Thump, thump, thump, thump…

Chae Suhyeon was trembling her legs in anxiety.

And she was biting her nails.

With a face full of unease.

This was a sight that hadn’t been seen in a while.

Naturally, since she had been on a continuous winning streak heading towards S-Rank number one.

It had been a long time since she had shown such a nervous and shaky appearance.

“Hah… what the hell… why??? Why isn’t he answering the phone? And just turned it off completely? My messages? How is he not seeing them? Why isn’t he checking them??”

She looked incredibly anxious.

It hadn’t even been 10 minutes since she sent the message, yet her expression was filled with worry.

“Ugh. What… what is it? Why…? Why isn’t he picking up? Is he busy? What is he doing? Hah… is he busy working at the guild? What the hell? Seriously? Ugh, what is that bastard Baek Jihoon doing!!!!”

Various frantic thoughts were swirling around in her head.

“No, wait… hmm… so that Baek Jihoon guy… did he do a retrieval…?”

“This can’t be a natural retrieval, right? His status window isn’t some kind of AI or something?”

To calm her own anxiety, she decided to think about something else.

She looked at her status window and started to collect her thoughts calmly.

“Retrieval… so that means… my points are being retrieved…?”

“No, why is he taking them without permission? Shouldn’t I have to allow him to take them?”

“And Baek Jihoon. Does this petty guy seriously take them just because he says so? Isn’t that insane?”

“Ugh. I can’t believe I wasted my time on such a loser.”

“I don’t care anymore. I’m just going to live well with Jinhyeok now.”

“What does this guy want to do by retrieving it?”

“Sigh. Just eat well and live well!!!”

Chae Suhyeon shook off her anxiety and began to think like usual to preserve her pride.

She still hadn’t completely accepted this situation.

“Well. It probably will stop at 2%. He’s just trying to scare me with this crap, right?”

“Baek Jihoon’s personality is like that. He just wants to poke at me but is too scared to do anything else. So, he probably expressed it as a kind of complaint towards me. Ugh, I don’t know.”

Chae Suhyeon immediately closed her status window.

And she decided not to worry about it.

In her heart, she firmly believed that someone like Baek Jihoon could never do such a thing.

So she thought she would just brush it off as nothing.

“Ha. I don’t know. I guess I’ll go shopping again. I should play around while swiping Jinhyeok Oppa’s card.”

“I need to relieve some stress through shopping. Ha… After all, I’m S-Rank 1st, aren’t I? I should take a break for a while.”

“Chae Suhyeon, you’ve worked hard during this time. You should rest a bit now~”

Putting aside thoughts of the future, she decided to enjoy the present.

*

“Yes. Did you call for me?”

She peeked into Lee Sooah’s office and hesitantly poked her head in.

It seemed like they were still somewhat unfamiliar with each other.

Moreover, Lee Sooah’s office looked quite extravagant, making her feel like she shouldn’t just barge in.

‘Well, someone like Sooah… would be considered an executive in a company… probably at the executive level…’

‘I guess having an office like this is only natural.’

The conference room she had seen in the morning wasn’t one that the entire team used collectively.

It was a conference room that Lee Sooah could use exclusively.

‘It seemed like it could accommodate at least 40 people.’

‘Indeed, this is how it is when you have skill and capability.’

Since she had only been active with Chae Suhyeon, she didn’t really know how guilds operated.

She was in awe every moment.

“Oh. Jihoon.”

Upon hearing her voice, Lee Sooah turned her head.

She seemed to have completely overcome her mental illness and was wearing a very bright expression.

It was truly as if her past glory years had returned.

Of course, one concern lingered.

Such mental illnesses had also been an experience for Chae Suhyeon.

The problem was that there wasn’t a permanent solution.

The points spent to resolve it were quite small, but the solution wasn’t everlasting.

That’s why Chae Suhyeon had to continuously invest points to maintain her status.

‘Of course, that f*ing girl was still a pain in the ass, even after I eliminated her mental illness. She was a hopeless case from the start.’

I couldn’t help but think that Lee Sooah might be in a similar situation.

For now, it’s fine… but after some time…

Well, what’s important is not that right now.

“What did you call me for?”

“Oh… um… er….”

Lee Sooah was slightly rolling her eyes.

“Uh… um… why did I… um… call you… oh… um…..”

Suddenly, she was making blank statements.

‘What the… She called me here and is just rambling.’

“Ha ha… I… I’m sorry. I… I called you without realizing… um… wh-why did I call you? Haha…”

Suddenly, her face turned red.

