Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: For Each One's Proof
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At the center of the massive domain erected in the meadow.
I finely adjusted the flow of power surging through my body, recalling the massacre that had just taken place.
This slaughter had been sudden. It was markedly different from the calculated massacres before.
At a glance, the trigger for this slaughter seemed like an impulsive act driven by emotion.
However, emotions had long since been thoroughly excised from my toolkit when dealing with people.
And wasting feelings on vermin like that over something so trivial was out of the question.
Of course, this abrupt massacre must have been quite a shock to Siron and the other overseers.
They probably believed I would stick to premeditated killings from here on out.
But I had always maintained the same stance.
Anyone who gets in the way of my gains dies, without exception.
No exceptions, even for those who might prove useful. The moment their value dips below the threshold of "interference," they become targets for elimination.
That said, I had no desire to trigger dimensional chaos either.
That was why I had wiped out every witness.
The surest and swiftest way to silence people's mouths is to seal them forever.
Unfortunately, in the midst of the slaughter,
one had escaped, complicating matters slightly.
Even if the massacre had gone off without a hitch, people would notice the disappearances eventually.
This was a scenario foretold the moment I halted in the plaza, and I killed him knowing full well.
Still, I wasn't overly concerned.
Once you've set foot in Dimension 64,
it's no different from being trapped in an inescapable net,
and the options available through the community have their limits.
Even now, news of inhuman atrocities across countless dimensions is lighting up the community boards, yet their realities remain unchanged.
It only serves to anger the dimension lords.
Everyone knows this,
which is why, on day 19, exposés are trending downward even as the population swells. The fact that I'll inevitably gain massive attention in the upcoming tournament plays a role too.
In the end, this incident was just a minor hiccup.
Nothing more than the scheduled personnel purge happening a bit ahead of plan.
The shock or fear felt by Siron and the overseers meant nothing to me.
If anything, I hoped this would help them objectively grasp their own positions.
That was enough reflection on the massacre.
What mattered now was tomorrow's tournament.
There, I'd face Uk, the Lord, the Sword King, and a host of other powerhouses yet to reveal themselves.
I refocused on my training.
A few hours later.
I finished my pre-dawn session earlier than usual and returned to my lodging.
Even as a superhuman with stats over 50, mental fatigue was real.
This was my final rest before the tournament.
Day 20.
The day of the event had arrived.
The morning in the Transcendent World, still shrouded in artificial darkness.
As I opened my eyes in the early dawn, the usual jet-black crimson orbs slowly drifted around my lodging.
The power of Unique Karmic Flame. A force I wasn't yet accustomed to.
Today, my mind was clearer than ever.
Thanks to my condition management.
I approached the window and scanned the village.
Even at this early hour, the plaza bustled with people.
Their voices mingled tension with irrepressible excitement.
"You know, right? They say we might run into folks from other dimensions in the tournament."
"Of course. Does that mean all the powerhouses from every dimension will gather?"
I overheard others conversing too.
"Hey, wanna bet on how many rounds we'll each last?"
"Pfft, low-tiers like us will just watch and head home. Bet on what?"
Most were chatting casually to shake off nerves,
but some huddled in groups for heated debates on tournament rules, while others quietly maintained their weapons to steel themselves.
I spotted upper-rankers advising juniors and comrades checking each other's gear.
Siron and the overseers weaved through the crowds, steadying groups and conducting final checks.
Listening to their talk, I confirmed the massacre hadn't caused as big a ripple as I'd thought.
Siron and the overseers must have managed public sentiment overnight.
The massive tournament hype diverting attention helped too.
I quietly closed the window and began preparing for noon.
Time flew by.
As noon on day 20 arrived,
The floating system messages piqued his interest as he waited at the entrance to Zone 4.
[Dimension - 99]
The goblin outpost.
Dozens of arrows rained down like a storm.
Caught off guard, people screamed and fell. Injuries erupted everywhere.
Shield-bearers rushed in desperately to block, but it wasn't enough.
Even heavily armed, they seemed to be losing ground to the goblins. Not entirely, though.
Sgak!
On one side, massive goblins were being gruesomely sliced by skill-enhanced blades.
Yet arrows flew from all directions, and hordes of goblins charged with shrieks.
It was a tense standoff.
The battlefield was pandemonium, goblin war cries mixing with human screams.
Then, black smoke began rising from one man's hand.
He seized the nearest goblin's face with that smoking hand.
Sizzle—!
The ominous hand melted the goblin's hastily raised club and bored straight through its face.
Watching their comrade's head gruesomely dissolve, the goblins forgot their instinct to kill humans and just wanted to flee.
The man responsible,
Kim Hyuk.
"Graaaah!"
A massive goblin roared in fury and bravely charged the smoke's source.
However,
Bzzzt!!
Thud.
Kim Hyuk unleashed his class skill on it. Leaving the electrocuted goblin behind,
he drove his fist unhesitatingly into a small goblin prepping an ambush nearby.
The goblin's head burst like a watermelon, splattering blood and brains everywhere.
Arrows from the goblins couldn't even scratch his immense defense, and a casual swing of his fist sent three or four flying.
