Chapter 400
Chapter 400
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: World 4 (4)
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****
Rumble! Crash!
Flash!
A stormy night battered by gales. Before a sheer cliff.
“Oooooh! Brothers, do you see it! That single beam of light piercing the darkness!”
“We see it! We do!”
“The Light has answered our prayers!”
“Latura! Latura!”
A man in splendid robes and over a hundred raggedly dressed people gathered before a small stone altar, offering fervent prayers.
“Beloved brothers, how much suffering have you endured in this cruel world? How many years have you lived believing life itself is a process of self-destruction? Ooooh, my brothers. Ooooh, my poor brothers!”
“Waaaaah, High Priest!”
“To think you’d shed tears for the likes of us!”
The crowd began sobbing uncontrollably at the sight of their high priest dramatically wiping away tears with exaggerated gestures.
After a long frenzy of unintelligible chants and wild movements like madmen, they fell silent the moment the high priest raised the staff in his hand high.
“My brothers. Once, I too was an ordinary man like you. Until the day the Light’s divine voice came to me with the sunlight.”
“I followed His words, ventured out of the perilous city filled with trials, and after great hardship, arrived at the hidden holy site of the Light unknown to any. There, I became the owner of this great relic! The great god of Light, Ra-Huram, told me: This is a staff made from the shinbone of the legendary saint, the Immortal ‘Professor,’ from 200 years ago. Only you, Ahumtel standing before them, have heard His will. Take this relic and lead the world!!!”
“Ahumtel! Holy successor, Bishop Ahumtel!”
“We believe! We believe only in you!”
“Quiet now! Quiet!!! The time has come, brothers. The reason I called you to this sacred hill! It is the moment for you to cast off the eternal chains of suffering and become shining stars, standing shoulder to shoulder with the saints in the lofty heavens.”
Whoooosh-!
As the man called high priest swung his “sacred staff,” a blindingly bright glow appeared at the cliff’s edge, amid the storm.
“Gr-great prophet Ahumtel. What is that sacred light...?”
“Why, it’s naturally the sacred gate of light leading you to a higher world. Congratulations, brothers. By believing in this Ahumtel, you have been chosen. Come now, hurry inside. Hurry!”
“B-but just moments ago, that spot was a cliff....”
“Blasphemy!!!! With a heart of unbelief like that, you can never pass through the gate of light! On this sacred hill, I shall cut out that doubting tongue of yours and offer your sin to the Light!!”
“N-no! This fool just got overwhelmed seeing something so great! I’ll go! I’ll go right now!”
Swept up by the terrifying aura and atmosphere of the high priest, one man after another, the ragged followers on the hill began dashing into the blinding light where nothing was visible.
For a moment, it seemed like someone screamed “Aaaah-” as if falling, but most plunged over the cliff into the darkness before the howling storm could let them hear it.
“...All gone?”
“Yes, High Priest! They all ‘fell’ nicely!”
“Then what are you waiting for? Put out the fire! Do you know how much magic stone that mana light projector eats up?”
Bang- Bang bang-
At High Priest Ahumtel’s command, the priests reached into rock crevices on the hill. Switching off the pre-installed mana circuits, the sacred “mana light” illusion over the cliff vanished.
Whoosh-
Rumble!
“Damn it. This gig’s no good. Screaming in the rain for over two hours each time. Those idiots would’ve jumped if I told them to—why so many questions?”
“Hehehe. High Priest, still, this ‘ritual’ raked in a decent haul, didn’t it? The offerings were pretty good too.”
Ahumtel shook his head as he changed into dry clothes in a tent behind the valley.
“Beggars scraping together their life savings is pocket change. The work crew’s down below?”
“They’re waiting at the base of the cliff ahead of time.”
“Good. Those bastards better strike gold. As I’ve said a million times, strip the corpses like you’re filleting fish—every last inch. Got it? Especially check the spine and heart. That’s where the ‘crystals’ pop up most.”
Crystals. Fragments. Pieces of humans. Or humanity’s final miracle, the great power that, alongside scraps of magitech, saved a dying mankind.
Ahumtel had gathered these bottom-feeder scum while playing reluctant high priest all for harvesting those eye-poppingly expensive “crystals.”
