Vol 2. Chapter 79: The Salvation of G.o.d (16)

- Stage will be open!

- Level 13. Difficulty is set to Intermediate.

- Destroy the Evil Spirit Tree within 200 hours. 

- Stage will begin in 10 seconds.

- 10. 9. 8. 7…

The place I arrived at was presumably a city in the Middle Ages. Although I said Middle Ages, that only applied to the overall atmosphere. It visually appeared to be like a million light-years away from the Middle Ages of Earth. Buildings of about four or five stories high had steeples that soared more than twice as high… Shops full of weapons, as well as totems, with a strange vibe stuck all over the city. 

However, what immediately caught my attention was the contents of the text. I could barely entertain any thoughts of the background scenery, because the clear conditions were different from before. I grumbled, "Don"t tell me... Did this crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d update again?"

The stages thus far had always maintained the same objectives. The Intermediate-difficulty stages had 5 enemies of the corresponding level, and the High-difficulty stages had 10 enemies of the corresponding level and a boss which was a level higher than the corresponding level. But this was no longer the case.

"Despite being an Intermediate-difficulty stage, 200 hours is given, huh." I raised an eyebrow. There was no way the stage would be kind, as if saying "You can play more leisurely from now on. ^^", so this meant the playtime was a lot longer… It meant that multi-rounds play would become more difficult. 

"Moreover, it didn"t provide any information on how many to defeat. It simply states that I have to destroy the Evil Spirit Tree, huh... Is it then possible to play without killing the enemy?" I pondered aloud, because something felt wrong. If the usual game had been updated on a large scale, I would have obviously liked it. However, Project End had unconditionally only been updated in the worst possible way.

As I thought about it, I was p.i.s.sed off. "I kept calling it "trashy game, c.r.a.ppy game", and it really only had s.h.i.tty updates. No, I mean, if it was going to update, shouldn"t they first update the equipment or items? This is really ridiculous and dumbfounding." As a matter of fact, the equipment, consumable items, and other stuff from the gacha machine were capped at Level 10. There were no updates in the list of items since the Level 1 stage. 

Lumber, stone, iron ore, and mana stone...remained the only raw materials that could be acquired. There was no way to see rare metals such as mithril and adamantium. 

There was also nothing much to the job system, because there was no such thing as a Stage-exclusive t.i.tle. At the very least, there was a t.i.tle such as Ogre Slayer, but no t.i.tle was given even if one had killed hundreds of millions of Metal Aliens. So, it literally felt like a user-related system had not been created. However, despite that, when it came to the difficulty of the stages, there were snippet patches as well as large-scale updates. At this point, it really reached the extent where we were just waiting to wither to death. 

-Kruuuw.a.n.gggg--! 

"W-What"s that?" I hid myself as I was surprised by the heart-alarming roar. Since it resounded from the sky above, I stretched my head out to take a look. I was completely speechless at the sight that greeted me.

Project End

Level 19

Specter Dragon, Raffley

"...Level 19?" I gaped in dumbfounded shock. Why was a Level 19 popping up on a Level 13 stage? It was a preposterous occurrence, but I quickly figured out what was going on. After all, this wasn’t my first or second time playing games. "It"s for the purpose of forcing a certain play method, huh."

When I cleared the stage, I often did not care about any strategy. I usually played by flaunting the gap in the levels, which was also how those guardians typically did things. It was also a strategy I turned to whenever I was forced to run around, but now... If something like that flew in the sky, it would be impossible to beat all the enemies that appeared to break through the map in a straight line. It was because I did not know what would happen if I caught the attention of such a monster. 

Level 19 means it"s on the verge of transcendence. By the looks of it, it seems to be an adult dragon. However, since it’s not in the realm of transcendence, its level plummeted due to its death.

Levels were not absolute, so it naturally went down when one was damaged. For example, if a swordsman got their arm cut off, or if a wizard got their mana-hole destroyed, their fighting ability and capabilities would surely drop even if they had retained their knowledge and experience.

If so, what was the most serious damage that would cause the level to go down? "Of course it"s death." Death was still death, even if it happened to a transcendent. Even if a person was a transcendent when they were alive, they would be a dead person who "used to be" a transcendent after dying.

This was the case with the Evil Spirits summoned by the Chinese at Gyeongbokgung Palace. Despite having been a transcendent, as well as having a fraction of transcendental power, they could only a.s.sume an appearance which showed a much more depraved divinity. In order to transcend death, they would have to reach the level of Untouchables (High-rank Transcendent, Level 40), or gain a very special kind of enlightenment. 

