Guild (03)
After waiting several days, they finally received word that guild approval had come through.
Following his father’s opinion, Jaehee decided to set the day they received the guild permit as the guild’s founding day. They had planned to gather and have a party on the founding day, and when Section Chief Lim Yongtae heard this, he personally came to the party carrying the permit.
“Mandatory dungeon conquests vary according to the guild’s size and dungeon occurrence frequency. Instant dungeons disappear once conquered, but regular dungeons remain, don’t they? Re-entering conquered regular dungeons is given as an opportunity once per month, limited to guilds that have completed their mandatory dungeon conquests. If you conquer dungeons beyond your allocated quota, the number of regular dungeon re-entries increases accordingly.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“For additional dungeon entries, you’ll need to purchase entry tickets. New dungeons are put up for special auction. Since dungeon byproducts are traded at quite high prices, the bidding competition is actually considerable.”
Section Chief Lim Yongtae continued to convey several other matters regarding guilds and dungeons. Most of it was content they already knew. Lim Yongtae glanced around. The office was still shabby, but it wasn’t bad for something found in such a short time. Since Shin Jaehee’s father was a director at Keio Group and Keio Group had stepped forward to directly sponsor the guild, it was a much better start than expected.
Moreover, Shin Jaehee and Woo Jeongwoo had topical value. They were the last Awakened Ones to emerge from the tutorial and the first to conquer an upgraded training dungeon and the first S-rank dungeon.
The internet was already noisy with interest about Shin Jaehee and Woo Jeongwoo. Recently, the public was showing celebrity-like interest in Awakened Ones. Some people didn’t like it, but Lim Yongtae was one of those who viewed these things positively.
Societal collapse doesn’t only happen due to external factors. What Lim Yongtae considered more threatening than dungeons or monsters were internal societal factors.
There were several countries that had become anarchic after dungeons appeared. While the threat of dungeons and monsters was the trigger, the decisive factor was internal collapse. People who lost trust in their government hoarded goods and hired private mercenaries. The first thing to collapse was the economic system, and it didn’t take much time for the government to lose control. Some Awakened Ones in such places lived like ancient kings, using people as slaves.
Lim Yongtae believed that interest in Awakened Ones was necessary to prevent such situations. Public interest controlled the actions of Awakened Ones, and the more the public knew about Awakened Ones’ abilities, the safer they believed themselves to be.
In that sense, these two people, Shin Jaehee and Woo Jeongwoo, were the most ideal Awakened Ones Lim Yongtae could think of. His direct assistance and guidance in establishing a single guild was also for future matters.
“It won’t be easy for a new guild to establish itself among already established guilds. However, both personally and from the Management Bureau’s perspective, we have very high expectations for Jaehee-ssi, no, Guild Leader Shin Jaehee and Vice Guild Leader Woo Jeongwoo. On behalf of the government and citizens, I thank all the Awakened Ones and everyone in the guild.”
Contrary to his words, Lim Yongtae privately thought it wouldn’t take very long for Eternal Guild to establish itself.
Shin Jaehee’s father, Shin Hyeongho, was someone who had started from the bottom and risen to a director position at Keio Group – not someone to be underestimated. Without knowing for sure, he was probably already working on bringing in internal funds from Keio Group.
Still, if there were any obstacles, Lim Yongtae was even thinking of handling them directly.
Now was the time for people to have hope watching these young heroes. There was a need to train the masses with appropriate hope.
“Thank you, Section Chief. If you hadn’t been there, let alone establishing a guild, we’d still be filling out paperwork continuously even now.”
“The Management Bureau plans to hold a general meeting about dungeons soon. We’re planning to hold a dungeon auction then too, so please make sure to attend. And congratulations on establishing the guild. Please take good care of us in the future, Guild Leader.”
Jaehee clasped the hand Lim Yongtae extended and showed an awkward smile. Around them, camera shutter sounds went “click click.” Being called Guild Leader by a Management Bureau Section Chief while shaking hands made Jaehee really feel that he had created a guild. It was completely different from when family or Jeongwoo jokingly called him Guild Leader. He felt a sense of responsibility for the few guild members they had, and also felt somewhat proud.
“Please take care of us too.”
When Jaehee greeted them, people clapped and shouted out words. To celebrate the guild’s establishment, quite a lot of people were in the office.
“Guild Leader, please take care of us.”
“Please give us a founding speech!”
Strangely, receiving people’s attention wasn’t as uncomfortable as before. In the past, just thinking that people were looking at him made his heart pound. When someone whispered, thinking they were criticizing him, there was a time he didn’t leave the house for a while. But now, even receiving all these people’s attention, he only felt a little unfamiliar and embarrassed.
Jaehee grabbed the microphone and looked around the room. Dozens of eyes were all focused on him.
“Thank you for joining us at Eternal Guild’s founding ceremony. When I first thought about establishing a guild that ordinary people could also join, it was just a daunting and vague task, but thanks to everyone here’s great interest and help, we’ve reached this point. Eternal Guild’s beginning was simple. It was just the thought that we should protect many people from danger and help them regain stable lives. Since this is our first time doing this, we might encounter various trial and error in the future. However, we will become an Eternal Guild that doesn’t forget and maintains the heart we had when we started.”
“Wow! Guild Leader, you’re so cool!”
“Beep! The best! Be eternal! Eternal Guild!”