‘What’s going on? So awkward.’

“Ah… um… how do you feel about our guild?”

She unexpectedly asked a totally random question.

“What? Um… It’s only been half a day since I started, and the team just arrived, so we were just exchanging greetings. Well… for now, it seems good.”

I ended up giving a vague and strange answer to a ridiculous question.

‘What’s wrong with you, Sooah? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?’

She clearly looked professional, but there was something off about her.

She calls me over and asks strange questions.

“Ha ha. Is that… um… okay… er… yes… ah… understood… um… thank you… you… can go now.”

That’s how the odd conversation ended.

‘What the… I thought there would be something important to discuss.’

‘Isn’t it usually for something significant when you’re asked to come to the office…? Maybe she has another status ailment…?’

As I left Lee Sooah’s office, I opened my status window.

It was definitely clean.

‘What the… There’s nothing at all.’

I walked back to my desk.

“Jihoon, what did Hunter Sooah say…?”

As soon as I arrived, a crowd rushed toward me.

There were easily about 15 people.

“Wait…? She didn’t say anything…?”

“Eh?”

Everyone exclaimed “Eh?” at the same time.

‘What’s going on? Did they make a promise or something?’

I could only roll my eyes in confusion, not understanding anything. After all, I was in the position of a new recruit today.

I had no clue what the situation was.

“Didn’t Hunter Lee Sooah say anything…?”

“Um… well… she didn’t? What was she supposed to say??”

I couldn’t follow their conversation at all.

“What’s this? When we’re called into Hunter Lee Sooah’s office, we usually come out half-baked…”

“Yeah…?”

“Hm… and usually, she doesn’t show much interest in new recruits…”

I remembered what Hyungseok had said.

“Well, you’re on the same team as Hunter Lee Sooah, but you probably won’t run into them much. A-Team is just so big, and there’s a significant rank difference.”

“Our Guild A-Team is about the size of a midsize guild. They say Hunter Lee Sooah has a rather eccentric personality, but if you quietly avoid running into them, you’ll probably be able to live a decent guild life.”

Hyungseok definitely said something like that.

“Um… what is going on…”

Since I joined this guild, I hadn’t particularly felt that Hunter Lee Sooah was strange or had an eccentric personality.

Although… it might be due to my status ailment being resolved.

Anyway, everyone was looking at me strangely.

“Well… maybe I’m lucky. Or maybe… it’s because they’re in a good mood from last night’s dinner gathering…”

I answered carelessly. I didn’t know the real reason anyway.

“No way. That doesn’t make sense! That’s never happened before. We went until the 11th round last night, right? Hunter Lee Sooah drinks like a fish. But they always pretend to be tough… you said they came this morning, right? Hunter Lee Sooah was probably sprawled out in the conference room…”

That’s definitely how it was. Just as the assistant manager mentioned a moment ago…

“That’s true. They were definitely in the conference room… um…”

Well, I solved their hangover, but I decided not to mention that.

“What is it…? Now that I think about it, Lee Sooah Hunter looks really lively today…?”

“Sooah, is something going on? Doesn’t it feel like you’ve changed a bit?”

“Um… kind of… yeah.”

Everyone appeared to be perplexed.

“Ugh, I don’t know. My head feels like it’s going to explode. Oh, my head… We all really ran hard yesterday…”

“Right? Maybe it’s because we’re getting older, but the 11th round is tough…”

“Anyway… we owe Jihoon for doing the 11th round. Hunter Baek Jihoon saved us and we had a lot of fun for the first time in ages. Ah…”

Fortunately, it seemed that the team members were giving me a good evaluation.

“Phew… Thank goodness. I shouldn’t do anything that could make me look bad.”

“Hey, Assistant Manager Park. As we talked about yesterday, make sure to take care of Jihoon and teach him well. I think he’s a real gem. He’s going to be a treasure for our team.”

“Yes. I’ll make sure to teach him rigorously.”

A man next to me saluted the manager.

“Okay. Shall we exchange greetings now?”

My assigned mentor, Assistant Manager Park, approached with a bright smile.

“I am…”

Just as Assistant Manager Park was about to speak.

“Uh, Jihoon…”

Hunter Lee Sooah was calling me again.

This time, she wasn’t calling from a distance but came closer to the department and shouted.

“Eek…”

Upon seeing Hunter Lee Sooah, the people around me quickly scattered.

“Excuse me?”

“Uh… Can you look at me again?”

“Yes!”

‘What could it be this time… Why does she keep calling me…?’

I felt slightly confused.