Chapter 184
Chapter 184
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: The Pulsing Fruit
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The massive fruit took on the same appearance as the heart he had seen in the Onda Guild.
Thump, thump.
That sight was one of the reasons Yusehwa, the World Tree, was even more enraged.
The cultivation facility he had seen in Travanian was far more grotesque and violent than it had been back then.
But the one he had seen underground in Onda was different.
'Grotesque, but.'
On one hand, it exuded a strange beauty.
It resembled that.
Thump.
The form of a beating heart.
'The World Tree's fruit.'
It was the same as the World Tree's cultivation facility, where elves were born.
Travanian's fall, the extinction of the World Trees.
Through that, the demons had clearly advanced their research on cultivation facilities.
And.
Thump!
It seemed they had achieved satisfactory results.
Rustle!
Twigs were extending from within the fruit.
Inside it, Park Dong-wook floated with his eyes wide open.
-I'll do anything.
That was the response when he handed over the feature phone containing his family photo.
-I know I'm in no position to say this. My body and soul are yours.
In any other situation, it might have been a confession that made his toes curl.
-But one promise... could you make it?
Park Dong-wook had said.
-If you just make that promise, truly... even if you have no need for it, I will devote everything and pledge my loyalty.
So he asked.
-What is it?
What was the promise he so desperately desired.
-Don't compromise.
Compromise.
-The ones who ruined my life, stole my wife, turned the Holy Knight into that state.
Park Dong-wook's value might have been beyond imagination.
He was likely the only demonkin born through a cultivation facility in both Travanian and Earth.
-Promise me you'll hunt them down to the end, without compromise.
And he answered.
-I will.
It wasn't something to promise from the start.
It was the vow Go Yohan had made to himself, the oath offered to the Goddess.
It was the pact he had reaffirmed dozens of times when he abandoned everything and threw himself toward the Hell Gate.
-Thank you.
And Park Dong-wook had kept his promise as well.
-I don't know much, but I can feel that I've become something special.
Mana he could use without the system.
A body that transformed like a whip.
And.
Rustle.
Yusehwa's twigs extended further.
Stab!
Piercing into Park Dong-wook.
"......!"
Park Dong-wook's eyes bulged in agony, but he didn't open his mouth to exhale.
He simply endured the immense pain.
Soon.
Swish.
The wound healed, and the twig burrowed even deeper.
'Regeneration.'
He possessed the demons' regeneration, which neither ordinary humans nor players had.
-I will become the test subject.
He had lost everything due to experiments, yet he volunteered to become one again.
-Take whatever you can gain through me.
Amid that deep rage.
-Please use it. Please save the Holy Knight.
He was one who felt deep love.
And now.
Crunch!
The experiment was underway.
Park Dong-wook, fearing loss once more, endured the pain with wide-open eyes, unable to even sleep.
"Earth seems purer than Travanian."
Yusehwa, who had approached unnoticed, said.
"Why?"
"It's been a long time since I've seen such intense will and familial love."
Did Park Dong-wook know?
That even this pain tearing his flesh, shredding his muscles, was infused with Yusehwa's consideration and tenderness.
"Perhaps."
The energies he possessed and the World Tree's energy were polar opposites.
That Yusehwa was even taking on part of the pain he should have borne.
"There might still be hope in this place."
It was then.
Gurgle!
Unable to endure the pain any longer, Park Dong-wook rolled back his eyes and vomited foam.
"......!"
Yusehwa hurriedly tried to pull out the twig.
"Stop."
Go Yohan stopped her.
"Not yet, not yet."
Go Yohan pointed at Park Dong-wook trapped inside the fruit.
Veins bulged across his face.
Blood seeped from his tightly clenched lips, spreading out.
His pupils, whites only moments ago.
'It's fine. This much is.'
Seemed to say as they returned to normal, gazing at Go Yohan.
*
*
*
A month had passed.
The World Association remained silent on talk of Korea's downfall or whatever.
-A new president...
America had elected a new president, but Korea had not yet.
As if.
-Procedures for unification...
No such position was needed.
As if the one who should be at the top was already there, National Assembly members and ministers moved to stabilize Korea.
The ones contributing the most there were Go Jaehan and Shin Sookyung.
Their experience and connections as chaebol and military powers over long years, clashing with authority, were irreplaceable.
-Gates haven't appeared for a full month now...
