“Listen young man.”
Christoph’s words were curt. The old man who had been laughing by himself, suddenly started making a straight face by himself.
“I don’t know what kind of random fella you are to say nonsense here.”
“…”
“But from what I see, I guess you have some sort of pride for yourself. Right? You must have killed a few monsters during the war, and that’s why you have your neck straight in front of one of the 5 Transcendents of Chaliovan.”
Yu Jitae didn’t reply.
There was an extremely large issue with the current Association.
“Maybe this is what you were thinking? That some bastards with nothing behind their name that were around your level in the past, suddenly began widening their shoulders after riding on back of the Association? Without the Association, they’d be around your level again. Something like that?”
The reason Earth was completely destroyed in the upcoming Second Great War,
“Don’t act up.”
Was because they were living in the past.
“I, Christoph Freeman, am a hero of the Great War. One of the 5 Transcendents of Chaliovan.”
They looked at the present with the eyes of the past, and were unable to have a different look at the present even after seeing the upcoming future.
This was something that was prevalent throughout the Association – an emotion being felt by everyone who had gone through the great hardships together. It wasn’t just the old hero in front. Antonio Jefferson, the chairman and even BM was the same.
It wouldn’t even be considered a task to crush this old man to death right now.
But that would render Yu Jitae an unknown threat and cause things to go in an inefficient manner. The Regressor contemplated several possible measures before deciding to let him go for the time being.
“Is that all you have to say?” In response to Yu Jitae’s words, Christoph laughed with a flat voice.
“Youth is good indeed, hnn? Very good. Just like how you can bark without knowing how high the heavens are. I was the same when I was young.”
“Then let me bark a bit more. That great hero of the Great War comes all the way here and says, ‘I don’t like you. I’m going to pick on you. I’m the best.’ Even my kid doesn’t do that. You should feel ashamed.”
Yu Jitae’s energyless voice caused the old man to laugh even more. It was a sincere laughter and not a scornful one.
But when the old man suddenly returned to his straight face, silence covered the office.
“If I was 10 years younger, I would have grabbed you by the collar right now. You little kid.”
The Regressor numbly reflected on how it was 10 years ago, before giving his reply.
“That’s not it.”
“What?”
An energyless voice put a full stop to the conversation.
“If it was 10 years ago, you would have been dead already.”
***
“Well then. Try your best.” After a long silence, Christoph left those words behind and left the room. The old man had trouble containing his killing intent, to the point that the air inside the office was trembling unstably.
Perhaps the reason why the person, who depended on his pride as one of the 5 Transcendents to live his life, didn’t strike the young junior on the neck; the reason he was able to restrain his killing intent might have been due to his instinct.
Unconsciously, Christoph might have realised that it was better for him to not get involved with the young guy in front.
In any case, that was the end of their conversation.
The next day, a report given by ‘One’ caused the entire command centre to be flipped upside down. It was about the high likelihood of the appearance of an SS+ dungeon in the south of Amazon.
In fact, an SS+ dungeon alone wasn’t enough to flip the Association upside down and have them stand on their toes, but the location was also a big reason for their agitation.
Provisional troops were formed for further investigation.
“Should we head off to the Central Command Centre?”
That day, Yu Jitae, Clone 1 and Kang Ahjin were all busy since they had to gather people from numerous troops. However, there weren’t that many troops that were willing to lend a hand. They merely returned statements like:
“Not sure. We will think about it though.”
“We have set schedules till next year you see.”
“It is troubling.”
Yu Jitae could force them if he wanted to, and there would be troops that would change their minds if he were to frighten them a little, but he didn’t do so.
“The reception wasn’t good on my side either… Sorry sir.”
Kang Ahjin lowered her head with a dejected expression but Yu Jitae cursorily shook his hand in response.
Antonio Jefferson was the one who was able to gather the most number of troops thanks to his authority as a member of the Central Command Centre. That night, a person who was assigned to be the temporary advisor of the provisional ‘South Amazon Guardian Forces’ came looking for them.
“By the way, I’m sure you know already but… The report this time was way too sudden,” said the advisor.
He continued with a hint of worry in his voice.
“If it all goes wrong, someone will have to take responsibility for moving the Association’s forces. The more so since the troops were gathered because of circumstantial evidence. If Mister Jefferson wasn’t so strong with his assertion, these forces wouldn’t have been formed in the first place.”
