The next morning. Miracle Management’s cramped office was so packed there was hardly room to set foot.
In a place where, on any ordinary day, not even a fly would have wandered in, the heavyweights who held sway over South Korea’s hunter industry were crowded together.
The head of the scouting team from Taeyang Guild, one of the nation’s top ten guilds.
The chief agent of Star Entertainment, the largest management agency in the industry.
And beyond them, executives from mid-sized guilds whose names anyone would recognize lined the room.
They sat uncomfortably on the worn-out sofa and folding chairs, glaring at one another.
It was as if invisible sparks were crackling in the air.
The tension was taut enough to snap.
Not a single person spoke first.
They were all watching one another, calculating how to outmaneuver their rivals and snatch up I Jia.
Siu sat at the CEO’s desk, watching the scene with indifference.
It was amusing.
Until yesterday, these were the same people who had treated his business card like trash and turned him away at the door.
Yet now they had come here of their own accord, sipping the instant coffee Siu had served them while nervously gauging his reaction.
‘Disgusting.’
Hot anger surged up inside him. But Siu did not let it show.
He wiped his expression clean and thoroughly reined in his emotions.
If he got angry now, they would only see it as the inferiority complex of the weak.
To trample them underfoot, he needed not emotion, but overwhelming power and logic.
They were paying no attention to Siu.
In their eyes, Siu was no different from an invisible man.
At most, he was the young CEO of a small, newly established agency that had gotten lucky and picked up an A-rank hunter.
A sucker who would lower his tail and hand over I Jia the moment they slapped him across the face with a bundle of cash.
That was how they saw Siu.
Their attention was focused solely on how much the rival guild sitting beside them would bid.
Siu waited in silence. In this game, the one who moved first lost.
As the silence stretched longer than expected and the air in the cramped office began to grow stale, someone whose patience had finally run dry opened his mouth.
“Ahem.”
With a dry cough, a man in a neat suit turned his head toward Siu.
It was Director Choe of Star Entertainment, the nation’s largest hunter management company.
“CEO Han. We understand that you’re busy, but our time is worth gold as well. Just how long do you intend to keep us waiting?”
His choice of words was polite, but there was a strange barb in his tone.
It dripped with arrogance, as if to say, “How dare someone like you make us wait?”
His words became the signal.
Voices of complaint erupted from all around.
“That’s right. When will Hunter I Jia be coming out? We’d like to speak with her face-to-face.”
“Our Taeyang Guild has brought an extraordinary offer. At least let us arrange a meeting.”
“Let’s get straight to the point.”
In an instant, the office grew as noisy as a marketplace.
Only then did every gaze turn to Siu.
Siu slowly set down his teacup.
It was only a small clink, but somehow it carried a weight that overwhelmed the room.
He leaned back in his chair and swept his gaze over them.
“You all seem… very interested in our hunter.”
At his low voice, Director Choe snorted.
“We didn’t come because we’re interested. We came because we’re worried.”
“Worried?”
“You know it yourself, don’t you, CEO Han? She’s an A-rank reawakened hunter. She is not the kind of talent who can be cared for in such… poor conditions.”
Director Choe openly looked around the cramped office and sneered.
He was blatantly looking down on Siu.
“For Hunter I Jia’s future as well, shouldn’t she be playing in bigger waters? Rather than being tied down to your company, her value will rise far higher if she belongs to our Star Entertainment, where there is a systematic structure in place. That is the path for the hunter’s sake.”
It was a plausible justification.
But hidden beneath the hypocrisy of doing it for the hunter’s sake was a threat telling him to hand over his hunter.
In the end, it was nothing more than bullshit dressed up prettily to conceal their greed to make money.
“That’s right. Honestly, she’s far too valuable a talent to rot in a place like this.”
“At the very least, she should belong to a major management company, or to a large guild like our Daeseong Guild.”
One after another, they raised their voices, trying to get a spoon in.
Every single remark was one that belittled Miracle and Siu.
Bang!
The instant Siu slammed his fist down on the desk, silence fell.
The scouts, who had been making such a racket, stared at Siu with eyes like startled rabbits.
Their expressions seemed to say, How dare the head of some tiny company pound the desk in front of us?
Siu glared at them with eyes that had sunk coldly.
“So.”
Siu’s voice dropped low.
“In order to raise her value, you ignored the law and the rules and attempted tampering?”
“…What?”
“Because our company is small and has no value, you ignored the law and everything else and tried to tamper with her through the back door. Is that what you’re saying?”
He bit out each word with force.
Tampering.
The moment that word emerged, the atmosphere in the room froze rapidly.
He could see the pupils of several agents tremble.
Article 32 of the Hunter Management Act. The clause prohibiting prior contact.
The act of contacting or inducing a transfer from a hunter with more than one year remaining on their contract, without the consent of the original agency.
This was the most sensitive and fatal taboo in the hunter industry.
“You ignored us because you thought we were worth ignoring. Isn’t that what this is?”
At Siu’s rebuke, not one of them could readily answer.
Because they knew it too.
Tampering was not some minor offense.
It was treated as a serious crime that destroyed the order of the industry.
If a charge of tampering was proven and the Association imposed disciplinary action, the guild or management company in question would be completely banned from recruiting new hunters for at least three months.
One might think it was only three months, but in this field, where new dungeons erupted every other day and hunters were killed, being unable to replenish personnel for three months was no small matter.
