Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Ever since I was young.

— You're one hell of a stubborn bastard, Kim Jeong-seok.

I had a single-minded streak.

A habit of digging into one thing until I hit the very bottom.

Thanks to that, I was often called narrow-minded and inflexible.

— You're going to draw a magic circle across the entire world?

— What even is a Philosopher's Stone?

— You think this is worth mobilizing that many people?

Everyone was against it.

No one joined my plan.

Of course. I understood.

The world was ending.

Everyone was too busy trying to survive.

But after desperate persuasion.

Over the span of more than ten years, I managed to inscribe a single magic circle upon the world.

The number of people mobilized: 27,384.

Every last one of them was remarkable.

They were people who had reached the pinnacle of their respective disciplines.

— Let's stop, Jeong-seok.

— Our country is falling apart!

— How long are you going to cling to this pointless endeavor? Huh?

Unending disasters.

Overflowing monsters.

Days stained with screams and despair.

Amid everyone's condemnation, I drew the magic circle without wavering.

My objective was singular.

To blow the tower sky-high.

Because the bastards who made us like this deserved to experience the exact same thing.

Even lopping off a hand or a foot would count as a success.

My intent was to make them understand, crystal clear — if we die, you won't walk away unscathed either.

In other words.

'Let's all die together.'

I detonated the completed Philosopher's Stone.

The tower was obliterated along with the Earth.

Force Majeure was annihilated as well.

The moment everything returned to nothing.

DING!

A message appeared before my eyes.

I couldn't help but smirk.

Everyone was dead and it was all over — what did titles and awakenings matter?

And yet, something was strange.

Because another window had abruptly popped up.

[Would you like to create a character?]

Create...... a character?

I couldn't make sense of it.

Reality wasn't a game — what the hell was this?

But this phenomenon warranted investigation.

It was a message that had appeared after killing the Absolute God, Force Majeure, and destroying the Earth.

'I'll create one.'

I nodded, and another window appeared.

['The Ultimate Disaster' has entered.]

[Soul Points (SP) held: 100,000,000]

[SP can be used to raise 'talents.']

[Available talents are as follows.]

【Light】【Darkness】

【Fire】【Water】【Earth】【Wind】【Air】

【Curses】【Taoist Arts】【Dark Arts】【Illusions】【Spirit Arts】

【Alchemy】【Divination】【Necromancy】

【Death Magic】【Summoning】【Creation】

【Void】【Null】【Emptiness】【Zero】

.......

What is this?

Lines of text scrolling down endlessly.

The talents available to raise were truly without end.

I knew instinctively.

'Talents you assign to a character at the start of a game.'

You could call it a sort of RPG.

It meant I could determine the character's talents.

Just invest points according to the direction I wanted to develop.

However.

'I've been given a hundred million points. That means I can invest in talents a hundred million times.'

Why?

Why was I given a hundred million points?

It was clearly no small number.

'Could it be because I destroyed Force Majeure?'

Force Majeure.

That which cannot be resisted.

Was this the reward for annihilating an existence that could never be killed?

'......I don't know what any of this means, but one thing's certain.'

I couldn't afford to let this phenomenon pass idly.

My instincts as a mage — as a seeker of truth — were screaming.

A turning point (轉換點).

Perhaps I was finally about to face the truth I'd spent my entire life unable to reach.

I used SP to raise my talents.

[1 SP consumed for the talent 【Light】.]

[1 SP consumed for the talent 【Light】.]

.......

[Cannot raise further.]

[The maximum for 【Light】 is 10,000.]

And then I realized.

'The maximum value a single talent can have is ten thousand. In other words......'

It meant I could max out ten thousand talents.

The problem was.

'There aren't even ten thousand talents.'

A thousand at most.

Even maxing them all out would only cost 10,000,000.

Ninety million SP would remain.

I stroked my chin for a moment.

These categories.

They felt familiar somehow.

'......Every element, art, and sub-classification of magic.'

The things I'd tried to learn but gave up on.

Every classification that had been too vast to even touch — they were all here.

There were even things I'd never known existed.

And yet, learning all of them would only cost ten million.

I moved my fingers in a frenzy.

How much time had passed?

[Astounding! Magnificent!]

[All talents are at maximum!]

[Hidden Piece 'Unprecedented' achieved.]

[Remaining Soul Points will be assigned randomly.]

[This includes 'non-investable' abilities such as racial value, innate potential, luck, charm, and charisma.]

