The taxi driver was waiting for a call.
His location was near the Hanul Guild.
He gazed out at the streets of Guild Town, lost in reminiscence. Just 11 years ago, this place had been a support hub for small to mid-sized businesses, filled with nothing but modest shops and commercial buildings.
Before he knew it, the corporations had been replaced by guilds, turning the area into a stage for a new kind of organization.
While major guilds on par with conglomerates established their own independent territories, smaller guilds or those with less recognition huddled together here.
The hottest spot in this Guild Town was the Hanul Guild.
Though founded by the Hanul Group, it was once a place where rumors of disbandment circulated as its stock price plummeted.
However, everything changed when the Hanul Group’s second son, Im Jaejoon, took over.
Climbing from twenty-first to fifth place in the rankings, the Hanul Guild was now preparing to establish its own home base.
As a local resident, a large guild establishing a base was something to welcome.
It didn’t just mean seeing famous Hunters; it meant the activation of local safety, provided by a corps of Hunters guarding the area.
This was especially true in these times, when gate disasters occurred without any prior warning.
Most experts predicted that the Hanul Guild would settle in Seoul.
The reason was simple: its parent company, Hanul Group, was in Seoul, and its franchise Hunter, Lee Hyunbin, held a Special Guarder License, allowing him to exercise control over other guilds.
“Hunters are great. They make a lot of money,” the taxi driver muttered, but he had no intention of becoming one, even if someone begged him. Money was good, but there was a reason they earned so much. The mortality rate for Hunters was quite high—thirty percent. Three out of every ten people died. Why else would insurance companies refuse to even accept them as clients?
“I’ll just earn a decent living and live a comfortable life before I go.”
The taxi driver was just an average citizen. Looking at the young Hunters wandering the streets now, he only felt pity for them.
Young people laughing brightly—some driven by a sense of duty to protect others, others inspired by the exploits of famous Hunters.
Just then, someone got into the taxi.
“Welcome—”
It was a massive Black man.
The driver momentarily lost his words.
The man had a rugged, muscular physique that seemed to ripple with every breath, and scars were etched across his mouth, eyes, and cheeks. To anyone’s eyes, he looked like a veteran Hunter.
Yet, for such a man, he appeared incredibly anxious.
“Where to, sir?”
“Anywhere is fine. As long as it is safe.”
He spoke bluntly, despite the driver’s initial impression of him as a Hunter with a superiority complex.
However, the taxi driver remained calm; he had seen all sorts of customers in his ten years on the job. This was mild in comparison.
“Sir, Guild Town is likely the safest place there is.”
It was a town teeming with Awakened individuals possessing superhuman strength.
Could there be a safer place? Furthermore, Hanul, which boasted two S-rank Hunters, was right in front of them.
“It is dangerous here. Lee Ja-rang is like a howling beast trapped in a cage.”
His speech was awkward, as if he wasn’t yet fluent, but the driver understood the gist.
The man kept glancing out the window as if terrified of something.
Seeing a man over 190 centimeters tall trying to fold his body as small as possible so he wouldn’t be seen from the outside was almost pathetic.
“I have this much. With this, I must go. Now.”
The man produced crumpled banknotes and a few coins.
At a glance, it looked to be only about 1,800 won—not even enough for the base fare.
But the driver couldn’t just tell a man consumed by fear to get out.
Honestly, he didn’t know what the man might do if he told him to leave; those wide, rolling eyes had been frightening him for a while now.
“Then, we’re off.”
The taxi driver started the car and turned on the meter.
“You’re a Hunter… right?”
The driver thought it would be a waste not to be a Hunter with that kind of physique.
“No. Lee Ja-rang is no mere Hunter. Hunters are fools who run around shooting toy arrows. Ja-rang is a Knight. I am very strong.”
“Ah, I see.”
He had heard that in the Hunter life, some people lost their minds after taking damage. PTSD was also a common occurrence. In times like this, it was best to just go along with them.
“Your line of work is tough, isn’t it?”
Given the man’s shabby appearance and lack of money, he looked like a foreign laborer. He didn’t know if there were foreign laborers in the Hunter industry, though.
“For a Knight who knows honor, of course it is. Hardship is a pleasure. But training is for the weak. To a strong man like Ja-rang, training is a humiliation.”
As the man spoke, huffing through his nose, the taxi driver spoke up sheepishly.
“So, you ran away because the training was hard…”
“No. Ja-rang fears nothing.”
