13th Round We Are One

“This was not part of the plan…”

“Did I offend you?”

He gave me an offer to work for him in the past, but now he just attacked me out of nowhere.

“I can’t help but be surprised by your shamelessness, my junior. You should be well aware that anger has piled up inside me because of you. You killed my subjects, stole the Holy Sword, and even humiliated me in the past. Do you need any more explanations?”

“Heh!”

I thought there was no strife between us since he decided to recruit me, but mentally, his spite had already accrued interest against me, which I apparently had to pay for.

But he was wrong to think that I had killed his subjects.

They didn’t die. They continued to live as my spirits.

“Their souls were merged, causing them to lose their identities. That’s not much different from death.”

“Senior, many cells in our body also merge. Boris even has a combination of souls instead of cells.”

“That is all sophistry.”

“Just be honest. You feel resentful because I’ve taken away your subjects.”

“…”

The First Hero, furrowing his eyebrows, remained silent.

Instantly returning to his throne, he then replied as if nothing happened.

“I decided that if I suppress your soul, Ssosia will start following me, but I seem to have miscalculated the results.”

He seemed to have his eyes set on the 19% system management rights that the Second Demon owned.

And he considered me her appendage, a gigolo that did nothing but spend her money.

“But that’s actually true, my cowardly husband.”

“Let’s talk about it tonight.”

It was like playing an online game.

Compared to these veterans, I was just a beginner.

No matter how hard I tried, I wouldn’t be able to beat them. I, of course, had become stronger in the past 65 years, but the two beings with me had already trained a hundred, or even a thousand times more than I did.

If I was going to catch up with them, I needed to invest the same amount of time as they did.

But how long would that take?

Hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years?

I could still roughly deduce how much I had to work to catch up to the First Hero, but considering Ssosia’s age… Agh!

“You shouldn’t talk about a woman’s age,” My cowardly little wife reproached me as she hit my side.

“I can’t believe I have to live with her, President of the Universe.”

I only thought about it but was physically abused by my rude wife anyway.

I was starting to doubt the universe’s love for me!

“You should be happy. Becoming my husband is both a blessing and an honor. If not for my predicament, this would never have happened.”

“See? She’s so shameless.”

I never asked her to marry me.

The Demon Lord Pedonar forcibly appointed me as his son-in-law. Ssosia then signed all the marriage documents herself and even had the Addicted Spirit certify them so fast I didn’t even have time to speak.

Bring back my youth!

“Hey hubby, stop it. You’re starting to look and sound like a madman. The universe isn’t your friend, and it has no time to respond to your worthless complaints. All you need to think about right now is how to get out—” Ssosia grinned, but she couldn’t finish her words.

The First Hero jumped up from his throne.

“So this is the rumored patronage…”

“Unbelievable. This is a real fraud…”

It didn’t matter what they said or how hard they envied me. None of their opinions could stop the Righteous Hero’s ever-changing reality!

I wasn’t the only one affected by it, too.

“Aaaaagghh-!”

“Aaaahhhh!”

The heroes who once fought with the First Hero to protect their homeland and their honor had sunk so deep to the point that they had become nothing but interior decoration.

Now, however, they started screaming.

Fear and thirst for vengeance against my senior had accumulated in their souls.

As for me…

“I accept the deal.”

I promised to comply with their sincere request.

Pssshhhhh…

All of the heroes around us turned into experience points and were absorbed by me.

I wasn’t Master Mollan.

There were things that were beyond my control.

But I was the one and only Spirit Human.

“Become my source of strength.”

I could turn any person into my experience points.

The President of the Universe resolved all issues with my lack of skills, and Master Mollan gave me enlightenment. In addition, I had the effect of the paired rings I wore with the First Spirit.

I expressed my gratitude to the two greatest creatures who pitied me for being despised by a cowardly wife and to the drug-addicted spirit for her support!

That wasn’t all.

“I’d like to thank my wife and my senior, who, without looking away, watched my transformation.”

Fantasy’s villains were so well-mannered.

If I were in their shoes, I would’ve immediately hit my opponent’s spine the moment they showed even the slightest hint of becoming stronger.

However, since they just kept staring at me instead, I even had time to look at my updated stats.

▶ Race: United Spirit

▶ Level: 999

▶ Job: Great Sword Master (Hero = Demon Lord)

▶ Skills: Giftedness ZZZ, Divinity Z, Intelligence Z, Favoritism MAX, Immortality MAX…

▶ Status: Holy Sword, Divine, Dragon Scale

There was no change in the skills themselves.

But my race had surpassed all boundaries of common sense.

▷ Type: Race

▶ Name: United Spirit

▶ Rank: Beginner

▶ Beginner 1: Inherits the life of the Hero.

▶ Initial 2: Combines inherited lives.

▷ Feature 1: The love of the universe fades.

▷ Race 1: You are a legendary being.

The effect that allowed me to control the universe was gone.

I never really knew how to use it, but there was no denying that the universe had often

However, it seemed my overexploitation of its kindness had brought its love to an end!

It was fun to watch the meteorites the President of the Universe sent specifically for me, so it was a bit of a shame to part with it.

However, none of that mattered now.

“It’s time to become independent.”

The reason why the universe’s love had weakened was most likely because I had become too strong.

If the protagonist of novels, comics, or films constantly won, then others’ interest would begin to disappear.

That was what was currently happening with me.

“That’s quite a dangerous racial feature. Can you devour anyone and inherit their power?”

