The Hero Returns

Wang Wu and Sugimoto Kenya were famous for their bad blood, even among the S-ranks.

It was probably the best example of inter-guild squabbles spiraling out of control. The members from their respective guilds started fighting, and that led to issues of protecting one's pride, and eventually, these two S-Rank awakeners got involved.

Afterward, the two of them started clashing against each other in a variety of minor ways, such as striking low-blows through social media posts.

The reason why no serious collision had occurred until now was all due to the fact that their operational territories were different, meaning they wouldn't accidentally run into one another on the field. Also, the Chinese and the Japanese awakener authorities tried their best to dissuade the duo from going too far, as well.

However, this was not their home nation but a foreign one. And unfortunately, the two men ended up running into each other here.

"I see that you're also participating in these Ranking Wars."

What with their meeting place being what it was, Wang Wu wanted to smoothly let things slide, so he tried to greet the Japanese as friendly as humanly possible.

"Why does it sound like you're saying 'a punk like you' to me?" Sugimoto Kenya replied.

That answer was clearly meant to get on his nerves.

Wang Wu furrowed his brows when Sugimoto Kenya deliberately twisted what he said. Wang Wu quipped, "At least you seem to know your place."

Since his opponent was showing a willingness to fight, Wang Wu decided that he didn't need to hold back anymore.

These two men would not lose to anyone as far as the depth of their pride was concerned. Especially so when it was being threatened by someone who had been growling at them for a while now.

Wang Wu spoke first. "I took a real good look at the social media post you decided to send out, you cheapskate asswipe. You sure know how to polish the turds that your guild members sh*t out until they're all shiny and stuff, don't you?"

"Oh, and you're still sweating over stuff like that until now? Oh my goodness me. I feel so sorry that I don't know what to do anymore."

"… I'll fervently pray that we run into each other during the Ranking Wars. That day will become your funeral."

"Is there a reason to wait? What's wrong? Feeling scared right now?"

"There are people here, and…"

"You still have plenty of excuses, don't you? Piglet b*stard."

Kenya's snide remark caused flames to light up within Wang Wu's eyes. The Chinese awakener had been cursed with a rather rotund physique for a very long time, and he hated being called anything pig-related.

His patience had reached its breaking point. "I'll really kill you."

"Why don't you give it your best shot?"

Fwoooosh!

A powerful gust of wind whipped violently between the two men. The floor began splitting apart as their auras collided against each other.

"Kkyaaahk!"

"It-it's a fight!"

As soon as the two men emitting ominous atmospheres started clashing, tourists enjoying the view from the top of the Gordon Tower all screamed in panic.

A fight between two awakeners always caused collateral damage, both big and small. Quite a few in the crowd even recognized the faces of these two men, which only made things worse.

A fight between two S-Ranks. Such a thing should be on another dimension compared to fights involving other awakeners. One misstep and the upper floors of the Gordon Tower built with so much effort might get blown to smithereens.

"Come at me, fatty." Kenya grinned odiously and beckoned at Wang Wu with a finger.

At that moment, Wang Wu's eyes flashed coldly, and he dashed forward with a turn of speed that belied his rotund frame.

Boom!

Swooosh—

The edge of Wang Wu's hand straightened like a knife. But, just as his hand was about to slam into Kenya's neck—

Someone grabbed his hand and stopped Wang Wu's frame from flying forward.

Kenya was in the middle of yanking his sword out from his hips, but stopped and stared at Su-hyeun appearing in the middle of everything.

"Why don't we call it a day here?" Su-hyeun asked, while his expressionless gaze was alternating between the two men. He spoke in fluent English. "How were the two of you planning to deal with the aftermath?"

"Who the hell are you?"

Perhaps thinking that his fight had been interrupted here, Sugimoto Kenya scowled quite deeply.

On the other hand, Wang Wu recognized Su-hyeun and lowered his hand. "Kim Su-hyeun?"

"Kim Su-hyeun? This punk is him?"

He must've at least heard of the name, since Kenya was now staring at Su-hyeun with somewhat surprised eyes.

The man famed for being the youngest S-Rank ever in South Korea, widely recognized as one of the awakener powerhouse nations on Earth.

