God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail

Chapter 287: Episode 287_The Art of the Scam (8)

10.

It’s funny how people work.

Even someone who would never bend for anyone else can, for some strange reason, become weak to one particular person once they get properly hooked. There is no scientific explanation for it. You just can’t understand why. If you could, you wouldn’t get played like this.

Strictly speaking, they were born in completely different worlds.

Kenji had been enjoying privilege since he was in the womb, the goldest of gold spoons. After he was born, he naturally learned how to command people without lifting a finger. While other kids were just starting kindergarten, he was already learning how to handle money, move it, and run companies. Before he even turned twenty, he had learned how to hold his own in negotiations with veteran executives who had been running corporations for decades. By thirty, he was a shrewd, cold-blooded businessman who could sit down one-on-one with the presidents of various countries—even the President of the United States—and walk away with exactly what he wanted.

And Han Simin? He had been born in an utterly ordinary household in Hell-Joseon. It would be a stretch to call him dirt-poor, but compared to Kenji, his family had never even sniffed the upper class. They were a normal family, too busy trying to make ends meet to think about ordering others around. By the time he was twenty, he had to be willing to do whatever it took just to stand on his own two feet.

Their lives were on completely different planes, yet somehow, it was always Han Simin who led their deals.

Experience, cool-headedness, logic, money—none of it worked on him. He just bulldozed ahead, and somehow, you ended up following.

Kenji frowned.

Kenji did not like that. In the end, he had once again agreed to do what was essentially a one-sided favor for Han Simin.

’Maybe I should just pretend I forgot.’

He hesitated one last time, then went to find a crystal ball.

*

The Empire’s Great Temple.

After Han Simin had been forcibly dragged to the Demon World and the warlocks had scattered like cockroaches, one might have expected the Great Temple to have relaxed a bit. Instead, it was even busier than it had been during the war.

It had to be. They had to exterminate the warlocks, and now they were in the middle of capturing them alive and wringing them dry. Most of the warlocks who had finally opened their mouths in the hope of a quick death after agonizing torment were all dragged to the Great Temple, so of course it was busy.

In the temple’s underground prison, wails echoed without a single day’s break as dozens more warlocks were brought in daily.

This was true hell. The abyss. The warlocks’ graveyard.

An individual might have gritted their teeth and kept their mouth shut to the end, but they were being tortured to death in groups. They struggled desperately to die, but in the Great Temple, overflowing with Divine Power, there were few ways to die quickly and painlessly. On top of that, the priests tortured them with the zeal of men who would drag the dead back to life if they could. They spared no thought for their victims’ suffering, mercilessly inflicting pain to the precise degree that would not kill them.

In the end, that made them talk.

Once the person next to you broke, it was only natural for you to waver. The value of the secrets you were holding plummeted. You had endured all this pain to protect them, but now everyone else had already spilled everything. What was the point of holding out any longer?

One by one, they all began to confess.

And so, working in tandem with the Imperial Princess, the Great Temple had nearly finished its preparations to bring Han Simin back.

A Gate to the Demon World.

“All we need now is to gather enough Dark Magic Power to open the Gate, Your Highness.”

“Hurry and capture more warlocks.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

D-Day was not far off. In the meantime, reports about Han Simin kept pouring in from the adventurers.

“What did you say? My husband is in Heaven?”

“Yes, Your Highness. The Heavenly King launched a surprise attack on the Demon World. Although the Demon King and your husband did everything in their power to stop him, the cowardly Heavenly King stole your husband’s Sanctuary and pressed the attack so brutally that they were forced to flee to Heaven for the moment.”

She fell silent.

The report was so blatantly biased it made one wonder if they had misheard, but she brushed that aside. So did the temple officials listening with her. They didn’t know why the Heavenly King was being painted as a villain, but an unseen Heavenly King was far less terrifying than the Imperial Princess, who was incandescent with rage and currently torturing warlocks without a shred of concern for their human rights.

“We have to open the Gate quickly.”

The Saintess, too, was on Han Simin’s side. And if she was on his side, the Elders naturally followed. Saint, in particular, was practically her spokesperson, he was so fired up.

“To steal a Sanctuary! That is an item granted by God to an adventurer! For him to steal it means he coveted a Divine Object and took it by force! The Heavenly King may well have fallen into heresy!”

The Heavenly King would have been deeply aggrieved to hear that, but in any case, it was in the midst of this fervor to rescue Han Simin that Kenji’s message arrived.

It was for Saint.

Saint did not particularly like Kenji, but he accepted the crystal ball. Naturally, his expression was sour.

Kenji’s was the same, though not out of jealousy toward some NPC. In his mind, they weren’t even in the same category.

For Saint, the sourness stemmed from a different rivalry. He believed that winning dates with the Saintess wouldn’t be decided by competing with him directly, but by which of them managed to get into Han Simin’s good graces more.

And in that area, he was overflowing with confidence.

The only reason his expression was so sour was that his anger had yet to cool.

Even as he held the crystal ball, he couldn’t shake his sense of injustice. No matter how he looked at it, he was supposed to be getting a reward, yet he felt like he was being played for a fool.

Still, he held on to hope.

One way or another, once Han Simin came back, there would be endless chances to get one over on him.

The Rich Territory. The Rich Casino.

There were ways to get his revenge that didn’t require him to shoulder such a massive risk. Instead of spending his own money to buy talents that weren’t particularly valuable to Simin, he would have a chance to rip away the one thing Simin cherished like his own life: money. Lots of it.

That opportunity was waiting.

So for now, he agreed to the deal without resistance.

However, there was no need for him to force a gentle smile for Saint’s sake.

