Chapter 16
by SbmjamCh.16 The Regression Of Calamity-Level Monster Tamer
An ordinary day with nothing special.
But as the morning articles came out, Korea was turned upside down.
The headlines of the articles contained similar words.
Tamer.
Irregular.
Double Talent.
First Korean.
World Rank 1.
However, all those various articles ended with one proper noun in the end.
‘Kang Si-woo’.
Of course, when the first article was posted, everyone dismissed it as nonsense.
[(Breaking News!) The protagonist of the special Player test shrouded in secrecy revealed to have ascended to World Rank 1. That protagonist’s name is ‘Kang Si-woo’.]
└This bastard is at it again from morning. You should forgive clickbait once or twice, but how many times is this now?
└Plus it’s not even anonymous, they boldly slapped on a civilian’s full name
└Reporter, you won’t get far. We’ll see you in court soon.
Actually, this was the normal reaction.
Because the article’s content was too much like a novel.
Since the Tower and System appeared, Korean Players had never once been mentioned even as candidates for the Three Venerables’ positions, let alone 1st place.
That’s why the public couldn’t believe the current situation even more.
But starting with the first article, as all portals began to be invaded by articles with similar content, the public also gradually began to accept reality.
[(Breaking) Genius Player who defeated Rank 1 Joo Geon-ryul, Kang Si-woo. Also revealed to be possessor of ‘Double Talent’ in first test, shocking everyone.]
[(Exclusive Report!) Confirmed that the non-precursor Rift that occurred on April 3rd had even undergone ‘Gate Evolution’. The Player who cleared that Gate is precisely ‘Kang Si-woo’.]
[(Exclusive Interview!) Testimony of Mr. Kim, combat member of ○○ Guild.
“Kang Si-woo is a ‘Tamer’ but not a ‘Tamer’.”
Testified that he witnessed with his own two eyes the newly awakened Kang Si-woo subduing his team leader barehanded.]
[(Breaking) The Player who blocked the recently occurred Gate Break Rush also revealed to be Kang Si-woo…]
└Fuck there’s a damn lot of articles related to that guy, someone give me a one-line summary.
└The course of His Venerability Kang Si-woo.
- Selects Class ‘Tamer’.
- Experiences Gate Evolution right after awakening. But clears it easily.
- Takes special Player test with Irregular’s rights.
- First test, ‘Double Talent’ confirmed. Plus one of them is S-rank.
- Second test, defeats Rank 1 Joo Geon-ryul and takes 1st place himself.
(Side story) The newly awakened His Venerability also beat down ○○ Guild’s team leader.
└To dismiss this as just nonsense, the series of events is too clear? Anyway, what’s certain is, even if only 50% of this is true, he’s a legendary talent within Korea.
└At least the statements related to number 2 and the side story are definitely facts. I saw some idiot getting exposed as ‘Jotunn’ Guild in real-time
└Ah that’s that person? Got guts to even do an interview
└But where’s the villain from the previous comment who said they’d record and upload the national anthem verses 1 through 4? Hurry and prostrate yourself in the direction where His Venerability is, and record and upload a hymn of praise. I give you 10 minutes.
Various testimonies began appearing one after another in the comments of each article.
As the minimum facts about Kang Si-woo were confirmed like that, the public no longer wondered about deeper truths.
Stories created other stories, speculation transformed into truth, truth transformed into lies. The more that happened, the three characters of Kang Si-woo’s name soared without knowing limits.
└This is reality, right? The world isn’t secretly doing a hidden camera just on me…?
└How can all that be one person’s career?
└Bro, is this right? I’m feeling a bit dizzy…
└Is glory finally coming to our country too! His Venerability!
As expected, people who praised him like blind believers snowballed.
└Damn, His Venerability my ass. Don’t overreact. Player test is about seeing potential, not measuring current ability.
└Right. Kang Si-woo is far from reaching Three Venerables level. Honestly, the comparison itself is an insult to the Three Venerables.
└They always act up like that and then die.
└ No joke, if you die from bad luck while conquering a Gate, that’s just the end.
└Shit, reporters are hyping him up thinking this is their chance. Reporters, tone it down a bit.
As if opposing them, haters who mercilessly disparaged him also increased rapidly.
└A promising talent who’ll raise national prestige was born, but instead of cheering, you’re literally holding rituals for him to die?
└That’s just reality.
└Ah the armchair experts are already swarming again. Seeing that ‘haters’ have already formed, our Kang Si-woo is definitely His Venerability.
└Praise! A hero has finally appeared in Korea too!
Anyway, there was no disagreement that the entire country was plastered with stories about Kang Si-woo.
Everything was exactly as Kang Si-woo had foreseen.
***
A few days before Kang Si-woo’s name rose to the surface like this.
In the shadows, several steps ahead of that, Kang Si-woo’s name had begun being mentioned.
