Chapter 32
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: The Traitor Yulia
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“Well then~ Shall we get started?”
A sharp sneer curled at the corner of Gonghyeok’s mouth.
“Yulia. Do I still look like an equal trading partner to you?”
Yulia looked up at Gonghyeok’s face.
There, behind the mask, lurked a shadow.
A sharply honed white smile gazed down at her.
“Yulia. I need the white coin and the item you got from the Devil’s Grave.”
“That’s...”
“You can’t?”
His head tilted, and the white smile twisted slightly.
Brainwash
“If I say right now that you’re ■■, what do you think those people would do to you?”
“Hah...”
“Die right here. Or hand everything over to me. That’s the deal, my dear Yulia.”
Gonghyeok buried his face in Yulia’s tawny hair.
It carried the nostalgic scent he often smelled by the bedside 120 years ago.
“I can’t hand it over. Even if I did, you, you have to promise not to kill me...”
“You need assurance? Ra-Djehuty.”
- The time of the oath has come.
The massive Egyptian god with a new head appeared. He swiftly began scribbling on the papyrus he pulled from his bosom.
- Hunter Ju Gonghyeok as party A, and oath-taker B, Yulia Proebe. What oath do you desire?
“I, party A Ju Gonghyeok, swear not to kill Yulia Proebe as long as party B Yulia Proebe does not interfere with my goals.”
- Granted. What is the price, and the penalty for violation?
“As payment, Yulia Proebe immediately transfers to Ju Gonghyeok the white coin and the item ‘Withered Left Wing (S-).’
Furthermore, both parties shall trust and cooperate with each other, and upon the death of one, transfer all possessions to the other. Violation results in death.”
- Oath-taker Yulia Proebe, do you agree to Ju Gonghyeok’s terms?
Yulia covered her mouth with her hand and hesitated.
“What kind of person are you? Why are you doing this?”
“As for what kind of person I am...”
Gonghyeok’s fingers combed through her squirrel-like twitching hair.
“I’m the kind of person who saves the world, no matter the means.
Whether by slaying the Demon King or slaying humans. Believe it.”
A smile never left Gonghyeok’s lips.
Yulia felt an eerie chill there, but she had no choice but to agree.
The words he formed next with his lips were...
‘Or die right now.’
- The oath is established. This oath becomes a law of the world and is forcibly upheld.
The papyrus oath glowed blue and imprinted on both their chests.
[Yulia Proebe’s inventory loses ‘White Coin’ and ‘Withered Left Wing (S-)’]
[Two items are now owned by Ju Gonghyeok]
Yulia bit the inside of her cheek.
“You’re a twisted human. Trying to save people with such wrong methods.”
“Yeah, yeah. Yulia. I’m not a good person.”
Gonghyeok’s hand, stroking her hair, moved gently.
With a soft *stab*, Yulia’s carotid artery was severed.
In his hand was a sharply honed purple coin.
“Haaak!”
Yulia tried to stagger back, but Gonghyeok’s left hand didn’t let her go.
Two more purple coins pierced her neck.
“Hahk, hahk, hahk!”
Amid massive bleeding and gasping groans, Yulia glared at Gonghyeok with eyes full of resentment.
“You said you wouldn’t kill me, you liar...”
“No, no. It’s not a lie.”
Gonghyeok wore a satisfied smile.
“I’m saving the world right now.”
“What... does that...”
“Yuliiiiaaa!”
Nine hunters, freed from brainwashing, charged from behind him.
Each one wore a desperate face to save Yulia in crisis.
And the dungeon walls soaked in ten portions of blood.
“Liar, lying murderer...”
Yulia collapsed with one arm severed. Transparent tears streamed endlessly from her eyes.
Gonghyeok was by the dying woman’s side.
“Yulia. It’s not your fault.”
The light of life faded from her eyes.
“But it’s because of you.”
Gonghyeok had just now.
Erased the cause of the 12th world’s destruction.
A small elephant appeared beside Yulia’s corpse.
Kwoo...
It was her avatar, ‘Dream-Eating Mak (A+).’
Mak possessed powerful brainwashing suggestion abilities.
This suggestion couldn’t force self-destructive acts like ‘kill yourself with a knife.’
But it could lead to indirect ruin, like facing a cliff and suggesting, ‘There are stairs ahead. Keep walking.’
