Chapter 81
Chapter 81
Chapter 81 The Greatest Masterpiece
To conclude from the start, I'm not an idiot.
I do recognize that I'm rather insensitive, and my emotions have become duller due to the countless deaths I experienced in the tutorial, but I wasn't emotionless.
'Rather, are they a bit richer?'
Since I accept numerous emotions more intuitively, I think I'm actually better at grasping others' sincerity than before entering the tutorial.
I've noticed for quite some time that the affection my companions have for me isn't simply affection as companions.
Of course, it's not one-sided, my emotions are the same.
But saying we'd let out those emotions with our own mouths after everything is over, then releasing them alone like that and running away, isn't that too much?
'Next time we meet, I'll give you lots of kisses.'
Estelle, you're really in big trouble.
Just wait.
Even after the first invitation ended, there were many pending invitations.
[Currently receivable Constellation invitations 4/5]
Among these, the second invitation I should receive honestly had to be from that person.
"I need to go ask why you gave me 'No Reward.'"
If the first was Estelle Mama, then the second should be Baal Mama.
This was also morally right.
When I pressed yes on Baal's invitation, my vision changed, and in a room with an atmosphere completely opposite to where Estelle stayed, a woman with white hair and red eyes sat on a throne.
She was definitely shorter than me, but I absolutely didn't feel she was small - a person with large horns on her head and Hellfire naturally flowing from her body.
She stood up from her seat and approached me closely.
Then, with an expression of displeasure, she brought her nose close to my body and SNIFF SNIFF while opening her mouth.
"Did you have fun?"
"...Excuse me?"
I momentarily got PTSD because of what Estelle did to me earlier.
'Why are you doing this to me...'
It was scary when Estelle was doing it earlier, but it was even more frightening when Baal was doing it.
"Judging by the time it took to get here and the smell coming from your body, it seems you went somewhere else first... I naturally thought you'd choose me first."
Her emotions were completely exposed on the surface.
Of course, it could be deception, but what I felt right now was slight jealousy and disappointment, and great joy.
'But would such a strong person need to deceive with emotions...'
It seemed better to continue the conversation assuming her displayed emotions were real.
"I had a prior arrangement with a Constellation to receive their invitation first. If that hadn't existed, I would have naturally received Baal-nim's invitation first."
Though I said this to appease her mood, it wasn't exactly a lie either.
If the option of the Earth God hadn't existed, I would have naturally chosen the option of Baal first.
After hearing my answer, she erased the jealousy and disappointment and filled that empty space with interest and joy.
"Is that so...? Then shall we make a promise? Next week, you'll accept my invitation first. If you could do it with another Constellation, you can do it with me too."
She's smiling now, but I instinctively felt that if I refused this proposal, the smile might disappear.
I immediately nodded.
"Of course. I'll do that."
Since Baal was an existence that gave many insights just by looking at her, like Estelle, setting her as a regular member wouldn't be a loss.
"You promised?"
She smiled and grabbed my hand, snapping her fingers to summon a sofa for us to sit together.
Of course, not across from me, but next to me.
It was a bit burdensome, but I couldn't say that.
'How could I handle it if this person gets angry?'
For now, I wanted to live long.
"Don't you have things you wanted to ask me? If I were you, I think there would be quite a lot."
Of course, there were more than one or two things I wanted to ask.
Among them, the most curious thing was this.
"By any chance... is what you're doing now your true form? It's quite different from the Avatar I saw in the tutorial."
This was more curious than 'No Reward.'
About whether she was really not a father but a mama.
She looked truly surprised and burst out laughing as she answered.
"What...? PUHAHAHAHA!!! I didn't expect this to be the first question, but you're definitely not normal either, are you?"
Now the Constellations were slandering me even when meeting in person, not just through messages.
'Were you perhaps the one leaving malicious comments through messages?'
Still, since she's someone who gave me many things, I decided to forgive her with a broad heart.
It's absolutely not because I was scared.
"That's right. What you saw in the tutorial is the appearance I show to the outside world, and now is my true form."
She snapped her fingers and instantly transformed into a muscular handsome man approaching 2.5 meters in height.
Though it became clearer than the Avatar that appeared in the tutorial, I could definitely tell it was the same person.
