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Chapter 19: Competitor

When I came to my senses, everything was over.

The intense heat that had been tormenting me just moments ago had vanished, like a phantom pain, and the man who had taken the form of flames had disappeared from the scene as well.

After the fiery man disappeared, there was a brief silence.

Then,

"Wowww!"

"Did you see that? He killed that monster in one hit!"

Hearing the cheers, I turned my head.

The survivors were embracing one another.

I watched them for a moment before being approached by Mari.

“Wow… I knew you were amazing, Administrator, but to take down that fire guy in just one hit…”

Mari came over.

I glanced briefly at the scorched marks on the ground before speaking.

"Looks like it\'s all wrapped up, so let\'s head back."

"...I didn\'t end up doing anything in the end."

This time, the credit largely went to Yon and Khan.

If they hadn’t had the courage to reveal the creature\'s traits...

‘It would’ve been tough.’

Of course, it wasn’t that Mari didn’t contribute anything.

When the flaming man shot fireballs at me...

Without Mari\'s innate sniping skills, honestly, I’m not sure what would have happened to me.

Watching her downcast expression, I wanted to encourage her, but I couldn’t think of any compliments, so I lightly patted her on the shoulder.

"That’s actually a good thing."

Just as we were about to get moving, a man approached us.

“Thank you for your help.”

He bowed his head toward us.

“We almost got wiped out. No matter how I think about it, that wasn’t a creature we could’ve handled.”

It was the man who had been next to the commander and had used water magic.

“Oh, I’m this kind of person.”

He quickly pulled out something like a business card from his pocket and handed it to me.

[Yeondan Society (Gold)]

[Rank 7 Employee Mino]

“My name is Mino. I don’t know how I can repay you… If you have the time, please visit our company. I must repay you…”

“Hey! Everyone, stop!”

Someone shouted as we exchanged business cards, drawing everyone’s attention.

We all turned to look at the source of the voice.

“Did you forget?! That creature belonged to our alliance!”

It was a brown-haired man, fuming with anger, stomping toward us.

“What are we going to tell the company?! How much did we invest in this, and now it\'s...”

Seeing the brown-haired man approach, the man who had introduced himself as Mino frowned.

“…He’s the commander of this alliance, Pishon. He’s about to be promoted to Platinum in [Glory], a company he got into without skill, relying only on his background… Anyway, I wonder what trouble he’s going to cause this time…”

Pishon, as he was called, clutched his head in both hands, groaning, before pointing at us and shouting.

“Hey! You there! You look like the leader of this group! Who gave you permission to steal our company’s creature?!”

By the look of him, he was planning to shift the blame onto us.

I sneered at his words.

There’s no way I’d let such cheap tricks work on me.

“We didn’t steal it. We merely did what was necessary.”

Necessary.

At that word, Pishon’s brows furrowed.

“Evidence. Bring evidence! You must have a contract, right?”

The corners of his lips curled up as he spat out the word "contract."

‘Sure, without a contract, if you touch someone else\'s creature, you could face trial.’

I had already seen through his petty scheme.

“What are you talking about, to our saviors?!”

Mino, seemingly realizing what Pishon was up to, hurried to stop him, but...

“Saviors? They’re just thieves! Mino, after all we’ve done for [Yeondan Society], who are you pointing fingers at?!”

The fact that Mino was getting nothing but insults suggested that Pishon’s background really wasn’t ordinary.

‘Hah, there’s always one, isn’t there? A guy like this.’

A guy who has no skills but is full of vanity and arrogance.

It’s hard to shut someone like him up.

Until he gets what he wants, he’ll keep causing trouble.

In that case, if it’s the contract he wants… I’ll have to present something equivalent.

I opened the administrator privileges and immediately displayed a hologram.

[Proof of Value. 1/1]

[Company Name: Administrator Domain (Silver)]

[Coordinates: 1447, 577]

[Type: Biological. (NEW) Flaming Man.]

[(Executor Yoo)]

Headquarters.

Moreover, it was a hologram stamped with the seal of Executor Yoo.

You can\'t just fake a seal from headquarters, especially from an Executor.

In other words, this hologram represented the truth.

"W-What."

Upon seeing the mission document with the seal, the man blinked in disbelief and took two steps back.

Then, as if a new thought crossed his mind, he began to raise his voice again.

"I mean, yeah, I know there\'s a mission. But there are ethics, you know? How could a bunch of nobodies take down a guy that even a whole group of our 7th-rank employees couldn\'t leave a scratch on?"

"Are you saying I intercepted a creature that had already been weakened?"

"Exactly! Do you even know how many expeditions we sent? The creature was exhausted, and then you lot swooped in and stole it. How are you going to compensate for that?"

He seemed to think he had come up with the perfect excuse, as he smirked smugly.

It looked like this was going to be more tiresome than expected.

\'I’ve run into a lunatic.\'

I sighed inwardly for a moment.

"But, mister."

Mari, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, stepped in.

"Huh? Did you just call me mister?"

"Yes."

"…Not \'mister,\' but \'brother.\'"

"Anyway, mister. I get why you\'re making excuses, but this isn’t right."

Mari clearly had no intention of changing the way she addressed him.

The man with brown hair seemed to catch on to this and let out a sigh.

"Ugh, fine. What is it then?"

"You said your guys couldn\'t even leave a scratch, right?"

"..."

"Then that means 100% of the credit belongs to our manager, doesn\'t it?"

Mari\'s blunt words left the brown-haired man speechless.

Then, flustered, he started rambling.

