Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

I slowly studied the twisted expressions on their faces.

'Earth was their playground.'

They trigger disasters.

They toy with humanity.

They cackle over screams and despair like snacks with their drinks.

That was their idea of amusement.

Even at the very end.

The one called the Absolute God — 'Force Majeure' — had descended.

The reason was simple.

To savor the final despair.

And because he'd been certain.

'That I'd fail.'

Humans are weak.

Surely one couldn't destroy the Earth — their own home — with their own hands.

That pathetically shallow faith.

The miscalculation that Kim Jeong-seok, a man who'd lived his whole life by the book, could never commit such madness.

But they were wrong.

I gladly ripped out my heart.

I burned the corpses of my comrades.

I turned the Earth into a bomb and rammed it into his face.

I smirked.

'Now the tables are turned.'

Positions had switched.

I'd come to their world.

This place was my 'playground.'

I would toy with them.

I'd trample them thoroughly, mock them, and ultimately lead them to ruin.

Kim Jeong-seok.

True to the name my parents gave me.

I'd lived my entire life by the book.

Studies, magic, even saving the world.

I'd only ever chased textbook answers.

'The book gets thrown out.'

The book, the rules.

Even the morality I'd been suffocatingly bound to had burned away with the Earth.

So let me show them.

Just how terrifying it is when a man who only ever played by the book snaps.

When he goes off the deep end.

"......"

"......"

Hostile stares.

Unfriendly glares.

I could even sense killing intent.

'Quite the lethal welcoming party.'

I smirked.

CLAP!

A crisp sound of applause echoed through the basement.

"Now, now."

A cute voice.

But the power contained within it was anything but light.

The entire space was forcibly frozen.

Everyone's bodies seized up.

"My, what energy you all have. But fighting isn't allowed. It's only permitted in designated areas."

The owner of the voice appeared.

Waddling out on short legs — a creature in a tuxedo.

"......A penguin?"

Someone mumbled in a daze.

Sure enough, it was an emperor penguin.

Barely a meter tall.

Round eyes, glossy feathers.

An appearance that looked like an adorable stuffed toy no matter how you looked at it.

The creature struck its chest with a wing — well, a flipper.

"Pleasure to meet you, prospective gods! I'm the proctor and administrator of this Floor 1 promotion exam — 'Gugu'!"

An administrator.

I dredged up memories from my previous life climbing the tower.

'Never seen one.'

I'd gone to the very edge of the tower, but an administrator had never so much as shown their face.

'Must be the ones who maintain the tower's systems.'

If so, they'd be beings that even the gods couldn't trifle with.

Gugu spread his wings and beamed.

Of course, having a beak, it only looked like a smile.

"Right then, enough chitchat. A spot on Floor 1 has opened, so we'd better hurry!"

CLAP!

Gugu clapped once more.

In that instant.

FWIIIIING!

A sense of displacement washed over my entire body.

My vision flipped, gravity twisted.

I narrowed my eyes.

'Forced spatial transfer.'

And a large-scale one at that.

Thousands of people relocated with a single clap, without so much as a casting sequence.

'This is leagues beyond Archmage level.'

The pinnacle of spatial magic.

An absolute authority that dispensed with trivial things like coordinate calculations.

These administrators might be more troublesome than I'd thought.

POP!

The light faded.

The scenery had changed.

No longer the dreary underground prison.

An endless white temple.

Thousands of stone altars stood in neat rows and columns.

"Where are we?"

The seeds murmured.

Bewilderment was written across their faces.

Gugu hopped onto the podium.

"Don't be alarmed. This is the 'Chamber of Selection.'"

Gugu pointed a wing at the assembly.

"The total number of seeds gathered here is 5,501. That includes our last arrival, Mister Rag."

Eyes turned to me.

I shrugged.

"Quite the crowd. Unfortunately, there's only one vacancy on Floor 1!"

Gugu raised the tip of his wing.

"Through fair competition, only the single most qualified individual will ascend to the seat of a god."

GULP.

The sound of nervous swallowing came from every direction.

Competition.

5,501 to 1.

Statistically, less than a 0.01% chance — a needle's eye.

"There are a total of three gates."

Three trials before the master of Floor 1 would be decided.

"The first gate is very simple."

Gugu pointed at the altars.

"Every god needs attendants to serve as their hands and feet. This is the 'familiar' summoning ritual!"

Familiars.

A type of servant beast or vassal.

The angels, demons, or divine beasts that gods command fell under this category.

"The method is very easy. Simply offer the 'most valuable item you possess' upon the altar before you."

An offering.

The law of equivalent exchange.

"The value of the offered item determines the grade of the familiar summoned. Naturally, the more powerful the familiar, the higher your score!"

Gugu grinned.

"Now then, begin!"

The moment the words left his beak, the seeds surged into motion.

Everyone rummaged through their belongings as if they'd been waiting for this.

"This should be more than enough!"

A man with horns on his head — an ogre-like figure — produced a gem the size of a fist.

A 'blood jade' tinged with crimson light.

It appeared to be a treasure his race had venerated for generations.

THUNK!

The moment the blood jade was placed on the altar, the magic circle blazed.

GWOOOH!

With a plume of red smoke, a massive wolf materialized.

A demonic beast with flames smoldering on its back.

"Hellfire Wolf! 65 points!"

Gugu called out the score immediately.

"Starting off with a bang!"

Gasps of admiration erupted around the room.

Emboldened, other seeds rushed to produce their treasures.

