Chapter 192 : Chapter 192

Chapter 192 - Epilogue (2)

“Hey. I have a question.”

“...What?”

The Guardian answered the nonchalant question from her side with a look of disbelief.

The world was about to be torn to shreds by divine beings from another dimension, yet someone was suddenly proposing a Q&A session. Anyone would have had a similar reaction.

“Right. It’s related to that. Those things called Outer Gods, how powerful are they?”

“...Aren’t you, even a little bit nervous?”

“I am nervous. But I’m not particularly nervous that the world is going to end.”

“...”

Hmm.

It seemed Kim Gyu-sik was capable of some kind of psychic attack that warped the sanity of anyone who was around him.

Otherwise, there was no way she would react like this.

While the Guardian seriously thought that, she reluctantly opened her mouth to faithfully answer the question she had been asked.

“...If even one of them is fully released, a normal dimension will surely be finished. Even I absolutely can't handle it.”

“No, I’m not curious about that. Anyway, the one solving the situation is Mr. Kim Gyu-sik, not you, right?”

“...”

I, I've still been the administrator of this world for hundreds of years.

While the Guardian thought that with a mournful expression, Seo Ah-in stroked her chin and stared at Kim Gyu-sik.

“But I am nervous. In relation to that person.”

“...Are you worried?”

Seo Ah-in turned to the Guardian with an expression that said she’d just heard someone say they boil and eat their shoe heels.

“Wor?ried? Me? About him?”

“...”

“No, looking at the atmosphere right now, this whole thing feels like an ending event. I was just wondering if, in a situation like this, that person might show a glimpse of him struggling.”

“...Why are you curious about that?”

“I was hoping to grasp a weakness. So I can grab him and make use of it after everything is sorted out.”

“...”

What kind of weakness was she talking about, and how did she plan to use it?

As the Guardian stared at her in bewilderment, Seo Ah-in sighed deeply, firmly grasped the Guardian’s shoulders, and spoke.

“Remember this well. Our fight doesn’t end here. The real battle begins after that man saves the world.”

“...”

“I’m telling you in advance because it looks like you’ll be participating soon. It’s going to be a bloodbath. Be careful.”

“...”

What on earth is she talking about?

That sentence crossed the Guardian’s mind.

***

---!!!

“Keoheok!”

The Platinum Knight, sent flying into a wall, let out a sound of air being squeezed from his lungs and tumbled from the air.

And I stroked my chin, carefully observing the scene.

I felt one of the ‘portals’ that was about to open fizzle out after colliding with him.

Of course, it was just a remnant portal with no Outer God or anything inside, but this confirmed one of the laws I was aware of.

‘People or objects designated by the source code cannot be destroyed.’

It meant that characters designated as essential for progression wouldn’t die no matter what you did to them.

Now that I had consumed the Source skill, I could ‘influence’ him, but if you told me to kill him, it would be absolutely impossible.

In other words.

This guy wouldn't die no matter what he collided with.

“...Oh my. Mr. Kim Gyu-sik is smiling while emitting the aura of a scumbag.”

Ignoring Seo Ah-in who muttered that from the side, I approached the Platinum Knight again, who was lying on the ground breathing heavily, and firmly grabbed his ankle.

“You bastard... I’ll kill you...”

“Sure. Try it later.”

I replied with a smirk.

“For now, let’s clean up the mess you made.”

As I said that, I looked at the Outer Gods that were opening up before my eyes one after another and slowly beginning to materialize in reality.

At least with the King of Flies, I was given about a week, but these guys were popping out without any preamble, ready to destroy the world immediately.

‘Battle difficulty is... impossible.’

In the first place, they were the type of entity similar to those pieces in an old card game that would end the game instantly if you collected all five parts.

The moment they materialize, it’s game over.

Yes.

It would have been.

If they weren't 'Easter eggs.' If they weren't essential for progression. If they hadn't been designated by the source code.

“Hoo.”

Come to think of it, so many long things had happened since I came to this world.

If I were to summarize that long journey.

It felt like I had cheesed my way through all of it.

“...”

Yes.

Even as I said it, I felt a sense of self-deprecation, but what could I do. It was a fact.

So.

I figured the finale should probably go in a similar fashion.

“Ah, it’s hopeless. Looking at his expression, he’s going to cheese it again.”

That’s right.

Hearing Seo Ah-in mutter from behind.

I looked at the Outer Gods with a fresh smile.

Hurry up and come out already.

So I can finish this quickly.

***

In the world of extreme cold, there was a being whom all feared and bowed their heads to.

Taking the form of a giant, fur-covered human, that being was an ‘absolute’ who had existed since the time of the snowfields that were the very foundation of this world.

A-runcha was a ruler who had reigned for so long that he could not remember the passing years; he was the father of all and the sole object of awe.

The world, made only of white glaciers and extreme cold, was born at his feet, belonged to him, and was destined to remain so.

Those born on this insignificant land called him a god, served him, offered sacrifices, and at times, trembled in awe of his power. But to him, it was all just a passing process.

After all, everything had come from him.

And, when one indulges in such a life for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years, what inevitably comes is boredom.

