Seo Jun-ho glanced at the time. The promised 30 minutes had passed, and the room couldn’t get any more heated. 

Nice. Tomorrow’s newspapers will be interesting.

Seeing the reporters’ eyes sparkle, Seo Jun-ho thought that it was about time to wrap things up. 

“I’ll take one last question.” At that moment, a reporter raised their hand as if they’d been waiting. 

“Have you decided on which Gate you’ll be going to next?”

“No.” The response cut like a knife, as if he’d been expecting it. 

“There’s one Gate that I really want to go to, but my level isn’t high enough yet.” 

“Your level is too low… Which one are you talking about?”

As the reporter pushed up their glasses, a faint smile spread across Seo Jun-ho’s lips. 

“The Eastern Sea Gate.”

“I see. So it’s the Eastern Sea G—Excuse me?!”

The reporter let out a piercing scream, but no one could blame him. Everyone’s eyes were wide as they stared at Seo Jun-ho for an answer. Some of them turned to each other to double-check if they’d heard wrong.

Their reaction was natural. The Eastern Sea Gate was the last Uncleared Gate in Korea. 

“…Well, if you look at Seo Jun-ho’s other achievements, it’s not so strange.”

“Yes, definitely. He’s already cleared two Uncleared Gates.”

“Why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

“But of course…”

Naturally, their gazes turned to Seo Jun-ho himself. He looked a little bigger, but he was still as scrawny as always. It didn’t help that he was wearing pajamas and three-striped slippers instead of some shiny armor. No one would ever think that he’d be an amazing player that could enter the Eastern Sea Gate. 

“So… Are you saying that you plan to go to other Uncleared Gates once your level is high enough?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s surprising. If you clear the Eastern Sea Gate, you’ll have cleared three Uncleared Gates. That’s unheard of.” The silent reporter slowly started speaking again. 

“The Eastern Sea Gate requires a minimum level of 13. It’s one of the Gates with the highest difficulty level on the 1st floor.”

“8,715 players have already failed to clear it. There’s even rumors that it’ll be declared a 1-star Gate.”

“According to the information from the guilds, it’s also likely that there will be a Boss Monster inside.”

“Do you think that you can defeat the Boss Monster?”

“I was wondering if you were ignoring the fact that…”

It was only natural that the reporters would react so negatively. 

Of course, since a Boss Monster is a big deal. 

They were on a different level from normal monsters. They had overwhelming strength and ruled over other monsters as kings. 

That was a Boss Monster. 

Looking at the eager reporters, Seo Jun-ho laughed. 

“If I fight a Boss Monster, I’ll win.”

It was a fitting remark for the title of the ‘Indifferent King’ from 25 years ago. 

* * *

[“Boss Monster? I’ll defeat them all.” Player Seo Jun-ho’s strange comment.]

[No one has ever said anything like this before. Is it arrogance or confidence? Hot topic Seo Jun-ho.]

[Seo Jun-ho confirms again: “I couldn’t find the Tempest after I cleared the Gate.”]

[Seo Jun-ho’s next conquest will be carefully selected from a flood of commission requests.]

[When asked who he admires most, Seo Jun-ho replied with “the Specter”.]

A man sat in the Guildmaster’s office as he flipped through the newspapers. He was looking at a photo of a pajama-clad Seo Jun-ho on the fourth page.

“…And a picture on the 4th page? That’s amazing for a rookie.”

The man sitting on the sofa opposite from him looked up. 

“I think it’s clear just how significant the Uncleared Gates are.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard something interesting from the 1st floor.”

Two of the so-called Big 6 guilds were from Korea. One was the Silent Moon led by Son Chae-won, and the other was Dokkaebi led by Shin Sung-hyun.

“If you’re interested, would you like me to contact him?”

“Hm? No, not yet. He’s still far off from that.” With a resolute look, Shin Sung-hyun continued. “If something extraordinary happens, people call it chance or fate. But do you know what they call it when it happens twice?”

“That… Wouldn’t that be skill?”

“Precisely. But I disagree with that notion.” He held up three fingers, “Three times. I think it has to happen at least three times before you can call it skill.”

“Three times… I understand.” The Vice-Guildmaster bowed his head. He realized what his boss wanted. Seo Jun-ho has one more left.

If he performed another miracle, he would receive an invitation from the Dokkaebi Guild. 

* * *

* * *

“Pass. This one too.”

“Then how about this one?”

“Hm, not bad but not that good either. Pass.”

Seo Jun-ho and Shim Deok-gu were in the process of going through a mountain of documents. They were all commissions labeled ‘personal request’.

“I didn’t know the press conference would have this big of an effect. You’re totally hot right now.”

“Deok-gu, this is just another day for me.”

“…Cheeky bastard.” Shim Deok-gu just gave Seo Jun-ho a look and shook his head. 

They were looking for a request that fulfilled 3 conditions:

Shim Deok-gu scratched his head through his wig, “Hm. It’s hard to find a commission that fulfills all three of them.”

“Honestly, I’m fine with giving up on the third one.”

“Nope. This is your first personal commission. It’ll set a precedent for your prices.”

“But image is important too. The gap between a player who gets 100 million won commissions and another who gets 1 billion won commissions is bigger than you think.”

