Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A black key.
The black key from the Cursed Random Box was glowing brightly, as if it was trying to grab
Jinwoo’s attention.
Jinwoo, stunned by this appearance of the item, set down his weapons slowly and reached into
his inventory to grasp the key.
‘...’
Jinwoo held his breath for a moment before opening his hand
This key grants entry to the Cartenon Temple. It can only be used on a specific gate. The
location of the gate will be revealed when the countdown timer reaches zero.
There was new information that he had not seen before. Jinwoo’s thoughts started racing.
‘The Cartenon Temple? Why does the name of a new area sound so familiar? No wait, I’ve
definitely heard that name before.’
The memories came flooding back. The double dungeon with the temple ruins at the end. The
stone statues, specifically the one that held a stone slab.
‘Yes, definitely…’
Jinwoo could almost hear the voice of Song Chi-yeol sunbae-nim again, reading the first line
written on the stone slab.
“Commandments of the Cartenon Temple.”
The slab had identified the ruins, with its legion of terrible statues, as the Cartenon Temple.
All the memories that were buried away before were now fresh on his mind. Jinwoo felt
goosebumps on his back and forearms.
‘No way…’
The glowing key, with the temple mentioned in its description, was a call from the system. But
why now? As he pondered, Jinwoo remembered that the Cursed Random Box was only his first
‘unknown’ reward. He checked on the second demon soul quest reward.
Finally, Jinwoo checked the accessory that he looted from the demon king. He now had the full
set.
Part of a set with the Demon Monarch’s Earrings and the Demon Monarch’s Necklace:
Set effect 1: All stats +5
Set effect 2: All stats +10
The ring was the final item in the set. Jinwoo checked to see if the set effects had changed
recently, but it was still the same as before.
Jinwoo glanced at the system’s info box, noting the indicator just above his title.
[Level: 100]
‘The description for the black key showed a level requirement. New information was revealed
once the requirements were met.’
Since items in the inventory could be stored or retrieved with just a thought, it was rare for
Jinwoo to actually check inside the inventory. He had only recently reached level 100 a few
days ago, which was the requirement for the black key. If he had not randomly decided to
examine the Demon King’s Dagger this evening, it would have been a while before he noticed
the key.
‘There’s still more than two weeks left on the countdown timer.’
Jinwoo felt lucky, but what he didn’t realize was that the system had failsafes in place to
guarantee that he would arrive at the correct time and place to enter the gate to the temple.
There was no way that he could avoid this fate.
‘Am I...seriously thinking about going back there? Almost all the hunters that were with me in
that raid are dead, with the majority of them dying in the raid itself. Heck, even I almost died a
few times. My leg got cut off…’
‘When I saw the space below my knee where my leg was supposed to be...ugh, it still creeps
me out. But…’
If he didn’t answer the system’s call, there might be a penalty. Jinwoo suddenly noticed that the
hand holding the key was sweating profusely.
GULP
Jinwoo felt his heart rate go slower and slower. He waited for his breathing to settle before
opening his eyes.
The system wanted him to go back to the temple. There must be a reason. Afterall, the Cursed
Random Box was supposed to contain something that he ‘needed.’ Still, there were other
matters to attend to, such as officially starting the guild that he had been putting off. Doing that
would make it easier to enter gates and level up both himself and his shadow army.
Jinwoo wondered how the guild was coming along. He considered calling Yoo Jin-ho, but then
saw the time and put his phone back down. Calling someone this late in the evening would be
rude. It would be better to see him in person. As there were other things that he had to do in the
office anyways, Jinwoo decided to visit the office in the morning.
***
Yoo Jin-ho’s eyes were sore. His eyes were intensely scanning the computer screen like a hawk
seeking out prey.
FLASH
Yoo flagged and reported several posts and comments with practiced speed and efficiency.
“Phew~”
Yoo sighed loudly, but looked proud of his efforts as he wiped a bead of sweat from his
forehead.
As the leader and public face of the soon-to-be-created guild, Jinwoo’s reputation could not be
tarnished. Yoo Jin-ho made it his job to stop any spread of falsehoods involving his hyung-nim.
It wasn’t just a personal duty of course, but a task befitting the future vice president of the guild.
‘I still haven’t gotten the guild name from hyung-nim yet. We could combine our last names
together and call it the Sungyoo Guild.’
‘It’s a good idea, but it doesn’t sound right...if we changed the order of the names, we could call
it Meteor (Yoosung), but that’s unacceptable. The vice president’s name shouldn’t be first. The
next time I see hyung-nim, I’ll ask him.’
