Novel Full Chapter 1743: Corporate Royalty
Chapter 1743: Corporate Royalty
Villain Ch 1743. Corporate Royalty
“Thanks, man,” Red_King said, exhaling as they walked side by side down the market.
Their boots clacked over uneven cobblestone paths, and the distant shouting of item vendors echoed like background noise in a dream. “Mastercraft was trying to find him too, but I bet he’s still sleeping now. He said he was so tired…”
Allen arched a brow beneath his cracked bone mask. “Sleeping? At this hour?”
Red_King nodded, looking half-exhausted just recounting it. “Yeah. He was online till morning. Like, actual sunrise morning. Said he was grinding materials nonstop and doing upgrade rotations. I watched him craft like a man possessed. He managed to finish his full epic-tier armor set around 4 A.M.”
Allen blinked.
“That man turned Alex’s tiny prayer robes into goddamn battle vestments. Gold-trimmed. Blessed stats. The works. He also crafted mine and himself. Talk about crazy rich players.”
Allen let out a quiet hum.
So that’s why Alex was online but avoiding everyone. He bet that new robes would attract everyone.
“…Figures,” Allen muttered.
Allen huffed a quiet laugh. The two of them continued walking, the atmosphere shifting slightly as they crossed into darker territory. The shadows deepened. The sound of player movement thinned out. No more market noise, no wannabe scammers.
It was just them.
“You sure Alex is online?” Allen asked after a beat. “Could be he just hasn’t logged in yet.”
“Nah,” Red_King said, pulling up his guild interface. “He’s definitely online. Status shows green, but all his DMs are locked. Not even responding to the guild’s ping notifications.”
Allen frowned. “What about calling him? Y’know. Real-world call. Text.”
Red_King groaned. “I did. No response.”
Allen blinked. “You got ghosted by a support class.”
“That’s how bad it is.”
Allen snorted, then tilted his head as they passed by an abandoned desert camp. Broken ward stones. Discarded trap sigils. Someone had gotten wrecked here recently.
Red_King suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Allen paused too. “What?”
“I’m just thinking,” Red_King said, turning toward him with an unusually serious face. “What if the Emperor kidnapped him?”
Allen blinked. Hard.
His whole body froze.
“…Huh?” he said slowly, cautiously, as his spine instinctively tried to crawl into itself. “There’s no—”
“Oh, it could totally happen,” Red_King interrupted, waving a hand. “You know Valkyrie, right?”
Allen’s eye twitched behind the mask. “Yeah?”
“She was acting weird last night.”
Allen stared.
“Like, after she fought the Emperor in that Cathedral Ruins. The entrance,” Red_King continued. “Normally she’s all ’kill the Emperor,’ that kind of thing. But last night on her stream, she wasn’t really in the mood of killing him. Like… her fire dimmed.”
Allen blinked. Once. Twice.
He was holding his cringe back so hard it physically hurt.
Because of course Valkyrie was acting strange.
Valkyrie had just found out yesterday that Allen was the Devil Emperor she’d been hunting for months.
“Uh… really?” Allen managed.
Red_King nodded seriously. “Yeah. She used to talk about him like she had a grudge, right? Like deep, personal vendetta stuff. But now? She’s acting like—like she doesn’t even hate him anymore.”
Allen forced his tone to stay neutral. “Maybe she just finally realized he’s not that bad?”
Red_King gave him the flattest look imaginable.
Allen shrugged. “What? They are just… system design.”
“…Are you seriously Devil Emperor-sympathizing right now?”
“Just playing devil’s advocate,” Allen said, trying not to crack up at his own pun.
Red_King groaned. “That was awful.”
“You walked into it.”
They kept walking again. The ground was cracked stone. Crows circled in the sky. The kind of zone where lower-level PvPers tried to bait kills and higher-level players just passed through like reapers on errands.
“I mean,” Red_King continued, “if Valkyrie’s behavior changed, then maybe something did happen. And if the Emperor did get to her… maybe he got to Alex too.”
Allen kept his voice smooth. “Why would the Emperor bother kidnapping a support player?”
“Because Alex is popular now,” Red_King said, not missing a beat. “And you know how the Emperor operates. Everything’s a statement with him. First he razes groups or guilds. Then he vanishes. Random PvP attacks. Ambushes. Symbolism. Sometimes he appears in dungeons with story connections to his subordinates. ”
Allen raised a brow, but yeah—that was how he usually operated. Finish his daily player bounty quests, raid a few dungeons with the girls, and if they happened to run into any players along the way… well, they’d kill them too. It somehow became his pattern.
Allen said nothing.
Just stared at the guy.
“…Why are you quiet now?” Red_King asked, frowning.
Allen exhaled slowly, then gave him a flat look. “Did you forget who I am?”
Red_King blinked. “What?”
“I’m the son of the owner of this game.”
“Oh. Right.” Red_King scratched his head. “Sorry. Forgot. You’re basically corporate royalty.”
Allen smirked faintly. “Exactly. Which means I can’t say a damn thing about the Emperor’s pattern or anything related to his movements. You guys would scream favoritism.”
Red_King shrugged. “Makes sense.”
Allen shoved his hands in his coat pockets and let the silence settle for a moment.
He didn’t like lying to Red_King, not really. The guy was chaotic, but loyal. And he wasn’t wrong. About the patterns. About the Emperor’s behavior. About Alex being missing at the wrong time.
But Red_King wasn’t ready for the full truth.
And Allen wasn’t ready to say it—not yet.
Especially because announcing he was the Emperor wasn’t a decision he could make alone.
“So…” Allen exhaled slowly, slipping his hands into his pockets again. “Back to Alex. You got any idea where he actually might be?”
Red_King nodded fast, already scrolling through his map UI. “Yeah, last ping showed him near Gorroc City. Which is why I’m here. I was just checking the dungeon boards when I ran into you.”
Allen blinked. “Wait, you came here solo just to chase him down?”
“Yeah, and also—” Red_King paused, his finger freezing mid-air. “There was a report. The Emperor sighting. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes ago.”
Allen huffed quietly.
Red_King turned sharply, squinting at Allen like he’d just connected the dots on a conspiracy board. “Maybe—”
Allen frowned. “Maybe what?”