The main players leading this were a pack of scouts recruiting promising talents.
Like drooling hyenas, they were eyeing their prey while waiting for the government lion to back away.
“Hey, Team Leader Lim! What happened?! What did the government say!”
“Ah, there’s no response yet.”
“What!!”
A refined and comfortable office.
In contrast, a barbaric and heavy atmosphere.
The cause of the atmosphere was a middle-aged man with a crew cut.
“Fuck, then what are you doing?”
“…Pardon?!”
His name is Park Jae-gwang.
He’s the scout director of Seonyang, one of Korea’s two major Guilds, a massive conglomerate.
“What are you doing sitting there!”
As Park Jae-gwang threw a document binder at Team Leader Lim, office papers fluttered and scattered everywhere.
“Go out and stuff Korean beef T-bone in a public servant’s mouth! Gift vitamin apples that give energy ‘as much as’ cash bundles! Bring someone with a dirty background and attempt a ‘friendly conversation’!”
“……”
“Fuck, you have to move somehow and find out information! Are we going to sit here with our eyes wide open and lose the rookie to the Dokkaebi bastards again?!”
“N-no! I’ll leave immediately!”
“No… No. Hey, Team Leader Heo.”
“Yes!”
Park Jae-gwang pressed his temple and grimaced, then revised his plan.
“My intuition is tingling right now, you know? So let’s go with two tracks this time. Team Leader Lim, poke around the public servants like I said, and Team Leader Heo, contact that Kang Si-woo guy right now.”
“…Will it be okay? If the government still has access restrictions—”
“Sseup! Do I need to blow up again?!”
“I apologize. I’ll contact him immediately.”
“Right, get out quickly.”
Park Jae-gwang gestured dismissively.
Then his subordinate employees disappeared from the office like an ebbing tide.
He plopped down alone in his chair and stared at the monitor.
“……”
On the monitor screen, a video was playing.
The special Player second test that was conducted recently.
It was footage of Kang Si-woo’s performance.
“Crazy bastard…”
A curse mixed with admiration came out naturally in his combat sense.
Park Jae-gwang had stopped by a detective agency as soon as he returned from observing the test.
And he had a background check done on Kang Si-woo.
‘An animal keeper? A guy who cleans up animal shit and piss fights like this?’
As a result, he was a real ordinary civilian living an ordinary life.
He wasn’t from some special forces, nor a former competitive fighter from when they were popular.
‘What is this? There’s definitely some information gap I don’t know about. Otherwise the front and back don’t match, fuck…’
No matter how many times he replayed the video. Park Jae-gwang couldn’t understand Kang Si-woo at all.
Because he was an existence completely contrary to his usual thesis that ‘there are no geniuses. There are only polished prodigies.’
‘From the small things like how he uses his body, his ghostly sense of distance, to the big things like understanding his own and his opponent’s weapons, establishing victory strategies based on this… he’s doing all this instinctively? Plus he’s a Tamer. Isn’t he really crazy… this guy.’
Moreover, a Tamer who just awakened has two Magic Beasts.
Each of those Magic Beasts is as strong as Seonyang Guild’s field-deployed combat members.
“The more I dig, the more he’s a monster…”
As Park Jae-gwang muttered to himself, he put a cigarillo in his mouth in the empty office.
As he lit the lighter, gray smoke billowed up in clouds.
That appearance seemed to substitute for the speech bubbles in his complicated mind.
‘Where did a guy like that appear as if dropped from the sky?’
‘Is he a secret agent the government painstakingly raised?’
‘Fuck, whatever happened, we absolutely have to bring that guy.’
‘From now on, the situation of Korean Guilds… no, the situation of Players worldwide will be determined by that guy.’
‘So depending on whether we have that guy or not, Seonyang’s future will change.’
While continuing his thoughts, putting the shortened butt into a water bottle, Park Jae-gwang resolved once again.
He would definitely bring that Kang Si-woo guy to his Guild, Seonyang.
***
‘This house’s coffee beans are too acidic.’
Well, I have no business saying this when I’m getting free coffee.
Jjuap― Jjuap―
I stuck the soggy paper straw in my mouth like an IV and transfused iced Americano.
As caffeine circulated through my blood vessels, my brain seemed to wake up.
‘Things are going as expected. Except the tempo is a bit fast…’
News, NTube, Tower Net communities, etc.
Since morning, all kinds of places were plastered with my name.
“Keuhem…”
Plus, the white-collar middle-aged man sitting across from me right now.
‘To think he’d visit already. His sense of smell is really something…’
A Player scout.
They should have come after the articles broke.
But that mister found me as soon as the articles broke.
Meaning he predicted exactly when the government would lift access restrictions.
‘Is he someone who’s a big deal in this field?’
Anyway, I entered a small cafe in a corner of the antique market to talk with that mister.
