I saw the 17th-floor fake standing beside the God of Hope. How long had he been preparing for this? It was hard to guess.
To be honest, it was quite hard to believe the fake was modeled after me. The way he spoke, which seemed to truly revere the God of Hope, made my mouth sting just by listening. The words alone proved that the fake was completely different from me. The only thing I shared with that fake was the memories from before the 17th floor.
Even compared to Hochi, the fake was utterly out of sync. Nevertheless, that fake was equating itself to me. At the same time, he was devastated by the fact that he was a fake. His hostility, jealousy, and inferiority complex was overtly obvious and made me feel sympathetic rather than annoyed or angry.
He was a possession of the God of Hope. The God of Hope must have endlessly whispered, telling him he was fake and that he could make him real. As a result, he couldn’t look back on himself and only looked at me.
His delusions exaggerated the presence of something far away and hid the most important thing right in front of him. They served to immensely increase his despair and made the dwindling hope inside of him even more beautiful and precious. It was such a twisted way of gaining hope.
“Seregia.”
When I called for Seregia, she appeared in the form of a sword of moderate length in my hand.
The God of Hope saw the giant sword hanging from the sky and the longsword in my hand and said, [Amazing.]
Seregia’s capabilities were amazing. If necessary, she could exist in any number of forms.
[I can’t believe you broke my area like a window. How absurd. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t use overly powerful weapons?]
Oh, that.
I hadn’t handled weapons that were more powerful than necessary in the Tutorial. In the case of Ahbooboo, although we might fight together, I rarely wielded him myself.
I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s because it’s a hindrance to growth. With where I am now, why wouldn’t I use a powerful weapon if I had one?”
If you don’t use a powerful weapon for no reason, that’d be stupid. It was natural to use what was available.
[Not a struggle, surely.]
“No.”
[You don’t want your divinity to get affected as a result, do you?]
Indeed, divinity got affected as a result, but such a factor was only taken into account by idiots like the God of Slowness and the God of Devotion.
[Hahaha, do you know what a big difference that is?]
The God of Hope somehow looked pleased. Was it such a big deal that getting my title as a god was not a struggle? On the contrary, I might have been in trouble if it was a struggle.
[Can I ask you a few questions first?]
I nodded. I had something to ask the God of Hope anyways.
[Why did you ignore our offer?] asked the God of Hope.
Proposal. I don’t think I’d ever heard of a proposal like this.
[Isn’t the God of Evil still talking to you?]
The God of Hope referred to the God of Evil.
He certainly was. Even now, the God of Evil was eagerly communicating with me.
[Please…]
I ignored his pleas as I had been for the past few days.
I answered the God of Hope, “I didn’t ignore it. I refused it.”
[Then, can I hear the reason for the refusal? If you tell us which part you didn’t like, we’re always ready to make a better offer.]
Ah, so fun.
A better offer.
I saw the fake from the 17th floor next to the God of Hope. For how long have they been playing tricks to get that fake guy?
Now, however, he had no intention of antagonizing and talked as if I were unilaterally arguing.
“Well, fine. I’ll tell you what I want.”
There was a good reason to antagonize the God of Hope and the Rulers. It wasn’t because of my 17th-floor self—I didn’t even know the fake existed until just now—nor was it due to the Rulers eating Earth’s source.
The beings who attacked the Earth directly, of course, need to be crushed. But it was not enough to antagonize both the connected Rulers and the gods.
There was a more practical reason than that. It was because of old questions. The gods of the Pantheon were all bound by restrictions. Under these numerous restrictions, the radius of a god’s conduct was greatly limited. But some gods felt that the restriction was a little loose.
I used to think that the constraints were different depending on the situation. I’d been through it many times, so I realized that was not true either.
When I asked Kirikiri, she always fell for it. Over time, I found that certain gods were relatively free from restrictions.
This was the case on the 49th floor, where the God of Hope first appeared. Kirikiri had stressed several times that I should remember the 49th floor.
The most significant feature of the 49th floor was not the appearance of the God of Hope. The first notable thing was that the God of Hope arbitrarily ended the stage. The second was setting the world view of the 49th-floor stage.
The introduction of the 49th-floor stage contained this phrase:
Countless kingdoms and denominations have fallen, and only the Holy Land of the God of Hope, which had been hidden, remains.
I couldn’t understand it at the time.
No matter what, all sorts of restrictions bound Pantheon gods.
It was to the point where they could only demonstrate their ability as gods within their own territory.
Though, ironically you needed to keep your holy land’s locations a secret. The moment it was revealed, the system placed restrictions on it, making it quite dangerous to use your powers in your Holy Land as it ran the risk of revealing its location.
It was strange that even though it was a world where many gods coexisted, they could not intervene until the centre was blown away.
And the only thing in the world that kept the Holy Land alive was, unfortunately, the God of Hope.
There were a handful of survivors who had to cling to hope more than anyone else.
By taking advantage of the fact that the God of Hope was relatively free from connections and systems with the Rulers, I thought he was reducing the other gods’ power and molding the world in the direction he wanted.
I told the God of Hope my doubts and hypotheses one by one. The God of Hope listened quietly to me, but I knew that he was not so comfortable.
“An answer to your question. And if my answer is correct, you have to tell me how to avoid some of the system’s constraints. Finally, to trust your information, I’ll use an information lock.”
[You madman… you think I’ll take that offer?]
Of course I didn’t think so. After all, I didn’t mean to suggest it in the first place.
I was just saying, “Tell me what you want.”
