"He is literally just a university streamer!"
"The public needs to calm down. He might have Awakened as an S-Rank, but he is an Archer. In the history of dungeon raids, the backline has never dictated the front."
"A mere rookie isn't going to suddenly topple the established hierarchy. We have our own elite, battle-hardened Hunters. Frankly, I believe the Hunters Guild is going to deeply regret signing such a massive, restrictive contract with an inexperienced young man!"
While the executives at the Hunters Guild were popping champagne and practically vibrating in ecstasy over their new multi-billion-won asset, the rival Guilds who had lost the bidding war were drowning in a sea of bitter, corporate panic.
In public, they immediately launched a highly coordinated media smear campaign.
They aggressively fed talking points to the press, trying to convince the public—and their own plummeting stock shareholders—that there was absolutely nothing to worry about. They framed Kim Min-jun not as a terrifying anomaly, but as a sheltered, privileged influencer looking for an easy paycheck.
Even if the Hunters Guild gained a new S-Rank, so what?
This was the narrative they desperately pushed to save face. If they didn't actively diminish his value, the market would officially crown the Hunters Guild as the absolute, undisputed superpower of South Korea. No other major Guild wanted to live under that monopoly.
Still, beneath the aggressive PR statements, the rival Guild Masters were seething with jealousy. No matter how much they insulted his chosen class or his lack of experience, Min-jun was still a walking, talking nuclear deterrent.
"It is truly a shame he threw his potential away at the Hunters Guild," a rival Guild Master stated in a televised interview. "If he had signed with our Guild, I believe we could have turned him into a true legend. We don't pamper our rookies; we throw them into the crucible. Our intense training would have sharpened his survival instincts and forged him into an actual weapon, rather than letting him sit in a university classroom while the adults do the real work."
Lim Tae-Gyu, previously the sole S-Rank Archer in the country, was sweating bullets behind the scenes but put on a brave, arrogant face for the cameras.
"Archery isn't a job you can just master by pointing and shooting," Lim Tae-Gyu scoffed during a press conference, crossing his arms defensively. "He might share my combat class, but he is still just a child. If the media doesn't believe me, have the boy challenge me to a mock battle. I would be more than happy to show him the true power of a veteran S-Rank Archer."
Meanwhile, Baek Yoon-Ho, the rugged Master of the White Tiger Guild, took a different angle, heavily criticizing Choi Jong-In's corporate philosophy.
"Look at how they treat Cha Hae-In," Baek sighed deeply during a podcast appearance, looking genuinely disappointed. "Instead of being respected as a lethal frontline Warrior, they parade her around like a corporate idol to sell merchandise. If Kim Min-jun remains under Choi Jong-In's management, he will become nothing but another shiny tool for printing money. He will be an idol, not a warrior who protects this country."
If Baek Yoon-Ho had been the only one complaining, the public might have just brushed it off as sour grapes. But because every single major Guild—and even the minor ones who couldn't have afforded Min-jun's shoelaces—joined the chorus, the media narrative began to shift.
The internet was practically on fire. The hype surrounding Min-jun was unprecedented because he wasn't some mysterious, isolated recluse; he was young, devastatingly handsome, an academic genius, and an active influencer with a massive pre-existing fanbase.
Naturally, the fans of the veteran Hunters clashed violently with Min-jun's supporters on every available forum and social media platform.
@WhiteTiger_BeastMode: "If Kim Min-jun wasn't so greedy and hasty, he wouldn't be looking so weak right now. He should have joined White Tiger! Baek Yoon-Ho would have actually trained him instead of pampering him!"
@StudyStreamer_Stan: "Weak?! Are you completely blind? He's literally an S-Rank Hunter, you absolute idiot!"
@Dungeon_Vet88: "So what? Raw power doesn't mean anything if the kid freezes up and panics the second he steps foot into a real dungeon! A high-level bow won't save you from a panic attack."
@HuntersGuild_Stonks: "Do you guys honestly think the Hunters Guild is weak? Choi Jong-In is a literal corporate genius. It's called logistics, look it up."
@IronShield_Main: "How funny! Everyone in the industry knows Choi Jong-In is physically the weakest S-Rank Hunter in the country! He's just a rich guy in a suit playing dress-up!"
@ChaHaeIn_Fanclub: "Yeah, but they have Cha Hae-In protecting them! She's a literal goddess! And now they have the S-Rank Archer too! Hunters Guild sweeps!"
The digital warfare was absolute chaos.
Inside the heavily fortified headquarters of the Korean Hunter Association, Chief Woo Jin-chul stared at the glowing monitors, his stomach tying itself into knots.
