Above Your Head

Vol 2. Chapter 109: The Salvation of God (46)

The enemy in the Level 18 Low-difficulty stage was also a First-Tier Demon, which weren’t weak in the slightest. It might seem ridiculous to kill billions in a large-scale battle, but the players were armed with Future Weapons, including Gigas (Telekinesis Cannon, Railgun, Quantum Bullet, Force Field Barriers, and so on) and fought in advantageous conditions.

If one were to ask how strong the First-Tier Demons were, a good estimation would be that less than 10 people of the remaining humans could try clearing the Level 18 Low-difficulty strage with their own strength

Kwakkkkk!

I-I-Impertinent...human bastards. Kigigik!

Even I, who was riding on a Star-rank Gigas, couldn't help but die if I made the slightest mistake.

Title. Effect of the Demon Annihilator (Highest-rank) is activated!

Resurrecting!

The head that flew away was restored to its original state. It was as if time was turning backwards… This was the power of the Highest-rank of Killing-type titles, which went beyond that of Slayer, Hunter, Slaughterer, Disaster.

Demon Annihilator (Highest-rank)

- Strength, Stamina, Magical Energy, Mana +200

- In the event of death, resurrection is possible. 9 Remaining Uses.

- Karma is accumulated when the enemy is eliminated. Each time the Karma exceeds a certain amount, the Revival Stack can be stored (up to 10 times).

- You have killed so many demons that you have become able to affect the entire population of the remaining demons. If there are several people like you, the demon may be registered as a protected species and placed under care.

- You, who have slaughtered over 100 million demons (First-Tier), is an existence that has more influence than the Demon King to the demons.

The effect I received from the Annihilator title, obtained by killing the demons on the stage, was resurrection. It was just ridiculous that the effect from the Death Knight Annihilator title I obtained by killing more than 100 million Death Knights was also resurrection. 'Why are all the High-rank title's effect resurrection?'

Of course, I admit that the ability to revive was a cheat. However, the title effect was redundant now that the effect overlapped. It only left behind a bad taste.

Captain-nim!

This, damn it. Dae-ha, are you alright?

"I'm not okay. Ugh, my head... Ah, this crazy shit. I let my guard down too much. I didn't think it'd be able to break through the Dragon Bone Armor in that frame of time." Through the hole in front of the cockpit, I looked at the sight of the annihilated and collapsed First-Tier Demon. "A Cross Counter of all things, huh."

Absurdly enough, instead of blocking or avoiding Gungnir, that demon bastard poured all of its energy into the counterattack. It was an act done to perish together, so to speak. Of course, it was nothing more than an attack that could have been avoided or blocked by the usual me… Unfortunately, I was not in my peak condition right now.

"I'm sick of this... How much does this make?"

With this, it's 5,411 units.

"Hahhh, I'm still only half way done." I kept losing concentration. It would be better to gather the enemies around in a large-scale battle and exterminate them in one fell swoop. Defeating them one by one, like this, was something that took too much time and mental strength. "Agh, those oldies really... I'm just going to leave them all to die."

In fact, there had recently been very few 'additional clears' like right now. This was because the stage proceeded and was maintained only with volunteers who ambiguously participated as players when the Highest-difficulty stage first opened. They had all entered the Unique World.

Considering the fact that there were only a few thousand participants in the previous Level 17 Low-difficulty stage, this situation in which I myself cleared the stage 5,000 times was absolutely not normal.

If there's going to be death, the majority of people dying would be those who challenged the stage anyways.

"I understand, but..." I muttered. I wondered if there was no chance of victory if they challenged the Low-difficulty stage that had no variables with their lacking power… Don't tell me, was this what Project End was aiming for? People dying out of greed for the points?

- Death Procession has all been cancelled.

- Congratulations! The stage has been cleared perfectly! Rewards are given based on contribution.

- Your ranking is 1st-place.

However, there wasn't a crazy amount of challengers, so the stage ended at around 7,000 clears. Due to it being a Perfect Clear, there weren't any fatalities.

"…What the hell is this, man?" I watched the people who were drinking something at the crowded Gwanghwamun Square as always.

Gwanghwamun Square was still crowded with people even though half of humanity had died and one-third of the remaining half had entered the Unique World. Moreover, in the entire Republic of Korea, most apartments were empty and there were even a considerable amount of ghost villages with no one inside. However, perhaps because of that, the people all gathered in one place.

"Ultimately, what is it that Project End is after?"

I was slightly exhausted, but that was just my personal problem and no one died in the Low-difficulty stage. Those who had challenged the Low-difficulty stage and realized that they had no hope of clearing it gave up on participating in the Intermediate-difficulty stage.

