Chapter 32

Chapter 32. Transcendent (1)

The world maintains its order.

Or so it seems.

In this present world, where Gates have broken and every manner of strange phenomenon unfolds, one might wonder if such a thing is even possible, but…

[January 3, 2023. The emergence of unidentified supernatural ability-users — designated as Awakened.]

—The majority of Awakened display symptoms of mental instability. Similar to schizophrenia.

—Faint traces of abilities resembling superpowers observed in some Awakened.

—The Chinese government secretly transfers the Awakened to hospitals. They claim it is to investigate contagion, but in reality, it is presumed to be human experimentation.

[January 4, 2023. The emergence of unidentified red-colored dimensional portals — designated as Gates.]

—The interior of a Gate is an environment extremely hostile to humans.

—When an ordinary person infiltrates: 100% mortality. A multitude of monsters upon which firearms do not work have been discovered.

—When an Awakened enters the interior of a Gate, they wield magic or transcendent physical abilities.

—The 「trial」 the Awakened speak of having undergone has been confirmed to truly exist.

Awakened who wielded superpowers inside Gates.

Even so, 99% of Awakened were ordinary people outside.

From the perspective of the powerful, wasn't it a picture perfectly suited to exploitation?

But America made a different choice from China.

[January 5, 2023. The US government declares that Awakened will be given preferential treatment as specialized personnel for the Gate crisis.]

—The US government implements close protection for every officially confirmed Awakened.

—A free-of-charge medical support program is activated for Awakened whose minds collapsed during their trials.

—Benefits are provided according to the Awakened's rank.

Because the world's strongest nation, America, responded this way in the earliest days.

Because they chose coexistence — supporting the Awakened rather than locking them up and running strange experiments on them—

<By Jesus's merciful heart He shall embrace all mankind, and thus no form of discrimination or contempt among humans shall be tolerated.>

The Transcendents born in later years also respected them and chose to coexist.

A single word from a Transcendent established order, and the other Hunters who had fallen into the supremacy of the Awakened could say nothing.

<Even Awakened will be publicly executed for serious crimes!!! If you don't want to die, don't go committing crimes recklessly.>

Our own South Korean Patriot was one such person.

Among the violent criminals publicly executed in Korea, a fair number of Awakened had been included.

Indeed, even if a convict Awakened, the Patriot would simply execute them.

[Kim Hyeon-sik, released after serving an 18-year sentence — confirmed as an A-rank Hunter.]

When one such convict contacted the media wanting to be treated as an Awakened.

The Patriot realized that there were, among violent criminals, those who had served their sentences and been released.

<A child sex offender Awakened and wants to be treated with respect? Does being released erase the crime?>

To have paid the price set by the law.

That fact did not apply in the Patriot's world.

<Why are there so many violent criminals still loose? Even murderers living out life sentences in prison is absurd. Why are they being kept alive? In an age when food itself is precious.>

The Patriot executed every violent criminal who had completed their sentence and been released.

Lifers in prison were no exception.

<South Korea is a crime-free nation!!!>

Of course, not every country was like South Korea or America.

Every case was different.

There were quite a few nations that had been brought down by Hunter coups.

[North Korea — regime collapse due to the revolt of short-duration Transcendents.]

North Korea, now absorbed by China.

The rebellion of Awakened played a large role in its destruction.

The North Korean dictator, who had made quite a name for himself as Rocket Boy, had his entire clan slaughtered in a coup.

Because pseudo-Transcendents — who could temporarily wield power in reality — had seized a foothold and indiscriminately unleashed their Awakened abilities.

Cases like that existed in abundance beyond North Korea.

[India — establishment of a New Caste System.]

SSS-rank Hunter — Brahmin

SS–A-rank Hunter — Kshatriya

B–F-rank Hunter — Vaishya

Induced Awakened — Shudra

Dalit / the Untouchables — Non-Awakened

In India's case, non-Awakened had no human rights to speak of.

Killing a non-Awakened for fun went unpunished.

While not to India's degree, there were quite a few nations that treated Awakened as a superior species and worked non-Awakened as a slave class.

Even so, South Korea.

Alongside Japan and America and a few other major powers.