"Chairman, is it really okay to just let this continue?" Jin-chul asked nervously, scrolling through thousands of toxic comments. "The Hunter society is becoming completely fragmented. If this media war escalates, it could cause chaos in the field. This goes completely against our mandate for national stability."
Go Gun-Hee sat calmly behind his massive wooden desk, peacefully sipping a cup of hot green tea.
"It is perfectly fine, Jin-chul," Chairman Go replied, his deep voice unwavering. "If the young man cannot handle a few harsh words from the press, then he will never be able to handle the psychological horrors of the abyss. Let him weather the storm."
Chairman Go understood exactly how South Korea operated. He had sat at the top of the Association for years. He knew perfectly well that the angry Guild Masters on television were being actively funded and pressured by powerful politicians and shadowy Chaebols. Those massive conglomerates were terrified of the Hunters Guild establishing a total monopoly.
Having three S-Rank Hunters consolidated under a single, privately-owned corporate banner? It was a massive disruption to the country's delicate balance of power. The elite class was simply lashing out in fear.
Meanwhile, completely isolated from the panic, Choi Jong-In sat in his luxurious, top-floor penthouse office.
He had a massive wall of flat-screen televisions currently broadcasting six different news channels, all of which featured rival Guild Masters desperately trying to downplay his newest recruit.
Jong-In casually swirled a glass of expensive whiskey, an incredibly smug, serpentine smile spreading across his face. He wasn't stressed. He wasn't angry. He was entirely in his element. He had built the strongest Guild in Korea not with raw muscle, but with flawless intelligence, logistics, and media manipulation.
"Scream all you want, monkeys," Jong-In chuckled softly, taking a sip of his drink. "When the dust settles, I am the one holding all the winning cards."
Suddenly, his secure private phone buzzed on the mahogany desk.
It was a heavily encrypted data file from Son Ki-Hoon, the leader of the A-Team. The file was labeled: KIM_MINJUN_DEBUT_RAID_RAW.mp4.
Jong-In eagerly tapped the screen, opening the unedited mana-camera footage recorded by the A-Team's observers. He expected to see Min-jun performing well, maybe struggling a little bit before finding his footing.
Instead, he watched a forty-five-second, unedited massacre.
He watched the boy step into an A-Rank cavern. He watched thousands of homing mana needles systematically headshot an entire vanguard of High Orcs in three seconds. And then, he watched the rookie casually summon a magical railgun and vaporize miles of solid subterranean rock, instantly deleting the Dungeon Boss before anyone else could even draw their weapons.
"....."
Jong-In stared at the screen, completely paralyzed. The glass of whiskey nearly slipped out of his hand.
For a long, silent moment, the CEO of the Hunters Guild forgot how to breathe.
Then, a low, breathy chuckle escaped his lips. The chuckle slowly evolved into a loud, echoing, borderline hysterical laugh that filled the massive office.
Oh, they want to talk about true power? Jong-In thought, his eyes burning with predatory corporate greed. They want to talk about how Archery is a weak class?!
Jong-In didn't hesitate for a single second. He didn't consult a PR team, and he didn't edit the video to make it look cinematic. He took the raw, terrifying, forty-five-second unedited footage and instantly leaked it directly to the top three broadcasting networks in South Korea.
Why? Because in the Hunter industry, talk was cheap. Results were absolute.
Less than ten minutes later, regular broadcasting across the entire country was suddenly interrupted. The raw footage of the A-Rank dungeon raid was played on a continuous loop on national television.
The moment the video hit the public, the digital warfare instantly flatlined.
The aggressive critics, the rival fanboys, the talking heads on the news panels—they all went completely, utterly silent. The rival Guild Masters who had been loudly boasting about their "superior training" and "crucible of combat" suddenly refused to answer their phones, locking themselves inside their offices in a cold sweat.
All of their nonsense, all of their coping mechanisms, and all of their smear campaigns were instantly rendered completely useless. They had nothing left but bitter, suffocating jealousy.
Choi Jong-In laughed until his ribs hurt. Not only was the media literally paying him massive licensing fees to loop the video, but he had just definitively proven to the world that he owned the single most destructive, efficient weapon ever born on the Korean peninsula.
When the results of that forty-five-second A-Rank clear finally set into the minds of the public, the media narrative didn't just quietly shift.
The entire foundational logic of the global Hunter economy shattered overnight. The world could only watch in a terrified, awestruck daze as Kim Min-jun officially birthed a terrifying new era in dungeon raiding.
They called it the "Speedrun Paradigm."
---
The Fourth Suzuki has been decided, and it is from Arifureta!
Can anyone guess what his job is?