Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society

Chapter 150. What We Can Do (8)

Although bonus stats were indeed something to look forward to, the rewards were undoubtedly more alluring. Other than a few that looked like traps, they all looked great.

After a bit of consideration, I chose the Deathblood Ring. It was a black metallic ring adorned by red gems. Just like its name suggested, it was quite chilling.

[Deathblood Ring (Unique)

Equipment Requirement - Level 50+, Magic 100+

Skill - Deathblood: 1. On attack, 2% chance to absorb 10% of enemy"s mana to recover your mana. 2. On attack, 1% chance to inject your blood into the enemy. In exchange for 5% of your HP, the enemy falls under irresistible "blood contamination" status effect.]

Well d.a.m.n! I might have to kowtow to the dead Cyclops Lord for this!

I took off my gauntlet for a moment and equipped the Deathblood Ring. Although it looked a bit scary, it was also fashionable in a way. While I was looking at my hand satisfactorily, the female S ranker approached and asked with widened eyes.

"W-Where did that ring come from?"

"Curiosity will only bring your harm."

Meanwhile, the others were also choosing their rewards. I was most curious about who would choose the Cyclops Lord"s Golden Eye and the Lump of Refined Blue Iron. In the end, it seemed they were taken by Hwaya and Shuna, respectively.

"Oh wow, this is an Orb!"

"… A what?"

When I turned around, a golden eye was shining on her palm.

"I thought it was a magic material, but look!"

On top of Hwaya"s palm, the golden eye ball that made me hesitant to touch it began to emit brilliant light and spin. It seemed Hwaya could move it as she pleased.

"There was something called sub-weapon. I didn"t know about it before. How lucky."

"It"s good that you got what you needed."

"D-d.a.m.n it… A freaking rag… Wait, this thing"s defense is amazing!"

It seemed Walker was satisfied with the reward he chose too.

"Sumire, you"re still waiting to choose your reward, right?"

"Yes. We have to recover our strengths before we get out in case an Event Raid breaks out."

I didn"t know about ability users, but for dungeon explorers, they could not leave the Event Dungeon until they picked their rewards. The Event Raid would only break out after this phase. As they spent the past month clearing Event Dungeons, it seemed they were quite familiar with the process.

"W-Where did everyone just…"

"What is it? An extradimensional storage?"

"Yeah, extradimensional storage. It"s my ability."

With a smile, Hwaya lied without blinking an eye. She was currently elated from receiving a sub-weapon, and the rankers also looked happy to see her smile, as they didn"t say much else about it. Seeing others starting to rest, I approached the Cyclops Lord"s corpse. Ludia tilted her head and asked through the guild message.

[Are you going to put that corpse into your inventory?]

[Ah, that"s that, but more importantly, my weapon was responding to this guy.]

[Weapon?]

The four weapons the Cyclops Lord was holding. As Gluttony Spear didn"t eat the same weapon it already ate, it only ate one of the cyclops" club and stopped responding. Although the Cyclops Lord"s weapons looked the same, it was possible that they were slightly different. Since no one used clubs in our party, I obtained their consent and brought Gluttony Spear up to one of the Cyclops Lord"s weapon. Gluttony Spear devoured the club instantly. I brought it up to the other club just in case, and it really did eat it!

"Ooooooh!"

"Kyaaak!"

Seeing my weapon eat another weapon, the female ranker, though it was annoying to keep referring to her this way, screamed. Of course, I didn"t pay her any attention and let Gluttony Spear absorb the other two. Immediately afterward, the Gluttony Spear radiated a brilliant light. Finally, finally…!

[Gluttony Spear reached 99.9% growth. To reach 100% growth, you must imbue all of your mana into it.]

"I can"t do that now…! Why are you shining then!?"

As full of expectation as I was, I became angry enough to almost snap the spear in half. If I consumed all of my mana now, I would have to make everyone wait for over 20 minutes while I waited for two Mana Potions worth of cooldown time. It was probably better to wait until the fighting was over. With a bit of disappointment, I put the Cyclops Lord"s corpse in my inventory and turned around to face the others.

"Everyone"s done resting, right?"

"Yeah."

