Chapter 45

Chapter 45 – Territory Dispute (1)

“Are you coming today?”

-Yes. I’ll be arriving soon.

“Thank you.”

-Are you satisfied with the vehicle?

“It’s fine. A van, huh? It makes me feel like a celebrity, which is nice.”

-I’m glad. Then I’ll see you on the day of the attack.

After ending the call with Shin Tae-gil, Kang Hyeon opened the refrigerator door. He saw rows of various beers and sodas lined up.

“Ah! Great.”

He downed a can of beer in one go and tossed the empty can into the trash.

“No matter how I look at it, it’s too spacious.”

The office Shin Tae-gil had provided occupied an entire floor of a fairly large building.

Even at a glance, it seemed to be hundreds of pyeong in size. However, the office, which was excessively empty compared to its size, was not just chilly but desolate.

“Should I install a shower room, and put in a TV and sofa? Maybe make a bedroom too. It’s a guild office, but there’s no law saying we can’t install those things, right?”

“I agree.”

An Yu-seong was playing a game on a desktop PC he had set up on an expensive wooden desk, though it wasn’t clear when he had brought it in.

“We should make a PC room too.”

If Shin Tae-gil saw this, he would probably yell at them to vacate the office immediately, but that’s something to worry about when the time comes.

“New guild member applicants will be coming for interviews soon, so keep that in mind.”

-Ding dong

At that moment.

The intercom rang in the quiet office.

“Are they here already?”

“I’ll go check.”

Shin Seong-a walked to the entrance and opened the door to reveal a small-statured man.

“Is this the Badass Guild office...?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I’m here for an interview today...”

“Tell him to come in.”

Hearing Kang Hyeon’s voice from inside, Shin Seong-a stepped aside.

‘Wow, it’s really Kang Hyeon. Seeing him in person, he has an incredible aura. Just looking at him makes me feel like I might get hit.’

The man walked towards Kang Hyeon with sparkling eyes.

Kang Hyeon, who was sitting arrogantly in the chairman’s chair, pulled out some documents.

“You’re Han Jae-mun, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

“Name Han Jae-mun, age 27. 169.7cm and 59kg? Why did you include such detailed physical measurements?”

It was Kang Hyeon’s muttering to himself, but Han Jae-mun felt stung and lowered his head.

“I’m sorry...”

“No need to apologize. I was just talking to myself. You’ve heard what kind of work you’ll be doing here, right?”

“Yes. I heard it’s related to guild operations...”

“Just think of it as running the guild by yourself. But since there are only three people, there won’t be much work.”

“Yes.”

“And when we move around, you’ll be in charge of driving.”

“Understood.”

“I heard from Team Leader Shin Tae-gil that you’re quite an elite. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Yes! I’ll do my best!”

Kang Hyeon smiled contentedly at the thought of finally having a driver.

“Oh, you guys don’t mind either, right?”

He realized he hadn’t asked for Shin Seong-a and An Yu-seong’s opinions yet.

“I don’t mind. If you need money, just let me know.”

“As long as Kang Hyeon is satisfied, that’s enough.”

Kang Hyeon nodded at their straightforward approval.

“Our deputy guild leaders like you too. The salary is 10 million won. I don’t know about insurance and such, so talk to Team Leader Shin Tae-gil about that. If you need more money, just let me know.”

“Yes!”

“Then, considering you’ve joined the guild, shall we speak comfortably from now on?”

“Understood!”

Han Jae-mun’s eyes sparkled even more, perhaps because of the much higher salary than expected.

‘The real heaven was here all along!’

In fact, he was what you’d call a capable otaku.

He had joined the Dungeon Management Agency out of admiration for capable individuals, and was later recruited into the Special Ability User Management Team by Shin Tae-gil.

‘An Yu-seong and Shin Seong-a are as intimidating as I’ve heard.’

An Yu-seong was playing a game, and Shin Seong-a was just staring blankly out the window.

But to his love-struck eyes, even that looked cool.

‘I’ll definitely make this the number one guild in Korea!’

As Han Jae-mun was making his resolution, Shin Seong-a brought something out.

“Kang Hyeon.”

“What?”

“I think if we had guild uniforms, it would deepen our sense of belonging and unity.”

“Suddenly?”

“Yes!”

“Do we really need to go that far...”

Han Jae-mun’s eyes widened at the mention of guild uniforms.

