188. Gale Slayer (1)
The Arab Republic of Egypt.
The incumbent president was being driven to despair by the monsters that had recently appeared.
The Middle East war?
The issue of Ethiopia’s Nile River dam?
Desertification caused by climate change?
Compared to those dreadful monsters, such things were minor problems.
ㄴThe one wielding the golden scythe is still rampaging!
ㄴIt’s a terrifying monster! Egypt’s rankers can never handle it! It seems we need support from world rankers!
ㄴIt spares neither humans nor monsters! It seems to cut them down and then absorb them!
ㄴI-it’s gotten bigger!
Those were the reports coming in every single day.
And it was not even just one of them.
ㄴAnother one has appeared on the eastern Libyan border!
ㄴThis is a disaster! There’s one in Minya in central Egypt, and another in Tobruk in eastern Libya...... There’s just no answer to this situation!
ㄴIsn’t there any way to stop them?
ㄴAnother city has fallen!
ㄴThe people are fleeing the country. They’re crossing in huge numbers into Africa and Europe! At this rate, the nation itself could collapse in an instant!
The tragic news pouring in from all over never ceased.
This was a situation that could never be stopped with their own strength alone.
If they could just hold out a little longer, they might be able to receive help from Europe, but.... the situation was too urgent to simply wait.
At this rate?
He might have to step down from the position he had held for ten years.
And what awaited him after that might very well be death.
What had ever been the fate of dictators?
There was no such thing as a peaceful retirement.
The highest probability was that a new leader would have him quietly eliminated.
“Huu.”
In other words.
As president, he had to resolve this situation somehow.
There was only one way.
‘Baek Jinwoo.’
He had to invite him, just as Portugal had done. No matter what price he had to pay.
At that moment.
Knock, knock.
His executive secretary came in and delivered new information.
“This is insider information from the Korean side! They say SKY is looking for another country to support after Portugal.”
“Oh, really?!”
The president shot to his feet.
It was wonderful news.
Please, let it be Egypt!
“What kind of country are they looking for? Is there no more detailed information?”
Since his own life was at stake, the president’s voice was desperate.
“Well... the conditions are a bit unusual.”
“Unusual?”
“Yes. They say they will go to the side offering the higher-value reward, but they will not accept assets intended for the public good of a nation, only privately owned assets......”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“In other words...... it seems they mean they will not accept money mixed with the blood and tears of ordinary civilians, at least outwardly.”
“What kind of hypocritical......”
“Well, they’re a group the entire world is watching.”
“Hah.”
Suddenly, his headache started throbbing again.
“First, call in the prime minister and every last minister.”
An emergency meeting was needed.
* * *
CEO Yoo’s office.
“Hoo.”
Yoo Jia let out a light sigh.
The one who had spread the rumor under the name of insider information was none other than her.
She had released it only to Egypt.
‘The answer is already decided anyway.’
Baek Jinwoo was going to Egypt to help.
Because the golden scythe monster he was looking for was over there.
But?
It could not be done just like that.
Since they were going anyway, they had to squeeze out as much as possible.
‘Egypt’s leader, Abdel Parsha.’
She had no personal grudge against him.
Harsh political repression, suppression of freedom of expression and the press, military rule, and all that.
That kind of thing was common in any country.
Rather, there were clearly parts for which he had been well regarded, such as driving out Islamic extremists and strengthening secularism.
But there was just one thing.
‘He has a lot of private property.’
With the cooperation of Britain, an allied nation, and MI6, she had investigated him.
A republic’s president should have been a public official, yet he possessed an awful lot.
Gold, real estate all over the world, and so on.
The evaluation was that he was less a clean politician and more an authoritarian dictator.
A man stuffing his own belly while the people suffered.
‘This should be shaken down.’
Thoroughly.
Wouldn’t the world become at least a little more beautiful if even just half of it were distributed to those in hardship?
It would also be good for the image of their guild.
Hehe.
* * *
Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
Abdeen Palace.
An emergency meeting was being held there.
“They say Bolivia has prepared 100 million dollars.”
“Sweden is offering 500 million.”
“......Why does that place have so much money?”
“We don’t know.”
“Hah, if I were SKY, I’d choose the country that pays the most too.”
“That’s the problem. There are far too many countries that need Baek Jinwoo.”
“We’re the urgent case here! Can’t the other countries just use some decent world ranker instead?”
“It’s all political, sir. You know that. Right now, just bringing Baek Jinwoo into a country makes public support skyrocket.”
“Hah.”
Hard as it was to believe, it was true.
SKY’s popularity was soaring all over the world.
“Now we have to choose.”
In the end, the president muttered while massaging his temples.
He himself, the prime minister here, and the ministers all had a great deal of wealth accumulated separately.
Should they boldly invest that and restore public support?
Or should they give it up and throw away their lives?
In truth, the answer was simple.
Nothing in the world was more precious than life. Without that, everything became meaningless.
“Minister of Finance.”
“Yes, sir!”
Ahmed answered immediately.
“If we dispose of all the real estate we bought under borrowed names, how much will we get?”
“......At market price, about 1 billion dollars. In a fire sale, about 800 million dollars.”
The answer came out of his mouth instantly, as though he had prepared it in advance.
Still.
They really did gorge themselves well.
1 billion dollars was nearly 1.3 trillion won in Korean currency.
“How much do you think we should offer, Minister?”
“......I am uneasy. There are simply too many participating countries.”
That was the biggest problem.
If they offered too little for no reason and got pushed aside by another country?
Then there really would be no answer.
“The Netherlands is especially aggressive. They could easily offer more than 800 million dollars.”
“Ah.”
That was right.
The wealthiest royal family in Europe.
King Alexander of the Netherlands had real estate, artworks, investment assets, and so on.
