Thumbs Up, Level Up

Um Ji-Cheok’s younger brother’s name was Um Mu-Cheok.

If Ji-Cheok’s name signified ‘kind and righteous,’ his brother’s name meant ‘unyielding and righteous.’ In contrast with his name, though, he had droopy eyes, a big frame, and looked like a softy boy. People would say he looked like a golden retriever, with the way his half-curly hair and gentle expression were ever since he was little. When he stood next to others, though, his two-meter height was daunting.

“I haven’t even graduated, Hyung,” Mu-Cheok’s brow furrowed.

“Well, don’t you know how to look over a contract, at least ?” Ji-Cheok asked, handing the papers to him.

Mu-Cheok carefully read Ji-Han’s proposal. After quite some time, he finally stopped and said, “There needs to be a liability clause here. If the Class B Awakening Stone is not provided after a certain period of time, it should be considered a breach of the contract. Not only should this constitute grounds for unilaterally ending the agreement, but the company should be obligated to pay an additional compensatory sum.”

Ji-Han was impressed. “Your brother’s attention to detail is no joke.”

“If you are confident that you can hand over the Awakening Stone within the set time period, then you do not have to worry about the liability clause being there. Unless… you’re not planning to…?” Mu-Cheok trailed off in a meaningful tone.

“Mr. Um, your brother looks like he’s going to do better as a lawyer than a judge, with how he finds ways to make more money. I would definitely like to have him at our law firm.”

‘Wow, he sure is trying hard to please us.’

Ji-Han and Mu-Cheok went back and forth, revising the terms of the contract over and over again. Ji-Cheok turned to his brother and asked,

“Are you sure… you want to use it? I can even sell it and you can use the money to take care of yourself. Eight billion won is a lot anyways.”

“What are you talking about? Hyung, if you want to sell it, you should keep all that money. If you’re okay with it, though, I do want to try the Awakening Stone. It only works on ordinary people like me anyways.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. The Awakening Stone is just an old rock to someone who is already an Awakened,” Ji-Cheok admitted. Mu-Cheok grabbed him by the shoulder and chuckled.

“Then there’s no reason to worry about this. You're the only family I have and I want to do whatever I can to help you. You did the same for me.”

‘What a great brother. How did he grow up being so kind?’

Ji-Cheok’s chest warmed up as Mu-Cheok continued.

“Oh, also, isn’t section four of the contract essentially a trap?”

“...What? We’ve used this contract to sign up so many Awakened! A trap in our contract? How much are you trying to make off of us?” Ji-Han was starting to get annoyed.

“No no, that is not at all my intention. I’m just making sure my brother is protected and gets the best deal.”

Ji-Han picked up his phone to call someone.

“Okay, how about we call a lawyer to work the terms out with you?”

‘He’s still a student. God. Going against a lawyer from a top firm is going to be tough,’ Ji-Cheok thought.

“Please don’t misunderstand, I am not trying to oppose you at all. These are simply some necessary revisions which will ensure that we reach common grounds and sign a mutually beneficial agreement, with good perspectives for both parties” Mu-Cheok responded quickly.

Ji-Han had a sly smile as he demanded that his lawyers arrive within five minutes, which they did. No fewer than four lawyers from his law firm came into battle. This was when Ji-Cheok realized…

‘I’m so glad that my brother is here by my side.’

‘Ji-Han’s and Mu-Cheok’s personalities really don’t get along. It can’t be helped, some relationships really are this way. There will always be some people that you can talk to and maintain a polite façade, but at the end of the day, you both wish that you wouldn’t have to talk to each other ever again. If people were just honest they’d probably say that they just don’t get along at all, or that the other person is being ridiculous.’

On the surface, Ji-Han and Mu-Cheok were perfectly professional in the way they handled their business. Deep down, however, they were telling each other to eat shit.

“Hyung, we’re all done,” Mu-Cheok let his brother know as he handed the contract to Ji-Cheok.

The contract was fifty pages long, with size eight font.

“I don’t feel like I checked everything, but it’s definitely enough for my Hyung to be protected,” Mu-Cheok said.

