Chapter 142: The Harbinger of the Cataclysm Pt. 2
The meeting had ended.
Even after the Underdog, Lee Jun-Kyeong, had brought up the words of Set, the meeting had continued to discuss Egypt’s reconstruction. However, no one could remain focused on the meeting.
Everyone was thinking about what Lee Jun-Kyeong said.
“What are you thinking about?” Yeo Seong-Gu asked Lee Jun-Kyeong.
In the accommodations provided to the Korean Association, Lee Jun-Kyeong and Yeo Seong-Gu were in Yeo Seong-Gu’s room.
Lee Jun-Kyeong’s mention of the cataclysm had left a sour taste in Yeo Seong-Gu’s mouth, as it had been a mix of confidential information and information of the future.
“I don’t know how your words will affect us. The butterfly effect. Those people are the ones who drive the world, and the world can, and will, change as they make their moves.”
That was what Yeo Seong-Gu seemed to be worried about. About the reactions people would have after learning about the cataclysm.
However.
“There’s only one thing I’m sure about,” Lee Jun-Kyeong firmly replied to the Hunter. "That a lot of people will be able to survive."
“…”
“Based on the information we gave them regarding the cataclysm, they will try to make sure that they don’t lose their benefits. Therefore, their choice will be to defend their country in any way possible. That means that more people will survive in the cataclysm than in my history.”
The collision with Set had been unexpected and unthinkable.
However, if there was anything that they had gained from clashing with him, it was a chance for him to convince the world’s secret organizations about the cataclysm.
No one would have believed what Lee Jun-Kyeong had said if it weren’t for the terrifying existence of Set.
No matter how much Lee Jun-Kyeong had built a reputation, and no matter how strong he would become, they wouldn’t have believed anything he would have had to say.
However.
With Set, he was able to persuade them with his presence.
“You cheeky little brat,” Yeo Seong-Gu said ambiguously as if he was saying both a compliment and a curse. However, the smile around his mouth expressed something pleasant.
“So, let’s wish them all the best,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he closed his eyes.
The activated mana stream showed him the flow around him. It wasn’t just the flow confined to his body like it had been in the battle against Set, but it was the flow around it this time.
He could feel the flow beyond his body, the flow in the air.
Lee Jun-Kyeong slowly opened his eyes.
‘The change…’
He could feel it; the mana vortex was beginning.
The mana flow was swirling like a torrent around him due to the mana stream.
***
“To think he said it was a cataclysm…”
Yashin was a Hero of Takamagahara, Japan’s secret organization, and was a hidden influential figure.
His identity was confidential to the outside world as it was rumored that he’d be the next head of Takamagahara. Such an important figure had gotten directly involved in this affair of Egypt.
‘And just when I was trying to absorb the power of Egypt and make some contributions…’
At that point, he had heard a ridiculous tale.
To think someone would say a cataclysm. He knew that the information could be false.
He couldn’t guess as to why they would, but it was still possible that they could leak false information for some reason.
‘Could it be to benefit Asgard somehow?’
However, he had also gotten reports that the relationship between the Underdog and Asgard had many subtleties within it.
He wondered then if it could be for personal gain.
But still, at that point, what benefit could it bring the Underdog to tell the organizations to strengthen their defenses?
It was a difficult problem to judge easily.
Moreover, on top of that.
“What do you think?” he asked a person with long, straight hair.
It was a woman dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono.
With Yashin was a woman that no one had seen before, neither at the airport nor at the meeting. She was a peculiar woman. Her eyes were wrapped in bandages as if she was blind, and the sound of her breathing was strange, almost as if she wasn’t breathing at all.
Yashin asked her again, “Didn’t you also foretell danger?”
The woman wore the robes of a shaman and was someone who could never leave his side, as if she was another side of his being.
However, that existence was also why he hated such a creature.
She was a prophet.
"Uh… Uh…"
Slowly her mouth opened.
Her appearance was beautiful, but completely unlike that alluring appearance, her voice was almost boundlessly murky. A voice similar to that of a corpse and a snake, came out of her mouth.
"A disaster...is coming...close…"
“…”
She had been repeating for weeks that disaster was coming. Because Yashin was someone who listened to what she had to say, he found it hard to dismiss what Lee Jun-Kyeong had said.
“To think he called it a cataclysm…”
He had been thinking about it for quite some time, and in the end, he got up from his seat.
"Get ready."
He had decided that he needed to listen more about this “cataclysm.”
"I need to see the Underdog.”
***
After arriving at the Korean Association’s accommodations where the Underdog was staying, Yashin was completely stunned.
