow me to greet you. I am Lee Shin, representative of Mir Guild.”
“Hm? Not the eldest grandson of the Lee family?”
“No.”
“They said the Lee family’s troublemaker had changed. It must be true.”
Not Lee Do, but Mir Guild…
Kang Do-kyung’s eyes sparkled with interest.
It seemed the story might be worth listening to after all.
“Director Yang. Is the group conference room free?”
“You can go right in.”
“Prepare it. We’re heading there now.”
Everything was going exactly as Lee Shin had planned.
* * *
Turning back time a little, to the day Lee Shin signed the contract with the marketing director.
After taking the ceremonial handshake photo with the contract in hand, Lee Shin made one request.
This contract would definitely succeed. It would be a massive hit. Then the higher-ups would surely recognize the director’s achievement. And if, in the process, he happened to meet “Chairman Kang Do-kyung,”
please deliver this message.
— “I will solve the Shinseong-is-perfectly-mid problem.”
Shinseong-is-perfectly-mid.
In other words, “Shinseong Guild is perfectly suited for mid-tier.”
It was a meme that had mocked Shinseong Guild for nearly twenty years as it bounced between 8th and 14th place among the twenty League 1 guilds. Chairman Kang Do-kyung never showed it outwardly, but he was extremely, severely, truly truly x100 offended by that meme.
That was why Lee Shin had been certain.
That an opportunity like this would be created.
“Shinseong is supposed to be the fourth-ranked group in the business world. There are only three above us. Yet look at the state of their guild. They finished 10th last year. People who can’t even share a table with me at the Federation of Korean Industries sit above me. How could my insides not burn?”
“You’re right, you’re right.”
“Look, what does that Kim from Kirin have that I don’t? If they want money, I give money. They said they needed to raise prospects so I even created a second-string guild for them. Frankly, if you knew how much money I pour into those bastards every year, you’d faint.”
“I know, I know very well.”
“Not long ago I got so angry I seriously considered quitting and just keeping the magic stone mining guild. But then you sent that interesting message through Director Yang.”
“Shinseong-is-perfectly-mid… ahem, that I would solve their poor performance.”
“…If this was a joke, you’ll have to take responsibility. This old man is going to get extremely angry.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Let’s hear it then.”
“It’s nothing complicated.”
Lee Shin spoke casually.
“There’s someone fixing matches.”