Chapter 219
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: Lesson 43. Too Much Popularity - 4
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In the heart of the desert stood a pillar where a god resided.
The guardians who served as the god's proxies called it a holy site and protected it.
As the world hurtled toward destruction, humans flocked there in search of their last hope.
Clinging to the faint possibility that they might find a way to escape annihilation at the pillar of the god...
"Pretty much like that."
Ban Yu-won had learned the background of this chain room from the people who still lingered around the group even after the shift. He returned to his companions and explained.
It was information they would have naturally obtained by following the trick room's conditions to pass through, but since they'd blatantly killed the golem—the 'guardian'—they'd had to dig it up themselves.
"A pillar... totem worship?"
"You've been studying hard, Lucelle."
"Ehehe."
Whether they worshiped the pillar as a god or the god dwelled within it, the end result was the same.
As he stroked Lucelle, who pounced at the perfect moment to act cute, Dokgo Yeon shot them a pitiful glance. She turned her gaze to As Light, who stood tall as if he were blameless, and the people inexplicably crowding around him.
"There's no connection between a dying world and contracts with the constellations."
"They could probably pull contractors out of a dying world. So, if this were a real world, that's what would've happened."
Ban Yu-won had two hypotheses about the rooms that appeared inside the tower.
One was that the tower created them entirely anew each time, of course.
The other was that it copied specific places or people from countless dimensions and inserted them perfectly—or with alterations—into the tower.
When he'd first entered the tower, Ban Yu-won thought it was completely random, but now he was leaning toward the latter.
'Union Net's foundation is definitely in the tower. Given our ancestor's intentions in building it, that's only natural.'
Union Net originated from the tower and connected to all dimensions.
Using that, recreating events from countless dimensions inside the tower would be a simple matter.
However, the academy didn't explain the tower's relationship with Union Net in detail, and as for the rooms, they merely called them 'the tower's way of testing our existence' without specifying how they were generated.
So nothing could be confirmed for sure... but he hoped resuming solo exploration might reveal something.
"If it were a real world..."
Hearing him, Dokgo Yeon muttered with a bitter smile, as if something bothered her.
Ban Yu-won looked at her, but she just shook her head, denying it.
No way in hell, he thought. At this point, it was clear she knew something about the tower too.
He vowed to make her spill everything she knew later, then turned—only to see As Light approaching him.
"I've reached a conclusion."
While Ban Yu-won talked with Dokgo Yeon, he'd been conversing nonstop with the NPCs, and it had paid off: they were now lined up neatly behind him.
Had he recruited them as allies?
To think he'd have such a Ban Yu-won-like idea and act on it—As Light was seriously acting strange right now!
"We'll destroy the holy site."
"Didn't they tell you to prove your power? Aren't you being way too one-track minded?"
Why not just smash the room, the tower, the world—everything?
But regardless of Ban Yu-won's glare, As Light stuck to his guns.
"Judging from the phrases given as this space's conditions, the original goal was probably to follow the golem's words to the holy site and get chosen by those fools calling themselves gods."
"Yeah, probably. They'd descend somewhere weird for the 'test' or summon monsters or whatever."
"We don't need to take their test. Those arrogant pretenders do."
Ban Yu-won personally agreed with As Light's stance.
But his awkward speech grated so much that the words barely registered.
Even his power to hear everything couldn't pierce the discomfort, so Ban Yu-won steeled himself and decided to treat the man before him as an anonymous quest NPC, not As Light.
"Moreover, they say the holy site was only discovered after the world had already been ravaged by inexplicable disasters. Shouldn't that make us suspect the holy site first and foremost?"
Ban Yu-won doubted his own ears.
This NPC's words...
They were convincing!
"Yet pitifully, the humans never bothered investigating the cause. They just swarmed here hoping to be chosen by the gods and escape destruction themselves. That's not right. It couldn't happen unless those damned things had stripped humanity of its will to fight and resist!"
Ban Yu-won asked Tike to keep recording the 'As Light Book of Quotes' as he listened to the rest.
"This is decisive proof the gods were deceiving humans even before the destruction! And proof they fear the holy site's destruction."
"Yeah, yeah."
