Chapter 286:

Chapter 286:

Chapter 286

The thing that cut through the air was a thread of energy compressed to the limit.

The thread, blacker than darkness, sliced through anything it touched.

The ground, the sky, even the space itself.

Nothing could resist the sharp power of the black lightning, not even the hardened skin of a returnee who had undergone countless evolutions.

The returnee’s body was shattered into hundreds of pieces.

There was no pain from being cut.

In the brief moment before his flesh crumbled, the returnee Kim Myung-jun recalled his past.

He was an ordinary office worker. He had not even worked for a year and still had the mark of a rookie, but he had nothing to envy with his wonderful girlfriend and kind parents.

He never felt any lack in his life and always tried to do his best, a rather rare and sincere person.

It was a cruel joke of fate that Kim Myung-jun got caught up in the vanishing on his way home from work on the day of the world integration.

When he opened his eyes for the first time after being swept away by the dimensional crack, what he saw was a primitive world of wilderness with no trace of civilization.

Kim Myung-jun, who had fallen into a world full of terrible predators that were hard to find on Earth, could not accept the reality.

But he had no choice but to realize it as he ran away from the huge beasts that targeted him.

This was all real and he was not on Earth but on a remote world.

If there was any luck for him, it was that he awakened a strange power.

Kim Myung-jun decided to survive and use his power to return to Earth from that moment on.

He started from the bottom of the ecological pyramid, killing and eating all the predators in his vicinity and evolving over and over again.

First, he conquered one area.

Then, he expanded his territory.

Then, he dominated the entire primitive forest. Kim Myung-jun felt that it was not enough yet.

He had to become stronger.

He had to survive in this world.

Until he could go back home someday.

Kim Myung-jun eventually crossed the forest and conquered the rugged wilderness and desert lands, and then headed to the sea beyond.

There were many crises and fights that almost cost him his life dozens of times.

His humanity was worn out by the constant fighting, but even considering that, it was a painful and hard process that made him shed tears.

Every time, Kim Myung-jun forced himself to hope that he could return and sought new enemies.

As he ruled over the vast ocean, his appearance changed so drastically that he could not find any trace of his past self.

How long did he live like that?

The fate that he wanted to curse seemed to apologize to him by sending him back to his original world.

He was confused when he returned as suddenly as he left, but he soon realized that he had arrived in South Korea where he used to live and rejoiced.

But what he did not know was that he was already declared dead and more than 10 years had passed since he disappeared.

Ten years was enough time to dilute the sorrow of those who lost their loved ones.

And Kim Myung-jun’s appearance was so different from his past self that no one could recognize him.

Although he somehow maintained a human form, the strange mutation that occurred when he crossed dimensions changed his appearance grotesquely.

Kim Myung-jun, who had been fighting with monsters for a long time, did not realize it, and all he received from them were screams of horror from his acquaintances.

‘Mo, monster!’

‘Get away! Someone, call the collectors!’

‘Th, this is my son? No way!’

Everyone he met widened their eyes and opened their mouths to shout. Among them were his girlfriend and parents.

Kim Myung-jun ran away in surprise at those screams and realized it.

He did not exist in the memories of his precious people anymore. He had come too far and could not go back to that time anymore.

The moment he admitted it, the emotions that he had suppressed for so long exploded.

Kim Myung-jun swallowed his sadness and hid in a place where people would not notice him.

Into the sewer where no one stepped foot and where a foul smell lingered.

It was then that Han Jin-cheong came to Kim Myung-jun.

‘Oh dear. You were hurt by the people you trusted and ran away.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Someone who can help you. How about it? Do you want to work with me?’

‘I’m a monster.’

If such a person exists on earth, Exodus’s chance of intervening in earth will be significantly reduced.

No, it was precisely that Kang Yu-hyun teller who ruined their operation that they had prepared for a long time.

“What does Pentagram say?”

“For now, they escaped with Shamat manager who might become a liability after failing their mission, and said they dealt with him properly.”

“Demialos?”

“Someone higher than him.”

“Oh, that person? Well, considering Demialos’s personality, it would be more strange if he moved.”

“...Are you sure about this? They are our allies, but they don’t look very trustworthy from their actions so far.”

“That may be true for Pentagram’s current situation.”

Exodus made some kind of deal with Pentagram. For that, Pentagram deliberately lowered the quality of earth’s web novels and planned to buy earth from Celestial Corporation when its value hit rock bottom.

But Kang Yu-hyun teller appeared and Shamat’s collusion with Great Sage Army Paradise was exposed.

Their plan was practically ruined.

They had not been exposed yet for their relationship with Pentagram, but all Exodus could do now was hold on with Unleashed as their only rotten rope.

‘And Jin cheongun, that insignificant human bastard, I don’t know what he’s thinking.’

A blue light burned like a flame of anger in Ubratra’s robe.

His subordinates felt his anger and shrank their shoulders and lowered their heads.

“Ubratra. What will you do then? Is there any way...?”

“I don’t have it yet. The situation is the worst, no matter how you look at it. But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up already.”

“...Do you have a reason to be so obsessed with this planet?”

“Because this is the core where the most massive flow of stories converges.”

“What?”

“You guys might not know, but you’ll see it when you reach a certain level. That there are places where the flow gathers in the world.”

Ubratra called it the Story Vein.

If the place where water flows is called the Water Vein, and the place where mysterious power flows is called the Dragon Vein.

Then the place where a much larger, cosmic-scale flow passes through is the Story Vein.

Ubratra claimed that Earth was that Story Vein.

“The Divine Spirits provided a huge seed here, making various myths sprout. It’s not a coincidence.”

“Hmph, but how can a world where such lowly beings live have such value?”

“The value of a story does not depend on the strength of the beings that show the spectacle. If it did, then the Story Vein would have flocked to the world where the Red Demons live, or the world where the Gieks live. You may not want to admit it, but it doesn’t change the fact that this Earth is the Story Vein.”

That was why Exodus targeted Earth.

The Celestial Corporation seemed to have not noticed that fact yet, but it was only a matter of time before they found out.

“Our goal is to bring all the stories of despair to this world. To do that, we need to take over the Story Vein first. Earth has enough value for that.”

“Then shouldn’t we make this place ours by any means? But those Pentagram bastards we trusted keep failing...”

“They are incompetent, that’s true, but they still have some use. Demialos too, but more importantly, ‘he’ who is higher than him is on our side. If we get enough help from him, we still have a chance to make up for it.”

“Then what will you do now?”

“First of all, we have to get rid of the most annoying stone.”

Ubratra’s voice sank coldly. No one doubted who he meant by the stone.

They all thought of Kang Yu-hyun, who had shown tremendous power just before.

Everything went wrong after he appeared. And as long as he existed, whatever they did would fail.

They were already annoyed by the appearance of Comedypedia, who had the opposite personality to them, so they had to make a quick decision.

“For our leader. For the king.”

“For the king.”

“For the king.”

As soon as they mentioned the king, they all bowed their heads and murmured words of praise in a devout voice.

They looked like a pious religious group.

“Bishop Ubratra. Do you have a way to remove the stone?”

“I have some idea. Of course, to achieve this, we have no choice but to rely on Pentagram, especially our best ally among them.”

It was impossible to kill him like Shamat, considering Yu-hyun’s power, but that wasn’t the only way.

For Teller who exist based on stories,

Losing their stories could be enough to kill them.