Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: I’m Taking the Sanctuary
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“How is this even possible…….”
“Look at that wall—how does something like that happen?”
“Reinforced concrete caved in like pudding!”
“They even punched right through the sector divider. That alloy’s two meters thick.”
“But the fight itself doesn’t look like much. There’s barely any traces.”
“Means they didn’t even have a chance to resist.”
“Scary as hell.”
The Guardians stared at Geon-woo and Paeng with pale faces, glancing nervously between them.
They had plenty of combat experience themselves, enough to know this scene wasn’t remotely normal.
“Hurry it up. What’s there to gawk at?”
Geon-woo snapped at the hesitant special team.
The commander quickened his pace under Geon-woo’s sharp gaze.
A few corners turned, alphabet and number zones shifting several times.
Finally, they reached the heart of the base where Bayron was waiting.
Kwarung! Kwarurung! Pababang!
“Kraaak!”
“Aaak!”
“Kee-ee-eek!”
“Keh-ehk!”
There, the commander and Guardian special team witnessed the elite Jiangshi in action.
Clouds of dust and shattered possessed bodies, along with bio-armor implant users.
The elite guard Jiangshi weren’t using any special abilities.
Just speed and raw power.
That alone was enough to pulverize the enemy.
“What the……?”
“Are we seeing this wrong?”
“How can that even happen?”
“Blocking doesn’t do shit. They just explode.”
Kwarung!
A bio-armor implant user blocked an elite Jiangshi’s punch with a chitin shield.
Arms extended, hands clasped, chitin growing from them to form the shield.
But one bare fist from the elite Jiangshi blew the upper body of the shield-wielding implant user to pieces.
The shield hadn’t impeded the punch in the slightest.
And it wasn’t just that one Jiangshi.
Even Changryeong’s simple spear swing sliced through possessed and implants alike. Along Sunryeong’s charge path, shielded ahead, came a chain of bloody explosions.
“Still cleaning up, huh?”
“Looks like it.”
But neither Geon-woo nor Paeng showed much reaction.
They’d already experienced the power of these Molti-turned-Jiangshi summoned back from the demon dimension multiple times.
What was unfolding before them was just par for the course.
In the brief moment they watched, all the possessed and bio-armor implants were cleared out.
Shashashashak!
Then a mid-2-meter Jiangshi dual-wielding swords—Saengryeong—stepped forward and began slicing through the front barrier wall.
“Crazy—swords did that?”
“And they’re not normal swords. They’re grown from its hands, like bio-armor.”
“With those, it’s cutting through that monstrous alloy wall?”
“Means if we got caught, we’d be sliced like cake.”
“Something’s off. Really off.”
Even seeing it with their own eyes, their brains rejected the reality.
The special team Guardians were grappling with cognitive dissonance.
Sgeek! Rumble rumble rumble!
In the meantime, Saengryeong’s blades pierced the barrier wall, severed alloy chunks tumbling to the floor.
Beyond it.
A space familiar even to Geon-woo came into view.
“The sanctuary plaza.”
Paeng muttered in surprise.
“So that’s Earth’s first sanctuary. Then that thing over there must be the Prophet’s Obelisk or whatever.”
Geon-woo entered the sanctuary plaza through the hole Saengryeong had carved.
Normally, the sanctuary plaza held no special facilities.
It was just where avatars appeared upon logging in or vanished upon logging out.
Surrounding the plaza were multiple entrances leading to corridors lined with small rooms.
Maintenance rooms, designed for sanctuary visitors to handle personal matters.
One of those walls should have had a passage out of the sanctuary, but here, only the barrier side Geon-woo had entered from had an exit to the outside.
“Other entrances were probably there originally, but they buried them all under concrete.”
Paeng quickly pieced together what Neuron Age had done to the sanctuary.
They’d poured concrete over Earth’s first sanctuary, sealing it away.
Then built their headquarters on top.
“Looks like it was pretty far below ground level to begin with. They just buried it completely.”
Geon-woo grasped the situation and nodded along with Paeng.
He stepped forward toward the pillar at the plaza’s center.
A square stone pillar etched with irregular script and patterns amid tangled lines.
Its top tapered to a point on all four sides, forming the classic pyramid shape of an obelisk.
“So this is the Prophet’s Obelisk?”
Geon-woo reached out toward the pillar.
But he stopped just short of touching it and turned his head, eyes locking on one spot.
“What happens if I touch it?”
Geon-woo’s gaze settled on Bayron, standing at one of the maintenance room entrances.
Bayron sighed at the question and walked out slowly.
“It’ll ask for login credentials. Then say you lack access rights.”
Bayron stood beside Geon-woo as he answered.
“Login credentials? Access rights?”
Geon-woo asked.
“Granted by the Obelisk itself. You know this—the 100 representatives who created Neuron Age.”
“Oh! So when the sanctuary first appeared, it gave those guys the Obelisk’s login creds and usage rights?”
“Exactly.”
“But plenty of them have died, right?”
Most from accidents rather than natural causes, but over a decade-plus, dozens had passed.
So what happened to their credentials and rights?
