Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 176

178

‘Well, it’s worth a shot.’

Beom-seok continued to examine the document without a word. Starting with minor points like not disparaging other teams when attempting to recruit, to an overview of this rookie draft’s significance and purpose… The fact that the event was scheduled to last for ten days, starting a week from now, made him tilt his head, feeling it was a bit rushed. However, he figured it was the first government project of its kind, so there would be some shortcomings, and they probably wanted to get it done before the transfer market opened, so he let it pass.

‘Well, there’s nothing else of note.’

Reaching the last page, Beom-seok scrutinized the content with keen interest, unlike before. This was because the administrative benefits given to the professional team when recruiting gladiators were listed.

However, after reading a few lines, he wore a disgruntled expression, seemingly unimpressed. At best, it was things like a one-year exemption from sports administration fees, free admission tickets to government-funded museums and national parks, and administrative convenience for registering players with the professional association. They were all minor benefits.

‘Ha. Seriously. Did they eat the liver of a miser? If it’s the first time implementing a project, they should be generous. Calling these insignificant things benefits… Tsk tsk. It’s a waste of paper.’

Having checked all the items, Beom-seok was about to close the document when his eyes widened, and he reopened it. He had been replaying the last phrase he had overlooked, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

The phrase stated that it corresponded to year-round player registration, which wasn’t a significant benefit, but it was a clause that caught Beom-seok’s attention.

Originally, gladiator registration was around the end of the summer and winter transfer markets. Outside of these periods, gladiators could not be registered as members of the team, but some exceptions were made to allow it at any time. The typical examples were cases where player registration was impossible within the period due to a national emergency or natural disaster, and sometimes, it was added due to national projects or the circumstances of the professional association.

And this rookie draft was an exception.

‘Oh. As expected, there’s a perk like this in a national project.’

If player registration became possible, the gladiator could be immediately 投入 [tōurù – put into] into the game, which would alleviate Beom-seok’s concerns. The promotion tournament required two games a week, which was an unreasonable schedule for the Godz Knights’ roster with a lack of substitute resources. If the gladiator recruited through the rookie draft was good enough to play in the game, gladiator team management would become much easier.

With that, he quickly looked at Esther.

“Esther, do you have detailed information about the list of gladiators who will be in this rookie draft and their performance records?”

“A document with the list and brief history is enclosed, but there is no detailed information.”

“Is that so? Then bring me that list right away and have the clerks find and edit the video footage of the gladiators’ participation in the competition. I’ll check it out this evening.”

“Yes, I understand. Then I’ll go and prepare now.”

After saying that, Esther headed to the office building without hesitation. Beom-seok, who had been watching her for a while, walked to the training building for physical training.

A week later. Beom-seok, who had completed all the preparations, visited Senoside City, where the rookie draft was held. It was a global administrative center boasting a population of 14 million, and most of the federal government’s affiliated organizations were gathered here.

After passing through the complex downtown area, Aron entered the airspace above the annex building of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, where today’s event was taking place. Below, a small 12-story building was visible, and there was a front yard with various sports and cultural facilities, so it seemed like it would be quite a walk to the building entrance.

Beom-seok got out of Aron first, followed by Esther and Rapine.

“Esther, did you bring the data?”

Esther raised the electronic document in her hand.

“Yes. I’ve made sure to bring it.”

He then looked at Rapine. He had brought her specifically to participate in the rookie gladiators’ tests during this event, so she was dangling a long sword and training suit. If he had been fine, he would have done it himself, but his shoulder injury made it impossible. So, Rapine, the team’s ace and not participating in this promotion tournament, was the target.

“Have you checked the equipment thoroughly?”

“Yes. I’m ready to take the test at any time.”

“Okay. Then let’s go.”

Beom-seok, who passed through the path between the gladiator arena and the baseball field in the front yard and went to the entrance of the building, looked at the people full of people in front of the door and showed an interesting gaze. Judging from the fact that they were discussing today’s rookie draft and showing deep interest, they seemed to be officials from other professional teams who would be competing to recruit rookie gladiators in the future.

“Chairman. There’s still time left, so how about having a conversation and getting some information?”

It wasn’t a bad idea, so Beom-seok nodded. He had heard that the teams participating in today’s rookie draft were world-renowned gladiator teams. If that were the case, they would have obtained a lot of information with a considerable amount of organization and connections, and even just listening to what they said in passing could be of great help.

