The Worse News
Adam got my attention while I was lost in my thoughts for a moment.
“This is not all there is. I’m sorry, but there is one more thing.”
Ah, yes. He said that there was the bad news and there was the worse news.
Hoping that it’s not an accident that couldn’t be handled, I asked.
“Alright, what is the worse news?”
He sighed and spoke.
“The task to create and dispatch an audit team has been passed on to the Union-allied species’ ‘Albanos.’“
“…?”
“And while they investigate on Earth, I can’t stay on Earth. It’s only a temporary action, but that’s troublesome.”
“Why is that so?”
“It’s the request of the Albanos species.”
Hmm.
I caressed my chin and thought about the meaning that his words carried.
“Initially, I was planning to be around while they investigate on you. In any case, the Union’s audit team is known to be notorious, and if the unfavorable factor that’s Albanos overlaps with it…”
He must have been planning to help me to that extent.
But then-
“By the tone of it, it sounds a reason exists for me to be alert of the audit team.”
I knew full well the antagonism that Adam had towards the Union.
But listening to his words at that time, I felt like he was talking on the premise that there was a high possibility that they would harm me.
“…”
Adam kept the silence for a moment with a calm gaze.
Then-
“Yes. To be specific, you should be wary of Albanos that comprises the audit team.”
“Why?”
“Seo Jin-Wook.”
“…?”
“You must have noticed by now, but I’m trying to help you as much as I can.”
“… Yes, I am aware of that.”
Planning the instigated assassination by even mobilizing the Union was definitely a positive aid beyond what I imagined. Regardless of success or failure, that was.
Thinking about it from back to square one, he initially proposed receiving a share of experience points in return for information provision.
But as time went on, I began to question his motives. When we first talked, he acted like he was in dire need of points, but he acted like a monk with no worldly attachment at the onset of receiving the payment.
The points he received so far in the process of helping me had always been the same, and he didn’t expect much.
“Yes, I think you should be wary of the Albanos. You shouldn’t run into them without any countermeasures and without me around. This is a crisis, but it’s not like there’s no way to overcome it.”
“What is the crisis, and what is the way to overcome it?”
He cleared his throat.
“To explain everything about it, one thing should be solved out first.”
“That is?”
“The hospitality I’ve shown you so far didn’t matter since I’ve been able to handle enough on my individual level. But things will be a bit different from now on.”
“You mean that this is going to be exceeding the personal level?”
“Yes, I also need insurance to explain why you should be wary of Albanos and help you overcome this situation. No matter how good our partnership is, I can’t proceed with this as I wish to. It’s because it’s reached a level that connected our species as a whole.”
As I was listening to him, the scale has increased again.
“The thing called insurance is no big deal. You just have to answer one thing honestly. Then I will tell you what I couldn’t talk about until now.”
Adam stared at me with his calm, clear eyes and asked.
“Then, I will ask you, Seo Jin-Wook.”
An unexpected question came out of his mouth.
“Are you the ‘successor’?”
*
“….”
Silence flowed between us for a while.
‘Honestly, I didn’t expect him to thrust me into this hot seat like this all of a sudden!’
He stared at me gently and continued.
“The reason why I’m convinced that the Albanos are dangerous is that I think that you’re the successor of the Empire.”
“…”
“I judge that I’m more than 99.9% certain, but it’s not 100%. I would like you to tell me using your mouth itself. Nevertheless, if you deny it, I cannot mobilize our species.”
He continued while crossing his arms.
“But don’t be mistaken. The promise that I will help you on an individual level will continue.”
I thought about it.
How could he have noticed?
Like how I questioned from the first place, he might have noticed that I had too much Imperial heritage.
When I didn’t answer right away, Adam continued.
“Since I suddenly pushed you to a corner out of nowhere, you must feel baffled, too. First, I will show you a reason to trust me.”
I nodded silently. I was telling him to keep talking.
“Our species had received a great help about a thousand years ago from an alien that called himself the successor of the empire.”
Was it one of the reincarnations of the successor?
“What do you mean by help?”
“The body of our species was much smaller than it is right now. It was more undersized than the shell of the observer that you met. We were powerless, and there wasn’t much of a civilization. We started the tutorial in that state, and originally, we were fated to die out without climbing the Tower of Choice. Do you know what that means?”
“It means that you were fated to face the apocalypse.”
They couldn’t close the Gates and couldn’t even start the main quest.
In the end, were they destined to suffer the same fate as the Earth in my previous life?
But it seemed like his world was still intact right at that moment.
“During that time, ‘he’ came to our world. Summing up the words that he leaked out, he was considered as the successor that continued the objective of the empire that fell apart a long time ago. It seemed that the reconstruction of the empire was his ultimate destiny.”
Excluding the incorrect understanding that it fell apart long ago, what he said was close to the actual facts.
