BXBX NOVEL Chapter 168: The Guest from America, Part I
Chapter 168: The Guest from America, Part I
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
It didn’t take us long to reach Seoul from Chuncheong. A huge feast was waiting for us when we arrived. Song Daechul even came out to greet us himself.
“Thank you for everything, Jiwon.”
“Don’t worry about it. I had something I wanted to take care of, and it just so happened that we shared a common enemy.”
“Still, it’s true that Sunbin has benefitted the most. They’ve been quite the headache for us. Now then, I assume the person behind you is your mother?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Then I should greet her and ask her what her secret is for giving birth to a great son like you.”
I led Song Daechul over to meet my mother and grandfather.
—
“Damn! That’s him, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, that’s Chairman Song; the guild master of Sunbin!”
“Whoa. To think someone like that treats our young master so kindly…”
“Man, you’re dumb. Our young master is a global entity!”
“Oh, that’s right!”
“Besides, didn’t you notice on the way here how Vice-master Song acted towards the young master? You should be careful you don’t do anything to embarrass him.”
“I know that, too! Get off my back!”
The former Sojung guild members who followed Lee Taejung to Seoul were touched that they had Lee Jiwon as their young master and were now standing side by side with the great Sunbin Guild. The older members who knew Lee Jiwon’s father were so happy that they couldn’t help but wipe away tears of joy.
Sung Sooyeon, Lee Jiwon’s mother, was especially proud to see that her son had grown up to be a strong, respectable man.
Just then, the former Sojung guild members froze as Lee Jiwon and Song Daechul walked towards them. This was the legendary Song Daechul!
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Song Daechul.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. I am Jiwon’s grandfather, Lee Taejung.” Lee Taejung had decided not to use his former title of Sojung’s guild master and instead carried himself as Lee Jiwon’s grandfather. He realized that had more weight than the former, and that if he wasn’t Lee Jiwon’s grandfather, he would never have had the chance to meet Song Daechul face to face.
“Your grandson is quite the determined and decisive individual. I’m pretty envious.”
“I haven’t done much. I’m just thankful you feel that way.”
“I’ve prepared a place for all of you to stay for the time being. If it’s not to your liking, you can always look for another place and let us know. We’ll take care of everything. If you do like it, feel free to stay as long as you’d like.”
“Thank you for taking care of us.”
“Don’t mention it. Sunbin has received so much more from Jiwon; it’s the least we could do.” After speaking with Lee Taejung, Song Daechul then turned to Lee Jiwon’s mother. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. My name is Song Daechul.”
“Yes, hello. I am Sung Sooyeon, Jiwon’s mother.”
“You have quite the reliable son. I’d imagine you have nothing to be envious about with him at your side.”
“No, I’m just sorry that I couldn’t be there for him when he was young.”
“Well, that just means you can start now, right?”
“Thank you for your kind words.”
Song Daechul greeted Lee Jiwon’s mother and grandfather warmly for all to see. With children and grandchildren of his own, Song Daechul knew what they were probably feeling. He also knew how treating Lee Jiwon’s family would make Lee Jiwon feel, as evidenced by the small smile on Lee Jiwon’s face.
—
“I welcome everyone else, as well. From today onwards, we are all allies and friends. Please, let us know if you need anything.” Song Daechul brought everyone into a banquet hall that could easily fit ten thousand people and addressed them.
“Thank you.”
“We won’t forget your kindness!”
What followed was a very festive party of eating, drinking, and playing. I decided to join in as well, as I was pretty exhausted after the past few weeks. I was much more tired than when I fought the Duke, but notbecause of the recent battle. I was more mentally and emotionally exhausted.
Learning the truth about my past when I had just wanted to have my revenge on Lee Kangchan really took a toll on me. At least, these recent events weren’t without fruit. I finally got over my fear of my past trauma and had a boost in confidence of my abilities. It felt good when Lee Kangchan trembled in fear under my gaze. It was like I was finally free of the shackles that had been holding me back all this time.
“I want to thank the Myth Guild, the Ravi Guild, and the Werewolves for everything. I also want to thank the Sunbin Guild for fighting by our side and for hosting this wonderful party!”
“It wasn’t much. It was a meaningful couple of weeks that we got to fight alongside you once again!”
“That’s right! As we’ve said before; this is nothing compared to what you have done for us! We still owe you much more!”
“Don’t forget; it was thanks to you that the Ravi Guild managed to achieve its dream!”
And so, the festivities continued for another week.
—
Meanwhile…
New York City, the homeland of America’s number one guild, the Shire Guild…
“So they failed this time as well?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hah! Of course they failed. If we couldn’t succeed, how could they?” Daniel Miller, the guild master of the Shire Guild burst out laughing when he received his vassal’s report. He cut his laugh short and quickly grew serious, however.
