Vol 2. Chapter 97: The Salvation of G.o.d (34)
I brought Eden into the real world from the Unique World, and it felt like I was lifting it. In fact, I was adding my strength to Eden"s self-supporting movement. I used a waist-up motion, like a deadlift, so it looked like the s.p.a.ceship was being pulled out of my pants’ pocket.
The basic concept of the Carrier Eden was simple. It was made st.u.r.dy so it didn’t break easily, and it was made simply so it could be repaired as much as needed. And, no matter what, it was made big.
Kuhkk! As the huge ma.s.s that did not exist pushed into the real world, a strong wind rushed towards the surrounding area. The people groaned at the incoming wind...and the whole city of New York instantly fell into darkness.
Tang! Tang! Tang! Along with a rough sound, the dark city lit up again. Although it was restored to its original state quickly, the scene that revealed itself was completely different from before. This was because the new light source was not the sun, but the lights embedded on the huge steel sphere that floated in the sky.
"T-T-This..." The white man who greeted me with confidence looked up at the sky with a pale face. He looked at me again and stammered.
However, I paid him no attention. I don’t even know who he was in the first place. I delivered my words through Eden instead of worrying about useless things, "Arrived in New York. Expeditioners of the United States Expedition should get ready to descend immediately, and crew members should prepare to accept migrants that want to come over." While I gave my instructions, Eden, which was in a spherical-form, rotated and the floor opened. Then, a large cylindrical structure faced towards the bottom.
After that, reports from Eden entered my ears. Expeditioners of the United States Expedition! Black Tiger Kim Jong-pil and other 817 people! Starting to descend! Along with the report, light radiated from the cylindrical structure that aimed at the bottom. The surprised people screamed, but of course, it was not an attack.
Whooooooong---! The beam of light shone on the empty floor, and radiated in a radius of about 200 meters, and the Gigas from Eden descended down the path of light. The people looked at that scene with necks so stretched out that they threatened to break.
In reality, it was a sight that no ordinary human being could have seen. This was because the Huge Carrier, equivalent to the size of a city, had raised its alt.i.tude significantly to avoid crushing the city. Not to mention the Beast-rank Gigas which only had a slightly larger size than humans, how could people even confirm the existence of Eden by looking up from the ground? To them, it would look more like dust flying around. However, the current Earth"s average level of humanity was approaching Level 7, a magical state.
"T-They jumped down!"
"It"s a Gigas! Gigas are falling down! There are a lot of them!"
"Huh? But what type of model is that? It"s nothing like the Gigas I"ve seen before...?"
"Black Tiger!! There"s a Black Tiger! Mo, don"t tell me those Gigas are all Beast-rank Gigas?!"
At this point, there were nearly a billion units of Avatar Series spread to others, and even more Controllers had been distributed. Therefore, it created an environment where it was possible to play The Great War. Needless to say, information on Gigas was quite widely available. Since The Great War itself acted as a tutorial for pilots, many people had also learned about the rank of the Gigas, namely G.o.d-Star-Human-Beast-Tool.
Most of all, the greatest superstar among the current humanity, Iron Mask, is a Production-type ability user and a Gigas pilot.
"What do you mean superstar..."
I mean exactly what I said, a superstar. There are probably more than one or two companies that have asked for Napoleon to be put into their corporate logos. Some of them even offered blank checks.
"A blank check? What a load of nonsense. I think I"m going to make the business into a blank sheet." I scoffed. Of course, more than half of the current human race was watching my play, so the advertising effect must be enormous. However, it was literally ridiculous to think about advertising in these perilous times when humanity might go extinct.
Boom! Boom boom! While I was complaining, the rapidly descending Gigas were seen landing on the ground. Among the Gigas, the models which had flying capabilities were rare, but the pillar of light radiating from Eden was a kind of gravitational field, allowing proper control of the descending speed.
The expeditioners who reached the ground reacted differently. Some of them already got off from the Gigas to breathe in the fresh air.
