Chapter 127
Chapter 127
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Even 13 Regressions is Bullshit
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Christina quietly asked.
“How many people can our Deus accommodate?”
“You know the limit. Eight hundred to 1,200 at most.”
It was far fewer than Nirvana’s capacity.
Deus had always taken in refugees unconditionally, so its population had reached the breaking point.
“The city lord can refuse mission summons for only 60 percent of the population. If any more non-combatants are added, someone currently living in Deus will get dragged out for a mission.”
“What if we call back as many hunters as possible from outside and assign them as mission guardians?”
Like Company’s mercenary service, they often paired strong hunters with non-combatants or those who had given up on upper-floor breakthroughs.
Chinlong shook his head.
“Our city’s economy would grind to a halt. Even if we did, there’s no way to house ten thousand refugees.”
Chinlong’s gaze turned to Ju Gonghyeok, who sat silently in the meeting hall.
“But if Company could help, that might be different.”
As the Internal Affairs Officer, he held one of the top three positions in Company.
No one expected him to decide such a major issue alone, but in desperation, all eyes in the meeting hall turned to Gonghyeok.
Gonghyeok pulled a pipe from his pocket and said.
“Company can’t help with this.”
“Hey, come on, Mr. Ju Gonghyeok. Couldn’t you at least ask?”
Shakh Tar, who had been lounging casually, tried to take a humble approach.
But Gonghyeok didn’t even respond, silently lighting his pipe.
It was an incredibly arrogant posture in someone else’s meeting room.
The corners of the Deus executives’ mouths twitched.
Once it was clear Company wouldn’t help, Christina wrapped up the meeting.
“Understood. Deus will not take in these mission society refugees.”
Everyone focused on her words.
“But we can’t just stand by and watch them wander the plains to their deaths or get sacrificed en masse to a demon city.”
“Mother.”
Chinlong interrupted, but she pressed on undeterred.
“I’ll go there alone.”
“Going to save the mission society is dangerous and offers no gain whatsoever…”
“I know, Chinlong.”
Christina smiled, her expression laced with emotions too complex to name.
“But someone has to go.”
Realizing no one could dissuade her, silence fell over the meeting hall.
“As expected of Mother! She’s truly great!”
Marcus suddenly stood and shouted.
“No matter how harsh the trials, it doesn’t matter. Crisis is what turns chosen humans into superhumans!”
Marcus scanned the room, everyone else keeping their mouths shut, and shouted.
“Let’s follow Mother! With her, there’s no trial we can’t overcome! With faith…”
“Marcus.”
Christina spoke heavily.
“Don’t agitate the others.”
“Understood, Mother.”
Marcus bowed without protest.
Ben-Hur placed a hand on her shoulder and sighed.
“Mother. That’s unfair. Who wouldn’t want to go if…”
Crunch—
“Enough.”
Gonghyeok’s pipe had gouged a deep dent into the meeting hall’s table.
“You’re all talk. If you’re going, follow without complaint. If you’re stopping her, swarm her and tie her down so she can’t.”
“Ha~ This bastard. The more I see you…”
Shakh Tar stood, hand reaching for his sword hilt.
Or trying to.
“Sit if you don’t want to die.”
[Je-cheon Dae-seong (SS) Second Ability Activated: “18,000 Jin Ruyi Jingu Bang.”]
[Shakh Tar’s body mass increased by 2,300 times.]
Crack!
Sweat poured from Shakh Tar’s body like a waterfall, and the chair he sat on sank a centimeter into the floor.
Far from standing, just staying alive under his now 184-ton weight was a struggle.
“You… you wanna try it for real…?”
Shakh Tar looked back at Ju Gonghyeok and shut his mouth.
The overwhelming aura pouring from stats totaling over 7,000 crushed him.
‘It’s not some mass magic. What the hell?’
In his eyes, a gigantic Ju Gonghyeok crushed him to death with a single finger.
‘Should I just kill him as an example?’
= Just kill the little brother. Nothing to look back on.
Je-cheon Dae-seong egged Gonghyeok on.
Gonghyeok’s serious contemplation flowed into him along with the aura.
Seeing the two in such a tense standoff, the meeting hall executives rose.
“Internal Affairs Officer. Will you take responsibility for those words…?”
“Sit.”
Crack!
Gonghyeok turned his gaze to them.
“I’m talking.”
The nearly ten executives were pinned to their chairs.
Sweat poured from the executives as their body weights ballooned thousands of times over.
The only reason they weren’t smashed into the basement was Gonghyeok’s qian duo yun spell propping up their chairs from below.
