“…She warned you about the fiends? Really?” Shim Deok-gu looked at him, aghast. 

“Dokkaebi has no reason to lie to me. It’s probably true.” 

Seo Jun-ho had hurried back to the Association and immediately gone to Deok-gu to share the information he’d gotten from Gong Juha. 

“Guh, the Skeleton Mage… I’ve never heard of him. I knew the Big 6 had a better information network than us, but I didn’t know it was to this extent.” The guilds had information that the Association wouldn’t even catch wind of. Their information network was always two, three steps ahead of them.

“Anyways, will you really not regret not joining Dokkaebi? Didn’t Gong Juha come in person? Her team is doing great on the 2nd floor.”

“Nah. I told you. If I join a guild, I won’t be able to do what I want.”

“A player of your caliber would be able to negotiate the contract.”

“Do you want me to go?” Shim Deok-gu’s face went dark as he sighed. 

“I’m just thinking that it would be better for you… I don’t want to hold you down either.”

“I was wondering what you were trying to say.” Seo Jun-ho shrugged. “If you buy a new knife, you’ll want to take it out. If you take it out, you’ll want to swing it, and if you swing it, you’ll want to cut something. That’s how humans are. If I join a guild, they’ll use me like that.”

“That’s true.”

“If I was only after the money and glory, I would’ve left without a word… But that’s not who I am.”

His only goal was to save his friends. It was much more comfortable for him to stay at the Association than to join a guild. 

“…I’m glad to hear you say that.” Deok-gu looked touched. He nodded, determined. “Okay! Let’s renew our contract in the morning.”

“All of a sudden?”

“Your reputation is more than enough. You even received an offer from one of the Big 6.” He wrote up a new contract on the spot. Seo Jun-ho’s face went sour as he skimmed over it. 

“…Hey, isn’t this too much? Can you handle it?”

“You’re someone who’s wanted by Dokkaebi. This much is a given. Just because we’re frugal doesn’t mean we don’t have money.”

“But 5 million won for clearing a normal Gate is too much…” And for Uncleared Gates, it was 15 million won. 

(TN: ~440k USD and ~1.3m USD, respectively.)

Even with his previous contract, he made a yearly income just by clearing one Gate. Combined with the personal commissions he’d received, he made a lot.

“I’ll move your room too. Take the whole floor.”

“I’m starting to get scared. Why are you treating me so well?”

“I wanted to do this from the beginning, but I couldn’t. But now that you’ve received an offer from one of the Big 6, there’s no need for me to be discreet.” Shim Deok-gu looked proud as he swiftly signed the contract. “And as for the problem with our information network… I’ll do my best to close the gap.”

“I’d be thankful.” Seo Jun-ho finished signing his name and stood up. “I’ll go to my new room. Which floor should I go to?”

“77th. It has a great view.”

“I just need to move my stuff. Oh,” Seo Jun-ho stopped at the door and turned around. “Schedule the Eastern Sea Gate conquest for a week from now.”

“You said the fiends are planning something. Aren’t you giving them too much time to prepare?”

“That’s the point.” Seo Jun-ho chuckled. “I have to lay the bait.” 

* * *

[Player Seo Jun-ho to attempt the Eastern Sea Gate: “The time has come.”]

[Will Korea become the first safe zone without any Uncleared Gates? The world watches.]

[Breaking news! Seo Jun-ho refuses a lucrative deal from the Dokkaebi Guild.]

[Official statement from the Korean Player Association: “Player Seo Jun-ho has renewed his contract and has no thoughts on transferring.”]

The news of Seo Jun-ho’s plans to conquer the Eastern Sea Gate was causing a stir. It was something that everyone wanted, but it had never been achieved. Seo Jun-ho made the announcement himself. He was a monster who had debuted just over a month ago, and he’d already received an offer from one of the Big 6. The whole world was watching.

“Finally.” At the summit of a mountain in the northeastern region of the 2nd floor, a man sat reading the articles. 

“You’ve come.” A voice spoke through the empty air. 

“You called for me, Signer-nim.”

Anyone who heard his name would have been alarmed. Kal Signer was an executive of the Fiend Association and was an internationally wanted terrorist. 

“It’s that guy.”

“I also saw the reports. Is he the human who you suspected has the Tempest Butterfly?”

“That’s right… It’s a bow that I want very much.” A greed rose in Signer’s eyes, then quickly subsided. His subordinate spoke carefully. 

“But the official statement said that the Tempest was in Tushar Vishi’s inventory.”

“Hmph.” Signer wrinkled his nose. “Obviously, he hid it. He published Tushar Vishi’s journal that said he was killed by a fiend. Of course he’d be wary of us.”

“Then, do you think that he has the Tempest Butterfly?”

“I have my suspicions, but I don’t have proof.”

“Shall I go down to the 1st floor?”

“No. The Association’s surrounded him with other players. There’s no point if we tip them off.” Kal Signer rubbed his chin, thinking. “Is there anyone left on the 1st floor that we can use?”

