Chapter 127: Yoo Hee-yeon and Kim Hee-ra face each other

Lee Hyun-seung’s group—Jung Eun-seo, Han Sung-gil, and Kim Yuri—headed straight for the Artemis Guild.

For reference, Kim Yuri had always shown high potential and had awakened from a non-awakened state to an epic-grade magician. It seemed her awakening happened naturally after facing various dangers, including the recent terrorist incident.

‘Kim Yuri could be quite useful if she grows a bit more.’

If she hadn’t awakened on her own, Lee Hyun-seung had planned to forcibly awaken her, so her voluntary awakening was a good sign for him. An epic-grade magician—and one who was definitely on his side—was not something easy to come by.

‘Now it’s really starting.’

At first, he had nothing. Though he had the academic status of being top of his class in written tests, it was overshadowed by his bottom-tier practical test scores. The label of a non-awakened person always followed him. On top of that, after being falsely accused as a stalker, he was scorned by others as trash. At that time, he had no money, no connections, no power—nothing at all.

But look now. Around Lee Hyun-seung, there were far more people than back then.

Right beside him were Han Sung-gil, who had a berserker trait; Jung Eun-seo, whose parents ran a high-ranking Theore Guild; and Kim Yuri, who was deeply interested in magical studies and independently researching and developing her skills.

One epic-grade swordsman, one legendary-grade gunslinger, and two epic-grade magicians. Who could possibly ignore such a combination?

• Clench

Lee Hyun-seung clenched his fist tightly inside the car heading to Artemis Guild.

‘I just wanted to live quietly. I was satisfied with living an ordinary life.’

Being reincarnated here, his first goal was to live quietly. He thought it would be enough just to live modestly, to scrape by, and entering the Mage Tower was his only real goal.

But after being falsely accused as a criminal, everything changed, and so did his goal. Lee Hyun-seung’s goal was to bring down the arrogant Kim Hee-ra and Yoo Hee-yeon, who had inflicted him with fatal insults and humiliation. Furthermore—

“Hyun-seung? Is something wrong?”

“Why are you like this again? Always spacing out alone.”

“Lee Hyun-seung, did you come up with a brilliant magical formula or something?”

• Chuckles

Lee Hyun-seung smiled. Moreover, his ultimate goal: the people beside him, who were worthy to be called ‘friends.’ They needed to have the power to protect.

Lee Hyun-seung had underestimated the Broad Academy online world. He painfully realized that while being falsely accused as a criminal, in this world, laws, common sense, and anything else would not protect him. The minimum requirements to live safely in this world were strong power, connections, and money. Without these, no matter how much you appeal to sympathy, no one would acknowledge or help you. In the end, you had to become strong yourself.

To avoid unjust accusations, to protect his dignity, power was essential.

• Creak

While Lee Hyun-seung was lost in thought, the car arrived at Artemis Guild.

Jung Eun-seo’s driver spoke to the others in the car.

“We have arrived at Artemis Guild.”

• Thud-thud!

“Oh… you’re here!”

Park Dong-hyun, the Artemis gatekeeper, greeted Lee Hyun-seung with excessive enthusiasm.

He was the guy who had challenged Lee Hyun-seung before.

• New guild member? How did such a clueless-looking guy get into our guild? Weren’t you supposed to be a gunslinger? Are we so desperate for people that we accept gunslingers now?

Park Dong-hyun had once almost gotten into serious trouble with Baek So-yoon for acting arrogantly toward Lee Hyun-seung. Lee Hyun-seung still remembered Baek So-yoon’s sharp glare from that time.

• ‘If I catch you being rude to him even once more, you can consider yourself dead, got it?’

‘If I had just left it alone, he probably would have killed him, right?’

To be honest, Lee Hyun-seung wasn’t exactly happy to see Park Dong-hyun, who had looked down on him from the start. But the one reason he had protected and treated him politely was simple.

Because he was the gatekeeper.

Anyone officially entering or leaving Artemis Guild had to go through Park Dong-hyun. If Lee Hyun-seung could win him over, he would know exactly who came and went frequently.

“Um… are the people next to you the team members joining this time?”

