Riding the Warm Winds: The League Opens
The season had finally arrived.
The day of the league’s opening match!
How desperately had they struggled through the off-season?
They still remembered the euphoric taste of the 82-round record race.
They remembered clearly the dazzling performances of the world-class prospects, each one rarer than a green diamond.
They remembered the command of the Mountain King, a living legend in human form.
And they remembered the truth that the Mountain King was a god, and Lee Shin was invincible.
Together with Lee Shin, they were writing a new legend into history.
They remembered it all.
So, all you ten million Yongbung suffering from dragon withdrawal—assemble!
[Riding the warm winds, the league opening has begun]
[Three things to watch this season, 1. Mir Guild…….]
[‘Greet the Legend!’ This year’s League 2 is hotter than League 1!]
[The opening match of League 2 has been selected for Mir Guild amid the hype!]
[Mir Guild’s opening match will be held at the new stadium ‘Yongwanggung’! Ticket sales…….]
Busan Station.
Every train that arrived was spitting out fans from all across the Korean Peninsula like a madman.
How could anyone claim they weren’t all Yongbung?
The day before the League 2 opener, from the crack of dawn, anyone stepping off the train wearing clothes printed with Mir Guild’s dragon emblem deserved to be called a Yongbung. Who else would qualify?
Missing this opportunity would be downright idiotic.
And fortunately, Busan’s civil servants were not idiots.
From the entrance of Busan Station, large placards were installed, and inside the station, all kinds of Mir Guild merchandise was being sold.
Of course, the guides and station staff were completely drained from the endless flood of people—that was just a bonus.
‘This is insane…….’
‘I knew it was no joke, but still…….’
‘The firepower was real.’
Insane firepower.
Unbelievable popularity.
Unity at its peak, combat power at its strongest!
Those were the words used to describe the Yongbung, but it wasn’t easy for ordinary people who didn’t enjoy the lawless community world to feel it on their skin.
In truth, even fellow Yongbung felt the same way.
On the internet they were rampaging Yeopo and keyboard warriors, but in real life they rarely met.
If you said that to fans of other teams, the reply would always be the same.
— Your eyes must be broken~!
— It’s just the third division. Just go to the stadium, don’t you have money? lol
Then the Yongbung would raise their middle fingers and answer like this.
— You fucking idiots lol, talking so comfortably. You think tickets just fall into your hands like that?
— I failed ticketing all year long T_T T_T T_T Even scalpers aren’t selling! Season tickets are fully reserved!!
— I’ll pay you T_T Take my money please T_T T_T
This year, the official fan club Yongbung Era had 680,000 registered members. When you included the wild fans who hadn’t joined, the minimum estimate was a million.
Do you think the difficulty of a maximum of 100,000 fans trying to get tickets for a 10,000-seat stadium is the same as a minimum of a million fans trying to get tickets for a 5,000-seat stadium? You braindead moron?!
But finally, it had become possible.
Yongwanggung.
Capacity: 100,000.
Korea’s largest league stadium.
A venue that could finally contain all the Yongbung’s firepower.
— You’re not the only ones going! Let me watch the opening match too!!
— It’s 100,000 seats, they said T_T I failed ticketing again T_T T_T T_T I refreshed until I died
……A stadium that could hold ‘just a little more’ had been prepared.
And on that new stadium, they would leave the first footprint of League 2 and once again announce the beginning of a legend.
If you could hold back after this, you didn’t deserve to call yourself a Yongbung!
At that moment.
“I’m here.”
The perfect man of this era, now known as Toegail-jwa, Park Seong-cheol set foot on Busan soil.
In an instant, all eyes focused on him. People everywhere began murmuring.
Because of his appearance? No—because of the limited-edition jacket he was wearing!
“What is that? I’ve never seen that jacket before.”
“Ah, I remember! That was the one they gave out as an event in the gallery early on.”
“……I’m so jealous. Should I ask him to sell it?”
With that much attention, anyone would have felt smug, but Park Seong-cheol’s mind remained shockingly cold.
This was no time to get excited over something like that.