"T-That! Was that also an extradimensional storage!?"

"Yeah."

After Sumire chose the final item, a message appeared in front of us.

[You completely cleared a S+ rank Event Dungeon! All party members receive 3 bonus stats!]

[You will now return.]

The raid boss did not appear. Some clicked their tongues while some sighed in relief. Not long afterward, we were outside the gate.

The moment we came out, we found ourselves surrounded by countless Guardians. What was shocking was that most of them were at least S ranked Awakened. In other words, it wasn"t just Korea"s Guardians that were here. Behind them were soldiers armed with guns and tanks.

A man who seemed to be the representative of Korea"s Guardian stood in the front. After meeting my eyes, he spoke.

"The Guardian and the government have decided that they cannot allow you to rampage any longer. We recommend that you surrender peacefully."

Come one, if you were going to do this, you should have done it earlier! No, were they waiting for us to tire ourselves out from clearing a S+ rank dungeon? I first turned around. Woo Youngha and one other S ranker were collapsed on the ground. Seeing as how father was taking his hand back, it seemed they were trying to do something and got beaten up. That would mean… I looked at the female ranker, who was blinking her eyes in confusion.

"You didn"t know?"

"What?"

"Yeah, Shin. That looks to be the case."

"Haa, whatever then. Just stay put, got it?"

"Y-Yes!"

Good, she"s listening. I turned back around to the man. Then, I asked.

"Alright, first… Mmm, did you watch the video?"

"I did."

"And you"re still using force."

"Yes. You are bringing danger by being too confident in your strength. You entered a S+ rank dungeon without the country"s permission. As the citizens were not evacuated, if a large S+ rank monster appeared and you could not defeat it, countless civilians would have been exposed to danger."

"Huh? You mean destroying low-rank gates won"t be a problem?"

"According to the New Moon Law, gates ranked A or below are under the jurisdiction of Guardian and Freedom Wing. What you are planning on doing is simply illegal."

"And it can"t be helped if they let gates turn into dungeons because of their "lack of ability"?"

I asked.

"You… Will you be okay with S or S+ ranked gates turning into dungeons? If the three remaining gates in Korea turned into dungeons, you should know well enough that Korea will be powerless against them."

"Of course. We want to get rid of gates just as much as you do. We need to have a conversation. Not with such ill-planned and ill-considered method, but with a method that would secure the safety of Korea and the interest of—”

"So you want to negotiate."

They wanted to destroy S or S+ ranked gates, but they wanted to keep the Event Dungeons A ranked or below for themselves. That was what that oldie was trying to say.

"You just have to promise that you will not enter foreign countries" gates without their permission. If you do, we will spare no efforts to help you get rid of the gates. Of course, we will also take your words into consideration regarding the removal of gates."

We realize that you"re strong, so we"ll put a collar on you and erase only the gates we want to erase. If you listen well, we"ll even give you a couple low-ranked gates.

How surprising. His words were being translated automatically. Though, it"s funny to think that Korean needed to be translated.

"There are already no gates left in Korea, so I don"t understand why… No, nevermind, I understand. It"s probably for shares, support from other countries" Awakened, or something along those lines. Fine, I"ll keep this short."

I raised my spear and slammed it down. Other than the female S ranker, Korea"s other two S rankers had their legs broken.

"Come at me, you f.u.c.kers."

[Prince is angry!]

[What does killing mean?]
[Killing is… Elemental Blade!]

First, I shot an Elemental Tempest to the front. All ability users surrounding us were sent flying. Since they were all at least S rankers, I believed that they wouldn"t die.

"S-Shoot! Fire!"

The soldiers panicked and began to shoot, but unfortunately, none of us were weak enough to be hurt by guns or cannons. Weapons without mana could not penetrate our bodies, which were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with mana. In fact, most S rankers were immune to guns. Since they should have known this already, they probably expected us to give up after seeing their numbers…

"If you don"t stop shooting those annoying things, I"ll blow them up. When they do, we won"t be the ones dying."

At Hwaya"s words, the firing immediately stopped. They had lowered their tail after being threatened with death. Modern weapons did not mix well with Hwaya. Just by snapping her fingers, they would become ineffective and might even blow.

