Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 169 : A-Rank Representative Selection (2)

A-Rank Representative Selection (2)

Tempest's defeat was something no one had expected.

Of course, as humans, they could lose, but for their opponent to be none other than Point, a newly-formed A-rank party from Unique...

Even the defeated Tempest members couldn't comprehend their own loss, and the victorious Point side felt the same.

'We won?'

The battle that they thought they would definitely lose ended so easily that they all felt dazed.

In the midst of all this, there was only one person who wasn't surprised.

'As expected, Park Jung-woo was right.'

Ardan watched the series of battles, crossing his arms slowly.

'Yun Seung-hyuk has broad vision.'

So far, Ardan had shared various mercenary tactics with Yun Seung-hyuk, stemming from his own experience.

However, achieving such a simple victory against Tempest was thanks to the leadership of Yun Seung-hyuk.

"I'm thinking of making Seung-hyuk the leader of this new A-rank party."

Jung-woo introduced the members of Team Point to Ardan and asked that Yun Seung-hyuk be made the leader.

Naturally, it was a request that Ardan couldn't understand.

In most organizations, the leader is the one with the most experience.

Especially in a small party like this, there was no question about it.

"There's no rule that the strongest has to be the leader, but if I recall, Yun Seung-hyuk has only been A-rank for about a month. Besides, while he has experience leading a B-rank party, he has no A-rank party experience."

"That's true."

Data-wise, nothing Jung-woo said was wrong.

"But Yun Seung-hyuk has a wide perspective."

"A wide perspective?"

"If I have to explain, he has a good sense of judgment."

He gauged the difference between the opponent and his own team, and seized the tactical route that would give them the upper hand.

That was Yun Seung-hyuk's greatest talent.

It was also the reason why he could improve so quickly.

"Yun Seung-hyuk is nothing like a genius such as Soo-ah. He will probably need a considerable amount of time to reach S-rank, and even then, luck will play a part. But party management is a different matter."

Soo-ah was notably terrible at party play.

That didn't change even after her magic power fission was corrected.

When making judgments, Soo-ah relied on her own standards and couldn't accurately evaluate her allies' abilities.

Ah-yeon was not much different.

She was at least more accustomed to teaching others than Soo-ah, but being a teacher and being a party leader were two separate things.

"Look at all the records of the B-rank parties that Yun Seung-hyuk led."

Jung-woo handed Ardan a document containing information on Yun Seung-hyuk so far.

It was a record of his two months of activity as a B-rank party leader.

After reading it, Ardan couldn't help but be surprised.

"...... Not a single injured person?"

"That's right. There were no injuries, and the time it took them to clear dungeons was similar or even faster than other parties."

It wasn't astoundingly fast.

However, if they achieved such speed with zero injuries, that was remarkable.

Especially if it remained the same even as they changed parties and adjusted to new members each time...

"Indeed, the right leader is Yun Seung-hyuk."

Ardan, who had seen countless commanders as a Great Duke of the demonic realm, could sense Yun Seung-hyuk's extraordinariness.

He himself was an outstanding commander in the demonic realm, unmatched by any other, so he could recognize talent.

"It always amazes me, Park Jung-woo. How do you pick up on these things so quickly?"

"I've always had a knack for this kind of thing."

His 'sense' that had found so many heroes.

Ardan once again realized the intuition of Jung-woo, who had put an end to the era of demons.

"Well then, let's move right on to the next match."

Seeing the crowd murmuring restlessly, the referee immediately proceeded with the next match.

Thus, the A-rank party selection battle began with drama.

***

"Undefeated on the first day?"

I asked Ardan in a surprised voice at the unexpectedly outstanding results.

【That's right, they haven't lost a single match. They haven't faced Ghost yet, but considering that they beat Tempest, I'd say their chances are good.】

"Ghost won't be easy."

【If you say so, it must be true.】

"No, I'm not saying it's definite..."

Ardan accepted my words almost as if they were prophecy.

I was just making an educated guess based on the information I had.

