Smiling, Junhyuk asked, “Great! How much is the return?”

[You bet 1,000G. Minus the fee, that’s 950G. Times five: 4,750G. Minus the fee, you’ll get 4,513G.]

He grimaced slightly.

“The odds were five to one?”

[Correct. Sarang’s team was weaker than her opponents’.]

Junhyuk laughed. What would have happened if he had trusted her more? If he had bet 200,000G on her, he would’ve earned 1,000,000G.

He felt sorry, but after the money was deposited, he got up.

“Can I return now?”

[Yes. I’ll see you next week.]

Junhyuk was nodding when the blinding light covered his vision. When he could see again, he contacted Sarang through the communicator so that he could see her face. She was overjoyed.

“Congratulations!”

“Big brother! I’m a hero now!”

“I know. I bet money on you, so I saw everything.”

“Did you win a lot?”

“Yes, a lot,” he answered evenly before continuing. “By the way, what’s your new power?”

“It triggers automatically, but it has a ten-minute cooldown. I become immortal for five seconds. It triggered by itself when my health hit zero. After the five seconds, I can heal myself.”

With her healing power, her problem was solved. Now, she could focus on raising her attacks.

Junhyuk was still thinking when Sarang smiled and asked, “Can I be on your team?”

“I hope so.”

Junhyuk wished Gongon would be on his team. Right now, Layla was the only one that was part of it. If he got lucky, he could have both Gongon and Sarang on his team, and they’d become legends together.

Neither Gongon nor Junhyuk were tanks. Both had great equipment and worked as tanks when compared to other heroes, but they couldn’t compare to a genuine tank.

“We lack a tank?”

Junhyuk started worrying about it, so he slapped himself lightly and said, “I’ll focus on cleaning this place.”

He was there to clean New York, so he wanted to focus on destroying the dimensional tear.

“Should I bring Sarang here?”

Destroying dimensional tears was getting more difficult. For now, he was doing OK, but he would soon reach his limit. He would ask for her help then.

—

On Sat.u.r.day morning, they checked on Elise first thing, but she hadn’t been summoned to the dimensional battlefield. Most novices were summoned on the week they activated their powers, but battles took place every week, so it was understandable. Depending on her team a.s.signment, she would fall in one of two two-week intervals.

Elise had another week, and Junhyuk wanted to take care of his problems on Earth. He had already checked on the New York monster area and he knew he could deal with it. Also, the newly acquired experts were more effective than Junhyuk had expected.

In the US, the A-ranked monster was a ten-meter tall giant gorilla. He had met one before. The gorilla was on top of the Empire State Building. It was just like in the movies. Management knew more about Earth culture than Junhyuk had expected. First, it was the Chinese dragon in China, and now, King Kong in the US.

Junhyuk ignored the gorilla on the Empire State building, focusing on training his team before returning to the hotel.

There, someone was waiting for him. The man was inside Junhyuk’s room, waiting for him by the window. Another man was guarding him.

Looking at the large black man, who was the bodyguard, Junhyuk realized that he was an expert, which meant that the other man had to be important to have an expert as a bodyguard.

After glancing at the bodyguard, Junhyuk ignored him. Experts couldn’t pierce through the armor he was wearing now. Thanks to the ring he was carrying, he looked like he wasn’t wearing any armor even though he was. It was a simple trick, but it would fool his enemies.

Junhyuk walked toward the man by the window. He could guess who it was.

In the US, Junhyuk was considered an ally, so n.o.body should be able to get into his room without permission. There weren’t many who could pull it off, which meant that the man had to be an American. Therefore, it was easy to guess who he was.

“You’re being rude by entering here without permission.”

The man looked at Junhyuk and smiled.

“I didn’t want anyone finding out that I’m meeting you. Will you excuse me?”

“That’s not a good enough reason.”

The bodyguard took a step toward him, and the man sighed, signaling with his hand to stop him. Junhyuk laughed and stared at the bodyguard. As he did, the bodyguard took two steps back. Heroes were overpowering to an expert.

After that, Junhyuk turned to look at the man again.

“How can I be forgiven?”

