Transcendent

“Blood pressure, pulse, brain waves. All normal. He seems to have fainted from accumulated fatigue, so for now let’s give them an IV…”

“How can we give an IV when the needle won’t go in? Call someone with healing abilities.”

“Just wait a moment!”

The sensation of something being attached all over his body.

Following that, he felt a warm energy spreading throughout his entire body.

Though his body tingled from the sudden surge of strength, Yuseong didn’t move a finger.

This was because he was currently in a fainted state.

Originally, he had planned to gather information slowly about what had happened by talking with people.

However, sensing instinctively that he would find it bothersome dealing with people’s reactions that were hot enough to be fierce, he immediately pretended to lose consciousness when he collapsed, and naturally, a huge commotion broke out.

Though he couldn’t see since his eyes were closed, judging from the sounds and atmosphere, it seemed he had been transported by helicopter and was receiving intensive care at a hospital.

“We’ve done everything we can. All that’s left is the blood test.”

“How can we draw blood when even needles and scalpels made for strength-enhanced Contractors won’t go in?”

“Maybe if we bring a Contractor who can use aura, we could somehow make a wound?”

As the atmosphere grew increasingly serious, just as he was considering whether to get up, he sensed a massive presence from afar.

And shortly after, as people’s presences moved away, a familiar voice was heard.

“Stop the act and get up.”

“Ungh, it’s not an act… I’m just mentally exhausted.”

Making a weak sound and opening his eyes with effort, Yuseong saw Bruce, Olga, and Kang Changseok.

While waving his hand lightly at Olga who wore a welcoming expression, Yuseong subtly avoided Kang Changseok’s gaze that looked ready to pounce at any moment.

Though Kang Changseok inhaled as if about to shout, Olga was one step faster.

“I’m glad you’re safe. We were worried when there was no news from you for so long, thinking you might have gotten caught up in the collision.”

“Sorry. I managed to escape safely but couldn’t come back right away since I didn’t know the time ratio. How much time has passed? When did you and Kasim return?”

“About two weeks have passed. Kasim returned on the second day, and I returned on the fifth day.”

“What happened with Harnak?”

“He was annihilated and undead appearance frequency has decreased to less than one-fifth of before. We’ve established new defense systems centered on major cities and metropolitan areas, and we’re conducting large-scale operations to secure smaller cities too, so it feels almost finished. Though numerically many undead still remain, it’s not to the extent where users are absolutely needed.”

Yuseong let out a sigh of relief.

He had been worried since he summoned Dragonia from not too high up to increase accuracy, but fortunately it seemed to have had sufficient power.

“…Sorry to interrupt the conversation, but shouldn’t we move on to the main point?”

Kang Changseok’s low voice suppressing anger.

The atmosphere that Olga had just loosened instantly grew tense again.

“Han Yuseong, many things happened while you were gone.”

“I can guess some of it even without being told.”

While taking refuge in another world, Yuseong hadn’t stopped thinking about Earth’s situation.

Harnak and the undead spread across Europe were just the basics of basics.

The aftermath and cleanup of the pseudo-meteor he had dropped, the ability awakening potion and its aftereffects, the kilometers-wide floating city he had only called but hadn’t managed to send back.

Any one of these issues was enough to shake the world.

The reason Yuseong had pretended to faint was because he didn’t have proper answers ready in case people asked about these issues, not knowing what other users had said or what had happened to the world while he was completing the quest.

“You knew…”

A voice that seemed about to explode.

Twitching his eyebrows, Kang Changseok spoke while enunciating each word:

“I have so many things I want to ask you right now? Let’s start with this first. Flying fortress? Island? Anyway, forget the name, what exactly is that thing?”

“Flying fortress?”

“Don’t play dumb. I heard the rough story from Sophia. Though the form is quite different, it seems like the lizardmen’s city that appeared in Gangwon-do before, so what exactly happened? You clearly said you eliminated the lizardmen and sent them into the dimensional rift. Don’t tell me that was a lie?”

Since he knew this question would naturally come up, he immediately gave his prepared answer.

“It wasn’t a lie. I just told slightly less than the whole truth.”

“This isn’t a situation you can get past with that kind of talk!”

“I’m having trouble understanding right now, but what exactly are you angry about?”

“What?”

“I didn’t make any contract saying I had to tell you about everything I experienced or everything I have, and there’s no rule saying users must share all information. So why are you so angry?”

Kang Changseok momentarily lost words at the rapid-fire response.

Unlike his expectation that Yuseong would make various excuses, Yuseong’s argument was orthodox itself.

Unable to think of a counter-argument right away and hesitating, Kang Changseok soon thought of another reason.

“You lied to people around the world. Do you know how much trouble we went through trying to control information by explaining that this was different from the city that appeared in Korea?”

“I apologize for that. But it’s not just me who’s lying – this applies to all other users too. You’re all hiding users’ secrets, abilities, and so on.”

“Th-that flying city is too dangerous a power for an individual to have.”

“What’s the standard for power that’s too dangerous for an individual to have? For instance, Kasim. He has magic power that won’t be depleted even casting grand magic for ten days and nights – is this power okay for an individual to have? What about Bruce? Is power that can toy with Lucifer not dangerous? Other users are the same. Kang Changseok, you single-handedly create and maintain millions of Contractors worldwide – is this not dangerous power? Same goes for Sophia. With enough time and budget, she too could create weapons capable of destroying humanity. So why target only me? Is it because I’m a newbie who hasn’t even been a user for a year?”

