Chapter 421
Chapter 421
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 421
Chapter Title: Racial War (60)
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Daiar met Park Chan-woo's gaze but couldn't utter a single word.
There was no logic to refute it.
No, the will to even dare refute it didn't arise.
She had been revived by his hand at death's door and shown a new path through his teachings.
The other dragonkin warriors were the same.
They were still filled with confusion and bewilderment.
...But no one dared show any hostility toward Park Chan-woo.
They had tried to kill him, yet he had saved their lives and granted them new enlightenment.
Caught in this contradictory relationship, they could only remain silent, unsure of how to act.
Whether he knew of the dragons' complicated emotions or not, Park Chan-woo no longer spared them a glance.
As if all business was concluded, he turned away without hesitation and began walking toward the next gateway.
In this stage where all racial traits were sealed by the authority of the 'Overlord' he had established, he alone was free.
Tap, tap.
His steady footsteps echoed through the silent battlefield.
With every step he took, golden remnants of divine power shimmered around him, and the path he passed seemed purified by an invisible force.
Those watching this silence and procession weren't just the dragonkin.
The warriors of other superior races, who had been observing everything from the previous gateway, were also at a loss for words, doubting their own eyes.
"...What the hell is going on?"
A giant race warrior muttered in disbelief.
He had clearly witnessed his own god Hecate's authority reduced to a mere pebble before that human's law.
And now, even the dragonkin seemed to kneel at his feet.
'The Twilight Race has already become his shadow, Sloth Dragon Darkan was on his side from the start, and now even the other dragonkin, including the Radiant Clan, are showing this ambiguous attitude?'
The balance of the superior league was shifting in a direction utterly different from what they had imagined.
This should have been a battlefield of clashing blows.
What was this?
The two strongest pillars among the twelve races—dragonkin and twilight race—were being eroded by a single human named Park Chan-woo.
Their minds tangled in complexity.
But they couldn't recklessly charge at the current Park Chan-woo either.
In this relay under the 'Overlord' authority, they were no different from beasts with clipped wings and pulled teeth.
Their only weapon was their trained flesh.
But that human had used magic without any restrictions.
Caught in this dilemma with no way forward or back, they could only watch Park Chan-woo's next move.
They saw it.
As if by prior agreement, or like iron filings drawn to a massive magnet, the Twilight Race warriors moved first, silently lining up behind Park Chan-woo's back.
Sloth Dragon Darkan followed, shrugging his shoulders.
It was truly a spectacle.
All the warriors of every race parted before his path.
The warrior who should have been the weakest had become the untouchable strongest, moving freely.
Park Chan-woo casually stepped over the wreckage of the shattered first gateway.
The dust hadn't even settled yet.
There was no hesitation or emotion in his steps.
Like kicking aside roadside pebbles, he indifferently passed the traces of the wondrous destruction he had wrought.
Behind him followed hundreds of shadows in eerie silence.
The dragonkin warriors, including Radiant Dragon Daiar and Sloth Dragon Darkan.
The Twilight Race, following him reverently as if serving the God of Shadows.
And even the other superior race warriors trailing from afar, reluctantly or as if entranced, keeping their distance.
No one opened their mouth.
There was no battle.
No bloody struggle, no cunning traps, no fierce tactical contests.
Not a single chaos that should have unfolded in the 'Crown of the Weakest Relay' occurred.
The battlefield everyone had anticipated had transformed into a silent pilgrimage led by a single god.
"...".
The giant race warrior clenched his fist tightly.
He was furious.
But at the same time, powerless.
In this space where even his god couldn't reach, that human was the sole law.
The path he took was the law itself, and his will was the world's natural order.
He had already learned bone-deep that opposing him was as futile as headbutting a wall.
Park Chan-woo paid no heed to their tangled emotions.
He pressed on silently toward the next gateway.
The relay's mist parted before him of its own accord, and the cursed earth groaned and purified beneath his feet.
Finally, he reached the second gateway.
A massive pair of scales hung from iron chains, exuding an ominous aura.
The system's message was clear.
The sins of those who climbed by fighting, killing, and taking would become the gate's weight, testing the crown's owner.
That was the relay's original design.
But.
"...".
Daiar gave a bitter smile.
'Sins,' huh.
What had happened at the first gateway wasn't battle.
It was one-sided destruction and salvation.
There were no sinners, no deaths caused by it.
This gateway had been meaningless to them from the start.
All eyes turned to Park Chan-woo.
How would he open this 'weightless' gate?
Park Chan-woo raised Baal's sword and lightly tapped the tip against the ground.
Crackle—!
The small impact spread as a massive wave across the entire battlefield.
Golden cracks began spiderwebbing out from beneath his feet.
As if the path he walked was law itself, his divinity was overwriting the relay's outdated rules once more.
The cracks reached the second gateway in an instant.
