Chapter 163   – Bibi’s Castle (2)

KH hotel.

Only the people invited could enter the assembly hall, but the content of what they would be discussing wasn’t a secret.

The main participant hosting this general assembly hadn’t appeared yet.

The assembly hall was decorated like a dinner party, and everyone was having a conversation as they gathered into various groups.  No one was paying attention to the food that was being laid out in a buffet style.

Everyone that had been invited were the best Roused that the world could offer.  Moreover, the main figures of the guilds were all here.

This was a gathering hosted by Kahng-woojin.  Some only needed this fact to move like migrating clouds to attend this meeting.  The medium-sized guilds weren’t even able to get a seat in this event.

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They were dissatisfied, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

Jung-minchan caught sight of a man with drooping shoulders within the crowd.  Minchan smiled as he approached him.

“Aigo.  Is that you, president Park?”

Hammer guild’s president Park-sahngoh was about to drink his beverage, and it had gone down the wrong hole.  He let out a cough.

“Hmm.  Kmmm.  Should I call you Prime Minister Jung now?”

“Ha ha ha.  Yes, I am Alandal’s Prime Minister.”

“…….”

At one time, he had been the president to this former team leader, who had been in charge of a lower end support team.  There was an awkward apprehension that was unfolding between them right now.

“I heard you had a hard time trying to set up this general assembly.”

“It was ridiculous.  Various guilds threatened me for an invite, and there were also terrorists that forewarned me of attacks.  Then there was the requests for….”

It seemed Park-sahngoh had a difficult time.  There were dark circles under his eyes, and his skin looked dull.  He looked to have aged significantly.

“I guess we were unnecessarily demanding with our requests.”

“No.  I fully understand why those requests were made.”

It wasn’t as if Minchan couldn’t sympathize with Park-sahngoh’s troubles.

This wasn’t a birthday party.  One couldn’t just book a place, then send out the invitations.

This meeting was being led by Kahng-woojin…

This general assembly was being done to disseminate more information about Alphen and the Dungeons.

Of course, the world’s attention couldn’t help, but be focused on this event.  Countless people sent requests or threats to obtain an invitation to this general assembly.  Park-sahngoh had to carefully plan out how they would be able to protect everyone.  First, he had to do an exhaustive search on finding a building, then the security personnel….

As time continued to pass, the interest in this event grew proportionally.

There was so much factors to worry about that it had been hard to advance in his work.

Park-sahngoh had suffered under such conditions.

When the KH guild insisted on managing the general assembly, Park-sahngoh immediately shoved the responsibility to the KH guild as if he was attempting to blow away all the stress he was feeling.

The location of the general assembly was decided to be held at the KH hotel, and the new invitations were re-sent.  Funnily enough, the new invitation was sent by e-mail.

The effort and preparations paid attention to by Park-sahngoh was all for naught with the change in venue.

The KH guild was relaxed in their preparation.

The complaints and threats reached a fevered pitch, but KH guild and Alandal ignored it all.

“Is this really going to be ok?”

“What do you mean?”

“Some guilds didn’t receive personal invitations, so they took it as Alandal ignoring them….”

“Our invitation was extended to every guild in this world.”

“No.  You guys only put up a post regarding that issue on an SNS post….”

“That should be enough.”

“…….”

They were dealing with the VIP Roused of this world.

One didn’t need to look too far.  Several large guilds in China had their pride hurt when they hadn’t received an official invite, so they weren’t attending this event.

Park-sahngoh thought about his past hardship, and these discontented guilds had caused a lot of friction.

“That’s their choice.”

“Ah….”

Was this really the Jung-minchan he had known?

It was said the office makes the man.  When did he develop such large balls?

At that moment, a stocky man approached them.

“Ah-oh.  Prime minister Jung.”

“President Baek..”

KH guild’s president Baek-jungdo approached as he massaged his shoulders.

“I roughed it for so long that any amount of sleep won’t recover my body.”

“Haha.  You exaggerate too much.  I heard you measured your rank again, and you were determine to be Rank AA.  Congratulations.”

“Huh? Did the news already spread that far?”

“There are article being poured out right now.  How could I not know?”

“Ooh-haha.  That is true.”

When Baek-jungdo returned to his guild, he had remeasured his Rank.  He wanted to check the result of his training.  Unexpectedly, his Rank had turned out to have gone up to Rank AA.

If one didn’t count Kahng-woojin, he would officially be the first Rank AA of Korea.