“Ah…”
“They watch me twenty-four hours a day. That is no longer training. It is torture. One does not get stronger through that. I will show them. How to get strong while protecting human rights.”
The man huffed through his nose again. Listening to him, a gentle smile played on the taxi driver’s lips.
“Mr. Hunter. How old are you this year?”
“Sixteen.”
“No, not your years of experience.”
“Sixteen.”
It seemed he had misunderstood. The taxi driver spoke softly.
“Nothing in life is easy. I used to be a successful executive at a major corporation. Now I’ve switched jobs because things went wrong. They say you should seek out hardships while you’re young. Don’t be afraid of challenges…”
Perhaps because he had been training in a strict environment, the man fell asleep to the driver’s tedious chatter. Normally, he would have rebelled against such nagging, but now it sounded like a very comforting voice. At least it wasn’t the voice of a man laughing like a devil while putting him through the wringer.
‘When I wake up, please let there be peace.’
Holding onto that small hope, the man fell into a sweet slumber.
How long had he slept? The man opened his eyes. It had been a long time since he had slept with such peace of mind, and the awakening was sweet.
As he blearily looked around, the place seemed strangely familiar.
“?”
“Oh, thank you, driver!”
He heard the sound of someone thanking the driver and paying with a card. A familiar voice. A familiar back.
“Take care, Team Leader Lee.”
The taxi left the man behind and drove away from the Hanul Guild.
A man stood there, smiling brightly. When the man’s eyes met Lee Hyunbin’s, he trembled and shook his head. Hyunbin nodded silently.
“Where were you trying to go?”
“I was merely… looking for a restroom for a moment.”
“Oh my. You took a taxi just to find a restroom?”
The man thought he was screwed now. Just as he was about to be led away quietly, Hyunbin signaled for him to wait.
“Hold on. More people are coming.”
While the man wondered at Hyunbin’s words, he soon saw two taxis pull up in front of the Hanul Guild one after the other.
“Thank you, drivers!”
“We’re the ones who are grateful for the extra side income!”
Stepping out of the taxis were two foreigners who looked to be in total denial of reality. Looking at his comrades, who were like brothers to him, the man shed a single, bead-like tear.
Hyunbin smiled brightly at the three foreigners who had stepped out of the taxis.
“I’ve taken control of this entire area. There’s nowhere for our friends to go.”
At Hyunbin’s words, the faces of Jeong-guk, No-rae, and Ja-rang turned pale.
“I guess yesterday’s training was too lacking. Come to think of it, you’ve trained a lot in the other world, and since you’re experienced, it must have been dull, right?”
Jeong-guk, No-rae, and Ja-rang shook their heads vigorously. But Hyunbin smiled as if to say that wasn’t the case.
“Now, I’ll support you with all my heart.”
At Hyunbin’s high-spirited words, the man shook his head and muttered gloomily.
“We are screwed. We are totally screwed.”
“Hahaha, let’s all be screwed together!”
Team Leader Lee Hyunbin of the Hanul Guild had a special taxi network. It was known as the Chuno Taxi. The first person to fall victim to this system had been Kim Taeyang.
“We cannot go on like this,” Lee No-rae said.
“True, we cannot,” Lee Jeon-guk replied.
“This is war.”
Lee Ja-rang’s eyes burned with a fierce light.
It had already been fifteen days since they crossed over to this world.
They had begged the Noble Katrinne to send them back to their original world.
But the Noble had said, with tears welling in her eyes as if she were sad:
“You would abandon me and go back…?”
“It is not that, but…”
“Right, a young and unqualified woman like me could never have been your Noble anyway.”
“No. It is a misunderstanding.”
“I summoned the people I trusted most…”
At Katrinne’s words, the three Knights became solemn. They were even proud to be Knights so trusted by their young Noble.
“But, my Noble, what was that card transaction you were doing with the Boss?”
“What? When did I ever make a transaction?”
“I heard it too. What is a ‘Slave Contract’?”
“Oh, that? It’s nothing. In this world, that’s just what they call a Knight’s certificate. Don’t worry.”
It felt strangely like Katrinne’s snacks had become very abundant after the Slave Contract changed hands, but they didn’t dwell on it.
After all, they were the sword and shield that protected the Noble.
However, the Hero’s training intensity was extreme.
The Hero would eat a meal, looking satisfied while watching them suffer.
It looked like his appetite only grew the more he tormented others. So, they decided to revolt.
“We will each take one person and win them over.”
Three against one was tough, but if it became six against one, things might change. The foreigners moved to recruit their respective targets.
