Chapter 189

Revenue Split: 10:0

This is insane! Absolutely crazy. They must be rolling in cash.

Not accepting this would make me look like an idiot. Of course, such extraordinary generosity is suspiciously convenient.

I thought Flower was just a special case, but it seems all members feel similarly.

If a small, average agency had presented this contract, I’d have dismissed it as unreasonable yet understandable given their circumstances.

As both a Transcendent and the Apostle of Game Gods, any ambitious agency could still benefit from a 10:0 revenue split—especially in these times with monster incidents escalating.

However, the catch here is that the opposing party represents only one group of artists—the Dragon Stars (Dragon Star).

This company seemed more focused on F-D’s idol activities than making money, so I could view this contract as purely generous.

If someone else had presented me with such a contract, I might have felt uneasy about it…

In this world, worrying about dragons was utterly pointless. Accepting the contract was an obvious choice for me.

“I’ve contacted all the parties you mentioned and secured seventeen TV appearances, one movie shoot, and completed contracts for three mercenary missions in the same location. We currently have twenty-seven advertising requests, and I’ll send you a summary of their terms later.”

Cheese sat at his desk, explaining calmly—though it goes without saying, he wasn’t speaking to me but to whoever was on the phone behind him.

He contacted everyone I had previously reached out to, reworked the schedule, and coordinated with the broadcasting station for advertisements and broadcasts, completely bypassing all the usual processes.

Thanks to this, I found myself in a situation where I could simply relax at home until it was time for my half-day broadcast appearance.

“The detailed schedule will be continuously updated on Dragon Star’s dedicated app, so just follow along accordingly.”

“I understand. Thank you very much, Lord Eddusuni.”

The person on the other end of the call was a rare individual among nobles, akin to royalty—a Shadow Dragon named Eddusuni. Though he seemed reluctant, he promised to assist me with everything except physically being by my side as cover.

“I… Ha. There’s no need to thank me for doing my job.”

“Nevertheless, I am grateful.”

“Yes. Well then, I’ll hang up now.”

After finishing my call, I couldn’t help but marvel at how convenient it was to have an agency.

“Wow, having a talent agency sure makes things easy.”

I now understood why entertainers joined agencies. While it wasn’t impossible for me to contact people directly, meet with相关人员, and negotiate salaries myself, the level of convenience provided by an agency was on another dimension altogether.

Moreover, Dragon Star’s care didn’t end there.

“I guess this is the end here too.”

I tidied up my studio apartment. Apart from two suits—one bought by Bae Saram and one by Flower—I had nothing else worth keeping; everything else was just rags that could be discarded. With little other luggage, I managed to cram everything into the 30 cubic meter inventory embedded in my mercenary registration card.

Click.

I closed the door behind me as I left the studio. Since Dragon Star handled all legal procedures related to disposing of the property, all I needed to do was simply leave.

“Ruff! Ruff-ruff!”

Standing in front of the elevator, I heard a dog barking.

“Whoa! What’s got you so excited, boy… Huh?”

A woman leading a live puppy stopped short upon seeing me.

Recognizing her voice, I smiled slightly and greeted her:

“Hello there.”

“Oh, yes! Hello! I thought you’d be gone by now…”

The woman, Song Han from the police special forces, wore an expression that seemed to ask, Why is a Transcendent living in a studio apartment? Though we couldn’t exactly call each other friends, we had seen each other’s faces multiple times before.

“This is my last day here,” I said. “I’ve heard that when I reached the state of transcendence, you helped prevent a catastrophe… I am truly grateful.”

The combat police officer who happened to be on my floor was able to prevent a catastrophe. If she hadn’t taken the risk to send me to the other world, I would still be struggling with dozens of lawsuits.

As I bowed in gratitude, Hana was surprised and shook her head vigorously.

“It was just doing my job! Thanks to that incident, I even got promoted.”

“Still, thank you very much. If there’s ever anything I can help you with later, please contact me.”

On impulse, we exchanged contact information. This might have been due to how deeply moved I was by our chance encounter. Or perhaps it should’ve been obvious from the start.

“Well then, goodbye.”

“Oh, take care!”

The woman who had astonished me with her past as a sword master now saw me off with eyes full of admiration.

So much has happened, I thought to myself.

I had no attachment to the room tower itself. It was literally just a space for sleeping. Most of my meals were taken care of by Ardenia, so I didn’t know many restaurants in the area or have any acquaintances.

However, everything changed after I entered this place… My life completely transformed. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the me who used to rent a studio apartment with soldier wages is now a completely different person from the one I am today.

I truly worked my ass off.

I worked tirelessly and fought fiercely. To be honest, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought because I could clearly see what lay ahead during that time.

