Chapter 289

Pwooooo! Pwaaaaa!

Bulgasal cried sorrowfully in front of a door as it pounded on the floor with its silver-grey trunk.

I hate you, Daddy! Pwaaaaahh!

Its innocent eyes filled with tears, and its elephant ears flapped pitifully. It cried even louder once it recalled what Seong-Hwi had said to it.

“We’re going to use separate rooms from today. You’re an adult now, so you need to learn how to sleep on your own, too.”

I don’t wanna be an adult! Pwaaaaahhh!

Bulgasal had come up to Daddy’s room to sleep in his embrace like always after escaping Echo and Thumper’s pestering. It loved to sleep with Seong-Hwi, who always had nightmares, and it was Bulgasal’s duty to suck it all up. That way, Daddy could sleep soundly without any dreams, and it was Bulgasal’s pride and joy to see that.

However, Daddy had forbidden it from entering his room, causing it to fall to the floor in shock.

Pwooooo! Daddy, you idiot! Sea squirt! Sea cucumber! Sea anemone! Rabbit! Fairy! Carrot! Spinach! Liar! You promised me you would let me eat metal to my heart’s content! Now, you won’t even let me eat your dreams?! Pwaaaaahhh!

Bulgasal’s cries echoed throughout the hallway all night.

***

People screamed ragefully under a blood-red sunset looming over Golgotha.

“Die! You killed God!”

“We’re about to receive divine judgment because of you!”

“Your entire family is dead! You’re the only one left! Beg God for forgiveness, now!”

Some even threw stones at the individual nailed to a cross standing tall on Golgotha—it was Seong-Hwi.

As I’d expected, corruption from Longinus is the most severe, he thought.

He had various nightmares over the past few days, but most of them were Longinus’s nightmares. He re-examined the quest Longinus had given him.

[Find a Scapegoat (Black Quest)

Rank: —

Description: In exchange for borrowing Longinus’s destiny, Cheon Seong-Hwi must create an innocent scapegoat or become a scapegoat himself.

Reward: Longinus’s destiny.

Penalty: Severe corruption of psyche in a situation where the condition cannot be fulfilled.]

He had been unable to clear the quest so far, resulting in the corruption worsening.

“Kill him!”

“Kill him!”

“Kill him!”

Each person gathered on Golgotha was holding hasta spears before he had realized it. They thrust the spears all over his body. He felt sharp pain, but he did not even make a sound.

“That tickles. This doesn’t even meet my standards of pain,” Seong-Hwi taunted.

His taunts spurred the people to stab him even quicker and deeper.

Come to think of it... Pangaea will activate tomorrow, he thought.

Nineteen days had passed since the meeting at the Empire State Building’s observatory. Grandis toured the Capital daily, and he seemed happy for some reason.

Seong-Hwi used the searing pain as fuel to organize his thoughts. The only advantage of his lucid dreams was that time flowed twice as slowly as reality, giving him more time to think.

The things Jurie mentioned bother me, too, Seong-Hwi thought as he recalled his meeting with her two days after the party.

“This is the result of what I’ve gathered from the information that Thumper and Leo brought from Carrot, and what Seo-Yeon and Charles brought from Fox Village. Barbaria is preparing for war, and I doubt it’s some ordinary war.”

It wasn’t particularly shocking information to him.

Barbaria has already been making their move through Pseraslav and Sol. The problem is something else.

“Something strange is going on. We’ve also detected movements from the other superpowers. We don’t have enough information from the inner zones, but I can say one thing for sure... Something huge is about to happen, very soon.”

The other factions are also making their move, huh? What is going on? What stirred them to move all at once? Seong-Hwi wondered.

There was no reaction without an action. There was no effect without a cause. Something had stimulated those in the inner zones. Just then, he recalled the incident that had occurred only recently.

The reclamation of the ninth zone!

The pain from spearheads piercing his body became trembling exhilaration.

Yes! That’s it!

He re-examined the Akasha Messages he had pushed aside because they had been at war against Consanguineus. The names of the Ten Lords and Fiends were listed in the contribution ranking, the survival tax had increased, and a new world quest called Slay the Chaos had been generated. However, Seong-Hwi focused on a specific Akasha Message.

[Increasing the achievement level of World Quest: Path of Life.]

...

[Path of Life (World Quest)

Rank: —

Description: Head to the center of the Mirror World and obtain the Master Stone. Everything you want will be granted.]

“Master... Stone,” he mumbled.

He was certain that the superpowers had gotten wind of the almighty treasure that could grant anything they wished.

I must head to the center! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly as his heart pounded so hard that it was on the verge of exploding.

He couldn’t fall behind. The others had already been ready to sprint to the finish line far ahead of him. Impatience surged throughout his entire body. Just then, the cold spearheads piercing his body cooled his head. He took deep breaths to quell his desire to rush.

