CH 216

[Anyway, I don’t understand. How on earth can that guy be so strong?]

“I don’t know what to say… he developed his abilities…”

[Do you think that really makes sense?]

The man on the other side of the line, Park Hye-Myung, the current Director of the National Intelligence Service, spoke in a condescending tone of voice.

[Why the hell is everyone so stupid? Do you believe he’s powerful just because he was born with such great potential and abilities? Are you telling me that a high school graduate with no work experience is superior to famous scholars and athletes all around the world?]

“Well…”

[Heaven above the Heavens… that’s all nonsense. It’s impossible to be so powerful without having done something shady. Maybe he’s an undercover traitor who works for the alien’s side.]

The NIS Director continued harping his convoluted argument and stoked his own anger in the process. For some time now, he had been trying to subdue Yongno, but everything he tried had failed.

‘I don’t think it’s anything like that at all, sir, but…’

Seung-Cheol didn’t agree with the Director’s assessment, but he couldn’t refute it either. This was because the Heaven above the Heaven members were truly head and shoulders above any of the other users playing DIO.

Of course, as a Master himself, Seung-Cheol understood the subtlety and nuance of the development of abilities and skills, but he wasn’t confident enough in convincing or explaining this to someone who didn’t play DIO.

“Then what shall we do? Shall I investigate further?”

[No, let it be. After all, we’re using him for another purpose. Besides, it’s also true that he’s helping us block the enemy’s attacks, so he’s still useful to us. Forget what I said and continue to collect data.]

“Yes, sir.”

The call was disconnected as soon as Seung-Cheol answered. Seung-Cheol scanned the battlefield.

Boom!

A large explosion sounded out as a chariot-shaped mech robot soldier was destroyed. In just 10 minutes, all enemy forces were destroyed, and the situation was finally settled.

If it had been any other Master other than Merlin, rather than organizing the situation before the end of Merlin’s manifestation time limit, the enemy’s attacks would have probably continued beyond another Master’s manifestation period, pushing the Korean forces backward and causing more destruction and casualties.

“Mr. Yongno is such a great talent. He might lead Korea a step forward, but…”

Seung-Cheol bit his lip. He respected Yongno as a mage, but even so, he could not go against his superior’s orders. Even though Seung-Cheol was a Master, he was not the type of person who went against orders and established rules.

“I hope Korea never has a conflict with him.”

Whispering softly, Seung-Cheol turned around. Merlin, who finished the battle several kilometers away from where Seung-Cheol was, landed on the ground.

“… Well, that’s up to you all, not me.”

Merlin grumbled in a low voice, and after that, his figure disappeared from the battlefield.

*** Contact, and Preparation ***

/[On July 28, the Master, Kim Seyoung, visited Tokyo for a joint training exercise. The Japanese government held an event to welcome Kim Seyoung, and Prime Minister Noda expressed his gratitude to the Korean government…]/

On TV, Seyoung was seen shaking hands with the Japanese prime minister. Seyoung’s in-game ID was Arthur Pendragon. He was a great swordsman that was widely recognized as the strongest member of the Heaven above the Heavens.

“We’re having a tough time as it is… is it really okay to send someone like Arthur overseas right now?”

“This current administration is a bit friendly with Japan. Maybe they’re using Arthur to lobby for something?”

A man and woman conversed with each other as they watched TV and sipped on coffee. Arthur was already a worldwide celebrity and the strongest amongst the Master. He had made his name widely known beyond Korea. Thus, Arthur received more attention and fanfare than any world superstar.

“It’s not ideal to rely on someone like Merlin, who’s always doing whatever he wants, but it’s also not good to be swept away by the state like Arthur… Why does Arthur, who is the pride of Korea, have to participate in Japan’s military training in the first place?”

“Is that something to be angry about? I think it’s okay because it helps promote Korea’s world status.”

“Well, if you look at it that way, that may be true… but Arthur isn’t a normal celebrity. He’s a key factor of our national security. Thanks to the blockers and detectors provided by DIO, there’s no longer any fear of aliens popping out of nowhere within the Korean peninsula, but still, I’d much rather have too many defensive pieces than less.”

In truth, currently, Korea was relatively safer from alien attacks than most other countries.

Since the entire country (including Jeju Island), except for parts of North Hamgyong Province, was within the 500-kilometer radius range of the broad-spectrum blocker that blocked foreign entity’s penetration of space, the nation was able to escape from the situation where aliens appeared out of nowhere, as they did just a month ago.

However, that was possible because Korea was a [small] country; countries with large territories, including China, were suffering tremendous damage and casualties.

From the start, blockers and detectors weren’t available for purchase. This was because Noblesse only provided this gear as a form of rental, but the problem was that the rental fee was a whopping 100 million gold per month, or 5 trillion won in Korean currency.

Countries that possessed a high economic power relative to their territory size, such as Korea and Japan, were able to make the most of the blockers and detectors, but countries that couldn’t cover their entire territory with a 500-kilometer radius blocker suffered enormous damage. Even at this moment, when Yongno was sipping on some coffee, many people were dying.

