◈ Episode 386. Flowers and Weeds (1)

AAU realized the gravity of the situation.

“Has the General Manager forgiven us this time?”

The American response was nothing short of arrogant.

It was either to cover its own ass, or to show that the United States, as a whole, was involved in the situation and could not back down. It launched an all-out assault on the Magic Tower.

“Is this a true story?”

There was also late news.

AAU US East and West Branch.

The photos they’d been sending back had left them in awe.

“I heard they even gathered weapons for a decisive battle in the rift?!”

“If you look at the picture, it’s real.”

“You mean it was real?”

“No, I didn’t ask for much, I just asked for the bullshitter to come out. Why are you overreacting like this? If the General Manager hadn’t stepped forward…….”

That Meteor strike would have landed on American soil.

In that sense, Sung Hyunjoon and Yoon Soogyeom.

They both breathed a sigh of relief.

“Still, it’s a relief, isn’t it, senior?”

“…….”

Yoon didn’t answer.

Hoyeol’s last words bothered him.

This is the disposition of the Demon King you cried out for.

He wondered what would happen to America.

The question didn’t last long.

It was over.

“It’s happening.”

“……!!”

Park Minjae, the Branch Leader, clutched his head in his hands. He was not easily shaken by any situation. But when he realized what was about to happen, he felt lightheaded.

“Mr. Branch Leader, are you okay?”

Yoon Soogyeom asks in a concerned voice. Park nodded and steadied himself. He glanced at the monitor. The coordinates of the rift’s creation, from the Another Spaceship, to be exact.

“Soogyeom, it’s going to be noisy from now on.”

“……yes?”

“It’s going to ring nonstop.”

Park’s warning was quickly realized.

Wiiing!

“Rift, where is it?!”

The warning message about the rift creation never stopped.

They wondered if there was an error in the Another Spaceship.

It was enough to make them wonder.

Even.

“The coordinates are there, they’re all in America!!!”

Rifts numbering in the dozens, maybe hundreds.

All of them were created in the territory of the United States.

Sung Hyunjoon was dumbfounded.

Could this be the disposition that General Manager Lee Hoyeol was talking about…….

“He was referring to those rifts?”

Sung Hyunjoon wasn’t alone in his thoughts.

Everyone was thinking about it.

Lee Hoyeol.

He wondered if he had reached the point where he could create rifts freely.

But Park Minjae put an end to the ridiculous illusion.

“You guys, do you really think the General Manager is a Demon King?”

Park Minjae continued, speaking with more force.

“No matter what the world says, you shouldn’t be swayed. What did he look like in front of the rift? He was the one who entered the rift on his own, no matter what level he was at. A person like that creates rifts and takes action?”

“…….”

“Whoa.”

Park Minjae clears his throat and tells the truth.

“America was just thrown over the fence.”

“……What do you mean, outside the fence?”

“Didn’t you all think it was strange? Since the Zero Mountains appeared, the frequency of rifts has decreased significantly. Could it be because of the weight of the Zero Mountains?”

……nodded.

One of those who thought so.

Sung Hyunjoon shook his head once.

You haven’t taken off your rookie look yet, Sung Hyunjoon.

Park Minjae shook his head.

“If you look at it from a developer’s perspective, you might not be wrong. Because we updated the high-difficulty content called Zero Mountains. It’s like we’re saving the new content for when players are done with the mountains.”

He nods.

“By the way, you guys know that Raymond Sean asshole, right?”

“……!”

“Does he still see reality as Arcana Continent Biography?”

Raymond Sean.

There was no consideration for humanity in his updates.

In fact, it was vicious.

At one point, he was doing everything he could to destroy humanity.

It was almost as if he was pushing out regular updates.

“The reason humanity has been able to survive this long is simple. It’s because the Magic Tower have managed to enclose reality, the Earth, the entire world, within their fence. You all remember the settings, right?”

Yoon’s eyes light up.

“……Absolutely inviolable!”

“Correct.”

