Chapter 127
Chapter 127
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Phase One Completion
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Gangnam incident had occurred on December 19th.
Yongyong had gone live after that on December 22nd.
And now.
Rumble!
The church was busier than ever.
The temple construction had somehow reached its first phase completion, and Cheol Jung-bae was.
"Hurry it up!"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Kim!"
"Sorry!"
Urging on the workers—no, the followers—as usual.
Each of these followers was elite-level manpower.
They were said to be rankers whose mere registration could shake up all the leaderboards.
"Heave—!"
That they had grown while building the temple was quite astonishing.
"Construction like this—building and forging—is the best for physical training anyway!"
Cheol Jung-bae shouted as if it were obvious.
"Silapgeun!"
He stretched out his arm, proudly showing off his solid muscles, but his face soon fell.
"Silapgeun..."
Having become dwarves, they now resembled humans even more.
Their squat bodies, bursting with muscle, long-grown beards and body hair had been their pride.
"But I never wanted silapgeun—!"
At his words, the other dwarves looked crestfallen too.
"This won't do."
Cheol Jung-bae, who had been supervising the construction, personally lifted a pillar.
"Come on! Everyone, let's put our backs into it!"
He effortlessly hoisted a temple pillar weighing several tons.
Just that alone boosted players' stubborn base stats, and balancing the long pillar required agility too.
Moreover, the pillars used in temple construction were made of the dwarves' special metal.
Humm!
Simply being near them stimulated mana, raising mana stats as well.
"Construction is the best!"
"Construction is the best—!"
Indeed, one could say the temple's construction was genuinely helping the followers grow.
And finally, that night.
"......"
The temple's first phase completion was finished.
"Wow."
It was like magic of another kind.
They'd only erected pillars and laid the foundation, but even that alone conveyed an indescribable majesty.
"It's too early to be amazed."
Cheol Jung-bae said.
It was just pillars erected on some vast plot of land somewhere between Yun Seungha's otherworld and Earth via her magic, but if it were only this much.
'It wouldn't be a masterpiece.'
It wouldn't qualify as a masterpiece in Cheol Jung-bae's life.
"Gluttony."
"Preparations are done, old man."
Gluttony, who rarely showed himself outside the lab, and Kang In-bae were fiddling with something.
"Then let's start the activation."
One by one, everyone at the church gathered to watch.
Naturally, Go Yohan was there, along with the other Apostles.
Humm!
Light began bursting forth.
Hummm!
The light pouring from each pillar soon connected with the others, emitting even more intense radiance.
"......!"
The sheer volume of moving mana was extraordinary.
The secret metal passed to the dwarves and the central pillars infused with Go Yohan's mana.
Kwaaaaa!
They were spewing explosive mana.
If it weren't overlapping with Yun Seungha's otherworld, it would have affected the entire Republic of Korea—an immense amount.
"Uh...?"
Then something astonishing happened.
The still-scattered pillars rose on their own, syncing with the mana waves.
Crack!
They slotted perfectly into their positions.
"Wow...."
Everyone was entranced, staring at this new miracle.
Thud!
The moment all pillars were finally set.
"Activate it!"
At Cheol Jung-bae's shout, Gluttony nodded and his eyes gleamed.
The light was sucked into the pillars, revealing mana circuits unlike any seen before.
"Ooooh...!"
Cheol Jung-bae was the one exclaiming in awe.
"To think it's really possible...!"
The temple construction had mobilized even experimental techniques that Cheol Jung-bae himself considered unproven.
Including lost secret arts that existed only in dwarven legends.
Gluttony.
Kukukukuku!
He had succeeded in reviving those lost secret arts.
With his Authority of Gluttony.
Having even received permission from Go Yohan to access it, he had devoured the fragments embedded in the dwarves' genes, successfully making their knowledge and techniques his own.
Boom!
A massive shockwave erupted.
The revealed form of the temple was.
"Completion."
Overwhelming.
*
*
*
The temple, straddling somewhere between the otherworld and Earth, had become the most special place in this world.
From the outside, it looked like the same shabby church as before, but the moment one stepped onto the grounds.
"...Insane...."
A completely separate world unfolded.
Three moons floating in the sky.
Intense starlight that seemed to swallow the world.
Below it.
"...This is insane. For real."
The structure blended modern architecture, something ancient, and elements from the otherworld, overwhelming viewers with inspiration just by sight.
"Wow...."
