Chapter 80: Turns Out To Be a Genius Duelist Chapter 80
Chapter 80 Savior (2)
âFascinating.â
Should he say it rang in his mind? His lips didnât even move, but he could hear his voice. If he didnât bow or make eye contact, he wouldnât know who said it.
âLetâs go.â
âYes, I will lead the way.â
When Yoon-seok left with the man who had been talking to him, the scouts around him clicked their tongues.
âWhat, heâd already been scouted?â
âWhy did he choose Earth if he is a duelist?â
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 heâd 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.
âLet me introduce myself. My name is Ashton Jackson. Iâm with the U.S. Challenger Management Department.â
âHello, Iâm Choi Yoon-seok.â
âWould you like to sit down for now?â
As Yoon-seok sat down, Ashton moved to sit opposite of him. There was no tea served or anything.
âYou know what? You are the first person to not react to my telepathy.â
He knew the man was trying to change the mood by complimenting Yoon-seok. Yet, sadly, Yoon-seok didnât show any interest.
âWho were the people at plaza earlier?â
Did he get a grasp of Yoon-seokâs personality with just one sentence? Ashton immediately changed tracks and complied.
âThey are the clanâs scouts.â
As expected, his guess was right. But the underlying question hadnât been answered.
âClan?â
âTo put it simply, itâs the challengersâ authority.â
âDo you really need authority in the tower?â
âThe more challengers, the better it is if you want to protect your homeland from invaders.â
âBut there were a lot of scouts out there.â
âIt isnât possible to only have four clans just because there are four dimensions. Arenât our authorities divided by country?â
âI see.â
Then, he didnât have to ask whether the Clans all had the same mission to stop the invaders. Yoon-seok knew how the world worked.
âIâve heard earlier that everyone knows Iâm a duelist, and they were surprised that I chose Earth. Why is that?â
âThe plaza where you appeared earlier is where duelists arrive in the Union Plaza. AndâŚâ
Ashton continued in a self-mocking voice.
âEarthâs authority is the weakest among the four dimensions. In other words, itâs the most likely to be invaded.â
Ashton pointed out that the first reason why Earthâs power was so low was because they had no duelists.
âDo you know how many duel challengers are on the 10th or upper floors? Less than 1,000. And those from EarthâŚas far as I know, there is no one but Choi Yoon-seok.â
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 stillâŚ
âIâm the only one.âŚ?â
That was unexpected.
âYes, not that they died or anything, but you are the first. Thatâs why the scouts think you come from a dimension other than Earth. So they were surprised when you followed me.â
Was it that depressing to work here as a scout? He thanked Yoon-seok with sincerity.
âI 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.â
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 heâd expected?
âWaitâŚwhatâs the date today?â
âMarch 9th, in Korea.â
March 9th. In other words, sixteen days have passed since his last trip to Earth. Considering that the waiting room and Earthâs time run at 1:1, the timeline was vast.
âTime must have passed while I was on a mission.â
He spent a total of 45 days on the mission. If time went by in a 3:1 ratio, the date was about right , like in the adventure trials.
âIs there a problem?â
âNo, not at all. Can I hear what you wanted to say to me earlier?â
Ashton briefly regained his breath and continued.
âTo ask you to keep your promise.â
Yoon-seok asked the U.S. challenger group for three favors: guard his parents in secret, reveal information about the Tower to the public, donât let his name be exposed after the incident. For that, he decided to do a practical favor for them.
âIt was ridiculous thinking about it now.â
In the end, it looked like a deal, butâŚ
In fact, it was safe to say that it was more of a threat since he said he would come for them if they didnât do it. At that time, Yoon-seok had no choice. He couldnât return to the Tower if he just left his parents in Korea. So, Yoon-seok decided to grant their requests unless they were extreme.
Of course, there was something he had to say before that.
âCan I confirm that my request has been fulfilled?
âOf course.â
There was no reason not to believe his words. Ashton couldnât lie through the Eyes of the Executor unless his magic was as high as Yoon-seokâs. As he nodded, Ashton summarized the situation.
âYour parents are safe, and the Towerâs existence was also revealed to the public. But we were only halfway successful in stopping your name from spreading.â
âHalf?â
Yoon-seok asked as if he had no idea.
âYes, the general public doesnât know, butâŚthe governments know about you. I want you to take into consideration that this was inevitable because it was too much of a task.â
The Earth challenger heâd met 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. didnât intend to keep its promise at allâŚ
Now that he heard it, it seemed unlikely.
âI see.â
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âThank you for your understanding.â
âSo what favor is it that you wanted to ask for?â
Ashton briefly paused.
âI want you to kill a challenger.â
Before the detailed explanation, Ashton first told Yoon-seok about his sixteen-day trip back to the Tower in chronological order.
âAfter discussing with the Korean government, the incident was reported as a fire at the hospital.â
However, it didnât end with a simple fire, as many of those whose names 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 timeline.
âItâs because of the challenger Iâve asked you to kill earlier.â
A challenger, believed to be from Kilian, arrived on Earth. The number of floors they had reached wasnât confirmed, but he was a duelist. He destroyed people, animals, and landmarks at random.
â300,000 people died in the UK alone on that day.â
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-seokâs conditions. Criticism and protests against the government had flooded every country, but they werenât bothered as long as they had nothing to hide.
Challengers from all over the world joined forces to stop the slaughterer.
âHe covered his tracks, however.â
It wouldâve been a blessing if he had gone back to the Tower altogetherâŚ
But a week ago, as of today, the whereabouts of the challenger were identified through satellite imaging. He was working on something on an island in the Pacific Ocean.
âI donât know how, but thereâs a huge crack open that Iâve never seen anywhere before.â
Cracks, tears in space, were the phenomenon 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.
âThe invaders from the great cracks in the Pacific Ocean were not the same as we normally saw.â
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 couldnât stop even the challenger who created the rift, let alone the invaders. It wasnât something he couldnât understand.
Fahur, who was a duel challenger on the sixth floor at the time, was said to be one of the most powerful men 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.
âIn the meantime, word came up about you. Fahur said it during the meeting.â
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.
ââŚâ
Yoon-seok closed his mouth while listening to Ashtonâs story.
âYou must feel pressured. But if we leave it as it is, the world will end. In that case, your familyâŚ.â
âStop.â
At Yoon-seokâs words, Ashton grew quiet.
âDonât worry. I donât mean to run away.â
He didnât know what the challengerâs intentions were, but a strange bastard came to Earth and ensued chaos while he was not here. Even if it wasnât 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.
ăReturn Ticket (Rank E) has been used.ă
ăReturning to Earth.ă
One day might not be enough, so he bought a weekâs 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.
ââŚâ
It was daytime, but no one was around.
âAvatar.â
When he activated Avatar and spread his wings, his clothes ripped. He was no longer wearing the equipment of the Tower that transformed according to its userâs body.
âIt wouldâve been nice if we could take equipment with usâŚâ
Yoon-seok smacked his lips in disappointment. He once thought that reaching the tenth floor might let him find a way, but according to Ashton, Shin Sang-hyunâs equipment 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 seemed to continue their lives as normalâŚ
But as evidence of their anxiety, convenience stores, and supermarkets were closed. When he looked closely, the shelves were empty, and as if some stores were sacked, the glass windows were shattered.