A lengthy rebuttal.

Seeing Kang Changseok stammering in confusion, Yuseong inwardly sighed in relief.

‘Seems I managed to get past it somehow.’

Though he had subtly deflected by using other users as examples, as Kang Changseok pointed out, Dragonia was truly power too dangerous for an individual to possess.

Functions like dimensional submersion, terraforming, and levitation weren’t needed at all.

If he were to surround Dragonia with the eternal barrier that boasted mighty defense power that had blocked Kasim’s bombardment for ten straight days and make it fall at full power toward Earth from outside the atmosphere, it could easily bring about the world’s end.

Of course, unless one was insane there was no reason to do such a thing, but being able to do something but choosing not to versus being unable to do it were matters of different dimensions.

Just as Kang Changseok who had organized his thoughts was about to say something, Yuseong preempted him.

“Sorry, but right now there’s something much more important than such trivial matters.”

The atmosphere instantly sank.

Without even giving Kang Changseok a glance, Yuseong looked at Bruce and said.

“Two weeks ago, I heard something concerning from Harnak, that is, the monster that caused this undead incident.”

After subtly shifting his gaze to Olga and seeing her nod, Yuseong continued.

“Worlds caught up in dimensional war inevitably perish. Did you know this?”

“You’re believing what a monster of unknown identity said?”

“I wouldn’t have believed it if only one had said it.”

Even dragons who had maintained a brilliant civilization for thousands of years couldn’t win against invasion and barely managed to escape by creating a fortress capable of dimensional travel.

Lucifer, the first fallen angel who rebelled against the Creator, the fallen morning star, the king of hell, lost his divinity and suffered the humiliation of having his horns and halo shattered by mere humans while acting as a false religious leader.

Though he wasn’t sure exactly what kind of being Harnak was, judging by his words about conquering five dimensions and his power that overwhelmed three users, he was certainly not inferior to dragons and Lucifer.

Whether Harnak’s words were true or not wasn’t certain.

But it was certain that Earth was weaker than the individuals and forces listed so far, which meant Earth too wouldn’t be able to overcome invasion.

At Yuseong’s confident gaze, Bruce was silent for a moment before opening his mouth.

“We knew.”

“What about you, Kang Changseok?”

“…Ahem.”

Kang Changseok, who had been staring like he would devour Yuseong throughout their conversation, cleared his throat and avoided his gaze.

A bitter laugh escaped.

Though he had suspected it, realizing that others all knew something that only he didn’t know brought a sense of futility.

However, Yuseong didn’t show such feelings and calmly asked again.

“What was the reason for hiding such important information?”

“We didn’t make any contract saying we had to tell you everything we know, and there’s no rule saying users must share all information, so why should we tell you?”

“Ha!”

He never expected to have his own words thrown back at him like this.

Getting angry here would be like spitting on his own face.

“What’s the countermeasure?”

Despite knowing the world would perish, users were desperate to protect Earth.

This wasn’t some mindset like planting an apple tree even if Earth were to perish tomorrow, or a noble will to survive even a little longer.

If that had been the purpose, they would have at least established a new system to conquer the world and block invasion.

But users didn’t recklessly use their mighty power capable of destroying countries and acted as if there would be a future by maintaining existing systems, order, and economy.

Either blocking invasion, or a way for humanity to survive.

They must have been preparing one of the two.

“Creating a transcendent.”

If it had been earlier this would have been laughable, but now after witnessing a cosmic being called a goddess, it was different.

If one gained power equal to a goddess or close to it, protecting Earth wouldn’t be a difficult task.

However, this actually made things more questionable.

“Can a transcendent’s power stop monsters? I’ve met transcendents several times so far. They’re strong but insufficient to protect Earth.”

Though he had only met a handful of transcendents, he could instinctively tell that a goddess’s power was on a different level even among transcendents.

An ordinary transcendent would probably at best gain power equivalent to Hae Cheongyeong who had previously succeeded in ascending.

“A transcendent’s power varies tremendously depending on factors like depth of enlightenment, type of enlightenment, race, and so on. And those factors include the state before becoming a transcendent. With a user’s body and stats that surpass ordinary transcendents, one could become a high-ranking transcendent. That would be enough to protect Earth.”

Though it was merely speculation, Yuseong didn’t bother pointing that out.

Instead, he asked a different question.

“So how does one become this transcendent?”

“The most common method is gaining enlightenment, but enlightenment isn’t something you can gain just because you want it. That’s why another method is needed. Namely, Divine Fragment.”

“Divine Fragment, you mean that…”

“Yes. The item I said I would pay any price for if you obtained it. Divine Fragment is materialized enlightenment. If one has sufficient qualifications, they can become a transcendent through Divine Fragment without gaining enlightenment.”

The quest rewards from this time flashed through Yuseong’s mind.

Though nothing matched except the two characters for “divinity,” he couldn’t help but open his mouth due to an inexplicable tingling feeling.

“Does it have to be Divine Fragment? Won’t something with a different name like divinity work?”

“There are things called Essence of Divinity and Seed of Divinity, but obtaining them is practically impossible. Essence of Divinity is only created when a transcendent willingly gives up their divine status completely, so you couldn’t find it even searching the entire universe, and while Seed of Divinity gives the possibility of gaining enlightenment, the method of obtaining it is unknown so in some sense it’s even harder to get than Essence of Divinity.”

“…”