The Ka Rakkum Set
In the Mir Guild representative office, a small feast always took place on days when the league match was scheduled. The menu was, in the best possible way, ‘whatever.’ If you wanted something, you could order anything. A local snack shop or a hotel catering buffet—both were fair game.
The fixed members were always Lee Shin and Chae Dong-ha. Chae Dong-ha would desperately shake his head in refusal, but unfortunately, as the only slave—no, the only loyal subject in this guild with zero freedom, he had no decision-making power.
Anyway. Sitting in front of fried chicken and whiskey while watching the match, Chae Dong-ha’s face underwent a full emotional gradient.
At first, disappointment.
In the middle, resignation.
And now—.
Shock.
The market-bought whole chicken he had picked up from the intersection right outside was now half-hanging out of Chae Dong-ha’s mouth, dangling pitifully.
It had clearly been a difficult match. None of the indicators had been in their favor.
Public opinion wasn’t on their side either. Experts had been predicting their loss day after day.
You can’t do it. It’s too hard. You’re going to lose… Words that drained all strength had poured in nonstop.
One particularly obnoxious reporter had even written a fresh piece of nonsense claiming that Mir Guild’s dominance was ruining the league’s ecosystem, so it would be better for the league’s development if they lost gracefully at this point. Chae Dong-ha had personally called the media outlet to express his displeasure.
A guild was, after all, run by humans. After being hounded like this, it was only natural to feel anxious.
Whenever that happened, Chae Dong-ha would stand in front of the front office and calmly respond with lines like, “What does it matter if a record like that gets broken?” or “We can just set a new record.” But the moment he returned to the representative office, he would grab Lee Shin by the collar and desperately ask, “There’s a way, right? That’s the plan, right?”
Perhaps these were the most nerve-wracking moments Chae Dong-ha had experienced since taking charge of Lee Shin and the Mir Guild.
Still, there was one thing he could believe in.
Chae Dong-ha knew. While so many people out there mocked and ignored Lee Shin, this man became incomparably powerful in moments of crisis.
At least when it came to guild matters, this was the one man he could trust without reservation.
That was also why his initial disappointment had been so strong.
‘Jo Sung-min’ has slain ‘Park Jeong-seok’.
‘Baek Ja-gi’ has slain ‘Lee Hye-jung’.
‘Baek Ja-gi’ has slain ‘Park Jeong-seok’.
Three deaths in less than five minutes.
The early laning phase had collapsed so miserably it was almost comical.
They commonly called this “the game exploded.”
Of course it did. At that point, Chae Dong-ha had half given up.
The record was gone.
Personally, he felt a deep sense of regret, but as the vice-leader in charge of guild management, he comforted himself by thinking it might actually be better for things to end here.
The exact moment Chae Dong-ha finished organizing his thoughts and began considering words of consolation for the raid team was precisely the ten-minute mark of the match—the same moment Park Su-bin first equipped the unfamiliar gauntlet.
And that was when Chae Dong-ha witnessed it.
The sight of that gentle, harmless Park Su-bin—the boy who seemed incapable of harming anyone—completely losing control.
The sight of Park Su-bin, flapping his mink coat and radiating dark red energy, roaring like a wild beast.
The milky-white orbs orbiting around him suddenly converged.
An arm took shape.
A milky-white, translucent arm.
Gigantic. Overwhelming. Irresistible.
It was the arm of a giant.
KWAaaaaang—!!
On the comeback screen, Park Su-bin was now relentlessly pushing Doctor Hong without giving him a chance to breathe.
“Grandpa.”
“……!”
“That item Grandpa gave me? It’s those gauntlets.”
It was the item Lee Shin had squeezed out of Lee Sang-byuk as payment for participating in that ridiculous publicity stunt not long ago.
“I only had information that it was floating around somewhere in Incheon, so I asked just in case. And he actually brought it. Grandpa said it was in some nouveau riche collector’s collection. He may be my grandfather, but his information network is pretty impressive.”
“……I think the only person in the world who would evaluate Chairman Lee’s abilities so casually is you, Representative. But what exactly is that item? How is it making him… like that?”
“It’s a set item. It goes with the mink coat.”
“……The mink coat is part of the set?! Why are you only telling me this now!”
