Eye of the Typhoon
When the season begins, commentators and every league-affiliated official repeats the same phrase like parrots.
An all-time great season!
Down in the league’s basement, it’s the equivalent of an Indian rain dance. They aren’t dancing because rain is coming; they dance until the rain comes. They chant “All-time great!!” and “Another great!!” like a spell, hoping to summon the golden path that will eventually arrive.
League 2 in particular suffered from this habit even more severely. There was even a saying that went, “It’s not major enough to be called a major league, and not minor enough to be called a minor league, so it’s League 2.” The division had always existed in that awkward middle ground.
That was why the League 2 broadcast team became even more desperate “all-time great solicitors” every single year.
But this year was different.
This season was the real thing. Starting with that declaration, Ido’s Children and the other second-division guilds fighting to preserve their pride all began to sprint forward together.
And the reason?
The Mir Guild.
Opening-day viewership had doubled from last year, and traffic search volume had tripled. The spot that “League 1” usually occupied at the top of real-time search rankings had been taken over by “League 2” this year, with “Mir Guild” sitting at second. League 1 had to drop all the way to third before it even became visible.
The scale, the momentum—everything was off the charts.
At this point, even the Bureau was getting excited. As they always said, the Bureau’s number one principle was healthy competition within the league. In cruder terms: “From now on, kill each other.”
So how adorable must the Mir Guild look to them—the guild that had turned every league it entered into a bloodbath?
“This is insane. Absolutely insane. Mir Guild again? These guys never do anything quietly.”
“Usually when the second division heats up it doesn’t get this crazy, but with so many free agents hitting the market at once, the other teams have no choice but to jump in crying. The timing is just… these people have something special.”
“Are they going to push them again this time?”
“Probably?”
“Big news! Big news! Change the main banner to League 2! Feature the Mountain King, Park Su-bin, and Yu Ri-ra as the mains. Use representative hunters from each guild for the background.”
“See that?”
“……They’re really going all-in.”
But no matter how delighted the Bureau was, could they possibly be as happy as the fans?
Hellgate? Who cares what that means? The important part is that our guild is spending money and reinforcing our roster.
After all, the fans already believe our guild will promote without question every year. Even if they curse us later for failing, a fan’s job is to believe first.
So any increase in power is unconditionally good news! Strike up the band!
The guilds, the Bureau, and the fans—there had never been a season in history with this level of overheated competition. The term “all-time great” felt almost insufficient.
Every guild had scraped together every last won they could find. The front offices had finished their preparations. The League 2 teams were lined up on the rails.
All that remained was the starting signal.
The starting signal.
The signal……
……
……
.
……Why isn’t it sounding??
“It’s the eye of the typhoon. Everyone’s just watching each other, waiting.”
The guild-related program Guild Section.
Today’s topic was supposed to be “Evaluating League 2’s Power Through Round One.” That was literally what was written on the panel right next to the camera.
Yet Im Cho-rong had decided the power evaluation was meaningless and was instead talking about the strange phenomenon currently unfolding in League 2.
“Wow, the queen is going full throttle again today. This is it. This is exactly why we love Im Cho-rong.”
“Our Cho-rong is so cool~”
The transfer market was a sensitive subject, so most panelists avoided mentioning it at all. But she brought it up anyway?
The two male panelists whistled and clapped in open admiration.
Of course, Im Cho-rong ignored her pathetic older brothers as usual.
“Then, Miss Cho-rong, why are all these guilds that were heating up to an all-time degree suddenly just watching each other?”
“They’re waiting.”
“Waiting?”
“First, there’s one thing we must clarify. It’s not that they’re simply watching each other. Right now, every eye in League 2 is focused on one single place.”
“……And that place is. You don’t mean…?”
“Yes. The Mir Guild.”
The moment the magic words “Mir Guild” left Im Cho-rong’s mouth, the PD clenched his fist over his own mouth and cheered silently.
Yes! Perfect!!
“Do you all remember how Lee Shin’s first season went? Or should I say… his first season as guild representative?”
“I remember he recruited the Mountain King and rebuilt the squad with young players.”
“Correct. He removed the then-legendary hunter Yang Pan-seok and brought in the legend known as the Mountain King. He also replaced the entire roster with young hunters. It was revolutionary.”
“I remember. The evaluation back then wasn’t very good.”
The two men, now fully transformed into reaction machines, chimed in one after another.
“It wasn’t just ‘not very good,’ right? From what I remember, the Yongbungs literally tried to kill Lee Shin.”
“That’s right. They set up a burning oil drum in front of the Mir Guild building. That meme was everywhere.”
“The atmosphere was terrifying.”
“It’s something we can’t even imagine now. These days the Yongbungs’ love for Lee Shin is practically a religion.”
Im Cho-rong nodded at the host’s words.
“As you just said, Lee Shin’s first season was filled with doubt and distrust. When he traded away the legend Yang Pan-seok and his team, the fans were furious. And when the Mountain King he had gone to such lengths to recruit made his declaration, officials criticized it as arrogance.”
“And yet those very recruits became the core of the current Mir Guild squad. I believe those signings were the first footprints that proved Lee Shin’s true ability.”
Young prospects who were practically still children.
They had no brains. Their teamwork was nonexistent. Their technique was crude. They lacked experience. The squad clearly had limits.
Experts had torn them apart. They said an amateur representative was lost in some romantic fantasy about prospects and was destroying the guild.