After a moment, she returned to her original form and opened her mouth.
"Somehow, when I'm in my true form, maybe because of my appearance, there are guys who ignore me. Sometimes there are crazy bastards who say they don't fight women. To a Demon King."
There really are all kinds of crazy bastards in the world.
"So to fight comfortably, I thought it would be good to have another form, so I absorbed a lot of Doppelgangers' potential and gained transformation abilities."
'Damn. I didn't think of that?'
Looking at it that way, the Doppelgangers' abilities seem extremely useful, but since they were subordinates, I didn't think of killing them and stealing their potential.
I guess this is why I'm human and not a Demon King.
Compared to Baal, I was ordinary.
"...Don't make that respectful expression. I didn't absorb my subordinates, I killed Doppelgangers who attacked me and stole their abilities."
"Ah. Is that so?"
I thought I should learn from watching, but I guess that wasn't the case.
"Really, looking at you, you seem worse than a Demon King. You're not actually human, are you?"
"No way. I'm a perfectly normal human."
I corrected the light slander with facts.
"How can someone who can talk back to me be human... Well then. What's the next thing you're curious about?"
Now it was really time to ask.
"What exactly was that 'No Reward' that was in the reward list for the 10th floor mission? I thought it was just named that but had something, but there really was nothing?"
As if the expected question finally came out, she clapped her hands and smiled.
"Right. This question had to come out. That really had no reward. I was annoyed that you stole my technique, so I put it there just to mess with you, but I didn't expect you'd actually choose it?"
'That was really it..?'
When I crouched down with a disappointed expression at Baal's answer, her mouth stretched to her ears.
When I even avoided eye contact, she roughly patted my head and continued speaking.
"I'm joking. Joking. How could I do that? Using my technique wasn't done through some strange method, you purely analyzed it thoroughly with your own abilities and created it, right?"
'Right. Our mama wouldn't do that.'
When I made eye contact again, her smile deepened.
"But honestly, I don't think you could create that level of completion in just a day or two. You might not know, but there are conditions for handling Mana of domination. Specifically, having experienced the very bottom."
Since Estelle said there was no existence other than Baal who handled Mana of domination, I thought there would be special conditions, but I didn't know it would be that kind of condition.
From the beginning, it was impossible for geniuses to even use it.
They had never experienced the bottom.
'Then does that mean Baal has experienced it...?'
I became a bit more curious about her.
"Then Baal-nim, who handles Mana of domination, has also experienced the bottom?"
Baal nodded as if she had no intention of hiding it.
"That's right. I'm from the lowest-grade Demon race, the most inferior among Demon races. The most lowly existences who die easily with just a gesture from the countless strong beings in the Demon Realm. Though I was born with something called Predation, unlike others."
But Predation isn't an ability that guarantees a low starting point.
Rather than becoming immediately stronger by killing opponents, it's a late-blooming ability that gains power by absorbing their potential.
If lowest-grade Demon race meant existences equal to lowest-grade Demonic Beasts, even with Predation, it would have been difficult to even survive.
"Such a me somehow killed those trying to kill me, devoured them, stole from them, fought, and kept repeating that, eventually realizing something called Mana of domination."
Just as I started with the worst talent and desperately analyzed Baal's Avatar to realize how to use Mana of domination, it seems she also had many experiences.
"But... you're not like that, are you? From when you first summoned my Avatar, you were already Earth's strongest. You had reached the Harmony realm and already mastered my combat methods."
Baal has no memory of the first round.
The first appearance she saw of me was when I summoned her Avatar in the second round tutorial.
By then, through the 50 years I spent in the first round, my existence had already been completed to some degree.
"It's contradictory. An existence who lived in a world without Mana comes to the tutorial and immediately awakens Mana of domination that only those who experienced the bottom can use, then completely destroys the Avatars of gods."
As she said, it was a bundle of contradictions.
For such a thing to be possible, there was only one possible case.
"Han Yeong-min. You're a regressor, right? The greatest masterpiece created by the Earth God. That's what the Constellations think of you."
It was the moment when what the transcendents thought of me came directly from the mouth of a Constellation, and among them, the strongest, Baal.