Among the applause, someone’s playful shouts and laughter rang out.
In the office, roughly fifty or so people had come. Here and there, noisy chatter, camera shutter sounds, and whistling could be heard.
Jaehee lightly nodded to his stepmother who was neatly dressed next to his father. In his stepmother’s arms was Yeong-i, and looking closely, Yeong-i was holding Kyaeng-kyaeng, Mirang. Now Kyaeng-kyaeng seemed to have become almost like Yeong-i’s comfort toy. Seeing the small fox wagging her tail in dissatisfaction, Jaehee smiled slightly.
Eternal Guild had received an enormous number of membership applications even before starting.
He thought that while they might receive interest for accepting ordinary people, there wouldn’t be many people actually joining, but it was unexpected.
Most of those who submitted membership applications were ordinary people, but there were occasionally Awakened Ones too. Among those Awakened Ones, Jaehee selected and decided to accept about ten people.
The first to express their intention to join together were Park Yongpil and Kim Jisu, who had conquered Daejeon Station dungeon together. Since the combat sense of these two attack-type people wasn’t bad and their coordination when conquering together was decent, he readily accepted them. Besides that, there were several more people recommended by Section Chief Lim Yongtae. These were non-combat supporter types – one former pharmacist who could manufacture potions and one administrative staff member who had worked at the Management Bureau.
While the number of ordinary applicants was enormous, those accepted first were those recommended by Jaehee’s father. Most of these were professionals like accountants and lawyers who would help with administrative work within the guild.
He had worried that hiring such people might be a financial burden, but his father told him not to worry about money. He felt scared that the scale was growing bigger than he had thought, but it was reassuring nonetheless.
Although it was a new guild, they didn’t accept all Awakened Ones who applied for membership. Several were still pending membership, and one of them was Kang Mingyu.
Just thinking of Kang Mingyu made him sigh first. Recalling how Kang Mingyu had acted so arrogantly and shown off in the training dungeon, it would be right to reject him immediately, but somehow it wasn’t easy to do so.
Maybe it was because he had seen Yang Jeongil, who used to follow Kang Mingyu around, at the Doomsday Cult with Ju Serin. His feelings were complicated in various ways, so he was keeping Kang Mingyu’s membership pending.
“Everyone, look here! Cheese! Ah! Guild Leader! Guild Leader! People are asking about your impressions of the guild founding.”
“Yes?”
A short woman who had been taking pictures of people came running over. The woman had sky-blue dyed hair tied on both sides and wore tight-fitting clothes that showed her figure, with pink heart makeup visible under her eyes. She looked like an anime character.
“Ah… Yumi-ssi.”
“Guild Leader! Look here! Please greet the people!”
“Yes?”
Jaehee barely remembered Yang Yumi from her resume. She was a former Management Bureau employee recommended by Section Chief Lim Yongtae. They said she was a supporter with excellent administrative abilities. Additionally, he remembered she was just over thirty years old.
But such an appearance and way of speaking. Moreover, it even suited her well.
“Everyone. Our Guild Leader isn’t used to this kind of thing. But don’t worry! I’m here! I’ll work hard as a supporter to help the Guild Leader get used to it!”
Yang Yumi made fists with both hands and put them to her cheeks. Jaehee stepped back one step seeing this.
Looking at the screen floating next to Yang Yumi, he could see his own face and chat messages scrolling up beside it.
aatt: Kyaaang Guild Leader is so cool! Crush! Crush! Crush the Earth!
arirang33: Hello! I am Lee Giyong who applied for membership to Eternal Guild. I was born the second of two sons and one daughter in Hwasun, South Jeolla…
8712: Are you really dating the Hongdae Demon King? Are you two dating?
525201: What do you usually do and play with the Hongdae Demon King? Are you two married? Since it’s not allowed in Korea, did you go abroad and do it?
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.
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“Yumi-ssi. What is this?”
“Oh? You didn’t know?”
Cold sweat ran down his back. Yumi opened her eyes wide and looked at Jaehee, then seeing that Jaehee really didn’t know, she scratched her head and turned off the screen. Seeing the screen that had been in the air disappear instantly, it seemed to be Yumi’s specialty.
“It was in my resume so I thought you knew… I’m sorry. I’m a former army public information officer, and I was in charge of the same work at the Management Bureau. I’m a supporter, but my abilities are all related to this field, so when you hired me, I naturally thought I’d be doing the same work here. The screen just now is my special ability. I can record and edit videos in my head and broadcast them live on the internet. That’s why I’ve been broadcasting today’s founding ceremony live on the internet.”
Yang Yumi’s resume definitely said she was married with two children… That’s why he remembered she came on the condition that they accept her entire family…
Jaehee unconsciously looked for Lim Yongtae, but Lim Yongtae was nowhere to be seen, having apparently already left.
When Jaehee stared blankly at Yang Yumi, Yang Yumi put her fisted hands to her cheeks and winked while rubbing them.
Then a system window appeared.
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject?]
Jaehee irritably pushed away the system window, but soon another system window appeared.
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject?]
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject?]
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject?]
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject?]
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject?]
The system windows popped up consecutively like spam windows. Until now, when he had rejected them, they had never appeared like this. Then once more a window appeared.
[Kang Mingyu has chosen you as king. Will you accept Kang Mingyu as your subject… Save me… Please!]
