Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Expanding the Ranks
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Finding Jang Hu-yeong, who had gone into determined hiding, didn't seem easy even for Myung-su, the former assassin now gathering intel on the government's side.
With that in mind, Yong-un decided to leave the matter of Jang Hu-yeong to Myung-su for now and focus on the most pressing task in his current situation.
Building up his forces.
"Where'd everyone go?"
The staff greeted Yong-un as he arrived at the Unwoo Guild office.
"They all headed out for morning training, saying that's what they'd do."
Perhaps inspired by yesterday's words.
Myung-un was nowhere to be seen since morning either, likely having left early to join the group training.
It was a good attitude. Yong-un smiled and naturally settled onto the sofa.
"How much time left until the guild competition?"
"Eight days."
"Eight days... Plenty to do, then."
The guild competition, which had a month left before the world event, now had only eight days remaining.
That meant, in other words, they'd spent about twenty-two days overcoming their limits through morning training, leaving just eight.
He wasn't sure about the others who had just started, but at least the Jang-gwi crew could be brought close to the Demon Shadow Assassin Squad level within those eight days.
"Not bad."
Satisfied, Yong-un brewed some tea while waiting for the guild members.
"But..."
However.
A snag in Yong-un's plans came up.
"Only guilds with at least ten eligible participants can enter the competition..."
"Ten? How many guild members do we have now?"
"Excluding those who can't participate, seven."
"Does that include me?"
"Yes. If you don't join, Master Yong-un, it's six."
Yong-un had no intention of participating in this guild competition.
If he did, it would undermine the guild's ability to gauge their own strength, consciously or not.
"Six..."
That meant they were short four members.
As he pondered, the staff offered a solution.
"Adding four members isn't an issue. We get about a hundred hunter contracts sent our way every day from people wanting to join Unwoo Guild..."
"What wind's blowing this way? A hundred a day is quite a lot."
"A storm hit. A massive typhoon named Yong-un."
At the staff's words, Yong-un nodded with an "ah" expression.
"My fault, huh."
"Garosu Guild must be seeing the same. An S-rank hunter in the top rankings, unprecedented in Korean history—who wouldn't want to join? They'd squeeze through any narrow gap."
"Then why hasn't the guild master accepted them? It'd grow our forces and bring plenty of benefits."
"That's because of you too, Master Yong-un."
Yong-un gave the staff a look that said, Why?
The staff shrugged and explained.
"It's the situation you created. He says he can't make unilateral decisions without a meeting just because he's the guild master."
"So, if I give the okay, we can bulk up the guild right away, no problem?"
"None at all. Staff can be hired as needed, and the key factors—number of hunters and funds—will sort themselves out. More hunters mean faster and more gate clears."
Things might resolve more easily than expected.
"I see."
Yong-un sat on the sofa, lost in thought for a moment.
After telling the staff he'd return in the afternoon and to accept hunters once the guild master arrived, Yong-un stepped out.
Unwoo Guild should be fine under the guild master's care now.
A master craftsman for nothing.
Recognized by Yong-un himself, no less.
Guild master Jin-cheol would transform Unwoo Guild into Korea's top guild even without specific instructions.
That left one thing.
Building my own force, one I can call on when needed.
The skeleton was already complete.
All that remained was finding capable talent to fill it and raise them up.
But even with the core framework done, the real challenge lay ahead.
Filling spots with people was easy.
The hard part was finding loyal subordinates who trusted Yong-un and would stake their lives on his orders.
Even in the Heavenly Demon Cult, that had been the toughest hurdle.
"You called for me?"
On the top floor of the Garosu Guild building in Yeouido.
Sword Tiger approached Yong-un with a weary look and flopped onto the sofa.
Polite words, rude posture.
"Getting comfortable, I see."
"Sorry. Too much work piling up—it's exhausting."
Sword Tiger sat up at Yong-un's words and let out a deep sigh.
"If I weren't S-rank, I'd have collapsed ages ago."
Knowing this was Sword Tiger's true nature, Yong-un chuckled.
"Still keeping up with training, though."
"Of course. Tricks won't work next time, so I've got to defend my ranking."
