Chapter 107 – Duty (2)
President’s room of Hammer Guild.
Four people were looking at each other as they sat.
It was Hammer Guild’s president Park-sahngoh and vice president Park-jinwoo. These two Rank A Roused represented Korea. Hong-sungoo and Jung-minchan was sitting in front of them.
One was a former employee turned vice president of the Alandal Guild. The other man was an inconsequential Roused they hadn’t paid much attention to, yet he had already become a Rank A Roused. Park-sahngho felt restless as he looked at Hong-sunggoo.
‘What a waste.’
If he had been able to absorb them all into the Hammer guild then he would have 3 Rank A Roused and an AA Rank Roused on top of that. No, it was a misnomer to call him a Rank AA any more.
The awkward silence settled around the office until the intercom rang.
When Park-sahngoh pressed the button, the secretary’s voice flowed out.
[Mr. Kahng-woojin has gotten on the elevator. He’ll be arriving soon.]
“Understood.”
Park-sahngoh lifted his finger off the intercom button, then looked at Minchan.
“Does Mr. Kahng-woojin know something about this situation?”
Jung-minchan let Park-sahngoh’s gaze flow off of him.
“I’m not sure. You should ask him when he gets here.”
How would Minchan know? There was just the story Woojin said was true. Woojin also warned him once that the world’s laws and morality would fall. He wondered if the current Dungeon Breaks were a precursor to those events.
Ggeeek.
The sound of the door was unusually loud inside the quiet office as Woojin appeared.
“What’s going on? Why’s everyone acting so downcast?”
At Woojin’s words, Sunggoo was the very first one to stand up.
“Hyung-nim!”
Minchan looked at Woojin with an expression filled with respect. Park-sahngoh and Park-jinwoo half-heartedly got up. Park-sahngoh approached Woojin as he put up his hand to shake.
“It seems I have to greet you in these uncertain times.”
“I guess so.”
Woojin naturally spoke in an informal form of speech, and Park-sahngoh’s face immediately hardened. However, Park-jinwoo still extended his hand.
“It’s good to meet you. I’m Park-jinwoo.”
“I’m Kahng-woojin.”
Woojin sat in the empty seat after exchanging handshakes.
“Why don’t we all sit?”
Woojin sat down very comfortably as if this was his office. It made Park-sahngoh’s temper boil, but he tried very hard to control his expression.
“You have something to say to me?”
At Woojin’s direct question, Park-sahngoh put away his personal feelings and brought up the main subject. This wasn’t a good time to talk about proper decorum a Korean person should have, and Woojin wasn’t someone who would be receptive to such a speech.
“Do you know the cause behind this event?”
“Lee-sahngho caused the Breaks. Lee-sahngho became the vassal of Trahnet’s commander Iello. When Lee-sahngho became his vassal, he was able to cause the Dungeon Breaks.”
“……?”
The person who asked the question, Park-sahngoh, and the other people in the room couldn’t find any words to answer Woojin. They just sat there blinking their eyes. They thought he would have a vague idea on what was going on, but he knew it in such detail?
“Who’s this Trahnet’s Iello? No, what is this Trahnet?”
“They are the masters who own the Dungeons. He’s one of the bastards trying to make earth their hunting ground.”
This was too fantastic of a story so Park-sahngoh swallowed his saliva.
“H…how do you know this so well?”
Woojin took a peek at Park-sahngoh.
“Is your occupation being a reporter?”
“…I’m the Hammer Guild’s master.”
“I’m joking. it’s a joke.”
Woojin smirked as he answered the question.
“I came back after I went to a world where those bastards usurped the place.”
“…….”
They couldn’t comprehend or understand the words he spoke. It was too unbelievable.
“If the origin of the problem is Lee-sahngho, don’t we need to catch him?”
“I already killed him.”
“Huhk.”
Woojin looked at the surprised faces as he reclined his shoulders backwards. His body sank into the sofa.
“Is this how you treat guests here? Don’t you have any coffee?”
Why was he looking for coffee in a time like this…. Park-sahngho calmed his surging temper, then paged his secretary to bring some coffee.
He looked over Kahng-woojin with shaking eyes.
‘I could never make head or tail of him, but….’
Up to what point could he trust this story? Moreover, where should he start his preparations…? He secretly glanced at Jung-minchan and Hong-sunggoo. They looked surprised, but the vibe he got was that they seemed to trust everything Woojin said.
