Chapter 18
At the very moment Lee Hyun was locked in a standoff with Team Leader Jung from Z Team,
Lim Won-young was suffering from a different kind of headache.
“Hohoho! So, the bratty granddaughter who never shows her face to this old granny unless she has her own selfish goals—what you tried so hard to push through was this very Jet, wasn’t it?”
“When did I ever force anything? You agreed to it yourself, Grandma.”
“That was only because that geezer from KAL wouldn’t stop pestering me, and you kept getting in the way. So I just told you to handle it.”
“Anyway, whatever happens, do not breathe a word of this to anyone outside. I’m only telling you because you kept pressing me. He belongs to me.”
“Oh? You even know how to order this old granny around now?”
“Grandma!”
“All right, all right. My ears are going to fall off. You think I’d sabotage my own granddaughter’s plans at my age? Relax. My lips are sealed.”
Lim Won-young pressed her lips shut. She knew arguing further would only scratch at her own nerves.
That shrill laugh… even after thirty years, it still drives me crazy. Ugh.
Not to mention the way her grandmother shamelessly twisted every word to suit herself.
Maybe that’s exactly why she could become one of the world’s only nine Top Rankers.
Won-young pressed her temples with her fingers and glared at her grandmother sitting at the head seat.
Her grandmother had hair so brilliantly white it looked as if ground silver had been sprinkled over it, tied up carelessly and pinned with a phoenix hairpin.
She wore a modernized hanbok, tailored from fine silk to be practical yet elegant.
Even though she was well past eighty, her skin was taut and flawless, her eyes sharp enough to pierce through everything,
her lips curled up playfully yet seductively,
and a long smoking pipe trailed white smoke to deepen her mystique.
It was the image of a mountain goddess out of legend.
She was the living symbol of the Korean Hunter world—an absolute being who embodied every myth of the tiger.
“9,000.”
This was the Mountain Spirit, Mo Jung-gyun.
“But you put that boy in Z Team, didn’t you? Isn’t their leader Executive Director Jung’s son? Is that really wise?”
“Of course it isn’t. But what can I do? He insisted.”
Won-young folded her arms, looking displeased.
Jung-gyun’s eyes curved slightly, her expression unreadable.
“So it isn’t because you have some other scheme?”
“What scheme?”
“You’d be the only one who knows.”
She was alluding to the political strife raging throughout the guild—whether recruiting Lee Hyun was just a ploy to secure more territory.
“Do you think I’m like you, Grandma?”
There was only one thing Won-young truly resented about Mo Jung-gyun:
her ruthless pragmatism in using people.
If someone was useful, she would embrace them—like a vast mountain taking in all,
even if they were venomous snakes hiding ulterior motives.
Like Executive Director Jung.
But if they lost their value, she cast them aside instantly,
even if they had been lifelong loyal hounds.
Like my parents.
That was why so many people had left the guild.
It was why White Burn had degenerated into something close to a lawless zone.
As long as no one turned a blade on her or harmed the guild directly, Mo Jung-gyun simply watched from above, unmoving.
That was the gaze of one who had become a “living god.”
Perhaps that was why she assumed Won-young had also taken in Lee Hyun as just another “hunting dog.”
But I’m not. Not like that.
Jung-gyun always said that was the proper attitude for the king of the mountains, the tiger-lord.
But Won-young knew all too well how that path ended.
I won’t end up like my parents.
Yet every time, Jung-gyun only smiled faintly—
as if to say, You’ll understand once you’re older.
“More importantly, it looks like your cultivation level has shifted.”
Jung-gyun changed the subject casually, puffing on her pipe.
Won-young played along, though she knew her grandmother’s game.
In truth, this was why she had come today.
“On my way out of the monkey den, I had an inspiration. It’s about the Tiger’s Three Calamities from the mountain-lord legends. If my chang-gwi can swallow calamity-type attributes, I might be able to apply it in all kinds of ways.”
Even in chaos, she hadn’t forgotten the image of Lee Hyun—his eyes unwavering, always steady.
The inspiration had come from him.
“Oh? A chang-gwi that devours calamities? That’s as certain as tiger plague itself. Let’s see it.”
[Inheritance, ‘Back When Tigers Smoked Cigarettes’ begins to show a new form!]
Mo Jung-gyun’s eyes sparkled as white mist began to envelop her granddaughter.
For years, Won-young’s growth had been stalled. Now, she was finally breaking through a wall.
And so—
Jet, was it? Just what kind of person are you?
Jung-gyun found herself very curious about the hunting dog who had sparked such positive change in her granddaughter.
…What’s going on?
Kim Min-jung’s eyes widened as she watched Lee Hyun not only resist Team Leader Jung’s pressure but even push back harder.
It was like seeing the old him again—
the one who always stepped forward to protect his comrades.
Meanwhile, Jung’s brow twitched.
What kind of strength is this?!
No matter how he tried, he couldn’t shake off Hyun’s grip.
For a moment he considered using his skill and blasting this insolent brat away.
He didn’t want to look weak in front of Min-jung.
But then he met Hyun’s cold, flat gaze and abandoned the idea.
This was no simple opponent.
Other team members were stirring, alerted by the noise.
So Jung forced a laugh.
“Haha! Our new team member is certainly bold and spirited. Good, good. You pass.”
He pretended to laugh heartily and finally stepped away from Min-jung.
Only then did Hyun release his grip.
“Whew, what a grip you’ve got. What’ve you been doing, weightlifting?”
Hyun ignored him and looked at Min-jung.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Now regaining her composure, Min-jung glared at Jung.