......SP could be used for more than just raising talents?

Apparently there were additional talents that were invisible, or couldn't be raised through normal means.

But the thought didn't linger long.

[Character creation complete.]

[Logging in to the land of the gods, 'Asgard.']

[Raise your level to log out.]

My vision flickered.

***

......Where am I?

"D-disaster!"

"The god of disaster is enraged!"

"Everyone, run!"

It was chaos.

People clad in golden armor were fleeing without exception.

And I was.......

'Chains?'

Bound.

And caged, too.

It seemed I'd been in the middle of a transport somewhere.

There were quite a few people around me in the same situation.

The problem was that everyone who'd been escorting us was too busy running.

Above all.

"P-please, save us!"

"That's the 'Typhoon of Annihilation'!"

"We're all going to die!"

The caged people screamed as well.

Convulsing in terror, tears streaming down their faces.

RUMBLE! KRABOOOOM!

A typhoon of staggering proportions was approaching.

True to its name — the Typhoon of Annihilation.

Devouring everything in its path.

I looked down at my body.

'Similar, but different.'

My body, yet not my body.

I could move it however I wanted, but this was decidedly not the flesh of Kim Jeong-seok.

It was far larger and sturdier.

A height that easily exceeded two meters.

Solid muscle.

My hair was a gleaming gold, too.

If there'd been a mirror, I'd have examined myself more closely.

But even the occasional features I could glimpse were enough to confirm — this body could not be called Kim Jeong-seok.

Where I was, what this situation even was.

I had no idea, but there was one thing I knew for certain.

'Why am I so calm?'

Strangely calm.

Not the slightest bit flustered.

I wasn't gripped by fear the way they were.

If anything, I'd accepted the situation faster than anyone.

This place, in other words.

'Asgard.'

The land of the gods — it had to be Asgard.

I'd clearly seen the message saying a character had been created and logged in there.

Meaning this body was the 'character' I'd created.

Then was this inside a game?

'It's too vivid to be a game.'

The sense of reality was overwhelming.

Every sense was telling me.

That this wasn't a game.

That this was real.

'God of disaster. Typhoon of Annihilation.'

The people fleeing and screaming all said the same thing.

That the god of disaster was enraged.

Even going so far as to give that typhoon a name.

No — wait.

I knew that typhoon.

Before. In the distant past.

......I'd definitely seen a typhoon like that one.

It was one of the powers wielded by one of the supreme gods who ruled the tower.

But something didn't add up.

I'd brought down the tower and annihilated Force Majeure.

Could the gods of disaster still be alive?

'We always wondered. Where the bastards who built the tower on Earth came from.'

Soon, I confronted a single truth.

'......This Asgard is their land.'

Asgard. The land of the gods!

Just as the name implied — this was the 'homeland' where those bastards had lived.

The moment I understood, I nodded.

I rose to my feet.

And then.

CRACK!

I flexed and shattered the chains.

SCREEEE!

I bent the iron bars apart with both hands.

Power overflowed. It felt like I could do anything.

If this was the character I'd created.

If it truly was the one with every talent raised to the limit.

And if every message I'd seen was real —

'Status window.'

DING!

<Stats>

Level: 1

Class: He Who Devours Disasters

Strength: 50 Stamina: 50 Agility: 50

Intelligence: 50 Mana: 50

Titles: Absolute God Slayer, The Ultimate Disaster, The Omnipotent

As expected.

No — it exceeded what I'd imagined.

Truly.

'A monster.'

The maximum stats a human could possess at Level 1 were ten at best.

And even that — maxing every stat at ten was impossible.

Yet this thing.

All stats at fifty from the start.

Considering the general maximum level was ten, it was an absurd figure.

On top of that.

'Right now, I'm logged in.'

As the avatar I'd created.

Meaning this wasn't my real body.

'It said I need to raise my level to log out. Does logging out mean returning to reality?'

Log out and return to reality.

And if reality, for me, meant.

'......I can go back to Earth?'

Only Earth.

Whether I'd return to my own body — the flesh of Kim Jeong-seok.

I opened my right palm.

'Golden runes.'

My right hand had been tingling for a while now.

Since right after that typhoon appeared, to be exact.

It seemed these 'golden runes' were the cause.

Glittering letters, reacting to the typhoon.

'He Who Devours Disasters.'

I understood this, too, as if by instinct.

I was a mage.

One who seeks truth and approaches the natural order.

See one thing, and you grasp what lies within.

By the book, the smart move here would be to run.

