Chapter 334
Chapter 334: Ifrin
“The first agenda.”
Balder's finger tapped the table.
Kung.
A heavy metallic sound rang out.
At the same time, a hologram popped up in the center of the round table.
A district map of the Heavenly City. From District 9 to District 1, the layered pyramid structure shone clearly.
“The disposal of Lupus's empty seat, the reorganization of Red Flag's territory, and…….”
His ash-gray pupils turned toward Kim Minwoo.
“The distribution of the new Seven Lords' domain.”
Silence.
Yoo Honbi opened her mouth first.
“District 6, District 7.”
She scanned the map with her arms crossed.
Her blood-colored pupils narrowed.
“They are originally Lupus's assets. Land that Red Flag cultivated by shedding blood for decades.”
Her gaze fixed on Kim Minwoo.
“But a rookie is going to swallow that whole?”
A snort erupted.
“From 7 to 9. Isn't that enough treatment for a new Seven Lords? It is right to reclaim the rest and redistribute it.”
Her finger tapped the table lightly.
“Do not think about changing the rules of the middle and upper tiers just because you turned the lower districts upside down a bit.”
It was a provocation.
Kim Minwoo stroked his cheek.
“You're saying something funny.”
A languid voice flowed out.
“7, 8, 9, 6. Do you know where the tax lines of those districts are flowing right now?”
His finger pointed at the map.
“In my hands. Already. You're going to reclaim land that is practically under my rule?”
The corners of his mouth went up.
“Then come and take it yourself.”
Yoo Honbi's eyebrows twitched.
“It's already mine. I have never yielded what's mine. Not even once.”
“That's true.”
Lilith intervened.
Her pink pupils curved like half-moons.
Twirling her hair with her finger, she smiled languidly.
“Even based on our Shadow's information, up to District 6 is no longer Lupus's. The Red Flag organization has collapsed, and the tax system has been newly restructured.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Anyway, why is our Heavenly Demon so greedy? Let's acknowledge the facts. Shedding blood to take back something you don't have is inefficient, isn't it?”
“It's not that I don't have it. That guy took it.”
“If you're that pissed off, why don't you go down and see? Yourself.”
“…….”
Yoo Honbi's brow furrowed.
Lupus died doing exactly that.
If this were District 1, it might be a different story, but to face him while enduring penalties in the lower districts, Kim Minwoo was too dangerous an existence.
Eudeuk.
“Hah. Wagging your tail here and there is still the same even now. Since when were you two so close? Ah, is he your new husband now? Around the hundredth one?”
Lilith's eyelashes blinked slowly.
That was all.
Not a single ripple arose in her pink pupils.
As if looking at dust scattering in the wind, her gaze brushed past Yoo Honbi.
Instead of answering, she tapped her lips with her finger.
“It's not that we're close, I'm just stating facts. Since when did you, Heavenly Demon, like such losing businesses so much?”
Medea, who had been watching the war of words, propped her chin.
Her crimson pupils scanned Kim Minwoo.
“Well, I'm in favor.”
“……What?”
“I said I'm in favor. Yoo Honbi, are you deaf?”
Yoo Honbi's eyes narrowed.
“Are both of you on that bastard's side?”
“And if I am?”
Medea laughed.
Her crimson pupils narrowed.
“I'm seeing a guy who flips things over that well from below for the first time, you see. He achieved what even the other Seven Lords couldn't, right? Has there ever been one of the Seven Lords who overturned the lower districts at this speed?”
Her finger tapped the map lightly.
“Besides, we don't have to use our strength to clean up the remnants of Red Flag. Free labor, I don't hate it.”
Lilith smirked.
“So if we summarize, it's this. That kid flips everything upside down below, and we watch from above and only use him when needed. Not bad, right?”
Yoo Honbi ground her teeth.
“It's also like raising a risk factor.”
At that time, the metallic sound rang out again.
Kung.
Balder raised his hand.
“That is enough.”
His ash-gray pupils slowly scanned the Seven Lords.
