Chapter 30. Confrontation with the Enemy
In South Korea, just as there are the top five guilds, there are also the three giant corporations. Considering that three of the top five guilds are under their control, it’s clear that their power is beyond imagination.
Seo Mina’s family, the Seohwa Group, is the most powerful among them, known for its immense strength, and owns the Seohwa Guild, ranked second.
Although it is the weakest among the three corporations, the Seongun Group still possesses enormous capital and is the true owner of the Seongun Guild, ranked fifth.
Changseong Group, owning the Changseong Guild, ranked third, is undoubtedly a major corporation.
And now, standing before me with a disgustingly friendly smile is the despicable old man, one of the enemies responsible for my parents’ downfall and the chairman of Changseong Group.
Among these three giant corporations, alongside Seongun, he is one of the trash who played a role in my parents’ death. Even while my parents were alive, he exploited their weaknesses, blackmailed them, and, out of envy for their talents, used his guild to thoroughly suppress and torment them. A selfish, vile human being.
The words he once spoke to my parents remain vividly engraved in my mind.
“Heh heh heh, when an old man like me shows up, you should greet him properly. Didn’t your parents teach you any manners? Even if you grew up without them, you should at least know basic decency!”
Right from the moment we met, he threw insulting words at me, just as vile as I remembered. Seeing Lee Seoyong’s smirking face, I couldn’t help but scowl even more.
“Heh heh heh. Tell me, Shin Juha. Do you still believe that what happened to your parents is my fault or theirs? You’re wrong. They chose death themselves and were exiled to the Abyss. They abandoned their children and fled from reality! So, forget everything and…”
“…Is that all you have to say? I’ll take my leave now since I find talking to you repulsive.”
Not wanting to exchange any more words, I cut off Chairman Lee Seoyong’s words and slightly bowed my head, preparing to leave.
“This little brat! How dare you walk away when the chairman is speaking!”
A man, presumably one of his bodyguards, roughly grabbed me to stop me. He wore a neat suit and polished shoes, looking more like an associate than a mere bodyguard. I let out a deep sigh as he glared at me.
“Is this why you waited for me? To see how strong I’ve become? Are you scared? Afraid that I’ve grown powerful enough to rip out your throats?”
“Heh heh heh. What nonsense. Are you suggesting that I, Lee Seoyong, would personally wait for a brat like Shin Juha? Just to test your strength? I wish I could keep my grandson in check, but you see, he has a fiery temper and hates being looked down upon. He especially loses his temper when he feels our group is being disrespected.”
Lee Seoyong sneered at me, his eyes sharp like a snake’s, flashing a wicked smile.
“Jiyong, you’re a C-rank hunter. Go easy on him. My apologies, Shin Juha, I lack the strength to rein in my nephew. As you can see, I’m just a feeble old man.”
Feeble, my foot. A chairman of a major corporation who owns a guild wouldn’t go without an Awakening. He’s probably been secretly building up his strength, drinking elixirs like water.
As Lee Seoyong pretended to be harmless, I sighed, feeling the painful grip on my shoulder tighten.
‘Damn it.’
The opponent was a C-rank hunter. Considering I had barely defeated an E-rank hunter… this was an opponent I could not hope to beat. A difference in ranks meant a gap in power of an entirely different scale.
Even if I had used my two Mythical stats to overcome an E-rank opponent, that opponent, the company president, was just a “stat inflated” example, who had boosted his stats through elixirs and money without actual combat skills. He wasn’t a true E-rank hunter.
But this time, my opponent was a genuine warrior—a direct descendant of the Changseong family, backed by their full support, and on the elite path of being a prodigy, rising star, and ranked hunter.
“Understood, Grandfather. Hey, brat. Just three hits. If you can block three hits, I’ll consider forgiving your rudeness towards my grandfather.”
“Threatening an [F-] rank and pretending to be gentlemanly.”
“Block them. If you can’t, don’t expect to walk out of here in one piece today.”
I could consider it bad luck, but this situation felt more like the work of that wretched Misfortune acting up again.
