Chapter 141
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: Aftermath (3)
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As announced beforehand, those who donated substantial sponsorship funds could now additionally deploy their subordinates to Earth.
Among the new features added as the Hunter System, created by the Deities, advanced to Phase 2, the one that immediately caught my eye was the new "Dimensional Exchange" system.
When I first read about it, I was so shocked that I had to read it over and over again.
It meant that—, or otherworldly races—were coming to Earth.
But these otherworldly races were none other than the subordinates of Deities who ruled other worlds.
Those who ponied up big sponsorship money could send subordinates from their own domains to aid Earth's subordinates and reap benefits in return.
The gains must have been pretty significant, because a ton of subordinates had been clamoring for this privilege for a while now.
I, stuck with this Outer God misunderstanding, had been out of the running from the start—and even if I could've joined, it would've cost an astronomical sum I couldn't even dream of.
"O-other races? What the hell does that mean? Like elves or orcs from some fantasy story?"
"It could be humans like us, but you're not wrong either."
I recalled Baek Jin-seong's wide-eyed shock when I first broke the news to him.
Orcs and elves, the examples he threw out—I'd seen plenty of those, to the point of boredom.
The orcs and elves from Edellion didn't look all that different from the ones in movies, either.
'One of the Deities who won the bidding rights is in Korea, too.'
One of them was here in Korea, commanding the largest faction in the country.
Sure, everyone played nice at the neutral summit, all haha-ho-ho, but at their core, they were rivals.
The subordinates that Deity summoned would cosplay as part of the Hunter System... but ultimately, they'd move to bolster their own faction.
Stopping that would be tough. If they were pulling ahead in the competition, there had to be a reason for it.
"Other races, huh..."
A grin tugged at my lips as I turned my thoughts to a different concern.
Asmore could now prey on intelligent beings, but the best I could provide her was human genetic material.
Now that it was clear the vast universe teemed with countless races beyond humans, it felt like a waste that my ants, Asmore included, were limited to human fare.
I didn't even have elf genetic data, so I couldn't fully exploit the elf civilization I'd conquered. Same problem there.
In this situation, this might be my chance to feed my ants the genes of another intelligent species.
"Other races discovered inside new-type gates..."
"Other races capable of communication are being found in gates and dungeons around the world. These discoveries are unveiling secrets of the system that have been hidden until now..."
Sure enough, within just a few days, news stories started popping up one after another.
Most folks were thrilled and buzzing with excitement, spouting all sorts of theories and guesses.
Meanwhile, each country's leaders and factions put on a show of surprise and disarray, smoothly reeling the newcomers into their folds.
It was all predictable.
A massive truth, scripted out perfectly, that ordinary people would never uncover in their lifetimes.
'Do regular folks even need to know that truth?'
I switched off the news, threw on my coat, and got ready to head out.
Truth be told, if I ever fully claimed this world for myself, I'd keep my mouth shut too.
"To put it bluntly, there's something He wants."
"W-what is it?"
I visited Han-gyeol's office and laid out my intentions to Baek Jin-seong and Ji Ye-eun.
At the mention of a request, I could see them both tense up in surprise.
"This person."
I pulled out my phone and showed them the article.
A stunning woman with cascading golden blonde hair, discovered inside a gate in the eastern U.S.
Her sharply pointed, elongated ears poked clearly through her locks, visible to everyone.
"An elf..."
Ji Ye-eun murmured in a daze. Just as she said, the other race that appeared in America was elven.
She looked strikingly similar to the elves I'd seen in Edellion.
Silvergrove—a U.S. conglomerate bundling arms manufacturers and Hunter companies—had officially secured exchange rights with this elf from the American government.
"There has to be a way. It's not anything grandiose He wants. Just a single drop of blood... that would be more than enough."
To gather strength, I'd asked them to freely pitch ideas.
It wouldn't be easy, but it seemed feasible enough to try.
No matter how special someone was, there had to be something detachable from their body, right?
"Then our first priority should be heading to America."
Baek Jin-seong spoke up after a moment of thought.
He'd been a solid subordinate to the Deity even before I took over, working diligently.
That meant he had the chops, so I decided to hear him out.
"Conveniently, we can leverage the International Hunter Alliance's Ordo project—it fully allows domestic Hunter companies to dispatch personnel overseas."
He suggested going to America right away, sending Ji Ye-eun there to bide her time for a chance to make contact with the target.
His proposal sounded eminently reasonable to me, so I approved it.
"You okay with that?"
"If it's His command, I must obey. It would've been different before... but now, I'm not alone anyway."
Even Ji Ye-eun, the one in question, showed no real resistance beyond a hint of nerves.
Her words about not being alone brought a wry smile to my face. Right now, as the queen of the human hive, she was at the center of a hive mind linking dozens of people.
