D.I.O

Chapter 206

‘The problem is this guy is too strong. To be honest, I don’t even know the true extent of his power.’

The three peak users, often referred to as the Outer Gods or Heaven above the Heavens, were well-known for their strength and power, which was classes above everyone else. In particular, Arthur was seen as the strongest among the three, and he became recognizable worldwide after defeating Sungmuk, the Orc Hero who overpowered Starting by himself. In addition, archmage Merlin was so formidable that he made tens of thousands of users watch helplessly as he took thousands of gem fish with ease at the recent event. By publicly showcasing his magic ability, Merlin displayed a strength that seemed impossible to deal with, even if multiple people attacked him at once.

‘If Arthur or Merlin tried to kill the US President, how many Masters would it take to stop them?’

As she thought this, Ilyia realized the severity of the situation. She realized that if any of the Heaven above the Heavens sought to do something evil, an unspeakable crisis would unfold. Of course, manifestation had a time limit, possibly making them hesitate to take such an action. However, if an organization offered its support and protection, nothing could stop them during the hour they manifested.

“Can I ask you something?”

When she heard Eunhye’s unexpected voice, Sasha turned her head.

“What?”

“Did you make this offer to Arthur and Cruze?”

Sasha groaned, but she soon replied with an expression that seemed to state, ‘there’s no use in hiding it.’

“Arthur refused. His patriotism and commitment to protecting his country were too strong. I told him to let me know if he ever changed his mind. As for Cruze, no one knows where she lives.”

Cruze’s unknown whereabouts were an amazing feat. The United States had such outstanding intelligence capabilities that it knew most of the deepest and darkest secrets other countries desperately wanted to hide. However, DIO didn’t have a [sign up] process, and thus no paper trail. So, to find a user, there was no choice but to compare the appearance of someone’s in-game avatar to a person’s looks in real life.

“Are you saying she belongs to a secret society or lives in a restricted area or something?”

“She might have suffered serious injuries beyond visible recognition.”

However, in truth, Cruze was just a shut-in who lived in the corner of a room, so no one had the chance to see her, but there was no way for them to know that.

“Hmm, do I have to answer right away?”

“No. We’re not threatening you or anything of the sort. If you make a decision, you can contact me through this. Well, I’ve taken quite a bit of your time, haven’t I? I’ll take off before I become a nuisance, so please call and notify me of your decision when you can.”

As she spoke, Ilyia handed Yongno a smartphone. The design seemed standard, but it was so thin that it looked more like a bookmark.

Click.

After Sasha left, Yongno fell into thought. The situation was rapidly changing. If things continued in the current direction, he wouldn’t be able to develop himself and his magic tools like usual.

“I wanted to make a gate somehow.”

Making a gate wasn’t as easy as one might think. For one, Yongno lacked the requisite magic power and internal energy, but his main issue was that Earth was completely cut off from the outside world due to the absence of spiritual pathways. Yongno had no problem creating a few sparks or using his martial arts, but problems arose when he tried to summon things from the [outside]. In fact, this was the reason why Youngmin and the evil spirits appeared.

“Ah, come to think of it, what is Youngmin doing?”

“DIO. He logged on this morning and still hasn’t logged out.”

“Well, whenever someone first plays DIO, they tend to lose track of time.”

Muttering this, Yongno put away the smartphone Sasha had given him. He wanted to keep his options open, just in case.

Arthur, or Seyoung, refused the US president’s request due to his patriotism, but Yongno was different. Beyond merely being individualistic, Yongno held a grudge against nation-states. He had been abducted by a state-run secret service and subjected to brutal, torturous experiments just because he was different from other people.

‘Whether it is an entire country or an organization, I must use them to my advantage. If it’s difficult to hide my existence, I must proactively deal with that reality.’

Yongno reaffirmed his commitment and double-checked his plan. He started to mentally organize the work he needed to do, but unfortunately, it didn’t seem that his enemies intended to give him any time to think.

Whirl.

An intense spiritual wave, which Yongno had felt before, swept across Earth. It was the X-Belt he experienced on Ayan.

“… Really? Isn’t infection on Earth impossible?

The moment Yongno groaned, a spiritual voice echoed out.

“Follow us! We are… great!”