“Yong-yong, take care of your uncle.”
“Yes!” Yong-yong, who had been quiet, answered energetically.
I grinned at his answer.
[Think about it again. Our proposal is not a bad one…]
To take advantage of the God of Hope again, I moved right in front.
“You think I care about the proposal? I told you earlier. You’re dead.”
[Y…!]
I swung my sword at the God of Hope, who quickly rose to fight.
* * *
Kwaaa!
The shock wave caused a massive dust storm. The God of Hope narrowly avoided the aftermath of the attack.
I was about to continue the attack immediately, but someone got in the way. The fake who was beside the God of Hope swung a sword at me.
I didn’t bother to avoid or stop the sword.
“Intangible.”
I cut through the sword, headed toward my heart. As soon as the sword passed, he repositioned his body.
I somehow grabbed the fake’s face with one hand and slammed it on the floor. The shock considerably shook the ground.
Why was he (I) so good at everything? I was going to catch him later and study him. I hope he didn’t die instantly.
As soon as I had handled the fake, I chased the God of Hope again. The God of Hope threw countless energy spheres my way, as he ran away.
Eight in total. The difference was that only two of the eight were real.
It wasn’t hard to detect. The problem was that the real and the fake kept changing.
When I sensed that the bottom energy sphere was fake, the other sphere would become real. There was no constant observable pattern, and it was changing randomly according to my perception.
It was indeed an attack from the God of Hope. Every single energy sphere was powerful. Usually, I’d have to identify the real and the fake somehow to minimize the damage.
It was a fresh attack. But in the face of my power, which was able to cope with anything and everything, it wasn’t much.
I struck back at all eight spheres. The spheres exploded, producing massive amounts of light and heat.
It was an explosion comparable to that of a supernova. If it happened on the surface of the earth, not on the surface of this world, it would have been a power that would simply destroy the earth.
Immediately after the explosion, the God of Hope attempted another attack.
A sharp metal arrow. It was as small as a regular arrow, but the power it held was not. The God of Hope compressed enough power into the arrow to inflict a fatal wound on a god, even if the arrow simply grazed by.
It was a weapon that could greatly affect a battle between the deities, which would eventually degenerate into a physical fight.
I was able to strike the arrow without difficulty because there’d be no damage in doing so.
I had no problems in blocking and avoiding the arrow.
Because survival was carved into my very being, I was able to deal with it reflexively, whether the arrow flew at the speed of sound or of light.
I flew again to the God of Hope.
The God of Hope was faster than I had anticipated. He was fast to a startling degree.
[Come! My warriors!] the fleeing god of hope shouted in a dignified voice.
Then he opened up the space, and countless beings poured out of it. Every one of them was at or above the level of a native god that appeared in the Tutorial.
Many of the divine spirits seemed to be far below the God of Evil from Antarctica, but it still was an unrealistic sight.
Every single being that poured out like a swarm of ants was either a ruler or a new species.
Wide-area attacks against unspecified individuals were very inefficient.
Lee Joon-suk, who couldn’t even control his power, couldn’t use his abilities properly due to the damage around him.
However, it wasn’t hopeless. This moment had its own advantages and disadvantages.
I dug into the middle of the crowd called by the God of Hope.
No one responded to my speed. As the enemies looked for me, who had disappeared for a moment, I prepared for the explosion with ease.
“Zit Pop.”
A Zit Pop that exploded without any control.
A colossal blade that could have reached the horizon completely shattered the barrier, and soon, a powerful explosion broke out.
I heard no noise because I purposely blocked my hearing.
No matter how strong I was, I didn’t want to listen to the terrible sound that followed the explosion.
It was for a brief moment, but the light and heat seemed like it would never fade. It would burn endlessly.
However, the atmosphere where the air was simmering seemed to be distorted by the light.
The lake’s water had disappeared without a trace, and a vast crater was carved from the start of the horizon to the end.
Red flames torched the surface. If it weren’t for the artificially created world, the planet would have started to collapse earlier.
The gods summoned by the God of Hope could not even be found.
The God of Hope was not free from the aftermath. He was running away, screaming like a bug on fire.
I laughed at the God of Hope. The overwhelming heat, which would make purgatory flames seem lukewarm in comparison, would not be a pleasant experience.
“You keep running away.”
Resisting was futile.
You can avoid one attack, maybe you can even avoid two or three, but you can’t avoid it all. You won’t get away from me in the end.
What can you do in the face of true, overwhelming power?
Anyone who faced me, someone who could withstand everything no matter what conditions, constraints, and disadvantages there were, could only hope to escape from me.
“You said you had to experience despair to see hope,” I said, crushing the shield that the God of Hope desperately unfolded.
I disagreed with that remark. There was no hope in the face of real despair… In the face of me.
It wasn’t hope that I felt from him, but meaningless self-hypnosis.
“Do you see hope in front of you now?”
[I do.]
[It becomes even more powerful in the face of despair. Like the only starlight shining in the polluted night sky, hope burns beautifully,] the God of Hope answered firmly.
And called someone.
[Come to me.]
[My great warrior, My only hope, prove that hope exists in the face of even the darkest despair in the world. Prove that you are real.]
What appeared at the God of Hope’s summoning was the fake on the 17th floor I forgot about.
The fake showed up in front of me just like before.
He was emitting a completely different level of power and aura.
(Note from Imagine: Goddamn even the gods have to use a Ho-Jae to fight a Ho-Jae… Truly shows what a freak of nature Ho-Jae is.)
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