At the center of the land stood a building where square and rectangular forms moved organically, shifting shapes, while massive pillars encircled its outer walls like guardians of some divine statue.
And right in front.
"...That's insane too."
A statue that was unmistakably recognizable stood there.
"No! We have to remove that thing!"
A voice came from somewhere.
"No can do. That's the core nucleus."
"That's why I'm saying—why does the core nucleus look like that?"
"We needed the strongest image for maintaining and repairing the world!"
Go Yohan was arguing with a young man—or boy?—whose appearance blurred the line between the two.
"No!"
"Fine, we'll erect a goddess statue too. But what does the goddess even look like?"
"Ha, haha...."
"That chuunibyou bastard.... Hasn't gotten better."
Muttering at the scene was Go Minji.
"Minji, don't say that about your little brother."
And Shin Sookyoung.
"Little brother? That bastard's no little brother of mine!"
"Tsk! Go Minji!"
"No...."
Go Minji looked wronged at Shin Sookyoung's words.
Scratch, scratch.
Go Yohan approached, scratching his head.
"You made it. Mother? And...."
"Hey! Why no proper greeting for me?"
At Go Minji's words, Go Yohan just flashed a quick smile.
"You're here, so stay put."
"Mom!"
"Yohan shouldn't treat his big sister like that. We're family."
"Big sis came?"
"...Crazy bastard. Aaaah!"
Who would have imagined it: Shin Sookyoung, one of Korea's pride-and-joy players, pinching Go Minji's arm while Go Minji screamed.
And in this place of miracles, no less.
Anyway.
"Welcome."
They had arrived at the newly completed temple.
"It's...."
Shin Sookyoung said.
"Truly a beautiful place."
No one could deny those words.
*
*
*
"Hey, the statue is seriously not okay."
"...I only found out later."
"Does that even make sense?"
"It did."
Seriously.
But he couldn't keep complaining in front of his mother.
Especially since.
"Unauthorized individuals will see this place as just a shabby building."
He was earnestly introducing the place to Cheol Jung-bae and his mother.
"In what way?"
"Watch."
Cheol Jung-bae tapped the air, manipulating something.
It was a temple management system that Gluttony had created.
Humm!
In an instant, their location shifted to a part of the chapel.
"Uh...?"
Shin Sookyoung and Go Minji both gasped in admiration at the seamless transition.
"Even though the two worlds are connected, unauthorized people can't interfere at all. It's as if those without divine permission can't even see or touch it."
It sounded ridiculous, but experiencing it firsthand made it easy to accept.
This was a space bordering on the miraculous, impossible to create in modern times—or even the future.
"...It's perfectly clear to me, though."
But Go Yohan's divine eyes could clearly see the world's boundaries and connections.
"That's because you're off-spec. The temple's output is calibrated to the Captain from the start. You're the benchmark."
"...Safest for him, then."
Go Minji said.
"Exactly. No defense system or structure can be breached unless it surpasses the Captain. I guarantee it."
Cheol Jung-bae puffed out his chest proudly.
"This is the world's safest sanctuary."
It was boasting well-deserved.
"Also, authorized personnel inside the sanctuary can adjust gravity and mana density at will."
"...Huh?"
"It means natural training even in daily life. No matter the regimen, it'll yield several to dozens of times the efficiency."
The shabby church had once again become a temple.
"Would you like to experience it?"
At Cheol Jung-bae's words, Go Minji nodded.
Bang!
Go Minji nearly toppled but dropped to one knee, bracing the ground.
The force was so immense it cracked the floor.
"S-Stop...."
"First-time setting might've been a bit much."
"Cough!"
Go Minji exhaled raggedly.
It was only a moment, but the change in her body was definite.
Of course.
Grip.
She wanted to slug Cheol Jung-bae.
"Would the Holy Mother like to try?"
"...Holy Mother?"
Before she could retort at the overly natural title, Shin Sookyoung had already nodded.
Thud.
Cracks spiderwebbed from beneath her feet.
A clear difference in consideration and response from Go Minji.
"...Truly astonishing."
Shin Sookyoung was genuinely impressed.
Whoosh.
Mana scattered from her body.
Its density and concentration grew.
"......!"
Shin Sookyoung's eyes widened in shock.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"It's just...."
Shin Sookyoung muttered in disbelief.
"My mana stat went up...."
In that brief moment, a notification rang that Shin Sookyoung's base stats had increased.