Chapter 97 (1/2)

Matap (2)

It was late in the night. After I had a short and unpleasant meeting with Arthur Clifford, the Senator called.

“That was you, wasn’t it?”

It was a question that was direct to the point.

Instead of contacting me immediately on the day that the aurora spread across the sky, he waited several days.

The meaning of that interval was that he obtained some reliable information by using the appropriate information network.

‘It means that he has a string in the Korean government, too.’

I had a big smile.

“That does not belong in auctions.”

The old man’s face was distorted in the hologram.

He replied in a tone to depict that he’s not that kind of a person.

“Couldn’t it just be that I called you because I wanted to use it for fun?”

That meant he didn’t intend to increase the value by controlling the volume and price in front of a large number of buyers like the case of [Vital Flame].

I spoke as I nodded.

“We agree on that, too.”

If even those items were released in that way, they would inevitably be installed preferentially in areas where the urgency was low by residents with high purchasing power or selected on a subjective basis.

Any treasure tended to be involved in politics if it landed in the hands of politicians or capitalism if it landed in the hands of capitalists. There were many cases where both sides overlapped, too.

“I plan to control this item myself from now on.”

I had information in my head about which dungeons will collapse, but I have one body, and I can’t roam around Clearing all those dungeons.

Relying on my past life’s memories, only when an area was considered in danger but required me to buy some time, will I then release them abroad.

“Surely, you wouldn’t tell me how you got it, would you?”

“Even if I do, it would be meaningless right now.”

Even if I taught him how, no Awakened could activate it except for me.

“If you say so, it must be so. I got it.”

The Senator was simply convinced by my words and asked no more questions about where it was from.

However, it seemed that he couldn’t completely let go of his regrets over the other thing.

“If I asked you if you had any plans about moving your base to the U.S. right now…”

“I have no plans at all.”

“Tsk.”

He clicked his tongue as if he was truly disappointed.

“You’re not only going to install it on Korean grounds, are you? It’s your home ground, after all.”

“No, it was just a show-like concept when I let it cover up the whole territory.”

“Yes, it had been quite an extravagant show.”

He spoke as if he were interested.

“It seemed to have caused quite a fuss within Korea. You’re being treated like a hero, aren’t you? It’s impressive that the reactions are like this by the circulating rumors alone.”

He then added on to it.

That time, he talked about external reactions.

“Of course, other countries’ reaction only reached this point only because you didn’t officially give a statement.”

I nodded.

Currently, the Korean government was suffering from inquiries from all over the world.

Celestial Dragon and I took a step back from being officially involved and entrusted the country with the aftermath.

But of course, some requests flew directly into me as the government couldn’t filter them, and only one of them was followed up with an interview.

The Senator put up the name right in his mouth.

“I noticed that Arthur Clifford stopped by your house today.”

The Korean black market’s information power, led by Oh Jin-Hwa, seemed to be quite usable.

The movement of the head of the Matap Guild, which wasn’t disclosed to the media, was revealed.

“That’s right.”

The Senator frowned.

“Be careful. The word ‘foolish’ is not enough to describe that grim bastard. If he says something good about you in front of you, doubt it first. The man is made out of nothing but his concern for his fragile ego and material benefits.”

Oh, he got him analyzed pretty accurately, didn’t he?

Arthur seemed to have continuously built his notoriety in the present era.

The deeds must have been quite annoying if it even got the Senator grinding his teeth.

Indeed, several well-known Awakened went missing in the process of unifying Britain’s leading Hunter Guilds into Matap. According to the revelations in the future, most of them were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Arthur’s instructions. His cruel way of dealing with things to provoke fear from his opponents was also famous in my previous life.

“Well noted.”

The Senator asked what kind of conversation Arthur and I had that day, and I answered him honestly.

Then his face became distorted.

“It feels very wrong. It means he bluntly targeted you as an enemy.”

He thought about it for a while with a serious look on his face before continuing.

“If you want, we can cause something big for the British side. So that Arthur and the other Matap members in Korea at the moment will have no choice but to hurry back to England. I can create an urgent situation so that he would no longer keep an eye on you.”

It wouldn’t be impossible by using his resource of people hiding all over the world.

I knew he was saying that out of consideration for me.

But I shook my head firmly.

“No, please don’t.”

If he did that, my plan would go sideways.

“… You must have a plan. Well, yes, you’re not someone who would be waiting for that to happen with your eyes wide open.”

He lit the cigar and spoke as he blew out smoke.

“This information just came in, and it was reported that Arthur bastard was said to have headed to a guild called the ‘Destruction Blade’ a few hours ago. He would probably be visiting the Guild Master. I don’t know what they’re going to talk about, but…”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, wouldn’t they be talking about me?”

He gave a deep puff of cigar smoke and spoke as if he were wrapping things up.

“Adam Abrams, he’s still in Celestial Dragon, isn’t he? Make good use of him. He might have better knowledge than I do about the capabilities of the Matap Hunters.”

The Senator once again reminded me to be careful and terminated the call.

I turned my head when the hologram connected to the terminal disappeared.

From the blind spot of the Senator’s perspective, Nate was looking at me.

He asked me a question with sparkling eyes.

“By the way, when is Uncle Adam coming?”

The last telecommunication from him after parting ways in Beijing was that it could take a few more days.

I shrug my shoulders.

“I don’t know yet, but why are you looking for Adam?

“…”

Nate mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

“He made… A promise with me.”

He still seemed to have failed to give up his grand ambition to implant a giant Mantis’s rake in his arm.

I spoke with strong determination.

“Hey, Adam hasn’t explained the exact principles of the transplant technology yet. It might be dangerous, so you can’t have the surgery as you please, okay? It’s my instruction as a Guild Master.”

“Tsk.”

We then moved on to the main topic.

“Anyway, how’s it going? It’s already been an hour since Arthur and Seo Moon-Ga-In parted ways.”

The information obtained by the Senator was good in terms of accuracy, but it was less updated.

I could assume that a spy from the Black Market couldn’t report the situation in real-time.

On the other hand, I received real-time broadcasting of Arthur’s meeting with Seo Moon-Ga-In through Nate.

Nate tracked him through the undead in his shadow even when the two parted ways after their meeting.

He relayed the information he gained through his subordinate.

“That man named Arthur… He called a few more people from England besides his subordinates, who are already in Korea. All are above the SS-Class. Some of them can’t come because of events like dungeon exploration, so I think there are about ten people who can gather.”

About ten people above SS-Rank, huh.

I’m lost in thought, and Nate continued as if he saw something again.

“Huh? He opened a hologram, and they’re having a meeting or something!”

After a while, I got a rough sketch of Arthur’s plan.

There was one thing that was the most important part at that point.

“So, Arthur is planning to stay in Korea?”

Nate confirmed.

“Yes, he said he’d wait for his men to come here.”

Alright.

“You’ve done a good job.”

After sending Nate back, I armed myself and held the devil’s sword in my hand.

One of the purposes of creating such a grand show was to keep Arthur Clifford in Korea.

I didn’t think he’d go back to London today right away, so it’s a success.

I earned at least a few days.

Weeing!

I activated the [Door of Hope] to create a blue gate.

– Please enter the coordinates.

Telepathy flowed from the artifact, and I entered the coordinates.

– Coordinate verification complete. A Mana core containing 12,000 Mana is required to transfer one human species to the user’s destination.

I frowned.

It was more expensive than transferring myself to the Botarch dimension.

‘But it’s not something I can’t handle.’