“But where’d you learn to play high priest? You were just robbing with us before.”
“Pahahaha! Well, in that damn orphanage, all I heard day in day out were Light prayers! Our priest tried so hard to enlighten trash like me with those prayers—now I’m putting ‘em to good use.”
“Damn~ Nothing you learn goes to waste! If you’re that good, let’s pray sometimes! Sender and receiver gotta sync up for smooth deals, right? From now on, we pray ‘Sending up 130 souls—catch ‘em good-’ and ship ‘em off. Makes it easier for the buyers too!”
“You’re full of crap. Rest up, then go strip corpses yourself! No more prayer bullshit.”
“Fuck. Next time, trick one of those retards into doing the grunt work. Don’t kill ‘em all.”
High Priest Ahumtel. No, Blackfoot Bandit Leader Afut watched his subordinate’s retreating back as he grabbed a sharp dagger and headed down. Only after he was fully gone did Afut pull out a wet priestly robe from his inner pocket.
A small book carefully wrapped in oiled paper faintly inscribed with “Words of Light.”
Afut recalled old memories for a moment, then shook his head and tossed the prayer book aside.
“What god? Fuck that.”
Fwoosh!
The prayer book thrown into the small brazier burned up in an instant.
“If there was a god, the world wouldn’t be like this.”
Afut stared at the flames briefly before donning a cloak and exiting the tent.
His men were trustworthy enough, but once crystals were harvested from the corpses, they might get ideas.
Whoosh-
The downpour hid even the man who had just killed over a hundred people equally.
Between the flapping tent flaps in the wind, the Light prayer book burned away.
****
Ding-!
[Search for birth time - ‘As soon as possible, excluding that’ has completed.]
[A large-scale religious ritual has been performed in the name of the Church of Light.]
[Scale: 117 including religious leader]
[Form: Primitive mass sacrifice + Later Church of Light Ascension Prayer Ritual]
[Your birth condition has been satisfied.]
[Will you be born borrowing the power of the ritual ‘Evil Ascension Ritual’? Y / N]
[If approved, due to the evil ritual’s influence, ‘Evil Aura lv.3’ will be added at birth.]
Grit!
At the boundary between GG’s world and reality. Somewhere.
A man floating in the pre-login stage ground his teeth with a ferocious sound.
“My brothers.... What the hell did you do without me for 200 years! How are every single ritual completely insane?!”
It was a bit—very slightly—anxious. Why? That damn wall-hanging ‘system’ with no conditional self-modification logged not a single religious event in world history!
It was obvious the Church of Light had wielded absolute power after my death, yet religious mentions were just “Hid the saint’s death” and “Church of Abundance mass-produced wheat, Tel Drat boomed.”
Still, I’d hoped. Even ruined nobles last three generations—surely World 3’s top church wouldn’t collapse in 200 years.
[As player, you may select birth time via unique authority.]
[Via unique authority ‘Descent,’ birth in a year with large-scale religious ritual of that faith allows inheriting some prior character talents.]
[Currently searched birth times – New Imperial Year 199, Church of Light 3rd Branch unique event ‘Unlimited Bloodfight Ritual’ / New Imperial Year 204, Light Church variant rite ‘Moth Dance’ / New Imperial Year 211, Blackfoot Bandits unique rite ‘Evil Ascension Ritual’]
“Wanna punch something.”
It collapsed. Bunch of morons.
Of course, not the worst like “Church of Light extinct, no rituals, Descent authority lost-,” but every popping large-scale ritual was unhinged.
‘Unlimited Bloodfight Ritual.’ Pick this, get birth trait ‘Berserker Beyond Good.’
Trait making you more blood-mad than normal berserkers, constant activation no time limit. From what I know, ultra-rare trait where you go insane uncontrollable without 100+ kills monthly. Wow, minimum 1,000 in 10 months. Public enemy guaranteed. Pass if you don’t wanna trash the game.
Pick ‘Moth Dance’ for birth, get spirit/death qi talents bonus, but penalty [Near light sources, gain Suicidal Impulse Lv.9]. Super landmine.
