Chapter 355: Japan (2)

As per usual, after Kim Min-hyuk arrived, he said, “How come you seem to be resting every time I visit?”

It was a statement I used to hear in middle school. How come you’re always playing games?

“I just came out, so I’m resting.” It was the same excuse I used in middle school. But it was true.

“No, really. Four times a day? Why do I only ever see you resting?”

Well, when I worked, I sped up the time. I just wanted to rest when it was time to rest.

Considering the time manipulation, it was highly likely that Kim Min-hyuk would see me resting when he visited.

I couldn’t explain it in detail, so I just shrugged and turned my eyes to the quest window.

“That’s the quest window, isn’t it? I see you looking at it often,” asked Kim Min-hyuk.

I had no choice but to keep looking into the quest window. It continuously renewed conditions. Maybe postponing the quests was the wrong decision.

“Amazing. Solving the Hundred Gods Temple’s quests and taking ownership of the Tutorial in return.”

“What’s amazing about it?”

“The fact that you do business with the gods.”

That was not a lot to be amazed at. However, becoming an apostle and getting power in the first place was probably a big deal for him.

Oh, had Kim Min-hyuk ever gotten a power skill? Probably not. He was from Normal difficulty level after all, so that was understandable.

[God of Death: Destroy the Ruler’s Base in Thanatode and eliminate the Ruler]

It had changed again. Initially, the quest proposed by the God of Death was the purification of Thanatode.

Why was it changing?

Had the gods started to give out more difficult quests because of the power I showed in Antarctica?

That could have been the reason.

But I felt the quests were getting more and more violent. It wasn’t just the quests given by the God of Death, but most of the quests given by other gods were becoming violent as well.

The quests to check, purify, search, and retrieve slowly turned into pursuits to destroy, eradicate, and murder.

There were factions in the Hundred Gods Temple: gods who defended the Rulers and the gods who didn’t.

Kirikiri said the Hundred Gods Temple was bound to spread to the Rulers, and that there was a god who interacted with the Rulers.

There were two factions: gods who intruded into other gods’ realm and blocked the Rulers who were extracting their source, and the gods doing business with the Rulers.

On the other hand, there were some gods who were similar to Kirikiri and were not happy with the Rulers’ work. They showed more of a neutrality or a wait-and-see attitude.

The complex relationships each god had, even outside of factions, were also intertwined.

The place where gods with violent relationships gathered was the Hundred Gods Temple. This system of gods helped to prevent them from causing problems.

But in this system there is a way to ignore the regulations: giving me quests.

This was going to be a mess. No matter how much I thought about it, I still felt the same. It was bound to be a mess.

First of all, I tried to understand the relationships between the gods by looking at the quest window.

I couldn’t figure out which faction was making the quest and with what intentions, but I had to know which side had more power.

There could be a situation where I had to side with one of them after all. I read the quest window carefully and looked at Kim Min-hyuk again. Kim Min-hyuk had taken out his cell phone and was looking at something.

“What is it?”

“I’m having a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister.”

I glanced at Kim Minhyuk’s cell phone. Hochi, Yong-yong, Lee Joon-suk, and people who appeared to be Japanese government employees, sat side by side on chairs.

I’d seen this scene a lot on the news: politicians pretending to be in a heated debate for the camera.

Wait, where is Seregia? I couldn’t see her.

Yong-yong, who remained calm, was whispering in Hochi’s ear. I couldn’t hear the words over the cell phone.

“What is he talking about?”

“Yong-yong says he’s sleepy.”

Then Hochi and Yong-yong disappeared from the cell phone screen. Empty chairs remained in their absence. The Japanese Prime Minister and Lee Joon-suk seemed to be confused.

“Bwahahaha!” I couldn’t help but laugh. It was quite hilarious to see the elderly Japanese Prime Minister and Lee Joon-suk look around, confused.

Secondly, I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of bodyguards rushing in and surrounding the Prime Minister.

“…You are having fun? I’m dying here.”

Yeah, it’s fun. It was strange that it wasn’t funny for him.

“…Eventually, an accident took place.”

“What’s wrong with it? I think Yong-yong went back to the hotel for a while because he was sleepy.”

It was wrong to try to turn them into political figures in the first place.

“I don’t know… I just don’t know,” Kim Min-hyuk mumbled with his face scrunched up. He watched his phone for a while before heading back to the temple.

