Sangmin An

Sangmin An manages the White Tiger Guild department responsible for recruiting and training hunters. He is one of the first guild professionals to infer that the officially E-rank Jinwoo Sung has reawakened, building the theory from permit prices, survival records, raid speed, and inconsistencies in official reports. His recruitment effort never secures Jinwoo, but his investigation repeatedly gives Yoonho Baek an early and unusually accurate understanding of the emerging hunter.

Biography

Discovering the irregular strike squad

Sangmin first appears furious because his department has failed to reserve a C-rank gate for new-member training. The second administration team handles both recruitment and training, so the missing permit threatens one of its basic duties. He shouts at assistant manager Kichul Hyun until the records reveal the true problem: Jinho Yoo’s squad pays 250 million won for gates expected to return no more than 200 million, outbidding White Tiger even when Kichul raises the offer far above the normal price (Chapter 10).

Once evidence clears his subordinate, Sangmin changes from disciplinarian to investigator. He knows the freelance market well enough to recognize that Jinho has no hunter reputation, then traces the only familiar squad member to the Cartenon Temple incident. Kichul remembers Jinwoo as its E-rank survivor. Additional records show that Jinwoo escaped three incidents with heavy casualties, including the raid where official accounts implausibly credit a C-rank mage with defeating B-rank assassin Taesik Kang (Chapter 10).

Sangmin has no direct proof, and his conclusion initially rests partly on a professional instinct he believes has never failed him. Even so, it is not a random guess. Jinwoo’s improbable survival, Taesik’s unexplained defeat, the private squad’s impossible pace, and Jinho’s connection to a family preparing a new guild all fit a reawakening theory. Sangmin estimates Jinwoo is at least B rank and realizes White Tiger must act before reevaluation exposes his value to every competitor (Chapter 10).

The opportunity is important enough that Sangmin personally returns to field recruitment for the first time since becoming department manager two years earlier. He brings Kichul, whom he treats as his right hand and possible successor. Their observation confirms that the squad clears dungeons at abnormal speed while its temporary members do little actual hunting, reinforcing Sangmin’s belief that Jinwoo is the hidden power (Chapter 10).

Maintaining a difficult recruitment lead

Jinwoo does not welcome a conventional sales pitch, so Sangmin has to preserve access without forcing a decision. When Jinwoo calls during Sangmin’s solitary dinner and asks to observe a White Tiger trainee raid with Songyi, the manager is bewildered but agrees after hearing the purpose. He sees a second advantage: the exercise can display White Tiger’s unusually strong recruits to the prospect he hopes to sign (Chapters 14–15).

The strategy leads to disaster through no fault of the planned C-rank exercise. The gate seals behind the trainees and becomes red. Sangmin rushes through traffic to the site and tells Yoonho that Jinwoo is the hunter he has personally monitored. His assurance creates confusion because Jinwoo remains officially E rank; Sangmin admits that reawakening is still speculation, yet hopes Jinwoo will once again defy a lethal situation that official expectations say he should not survive (Chapter 16).

Sangmin withstands skepticism from more senior combat personnel without pretending he possesses evidence he does not. When the Red Gate reopens, his smile at seeing Jinwoo confirms his confidence, but it vanishes as only five survivors emerge. He apologizes for Jinwoo’s exhausted abruptness toward Yoonho, only for the guild master to demand why such a hunter has not already been recruited (Chapter 17).

Confirmation after the Red Gate

The survivor inquiry transforms Sangmin’s informed suspicion into detailed knowledge. Heejin reports that Jinwoo knocked out A-rank Chul with one punch, manipulated stored equipment as though through space, and summoned an army capable of clearing the dungeon. Sangmin immediately recognizes that the abilities are rare and commercially extraordinary. His question about Jinwoo’s net worth is not presented as callousness toward the dead; it reflects the responsibility of a recruitment manager assessing how much a top-five guild would have to offer (Chapter 17).

