CH 280

As Yongno’s artificial spiritual pathways hit the market, various broadcast media stations passionately reported on the miraculous performance and usefulness of the artificial spiritual pathways.

[Successful production of a complete cure for AIDS with the power of magic at the Cadein Research Lab!]

[Paul Simpson, a 370 kg obese man, lost 180 kg through exercise in one week after equipping a life force artificial spiritual pathway!]

[There is no medical emergency we can’t handle. Book your visit to Massachusetts General Hospital’s Divine Power Treatment Team!]

[Stage 6 chakra user, Aidelin, utilizes Giant Gate (Third Gate) on minerals to develop a miracle alloy called Aidelium!]

If there had been no information about supernatural powers on Earth, there would have been widespread confusion and doubt about the validity of the claims people with special abilities were making, as well as the concept of supernatural powers. However, since DIO started its service a year ago, users had already spent nearly six years of DIO time, excluding any extended time that they might have spent in the training room, familiarizing themselves with superpower abilities. Most DIO users would have daydreamed at some point, ‘What would I be able to do if I had such superpowers in real life?’ That daydream was now a reality.

In addition, there was a condition that [only experienced users with a certain spiritual power level or higher of each type of artificial spiritual pathway were qualified to equip them]. In other words, unless a user [experienced and achieved] a certain level within a spiritual power area in DIO like life force or magic power, they wouldn’t be able to equip an artificial spiritual pathway.

In some cases, a user would have to reset their character stats and redevelop their character up to a certain level in a specific spiritual power area, or they would have had to have achieved a certain spiritual power level sometime in the past.

If the abilities users wanted to utilize in real life were different from those they used in DIO, it would have caused a massive headache for many of them. Nevertheless, the artificial spiritual pathway conditions were ultimately low enough that most [ordinary people] could fully achieve them in a short period of time.

In fact, Level 2 in DIO could be obtained just from clearing the basic quests, and Level 3 was a relatively low barrier to overcome if one put in a bit of effort. It was now an era where anyone with a few million won could become a person with special abilities in real life.

Furthermore, unlike Masters, who had great power but could only act as tactical weapons due to the manifestation time limit restraints, these normal people could continually exert their abilities and immediately produce substantial [results].

Of course, those who equipped themselves with an artificial spiritual pathway could only use abilities at or below Level 3, but Earth was already a late Second Stage mechanical civilization. When these additional special abilities, which hadn’t existed until now, were added to the accumulated scientific mix, magic sciences and spiritual sciences started to bloom.

That wasn’t all.

[Merlin Corporation’s Annihilation Power Plant is now online and operational!]

[Astonishing power generation of 91,927 MW (megawatts) since the start of operation! The entire energy needs of Korea and more have been met from just one Annihilation Power Plant!]

[Merlin states, ‘If need be, it can produce ten times as much energy as it is producing now.’]

[A new energy revolution era has opened!]

Yongno razed Cheonan City, which had been destroyed by the Legion and Grotesque forces’ attacks, into a wide plain and placed a huge magic circle in that space.

Of course, an Annihilation Power Plant or an anti-gravity energy creation system weren’t things that the Earth in its current state and civilization level could understand even if the technology was presented and given to the earthlings, let alone create.

As a cosmic genius, Yongno could utilize his connections to contact the Celesti’s representative, Manbo, or Myung from the Netherworld to obtain blueprints for the Annihilation Power Plant or anti-gravity energy system. However…

‘No. That wouldn’t help.’

That’s right. Even if Yongno got ahold of such blueprints and fully understood them, it was still impossible to build an Annihilation Power Plant or an anti-gravity energy system on Earth.

How could Yongno recreate a pinnacle Third Stage mechanical civilization technology on Earth, which was only at the Second Stage of mechanical civilization?

It didn’t matter how much of a genius Yongno was. There was no technical infrastructure to support such advanced technology, and theoretically understanding how the tech worked wouldn’t lead to any practical results.

However, individual superpower abilities were different from the limitations of a civilization level.

In the Middle Ages or, at the extreme, even in a low and primitive age like the Stone Age, a single great genius or wise person could be born. They could realize the principles of the universe and step into the transcendent realm.

Rather than civilization level, a person’s superpower abilities could allow them to easily transcend the limitations of an entire world and the limitations of a planet’s civilization level.

Of course, such a thing was rare, even from a [cosmic point of view]. Nevertheless, such cases did exist, and Yongno was undoubtedly a genius on a cosmic scale.

Ultimate spell, Mass Annihilation.

Ultimate spell, Energy Control.

There were many transcendent realm NPCs in DIO—more than what one could count on both hands. It wasn’t too difficult for Merlin to access these transcendent realm beings’ ultimate magic spells.

Of course, since Yongno had yet to set foot in the transcendent realm, he couldn’t cast ultimate magic spells. Nevertheless, after choosing the necessary ultimate magic spells among the dozen or so available ultimate magic spells, Yongno was able to study the functional mechanisms of the ultimate magic spells, fully understand the foundational principles and systems they operated under, and reinterpret them. This was exactly what Yongno did for two ultimate magic spells.

