Chapter 16.
Thieves (3)
“What kind of crazy person is this…?”
Kang Hyeon kicked the woman lying on the floor.
The woman showed no response.
“Don’t tell me… Is she asleep?”
As he approached closer, the strong smell of alcohol that was previously masked by blood rose up.
“Haa. What in the world is going on?”
He looked at the guild members with eyes demanding an explanation, but everyone turned away, looking uncomfortable.
Kang Hyeon had no choice but to approach the pub owner, Park Jeong-bum.
“What happened?”
At Kang Hyeon’s question, Park Jeong-bum scratched his head in embarrassment.
His gaze was directed towards the guild members collapsed in the back.
It seemed like something he was reluctant to say in front of the guild members.
Kang Hyeon waved his hand and spoke.
“Hey. Everyone return to the guild house.”
“Go outside immediately. I’ve memorized all your faces, so if you try to take a different path, you’re dead.”
“Well… My leg was shot…”
One still couldn’t open their eyes, and three had been shot in both thighs.
The only one whose limbs were still intact was still unconscious.
“If you can’t move with just such wounds, how are you going to catch a monster?”
“Tsk. If you can’t move, then crawl out. I’ll call the others for you.”
As Kang Hyeon spoke with fierce eyes, the guild members reluctantly crawled outside.
They continued to groan in pain.
Seeing this, Kang Hyeon let out a deep sigh.
“Haa… These are supposed to be guild members?”
Although rough on the surface, he couldn’t help but think that recent ability users were weaker than before.
Always solving everything from a distance with guns, they had become sensitive to physical pain and much more fearful.
In other words, they lacked mental strength.
“All they can do is scream like scared puppies. Tsk tsk.”
“Excuse me…?”
“It’s nothing. More importantly, what happened here?”
In response to Kang Hyeon’s question, Park Jeong-bum carefully explained the sequence of events.
“So, the guild members were causing trouble and crossed the line, leading to this situation?”
Park Jeong-bum nodded cautiously.
It wasn’t easy to criticize guild members in front of the guild leader.
However, Park Jeong-bum instinctively felt it would be better to speak honestly.
And his judgment was accurate.
“I’m sorry about this. I’ll compensate for this incident and tell them to never show their face here again, so don’t worry.”
“No, you don’t have to go that far…”
“Whatever is received must be returned.”
Kang Hyeon pointed to the woman lying face down and snoring on the floor.
“By the way, you don’t know who this woman is either?”
“Yes. I’ve never seen her before, but she was looking for you.”
“Haa…”
He couldn’t leave her here like this.
He had just caused trouble for the store moments ago.
And his conscience wouldn’t allow him to abandon a woman who came looking for him at the pub.
“Can’t be helped.”
Kang Hyeon lifted the woman with one hand and draped her over his shoulder.
“I’ll come have a drink next time.”
“Yes.”
With Park Jeong-bum bowing and smiling, Kang Hyeon left the pub with the jingling of bells.
***
Ippotranslation
***
The next morning.
Kang Hyeon called a high-level guild executive meeting.
Kang Hyeon sat at the head of the spacious conference room.
After him, Ahn Yu-seong, Shin Seong-ah, Han Jae-moon, Choi Si-Hyeon, Han Si-hwan, and other core executives sat down in order.
The number of high-ranking executives gathered was approximately thirty.
“Since everyone seems to have arrived, let’s begin.”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyeon stood up and wrote something on the whiteboard.
‘7 Things the Badass Guild Must Do’
Hastily written letters with a rough handwriting.
The executives tried to understand why he had written such words.
“Well! What are the things we should do from now on?”
At Kang Hyeon’s question, the guild executives remained silent.
Suddenly being called and asked what they should do next left them without words.
“No one has anything to say?”
Kang Hyeon tapped his chest in frustration.
“Think about it.”
“I’m not sure…”
One executive spoke up, taking the lead.
“Are you going to continue living like this, stuck in a sewer, drowning in alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs? Living like mayflies, not knowing when you’ll die?”
Among the high-ranking guild executives, almost no one lived such a dissolute lifestyle.
However, it was true that many within the guild were like this, so no one particularly denied it.
“That’s why I’ve been thinking about a few things.”
Kang Hyeon wrote something else on the whiteboard.
‘Guild Member W Capability’
“What does this mean? In simple terms, these days, people have become too weak.”
Kang Hyeon shook his head and spoke.
A few executives sighed at his remarks.
‘Here he goes again with his old-fashioned mindset…’
The executives had known Kang Hyeon for a long time and were accustomed to his rigid thinking.
But when they thought about it carefully, his words weren’t entirely wrong.
In fact, comparing the level of ability users just before Kang Hyeon’s near-death and now was pathetic.
“It’s so weak that it makes me sigh! Has anyone here heard about yesterday’s incident?”
“What incident are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the one where five of our guild members were beaten up by a girl who came from another region at the pub. Hasn’t anyone heard?”
Kang Hyeon had thrown the woman he brought from the pub into a corner of the guild office.
Some guild members and executives knew about this, but no one knew the detailed sequence of events.
“To put it simply, five of our guild members were beaten to a pulp by a woman yesterday.”
“And this isn’t all. Remember the dimensional rift incident last time? Suddenly a giant monster appeared, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know the state of those guys I took, who were supposed to be somewhat competent?”
When a giant monster suddenly appeared at the rift, the guild members were completely panicked and couldn’t do anything.
“They all acted like idiots and did nothing. Only one executive barely managed to keep his wits about him.”
The massive monster of the rift was such a significant event that all the executives were aware of its details.
Everyone stared at the table with their mouths tightly shut.
