Hongdae Fashion People Joseph
Hongdae Fashion People Joseph.
And Joseon's Best Sword.
Names he had not heard in a very long time.
In his memory, not even half a year had passed. Count the time that had actually flowed, though, and more than five years were gone. To them, playing War of the Gods might already feel like something from a distant past. Yujun, who had skipped those five years entirely, remembered it with perfect clarity.
"Those two were still alive?"
"Of course. You weren't the only one who received a privilege, Yujun."
"Are they strong?"
"Not as strong as you, but plenty strong. Joseon's Best Sword especially."
"The Sky Prison. Why did they go there?"
"An event."
"An event?"
"The System hosted one, limited to the Sky Prison. Anyone who wanted to get stronger would have gone, don't you think? Joseon's Best Sword and Hongdae Fashion People Joseph were both in on it."
"I never heard there was an event."
"The top rankers did everything they could to keep it from leaking. More participants only means more competition, and they weren't about to do something that would only cost them."
"Did you know, Do Jiyun?"
"I knew. I didn't go."
"Why not?"
Do Jiyun smiled, bitter at the edges.
"Because you asked me to come to the Demon Realm with you."
"Ah. Because of me?"
"Honestly, even without your request, I wouldn't have gone to the Sky Prison. It looked far too dangerous."
"And how did you know it was dangerous?"
"A feeling."
"Did something happen to Joseph and Joseon's Best Sword?"
"Yes. That's why I came looking for you... no. Why I called you."
"So at the Black Market you dangled consumable items in front of me as bait..."
"I'm sorry. But you did come away with plenty of good items, didn't you? I wasn't lying."
"All right. How do we reach the Sky Prison?"
"There's a passage only people in the know can find."
"Let's go."
"You don't need to prepare anything?"
"A player only needs the body they're standing in."
"For someone who says that, your gear looks awfully extravagant."
"Equipment is part of my body. Didn't you know?"
"...You slip back into your No-Pay Casual Gamer self now and then."
"Was I that unusual back then?"
"You poured that much money in and then named yourself No-Pay Casual Gamer. Ordinary was never in the picture."
"...Mm."
He had nothing to say to that.
"Lead the way."
"All right."
"Is it nearby, by any chance?"
"The passage is on the fortieth floor. You've cleared up through the fortieth, haven't you?"
"Ages ago. Who do you take me for?"
In truth, he had not broken through the fortieth floor all that long ago.
Once the party arrived, they followed Do Jiyun across the floor.
"Is it inside a dungeon?"
"Not a dungeon. There's a collapsed fortress in the forest. It was never very large, and the passage is hidden, so you won't find it by searching blindly."
"Who told you about it?"
"Joseph. Dokgo Minsu got hooked on Joseph's suggestion and tagged along to the Sky Prison. Oh — Dokgo Minsu is Joseon's Best Sword."
"I see."
The feeling was strange. He was about to meet, in the flesh, users he had once been close with inside a game — and not in any ordinary reality. This was the Tower of Infinity, a world where supernatural power and magic ran wild, and that made the moment sit differently in his chest. What do they all look like now? Then another name surfaced.
"What about Only I Don't Have a Cat?"
"Ah... that one. We still haven't found them."
"Nobody knows?"
"No. I've asked everywhere, and it's hard to turn up even a trace. When someone stays this invisible, I start to think they might be dead."
"...Mm."
Only I Don't Have a Cat was the user Yujun had been closest to. Thinking that person might be dead left him strangely low. When it came to talent for the game, that one was genuinely overwhelming.
The party reached the fortress and, with a guide to follow, found the passage almost at once. What Do Jiyun had described was a cylinder sealed by a thin membrane.
"Pass through here and we go straight to the Sky Prison?"
"Yes."
"I can barely feel any mana."
"Right? Strange, isn't it?"
"You're certain we can actually get through?"
"Then I'll go in first. Follow me."
"All right."
You never knew. Do Jiyun could still be a pawn of the Demon God Worshippers. He sensed no Dark Demonic Energy from her at all, so it was almost certainly not the case — but letting his guard down was out of the question.
She walked toward the end of the passage without hesitation, and in a single instant she was gone.
Yujun's eyes widened. The moment her body vanished, something had definitely surged — not the mana that hung ordinary in the air, but an energy deeply familiar to him. Chaos.
Could Do Jiyun handle Chaos? He shook his head. No matter how he turned it over, that wasn't it. The Chaos had not come from her body. It had sprung into being in empty air, all at once, and vanished just as quickly. She had not made it on purpose.