While Hwaya neutralized the soldiers with all sorts of magic, I counted the number of ability users who withstood my initial attack. Although Walker and Ye-Eun were disarming the ability users taken out by Elemental Tempest, there were still over fifty ability users that were totally fine. To think they could gather so many rankers while we were clearing the Event Dungeon… It seemed Korea"s Guardian wasn"t so bad. Perhaps they considered us to be serious threats.

I fixed my grip on my spear.

"I counted heads, so don"t you think about running away. As long as you don"t die, our kind healer will heal you, so relax and come… Otherwise, I"ll make my move!"

Only after my shout did the rankers start moving. S rankers should be more than strong enough to fell a few buildings by themselves. Lightning, flame, arrows, restraining power, clumps of metal. All sorts of abilities were being used. Meanwhile, I extended my spear with Elemental Blade and swung it in an arc.

[I, I knew it! Ueeeeeeeeek!]

[I think that guy actually really enjoys Elemental Blade!]

[Wheeee!]

[Ah, wind! That"s mine!]

"You poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, go to sleep!"

"O Earth!"

Father"s shockwave swept the area. A few ability users attempting to approach Ludia were struck by the wall of earth that suddenly popped up from the ground and were sent flying away. The area was becoming a total chaos. Only 10 minutes had pa.s.sed since we came from the Event Dungeon, but the earth was fissuring, nearby buildings were falling, and trees were being rooted. At the same time, all rankers collapsed. The army already fell back with tears.

"Satisfied now?"

I asked the man who made the offer. He had run away the moment I neutralized Korea"s two S rankers, but now that I looked, he was back.

"… I"m satisfied."

He answered. On his face was a faint smile.

"Geez, you didn"t have to make it so difficult."

"I apologize, but currently, no matter what you say, you cannot become justice. Even so… there are people who wish to be on your side. We just did what we could do."

"… It seems Guardian isn"t completely rotten."

"It is an organization formed to protect Earth. Please remember that."

I smiled and spoke.

"If you want anything, tell me. I"ll sell it for a cheap price."

"You know how to trade! In that case, we would like some materials you obtained inside the gate. I don"t know about other countries, but Korea"s ability users often cannot hunt properly from lack of equipment. It is so bad that even I was tempted by the idea of letting gates become dungeons."

"I"ll contact you separately. Do you need help cleaning up?"

"We already have people ready, but thank you for the offer. Rather than that, you should go do what you want to do."

"I"m liking you more and more. Good, that"s what we"ll do."

I grinned and turned around. Ye-Eun tilted her head and asked.

"Shin, why are you being so friendly with that guy? What happened?"

"You see…"

I looked back at my companions. It seemed Walker really was tired, as he leaned on a wall and fell asleep, while father was looking at the collapsed S rankers like he had not gotten enough exercise. Hwaya forgot about the rankers and were playing with her golden Orb, while Ludia was treating the injured and Shuna was bringing the fainted people together. Sumire was a.s.sisting Ludia beside her with her own unique healing spell.

In other words, Ye-Eun was the only one who went wild without fully understanding what was happening. Mm, how do I explain this…

"Basically, we got an unofficial approval to do whatever we want."

"E-Eh!? What? When did we discuss that!?"

"Alright, if everyone"s done resting, let"s go! We have to finish Korea before the day breaks!"

"It"s already past midnight, Kang Shin!"

"That"s why we have to hurry!"

I snickered and retorted. Walker muttered, then grabbed his head in pain again. I couldn"t tell whether that guy was smart or dumb.

That day, before dawn, we took care of the three remaining gates in Korea. No one dared to bother us.

It was just that the word "Revival" became the most trending word on the internet.

Now, it was time to leave Korea and party on the world stage.