"Mr. Simin asked me to pass on a message," Kenji relayed. "He says to tell Ms. Hyegi to open the Heavenly World Transfer Gate."

"The Heavenly World Transfer Gate? Why?" Saint demanded.

"Well, I do not know," Kenji replied. "He only asked me to pass the message along, so I am not sure of the reason."

"...Why that, of all things?"

"In any case, I will end the call here."

Their brief, perfunctory conversation ended quickly. There was nothing more to say.

After ending the call, Saint fell into thought.

’Why on earth? Why the Heavenly World Transfer Gate in this situation?’

Of course, it wasn’t hard to guess. The Heavenly King was currently in the Demon World, while the Demon King and Han Simin were in Heaven. They were likely trying to return to the continent through Heaven.

No, that was the most likely possibility. Even without overthinking it, anyone who heard the situation would grasp it immediately.

However, he couldn’t be certain. Above all, Saint didn’t want to trust Kenji.

’He’s an adventurer whose true intentions we can’t read.’

He had already heard that adventurers could communicate with each other no matter where they were, and he accepted that as fact. NPCs could puzzle over the mechanism for a lifetime and never understand it, but its existence had been proven, and they had experienced countless communications through it.

However, the possibility of lies also existed. Kenji hadn’t provided any detailed explanation, either. What if they did as he said and something went wrong?

So, Saint gave up on making the decision himself. He might be an Elder of the Great Temple, but he lacked the seniority to decide a matter of such gravity.

He passed the message on to the Pope exactly as he had heard it. The Pope, in turn, relayed it to the Imperial Princess.

"Hm."

The Princess pondered. What should she do? It didn’t feel like a lie. In any case, every plan so far had been premised on trusting what the adventurers said. To suddenly start doubting them now would make no sense.

After agonizing over it, she made a decision—one she reached only after consulting the Emperor.

"First, we open the Heavenly World Transfer Gate. And at the same time, we open the Demon World Gate as well."

It was a decision that minimized the risk, the optimal method to bring Han Simin back, one way or another. It was a decision colored entirely by the Princess’s personal feelings.

Thus, preparations for both the Demon World Gate and the Heavenly World Transfer Gate began simultaneously.

*

In Heaven, preparations were complete. There hadn’t been much to prepare for. The biggest issue had been infusing divine power into the magic circle the Heavenly King used, but they had solved that by sacrificing two Divine Objects as single-use fuel.

"Ugh. What a waste. If I took these two with me, I could sell them for a ridiculous price. Aria, is there really no other way? Like, can’t you wring yourself dry or have Epia add her magic power on top?"

"..."

If he heard about this, the Heavenly King would have a stroke. They were Divine Objects. Two of them.

These weren’t just some items humans had slapped a fancy name on; they were objects the Heavenly King himself had received from God. Only three had ever existed in millions of years. He had protected them even when fighting the Demon King, preserving them through every crisis Heaven faced, so that three still remained in the present era. And now, they were going to use two of those Divine Objects merely as a substitute power source to descend to the continent.

How could he not be dumbfounded? It wouldn’t be strange if he rushed over to hunt Simin down in real life on the spot.

The problem was that the Heavenly King had no idea.

"Throwing this kind of crap away is too good for him. That bastard. If he thought he could eat my Sanctuary and walk away unscathed, he’s dead wrong, the little shit."

On top of that, Han Simin didn’t feel the slightest pang of conscience. He valued his own +15 Sanctuary far more highly than the Divine Objects. So, while he felt it was a shame to sacrifice two of them, he didn’t vehemently oppose it.

The fact that he had no other choice also played a part. If it were at all possible, he would have drained Aria’s divine power to the last drop to open the Gate, but it wasn’t enough. The idea that it might respond to Epia’s dark magic was such a ridiculously absurd notion that he dismissed it as a joke.

Above all, there would still be one left. He had already calculated that if he took even one back and sold it well, he could recoup enough value to make up for the loss of his +15 Sanctuary. He might even be able to make another +15.

"All right. Let’s go."

Without hesitation, he tossed the two Divine Objects onto the magic circle, keeping the last one tucked safely inside his clothes.

At the same time, Aria began the incantation to activate the circle.

Vmmm—

Divine power poured out of the Divine Objects in a torrent. Aria’s job was to control that power and safely trigger the magic circle. Even that simple, light task was the limit of her abilities. It was a moment that once again made them realize just how incredible the Heavenly King truly was.

The magic circle activated. Just from that, Aria’s entire body was drenched in sweat.

From here on, it was a matter of waiting. The other side had to respond. It was a dimensional transfer Gate; the same power had to be applied from both sides.

Aria’s gaze naturally turned to Han Simin.

"Let’s wait a little. I told them to hurry," he murmured.

She wasn’t being impatient. She was simply so exhausted that her eyes drifted to him without her realizing it. Even as she nodded, her brow stayed tightly furrowed. She wanted to give up.

Han Simin had nothing he could say to her. Hope is the antithesis of despair, but a sliver of hope is the cruelest enemy during an endless wait.

As she waited on the verge of losing consciousness—

Vwoooooom—

The Gate opened.

"Go. Quickly..." Aria called out in a drained voice.

Specialist hurled herself through first.

Han Simin grabbed the hand of a hesitating Epia, who for the first time wore a fearful expression.

"Just trust me and follow," he urged.

With one hand holding Epia’s and the other holding Aria’s, Han Simin also threw himself into the Gate.

The Gate, which had opened for only the briefest moment, lost its light as if it had never been there. The Heavenly King’s once-bustling castle fell quiet again.

And the two Divine Objects, which had shone brilliantly with God’s power, ended their lives along with it.

A heavy silence lingered in the air.