Hoeek, the Newbie Has Gone Mad

“With this, I could push either Strength or Sense past a thousand once I activate a skill.”

After a long while listening to the Transcendents’ unsolicited advice, I prepared for Impossible Difficulty Floor 9.

The longer I spent in the real world, the higher the chance I’d run into the raid party still climbing from the first basement floor.

I exchanged only a few words with the Transcendents before leaving the Tower and heading straight for the park.

There were plenty of landscaped parks near Hwarang Lake, but gathering a hundred thousand Legion resources meant I needed a lot of trees. Before long the parks around me started turning into wastelands.

“Haram, aren’t we definitely going to get caught?”

“That’s why we have to get strong before they notice.”

Parks that had been thick with trees only a few hours earlier were now barren. Unless the government was completely incompetent, they would soon realize something was wrong in Ansan.

Whether they would actually send the military was another matter. Normally they would request cooperation from the Heavenly Palace Guild and form an investigation team.

But the expedition had ended only three hours ago, and most awakeners were still recovering from the fatigue. Even in the best case, an investigation team would take several days to arrive.

“I checked the hunter community. My personal info doesn’t seem to be spreading yet.”

“Really? A lot of people saw us, didn’t they?”

“Almost no one except the high-rankers who were with the Empress.”

Whenever I had spare time I browsed the hunter community looking for any mention of our Legion or myself. Stories about the Legion had already spread worldwide, but nothing about my appearance or the hoodie I had been wearing.

“There were fifteen high-rankers inside the citadel… they probably clamped down hard and classified it as top secret.”

After leaving the citadel I had reactivated Stealth and collected corpses while avoiding as many eyes as possible. The only ones who had seen me were the high-rankers with the Empress—guild masters and vice-masters of major guilds.

People who knew all about the villains operating in the shadows had no reason to broadcast the identity of an Impossible Difficulty user.

“Still, it won’t last forever, right?”

“Exactly. So we get strong fast. And this hoodie… it really is a villain item, isn’t it…”

While melting corpses inside the citadel I had watched carefully to see if anyone recognized the hoodie. No one realized it was an item.

I had never heard of a mental-defense item in that form even while working at the Heavenly Palace Guild. The brainwashed woman I met on the first floor was almost certainly from a villain organization.

“Anyway, Legion resources are all gathered. How’s the gate clearing going?”

‘We have permanently closed twelve F-rank gates and four E-rank gates.’

“Got it. Keep the magic stones safe.”

‘Understood.’

While I was clearing the Tower, the Void Ponds I had built on Earth continued producing Legion units and clearing gates. Previously I had avoided closing gates for fear of exposing my hideout.

Now that we would be leaving Ansan soon anyway, the Legion ran wild. We closed multiple gates, collected magic stones and items, and stuffed every magic stone into Subspace.

“At this rate… maybe about fifty thousand in Legion resources?”

“That’s all?”

“The ranks are low. And the conversion efficiency is worse than I expected.”

Magic stones currently filled about ten percent of my inventory. They gave a lot of resources for their size, but converting them into Legion resources was an enormous waste of money compared to selling them to the government or a guild.

“Roughly a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠million won for a hundred Legion resources…?”

A single Void Hound cost two million won, so in a way it was cheap. But a ten-meter tree gave around five thousand resources. Building a Legion with magic stones was still a massive money sink.

“Well, if I’m about to die, money’s not the issue. I’m not in a position to worry about cash.”

“Woof!”

“Don’t worry, Poppy. I’ve got enough for your pork cutlets.”

“Me too! Me too!”

I couldn’t put trees into my inventory anyway. Back when I worked at the Heavenly Palace Guild I had earned more than enough money. If I needed cash I could always reclaim my old identity.

Even without that, my current abilities offered endless ways to make money. Right now was not the time to hoard magic stones—I needed to burn through them freely, climb the Tower, and get stronger.

I dumped the magic stones piled beside the Void Pond into my inventory and entered Impossible Difficulty Floor 9.

“Huh? A lesser god appears here?”

