"Are the two of you ready?"
The two of us nodded.
"Please go easy on me," Elena immediately said.
She didn’t even look like she wanted to fight in the first place. It was clear from her perspective that she was much weaker than me, and that was actually the truth.
I wouldn’t have to use [Bloodlust] to beat her.
I was just better.
Luckily for her, I wasn’t the type of person to beat a dead horse. After all, maybe she was actually different from what I thought. In the past, I had met her two years later, since it had taken me quite a long time to enter and exit the Tower. Things had evolved in a very different manner, and maybe she had changed.
From what she had said back in the meeting, there was no doubt that her goal was to help humanity. Even if her methods might not be the best, that was still her goal.
I threw my sword away and began tying a black cloth around my eyes to obscure my vision. "I’ll make this a little more fair for the two of us."
Even if I couldn’t see her, as long as I could hear her, I would have no problem pinpointing her location.
"You think you can beat me blindfolded?" Elena asked, starting to doubt me.
"Well, there’s only one way to find out."
The presidents and high-ranking officials had all gathered in the stands to watch this spar between the two of us. However, it was unfortunate that it would be so short.
"3... 2... 1... Start!"
I decided to wait for her first move since I couldn’t see her. After all, I needed to hear her move around to attack her.
If she decided to stay quiet, then I’d truly be going in blind.
She began running toward me, and I clearly heard every sound of her steps.
I shifted my center of gravity, and once she was within arm’s length, I moved to the side as fast as I could, surprising her greatly as she left her side wide open for me to strike.
I clenched my fist and hit her right in the ribs.
She flew into a wall over ten meters away, leaving a small crater from the impact. Elena was also knocked out cold, lying on the floor.
The whole spar had lasted only twenty seconds.
’I might have gone too hard...’ I thought to myself.
I didn’t actually think that she wouldn’t be able to resist my strike. I hadn’t even used half of my total strength.
However, as soon as it happened, there were major reactions in the stands.
"Is that really the difference between an Easy and Hell Challenger?"
"Did you see just how strong he is?"
"He’s truly evolved. They weren’t lying. We need to hurry before the monsters start invading us."
Among them, some seemed to disagree as they began to whisper.
"Wouldn’t we be fine with him defending us? Did you see how strong he is?"
They didn’t think I could hear them.
I sighed in annoyance and immediately spoke up. "I won’t be there to help you during the first monster wave."
All of them immediately looked at one another, knowing that I had just heard everything. I was still blindfolded, but I could picture each of their faces extremely well.
One of them tried to scramble his words. "Why? Why can’t you help us? We definitely need your help here!"
I removed my blindfold and shrugged. "I don’t know. I think y’all can handle it without me."
"Is there anything you want? Money? Fame? We can give you whatever you want!"
They had just seen how powerful I was. Obviously, they would do everything to satisfy me. It was actually a nice feeling. It was about time that I received some respect from them. In my past life, they had never even met with me. They would only thank me from afar in the news.
But now, everything was different.
I would be the one in control, not them.
Still, they had just asked a pretty good question.
What exactly did I want? I knew they would grant me anything, but money wouldn’t be a problem at all as soon as I met with Alexia.
As for fame, it was only a matter of time before I became famous.
I thought for a few seconds, and then I had an idea.
Something I had wanted to do for a very long time. After all, there was only one reason I had returned back in time.
I needed to save humanity.
"I want to create my own guild with the help of the government. I will soon begin recruiting very talented challengers and train them on my own. However, I want you to provide us with housing, food, protection—everything we might ever need. I want an unlimited budget."
I could very clearly remember my past life and a few very talented challengers who had simply chosen the wrong difficulty, which had ruined their chances of becoming extremely powerful.
Elena had been one.
However, I wouldn’t recruit her. She needed to make her own organization, and on top of that, I would only accept Hell Challengers inside my organization.
Anyone else wouldn’t be allowed.
I already had a very good idea of who I could recruit as my first member.
The person whom many considered the best duelist in the past. She had never even lost a fight. And I had also never won against her. We had fought many times, but she was one of the few who had always managed to draw against me.
Her skills were unbelievable, and she had been inside the [Easy] Difficulty.
There was no doubt that if she had chosen the [Hard] or [Hell] Difficulty, she would have surpassed me by a large margin in pure one-on-one fights.
’From what I can remember, she was in a similar situation as me, living in the slums of New York.’
"We accept your offer. We will do everything in our power to help you. Is there something you want help with right now?"
I nodded.
It was time to find my first recruit.