“I understand the chairman’s will. Instead, I have a requirement.”
“What is it?”
This was a chance for him to show off a connection with a chaebol family. It might be a precious opportunity for someone else, but there were no merits for Youngwoo. The condition he gave was completely unexpected.
“I heard that big companies and famous people are fostering rankers at a business or family level. Is it the same for Daejin?”
The word ranker naturally meant a Satisfy ranker. The president of Daejin Motors looked around uneasily before responding in a low voice, “Of course, we have also made some developments.”
Chairman Lee Jinmyung didn’t appreciate his granddaughter’s enthusiasm for Satisfy, but it was because he had always regarded Yura as his successor. Lee Jinmyung recognized the importance of Satisfy according to the trend of the times and secretly sponsored and fostered rankers at the corporate level. Once they were fully grown and participating in big events, Daejin’s reputation would rise naturally. Well, now, Yura’s name was sufficient.
“Have Daejin step up and encourage the rankers of the Korean companies and family members to join the Overgeared Guild.”
“...” The president of Daejin Motors made a distorted expression. The thought of Youngwoo eating up all the power that the companies had invested in was absurd and somewhat unpleasant. He felt that he was being treated as a pushover.
Youngwoo shook his hand. “I don’t mean to have them permanently join the Overgeared Guild. That isn’t possible. I just want to receive support from them in the form of temporary mercenaries. It will be good for both sides. We will provide at least unique-grade items made by the best blacksmiths of the Overgeared Kingdom as well as top-quality hunting grounds.”
“I guess it is the hunting grounds on the border of Reidan which are much talked about these days.”
“Yes, your level will rise quickly if you hunt imperial soldiers.”
The war of attrition with the empire was gnawing at the power of the Overgeared Kingdom. Since the empire had an army that was hundreds of times larger than the Overgeared Kingdom’s, the constant loss of soldiers would only damage the Overgeared Kingdom.
“Is your ultimate goal to fill the Overgeared army with players instead of NPCs?”
The president of Daejin Motors had little experience playing Satisfy. However, he was the president of a large company and was able to easily grasp the situation. Youngwoo nodded while secretly admiring the president. “You saw it correctly.”
“Umm... Yes, I understand. I’ll tell the chairman. Even so, I don’t know if the other companies will move easily. Obviously, they will demand a lot.”
“I will coordinate it well. All you have to do is pass on my message to them.”
Youngwoo anticipated what the companies wanted. It was for Grid or the Overgeared members to be models for their companies, to receive items produced from the Overgeared Kingdom, or have corporate publicity signage in the Overgeared Kingdom. Youngwoo was willing to accept them all.
‘In any case, I need a lot of money.’
He could sleep less. If he divided his time well, he could promote the companies. There were many blacksmiths, so he could produce as many items as they wanted.
‘I will draw on the resources and assets of the companies while the companies will borrow my knowledge and skills.’
The deal was likely to be fully realized. The companies’ evaluation of the Overgeared Kingdom was very high. However, tying himself up to a large number of companies from the outset would cut his value, so he only used domestic companies.
‘A funny picture will come out.’
The rankers were easy to control because they belonged to a company or a family. He would gather hundreds of thousands of them in Reidan to consume the imperial troops. Of course, this was Lauel’s big picture.
***
In Satisfy, darkness was the symbol of evil, and evil was the great demons. This formula was applied to the elementals. It was a natural outcome for the light elemental king to favor Yura, who had hunted the most number of demons among the players.
[Light Elemental King Contractor]
[You can use the highest ranked light elemental.
Current level of the highest-grade light elemental: 1
-Available Elemental Techniques-
* The energy of the elemental king is infinite. The use of the elemental doesn’t consume the resources of the contractor.]
[Sword of Light]
[Makes the elemental into a sword of light.
The Sword of Light follows the contractor...]
[Flash]
[The light elemental will ‘instantaneously’ move to the target pointed out by the contractor.
If the target is strong, it will shine intensely...]
[Elemental King Summoning Lv. 1]
[Summons an elemental king to the present age through the light elemental.
The ability of the light elemental king is affected by the ability of the contractor.
