Chapter 373 (1/2)

* * *

“Please send the commission related to the request to Mister Lee Ju-ho. By the way, the dissolution of the Hungry Guild was a service from me, so don’t worry about that.”

After suppressing the acts of terror in Argentina, Su-hyeun learned the whereabouts of the Hungry Guild’s headquarters from Ginovali and attacked it right away.

The Hungry Guild was created around the former S-ranked awakener from Brazil, Jake Ricardo. Right after Ricardo acquired his S-rank, he used his fame to quickly form a terrorist organization.

This guy was one of the most prolific criminals who evaded capture for the past five years. Not only was it difficult to determine where he was but Jake Ricardo was also an S-rank awakener, so even if his location had been found, no one could catch him if he decided to make his escape.

Tracking him had been even more challenging when he mastered the mobile warfare-type skill that enhanced agility, so average S-rank awakeners couldn’t chase him down even if they wanted to.

That’s why the Argentinian awakener authority couldn’t help but get flustered when Su-hyeun dragged the unconscious Jake Ricardo into their building out of the blue.

“T—this man is really Ricardo?!”

No one there had imagined in their wildest dreams that the most-wanted criminal that had been giving Argentina such a headache for the past few years would get apprehended this easily.

Su-hyeun replied, “Confirm his identity, please. Although, he should be the right guy. I’m not sure what he looks like exactly, but an awakener of this man’s capability shouldn’t be that common, to begin with.”

“But, sir, how did you even capture him?”

“I got the location of the Hungry Guild’s headquarters from one of their executives, and when I got there, he started running away the moment he saw my face, so I gave chase and caught him.”

“Excuse me?”

Galeno made a puzzled face at Su-hyeun’s simple explanation. He was an A-rank awakener affiliated with the Argentinian authority who held a pretty high position within the organization. As such, he had quite a lot of information on Jake Ricardo—the one and only Jake Ricardo.

This awakener possessed a skill similar to instant teleportation. As far as mobility was concerned, no one could hope to even catch up to him, so much so that one could say his ability to escape was truly unparalleled in this world.

The halo effect of the S-rank, as well as his “perfect” ability to escape, served as the perfect shield that protected Jake Ricardo despite him perpetrating acts of terror for the past several years.

But then…

“He captured THAT Ricardo in less than one day?!” Galeno thought as he continued to stare at Ricardo with a befuddled expression on his face only to finally realize that Su-hyeun, who had been next to him only a second ago, was gone without a trace.

Just when did he disappear? Galeno hadn’t even detected any movement at all, yet in the blink of an eye, only Galeno and the incapacitated Jake Ricardo on the floor remained in the office.

Galeno hurriedly pulled out his phone and brought up the mug shot of Ricardo. He compared that face to the man currently lying on the floor unconscious with the whites of his eyes showing. With that, the confirmation was complete.

“It…really is him.”

* * *

Su-hyeun rode on Miru’s back to fly to Germany.

A voice coming from the marble Su-hyeun wore around his neck continued to stream into his mind.

“They are being unreasonable, you say?”

“To put it simply, they are saying I just put some garnish on an already-finished dish or something,” the voice said. It was Luslec’s.

The marble allowed Su-hyeun to communicate regardless of the distance between different dimensions. As such, it wasn’t hard to converse with Luslec no matter how fast Miru was going.

“Who is saying that, exactly?”

“They are from the German authority, and they think they are real tough guys or something.”

“I’ll listen to the details once I get there,” Su-hyeun spat out a groan and patted Miru’s back. “Looks like you’ll have to speed up even more.”

Grrrr—

Flap—

Miru began flying even faster at Su-hyeun’s prompt.

From Argentina to Germany, the distance between the two countries was quite vast, but it took only about one hour for him to get there, all thanks to Miru’s flight speed.

Su-hyeun immediately sought out the German Awakener Management Department. When he got to the department located in Berlin, he discovered that not only Luslec and Thomas were there but even Lee Ju-ho had arrived as well.

“You’ve come?” Lee Ju-ho asked while handing over a cup of coffee he had bought earlier.

Su-hyeun was feeling thirsty, so he took a healthy gulp of the coffee and asked back, “I asked Miru to fly a bit faster, actually. In any case, what happened?”

“This…acquaintance of yours managed to stop the outbreak, but then, a problem occurred after all’s said and done, and that’s to do with the ownership of the dungeon.”

“What kind of problem?”

“The main actor who stopped the outbreak is Mister Luslec over here, yet the German authorities are arguing that their role had been far greater, you see.”

“Please tell me the rest while we’re on our way.”

Su-hyeun wanted to wrap up this absurd situation as soon as possible for Luslec’s sake, and he didn’t want to waste his own time on this, either.

Su-hyeun, Lee Ju-ho, Luslec, and Thomas stepped inside the department building. Lee Ju-ho walked next to Su-hyeun and explained the situation, “First of all, they said that they will honor the commission for stopping the outbreak in full. Well, it’s undeniable that we did what they asked us to do, after all.”

“I was thinking of flipping a table or something if they were unwilling to even honor that.”

“The problem is separate from the commission itself and more to do with this indigo-colored dungeon’s Ether stone deposits. The deposit found inside this dungeon must be quite enormous.”

“By how much, exactly?”

“It’s apparently the largest among all the indigo-colored dungeons that have appeared so far. I’m guessing it must be around five times the average.”

“Five times…” Su-hyeun became speechless and chuckled hollowly.

To think that the deposit was around five times of not some average dungeon but other indigo-colored dungeons…

Sure enough, there was a good reason for the German authorities to argue their case until their faces turned blue.

Lee Ju-ho continued, “At the current Ether stone market price, five times a regular indigo-colored dungeon would indeed be an enormous amount of money. To be honest, even I’m getting tempted by that amount, even though I don’t really care about wealth.”

“I’m sure that’s the case, especially when the market price for Ether stones has risen up by several times lately.”

The worth of an Ether stone deposit found inside the indigo-colored dungeon a few years ago was still rich enough for countries to drool over it.

The story was already like that, yet the Ether stone price had gone through the roof by several times recently, which meant that the monetary value of Germany’s indigo-colored dungeon boasting five times the deposit of other average indigo-colored dungeons would’ve been dozens of times higher compared to several years ago.

“And that’s why they are ‘asking’ us to yield the indigo dungeon’s ownership?”