Rivers of Holy Water

【Voting Ends In: 1 day, 4 hours, 2 minutes, 3 seconds】

Holy water had appeared in Korea.

The eyes of the world were now fixed on it.

Pure shock and awe.

Of course, the governments of various nations, already aware of the holy water's existence, weren't as stunned as the public.

They simply thought: So the time has come.

Even though they'd secured thousands of bottles through the third auction, it was still a limited supply in the end.

Unlike other countries that could only distribute it to their national awakeners,

Korea would allow its entire nation to bask in the blessings of holy water.

Why? Because it was Hitchhiker's country.

As admiring gazes poured in,

A message no one had anticipated appeared before everyone in the world.

What the hell was this?

The fact that Hitchhiker had finally spoken to the world for the first time was overshadowed by the sheer shock of the content.

People were confused.

Holy water to the entire world?

How the hell was that even possible?

Hitchhiker held the answer in his hand.

The incident traced back five hours earlier.

"I'm a bit torn on what pledge to make."

What was the original plan?

America enters the 75th floor.

The Trial of Speed activates worldwide.

Counter it immediately by pledging Acceleration Orbs.

Daily production was limited to 10,000, and the residents of Lumentia and Nosferatu were consuming them too,

"But since the trial only applies from the 41st floor, we won't need a huge amount."

We could supply enough.

Enough for each country's rankers, at least.

But America wasn't making any moves right now.

"Maybe it's true that Killdragon is missing."

"Perhaps he's paying for his sins in hell?"

Yulia's face was one of ecstatic bliss.

What the hell are you imagining?

Anyway.

The 75th-floor entrants were missing.

No trial activation.

'Just a guess, though.'

We couldn't just sit around watching America's moves forever.

To secure a definite victory, we needed to gather neutral votes.

Considering the time people took to deliberate and shift their votes, it was about time to drop a pledge.

"Meteor! Say we'll drop one on America! International villain! Kaboom on the White House! Or China!"

"How about pledging to erect golden statues of Your Holiness in every capital?"

Both rejected.

Are you two even sane?

As he gazed at Hati, snoring peacefully on the bed for some mental peace,

Perfect timing for the alert.

Spiritia. Hati's homeworld.

A dark planet shrouded in tower energy.

We were stripping away the black tower aura by moving an artificial sun through the skies.

Five days since the first purification.

Time to see some results.

"Let's go right now."

He scooped up the soundly sleeping Hati and they all passed through the dimensional gate together.

They emerged in a dense forest.

The blackened energy had been completely peeled away, restoring its original colors.

Well, it was still barren, but whatever.

Riding the magic carpet, they flew to the tower at the forest's center and immediately began purification.

─────!

The tower turned pure white.

It shot out a beam of pristine light.

The light settled in parabolas across the forest, spreading like ripples.

Saaaaah───

The landscape began to restore itself.

Just like with the other two planets.

But there was one difference.

"The forest is so pretty!"

"This looks just like when Hati's body turns semi-transparent sometimes, Your Holiness?"

Was it because it was a spirit planet?

Trees, rocks, leaves, flowers—

Every visible part of the scenery cycled through colors, turning transparent, then whole again.

Then, Hati's ears perked up from his embrace, still deep in sleep.

Its black nose twitched.

It snapped its eyes open, looking around.

It leaped from his arms, bouncing around excitedly.

Its body flickered semi-transparent wildly.

It rolled around in a flowerbed like mad.

"I get that feeling!"

"My heart's swelling up."

They all felt warm and fuzzy together.

While Hati reveled in joy and nostalgia, they wandered around exploring.

The plants emitted brilliant light.

The visibility was much brighter than before.

"It's like broad daylight!"

"Nice. Even with the artificial sun, it wasn't enough to light the whole planet yet—that was a shame."

Then, clusters of light gathered in spots across the landscape.

A familiar sight.

The revival of the planet's inhabitants.

As the lights faded, what appeared were...

"Kring?"

"Kiing?"

Confused silver foxes.

Hundreds of them, it seemed—adults larger than Hati, and pups smaller than it.

Heads tilted in curiosity.

Tongues lolling out.

Fluffy, plump tails.

They clutched their hearts.

"Hngh!"

"Ears, so cute!"

"This place is paradise...!"

They moved to approach, entranced.

The foxes bolted en masse.

"W-We look scary, don't we? Vampires and all!"

"Your Holiness, we must... we must pet those tails right now."

The foxes watched from afar with curious eyes, not fleeing too far.

The two allies whispered.

"Wouldn't luring them with food be better? Should we empty Master's pocket dimension of chicken first?"

"I think inducing carelessness then netting them all at once would be more efficient."

Are you poachers or what?

Then Hati appeared behind them and charged toward the foxes, da-da-da.

"Kring! Kruring!"

"Kring?"

"Kruring!"

They exchanged some incomprehensible conversation.

It bounced around, seemingly explaining something.

And the next moment.

Sabak, sabak.

The foxes approached cautiously toward them.

"Master! Th-They're coming! Coming!"

"Your Holiness, net ready!"

That's not it!

Hati returned do-do-do and explained.

Human tribe leader?