“The reality is this.”
His finger pointed at the map.
“Up to District 6 is already under that man's rule. Taxes, military forces, order. Red Flag has collapsed, and Lupus is gone. The Demonic Cult? Even if they are there, they are merely feeble. What is irreversible is not reversed even by the law.”
His gaze fixed on Kim Minwoo.
“I propose. To officially recognize from District 9 to District 6 as the domain of the Death Lord, Kim Minwoo.”
Yoo Honbi's hand clutched the table.
“Instead.”
Balder's words continued.
“The responsibility for everything that happens below that will also become entirely yours.”
His ash-gray pupils sank heavily.
“The maneuvers of Outer Gods, uncontrolled rebellions, and all variables that deviate from the rules of the Heavenly City. If a problem arises in the lower tiers you rule, the one among the Seven Lords to take responsibility and be judged first will also be you. Do you agree?”
At that time, Chronos, who had been silent, tapped his hourglass. The sand began to flow backwards again.
“Even looking at the data of the test system, if he has proven that level of military power, this much domain distribution is reasonable.”
His gaze turned toward Kim Minwoo.
“Anyway, I have already observed several futures where that man comes up. It's just that exactly when has not been fixed yet. I am in favor.”
Jijijik―.
Nasrak's form wavered and overlapped.
“Beneath the rift…… something is squirming. The more footsteps crawling upwards there are, the more the rift enjoys it, but leaving the bottom completely empty is extremely dangerous.”
An empty voice circled the round table.
“It would be good to have at least one guy to entirely grasp the responsibility for that bottom. I am also in favor.”
Balder's arbitration proposal.
Lilith and Medea's affirmation.
And even Chronos and Nasrak's agreement.
A structure where all of the Seven Lords except Yoo Honbi officially recognized Kim Minwoo's rule over Districts 9 to 6 was completed.
All gazes focused on Kim Minwoo.
Kim Minwoo, leaning against the backrest, sluggishly scanned the map.
From District 9 to District 6. The lower tiers dyed in his color were shining clearly.
His gaze slowly moved upwards.
District 5, District 4, District 3―.
The corners of his mouth went up.
“Good. The bottom is mine.”
His finger leisurely tapped on the map.
Right above the boundary line of District 6. He lightly pointed at the middle districts still shining as the territories of the other Seven Lords.
“But let's make one thing clear. I am greedy. So…… you had better empty it quickly when I give you time.”
An arrogant declaration that served as a short-term order maintenance agreement and foreshadowed a long-term clash.
Medea's eyes curved like half-moons.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue as if anticipating it.
Lilith giggled languidly.
Yoo Honbi let out a sneer.
However, she did not object. Because she lacked both the justification and the practical benefit to forcefully overturn a board that had already tipped over half the votes anyway.
“Hah. You have a long tongue. Good. The bottom is yours.”
Her blood-colored pupils shone coldly.
“Instead, when you crawl up later, there will be no laws, nor this kind of shallow banquet.”
The chilling murderous intent spewed from Yoo Honbi's body crushed the round table.
If it were proxies from the lower districts, it was an overwhelming intimidation that would have made them vomit blood and fall to their knees just from that momentum alone.
However, Kim Minwoo let out a sneer sluggishly while propping his chin.
“Do as you please.”
His chilling eye glint collided head-on with Yoo Honbi's blood-colored pupils.
The corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth curved into a bloody arc.
“I was just in need of a quite useful swordsman for my legion anyway. Your corpse wouldn't be bad.”
“This arrogant bastard……!”
It was the moment Yoo Honbi half-rose from her seat and was about to explode her murderous intent.
Kung―!
Once again, Balder struck the table forcefully, scattering the murderous intent.
“Save your personal feuds for outside the meeting hall. With this, the domain distribution is completely concluded.”
At Balder's declaration, Yoo Honbi ground her teeth but did not spew out any more murderous intent.
This was a banquet hall ruled by Balder's law.
