ALL NOVEL Chapter 35
Chapter 35. Exchange Meeting
“Are you okay where you bumped into something?”
“My whole body aches like crazy.”
“Be careful, will you?”
Yoo Ji-han rubbed the back of his neck as he walked down the street.
After smashing into a wall in the Personal Training Room yesterday, every joint in his body felt sore.
He hadn’t even received these kinds of injuries when fighting that monster chicken.
They say your greatest enemy is yourself, and that perfectly suited him right now.
“I need to practice more if I want to use it properly.”
“Here, take this.”
“This is… a magic patch?”
“In theory, it’s quite a wonderful item.”
Kim Si-hu handed Yoo Ji-han a white patch.
When applied to a painful area, it advertised that the refreshing magic of a healing hero seeps deep into the flesh and bones.
Though it had some controversy for being a bit of an over-exaggeration, it was one of the items that sold well to ordinary people regardless of age.
Yoo Ji-han placed the patch on the most stiff area of his neck.
“You shouldn’t have overdone it, knowing we have an exchange meeting today.”
“I didn’t think it would turn out like this.”
The two, dressed in casual clothes, were heading to the Hero Department’s Seoul Branch.
It was a place they had briefly visited during the rank-up examination.
As the building of the Hero Department came into view, Kim Si-hu spoke with a slightly excited voice.
“Still, this is my first time participating in such an event.”
The Hero Department hosts various events related to heroes.
Sometimes they organize festivals where ordinary people can mingle with large guilds.
Naturally, the heroes, who are the stars of the events, reap the most benefits.
With numerous elements that could leave heroes dissatisfied such as evaluations and penalties, the role of the Hero Department is to treat them well and soothe their grievances.
In summary, it could be considered part of a welfare policy for heroes.
“I’m also feeling a bit unfamiliar.”
And Yoo Ji-han was also not used to such events.
He had never been officially invited to such gatherings.
‘The exchange meeting isn’t an enormous event, but…’
There had been occasions when significant conflicts arose between two or more guilds, causing them to gather in one place to resolve their disputes.
Initially, everyone attended with open hearts, but as the conversation progressed, instead of resolving issues, they escalated into even larger conflicts.
The tension boiled over, and ultimately, it ended up in a brawl between guilds.
They fought so spectacularly that even nearby civilians got caught up in the chaos.
In the end, all parties involved in the fight suffered the disgrace of dropping a rank and had to pay hefty compensation.
The exchange meeting was created after that incident with the purpose of encouraging heroes to get along.
*
After completing all the check-in procedures, Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu entered the event hall.
People who were either glued to their mobile phones or sitting in silence glanced at the two.
They were confirming whether they recognized the faces.
But seeing unfamiliar faces, everyone turned their heads away again.
“It’s nicely decorated.”
Yoo Ji-han lightly surveyed the venue.
In the high and spacious auditorium-like space, there were several round tables, each marked with signs that had writing on them.
The black letters on the signs indicated the names of each guild and party.
Each party had a designated seat arranged beforehand.
‘That’s our table over there.’
Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu sat at the table labeled “Sweet Fun.”
Kim Si-hu, with an intrigued expression while looking around, whispered, “Over there, we have Red Hole, Dice, and Warriors too.”
“Right? Even Red Hole has four parties.”
Among the parties attending the exchange meeting were those from large guilds.
Yoo Ji-han recognized the names well.
The most eye-catching was, of course, Red Hole.
Including the three parties already seated, there were a total of four tables with Red Hole’s name on them.
This indicated that there were four parties that had ranked up to Rank 4 around the same time.
As expected of a large guild with over a thousand parties.
“Hello?”
“……?”
While they were exploring around, a man approached Yoo Ji-han.
He was seated at the table right next to them.
“You’re a party participating in today’s exchange meeting, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I’m Shin Woo-jeong, the Guild Master of ‘Friendship.'”
“……Friendship Guild?”
Hearing the guild name caused a puzzled expression to appear on Kim Si-hu’s face.
“Weren’t they the ones who just ranked up to Rank 4 recently?”
“That’s right! Sweet Fun is in the same boat, aren’t they?”
“Yes!”
Friendship had also succeeded in ranking up to Rank 4 alongside Sweet Fun.
Though they hadn’t met at the time, they had both taken their evaluations at the same venue.
Shin Woo-jeong recognized Sweet Fun’s name and reached out to greet them.
“I’m Yoo Ji-han from Sweet Fun, and this is our Guild Master Kim Si-hu.”
“Nice to meet you!”
He greeted them with a bright smile on his face.
“I don’t know many people here, and sitting silently was pretty boring, so I thought I’d strike up a conversation.”
“We’re kind of the same.”
“That’s what I thought! It’s like I knew we would have something in common.”
Having arrived early at the venue, Shin Woo-jeong found the wait for the event to begin a bit dull, so he continued to chat.
He shared that his guild name was based on his own name and meant the bond of friendship.
He readily divulged information without even being asked by Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu.
He was quite a talkative person.
“Are there just the two of you in the party?”
“Yes. We’re still in the starting phase.”
“Wow, we’re also kind of similar; it’s been less than half a year since we began our activities.”
Like Sweet Fun, Friendship was also quite a newly founded guild.
Kim Si-hu felt a sense of camaraderie towards him as he listened to his story.
It wasn’t something he had frequently encountered, being the leader of a small guild.
“Starting a guild these days isn’t an easy decision, is it?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m in the party with my younger brother, and the other three are friends I brought over from the Hero Academy.”
