Chapter 80 Savior (2)
‘Fascinating.’
Should he say it rang in his mind? His lips didn’t even move, but he could hear his voice. If he didn’t bow or make eye contact, he wouldn’t know who said it.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, I will lead the way.”
When Yoon-seok left with the man who had been talking to him, the scouts around him clicked their tongues.
“What, he’d already been scouted?”
“Why did he choose Earth if he is a duelist?”
He wondered briefly what place the United Plaza was for them to go about it like that, but Yoon-seok just followed the man. If it went as he’d expected, his questions would be resolved before long.
Click.
On the second floor of a building, ten minutes away from the plaza. The man who brought Yoon-seok to a room about 10-pyeong wide closed the door. Then, he shook hands with Yoon-seok.
“Let introduce myself. My na is Ashton Jackson. I’m with the U.S. Challenger Managent Departnt.”
“Hello, I’m Choi Yoon-seok.”
“Would you like to sit down for now?”
As Yoon-seok sat down, Ashton moved to sit opposite of him. There was no tea served or anything.
“You know what? You are the first person to not react to my telepathy.”
He knew the man was trying to change the mood by complinting Yoon-seok. Yet, sadly, Yoon-seok didn’t show any interest.
“Who were the people at plaza earlier?”
Did he get a grasp of Yoon-seok’s personality with just one sentence? Ashton imdiately changed tracks and complied.
“They are the clan’s scouts.”
As expected, his guess was right. But the underlying question hadn’t been answered.
“Clan?”
“To put it simply, it’s the challengers’ authority.”
“Do you really need authority in the tower?”
“The more challengers, the better it is if you want to protect your holand from invaders.”
“But there were a lot of scouts out there.”
“It isn’t possible to only have four clans just because there are four dinsions. Aren’t our authorities divided by country?”
“I see.”
Then, he didn’t have to ask whether the Clans all had the sa mission to stop the invaders. Yoon-seok knew how the world worked.
“I’ve heard earlier that everyone knows I’m a duelist, and they were surprised that I chose Earth. Why is that?”
“The plaza where you appeared earlier is where duelists arrive in the Union Plaza. And…”
Ashton continued in a self-mocking voice.
“Earth’s authority is the weakest among the four dinsions. In other words, it’s the most likely to be invaded.”
Ashton pointed out that the first reason why Earth’s power was so low was because they had no duelists.
“Do you know how many duel challengers are on the 10th or upper floors? Less than 1,000. And those from Earth…as far as I know, there is no one but Choi Yoon-seok.”
Now he knew that duel challengers were valued here. He had realized this in the mission trial, that duelists were much stronger than other challengers. But still…
“I’m the only one.…?”
That was unexpected.
“Yes, not that they died or anything, but you are the first. That’s why the scouts think you co from a dinsion other than Earth. So they were surprised when you followed .”
Was it that depressing to work here as a scout? He thanked Yoon-seok with sincerity.
“I was really worried since you arrived later than what Fahur had expected. Thank you very much; regardless of national or political position, this has given us hope.”
Yoon-seok tilted his head. Aside from thinking that Yoon-seok would remain on Earth, one of the things he just said bothered him.
Was it later than he’d expected?
“Wait…what’s the date today?”
“March 9th, in Korea.”
March 9th. In other words, sixteen days have passed since his last trip to Earth. Considering that the waiting room and Earth’s ti run at 1:1, the tiline was vast.
‘Ti must have passed while I was on a mission.’
He spent a total of 45 days on the mission. If ti went by in a 3:1 ratio, the date was about right , like in the adventure trials.
“Is there a problem?”
“No, not at all. Can I hear what you wanted to say to earlier?”
Ashton briefly regained his breath and continued.
“To ask you to keep your promise.”
Yoon-seok asked the U.S. challenger group for three favors: guard his parents in secret, reveal information about the Tower to the public, don’t let his na be exposed after the incident. For that, he decided to do a practical favor for them.
‘It was ridiculous thinking about it now.’
In the end, it looked like a deal, but…
In fact, it was safe to say that it was more of a threat since he said he would co for them if they didn’t do it. At that ti, Yoon-seok had no choice. He couldn’t return to the Tower if he just left his parents in Korea. So, Yoon-seok decided to grant their requests unless they were extre.
Of course, there was sothing he had to say before that.
“Can I confirm that my request has been fulfilled?
“Of course.”
There was no reason not to believe his words. Ashton couldn’t lie through the Eyes of the Executor unless his magic was as high as Yoon-seok’s. As he nodded, Ashton summarized the situation.
“Your parents are safe, and the Tower’s existence was also revealed to the public. But we were only halfway successful in stopping your na from spreading.”
“Half?”
Yoon-seok asked as if he had no idea.
