Bargaining with the Hardline
The Heavenly of the Hardline Faction meant to confirm exactly who Yujun and his companions were.
"You came from the Continent?"
"That we did."
"The same position as the others, then? Mercenaries?"
"Kim Yohan and I signed on as mercenaries. The rest came to save the two of us after we were taken prisoner."
"You came all the way to Heaven to rescue two people? And broke through the Moderates' ironclad perimeter to do it? You're certain?"
"There is not a shred of falsehood in it."
"......I find that hard to believe."
Sertiphs, speaking for the rest of them, ran a doubtful eye over Yujun's party. The look did not sit well with Paranet.
"What are you staring at, you pitiful excuse for a Heavenly?"
He picked the fight in a sharp, fussy tone.
"......What?"
Sertiphs wondered if he had misheard. An undead had no business being in Heaven at all, and this one had just addressed him with open disrespect. Paranet had succeeded, quite thoroughly, in offending him.
"An undead?"
Yujun felt a jolt of regret. While they were in Heaven he had meant to unsummon Paranet whenever he reasonably could, yet after making use of him for spatial movement he had carelessly left the summon active. It was plainly his own mistake.
"Why is an undead here......?"
"He's my summon."
With no other choice, Yujun stepped forward and told the truth.
"A summon? An undead? Cases like that ought to be rare."
"Rare. Not unheard of."
"Hmm...... Are you aware that you have brought an unclean being into Heaven?"
"Heaven itself is hardly spotless. And I am unclean? Absurd. Are you asking to be chastised?"
Paranet shoved his face right up against Sertiphs's and laid down the threat.
"Get that filthy face away from me."
"Heavenly. The filthy one is you. Have you any idea how many blemishes mar your skin?"
Paranet had no intention of yielding a single word. Yujun caught him by the shoulder and pulled him back.
"Enough."
"Understood."
"You saw. He listens to me, so there's no need to concern yourselves."
"You would do well to correct his manners. For a mere summon, he is far too insolent."
Sertiphs looked thoroughly sour. His pride had taken a considerable bruise.
"Tsk. Behold them—not even particularly holy, and still nursing a chosen-people complex. They are not gods, and yet how they do preen."
"Undead. Do you wish to die?"
"I was speaking to myself, I'll have you know. And I have already died once, so death does not frighten me. Ah—that, too, was to myself."
"Pfft."
Kim Yohan, who had been watching the exchange with great interest, clapped a hand over his mouth. A laugh had nearly escaped him on its own. When Paranet turned a puzzled look his way, Kim Yohan shot him a crisp thumbs-up.
"I think you and I are gonna get along."
"Human. You strike me as a rather flighty sort. I am strict and solemn by nature. We cannot be said to suit one another."
"......Wow. You've got a real gift for beating people with words. Mr. Yujun, how did you raise him? A summon this magnificently grown? From the look of him, he's a growth-type."
Kim Yohan asked it with the face of a man who could not quite believe what he was seeing.
"I practice a strict policy of hands-off parenting."
"God, I want one. Seriously."
Caught under Kim Yohan's sticky, covetous gaze, Paranet gave a full-body shudder.
"Will you take the mercenary work on the terms I offered before?"
Sertiphs put the question to Dokgo Minsu and Kim Yohan.
"What should we do?"
"Shin Yujun. What do you intend?"
"We'll do it. The terms, however, will need to change."
"Hm?"
"You took this mission to obtain a World Tree Seed, didn't you?"
"That is so."
"Understood, for now."
Yujun stepped closer to Sertiphs.
"The terms...... that is, may we change the reward for successfully completing the job?"
"It is mercenary work, nothing more. I cannot offer anything beyond that merely for joining the fight."
"Then I'll deliver more than you're imagining."
"Human. I know you are strong, but however great a single player's power may be......"
Yujun released about half the mana he had been holding in reserve. A deep, thunderous hum rolled through the air. Most of the Heavenly nearby lost their footing and went down, and Sertiphs himself nearly sat hard on his rear in a thoroughly undignified sprawl before he snatched his balance back and held.
"......What do you think you're doing?"
"You wanted to see what I can do, didn't you? I believe I've shown you plenty."
"......The mana you carry is certainly no ordinary thing. By mana alone, the pressure was no less than the High Archangel's."
Sertiphs had no idea that what Yujun had drawn out was not even half of what he held. Even so, he set him on the same scale as the High Archangel. It was as clear a measure as any of how purely, absurdly high Yujun's mana stat truly was.
"But we do not want a greenhorn who is merely strong. If you wish to obtain what you desire, show it in results."
"Against whom?"
"The Moderates. We have no time to confirm your skill ourselves."
"Fine."
Sertiphs would understand the moment he saw it anyway. Yujun's true worth did not lie in something as ordinary as mana.
He took the details of the mission from Sertiphs and passed them on to his companions unchanged.
"We're to rescue the prisoners."
"Didn't they already let them all go?"
"No. They'll have been caught again."
"How do you know that?"
"That Heavenly told me. Seems the situation was already passed along by Messenger."
"Wow. The Messenger really is god-tier."
Yujun nodded at Kim Yohan's words.
"The Moderate side will obviously be watching the Messenger, so the odds are high they've already laid a trap. We have to break through it."
"Think we can?"
"We'll have to try."
He had done it once. There was no reason a second time should fail. The Heavenly's watch would be several times stricter now, but that hardly mattered. Ever since he had obtained the Planet Destroyer's Sword, try as he might, he simply could not picture a future in which he lost.
Gear is absolute, after all.
"Um......"
