Ahn Sang-Min was speechless. The most you could squeeze out of a C-rank Gate was around 200 million won. 250 million meant the cure was worse than the disease.
"It was originally around 70 million. But once I raised it to 100 million, these guys went and bought the raid permits for 250 million."
The most Baek-Ho Guild could spend on reserving a C-rank Gate was 100 million won, and that was the absolute ceiling. No wonder Hyun Gi-Cheol was upset.
'What the hell is the deal with these guys?'
Click-click-click. Ahn Sang-Min's fingers flew across the keyboard. Search results streamed in one after another. Just as Hyun Gi-Cheol had said, a certain team was snapping up every C-rank Gate raid permit in the area at a jaw-dropping pace and jaw-dropping prices.
"What are these lunatics…?"
This area was under Baek-Ho's jurisdiction. At first, he wondered if some rival guild was running interference.
'No. That can't be it.'
No guild would dare provoke Baek-Ho Guild so openly. Any one of the top five guilds would risk being cut in half if they went head-to-head with Baek-Ho.
'Not a guild, then…'
So who was doing this, and why? Ahn Sang-Min swallowed hard and looked up the information on that particular raid team's members. The team leader's name was "Yoo Jin-Ho."
"Haven't seen this name before?"
Scouting recruits was Ahn Sang-Min's job. He knew every freelancer Hunter who had even a shred of name recognition. But this "Yoo Jin-Ho" was completely new to him.
'Skip him for now.'
He scrolled down slowly, checking each team member's name, wondering if he recognized any of them. And then—just one. A familiar name.
'Sung Jin-Woo? Sung Jin-Woo? I've heard that name somewhere…'
Tracing his memory back, Ahn Sang-Min recalled the double dungeon incident that had been the talk of the circle about two months ago. The place that had assisted the Hunter's Association during that event was none other than Baek-Ho Guild itself.
"Gi-Cheol, do you remember the double dungeon incident our people responded to two months ago?" "Yes, I do. They said when they got there, there were no monsters left—just a single survivor." "What was that survivor's name?"
Hyun Gi-Cheol was sharp. You wouldn't go so far as to call him a genius compared to others, but when it came to memory, he was second to none. There was no need for any extra searching. He answered immediately.
"E-rank Hunter Sung Jin-Woo." 'I knew it!'
He'd had a hunch, and it was right. Ahn Sang-Min sensed it instinctively. Something was definitely going on here. His gut feeling in situations like this had never been wrong. Ahn Sang-Min shouted to his staff.
"Everyone, drop what you're doing! Scrape together every piece of information you can find on two people—D-rank Hunter Yoo Jin-Ho and E-rank Hunter Sung Jin-Woo! Right now!"
The way outstanding employees handled a crisis was beyond imagination. Elite staff were elite for a reason. Reports started pouring in. Truthfully, there wasn't much noteworthy about Yoo Jin-Ho. Aside from being the second son of Yoo Myung-Han, the chairman of YuJin Construction, he was pretty ordinary. Sung Jin-Woo, on the other hand, was a different story.
"He's been caught up in three incidents since the double dungeon, and he walked out of every single one unscathed?"
Hyun Gi-Cheol picked up where Ahn Sang-Min left off.
"And he's only an E-rank Hunter, at that."
Sung Jin-Woo and Yoo Jin-Ho had first met during Yoo Jin-Ho's very first raid. The two of them were the only survivors. And now those same two had formed a team and were clearing dungeons at a terrifying pace of two to three per day.
"Something's off about this…" "What do you think they're up to?" "Hmm… hold on. Come to think of it, there's been a rumor going around that Chairman Yoo Myung-Ho has been secretly reaching out to S-rank Hunters, hasn't there?" "I've heard that rumor." "Yoo Jin-Ho is that chairman's son, and…"
Chairman Yoo Myung-Han was clearly making moves to form a guild. It was an ultra-classified piece of intel circulating within the industry. If that was true, then Yoo Jin-Ho's eccentric behavior couldn't be entirely unrelated.
"No way…!"
A puzzle clicked into place inside Ahn Sang-Min's head. Then it all made sense! Hyun Gi-Cheol swallowed nervously at the change in his superior's eyes. Ahn Sang-Min spoke with a voice full of conviction.
"This kid… he's a reawakened Hunter!" "A reawakened Hunter?"
Hyun Gi-Cheol's eyes went wide. Ahn Sang-Min was certain.
"That's right."
An E-rank Hunter was essentially no different from an ordinary person. When trouble broke out, you could pretty much write them off as dead. But Sung Jin-Woo had made it out safe and sound every single time through major incidents where more than half the full team had perished.
'Sure, he could've just been lucky. But still.'
But this third incident—the one where the surveillance team Hunter Kang Tae-Sik had gone rogue—was a little different. The record said that a C-rank mage and a B-rank healer had joined forces to take him down.
'That's nonsense. Surveillance team members are people whose whole job is fighting other Hunters.'
If Kang Tae-Sik wasn't an idiot, he would've prioritized the highest-ranked member with the weakest combat ability—the B-rank healer.
'And a C-rank magic-type Hunter stopped him on her own?'
Magic-type Hunters were vulnerable to combat-type Hunters, especially those who specialized in "assassination." You could chalk it up to Kang Tae-Sik letting his guard down and ignoring the B-rank healer, but… it was hard to believe a three-year veteran of the surveillance team would make that kind of mistake.
