Chapter 35: Star, The Black Mountain King (1)

Chapter 35: Star, The Black Mountain King (1)

<The return of the ‘Tyrant’!>

The news article’s five-word title appeared on numerous web portals and was mentioned among various internet communities. For days, Chang-Sun and Chang-Sun-related topics were on every web portal’s most searched word lists.

No. 1: Lee Chang-Sun

No. 2: Tyrant

No. 3: White Tiger Clan Sector C video clip

No. 4: The return of Lee Chang-Sun

...

No. 10: The mysterious man L

...

Various comment sections were on the verge of crashing due to the constant flood of comments.

―MyBroReturns: ‘Lee Chang-Sun’ has been ranked number one on the most searched word list for four consecutive days! My bro Tyrant has returned! Noooiicceeee! Turn up the music!!!

―GrimReaper: Is he seriously SSS+++? Man, I feel so patriotic right now. Woooowww! Bartender! Gimme a bowl of makgeolli![1]

―SecondLifeRanker: Everyone who criticized Chang-Sun on the air for being an alcoholic is quiet now, right?

↳Youtubers are already busy taking down their videos criticizing Chang-Sun lol lol.

↳Btw the video of his test is REALLY insane.

↳The Tyrant hater communities say all the videos have been fabricated.

↳The fact that the Tyrant haters are idiots isn’t new.

―OverthrowGovernment: Does anyone still believe the news articles about the Tyrant? Tsk, tsk.How can you not know that the government has fabricated those videos to cover up the Jamsil Gate incident?

↳Hahahahahaha, conspiracy theorists really exist!

↳The major 20 Clans have become idiots instantly lol lol lol and his SSS+++ Magic Grade just became a conspiracy.

↳Hey, just go home, wash your feet, and sleep instead of posting this kind of comment.

―CheonYeongReligion: I’m worried about the Tyrant fans running amok again. They finally calmed down, you know. How are we going to deal with them?

↳God. It just crossed my mind and I’m a little bit scared now.

The public always needed new heroes, and the press always needed new subjects to put in the spotlight. At that moment, Chang-Sun was the best fit for both criteria.

The nickname ‘Tyrant’ was so famous worldwide that even people who were unfamiliar with online games had heard it. However, that hero had tragically become an alcoholic after getting into a fight with his gaming club and being forced to retire. And yet, such a hero had returned brilliantly with a Magic Grade higher than ‘SSS’, a grade that itself only appeared once a decade.

Of course, overseas media companies were busy writing many news articles about Chang-Sun, and Korean media was no different.

―DoubleChapterEdora: The White Tiger Clan’s stock price has skyrocketed over the past three days.

↳Let’s buy their stocks on marginnnnn!!!

↳Let’s gooooo!!!

↳If you guys did that, all of you could end up having a get-together in Hangang River[2], so just make diversified investments to the best of your ability.

―BowlingMan: I heard Lee Chang-Sun was the one who closed the Jamsil Gate. Is it true?

Stories about the Jamsil Gate had slowly leaked to the public, resulting in a common hypothesis that Chang-Sun was the urban legend ‘Mysterious Man L’. It was plausible; Chang-Sun lived in Jamsil, and the time period of Chang-Sun’s awakening overlapped with the Jamsil Gate’s opening. The initial ‘L’ added credibility to the hypothesis. Still, there were people who had dismissed the idea because no official announcement had been made, so public opinion about the Jamsil Gate had been split in two.

Suddenly, however, an interview published by a major news outlet sent the world into an uproar once again.

<The famous ‘Mysterious Man L’ is in fact Lee Chang-Sun—An interview with a Jamsil Gate survivor!>The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

The survivor had introduced herself as ‘Miss Woo (15 years old)’ and explained in detail what had happened in the Jamsil Gate, the story of which had been kept confidential. The dungeon’s difficulty level had been raised significantly after the sudden appearance of an Administrator, which meant Second Lieutenant Park Hae-Seong had needed to use any means necessary to save as many people as possible. However, Jeon Choong-Jae had satisfied his own greed by manipulating people, but Chang-Sun had fought against Jeon Choong-Jae to save all those people...

Of course, the people involved had only been referred to by their initials or aliases, but some quick-witted internet users soon successfully figured out who they were. As a result, Second Lieutenant Hae-Seong became a star overnight, and Chang-Sun earned the ridiculous nickname of ‘Jamsil Hero’ in addition to ‘Tyrant.’

Due to those incidents, the public’s interest in Chang-Sun grew day by day.

<Representative of STBand, the Tyrant’s old club: ‘We heard nothing from him.’>

<The Tyrant’s family refuses to appear in the media.>

Meanwhile, Chang-Sun entered the White Tiger Clan’s Fierce Tiger Library with the guidance of Executive Director Oh’s subordinate. It was totally different from the library that the Clan opened to the public; it did not contain any ordinary books, instead containing spellbooks and weapon skill books.

