Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 483 DIVIDED

CHAPTER 483 DIVIDED

By the time we finished discussing our options, we were scrambling to get to the International Hunter Conference on time. My now larger party of Easton, Hae-In, Jin-Ah, Jinwoo, Il-Hwan, and I walked to the United Nations Headquarters. Only a mile or so away from our hotel it gave me time to gather my thoughts. Since arriving late would piss everyone off, it was in my best interest to seem relaxed. Ready for anything as normal people walked all around us. 

It was a sobering moment. Like one Easton had told me about when he went to the future. In Marvel, everything had gone to shit for mutants. Sentinels everywhere, only the average person was unaffected. It was a weird reminder that stuck with him. All this drama with canon, and the average person went about their daily lives. The world could end tomorrow, and they would try to go to work or school, feed themselves, and do whatever they could to survive. 

To be honest, it was a little annoying. Here I was, trying to save this world, and some guy nearly runs me over on his bicycle. Cursing at him, I rejoined the others as we crossed street after street. Trying my best to stay focused on the problem instead of thinking about jumping worlds again. I needed to handle this now, or I never would. I couldn’t create any more memories without Hancock by my side. She was in these worlds, and I wanted to see what our next life became with her, rather than without. 

“You are all over the place,” Easton noted beside me. 

“Shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You’re lucky I don’t kill you. Absorb your powers or whatever happens when you die.”

“Ha! Me die? The way you’re going, you’ll die first,” he said. “Just calm it down, man. Remember our saying?”

“Busts before rumps?” 

“The other one.”

“Wear protection unless she’s really hot.”

“The other, other one,” he said.

I shook my head. “Whatever happens, happens.”

“Amen,” he said. “Whether killed by canon-fire or not. We will let it be and roll with the punches.”

“You uh, ever find a way back to life?” I asked. 

“Uhh, no,” he said, surprised. “What the hell, I forgot. There’s like a million ways to come back in Marvel. Why haven’t I run into any?”

“You suck at your job?”

“Or someone pulled me away right before I found it,” he said.

“What are you two whispering about?” Hae-In asked. Neither of us had been whispering, but System-fuckery was happening.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Weston said you’re expecting a kid,” he said.

“What?!” She asked, stopping her walk. 

“I didn’t,” I said.

“Have you been wearing protection?” He asked slyly. 

“No, we-”

“You said you didn’t need it,” she hissed. 

“I don’t,” I said. “What are you doing?” I asked him. 

“I don’t know, having…” he stopped, looking at nothing for a moment. “Oh my god.”

“What?” I asked, worried as I looked around.

“I don’t have it.”

“Have what?” I asked.

“Fertility Control. I forgot I didn’t assign it as a slot,” he hissed as his hands went to his head. He began to curse as he stomped forward. 

“What does it matter?” I asked, feeling slightly at ease.

“The last place we were at… I kind of went on an Incubus induced bender on this chick,” he said.

“Incubus?” I asked. 

“Yeah, it was that dungeon boss. Shit…that’s my first slip up in a long time. We might have a…” He eyed me.

“Shit,” I said as they moved toward me. A line of Hunters from Excalibur guild walked toward us. “We will talk about this later,” I said. He nodded as we moved to the Excalibur lads. They were based out of London. Each with shining white armor like the Knights of the Round themselves…except Knights of the Round was another guild based out of London. They were big on the King Arthur crap.  

“Victor,” I said, raising my hand. It held one of my bags of luggage. They were heavy, but not to me.

“Cut the shit, Weston. You owe me for Calcutta,” Victor said. He was pissed, which was normal. 

“We had a contract. I gave you the contents of the gold box,” I said.

“You swindled me! You knew nothing was in there.”

“Maybe,” I said, shaking my head. His Hunters were getting ready for a fight. I released my Conqueror’s Haki, knocking out some stray people nearby. The fighters hesitated with the rush of Haki. “Not now. I swear, I will make it up to you today. Alright?”

He thought for a moment, frowning. He eyed the others in my entourage and slowly nodded. “Today.” I nodded again trying to convey how much I meant it. He studied me, then turned around. His cape flailing in the air as he did. I rolled my eyes. I hated the Hunters that got a little too into the role play crap. Especially those that felt they were doing this all for the good of man. Then again, I was sure he would be up for my plan. 

“You are just so…how do you make friends so easily?” Easton asked, amazed. 

“At least mine didn’t leave me to fend for myself in outer space,” I said.

“Hey, I chose that,” he said as we approached the building. 

An array of flags set up at the front of the building, the United Nations was a tall building filled to the brim with people. Most of the Hunters had already arrived, but stragglers followed in around us. Easy to spot in their immaculate suits or high-end armor, they wore swords openly as they walked into the building. 

