CH 222

“I didn’t talk about you. It won’t be a problem if we make sure our people keep their mouths shut. I’m just so embarrassed…”

“Don’t say that. I’m glad you came back safe. From what you told me, we know that there were two people there who would know who you were even if you didn’t reveal your nickname? I told you that you are more famous than you think. Tell me more about Odin.”

Myung-Hwan described what he knew about the man who had been guarded by a giant monster.

“I couldn’t see his face,” he finished.

“Are you sure he is a human like us?”

Myung-Hwan grimaced. “Maybe. One thing that was clear is that he’s the man who has all of the power in the central village. There is a self-governing committee under him and it has ten members. Anyway, there is something else you should know before entering the village.”

“What?”

“They have already defended themselves against an attack from a group led by a member of the Yakuza. It’s hard to believe, but they came out victorious without any casualties.”

“A Yakuza member, not a gangster?”

“Yes. Do you know what ‘Yakuza Calibur’ means?”

“No.”

“Mmm… You don’t know either. It sounds like a newly coined term, but no one knows the meaning.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know what ‘Yakuza Calibur’ is, but always keep in mind that such a thing exists. That’s how the Yakuza group met their ending.”

“Okay.”

To Woo-Seong, the central village sounded perfect. He didn’t know whose work it was, but it was genuinely remarkable. Recalling that a form of money had already been circulating in the central village, he asked about it.

Myung-Hwan answered by summing up the story he had heard, “The thing in question must be one of the monster’s organs that is hard, colored black, and has an inner light. People call it a mana stone, and it’s being used as currency. Food sources from the puddles, items, insignias, and stuff that had been brought in from reality are all being exchanged for mana stones. The most surprising fact is that there is a bank that handles mana stones.”

Woo-Seong pursed his lips. “They’ve established a small city-state there.”

He thought for a bit before asking, “Which member of the self-governing committee has the most power?”

Myung-Hwan smiled wryly. “She is a young woman with short hair… You’ll figure it out as soon as you see her. Her eyes are full of confidence. Based on the way she speaks, I have a hunch that she must have been an employee of the Jeon-il Group.”

Woo-Seong frowned. “She isn’t the President of Jeon-il Group, right?”

Myung-Hwan shook his head. “No way. The President is a foreigner.”

Woo-Seong had one wish, and that wish was that the important figures from the Jeon-il Group had all entered this stage. To be honest, he also hoped that they all eventually died here without being able to return to the real world! He wanted all of the following people to have this fate: Park Choong-Sik, the President of Finance who wielded absolute money power behind the scenes; Park Woo-Cheol, Park Choong-Sik’s son who was also the Public Prosecutor General; Cho Dae-Hwan, Park Woo-Cheol’s in-law and the commander of the Jamie Corporation, which was the French firm of Jeon-il Group; Hwang Bo-Gu, Cho Dae-Hwan’s son-in-law and the government chief; and last but not least, Jamie, their queen bee.

Although almost everyone in Korea was related to Jeon-il Group regardless of their political, business and media affiliations, he considered those five people to be the social evils that must disappear. Just like the Five Eulsa Traitors[1], they were the IMF’s Five Traitors in modern society. They had basically sold Korea to foreign capital. In the real world, the Jeon-il Group was the law in Korea like how the Spirit Guide was the law in the Stage of Advent. In other words, one positive thing about the stage was that the main culprits of evil in Korea’s society could suddenly vanish there one day.

Woo-Seong said while anticipating the day when he could return to Korea after overcoming this ordeal, “Don’t worry and leave Act One, Stage Two to me. You should take a break this time as you have been pushing yourself too hard.”

Myung-Hwan sighed. “We should hold a knife in our hands to become powerful in this world. I’m alive, but I have basically fallen behind in this stage. Everything is up to you now.”

Woo-Seong retorted, “Was Marx a great thinker because he held a knife? No. Don’t forget. This is our last chance. If we miss this opportunity, our people can never escape the clutches of foreign capital.”

If the country had been ruined by the invasion of alien civilizations, they wouldn’t have been worried about it. However, all the systems had been maintained as before, so the glory of the Jeon-il Group remained unchanged.