Genie told me that the top-ranking players who had left over points bought the Ten Thousand Years Immortal Pill. In particular, Jae-seok, who was afraid of dying before Kyung-eun, had already purchased more than 10 years of life.

I looked at the titles on the off chance that there were side effects, but there was no such thing. In the end, this meant that the addition of the new product was an event that leaned one-sidedly to humanity. However, was there any reason the Project End would do something good for humanity?

- Stage will be open!

- Level 18. Difficulty is set to Intermediate.

- Eliminate 5 First-Tier Demons within 100 hours.

- Stage will begin in 10 seconds.

- 10. 9. 8. 7….

Then, the Intermediate-difficulty stage started and, as expected, problems arised.

- Warning. 3,481,112,831 Players are not participating in the stage.

- Partial updates will be made to the system.

- The act of not participating in the stage is considered as an act of surrender.

- Death Procession will apply for those who do not participate until the end of the stage.

"…What?" I couldn't understand the announcement and looked at it blankly, but the contents were nothing difficult to understand in the first place.

Captain-nim, this is...

They've made up their minds. If it's like this, this means that the Cradle of Justice and the Unique World are irrelevant, isn't it?

Although the stage progressed up to Level 18, the capability of the entire humanity was obviously not Level 18. Just like even if the people of an entire nation played football, not everyone would be able to become a national representative-level football player, there was a huge gap in individual capabilities. No matter how great the advanced weapons and Gigas I created and distributed were, I couldn't make every player a superhuman.

Ultimately, it was only the few elites who were clearing the stage. This was only made possible with the Cradle of Justice, and the Unique World that allowed players to break away or choose whether to participate in the stage or not. But if they didn't participate in the stage, would the Death Procession still apply to them?

"This doesn't make sense. If this was possible, shouldn't it have been done way earlier? The Project End did not do it all this time, and they are doing it now after coming this far?”

When the Cradle of Justice was first created or when I brought people to the stage, I thought it was an area that the Project End could not lay their hands on because there wasn't any reaction from them. However, it didn’t that wasn't the case.

Eventually, what came to my mind was the newly added Ten Thousand Years Immortal Pill. 'Don't tell me... Is a malicious patch update also possible, just like how a convenient patch update to users was?' Just like how it belatedly added rare metals and other items to the gacha machine after attaching unfavorable conditions to the users, this meant that the opposite was possible.

'Now that I think about it... Life span is a factor of great value, but there isn't a significant increase in power.' Of course, the longer a high-level user lived, the more helpful the user would be to the progress of the stage. However, at a time when the remaining stages were estimated to be short, whether the players lived 10 years longer or 100 years longer, the fact remained that there wasn't a significant increase in fighting power.

'This might be an emphasis on collecting back points.'

Using a gacha machine meant that, ultimately, we paid with the points to buy something. If that point was a resource that could do something to the End Stage...

Kuwaackkkk!!!

"Shut up."

Keuckkk!

As the seal was released, Gungnir was stabbed in the head of the First-Tier Demon who was screaming. The First-Tier Demons had the endurance of a horse, and would only be scratched even if they were hit by a missile. However, it was a Numbering Transcendence Weapon. It was beyond its ability to block Gungnir, which was believed to have been created by a God who imbued their own power into it.

'Well, actually, I wasn't even using Gungnir properly.' The current me was literally just using Gungnir, but I couldn't properly pull out the true power of Gungnir. I had yet to reach the peak of spearmanship, and I hadn’t inherited Odin's blood. Hence, it was an unsurprising matter. 'Though things would be a little different if I had the Ability .'

However, it was impossible for The War Lord to activate King of All Armaments with Gungnir because its capacity was all filled when the Transcendence Skill was turned on. It was a limited restriction on the stage, but it was useless because my main battlefield was on the stage. .

Captain-nim, the players on the stage are in chaos. I'm afraid that the announcement has reached them.

"They're stirring up a fuss, huh..." I summoned the First-Tier Demon and killed. Then, I repeated it all over again, summoning and killing the First-Tier Demons while I was pondering for a moment. Should I use 'that method'? It was Level 18, not level 20 or Level 19. Moreover, it was during the Intermediate-difficulty, and not even the High-difficulty stage.

"Damn it." I clicked my tongue, because I realized there was nothing I could do about it. It was not a joke… If the stage proceeded with this structure now, more than 3.4 billion humans would die. No matter how many times I flew around and crawled, the number of times I could repeatedly play would 'normally' only be 10,000.

That's right, only 10,000 times. In actual fact, besides me, there were almost no players who cleared multiple times. Thus, I could only save a handful of people in the Level 18 stage.

"Genie, how many people are Justice Weapon users in the Unique World?"

There are currently 8,413 people.