Three of the Heavenly approached him then, hesitating. One of them spoke.
"You are Shin Yujun, right?"
"Ah—yes. Yes."
"I really respect you."
"Me too!"
What.
He had not expected the Heavenly to recognize him. Then again, they were a race with an unusual degree of interest in the Continent's affairs. It was possible.
"Th...... thank you."
"Could we exchange Messengers?"
"It's my dearest wish."
"A signature is enough for me."
He had no idea how he was supposed to respond.
"I'm sorry, but we're pressed for time. Once everything is finished, I'll grant all of your requests."
"You have to! You promise?"
"Yes."
"Thank you!"
It was courtesy, of course. Exchanging Messengers would not cost him anything, but the more players piled onto his list, the more of a nuisance it was likely to become. And he was the sort who hated nuisances.
The Heavenly withdrew, and Kim Yohan came over.
"Mr. Yujun, you're seriously famous. Even the Heavenly up in Heaven recognize you."
"If that's what you're after, try the next Species Tournament."
"I can't even enter, starting with my level...... Thinking about it that way, you're insane."
"......?"
"You were already that strong before you even hit level 300. Honestly, you could feel it just from the footage. Ah...... if we fought, I'd lose a hundred times out of a hundred."
"What level are you now?"
"650."
Huh?
Higher than Jo Su-a? He had thought even her level was absurdly high. Honestly, he was a little startled.
"......That's high. Until not long ago, I'd heard the top rankers were only in the late four-hundreds. The players I've met recently... their levels are no joke. You included, Yohan."
"Ah, that's all a bluff. Humans grow at a pace the other races can't even compare to, you know? If we didn't hide it, they'd clamp down on us hard, so the top rankers had no choice but to conceal their levels. That said, the other-race players sitting high enough up probably already knew. That we were walking around with our levels deliberately lowered."
"So that was the reason."
"And on top of that, we received privileges that don't even compare to anyone else's. Of course our levels climb fast. Ah, but... what level are you, Mr. Yujun?"
"692."
"What? 692? For real?"
"Yes."
"......How is that even possible? Didn't you say it's only been a year?"
"There's nothing pay-to-win can't solve."
"Pay-to-win? You can't pay-to-win here, though. You mean the game?"
Yujun smiled and nodded.
"That Synchronization thing. Must be one hell of a privilege. It hasn't even been a year, and looking at how strong you already are..."
"If it hadn't been, I wouldn't have made it this far."
"Wow, but 692? Ha. Honestly, you've always felt stronger than your level. Hearing it straight from you, I'm impressed all over again."
Kim Yohan kept letting out little sounds of awe.
"I knew your level was high because you were strong, but I didn't think you'd already gotten that far. I can hardly believe you were in the Species Tournament not that long ago."
"Yes, yes. That's enough."
Being praised that much was embarrassing. The Species Tournament was open only to those at level 300 and below, and in truth, not much time had passed between the tournament's opening and his own participation in it.
"So all those Heavenly are going in at once?"
At Kim Yohan's return to the matter at hand, Yujun shook his head.
"The infiltration to rescue the prisoners will be ten of the Heavenly. We're being added on top of that."
"That still seems like kind of a lot......"
"Getting there without being noticed is basically impossible anyway. It's a frontal assault in all but name, so a dozen or so can hardly be called many."
"Mmm."
Whether their numbers were large or small, the unease was the same so long as they were heading into where the Moderate faction was stationed. That was why Kim Yohan's worry ran deep. Yujun, frankly, thought very little of it.
I could probably manage it alone.
He still had 568 stat points he had not allocated. If it came to that, he could use them.
Setting a hand on Paranet's shoulder, Yujun called out.
"Everyone, gather up!"
The Heavenly chosen for the advance party and Yujun's companions took one another's hands. Linked together like this, it would be enough.
"Won't the mana fall short?"
Paranet sounded worried.
"It's fine. Trust me. I trust you."
"Ah. Understood."
Yujun handed him a ring made to raise one's mana by a wide margin.
"Put that on, and it'll definitely hold."
"Thank you!"
A tremendous torrent of mana burst free, and space itself shifted. The plain that opened around them looked identical to the one they had just left, and yet it was unmistakably somewhere else. The large-scale teleportation had succeeded.
The Heavenly, who tended to look down on the undead, broke into murmurs.
"How does that undead know spatial-movement magic?"
"He's Shin Yujun's summon. Figures even the summon would be something else."
"This is past 'something else'...... You really think an undead who can teleport more than ten players makes any sense? Even a Lich Lord would struggle."
"If the summon is at that level, how strong is Shin Yujun?"
"We'll know soon enough. Whether he was bluffing for Lord Sertiphs, or showing confidence that matches his skill."
Yujun might as well have been set upon a testing stand. Depending on the results he produced from here, the reward Sertiphs offered would change as well.
Keep the losses small, and finish the job as fast as possible. That would be best.
From his inventory, he drew the Planet Destroyer's Sword. It was the sort of item whose options alone put him in a pleasant mood. Simply looking at it was enough to leave him full.
Shall I see what the sword can do, purely on its own?
Yujun kicked off the ground ahead of the others.
The Heavenly of the Moderate Faction were beyond counting. Cut them down one by one, and he might well be at it all night. There was no need, however, to kill every Heavenly packed across this wide grassland. Along the outer edge, something like a dozen stood watch, and slipping inside without being spotted would be difficult even for Yujun. Short of a stealth skill, there was a limit to what he could borrow from an item.
Then the only path is the direct one.
The figure that had kicked off the earth vanished without a trace.