The reason the Hwangje has been helping me from the Hwanggung is due to one clear objective.
To increase the chances of taking down Principal Omoshiroi!
With the thought of not being able to live under the same sky as cockroaches, he, like a devoted father, has taken up the banner of evil dragon extermination and submerged himself in the expensive gacha.
“Earth, huh? What kind of dimension is that?”
“It’s a playground for humans, who invade with glee, ruled by the wicked transcendent beings of various border planets!”
If you want to express modern civilization enjoying various virtual reality games, you have to put it this way!
Even if I spoke like a fool, did he get it perfectly? The Hwangje burst into hearty laughter.
“Krhhahaha! That’s indeed a terrifying world. However, I find no better world than this!”
“What do you think? Are you tempted?”
“Of course. But in order to hide my body by drawing on the properties of another dimension, I need not just knowledge of that dimension but also memories. How can we obtain the coordinates of that dimensional plane?”
I shot my hand up.
It’s me!
“Is it you? The coordinates of a dimension even I am unaware of?”
A realization flickered in the Hwangje’s eyes.
Hehehe!
“Is that so? You…”
The secret that even my best friend Jiang or Masugaki didn’t recognize.
That I am a reincarnator from Earth!
“Accepting dark mana is to search for the coordinates of a dark dimension that cannot be found by ordinary means, to find a world even the evil dragon Omoshiroi wouldn’t know.”
“Huh?”
“There’s no need to deceive you. I have no intention of blaming you. If dark mana is necessary to defeat the evil dragon, I view it as a required power. It’s the fate of a swordsman to not discriminate between a holy sword and a cursed sword for the sake of achieving a goal.”
“Earth is not a wicked dimension under the rule of a demon!”
“Isn’t it a wicked dimension if one can ‘invade for fun’ other dimensions?”
How did it end up like this?!
“How much pain must your mind have suffered as you explored countless coordinates of dark dimensions to kill that principal? My heart aches with your efforts.”
Did I really suffer that much? Suddenly, I felt the urge to revisit my memories, gazing at him with pity!
“Reveal your memories to me. I will gladly accept the knowledge of that dimension.”
Please do!
Just as I was about to trust my head to his outstretching hand, a sharp feeling of danger rang through me from my toes to the tip of my head, causing me to jump back.
The Hwangje, baffled, halted his outstretched hand.
“What are you so surprised about? Isn’t this simply part of the process of achieving a common grand undertaking?”
“I, I don’t know… Wait a minute.”
It wasn’t just an ordinary feeling earlier.
It was more intense than the horrifying sensation of the world collapsing when I stumbled into the air from the stairs.
It felt closer to the despair of a carefully built tower collapsing.
Yeah, something like this, something I’ve experienced multiple times as a veteran player.
The agonizing regret that accompanies making a fatal mistake that ruins an entire chapter.
Just moments ago, my subconscious warned me that I was on the brink of making such a mistake.
What could it be?
As I retraced my memories carefully, I began to understand.
– “When you go ‘outside,’ make sure to deliver the message. This is the first time. When it becomes the third, then I will surely come to seek you.”
The first time that phenomenon occurred was when I used sympathetic magic on Dobi to massively raise my experience points.
– “Remember. Though the causation is lacking, this is indeed a distortion. There is only one remaining chance until you and I stand on the same plane. Yes, this was the second time.”
Distortion.
A phenomenon that shouldn’t exist with ordinary chapter progression.
A cheat key prioritizing player convenience.
If I had told the Hwangje the Earth dimension coordinates this time, it surely would have become the third!
I was on the verge of summoning the [One Hit Kill] build, which allows even gods to be slain, using sympathetic magic to conjure past memories—what a crisis it was!
Sweat poured down from my forehead to my fingertips, realizing I almost brought about the ruin of this world by my own hands.
The strength build has a fatal weakness, but I’m not prepared to break that build just yet!
The terrifying [One Hit Kill] build, which can kill even gods with a single blow.
Since I’ve painstakingly crafted my own strategy, considerable effort is needed to counter it.
“Are you not ready?”
“Y-yes… It’s quite difficult now…”
“Heh. The day of reckoning is not today. When the time is right, speak of it. I fear nothing. However, this creates quite a dilemma for me. If the time comes, and I am not in that place, I cannot fulfill my purpose, and if I cannot add the Earth’s system to dimension magic, then my plan to hide will become obsolete.”
No choice then.
This is a matter of priority.
To kill the Principal, I need the Hwangje’s help.
If I gain the help of the Hwangje, the third causation of [One Hit Kill] will be completed.
