First Place Revealed
Inside a spacious office.
CRACK!
Drakestar slammed his fist down on the desk. The steel surface split cleanly in two in an instant, and everyone nearby trembled in fear.
The Hero Alliance.
It had begun with grand ambitions, yet its end was pitifully meager.
Listening to the endless chatter flooding every media outlet, Drakestar’s pupils began to quiver madly.
Nowhere was there any mention of Drakestar.
Major newspapers and broadcasters spent every day talking only of Park Taewoo and the God of the Black Egg. An invasion on this scale had never happened before, so the shockwaves were the greatest in history—yet no one paid any attention to Drakestar, the man who had led the Alliance.
“……Is this all? I’m the one who formed the Alliance, aren’t I?”
Drakestar’s face twisted with rage. He had played a major role in the war as well. Had he not gathered people as the face of the Alliance?
And that was not all.
“How much money did those bastards take from me?! Those swindling sons of bitches dare……!”
He had poured tens of millions of dollars into prominent American newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. Yet they had wiped their mouths clean as if nothing had happened and turned their backs on him.
At that moment, one Alliance member carefully opened his mouth.
“That’s probably why they’re deliberately avoiding any mention of you…….”
“What?”
Drakestar’s eyes flared savagely as he glared. But the water was already spilled. The Alliance member trembled from head to toe as he forced the words out.
“T-This war…… public opinion of you, Lord Drakestar, isn’t exactly favorable, is it?”
“Public opinion of me is bad? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Th-That’s…… I-I’m sorry. I’ll try contacting them again.”
The ashen-faced Alliance member hurriedly bowed his head. But everyone present already knew the truth.
What the hell did he even do…….
Damn it. Just because he’s the Alliance commander?
Master’s time was better than this!
They all knew Drakestar had done absolutely nothing in this war. He had formed the Alliance, gathered the players, and generated some buzz—and that was it. Even that was being judged as “worse than Master.”
At least Master would have formed the Alliance faster and run joint training exercises in advance. But Drakestar had been so arrogantly certain of victory that he took no measures at all.
A 3-star Transcendent? Drakestar, who defeated Gracia? The plan to use multiple Stars to raise more superhumans?
All of it was only half true.
No matter how you look at it, he seems weaker than Gracia…….
I heard more people died from incompatibility after force-feeding them Stars.
Is he even really a 3-star Transcendent?
There had been people who transcended using Stars. But most of them had died from “incompatibility.” That truth had not yet leaked outside. More than anything, the figure Drakestar cut on the battlefield simply lacked Gracia’s impact, no matter how many times you watched it. At this point, people were starting to suspect that even the original video of him matching Gracia had been faked.
That was why the paid-off journals were avoiding any mention of Drakestar. Better for both sides if they simply said nothing at all.
He didn’t make any eye-catching contributions, he didn’t fight to the end, and he didn’t even properly encourage the Alliance members…….
Nothing special about him, yet his nose is stuck in the air.
Sigh, I miss Master.
Every Alliance member present wore a private look of despair. At least Master had kept internal discipline tight. Drawing on his experience as a city ruler, he created an environment where his subordinates could work harder, and even if he cursed them to their faces, he took care of them behind the scenes far more often.
Drakestar was the opposite. He demanded everything and gave nothing in return. He seemed to regard his subordinates as nothing more than outlets for his emotions.
“Park Taewoo is better than me?! Those bastards have eyes worse than a rotten pollack’s!”
Drakestar spat curses without pause. He simply could not accept that Park Taewoo—whom he had always looked down on—was being treated as the true hero. A dragon had been born from that tiny scrap of land called Korea, a place he had never even considered.
That’s why you should’ve stayed and fought to the end instead of running.
Runkestar isn’t called Runkestar for nothing.
Honestly, he was less noticeable than even Union, let alone Park Taewoo.
The runaway leader Drakestar…… how the hell did he even get 3rd in contribution?
But if 2nd is Park Taewoo and 3rd is Drakestar, then who’s 1st?
Even so, everyone was curious about the Hall of Contribution. First place still had not been revealed. Could there really be a player with higher contribution than Park Taewoo, who had summoned Lucaria?
If there was, it would have to be the newly born Blade Dragon God. But that queen-like existence, the Blade Dragon God, was no player. The black shadow that had taken away the rampaging Blade Dragon God at the end—people were certain that was the “God of the Black Egg.” The Guardian of the Black Egg had vanished along with him, after all.
So was he a player? Only players could have their names inscribed in the Hall.
Then does that mean the God of the Black Egg is a player?
Nah, no way.
That’s ridiculous.
“This is completely insane……!!!”
When Union came to his senses, he screamed. He simply could not accept the current reality. He had confirmed that the “Orthodox” he believed had no master actually possessed one. Worse, that “master of the Orthodox” carried a familiar scent—his own experience points, his own “rank.”
I got scammed by an Orthodox?
And yet the Orthodox had used him thoroughly. Not only had it stolen his experience potions, it had made him hostile toward Isera. When Union, who had fought Isera and ultimately lost, opened his eyes again, what he saw was the black shadow, the Blade Dragon God, and the Orthodox vanishing together with them.