Mak moved its long trunk to close Yulia’s wide-open eyes.
Gonghyeok watched the scene while pulling out a pipe from beside him.
The reason he contracted with her was precisely for this ‘Mak’ and the ‘white coin.’
Coins don’t transfer upon death. He had to secure it beforehand, relying only on a 5% drop rate otherwise.
And to ‘devour’ an avatar, the owner had to permit transfer before dying.
That’s why he made the oath to take everything from her.
“GM. Second meal.”
[The meat quality is lower than Cerberus, but it should have that unique non-combat flavor.]
GM’s needle-like teeth tore into the back of Mak’s neck.
Watching GM devour Mak like a starving wolf, Gonghyeok lit his pipe.
In truth, there was no need for that unnecessarily crude oath.
If he took the time to torture her slowly, she’d beg him to kill her and hand over the avatar and coin.
But Gonghyeok held back.
Torturing a former comrade might bring a fleeting thrill of taboo pleasure.
But the backlash was an even greater emptiness.
That emptiness easily escalated into self-harm, like ripping off his own collar.
“Spirit Harvest.”
[Harvesting spirituality from surrounding souls]
[Acquired 1 shard of malevolent spirituality, 4 shards of turbid spirituality, 4 shards of wandering spirituality]
[During harvest, discovered a rare pure soul.]
[Clear and Righteous Soul (A+)
Former name - Yulia Proebe (F, 28)
This soul devoted itself to just causes in life and cherished people.
Originally spotless, but accumulated sorrow and pain in life mixed in impurities. Grade drops from S to A+]
She was good.
If Yulia had wanted, she could have achieved the same result as Gonghyeok in the 10:10 mission.
Make allies die from ‘unlucky mistakes,’ and single-handedly kill the enemy team’s 10 whose bodies ‘coincidentally’ wouldn’t obey.
And that’s not all.
She could have killed the other 199 on the first floor excluding herself.
Brainwash 100 to fight the remaining 99, then ‘freeze’ the last survivor to death, earning the highest reward.
But she didn’t.
On the first floor, she ensured 150 survived simultaneously, and on the second, she led a draw where everyone lived.
She was undoubtedly a good person.
“Spirit Summon.”
That’s why she had to die.
She was less useful than Ha Yeonsi. She had to become an item to summon a spirit in Yeonsi’s place.
Yulia’s abilities could be devoured; her brainwashing was weaker, but it would suffice.
Gonghyeok pulled ‘Angel Nathani el’s Tombstone’ from his inventory and drove it into the ground.
A white spirit summoning circle drew around the tombstone.
A bright beam connected to Gonghyeok’s lower abdomen.
[The 1st Sephirot, Malkhut (MALKHUT), reacts]
[Using Malkhut as vessel, tombstone as origin, soul as material, a spirit descends]
A golden angelic halo floated above Gonghyeok’s head, then expanded.
Nathani el’s tombstone and Yulia’s soul passed through the golden halo, recreated in a new form.
A palm-sized angel with tawny hair.
Wings larger than its body covered it entirely.
[The Angel of Salvation Nathani el has descended]
[Skill grade is low. Descended angel fixed at lowest-rank angel]
“I am the Angel of Salvation Nathani el. Caller of spirits, what is your name?”
“Ju Gonghyeok.”
“I, Nathani el, as Ju Gonghyeok’s first descended angel, promise to overcome trials and tribulations with him.
This vow holds until God reclaims the power of the spirit.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
‘Trials and tribulations?’
Thinking of the horrific events Nathani el would soon shudder at, Gonghyeok couldn’t help but laugh.
“Summoner, Ju Gonghyeok. I am not yet complete. I need a short rest.”
Unaware of what lay ahead, Nathani el rubbed its sleepy eyes with wriggling hands.
[Skill grade low, descended angel’s activity time short. Grow angel with spirituality shards]
Gonghyeok carefully opened his bosom. Nathani el fluttered in with *plop plop plop* and seeped into his stomach.
[Nathani el merges with Malkhut. 1st Sephirot Malkhut 100% complete]
[Malkhut completion strengthens holy and dark resistances]
[Completed Malkhut roots spirituality throughout the body.
All stats +20 without indigo coin consumption]
Gonghyeok stroked the spot where the tree of spirituality had taken root.