It had been two days since Yoo Jin-ho moved into the office and he was getting restless. He
had a lot of time to himself to think about the guild name while sitting in the empty office. In
contrast, Jinwoo had attracted a lot of attention due to the Jeju Island incident.
‘If I took hyung-nim’s name and the last two parts of my name, we could call it the Wooho
Guild.’
“Ugh!”
Yoo Jin-ho jumped out of his seat and turned around. To his surprise, Jinwoo was standing right
next to him.
“Hyung-nim! When did you get in? I didn’t even notice you getting close…”
‘I wasn’t really concentrating, but I still didn’t sense him. He’s still so enigmatic.’
“Just now.”
Jinwoo gave a brusque response and peeked at the monitor that Yoo was working on. Yoo Jin-
ho hastily covered the screen and exclaimed,
“Don’t worry about these guys hyung-nim! I’ll take care of it all.”
Recently, whenever rude comments or false rumors about Jinwoo were posted online, someone
would reply with the facts and ask for the post to be deleted. Yoo Jin-ho’s face flushed.
Jinwoo caught a glimmer in Yoo Jin-ho’s eyes as his friend peered up at him. It reminded him of
a puppy seeking praise. Jinwoo fought back a chuckle.
Having received his praise, Yoo Jin-ho smiled with satisfaction and firmly resolved to maintain
his internet vigilance. Suddenly, he noticed that Jinwoo was dressed different from usual.
“Eh? Is there something special going on today?”
“Ahh…”
Thus far, Jin-ho had only seen Jinwoo wear casual clothes that were non-restrictive. It was
strange and surprising to see Jinwoo now, in a full black suit. Jin-ho nodded with admiration and
approval. However, Jinwoo glanced down at his wristwatch and realized that he had no time to
explain further.
“I don’t need to bring anything with me to get the Guild Master license right?”
“Right! Just go to the association and complete a short test and you’ll get the guild license.”
“Okay.”
Yoo Jin-ho tilted his head and pondered for a moment. Did Jinwoo get dressed up just to go to
the association? Then it dawned on him.
‘Ah, now that he’s a celebrity, he has to pay attention to how he looks. Being famous is nice, but
it must be exhausting.’
Yoo Jin-ho felt a bit envious. The names of the people around him everyday were known to
millions around the world. Jinwoo pointed at something on far end of Yoo’s desk.
Yoo Jin-ho reached over to pick up the keys. His hand paused and his eyes grew wide as he
watched the keys fly through the air and into Jinwoo’s hand.
“...”
‘If you told me right now that you can fly, it wouldn’t be a surprise. What can’t you do? It’s like
peeling an onion, the more layers you go through, the more you find.”
‘Right, now is not the time to think about this. I had some questions for hyung-nim. It’s rare that
he stops by the office. I can’t miss this opportunity.’
Jinwoo could tell from Yoo Jin-ho’s expression that he had something to say.
“Hmm?”
“Hyung-nim, I opened up recruitment and, in just a day, I’ve got a bunch of people interested in
coming in. I’ve compiled a list.”
‘There’s no time.’
Jinwoo appeared to be in a hurry, so Yoo Jin-ho quickly moved to the next topic.
Yoo Jin-ho could feel his heart pounding as he waited for Jinwoo’s reply. If his hyung-nim hasn’t
made up his mind yet, he would suggest some of names that he thought up.
Yoo Jin-ho waited with anticipation. Finally, Jinwoo grinned and said.
“What?”
‘Hyung-nim, I guess even you have some things that you’re bad at. You’re only human after all.’
Yoo Jin-ho felt a bit of relief in discovering something so relatable in his hyung-nim. At the same
time, he felt less enthusiastic about becoming a member of a guild called Solo Play.
***
Originally, the funeral was planned to be held in a small place with only family attending.
However, it was changed to a public memorial service after many people express their desire to
pay their respects. And so, many people came to honor the sacrifice of Min Byung-gu.
However, not everyone was gathered here simply to pay respects. There were some who were
restlessly scanning the crowds, anxiously looking for someone. Then, excitement flashed in
their eyes.
“Oh, there!”
“It’s really…”
The din of the crowd grew louder as the people who spotted Jinwoo started whispering excitedly
to one another.
[1] I read this as if Yoo Jin-ho was activating his hunter powers to banhammer internet trolls.
He’s not actually doing it, but it totally fits his characterization that he would approach this task
with the same fervor.
[2] F :(