Author"s note:

If you noticed from the beginning, you"re a genius! I would have noticed when I saw the army there. The only ones that aren"t aware that the army is ineffective against high ranking ability users are ordinary citizens. In other words, the army was there to appeal to ordinary citizens, not the Guardian or the Freedom Wing. ^^

Translator"s note:

If it sounds weird with all the "S or above / below," it"s because in Korean, the word "above/below" is inclusive, while it"s exclusive in English. For example, "above S rank" in Korean would include S rank, but it wouldn"t in English.
Also Equipment Limit has been changed to Equipment Requirement

Chapter 151. Crimson Chaotic Spear (1)

When we finished cleaning up the remaining dungeons in Korea, it was 11 A.M. Event Raids did not occur once. According to Hwaya, the chance of an Event Raid happening wasn"t that high. Although it was best for everyone"s safety that they didn"t occur, but I would have liked one so we could clearly show our skills to the ma.s.ses.

We were currently in Hwaya"s private plane. Although it would have been overwhelmingly faster to travel on Lotte, we all needed rest after clearing 4 S and S+ ranked Event Dungeons. Right when I was about to get some sleep, a thought crossed my mind.

"Let"s go over the rewards."

We promised to sell monster remains we got from A ranked or below dungeons to Korea for a cheap price. It was the same for monsters from S ranked or above dungeons, though we would selectively sell only a portion of them. I had no business with the corpses that were taking most of my inventory s.p.a.ce. I did, however, have business with the rewards from the two S ranked dungeons and S+ ranked dungeons.

The first was the Deathblood Ring. Although the stats it gave wasn"t bad, what was more important were its effects. A 2% chance to steal 10% of the enemy"s mana, and a 1% chance to use 5% of my HP to put blood contamination status effect on the enemy. While I was clearing the other three dungeons, I felt elated every time the mana steal effect activated, but unfortunately, the blood contamination effect never activated. I was curious what it would do.

The second reward was a Half Elixir I got from an S rank dungeon. I considered choosing a weapon to feed to Gluttony Spear, but since its growth was at 99.9%, I decided to just go with the consumable. Even if I was on the brink of death, the Half Elixir would restore 50% of my HP and MP and cure me of all status effects. I already had a few emergency life ropes, but it wasn"t bad to have another one.

The third reward was a battle sword I got from the second S rank dungeon. There was no need to describe it. It was Gluttony Spear"s food.

Since none of us obtained much from this dungeon, we cleared the S+ rank dungeon with our cheeks puffed. This dungeon was amazing. Humanoid monsters appeared in this dungeon, and its boss was actually a group of 10 hunters. They each used different weapons as well. In other words, the rewards had variety to them! As it was an S+ rank dungeon, they were also extremely valuable.

The reward I got was…

[Perfect Hunter (Epic)

Equipment Requirement - Strength +150, Dexterity +150, Magic +150, Mid-rank Crossbow Marksmanship

Skill - Invisible Shooter: Your bolts become invisible, and their sound and presence disappear. Added 30% bonus to speed and attack power.]

It was a crossbow that drew the jealousy of all party members. It was the only Epic-grade item that dropped from this dungeon. Though it was an Epic item, it wasn"t showy. It was made out of some black metal and looked rather coa.r.s.e, but it still could not hide its luxurious aura.

I realized it with Hwaya equipping her Orb. It seemed this crossbow was being treated as a sub-weapon. Just by having it hanging by my waist, it raised my stats. The precious strength, dexterity, and magic stats had all gone up by 15. I really wanted to give this crossbow a kiss.

"I"m done with going over the items, so what should I do now…?"

"I feel like I was forgetting something… What was it?" I tilted my head and looked around. It was rather quiet, as everyone was resting in their own way. I then caught sight of Walker.

He had just woken up from sleep and was busy cutting and rearranging the rag he obtained from the Forest of Rage. I blinked and looked at Walker, trying to figure out why he had caught my attention. Then, I realized.

"Walker, what about Yua?"

"Today"s a school vacation."

Walker looked somewhat happy.

"I got a phone call saying that I didn"t need to guard her today."

"… Phone call?"

"From your mother! Don"t point your spear against someone"s neck!"

"Sorry. You made an easily misunderstood expression, so I overreacted, haha."

"Just how much do you like your sister…!"

"What are you talking about, all oppas love their younger sisters."

I puffed out my chest and declared proudly. Walker glared at me with the expression of a dead frog that was. .h.i.t by BB gun pellets.

