The Chairman's Dilemma
Even a notorious GM occasionally runs bonus events. During your beginner days, it's crucial to make full use of these bonus events. Today, I'll teach you how.
……Finally, there's the 'Shinseong Group Event.' Clearing it grants you the ultimate backer: Chairman Kang Do-kyung. The requirements are complicated, though. First, head to Kangwon Land……
— From Lee Teacher's GM Beginner Must-Read Guide, Volume 3: 'Bonus Events'
* * *
At Chairman Kang Do-kyung's level, few things could truly surprise him.
He had lived nearly seventy years through every conceivable hardship—battles on land, at sea, and in the air—tasting the sweetness, bitterness, and filth of society. He had even shaped that society itself.
That was why Lee Shin had once again proven his own recklessness.
With nothing more than a single sentence, he had managed to rattle the chairman this thoroughly.
“……Say that again.”
“There's someone fixing matches.”
“Again.”
“I'm telling you, there's a bastard rigging matches in the guild that's been twisting your stomach, Mr. Chairman.”
Match-fixing.
The deliberate manipulation of game outcomes, wins, losses, and scores in competitive matches.
It could shatter the very foundation of sports, strip away their reason for existing, and destroy fan trust in a single stroke—the most vile crime among all sporting violations.
Match-fixing also occurred in the Guild War League.
By framing the awe-inspiring phenomenon of awakening within the boundaries of sport, humanity had turned it into entertainment for all. While this brought pleasure, amusement, marketability, and commercial viability, it also inherited sports' chronic problems.
Among them, match-fixing was the worst.
Even the giant known as Chairman Kang Do-kyung had no choice but to harden his expression and grow serious.
“Is this true? This isn't a joke. If you're spouting nonsense, say so now.”
“It's one hundred percent true. No matter how bold I am, would I really say something without evidence in front of you, Mr. Chairman?”
“You'd better explain that evidence properly. I'm in a very foul mood right now.”
“Then……”
Lee Shin's mouth opened after organizing his thoughts.
Originally, the sequence for this 'Shinseong Group Event' went like this:
1. Go to Kangwon Land.
2. Spend a certain amount to access the VIP room.
3. Witness Chae Mun, the starting hunter of the Shinseong Guild.
4. Meet certain conditions during the upcoming 'Apgujeong Match-Fixing Scandal' event.
Finally:
5. Meet the chairman of the Shinseong Group.
There were minor related events and branching points along the way, but this was the general framework.
Lee Shin had used the differences between reality and the game, along with his own position as a fellow chaebol, to completely skip steps 1 through 4 and jump straight to 5.
'Time to lay out what I've prepared.'
Normally, he would need to present evidence to prove the match-fixing. But having skipped the process, he had no evidence at all, so he had to construct an entirely new narrative.
Still.
If you already knew the conclusion, fabricating the process was child's play……
Hellmouth: ON.
“The first time I sensed something was off was last year, during the match against the B&S Guild. Chae Mun's movements stood out strangely. Awkward? Weird? Whatever it was, I just thought he was injured and let it go. What hunter in this world doesn't have a few minor injuries?”
“But the more I watched, the stranger it seemed. Like he was deliberately making mistakes. So I paid closer attention. Sure enough, something felt off about his timing.”
“Once I got suspicious, I looked through Shinseong's past matches. Take a look at this.”
Lee Shin made a show of complaining about how well YouTube worked these days and held out his phone.
It displayed a YouTube highlight video of a Shinseong match from seven years ago.
This was the exact moment when 'Chae Mun the Acrobat' had begun his match-fixing.
How did he know?
'I saw it in Chae Mun's story ending.'
Regardless of the reason, Chae Mun was classified as a 'Hunter' in the GM system.
That meant he had a story and branching points.
There were ways to whitewash his image, and if he repented, you could even see a redemption ending. A memoir ending where he reflected on his past also appeared at that point.
The problem was that, amusingly enough, even in his repentance, his memoir contained such a detailed record of his crimes that it could only be called a criminal diary.
Lee Shin went through ten matches, ten battles, breaking them down point by point.
Chairman Kang Do-kyung, who had been huffing at first, grew serious by the third match. By the sixth, he was wearing reading glasses. When all the matches ended, he was staring not at the footage, but at Lee Shin himself.
“……Did you really find all of this yourself?”
“Yes.”
“The stride during combat, the degree of muscle expansion when swinging the whip, the delayed shoulder movement during direction changes, the excessive glances toward allies instead of enemies, the path obstruction during crucial team fights…… You're saying all of this came from your head?”
“No. Not my head.”
Lee Shin pointed his index and middle fingers at his own eyes.
“I saw it with these two eyes.”
They said the most artistic lies were ninety-nine percent truth mixed with one percent fabrication. By adding a little seasoning to the truth from the story ending……
Chae Mun had already become a bastard, and Lee Shin had become a genius with special eyes capable of uncovering the bastard's misdeeds that no one else had noticed.
“Didn't you hear from the director? I made sure to emphasize that my eyesight is excellent.”
“I don't listen to what other people say. I only believe what I see and hear myself.”
“So, are you satisfied?”
Chairman Kang Do-kyung, who had already forgotten his anger, was now looking at Lee Shin as if he were some kind of fascinating creature.
“Your analysis is sharp. No holes. Though the way everything fits together so perfectly makes it seem almost artificial……”
“Please look at that part kindly. I'm the leader of a guild too. I can't reveal all my cards, can I?”
“Indeed. A leader should always keep a knife hidden in his chest.”
That aside.
