Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Babel Tower Deployment
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Gilgamesh and Dart were bickering.
Even after entering the Babel Tower, watching these two squabble without losing an ounce of their personalities somehow put me at ease.
It felt just like the siege wars back in Midgard, easing the tension a bit.
Dart spoke irritably.
["We're about to clash with other countries, and you're throwing everyone into investigating what's underground? If we lose the land, the investigation's done for."]
["I didn't say throw everyone in."]
Gilgamesh grumbled at Dart's sharp criticism.
Dart continued.
["Look at the map—we're stuck in the corner. Better to pick clean directions, have the guilds handle separate fights, and pool the intel."]
"Let's do that."
The way Dart and Gilgamesh clashed even over voice chat made it clear that keeping them separate was the way to go.
Gilgamesh agreed.
["Sheesh. Fine, early game's all scouting anyway—do your own thing. Just keep the sit-reps steady."]
"SpaceKing's taking center, so Fullminak heads up top."
["Goldbunker's going left."]
Pull up the map, and we're at the bottom right on the map—the southeast corner.
Starting from that visible spawn point, SpaceKing takes 10 o'clock, Goldbunker 9 o'clock, and Fullminak 12 o'clock.
Dart suddenly called my name.
["Kaisha."]
"Yeah?"
["Fullminak's going central."]
"Reason for the target switch?"
["Thought it over—civilian rescue quests will probably pop in the center. 12 o'clock means running into other countries."]
The moment Dart finished explaining, Gilgamesh tossed a question his way.
["And if we bump into other countries?"]
["Kill 'em."]
["...Uh, yeah."]
Gilgamesh responded a little awkwardly to Dart's razor-sharp reply.
So basically, Dart's too lazy to sort civilians from combatants, so he's handing center to Fullminak and heading up to 12 o'clock for straight-up slaughter.
Typical Dart.
Center's got that forest, so plenty of monsters probably.
Doesn't matter much anyway.
"Got it. SpaceKing on 12, Goldbunker 9, Fullminak to center at 10."
Gilgamesh wrapped up the talk.
["Roger. Chat up your guildies till countdown ends, and share intel real-time as much as you can. Out."]
* * *
"Guild master, who's this little squirt?"
"Yeah, been meaning to ask!"
"First thought it was Messiah with a buzzcut, but nah—way shorter too..."
"Boy?"
They'd finally asked.
They'd all held back, figuring the resemblance meant some connection to Messiah.
I spoke up.
"Messiah's little brother."
"Oh, gotcha... yeah right! No hero status window on this kid at all!"
Tch.
Mino, sharp where it doesn't matter.
Gotta keep Yugeon around, so time to explain to the guild.
"Uh... well..."
Explaining was tricky as hell.
The demon king I killed in Midgard? A growth-type weapon vault?
I glanced at Yugeon, but he had no intention of explaining himself—just stared up at me quietly.
Gave up on the details.
"Too complicated to explain, but he's tied to Messiah somehow."
"We figured that much."
"What's his name? Specs?"
The guildies crowded around me and Yugeon, peppering us with questions.
Yugeon wasn't official Fullminak, and his looks were anything but ordinary—no one was buying "just some kid."
At least performance was easier to cover.
"Name's Yugeon. He's got the ability to hand me weapons, and he grows—so the better I raise him, the better the gear he gives."
Right as I finished, Yugeon chimed in with his own pitch.
"I can summon weapons for my master too, but once I get bigger, I can wield 'em myself and fight. Once I grow, I'll be a huge boost to this army's firepower."
The guildies let out impressed oohs at Yugeon's proud self-description.
"Kinda like a hero, right?"
"Damn, guild master scored big time."
"Grow strong, kid."
"Smart lil' punk."
"Gonna turn into guy-Messiah if he keeps growing here?"
The guildies swarmed Yugeon, hooked on talk of "weapons" and "firepower," chattering away as he beamed with pride.
Figures—call him a weapon of war, and he's all about the combat stats.
I watched Yugeon soaking up all the attention, feeling that proud-parent glow inside.
Oh, right.
The thought hit me, so I fired up the game chat and sweetly pinged Dart.
[Kaisha: Dart]
[Dart: What?]
Reply came quick.
[Kaisha: Get Hellcannon over here]
Predictable—Dart went radio silent for a good while.
Not sure if bound heroes work here, but Babel Tower patching in hero summons means good odds.
I could summon the others when needed, but Hellcannon was different—needed Dart's help.
[Kaisha: Dart?]
[Kaisha: Dart??]
[Kaisha: Dart-nim????]
Anxiety kicking in.
Need him now.
No quest complete notice, so Dart hadn't called yet.
[Kaisha: For real?]
[Kaisha: SpaceKing needs troop backup—sending some your way]
[Kaisha: We're on the same team]
Dead quiet.