“Didn’t I mention it?”
“…….”
“Surprise~!!”
Set items.
Individually, each piece might have average or even lacking performance. But when the entire set was assembled, they displayed their true power.
Because of their rarity, they were known to sell for extremely high prices on the black market.
And among those set items, the Ka Rakkum Set was considered high-value even by set item standards.
“That thing… we bought the mink coat for a billion won back then.”
“It was unidentified at the time. You looked at me like I was a bug, remember?”
“…….”
“Hehehe, alright, I’ll stop teasing. We basically got it for free. If it had been properly appraised, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was worth a hundred billion won.”
“I’ve heard that in the upper echelons, they trade hunters with items rather than money, and sometimes even trade items with hunters.”
“Wow, you’ve been studying hard. Exactly. An item on the level of the Ka Rakkum Set is worth more than most A-rank hunters.”
“Hooo……”
But even if someone offered two hundred billion won right now, Lee Shin would never sell it. The value of the Ka Rakkum Set could not be measured by money alone.
“Hyung, do you know that hunters and items have compatibility?”
“Compatibility?”
“Yeah, compatibility. There are sometimes items that are a perfect match for certain hunters. They don’t just provide effects—they awaken the character’s latent potential. In other words, they awaken their Trait.”
“……There are items like that?”
“The Ka Rakkum Set was originally designed for close-combat brawlers. It’s an item for berserkers that utilizes the power of madness from the orc hero Ka Rakkum. But when we put it on our little Bokchi… it fit him like a glove. Weird, right?”
It was slightly different from what the community commonly called a ‘school uniform’ or ‘signature equipment.’
Everyone knew about those. This was something only Lee Shin knew.
While researching items beyond simple character builds, he had thought, Huh? This would be perfect here, and when he tried it, the result had been explosive.
In fact, it had allowed Park Su-bin—who was once called an insurmountable wall in the early game—to temporarily nullify his negative traits with True Madness, letting him function like a proper human being for once.
“Hyung, what did I say was the core of the NG Jaguar before the match started?”
“You said mid.”
“And what did the experts say was the reason they predicted our loss?”
“The same. That our mid was hard-countered… Wait, ah?!”
Chae Dong-ha’s eyes widened as if he had realized something.
That’s right. Everyone had thought Park Su-bin was countered because Doctor Hong could perfectly mark his shields and orbs.
But that assumption had been wrong.
Park Su-bin had brought an entirely new weapon.
“The Ka Rakkum Set’s two-piece effect—Projection.”
Just as the Giant of Hatred turned its hatred into a massive thought-form to attack, the wearer of the item could project their own ‘origin.’
Watching Park Su-bin charge forward like a bulldozer while scattering dark red magic power across the screen, Lee Shin smiled.
* * *
The moment the opponent’s momentum broke and the balance collapsed, the battlefield fell into chaos. And that was precisely when the stage belonged to the Mountain King, Kim Jong-pil.
“Move toward the upper side of the enemy jungle. No, Lee Hye-jung, don’t go up. Don’t reveal your vision either! Hide your body as much as possible within our formation and take care of the ‘Fenrir’ below.”
“Jeong-seok, just hug the tower as much as you can. Don’t farm minions. You don’t need to secure vision either. Just do nothing. Just stay alive.”
He was clearly standing at bot lane, and even at this moment, the enemy’s spear and shield were bearing down on him.
Yu Ri-ra was whining “This is so frustrating!!” while pulling the trigger in what was truly an intense laning phase.
Yet through his proud spirits, Kim Jong-pil was able to observe every major formation across the canyon from his position. Thanks to his persistent focus on the small opening Park Su-bin had created in mid, he succeeded in seizing at least some of the battlefield’s momentum.
Considering how badly they had been pushed in the early game, gaining control and victory momentum was an incredible achievement. However, if someone asked the Mountain King if he was happy right now, the deeply furrowed expression on his face would serve as his answer.
According to the original plan, we should have ridden the momentum and reversed the game in one go.
Kim Jong-pil had prepared especially thoroughly for this Ido Derby.
Record maintenance, the importance of the match, the opponent’s power—judging that this was the key match of the season, he had immediately headed to one place.
