CH 219

*** Emperor of Martial Arts, Regrants De Pecerion ***

As Legion and Grotesque’s forces began to attack Earth, and after Noblesse revealed its true identity, the importance of the Star Temple, where users applied for and received their missions, grew to the point where even the presidents of each country were interested in what was happening at the temple.

Any DIO user could enter the Star Temple. Basic missions were provided on the garden grounds and the 1st floor, where a system organized individual users into parties, but one needed the qualification of being a Master to go up to the 2nd floor. It didn’t matter in which spiritual power area one became a Master in, so long as one reached Level 10, one could go up to the 2nd floor.

And, to go up to the 3rd floor, commonly called Deep Place, one had to be a higher level than a basic Level 10 Master. The Deep Place was usually a relatively quiet space, as only a few users could enter, but today, a rare scene was unfolding. There were more than a hundred people seated in the area.

“Oh, how interesting. To see so many prominent figures gathered in one place…”

“Look over there. There’s Arthur and Cruze… even Merlin is here. No one has seen him in DIO for a while now. I wonder what kind of special mission they have in store for us.”

“It seems like… a combat type mission? Since Aidelin, who is Level 13, wasn’t asked to come, it seems like it’ll be a combat mission.”

Hanma, Adol, and Jeros whispered amongst each other. Having played together since the closed beta period, they were able to complement each other with their specialized fighting styles, so they were always together as a fixed party. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that they were almost like brothers.

“Oh, look over there. It’s the user whose rumors have been circulating throughout DIO like wildfire recently, Aung Nina. It seems like she has her hands full dealing with the Chinese government these days.”

Jeros shook his head after hearing Adol’s comment.

“Shh!”

“Huh? Why? Didn’t you say that she…”

Startled, Jeros hurriedly covered Adol’s mouth.

“Quiet, idiot. I’m not the only Chinese user here. I already stated publicly that I don’t like the Communist Party, but due to that, I now feel like my life is in danger.”

Of course, as there were more than 100 users gathered, there were quite a few Chinese users among the gathered Masters. In terms of population ratio, China had a lower Master-to-user ratio than other countries, including Korea, but the actual number of Masters was large, as China’s massive population wasn’t something that could be ignored.

Although Aung Nina’s words and actions had dented the Communist Party’s public image, among the Masters in China, there were many who still had pride and patriotism for their country.

In addition, in recent times, China had become increasingly exclusive and nationalistic. This was due to the appearance of Masters who were against China’s communist government, the recent alien attacks, and the mass exodus of Chinese Masters to the United States or European countries. Amongst the Chinese population, more and more individuals with their own ideas of the world were increasing. These were the reasons why China’s government decided to take a strong line, nation-centered approach.

“Even the act of conversing with foreigners will bring out shouts of ‘That traitor!’ from many Chinese users… I would think that once one became a Master, one would possess a somewhat mature mind and wouldn’t be ignorant, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case…”

Though Hanma exasperatingly scoffed after hearing Jeros’ comments, the truth was that there was no guarantee that one’s thoughts would develop in a certain direction even if one’s level of knowledge or mental development increased; in fact, right at that moment, one of the Chinese users was stepping forward towards the three with a cool expression on his face.

Hanma and Adol had whispered in a low voice so as not to start a fight, but the sight of Jeros, who could be said to be China’s top Master, conversing with Hanma and Adol seemed to pinch a nerve.

“What are you guys talking about, dirty foreigners? Also, Jeros, they say that the ID you use is part of their culture… you’ve stooped so low as to play with a dirty Japanese and Korean user. Traitor.”

Adol’s eyebrows furrowed after hearing the sarcastic remark.

“I don’t know exactly what you mean, but it sounds like an insult towards me as well… are you serious? In this global age, is one a traitor for being friendly with foreigners? Besides, what did we do wrong for you to call us dirty?”

“Hahaha! Don’t you feel any shame in asking what you did wrong! Indeed, the Japanese are a people who do not have or know remorse! Recently, your government denied that the Nanjing Massacre ever happened!”

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At his words, the other Japanese Masters, who were sitting nearby, became furious. Of course, there were many Japanese Masters at the Deep Place.

“Ah, stop blaming the entire nation for a minority’s opinion! Also, I’m sick and tired of people asking us to take responsibility for what others did in the past!” one of the Japanese Masters shouted.

“W-what? That S.O.B. governor of Tokyo wins the election every time he makes such absurd remarks. What do you mean he represents a minority opinion? All the unscrupulous people who voted for him support his idea, so it’s not wrong to state that his views are rather close to those of the whole of Japan!”

“What? Unscrupulous?”

Seeing the groups of Masters growling and posturing, Bruce quietly spoke to Hanma.

“I always feel that… you Asians get along well with whites, blacks, and other races, but when it comes to other Asian people, you guys really don’t get along very well.”

“It might be thanks to the politicians who love nationalistic and conservative values. Even now, during election season, the anti-Japanese sentiment and voice is only getting louder. In Japan, whenever election season approaches, anti-Korean sentiments and slogans are always on the rise.”