(TN: $0.89 = 1000 won)

Right now, Seo Jun-ho was level 9. He needed to level up four more times before he could enter the Eastern Sea Gate. 

“Huh?” Shim Deok-gu’s eyes widened as he read over a commission. With an earnest gaze, he handed the paper over to Seo Jun-ho.

“How’s this?”

“Let me see.”

Strangely, the form was filled out by hand. Looking at the neat writing was refreshing to his eyes. 

But the description wasn’t. 

“Huh. So it’s a request from a father whose daughter is terminally ill.”

“The only thing that can cure it is the Cinder Fox’s core.”

The Cinder Fox. Seo Jun-ho’s brows furrowed at the name. 

“That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.”

“You killed one before, didn’t you?”

“…Yeah. I almost died.”

At that time, it hadn’t even been half a year since he became a player. Looking back on it, everything had been fun and games. 

“Are there still Gates with Cinder Foxes? I only ever encountered one in my entire career as a player.”

“Yup. In Korea, no less.” Seo Jun-ho looked surprised as he heard that.

“Really? Why did I not know this until now?”

“That’s because you were so focused on the Uncleared Gates.”

“It has a Cinder Fox but it’s not Uncleared?”

“It doesn’t quite meet the requirements. It only appeared 3 months ago.”

Uncleared Gates had to meet two conditions. One, it had to be at least 6 months old. And two, it had to have at least 5 failed attempts. 

“It’s easier to just show you.” Deok-gu tapped twice on his Vita and a display appeared. 

⟪Burning Dunes⟫

Required Level: 5 – 15

Party Cap: 30 people

Clear Condition: Defeat the Cinder Fox

Difficulty: Hard

Seo Jun-ho’s eyes sparkled as he read over the description. 

“This is gonna be harder than the one I caught before.” There was a reason he thought that. “The Cinder Fox from before required levels 10 through 20 and had a Party Cap of 50.” But this time the requirements were stricter. 

Shim Deok-gu shook his head. 

“Not necessarily.”

“…Why not?”

“The standards for players have gone up. So have item specs.”

“Their skills have been getting better?” Seo Jun-ho nodded slowly, “Well, that’s probably true. I haven’t seen any players in action since I’ve come back.” All he’d seen were the players from the licensing test. 

I wonder how strong they are these days. Were they as strong as Shim Deok-gu suggested? How much stronger have they gotten?

“…I’m curious now.” He was a first-generation player. Didn’t that mean he was everyone’s sunbae? I’m curious to see how my hubaes are doing. 

Seo Jun-ho waved the commission form in his hand. “I’ll do this one. I want to see my hubaes.” Shim Deok-gu’s face brightened.

“Really?”

“Yup. Why do you look so happy about it?”

“Oh, that’s…”

He didn’t know what Shim Deok-gu was like around others, but his inner feelings were always clear to Seo Jun-ho. He gave up on making excuses and answered. 

“I actually know the person who sent the commission.”

“Really? Are you two close?”

“Not really. I didn’t even know he’d sent it in.” That made sense. Deok-gu looked shocked when he first saw it. “You know the Myungho Group? He’s the CEO.”

“Oh? So he’s old man Choi Man-hyuk’s son?”

“He’s the second son. Choi Pil-ho. You probably haven’t met him, but you’ve heard of the name, right?”

“Well… I suppose, when Choi Man-hyuk was bragging about his sons.” Seo Jun-ho stared at the form with a new look in his eyes and nodded, “Sounds interesting. Schedule a meeting for me.”

* * *

The next day, Seo Jun-ho made his way to the Association President’s office as Deok-gu had ordered. Huh?

He paused as he opened the door. There was another person in the office aside from Deok-gu. It was a beautiful woman with shoulder-length black hair.

“Ah, you’re here.” 

Seo Jun-ho glanced at Shim Deok-gu and nodded. 

“I’ll introduce you. This is Cha Si-eun. She will be your manager and secretary starting today.”

“My name is Cha Si-eun! Please take care of me!”

“…Yes, likewise.” As he took in her cheerful greeting, Seo Jun-ho realized what was going on. I see. She’ll be in charge of my international work. 

No matter how close he and Deok-gu were, that was a personal relationship. If the Association President personally assisted a player, it would clearly be suspicious. It’s a good thing that he’s separating his public and private lives. 

Rather than annoyed or sad, Seo Jun-ho only felt more confident in Deok-gu. 

“You have a meeting with the Myungho Group CEO, correct?”

“Yes, President.” The corners of Shim Deok-gu’s mouth twitched as Seo Jun-ho switched over to a formal tone. 

“Ms. Cha Si-eun over here will escort you. She’s very capable, so you’ll find yourself relying on her in the future.”

“I-I’m not that… Thank you for your kind words.” Cha Si-eun looked at Seo Jun-ho as she responded with a timid voice. “That’s… There are 32 minutes until the scheduled meeting time, so we should leave within 6 minutes to make it on time.”

“Then let’s go right now.”

“Ah, alright!” Cha Si-eun’s heels clicked as she escorted him. 

“I’ll be waiting here, expecting good results.” Shim Deok-gu laughed as he waved from his seat.