His movements were like a fierce storm.
Overwhelming destructive power that crushed and melted everything it touched.
Buoyed by Kim Hyuk's exploits, the tide swiftly turned to the humans' favor.
People followed in his wake, mopping up the rest.
Finally, beyond the underground lair, the last goblin fell.
The people gathered around Kim Hyuk, cheering and heaping praise.
Their eyes held respect and awe.
Today too, Kim Hyuk led the clearance of Zone 3, and on the way back to the village,
his comrade Bason approached.
"Kim Hyuk, tournament day's finally here. All set?"
"More or less."
Kim Hyuk replied indifferently.
Bason felt relieved at his confident demeanor but wore a worried look too.
"Still... making the main event won't be easy. Rankers from other dimensions might be stronger than we imagine."
"I know. It won't be easy."
Kim Hyuk's tone was cautious.
He glanced at the sky, checking his status.
His current level: 23.
Due to his compound class, skill upgrades lagged behind others. He'd only just managed a 2nd-grade skill.
By rankings alone, the gap to top rankers was clear.
But he had trump cards,
and this special unique ability could create any variable.
That was the source of his confidence.
He thought of the rankers he'd never met.
What powers did they wield?
From community-famous powerhouses to hidden ones.
The first event gathering everyone.
'Maybe I'll meet Elizabeth too?'
Anticipation for the unknown mingled with tension in his chest.
[Dimension - 64]
Noon passed, and after hours of hunting, I headed back to the village from Zone 4.
With little time left before the event,
I'd had to cut hunting short.
The 12-hour event meant I could hunt afterward anyway.
Plus, I'd already hit level 39.
I opened my status window for a final check.
First off, the changes were my level and Origin Extraction skill.
I'd upgraded Origin Extraction to 3rd grade right after the massacre yesterday, using the new soul origins.
The added effect at 3rd grade: stat extraction.
Instead of experience, it granted temporary stat boosts for a day.
But the efficiency was abysmal.
0.01 stats per soul origin.
Applied individually, not across all stats.
With caps on max increases, it seemed like something for the distant future.
Divine Charge had reached 3rd grade too.
The new effect: exploding the area around where the charge stops.
The blast power wasn't impressive compared to my current stats.
Confirming these new abilities, I calmly reviewed my achievements.
Overwhelming stats. Diverse skills, titles, and items.
The more I checked, the more certain I was of claiming first place—but I didn't get complacent.
I'd never directly fought rankers, so rash assumptions were dangerous.
No one knew what bizarre unique abilities or unimaginable skill synergies they might unleash.
I trusted my stats to crush variables. But absolutes didn't exist in this world.
Rankers likely hid trump cards like mine.
Even so,
I'd never once considered defeat.
As Oheon returned to the village, Siron spotted him and approached.
But Siron's expression was markedly different from before.
His pupils trembled faintly, just like that day.
The yesterday's massacre and Dwin's death right before the first event overlapped in his mind.
That disaster had struck right before an event too.
Siron instinctively wanted to flee from the approaching Oheon.
Yet resolve hardened his features too.
As he neared Oheon, Siron bowed deeply.
"Oheon. I have a report..."
He listened to Siron's report, then asked one final thing about the tournament.
"How are the others?"
"They all seem resolved. Myself included..."
A tremor laced his voice.
Oheon asked no more. He cared little how far Siron would go.
Everything was about to begin.
Satisfied with the pre-event briefing, Oheon headed to the meadow.
All that remained was waiting for the event to start.
The Slime Meadow of Zone 1, where he'd spent more time than his lodging.
The tournament soon to come...
Reaffirming his plans, emotions surged, and a faint smile crossed his lips.
His resolve, forged from pure selfishness, grew ever purer.
Standing in the meadow, Oheon fixed his gaze afar.
The artificial sky mimicking Earth's environment.
And the myriad monsters and zones straight out of Earth's fiction.
Gazing at it all, feeling the mystic winds of this Transcendent World—perhaps his eternal battlefield—
he thought:
No one knows their own fate.
Ignorance drives the fight.
Life competes; the weak are culled.
An unequal world.
An absurd world.
Many received no chances,
and even those who did often squandered them and died.
Even reaching envied heights ends poorly or in regret for some.
Others compromise with the world and forfeit their peak.
At desire's summit,
even becoming number one yields no eternal reign...
Until now.
But in this hopeless world, a scant few chased pipe dreams,
and those with the most impossible ones never gave up.
Oheon.
He too, with his will fully formed,
sought power to wield good and evil alike.
Power to reshape the universe.
Power to glimpse the world's fate and eternally fulfill his own.
Now,
voicing his goal would make him a laughingstock.
But someday, Oheon believed,
the world would no longer mock it.
Lost in such thoughts,
the system messages snapped him back.
Reading the messages, Oheon had already prepared to sweep the entire dimension.
Soon, he'd show everyone exactly why he was number one.
With that thought, all petty emotions in his heart evaporated like smoke.
Time flowed onward, as if eager for his stage.
Dazzling light enveloped the still darkness, teleporting Oheon to the tournament grounds.