"I should show you an example. Go see how Brightman treats his younger sister…"

"He has a younger sister? I"d rather not meet her."

"I know what you"re worried about, but she"s different than what you think."

"No, I understand. Unlike her oppa, she"s extremely kind, right? That"s how it usually is in novels. Unfortunately…"

"Sorry, but you"re completely wrong. What I meant was, she isn"t as childish as Brightman."

Walker snorted and said. His voice had become slightly higher.

"Sophie doesn"t try to act cool like Brightman. She understands her position extremely well and is quite reasonable for her age. Plus, her entrepreneurial talent is much higher than her older brothers. Most everyone in the Brightman conglomerate agrees that the one who should lead the group should be Sophie, not Joshua."

"… Oh?"

Why was I so quick-witted about these things? I grinned and asked.

"You like her, right?"

"… Don"t joke. I already told you, I grew up with Brightman. She naturally became a younger sister to me. Unlike Brightman, she didn"t consider me a servant… No, maybe she knew but didn"t treat me that way on purpose. After all, she hates the way Brightman orders people around."

Walker still had a serene expression. Was I wrong? I became uncertain, but it seemed Walker didn"t want to tell me the answer, as he turned away and went back to working on his rag. I felt like there was something more, but since he wouldn"t tell me, I reluctantly gave up.

After becoming bored again, I opened my inventory to put Gluttony Spear awa… wait. What I was forgetting about was evolving Gluttony Spear!

My mana was completely full, and we would arrive at j.a.pan in 20 minutes. Since it would take time to fly to the Event Dungeons, I should have enough time to restore my mana!

Good. I put Gluttony Spear down on the plane"s aisle. Because of its length, people might get hurt if I didn"t.

"Let"s go."

I roused my mana and injected it into Gluttony Spear. Soon, it began to give off a crimson glow, which got more and more brighter as I injected more mana into it. Eventually, when most of my mana was injected, it gave off a similar brilliance as it did in the Forest of Rage!

"W-What"s happening!?"

"Wow…"

I closed my eyes, then opened them back up. My spear had changed its appearance. The shaft became… slightly thicker? The spear blade was longer and sharper. It was completely red from the tip of the spear blade to the edge of the spear shaft, while strange engravings were inscribed onto it.

[Crimson Gluttony Spear evolved to Crimson Chaotic Spear. A weapon that wasn"t completely absorbed has been acc.u.mulated as growth. Crimson Chaotic Spear"s growth: 47%]

[Crimson Chaotic Spear (Legend)

Attack - 7,000

Options - All stats + 10, Strength +25%. Adds "Chaos Flame" attribute to basic attacks. Evolves by absorbing weapons. By injecting mana and chanting "Transform," it can be changed to its choker form. To transform it back into a spear, you can inject mana and pull it back.]

Legendary. I see, so that"s the grade that came after Epic. Plus, its growth was already at 47% since it was unable to completely absorb a weapon before. It seemed like the Holysword was more amazing than I thought. Not to mention, even with these crazy stats, it could still evolve.

I tensed and grabbed the spear. Instantly, my body was overflowing with strength. All stats increased, and my strength increased by 25%. It felt like the first time I obtained Zeus" true name. I murmured, trying to quell the sense of omnipotence.

"Do people on the higher floors all have weapons like this?"

No, probably not all of them. I could tell instinctively that this wasn"t a weapon people can get just by climbing the dungeon for a long time. Even so, explorers on the highest floors should have Legendary weapons and maybe even Legendary equipment.

Without a weapon like this, it must be impossible to break through the levels of the dungeon they were in.

All in order to beat their world"s enemy, which might not be possible, even with such weapons.

"Good. I"m calm now…"

I planned on picking up my spear, but I changed my mind. It would be more convenient if I put it back in my inventory, but I would lose the strength I temporarily gained. Although there wouldn"t be a huge problem since it wasn"t too different from when it was Gluttony Spear, I couldn"t handle a weapon that would change my physical ability in such a way.

