Above Your Head

Vol 2. 69: The Salvation of God (6)

Vol 2. Chapter 69: The Salvation of God (6)

When the stage of the Project End was first opened, the zombie monsters of the Level 1 Low-difficulty gave 1 point, the Intermediate-difficulty monsters gave five, and the High-difficulty monsters gave 10 points, which was 10 times as many. The zombie monsters of the Level 2 Low-difficulty gave five points, the Intermediate-difficulty monsters gave 25, which was five times as many points as compared to the corresponding Low-difficulty stage. The High-difficulty monsters gave 50 points.

Even as the stage progressed, the reward points consistently kept at this ratio. If the difficulty level went up by one, the points awarded was five times higher. The rewards of Intermediate and High-difficulty were respectively five and 10 times higher than those of the Low-difficulty stage.

Looking back, the clear rewards of the Project End were fairly generous. If the participant only had one job, they could catch up with the corresponding level by consuming an Experience Potion if they cleared the stage just once. Of course, additional clears were needed if the participant wanted to buy an elixir or a Magic Armament. However, considering that they would literally have to kill tens of thousands of demons in order to level up in the parallel world by hunting demons, it was an extremely generous reward.

'The problem is that, in exchange for such generosity, a difficulty level that can kill all the challengers is set.'

Anyway, most importantly, the stage was pretty generous when it came to awarding points. And those generous points… 'I spent it all on buying iron ores.'

I had cleared every stage at least tens or hundreds of times, and even as many as over a thousand times. In particular, after clearing the Level 9 High-difficulty stage 1,000 times, which awarded 2,343,750 points for every clear, I could obtain 2,343,750 tons of iron ore just with those points. It was such an enormous amount that actually surpassed the size of the Unique World. 'Because the Iron ore is pretty cheap.'

There were four basic resources in the Materials section sold by the gacha machine: wood, stone, iron, and mana stone. Other players, countries, and companies had sold their minds to get their hands on the mana stones in particular, but I didn't even bother to pay it any heed. All I needed was iron, or iron ore, to be exact. I had no need to buy any elixirs or equipment from the gacha machine, so I could purchase more than 4 million tons of iron ore. The amount was huge enough to challenge the scale of a country, but…

Captain-nim. Genie woke me up and said, We're running out of iron ores.

"…What??" As I felt dumbfounded, a text popped up in front of my eyes...

-The last person.

- One examinee is currently in the midst of proceeding with the test.

I was completely unsurprised by the fact that I was the last person, since it was expected for me to be the last person ever since I completed the Barracks Build. However, I could not remain calm at the text that appeared next.

-The number of Death Processions currently remaining: 111,126,777 people.

"No, wait, I've been playing long enough to become the last person and have my supply of iron ore run out. Yet, the death toll remains this high?" It was something I could not understand. The Three Shins that Juan had made imparted the power of the Weapon of Justice, the Language of Truth, and the Throne of Honor, but the clear rate was even lower than during the Level 9 stages.

Because the difficulty level of the stage has exceeded the wall of the Compléters.

"Still..."

Also, there would be those who suffer from the selection of the Three Shins instead.

"Ahh." I nodded in understanding. Those who were negative would be largely irrelevant, since there wouldn't be any inconvenience in proceeding with the stage just from getting a tattoo on their skin. However, what about those who had a long nose? That was possibly a meter long? If they were to hide in the fridge, they wouldn't be able to close the door. If they hid in the alley, their nose might even stick out. Then, what if every seat had thorns sticking out of it? The scale of the stage had grown so big that sleep was undoubtedly a necessity, so what if sharp thorns pricked at their skin whenever they sat or laid down?

"There must be a lot of wicked guys among the high-ranking members. Well, looking at the parallel world's pathetic state, it seems that the high-ranking ability users didn’t live a virtuous life. They all probably lived however they wanted,” I muttered. It didn't matter if they cleared the stage once or twice, since it was expected that there would be a huge problem with clearing the stage. Unfortunately, that was not all.

'When the stage is cleared and others need to be saved... Of course a human being would want to save the good rather than the wicked. If they didn't save the good, and saved the wicked instead, they would fear for the fact that the wicked acts might become aggravated. Juan, this bastard...' Only then did I realize. 'He has no intention of saving all mankind.'

Come to think of it, Juan was able to exert his authority from the beginning when he started Project End. If the Three Shins had been brought down to give mankind time to adapt to the laws of Justice, Truth, and Honor when there was still room to breathe in the situation on Earth, mankind would have proceeded through the stage with much more ease. In other words...

'He's thinking of reducing the human population.' To be exact, I could feel his intention of wanting to eradicate some wicked humans from the current human race. It was similar to collecting only what you needed when cleaning up your desk, and shaking off the dust and throwing the trash into the trash can.

"Well, it isn't an immediate matter of concern." I just remembered that the stage I had to clear was still in full swing, and checked my status.

- You are in the Grand Master rank.

- You have been down-ranked to Diamond due to the current power consumption.

The Grand Master Rank was downgraded to the Diamond rank, which was below the Master Rank. I thought my speed of recovery was faster than the soul energy consumed in maintaining the Barracks, but that didn't seem to be the case. I asked, "How many times did I clear the stage, Genie? How much time has passed?"

The number of clears done is 45,113,322 times, and the time it took was...approximately 260,000 years, said Genie in a calm voice.

"..." It was an outrageous amount of time, but I had expected just as much. It was to skip past this tremendous amount of time that the Avatar recorded, which had a much slower clear time compared to me clearing it myself.

Oh! You're up? Do something about the characteristics of this toy! I can't put on a sub-armament because the endurance is too lacking!

