You're the Same Breed as Me...
"You're the same breed as me, aren't you, mister?"
"I am different."
"Different how?"
"Unlike you, do I not train without cease? In truth, the capacity for effort is itself a talent. From what I have observed over a long while, you lack that talent. Quite severely."
"I put in my share of effort too."
"Is it not merely enough to scrape past the average? How, with that, could one ever stand above others?"
"I am standing above them."
"And that is why you rest content there, and fail to grow."
"All right, all right. Instead of that, how about the two of you go hunt some undead?"
Do Jiyun stepped in and settled the matter.
Yujun backed her up.
"She's right. This event is nonnegotiable. We can't afford to miss it. Humans have the highest potential, and on top of that they're even running an experience event."
"You mean to go to the Holy Empire?"
"Yes."
"It will be exceedingly dangerous, will it not?"
"I'm not certain, but the odds are high."
The reason he thought so was simple enough. How powerful would the undead have to be to bring down the Holy Empire, a nation especially strong against them? There was a chance they would not attack at all, but if an assault did come, that place would be nothing short of a jackpot.
Of course, that applied only to Yujun. Should the undead strike the Holy Empire, it would likely become the most dangerous place on the Continent, and the greater the danger, the sweeter the reward.
The companions bound for the Holy Empire with him were already decided: Manuela and Yenil. He could have taken two more along if he wished, but there was no need to force anyone in.
Let's just go as we are.
Dragging the others around felt like more trouble than it was worth. He also had to consider that the more people shared the journey, the less Peace Contribution each of them would naturally earn. He didn't expect the difference to amount to much, but there was nothing to gain from extra baggage.
Yujun's party exchanged brief farewells with the other players and finished preparing to depart for the Holy Empire.
"Let's meet again alive!"
"I shall not die before I have crossed blades with you. That much I swear."
At Yujun's words, Dokgo Minsu answered with grim resolve.
"When Mister Dokgo Minsu says it like that, I can almost believe him."
The Holy Empire.
It looked like a nation standing at the opposite pole from the Demon God Worshipper Cult, yet the truth was a little different from what was commonly known. It certainly held doctrines and ideals unlike anything the Demon God Worshippers pursued, but no small number of the empire's leaders had already come within the cult's reach. Even so, the Holy Empire's underlying strength was considerable, and it could not yet be said that the cult had seized it completely.
And so the Holy Empire stood in a precarious state. The Demon God Worshippers had not taken full control, nor was the nation functioning as it ought. A civil war, or someone rising in open rebellion, might almost have been the better situation. The mood within the empire was that foul, and the cult was no less frustrated, unable to take the Holy Empire with any ease.
It was into that stalemate that the undead assault event arrived. Both the Holy Empire and the cult had already learned that the scale of an undead legion varied according to where the assault fell, and so a strategy council was convened. The leaders regarded one another with eyes full of distrust.
Those who had weathered every scheme the Demon God Worshippers could devise could not relax for a single moment, convinced a traitor lurked among them even here. They had not forgotten that a close friend who, until recently, had drunk with them and laid his heart bare might belong to a cult that committed acts to outrage heaven and earth. Distrust had sunk such deep roots because there had been more than one occasion to justify it.
The cult had not tried to seize the Holy Empire by ordinary means. Brainwashing players through cruel methods the empire's leaders had never imagined, and torture that inflicted horrific pain, were the barest of basics. Even amid all that, it was utterly impossible to tell a Demon God Worshipper from anyone else, and so they could not hold the council in secret.
Thus Freyan II, Emperor of the Holy Empire, summoned every last one of the leaders. Emperor Freyan judged this better than gathering only the few he believed he could trust. He trusted no one. He suspected even his own children.
They are watching for an opening at every turn.
There were leaders and high nobles of the Holy Empire who thought much as the emperor did. In the present state of things, even family had grown hard to trust. It was precisely because their suspicion ran so unusually deep that they had not yet fallen under the Demon God Worshippers' rule.
"Beings that have never appeared anywhere on the Continent are advancing upon our empire. This is no time for such things. We must join our strength and strike down the wicked undead."
That one is a Demon God Worshipper.
So Emperor Freyan thought to himself. Of course, suspicion was no grounds for a purge. The last time he had killed a man he was certain was a Demon God Worshipper, he had learned afterward that the man had been innocent. It had happened two or three times more, and because of it Emperor Freyan himself had come under suspicion.
At the time, several nobles had pressed him hard. The emperor had wondered whether a Demon God Worshipper might have been hiding among them as well, but to act on that thought would have been to invite treason on the spot. Checks from the Demon God Worshippers were only to be expected; if even the leaders who had not been brainwashed began to doubt him, there would be no way out at all. And so even Freyan, Emperor of the Holy Empire and holder of formidable power, had no choice now but to keep his head down.
"Join our strength? Those vermin, the Demon God Worshippers, have wormed their way into every corner of the empire. We must exterminate them first."
At the count's words, Freyan's eyes narrowed.
Is that one a Demon God Worshipper too? He seems to be laying it on rather thick...
