novelraw Chapter 213: Episode 5 (2)
Chapter 213: Episode 5 (2)
Translator: Dreamscribe
The whole world had its eyes on Arsilan Saga!
By now, that was simply a given.
Arsilan Saga was mainstream culture that no one could deny. No, more than culture, it had become a way of life. Reality and Arsilan Saga had grown so intertwined that distinguishing between them was meaningless. Since people could log into Arsilan Saga without wasting their sleep time, the weight of reality and Arsilan Saga in their lives was practically equal.
It was another life granted to everyone.
Let us enjoy this blessing!
The number of active users had continued to climb steeply even after surpassing 100 million, now heading toward 200 million. Soul Links were being produced ceaselessly in factories around the world, so supply was no longer an issue. It had reached the point where anyone could walk into a retail store and buy one without a reservation.
FS Games had made access available in every country except a select few. Even in countries without official service, anyone with a Soul Link could easily find a workaround. It was permitted as long as the country itself didn't block it.
Arsilan Saga had now grown so massive that even nations found it difficult to interfere. If anyone tried to pull any funny business with Arsilan Saga, it was only a slight exaggeration to say the country would be turned upside down. Of course, Jinwoo was preemptively eliminating all such schemes.
Jinwoo gazed up at the sky from New York, the second city in the United States to have a Soul Gate installed. Looking at the sky through Soul Glass, he could see the enormous Hero's Flower, and far in the distance, the Lord of Despair was visible as well.
"Wow!"
"Is that the bad guy?"
"It's so huge!"
Timed with the climax of Episode 5, cities with Soul Gates installed were in a festive mood. A festival organized by FS Games called "Cheer On! Arsilan!" was underway. Loaner Soul Glasses were being handed out, and various events were being held, drawing massive crowds.
Children could be seen carrying large balloons shaped like the Lord of Despair, and many people had come in cosplay. The crowds from Arsilan overlapped with them, creating a peculiar sight as if the two worlds had become one.
Across the entire city, people's anticipation and excitement were palpable.
As the seal containing the Lord of Despair cracked further, the city's atmosphere grew even more electric.
The souls of people who had been steeped in dark emotions were gradually brightening, and the negativity accumulated from the grind of daily life was slowly being purified.
'A crisis of annihilation, yet also a festival.'
Jinwoo nodded and smiled.
The showdown with the Lord of Despair absolutely had to be fun.
It had to be a festival where everyone watched and cheered.
He had made them mistake Arsilan Saga for a game. And so, the more desperate and fierce these massive events in Arsilan Saga became, the more enjoyable they were.
But....
'I thought there wouldn't be any more interference....'
With so many people flocking to cities where Soul Gates were installed, individuals with malicious intent had appeared. They were terrorist groups consumed by extremist religion and ideology.
Tracing the funds revealed they were secretly receiving backing from several nations. The same countries that had persistently tried to hack Arsilan Saga.
'This time, they've crossed the line by a mile.'
Crossed it, and then some.
They were trying to ruin the most important event in Episode 5. They intended to affect the Heroes who needed to focus on defending Arsilan. Until now, Jinwoo had settled things by cursing them or dispersing them, but this time would be different.
Normally, searching an entire city would require grand-scale magic. But right now, that wasn't necessary. He simply had to find souls that didn't match the city's atmosphere of anticipation and excitement.
Jinwoo flew into the air and surveyed New York. From the heart of the city, the light of souls seeped out little by little. And among them, he spotted things that were dark and foul.
Jinwoo moved toward them.
He dropped from the sky without stopping, descending all the way to the underground parking garage of a condemned building that was off-limits.
It was close enough to the gathering crowds to be the perfect spot for mischief.
The terrorists were moving systematically, checking their equipment. They had prepared thoroughly; there were bombs, firearms, and grenades.
The terrorists had stuck FS Games logos on their prepared vehicles, disguising them as event vehicles. They had disguised one as an event ice cream truck.
"The plan's been changed. Security was tighter than expected. Move the vehicle to Point C, and the rest of you head directly to the center and...."
"Kill everyone there and detonate the suicide vests! Proceed as planned. Once it's all over, we'll...."
The terrorists huddled together to discuss the revised plan, and the one who appeared to be their leader conducted an ideological briefing. There was no way they could carry out a terror attack of this scale and escape unscathed.
They had all planned to blow themselves up on site.
Jinwoo examined their equipment, then picked up one of the grenades.
"This brings back memories."
FLINCH!
