Chapter 337. Final Wave (7)
After finishing up Japan's crisis, we quickly returned to Korea. While the land transmittance was underway, we didn't know where the next place would be.
When things began happening exactly as Revival said, the minority of people who doubted us began to evacuate in a panic. While a mandatory evacuation was already underway, people began to be more proactive in doing so.
At the same time, footages of the massacre in Japan and Revival's quick clean up spread and increased talks about me even more. I wasn't the only one there, but I was the only one everyone was talking about.
What was even more terrifying was the ring of light spinning around my horn. As time passed, it only became firmer and more stable. Pointing at this ring of light, Hwaya asked.
"Have you heard of Halo?"
I retorted jokingly.
"I do, but I haven't played it."
"Not the game!"
I smirked and shook my head. Of course, I knew what she was talking about.
"Don't be absurd. I'm not an angel or a saint, why would this be a halo?"
"What else would it be then?"
At a Loss for words, I touched my horn. I could still only feel a faint heat. I couldn't feel the halo at all.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the horn. As expected, it didn't feel any different. With a shrug, I asked Hwaya.
"Hwaya, how do I look like?"
"A handsome man with a halo and a horn."
"Not that. Do I look different?"
"Yeah."
Hwaya immediately replied.
"It's hard to put it. It's a hard-to-approach kind of feeling. Even if I wanted to hug you, I would hesitate right before doing it. Something like awe… or admiration… You know how I'm not affected by most mental magic, right? But you go right through it."
"Damn."
If Hwaya was saying this, something was happening to my body for sure.
But I didn't feel any different, and although I learned to control my body's energy, I couldn't do anything about this ring of light.
After touching the horn and struggling to control the light for a few more minutes, I gave up and fell on the couch.
"What is this good for?"
"That's what you're thinking about when something strange like that happens to your body?"
Hwaya spoke with a wry smile.
"I thought you got too far out of reach, but it's nice to know that you're still the Shin I know."
"What do you mean, far out of reach. If anything, I'm closer to you than ever."
"If your wife had a light bulb on her forehead, I'm sure you'd be scared too."
I couldn't help but laugh at Hwaya's words.
"Scared? You are?"
"I might not be scared of other things, but thinking about bad things happening to you or my mother makes me scared to death, so don't laugh."
Hwaya frowned, and a few fireballs popped up in the air. It was a trick she learned to do after she got her Evil Eyes and had her flame wielding ability strengthened. I decided to take this moment to say what I needed to say.
"Don't worry, Hwaya. I'll be with you forever."
"You better not let the Demon Lord kill you after saying that."
"Don't worry, I won't die. The only thing that can kill me now is myself."
"You also can't suddenly say you're bored with the human world and transcend into heaven."
"The heck is that. Anyways, there are so many things I haven't done yet, so don't worry about something like that. Come here."
Since I didn't know how busy things would get from now on, I had to service her when I could. When I pulled Hwaya into my embrace, she didn't resist and even dug deeper into my arms.
"Good, that was 99 points."
"What about the other point?"
"You know."
Hwaya looked up into my eyes with a shy smile. Because of her lovable smile, I completely forgot about that halo or divinity.
While Walker interrupted us last time, thankfully, no one interrupted us this time as I slowly obtained my last point.
The sudden start of the land transmittance and the tragedy in Japan were more than enough to stir up the world. Those who worked to seek personal profits realized the gravity of the situation, and the world-wide evacuation sped up.
It seemed my existence also put a check on these greedy people. Unlike in the past where I looked around for monsters to show off my power, this time, I had appeared in the middle of Tokyo and swiftly cleaned up all of Japan. As a result, people were beginning to see me as an existence that had transcended humanity.
While I was still treated as a human in the past, now, it was as though I was in a higher realm. It was a truly strange feeling.
[Revival's master, Kang Shin, came into this world on year XXXX in XX Hospital in Seoul…]
"Oh, it's about you, Shin."
"Ye-Eun, turn that off."
Just listening to TV nowadays gave me goosebumps. Come on, came into this world!?
Instead of turning the TV off, Ye-Eun changed the channel. Unfortunately, it wasn't any different.
"Look Shin! It's our school!"
Because I was focused on climbing the dungeon, I barely remembered about the university I used to attend. Just when I was thinking about it some man was excitedly blabbering in front of the camera, I realized it was a business department professor.
