Chapter 24

Chapter 24.

"......What?"

"I'll follow you! Work me like a dog! I'll be loyal to the end!"

A booming voice, straight from the diaphragm.

The semi-basement hallway rang with the echo.

I furrowed my brow.

"Please take me in, Boss!"

Park Jihun's eyes were beyond desperate—they were frantic.

He clung to me as though he'd grab my pant leg at any moment.

"If I don't, my father's gonna beat me to death!"

"......Chairman Park?"

"Yes! He said if I can't serve our benefactor as my boss, he'll strike me from the family register! No—he said he'd just bury me......"

The guy was shaking like a leaf.

Ah, I could picture it.

Chairman Park—that wily old raccoon—I could see exactly what he was scheming.

He didn't want to let me go.

A simple transactional relationship must have felt insufficient.

So he was using his son as a hostage—no, a tether—to bind us together.

'Ruthless old man.'

Making his son do this the moment he woke up.

But what was really complicating things in my head was something else entirely.

'Is this really the Demon King, Park Jihun?'

I scrutinized the guy sniffling in front of me.

The Park Jihun I knew from the future was nothing like this.

Taciturn, cold-blooded, devoid of tears or mercy. An absolute ruler.

A sovereign who had dominated the underworld with overwhelming charisma.

And yet what stood before me now was, for all intents and purposes, neighborhood thug's lackey number one.

What was with that way of talking, and why were his eyes sparkling like a puppy's?

'Did three years of lying comatose scramble his brain?'

Or had the ruthlessness I knew been a personality forged after the fact?

"Boss! Please! I'll do odd jobs, anything! Driving, cleaning, laundry—I'm good at all of it!"

Park Jihun slammed his head against the ground again.

"Huh? What's that about?"

"Must be a gangster. Scary."

"Maybe a debt collector?"

Before I knew it, murmuring voices had gathered.

Neighbors from the unit next door and upstairs had come out to watch.

A man in a suit kneeling at the entrance of a semi-basement apartment and shouting at the top of his lungs—of course it drew stares.

At this rate, someone was going to call the police.

I let out a deep sigh.

"......Get up."

"Does that mean you'll take me?"

"Just get inside first. People are watching."

"Thank you! Boss!"

Park Jihun sprang to his feet.

Color returned to his face.

He stepped into the cramped studio.

Park Jihun sat ramrod-straight at the edge of the sofa.

Hands placed neatly on his knees. A respectful posture.

I handed him a glass of water and asked.

"Are you serious about this?"

"Dead serious. My father said it himself. He said you're a man destined to become a dragon."

At least he was honest.

I rested my chin on my hand and studied him.

He was plenty useful.

The future Demon King. An S-class Awakened.

Frail and wasted as he was right now, his potential was beyond question.

Above all, the biggest advantage was being able to wield Chairman Park's organization like an extension of my own hands and feet.

It would be perfect for handling the minor tasks I didn't need to deal with personally.

'He's too good a talent to let walk away.'

Besides, this bumbling version of him might actually be easier to manage.

"Fine."

I nodded and spoke.

"But I have conditions."

"Name them!"

"First, my word is law. Don't talk back."

"Of course!"

"Second, don't act on your own without my permission. If you cause trouble, it won't be Chairman Park burying you—it'll be me."

"I'll keep that in mind!"

When I fixed him with a cold stare, Park Jihun swallowed hard.

He sensed it instinctively.

That my words were not idle threats.

I waved him off.

"Now go. I'll call you when I need you."

"Huh? Already? Want me to give you a massage or something?"

"......"

"I'm gone!"

Park Jihun shot to his feet like a freshly drilled recruit and bowed at a ninety-degree angle.

Then he handed me a business card and said:

"Rest well, Boss! I'll be on standby twenty-four seven!"

"Keep it down. You're disturbing the neighbors."

"S-sorry. When you call, I'll shut my mouth and come faster than light."

The guy walked out the front door with a big goofy grin.

SLAM.

The door shut.

Silence returned to the room.

I looked at the bag of money sitting on the table.

Three hundred billion in total. Plus a subordinate thrown in as a bonus.

"......Ha."

A hollow laugh escaped me.

I'd suddenly gained a little brother.

The future king of the underworld had come rolling in of his own accord.

If I could set him on the straight and narrow, that wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

'Life's full of surprises.'

A development I never could have imagined.

But not a bad one.

The world was vast and there were too many gods to hunt down for me to shoulder everything alone.

'Now the question is......'

Where to spend three hundred billion in cash.

The answer was already decided, of course.

'Battle Emperor Yamamoto. I need to confirm whether he's an Avatar or not.'

***

"Why are you back so soon?"

Chairman Park snapped at the sight of Park Jihun.

He'd sent the boy off to do odd jobs if nothing else, and here he was, back in less than half a day.

But Park Jihun was unapologetic.

"Boss told me to go home."

"Did you deliver the money properly?"

"Yes."

Chairman Park stroked his chin.

The real reason he had sent the barely recovered Park Jihun to Kim Jeong-seok was, in truth, to forge a bond.

Seeing Park Jihun's gaunt condition, it would be hard for anyone to refuse.

If they established a relationship as brothers, it would undoubtedly pay dividends in the future.

'He's a man destined to become a dragon.'

