Chapter 300

It was our last day before going to the war after the reorganization.

“O-Din!”

“O-Din!”

In some ways, this could be a utopia for those who had founded the old Bilderberg Club. Everything transcended nationality, race, and religion. It was no different from having a small world government. No big issues arose even if people used different languages, and all skin colors were mixed in one s.p.a.ce. This was indeed a miracle.

The founders of the former Bilderberg Club had hoped for this environment. They needed wars, financial crises, and political scandals to turn the world’s citizens into slaves who only moved based on their orders.

However, this world was on the verge of starting the Final Stage, so it was able to be controlled under the condition of killing monsters. No other techniques were needed to manipulate people, and everyone thought this was a tutorial. Therefore, the purpose of ordinary Awakened was the same. What they would end up doing with the abilities they obtained here once they went back to Earth was a mere side issue. Everyone’s priority was how to survive in the Final Stage and stay alive until the end.

Unfortunately, there was a truth that they didn’t know. This stage was a real battlefield, not a tutorial. Just like how the old Bilderberg Club and the new Jeonil Club had hidden the truth, I had no intention of revealing this fact to them.

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“O-Din!”

“O-Din!”

For them, this place had to be a ‘tutorial’ as it had always been. They needed a simple hope, that they could go outside after completing the Final Stage. There was no need to engage in fear tactics. Approximately five hundred thousand Awakened were shouting the same thing, so the crowd went wild.

I turned around and exited through the back door. At the end of the stairs was a large hall. There was no sign of wilderness. Those who had arrived were covered in the blood of the monsters and their compet.i.tors, and they were waiting for me in a solemn atmosphere before entering the field.

The five seats were in a semicircle, and the five rows in front of them were the same. However, it was different as thirty seats had been added in the back. They all stood up in unison.

Stump!

Yeon-Hee wiped the smile from her face. After I sat in my seat in the middle, the order in the semicircle then became Lee Tae-Han, Yeon-Hee, me, Jonathan, and Joshua.

“Sit.”

There was a change in the row of five seats across from me. First, Zhang Weilong (張衛龍), a Chinese Awakened from Tomorrow, had replaced the First Virtue. He was one of the First Virtue’s three henchmen, and he had taken the position by beating the other two compet.i.tors as the rule of the strong had been applied. As a result of their fights, half of his face hadn’t been fully regenerated. The bandage wrapped around his face was still soaked with blood.

The second difference was found in Revolucion (28). That was the stage that Yeon-Hee had started on, and the guy from there named Seong Joo-Hwan wasn’t good enough to attend the meeting. In general, Revolucion (28) was poor and weak. Therefore, his job was taken away after he gathered Revolucion (28) into the central area. Seong-Il was now sitting in his seat.

Therefore, the five people in the first row were now Zhang Weilong, William Spencer, Seong-Il, Ian Jones, and Deborah Belluci. By the way, neither Ian nor Deborah were from Revolucion or Tomorrow. They had used the pre-Awakened on their stage as henchmen like the First Virtue did, and their people filled most of the thirty seats in the back. Those who sat in the first row were their henchmen, and they had started the Stage of Advent from Revolucion (12), just like me.

***

No one dared to make eye contact with me, so Ji-Ae caught my attention as she was the only one looking at me. Her eyes spoke volumes as she sat between Gunnarson and Mason. I had finally met up with her again.

At that point, I widened my view, but I still couldn’t see Michael. His main force was Hera’s Lunacy, but his natural fighting talent was his real main ability. The fact that I couldn’t find him even on the last day before the Final Stage meant that he was truly gone. Moreover, Aoki Yuria, who had helped me establish Tomorrow, had also been removed like how the remaining Eight Evils and the Eight Virtues had been eliminated as their stages were considered one of the top stages.

However, no one here grieved for the lost ones. Even Joshua, who had Michael next to him a long time ago, didn’t look for him. Instead, he was burying his face in his hood and resting his chin in one hand.

I said, “There are forty people in total, including me. However, the name of this a.s.sembly will be the ‘Five People Meeting.’ From now on, the ‘Five People Meeting’ will be responsible for managing and supervising everything related to the five hundred thousand Awakened in this a.s.sociation. I will give you a chance to complain right now.”

The stupid ones couldn’t take those seats from the beginning, and it was time to suppress the idea of fulfilling one’s ambition. Everyone knew that the current hierarchy here would play the main role of the new world under the shadow of the a.s.sociation once we completed the Final Stage and went outside. People knew that those in leaders.h.i.+p positions would gain all kinds of privileges and authority. Just keeping their spots would naturally bring in what they wanted. This gathering was the confirmation of the new order as someone like Jonathan Hunter, who had embraced global capital and had incredible power in the outside world, was watching.

I stared at a guy who was in one of the thirty seats in the back. He would have understood the significance of this meeting more than anyone else. He had been keeping his mouth shut carefully so far, but he had already known about Jonathan, Joshua, and me from the outside. In fact, he was the one who had witnessed the fall of the former Bilderberg Club and the birth of the Jeonil Club. Since he wasn’t a famous politician or businessman, people didn’t recognize him. However, he was an influential journalist, and everyone knew of his name.

He was Peter D. Friedman, our hidden contributor. Like in the Bilderberg Club, he had worked for us. He had mainly been working to form favorable public opinion on the projects that the club had targeted and turned the attention toward the club to the outside matter. Of course, it had been a while since his appearance had changed over the years, but it was a moment when everyone was thinking about what to do after going outside.

He slowly raised his head as if he felt my gaze. He seemed to be well aware of his position as a former Jeonil Club member and one of the current leaders of the World Awakened a.s.sociation. Ambition, which was difficult to hide, appeared in his eyes, then vanished. Everyone had ambition, and that wasn’t a problem. It was more suspicious if someone didn’t have any.

