Chapter 181. The Power of the Hero (5)
In exchange for acting as a wingman for Walker and Sophie"s relationship, Sophie forgot everything about what I did to Joshua Brightman and happily signed the Soul Contract. She then became a Third Dungeon explorer under Walker"s appointment. Of course, she also received Joshua Brightman"s ability and would act as Britain"s protector in his place. When needed, she would also join Revival as she was its member. In the end, everything turned out well.
While we were on our way to China, Walker growled as if he wanted to bite my head off.
"Kang Shin, you…!"
"You should be more honest, Walker. That was the best for everyone."
"She deserves better!"
"You aren"t so bad, Walker."
"Really… you"re annoying!"
"Alright, it"s time to go to China. There are many people we have to take care of there."
Unlike Britain and Italy where HoS was formed without their Guardians" knowledge, China"s Heroes of Shadow organization was much more widespread and numerous. As such, it was likely that China"s Guardian was involved. I was happy with it. It was more fulfilling if there were more things to destroy!
The moment we entered China"s airs.p.a.ce, several fighter jets surrounded us. I already knew China didn"t see me in a good light. Seeing the Chinese fighter jets shooting missiles at us, I spoke regrettably.
"Lotte, shoot them down."
[Understood.]
We swept through everything blocking our path. We visited each HoS facility in our list, which was made perfect through Daisy"s ability, and retrieved the abilities of the ability users.
China was flipped upside down and the media condemned me, but I didn"t care in the slightest. Instead, after receiving the necessary information from me, Hwaya revealed everything about Heroes of Shadow and what they did. The world once again began to shake.
After about three hours of going wild in China, we finally met China"s SS ranker, Xin Shaomei. To our surprise, we found her sleeping in her villa with a pretty girl in her arms.
Although we caused quite a ruckus taking care of all the ability users guarding the outside, Xin Shaomei and the doll-like girl in her arms were still sleeping soundly. Feeling uncomfortable by the fact that they were both naked, I turned to Walker and asked.
"Walker, why are they sleeping like that?"
"I don"t know. Maybe they"re family?"
Our faces both reddened and we couldn"t look at them directly. Daisy then interrupted.
"This woman, l.u.s.ting after another wo— uuup!"
I quickly clasped her mouth with my hands.
"I got it. You don"t have to say it."
"… Humans are, really weird."
Daisy seemed to have thought that she was kindly telling us about it, as she puffed her cheeks angrily.
Since I had to do something about it, I summoned Peika.
"Peika, fry them."
"You"re bold, Kang Shin!"
"But they"re our enemies, right?"
Xin Shaomei was on Luca Bruno"s list and Joshua Brightman"s memories. Plus, most HoS members in China were affiliated with higher-ups of the government. It made sense to beat them up thoroughly.
"You really are…"
[Both of them?]
"Ah, wait. Daisy, can you read check?"
"I can"t read, they"re sleeping."
"Then Peika, first wake them up."
[Un!]
Peika"s lightning dyed the room in gold. Two screams immediately rang out.
"Kyaak!"
"Ow!"
"Both HoS members. Positive."
"Peika, burn them both."
[Un!]
Peika coiled around them and discharged a terrifying lightning. Xin Shaomei seemed to have quickly understood what was happening, but with Peika holding her down, there was nothing she could do.
"T-Thunder Knight!? How!?"
"Peika."
[Un!]
"Kuaaaaaaaaaa!"
The girl in Xin Shaomei"s arms had lost consciousness long ago, while Xin Shaomei desperately shot her mana toward me. I felt a strong debuff aura, but I wasn"t surprised as I knew she was a curse magician. Although I did not expect that she would be able to use it so quickly, it still had to make contact with its target to activate. In other words, as long as I dodged it, it wouldn"t do s.h.i.t.
"Why isn"t she weakening Peika?"
[Master, there"s no way to weaken an elemental. Eit!]
"Krrrr…"
Xin Shaomei was released only after she almost suffocated to death. However, as her crime was less than Luca Bruno"s or Joshua Brightman"s, I decided to stop here. Although she would need support for the rest of her life, she would at least be able to walk on her own legs.
I instantly took out Xin Shaomei"s ability. Then, before she fainted, I asked.
"Did you join Heroes of Shadow because of some ill-will against me?"
"A-As if…! I just wanted to obtain Hwaya Mastiford for myse— Kyaaak!"
I then made her just like Joshua. I suddenly craved for a cigarette when I had never even smoked before. Walker seemed to have thought the same way as he began to smoke. After letting out a puff of smoke, he remarked.
