Two weeks passed in a flash. In that time, three or four more eastern cities in the fourth and fifth zones collapsed. The exact cause was not made clear, but people guessed that a new Named Hispar-rank Chaos had emerged. The collapsed cities were lifeless, dried up, and filled with the remains of broken trees. Hence, this new enemy was named Dry Tree.

Meanwhile, the Capital was restless for a different reason. The Tortoise Emperor, Lee Kang-San, announced a Union Ranker meeting two weeks ago. Although attendance was optional, clans that did not attend would end up one step behind those that did. Most of all, rumors that this Ranker meeting was about their alliance with Faber had spread.

Clans that smelled profit requested Rankers affiliated with them to attend the meeting. There were also rumors that even Dark Human Rankers would attend. It was no exaggeration to say that the Union headquarters, the Empire State Building, was the hottest place in the Capital at this moment.

***

“Gurgh!” Seong-Hwi grunted as the veins bulging from his reddened face wriggled.

The ten Wings of Evolution emitted bright light.

“Are you sure that Friend Seong-Hwi is okay, Friend Lina?” asked Thumper, sitting on a desk as he swung his legs, licking his vanilla ice cream.

Lina, who simply looked into the eyepiece of her microscope without even a care for Seong-Hwi, glanced at Seong-Hwi and replied, “He won’t die this easily.”

“That’s true, but... You injected my blood into him, didn’t you? Mister Pippin told me that my Beast Force is the most ferocious in the history of Carrot.”

Thumper stared worryingly at Seong-Hwi. He had fallen for Lina’s temptation and let her draw his blood, but he couldn’t help but be anxious when seeing Seong-Hwi look like he was about to burst at any moment.

He continued, “That’s why my memory sometimes blanks. Whenever I come back to my senses, I always see a corpse in front of me...”

“Don’t worry, Thumper. Seong-Hwi is already a little insane. A little bit of amnesia won’t change much of his sanity.”

Lina stopped worrying about Seong-Hwi because this was the third time she was witnessing the Wings of Evolution accepting the genes.

“Why don’t we dissect him together if he dies? I’d bet his insides are pitch black!” she said.

“Friend Lina! Look!” Thumper shouted as he pointed at Seong-Hwi.

Two more wings sprouted from Seong-Hwi’s back. He was floating despite the twelve shining, iridescent wings not moving.

“Huuu,” Seong-Hwi exhaled slowly as he opened his eyes and saw Akasha Messages.

[The Wings of Evolution have evolved.]

[All stat calibers heightened.]

[Converting Ten Wings to Twelve Wings.]

[Available Stats: Battle Force, Sorcery Force, Harmony Force, Draconic Mana, Demon Force, Wraith Force, Kinetic Force, Holy Force, Chaos Mana, Mineral Force, Beast Force.]

...

His caliber was heightened again, and he could now convert Destiny Force to the Mineral Force of dwarves and the Beast Force of beastfolk. On top of that, the power of Sorcery Force and Holy Force had risen because he had absorbed additional genes of goblins and angels.

“Hmm...” Seong-Hwi groaned as he opened and closed his fists to assess his condition.

“Nine plus two is eleven, but it looks like you picked up yet another one. You got the one before from some crazy demon, but who did you get this one from?” Lina asked as she mumbled.

Seong-Hwi smirked and replied, “It was some crazy jelly this time.”

“Bachtasha, was it? I’ve never heard of such a Chaos rank. Word of advice, you shouldn’t use Chaos Mana.”

“I know,” Seong-Hwi replied.

Leaving the potential side effects aside, it was the perfect way to breed misunderstandings.

“Wow! I smell something familiar from you, Friend Seong-Hwi!” Thumper shouted as he approached Seong-Hwi, sniffing him with his pink nose. “You smell like a beastfolk!”

“Really?” Seong-Hwi remarked as he smelled himself, but couldn’t notice anything different.

“That aside, you already have twelve wings... How many are left?” Lina asked.

“Half,” Seong-Hwi replied.

Fairy Queen Dryas had granted him twenty-four wings. He could only sprout one wing initially because they had lost most of their power, but he had restored it to twelve wings by working hard to collect genes. No, they were not restored, but reborn, since nothing like the Wings of Evolution existed until now.

“I need more Karma,” Seong-Hwi mumbled after restoring his lowered stats from the heightened caliber.

He had earned much Karma from the war in Ferrum, but it was nowhere near enough.

I only have one S-rank stat. I also need to raise my Magic and D Weapon stats to S-rank to borrow a seven-card destiny safely.

