Do you know the power hierarchy of the Manma Jeon Company?
Rumble, rumble.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands… or perhaps even tens of thousands of individuals were gathered together.
From those with fierce and endless physical bodies and appearances, monsters with grotesque forms, to entities beyond the physical shape and undead who escaped the shackles of death.
From a distance, it might seem like a gathering of some demonic tribes, but a closer look would reveal creatures that could easily devour several planetary systems without breaking a sweat.
What lurked within them were clusters of magic that were destructive, violent, and claimed themselves to be the best.
Each of them was a demon lord who ruled their respective planetary systems.
However, despite their gathering, they remained silent, not a single conflict or voice raised, just quietly staring at the central podium.
Seemingly bored with waiting, yet displaying an eerie lack of any emotion.
And before them, someone appeared.
“Applaud!”
As soon as Demon Lord Jang raised both hands wide, attention converged, and everyone erupted into cheers!
“The greatest, Demon Lord Jang!”
“The long-awaited sight of Demon Lord Jang’s magnificent figure…!”
“Indulging~ Any black sheep who didn’t get lost and miss this?”
hehehe.
Demon Lord Jang, enjoying the shower of attention towards him, raised his hand to quiet the audience.
“Even in the midst of busyness, gathering like this is truly prideful as the leader of Manma Jeon…! Let’s cut to the chase! Astaroth!”
As his aide Astaroth snapped his fingers, a familiar screen appeared.
The public guide to the arena written in Ma language, everyone nodded as if they had seen it once.
“Everyone knows the arena well… will soon be open. So today, under my lady’s supervision, we are going to select one person to compete in the arena by playing rock-paper-scissors! We will determine the representative by playing rock-paper-scissors!”
While the demon king spoke boldly, Ashtaroth, who was standing beside him, just let out a deep sigh.
“Play rock-paper-scissors with the person next to you! If you win, step forward to play with the next person, and if you win again, step forward… And the final person to reach me will be able to compete!”
“No, I have pincers for hands-“
“My fingers are too thick to make a fist…?”
“How can a hand with no fingers participate, my lord?”
Despite various complaints pouring towards the demon king, it is the duty of a king to ignore trivial opinions and strive for justice!
“Now, let’s begin!”
“Ugh-“
Some made a face of disgust at the result of rock-paper-scissors and stepped back, while others smiled and stepped forward…
“aaargh!”
…Some even screamed like a girl and collapsed in place.
The reason was simple.
The demon with pincer hands had sliced the hand of another demon who made a fist, straight in half.
“…..”
“…..?”
“Um… well…”
After a moment of silence enveloping the surroundings, the demon with pincer hands somehow put forth his argument to try and change the atmosphere.
“Wh-who came up with the biased idea that scissors lose to rock? Shouldn’t a true demon overcome such trivial adversity…!”
And then –
“Kraaah!”
Hell broke loose.
Scissors tore through rock, fists pierced paper, and a new variant of rock-paper-scissors emerged, with slashing hands tearing through the scissors and descending…!
“hahahahaha! I won! Where do you see punching paper in this game?”
“Do you think a mere scissors can block the annihilation of my hand? Foolish, your price will be your wrist…!”
“Your fist is even useless in a mud fight! Just split quietly! Hrraaa!”
Long gone were the days of balance and rules, as survivors amidst the bloody scene were those with the sturdiest bodies.
From Noble mtl dot com
As fists clashed, scissors clashed, and rocks clashed, the expression on Demon Lord Jang’s face subtly changed.
What chaos was this.
In the tragedy incited by Demon Lord Jang, Asteroth, the CEO of the Mamma-Jeon Company, displayed a look of disdain.
You fools!!!
With this spectacle, how could Mamma-Jeon hold a solo tournament in the arena…
What’s the use of strength.
Most of these idiots seemed to be missing a few screws.
A sigh escaped involuntarily.
…And the culmination of this foolishness was none other than Demon Lord Jang.
The subtle expression soon turned into a genuinely happy and expectant face.
“Good! That’s good! If everyone participates with such excitement, then I can’t help but join in the fun too!!”
But even this scene seemed pleasing to Demon Lord Jang’s eyes.
He seemed about to wave his hand and dash forward, but… Astaroth grabbed the back of the demon king and stopped him in his tracks.
“Where do you think you’re going, my lord?”
Astaroth’s face was cold and stern.
“Huh? Isn’t it obvious! The only one who can participate in the arena is the demon king of Manma-jeon…! So, doesn’t my lady have the qualification to participate! The supreme among demon kings! The leader of Manma-jeon! I am the true representative…!”
“So you’re saying you’re going to join in this foolishness with me?”
“Of course! Let me go! It’s not too late!”
If the demon king had just turned his head a little, he could have seen Astaroth’s face.
But he was caught up in the frenzy, missing his last chance.
Unrecoverable madness… erupts.
“Some are needed to handle various documents related to the agreements with the Ministry of Administration and Finance as soon as this event ends, but my lord seems to be leisurely trying to escape from participating in selecting the arena representatives. You should be pleased to go as the representative demon king and work hard in the arena. While some are losing sleep for weeks, dealing with reviews, revisions, on-site management, and even preparing the budget for the next quarter from scratch, my dark circles won’t disappear from my eyes. Yet my lord is just fooling around with the humans of Manma-jeon and the dignitaries. It seems you are quite carefree—”
The demon king’s face turned blue in an instant.
