Chapter 102: Level and Realm-2

The two recognized each other at a glance.

One was a woman dressed as a warrior who had just stepped out of a historical drama, her wrists wrapped in bandages.

The other was a man with cracked skin who wore a hood even in broad daylight, his decaying skin covered in bandages.

‘Those wrist bandages. I only caught a glimpse of them at night, but they’re tied in the same way I saw back then. It must be that woman.’

‘That man whose face was in such bad shape that he had to wear bandages. It must be that man from back then.’

If Min Woosung were here, he would have been dumbfounded, wondering if there weren’t more noticeable features than the bandages.

Regardless of the method, both were unable to hide their agitation as soon as they found each other.

‘If that vibration from earlier was from that person, then they must be angry, right?’

Hae Eung Eung felt deeply sorry for Shin Sunggwak.

She had hidden magic waste that summoned monsters in the convenience store,

potentially causing Ah-young to die.

She had stormed in, believing the culprit behind the dirty trick

was the Myungho Guild,

but the truth that came to light was an insurance scam by the convenience store owner seeking insurance money.

That poor former high-level master

had to fight her with swords for no reason,

his house was half-destroyed, and he even put it up for urgent sale,

which she, as good as his enemy, received as a free permanent lease without spending a penny.

Unless he was Buddha,

it was only natural for him to be angry.

‘Could it be that Shin Sunggwak has fallen into a trap?’

Shin Sunggwak recalled how he came to be in this place.

A large number of trainees deserted the Awakened Academy.

A mysterious new guild that lured them away.

The impudent bastards who made his old house their guild headquarters

even had the assassin who attacked him as their guild leader.

After encountering such suspicious circumstances,

it would be more absurd to think it wasn’t a trap.

“You’re a very scary person.”

[I’m sorry about what happened the other day.]

“Since when have you been plotting this?”

[Plotting what?]

“I thought so. Well, if you were going to say it yourself, you wouldn’t have done this in the first place.”

Shin Sunggwak was angrier than Hae Eung Eung had imagined.

“That day, discussing settling the score wasn’t a pure intention to clean up the mess caused by the young ones.”

The emotion he felt

was closer to betrayal than simple anger.

“After the mansion attack disguised as a grudge, my only pride and joy, the mansion I cherished, was ruined. I couldn’t even bring myself to repair it.”

“With not much time left to live, and having prepared to return to active duty, it was ambiguous to spend a fortune to fix it, so I eventually decided to sell it.”

“But the person who bought the mansion was someone sent by your organization from the beginning, and through some route, the ownership of the mansion eventually fell into your hands.”

The plausible warning, the nighttime attack.

In the end, it was all a ploy to get the mansion.

“If you hadn’t noticed the true value of this mansion site from the beginning, there would have been no reason to go to such elaborate lengths.”

[I don’t know what you’re talking about.]

“There’s no use playing dumb. I already know that Guild Leader Lee Myungho freely released the land use change and building permit for this mansion site for me, his comrade.”

What is he talking about now?

Hae Eung Eung turned to So Kyung-seok, who was watching from a distance.

So Kyung-seok, who was skilled in intelligence, shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t obtained even this confidential information.

Shin Sunggwak, the 2nd generation Awakened of the Myungho Guild.

To him, a founding member who made a significant contribution to the guild’s establishment,

Guild Leader Lee Myungho of the Myungho Guild provided many benefits, and this residential site was one of those benefits.

Although it was a mansion he bought directly with the money he earned while working hard during his active duty,

there were invisible benefits to it.

Thanks to the guild leader who noticed that he was interested in building and decorating his own house,

it became land free from restrictions such as building codes or land laws,

where all kinds of building permits were issued.

“Of course, those laws include the Guild Proliferation Prevention Act.”

To prevent indiscriminate guild proliferation,

strict criteria were established for guild establishment requirements.

In addition to the publicly known conditions,

there is one more important undisclosed requirement

related to the government’s guild establishment approval.

“Guild establishment permit speed based on building site. Isn’t this the part you were aiming for?”

Guild offices located in commercial buildings

have their review time lengthened

not by the area of the office they occupy,

but by the total floor area of the building,

that is, the sum of the floor areas of each floor.

This was a measure to ensure

the legal time to obtain the consent of other tenants in the building,

sufficiently notify them of the damage that may occur

directly or indirectly as a result of the guild office being established,

and make them aware of it.

“The excuse is that, but in reality, it means that if you want to expedite the association’s approval, you have to offer bribes or fill contribution points.”

Of course, few people directly gave that money to the association.

Guilds without backing usually made up for it with contribution points,

and guilds with backing put pressure on the association to forcibly expedite the review time.

“There’s no way you, who are so meticulous as to plot such a scheme, wouldn’t have backing. But the reason you targeted this mansion site is to hide your backing by using this land, which is not subject to guild establishment permit restrictions and allows you to establish a guild immediately at any time, isn’t it!”

A storm of realization swept through So Kyung-seok’s eyes.

‘That’s it! Hae Eung Eung is definitely a member of a villain organization. She must have had information about this mansion and attacked it because she had backing that was difficult to reveal openly!’

It was meaningless to wonder why they didn’t just make their guild office somewhere other than a building.

