Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan

Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan – 084

Acceptance.
A bird that seemed to be about ten times the size of an eagle crossed the sky.
The bird flew over vast deserts, across green mountains and trees, and finally arrived at the towering mountains, soaring high into the sky. It was a place that boasted a mysterious landscape, with its middle shrouded in clouds.
– Swoosh! –
The brownish bird descended vertically as if plunging into the base of the towering mountain, entering a deep cave. The walls and ceiling of the cave looked so smooth that it seemed as if someone had artificially polished them.
As if knowing the way by heart, the brownish bird dove deep into the cave without hesitation. At the end of the cave, there was a majestic rock formation, seemingly made by solidified lava, and in the middle of it, a sky-blue iron gate, tens of meters high, was embedded.
– Whoosh. –
As if reaching its destination, a strange creature with a bizarre appearance leaped off the back of the brownish giant bird and landed on the cave floor.
The creature, with a face that vaguely resembled a human but a body that walked on two legs like a tiger, had long fangs protruding from its mouth.
– Roar. –
– Grrrrrr…! –
As the creature pressed the door with its forelegs, a massive wave of negative energy spread out, enveloping the surroundings in darkness. The sky-blue giant gate emitted a creaking sound as if being forced to open, and suddenly, it swung wide open by an invisible force.
Just the powerful opening of the gate, which seemed extremely heavy, caused the entire underground cave to tremble as if an earthquake had struck.
Meanwhile, on the inside of the sky-blue gate, there was a seemingly ordinary underground pupil, and in the corner of the pupil, from the underground lake, humid waves rose, and thick, bluish smoke filled the air.
The creature, cautiously scanning the surroundings, suddenly shouted.
“Do-cheol! How long are you going to hide? Show yourself, you coward.”
– Swoosh. –
In response to the creature’s complaint, a monstrous being, no less terrifying than the tiger-like creature, appeared like an illusion. The creature, standing by the lake, had a human face with horns on its forehead, and its entire body was covered in dark blue fur, making it look very large.
“It’s been a while. In the time I haven’t seen you, your face has become half.”
“Are you mocking me? When you were in charge of ‘that’, I thought you were busy gathering resources and building an army until your back bent.”
“How could I not acknowledge your efforts? I heard you even went as far as to have your freedom restricted from that vile human. Compared to me, who has been guarding this place, you have had a much more difficult life. But have you found a solution in the meantime?”
“I’m still in custody. If it weren’t for my innate nature of ‘discipline,’ I wouldn’t have appeared here. He thinks I’m a loyal subordinate, but I can break free from captivity at any time.”
“Fortunately. Rather than that, does your presence here mean that you are finally willing to use it?”
“Originally, our absorbers have been devoting considerable resources and time to occupy the ‘Land of Screams,’ rich in negative energy. But you can’t keep pouring water into a leaky jar forever. If we can move it even unstably, we should use it as a weapon and advance our plans.”
The tiger-like monster asserted firmly while glaring at the horned monster. The horned monster, after nodding its head, calmly asked,
“You know we still lack spiritual essence, right?”
“That problem can be solved.”
“Is there a plan in place? Please explain.”
“The polluted humans, or villains, will soon start a large-scale war. The one who used to mock me even ordered me to prepare a monstrous army, and he hinted that if there is enough spirituality, even an Lord-level monster could be conceived.”
“Oh, solving the problem means…”
“Hehehe, you’re handing over that precious spirituality in bulk. Quite a price to pay for being a lackey.”
“Excellent. There are many beings with spirituality in the adjacent world. It seems that what they said was true.”
“But it’s only a few hundred million. Most of them are at 1 star, and those that have reached 2 star or higher are very rare. It is speculated that just one monster of the 2 star warrior class could bring about the destruction of civilization.”
“2 star… That’s a story far beyond us. Anyway, since you say we have gained some reputation, let’s begin the ritual.”
“Haha! It’s great that we can communicate so well.”
The tiger monster and the horned monster joined forces and headed for the underground lake. When the beam of light emitted by the tiger monster illuminated the lakeside, a transparent black form seemed to vaguely appear under the clear water.
After a while, when the tiger monster raised its energy and flicked its thick finger, greenish orbs floated like fireflies in the air and then flew into the water in an instant.
– Grrrrrrrr…..! –
Before long, a powerful vibration echoed through the giant pupil. As the two monsters stared down at the lake, their foreheads, where strange runes were unfolding, were already covered in beads of sweat.
====
***
====
Mid-November, with less than half of November left.
The headquarters of the large clans, conscious of the Hero Grand Battle, were busy even in the ambitious early morning, unaware that the lights would go out.
The heroes willingly accepted dangerous missions to obtain high scores in the three major evaluation criteria, amount of magic stone, villain and monster extermination. Even public broadcast programs with some recognition were filled with the schedules of heroes, including A-list heroes who were usually hard to see. As a result, fans crowded in to cheer enthusiastically at the famous heroes’ commuting times, forming lively cheering processions.
The Hero Grand Battle was such an important national event for each clan. It was not an exaggeration to say that the clan’s growth rate for the next year depended on how many awards the affiliated heroes won, as much as being recognized for their achievements and receiving great rewards.
As the highly anticipated Hero Grand Battle approached, the media, broadcasting, and various video platforms were filled with advertisements promoting the visuals, personality, and mission performance of specific heroes. Even people who usually had little interest in the hero industry found themselves pondering which hero to support.
[Who do you think will win the popularity award?]
└ It’s probably going to be Flame Emperor, right?
└ Hey, buddy… S-class heroes, except for the world-class ones, are not eligible for awards. If they were, wouldn’t all the awards be swept up by the S-class?
└ What are you talking about? Are you classifying S-class too? Honestly, aren’t they all world-class?
