“It’s been three months already!?”

He was in mild disbelief since time seemed to pass by so quickly. But he got over it and looked at himself in his wardrobe’s mirror.

“V-cut. Check. Abs. Check. A dazzling smile. Check. What’s missing? Yeah, the appointment.”

Three months ago, he had emailed Karen once that he was busy and agreed to meet her three months later. He did receive several replies after that day from her, but he didn’t reply. In fact, he stopped playing the games and leveling up his character and guild and instead focused on real-life growth. The results had not disappointed him.

He looked at the time.

6 am.

“Not too late. I remember it was at 7:30 am, one hour before I had to leave for the subway to reach the office at 9 am. Let’s get ready.”

The meeting was scheduled to be at a park near the office and, coincidently, at a walkable distance from Karen’s house.

After leaving his house, Jacob took a subway train and reached his destination. He wore the most official suit he had. It was both the office uniform, and he felt it might also be suitable for the occasion since he had never done this before.

A few minutes after leaving his train, he was in the most famous park in the city and saw a lady standing near the waterfall.

‘Damn! Is that her?’ He questioned himself.

He had also heard of a hardworking newcomer back then and found a new female employee eating during lunch. She was working in a different department, so he never saw her apart from the time it was to eat lunch. Now, he wasn’t perceptive enough to notice every new female employee.

‘She’s too beautiful!’ His eyes widened.

She was always the star of the show at every lunch. Many seniors followed her around like good little puppies and would endlessly give her expensive things. But he later heard she made a mistake in a big project and was nearly fired. But after a while, she got the director’s help, and he supported her and allowed her to remain in the company.

He also began seeing the director’s son with her every day at lunch and had a foreboding feeling in his heart.

‘Today is the time I confront this feeling and find out if that dark-hearted director had anything to do with this!’

Even though he was an introvert, the ruthless corporate world had taught him many things.

Jacob looked at the number she had sent him and called her.

Ring! Ring!

The phone in the beauty’s hand began ringing. He smiled.

“Hello, who is this?”

Her oriole-like voice sent a soothing feeling across his soul.

“It’s your guild leader, Jacob.”

Jacob decided to use his real name this time. He knew she would make the connection since she had paid attention to the ‘weirdo’ who got in through backdoor connections.

“J-jacob? Are you kidding me?”

Even though her voice remained pleasant, Jacob stood close to her and saw the distaste flash across her face. He felt bad and cut the call, then walked directly toward her.

“Yes, Jacob.”

His fit body and growing self-confidence allowed him to speak with a charm. At least, he thought so.

“Y-you…” She stammered.

Her face changed shades faster than a chameleon changed colors.

“What? Are you that upset to see me? If I remember correctly, you wanted to go out with me in your email. So I came to ask you this question again. Do you want to go out with me?”

He first wanted to try this out. He expected a positive response since he was pretty handsome at the moment. He was also working hard for the past four months; a promotion was just around the corner. But the response he received was not something he was expecting.

“You’re their dog! How can I go out with you?” Her face turned red in rage.

“Your absence in the clan wars has ruined our clan’s reputation! We’ve lost the first place we’ve held on for two years since you didn’t allow any other member to access the legendary items in the clan treasury! Couldn’t you respond to our messages? Never mind. I thought you were some real-life big shot to be able to build the greatest guild in the most famous MMORPG game.”

The barrage of insults and questions stunned Jacob. He never knew his seemingly hard decisions to change his life had caused such changes.

‘But what did she mean by saying that I am a dog?’

“But you’re simply their dog! And to think I used to look up to you….” Karen spat at the side in obvious derision. But her beauty and pouty face made even this action look beautiful.

‘There, again she goes with calling me a dog. Has she seen a dog as fit as me?’

Jacob woke up from his dreamland and questioned her for the first time in a slightly affronted tone.

“What do you mean by calling me a dog?”

“Aren’t you one?”

Behind him, a male voice sounded. Jacob trembled in rage, betrayal, and humiliation. He didn’t need to be told who it was. He didn’t even want to speak the person’s name. Because that person was the sole cause of his misery and the slave-like contract he was forced into at his company.

“It’s you.” He turned around in rage.

“It’s me.” A handsome male taller than him walked past him and put his arms across Karen’s waist. She seemed to be delighted and inched closer to him.

