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Chapter 659: Secret Duel (1)

A secret duel.

In truth, the very fact that a secret duel was taking place in this universe was not surprising in itself.

What piqued Yeongwoo’s curiosity, however, was the high probability that one of the duelists belonged to Delmir, a famous virtuous lineage.

“Even virtuous ones duel…? If we compare it to Doatel, it’s like King Teroph secretly sneaking out to pick a fight.”

When Yeongwoo said this, Jiseon, who had been quietly listening, widened her eyes.

—Delmir? I thought that sounded familiar. Isn’t that the place?

“Where?”

—Your coin. That thing—what was it—some kind of token of virtue.

“Ah.”

Blinking for a moment, Yeongwoo pulled out the mythical currency, the ‘Token of Salvation,’ from his chest.

Swoosh.

And sure enough, right in the middle of the tooltip, he could see the name ‘Delmir.’

— Doatel, Delmir, Shuaarel

【Protection of the Shelbir Royal Family】

| This token serves as a royal insignia substitute.

“Ah, no wonder. It did feel somewhat familiar.”

Looking at it now, it wasn’t as if they were completely unrelated after all.

“No, but then they must be someone of great renown… And they came all the way here to fight? What on earth is going on?”

At that, the long-haired man, tracking the trail of the ship that had disappeared outside the window with his eyes, spoke.

—No matter what’s at stake in the duel, keeping it secret is already impossible.

That was true.

Hadn’t they, unintentionally, created at least a thousand witnesses?

Moreover, about half of them were Grade 3 beings, so it would be impossible for the duelists to eliminate the witnesses by force.

—Uh, what should we do…?

Before long, Mantero placed his hand on the control stick and looked at Yeongwoo.

He was asking him to decide—whether to protect Delmir’s secret as it was, or to take the thousand or so ruffians along and go watch the duel.

In response, Yeongwoo glanced up slightly at the long-haired man.

“This is all part of fate, isn’t it? It wouldn’t be proper to just pretend we didn’t see anything and move on, would it?”

At that, the man let out a thick, hearty laugh for the first time.

—This is Delmir’s destiny. So if we don’t do our best, it would be discourteous to the board.

In truth, the man himself also very much wanted to watch the fight.

A secret duel between virtuous ones… how could one not be curious?

“Then the answer’s decided.”

As Yeongwoo signaled Mantero with his eyes, power soon began to flow into the propulsion system of the Earth Ship.

—They won’t have gone far. If they came all the way here, they must have designated a planet near a black hole as the dueling ground.

“But once we reach the dueling ground, how do we land?”

—Land… you say?

“Well, we’re going to watch the fight anyway. Then shouldn’t we go directly to the dueling ground and watch it there…?”

At that, as if they had been waiting for it, the presidents in the hall nodded.

—Naturally.

—If we weren’t going to see it in person, why would we be chasing them?

—It will be a good experience for them as well.

At this, Mantero made a very troubled expression.

—There are over a thousand people from Pahalufe alone. It is realistically difficult to land all of them at a precise point at once.

The explanation from Earth was that the Earth Ship currently possessed only a single vessel, and there weren’t enough drop pods to disembark a thousand people.

—We can, however, deploy them over a wide area in what is essentially a random distribution.

In other words, they could execute the same method used to bring the residents of Tehen, but in reverse order.

At this, the presidents tilted their heads.

—Drop pods?

—Why would those be necessary?

—Regardless of your will, we can land on our own.

“What? You’re saying you don’t need something like a ship?”

When Yeongwoo asked with a surprised face, the long-haired man answered on behalf of the Grade 3 prisoners in the hall.

—It would be better if we had precise coordinates, but as long as we can visually confirm the target area, we can move there directly as much as we like.

“How does that even work? Are you presidents just built differently or something?”

Come to think of it, hadn’t Chairman Dogo torn through space and intruded when they first met the Centaurus brothers?

Considering that precedent, crossing space and landing on a planet might be nothing more than a trivial task for the Grade 3 prisoners present here.

“Then we can just move the Grade 4 directors by drop pod.”

—Those ones should be able to follow us, for the most part.

Here, the ‘us’ that the long-haired man referred to meant the Grade 3 prisoners who would pass through space with their bare bodies and fall onto the planet.

In other words, even Grade 4 beings could freely utilize outer space.

“But you presidents usually travel by ship, right?”

—Of course. No matter how outstanding one’s martial prowess is, facing a fleet with one’s bare body is dangerous, and using a ship is convenient in many ways.

‘Dangerous to face a fleet with one’s bare body? Then that means it’s possible, doesn’t it?’

Yeongwoo felt that the presidents gathered here looked different all over again.

If each of them could fight a fleet barehanded, then wasn’t this place, in essence, no different from having a supermassive fleet assembled here?

‘And I’m supposed to release these guys soon…?’

While Yeongwoo suppressed his frustration, Mantero pointed at a reddish planet visible far outside the window.

—There it is. The Delmir ship made its last visit there.

“Oh… it does kind of feel like a dueling ground. That ship has already gone inside, right?”

—Yes, that’s correct. It should have completed its landing by now.

“Then I guess we should start entering as well. Anyway, the Grade 5 directors will need to use drop pods, right?”

—We will prepare that immediately upon entering the planetary zone.

If so, all that remained was for the presidents to prepare for their bodily entry.

