The Feast Has Begun!
The rumors were true—the banquet was overflowing with food!
An unprecedented smash hit.
An unprecedented record.
The Ido Derby, which had sucked in the world's attention like a black hole, concluded in spectacular fashion with Mir Guild's victory.
The Bureau took the unusual step of posting a group photo of Mir Guild on their homepage to commemorate the win. And for good reason. The number was 730,000.
That was the peak concurrent viewership per minute.
A figure like that wouldn't even register in League 2.
The Bureau had announced that the previous season's League 1 average viewership was 680,000. Even that number was inflated with overseas viewers and every possible adjustment. Yet Mir Guild had easily surpassed it with domestic viewers alone.
And they had done it in nothing more than a League 3 match!
The media wasn't about to be outdone.
Even Guild News gave the Ido Derby heavy coverage. Every guild newspaper devoted their entire front page that day to Mir Guild.
·
·
The victory in the Ido Derby held tremendous meaning for Mir Guild as well.
To put it simply, the first thing worth celebrating was securing an early first-place finish and confirming promotion to League 2.
Next was the continuation of their record streak. They had preserved the ‘legend’ that began all the way back in League 4.
Beyond that, they had confirmed Mir Guild’s surging popularity, seen a massive influx of Gyeongnam fans after defeating their regional rival NG Jaguars, and even earned the Bureau’s subtle acknowledgment of Park Su-bin’s “Monster” title.
Without a single ounce of exaggeration, this one match had elevated Mir Guild’s status by an entire tier.
But the Yongbung fans’ celebration had only just begun.
We call it a backlash when you get hit with a bucket after making a big fuss with a spoon.
We call it karma when you run your mouth and everything falls apart.
Time to pay up. It’s time to settle the debt!!
NG Jaguars’ gallery turned into a dumpster fire under the barrage of mockery.
At least they weren’t throwing around pure profanity like during the preliminary matches. Perhaps that was the victor’s mercy.
The NG Jaguars fans could only watch helplessly as their house burned down.
The cruelty of getting carried away is that when momentum is on your side, it feels like everyone’s on your team. But once you collapse, every word becomes a shackle that binds your limbs.
Usually, this was the turning point.
They say there’s a hell beneath hell. It would have been better if the mockery ended here. But if they took one more step—blaming each other for the loss and turning their rage inward in search of a scapegoat—then it would truly be catastrophic.
And sure enough, they did exactly that.
They had opened the gates of hell.
* * *
“Aaaagh!!”
Crash—!
Lee So-yul’s phone tumbled across the floor of the representative’s office.
“Fuck! Fuck!! Fucker!!”
Even when she was angry, she was the angriest. Even when she took a loss, she took the biggest one. And yet a bunch of basement-dwelling losers who hadn’t contributed a single cent were mocking her.
Her. Lee So-yul!!
She couldn’t stand the fact that these pathetic creatures who wouldn’t even dare make eye contact with her in real life were hiding behind anonymity to ridicule her.
“Sue them all, Secretary Choi! I want to see if those lawyers can still spout this low-class garbage to my face!”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Representative. If you provoke the fans now, things will only get worse and—”
“Hey! I’m the one who does the thinking! Your job is to make my thoughts reality!!”
“…You need to calm down. This is only one loss. There are still many matches left. Once the fans start winning again—”
“Aaaagh!! I don’t want to hear it! Just do it already!!”
Watching Lee So-yul throw an outright tantrum, the secretary became certain of something he had suspected for a while.
Lee So-yul fundamentally lacked the ability to manage a guild.
In the cutthroat world of guild competition where rankings were everything, praise and mockery following every win and loss was an unavoidable fate.
If she reacted to every single thing like this, she could never run a guild.
‘Even this incident proves it. We never should have blown things up this big from the start.’
He wasn’t talking about borrowing League 2-level players by exploiting the internal feud within the Ido family.
That part had actually been quite brilliant. Even if it was a stretch, forming a rivalry with Mir Guild was worthy of praise. After all, attention was the fuel that moved a guild.
But dragging her personal feelings toward Lee Shin into guild business, acting as if victory was guaranteed despite being the representative, and then completely losing control and exploding in rage after the loss—every single one of those things disqualified her as a leader.
The secretary left the representative’s office, sat down at his desk, took out a key, and opened a drawer he had never touched before.
Inside was a black smartphone. He picked it up and pressed the number 1 button.
In a capitalist society, no one takes on risk without a safety net.
Especially not when thousands or tens of thousands of livelihoods are on the line.
The secretary Chairman Lee Sang-byuk had assigned was both an assistant and a watcher. But what made this moment even more chilling was the fact that this wasn’t the secretary Chairman Lee had provided. He was a man sent by Lee So-yul’s own father.
A moment later, the phone in the representative’s office rang.