“So you caught her in your trap as well?” Jacob questioned while looking at Karen’s face. Her eyes widened, and her face twitched. But as a proper sales executive, she was well-versed in facial control. She returned to her normal loving expression almost instantly.

“Trap? What trap?” The handsome man appeared offended. His arm held Karen tighter as he emphasized, “I just met with her and we seem to get along well. Don’t accuse me of such low-class things that some third-rate hackers would do in broken-down rental apartments!”

His words seemed to trigger a nerve in Jacob’s mind as he snapped and spoke out loud.

“Really?” He grit his teeth. “I’m sure before you and Karen coincidentally met, she first met your father.”

The handsome man’s face opposite to him began turning ugly. But he paid it no heed and continued, “Then he and Karen had a heart-to-heart discussion for a long while before he got bored of her.” The handsome man’s face was literally twisted in rage. “Then you met her.”

Jacob looked at Karen.

“Am I right, Karen?”

She seemed to snap out of her thoughts of melancholy and depression. Jacob’s question also drove the handsome man to stare at her.

“N-no. Nothing like that happened between us.” The handsome man’s face turned uglier. It was not even appropriate to call him handsome anymore. “I mean, I first met my darling in the company. He is the one who saved me!”

Her eyes seemed sincere and honest as if she truly meant what she said. But why would Jacob bother believing her words after knowing the kind of person she had become, or rather, was forced to become by the scumbag pair of father and son.

“Yes, he saved you.” Jacob nodded to the astonishment of the young scumbag. “And his father gave him the power to save you. Aren’t I right?” Jacob looked at Karen. “And you also visit the Old Scumbag once in a while to thank him, right?”

The young scumbag’s face was terrifying to look at. The constant attacks had breached his defenses on multiple fronts. His mind was in tatters, and his pride as a man was at stake. At the end of it all, there seemed to be a gigantic green hat covering his head while his value and ability were brought into question. Was it all truly…

“Remember little scumbag, everything you are worth now is given to you by your father. Your father is not the one who increased the value of your company by 20 times while you were sneaking in the panties of your high school classmates. It was me who took down his competitors online and through special means, offline. While you were having night outs, I was doing night hacks. Don’t think you’re better than me just because you got used goods.”

In the end, he looked at Karen. Even though he felt sad at what the girl had to go through at the hands of the scumbag pair, he realized she was using this situation to her advantage. She was an adult and not a damsel in distress. There was no need for a knight in shining armor riding a white horse to come and save the princess.

“Jacob.” The young scumbag finally spoke with gritted teeth. He looked left and right, and four men approached Jacob, two on each side. They wore hoodies and gloves. He could see them retrieve knives from their pockets as they stared at him with crazy smiles like rabid dogs on a leash from their master.

“What my old man does is his business. Who do you think you are to compare yourself with me? Who do you think you are to tell bad things about my fiance? Who the fuck do you think you are you little shit? Kick his ass!”

The men rushed toward Jacob, and their knives approached him. In an instant, he thought of many things.

‘They won’t kill me, right? I do have an agreement not to hurt his kid or his business with any evidence I have collected after doing all this dirty work for him.’

The knives stabbed him in his shoulders and back.

“Argh!” Jacob grunted.

The men didn’t stop and kicked him down to the ground. They began kicking him while he turned into a fetal position to protect his head and balls.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Their thick boots attacked his arms, back, and legs. A minute later, the assault continued, and passersby stopped to take photos.

Karen looked slightly afraid of the publicity this incident was receiving.

“Hubby, do you think we should stop now? This might be bad publicity for you….”

He looked at his fiance in annoyance.

“I remember you nagging me on and on about how this guild master you had was so great and how he could help me take over my father. You even estimated him to be ultra rich to have such great assets in the game. But this? This is it? You think this dog will be able to help me against my old man? And what publicity, huh? What’s wrong with teaching a dog its right place?”

The crazed look in his eyes scared Karen, and she looked away in silence as though agreeing to whatever her hubby had said.

Jacob took all the beatings until his limbs began feeling numb. But as he overheard this conversation, a strong feeling began blooming in him. It felt so foreign that he was unable to identify it.

He quickly rolled back and escaped the onslaught. Then he retrieved a dagger lodged in his shoulder and quickly approached the men beating the living daylights out of him. 

They didn’t expect his sudden changes and were stunned at his actions. Jacob’s peak physical strength allowed him to make a deep cut on each of them, and then he lunged toward the young scumbag and stood a few inches away from him.