Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: The Sanctuary on Earth is Revealed
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[Welcome to the Sanctuary in Gwangju Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea.]
[You are the first user to access the Sanctuary in Gwangju Metropolitan City.]
[The Sanctuary opens with the avatar's connection.]
[The current size of the Gwangju Metropolitan City Sanctuary is small.]
[The Sanctuary's Earth synchronization process has begun.]
[Please wait a moment.]
Rumble rumble rumble! Boom boom boom!
As Geon-woo glanced around briefly, several messages flashed up quickly.
The aftershocks of the Sanctuary's synchronization process made the entire building tremble faintly.
"Ah, this must be that."
= Yes?
"I heard something similar happened in Omniroad. Suddenly a Sanctuary appeared, pushing away the surrounding land. Thanks to the system's power, no buildings or people on the displaced land were harmed."
= You're talking about when the 1st Expedition Team first went to Omniroad?
"That's right. And as more users connected later, the Sanctuary grew, displacing the surroundings each time."
= I remember now. Even during the 1st Expedition Team days, we went through the Sanctuary opening process every time we moved regions.
"Yeah. The same thing is happening on Earth right now. I don't know exactly where in Gwangju, but it's probably the city center, and the Sanctuary appearing there pushed everything back."
= I see.
"But I've never heard of a Sanctuary appearing on Earth until now. There must be one that's already opened somewhere."
= You're right. There really hasn't been any news about Sanctuaries.
"Does that mean information control was that tight? Or have no Sanctuaries actually opened yet?"
= …….
"Ah, no. There are definitely other Sanctuaries open besides this one. Someone hid them. High chance Neuron Age pulled some strings."
= Is that so?
"There's a hint in the system alerts. I'm not the first avatar to connect to Earth."
= Meaning, if you were the first connector, it would have notified you?
"Exactly. It didn't say I'm the first connection or that this is the first Sanctuary to open."
= Then, as expected……
"Plus, why would a Sanctuary open in Gwangju, South Korea, of all places? It's because this is the closest one to the island with my Ark Capsule."
= So, if Neuron Age knew that Sanctuaries open near the capsules of users connecting to Earth……
"They would've moved the capsules to ensure Sanctuaries opened in controllable locations."
Starting from the fact that he wasn't the first connector, Geon-woo spun out various guesses.
But that wasn't important right now.
Not at this moment.
"Anyway, a Sanctuary has appeared in Gwangju, one of South Korea's major cities. There's no hiding this. It's going to cause a huge uproar."
= All eyes will be on you, my lord.
"If they find out, yeah. So I need to slip away before that happens."
Even so, plenty of people would guess that Geon-woo was the one who opened the Gwangju Sanctuary.
But he wanted to avoid the general public catching on.
* * *
"A—a Sanctuary has opened!"
"What? Where? Where is it? Who opened it?!"
Bayron bellowed upon receiving the report.
"I-it's in a provincial city in Korea."
"What? Korea? That wasn't even a monitored area!"
"Yes. It happened in some random place not designated as a high-risk individual or group."
"It was bound to blow up eventually, but this was unexpected…… Hold on, Dark Phoenix? Isn't that where Director Kang Geon-woo is?"
Bayron, who had been grimacing with a headache, suddenly looked shocked as if something had just clicked.
Geon-woo held 4% of Neuron Age's shares as a major shareholder and thus bore the honorary title of director with minimal obligations and limited rights.
"Let me check for a moment. The island with Director Kang Geon-woo's Ark Capsule…… Yes. If Director Kang connected his avatar, the Sanctuary in that city called Gwangju would definitely open."
The subordinate fiddled with the pad in his hand, then looked at Bayron with a 'no way' expression.
"No way, already 50,000 souls?"
Bayron's face filled with question marks.
"Weren't a bunch of villain users reported missing in Korea recently? If Director Kang took all their soulstones……"
"Urgh. So that's what happened. I took my eye off him for a bit, and he causes this massive incident."
From his subordinate's words, Bayron roughly pieced together the whole story.
"What a guy. He got a 7-year connection penalty and still managed to fuse 50,000 souls already. Ha! Incredible!"
Bayron let out an exclamation of disbelief at Geon-woo's rapid progress.
"What do we do? Announce per the manual?"
The subordinate asked Bayron.
"Do it. It was going to come out anyway. Things have been on a knife's edge until now. Announce soul fusion and avatar transformation details in Neuron Age's name."
"That'll make a ton of people go after 50,000 souls. Soul prices will skyrocket, naturally."
"Probably. And Ark Capsule hunts will explode too."
The surest way to get souls was stealing soulstones from Ark Capsules.
Snag a capsule, and you get the base 1 soul it came with guaranteed. If the user had fused souls into its soulstone, you got all those too.
