Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan

Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan – 201

Attack, Defense, and Development (5)

Scribble, scribble.

An A4-sized contract handwritten. As Isaac looked down at the paper covered in messy handwriting, he heard the familiar cock-a-doodle-doo sound in his ear.

“Cock-a-doodle-doo.”

[You have written the list of royal guards.]

[Approval complete.]

Whoosh.

The fluttering contract burst into flames and vanished without a trace as soon as the simple message was transmitted.

Amidst the chaos of the highest-ranking deities from the Legion, Underworld, and Celestial Realm, for some reason, the administrative procedures of the King Game had a retro feel to them.

‘This chicken too. I sense a strange obsession.’

Handwritten documentation, old-fashioned yet human. Even Japan, which stubbornly sticks to paper-based administration due to the implicit notion that it’s familiar to the older generation, would use typing for file creation.

The King Game system, which wouldn’t be out of place with cutting-edge high technology, was strangely analog in certain aspects.

“So you’ve gone and done it after all.”

The figure looking up with resentful eyes from the third-floor seat was none other than the Archangel Gabriel. Including him, the resistance of the celestial deities, which had almost softened, was once again heightened to the extreme.

After all, the king had included the four weaklings, worth less than cosmic dust, in his royal guard list without hesitation.

“Can we really do this…?”

“The captain must have a plan!”

“Maybe he received some kind of quest. Like getting a big reward if we survive the assassination attempt with us included.”

The clumsy unity of the four combat-incompetent individuals was enough to make one’s blood boil just by listening.

The celestial deities had long since turned their backs on the king’s stubbornness, which had incurred the wrath of many. The rigorous militaristic system was on the verge of collapse.

‘Heavens above. Is this truly the right path?’

It was a small consolation that the remaining six seats were filled by top-tier deities led by Gabriel himself, Uriel, and the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord.

This too was a blatant disregard for the [Assassination Squad] list submitted at the celestial meeting, but just 5 minutes before the start of the assassination battle between factions at 10 o’clock, Gabriel witnessed an even worse spectacle.

“I will not send an assassination squad today.”

Rip. Tear.

Sheets of paper being torn apart. With the entire assembly aware that this was the contract designated as the [Assassination Squad List], the fish-eyed king put on a performance of tearing the precious contract to shreds.

“Th-This…!”

“What are you doing!”

The Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord, who had been treated like a glutton for wanting to pierce Satanael directly with the ancient sacred artifact, the Thunder Drum, was ready to throw a punch.

He bellowed in anger at the king who was blatantly disregarding the celestial deities.

“If you have a mouth that works, you’d better explain yourself to us! We could have broken down your ego and controlled you as we pleased. How dare you act so unilaterally!”

“Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord, please calm yourself.”

As thunder rumbled, the one pacifying him with a Buddha-like smile was the Bodhisattva Maitreya.

“We must not forget that this lazy mortal is the king chosen by Tetragrammaton. Moreover, I believe his strategy could potentially serve as a ‘masterstroke’.”

Excluding Tetragrammaton, Maitreya was undoubtedly the number one in the celestial realm. When he stepped in to defend the stubborn king who deserved to be executed on the spot, the anger of the assembly, which seemed ready for a military coup, temporarily subsided.

“Assassination is high risk, high return. Failure means the loss of elite forces like yourselves. It’s not too late to put in full effort from tomorrow, after we understand the King Game system on the first day.”

The blockheaded king of their faction annoyingly picked up on Maitreya’s toss.

Isaac’s strategy was to not recklessly send out the avatars of the highest deities and to conserve elite forces.

Even the junior immortals in the first-floor seats, the Sword Immortal Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan, knew that a multi-universe ruler like Satanael wouldn’t fall for such an obvious ploy.

“Now that I hear it, it makes sense…”

Gabriel, who had been stunned by the shocking performance of ‘tearing up the contract’, found himself muttering involuntarily.

He had inadvertently acknowledged that Isaac’s decision, whose next move was utterly unpredictable, might be the best judgment derived from considering all factors.

After all, recklessly sending an assassination squad would only result in critical loss of forces, just as the king had warned.

“Oops.”

Gabriel quickly covered his mouth at his own startling mutter, and glanced at Raziel and Zaphkiel who occupied the seats to his left and right.