Becoming a Hunter immediately made you at least twice as strong as a normal person. Even Sung Jinwoo, who was known as the weakest of all, was stronger than bodybuilders and strongmen. That was at the lowest Rank of strength too. Each additional rank made you far above the last, proving in this world that strength was king. You could go anywhere and do anything, as long as you were a Hunter. 

But there were limitations to that of course. Unless you were an S-class, anything was limited. Anyone below S-class had to watch for the top dogs like myself, so we kept them all in line. Who kept us in line though? One another. 

“You bastard!” Dave yelled as he dropped down toward me. Having lept from one of the higher floors he was gaining speed rather quickly as mana focused around him. Rather than let him break something, I jumped up to meet him. My Demon King sword in hand, I blocked his sickle. “You killed him!”

“I told you, nothing could save him!” I yelled, getting angry. Rather than deal with this drama I touched his head, putting him into a Genjutsu. He went limp and I grabbed his collar. Landing on the ground I noticed his guildmates above. “Take him,” I ordered, throwing him to them. They grabbed him before he hit the handrail. 

“What did you do now?” Easton asked. 

“His brother was infected by this virus. I had to kill him to keep it from spreading,” I admitted. It had been one of my earlier dungeons. A stark reminder that this was all life and death. “The guy begged me to do it before the parasite thing jumped to his brother.”

“Shit,” Easton mumbled as we began walking again. Before he could say more, mana was released around someone. I brought my own mana to bear as I faced him. 

“Weston, this better be worth it,” Thomas said. He was a giant of a man that wore flip flops, khaki shorts, and a Hawaiin shirt. Another S-Rank Hunter, I put on a smile as he spoke. “I was on vacation.”

“You’re always on vacation. Besides, it’s worth it, Thomas,” I said, calming down a little. I had been smart enough to not piss the guy off. He was known as a National Hunter. The strongest man in America, he had earned the title. He stared at me seriously for a moment then laughed. Walking over he put his arm over my shoulder as we walked to the conference room. 

“You really pissed a whole lot of people off. What was with that shadow trick of yours? That was pretty cool. I almost killed it before it said your name,” he said.

“Oh, I’ve got many secrets,” I said. “Care to share some of yours?” He was about two feet taller than me as he ducked down through a doorway. 

“Hell no,” he laughed. “But I’m excited to see this. I’ve already got the President up my ass, and had to stop about three dozen guilds from fighting. Oh, were you involved with that crap at the Mandarin?”

“Yeah, that was uh…a misunderstanding,” I said.

“Why do so many misunderstandings happen around you?” He asked. “And why have you left me out of them? I feel you and I should have a match.” He gripped his ham-sized hand. 

I nodded, more than happy to go along with it, although he might chicken out after today. “Fine with me. Let’s get through this and we can have a nice little match. Got any barren deserts that could use some terraforming?”

“This is America, we got plenty of space for fun,” he said. His laugh booming in the halls, no more drama assaulted me. We came to a table outside the conference room and were given seat assignments. 

As we walked into the main conference room a wave of mana assailed me. More than ever before, there were hundreds of people inside. All guild masters or their proxies, all Hunters, and strong. The strongest people in the world had come when I called, and it was good to know I had this kind of power. I had made a name for myself by soloing Jeju Island. Though it was supposed to be under wraps, everyone had their spies and informants. Since then my legend had only grown. 

I was sure many of these people would be calling this a favor or the like. Getting compensation from me in one way or another at a later date. For now, I was happy they were there. The International Guild Conference was supposed to be scheduled for a few weeks from now, so I was lucky they had already begun the proceedings. 

People whispered as my entourage walked in. Thomas was big and loud, ignoring the current speaker as he moved to the American pavilion. Nearly twenty guilds represented there. I knew they had recently ended a power struggle, and a lot of the bigger guilds combined to consolidate power and resources. 

China was represented there as well, but instead of a huge group they had their strongest Hunter, Lio Zhigang there. I had fought with him a few times on Portals near our borders. He nodded at me as I walked past. Russia had the largest group of all. Forced to handle portals in a wide area, their group was nearly 50 strong hunters. 

Africa partnered with the UK to handle all of their portals so they were sitting next to one another. Japan was eyeing us as we walked in. I had stepped on a few toes with Jeju Island. I was pretty sure in canon they had wanted the island for some reason. In the end, it didn’t matter to me. I took what I wanted and beat the crap out of anyone that said otherwise. 

Chairman Go waving us over, we sat near him. He didn’t react to the addition of the father and daughter Sung’s, but had chairs brought in. Once we were settled the speaker continued with their talking points. They were from France, talking about the possibility of underground and aerial portals that we needed to watch out for. All pseudo science since we didn’t understand what caused the portals yet, I waited until he was finished before taking center stage. 

Having talked through this with Go, and a few others from the Korean embassy, they had everything prepared for me. Lights dimmed slightly, and a group of workers dragged in a large cart with a blanket overtop it. 