“Please do not worry about it. I will take all responsibility,” replied Clone 1.
“Hmm… That’s good. But even then, it might be difficult to get the amount of troops that you were after.”
“That did appear to be the case. Is there a reason?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Your years of service are unreasonably short so who would be willing to trust you and participate for the fight?”
“Is that the standpoint of the 5th Command Room?”
“What? Oii–! Look, that kind of attitude is not good. I’ll turn a blind eye to it ‘cuz I’m not a rigid person myself but what you said just then was enough to earn you some trouble. There are lots of ears listening inside the Association. Don’t say that somewhere else.”
“Let me apologise. However, we do not need an excessive addition of military forces if it is difficult.”
The advisor gave a nod before asking.
“Even though it’s an SS+ dungeon?”
“Yes. As much as you can afford will be enough.”
“Well, even if the dungeon really does appear like you said, I guess it wouldn’t be a problem even if the number of superhumans aren’t enough to suppress it. Superhumans should be able to escape with their lives with relative ease and if it does appear, the Association will voluntarily add more soldiers. We must protect the lungs of the planet and that’s the responsibility of the Association after all. But by the way…”
The middle-aged man tilted his head and stared at them, before asking with intrigue.
“By the way, you and your two mates are really strange.”
“What do you mean.”
“Aren’t you curious about the rewards you will get for taking responsibility?”
“Because we don’t need it.”
“Hoho. You don’t need rewards huh… Are you guys meant to be some sort of saviours or something?”
“If we were looking for materials or honour, do you think we would have lived in a corner after the end of the war? We won’t turn down whatever is given, but we won’t necessarily ask for anything either.”
The words of Clone 1 caused the advisor’s eyes to open wide.
In fact, rewards didn’t really matter because Yu Jitae could access both materials and honour whenever, as long as he wanted to. Clone 1 was simply acting his part of the scenario but the advisor seemed to have become fond of that attitude.
“Interesting. Even though it’s true that you were living a secluded life after the war, how can someone have no greed whatsoever… How would people like that even have any aspirations to become stronger in the first place?”
He was asking in a roundabout manner about what his aspirations were.
“It will be fine as long as people don’t die.”
Clone 1 replied, meaning that it will be fine as long as they could stop the regressions.
“Hmm. You really do speak like a ‘hero’…”
Misunderstanding his statement, the advisor was in awe.
However, regardless of one commander having positive thoughts about them as an individual, the Association continued being in doubt of their claim.
Another day passed, leaving just 5 days until the event. While the troops were still in the middle of being formed, Jefferson came looking for Yu Jitae after finishing his work as a secretary.
“How many soldiers?”
“We’re still looking for them. The 10th Special Airforce. Lamia Anti-monster Unit. ‘DAN’ SS Sniper Squad. The 3rd Corps of the Central Command Centre… Adding them all up, we somehow managed to gather up 120 people in total.”
“120 for an SS+ dungeon huh. They’re really reluctant to use people, I see.”
“Even this was extremely difficult.”
“How about rankers.”
“Rank 37, 66, 91 and 181. Apart from them, Ohn Sung-o is participating as an individual. All of them excluding Sung-o were all discontent but they were all affiliated to the Command Centre, so I was somehow able to force them in.”
After saying that, Jefferson asked Kang Ahjin, who was sitting next to Yu Jitae.
“Anything from the 5th Command Room?”
“Ah, no. I’m very sorry. I tried proposing it several times but it was ignored every single time.”
“Knng.”
Jefferson rolled his eyes before facing Kang Ahjin with a slight frown.
“You. Step outside for a bit.”
Kang Ahjin widened her eyes but nodded regardless.
“Yes sir.”
After she left the office, Jefferson opened his mouth with a slightly rigid look on his face.
“Season.”
“Speak.”
“I would like to talk a bit about the future.”
“What do you want to know.”
“For now, to be honest, it doesn’t really hit home even for me that an SS+ dungeon is about to appear.”
“And.”
“But if it does appear, what are you planning to do afterwards? The future you predicted was the consecutive appearances of three SSS+ fissures. Considering the interruptive and reciprocal nature of fissures, they won’t be opening in the same place. If those were to pop up all across the globe…”
In the middle of his speech, Jefferson gave a frown. Yu Jitae looked at the door Kang Ahjin left from, before turning back towards Jefferson.