Fortunately, after the incident where he got beaten up, Park Dong-hyun seemed to have sobered up and was treating Lee Hyun-seung respectfully. Since Baek So-yoon cared for Lee Hyun-seung, Dong-hyun judged it better not to make enemies of him. That was fine for Lee Hyun-seung. After all, leading them as allies was something that could be done slowly.

“Yes, I informed them in advance that we would be visiting.”

“Yes! I also received the notice, so I’m aware. I just wanted to double-check! Since your identities are confirmed, we will let you pass without inspection.”

Park Dong-hyun watched carefully with a stiff tone. As Lee Hyun-seung entered the Artemis Guild headquarters, he placed a hand on Dong-hyun’s shoulder.

“You seem older than me. You don’t have to use formal speech.”

“I-I can’t do that!”

“Then when we get to know each other better later, please speak comfortably.”

Park Dong-hyun looked at Lee Hyun-seung with surprise. Lee Hyun-seung left him like that and headed inside.

Of course, what he just said was mere politeness.

Park Dong-hyun wouldn’t start using informal speech from now on. He already knew that Dong-hyun was someone valued by the Artemis elder Baek So-yoon. Despite knowing this, Lee Hyun-seung’s words meant only that there were no hard feelings left from before, and he wanted to build a closer relationship going forward.

‘If he’s perceptive, he’ll understand the hint.’

Since Park Dong-hyun had looked down on Lee Hyun-seung from the start, it would have been easy to assume the grudge was too deep and that Lee couldn’t join that faction. But with that brief gesture, Lee Hyun-seung left the door open.

If you want to join this faction, feel free to do so.

“Pl-please enter carefully!”

Maybe having caught on to Lee Hyun-seung’s intention, Park Dong-hyun even gave a seeing-off greeting he didn’t really have to.

“Hyun-seung, didn’t you just recently join the Artemis Guild?”

Jung Eun-seo, who knew somewhat about the system of a high-ranking guild, asked Lee Hyun-seung with a puzzled expression. Park Dong-hyun’s unusually polite treatment was suspicious.

“It hasn’t been long. Well, you’ll understand the minor stuff as you go along.”

There was too little time to explain everything that happened with Baek So-yoon and Yoo Han-beom one by one.

Today was the first day that all the ‘team members’ were entering the Artemis Guild together.

Unlike Lee Hyun-seung, who had arrived earlier, the others were mostly meeting the guild members for the first time and were almost unknown inside the guild.

‘First impressions are important.’

Though it was somewhat known that Yoo Han-beom and Baek So-yoon favored him, no fools in the Artemis Guild would acknowledge his abilities just because of that.

Even Kim Hee-ra, who held partial authority over the guild’s operations, was dissatisfied and said the authority was beyond her ability to handle.

Therefore, to be recognized by them, caution was needed in every aspect.

Being too forceful could make enemies, but appearing weak could make them easy prey.

“Ha…”

Lee Hyun-seung sighed briefly and opened the door.

–squeeeak–

Thousands of Artemis Guild members gathered at once in front of the auditorium, all watching them.

Standing on the large stage was Artemis Guild Master Yoo Han-beom.

Next to him stood all the elders, from the first to the fifth.

‘No joke.’

It was astonishing that a single guild possessed thousands of members, but even more impressive was the aura radiating from the elders.

Without a doubt, if Yoo Han-beom and the elders wished, they could kill everyone in this auditorium in an instant.

In the face of overwhelming power, numbers mean nothing.

But combined with their overwhelming strength and large numbers, Artemis was clearly the top guild in the country.

Now it was easy to understand why everyone revered them.

“Wow… even our Theore guild isn’t this big…”

Jung Eun-seo also had a surprised expression, seemingly because it was her first time entering inside the Artemis Guild.

Lee Hyun-seung walked forward, leaving his amazed companions behind.

As he walked and glanced around, he spotted familiar faces.

‘Kim Hee-ra, Yoo Hee-yeon.’

Yoo Hee-yeon was mixed in among the guild members.

Kim Hee-ra was swaggering just below the auditorium.

Until recently, these two probably stood beside Yoo Han-beom on the stage, but their positions had noticeably fallen.

Lee Hyun-seung kept his gaze fixed on them, now standing at the same level, and shouted:

“I come here under the command of the guild master, the true owner of the Artemis Guild, to greet you all.

From now on, I will serve as the team leader of the Artemis Guild — Lee Hyun-seung.”