291. Wisdom (2)

“Well then… I'll be on my way.”

Ji-hye leaves the two men, still unconscious, and exits the room.

If she had her way, she would have just killed them, but she couldn't do that.

Right, not now.

Thud.

She hated the sight.

Her father who abandoned her.

The disgusting politicians…

But it had to be done.

As Ji-hye returned home, she briefly thought about her past, about how she ended up like this.

Lee Ji-hye.

It was back when she was in high school.

Her father was a politician.

A thoroughly corrupt one at that.

Publicly, he was a hard-working public servant for the people! But… when you're family, you inevitably learn things you'd rather not know.

On days when he had to face reporters who came looking for him or the victims of various powerful figures, he would always drink and mutter, ‘Those damn bugs don't know their place…’

Besides that, she heard many other stories through minor incidents and arguments with her now-divorced mother.

She had an older brother, but he was similar to their father.

If anything, he was worse, not better.

She was horrified when she overheard him, after a night of drinking, raping, and assaulting a woman, come home the next day perfectly fine and talk to his friends on the phone, recounting his crimes as if they were war stories.

Naturally, no proper punishment or investigation was ever carried out.

Her father had pulled some strings.

‘I… don't want to live like that.’

She didn't want to become like them.

To that end, unlike her brother, she wanted to stand on her own without her father's help.

In the end, all she could do was study.

She knew herself that her intelligence was better than average.

At 20 years old.

Through her own efforts, she was admitted to Hanguk University, the undisputed number one university in Korea.

She graduated from the newly established Tower High-Floor Research Department.

Her ultimate dream was to become a Guild Master.

Although she couldn't enter the Tower herself, she thought it was entirely possible at the time.

At 24 years old.

She graduated at the top of her department after four years and immediately joined a Guild.

The Guild's name was none other than Korea's top Guild, the Five Stars Guild.

While it was difficult for an Awakened to change Guilds once they chose one due to various contracts, it wasn't as strict for ordinary people.

Ji-hye was somewhat aware that the Five Stars Guild, along with other Giant Guilds, was trash.

What she needed was the information those Giant Guilds had collected.

She had joined with the intention of using them anyway.

But… Ji-hye was more competent than expected.

‘No, why is the work being handled so poorly…?’

The Guild's funds were just sitting there, unused, and contracts for items like equipment and Elixirs were handled by ordering and receiving items one by one as needed.

Wasn't it obvious to anyone that it would be better to bring them in at a lower price through a formal contract?

‘Crazy… is this really a Giant Guild?’

The Five Stars Guild, unlike the Five Stars Group, was a Guild created by an Awakened.

At the time, the Awakened were strong enough to be called the world's number one, but the ordinary people working there were just salary leeches who had come down from the Five Stars Group to slack off. The administrative side was practically at the level of a neighborhood corner store.

The competent and passionate people had already washed their hands of Guild management and moved to the Operator side.

What would an Awakened know?

Baek Do-hyun knew a thing or two, but he didn't care about any Guild but his own, so the foolish Guild Master of the Five Stars Guild, Oh Kang-mu, just let it slide, thinking that's just how things were.

‘I don't want to stand out… so, let's just do a little.’

She was going to leave the Guild eventually anyway.

She figured she just needed to work enough to be able to access the confidential data.

Of course, her standard of "just enough" was different from that of an ordinary person.

The Guild's financial situation improved to an all-time high, and with a systematic structure in place, work actually became more convenient.

But the saying "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" doesn't exist for nothing.

Among the existing general office Guild members, quite a few were displeased by her work.

‘What the hell is she doing? Does she want attention?’

‘You crazy bitch, I'm your superior. Just shut up and listen to me.’

‘Let's just do things the way we've always done them, please. Stop making more work.’

‘This is the Five Stars Guild. We don't need to worry about a few pennies.’

Of course, despite such jealousy, she was promoted endlessly with outstanding performance.

Her colleagues and superiors might have had their complaints, but those higher up saw her in a very positive light.

General affairs, human resources, finance/accounting, planning, operations management, administration.

Since her relationships weren't great, she was moved around to various teams, but that only served to build Ji-hye's experience.

It reached a point where people in every department would throw up their hands and say, 'Fine, do whatever you want,' whenever they saw Ji-hye.

Of course, personal relationships are essential in office life, but this wasn't a normal company, just one for supporting the Awakened, and since she was planning to become an Operator eventually, she didn't care.

Operator.

A role that gives real-time orders to the Awakened through Pantheon TV's Password Broadcast.

They weren't just office workers.

They were in a position where an ordinary person could be on par with an Awakened, and within the company, they were treated as a group with the Awakened, not as general staff.

Unless you were a Guild Master, even the Awakened bowed and scraped to the Operators.

Their words were the Guild Master's words and will, and the policy of the entire Guild.

And Ji-hye's promotion to Operator was a foregone conclusion.