‘He’s surprisingly sharp.’

‘He might be quite capable.’

The reliable archangels showed their agreement through eye contact. Maitreya’s statement and the king’s explanation did indeed have some convincing rationale.

It was an embarrassing situation where they had been furious just moments ago, but now found themselves agreeing with the sharp logic.

“At least consult with us before making decisions!”

However, the celestial immortals and angels were beings who would exterminate entire races in the lower realm for the sole reason of having their pride hurt.

Among them, the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord was particularly famous for being a cosmic entity that valued face.

To the celestial deities, Isaac’s power trip was in itself a fresh act of insubordination.

Although everyone was suppressing their tempers due to the special circumstances of the cosmic war that would determine the fate of the great heavenly world, the strategy of subduing the arrogant king’s mind and using him like a slave could pop up at any time depending on the public opinion of the celestial deities.

“Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cluck cluck cluck.”

[The assassination battle will begin soon.]

[Prepare for assassination.]

The two-hour assassination battle, expected to be an intense small-scale conflict, was approaching with one minute left until 10 PM.

Since the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord, who had spoken harshly, was considered the top combat personnel among the royal guards, Isaac decided to save his face to some extent.

“I’ll be more careful. There wasn’t enough time to think this one through.”

“Hmph! I’m glad you understand. By the way, why did you include your subordinates in the royal guard? Are you planning to have them self-destruct?”

The Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord disregarded ranks within the celestial realm as soon as he was appeased. This chosen people mentality, believing that others should obey his words even if the other party was a king of a country, was also the reason why Isaac had subtly disregarded the avatar bodies descended from the celestial realm.

In fact, the moment he appeared vulnerable, wouldn’t they try to act like superiors like this?

Based on the reasoning that it would be difficult at first but then they would press on relentlessly, the king’s mind pursued a precarious tightrope diplomacy.

“That’s for me to handle.”

“Tsk! It seems you still haven’t realized your position.”

“I will not tolerate any further insubordination. Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord, fulfill your duty as the Great Heavenly General.”

“How dare you…!”

“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

[10 seconds until 10 PM.]

Along with the notification chicken’s crow that cut off the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord’s words at the perfect timing, the system announced sudden news just before the assassination battle.

“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

[The battlefield for the assassination battle is determined by the king’s location.]

[10, 9, 8, 7…]

“Noah. Move us to the Sacred Water Sanctuary at the top of the abandoned holy city Dorotenian in the Dawn Forest.”

It was the wide central corridor of the ark. Isaac’s mind, desperately working for his body’s survival, had judged it to be a place suitable for a battle of cosmic scale.

—Moving now.

Whoosh!

After being enveloped in a bright light, what appeared before their eyes upon opening them was an endless expanse of dawn-colored vegetation.

“Cock-a-doodle-doo. Cluck cluck!”

[The assassination battle has begun.]

Swoosh—

Hurriedly hiding the notification chicken in the shadows, the royal guards protecting the king were summoned behind him.

Fwoosh!

“Where is this?”

“Seems to be another location on the ship. It’s incredibly spacious.”

Gabriel and Uriel quickly assessed the surrounding terrain. The other deities also nodded slightly, seemingly pleased with the state of the battlefield.

Ziiing—

On the other side of the Sacred Water Sanctuary where the sacred tree Salarotse had disappeared, barely 100 meters away, the void split open and ten silhouettes sprang out from within.

‘They’re just throwing them in without warning.’

A 10:11 battle formation suddenly materialized. As a small-scale all-out war, far from assassination, began, the other side also seemed dumbfounded as they surveyed the dawn-lit forest spread out below the Sacred Water Sanctuary.

Grooowl!

Upon confirming the members on this side, the monsters reflexively spreading their demonic energy were in human form, hiding their true appearances.

Whoosh!

The assassin from the enemy camp, walking steadily while drawing up black flames in his left hand, was clearly a demon god from the netherworld that Isaac had only witnessed through hologram screens before.

It seemed he was trying to gain the upper hand from the start.

As Isaac stared intently at him, terrifying information soon appeared in his field of vision.

