Genius (EX)

Traits and skills, from double to 2.7 times. And on the chance of forging new abilities through enlightenment, a single word had been tacked on: drastically.

Read straight through, the change hardly looked like much. In a fight, it was anything but—above all, that 2.7-fold boost to every trait and skill.

Ancient Magic held countless spells inside a single skill. Every one of them would strike several times harder, and if he wove several together, the force could swell by tens of times over.

Yujun looked at the one item he still had left.

Angel's Tear.

He had been saving it for after the rewards came in and his level climbed. He didn't hesitate. He drank it.

He could have waited until his level rose further. He was already high enough, though, and the climb from here would only slow. However much he prized efficiency, there was no end to chasing one more level. Now was exactly the right time.

Ji Gyutae had been staring blankly at the enormous stele when, all at once, his eyes flew wide.

The oracle was wrong.

The stone that had always dealt in empty, cloud-grasping riddles had delivered a clear message to every Demon God Worshipper.

An oracle that came down only now and then—and, at the same time, a command that could not be refused. The stele bore the will of the Demon God itself.

Ji Gyutae smoothed the crease between his brows.

Until this moment, killing Shin Yujun had been the first priority.

"Why did it change all of a sudden?"

Even setting the Demon God's will aside, Shin Yujun was a player who had to die. There was no reason to leave alive someone who stood in the way of the great cause.

The one problem was that he was strong beyond anything they had imagined. That was why they still hadn't killed him—and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠why so many Demon God Worshippers had been spent for nothing.

The branch heads can't step in themselves, so there was no way to catch him for a while. This works out.

The Apostles of the Demon God were coming down. Even Ji Gyutae could not begin to guess at their strength. He had never seen them.

According to the scripture, though, each of them rivaled a Demigod in raw power.

Players who had entered the ranks of Demigod. Those who had long since left the Continent for other dimensions.

If the scripture is even half right, a single Apostle should be enough to take Shin Yujun.

One worry slid off his shoulders.

With the Apostles of the Demon God involved, there was no world in which Shin Yujun survived. And there was not merely one Apostle. This sickening entanglement was finally about to snap. That much, at least, felt like a relief.

Once he was clear of the snowy peaks, Yujun took out the Absolute Sealing Orb.

"What's that for?"

At Manuela's question, he smiled.

"A little patriotism."

"Patriotism? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll see."

He drew Miura Genshin out of the sealing orb. The man's vile face surfaced, gasping for air.

"Aaah! Please! Just—let me out!"

He looked thoroughly wretched.

"There. I let you out, just as you wished."

"...Hhk! Hah!"

Something was off. The first time Yujun had pulled him out, he hadn't seemed nearly this miserable. Why was he suffering so badly now, just from being sealed away and brought back?

It can't be because of me.

Surely not. He hadn't done anything else to the man. It had to be his imagination.

"What did you do to me?! Huh?!"

Miura Genshin shouted, shaking with rage.

"Why ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are you yelling at me? You were already locked up. Forget that I briefly saved you?"

"I was better off where I was!"

"What?"

"The space you sealed me in was unbearable!"

"...That bad?"

"What do you want from me?!"

"The Synchronization Marble."

"I already gave you that!"

"Then information."

"What information? If I talk, do you mean to let me go?"

"Obviously. I keep my word."

"...Fine. If it's something I can answer, I'll answer."

"Good. The one who sealed you in the orb. Know who it was?"

"...I didn't, at first. Thinking it over in there, I figured it out. The Executor of Justice. That man."

"The Executor of Justice? What's that?"

"I only know the name. He wasn't merciful, but he always acted in the name of righteousness, so that's the epithet he ended up with."

"Was he human?"

"He seemed to be."

"Why were you going around collecting ears?"

"...That's my hobby."

"Absolute trash."

Whether he had some shred of self-awareness or not, Miura Genshin's face went red.

Yujun kept the questions coming.

"How did you get here from the Japanese server?"

"There's a parchment that activates if you use it inside the Dimensional Rift. Tear it, and you can travel back and forth."

"Where's that parchment?"

"I used it."

"No more?"

"No."

"Where did you get it?"

"...From a player I killed. He begged me to spare him and handed it over. So I don't know where one can be found. I received three in all."

"From one person?"

Miura Genshin nodded.

"Did you cut his ears, too?"

"...And if I did?"

He looked at Yujun, afraid.

Yujun gave him a kindly smile.

"Don't flinch. I'm not trying to hurt you. Just curious. You cut the ears off someone who was begging?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"If you ask me why, I have nothing to say. I simply wanted to..."

"And killing like that felt good?"

Genshin nodded again and again. Then a smile touched his mouth.