***

“No one will want to fall behind at this point. Everyone would want to go back alive.”

Those here had a different reason to stay alive. It wasn’t because of their family, whom they couldn’t even remember that well. People like that could be found among those who were shouting my name outside. In fact, the Awakened sitting in these seats had reached this point by using the sacrifices and offerings of others as stepping stones. They looked gentle only because we were eyeing them. Each one of them was experienced with battles and had a murderous intention for their own benefit. The only difference between them and the original members of the Jeonil Club was that the Awakened were wearing armor instead of suits and holding weapons instead of pens. They would do anything for individual survival and enlightenment without any guilt.

Therefore, I was satisfied with them. In the past, those in this position were busy aiming at each other’s necks even in the Final Stage. However, they were now under the control of one name, but this wasn’t enough. These guys, in particular, needed to be tied up with harnesses.

I announced, “You must think that a world where you can enjoy anything will come at the end of the Final Stage. However, do you think things will go your way? I will tell you the future that you have ignored. The outside world is under the control of the military, and there are only a few of you. We haven’t even started the Final Stage yet. How many more people will die? The thing that is waiting outside for us is not an honor but a restriction. It’s oppression.”

People went quiet. There were some who quietly stood with murderous intentions, and some who calmly waited for my following words.

“The outside world won’t appreciate what we have done. They will recognize our sacrifice based on necessity, but our safety and freedom will be constantly challenged. If you live freely without following the laws, then those who currently sit next to you will come to snap your necks under the command of the military. Or you will be the one who goes around and kills your colleagues who become outlaws to fulfill your greed under the name of the military.”

I wasn’t the only one who thought that way. Similar stories had circulated in the past, and it would have been a topic that people might have brought up many times until now.

Nevertheless, their faces began to harden. There were several guys who would take their fighting spirit to the outside world even though it was supposed to be directed toward the Seven Demon Kings. The eyes alone were already burning the outside.

I beckoned the hidden contributor to the Jeonil Club.

I smiled thinly. “He has good judgment. He was a journalist who has won the Pulitzer Prize[1].”

Everyone turned towards him. His white hair hid his sharp eyes.

I asked, “You tell me. Do you think such a future will come?”

He immediately replied, “It’s up to your decision, Great Odin.”

Peter grasped my intention instantly, so his explanation didn’t end there. “It’s not just because of your performance. The influence you already have on the outside world…”

He continued talking in the direction where people were looking at him, “It’s not enough to say that you are controlling the world.”

How many people would understand the meaning of his words? How many people would be able to think of the Jeonil Club? It didn’t matter.

Peter’s explanation that followed was so intuitive that anyone could understand.

“If you wish, you can lift the martial law that has been declared in countries around the world and guarantee safety and freedom to the Awakened. The order established in the world is all derived from you, the Great Odin, and that is why I said it depends on your decision.”

William Spencer was from the frontier that had no official t.i.tle, but he was from a historic family that was inseparable from the British royal family. Ian Jones and Deborah Belluci were also from mainstream social groups. The majority of the people sitting in the thirty seats in the back must have been called successful people in mainstream society. They would be interested in the fact that a journalist who had won a Pulitzer Prize was sitting among them, but his words would have given them bigger curiosity and shock. They must not have thought of anyone who was more powerful than Jonathan Hunter of the Jonathan Investment Finance Group.

The invisible two layers of air in the room seemed to collide with each other. Then, the shock gradually subsided. When the eyes that alternately looked at Jonathan and me began to focus only on me, I opened my mouth with a heartfelt murderous intention in my voice. “The World Awakened a.s.sociation was organized with the Stage of Advent and future incidents in mind. Those who devote their allegiance to the a.s.sociation will enjoy the benefits…”

[* Storage box]

[Odin’s Golden Armor has been removed.]

[Zeus" Thunder Spear has been removed.]

“Always remember who is in charge of your life and death in return for those benefits.”

[Odin’s Wrath has been reinforced to Odin’s Thunderstorm.]

[You have used Odin’s Thunderstorm.]

[Target: Zeus’ Thunder Spear]

A tremor similar to a shudder made me thrash, then it burst. A hurricane came out of my mouth and pierced the ceiling and the s.p.a.ce that was blocked by the outer wall. Then, the violent wind sucked straight into the spear in my hand. The moment I hacked the ground…

Thud-!

The intense feeling that spread from my wrist moved up to the tip of my head. Light flashed at the junction of the spear and the ground. There were countless sparks of lightning being captured at the moment because they were microscopic. However, when they soared up vertically and turned, they became united into one endless bolt. It connected the sky and the earth, and it was a formidable power for one person to hold. Such a thing was unfolding right in front of my eyes, waiting for its new master’s orders.

“Those who hold their life dear will die first. Let’s go. We will finish the Final Stage and go outside together.”

When I hit the floor once more with the spear…

Zing-

Four lightning bolts struck the ground in different directions from the end of the sky. The points where the lightning fell, far from each other, would be the location of the Light Pillar.

Yeon-Hee, Jonathan, Joshua, and Lee Tae-Han got up after receiving my signal. There was a big movement following as their reorganized affiliations came behind them. All five hundred thousand Awakened were separated into four groups. The original guilds had been disbanded and now reorganized within one name, the ‘World Awakened a.s.sociation,’ which wasn’t numbered. They, my soldiers, were heading toward the battlefield.

[Until the Final Stage: 1 day 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds]

Tik Tok.

[Until the Final Stage: 0 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds]

We had to win. There was no more time left. I had to reverse the situation here.

Tik tok. Tik tok. Tik tok…

[You will enter the Final Stage.]

1. An award that recognizes achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. ☜