The low skill level limits the abilities of the light elemental king.
Summoning Duration Time: 10 minutes.
Cooldown Time: 30 hours.]
“...”
Yura hadn’t been expecting much after she was forced to postpone her visit to the World Tree due to hunting in hell. Most of her colleagues had contracted with lower to intermediate elementals, and she thought she would be the same. Yet it ended up being an elemental king.
She once again owed a great debt to Grid. Her current self wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t met him in the temple in the past. She would still be one of Yatan’s Servants, struggling against the Rebecca Church and Overgeared Kingdom. Yura would have regreted it every day.
“I’ll become someone you can count on.”
Step.
Today, Yura didn’t open the gate to hell. The place she came to was the city of Reidan surrounded by the desert.
“Yura?”
On the walls, the faces of the Overgeared members—who were tired from the inexhaustible imperial army—brightened. Yura had been focused on hell hunting since the beginning of the 4th National Competition until the present. Consequently, they hadn’t expected her to join the war so soon. The gold medalist in Drawing the Saint Sword and silver medalist in PvP—she was a strong representative of the Overgeared Guild. She was a power that could do the work of ~4–5 of the top Overgeared members alone. The Overgeared members were reassured that she would be with them in the future.
After a while...
“Hell Leap.”
The Overgeared members witnessed Yura’s development and realized how much they had underestimated her. She jumped into space itself and moved to hell, leaving the gate that connected hell to the present world. Demons popped out of the gate and into the middle of the battlefield.
“Eh?”
There was the sudden appearance of the red dimensional door and the demons pouring from it. The imperial soldiers were stunned by the unrealistic sight and forgot to even scream as they became food for the demons.
“You can summon demons?” Chris asked with a surprised expression. A demon hunter could summon demons...? It was a bizarre contradiction.
Yura shook her head. “I simply opened a passage.”
Hell Leap—it was a skill that temporarily transferred her body to hell. The user didn’t know where they would appear in hell, and the temporary transmission only lasted for one second. Yura took one second to identify the place she appeared, recognized the presence of a sufficient number of demons in the vicinity and opened the gate while escaping from hell. She applied the escape technique as a summoning technique. For the imperial soldiers, it was literally a hell gate.
“Aaaack!”
“Hiik! S-Spare me...!”
The duration of the gate was one minute. It was plenty of time. Demons with the instinct of eating humans utilized the gate actively. They flew forward with full power.
“W-Wow...”
Thousands of demons popped out and massacred the imperial soldiers, causing the Overgeared members to feel overwhelmed. They worried that they would be next after the imperial army was destroyed. However, they had Yura. As the imperial soldiers were chewed up, the demons who turned their attention to the Overgeared members in a hungry manner were pierced by Yura’s bullets.
***
“There haven’t been too many prey these days.”
“The Vatican is closed, so it is natural to have no guests.”
At a mountain village near the Vatican, there was a unique village with large and small Rebecca statues in many places. Originally it was filled with tourists wanting to visit the Vatican, but it had been dusty of late. The Vatican was temporarily closed as the war between the Rebecca Church and Yatan Church intensified. As such, the Vatican wasn’t accepting outsiders, so no tourists were visiting the village.
“Hrmm.”
Thanks to this, Shay was bored. The assassins—Shay, Kerb, and Sniffer—were a vicious PK group that worked with Dong Pao—a Rebecca priest—in luring tourists to certain areas and stealing their money. However, they were also the benefactors who informed Grid about Marie Rose’s presence and gave him Kasim. Of course, they hadn’t meant to be benefactors.
“I want to release some stress, but it isn’t working.”
“I should pick up an assassination request today.”
“I have done more than 100 commissions this month. I don’t like it anymore. It is annoying. I need some healing.”
“Eh? Hey.”
The trio sitting on the terrace of the restaurant turned their gaze toward the person at the entrance of the village. Just by looking, it was obvious that the person had a lot of money. It was a man wearing unusual sunglasses. They didn’t see his face and ID because he was wearing a helmet. but based on the overall armed status, his level was in the low 200s.
“Doesn’t he look like a character made by a man with some money?”
“Yes. All the level 200 items are enhanced.”