It was his guild’s turn now, but they had already failed three times now. The source of this problem was a single high-grade dungeon, a dungeon that spawned at the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio, right between New York and Chicago.
Chicago was the city where the Spencer Guild resided. That guild was one of the top five guilds of America, constantly competing with the Shire Guild for the control of the dungeon. Normally, the guild that discovered a dungeon first would control it, regardless of distance from their territory but unfortunately, both guilds had discovered it at the exact same time.
Obviously, shared control was out of the question, especially because they were the two guilds controlling the east half of America. Be that is it may, they couldn’t just commit to a full-scale guild war over a single high-grade dungeon, either. All that would accomplish was an opportunity for the bastards on the west side.
The two guilds decided it would be best to compromise and came up with a solution; the guild to defeat the dungeon boss and clear the dungeon the fastest would gain control over the dungeon. It was basically their own Time Attack.
While the top five American guilds were similar in strength, the Shire Guild was still considered the strongest guild. When the Spencer Guild came to them with the Time Attack proposition, the Shire Guild didn’t and couldn’t turn them down, because of their reputation.
And so began the Time Attack for control of the newly discovered high-grade dungeon.
On their first attempts, both guilds failed spectacularly. For the second attempt, both guilds amassed their experience and knowledge from their previous attempt, but still failed. Their third attempt yielded disappointing results as well, according to the report Daniel had just received.
Of course, investing that much effort over a single high-grade dungeon wasn’t a waste at all; in fact, they had to. They weren’t two of the five strongest American guilds for no reason, but the more they failed, the more annoying comments they heard, especially from the west.
The Shire and Spencer Guilds wanted to scream at the other guilds to come try the dungeon for themselves. They were confident that any other guild would no doubt fail completely as well.
“Ha…is there no new information from the Intelligence Division?”
“They’re still saying the same…”
“It’s already our fourth attempt! If we fail again, we won’t have the dungeon to worry about! The Shire’s reputation is on the line, damn it!”
“I know that as well, sir. We’ve pored over all three raid videos countless times and we can’t come up with a solution against its unique battle style and its AoE attacks.”
“Shit!”
“What we need is a tank of legendary power. We can’t make do with tanks with only a bit more skill than most.”
“Are you serious right now? We’ve already raided with the three strongest Unrivaled tanks, that would even give deities a run for their money. Do you possibly mean to say that we should raid with a full party of twenty-five Unrivaled devas? Then who’s going to do the damage and who’s going to heal? What about buffs and debuffs!?” Daniel roared at the officer who had just made the suggestion.
“Calm down, sir. There’s still one more Unrivaled we haven’t used yet.”
“What? Who are you talking about?”
“Jiwon Lee.”
“…” Daniel’s rage vanished when Lee Jiwon’s name surfaced. He knew as well what sort of deva Lee Jiwon was.
“Jiwon Lee… say we do get him over here; would the Spencer Guild even accept it? He’ll be a mercenary, not part of the Shire Guild.”
“Was there a clause that said we couldn’t bring mercenaries?”
“That’s true, very true.”
“If we don’t do it first, it’ll only be a matter of time before the Spencer Guild gets the same idea and reaches out to Jiwon Lee first. They’re as anxious as we are.”
“Hmm.” Daniel began to stroke his beard and thought about what his officer just said.
Frustrated at his guild master’s indecisiveness, the officer continued, “Don’t we already have history with the Sunbin Guild, who are already connected to Jiwon Lee? If we lose him even after all that, we don’t have the right to own that dungeon.”
“Fine! Use the Sunbin Guild to contact Jiwon Lee. Use whatever means necessary to bring him over here.”
“Yes, sir. Only victors create history, sir.”
“That’s right. No matter what the Spencer Guild tries, we just need to show them through results.”
And so, the Shire Guild sent over a representative to Korea to meet with Lee Jiwon.
—
The base the Sunbin Guild had lent us could really fit more than three thousand people at once. The building was very clean, well-maintained, and already furnished. It was even pretty close to the Sunbin’s headquarters. That was just how much we meant to them. That wasn’t all to the good news, either.
“Mr. Lee, would it be alright if we leave a few Myth Guild soldiers here in case of emergency?”
“We wanted to leave a few Werewolves as well…”
“Our guild master wanted to leave some Ravi soldiers as well.”
The three factions wanted to set up a sort of embassy on site, and I was more than welcome to the idea. I did notice Song Myungsoo frown when he heard about it, though. Either way, I felt extremely safe with four factions looking after me and my people.
I wasn’t about to stay at home forever. I already vowed to myself that I would become the strongest in the world. It was extremely helpful to me now that I didn’t have to constantly worry about what went on back home.
There was one thing that I couldn’t figure out what to do. My mother was still against the idea of becoming a deva. But there was still plenty of time to deal with that later, and I decided not to dwell on it too long.
After staying on base for about a week, I finally left to do some long awaited monster hunting!