Chapter 132

“Ah! Now I can eat it! It is delicious!”

‘No, what is this…?’

The situation was simple. My charging power decreased and the Songpyeon materialized.

“This works…” It was something I expected but still amazed me. This phenomenon ignored both physics and psychic energy. However, if I thought about it carefully, my ability fundamentally defied all common sense of the world from the beginning.

‘Wait, though.’

Suddenly, I felt wronged.

‘It isn’t Hero or Rare grade… Just one plate of high-grade Songpyeon costs 260,000 won of charging power?’

While acknowledging that it wasn’t just ordinary food, even considering it as merely a high-grade consumption item, the cost was staggering. The thought of how much more expensive higher-tier items might be was frightening to imagine.

“Huh? What’s this? Teacher! My wounds are healing!”

“Do you see anything else?”

“See what?”

Apparently, she couldn’t see the system interface. Still, it was good that the item itself worked normally.

“Well, there is no problem.”

I summoned three more plates of Songpyeon.

“Everyone eat one plate each and take a break! For now, I will hold them off! Ah, also…”

I took the opportunity to summon a wild boar hind leg as well. Then I thought about it. It would be nice if others could eat this too.

(85,352,790 won)

Click.

(85,271,780 won)

‘Wow. This is expensive.’

Despite my involuntary gasp, considering it was a 15-kilogram wild boar hind leg, the price wasn’t unreasonable.

“Eat this while sleeping.”

“No, where did you get raw meat…?”

As Olia reluctantly accepted the meat, monsters broke through the ice wall.

I gave instructions to my party while watching this scene unfold, “Miss Leah, please help me alone! This battle might take some time, so everyone else should eat Songpyeon and rest!”

Zzang!

As I spoke, a Death Knight rushed at me but his sword was blocked. The others had many things they wanted to say, yet they entered the horse-drawn carriage without complaint, holding their Songpyeon. They were likely too exhausted for any arguments.

“I’ll amplify your magic from the front!”

“Thank you.”

Fortunately, Leah still had considerable stamina and magic power remaining. As the battle dragged on, she focused on supporting Sungjae with amplification spells instead of casting offensive magic.

After confirming her incantation, I launched Ice Slash straight ahead.

Kwah-chaeng!

The cold air and sword energy surged forward, amplified by her spell.

“Oh! It seems very effective?”

I didn’t know how strong Sungjae’s magic had become but my skill was different since I already knew its power well. The amplified strength could be accurately gauged!

However, Leah’s expression was dark. “The amplification rate is only 1.7 times. It is too complex of an energy…”

Unlike what I thought, it seemed she wasn’t compatible with him. At her words, I looked straight ahead and opened my mouth, “There is no need to forcibly amplify it. Please use your discretion for support.”

With those words, I stopped using the sword found from the treasure chest. Perhaps it was made as a filming prop, so it was unnecessarily flashy. However, it was a good weapon considering it had been enchanted for practical combat purposes.

“The sky will fall and the earth will crumble! All of you will die and suffer forever!”

“Ah, he is really noisy.”

Paaang!

Using Land Breaker’s function, I rooted my legs like a 10,000 year old tree and faced off against the screaming enemy.

“The Song…of Death…?!”

I grabbed the knight by the neck. There was quite thick armor around his neck, but it might as well have been paper compared to my transcendent strength capable of lifting buildings.

Crack! Crackling!

I tore through the armor and broke the bones inside. As the black bones shattered, the death energy attached to them dissipated into the air.

Poke poke poke!

The enemy didn’t just take the damage lying down. The scattered darkness transformed into thorns and pierced my entire body!

The knight’s body was durable enough to withstand bullets but couldn’t handle attacks based on death itself.

“Ugh!”

I raised my left arm to protect my heart and face. My entire body became covered in blood, but it didn’t matter.

“Log in.”

Entering Ardenia, I ate Songpyeon and took ample rest. After forming a contract with water people, opening chakras, and circulating inner energy, I returned at full strength.

“Log out.”

Then I swung my sword using Ice Slash and Land Breaker.

Zzzziiiing!

Another storm of cold air and sword energy tore through the enemies, freezing them solid. Some were instantly encased by the residual effects alone.

“Oh my…Jae-yeon-ssi? What is this?” Leah looked confused. It was a natural reaction since all her companions had fled, leaving only me behind. Instead of our defenses being breached, the enemies were getting swept away.

I decided to give a brief explanation, “Have you heard that I captured an eighth-class mage?”

“Ah, yes. Such a thing happened…”

“You can understand it as hidden authority. There is quite a backlash so I didn’t want to use it but…the situation forced me.”

“Wah! Like Demonbane-nim and RedCookie-nim!”

”…Who?” My question made Leah’s eyes widen.

“Eh? Ah, Demonbane is a singer-songwriter of celestial hybrid origin, and RedCookie is an actor from Jinjo Entertainment. Don’t you know them? They aren’t very active but are famous due to their origins.”