Park Minjae nods.

“In the Arcana Continent’s Biography, Magic Tower was a beacon that was to remain unshaken until the very end. It was supposed to stand tall as the ultimate military force and maintain the balance of the continent. Even if the empire fell, the tower would not collapse.”

“Then why has the frequency of rift creation decreased so drastically since the Zero Mountains……. Are you saying that was due to the fact that the Magic Tower considered Earth to be their domain?”

“Do you get it now, boys?”

Yes.

It was because of the Magic Tower that humanity was temporarily immune to the erosion of Arcana. It was because they had declared Earth to be their domain with the setting of absolute inviolability.

Yoon Soogyeom speaks up.

“It’s also because the monsters were mainly from the demon race……!”

“That’s right. As the General Manager said, demons cannot understand the topic. Whether it was the territory of the Magic Tower or something else, they probably crossed over without paying any attention. But those who know the horrors of the Magic Tower are different.”

Gulp.

Park cleared his cracking throat.

“Every rift must be infested with monsters from Arcana. These are the guys who grind their teeth outside the fence of the Magic Tower. Is there any reason to leave prey thrown out of the fence?”

The gaze turns to the decisive battle weapon for monsters that was aimed at the leadership of the Magic Tower.

He couldn’t laugh or cry.

Park Minjae speaks up.

“Well, it must have been worth it to drag that thing here. Eugene McCain.”

*

[Killing Machine Quartet]

[Appropriate Level : 500]

[Rift Collapse : 23.7%]

[Swamp of the Great Beast Ulang]

[Appropriate Level : 550]

[Rift Collapse : 38.4%]

[Darion’s Graveyard]

[Appropriate Level : 600]

[Rift Collapse : 42.4%]…….

The dam has broken.

The last bastion of protection has fallen.

There’s no better way to put it.

“So why do you go out and get beaten for no reason, really!”

Nam Cheolmin, an analyst for the Great Alliance.

The Arcana continent was full of dangers. Due to his relatively low level, Nam Cheolmin hadn’t rushed to enter the Arcana Continent. His phone was ringing nonstop. They were all international calls.

He glanced at the screen.

“That’s it.”

Starting with The Shining.

He’s in contact with many guilds and players in the United States.

They’re all asking for help from the Alliance.

“It wasn’t supposed to get this big in the first place, was it?”

Marcelo has been given a chance, and the Commander in Chief has given them plenty of chances. They gave them a chance to make amends, but instead of asking for forgiveness, they responded with an attack.

Nam Cheolmin looked at the situation coldly.

” …… If it were me, I would have turned a blind eye.”

Forget about deceiving Magic Tower.

Hoyeol had sacrificed himself for humanity.

Nam Cheolmin, who had watched Hoyeol from the sidelines, knew.

“Even if it’s unfair.”

The weight of Hoyeol’s burden?

A quantity that would suffocate a normal person without being able to digest it for even a day

A simple example?

Just the physical training he’d heard about from his brother, Taemin.

-“Brother, Master Harkon said that Mr. Hoyeol, he never misses a day of training. Even the amount of training he does is way beyond ours. When does he get any sleep?”

Such a sacrifice was almost overshadowed by a malicious twist.

If he were Hoyeol…….

he would have felt so betrayed that he would have turned his back on the United States altogether.

But at this moment.

“And yet, you are still waiting, Commander in Chief.”

Hoyeol and Magic Tower remained where they were.

They remained in the air.

Until the very end.

This probably means that he won’t give up hope on humanity.

“……damn.”

Swish!

Nam took off his glasses and answered the phone.

As expected, it was the American AAU branch.

Nam didn’t hold back.

He unleashed his brother’s skill, frenzy.

“Don’t you think you should have taken the time to ask for forgiveness before calling me? Have you lost your grip on reality after seeing the rapidly rising rift collapse? You don’t really intend to make America a living hell, do you?”

Nam warned.

“This is probably the final countdown. It’s not too late to come forward and tell the truth about everything. That’s the last piece of advice and warning I can give you.”