Lee Jeon-guk chose Seohyeonji.
“Miss Seohyeonji. Might we have a brief word?”
“What is it?”
Seohyeonji, who had been running, slowed down and wiped the sweat dripping from her neck. She was a beautiful woman. And strong. Lee Jeon-guk felt a sense of justice at the fact that such a woman was being worked to the bone by their wicked Boss.
Lee No-rae chose Kim Inho.
“Mr. Kim Inho. Let us join forces.”
“Suddenly?”
Kim Inho blinked as if he were bewildered.
He was a quick-witted man who always sensed the Boss’s mood. But surely, that was because he had suffered just as much at the Boss’s hands.
Meanwhile, the youngest, Lee Ja-rang, spoke with his rival, Kim Taeyang.
“What? A revolt?”
“Yes. The sight of your ‘tofu’ being damaged is still vivid in my mind. How long will you live like this?”
Kim Taeyang was actually the person who had defied Team Leader Lee Hyunbin the most. But he had always failed, and he had always been defeated.
So, he had decided not to resist anymore.
“Alone is difficult. But if six gather, it is possible.”
“Forget it. Just train quietly.”
“Heh heh heh. Is that all you’ve got?”
“What?”
Kim Taeyang looked at Ja-rang, who was suddenly laughing to himself, as if he were a madman.
“You and I have struck each other’s faces. Therefore, I know. You are strong. But you have no spirit. No courage. Such a man is no warrior.”
“What are you talking about, you chocolate-face?”
“That is racial discrimination. I will leak the recording and make you an internet star overnight.”
Ja-rang brandished a recorder he had produced from somewhere. Dumbfounded, Kim Taeyang asked:
“No, I mean, what exactly are you going to use to revolt against the Team Leader?”
“Heh heh.”
“Stop laughing like that.”
“We have spent a long time with the Boss. We ate together, slept together. Even urinated together.”
“And?”
“Therefore, we know. The Boss’s weakness.”
Hearing that, Kim Taeyang’s ears perked up slightly. These three reckless brothers said they had known the Team Leader for a long time. If so, they might truly know a weakness.
“W-what is it?”
“Will you join us?”
“If it’s certain.”
At Taeyang’s words, Ja-rang smiled satisfactorily and continued.
“The Boss…”
Gulp.
Kim Taeyang found himself focusing on the man’s lips.
“He has a compulsion for tidiness.”
“…”
He already knew that.
“In the past, he made us pull out all the grass around the base because it bothered him. We did it all night. We took turns.”
The words ‘so what’ almost jumped out of Taeyang’s mouth. Suddenly, his hair follicles recalled a trauma they didn’t want to remember—the memory of the day they had become a broom.
“We will tire him out by having him constantly organize things. And, though you might not believe it…”
The Black man gave a triumphant smile.
“The Boss has never had a girlfriend. He is very clumsy in that area.”
It was a story he had heard somewhere before.
“I heard there is a game called Dating Master. We will use that to humiliate the Boss. Once the Boss becomes focused, he cannot pay attention to anything else until he finishes the conquest. The Boss will not be able to conquer it. We will take the first step toward reclaiming our sovereignty that way.”
Kim Taeyang saw his own reflection in the man.
“Is it good?”
Seeing Kim Taeyang suddenly burst into tears, Ja-rang misunderstood it as him being moved.
“We will show you. Just watch our backs and follow.”
Jeong-guk, No-rae, and Ja-rang each made such grand promises to their respective targets. Seohyeonji sighed and continued her run, while Kim Inho gave a short laugh and continued his muscle training.
Kim Taeyang realized what he had been doing all this time.
The foreign trio had gone boldly to find Lee Hyunbin. Now, they were being dragged onto the ring by their hair. The three of them looked to be in shock.
Hyunbin said with a smiling face:
“From now on, kill each other.”
“…!”
“Only one person. I’ll exempt only one person from personal training with me.”
“…!”
Hearing those words, life returned to the dead eyes of Jeong-guk, No-rae, and Ja-rang.
Thwack!
The one who threw the first punch was Lee Ja-rang. Sometimes, one had to step over their comrades to survive.
“You hit me?”
“The law of the jungle begins.”
“You little—!”
“Racial discrimination. I am reporting you.”
Watching the three of them sparring, Lee Hyunbin sat down and opened a bowl of instant rice. He hadn’t known when he was training the military, but personal coaching was so much fun.
“Is this what they call brotherly love?”
The smile never left Hyunbin’s face.