“We compromised a lot. So very much… please keep this in mind… and let us know, Mr. Um, when you’ve made a decision,” Ji-Han mustered all his remaining energy to be polite to Ji-Cheok. It seemed like he had been getting more and more irritated as the contract negotiations went on.

‘He makes it sound like he’s dealing with robbers or something.’

Was it finally okay for Ji-Cheok to sign it and find himself in possession of 8 billion won and the Class B Awakening stone?

“Ah, well, when I become an Awakened, I haven’t chosen what company I want to join. You know that, right? I got rid of that cancerous section,” Mu-Cheok remarked.

Mu-Cheok had quickly removed the clause Ji-Han had snuck in, namely that when Mu-Cheok became an Awakened, he would have to work for the Jungha group.

“Sooner than you know it, there will be another B-Rank Hunter roaming around,” Ji-Han said sheepishly.

“I could be a Rank A, if I’m lucky. The Awakened Stone guarantees ‘at least Rank B’, so it’s not impossible,” Mu-Cheok pondered.

“Sure, if you’re lucky and have the potential,” Ji-Han laughed at Mu-Cheok’s ambition. The odds were really not that great. Ji-Han then passed a gift to Ji-Cheok.

“This is a present. Please open it when you get home.”

Ji-Cheok held the fist-size wooden box that had runes inscribed all over it.

* * *

Once they signed the contract, Ji-Cheok and Mu-Cheok stepped outside and were greeted by a familiar face.

“Ahhh, it’s Chief Headhunter Choi Hyun-Jin from the Daehun Group!”

They were surprised to see her waiting outside, as it had been quite a while since they had concluded the negotiation.

“What are you doing out here?”

“I just couldn’t leave without telling you something…”

“Uhh, the Daehun Group’s Castle apartment was a pretty tempting offer. But… I’m very sorry, we can’t take it.”

Choi Hyun-Jin waved her hands to show that it was fine.

“No, no! It’s not because of that. It was actually for the best that the Jungha Group made such a high offer that I couldn’t possibly counter it. The bosses won’t be able to say much, it was waaay out of range. What more could they expect? That I pull a rabbit out of my hat? Hahaha.”

She had a fairly slender body, as if she worked out a lot, and had a keen eye. It seemed like she purposefully didn’t dye her hair to show off her grey hairs, and she would brush it behind her ear with a natural gesture. She was a veteran in her field, with deep wrinkles between her eyebrows.

She seemed easygoing during the headhunting because of her smirk, but she definitely didn’t feel like that when you were working with her.

Choi Hyun-Jin gave her business card to Ji-Cheok.

“If your contract is ever breached, please contact us first right away. The Daehun Group will offer you better conditions.”

“Thank you.”

Choi Hyun-Jin seemed to be still suspicious of Ji-Han’s claim that the Jungha Group had a Class B Awakening Stone.

‘Guess the Daehun Group also has their own information network.’

There was no need to worry about that at this point, anyway.

Ring-

[You have received 1 Like.]

It seemed like Ji-Cheok had left a good impression on Choi Hyun-Jin, and he was of course thankful for the Like.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t really recommend the Jungha Group for you.”

“What do you mean?” Ji-Cheok was curious.

“There are a lot of rumors around what happens at the company, I hope they don’t give you a hard time,” she said in a worried tone.

“Are there conflicts between the higher-ups?”

Ring-

[Negotiator no.1 appreciates your insight.]

[You have received 1 Like.]

This was strange. This time it just said ‘Negotiator’ instead of the person's name. The System seemed to have hidden conditions that Ji-Cheok couldn’t figure out.

“Ah, you seem to know a lot of things,” he remarked.

“That’s something you kind of hear about when you get into our busy lifestyle,” Choi Hyun-Jin replied. “And it’s not only that. Ji-Han was always the black sheep. Things were so bad, he was called the ‘abandoned son of the forgotten child of Chairman Jung Man-Deuk’.”

Ji-Cheok didn’t respond. Choi Hyun-Jin took a deep breath in and continued.

