Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan

Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan – 189

Company Outing (5)

“You’re human too, Leader, aren’t you? Just like us.”

We’ve been indebted to him many times on missions where we could lose our lives at any moment. Despite being so strong, he focused on nurturing the next generation.

In some ways, it bordered on obsession. He wasn’t satisfied with his team members merely exceeding the average growth rate.

‘So that’s why it was like that.’

I had occasionally felt a strange sense of discomfort. But now the misaligned puzzle piece finally fit. Every second, indescribable emotions welled up.

“Of course. If anything, I was much weaker than you all.”

It was hard to believe, but he said so himself. Feelings like weakness or fear seemed so distant from Isaac the hero that the team members found this Isaac unfamiliar.

There were still countless questions. If anything, their curiosity had intensified compared to before hearing the truth.

At this point, the World Association’s directive to dig into Isaac’s secrets as thoroughly as possible had completely vanished from their minds.

“Weak… It’s really hard to believe.”

It was Hwang Man-deuk’s resignation.

There were too many things to question for him to be just an ordinary citizen who was good at games.

They could only nod along since their ever-reliable Leader said so himself.

Given the situation, the four heroes spent some time recalling Isaac’s peculiar past behaviors, trying to connect the dots with the concept of a “game possession”.

Rather than continuing the conversation immediately, they needed time to process this unbelievable truth.

Even in this aspect, there was a noticeable difference in speed between the 1st and 2nd ranked members and the 3rd and 4th ranked members of the squad.

“So, so then! What happens later? Can you summon Lirica or something?”

“Gil-seong, you’ll be able to manifest Lirica’s powers in reality. Not summoning, though.”

“Really?! Ha, haha. So Lirica’s mechanics were real… You knew all along, Leader!”

Gil-seong, a manifestation-type hero who had been wandering between reality and dreams, took Isaac’s belief not as mere encouragement but as ‘something that will eventually come true’.

“So about the mental barrier… Was there some kind of special privilege for possessed individuals? Or did you receive good psychological counseling… Being a hero, you know. It’s not something you can suddenly do.”

The sensitive young inspector worried about the post-traumatic stress disorder and mental shock that a ‘civilian who was just good at games’ must have endured. No, he was practically pouring out his concerns.

Isaac endured the suddenly initiated Q&A session with a more relaxed expression.

Sharing his burdensome worries with his colleagues had dramatically lightened his mental load.

“Hey, guys. The Leader must be feeling conflicted too. Why don’t we ease up a bit?”

“Ah!”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Gil-seong and Yeo Jin-su’s barrage of questions subsided only after Hwang Man-deuk, who had just returned from his panorama of doubts, intervened.

…

Silence fell.

It was a quietness they needed, not entirely heavy.

After about ten seconds, Isaac casually stood up.

“That’s how it is. If you have more questions, write them down separately. As long as I’m in the mood, I’ll try to answer most of them.”

The team members instinctively felt that their Leader’s ‘day when he’s in the mood’ might not come again if not today, but they also needed time to organize their thoughts.

‘I think I did well to speak up.’

With his long-standing indigestion cleared, Isaac anticipated that tonight’s sleep would be exceptionally peaceful. The nature of his worries had been so unusual that he had even been skipping psychological counseling.

Today was the first time he had shared the anguish of being possessed with others. That alone was enough to bring emotional stability.

From now on, wouldn’t the team members consider his position in their actions?

Given their high affinity, they would likely keep things confidential, and knowing about the existence of the ‘combat gauge’ could lead to innovative strategic planning.

Ding.

The sound that shattered his expectation of a peaceful night’s sleep pierced his eardrums at that very moment.

―The Celestial Canopy is being automatically deactivated by order of the Archangel rank. This order cannot be refused with the Vice Commander’s authority.

It was Noah’s voice message.

‘Automatic deactivation?’

Deactivation of the barrier by order of the Archangel rank. The wording itself was overwhelming.

‘Is this related to Satanael?’

