novelraw Chapter 284: Episode 284_The Art of the Scam (5)
Chapter 284: Episode 284_The Art of the Scam (5)
7.
The thought had come out of nowhere.
The words had left his mouth without any real forethought.
And they were the kind of words only Han Simin could say.
“Let’s go to Heaven!”
Once he said it out loud, he was certain.
’This is it. This has to be it.’
Silence filled the air.
Of course, Epia, still flying, turned to stare at him with a dumbfounded expression.
A moment later, however, she broke into a brilliant smile and nodded in agreement.
“As expected.”
’He’s the perfect consort. He reminds me of him, from the old days. No, this is even more attractive.’
Epia licked her lips.
“Hey, hey. Calm down.”
Her dress was shredded so badly it was a miracle it still clung to her body, and her blood-soaked skin exuded a strangely alien allure.
And now, that very woman was licking her lips.
Han Simin appreciated the gesture, but they were currently in the sky.
He had absolutely no desire to fool around and fall to his death.
“Do you actually have a way to get to Heaven?”
“Mm-hm. As long as the Heavenly King is here, it’s not a problem.”
He hurriedly changed the subject.
He could get to know the Demon King—his prize for playing the game so well—later.
Right now, no amount of seduction could sway Han Simin.
He had just had his Sanctuary—his +15 Sanctuary that he had bled for—ripped away by some random bastard, with no hope of ever getting it back.
If another user had stolen it, or even if Kenji had taken it, he wouldn’t have felt this bitter.
He could have just gone and asked for it back.
Whatever the price, even if they demanded he make another +15 item, he could have negotiated a deal.
It would have been infuriating, but what was taken had to be reclaimed.
But this?
He couldn’t even bring it up.
The moment he so much as showed his face, he would be killed on sight, over and over again.
And if he was unlucky enough to get captured and dragged off to Heaven, that would be the start of a true nightmare.
Which was why he had to forget about the +15 Sanctuary taken by the final boss and come up with another way to get revenge.
This was what he had come up with.
“Let’s be blunt, Epia. What do you have to be afraid of? If the Heavenly King isn’t in Heaven and there’s no Sanctuary, can’t you just smash the whole place to pieces?”
“Mm-hm. That’s true.”
“And with the Heavenly King holding the Sanctuary right now, there’s no point in going back to the Demon King’s castle.”
“Probably?”
“So we abandon our base and hit theirs. If we do that, an answer is bound to show up.”
It was an idea only Han Simin could have come up with.
After all, it wasn’t his base.
The Demon World had been a wasteland to begin with; even if the Demon King’s castle and everything else got blown to bits, Han Simin wouldn’t lose a thing.
If the Heavenly King kept pushing and destroyed Rich Territory and the casino, that would be a different story, but...
Hypotheticals were always meaningless.
More than anything, this was the big-picture move Han Simin had wanted from the start.
He just happened to be doing it while shaking with rage after having his Sanctuary stolen for no good reason.
’I can’t rob Epia’s treasure vault. If I can’t have that, I’ll at least rob the Heavenly King’s.’
Whether she understood his feelings or not, Epia smiled, clearly intrigued, and changed direction.
“Are you okay with this?”
“Mm-hm. It sounds like a lot of fun.”
She said she was having fun.
“What exactly is going on?”
“Mr. Simin, are we really going to Heaven?”
Only Specialist, who still hadn’t grasped the situation, was being dragged along in a daze.
Naturally, no one paid him any mind.
“First, let’s get your specs upgraded.”
He hadn’t planned to go this far.
But given the situation, he had no choice.
Han Simin, filled with venom, hardened his heart.
This would soon become the beginning of the calamity that would befall Heaven.
*
The Heavenly King was relentless.
The Demon King had turned and fled, but a high proportion of the countless demons who had sacrificed themselves to buy her time were high-ranking. There were no demons left who could stop the Heavenly King and the Celestials, who were now armed with a +15 Sanctuary.