I had to carry it around as much as possible to get used to it. I looked at Chaotic Spear"s option again. Transform… I already had a choker (translator). I hoped people didn"t think I had a strange hobby…

I was quick to take action. I injected mana into the spear and quietly murmured, "transform." The spear immediately transformed to a reddish-black choker, which I promptly equipped. As it was still treated as being equipped, my strength was the same. Looking at the mirror, I found that the two chokers didn"t look so bad together.

At that time, Hwaya peeked her head out into the aisle. After seeing me, she asked.

"Shin, what"s that choker?"

"Something more important than my entire fortune."

"… What?"

Hwaya"s face was full of question marks. However, she didn"t ask anything else. An in-flight announcement had flown out.

[We will soon arrive at j.a.pan"s Kansai Airport. Please make sure your seat belts are fastened.]

Once we landed, I would be able to show Hwaya what it does. With a grin, I sat back down on my seat. After being emptied, my mana was slowly filling back up. I could feel that my body was itching for a fight.

What kind of dungeons would j.a.pan have? While drinking a Mana Potion, I thought of the dungeons that were waiting for us.

Chapter 152. Crimson Chaotic Spear (2)

j.a.pan didn"t have any S+ ranked gates, but it did have three S ranked gates. In addition, it had eleven dungeons ranked A or below. Although it was less than Korea, considering there were only about 200 Event Dungeons left scattered through Earth, j.a.pan strangely had a lot of Event Dungeons. Right, similar to Korea, j.a.pan had unnaturally many Event Dungeons.

Because of what happened in Korea, the media portrayed us as a lawless group. What was interesting was the reaction of the civilians when we neared an Event Dungeon.

"Whoa! Holy s.h.i.t, it"s Dragon Knight!"

"He came to j.a.pan first!"

"Take good care of us!"

Most of the people that saw us were cheering us on. I was rather bewildered by their unexpected reaction, but I soon realized why.

"To them, this place is their home."

"Imagine that a dungeon appeared in your backyard, and the only weapon and defensive equipment you had was a kitchen knife and a chopping board."

"Doesn"t that happen often? It"s like that whenever you"re cooking and suddenly forced into battle. Ah, for the record, you"re better off bare-handed."

"The one holding the knife and the chopping board isn"t a monster like you, but an ordinary civilian! Of course, you"d be better off with a knife than just your fists!"

To ordinary people, monsters were only targets of terror. Plus, Event Dungeons appeared wherever they wanted. They could be in the middle of desserts or heavily populated areas.

When dungeons became Field Dungeons, the government would aid the original residents, but it didn"t change the fact that they would have to move away or live with monsters right in front of them. Both options were extremely stressful. Since someone volunteered to get rid of the dungeons, it made sense that they were so happy.

Just like that, we cleared our first dungeon with an unexpected welcome. After eating a late breakfast in a nearby restaurant, I went to get Lotte back, as she had gone back to the dungeon during our flight here. When I came back, Hwaya approached me with a piece of paper.

"Shin, I planned out our route. If we"re lucky, we should be able to take care of all of the dungeons other than the S ranked dungeons. But, we have to ride your wyvern instead of my plane."

[I refuse!]

"Please, Lotte?"

[Mmmm…!]

When I scratched Lotte"s neck and pleaded, she elongated her neck and began to contemplate. Hwaya made a dumbfounded expression, but I silenced her by giving her a thumbs up. Then, I scratched Lotte"s neck more. It was a special technique of mine. If ordinary people tried, they would only have their fingers broken.

"You"ll do it, right? Hwaya only says that because she knows you"re much faster than a plane."

[Mmm…]

"Lotte, you"re the only one I can rely on. You"ll let us ride you, right?"

[F-Fine… Since it"s Hero"s request, I"ll allow the inept humans to ride me.]

"Thanks, Lotte!"

[Mm, scratch me more, Hero.]

[Shin, you"ve gotten pretty used to handling women, haven"t you…?]

[I didn"t think you"d call Lotte a woman, Hwaya.]

Since we were in the middle of a city, we naturally caught the attentions of countless people. After they recognized Hwaya and me, it became even worse. In any case, I took the paper from Hwaya to memorize the route, when someone called me from behind.

"Oppa, here!"