”…”.

I was momentarily lost for words at this unexpected revelation.

‘Wow, there are all types of stars in the entertainment industry.’

Feeling amazed, I raised my sword into a defensive stance.

Bang!

As I blocked the fist of a giant over five meters tall, I thought:

‘I have to do it properly.’

It wasn’t as if I had been fighting carelessly until now. With strength surpassing giants, I repelled attacks, unleashed sword energy to sever necks, and generously used chakra. When situations were unfavorable, I employed Shadow Twice along with well-placed fatal blows, among other skills. However…

Just because I didn’t fight roughly doesn’t mean I held back my full power.

‘I’m a bit hesitant due to being on camera but…’

There was a cat-shaped smart pet sitting atop the flower cart. Looking up at the sky, bird-shaped smart pets could be seen flying around various parts of the island. However…I had already killed the eighth-class mage Bram on camera before. Considering how easily an eighth-class mage could’ve repelled these enemies, it became clear that hiding my abilities now was pointless.

“Login.”

I transitioned to Ardenia, formed a pact with the water people, and gathered my inner energy.

“Logout.”

Then, I unleashed it on Earth.

“Login.”

“Logout.”

“Login.”

“Log Out.”

As I endlessly repeated this process, the temperature around me dropped rapidly. Undead creatures were weak against cold. Their already chilled flesh and blood easily froze due to the cold. Of course, they wouldn’t die even if completely frozen, but it rendered them immobile and incapable of action.

“S-Shiver… It’s too cold! The temperature is… Huh? Minus 107 degrees?!” Leah, who was supporting me with her magic, screamed. When I turned back, I saw that the flower carriage was covered in ice. Fortunately, the ultimate magic seemed to protect the carriage itself from the freezing temperatures.

“Ms. Leah, please come inside as well.”

“Huff…huff… Yes, yes!” As if waiting for my cue, she quickly opened the carriage door and took refuge inside. I sighed while holding my magic sword.

As if waiting for this moment, I opened the door of the flower carriage and took refuge inside. Holding my magic sword, I sighed.

“Ah, even inside the carriage, it is within the range of the Heaven and Earth Sword…”

“Ack!”

“T-This cold! The bitter chill! Nothing can stop the approaching end… Ack?!”

“Be quiet. Log in.”

I repeated it.

“Log out.”

The continuous cold poured forth.

“Log in.”

Continuously moving back and forth between Earth and Ardenia…

‘This takes a long time.’

Naturally, the time ratio was overwhelmingly longer in Ardenia. The time spent forming stances and resting was almost 20 minutes, while the actual time to unleash attacks was just a brief moment. Even considering the time needed to adjust posture or move a few steps, one second on Earth equaled approximately two hours in Ardenia.

Naturally, this presented a problem, as Ardenia was also going through turbulent times.

[A siege on one of your castles has been declared!]

[Target: Storm Castle]

[The siege must commence within 6 hours at most!]

[A siege on one of your castles has been declared!]

[Target: World Tree Castle]

[The siege must commence within 6 hours at most!]

“Oh, seriously?”

It felt like someone had smeared honey all over his castles, given how relentless these attacks were. Despite jae-yeon killing every invading army, it didn’t deter them in the slightest. After all, there was no reason to relent when they could respawn after death anyway.

For example, the Ice Queen had continuously sent wave upon wave of ice monsters to lower the temperature inside the dungeon as part of her strategy.

“Agh, I need to earn more money to reinforce my castles! I have to station troops constantly! Oh man, everything is falling apart here!”

With no immediate solution to his current predicament, jae-yeon was struggling financially and thus unable to accumulate charging power.

Actually, it’s worse than that.

jae-yeon realized he had been inadvertently using up his charging power by extracting items from Ardenia during emergencies on Earth. Instead of increasing, his balance was decreasing…

I need to adjust my plans.

Originally, he intended to travel across the continent and acquire all eight flower shops except for Heavenly Origin. Based on his current growth rate, even without consuming Heavenly Origin, devouring the other eight would boost his chakra capabilities to the Unbounded Strata, reaching Transcendence.

However, achieving the Transcendence level doesn’t automatically make me a Transcendent…

Unlike other psychic abilities, simply increasing one’s specs wouldn’t enhance chakra strength.

Even if my chakra capacity reached a certain level, there would be limits to the power I could wield without deep mastery of elemental boundaries. Nevertheless, it was undeniable that overall strength increased with each attempt.

‘Now it’s all useless.’

Initially, my plan involved expanding flower shops in Ardenia while making money on Earth. Without the ability to build castles using the earnings, acquiring more flower shops would only invite unnecessary risks. When losing control over a single flower shop caused significant setbacks, seizing one to enhance my chakra layers could lead to unpredictable consequences.

‘In hindsight… not taking over the Left-Handed Store might have been fortunate.’