"..."
Fucking Dart.
Begging like this and not even a peep back.
I fired off some icy polite-speak to notify him our friendship just tanked thanks to his pettiness.
[Kaisha: So disappointed in you, Dart-ssi]
Alarm pinged moments later.
Ding!
[[Quest Alert] You've met 'Condition 1' for 'Babel Tower Invitation'!]
"!"
Eyes snapped open.
Finally!
『[Quest Complete]
▶You've fulfilled [Condition 1] and [Condition 2], completing the 'Babel Tower Invitation' quest.
▶Success Reward: Incarnation Contract with Hellcannon
—Proceeding with incarnation contract via Babel Tower assistance.
—Incarnation contract uses the divinity you acquired in Channel 43. Incarnation contract offers a chance to elevate your divinity further.
—(!Caution!) Contract cannot proceed without the incarnation's consent.』
Divinity from Channel 43—probably the name I left behind as a god in Midgard.
Whatever, I'd prepped Hellcannon, so the incarnation contract went down smooth.
『Hellcannon consents to the incarnation contract.』
『Congratulations! Your first incarnation contract has been established. Incarnation sponsorship available in Coin Market.』
『Patching incarnation sponsorship system into Coin Market.』
『Patching incarnation management system...』
『This will take some time.』
Patch was gonna take a bit, so I closed the window and scanned around.
Chat blinked with a Dart reply, but I ignored it, eyes on the SpaceKing guild building.
Guildies started buzzing right away.
"O? Wait—what? Jackpot."
"Whoa, legit Hellcannon."
"Guild master got Dart to call him?"
Hellcannon was sprinting our way from the SpaceKing guild zone into Fullminak territory.
Kali asked me.
"That prick handed him over easy?"
"Hesitated forever."
"Figures."
Kali nodded like he'd known.
Still, he came through.
Really glad I'd built that rapport with Dart.
Hellcannon summoning here intact proved we could pull Midgard bound heroes.
Guild morale shot up.
"Hero summons are real. Wanna try mine."
"Told you, Kali-hyung—too clunky to drag around now. Save for when we need the firepower."
Fullminak could tap almost all our bound heroes.
Dunno about foreign guilds, but Korea had cases where countries forced hero releases on hunters, others let 'em keep based on judgment.
Varied pretty wildly, as I recall.
Non-Korean servers had the exact same bound hero setup anyway.
Kali spoke up.
"Even with hero recall patched, if everyone's summoning left and right it'll be chaos—no calling unless absolutely critical. We're rolling out soon."
Hellcannon sidled up beside me; I gave him a warm welcome.
"Hey, welcome."
"Kaisha-nim, the incarnation—"
"Shh."
Hellcannon clammed up instantly.
Incarnation contract was still under wraps from the guildies.
Special Babel quest deal—no need to spread it around unless info-sharing mattered.
Especially not now.
Dart staying mum suggested his bound contract with Hellcannon was still active too.
Eh, incarnation's higher-tier anyway.
『00:01:39』
The briefly quiet guildies got rowdy again.
"Here it comes—siege war hype!"
"Hah, not just me."
"This countdown's sneaky tense."
"Zero and we teleport? They ain't making us fly there, right?"
"Teleport possible. I figured we'd have to fly."
"Nervous as hell."
"No overthinking—just like the last siege."
"Guild master's ace in the hole that time..."
"Rewards aside, it's a world ranking war. Korea's hyped among Vipa players—think we're actually top-tier?"
"Gotta see, but fact: tiny-ass Korea holds the most billion-brainpower users."
"After Korea?"
"USA."
"Ugh, hits different."
"US rankers are beasts."
"10 seconds."
Mino called the countdown, and the guild went dead silent.
『00:00:10』
Vipa's World Ranking War.
9 seconds.
8 seconds.
7 seconds.
"Whew."
"Final system window check."
"Chat window especially."
Guild war, so probably group-teleport—but better safe.
3 seconds.
2 seconds.
1 second.
『00:00:00』
Guildies dropped to the ground nearby, and a system window popped right in front.
Ding!
『The 100th Siege War begins in Babel Tower.』
『No 'castles' in this world—occupy special bases and activate systems to claim territory.』
『Territory affinity and user fame sync easily from previous channels.』
『War Mode ON』
『War Mode fully backs player wars. Team up with allied guilds to seize open territories and secure resource mining rights.』
『This shattered world awaits new gods and rulers.』
'War Mode' rang familiar.
Content tweaked a little, but damn near identical to Vipa siege wars.
"Hah, basically the same."
Guildies were exhaling in relief when—
『Warning!』
『System under attack—external intrusion detected. Error alters death risk in this channel.』
『Death by error code intruders may result in permanent death.』