Chapter 302
“Can we talk like this? Hey, answer me.”
Seojun started moving toward Cresit’s workshop as he spoke.
It’s best to upgrade your specs whenever you can.
[Yes, if you wish, you can converse with me at any time. However.]
“What?”
[You lack manners.]
“Hahaha.”
Seojun coughed awkwardly, covering his mouth.
He was flustered, not expecting to get called out like this.
He’d thought it would just answer without caring about his tone.
‘Come to think of it, even Cardinal Ian kept scolding me.’
The fragment of the otherworld is clearly a transcendent being.
And if Seojun backed down here, he could lose the upper hand in their conversations, or other troublesome things might follow.
That’s just the setting. Getting dragged around should be kept to a minimum—only through quests.
In that case.
‘Anyway, it’s hard for anyone but me to be the mastermind. So I’ve got the upper hand.’
Seojun smiled gently.
“You don’t like it, brother?”
[Do you not grasp the extent of my power? You seemed rather clever among humans, but perhaps not? I don’t mind you not groveling, but this is too much.]
The voice was sneering.
But Seojun sensed that the sneer wasn’t born of true leisure and let out a scoff.
“It’s because I’m clever that I know, brother.”
[Know what?]
“That right now, you have no other options besides me. Isn’t that right?”
More precisely, the AI has no other options.
So the AI won’t give that so-called otherworldly fragment any other alternatives, will it?
Thus, there must be other reasons at play.
[Hahahaha! Who do you think I am, whelp? Starting from the smallest slice of an apple, I have devoured entire worlds! And I shall rule this world as well!]
Arrogant. The voice laughs.
Seojun laughed arrogantly too.
“Hahahahahaha! Yet you’re nothing more than a mere fragment, aren’t you, brother?”
He could feel it was bluffing. The AI was implementing even these nuances in detail.
– This bastard’s fighting for dominance even with an NPC lmaooo
– His personality is just legendary lmaoooo
– Born to be a streamer, this guy. Definitely raised his skills just to act like this lmao
[You speak this way because you don’t know how great my main body truly is. Do you really not know how much power even a mere fragment like me has given you? If you displease me, I could just take that power back, couldn’t I?]
“Brother.”
[What, whelp.]
“If you take back your power, I could just slam that portal or whatever shut for good. So be quiet and just answer what I ask.”
He wouldn’t actually do it.
He’s a participant in the history book, so he can’t completely ignore public opinion.
The AI must know that too.
Or maybe not?
Would the AI think he might actually commit to trolling right now?
‘Nah, probably not that far.’
Anyway, if this was truly a disadvantageous situation for him, the answer the otherworldly fragment could give was.
[…….]
Silence.
“You’ve backed down, brother.”
Seojun smiled with satisfaction.
– Preemptive strike: Streamer wins
– All part of the plan for smooth info sharing lmao Everything’s calculated play. Definitely not because he’s got a nasty personality lmao
“Now, since we’ve established a proper attitude for conversation, wait a moment. I’ll go buy some items.”
The Destroyer’s Armor that grants invincibility frames, and the Destroyer’s Gauntlets that provide lifesteal.
Seojun purchased both. Quickly.
“They’re not stopping this.”
He’d thought there’d be purchase restrictions for balance reasons, but why not?
Did it mean he was allowed to have this much?
Naturally, Seojun had no idea. That the team leaders had set things so they absolutely could not interfere.
“Still, they made it so you can’t kill.”
[That is unavoidable. My power has accumulated enough that if you begin killing someone, a significant anomaly will appear that others can observe. You must be careful.]
“I see.”
Look at that. Having seized the upper hand in advance, things are going smoothly.
“I have something I’m curious about.”
Afterward, Seojun moved his body to the train heading for Ashiath.
The train to Daran was out of the question.
Infiltration?
Seojun knew all too well how strict the inspections were when crossing borders via train.
Even if he managed to sneak aboard, he’d inevitably have to cause a terrorist incident.
A mask would hide his identity, but the biggest problem was that Daran’s heroes would start to intervene.
He had to carefully consider his situation of being unable to kill.
[What are you curious about? Collaborator.]
Collaborator. Not a bad word, that.
If Seojun had groveled, it wouldn’t have fit Kael’s character (though it already didn’t fit Kael at all; people worldwide were rationalizing it as Kael going through puberty), but the biggest issue was, as mentioned earlier, the NPC’s attitude.
The advantage of a game with high freedom is that the in-game environment changes as much as the player does, and the disadvantage is that the in-game environment changes as much as the player does.
A dog depends on its owner?
NPCs depend on the player.
This is a maxim made famous by gamers after the capsule era brought about tremendous technological advancements.
Thus, Seojun had proactively prevented future annoyances with a bit of psychological warfare.
Probably.
Definitely not because of his nasty personality.
***
After boarding the train to Ashiath, Seojun properly asked what he was curious about.
“What is your goal? I think it’s about time I knew. I’ve dipped my toes in enough, haven’t I?”
It was time to grasp the big picture.
[Indeed, you have dipped them in plenty. You’ve already injured countless heroes. When I read your memories, you were already in a state of confusion. No, you were broken.]
So that’s how it’s going.
