CH 500

[You have entered the Great Gold’s mental world.]

I wondered how long I had wandered around. I started to worry about Yeon-Hee. I felt sorry for her, but I could not stop. She must have either gradually come to the same conclusion as me, or she could have started to feel intimidated by this mad world.

She was finally about to say something.

“We will never find it this way.”

Yeon-Hee spoke as she slashed through the monsters pouring out at her. There were monsters with teeth stuck all over their bodies, including their faces, abdomens, legs, and hands. However, they were merely the weakest among them.

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The background continued to shake even as she sliced the monsters. Even up to this point, the spectacle unfolding over her shoulder was something I could never get used to. There was nothing normal in the world of the madman whose mind had been destroyed. Everything was grotesquely changing in an instant, and just watching such a sight made me feel contaminated.

“We should change the stage to be more advantageous to us.”

Right then, I hugged Yeon-Hee and jumped. We were on the ground just a moment ago, but it had turned into the giant face of Arukuda in a second.

“Worship Doom Arukuda. Worship Doom Arukuda. Worship Doom Arukuda.”

The crazy voice echoed through the world again.

“I am going to drag Gold into your pain. Into moments of resignation…despair… Then it will surely affect you as well.”

“I don’t care. I will just follow the guide’s instructions.”

“Get ready!”

Yeon-Hee tightened her brow and pulled my neck. The pain she felt while maxing out her ability was delivered to me.

[Woo Yeon-Hee has successfully changed the stage.]

[Stage: Past era, February 17th, 2018]

Woosh-

Cold wind seeped through my suit. I will never forget this moment.

It was a harsh winter in my life as I had received a dismissal notice. Then, I was pushed out onto the street, and the first thing that caught my eye was that bench. I sat there, reading the documents that could turn into a lawsuit at any moment over and over again.

Those documents were now in my hands. It was clear what content they were filled with without opening them. It was about losses I made to the company.

I threw them onto the ground and checked my surroundings. I locked eyes with a young woman. She was one of the ordinary pedestrians that I did not remember, and she had a cold gaze, showing no interest in an Asian man who had obviously failed.

She started approaching me in her high heels. Her height and face slowly transformed into Yeon-Hee’s. She stared at me, and then her puzzled look deepened.

She finally asked, “Are you okay?”

“About what?”

“You are too…ok. You are not lethargic, depressed, or in pain, right? The stage can never be as clean as this.”

“True.”

“What did we do? We overestimated him.”

Her voice had rather brightened.

“This has cleared up everything.”

“Huh?”

“I am strong both internally and externally.”

I meant to make her laugh, and it worked. Yeon-Hee extended her arm swiftly after chuckling lightly. In an instant, a dagger appeared in her hand, and it only took her seconds to thrust the neck of a passerby who was walking toward us.

Blood spurted out. The sound of air escaping from a suddenly pierced windpipe followed.

[The user Woo Yeon-Hee has removed a low-level defense mechanism, a passerby.]

“Aaaaargh-!”

She was a mere illusion, but her scream was quite raucous. Startled faces were everywhere, from the men with suits and the car windows filling the street. Then we hit the ground together.

Thud!

[You have removed a low-level defense mechanism, a passerby.]

…

[You have removed a low-level defense mechanism, a passerby.]

We were on the rooftop of the building, where we had a clear view below. A huge pit remained in the spot where we had leaped from. It was filled with indiscriminately mixed bodies of the ordinary inhabitants of this world and those who had tried to target us. They were also pouring out of nearby buildings.

“Think about it in terms of the standards at the time. Where in the world had the strongest security back then?”

It was the time when I only considered the identity of the club as a conspiracy theory. I had no idea about the pre-Awakened and the invasion of alien monsters after a month. I was just an ordinary financier with a very normal perspective back then.

Yeon-Hee tightened the conditions.

“No, this would be better. What would be something that could absolutely not be obtained at the time?”

She narrowed down the answer.

“The authority to use nuclear weapons of a superpower like the United States, Russia, or China.”

“What if you narrow it down further?”

“China.”

“Then there is the highest possibility. Let’s go before it gets complicated.”

I shook my head at the thought that popped up in my mind.

“Wait.”

Everyone had their own world. Whether the market size was large or small and the value was externally recognized or not, we lived by fitting ourselves into the surroundings. I was the same back then. I lived from the point of view of a financier, and that world was my everything.

So, what was the absolute thing in the world of a financier?

“The stake in the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.”

[You have used Gate Formation.]