Chairman Park had met many people across his long years, and he was certain.

Kim Jeong-seok.

He was 'the real thing.'

A talent who would define an era.

Was it because his ability to appraise goods was exceptional?

Or because his talent for utilizing them was outstanding?

Or because he had saved his son?

None of those.

It was far removed from such simple sentiments.

On the surface, the man appeared utterly ordinary.

But the more you learned, the more he exuded an aura that was beyond reach.

Those who carried that kind of aura invariably became beings beyond reach.

Especially in times like these.

'I must establish a connection now.'

The monsters that had appeared out of nowhere.

The anomalies that kept piling up.

And a humanity that had gained superhuman power.

In a future where no one could see even one step ahead, people like Kim Jeong-seok were destined to rise to prominence.

Which meant that if not now, forging that connection would only grow harder.

The coming age would be a savage one, ruled by force.

'I need to be prepared.'

If he could bind himself to someone like Kim Jeong-seok through money, a paltry three hundred billion was pocket change.

Moreover, the goods the man had brought were exceptional beyond measure.

He had an eye for value. He had foresight as well.

These Relics would allow them to seize the high ground.

To build an armed force and brace for the chaos to come.

"Jihun-ah."

"Yes, Father."

Park Jihun looked at Chairman Park with a tense expression.

Chairman Park spoke in a tone of the utmost gravity.

"Serve him with everything you have. That's the only way someone as lacking as you will survive."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"But that doesn't mean you can stand still. You need to get stronger too."

"......I'll recover as quickly as I can."

Privately, Park Jihun was puzzled.

He had never seen his father treat anyone with this kind of deference.

'Is he really that extraordinary?'

Honestly, he had his doubts.

When he'd met the man in person, he hadn't seemed all that impressive.

He had simply done his best because Kim Jeong-seok was the benefactor who had saved his life.

But his father, Chairman Park, never made a move without reason.

And that man kept vouching for Kim Jeong-seok, again and again.

Which meant Kim Jeong-seok held tremendous value.

Park Jihun dismissed his doubts.

As his father said, the priority right now was recovering his body.

***

Yamamoto.

In Japan, there was no one who didn't know that name anymore.

The man who had risen to second place in the Hall of Fame for Episode 1.

A once-in-a-generation hero who had saved countless lives.

He had proven himself again by claiming second place in Episode 2 as well.

But.

"......NONAME."

Yamamoto tilted his head as he gazed at the Hall of Fame.

Someone had taken first place by an overwhelming margin.

Without even revealing their name.

Did they have no interest in money or glory?

Sure, there could be people who were detached from material things.

But Yamamoto thought differently.

'Can a human with no desire reach first place?'

Impossible.

Desire was the driving force that moved human beings.

In fact, not a single person ranked in the upper echelons of the Hall of Fame had hidden their name.

Because that was human instinct.

Because every one of them possessed the primal urge to broadcast their greatness to the world.

And yet the person who had reached first place—who had done so by an overwhelming margin—hid their name?

When they should have been shouting it from the rooftops?

Please.

'That's not human.'

Something like that was not human.

And if it wasn't human.

'An Avatar.'

It had to be a god's Avatar.

Just like himself.

A fabrication created by one of the gods in the Tower.

But even this struck him as odd.

The Game.

It meant 'to enjoy.'

Countless Avatars didn't hesitate to reveal themselves.

Because they relished being worshipped as heroes.

Even though they were, in reality, the very culprits engineering all manner of Disasters and steering the world toward ruin.

They couldn't let go of the thrill that came from that gap.

And yet, this one hid their name.......

On top of that, the point differential.

'They must have fed a massive amount of Nectar to that Avatar.'

Whoever it was, they were probably no ordinary god.

The only beings capable of spending Nectar like water were gods of the Supreme Tier at minimum.

The more Nectar you fed an Avatar, the closer it came to possessing the same Divinity as the original body.

The problem was the backlash.

If an Avatar cloaked in Divinity was destroyed, the original body would suffer severe damage in turn.

Furthermore, it was embarrassing.

It would mean that a god of that caliber was pouring everything into raising a mere Avatar.

In other words, they had gone beyond the scope of what qualified as 'the Game.'

'Hiding their name out of embarrassment?'

That was possible.

If their identity were ever exposed, they'd be pointed at and mocked across the entire Tower of God.

Their reputation among the gods would plummet to rock bottom.

......Who could it be?

Yamamoto found himself strangely fixated.

It was only the Game, and yet the fact that first place had been ceded by such an extreme margin nagged at him.

And so.

'Maybe I should feed this one a little more.'

It might be wise to feed more Nectar to this Avatar—Yamamoto.

Even a fraction of the vast Nectar at his disposal would be enough to surpass any run-of-the-mill Lesser god with ease.

Ahh.

Only then did Yamamoto understand this emotion.

Competitive spirit.

Right now, Yamamoto was feeling an unmistakable competitive drive toward 'NONAME.'

And so.

'Next episode, I win.'

He would win. Without fail.

Especially since the rankings in the next episode were extraordinarily important.

That he was thinking this way was, in a sense, only natural.

Yamamoto.

His true form was a god who never tolerated competition.

A god who crushed everything and stood at the apex.

......One of the Twelve Sovereign Gods—the God of War.