“Our Saseong has the industry’s best healer welfare. The annual salary is whatever you want—no, we’ve prepared a blank check. If you wish, we can even build a healing center exclusively for you in Gangnam. How about it?”
It was an offer difficult to refuse, no different from a devil’s temptation. But before an answer could return, an eerie crushing sound echoed through the lobby.
Crack—!
Even though Choi Jaeheon hadn’t moved a finger, the business card made of the highest quality material that Lee Seowoo had offered was crushed by an invisible force.
Like a giant hand squeezing a piece of paper, the business card instantly became an unrecognizable lump of trash and dropped to the floor with a thud.
Telekinesis.
It was Choi Jaeheon’s unique ability to control and destroy objects without physical contact.
“Get lost.”
It was a short, blunt statement. The surrounding air became heavy.
But before Lee Seowoo could retreat, the elevator doors in the lobby opened and a suited crowd came pouring out.
“I’m Guild Master Jeong Yeonhwa of Haetae Guild’s representative! Just a moment! Please move aside!”
Men with burly builds pushed in like bulls.
“You know our guild master’s personality! If I can’t bring back the S-rank healer, I’ll be on the memorial altar today! Please at least let me see their face!”
“Guild Master Park Seori of Peace Guild has personally ordered us to bring them! Healer-nim, our guild is very peaceful as the name suggests! We’re different from those barbaric places that only brawl!”
“Baekho Guild is here too! We’re absolutely doing cash upfront! 10 billion won signing bonus! No, 20 billion!”
Scouts from Korea’s top guilds swarmed in like a zombie horde. The Management Bureau lobby became pandemonium in an instant.
The birth of an S-rank healer. It wasn’t simply talent acquisition but a matter of life and death for the guilds. Until now, the reason some S-rank dungeon conquests had been sluggish was one thing only—insufficient healers. But what if there was an S-rank healer? The landscape of Korea’s awakener industry would be overturned. That value couldn’t be converted into money.
Mixed into that chaotic gap were employees of Phoenix Guild wearing red jumpers. They had been running energetically but slammed on the brakes when they spotted their own guild master, Hong Seoyoon, standing beside Ian with his arms crossed.
“Huh? Guild Master?”
Hong Seoyoon leisurely grinned and waved his hand dismissively.
It was a silent signal saying ‘You guys get lost.’ The quick-witted Phoenix employees immediately bowed in greeting and then slowly backed away, disappearing into the crowd. The guild master being here meant he already had a connection with the S-rank healer. There was no need to waste energy.
But the other guilds were different. They didn’t care about Choi Jaeheon’s murderous intent and desperately struggled to shove at least one business card to Ian.
“Don’t approach! He’s my younger brother.”
“Your younger brother is my younger brother!”
Some scout suddenly bowed deeply and called Choi Jaeheon hyung-nim.
“If you come to our guild, we’ll give you the vice guild master position!”
“We’ll provide helicopter support! We’ll have you commute by helicopter!”
Some guilds made rather excessive offers. As shouts flew back and forth, the situation gradually escalated to the breaking point. Then, Ian, who had been quietly in the commotion, opened his mouth.
“Excuse me.”
Though not a loud voice, it strangely had the power to overwhelm the crowd. Silence instantly flowed through the lobby. Dozens of greedy gazes pinned on Ian all at once.
“I’m going with hyung.”
It was a small but firm declaration.
“What?”
“I’m going to hyung’s guild. Stigma.”
Ian firmly grasped Choi Jaeheon’s arm. A blank check? A building? A helicopter? All useless. Rather than being politicked and reading the room among strangers, it was a hundred times better to get nagged under his hyung who was family, even if somewhat overprotective. Of course, thinking about what happened recently, one could question whether this was truly family. Still, he believed the affection from being raised wouldn’t disappear.
Besides, with Vermouth smiling back there, if he went to another guild, that guild might be physically destroyed.
“You heard, right?”
Choi Jaeheon’s lips rose refreshingly as if they’d reach his ears. He brazenly wrapped his arm around Ian’s shoulder and declared in a languid voice.
“My younger brother will belong to Stigma. So everyone step back.”
It was an expression overflowing with the victor’s leisure. Choi Jaeheon’s eyes flashed as he released his telekinesis.