Screeech~
The metal chairs groaned under the immense pressure from above and below.
Amid the hostile glares and noise as accompaniment, Gonghyeok spoke.
“Mother, go wherever you want. I’ll take responsibility.”
“Didn’t you just say Company wouldn’t help?”
Sigmund asked dubiously, and the pipe dropped from Gonghyeok’s mouth.
“Not as Internal Affairs Officer. As Ju Gonghyeok of Sa-rom Orphanage, I’ll take responsibility.”
It was the Korean orphanage where Christina had once been director.
She smiled proudly.
“Gonghyeok’s all grown up. Saying such cool things now.”
“Mother, I mean it.”
Screech—
Gonghyeok dumped the ash into his mouth and stood.
“I’ll handle Mother and the forty thousand in the mission society. Head out first. I’ll go in five days.”
He left those words and exited the meeting hall.
“What the hell was that? Why’d he put ash in his mouth?”
“No idea, but he’s clearly not right in the head.”
He could feel the meeting hall erupt in chaos behind him.
But it didn’t matter.
No need for courtesy or plans like before.
Now he had the ‘power’ to push through his goals without circling around.
“First, let’s handle Deus’s issue.”
As Gonghyeok left the annex, one man followed.
A scholarly-looking man in a white coat: Sigmund.
“Can I ask why you’re leaving in three days?”
“Might have to kill one person. Maybe two.”
Sigmund stopped at the unexpected answer.
“Why tell me that?”
“Because you’ll become a villain in the future.”
Sigmund’s hand reached for Gonghyeok’s shoulder.
And with a spark, his fingertips split.
A broken nail hit the ground, and his finger split open like sausage, exposing white bone and pink muscle.
As blood beaded on the cross-section of muscle, Gonghyeok spoke with half-lidded eyes.
“Don’t try any tricks. I avoid contact with mental-type avatars, including Marcus.”
“Understood.”
Sigmund clenched his mangled finger and backed off neatly.
As he turned toward the main building, his body paused briefly.
“Ju Gonghyeok, thank you for understanding Mother.”
“We’ll see.”
“You didn’t force her either way.”
Marcus fanatically trusted Mother, while the rest tried to stop her.
But Ju Gonghyeok trusted her to choose for herself, and Sigmund stayed silent.
“They call her the radiant savior, but she’s just one human. Yet most people only see what they want in her. What makes her truly awe-inspiring is that she’s not some flawless superhuman.”
“You talk like you’ve read her mind.”
Sigmund didn’t answer.
The two turned their backs and walked in opposite directions.
Once he was out of earshot, Gonghyeok muttered.
“If she were such a great savior, she wouldn’t have died by my hand.”
Thirty minutes later, Christina left Deus.
She and three executives made up the entire relief team.
Marcus was at her side.
“Mother, don’t trust him. He’s not the Ju Gonghyeok you knew before.”
Christina looked puzzled at the unexpected advice.
“I know. A lot must have happened. I sensed that aura. But that’s no reason not to trust him. That boy didn’t steal the silver candlestick like Jean Valjean.”
“He may not have done anything that looks sinful on the surface, but he’s surely killed countless people behind the scenes.”
He sharply pointed out Ju Gonghyeok’s flaw.
Christina’s face clouded with distress.
“That’s no reason he can’t have my love. At least that boy is doing his utmost to overcome the trials. Even if it means earning someone’s hatred.”
She gazed toward the distant desert horizon and asked.
“Marcus. What happened between you two?”
“…Yes. That’s right.”
She knew to some extent.
That Marcus handled Deus’s dark side.
A brief anguish passed, and she steeled herself.
“I know you’re not always a transparent, pure angel—that sometimes you sin as one human. Even so, I love you. Because I know that’s the path you believe in.”
“Mother…”
“But likewise, even if Ju Gonghyeok of Sa-rom Orphanage isn’t morally perfect, that’s no reason for me to distance myself. As long as he keeps fighting the world.”
Marcus fell silent.
He hadn’t thought she’d reject Ju Gonghyeok over something like this.
She was the one who extended her hand even after betrayal, who never stopped moving forward no matter the wounds.
The world’s savior, with godlike patience and mercy.
‘Right. Ju Gonghyeok’s scheming is a trial too. A trial to complete her. That’s why God sent him to me.’
Nodding in conviction, he stood behind her.
Seeing her overcome this trial and rise as savior sent shivers through his body, as it must be God’s will.
Turning toward the city, Ju Gonghyeok entered a department store and looked for Kim Jintae, whom he’d sent ahead.
“President!”