Chapter 465
Chapter 465
The evil god constellations were speechless due to the shock and bewilderment of suddenly losing their soul stones to the Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood.
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ laughs loudly!]
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ laughs even more loudly!]
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ laughs so loudly that you can hear him even from the most isolated corners of the Abyss!]
The Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood was laughing so maniacally that the good god constellations wondered if he wasn’t being too harsh.
The evil god constellations were trembling, barely able to get any words out.
[The ‘Beast of Swords and Spears’ is angry and asks the ‘Expert of Twisted Hallucinations’ what happened!]
Naturally, some of the evil god constellations were angry at the Expert of Twisted Hallucinations. After all, they were taking huge risks to invade Earth. This invasion could either make them even stronger, elevating them to the highest-ranks, or lead to their downfall.
Thus, the evil god constellations wanted to use their soul stones to attract the wandering mercenaries in the Abyss and sent their household members to Earth. However, they could no longer do so because they had just lost a fortune to the Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood.
The damage was tremendous.
...Of course, the Expert of Twisted Hallucinations wouldn’t be an evil god constellation if he were sympathetic toward the others in this situation.
You pitiful bastards! I’ve been spoon-feeding you this entire time, and you’ve become so arrogant! Don’t mistakenly think that you’ve gotten where you are with your own strength!
[The ‘Expert of Twisted Hallucinations’ insults the constellations.]
[The ‘Expert of Twisted Hallucinations’ plunders the realm of the ‘Beast of Swords and Spears’.]
[The ‘Beast of Swords and Spears’ is angry!]
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ laughs at what they are doing.]
Then they started attacking each other, proving once again that there was no such thing as an alliance between evil god constellations.
The Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood had one last laugh before setting out to leave. Now that he had collected his prize, there was no reason to get involved in this ugly fight between losers...
[The ‘Rider of Thirst and Famine’ plunders the territory of the ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’.]
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ is angry!]
***
“Well done, Illeya!”
“...”
Illeya was too exhausted to respond. She only managed to murmur something in a weak voice, something that sounded like “unscrupulous boss”, but Choi Yeonseung wasn’t bothered. After all, they had won!
‘We managed to win thanks to everyone’s combined efforts.’
“Thank you all for your hard work,” said Adaquaniel as she looked around at the other household members.
Choi Yeonseung and Illeya had been especially impressive in this battle, their performances unmatched. The rest of the household members also proceeded to praise them.
“...Wait. Are you okay?”
Barbagi cast Illeya a worried look, feeling rather uneasy.
Choi Yeonseung seemed perfectly fine, but Illeya looked like a corpse. Just how far had she pushed herself to end up in such a deplorable state?
“She’s okay.”
“Uhhh... Ughhhh...”
Illeya flailed her hands as she tried to speak, but her voice didn’t come out. Now, the other household members were really worried about her.
‘Um... Choi Yeonseung said she’s okay, so she should be okay.’
“Anyway, the Expert of Twisted Hallucinations will no longer be able to invade. He’ll be busy recovering from this defeat.”
Losing a constellation battle stung even for a higher-ranked constellation. No matter how strong the Expert of Twisted Hallucinations was, this defeat had to have been a heavy blow for him.
Not only would he have to pay a heavy price to Choi Yeonseung, but he had also lost the trust of the evil god constellations that were involved in the invasion.
“Now I’ll wait for my master’s next orders. Choi Yeonseung, I hope we’ll fight together again soon. If you want to join the tribe of the gray elves, let me know at any time.”
“I-I also look forward to seeing you again in the next fight. Ma-make sure to tell me if you want to marry a giant.”
Barbagi and Uranta said their goodbyes to Choi Yeonseung and left.
“?”
Choi Yeonseung noticed that Illaphael remained behind, and he looked at her in confusion.
‘Why isn’t she leaving?’
Illeya was Choi Yeonseung’s subordinate, so it wasn’t strange for her to remain. In addition, Adaquaniel was currently working with her, so she also had a reason to stay, but Illaphael...
“Choi Yeonseung, Illaphael offered to help us with our work.”
“Huh?”
Choi Yeonseung was surprised. The Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons had to be pretty busy at this time. His household members were spread all over Earth, trying to repel the invasion of the evil god constellations.
Thus, a valuable household member like Illaphael had no time to rest. If anything, Choi Yeonseung anticipated that the angel constellation would order her to relocate at any moment.
But she wanted to stay behind and help him and Adaquaniel?
...Could she really do that?
[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ gives permission.]
[He asks you to take good care of Illaphael.]
“???”
Choi Yeonseung was baffled for a moment.
‘The Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons...’
-He must’ve noticed.
‘...That’s really nice of him. Given how rigorous the angel constellation is, it’s probably hard for him to trust any humans out there to help his angels, but he trusts me.
-No... That’s not it!
The goddess of sloth couldn’t believe this. How did Choi Yeonseung always manage to come up with the most unlikely explanations and rule out the most reasonable ones?
-Huh? What are you talking about?
-The Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons is trying to pair that angel with you, Successor.
-What nonsense are you saying?
Choi Yeonseung scoffed at the goddess of sloth.
-Goddess, have you forgotten how long I wandered through the Abyss? I’ve seen everything from the darkness outside the endless Abyss to the kingdoms obliterated by the explosions of the defeated constellations.
-...What are you getting at?
-I’m very knowledgeable about the Abyss, and I know for a fact that angels don’t pair up with other races. Besides, the Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons cares deeply about his household members. He wouldn’t force Illaphael to do something so terrible.
-...
The goddess of sloth realized that this human-born constellation used reason only when it was utterly useless...
He was wrong, but she couldn’t refute his argument!
-Well... There are exceptions to everything...
-Yeah, sure. You think there’s an exception going on right now?