“How can something as trashy as a goblin be a lesser god?!”

Lucy threw a weird tantrum, but that wasn’t important right now.

“…Lucy?”

“Po-Poppy! Let’s go swimming!”

“Woof?”

Lucy grabbed Poppy and bolted for a corner. But this was a safe zone sealed on all sides by white walls. There was nowhere to run.

I checked the posts I had written in the Transcendent Gallery. A few hours earlier, a post I had never written had appeared under my name.

“…Lucy?”

“Po-Poppy! Break this wall for me!”

“Woof?”

“Haa… It’s fine, just come here.”

“…You’re not gonna hit me?”

“I said it’s fine. Hurry up.”

“Hehe… Well, one thing led to another… Kyaang!”

I left Lucy clutching her head with both hands and checked the conversation she had with the Transcendents. Through chatting with her they had learned that Lucy was my newly acquired summon.

“I was going to share it eventually anyway…”

The Transcendents needed an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠accurate picture of my combat power to give solid advice. Lucy’s arrival was information they would have learned sooner or later. The real problem was that Lucy could access the system without going through me. That was a serious issue.

“Lucy, how did you get into the Transcendent Gallery?”

“Um… you’re not gonna hit me, right?”

“When have I ever hit you?”

“Hiek! Hands down! No violence!”

A little physical persuasion finally got Lucy talking.

“Haram left the system window open while doing other stuff… so I went over and poked it and it worked?”

“Hmm… anything besides the Transcendent Gallery?”

“The hunter community worked too! But nothing else.”

“So you tried other things as well?”

“Uung? …Kyaang!”

I opened the system window and had Lucy try to operate it. She could access the hunter community and the Transcendent Gallery, but shop windows, status windows, and other sections did not respond.

“From now on, ask permission first.”

“Hiiing… Wait, I can still do it?!”

“Look at the hunter community with your eyes only. Comments and posts only in the Transcendent Gallery.”

“Okay! Got it!”

“And tell me if anything special happens.”

Having a manager for the Void Ponds had lightened the load, but while clearing floors I was still too busy managing the Legion to check the Transcendent Gallery. After that little incident I turned my attention back to Floor 9’s objectives.

“Whatever it is, I’ll just have to crash into it.”

In the end you only know by fighting. With Lucy around, most lesser gods were manageable.

“By the way, if there are lesser gods, are there mid-rank gods too?”

“Huh? Of course there are.”

According to the Transcendents, mid-rank gods existed, and above them upper-rank and supreme-rank gods as well.

“Of course? Haram, you’ve never seen one?”

“I’ve only ever seen lesser gods.”

I had cleared countless S-rank gates on Earth and run into lesser gods multiple times, but a mid-rank god had never appeared.

The Transcendents said that while lesser and mid-rank gods were only one tier apart, the combat power gap was extreme. You needed to be at the level of a Hard Difficulty full-clear user just to attempt one.

“Is the Jester Knight mid-rank god level? Or… even stronger?”

I posted the question in the Transcendent Gallery, but—

“So the Jester Knight is around the level of a solo lesser god?”

All sorts of thoughts surfaced, but gauging the Jester Knight’s level in the current situation was impossible. High-rankers had clashed with it multiple times on Hard Difficulty Floor 92, yet the Jester Knight always toyed with them like they were playthings.

The clear method I had proposed for Floor 92 wasn’t about beating the Jester Knight—it was about avoiding it and fulfilling the clear conditions.

“Well, for now I just have to take down the Goblin King.”

“Leave the trash goblins to me!”

“Woof!”

Lucy transformed her hands into ghostly forms and shouted.

The safe zone vanished and the familiar ruins appeared.

“Woof! Woof!”

“Ukki-kki!”

And filling those ruins was the Legion. Countless Void Hounds and Void Monkeys greeted us.

‘My Queen, goblins are pouring up the stairs connected to the fourth basement floor.’

The Legion was positioned on the third basement floor. Whether the Goblin King was a lesser god or just a slightly stronger monster didn’t matter.

The Legion does not lose.