Just who the hell is that shadow?
It had absorbed his experience points—experience that should have been impossible to absorb. It had taken in the Blade Dragon God that killed Isera, acted as the Orthodox’s master, and disappeared. To think such a being existed in this world of sinners.
The Emperor…….
It felt exactly like looking at the “First Emperor.” The Emperor who founded the new Arhon Empire still slept even now. But Union was one of the few who had seen that Emperor’s majesty with his own eyes—the dignity that could truly be called “Absolute.”
I can’t even go back.
Moreover, every invasion warp had closed. ……He had lost even the path home.
Damn it. Union bit his lip.
“Looks like you’ve lost your way as well.”
Just then, a man approached Union. A strangely familiar face.
“You’re…… definitely.”
“Gracia. And you must be Union, the Mage of the Golden Rule.”
Yes. The white-haired man who had briefly crossed paths with him when he first arrived in this world of sinners. Calling himself Gracia, he walked up to Union without the slightest hesitation.
“What business do you have with me? Looking to die?”
“I was going to tell you about the Death God you brought along, but it seems you don’t need it.”
“What? Wait……!”
Union grabbed Gracia as he turned to leave. Gracia merely shrugged.
“So you are curious after all.”
“That Orthodox…… do you know something about the Death God and its master?”
Nod!
Gracia nodded. In truth, Gracia knew more about the Orthodox than most. He was the only human who had faced Baal in the Abyss and confirmed the truth about the “God of the Black Egg” to the very end.
Gracia spoke.
“That Death God took my youth. What did it take from you?”
“I…… something similar.”
Experience points and soul—both had been stolen, but he did not mention it. Two men who shared the same wound. Both had lost something precious to a Death God. Of course, neither felt any pity for the other.
However.
“I think we could make rather good partners.”
“……Allies, you mean?”
Union frowned at the sudden proposal. Gracia maintained his composure regardless.
“Yes. We…… must clear the second floor of the Rift Tower no matter what.”
A five-person party to climb the Rift Tower. Gracia intended to start gathering party members in earnest. He was certain the answers lay there.
Union’s brow furrowed.
“You and me? Is there any real reason we have to?”
“Because the one we’re chasing will climb the Rift Tower as well.”
“……On what basis?”
“The master of that Death God—I know him.”
Gracia had not sat out the war. He had quietly guarded the Dragon Vein. He had judged that protecting the Dragon Vein was the most important task in this war. So when the “black shadow” burst out of the Dragon Vein and vanished together with the “Death God,” how shocked had he been?
Union was not the Death God’s master, but that black shadow clearly was. Or more precisely…….
“……You know him? Who is it?”
“Dreadful Omen. If my guess is correct, he is the Fifth Lord.”
“Wait. The crow king who newly appeared under the White King?”
Nod!
Gracia was certain. The form of Dreadful Omen reflected in the shadows. That he was the “God of the Black Egg.” That was why people called the black shadow the God of the Black Egg. But Gracia had gone one step further. That Dreadful Omen was unmistakably the crow king, the Fifth Lord.
He had several reasons for thinking so.
Park Taewoo suddenly discovered Dragon God Lucaria’s Dragon Vein. And though it hasn’t been made public yet, ownership of the Ruins City Rundela was transferred from the Fifth Lord to Park Taewoo.
None of this could be coincidence. The one who contacted Park Taewoo was definitely the Dreadful Omen inside the Dragon Vein. Since the Omen could control the Blade Dragon God, it had surely located the other Dragon Gods and informed Park Taewoo as well. And right after the war ended, the title to Rundela that the Fifth Lord had claimed quietly transferred to Park Taewoo. There had clearly been some kind of deal between them. Probably the price for summoning and bringing Dragon God Lucaria.
That was proof that the Fifth Lord was Dreadful Omen. And if Dreadful Omen was the Fifth Lord, then he would surely climb the Rift Tower together with the other lords.
That’s not all. The Dreadful Omen I saw was clearly in human form.
Yet what he had seen with his own eyes was a human form—so why had it appeared here as “Dreadful Omen”? Had a human transformed into Dreadful Omen, into the Fifth Lord? How? Was that even possible while avoiding the White King’s eyes?
If Dreadful Omen, if the Fifth Lord, is a human and a player, then he will definitely appear in the Hall of Contribution in some form.
More than anything, only players could freely travel between Pangenia and Earth. And Dreadful Omen had appeared in both the Abyss and on Earth. So Gracia formed one more hypothesis. The question of whether Dreadful Omen, the Fifth Lord, was actually a player.
Phantom Randolph.
Not the Fifth Lord Randolph, but “Phantom Randolph”!
Gracia had been watching the Hall of Contribution carefully. The still-unrevealed first place. The one who had achieved higher contribution than Park Taewoo or Drakestar. The Blade Dragon God was not a player, so no matter how he thought about it, the only one who could surpass those two in contribution was Dreadful Omen.
Whether the name was revealed or not, he would be able to make deductions either way.
At that very moment.
The 1st place of the Hall of Contribution has been revealed!
Seeing the name that suddenly appeared in the Hall, Gracia could only stare in shock.
“What in the world……?!”