From now on, the battle for Ark Capsules would heat up even more.
"Before the announcement, upgrade the Ark Capsules with auto-reporting. If users want, they can have location data sent immediately if attacked."
"Got it."
"Hurry! Get out!"
"Yes, Director Bayron!"
Urged by Bayron, the subordinate dashed out of the office.
"Whew. Kang Geon-woo, what the hell is going on with you?"
After the subordinate left, Bayron pulled a cigar from his drawer, clipped the end, lit it, and stuck it in his mouth.
He exhaled the inhaled smoke toward the ceiling and muttered.
With his 7-year connection restriction, Geon-woo's performance was astonishing.
Bayron had removed him from the special watchlist assuming the 7-year gap, and now this—it was ridiculous.
"Anyway, Director Kang Geon-woo has effectively joined the Million Guardians."
Bayron thought of the users who had fused 50,000 souls and were under special management.
The final bulwark against the Demon Race's Earth invasion.
It was the centerpiece of Neuron Age's countermeasures against dimensional invasion—a massive project.
"Million Guardians."
Omniroad access was capped at 400 million.
And though unannounced, avatar access to Earth was limited to one million.
Just as Neuron Age hid the 400 million cap, the one million cap was top secret.
"It's impossible to fill all million Guardians with just us anyway. We're barely scraping three digits even now."
Fusing 50,000 souls wasn't easy even for Neuron Age.
They had to siphon souls secretly to cultivate Guardians.
Even Neuron Age, tangled in all sorts of interests, couldn't avoid people slacking on the 'protect Earth' principle for their own agendas.
"If worst comes to worst, deploy Guardians……"
In an extreme situation, to protect Earth's humanity, they might need to seize Neuron Age's system via Guardians.
Bayron stopped there, took a deep drag on his cigarette, and calmed his mind.
"Kang Geon-woo…… With him, maybe it's actually a good thing? Better than other guys running wild."
Bayron latched onto Geon-woo to ease his anxiety about the future.
Feeling somewhat relieved, he chuckled wryly.
It wasn't bad at all that Kang Geon-woo had qualified for the Million Guardians.
"Either way, the world's about to get noisy for a while."
* * *
"It's getting hard for me to move around because of this Sanctuary business."
Back on his island, Geon-woo was monitoring the world's situation.
The Sanctuary in Gwangju, South Korea, had drawn global attention.
Soon after its appearance, Neuron Age officially announced the secret of soul fusion.
Fusing 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 souls into a soulstone dramatically boosted avatar potential each time.
Avatar abilities usable on Earth as a user also surged.
But the pinnacle was fusing 50,000 souls.
The revelation that fusing 50,000 allowed avatar activity on Earth was the most shocking.
With this out, the 400 million users sprang into action.
Soul trading prices skyrocketed, and crimes targeting Ark Capsules spiked.
As things heated up, Cheon Su-wan, Pelian, Ivan, Alphonse, Tucker, and others halted their moves.
They realized their supposed peak was an illusion.
The frogs in the well fell silent.
"Starting something now would just add to the chaos. No real impact either."
Even Geon-woo, who had considered directly attacking a couple of 1st Expedition Team members to send a clear warning, decided to watch and wait.
= The 1st Expedition Team seems weaker than expected.
Ilryeong approached Geon-woo, who was flipping through news screens, and spoke.
"They were probably in a frog-in-the-well mindset. Running wild on their own ego without knowing Neuron Age's true nature."
= I thought they had real capability……
"Yeah, they won't collapse easily."
= You think so?
"They're not called the world's strongest warriors for nothing. They panicked without info. Once they get a handle on things, they'll bounce back somehow."
= That doesn't sound great either.
"Either way, the problem now isn't them—it's the ones who can access Earth as avatars. High chance they're Neuron Age affiliates."
= Even so, they're no match for you, my lord.
"Yeah?"
= Yes. Your Heavenly Brain Division Heart Subduing Spirit Jiangshi Technique is an unparalleled divine art through the ages. Who would dare challenge you, having reached its peak?
"Well, I think so too."
= With nothing much to do on Earth for a while, how about heading to Omniroad?
"Omniroad? To hunt Demons?"
= Yes, my lord.
"Sure. Thanks to Gongryeong, I know a lot more about the Demon Race now, so hunting will be way easier. I know where and how they're hiding."
Geon-woo had learned much about the Demon expeditionary force from Hellfaris's successor, now Gongryeong.
Using that info.
= Couldn't we select and secure jiangshi spirits tailored to the ginger spirits you need, my lord?
"Yeah. Let's go to Omniroad."
Geon-woo accepted Ilryeong's suggestion.
Earth would be chaotic for the foreseeable future anyway.
No need to waste time here if he could strengthen his forces in the meantime.