Shin Woo-jeong had formed a party and guild by gathering family and friends.
It was common practice to assemble familiar faces to establish a guild.
“Do you see that large guild gathering over there?”
As he continued speaking, he gestured with his chin towards a particular table.
It was the area where Red Hole and Warriors were seated; one of them was fully geared up with guild emblems, looking ready to head out for a hunt as soon as the meeting concluded.
“I wanted to talk to them too, but I felt like it would be too hard to approach. You know, a bit nerve-wracking?”
Shin Woo-jeong couldn’t bring himself to talk to the large guild that had arrived before Sweet Fun.
The very weight of the guild’s stature made it challenging for him to approach.
And excluding the Dice’s Rank 4 party, most of the large guilds had two or more parties seated, making it even less inviting to join in their discussions.
“Hey, what are you doing over there?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? I’m talking.”
“Stop being a nuisance and just come back and sit down.”
A woman, presumably Shin Woo-jeong’s sister, called out to him from the next table.
With that, he shrugged his shoulders as if he had no choice.
“Let’s say hi if we meet at the MA later.”
“Of course. Feel free to talk to me anytime you see me.”
Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu casually shook hands with him.
Establishing connections with guilds of the same rank was something beneficial.
After all, you never know when you might need to help one another while growing together.
‘The seats are slowly filling up.’
As the scheduled time approached, the parties that had arrived began to fill the empty seats at the event hall.
Now, only one or two tables were left empty in the slightly buzzing venue.
‘I wonder if Keroes has arrived.’
Yoo Ji-han glanced at the table marked with Keroes’ name.
Though it wasn’t the junior he had met last time, he spotted a few familiar faces.
Among them, there were some who recognized Yoo Ji-han and whispered to one another.
‘All the same, huh?’
His ears couldn’t quite catch their conversation amid the surrounding noise.
However, judging by the glances they threw at Sweet Fun’s table along with their suppressed laughter, he was certain whatever they were talking about wasn’t pleasant.
They looked just like those juniors from before.
“Ji-han!”
“……Yang Ji-cheol?”
Suddenly, Yang Ji-cheol rushed toward Yoo Ji-han from the entrance of the event hall.
Yoo Ji-han was about to greet him warmly but froze upon seeing his face.
He looked like someone in a tremendous hurry.
“Ji-cheol, is something wrong?”
“Ugh….”
Yang Ji-cheol wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“I’m really sorry, but can I ask you for a favor right now?”
“What kind of favor?”
“We unexpectedly got additional people for today’s exchange meeting, and we have no seats left. So, I was hoping you’d let us join your table if possible…”
An exchange meeting where parties exceeded the planned number of attendees.
He was requesting to share a table with the smallest group, Sweet Fun.
Exchanging glances, Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu nodded.
With just two people sitting at a table for eight, there was no reason to refuse.
“I heard you know about Sweet Fun over there.”
“Who does?”
“Min Yu-ri from Snowflake.”
“Excuse me?”
“Due to a mistake by our supervisor, I just received this news… Oh, there she comes now.”
A woman appeared at the entrance of the hall.
Though Chilla was not visible, it was indeed Min Yu-ri just as Yang Ji-cheol said.
Kim Si-hu’s eyes widened as he looked towards the entrance.
“She really came.”
“Weren’t only parties that ranked up recently supposed to attend this exchange meeting?”
“Min Yu-ri didn’t attend the last exchange meeting after her rank-up. But suddenly, today she expressed her desire to come…”
Min Yu-ri was scanning the surroundings as she entered the hall.
At that moment, a somewhat rotund man seated near the entrance jumped up and approached her.
“Oh! Min Yu-ri!”
“……?”
“I’m Min Ju-yong from Nice Guild. We met a few months ago at our guild headquarters, right?”
“Oh! I remember. You were the one who brought me green tea back then.”
“Thank you for remembering me!”
He was one of the heroes from Nice Guild who had previously tried to recruit Min Yu-ri.
At the time, she had declined his proposal.
“Uh, well! Yu-ri! I recently left my old party and formed a new one, which I’ve brought up to Rank 4!”
“Um… congratulations?”
“I’d like to have a discussion with you as the party leader, if you could spare some time later?”
“With me?”
“Yes!”
“I’m sorry, but if it’s a burdensome topic, I’m not really interested.”
“It won’t be burdensome at all. I mean, the conditions we proposed before weren’t ideal, right? After some convincing, I’ve managed to upgrade the proposal significantly! It’s related to that…”
Min Ju-yong, the son of the Guild Master of Nice Guild, had been advocating strongly for Min Yu-ri’s recruitment from the beginning.
He held a strong personal interest in her as she worked independently.
‘Isn’t this a destiny bestowed upon us from the heavens!’
While he was deep in thought about her, encountering her in person felt like a magical fate.
“Let’s wait until later to discuss, as there are many eyes watching right now.”
“Yeah, well…”
Min Yu-ri awkwardly smiled and couldn’t quite refuse him coldly.
She couldn’t help but avoid his gaze since, as he said, there were too many watchful eyes.
“Yu-ri, over here!”
At that moment, Yoo Ji-han shot his hand up high toward Min Yu-ri.
Her gaze turned toward Yoo Ji-han, who was waving, and Kim Si-hu standing next to him.
‘There they are.’
A genuine smile, not one of pretense, appeared on Min Yu-ri’s lips as she walked toward where they were seated.
‘…Who are those guys?’
In contrast, Min Ju-yong’s face hardened into a stone-like expression as his eyes fell on Yoo Ji-han.