'Still, I can't shake this unease. It's not like something going wrong would be out of the ordinary.'
Back home, I paced in front of the breeding grounds.
With the hive mind trait bestowed upon her, Ji Ye-eun was solidly upper A-rank now. A little more growth, and she could aim for S-rank.
But that made her all the more vital. She was Han-gyeol's sole A-rank Hunter—and the queen of the human hive I'd been cultivating.
If she got killed by some rival Deity's subordinate, my Earth-based human hive would effectively collapse.
Appointing a new queen wouldn't be straightforward either; I didn't see any obvious candidates.
So before sending her to America, I wanted to give Ji Ye-eun a gift.
This was exactly why you couldn't just punish subordinates willy-nilly for shoddy offerings.
Glancing at the Divine Community, it was clear why Deities were so keen on expanding their domains and subordinates.
Domain size and subordinate numbers tied directly to a Deity's stature, but the bigger the operation, the more side income poured in.
What they casually called "tribute" was one such stream.
In the past, my clueless ants had brought me weapons and gear infused with Deity power—broadly speaking, that counted as tribute too.
'It was pretty lucrative.'
Even now, the ants kept delivering such items to me.
I reclaimed them, stashing some in storage or converting them via the Divine Net into funds as needed.
But spoils of war like that hardly qualified as proper tribute.
Deities who roamed the cosmos, conquering worlds and claiming them as domains, expected something special from their subordinates—something only they could produce.
Something to turn into tools for other worlds and subordinates.
"Honeypot ants...?"
Seira's eyes widened in shock as she gazed skyward upon receiving my oracle.
This was the first time I'd demanded tribute from the ants.
It was the honeypot ant—one of the tools for fusing folks like Seira and Arie, originally of other races, into the ant hive.
"Why in the world would He want that?"
"It's the command of the Great One. We have no choice but to obey."
As Arie brooded gravely, Seira shook her head.
Just as Seira said, this was the first time I'd ever demanded anything from the ant hive.
All the spoils so far had been voluntary offerings from before the ants had grown this strong.
"Of course we have to."
Asmore immediately set to work producing a honeypot ant as tribute for me.
Honeypot ants were a bizarre mutant strain blending genes from mollusks like slugs and leeches, flatworms, planarians, and animals with exceptional regeneration and shapeshifting like salamanders and octopuses.
Its sticky, squishy body existed solely to generate pluripotent stem cells, rendering it unable to survive without a host.
But the moment it latched onto a special host like Seira or Arie, it merged seamlessly, hardening or reshaping into the ultimate armor.
[The Queen wishes to offer a part of herself to the Great One]
Asmore rose to personally deliver the finished honeypot ant to me.
Her form, now large enough to be visible from outside the breeding grounds, climbed using spider-like legs sprouting from her back, scaling the hole in the ceiling.
"Copying Seira, huh?"
I chuckled at the sight of Asmore setting down the wriggling honeypot ant cradled in her arms, then awkwardly kneeling and prostrating herself.
Asmore wouldn't know the proper posture or etiquette for worshiping a god. Neither did I care about such things.
She was just mimicking Seira exactly.
'I think it'll work, but will it really?'
I had plenty of intervention power left. Unlike other Deities, I hadn't burned through much, so this was well within my means.
Still, it might not be enough.
Sending living things into the breeding grounds was routine, but taking them out was a first.
"It worked?"
I poked the ground with a pre-prepared test tube, scooped up the honeypot ant, and pulled it out.
The moment the tube emerged, I knew instinctively.
If I expended massive intervention power, the honeypot ant inside would return to full size.
"You called for me?"
"Truth is, before Ji Ye-eun heads to America, He's decided to give her a gift."
I summoned Ji Ye-eun without hesitation.
We were in the underground warehouse—secure, private, perfect for hushed talks. We'd even once subdued and locked up a rival Deity's subordinate here, back when they were foes; now they were allies.
"W-what is that...!"
"It's gross, I know, but don't worry. The effect is guaranteed."
She recoiled in horror at the slimy blob in my test tube, but I'd already popped the lid.
I felt bad seeing her freak out.
If only I could show her what I'd seen—how much stronger Seira and Arie had become with the honeypot ant's power.
"N-no, I don't want...!"
"It'll be over quick."
The honeypot ant plopped onto her trembling hand.
Unpleasant sensation, apparently—she shrieked and shook her hand reflexively, but it had already latched onto her palm.
At the same time, I channeled intervention power to lift the constraints on it.
"---!"
In an instant, the honeypot ant ballooned to the size of Ji Ye-eun's upper body and engulfed her whole.
Spreading over her form, molding to her contours—it was identical to the sight I'd witnessed with Arie and Seira.
This would be the first point of contact between my long-nurtured ant hive subordinates and the human hive on Earth.
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