“...”
Ambiguous gazes stared back at one another.
Most of the people that he had seen at the conference hall were present here.
The Heroes of each country, the strong members of each secret organization, had come here to find the Underdog’s accommodations.
"Are you all here because of the cataclysm?” Yashin asked them as he couldn’t contain his curiosity.
However, he didn’t expect to hear an answer back so easily.
"Yes,” a man in a neat suit stepped forward and said.
Yashin knew his name and where he was from.
‘The Freemasons of America.’
They were the secret organization of the United States, and this man was a promising Hero there.
The United States had been one of the countries that had suffered the most when the gates had appeared.
It wasn’t from damage from the advent of gates or of monsters. Instead, it was because they were quite short of Heroes.
For some reason, the number of Heroes that they had was extremely small, despite the large land mass and the high population density.
The United States had become a small Hunter country, a country that had lost its light.
“If what the Underdog says is true…we need to discuss how to proceed once again. It’s an important issue for us,” the man from the Freemasons said to Yashin.
Everyone seemed to feel the same way, and the countries with fewer Heroes even showed signs of anxiety.
‘Even greater disasters could arrive compared to when the gates had first appeared.’
The Underdog’s words had conviction behind them, and they left those in the conference hall frightened.
Yashin bit his lip for a moment, and then asked a question.
“So, then, where is the Underdog?”
He had asked about where the Underdog was. Although they were all gathered in front of the Underdog’s accommodation, the crowd was only standing around in front of it.
“They say he’s in the middle of a meeting with Horus.”
“Horus…?”
“Yes, Horus. It seems that the bond between Egypt and the Underdog is deeper than we had thought.”
Yashin thought to himself, even with the supposed meeting, to think so many Heroes would just quietly wait.
There might have been differences in their levels of strength, but he still couldn’t believe that these Hunters, Hunters with incredible strength and status, had been left to just wait out by the entrance.
‘What in the hell are they talking about that is this important?’
Yashin looked over at the accommodations with a curious gaze. However, not a single Hero rushed forward to interrupt the Underdog.
At this moment, the Undergod was the one to unveil the information about the cataclysm.
He was the one who held the handle of the knife.
Therefore, everyone here knew that they shouldn’t go against the temper of the one holding the handle if they needed the help of the blade.[1]
***
“The cataclysm…did Set really tell you about it?”
The reason that Horus visited Lee Jun-Kyeong was simple. The Hunter had unveiled something that Horus didn’t know. Moreover, Lee Jun-Kyeong had even leaked it in front of everyone.
The fear of the implications behind it were what had brought him here.
Horus looked pale from worry.
“I didn’t hear anything from Set,” Lee Jun-Kyeong replied.
“...”
“Can you tell me what he did say then?” Horus asked.
Taking some time to think about it, Lee Jun-Kyeong then told him the truth, “He didn’t say anything.”
For Lee Jun-Kyeong, deceiving Horus was harder than deceiving anyone else.
[<The Desert’s Sun> watches over its two Transcendents.]
The Desert’s Sun was watching, and the two were connected by one Sponsor.
Although one of the two would soon lose their sponsorship, at this moment, because the connection was still maintained, they were unable to lie to the other.
“Then why did you make such a lie…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong explained, “It wasn’t a complete lie. Even you know, Lord Horus, that there is someone standing behind him, and…”
“...”
“Didn’t I tell you? That we had to find a way to survive.”
“Wait, then was that regarding…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded. “Yes. I was speaking about the cataclysm.”
Horus paused for a moment, but soon, his questions followed rapidly.
“Just how?”
As expected, Horus was asking the questions that Lee Jun-Kyeong had predicted.
“Just how in the world do you know these things, Mr. Underdog?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked up at the sky for a moment at Horus's question.
‘<The Sky of the Apocalypse>.’
He spoke to the bastard.
‘<Can you block the gaze of <The Desert’s Sun>?’
He rarely asked <The Sky of the Apocalypse> for a favor, so this was something that seemed to even surprise the Sponsor as well.
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> looks over at you.]
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> blinks its eyes.]
This was because it was rare for the Sponsor to listen to his requests.
Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t the only one, either. The Incarnations, the Sponsors, usually wouldn’t do any favors for the Hunters that they sponsored, just providing support as they pleased.
“Ha…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong sighed for a moment.
While Horus had been a reliable and trustworthy man, it wasn’t easy for Lee Jun-Kyeong to still tell him the truth.
He wondered.
Could Horus completely become an ally?