‘Now that I think about it, I’ve already gotten 5 kills. There’s no turning back, is there?’
Kael was already corrupted. In terms of the setting.
‘It’s lucky I started off speaking informally; it’ll tie together well.’
[Through your memories, I found the source of your rage. And I surveyed the world. This land isn’t worth protecting. So, cooperate.]
“With what?”
[With you devouring this land.]
“So the goal is invasion, as expected?”
[Kehehe. Indeed. Once this land is properly connected to my main body, it will awaken from its long slumber. There will be war.]
“And the method of connection is that portal?”
[Yes. I’ve hidden portals all over this continent. It required considerable power and time to stabilize them so they could never be closed.]
“Can you tell me the locations?”
[There’s no reason I can’t.]
A map system was added for Seojun. Pressing the icon brought up the continent’s map, displaying markers presumed to be the otherworldly portals, allowing him to check their positions.
“You’ve planted quite a lot. Is Daran over there?”
The full map was likely a system to accommodate the mastermind.
[Two have already been discarded.]
“Two? Already?”
[Yes. Those portals were closed by beings called heroes like you. And now more will start targeting them. For now, stop the group trying to destroy the critical Daran portal.]
“Will do.”
During their conversation, the train Seojun was on arrived in Ashiath, and he entered the country with ease.
‘There are various ways to get into Daran.’
First, there’s the method of simply walking across the field and illegally crossing the border.
The advantage of this method is its simplicity.
You just walk across the vast land a lot. Cross borders, move from city to city.
The disadvantage is that it takes a long time.
‘A very, very long time.’
Unless you have a separate means of transport, it’s a pass. And Seojun had no such transport.
The second method of infiltration is sneaking onto a train.
‘In that case, I’d have to commit acts of terrorism at every station.’
It’s extremely troublesome and laborious. There was a way to do it without getting caught, but Seojun didn’t want to go that far.
Because there was a much more convenient method.
‘Forged ID.’
The advantage of a forged ID made by the Thieves’ Guild, dependable in such matters, is that if you wear the accompanying skin mask, you usually won’t get caught and can travel freely.
The disadvantage is the price. 100 points.
‘I can’t hunt anymore and I’m about to get busy, so I can’t spend points carelessly.’
Above all, with just a few more points, he could buy the last remaining item. He needed to save.
That’s why he’d come to Ashiath.
If he’d intended to buy from the Thieves’ Guild, he could have just purchased it in Train and headed straight for Daran.
So what was the last remaining method?
Getting that forged ID elsewhere.
From the powerful nobles of Daran.
“To Atura.”
Seojun used a teleport magic circle to move to Atura, the conflict zone with Daran.
Early on, fierce skirmishes took place, but now that they were entering the mid-game, there were no heroes causing trouble in Atura.
Quests didn’t even appear there in the first place.
[What are you thinking? Sneaking into Daran through Atura is nearly impossible. You won’t be able to use teleport magic circles inside, so you’ll have to walk.]
As expected of a transcendent being, it had grasped general knowledge just by surveying.
That aside.
“Fragment.”
[What, you whelp.]
“Why are you curious?”
[Whether my collaborator is doing their job properly is important.]
“Pfft.”
He wondered if even the AI was curious.
Seojun decided to tell his plan. The viewers would be curious too.
“I’m not buying an ID from the Thieves’ Guild right now because it’s too expensive, so I’m going to get an ID from a Daran noble, fragment.”
[What? How, exactly? They could make an ID for far less cost than you, but why would they do that for you?]
Is it really curious?
That AI?
“It’s simple, yet you don’t know.”
[…….]
“Fine, I’ll tell you.”
[What is it.]
“First, set their house on fire.”
[Don’t tell me…….]
“Yes. Then they’ll give me something.”
After loosening up, Seojun began moving to push the front line.
[…….]
The fragment, or rather the AI, said nothing.
– Fragment is flustered? Lmaooooo
***
Canyon Atura.
A vast plain canyon connecting Ashiath and Daran, a conflict zone where countless legends were born.
The front line here, where numerous heroes—battle-crazed warmongers, noble aristocrats, legendary inquisitors—fought each other, was always taut, like two equally strong men in a tug-of-war.
In truth, it had no choice but to be taut.
Atura was a region where, if the front line was pushed, the nation itself could be occupied.
Thus, both nations desperately committed at least as many troops as the other.
Paradoxically, it was a region they couldn’t push each other out of because it was so important.
That’s how it was in the story, and for Daran’s participants, especially the two pros in the council who manipulated quests or previewed them, it wasn’t an area of much importance as long as no quests popped up.
But a quest had popped up.
And the two players who checked that quest were at a loss for words. They were the ones who had clashed with Seojun before, lost a comrade, and had been diligently doing their own work since.
“…….”
“…….”
It wasn’t the painful memory of losing a comrade that rendered them speechless.
[Emergency]
==
The Atura front line has been pushed back severely.
Immediate restoration of the front line is required.
If delayed, the situation will become irrecoverable.
Objective: Restore the front line
Reward: None
Upon Failure: Annihilation of Daran
==
Officially a quest.
“Wh-what is the meaning of this?”
The nation was suddenly on the verge of annihilation.