A cute little girl handed a box of chocolate to me. It was similar to the chocolate mushroom snack1 from Korea. When I took it, the girl smiled and shouted.

"Eat this and defeat those monsters!"

"Ah, thanks."

To be honest, I was surprised. Not even a day pa.s.sed since we caused a ruckus in Korea, but even a little girl knew us! As I thought, ma.s.s media is scary!

That aside, I patted her head to thank her for cheering us on.

"Thanks. It means a lot. I like this snack too."

"Ehehe, I like it too!"

"But I don"t have anything to give you… Ah, do you like meat?"

"Hey! You"re not going to dismantle a monster here, right!?"

"What are you talking about, Hwaya. Meat is a universally loved food!"

Because Hwaya jumped in and stopped me, I had to give up on giving the little girl meat. I ended up giving her the cup ramen from my inventory instead, which she happily received.

After the girl left, the others came out of the restaurant as well. It seemed they were watching the little girl from just now, as Ludia"s expression was… shaking.

"Shin, you like… little girls…?"

"I knew you"d say that, but no. She must have seen me somewhere. She just gave me a snack."

Ludia still looked like she didn"t believe me, but Hwaya grinned and supported me.

"It"s been awhile since the world began to revolve around monsters and ability users. High-ranking ability users are global superstars. Not to mention, we displayed the flashiest performance. Since j.a.pan"s time isn"t that different from Korea"s, they already had morning and night time news to hear about us. It"s understandable that a little girl like her recognizes Shin."

"You"ve gotten famous, Kang Shin. How about writing "Ally of Justice" on a cape? You"ll be able to appeal to the ma.s.ses better."

"You shut up, Walker. We"re just doing what we can. What justice?"

I replied to Walker"s teasing bluntly. I opened the box of j.a.panese chocolate mushroom, grabbing a handful and throwing it in my mouth. It was delicious.

In Korea, we"d already clashed with Guardian once. It served as a show of force, not only to Guardian but also to Freedom Wing and various governments. Although it was a secret plan by the pro-gate destruction faction within Guardian, we"d still sent all of the rankers to the hospital. It was clear that we were unstoppable.

As for what happened, I presumed it went like this. Within Guardian there were those that agreed with dungeonifying gates, while there were those that disagreed. The former seemed to have the upper hand in the conflict, but when we made a commotion, the gate destruction faction took the chance to crush the other faction. Then, they showed the result to the whole world.

A conflict between a small number of people, who wanted to destroy the gates, and the Guardian, who wanted to create dungeons to reap benefits. If they could overwhelm us, they could have used us as the sacrificial lamb to calm the voices of dissent. Guardian was the world"s protector. They would push the narrative that we were terrorists, and they would relate our cause to the act of terror as well.

Although it was absurd, the victors always had the stronger voice, while the losers could not say anything even if they were blamed for crimes they didn"t commit.

However, Guardian lost thoroughly. It was exactly what the gate destruction faction wanted. The pro-dungeonification faction lost in physical strength and they also lost their cause through my interview. Could they stop us again in such a situation?

The reason Guardian was bigger than Freedom Wing was that it was an organization created to protect ordinary civilians from the monsters. Now that their claim that dungeonifying gates would protect humanity crumbled, they had no means to stop us.

Even so, they wouldn"t be able to do a complete 180 and start destroying dungeons ranked A or below. If they did, it would be the same as bowing down to Revival, which only consisted of 8 members. In the end, the only thing they could do was to leave us alone. They would pretend not to care no matter what we did and would focus on clearing S ranked gates to show their good side. It was the best way to recover their image.

What I didn"t expect was how glorified we were. I clearly told the representative from Korea"s Guardian that I would cheaply sell the monster corpses ranked A or below. However, he had announced this grandly. In other words, we became Santa Claus, who got rid of various countries" gates and gave them monster remains. In a way, it wasn"t wrong.

At first, I was unhappy that he made such a big deal out of it, but we didn"t have much use for low-ranked monster remains anyway. Since his announcement increased our reputation, we also decided to cheaply sell monster corpses to j.a.pan. In truth, it was possible since no one in our group was lacking money.