Was that him?

Not important.

What followed was a dreamlike time.

They lay in the flowerbed, letting the fragrant breeze wash over them.

The foxes?

Some gnawed at their shoes, others curled up on chests and bellies, sleeping.

"Maaaster... We're staying here foreverrr..."

"Your Holiness, it was all futile... Dopamine this, that... All just fleeting pleasures..."

The dopamine dream team, living at 3x speed, suddenly dropped to 0.5x.

Aaah, is this heaven...?

Their minds grew languid.

Then one fox brought fruit in its mouth, dropping one in each of their hands.

"What a weird shape!"

"What kind of fruit is it?"

They expressed thanks and reached to pet its tail to satisfy their greed,

Huh? This one's got four tails?

Hati explained.

Then the fruit Carmina was about to bite turned into a leaf with a pop.

"Ack! Ack! My fruit!"

HatiHatiHo!

The fox playfully darted away.

Carmina gave chase in a game of tag.

Of course, since the fox passed through trees, she couldn't even graze its tail fur.

Later, they heard about the various abilities: transformation, divination, foxfire, talismans, and more.

"Kinda feels like sorcery, huh?"

"Definitely, Your Holiness."

Then the final wave of light rippled across the grass and faded.

The expected alert.

Nice bonuses too.

Pong! Pong!

"Huh?"

"Tails!"

"One per person, huh?"

Hati now had three tails.

After moving the artificial sun to another forest sector's skies, they returned to the room.

And now, right before his eyes were...

What was this?

Hati's newly added skills.

Let's examine them one by one.

Exactly what it sounded like: transformation.

Exactly divination.

"What are you two doing?"

"Our Hati is the best!"

"The divine beast of our church is so mystical!"

The two allies showered Hati with praise.

"Kring? Kruring?"

Hati looked baffled.

But it seemed pleased anyway.

No real usage limits either.

Any reason to hesitate?

"Can you do the divination skill first?"

Blue energy poured from Hati's body, rolling across the floor as fruit shapes.

Chalalak!

They formed patterns at intervals,

"Tokens of Resonance, huh."

"Resonance!"

"Doesn't it mean voting tokens?"

"Seems like it."

It's coming...! Strong hunch...!

He'd had this suspicion before.

The voting event.

Was it really meaningless beyond just getting first place? The vote count itself?

Even if temporary, electing a king—shouldn't the vote numbers represent the people's will as a token?

The conclusion:

"I judge that benefits scale with the vote count when you take first."

Meaning they needed to scrape every last neutral vote through the pledge.

Probably better to target citizens directly rather than nations.

Holy water was perfect, but current stock only covered Korea.

'If I think of a way...'

Accelerated thinking.

A flash of inspiration.

"Eureka!"

He opened a dimensional gate to Lumentia.

"The Lord has descended! All hail—!"

"Busy right now! Later!"

He retrieved the Holy Grail wedged at a 45-degree angle between Roas River rocks.

Back to the room immediately.

Pulled out a pile of lowest-grade mana stones.

"Can you transform all of these into Holy Grails?"

The answer was obviously yes.

And the result?

Mass fake Holy Grails secured.

Test results:

No need for a specific angle; dipping liquid in it applied the effect to the entire body of water.

"This is even better than the original."

"The original must be broken!"

The fake holy water's options:

Stat boost halved.

Tap water instead of Roas River water, so no health option.

"Everything else matches the original."

"Fake but almost identical!"

Even better, actually.

For distributing worldwide.

With tiered options, governments paying for it wouldn't complain.

He called Team Leader Cha Minhyuk.

Other materials secured.

Dopamine Inc. began attaching one token per fake Holy Grail.

Home industry after a long time?

As the world buzzed, megaphone counters fired back.

China and Japan.

Representatives desperate to block Korea's first place.

Other nations joined in.

A barrage of megaphone counters.

Hitchhiker listened silently, then dropped one line.

Followed by another message.

A link to some broadcast channel.

Viewership numbers skyrocketing in real time.

The screen showed a river.

As questions mounted,

───────!

The entire Seine glowed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with light.

The broadcaster descended the bank, the camera zooming closer to the river.

Dipped a bottle in the water.

The shock didn't end there.

The same phenomenon occurred simultaneously in major rivers worldwide.

Rivers entirely turned to holy water.

They reverted shortly after.

The Holy Grails sunk to river bottoms via pocket dimension had been retrieved all at once.

A massive vote migration began.

If votes had legs, the whole Earth would shake.

[Rumble rumble────!]

Utter madness.

Koreans' holy water use had spread worldwide, envy at its peak.

And it was an item, no less?

Something individuals could possess.

Far more tangible than national military or economic aid.

Even...

Votes from China, America, Japan shifted too.

But unfortunately,

They were too hyped to read the messages properly.

A moment of silence.

Leaders ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of certain nations breathed relief.

Nations or alliances that had siphoned Korea's holy water and signed formal deals with America.

But soon.

The public executions began.

The moment traitors' national opinions erupted like volcanoes.

The score gap was overwhelming.

As everyone expected, day three passed without incident.

Oh... so that's how it works?

What decree to enact first?