“Well, Jaemin will probably be measured to be Rank AA.  Of course, the Holy Maiden is at least a Rank S.  Don’t you think Blanka and Haesol is also Rank AA?”

“We haven’t measured them yet, so it is all speculation at this point.”

“Koo-kook.  Alandal is too humble.  We don’t even have to measure brother Sungggoo.  I’m sure he is at very least a Rank AA.”

“…….”

Jung-minchan wordlessly smiled.  Hong-sunggoo’s growth speed was the best in this world.

“Of course, it is contingent on him coming back alive.  Hahaha..”

“…….”

Jung-minchan couldn’t just laugh at Baek-jungdo’s joke.

Park-sahngoh’s eyes widened in surprise as he listened to their conversation.

“All the Roused of Alandal is at such levels?”

“Huh? I guess president Park doesn’t know much about it.  Even the new recruits they just picked up looked pretty good.”

“Huh….”

Was Alandal some kind of factory that churned out monsters?

How are they able to scout all these geniuses?

Park-ahngoh eyed Jung-minchan.  When he was with Hammer guild, team leader Jung-minchan had a knack for unearthing talented individuals.

Now he had moved guilds, and he had started out as the vice president.  However, he had risen to help found a nation, and he had become the Prime minister of this said nation.

‘Koo.  I shouldn’t have let him slip away.’

He should have held onto him.

He should have listened and given full support to Minchan.  However, it was too late to regret it.

“Ah.  It seems the president has arrived.”

The entrance became crowded, and the flashes caused by the cameras could be seen.  Jung-minchan headed towards that direction.  All the people in the hall focused their attention on the entrance.

Minchan saw Woo-soonghoon hanging around near the entrance, so he asked Soonghoon a question.

“Where did the president go?”

“I directed him to the ready room.  He said for you to hurry up, and prepare everything.”

“Kmmm.  Have you prepared the data?”

“We’ve been thorough in our preparation.”

“All right. Let’s hurry up and go.”

There was still one hour left until the appointed time, so why did they have to be so urgent….   The two headed towards the ready room.  Soon, an announcement was heard informing everyone about the start of the general assembly.

***

The room was reminiscent of a large lecture hall at a college.  People were packed into the seats.  Even if it was uncomfortable, no one complained.

Some of the guilds here were already aware of the information that was about to be discussed here.

The people, who knew this information, had kept it a secret.  However, Kahng-woojin would be revealing everything to the world.  There was no way to predict what kind of ripple it would cause.

The cameras were running, and it was being live broadcasted to the world.  Jung-minchan ascended the stage.

“My name is Jung-minchan.  I am the Prime Minister of Alandal.”

He had put on a relaxed smile on his face, but he was shaking inside.

His mother could have never expected this.  She probably never expected him to rise to a position where the world would pay attention to him.

Jung-minchan had wanted to be successful, but his ambition hadn’t been this large.  However, things somehow turned out like this after he had met Kahng-woojin.

“Before the king gets up here, I’ll go over a summary of the information we were able to find out about the Dungeons.”

Minchan put the power point he readied on the screen.

“Trahnet.  This word has entered our sphere of consciousness not too long ago.  It was first used by Alandal’s king.  It was introduced by Kahng-woojin-nim.”

The word, “Trahnet” appeared on screen, then planets started to form around it.

“We look at it as a network between planets.  Roads are constantly being made.”

The screen changed.

It was a picture of the monsters that appeared in the last worldwide Break.  It especially highlighted the Dragon that seemed to be wrapped around an enormous tree as if it was protecting it.

“The Dimensional lords use these roads to invade.  They are also called the Monster Lords.  The monsters are their troops.”

Then the pictures of the subway stations appeared next.

“The Dimensional lords each have their own separate Dimensional Domain.  This is what we call the high rank Dungeons.  These Dungeons are like gateways. However, they cannot open all the doors to come to earth.”

Afterwards, the screen changed, and the picture of a green gem appeared.

“If the Dungeon is a gateway, then the Return Stone is comparable to a key. ”

A successful clear created a Mine and a failure created a Break.

“Currently, thirty days are needed for synchronization.  If no one is able to take away this key, they are able to open this gateway.  This is called the Dungeon Break.  If one is able to steal the key, the monsters would haunt the Dungeon until the Energy is all used up.  It’ll turn into a Mine.”

Someone quickly raised their hand high into the air.

“How do you explain the Dungeons that Broke even though the requisite 30 days hadn’t passed?”

“The information regarding that issue will come out right after this.”