Kang Do-kyung had returned from a grandfather who had met an interesting young man to a seasoned businessman once more.
If this was truly match-fixing, as Lee Shin claimed, it was not something that could be overlooked.
The Guild War Bureau was known for being relatively lenient on external matters but extremely decisive inside gates.
A prime example was the match-fixing incident in League 3 a few years ago, where two guilds had their licenses revoked without any review.
Yet their indifference during the recent 'Supply Gate' incident showed just how starkly different their attitudes were toward internal versus external affairs.
In other words, if things went wrong, the sparks could spread beyond Chae Mun personally and engulf the entire guild.
“The silver lining is that only Chae Mun seems to be involved.”
“……Nothing is certain yet.”
“Come on~ You've already bought it. The moment you walk out that door, you'll have those black-suited gentlemen investigate, and it'll all come out, won't it? That I was telling the truth.”
“You need to watch that mouth of yours. That's why people call you a troublemaker.”
“If my eyes are my weapon, then my mouth is my capital.”
Lee Shin studied Kang Do-kyung's complicated expression and thought to himself.
'He's almost there.'
This wasn't an unsolvable problem.
Simply put, all they had to do was silence Chae Mun and release him. There might be some threats and use of force involved in the process, but the issue itself was straightforward.
Yet the reason Kang Do-kyung was still hesitating was because he was a businessman to the bone.
Just from his nickname 'The Acrobat,' it was clear Chae Mun was a hunter of considerable renown. He could attack from both range and close quarters with his whip, and even use its unique elasticity and unpredictability for mobility and initiation.
He had once been called a post-Manwang candidate, a representative utility dealer of the league.
But to release such a player without receiving a single penny? If they sold him to the increasingly insane European league, they could easily fetch tens of billions. That was the first blow to his pride.
Moreover, they would need to invest equivalent resources to fill the void left by that bastard, and where would that money come from?
From Kang Do-kyung himself.
It was coming out of his own blood-soaked pockets. That was the second blow.
In short, releasing Chae Mun wouldn't be the end of it. The losses would compound twofold.
But that was the perspective of Kang Do-kyung the businessman.
Lee Shin was different. He carefully pulled something out from his inner pocket.
“If you're still troubled, would you like me to offer some consulting?”
“……What the hell is that stupid-looking pair of glasses?”
“You don't know about my alternate persona?”
The genius representative had stepped aside for the moment.
The author of the GM user's bible, GM Beginner Must-Read Guide.
The number one instructor for beginner managers.
Lee Teacher, the veteran, had arrived.
“Mr. Chairman, you must trust me completely.”
* * *
That day too, Chae Mun was in the Kangwon Land VIP room.
Cards passed across the poker table as pale cigarette smoke settled over it.
Raise, raise, call……
The more chips piled up, the more nakedly humanity's true face revealed itself beneath.
Anxiety, unease, anticipation, impulse, immersion.
This tingling sensation drove Chae Mun mad.
Gulp!
People often said gambling was a foolish bet—staking something certain to obtain something uncertain.
Chae Mun agreed. It was a foolish bet.
But wasn't life itself the same? You stake something certain—time—to obtain something uncertain: the future.
In his youth, he too had thrown himself into this bet. He had worked himself to death trying to become the second Manwang.
Yet this bet called life had cruelly refused to smile upon him.
What remained for the loser were ten years of effort, a pathetic limit, and the label of being a pale imitation of the Manwang.
It was then that he had stumbled upon gambling by chance. At least in this gambling den, whether he won or lost, he could decide his own fate with his own hands. How rational was that?
“Tsk, full house? Damn……”
“If you'll excuse me.”
“Haha, Chae Pro, you're not doing so hot today?”
“Just deal the cards.”
As with gambling, losses outnumbered wins.
Still, Chae Mun didn't think much of it. Unlike the addicts around him, he was enjoying himself with perfect composure.
Even if that process had required him to dip his hands into 'that matter' because he was a little short on spare cash.
'The Shinseong Guild was always stuck in the middle ranks anyway.'
It was just losing a game they were going to lose anyway. What was the harm?
Normally, defeat brought unhappiness to everyone. But if even one person was happy, wasn't that a good thing according to the law of conservation of happiness?
—Such was Chae Mun, whose guilt circuits had already been shattered by the pleasure gambling provided.
From anxiety to denial, now to self-justification.
Today too, without even realizing what crime he was committing, he was simply staring at his cards.
That was why he never suspected a thing when the unfamiliar staff member handed him a whiskey.
“Hm? I've never had this before. What is it?”
“Redbreast 15 Year Old. It's known as the most well-balanced Irish whiskey.”
“Give me another glass.”
By the time Chae Mun, who had been enjoying himself so thoroughly, finally stood up, it was already dawn.
“I had a good time.”
“Leaving already, Chae Pro?”
“Don't go yet. The cards are just starting to flow.”
“I have training tomorrow. I'll be going.”
The truth was that his gambling money had run out, but he maintained the dignity of a major-league hunter and said nothing weak.
Just as he was heading toward his car parked in the VIP-exclusive lot—
“……!”
A transparent cube-shaped spell locked his legs in place.
Hidden weapons flew from the darkness and embedded themselves in his body.
Even so, perhaps because he was a major-league hunter, Chae Mun tried to raise his whip and counterattack somehow.
But.
“Kuh.”
The hand gripping the whip trembled like an aspen leaf. The moment he recalled the whiskey the unfamiliar staff member had given him earlier and realized, 'I've been had!'—
A syringe was already buried in the carotid artery of his neck.
“Kuhk!”