“Yes, the general public doesn’t know, but…the governnts know about you. I want you to take into consideration that this was inevitable because it was too much of a task.”
The Earth challenger he’d t in the mission trial knew Yoon-seok, and he also said that it was a fact that had already spread. That was why he thought the U.S. didn’t intend to keep its promise at all…
Now that he heard it, it seed unlikely.
“I see.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“So what favor is it that you wanted to ask for?”
Ashton briefly paused.
“I want you to kill a challenger.”
Before the detailed explanation, Ashton first told Yoon-seok about his sixteen-day trip back to the Tower in chronological order.
“After discussing with the Korean governnt, the incident was reported as a fire at the hospital.”
However, it didn’t end with a simple fire, as many of those whose nas were widely recognized perished. Korea as a whole was in chaos, but nobody knew anything.
Then, three days later, information about the Tower was released to the public. The U.S. was planning to release the information more slowly. Since there were treaties intertwined among many other nations, there were other factors to take care of. But there was a reason for the quick tiline.
“It’s because of the challenger I’ve asked you to kill earlier.”
A challenger, believed to be from Kilian, arrived on Earth. The number of floors they had reached wasn’t confird, but he was a duelist. He destroyed people, animals, and landmarks at random.
“300,000 people died in the UK alone on that day.”
The massacres carried out in downtown areas of the UK quickly spread to all parts of the world. When there was an ongoing rumor about an alien invasion, the U.S. released information on the Tower that was prepared to comply with Yoon-seok’s conditions. Criticism and protests against the governnt had flooded every country, but they weren’t bothered as long as they had nothing to hide.
Challengers from all over the world joined forces to stop the slaughterer.
“He covered his tracks, however.”
It would’ve been a blessing if he had gone back to the Tower altogether…
But a week ago, as of today, the whereabouts of the challenger were identified through satellite imaging. He was working on sothing on an island in the Pacific Ocean.
“I don’t know how, but there’s a huge crack open that I’ve never seen anywhere before.”
Cracks, tears in space, were the phenonon by which invaders appeared. What challenger groups did was destroy the invaders and close the cracks before they caused any more damage to the civilian population.
“The invaders from the great cracks in the Pacific Ocean were not the sa as we normally saw.”
It spread by constantly eating away things around the island. Challengers on the 5th floor or above were mobilized, but it was impossible to stop it. No, in the first place, they couldn’t stop even the challenger who created the rift, let alone the invaders. It wasn’t sothing he couldn’t understand.
Fahur, who was a duel challenger on the sixth floor at the ti, was said to be one of the most powerful n on Earth. Even if there were a few challenges at that level, Yoon-seok was confident that he could deal with them all by himself.
“In the anti, word ca up about you. Fahur said it during the eting.”
Yoon-seok was suggested as a counterpart. He was confident that Yoon-seok would soon reach the tenth floor. He and several others truly believed it. They agreed that if he had reached the tenth floor, they might have hope, since the only people who went that far were monsters.
“…”
Yoon-seok closed his mouth while listening to Ashton’s story.
“You must feel pressured. But if we leave it as it is, the world will end. In that case, your family….”
“Stop.”
At Yoon-seok’s words, Ashton grew quiet.
“Don’t worry. I don’t an to run away.”
He didn’t know what the challenger’s intentions were, but a strange bastard ca to Earth and ensued chaos while he was not here. Even if it wasn’t a family issue, Yoon-seok had no intention to stand idly by and watch.
He killed 300,000 people in the UK alone? He was sure that person was evil.
「Return Ticket (Rank E) has been used.」
「Returning to Earth.」
One day might not be enough, so he bought a week’s worth of Rank-E tickets. Yoon-seok, having returned to Earth, checked his surroundings. He was at the entrance of Bugaksan when he last wandered around Seoul.
“…”
It was dayti, but no one was around.
“Avatar.”
When he activated Avatar and spread his wings, his clothes ripped. He was no longer wearing the equipnt of the Tower that transford according to its user’s body.
‘It would’ve been nice if we could take equipnt with us…’
Yoon-seok smacked his lips in disappointnt. He once thought that reaching the tenth floor might let him find a way, but according to Ashton, Shin Sang-hyun’s equipnt was brought to Earth with his skill.
Flap! Flap! Flap!
Yoon-seok spread his wings and rose to the sky, heading to the place Ashton told him to. As he looked down from the ground down in downtown Seoul, he could feel the confusion that had happened in the preceding weeks. Of course, in the midst of this, most people seed to continue their lives as normal…
But as evidence of their anxiety, convenience stores, and supermarkets were closed. When he looked closely, the shelves were empty, and as if so stores were sacked, the glass windows were shattered.
It looked as if the world was coming to an end.
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