Caution When Expanding the Senses
There was a catch to expanding one's senses. A handful of people with exceptionally keen perception could tell when Yujun did it. No player had ever managed that against him before, but this was the lord of Sky Castle's own ground, and he expected it might be different. So instead of pushing his senses out in a rush, he extended them slowly, gauging the room and widening them only a little at a time.
Nobody's finding it strange.
His party weren't the only cloaked players present. He had unsummoned Paranet; nothing could hide a frame that size. Take Paranet out of the picture, and Yujun's group was a thoroughly unremarkable combination, no different from any other mixed-race band. Cloaked figures were hardly a rare sight. Anyone truly determined could pick them out, but short of that, they were easy enough to pass over without a second glance.
"Dad. There are eyes watching you."
A warning that wasn't quite a warning, from Harp. Yujun nodded.
"I know."
They weren't looking because they knew who he was. It was the look of people sizing up a player who had just walked in.
They don't look like much.
A sidelong glance confirmed it. They were the sort of player Sky Castle had lying around in heaps.
Well, strength isn't everything. Better stay careful for now.
Honestly, there was no way the Demon God Worshippers didn't know his party was here. In a sense, they had walked straight into enemy ground. Even so, however little the Worshippers bothered to think twice, they weren't about to strike in broad daylight, inside a banquet hall packed with people. Yujun sampled the spread of dishes and waited for the banquet to begin.
People kept pouring into the hall without end. The identity check wasn't particularly long, and still the line showed no intention of breaking.
"It's partly the chance to make a name for themselves," Manuela said.
"What good is a name?"
"You get famous first and see what comes of it. Then you can take commissions with fat rewards later, or form a party with higher-level players."
"Doesn't seem very efficient to me... I'd rather do something else with that time."
"Yujun. Not everyone is overflowing with talent like you."
Yujun had grown stronger without ever once stopping, and ordinary players were bound to think differently. He understood, though.
They're doing their best too, I suppose.
What if I hadn't had the inventory privilege? Would I have ended up like them?
No.
He wouldn't even have made it to Heaven. Yujun admitted as much: a single privilege from Ner had completely changed the road ahead of him.
Not much different from walking a paved road with guideposts every ten meters.
Without the privilege, he would have had to force his way through a swamp with nothing but the body he was born with. He thought himself truly fortunate. And he was grateful — to Ner, yes, but also to himself, for sinking hundreds of millions of won into the game called War of the Gods, close to a billion or more in the days right before the servers shut down. Whether that could really be called an investment, he wasn't sure.
He was passing the time looking over the hall when it came.
"Everyone! The Castle Lord will shortly deliver a congratulatory address! Please welcome him with a great round of applause!"
A player on the platform shouted it in a booming voice.
"A congratulatory address? His son just died."
"The banquet was scheduled anyway. And he might not even know whether his son is dead or not."
Yujun tilted his head at Manuela's words.
"Huh? What do you mean? Why wouldn't he know?"
"You could tell at a glance he was a wastrel. You think he got along with his father? From what I heard, the Castle Lord's third son was deep in a particularly ugly adolescence."
"Yeah? So the one we killed was the third?"
"Probably. The first and second sons have a reputation for being brilliant."
"He wouldn't know it was me who killed him, right?"
"That, I can't promise."
"Dad. I'll never turn out like the Castle Lord's son, so don't you worry."
"Aigoo, listen to you, saying all the sweet things. All right, our Harp. Dad will trust you."
"Yes!"
If Harp ever went astray, it would truly break his heart.
The Castle Lord revealed himself, holding formation inside a ring of some ten guards.
He's... really strong.
His martial power beggared imagination — enough that Yujun wondered why he needed that many guards at all. Yujun could feel the full measure of it, which meant, put simply, that he stood above the Castle Lord. On specs alone, that was. Until they actually fought, the result was unknowable. The Castle Lord was a powerhouse of that caliber.
So he didn't become the head for nothing.
From the scale of Sky Castle, Yujun already knew how far the man's influence reached. He just hadn't expected him to be this strong.
Fair to call him the strongest of anyone I've seen with my own eyes in Heaven.
The Castle Lord was a typical member of the heavenly race. The only difference was the size of his wings.
Big wings do make him look the part.
Even without spreading them to flaunt their splendor, those pure-white wings carried a heavy presence.
"Before anything else, I wish to offer my thanks to everyone gathered here."
The Castle Lord began in a courteous tone, a low voice rolling up thick and resonant from deep in his chest. The sort of voice that won you over just by being heard.
This is unexpected, too.
He didn't seem the type to be plotting anything wicked.
So this is why tinted glasses are dangerous.
Looks and voice alone had nearly led him to judge, without thinking, what kind of heavenly being the Castle Lord was.
Becoming the head of a great power isn't easy.
His martial strength had no equal here, true enough, but the Castle Lord also possessed a charisma you couldn't see. He was nothing at all like the third son Yujun had killed.
