Hyeonu sat in the square of Etono where no one was present. He was waiting for someone.

‘When is Baler coming?’

To be precise, Hyeonu was waiting for a demon king, not a human. He was waiting for this demon king—Baler.

‘He said he will make the magic circle, so he should make it.’

Hyeonu couldn’t express his impatience because he didn’t know when Baler would come, so he just struggled with it inwardly. There was currently only one magic circle—the one that moved people from Phinis to the demon world. In other words, it was one way. There was no magic circle for the return route. This was definitely what Baler had promised to make.

‘It has to be handled so they can go back...’

Hyeonu still had a minimum of conscience. He thought that if the players came, he should take responsibility for them to be able to go back.

‘Only then can they buy potions to restore magic power...’

Hyeonu laughed slyly.

“What? Are you crazy? Where did you go that you got hit silly?” The two-meter-tall Baler appeared behind Hyeonu and clicked his tongue.

Hyeonu quickly erased the smile from his face and turned to greet Baler: “You’re here, Baler.”

“Greetings. Is that the magic circle? It goes from the middle world to Etono?” Baler raised his finger to greet Hyeonu, using the magic power from his hand to force Hyeonu’s head to tilt up. Then he pointed to the collection of bizarre shapes and characters carved on one side of the square as he questioned it.

“Yes, that is the magic circle created by dragons. It can only be used to come to Etono.”

“It was quite good. It also contains magic power amplification... Yet judging from the lousy proportions, they don’t intend to use it themselves.” Baler stared at the magic circle and clicked his tongue again. It wasn’t Hyeonu but a dragon, Leon Meyer, who had created the magic circle.

“What does that mean?” Hyeonu asked.

“It is literally what I said. Magic circles that require a large amount of magic power require magic power amplification. Otherwise, it is even hard to activate. But... this is too lousy. It is only 10 times.”

“Baler, how much magic amplification can the magic circle you create have?”

“Me? Around 30 times?” Baler said.

Hyeonu shook his head roughly. 30 times… It couldn’t be done.

“Can you make it 5 times? 30 times is too much.”

Baler didn’t know Hyeonu’s intentions and cocked his head. “If it is 5 times, won’t many adventurers be needed to use the magic circle?”

“It doesn’t matter. I would appreciate it if it is 5 times.”

“I see. If that is your intention, I’ll do it. It is also convenient for me.”

***

Hyeonu exited Arena and contacted Kale straight away: “Kale, can we talk now?”

The time was just right. It was currently nighttime in South Korea, so it was daytime in the United States. If there was one problem, it was that Kale was busy.

-Yes, the meeting has just finished. Has something happened?

The timing was good as Kale had just finished attending a meeting. Naturally, the subject of the urgent meeting had been Hyeonu due to the video he’d sent to Kale.

‘I didn’t expect things to proceed this way...’ Kale thought.

No one in the planning room had expected Hyeonu to change the demon king to protect Etono. No, in the first place, it was unexpected for Hyeonu to be related to such a strong NPC.

“Administrators are required,” Hyeonu stated.

Kale shook his head. He couldn’t understand Hyeonu’s abrupt words.

-Administrators? Isn’t the situation already stable in Phinis? As far as I know, the number of NPC administrators is high, and our employees are pulling out one by one.

Phinis was already perfect. This was why Nike’s employees were slowly exiting after having their positions taken by NPCs.

“The NPCs will go to the demon world. I want Nike to re-fill their positions.”

-Aren’t there administrators in Etono? Isn’t it a revived city?

“Right now, Etono is empty. It is literally a ghost city.”

-Huh? A ghost city?! Kale couldn’t help shouting.

It took him by surprise that Etono had become a ghost city. Just based on what he saw from the video in the meeting room, Etono had been a gorgeous city filled with numerous demons and demonic creatures...

-What happened, Mr. Gang?

“Kale, you know how I announced the demon world on my stream?”

-Of course, I know.

“Then it is easy to talk about. The magic circle will take people to Etono. But what if Etono were filled with demons and demonic creatures running around?”

No matter how strong the rankers were, they weren’t a match for the demons and demonic creatures in terms of numbers. They could have put up a good fight, but it would just end up as meaningless propaganda if all of the demons and demonic creatures weren’t defeated.

‘It might be possible if it is Mr. Gang,’ Kale thought.

-It’s impossible for them. The players will die.

“That is why I asked John Blake and Baler to vacate Etono. So, there are naturally no administrators there now. However, if Nike’s employees go to the demon world, it might raise the suspicions of other people.

‘Raise suspicions?’ Kale wondered inwardly.

Although it was a secret that Etono was Hyeonu’s territory, this wasn’t so important. It would merely be surprising if Alley Leader had a territory in the demon world. So what suspicions were Hyeonu talking about? Then Kale realized something. It was one of the things that had emerged on the stream. This was definitely it.

-Perhaps the fee... Mr. Gang did it?