'The one who stopped Kang Tae-Sik that day wasn't C-rank Song Chi-Yeol—it was someone else who was there.'
He had no hard evidence, but his instinct was dead certain. Sung Jin-Woo had reawakened and gained abilities on the level of an upper-rank Hunter. Yoo Jin-Ho had witnessed Sung Jin-Woo's true power during a raid he'd joined by chance, and was now testing him out for his father's soon-to-be-founded guild. If you looked at it that way, everything lined up perfectly.
'This is going to be huge news.'
If Sung Jin-Woo really was a reawakened Hunter, only a handful of people—including Yoo Jin-Ho—knew his true worth. Chairman Yoo Myung-Han wasn't the kind of man who would accept just anyone, and certainly not as a founding member of his guild. This was the perfect opportunity to poach the talent that Chairman Yoo Myung-Ho had his eye on. 'If he fought and beat B-rank Kang Tae-Sik, then his strength is at least B-rank or above!'
Snagging him before other guilds—or worse, before Chairman Yoo Myung-Han—got their hands on him was the top priority. Competition would be brutal after an official rank reassessment. Even if Sung Jin-Woo wasn't as strong as he imagined, it wouldn't matter. Reawakened Hunters—one of only a handful in the world—were magnets for media attention. That kind of publicity was worth more than money. Either way, this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.
'If he's already signed a contract with Chairman Yoo Myung-Ho, then there's nothing I can do, but…'
The chances of that were slim. The fact that they were testing him in a C-rank Dungeon proved it.
'There's a good chance nothing's been finalized yet.'
And that meant Baek-Ho Guild still had a shot.
'No time to sit around.'
Ahn Sang-Min slipped on the coat draped over his chair.
"Gi-Cheol, let's go."
He didn't forget to bring along his right hand. Ahn Sang-Min was especially hard on Hyun Gi-Cheol because he considered him the only person he could trust at his back. Hyun Gi-Cheol's eyes went round.
"Excuse me? Where are we going, Section Chief?" "Where else? To recruit a new recruit." "You're going yourself to bring in a recruit?" "What? Is that a problem?"
After firing off that retort, Ahn Sang-Min strode out at a brisk pace. Hyun Gi-Cheol tilted his head and hurried after him.
'How unusual…'
This was the first time Ahn Sang-Min had personally gone out to scout someone since becoming Section Chief two years ago.
7. A Feeling This Is Going to Be Big
Yoo Jin-Ho's team had signed contracts for two dungeons today. The distance between the two Gates was considerable. Ahn Sang-Min and Hyun Gi-Cheol stationed themselves around each Gate, staying in constant contact, waiting to lay eyes on Yoo Jin-Ho's team to confirm whether their suspicions were right.
'Still a bit chilly out.'
Ahn Sang-Min bought coffee from a nearby vending machine. It had been an hour since they started waiting for Yoo Jin-Ho's team. Yet somehow, anticipation overshadowed any boredom. His heart was pounding for the first time in a while.
'If my gut is right, this is a huge new talent—one that hasn't appeared in ages. And not just huge—top-class!'
Ahn Sang-Min had become the youngest Section Chief anyone had ever seen. It was all thanks to the power of his intuition. Baek-Ho Guild's rise into the ranks of the great guilds owed much to his contributions. And that intuition was telling him something now: Sung Jin-Woo might be the one to elevate Baek-Ho Guild to an entirely new level.
'Someone would probably call me crazy for saying that.'
After all, Sung Jin-Woo was still officially just an E-rank Hunter. But the visible surface wasn't everything. If it were, the Ahn Sang-Min sitting here today wouldn't exist. As he watched the Gate with hawk-like eyes, his phone buzzed. Bzzzt. Bzzzt. It was Hyun Gi-Cheol.
"Hey, Gi-Cheol." —Section Chief, Yoo Jin-Ho's team just arrived! "Got it. Stay calm, watch closely, and report every single thing they do—don't miss a thing." —Understood, Section Chief. Oh? Oh? S-S-Section Chief!
The voice on the other end was off.
'Did this idiot get spotted somehow?'
Ahn Sang-Min felt a surge of anxiety.
"What happened? Speak!" —Section Chief, you were right! "What?"
Ahn Sang-Min's heart raced.
—Only Yoo Jin-Ho and Sung Jin-Woo are entering the Gate. "Of course! They're testing Sung Jin-Woo!"
Just as expected! The guess was right. His instincts never missed when it came to moments like this.
'Yes!'
Ahn Sang-Min clenched his fist tight.
'While you're all sitting on the fence, we're making our move. Sung Jin-Woo is going to join our Baek-Ho Guild.'
Because Baek-Ho had the Second Administration Division—and Ahn Sang-Min. While Ahn Sang-Min was drunk on his sense of triumph, Hyun Gi-Cheol's voice continued over the phone.
—What should I do now? Should I come to your location? "No. Keep watching a bit longer." —Huh? Section Chief, didn't you already confirm it? "I'm curious about their clear time. How many hours will it take them to clear a C-rank Dungeon?" —Even an A-rank Hunter takes over two hours to clear a C-rank Dungeon alone, doesn't he? "So you're saying they can't do it?" —Of course not! I just thought you might be bored, so I was making conversation.
A posture change faster than light. That was why Ahn Sang-Min could never bring himself to hate Hyun Gi-Cheol.
"Never mind about me. Just keep your eyes wide open and tell me the second those two come out."