Chapter 64: The great principle of Harem (2)

Wi-hoon organized his thoughts as he washed his hands. His plans were all tangled up like a paper doodled by a kid. Naturally, he couldn’t stop anger from eroding his mind.

“What are you doing here? Do you need to poop?”

“…..!”

Behind him, Yoo Seodam, who followed him to the bathroom, was smiling at him.

“Yoo Seodam…”

“You, didn’t you come to Korea because you want to recruit me into your guild?”

“You know about it, yet you created such a situation?”

“Why?” Yoo Seodam asked. His face was unreadable.

“If you don’t like it, why don’t you make a better offer than Ryu Jin-soo? When I said to him that I want to make my own guild, Ryu Jin-soo decided to join forces with me. Oh, now that I think about it, your guild can’t unite, can it? After all, it’s a corporate guild not a traditional guild.”

As I said, Guild Union was not something that any Guild Master could do. Only a small number of guilds that still maintained the traditional way of management could do it.

“Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“If you come to recruit me, I’m sure you have something to offer me. Don’t tell me, you planned to threaten me like you used to?”

At that remark, Wi-hoon gritted his teeth and said, “Don’t you want to know?”

“About what?”

“Why Reyna Ju died eight years ago.”

“…!!!”

Yoo Seodam’s expression instantly stiffened when he heard the name that came out from Wi-hoon’s mouth. Reyna Ju. She was an unfortunate girl who became a hunter at the same time as Yoo Seodam. But 8 years ago, she passed away.

“You…”

“You are dying to know, aren’t you?”

Reyna Ju, she was the only weakness that Yoo Seodam had.

“You, Taylor, and her used to hang together every day.”

Wi-hoon hoped that Yoo Seodam would be agitated and shaken up by this story. So, he spoke with even more fervor than before.

“As I expected, you really know the reason…”

“What?”

Yoo Seodam’s response was out of Wi-hoon’s expectations. His heart sank at that moment. He realized something had gone wrong.

Wi-Hoon looked at Yoo Seodam’s face again once again. His face didn’t have any ripple of emotion. His eyes were as tranquil as a lake.

“Do you have any other offer?”

“…..”

The story that Wi-hoon brought wasn’t so important for Yoo Seodam. But he felt that something was off when Wi-hoon easily talked about the incident 8 years ago. 

Wi-hoon told Yoo Seodam everything that he knew. When Wi-hoon finished speaking, Yoo Seodam couldn’t help but laughed.

“Interesting.”

“What?”

“I was actually curious. Curious about the day you retired being a Hunter eight years ago. About Reyna’s death, and also, about how much you know about those who betrayed us.”

“That’s…”

“That’s why I’m here. To ask you about it.”

However, there was no need to ask.

“There’s no way I’ll take up that offer…”

Yoo seodam said that under his breath…

“What a pity Wi-hoon.”

“What do you mean?”

After Yoo Seodam said so, he turned around and left the bathroom.

Wi-hoon clearly remembered his expression.

It wasn’t his usual pathetic look nor a disappointed look. It was just a serene look on his face that he had been looking at for 16 years.

‘No way, he has been looking at me like that for 16 years.’ 

When Wi-hoon realized it, Yoo Seodam had already walked away.

* * *

After finishing the talks with both representatives from 3 Companies and Hunter’s Association headquarters brought by Wi-hoon, my steps became lighter. 

They were necessary to me. The creation of the guild basically needed a huge amount of money. The biggest expense was from buying equipments.

Most guilds put the condition of providing equipments to the Hunters they recruited. But, I didn’t really need to do the same as them. My guild already had swordsmanship and magic to offer. But wouldn’t it be icing on the cake if I could still get the equipments on top of swordsmanship and magic? 

Although the sponsor contract hasn’t been signed yet, all of them gave a pretty positive response. My guild is slowly getting on the right track.

Ping!

On my way home, a message came on my phone.

[Guildmaster bastard: Yoo Seodam.]

[Guildmaster bastard: Can we talk?]

“Huh, what’s wrong with this bastard?”

It was a message from Lost Day’s guildmaster. A man with a high position like him contacted me directly. Somehow, I felt bitter. Back in the days when I was only a F-Rank incompetent hunter, I felt like I was used like a disposable chopstick. But now they were contacting me because I had gained this ability. In the end, we can’t do anything without our gift and ability.

[Block]

After roughly pressing the button, I leaned on the back seat of the taxi.

I felt like I would instantly fall asleep the moment I laid on my bed.

But then,

Peep, peep, peep!

A siren rung outside.

-Emergency disaster alert!

-Currently, a SS-rank gate has appeared near Cheongdam-dong. Civilians should evacuate immediately! 

-We repeat once again!

-Currently, a SS-rank gate has appeared near Cheongdam-dong.

Screech.

The taxi pulled over into the shoulder of the road.

“I, I’m sorry, young man. Please get off, I think a gate has appeared.”

“Ah. Yes.”

I can’t help it. The taxi driver was an ordinary citizen, and in the event of a gate crisis, he’d be the first to take his car and evacuate his family. After getting out of the car, I looked where the gate was open.

‘SS-class?’

It was so out of the blue that I had nothing to say.

Of course, it was not like that the SS-rank gate had never happened. But at that time, most of those Gates had a forewarning. This was so that the hunters would have enough preparation to respond. It was strange that no one got any words of warning.

I thought something was wrong, so I took out the ether blade out of the inventory and tried to run there, but then I saw the shape of a giant monster in the distance.