‘Of course we should! That’s an excellent idea!’

It was a moment when his otaku tendencies were growing just as he joined the guild.

“Actually... I’ve already prepared something.”

“Is this your doing?”

“Yes. Isn’t it cool? I called some people yesterday and worked on it all night.”

“Do you want to die?”

The van, garishly painted with all sorts of colors, had a large skull pattern drawn on it, just like the jacket.

The ‘Badass’ written on the hood in what looked like burning letters was quite striking.

“Sell this to a used car dealer and buy a new van just like the original one.”

“Sob... I worked so hard on this...”

“Stop pretending to cry. I really want to kill you.”

“Tch.”

Kang Hyeon was about to run his hand through his hair in stress but stopped.

‘If I keep irritating my scalp, I might go bald... That absolutely can’t happen.’

Not wanting to give up on his hair yet, Kang Hyeon decided to think positively.

“Shit... Fine. It’s all my fault. Who else can I blame?”

Kang Hyeon shook his head and got into the van.

‘Something’s not right here...’

Han Jae-mun had joined the Badass Guild full of dreams, but those dreams came crashing down in just an hour.

The guild and ability users he had imagined were nothing like this.

‘We’re not some mafia or gang, what is this?! And they’re weirdly stupid!’

Han Jae-mun felt like grabbing An Yu-seong and Shin Seong-a by the collar and demanding to know what they were doing.

“But it’s pretty good, isn’t it?”

“...”

“I put a lot of effort into it.”

“Don’t open your mouth. I’ll kill you.”

***

Ippotranslation

***

The dinner menu heavily reflected Kang Hyeon’s preference for beef.

Kang Hyeon particularly liked beef.

To him, who had always been poor, beef was like a symbol of success.

“Hey, look over there. That car is so flashy.”

“Badass? Isn’t that the new guild that was just formed?”

While waiting for the traffic light, they overheard people talking.

Kang Hyeon’s mood, which had improved slightly at the thought of beef, soured again.

“It seems like good publicity for the guild.”

Shin Seong-a said cheerfully, unaware of Kang Hyeon’s mood.

“How much further?”

“We’re almost there.”

“That’s good. Let’s hurry. I think I’ll go crazy if I don’t eat beef soon.”

However, contrary to Kang Hyeon’s expectations, the car didn’t move for a long time.

-Honk, honk!

Car horns were heard from all around, and drivers who had grown tired of waiting started getting out of their cars.

“Why aren’t we moving?!”

“Looks like there’s a fight or something.”

Kang Hyeon’s expression twisted as he saw people around them starting to murmur.

“What now? I’m starting to get hungry, this is annoying... Ugh!”

Just as Kang Hyeon was about to get out of the van, something flew and crashed into it.

As a result, Kang Hyeon’s face collided with the door as he was opening it.

“Shit! What the hell?!”

“It seems something flew and hit us.”

“Which bastard... Wait, is this blood?”

“Yes. Your nose is bleeding.”

Blood was streaming from Kang Hyeon’s nose.

While bleeding was an everyday occurrence for him, having just a nosebleed while otherwise fine felt strangely unpleasant.

“No!”

An Yu-seong suddenly screamed upon seeing Kang Hyeon’s blood.

“It’s okay. I’m not that badly hurt...”

“Move!”

An Yu-seong pushed Kang Hyeon aside and hurriedly got out of the van. Then he stared blankly at the van with its side door smashed.

‘This bastard... He was worried about the car, not me?’

Kang Hyeon felt more dumbfounded than angry.

“Kuk, kukuk... Hahaha!”

After staring at the door for a moment, An Yu-seong grabbed his face and laughed like a madman.

The fact that the van he had poured his artistic soul into was ruined in just a day seemed to be quite a shock.

“I’ll kill them...”

“Get a grip, man.”

An Yu-seong’s face twisted like an evil spirit as his eyes flashed. Just then, they saw the man who had crashed into the van getting up from the ground.

“What are you looking at?!”

The man seemed to be quite a strong ability user, as he appeared uninjured despite colliding with the van. He frowned deeply at Kang Hyeon and An Yu-seong.

“What’s your problem? Do you want to die?!”

Despite his threats with a sword, the two just stared at him indifferently.

“W-What..?!”

“...”

“I said, what’s your...”

He instinctively felt it.

That something had gone terribly wrong.