Competition Briefing

The participants of the meeting were representatives from each Clan.

Among them were the major Clans.

Demonic Cult.

Martial Arts Alliance.

Yggdrasil.

Dragon Knight.

First Home.

The Kingdom’s Knights.

The Empire’s Knights.

And the Lord of Gospel.

These representatives gathered in one place, creating a chilling atmosphere.

Even without a word, there was a fire burning in the silence.

“….”

I clicked my tongue inside my helmet.

Amel participated as Miereel’s escort knight and hadn’t been suspected yet.

Next to Miereel, Skilla was present as the representative Hero of the Raptica Duchy and the Dragon Knight of Gospel.

They had been suspicious of the newcomer guarding Miereel, but that was it.

After attending the meeting, she was almost completely out of their minds.

When Amel’s attention turned to her surroundings.

She made eye contact with Chun Yura.

“….”

“….”

Chun Yura, representing the Demonic Cult.

Their eyes met.

Intensely.

Amel also looked at Chun Yura, trying to glean a sense of everything about her.

Chun Yura.

Little Heavenly Demon.

Amel had learned the sense of seeing Magical Power through her experience as the [Sword God].

The Magical Power flowing from Chun Yura. Her posture. Her gaze. It all seemed extremely ordinary. It was questionable how she had cleared up to the 80th floor, as there was nothing special about Chun Yura.

‘I should have watched the videos.’

If she had, she might have seen something different.

Chun Yura’s gaze subtly dropped downwards.

Towards her chest.

Then she turned her attention away.

“….”

What was that about?

Miereel opened her mouth.

“It’s time. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone for attending.”

Miereel, a teenage girl.

Although she was the Lord’s wife, she announced the start of the meeting in a gentle voice to the mostly grim-faced representatives.

The meeting dealt with the coordination of the Hero Tournament rules.

Native Hero.

Martial Arts Hero.

Hunter Hero.

Since the strengths and weaknesses of the three were different, a fair standard was needed.

The preliminary rounds were designed to allow almost anyone with basic strength to participate, but the same rules couldn’t be used in the main rounds.

That was the common opinion of the Heroes.

Native Heroes had built up techniques with powerful force on top of basic swordsmanship, slamming bold Magical Power into their swordsmanship based on a world blessed with Magical Power.

Having fought against the great enemy of Monsters, they had built a hybrid system of techniques that could deal with both humans and Monsters.

On the other hand, Martial Arts Heroes had accumulated weak Magical Power within their bodies in a world barren of Magical Power, building up techniques to utilize that weak Magical Power with maximum efficiency and effect.

Since they had only faced humans, the techniques of Martial Arts Heroes were specialized for humans.

Having obtained the Magical Power of this world, they could fight almost endlessly.

And Hunter Heroes were blessed with Magical Power in a world barren of Magical Power. The Awakened Ability they gained from that blessing was a powerful force in itself, causing irrational phenomena.

Humans and Monsters alike were often unilaterally defeated by Awakened Abilities, but

those who had reached the realm of Master tended to have a particularly low win rate.

The above analysis refers to the formation process of the [Duel Arena] rankings.

“It’s a Hero Tournament. We call it a tournament, but it’s actually a Match.”

Chris, the Clan Leader of First Home, said.

“It should be premised that all forces are poured out without any restrictions on Strength.”

“So you’re saying you can win with your Special Ability?”

The Martial Arts Hero side retorted.

The Clan Leader of the Martial Arts Alliance Clan questioned.

“We all know that your Special Abilities are innate. I know that they are not as good as Flower Realm masters, but there are a lot of Peak Level guys. Even if it’s a martial arts Match, it’s still a tournament. Include a friendly meaning.”

“But you know what?”

Chris retorted with a grumpy, sulky face.

“If we had actively participated in the war, wouldn’t you have been unilaterally wiped out? I don’t know if it’s specialized for humans, but do you know that your precious fists can’t even reach us if we unilaterally beat you from a distance?”

“Ha! Can you freely use that precious Special Ability in the city? If you’re thinking of destroying the city, you shouldn’t participate in the war!”

“Hehehe. You can be mistaken that destruction is all there is to Awakened Abilities, Uncle. The fact that this kind of tournament is being held is all thanks to our concessions, you know? How diverse are Awakened Abilities.”

As Chris said, the greatest strength of Awakened Abilities was not power.

The absoluteness of causing phenomena.

