Having heard that far, Hokulrus could not take it anymore.
He suddenly released his anger he had held back.
“Hey! With god’s blood, you now cleared Act 2 and earned recognition for your ability, but are reluctant to do what you should do? What’s wrong with you? Did you come up here only to satisfy your interests and desires, like humans and other races?”
“Why are you getting angry? Please calm down…”
Vulcan was greatly embarrassed.
It was because he could not grasp the point where Hokulrus was angry.
He reconsidered whether there was anything wrong with what he had said while he was being overwhelmed by Hokulrus's force like an active volcano.
However, no matter how hard he thought, it didn’t seem like he made a tongue slip.
‘Well, what then am I supposed to make a wish for, when protecting my family and world is equal to satisfying my interests and desires? I thought I could make a wish for anything as long as it doesn’t harm anyone,’
He thought it was not fair.
His anger was far more intense than Vulcan’s feelings, and the rage didn’t stop there.
“Calm down? Are you out of your mind? Are you going to keep trying to avoid your fault? Oh, well. I will need to speak with your parents who have taught you this way. Say your parents’ names,”
Suddenly, it became a situation where Vulcan’s parents were brought up.
Vulcan’s embarrassment and resentment all turned into anger.
Like Hokulrus, Vulcan was also angry and remonstrated, forgetting it was the supreme manager of Act 2 who had power enough to determine his own future.
“What the hell are you talking about? What’s wrong with our parents? Why would you bring up them?”
“Shut up! No more arguing. Say your parents’ names, no, the god’s name, which one of them is the god? Father? Mother?”
“Ha,”
Vulcan was dumbfounded.
He turned back and took a deep breath to calm down.
If he remained in a calm state, he might have realized that there was something odd about Hokulrus' s words, but he was about to lose his temper.
It was a good thing that he didn’t attack Hokulrus.
Vulcan closed his eyes and gnashed his teeth, then thought.
‘I don’t know what the hell, but oh, well…’
Vulcan turned back again and had a sharp look in his eyes.
He recited his parents’ names.
“Father’s is Kim Jung-hoon, mother’s Lee Hye-won. Happy now?”
“Okay,”
Hokulrus frowned and knocked his head with his finger as he looked through various drawers in his head.
Vulcan was still angry and looked at Hokurus as if he were an enemy, like that, time flowed without hesitation.
After about 1 minute, Hokulrus muttered to himself with a rather embarrassed face.
“What the… no such gods…” said in a small voice.
But it was loud enough to reach Vulcan’s ears.
Vulcan, who heard Hokulrus’s words, responded with a fierce look.
“What are you talking about? Our parents are humans,”
“Hm?”
“They are humans,”
“What?”
It seemed like Hokulrus didn’t understand Vulcan’s words, as he repeated asking.
Given his reaction, Vulcan also realized that something strange was going on.
He soothed his anger that had been intensified to the point of explosion, then looked Hokulrus straight in the eye.
“Let’s calm down and talk this out,”
***
“Hm, sorry,”
Hokulrus looked at Vulcan with a sorry look.
It was rare for Hokulrus to show such anger, but Vulcan did not say anything because, after all, it was his fault in the first place.
Vulcan accepted his apology completely.
Since all of this came from misunderstandings and he was not so narrow-minded as to be unable to understand it.
“It’s okay. It was quite misunderstandable,”
“Yeah. Unless you manage the Beloong city, there is no chance of learning about Players. I am also not interested… Well, how come a human can be a demi-god? That’s weird. Perhaps the greatest god may know,”
Hokulrus found himself still not understanding and talking to himself, and fell into his own thoughts.
Having seen that, Vulcan let out an inward sigh of relief.
‘Phew, he did not become angry with me for not wanting to serve as a god, thank god,’
He was worried that he would be sent to Act 3 or be given a heavy responsibility, just like Act 1’s 6th zone.
However, after revealing that he was originally a human, Hokulrus did not speak to him about it and seemed to have no intention to force him.
He thought of his rosy future in his own way.
It was to live happily and happily with the family that he loves without battle and slaughter.
There was no specific plan, but it was something that could be done slowly.
Vulcan stood silently with his eyes out of focus and a smile on his face.
Hokulrus awoke from his thoughts and stared at Vulcan.
He honestly wanted to ask about Players, judging from the earlier conversation, it seemed to him that Vulcan did not know how he got the ability or how the ability emerged in some way.
‘Well, gods are also inexplicable beings,’
He forcibly shook off that and called out,
“Vulcan,”
“Yes,”
“Now, let’s talk about the test,”
“Oh, yes. Have I already passed the test?”
With hopes and tensions in his eyes, Vulcan looked at Hokulrus.
Hokulrus then shook his head.
He continued to speak, as Vulcan put a disappointed look on his face.