-Voices worry about depletion of Gate resources...
A month had passed since Gates stopped appearing and players' activities halted.
People had anticipated massive chaos.
-The halt in Gate activities is a blessing, but as for how players losing power will respond...
-In serious cases...
They even predicted riots.
It was a world of players where invisible violence had run rampant, so their grudges and rage would erupt.
Even without that, psychiatrists' opinions that players losing power might show mental breakdowns due to helplessness were common.
-The Korea Association announced that players maintaining the system in Korea now number in the double digits.
Yet, no rough movements from players were visible.
No.
Tap, tap.
They weren't visible.
"You crazy bastard, lost your power and tried to terrorize the Association?"
Lurking in those shadows, there were those who moved ceaselessly.
Black Watch.
They had always been busy without rest over the years, but the past month had been especially so.
"Whew..."
"Is that it for today?"
With Kang In suddenly awakened, running the Black Watch for the Onda matter, and rooting out even the things he had left for necessity.
-Korea's crime rate: 0.1 per 100,000. World's lowest—is it someone's sleight of hand?
Rumors even circulated that crimes were being covered up.
"Bullshit."
Black Watch members knew.
"They're gone, I tell you. Petty crooks might stir a bit."
They knew it was the Black Watch that had stamped out everything.
However, it seemed they were reaching their limit now.
Rumble.
Vibration sounds rang out simultaneously to Black Watch members.
"Fuck... again?"
"Where this time."
Black Watch members checked their messages at once, their expressions changing.
"The Triad."
They began to move.
*
*
*
Go Yohan quietly closed his eyes.
"Goddess."
A prayer offered after a long time.
In this prayer, Go Yohan desired nothing.
It was merely an outburst of will, offering all glory to the Goddess and taking all sins upon himself.
"For Your honor."
As Her first knight.
"For Your well-being."
As Her sole saint.
"For Your..."
Swish.
"Eternity."
Go Yohan opened his eyes after finishing the prayer.
For a moment, the landscape reflected in Go Yohan's eyes looked like paradise in heaven, but the reality was different.
Roar.
The flowing rainbow-colored river was a mixture of blood from countless monsters.
Wriggle.
The tall hill was a mountain made of all sorts of monster corpses.
Atop it, what looked like a bare tree.
'Ogre Knight.'
Merely the raised arm of some boss monster.
This place.
"Hoo."
Was hell itself.
He felt no particular emotion about it.
It wasn't something dreamed up and created.
"About done sorting?"
It was simply work that had to be done.
He had to clean up the Magic Tower's core, where A-rank Gates were gathered.
"Sehwa."
At Go Yohan's call.
Rustle.
From all around, twigs and roots began to reveal themselves.
Soon, they took root, forming a bizarre maze-like shape.
-It seems up to the 60th floor is sorted.
Yusehwa's voice. Go Yohan had spent the past month taking down two floors a day.
Defeating thousands of monsters.
"Heading to the next floor."
Go Yohan said.
The upper floors of the Magic Tower above would surely be an incomparable hell.
Hundreds of Gates had merged.
'And hundreds more Gates have appeared.'
Hundreds of Gates that hadn't appeared outside during that time reemerged here.
Some filled the lower floors with the monsters he had defeated, but the upper floors were different.
-There's an abnormal reaction in the upper floors. Better not to proceed until checked.
Monsters were being created.
As Yusehwa predicted.
-'Around the 90th floor, my power doesn't reach. Something is pushing it back.'
As if something powerful enough to repel even Yusehwa's influence had been born.
It didn't matter.
"I'll just take it down."
Sword and flesh.
No, even flesh alone, charging ahead recklessly—that was Go Yohan.
-Human males are all that stubborn and reckless by nature?
Rustle.
The trembling twig conveyed Yusehwa's voice, laced with what felt like a sigh.
-Or are you just particularly peculiar?
At those nagging words.
Scratch.
Go Yohan scratched his cheek.
'She's angry, huh.'
In Travanian, meetings with Yusehwa were rare.
-'Marry me.'
He mostly heard a few words and dodged.
But on Earth, they spent days stuck together, talking.
-It can't be helped.
Go Yohan felt she had a temperament different from what he thought.
-Good news. One fruit has dropped.
"......!"
-How about it? Feel like coming down now? "I'll go right now."
-Really, should I just kill you?