Sangmin also protects the confidentiality on which the relationship depends. When Yoonho asks for Jinwoo’s number, Sangmin explains why he has concealed the hunter’s abilities and worries that an overeager guild master will destroy their chance by rushing him. He agrees only when Yoonho promises the contact is to express thanks rather than make a recruitment approach. He has no intention of leaking the Red Gate story because publicity would harm Jinwoo and create problems for both guild and association (Chapter 17).

Continuing intelligence work

Yoonho later relies on Sangmin for sensitive research beyond recruitment. Asked to investigate whether Jinwoo could have written an old online post describing Cartenon Temple, Sangmin quickly reconstructs the hospitalization dates and corrects himself when the record differs by one day. The work helps Yoonho connect Jinwoo’s experience with a warning about the temple’s return (Chapter 27).

Sangmin remains at Yoonho’s side much later, discussing public reporting about Jinwoo and Haein Cha. The relaxed exchange—instant coffee, complaints about fine dust, and dry agreement that any partner beside Jinwoo would form an overwhelmingly powerful couple—shows that he continues serving as a trusted administrative adviser even after recruiting Jinwoo has become unrealistic (Chapter 63).

Appearance and personality

The corpus does not establish Sangmin’s height, face, or combat clothing. It does show a long-term bachelor who has lived alone for eight years and become a skilled home cook after deciding constant instant food was affecting his health. He can reproduce dishes after seeing them briefly on television, though increasing skill has led him back to simple meals such as soybean-paste stew. His personal scenes mix competence with comic loneliness and an inability to stop thinking about work (Chapter 14).

Professionally, Sangmin is intense, perceptive, and commercially minded. He can roar at a subordinate, but he reverses course once evidence proves the reprimand unfair. He is proud of his intuition yet distinguishes suspicion from proof when speaking to Yoonho. Most importantly, persistence does not erase his judgment of boundaries: he understands that exposing or pressuring Jinwoo would ruin both trust and recruitment.

Abilities, skills, and rank

Hunter-market intelligence

Recruiting work gives Sangmin broad knowledge of freelance hunters, guild formation, permit economics, and public records. He claims familiarity with every freelancer who has even slight notoriety and uses the absence of Jinho’s name as useful evidence rather than overlooking it. He also understands how a reevaluation and media attention would change a reawakened hunter’s market value (Chapter 10).

Investigation and inference

Sangmin synthesizes facts across separate incidents: Cartenon survival, Taesik’s death, raid composition, clear speed, family business plans, and irrational gate bidding. His first estimate undershoots Jinwoo’s true strength, but the central conclusion—reawakening and concealed high-rank power—is correct. Later he can retrieve hospital and internet-history details on short notice for Yoonho (Chapters 10, 27).

Recruitment and personnel management

He adjusts tactics to the recruit, grants unusual requests that build goodwill, mentors Kichul, briefs senior leadership, and guards confidential information. His greatest failure is outcome rather than analysis: White Tiger never signs Jinwoo because Jinwoo’s plans are already independent of any large guild.

Limits

No hunter rank, awakening, combat class, or battle skill is assigned to Sangmin. He cannot intervene in a sealed Red Gate and relies on combat leaders for threat estimates. His influence comes from information, institutional access, and interpersonal judgment.

Relationships

• Jinwoo Sung: Sangmin’s most important prospective recruit. He recognizes Jinwoo’s hidden value early, accommodates him, and protects his privacy even as recruitment becomes impossible.
• Kichul Hyun: His trusted assistant, right-hand man, and intended professional successor. Sangmin’s standards are harsh because he expects Kichul to grow into leadership.
• Yoonho Baek: Sangmin’s guild master and the main recipient of his intelligence. Sangmin is willing to caution Yoonho when enthusiasm may endanger a relationship.
• Jinho Yoo: The nominal raid leader whose loss-making permit bids provide Sangmin’s first clue to Jinwoo’s unusual role.
• Heejin Park: A Red Gate survivor whose testimony confirms Sangmin’s theory and who temporarily works with him on the recruitment question.

Items

Sangmin uses ordinary office tools, hunter databases, permit records, a phone, and his investigation reports. At home, his kitchen and television frame the call that leads to Jinwoo’s trainee-raid visit. No named combat item is assigned to him.