"Well, I mean, that\'s one thing, but… oh? Our company\'s employees were the ones who wore that monster of a creature down, and that\'s why you were able to…."

Realizing that this was going nowhere, I decided to intervene.

"Enough. What do you want?"

When I glared at him, the brown-haired man rolled his eyes and whispered quietly.

"Let\'s just sign a contract."

"…"

"Then I\'ll drop it."

He said this while pulling out a sheet of paper.

He had been empty-handed just a moment ago.

\'The fact that he could conjure a document like that…\'

As Mino had mentioned, he must indeed have the authority of a sub-master.

I glanced at the paper he handed me.

The contents were a bit long, but in summary:

[Contract]

[Party A acknowledges the ownership of the creature, \'The Burning Man,\' to Party B for purposes of \'proof.\']

[Party B must provide any items obtained from the creature to Party A for free, upon request.]

[Both parties may nullify this contract through mutual agreement.]

After reading the contract, I let out a dry laugh.

\'Is this guy seriously trying to pull off a slave contract?\'

Even at a glance, it was an unfair contract.

\'Fine, if signing this is all it takes to settle things, that makes it easy for me.\'

I could get rid of this nuisance, and deal with a potentially troublesome company at the same time.

\'...By using this contract as leverage.\'

There\'s no way Pishon could have guessed who he was handing that contract to.

"Alright, I\'ll sign."

I said this as I signed the contract he handed over.

Mino, who had been looking over the contract with me, panicked and tried to stop me.

"You can\'t! This is an unfair contract."

Mino tried to intervene, but it was too late.

"Kihaha! You fool!"

Pishon snatched the contract from my hand and disappeared immediately.

Right after, employees from [Glory] started turning into white light one by one.

It seemed they had used [Recall].

Once the commotion subsided, silence fell.

"Do you realize what you’ve just done?! You’ve willingly put on a slave collar! Ha… I should have stopped you more forcefully…."

Mino, standing beside me, began to rage.

\'Well, that\'s natural.\'

Witnessing your savior getting tricked right in front of your eyes would make anyone furious.

Mino stomped his feet in frustration, then, as if making a decision, spoke up again.

"Our [Yeondan Society] will help you. If you submit a request to headquarters, we can have this unfair contract canceled…."

Of course, that help wasn\'t necessary.

I patted Mino on the shoulder.

"Don\'t worry about it. I just got rid of a nuisance. And for good. Forever."

"Pardon...?"

Of course, it was unnecessary help.

Mino, seemingly unable to understand me, turned his gaze to Mari, who was casually standing beside me.

Mari, bored by the situation, was even yawning.

"Why on earth...?"

Mino, watching our indifferent reactions, finally seemed to sense that something was off.

He stood there, dumbfounded, his mouth opening and closing.

\'I wonder how things turned out...\'

Basically, external activities are only allowed from [Gold] level and above.

The reason is simple.

From [Gold] level, you are no longer under the protection of the headquarters and can act freely.

So, here\'s a question.

What happens if you mess with someone at [Silver] level, who, by the system\'s rules, shouldn’t have access to such activities?

\'What happens, you ask?\'

I smirked inwardly.

\'They\'ll blow up.\'

Of course, this is a truth known only to top-tier players, so there’s no way those guys would know.

Unfortunately, ignorance is a crime.

\'Enjoy the gift I\'m giving you.\'

I silently wished farewell to the company Pishon belonged to.

* * *

“Hahahahaha! Did you see that? Did you?”

“Wow, as expected of Pishon, sir. No wonder you\'re the sub-master.”

“That’s right. We were worried we wouldn’t be able to recover our investment, but now you’ve just added another slave company.”

Dozens of employees followed Pishon as they walked down the corridor.

“That’s right, whenever you\'re on an external mission, always look for opportunities. Got it?”

“Of course, sir.”

Pishon, feeling good, opened the lobby door.

“I’m back! Come and see what...”

He couldn’t finish his sentence.

For good reason.

"Hmm... [Glory]. Pishon and 11 others. Alright, you’re the last."

A blond man was sitting on a pile of corpses—employees of the company.

Pishon’s heart began to race.

He knew very well who this blond man was.

“Huff. Huff.”

Like someone suffering from hyperventilation, Pishon\'s body trembled as he gasped for air.

Overwhelmed by fear, it seemed like he could barely breathe, and he struggled to utter the name.

“N-Nice...”

One of the Executors.

Nice.

A Class 1 employee, known as the "Knight King."

And that man was sitting atop a pile of bodies made up of [Glory]’s employees.

This could only mean one thing.

[Glory] had violated the laws of [Headquarters].

“Huff. Huff.”

Pishon could only breathe raggedly.

The word “why” didn’t even cross his mind.

As Nice approached, Pishon’s entire body screamed in alarm.

His reason was paralyzed by fear.

“Destruction of company property, disobedience to headquarters orders, multiple reports from other companies, among other repeated violations of headquarters regulations—[Glory] is hereby suspended.”

That meant only one thing.

The execution was about to begin.

“Execution will commence.”

With that final word, the man once called Pishon was cut in two.

Nice flicked the blood off his sword.

Then, he unfolded a piece of paper.

[Administrator Area (Silver)]

[Administrator: Shin Seongjin]

[Assigned Points: 500]

[Value Proven: 1/1]

[Remaining Time: 51 hours 27 minutes]

“Did they do it knowingly or by accident...? We’ll find out soon enough.”

Leaving behind a lingering feeling of unease, Nice began the process of dismantling the company once known as [Glory] under the pretext of "disposal."