“Although you might know about his other children and grandchildren from work, not much is known about Jung Ji-Han. He used to be an embarrassing part of the Jungha Group, which they tried to hide.

“...”

“One day, he suddenly awakened, and immediately entered the company. After working quietly like an unnoticeable little mouse, he suddenly showed himself to the world. There’s no way his powers were acquired naturally, through the normal Awakening process. If he’s still a reckless bad egg, who knows what problems he’ll cause? Even if he isn’t, what else does he have up his sleeve? I hope you’re careful.”

Choi Hyun-Jin felt satisfied once she told him her concerns. Ji-Cheok had no clue how to respond, frustration building up inside him, and Choi Hyun-Jin laughed at the sight of his concerned look.

“Just think of it as a headhunter’s blabber.”

“No… I appreciate that you’re worried about us.”

[Advisor No.1 is a little pleased.]

[You have received 1 Like.]

The System had changed her label from ‘Negotiator’ to ‘Advisor.’ As Choi Hyun-Jin shook Ji-Cheok’s hand, she encouraged him to call her anytime. Well, what she actually said with a big smile was that she hoped Ji-Cheok would cancel his contract with Jungha and give her a call.

‘Ji-Han had a side to him like that?’

The Jungha Group’s bad egg? No way… he didn’t look at all out of the ordinary. Just the kind of fussy third-generation chaebol. In fact, he would’ve just chuckled at such baseless rumors, had Choi Hyun-Jin not opened her mouth.

‘Was it really just a headhunter’s mindless gossip?’

As funny as it sounded, when Ji-Cheok thought about it, Ji-Han didn’t seem like the bad-egg type. However, it was odd how the System had changed Choi Hyun-Jin’s label from ‘Negotiator’ to ‘Advisor.’

Right then, Mu-Cheok grabbed Ji-Cheok’s shoulder.

“Hyung, what are you thinking about?”

* * *

As soon as they returned to their dorm, Ji-Cheok tried to search for everything about Ji-Han. He was surprised to find nothing more than a few scant results — rather unusual for a third-generation chaebol of the Jungha Group. His father was the fourth son of Jung Man-Deuk, and there was also hardly anything about him online. By contrast, Jung Man-Deuk’s first three sons were people with abilities and hundreds of search results appeared for them. Had he simply not inherited strong abilities like his brothers, or was he not capable in some way? But there were some articles that did come up.

“S Group’s fourth son gets drunk, assaults people and throws cash around.”

“Chaebol’s fourth son causes 7-way collision in drunk driving accident.”

Ji-Cheok tried to click on the links to the headlines, but instead of newspaper articles, a ‘This link has been deleted’ message came up. Did the links just expire… or did the Jungha Group pay people off to delete them? Beating up people and crashing cars after a couple of drinks — that was a completely different picture from what the other brothers painted. Undefeated conquerors of dungeon after dungeon, working together for the future of their company… The last article, however, showed something else: the face of a beautiful celebrity marrying a chaebol.

“The other brothers got arranged marriages, but this one married a celebrity…”

It looked like Jung Man-Deuk had simply given up on his fourth son, Jung Han-Gyu, who had then become a father when Ji-Han was born. Similarly, there were almost no articles about Ji-Han himself, except one that said he had gotten the bad egg personality from his father. According to the rumors in the financial world, he had started drinking, smoking, riding a motorcycle, spending extravagantly, and being involved in celebrity scandals even from his early teenage years.

It showed how much the Jungha group cared about their image as they grew larger and larger, since then they were able to hush the media about these incidents and use money to make the stories go away. If this was all true, then Ji-Cheok could see everything aligning with what Chief Headhunter Choi Hyun-Jin of the Daehun Group had told him.

‘... it is quite strange, though.’

Ji-Han looked exactly like someone who graduated from an Ivy League school and prospered on his own. It was surprising for Ji-Cheok that Ji-Han had that kind of past.

‘Well, he does kinda give off a delinquent vibe when he stares at me…’

Maybe Ji-Cheok was being prejudiced, as he felt like all the actions that Ji-Han had done now were somehow related to his troublesome past.