As I became lost in these thoughts…

“Stop.”

”…?”

Caught off guard by the sudden voice, I halted my steps. Turning around, I saw a burly man staring at me.

He spoke up.

“It’s been quite some time. You’ve made remarkable progress since we last met.”

There seemed to be something suppressed in his tone, making me wonder about its implications.

Oh boy, this is not good.

This was a serious crisis situation.

Who is this?

I lived in two worlds alternately. These were completely separate time zones with no connection whatsoever. A moment on Earth-34 could be decades in Ardenia, and vice versa.

If it had been just a short period of time, there wouldn’t have been any issues… But if it involved years, then there were many things to consider. An event that happened recently in one world might already be ancient history for me in the other.

My brain scrambled desperately as I tried to piece together what had transpired.

“O-oh, long time no see,” I stammered. “It’s been quite some time since we worked…”

“…what jobs?”

Damn, he wasn’t who I thought.

I had assumed he was referring to our days working part-time at the convenience store before applying to the steel giant Magic Tower, but that clearly wasn’t correct.

“Oh, my apologies. I misspoke. We weren’t part-time workers; we were full-time employees. At Wungnyo Steel…”

“What on earth are you talking about? Why keep bringing up work?”

No, not again? Did I see them at work or…?

Anxiety surged within me. This was a touchy subject that could spark debates over human nature.

But there was nothing I could do. To them, it might have been just recently, but for me, ten years had flown by.

Ah, who could they be? Staff from when we were filming? No, seems like someone I saw at work… Could they be military seniors or juniors?

I couldn’t be sure. Those guys who were so annoying in the army now seemed distant, with even their faces fading from memory.

Could they possibly be middle or high school classmates?

If that were the case, it would be even harder to remember. It wasn’t just ten years; it was thirty. Or rather, considering the time spent on Earth as well, nearly forty years had passed since our last connection.

As I found myself reflecting on my life…

The man could no longer bear my silence and erupted in a furious roar:

“How dare you show such disrespect?! How can you so casually dismiss our homeland and nation? Have you no love for your country?”

His voice sent a chill through me. Yet, amidst the storm, I felt a strange sense of relief.

“Ah, I knew it had to be someone from the Celestial Society! All this time wasted wondering… stellar…”

“S-stellar? Stellar? You bastard! After driving our Celestial Society to ruin, how dare you speak with such arrogance…”

“Yes, all thanks to you.”

With a sardonic smile, I took a step forward. The raging figure flinched, caught off guard by my sudden advance. He hesitated, as if clinging to his last shred of pride, before retreating reluctantly, snarling all the while.

“Y-you! If you lay a hand on me, I’ll…!”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll call the police right away!”

It was a feeble threat against a Transcendent, but such intimidation held sway on Earth-34.

Ah, they know one thing but not the other. Well, encountering Transcendents isn’t common.

I let out a hollow laugh and asked:

“That aside, what do you mean by ‘the destruction of the Celestial Society’? It’s certainly good news, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

As I approached hesitantly, the creature quivered instead of answering, crying out incoherently.

Already, its spiritual essence had been completely overwhelmed by mine.

I am a Transcendent.

A being capable of killing a lower opponent with mere force of will.

“I-I-I will never, ever agree!”

He screamed “barak barak,” but his words were as worthless as tears. He—and the Celestial Society behind him… They were far too insignificant to even engage with me or attempt any tricks.

It wasn’t worth a single chapter to deal with these guys.

“What do you mean by not agreeing? I won’t even lay a finger on you.”

“Huh?”

“Sigh!”

I blew out a powerful gust of wind.

“Ugh, aaagh!” The man was swept up by the strong wind and flew into the sky. Despite being another psychic who could harness his own abilities, he couldn’t escape from the wind.

“Gah— Aaah— Aaaaah!”

In an instant, he disappeared from sight.

“Bae Saram was right,” I recalled her words. “To avoid associating with low-quality people, it’s best to find a new place to live.”

Well, now I wouldn’t have to meet such creatures again. Wasn’t that why I left the one-room apartment in the first place?

I watched until the figure completely vanished before turning around.

It was time to work again.

It was time for joyful labor.

My first stop was Nemesis’s “Paranormal Research Institute,” which I had arranged ahead of time.

Good grief… This game company actually runs a research institute.

Nemesis Soft invested all the vast profits from Revenge back into development. The system that made Earth-34 unique could be said to have been completed on such investments.

“Please take this. It’s medicine that allows machines to observe the flow of mana…”

“We’re about to begin tuning your connection device.”

“Could you temporarily release your resistance?”