"I'll offer the finest blade of my tribe!"

"This is a branch of the World Tree from the Elven Forest!"

"A deep-sea pearl should be more than enough!"

All manner of gold, jewels, and treasures poured forth.

Heirlooms representing each of their races.

Nest eggs they'd spared no expense to bring, all for the sake of becoming a god.

FLASH! FLASH!

The altars blazed with ceaseless light.

"Vampire Lord! 77 points!"

"Griffon! 79 points!"

Clearly formidable beings were being summoned one after another.

"See that? My familiar is a 'Medusa'!"

"Damn it! Why the hell did I get a Slime King?!"

"Cerberus!"

Joy and despair split apart.

A pandemonium of cheers and groans.

In the midst of it all, I stood still with my arms crossed.

'Most valuable item, huh.'

I was mulling it over.

Not because I had nothing.

If anything, the problem was that it was too ambiguous.

I opened the inventory.

[Wings of the Spirit]

[Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule]

[Dragon Egg]

The list was sparse.

Only what I'd received from the tutorial and the hidden reward.

'The Wings of the Spirit are useful.'

Flight was too valuable to give up.

'The Golden Rule fragments are essential.'

Without them, I couldn't use my full power.

They were items directly tied to my survival.

That left one thing.

'The dragon egg.'

The top-tier reward I'd gotten from the lucky die roll.

But for me, it was practically a white elephant.

'Who knows how long it'll take to hatch.'

Dragons hatched slowly.

Using one properly would require an enormous investment of time.

'I can't use it right now anyway.'

Decision made.

Better to put it to use here.

Above all.

'With a dragon egg, something decent should come out regardless.'

By value alone, it was far from the worst offering.

I made my choice.

That was when it happened.

"No way!"

"It's an Abyssal Dragon!"

The area erupted with noise.

Someone had apparently summoned a dragon.

Gugu flapped excitedly and cried out.

"Splendid! Abyssal Dragon, 95 points!"

The Abyssal Dragon was one of the most powerful demonic beasts, found only on the highest floors.

It was worthy of being called a divine beast.

Once it reached maturity, it was even more unstoppable.

A being that had given even the final strike force considerable trouble.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a creature more suited to serving as a god's aide.

"Hey, parachute."

A sneering voice.

I turned to find a dark elf man — the one who'd summoned the Abyssal Dragon — smirking at me.

"Got nothing to offer, so you're just spectating? Broke, are we?"

Eyes converged on me.

Gazes laced with wariness, curiosity, and mockery.

Expressions that said Heimdal's parachute was nothing special after all.

"Well."

I smirked and pulled something from my inventory.

"I wouldn't say broke."

The moment I produced an egg the size of an ostrich egg, the dark elf snickered.

"Picked up some dead dragon's egg from somewhere, did you?"

Behind him, the Abyssal Dragon exhaled a rough breath.

Dark blue scales, vicious fangs.

Even freshly hatched, it was undeniably imposing.

"Won't do you any good. Even if that egg hatches, it can't beat my 'Abyssal Dragon.'"

The surrounding seeds nodded in agreement.

He was right.

Not all dragons were created equal.

Just as lizards came in countless varieties.

Within the species called dragons, the gap between tiers was heaven and earth.

And so.

'I agree, actually.'

I conceded his point.

The odds of a legendary-class monster like the Abyssal Dragon emerging from this egg were slim.

At best a wyvern, or if luck was on my side, a lesser dragon.

I shrugged and walked to the altar.

The dark elf's mockery stabbed me in the back.

"Go ahead and struggle, parachute!"

Ignored.

I placed the dragon egg on the altar.

That very instant.

HWUUUUUUNG!

The altar trembled faintly.

The trembling soon became a violent shudder.

The altar's stonework screamed.

DING!

A system message appeared before my eyes.

[The 'First Altar' allows a one-time offering to summon a familiar.]

[Offering the 'Unknown Dragon Egg.']

[Beginning summoning ritual.]

[Rolling the die (1-100).]

A die?

I hadn't known about this system.

Then again, summoning was a game of odds.

All the more so if they'd dressed the trial up like a game.

I watched the die floating in the air with indifference.

Roll, roll, roll.

The die stopped.

The number was revealed.

[100!]

[Maximum value!]

['Jackpot' has been hit!]

100.

The highest possible number.

Simultaneously.

[Measuring the summoner's talents.]

[Necromancy (MAX), Death Magic (MAX), Summoning (MAX).......]

[Touching the domain of Creation.]

[All attributes (Light, Darkness, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind) have reached the ultimate.]

[Measured talents forcibly unlock the offering's limits!]

FWAAAAAAH!

A pillar of black light erupted from the altar.

With enough force to punch through the ceiling.

"......Wh-what the?!"

"An earthquake? Another earthquake?"

Seeds screamed and tumbled to the floor.

Even Administrator Gugu was flustered, flapping his wings wildly.

"I-I've never seen a reaction like this!"

CRACK! CR-CRACK!

Fissures spider-webbed across the altar.

It couldn't withstand the strain.

The sheer caliber of the being being summoned was beyond what a mere stone altar could endure.

I took a step back.

My instincts were warning me.

Dangerous.

But at the same time, a thrill ran through me.

KABAAAAM!

With an explosive roar, the altar shattered to pieces.

Fragments flew in every direction.

And from the wreckage.

[The Dragon of Catastrophe, 'Angragon,' has been summoned!]