"Why don't you try the hobby yourself? Once you get a taste, it's hard to climb back out. Ears are nice. Fingers and toes aren't bad either. Personally, I liked the ears best."

Miura Genshin wanted a passionate debate about his own perversion. Color had even come back into his haggard face.

Yujun shook his head.

Vermin like this had no business staying alive. The urge to cut him down on the spot burned hot, but there was still information left to dig out. He swallowed the homicidal impulse and kept asking.

"Know the Demon God Worshippers?"

"I do. I've never actually seen them, but..."

"Where you lived, had they started showing themselves in earnest?"

"No."

"What year are you?"

"Third year. A little over two years since I was summoned to the Continent."

"That's all the time that's passed since Japanese people were summoned to the Tower of Infinity?"

"At least while I was still around."

"How much time has gone by? Do you know how long you were trapped in the sealing orb?"

"Decades, at minimum."

"...What?"

"It's too early to be shocked by that. Going by how it felt to me, more than ten thousand years went by. It was that dull. That lonely."

"Then why say decades instead of ten thousand years?"

"Just a hunch. I'm strangely certain."

Yujun swallowed a low sound in his throat.

It didn't seem like a lie. But the Japanese server had existed for decades? That was hard to believe. Had people in Japan been playing War of the Gods decades ago? And hundreds of thousands—tens of millions—of people had vanished in the summoning to the Tower of Infinity, and he had never known? It didn't line up with Earth's timeline, either.

"Where is the Dimensional Rift?"

"I know it's somewhere on the Japanese server, but the location here keeps changing, so I could never pin it down."

"Where were you last?"

"Wherever you found me, I suppose."

"All right. Thanks for talking so nicely."

He drew his sword.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Miura Genshin's face went white.

Shhk.

The blade swung twice. Genshin's left ear and right ear came off together.

"Gyaaaaah! Ah, ah—it hurts!"

"If you're going to collect ears, you should have started with your own. How unfair is it for the people you cut, when you're walking around with both of yours still attached?"

"Ngh... You promised you'd let me go if I told you everything! You're not even going to keep your word?"

"I do usually try to keep my promises. You went around not keeping yours, didn't you?"

"What? I collected ears, yes, but I never made a promise I didn't mean to keep! This is genuinely unfair!"

"Then I won't."

Shhk.

Yujun took Miura Genshin's head off in one clean stroke.

A third-year player, and he couldn't manage even a single attempt at resistance. He must have known. The man in front of him was a power he could never handle. That was why he had stayed still and listened, even when he was still in a position to move.

"Huh?"

Yujun was more startled by the level-up than by the title. He had killed another human player, and his level rose?

Killing one's own kind—other humans—had never granted experience. Yet killing Miura Genshin had.

What is this, really? Is the System refusing to treat him as human because he's worse than an animal? No. That can't be it.

Which meant—if you killed a player from another server, you gained the experience in full?

The gain had been small only because Miura Genshin's level was lower than his own. Put that way, it clicked neatly into place.

Who was the man who had sealed him? A player in possession of an Absolute Sealing Orb was no ordinary person.

If Genshin is right, decades have already passed on the Japanese server... That side may already have fallen.

Fail to stop the Demon God Worshippers—and beyond them, the Demon God—and nothing remained but ruin.

I'd like to see the Japanese server, if I ever get the chance.

For now, he had no way to reach the place called the Dimensional Rift. He had found Miura Genshin in a trial ground he had already escaped by forced warp.

"All done checking?"

He asked Manuela. She was smiling brightly.

"Yeah!"

"You look happy."

"Because I got stronger! I got a ton of rewards!"

"Good. Get ready."

"Ready for what, out of nowhere?"

"Sourtul Forest. Time to head out."

"Ohhh, that's what you meant. You said we have to find the phantasmal race, right? Wait—so we have to go wandering around in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there again?"

"We do, but I think we can find them quickly."

"How?"

"Turn the place inside out, and they'll turn up."

"...That's the whole plan?"

"Yeah."

The Yujun who had first set foot in Sourtul Forest and the Yujun standing here now were separated by a gap words could hardly cover.

He looked up at the sky. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠small opening was visible there—one he hadn't been able to see before. That was the mouth of the tunnel into Sourtul Forest.

He unsummoned Paranet and Tapagol, then rose on the Fly spell.

He was fast in the air. The tunnel wasn't far.

"We're going straight into Sourtul Forest, right?"

As Manuela started to move, Yujun caught her by the shoulder.

"Why?"

"Wait."

He closed his eyes and spread his senses. Their reach was nothing like before.

It didn't take long before a smile touched his mouth.

"Found them. The phantasmal race."