The Savior Chosen by Greed
Mari spoke up on behalf of Akemi, who was completely dazed by a plot development that was entirely different from any ordinary game. "Wait, then why on earth did the Goddess of Greed trap Yunjae in there?"
At that, a shadow fell over Lupinus's face, which had seemed nothing but cheerful until now.
"That's..."
For the first time, she wore a serious expression befitting a goddess.
"Because of Mamon."
"Mamon?"
While everyone tilted their heads in confusion,
"Ah! Does the Demon God Mamon really exist?"
Yunjae, the only one who knew of that existence, asked.
"Yes. That monster devoured the divine realm, and now he's trampling and conquering parallel dimensions."
"Devoured the divine realm! Don't tell me the other gods were defeated too?"
Even if he wanted to, Yunjae couldn't help but know the lore of Mamon Saga. At his question, which was full of background knowledge, Lupinus nodded with a sad face.
"I'm the only survivor. Back then, I didn't attend the banquet of the gods because I was indulging in my own greed."
But for some reason, her reason for surviving was incredibly bizarre.
"W-Wait a minute! What do you mean, indulging in your greed?!"
"I told you, I'm the Goddess of Greed! I have a bit of voyeurism, so I love watching beautiful boys! Besides, that banquet would've been full of nothing but stuffy old men anyway, so why would I bother going?"
So that was how she survived Mamon's onslaught!
"Ah..."
Even Yunjae was left utterly speechless by this shocking plot twist.
"A-Anyway, why is he doing such a thing?"
"He wants the seat of the Creator. But that's impossible. The only power granted to a Demon God is destruction and distortion. That's why he sends the Demon Kings, who serve as his hands and feet, to each world, aiming to reign supreme with all dimensions under his boots."
Akemi nodded seriously at those words.
"Fortunately, it seems the villain has a classic motivation."
"You dummy, that's not the important part!"
Then, Mari asked the question on everyone's mind.
"So you sent Yunjae into the game just to stop Mamon?"
Yunjae's current strength transcended imagination. If Goddess Lupinus had trained him specifically to stop Mamon, it would make perfect sense!
"Exactly. The countless portals opening in this world mean Mamon has targeted this place as his next destination."
"Ah!"
Everyone's eyes widened at that revelation. The monsters that had suddenly started appearing one day and attacking humans! To think it was all because of the Demon God Mamon, who sought to conquer all worlds!
"Then what about Cadmus or Halles?"
"They were probably meant to be the rulers of this world. Just in case, Cadmus was the first wave, and Halles was the second. But since they failed because of the regressors from the future and Yunjae, Mamon will focus his full attention on this world now."
With Lupinus's explanation, everything began to fall into place. Cadmus, Halles, and even the mastermind behind them!
"But... why me?"
If there was still one thing he couldn't understand, it was why it had to be him. Leaving the circumstances aside, Yunjae still didn't know why he was the one trapped and chosen to face the Demon God Mamon. In response to his questioning look, she pulled him into a tight hug.
"That's because..."
"...You were completely my type."
Lupinus gave her reason with absolute gravity, but—
"This woman, seriously!"
To everyone else, it was a completely ridiculous reason!
"But that's actually very important! I have to like you first to want to raise you, don't I?"
It was a surprisingly logical argument.
"True. No one wants to level up a character they don't like."
"Is this a game to you?!" Mari shouted, stopping Akemi, who had actually agreed with her.
"No, if it's that urgent, why don't you just step up yourself?!"
At Mari's indignant shout over the absurd reasoning, Lupinus shook her head.
"That's impossible. A god's power is determined by belief. To put it simply, popularity is power."
"Hmm..."
"Mamon is already gathering power by dominating multiple dimensions. The worlds that knew and worshipped me have already fallen under his control. And in this world, there isn't a single soul who even knows who I am."
"Ah..."
"So, I needed a proxy who could spread my name and unite humanity in my stead. And to regain my own power as well!"
Everyone had no choice but to agree with that logic.
"...But even so, if the power I received is yours, Goddess Lupinus, wouldn't it be insufficient to defeat Mamon?"
Yunjae soon raised another question. According to Lupinus, the gap in power between her and Mamon was already vast. If the game world of Mamon Saga was created with Lupinus's power, then no matter how strong Yunjae became, he shouldn't be able to overcome Mamon.
"Actually, I didn't make that world with my power. It's a world created by the Creator. That's why a human who grows within it can obtain infinitely vast power, completely independent of me."
"Ah! Did Mamon not know about such an important artifact?"
"I have a bit of a kleptomania streak! So I secretly stole it from the divine treasury beforehand!"
Befitting the Goddess of Greed, she even resorted to theft! Lupinus giggled and winked.
"She definitely seems like a goddess, but isn't that lady's morality highly questionable?"
"But she's the Goddess of Greed, so I don't even know what to say!"
Leaving behind Akemi, whose fantasy of a goddess had been shattered into pieces, Yunjae recalled the lore of Mamon Saga and nodded.
"So that's why Goddess Lupinus was the only deity inside Mamon Saga!"
"Exactly. It wasn't originally meant to be that kind of world..."
"Well, to sum it up, Yunjae was continuously trained in that world created by the Creator just to defeat Mamon. All because of the sole reason that he was your type!"
No matter how one looked at it, did this make any sense? Entrusting the fate of the world to someone just because his appearance suited her tastes!
"That's not all. While his looks are completely my type, more importantly, Yunjae possessed a character completely different from the others."
And once again, a shadow cast over Lupinus's face.
"Ah! Was I not the first?"