〚Misfortune, weakened and weary, curses you!〛
But just as there is a silver lining in a storm…
〚Heavenly Fortune, fully restored, awakens from its slumber and stretches!〛
At that very moment, Heavenly Fortune awakened and blessed me, and as I saw the blue flame blooming from Lee Jiyong’s right fist, I realized I had to change my approach.
‘So, he can control fire, huh.’
With that, I have no reason to lose. Thanks to my Mythical Stat, the power of the Sun, I possess absolute immunity against all fire-related damage.
In other words, even if I take his punches, I won’t suffer any burns, and I just need to redirect the force of his attacks somehow.
In other words, I now have some leeway.
‘Then, I’ll turn the tables on them.’
If this had been before, I would have desperately struggled just to survive, allowing myself to be dragged along with whatever flow Chairman Lee Seoyong wanted. But now, I can make this situation go in the direction I want.
“Here comes the first strike. Let’s see you block it!”
As he finished speaking, a burst of air accompanied the rapid approach of his punch aimed directly at me. Given the disparity between us, using the predictive capabilities of my Mugeuk stat was out of the question.
However, his attack was so straightforward, aimed directly at my chest, that I reacted instinctively.
‘Blocking this is impossible!’
The difference in power made it impossible to block. After all, you can’t stop a cannonball with a bulletproof vest, can you?
‘Then, I’ll deflect it.’
I skillfully twisted his incoming punch to the right, changing its trajectory.
Thud!
“Urgh! Th-this… ugh!”
It wasn’t a complete failure—more like a partial success. I managed to change the trajectory, diverting his attack from my chest, where it could have been fatal, to my side.
But I couldn’t completely deflect it. My Mugeuk stat wasn’t yet refined enough to perfectly execute the deflection technique.
Feigning exaggerated pain, I collapsed to the floor, raising my hand in a gesture for mercy for everyone to see.
“Even if you give up now, it’s too late! You must pay the price for your rudeness toward my grandfather! Stand up!”
“Ugh!”
“And you didn’t even take a direct hit! I aimed for your chest, but you staggered, and it hit your side instead. But my flames are potent—without proper treatment, low-grade healing won’t fix it.”
Sorry, but I haven’t suffered any burns. In fact, when his flames touched me, I felt alert and invigorated. It was as if the power of the fire was flowing into me.
Pretending to be in pain, I staggered to my feet, standing before him like a punching bag.
“Ugh.”
“It should have ended with one hit, but lucky for you—or maybe not—it’s time for round two. This time, there won’t be any cheap tricks!”
Perhaps due to the blessing of Heavenly Fortune, Lee Jiyong seemed to believe that I had merely been lucky in twisting his attack rather than deliberately deflecting it. I suppressed my pain and focused once more.
‘Not yet.’
Bang!
With another burst of air, a cannon shot forward again. This time, it targeted my left chest, right where my heart was.
‘Twist!’
I positioned my right hand to meet the side of his incoming right fist, twisting my body to the left. Using the rotational force and strength, I deflected his attack, redirecting the force away.
Crash!
“Ugh! Aaargh!”
Once again, it was a partial success. I managed to alter the punch’s path, but the cost was a shattered left arm as his fist struck my limb instead.
Still, it was clear that I’d deflected the attack more effectively than the first time.
Though I had minimized the damage, I made sure my performance of agony looked several times more severe than the actual pain.
The murmuring crowd grew louder. Considering that this was the Hunter Association lobby, there must have been many onlookers by now… It was time for the grand finale.
“Oh, so you managed to deflect my fist in that split second? I suppose this is what it means to be the top of your class. But this ends now.”
As flames reignited around Lee Jiyong’s fist, he began to pull back for another strike. I bit down on a buff potion and stood up again, facing him.
Bang!
As the sound of air bursting filled the space and his fist shot toward me, I quickly wiped the pained expression from my face and replaced it with a twisted smile directed at him.
“What the…?”
And just then, I conjured a small bomb made of the Sun’s energy right in front of my chest. The moment his fist closed in on my chest—
Boom!!!
I detonated it. In the thick dust cloud from the explosion, I quickly used the Sun’s energy to create fake burn marks across my body, then threw myself backward as if I had been launched by the impact of the blast.
Crash!
