This Really Takes the Cake

-If you become my subordinate, I’ll give you a position above all others but under me. However, if you reject this offer, I’ll use every ability I have to make you regret…

“I reject. How can I trust that you’ll keep your promise? What if you’re setting a trap because you want my flying fortress? Where’s the guarantee that you won’t stab me in the back after pretending to accept me as a subordinate and making me let my guard down?”

-Your suspicion is excessive. Do you perhaps suffer from paranoia?

“It’s only natural. Someone who’s been quietly living without proper activity for the past year as if they don’t care what happens to the world suddenly contacts me and tells me to become their subordinate to prevent destruction – wouldn’t it be stranger to believe that?”

-…

It wasn’t even worth considering.

Yuseong was someone with such a twisted personality that he avoided contact with other users even in the early days when he first got the goggles, preparing for the worst case scenario despite nearly dying to orcs due to having no special abilities.

Though he had gained some empathy and his personality had softened somewhat after completing various quests, that fundamental nature remained unchanged.

Yuseong had absolutely no intention of accepting Changwei’s proposal.

-I’ll give you one more chance to think about it. Think carefully. In just one year, three-quarters of humanity has lost their lives. At this rate, humanity will face extinction in the near future. Gathering all of humanity’s power in one place and establishing a new nation – this is the only way humanity can survive. For now, we must delay the time of extinction as much as possible and find a way to prevent it…

Click.

Yuseong immediately hung up and blocked the number.

He had planned to continue the conversation a bit longer to extract information, but Changwei’s tone of speaking down from above was too grating to his ears.

“What nonsense about a new nation. We just need to make more goggles.”

Yuseong’s lips curved up slightly.

With his current karma points, he could create over a million goggles.

Even this amount would be enough to immediately stop the monster invasion.

‘That’s not all. If things go according to plan, we can perfectly resolve not only the monster issue but also the Outer God’s thought problem within a few weeks.’

Looking back, disassembling the goggles was truly the best choice.

If he succeeds in mass-producing the goggles, and if he just waits a little longer, all problems can be solved.

‘In the end, I just need to deal with Changwei. That he’s trying to establish a new nation centered on China, that Lucifer is by his side, that he can use Vimana – is this all I’ve found out? Of course, he must have made the same proposal to other users besides me, so I can get other information through them.’

Ring! Ring! Ring!

‘Seeing how he sent a text instead of using the community, it seems he’s trying to recruit only some users rather than all of them… He definitely contacted Kang Changseok who can mass-produce Contractors and Ryuhei who’s receiving love calls from other countries, while excluding Kasim who shivers at the mention of China and other users with ambiguous relationships.’

Ring! Ring! Ring!

“Geez, how persistent.”

The smartphone kept ringing endlessly.

Even after blocking the number, calls kept coming from different numbers.

After blocking over 20 numbers, Changwei seemed to realize there was no intention of answering and sent a text message instead.

-Nirvana: This is your final warning. If you don’t want to die, answer the phone.

Yuseong glanced at the message and blocked the number again, after which no more calls came.

Holding the now quiet smartphone while contemplating, Yuseong decided to contact Kang Changseok first to secure facilities and budget for mass-producing goggles, besides information about Changwei.

After a few rings, an urgent voice came through the receiver.

-Han Yuseong? Where are you right now?

“What? Why do you sound like that?”

-No time to explain. Tell me where you are first.

“…Don’t tell me you accepted Changwei’s proposal?”

-What? What nonsense… no, never mind. You’re probably in Seoul anyway. I’ll explain later, so escape outside Seoul right now.

Though his voice was filled with urgency, Yuseong didn’t budge.

Having just received the warning message, Yuseong was thinking that Kang Changseok might be on Changwei’s side and trying to lure him outside Seoul where there were no civilians to subdue him without causing civilian casualties.

“First explain what’s going on…”

Woong!

Yuseong involuntarily stopped speaking.

A violent wave of ki hit him so hard he could barely breathe.

It didn’t end with one strike but kept surging, violently repelling the energy within his body.

‘He’s tracking my location?’

The moment he realized this, Yuseong jumped upward with all his might.

Crack! Crack!

Two swords stabbed into where he had just been standing.

He hadn’t sensed any sign or energy from them.

If his judgment had been even 0.1 seconds slower, he would have died without even being able to scream.

‘It’s not over yet.’

Recognizing the swords’ nature, Yuseong activated Asura Perception Way.

In the accelerated thoughts and slowed time, Yuseong clearly perceived ten swords flying toward him.

Though the controlling swords with energy were too fast and stealthy to detect through ki sense, they couldn’t escape Eye of Truth.

Kakakakang!

Raising Blood Energy in both hands, Yuseong knocked away the swords targeting his vital points one by one.

The swords that collided with Blood Energy containing extreme destructive force trembled as if about to fall to the ground, but the opponent was no pushover either.

Woowoong!

“Flying Sword Formation?”

If it had been ordinary Flying Sword Formation, he wouldn’t have been this surprised.