‘No time to dawdle.’
Park Seong-cheol took a deep breath and began walking at a brisk pace.
There wasn’t much time left until the match started. It was tight.
His hurried steps gradually turned into a run.
As soon as Park Seong-cheol started running, people who had been watching him from all directions began running too.
They recognized each other.
The comfortable rookies might not know it, but this place was already a battlefield.
Blood might not have been spilled, but it was a true battlefield where hearts and souls were on the line.
They slipped out through the back exit of Busan Station, watching their surroundings.
Many people didn’t even know Busan Station had a back exit, but it was much faster to get to Yeongdo this way.
Since Park Seong-cheol was from Busan, he knew this. Instead of trying to catch a car, he tapped his phone against a nearby rental bicycle.
‘There’s nothing more stupid than driving into Yeongdo.’
That would be ignoring the Yongbung’s firepower.
And just as he expected.
Before long, he saw the gridlocked road.
They couldn’t even see the bridge yet and it was already this bad. The situation inside had to be even worse.
Sure enough…… the Yeongdo Bridge he reached after pedaling hard could be described in one word.
Parking lot.
“Whoa, fuck…….”
Even Park Seong-cheol, a top-tier keyboard warrior, was stunned.
What kind of insane firepower was this?
He was certain that over ninety percent of them were Yongbung. If they didn’t have genuine love, there was no way they could stay cheerful in this kind of traffic jam.
The police had been fully mobilized to clear the congestion, but Park Seong-cheol only grew more impatient.
He pedaled even harder. About ten minutes later.
When he finally arrived, the new stadium…… no, simply calling it a stadium felt wrong. It was too grand, too magnificent, too beautiful. Park Seong-cheol trembled with awe.
“This is crazy. What the hell is this?”
Mir Guild flags fluttered everywhere along the main road, and celebratory banners hung like flags of all nations.
Delicious food stalls, bars that were open even in broad daylight, and the Lair Cafe displaying merchandise—all of them were playing Mir Guild’s broadcast and welcoming customers.
Every tree, every shop, every streetlight belonged to Mir Guild.
This entire district was Mir Guild.
And once you fully savored Mir Guild like this, your eyes naturally turned toward the large, beautiful stadium standing proudly at the end of the wide avenue.
Yongwanggung.
Now he understood why it was named that.
Just as cities in the old monarchy were built around the royal palace, this entire district had been built around the stadium.
“It’s fucking huge.”
It couldn’t even be compared to the old Yonggung.
The walls soaring toward the sky were so tall that the flags looked tiny, and so enormous that they couldn’t be taken in with a single glance.
If the sheer size overwhelmed you first, stepping inside would stun you a second time with its splendor.
It was impossibly luxurious. The shops, restrooms, and all internal facilities were arranged with flawless cleanliness.
But what shocked Park Seong-cheol the most was—
“Wait, is this all marble? Are they insane?”
The interior was based entirely on marble.
It really felt like they had moved an entire palace here. Just how much money had they poured into this?
He couldn’t even guess how much it would cost to decorate an ordinary house this way, yet this was a stadium.
They had covered a 100,000-seat stadium in this level of luxury?
When he confirmed that even the ceiling lights were crystal, Park Seong-cheol shivered violently.
He had only heard the rumors, but now he truly understood the power of the Ido Group.
Yet even that admiration soon turned into pure excitement…….
After taking photos everywhere, securing his spoils of victory from the arrival war, and finishing his shopping for every type of merchandise, Park Seong-cheol finally stepped into the stadium proper.
And then, an unexpected wave of emotion hit him.
“They kept it.”
You really couldn’t let your guard down for even a second.
Unlike the luxurious interior, the entrance passage retained the same rough brick tunnel from the old Yonggung days.
A dark passage that reminded one of a long, dark age.
Lee Shin had shown it in the video announcing the Mountain King’s recruitment.
It’s not that there is no exit. You simply took the wrong path.
I will create the right path for you now.
It was a dedication to the fans who had been with them all this time. Park Seong-cheol, moved by Lee Shin’s consideration, slowly walked forward while brushing his hand along the tangled walls.