“So, this is a human artifact.”
“So it would seem. It appears the Sanctuary the Temple granted to the humans was enhanced by one of them and carried around.”
“Foolish humans. To hand over a Sanctuary they worked so hard to create to a demon’s lapdog.”
“Aren’t humans always like that? Especially when money is involved...”
“In any case, I am quite grateful. To think such a fine item would fall into my hands.”
It was a Sanctuary that exerted tremendous power even on Celestials.
For the Heavenly King, it might only raise his Divine Power by a single rank, but he had already experienced firsthand how much that helped in a battle against the Demon King.
There were countless artifacts in Heaven, but a Sanctuary was something they had never been able to create.
And now it was in his hands.
There was nothing to fear.
Like a hunter chasing a fleeing beast, his stride was easy and unhurried.
“There is only one place she can go, anyway.”
The Demon King’s castle.
It was the one place where the Sanctuary’s power-reducing debuff would be weakest, making it the logical place for her to retreat.
It would be full of devices meant to amplify the Demon King’s strength.
That was why she would have fled there.
“Where is the Demon King’s castle?”
“We have found it.”
He had spent a week slowly roaming the Demon World, slaughtering any demons he saw.
Their coordinates were finally locked in.
“We go there.”
The victorious army advanced toward the Demon King’s castle with unstoppable momentum.
The countless traps that would surely be installed there?
He was not worried.
He now possessed an overwhelming item that would neutralize them all.
“An artifact created by the successor of one of the Five Heroes who defeated the Demon King during the last invasion. Even with the Demon King weakened, it certainly has the power to defeat her.”
The Heavenly King, whose alignment as final boss or hero was still ambiguous, smiled.
*
The moment those coordinates were marked, Epia was crossing the border into Heaven.
At some point, her shredded dress had been fully restored.
“So that dress wasn’t just some casual loungewear she wore around the house.”
“She really is the Demon King. Even her clothes are Legendary-grade.”
“Then how strong is the Heavenly King, if he shredded a dress like that?”
“What’s really amazing is that it didn’t get completely torn apart by his attacks. As soon as she infused it with mana, it restored itself.”
It was a surprising fact.
One they might have gone their whole lives without knowing, if Han Simin hadn’t made up his mind.
“So now the Demon King, who was already strong, is wearing +15 weapons and armor on top of that? And they’re all Legendary?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t give a fuck. They’re all dead. Heavenly King, whatever—she’s going to smash them all.”
Ultimately, this was a net gain for the Demon King.
The Demon World was currently being turned into a wasteland by the Heavenly King, but she herself was alive.
And she had powered up enough that she now felt confident she could win even if they clashed again right away.
It wasn’t just players who gained confidence from better gear.
The Demon King, the demons, even monsters were the same.
The moment intelligent monsters realized that armor and weapons were useful, they started using them.
In the end, the players and NPCs would be the ones to deal with a Demon King who had become a final boss with absurdly boosted stats. But Han Simin, blinded by rage over losing his Sanctuary, couldn’t be bothered to worry about future problems that didn’t affect his future self.
Once you grabbed onto the Demon King’s coattails, you had to ride it out to the end.
The moment you thought about switching sides, it was over.
Historically, traitors always met the most miserable ends.
If Epia died, he would die with her.
Of course, Han Simin would just come back to life again.
But until that moment, he would push as hard as he could.
You had to push just to get your principal back.
So he enhanced.
For an entire week.
In the window of leisure while the Heavenly King searched for the Demon King’s castle.
The enhancements he had performed, even at the cost of precious time, now shone brilliantly.
“Nightmare Storm.”
CRACK-BOOM!
In the demilitarized zone, the countless Celestials blocking Epia’s path were erased from existence in an instant by the storm of sword strikes she unleashed.
It was the same offensive power that had pierced even the Heavenly King’s absolute shield.
There was no way the Celestials guarding the border could withstand that kind of force.