“He might be a gold spoon.”
The items scattered a subtle glow. This was proper prey. Shay’s group exchanged sly smiles with each other and got up. The three people came down from the terrace and were engaged in daily conversation as they passed by the unidentified man. Yes, they passed by the prey they had been waiting for.
‘X! Leave quickly!’
The trio hastened their pace. They had an iron rule. This cardinal rule was that they didn’t mix with a person who hid their face and ID. Why? In the past, they had a bad experience with Grid who concealed his identity. They didn’t want to go through that terrible experience twice. Since then, Shay’s group excluded unknown targets from their PK list. It was a type of phobia.
“Oh, it would be good if we could hunt pushovers like in the old days.”
“It was almost a windfall to meet those kids. Still, what can we do when it is a one in a million case?”
They couldn’t be discouraged. The reason why Shay’s party could PK in one area for a long time was because they were cautious. In particular, the most important thing was their affinity with the villagers. The villagers didn’t doubt Shay’s party, who were friendly and kind, and never thought they were bandits. Sometimes, paladins from the Rebecca Church would come down to the village and ask about the bandits, but they never cared about Shay’s party. This was the importance of image management.
“It is impossible today. Perhaps we should go to the guild and ask...?”
The trio left the village only to freeze like a stone statue. They noticed that the unidentified man was following closely behind them. The man took off the helmet and black hair flowed down. The revealed name was...
“G-Grid!”
Shay’s party was full of hatred. They even wanted to kill Grid.
“This is great. Have you been doing this in the same place for many years?”
“T-That, sometimes... Sometimes just...”
“T-That’s right! These days, we mostly work in other places. We sometimes come here for healing!”
“I-It is like a heart that misses home... Hahaha...”
Shay was a single digit ranker on the assassin’s ranking. During recent times, he had fallen to the top 20, but he still had excellent skills. In particular, he had a lot of experience with PK and excelled in PK skills. Even so, he was modest in front of Grid. He had been beaten by Grid several times and was afraid of him. Grid suggested to them,“Go to Reidan. In that place, you can cheat, kill, and steal from the empire’s players. Won’t it be more fun to play on a bigger stage than in a village like this?”
“...You want to use us as a tool of war?”
“D-Do you think we will cooperate with you?”
“Yes, if you don’t want to die. You will be killed by me and then have a kill order placed on you.”
“...Shall we leave right now?”
“Assassination is our specialty. Isn’t that why you came to us? We’ll definitely be a great help to you.”
“Yes, I’m looking forward to it. You will be rewarded if you play an active role.”
Grid had to mobilize as many contacts as possible in order to deal with the empire. Thus, Grid was wandering in search of connections, but they were mostly evil ones. He was fortunate that he was stronger than those he had a bad relationship with.
“Next is Bubat... Hmm...”
After confirming the appearance of Shay’s party, Grid was ready to use the return scroll, only to stop. Now that he was here, he became curious about ‘that’ place. Grid failed to recall the old location and had to ask Shay, “That dungeon, where was it?”
“Dungeon? Ah, the one with the vampire duke sealed? It is a forbidden area, so it isn’t stored on the map.”
It was a space where magic and skills were blocked because of a powerful evil influence. That was the space where Shay’s party used to hunt the players.
“It is approximately three kilometers northeast of here... Hey, forget it. Just follow me.”
It was complicated to explain in words. Instead, Shay just moved forward, and Grid followed behind him. Shay was making a smug smile.He was timid, but he wanted payback.
‘No matter how great Grid is, he can’t catch up with my speed when I’m a master of swiftness.’
Grid would try to chase Shay and be humiliated. Shay imagined Grid’s expression and hummed. Then he used a skill that increased his movement speed to the peak. However...
“...”
Grid maintained the appropriate distance behind Shay without much difficulty. He was very agile and hd recently created a set of items that sped up his movements. Shay started crying.‘Filthy bastard. Really filthy bastard. Eating everything alone.’
He would quickly finish this side of the world and cut off all connections with Grid forever. He would leave for the other side of the continent, so he wouldn’t get involved with Grid again.
‘No, let’s go to the East Continent,’ Shay vowed repeatedly.