I mustn’t be hasty. I have to make sure to take every step firmly, so I don’t slip.

First, he needed to wait until Together was formed. According to Grandis, it would take roughly half a month.

“Half a month, huh? More than enough time to exterminate the parasites!”

Seong-Hwi, covered in blood from the hundreds of stab wounds, smiled widely while nailed to the cross.

***

“Come on, cheer up.”

Bwoo!

Seong-Hwi smirked at the grumpy trumpeting sound from his hoodie pocket and said, “Daddy’s here to keep his promise. Are you sure you wanna be that way?”

He looked up and saw five giant metal panelized homes, each filled with unusable weapons and armor. They were scrap equipment storage houses that Jurie had bought from various zones to commission Faber for repairs.

Jurie had started several businesses using the Coins she had raked in from the dwarven item intermediary business that Seong-Hwi had arranged. The largest one was her real estate business in the Capital, albeit it had been more of a speculation than a business. After all, she had indiscriminately bought real estate when prices had plummeted due to the Nivalis invasion.

Although it seemed like a reckless gamble at a glance, Jurie had absolutely no worries about losing money since she had taken the gamble while knowing what hands all her opponents had.

Jurie was the first one I told about Underground’s plan regarding Together, after all, Seong-Hwi thought.

He needed her abilities to analyze the probability of the plan’s realization and its influence on the Capital. Jurie, who had experience in making it big in the real estate market after humanity’s former altercation with the goblins, did not miss the opportunity.

As a result, the Capital’s real estate prices soared after the plan for Together was publicly announced, and it had now become meaningless to try to determine how many Coins Jurie possessed.

Well, she would never do anything that would harm humanity. She said she would make more Fence Hotels and prepare support programs for those struggling to pay the increased survival tax.

On top of that, Seong-Hwi had earned five of these scrap equipment storage houses for free thanks to her. He could understand why pump-and-dump schemers never stopped pumping up the stocks.

Pwooooo! Smells delicious!

Bulgasal popped its head out from the hoodie pocket and sniffed with its squirming trunk.

“A mountain of metal, as promised. It’s all yours.”

This is all mine? Really? Pwoo! You’re the best, Daddy!

Bulgasal’s tail swung like a helicopter propeller as it stared at the five giant storage houses’ worth of metal, likely having forgotten that it was grumpy.

Thank you for the meal! Fuuuuu!

Bulgasal pointed its trunk forward and took a deep breath. The enormous amount of metal inside the storage houses flew out.

Pwooaaahh! So yummy!

The sound of metal clanging and crushing echoed. Seong-Hwi stared at Bulgasal, its tail swinging as it endlessly devoured the metal, and gently grabbed its tail.

I’ll make good use of the 1.5 billion Karma, he said inwardly.

It was the amount he had earned after killing Haema Sanguis and devouring his star. He would use it to restore the stats that had fallen after his caliber was heightened, and gain Spare Ranker-level stats once and for all.

Seong-Hwi’s stats were on the low end relative to his star’s magnitude. He had been supplementing this flaw via overclocking during combat until now, but he needed to fix the imbalance by continuously raising his stats. He already had a plan of action, so he simply needed to open the cubes.

First, the Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong.

[Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong A(10) obtained.]

[Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong A(9) obtained.]

...

[Extinguishing excess Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong A(2).]

[Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong S(5) obtained.]

[Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong A(99) → Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong S(5)]

[Changing the effect of Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong.]

[Boosting Dexterity by S(15).]

[Dexterity cannot receive this effect because it is A-rank.]

Seong-Hwi spent two hundred million Karma to promote the Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong to S-rank, then immediately started raising the Dexterity stat.

[Dexterity A(9) obtained.]

[Dexterity A(10) obtained.]

[Dexterity A(9) obtained.]

[Dexterity S(5) obtained.]

...

[Boosting Dexterity by S(15) as per the effect of Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong.]

[Dexterity S(5) → Dexterity S(20)]

His Dexterity stat shot up thanks to the artifact. He sensed every single muscle fiber in his body splitting and condensing as he examined his physical condition. He was as flexible as a mollusk, had explosive agility, and a perfect sense of balance.

Most of all, his coordination had been enhanced to the point that he could use just the right amount of muscle fibers for tasks. His promoted Dexterity stat had achieved a balance between his Health and Strength stats, allowing his power distribution to become several times more efficient.

As for my remaining Karma...

Cubes endlessly shuffled before Seong-Hwi’s eyes as Bulgasal restlessly devoured the scrap equipment.

