Chapter 403 (1/2)
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Kim Su-hyeun was fighting right now; this news rapidly spread around all over the world. The person who spread the news was, of course, Lee Ju-ho.
Someone famous once said the immortal line, about how social media was a waste of one’s life, yet the current situation was the exact opposite of that.
“A hero is born.”
That single line that appeared on various social media sites gave the world renewed hope.
The term “hero” in the current despair-inducing situation proved to be truly enticing and sweet to mention.
Lee Ju-ho continued to stare at the post he made a few hours ago. His post that started off with some rather stimulating words would go on to explain in detail the currently unfolding situation.
“A hero. A hero, huh?”
That was a nice-sounding term, indeed. Anyone would’ve dreamed of becoming one when they were young, at least once. Being a hero was an ideal like that, after all.
“But it’d be nice if he wasn’t the West-influenced type of hero who likes to go lone wolf all the time.”
Lee Ju-ho was currently the only one remaining behind in Seoul’s World Cup Stadium. Unlike Hak-joon or Thomas, who urgently got on a plane to go where Su-hyeun was, he was too far from being the hero seen in those blockbusters.
Even if he went there, it would be a miracle if he didn’t end up as a hindrance instead.
All he could do for now was to urgently post on social media sites and spread Su-hyeun’s name everywhere and, in the process, instill this seed of hope in everyone’s heart.
Wasn’t it funny and also pathetic at the same time?
“I might get smacked by him later, though.”
Su-hyeun didn’t like the term “hero.” No, wait—to be clear, it wasn’t as if he hated that word with passion. To him, the word came with a heavy burden, responsibilities, and a sense of dejection.
Indeed, the term hero was the symbolic word that made him recall some unpleasant memories. Even then, the world desperately needed a hero right now.
“Well, I guess it’s fine to get a smack later,” Lee Ju-ho muttered with a long groan.
He then tossed the smartphone aside and plopped down on the ground. He supported his head with both of his hands and leaned halfway back to watch the clouds above floating silently by.
The sky was pristine and clear, which didn’t really fit the current situation. When looking at such a sky and not his surroundings that were filled with corpses of monsters, he couldn’t help but get the feeling that today was no different than any other normal days.
“Huh. That sight feels way too peaceful, doesn’t—? What?!” Lee Ju-ho thinking that to himself shot back up to his feet. He stared dazedly at the sky above with his eyes opening up wider than ever before. “The sky?” he muttered only that and then let his mouth hang open.
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Hak-joon, Thomas, and Gordon Rohan…
And the awakeners Daian Gedeck, Ashlyn, Bak Yun-gyu, and Mirage Rowoon…
Besides them, countless other S-Rank awakeners continued to gather in one location—Everest.
This place had become the center of planet Earth.
The first person to arrive was Gordon Rohan since he possessed the ability to fly, which allowed him to travel faster than planes. With his “Archangel” trait, the flight speed he could achieve with his wings didn’t fall all that far behind Miru’s speed.
That’s how he arrived at Mount Everest, and he was rewarded with a truly unbelievable spectacle despite witnessing it with his own eyes.
“Are they his summoned creatures?”
If this was any other time, he would have assumed that monsters were busy fighting one another. However, the red dragon that was spewing out Breath from high up in the air was a creature famous for being Su-hyeun’s trademark summon.
And one of the abilities Su-hyeun was well-known for was the Necromancer trait that exceeded Daian Gedeck’s ability, although Gedeck used to be known as the world’s best Necromancer.
“Well, at this rate, I don’t have anything to help with, it seems.” Although he said that, Gordon Rohan didn’t stop moving and set out to search for Su-hyeun.
Su-hyeun was sitting in a lotus position with his eyes deeply closed and focusing solely on his breathing technique.
He was fully immersed in his breathing technique to recover his magical energy, but to Gordon Rohan who didn’t know that, he looked like slacking off right now.
“What is he even doing?”
Kkha-aaaahk—!
It was right at that moment that a flight-capable monster broke through the cordon of the summons and flew directly toward Su-hyeun. This creature was as large as an adult tiger, while its wings were hard and sharp like forged steel blades.
Gordon Rohan materialized a pure-white spear in his hand and immediately threw it.
Stab—!
With its head impaled, the monster crashed to the ground.
It was also at that moment that Su-hyeun opened his eyes. “You’re late,” he greeted.
“Well, I had no idea that you’d do something this ridiculous.”
To think that he would cast Provocation against every monster that appeared throughout the world…
Thinking up of such a plan and then bringing it into reality were completely insane things to pull off. On one hand, Gordon Rohan was suitably impressed. That didn’t mean he could still believe it, though.
“Hey, you. Just what have you become?”
He was most curious about this point.
“In the past, you were like a tall mountain—a difficult mountain to overcome but still possible to overcome. But now, it’s like you’ve become the sky.”
Gordon Rohan said some things like that after running into Su-hyeun in what felt like not seeing each other for a very long time.
Back then, that feeling remained vague. That feeling was similar to looking at a place so high up that it almost seemed impossible to reach, which also made him feel that he had lost even without fighting first. In turn, he was not happy about feeling that way at all.
But now that he had witnessed this spectacle, that earlier unhappiness he felt instantly dissipated.
Here was the proof that Su-hyeun had become an existence far outside of Gordon Rohan’s common sense.
“Does it matter whatever it is? As long as we can win, I’m prepared to become anything.”
“That makes sense.” Gordon Rohan nodded and then scanned the horde of monsters by the foot of Everest. “Thanks to you, everyone is still alive.”
“I didn’t know you were capable of saying stuff like that.”
“Well, it’s true that I’m grateful, after all. Ah, looks like the others have finally arrived.”
Either the timing was perfect or he just wanted to change the topic, but Gordon Rohan turned his head in the direction of a private plane that was flying in toward them.
Two figures could be seen leaping out from the moving plane before it even had the chance to land. They were none other than Hak-joon and Thomas.
“Bro—!”
“Su-hyeuuuun—!”
The two men made their entrance with loud cries, and Su-hyeun couldn’t help but chuckle at that. What a relief it was that they didn’t take too long to get here. With their help, enduring should become so much easier from now on.
Gordon Rohan continued to mutter, “And it seems that all the ones who should come have come.’
They weren’t the only ones to arrive, either.
Except for Lee Ju-ho who was basically a noncombatant at this point, all the members of the Paragon Guild, as well as S-Rank awakeners from various countries around the world, had shown up here.
Other than the Ranking Wars, S-Ranks had never had an opportunity to come together in such a large number before. It seemed that all the stars had gathered in one spot.
“Well, then…”
Rays of light that were shooting out from Gordon Rohan’s two wings began engraving the skies above.
Chwa-rararara…
All those light rays soon morphed into thousands, no, tens of thousands of spear shafts. Gordon Rohan spread his wings wide open and flew up to grab a humongous light spear.
[Divine Punishment]
“Let’s mop everything up here.”
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Dozens of awakeners…
Specifically, dozens of S-Rank awakeners had gathered in one location to fight against the horde of monsters nonstop.
Each and every one of Gordon Rohan’s light spears was basically the same as bombs that could destroy a wide area. He poured out thousands of such spears and utterly massacred monsters down below.
It was the same story for both Thomas and Hak-joon. Honestly speaking, Thomas was doing a lot more than Gordon Rohan when it came to using his wide-area skill.
Unfortunately, though, it didn’t really matter how many S-Rank awakeners were present today, as the number of monsters always far surpassed them.
There were hundreds of thousands—no, make those millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of monsters!