"Even if I hadn't killed the guardian, the odds of these people getting chosen were minuscule. So wouldn't uniting our strength to smash the holy site and pillar—the gods' power source—make for better 'struggling'?"
As As Light emphasized "struggling" and raised his sword, the humans—lined up like soldiers—followed suit, lifting their weapons.
"Wooooaaah!"
"Follow As Light! He'll slay the gods and usher in a new human era!"
"The guardian couldn't even stand up to his sword before dying! We can win!"
"Reclaim the light from the false gods!"
This went beyond allies—they were practically brainwashed by As Light.
Ban Yu-won narrowed his eyes at the holy sword radiating an ominous glow.
Tracing a power's origin was foolish, but if forced to classify it, that was no mere apostle-level force.
But in this situation, it wasn't bad at all.
These humans were meant to be enemies broken in the test, so they were above average.
Having blatantly ignored the trick room's conditions to advance, normal progression was impossible anyway. More allies—er, cannon fodder—were welcome for emergencies.
Ta-da! Lilith, bloated with growth from devouring Master's love, makes a flashy reappearance!
It was then.
A dazzlingly beautiful girl burst from Ban Yu-won's inventory, stepping on thin air as she shouted.
The slender girl, who looked like a high schooler, had artificially sparkling blue hair and mechanical silver eyes gleaming with a metallic sheen. Her whole body glowed faintly, as if lined with LEDs...
Her features vaguely resembled Ban Yu-won's in a neat arrangement... Well, she was Lilith in human form, as she'd bluntly admitted.
She'd seemed suspicious even in doll form last time—turns out this was her doing!
"How do you turn human by eating a meteor?"
[It's because my existence has risen in rank. As the saying goes, all things return to their kind... Sharing Master's Yu-won Art made it easy!]
Unable to withstand Ban Yu-won's gaze, Lilith confessed readily.
She wasn't purely human—more like a machine lifeform who'd gained a high rank, allowing a temporary humanoid shape. But it confirmed her abilities had grown tremendously.
[Struggling with this sandstorm? Just ride me, and there'll be no problem!]
"I figured that much from your timing."
[Come on, everyone, hop on!]
Incredibly, even with her human form right there, massive tank-shaped vehicles materialized before Ban Yu-won.
Several appeared at once, big enough for everyone present—including the NPCs.
Ban Yu-won was certain this was Lilith's new authority gained from the relic.
He felt like bowing in gratitude to the Prominence family.
"Wh-what is this?!"
"Another ridiculous... Makes our worries feel stupid."
"Board before the encirclement tightens!"
"Hoo."
Dokgo Yeon and Lucelle boarded first.
As Light resisted relying on Ban Yu-won's power but, after slashing one typhoon with his holy sword and seeing the backlash intensify the others—upending the desert—hurriedly herded people into the tanks.
Lilith rode with Ban Yu-won; she controlled all the tanks single-handedly, like he did with the Stormrain Sword.
[Alright, we're off! Destination: where the stigmata feels strongest, right?]
"Yeah. Go."
The tanks launched in unison.
The sandstorm swelled ferociously, charging at them, but the tanks—shielded by Lilith's power—held firm.
More than that, they absorbed stigmata from the typhoons disintegrating on impact!
[Even climbing the tower drops rewards just from progressing! Nom nom...]
"Lilith, good girl. Stigmata doesn't digest well, so spit it out right away."
[Tch...]
Amid the roaring clash of dozens of whirlwinds, Lilith's tanks pressed on effortlessly, finally breaking through the storm zone to reach the holy site!
"Uh... this is."
The tank's monitor displayed the view ahead.
Ban Yu-won, who'd half-expected it from hearing "pillar," made a truly odd expression upon confirming it with his eyes.
Lucelle voiced his thoughts.
"It looks like the tower..."
"So it was an attempt to mimic the tower? Then the reason the world fell is obvious."
Dokgo Yeon snorted in disbelief.
The furious As Light threw open the hatch and bellowed.
"Everyone out! Let's smash it! Proof the false gods sought humanity's end stands before us!"
At the holy site's center rose a tower piercing endlessly skyward.
It resembled Babel Tower.