The one beside him must be either the first son or the second.
If Manuela was right, the death of the third son — the one who had been running wildest — might not be such a heavy blow to the Castle Lord after all. The face delivering what amounted to a solemn speech did not look like a father who had lost a son only days ago.
They did call it a congratulatory address. No idea what's being celebrated... but everyone does seem to be enjoying themselves.
For the moment, Yujun took no particular action and let himself sink into the banquet's mood.
"That looks good."
His eyes lit up at a large loaf steeped in honey.
"Dad! Give me some too! I want to eat it too!"
Harp, whose nose was nothing short of uncanny, patted Yujun's shoulder with his short little arms.
"Yeah, yeah. We'll eat it together. You two fill up as well."
He said it while glancing aside — and no one was there. He needn't have spoken. Manuela and Yenil had already gone wide-eyed over the food.
"...Fast."
Still, scattering would probably lower the odds of drawing suspicion. If someone already knew who they were, though, it would be a poor choice. Yujun kept his attention on his companions as he wandered the tables, tasting as he went.
Good thing Paranet can't see all this food.
Otherwise, how sore would the man have been? Even if that bulk of his shrank, the undead in him would still show. There was nothing Yujun could do for him.
The hall kept up a harmonious air throughout, no less amicable than a gathering meant for unity. Even after the Castle Lord disappeared somewhere, nothing much changed.
"So everyone's hoping an event starts?"
"It seems that way. They're preparing a stage over there."
"That place like a circular arena?"
"Yes! Perhaps they'll have people spar there?"
"Cliché, but... a duel is the most effective thing, and the most fun."
It made for a fine spectacle, and it was a method that could settle a winner beyond dispute.
I shouldn't enter that, should I?
His identity coming out was the lesser problem. The power balance wouldn't hold — not unless the Castle Lord himself stepped into the ring. That wasn't going to happen, so Yujun set the idea of dueling aside.
Rewards with nothing to them. No reason at all for me to join.
Unless there were trait gems or skill gems, perhaps. By his standards, if the prizes were merely middling pieces of gear, there was no point in trying.
I do want to get close to the Castle Lord, though.
More than the event, what Yujun wanted was a chance to meet the man face to face. Sertiphs's death had thrown Heaven into an uproar, as expected — but only for a moment. A replacement would be found soon enough, and one might already have been chosen behind closed doors. And the one deeply tied up in that matter, he'd been told, was the Castle Lord.
Yujun tracked the aura of the man who had vanished after finishing his address, standing perfectly still with a seasoned chicken skewer in hand.
What? I can't find him?
He looked around, flustered. The Castle Lord was gone without a trace.
Seems like he went outside.
Even so, he couldn't leave the banquet hall now. The Castle Lord might show himself again later, so Yujun waited where he was.
"First event! We will now begin the Infinite Duel! The winner keeps advancing. Rewards will change according to how long a winning streak lasts, and anyone who defeats a player on a streak will receive an additional reward. To start, we will take two challengers!"
No one stepped forward. Going first always carried a weight, and players with superhuman ability were no exception. Even so, the delay didn't last. Once one man finally worked up the nerve, several others who judged they could beat him raised their hands and volunteered.
"Quite a few volunteers at once! The player who took the stage first may choose an opponent!"
"Oh. Not bad."
A considerable advantage for the first challenger. To Yujun's eye they were a pack of evenly matched nobodies, but among themselves they were weighing who had the edge, each one certain of victory. Everyone watched with keen interest. Wasn't a mud-pit brawl between the— no, between the inexperienced always the more entertaining show?
Strictly speaking, the players joining the duel weren't low-level. Level 600 was merely the baseline they'd already passed, and their gear was quite decent. They simply weren't anything you'd call the top rank in this place.
"Both sides, take your positions! Attack before the count and it will be ruled a foul loss, so be careful!"
And with that, the duel event began.
The players watched with eager eyes. Their interest cooled almost at once. Whenever someone tried to kill their opponent, a referee came sprinting in to stop it, strict enough that even an accidental death would not be tolerated.
"If they're going to be like that, why hold a duel event at all..."
"Everyone risks their life for items. Do it like that and the fun's gone."
"Should I join? I was holding back because it seemed dangerous... but if they're going to stop it that thoroughly, it might actually be worth it."
Players didn't throw themselves only at unconditionally dangerous challenges. In truth, a large share of the Tower of Infinity's powerhouses were people who took their gains without surrendering their lives. You had to survive, after all, if you meant to grow stronger. And so the line of waiting participants grew long.
"Are the organizers actually clever?"
Yujun had expected few players to join the duel event. Things ran in the exact opposite direction. More and more of them began putting their names forward.
Be nice if they showed the rewards first. Just in case, maybe I should join too.
The longer the winning streak, they'd said, the better the reward. Just in case. On the off chance of a consumable — and if that consumable were something on the order of a skill gem — he might come to regret sitting the event out.
I'll watch a little longer, then decide.