Perhaps for that reason, our popularity in j.a.pan reached the heavens. Up until now, the only Asian SS ranker was China"s Xin Shaomei, but Revival had 4 Asians. They especially seemed to like the fact that its leader was Asian. Of course, there were the Korean-hating j.a.panese who went out of their way to leave hateful comments on every news about us. However, they were only an extreme minority.

Plus, even though Sumire was hiding half of her face with a mask, people suspected that she was j.a.panese from her frame and facial structure. Revival"s popularity in j.a.pan was only natural. That said, Sumire was a half, and her frame and facial structure were both different from a traditional j.a.panese girl"s… Well, since she was still j.a.panese, I couldn"t say anything about it.

After j.a.pan, our dungeon breaking2 continued to Britain (Brightman was nowhere to be seen), France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and other Western Europeans nations, all in just two days. That said, there were only 18 gates in Western Europe. Korea and j.a.pan really did have an unnaturally large number of gates. With how big Russia and China were, they had 23 and 28 gates respectively. Even so, they were relatively few compared to Korea and j.a.pan.

"Are we mostly done with Western Europe?"

"Other than Italy, yeah. Though, that could be considered Southern Europe."

"Italy…"

When I was young, I had visited there with father for training. Of course, back then, surviving and getting stronger were my only goals, so I didn"t visit any tourist attractions. While I was reminiscing about Italy, Hwaya whispered in my ear.

"You know that there"s an SS ranker in Italy, right? I heard that person is quite s.e.xy."

"I"m not interested…? Besides, France also has an SS ranker, but we didn"t see him. There"s no guarantee that we"ll meet all the SS rankers."

"For the record, the SS ranker is a man."

"Oh."

I became irritated. I don"t know what kind of a crazy person used the word "s.e.xy" to compliment men, but I didn"t like it! It wasn"t because I was expecting a s.e.xy female ranker! Ludia began glaring at me too!

"I wonder how handsome he is. I"m looking forward to it."

"Go ahead."

When I grumbled, Hwaya laughed.

"I"m kidding, so don"t worry about it too much. I"m only focused on a single man right now. I don"t have the leisure to look at other men."

"… That"s a funny joke."

"Haha, sorry."

My face reddened and I turned away. Because Hwaya"s. .h.i.t and run came at the most unexpected timing, I couldn"t get out of it well. Thankfully, if I just sat in this awkward atmosphere, someone came to take care of it. Who?

"You"re too close to Shin!"

"O Earth…!"

The other girls, of course. With a sigh, Hwaya got off.

"Yeah, yeah. Don"t worry, kids. I won"t do any foul play. Anyways, start getting ready."

Italian ranker… I wonder what kind of a person he is. No, I"d rather prefer that I didn"t meet him. Murmuring to myself, I got up. Italy had a S+ ranked Event Dungeon. To be honest, I couldn"t wait to get the S+ ranked dungeon"s rewards. I transformed the choker into a spear and pointed it at the direction of Italy.

"Let"s go! To Italy!"

"I want to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa!"

"I want to see Rome and Firenze!"

"Venice"s gondola rides! And Undines!

"We aren"t going there as tourists! And no matter how hard you look, you won"t find any Undines!"

"T-There aren"t Undines?"

No! If you want to see them, look in Neo-Venezia!

j.a.pan and Western Europe were taken care of in just one chapter. The chapter t.i.tle is Crimson Chaotic Spear, but somehow it was only mentioned once towards the end. Oops.

When I was planning, I created the SS rankers based on countries" images. There are 4 SS rankers in Western Europe alone… (2 in Britain, 1 France, 1 Italy). Mmm… it"s not because I like Western Europe! Definitely!

PS - 1. The j.a.panese chocolate mushroom snack is called Kinoko no Yama. It"s from Meiji Dairies Corporation. There"s a high chance it copied Korea"s chocolate mushrooms… T.T For the record, there"s a similar snack called Take no Ko no Sato by the same company. I heard there is a war between the two snacks to determine who takes the throne (kidding)

2. Undine, Neo-Venezia: It"s a reference to the famous healing anime, ARIA. More specially, it refers to the city and the boatmen.