Tawny hair like Yulia’s, similar voice.
Yulia had become the angel Nathani el.
Traces of Yulia remained in Nathani el’s personality too.
*Hoo—*
Past memories floated in the smoke from his mouth.
The 12th world destroyed by Yulia.
The 12th life where he mistakenly thought, ‘This time, I’ve saved the world.’
= = =
176 years of life so far.
Not matching the current strongest 11th Ju Gonghyeok, who tore the Demon King apart in 2 hours.
But the 12th Ju Gonghyeok beat the Demon King to death after three days and nights of decent struggle.
Returning to the real world with 230,000 hunters, Ju Gonghyeok’s first act was...
To kill all hunters with space and time abilities.
Next were gravity and lightning ability users.
They could trigger destruction before he could respond.
A fist to split Earth would be detected by his surveillance avatar ‘Argos’ before hitting ground.
But space or time abilities could end the world without fanfare.
Teleport a pencil. If the space user forgets solar system orbit calculations?
The pencil collides with Earth orbiting at 104,000 km/h.
If a time user slows a region’s time without accounting for rotation?
That region could just snap off a perfectly spinning Earth.
Compared to the indestructible, no-calculation-needed two-dimensional Babel, Earth was too fragile.
So he killed them all.
Established a hunter surveillance agency, maintained smooth relations with Earth’s politicians via carrots and brainwashing.
The five who caused prior destructions were long dead; a long era of peace followed.
10 years.
Only now did Gonghyeok realize hunters aged poorly.
He expected longevity from high stats, but at over 40, he still looked early twenties.
20 years.
Killed about 15 presidents and national leaders.
To them, hunters must have seemed like monsters.
Monsters with immense power, eyeing their authority.
Over 100,000 monsters who barely aged and could end Earth on a whim—naturally unnerving.
Multiple nations and leaders bred conflict.
He began slowly unifying Earth’s nations.
30 years.
Hunters started having children and grandchildren.
Children were taboo in Babel.
Even newborns thrown into missions once total stats hit 10.
Better to abort tearfully or painlessly end them than certain death.
But they overcame those wounds, pursuing family happiness again.
Still youthful bodies meant 70-year-olds enjoying lavish nightlife.
Fine by Gonghyeok. Greater contentment meant less erratic behavior.
40 years.
Gonghyeok was certain.
Peace had arrived.
Humans adapted to hunters’ dangers; hunters settled into reality.
Unadapted hunters died by Gonghyeok and the agency.
Lying on Guam’s sunlit beach, Gonghyeok recalled clear conditions.
He had an inexplicable conviction.
Self-inflicted human extinction wouldn’t regress him.
Only external factors not originally there.
Demon King invasion or awakened hunter-caused destruction called him back.
Near-instinctual certainty.
‘Is this conviction planted by that voice too? Whatever.’
Estimated remaining lifespan by physical age: 800 years.
Ridiculously long, but control it that long...
No regression.
“Hahahahaha!”
Irrepressible laughter burst out. Plans to fill the next 800 years danced joyfully in his mind.
‘Gonghyeok...’
A familiar voice caught in Argos’s surveillance net.
Yulia Proebe, agency executive handling politician brainwashing.
“Yeah, Proebe. What’s up...”
‘Kill me, quickly...’
The world changed.
Action outpaced thought. Lightning flashed from Gonghyeok’s fingertips.
Zeus (SS++)’s bolt from his fingertips tore the sky.
Five bolts traversed 11,700 km at light speed, obliterating Dusseldorf where Yulia was.
But too late.
Earth’s air scattered into space.
Crust heaved, oceans vanished.
No blue skies anywhere on Earth.
“No, no! This can’t be!”
Instead of the resort’s azure sky, Gonghyeok saw...
Twinkling stars and pitch-black night.
Europe and the Mediterranean ripped wholesale into space.
“Yulia...! Ben-Hur...! Aa, aaaah!”
For the first time this life, Gonghyeok burst into tears.
“You hid it! You bastards hid it from meee—!”
Moments ago, Dusseldorf’s space-time was ‘fixed.’
For about 0.002 seconds.
But on a spinning Earth, that brief ‘fix’ was huge.
A quarter of Earth torn away.
“Yuuuuliiiiaaa—!”
A space ability user.
Only an SS-rank space avatar could do it.