Chapter 105: Too easy of a strategy.

In the end, the enraged Succubus pointed at me.

“No, hey, you as a saintess…”

“I have the achievement of being in the Hero Party, you know. And….”

Upon thinking about it, I found myself speechless.

“And?”

“No, how dare a mere Succubus talk back to this angel?”

What a ridiculous fellow!

“You’re calling the pride of Korea a ‘mere Succubus’? Isn’t that going too far?”

“Hahaha. Once the Kanora religion becomes an official religion in Korea, it won’t matter. Anyway, given the circumstances, we have no choice but to increase our influence. That’s why I’m spreading Kanora.”

Things have gotten bigger than I expected.

It’s still amusing when I think about it.

Who would have thought that the president, who had already given up, would intervene here?

And to top it off, he’s the same old-fashioned president who despises the current Hunter society!

Well, not that he’s wrong.

To be honest, the current Hunter society in Korea is going through a brief period of upheaval, but all the guys I’ve fought so far were just ignorant, brute-force types who got defeated.

I explained the secret conversation with the Chief of Staff to the guild members.

“In other words, the president’s strategy is to appease the returnees and have them use their strength to suppress the Hunters since he can’t control them. He’s applying a divide-and-conquer strategy.”

Ttaengchili hit the nail on the head.

Divide-and-conquer—it fits perfectly.

For a powerless Blue House, it’s the only usable response.

“By doing so, balance will eventually be achieved, and in the meantime, the president will attempt reforms within the Hunter society or prepare new-generation Hunters through the awakening institutions. But isn’t the presidential term only five years?”

Slime’s point concerned me too, but I dropped that thought with the words of the overweight orc that followed.

“They say it’s a presidential system, but he’s been holding onto the office for 12 years. It just means there aren’t enough people to challenge him.”

That’s important too.

The fact that the president is effectively ruling as a dictator despite being dragged along by the Hunters shows how unique Korea’s current situation is.

“Isn’t there something we’re forgetting?”

“Oh right, Orc, don’t forget to prepare for your friend’s wife’s NTR. For the sake of shaken friendship.”

“No, Saintess, how do you even know that song at your age?”

“I’m the youngest here, so hush.”

Have some conscience!

I’m the youngest one here.

Park Si-woo was a high schooler at most, and then after that…

“Ah. Oh, right. Wait, this isn’t it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I mean, weren’t we going to hunt the Demon King?”

Oh, right.

We were supposed to hunt the Demon King.

I’d gotten a bit excited about teaming up with the president.

Once we hunt the Demon King, the next goal would be to take down the Hunter society.

After that, it would be a world of returnees, but that’s still better than the current, ignorant Hunter society.

“I heard that even in the martial arts circles, Chinese smugglers distributing drugs to the Hunter guilds were caught. We should do something more.”

It was time to take action.

“That’s right. Let’s get moving. Solinderman, contact the Heavenly King to prevent interference from other guilds. Mugun, once you capture the Demon King and get the materials, make weapons with them. Slime, if you have time, write some novels criticizing the Hunter society.”

We all had to help each other now.

“Wow, doing it like this? Man, I can barely write one story, and now you want me to write a novel criticizing the Hunters?”

“Please do. It doesn’t have to be daily updates.”

Even web novels criticizing Hunters would be good.

If we criticize Hunters in different fields, public opinion will probably be too distracted by the breadcrumbs Kanora throws.

“Got it.”

“Naipir, as always, keep a watch here. Contact Lee Si-yeon to return to the guild in case of any emergencies.”

Now is the time for everyone to unite.

“Alright, alright.”

“The Hero Party might also come this time. We may need to cooperate, so let’s all work together.”

Now, it begins.

The raid on the Tower of Destruction for the third time involved all the returnees.

Of course, no other guild could enter this time either.

A slightly less stupid guild alliance tried to interfere with us, but no chance!

I ignored them and began the tower raid solo under the Kanora Church banner.

Overconfidence?

No way.

Even though the Demon King has grown stronger, I’ve also become stronger.

More importantly, we have a trump card: the Hero.

“Let’s go! To capture the Demon King!”

We finally set off for the Tower.

***

The Tower of Destruction raid had progressed to the 7th floor so far.

There wasn’t much left.

Even the 7th floor was home to one of the Four Heavenly Kings, so who knows, maybe the 8th floor will have one too.

If the Four Heavenly Kings are there, I won’t waste time.

“Wow. So this is the Tower of Destruction? Impressive. It seems much bigger compared to the dungeons I used to raid.”

Ttaengchili was in awe, while Pixie was diligently mapping the area on the side.

Pixie certainly looks better as a young girl rather than an adult.

Not that it’s surprising—honestly, even as an adult, Pixie is fairy-level beautiful, almost matching me in charm.

She even evolved from being genderless to female, so there’s no need to mention her now more noticeable curves.

However, it’s frustrating that she hides that body in a raincoat under the guise of ‘traditional fairy attire.’

So, I’d say she looks better as a young girl.

“But there aren’t many enemies around, huh?”

“Well, if you count those as enemies, they technically are.”

On the 8th floor, there were occasional appearances of gargoyles.

