Episode 133.
It was as if the world was falling apart. Anyone couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of the sun wrapped in a black spark falling to the ground and causing a huge explosion.
[The curse in the black lightning causes a chain reaction of bolts of lightning and spreads.]
A kind message came up in front of Jung Si-woo’s eyes that allowed him to learn the mechanism of the black lightning. Indeed, was that why the teddy bear that was hit by a hammer collapsed in no time and was unable to move?
“H-he’s…”
“I saw until the part that terrible power was exploding. Is that truly the Mana we know…?”
The resisters watching it only wanted to deny reality. They couldn’t believe he had just knocked down a disastrous monster that was supposed to be impossible to be dealt with one on one! That even with a terrible combination of physical strength and magic power!
“If one wants to place strong magic power in exercising close-range skills, one needs a strong physical force foundation. To use the physical force that matches the magic reaction that he just showed, how the hell…?”
“It’s not time to analyze it, the surviving particulates!”
Jung Si-woo’s attack was truly devastating, but he couldn’t beat the countless particulates with the black lightning. Recognizing the toddling teddy bears particulates here and there, the resisters somehow came to their senses and rushed to deal with them. It was after the main body had collapsed, so it wasn’t that difficult to break down each of them.
[Level increased by 1.]
“Alright.”
At that time, Jung Si-woo easily managed to raise his level by one by absorbing all of the records and Mana of countless teddy bears’ aggregate. In this manner, it was no hyperbole to declare it as the Devil Lord’s punishment’s debut stage. Indeed, a colossal hammer must be swung at a colossal monster.
“I did want to make a series of attacks with gigantification.”
“However, this whole place would be torn apart.”
“It might be possible if the teddy bear gets a little bigger.”
“Heek.”
Soo Ah-rin decided to stop imagining it. It was most frightening that such a thing seemed possible.
“Eut-cha.”
He disabled the weapon’s Gigantification, stored it in his inventory, and then drove down the Phantom Bike. Yong Se-ha, who was on standby, approached him. He had a very large Mana stone in his hand, specifically one a little smaller than the Mana stone of the baby Luinos Lizard.
“It seems that the bond with the body occurs simultaneously as the bond with Mana, hyung-nim. These are from its heart.”
“Hmm.”
He took a look at it. Yong Se-ha’s point was indeed reasonable. Small teddy bears gather their Mana into a single point for synthesis and create a body mutation around the Mana to complete the giant teddy bear construction. They may be re-divided into particulates by external attacks, but they were still only but empty shells. It only had a little Mana, and even if the corpse was checked, it was empty. On the outside, it was so cute, but its secret was so creepy.
“Germany must be in chaos, too.”
“Marina Bissett is a sharp person. I’m sure she realized the monster’s secret quickly and handled it well.”
“Yes, but she’s careless in the fundamental parts…”
When he looked closely at the Mana Stone, a message popped up, indicating a Mana Stone of Red Tibade. He just thought it looked like a teddy bear, but its fur was surely red when he thought about it.
“E-excuse me…”
When Jung Si-woo talked with his party, some people hesitantly came up behind him. When Jung Si-woo turned around, the man who represented them bowed his head with his skin-wings folded neatly.
“T-thank you for saving us. We’re survivors from the Southern sphere…”
“I’m from another world, so I don’t know the standard of your world.”
“…As expected, I see.”
He didn’t expect him to accept it without any resistance. When Jung Si-woo blinked, he continued with a bitter smile.
“If there were a strong man like you in our world, they would have raised a country around you. Now that the breeding center has collapsed, a new strong man can’t emerge…everybody’s just barely holding on.”
“A breeding center…”
Jung Si-woo once again looked at their wings. If there is one thing he learned, the Sky Castle wasn’t a unique system to the earth. Perhaps Sky Castle was the breeding center for them…but wait a minute.
“It had collapsed? Was it something that could collapse?”
“It’s natural to collapse since the power of the world is exhausted…no, wait, so your world’s breeding center is still intact? When you are so strong!? But how does our language even work?”
Jung Si-woo decided that he should get additional information about this world from him. He thought for a moment, got on the Phantom Bike, and nodded to them.
“Let’s first go to a place where these teddy bears aren’t around. I’ll need you to hang around with me for a while.”
“I’ll guide the way.”
They guided Jung Si-woo in a state that they had given up on such a thing as vigilance. It was because they knew that a man with Jung Si-woo’s power didn’t have to have a conversation if he was hostile to them. Their “hideout” was quite vast, contrary to Jung’s earlier expectations. The place, protected by a huge barrier, had something like a hindered awareness magic cast so that the average monsters could never find it.
