Chapter 366: God of Hope (4)

This concluded the series of disturbances that had occurred when the God of Hope intervened in Japan.

I had to dig more before hitting anything next time.

It was as rewarding as I had anticipated it would be and it came with the added bonus of f*king over the God of Hope. I hadn’t completely devoured the God of Hope, but I destroyed his base and took the majority of his believers.

What’s better than that?

I was very pleased to see the God of Hope running away cursing me whenever he ran into me in his holy land.

At the end, the God of Hope, who kept saying, “Hope shines more strongly in despair,” ran away and did not respond to my provocation. It would be true that the more desperate the situation is, the greater the power of the God of Hope.

However, the land destroyed by me was greater than the power that he had been receiving from his dwindling following. All the believers of the God of Hope were anxious for salvation.

For decades, for life, or for generations, they were hoping for a better life, squeezing faith into the God of Hope. So when I gave them real hope, they came into my arms without any doubt.

I’d gained a lot. For ordinary gods, the number of believers and their faith were more important than their power.

I can confidently say that my achievements have given me the foundation to rise from where I am now and get even stronger. Of course, the believers on the 61st floor would be disappointed to hear this.

It was true. So I was able to come back to the flat with great satisfaction.

A feeling of panic rose in me. There was no one there. When I came back to the flat without much thought, it was empty. Of course, I thought Hochi would be lying on the couch, and Yong-yong was playing in the room.

On checking, Hochi and Yong-yong’s energy still remained in Japan. I was wondering what was going on, so I moved to where Hochi was. Hochi was sitting on the beach with Lee Joon-suk, watching the sunset.

They look tired. That’s good. Someone’s been working hard.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? Just… uh?”

Hochi had a stupid look on his face.

Hey. I wished he wouldn’t do that with the same face as me.

I once asked Hochi if he wanted to change his face. I thought he would prefer to live with a different face because it was Hochi’s face that states that he was my clone.

The face represents the person’s identity. The same was true for me and Hochi. But Hochi was against having his own new face.

For some reason, Hochi kept the same face as me. The reason was unknown. I decided to respect Hochi’s choice. But when he was wearing such a look, I always thought, “I wish he had a different face from mine.”

“I went to the flat, and was confused because you weren’t there. What are you doing here?”

“…T-that’s…” Hochi stammered.

Perhaps because he was facing the sunset, his face looked red. He seemed to be embarrassed about something.

“Hyung, are you hurt anywhere?” asked Lee Joon-suk.

“Of course not.”

He then asked, “What happened then? Was it a big deal?”

I gave a rough account of what had happened.

“I went after the runaway God of Hope. I didn’t catch him.”

“Oh, that’s why you’re late. What a relief. Hochi Hyung was so worri- ungh…!”

Hochi shut Lee Joon-suk’s mouth. Only then did I understand why he was embarrassed.

“What? Were you worried about me?”

“No!”

Hochi was in a flustered state of denial.

Yong-yong appeared in the air. Right in my arms.

“Daddy! You came too late!”

Yong-yong hugged me once, raised his head and rebuked me. He must have been sad that I disappeared for a few days without contacting him.

He had that familiar look in his eyes. When Yong-yong did something wrong as a child, I gave him the same look while I scolded him.

How old was I again? Already getting scolded by my son. Still, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

“Sorry, the God of Hope ran better than I thought.”

The essence of hope remained till the end, and the God of Hope was confident. If he had been a decent god, he would have prepared for a final stand even if he was ashamed to see his main plan failing like that. The God of Hope, who gave up all his apostles and Holy Land, and chose to run away, was certainly an exceptional case.

When I apologized, Yong-yong quickly straightened his face and hugged me.

Ah, my pretty son.

“Yong-yong, were you worried about your daddy, too?”

“Hey, I wasn’t worried about you!” shouted Hochi beside.

I ignored him. It was not meaningful to shout those words with a face redder than the sunset.

“No, I wasn’t worried.” Yong-yong replied in a calm tone.

He wasn’t worried. In fact, this was the right decision, but somehow I felt sad. I wanted him to believe me so firmly that he didn’t worry about me, but on the other hand, I had a contradictory feeling that he should worry about me.

“Hehe.”

Either way, Yong-yong was rubbing his face against my chest, saying it was good to have me back.

I stroked Yong-yong’s head.

“A little while ago… Ahhh!

Lee Joon-suk screamed.

“What’s wrong?”

“He must have been bitten by the mantis for putting his finger in the box.” explained Hochi.

What? The mantis? So, he pinched Lee Joon-suk’s finger, huh. I thought they had gotten a lot closer since then.

“By the way, why aren’t you waiting at the flat…”

Boom!

I heard a dull explosion noise from behind while I was talking. Looking back, construction materials were being transported. There were quite a few busy construction vehicles and people.

The restoration of the coastal defense line had begun a long time ago. There would be no more monster waves here. But people were not sure of the fact. Maybe it’s natural for them to be like this.

It was meaningless hard work, but it’s not worthless. Furthermore, what happened on this coastline must have been at a magnitude beyond human standards. It made sense to be on guard.

That may be why the group was still staying here. In fact, I was worried a lot. About Hochi. I always wondered if he could do something alone since he was a lethargic fellow.

