Chapter 763
Thoughts are merely thoughts until they are made real, but the moment they become a complete sentence and spill out as a voice, they gain explosive force.
Just like now.
“I have witnessed countless deaths until now.”
A voice steeped in sorrow rang out. Standing tall before the countless cameras and microphones, Michael Silbert slowly continued.
“In the slums of Paris, crawling with flies and gangs. On the countless battlefields of the Great Cataclysm. And even after the day of victory, when the Demon King Asmodeus fell. Continuously.”
Zzziing.
The faint noise of cameras operating sounded strangely loud.
In a silence so deep that not even the sound of swallowing could be heard, the reporters staring at Michael Silbert had eyes shining with an inexplicable anticipation.
‘This is…’
‘There’s something here!’
At first, they had assumed it was just some sudden, pointless rambling.
All they had wanted was a friendly two-shot of the two heroes, like father and son, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, along with a few warm words.
The protagonist of today’s event was unquestionably Jin Taekyung, and Michael was merely the perfect spotlight to make him shine even brighter.
That was, until he opened his mouth.
“However, even after witnessing so many deaths, there was a hope I could not abandon. There was a dream. I believed that once the Demon King Asmodeus and the monster legion disappeared, all conflict would one day end, and perfect peace would arrive.”
A voice with clear rises and falls, and an expression full of appeal.
The figure of Michael Silbert, forcing everyone who watched and listened to focus, was captured in the camera lenses.
Naturally, those watching it all live leaned closer to the TVs in their living rooms, their computer monitors, or the smartphones in their hands.
“Mom. Dad. I want to watch my cartoon…”
“Shh, Peter. Be quiet for a second.”
– Ah, that lunatic No Jae-heon, what the hell is he doing? He was supposed to come for the guild war, and instead he’s gone AWOL and is playing games.
– What’s with Jae-heon? Fighting with his girlfriend? Is he giving up this match?
– “That’s not it. I was just watching a YouTube live for a bit. Never mind. I’ll post the link in chat, so you guys take a look too.”
– No, fuck, where would that bastard even get a girlfriend? He just said this wasn’t his promo match, damn it… Munich live? What is this?
Dozens of television stations and streaming sites all over the world burst into action, and the number of viewers, growing exponentially, held their breath as they watched the screen.
The stern-faced Jin Taekyung and Michael Silbert, standing one step ahead of him as he continued speaking, were reflected in countless eyes beyond the camera lens.
Along with a powerful voice that drove straight into everyone’s ears.
“After a long wait and much hesitation, I stand here today. To say this one thing to all of you. For the sake of belief in peace and in a better future.”
Having poured out a torrent of words, Michael Silbert swallowed dryly.
No, it was everyone watching him who did.
And in the next moment, a voice scattered like grains of sand slipped from his lips.
“Indeed, the second war is right before our eyes.”
…
An invisible disturbance, a ripple, swept through the surroundings.
The office worker lounging on the sofa after work, absently flipping through television channels. The affectionate couple passing beneath the giant electronic billboards lining the street. The teenager who had stopped gaming and was now watching a live stream out of idle curiosity.
The reporters witnessing the scene in person were no different.
At this moment, all of them doubted their own eyes and ears, then soon fell into utter confusion.
The second war.
There was no one who did not know what that brief phrase meant. A voice like a groan escaped from someone’s lips.
“The Great Cataclysm…?”
How could they not know?
The most vivid nightmare, the deepest terror etched into humanity’s memory.
The worst great war in human history, one that covered the five oceans and six continents in blood and corpses.
And now Michael Silbert was saying that very Great Cataclysm was about to begin again.
Declaring that the second war had indeed arrived.
Before them.
No, before the entire world.
‘This is… impossible.’
‘No. It can’t be. It can’t.’
But despite the denial that sprang immediately to mind, their lips would not move so easily.
To be precise, they could not move, frozen between denial and one other thought.
‘What if every word he said is true?’
A second Great Cataclysm.
It could not happen. It must not happen.
But people vaguely sensed it.
Because each of them had already been feeling out the shape of the anxiety writhing deep in their hearts.
There had already been more than enough warning signs.
The steadily rising concentration of magical energy. The abnormal phenomena increasing with each passing day.
Only a few months ago, an Archlich had run wild in Sichuan, China, and Monster Wave incidents triggered through Magic Crystal Stones had broken out one after another all over the world.
This method of terrorism had long been studied in academic circles, but the leading scholars in magical power studies had all said the same thing.
That it was impossible for now.
Unless the concentration of magical energy reached the critical threshold.
And today, Michael Silbert was declaring that it had already crossed that line.
“Perhaps the word ‘second’ is incorrect. However, one thing is certain. What all of us, myself included, believed to be the end of the war was merely a truce.”
“I say this now. The concentration of magical energy spread throughout the world we live in has already passed the critical point, and a disaster like the one in the past will once again sweep across the entire world.”
People could no longer even breathe properly.
This was not the drunken rambling of some man idling away time in a neighborhood bar.
This was Michael Silbert.
The declaration of a hero who had shone from the era of the Great Cataclysm to the present day, and the giant who led the greatest guild in the world.