Killing as he pleased. Creating as he pleased. Devouring as he pleased. None of it brought any feeling. There were no new stimuli, and everything became horribly meaningless.

A-runcha’s world was a gray, inorganic substance that flowed through eons of time.

-...

Yes. It was.

Until he found a way to ‘another world.’

For A-runcha, who had been growing stronger by continuously devouring the creatures in the world he created, this change was bound to come, sooner or later.

The realization that other worlds existed besides the one he had created, and that his influence could expand beyond this world, which had at some point become too small to contain him.

And the beings of other dimensions were.

So fragile, so weak, and crumbled so easily in his grasp.

Also.

They were terribly delicious.

-...!

In the abyss, A-runcha roared in satisfaction as he tore apart another sacrifice.

He seemed to recall hearing some meaningless muttering about 'please save me' or 'I have a family,' but it wasn't a very important fact to him.

The meat is tasty. The blood is sweet. Even the bones are satisfying enough to make him lick his lips and suck on them.

Without a doubt, this was the stimulus he needed.

The time it took him to consume all the ‘foodstuff’ in the dimension he had discovered was not even a few days.

And after that, it was a repetition of wandering around in search of such new stimuli.

Finding a new dimension. Subjugating it. Devouring it. Annihilating it.

Ah, those were unforgettable, joyful days. It was also during those times that he met his ‘comrades.’

Those who were revered as gods in their respective dimensions. Those who flowed into other worlds because there were no more stimuli to be enjoyed in their own.

There was a twisted god driven mad by torture, one who enjoyed devouring like A-runcha, and one who collected the voices of victims screaming in terrible despair.

But what they all had in common was that they enjoyed using up the ‘consumables’ in different dimensions in such ways.

It was impossible to know how long those pastoral days of slaughter continued as they tore apart dimensions and violated the victims inside.

No one could stop them. It was only natural.

A-runcha alone was a divine being that a single dimension could hardly handle. If other beings were added to the mix, there had never been a single place that could withstand them.

-...

-...

-...

And now, the Outer Gods, driven mad by slaughter and destruction, all let out satisfied laughs at the ‘particularly appetizing smell’ wafting from the dimension they had just arrived in.

How many could they torture?

How deliciously could they tear them apart?

How many could they plunge into sorrow, submerge in a sea of blood, and bury within a mountain of corpses?

With such anticipation, they flowed from their respective dimensions into the one they had detected.

Looking forward to another ‘festival’ like the ones they had held until now.

Now. The end is at hand.

All shall kneel before the inevitable apocalypse.

However.

“Goddammit. There’s a lot of them.”

The first thing they encountered was.

“So all of these are those perverted freaks. What a convoluted setting...”

A single man with vacant eyes, dragging a knight in silver armor by the ankle and spewing curses.

-...?

-...?

Question marks the size of billboards popped up above the heads of all the Outer Gods.

Well, it’s not like.

They had any reason to be scared just because one of the inhabitants of this dimension was blocking their path.

But they had never been ‘greeted’ like this before, so they all looked a little bewildered.

And then he grabs the knight by the ankle and flings him this way.

-...?

If even one of the Outer Gods had had the slightest knowledge of what humans do in their childhood, they might have recognized that the stance was a preparatory one for skipping a stone across the surface of the water multiple times.

Of course, even if they had recognized it, no one could have predicted what the ‘result’ would be.

***

“...Wait a minute.”

The Platinum Knight spoke in a voice that sent shivers down the spine.

“No. I don’t think it’s true. But you. You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t what.”

“Don’t.”

“If you say I shouldn’t, maybe I shouldn’t?”

“No, no matter what, doing something so absurd is just not right! No one knows what the result will be...!”

“Hey.”

What has this guy been talking about all this time.

I replied with a smirk.

“You know why a top-tier veteran is a top-tier veteran?”

“...What did you say?”

“It’s because of experience. All that experience.”

As I said that, I yanked his ankle back.

As a matter of course, the Platinum Knight’s body was also ‘loaded.’

“A top-tier veteran already knows everything.”

“You crazy ba...!”

And before the Platinum Knight could say anything else.

His body flew swiftly, colliding with one of the materializing Outer Gods, and.

-!

-!!!!

-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That Outer God. Was completely ‘annihilated.’

It didn't stop there; his body bounced like a skipping stone, hitting other Outer Gods—tak, tak, tak.

The result.

With one round of stone-skipping, I ‘erased’ about five Outer Gods.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Seo Ah-in, the Guardian who were watching, and even the Platinum Knight who had collided with and erased the Outer Gods, fell silent.

It was a silence that felt as if they couldn't even properly register what had just happened.

Well, if someone told me they erased a divine being by throwing a stone, I’d probably have a similar reaction.

But this was just a ‘phenomenon’ based on a simple ‘principle.’

And I planned to do something even more extreme after this.

“Hmm.”

My skills have gotten a lot rustier than before.

There were quite a few times when I cleared half of them on the first try.

In that case, I should at least prepare for a short ‘battle’...

“...This is insane, really. You’re planning to handle the very, very final event like this?”

“That man is hardcore. Truly hardcore...”

What's with them.

The real thing hasn't even started yet.

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