# Chepter 006

Shinhwa Corporation.

Ranked first among all of Korea’s biggest corporations and a world-class company with worldwide renown..

Sungwon Lee.

The second son of Shinhwa’s chairman, and the Guild Master of the Shinwha Guild. Rich man; baby of the Shinhwa family; rich hunter. There were a lot of names that Sungwon Lee was known by, but the one that people used the most was the Troublemaker of Shinhwa.

But this wasn’t that he was some rich kid making problems. No, the Shinhwa Family was known for their strict family rules, ones which never let any of its family members cause any public troubles. Instead, it was that he was very normal.

Particularly in comparison to his older brother, he was just too normal.

‘I will finally earn some recognition!’

His brother, Sungjoon Lee, was a talented businessman. He had never missed an opportunity to come in first: he’d graduated from a top-ranking university, and he’d gone abroad to the United States to study for MBA at Watton School before coming back to the company. He soon became the head of the Strategic Planning Team, and was being groomed as the company’s successor.

Sungwon Lee, however, was just an ordinary man with little talent in anything. He was just a normal person who lived as if he did not exist within the family, until an opportunity came to him.

Awakening.

Three years ago, he was lucky enough to be Awakened. He then used the support of his family to create a guild, the Shinhwa Guild. With the richest company of the country backing it, the guild became one of the top guilds in Korea in just a short amount of time. But there was a limit to its growth when it was only fueled by money.

Ranked fifth amongst Korean guilds. Sungwon did not like this. He needed to be first in order to earn his father’s recognition.

‘But things are different now. We have a respawn dungeon in our hands,’ thought Sungwon.

Sungwon had been able to purchase private access to a respawn dungeon from the government, a first in the history of the Korean guilds. Respawn dungeons were usually controlled by the government, with only usage permissions being sold to guilds. But Sungwon had used every bit of money and every connection in his power and purchased a ten-year private ownership lease of a respawn dungeon.

‘It cost five-hundred billion won[1], but by allowing us to gather artifacts and recruit high ranking hunters, it will help the Shinhwa Guild reach the top.’

He was always considered nothing to the family. If he were to succeed this time, it was his chance to finally be recognized as a proud member of the family. Sungwon laid on his comfy bed, and smiled brightly for the first time in a while.

“It’s tomorrow. Finally.”

Friday the eleventh of April 2031. The day of the Shinhwa Guild’s first raid since acquiring ownership of the dungeon.

“I can’t wait for it. I can’t even sleep!”

Sungwon couldn’t ease his excitement for the raid tomorrow. The day had been chosen so that they could attack the dungeon on the day that its mana concentration would hit its peak.

It had already passed eleven o’clock in the evening.

“Is it too late? No, he’s probably wide awake too,” mumbled Sungwon to himself as he reached for the cellphone by his bed, pressing number one on the quick dial.

Jungsoo Park. The only person he could fully trust, and the head of his secretarial office. The phone call was answered almost as soon as it started ringing.

“Guild master. Is anything wrong?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong. I just wanted to confirm, Team 1 is on the raid tomorrow, right?” asked Sungwon.

“[Yes, sir. Team 1 is preparing for it. The mana concentration is at the expected level, and we should not have much trouble throughout the raid, sir.”

“Good. Still, we should be careful. It’s our first time and there’s no known strategy for it. Oh, and don’t let the reporters come too early. We don’t want them interfering.”

Jungsoo liked to have a boss like Sungwon around, a man who cared even for the little details.

“Yes, sir. It will be done.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning then,” said Sungwon.

“I will be at your place by seven in the morning, sir. Good night.”

Sungwon hung up the call, but he couldn’t sleep yet. He instead spent time scrolling through the news on his smartphone.

“If we’re successful tomorrow, then higher ranking hunters will view us differently,” said Sungwon. At that moment, his cellphone vibrated again, alerting him to an incoming call.

‘Huh, it’s Jungsoo again. I wonder why?’

Sungwon took the call only to hear Jungsoo’s shocked voice. “Sir! The respawn dungeon… it’s… it’s…” his voiced trailed off, as if he were unable to continue.

“What’s wrong? What’s up with the dungeon? Did something happen to it?”

“I’ve received a report that the respawn dungeon has suddenly disappeared, sir!”

“What?!” Sungwon was usually very calm and collected, but he was now shaking as he shouted. “Come to me right now! We’ll go check it out ourselves! And call every Dungeon Management Team and find out what happened!”

***

Jisook was walking along the shoreline, holding a young Gyungho’s hand.

“Look! That’s a whale!”

There was a whale spraying a giant pillar of water in the distance.

“Yeah, that’s a big whale,” said Jisook. She knew this was a dream, but she didn’t want to wake up from the happy memory so soon. At that moment, a tide pushed in, soaking her feet.

“Oh, it’s so cold!”

Except it wasn’t the dull sensation of a dream, but a clear and distinctive feeling. Jisook gasped as she woke up from the dream, looking down at her feet in a haze. There was a small puppy licking her feet.

“Ah! A puppy?” exclaimed Jisook. She was surprised by the presence of a puppy she ‘d never seen before, but she found the tiny creature so cute that she couldn’t resist reaching over and patting him.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

The puppy whined. She checked the time and saw it was already past seven in the morning. The door opened and Gyungho poked his head in.

“Are you awake, mom?”