I flew through the air, colliding with a pillar of the Association before crashing to the floor, coughing up a mouthful of blood, my body trembling violently until I stopped and played dead.
My entire body was flushed red, my clothes were shredded and burnt to the point of barely covering the essentials, and blood dripped from my mouth.
I had meticulously staged it to look as severe as possible.
“Wha…?”
In the face of this sudden turn of events, Lee Jiyong looked stunned, glancing between his fist and me. Meanwhile, the bystanders began to raise their phones, and a reporter hidden in the distance started pressing the camera shutter repeatedly.
‘You’re not the only one who can play this game. You thought you could brush this off as a lesson to a young hunter disrespecting his grandfather. But now that I’m on the verge of death and about to be rushed to the hospital…!’
News would soon spread that a C-rank hunter, known as a prodigy, had brutally beaten an [F-] rank hunter in the Hunter Association’s lobby over a minor slight.
I had intentionally held back my powers, refrained from using the Sun’s magic, and acted in a way that would let them assess me as merely a promising talent. I exaggerated my pain with each blow, shattering their justification.
Of course, these people sit at the very top of the power hierarchy. They could easily cover up this incident.
But for my plan to come together perfectly, I needed one last piece of the puzzle.
With my heightened senses from the buff potion, I detected the presence of two individuals rushing up from the basement, having heard the explosion. I relaxed my body completely, groaning from the pain radiating from my side and arm.
‘You said you were sorry to me, right? Then, how about lending me a hand to give them a taste of their own medicine?’
If you do, I might just consider your offer.
With that thought, I closed my eyes, catching a glimpse of Park Seo-ha running towards me in panic and the Association President with a grim expression.
***
“Heh heh heh! Well, I guess a tiger’s cub is still a tiger, isn’t it? Or did you make a mistake, Jiyong?”
“No, sir. The last blow… it didn’t even connect. That was his trick. I never expected him to possess fire-attribute magic.”
“Heh heh heh. What a mess. This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out, but we’ve been thoroughly outplayed. So, what’s your assessment of his abilities?”
Lee Jiyong, feeling the eyes of the onlookers, calmed his excitement-driven energy and spoke.
“His combat power is just that of a promising talent—nothing more, nothing less. He’s on the lower end among promising hunters, I’d say. Maybe he could reach the level of a prodigy, but… becoming a ranked hunter would be difficult, in my opinion.”
“So, he’s clever but lacks the strength for ranking, huh? Well, that’s fine. We’ve gained what we needed today. Now, we just need to clean up the mess.”
The elderly Lee Seoyong clicked his tongue internally as he watched the Association President approach with a furious expression.
‘Damn, I let my guard down around that cunning fox. It would have been better if he’d just submitted to me. I guess I’m getting old. But considering what I’ve learned, this outcome isn’t too bad.’
He had finished assessing the potential of the hero’s son he had once brought to ruin, deciding whether or not the boy could pose a real threat to him in the future.
‘I came here upon hearing that he was meeting with the Association President in secret, but judging by his expression, it seems that plan fell through.’
The Association was filled with eyes loyal to him, and they had brought him information that led to his rushed visit. He had feared the Association President might be using Shin Juha for some scheme.
Of course, he never truly believed those two would join forces. After all, how could someone team up with a man who had stood by and watched his parents die?
Lee Seoyong’s visit was just to eliminate even the smallest possibility. He also wanted to get a sense of Shin Juha’s capabilities.
‘Simply instructing my guild to keep gathering intel on him should be sufficient.’
He judged that Shin Juha wasn’t a serious threat, which coincided with the outcome Shin Juha had aimed for.
“What do you think you’re doing? In my Association! In a place full of people! Beating someone to the brink of death like this! And a [C]-rank hunter attacking an [F-]-rank hunter at that!” the Association President bellowed.
“Heh heh! I’m sorry, Association President. My nephew just couldn’t tolerate being disrespected. Let’s get the boy to a hospital, and we can talk upstairs.”
“…There will need to be appropriate compensation and explanations.”
With that, Shin Juha was hurriedly taken to the hospital, while the Association President and Lee Seoyong departed, bringing the incident to a close.
—
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