"A damn hatchling dares to…?"

It seemed that Kenya was even more incensed by the fact that it was Su-hyeun who had interrupted his fight.

The thing was, Kenya was old enough to be Su-hyeun's father.

"You're old enough to know better than to start a fight in a place like this. There are too many people here who will get sucked in, after all."

"Are you trying to lecture me or something?"

"If that's how you feel, then yes, you're correct. If you really want to fight, go to an uninhabited mountainside first, or fight during the Ranking Wars."

"This little punk…!"

Claaang—

Despite Su-hyeun's intervention, Sugimoto Kenya still yanked out his sword. The lengthy sword draped in reddish aura flew with the momentum from the rapid unsheathing and took aim at Su-hyeun's neck.

[Indomitable Body.]

Paaah-aahk—

Kenya's sword was caught by Su-hyeun's bare hand. The Japanese's eyes grew wider as he looked at what just happened.

<<Words aren't getting through to him.>>

Wang Wu seemed to have calmed down somewhat, but Sugimoto Kenya must've been the type who couldn't control his own raging emotions. He definitely had several screws loose.

"Mm…"

"What are you scheming now?" Kenya shouted out.

Cliing—

The Japanese might be acting like a tough guy, but he was currently trying to retreat while swinging the sword still gripped in Su-hyeun's hand. When the human palm and the blade collided once more, a bizarre metallic noise resounded out.

"I'm beginning to think that I don't need to make a move anymore. You should thank the other guy. If not, you wouldn't have been able to participate in the Ranking Wars anymore."

"What was that?"

A massive presence could suddenly be sensed, staring at them from afar. A man was walking towards them while deliberately exposing his presence. Not just Su-hyeun, but both Wang Wu and Sugimoto Kenya also shifted their gazes in that direction.

"Were you planning to fight in here?" asked the man with a pair of sunglasses resting on his hair, and his hands placed deep in the pant pockets.

Even if you didn't want to, you just couldn't not recognize that face. His statue stood tall right in the center of this floor.

"Gordon Rohan…"

"It-it's really Gordon Rohan."

His entrance caused silence to descend upon the whole area.

Kenya felt pressure so overwhelming that he could barely breathe. He didn't look like he'd listen to anyone only until a second ago, but now, he was slowly and sneakily lowering his sword.

"What's wrong?"

Gordon Rohan walked over to his statue, leaned against it, and beckoned at them. "Go on. Carry on."

He was like an adult standing before a bunch of kids. Gordon Rohan stared straight at Sugimoto Kenya as if to say, "Go ahead and fight right in front of me if you dare."

Kenya's pride was wounded from the American's attitude, and he began gritting his teeth and gripping his sword even harder. However, he no longer tried to rampage around unchecked. He couldn't, as a giant named Gordon Rohan was blocking his path.

<<What kind of a man is this?>>

The way the American looked, with his hands hidden in his pockets and all, imparted this feeling of looking at a neighborhood big shot coming to spectate on a fight between local hoodlums.

Contrary to his posture or expression, however, the concentration of magical energy felt from him was on another realm of existence completely different from Sugimoto Kenya's.

<< What's his ability?>>

Something blurry and massive could be seen wavering behind Gordon Rohan like a mirage. That was the American's true "nature." And both Wang Wu and Kenya were not confident enough to confront it head-on.

Now that they had seen him up close, they realized the American was an unquantifiable existence covered in a shroud of mystery. Still, one thing was for certain: They couldn't even reach the toe-ends of Gordon Rohan no matter what they tried.

"Well, then. I'll be on my way now," said Su-hyeun. He raised both his hands up slightly after Gordon Rohan made his grand appearance, and turned around towards the elevators. But then, he shifted his gaze over to the American after recalling something he had forgotten about until now. "Ah, that's right. I ended up damaging the ceiling of an elevator… I hope it's not going to be a big issue. If not, I don't mind you asking for full reimbursement."

"I've got enough money."

"Somehow, I knew you'd say that."

Su-hyeun shrugged his shoulders and climbed aboard the waiting elevator.