Was maintaining peace and order.

[Transcendent Shin Si-woo normalizes the area around Japan's Mount Fuji!]

[Complete annihilation of South Korea's Red Sea confirmed.]

[Explosive surge in housing prices in Mapo-gu, Eunpyeong-gu, and surrounding areas near Goyang City.]

The reason was truly simple.

Just as India's Transcendent had created a caste system — our Transcendents had safeguarded peace, equality, and democracy.

And now it was my turn to step forward as that Transcendent.

 

—Ep. 12. Transcendent

The Voice of the World keeps coming through indiscriminately.

These days, there's been a bumper crop.

It's reminiscent of the era when Jesus built his church and was wildly remodeling the world.

'I'm losing my mind.'

I looked around with a bewildered face.

According to [WorldNet], in South Korea, an unprecedented situation that should not have occurred since the Patriot's era — a housing-price surge — had broken out.

It was being said that the housing prices around the Red Sea area in Seoul were jumping by hundreds of millions of won — even more than when wiping out Ghost Valley had caused the Seocho-gu area to surge?

But I had no leeway to worry about that issue right now.

Pasaseuk——.

The place we stood was a flat plain.

With a strange shimmer, the air was warped.

Thanks to my brawl with the British Doctor, a portion of the Japanese Prime Minister's residence had vanished entirely.

Muratan's power eradicated all impurities other than iron, after all.

Despite such a transcendent phenomenon—

"A new species…"

The Voice of the World had everyone completely transfixed.

Not only the Japanese Prime Minister but even the Transcendents who had been guarding him were staring blankly into empty air.

"Shi… Kami—. Kami-sama Si-woo."

The Japanese Prime Minister muttered with a vacant face.

'My surname doesn't actually mean "god"…'

Since he was strictly an ordinary person, it seemed something had gone wrong in his head.

Muratan's forge wasn't exactly human-friendly, after all.

Still, the Awakened seemed reasonably intact.

'Ordinary people get hit pretty hard with the aftereffects.'

The Japanese Prime Minister was drooling and muttering something about Kami.

It suddenly worried me whether Seol-a noona had been affected too.

So I looked over at her—

"D-don't tell me you made a sword-person or something?"

Noona furrowed her brow with a perfectly intact face and asked me.

I told her it wasn't anything like that and joked it off.

'Although I haven't confirmed it yet myself…'

The world inside the sword.

Inside it, in Muratan's forge, something new had apparently been born.

I didn't know what it was yet, either.

Still, I was certain it was definitely not anything like a sword-person.

I was curious, but there was something more important than confirming that.

Sreureuk—.

I drew the Baby Sword.

My Baby Sword, gleaming and showing off its presence, gave a pleased ring of its sword-cry.

The Baby Sword, having obtained its [Scabbard], could now manifest in the world without the aid of Mysteries.

What reason would I have for drawing the sword?

"I should finish this off."

I gently stroked the blade as I approached the British Doctor.

Putting an end to that bastard was the immediate priority.

"Keuhuhu—. Creating a species? You're trying to test Jesus's Authority!"

The British Doctor, who had been thoroughly mashed by Muratan, staggered up from the ground and shouted at me.

A grim sneer hung on the corner of his mouth.

Despite having had the ability of [Guaranteed Life and Guaranteed Kill] stripped from him and losing the Authority of [Operating Room], he seemed to have something to fall back on.

Did he think Jesus would be displeased with my actions?

"If it's a Jesus who believes in creationism, he'd happily accept my creating a species, wouldn't he?"

"There's a power that even that Jesus can't escape."

Was it because he was driven to the edge — moments from being beheaded?

He'd grown rather talkative.

"Kehehe, kill me and the Queen will declare war!!!"

Whatever this bastard believed in, I would sever the British Doctor's breath right here.

The British Doctor had clearly crossed a line.

The Japanese Prime Minister's scheming?

The attempt to brainwash me?

Since the goal had been a Korea-Japan alliance, it wasn't a crime grave enough to warrant slaughtering them all.

To begin with, the power hadn't even worked.

If acceptable compensation was offered, I could forgive it.

It was magnanimity that came from possessing distant power.