Hanma smiled as he looked at the growling group of Masters. Although open conflict did not occur between Korea and Japan, public sentiment between the two countries was never on the positive side due to the position of Korea, which demanded an apology for the wrongdoings done during the Japanese occupation, and Japan, which didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoings.

“The Korea side also conducted a massacre! Do you not know about the 8.20 Massacre?”

“Wow, you really don’t know history or have an ounce of shame, do you? You’re calling the 8.20 Liberation War Day a massacre? Don’t you know that far more Korean independence fighters died than occupation force soldiers?”

“Ah! Not independence fighter, you mean terrorists, right?”

“What? Terrorists?!”

At some point, even a few Korean Masters intervened in the verbal skirmish. Jeros and Adol, who had been the main figures of the argument in the beginning, had long since escaped the area.

“… What a shitshow. It’s not like this is a place for keyboard warriors to battle, like on the Internet… Why is the level of Masters like this?”

“Because there’s been a fierce war of nerves between countries due to the nationality issue of many ‘traveling’ Masters. According to information from various agencies, I heard that many Masters are undergoing nationalistic-type mental training and instruction.”

Merlin looked at the arguing Masters with a pitiful expression. It was because he did not feel nor understand the feeling that was commonly called patriotism.

Having been subjected to biological experiments by state institutions from an early age, Merlin hated collectivism, the idea of sacrificing a few for the sake of the whole, so he had no affection for any country, let alone Korea. And Arc, or Eunhye in reality, who had previously committed herself to a U.S. secret organization to seek revenge for Merlin, was also of the same opinion.

“Ah, so it’s different from that point.”

“Huh?”

Merlin, who had lost interest in the Masters’ quarrel and was busy carving magic circuits into a metal plate, lifted his head. The one who muttered quietly was Youngmin, who had followed Merlin’s advice and reached the level of Master within DIO.

“What do you mean?”

Arc, who covered her entire body in glossy black leather armor and who never once revealed her face in DIO, looked back at Youngmin with more interest than Merlin. Knowing he was a being from another dimension, she was curious about a lot of things about him, and she actually asked him a lot of questions.

“I was commenting on the difference between my world and your world. Strangely, there are many similarities, but for some reason, many other aspects differentiated… in your world, the Korean people succeeded in liberating themselves; in my world, they didn’t. I guess this is a parallel universe…”

Merlin shrugged after hearing Youngmin’s muttering comment.

“I guess we’re in a different parallel world with a set forking point… Come to think of it, you mentioned North Korea before. If so, there must be South Korea, and if they failed to liberate themselves, would it be that the United States and the Soviet Union freed the South Koreans? Based on the context, it seems North Korea is still ruled by the communist party in your world.”

“You figured all that out with the little I mentioned here and there…”

“I don’t know everything; it’s just some basic stuff I deduced with reasoning.”

After finishing the magic circuit work, Merlin put away the metal plate. Since Merlin always repeated the actions of conducting experiments and producing items without rest once he connected to DIO, Merlin was always busily doing something without rest. But before he could pull out the next crafting material, a message window popped up.

[Mission: Group Mission

Time Limit: None.

Objective: Raid.

Description: In the 91st Earth, the Emperor of Martial Arts resides at Hwayoung High School. You will be tasked with eliminating the Emperor of Martial Arts, a transcendent being who has reached the highest levels of martial arts.

Companion NPCs will be accompanying you.

Accompanying NPCS are: The transcendents Thousand Scents, Leighann, Lionel, and Adalcha.]

“What? Grand Masters will be our accompanying NPCs?”

“No, wait, aren’t those Grand Master NPCs the rulers of the 7 Holy Lands? Unique NPCs, who can’t be duplicated or recovered, are being used for a quest?”

“More than half of the Grand Masters of the 7 Holy Lands will be participating!”

“No, rather than that, who the hell are we facing to require four Grand Masters as party companions?”

The contents of the quest were very concise yet general, so the Masters who read the contents fell into a state of confusion. Even the Asian Masters, who had been fiercely slandering each other, stopped fighting and focused on the quest’s mission description.

Unlike transcendent-level monsters that required one side to die when met, such as Zygmunt the Seadragon and Igniz the Red Dragon, the Grand Masters of the 7 Holy Lands were beings that users were very familiar with. Because the 7 Holy Land Grand Masters were all strong and beautiful beings who each possessed their own unique charms, users opened and operated many of these Grand Masters’ fan clubs. On top of treating each Grand Master like a modern superstar, some of the Grand Masters had even gone as far as shooting commercials or sitting for magazine photoshoots.

Even though the Grand Masters were approachable, the Masters knew that they were transcendents who reached the pinnacle in their chosen ability fields, and that each one of them was strong enough to destroy the entire Earth without breaking a sweat. Ordinary people did not truly understand the monstrous powers of transcendents, but those who trained their abilities to the point of reaching the Master level had a much better understanding of a transcendent’s true power.