"It"s Earth! It"s the sky! Look at that! It"s New York, the city I"ve only seen in movies!"
"Wow, there are a lot of people! Were they waiting for us?"
The people seemed to be skinny and light, as if they might fly away.
"I"m back... Yes. I"m finally back in the end."
"I can do it. I can do it. I will make it happen..."
"Father, mother. My friends..."
There were people in a solemn mood, as if they were ready for death.
"The stage! The time for the stage is 7 p.m., right?"
"I-, I want to eat Earth"s food!"
There were even those who looked like they were on a trip.
At first glance, it was a chaotic atmosphere. However, these people were the elites who had carried out the Leonhardt Empire"s curriculum for at least 3 to 10 years. The support AI installed in the Gigas itself was also linked to Genie, so there was no need to worry about any accidents.
"President-nim."
"You are... Don"t tell me, are you Lieutenant Hans?"
"Long time no see."
"How can this be?! My G.o.d, you"ve become an old man now!" The white man who welcomed me earlier held hands with one of the expeditioners.
"That person is the President? The President of the United States was a poker player or something, wasn"t he?" However, it did flash past my mind that the political scene must have also experienced cataclysmic changes in this chaotic time. At a time when all unjust politicians couldn"t carry their faces around, including the president, it was probably a natural phenomenon for many politicians to be divided.
The new president seemed to want to talk to me, but he couldn"t do as he pleased because of the natural interference of the expeditioners who knew my temperament. "What more is he trying to do? Just with the full power of the expeditioners, it would be enough help though." Without a doubt, this number of expeditioners, even armed with Beast-rank Gigas, was a force that seemingly symbolized a welcome rainfall for the United States’ metaphorical drought. This was because they were raiders, prepared to clear the stage at least 1,000 to 10,000 times.
"Genie, where are the migration applicants?"
I"ll mark them for you right away. Following Genie"s guidance, I went to the migration applicants who had been informed by the notice and stood by in advance.
I limited the number of people to be accepted to the Native World to 100,000 people a day, because accepting too many without any measures in place would cause the resources in the Unique World to become scarce. On the other hand, the Carrier, Eden, could accept billions of people.
But to do so, we would need that much more resources.
"That"s a given."
Now, Eden just had a huge steel residential area and it did not even have a day"s worth of food in its reserves. After all, Genie had no intention of leaking the resources from the Unique World, which was already limited.
As I have said before, Eden plans to accept external wealth.
"Because it"s in a different situation than the Unique World, where only the body could be brought in. I"ll leave that matter to you.
I"ll take care of it smoothly.
I singled out the personnel who would enter the Unique World. The compet.i.tion was not as tight as it used to be, since there was now an alternative called Eden. The death toll in the stage had stabilized to some extent, too.
"But that doesn"t mean we"re short of migrants," I thought, but this was somewhat of a given. Even if they could clear the stage without any immediate problems right now...the level of the stage would continue to go up. The despair that was spread throughout the entire Earth had only lifted slightly. The people were still afraid of the future.
I brought people into the Unique World over a period of hours, and Eden also showed itself to the entire world and accepted migrants.
It was something I was prepared for, but it"s heavy...
Eden could stay afloat indefinitely with the force of the gravitational field enveloping the entire ship, but it did not have any means of movement. It could only propel itself by moving with the bird-shaped Albatross ship pushing it. It was fascinating, because it all looked like a bird flying with a coconut bigger than its body.
"What a great fuss over nothing." I chuckled and continued my task. I looked for pilots that scored high points in The Great War and confirmed their scores, then I handed over Gigas that suited them. I wanted to give them to the right pilots, because those Gigas were made by myself.
"Ah-, h.e.l.lo!!"
"...Yeah. Hi?" I smiled naturally at a child who looked to be just a middle school student. However, inwardly, I was in the middle of being surprised. "What"s this?"