For someone of such strength, making a mana contract wasn’t an easy task, and there wasn’t any reason for him to sign one in his position.
There was only one method then.
“Can I trust you?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.
The most primitive method.
He had no choice but to just talk to the other person.
“You may not want to hear what I have to say,” he continued.
The past and the future that had already happened.
Egypt had been absent during it all, and this was about a future where the Hunters would rule the entire world.
This was a story that Horus might not easily be able to handle.
“I’ll listen to it.”
However, he was still a Pharaoh.
A Pharaoh that stood above all, whether he liked it or not.
“I am…” Lee Jun-Kyeong spoke with difficulty. "From the future."
“…”
There was silence and then Horus’ mouth twitched.
There was an air of holding back his laughter, and Lee Jun-Kyeong briefly let his stoic expression break at Horus’ laughter, someone who had only shown a serious side so far.
After seeing Lee Jun-Kyeong’s face, Horus recognized that the Hunter wasn’t joking.
“Don't tell me…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded.
“People have been waiting for a while outside. Hurry up,” Yeo Seong-Gu’s voice suddenly followed. Thus, a short conversation rapidly ensued, speaking about the future events.
Lee Jun-Kyeong confided in Horus, while Horus’ expression was changing from time to time.
The clock was running.
***
The meeting had ended, but those who had gathered in the conference hall had gathered again.
This time, they were in the accommodations of the Korean Association, which, while not narrow, weren’t large enough to comfortably accommodate them all.
They were all looking at Lee Jun-Kyeong.
The first thing someone said was, “Is there something you want?”
It was a Hero from the Freemasons of the United States.
He had suddenly asked Lee Jun-Kyeong what he had wanted out of the blue.
“I want to recruit you to the United States, Mr. Underdog. We will grant you whatever you want.”
“...!”
“...!”
Everyone was flustered by the man’s sudden offer. The reason why everyone had gathered here was to hear more about the cataclysm, but to think that someone would suddenly bring up a recruitment offer.
Before anyone could raise an objection, the Hero from the Freemasons continued, “Whatever it is you could want…we’ll grant it for you. Thus, would you join the United States?”
His eyes looked desperate.
"The United States is weak. If what you say is true, then the United States will be at the greatest risk considering we lack Heroes,” he said, looking desperate to the point where he might have gone on his knees.
“Please, come to the United States. We will do whatever it is that you desire.”
Everyone was taken aback.
The United States’ offer of recruitment was sudden and unconventional.
It was true that Lee Jun-Kyeong was a strong Hero. However, he wasn’t so strong that he should have been offered that incredible of an offer. If the United States really did need such a Hero, then they could have just made a similar offer to someone even stronger.
While the United States really did have fewer Heroes than some of the other countries, it wasn’t so bad that its past of being a world superpower had disappeared.
This was an incomprehensible offer of recruitment.
'The United States knows something.’
The look in everyone’s eyes suddenly changed.
Although it was true that they had gathered here to ask about the cataclysm, it wasn’t until this moment that they realized that the approaching cataclysm might actually be real.
They realized it because of the United States’ actions.
Their intelligence was at a level that couldn’t be ignored. Based on whatever information they had gathered, it was enough to make such an offer to Lee Jun-Kyeong. That meant that Lee Jun-Kyeong was such a precious commodity that they were desperate enough to grab him. Desperate enough such that this Hunter was willing to beg in front of everyone.
"The Philippines will welcome you!"
"Australia...!”
Suddenly, urgent voices rang through the room.
The most flustered one in the room, however, was Yeo Seong-Gu. As soon as he looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong…
Smirk.
…Lee Jun-Kyeong showed him a small smile that only he could see.
‘This can’t be…’
An idea popped in Yeo Seong-Gu’s head, but before he could even ask, a voice rang out over the din.
“Come to Japan.”
It was Yashin. He had looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong and spoken.
He was a member of one of the powerful Hunter countries. Among the Heroes gathered here, Yashin had the ability to reach the top.
The mana contained in his words weighed down on everyone and pushed pressure on Lee Jun-Kyeong.
“Whatever it is that you may want…”
However, right before Yashin could finish speaking, the building began to vibrate.
RUMBLE!
Someone shouted from outside the door, “It’s an earthquake!”
However, the Heroes' expressions were different as they heard the sound of the ground shaking.
Their expressions were more surprised and hardened.
This, this was something different.
“A gate has collapsed…”
It wasn't an earthquake.
1. A korean four-letter idiom. The closest equivalent in English is “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” 👈
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