Chapter 23

“Yes, what can I do for you?”

Baek Jinwoo tilted his head.

Wasn’t everything already settled with headquarters?

“We’re from the Director’s personal secretarial office. The proposal Player Baek Jinwoo made last time is currently under positive review—”

“Ah, that.”

Swish.

Baek Jinwoo raised a hand and cut him off.

“No need.”

“Pardon?”

“Didn’t headquarters already make it clear they were turning me down?”

“…To be precise, it wasn’t a rejection. We said we’d provide support if you brought us concrete evidence. And now that Player Baek Jinwoo has presented that evidence, we’re saying we’d like to conduct a positive review.”

The employee tried his best to keep his tone gentle, but that was just the delivery.

Not a single word hit right with Jinwoo.

The contrast with Jia couldn’t be more stark!

Yu Jia, who had stepped up without hesitation and handed over a fortune when he had nothing to show for himself, versus headquarters, now scrambling to spout nonsense about a ‘review’ only after smelling something worth taking a bite of.

Who looked better?

Not even worth saying.

Real help is the kind that shows up when you actually need it. That’s what makes it worth being grateful for.

And truthfully, there was a subtle stiffness to the headquarters employee’s demeanor.

Their thinking was painfully obvious.

So what if you’re a hot player right now? You’re not even ranker-level, and you want 1.3 billion in a lump sum?

Of course, Jinwoo knew full well it was an unreasonable ask.

But Jia had not only granted that unreasonable request—she’d gone above and beyond and given it to him as a gift.

“Sorry, but that proposal from before… I no longer have any need for it.”

“And.”

A faint smile crossed Jinwoo’s face as he spoke, gently yet firmly.

“I’m already signed with a company. If there’s anything you’d like to discuss with me, please go through Yu Jia at Yubaek.”

“Yubaek…?”

The employee’s gaze wavered.

“Well then, if you’ll excuse me.”

With a polite bow to them, swoosh—Jinwoo strode right past.

The employees couldn’t bring themselves to stop someone that resolute.

More than anything, there was something they were dying to know.

“Sir, what’s Yubaek? And Yu Jia? You don’t mean the Yu Jia from the Daesung Group, do you? The one who recently left headquarters?”

“…Let’s look into it immediately.”

The chief secretary bit down hard on his lip.

The feeling that they’d just let a crucial opportunity slip through their fingers was overwhelming.

After finishing Thursday’s dungeon, Baek Jinwoo headed straight for the rooftop of a nearby building.

Friday’s dungeon is nothing like what came before.

The format itself was fundamentally different.

Whereas before, summons were the ones killing monsters—

Friday’s dungeon required the player to run the course personally.

Two summons would see their debut this time.

The C-rank Sky Dolphin and the B-rank Skypierce Wyvern.

Their defining feature? The player could ride them.

“Hoo.”

Jinwoo’s nerves tightened.

Can I actually pull this off?

Riding a golem and riding a wyvern were two entirely different beasts.

A wyvern actually flew through the sky.

Even knowing the barrier meant he wouldn’t die from a fall, the fear was something he simply couldn’t help.

Yet another gap between game and reality.

But I have to do it.

To time attack Friday’s dungeon, he needed to control both summons with absolute precision.

“Skypierce.”

KREEEEEE!

The moment Jinwoo called, the Skypierce Wyvern roared as if it had been waiting.

Simultaneously, it spread its wings wide and lowered its stance.

The universal gesture: get on.

“Hup!”

Jinwoo climbed on without hesitation and stroked the creature’s head.

“Let’s go. East Sea.”

If he was going to practice flying with the wyvern—

Then with the dolphin, he needed to practice swimming.

Mastering both was the key to unlocking the shortcuts in Friday’s dungeon.

Whooom, whooom!

The wyvern began its slow ascent into the sky.

Hey, this actually works.

With enough practice, he might not even need taxis anymore.

There were surely finer details to nail down for both flying and swimming, but he wasn’t worried.

Jinwoo had Drill Sarge, after all.

Half a day was all it took to get comfortable in the air.

Jinwoo had more natural talent for it than he’d expected.

— My lord, you are remarkable.

“Save the flattery.”

— I mean it. Truly. The speed at which you acquire new skills is exceptionally fast.

“I said drop it.”

That Drill Sarge.

Turns out the guy had a real knack for buttering people up.

— He’s telling the truth.

This time, Stormy chimed in from where she’d been watching.

“Hm? What’s the truth?”