Once he did, he would have surpassed his past self, who had been a Double-S of Magic and Destiny Force. Back then, his borrowed destinies of seven-card figures were highly unstable.

To be truthful, borrowing a six-card destiny with my current stats was also a dangerous gamble.

However, he had challenged it anyway and succeeded. If he hadn’t borrowed the destiny of Alexander the Great and embodied the Knot-severing Sword, Ferrum would have been reduced to ash.

And I was in optimal condition in that city.

He also believed it would succeed because he never once had lucid dreams, the side effect of Borrowing Destiny, in Ferrum.

“If that’s because of the Steel Rice Grain... I need more Karma.”

Once Seong-Hwi found out that he was the iron thief, it did not take him long to realize that the iron thief had emerged on the same day that his lucid dreams stopped. In other words, the Steel Rice Grain could suppress Borrowing Destiny’s side effects. His hopes for the item were so high that he had even fed it two items with S-rank potential.

“How much time has passed?” Seong-Hwi asked.

“About half a day,” Lina replied.

“Then the Ranker meeting should begin soon. Lee Kang-San must be waiting for me,” he said as he cracked his neck.

“You’re going to the meeting?” she asked.

“Yeah. I might as well see the faces of those high and mighty Rankers.”

Lina sighed once she noticed the bloodlust in his eyes and thought, What is this lunatic gonna do now?

***

There was a sea of people in front of the Empire State Building.

“The Ranker meeting will be held soon, right?”

“Yeah, hosted by the Tortoise Emperor himself!”

“I heard the Dark Humans are coming, too. If only they were all just arrested.”

“There’s no way. The Tortoise Emperor prohibited conflict among fellow humans during the Ranker meeting and the following week.”

Mutters echoed throughout he crowd, and the Baptists were waiting for the results of the Ranker meeting and the future direction of the Union. The lambs were no different; just like how the nation protected them on Earth, they wished for the Union to do the same.

The large banquet hall on the hundredth floor of the building was decorated with chandeliers and other gold objects. Unlike the Ranker meeting held before, the hall was jam-packed with around five hundred people because Kang-San had said the attending Rankers were free to bring someone to accompany them. He had also invited reporters known throughout the Network, so it was only natural for the hall to be so full.

“I think this is a first. Just what in the world is he going to announce?”

“Is he planning something with Steel King Bafor?”

“Dammit, look over there! More filthy Dark Humans are entering.”

Rankers entered the hall one after another, Dark Humans being among them.

Douglas Montgomery, a middle-aged white man, clicked his tongue as he tapped his shoulders with a cue stick, saying, “So many people on the wanted list that we can’t catch... At least memorize their scents, Team Leader Kim.”

“Yes, Captain,” replied Kim Seo-Yeon, standing beside him.

Miho fervently sniffed the surroundings on Seo-Yeon’s shoulder.

“Fox, why did you bring me, the Dark Flame Dragon Knight, la Notte del Drago del Gioco Oscuro, here? I despise places bustling with people,” complained Charles Dullin, a pretty boy with white hair and blue eyes.

Seo-Yeon turned to Charles and said, “It can’t be helped. Seong-Hwi oppa asked me to bring you.”

“Hmph, he dares to order around the almighty Dark Flame Dragon Knight? The familiar in my right hand, il Drago Nero del Caldo, is furious!”

The nearby humans laughed as they stared at Charles talking nonsense.

“Pfft, what is that cringey brat talking about?”

“I’m sure he has a few screws loose.”

“Are they part of the spec force, filled with incompetent dumbasses? Kekek!”

Although Charles couldn’t care less about them, Seo-Yeon’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment.

“Haaa... If it weren’t for oppa’s request...”

“Ahaha! I never get tired of this kid!” Douglas laughed.

“Captain! This isn’t something to laugh about!”

“Oh, look over there. More people are coming in.” Douglas, seeing that Seo-Yeon was about to get mad, randomly pointed at the banquet hall entrance.

Just then, a petite Asian woman in a windbreaker and jeans entered the hall with a Western blonde woman with freckles. It was Onie Yuki and Sonya Gerhard.

“Oh, that woman is...”

“The Puppeteer, Onie Yuki, sixth in the human ranking! The one who killed the Black Merchant, Filipe Kabuka!”

“I heard she’s been helping Black Market. Does that mean the woman beside her is a Black Market marketer? Or perhaps a director?”

Sonya frowned as she felt the showering gazes and whispered to her partner, “Yuki, I was against showing myself in the light.”