Woo-Seong could imagine the situation after the Stage of Advent ended. Capital forces around the world would make frantic attempts to recruit the Awakened. They would offer them so much money and honor such that the newly-made Awakened could never refuse, and then use them to protect their vested interests as they had always done before.

Korea, in particular, would become a country that blatantly exploited Awakened. Without knowing the truth, the Korean Awakened would eventually choose the Jeon-il Group after weighing the money and honor they would receive and the foundation system of the new organization called the World Awakened Association. It was a structure that the Korean Awakened had no choice but to participate in.

***

He didn’t know how many years had passed, but considering how long his hair had gotten, it must have been at least three years. Despite that, there were no other traces of the years that Seon-Hu had spent in the Land of Dead. His severe injuries had disappeared, his skin had regenerated, and his items had been recharged with their defensive barriers and were now restored to their original appearance. His eyes were briefly cloudy for a moment as he was recalling the old memories he had before he had abruptly left and then they came back into focus.

Shshshsh-

At that moment, Seon-Hu’s skeletal dragon disappeared into thin air.

[* Storage Box]

[The ‘Skeletal Dragon that even the Living Worship’ has been added.]

When Seon-Hu looked at the destroyed seventh floor of the tower, he gritted his teeth. The Land of the Dead was awful and quite large. While he was there, he cycled between eating, running, and fighting over and over again. At one point, he fought merely to reach the next maintenance time he received during the breaks between monster waves. He was so tired that his original reason for coming here had been forgotten.

Doom Entegasto’s worshippers, fucking Richie and the Undead…

Their loathsome faces still flashed in Seon-Hu’s mind whenever he blinked. The things he had encountered were different from the past, and it was easy to tell as even the names were different. In the past, the place he had entered was supposed to be the Temple of the Dead, not the Land of the Dead. Doom Entegasto’s faceless statue had to be the boss monster. Therefore, Seon-Hu’s purpose in the beginning was to succeed in getting strong enough such that one day he could get the necklace that could summon the skeletal dragon.

However, he couldn’t forget the notification message that had popped up at the moment he entered. There were just three words with an exclamation mark and a smiling emoji.

[ You got this! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ]

At that moment, he was convinced that he was being stalked by the hacked system as the entire vast land where the temple had stood had turned into a stage instead. He only realized that he had gotten the skeletal dragon after he had returned to the village as it was possible then to summon and control it. In addition, he had also increased his abilities with the accumulated points he had received. Similar to the previous challenger quest, it was fortunate that he hadn’t died there. After all, it had been a long series of battles.

None of what he had experienced had actually happened to the actual owner of the skeletal dragon, the Third Evil. Instead, he had managed to attack the seventh floor by leading all the elite combatants from the five villages, who had undergone intense training starting from the lowest floor. Furthermore, he had only found the necklace out of sheer luck. Only after the Stage of Advent was the Third Evil able to summon the complete skeletal dragon.

“Are you okay?” Seong-Il approached Seon-Hu.

He had previously been staring at the dragon that had abruptly disappeared, so now he turned to look at Seon-Hu. Seong-Il felt a creepy sensation after meeting Seon-Hu’s stare. Fortunately, the younger man’s eyes soon relaxed.

“I’m suffering. Not from physical pain, but from here.”

Seon-Hu tapped his chest lightly with his fist as Seong-Il had done before. Even from Seong-Il’s perspective, it didn't look like Seon-Hu had only spent a brief moment on the seventh floor. The other man’s vibe couldn’t be described with words, but he looked dangerous. Although Seon-Hu looked dispirited, his glaring eyes were intimidating.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” Seong-Il asked.

The younger man bluntly replied, “A girl.”

For a moment, Seong-Il couldn’t believe what Seon-Hu said.

“A girl? Like a woman?” he asked, flustered.

Seon-Hu nodded curtly. “Yes, I need a girl to spend the night with. I need to bury my face in her breasts and have a quality night’s sleep.”

“Wow, what a guy. But where should I look to find such a girl?”

Seong-Il knew the answer even though he pretended he didn’t. The girls in the village had all looked at Seon-Hu fearfully, but they also admired and envied him to the same extent.

Soo-Ah walked in. She looked the same as she always did, but her face was slightly flushed. Seon-Hu frowned at her.

