Chapter 15
As I return to class and take my seat, Jin-woo pulls a chair and sits down next to me.
“Boss, where have you been?”
“I asked Ms. Ji-hyun to become our club advisor.”
“What? You actually asked her that? So, what did she say, get lost?”
“She said to bring three copies of the club’s founding agreement by tomorrow, and she’ll take charge and get it through the student council.”
“What?! That crazy bitch actually said that?”
He suddenly yelled, causing all eyes to turn in his direction.
“…… Why don’t you tone it down a bit?”
“Oh, sorry. So, that bitch really did say that if you brought her three forms, she’d help us pass the student council review?”
I nodded at his question.
“Wow. That’s crazy. She must have said that because she thought it wouldn’t work, right?”
“More likely, she thinks that if I can’t do this, she doesn’t need to take care of me, because Mr. Ji-hyun is a total meritocrat.”
“She’s very demanding.”
Was it even possible to say that?
Well, he wasn’t wrong, so I didn’t correct him.
“So, in order to get the three agreement forms, you’d have to raid the bronze, silver, and gold clubs today. Do you think that’s possible?”
“If I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t be trying in the first place.”
“Wow……”
I had planned to get three agreement forms anyway, so it wasn’t that hard to get them.
The problem is……that I need to recruit two more people first.
Okay, so let’s move on, shall we?
I looked at my soon-to-be coworkers, or rather, my two soon-to-be coworkers. Then I stood up and walked over to Kim Se-ah.
“Kim Se-ah.”
“Yes? Uh, Mr. Han?”
Kim Se-ah looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face, as if she hadn’t expected me to talk to her. At the same time, I could feel the eyes of the people around me gathering.
Well, it’s nothing to hide, so it doesn’t matter.
“Kim Se-ah, have you ever thought about joining a club?”
“Clubs? Yes. I was originally going to join the Hunter Club…….”
The Hunter’s Club was probably a club that used the Academy’s name to reserve dungeons and make money from the byproducts.
I’d joined a few times when I was playing as a Ranger, so it was a fragmentary memory.
“If it’s the Hunter club, isn’t it a platinum level club and you have to take a test to get in?”
“Of course I know that, that’s why I was going to take the test today.”
Kim Se-ah’s eyes narrowed and she answered casually.
Her spatial detection abilities and the finesse she showed in the duel would be essential for future events, so I recalled her information in the dossier.
She’s trying to join the Hunter’s Club for financial reasons. If so, I could capitalize on that.
“I know a club that pays better than that one. Are you interested?”
“……? You know a club that makes more money than the Hunter club?”
Her eyes sparkle with interest at the mention of money.
“Yeah, there’s even a club where you don’t have to take a test to join, and you get bonuses for working hard.”
“There is such a club? When I researched, there was no such club…….”
“Yeah. There isn’t one yet.”
“What do you mean……doesn’t exist yet?”
“I’m planning to start a club. It’s very lucrative.”
“What? You’re planning to start a club, is that why you asked the teacher about clubs?”
“Yes, I’ve already talked to Ms. Ji-hyun about it and she said that as long as I bring her three club’s founding agreements, she’ll be in charge, serve as advisor, and pass the student council review.”
“The instructor told you that?”
“Yes, so I’d like to make you a proposition.”
If the alarm on my smartphone was true, Kim Se-ah was one of the people who had gained a small amount of fear of me from yesterday’s duel so the secondary effect of my talent, Heir of the Underworld. [An offer you can’t refuse] will be automatically applied.
I glanced at my notifications and saw an alarm indicating that [An offer you can’t refuse] was being activated.
All that’s left is to make the offer.
“If I can get three forms by the end of the day, I’d like you to join my club.”
“What? Me?”
She rolled her eyes, flustered by the scouting offer but I seized the momentum and laid out the terms that would benefit her.
“I understand that a new member of the Hunter’s Club earns about four million credits a month.”
“Uh…… Yes, that’s right.”
“Then you don’t realize that a new member of the Hunter’s Club has to pay an introductory fee, equipment rental fee, and 50% of his earnings to the club’s development fund?”
“What? Fifty percent?”
50% of 4 million credits per month is two million credits a month, which is comparable to the cost of a normal person’s part-time job.
The Hunter Club was a quasi-mercenary club, and it was also a club with significant restrictions and regulations. It’s hard to believe that after all the hard work, that’s all you get.
