The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1004

Because the rare goods provided such incredible benefits, many nations chose to wait for another opportunity rather than make enemies with Tionis.

“I understand. It’s a bit unfortunate, but since we’re blood allies, how about we proceed with a mutual defense treaty...”

“A mutual defense treaty, huh... It’s not a bad proposal, but unfortunately, I’m not sure what the current America could actually do to help defend Tionis.”

If it was about helping America, Davey could definitely step in and take care of it—but if the situation were reversed and Tionis was in danger, there wasn’t much the U.S. could offer in return.

He knew there was no way Drumper didn’t already know this.

“For now, maybe, but in the future...”

"I’ll keep the possibility open."

That was enough for him. He nodded in satisfaction before Davey continued.

"For now, I’d like to focus on a more practical deal."

"Practical? May I ask what you have in mind?”

"Support the Sacred Group.”

"The Sacred Group?”

"Yes. I’m aware that thanks to the Church of Neltarid, many nations already back them, but they’re not without competition. I want the U.S. government to officially support them.”

At first, he seemed confused about why Davey was pushing this company so hard.

But when he considered the bigger picture, he sorted through his thoughts.

Because whatever the reason, if the award was too tempting, there was no turning down such an offer.

"In exchange, I may not be able to recycle all the nuclear waste in the U.S., but I will be sure to take away its danger.”

Davey already had the perfect person for the job—someone who loved radiation.

President Drumper quickly ran the calculations in his head.

If Korea was able to weaponize the technology, the United States couldn't afford to be very far behind.

If Davey immediately took care of all the waste piled up across the U.S., it would at the very least buy them a significant amount of time. More importantly, it seemed the president believed it’d earn him major public support in the upcoming election.

"And... on top of that, I’ll assist with dimensional rift incidents twice. Only twice.”

It could sound cheap to some, but it absolutely wasn’t.

"Twice, hmm. Does that mean any rift?”

"Yes."

Davey answered firmly without hesitation.

Drumper let out a small, amused laugh.

"That’s a bold promise."

"To be honest, dimensional rifts aren’t even that serious to me. There are far bigger problems out there."

On Earth, where rifts belonged to the realms of the unknown, they were considered dangerous and unpredictable. But to him, they were nothing more than minor inconveniences.

"Actually, we’re currently dealing with one particularly problematic rift."

He gave a small nod, and his aide Rick stepped forward, handing Davey a photograph.

The photo depicted a twisting vortex of bizarre, overlapping colors.

It was the rift that induced hypnosis—the one Illyna had mentioned.

Davey had predicted that particular rift would come up during the meeting.

“This is a rift that appeared in Miami. The size, color, and everything else about this rift is completely different from anything we've encountered before."

“It’s a rift that induces hypnosis to people, yes.”

"You already know about it?"

"Yes. I somehow got attacked by someone under its influence, so I did some digging."

President Drumper made a shocked face.

"You were attacked?! By someone who was hypnotized by the rift?!"

"Yes. I don’t know all the details, but it sure is intriguing.”

"We’ve had several reports of such attacks in secret, but there has never been any with a specific target...”

“Mine might’ve been pure coincidence."

If this was the case, Davey couldn’t help but think how unlucky the bastard inside the rift was.

"Then... would you be willing to help us investigate this rift?"

His request made Davey raise an eyebrow.

"You want me to handle it at this moment, right away?"

"It’d be nice for us to use our opportunity later down the road, but we need to do something about the rift. Unfortunately, we’ve already suffered significant losses."

“Oh?”

"From a national perspective, if the Awakened individuals that are trained on military expenses die, it’ll be a massive economic drain. And Miami’s entire system operations is paralyzed at the moment.”

It wasn’t a simple, small-scale problem.

"How about on a personal level?"

"My son was killed."

At that moment, Davey could feel the anger in his eyes.

"Hmmmm. So you’re asking me to take care of it."

"If possible, yes."

"Alright. Oh, wait a second."

His phone vibrated unexpectedly. He pulled it out and saw a message from Hyun-Ah.

[Illyna is getting ready for the first pitch. What do you think? Isn’t she pretty?]

She was wearing a navy cap and stockings. They led up to short shorts that came halfway down her thighs, and a tight, white striped T-shirt that revealed her figure.

It was a baseball outfit, but clearly more focused on showing her figure than being practical.

The photo of her walking slowly into the stadium had just been taken moments before.

Davey’s eyes widened in response as he shot up from his seat.

"Is something wrong...?”

"A critical matter has just come up. Will you be needing me to look into the rift right away?”

"There are already several S-Class Awakened individuals waiting. But if you need more time, I can hold off on the operation for now.”