【Information Window】

▶ Name: Black Dragon Aguacheon (Avatar of the Heavenly Demon Emperor)

▶ Level: 275

▶ Category: Monster

▶ Mutations: [Fanatic Light of Madness Lv.10][Absolute Demon God Lv.10][Darkest Sky Lv.5]

▶ Skills: [Heavenly Demon Divine Light][Sand Lotus Annihilation]

‘They seem to favor dragons overall.’

The one who had descended into the sturdy body of the black dragon was the Heavenly Demon Emperor, ranked third in the netherworld hierarchy.

The Heavenly Demon Emperor was the very demon god served by Ox King, the leader of the northern demon clan that had struck Earth. And now, less than a month later, Isaac found himself face to face with a netherworld demon god, not even the demon king’s main body.

Even if it was just an avatar, a demon god was still a demon god. Couldn’t they destroy Earth with just a finger and have power to spare?

Rumble!

The royal guard who drew out the sacred artifact Thunder Sound Treasure Box in response to the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s provocation was none other than the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord.

“Heavenly Demon Emperor, you’re about to receive a lesson from this Celestial Venerable after a hundred thousand years. Have all your wounds from back then healed?”

“Hehehehe! You dare to act high and mighty when you barely gained the upper hand against me in my growing phase? Even though we meet in avatar forms, if I burn you to ashes, it will deal quite a blow to your main body.”

The grudge formed a hundred thousand years ago in the distant past seemed to be still vivid. Just as Isaac was shocked by the cosmic-level grudge-holding of these God avatars, the Heavenly Demon Emperor and the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord, after passionately provoking each other, disappeared together towards the western sky.

‘And they call themselves gods?’

These deities, who one would think should have long since reached a state of enlightenment with their emotions worn away, ridiculously showed a human-like aspect of clinging to past grudges.

Wouldn’t the relationship between hot-tempered company chairmen who fiercely competed in the same industry be just like this?

Wasn’t this the mentality of wanting to settle old scores in a one-on-one battle, putting aside the task of killing or protecting the king?

“Uriel! So you’ve shown up after all, you wench.”

“Now who might you be? I’ve had so many fallen angels come at me. I’m sorry.”

“What nonsense. Didn’t we have our fill of petty arguments during the day? Let’s settle this right now!”

When Isaac came to his senses, he realized that Abysion, the Guardian of the Abyss, was also expressing his grudge against Uriel.

These long-lived deities must have clashed more than once or twice.

Whoosh!

Abysion and Uriel flew off towards the eastern sky, talking about settling old scores and whatnot.

‘I wonder if they’ll resort to dirty tricks.’

While Isaac was concerned about the scheming of the netherworld deities and monarchs, the participants of the assassination battle paired up one by one and flew off in all directions.

—Are you sure this is alright?

—This is actually better.

There was a hidden story here: except for the Thunder Treasure Heavenly Lord who took the lead, all the others only left to settle their one-on-one grudge matches after receiving approval from King Isaac of the Ethereal faction.

Under the assumption that an ally king bold enough to make unilateral decisions ignoring the celestial council wouldn’t act without any countermeasures, the elite royal guards had flown off to their respective battlefields after preparing spatial jump techniques that would allow them to return to the scene in an instant.

Grooowl…!

In the end, what remained at the Sacred Water Sanctuary were the four avatars of the Legion’s rulers, who seemed devoid of emotion and were said to be more dangerous in terms of combat power than even demon gods and fallen angels.

“Ugh.”

“L-Leader. It’s hard to even look at them…”

On this side, the four-member hero team from the Harmony Clan was hiding behind Isaac, trembling intermittently.

【Information Window】

▶ Name: Demon Dragon Agato (Avatar of the Ominous Stirring Agrahos)

▶ Level: 283

▶ Category: Monster

▶ Mutations: [Endless Regeneration Lv.20][Immortal Body Lv.15]

▶ Skills: [Cell Division][Hive Mind]

A four-member party consisting of Agrahos, along with the Great Demon Dragon Salarion, the Yellow King Adum, and Morpheon of Dreams and Illusions.

They were the genuine monarchs of the Legion, each possessing top-tier Eldritch Stones from the 10-series or lower.

Even though they were in avatar forms now, their main bodies were cosmic entities that one would only encounter in Season 6 or later.

Isaac, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with a shadow, immediately used the king’s authority.

“Account synchronization.”

Woooong!