I’ll take care of it.

* * *

When Hochi and Yong-yong met Lee Joon-suk again, Lee Joon-suk was in tears.

Lee Joon-suk said in a voice filled with resentment and sorrow, “You can’t just go away like that.”

“Hi!” Regardless, Yong-yong excitedly greeted Lee Joon-suk. While Lee Joon-suk was thinking about accepting his greeting or not, Yong-yong approached and patted him on the back.

“Haha, so cute.”

The human figure, who was upset with Yong-yong, looked cute to him. It was amusing to see a small Yong-yong struggle to hit Lee Joon-suk’s back because he was so short in comparison.

Unfortunately, whenever Yong-yong’s palm touched his back, Lee Joon-suk’s backbone jolted in pain. Eventually, Lee Joon-suk had to bury the strong complaints he had held in his mind all day long.

Instead, he timidly said, “People’s attitudes will be different from yesterday.”

“Why?”

“…You went away like that yesterday, so of course…”

Of course, Hochi didn’t understand. Lee Joon-suk had to break it down and explain.

“It’s considered impolite to leave for personal reasons suddenly. Even if you have important personal reasons, it’s not at all a good idea to disappear without informing someone.”

“Ahhh, I get it.”

“So these are table manners,” Hochi mumbled to himself.

It had a subtle difference, but he understood anyway.

“…And more than anything, yesterday’s meeting was really important. It was being broadcasted live all over Japan. It was not a private meeting, but a meeting with the Prime Minister representing Japan. The Japanese people may think we ignored them because we abruptly left.”

Public opinion.

Of course, Hochi was well aware of public opinion’s importance, but he couldn’t relate to it.

So Hochi had no choice but to face people without any complaints.

The Japanese, who he faced again following yesterday, had more hostility than Hochi had expected.

* * *

The travel to the east coast scheduled for tomorrow had been postponed. The entire schedule seemed to have been changed, or more accurately, cancelled. Inside the vehicle heading for the eastern coast, Hochi was delighted.

“Sweet!” Hochi exclaimed and gave a high-five to Yong-yong.

Lee Joon-suk…looked very serious, but even he had decided to turn a blind eye to this situation. He had no choice but to be glad that all the troublesome meetings were canceled.

They had faced people who had come to dislike them, but they were just a little bothered, not offended. Instead, they felt sorry for the Japanese. Lee Joon-suk didn’t express his bad sentiments about Hochi and the rest.

It was the right expression to say that he couldn’t. Hochi’s party would be a big help to Japan, which was in crisis.

He just swallowed back his words and lost the admiration that had risen in him yesterday. He felt slight contempt and annoyance as well as a strong sense of shame, humiliation and jealousy.

To Hochi, this was all a surprise. Surprisingly enough, he felt sorry for them..

Lee Joon-suk’s sense of belonging to the country was well known to Hochi. But he didn’t know it had been strong enough to hurt his own feelings. It was almost as if he thought of the nation as his family or more.

“I can’t be an Awakened.”

“What?” asked Lee Joon-suk.

Before coming to Japan, Kim Min-hyuk had made a suggestion to Hochi, who was worried about his career.

“If you’re worried about what you’re going to do, why don’t you try being an Awakened?”

It was a good thing to save people, a source of envy, make a lot of money, and it’s a job that Hochi could do well.

There were many advantages.

Hochi also seriously thought about it. Most of all, Hochi was deeply impressed by the fact that he was told he could do it well. But now that he saw it, it was a little hard.

What kind of a human hero would he be if he couldn’t empathize with humans? For Hochi, their praise and support would also be meaningless, alongside their criticism as well.

Suddenly, Yong-yong raised his head. The next moment, Hochi sensed it, too.

“This is the east, right?” Hochi questioned, pointing to the direction of the car’s progress.

Lee Joon-suk nodded.

“Yes. Is something wrong?”

“Oh, was the…wave due today?”

“No, the wave doesn’t start on a set day. It only occurs at a certain interval, and the opening date is uncertain,” Lee Joon-suk explained quickly.

“What about the wave cycle?”

“It usually occurs for a period of two to three months.”

Hochi’s expression changed. He looked dubious. Hochi thought for a while and said to Lee Joon-suk, “If it showed up every two or three months, the Earth would have been destroyed.”

“…What?”

“Mantis, is that how it’s supposed to be?” Hochi asked the mantis in Yong-yong’s box.

