Ch.166. Glass Office (1)

From among the hunters, one shouted.

“Why isn’t our guild ranked first? We cleared the same number of B-rank dungeons. What’s going on?”

Team Leader Seo watched the scene with interest. His gaze shifted toward an electronic display board in the office.

The evaluation results of the intern expedition were displayed on the screen.

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Guild Name / Cleared Dungeon Rank(Number) / Total Score

* Flame / B-rank(4) / 720p

* Manseong / B-rank(4) / 510p

* Sigurd / B-rank(3) C-rank(2) / 500p

..

..

..

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Then Team Leader Seo spoke.

“As expected, we’re in first place. I anticipated this, of course.”

The angry hunter was an intern from Manseong. Manseong was Korea’s largest corporate guild. He seemed overflowing with pride at being selected as their intern.

‘He must be pretty pissed about losing to us.’

Even his equipment gleamed with polish, likely top-grade gear given as a welcome gift.

Of course, to experienced hunters, he would look like nothing more than an inexperienced rookie.

And not just him—interns from other major guilds had gathered around, venting their frustration at the results.

“They’re all just B-rank dungeons, right? It’s not like they were B+ or double B-rank. They didn’t even clear more dungeons than us, so why is the score gap so big?”

“I bet Yuri Tarkovskaya, that Snow Woman, pulled some strings. She’s the daughter of Andrei, Flame Guild’s chairman.”

Eventually, their complaints turned toward us.

The returning interns all wore name tags with their guild names around their necks. They recognized us.

“Those are Flame’s interns, right? Never seen them before.”

“Looking at their equipment, they don’t even have proper dealers. Did they bribe the Association?”

Team Leader Seo chuckled at that remark.

“The ones who bribed are their guilds. How ironic. Well, new recruits who just joined big corporations tend to have excessive pride. In reality, most of them will be used and discarded. I saw countless people like them when I worked at Manseong.”

Team Leader Seo was right. Given the nature of large corporate guilds that operate numerous raid teams, interns like them rarely get to shine.

‘If they saw real potential in someone, they would skip the internship and put them directly into the main raid team.’

And among the group glaring at us unpleasantly, suddenly one young hunter pointed at me.

“Wait. That person wearing the operator badge. Isn’t that Lee Minsu?”

The hunters’ attention focused on me.

“Lee Minsu? Who’s that? I know several hunters named Lee Minsu.”

“Hold on. Now that I look at him… his face seems familiar. I think I saw him at an exchange competition when I was at the Academy.”

“Lee Minsu? Wait, could it be? That fire mage?”

Their expressions suddenly changed.

“Isn’t he the fire mage who paired with Yuri Tarkovskaya at that exchange competition years ago? They won the national exchange competition. Ains Academy, right?”

“I remember that too. The Snow Woman’s team advanced to the finals with a perfect record, so they got a lot of attention.”

Their words brought back memories I had forgotten. In my third year at Ains, I represented the academy at the national exchange competition.

Paired with Yuri, I won that competition.

“But why is he wearing an operator badge? Come to think of it, Yuri Tarkovskaya became an S-rank hunter afterward, but I never heard anything about the fire mage who paired with her.”

“I remember there was a big commotion back then. Manseong’s elite raid team even came to watch that match.”

“Those two were from Ains, right? Wait, wasn’t there a major incident at Ains’ graduation ceremony around that time? What happened?”

“Anyway, what does it matter? It’s not uncommon in this industry for promising academy students to become cripples. That’s probably why he ended up at some no-name guild instead of a major corporation like us. We should file a complaint about the scores.”

As they continued to whisper about me, openly disrespecting me and Flame, Soso’s expression darkened considerably.

Arin’s usually cheerful face also turned cold.

‘Well, I’m not happy about it either.’

Before either of them could make a move, I headed toward those guys first.

***

I stood in front of the Manseong intern who seemed to be a dealer and was particularly snide toward Flame.

“What do you want? Why are you staring at me like that? Got a problem?”

The intern spoke threateningly, but I crossed my arms and calmly replied.

“Did your guild rent this whole place? This isn’t a marketplace, so keep it down. If you have complaints, file them properly with the Association staff. Don’t pick fights for no reason. Man up.”

The atmosphere among them suddenly changed. Hunter confrontations like this were common, but they clearly hadn’t expected an operator, not even a dealer, to confront them so directly.

“Picking fights? Are you crazy? Just an operator thinking you can take us on?”

“Take you on? You already got crushed by us in terms of skill. Is your head so full of muscle that you can’t even read numbers?”

I pointed at the display board. 720p versus 510p. First and second place. Only one rank apart, but the score gap was substantial.

“Check for yourself if you’re not blind. Can’t even do subtraction? There’s a 210-point difference.”

As I said, Manseong’s interns were completely defeated by Flame. The difference between second and third place was only 10 points.

“You bastard! You think you can talk to me like that?”

The air around him changed as he moved his mana. He sharpened it threateningly, pressing down on me like killing intent. Though not directly harmful, it was intimidation against non-combat personnel—quite fierce energy befitting an intern from a major corporation.

But I dismissed it casually. Truly dangerous beasts are quiet until they strike.

I’d met plenty of hunters like him—all talk and arrogance—during my illegal part-time jobs at Ains.

And I’m sorry to say, but even a stray dog was more frightening than him.

I retorted:

“Stop making a scene. If you’re so upset, file a formal complaint with the office staff. Or are you not confident enough?”

“What…? You little…”

Just as he was about to reach for his weapon, Soso and Arin immediately came to my side. I raised my hand to stop them.