“If it were like the old days, would something like this have happened in our guild? I absolutely don’t think so.”
“But Guild Master.”
At that moment, one executive raised his hand.
“The situation now is too different from back then.”
“What’s different?”
“The status window is gone, isn’t it?”
“So what?”
Kang Hyeon’s expression gradually distorted more and more.
But the executive continued his words without caring.
“Since system corrections and item corrections have disappeared, becoming weaker is inevitable. Of course, the growth rate has slowed down, and the growth expectations are not even half of what they used to be.”
The executive spoke only the exact facts.
Others also nodded in agreement.
“Let me ask you just one thing.”
Kang Hyeon asked while looking at them.
“Did those living in the Harken dimension have status windows?”
“Yes…?”
“I’m asking if those who were slashing and using magic in the Harken dimension had status windows or items, you punk.”
The executive shut his mouth at Kang Hyeon’s words.
“They became so strong just with magic, so why can’t we?”
“That’s a matter of time…”
“We lack time. Yes, that’s right. Those Harken guys have had magic since long ago. They probably know how to handle magic better, and they likely have a systematized method of growth using it.”
“That’s right.”
“Then don’t you think about learning it?”
Kang Hyeon slammed the table with a loud bang!
“What’s the point of having Olien in North Korea? Isn’t it full of wizards and knights over there? Hasn’t anyone thought about learning from them?”
“And let me tell you this. Fundamentally, the mental state is completely messed up.”
Kang Hyeon stared intensely at the executives.
“Since when did our guild accept just anyone because they could use a bit of power? I gathered those who were prepared to die to become strong through evil and sheer grit, and that’s how you were created. Isn’t that right?”
They knew best as they were the ones who had experienced Kang Hyeon directly.
The executives all nodded in agreement with his words.
Kang Hyeon pointed to the executive who had raised his hand earlier to object.
“Was there a function in the system that increased mental strength?”
“No, there wasn’t.”
“So why does the mental state rot just because the system disappeared? Just because we took down a city, it’s game over? If I hadn’t been there this time, what would have happened to the monster that came out of that rift?”
“Is there any guarantee that such creatures won’t come in the future?”
“No… I’m sorry…”
“To become strong, you do whatever it takes. If there’s a system, you use the system, and if there’s no system, you do what you can with what you have.”
“Yes.”
“If you don’t have teeth, would you starve to death because you can’t chew food? No! Whether you boil porridge or chew with your gums, just do something!”
The executives all kept their mouths shut with expressions as if they were criminals.
They changed just as Kang Hyeon said.
The executives had continuously told regular guild members that there were problems, but the real issue was with them.
During the three and a half years without Kang Hyeon, the executives had changed, and since the top had changed, the bottom had no choice but to change as well.
Though in the case of Ahn Yu-seong, Shin Seong-ah, and Yoon Na-rae, the situation was somewhat better.
They had neglected the task of leading guild members.
Despite being in positions of responsibility, they had avoided and condoned things.
“So! I’ve prepared a very comprehensive plan.”
Just as Kang Hyeon was about to explain something again,
“Aaargh! Block!”
“Wh-what is this woman!?”
Thud!
“Who’s firing guns inside!?”
As the hallway suddenly became noisy, Kang Hyeon frowned and looked at the door.
“Who’s making such a racket during a meeting?”
As soon as Kang Hyeon spoke, the door burst open.
“Kang Hyeon! How dare you treat me like luggage!?”
The source of the commotion was the woman he had met at the pub yesterday.
The executives tilted their heads looking at her, with her blue hair, full-body tattoos, and loud equipment.
“Sorry, but I’m a bit busy right now.”
Kang Hyeon approached the woman and looked down threateningly.
“I’m an equality advocate, so I’ll hit anyone who interferes equally. So if you don’t want to die, come back later.”
Kang Hyeon’s red-orange eyes.
Even when facing those eyes filled with bizarre madness, the woman did not back down even a bit.
Instead, she raised her eyes like a beast and smiled wickedly.
“I like that.”
The woman spread both her hands wide.
“I’m a pacifist who loves bombs. Die nicely!”
In each of her hands was a grenade with the pin pulled out.
“Damn it!”
The grenades were thrown recklessly.
In Kang Hyeon’s eyes, two grenades cutting through the air appeared in slow motion.
The woman was smiling while looking at them.
He saw her pulling out a bell from behind her back.
She seemed to know that grenades wouldn’t be enough to handle Kang Hyeon.
Then the grenades were just a decoy.
But Kang Hyeon couldn’t let the grenades explode.
This was the guild meeting room.
These days, building repairs are difficult, so if something like this explodes indoors, it would be troublesome in many ways.
Crack!
Kang Hyeon extended his hand at an incredible speed and quickly snatched the grenades.
The woman looked at him with surprised eyes, as if she didn’t expect him to catch them with his hand.
But soon a deep smile crossed her lips.
Boooooom!
With an enormous explosion, the grenades detonated.
‘This is totally a jackpot.’
Honestly, the grenades were only meant to increase confusion.
If they could cause a slight injury as a bonus, that would be good, but she didn’t particularly hope for it.
She naturally thought he would dodge.
‘Catching a grenade with bare hands. Stupid guy.’
But because Kang Hyeon directly caught the grenades, the two grenades exploded in his hands.
No matter how strong Kang Hyeon was, with two grenades exploding right in front of him, he couldn’t possibly be unharmed…
“Huh?”
The woman made a bewildered expression for the first time.
Dadadadada!
A demon was charging.
Kang Hyeon was running with a face like a messenger from hell.
His massive fist filled her entire field of vision.
“Ah…”
“Diiiie!”
With a shock like being hit by a hammer, her consciousness was cut off.
