Chapter 261
I Became the Successor of the Martial God
Chapter 261.
“There’s too much work.”
In the room assigned to him in the Magic Tower, Yoo Baek-jun muttered to himself.
“What’s with this amount of paperwork…? When did it pile up like this?”
The work he was handling was the backlog of tasks from the Sword Saint family.
Groaning, Yoo Baek-jun stamped one document after another.
‘What even is this business? And this is a report from the Jeju branch…’
His head was spinning.
After wrestling with the paperwork for a long time, Yoo Baek-jun threw down his pen.
“Ugh! I can’t do this anymore!”
He slumped back into his chair.
Staring blankly ahead, he noticed two little creatures playing on the floor.
A fairy and Seol-yeong.
—Seol-yeong, sit!
—Meow?
—Seol-yeong, wait!
—Mroow?
“…It’s not a dog.”
He didn’t know where the fairy had gotten the idea, but the fairy was trying to train Seol-yeong with nonsensical commands.
Naturally, Seol-yeong just tilted its head and ignored her.
—Eek! That stupid box? I saw it there! The trainer? The person was doing this and that…!
—Mrooow?
“You and Seol-yeong are probably on the same intellectual level, but bringing up animal trainers is a bit…”
The fairy let out a screech.
—Hey! I’m the older one here! I’m way smarter than Seol-yeong!
—Mroooow!
“Seol-yeong doesn’t seem to agree?”
Seol-yeong vehemently shook its head as if to say she was the smarter one.
The fairy huffed.
—You stupid human! Bullying me again! After I went out of my way to help you hold hands with that human girl!
“Hey!”
This time, it was Yoo Baek-jun’s turn to yell. He slammed the desk.
“Whose fault is it that things got awkward?! Huh? You did it for my sake?”
—Yeah! You’re always so frustrating, hesitating this way and that… I helped you make some progress this time, and you don’t even appreciate it!
“Seriously, this kid…”
Yoo Baek-jun let out a hollow laugh.
It was absurd, but he couldn’t help but wonder where she’d learned such things.
“Have you been watching TV lately?”
—Yup, I watch with the dwarves. They’re always watching those dramas? And every time, they say the same thing.
“What?”
—They say humans are so frustrating! If it were them, they’d chug a cold beer, grab the girl’s hand, and head straight to bed—
“Stop talking. I don’t want to hear anymore.”
Yoo Baek-jun groaned.
Dwarves were a race where the women were just as wild as the men.
It was a mental image he’d rather not have.
—Ahem, human. So, say thank you to this kind fairy.
“…….”
Yoo Baek-jun’s face stiffened.
His expression looked like he was suppressing rage. But soon, he forced a smile.
An awkward, unnatural smile.
“Y-Yeah. Thanks, fairy.”
—Hehe, grateful, aren’t you? Thanks to me, you got to hold hands and all. Right? Right?
“Uh, yeah. That’s right… Since I’m so grateful, there’s something I want to give you. Want it?”
—What? A present? Human, you’ve finally learned what gratitude is.
The fairy giggled and approached. Yoo Baek-jun clenched his fist tightly.
“You damn fairy!”
—Kyaaak! A human hitting a fairy!
—M-Mrooow!
Yoo Baek-jun made a threatening gesture, and the fairy, startled, hid behind Seol-yeong.
Seol-yeong was equally startled.
—Bad human. You’re just lashing out because you have nothing to say, right?
—Bad human.
Listening to them was giving him a headache.
Yoo Baek-jun sighed deeply and tossed them some snacks he’d prepared earlier.
—Wow! Chocolate!
—Meat!
“You little gluttons.”
The fairy loved sweet things like chocolate to an extreme degree.
The problem was that Delowin usually forbade her from eating them, saying they were bad for her health.
‘Does it even matter for a World Tree?’
He wasn’t sure.
But throwing chocolate at the noisy fairy was a surefire way to shut her up.