Wooong—
The air vibrated. The bodies of the scouts blocking the way split cleanly to both sides like Moses’s miracle, as if pushed by an invisible wall.
“Urk, uwaaah!”
“D-don’t push!”
The scouts could only step aside with screams and laments. When an S-rank hunter—moreover, the strongest telekinetic—was determined to open a path, there was no way to resist.
Choi Jaeheon leisurely exited the Management Bureau’s main entrance like a triumphant general, bringing Ian with him.
A few days later.
In front of a C-rank gate on the outskirts of Seoul managed by Stigma Guild. The expressions of Stigma’s Elite Team 2 members who got out of the black van were as dark as cattle being led to a slaughterhouse.
“Hup.”
Team Leader Park Minseok, who served as the tanker, was suffocating. He kept readjusting his shield with trembling hands. A C-rank dungeon—normally a place he’d go through yawning. But today it felt scarier than an S-rank dungeon. The reason was the VIP observers standing behind him.
Guild Master Choi Jaeheon watching with hawk eyes while crossing his arms.
And beside him, the recently appeared S-rank monster Vermouth wearing a cool smile. Between them stood today’s main character and Korea’s first S-rank healer, Choi Ian.
“Today’s mission is simple.”
Choi Jaeheon opened his mouth. His low, heavy voice struck the team members’ eardrums.
“A new healer has joined our guild. Therefore, this is for gate adaptation observation. You will handle all the combat. I hope the healer won’t need to step in today.”
Choi Jaeheon’s eyes gleamed coldly. Small stones around them floated up in response to his telekinesis and then fell.
‘They said the guild master dotes on his younger brother that much.’
Park Minseok suppressed his desire to sigh again. Perhaps if it had been Team 1, who usually went around with Choi Jaeheon frequently, things might have been better. But Team 2 was a team that ran relatively lower dungeons than that. On top of that, being surrounded by S-ranks made them tense.
“We won’t make mistakes!”
“I look forward to it.”
“Yes!”
Everyone’s voices were brimming with discipline.
An S-rank healer. That was a walking national treasure and a precious person who would maintain their lifelines. They absolutely couldn’t let anything happen to the precious healer through a mistake. So they tried to shake off their tension and prepared to enter the gate. Ian bowed politely to them.
“Hello. Please take care of me.”
“N-no! We ask for your care! Please speak comfortably! No, you can speak down to us!”
Park Minseok bent his waist at 90 degrees. Ian found that excessive courtesy burdensome but awkwardly smiled it off.
Gate entry begins.
Passing through the entrance into the interior, along with the humid smell of mold, an unknown beast’s cry could be heard from far away.
Grrrrr.
That day, Stigma’s Elite Team 2 fought desperately. Monsters crumbled by their hands before appearing in Ian’s eyes.
“Front cleared! Moving to next area!”
“Flank cleared! Did not allow approach!”
Monsters were dealt with in an instant. Befitting Stigma’s elite, their skills were solid. Ian just slowly walked following behind them, looking around.
‘Hyung seems to worry a lot, but.’
Ian swallowed a hollow laugh inside.
The musty smell and damp ground, the grotesque monsters’ screams. Certainly an atmosphere somewhat burdensome for ordinary people, but not enough to compare to Lancia. Thinking about what the demon race did there, this place felt like a well-managed theme park.
There was no magi pricking the skin, no bloodlust making the spine run cold. The monsters’ movements were sluggish, and their patterns simple.
‘It’s definitely different.’
Ian felt relieved. At this level, he could adapt without difficulty. There didn’t seem to be any need to step forward and do anything.
The gate experience ended anticlimactically like that. Looking at Ian’s clothing without a speck of dust, Choi Jaeheon nodded with satisfaction.
“Good. How was the atmosphere?”
“Mm.”
Ian whispered quietly while watching the others celebrating the perfect gate clear.
“It was manageable.”
“I see.”
Choi Jaeheon stroked Ian’s head with an inscrutable expression. Normally when entering a gate for the first time, this kind of reaction couldn’t emerge. What kind of hell had Lancia really been? Why couldn’t he protect Ian in that hell?
“Then let’s go for the real verification now.”
After blaming himself for a while, he belatedly changed the subject.
“Real verification?”
When Ian asked curiously, Choi Jaeheon smirked.
“What does a healer do? Healing. Not fighting in dungeons.”
Hearing it, that was right.
