Invitation.

Michelle Light stood in front of the throne not too far away from the battle. It seemed that she had thought that Erik would be overwhelmed by the rest of the regulars. Well, her assumption wasn't baseless but it was still made in ignorance as she didn't know the extent of Erik's abilities.

A bead of sweat rolled down her face as she looked at Erik with a wary expression.

"Erik, you already defeated the strongest ones here and everyone else was already put down by that woman with the staff. I'll just give up so there's no reason to continue is there? Don't forget, you're also injured."

Blood was still flowing from Erik's eyes as a side effect of the Fallen Demon technique but Erik continued to be unfazed by it. He kept his gaze planted on Michelle as he didn't know what sneaky plot she could try to pull.

"Don't worry about me, this is far from what I would call a serious injury. I don't care if you plan on giving up or not, you will be spared as long as you don't approach this throne. I'm sure you don't want your life to be cut so short, right?"

Michelle nervously shook her head and raised her hands to surrender.

"AND THE FOURTH ROUND IS OVER! SINCE THEY AREN'T ANY MORE TEAMS LEFT TO PARTICIPATE, THE WINNER OF THIS CROWN GAME IS TEAM ERIK!"

THUD!

As soon as it was announced that Erik won, his vision went dark and he fell to the ground unconscious in a pool of blood. Leroro quickly ordered doctors on to the scene to retrieve the injured participants.

Hatz and Laure couldn't help but stare in silence at Erik's unconscious body as the doctors treated him and started taking him away. Their eyes shone with a high degree of respect as they continued staring at Erik while he was being taken out of the room.

"He actually won...", Hatz said to himself. He wasn't even sure that Anak could've taken on all those regulars at once, especially Androssi and Ghost. Although Erik was powerful, Hatz didn't feel dispirited in any way. In fact, he only felt the will to push himself harder and get stronger.

"Hey, swordsman. Are you sure you want to make someone like that your target of rivalry? He's already that powerful and he doesn't even know how to use Shinsu yet. What do you think will happen when he does?"

Laure was watching Erik closely after the battle and he could see the Shinsu around him rushing desperately into his wounds as if it was trying to heal him. It was like the Shinsu had a personality of its own and refused to let Erik die. Just seeing that shocked Laure and he couldn't help but let Hatz know that he shouldn't waste his time chasing after someone like that.

Unless you were a monster yourself, taking someone who was 'Loved By Shinsu' as a rival is a good way to land yourself in a dump of self-loathing depression.

But even though Laure knew that fact...

"Shouldn't you take your own advice?"

Hatz already saw through him. No man would see another put on such a display and not want to get stronger themselves. Especially since Erik could become an opponent for them someday. And when that happened, they couldn't...no, they wouldn't lose.

"Hm. I'm going back to sleep, swordsman."

[A day later]

*Sip*

Erik jumped out of his bed and got into a fighting stance as he had sensed someone there. When Erik finally caught sight of the one sitting next to his bed, he was confused as the perpetrator was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and yellow eyes. She wore her hair in a high bun and a traditional red hairpin with a butterfly design at the end. All in all, she was the picture of beauty as she sipped her coffee.

"Seems that you're feeling lively, Mr. Erik. I didn't think that you would heal that fast!"

The woman seemed to be impressed by Erik's healing factor and continued muttering weird phrases as she sipped some more coffee. Contrary to that though, Erik's face was filled with shock as he realized something.

"You're a man, aren't you?", Erik said as a sudden headache came upon him.

"Oh? You just realized that? My name is Hansung Yu."

Erik just sighed and washed away his earlier thoughts of being glad that a beautiful woman was there to greet him when he woke up.

"So, what is the purpose of your visit, Mr. Yu?"

Taking one more sip of coffee, Hansung Yu put it down and looked Erik in the eyes. He then said in a serious tone, "I'll keep this offer short and straight to the point. You can refuse if you want but either way, this conversation cannot leave this room. If it does, you might suddenly meet an early death."

Erik was surprised that this person tried to threaten him like this and he didn't like it, but he could feel that Hansung Yu was extremely strong. It was a level that he couldn't hope to reach right now even if he used every one of his abilities.

"A threat hm? Well, since you're so serious, who am I not to indulge you? Go ahead."

"Well, Mr. Erik...."

Sometime later, Hansung Yu finally finished explaining his offer to Erik. It was tempting, but Erik didn't want to just join an organization that he barely knew anything about so recklessly. Especially since Hansung Yu probably wouldn't let him go even if he refused because he knew that he was an irregular.

That fact was supposed to be a secret but Hansung Yu seemed to have found out somehow.

'Could he be working with that white rabbit?'

That was the only conclusion Erik could come up with. Other than the rabbit, the only other persons who knew that he was an irregular were Yuri and Evan.

'Judging from how they acted, I doubt they would be the ones to sell me out. It's definitely that damn rabbit. Sigh.'

Hansung Yu noticed that Erik was having trouble deciding and a small smile appeared on his face as he said, "Erik, don't you want to leave the tower?"

Erik's ears perked up and he responded warily, "Yes. How d- sigh, nevermind. Do you know a way?"

*Sip*

"As you may have heard before, the self-proclaimed ruler of this tower is called King Jahad. His influence reaches far and wide, covering almost all the lower floors of the tower. But, even he hasn't climbed to the top. He stopped at the 134th floor and no one knows why he prohibits people from climbing further. So, your only way out of this tower is to defeat Jahad. But..."

"I'm much too weak right?"

Hansung Yu clapped his hands and said, "Yes, exactly! That's why you can join us and we will provide you with the right tools!"

Although Erik could tell that Hansung was being truthful, he knew that he was hiding many things, including the name of said organization. Although he wanted to desperately leave the tower, Erik still didn't want to make a reckless decision. He needed time.

"Give me a day, Mr. Yu. After that, I'll provide you with an answer."

Seemingly happy with this result, Hansung Yu responded, "No matter, Mr. Erik. I'll find you myself when it's time." Hansung Yu then got up and started walking out the door but turned around just before he did.

"Welcome to the tower, Mr. Erik."

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A/N: I wanna put into a system that's not really much of a system. It'll only have martial arts from Kengan. It wouldn't have any points or stats or whatever other things the usual system has. I can insert it seamlessly and it would make sense considering how the MC got to the tower. Is anyone opposed to this?