“Your eyes aren’t deceiving you.”

I consumed all the heroes that were imprisoned in this place.

Their bodies, experience points, knowledge, souls, talents…

In return, I promised I would defeat the evil ruler of the galaxy for them, but I didn’t really have to keep it.

“That’s fraudulence, Drug Hero.”

“Ha! What are you talking about? I didn’t specify when or where I should fulfill it.”

I could choose to defeat the First Hero only after 500 years had passed if I wanted to.

“Defeat me? What sparkling humor you have, my dear junior. I observed you calmly simply because I’m confident in my victory. It doesn’t matter how strong you become. You’ll always be inferior to me.”

He was deeply mistaken.

“Of all people, you should be the one most aware that all the villains who arrogantly waited for their opponent always ended up losing. You just wasted an opportunity.”

“…”

began to circle around his body.

It was only a demonstrative threat, but the power it contained was enough to erase an entire planet from existence.

“Hey, hubby, I know you both want to indulge your feelings here, but how about just apologizing and coming back?”

“I can’t just back down now.”

If Master Mollan hadn’t worked it out, I would have suffered a lot.

If I fell on my knees in front of him now, in the future, he would remind me of this moment at every opportunity.

I had to draw the line now.

“You don’t seem to understand how high the heavens are, my little successor.”

“You better not label me a coward later, senior.”

I summoned the Holy Sword Nucleon and swiftly attempted to divide his head in half, but it was never going to be that simple.

He, too, summoned his Holy Sword, causing my blade to collide against it instead.

That single clash of our weapons disintegrated the building instantly and formed a crater under us.

With just one collision, an area the size of a city was incinerated.

But this was just the beginning.

“Well, shall we continue, senior?”

“Oh, you…”

I didn’t even become 30% stronger, much less 50%.

How much more serious had my situation become since I lost the universe’s love?

From a third party’s perspective, I probably looked like I was fighting a useless battle, but that was because they couldn’t see the peculiarity of my race.

“Taste the bitterness of love and friendship of the rejected, senior.”

The heroes he had collected as trophies had now become my flesh and blood, assiduously helping me.

Individually, they were weaker than the First Hero.

But with all of them together…

“Don’t bring others into this! Fight me alone, you coward!”

The time and effort the others put in were ignorable.

However, even if one trained so hard their teeth clenched, causing them to grow stronger, they would still lose to the united loafers who trained sloppily.

Such was the irrational power of love and friendship.

I fought the way I was taught in the Fantasy World.

With one exception.

“We are one.”

We weren’t just acting together. We were united.

“We’re the champions here.”

And we would emerge as the victors.

***

“How rude!”

He invited us over, and then he kicked us out!

It made me question my senior’s character.

“Any guest would be kicked out of the house if they were making a mess out of it. Watching you display how cowardly you can be is an interesting sight, though.”

“I’ll give you a cowardly thrashing now.”

There were so many heroes in my body that I could fight against an entire army.

How could one demon fight against me?

“That’s a little scary, actually.”

We weren’t thrown to somewhere unexpected anymore. This time, we finally returned to the Dwarven Kingdom.

But there were changes to it that I immediately noticed.

“Are those… flush toilets?”

The last time I saw them on the Northern Continent, only expensive hotels or rich people’s homes had them installed since its mass installation hadn’t yet been established.

What was going on here?

Even public restrooms had them.

We weren’t even in the Northern Continent. We were standing on Island S of the Eastern Continent.

“This is not my doing. A certain amount of time has probably passed. I thought Mollan prevented the trap, but it still affected us.”

“Time has passed?”

‘Trainee Teacher, can you hear me?’

▶ Surprise: Cadet Kang Han Soo! You’re finally back! Because of your sudden disappearance, the teaching staff held meetings every day, and the elders scolded me for my negligence… Confusion dominated our daily lives.

‘Wait a minute! How many days have passed since such a fuss was raised?’

▶ Answer: Days? You’ve been missing for almost 12 years!

12 years?

We just had a little talk with the First Hero, but 12 years already passed?

I looked at Ssosia for verification. She had been by my side through it all, so she could objectively look at everything.

Stroking my teacher like a pet, she replied.

“The First Hero distorted time and space. If you hadn’t made a mess there, he would have stalled for time. Instead of twelve, a hundred and twenty years would’ve passed. That doesn’t change much, though.”

“12 years… Then the Snow Woman had probably been turned into fried chicken.”

“Aren’t you too quick to draw conclusions?”

We went straight to Malfari’s house.

I felt like we just went out for a little while, but due to my senior’s tricks, a dozen years passed.

At first glance, there were no obvious changes.

But in the garden and living room, instead of dwarves, small groups of people were visible.

Among them was a woman pretending to know me.

“Hey! I haven’t seen you in a long time, my dear boyfriend!”

Her job was Hero, but her skills and outfit would be more suitable for a wizard. Regardless, she was definitely flawless in all respects.

“Have we met somewhere before?”

“How can you forget about me, darling?! I was the student council president of the secondary education course! Still don’t remember me?”

“Hmm… I think there was such a woman.”

“This is too much! I missed you!”

Ssosia silently demanded an explanation while Master Mollan twisted in her arms. Likewise, I demanded an explanation from Trainee Teacher.

‘What’s going on?’

▶ Explanation: Due to your prolonged absence, we had no choice but to find a replacement for you.

It seemed I got fired.