“Hmm. Well. Let’s go and see.”

Just as he was about to head to the crowd, Beom-seok stopped Esther and Rapine and turned his head sharply. An old man who would be of no good to meet today was loitering nearby.

At this, Esther looked at him with an absurd expression.

“Chairman. What’s wrong?”

“Dragon Knights’ Vincent is over there. If we pretend to know him and hang out with him, we’ll be in trouble.”

However, it was already too late. Rapine, who had inadvertently discovered the director, was waving her hand and calling out happily without knowing anything. She had been loaned to the Dragon Knights for the past year, so she had built up quite a friendship with Vincent, the director.

“Director Vincent! Over here!”

Director Vincent, who was talking to a young blonde woman, turned around at the sound of someone calling him. And after confirming that Rapine and Beom-seok were there, he walked over happily.

“Oh! Beom-seok! You’ve come too!”

Beom-seok sighed deeply and ran his hand over his face. It was because she was making things difficult by doing unnecessary things.

However, since he had already been caught, there was nothing he could do. He immediately forced a bright look on his face and greeted Director Vincent.

“Ha, haha. Director Vincent. I see you here again. Hahaha.”

“Hahaha. Yes. But is Godz Knights participating this time?”

“Yes. That’s right. I was lucky enough to be selected.”

“This is something to celebrate. I hope you have good results.”

Beom-seok barely managed to smile at Director Vincent’s blessing. In fact, he could have achieved even better results if he wasn’t there.

“Ha, haha. Thank you.”

While they were exchanging greetings, the blonde woman who had been talking to Director Vincent a little while ago came and joined the conversation.

“Hello, Beom-seok. Do you remember me?”

Beom-seok, who was carefully looking at her, frowned deeply. It was because she was Rebecca, the director of Chaplin Whisper and the director of Chaplin Sports, Godz Knights’ equipment sponsor. Just like at the Osaha tournament, she often faced her in places where she really didn’t want to meet her.

‘This isn’t going to be easy from the start.’

Chaplin Whisper, which Rebecca runs, was based in Zion City, the central city of the Arkan region. This city was also the main base of the Chaplin Group, one of the world’s top 10 companies, so Chaplin Whisper was receiving great attention from local fans belonging to the Chaplin Group and was earning huge spectator revenue. In addition, with the affectionate consideration of Chairman Chaplin, a hardcore gladiator fan, they were receiving huge recruitment funds from the parent company every year, becoming a big hand known around the world, sweeping up gladiators with high growth potential and outstanding skills. If she competed with the same gladiator, Beom-seok would be in a situation where he could only suck his fingers [be powerless].

“Ugh. I know. But is the Chaplin Whisper team participating this time too?”

“Yes. We were contacted to participate too.”

This is why people need to have money. The rookie gladiators who came out today were 100 people selected from all over the world, so they were unrivaled in terms of swordsmanship. In addition, the price was only 1 million Krang [fictional currency], so many famous teams expressed interest. Of course, it was unreasonable for an area league team like Chaplin Whisper to participate. I felt something was going on. In fact, Godz Knights would not have dared to join this place if it hadn’t been for Beom-seok, who was the face of the company.

“Amazing. It’s Chaplin after all.”

Rebecca narrowed her eyes at his meaningful words.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Hmm. It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just curious. I honestly thought that our Godz Knights was the only area league team selected for this rookie draft.”

“So. Are you saying that our team did something to attend this event?”

However, Beom-seok shook his head. He didn’t like it, but Chaplin was Godz Knights’ equipment sponsor. There was no need to get into a conflict by blushing [getting angry].

“Does it sound like that? I mean, how much money did you spend in the transfer market to be selected for a place like this.”

Although he tried to soften it, it still sounded unpleasant to Rebecca. No matter how true it was, the sound of spending money in the transfer market didn’t sound very good. In particular, she had been quite sensitive recently because the media had been pecking at [criticizing] Chaplin Whisper for disrupting the transfer market.

“What does that have to do with Beom-seok? Financial power is also a competitive advantage for professional teams. It’s not wrong in this capitalist society to give the opposing team satisfactory funds and bring in the gladiator you want.”

“Well, it’s not something to apologize for. But if it’s too much, it will make other competing teams bear huge losses, and that’s the problem.”

“Why should we think about other teams’ problems? And if you don’t have enough money, everyone should work hard to manage the team and raise recruitment funds.”

