Chapter 102
Of course I wasn’t part of that group.
Well, I decided not to mingle with that group. If I joined them, it would show them that I was influential enough to get involved in Myongjin’s business which would inevitably cause them to pay attention to me.
So, I was keeping to myself in one corner of the banquet hall when someone came over.
It was Bora Yon, the Mirae Group’s designated successor.
She suddenly opened her mouth and asked me, “Oh, you are not leaving with Chairman Hong?”
“Well, my elder brother joined him. What about you, Bora?”
“I’ve got an elder brother, too.”
As soon as she said that, she sat next to me as if it was natural.
Then she looked straight at me and said, “Isn’t he great?”
“Who are you talking about?”
“I mean Asirante.”
“Oh, I guess so,” I replied, nodding at her.
“Do you remember what I told you before? I said I took part in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Closed Betas, and achieved the maximum level in the 1st and 2nd Closed Betas. You remember it?”
historical
“I do, because I just heard it from you only recently.”
Besides, I vividly remembered how regretful she felt for not having achieved the maximum level during the 3rd Closed Beta.
“I think Asirante certainly reached the maximum level during the 3rd Closed Beta, and he was the only person to do so. By the way, don’t you think that guy is really great? He is the only max level achiever in the world and he lives in Korea now. What’s even more surprising is that he didn’t even know that ‘Forgotten Legend’ was renamed ‘Revival Legend’ for as long as three years!”
“Hmm.”
But I didn’t respond to her words. I just nodded my head gently.
“Anyway, our business group leaders have a big headache because of him now. All of them want to win him over, but his value is too high for them to accept. Of course, they would really like it if they could succeed in hiring him. If some other groups take him..” she paused, looking at me.
So, I opened my mouth, watching her nervous stature.
“Maybe they will come to the conclusion that they had better share Asirante as if he were a public good.”
When I said that, she said with a smile, “I guess so. Come to think of it, it’s sometimes cumbersome that we have to compromise because we are scared of losing too much.”
“Well, I think they’re going to pursue a safe path with the least losses anyway.”
After that, I talked with her about other things rather than focusing on Asirante.
Then, she asked me an unexpected question, “By the way, what’s your ID?”
“Lumen. L. U. M. E. N.”
Of course, I was thinking that someone would ask about my ID even if it wasn’t Bora.
So, I mentioned my original ID.
“Oh, Lumen. That’s good. I think you can be the man that your ID symbolizes. By the way, my ID is Kali. Can I ask you to friend me?”
“Sure.”
I unwittingly nodded at her who used an ID which was much scarier than I thought.
After the dinner meeting, I returned to my house in Cheongdam-dong with my father and Managing Director Sok.
As usual, I went with them to the basement study.
What the director said there was according to my expectations because it was important for me to avoid the worst-case scenario, and both my father and Director Sok agreed that I should have room to maneuver as long as I showed my ID as Asirante.
Our strategy meeting lasted for about 20 minutes.
When it finished, my father said to me, “We are completely prepared to execute our action plan now. Be careful and get in touch with us right away if something happens.”
“Yeah, I will do that.”
Of course, I won’t contact Daeyu right away. I’m going to keep them waiting anxiously for me for some time.
Three days later I received a lot of messages from the important guys from Mirae, Daesung, Kusan as well as my main target Daeyu.
Each of them promised me a considerable amount of financial compensation in their messages as well as full support if I joined their group. This included supporting my gaming activities, and gifting me with a huge monetary gift, a car, and a house.
Of course, I fully knew their intentions behind such a generous offer.
However, even if they recruit me to their guild, they won’t get any benefits if I leave the guild. So, it was very important for them to find out my real-life information instead of my game information.
I was especially surprised because Daeyu was more active in recruiting me than I thought.
They even went as far as telling me that they would register me as a board member of the Daeyu Group with some stakes in the Daeyu Guild if I joined them.
Normally I would have been tempted to accept their generous offer.
But their intentions were so obvious. They knew the gains of recruiting me would be much greater than the huge price they paid for me.
In other words, Daeyu was betting everything on hiring me.
That gave me a lot of leeway to strike a deal with them.
So, I responded to Mirae, Daesung and Kusan in a way that did not incite their anger for repeatedly rejecting their offers, but I was arrogant enough to negotiate with Daeyu to raise their offer price, telling them that I had received some other offers.
And as if my bluffing for the past three days paid off, Daeyu’s Chairman Daeyoung Suh finally agreed to meet with me in person today.
At a cafe near the central square of Northwood Castle.
Daeyu deliberately arranged to meet with me at this place.
Clearly, they wanted to show they were not hostile to me by selecting this place which was a neutral place filled with a lot of users.
So, I readily accepted their invitation.
In no time I met Chairman Suh face to face. Of course, I’ve actually seen him before.
But I acted as if this was my first time seeing him.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Daeyoung Suh. Anyway, it’s my honor to meet such an outstanding person like you. Hahaha.”
Chairman Suh was well over 70.
Nonetheless, he used honorific language towards me, so I knew how anxiously Daeyu wanted to recruit me.
So I replied with an air of arrogance on purpose.
“I’m flattered. I am also pleased to meet you. By the way, I never thought I would see Daeyu’s Chairman like this in my life.”
“Hahaha. Don’t you think we can have a good relationship? I mean you could have a good relationship with Daeyu in the future.”
“Well.. our relationship could be good or bad. Or who knows if we could break our relationship later?”
“Really?”
I openly sent a strong signal to him that I would not easily be swayed by his offer.
As if he read my mind, Chairman Suh leaned toward me closely and opened his mouth.
“If you join Daeyu, I can give you money right away..”
“No, thanks,” I interrupted him in the middle of his offer.
Then I said, shaking my head, “As I’ve said before, I’d rather get golden rings rather than your cash or stocks.”
Receiving his money meant that I would have to reveal my bank account number to him.
So, I refused his offer right away because I had no intention of bowing to his obvious intentions.
So, I told him about my demands first.
“I want a hunting ground where I can hunt as freely as possible because I used to hunt in those places that others avoided. So, at least once, I want to hunt alone in a very good hunting ground. Of course, the hunting ground should be for users above level 500. In addition, my current items are not good enough. So, can I get some useful accessories? Of course, I want the required accessory enhancement stones so I can enhance them.”
“..”
“..”
“..”
Of course, Chairman Suh was not here alone for this meeting. A couple of men who seemed to be his close aides also accompanied him to this meeting.
They all fell silent when faced with my blatant demands.
But I wasn’t worried because they would accept my demands anyway.
They would accept my demands even if they were higher than this.