“Stay back. You too, Arin.”

They obediently stopped. As expected, office staff quickly rushed over to intervene.

“Causing disturbances inside the office is prohibited! Stop this at once! Have you forgotten you’re in an Association office?”

“But this doesn’t make sense! This score difference!”

“We’ll explain that right now. Please look at the display board.”

A staff member in a suit began explaining to the gathered interns, particularly based on the records of the dungeons our Flame party had cleared.

When the explanation finished, the other interns spoke in disbelieving voices.

“What… Is this Flame for real? They cleared four B-rank dungeons with just a tank and two healers?”

“And Flame didn’t even do any clearing on the first day, right? Or rather, they couldn’t. There wouldn’t have been any B-rank dungeons left besides their assigned one.”

“So they successfully cleared four dungeons in just two days? And the level of completion is… perfect.”

With the records displayed, there was no room for doubt. And it wasn’t just about the dungeon ranks. Even for the same dungeons, Flame’s completion level was higher.

“Despite having such a small party, their clearing speed was actually faster. And they even found and cleared all the hidden chambers in the dungeons. That would definitely earn bonus points.”

“The boss battles too. Even with just healers and a tank, they precisely targeted the bosses’ weaknesses. That’s why they got that score…”

“All because of that operator?”

In the end, none of the interns could argue anymore. Even the hunter who had confronted me kept his mouth shut.

‘If they kept arguing, they’d only embarrass Manseong.’

Then the Association staff announced:

“For this first intern expedition, guilds ranked up to third place will receive additional rewards from the Association. Please collect your rewards before leaving.”

My group and I received our rewards.

‘There’s actually something useful here.’

I was quite satisfied with the reward. There was something I desperately needed but couldn’t obtain right now.

As we were about to leave the office, Uncle Donghyuk chuckled and said:

“Minsu, you haven’t changed at all. An operator with no fear. For that level of confrontation, you could have just left it to me.”

“Well, about that.”

Team Leader Seo answered on my behalf with a smile:

“That’s not fearlessness. It’s cunning.”

Uncle Donghyuk listened with interest to Team Leader Seo’s subsequent explanation.

***

A few days later.

Yuri Tarkovskaya was in her office.

It was still January, the dead of winter. Seoul in the northern hemisphere was particularly cold, and the wind was fierce around the high-rise buildings.

But Yuri kept her office window open. As an S-rank hunter and ice mage, she wasn’t bothered by the cold.

However, the moment she saw the documents that Executive Director Maria had left for her, her body felt so hot that she unbuttoned a few more buttons on her shirt.

“Why… did she bring something like this?”

Yuri sighed. She had been sighing a lot lately. At this rate, the guild’s first quarter evaluation would clearly be poor.

She was maintaining her S-rank status thanks to last year’s achievements, but even that was becoming precarious. Flame’s missions were severely limited due to the absence of a main dealer.

Yuri had been fighting hard herself, but even as an S-rank hunter, she had physical and mental limits.

If the guild evaluation dropped to A-rank, many of the privileges Flame received from the Association would be restricted.

Among those were privileges essential for tracking the Red Lake.

“Sigh…”

But this sigh had a different meaning. The document Executive Director Maria had placed on her desk wasn’t about Flame’s current status or performance reports.

Yuri glanced at the title on the document’s cover again.

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“How to Reunite with Your Ex-Lover with 100% Success”

– Heartbeat Romance R&D Center –

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It was completely unrelated to Flame’s business, and from a very suspicious source at that.

‘What does this mean? I’m dying from being so busy, and Maria brings this…’

Despite her internal protest, Yuri read the document thoroughly, not missing a single page or word.

As expected of Maria, who had been by Yuri’s side for years, she had accurately read Yuri’s true feelings.

Yuri had never been in a relationship before. Maria knew this well. The reason she brought such a document was obvious.

It was for Yuri, who had been sighing every day because of Lee Minsu.

After reading the document, Yuri had to admit that Maria was right.

‘Yes. I want to go back to how things were with Minsu back then.’

Their relationship had been more than friends but less than lovers, and it ended before it could become something more.

But if she thought about it in terms of a normal relationship between a man and woman, Yuri couldn’t deny that she and Minsu were most similar to what could be called “ex-lovers.”

She collapsed on her desk in despair.

“Why… why did I do that…”

Her cheeks flushed. Even in this cold, the reason her body felt hot was because according to this document, she had recently done something to Minsu that she absolutely shouldn’t have.

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– Remember: If you want to reunite with an ex-lover, never give gifts that evoke memories, like items with sentimental value!

– When the other person isn’t yet at the stage of considering reunion with you, memories revived through such gifts can become poison instead. In their mind, memories of you might still be painful rather than nostalgic.

– So absolutely do not give gifts. If you really want to give something, wait until your relationship has returned to that of normal acquaintances, and start with gifts completely unrelated to old memories.

– This is a common mistake made by clients who are too eager to reunite with their former partners…

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But she had already done it.

She had recently given Minsu a moon-shaped necklace. And that necklace…

‘It’s identical to the one I’m wearing around my neck now…’

It was exactly the same as the necklace Minsu had given her on White Day during their time at Ains.

She had searched extensively for that uncommon design, even going to Incheon’s Free Trade Zone to find it.

‘And I even took Minsu there directly.’

Yuri couldn’t hold back a curse.

“Damn it!”

As she was wallowing in frustration, there was suddenly a knock at her office door. Yuri jumped in surprise.