But looking at them now, was there a single one of those players who wasn’t performing their role?
“As a fellow professional, I’ll say it plainly—this is actually insane. Everyone, prospects are basically lottery tickets. You pick ten, and if one succeeds, it’s a massive jackpot. In other words, nine out of ten are almost guaranteed to fail. Now look again. Is there a single hole in that lineup?”
“When you put it like that… it really is crazy.”
“Even just Lee Hye-jung and Park Jeong-seok succeeding would have been considered a jackpot for prospects.”
“Thank you for the kind words. Lee Hye-jung, who used to show clear weaknesses in offensive power, has become the epitome of versatility after acquiring the poison attribute. Park Jeong-seok, once mocked as ‘Park Bench,’ was named the best tanker in League 3 last season. That is the level of jackpot people expect from prospects.”
“However.”
“There’s him.”
All four of them spoke the name at the same time.
““Park Su-bin.””
The all-time genius monster.
That’s right. People often forgot, but Lee Shin had recruited Park Su-bin from his very first signing.
“Looking back now, Park Su-bin’s debut match was so disastrous it was hard to watch with open eyes. Normally any other representative would have cut him or given him time, but…”
“Lee Shin’s choice was the mink coat.”
“Wow, I remember that. This tiny kid dragging around a mink coat, wearing ten rings and a gold chain as thick as a belt—it was pure shock and horror.”
“It’s his trademark item now, though.”
Come to think of it, Lee Shin’s eye for talent had been operating on a different level from the very beginning.
It had simply been hidden behind his good-for-nothing image and suspiciously terrible reputation.
Yet a diamond is a diamond. In the end, his genius pierced straight through the pocket.
“The same goes for Yu Ri-ra. A once-in-a-thousand-years genius marksman. The moment he discovered both Park Su-bin and Yu Ri-ra, I believe he proved his scouting genius beyond any doubt—even if his character remains questionable.”
Park Su-bin and Yu Ri-ra.
Also known as Lee Shin’s children.
“Ahem. I went in a bit of a circle, which isn’t like me. Let me just say it straight. There are two reasons why every League 2 guild is currently only watching the Mir Guild.”
The first reason.
“They’ve decided that Lee Shin’s eye for talent is more accurate than their own judgment, so they’re trying to hijack whatever picks he chooses. A world-class hunter like Park Su-bin or Yu Ri-ra joining their own guild? They can’t possibly hold themselves back from that.”
The second reason.
“The other guilds are terrified that a second Park Su-bin or Yu Ri-ra is about to emerge from Mir. At first glance they may look similar, but they’re completely different. If the Mir Guild adds another hunter of that caliber to their current squad? They could get crushed without even putting up a fight, just like they did back in League 3.”
Taking all of this into account, Im Cho-rong’s conclusion was simple.
“The key is in Lee Shin’s hands. The fate of League 2 will change depending on how he moves.”
Meanwhile, at that exact moment in a brunch bar in Cheongdam-dong.
“A-yoon unnie, it’s been so long. Why does your skin look so good?”
“Sorry I’m late~! Excuse me, could I get some cold water?”
“Welcome, ladies.”
It was Friday morning—normally the busiest time—but the place was completely empty. All because of the three women in charge of the children from Ido’s Children.
“By the way, why did A-yoon unnie call us out?”
“I came all the way up from Daejeon. Please tell me it wasn’t for something pointless.”
“Of course not. Have I ever disappointed you ladies?”
Lee A-yoon, who had earned significant recognition for her role in recruiting Dr. Hong last year. Although she was from a collateral branch, her eye for talent had been acknowledged as quite good among Ido’s Children.
The other two women, however, were direct descendants of Ido. They were on a completely different “level” from Lee A-yoon.
Originally they wouldn’t have even shared a meal together, let alone a proper conversation. Yet the two maintained a relationship of necessity with her thanks to her useful eye for talent and the extremely polite way she always addressed them as “miss” despite being older.
“Oh, how cold. You’re going to make me sound like the bad guy.”
“Just tell us already. What’s this secret talk about?”
“Well, you see……”
Perhaps it was the blood of Ido after all. There was no pointless girls’ talk or pleasantries—she went straight to the main topic.
“You two have also been keeping an eye on the Mir Guild lately, right?”
“Well, obviously. Is there anyone who isn’t?”
“Don’t even mention it. The amount of money we’ve wasted putting people on that maniac.”
“Did they spread honey all over Busan? He hasn’t shown any sign of coming out.”
“Why are you asking about that?”
“I figured you’d say that, which is exactly why I invited you both. Here, take a look at this.”
Lee A-yoon pulled out a second phone she had kept in her bag.
The moment the two women checked the screen, their eyes flew wide open.
Lee Shin was there.
“Lee Shin is in Seoul right now.”
“!!”
“!!”
Lee Shin had finally moved!
A building in the heart of Seoul with no signboard.
From the outside it looked like any ordinary business officetel, so few people knew that this was actually a private restaurant reserved exclusively for VIPs.
In that secretive space, Lee Shin was shaking hands with a woman he was meeting for the first time.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Shin, representative of Mir Guild.”
“Nice to meet you too. I was with Cheonsang Guild… well, not anymore.”
The woman smiled brightly.
“As of yesterday, I am the free agent known as the Wooden Elf, Na Ye-ri.”