He had said they would soon encounter Satanael, the final boss of the world setting. Given that the subject of that statement was the representative of Tetragrammaton, it wasn’t strange that the celestial realm following the omnipotent transcendent being was in a flurry.

The Celestial Canopy protecting the small world must be constraining their movements as well. In short, they were clearing away the annoying obstacles before the final phase.

“Leader?”

Isaac, whose expression had suddenly hardened, was about to leave nonchalantly when he realized he no longer needed to do so.

What was there to hide after confessing to being possessed? It would be strategically and emotionally much more beneficial to share the situation that only he could understand and put their heads together.

“The barrier protecting the small world is being lifted.”

“…Pardon?”

The team members were all bewildered.

There was too much information to process in just one day.

Seeing their dumbfounded reactions, Isaac remembered that the team members were in no position to have an in-depth conversation.

“That’s a thing that exists.”

===

**

===

It was time alone again.

He wanted to rest comfortably, but that wasn’t his fate.

“Noah. Why did the Archangel rank deactivate the Celestial Canopy?”

―Unknown.

“An Archangel would be one of the four great angels, right? Which one are we talking about?”

―Unknown.

“What do you know?”

―The current deactivation rate of the Celestial Canopy is 83%.

“No, not that. Do you know anything about the current situation? You can monitor the entire small world, right? For example, has any powerful monster or Ethereal appeared nearby?”

―No Tier 2 entities detected in the small world. The entity of concern, ‘Disaster’, disappeared to the north 35 days ago and its whereabouts have been unknown since.

The game of twenty questions with the AI left behind by an ancient civilization had begun.

Good questions are followed by good answers.

After a few additional questions, Isaac learned that no radical changes had yet come to the small world.

‘This is probably the best time.’

A war that will determine the fate of the macro world will begin soon. Isaac’s role in the war is none other than ‘God-killing’. He is, in a sense, the secret weapon of the Ethereal faction.

The general formula for victory would be to approach Satanael in some way and deliver the final finish.

However, given the nature of the opponent, there was a task that had to be accomplished to increase the few chances of survival.

Thud.

He dragged an item from the inventory into reality. It was none other than the elixir ‘Roaring Pride’. It’s in an extremely cold state, as if the chill of the Arctic had been squeezed into an essence.

He had intended to consume this after achieving mental maturity and stability, but…

Gulp. Gulp.

He drank it down in big swallows, like an ion drink. No use saving it only to end up as waste.

“Ugh.”

A coldness that felt like it could cause indigestion at any moment swirled in his esophagus and stomach. It was as if his internal organs were freezing over.

With a sour expression, Isaac hurriedly sat cross-legged and began to chant the cultivation mantra.

Om padma sangsadi sarana sambuga.

Omi tare turare nama bayari shabaha.

Aba rokana ya…

Following the mantras of the Heart Sutra and the Heavenly Wood Lotus Technique, he could feel the cold energy spreading throughout his body.

The chill that had been stirring his insides became pleasantly cool. The energy of the elixir had already begun to dissolve into his body.

Like other deeply practiced cultivators, quickly absorbing elixirs had now become a familiar task.

‘What a sight.’

The reflection in the mirror was like that of a fallen monk steeped in worldly affairs. Though his appearance wasn’t like that at all, the cross-legged posture and the faint sound of Buddhist chants reminiscent of Mongolian throat singing gave off the impression of quite profound cultivation.

[You have absorbed the elixir ‘Roaring Pride’.]

[It seems you will soon be able to achieve a breakthrough.]

Forget mental maturity or whatever, if you keep hammering away with sheer quantity, you’ll break through eventually. Since Isaac had already assumed the cross-legged position, he absorbed the thin spiritual energy of heaven and earth to accumulate a small amount of dharma power.

Although it was an amount that wouldn’t even register to the liver.

Ding.

―Powerful Ethereal entity confirmed.

―Approaching the Vice Commander.

It was close to 2 AM when Noah’s voice suddenly rang out urgently.

“Coming for me?”

―Approaching at 10 times the speed of sound. Will encounter in 54 seconds.