Since she couldn't cut off that arrogant bastard's neck right now anyway, wasting her energy here was a stupid thing to do.
Kim Minwoo slowly stood up from his chair.
Dusting off the hem of his coat, he scanned the Seven Lords one by one and opened his mouth.
“If the meeting is over, I will be taking my leave now. I absolutely loathe boring things.”
“Oh my, you're leaving already?”
Lilith drooped the corners of her eyes as if it were a shame.
“Even if it's a shame, bear with it. We'll be seeing each other again sooner or later anyway.”
Kim Minwoo took out a cold metallic plaque from his inner pocket.
The Heavenly City Free Pass that allowed free movement from District 1 to District 9 without penalties.
As he injected mana into the pass, a black magic circle spun round and round and bloomed beneath Kim Minwoo's feet.
“Then I'll see you all later.”
Giving a light wave toward Yoo Honbi, Kim Minwoo's form melted away blurrily into the empty air.
It did not take even a single second for his vision to turn completely dark and then brighten again.
A thick bloody stench and acrid smell of ash piercing the tip of his nose. As he opened his eyes, the horrors of District 6, where the aftermath of Lupus's self-destruction had yet to fade, came into view at a glance.
‘Pushing up to District 5 right away is too much.’
Although he provoked Yoo Honbi in District 1, that was closer to a bluff to avoid being pushed back in the battle of nerves. Of course, his intention to cut that woman's neck someday was sincere, but it was impossible right now.
‘The cooldown for Guidance of Destiny is still left.’
The cooldown for his ultimate move, Guidance of Destiny, was a whopping two months. Of course, having obtained the Death Emperor's Heart, the speed at which his divinity filled up had risen exponentially and Descent had also become more atrocious, but advancing to the upper districts while missing the Joker card that definitively cuts off the future carried too great a risk.
‘Even if I just go to District 5 right now, the Demonic Cult bastards will throw a f*cking fit and try to keep me in check.’
Even though there was an agreement, the Demonic Cult would try to extend their forces to the lower districts no matter what.
To block that and push back in reverse, mere quantity was not enough.
“I'll have to strengthen my combat power a bit…….”
Kim Minwoo opened his inventory.
An item carefully kept in a corner of the space caught his eye.
Rank 3 of District 2.
It was Ifrin's corpse.
An ultra-long-range sniper said to be within the top five in the entire Heavenly City.
Although she had been sliced down by the gang-up of himself and the Legion Commanders, the power of the snipe she had spewed out was the real deal.
‘How would it be most profitable to use this.’
At first, he pondered whether to extract her soul and feed it to the Legion Commanders. Because it was the soul of a high-ranking higher existence, it would surely raise the specs of the Legion Commanders significantly.
However, thinking it over carefully, the picture was not pretty at all.
‘The composition doesn't fit.’
Cedric is a close-combat tank and bruiser who holds out at the front line. A sniper's soul doesn't suit him.
Merhen is an AoE magic dealer.
She is the polar opposite of a sniper who stakes everything on a single bullet.
Vulcan?
Giving a sniper's soul to a guy who wields a whip and creates a sea of fire would just be a waste.
Olivia might be similar since she is in the assassin position, but her essence was a close-combat assassin who hides in the shadows and slits throats.
To all four Legion Commanders, Ifrin's soul was like chicken ribs—too good to throw away but of little actual use.
“Then there's only one answer.”
The corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth went up into a grin.
“Revive her entirely.”
Turn an undead sniper retaining the specs of Rank 3 of District 2 into a new Legion Commander-level combat force.
A support shooter who pierces the enemy commander's head from an unseen place as soon as the battle begins.
It was a combat force that made his heart swell just imagining it.
Death Emperor's Crown.
One of this item's effects, Repository of Knowledge.
[Effect 4. ‘Repository of Knowledge’ ― Various undead crafting techniques are activated in the mind.]
The moment he confirmed Ifrin's corpse and thought of making her into an undead, numerous inspirations sprang up in his mind.