Kkiiiiyaakkk! I was looking at the atmosphere for a while. Then, I noticed that something translucent had pa.s.sed through the wall and appeared. 

Project End

Level 5

Nameless Evil Spirit

Thuckkk! Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights. Violet. When Dragon Knight"s fingers pointed at the Evil Spirit, the divine skill that could even cause an untouchable being to vibrate caused the Evil Spirit to immediately explode and die. 

"The levels are all completely messed up... By the way, I didn"t expect an Evil Spirit to come out too," I commented. I was relieved when a Chimera appeared during the level 13 Low-difficulty stage, but… Judging from the surrounding atmosphere, the concept of this time"s stage seemed to be Black Magic. If this was the case, the power of Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights would basically not be effective. "It was nice when my superiority allowed me to take it easy. But is it going to be the other way around now?"

Among the divine skills of the Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights, Violet was the only means of attacking an immaterial enemy. Even so, its efficiency was extremely poor because it was a face-saving skill designed to avoid the worst case scenario. When facing an Evil Spirit of the same-level, the Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights was a skill that would have one sit down and endure a bad beating.

"The Avatar series is the same too..." The Predator was an inevitable problem, because it was a machine created for the purpose of countering Metal Alien, which was made for maximum efficiency. Aside from that fact, the Dragon Knight was a problem too.

"If I make a noise, that Specter Dragon b.a.s.t.a.r.d will come. Genie, turn on Stealth Mode."

Enabling Stealth Mode. Enabling Compression property to reduce output by 60 percent.

Dragon Knight"s gloves, which used to be greyish, turned pitch-black. Its initial height of 4.5 meters was also compressed and reduced to 2.5 meters. However, despite all these changes, it was still big. It had to lower its head to even enter an opened door.

"I should farm first." I searched around, looking for characters written on the wall or books, as well as notes. As I searched all the houses around me, I discovered something strange. "Huh? The structure of the buildings are..." 

"Kruuooaaaar…"

"Ah, move out of the way." After smashing the head of the Chimera that emerged from the depths of the darkness, I moved tens of meters back and looked at the overall shape of the buildings. "Yes, indeed. It"s symmetrical. But isn"t this too big a picture?"

I went back into the building and started to similarly rearrange the interior structure that was scattered in a mess. I also caught and killed the Chimeras and Evil Spirits which occasionally appeared. It was fortunate that I had yet to meet an Evil Spirit above Level 10. Then, after a while… 

Whoooong--! As I went around five or six buildings, and rearranged the furniture structures, a magic circle formed in the middle of the buildings. 

I engraved the characters I found in the books and notes that I found nearby. I didn"t know what the characters were, but I could roughly guess the order of the characters by referring to the contents of the books and notes. Wiiiiing! The magic circle rang in a deep tone and a mirror made of gold appeared above it. 

...Wow. You"re good at finding and solving stuff. Ares, who was staying still, said in admiration. 

"Well, anyone can do this much," I commented, because it was a puzzle that anyone could solve with a little thought. I just found it a little faster.

I stuck close to a corner and examined the golden mirror, which seemed regular and una.s.suming. There were just 10 patterns symbolizing the shape of a star engraved behind it. "Looking at the atmosphere, it looks like this is the main weapon." I stored it away for now.

I began farming again. As I looked around, I sometimes found locked padlocks that had characters written on them. Oddly enough, the padlocks were designed so that characters could also be written on them. "Ahhh... I see. In other words, the top characters are questions to find the pa.s.sword, and the bottom s.p.a.ce is for the answers."

But isn"t it a language that you don"t know of?

"Wait… Wait a moment. Yeah, there were characters in the books. That"s right. Among them, there was a diary and a letter. If I can find something that corresponds to the question written on the first line, I"ll probably be able to know the answer..." I muttered. However, I couldn"t guarantee that I would have the necessary doc.u.ments to get the answers to this padlock. After all, I had yet to search the

entire stage. So I checked the t.i.tles of the doc.u.ments I found instead of blindly guessing the characters.

Project End

Yan"s Letter

I looked at the contents. Of course, I couldn"t read the characters. Therefore, after cla.s.sifying the t.i.tles a few times, I began to grasp the meaning of the characters by comparing the contents and the forms of the individual characters. My mind was spinning intensely, but I wasn"t trying to do the impossible. "Sal...ly… What’s the date of receipt of the first parcel that Sally received?"

Fortunately, there was an answer among the doc.u.ments I had. Ridiculously, despite asking for a date, it was not a number. I wrote, "The day that Chamwol stayed at the top of the steeple."