The cocky, light-as-a-feather bastard whose insight and vision even the Mountain King himself had no choice but to acknowledge.
Straight to the representative office where Lee Shin was.
— “I’ve been waiting. So you finally acknowledge this body of mine. Uahaha~!”
His shoulders were raised so high his ears were practically touching them, which looked ridiculous. But despite appearances, that cocky bastard’s performance was undeniably solid.
— “The enemy top laner, Jo Sung-min, is a pretty smart bruiser. He attacks anyone who shows his back, but he avoids decisive blade-to-blade fights. The evidence is here and here. You can see it from these match videos.”
— “The jungler Baek Ja-gi is an interesting character even before he’s a carnivorous jungler. He has a serious main character syndrome. You can see the evidence in these videos too. I’m already drooling. Hehehe.”
This crazy guy hadn’t missed a single match.
He wasn’t even a dedicated analyst—he was the representative. Yet he had dug up footage of the opposing guild from four years ago.
When Kim Jong-pil asked out of pure curiosity, Lee Shin’s answer had been a masterpiece.
— “It’s fun, so I watch.”
He said the hunters fighting inside that screen were just too entertaining. So lovable he could hardly stand it.
As Lee Shin gave that answer with the most innocent smile in the world, Kim Jong-pil had felt a chill run down his spine. For a moment, he felt like he had glimpsed something beyond human—something that truly loved this world itself.
Setting that aside, the strategy meeting with Lee Shin had been incredibly high-level and informative.
The plan they had come up with was simple: hunker down and defend for exactly ten minutes in Game 1. No more, no less.
The benefits they would gain from this were:
1. Understanding the opponent’s attack patterns and capabilities.
2. Identifying their tactical direction and main points of aggression.
3. Inducing the opponent’s carelessness.
They were competitors who had clearly been operating at a high level. That was why Kim Jong-pil had given his young colleagues the maximum time possible—ten minutes—to adapt to the opponents’ attack level.
But there were losses outside of calculations.
Park Jeong-seok and Lee Hye-jung, visible in one corner of Kim Jong-pil’s vision.
In simple terms, they had been completely dismantled.
They hadn’t even been able to make a sound before being shaken down to the bone.
As a result, Park Jeong-seok’s mentality was half-shattered, leaving him like a wooden log.
It was to the point that he should be grateful to Lee Hye-jung, who was barely holding onto her sanity with tenacious poison.
Because the two of them had been so thoroughly crushed, the plan to launch a devastating counterattack at the enemy’s main point of aggression—leaving them unable to recover—and then quickly end the game had to be postponed.
They would now have to go with Plan B: a long-term 5 vs 5 team fight.
At that moment, Kim Jong-pil instinctively looked for the most reliable card he had.
His gaze naturally turned to Park Su-bin, who occupied the right side of his vision—the most important position.
Park Su-bin’s figure appeared on three separate screens.
His cooldown must have finished, because he had returned to ‘berserk mode,’ radiating dark red energy as he swung the ‘arm’ he had synthesized from the orbs.
The dozen or so orbs merged into an arm the size of a three-story building.
When that arm swept through, not only Doctor Hong but even the enemy jungler who had come to help were sent straight back to base.
So that’s the Ka Rakkum Set? No wonder that cocky bastard bragged about it so much.
Thanks to that, the Mountain King now held a truly incredible weapon in his hands.
Not using it would be dereliction of duty as a commander.
“Lee Hye-jung, go in.”
At his signal, Lee Hye-jung, who had been hiding in a bush, dove toward the mid tower while obscuring vision with poisonous mist.
Doctor Hong, who had been beaten back and was barely catching his breath by relying on the tower, was caught completely off guard by the unexpected dive. He hurriedly began casting his signature multi-attribute magic, but…
KWA-KWANG—!!
Before the magic could even take form, the giant’s arm smashed it back into nothingness.
By then, Lee Hye-jung’s poison blade had already grazed Doctor Hong’s thigh and shoulder.
He was paralyzed for a brief moment. The moment Doctor Hong saw the massive shadow beneath his feet, he instinctively realized what his future held.
“God damn it!!”
KWAGWAGWAGWANG—!!
‘Park Su-bin’ has slain ‘Hong Chang-hyun’.