Martial Arts Heroes and Native Heroes who didn’t know that well would understand Chris’s ‘concession’ rationally, but not emotionally.

“If you really want, should I fight all of your Heroes alone?”

Official S-Class Hunter.

Unofficial SS-Class Hunter.

Nuclear Fist Chris.

There are no combat videos of her using her Awakened Ability except for the battle with [Dream].

Just looking at the power, speed, and application shown there, she was a monster who could fight Martial Arts Heroes alone. She really could take them all on by herself.

“You should have become a Magician.”

If they didn’t have Awakened Abilities.

There was a prospect that Hunter Heroes would become combat Magicians based on their high Magical Power sensitivity.

It had been thought that the Magical Power sensitivity of Hunter Heroes could compensate for the casting speed, which was the weakness of Magicians.

But after being trapped in the game.

Since the restrictions on Awakened Abilities had been lifted, well.

Considering the compatibility with the Great Devil and the Awakened Abilities compared to Divine Power, the management side must have wanted to block Awakened Abilities.

‘Well, it’s almost a cheat.’

No, it was just a cheat.

Even Amel, an Awakened, thought so, so what would the other Heroes who had been hit by Awakened Abilities think?

They would have been trembling at the irrationality of innate talent.

Chris shrugged.

“I’m not particularly interested in vested interests.”

“Then get out.”

“But because of those vested interests? I don’t want to be swayed by you guys, so I decided to participate. I needed at least a device to protect us.”

“….”

“But I’m really not interested in vested interests.”

Before Chris started the meeting.

She had given advice to Miereel.

Yuha had also given advice.

At the meeting, Chris wanted to draw the aggro of the Heroes.

The Strength Chris had shown in the [Dream] Raid was enough to put all the Heroes on guard, and it wouldn’t have been just Chris.

As Yuha said,

The prohibition of Awakened Abilities will definitely be mentioned at this meeting.

So let’s make the first move.

Yuha’s intuition was fraudulent.

‘Really, Awakened Abilities are a cheat.’

Chris and Jua, the strongest in combat.

Yuha, who possesses future prediction-level intuition.

It’s absurd.

“So I won’t use Awakened Abilities as you wish.”

“What?”

“I told you. I’m not interested in vested interests. But not all of us will be like that, right? So let’s do this.”

Chris raised her index finger.

“Let’s increase the number of events in the tournament. Individual matches and all-out war where you can use Awakened Abilities. And individual matches and team matches where you only compete in individual skills. It would be nice to have assassination matches too.”

“Assassination?”

“Just put a target in the opposing camp and secretly infiltrate to kill the target. Of course, this is just something I came up with on the spur of the moment. We’ll decide what to actually include as events from now on.”

“Then the preliminary rounds…”

“That’s why we made it so that anyone with at least the minimum skill can participate, right?”

Chris’s request was one.

“Tournament events where you can use all Awakened Abilities. That’s our request. Then any Hero from any origin can challenge the event that is advantageous to their strengths, and isn’t that fair?”

Miereel suggested it, and Namgung Yun, the Martial Arts Alliance representative, agreed.

Namgung Yun was pretending not to know, but the expansion of the tournament events was the result of Miereel accepting her opinion.

And by making the first move, she created the established fact that the Hunter Heroes had conceded, giving room for the opinions to be accepted more smoothly.

‘Why is it flowing exactly as I said in advance?’

Amel had already heard this flow from Miereel at their first meeting.

Miereel smiled brightly and asked.

“Chris’s opinion is like this, what do you think, Kim Guhan? If anyone else has any objections, please feel free to speak up, even if it’s a small opinion.”

Expansion of tournament events.

The Heroes who had seen the strongest of the Hunter Heroes.

Whether their pride was hurt or not, they accepted it.

“Is it the Olympics?”

Kim Guhan, the Martial Arts Alliance Clan Leader, muttered.

As he said, it was the Olympics with rights at stake.

Namgung Yun secretly whispered.

Kim Guhan nodded.

“…Okay. I’ll do as you wish.”

The expansion of the tournament events was decided, and the number of events each person could participate in was also determined, and the atmosphere wasn’t bad.

It’s because there’s an atmosphere that subtly sees the Hunter Hero camp as predators.

Because Chris, the representative, conceded, others couldn’t voice their opinions more than necessary.

Chun Yura, who was thought to be able to resist, remained silent.

Neither the Demonic Cult nor the Martial Arts Alliance paid much attention to her.

She was truly a top predator.

While the meeting was progressing smoothly.