“Wow, I never thought we’d actually recruit a Transcendent…”

Half a dozen researchers approached me, attaching things to my body, making me wear items, and even feeding me substances.

I turned to Love, who had been orchestrating their efforts beside me.

“What is that?”

In one corner of the laboratory stood a massive metallic sphere, roughly the size of an auditorium. Despite my transcendental status, I couldn’t help but marvel at the immense spiritual and electrical power emanating from its tens of thousands of intricately interconnected components.

“It’s… a type of creation tool for building complete virtual worlds,” Love explained. “The result of pouring all of Revenge’s earnings into this project.”

Following the researchers’ guidance, I reclined on a console distinctly different in size from any commercially available model.

Love gave the command: “Activate it.”

“The World Creator is initializing. Three. Two. One.”

Click.

With a resounding whoosh, I found myself standing at the heart of an enormous mechanical装置.

“Wow… This is even more realistic than before.”

It couldn’t be compared to even a first-class immersion experience. If I focused my mind, I could tell that my body was fake, but that was only possible because I was a Transcendent.

However, there was one problem:

It’s just my body.

In this World Creator, my physical form was the only thing missing. And it wasn’t even a true representation of my real-world body; it was just an ordinary person’s physique.

I closed my eyes. In the distance, I sensed my original body with its eyes shut as well.

I raised my hand.

“Whoa!”

“You can move!”

“Holy cow, Jaeyeon-nim? Can you hear us?”

“Yes, I can hear you.”

“As expected of a Transcendent! Even in complete immersion, you haven’t lost control over reality!”

While the researchers were all excited…

“Oh, you’re new here. Who might you be?”

A small girl approached my character inside World Creator.

An NPC? No, she feels different.

Her blonde hair sparkled. The girl with her delicate features was so cute I wanted to hug her, but this wasn’t the cuteness of a human child. She stood at just over three feet tall. Her perfect proportions gave off a charm closer to that of a figurine or doll rather than a real kid.

“She’s here to participate in the technology application experiment.”

I spoke politely. In my past life, when I had only B-rank mana aptitude, I would’ve snorted something like, “What’s going on here, brat?” But now… I knew better.

This guy is stronger than me.

Not just a little bit stronger, but significantly more powerful. Despite my consciousness being tied to this character, I could tell he was holding back his full strength.

“Technology application experiment? Oh! So you’re that Transcendent human?” The girl circled around me with wonder in her eyes.

As time passed, her expression grew even stranger.

“How many Paths are connected to you? Nine… ten… eleven? And look at this thickness… Are you perhaps a great artist?”

“Pardon?”

I was bewildered by these incomprehensible words when…

The voice of love echoed from the speakers. Ellis responded.

“I saw it for a moment.”

”…What a smooth operator.”

As I muttered to myself,

Whoops.

The girl called Ellis vanished. My real body registered that she had moved into reality.

…What just happened?

I was flustered. It looked like she’d teleported through space, but that didn’t make sense. The place where my ‘character’ was located was a kind of virtual world, while out there was the real world.

Traveling from the virtual world to reality?

What is this creature?

Sensing my confusion, Love spoke up.

“Understood.”

Whoom!

The massive machine I was part of—its true identity still unknown—began its full operation with a deep resonating hum. I focused my mind, absorbing the surging mana that coursed through my entire body.

At that moment, the speakers came alive.

Yet, regardless of the speakers, I could hear her words with my body in reality.

“What is this man’s name?”

“It’s Han Jaeyeon.”

“Han Jaeyeon. What type of Transcendent is he?”

“A bio-energy Transcendent.”

“Ah, it would’ve been nice if he was a chakra Transcendent.” Ellis sounded disappointed.

His chakra is at the ninth level though.

However, she didn’t voice that thought.

Claiming to be a chakra Transcendent just because one had reached the ninth level of chakra was borderline fraudulent.

So what if his chakra was at the ninth level?

He hasn’t unlocked any heavenly gates yet.

It was akin to a mage obtaining magic power equivalent to a ninth-class spellcaster by chance, yet only having the cultivation of a sixth-class mage. Of course, compared to other mages of similar rank, such an individual would still be significantly stronger. With their immense magical energy, they’d be able to cast spells freely, wouldn’t they?

Still, it was preposterous to claim that this entity was on par with a ninth-class mage.

Woooom…

The resonant hum grew steadily louder. I could see the mana around us thickening to the point where it became visible.

Love spoke:

As Love spoke, an image naturally came to mind.

A flower.

It wasn’t a flower, though. It was a woman named Flower.

Pop!

”…What?”

“What is this?”

Gasps were heard from all around.

In front of me stood Flower.