―53 seconds. 52 seconds. 51 seconds…

Ten times the speed of sound is about 12,000 km/h.

It far exceeded the scale of the small world.

‘There are quite a few abnormal ones among the Ethereals.’

This meant that a life-or-death battle might suddenly begin. Judging from Noah’s briefing, the opponent seemed to know their exact location.

Whoosh.

Isaac leapt out the window, summoned his bow, and soared high into the sky.

At that speed, the shockwave alone would devastate the area. If he had to encounter the unknown, he didn’t want to cause damage on the ground.

―10 seconds, 9 seconds… 3 seconds…

Something writhing could be seen in the distance in the night sky.

Swoosh!

“Hah!”

For a moment, a profound fear pierced through him. The energy of the monstrous life form was beyond imagination. Even with 5-star dharma power, it was overwhelming to even detect the scale of its level.

It felt as if a living natural disaster was descending upon him.

Kuooo.

All hell broke loose on the ground as well.

The resting heroes released their magical power, yearning for life.

Swoosh!

“…A dragon?”

As the bizarre giant body came to a stop, a typhoon swept through. The writhing form suddenly shrank, transforming into a familiar appearance.

The azure scales had been bleached white, and the thickness and length of the body had been reduced to 1/5.

Accordingly, the aura it emitted had also diminished, but as an Earthling, it was impossible to view favorably a monstrous life form that had flown into one’s national territory at 10 times the speed of sound.

【Information Window】

▶ Name: White-faced Dragon (Avatar of the Azure Dragon)

▶ Level: 235

▶ Star Rank: ★★★★★★★★★ (9-star mid-stage, 2nd Awakening)

‘Holy sh*t.’

It was a jaw-dropping level.

The overwhelming pressure that felt like his heart might burst was visualized in concrete numbers.

Isaac’s finger instinctively moved closer to the activation button for the Commander skill.

‘Respond calmly.’

The agent of the Tetragrammaton was an even greater being than this. Hadn’t he anticipated that power inflation would accelerate rapidly?

In any case, that terrifying Oriental dragon was likely to be on the side dispatched to help humanity at the call of the Celestial Realm. Just the fact that it wasn’t breathing fire right off the bat…

At that moment, a majestic resonance arose from deep within his mind.

―You bear the mark. Fear not, weak creature. I am a soldier who has personally descended from the Celestial Realm to aid you.

Azure Dragon .

This probably wasn’t the Azure Dragon of the Four Symbols. One of the spiritual beasts of the Four Symbols familiar to us from all sorts of media wouldn’t exceed level 200, at least not as an avatar.

‘That must be…’

The Azure Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. The mythical creature of the Celestial Realm said to rule the eastern sea had descended into the body of the White-faced Dragon.

Isaac was grateful to his past self for accumulating such rich background knowledge of the Clan of Heroes worldview. Thanks to that, he wouldn’t be easily looked down upon.

At least he could bluff a few times with his information advantage.

“The Azure Dragon King? Not the Western White Dragon, Dragon king of North Sea? Why have you descended into the White-faced Dragon?”

It was a desperate attempt at bravado.

He didn’t want to be disrespected from the first impression.

And surprisingly, the avatar of the Azure Dragon did seem to be the White-faced Dragon of the Silver Sky Forest. The unique texture of its flowing whiskers and white scales looked exactly like that creature.

The fact that such a White-faced Dragon was a candidate to be the avatar of the East Sea Dragon King was a shocking twist even for Isaac.

―Do you know about us, the Four Sea Dragon Kings? Listen, weak creature, it would be wise to be cautious when dealing with soldiers descended from the Celestial Realm in the future. They are not as generous in nature as this king.

It was telling him, a mere creature, to show even more extreme courtesy. But wasn’t the Celestial Realm just like a puppet regime forcibly conscripting and exploiting Isaac?

He vowed not to act like an obedient puppet once he learned the uncomfortable truth.

After all, it was clearly Isaac himself, not the soldiers of the Celestial Realm, who held the handle of the ‘God-killing’ blade.

―Your answer?

“…Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Of course, in reality, might made right.