As Yeongwoo silently looked at the Grade 3 prisoners, the long-haired man turned his head and looked toward the entrance of the cockpit.

—Is that the exit?

“Yes, you’ll have to go outside, after all.”

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—If you don’t want this building to be destroyed, that would be best.

In other words, even with a ceiling, they could break through it and leave.

So Yeongwoo quickly pointed to the exit.

“You can go out that way.”

At that, the prisoners who had turned toward the exit paused for a moment and asked Yeongwoo.

—Where do we receive the coordinates?

“The coordinates?”

—We need the coordinates of this place to return, don’t we?

For people at the level of the presidents, even returning was something they could do on their own.

‘What, do they have some kind of navigation system built into them?’

To Yeongwoo, who had never reached Grade 3 under cosmic law, it was simply fascinating.

“The coordinates will be provided by that one.”

As Yeongwoo pointed to Earth, all the prisoners crowded over toward Earth at once.

Though each of them was a powerful figure in the universe, they didn’t want to disembark from this ultra-premium taxi called the planetary ship just yet.

『Uh… then, I will provide you with the coordinates of Gwangjin District.』

Earth opened its palm and displayed the coordinates, then waved its hand through the air, transmitting the coordinates of Gwangjin District to all the prisoners.

『Since our owner will also be going down, you can ask that one about the timing of your return.』

This time, Earth pointed to Yeongwoo.

At that, the presidents began to quickly disappear through the cockpit exit.

『Since you can use a return stone to move back in a wide-area teleport anyway, it would be better for you to take a drop pod as well.』

“Then what about the directors outside?”

『I’ll open a portal there connected to the drop pods as well. You just need to make sure to gather them properly when returning.』

An outing carried out unexpectedly right after the prison break.

And since this time they were going as uninvited guests to a secret dueling ground, Earth spoke in a cautious whisper.

『If a situation arises where we have to abandon you, press the return stone four times briefly.』

“You’re not waiting for that situation, are you?”

『You never know what might happen down there. And the people you’re with…』

Earth glanced sideways toward the cockpit exit, as if worried someone might overhear.

『Are those people ordinary criminals? Don’t forget—they were held in Pahalufe until recently. Some of them are pure evil.』

“Well, true. There are probably some presidents whose disposition is at the Mara level.”

『If the one at the dueling ground really is someone from Delmir, they will never welcome the presidents. I can’t even imagine what might happen.』

But that was precisely why Yeongwoo wanted to go to the dueling ground.

That unpredictability—something that someone officially recognized by the system as a ‘rebel’ couldn’t help but be drawn to.

Moreover, with so many strong individuals currently on his side, the probability of his own life being in danger was far lower than that of the duelists.

There was no way a Grade 2 being would be present at that secret dueling ground.

“Anyway, got it. I’ll handle things carefully once I get there.”

With those words, Yeongwoo stepped into the portal leading to the drop pod.

Whooosh!

At once, the peculiar discomfort unique to portals wrapped around his entire body, and soon the interior of the drop pod greeted him.

‘No matter how many times I ride this, it’s uncomfortable.’

As Yeongwoo wriggled his body and turned his head toward the front glass window, he saw multicolored trajectories spreading across the pitch-black outer space like a rainbow.

‘No way… are those all the presidents falling?’

○ Probably. So you’d better follow quickly as well. The presidents are just as unruly as you are—you never know what kind of trouble they’ll cause.

‘No, come on. Even if I’m there, it’s not like I can control the presidents.’

○ At least you can restrain them, can’t you? After all, you’re the planetary ship owner, and you even hold a claim for repayment of favor.

‘Ah, right.’

The claim for repayment of favor.

In Yeongwoo’s terms—‘obligation.’

No matter how vicious the criminals were, wouldn’t they at least somewhat listen to the person who freed them from Pahalufe?

‘Still… even if the presidents cause trouble, what would they do besides beating up the virtuous ones?’

○ Delmir is the one who’s supposed to lend you a myth later. Wouldn’t that count as a pretty big problem?

Just as Earth spoke in a tone of disbelief, the drop pod carrying Yeongwoo through space finally entered the domain of the dueling site.

KWA-A-A-AH!

For a moment, the outside of the window flared red, and soon a crimson desert completely filled Yeongwoo’s view.

‘Good grief. This entire planet is basically a wrestling arena.’

The secret dueling ground chosen by the duelists was a planet entirely composed of barren land.

○ For now, I’ve set the drop pod to follow the last trajectory of the Delmir ship exactly. So unless something major happens, you should be able to see the white ship near the landing site.

‘White ship? That one?’

Pressing his cheek against the window, Yeongwoo rolled his eyes around.

And sure enough, in the middle of the distant desert, he could see a white, gleaming object resting there.

And not too far from it, there was also a deep navy-blue ship, so dark it almost looked black.

‘Oh, that’s the opponent!’

Someone who had arrived in an expensive vessel with an extremely high Katangdal content.

Just who could it be?

As Yeongwoo even flared his nostrils wide, he soon saw blue lightning surging up from the wide desert between the two ships.

‘W-what, already? Didn’t they practically start fighting the moment they arrived?’

The secret duel had already begun.

And, as expected—

Swooooosh!

The hundreds of Grade 3 prisoners who had been tearing through space ahead of him began to pour down toward the dueling site like cannon shells.

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