Blood seeped through the bandages wrapped around his hands.
For a training maniac like Sword Tiger to tear his palms like that—it was obvious what kind of regimen he was on.
"Reached the finishing stage of One Strike?"
"Sharp as ever."
One Strike from Yong-un's Flowing Finger Strike technique.
In its final training phase, the palms often burst open.
The reason was simple.
To create the massive brain energy surge during One Strike, one had to force ki collisions to the absolute limit.
Ki existed everywhere.
In the human body, and even floating freely in the empty air of this room.
That was Flowing Finger Strike.
Not swordsmanship using internal energy from the dantian, but harnessing the greater external ki flows.
Force the sword to disrupt that ki into extreme collision: One Strike.
Avoid ki collisions entirely: One Kill.
That was the sole difference.
"Can you see the ki now?"
"Yes, faintly—the flows are visible to me now."
At peak mastery, one sees ki flows.
But even peak Sword Tiger couldn't, because this world's martial realm differed vastly from the murim.
Here, sheer internal energy strength allowed peak techniques even without full control.
Half-baked peak, essentially.
Seeing ki flows was worlds apart from colliding them or dodging them deliberately.
Still, if Sword Tiger had reached One Strike's final threshold, mastering all of Flowing Finger Strike's sword techniques before the next ranking event would be no issue.
"Better late than never—my thanks again."
Seemed he'd gained insight recently from his torn palms.
Beaming, Sword Tiger rose and bowed to Yong-un.
"You called..."
Sword Tiger had something special about him, it seemed.
Just as he bowed, Myung-su—the one Yong-un had summoned earlier—opened the door and entered.
Their eyes met as Sword Tiger stood rigidly bowed.
"Ahem..."
Sword Tiger shot up in a fluster.
Myung-su, stuck unable to enter or leave, slunk in cautiously.
"Master called for me."
Sword Tiger flushed at Myung-su's awkward expression, glancing between him and Yong-un in shock.
"Master?"
"Introduce yourself. I've decided to take Myung-su as a disciple too."
Sword Tiger's eyes went wide.
"Pardon?"
"An honor to serve the same master, Sword Tiger."
"Uh, yeah... But master all of a sudden...?"
Sword Tiger's expectant gaze lingered.
Yong-un waved dismissively, annoyed.
"Don't worry about it. I'll teach you differently."
"Ah..."
That seemed to satisfy him; Sword Tiger's face lit up with a grin.
"Though the foundation's the same."
"Pardon?"
The grin vanished instantly.
"While you train One Strike, Myung-su trains One Kill."
"Then it's the same—"
"No plans to teach him One Strike. He's not here for swordsmanship. Something else for him."
Sword Tiger, about to insist it was the same art, shut his mouth.
He knew One Strike's power firsthand and snuck a sly smile at Myung-su.
Yong-un chuckled and turned to Myung-su.
"You won't regret it."
"Whatever you teach, I won't regret it. I'll train hard."
Myung-su bowed deeply.
Sword Tiger, grinning intermittently, and Myung-su, with his assassin's talents fully formed.
The pillars of Yong-un's Heavenly Demon Cult—his Dragon Demon Corps and Ghost Killer Annihilation Squad—were now complete.
"Now, the reason I called you both."
With them at the core, raise Sword Tiger and Myung-su to lead, then gather only those fit for Yong-un's personal force.
At Yong-un's words, Sword Tiger and Myung-su forgot their fatigue, hanging on every syllable.
Imagining their transformed futures and the new Korean hunter world under Yong-un's lead.
Yong-un exited through the Garosu Guild building's window and soared into the sky.
As busy as Yong-un was, Sword Tiger and Myung-su would face packed days ahead too.
Back to it.
His daily schedule was set, much like before the world competition.
Mornings: Teaching Demon Subduing Arts to Unwoo Guild, destined for Demon Shadow Assassin Squad.
Afternoons: One Strike to Sword Tiger, future Demon Phantom General.
And martial arts to Myung-su, the future Shadow Demon.
A packed schedule filling every hour, but Yong-un welcomed it.
The busier, the sooner they'd prepare for unforeseen dangers.
