novelburst-info
Chapter 83
Chapter 83
A guild doesn’t just revolve around gathering Awakeners.
?Guild Establishment Requirements? [Initial Member Recruitment]
- 5 C-class Awakeners
- 5 employees (at least 1 person for each department: Sales, Management, Support, Education, and Legal)
[Guild Office Requirements by Size] ? Atelier
- Less than 10 employees
- Minimum office size: 10 pyeong
- Association deposit: 500 million KRW ? Small-scale
- 10 to 50 employees
- Minimum office size: 50 pyeong
- Association deposit: 1 billion KRW ? Medium-scale
- 50 to 200 employees
- Minimum office size: 50 pyeong
- Association deposit: 5 billion KRW ? Large-scale
- 200 or more employees
- Minimum office size: 200 pyeong
- Association deposit: 20 billion KRW
[Contribution to Establishment]
- When submitting the guild establishment form, the total contribution points of the initial members over the past three months must exceed 300,000 points.
Recruitment of staff for each department.
Securing office space and submitting the deposit.
Ensuring initial contribution to the association.
All these conditions had to be met for the establishment to be possible.
“This is bad news. Recently, guild offices that only meet the minimum requirements have been used for fraudulent activities, and there have been frequent closures. So the requirements have been tightened.”
Ujiwoo and Sokyeongseok, who frequently visited the association, had different roles.
Ujiwoo handled the commission tasks, while Sokyeongseok took care of intelligence. It was Sokyeongseok who brought the troubling news.
The tightening conditions were quite strict.
?Tightened Requirements?
- Increased the number of initial employees (from 5 to 20)
- Increased deposit by 2 times
“In effect, the approval for an atelier-level guild office is being suspended, and they will only accept small-scale guilds or larger from now on. The deposit now needs to be 20 billion, double the previous 10 billion.”
20 billion.
For Hae Eung-eung, this was a substantial amount to consider.
‘The 20 billion I received from the Reality Return Support Package... Is all the money for a comfortable life going to be used up?’
In a society as rigid as Korea in the 2050s, where even buying convenience store items required a minimum of 50,000 won, spending 20 billion on this venture carried immense risk.
“The deposit is essentially a collateral fund for the association to handle losses in case of wage arrears, unpaid fines, guild bankruptcy, or the death of key members leading to guild dissolution.”
“?”
“If nothing goes wrong within six months, you’ll get 10% of the deposit back, and if there are no issues for two years, you’ll get 90% of the deposit back.”
This meant that, if they operated without incidents, the deposit wouldn’t just disappear.
“If you’re short on funds, feel free to let us know. We have quite a bit of money saved up ourselves.”
Ujiwoo thought he was giving a sweet, handsome smile. Of course, in reality, he was more of a middle-aged man than a young, charming one.
‘Should I take a look at the accounts now?’
He’d spent money on cigarettes, clothes, and other things. His balance was probably lower than 20 billion, though.
“?”
But, to his surprise, here’s what he saw.
?Total Account Balance?
[Changwon Bank Account]
[1,998,230,000 KRW]
[VTube Banking Account]
[53,050,000 KRW]
[Total]
[2,051,280,000 KRW]
The 20 billion received from the Reality Return Support Package had actually increased.
VTube Banking.
The appearance of an unknown bank account made Hae Eung-eung immediately think of fraud.
“Hey, sis? What’s going on? Why are you suddenly panicking? I don’t know sign language, so please write it down.”
[Money has been deposited into an unknown account.]
“Eh?? Isn’t that fraud?!”
Hae Eung-eung, flustered and causing double the confusion, was joined by Joo Ah-young.
“Could you show me?”
After Sokyeongseok checked the account details, the confusion began to settle down.
“Have you had any broadcasts recently?”
[Martial Arts Tournament.]
“No, before that. On xx/xx and xx/xx, sponsorship payments were deposited. What did you do on those days?”
Hae Eung-eung thought back.
With her well-developed intelligence as a martial artist, recalling events from two months ago wasn’t that difficult.
[Played a game.]
“You mean a game broadcast?”
Hae Eung-eung blinked.
She couldn’t even imagine that automatic broadcast streaming might have been hidden in the terms of service, so she simply shook her head.
“Wait, sis, your gameplay video was posted on VTube, and viewers’ comments and donations were there too. Isn’t this a broadcast?”
Joo Ah-young brought up the internet search results.
Colorful 2D videos and 3D perspectives provided clear footage of Hae Eung-eung playing the game.
“??”
Hae Eung-eung was still confused.
“Didn’t you say you were in Ghost Mode earlier? The quality of this video is amazing and very vivid.”
As Hae Eung-eung’s confusion peaked, her mental defenses briefly broke.
In that moment, Min Woosung read her thoughts.
- “Was my gameplay video stolen? Is this being shown to the public?”
Utter confusion.
Excitement and agitation.
Then, a sudden realization.
- "If you peek at a martial artist without permission, it’s common sense that you’re going to get slashed."
A strong, intense bloodlust, enough to easily slay a few people, flashed through Min Woosung.
He jumped up.
Joo Ah-young, seeing him jump, clapped and cheered.
“Wow, you must really like Jumping Rabbit. Hehe. Haven’t even started playing yet and you’re already jumping? It’s addictive. You need to separate reality from the game, though.”
Though Min Woosung was irritated by Joo Ah-young’s odd teasing, that wasn’t the important part right now.
The returnee with extraordinary strength.