“Of course. There are always those that hunger for power. As for those we can use… How about the Shadow Brothers? They’re assigned to the Last Vegas auction.”

“The Shadow Brothers… Will the two of them be enough?” The subordinate considered this for a second, then nodded. 

“Their skills are more than enough.”

“Then send them to the Eastern Sea Gate. We don’t need to explain the assignment, do we?”

“No, we don’t.”

“I should start getting ready to go.”

“…Already?”

“He’s a persistent one.” As soon as Kal Signer stood up, he scowled. The traps he’d set out a few kilometers out had sensed his enemy. 

“…Fucking bastard.” He grit his teeth. He was an archer and fought best with a sizable distance between him and his opponent. But even if he had the range, he didn’t have the guts to fight his pursuer. 

I can’t fight one of the Nine Heavens in my current state. 

They were the nine strongest players and fiends in the world. The one chasing him right now was the Sword Saint, Kim Woojoong. He’d picked up Kal Signer’s trail a few months ago and had been persistently chasing him since. 

“Seo Jun-ho, was it? He’s a lucky man.” If only he wasn’t being chased, he would have gone down to the 1st floor himself. The Association had eyes everywhere, and with the monster called Kim Woojoong on his tail, going down to the 1st floor would be suicide. 

“I shall watch until your luck runs out.” 

Kal Signer licked his dry lips. He looked down at the thick fog of the mountain, then turned around and disappeared. 

* * *

“How lucky!” Cha Si-eun exclaimed. “Have you seen this article? The Shadow Brothers are joining the Eastern Sea Gate raid! It’ll be a lot easier!”

“I don’t know about that…” Cha Si-eun tilted her head. 

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that they’ve decided to join.”

“Isn’t it a plus? Of course, they’re not as good as Jun-ho-nim, but they have great skills and a great career.” Seo Jun-ho shrugged. 

“Really? Please get some information on them for me. I want to judge them myself.”

“Understood.”

As she left to prepare the documents, Seo Jun-ho headed to his fitness training room. It was his own personal room, a benefit from the contract. 

“Huff, huff…”

Seo Jun-ho started to run laps around the big room. Every time he finished a lap, he went faster. 

Training like this will prevent mistakes in an actual fight. It was like training the gear shift of a car. His muscles would already be used to the progression. The wheels would go faster, and so would he. Like that, he finished a hundred laps. 

“Hah! Hah!” His heart pounded, feeling like it was about to explode. His breath was hot and he felt like he couldn’t move a finger, but this was just his warm-up.

“Phew…” Evening out his breath, he started to pull out his magic. 

When you use magic, you need to focus. If your concentration broke, so did the flow of magic. That’s why Seo Jun-ho liked to train in magic after he exhausted his energy. If he could use it properly in this state, it would get rid of a huge weak point. 

It’s an unsophisticated method that Skaya came up with… But it’s effective. 

Woosh! 

Watchguard of Darkness bloomed from the void like a flower. It didn’t have a conscience, but the darkness flowed around him as if in greeting. 

“…Long time no see.” In the past, he’d used it everyday and everywhere. It was that reliable, and it had never let him down before. 

I’ll have to use this guy again in the Gate. Seo Jun-ho pet the wavering shadows and tapped on his Vita, pulling up information on the Eastern Sea Gate. 

⟪Forgotten Dragon’s Island⟫

Entry Requirements: Level 13-25

Party Cap: 20 people

Clear Condition: Rout the Nameless Dragon

Difficulty: Very Hard

Dragon… Seo Jun-ho gulped. After the Gates appeared, dragons were no longer just a fiction. The players had come face-to-face with Eastern and Western dragons as powerful, top-class monsters. 

(TN: There are two different words for Eastern/Asian dragons and Western/European dragons. The Nameless Dragon is the Asian kind.)

I’ve fought both kinds before. They were tricky opponents. Seo Jun-ho didn’t have any flying abilities either, so they were an especially bad match. 

There are two ways I can defeat a dragon. He could either grab onto its scales and try to fight it in the air, or drag it down to the ground. 

“Personally, I think the second one is better… But it probably won’t work out that way.”

Dragons were intelligent monsters. If they thought that their opponent was too strong for them, they wouldn’t come down from the sky. That also meant they wouldn’t present a chance for their opponent to grab onto their scales. 

Ring! Cha Si-eun’s files arrived. Their skills and profiles were described in detail. 

“Huh?” Seo Jun-ho blinked. This… I’ll be able to use it. 

As soon as he saw their skills, two strategies popped up in his head. 

The first was a scenario in which they feigned innocence and pretended to help him with the conquest. “In that case, we can work together to defeat it.”

The problem lay in the possibility that they’d come after him on purpose. “If that happens, it’ll be annoying to deal with.”

With the amount of magic he currently had, it would be hard to deal with two fiends and a dragon at the same time. 

But Seo Jun-ho had a solution for that. 

“Inventory.”

Clatter!

The artifacts he’d bought from the Black Market tumbled to the ground.