— For us, we’ve got our past memories, so it’s all familiar… but back in the beginning, learning to ride a wyvern was absolute agony. Motion sickness, throwing up, the works.

Back during the Battle of Summoners era.

Drill Sarge and Stormy were veteran summons who had been through every trial imaginable.

It couldn’t have been otherwise.

They had scaled the Tower of Trials together—the gauntlet renowned for its highest difficulty.

And throughout that journey, they too had needed to master controlling wyverns and dolphins.

“Is that so?”

— Yep! JinuGod as always. Truly worthy of being our master.

Stormy clutched her staff with both hands as she delivered the praise, looking impossibly adorable.

In the end, Jinwoo couldn’t resist. He reached over and tousled her red hair into a mess.

“Thanks. Next up is the Sky Dolphin ride, right?”

Their current location was the waters off Yangyang.

They’d come to the East Sea because they needed to venture out to fairly deep water.

Swimming, well…

He had some confidence there.

He’d learned as a kid, and he’d always been fond of water.

But keeping up with the dolphin’s swimming speed and enduring the water pressure were different matters entirely.

He needed practice with Drill Sarge.

— My lord, grip here firmly.

Drill Sarge was patient, and the swimming practice wrapped up reasonably well.

Friday morning.

Plowing through yet another wall of reporters camped outside, Baek Jinwoo dove casually into the low-rank Friday dungeon.

Fully geared up, naturally.

Phew. This is going to be good.

The truth was, the pivotal moment that earned Ilcheon the title of “God of Time Attacks” was precisely his Friday dungeon play.

The dungeon that awarded special runes!

Back during Battle of Summoners, Friday’s dungeon had been a wildly popular minigame among veteran players—they’d share clips in the community, competing to “shave” their times in what they called time attacks.

Low-rank was easy.

Mid-rank was tough.

High-rank was sadistic.

Supreme-grade made you want to vomit.

The setting was a corridor.

A line drawn on the floor stretched out before Jinwoo’s eyes.

In ten seconds.

This was where he’d launch.

It’s only low-rank. Even going all out shouldn’t raise suspicion, right?

He stretched his body and readied himself to run.

At the same time—

“Wind Falcon.”

KYEEEEE!

“Cast the movement speed buff on me.”

Wooong!

A cool breeze grazed the tip of his nose, and simultaneously, he felt strength surge through his entire body.

So this is the movement speed buff.

The seconds ticked down.

One second remaining.

Jinwoo dropped low.

The instant the line on the floor vanished, he kicked off the ground and sprinted.

“Hah, hah, hah!”

Breathing in rhythmic bursts, he ran at maximum speed.

While the player sprinted, countless obstacles appeared along the way.

Dodging them while running—that was the whole point of Friday’s dungeon.

Of course.

Every obstacle’s sequence and every shortcut was perfectly cataloged in Jinwoo’s head.

WHOOSH!

A small stone hurtling from the distance—he ducked low and dodged it effortlessly, then found the flat spots on the wildly shifting floor and landed on them with pinpoint precision.

Graceful, flawless movement without a millimeter of error.

Good.

For the first time in a long while, Baek Jinwoo felt something he’d almost forgotten.

Fun.

Yes!

This was it!

It was even more exhilarating than when he’d been controlling everything through a screen.

And then.

About a minute in, there was a particular section.

A wide gap in the floor, filled to the brim with water.

First hidden route!

Jinwoo’s eyes gleamed.

Normally, the official route required crossing over that water and continuing to run forward.

But—

By using the Sky Dolphin to travel beneath that water, he could bypass all the tricky obstacles above.

“Sky Dolphin!”

KEEEEE!

The Sky Dolphin materialized in midair, and Jinwoo grabbed its upper handle in one fluid motion.

“Hrgh!”

He held his breath.

And then—

SPLASH!

Baek Jinwoo plunged beneath the surface!

No need to worry about his gear.

It was waterproof, after all.

FWABABAT!

The Sky Dolphin sliced through the water at tremendous speed.

Even in the midst of it all, Jinwoo kept his eyes wide open, steering the dolphin with precision.

The result of practicing all through the previous night.

Thirty seconds later, right on cue—

FWOOOOOSH!

The dolphin burst from the water in a soaring leap!

“Okay!”

That cleared the difficult section.

Soaring through the air, Jinwoo shouted.

“Skypierce Wyvern!”

KREEEEEEE!

Right on cue, the wyvern appeared and positioned its body beneath him.

“WAHOO!”

The sheer thrill of it tore a whoop from Jinwoo’s throat.

