Ch.9999. Finding a Way to Grow

“UVC?! That sounds fun!”

When I explained the content, Lu-a’s eyes sparkled.

“Master, Boksil will be participating too, right?!”

I gently pressed down on the heads of the excited Lu-a and Boksil as I answered.

“Not you two. This is strictly for discovering new talent. If budding sprouts get trampled by you, it defeats the purpose.”

“Aww. That’s disappointing.”

“Instead, I’ll set up a special stage where you can go wild to your heart’s content.”

“You mean we’ll fight each other? That sounds fun.”

Lu-a showed fighting spirit for the first time in a while. Everyone had been continuing their training, but they must have been itching for real combat due to lack of practical experience.

With that, we went into planning, and the UVC was quickly announced worldwide.

With two participation categories: Unlimited Rules and Safe Rules.

The total prize money was set at 40 billion dollars, about 56 trillion won, and those who advanced to the top 16 tournament in each division would also qualify for executive positions in Vengeance.

Anyone with abilities could participate.

It didn’t matter if they were villains, unaffiliated, or even heroes.

Of course, heroes are nearly extinct in this world now, so there probably won’t be any actual hero participants.

For the Safe Rules, we simply added the condition that killing an opponent during battle would result in disqualification and imprisonment.

When we clearly emphasized this difference, the number of participants in the Unlimited division decreased significantly.

The ratio was about 1:9.

It seems that even those confident in their skills ultimately valued their lives.

After all, it’s an insane rule where unless you’re the strongest, everyone else dies as you keep winning.

Still, it was surprising that 10 percent signed up.

I guess there were that many villains thirsting for murder.

It’s beneficial that we can weed them out this way.

I also added one more privilege for the winner, which I personally announced to the world via broadcast.

“I am Gerogius, the head of the transnational enforcement organization Vengeance. Everyone knows me, so there’s no need to hide. I currently possess everything in this world.”

I stretched out my finger toward the camera and shouted into the microphone.

“I’ll give the winners of each UVC division the right to fight me. If you win, I’ll give you everything I have. The leadership of Vengeance, endless wealth, all my powerful subordinates. I look forward to the participation of all ability users. That is all.”

My statement added fuel to the already hot topic of UVC. So many ability users rushed to participate that there weren’t enough arenas.

“How cunning, Geo.”

That was Lena’s impression.

“Whatever. I keep my word. If someone wins, I really intend to give them everything.”

“The Safe Rules winner will likely be someone who values their life, so they’ll either take the prize money or join Vengeance rather than challenge you. You’re just planning to personally deal with the Unlimited Rules winner and save the prize money, right?”

“Exactly.”

“What a villainous idea. I like it.”

“I learned from you.”

Lena chuckled.

By now, Lena had attached L Corporation as a UVC sponsor and was reaping significant advertising benefits. Her business acumen was impressive.

The UVC global preliminaries were held over the course of a month. During that time, my evil sentai members and I continued our training.

“Primordial, Zwei!”

“Hyah, hyaaaah!!”

We used the leftover land of the roughly destroyed Australia as our training ground.

Lu-a cleverly shot dark matter through the quantum realm toward Boksil.

Boksil now summons drones that look like near-future weapons rather than firearms.

Defense fire with no blind spots. Since bullets can’t ignore the laws of physics, Lu-a has a slight advantage in compatibility.

Both are giving their all in concentration.

But.

‘Their growth is slow.’

After some time, Lu-a and Boksil finished training, exhausted. Somi, who had finished her turn earlier, had also used up her stamina to the limit.

“Good work, everyone.”

“Haa, haa. I can still do more.”

“Still? Today was enough, wasn’t it? Senior, aren’t you hungry?”

Lu-a patted Boksil’s back encouragingly as she stuck out her tongue in exhaustion.

“We need to work harder. We’re still far from our goal, right? We should always build up more reserves since we don’t know what might happen.”

Lu-a was speaking quite maturely. She’s been taking good care of Boksil lately.

She must have developed some know-how from handling subordinates.

Lu-a is definitely capable.

In the original scenario, she always traveled alone with a lonely appearance and seemed unable to express emotions other than anger.

This is a change I like.

Of course, history has changed because of my presence, but I don’t think Lu-a’s transformation is entirely because of me.

She probably always had this potential, this essence within her.

With kindness and girlishness in her heart.

There are 8 months left until the result of the dating game Lu-a proposed, but I’m thinking it might be okay to accept her feelings before then.

…Come to think of it, in the original scenario, Lu-a died around that time too.

If I calculate correctly, that was the time of the Dark Matter subjugation. That’s exactly where the scenario I played ended.