"No. There were three before you. I'm the Goddess of Greed, after all. So I thought the more greed a human harbored, the better they would utilize my power."
Recalling her failed predecessors, she let out a sigh.
"But they couldn't endure it."
"That world?"
"That was part of it, but the real problem came afterward. Because the flow of time in that world is different from the normal world, I sent them back fearing they would completely break if they stayed any longer. But once they returned, they became drunk on power and ruined themselves before they could even properly fight Mamon. All three of them, without exception."
Seeing her bitter smile, it seemed Lupinus had been quite emotionally scarred by the experience back then.
"Drunk on power... wasn't your selection process flawed from the start? Didn't you just pick them all based on their faces?!"
"I actually don't care about looks that much! Yunjae is just a special case!"
"...Is that true?"
"Well, maybe a little bit."
"See?!"
Why did this kind of goddess have to be the one to survive? While they were busy suspecting that the previous heroes must have also been slender, idol-like pretty boys, Lupinus protested her innocence.
"Anyway, they weren't like that at first! They had their own sense of justice and did well."
"Hmm..."
"But that's the thing about overwhelming power. Gradually, you start viewing the humans around you as mere ants. And when those 'ants' tried to manipulate them with their own hidden agendas, they rebelled and ended up trampling them instead."
"I suppose so."
"I thought those who carried scars would understand better—the position of the weak. But they didn't. They swore they would never live like they used to, and oh, that constant whining about things being 'cancerous'! If things didn't go their way, it was 'cancerous.' If someone helped others, they were called a 'sucker'!"
At Lupinus's highly agitated rant, which showed just how much stress she had endured, everyone could only offer a wry smile. That was something Mari and the others could easily understand. Even without looking far, most awakened ability users with power behaved exactly like that.
"Anyway, starting from there, they began to slip out of control. They even viewed me as someone trying to use and manipulate them, refusing to listen to a single word I said. They were simply drunk on their own desires."
"They went astray."
"Yes. They monopolized and amassed all wealth, tried to possess every beautiful woman, and decided that anyone different from them was wrong, trampling and destroying them. In the end, before they could even face Mamon, they became villains reigning over the world."
It was a truly disastrous failure.
"I don't need to tell you how that ended, right?"
At Lupinus's expression, which went beyond bitterness and looked almost on the verge of tears, everyone nodded with heavy faces.
"So I thought to myself: instead of an ordinary human who is easily corrupted by power, I must find someone truly kind and pure."
And then, she looked at Yunjae.
"And that was you."
"...Me?"
"When I lost world after world and finally arrived here, I was so consumed by despair that I couldn't do anything. Sunk in hopelessness, I disguised myself as a filthy homeless person. Back then, you were the only one who helped me."
At Lupinus's soft chuckle, Yunjae's eyes widened as if he suddenly remembered.
"Ah! That homeless mister back then!"
"Exactly! That was me!"
At those words, Mari, Akemi, and Suyeon all stared at Yunjae with eyes full of curiosity.
"A homeless mister?"
"When I first joined the b-boy crew, there was a man like that near our practice studio. So, while it wasn't all the time, I would bring him snacks and things whenever I saw him. But surely other people did the same..."
As he looked thoroughly embarrassed, Lupinus shook her head, indicating that wasn't all.
"You were the only one who, without a single trace of hesitation, tightly hugged a filthy homeless person whom others wouldn't even want to touch, telling me to hang in there and cheering me on with a bright smile."
It was an anecdote that was classic Yunjae. Hearing of his unwavering kindness, Mari, Akemi, and Suyeon all wore warm, fond expressions.
"That was when I decided. I knew that if it was you, you would surely succeed!"
And Yunjae, never imagining that such a small act would become the turning point of his life, wore a slightly awkward expression.
"...I see."
"Though, of course, your face was so completely my type that I didn't even need to think twice!"
"Ah! How could you!"
"This lady, seriously!"
"Anyway, my choice was perfect! I made three others into heroes before, but they all gave up halfway. None of them could endure the flow of time."
"The flow of time?"
Recalling Yunjae's words about how he felt like he was going crazy because only ten minutes had passed in reality even though it felt like an eternity, Mari asked the question, and Lupinus nodded.
"Although the play time was five hundred thousand hours, the actual perceived time amounted to thousands of years."
"My god..."
It hadn't been just fifty-seven years.
"Ah! So that's why! It wasn't just my imagination!"
It was truly a miracle that he had managed to maintain this level of sanity after spending such an unimaginably long time.
"Yes, that's why the others couldn't hold on mentally! None of them even managed to reach Mamon!"
Everyone flinched at those words. Well, of course they couldn't, considering you picked them solely based on their faces!
"But Yunjae cleared it a whopping one thousand times! And all by himself! He even reached the absolute max level!"
Indeed, putting aside his natural pretty-boy looks, his mental fortitude was nothing short of transcendent.
"Ah, I was just trying my best to survive..."
Since she was showering him with nothing but praise, Yunjae looked thoroughly embarrassed.
"Still, a thousand times over thousands of years..."
"I've always believed that if I'm going to do something, I should do it perfectly..."
If there was one truly terrifying thing about him, it was that even when he excelled, he never did anything halfway.
"Being alone was risky, but I constantly looked after you by transforming into Aunt Rosa."
"So that's why I always felt better after meeting Aunt Rosa!"
In any case, equipped with innate diligence, he was the man who had ultimately conquered Mamon Saga!
"Yes! You are hope itself to me!"
It was no wonder Lupinus doted on Yunjae so much.
"And above all, your face is just so completely my style!"
"Ah! Goddess Lupinus!"
"I love it when you get flustered