Since Woojin knew the cause of the current situation, he should have a plan to combat it.
“What do you planning on doing from now on?”
Woojin smirked as he drank the coffee brought to him by the secretary.
“What am I going to do? The same thing.”
He still didn’t have a good idea on what he had to do. He wasn’t sure if Trahnet’s lords would come in droves soon or if they would take some more time.
However, he was sure about one thing.
The war was imminent.
“I’ll stop the Dungeons, grow the Roused, and cultivate my power… I’ll be getting ready for a war.”
The Roused had been growing under the guise of the Dungeon Business. It was evident as each country of earth had several dozen to several hundred established Guilds.
Earth was getting incrementally stronger.
They had gotten stronger under the goal of profit under the guilds, but now he would have to gather them.
If it was the previous Woojin, they wouldn’t have even listened to his opinions, but it was different now.
There was an entire world of differences between the obscure Roused Kahng-woojin and the current Kahng-woojin.
Kahng-woojin looked at Jung-minchan who had always reliably taken care of his business.
“Let’s all gather in one place to start our preparation.”
“Mmmm.”
Park-sahngoh, who was listening from the side, quickly put his brain to work.
How could the Hammer Guild benefit from this situation? What could he do so he could exert his influence?
“We are planning on assembling all the Korean Guilds in a month. What do you think about doing it there?”
“Mmm. I guess I can do that.”
Park-sahngoh let out a yell of utter delight inside. This was his opportunity.
It would have been best if the Hammer Guild had Kahng-woojin within their fold. However, Kahng-woojin was too big to bring under the Hammer guild. If a plan doesn’t work as intended, one always had to have a plan B in life.
His insolence pierced the sky, but it seemed Woojin was in the dark about assessing the damages of such actions.
Well, since it had turned out like this…….
‘Now that events have turned out like this, we have to at least be in 2nd place.’
He gave up on the title of being the best, and he focused on what really mattered.
If his guild couldn’t be the best guild in Korea, than wouldn’t it be best if his Guild was the second best? Moreover, the best guild in Korea, Alandal, was the center of world’s attention. He could cede the spot of number 1 to them.
“Well, I’ll see you guys then.”
The Korean Guilds were all gathering in one place in a month anyway. Won’t they, at the very least, have to unite all the Roused in Korea? There will be some that will join a common cause, and there were those who always acted as contrarians. However, it would be enough if they could call attention to the seriousness of the danger to everyone.
It wasn’t necessary for everyone to be on the same team in a war.
‘Everyone has to fight for themselves.’
In the end, this was a fight for survival.
Everyone would fight for their own survival. Woojin would fight for what he wanted to protect. However, he wouldn’t mind it if there were less people he had to watch over.
A prime example was Park-sahngoh.
‘He’s rolling his eyes at me.’
This man was still moving with profit as his main motivation. Profit was useless in the face of the desire to survive.
It would make it easier for Woojin if there were more bastards like them. Relatively speaking, he would have to worry less.
“We are leaving.”
“Yes, president.”
When the Alandal Family stood up, Park-sahngoh saw them out himself. The restriction hadn’t been lifted so the civilians all stayed inside headquarters, which was the evacuation shelter. However, the people of Alandal left the building.
The streets were still occupied by soldiers, so the atmosphere was still troubled.
“I’ll come and pick up my mother and dongsaeng when everything is cleaned up a little bit more.”
“Please don’t worry about them. We’ll safely protect them.”
They had suppressed most of the monsters, but there was a chance a monster could be hiding. It was better to stay at the Hammer Guild than to go home.
‘I guess having such a large organization isn’t too bad.’
He thought it wouldn’t be too bad to have a lot of employees and numerous Roused under him.
Alandal only had 3 Roused, so their number was too few to divvy up the work. This wouldn’t work if he wanted to protect his family and the people who were important to him while fighting the enemies.
He had lost too many precious people on Alphen because of this exact issue.
“What happened to the rest of our guild?”
“Director Kim is evacuating with the other employees. The others are here at this evacuation shelter.”
They were at Alandal Guild when the incident broke out and they were lucky to have been able to escape. Sunggoo’s family and the guild employees’ families all evacuated to the Hammer Guild’s headquarter.
“Everyone’s over here?”
“As of now, we aren’t able to contact the chief secretary and the secretary employees.”
“Ms. Haesol is safe. She was with me until we parted not too long ago.”
