Wandering Merchant Alliance (4)
Hwang Dae-un cleared his throat several times as though preparing for a momentous announcement, then opened his mouth with a solemn expression.
"I've spent the entire week combing through every guild recruitment post in the community. I'm not like Cha-yul noona—I don't dig into intel or hidden techniques or anything fancy."
"Then what?"
"I'm simple, hyung-nim. I only had two criteria."
He held up two fingers wide.
"First: are they strong? Second: can we control them?"
"Control?"
Baek Yeon-ho asked from the side.
"That's right, hyung-nim. I even saw a guild where the master was a climber who'd already cleared the fifth floor."
"Ah, that guy!"
"Yeah, I saw it too. The name was Elite Guild, right?"
The members all nodded.
Well, of course he would be famous.
According to the information circulating in the community, there were six people remaining on the sixth floor and four on the fifth.
Why more on the sixth than the fifth?
Only about twenty climbers had even challenged the fifth floor to begin with. Half of them died, half survived… and of the survivors, six had gone on to clear the sixth floor and lived.
Hyun Si-woon knew the details cold; he had even organized the numbers into a table in a previous life.
"So I deliberately passed on them. If they've already broken through the fifth floor, they might look down on us and start climbing over our heads. I only looked among guilds made up of climbers who haven't gone past the fourth floor."
"Oh yeah? Where'd you land?"
"A place called Unity."
"Unity…"
Hyun Si-woon's eyes narrowed.
It was a name he remembered from the recruitment posts—the first guild to leave a comment.
"Yes. Looking at them, they have six climbers who've cleared the fourth floor, same as us. Plus more who've cleared the third. When I contacted them, most of the members turned out to be former special forces."
"Is that why the name's Unity?"
Baek Do-hee cut in.
Everyone's gazes swung toward her.
"Ah… the special forces salute slogan is 'Unity'…"
"Ahh. Anyway, the guild's got a solid twenty members, and they've got a reputation in the community for combat power. Wouldn't it be reassuring to have guys like that on our side?"
It made sense.
A combat-specialist group.
The problem was…
Reassuring, huh…?
Hyun Si-woon gave a short laugh.
Dae-un clearly had no idea how strong they already were. If they ignored the hidden content and just aimed to clear floors, their current stats and gear could easily steamroll all the way to the ninth floor…
Against other climbers, there was nothing to fear.
The real threat was the Rankers already embedded in this society.
"All right. Unity's selected. Good work, Dae-un."
"Hehe, not at all, hyung-nim!"
"Next, Yeon-ho hyung."
"Okay."
Baek Yeon-ho tapped the table with his fingertips as if he had been waiting for his cue.
"Since Dae-un said he was covering the combat side, I approached from a completely different angle. I focused on economic strength."
"Economy?"
"Yeah. Si-woon, you're no slouch at business, but game economies are a different beast."
Baek Yeon-ho's eyes sharpened with the old habit of a streamer who used to dissect in-game economic systems for content.
"At the core of our whole operation is the circulation of TC, right? But the auction house right now is a complete mess. Prices swing wildly, scammers and resellers run wild. You can't generate stable long-term profits in a market like that."
So he had decided to prioritize economic ability when evaluating potential partners. While combing through the community comments, he found an unbelievable name.
God of Market Prices!
The moment Baek Yeon-ho saw the comment, he recognized it. He had covered the guy several times in old streaming content.
The one they used to call the Hand of Midas!
Every item he touched sent market prices into chaos. He had single-handedly gripped and shaken the entire server economy. People whispered he was a chaebol, but it turned out he had built that fortune from absolute zero on the open market.
"The God of Market Prices reached the absolute peak in a game that was basically a political battlefield full of schemes. While the big guilds were spilling blood fighting over castles, this guy just tapped a few keys and amassed wealth that outstripped the value of those castles."
"…That's insane."
Hyun Si-woon had never paid attention. He had only cared about physical combat games.
Lineage…?
He had heard it was a game mostly played by older guys.
"In a way he had a pretty bad reputation. Plenty of people quit after he crashed item prices, and just as many got filthy rich by staying on his good side. He was literally a god—the god of the market."
"That crazy?"
"Yeah. But a monster like that was stuck on the second floor because his combat ability is garbage. He never had a stage to show his talent. So if we build that stage for him…?"
"But hyung-nim."
Hwang Dae-un asked with a suspicious look.
"Listening to all that, he sounds like a scammer. Isn't that a problem for a partner?"
"He's a hustler, sure, but not a scammer. He walks right up to the line without ever taking a loss. A guy like that is a nightmare as an enemy and an absolute rock as an ally—especially right now when we hold the absolute upper hand."
Baek Yeon-ho looked at Hyun Si-woon.
"So I contacted him right away. It's the same God of Market Prices I remember. Real name Park Du-shik. Spent over twenty years running a parts wholesale business in Yongsan Electronics Market."
Ohh.
That meant he had lived every dirty market rule in the flesh.
"Guild name is Midas's Hand. Only three members, and every single one of them is more obsessed with trading than fighting. Here's my proposal: we hand them the auction rights for the monthly shop unique items later on."
"Oh."
"Setting the table, stirring up competition, planting shills to drive the price sky-high—that's the God of Market Prices' specialty. Even after taking their cut, we'd still make way more than if we sold the stuff ourselves."
"…!"
Everyone's eyes went wide.
Baek Yeon-ho's delivery had a way of pulling people in the longer you listened.