"Would you do that?”

“Several S-Class Awakened are already standing by, but if you need more time, we can adjust the operation schedule slightly.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

“Is something going on?”

“I have something more important than anything else happening at the moment.

Davey shot to his feet and pulled a high-end camera from his Pocket Plane.

“Oh, you should let them know not to go in first, if possible. Just from a glance, that thing looks dangerous. It’s going to be more than they can handle.”

“More than they can handle?”

“It’s just a hunch. That rift—it doesn’t feel like a normal one.”

So far, the only concrete thing Davey had gotten out of the meeting was securing U.S. support for the Sacred Group. But in fact, there were plenty of other gains as well.

What he really wanted was to deliver a message—that he’d be releasing trade goods to Earth on a regular basis. On top of that, investigating the rift might help explain why the person under hypnosis had tried to assassinate him.

He knew he couldn’t expect to gain everything from one meeting, though. Rather than squeezing them dry all at once, he figured it’d be much smarter to slowly get what he wanted.

With that, Davey hurried out of the White House and leapt into the air before anyone could spot him, warping through space.

He knew the baseball stadium where Illyna was throwing the first pitch wasn’t exactly close, but that didn’t matter.

“Fire Chicken, full speed ahead. If I miss even one shot, you’re going into the deep fryer.”

Kiii!!

* * *

Illyna stepped forward to the center of the stadium, countless eyes watching.

Letting out a small sigh, she unfastened the bracelet on her wrist.

Then, gathering her radiant, light-infused hair in both hands, she twisted the bracelet around it, tying it into a single ponytail.

As her fair, white nape was exposed, cheers erupted from all directions.

Before coming there, she had watched footage of professional pitchers to study their form.

With another brief exhale, she slowly raised her left leg in a smooth, straight line and gripped the ball in her glove tightly.

As the crowd gasped and cheered, she threw the ball with a clean, elegant motion.

Just as she was about to release the ball, she put extra strength into her hand. In sports, the use of the Awakened’s power or mana was classified as doping, so no one used mana during official games.

She knew that well—so she had thrown the ball with pure muscle strength alone.

But—

Most people hadn’t expected her raw physical power to exceed that of the world’s top pitchers by a landslide.

“Whoa!!”

The catcher caught the ball and was sent flipping over, making a stunned face.

He immediately signaled to an Awakened individual nearby who specialized in mana detection. That individual glanced at Illyna, then silently shook their head in disbelief.

It was pure strength. No mana was involved.

“Oops...”

She had unintentionally gone overboard. She made a sheepish face, but the crowd was absolutely roaring with excitement.

Embarrassed by the thought of being seen as just a girl with freakish brute strength, her face reddened.

Based on past experience, she had a feeling that videos titled something like “Superpowered Pitch Girl” were going to be all over the internet in no time.

But then, her expression went blank as she spotted someone sitting dead center in the stands, aiming a camera at her.

Click! Click!

Snapping away continuously was none other than the person she knew best—and the one she loved most.

‘Wasn’t he supposed to be meeting with the President of the United States?’

Davey, who was determined to get photos of her, had split off multiples of himself to take photos from every angle.

There were a total of seven multiples. Front, back, diagonal—wherever she looked, his main body and his multiples were clicking away.

The absurd determination to capture her from every possible angle left her speechless.

As Illyna stood there dazed, Davey looked up from behind the lens and flashed her a wide grin, gesturing with his hand.

‘Keep going. I’ll be taking pictures.’

That small motion, for some reason, made her extremely embarrassed.

* * *

A massive rift had opened in Miami.

Unlike the remote Area 51, this rift had appeared in the heart of a major city.

The cursed city had always been infamous for its unusually high number of rift occurrences.

“What? You’re telling me to sit and wait?!”

Boom!!

A towering man roared in anger.

“We’ve got more than five S-Class Awakened individuals standing by, and you’re telling us to just sit here?! We should’ve gone in and cleaned it up by now!”

“Please calm down. The President has judged this situation to be far from normal. At the very least, he suggested waiting for Prince Davey of Tionis to join before entering—”

“Hey!! We’re the world’s top Awakened individuals! There’s a limit to how much disrespect we’ll take! It’s just a rift! Do you even know how many rifts we’ve crushed?!”

“But this rift is different. Even the readings alone have far surpassed normal levels.”

Though not all of them were born in America, the U.S. had a history of recruiting top Awakened individuals from around the world.

And now, the five strongest among them had all been gathered.

Still fuming, the man gestured around him.

“What are we, some kind of cleanup crew?! We’re supposed to wait around for some guy who just vanished into thin air?! Do you think we have time to waste?!”