“Wasn’t Heoju also a troublemaker in Heaven?”Thanatos asked Chang-Sun.

“He was,” Chang-Sun replied with a nod.

“Then what are the followers who have his blessing like?” Thanatos asked gently

“They’ll also have... made many enemies,” Chang-Sun realized.

“They haven’t just made many enemies, but also completely destroyed their enemies’ pride. After pillaging and seizing those foes’ treasures, they gathered and opened a grand exhibition, advertising their trophies as a way of spreading their Guardian’s glory,” Thanatos replied, shaking his head.

Describing Heoju and his followers as peas in a pod, Thanatos had smiled coldly. The ‘grand exhibition’ he had mentioned was in the Fierce Tiger Library. The Clan had gathered and recorded the goods they had seized from the people they fought.

The Fierce Tiger Library was a monument to commemorate the Clan’s victories; among other things was filled with various kinds of books. Naturally, it contained some beginner skill books and spellbooks. Apart from that, it contained ancient books from another world, containing weapon skills that had been passed down for generations, as well as Fortune Books that contained the teachings of various Celestials. It even had several high-level skill books. In addition, even though they were often considered miscellaneous items, several heroic epics were also stored within.

All the books were divided into seven categories, and those categories required different levels of clearance for the Clan’s employees. As Chang-Sun was just on probation and had not even finished his training, he would normally only be able to access the Tier 7 Library; however, until a week before the training period, he had been granted special permission by Executive Director Oh to access up to the Tier 3 Library.

“Judging from the fact that you told me about the exhibition, I have something to gain from it, don’t I?” Chang-Sun asked Thanatos.

“It’s not easy to recommend anything specific because I don’t know what kind of skill tree you’ll end up building... but I can give you a list of useful skills,” Thanatos replied, stroking his chin.

“I’ll just pick on my own,” Chang-Sun said, scratching his head.

“There is one skill you’ll definitely be interested in,” Thanatos said, lifting a finger.

“What’s that?” Chang-Sun asked with great interest.

“The movement skills of ‘Sagittarius’,” Thanatos replied with a grin.

Chang-Sun had been completely dumbstruck when he heard Thanatos’ response.

‘Sagittarius’ Rukbat was the fastest Zodiac. His six movement skills enabled him to move at the speed of light. They were no ordinary Authorities; rather, they were Divine Authorities, the envy of countless Celestials.

[Traceless Steps].

[Sky Soaring].

[Reed Crossing].

[Vaulting Shadow].

[Leaf Treading].

And...

‘[Avatar’s Descent]...’ Chang-Sun thought, recalling Sagittarius’ last movement skill.

If Sagittarius ever found out that Heoju had one of his movement skills, he would be more than capable of waging war against Heoju and the Clan under him. However, that had not happened, which meant Sagittarius did not know. Perhaps even Heoju did not know he had committed such a ridiculous act.

“Where did you hear that information from?” Chang-Sun asked with great curiosity.

“Who do you think?” Thanatos replied, smiling cheekily.

“...A <Fallen Star>,” Chang-Sun replied.

In any event, there was no way Chang-Sun would ever let one of Sagittarius’ movement skills sit in the Fierce Tiger Library after discovering its location. That was why he had never tried to learn any movement skills, even though he had been steadily pursuing a variety of offensive and weapon-related skills.

‘I have to acquire [Avatar’s Descent] from this library, but it won’t be easy,’ Chang-Sun thought, taking a quick look through the library.

[Avatar’s Descent] was the Authority that had made Rukbat one of the Zodiacs, ‘Sagittarius’. It was a Divine Authority he had created even before he had become a star by stealing a glance at the <Ancient Star>, ‘Deus Ex Machina’. He had witnessed the <Ancient Star> using their signature Authority, [Sovereign’s Descent], in the ancient past of the universe—a time that looked nothing like the current universe.

Whenever Sagittarius used [Avatar’s Descent], he could instantly gain control of a certain region in space and project his divinity within it, enabling him to act as an absolute being within that space.

From what Chang-Sun had heard, the rest of the Zodiacs did not like even allowing Sagittarius into their general vicinity.

‘If I can just get my hands on that Divine Authority... No one will be able to stop me after I transcend and awaken my divinity,’ Chang-Sun thought, clenching his fists.

Thus, he had to have the Divine Authority. However, there was one problem...

[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ observes your every movement.]

...Heoju himself was watching Chang-Sun.

1. The raw was ‘국뽕이 차오른다. 주모! 여기 한 사발 주이소!’ This is a very popular meme in Korea. Whenever a Korean feels incredibly proud of someone from Korea, they say they’ve gotten ‘국뽕’ (literally ‘high on patriotism’.) They express their happiness by calling out to ‘주모’, an integral part of the Korean traditional pubs, which are called ‘주막’. ☜

2. Hangang River was once known as a famous suicide spot. ☜