30 Avatars are being controlled simultaneously.
Ridiculously enough, thirty units of Goblin stood still as if they were guarding her. The Goblins, who stood idly, glanced over at me in a very lively manner. It was as if they were alive. Moreover, she wasn"t even wearing a helmet.
Genie said, as if she was dumbfounded. Oh my G.o.d, it"s an Ability. Moreover, it"s enlightened to the point that it can be used without an Iron Heart…
Ares, who was recently more interested in the Unique World than the real world, also b.u.t.ted in, This is a talent that might be able to become a Gigant Master if they"re lucky… There was someone like this on Earth, huh.
Rather, this is a case where they experienced a loss because of the system of The Great War.
I lowered my posture and made eye contact with the girl while listening to the two control personas. Thinking about it, the girl was someone I had seen before. "Was she called Kim So-hyang?" She was a young brat who received a Justice Weapon because of her good deed, killing the bank robbers with the Goblin she controlled. I still remembered the scene where Myeong-wol cried, and couldn"t even prevent or wait to watch the murder happened.
"Huh?! Do you know me, Iron Mask-nim?"
"I happened to see you before. You"ve grown a lot in the time I haven"t seen you."
"Hehe. I"ve been in the stage for quite some time. But even so, I"m no match for those who stayed in the stage for a really long time!"
The stage was mixed-up, messing up everyone"s time zone around the world, but there were not many cases where children grew up quickly. Having been in the stage for a long time meant that she cleared the stage several times, but it was not easy for a child to repeatedly clear the stage that even the superhumans found difficult… I looked at So-hyang.
Lee Family
Level 15
Military Corps, Kim So-hyang
"She"s Level 15 despite leading the Goblins. And at this young age too." I pulled my right hand back and smiled. Boom! I put the gray giant down on the ground.
So-hyang opened her eyes round after seeing that sight. "Iron Mask-nim?"
"It"s White Tiger, a Four Guardian Beast. It"s quite a shame. If I had known that there was a brat like you, I would have made a Gray Lion or something." However, it was just a shame, and I disregarded it. I explained White Tiger"s function to her. "It"s a model specialized for automatic combat. It"s a model made for a pilot who has the right ability for macro, but... You can use it differently. The output is low, but combat can be sustained for a long time, so it"s better to plan for the situation and move around."
"A-Are you giving it to me?"
"A gift." I stood up. I was in a good mood because of the unexpected gift I received. Then, I checked the time. Before I knew it, it was 6:30 p.m., so the Level 14 High-difficulty test was nearing.
"Genie, what"s the number of migrants on board of Eden?"
170 million people. It"s not as much as we worried it would be.
"Because there are over 2 billion people who can enter the Cradle of Justice."
I came back to Gyeongbokgung Palace after finishing all the work I planned for beforehand. In the end, I left Azure Dragon untouched because there was no one to give it to. There were many excellent wizards, but there weren"t any excellent wizards who could be used as pilots.
Then finally, the time flowed on and it was Friday 7 p.m.. The stage began.
- Stage will be open!
- Level 14. Difficulty is set to high.
- Kill the Death Knight King within 300 hours..
- Stage will begin in 10 seconds.
- 10. 9. 8. 7….
"For starters, isn"t that a normal objective?" I asked. Based on the trend so far, the Death Knight King was probably Level 15. It was the Maginot Line for the Guardians who have made great contributions to clearing the stage so far. In other words, it meant that more players would be put onboard a Gigas from now on, and the burden should be reduced by cutting down the number of players partic.i.p.ating in the test.
Will there be any expedient this time around?
"We"ll have to find out to know... It"s just that it"s getting harder to find." When I was grumbling…
-Warning: 2,212,114,331 people are outside the area.
-The system will be partially updated.
-Difficulty Highest will be added.
-The quota of people outside the area until the end of the stage will be added to the group battle as enemies.
"Ahh, it"s doing something weird again." The Highest difficulty, and a group battle… I shook my head as I saw the actions I endlessly complimented when playing other games that happened in front of my eyes. "What"s with the large-scale update..."