83. The Price of Discontent (5)
Park Ho's mouth fell open.
No, what kind of bullshit is this?
Sure, I showed my dissatisfaction, but when did I ever try to strip him of his qualifications as captain?
"Guild Master, it is not just the rumor sheet. Here, please look at the articles too."
"Articles?"
"Yes, they show up if you swipe to the side."
Swipe.
Park Ho slid his thumb across the screen.
Then the articles the employee had organized came pouring out in a row.
[Arirang Guild Master Hong Ari releases an official statement. As for the news spreading through the stock market, it is absolutely not me.]
[Ilwol Guild Master An Gijeong: "That information? Some of it is true, but I am not the one either."]
[Carpe Diem executives: "Baek Jinwoo is our eternal role model!"]
"Shit!"
This made no sense.
How long had it even been since that rumor sheet started spreading, and already those three guild masters were releasing official statements?
"This was prepared."
Something had felt off.
Those people who always looked afraid and unwelcome every time he visited them….
Maybe there had been spies among them too.
And the most suspicious people at this point.
Bzzzz—
Park Ho immediately called An Gijeong and Hwang Juwon, executives of Ilwol.
But neither of them picked up.
That settled it.
"You are abandoning me?"
Grinding his teeth in fury, he kept calling persistently.
—What.
Hwang Juwon answered in an irritated voice.
"Big brother! What the hell do you think you are doing?!"
—What am I doing? I already warned you as an elder, did I not? I told you to stay still for once.
"No matter what, this is too much. You spread false information in a rumor sheet and then release statements at the same time?"
—It is not false information.
".....!"
—And listen, you punk. To be honest, what good does it do us to set ourselves against Baek Jinwoo? Baekho may be anxious because it is trying to hold onto its undisputed number one position. But our Ilwol was originally the lowest-ranked of the Big 3. Even so, Baek Jinwoo personally gives us ten hours of consulting every week, and instead of being grateful, you go around causing this kind of shit? Your greed is way too excessive.
"You will regret this."
—Regret?
"While Arirang and Carpe Diem rise up, Ilwol will collapse just the same. Why, can you not even think that far?"
Huff, huff!
As if his agitation would not die down, Park Ho took several deep breaths right there on the spot.
—Regret? Well, I do not know about that.
Click.
He could faintly hear Hwang Juwon laughing.
Then the call cut off with a snap.
What?
Did he just cut off communication one-sidedly?
Had Ilwol ever treated Baekho this disrespectfully before?
"You son of a bitch!"
Baaang!
Unable to hold back, Park Ho hurled his phone at the wall.
The only pitiful one was the employee standing there helplessly, not knowing what to do.
* * *
Ilwol executive office.
"What did he say?"
When Guild Master An Gijeong asked from beside him, Vice Guild Master Hwang Juwon burst into hearty laughter.
"He told us not to regret it. Like if we do not follow what he says, Ilwol will eventually be cast aside too."
"Hmm. The Baekho Guild Master knows one thing but not the next."
"He cannot possibly know. He probably has no clue who is pulling the strings behind the scenes."
Leaning back in his chair, Hwang Juwon tilted his head.
How foolish.
Pride in being Korea's greatest guild?
That only means something when your power is truly the strongest.
The moment they confirmed Baek Jinwoo's power, the right move had been to bow their heads completely.
Can pride feed you?
"Still, Yoo Jia of Yoobaek…..she is a truly frightening person."
"Seriously. Even I was shocked."
In truth, before the official statement.
Yoo Jia had personally come to Ilwol.
She wore a bright smile, yet her eyes were filled with such viciousness. Even the seasoned player Hwang Juwon had flinched.
The moment she arrived, she said this.
-Baek Jinwoo wanted to wrap things up by excluding Baekho from the consulting, but she could not let it end like that, and she had already drawn up plans to rip Baekho out by the roots.
At the same time, they had to listen to what was practically a half-threat.
There is no neutrality.
Choose one side or the other.
She had declared total war against Baekho, and if they did not help, they would be regarded as enemies.
"That is some terrifying confidence. When she said there is no neutrality….. it also meant that if things went wrong with us, she could bury us too, did it not?"