From here on out—flight time!

If the first section had been a corridor, from this point onward, open sky stretched endlessly above.

Meaning flight was possible.

Mid-rank and above had plenty to manage even while flying, but low-rank? Just soar straight through.

The only obstacles were on the ground, anyway.

Wait.

Had he gone too hard from the start?

Eh, doesn’t matter.

He’d checked the world record beforehand to make sure.

A time Jinwoo couldn’t touch no matter what he did right now.

Breaking that would require pushing the Wind Falcon to its absolute limit, a full set of runes, and maxing out the speed of both the wyvern and the dolphin.

Give me about half a year and I’ll crack it.

Of course, that was only because this was low-rank.

Supreme-grade?

Even Rachel would stick her tongue out at the difficulty.

Sure, she could clear it—but she couldn’t take the shortcuts. She had to follow the standard route, summoning creatures to smash through every obstacle one by one.

That can wait.

KREEEEEEE!

As the destination drew near, the Skypierce Wyvern let out a jubilant roar.

And moments later—

Two minutes sixteen seconds!

Not bad at all!

For the record, Friday’s dungeon also supported auto-battle.

Without a player present, a summon placed inside would be paired with a virtual player that replicated the user’s previous movements exactly.

And just as expected—

For South Korea, it was the obvious outcome.

That night.

Baek Jinwoo’s father, Baek Jincheol.

His mother, Hwang Myeonghui, had gotten home late from work and was preparing dinner.

“Honey.”

Myeonghui set down a steaming dish of egg casserole and asked.

“What do you think our Jinwoo’s been up to these days?”

“Beats me. He said he registered as a player last time, so I’d guess he’s out running dungeons or something?”

Both of them were incredibly busy.

Between work consuming their lives, they barely watched TV and were hopelessly out of touch with the news.

“Should I try calling him?”

“Don’t bother. He takes after me—he’ll figure it out on his own. Keep pestering him with worried calls and you’ll just make him feel pressured.”

“Hmm, I suppose.”

But unable to resist, Myeonghui picked up her phone anyway.

She was calling their daughter, Baek Ajin.

A daughter was easier to talk to than that son of hers—Ajin kept in touch regularly.

— Yeah, Mom!

“Do you know what your brother’s been up to lately? Haven’t heard a peep from him.”

— Oppa…?

A question mark, followed by a beat of silence.

Ajin on the other end had pressed her lips shut.

Do I tell her? Do I not?

Every fiber of her being wanted to blurt it out right then and there.

That idiot brother of hers.

He was absolutely blowing up right now.

But.

He told me not to say anything first.

And the B-rank Shadow Wolf he’d promised her kept flickering through her mind.

A summon worth 500 million won.

After a moment’s deliberation, she spoke again.

— Don’t worry too much. Seems like he’s doing just fine. He also said he’d come visit soon.

“Oh, really? Make sure you come with him when he does.”

Myeonghui smiled and chatted with her daughter about this and that before hanging up.

Then dinner began.

Midway through the meal—

Baek Jincheol pulled a white envelope from his pocket.

“What’s that?”

“Bonus from work. Two million won.”

“Oh my.”

“Put it toward living expenses. And that kid Jinwoo—let’s bump up his allowance. Waking up from a coma and trying to readjust, it can’t be easy. The fact that he’s out there trying so hard to make it on his own… I think that’s admirable.”

“Should we?”

Myeonghui smiled happily.

Truthfully, there were times her son gave her heartburn.

It was because of the occasional get-togethers with her friends.

One friend’s son had become a promising player and joined a major guild.

Another’s had landed a position at some big corporation—Daemyung, was it?—and was supposedly so busy with his new job he could barely breathe.

Every time they met, the subtle bragging about their children made Myeonghui feel like she had nothing to say.

That much, she could handle.

But then there were a few particularly insufferable friends.

— Is Jinwoo doing okay? I heard he woke up! Congratulations, really. Hey, listen—none of that career stuff matters, you know? Health is what counts.

— Still, I do worry. Mid-twenties with a three-year gap… oh dear. Well, he’s young, so I’m sure he’ll bounce back. What’s the plan? Is he going to retake the college entrance exam?

Friends like those made a vein bulge at her temple.

But.

“Hehe.”

Myeonghui gazed at the envelope Jincheol held out and simply smiled.

Still, we’re blessed.

Ajin. Jinwoo.

Both of them, healthy and growing up so well.

That their son was currently splashed across the news in giant headlines—these two had absolutely no idea.