“Yes, I did it. In return, most of the fee will be paid to the emperor, but... isn’t it still a profitable business?” Hyeonu replied positively.

Upon hearing that, Kale’s expression changed to one of astonishment.

‘When it comes to work related to Arena, he is really...’

Hyeonu was unrivaled. He was the most suitable person for this sentence. Kale knew this better than anyone. It was just perfect.

‘In particular, things that are relevant to him...’

The best thing was naturally Hyeonu himself. No matter what method Hyeonu used, he led things in a direction advantageous to him or somehow made damages beneficial to himself. The benefits were larger, and the damages were gains.

-Then I’ll put my employees back into the position of administrators of Phinis. Do you have anything else?

“That’s fine, there’s nothing else. Then I’ll see you next week, Kale.”

-It is already the last one. I’ll go with the boss to see Alley Leader win the championship.

There was only a week left until the end of the Winter League.

***

There were two men inside a neat office. One man sitting in a chair was wearing black-red armor while another man was standing in front of the armored man with folded hands.

“Johnny, ask the administrators for their opinions. Is there anyone who wants to go to the demon world? The salary will be five times more. Moreover, the work is half of what it is here now. The duration of the dispatch is six months,” Hyeonu, the man in black-red armor, quickly conveyed what he wanted to say to Johnny.

“Huh? My Lord’s words are too fast...”

“Find people who want to be sent to do a comfortable job! Bring at least ten! Don’t worry about the empty positions. I’ll fill them up!”

“I understand, My Lord.”

At Hyeonu’s words, Johnny exited the office in a swift manner that didn’t fit his large body. Then a brown-haired man entered through the door that Johnny had opened.

“Can such pushing solve everything? Sometimes you have to know how to take care of your people...” The man who appeared through the door was Lebron. The moment he stepped inside, he looked at Hyeonu and clicked his tongue.

“Master!” Hyeonu got up from the chair and walked toward Lebron. In fact, Hyeonu had been feeling doubtful that maybe Lebron wouldn’t come.

‘It’s because he hates troublesome things...’

It didn’t really matter if Lebron came. Etono wouldn’t collapse in Lebron’s absence, but his existence was a sense of stability in itself. In short, Lebron was a type of guardian god.

“Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost? It’s not like I’ve entered somewhere I’m not allowed to...?”

“I didn’t know you would be here so early. There is still a bit of time before the magic circle is activated.”

“I heard a lot about it. It needs quite a bit of magic power, right? Your magic power probably isn’t enough. You are still lacking.”

Frowning at Lebron who just casually uttered spiteful words, Hyeonu said, “Even if this is true, aren’t you speaking too firmly? It hurts me.”

“Hurts? This guy… You can take it.”

“Are you here to tease me?”

“No? Let’s go to the demon world. I have to go see that old man,” Lebron said with a wide smile.

‘No matter how I look at it, he is here to tease me,’ Hyeonu thought.

He raised his hand and pointed to the door with a bitter smile. “Let’s go see the magic circle first. I don’t think you’ve seen it yet.”

Lebron nodded cheerfully. “By the way, I want to hear the story of that old man. I’m curious about how he is doing in the demon world.”

Hyeonu walked ahead, and Lebron followed him. While walking, Hyeonu constantly moved his mouth. It was because Lebron had too much he was curious about.

“Duke Blake is now one of the seven demon kings of the demon world. He became the demon king recently.”

“He is a demon king? It seems to fit him well... Still, I wonder how much stronger he has become in the meantime...” Lebron’s expression became very strange the more he listened to Hyeonu talk about John Blake’s life. “By the way, that old man’s personality means he must now want to stay in the demon world? After he retired, he wandered around the continent...”

“He is doing all of this to get back to this world. He has to clean up the demon world so he can leave.”

“Yes, I guessed it would be like this. He is a man who wouldn’t move voluntarily, but his ability is better than anyone else’s. His ability to struggle for freedom is really great. This is what I’ve learned...” Lebron’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Hyeonu.

He was saying with his eyes, ‘Take my place quickly.’

Hyeonu smiled. He had no such intentions at all. After all, Hyeonu also hated troublesome things. Otherwise, he would’ve spent more time investing in Phinis.

“Why don’t you raise a new disciple? Or you can hand over your position to the vice-captain. You already have two of them. I’m too busy to be in charge of the Knights of Keon.”

“Bad guy. If that were possible, I wouldn’t have stayed here for so long.” Lebron sighed.

He needed the emperor’s permission to step down from leading the Knights of Keon. This meant he could never step down from his post unless the emperor was satisfied with his successor.

“Once you come back from the demon world, you’ll have to raise another disciple, Master.” Hyeonu made fun of Lebron like this.

He was persistent in targeting his master’s weakness.

“Huhu...” Lebron burst out laughing.

The price for making a slip of the tongue was disastrous. Hyeonu was hit on the top of the head by Lebron’s fist.