Kim Inhan spoke in a measured tone before his team members, doing his best to hide his tension.
“Are you here to film a crafting YouTube video? Listen to those sound effects. Nice and booming.”
At the guild master’s banter, laughter burst out among the team members who had been standing stiffly.
Just then, the unfinished teddy bear’s ears perked up at the sound of laughter.
Flinch!
The guild members stopped laughing at once.
Regardless, the unfinished teddy bear rummaged through the hip sack strapped to its chest, took out a strawberry Yoplait, and held it out.
- You fellows had best wait here and eat some Yoplait.
No matter how one looked at it, it was an obvious provocation.
“……!”
“No, wait…….”
While the members of Blue Lagoon struggled to hold back their anger at an insult they had never heard in their lives, the unfinished teddy bear’s gaze swept over them.
Was it sizing them up? The guild master, whose eyes met its last, gripped his weapon tightly as if tense. As he met its gaze as though daring it to try anything—
Geuru thought.
‘There are five of them?’
Geuru’s hand trembled as he wondered if he should give them more Yoplait.
‘But if I take them all out…… Geuru won’t get to eat any Yoplait!’
To the others, however, that finely trembling hand looked as if it were barely holding back laughter that was about to burst out, and at that, Blue Lagoon’s guild master clenched his teeth.
His face grew hot in an instant.
Kim Inhan, out of habit, nearly shoved that doll’s shoulder, but barely managed to suppress his rage.
The moment his hand touched the other party’s body, it was over. One wrong move, and it could escalate into a guild war.
If contact occurred, the other side would respond in kind, and if that turned into a physical fight……
The opponent was Hyeonak. A true top guild of Korea, possessing no fewer than four combat-type S-ranks.
For Blue Lagoon, whose members were all A-rank, there was no choice but to restrain themselves.
Kim Inhan clenched his fist and opened his mouth with a sneer.
“Hunter-nim. You do know what you’re trying to do right now, don’t you?”
At the words that essentially meant, “You’re acting like a hopeless thug right now,” Jjapso replied with perfect composure.
- I know precisely. Nameless guild.
“We’re Blue Lagoon!”
Kim Inhan raised his voice a little.
On this side, they even knew that the fellow was Jjapso of Hyeonak, yet the other side kept explicitly saying they had no idea what their guild was called. It was humiliating.
- I see, guild master of Blue Lagoon. I heard from the people involved outside. Blue Lagoon was afraid of this raid, were they not?
“……No!”
Kim Inhan flared up and opened his mouth, only to close it again.
Jjapso’s sneer, as if saying, “I heard you can’t clear it?” felt like a spike stabbing deep into his chest.
“No, I mean, that’s…….”
But Jjapso already knew that they had staked their claim here to receive money.
“Hunter-nim, you know how it is. Business is……”
But Geuru, knowing nothing, waved his hand.
- Mm, this body acts not out of business, but out of goodwill, so there is no need to be grateful.
Fuck. What the hell is this? He was so furious and aggrieved he felt like he would go mad.
At that moment, one of the team members behind the confused Kim Inhan whispered.
“This looks like we’ve been properly caught in a typical Hyeonak move.”
A Hyeonak move.
It was the typical thug tactic of raiding another guild’s dungeon as they pleased, then playing innocent when the Association stepped in to mediate, saying, “We only helped because they seemed to be struggling.”
Normally, it was exactly the sort of situation that would lead to a guild war, but the madmen of Hyeonak, strong as they were, would actually welcome even that.
They must be confident they can win.
Lately, there had not been much talk of people getting “Hyeonak’d,” so jokes had even gone around saying, “Looks like Hyeonak is finally managing their image now.”
‘No, if they haven’t been doing this at all, why are they suddenly picking a fight with us! Damn it!’
Then, all of a sudden, a thought flashed through his mind.
Had the film company offered Hyeonak two big ones as well? Was that why they were trying to swallow up their job?
It was plausible.
For Hyeonak, crushing a guild like Blue Lagoon would be easy.
Kim Inhan spoke in a growl.
“Hunter-nim, if you come at us like this, this incident might end up on internet communities.”
It was somewhat petty, but since they would lose in a guild war, it meant he would try fighting through public opinion instead.
But at his words, the unfinished bear’s ears perked up.
It had arbitrarily interpreted his words to mean that he would let people know Geuru had helped them.
Hiding his delight, Geuru cleared his throat and said,
- I would not particularly recommend it…… but if you wish, do as you please.
At that, Kim Inhan bit his lip in frustration.