He slammed his massive weapon onto the table in frustration.

“I left my daughter behind for this!”

The man—Dusk—grumbled and turned toward Chris Marten, who was seated off to the side casually watching something on his phone.

“Hey, you! Doesn’t this piss you off?”

“Huh...? Uhhh. I mean, yeah, sure, a little.”

“What the hell are you even watching?!”

Dusk stomped over and looked over Chris’s shoulder.

The screen showed someone throwing the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.

“This son of a—still watching baseball at a time like this? I know that you’re a big baseball fan but— Wait. Hey, the girl’s pretty hot. Who is she?”

“Oh, her? Just a spicy little national secret.”

“What?”

“I’m messing with you. I’m just watching baseball while we wait. Let’s just stay here for a bit, alright?”

“Hold on.”

Suddenly, Dusk narrowed his eyes as he snatched the phone.

He rewound the stream.

“Hey! What the hell?! I was watching that live!”

“This bastard... That guy in the crowd—isn’t that the damned Saint of Tionis we’re waiting for?”

Dusk growled, pointing at the screen. Chris squinted at the audience in the video.

One needed a sharp eye to spot him, but there he surely was—Davey, smiling with a camera in hand.

“That son of a bitch went to a baseball game at a time like this?!”

For the proud S-Class Awakened individuals, this was a slap in the face.

They knew he was strong, sure.

But for some of the newer S-Class Awakened individuals who had rapidly risen to the top, the whole situation was beyond insulting.

“Screw this! We’re going in without him!”

Fed up, Dusk shouted to the S-Class and A-Class Awakened fighters who had come to support.

“This is our country’s problem! If you’re scared, get lost!” frёeωebɳovel.com

“W-Wait! Dusk! We received strict orders not to enter first!”

“Orders, my ass!”

“T-Then please! Let me at least try contacting them one more time!”

Dusk’s brows furrowed, but he eventually backed off.

“Fine. Make it quick.”

The staff member frantically made a series of calls.

After a couple of calls, they finally got a response.

“We are to stand by the rift. Under no circumstances should anyone enter for the next three hours.”

“Who said that?”

“I was told Prince Davey said so himself...”

“That son of a— He’s screwing with us, isn’t he?!”

The startled government official tried to calm him down, but Dusk shoved the man aside and stormed off, grabbing his gear.

He reached the entrance of the rift.

“Wait around? What, are we his subordinates now?! He’s not even late because of something important; he skipped out to watch baseball!!”

The other S-Class Awakened individuals didn’t look too happy about it either.

One by one, they followed Dusk into the rift.

Chris Marten, now left alone, sighed.

“Tch. So much for finishing the game.”

“Chris...”

“I’ll go too. To be honest, my gut tells me going in like this is a bad idea, but...”

He pulled on a pair of black gloves.

Once Chris Marten—America’s greatest hero—stepped in, there was no Awakened individual left behind.

The officials stared at the rift in silence.

They had already lost contact with multiple investigation teams inside the rift.

There was no way to gauge just how dangerous the inside had become.

Whummm!! Whummm!!

As if the rift had simply been waiting for a sacrifice, it began to resonate, unleashing a massive wave of energy.

At the same time, the color of the rift began to shift—first darkening, then turning blood red.

“Sir!!! We’ve got a major situation!!”

“W-What?! What is it?!”

“The rift’s readings... they’re rising rapidly!”

“That happens when Awakened individuals enter a rift, nothing unusual ab—”

“No, sir... the numbers just spiked to five times the original level in an instant...”

The director’s eyes widened in shock.

Originally, they were supposed to wait for reinforcements before tackling the rift.

More precisely, they were supposed to wait for the Saint of Tionis—an absolute insurance that would guarantee their safety. They had sped things up with him in mind, so starting without him wasn’t part of their plan.

But the Awakened individuals hadn’t waited. Arrogantly trusting in their own strength, they went in on their own, and something was going horribly wrong.

Just as the director turned to report it to the higher-ups—

Thruuum!!

An invisible wave pulsed out from the rift, and the director’s face went blank.

The wave of energy was the same that induced hypnosis.

It had begun to burst out indiscriminately.

Everyone hit by it froze in place, their expressions hollow.

Simultaneously, having finished her ceremonial pitch, Illyna was watching the video of herself that had already gone viral online.

She flushed with embarrassment. She looked up and was surprised when she saw Davey with a serious face.

“Why do you look so mad?”

“I told them to wait outside the rift. They went and trolled anyway.”

Davey waved his hand through the air as if there was something invisible.

“I’ll be back. I might have to save them using a different method, but still, I have to save those trolls if I want to show off my perfection later.”