VHN 17

News│ ‘Haesung’ Guild Leader Im Hae-kyung Clears A-rank Dungeon… “Record Shortest Time”

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△ Guild Master Im Hae-kyung of Haesung Guild is holding a press conference after clearing the A-Rank Dungeon ‘666 Stairs’ that appeared in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.

Haesung Guild’s guild leader Im Hae-kyung cleared ‘666 Steps’ that appeared in Gangdong-gu, Seoul in record time. ‘666 Steps’ is a dungeon with a structure requiring climbing endlessly stretching stairs, and the gate opened around 03:00 on the 7th.

Guild leader Im Hae-kyung answered that the secret to the record clear time was “because it matched well with mental-type skills.” Guild leader Im Hae-kyung’s clear time was only 3 hours and 30 minutes, an overwhelmingly short time among A-rank dungeon clear records.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that a dungeon form similar to 666 Steps appeared in the Yakutsk region of Russia on April 10th.

Comments

BEST Im Hae-kyung definitely seems to be the strongest in mental-type

👍1403 likes 👎221 dislikes

BEST Even if they say mental-type is weak or whatever, if you think about it a little, everyone knows mental-type is overpowered lolol No matter how fucking good your skills are, if you get brainwashed and become unable to act, it’s over

👍1011 likes 👎420 dislikes

BEST Change the country’s name. To Haesung.

👍735 likes 👎632 dislikes

Meanwhile, in the comments, they were having petty fights over useless things again.

Comments

― Honestly, I think we should set new standards for hunter rankings now lol Mental-type gets no respect, but if we coldly rank them, Im Hae-kyung is definitely in the world’s top 5 for real

└ That’s just your opinion. I know Im Hae-kyung is amazing among mental-types, but still, it’s just mental-type lol If Im Hae-kyung fought someone like Chase, would it even be a fight?

└ Why wouldn’t it? Mental-type can end the situation before the fight even starts

I went into the comments section to gauge public opinion, but it was a festival of nonsense, like Pikachu versus Squirtle.

I clicked on a few more articles without much interest, but all the articles related to Haesung were about Im Hae-kyung clearing the Dungeon and talking about Haesung’s moves.

‘No content related to SH.’

Just in case, I searched for SH separately, but there were no particular articles. Could that bastard Joo Seo-won have gotten it wrong?

Rather than that, it would be more productive to think more about how to get into SH.

SH Guild was much easier to enter compared to the domestic Big 5 guilds, but that didn’t mean they accepted just anyone. Moreover, if I went with an F-rank hunter license, at best they’d only give me menial tasks.

‘Should I just say I’m a prophet again?’

But there was nothing good about exposing information to many people. What I knew about SH Guild was limited information. Getting Song Hwa-young’s attention with that would be quite a difficult task. So what should I do?

I started making several plans while staring intently at the text in my status window. Even if not information, I could appeal my usefulness in other ways…

That aside, that thing is really fucking annoying.

I eventually got up from the bed and flung open the door. There, Do Ye-hyun was looking at me with surprise.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

Do Ye-hyun’s status window flickering from earlier was really fucking annoying.

Do Ye-hyun glanced at me cautiously and bit his lips. I had told Joo Seo-won to be careful not to press Do Ye-hyun’s trauma buttons. But before those trauma buttons got pressed, I felt like my own buttons would be pressed first from frustration.

Just when I thought I should urge Do Ye-hyun once more, Do Ye-hyun spoke first.

“…Ah, you’re not sleeping.”

“Is that what you came to ask?”

Do Ye-hyun shook his head and bit his lips tightly. He hesitated for a long time, biting his lips and fidgeting with his fingers, before carefully speaking.

“…I owe money to Infinite Guild.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you earlier. But I couldn’t just let it slide without saying anything.”

“……”

“Actually, being chased earlier was also because I couldn’t pay back the money… No, that’s not the only reason, but if I can’t pay back the money, I have to make a contract. But I was afraid I’d get beaten if I stayed there today…”

Do Ye-hyun’s words were rambling and incoherent. Moreover, his expression darkened in real time as he spoke.

“I’m really… grateful that you saved me. But…”

This kid is really fascinating too. I just finished spouting nonsense about the world ending, and all he’s talking about is debt.

“How much is the debt.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I asked how much the debt is.”

The documents Joo Seo-won brought earlier roughly showed the amount, but I didn’t know how it might differ from reality.

Do Ye-hyun bit his lips, then blushed and answered in a small voice. Why is he embarrassed when he didn’t even borrow it himself? What a strange guy.

“…860 million won. The principal was probably around 200 million, but since I couldn’t pay it back for a long time, interest accumulated…”

“Got it.”

860 million. The principal was 200 million, but how much interest did they add? I was amazed by Infinite Guild’s shitty behavior. This is like creative economics.