And instead of parting a path, they fiercely burrowed into the gateway itself.
Kwaaaaa—!
Like the first, the second gateway scattered into dust with an explosion.
It vanished futilely without resistance or even a meaningful sound.
Since the gate's weight was zero, the force needed to destroy it naturally converged to zero as well.
Park Chan-woo had merely demonstrated that obvious truth as an overwhelming phenomenon.
Once again, he casually stepped over the debris of what he had shattered and headed onward.
The third gateway.
The fourth gateway.
The fifth gateway.
Trials continued to appear along the path to the relay's end.
But all of them were mere decorations before Park Chan-woo.
There was no fighting.
No hardships or adversities.
Just a single god advancing as naturally as a pilgrimage through his own territory.
Park Chan-woo was the sole protagonist of this relay; they were mere spectators or extras adorning a page of the myth he unfolded.
Anger and resistance had long faded.
All that remained was vague curiosity about what awaited at the end of this bizarre procession.
And so.
Ding!
Earth's sky was nothing short of a massive theater.
Seoul's plazas, New York's Times Square, Paris's Champs-Élysées.
Billions of people worldwide had stopped everything to stare unblinkingly at the screens floating in the sky, the live broadcast of the 'Crown of the Weakest Relay'.
At first, it was shock and joy.
When Park Chan-woo donned the 'Crown of the Weakest', everyone despaired.
But his arrogant 'Overlord' authority neutralizing all superior races, and blasting the primordial gateway with a basic spell 'Heavenly Punishment', delivered pure catharsis.
"This is totally cheating, right? Thank God he's on our side!"
"Dragons, giants—they all look like idiots! Serves them right!"
"Go, Park Chan-woo! Crush those arrogant bastards' noses flat!"
The mood heated up.
Earthlings anticipated how Park Chan-woo would use this advantageous board to deal with the other races, especially the dragonkin who had threatened humanity.
They awaited a satisfying revenge drama trampling their arrogance, delivering humiliation, and elevating humanity's status.
But their expectations veered in an utterly unforeseen direction.
Even as the dragonkin warriors' bodies twisted grotesquely toward self-destruction, people cheered.
"Serves them right! Hoisted by their own petard!"
"That's heavenly punishment! The price for underestimating us humans!"
But the cheers didn't last.
Park Chan-woo moved.
Yet his steps weren't aimed at finishing off the dragons.
Let me teach you.
How to wield magic.
The moment his voice echoed across Earth via the system, all noise ceased.
People doubted their ears.
"...What did he just say?"
"Teach them? The dragons? Why?"
They could only exchange bewildered looks.
They were the enemy.
Until just recently, unforgivable foes who had driven humanity to the brink in the 'Earth Relay'.
Yet Park Chan-woo was saving them—ones who deserved execution by their own hands.
Internet communities exploded.
All sorts of speculation and debates flew back and forth, but no one grasped Park Chan-woo's true intent.
People were ecstatic at his miracles yet deeply anxious about his incomprehensible actions.
A god saving the enemy.
Was it mercy, or a paving stone for another grand scheme?
Or the whim of an unpredictable madman?
But the following scenes rendered all arguments meaningless.
Park Chan-woo spared no further glance at the saved dragonkin and resumed walking toward the next gateway.
Then, a bizarre sight unfolded.
"Wha... what is that?"
A dazed exclamation burst from a citizen watching the screen at Gwanghwamun Square.
The dragonkin and Twilight Race began lining up reverently behind Park Chan-woo, as if they had been his escort from the beginning.
Even the other superior races followed reluctantly or entranced, trailing behind.
In an instant, the Abyss's mightiest beings formed a massive procession centered on one human.
"Th-this isn't surrender. It's almost worship?"
"They all submitted? No way."
Earthlings doubted their eyes.
Not content with saving the enemy, he was now leading them.
And when the procession reached the second gateway, everyone held their breath.
But no fierce battle ensued as expected.
With a light tap of his sword tip on the ground, the earth split, opening a new path.
Like Moses parting the sea in ancient prophecy.
That was the beginning.
No obstacles or trials lay in his path.
All the relay's laws knelt before him, yielding the way.
"...".
Earth fell into complete silence.
Winning without fighting.
No—rendering the very concept of battle meaningless with overwhelming authority.
People finally began to dimly realize.
Park Chan-woo hadn't saved the dragonkin out of pity or calculation.
They were no longer a threat to him.
Their lives were fully in his grasp; he had merely bestowed mercy upon his 'subjects'.
No more debates.
They could only watch in awe, wondering where this bizarre, majestic procession would end.
Finally, as Park Chan-woo's procession halted before the final gateway, every Earthling's heart seemed to stop.
"...Heavenly Emperor?"
Heavenly Emperor.
Emperor of the heavens.
Who could that be?
That was when it happened.
Static!
Noise crackled across the sky.