However, the mantis hid in the closet that Yong-yong had put in the box.

“Maybe not.”

Hochi grabbed Lee Joon-suk’s hand.

“We’re going to teleport.”

“Yes.”

Lee Joon-suk had experienced enough teleportation in the Tutorial. He didn’t have to do anything. The next moment, they were all moved to the shore.

Unlike the sunny and bright part of the city, this place was dark with black clouds covering the sky. Screams and shouts came from all over the place.

Modern artillery were firing continuously, and Awakened men were struggling to maintain the front somehow.

Monsters were crawling out of the coast endlessly. Lee Joon-suk used his skills as soon as he figured out the situation.

With the sound of falling thunder, a powerful lightning bolt was thrown toward the sea.

The Awakened and monsters couldn’t use their power on the blocked front, so they attacked the distant sea.

The effect was sufficient. The bodies of monsters trying to climb ashore from the Pacific Ocean floated up to the surface one after another.

“Oh, he’s strong?” Hochi mentioned in surprise.

Honestly, it was amazing. Lee Joon-suk was more powerful than he had thought. Thanks to this, the endless attacks by monsters on the coast were soon cut off.

Now the problem was monsters sticking to the front. Of course, the ones at the rear had been blown away, so the monsters on the front lines would be cleared up soon.

The less damage-dealers, the better.

“Soul Summon.” At this time, Hochi used a Power Skill. A little ghost, the size of a pinky, appeared beside Hochi.

‘Kuwaah!’ The ghost roared with an exaggerated yell, raising its short arm.

Of course, it wasn’t scary. It was like the roar of a kitten.

“Long time no see.”

‘Kuaaaah!’ The ghost responded to Hochi’s greeting with another roar, and it flew to the front at Hochi’s instructions.

As it flew away, the ghost split into parts. From one to two, two to four. In just a few minutes, it divided into thousands.

When they arrived at the front, the ghosts had spread all over the water. The split ghosts entered into the monsters’ bodies one by one.

The monsters moving on the shore soon began to stop moving completely and started to gather in one place.

Humans open-fired at the monsters gathering at one point, ignoring even the front-liners, and then smoothly bombarded the monsters.

“All clean…” Hochi murmured satisfactorily.

Now it was time to deal with the monsters that remained in the sea.

“Telekinesis.” Hochi once again used his power skill. The water in the ocean slowly began to soar into the sky.

Soon the water rose as high as the buildings in the coastal city and completely revealed the underwater scene. Under the water, the gates on the bed were visible to the naked eye.

It looked like a barnacle. The gate was hidden under the sea and would’ve been difficult to extinguish by using physical prowess.

There were even some gates on the coast as well as on the far inland sea. It would be best just to stop it.

“Mana oppression. Mana seals.” Hochi directly interfered with the gate and closed the entrance of the space.

He had used it many times in the dungeons, so opening and closing the gate was a piece of cake. He cleared away all the gates and placed the seawater down again. He had dealt with gates that were quite far away, so the wave wouldn’t happen again.

All the Dungeon Roads that led to the chaos in the first place were gone.

The shore was filled with silence. All the screaming monsters were dead, and the men who were supposed to shout victory were speechless, staring blankly at Hochi and the party.

The scene where the sea water rose overhead was an unimaginable show of power.

“There’s one more thing left.”

“I’ll do it this time!”

Yong-yong stepped out in high spirits. Hochi, of course, said yes. All of a sudden, the monsters’ bodies grew red.

The bodies of the destroyed and burning monsters began to move slowly. A huge magic circle was carved on the bodies that kept pulsating.

An unknown darkness crawled over the magic circle. The surrounding air had become heavy. The dark sky turned red.

All human eyes were fixed on the dark. Nothing could be pinpointed, but they couldn’t take their eyes off it.

Hochi wondered as he watched the darkness from the magic circle. If such a thing had appeared on Earth many times, the earth would have been destroyed.

Perhaps with just a single appearance, it seemed capable of exterminating all humans. Now that it had appeared, he was just glad they were here. On the other hand, he thought that this might have happened because they came here.

[Memories of the Dead. A host of vengeance. A parasite of life.]

The darkness, which appeared to mutter words that didn’t make sense, looked straight at Hochi and the party, ignoring all the humans around it.

Yong-yong spoke, facing the darkness, “Go in.”

The darkness seeped into the magic circle.