As I am now, I cannot defeat the [One Hit Kill] version of myself.
In other words, until I am ready to overcome that, I cannot allow the Hwangje to realize the Earth’s dimensional coordinates based on my memories.
Conversely speaking, if I become stronger, I can achieve all of this.
What is the reason I must kill the Principal to such an extent?
Newbies who can’t even survive don’t know.
Mid-tier players struggling to graduate wouldn’t know either.
Even skilled players who have barely managed to graduate would be unaware.
Only those who can finish at least the upper-class fourth-year curriculum.
Only veterans like me truly know.
The chance-based shitshow of graduating from the academy.
There’s a horrifying gimmick lurking in this game.
Those who manage to achieve a certain level of overall functionality and sufficient outcomes in the graduation part get…
– It’s too tragic to let such a fine specimen as you wander outside. You shall become a professor of the academy!
To stay in the academy for the purpose of taking a professorship, they end up being graduate students or become professors.
The professor segment comes after the student segment.
The second season of the Gift Academy begins, and to escape, one must kill the Principal.
Thus, there are no exceptions.
To see this game’s true ending, Omoshiroi the Principal must be killed.
As long as he lives, graduation will forever remain impossible.
So, I need the Hwangje—not my [One Hit Kill].
For a completely new strategy that diverges from the usual routes.
*
The Hwangje couldn’t hide his pity.
“The Director of the Foundation seems to harbor thoughts more severe than I imagined. To inflict a trauma so dark on a child whose emotions are shattered…”
Just moments ago, if Oknodie had held the Hwangje’s hand, she could have had the chance to kill the evil dragon.
Her proposal actually had a glimmer of possibility.
By borrowing the power of the darkest and most wicked dimensions unknown even to the evil dragon Omoshiroi, she could hide her existence, break free from her ego weapon, and deal a surprise strike to the evil dragon.
The gap.
The evil dragon Omoshiroi is protected by countless layers of dimensions, much like him.
If she could strike him from close range, the hundred-layer dimensional barrier that the Hwangje possessed could cancel out the evil dragon’s hundred-layer barrier at close proximity.
A blade that must pierce.
If it’s the first strike, it would be a guaranteed hit.
That would be the benefit granted to the Hwangje, the future ego weapon.
If there’s anyone who could create such an opportunity against the evil dragon Omoshiroi, it would be Oknodie, the strangest child who could soothe even the heart of the Empire’s Hwangje.
Yet Oknodie retreated.
As if such an event must never happen.
Sweat poured down her body like rain.
A clear sense of fear.
Her bafflement was more genuine because she didn’t consciously recognize it.
The unconscious fear was not something one creates themselves.
It should be seen as something that someone has etched into her body.
Who could do that to her?
Who could engrave such fear into a child without her noticing?
There is only one person capable.
The three great evils of the Empire.
The Director of the Wahyhiemhai Foundation.
Even if he isn’t the most powerful in the world, and even if he doesn’t wield the largest power, and even if he does not unravel the most secrets and mysteries.
If asked to choose the most dangerous person in the world without a hint of hesitation, one would pick him.
[First Wahyhiemhai]
This man blocked the alliance between me and Oknodie.
As if he had known this moment would come someday.
“Indeed. Such finesse befitting the head of the three great evils, who can disrupt my nerves.”
He showed the hope that was Oknodie, yet he wouldn’t allow her to command that hope.
Now, the Hwangje must spare Oknodie.
Even if it means giving up the Empire and becoming a hermit.
If this is a heart of cunning to manipulate the Empire and the Hwangje.
This grand plan is something no one in the world can catch up to.
The First Wahyhiemhai has demonstrated that he is the most dangerous man in the world.
“When the time comes, send a messenger to the Underworld. I shall wait for the day I become the emperor of the Underground World and fulfill my desires.”
“Ugh. Given how things are now, there’s no help for it. I’ll go on ahead. Farewell, Emperor Papa!”
The Hwangje stared blankly at the departing back of Oknodie.
“What will you do? The Foundation and Oknodie have achieved their goals, and there seems to be hope for your majesty to fulfill yours, but I assume you are not one to be satisfied with this situation, your majesty.”
“Of course. I shall not permit anyone beneath the heavens to rule. Not even the one true god Sofemia, whom I did not allow true glory.”
If he treated even the heroes as mere tools, there’s no way he could be defeated by a Foundation.
“First, I shall take the peace of this Underground World as a new first step toward my path of tyranny.”
The difficulty of DLC content has begun to escalate crazily!