In my distant memory, I saw the back of Isaac Rothschild. This was a stage calculated from the situation of the past era. Therefore, he was not in a wheelchair. He was looking into the monitor in his healthy state. The mysterious explosion that had occurred in the middle of Wall Street was being discussed as a real-time issue on the screen.

However, it was not the top defense mechanism, the Great Gold.

“It will appear soon if we are correct.”

Right after she said that, Isaac Rothschild turned his head and made a gesture of searching for something that could be a weapon out of his instinct.

“Tell me what you want, young friends,” he said when he saw blood dripping from Yeon-Hee’s dagger. He reacted calmly without trembling. I was unconsciously judging him in this way.

“I will deal with the main body.”

“This place moves according to the laws of reality. What is the process?” she asked.

I shrugged. “A contract between the parties is enough. There is nothing more secret than that.”

“Then, I need to take that guy separately as far away as possible.”

“It’s up to you.”

While Yeon-Hee and I were exchanging a few words…

“You are from Korea. Do you know where this is? Sit down for now. I guarantee that young friends like you won’t take long to realize your mistakes. I will generously pay you a reward for listening to my story.”

He spoke slowly, pointing to the chairs across from him. He even made gestures that assumed we would not understand his language.

The better the guide was, the stronger the reality of the stage became. Yeon-Hee’s ability grew every time I saw it. She jumped.

Sheeek-

When she stood before Isaac Rothschild, one of her main forces was already complete.

She said, “Hand us the stakes in the Federal Reserve, old man.”

Isaac Rothschild was now gone, and only Yeon-Hee’s slave was there. Even if this was an illusion, it was entirely possible in reality. The slave of Yeon-Hee responded politely, “I will make sure there is no interference. But some preparations are necessary for that.”

Yeon-Hee said, “Just prepare what is needed immediately. A monster will show up and sweep everything away.”

“Is there anything else you want?”

“Just hurry up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I was on guard for the highest defense system to appear.

[You have used Enhanced Absolute Warzone.]

“Why?”

“Ugh, this is frustrating. Let’s finish it here.”

I only answered like that and got out of the barrier. Illusions should have only remained as illusions.

[You have used Devi’s Sword.]

If the scene was a reality, then I would have immediately lost my will to fight. The thing I fired while landing in the mansion courtyard collided with the target beyond my sight. There was a flash.

Thuuuuuuuud!

A mushroom-shaped smoke rose up with a huge explosion. The mansion guards did not even notice me. Only those among them who had awakened as defenses ran into me and were torn apart. The ordinary residents were just watching the expanding mushroom smoke bloom.

“Oh, gosh…”

“Oh, my god…”

Some even started to pray. They also discovered what happened next to me as they looked around. Their reactions were all the same when they saw the ripped-apart bodies. They pulled out their guns to fire, but they were about to be annihilated without me having to do anything.

Yes, finally. It came right after. A tremendous heatwave struck. Those who had pointed their guns at me all staggered and shouted to escape. However, black smoke had swept everything before me with the heatwave! It was filled with debris and kept hitting my body.

The Gold must have originally targeted the death of Isaac Rothschild. It could not deal with me just by using a nuclear attack. It could not even leave a scratch on me.

The sparks that scattered all over the earth spread even further. Then, it revealed itself.

“Grrrr…”

[The owner of the mental world, the highest defense, the Great Gold, has appeared.]

***

There were moments when I could have been bounced off from its mental world. The crisis was in the attack where it sought annihilation. If I had not caught Arukuda and nurtured its power, then I would have allowed that attack. The Absolute Warzone would not have been intact either.

[You have removed the Enhanced Absolute Warzone.]

The only thing intact in the whole area was the mansion that had been under the protection of the barrier. As soon as the barrier vanished, it collapsed and disappeared into the gap in the earth’s crust that had split apart. Yeon-Hee threw herself out before that.

She had all sorts of documents in her hand. Then, she frowned as she looked at the rising nuclear dust.

“It’s fortunate that this is an illusion.”

However, it was not an illusion in the past. The nuclear bombs that burst all over the world on the Day of Advent affected the day before the end. The only thing she was misunderstanding was that the damage that did not leave anything behind was not from the nuclear explosion.

Moreover, what would happen if I had fought against the evil entities on the mainland? I needed to do everything I could to prevent my mainland from turning into a battlefield.

“Are you sure?”

I asked toward the bunch of documents she was holding. At a glance, they were contracts and evidential files that I had seized in the past.

“It was not a waste of time. Here, take it.”

When the pieces of paper were transferred into my hand, they began to flip quickly, page by page.

[You have secured the lost memories of the Great Gold.]