And then.
When he stepped out of the dark passage and into the stadium at the edge of the light, Park Seong-cheol cheered just like he had as a child, when his father first took him to a stadium.
“Whoaaaaaaa!”
It was a universe.
Centered around the mana flow of the main field, 100,000 stars formed a galaxy.
It was so breathtaking it was overwhelming.
Tears welled up in Park Seong-cheol’s eyes.
It was joyful. Moving. Sublime. Reverent.
The fact that he was one of these 100,000 stars felt like a miracle—something precious beyond words.
The Ido Group, which pursued only the best, had carved and polished it. Lee Shin, who was sincere about the guild, had poured in everything he had.
The largest stadium in the history of this country.
The best stadium in the world.
Yongwanggung.
It was the starting point of a legend.
* * *
But.
Where there is light, there is also darkness.
Just as brilliant light casts deep shadows, Mir Guild’s dazzling leap had plunged many people into darkness.
And here, Lee Myeong-hwan was one of them.
Lee Myeong-hwan, holding a bottle of liquor while watching League 2’s opening match.
“The hydra will respawn soon. Mir Guild is setting up their formation! They’re lighting up vision with wards and securing the bush!”
“DP Guild is mistaken! Why do they keep insisting on 5:5 team fights? Team fights in front of large objectives are exactly what Mir Guild likes and excels at!”
“Last season, Mir Guild never lost a single team fight in front of large objectives. Even though it was League 3, DP Guild cannot ignore these statistics…… Aaaah!!”
“No!! You can’t focus Park Su-bin!!”
In the TV broadcast, despite the casters’ desperate screams, DP Guild stubbornly targeted Park Su-bin, who was on the front line. And just like that, the ‘Subin Time’ they had grown sick of seeing in League 3 began once again.
“Combining the light orb with a lightning wide-area skill, raising a wall of light orbs to block the tank’s dash, lightly deflecting the arrows and immediately changing form! The giant of mana swings its fist—but the target isn’t the opponent, it’s the ground! Oh my god, the terrain is changing. Wide-area stun! Earthquake!! Defense, offense, and now even CC (crowd control)!! And right on cue, here comes Yu Ri-raaaaa!! She ends the team fight!!”
“Welcome. First time with Mir Guild?”
“This is Mir Guild. These are Lee Shin’s children!! Park Su-bin’s team fight design and Yu Ri-ra’s clutch play!”
“I won’t say much. Everyone in League 2, be on guard. The dragon here is incredibly strong. And incredibly ferocious.”
“They destroy the nexus and end the match! Mir Guild wins the opening match against DP Guild……”
Click.
The TV turned off. In the darkness, Lee Myeong-hwan took a swig from the bottle.
“Huu…… I’m going crazy.”
It might not seem like much, but the opening match was quite important.
Some even said the protagonist of the opening match was the protagonist of that entire league. Because it carried that much weight, every guild poured enormous resources into lobbying just to claim the glory of the opening match.
Lee Myeong-hwan had spared no expense or effort to secure the opening match for Dynasty Guild. Thanks to that, they had successfully taken the opening match both last year and the year before.
……But this year, none of it worked.
“It has been decided for Mir Guild. There will be no changes.”
From the Bureau’s perspective, Mir Guild was simply too attractive.
A prestigious guild that had been with them since the league’s inception. A fandom that was eccentric but possessed undeniable purchasing power.
On top of that, they had climbed from League 4 to League 3 without any tricks, step by step, and were now becoming an icon of the league after surpassing legend. How could the Bureau not adore them?
Lee Myeong-hwan no longer had any room to maneuver.
Topic, popularity—everything was confirmed to be overwhelmingly inferior. And if they lost in this state…….
Then the name Lee Myeong-hwan would disappear from this world.
The sense of crisis awakened him.
His blurry eyes regained focus. He threw the liquor bottle he was holding, along with every bottle of foreign liquor in the cabinet, into the trash.
Then he picked up his phone.
“Jeong Su-mi, come to the guild. Right now.”