“Apologize.”

The man’s eyebrow twitched, but he soon recomposed himself.

“I’m really sorry.”

The man bowed slightly, and Junhyuk inspected him. They hadn’t had a good start, which was why Junhyuk had made the man apologize. He knew who the man was. He was proud, but he could apologize.

The man introduced himself, “Nice to meet you. I’m Charles Rockefeller, head of the Rockefeller family.”

“Nice to meet you. Call me DK.”

“Are you not gonna tell me your real name?”

Junhyuk replied, “I’m using an alias.”

Charles laughed aloud.

“Ha-ha-ha! You are right. I should not have brought it up.”

Junhyuk did not care.

“Please, have a seat.”

Charles took a seat, and Junhyuk walked over to the fridge and grabbed three cans of beer. He took one, gave one to Charles and tossed the other to the bodyguard.

When the bodyguard grabbed the can, Junhyuk said, “Have a drink.”

Junhyuk drank from the can. It was cold. Charles looked at his can unable to remember the last time he had had beer. It wasn’t his style, but Charles wanted to show Junhyuk respect, so he opened it.

“Shaq, you should drink it too.”

Junhyuk thought Shaq was the bodyguard’s nickname. He looked at Charles, who took a sip of the beer and smiled.

“It feels different.”

Charles looked up at him then, and their eyes met.

“Can you tell me why you are here?”

“What’s your relationship with Doyeol?”

Junhyuk could guess why Charles was there.

“I’m doing business with him.”

“That business, do it with me.”

Doyeol made an astronomical sum of money from Guardians and the decomposition liquid, but the Rockefellers were on an entirely different level. They had been known for their money long before Doyeol came into the picture.

Charles should also have a large stake of Guardians, so Doyeol was still behind when comparing the two.

Junhyuk asked calmly, “What is it that you want? And, what can you do for me?”

“A positive response. I want to decide the order in which the dimensional tears are destroyed. About ten of them should do. And, I’ll give you anything you want.”

Junhyuk smiled coldly. Charles was also after the destruction order. Thinking of it, men like Charles were the reason why the monster areas were there. They had researched porings to the extent of creating someone with the ability to make dimensional tears. Management had learned from that and deployed tears on Earth on a large scale.

He stared at Charles and said, “I’ll let you choose the next targets, but on one condition.”

“What is it you want?”

“Shut down your poring research.”

Charles grimaced. He sighed and asked, “Elise? Or Doyeol?”

“Neither of them.”

That made Charles curious, so Junhyuk continued, “The management of the Dimensional Battlefield was able to develop the tears because of that infected that created one in South Korea. If the powers the infected activate are even more powerful, management will learn about them. That research serves no purpose.”

Junhyuk concluded calmly, “The Dimensional Battlefield management will use those powers to attack Earth.”

Staring at him, Charles sighed.

“That’s the first time I’m hearing about this.”

Junhyuk stared at Charles, who leaned back on the chair and sighed again. He gathered his thoughts and said, “You know more than we expected.”

Junhyuk did not speak. Charles straightened himself and said, “I didn’t think we were responsible. I’ll shut down the poring research.”

He had acknowledged his mistake and was willing to stop the research. From that, Junhyuk looked at him in a different light.

“However, that has nothing to do with the business between us. Tell me what you really want.”

“Guardians was established to stop the monster attacks, but there is no organization to destroy dimensional tears.”

Charles smiled.

“Should I create an organization to handle the casualties from the dimensional tears?”

Junhyuk nodded, and Charles laughed.

“OK. Can I name the organization after you?”

Junhyuk could read Charles’ thoughts. He would require a lot of money to create the new organization, so he wanted to use Junhyuk’s name. On Earth, DK carried a lot of weight, so Charles wanted to make use of it.

Junhyuk did not disagree.

“That’s fine. I’ll let you decide the next target…” He added after a pause, “But not in the US.”

Junhyuk couldn’t focus solely on American tears. It wouldn’t be right.

Charles smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Let’s begin by spending a million dollars on the new organization.”

“OK.”

Junhyuk got up and offered his hand, and Charles shook it.