“Sigh, how did I end up picking up that troublemaker and suffering like this?”
Yoo Baek-jun rested his chin on his hand and watched the two engrossed in their snacks.
His mind was complicated.
It wasn’t because of Jin Seo-yeon.
‘Black Shadow.’
It was because of the existence of Black Shadow, who had now begun to act in earnest.
Black Shadow’s appearance meant that the story of Part 2 was officially unfolding.
‘When Part 2 ends, the game ends too.’
And then.
‘I can go back.’
That was what Yoo Baek-jun wanted.
To return home. Not to this place, but to the world he originally lived in.
‘It’s not bad here, but…’
Staying here wasn’t terrible.
But no matter how okay it was, this wasn’t the world where ‘I’ belonged.
It was just a game—no, an unfamiliar world whose true nature he couldn’t discern.
He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life here as ‘Yoo Baek-jun.’
‘Kill the Evil Dragon. Then I can see the game’s ending.’
If he defeated the main boss of Part 2, he could see the ending of his route.
The main boss changed depending on special conditions, and for Yoo Baek-jun, it was currently the Evil Dragon.
But there was something bothering him.
“Will I really be able to see the ending?”
That was it.
This Yoo Baek-jun route had a few things even ‘I’ didn’t know about.
The biggest was the Tower of the Martial God.
And the words Yoo Moo-hak had left behind.
‘The number of floors in the Tower of the Martial God has increased, and Yoo Moo-hak left some cryptic words before leaving.’
Especially, the conversation with Yoo Moo-hak was something even ‘I’ had never experienced before.
Despite countless playthroughs, this pattern had never appeared.
‘It’s too coincidental to be random.’
Especially since these changes only happened after he entered the game.
He couldn’t even be sure if this place was truly inside a game.
Yoo Baek-jun recalled the words Yoo Moo-hak had said to him before leaving.
—The reason the Martial God founded the family might be related to the mastermind behind the gates appearing in this world.
He didn’t know the details.
But the Sword Saint family—or rather, the family before it became the Sword Saint family—was needed to fight and defeat that mastermind.
‘Yoo Moo-hak had always intended to make me the family head, no matter what Yoo Tae-rang did.’
Because Yoo Baek-jun—no, ‘I’—was the only one who could restore the family to what it should have been.
Using the Tower of the Martial God.
“…….”
Yoo Baek-jun let out a long sigh.
They had burdened someone who just wanted to clear the game with unnecessary weight.
‘Yoo Moo-hak…’
Yoo Moo-hak.
Even in Heroes Road, he was a figure shrouded in mystery.
The head of the Sword Saint family, yet there was almost no concrete information about him.
‘Why did he neglect the family? Why didn’t he act like a father?’
To be blunt.
If Yoo Moo-hak had truly wanted to, Yoo Tae-rang’s rebellion would never have happened.
‘Survival of the fittest, the strong devour the weak.’
He knew that was the core ideology of the Sword Saint family.
But it was excessive.
“I’ve always felt this way, but Yoo Moo-hak… seems to have no attachment to the family.”
Family, relatives.
Yoo Moo-hak seemed to have no particular attachment to any of it.
In fact, he didn’t even seem to have emotions. Not in a cold or indifferent way.
‘It’s different from Yoo Tae-rang…’
How should he put it?
It felt like looking at someone whose emotions had been worn down over time.
As if all emotion had been erased from him.
“Is it just my imagination, or…”
Is there something in Yoo Moo-hak’s background that hasn’t been revealed yet?
Yoo Baek-jun clicked his tongue.
“I can’t figure it out. I just can’t.”
“Family Head.”
As he slumped into his chair, An Song-hyuk entered the room.
“Intruders have breached the tower. They seem to be targeting the Magic Tower.”
“Again?”
Yoo Baek-jun sounded exasperated.
As he had predicted, villains were attacking the Magic Tower.