└ No, the highest award in the Hero Grand Battle is the ‘World Class’ award. You’re surprised, aren’t you? Have you cut off ties with the world? Don’t you know this?
└ You might not know it─_-
The actual top award of the Hero Grand Battle was the ‘Hero of the Year’ award, given to one hero from the B-class and one from the A-class, and the ‘World Class’ award, given to the S-class hero who had shown the most dazzling performance internationally in the past year, was truly the top prize.
In addition, there were various other awards, such as the ‘Popularity Award’ given to the hero with the most votes and the ‘Guardian of Peace Award’ given to the hero who prevented the most human and property damage. Furthermore, the Hero Association stipulated that only S-class heroes could receive the ‘World Class’ award, providing A-class and lower heroes with various opportunities to taste the sweetness of success.
Naturally, the public became interested in who would be the ‘Hero of the Year’ and who would win the highly anticipated ‘World Class’ award.
[I think Iron Fury is a strong contender among the A-class.]
[Elly is also not to be underestimated. She was a champion-level one-shot kill with arrows.]
[Taming monsters and facing individuals are different. If you look, those who always catch villains well tend to win.]
[Hey, there’s someone named ‘Lara’ among the B-class. She’s my favorite, so please vote for her… It’s 60 won, but there’s still a chance. Let’s go for it!]
└ Hey, old man. Stop giving up. B-class always comes out of nowhere. The sons of the Sword Emperor are still B-class.
In this way, there were cases where opinions were exchanged politely, but naturally, people who supported different heroes stood against each other. When videos promoting or criticizing specific heroes were uploaded, the comment sections invariably turned into battlefields where people fought with their keyboards, which was a natural occurrence that happened every year-end.
However, the most heated discussion was about who would win the ‘World Class’ award, which had few candidates.
[Sword Emperor was impressive at the beginning of the year, right? He’s the undisputed top S-class.]
[Machine Commander is at an average level. Let’s put him in second place. There’s nothing special about Poker Boy, so that leaves Flame Emperor and Electric Guy. But Flame Emperor won last year. This time, it’s Electric Guy, but he’s a bit of a troublemaker, so the Association might hesitate to give it to him. So, I guarantee that the Sword Emperor will easily win again.
It was a popular belief among the general public that Sword Emperor would win the World Class award this year. However, there was a rookie S-class hero who rose fiercely in the second half of the year, and that was Hero Isaac.
Above all, the impact of single-handedly purifying the ‘Aqua Shaper’, which had terrified East Asia, left a deep impression on the minds of all Koreans.
[Do you think Isaac will win?]
[Although his popularity is still low, honestly, when you compare Sword Emperor and Isaac… Isaac deserves to win. He has made a lot of great achievements.]
[Hahaha… This year’s Hero Grand Battle seems to be exciting. It’s a choice between Isaac, who has no foundation but short-term impact, and Sword Emperor, the Supreme swordman. Or Electric Guy, who has no charisma but has great achievements. No matter who wins, there will be controversy, right?]
However, there were still many people who had reservations about the hero Isaac. He did not have a just and familiar image like Flame Emperor. Also, as he had not been active for even a year, there was still a lack of recognition that he was a proud hero of South Korea.
Meanwhile, Hero Isaac himself thought he certainly did not deserve to win the World Class award, so he just worked hard to find his own way.
====
***
====
The hologram training center that I often visit these days.
– Thud. Thud thud. –
The hero suit, made by the hands of a master-class Armorsmith, has finally arrived. The texture seemed good, and the design was almost the same as before. Maybe it was because of my mood, but it felt more comfortable to wear.
————–
[Bloody Nightmare Hero Suit]
▶ Classification: Armor Base
▶ Grade: Hero
▶ Description: A suit imbued with purified trauma, although the energy is purified, it doesn’t seem mentally healthy to wear it continuously.
▶ Effect: (If equipped with 4 or more cores of any grade) Special resource consumption is reduced by 10%, (If equipped with 8 or more cores of any grade) Special resource consumption is further reduced by 15%.
————–
‘It’s an incredible spec-up as long as the options are effective.’
It’s a tense moment.
With just one base, you can reduce the total special resource consumption by 25%? If you can also fill all the cores in this 8-core base with special resource-related options, the utility will increase dramatically.
‘I was lucky this time too.’
The reason I was able to commission the production of this base so early was because I had the key ingredients, ‘living moving slime’ and ‘condensed nightmares.’ If it wasn’t for them, I would have wasted even more money trying to find the materials.
Of course, ‘living moving slime’ was a material with alternatives, but even those were not cheap.
‘For now, it seems that the combat gauge recovery speed has definitely increased.’
In addition, there was an unexpected effect of this base, which was periodic dot damage to the wearer. It seemed that this side effect occurred because one of the main ingredients, ‘condensed nightmares’, which can be obtained from powerful ‘trauma’, was used. It was a penalty that was not written in the blueprint, but ultimately turned out to be a benefit.
Now, if I turn on the detailed status information that I had turned off:
[Received minor damage.]
[Damage has been recovered by ‘Nature’s Embrace’.]
[Received minor damage.]
[Damage has been recovered by ‘Nature’s Embrace’.]
[Received minor damage.]
[Damage has been recovered by ‘Nature’s Embrace’.]
It can be confirmed that the frequency of the message that the self-harm damage is recovered has become 1.5 times faster than before. The dot damage received as a penalty from the hero suit and necklace was also minor, and the pain was not felt as it was immediately recovered by the ring’s ‘Nature’s Embrace’.
‘The ring did it.’
Normally, I can fill up the combat gauge with training at the training center, but I’m not always in Seoul. Utilizing the combat gauge recovery mechanism with the slightly faster ‘self-harm recovery’ will save my life many times.