He had come out with her from the Dungeon. Jackson was protecting Haesol, so nothing should have happened to her. The problem was Lee-soonghoon and the secretary employees. He couldn’t contact them.
Minchan took out his hand phone and verified that the network was still down. He put it back into his pocket.
“The communication network hasn’t recovered yet.”
The city was severely thrashed by the Dungeon Breaks. It was standard procedure to recover the communication system, but the recovery was very slow. They had successfully stopped the Dungeon Breaks in Seoul to achieve a momentary peace, but maybe the damage was too extensive.
“Let’s go to the office.”
“Yes, president.”
Just to be safe, the civilians were restricted from exiting the evacuation shelter. Since there were two people with Roused licenses in their party, the soldiers overlooked Minchan who was a civilian.
To be precise, he wasn’t a civilian but a guild official.
“Chet. It’s a mess.”
It was as if the chaos of the situation had been left behind. The office was a mess. The employees had fallen into panic, but they were able to quickly escape thanks to the experienced Minchan. He was someone, who had worked in the Dungeon Business since the Dungeon Shock. His bones were thick and resilient.
Woojin righted the fallen chairs as he looked around the office. As he was coming up, he noticed that his storage room had been emptied emptied by someone.
It was hard to tell whether people or monsters did this.
“Let’s move.”
“What?”
He needed a stronghold. It should be a place where he could protect people from the overflowing monsters. He needed a place where he could hold off his enemies effectively with a small force… A fort like the Hammer Guild’s headquarters building.
“Look for one near the Seoul Station. Tell me when you pick a suitable building. If you can buy it, then buy it. If not, we’ll just take it.”
“…….”
He wanted to be used to Woojin’s way of thinking, but he still couldn’t follow the president’s train of thoughts. However, he was sure of one thing now. If Woojin said he would do something, then he would do it. It was his job to take care of business as smoothly as possible.
“I’ll look into it. Actually, I’m really worried about Mr. Soonghoon and the employees of the secretary office.”
“They’ll be back if they are alive.”
“…….”
He had said such an obvious statement so Minchan couldn’t think of any words to say. While Minchan was looking at Woojin with a flustered face, a chime rang from inside his pocket.
“Ah. It seems the communication system is back up.”
Minchan hurriedly took out his handphone. He thought it was a call from a secretary employee, but it was an entirely different phone number.
“I…it’s the Ministry of National Defense?”
“Mmmm? What do they want with me again?”
Sunggoo, who was next to Woojin, answered the question.
“Hyung-nim. You came here by riding a missile.”
“Ah. That… Well, just tell them the US shot it. Just say that.”
Minchan let out a light sigh, then answered the phone.
“…This is Alandal’s vice president Jung-minchan.”
He spoke with a serious expression on his face. After ending the call, he looked at Woojin as he spoke.
“They already asked about it to the Pentagon. They said the distance was too far for you to have reached here.”
“That’s why I rigged a couple fighter jets onto it.”
“…….”
Dolsae had made it so basically a couple fighter jets were stuck onto the missile. Woojin added his magic to increase the output of the engines, and he had come to Seoul in a brief amount of time.
“The Pentagon said you borrowed the missile and fighter jets… They confirmed you rode it here.”
Woojin frowned.
“So what?”
“You might have to go visit them once this time.”
“Where? You mean the Ministry of Defense? It isn’t as if there is anything more to explain….”
“No. The Cheongwadae (Blue House) is calling for you.”
“…….”
“You really have to go visit them this time.”
Woojin shrugged his shoulder.
“I guess I will. Tell them I’ll go after a week.”
It would be enough time for the files with the evidence to arrive. Minchan had barely ended the phone call when a phone rang again.
Ddi-ri-di-ri ding ding.
The sound was heard from a distance away inside the president’s room.
“Uh? It’s my handphone.”
When he left for the Middle East, Woojin had left his handphone behind.
“I’ll go bring it..”
Sunggoo quickly ran to get Woojin’s handphone.
“Hyung-nim. It’s Jiwon Noonah.”
“…….”
Woojin frowned when he thought about Do-jiwon.
He thought about the child with the clear soul turning into an evil spirit in front of him in Afghanistan.
“Hello.”
When Woojin pressed the answer button, a small voice leaked out of the speaker.
[Hoo-ook. W…Woojin-ah… Help me.]
Woojin face froze into a cold mask.
“Where are you at right now?”
[I’m at….]