"It looks like there are many forms of desire, Kang Shin…"
"Yeah, I just found out today too…"
I gave her ability to Walker. Although he was a close-range attacker, he surprisingly took her ability well. As his main method of attack was dealing a fatal blow after coming out of stealth, Xin Shaomei"s debuff ability would help him greatly. In any case, with this incident, China lost an SS ranker.
That day, Daisy, Walker, and I traveled around the world to catch HoS members by reading their memories. Because we were traveling so quickly, night became day and day became night from us changing our location. As a result, we didn"t know exactly how much time pa.s.sed.
With ability users and their organizations disappearing all over the world, the entire world was focused on me. There was even a rumor that Revival was going against all ability users.
After confirming that all of HoS’ roots were pulled out, I returned to Korea without regrets. I threw Otus" Secret in my inventory. At least on Earth, I knew I would no longer need it.
I made everyone who went against me pay for their actions. I thoroughly crushed them, retrieved their abilities, and made it so that they would have difficulty living a normal life as ordinary people. If there were people trying to go after me even after this incident, I wouldn"t let them off so lightly.
I officially announced my thoughts about this incident and revealed my name. I declared to all Guardian and Freedom Wing members, as well as rogue ability users.
"Even if all you come at me together, you won"t be able to leave a scratch on my finger. Today, you saw the price for daring to touch me. I am the enemy of monsters, cleaner of dungeons, and friend of humanity. As long as you don"t needlessly provoke me, as long as you remain an enemy of the monsters, as long as you desire to dispose of dungeons, I will remain your ally."
Being on TV with my real face was a strange feeling. In any case, it was no longer a laughing matter. Whether it was television, internet, or radio, my name and face was being shown. I was the leader of the guild Revival, a monster who crippled three SS rankers overnight.
Although Sophie replaced Joshua Brightman in Britain, China and Italy lost their SS rankers on top of many other ability users. Though they probably wanted to kill me, they didn"t have the ability. With this incident, the world came to know what would happen if they went against me.
I became an untouchable existence. I was officially recognized as the strongest on Earth.
"Son, there"s a surge of people wanting to enter our dojo."
"Ignore them. We only receive one disciple as heir anyways. We call it a dojo, but it"s really only for sparring."
"Should I make a spear technique for ma.s.s distribution? If I organize everything I learned from fighting monsters, I can make a spear technique that"s not for fighting people, but for fighting monsters."
"Hmm, I"ve thought about something like that too… If we also make a mana cultivation method and spread it, we"ll be able to make acquired ability users too."
"… You want to try it?"
"Sounds like a good plan, Father."
We immediately bought all the mana cultivation methods in the Floor Shop and started to a.n.a.lyze them. No matter how much I increased Peruta Circuit"s level, it was a unique technique that was hard to pa.s.s on to others. As for Father, he didn"t even have a proper mana cultivation method. As a result, we had to go through several different mana cultivation methods and pick the one that would be the easiest to teach and pa.s.s on to others.
For a week, whenever Father and I weren"t in the dungeon, we worked hard to create a mana cultivation method, but in the end, we didn"t succeed. The only positive result was that we had a more in-depth knowledge of mana.
"It looks like we"ll need more time."
"Let"s do our own research and talk about it later. I have to go to Beyond now."
I left the dojo and headed to our house. I already got used to the pouring stares whenever I came out and could easily ignore the high school girls that flocked to ask for autographs. When I went inside my house, however, I witnessed a strange scene. Daisy was at the dinner table, eating.
"Oh, you"re here, Son?"
"Nom, nom."
"Swallow what"s in your mouth before you talk."
"You"re here, Shin! Huhu."
I was used to Ludia greeting me whenever I came home. After all, she"s been here for quite a while now. But Daisy? Wait… I"ve been busy for the past week with a.n.a.lyzing mana cultivation methods and grinding the Floor Master. Was Daisy staying in my house the entire time…?
"Did you never go back to the dungeon?"
"Nom, nom… I did. But the food here is, much better."
"You came back just to eat!?"
Explorers that lost their worlds and became independent could be brought to other worlds through the Return skill. Once they set their foot on this new world, they could come back here after entering the dungeon. That was how Daisy was going back and forth between the dungeon and Earth. In any case, the way she sat comfortably on the table wasn"t normal. She looked even more natural than Ludia!
"Who cares? It"s not like having one more mouth to feed is any trouble for us. Plus, she"s a cute girl!"
"Girl?"
