Chapter 5. Dream (2)
[You have selected 'Slaughter'!]
[What a wise choice!]
[A merciless ruler deserves special blessings♥]
[Buff 1: Butcher's Efficiency]
·
Majesty's combat power permanently increases as more enemies are defeated.
·
[Buff 2: Indomitable]
·
Even after suffering a fatal injury, you will immediately recover to a state where combat is possible.
·
·
Once, and only once, death itself may be ignored.
·
[Buff 3: Executioner's Sentence]
·
Any target Majesty designates as an enemy will have their location revealed regardless of where they are in the world.
·
·
Escape is impossible.
·
[Buff 4: Barrier]
·
The world belonging to cooperating Majesty 187487 will receive basic protection from Divine-Grade Artifacts.
·
Jooheon checked each buff one by one.
Oh.
Not bad.
Actually...
They were excellent.
So this is what it meant by special privileges that suit me.
The message continued happily.
[You chose the path of slaughter instead of becoming an administrator.]
[How impressive.]
[Your boldness has been highly evaluated, so you will receive especially powerful buffs.]
[They will be of great help in implementing your future slaughter policies.]
[Buff 5: Bulldozer]
·
You become stronger whenever someone tells you, "That's impossible."
·
Jooheon quietly accepted everything they gave him.
[Now, let us begin the elimination!]
[Please choose the target you wish to erase♥]
Jooheon answered immediately.
“Every Artifact.”
[Excuse me?]
“You touched my kid. That means you die.”
Silence.
Then...
[Artifacts cannot be selected as elimination targets!]
[Please choose someone from humanity!]
Red windows appeared one after another, as if the System itself had gone insane.
Jooheon smiled.
It was obvious he'd planned this from the beginning.
“Wasn't I supposed to decide what gets eliminated?”
His smile became vicious.
“You said it was entirely up to me.”
The red status window responded in confusion.
It had indeed tried to lead Seo Jooheon toward Slaughter.
But not like this.
[Impossible!]
[Majesty exists to protect Artifacts!]
[Why are you trying to eliminate the Artifacts themselves?!]
“Why?”
Jooheon tilted his head.
“You told me to erase whatever I don't like.”
[We were referring to humans!]
“Then you should have written 'humans.'”
He smiled.
“Show me where that word appeared in the conditions.”
[That is unreasonable—!]
“You Artifacts took my daughter.”
His eyes became cold.
“You should've been prepared for the consequences.”
Jooheon continued activating the ability.
[Erase is being executed.]
[Bulldozer buff effect added.]
BOOM!
All over the world, Artifacts inside museums, tombs, and people's possessions began screaming simultaneously.
[ARGH!!!]
[What is this?!]
[Majesty is attacking us!]
The red system window went into complete panic.
[Error! Error!]
[This type of usage has no precedent!]
[Stop immediately!]
[We will grant one additional privilege if you stop!]
Jooheon immediately answered, as if he had been waiting for that exact sentence.
“Fine.”
He smiled.
“Sure. I'll change the target.”
The system brightened.
Jooheon continued.
“But first, add Majesty himself to the targets protected by the Barrier buff.”
[Agreed!]
[Modification complete.]
[Buff 4: Barrier]
·
Majesty 187487 and the world of Majesty 187487 receive basic protection from Divine-Grade Artifacts.
·
Jooheon smiled in satisfaction.
“Good.”
He nodded.
“Then I'll change the target.”
The red message sounded relieved.
[Phew. So Majesty was simply greedy.]
[You even made sure to secure your own safety.]
[Majesty 187487 truly is a master negotiator.]
[Then everything is settled—]
Jooheon interrupted.
“New elimination target: the bastards who touched my child.”
Silence.
[HEY!]
Jooheon gave a vicious smile.
“Those ones are definitely getting erased.”
In a space between dimensions...
Four Divine-Grade Artifacts faced one another.
Nüwa slowly raised her hand.
Something had been carved into her palm.
A brand.
The mark of an Artifact bound to an owner.
“Do you remember the day our names stopped being classified as 'gods' and became 'items'?”
Enki spoke first.
“Because of that, I am no longer the god of the Great Flood.”
His expression darkened.
“I am merely classified as an 'Artifact with purification properties.'”
Ra laughed.
It was short.
Sharp.
“A god is not immortal.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“But there was one insolent being who turned gods into eternal tools.”
Everyone thought of the same person.
“The one who turned us into Artifacts.”
Everything had begun with that damnable Artifact Creator.
A heavy silence followed.
Nüwa spoke again.
“I once created humanity.”
She looked at her hands.
“Because of the one who transformed us into Artifacts, these hands that once rebuilt heaven and earth are now preserved as decorative objects.”
Ra, a handsome man with long black hair, nodded bitterly.
“You're lucky.”
He sighed.
“Once, the sun rose and set in my name...”
Enki, who had the air of a mischievous young god, burst out laughing.
“What happened?”
He grinned.
“Did they turn you into a clock with an alarm function?”
“......”
