Chapter 75
Hwang Ji-woo (2)
The main gate of Yubaek City, with its classical design, dominated the surrounding scenery.
In front of it, eight women were gathered.
All of them were Baek Ah-jin’s friends, who had come for a visit after receiving Yu Ji-a’s invitation.
Their occupations were all different.
Some were college students, some were player trainees, and some were preparing to inherit their family businesses.
“Oh? Ji-woo, you came too?”
One of them said.
Hwang Ji-woo.
“Yeah.”
She nodded.
“It’s a rare chance, so I had to come.”
There were some familiar faces she had not seen in a while.
Ji-woo was one of those friends who stayed in the group chat but rarely attended gatherings.
She was always sick with something.
“Do you have a fever today?”
One friend placed the back of her hand on Ji-woo’s forehead.
Then—
“Ah! That scared me!”
She quickly pulled her hand away in surprise.
“What? Why is it so hot?”
“…I have a fever.”
“Come to think of it, she always has a fever.”
Hwang Ji-woo was wearing a mask.
Her face was covered, but birds of a feather flock together.
All of Baek Ah-jin’s friends were beautiful and charming.
Then in front of them—
“Guys, you came?”
The gate opened, and Baek Ah-jin, dressed neatly, greeted them with a bright smile.
“Wow.”
“Ah-jin looks amazing.”
“Is that what you wear to work?”
Baek Ah-jin had grown a lot.
Now her name appeared frequently in the media, and she was becoming quite famous.
Naturally, her friends looked at her with admiration.
After greeting them lightly, Baek Ah-jin kindly guided them.
“Today you can go anywhere you want. Walk around freely, take photos if you want. I also have an apartment key here. It’s room 1402, I already told them to open it.”
The newest high-tech apartments of Yubaek.
They were extremely popular these days.
With the government openly supporting Baek Jin-woo, all of them belonged to Yubaek.
And if someone wanted to buy one of these apartments,
they first needed to obtain residency rights from Yubaek.
You could almost say it was a country within a country.
And now they could tour a place like this.
“Wow.”
“I want to live in an apartment like this… I heard the basement connects to a bunker.”
“Can we see your house too, Ah-jin? Isn’t it a penthouse?”
The group became very noisy with excitement.
Only one person—
Hwang Ji-woo.
Her gaze was not on the apartment buildings.
It was fixed on the training grounds.
* * *
Hwang Ji-woo.
She had been sickly since childhood.
Because of her unusual body condition, her average body temperature was much higher than normal people.
Because of that, she had suffered a lot.
Then three years ago—
when the world changed and everyone went through the tutorial—
she received one summon.
Ice Butterfly (E-rank).
It was strange.
Whenever the Ice Butterfly was beside her, the pain that had tormented her disappeared completely.
Not other summons.
Only the Ice Butterfly.
That gave Hwang Ji-woo hope.
She started researching different things.
And in the end she discovered—
‘I need ice-attribute summons.’
She realized that elemental compatibility worked strongly for her.
In fact, the summons she controlled felt much stronger than the ones she saw in videos from other players.
After that, she made a decision.
She would become a player.
But as always, the world was not easy.
To obtain summons, you had to clear dungeons.
You had to repeatedly run daily dungeons.
Even after doing that for three years, becoming a ranker was impossible.
It was even difficult just to join a large guild.
From the beginning, only 0.1% of players could enter such places—and even among them, only 0.1% were chosen.
Unless someone like the Five Emperors or a top-tier ranker personally helped you,
the best you could do was something like selling runes, just like Baek Ah-jin used to do.
Especially in South Korea, which was known as a weak country for summoners.
In the end, Hwang Ji-woo became a player who could barely earn money.
She still lived with her parents and struggled with her illness.
Then she heard the news about Baek Ah-jin.
And immediately came here.
‘Maybe I can meet Baek Jin-woo.’
In the industry, Baek Jin-woo was a legend.
The entire national team, which consisted of top-tier players, had received training from him.
The media praised him constantly.
Some players even said their skills could be divided into before meeting Baek Jin-woo and after meeting him.
Maybe her intentions were selfish.
Using her connection with Baek Ah-jin to somehow meet him.
Even though she knew that,
Hwang Ji-woo still came.
She was that desperate.
But—
“Just one thing.”
Baek Ah-jin finished speaking with a smile.
“You must not go near the training grounds. My brother is training there… The CEO also asked us to make sure that rule is followed. And I’m asking you the same thing.”
….
Damn it.
Hwang Ji-woo made a sad face.
* * *
“Ha…”
After exercising, Baek Jin-woo came out of the shower room after rinsing off quickly.
He let out a sigh.
Only one word filled his mind.
‘Devour, Devour, Devour, Devour….’
If he wanted to learn it, he had to learn it as soon as possible.
That way, every time he killed a boss monster, stacks would build up and make him stronger.
But still—
‘That was a fake authority?’
According to the setting, inside the heart of a Violent Dragon Summoner slept an ancient violent dragon.
The skill Violent Dragon Wave was created by awakening a small part of that power.
And the dragon’s authority was Devour.
‘If that Devour is fake… how broken would the real authority be?’
Or maybe—
he was approaching it the wrong way.
Maybe something like this happened:
Back in Battle of Summoners, the Violent Dragon awakened a fake authority, which turned out to be an unexpectedly broken mutation.