Mother, she"s at least five times older than you! Feeling a killing intent coming from Daisy, I stayed silent. It seemed Daisy wanted to believe she was 17 just like Loretta.
"Oppa, you didn"t eat yet, right? I"ll prepare food for Oppa."
"Ah, thanks."
Yua smiled sweetly and took out a seat for me. Then, she went over to the kitchen while humming. After getting her ability, Yua stopped sulking and returned to being an archangel. No, she had jumped up seven realms and had become a seraph! She was so dazzling that I couldn"t look straight at her.(E/N: siscon)
Using her SS ranked mana, Yua managed to climb to the 20th floor in one week and officially became Revival"s guild member.
Her ability was charming. Although she could charm monsters and attack them while they were confused, her ability was best suited to control monsters. In other words, she was a natural Tamer. Because monsters in the dungeon couldn"t be tamed, I told her I would get her a suitable monster to tame, but I had forgotten about it after being distracted by researching mana cultivation methods.
But from what she said during the meal, it seemed she learned to use whips from Daisy and got through with just that.
Even though her ability was charming, since she had the boundless mana of an SS ranker, it was understandable that she could break through the 20th floor with just her Whip Technique. According to Daisy, Yua had a talent for using whips.
A whip was indeed suitable for a tamer. But weren"t whips tools for punishment? A whip-using s.a.d.i.s.tic Yua! That didn"t sound so bad… Wait, no!
"Since we"re talking about it, we should find a monster for Yua to tame. She can"t rely on whips forever."
"Yes, I wanted to ask Oppa about it too."
"Ah, before that, Daisy. There was a corpse I forgot to give you last time."
"Really!?"
This was the second time Daisy used an exclamation mark. Her red eyes flashed. It must have really excited her if she couldn"t wait and tried to read my mind. I made a wry smile and scooped a spoonful of rice.
"Once I finish eating, let"s head over to the guild house. It"s big, so I can"t take it out here."
"Big… Good. Event Raids, I need big undead."
While Daisy"s eyes sparkled, Ludia murmured grumpily.
"You don"t give me anything…"
"What would you do with a corpse?"
"Hmph."
… I decided to prepare a gift for Ludia soon.
When we arrived at the guild house and I took out the Evil Mantis Queen, the one made a big reaction wasn"t Daisy, but Yua.
"O-Oppa, I…"
"Yeah?"
"I… feel really good!"
Yua excitedly approached the Evil Mantis Queen"s corpse. Did she want to fry the Evil Mantis Queen and eat it? In that case, I"d have to apologize to Daisy. Thinking about how to tell Daisy about this, I followed Yua. However, where Yua stopped was none other than the Evil Mantis Queen"s read end, where her egg sac was attached.
"Huk! When did these get so big…? They"re dead, right?"
"No, Oppa, these children are alive!"
Well, I"m glad to hear that. NOT! They could survive in the inventory?
"Oh, that"s interesting."
With that, I began to activate Mad Typhoon, but Yua shouted and stopped me.
"No! I can raise them!"
"But Yua, if something goes wrong…!"
"It"ll be fine. They haven"t been born yet. They"re still blank slates."
She wasn"t wrong. We shouldn’t a.s.sociate the unborn children with the sins of the parent. If Yua could control them well with her ability, they could indeed become our ally. Since we had a way of controlling them, there was no need to kill them thoughtlessly.
"Yua, if it looks like you cannot do it, you have to tell me, okay?"
"Of course, Oppa."
Yua smiled, telling me to relax, then imbued mana into the Evil Mantis Queen"s egg sac. Immediately, the egg sac began to pulsate. It was ripped apart, and hundreds of white mantises popped out.
"Hiik."
"Why are they white? Is it because of Yua"s angelic heart?"
"Larvae, just born."
What, I can"t even joke? Of course, even as I joked, I was fully prepared to send them flying with my spear. However, my worry was for nothing. The calf-sized mantises were lining up in front of Yua, almost as if they knew who helped to bring them to life.
"Wow, they"re all so cute, Oppa!"
"Uh, yeah…"
Perhaps, after obtaining her ability, Yua had changed from the younger sister I knew. Even while I nodded with a pale face, more mantises jumped out of the egg sac and lined up in front of Yua. She seemed to be happy, as she swung her whip and shouted.
"Alright, follow Mommy! Let"s go eat, everyone!"
[Kiiiiii!]
[Kiiiiii!]
Over three hundred mantises cheered altogether. Just like that, my young sister came to command the world"s strongest army of mantises. It was the start of the legend of the Monster Queen.
Author"s note:
Well, that"s me… going over the word limit again…