Freyan tore at his hair. The moment anyone so much as opened their mouth, he suspected them of being a Demon God Worshipper. It was enough to drive him mad, and with days like this dragging on, the fraying of his mind came as a matter of course.
He saw several nobles clutching their heads just as he was. Among them was Marquis Salaman of the noble faction, a man who had often clashed with Emperor Freyan. Their eyes met. As if they had come face to face with a fated counterpart, neither could look away. They were little short of bitter rivals, yet in this moment they felt as though they were sharing the same mental torment.
Could it be?
Freyan studied Marquis Salaman closely. The marquis, who could not rest until he had spoken his mind no matter what—might he be free of the Demon God Worshippers' brainwashing? What was more, Salaman's eyes were exactly as they had always been, brimming with suspicion.
Marquis Salaman, for his part, grew convinced that the emperor had not fallen to the Demon God Worshippers. From the start he had thought that if the emperor had been brainwashed, disaster would have struck long ago. Watching a man who held immense strength and authority and yet could not use them, suffering helplessly at the cult's hands, he had already formed a private guess.
Having exchanged messengers in secret, the two began sending messages to one another. In the meantime several nobles continued to voice their opinions, but no constructive view could possibly emerge from a council hall steeped in distrust. Everyone was sounding everyone else out in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion, and the talk dragged on without progress.
Unable to endure it any longer, Marquis Salaman spoke.
"Whatever else may be, we must hold back the undead, must we not? Let me speak plainly. Even you Demon God Worshippers would not wish to see the Holy Empire fall to the undead, would you?"
"And how can you be so certain of that? Might it not be that you yourself, Marquis, are a Demon God Worshipper?"
At the noble's words, Salaman's face twisted.
"Bullshit. Shut your mouth if you don't want to die."
"S-such impious words, in the sacred empire..."
Marquis Salaman paid them no mind and pressed on.
"I don't care if you stab us in the back out in the open or do whatever else you please. Here, at least, let us come to one mind. We gather, and we stop the undead. How does that sound?"
"I agree as well. That would be better."
Emperor Freyan backed Salaman. The two had almost never been of one opinion, and the noble leaders wore bewildered faces.
"But those cunning heretics..."
"Marquis Salaman has already said it. They will move one way or another, and the appearance of these undead will only hasten it. Better to force a conclusion before any more nobles cross over."
Emperor Freyan spoke boldly, as if he meant for the Demon God Worshippers to hear. A brief silence fell over the council hall.
"I shall take it that all are in agreement, and proceed."
He rendered the decision with a speed unlike the emperor they knew. The nobles who had not been brainwashed would surely suspect him for it, but Emperor Freyan had realized that fretting over such trifles would leave him with nothing at all. The day that would decide the fate of the Holy Empire was not far off.
By means of Paranet's spatial movement magic, Yujun and his companions arrived in a dense forest near the Holy Empire. They could not enter the empire directly. As befitted a great empire, a barrier blocked spatial movement magic, and its range was so wide that reaching this forest was the best they could manage.
"I heard there are an awful lot of giant monsters here."
At Manuela's words, Yujun tilted his head.
"They shouldn't be all that strong, though."
"Right. Being big is probably all they've got."
Back when he had played War of the Gods, he had raided plenty of giant monsters in this forest. He had managed it with a build far weaker than the one he had now, so there was that. But he could not overlook the changes brought on by this Great Cataclysm. Monsters had grown stronger across the board, and large monsters had grown stronger still. Exactly how much stronger was never stated outright, but if it had been nothing worth mentioning, it would never have appeared as a system message.
"I'm curious how the monsters have changed, but we don't have much time, so let's head for the Holy Empire first."
"Okay!"
"Yenil. Do you need time to study? If you do, I'll send you straight to the Golden Temple."
"No. I will do it later."
"Oh? What's gotten into you?"
"I need to build up Peace Contribution. I have to outfit myself properly, so I don't fall behind the other players."
"Gear..."
He had lent Yenil some equipment before, more or less offhand, but considering her level and ability it had hardly been gear of a fitting grade. Still, her old equipment had been so wretched that it hadn't been entirely without effect.
I ought to swap her over to a full set of custom gear.
There was no time for it now. It wouldn't be too late once they had annihilated the undead legion assaulting the Holy Empire.
A deep smile touched Yujun's lips. If he was honest, things had grown more entertaining ever since the undead assault event began. Hunting undead raised Peace Contribution, undead monsters already tended to give a great deal of experience, and on top of that an experience event was running. His Peace Contribution had already piled past forty thousand, and the hunt hadn't even started. What items might he buy with the Peace Contribution he ground out diligently to the very end? The anticipation was so keen he couldn't settle.
This is why, every time an event came around, I used to go days without sleep and do nothing but play.
The notion that not grinding now was pure loss had been driven so deep that even sleeping had felt like a waste. It had certainly been bad for his health, but the younger Yujun hadn't cared about that in the slightest. It was no different now. He had gained a body that needed no sleep, and all he could think of was putting that body to use.