Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

A-Rank Representative Selection (1)

"Huh? Yun Seung-hyuk?"

As he entered the waiting room, Seung-hyuk heard someone calling his name.

When he turned his head toward the sound, he saw a familiar face approaching, looking surprised.

"Ah, it's been a while, sunbaenim. Have you been well?"

"I've been doing well."

He was a Hunter who had once lived and trained together with him at a small-to-midsize management agency.

If he recalled correctly, his name was Jung Tae-shik. He was already an A-rank Hunter back then, and Seung-hyuk remembered how he used to strut around the agency.

"Can you believe it? I recently transferred to 'Moon Halo'. The management backed me enough that I even made it to the Odyssey A-rank Representative Selection this time."

"Th... That's great, congratulations."

Thinking that Jung Tae-shik's show-off attitude hadn't changed, Yun Seung-hyuk decided to just go along with him.

Even though he acted a bit flashy, Seung-hyuk remembered he wasn't a bad person.

"Did you get a job at the Hunter Association or something?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

He looked at Seung-hyuk as if he couldn't understand why he was here.

It was only natural since up until last year, Seung-hyuk had been a C-rank Hunter.

It didn't make sense, at least logically, for someone to become an A-rank Hunter in just a few months.

"I'm participating in the selection as well."

"You are?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Jung Tae-shik simply couldn't comprehend what Seung-hyuk was saying.

If he looked closely, he could see some other familiar faces behind Seung-hyuk.

Since A-rank Hunters were quite rare in the industry, most had at least seen each other around.

Among the Hunters standing behind Yun Seung-hyuk was veteran A-rank Awakener Kim Jung-han.

"So, which agency are you with?"

"Unique."

"Unique? That's where Manager Park Jung-woo is, right?"

Park Jung-woo was the most talked-about figure in the industry recently.

At first, most people dismissed him as just a lucky manager, but now public opinion had completely flipped.

'Who on earth is that guy?'

Some people even said he was an Awakener now.

There was even talk that it made sense, since he worked as a Hunter even at SuHunK, and counterarguments wondering why an Awakener would work as a manager.

'Even for Park Jung-woo to turn a C-rank into an A-rank...'

Thinking that, Tae-shik remembered Lee Soo-ah and nodded to himself.

'If he could make someone S-rank in a month, A-rank must be a piece of cake.'

He really had no idea what kind of magic he was using.

But, since not every Hunter turned out that way, there seemed to be some kind of condition.

Maybe, if he played his cards right...

'I'm already an A-rank, so maybe I could aim for S-rank too?'

Thinking this far, Tae-shik glanced around cautiously and then spoke quietly.

"Hey, is there maybe an open spot at Unique?"

"... Pardon?"

"Erhem, oh, no, it's just that my contract is about to end."

Hearing Tae-shik whisper while sneakily checking behind himself, Seung-hyuk was flabbergasted.

'Is this really something a Hunter participating in today's selection would say?'

Even though he had his party members with him, Tae-shik's willingness to jump ship so quickly was both surprising and baffling.

Still, it was better than pressuring him to explain how he'd gone from C-rank to A-rank.

"Yes, well... I think there might be."

"Ha, that's it. I knew it paid off looking after my juniors. Then I'll ask you about that later... Good luck with the selection, yeah?"

"Ah, yes."

As Tae-shik gave him a thumbs-up and disappeared, Seung-hyuk stared after him in a daze until his party member, and the most veteran among them, Jung-han, came over and patted him on the shoulder.

"He's a good senior."

"Uh, r-really?"

Seeing Seung-hyuk's bewildered expression, Jung-han chuckled.

"It's admirable enough that he's not being petty out of jealousy."

It didn't take much longer for Seung-hyuk to understand what Jung-han meant.

***

'Noisy.'

Ban Jae-hoon, that is, Ardan, clicked his tongue at the countless voices surrounding him.

Ironically, most of what was being said was all quite similar.

Contempt and disparagement directed their way.

"Didn't Unique only just put together an A-rank party?"

"And it's not even an established A-rank party—it's a brand-new one."

"I heard that the leader, Yun Seung-hyuk, was a C-rank until recently?"

"Wow, so they made someone who was a C-rank just a while ago the party leader?"

Unique was commonly known as a "rising star" among management agencies.

They had as many S-rank Hunters as Grand Nova, and recently their manager, Park Jung-woo, was the hottest topic—so it was natural that they drew the most scrutiny from established agencies, and the Big 3 management agencies always tried to keep Unique down whenever they had the chance.

"Even though they already have two S-rank Hunters for the National Team Exhibition, now they're trying to take the A-rank representative spots, too? Wow, they're seriously greedy."

Only the last two teams remaining could be selected as A-rank representatives.

But about twenty teams had participated in this selection.

Each management agency gathered as many A-rank Hunters as they could and fielded them as candidates.

It was the first time in ages to participate in Odyssey, and with the relatively low bar for participation (A-rank Hunters), everyone wanted a chance.

"Still, the representatives should be Ghost and Tempest, right?"

Upstream's representative A-rank party, team Ghost.

And Team Tempest, responsible for a fifth of Grand Nova's revenue all on their own.

Both were named as Korea's top A-rank parties.

"Manager Ban Jae-hoon, is that correct?"

While his keen ears picked up these conversations, Ardan turned at a voice beside him.

There stood a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a confident smile.

"I'm Oh Dae-su, deputy Department Manager of Grand Nova."

