Chapter 292
The original species of the Maruka clan, which were the upper cla.s.ses of the clan, were cla.s.sified differently from the subsequent generations due to biological reasons. While the original species retained the characteristics of creatures living on land, their later generations, like Orca, had evolved to live in the deep ocean. However, they were still blood-related.
On the other hand, the Barba Corps was different. Very few reptile humans dominated the group, and the rat humans were the subjugated ones. The dangerous power of the reptile humans played a key role in keeping the large gap between them. They knew how to deal with death. One of their many abilities was reviving the dead and using them as their soldiers.
No one could estimate how long the species had existed and how far they had reached the unknown territory. The only clear thing was that they didn’t find it difficult to control the Awakened who had managed to survive until Act Two, Stage Five. It must have been the necromancers, the ones who knew and handled lots of secrets. There was another reason why they had freaked out when they saw us. It was not only because the King of of the Kciphos, Gundrak, and a n.o.ble of the Maruka clan were being treated as pets.
[You have removed the necromancer.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have obtained a challenger box.]
[Level: 551]
[The Birth of Doom Man (1): 551/561]
The necromancer’s eyes were still chasing something even after it died, and Yeon-Hee seemed to have gotten the same feeling as she looked at it.
She remarked, “It saw through my storage box and realized who I am. That’s funny.”
It had seen the Life Vessel on Yeon-Hee and the skeletal dragon in my inventory. When it died, the ghouls returned to the state that the dead should have stayed in. At that time, the ghoul that Yeon-Hee had taken control of collapsed. Judging by the way it moved, it must have entered the master section when it was alive.
Yeon-Hee spoke as I was staring at the ghoul, “Do you know him?”
I responded, “I’m not sure.”
She added, “You might have. He was with Joshua at Revolucion.”
“Braun Nase…” I suddenly said.
She frowned slightly. “Brown Nose? What kind of nickname is that?”
I clarified, “He was called Braun Nase because he b.u.t.tered up his boss so much. It was to the point he would put his nose in the boss’s a.s.shole if he needed to. Long time no see.”
She nodded idly. “Oh, did he? But he wasn’t like that here. He was the one who had integrated Act Two, Stage Two here. Revolucion (42). This guy was the one who had founded the guild that has endured until now. That’s why people agreed to call him by the G.o.d’s name, Ares[1].”
Yeon-Hee tore off one of the ghoul’s fingers and continued, “This is the one. The ring that made him become like Ares.”
[The Ring of Ares (Item)
Item Cla.s.s: S
Item Level: 524
Effect: When combined with the skill ‘Infantryman of Ares,’ the user can convert ‘Infantryman of Ares’ to ‘Ares’s Tank.’
Physical Defense: 15500 / 15500
Magical Defense: 10000 / 10000]
“Ares’s Tank is a strong summon. It would have been more helpful if his proficiency level was higher, but that was not up to him, right?” Yeon-Hee said as if she felt bad for him, then she handed over the finger with the ring to me.
It must have been the same in the past. There were those who could have reigned as one of the Eight Evils or Eight Virtues had they survived. Unfortunately, they had died hopelessly.
My thoughts were grim.
How many more are dying now? How many have survived so far?
***
Given that the System was delaying the end of this stage, the other stages must be struggling a lot. A few days had pa.s.sed, and it was night now. The next stage could have been the Final Stage as expected, so we were cheris.h.i.+ng the current time we had until the System decided to end this stage.
I ordered Orca to stand guard to prevent the vagrants from approaching us, and I put the Kciphos to sleep, which was doing its best not to be separated from Yeon-Hee. I gently grabbed her neck under the moonlight and kissed her. I could feel her pulse as it thudded into my palm, and I loved the feeling. I was relieved whenever I looked into her eyes, which glowed with deep trust, because I knew she would stay by my side no matter what happened.
However, something bothered me even then. I had modified the System and improved the basic abilities of Awakened and minimized disputes caused by its malice. Nonetheless, the fact that the top stages had been destroyed and the damages that the Awakened had endured while I was sealed stressed me out. Until the notification message appeared, there was no way to find out whether I was making the situation worse now than it was in the past
Her voice interrupted my dreary thoughts, “You are thinking of something else, right?”
Every single woman in the universe must have had a mental attribute. Or, maybe, Yeon-Hee must have read something from my eyes as she enjoyed making eye contact with me every time we kissed. It wasn’t simply because she was an Awakened with mentality-related power.
She pulled me closer, and I just laughed instead of resisting her. When she changed her position and climbed onto me, I thought our kiss would get more violent. However, she only looked down at me without doing anything else.
A period of time had pa.s.sed before she finally said, “I’m starting to get greedy.”
“What?” I asked.
“I’m going to make the outside world better so that no one will have to worry about having a child.”
“...”
“So I’m very scared, and there are many things that I regret. However, no matter how many times I think about it, I would do the same thing even if I go back in time. Things wouldn’t be much different from what has happened so far. This world is crazy. Everyone makes frantic attempts to stand above others and stay alive. There aren’t many ways to control them. It is obvious that things would only get worse if we left the situation unattended.”
Yeon-Hee’s eyes were determined, but she no longer had murderous intentions.
“Let me know, Seon-Hu. If someone bothers you and gives you a headache, I’ll fix them for you.”
I smiled. “Haha, is that possible? You have grown a lot. Be careful. Your head might be crushed, Woo Yeon-Hee. Haha.”
She nodded. “Yes, that’s what I want.”
I asked, “What do you mean?”