In the case of the United States, the situation was solved by installing several blockers, but in the case of China and India, blockers were only installed in a few large cities, where the rich and affluent lived. Although this caused global criticism against those countries, widespread domestic upheaval, and civil unrest, nothing could really be done about it.

“Change is rapidly happening because so many people are dying. If it wasn’t for Legion and Grotesque, things wouldn’t have unfolded this way. If things had unfolded in another direction, we could have seen Masters being subjected to human experiments.”

The alien invasion was the most shocking world event since the beginning of human history. Reality seemed more like something one would see in movies or read about in science fiction novels.

Many people witnessed injury, death, and destruction because of the Legion and Grotesque’s terrorist attacks, which were carried out on densely populated areas. The threat of aliens was tangible for the wider public, so many actions were quickly being taken to resolve the situation.

Masters were being supported on a national scale, and they were being treated like royalty. Moreover, all coastal cities were being converted into fortresses to prevent alien attacks.

In the past, such construction and evacuation of people would have been unimaginable due to the opposition of residents and human rights activists, but since these actions were being taken immediately after suffering astronomical damage from alien attacks, the forced construction and exodus of people were being carried out without any major problems.

The social and governmental systems changed to ones more associated with wartime, and taxes rose significantly.

However, what was interesting was that the general atmosphere and sentiment amongst people was not so hopeless.

‘Humans are adaptable creatures, no?’

Of course, many of those who were directly harmed enlisted in the military after feeling despair, frustration, or anger towards their lot. Media broadcasts also informed the current situation of damage or combat every day, but that didn’t seem to paralyze the world economy. There didn’t seem to be a sense that the world would perish anytime soon.

If alien invasions only happened in one country, the situation might have been a little different, but alien invasions were occurring across the entire world; it was something that everyone was facing in common.

Plop.

At that time, a plain-looking young girl with brown hair pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Yongno, who had been lost in his thoughts. It was the first time he saw her real face, but Yongno instantly knew that he was looking at Cruze, one of the Heaven above the Heavens.

“You managed to get out. The surveillance around the battlefield zone was tight,” Cruze remarked.

“As long as I have a spiritual pathway, surveillance is useless,” Yongno responded.

“Well, if you use your specialty, teleportation, it wouldn’t matter even if they put you in prison… ah, thank you.”

Cruze expressed her thanks as she accepted a cup of coffee from Yongno. Seeing her act in such a sociable way, Yongno laughed.

“Oho. Wow, Lea. Your social skills have improved a lot lately, haven’t they?”

“Stop speaking nonsense.”

“Is it because of Dongsoo (Lancelot)?”

“… Have you gotten bored of living?”

Yongno laughed at Cruze’s, or Lea’s, snappy reaction. Though she was outwardly angry, Yongno could tell that she felt inwardly embarrassed.

“Well, anyway… how did you find out about my spiritual pathways?”

Cruze had suddenly come to see Yongno, whom she could not meet in a normal way or through other channels, and she sent him a message.

“I want you to create spiritual pathways in my body as well.”

“There’s a way to access DIO without being detected or notifying the Noblesse.”

Though Yongno and Lea had become quite close, that was only between Merlin and Cruze, in other words, only in-game. They had never met in reality. Naturally, there was no occasion where Yongno or Merlin ever mentioned his spiritual pathways, so the fact that Lea knew was strange.

“I can explain and fill in the gaps.”

“…”

A normal person would have been quite surprised by this situation. It would be strange if one wasn’t surprised by someone suddenly appearing and sitting down without anyone noticing; it was as if [the whole process of entering the room and sitting in the chair was skipped].

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

However, Yongno turned his head to the speaker without an ounce of surprise. This was because he assumed that Lea could not have known about his spiritual pathways unless there was some kind of [transcendent] interference to begin with.

“Huh?”

However, once Yongno saw who it was, he expressed surprise. He had seen the speaker’s face before.

“What?”

“You… aren’t you Manbo?”

“You have a good memory. I guess that’s to be expected of an Irregular, a one in a quintillion.”

Unexpectedly, Yongno saw a user that Merlin had met in DIO; someone Merlin had come across before Merlin was known as a Heaven above the Heavens member. The first time he saw Manbo was when he met Aidelin, the merchant who sold weapons in Starting. At that time, Manbo was lying on the side of a bustling road underneath a tree doing nothing.

Aidelin had mentioned that Manbo had been lying around for almost a month without doing anything. Merlin hadn’t thought much of Manbo until he saw him a second time. Unexpectedly, Manbo was laying down on a rocky island south of the Noise Belt, an area where normal users shouldn’t have been able to access at the time.

At that time, Yongno, who had no interest in other users, felt that the situation was weird, but he just chalked it up to something being off. However, if Yongno had thought about it a bit longer, he would have understood that Manbo was a strange user.