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Chapter 12. The Determination to Protect
The meeting room of the guild building where Yeoun Guild members gathered again after enjoying their holiday in their own ways.
“Everyone checked the content we’re sending to reporters, right?”
Choi Jiyoon said while drinking her beverage. She was skilled at writing press releases and Q&As for reporters in expressions that were as clean as possible without giving them any angles to attack.
To put it nicely, she had a free-spirited way of speaking, but to look at it harshly, she had taken on public announcements instead of Samin who used reckless rhetoric, which she naturally acquired.
It wasn’t that Samin had dumped all the work on Choi Jiyoon either. Samin had also directly interviewed with reporters a few times. It’s just that the results weren’t good.
To one reporter’s question of “Why do you insist on the small elite guild image?”, Samin answered like this:
“Since towers are places where lives are at stake, I try to maintain personnel within the range that I, as guild master, can take responsibility for, and I only recruit people who can protect their own lives.”
It was a normal model answer. However, the title on the day the article was uploaded was pulled like this:
[[Exclusive] “I don’t recruit people who can’t protect their own lives…”, Slope’s conviction interview]
This was because he overlooked that his way of speaking would look like tasty prey to reporters who were desperate to create provocative titles to catch people’s attention.
Malicious antis who loved tearing people down couldn’t just let this pass. Despite knowing it was typical title bait, they became obsessed with excitedly writing slander posts and comments.
The malicious hunters residing on Veritas anonymous boards often abused the system’s characteristics. Even though it was an act that violated domestic information and communication network laws, the majority opinion of scholars that the entity managing the system wasn’t human became their excellent backing.
This was because even if the affected party wanted to sue, the police couldn’t specify the personal details of hunters using the system.
Unlike boards that displayed nicknames, boards with thorough anonymity were sometimes similar to sewage treatment plants that had lost their purification function. Since it wasn’t a place where lawsuits were possible, a culture of enjoying the act of putting someone down like a kind of sport had established itself.
After being severely hit by reporters’ malicious title bait several times, Choi Jiyoon came to handle external interview requests and dealing with the media.
“I’m wondering if it’s right to reveal the acquisition conditions like this…”
Do Hyeonwoo subtly showed regret. It wasn’t just any ordinary skill but the world’s first movement skill they’d acquired. If guilds like Libra, Solaris, or Thrill had acquired it, they probably would have rented a hotel for a press conference.
“Even if we reveal the acquisition conditions for free, how many people in our country do you think could actually buy and get it? Excluding those Thousand Swords guys, there’s no one, but their repertoire for public opinion warfare is obvious.”
Kim Chansol, who had been quietly listening, refuted Kim Minhyeok’s suggestion.
“They’ll push themselves as the pioneering image that generously reveals conquest videos, while making us out to be hopeless bastards who stingily take money to sell even the first skill acquisition conditions.”
“Ah shit, that’s true too. It’s just too wasteful. It’s not like I’m saying this to make our guild get cursed at…”
“I know. But I think revealing it is right too. We’ve also received a lot of help watching their conquests, and even if we tell them, they’ll definitely have people getting upset while the guild masters look at each other deciding who to include in the eight-person conquest team.”
Jang Hyeonseong crossed his arms and shook his head. Kim Minhyeok, who had been alone in opposing the revelation through interviews, nodded as if sufficiently convinced.
“Alright. Then that article is settled. Using the movement skill directly on Floor 54 would be crazy, right?”
Samin refreshed the atmosphere and led the meeting.
“Even being really generous, up to the 30s would somehow be okay, but from the 40s onwards we absolutely can’t use it. We’ve all only done individual practice right now and haven’t gotten used to who will jump out from where.”
When Kim Chansol showed difficulty, Do Hyeonwoo chimed in.
“It’s a useful and good skill, but thinking about changing mana distribution and skill combinations to use it gives me a headache… How about you, Doun hyung?”
“I’m the same. It’s not like I’m going around alone, and since I don’t know where and how other people will move, I think we all need to practice together a lot.”
Doun, who had always unilaterally accepted other people’s stories or just nodded in meetings, began to voice his own opinions little by little. Even if it wasn’t to the level of actively questioning or throwing up agenda items, this was meaningful progress.
“Still, wouldn’t conquering using the movement skill be fun?”
Samin, who had been watching his boyfriend from the side with an expression hiding his pride, casually joined in. Then Doun smiled as if asking what kind of obvious thing he was saying.
“It’s been a while since we got a new skill, so of course it’s fun.”
Even if there were thousands of known skills, depending on hunters’ preferences, mana amounts, and circumstances, the skills they frequently used were at most around twenty. Even that, if you were included in a conquest team that divided roles, the frequently used skills could be counted on one hand.
On the Veritas anonymous board that expressed sordid and lowly inner thoughts, disparaging posts like “Magnetic clears towers rotating between just Stigma and Flash,” “Isn’t Slope also a corpse if you take away punching sediment,” and “That Rain Work bastard would be a total failure without Meteor” were not uncommon, but they couldn’t refute that these were efficient skills verified even on the highest floors.
The problem was the chronic mannerism of the casters, the hunters. Except for ultra-high floor conquests, hunters devoted much time to repetitive high floor conquests for maintaining rankings. Therefore, while there might be changes in conquest team personnel, the skills used had to be boringly the same.
They were verified combinations, skills ingrained in their bodies, and there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
‘Ah, ranking grind is so boring and uninteresting…’
While lower-ranked hunters conquered dream floors they wanted to visit before dying, upper-ranked hunters felt boredom. This was the reality of hunters conquering Veritas Tower.
But since they’d acquired a skill with both rarity and convenience, they naturally had to be stimulated. Even Do Hyeonwoo, who said his head hurt, was only talking like that – he was buried in the training floors reducing his sleep to improve proficiency.
“Then we’ll send the article like this. Let’s quickly build up proficiency. If we can’t use the movement skill in actual combat, we’ll have to open a delivery part-time company. It’s too wasteful.”
“To match the level people here earn in a month, we’d have to charge 1 million won per delivery, wouldn’t we?”
“1 million won per delivery… Our company is closing from today. Unable to bear the soaring labor costs…”
Samin, who quickly returned the joke Seong Suyeon had passed, buried his head deeply. Among all the giggling faces, he could see Doun smiling brightly. When Samin’s eyes met Doun’s, he smiled a little more happily.
So this is what secret dating is like. While thinking such thoughts inside.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
