Aggro Hunter 72

Dohae disliked Yoon Gyeom. He especially found it irritating how he wore cheap-looking clothes that didn’t even seem worth ten thousand won and laughed heartily with that good-natured face. His appearance used to be pretty decent, so where did he blow all the money he earned to be going around looking like that? Not even knowing it’s embarrassing…….

“Would you like to get in?”

Yoon Gyeom asked, pointing at the old van. Without answering, Dohae quickly climbed into the passenger seat of the van.

“Take it.”

Dohae tossed the black plastic bag onto Yoon Gyeom’s lap. It was quite heavy. When he looked inside the bag, the gold necklace was placed on top of a wad of cash. The money was originally his anyway, but even at a glance, the necklace was an item worth tens of millions of won. Yoon Gyeom shook his head as if troubled.

“This is too much of a burden.”

“Throw it away if you don’t want it.”

“I think it would be better to return it to the owner……”

“Ha, you fucking idiot. Being a pushover to that extent is a disease.”

“……But why do you keep speaking informally? You seem younger than me.”

“If it pisses you off, you too, fuck, call this a car too!”

Dohae stopped mid-sentence and irritably pushed his seat back. The small van was too cramped for the tall Dohae to ride in.

Yoon Gyeom looked at the fuming Dohae and laughed awkwardly. He couldn’t tell at all whether he was a good person or a bad person.

‘Haha… there’s no way a person like this could be Dohae.’

He felt a bit embarrassed recalling the misconception he’d had before. The overall silhouette was similar to Do Dohae. But there wasn’t a single overlapping aspect in their constellations, personalities, or the atmosphere they gave off.

“Then I’ll drop the formalities too. What brings you all the way here?”

“Make a spot for Noh Pyeonghwa to enter Luckies.”

“What?”

“As a starter who plays in every match.”

Yoon Gyeom blinked at the unexpected proposal. The day he took Pyeonghwa away, Yoon Gyeom had been so worried that something might have happened that he couldn’t even sleep properly. Fortunately, the next day Pyeonghwa replied to his texts as usual. He looked fine on broadcasts too. Yoon Gyeom felt deeply relieved.

Although he didn’t know how the two became acquainted, that day’s events were so striking that he thought they couldn’t be very close. But now he was suddenly telling him to make a spot for Pyeonghwa to enter Luckies…….

“What does Pyeonghwa himself think?”

“I’ll take care of that.”

“I’ve tried everything for two months to recruit Pyeonghwa to our team. Even when I offered every tempting condition possible, he said no.”

“Guess they weren’t very tempting.”

“Do you have a method?”

“…….”

Dohae kept his mouth firmly shut. He had a method that would absolutely not fail, but it was too embarrassing to tell Yoon Gyeom directly.

“……Also clear a coach position. Because I’m going to take it.”

Dohae also planned to adjust his schedule and enter the training camp with coach credentials. Just making Pyeonghwa participate in the tournament wasn’t enough to feel at ease. He had to watch Pyeonghwa’s growth from the side and coach him directly. To do that, he’d have to swallow his pride and play virtual reality games…… but it was unavoidable if he wanted to escape the curse of the ring.

Dohae thought there was no way Noh Pyeonghwa, who expressed his affection like crazy and clung to him at every opportunity, would refuse this proposal.

He had already obtained a written pledge from Byun Taehui not to report to his superiors about staying somewhere other than home. Byun Taehui tried to offer unsolicited help, saying he’d use his illusion skill to block other monitors’ gazes and to have a good time.

Dohae found it unpleasant how Byun Taehui seemed strangely excited whenever he mentioned Pyeonghwa. He had a record of sexually harassing Noh Pyeonghwa recently by scamming him while pretending to be ‘DdoHaeNuna’. It seemed he still hadn’t given up on Pyeonghwa even after getting thoroughly beaten up. Dohae thought if Byun Taehui’s recent moves hadn’t been against Do Jeongwang’s wishes, he would never have shared such an intimate plan with him.

For the past few days, Dohae had been accepting Pyeonghwa’s ridiculous claim that “your stats increase when you play games” and pondering growth methods accordingly.

If you could become strong just by playing games, there’s no way Pyeonghwa, who had lived as a gaming addict for a couple months, would be this weak. There must be other conditions for stats to increase. Even when he asked Pyeonghwa, all he got back was that he didn’t really know, so Dohae had to figure it out himself.

Dohae watched Pyeonghwa’s past broadcasts whenever he had time during his schedule. As he climbed from Diamond rank to Master rank, the frequency of meeting strong opponents increased, but there were still more days when he came up empty. Even in Master rank, which was full of professional gamers, there weren’t that many opponents for Pyeonghwa.