Of course, this didn’t mean I’d simply leave things as they were.

“Landworm, where are you going now?”

[Going anywhere? Just down there.]

“Huh? You’re still moving.”

[I’m just moving underground.]

“Why did you suddenly make the Great Underground Labyrinth…” I laughed incredulously before issuing a command, “Let’s go up.”

[Yes! We need to eat something.]

Kwakwa-kwakwa!

The landworm had descended quite deep, as it took some time for us to ascend and burst through the ground. Then…

“What is this?” With a blank expression, I looked down at thousands of monsters staring up at the landworm. In their midst sat a burning giant, exuding arrogance, while a girl with brown hair clung desperately to a pile of firewood nearby. The Flame Monarch was characterized by demonic beings of flame.

It seemed they were trying to burn humans at the stake.

“Landworm. Go over there near that altar.”

[Yes.]

Ku-gugu!

As the landworm approached the altar, the surrounding monsters retreated fearfully. No matter how violent and cruel the demonic people were, they couldn’t help but step aside when faced with a worm as large as a building.

Zing.

I jumped down through the opening scales of the landworm onto the ground.

Wazak!

”…Look at this.”

I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a mountain of charred skulls on the ground. Thousands—no, perhaps even tens of thousands of humans had been burned alive.

“This is the worst yet…” I smiled bitterly and grabbed the chains binding the girl.

Kang! Kang!

I easily broke the chains and caught the girl as she collapsed. Despite being covered with bruises from severe abuse, her beauty couldn’t be hidden.

“You are…”

“Normally, I would use a teleportation scroll but right now it will take us to Stormwind Castle that is occupied by monsters.”

I lightly pushed off the ground and returned to the pilot’s seat of the landworm. Then I put her down on the seat and took out some songpyeon and potions for her.

“I’ll finish up here so eat and drink this.”

The girl looked blankly at me before opening her mouth, “Are you… an angel?”

“What angel? I’m not such a thing.”

“But there are wings on your back?”

”…!”

I barely managed to suppress my scream and feigned calmness.

‘Ah, damn it. The Lucky Angel Wing Suit…’

However, there was no other choice. I couldn’t remove my lucky item when about to kill monsters, right? As someone obsessed with performance, it was impossible for me to give up this option.

”…Not all beings with wings are angels. Close the Land Worm gate.”

With those words, I jumped outside again. My pet landworm wasn’t considered as an attack target, so if they were inside it, they wouldn’t be targeted by area-of-effect attacks.

Tap.

After landing on the ground once more, I didn’t immediately head towards the Flame Monarch.

‘What’s important is finding the weakest enemy.’

They needed to be slow enough not to recognize my attacks and have minimal defensive capabilities. It would be even better if they were too dumb to react properly, even when witnessing me forming hand seals and gathering energy upfront.

“Kruu… Human? Burning…!”

As soon as they let out a monstrous roar and charged at me,

The rabbit hammer was launched like a bullet. The stakes were sufficient. I had accumulated them abundantly on Earth.

[Hundred Man Slash] [Ten Directions Splitting Sword]

Land Breaker.

Crack.

The noisy plain instantly fell silent. Tens of thousands of monsters stood with their heads missing and simultaneously collapsed.

Warrurrr!

“Ah, yes! This is it!”

I hadn’t realized because I used this combo every day recently, but it was truly ridiculous. Not being able to use it on Earth felt suffocating.

Hwahk!

At that moment, flames erupted among the fallen bodies.

“Gak! Kaaaack! Gaaack!”

The giant made of flames rose and spat out fire like blood.

“You, you! Human! What did you just do—?”

Crack!

The head of the Flame Monarch, who was screaming, moved backward before collapsing completely. For the first time in a long while, I looked at the skill description:

[Shadow Twice (Legend) (Passive)]

When a critical hit, finishing blow, maximum damage, counterattack or status attack (knockout, blindness, silence, burns, slow, etc.) is successful, the same damage will be dealt one second later. Then three seconds after that, combined damage from both attacks will be dealt again.

“Ummm~ Good. It feels very refreshing.”

Fwaaaaah!

In an instant, another pillar of flame erupted. The enlarged body of the Flame Monarch let out a scream.

-How dare you…I’m not dead yet!

I ignored him and took out a high-grade blunt object from my inventory—a parasol.

Flutter!

Tut-tut-tut-tut!

The items pouring down bounced off the opened parasol and scattered everywhere. In the pouring rain, I saw the Flame Monarch.

“Yes. You aren’t dead yet.” I nodded. “But now you will die.”

As soon as I spoke…

Zek!

Shadow Twice delivered the final blow. It was a level of impact that even the attack-specialized Flame Monarch couldn’t withstand, unlike Edward who had been called the ‘lightning beetle’.

Then,

[Congratulations! A guild has defeated the Flame Monarch!]

[Highest contribution: Han Jae-yeon.]

The battle was over.