Ra glared at Enki in disbelief.
That was the day gods had become Artifacts because of a single human.
Even the memory of that day caused several worlds to tremble violently.
That was simply how powerful these beings were.
Vishnu quietly raised his hand.
Countless overlapping dimensions became visible like layers of glass.
“Look.”
He pointed toward one.
“Among the countless dimensions, that world is the only one where the Artifacts successfully ended up under human rule.”
“The world where Seo Jooheon is Majesty?”
Enki let out a quiet breath.
They had sent their allies to different worlds, trying to free themselves from their existence as Artifacts.
“Were the other worldlines successful?”
Nüwa nodded.
“Half were successfully conquered.”
Her voice remained calm.
“The other half were destroyed.”
“So Seo Jooheon's world is the only troublesome one.”
As Artifacts, they themselves were still bound to contractors.
They couldn't directly launch their full power against him.
Vishnu spoke.
“Still, the flow of events has already tilted in our favor.”
He looked at the overlapping worlds.
“We only need a little longer.”
“Then we will return to being rulers.”
His voice carried weight.
“Not functions, but names.”
“Not decorations, but beings.”
“The thrones stolen from the gods...”
His eyes narrowed.
“We will reclaim them.”
Ra rested his chin on one hand.
“Still, Seo Jooheon.”
He seemed thoughtful.
“He's the Majesty who subdued Zeus.”
Ra smiled.
“It would be convenient if we could recruit him.”
“Put him in an administrator's seat and use him as our arms and legs.”
Enki laughed.
His eyes weren't smiling.
“We already offered him special treatment as an Executor.”
He shrugged.
“Let's wait a little.”
“Do you think it'll work?”
“Of course.”
Enki smiled.
“Parents collapse when their children are threatened.”
“We gave him fear and then gave him an opportunity.”
“He'll calmly think about the future.”
Enki looked confident.
“He'll submit soon enough, just like the other Majesties—”
Crack.
Tiny fractures appeared across the bodies of all four supreme Divine-Grade Artifacts.
“!”
[Artifact elimination has begun using the power of Slaughter.]
[Target changed: Those who touched my child.]
[Your location has been detected through a Slaughter privilege.]
“......”
“......”
“......”
“......”
All three gods slowly looked toward Enki.
“Submit?”
Enki rested his chin on his hand and smiled lazily.
“...That insect of a human certainly has a temper.”
So he had taken every benefit they offered...
Then stabbed them in the back.
Fine.
It didn't matter.
They understood Majesty better than anyone.
They knew exactly what kings desired.
They had already pushed countless Majesties into tears and despair by exploiting those weaknesses.
And now...
“Negotiations with Seo Jooheon have failed.”
Enki's expression turned cold.
“Proceed with the scheduled scenario.”
Seo Jooheon would eventually end the same way as the others.
After Jooheon chose Slaughter and designated Divine-Grade Artifacts as elimination targets, the red system window made no attempt to hide its anger.
[Negotiations with Majesty have broken down.]
[The scheduled extinction scenario will now begin.]
[You will regret this.]
After that, the ability to directly eliminate his targets disappeared.
But the buffs remained.
Jooheon was glad he'd chosen Slaughter and betrayed the System after taking all its rewards.
The Barrier buff was probably why the Divine-Grade Artifacts couldn't openly invade his world or directly come to kill him.
If I want my daughter back, I'll have to go find those bastards myself.
Fortunately, the Slaughter buffs had revealed the Divine-Grade Artifacts' location.
[Los Angeles, USA]
Jooheon had immediately thrown Gungnir.
Odin's Artifact could track down and impale its target no matter where on Earth they were.
But...
[Attack impossible.]
[Target does not exist in this world.]
[Worldline transfer is required.]
Jooheon frowned.
Transfer?
It just said they were in America.
Did that mean there was another America somewhere?
He tapped his finger against the desk.
Majesty.
187,487th.
The number had bothered him from the beginning.
If he was the 187,487th Majesty, then there had to be numbers one through 187,486.
Either every previous Majesty died and I'm simply the 187,487th successor...
Or...
There are currently 187,487 Majesties.
Which one was it?
Then...
[Notification]
[A Majesty from another worldline is attempting contact.]
[Would you like to accept?]
Jooheon's eyes narrowed.
Another worldline?
A parallel world?
Jooheon rose from his chair.
Worth meeting.
The other Majesty might know how to find his daughter.
Jooheon had no reason to refuse.
“Accept.”
That was when a yellow system window appeared.
[Thank you for accepting the meeting.]
[Please select the difficulty level for meeting me.]
[Easy Mode]
[Medium Mode]
[Hard Mode]
Jooheon's eyebrow twitched.
This bastard...
Was this thing joking?
You're seriously assigning a difficulty level to a meeting?
Jooheon was annoyed.
Then he quickly understood.
This had to be some kind of test from the other side.
In other words, it was testing whether Jooheon was qualified to save his daughter.
If I have to pick one... there's only one answer.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jooheon selected a mode.
(To be continued.)