As king, he simply possessed them officially.
“In terms of wealth, we’re no less. Ours is just unofficial.”
“That’s correct.”
“Hmm.”
With a groan, the president sought the ministers’ opinions.
Everyone agreed.
If they were going to pay, they said they should pay heavily and decisively.
The president, who had been agonizing, also nodded.
“Sell all the real estate in a fire sale. Offer 800 million dollars.”
If they could only get through this one crisis, it was money they could earn again.
If they became greedy over a small amount, they could suffer a far greater loss.
‘If we’re going to do this, we go all the way.’
* * *
About two days later.
Late in the evening.
Egypt’s urgent official document flew in to SKY.
It bore a [Top Secret] label, and they had made sure to send an actual person with it.
Yoo Jia promptly took it and opened it.
The very thing she had been waiting for most.
Rustle!
As she unfolded the paper—
“Huh..”
She was startled.
“800 million dollars? What the hell?”
Have these guys lost their minds?
No, wait, did they even have that kind of money to begin with?
Yoo Jia clicked her tongue.
She had heard through the intelligence service that they had a lot of private assets, but she had never dreamed it would be this much.
In fact, the country that had offered the most so far was around 100 million dollars.
And even that was enormous.
That was 130 billion won in Korean currency.
Did it even make sense for an individual, not even a state, to hand over that much money so grandly?
“They really must have stuffed themselves a lot all this time.”
Reading the official document, it said that for the assets they could not liquidate in part, they would hand over real estate instead.
Well.
That much she could accept coolly enough.
‘Good thing I spread that rumor.’
It had just been a lightly tossed bit of bait, but she had reeled in a giant catch.
She might as well take it neatly, then distribute half of what she had originally planned to the civilians of that country to use.
Naturally, under SKY’s name.
When you’re at the height of your success, that is exactly when you need to manage your image properly.
All the more so if it was for Baek Jinwoo’s work.
Bzzzz!
Right then, a call came from him.
“Yeah, Jinwoo, I found it. Yeah. You can head straight to Egypt from there. They’re in the cities called Minya and Tobruk, so if you go there, they’ll guide you properly. Right, you’re saying we should get something in return too?”
As expected of a couple.
It seemed they had thought alike.
“Don’t worry about that part. I already took care of it well enough.”
* * *
Minya, a central city in Egypt.
This place, one of the country’s main agricultural hubs, had at some point become devastated.
- Kiaaaaaa!
It was because of the grim reaper wandering there.
The Reaper of Soul.
“A-ahhhhk.”
“H-hhhk!”
There were more than a few people sobbing uncontrollably on the outskirts of the city.
Thousands had already died.
There were no survivors left at all in the center of that city.
Those who had lost their families could not even leave their hometown, and instead wandered around the outskirts.
- Kiaaaaaaaaah!
Far away.
Whenever the cry of the Reaper of Soul could be heard, people trembled in fear and quietly hid themselves.
A city with nothing left.
But even for the city’s people, there was one hope.
“They say Baek Jinwoo is coming.”
“...Baek Jinwoo? The world’s number-one ranker?”
“They say he’s coming to get rid of that damned grim reaper!”
“Really?”
“And I heard SKY is giving money for the livelihood of those who used to live in the city? Only part of it, but they say they’ll even rebuild some of the buildings.”
“Why.....?”
“How would I know? How could I understand the thoughts of those above us?”
“....Muhammad himself must have descended.”
And at that moment.
- Kkirurururururu!
A wyvern’s roar rang out from the sky above.
“Huh?”
“No way, already?!”
The people who had been hiding came out one by one and tilted their heads up.
The Celestial Wyvern visible far off in the sky. At a glance, anyone could tell it was Baek Jinwoo.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“It’s Baek Jinwoo!”
“He really came to save us!”
“Please get rid of that grim reaper!”
At the same time.
The red-haired girl who leaped down from atop the wyvern gave them a special experience.
Explosive Dragon Sorcery, Secret Art - Ruination
Kugagagagagaga!
Spreading its wings wide as it descended, the red dragon unleashed its breath.
At the same time.
- Kiaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The place where the Reaper of Soul had been exploded.
That day.
A legend of a red dragon was born in Minya.
* * *
In Tobruk, a city in Libya, too.
Explosive Dragon Sorcery, Secret Art - Ruination
The method was the same.
Baek Jinwoo flew in riding a wyvern, and Explosive Dragon took it out in a one-shot kill.
Especially since the one in Tobruk was nearly the size of a five-story villa......
But in front of Explosive Dragon Wave, it was nothing more than kindling.
It was annihilated in fire.
[Baek Jinwoo’s astounding advance! Following Portugal, now Egypt and Libya too!!]
[Video》 Red dragon breath, footage from the scene revealed!]
[The SKY Guild steps in to support the victims! Could this be the dignity of the world’s greatest guild?]
Media outlets in every country poured out reports.
Reporters were having the time of their lives these days.
How easy must their work be when Baek Jinwoo kept handing them exclusives?
ㄴ Wow, is God Ji-nu really a god?
ㄴ Truly the dignity worthy of the world’s greatest player. This is what beautiful redistribution of wealth looks like.
ㄴ Forget dignity, what even is that video? Does that make any sense?
ㄴ No matter how I look at it, Explosive Dragon Sorcerer really is a total scam. It’s just absurdly overpowered. If that’s not S-rank, then what on earth is?
ㄴ Honestly, I’d believe it even if you said it was above S-rank.
He was making money too. And building his image too.
Everything was flowing just as Yoo Jia wanted.
And.
There was someone else for whom things were also flowing exactly as desired.
[You clear the sudden quest of ‘Gale Slayer’ (EX-grade)!]
That was Baek Jinwoo.
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