Because no matter what kind of facility they set up their office in,

the association’s meticulous traps were waiting

to extract bribes in different ways.

The only place that could be an exception

to those strict criteria

in this Myungho-dong

was this Shin Sunggwak’s mansion site.

“I now know why you didn’t kill me that day. If you killed me directly, the ownership of the mansion site would pass to someone else, so you had to create a suitable justification to avoid such a predicament.”

“You must have also noticed that I wouldn’t be able to spend a lot of money to repair the mansion, which I wouldn’t be able to visit often if I returned to active duty.”

“Settling the score. Were you happy to have fooled me with that paltry justification?”

A scheme that was so plausible it was unbelievable.

Hae Eung Eung, who was wrongly accused and felt wronged,

increased the speed at which she wrote in her notebook,

but before she could show her answer of “No!”,

Shin Sunggwak continued to say what he wanted to say even faster.

“Having infiltrated Myungho-dong while desperately hiding your identity to this extent, your purpose is clear. You must be planning to swallow the entire Myungho Guild!”

As a 2nd generation Awakened,

Shin Sunggwak, who had experienced all sorts of dirty schemes,

naturally developed the ability to calculate the schemes that the enemy might be plotting in reverse.

And now.

His excessively intelligent brain

came up with a shocking hypothesis.

“If your plan were discovered, your hands and feet would be tied by the Myungho Guild’s tenacious checks, so you must have set up this clever plot.”

[That’s a misunderstanding. I have no intention of]

“From the beginning, you tried to hide your identity by forming relationships with people unrelated to the organization and creating a new guild centered around outsiders.”

[Slow down so I can answer!]

“The result is those civilians and fledgling Awakeners, and this guild called the Haenam Faction, isn’t it!”

Hae Eung Eung, who had been thoroughly angered by the continuous scolding,

was now more angry than sorry.

Swish.

Thinking that he wouldn’t listen if she spoke,

Hae Eung Eung finally drew her sword.

She was planning to knock him down first

and then have a slow written conversation,

but the employees couldn’t hide their excitement at this exciting development

and said a word each.

“Our guild leader is so smart.”

“Daebak.”

“Then do we have backing too?”

Unlike the naive employees who were unfolding their imaginary dreams,

So Kyung-seok, who had worked as a freelancer for the association

and had taken on some dirty missions,

was seriously considering whether he should run away immediately.

Because Hae Eung Eung’s appearance of drawing her sword

seemed like a ruthless figure who had decided to kill everyone to silence them after her secret was revealed.

“You can’t fight here! The atmosphere is already bad because of the terrorist incident, and if another fight breaks out, it will be impossible to clean up.”

So Kyung-seok cleverly used his head.

But Hae Eung Eung, who had been diligently writing answers

but had torn up her notebook more than five times because of Shin Sunggwak, who kept talking to himself,

didn’t want to listen to him.

“Elder, please calm down too. If things get out of hand here, it’s going to be difficult for both of us.”

“Do you think I can just let this go after you’ve humiliated me this much!”

“If a fight breaks out here, you might die, Elder.”

So Kyung-seok’s words to get out of the situation

brought realization to Shin Sunggwak’s mind.

‘Wait. What happens if a fight really breaks out here?’

He had already lost once in a head-on fight, albeit an ambush,

so his chances of winning were slim.

Not only was there a high probability of losing,

but even if he survived somehow,

his magic power disease would definitely worsen greatly due to excessive use of his abilities.

After that, he would become unable to even move

and unable to take care of the guild’s work.

If the faction that was the former power of the Myungho Guild was demoted,

and even the current power, him, died or collapsed…

‘Oh no!’

They might experience an attack from a hostile guild

without anyone to lead the guild.

In a more vulnerable state than ever,

against enemies who were plotting such terrifying schemes,

Shin Sunggwak couldn’t even imagine

the possibility of the Myungho Guild overcoming the crisis.

‘If I can’t get out of this situation, I have to be prepared for the Myungho Guild to collapse!’

Even Hae Eung Eung’s gaze,

glaring at So Kyung-seok with dissatisfaction for not being able to stab him once,

looked to Shin Sunggwak

like she was scolding a subordinate who had ruined the plan by saying unnecessary things.

A crisis like a lamp in the wind, with not only his life but also the fate of the guild at stake!

The excessive pressure of having to face

the forces behind that terrifying woman,

whose limits of ability could not be estimated at all!

“Kuh…!”

Shin Sunggwak’s heart, suffering from extreme stress,

suddenly malfunctioned.

He clutched his chest and let out a painful groan,

then knelt down with a thud and panted.

“???”

“Why is that person suddenly like that?”

“Could it be that our guild leader ambushed him?!”

“Eeeek! I didn’t even see her draw her sword!”

“That’s how skilled she is.”

Of course, Hae Eung Eung was also talking nonsense, not knowing what was going on.

What brought Shin Sunggwak down was not an ambush, but stress-induced cardiomyopathy caused by excessive stress.

“Oh, this is not the time for this. I have to call an ambulance…”

[You don’t have to call.]

“Guild Leader?”

Hae Eung Eung looked down at Shin Sunggwak with a displeased face and released her hand.

[It’s annoying that you keep interrupting me, but this is also an opportunity. I’ll treat him myself.]