“There is nothing to worry about. At any rate, your level is at the top among all those who have cleared Act 2. You will pass through any test. So I told the crowd that there would be an appointment ceremony beforehand,”
“Thank you,”
He seemed to have considered the situation of Vulcan who continued to act hastily.
Vulcan thanked Hokulrus and immediately asked a question.
“So… What is the test? In Act 1, I caught a monster called Sarantis, is it similar?”
Vulcan thought it was going to be a test to defeat something, of course, because there was no other way to test the ability intuitively.
But Hokulrus shook his head and spat out unexpected words.
“Beat a human,”
“Sorry? human?”
“Yeah,”
With an unpleasant frown, Hokulrus continued.
“Beat a human almost to death, till I say, enough, then I will let you pass the test,”
***
At a large and well-arranged office,
Madorgi, who had been working as usual, suddenly sighed big.
As usual, he did not clearly reveal his feelings, but the lowered corners of his mouth represented his feelings.
He turned his fountain pen in his hand and looked at the piled-up documents and suddenly got up.
Then, the documents that were floating in the air by his magic power were arranged on the desk.
He slowly circled the room and sighed again.
He said in a small voice.
“I can’t believe he’s become a god,”
Vulcan.
Just 250 years ago, he was a greenhorn who had just came up to Act 2.
In addition, he was a human being and a player who was pointed out as the most talented.
When such underdog broke down the difficulties one by one and knocked out Bae Su Jin which was the strongest force among humans, Madorgi was very enjoyable until then.
This was because the emergence of a mutant called Vulcan came as a fresh stimulus.
His life was repeated as if he was always in a loop.
Watching Vulcan that had caused disturbances was the most enjoyable hobby for him and he was able to get away from boring routines.
However,
“… That is only to some extent,”
Madorgi threw away his expressionless look in a long time and put an unpleasant look on his face.
Unbearable inferiority, shame, frustration.
All kinds of depraved emotions got through him and he could not bear it.
He was more interested in watching the conflicts and conflicts of others than his accomplishments, but he did not completely abandon his desire to become stronger.
Until he started to run the information organization called Oracle in earnest, Madorgi had lived his life as a good citizen who was enthusiastic about training in Act 2.
However, he was frustrated because he could not break the wall for a long time, and he set up an intelligence group again in the summer to return to the life of maneuvering and abusing people.
Having spent so many hundreds of years, Madorgi had a satisfying day.
Having failed to make it to the last footsteps of becoming a god had weighed on him, but after a hundred years and two hundred years, the dirty feelings gradually became diluted.
Rather, except for that, it was a better life.
The pleasure of manipulating the absolute strongest people, who are much greater than those in the summer, based on their own information was so great that he could not say enough, and he was more enthusiastic about devising plots while gradually putting back on training.
That way, Madorgi abandoned his desire to clear ACT 2 and gradually moved into his own joy.
But now that he found out that Vulcan, who he thought was such underdog, reached the position of god, the wounds that have fallen asleep in his mind began to cause pain again and caused him to lose his composure.
“Arrgggghhhh!”
Suddenly, he screamed into the air.
Now, under the completely collapsed poker face, the hideous facial expressions were fully revealed.
He fumed, but it did not help change anything.
Vulcan was no longer in his reach, and Madorgi’s rank had been stopped for over five hundred years and was no longer moving forward.
Like many other beings who had overtaken him, he knew that he was forced to send Vulcan to the godhood.
He slowly calmed his rough breathing, then thought to himself.
‘Don’t give it a damn. He was the one who was going to reach the godhood anyway. Demi-god… scam combination with Player's abilities. It is not a flaw that I am a human being and have fallen behind him,’
Madorgi would have been more angry if he knew Vulcan was a human, but since he knew Vulcan was a demi-god, he could somewhat control his anger.
Unless Vulcan was a human, Madorgi still thought he was the strongest of the humans.
He thought that he was great enough.
After completing his rationalization, he laughed and muttered with a better feeling.
“I can find another toy, after all,”
“What toy?”
“Uh!”
Madorgi was horrified by the heavy voice he heard from behind him.
And he tried to turn the new type instinctively to check the source of the sound.
But before turning his head, he felt a hand gripping his back neck roughly.
And a little dizzy feeling.
Woooooong.
Madorgi, who had a feeling similar to when he was using a space-moving circle, looked around with a puzzled look on his face.
All over the green forest.
He was in what seemed very far away from Espo city, and there was nobody passing by.
It was a slightly higher tone than the sound I had heard earlier.
And a familiar voice somehow.
“Should I beat that man?”
He unconsciously turned his head in the direction.
And he was flabbergasted.
A man was holding a sword, in a golden red sparkling red armor.
“Vulcan…”
Madorgi looked at him as if his soul fled his body.