She explained, “You are so much more s.e.xy when you call me Woo Yeon-Hee.”
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Come here, Woo Yeon-Hee.”
She seemed to be relieved then and fell on my chest like an angel of darkness. Her clumsy and impatient kiss was lovely. While she was twisting her hips and waist without even noticing it, a message popped up, covering her face.
[(╥﹏╥) Today is my last day with you guys. I couldn’t believe you guys couldn’t do better than this right before the Final Stage, but I won’t blame you. Your sacrifice and willingness were amazing.]
This stage was finally ending.
[I’m sure you will work harder in the next stage. Well, you will have to because the next stage is the very last one that you all have been waiting for! The final battle awaits you.]
“Gosh, the next stage is really the end of this.”
Yeon-Hee also knew it wasn’t good news. We got off the boat with a serious look. Then, we endured the guide’s complaints that it hadn’t been promoted to the guide in the Final Stage. Right after that, a large notification window popped up, showing the current status of the final eight camps.
[Camp 1: Revolucion (12) - 92,991 Awakened
Camp 2: World Awakened a.s.sociation (1) – 74,555 Awakened
Camp 3: Tomorrow (21) ― 73,002 Awakened
Camp 4: Revolucion (30) ― 69,800 Awakened
Camp 5: Tomorrow (19) ― 54,252 Awakened
Camp 6: Jonathan Investment Finance Group ― 43,901 Awakened
Camp 7: Revolucion (28) ― 42,824 Awakened
Camp 8: Revolucion (42) ― 39,665 Awakened]
“There are the World Awakened a.s.sociation and Jonathan Investment Finance Group.”f?ee????૦ѵ?Ɩ. ???
Yeon-Hee listed the names as if she knew how long I had been waiting for them. However, it was unknown whether the World Awakened a.s.sociation (1) meant Joshua’s survival. To be honest, I didn’t believe he would have survived if his stage was considered the top stage.
I looked at the numbers. The final sum was 499,990 Awakened. Act One, Stage One had started with forty-five million people total, but only that tiny number had survived until the Final Stage. The survival rate was only one percent even though we hadn’t even started the final battle. Even considering that the level of Awakened had increased, this was… The difficulty of the extended stages in Act Two must have been extreme. Well, all the quests that I had gone through to recharge myself after being released from the seal were intense.
f.u.c.king necromancers. f.u.c.king ghouls.
The f.u.c.king dead, who never appeared in the past, must have gnawed on the living.
Yeon-Hee said, “There’s something that hasn’t been reflected on the window. As long as I’m alive, those numbers are meaningless.”
I nodded. “Yes, you are my Life Vessel. My life is in you.”
She quipped, “What a rus.h.!.+ You should have saved those words for later.”
I shook my head. “...Let’s not save anything. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
I meant it because everything had changed, including the enemies and the structure and the situation of the war. I wasn’t fully relieved with Life Vessel when I recalled the huge gaze from the sky that weighed on my limbs.
***
There was a man who had founded a golden empire. Even if people converted the past emperors’ money power to the current currency, everyone had no doubt that he had the greatest wealth in history.
However, it was such an old story. All of his miraculous moves and heroic stories were old. The only thing that reminded him of his glorious past was the guild’s name. He was now sitting on the throne stacked with skeletons instead of gold. The majority of his compet.i.tors who had objected to him were the skeletons, and most of them were shabby. There were traces of soot where a skull had been broken and a skeleton fell off.
Meanwhile, Olivia, the man’s henchman, was a quick-acting woman. She had found how and where the necromancer was operating and then eliminated it before setting it on his throne. All the dread that the Awakened had felt towards the necromancer was now concentrated on the man.
Olivia felt that it wasn’t enough and wanted more frightening fear every time the stages were combined. In particular, the existing groups of pre-Awakened, such as Revolucion and Tomorrow, were different from the starting line. They were strong and experienced. It was obvious how persistent their attacks would be during the Final Stage. However…
“It looks like all of them are within the a.s.sociation, but it will be hard for them to create an alliance.”
It was because a lot of time had pa.s.sed. Old promises were bound to fade, and conflicts would have arisen more frequently. The leader of each group may have nothing to do with the a.s.sociation even though the name had been maintained.
It was then.
“Olivia.”
Olivia blinked her eyes quickly as no one had called her real name for a while.
The man said, “You have done a great job. I was able to come up to this point, all thanks to you.”
She stuttered, “My… my pleasure…”
She thought her tears had dried up a long time ago, but that wasn’t true. As soon as she heard the man’s words, her eyes became blurry.
However, it was more shocking when she saw the smile on his face. Like the way she hadn’t forgotten how to cry, he also was a guy who could actually smile. Nonetheless, she couldn’t understand the meaning of the smile. It was a helpless smile like burnt ash, but his eyes were glaring with tenacity. Oliva thought nothing more shocking would happen than his smile.
However, the man suddenly broke his skull throne, burnt the necromancer and everything it had made, and destroyed the castle he had built with fear. She was more shaken and frightened.
Did he go crazy? Did he give up the Final Stage? Is it because most of the camps are within the a.s.sociation?
However, the man Olivia had seen was born with the DNA of a ruler. He wasn’t someone who would let go for that reason.
“I don’t need all this anymore,” the man muttered while smas.h.i.+ng the skeletons. “He will come, so be prepared.”
Olivia asked, utterly perplexed, “What do you mean by ‘he’?”
The man said with conviction, “Odin. He is your master too.”
1. The Greek G.o.d of war and courage. ☜