Yuki looked around with an expressionless, cold gaze and replied, “We have no choice. Lee Kang-San contacted us himself. He’s not one to backstab. We should be more worried about the small fry, but... don’t worry. If they try to pull something, I’ll just turn them into mannequins.”

The ones who made eye contact with Yuki quickly turned away their gaze. Sonya softly sighed.

Many more attended the meeting. Lee Bong-Seong, the Immortal Marine, was third in the human ranking and the leader of the conservative faction. Don Carlos Giuseppe, the Godfather, was fourth in the human ranking and the leader of Clan Loaners, the only black clan on par with the Cecil Hotel on South Earth.

Lazarus, the Pope, was fifth in the human ranking, the leader of Clan Vatican, and the leader of the dependence faction. Gai Weiguang, the Ten Heavenly Swords, was seventh in the human ranking, the leader of Clan Seven Swords, and the leader of the neutral faction.

Nicholas Art, the Heart Collector, was eighth in the human ranking. He was a conjoined twin with two heads on one body, and an infamous serial killer on South Earth. Nino Manfredi, the Titan, was ninth in the human ranking and the leader of the freedom faction. Lastly, there was Gustav von Seyffer, the new High Ranker and the leader of Clan Martial. Every High Ranker except for GM, second in the human ranking and the owner of the Cecil Hotel, was present.

What a crowd.

We’d all die if a war were to break out here.

What is Lee Kang-San thinking by gathering these nuclear bombs in one place?

Is he confident enough to single-handedly subdue everyone if it came to it?

The humans nervously stared at the High Rankers, their murmurs growing louder. Just then, Bong-Seong, an old man in his eighties, pounded his cane on the floor with his eyes closed. It wasn’t loud, but it sounded as if it had been right beside them.

Once the murmurs stopped, Bong-Seong opened his eyes to look at the entrance and said, “You’re late again. What an age of decadence we live in for the one who called for the meeting to be late.”

Just then, footsteps approaching the banquet hall were heard and revealed the main character of the Ranker meeting—Lee Kang-San, the Tortoise Emperor, first in the human ranking, and eighty-eighth in the world ranking.

“It wasn’t my fault this time. My junior took too long to get ready,” Kang-San remarked.

Behind him were Remy Martin, Evgeny Lazarev, and lastly, Seong-Hwi. Those who knew Seong-Hwi were shocked to see him entering with Kang-San, and those who did not know him wondered who the man entering the hall with the pioneering faction’s executives was. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“Who’s the one at the back? Does anyone know?”

“You know, the human who’s all the rage lately. RB.”

“So, he’s the Record Breaker. I heard he wasn’t affiliated with anyone, but... is he a member of Clan Martin?”

Remy, Evgeny, and Seong-Hwi joined the group of the pioneering faction’s Rankers. Kang-San walked down the middle of the banquet hall with a smile. All eyes were on him. His steps were so full of confidence that it felt like he could easily defeat every Ranker gathered here, even if they attacked him simultaneously.

“It seems most of you have attended. I’m happy to see us united for once,” Kang-San remarked.

“You hooligan... You’re the one who threatened to penalize us if we didn’t attend!” Bong-Seong said as he clenched his cane.

A large number of Rankers nodded in dissatisfaction, agreeing with Bong-Seong.

“Haha, but I added that you are free to attend at the end of the announcement, didn’t I? What do you think about this freedom, as the leader of the freedom faction, Nino?” Kang-San asked as he turned to a handsome Italian man with slicked-back brown hair, well-trimmed facial hair, wearing a white suit and brown dress shoes.

Nino gritted his teeth, recalling the humiliation he had faced at the hands of Kang-San during the previous Ranker meeting.

“The freedom faction, huh? It sure sounds nice. You’re a phony leader of children who want power but not the responsibility that comes with it. If you run your mouth like this next time, don’t expect me to be a phony.”

Kang-San’s words echoed inside his head. He wanted to retort somehow, but he couldn’t let himself be humiliated again.

“H-haha. Freedom comes with responsibility,” he said.

“Kekek. You’ve grown. Very good,” Kang-San said with a nasty smile.

The humans stared at Kang-San fearfully, watching him pick a fight with a High Ranker as soon as he entered the banquet hall. Kang-San finally stood on the podium where he could look down on everyone, and quickly scanned the hall. His attitude was all too arrogant, but others felt it was all too natural for him to act this way.

He declared, “Let us begin the highly constructive meeting for humanity’s future. Oh, you are free to speak your opinions.”

Everyone in the hall made sure not to interrupt him once they saw his smile.