That top predator opened her mouth.

“I want to ask something.”

Everyone flinched at Chun Yura’s question.

Miereel, who was the target of the question, still smiled calmly.

“Yes, what are you curious about?”

“Isn’t Anonymous participating?”

“Are you talking about the Anonymous who defeated the Death Knight?”

“Yes. The reason I accepted Yunyi’s opinion was because I expected Anonymous to come. But I heard that she didn’t even apply. At this rate, I feel skeptical about why I accepted Yunyi’s proposal.”

Chun Yura’s gaze shifted from Miereel to Chris.

“I heard that you’re real-life friends with Anonymous, but what is she doing that she’s been out of touch?”

“I’m her real-life friend’s older sister.”

“Is that so. Anyway, I want to know whether Anonymous will participate. Depending on the answer, I can forcibly summon her.”

Chun Yura’s fighting spirit.

Her skin tingled.

Her expression was filled with joy, as if she would be happy to fight right away.

Chris, not to be outdone, overflowed with as much Magical Power as her will.

‘Is this why you didn’t bring Jua?’

It seemed like they would fight right away with just a little trigger.

“Silence!”

Miereel used Magic.

She hit the wooden disc with a wooden mallet that looked like it would be used for sentencing.

Then the bubbling atmosphere and strange noise were covered in silence.

“If you’re going to fight, go outside! This is a place for conversation!”

“…I’m sorry.”

“My apologies.”

Both apologized honestly.

The atmosphere subsided, and

Miereel said.

“I also wanted to say something about Anonymous.”

She continued calmly.

She pretended to be fine, but

She couldn’t hide the cold sweat that soaked the inside of her dress.

“This morning. Anonymous came to me. She asked if she could participate, even though it was late. I wanted to discuss that.”

“So Anonymous came to this place?”

Swish.

Chun Yura looked around the venue.

Her gaze landed on Amel.

Then it fell to her chest before turning elsewhere.

‘….’

“I’m in favor. If she’s not there, the existence of the tournament is also meaningless. Under the law of the jungle, is it really meaningful to seek rights without the strong?”

It was Chun Yura’s unilateral claim, but no one objected.

No, there was one person.

Chris looked at her in disbelief.

“So what? Are you going to ruin the tournament?”

“It would be fun to fight you too.”

The atmosphere…

Bang bang.

Miereel hit the mallet.

“….”

“….”

The atmosphere subsided.

Chris and Chun Yura.

They were strangely close. Haha.

“Well, whatever your opinion is, I’m also in favor of Unni’s participation.”

“I’m asking for reference, but what are the participating events? Is it a power war? Is it an all-out war?”

For reference, the number of events that can be participated in per person is three.

Because there were many events, the number was increased to three from one.

Since there were many events, it was necessary to match the events to face each other during the tournament.

“Nothing has been decided yet. It’s important to check if you can participate first.”

“Then call her to this place right now.”

“Hey. Do you think Unni is your subordinate?”

It’s about to bubble up again.

Amel sighed softly.

Miereel, who knew that her escort knight was Anonymous, laughed softly.

Miereel joined the conversation.

“Little Heavenly Demon’s opinion also makes sense.”

Before the two growled at each other.

Attention is focused.

“If someone as good as Anonymous participates, the tournament strategy will inevitably change significantly. So Chris.”

“Yes.”

“Please tell Anonymous and spread the word as soon as the events are decided. You have to show as much sincerity as you were allowed to participate late, right?”

“…I understand.”

The meeting continued, and

It ends smoothly.

“Let’s end today’s meeting here. Thank you for your hard work.”

Miereel left the seat first.

Amel, her escort knight, followed.

“Pahahaha.”

Miereel laughed.

She looked back at Amel.

“You were a more meaningful person than I thought?”

“I know, right. I didn’t know either.”

“It’s a shame that the Chairman would have been turned upside down if you had revealed your identity at that time. It would have been fun if that had happened. But we can’t ruin the important business of our Territory.”

“….”

Miereel, the Lord’s wife.

Gospel Lord’s proxy.

The Emperor and the King entrusted all rights to the Lord of the Territory where the tournament was held.

Currently, while the tournament is in progress. Miereel had the same authority as the Emperor or King limited to the tournament.

It is temporary but powerful, so it can lead to the development of Gospel depending on how it is used.

“Someone’s coming.”

“Eup.”

Miereel closed her mouth.

When she turned around, it was Skilla.

Her eyes were full of excitement.