And so, Epia, Specialist, and finally Aria—at last returning to her homeland—blasted through the border and entered Heaven.
The base race had begun.
*
The movie premiered in spectacular fashion.
Its title: 『The Celestial–Demon Great War』.
It was perfect clickbait.
Even martial arts fans who had never paid any attention to Fantastic World couldn’t help but click on it at least once.
In reality, it was a war between Heaven and the Demon World, but in any case, 『The Celestial–Demon Great War』 was released the day before the Kingdom Conquest War that Kenji had announced.
It covered the story from the moment the final Story Quest had been completed.
—What the hell. Where’s the side story?
—Release the deleted scenes. I swear I won’t let this slide this time.
—So did it drop?
Unfortunately, the R-rated side story the viewers wanted was not included, but less than 10 minutes into it, the grumbling viewers were swallowing hard and focusing on the screen.
They couldn’t help it.
Aria, who had known nothing but God, was defecting. The Heavenly King’s suspicion as he came to retrieve her.
What story could be more gripping?
On top of that, it was being broadcast from the demons’ point of view.
How could that not be fascinating?
In all their lives, they had never even heard of a movie told from this perspective.
Who in their right mind would pay money to watch a movie from the villain’s side, just to see the villain’s atrocities?
And yet, that was exactly what the viewers were watching now.
And they were enjoying it.
It was thrilling.
—Wow. In the game’s story, the Heavenly King is the good guy and the Demon King is the one you have to kill, but why do I keep rooting for Epia?
—As her spiritual older brother, I really want the Demon King to win.
—What’s with the Heavenly King? Just some big, gloomy dude. Die already.
That was probably the biggest reason, but in any case, the movie’s main event had begun.
The battle.
The solid shield that looked like it would break but never did.
Epia’s sword, slicing through the instant she found an opening.
Exploding wounds.
Layered curses.
And the Sanctuary.
The movie, with twist after twist, was a mega-hit among mega-hits.
For viewers who had been following the story since Han Simin first arrived in the Demon World, the payoff was twice as sweet.
—Anyone who just got here, go back and watch from Episode 1. It’s seriously god-tier.
—Damn. I didn’t know a game could deliver this kind of fun and story.
—A Legendary class, and a broadcast only possible because it’s Simin.
Honestly, if Han Simin hadn’t gone to the Demon World and filmed all this, they might have gone their whole lives without knowing.
From the players’ perspective, why would they care about what happened in the Demon World or Heaven?
They would just grind mobs every day, level up, watch the Territory Wars, and occasionally be amazed by boss raid videos.
Then when the demons invaded the continent, they would curse them out and lament their deaths.
When the Celestials came to help, they would praise them.
And that would have been the end of it.
But seeing it like this made it interesting.
The game’s setting was this solid, and there were all these behind-the-scenes stories unfolding in worlds they never knew.
It wasn’t just a simple game.
Their every action could actually change history.
It was something only Han Simin could really pull off, but at the end of the day, Han Simin was still a player.
It was more than enough for vicarious satisfaction.
’I could enjoy the game like this too.’
That hope alone made the video completely satisfying.
That kind of movie was now racing toward its climax.
Epia fleeing.
The week spent enhancing her gear.
And the start of the base race.
—LOOOOOOOOOOOOL
—Is he out of his goddamn mind? LOL
—This is so over-the-top. Are those two really the Heavenly King and Demon King?
—Who even profits from this?
—From what I can see, the one laughing at the end is going to be Simin again. Fuck. It pisses me off, but still.
All the viewers watching the video were laughing.
Whatever the future held, the video they were watching right now was hilarious.
—I’m watching this at least five more times.
—It’s a ten-hour video and I watched it all in one go without even sighing once. Gotta rewatch in case I missed anything.
—More Demon King fan service, please.
—Kenji’s Kingdom Conquest stream is tomorrow. Ah, what do I do?
—Screw that. This is way more fun.
There was only one person who could not laugh.
Kenji.
*