Jung-minchan moved onto the next slide.

“Basically, the owner of the house had opened the door.  A person from earth opened the door. Our king deterred the ex-Hwarang guild’s president Lee-sahngho.  He was the root cause.”

The screen changed again.  It was footages of when Kahng-woojin had visited the US.  It showed the missile terrorist attack and the Iron Golem Dolsae fighting the monsters.

“This place had been a test site.  It was the first time a Dungeon was formed outside of a subway station.  These experiments had been conducted by the Rivers organization and Professor Riola.  As you can see, they had succeeded.”

This had moved beyond just defending the subway stations now.

What could they do?  The sense of crisis pressed down heavily on the assembly hall.

“Now we will hear from Alandal’s king.”

No one directed it, but everyone got up from their seat when Woojin appeared.  It felt as if he was getting up to give a lecture.  He didn’t show his pleasure or displeasure regarding this situation.

He had a nonchalant reaction as if he had expected such a reception.

“Everyone should sit.  Everyone should know who I am, so I won’t introduce myself again.  I’ll just deliver my message.”

Woojin took out a purple colored gem from his possession.  It was letting out a bright light, and massive amount of energy was being emitted by it.

“In the recent fracas, didn’t some countries pick this up?  Britain also bought one from me.”

Currently, research was going on in many quarters of the world.  Woojin had put this secret information out in the open.  He spoke about topics and Items that was potentially worth billions…no, trillions of dollars.

“If you can gather three of these, you’ll have the qualification to become a Dimensional lord. Moreover, you can gain a Dungeon if you use one of these.”

Someone got impatient, and this person raised his hand as he spoke.

“Then Kahng-woojin-nim is also a Dimensional lord?”

“Of course.”

“…….”

The assembly hall stirred.

Moreover, the general atmosphere indicated that they had come to an understanding.  They assumed Kahng-woojin’s inexplicable amount of personal power wasn’t all his own.

“Aren’t you being very shameless?  You sat on something that is so profitable?”

Woojin turned to look at him?

“Profit?”

He grinned.

If seizing power was a form of profit, Woojin was enjoying the benefit of his actions.  However, it was also true that he had much more responsibility, because of it.

“Why don’t you go find one for yourself then?”

“…….”

It was a bit cheeky to say what Woojin had said, but it made the person sit back down.  Jung-minchan couldn’t help, but let out a laugh. It was a very Kahng-woojin-like answer.

“The important part is the fact that the road to earth is open now.  The invasion attempts will continue. This isn’t about profit for me.  Why would I be telling all of this to everyone if that was my aim?”

There was a hubbub.

Woojin continued to speak as a buzz was building amongst the crowd.

“I want to protect my family.  On a smaller note, I want to protect earth.  The fact that I protect the earth is secondary.  The safety of my family is my primary goal.”

Ah.  Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?

“Is there a way to do it?”

“There is.”

Kahng-woojin spoke confidently.

“I bought an aircraft carrier.  I’ll put my family on it, and I’ll protect it.”

At Woojin’s words, someone mumbled, ‘Noah’s Ark’, under their breath.

The atmosphere inside the assembly hall turned a little sharp.  The change in the general mood darkened Jung-minchan’s face.

It wasn’t evil for a man in power to be hypocritical.  Maybe Kahng-woojin was too honest….

“Are you saying you’ll only save yourself?”

“No, this is a warning.  My enemies aren’t all located in different dimensions.”

It was a warning.

Kahng-woojin, the greatest Roused of this world, revealed what was most important to him…  He said he would put his family above all else.  He was telling everyone not to mess with them.

“I don’t want to unnecessarily ramble on after calling all of you here.  This is what I what I wanted to tell all of you.”

Kahng-woojin looked at his stirring audience, and he spoke.

“What can we do when the enemies are gathering here?”

Was there a solution?  No.  They weren’t all gathered here, because the solution was known.

“We can lessen the number of roads connecting to our place. Then we can all fight against the enemies together.”

Currently, he was telling them the obvious.

This wasn’t anything ground breaking.  It was the stock answer.

Currently, they were doing all they could do decrease the links to the Dungeons.  The unavoidable Dungeon Breaks were blocked using a combined force.

The only thing different in this proposal was his plan to unite the world.

“You already have a method that’ll ensure your own survival.  Do you want us to act as meat shields for the bullets?”

Someone yelled out in anger.  Woojin smirked at those words.

“No way.”

Woojin boldly let out a shout.

“I’ll be leading the vanguard.”