The terrorists startled at the sudden sound of Jinwoo's voice and hurriedly grabbed their guns. Jinwoo casually tossed the grenade in his hand up and caught it, over and over.
"Boot camp was pretty rough, I'll tell you that."
Every terrorist aimed their gun at Jinwoo.
His face emerged from the darkness. The moment it did, every one of them couldn't help but be stunned.
"Lee Jinwoo?"
"How is Lee Jinwoo here...?"
"Is he insane?!"
The terrorists scanned their surroundings.
Since Jinwoo was here, they assumed a massive force must have come with him. But the area was perfectly silent. Nothing showed up on the CCTVs they had installed either.
It was baffling.
They didn't know where the intel had leaked from, but the most famous man in the world had come here alone. Lee Jinwoo was a being of truly astronomical value.
"Take him alive."
When the terrorist leader said that, everyone nodded.
Jinwoo pulled the pin on the grenade.
As the terrorists recoiled in shock, Jinwoo placed the unpinned grenade on his open palm.
CLICK!
The striker lever sprang up and struck the primer. The terrorists hurled themselves backward in horror, but Jinwoo didn't throw the grenade at them.
When no explosion came even after time had passed, the terrorists lifted their heads and got to their feet. The moment they looked toward Jinwoo, they were struck with disbelief.
The grenade had detonated in his hand. Yet the explosion didn't escape outward, as if contained within a sphere. He had simply wrapped it in a light shield spell.
"Ah...."
"Wh, what the...."
"Th, that's a h, hologram!"
It was a sight so unbelievable they could only rationalize it as a hologram. The terrorists aimed their guns at Jinwoo again, but,
SHHHHK!
Every single firearm was sliced apart and clattered to the floor.
It was a sight beyond all comprehension.
How could a human being do that?
"Ah, ahh...."
"AAAAAGH!"
The terrorists screamed and started running. They fled out of the underground parking garage and out of the building, but when they came to their senses, they were right back where they started.
When Jinwoo shrugged, the terrorists ran like madmen. But they just kept coming back. Jinwoo sat in a chair and leisurely watched their pathetic display.
"D, demon! It's a demon!"
"G, God...."
"S, save us...."
That thing was a demon.
It had to be a demon.
Nothing short of a demon could create this impossible scene.
The terrorists screamed the name of their god, but there was no answer. Unfortunately, the only god on Earth capable of answering was Jinwoo, standing right before their eyes.
The terror-stricken terrorists dripped with sweat, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
"All done? Good, because I'd like to have a serious conversation...."
It seemed like it would take a while, so moving to a different location would be wise. Jinwoo melted down every bomb and piece of equipment right where he stood.
That overwhelming display made the terrorists wet themselves.
It felt as though everything that had governed their lives had been denied. But it was too soon to be shocked.
When Jinwoo snapped his fingers, a magic circle appeared beneath the terrorists' feet. It was a spatial teleportation circle. The magic circle transported every last terrorist from Earth to somewhere else entirely.
Jinwoo tidied up the scene, then vanished from the spot. All that could be heard from the surroundings were the sounds of cheering.
* * *
The terrorists writhed in agony. All they could see around them was a landscape warped in black light and a pitch-black sky.
"C, can't breathe...! Gakh!"
"Kh, kghh!"
It felt as though their throats were burning.
There was no air to breathe. The temperature was so extreme that their skin was rapidly freezing over. Just as they were about to suffocate, a blue barrier formed around them. The barely surviving terrorists gasped for air and shook violently.
"Oh, sorry. This is my first time transporting an Earthling here."
Beyond the blue barrier, Jinwoo walked over as if nothing was wrong.
He looked exactly as he always did.
He already had experience transporting living creatures, and since he had become a god, it was worth a try. Jinwoo had infused Sacred Power into the Soul Gate and transported every last terrorist here, to Levannas.
Their bodies had sustained permanent damage, but that wasn't something worth worrying about.
"What do you think? Not even Heroes get to see this view."
In Levannas, a massive earthquake was splitting the ground apart. The terrorists who witnessed that catastrophe were too paralyzed with fear to utter a single word. Their pants were already soaked through, and their bodies had gone so limp they couldn't even stand.
Had they fallen into hell?
"G, God...."
"Please...."
No matter how they wailed for salvation, there was still no answer.
The god they sought did not exist.
The steadfast faith that had produced countless victims crumbled just that easily. Arsilan was a world of boundless joy for Heroes, but for these people, it was hell.
They could not escape until their very souls were shattered.
The price for trying to ruin Arsilan was that steep.