He added a small aside.

“If you have any pride left.”

His voice returned with determination.

“Thank you for saying that.”

Eugene McCain.

All the contacts he’d made in his quest for connections came in handy at times like this. Eugene put down the receiver and turned to the stunned Joshua. He poured a potion from the table into Joshua’s mouth.

“Ugh.”

As expected, he can’t believe it when he see it, Arcana.

“……Eugene, where do you think you’re going?”

Eugene strode out of the branch leader’s office, leaving behind Joshua, who was trying to get up. Magic Tower, and Lee Hoyeol. How to communicate with them in the sky.

Eugene didn’t think twice.

‘If it’s Arcana’s way, it must be…….’

Finally, standing on the rooftop of the branch office building, Eugene spoke.

“I will tell you the truth, Yusra General Manager Lee Hoyeol.”

Then he felt the gaze. An experience that transcended the laws of physics. He could feel Hoyeol’s eyes on him, staring at him from a distance. Eugene thought to himself.

‘ ……I’m supposed to tell him everything?’

Eugene promised himself that he would tell them everything.

If he could get through this crisis, he would gladly do so.

But the more he looked at it, the more ridiculous it seemed.

Eugene said bitterly.

“I’m just a chess piece, and I’m not worth that much.”

Now that the rift had been created, he knew that civilian casualties were inevitable. Yet there was no communication from higher ups. Their own safety was more important than the civilian casualties.

But thankfully.

“What is it for America?”

Eugene spoke without hesitation.

“General Manager Lee Hoyeol, it’s the White House that started this.”

Eugene stopped speaking after the first word.

kwajijijig─

“……?”

Not being a player.

“!”

He shouldn’t have been able to see the rift, but he could see the breaking void. What it was telling him was simple. It meant the rift’s collapse was close. Eugene swallowed dryly and continued.

“It’s all our fault for being foolish and rotten, not the citizens. So, Demon King. Please, have mercy on them.”

Gulp.

Eugene closed his eyes.

He didn’t want any mercy for himself.

At this moment, all he felt was a sense of responsibility.

And the answer came back to him.

“You saved it.”

……I saved?

What does that mean?

Forgiveness?

“……?”

Eugene opened his eyes, puzzled.

Sssssss.

He could see silver grains spreading in all directions.

Eugene was not a player, and he was ignorant of Arcana.

Still, he could feel it.

“General Manager Lee Hoyeol?”

The entire area was silver, the same color as his hair.

It was rippling in glory.

Soon, an unbelievable sight appeared in Eugene’s vision.

Jikjikwak.

A rift that was about to collapse.

The rift was beginning to fade into a blur.

What it meant was simple.

Lee Hoyeol, he was reversing the collapse of the rift.

“Ah.”

Eugene relaxed.

Eugene fell to his knees without realizing it.

The voice continued.

“I’ll ask.”

For some reason, the dry voice only sounded warm.

“Do I still appear to you as a Demon King?”

*

Witnesses secured.

Interrogation, properly done in Topaz Hall or Mugan.

The immediate need is to clean up the mess.

I channeled my magic.

‘I reversed the collapse of the rift.’

That’s it.

I don’t fully understand the [『Anomaly』] of the rift.

So from now on.

We have to clear the rifts created in America one by one.

‘Hundreds of rifts.’

On my own, I wouldn’t have been able to clear them all before collapsing.

But now.

I have the most powerful military organization in Arcana behind me.

‘Let’s clear it fast, quickly.’

I opened my mouth.

“Vivace will do.”

I didn’t even lift the [Baton of Rhyme].

What’s the point of spouting off musical terms all of a sudden?!

But fortunately, there was no one to feel embarrassed about.

It happened just right…….

No, thank you for distracting me from my shame.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment to unleash my arcane magic on the world……!!!”

“Bensch William Senior.”

“……yes?”

I said meaningfully.

“As of this time, I will give you a ‘heavy duty’.”