Ritual itself: Hundreds of drugged followers screaming “I become the light!!” jumping into bonfires. As ex-repeat suicide attempter, absolute pass.
And next pulled was that one, ‘Evil Ascension Ritual.’
“Evil Aura. Lv.3 Evil Aura.... Maybe I can cover it somehow?”
Trait [Evil Aura]. Naturally attaches to black magic chars; basically, you emanate creepy vibe from undead zones without reason.
In short, innate “dislikable character.” Especially order/good NPCs avoid talking unless desperate; means 10x effort for good allies like past Charlotte or Ottoman.
“Urgh, won’t nuke early play, but this’ll trip me up forever....”
Obvious madhouse world, passive dislike? With insane difficulty, pray for normal Light followers doing normal rites next time...
“...Can’t chicken out. No gambling account ruin.”
Already New Imperial Year 190 start possible, 21 years passed. Only three large-scale Church of Light rituals in 21 years. Pass this, roll worse? Pass again? When’s next?
Ding-!
[Selected ‘Evil Ascension Ritual’ as birth rite. New Imperial Year 211, your character generates.]
[Birth rite influence grants character ‘Evil Aura Lv.3’.]
[Unique authority ‘Descent’ effect grants ‘Aura Talent Lv.3’.]
[Unique authority ‘Descent’ effect grants ‘Water Magic Talent Lv.4’.]
[Unique authority ‘Descent’ effect grants ‘Martial Bone Lv.6’.]
“...Yeah. This works, solid enough. Hell yeah! Compared to World 3 start, cheat key!”
Lv.3,4,6. Not sky-high sans body talent, but overkill for a kid. Fast start, build on it.
[Unique authority ‘Ancient Dragon’s Favor’ allows birth age selection.]
[This character auto-grows as normal NPC to selected age, then hands body to player at start, granting player traits/talents.]
[How old is your character?]
“...Around nine.”
[Age 9. Your character ‘Professor’ starts at age 9.]
Taking demerit means ditching some greed. Original plan age 3-5: Toddler reeking Evil Aura? Wordless kid far from succession spewing impure energy?
Guaranteed assassinated or abandoned unknown.
Whichever noble house, need name established to talk way out.
Flash!
Login float faded, drawing closer to World 4.
[Unique authority ‘Ancient Dragon’s Favor’ allows birth location selection.]
[Please select birth location.]
“Map?”
[Info directly impacting play not provided. Acquire via in-game talk or records-]
“Should’ve known.”
200 years. Wasteland era -200 years = 1870s, Heungseon Daewongun death to Unyo-ho incident till full-dive VR.
Blindly “Old capital~” and drop into Mutation Lord turf. Unique benefit limited peace, but mid-enemy camp? Dead on timer swap.
Damn system calculated “safe enough toss-.”
“System? My benefit ‘unconditional short-term peace’ won’t be just front yard or village size, right? Can you tell scale?”
Ding-!
[Possible. Authority covers small nation border scale; duration varies by region danger level.]
Small nation border. Bigger than thought. Duration by danger...
“Fine. System, birth location: Island matching short-term peace range size most closely.”
Long safe play priority, max early boost from perk.
Whole birth island peace zone = full perk pull.
[Birth location: Island. Condition: Island most similar to player unique authority ‘Unconditional Short-Term Peace’ range. Found.]
[Set to old Free Trade Union zone, central island of Tarigden Archipelago.]
Ding-!
[Character creation complete.]
Thus, my second ‘Professor’ character born after deliberation.
=========
+ Name: [Professor]
+ Race: [Human]
+ Gender: [Male]
+ Age: 9
+ Appearance: Partial inheritance of external traits via ‘Descent’ / Birth in noble house adds house-unique external traits.
+ Starting: [World 4 / Tarigden Archipelago, Central Island Poldrag]
+ Origin: Most sacred remnant of humanity
- Traits
1. [Decent Aura Talent]: You are remnant of sacred being born from specific large-scale religious ritual. No direct intervention, but inheriting legendary figure’s trace grants excellent talent / Aura Talent Lv.3 granted.
2. [Fair Water Mana Talent]: Same / Mana Talent Lv.4 granted.