Was that supposed to mean, “Post it if you dare”?
Even threatening to wage a public opinion battle did not work. Then what were they supposed to do?
The guild members’ gazes stung. As guild master, his dignity was one thing, but considering how much they had bid for this dungeon, they could not withdraw like this without gaining anything.
“Then, Hunter-nim. Since we’ll yield as well, you’ll give us what you’re supposed to, right?”
Kim Inhan spoke mockingly while suppressing the anger boiling inside him.
A common point among those who had been Hyeonak’d.
They got the byproducts back.
Hyeonak raided other people’s dungeons as they pleased, but returned the items, and that was also why the victimized guilds could not rise up together against them.
So they should at least take the byproducts. That was what he had thought when he spoke, but Jjapso’s eyebrow twitched.
- You want me to give you something?
Rumble! Boom!
The moment those words ended, lightning began to strike inside the temple, and Kim Inhan flinched his shoulders.
Afraid he might be struck by lightning, he took a step back and said,
“That’s been Hyeonak’s unwritten rule until now, hasn’t it……”
Why isn’t Jjapso moving? He could get hit by lightning…… Is it because this isn’t his main body?
But to Geuru, for whom the lightning looked like bubbling water, he simply stood there blankly and nodded.
If giving more was Hyeonak’s rule, then Geuru would have to comply too.
Left with no choice, Geuru rummaged through his hip sack again.
- Greedy, aren’t you.
The unfinished teddy bear took out two Yoplaits and held them out.
There were only two Yoplaits he had stocked in his bag.
This was everything Geuru could give.
But Kim Inhan, who understood it differently, had his face distort beyond measure.
Was this supposed to mean, “Eat this and get lost”?
In the end, rage surged all the way up to his throat. It seemed the guild members felt the same, as hollow laughter and the sounds of footsteps stepping forward rang out.
“I’ve been letting this slide, but enough is enough!”
Kim Inhan, also unable to overcome his fury, was about to strike the small doll’s shoulder.
Then, all of a sudden, stars glittered in the white hamster’s pupils.
At the same time, Kim Inhan was crushed in place by a tremendous force, his hand awkwardly raised.
Cold sweat poured down without pause. The guild members were likewise frozen solid.
Rumble, crash—the sound of their increasingly ragged breathing filled the surroundings beyond the thunder.
Waves of electricity crackled on either side.
But as if none of that had any effect on it, the teddy bear, eyebrows drooping at both ends, twitched them and came padding forward.
Rumble! Boom! Thud!
Straight through the path of falling lightning. Without the slightest sign of dodging.
Then, with a bolt of lightning striking down directly behind it, Jjapso said,
- This is all I can give.
Kim Inhan swallowed with difficulty.
He had looked up this and that about Jjapso out of curiosity, but he had never heard anything like this.
Was this Jjapso’s true power?
‘An A-rank Hunter like me, Kim Inhan…… is being overwhelmed by the aura of a mere crafting type?’
Someone with this kind of power was a crafting type? If such a thing existed, wasn’t that no different from a monster on On Jurim’s level?
- Why are you not taking it?
That innocent question was a piercing mockery of Blue Lagoon, who could not even shake off the pressure of a crafting type.
Even though they were being openly insulted right before their eyes as worthless small fry, their mouths would not open.
It was an overwhelming difference in class, to the point that they had lost even their will to fight.
Then it happened. Whoosh—the power that had wrapped around them withdrew.
Kim Inhan’s legs trembled, and he dropped to his knees.
Then the unfinished teddy bear padded up and held the two Yoplaits out before his eyes.
With a dazed expression, Kim Inhan accepted the two Yoplaits.
“……”
He had lost.
Without even getting to raise his weapon once, in the ugliest way possible.
Kim Inhan drew in a deep breath and stood up.
His shoulders were trembling faintly.
“……Let’s go.”
At Kim Inhan’s words, the guild members followed behind him without a word.
Geuru watched Blue Lagoon’s backs as they trudged away with their shoulders drooping, then turned around again.
‘They’re good people.’
Geuru smiled in satisfaction.
It was unfortunate that, because he had given away both Yoplaits, Geuru would not be able to eat any in the dungeon.
‘They said they’d post it on the internet.’
He had already been making quite an effort lately to manage Hyeonak’s image.
And now they were even going to post on the internet that Geuru had helped them. As the price of publicity, two Yoplaits were not a waste.
Geuru hummed a children’s song as he slipped through the baths where steam bubbled up.
The child soon opened the door with “Boss Bath” written on it in large letters.