He was able to bring the ultimate magic spells down to a usable level by boldly discarding unnecessary parts, completely [deconstructing], and reconstructing the entire spell.

Of course, activating such a spell would place a considerable mental burden on Yongno, about hundreds of thousands of times greater than that of any normal spell. In addition, more than ten conditions were required before Yongno could even cast these reconfigured ultimate magic spells. However, the important takeaway was ultimately that Yongno was now capable of using such ultimate magic spells.

‘I can’t do it alone. But with the help of 10,000 mages, each executing different parts of the ultimate magic spell, my hypothesis that ultimate magic could be recreated on Earth has been proven correct. Moreover, the level of safety is quite high for a system that produces this much energy.’

If Yongno were to have decided on deploying an anti-gravity energy system instead of an Annihilation Power Plant, catastrophic destruction would occur if anyone carried out a terrorist activity or acted with malicious intent against the system. In the worst-case scenario, an uncontrollable black hole might form, which would cause widespread destruction.

Even modern nuclear power plants in use today would present truly astronomical damages and destruction if they were attacked or mismanaged. Above all, when it came to energy production, environmental pollution was always a concern.

However, the ultimate spell, Mass Annihilation, was a completely different concept from anti-gravity energy production, which utilized the power of black holes or nuclear power.

If an artificially created black hole, which was placed under tremendous pressure in an anti-gravity energy system, went out of control, it would be difficult for even a transcendent to regain control over the system. Yet, a magic phenomenon maintained by magic power would naturally disappear when the mana that maintained the magic phenomenon was fully consumed or dispersed.

Moreover, if a set limit were placed on the size or mass of the object that was annihilated, the Annihilation Power Plant would become a safe eco-friendly energy production system with no possibility for large-scale accidents or radiation.

The Annihilation Power Plant designed and created by Yongno continuously produced energy by performing material destruction in units of 0.01g. Additionally, thousands of mages were always managing the magic circle, so it was possible to sufficiently control the generated energy, even if the system went out of control.

According to Einstein’s formula, E = mc^2, the amount of heat that could be released from 1 kg of matter when mass was converted into energy was equivalent to 21 Mt (megaton) of TNT, which was close to that of a nuclear explosion. So, the magic circle and the 10,000 mages who maintained the magic circle could continually operate the system and maintain output as long as they didn’t exceed certain mass limits. In this fashion, it was possible to generate an infinite amount of energy by destroying useless resources without consuming any other goods.

Click.

A door opened, and Youngmin entered the room.

“Bro, the people over at Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) want to meet with you.”

“Tell them to get lost.”

“Indeed. You’re not a person who has time to meet with such lowly KEPCO people. I’ll send the lawyers. Oh, also, you’ve received a few complaints and some lawsuits.”

“Lawsuits?”

“… I’ll send the lawyers to take care of those as well. Dang, we should really make a dedicated legal team or something to take care of all this stuff.”

“Already on it. They’ll be introducing themselves and greeting you soon.”

“Oh, yeah? Dang, bro. You’re so quick.”

Although Yongno and the Great Mage Merlin had gained worldwide fame and influence, there were always bloodsucking mosquito-like people and organizations circling around him.

Great changes were taking place in Korea and around the world thanks to Yongno. The income he brought in was an astronomical amount, so one could imagine how many people and organizations were eagerly trying to take a slice of that income.

Of course… there were those who were economically hurt by Yongno’s [patch].

This was mainly the case for those with vested interests in the status quo and those who had existing wealth or power. These people could not keep up with the changes and thus could no longer benefit from or exploit the economic system.

Those who tried to somehow get their hands on Yongno’s profits, those who wanted to reduce their risk, and those who sought compensation for their losses constantly tried to contact Yongno.

If Yongno were an overnight sensation who didn’t know any better about cutthroat business tactics, he might have felt overwhelmed by these people’s persistent pursuits.

“If there’s anyone who’s doing something stupid, you can use my personal connections, financial power, or whatever you deem necessary to deal with them. You can even use force if you like. I’ll take care of the backlash.”

“Hahaha, don’t say such scary things, bro.”

Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Most people would pick Arthur, the Knight of Light, if they were asked to pick the most famous person in the world right now. Arthur’s fame and power stemmed solely from his strength, the ‘good’ image he built up to this point, and the general populace’s respect and worship due to his mythical achievements. However, the Great Mage Merlin's fame, power, and influence mainly came from Merlin’s hacking of the DIO system and his acquisition of DIO’s operating rights. In other words, Merlin was known more for obtaining something of power, rather than being powerful.

In addition, as [Magic Civilization] bloomed on Earth, where only [Machine Civilization] and Yongno’s materialization of qi through Qi Heaven had existed in the past… Merlin’s influence grew stronger.

As a result, the world changed.

Naturally, the Korean government as well as many countries, including the United States, tried their best to recruit him. Nevertheless, Yongno, who was not patriotic and had no intention of belonging to any specific party, vehemently ignored all their efforts.