“He stayed in our world for a long time and helped us complete the tutorial. Even the Union left such a dimension to be discarded and die off and thought it was the right choice to do so, but he was different. Our species, which would have been destroyed without the successor, safely entered the main quest and obtained various EX-Class items.”
Artifacts significantly influenced the entire civilization.
He spoke, extending both his arms.
“Most of them were items related to the genetic engineering of the ancient Sebrarian Empire!”
“… And the successor helped with all that?”
“Yes! Even now, our species take pride in unrivaled high technology in the field. The secret behind it is the successor’s help!”
“What did he say the reason was for helping out and spending so much time and resources? It’s like he volunteered for a job that even the Union doesn’t want to do. Just for one world, too.”
“He did not disclose it in detail. He only said that there would be a reason that we cannot be destroyed that way.”
“There will be?”
His expression was vague.
It was a tone that told me the speaker himself was unsure.
“Yes, he said there would be. The successor did not know the reason why we shouldn’t be destroyed, but he seemed to have a distinctive sense of purpose that we shouldn’t be discarded like that.”
I whispered inwardly.
It was destiny!
Like the destiny set to protect the Earth in my current life, the successor, whose generation I wasn’t aware of, his fate must have been to save them from complete destruction and eradication.
It must be that they should live to create a butterfly effect which would result in the empire becoming stronger.
“That’s why we remain neutral without joining the Union until now. According to the belief of the Union, it was natural for us to be destroyed. The unqualified dimension disappearing before they reach the main quest is the providence of the system.”
The dimension that was almost ruined by the system would have been reluctant to immerse itself in a group that fully praised the system.
“Now, if you are indeed the successor, there must be something that you have felt by listening this far.”
His heavy glance fell on top of my face.
“Seo Jin-Wook, I would like you to answer me now. Are you the successor?”
Adam, while asking so-
Paht!
He created a sentence with Mana around his chest.
If there were no such thing as [The Successor’s Eyes], I wouldn’t be able to see others’ Mana or even those sophisticated shapes.
If I identified the content, then it would prove that I was a successor.
‘Wha? He indeed knew everything about me. Even my unique skills!’
I turned my eyes away from the sentence of Mana and stared at the other person’s face.
If what he had said so far was true, the memory of the successor who helped them a long time ago would also have settled into my unconsciousness.
And it must affect me so that I could make the right choice.
Regardless, I didn’t have an objective and absolute basis in my hands to determine whether Adam’s proposal was purely in good faith.
So, I decided to believe in my own judgment and my choice.
“!”
When I made up my mind as if a small bubble came up from under the deep water.
The pushed-up meaning indescribable by language permeated in my head and changed to conviction.
As I made the decision, I spoke to him.
“Yes, I trust you. I will trust you. I don’t know what the old grudge of the Yuncans is but let’s put our heads together.”
“!”
There was a reason for saying it that way than to reply briefly.
Because the content of the sentence that he made was as followed:
‘We are called Yuncans, and I am of the ruling class that carries the grudge of my entire species. The reason why we wish to help you is that this matter is related to our grudge. How is that? Can you trust us?’
Adam laughed out loud and made a satisfied expression.
“Alright, it’s confirmed!”
Right after he spat out those words-
Paht!
A message popped up in front of me.
-The other being wishes to transfer ’20 million’ experience points. Do you accept?
My eyes were about to pop out.
’20 million?!’
Adam had attempted to transfer that many points to me.
Even with the difficulty of screening quests lowered, that amount needed about ten dragons slain to receive such points.
It was enough for me to buy 100 [Stabilizing Auroras]!
“Wait, how many points do you have?”
I already assumed that he was not in an ordinary position because of what the observer’s said.
She said that Adam bore quite a heavy ‘authority’ in his world.
However, if he’s a being that handed out that many points in an instant, he must’ve been beyond my imagination.
“Take it first.”
“The story of being around to have a share of points seems only like an excuse that isn’t even worth a joke.”
“I’m sorry that I lied. But I couldn’t think of any adequate excuses.”
I asked him through my glance. ‘Should I really receive it?’
He nodded his head. ‘Right on.’
Paht!
-The transference of the points was accepted.
-The current experience points owned by the user are now 23.98 million points.
Suddenly, the points on hand had inflated by 800% percent.
“The reason for feed… no, giving me the points is?”
“I gave it to you because it will be necessary to respond against the Albanos. Now, listen to the rest of my story.”
Only then did he got to the main point and spoke in a low voice.
“As a matter of fact, it is quite easier than you might think to confirm if you are the successor. The thing that made me convinced appeared when the observer was scanning you.”
While speaking, he pointed to his head. I realized its meaning as well.
“And as we know, the successor had passed down its existence for a very long time.”
I nodded. He was on the right path.