The returnee who trivialized human life.
It was becoming more and more like a bomb ready to explode, and being misunderstood as a Jumping Rabbit addict wasn’t a big deal at the moment.
‘If this keeps going, I’m going to end up storming VTube’s headquarters and slaughtering fifty or sixty of their employees, right?’
From what he had seen of the first returnee, Choi Deok-bae, this wasn’t something he could dismiss as a joke. It felt too real.
Furthermore, he was a member of the newly formed guild Haenampa, with Hae Eung-eung as the guild leader. Though the guild hadn’t been officially established yet, there was a high chance of legal issues.
‘If she goes berserk, my life is over!’
The National Security Bureau?
They had accidentally killed agents while trying to capture the first returnee, and there were many cases of civilian deaths due to their mistakes, as seen in the classified documents he had read before.
If things went wrong, the probability of getting cut off or dying with her was so high that calculating it would be pointless.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding.”
“Do you have any idea what’s going on, Woosung-ssi?”
Min Woosung, drenched in cold sweat, looked like he was facing a life-and-death trial. He tried to act nonchalant.
“Before, the Ghost Mode just showed silhouettes, but now with advances in technology, the full appearance is shown. It’s a result of technological development.”
“Really? That’s interesting. I didn’t know that existed.”
Joo Ah-young, who had no interest other than Jumping Rabbit, and Ujiwoo and Sokyeongseok, who weren’t interested in games, all nodded blankly.
Hae Eung-eung, slightly calming down, also nodded reluctantly.
[Then what about that broadcast with comments?]
“Oh, that must have been a review broadcast.”
Min Woosung, giving his best attempt at an explanation, continued.
“You know, like how famous celebrities watch movies or TV shows and broadcast it. I’m sure your Ghost Mode got famous, and that’s why it was broadcasted.”
[This video doesn’t have any celebrities in it.]
“Look at the donations! Look at the comments from Speedmaster and Lee Chae-han. These people are pretty well-known in the gaming industry.”
Hae Eung-eung still didn’t seem convinced.
[Let’s call Lee Chae-han and confirm.]
“Did you have his phone number?!”
Min Woosung’s face turned pale.
This was bad.
Desperately, he sat down in the chair as Joo Ah-young laughed.
“You really like games, don’t you? You’re so excited just hearing Lee Chae-han’s name, huh? You should’ve asked for an autograph when you met him.”
“Wait, you met him?”
“Oh, remember that day when the Monster Airstrike Alert went off in Myeongho-dong? That’s when he helped us fight at the convenience store. He was the one who fought alongside us.”
A fellow Awakener who had fought alongside them in a knife fight!
Praying that Lee Chae-han wouldn’t pick up the phone, Min Woosung searched for Lee Chae-han’s broadcast.
[Streamer Lee Chae-han - Live Broadcast]
‘Got it!’
Luck was on his side.
A professional wouldn’t pick up a call in the middle of a live broadcast.
Hae Eung-eung dialed, but Lee Chae-han was busy slaying monsters in the broadcast.
- “Ugh, who’s calling during my broadcast?”
He would never pick up the phone while in the middle of a critical battle, trying to set a record.
- “Oh? Wow, amazing. Guys, give me a second.”
He dropped everything, abandoning his broadcast and game to answer the phone.
[Lee Chae-han has turned on privacy protection.]
[Video transmission is paused.]
- “What’s up? Got an emergency?”
- “Messing up my record!”
The broadcast cut off temporarily as Lee Chae-han took the call.
“Ah, it’s been a while, Hae Eung-eung. I’m sorry for not calling you first.”
“……”
“By the way, did your younger sister happen to be with you?”
Hae Eung-eung handed the phone to Joo Ah-young.
“Yes, she is!”
- “Is there something you need to ask her?”
“She wants to ask you something. I’ll relay it to her.”
Lee Chae-han chuckled, his voice full of joy.
- “Remember the interview we did last time?”
- “Oh yes, the interview.”
- “You were talking about the game, right?”
- “Yes, that’s right.”
- “Do you remember the last thing you said?”
Hae Eung-eung handed her notebook to Joo Ah-young.
(Lee Chae-han): “I was more shocked. How did she answer the interview like that? It even caused a controversy. The funniest part? She does the same thing on her own broadcast.”
That comment, made at the end of the interview, now felt ominous as Min Woosung had mentioned “review broadcasts.”
It raised suspicions in Hae Eung-eung’s mind.
“What did you mean when you said she does her broadcast like that?”
“Uh? It didn’t mean anything... Does she not like talking about broadcasts?”
“No, she doesn’t stream.”
“Oh? Hahaha, are we supposed to laugh here? Sorry, I’m not great with these types of jokes.”
“Yes? What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know. With over a million subscribers, if she’s not streaming, a lot of streamers would be out of work. Haha.”
The innocent laughter from Lee Chae-han turned Hae Eung-eung’s suspicion into certainty.
Min Woosung quickly typed a message.
[Urgent. Delete the video of Silent Swordsman appearing quickly.]
[There is a risk of massive loss for the video uploaders.]
Meanwhile, the National Security Bureau hastily began deleting the videos.
“Wait, sis, that video is gone now.”
[Let’s look some more.]
“I couldn’t find it.”
After the call ended, Hae Eung-eung stared at her phone with suspicion.
Min Woosung sighed in relief, but his actions were just a temporary fix.
It was now only a matter of time before Hae Eung-eung realized the truth behind the broadcast.