He had seen it a few times during quests in martial arts worlds after all.

The problem was that the ki energy and color rising from all twelve swords were different.

Some swords contained extreme yang energy that seemed able to burn everything, some contained extreme yin energy that seemed able to freeze everything, and some contained destructive energy not inferior to Blood Energy.

It meant he was not only handling twelve flying swords but simultaneously operating twelve different martial arts.

But there were still more surprises to come.

‘Sword techniques? And sword formations too?!’

Unlike the previous movements that were simply fast and strong, the twelve swords were now displaying sword techniques, different ones at that, while trying to surround him.

Front, back, left, right, up, down.

At this rate, he would be surrounded.

Yuseong immediately cast Cloud Mist and spread thick fog around him.

The fog not only blocked vision but also interfered with ki sense detection, causing the flying swords to hesitate after losing their target, and during that time Yuseong barely managed to slip away.

“That was quite an all-out attack, yet you dodged it. You really are strong.”

“…”

Seeing Bruce arrogantly looking down at him while standing in the sky with twelve swords circling around him, Yuseong bit his lip.

“Bruce, did you become Changwei’s subordinate?”

“Not subordinate but ally.”

“…Whether subordinate or ally, you’re moving according to Changwei’s will so isn’t it the same thing?”

Yuseong clicked his tongue.

He never imagined Bruce of all people would side with Changwei.

After briefly wearing a dumbfounded expression, Yuseong soon showed a confident face.

Though he didn’t know what sweet talk Changwei used to lure Bruce, Yuseong had the trump card of mass-producing goggles.

Yuseong was confident that persuading Bruce would be as easy as eating cold rice.

“How long have you been in contact with the Outer God?”

That was until he heard Bruce’s anger-filled voice.

“W-what do you mean?”

A mistake.

Caught off guard by the sudden strike at his weak point, Yuseong failed to maintain his poker face and asked back with a trembling voice.

Seeing this, Bruce spoke with a contemptuous expression.

“Pretending not to know won’t help. I’ve already confirmed everything with Universal Vision.”

“Ah!”

‘You idiot!’

Yuseong let out an exclamation of shock without realizing it.

The original owner of Universal Vision was Bruce.

Just as he had used Universal Vision to see the future where he became the Outer God’s puppet and summoned the Outer God, Bruce must have also used Universal Vision to see the future.

Though Bruce hadn’t been able to see the distant future then, Yuseong had planned to tell him later since it was such a shocking future, but he never imagined things would turn out like this.

“Are you believing in the Outer God voluntarily, or have you been mentally contaminated?”

“During a quest, I accidentally saw an Outer God directly… Wait! I think there’s a big misunderstanding right now, please calm down and listen to me. I can explain everything!”

“With the Mental Protection skill or just 300 points in mental stats, you could have blocked visual mental contamination. Then it must have happened when you hadn’t been a user for long.”

“Um, Mr. Bruce?”

“I felt something was strange about your growth being too fast, so you were borrowing the Outer God’s power. Now I understand.”

“Mr. Bruce? Are you listening to me?”

Something subtly right yet wrong about these assumptions.

Yuseong kept trying to speak to persuade Bruce, but it was useless.

He brought up all sorts of things like how he had found a way to overcome mental contamination, or how he could mass-produce goggles, but Bruce crushed Yuseong’s hopes with a single line.

“Are you done with the excuses?”

A cold voice and gaze as if looking at a monster.

Bruce no longer viewed him as human.

Thump! Thump!

Yuseong pounded his chest in frustration.

It’s not that he didn’t understand Bruce’s position.

If someone who would summon an Outer God and destroy Earth had Outer God’s thoughts in their head but claimed they had a special mental state that let them avoid negative effects and only raise stats, or that they only recently started being affected due to some incident, or that they could mass-produce goggles – even he would think they were just spouting nonsense because they didn’t want to die.

“Haah, this really takes the cake.”

Woong!

Yuseong took a fighting stance while drawing up energy using Infinite Origin Force.

If words wouldn’t work, the only option was to overwhelm with force.

“Now you show your true colors.”

“Yeah yeah, think whatever you want.”

He dropped the honorifics entirely.

His opponent was MartialGod.

The superhuman acknowledged as strongest by all users possessing transcendent abilities.

Not an opponent he could defeat with a half-hearted mindset.

Clang!

The ground split as Yuseong’s form rushed toward Bruce.

Bruce still stood arrogantly with his hands behind his back without moving.

Instead, the swords floating around him began to move.

Swords wreathed in red ki blooming plum blossoms and swords wreathed in blue ki drawing the taiji symbol charged in from left and right.

Yuseong blocked the two swords with his arms wrapped in Blood Energy.

Clang!

A massive explosion occurred as the ki energies collided.

According to Newton’s third law, Yuseong’s body should have been blown backward.

But Yuseong had Tyrant’s arms that could absorb all impacts and Gravity Shoes that could manipulate gravity.

“First strike!”

Yuseong’s fist shot toward Bruce’s face.