"You were right, big brother. Park Ho, that bastard is the stupid one. If he was going to provoke someone, he should have judged the target first. Was this not a fight he could never win from the start? Looking at the plans she had laid out, she is no ordinary person."
They were perfectly prepared, from stirring public opinion to burying the other side's statements.
The scariest part was that behind Yoo Jia stood countless politicians, vice ministers and ministers, and figures from the business world!
"By the way, what are you going to do about that offer?"
"SKY?"
Yoo Jia said she was planning to launch a new guild, and that she had already secured the license for it.
She also said she would give Ilwol an opportunity.
What opportunity?
An Gijeong and Hwang Juwon.
An opportunity for only those two executives to join SKY!
She said it was the reward for not falling for Baekho's temptation and instead passing information to this side.
"Haa, that is the question."
To go there, they would have to abandon Ilwol.
But Yoo Jia had kindly explained a method for that too.
They would place the guild's third-ranking figure as guild master and keep only the guild shares themselves.
Put simply, she was telling them to use a puppet boss.
That way, they could be SKY members while still controlling Ilwol as a subordinate organization.
"I think it is a good opportunity. From what I heard, Arirang and Carpe Diem are also planning to enter SKY in the same way."
"If we join, do we get separate training from Baek Jinwoo too?"
"Yes, and they are even saying they will give us a house in Yoobaek City. For the whole family too."
"That is really tempting."
It was tempting, but also frightening.
Yoo Jia.
She was certainly ruthless.
It was not just that keeping her as an enemy would be exhausting; it felt like one's whole life could be ruined.
At the end of the plan she had presented, there had been this as well.
A plan to completely exclude Baekho from this World League national team and rebuild the roster using only SKY members.
If that really happened.
Park Ho would truly fall into the abyss.
He would be torn apart by the public, get dropped from the national team, and might even have to return the 100 billion won he had received.
And if that happened, would MK and Mirae Group stay quiet?
If anything, they might vent their rage on players like Park Ho or Kang Geonho.
They could pin every crime on them, guilty or not, and make them rot in prison for the rest of their lives.
After all, who is there that would not cough up dust when shaken?
"Haa, SKY."
The sky of South Korea.
"Gijeong, did you know that?"
"Yes?"
"We are Ilwol, right? Sun and moon."
"That is right."
"The sky is meant to embrace the sun and moon."
"Ha. Are we joining?"
"Well, what choice do we have? If we want to keep milking the national team spot, we have to join."
Hwang Juwon smiled softly.
Unlike Park Ho, the seasoned man knew how to follow the tide.
* * *
Yoo Jia made a vow.
From the moment the Baekho Guild came before Baek Jinwoo and acted disrespectfully, she decided she would rip them out by the roots.
So the place she went to was Daeseong's Strategic Planning Team.
The place where her father was.
"Dad."
"Oh, my dear daughter!"
The man looking at his lovely daughter the moment she entered, with an expression as though he were attending to his superior, was none other than Yoo Daehwan.
The eldest son of founder Yoo Byeongcheon, and the man all but confirmed as the next heir.
Originally, the fight for management rights with his brothers had been fierce, but after Yoo Jia created 「Yoobaek」 and locked Baek Jinwoo firmly to their side, his position as successor had been completely solidified.
That strict Yoo Byeongcheon had laughed heartily and handed over part of his shares, which said it all.
So how adorable must his daughter look to him?
In fact, Yoo Daehwan had repeatedly begged his daughter to arrange a meeting with Baek Jinwoo as well.
She had turned him down indirectly, saying Mr. Jinwoo did not like that sort of thing.
"So, you are always busy, but what brings you all the way here?"
She was still a daughter in her twenties.
As her father, Yoo Daehwan wished she would come visit him for personal reasons instead of just for work.
"There is something I want to ask."
"What is it! Ask me anything!"
"You know, I..."
The corner of Yoo Jia's mouth twisted, and then something truly astonishing came out.
"Can I crush Baekho?"
"What?"
Yoo Daehwan's mouth fell open.
Baekho?
That Baekho?
One of the Big 3 and a guild considered the best group in South Korea right now, and she was talking about crushing them?
On top of that, behind them were their rival companies, MK and Mirae.
Those two, with whom Daeseong had a love-hate relationship.