“In the meantime, if there is a species that he has formed not only friendly relations with but also erased heavy ‘debts,’ wouldn’t there be a species that he has become the mortal enemy of?”
It was a story that made sense. If in the process of achieving his destiny, he caused harm to a species without a choice, and if in that process, the identity of the successor had been revealed…
“Ah, wait a minute.”
I had a sense of where the story was heading.
As I glanced at Adam amid the ominous presentiment, he slowly nodded.
“Yes, the information about the successor has been passed down through the shadows. And the Albanos are one of the species that know about his existence. I don’t know of the exact reason, but they have a deep grudge towards the successor. It has reached the point where if they meet an entity that is suspected to be the successor, they will ground them up alive without mercy.”
My head ached.
What the hell did my reincarnated entities had been going around doing?!
*
After a few days of conversation with Adam, he went back to his hometown. He said he also had something to prepare there.
He decided to let me know when the audit team would come by different means.
In the meantime, the only thing I could do was to prepare to proceed to the main quest by Clearing the screening quest one after the other.
– Quest Name: Verification of Qualification (2)
– Description: To climb the Tower of Choice, you must prove your qualification as a worthy Awakened. Among the dungeons opened in your world, attack one dungeon in which a dragon appears as a boss.
– Rewards: From 2.5 million experience points based on contribution rate.
– This quest can also be shared with non-chosen.
“Is it a dragon-slaying quest again?”
Nate, who checked the message, spoke while nodding.
“Back then, I took it down alone, but now that the battle force of the two of you has increased a lot, it will be much easier.”
The target dungeon was an SS-Class.
In order to achieve the quest, we couldn’t choose the level of a dragon that was sleeping at the back of the mountain like the prophecy-type dungeon before. Since the system recognized the dragon as the ‘boss monster,’ it naturally went up to an SS-Class.
And the one I chose was a place was the dungeon with the relatively weakest dragon, and that satisfied all the conditions.
‘If I had to categorize it, it’s close to a dragon that had developed a step further from being a hatchling.’
That dungeon was in China.
Since I had notified them in advance, the Chinese government wouldn’t even dare to get near it, and we only had to relaxedly proceed with the Clear in the dungeon that had been emptied beforehand.
Wooong!
I made a Gate with the Door of Hope.
It created a shortcut that proceeded directly to inside the dimension of our choosing.
“Alright, let’s go.”
*
As soon as we stepped into the dungeon, a crowd rushed in to welcome us.
Those were the subordinates that the dragon sent instead of revealing itself.
“Squeal!”
Boo-boo-boo-boo-boom!
In between the magic flying high in the sky and sword energy fragments, a crowd of Gargoyles was horribly dismantled.
It was assumed that if their numbers decreased to a certain level, the boss monster would appear next.
‘There was no record of how the Chinese government fought the dragon in my previous life. After the attack, the picture of the dragon’s corpse spread, so all that was known was that it was a very young dragon.’
Boosh!
I looked at the undead dragon that set the gargoyles in flames with its fire, standing its ground.
The boss monster was most likely a younger dragon than the black dragon that became the subordinates’ framework.
As if she noticed my glance, Hibiki, who continued to conjure and fire spells, spoke.
“Then, is today the day that Nate gets another dragon for himself?”
“If we take care of it neatly, that would be the case.”
Nate’s eyes shone as if he wanted to tell us that it was a piece of welcoming news.
At that moment…
K-aaargh!
It felt like the time had finally arrived.
From the lair in the middle of the mountain, a giant body slowly revealed itself.
“It’s out!”
“It’s a dragon. That’s the boss monster!”
Everybody wrapped up their chit-chat and prepared to pour out even more potent attacks.
A magic circle floated in front of Hibiki, who was preparing numerous SSS-Rank magic simultaneously.
Nate made the undead dragon prepare its Breath.
As for me, I took a stance to test the performance of the [Sephirot Guardian Bow] that I newly acquired.
Gooong!
It slowly walked out from its cave, and it floated as if to mock the resistance of gravity.
The scales of the dragon that flew above the mountain were dyed in scarlet hues.
The reptilian beast fixed itself in the air, then slowly turned its head to look at the undead dragon. Its own species had been zombified.
“…”
It kept its silence for a while as it then turned its attention, and it looked at the magic circle made by Hibiki, and me, who was aiming the bow at it.
“…”
Nate whispered.
“Should we strike him first?”
“… Let’s go!”
In the chilling tension, as if to confront in the middle of a snowstorm, we were completely ready to pour out attacks beyond the gargoyle crowd, but-
– …!
The desperate mental wave sent out by the dragon shook everyone’s mind.
– … Wait, stop! Surrender! I surrender! I’ll yield, so please lower down that bow. Get rid of the scary magic circle, and please stop the horrible insult of the dead. I’ll surrender. I’ll absolutely surrender!
Comments