3. [Incredible Physical Talent]: Your base wielded body transcending human limits several steps. Inheriting fragment, you born with innately tough body / Martial Bone Lv.6 granted.
4. [Trace of Evil Ritual]: Borrowed evil religious ritual power for past remnant. Aftereffect: Born with sinister aura / Evil Aura Lv.3 granted.
=========
“Moderately screwed.”
GG chars inevitably match real self traits, so originally just “Trait1. You are Professor Park.” Thanks to Atlahheva/World Tree, game-like traits galore.
Ding-!
[Character creation complete.]
Login float vanished; world rushed close like falling from space.
“Impossible difficulty.... Feels better than World 3 so far, wonder what else.”
No complacency—white light swallowed me.
****
“Uuuungh....”
Dull pain in head.
Unfamiliar ceiling in blurry vision.
Crash!
Heavy eyelids lifted; sound of someone dropping a vase.
“Y-Young master! Are you awake, young master! Do you recognize me?”
“Ah, they did a perfect job. My admin pals.”
“Young master? No, surely the shock didn’t damage his....!”
Maid drops thing in panic at waking, calls others thinking young master’s weird.
Classic “spoiled young master birth” cliche satisfied me. In unpredictable world, cliche = predictable.
One difference from typical “spoiled young master birth”...
“Not a fancy bed?”
Not shabby, but no noble bed: plain wooden.
Cleaned hard, but basically ramshackle room; maid’s outdated uniform.
Impoverished noble.
“Not great house has perks. No political intrigue, often solid internals.”
Mid-70s rating on new base as door thuds outside.
Bang!
“Priest! Check young master! Seems head injury!”
“Uuum.... This aura, surely.... Young master. Do you recognize me by chance?”
‘Hm. Classic spoiled start best begins with storied [Amnesia] tradition?’
Long haul, minimize variables; prepped world’s dumbest face for bedside duo.
『Pooooo-! Poooonnngggg!!!!』
Had massive window noise not hit, even Norman Archbishop fooled by acting.
“Wh-what.... is that?”
“Waaaah! What now, priest! Young master really.... turned idiot!”
“Big trouble. Forgetting names ok, but not recognizing beloved magitech train? Symptoms severe....”
“Magitech.... train?”
Not acting—truly idiotized.
Awkward steps from bed to window.
Drew thick curtain: City sprawled.
Thud! Thud!
Clank! Clank!
Blue-glowing furnaces lighting dead-of-night city, novel form.
“Train! Train incoming!!!!”
“Damn! Straug finally did it! Those worm bastards passed us!”
“Grab all stored public mana dust! Engine’s about to blow!!”
“Cannon! Cannon first! They ain’t stopping!”
Furballs, waist-high dwarves, even trolls hauling huge sacks busily—no eyes for interspecies harmony scene.
『Screeeeech-!!!!』
Hiss-!
Captivating: Massive iron lump mobbed by people.
Hull steaming from workers’ hasty water; survivors from thick door shared joy with exhausted faces.
Peeking through open door: Faint mana glow, mechanical guts.
Huge smokestack belching blue steam.
Rails crossing city center; atop them, colossal steam locomotive.
No—magitech engine train.
City breathing steam, heavy train, smoke-choked sky. All pointed one way.
“Genre.... not fantasy?”
Far off, knights from train wore at waist: Sword.
Back: ...If eyes ok.... Gun.
Gun. Gun.
Rubbed eyes—gun!
“Thanks..... Thanks Roman! For unleashing magitech on world thaaaanks!!!! Uahaha!”
“P-priest! Do something! Young master calling old sage’s name laughing!”
“Grave. Treatment’ll cost—get advance from countess first, then proceed.”
Mana engine pseudo-steam engine. Smoke-shrouded city.
Elegant straight-curve guns.
Priest/knight for patient! Magic! Aura! Divine!
....Beyond walls: Endless wasteland, lonely rails slicing it.
“Yeah.... ‘Info impacting play’ not provided....!”
Showed unexperienced world records, hid all key info system.
World I dropped: Not 200-year-prior I knew.
“...Good started early. Much to learn.”
World 4. 211 years post-Saint Professor.
World marched toward Arcanepunk.
****
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