"If I am going to crush Baekho, I think I will have to move a little….dirty. And for that, I need your help, Dad."
Slide.
She handed over a document.
Inside were even more unbelievable plans.
From leaking information to stock market rumor sheets, famous cyber wreckers, and YouTubers who were former reporters from both ruling and opposition parties, to hiring digital undertakers to shut the other side's mouths completely!
She had listed countless ways to socially bury Baekho and its leader, Park Ho.
And that was not all.
"…Just how did you get things like this?"
Everything had been neatly compiled, even Baekho's tax evasion routes and various signs of corruption, along with those of MK and Mirae, things even Daeseong had failed to obtain.
"It would be too much for me to move alone. And if you want Grandpa to fully acknowledge you this time….. do you not need this too?"
Smile.
Why was it that Yoo Jia's smiling face looked like that of an angel?
"Heh heh, heh heh heh heh!"
That was right.
It definitely was.
With just that, they could trample and violate Baekho however they pleased, and those people would not be able to step forward carelessly.
"My daughter, you are completely grown up now."
"I have been grown up for ages. Why are you acting like this now?"
"Now you just need to marry well."
"Huh? Out of nowhere?"
"Hurry up and arrange a meeting with Baek Jinwoo already."
"There you go again! Anyway, I handed over the materials! The rest is your part!"
Her face reddening, Yoo Jia quickly gathered herself and whoosh! rushed out.
"Heh heh, that girl."
Yoo Daehwan tapped the materials twice.
Baekho dared bare its teeth at Baek Jinwoo?
Then of course those teeth had to be yanked out and ripped away while they were still alive!
"How dare they touch our son-in-law?"
Yoo Daehwan's eyes burned fiercely.
Like daughter, like father.
* * *
"You fucking bastards! Fuuuuuck!"
Bang, crash! Bang!
The furniture in Baekho's executive office began to shatter.
Because Park Ho was rampaging like a madman across the battlefield that was the office.
Public opinion had already turned.
It had already been revealed that ‘B’ was Park Ho's initial.
And with the World League approaching, the public exploded in anger, asking how someone who was not even the captain could create mass discord like this.
Every community was talking about the discord rumors, and Baekho transformed from a group raising complaints into a universally condemned trash group.
Of course, a small number took Baekho's side.
The kind who easily believed conspiracy theories and were naturally suspicious.
But they were an extreme minority.
It was not easy to defeat the 「Yoobaek」 side, which boasted a thick fanbase and had even gained the power of the media.
Park Ho contacted such people and tried to persuade them.
He told them all of this was Yoo Jia's fabrication, and that they should claim it was collusion by a hidden giant cartel lurking in the shadows.
But the opinions they voiced failed to catch the community algorithm.
Someone was blocking them thoroughly.
Suddenly, Park Ho felt wronged.
Where were all the people who had cheered for and worshipped him for three years, only to turn their backs on him now like this?
They had even started posting national petitions demanding that Baekho be removed from the national team.
It was truly a bolt from the blue.
"…How can this all happen overnight."
Park Ho's feelings were utterly devastated.
He felt bitterly wronged.
All he had done was ask, fairly, that he teach them too.
And things had gone this far?
At this point, he even began to feel disgust toward the citizens who took this chance to curse at him without even listening.
"Rotten South Korea."
Park Ho clenched his fist tightly.
Now there were only two options.
Take revenge by force, or tell them all to go to hell and change nationality.
He had been a former ranker, so if he went to some backward country, would they not welcome him?
"Fuck."
No, that was not right.
Why should I be unjustly driven out of the place where I was born?
"Geonho."
"Yes?"
"Call in all the rankers."
"Ha, what are you trying to do now?"
As for Kang Geonho, he had already given up entirely.
At first, he had hated Park Ho so much he could have killed him, but now, what could anyone even do?
But.
"Yoo Jia. We have to go find that bitch."
At those words, even Kang Geonho could not help but snap.
It was not enough that she had sent the proud members of Baekho into the abyss, and now he was saying they should walk straight down the road to hell?
This is not right.
Kang Geonho gritted his teeth.
Maybe.
The moment to abandon Baekho, which he had built together with them, was approaching right before his eyes.
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