So I don’t know Lu-a’s exact backstory. I was possessed before those things were revealed. Lu-a was a game-original character who wasn’t in the TV series.

The same goes for the relationship between Lena and Elly.

I also didn’t see the identity or conclusion of the Artificial Monster Asura.

Dark Matter from the original work.

She definitely died when she was defeated, consumed by her own dark matter.

I remember her final mocking expression toward the player quite vividly.

Well, now that the 4th scenario has completely disappeared, these are all concerns we don’t need to worry about. It shouldn’t matter.

“Hey, Geo.”

Lu-a was suddenly in front of me.

“Um… it’s a bit embarrassing when you think about me so intently.”

Lu-a whispered in my ear.

“How did you know?”

“I can tell just by looking at your expression now.”

That’s quite interesting.

“You’re worried, aren’t you? If our growth rate stays like this, we won’t have enough time.”

That’s definitely a problem.

“The UVC will raise the level of villains worldwide, but our Evil Sentai Vengeance is still an issue. The special stage is just a one-time thing.”

“It would be nice if we could invade the Galaxy Empire’s home country. But movement through the quantum realm is limited to Earth…”

Lu-a made a disappointed face. It’s certainly a good idea. Beating up monsters would be efficient.

Monsters do naturally spawn on Earth too, like in a free hunting ground, but there are too few of them.

“What about the Dark Kingdom’s monster generator?”

That was Somi’s suggestion. It makes sense, but…

“It’s a C-grade generator, so it’s not helpful. There was a T2-grade last time we went, but that was only because it had been accumulating for a long time.”

“It would be nice if something came out of the Galaxy Empire’s ship fragments.”

As Lu-a said, we’ve been searching through those remains for quite some time.

Quite a lot was sucked into the white void, and given their massive size, we’re hardly finding anything useful.

…Or maybe.

I thought of one method and returned to the hideout with all the sentai members.

***

“What are you talking about?”

After letting Lu-a, Somi, and Boksil rest, I went to ask Lena, who frowned as if displeased.

“I was just asking in case you knew.”

“Ha, how would I know something like that?”

Lena returned to her paperwork with irritation.

What I asked wasn’t anything special.

In the 4th scenario, the Artificial Monster Asura was a monster created by human talent.

And the mastermind, though I’m not entirely sure, was Lena.

She appeared from the prologue PV with an obvious villainous aura. She even gave early quests as Yoo Cha-mi.

So I asked if she knew how to create monsters or if she had a subsidiary with such technology, but this was her reaction.

“Even if growth is necessary, why would you ask me about that?”

Tap. Lena put her pen down on the table, unable to contain her irritation.

“I thought you’d know everything since you’re the top villain.”

“You already learned during the Galaxy Empire battle. The technology to create monsters sacrifices humans.”

“I was wondering if there was another technology. And since you’re a villain, I thought you wouldn’t care about human lives.”

“…Sigh.”

Lena clicked her tongue.

“Ui-seok. Just as heroes like you and Green Nature had different ideologies, villains also have different thoughts and values. Of course, I’ll take lives without hesitation. If the scales tip.”

“This time the scales didn’t tip?”

“To gain a tiny bit of power, we’d need to dispose of hundreds of truckloads of monsters. Imagine if they were made from humans. Would that make economic sense? You’ve known me for more than a day or two, what are you thinking?”

I was wrong here.

“Sorry. Now that I think about it, you were angry at Dr. Sun too.”

“Yes. He was someone who tried to take Lu-a’s life.”

“I didn’t know you valued children so much, both Lu-a and others.”

“…Well, that’s.”

Lena closed her mouth for a moment.

“Don’t you value them, Ui-seok?”

“I do.”

“Fine. Let’s talk about this topic later. Anyway, the slowed growth is a big problem.”

“I’ll think about it more on my own first. Sorry for interrupting when you’re busy.”

“Take good care of Lu-a.”

Lena added as I was about to get up.

“I am.”

“More preciously. She’s seemed more anxious lately than before.”

“Anxious? I didn’t notice anything like that.”

“Really? Then perhaps it was my mistake.”

Lena waved her hand dismissively and returned to her paperwork.

***

When I returned to the hideout, Lu-a came running to me breathlessly.

“Geo!”

“Want a snack?”

“Yes! There’s some good pudding… No, that’s not it. I found a way to grow stronger!”

My ears perked up.

“What method?”

“The search team sent a message. They found something in the Galaxy Empire’s ship.”

“What?”

“A Switch!”

After hearing what Lu-a had to say, my expectations rose considerably.