“Oh, Gyungho. You should sleep some more, I’ll get you something to eat for breakfast. Oh, and this puppy…” said Jisook.

“Oh, yeah. I saw him abandoned in a box yesterday night, so I brought him home. His name is Snowball. And I am already almost done with breakfast, so just wait. It’s been ten years since I got to cook food for you.”

The door closed again, and Jisook smiled brightly at Gyungho’s words. Before his disappearance, he used to prepare food every weekend. She couldn’t help but smile at her son’s return, and at the way he preparing food just like before. Jisook absent-mindedly patted the puppy, then became surprised at a certain fact.

“I… I don’t feel any pain. There’s no pain.”

She couldn’t feel the sharp pain that she was so used to. In recent years, she couldn’t even sleep well due to the pain, and also had had to endure it until the medicine began to take effect.

“What happened…?”

Snowball then glanced at Jisook. ‘To think it was this hard just to decrease her pain… this is embarrassing,’ thought Snowball. The reason why Jisook did not feel pain was because Snowball had worked to heal her through the night.

***

The sound of the rice cooker’s pressure valve releasing filled the kitchen.

“The smell of steamed rice! Oh, how I missed rice cookers.”

There was no rice in the Spirit Realm, so Gyungho had eaten a potato-like crop in its place. But, being a true Korean, Gyungho had missed rice so much throughout the past ten years. Steamed rice made with a rice cooker was especially missed, as its taste was so special.

Gyungho switched off the rice cooker and took out the remainder of Blade Ostrich heart from the refrigerator.

“Shall I cook up a special dish for mom’s recovery?”

Just like yesterday, he cooked up some stir-fried heart in large portions. In addition, he made egg stew and took out some side dishes from the refrigerator. The breakfast table was soon full of food. It wasn’t grad, but it was good enough.

“Mom! It’s ready! Come out and bring Snowball.”

Gyungho also prepared rice mixed with the stir-fried heart for Snowball too. The door of the small room opened and Jisook came out, holding a half-asleep Snowball in her arms.

“Shall we see how much you’ve improved in the last ten years?” said Jisook as she looked at the table full of food.

“Whoa. My son made such a huge feast! This…” Jisook couldn’t finish her words and became teary. She couldn’t hold back her emotions at the sight of the son, who she had been reduced to hoping to see only within her dreams, back and preparing breakfast for her.

“Mom, let’s not cry over a simple thing like this, shall we?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it,” said Jisook as she wiped her tears with her clothes.

“Look at all this. Egg stew and… what’s this? Some sort of stir-fried meat?” asked Jisook with a curious look as she took in the sight of the stir fried Blade Ostrich heart..

“Yeah. You fell asleep before 10 o’clock yesterday, and you didn’t look well either. So, I went down to the bazaar and bought some beef heart. I heard that it’s good for your health, so dig in. I’m going to make up for our lost ten years, so you have to be healthy. Alright?” said Gyungho.

Jisook nodded, looking at Gyungho with love in her eyes. “Of course. I have my son back, caring for me. But, is it okay for Snowball to eat it too?” Jisook nodded at the bowl placed on the floor. “Shouldn’t he eat dog food? I heard animals shouldn’t eat human food.”

It seemed Jisook had taken a liking to Snowball in even such a short period of time. Snowball, however, shook his head frantically at Jisook’s words.

“Alright. Let’s have him eat that first, and I will go get dog food,” said Gyungho. Snowball then barked softly in frustration.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to feed me dog food.” came the voice of Snowball in Gyungho’s head.

Gyungho shook his head and Snowball sighed in relief. Snowball then dove right in. He seemed happy, his tail waggingsoftly. Gyungho fought the urge to tap on the cute butt of Snowball.

“Mom, I think he’s fine with anything. We can let him eat that.”

“Really? Hmm… by the way, I thought you didn’t like animals. Haven’t you hated animals since you got bitten by that dog?” asked Jisook. She was actually right.

“I used to, but I’m okay with them now. Maybe it’s because of this puppy,” said Gyungho. Gyungho used to be scared of animals. Ever since he was bitten by a neighbor’s dog when he was six, he was scared of any and all animals. But during his ten years in the Spirit Realm, his phobia of animals had completely disappeared. He had lived the last ten years alongside various Spirit Beasts, and animals were now even closer to him than humans.

“Anyway, go ahead and dig in. Before it gets cold,” said Gyungho.

Jisook then took her chopsticks and picked up the meat. “Shall we enjoy today’s special dish, then?”

Jisook took a bite and was surprised. She didn’t even need to chew, as the meat immediately melted away once she took it into her mouth. It was as if she was eating top quality beef.

“Son?” asked Jisook.

“Yeah. How is it?” Gyungho asked with a smile, knowing exactly how it tasted.

“You said this is a beef heart? How did you get it so tender?”

“I boiled it for a long time and it turned out like that.”

“It doesn’t usually get so tender… and the meaty flavor is still intact. You’re now a better cook than me! I should just wait tables from now on,” joked Jisook.

Gyungho smiled. “No way, I still have a long way to go to catch up to you. There’s more, so eat as much as you like.”

“Of course, I’m not going to let the food that my son prepared for me go to waste.”

“Okay, but you don’t need to overdo it either!”

Together, they had an enjoyable breakfast for the first time in ten long years.

[1] Around 425 million US dollars.