'I'm not the type to commit murder recklessly to begin with.'

I didn't have the gall to execute everyone like the Patriot.

But the British Doctor was different.

Looking at the fates of the SS-rank Hunters — Transcendent candidates who would have saved the world — said as much.

The British Doctor had broken every one of those who would have become humanity's hope.

A thought suddenly struck me…

'What on earth is the British Empire actually?'

After Awakened appeared and Gates emerged, Britain had declared the revival of the British Empire.

Despite such a tremendous event, the world's reaction had been lukewarm.

—Yeah, the British Empire — but you can't even leave the island, right?

—So what are you gonna do?

It was due to the Bizarre — the Ring — that surrounded Britain.

And yet the British Doctor had been roaming foreign nations alone, smashing every SS-rank Awakened he could find.

'Actually, no one knows what's going on inside Britain.'

Britain, China, India, and so on.

Nations that were difficult to verify through [WorldNet].

It meant those nations had spent enormous Mysteries to block their own information and isolate themselves.

'Apparently, those British bastards really shouldn't be allowed off their island.'

Judging from how he'd been blathering about 'My Queen' and such, it couldn't be a sane country.

Like India, they might be maintaining some kind of Awakened caste system, treating ordinary people as less than livestock — couldn't they?

Starting from the fact that the Doctor bastard had referred to himself as a Duke of the British Empire.

Seugeok—.

While thinking such thoughts, I cut the British Doctor's head clean off.

Was it because I'd swung the sword too dispassionately?

The British Doctor, who had been blathering about the Queen, met his end with his eyes wide open.

And his death was not orderly.

Saaaaaaa————.

From the cross-section of the severed neck, black smoke flowed out instead of blood.

I was deeply taken aback.

'Why is this coming out?'

I knew very well what this was.

Black smoke was a symbol of impurity.

Among the Fallen, the deaths of beings who had accumulated considerable power often produced this kind of impurity.

But the British Doctor wasn't a Fallen demon worshipper.

'No — he hadn't Fallen, but there's still a possibility he was a demon worshipper.'

No sooner had I thought that—

Sreureuk.

The British Doctor's wide-open pupils began to change.

The whites and the blacks of his eyes inverted.

The already-dead body had begun to Fall.

This was — that thing.

'A Brand.'

In [Raise a Sword], it was a mark of Fall that high-ranking demon worshippers placed upon lower-ranking beings.

It had the trait of granting immense power to the target of the brand, on the condition that everything they accomplished would be reaped after death.

The phenomenon of that power flowing back to the brand's owner was this black smoke.

But that smoke would never reach its destination.

⦗Aaa——.⦘

My sword reacted to that impurity.

The sword that had grown by devouring every demon in the world.

It was none other than Iris Ruzbella.

⦗——Hurry, become Our nourishment.⦘

The Baby Sword trembled on its own and spat out crimson.

The blade was dyed with red aura.

A feeling entirely different from when manifesting the sword.

'Is she using the Baby Sword as a conduit?'

To Iris, wasn't impurity like this even more delicious than elves?

Every wisp of black smoke pouring out of the British Doctor was absorbed by Iris.

And so—

Paat!

[A fragment of impurity has been absorbed.]

[A glimpse of the British Empire has been confirmed.]

[World Quest preparing…]

A message that should have been incomprehensible to anyone on present-day Earth appeared.

But I alone could grasp its rough meaning.

'Britain…'

The British Empire was not a nation of humans.

Trapped within the Ring, Britain had transformed into something like a stronghold of demon worshippers.

And the Ring surrounding Britain had been maintained for about ten years now…

Which meant.

'Britain had been the demon worshippers' land since before I even Awakened.'

It was truly shocking news.

* * *

Zhing——.

A cross took shape in empty air, accompanied by a bright golden light.

The one who had sent the British Doctor here was Jesus.

After all the events had concluded, he had come to find me.

"The British Empire…"

Jesus, who appeared from within the cross, was still in his ridiculous getup.

That look of his with the pink crown of thorns and twin pigtails.

But his tone of voice and his expression were completely different from usual.

"…What, exactly, did I help with?"

Jesus asked me.

I was no god, yet I had to give an answer to a god's question.