Gordon Rohan's unreadable eyes chased after the departing back of Su-hyeun before he opened his mouth. "Hey, you two."

He was addressing Wang Wu and Kenya, the duo who were about to start a big fight a few moments ago.

"You know who that was?"

Wang Wu and Kenya forgot about their fight and stared at each other.

"You don't know?"

"N-no, that's…Kim Su-hyeun."

"Kim Su-hyeun? That was him?"

Gordon also must've heard about Su-hyeun's name somewhere because he looked slightly stunned at the moment.

<<A kid who got his S-Rank honors not too long ago arrived here way before me.>>

Gordon sensed the atmosphere of a fight threatening to break out on this floor and rushed here as soon as he could. However, someone else had arrived first — way before him no less.

That could mean one of two possibilities.

<<One, he was coincidentally nearby. Or…>>

Although he thought it was least likely of the two, the possibility still couldn't outright be discounted.

<<…He sensed the atmosphere faster than me.>>

If it was the former, then he didn't need to mind it. But the story would change drastically if it was the latter.

Gordon Rohan smiled as if this was proving to be rather amusing before turning around to walk away. He then abruptly recalled the reason why he rushed here in the first place, turned his head around, and he stared at Wang Wu and Sugimoto Kenya. "Ah, that's right. Don't worry about anything and do carry on with what you've been doing. But, don't forget to share the cost of the aftermaths among yourselves, okay?"

With those departing words, the American also left the scene.

Almost at the same time, countless waves of people mobbed him. Wang Wu and Sugimoto Kenya watched the back of Gordon Rohan disappearing among the crowd and shook their heads.

"What the hell…The victor has already been decided. Is that it?"

Kenya spat out a groan as if the wind had been taken out of his sails and shook his head some more. He figured that he'd at least be able to draw some parity with that man, but having personally witnessed Gordon Rohan, his drive had dissipated in its entirety.

"I wonder about that…."

Wang Wu, on the other hand, only half-agreed with Kenya's assertion.

In his mind, Gordon Rohan being the likeliest candidate for overall victory didn't change. But for some reason, how Su-hyeun stopped Wang Wu kept bugging him.

<<Mm…>>

The Chinese man rubbed his wrist held by Su-hyeun earlier. Now that the situation had calmed down, pain belatedly began assaulting him from there.

<< It's broken.>>

Who would've thought that having his wrist grabbed would lead to bones breaking like this? And then, there was the matter of that young Korean man catching Kenya's sword attack with his bare hand, too.

<<What will happen if those two start fighting…?>>

Wang Wu rubbed his broken wrist and muttered to no one in particular.

"Tomorrow's going to be quite interesting."

* * *

—Dude, where are you? I'll just look around for a bit longer and go back to our lodging. See you later, man.

Su-hyeun read the text from Hak-joon and scratched his head. The latter wouldn't have returned to the lodging so soon, so he must've been just a little bit angry.

<<But then again, I disappeared on him without saying anything….>>

Su-hyeun emerged from the Gordon Tower while thinking that he should buy some souvenirs on his way back.

He didn't bother to grab a taxi this time and simply continued walking. The roads were completely jammed, so he figured that walking would be so much faster than getting a taxi.

And so, as he walked down on the streets, he suddenly changed his direction towards a rather remote location. It was a narrow back alley where not much light entered despite it being the middle of the day.

Su-hyeun stopped walking in the middle of the alley and asked, "This here is fine, right?"

Whoosh—

A presence could be felt.

The man tailing Su-hyeun realized that he was found out and openly revealed himself.

"Well, the thing earlier left a sour taste in my mouth, you see."

Swish—

Sugimoto Kenya unsheathed his long sword in a cool manner and walked closer to Su-hyeun. "Just like you said, this location is not too bad. No witnesses and no CCTV cameras, either."

It seemed that he was still deeply pissed off about Su-hyuen interfering with his fight earlier. The reason why he backed off from the potential fight against Wang Wu was because of Gordon Rohan and definitely not Su-hyeun.

"You're correct."

Su-hyeun looked back at Kenya and unsheathed his own sword.

"That's why I lead you here."