"I have some questions."
He could have cracked open their heads to check, but he wanted to hear it from their own mouths. The terrorists fell over themselves to talk, practically competing to be first. They instinctively understood that failing to make a good impression here would mean unimaginable pain.
"More people involved than I expected."
Political factions from multiple countries were entangled, and corporations had funded them. There were also police officers, security personnel, and others who had taken the money and collaborated with the terrorists.
Many of them were big names that anyone would recognize.
Time to clean house.
Jinwoo tracked down every last one and kidnapped them to Levannas, starting from the bottom. Corporate CEOs and power brokers from various nations stared at Jinwoo in horror.
Jinwoo smirked.
Seeing people he'd only seen on the internet standing right in front of him was a novel experience.
"Lee Jinwoo?!"
"How...."
"Th, this is impossible!"
Their shocked reactions were satisfying to watch.
"I, is this a hidden camera prank?"
"It must be a hologram!"
Some of them even charged outside the barrier. But the moment they did, they were engulfed in agony and rolled on the ground. Screaming, they barely managed to crawl back inside.
Others were desperately racking their brains.
"I, I don't know h, how you d, did this, but d, do you really think you'll g, get away with it?!"
"When they find out we're gone, it won't just be you, FS Games will be destroyed too!"
"L, let us go quietly! Otherwise...!"
"The military will be mobilized!"
Perhaps it was more rational to believe this was an elaborate trap rather than accept that this was another world. When Jinwoo snapped his fingers, a single Erosion Insect burst through the ground.
"Grab them and take them for a lap."
SKREEEK!
The Erosion Insect graciously snatched them up and gave them a tour of Levannas. After that, they emptied themselves from both ends and begged for their lives.
Was this some kind of confession?
Without Jinwoo even asking, they confessed every sin they had committed.
The reason they had attempted the terror attack was to check the concentration of industries and corporations flocking to Arsilan Saga.
It just so happened that there was a terrorist group that had designated Arsilan's Ella Church and Creator God Church as heretical, and their objectives aligned perfectly. Even among terrorists armed with blind faith, many had started defecting after experiencing the Soul Link.
The terrorist group had attempted indiscriminate attacks on those who purchased Soul Links, but until now, through sheer bad luck, every attempt had failed.
On top of all that, they had committed all manner of horrific acts with remarkable creativity.
In any case, since they were all big shots, their simultaneous disappearance would naturally cause an uproar. Naturally, Jinwoo had prepared countermeasures for that.
"Slime King."
A summoning circle etched itself into the ground, and Slime King appeared. Jinwoo created bio-golems identical to the captives on the spot. Slime King skimmed through their memories and then inhabited the bio-golems.
"Th, that's...."
"Me? That's me!?"
"Huurgh!"
Doppelgangers identical to the power brokers had been created!
Everyone stared in horror.
The appearance, the voice, even the trivial habits were all the same. Only their personalities had changed, as if they had achieved some kind of enlightenment.
"Ha ha!"
"Peace is best, wouldn't you say?"
"From now on, our company will work for the betterment of the world."
"A world where you can enjoy Arsilan Saga, that is true paradise!"
The doppelgangers chatted amicably with one another.
There would never be any suspicion. They would be loyal to their nations and families, so wasn't that a win-win?
This, too, was part of the "illusion content".
Once the doppelgangers were deployed to Earth, the power brokers were consumed by despair. They groveled at Jinwoo's feet, begging for forgiveness.
This had been a terror plot that could have killed tens of thousands of innocent people.
They had threatened the lives of Heroes and future Heroes, so being treated on par with the Erosion was more than fair.
"There's a real hell in Arsilan, so take your time and enjoy your stay there."
First, they would die completely here, then fall to the underworld. The seat next to the Erosion was vacant.
"It's about time."
Jinwoo waved goodbye, then returned to Arsilan.
Those kidnapped to Levannas trembled and looked around. Naturally, they pulled out their smartphones to try to contact someone, but naturally, that was impossible.
GRRRRRRRRRUMBLE!
The ground shook.
Something was approaching from the distance. At first, it looked like a tidal wave. A tidal wave made of the earth itself. The ground surged upward, forming a wave that came crashing toward them.
'G, gotta run...!'
They had to run, now!
But where?
"Ah...."
"S, save us!"
"No!"
THUD!
There was nowhere to run.
There was no way to survive. Everyone sank into despair and collapsed where they stood. At that moment, the barrier shattered and the surging earth came crashing down on them.
Unfortunately for them, their suffering had only just begun.