"Huh?" As I turned my head towards the unexpected voice, I saw a silver giant approaching from far behind. Needless to say, it was the God-rank Gigas, Ares, with something in his hand. I looked and, at first glance, it seemed to be an Avatar that looked like a mere figurine in the hands of Ares, who was the size of a 10-story building.

Kwan Dae-ha

Level 9

Avatar-1761

"Wow, 1761 huh." I blinked in surprise. The number was only affixed to the back of the model when a significant improvement was done to the model, which led it to become different from the previous ones.

I started using Avatar-11 because the Avatars of one to 10 weren’t capable enough to clear the stage, and they were only made for testing. Only then did I create Avatar-12 after that. What about the number 1761? Was there more than a thousand significant upgrades that were great enough to change the model’s name? Furthermore, the level was even more terrifying; Level 9. If an Avatar with such stats were to play with my strategy guide, they'd be able to conquer the stage at a speed that surpassed most Masters.

"No, wait, I can't raise my attribute levels because I'm at a standstill. How did it then raise its level to this extent? The material is almost entirely made of steel."

Spiritual power is not necessarily the only thing that can improve the performance of a machine. We mustn't ignore the power of science.

Exactly. That's right. Although it is a trash-like toy, it's kind of fun after all the improvements! After saying so, Ares put the “figurine”, Avatar-1761, in his hand down.

"Huh?" I was shocked by its unexpectedly huge size. I exclaimed, "What is this? It's about 2.5 meters tall though?" The Avatar series was made at a relatively small 1.5 meters, because the goal was not speed but stability in clearing the stage. Therefore, an extremely high performance was not needed. The goal was to make it function with as little iron ore as possible, so it focused on covertness and search ability. The strategy wasn't based on the avatar series itself, but on the weapons and structures hidden throughout the stage.

Oh, right. I should show in order.

"In order?"

Genie answered my question, Yes, Captain-nim. Currently, there are three types of machines that can be considered finished products.

"Three types, huh. It means they have different styles then."

That's right. As Genie said so, Ares reached to one side and brought out a new Avatar series.

Kwan Dae-ha

Level 4

Avatar-421

It was extremely small in size, unlike the Avatar series that Ares first brought in. From the side, its head was about as big as my pelvis, and its level was lower than the Avatar-11 I made.

Ares spoke with confidence, Avatar-421. The one who stands at the ultimate spot of your Avatar series. It's 88 centimeters tall and weighs 18 kilograms. Shortest stage clear time is 54 hours, and the longest is a maximum of 77 hours. I made version 422 by reducing the weight, but I almost closed the stage because I was beaten in the last battle.

"You're saying this little guy can clear the stage, huh." I held Avatar-421 up. It was an Avatar who was lighter than a purchasable sack of rice at a mart, and it looked like a small kid.

Isn't it amazing? Avatar-421 is...

"The name is too long. This brat is… Okay, let's call it Goblin."

Avatar type, Goblin, huh.

I was inwardly surprised to see Ares nodding his head. 'This guy.' I could feel affection coming from Ares’ eyes as he looked at the small robot. There was no way that a sudden friendship could form between an avatar and an ego-less robot, so it was probably his sense of pride from improving the avatar himself. 'I didn't expect him to do this.'

After stopping my time, Genie and Ares had already finished talking about what to do before the stage even started. Both of them put their consciousness on standby and then turned on only the basic program. It seemed as if they wanted to wake up once in a while to check on the status, but the current atmosphere seemingly indicated that they wanted to improve the Avatar series by waking up for a long time, even if it wasn't 200,000 years.

Next up is Avatar-888. It's this one. Again, Ares' hand thumped and placed the Avatar series down in front of me.

Kwan Dae-ha

Level 8

Avatar-888

Avatar-888 is based on the Captain-nim's Level 6 long-range strategy approach. It is 130 centimeters tall and weighs 30 kilograms. The stage clear time has been reduced to a minimum of 37 hours and a maximum of 44 hours.

Avatar-888 was an impressive machine with enlarged bulky arms, which had foldable catapults installed on each side. Looking at it, I asked, "A maximum stage clear time of 44 hours is extremely fast, though?"

It also has the advantage of being extremely stable. Although there is a prerequisite to be fully aware of the map configuration, if the form of the next stage changes to an open-format, we can expect it to play a more active part.

I listened to Ares and looked closely at Avatar-888, which had arms long enough to drag along the floor and specially-processed steel parts and joints that exerted enormous tension. I then said, "Let's call this guy Hunter. The last one, of course, is..."

That's right. It is this one. Avatar-1761 is a new product that's built from scratch to achieve innovative performance within a given limit!

I looked at the machine that Ares had put down at the very beginning. It was a final product that had a completely different style from the two preceding models, including overall shape, joint shape, and size. Considering that the model right before this, Hunter, was No. 888 and this was No. 1761, I could see how much heart and soul Genie and Ares had put in this guy.

Still, I voiced a concern, "But isn't it too big?" Avatar-1761 was not a waste of material. Without external armors, there was no supporting armament that enveloped its skeleton-only body. It was an end product that challenged the prerequisite of using as little iron as possible, because no matter how much they tried to save, it wouldn't change the fact that the size itself was a cost. Avatar-1761, which was 2.5 meters tall, looked to be more than 100 kilograms no matter how I looked at it.

Avatar-1761. 255 centimeters in height and weighs 94kg.

"It's lighter than I thought, but... Still, we can make five goblins with this much material though?" I pointed out. It was over once the stage was cleared anyway, and it was impossible to reuse it due to the nature of the stage, so what value was there in the human-form that had no special characteristics?

That's right, but Captain-nim… Genie answered calmly as I questioned this matter. Avatar-1761's stage clear time is… Strangely, the voice contained pride, A minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 9.