As expected, a place full only of silence with no people passing by.
“……”
“……”
So it’s even more awkward.
‘Stop just clearing your throat and say something already.’
Even so, I only thought that inwardly and didn’t open my mouth first.
Though it may be trivial, this act is a kind of power game.
‘Listening’ is a right that those with power can enjoy, after all.
“Keuhem.”
As expected, the salaryman mister who was more desperate spoke first.
“Hello, Mr. Kang Si-woo. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Not that much of an honor… So where did you say you were from?”
“I am this kind of person.”
The man who looked like he had lived his whole life ‘well’ passively through studies, employment, and life held out a business card onto the table.
Seonyang Guild Co., Ltd.
Talent Recruitment Department
Team Leader Heo Dam
‘Seonyang? Then this person’s boss must be Park Jae-gwang? There was a reason he was quick-footed.’
The twin chariot Guilds leading Korea, Dokkaebi and Seonyang.
Among them, Seonyang is famous as the Guild all Players want to join, with good treatment and high pay.
Meaning it’s that competitive.
So the mister before me is sufficiently a person who could be called mainstream in this society.
“You’re an elite. What business would such a person have with me to visit?”
“Mr. Kang Si-woo has a cheeky side too. Well, it would be more comfortable for both of us if we speak straightforwardly on our end.”
Having said that, Team Leader Heo Dam moistened his throat with his coffee and continued.
“Other Guilds are probably rushing around trying to find Mr. Kang Si-woo’s whereabouts right now.”
“I suppose so. Since articles just broke this morning.”
“But we’ve already found Mr. Kang Si-woo’s location and are even having a conversation. That much, Seonyang is incomparable to all other Guilds.”
If it’s Seonyang, they have the right to say that.
Of course, except for one place.
“More than Dokkaebi Guild? Actually, I met Dokkaebi Guild shortly before meeting you.”
“……”
Actually, it wasn’t because of scouting but for a special reason that we met.
Whether it was good or bad luck, we even became friends(?).
‘Anyway, meeting is meeting, right?’
At my retort, Team Leader Heo Dam’s eyes slightly rose.
But like a skilled salesman, he quickly returned to a friendly face.
“Dokkaebi Guild… It’s an excellent place, with high prestige too. However, I’m confident that Seonyang’s conditions will be much more attractive to Mr. Kang Si-woo.”
Team Leader Heo Dam took out an envelope from his suit’s inner pocket with a confident expression and held it out.
“We can promise you the best treatment in this industry that a rookie can receive.”
Team Leader Heo Dam gestured for me to check the envelope.
I silently peeked inside the envelope.
Inside were two checks with eight zeros written on them.
‘…200 million.’
As if reading my expression, Heo Dam continued.
“That’s half the signing bonus.”
Then that means a total of 400 million.
There was a basis for him coming out so confidently.
Because rookies often don’t even receive one-tenth of that amount.
‘But I don’t really feel moved…’
If I were myself at this time before Regression, I might have accepted the offer readily.
But the current me is not.
Money? Of course more is better.
But I’m not desperate enough to have to plead.
Because I can earn it with my own hands.
“Is this all?”
“As expected… Pardon? Since this is Mr. Kang Si-woo’s first time in this Free Agent market, you might not know. For a rookie, this much signing bonus—”
“I told you a moment ago that I met Dokkaebi Guild, right? Do you know who came to find me?”
At my words, Team Leader Heo Dam closed his mouth.
It was a gesture as if to say, go ahead and tell me what great person you met.
“Clan Lord Ma Geon-woo.”
“…Pardon?”
“Yaksha Family’s Clan Lord Ma Geon-woo came in person. But Seonyang… did you say you were ‘Team Leader’ Heo Dam?”
“……”
At my words, Team Leader Heo Dam closed his mouth again.
This time it was silence from embarrassment.
“Lest you misunderstand, the contract with Dokkaebi is on hold. Because I want to talk with more Guilds. Of course, I’m ready to listen to Seonyang’s ‘new’ proposal as well.”
“…Thank you. Then I’ll prepare properly and visit again. I’ll pay for the coffee, so please enjoy it comfortably.”
At my gentle refusal for him to prepare and come again, Team Leader Heo Dam nodded and stood up from his seat.
Of course, the envelope I received earlier had already been returned.
Ttalang―
Like that, as Team Leader Heo Dam left ringing the entrance bell, I was left alone in the cafe.
I chewed the remaining ice in my cup crunch crunch and settled my thoughts.
‘This is just the beginning.’
From now on, countless Guild scouts will desperately try to contact me.
Then it was certain to get even noisier ahead.
‘I’ll use this as much as possible.’
If you’re going to do it half-heartedly, it’s worse than not doing it at all.
Even clickbait needs to be done properly if you’re going to do it.
So I plan to become the eye of the typhoon.
0 Comments