There was a rule that you couldn’t leave before the end of the school year, and a loophole that came from an information imbalance that meant freshmen could only get bits and pieces of information about the club.
“Yeah, they don’t tell you that when they’re recruiting you, and then they show their true colors as soon as you sign the pledge form. You don’t believe me?”
I said and pointed out the window.
“If you don’t believe me, go downstairs and ask them. They’ll probably put their hands over your mouth and tell you to stop talking crap and kick you out.”
“How does Mr. Eugene know such things?”
I knew it because I’d been beaten in the game as a newbie, but I couldn’t say I’d seen it in the game…… outright. I pulled out my prepared answer.
“I know someone who graduated from the Academy. He told me about it.”
“A person you know?”
“Yes.”
I had already told her that if she didn’t believe me, she could go and check it out.
At least she’d think I might not be lying. And now it’s time to drive the wedge.
“Five million. I’ll give you five million credits if you join my club.”
“What? Five, five million credits?”
“Not including bonuses, of course.”
“Oh, with bonuses……?”
“How about it? Does that pique your interest?”
After hearing my words, Kim Se-ah looked troubled. On the surface, she seemed to be seriously considering it, but I already knew that she was completely won over by my offer.
“You said you’d collect three forms for the club, right? Okay! If Eugene really collects three consent forms, I’ll take you up on that offer.”
As if she had no choice, she nods and offers me her hand, and I take it, shaking it lightly.
“Great.”
“By the way, isn’t there a minimum of four people to form a club? Aside from me and Eugene, there’s no one else…….”
“What? Five millions? Boss, what about me, do I get that much?”
Suddenly, Jin-woo, who had been quietly watching from the back until now, started to ask me with a lot of excitement at the mention of five million credits.
“…… There are three of us, including this guy.”
“Aaah……so that’s why Jin-woo said Eugene was the boss, what about the other one?”
“I’ll ask him right now.”
Immediately after I said that to Kim Se-ah, I walked over to Kim Young-jae’s desk in front of her.
“Glasses.”
“I’m the class president now, so you can call me class president.”
Young-jae sighed and muttered in response to my call.
“Okay, then I’ll call you class president. I’m sure you’ve heard me before, so I won’t bother explaining. I want you to join the club I’m creating.”
“You want to fill four positions right away? That’s pretty urgent.”
“Well, as you just heard, Ms. Ji-hyun asked me to bring in three forms tomorrow. So, do you have any ideas?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m going to join the club. I’m -──.”
“You’re thinking of joining the student council, that’s why you became class president.”
Of course, I knew he was running for class president because he wanted to join the student council.
In the game he was part of the student council but he joined them only to get the power to find the people he wanted to find and access the information he wanted.
“I assume you’re looking for the whereabouts of your teacher?”
“What?”
Hearing my words, Young-jae jumped to his feet.
“And how do you know that?”
“……Is it important?”
That information isn’t even listed in Corleone’s secretary’s office but I know it.
He was a former dungeon orphan who lost his family to the dungeons and the one who took him in and raised him was the master he seeks.
“The mage popularly known as the Rainbow Conductor is currently imprisoned in a dungeon.”
I gave him the information he was looking for.
“……What?”
“One of the dungeons known as untouchable. He’s sealed in Dante’s Inferno (La Divina).”
“Dante’s Inferno……? Master is there?”
Young-jae’s eyes began to waver so I seized the momentum and continued to push him.
“Of course you won’t believe me, because it’s just words with no proof, I understand. But I promise you this.”
Bzzz bzzz bzzz bzzz.
The smartphone in my left hand begins to vibrate violently.
“There’s nothing untrue in my words.”
My intuition is telling me that he’s starting to listen to me seriously.
“Your enemies will be my enemies. Your friends will be my friends, because I will not abandon my family.”
Bzzz bzzz bzzz bzzz.
My phone started ringing like crazy and that meant that [An offer you can’t refuse] was in effect.
“If you join the club I’m creating, I’ll join you in a hell where no one else will.”
Bzzz bzzz bzzz bzzz.
“Join my club, Kim Young-jae.”
Bzzz.
“I will be with you.”
Bzzz.
Finally, the vibrations stop, and Young-jae opens his eyes and looks me in the eye.
“Once upon a time, master told me that true friends are those who consider each other family, and you’re talking as if it’s a given that friends are family.”
He grabs my hand.
“Eugene. I trust you.”
“Excellent choice.”
With that, all four members of the club are gathered.
