Chick 238

238

Kim Inhan fought to mask his tension, speaking to his team in a measured tone.

“Come to film another crafting YouTube, are we? Listen to those effects. Impressive, I’ll give you that.”

His banter prompted laughter among the stiffened team—until the unfinished teddy bear’s ears twitched at the sound.

Twitch!

The laughter halted in an instant.

Oblivious, the unfinished teddy dug in the hip pack slung across its chest, producing a strawberry yogurt and handing it over.

• You should just wait here and have some yogurt.

By any measure, it was an obvious provocation.

“……!”

“What the…”

As Blue Lagoon’s members struggled to swallow an insult unlike any they’d known, the unfinished teddy’s gaze swept over them in turn.

Sizing them up? The guildmaster, last to meet those eyes, tightened his grip on his weapon, responding with a stare that dared the mascot to try.

Groo pondered.

‘There are five of them?’

She hesitated, wondering if she should hand out yet more yogurt, her hand trembling.

‘But if I give it all out… I won’t get to eat any yogurt myself!’

Yet to the others, that delicate trembling read as the struggle to suppress mocking laughter, which only made Blue Lagoon’s guildmaster grit his teeth.

His face flushed red in barely contained outrage.

Out of habit, Kim Inhan almost shoved the mascot’s shoulder but forced himself to stop.

Lay a hand on the other, and it was over. It could spiral into a full-on guild clash.

If it came to blows, their opponent would respond in kind, and if it turned into a brawl…

They were up against Orchestra—a top Korean guild with no less than four S-rank combat hunters.

For Blue Lagoon, whose ranks topped out at A-rank, restraint was the only option.

Kim Inhan clenched a fist and spoke through gritted teeth in a sarcastic tone.

“Hunter, you know exactly what you’re trying to do here, don’t you?”

His words—‘You’re acting like a thug and you know it’—drew a calm reply from Counterfeit Sso.

• I know exactly what I’m doing, nameless guild.

“We’re Blue Lagoon!”

Kim Inhan raised his voice a notch.

They knew full well this was Orchestra’s Counterfeit Sso, but the other party still acted as though he’d never even heard their guild’s name. The slight stung.

• Understood, Guildmaster of Blue Lagoon. I heard from those outside: Blue Lagoon was afraid of this raid, weren’t you?

“……No!”

Kim Inhan reflexively retorted, then clamped his mouth shut.

The mockery—‘You said you couldn’t clear it, didn’t you?’—stabbed into his chest like an awl.

“N-no, that’s not…”

But surely Sso already knew they’d stalled to drive up the price.

“You know how it is, Hunter. It’s business—”

But Groo, innocent of all this, simply waved a hand.

• No need to thank me. I’m not doing this as business, merely out of goodwill.

Damn it. What even is this? Kim Inhan nearly shook from the sheer, maddening frustration.

Just then, a teammate whispered behind him in a low breath.

“I think we just got played by Orchestra’s usual trick.”

Orchestra’s way.

Raiding another guild’s dungeon at will, then, if the Association stepped in, simply pleading, “We only helped because they were struggling.” It was classic strongman behavior.

Normally, it would be a perfect spark for a guild war, but the crazy, musclebound crew from Orchestra would only welcome it.

They thought they could win, and they usually did.

Lately, rumors of “being Orchestrated” had died down, leading to jokes that even Orchestra was bothered about their reputation these days.

‘So why are they suddenly picking a fight with us now, out of nowhere? Dammit!’

Suddenly—ping!—a thought shot through Kim Inhan’s mind.

Did the film company offer Orchestra double the bounty? Are they trying to snatch the job out from under us?

It made sense.

Orchestra could squash Blue Lagoon with ease.

Kim Inhan growled, “Hunter, if you carry on like this, you know this’ll make the online forums, right?”

A little low, perhaps, but he couldn’t win the guild war, so he’d try a public campaign instead.

But at those words, the unfinished bear’s ears pricked up.