Crazy. It’s really big.

Can I fight that monster? Such a thought came to my mind.

Slash!

…Thud!

The monster’s head was cut off and fell to the ground.

“Huh?”

Shortly after, I could hear a helicopter sound far away.

Tududududududu!!

Broadcasting stations and military helicopters were rushing in, but they were already late. They missed the most important scene.

“Crazy! What the hell is happening?”

When a monster appeared from an SS-rank dungeon, the raid was only possible when there were 10 teams consisting of 10 S-rank hunters each.

Who the hell did that with a single slash….

‘Don’t tell me?’   

The one and only protagonist of earth, Lee Dong-joon

Seodam hurried up to the roof of the building and looked at the scene, but the man who killed the monster had already disappeared. Furthermore, the monster also appeared behind a bridge that blocked his view, leaving no witnesses to see who cut it off.

‘He said he had to hide his strength. Why did he do this?’

If he killed the monster like this, didn’t that mean that the Murim people nearby would have seen it?

I watched the scene carefully. There, a woman who seemed to be an office worker was lying on her seat and stared blankly into the air. Maybe she was the victim of the gate. I tried to approach her just in case she witnessed it, but I couldn’t because the police and soldiers who had already approached her.

I had no choice but to turn my back and go home.

And the very next day..

“What’s your relationship with Supreme Dharma?”

A woman called ‘Geom-hee’ came to my house.

* * *

“The Three Emperors and the Cheonma were all killed by Dharma.”

The teacup in front of the Seodam was not shaken by her outspoken words. Geom-hee sipped the tea before saying ‘Uh, it’s not good’ and spoke once again.

“And people from Earth took over the place of the new Cheonma and 3 kings and 6 Emperors. It was all to fight against the overwhelming power of Dharma.”

However, the ten masters called Cheonma and 3 kings and 6 Emperors, did not cooperate with each other.

That’s what Geom-hee said.

“Hey, but why did you suddenly come to see me?”

Geom-hee, Ha Sun-young.

In terms of Korean age, people who looked like they were in their late 20s, have lived in Murim for several decades. Whatever rejuvenation technique she used, her appearance was that of someone in  late teens or early 20s.

“I’m looking for ‘Dharma’ The one who forced all of us into a ban when we returned to Earth. There’s no way to find him because he’d even change his face and hide his inner ki thoroughly. I’ve been living in Korea recently, and I even found out that he has a close relationship with you.”

After saying so, Geom-hee blurted out the ends of her words. In fact, she had no grudge against Dharma. It was more like she fell in love with him at the first sight.

“Why are you looking for ‘Dharma’?

“Isn’t that obvious? I….li……ked him? What is it?”

She must have liked him.  

Maybe that feeling still somehow remained somewhere inside her heart.

She traveled all over the world to find Dharma. She did that because of her longing towards Dharma.

She was sure that was the reason.

‘What?’

Geom-hee stroked her chest.

Until just a moment ago, it was difficult for her to calm down whenever she thought of Dharma. But strangely, she was completely calm now.

‘Did I really fell for him?’

But why did she fall in love?

Was it because of his overwhelming strength?

Because of his charismatic back?

Or because he was so handsome?

No. She fell in love with him as soon as they made eye contact.

‘Why?’

A strong warrior could control their own mind. In other words, one can hardly fall in love with someone as soon as they saw someone.

But it was like this.

As if she was forced to be attracted to him.

Suddenly, Ha Sun-young looked up and looked into Yoo Seodam’s eyes.

She asked him a question.

“…..Why did I search for him?”

“Huh? What are you..”

In Seodam’s mind, a new message has arrived.

[Protagonist hunter Lv. 3 has interfered with protagonist Lee Dong-joon’s ‘Protagonist Correction’.]

[Supporting Character Ha Sun-young has been freed from the influence of ‘Charm(SS)’] 

Ha Sun-young took her hand off her chest.

He looks at the Yoo Seodam. It wasn’t like she fell in love with him or found his face to her liking. But for some reason, she felt as if something ‘uncomfortable’ had been lifted from her heart when she was together with Yoo Seodam

The message that appeared in front of Seodam at that time.

Ding!

[Crisis occurs to the main character, Lee Dong-joon.] 

“Huh? Crisis, all of a sudden?”

Yoo Seodam was surprised for a moment.

Something more amazing had happened.

[Protagonist Lee Dong-joon ignores his crisis.]

“Huh…”

Only then did Seodam realized roughly what had happened.

So far, he ignored it because he was busy fighting, but most of the male characters who had ‘#Harem’ tag had several women around him. By the way, do you think the male character would have seduced them one by one?

Of course, there must be such a protagonist. But the most popular and trendy Harem trope in the last few years was a scenario when the girls fell in love ‘at the first sight’ with the protagonist.

And Ha Sun-young in front of him was one of the victims of Lee dong-joon ‘love at first sight’ Harem trope.

However, the moment Yoo Seodam intervened, the possibility of such nonsense had reduced. Of course it wouldn’t work for anyone. Geom-hee or Ha Sun-young were quite talented, and she must have the power to resist the charm-related skill to a certain extent. Yoo Seodam’s presence was only boosting her skill effect.

‘Wait, isn’t this…?’

Most of the people around Lee Dong-joon were women. Perhaps it was influenced by Protagonist ‘Correction’ or the #Harem tag. Although Lee Dong-joon himself remained indifferent to such women…

‘I could use this.’