"Journalists still hanging around?"
Flying, Yong-un landed before his destination: the Unwoo Guild office.
Immediately, crowds milled about the stairs to the office, like trees clustered thick.
"Not journalists?"
He thought so at first, but sensing internal energy in all of them, they were clearly hunters.
Had Jin-cheol started recruiting already? Their chatter suggested otherwise.
"That cursed brat..."
One phrase caught his ear.
Yong-un's dormant instincts stirred.
In Mok-dong's rundown officetel village, home to Unwoo Guild's office.
A horde from Hanbit Guild—longtime Mok-dong dominators—gathered before it.
"Whoa, this the guild with Yong-un?"
"Knew it was close—should've dropped by to say hi sometime."
Other hunters scoffed at the fake-friendly one.
"Pfft, you were gonna shove out any non-official guild here."
"Nah, that was before official status. Now we're all official guilds. Merger material, even?"
"Crazy bastard, hahaha!"
Laughter erupted at the shameless remark.
They looked like thugs, but they were Hanbit Guild members—a solid official guild protecting Mok-dong.
Mostly B-ranks, a strong party by guild standards.
Why gather here? Simple.
To join Unwoo Guild, already pegged as a future top-four powerhouse.
Not a blind visit, though.
Ten minutes ago, Jin-cheol messaged all hunters who'd sent contracts: Come to Unwoo Guild office for interviews.
Thus, Hanbit Guild members assembled.
"Knew we'd be first."
"First come, first served, and we're closest—advantage us."
"So we're all Unwoo members now?"
"It's an interview, not auto-accept. Get it together."
"Hahaha!"
From a strong official guild like Hanbit, their laughter flowed like they'd already passed.
"Turn us down? We're Hanbit."
"Yeah, pretty much guaranteed."
Confidence swelled; they started calling each other "Unwoo member?" like it was done.
"Hey, hold up... You."
But the laughter cut short.
Hanbit thought they'd arrived first.
Yet one spotted someone already on the stairs to Unwoo Guild office amid their chatter.
"Kim Cheon-il?"
Erasing his grin, the furious Hanbit member stormed up and dragged out a scrawny, short kid.
"H-Hi?"
The middle-school-looking boy trembled, shrinking back in fear.
"Didn't we tell you not to come?"
The hot-tempered hunter who'd yanked his arm clenched a fist threateningly.
The boy flinched with each move, lips pouting like he'd burst into tears, voice a crawl.
"C-Can I not join Unwoo too? I won't say Hanbit. J-Just the interview..."
"Shut it!"
He wrenched the arm harder, nearly snapping it.
Overwhelmed, the boy finally shed chicken-tear sobs.
"Ow! It hurts, sob sob."
"Scram already!"
"O-Okay. G-Gonna go. Sob sob, hurts..."
How could a kid overpower adult hunters?
Clutching his swelling arm, he slunk away under their glares.
"Sob... Sob..."
He wiped tears with his sleeve, but grief kept them flowing.
"Cursed brat..."
"Hang with him, we'll flunk for sure. Bad luck just standing near."
Despite the venom behind him, kid Kim Cheon-il said nothing.
Just drag his aching arm away fast, before more hits.
"Waaah!"
Once in an alley out of Hanbit sight, pent-up sorrow exploded.
He wailed at the top of his lungs.
Arm hurt, their yells terrified him.
Fear he'd really die if he stayed shook him; tears wouldn't stop.
"Waaah! Sob sob... Sob."
"Enough crying."
He froze!
Mid-sob, warmth touched his gripped arm.
Stunned silent, Cheon-il looked up wide-eyed at the newcomer.
"B-Bro?"
"Stop crying and let me see that arm."
"O-Okay."
Cheon-il released his pained arm.
Revealing red, swollen bruising before Yong-un.
"It's cracked."
"Sniff."
After holding it briefly, Yong-un let go and stood.
Then extended a hand to the boy.
"Let's go."
"Sniff! Where...?"
"Where do you think?"
Grabbing Yong-un's hand, Cheon-il followed his gaze to the alley's end.
Unwoo Guild office sign gleamed bright in his eyes.
"Let's go."