“Uh… uh…”
Facing the madness of a worker overwhelmed by their duties, the demon king could only avert his gaze…
“I, I was wrong…”
“From now on, those who move will be excluded from the next quarter’s budget. Those who still want to go as representatives can play rock-paper-scissors.”
Astaroth’s chilling words echoed, and at the same time, all the demon kings stiffened in their places.
The desire to participate as a representative in the arena seemed strong as a chimney, but even if there was room for that, if they were to fall out of Astaroth’s budget, there was no way they could afford to move with their current financial situation.
Do you know the power hierarchy in Manma-jeon Company?
Chairman Astaroth is in 1st place, followed by the finance department in 2nd place, and Demon King Jang is a mere 3rd place.
The ruthless embodiment of capitalism, Astaroth, quickly brought the situation to an end.
“Damn those demon kings.”
A new wrinkle appeared on Astaroth’s forehead.
—–
Was it ultimately succumbing to the complaints of the divine beings, or was it the originally intended time to announce? Only the management knew which, but in the end, the Colosseum guide notice made its way to the gallery announcements.
And in that notice, there was one more piece of news that everyone had been eagerly waiting for…!
The opening date was right there.
“They’re opening in two days?! Seriously, why so hastily! Are they out of their minds?”
A catastrophic reaction for news everyone had been waiting for.
Not just Adikia, but the entire gallery was in chaos.
“[Damn, this is screwed. They say it takes a week to repair the equipment we left.]”
– Even if you beg with a lot of money, it takes three days to repair everything that got destroyed in the last Colosseum;; It’s hopeless, really.
ㄴYou too? Me too!
ㄴNow that it’s come to this, how about we all go back to our roots together…? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a showdown like in the early days, with contractees fighting bare-handed without any equipment or rabbit costumes?
ㄴ Ah ㅋㅋ the old event matches were legendary. But damn, that was before they started deducting points!!!
ㄴThis guy has a 500% chance of pulling out a full-power loan ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Are there still black sheep not using the reserve forces?]
-Group photo.jpg
-Wasn’t it supposed to be run with contractees in the 2nd and 3rd groups prepared? Running the Colosseum without putting in that much effort is just negligent.
ㄴNo, teacher, seriously, how much decayed overflowing power does this guy have…
ㄴWow, the equipment is insane. Orihalcon alloy? There can’t be much of that stuff available.
ㄴI’m sorry for the first time, but if it’s not too much trouble, could you lend me just one number?
ㄴRead me the address.
ㄴWhat? Really? XXXXXX XXX XXXX XXX…!
ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I can bet both of my dicks that the guy above will get screwed 10 minutes later. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Look at this son of a b*tch who said he’d give me the number earlier.]
-A complete mess in the house.jpg
-Flashing grenade rolling in.gif
-This crazy bastard is asking for a pizza, and why the hell are special forces attacking? Swatting, damn it!
ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ So, who’s gonna dox the actual address on the forum? And how the hell did they manage to take the picture? ㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴNewbies can’t even sue, and they can’t even impose fines. Damn newbies, damn!
ㄴEven if the contractor reports a false claim by Swatting, it usually goes into trial, but most of the time, it’s just a slap on the wrist. Newbies watching their backs like crazy. ㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴOrdered a pizza, ended up cooking a whole meal at home, damn black sheep. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
What a bolt from the blue, Adikia jumped up.
“So much to prepare for… From new equipment to understanding the new terrain map, strategy, farming route, and map gimmicks… There’s so much to memorize, and the preparation time is only two days…?”
Ugh…!
Unlike Adikia, who was pacing around anxiously, Yudahee was incredibly relaxed.
Standing on the balcony, she was just looking at the stars unfolding beyond the universe.
Next to Yudahee, Deke was left tied up with a power chain, neglected.
Still with his tongue sticking out, he remained unconscious.
Adikia, stating that he had properly infused divine power, said it was a natural result.
Moreover, with the properly accumulated divine power, Deke wouldn’t be able to maintain that appearance for at least three days.
Simultaneously grasping Deke, negotiations on the contract with Adikia began.
There seemed to be something to negotiate, but the situation was more complicated than expected.
The contract between Yudahee and Deke was not just a contract as a mere contractor, but also entangled with the joint guarantee of the dimensional credit vault. It was challenging to break it easily.
Of course, there was an option to prove that Adikia had forcefully entered into the contractual relationship as mentioned before, rendering all the facts invalid. However, the problem erupted here.
Time.
Time was absolutely insufficient.
Only two days left until the reopening of the arena.
“If only we had one more week…!”
If there was just a little more time, they could have entered into a solo contract with Yudahee without any problems. However, since that became impossible, they had no choice but to enter into a dual contract.
“In fact, there’s nothing wrong with having a contract with multiple deities…”
The contractor had nothing particularly disadvantageous.
It was a structure where support could be obtained from more deities.
However, the issue arose from the debate of which deity would support the contractor who had been supported in this way when entering the arena—whether they win or lose, they had to share the points consumed or gained.
Could the deities with such strong pride easily concede? In reality, entering into a dual contract with multiple deities was almost a banned method. Still, among some deities, it was in use based on mutual agreements.
In the end, there was no other choice.
Leaving the contract with Deke aside, a dual contract with Yudahee and Adikia…!
If others saw it… It was undoubtedly a complicated threesome relationship that no one could easily understand.
“Sigh…”
But what can I do? I can only accept it…
Having put in so much effort, seeing it persist, Adikia realized it wasn’t fate but destiny…!
Fate can change depending on the level of effort, but destiny is like a fired bullet, already in motion.
Adikia, realizing the inevitability, let out a deep sigh.