"Let me ask a question before we get to whatever it is you came to our guild for," the Guild Master of the United Swords Guild said, his gaze fixed on the man who had defeated him in a single move.
The man was overwhelming, even for him, a fighter ranked among the top 100 awakeners in the entire world.
Based on the sheer power he had displayed during his fight with the Guild Master, everyone in the United Swords Guild was left wondering where this mysterious individual would rank among the world's elite awakeners.
Could he be in the top 50? The top 20? Perhaps even the top 10?
Of course, most members of the United Swords Guild dismissed the idea of Damian being one of the top 10 strongest awakeners on Earth.
Whatever the case, this mysterious rogue, an unregistered awakener, was undoubtedly among the top 50 if not higher.
"What do you want to know?" Damian asked, his voice calm.
The Guild Master and all his guild members knelt before him, while Damian sat comfortably on a couch, gazing down at them with a small smile as if watching a group of harmless rabbits milling about.
"If you possess such a powerful ability, similar to my Qi, why didn't you use it from the beginning and stop me from landing that blow on you?" the Guild Master asked, his voice tinged with both curiosity and disbelief.
"Well, no particular reason. I knew you were using Qi. I wanted to see what you could do with it. I wanted to assess just how useful Qi really is," Damian replied calmly.
"Is this guy insane? He let himself get hit by my Qi-covered sword just to gauge its strength? Who is this bastard? What kind of hellhole did he crawl out of?"
The Guild Master, who had initially felt elated at the chance to fight a high-level swordsman, now deeply regretted his earlier enthusiasm.
He was beginning to realize he might be dealing with a lunatic.
"What business do you have with our guild?" the guild master, Lorenzo Rossi, asked with a firm expression.
He was already regretting entertaining this lunatic.
He needed to get this man to leave as soon as possible.
What made him even more nervous was the unsettling feeling that if this man wanted to, he could kill every single one of them before they could retaliate.
They couldn't even call for help since this lunatic had forced them to close all their exits and turn off all communication devices.
Not that they had any intention of trying, as it was clear Damian would kill them the moment they attempted anything.
His constant, oppressive killing intent left no room for doubt.
"What do I want, huh?" Damian rubbed his chin in thought for a few seconds before glancing at the people kneeling before him.
The grin on his face made him look like an actual madman.
"Let me think. I came here very respectfully through the front door and politely asked the receptionist for a meeting with the guild master. And what did I get in return? Swords pointed at me? I'm hurt. I'm mentally hurt."
"I have never faced such humiliation before. You guys have to compensate me for the emotional damage you've inflicted on me. I'm the victim of emotional trauma that might stunt my progress for years!" Damian's eyes watered as his body shuddered, as if reliving a deep emotional wound.
"What the hell is this guy going on about?"
"Emotional trauma? Seriously?"
"This guy is definitely insane."
"Jesus Christ, this man could win an Oscar for his acting."
The members of the United Swords Guild could only curse inwardly as they watched Damian, the lunatic who had destroyed everything and humiliated the guild master by defeating him in a single move.
If anyone here was a victim of emotional trauma, it had to be the guild master.
Yet the audacity of this lunatic to claim otherwise… He was definitely crazy.
"W-What... what do you want?" the guild master asked, his voice shaking. He didn't like where this was going.
It was obvious this man intended to rob them under the guise of compensation for emotional trauma.
Lorenzo could only hope the demands would be reasonable.
"There is nothing in the world that can compensate for the humiliation and emotional damage I've endured," Damian said, covering his eyes as if on the verge of tears.
Then, abruptly, his theatrics stopped. His expression shifted to a cold, unhinged grin as he stared down Lorenzo Rossi.
"What I want is simple. I want every single technique and skill you have. When I say everything, I mean everything, including the stuff you're importing from China. And I don't want to hear any excuses as to why you can't do that." Damian's narrowed eyes bored into the guild master.
Of course, a lunatic would speak, act, and demand like a lunatic.
It was naive of Lorenzo to expect anything else.
"But the techniques we got from the Zhao family... we will be held responsible—" The guild master attempted to protest but was cut off by an intense pressure that made it hard for him to speak.
"Did I forget to mention that I don't want to hear any excuses? You know, I could easily kill every one of you and take my time looting this place myself. But I'm not a killer. I'm just asking for compensation for what you did. So why don't you understand that and give me what I want? Once you do, I'll be on my way, and you can go back to whatever useless things you were doing." Damian shook his head as though dealing with an unbearable headache.
"Fine..." With no other choice, the guild master gritted his teeth and agreed to hand over everything they had in their possession, though it wasn't much.
After a few minutes, the guild members gathered and handed over everything to Damian.
"There's one more thing," Damian said, raising a finger.
"What?" the guild master growled, his face red with veins throbbing.
He was barely containing his rage from the humiliation this lunatic had heaped on him.
If only he were strong enough, he would be the one dishing out the humiliation.
"I want the high-end laptop you guys have and all the information you've collected about gates, monsters, awakeners—everything from A to Z. I want it all."
...
After a few more minutes, Damian left with everything he had obtained from the United Swords Guild.
The guild master remained fixated on the door Damian had used to leave, the humiliation he had suffered replaying in his mind like a broken stereo.
In a fit of rage, he punched a nearby desk, sending it flying a dozen meters before it shattered into hundreds of pieces. "That bastard! I won't let him live! Just wait until I level up and reach a higher rank, then I'll come for you!"
Not far from him, a Chinese man observed the scene with an indifferent expression.
"I need to report all of this to the Zhao family head," he muttered in Chinese before leaving the area.
He headed to the basement, using a specialized ID card to access the portal, and crossed through it to enter China.
It wasn't just him.
Another man, originally a member of the Awakener Society, had also been present.
He returned to the Awakener Society office to report everything that had happened to the president.
Unbeknownst to Damian, news of his actions against the United Swords Guild had already reached the ears of three major powers: the Zhao family, the Awakener Society, and the Wild Phantom Guild.
Meanwhile, Damian walked on with a happy expression, as cheerful as a child who had just received a piece of candy, heading toward a place where he could test his magic.