They appeared next to me in the Highest-difficulty stage, then after that, they returned back to the Unique World and settled down with what they had to do. They were people who had Justice Weapons but had already given up fighting because they already failed in progressing with the stage.

"Gather them all together and make sure that they all understand the stage situation in a way that each person watches one another. If necessary, it would be good to broadcast that and reduce any anxiety. If they don't enter the stage now, everyone will die. So, tell them to not be too scared and enter the stage. If they die, they would die inside the stage and there would be a chance to save their lives."

What do you mean there would be a chance to save their lives...

Genie looked at me with a puzzled expression as if she couldn't understand me, and I left her behind and began walking. I released the seal on a new First-Tier Demon and stabbed the spear into its head. Just like that, I repeated those actions.

- Clear!

- Do you want to start the next battle? If you knock down the enemies in quick succession, your number of clears will cancel the corresponding number of Death Procession. At the end of the stage, the Death Procession that isn't retracted will be confirmed and cannot be reversed.

I ignored the announcement and continued walking. Fortunately, the stage this time wasn't that big. No, not only this time, but after changing into the method of repeating the Low-difficulty stage without the strategy guide, the scale of the stage was about the size of a sports stadium. The War Lord, standing at 30 meter tall, arrived at the end of the path with just a few steps.

Thuckkk. I reached out and touched the wall, a dimension wall that looked empty at first glance but could never be passed. 'Perhaps the Project End bastards also know about this.'

Raffley, the Specter Dragon, was a special monster. It was not special because it was Level 19. As the stage had already reached Level 18, Level 19 was not a level that far away. Wasn't the Level 19 stage coming out in units of billions when next week comes? The reason why Raffley, the Specter Dragon, was special wasn’t its strength but the fact that it could transcend the framework of the stage in many ways. A Unique Level that was independent from the corresponding stage's level, and...the ability to cross beyond the stage.

'That's right. The reason was that Project End was somehow trying to protect the Specter Dragon. After that, it seems that it thought I didn't notice it, so they just left it alone.' Originally, it was something I wouldn't have known, but the player who could observe several stages through Watch found out that the Specter Dragon was not Regen regularly. Rather, it passed through several stages. Then, when I found out about that fact, I also noticed that I could also take advantage of that ability while I was boarding on the Gigas made with the heart and bones of the Specter Dragon.

Poooof! I crossed through the stage and I saw the figure of a Gigas who was fighting with a First-Tier Demon for quite some time.

Thuckkk!

"Uwackkk?! What the hell?"

As the spear that suddenly came flying burst the head of the First-Tier Demon, , whose armor seemed to be pretty battered up perhaps due to the fact that it had gone through a lot of trouble, looked back at me. "Hi."

"W-What the? Why are you showing up here?"

Pooooof! When I deactivated the Transcendence Skill , Gungnir, which pierced through the First-Tier Demon and was stuck on the ground, disappeared.

Groooooarrrr----! The War Lord's body was wrapped in a gray spiritual energy. Soon, that energy began to radiate everywhere. There were more than tens of hundreds of gray lights, and they were gray giants moving independently.

"Hey, if the three Beast-rank Gigas I am controlling assists you, you can easily go against a First-Tier Demon, right?"

"Well, since I'm somehow going against it right now... No, but wait, what are you talking about? The Beast-rank Gigas you control?"

"Work hard. If possible, clear the stage 10,000 times." I left Jae-seok with three Beast-rank Gigas and crossed over to the next stage.

This time, it was Min-kyung sunbae who boarded . Seeing that the stages were mainly connected to those I was acquainted with, it seems that this test called the stage was also connected based on the relationship level or something. "Dae-ha-nim?"

"I think three will be enough on your side too. Clear it 10,000 times, got it?"

I also met Kyung-eun, who said, "You~ Uhhh~ Hmmm... Alright. You need five of them. Still, clear the stage 10,000 times okay?"

I started moving through stages after I distributed Gigas without rest. 3 Gigas, 5 Gigas, or 1 Human-rank Gigas. Originally, the Transcendence Skill was an ability to create 1 Star-rank Gigas, 10 Human-rank Gigas, and 1,000 Beast-rank Gigas. However, unfortunately, I was not able to create a Star-rank Gigas. It must have been because I was using the ability that was supposedly used by a God-rank Gigas on a Star-rank Gigas. 'Well, I'm already very thankful that I can materialize Gigas below that rank.'

"Iron Mask-nim?!"

"Heokk! Iron Mask!! Why are you appearing here?!"

I met people who were either pleased or bewildered to see me, and distributed Gigas to them. 'I don't know when there will be a patch update.' While feeling a little sense of anxiousness, I kept crossing over the stage.