Click! The key opened.

No, does this make sense? That"s how you interpret it? 

As expected of Captain-nim. How did you do it?

Ares and Genie were surprised, but they weren"t the only ones surprised… 

-789,935,521 people are admiring you!

-4,511,123,324 Justice Points have been acc.u.mulated!

"Huh?"

When I was expressing doubt at the unknown texts that appeared… Wooooong-! The s.p.a.ce in front of my eyes split apart and a pistol with a splendid design emerged. I looked at the familiar design before reaching out to grab it. "Isn"t this a Justice Weapon? Seeing that it"s decorated with jewels, is it a Diamond rank?"

- You are in the Diamond rank (Temporary)!

- Accessing the Cradle of Justice!

- 801,114,851 people are watching you!

"No, what is this about? Someone"s watching me? Why are so many people watching me?” As I was baffled, I thought, "I knew it. Juan did something." I did have such a thought upon encountering such an odd timing for such a drastic change. As expected, it was all progressing in an unexpected way. In order to figure out the current situation, I went into a warehouse that was nearby and locked the door to hide myself. 

- You have entered a Hidden Point! Monsters will not approach a Hidden Point.

"Hmmm? Hasn"t it always been like that? Why is there an announcement being made?" I was bewildered by the unexpected kindness, but the new text that appeared soon informed me of why such an announcement had to be made.

-Hidden Point usage time: 6 hours from now. 

-If the usage time is all used up, Hidden Points will not work during the 12 hour waiting time.

"Oh, come on. This is so stingy. You"re going to mess with this too?" I groaned. This time, it was Project End"s interference. If I had to get out of the Hidden Point every six hours, it would be impossible to hole up in a Hidden Point until the end of the stage. If this happened, the second-round test itself would disappear, and my usual raiding arrangements would be meaningless. Considering that all the people who barely cleared the stage were once strategy guide users, it was actually a patch that brought about despair.

"By the way, what"s a Cradle of Justice?" When I reached out and touched the text that appeared in front of me, a new window popped up.

-Welcome to the Cradle of Justice.

- You currently have 0 Justice Points.

- You have been granted 4,511,123,324 Justice Points.  

-(Read Bulletin Board), (Watch a Play)

-Current number of users connected to the Cradle of Justice: 933,215,566 people

"What do you mean users connected to the Cradle of Justice? If it"s the users connected to the stage, there"s no way that there"s only 900 million people." I raised an eyebrow. The stage was a compulsory test that all mankind would have to be involved in, so there wouldn"t be any exceptions. Ultimately, wasn"t the Ark Project in the United States trying to get out from Earth to steer away from partic.i.p.ating in the stage?

I chose to Read Bulletin Board, which already had a few bulletin posts up.

-What"s this place? +133 (Aram)

- Notifying all players. +522 (Tom)

-Updates that have been confirmed so far +1,222 (Søren)

- Iron Mask-nim! Iron Mask-nim! You"re so cool! What a true genius!!!! +888 (Raon)

I read the bulletin posts. In the -Updates that have been confirmed so far- bulletin post, it only contained information that I already knew of, so it had barely any value. However, in the -Notifying all players- bulletin post, there was a lot of information that I did not know of. 

-As those of you with a weapon of righteousness already know, the Options appear for those who lean a little more towards justice in the scales of justice and injustice upon entering the stage. You are given the options of proceeding with the stage or to enter the Cradle. Those who are not confident of clearing the stage would go into the Cradle. 

The Cradle is an independent s.p.a.ce of about 10 pyeong. You can watch the players who are proceeding with the stage or check the bulletin board here. Or you can just sleep. When you enter, there will be a very basic meal prepared, but I have yet to confirm if this basic meal is given regularly. 

Currently, 933,215,566 people have entered the Cradle instead of entering the stage. I pray that the burden on the players will be reduced.

P.S. - People in the Cradle can enter the stage belatedly. I think that there may be additional people who would want to enter after looking at the players" play.

"So… Once the stage starts, people can be sent to another dimension to break away from the stage. And they can convert their weapon of righteousness into points and use it to support others." I nodded in understanding. Although it was a little upsetting that people were watching me, it was a pretty good method. The preliminary death tolls would immediately be decreased by nearly a billion, and their Justice Points could be used to support the remaining players. The effect of this would be enormous.

"Ultimately, it means that people are still watching me right now... I don"t know if you can hear me or not, but spend your Justice Points or whatever it is on someone else. I-" Since I had finished confirming it, I lifted myself up again and left the warehouse. "I can clear the stage even without something like that."

It was time to begin the raid again.