Jinwoo took a seat across from Jinho in the cafeteria.
"Sir… looks like you're quite the ladies' man—"
"How did you get my number?" Jinwoo cut him off sharply. "We've never exchanged contacts."
Jinho blinked. "I know someone at the Association."
"Ah… right. You're a rich kid."
Jinho cleared his throat, leaning in with a smirk as he noticed more and more girls staring.
"Since there's a lot of attention on us… I'll make this quick."
He suddenly stood up and bowed—a perfect 90-degree fold.
"Please help me!"
Half the cafeteria turned toward them.
"Please! Accompany me into dungeons just for nineteen times!"
"…Huh?" Jinwoo muttered, narrowing his eyes. 'Nineteen? Does he…'
"Do you want to become a guild master?" Jinwoo asked.
Jinho's head snapped up. "Yes, sir!"
A guild master. To obtain the license, a hunter needed twenty dungeon raids minimum.
"A guild master, huh?" Jinwoo leaned back, a strange idea forming in his mind. "I could form one too now that I think about it…"
"That's amazing—!" Jinho began, but then froze.
Jinwoo's aura dropped like a guillotine.
An invisible pressure flooded the room—cold, dense, suffocating. Jinho felt like a hand had wrapped around his lungs.
"But why," Jinwoo said calmly, eyes icy, "should I help you?
Can you really afford to hire an S-rank like me for twenty dungeons? Your father won't certainly give you two hundred billion won, will he?"
"T-Two hundred… billion?" Jinho's mind spun. That much?
The gentle Jinwoo he'd seen in the dungeon—gone. What sat in front of him now was something else entirely.
But he couldn't back down.
'No… I need his help. I'll never beat my brother otherwise. I need to do this.'
"S-Sorry, sir…" Jinho bowed even deeper—so fast and hard that his forehead slammed into the table with a sharp thud. Blood dripped instantly, but he didn't move. "But I need your help! Please help me!"
Whispers filled the cafeteria. People stared.
Then—Jinwoo smiled.
"Why so tense?" he asked, pulling his aura back as if nothing had happened.
Jinho shakily looked up at him. Jinwoo raised a hand and cast a soft healing glow; the cut on Jinho's forehead stitched shut in seconds.
"Alright… I'll help you."
"R-Really?" Jinho's eyes widened.
"Yes." Jinwoo crossed his legs casually. "I just want fifty billion won and some territory in Gangnam."
"F-Fifty—" Jinho choked, but grit his teeth. He needed this more than anything.
"A deal, sir!"
He bowed again—SLAM—and reopened the wound, bleeding all over again.
Girls gasped.
Jinwoo chuckled, got up, and turned to the group of girls sitting nearby.
"Hey, girls…" he said casually—yet to them, his voice was a goddamn love spell. "My friend here needs some help. Mind taking care of him?"
"Sure!"
They rushed over instantly with napkins and tissues, surrounding Jinho like nurses at a drama audition.
His face went crimson—more from embarrassment than blood.
Jinwoo waved as he walked away.
"Jinho, call me when we're starting the dungeon runs. And just hire a bunch of E-ranks. I'll enter alone."
"Y-Yes sir!" Jinho said while the girls dabbed at his forehead.
Watching Jinwoo leave, Jinho felt his chest tighten—not with fear this time, but awe.
'Sir… you're the best.'
...
The next morning came quietly.
Jinwoo stretched as he sat up, grabbing his brand and flicking open the screen.
[50,800,479,935 ₩ ]
"Not bad—" Jinwoo muttered with a satisfied smirk, turning off the device.
—FWOOM.
"ARGHHHHHHHH!"
A scream exploded from the training hall.
Jinwoo's head snapped up. Purple flames—thick, unstable, and violently flickering—were eating through Jin-ah's hair as she spun around in panic.
He sighed the sigh of a man who's seen this ten times too many.
In a blur, he appeared beside her. He held out a hand, and his own controlled crimson fire pulled the chaotic flames off her like a vacuum, snuffing them out instantly.
"Why are you so clumsy?" he asked flatly.
Jin-ah puffed her cheeks like an offended hamster. "Jinwoo! We don't all have freakish talent like you, okay?!"
"You're an S-rank, Jin-ah."
She deflated. "…Yeah… fair enough…"
"Try again," Jinwoo said, ruffling her singed-but-healed hair.
"Fine…" she muttered with a pout.
Jinwoo left her to it and walked further into the training hall.
Everyone was busy.
Yoora sat cross-legged on the floor, shaping a sphere of compacted clay between her fingers with meticulous earth mana control. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she slowly compressed it down to the size of a pebble.
In another corner, Ra Hyeyoung practiced dagger combinations—precise, quick, efficient—freshly improved after Jinwoo's morning corrections.
He found Lee Joohee hunched over a medical diagram, mumbling anatomical terms under her breath. She didn't look up when she sensed Jinwoo approach—she just smirked.
"Hey, Jinwoo… did you know the average human penis is only 13 centimeters?" she said sweetly. "And there's about a 0.000005% chance of someone having one that's 25 cm… like yours?"
Jinwoo blinked. "…You've become nastier by the day. You were so pure once."
"It's Shiraori's fault…" she whispered, leaning forward.
He met her halfway, and they shared a short, warm kiss.
Jinwoo straightened and made his way toward the Battle Room.
Battle Room? Training Room?
Where were they exactly?
Jinwoo stepped out of the hall and into the long corridor, letting his gaze travel over the polished floors and pristine walls. This place… still didn't feel real.
This entire building—this massive, state-of-the-art facility planted right in the heart of Gangnam—was his.
A gift.
A casual gift.
From Jinho.
When Jinwoo first arrived, a small note had been taped onto the front doors, written in Jinho's painfully neat handwriting:
Since you mentioned forming your own guild, sir… here's a small gift.
The best guild headquarters one could dream of — Yoo Jinho
Jinwoo had stared at that note for a long moment before dragging a hand down his face.
"That guy…" he muttered now as he descended the stairs toward the lower floors. "His heart is too damn golden."
That day in the cafeteria—he had tested Jinho's sincerity. Pushed him. Pressured him. Cornered him.
And the kid had bled on a table just to prove his resolve.
Even now, Jinwoo could still picture the way he'd bowed until his skull cracked open.
Jinwoo exhaled softly.
"Yeah… he's real."
He reached the lower floors—wide spaces filled with reinforced walls, mana-absorption panels, adjustable terrain, and automated safety barriers. The perfect training environment. The perfect start.
A guild.
His guild.
"A guild, huh…" Jinwoo murmured, stepping toward the Battle Room doors. His reflection caught on the polished steel surface—sharp eyes, calm smile, a hint of danger.
He pushed the doors open.
"Lotus," he said to himself.
"Lotus Guild."
To be continued...
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