Yongno was safe from the transmitted wave, and Eunhye didn’t seem affected either. Actually, this was to be expected. The X-Belt, also called a [spiritual infection], only infected hosts with spiritual pathways. At a minimum, there needed to be an inactive spiritual pathway for one to become infected, but these pathways were nonexistent on Earth.

A powerful voice resounded, but only Yongno could hear it. If he had been awake, Youngmin would have heard it, but even so, that was all. Youngmin wouldn’t have been affected. X-Belts contained enormous amounts of spiritual power. What was the point of using one if nobody could be infected in the first place?

“Still, they’re not fools either, so there’s no way they’d do something so stupid without reason.”

“Yongno?”

“I think there’ll be a problem soon. How many times can you manifest?”

“Only twice.”

In other words, Eunhye had 20,000 gem points, which was a relatively considerable quantity. The primarily combat-focused missions awarded these, so there was no particular reason to consume any of the accrued gem points.

Boom.

At that moment, Yongno felt a forceful shockwave approach from a distance, as if an earthquake had occurred. The source of the shockwave was fairly far away, but the ground vibrated and undulated nonetheless.

“Hmm….”

Yongno felt conflicted.

‘What should I do? Should I go and save people? Morally, that would be the correct action… but that decision wouldn’t be rational. If I move recklessly, I will constantly be sought and used by national organizations from here on out.’

It was said that with great power came great responsibility. Heroes in comics and movies used their superpowers for the sake of others and defeated enemies who hindered people’s happiness. They risked their lives for a greater cause.

Why?

Yongno didn’t understand that way of thinking. Helping others was, of course, a good thing. But why should someone sacrifice themself for another? Even if they served and sacrificed, there’s no guarantee that the person saved would appreciate it. In today’s stark and rigid modern society, individuals with such hero-mentality were prime targets to be used as tools by others.

Undoubtedly, service and sacrifice were exceptional concepts, but service was always a choice, not something that could be coerced.

“What are you going to do?”

“It would be better to go… and at least figure out the situation. It doesn’t seem too far.”

The moment Yongno finished speaking….

The distant mighty aura abruptly disappeared.

“Huh?”

It was not that the being was hiding; it was gone. A more precise explanation would be that something killed it.

“… Ha! I worried for no reason. Have I become stupid?”

Yongno let out a dejected laugh. He wasn’t a hero. On the contrary, he was naturally distrusting of humans, and he had an even higher aversion to serving others.

However, there was a hero residing in Korea. He was a sincere, good-natured person who knew how to sacrifice himself with a greater cause in mind.

“Seyoung hyung….”

People called him the great swordsman Arthur Pendragon.

***

“Ah, why isn’t this asshole listening to what I’m saying? Do I look like a pushover to you? Huh?”

A student was beating another youth on the veranda of the Ivory Tower Educational Enrichment Academy, which mainly catered to middle and high school students. Violence in schools was not new, and bullying wasn’t necessarily limited to school grounds. Moreover, bullies from broken families weren’t the only source of this violence; quite a few people with high grades also contributed. After all, intellect had nothing to do with an individual’s moral compass.

“Be patient. He’s just dumb. Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Why aren’t you begging for forgiveness?”

As he heard the slim guy standing next to him chatter away, Mingi felt like he was about to go crazy. How did things turn out like this? He wasn’t only subjected to bullying at school but also in his educational enrichment academy. Kyungwon, a student at the same school as Mingi, always followed Mingi around and harassed him for money. Mingi was initially relieved when he found that he and Kyungwon wouldn’t be in the same classroom for the new school year, but now, Mingi discovered that they were attending the same academy. When he learned this, Mingi wanted to quit, but his parents weren’t hearing it.

“You don’t want to study, so you’re starting to spout all sorts of nonsense. If you don’t want to attend the academy, then get good grades! Do you know how much the academy costs? Mom is having a hard time too!”

Mingi felt he was being driven to the brink, his mind at its wit’s end. Constant beatings and bullying…. He felt useless, as he couldn’t do anything about it. The loneliness and despair of having no one by his side….

Then, a thunderous roar shook his mind.

“Follow us! We are… great!”