'If things go well, we might actually secure the A-rank representative spot.'

I figured the probability was fifty-fifty, but maybe it helped that they got to face Tempest in the very first match.

Thanks to meeting Tempest when they were in their best condition, they had managed to beat them.

And to the others, being known as the party that beat Tempest would have been a strong source of pressure.

'Doesn't this make the Korean representatives almost monopolized by Unique?'

People might start gossiping that I'd swooped in as a coach, parachuting people into the team.

It was inevitable until I proved my team's skills.

"You seem busy."

As soon as I hung up the call, a man in a black suit, who had apparently been waiting for me, struck up a conversation.

"Well, Odyssey is coming up soon."

"Ah, you're the coach of the Korean national team this time, right?"

"Though I'm called coach, I'm closer to the main manager."

"If Manager Park is the coach, then we'll have to be on our guard."

This man was Adam, an awakener sent by Enoch from the United States.

Why call him 'awakener'? Because he was closer to a special agent affiliated with the state rather than a hunter.

"I don't know about the other countries, but we see Korea as a top candidate for the championship."

"It's a bit much to overrate us like that."

"No need to play coy. We also know someone is registered as 'No Name' this time."

As Adam smiled and said so, I averted my eyes for no reason.

'Well, of course they know.'

Thinking that, I stepped onto damp ground.

The place where we stood was a swamp in the Amazon.

"The place where signs of demons were found—is it further in from here?"

"According to reports, it's about two kilometers from here."

Enoch, who was constantly tracking demon activity, reported two days ago that traces of demons had been discovered in the Amazon.

The agent who had filmed the video at the time had gone missing, but a strange altar-like structure had been captured in the footage he transmitted live.

"They say that, according to the local indigenous people, the number of recent disappearances is quite high. Combining missing persons from multiple tribes, there must be at least several hundred."

With hundreds missing and an altar seen in the footage, there were two likely possibilities.

'One is the gate to the demonic realm.'

But opening the gate to the demonic realm required the power of the Demon King, so the other possibility was—

'The divine art Benedict performed at Gwehyeoldo.'

But Benedict was already dead, making that option extremely unlikely.

But if anyone present at the time had witnessed Benedict's divine art...

'It's possible they might have combined the divine art with the ritual to open the demonic realm, creating something new.'

The divine art was fundamentally based on the power of Wishes.

If someone used it, they could imitate the blood of the Demon King, or even open the gate to the demonic realm—it wasn't entirely impossible.

It would require much more sacrifice than simply opening a demon's gate, but with the power of the Wishes, it was certainly possible.

"Leaving aside demons, isn't this 'power of the Wishes' or 'gate to the demonic realm' stuff just nonsense?"

As I thought, another voice spoke up behind me.

It was an agent from the Bureau of Paranormal Phenomena who had come to the Amazon with Adam.

Awakener rank: A-rank.

The five agents following behind him were all A-rank combatants as well.

"Oliver, haven't you been told to watch your words in front of the coach?"

"...... Sorry."

The man called Oliver bowed his head in annoyance at Adam's rebuke.

'He seems to have a lot of complaints about me.'

It wasn't just Oliver.

The other agents of the Bureau of Paranormal Phenomena were also eyeing me with suspicion.

"Apologies. Oliver isn't usually like this..."

"It's fine. I can guess the reason anyway."

My reputation in the US wasn't exactly stellar.

Of course, there were quite a few who liked me for awakening Alencia's abilities, but the majority blamed me for taking Alencia back to Korea.

'Even if you're an agent, you wouldn't know about my clandestine talks with Enoch—so it's reasonable to be dissatisfied.'

After all, Alencia was now the most popular awakened in the US.

'Hard to believe, considering she was an outcast until recently.'

She was beautiful, with a unique concept, and had soloed an SS-rank over-monster. How could Alencia not be popular? Rumor had it that Odyssey tickets were being scalped for high prices in the US just for the chance to see her fight.

"We're almost there. Just over this hill..."