“Ah, what do you mean by ‘got it’…”

Got it means got it. Do Ye-hyun asked back in a crawling voice.

I kindly explained to Do Ye-hyun what that meant.

“I’ll pay back the debt for you.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I’m saying I’ll pay your 860 million debt for you, Ye-hyun.”

Though it felt a bit wasteful thinking about pouring money into thin air, it was a profitable deal considering it would prevent risk factors that might arise from keeping Do Ye-hyun around. To sign an exclusive contract with a healer of this level, 860 million wouldn’t be enough, even ten times that would be insufficient. And it wasn’t money I couldn’t pay back anyway.

“…You’ll pay it back for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

Wasn’t that what you were asking for? It was obvious you were stalling here because it was hard to say that, but Do Ye-hyun asked back as if he didn’t understand.

Since it was quite a tiring day, I could feel cracks forming in my kind personality even at trivial questions. This is why fatigue is scary. Even good people like me get nasty personalities.

I leaned against the door and looked quietly at Do Ye-hyun before asking.

“Wasn’t that what you meant by asking me to pay it back for you?”

“What? No, no. I just… I thought it would be safer for you, Hunter-nim, if I went back instead.”

“Really? Then do you want to go back?”

“……”

See? If you want something, you should speak properly. Even though he said with his own mouth that it might be better to go back, Do Ye-hyun looked at me with excessively desperate eyes. Like someone who absolutely didn’t want to go back.

‘He wants reassurance. What should I do?’

Looking at Do Ye-hyun like that, I thought it really would have been easy for Im Hae-kyung to kill Do Ye-hyun. How hard could it be to handle a goody-two-shoes innocent twenty-year-old?

Well, setting that aside, even if Do Ye-hyun threw a fit asking to be sent back, I had no intention of letting him go. I smiled gently.

“Ye-hyun. I said I wouldn’t send you back.”

“……”

“You don’t trust me?”

It wouldn’t be good if he got into the habit of trusting people easily, so it wasn’t bad. It’s smart. Better than acting stupid.

But that would be troublesome right now. Do Ye-hyun needed to trust me enough to say ‘okay’ even if I suggested entering dangerous dungeons. While Joo Seo-won’s weakness would take a long time to resolve, Do Ye-hyun would have no more weaknesses once his debt was resolved, so slightly different conditions were needed.

“I don’t understand why you keep acting like you’re uncomfortable. I need your skills, and you need money equivalent to your debt. Isn’t that enough?”

“I… can’t do anything right now.”

“You’ll learn how to do it later. It would be even better if you could do it as quickly as possible.”

“They say training takes a lot of time.”

“Shorten it with effort.”

Even though I coaxed him with kind words, the reaction was lukewarm. What exactly is he so dissatisfied about? Do I have to do this at 2 AM to soothe 860 million won worth of guilt? I was starting to get annoyed.

“Ye-hyun. What should I do for you?”

“…Please tell me what I needed to do.”

“Right. I think I already talked about this. If you go through dungeons, you’ll be able to find skills. Use that to heal me. I said I needed a healer.”

Right, it’s not like I’ll die from saying the same thing a few times. At least compared to Joo Seo-won who took a whole billion, he knows his place, which is praiseworthy.

‘If only it weren’t 2 AM right now, I could even praise him for being admirable.’

Seeing that his expression still isn’t right means he needs a carrot. If it were me, I’d just take the money and do well. Is Do Ye-hyun so uncomfortable that he came begging at 2 AM?

But I obediently gave Do Ye-hyun the words he wanted to hear.

“You’re useful. Healers are precious.”

“There are already many healing-type hunters in the hospital ward. There’s no way I could be more useful than them…”

“I brought you because you are useful. For reference, I’m in a desperate situation for you.”

“Why?”

Why, you ask. Because my body is trash. I answered honestly.

“I’m F-rank, so I’ll die if you don’t heal me. There aren’t many people with decent healing skills.”

Do Ye-hyun listened to my words and nodded briefly, then opened his eyes wide and asked back.

“What?”

“Just what I said. I’m F-rank. I’m going to keep going into Dungeons, so I’m going to get hurt a lot every time. You have to stick right next to me and heal me. I don’t have time to go to the ward. I’ll already be dead when I get there.”

“That’s a lie… F-ranks can’t go through dungeons.”

“You’re quite prejudiced, aren’t you?”

“No, that’s not it! Earlier too, you definitely… didn’t seem like F-rank.”

“Since my skills are good, that would be somewhat of a plus factor.”

Do Ye-hyun still nodded reluctantly with eyes full of distrust.

“Want me to show you my hunter license? Will you believe it if you see it says F-rank?”

“No…”

“If you won’t believe it, then don’t. But I don’t lie to you.”

Of course, this statement was a lie. But I never counted white lies as real lies.