So the developers patched it.
‘If that’s the case…’
Then the fake authority might actually be better than the real one.
“Hoo.”
If that was true, he should learn the fake authority.
After all, reality clearly did not care about game balance.
‘Then I need to create a situation with less than 10% survival rate…’
Maybe…
bringing only the Violent Dragon and facing the 40th floor boss of the Tower of Trials?
No.
That would probably make the survival rate close to zero.
Even that was unclear.
Who decided the survival rate anyway?
And this was not a game.
If you lost in a dungeon—
you died.
That was also the reason why players’ growth rates were slower than before.
“Sigh… I don’t know anymore.”
Even if he made a plan, it was useless.
If the Violent Dragon declared a strike, it was all over.
‘Yeah, forget it.’
He was already strong enough.
And there were still many ways for him to grow stronger.
He still needed to give graduation runes to the Violent Dragon and Doldori.
He should also start aiming for another EX-rank summon.
He had to clear the Tower of Trials.
And slowly prepare for the Chaos Demon Dragon raid, which would appear in the fifth year.
Rustle.
After drying himself with a towel, Baek Jin-woo left the training grounds.
The summons of his four disciples and his own summons were all enduring Hoon-gyo’s training together.
And in one corner—
Whoosh!
The Violent Dragon was meditating while flames burned around him.
Then suddenly—
[Sudden Quest Appears!]
[A sudden quest has arrived for ‘Violent Dragon Summoner’ (EX-Rank)!]
[Would you like to open the quest?]
[Y/N]
“Damn, that scared me.”
A message suddenly appeared on the screen!
No warning at all.
A quest for the Violent Dragon?
‘Did a system like this exist?’
He had played Battle of Summoners for 10 years, but he had never seen a message like this.
Maybe it only appeared for S-rank or higher summons.
Something like a hidden piece.
— Hmm…?
Even the Violent Dragon seemed to feel something strange and stopped training.
‘I have to press it.’
A quest appears and you press N?
That was impossible for Baek Jin-woo.
And for most players too.
“Yes.”
Let’s go.
What kind of quest is it?
[Sudden Quest!]
[Unlock the Authority of the Ancient Violent Dragon (S-Rank)!]
[The Violent Dragon Summoner is extremely stressed because she fears losing her player! But nearby appears a rare constitution — the Body of Flame!]
[This is a perfect opportunity!]
[Train the Violent Dragon Summoner (EX-Rank) beside the Body of Flame for 100 days!]
[If separated for more than 1 hour, the timer will reset.]
[Current Time – 0 days, 00:00:00]
“…Body of Flame?”
What is that?
And who?
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
* * *
All training was stopped immediately.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“What happened, brother?”
His disciples asked in confusion.
But Baek Jin-woo did not explain.
He simply said,
“Something urgent came up. Let’s postpone training for about three days.”
Recently the disciples trained every morning until 3 PM.
After that they returned to their guilds to handle work.
“You guys haven’t been able to pay attention to your guilds lately anyway.”
Things like Body of Flame and Violent Dragon authority—
It was too complicated to explain.
And even Baek Jin-woo did not fully understand it.
“Understood, Master.”
“Then we’ll see you next Monday, brother!”
The disciples left reluctantly.
For them, this training was actually helping their guilds.
The stronger they became under Baek Jin-woo,
the more their guilds benefited.
But if Baek Jin-woo told them to leave,
what could they do?
— My lord.
Hoon-gyo approached with a curious expression.
The Violent Dragon also walked over.
Baek Jin-woo shared the quest with them.
— The Body of Flame… I have information about it.
“Oh really?”
Wow.
Hoon-gyo really was incredible.
Since becoming EX-rank, he had become like an encyclopedia of summons.
— It is similar to the Nine Yin Blocked Meridian we saw before, but different. The Nine Yin condition is a congenital disease caused by extreme yin energy blocking the meridians. But the Body of Flame is a special constitution. The rising yang energy may cause suffering, but it turns ice attributes from opposing elements into supporting ones. It is also a rare constitution that appears only once every thousand years.
“…Really?”
Baek Jin-woo did not fully understand.
But it meant someone with that constitution was nearby.
— Training the Violent Dragon beside the Body of Flame for 100 days… This is actually much better than before, my lord.
“Better?”
— It is far better than risking your life in a dungeon.
That was true.
“Then how do we find the Body of Flame?”
— Please wait a moment.
Hoon-gyo lowered his head and touched his forehead with his fingers.
Wow.
Encyclopedia Hoon-gyo!
How could someone be so reliable?
He really looked like a genius scholar-warrior.
But—
— There is no specific method.
“Huh?”
No method?
— However, my lord.
“Yes?”
— Did you not say there was a timer on the quest window?
“That’s right…”
[Current Time – 0 days, 00:00:00]
The timer was still visible.
Ah.
Ah!
Clap!
Baek Jin-woo clapped his hands.
“We can check it physically!”
They could walk around with the Violent Dragon and meet people.
When they found someone—
if the timer started moving, that person must be the Body of Flame.
— Since the message said the person is nearby, there is a high chance they are inside Yubaek City. Also, since the quest appeared suddenly, it might be someone who does not usually come to Yubaek City. We should investigate that first.
“Okay.”
Baek Jin-woo stood up immediately.
First, find the person.
After that—
they would think about the rest.