Still fuming, Lee So-yul shouted, “Can’t you read the room?” and snatched up the receiver. What she heard next was the most horrifying reality she had ever faced.
“Lee So-yul. Get out of there right now.”
“G-Grandfather?”
“This isn’t your fault. It’s all your father and mother’s doing. Dragging a perfectly fine artist into this guild mess just to satisfy their own greed was stupid from the start. Just go back and do what you’re good at—paint.”
“I can’t accept this. It was only one failure. I can do better next time. If I get promoted to League 2 and take revenge—”
“The fact that my granddaughter is making her grandfather repeat himself tells me you really have no talent for this.”
Why had Lee Sang-byuk appointed his grandchildren and family members as guild representatives? To give them a chance, as some claimed?
Not at all.
It was because they were easy to handle and easy to hold accountable.
That was all.
“Don’t say you’re disappointed. Kids your age are struggling right now with tuition and rent. Even unpaid interns have to compete fiercely to get in these days.”
“So-yul, you fly to England and France every year, buying and eating whatever you want, don’t you? Is it because you’re better than them? Because you’re special? No. It’s because of me. Because you were born with Lee Sang-byuk’s blood.”
You are no different from those kids out there.
Being born was your only achievement. You simply got lucky and were born well.
“What you wear, what you eat, even what you shit—everything about you comes from me. That’s why you’re a chaebol. So naturally, the right to decide your fate belongs to me, doesn’t it? It only makes sense that I hold that much authority.”
If you don’t like it, prove your own worth like those other spoiled brats.
So there’s no need to feel too wronged. Soon enough, plenty of kids will follow in your footsteps anyway.
“Get on a plane quietly, So-yul. This is your grandfather’s order.”
The next day, an entirely different person was sitting in the NG Jaguars representative’s seat. It would be much later before the outside world learned that the representative had changed.
* * *
Mir Guild.
A mountain of gift boxes sent by fans was piled up in one corner of the main building.
This was not a metaphor. The mountain of boxes was so enormous it actually narrowed the hallways of the main building.
And Lee Shin was buried in that mountain of gifts, smiling brightly.
“I really can’t stop them, can I?”
The gifts had been sent by fans who had taken his post-promotion warning—“Don’t act like trash just because we’re in League 4”—to heart. The messages were all over the place.
Because the weather’s nice. Because the weather’s bad. Because I passed my exam. Because I collected all the Ttibuttibuseal stickers. Because Su-bin is so handsome. Because our Lira is so cute. I adore Instructor Jong-pil. The Mountain King is a god and Lee Shin is invincible, and so on…
They wanted to celebrate, they wanted to listen to Lee Shin, and so they had done this adorable thing.
“Our fans are really cute.”
How could he not love people who loved the same things he loved?
Lee Shin’s eyes grew incredibly warm.
At that moment, Chae Dong-ha trudged into the main building entrance carrying a black plastic bag filled with soju and beer.
“Huh? What are you doing here? I thought you went to get snacks?”
“What am I doing? I’m confirming Love and Peace. Grab the stuff at the bottom.”
“You mean this icebox? Whoa, it’s heavy.”
“A fan sent some sliced pork. I found it at the convenience store.”
“…What delivery company do they use? I’ve asked them several times to schedule all fresh food deliveries for the morning.”
“It’s fine. Mistakes happen. Let’s go.”
On the way back to the representative’s office, the office lights were unusually dark.
It was because Lee Shin had used his authority as representative to declare a mandatory vacation in celebration of their early first place and confirmed promotion.
The word “mandatory” might sound strange attached to a vacation, but when the legend of an undefeated team loomed before them, every guild member had willingly become a voluntary slave. Unable to watch any longer, Lee Shin had forcibly locked the guild doors.
Chae Dong-ha set the food on the representative’s office table and said,
“This victory really was huge. I’ll admit it now—I thought we were going to lose. Even if Su-bin has world-class talent like you said, I thought he wouldn’t be able to overcome the wall of experience. I was wrong.”
“Your faith was lacking.”
“You’re right. Ah~ It somehow feels like the season is already over.”
“Oh? Are you talking about slacking off in front of your boss?”
“Hehe, being a salary thief isn’t so bad, is it?”
“It’s awesome. I’m already doing it.”
Hehehe.
Kekeke.
Just then, the door opened and Jeong Sun-dong and Kim Jong-pil walked in.
“Oh dear, we’re late. What should we help with first?”
“Hoho, it smells wonderful. Director, please sit. This kind of work is for the young ones.”
Jeong Sun-dong, the spiritual pillar of the front office, and Kim Jong-pil, the strategic brain of the raid team.
Along with Vice Leader Chae Dong-ha and Representative Lee Shin.
The four core members of Mir Guild had gathered.
This was the meeting that would determine the guild’s future.
And then.
Lee Shin downed his first drink and revealed that future.
“For the rest of the season, I’m stepping back completely.”