Beom-seok recalled a person from the past in Rebecca’s current appearance. It was Marie Antoinette, the unfortunate French queen who had her head cut off at the guillotine after telling the starving people who asked for bread to eat cake [a famous, possibly apocryphal, quote attributed to her, showing indifference to the poor].

Honestly, it wasn’t that other teams weren’t working hard to manage their teams. However, things in the world did not go as they pleased, so they could not raise huge recruitment funds.

“So? Does the Chaplin Whisper team only recruit gladiators with team operating funds? That’s amazing. Please teach me the secret. How can an area league team earn that huge recruitment fund?”

Rebecca closed her mouth tightly as if she had nothing to say. The world knew that Chaplin Whisper was receiving active financial support from its parent company, Chaplin Group. And a significant amount of the spectator revenue earned through team operations was due to employees working for the parent company.

At that time. Vincent, who couldn’t stand it any longer, stepped in to dissuade the two.

“Why are you all doing this? Stop it now. Aren’t both teams competing in the promotion tournament to the Deloy Wide League anyway? You should treat each other with courtesy in the spirit of pure professionalism.”

At those words, Beom-seok bit his lip. In fact, this made him even more annoyed. Although the two teams do not face each other until the finals because the groups are different, the power of the Chaplin Whisper team, which was formed by spending money to form a gladiator team, was enormous. Some people were going up with the determination to worsen their injuries, while others were in a position where victory was easily predicted thanks to the power of money, so they couldn’t help but feel wronged.

However, since Director Vincent had come forward to this extent, he could no longer express his resentment. Strictly speaking, he was his father-in-law.

“Well. That’s what I’m talking about. Yes. I understand.”

Vincent looked at Rebecca after hearing Beom-seok’s answer.

“You should go and see your business now. Let’s talk about what we were talking about later. Do you understand?”

Rebecca bowed her head with a sullen expression.

“Yes. I understand. Then please think of it in a good way and contact me later.”

“I understand. I’ll think about it carefully first.”

As she turned around and disappeared into the crowd, Beom-seok cast a suspicious look at Vincent. He was curious about what he had been talking about with Rebecca.

“No. What are you talking about that you’re thinking about carefully? Is it about a transfer?”

“Well. It’s a similar story.”

Beom-seok hurriedly followed Director Vincent, who was walking towards the entrance with his hands behind his back without saying a word. Chaplin Whisper was a rival team that might be in a close battle with Godz Knights in the league if they advanced to the Wide League. He couldn’t help but be interested in the fact that he was negotiating a transfer with Dragon Knights, which belongs to the Central League.

“You’re not selling your main gladiator, are you? You can’t send your main gladiator away given the current circumstances of Dragon Knights, can you? In fact, you barely managed to stay this year, didn’t you?”

Dragon Knights’ performance this season was 11 wins, 7 draws, and 20 losses, barely managing to rank 16th and avoid relegation.

Even if they received a large sum of money, sending out the main gladiator in this situation was a very big adventure.

Vincent, who runs a conservative team, thought the same way.

“Don’t worry, it’s not the main gladiator.”

If so, it could be said that they had avoided the worst-case scenario. Dragon Knights had been accelerating the recruitment of gladiators in recent years, but if it wasn’t the main force, there was not much to worry about. Currently, Dragon Knights has only 13-14 Central League-level gladiators.

Beom-seok said as he entered the automatically opening door first.

“Hahaha. Is that so? Then it must be a candidate or a second-team gladiator.”

“No. It’s not them either.”

Then there were only gladiators on the under-8 team or unpaid trainees. Looking at this, Rebecca seemed to be aiming for Dragon Knights’ promising players.

Beom-seok smiled bitterly and poked Vincent in the side.

“Director. If you had a fresh prospect, you should have told me first. I’m disappointed.”

“What’s disappointing? It’s not fresh, it’s all old.”

“No, old?”

“Then do I look young?”

At those words, Beom-seok felt his mind go blank. The person Rebecca was aiming for was none other than Director Vincent, which was the worst thing that could happen. It was all too clear what would happen if he led the Chaplin Whisper team, which was armed with powerful financial resources.

============================ Review of the work ============================

It’s episode 178… Ah. I thought this would be before episode 150, but the content is quite long. It seems that the number of episodes to be completed will increase more than expected.

Then everyone have a good day. I’ll see you again tomorrow.