Ji-hye also knew that it was common practice to move smart, high-performing people from the general office staff who had graduated from a related department to the Operator side.

“What's with this performance record? It's a waste for such a talent to rot here. Starting next week, report to a different place.”

An Operator who had come to recruit new employees scouted Ji-hye on the spot.

But she didn't know.

Just how low human malice could sink.

‘That bitch… is leaving?’

‘She really lives in her own little world, doesn't she?’

‘Should we… tell her to go there?’

‘Hehehe, right, that bitch needs a hazing ritual too.’

The employees who had worked at the company for a long time knew the place where the Five Stars Guild's Guild Master often rested.

He would frequently take naps inside an old supply closet in a corner of the company.

Why would someone like the Five Stars Guild Master do such a thing?

The reason was nothing special.

He just slept well there.

There was no one to bother him, and it had a cozy feeling. Should I say it felt like he was slacking off alone while everyone else was working?

As a former warehouse manager before becoming an Awakened, he just… slept well in this place.

And the long-time employees decided to use that.

‘Ji-hye, I heard you were transferred to the Operator team? Congratulations. In that case, could you take this to the supply room in Building B, Room 307?’

Of course, their intention was just to play a prank on her.

They didn't know the dark side of Oh Kang-mu, and they thought the female employee who had entered there and then resigned was just startled, so they pulled this stunt.

Annoyed, but not wanting to fight with people she wouldn't see again, Ji-hye gave a small smile and accepted the request.

That was the beginning of the problem.

‘This is finally over.’

She walked down a dimly lit, empty hallway and entered the supply room she had never been to before.

Entering with a relieved expression, Ji-hye came face to face with a man.

Oh Kang-mu.

The Giant, nearly 2.5 meters tall, sat up from the bed with a slightly surprised look and faced Ji-hye.

That lasted only a moment.

Ji-hye immediately realized the other employees' intentions and bowed her head, but…

“Greetings, Guild Mas—”

“Oh… you're pretty, aren't you?”

“Pardon…?”

“Hehehe… come here.”

Feeling a sense of foreboding, she stepped back, but his thick hand, which had already closed the distance, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in.

That day was the worst day of Ji-hye's life.

No matter how much she screamed, no one came to the warehouse, which was even protected by Soundproofing Magic.

At the company, not a single person stepped up to look for the missing Ji-hye.

Her body and mind were brutally violated, and she was treated as less than human, horribly broken.

It was so terrible that she still sometimes has nightmares about it.

But, the real problem came after that.

She didn't wake up in a hospital.

It was a filthy, abandoned factory.

Ji-hye began to regain consciousness, smelling the metallic tang of iron and the disgusting scent of blood for the first time in her life.

“Are there four bitches to dispose of this time?”

She opened her eyes at the emotionless man's words.

‘Huh…?’

She had fainted.

She had been screaming in pain under him and his vicious weapon, and then she woke up…

Her clothes were stripped off, her hands and feet were tied with rope, and she was stuffed into a drum barrel. The sound of sobbing women could be heard around her.

Lifting her head, she saw an expressionless man with his hair slicked back with pomade, wearing a blood-stained white dress shirt and black gloves.

A man with a face that looked like it wouldn't bleed a single drop even if stabbed.

He seemed very accustomed to this kind of work.

“A…?”

She looked around and realized.

That she was finished.

But then,

Someone came and whispered something to the man.

“What? Ah… her father is a congressman? Right, then killing her would be a bit much.”

‘Huh…?’

Yes, at that moment, she felt more gratitude than resentment towards her father.

So we are family after all.

Even though I'm a worthless daughter who ran away from home, he still thinks of me as family…

But,

“Hmm… Ah, so that's his purpose? Hahahaha!!”

Something… was strange.

He grinned and approached Ji-hye.

In his hand was a large butcher's knife.

“Is this the bitch? Well, lucky you. You're alive.”

“Pardon…?”

He tapped Ji-hye's head and walked over to the other side…

Stab!! Stab!! Stab!!! Stab!!

He stabbed another woman straight in the neck with the butcher's knife.

“Ah?”

Blood splattered, and a human life was extinguished as easily as swatting a bug.

She would later learn that he had killed the women who needed to be disposed of after their identities were confirmed.

So then, did her father pay a ransom for Ji-hye?

That wasn't it.

Ji-hye went through something so terrible that she thought it would have been better to die.

“Boys. Just keep her alive. Don't kill her. Got it? Just educate her properly.”

Their identity was the Secret Executors, who handled the dark side of the Five Stars Guild.

As the man who killed people like he was butchering animals left, a group of men with vicious faces rushed in.

“W-wait! Aaaahhh!!”

Her hair was grabbed and she was dragged away by force, her body, not yet recovered, was treated like a toy by them.

‘Ah……’

Her father hadn't saved her.

He had sold her off.

Of course, this was a bit of a misunderstanding; Ji-hye's father wasn't that much of a psychopath.