“Not you.”

“What?” She looked confused.

Seon-Ho flatly said, “Just be aware that you are not the one.”

“Just what do you mean about me?” Soo-Ah flew into a rage for the first time, but she then lowered her head immediately.

Seon-Hu sighed. “Have you ever been in a relationship before? Ah, forget it. Let’s pretend nothing happened. Don’t wake me up until I wake up by myself.”

As Seon-Hu stepped forward, the crowd split up into two to make a path for him.

***

Even when Seon-Hu woke up after being disturbed by a loud noise, he was thinking of how the System was trying to kill him just as it had sent out an assassination quest to one hundred pre-Awakened. Furthermore, it had started the challenger quest even though Seon-Hu didn’t even say ‘yes,’ raised the difficulty of the battle against the first boss monster, and expanded the stage from just the Temple of the Dead to the entire Land of the Dead. Unless he fully eliminated Doom Kaos’ involvement, the System’s brutality would continue in the future.

But… rooting out Doom Kaos’ intervention?

Seon-Hu couldn’t even imagine the difficulty of completing that task. He bet it would be tougher than conquering an S-class dungeon alone.

This means I’m going through the Stage of Advent by myself.

“You are awake?” Seong-Il said.

Seon-Ho grumbled, “I can’t help but open my eyes since it’s so loud outside. What is going on?”

Seong-Il shrugged. “Nothing. I’ll figure it out, so sleep more, man. Have you not seen my club around here?”

“Someone will take it if you leave it alone,” Seon-Hu warned.

“Who the freak would dare to steal anything from Odin’s place? Have you not seen what you look like?”

“Here you go.”

“Whoa, you didn’t even warn me.”

Seong-Il took the blunt weapon from Seon-Hu’s hand and said, “How did you do that? Can I do it, too?”

Seon-Hu shook his head. “No. What about Lee Soo-Ah?”

“Soo-Ah? She is in the middle of that mess.”

“Get her armed and bring her here. It’s your turn to rest now. I’ll take a look.”

Seong-Il grimaced. “I really appreciate it, but not now. Those who came from the east and west are picking fights on us.”

Soo-Ah rushed into the room. After slightly lowering her head to Seon-Hu, she turned to Seong-Il and asked, “Are you ready? But is that enough? Make sure you look strong and intimidating.”

Then, she explained the situation when she finally made eye contact with Seon-Hu. When the groups from the east and west had entered the village, they had deliberately changed the stories they had presented in order to match each other to get in. Following that, they had come to the ‘peaceful’ conclusion to send the strongest person from their own respective villages to make them compete against each other to decide who would be the top dog going forward.

Soo-Ah concluded, “The village council decided that there was nothing to lose.”

Seong-Il interjected, “And I volunteered. I don’t know how many heads I need to crush when I fight as a group. So, I can figure out whom to kill and not to kill from this competition. Isn’t that smart?”

“Yes, oppa.”

Seong-Il offered, “Do you want to watch us fight if you are not going to sleep more?”

Seon-Hu went outside the building with the other two. While he had been sleeping deeply, all the people from the four villages had come to his town. The members of each village had clearly been divided. Therefore, it was noticeable that the dead Yakuza’s people from the south weren’t involved at all in the conflict. The people from the north were as quiet as people from the south, whereas those from the east and west were noisy. A faint smile bloomed on Seon-Hu’s lips as he looked around at the scene. He had confirmed that there had been a significant positive effect after he had modified the System a while ago. There were a lot more survivors than there had been in the past.

If I revise the System a little more… Even if I go wrong…

Then, a man left the group and started running toward Seon-Hu.

“Go ahead. I’ll catch up with you.”

After Seon-Hu sent Seong-Il and Soo-Ah away, the man arrived in front of Seon-Hu.

“Oh my gosh! It’s you! Class four in grade seven, right? Wow! You haven’t changed even a bit except for your hairstyle.”

“...”

“Ah, you are still so quiet, man. You were dope in middle school, but what happened to you in the meantime? You don’t have a single item.”

1. They were the five officials who used to serve Emperor Gojong, the last king of Korea. They had signed the treaty that gave Japan full authority to govern Korea. They basically sold Korea to Japan.