If we pushed through the bushes ahead, there would be a valley.

They'd said that following the valley would lead us to the place where the altar had been.

"... What the."

Up till now, the agent had never shown any visible emotion, but this was different.

There was unconcealed shock in his voice.

"What... is this?"

All that remained of where the valley once was were gigantic traces of destruction.

It looked as if a giant had swept across the land with its hand—earth overturned everywhere, piles of shattered stone.

The devastated area spanned several kilometers.

The trees in the surrounding forest were uprooted and snapped.

"Manager Park, this couldn't possibly... be the work of demons, could it?"

He sounded as if he desperately wanted me to say no.

That's how surreal the scene before us was.

It was hard to believe such devastation was caused by a mere living creature.

And on the broken valley floor, there were suspicious blood and chunks of flesh still stuck.

Those looked like the end for sacrificial offerings at the altar; a few agents turned pale at the sight.

'No way...'

Looking at the traces left in the ruined valley, I grimaced.

The 'gate' had been opened.

But it wasn't fully open.

It was so unstable that it couldn't properly protect anything coming through from the demonic realm.

So, instead, they had summoned something that could withstand that instability.

Those chunks of flesh weren't from the altar's human sacrifices.

They were from something that had been summoned to the altar.

No, it was quite possible they had only summoned a lump of flesh from the start.

This was the result of forcibly opening the gate to the demonic realm.

'Butcher Henate.'

One of the three great dukes of the demonic realm.

An immortal monster.

A being obsessed solely with life.

It looked like that thing had come into this world.

***

"Isn't this year's Odyssey something to look forward to?"

With about a week left until Odyssey began, the topic was circulating in hushed conversations. Many said, since Korea is sending a golden generation, they could expect good results.

"My mom said not to get my hopes up. Last time, everyone was expecting things and we got wrecked."

"But this time, there's Shin Ah-yeon, and Baek Hojun, right?"

"It would have been nice if Min-gi oppa could participate."

"What do you mean oppa? If you go by age, he's the same as my dad."

One of the world's only seven great mages.

And the Thousand Sword, who had taken a step further.

It was disappointing that Kang Min-gi—the presumed strongest in Korea—wasn't participating, but most still said expectations were warranted with just those two.

"As for the alternates, there's Hwang Yeon-ji and... No Name? Who's that?"

"No idea? If she's with Hwang Yeon-ji, maybe an A-rank Hunter with decent ability?"

Hwang Yeon-ji and an unknown 'No Name', whose names appeared in the press conference, also drew attention.

Many questioned whether it was right to take Hwang Yeon-ji along as an alternate even if she was talented but only A-rank; there was also speculation about who 'No Name' was.

Rumor had it that 'No Name' was the awakened who closed the gate on Jeju Island, but that was only speculation.

"Does the article bother you?"

"Oh, do I look like someone who cares about that sort of thing?"

When I spoke to her, Yeon-ji, who was doing a final luggage check at the airport, gave a slight laugh.

"I actually prefer if people don't have expectations. If people get their hopes up and we don't live up to them, they'll just get disappointed."

There was a real weight to her words.

She was speaking of her time as Ji Yeon-hwa—once the focus of all the world's hopes, instantly discarded in the next moment.

After Yeon-ji's remark, Ah-yeon—having finished check-in and playing a mobile game—asked in a small voice,

"What do you think, oppa?"

"About what?"

"About Yeon-ji. You're the one who brought her onto Odyssey. Do you think she'll do well?"

If you only looked at rank, it was obviously tough.

It was virtually impossible for an A-rank to beat an S-rank, unless it was a situation like with the fake Sol Mayer before.

"If I thought she'd fail, I wouldn't have even recommended her from the start."

Though, I wasn't sure what Yeon-ji herself thought.

After my answer, Ah-yeon nodded, returning to her game.

"That's good enough for me."

As if that was the answer she'd wanted all along.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

I think Ah-yeon asked that to get a feel on how Jung-woo felt about her performance on the Odyssey.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】