-Don’t snort and listen to me!
-Yes, yes. I’ll keep it in mind.
***
Following the constellation battle, Adaquaniel quickly had to return. She was in charge of defending the United States, and the situation there was apparently urgent.
“Don’t they have enough hunters to deal with it?”
“Things are changing every hour, and the future I predicted can also change. It’s safer if I go there and take charge myself.”
In fact, Choi Yeonseung wasn’t too worried about the United States. After all, didn’t it boast the largest number of high-level hunters and the best military power in the world?
Choi Yeonseung had stayed behind in South Korea because he had been scared that without his leadership, someone might screw something up and the country would go down in flames.
‘There are so many A-grade hunters in the United States... Can the evil god constellations really break through and conquer the country?’
Reports stated that the evil god constellations had managed to take over Mexico and North Korea, but no one thought that the United States would fall.
At the moment, there were many A-grade hunters in the United States who received support from constellations. Moreover, there had to be some constellations that were in contact with government officials and cooperating with them...
At Choi Yeonseung’s question, Adaquaniel nodded and said, “You’re right, the forces of the evil god constellations can advance no further.”
Just as Choi Yeonseung had expected, it turned out that the minions summoned by the evil god constellations had been stopped in their tracks.
After conquering several states and triumphantly building temples to worship the constellations, many of them had lost against A-grade hunters and had been forced to flee back to the Abyss.
The demoralized forces of the evil god constellations were holding out in the occupied states, hoping to somehow turn things around. However, the odds weren’t in their favor.
Furthermore, several of the evil god constellations involved in the invasion had taken a huge blow from the previous constellation battle.
“Exactly, so isn’t the situation fine in the US?”
“No, there are other problems.”
“Huh? Like what?”
“The economic crisis...”
“...”
Choi Yeonseung was hoping that Adaquaniel was joking, but she was dead serious.
Financial markets around the world were screaming due to the invasion of the evil god constellations. Factories were burning everywhere, trade lines were cut off, buildings were collapsing, and people were evacuating. At this rate, it would be a miracle if the world economy didn’t collapse.
In fact, companies were more afraid of the economic aftermath of the invasions than of the monsters...
Choi Yeonseung was aware of that, but he was still baffled that Adaquaniel, an angel of the Abyss, was so concerned about the management of his company.
That was supposed to be his job, not hers...
“Ah. Did you invest in anything?”
“No. I replaced everything with safe assets before the invasion broke out.”
Illaphael was next to them, listening intently and not understanding a single word. Just what the hell were they talking about...?
“We need to secure the most vulnerable factories as soon as possible... We also need power-”
“Groceries... Medical supplies...”
“Protests... Discontent... Risk of the evil god constellations infiltrating...”
“Media... Politicians... Senators...”
“...”
Illaphael turned to Illeya, who was lying down next to her, barely conscious.
‘Should I have pretended to collapse as well?’
***
In his younger days, Choi Yeonseung used to think, ‘If there’s a crisis, people will cooperate. Haha.’
As he got a bit older, his mentality shifted to ‘Okay, if there’s a crisis, they’ll cooperate to some extent... I hope.’
After some more time, his optimism faded even more, his mentality being something like ‘Alright, maybe not South Korea, but surely the other advanced countries would cooperate with each other in the event of a crisis... Surely...’
Of course, he had been terribly mistaken. The world was very different from Choi Yeonseung’s expectations.
“This is what happened! Even though they’re taking our tax money, those hunters are doing a terrible job! Americans are being deceived! I shall set everything straight if I manage to become president!”
The chairman of the Parker Group, Alex Parker, looked at the politician in front of him with a meaningful smile. He was talking to Mitt Huntsman, who was so dismissive that everyone in the Liberal Federalist Party considered him a clown.
Recently, he had been making all sorts of suggestions that made no sense during an invasion.
-Foreign hunters are coming to our country and earning cores. Let’s seize these cores!
-Our country’s hunters should be forbidden to go to other countries and help!
-The evil god constellations have managed to establish themselves only because foreigners are running amok! Let’s kick out the foreigners!
However, Alex Parker saw potential in this guy.
‘This clown might be surprisingly useful.’
To varying degrees, all American corporations had ties with political giants. Thus, politicians stayed out of corporate wars. After all, if they passed a bill that hurt one side, who would bear the consequences?
However, Alex Parker’s ambitions were different from those of other chairmen. He wanted full control of the United States. Even an A-grade hunter would be ridiculed and considered a lunatic if they had such ideas, but Alex Parker was serious.
Even the dumbest hunters out there who only knew how to throw punches were called to the White House to attend internal meetings, and the A-grade hunters had a lot of political power just because of their rank.
In any case, nobody could stop Alex Parker, who had been making significant contributions to the US and to the rest of the world, from trying to rule the country.
This Huntsman guy would be Alex Parker’s chess piece, and a useful one at that.
Surprisingly, Huntsman’s number of supporters had increased drastically ever since the United States had been plunged into chaos by the invasion of the evil god constellations.
-Let’s support Huntsman! He’s the only solution to our problems!
-Crush all the corrupt people and make Huntsman the president!
Of course, Alex Parker didn’t think Huntsman could become president. At the time, there were many popular competitors both in the Liberal Federalist Party and in the opposing Republican Democratic Party.
However, with Huntsman, Alex Parker could manipulate politicians to do whatever he wanted.
“You’re right. People from abroad are ruining the United States. Just look at Hunter Choi Yeonseung. There are protests saying that the US should step in and push him to S-grade. He’s not even American! Does this make sense to you?”
Huntsman paused, astonished by Alex Parker’s words.
“What? Wasn’t Hunter Choi Yeonseung American?”
“...”
Alex Parker tried his best not to call him an ignorant bastard.