"Why is a professor that I don't even remember seeing talking about me?"
[He was an extraordinary student. He rarely came to school, but his grades and performance on assignments were always excellent. I should have known it back then… Many female students had a crush on him too. Just by being there, he caught people's eyes, truly a remarkable trait.]
He was writing a novel. Plus, because he mentioned female students, all of the girls in the guild house turned towards me and gave me funny looks. I vowed to get my revenge on the professor and turned the TV off.
The bigger problem was that something like this was happening on a daily basis. It was as though a sleeping volcano has finally woken up.
"There's going to be a Church of Kang Shin at this rate."
"I'm afraid it might really happen, so don't even mention it, Walker."
"I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier."
On the other hand, Ludia acted as though this was completely normal. In this regard, she shared the same sentiment as Ciara.
"People of Earth need to be more thankful. Most worlds fail to prepare properly at first, so their Heroes don't end up on the top of their worlds even after tens of years passing by. Worlds like these generally end up losing without standing a chance. But Shin managed to rise to the top in just a few years and came to minimize damages this much while being invaded by two worlds at the same time. It would be weirder if no one worshipped him."
"That's because Earth already had several widespread religions. Plus, there are more educated people on average compared to people of other worlds. They probably felt weird worshipping someone who was alive."
"But because we have a friendly relationship with the Vatican and displayed an undefeatable might in front of everyone, we managed to topple this perception of theirs."
"Those things aren't important at all."
I interrupted the others who were analyzing what happened.
"Of course, if possible, I want them to stop doing that, but if that helps more people survive, I'll leave it alone for now. I'll leave Earth for a while once I defeat the Demon Lord, so it won't matter then."
"Kang Shin, your horn decoration got bigger."
"Kuk, don't mention it. I don't want to think about it."
The golden ring of light, what Walker called a horn decoration, was indeed slowly getting bigger and strutting its presence. I didn't even want to imagine what would happen once ordinary people found out about this ring. Of course, as I had a lot of other important things to worry about, I didn't have the time to think too much about it.
"Kuhum, anyways, what's important is how to divide ourselves. We can't all just stay in the guild house when we don't know when the land transmittance will occur. We still have many things to obtain from the dungeon, so we'll have to form a rotating shift. Of course, we'll have to leave out people who need to enter Beyond. But since I'm about to Clear Beyond, you can leave me in."
It was important that the guild house was never empty. Revival's members consisted of Earth's strongest ability users. I formed teams based around some of the stronger members and had them stay in the guild house in the time slot allotted to them. That way, everyone else would be informed of a land transmittance whenever it happened.
"What an incredible world and what incredible subordinates. To think you can receive information and react based on it so quickly…"
Kain seemed extremely impressed with how smoothly everything was executed. Seeing him making a surprised face for the first time, I laughed.
"It's meaningless if we don't have the strength to support it. In that sense, take care of us, Kain."
"I'll just do what I'm contracted to do. As long as it's within the terms of our contract, I can do whatever you want."
I was satisfied with his reliable reply. I added with a gentle smile.
"As you know, we don't have a lot of time left."
"I'm looking forward to it."
By the time the aftermath of Japan's land transmittance was resolved, many things had changed. However, things that were important to me all stayed the same.
I headed to the dungeon once again. I wanted to see the end of the dungeon that was now within my sight.
Next on the list was the 95th Floor Master.
The difficulty of the world breaking that started on the 91st floor continued to escalate, and by the time I reached the 94th floor, it took my current self a whole ten days to reach the Floor Shop.
Just like on the 91st floor, I continued to face gigantic monsters, destroying dozens of giant golems or krakens.
I expected the 95th Floor Master to be similar, but my expectations were a bit off. Unlike the previous Floor Master rooms, the 95th Floor Master room was an entire room. The moment I went up to the 95th floor, I could hear a voice ring out.
[There's finally a human who managed to reach me. How truly incredible.]
Although I couldn't see even a tiny fraction of him, I could clearly hear his voice in my ears.
[Born in a human's body, yet trying to transcend humanity, I give my utmost respect to you, Challenger. But a League must be given to one who fits it.]
In an instant, the surroundings became dark. I guessed the reason without even looking up. There was a giant being eclipsing the world's light.
[Thus, I will test you with due diligence. Are you prepared, Human?]
Looking up, I saw a dragon.