776 – Like a Warrior (22)
The dimensional barrier of the Black World Tree crumbled, and the density of Dark Mana that had been endlessly rising with the force to engulf the world quickly decreased.
The entire coalition was facing the threat of the corrupt power that should not exist in this world.
It was because Seonhwang drew in the Dark Mana to stop the boss mob’s Strength-All-in.
“Oho, His Majesty Seonhwang is pulling all the Dark Mana for us…!”
“Was he not just a simple tyrant?!”
“Damn it, we have to worship Seonhwang again!!”
If there were only himself, the Director, and that good-for-nothing fellow to fulfill the wish of taking down the Principal, Seonhwang would not easily dirty his body and withdraw his strength against such a foe.
But now, he had an excellent adopted daughter named Oknodie in his late years.
And today, he saw another possibility.
Ishtar.
The Candidate who successfully committed suicide charge into the Flagship of the Foundation and managed to destroy the Black World Tree, that previous hero.
“Ha ha ha! In troubled times, heroes shine, indeed. Was this hero who could not bloom under the peace established during my reign so close?!”
“Seonhwang. That’s astonishing. A person who used to oppose warriors draws them into this game board.”
The body of the Strength-All-in twisted, and the voice of the Director conveyed his words.
Even that ghastly scene did not faze Seonhwang, who regarded him with the arrogant expression unique to a ruler of the world, untroubled and unfazed.
“If the future of humanity is entrusted to mere lackeys of the gods, humanity will forever fall to being mere pawns. You understood that part, but your way of wanting to devour the world with the power built on legal and illegal means is wrong. Look at all these enemies. Even I, despite hearing the rage of the people, could not create such enemies.”
“…I was just unfortunate. I had my fair share of possibilities.”
“Is overcoming bad luck not a warrior’s quality? If you truly want to surpass the Academy through the Foundation, shouldn’t you overcome this much of a crisis as the ‘Previous Hero’?”
The Director humbly acknowledged Seonhwang’s mockery.
“That’s right. Many have fallen to fate; countless names are written in history.”
“Then show me. What could possibly change a future that is to be trampled like a bug?”
“Without looking far, is there not a ‘welcome’ waiting outside? People who will help me break through my bad luck.”
Seonhwang’s awareness shifted beyond the crumbled dimensional barrier of the World Tree following the Director’s guidance.
His heart sank.
There was one.
Even that one was blocked by Seonhwang with all his might.
Three more twisted, monstrous faces appeared.
The Strength-All-in pattern recognition is good; it’s a warrior.
There were as many as three existences that could become Boss Mobs!
Seonhwang wasn’t the only one who saw this.
The entire coalition and the remnants of the Foundation witnessed that sight.
This is madness; it’s all over.
Finally, a reversal. As expected, it’s the Director.
The three candidates for Giant Monsters, invoking despair and hope among the masses, finally took action.
“Hmm?”
“…What the hell is this?”
“What are those? Could they not be the Director’s reinforcements?!”
The three targets of the Strength-All-in were indeed the Giant Monster Strength-All-in.
*
Ending branch collection.
Characters doing all sorts of absurd antics just for the sake of searching for privileges, instead of normal progress.
The Strength-All-in series always committed bizarre plays according to the exploration objectives in each round.
“157. What round were you in?”
“If you offered knowledge, the god of knowledge grants strength, and checking how strong one becomes by directly feeding YouTube info infinitely.”
“Wow, I still remember that. Isn’t that the round where the god of knowledge utterly wrecked the Middle Realm by saying that ruling humanity is much easier if you create a dystopia and manage it from the ashes with as little knowledge as possible?”
The End of Knowledge.
That was the name of the ending branch that Round 157 saw.
“Then, did you also receive your power from the god of knowledge?”
“Yeah. It was the round where I suffered a lot of curses for losing health in exchange for all sorts of magical knowledge.”
For someone who was focused solely on Strength, that curse would have been inconsequential.
The knowledge gained in exchange for that curse was an understanding and application of magical techniques.
The essential understanding of the spell learned in Round 157 greatly influenced every round that Oknodie would participate in later.
Accumulating more mana with [Advanced Mana Technique].
Handling mana more precisely with [Mana Control Technique].
It was practically the source that birthed today’s Oknodie.
In fact, considering that so many future plays mimic the ‘imitation’ of Round 157 through [Automatic Correction], he was also the smartest Strength-All-in.
“229. 332. What were you two rounds?”
“Round 229 was about the hidden item [Ring of the Phoenix] that, upon death, the wearer comes back to life due to the ring’s effect. It was a round exploring the phenomenon where the ring’s power increases every time the wearer dies.”
“That… sounds really strange.”
“It’s a simple gimmick. Each time the ring is worn and the wearer dies, the ‘experience points’ lost by the wearer are consumed by the Phoenix, and when the consumed experience surpasses a certain threshold, the Phoenix descends as a trap item.”
“Is it strong?”
“Strong enough to have a full-blown tussle with the Dragon Principal.”
“That’s insane.”
The strength of a mythical creature on par with ancient dragons was astounding enough to be included in the ending branches.
But the content of that ending was not a fiery hell or a sea of flames; it was not something to associate with the Phoenix.