Hyun Si-woon nodded, satisfied. Giving them a full week had been worth it.
"Midas's Hand is selected! Good work, hyung. Next, Si-a."
"Yes."
Kang Si-a chose a guild called the Medalists.
When asked what kind of guild it was, she explained it was a brand-new one that had only been around for less than two weeks.
"Do you remember when we first formed the climbing party? The people we messaged through the friend windows on our contacts?"
"Ah."
Baek Yeon-ho nodded.
"The day we picked up Dae-un and Cha-yul noona, right?"
"Yes. Among the people I contacted back then, there were quite a few athletes who already had their own teams so they couldn't join us. But just recently, several of those athletes got together and formed a guild."
Her gaze skimmed over the familiar names on the guild roster.
"The guild master is Won Seong-jun, a national wrestling team athlete, and most of the members are people who ate from the same pot at Taeneung. Fencing, weightlifting, taekwondo… different sports, but every one of them hit the top of their field. They're still recruiting, but their current highest clear is only the second floor."
"Eh, second floor?"
Hwang Dae-un's voice came out deflated.
"They're basically the national team Avengers. Why only the second floor?"
"…They keep gathering more members. I think they're planning to climb all at once once they have enough people."
"That's just how Won Seong-jun is—safety first."
Jang Cha-yul cut in as if she knew him.
"We've only got one life each, right? He doesn't want to lose the teammates he's gathered so easily. So he's waiting. Slowly stacking TC, gearing up with whatever drops on the auction house, stockpiling potions… waiting for more tower information to come out before they carefully push through."
"…"
Hyun Si-woon nodded slowly.
It was the furthest thing from recklessness—an almost painfully cautious, realistic judgment.
Honestly, that's the correct call.
He himself had the fraudulent privilege of regression and every strategy already mapped out in his head, so he charged forward without hesitation. But for ordinary climbers, Won Seong-jun's approach was the wisest, most proper attitude a leader could take.
Kang Si-a finished with her own opinion.
"Their physical talent is the absolute best in Korea. Right now they're just hunkered down because they lack information and capital, but if we fill those two gaps for them? Their potential will explode. More than anything, a guild with a leader that careful and protective of his people is unlikely to betray us. I want to invest in that trust and that potential."
"Yeah. Good pick. You did well, Si-a."
At the short praise, a faint smile touched Kang Si-a's lips.
Now only one remained.
Baek Do-hee.
"Your turn, noona."
"I…"
Baek Do-hee spoke calmly.
"I recommend a guild called Dandelion Seeds."
"Dandelion Seeds?"
Baek Yeon-ho tilted his head.
He had scrolled through countless comment sections hunting for guilds, yet the name was completely unfamiliar.
"Most of you probably don't know it. They never posted a recruitment notice and barely use the community at all."
"Then how did you find them?"
"I kept seeing posts scattered across the free boards. Climbers who'd cleared the first floor and decided not to go to the second, gathering so they could at least share information and survive together."
"…"
The atmosphere in the room grew a little heavier.
"I contacted them. Quite a few had already gathered—almost a hundred and fifty? Every single one is a residual. People who decided they didn't have the courage or talent to climb any higher and just gave up."
So very like Baek Do-hee.
An altruistic person.
Deep compassion already colored her voice.
"The guild master is a woman. An ordinary mother who lost her husband and is raising a child alone. Her goal isn't climbing the tower—it's surviving one more safe day with the kids left behind. So they banded together, took over an abandoned building as a base, and are scraping by with foraging and standing watch."
Hmm.
It made sense why they never left a comment under the Wandering Merchant announcement.
They never believed they had a chance.
Not when so many high-profile guilds were flooding in.
"But noona…"
Hwang Dae-un asked carefully.
"Can people like that really be our partners? Their combat power is weak and they barely have any influence."
"We can create the influence."
Baek Do-hee was serious.
"Have you all forgotten? Out of the ninety thousand climbers on this server, only a few thousand have cleared the third floor or higher. More than eighty thousand people are still stuck on the first and second floors. They're the majority. They're the foundation of this market."
"…!"
Everyone's eyes widened.
"If we only partner with the strong, we'll end up trapped in their exclusive little league. But if we reach out to a guild like Dandelion Seeds? That becomes a message to the other eighty thousand ordinary climbers. The Wandering Merchants haven't forgotten you. You can stand with us too—a message of hope."
Baek Do-hee looked gently at Hyun Si-woon.
"If we truly want to dominate the market, we can't just look at the top of the pyramid. We have to embrace the massive base that holds the whole thing up. That's why I'm recommending this guild."
"…"
Honestly, he was stunned.
He had thought it was simple pity…
Yet Baek Do-hee had also seen straight through to the essence of the market.
"Noona's right."
Hyun Si-woon acknowledged it.
"I hadn't thought of that angle, but it makes sense. Later on they might become the biggest market of all. Okay. Dandelion Seeds is selected too."
"Mm, thank you."
Baek Do-hee smiled brightly.
With that, the five guilds were decided.
Jang Cha-yul — Owl
Hwang Dae-un — Unity
Baek Yeon-ho — Midas's Hand
Kang Si-a — The Medalists
Baek Do-hee — Dandelion Seeds
Each one had its own reason and its own vision!
These would become the first members of their alliance.
"Each of you reach out to them. Tell them they've been selected as partners. And…"
A faint smile curved Hyun Si-woon's lips.
"From now on, each of you will personally manage the guild you recommended. All contact, all deliveries, everything."