Those who had always coveted the World Tree had noticed that the tower’s defenses were down.
“Do I have to go out and stop them myself?”
“No. This time…”
Until now, Yoo Baek-jun had personally dealt with the intruders.
But this time was different.
“…The Floating Island has arrived.”
“Oh?”
That was welcome news.
“Now this, I’ve got to see.”
Yoo Baek-jun pulled up a screen.
It was a magical item that displayed the outside scenery. The image showed the exterior defense barrier.
Mages and swordsmen were guarding the area near the collapsed barrier.
And beyond it.
—Hahaha! Damned Magic Tower bastards, today’s the day you meet your end!
—Heheh, Magic Tower scum. This time, we won’t fail… We’ll sell off everything, the tower and the World Tree!
Over the sea, a massive number of villains were spouting typical villain lines.
It seemed multiple villain groups had joined forces for this attack.
“How many times is this now?”
“About the sixth time, I believe.”
“Annoying. So annoying.”
How long had it been since the rebellion, and they were already under attack six times?
Yoo Baek-jun sighed.
‘They even brought flight items. They’ve prepared a lot.’
Magical items powered by magic stones, resembling oversized drones.
Using those, they could fly a certain distance.
“There must be ships nearby.”
“Yes, I’ll send people to check.”
“Hmm, let’s see how this plays out.”
Yoo Baek-jun stared at the villains.
—Kill them all and loot everything. Let’s go!
Right then, the villains charged.
The Magic Tower’s forces made no move to counter. They simply waited.
Oooooom…
—Good, atta—!
Just as the Floating Island arrived.
The villains heard a loud, resonant noise but ignored it and rushed forward.
And just as they were about to break through the collapsed barrier and reach the island—
Kwaaaaang!
A barrage of light rays indiscriminately rained down from behind them.
Straight-line beams of light.
—Kuaaaack!
—Ugh, aah…!
The beams obliterated the villains’ bodies in an instant. Those who barely dodged were shot down by the subsequent volley.
The panicked villains turned to look behind them.
There stood the Floating Island.
“Took you long enough.”
The Floating Island’s defense systems mercilessly attacked the villains.
Once the mages on the ground joined in, the villains were swiftly annihilated.
“This should make things easier.”
“I’ll inform the senior mages to use the Floating Island for defense.”
“Mhm. And… the specialists?”
Yoo Baek-jun had been waiting for the Floating Island’s arrival. Partly to ease the tower’s defense.
But there was a bigger reason.
“Interrogation specialists, including Ho-yeon, have arrived.”
“Good, tell them to start immediately.”
Ho-yeon had once interrogated Shin Woo-hyun and made him spill everything he knew.
Along with other specialists, they needed to work with the mages to extract information about the Black Shadow.
From Dante.
“Have them join us and head underground.”
“Understood.”
* * *
The Evil Dragon gathered his followers and formed an organization called Black Shadow.
‘The name itself…’
Black Shadow, the dark shadow.
It felt like they were following the Evil Dragon from the shadows, or something like that.
In any case, Dante was one of Black Shadow’s executives and a hybrid.
‘Originally human, I think.’
A person from this world, chosen by the Evil Dragon and granted the Dragon’s essence.
The other executives likely received the same essence.
And among them, Dante was…
“He’s like the weakest of our Four Heavenly Kings… or something like that.”
“Huh?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Ho-yeon, standing beside him, looked puzzled.
Dante was careless and didn’t bother improving himself.
Among the executives, Dante was one of the more manageable foes.
“This guy’s a tricky one. I’m not sure if the interrogation will work.”
“This is my first time interrogating a Dragonkin. They have various resistances, so it won’t be easy.”
Yoo Baek-jun stood before the door leading to the underground prison.
“We’ll use every means necessary to make him talk.”
“Sounds good.”
Yoo Baek-jun opened the door.
Creeeak—
Beyond it was Dante, covered in blood.
“…….”