"Paranet."
He summoned him. If not for moments like this, what were summons even for?
"Paranet."
"Yes, O great master! You need only give the command!"
"Go through there first."
"...Yes!"
The errand was beneath him, and Paranet's answer came a beat late — but he moved briskly all the same. At the end of the passage, his body disappeared. Yujun confirmed that no harm had come to him and nodded. There was no reason left to hesitate.
He walked toward the passage, and Manuela followed. The moment he reached the end, he felt that familiar energy settling in around him. Without thinking, Yujun released his own Chaos and drew the newly formed Chaos in.
"Huh?"
He had only tried it on a whim. He had not expected the Chaos to actually be absorbed. Absorption was possible from the start? It had not recovered. The maximum itself had risen. Which meant this place was a gold mine.
Yujun crossed the passage and came back again. Each time he reached the end, Chaos formed once more, in roughly the same amount as before, and each time it was absorbed without fail.
"...How long does this keep working?"
Fear came first. Was this even allowed? It felt exactly like finding a bug in a game and exploiting it. If an administrator caught him, it would not end with the bug simply being patched. He could be looking at a permanent ban on the account, or on the character. Of course, that had only been true when it was a game. This isn't a game. It shouldn't matter.
Then he noticed Manuela was gone. A message arrived asking why he wasn't coming, and he answered, roughly, that he would be up soon and to wait a little. I absorbed the Chaos, so the warp never triggered. That has to be it.
Yujun's eyes sank deep. Let's see this through to the end.
He kept traversing the passage. Every time he set a foot at the far end, Chaos was generated, and by now he drew it in as naturally as breathing.
Chaos has increased by 4.
Chaos has increased by 2.
Chaos has increased by 2.
Chaos has increased by 3.
The amount differed every time, and none of it was large — but stacked together, it was no joke. His Chaos had already climbed to 200.
"It's really still going?"
He could hardly believe it. What was this passage, to spit out so much Chaos? Is the Sky Prison tied to Chaos somehow? There was no way to know. What he had to do was already decided: drain every last drop from this place. The Sky Prison could wait.
Whenever he used Chaos, he always felt the shortage. The power was tremendous and the energy endlessly useful, but there had never been enough of it. Now a chance to fill that lack had walked up and offered itself. He had wanted Chaos without knowing how to obtain it — could luck get any better than this? His pace quickened. He even burned Flash to shave the time down further.
Then, at a certain moment, no Chaos formed.
"..."
Hoping it was not over, Yujun crossed the passage three more times. The Chaos was definitely exhausted. The excitement on his face cooled at a frightening speed.
"So this is the end..."
It was a shame. He had sucked the place dry for all it was worth, and still he could not help regretting that the end had come. Even so, I was happy. The time had been short, but he did not think he had ever enjoyed himself this purely. Let's see how far it climbed.
He opened his status window and checked the Chaos that had grown.
It had started at 130. He had gained a full 246 — nearly triple the Chaos he had held before. And when Chaos rose, it was not only the quantity that increased. The power rose with it. I can't even get a feel for how much stronger it's become.
An unexpected fortune, in a place he had never expected it. And when did the unallocated points pile up like that? He did not distribute them. There was no telling which stat he might need, or when, and if he had room to spare it was better to leave them be.
"Anyway..."
If Chaos no longer formed, how was he supposed to reach the Sky Prison? Had he been too greedy? But he had not absorbed it without a thought. He had a plan. He had a summon who could move through space. Paranet.
He called inwardly, and strangely there was no answer. So he sent Manuela a message.
"Who in the world did this?"
He muttered it with a perfectly shameless face. The surest way to fool someone else was to fool yourself first, so he erased the fact that he had absorbed the Chaos, as if it had never happened. I didn't do anything wrong. The Chaos being there was what was wrong.
Even so, he could not stay behind while the rest of the party had already gone on to the Sky Prison. Yujun stood at the end of the passage and began, slowly, to let out the tremendous Chaos he had stockpiled. Even a very small amount was enough to trigger the warp. He would not need to spend much. Converted to a number, he released about four points of Chaos into the air.
He did not believe that alone would make the warp happen. He recalled the arrangement of the Chaos from the first moment it had formed around him — the pattern, the composition, held in his mind without a hair's deviation. There was only one problem. He would have to control the Chaos in the finest detail. An extremely difficult piece of work, but he judged the odds were higher than they looked. For moments exactly like this, he held one absurdly broken skill, and one trait to match.