However, when I left the job to him, he was not only doing his best as much as he could, but also showing a responsible attitude.

“You’ve done well,” I said to Hochi.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever said this to Hochi.

I was only saying, “Work harder.”

“…Well… it was supposed to be that way. Yong-yong and Joon-suk worked better.”

Of course, it wouldn’t usually happen like this, but now I thought it wouldn’t have gone well without him. Should I say I was relieved or proud? Probably both.

I asked Hochi what I thought I’d leave to him.

“Hochi, I’ve absorbed the believers of the God of Hope this time.”

I told him about the situation the believers were in and the direction I wanted to lead them.

“I want you to take care of them. I’ll take responsibility and make it look like a game system. The interface will be very friendly, so it won’t be too difficult. And as long as you accept it, I will…”

“I’ll do it.”

“Can you… Huh? You will?”

“I don’t know if I can do well, but I’ll give it a try.”

I smiled quietly.

I was going to take him to the flat right away, but Hochi was showing such a responsible and mature side that I didn’t want to move him away.

“Okay, then I’ll go back first and take a rest. Come back later. Let’s talk about it again when you’re back.”

I also told Lee Joon-suk to talk to me later.

I thought it would be better to train him and let him stick with Hochi in the future.

For some reason, Lee Joon-suk seemed to be pleased with my saying that we would talk later.

* * *

“You’ve done a very good job. Ahahaha.”

Kirikiri laughed. She wasn’t pretending. She looked to be in a good mood. She is always smiling, but I can tell how she felt after observing her for so long.

“What’s the state of the God of hope?”

“He’s ruined, so ruined, totally ruined.” said Kirikiri, drumming her fingers.

The defeat of the God of Hope seemed to be truly joyful for her.

“Can he maintain his position as god?”

“He can.”

That was an unexpected answer. I thought it was more likely for him to not.

“The God of hope was not only believed by ordinary believers. He was in danger because most of his believers were Ruler Gods.”

A god who was receiving faith from other gods. It was not an unfamiliar experience. Through the God of Slowness, I knew that there was a god who feared another God.

I confirmed this fact through Old Man, Grandma and Seregia.

“Well, that’s something you can only keep up with enough power. Problems are going to start popping up internally, too. It would be difficult for him to make a comeback in a short period of time. Ahahaha!”

Kirikiri looked really happy. It was somehow weird to see her rejoice over another’s misfortune.

“The God of Hope has been an old headache.”

I’m sure he is.

If he was given faith by the Rulers, it would only be profitable for him to raise the Rulers. He must have developed his power by giving information on the Hundred Gods Temple, and by using loopholes in the system to increase his power.

In a way, it was safe to say that this was the ultimate cause of the earth’s end. It was the God of Hope who was backing the monsters, gates, dungeons, and the Rulers who commanded all that.

It was no wonder that he prepared the fake for when I came outside with hostility from the beginning. He couldn’t have done harm to me in the Tutorial, but I could imagine how nervous he must have been to see me clear each floor.

I checked the quest window again. Some of the gods’ quests had already been marked complete. Like Kirikiri, they were gods who wanted to weaken the power of the Rulers.

This was also the case among the gods whose quest was completed.

[God of Light-Explosion, please! (Completed)]

[God of Nature–(Completed)]

[God of Sky–(Completed)]

[God of Sacrifice-(Completed)]

Some gods completed their quest for no particular reason or no reason at all. As for the god of light. He was a unique case.

But in case of a god of nature or god of sky…

“Heng, they don’t want to be involved anymore.”

Did they want to stay away from the conflict between the Rulers and the others?

“You’ve been acting so crazy, breaking into other people’s holy land. There are many reasons why they don’t want to be associated with Ho-jae anymore. On the contrary, there are gods who say that if a person is as strong as Ho-jae, they should be automatically included in the Hundred Gods Temple.”

That was my problem. It would be enough if it were the God of Nature or the God of Sacrifice who had some problems with me. In the case of the God of Sky, we had a problem that I needed to go and argue about.

It wasn’t an emergency though. Rather,

“They want me in the Hundred Gods Temple?”

“Yes, yes. I also think it’s not a bad offer. What do you think of it, hoo-woo-jae-ae?”

At that moment, I had the urge to grip the back of Kirikiri’s head.

‘Not a bad offer.’

“I don’t intend to be under the control of the system.”

It’s been only four months since I’ve escaped the tutorial, and now you want me to be bound by the same shackles?

Definitely a no-no. If there was such an offer, I was willing to resist desperately.

“He-heng, it would be great to be like a Korean family with Ho-jae.”

You evil bunny.

Becoming a Korean family with Kirikiri, who was delighted by the fall of the God of Hope.

It was a shame to have a family relationship with the wicked gods. That was a serious problem. I heard that the reason for the birth of the Hundred Gods Temple and the Pantheon was because of dangerous gods who clashed with each other.

Maybe I would be forcibly recruited that way, too. Measures were needed.

“Ah, here comes a visitor. I’ll get going!”

Kirikiri exclaimed and disappeared. I soon found out who Kirikiri was talking about.

The air in the flat was distorted and a man appeared. Flaming red skin, height twice that of a regular human, and a body with toned muscles.

He looked like the monk from the 13th floor.

“God of Duel?”