The conference room we were in was massive. Seating nearly a thousand people all at once, everyone had their own chairs and table with a little tag denoting which country they originated from. All eyes on me, a few cameras pointed my way as well. I denied a microphone as I stared at them all. Some coughed, others discreetly picked noses, some flipped me off, others tried to get my attention. 

“Hello, my people,” I said. So many nationalities, I wasn’t sure if the System translated my voice to English or whatever language they spoke. Either way, everyone in the world would understand what I was saying. “As many of you know, I am Weston Woon.” I paused, having expected someone else to burst forth and curse me out. No one did. 

“I have two major points I would like to discuss today,” I said. I ignored the whole undead shadows of Jinwoo that had threatened them to be there. I needed to hold their attention, and with luck they would be as interested in saving our world as I was. “First, I would like to reevaluate the current power rankings.”

People hesitated, then groaned audibly. I smiled wide. I heard more than one person cry out, “Seriously?” More than a few might have gotten whispers about what I had discussed, but the answers would come after the foreplay.

“Currently we…” I touched a clicker and the large screen behind me lit up. On it was a simple powerpoint slide that listed the ranges of Ranks. I began to explain it as I stood at the front. Empowering my voice with Nen as I spoke. “Right now, we measure ranks through Mana Meters. These meters assign a value to your possible strength. E-Rank is 1 to 200, D rank is 201 to 2,000, C Rank is 2,001 to 5,000, B is 5,0001 to 15,000, A is 15,001 to 30,000, and S is 30,000+. My question to you, is what is the strongest that has been measured?”

That quieted some people down. “We are all here, why don’t we find out?” I asked. That interested more than a few and camera flashes began as reporters caught reactions of those famous S-Rank Hunters that were gathered. “Let’s start with…Thomas Andre.” The big man I had just been talking to laughed and stood up. 

“I hate to be called out like this,” he said. As he did I waved to the workers and they pulled off the blanket to the cart. On it was the largest Mana Meter ever constructed. The Mana Meter itself was a mana crystal at the center. This one was 6 feet in diameter, most were only about 6 inches. Around the crystal was a golden box with a digital meter on the side. 

Most of these Mana Meters were tiny. Able to test for magic power in the air, they couldn’t handle much of anything over B-Rank. Me and other high powered Hunters would break them if we touched them. Attuned to mana sensitivity, if you were capable of too much they would explode.

“Been a while since I’ve done this,” Thomas grumbled. People stood up, all excited to see what the end result would be. The big man rolled his shoulders as if he was going to do some strenuous activity. Instead he put his hands on the blue crystal. Once he did, the meter on the side began to go up and up. Skyrocketing from 1 to 20,000 in a matter of seconds. As it did, the excitement only grew. 

The numbers reached 30,000 and people really got into it. Some starting to place bets. Arguably the strongest person in the world, all Hunter’s eyes were watching and waiting as the first numbers stopped changing so rapidly. It took time, but eventually it settled on 47,449. People clapped, the few reporters inside began to text rapidly. Sharing the news of the newest record for a Mana Meter. 

“Damn, one point away,” Thomas muttered as he stepped back. “That all?”

“Nope,” I said. “Anybody else care to compare to that?” I looked around the room. It had quickly gone from a boring conference to one people were excited to be in. Talking rapidly about attempting to best it. Unluckily for them, this was not a number you could control. You were assigned it, and did not stray much. As long as you weren’t a Player anyway. 

“As you can all see, 50,000 is damn good,” I said. “Which is why I recommend a new rank over 50,000.” The room quieted as people understood what I was saying. “I believe that there is another rank beyond that. SS-Rank, and maybe further than that.”

“What proof do you have?” Someone asked.

“I’m glad you asked,” I said with a wide smile in their general direction. Unbuttoning my own jacket I took it off. “Should I give it a try?” I hadn’t done this before, but I was pretty sure I was right. Back after we became Players the Hunter Association tested us with a Mana Meter. They thought we had gone through a Reawakening, a rare event where people could shoot up in ranks. They had tested Hancock, Jinwoo, and I. Hancock and I had our World Lasting Physique then, so we weren’t that weak, but the number it read for us was the exact number of Mana Points we had on our status screens when we became Players. 

People got excited again. Hoping to see who was stronger, America’s top hunter or South Korea’s. I rested my hand on the cool blue stone and the number began to skyrocket. Hardly slowing as it surpassed 50,000. Hunters jumped up in their seats but I ignored them. Practically whistling as the number kept going up and up. Eventually it settled on 80,351, my exact MP points. Nearly doubling that of Thomas. 

There was a long and stunned silence that followed me as I walked back to the podium. Wearing a shit eating grin I locked eyes with Thomas who nodded at me, as if tipping his hat. I mirrored his move and waited for people to take their seats. 

Once they did I announced, “I have fought side by side or against many of you. I’m sure you all have seen me struggle in dungeons or the like, somehow going beyond my ranking. There is a special reason for that. I am what is called, a Player.”