He must mean he’s going to spread word of my help, Groo interpreted without hesitation.

She fought to hide her pleasure, clearing her throat before replying.

• I wouldn’t recommend it… but if you wish, do as you please.

Kim Inhan bit his lip in frustration.

Go ahead and post it, huh?

Even a PR war wouldn’t work. So what would?

He felt the hot gazes of his team. The pressure as guildmaster, the investment in this dungeon—there was no way he could walk away empty-handed.

“Then, Hunter—how about a compromise? You’ll give us something, right?”

Kim Inhan did his best to mask the boiling inside, his tone a mocking sing-song.

The shared truth of the Orchestrated:

At least you get the byproducts.

Orchestra would raid another’s dungeon, then return the items. It was the reason the aggrieved guilds never rose up together.

So at the very least, let’s collect the byproducts. That was his thought—until Counterfeit Sso’s brow twitched.

• You want them?

Rum-ble! BOOM!

As the words left her, thunder rent the temple air, and Kim Inhan flinched.

Fearing a direct strike, he stepped back instinctively.

“That’s, uh, the usual Orchestra custom, isn’t it…”

Why wasn’t Sso moving at all? She could get hit by lightning… or was this just an avatar?

Meanwhile, Groo, who alone saw the lightning as bubbly droplets, simply stood and nodded.

If that’s the Orchestra rule, she’d comply.

So, reluctantly, she dug into her hip bag again.

• Greedy, aren’t you.

The unfinished bear handed over two yogurts.

Only two remained, all Groo could give.

But Kim Inhan read it very differently. His face twisted with humiliation.

Was this a “take it and get lost”?

His rage threatened to burst. His teammates, too, sounded at the bitter edge of laughter, shuffling as if to step forward.

“So you’ve really got some nerve—!”

Kim Inhan, unable to hold back, reached out a hand for the little mascot’s shoulder—

Suddenly, the white hamster’s eyes flared with stars.

At the same instant, Kim Inhan stalled, suspended in mid-gesture under the crush of a tremendous force.

Cold sweat poured down and his body seized. The team shared the same fate.

Thunder rumbled, breaths growing ragged, filling the space.

Electricity crackled in waves at their sides.

Yet, as if utterly unfazed, the teddy bear with drooping eyebrows ambled forward.

Rumble! BOOM! BOOM!

Marching straight ahead between columns of falling thunder. Not flinching once.

With a final bolt coming down directly behind her, Sso announced,

• That’s all I can give you.

Kim Inhan swallowed hard.

He’d been curious about Sso, reading this and that online, but never had he heard anything like this.

Was this… Sso’s true power?

‘Me, A-rank hunter Kim Inhan… Cowering before a crafter’s aura?’

If such power existed among crafters, it was on par with a monster like On Joorim!

• Why aren’t you taking it?

That innocent, childlike question carried a savage contempt, shaming even the battle-hardened Blue Lagoon.

Openly belittled as nothing at all, they found themselves speechless.

The gap was so overwhelming it killed even the will to fight.

Then suddenly, as the force subsided, Kim Inhan’s legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees.

The unfinished teddy bear approached and held out the two yogurts right before his eyes.

Blank with shock, Kim Inhan accepted them.

“…….”

Defeated.

Without ever once raising a weapon—humiliated beyond measure.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to his feet, shoulders trembling.

“……Let’s go.”

His team followed behind in silence.

Groo watched Blue Lagoon’s slumped retreat, then turned away.

‘They’re good people.’

She smiled to herself, pleased.

It was a shame she’d given away her last two yogurts and wouldn’t get to eat in the dungeon herself.

‘But they said they’d post it online.’

And she’d been thinking she ought to put in some PR for Orchestra anyway.

If they even spread news online that Groo had helped, two yogurts were a small price to pay for the publicity.

Humming a tune, Groo walked through the billowing steam toward the baths.

Then, opening a door boldly marked BOSS BATH, the child stepped inside.