From his perspective, since he couldn't stand up to a Giant Guild anyway, his desire was to rescue his daughter through negotiation and also enter the fold of the Giant Guild to advance his career…

But he had misjudged the cruelty and brutality of the Five Stars Guild's Guild Master and its enforcement unit.

‘My daughter was spoiled rotten and has no manners. Please educate her a bit over there.’

He didn't know the level of "education" that men who made a living slaughtering people would provide to a young, pretty woman.

Even when he saw Ji-hye in the hospital after the "education," her eyes dead and unfocused,

"Tsk tsk, not a single word of thanks to the father who saved your life? That's just how the world works. Without power, you can't do anything. Do you finally understand your father now?"

The man called her father berated Ji-hye and left.

Lying there, Ji-hye silently engraved his words and expression into her mind.

Not even tears came out.

Her body was completely healed by Magic, without a single scar, but... the wounds left on her heart and the horrific memories were not erased.

'Ah...'

She looked out the window.

The city view, which should have been a splendid nightscape… all looked like a terrible black and white.

The drizzling rain… felt like her own heart.

As time passed, Ji-hye was lucky enough to meet the Landlady, who took care of her, and she managed to regain her sanity.

The world still looked like black and white, and she would attempt suicide without her antidepressants, but at least the wound didn't fester.

One might think, "Is it really that big of a deal? You'll forget it eventually," but the feeling of being treated not as a human but as a piece of meat... was not a memory that could ever be forgotten.

The rape accompanied by torture, and the people who seemed to enjoy it.

And her own situation, where she could do nothing... it was not easy for a fragile human mind to endure.

Still, Ji-hye was a stronger woman compared to the average person.

She gathered her courage and went to meet her father again.

She calmly told him about what happened that day, but the result was shocking.

"I didn't hear anything… What can be done about it now? Just endure it and live."

"Are you… even human for saying that?"

"I will do nothing. You, too, if you want to live, stay quiet. That's the wise thing to do. Don't even think about telling the police or the media. It's a useless effort anyway."

It was a father who, even knowing the truth, would not act, his face expressionless.

She later realized that he had said those words for her own sake, but at the time, she was not in a sound enough state of mind to grasp that.

The hope she had held in a corner of her heart, that her father must not have known, was shattered.

Wandering with this wound in her heart, Ji-hye would later meet Lee Do-hee.

At first, they just happened to run into each other in the same building.

Pink hair, a voluptuous body...

Even as a woman, she thought she was a little... no, a very lewd woman.

Pardon the thought, but she even thought, ‘Of course men wouldn't be able to resist a woman like that…’

And when she found out that the woman was getting screwed all over the place while broadcasting, she looked at her with some disgust, wondering how anyone could like something like that…

‘Don't join a Giant Guild.’

‘The 79th Floor, I will conquer it!!’

Her clear purpose made her look at the woman anew.

There was no one.

There was no one in Korea who could properly stand up to the Giant Guilds.

There were righteous reporters and YouTubers, but they disappeared after a short while.

The rest were people who held grievances but remained silently in submission.

But… this woman is a little different.

She is defying the Giant Guilds head-on.

‘Someone has to do it. How much longer are you going to bow down to the tyranny of the Giant Guilds!!’

‘Resist!! Struggle!! Decide your own fate!!’

‘I will do it!!! I will stand before you all!!’

At her words…

For some reason, tears came out.

The embers suppressed in her heart… felt like they were burning again.

Had I been struggling enough?

Hadn't I just been blaming my father and giving up on life?

Was it really true that I couldn't do anything?

Lee Do-hee's words made her heart start to beat.

‘If you want to make your friends and family, and your children and future generations, feel the same discomfort, powerlessness, and despair that you have felt, then stay silent and give up.’

It was from that moment.

She realized what she had to do now.

The rest of her life, this worthless, broken life... it became clear where she had to bet it.

The connections she had built in high school and college.

Friends, seniors, juniors, professors.

The clients and companies she got to know while working.

There were people who looked down on her, but there were also team members and executives from the Giant Guilds who truly believed in and followed her because of her performance.

Her brother, whose personality was trash but who cherished his little sister.

Her mother, who was divorced but still a successful top-tier actress.

Her father, who felt even a little bit of debt towards her.

And... her own abilities.

The mind and execution skills that never missed the top spot at Hanguk University, where only geniuses were said to gather.

I'll bet everything I have now!

I'll struggle with all my might until I die!!

Lee Do-hee's words repeated in her head.

‘Resist!! Struggle!!'**

A girl's desperate cry turns into someone's desperate action.

She clenches her fists and roughly wipes away the flowing tears.

Fwip!!

As she drew the curtains, bright sunlight from outside poured into the room.

It's dazzling...

The world, which had been all black and white, was filled with colorful light.

She threw all the pills in the trash.

Now, even without them, her head didn't hurt.

Thoughts of wanting to die no longer came to her.

Her eyes regained their vitality and began to shine.

From that day on, Ji-hye was reborn.