Falling behind rival guilds, plummeting stock prices, damage to public image, even the departure of existing hunters.
It was an issue that could determine a company’s very survival.
For management companies, which traded in manpower, it was a fatal blow among fatal blows.
Director Choe, who had been momentarily flustered, flushed red and shot to his feet.
“See here, CEO Han. You’re going too far. Tampering? Are you calling us criminals? On what grounds are you making such reckless accusations?”
He even pointed his finger as he lashed out.
Only then did the surrounding scouts come to their senses and join in.
“That’s right! This is defamation!”
“Do you have proof? Do you have evidence that we contacted her?”
“To call a simple courtesy call tampering—stop forcing it!”
They were shameless. Their attitude was that denying it would be enough.
After all, if I Jia kept her mouth shut, there would be no evidence.
And they were confident they could win I Jia over with money.
Their calculation was that I Jia, an A-rank hunter, would never be satisfied with such a shabby management company either.
‘Ha.’
Siu let out a hollow laugh at the flow of events, which was going exactly as expected.
Beasts believe themselves to be hunters until they step into the trap.
“Grounds?”
Siu opened the drawer beneath his desk.
Then he took out the thick bundle of documents I Jia had handed him yesterday and tossed it onto the desk.
Thud.
The heavy sound silenced the noise in the office.
Siu slowly flipped open the cover of the file and began speaking.
“Star Entertainment, exclusive contract proposal. Signing bonus of five billion won, with a condition to cover the penalty fee. Taeyang Guild, scouting proposal. Provision of a penthouse in the Gangnam headquarters and a guaranteed first-team leader position.”
“…!”
“Daeseong Guild, side contract. Proposal to establish a paper company for tax evasion.”
Siu lifted the documents one by one and shook them, reciting the names of the respective guilds as though calling them out.
“Let’s see… Director Choe? Is this your seal here? The red ink hasn’t even dried. Team Leader Bak of Taeyang Guild? This text message log—this is your number, isn’t it? ‘CEO Han Siu is incompetent, so abandon him and come over.’ Your writing is excellent.”
A silence fell over the office as if cold water had been poured over it.
The scouts’ faces turned deathly pale.
Director Choe, who had been so overbearing just moments ago, only opened and closed his mouth, unable to say a word.
Cold sweat was pouring down everyone’s backs like rain.
They could not have imagined it.
That I Jia would reject all of these proposals, the temptation of hundreds of billions of won, and bring them intact to Siu.
For an ordinary hunter, it would have been absolutely impossible.
Because hunters who did not bite at the bait called money were exceedingly rare.
“How…”
“No way… She handed all of this over?”
Murmurs mixed with sighs broke out here and there.
Only now did they seem to understand the situation.
That they had walked into the tiger’s den with their own two feet.
And that the tiger was now baring its teeth.
But it was not over yet.
If he ended things at this level, they would go back and somehow mobilize law firms to find a loophole.
He had to cut off their breath completely.
So that they would never again dare covet Siu, or Siu’s hunter.
Siu checked his wristwatch.
With perfect timing, the door at the back of the office opened.
Creak.
Every gaze turned toward the door.
The sound of dress shoes clicked rhythmically across the floor.
A man in a neat navy suit walked out.
Hair combed back with razor precision, cold metal-rimmed glasses.
A briefcase was in his hand.
With an icy expression, he walked over and stood beside Siu.
Then, adjusting his tie, he shot them a sharp gaze from behind his glasses.
It was a dry, emotionless look, as if he were looking at insects.
“CEO Han.”
The man opened his mouth.
His dry voice froze the air in the office even colder.
“Are these the ones?”
It was a short sentence, but its impact was not light.
Director Choe’s face turned ashen, and the other scouts trembled as if they had seen the grim reaper.
They knew who that man was.
No, there was no way they could not know.
Attorney Gang Cheolmin, head of the Hunter Association’s legal audit team.
The number one person in the industry people most wanted to avoid, said to chew through bone once he bit down.
The person Siu had called last night was none other than him.
Among the connections Siu had built over ten years as a scout, he was the most troublesome, but also the surest card.
Attorney Gang glanced over the bundle of documents on the desk, then spoke in a stiff tone devoid of even the slightest lip service.
“There’s more than enough evidence. With this much, not three months, but even a six-month business suspension would be possible.”
“…!”
“Violation of Article 7 of the Association Audit Regulations. Violation of the Fair Trade Act. And obstruction of business on top of that. It’s quite the comprehensive gift set.”
Attorney Gang took a thick stack of complaints from his briefcase and set it down on the table.
Thud. The sound was like a judge’s gavel coming down.
“You said there would be no settlement after filing, correct?”
Attorney Gang asked, looking at Siu.
Siu nodded with his arms crossed.
Then he smiled coldly at the hyenas trembling like aspen leaves.
“Yes. That is what I intend to do.”
Only then did suppressed gasps break out here and there.
“N-no…”
“This is a trap…”
The mockery and arrogance that had continued until just moments ago had vanished without a trace, leaving only the despair of those who had fallen helplessly into the mire.
Siu leaned back in his chair and savored their despair.
Now the positions of power and submission had been completely reversed.
Miracle and Siu, who had been ignored, were the ones holding the upper hand, while the sinners waiting only for judgment had been reduced completely to the lower position.
“Well, then.”
Siu tapped the desk with his finger.
“Shall we begin the real negotiation now? Of course, it will be a negotiation over whether or not these complaints get filed.”