They were enormous and quite strong, to be fair.

“Graaah!”

“Skull crack!”

I swung my scythe wildly, smashing its head.

A gargoyle as big as a house fell in an instant.

As expected from me, an angel.

“But really, there are only a few big guys here and there?”

“The Demon King changed his strategy. He must have realized that a horde tactic wouldn’t work against me.”

To be fair, I haven’t had much direct combat experience with the Demon King himself, mostly with his lieutenants.

The dragon we fought last time was also part of the Lich King’s army, another lieutenant.

But this time, the Demon King himself is lurking in the background, so it’s fair to say we’re up against his forces now.

So he’s sending elite troops to deal with us.

Crash!

I relentlessly swung my scythe again.

“Keeyaaaah!”

A gargoyle was smashed by the orc’s punch.

“Aren’t these guys a bit too weak?”

Honestly, they seemed much weaker than expected.

Luckily, it seems the Demon King’s army isn’t as strong as we thought.

Well, maybe we’re just ridiculously strong.

These gargoyles are supposed to be tough.

“They’re quite strong. We’re just too powerful.”

“Geez, isn’t this more like bullying?”

True Battle mage seemed a bit dissatisfied.

It sounded like she was bored after beating up the Demon King’s army in her world.

To be honest, I kind of felt the same.

It’s satisfying to defeat them, and we’re plowing through them easily.

It does feel like we’re just overpowering them.

But if the Demon King himself is strong, what kind of power gap will we face then?

For now, we’ve got to get through these weaker enemies to meet the Demon King.

I patted Battle mage on the shoulder.

“What’s the big deal? Just enjoy it. That’s how the world works.”

When it’s time to have fun, you should enjoy yourself.

“Kraaaah!”

This time, a more formidable foe appeared.

It was a dragon.

But even this dragon was no more than a mid-boss for this elite party.

We were already passing the responsibility of defeating it back and forth.

“So, it’s a dragon this time?”

“Who’s going to take it down?”

“How about you, Succubus?”

“Me? I’m the pride of Korea and Hallyu. Do I really need to waste my strength on something like this?”

“Bet you can lick your nose with your tongue?”

Someone even brought up a tongue-licking contest, but we had already tried that before, and there was no way anyone’s tongue was going to grow that long.

Obviously, no one wanted to bother with the effort, and I was about to step up to show some angelic dignity when someone else took the lead.

“I’ll handle this one.”

Oh no.

“Oh wow! Neko Cheonma!”

“Amazing!”

It was the Neko Cheonma.

Honestly, dragons are high-tier monsters.

And if it’s a dragon from the Demon King’s side, it’s even more terrifying.

Though it’s not as strong as an ancient dragon, it could still shake the heavens and earth.

Even against such a formidable dragon…

“As expected of Neko Cheonma! Go, go, win!”

With the energy of a day out, we were watching him defeat the dragon.

This, perhaps, is why the president had reached out to us.

Though dragons are a common enemy in Earth’s dungeons too, they’re tough opponents for hunters.

“Please take care of it, Cheonma.”

I decided to take a break for a bit as well.

After all, it’s not like I have the time to deal with something like that lizard.

Anyway, the dragon with its huge wings approached.

“Just because it looks like this, doesn’t mean I’m weak enough to lose to a giant lizard.”

Shoom!

Of course, Cheonma’s Pepero Edition Energy Bullets easily pierced through the dragon’s wings, as if tearing through meat effortlessly.

“Graaaaah!”

The Pepero Energy Bullets weren’t just a few.

Dozens of them flew through the sky, enthusiastically shooting down the dragons.

If you think about it, these dragons might be considered a trial for us, but our power wasn’t something to be underestimated.

“Intruder. Detected. Intruder. Detected.”

A massive golem, unlike any we’d seen before, appeared.

A truly gigantic golem.

However, there was one variable with the appearance of this golem—our variable.

The mermaid princess stealthily jabbed Ttaengchili in the ribs as she noticed the golem.

“Hey, your boyfriend has arrived to greet you. And wow, isn’t he big?”

“You damn b***h.”

Ttaengchili, suddenly treated like the golem’s girlfriend, seemed to have his blood—or rather, oil—boiling in rage and struck the golem with a rocket punch.

Bam!

Like soft tofu, Ttaengchili’s rocket punch penetrated the golem with ease.

It was ridiculous.

Trying to match him up with something like that?

Ttaengchil roasted the mermaid princess with all his might.

“How dare you call some giant egg my boyfriend? You damn minnow girlfriend, have you gone mad wanting to die?”

It must’ve hurt her pride quite a bit.

Well, that’s understandable.

After all, a golem is essentially the robot of a fantasy world.

But it’s far from the robots developed by science in this world.

It’s just a bunch of rocks loosely stuck together.

Trying to compare that to the latest, state-of-the-art android from the 24th century?

No wonder he was furious.

“Calling her a minnow is a bit harsh!”

“Oh, so you’re siding with her just because you’re both fish? Or are you saying your mom’s a minnow?”

“You tin can bastard!”

I decided not to pay them any more attention.

The fact that they were bickering like this was proof that we were in no real danger.