When Pyeonghwa was matched with strong players, his voice would rise a tone as if adrenaline was gushing out. It was annoying how he was even more bratty than usual, but he showed himself taking the match fairly seriously.

On the other hand, when he met weak opponents, he would receive missions from viewers and do bizarre things. Killing all his teammates and still winning, getting three kills while dancing and singing, not moving from one spot until 15 minutes before the match ended, surviving with no items and bare-handed, committing suicide right at the start to give his teammates big poop, doing villainous acts like surrendering at a crucial moment to drop his teammates’ ranks…….

Dohae concluded that Pyeonghwa’s stats didn’t increase much because he was doing attention-seeking acts. It’s the same in reality. If you train halfheartedly, your stats won’t increase. Only those who break their limits again and again can become strong.

Pyeonghwa had all the right conditions for rapid growth—brains, physical ability, and even a bellicose disposition. The guy who whined that monsters were scary in reality had no fear in the virtual reality world. Then what Pyeonghwa needed was even stronger opponents than now.

Dohae searched for <Last On>’s pro league. The most famous tournament was the Last On Championship Korea (LOCK). This tournament, nicknamed the Summer League, could only be entered by first-division teams. As Dohae skimmed through the first-division list, he discovered a familiar name.

[Luckies (LUCKIES): Last year’s second-division Masters Cup champions. Moved up to first division this year. Due to bribery scandal, coach and players all left, currently only 1-2 original Luckies players remain. Yoon Gyeom came in as coach and selected new players, but lost 2-0 in practice matches. They’ve become a laughingstock for cursing and fighting among themselves during matches. Even fans call them Monkies and are betting on 0 wins and elimination in preliminaries.]

He recalled that Yoon Gyeom had said he wanted to make Pyeonghwa a professional gamer. There was no time to spare. Because there wasn’t much time left until the player registration date. That was why Dohae had come looking for Yoon Gyeom.

“Coach? I can’t bring someone with unclear identity like you into the team. We don’t have the budget to hire a coach anyway.”

“I won’t take that pittance.”

“You know a new coach’s starting salary begins at 150 million won, right?”

“I said I won’t take the pittance.”

Yoon Gyeom looked down at the bag containing the gold necklace. He could tell the man had enough money to consider a gold necklace like this or 150 million won as a pittance. But he had a duty to protect his players.

“More important than money is identity. You have no intention of revealing it, right? Neither your face nor your name.”

Dohae clicked his tongue in displeasure at Yoon Gyeom’s firm rejection. Tsk, when an awakener as strong as himself was saying he wouldn’t even take money, instead of eagerly welcoming him…… He’d never played the game even once, but Dohae was confident there was absolutely no way he’d be bad at games.

It seemed difficult to break Yoon Gyeom’s stubbornness alone. Dohae picked up his phone and called someone.

“Come to the van. Fuck, identity is important. You come and solve it.”

Dohae unilaterally notified the other party and hung up. Yoon Gyeom glanced at the saved name that read ‘Pervert Bastard’. Pervert bastard? He didn’t know who he’d called, but based on his behavior pattern so far, there was a possibility he’d threaten him if things didn’t go his way. In that situation, 2 against 1 would be troublesome.

Yoon Gyeom scanned the escape route outside the car window. In the side mirror, he could see the owner’s son struggling to pull two carts loaded with ingredients. Yoon Gyeom thought this was his chance and got out of the driver’s seat.

Seeing that Yoon Gyeom was alone, the owner’s son’s complexion brightened. The owner’s son had just heard from his father that his gold necklace had been taken. Since Yoon Gyeom was known for being kind, he held hope that if he appealed with tears, wouldn’t he return the gold necklace?

Yoon Gyeom strode over and took one of the carts. The owner’s son stuck right next to him, pulling the cart while squeezing out tears.

“Coach Yoon, I’m truly sorry for everything. Sob, I’m not normally that kind of person, but it was like I was possessed by a ghost……”

“Please don’t do it again.”

“Sob, of course. I’ve reflected deeply! But, that…… the necklace your companion took is a keepsake from my late mother. It’s a precious item, so please return it……”

“When did my companion take a necklace?”

“What? When I went to withdraw cash, I heard your companion took my dad’s necklace.”

“Cash?”

“…….”

“You must have been dreaming. We just talked briefly in the owner’s office. Because you said you were my fan.”

“Th…… at’s right.”

Although his tone was still gentle, Yoon Gyeom without a smile had a completely different atmosphere than usual. Damn, I picked the wrong target! The owner’s son gritted his teeth and began carrying the ingredients to the trunk.