Among the reporters still reeling in shock, someone asked with a trembling voice,
“Th-that means… the Demon King, Demon King Asmodeus, is returning?”
“On the day of victory, in that final battle that decided humanity’s fate, the Demon King clearly vanished without leaving behind a trace. I witnessed it with my own eyes, so that is an undeniable fact. But…”
Michael Silbert hesitated for a moment, then added one more sentence.
“Now, no one can be certain. Not what will happen in the future, nor even whether the Demon King Asmodeus truly vanished.”
“Ah, aah.”
“This can’t be…”
The cameras trembled slightly, and the sighs of the reporters mixed into the microphones were faithfully transmitted across the airwaves.
But the people watching from wherever they were, through their screens, did not complain or pay it any mind.
Because they were no different from those at the scene.
Because they too were trembling unconsciously before the fear that had finally revealed its true shape, before the truth they had pretended not to know because they lacked the courage to face it.
A future that no one could now predict.
No, a disaster.
And the terror that the dreadful being known as the Demon King Asmodeus might appear once more.
Those feelings, like dark clouds, gnawed at and eroded people’s hearts.
The eyes of those watching Michael Silbert, whether through a screen or in person, trembled faintly.
They wished he would take back everything he had said so far, right now. They even clung to the absurd hope that he might laugh and say it had all been a joke.
But Michael Silbert’s next words tore even that final scrap of hope out by the roots.
“Peace, or rather the era we believed to be peace, is over.”
Michael Silbert looked directly into the camera. The sorrow and rage spilling from him felt vivid enough to touch.
At least, that was how it appeared to those watching this scene.
“The war has already begun, and we must fight it without a single moment of hesitation or retreat.”
The voice spilling from his lips rippled like a wave. As if sobbing, as if pleading, Michael Silbert poured out his words and clenched his teeth.
“Become one! Unite more firmly than ever before!”
A blazing gaze poured from his reddened eyes, and a thunderous shout rang through the microphones.
The camera no longer showed Jin Taekyung.
The brilliant lighting and the spotlight were aimed at one person alone.
(T/N : What a fame whore )
Michael Silbert.
In the eyes of the people, he looked like a warrior filled with resolve.
No, in the image he sought to project, he was already a hero and a king.
A hero who showed a new path to those in crisis.
An emperor who would reign over this world.
And amid the faintly trembling air and the countless gazes fixed on him, Michael Silbert took his final step.
For the one sentence he had waited all this time to say.
“World Hunter Federation.”
At those words, everyone held their breath.
The air and the wind seemed to stop.
The overwhelming presence pouring off Michael Silbert pressed down on the surroundings.
“A federation that encompasses every nation in the world. A federation without restriction. The revival of that very World Hunter Federation that once saved all of us, all of humanity on Earth, from the disaster of the Great Cataclysm…”
As the tail end of his sentence trailed off, Michael Silbert’s eyes gleamed brightly.
Having stared at the hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, watching him from every corner of the world, he let out the breath he had been holding.
“I dare to propose it here.”
The revival of an international organization that transcended all law and all restriction.
At the sentence he had finally spoken aloud, an invisible wave swept through the crowd.
It passed through the cameras and microphones, crossed the airwaves, and spread to every corner of the world.
And just as everyone witnessing the scene was seized by profound shock and an indescribable emotion—
“Fuck off.”
A single voice shattered it all.
Hundreds of reporters.
The German federal troops and police holding them back.
Even the Hunters who had arrived late to the scene.
Countless eyes turned toward me.
Beyond the glittering camera lenses, it felt as though other invisible gazes and voices were crashing down on me like waves.
But I paid them no attention.
No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say I couldn’t.
‘So this was it.’
The shock struck me so hard it felt like I’d been hit in the back of the head.
Amid the chaos in my mind, like a kindergarten playroom overturned, one phrase I had heard only moments ago echoed with perfect clarity.
‘World Hunter Federation.’
More than thirty years later, what remained of the old heroes under the name International Hunter Federation.
Age. Gender. Nation. Race.
An organization of Hunters who had even transcended the law to follow a savior named Cheon Tae-min. That was the World Hunter Federation.
They fought for nothing but humanity’s survival, shedding rivers of blood to achieve victory. And after the Demon King Asmodeus fell, they returned to their own places.
‘And now he’s saying he’ll revive that very World Hunter Federation?’
Of course, like everyone else, I respect those who fought in the past.
Because they fought for everyone.
Because after the war ended, they immediately laid down that tremendous power without regret.
But this was different.
The World Hunter Federation Michael Silbert dreamed of… was nothing more than a kingdom built for one man alone.
That was why, here and now, before the eyes of the entire world, I could say it once again.
“Fuck off.”
And at the moment the people doubting their own ears widened their eyes, a low voice reached my ears.
And what shook my mind once more was—
– Think carefully before you speak again.
Michael Silbert.
The man driving this world into crisis, then trying to use that very crisis as a stepping stone to the throne.
The treacherous hero wearing a hero’s mask turned to look at me and smiled.
Then, looking at someone beyond my shoulder, he narrowed his snake-like eyes.
– Think of your monster friend, at least.