"... I'm Ban Jae-hoon, manager of Unique."

"Don't you have a specific title?"

"No."

At Ban Jae-hoon's curt reply, Oh Dae-su's brow twitched.

'Just as arrogant as his predecessor!'

Oh Dae-su, for personal reasons, harbored strong resentment toward Unique.

He was frequently reprimanded by Jin Su-hyuk over issues related to Jung-woo.

Three years ago, when Jung-woo was at Grand Nova, Oh Dae-su had harassed him so much that Jung-woo never returned—so Oh Dae-su was told.

"I see we're your first opponent. Did you hear?"

"I just did."

Ban Jae-hoon answered Oh Dae-su without much reaction.

His manner left nothing to criticize, but Oh Dae-su suspected arrogance.

'Unique may be gaining popularity, but to act like that with a senior in the industry? Ridiculous.'

He already disliked Unique's fledgling A-rank party, but now he found their manager just as distasteful.

That upstanding look with that arrogant expression.

Anyone would think he was the senior, not Oh Dae-su.

"Wow, better not stand next to him. Look at that size comparison."

"He's like a dwarf to a hobbit. Isn't that Tempest's manager? Why does his head look so big?"

As the whispers grew around him, Oh Dae-su, bristling, stepped away from Ban Jae-hoon.

Apparently, his positioning was making his head look bigger due to perspective.

"The A-rank party you fielded this time is different from the existing Unique A-rank party, right?"

"That's correct."

Oh Dae-su's brows furrowed at Ban Jae-hoon's short, clipped answers.

"Speaking as your senior, let me offer some advice—a move like this might draw complaints from your existing A-rank party. You should look after them."

"This party was determined through an internal performance review, so there's nothing to worry about."

Despite Oh Dae-su's nitpicking, Ban Jae-hoon didn't even twitch an eyebrow.

"Hah, well, let's see how great they turn out to be. You do know there's a world of difference between S-rank and A-rank, right?"

Watching as Oh Dae-su stormed off in a huff, Ban Jae-hoon simply observed his retreating back.

'Deputy department manager Oh Dae-su. Tempest's manager, who moved up thanks to their performances.'

That was the public info, but Ban Jae-hoon knew much more.

'He'll be dismissed soon, but it hasn't happened yet, I see.'

With Park Jung-woo busy preparing for Odyssey, Ban Jae-hoon was also acting as a conduit for Enoch and Chairman Song Hyun-seung's communications.

In other words, he had access to a fair number of their informants and knew most of the key players at Grand Nova.

Among those, there was data on Deputy Manager Oh Dae-su, but contrary to that intel, he was still managing Tempest.

'Which means...'

They were planning to use this selection tournament as a reason to chop off Oh Dae-su's head.

He'd been there since Grand Nova's founding, so firing him lightly was impossible; they needed justification.

And this selection was chosen for that.

If Tempest, whom everyone expected to become A-rank representatives, were to fail?

'He'll bear all the responsibility.'

Just a moment ago, Oh Dae-su had been instructing Tempest's Hunters to stomp Team Point with all they had.

Little did he know this would be his last task.

***

"Team Point, please come forward."

Hong Jun-ki, the leader of Grand Nova's 'Team Tempest', felt somewhat relieved to see that their first opponent would be Team Point.

'Thank goodness it's not Team Ghost.'

Of course, losing once didn't mean elimination.

The selection tournament spanned three days, with the two teams scoring the most victories being selected at the end.

So, even if they lost once, as long as they won the rest, it wouldn't matter much.

But losing the very first match—that was something different.

"Even Manager Park couldn't have pulled this off. Sending a rookie party to the selection round."

"He probably wanted them to at least get some experience? It's not every day you get to test yourself against an A-rank party."

"Yeah, that's probably it."

Though Oh Dae-su told them to trample Team Point, Hong Jun-ki had no desire to go that far.

Still, he didn't let his guard down against Team Point's Hunters.

'They've only been active for about a month.'

Even if they worked tirelessly, that would mean they'd only cleared about three A-rank dungeons so far.

Even for an A-rank party, clearing more than one A-rank dungeon per week was unrealistic schedule-wise and would only ruin their bodies.

'Besides, their leader, Yun Seung-hyuk, is someone who jumped from C-rank to A-rank.'

Naturally, he had zero experience as an A-rank Hunter leader.

Hong Jun-ki couldn't understand why they chose Yun Seung-hyuk as leader.

"We will begin the first match between Team Tempest and Team Point."

At the referee's prompt, hunters from both sides took their places at their assigned spots.

Three warrior-type Hunters and two mage-types.

Both sides had the exact same composition.

"How long do you think it'll last? Three minutes?"

"That's too short. I give it ten."

Naturally, all the Hunters watching expected Tempest to win.

Even among the top-flight A-rank parties, tempest always led the earnings rankings.

Some said Upstream's 'Ghost' had better individual skills, but no one denied Tempest's diligence and ability.

And now their opponent was a party that had only been formed a short time ago—who would even bother watching that match?

"Begin!!"

With the referee's shout, the match began.

At first, the Hunters watching wore indifferent faces, but as the match progressed, their expressions began to change.

The match lasted only ten minutes.

"What the..."

A hush fell.

The match had started off just as expected.

It's just that the winner was different.

"The victor of the first selection match is Team Point."

Tempest, the team everyone expected to represent Korea, was utterly defeated.

By a rookie party that had only existed for a month, and in just ten minutes.

It was an upset no one had foreseen.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

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