“The Association won’t be able to stop it without any damage either.” Jefferson continued.
“Right.”
The ‘Great Hostility’ was as great as the congregation of the power of three adult dragons, and the army led by that Great Hostility will be three times the size of the previous Eastern-Asian Great War.
“If all your words are true, the SSS+ dungeons will be all over the globe because of the dimensional interruptions, and it would be necessary to gather all of them into one place to minimise the damage.”
Jefferson was exactly on point.
“But who could do such a thing? Considering how those are SSS+ dungeons and not random fissures?”
His sighs were therefore justified. But that was because he didn’t know that the witch, ‘Valentine’ was able to change even the coordinates of SSS+ dungeons.
“There is a way. And the plan has already begun for that side of things.” Yu Jitae said.
“What is it? What’s the amazing plan?”
“We can bring the witch.”
“Sorry? By witch… don’t tell me you mean Valentine, that senile old fox?”
He was calling the owner of the past generation’s Association an old fox, but there were reasons for that title.
“Yeah.”
“Then what is it. Can that friend called ‘One’ really find the location of the witch?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my… But even if you do find her, the next step would be the problem. The witch… Valentine is one scary woman.”
“It’s fine. There won’t be a single problem.”
It was right when Yu Jitae finished saying that.
‘Uuhh? Uaangg?! Uuuuuhhkk…!’
A scream was delivered to Yu Jitae’s brain. It was the scream of the young and immature Clone 2.
“…”
It seemed that there was a problem.
***
3 minutes ago, Clone 2 was shedding beads of cold sweat.
“What’s wrong, boy.”
Smelling the deep scent of her skin that travelled through several metres caused his brain to turn white.
Where was I up to?
Clone 2 slowly retraced his memories.
Firstly, he mentioned that he needed her help. A large war was about to break out, and it would be great if you could distort the dimensional coordinates to change the locations of the fissures – that was what he had said.
After that?
That queen-like woman laughed.
‘It has been 10 years since I was disqualified as a sovereign. Now I am but a powerless and feeble lady, and yet you are making a harsh request of me.’
She complained saying it was too hard.
‘Are you telling me, to put my life on the line for you?’
She was saying it was a difficult task that required her to put her life on the line.
However, her words were a bit weird. In Yu Jitae’s memories of other iterations, she had distorted the dimensional coordinates with ease. Even though the witch was no longer a sovereign, she still had her strength as one of the powerhouses worldwide. The position of a previous Rank 1 wasn’t for nothing.
“Uhuhu…”
And that smile –
That smile was also weird.
She had never given such a smile when facing Yu Jitae…
What is the difference between me and my lord?
Why didn’t she smile in other iterations, and why is she smiling at me now?
After deep thought, Clone 2 discovered two differences. Himself, who was created based on the 2nd iteration’s Yu Jitae, didn’t have the oppressive aura like his lord.
And the other was…
“I’ve heard enough. ‘Boy’.”
He was as young as a 15 year old Yu Jitae.
“But how strange.”
“What do you mean strange?”
“A negotiation must come with a reasonable price for both sides. One must give money to buy bread. What is your thought on this?”
“Yes? Ah, yes. Of course.”
The witch’s lips curled up while her eyes relaxedly glanced across Clone 2’s body. For some reason, her gaze sent goosebumps down his body.
“And what you are asking for is my life. Right?”
“Life? Uhh, not reall…”
“If–”
The witch stopped his mummer.
“…If you wish for my life, what can you give me instead for the appropriate price?”
“Uh, uhh… That’s…”
“You don’t know?”
“…”
“It’s fine. That’s okay. Because you are still young.”
“Yes…?”
“You can start learning what you don’t know.”
Her long white fingers reached forth and pointed at Clone 2. ‘Uhu. Huhuhu…’ She giggled looking at Clone 2, as if she found him cute.
Then, she curved her fingers several times, before pointing at the empty large blooming flower next to her.
“Come here.”
“Yes?”
“Come here. This noona will now teach you what you don’t know.”
Clone 2 felt his heart come crashing down.
No.
He must not go.
The thought that a big problem might occur flooded his heart like an ocean wave.
Meanwhile, the slow and gentle whisper continued.
“What are you doing? Boy.”
Clone 2’s face reddened.
“Hurry…”