Earthlings without spiritual pathways were immune to the X-Belt. The X-Belt, a spiritual-type infection, was imperceptible to humans on Earth, just as flashbangs were useless against a blind man.

However, humans on this Earth possessed souls, and among earthlings, there were some with minds that were particularly well suited to the Grotesque. If an extremely concentrated X-Belt wave was injected into a human tainted with negative emotions, such as anger, hatred, fear, pain, or despair, that human would become a 4th Stage Infected. In other words, they would skip the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Stages.

“… Stop it.”

“What? Hahaha! What the fuck is this bastard-”

Crack!

Mingi’s right fist pierced the bully’s chest. All the surrounding students stood dumbfounded, unable to process what had just happened, including the person with the newly-formed hole in his chest.

“… Huh?”

No one could comprehend the surreal sight. How could anyone imagine that a student being bullied would suddenly punch a hole through their bully’s chest? The whole scene was like a dream.

Crack!

In an instant, the bullied student’s appearance, that is, the Infected, changed rapidly. As if his body was a piece of rubber being stretched out, the Infected grew swiftly and essentially tore off the bullied student’s body. Belated screams erupt from all over the place.

“Ack?!”josei

“What the hell? What is this… Ah!”

The academy students screamed and tried to scatter, but the tentacles that extended from the Infected shot out in all directions. The Grotesque’s tentacles crushed students’ bones and flesh and stabbed through their bodies.

Whoosh.

The pierced corpses started to glow red after being affected by a special power. It was similar to a magic corpse explosion spell commonly used by dark magic mages, but its effects exceeded a giant modern bomb.

Bam!

The blast destroyed a whole academy floor, and the building couldn’t withstand the impact of the various explosions as it began to collapse. Due to the nature of the academy’s classroom setup, the students, having been crammed into several narrow classrooms, were crushed by fragments of the collapsing building, resulting in a catastrophic event.

“Disgusting! Dirty! Pathetic! Stupid!”

The Infected had already lost his temper as it screamed and smashed his surroundings before opening his body wide and swallowing the nearby corpses. Those who saw the shocking scene were terrified and froze like a deer caught in headlights.

At that time, a Sword Light appeared in the air, cutting a vertical pathway through the Infected.

Swipe!

With a sharp sound, the Infected was dismembered. This attack didn’t merely cut the enemy; it was a manifestation of internal energy that destroyed the target’s spiritual structure. As a result, the Infected fell to the ground without any chance of recovering.

“Oh, my god. Even though I rushed over here as fast as I could….”

A flying dragon with glossy black scales and a man in magic-imbued martial arts gear stood atop the collapsed building. The man’s armor resembled modern clothing, and he held a relatively thick Draconic Sword. His name was Arthur Pendragon. A Slayer had no chance of resisting Arthur, let alone a 4th Stage Infected. In the 4th Stage, even the most mature Infected was equivalent to a Level 9 existence, so how could such a being block Arthur’s attack?

However, the problem wasn’t the enemy’s combat power.

“What’s this? What are you? What the hell is this?!”

“Huh? Oh no, I’m here to help you all-”

“Help us? What help?! Are you going to bring all these dead people back to life?”

The middle-aged man approached as if he were about to strike Arthur. It was unknown if he understood that if Arthur had arrived a little later, he would have died, as well as everyone else in the vicinity.

“Grr!”

“Huh?”

However, when Toothless growled, the middle-aged man fell to the ground in fright. Unlike Arthur, Toothless didn’t waste its energy trying to save others.

“Ugh! Why did this monster appear?!”

“Gwangsoo!”

The people gathered around Arthur were aggressive. In the Republic of Korea, with its well-maintained security, people often lost their minds and reasoning ability due to excessive stress if they ever experienced a terrorist-like massacre.

“Let’s go, master. If you stay any longer, you’ll only see the dirty side of humanity.”

“But…”

Arthur looked around. Suddenly, more people rushed in to see the collapsed academy and him standing atop it. Some were even taking pictures of him with their smartphones.

Woong~!

When he heard distant sirens blaring, Arthur climbed onto Toothless’ neck. Since there were still 40 minutes left in his manifested time, Arthur felt it necessary to check if there were any attacks elsewhere.

Poof!

With the shaking of space, Arthur’s figure disappeared.