“If they didn’t transfer them voluntarily, they’re gone.”
Bayron answered, then nodded toward the Obelisk, meeting Geon-woo’s eyes.
Like he was saying, go ahead and check.
Geon-woo didn’t budge, just glared at Bayron.
“No traps or anything. You’re safe.”
Bayron said it with a soft expression, trying to reassure him.
“Ah, let me try it.”
But in that instant, Paeng stepped up and slapped his hand on the Obelisk.
Shwahwahot!
A green flash erupted from the Obelisk simultaneously.
Not harsh on the eyes, so no sense of threat.
“Whoa, it’s real. Just like Bayron said. Feels exactly like heading to the waiting room.”
The light faded after a few dozen seconds, and Paeng pulled his hand away, grinning at Geon-woo.
“Why’d you jump in first for no reason? I can handle my own stuff.”
Geon-woo scolded Paeng while glaring at Bayron.
“Need to inherit those credentials and rights?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what about them? They wasted all that effort without knowing?”
Geon-woo gestured outside the hole they’d punched to enter the sanctuary.
More precisely, at the possessed and bio-armor implants lying there.
“When this sanctuary changes owners, you can reset the rights and credentials. But ‘ownership change’ is on a racial level, so it doesn’t apply to someone like Director Kang.”
“Hm? Racial level? What’s that mean?”
Paeng, who’d been listening, beat Geon-woo to the question.
“Exactly what it sounds like. The race that occupies this sanctuary has to change for a reset.”
“What? So Geon-woo can’t take it over?”
Paeng shot Bayron a disappointed glare.
“This first sanctuary was made to protect Earth’s humanity from dimensional invasions. That’s why it’s always open to humans.”
“Then why do you guys monopolize the Obelisk?”
Paeng jabbed right at the sore spot.
“That wasn’t my decision. No good excuse there.”
Bayron replied.
At that moment, Geon-woo raised a hand to quiet Paeng and spoke up.
“What’s the condition for occupying this place? I want specifics.”
“Occupation condition?”
“You said another race occupying it allows a reset. So I want to know what counts as occupation.”
“As long as no other races are here, and it’s a single race…….”
“Hm? If it’s single-race only, what about demons? They’ve got all those sub-races. How’s that work?”
“No idea on my end. But the sanctuary doesn’t distinguish between yellow, black, white humans, or German, Turk, whatever.”
“Why’s it so half-assed? So even you don’t really know, Bayron.”
Paeng glared at him fiercely from inside his helmet.
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. So if we clear it out and stick one demon in, we can reset, right?”
Then came a line from Geon-woo that threw everyone listening into confusion.
“Clear the sanctuary and put a demon in?!”
Bayron yelped at Geon-woo in shock.
“What? Just borrow it for a sec and take it back quick. Then reset this rock’s settings, yeah?”
Even with Bayron jumping in alarm, Geon-woo muttered casually, like it was no big deal.
“Whoa, that could work! Sounds fun!”
Paeng jumped in excitedly, like he was ready to do it now, twisting Bayron’s guts further.
“You asked for my help, and now you’re eyeing the sanctuary.”
Bayron glared at Geon-woo with savage eyes.
“I know Neuron Age put in the work. But these days, seems like you’ve lost that original spirit.”
“Urgh.”
“The hundred representatives? Heard quite a few flipped to the demons. The ones who got bio-armor implants to extend their lives.”
“How do you……?”
“Secrets don’t stay secret forever. Especially now, with demon-possessed, bio-armor implants, and pure humans all mixed up. Demon-side intel leaks easier than ever.”
As Geon-woo spoke, he flicked a glance at Paeng.
This intel had come from Paeng too.
“Why chat so long? We were gonna flip this place anyway. Lucky we found a way to snag the sanctuary clean. Otherwise, might’ve had to wipe out all of Neuron Age. Come on, let’s reset it already.”
Paeng, catching the look, urged Geon-woo to decide.
Geon-woo turned back to Bayron at Paeng’s words.
“What’s your plan?”
Bayron asked.
“Everyone out of the sanctuary, please?”
Geon-woo said.
“You’re really taking it?”
Bayron demanded, face twisted in anger.
“The sanctuary belongs to humanity, not Neuron Age reps. You had it in trust, but can’t even manage it properly.”
“T-That’s…….”
“In my opinion, I’d do better than Neuron Age right now.”
“…….”
Geon-woo’s words cut deep, but more than that, there was no way to beat him.
Bayron clamped his mouth shut, grumbled, then sighed.
“Everyone out.”
He called to the special team that had been watching and headed out of the sanctuary.
“What now?”
After Bayron left, Paeng sidled up to Geon-woo and asked.
“Clear it out.”
Geon-woo replied, then ordered his elite Jiangshi to sweep the sanctuary.
Confirmed no one left in the plaza or maintenance rooms, then he and Paeng stepped outside.
But the moment Geon-woo and Paeng exited the sanctuary, the plaza’s Obelisk emitted a pure white light.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“Yeah? Why now?”
Startled by the sudden glow, Paeng and Geon-woo whipped around.