* * *
Heroes, Arsilanians, and the Demon Race.
Everyone stood beneath the enormous Hero's Flower, gazing at the Lord of Despair. The eyes that had been staring at Arsilan turned black like burst blood vessels, then were consumed entirely in darkness.
FWAAASH!
The eyes tore open and a colossal force erupted. Simultaneously, everything that had composed Levannas exploded and was flung outward in every direction.
The debris, which seemed like it would drift into space forever, all stopped at once and then fell back toward the Lord of Despair. They began to orbit the black sphere that was being torn apart in every direction, like Saturn's rings forming around it.
"Whoa...."
"That entrance is insane."
"The scale is absolutely ridiculous."
Tension and trembling bled through the Heroes' voices. The Arsilanians standing beside them breathed hard and shivered. The Heroes grinned and reached out to grip the Arsilanians' shoulders.
The Arsilanians nodded.
Belzerad and countless demons clenched their fists and stared down the Lord of Despair. The Lord of Despair, witnessed for the first time in a thousand years, was powerful enough to instill despair across the entire world.
That divine presence, which had existed on a higher plane, had descended to the surface and displayed an even more overwhelming power.
"Can we win?"
Serazade asked from beside Belzerad.
She was barely suppressing her fear. Belzerad could not answer easily.
Then it happened.
Countless information windows appeared where the enormous Hero's Flower had taken root.
- OHHHHH!
- It's starting!
- Now THIS is a game!
- I'm speechless.
- I, I can barely breathe.
City fields registered to the Dimension Gate materialized. Countless people looked up at the sky and roared with excitement. Hearing the cheers, the demons relaxed and broke into grins.
Belzerad was the same. Strangely, even looking at the Lord of Despair, no fear washed over him. Belzerad took Serazade's hand.
"I don't know how this will turn out. But that's what makes it all the more exciting."
It would certainly be exciting.
So exciting that it would make them forget their pain.
Belzerad looked upon his people, the demons of Levannas who had stubbornly survived.
"People of Levannas! Survivors of the Demon Race! Hear me!"
Belzerad's voice rang out across the land.
"We once reveled in battle, worshipped strength, and sought to grasp every law of the world in these two hands. We built a civilization as mighty as Arsilan itself. That was the Demon World, and the Arsilanians called us the Demon Race."
The Demon Race.
What a magnificent people they were.
"But that strength became powerless the moment we felt despair and fear. For a thousand years, we had no choice but to endure and survive in agony."
Killing intent flickered in the demons' eyes.
"Do you still fear that thing?"
They did not.
The demons let loose a roar brimming with fury and resentment.
"Does that transcendent being still shackle your hearts?"
They felt free.
Freer than they had ever felt before.
Through the defense of Arsilan, they had poured out everything they had. Whatever the outcome, they could accept it.
"This is a game. A joyous game! Pour everything you have into this game! Enjoy Arsilan Saga to its fullest!"
If they did, they could surpass the very limit of strength that the Demon Race had always worshipped.
The demons armed themselves with weapons they had forged themselves.
Behind them, massive Magic Armors piloted by Undead Heroes appeared one by one. The Sillion Empire's forces were with them as well.
Leon walked up beside Belzerad, looked at him with a smile, and nodded. Belzerad pointed at the Lord of Despair with an outstretched hand, then clenched it into a fist.
"For Levannas!"
Belzerad's cry was worthy of a Demon King.
His will pierced across the void of space and struck the Lord of Despair.
"For Levannas!"
"For Levannas!"
The demons, the Heroes, and all the Arsilanians cried out together. Jinwoo drew the Holy Sword and leveled it at the Lord of Despair.
"For Arsilan!"
Following Leon's cry, everyone shouted as one.
"For the Sillion Empire!"
"For my precious daughter Mayu!"
"For the shop I just opened yesterday!"
Each person called out what was most precious to them, rallying their will.
The cheers of those watching from Earth supported them from behind. Those cheers, strangely enough, felt as though they carried physical force.
They kept everyone from taking a single step back.
The rings floating around the Lord of Despair collided with one another and glowed red-hot. Charged with a force so immense it warped space itself, the sight was like staring into a black hole. The rings, glowing red, fused together and stretched toward Arsilan.
[Arsilan] Defend it.
The Lord of Despair has awakened from its seal.
Stand together and defend Arsilan.
May all the light and darkness and joy of the world be with you.
A simple main quest window appeared before everyone.
"Everyone, defend Arsilan!"
Leon's imperial decree reached them all.
Our game had begun.