'Let's try it.'

I'd already died once anyway.

I was the lunatic mage who'd tried to blow up the Earth and the tower in one go.

"I-is that guy insane?"

"He's walking toward the 'Typhoon of Annihilation'!"

The caged people screamed.

True to their words, I was walking into the typhoon.

The moment it swallowed me whole.

HWOOOOONG!

The golden runes on my palm reacted.

And then.

SWOOOOOSH!

It was being sucked in.

Devoured, as if being eaten.

Before long.

"......The typhoon...... it's gone?"

"That's impossible!"

The world fell silent.

[You have eaten the 'Typhoon of Annihilation.']

[You can now use the 'Typhoon of Annihilation.']

An utterly simple message.

But it didn't end there.

KRRRRRRUMBLE!

The sky suddenly turned pitch-black.

BOOM!

A bolt of black lightning struck before me, and simultaneously —

"......An interesting one, you are."

A man appeared.

I knew the instant I saw him.

This one was.

'A god of disaster.'

The god who had unleashed the Typhoon of Annihilation.

Furthermore.

'I can't win.'

I had to run.

Every instinct screamed like mad.

But I couldn't run.

If I showed my back, I'd be devoured.

Just then, the man spoke.

"You — are you a 'Son of God'?"

Son of God?

I deliberated briefly.

The other party was waiting for an answer.

He'd likely developed questions about the miracle I'd performed.

Whether to come on strong, or play the part of a groveling coward.

'Clumsy acting won't work.'

The other party was a god.

A god of disaster, at that.

Better to show him exactly what I was.

"Finished my military service."

"......?"

Ah. That's not what he meant.

"......That was a joke. What does 'Son of God' mean?"

The man answered, looking dumbfounded.

"Amusing. To think you'd dare crack jokes in my presence."

Indeed.

Ever since this man appeared, the world had gone silent.

I couldn't even hear the breathing of the people behind me.

Everyone had been struck mute with terror.

With me as the sole exception, standing my ground — of course he'd find it strange.

After a single shake of his head, the man spoke.

"Go to the tower. If you truly are a 'Son of God,' you must enter the process of becoming a god at the 'tower.'"

"......?"

"You don't know? The Tower of God. A tower where beings like us can become true 'gods.'"

The man shrugged.

"Judging by how you annihilated my typhoon, you have considerable talent. Once you climb the tower, come find me."

"How am I supposed to find you when I don't even know your name?"

"......You've been insufferably insolent from the start. Do you wish to die?"

SWAAAA!

Wind surged around us once more.

But I didn't look away from the man's eyes.

Because I wasn't trembling — not in the slightest.

My heartbeat was calm. Quiet.

This body felt no fear toward the god of disaster.

Not even the faintest trace.

All the more so for someone like me, who'd already seen rock bottom.

I'd witnessed the end. My experience and my mental fortitude were still very much intact.

"......You."

After I refused to break eye contact for some time, the man's gaze lit up with surprise.

"I like you."

The man soon smirked and continued.

"I am the God of Typhoons and Ruler of All Things. 'Heimdal.'"

"......"

......Wait.

God of Typhoons, Heimdal?

I knew this name.

The gods of disaster who had existed in the tower.

Among them, he was one of the supreme beings at the very top.

Only I had known their names.

'The ancient tome that described how to craft the Philosopher's Stone also listed the names of the gods of disaster.'

Were the other gods of disaster really unscathed?

Had they truly suffered no damage whatsoever?

I asked with desperate urgency.

"What happened to Earth? Did it perish?"

"Hm? It's perfectly intact. Probably in its 'protection period.'"

Intact?

......A protection period, even?

The gods who had invaded Earth.

They hadn't destroyed the planet outright.

In particular, they'd designated the first year as a 'protection period' and even awakened humanity to a moderate degree.

In other words.

'Could it be......?'

A single possibility flashed through my mind.

'Regression?'

Had I traveled back through time?

But doubts still lingered.

If I'd regressed, why hadn't I returned to Kim Jeong-seok's body?

Why had I created a character and started in the gods' land, Asgard?

'I suppose nothing will be clear until I log out.'

I drew in a breath.

And posed my final question.

"Then is 'Force Majeure' in the Tower of God too?"

The instant I uttered that name.

Heimdal's expression twisted.

He, who had maintained a leisurely demeanor even through all my insolence.

Spoke in a grave tone I hadn't seen before.

"......How do you know 'His' name?"