“Team Leader Jung, I’ll be reporting everything that just happened to headquarters. Your drinking on company premises, your unauthorized use of mana, and your attempt to harass me again.”
“Deputy Kim, come on. We’re not strangers. And harassment? I was only—”
“You can make your excuses to HR.”
“Ah, how unfair.”
He sighed dramatically, but she wasn’t listening.
Jung clicked his tongue inwardly. He’d have to get his father, the executive director, to bury it again.
Luckily, there were no CCTVs nearby. With some strings pulled, HR would brush it under the rug.
But—
“Oh, and this time the report won’t just result in a demotion or salary cut. Because this time, it’ll be filed not by another team, but by your own teammate.”
“…Teammate?”
The unfamiliar word made Jung’s eyes widen in unease.
Min-jung handed him an official appointment document.
“By order of the Deputy Director, from today I’m formally assigned as support to Z Team.”
“…!”
For the first time, Jung’s forced smile froze stiff.
“How’s your first impression here?”
Min-jung offered Hyun a canned coffee.
He smiled wryly.
“The worst.”
“Still time to change your mind, you know.”
“Once a man gives his word, he can’t take it back.”
“That guy’s always like that.”
Hyun’s laugh was louder than the hiss of the can opening.
“How the hell is someone like that still here?”
“He’s competent, and he’s got connections on the board.”
“Same old story, then.”
“Right? If you don’t have backing, life’s miserable. Maybe worse in private companies.”
She clicked her tongue lightly, then bowed her head to him.
“Thanks for earlier.”
“Nothing to thank me for. But why this team?”
“Orders from the Team Leader. He’s also Deputy Director. He told me to reel you in the moment you looked like changing your mind.”
Hyun chuckled.
“Guess I’ll have to be careful, then.”
“He must’ve known your personality.”
“What about it?”
“You’re really asking?”
Clearly she’d been sent to help him adapt to the company. It was a considerate gesture.
And after what had just happened, she and Hyun seemed closer. She was even smiling now.
Which only made Hyun recall the snake-like hunger in Jung’s eyes as he looked at her.
That had been lust, pure and dangerous.
If Min-jung was going to be around Z Team, Hyun couldn’t let Jung near her.
In fact, the sooner he cut him off, the better—for both her and for himself, since he intended to use this team as his base.
“Not everyone here is like him, right?”
“Of course not. But with leaders like that, you can guess what the rest are like.”
After the confrontation, the team members had begun avoiding Hyun.
Compared to A Team, this was the worst situation.
But Hyun didn’t care.
A newcomer had his own way of surviving.
“There are a few outliers here—loners, but skilled. They just don’t mix with the others.”
“Then I should recruit them first.”
“Already playing politics?”
Hyun just smiled, sipping his coffee. His eyes were deep, thoughtful.
Min-jung frowned slightly.
“Don’t. Whatever you’re plotting.”
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
“You’ve got that face. The one you make right before causing trouble.”
“I told you, I didn’t say anything.”
Her frown deepened.
She remembered his record back in the Cheongroe Unit.
There’d been an officer with connections to military intelligence who treated the soldiers like his lackeys.
Then, thanks to his poor decisions, people died in an operation.
He didn’t even apologize—he shifted the blame to the fallen.
Hyun had snapped, beaten him half to death, strung him up, and then turned himself in to the MPs.
The soldiers’ support for Hyun soared after that, but the higher-ups branded him a troublemaker.
And afterwards…
Didn’t he end up brilliantly weeding out every toxic officer after that?
Hyun hadn’t become the Cheongroe Unit’s young leader on skill alone. He was also politically shrewd.
And now—
He’s wearing that exact same expression again!
Whatever he was planning, she had a bad feeling their team life was about to get turbulent.
“You know the easiest way for an outsider to become part of the core?”
“What are you—”
“Force out the ones already embedded.”
“!?”
Hyun tossed his empty can into the recycling bin and grinned.
“Well? Force them out.”
The words “Don’t do it” rose to Min-jung’s lips, but she couldn’t say them.
Her instincts outran her reason—she found herself intrigued.
She even chuckled, recalling their reckless days in Cheongroe.
Back then, when they’d hung up that corrupt officer, she had been right beside him.
And so—
“…How?”
She sighed as she asked, and Hyun’s grin widened.
The 8th-floor archive room.
“Why are we here?”
Following Hyun, Min-jung checked through the Z Team’s stored “Dungeon Management Files.”
All of them were long-term unsolved dungeons, handed to Z Team.
“To clear a dungeon.”
“…What?”
“Just the two of us.”
“Are you insane!?”
She yelped before quickly clamping her mouth shut under her coworkers’ stares.
Then she hissed at him in a whisper.
“How are two people supposed to handle a long-term unsolved dungeon!?”
“Easily.”
“…!!”
She wanted to grab him by the collar.
Those dungeons were unsolved for one reason only:
They were too difficult.
Some called them impregnable.
Whether because of overly complex quests, labyrinthine layouts, unidentified Stories, or unassailable bosses,
they all shared the same thing—teams had failed there again and again.
And now he wanted to tackle one with just the two of them.
But Hyun didn’t look like he was joking as he flipped through the files.
So that strength he showed against Team Leader Jung… it was real…
Then Hyun pulled out a document.
“Found it.”
“…What is it?”
“Our destination.”
His eyes shone bright.
[You have found a clue related to the Myth of ■■■■.]
The title read:
—The Pied Piper.
“This one… hasn’t been cleared in over ten years.”
She didn’t even have the energy to be angry.
She knew this dungeon well—she’d been asked for advice and cooperation on it back in her Cheongroe days.
It was deadly.
But as Hyun read the report,
he was smiling the whole time.