“But it’s still sloppy.”
“It’s been broken over and over again.”
A bitter look lingered on the man’s face as he guided him. Meanwhile, Jung Si-woo began to feel the alienness of the world in earnest.
“Now, if a colossal monster invades here and I become praised as a hero by beating it, it would be enough for an introduction of an alien world novel…”
“What did the natives that suffer in every novel do to deserve such?”
There were several patterns in the story of humans living in small areas due to external dangers, and they were among the least fortunate. While dangerous monsters were infesting outside, and they had to endure within the barrier, they didn’t have the power to produce enough food to live on from inside, so they had to go outside to salvage regularly. Jung Si-woo shrugged as he looked around at the thousands of people inside the hideout.
“I’m sorry to say this, but you all are hopeless.”
“Yes, we are.”
Jung Si-woo said it bluntly, and the guy agreed with him. The wings on his back flapped anxiously.
“We’ve been holding on for years, but we feel the limit. Complaints are building up inside and outside. Worst of all, blocking the outside doesn’t stop all the attacks from the god.”
A god. After the walkthrough of an alien world, the topic finally came out.
“From the very beginning…may I listen about it as you long remember from the beginning?”
“What can’t I do for the one who saved our lives?”
The resisters first rejoiced that they each had lived another day today and dispersed to their respective places. As Jung Si-woo checked by heightening his senses, there seemed to be a few more resistors in the hideout besides those who fought the teddy bear today. In total, there were about 15 people who were below level 200. It was hopeless enough.
“When we were writing fantasy novels, people here were writing survival novels.”
“This isn’t how the Earth is going to turn out, is it, Oppa?”
“The Earth has me. How could it be like this?”
“Oh, I can’t believe you’re a pain in the ass even in this situation.”
The party, who were guided to a small house, listened to the man’s explanation, leaving the tea served in place for courtesy, which seemed to have been brewed from wastewater. When the man was born, there was already a breeding center in the Potupou world, and he was a resister with wings from birth.
“It was manageable until then. The Pentagon, a group of high-level resisters, managed to defend civilization against the god’s forces by all means. But by the time I reached level 150, one of them had fallen to the god of the legion, and things had started become worse.”
The reason why a god’s power was scary was that it had similar characteristics to religion. Blind faith and the power provided accordingly gave vantage to human beings over others. Above all, the gods wanted to conquer as a token of faith from their believers.
“To repel the forces of other gods, and to paint this world with its own name…our world hasn’t been destroyed yet, only because the winner of this world hasn’t been decided. The war between the gods still continues. The god of Legion and the god of Fire are the main ones, and apart from that…I think the god of baptism is holding on.”
“What about the collapse of the breeding center?”
“At a time when a god has eaten more than half of the world’s shares, the original will of the world are said to lose its power and collapse. It was only five years ago. The fall of the breeding center selects new resisters and fosters them…and then the god’s power began to expand even more. We couldn’t grow anymore, but they could.”
At this point, he couldn’t tell if he could accept Sky Castle as a true ally of the Earth. However, there was still one important question for Jung Si-woo.
“The Incubator was in the sky, wasn’t it?”
“Of course, it is.”
“Then was there nothing on the ground or underground?”
“What…?”
Instead of answering, Jung Si-woo showed his tail wagging. Only then did the man realize the meaning of his words.
“No…there was no such thing. Sometimes it occurs that people from another world flow into our world, but they don’t say such things as well…but if you’re saying so, you are…?”
“It’s a secret.”
Jung Si-woo grinned as he replied to him. Of course, the man wasn’t in the mood to laugh.
“One more question. Then is there such a thing as temples of gods in this world?”
“Perhaps one or two are being created where their power is flourishing. They’re fighting a fierce war to prevent the expansion of each other’s influence, so they wouldn’t be so active…”
“Yes, I see. Thank you.”
Jung Si-woo tapped him on the shoulder and stood up from his seat. The man looked at him with a look of doubt, but he was used to such a gaze like that.
“Oh…I’m sorry to keep asking, but for real this time, one last thing.”
“W-what is it?”
“Do you know the level of the man who joined with the god of the legion?”
“If it’s the last recorded level on the tombstone in the breeding center, I’m aware, but…”
“Okay, I want that.”
The man mentioned the traitor’s level in his mouth as if he were afraid even to spit it out.
Thirty seconds later, there was an eerie smile near Jung Si-woo’s mouth, who left the tent and abandoned the alien world’s survivors without regret as he climbed onto the Phantom Bike.
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