***

[Cheon Seong-Hwi

Health: S(19+15) Strength: S(11+15)

Dexterity: S(5+15) Sense: S(5)

Magic: S(54) Destiny Force: S(59)

Karma: 5,300

Coins: 420,034,225

Destiny Weapon: Tarot Deck of Destiny S(20)

Skills (6) Traits (6) Items (8) Cubes (0)]

[Common Skills: Rust of Ruin S(5)]

[Unique Skills: Symbol Embodiment, Borrowing Destiny]

[Item Skills: Myriad Faces, Shadow Control, Perfect Save]

[Traits: Natural Enemy of Chaos A(6), Ten-Thousand-Man Killer B(7), Scorn for the Weak B(13), Reverse Killing C(99), Foul Play (C(99), Savior’s Hearing D(99)]

[Items: Bulgasal S(5), Wings of Evolution S(4), Silver Bracelets of Queen Consort Muryeong S(5), Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong S(5), Absolute Crown S(5), Myriad Cheoyong Mask A(7), Archane Hoodie C(99), Pressurizing Leather Boots C(99)]

Nice, Seong-Hwi thought as he stared at his status window in satisfaction after he was done with the spec-up.

He had used his Karma down to its last drop, only having 5,300 remaining. As a result, he was now a Hexa-S even without overclocking. The Magic and Destiny Force stats had surpassed S(50), and his stats in total were a whopping S(198). It would look even more amazing after the overclocking.

On top of that, he had raised his D Weapon, Tarot Deck of Destiny, to S(20), and used the remaining Karma to raise the stats of his traits.

Bulgasal had devoured four of the metal panelized homes and was in the middle of devouring the fifth.

“Why are you eating the storage houses, too?” Seong-Hwi remarked as he stared dumbfoundedly at the empty area where the storage houses had been.

Pwooooo! So yummy! Why don’t Thumper and Echo understand how delicious these are? They only eat weird stuff!

Bulgasal was finishing its meal without even paying attention to Seong-Hwi. Even the last storage house was sucked into Bulgasal’s trunk.

Burp! Bwooooo! That was a great meal! Bulgasal trumpeted in satisfaction, metal powder spewing from Bulgasa’s trunk when it burped.

“Are you done? Then can you put the storage houses back? I don’t wanna get an earful from Jurie,” Seong-Hwi said.

Don’t worry, Daddy! I’ll build it back up in a—Urp! Cough! Cough!

Bulgasal coughed in pain, like someone with a fishbone stuck in their throat.

“What’s wrong? Do you have an upset stomach?”

Cough! Cough! Pwooaaahh!

Bulgasal sneezed, and something reddish blasted out from its trunk and lodged itself into the ground.

“What is that?” Seong-Hwi wondered.

It was a corroded, double-edged dagger, wider than the average dagger edge. Its straight edge made it seem like a miniature broadsword. There was a shallow fuller along the flat of the blade, and it had a stubby pommel, resembling an acinaces dagger.

Pwooaahh! That thing’s weird! Bulgasal shouted as it wrapped its trunk around Seong-Hwi’s arm in tears and snot.

“A metal that Bulgasal couldn’t absorb?” Seong-Hwi said, staring at the sword with great interest.

Bulgasal could eat any metal, even S-rank items like the Steel Blade Hawk and the Performing Chain Whip. Seong-Hwi gently pushed aside the whining Bulgasal, grabbed the dagger by the hilt, and pulled it out of the ground.

“Hm?”

He noticed that the dagger’s edge was broken in half, and his interest in it significantly dropped. He had thought it would be an amazing item since not even Bulgasal could absorb it, but it was just a broken dagger.

“There aren’t any Akasha Message descriptions for it either... So, it’s not even an item,” he mumbled as he twirled the corroded dagger around his fingers. “I prefer daggers with a ring on their pommel, but this isn’t bad either. Perhaps I’ll ask Muka to shape my next dagger like the acinaces.”

The dagger fit surprisingly well in his hand, but it was meaningless since it was broken.

“But why wasn’t Bulgasal able to swallow it? Is it not metal? Since it’s corroded, it should be metal,” Seong-Hwi mumbled as he repeatedly threw the dagger up and caught it.

He tried activating Rust of Ruin.

[Activating Skill: Rust of Ruin.]

The dark rest rust traveled from his hand to envelop the broken dagger, but it surprisingly did not corrode.

“Hah! What in the world is this thing?”

It was a metal that Bulgasal couldn’t eat and Rust of Ruin couldn’t corrode. Seong-Hwi wondered if it was a new, rare metal that had not appeared in the Mirror World until now.

“Muka would lose his shit if I brought this to him.”

He was not sure about the extent of the mukateel’s progression, but he was sure it wasn’t as advanced as this dagger.

“Should I ask him to melt this and use it to remake the Steel Tortoise Heart Guard for me?”

Seong-Hwi placed the broken dagger in his pocket and walked to the Empire State Building.

“It’s a beautiful day,” he mumbled as he smiled faintly.

The rays of sunshine, scattering as they hit the streets, shone like gold as if predicting a new beginning.

“It’s a good omen,” he said, despite not believing in superstitions, because today was the day he had been waiting for a long time.

It was the day that Pangaea would be activated.