“In the battle against the Phoenix, the continent was left in ruins, leading the Principal to grow bored and abandon the Middle Realm. Though I didn’t know then, it’s likely linked to what the original referred to as ‘outsider,’ and might have headed off to wreak havoc on their main forces as well.”
“That’s absurd. So what power did you gain in Round 229?”
“Resurrection.”
“Do we even need that when we barely die?”
“Once every 100 seconds, you can recover from death. Using this feature, I was able to get beaten up by spirit kings of other dimensions while exploring their realms, rummaging through treasures, and doing all sorts.”
Indeed, with resurrection, he effectively scoured countless places, gathering information on Boss Mobs and treasures for exploration events.
Round 157 came to recognize Round 229’s self for shedding light on secrets of dimensions that would not have been revealed even through his ultimate knowledge gained.
At the same time, they understood just how special they were as rounds.
The best magical knowledge in history.
The longest survival period in history.
What kind of madman was he in Round 332 that followed this?
Both Round 157 and Round 229 showed curiosity.
Could something as remarkable occur in later rounds that matched their own greatness?
“I’m sorry if you expected more, but I really don’t have anything.”
“Of course, was I just called in to fill numbers?”
“Well, there must be something. Don’t feel ashamed, Round 332. Being weaker than us isn’t a disgrace.”
“It’s nothing special; I was just curious about what exists outside the map, so I did a bit of space exploration.”
“…What the hell?”
“…Are you sure you’re weaker than us?”
Instead of attending the Academy, he was off traveling the universe.
It was a curious thought, but what was even more interesting was how that was even possible.
“What did you take with you?”
“I pulled out all the forbidden magical tools connected to planet-ending events. I threw all the magic users at Aerodilon and traveled through the coordinates of each dimension. Probably in the later rounds, I’ll be able to create dimensional gates to all dimensions freely without needing those magical tools, because I’ll know all their coordinates.”
“Ha. So sending the Principal and skipping one dimension in the consecutive rush of a hundred dimensions could save those Numbers magical tools?”
“I could sacrifice a villain connected to that dimension instead of them, so it’s not impossible.”
“Now I get it; that’s why you were collecting strange villains in isolated cities and such. I was really deep in thought in this round.”
Round 157, Round 229, and Round 332 acknowledged each other.
But for them to assist Oknodie, one more understanding had to align.
“So how about we share the information we painstakingly searched for while getting our butts kicked for ‘that’?”
“Oknodie. Don’t tell me the big muscular male character who only pursued them would eventually degenerate into a perv who makes small female characters or enjoys little female child characters instead…”
“My head’s a bit fuzzy.”
Each had worked hard and achieved much, but the one who would enjoy those fruits was not themselves, but ‘Oknodie’.
The one standing atop all that sacrifice wasn’t a splendid male character but an oddly mismatched little female character, causing them to seriously doubt their choices for the future, fearing they played too much of their games.
“Still, the kids were really working hard. The coalition and whatever else; I could’ve never dreamed of that in the rounds that went to space.”
“No matter how many times I revived, it was just me, so I felt filthy lonely. After all, a person has to live with people.”
“It’s fulfilling that my knowledge is used for everyone like this… but what is Oknodie doing in this game?”
Suddenly, Round 157 felt a bit unjustly treated.
Rounds 229 and 332 felt a bit unjust too.
Why was the main body kicking back while making clones and slackening off?
Think of it as a chance!
Yet recalling Oknodie’s words from when they sent themselves somewhat made him understand the main body’s feelings.
In those days of powerlessness.
Collecting all sorts of hidden factors, vowing to return stronger, no matter what.
The humiliation of that time.
Rounds that had to fail.
This time, they would protect their friends and the world.
“Well, this might not be so bad after all.”
With relieved faces, the three Strength-All-ins rushed toward their monstrous clones.
Their long-awaited decision for battle had begun.
*
[Little One, what kind of opportunity did you give them?]
In the eyes of the Dragon Principal, Oknodie was not a meek simpleton.
It was clear that what was said held no good intent, yet they wore a scene of realization and left with a warm expression that felt oddly unsettling.
“Oh, that thing?”
Sure enough, the reply that came back was a spectacle to behold.
“Do you know about the Trinity?”
[Three become one?]
“What about Cerberus?”
[Those brainless beings with three heads. They always bicker and can never get anything done properly. I raised them as guard dogs until three hundred years ago but got pissed and just made dog stew out of them.]
“Whoa, you really can’t go boiling the Strength-All-ins for dog stew! That’s human meat!”
An odd statement, yet considering the flow of conversation, it was a rather horrifying proposition.
[Did you give humanity a chance to become human Cerberus?]
“If I planted a soul taken from a violin, the weary soul would have worked hard to help! In that case, they wouldn’t be able to unite and would have to obey my words!”
[If the next Demon King is decided, you’d fit perfectly.]
Even the Principal was horrified by this absurd notion.
Fortunately, the three Strength-All-in brothers did not become human Cerberus but fought valiantly against the Giant Monster.
Although they fought…
[Why are they so weak?]
“Principal, please show me the sight you see!”
[No, it’s not that they’re losing to the Giant Monster.]
“Please show it to me!”
[I’ll get torn apart by the Director, you know?]
“Uuuh, let me see too!”
The Principal grit his teeth and absolutely refused to reveal anything.
