Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

On the way to Section 35’s Center D Store…

“Yeah, I’ll be home soon.”

“Okay. I’ll make a lot of your favorites so hurry home!”

“I will.”

As I made my way to the general store, my Comm Link rang and I happily picked it up. After letting my mother know that I would be home soon, I entered the Store and went up to the general store.

“Welcome to Section 35’s Center D general store.”

“Show me your items.”

“Right away, sir.”

The store’s menu came up soon. I scrolled all the way down to the Stat points. I selected exactly 2,552 for now.

“Your total comes out to 2,552,000,000 golden rings.”

That was a hefty price, but I handed the golden rings over without hesitation. I had already made my decision on my way here. I invested the 8,000 Stat points I now had into STR.

==Your base STR has surpassed 60,000 points.

Your total STR points: 83,478

Your base STR points: 60,000

STR points increased by items: 15,500

STR points increased by skills: 7,677 (Shaman Ko’s Selfish Prick), 300 (King-Emperor’s Grand Dignity), 1 (Kiran’s Stat point.)==

==You will be awarded a bonus for surpassing 60,000 points in STR before anyone else.

STR will be increased by 2,000 points.

This bonus is awarded to the first person to accomplish this achievement.==

With the bonus STR points, I now had a base STR of 62k. I just needed 8 billion more golden rings to make it 70k, 72k with its bonus points. And I still had 12.5 golden rings to spend!

“Let’s do it! I’m going to do it sooner or later, so I might as well do it now.” I was only saving up golden rings to spend them on Stat points anyway. This war wasn’t over, so I needed more Stat points to get stronger. I didn’t want to push it off and end up regretting that decision. If Earth ended up losing a Section to the enemy, the Store prices were going to go up by 5%. I had no intention of letting that happen, but it wasn’t like I could outright control fate.

I bought another 8,000 Stat points right away.

“Your total comes out to 8,000,000,000 golden rings.”

As I handed over the golden rings, I started to miss the 20% VIP discount I had at Anton’s Store. Maybe I was starting to miss Anton and Marie, too. Either way, I invested the 8,000 Stat points into STR right away. After receiving the bonus messages, I opened my Stats Menu.

==Name: Lee Jiwon

Level: 1289 Death Count: 0

Title: Earth’s First Deva

HP: 29,140,700

/29,140,700 MP: 702,800

/702,800

Strength: 87,801 7,677 Agility: 48,601 Vitality: 49,501

Willpower: 6,968 Intelligence: 6,228

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Fatigue: 0

Special Effects: Luck Boost (X 1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 14 points

Physical Attack: 322,947 Physical Defense: 84,197

Magical Attack: 20,854 Magical Defense: 42,634==

“…” It was so beautiful. I took a moment to stare at it and bask in all its glory. After a while, I finally came back to reality and left the general store. Fated Crossroads was finally off its cooldown and I was planning on using it at the weapon shop, but I had something to take care of first. An annoying fly was buzzing around since I had left the dungeon.

I leisurely walked over to a man who was standing off to the side. “Just what is it that you want to know so badly?”

“!!!” The man with red irises stared at me in shock at my question.

I brought my pinky finger to my ear to scratch it. “God, you were so noisy and annoying with your incessant buzzing. What, donn’t you have something to ask me? If you’re not going to say anything, then come back when you’re ready. That is, if you can.” I had pulled out my spear before I finished talking, and I stabbed the red-eyed man. I had also already activated Mana Conversion, Warrior’s Brave Spirit, Howl of the Wolf, and Judge’s Gavel before leaving the general store. I attacked him so fast he didn’t have time to react.

==You have obtained 0 golden rings for defeating a powerful enemy.==

“Tsk. How despicable.” I really did kill him. There was no way any ordinary deva could withstand all that attack power. And like the message said, that attack had killed him, but since I didn’t get any golden rings, it wasn’t a clean death. He had some sort of ability like Angel.

“What is up with that? It’s so annoying.” I doubted he could resurrect thirteen times like Angel, but it was frustrating regardless. Why couldn’t they just die normally?

“But his eyes…they’re bothering me…” I had known of his existence for a while now, ever since I had started Survival at the Ogre Dungeon.

==What skills do you know?

Will you reveal this information?==

==What level are you now?

Will you reveal this information?==

==How many Stat points do you have?

Will you reveal this information?==

==What’s your goal?

Will you reveal this information?==

==What secrets do you have? What are your weaknesses?

Will you reveal this information?==

The fact that these messages kept appearing was confusing, but they all asked for my permission. I rejected all of the ones that I could. There were some that I couldn’t and they mostly had to do with external information about me, like my location and whatnot.

Still, I gathered that this was happening because of my Listen passive skill. I had thought that it was a dud skill after opening the Random Skill Chest at 0 skill points, and still did up until recently. All it did was allow me to hear Shaman Ko, the Dungeon Mole, and Death’s Achilles Tendon. But for the first time ever, Listen was actually useful.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that that guy’s still around!” I had ignored him on purpose, biding my time to get the jump on him. I pulled my Comm Link out and called someone from the Empire.

“How can I help, commander?”

“I’d like you to find someone for me. He has red irises, black hair, on the good-looking side, stands at about 187 centimeters, and should weigh about 75 kilograms.”

“Is he from Earth?”

“…” I didn’t know how to answer for a moment, but my instincts screamed that he was an enemy. The system had also told me that he was an enemy when I killed him.

“No, he’s from Croot.”

“I see. I’ll get right on it, sir.”

After hearing the officer’s reply, I hung up, but I didn’t move from my spot right away. He was definitely my enemy; all of the evidence pointed to that he was, which was why I attacked him without hesitation. But for some reason, I had hesitated when I tried to answer the officer. It was only for a moment, but it was bugging me because it wasn’t normal.

“Hmm… there’s something wrong here…” No matter which way I looked at it, it wasn’t right, but I couldn’t figure out why. I tightened my hold on my spear. I was not going to let him go the next time I saw him…

——

Section 92 of the Judge’s Continent…

Dunia was panting heavily, his face beet red. He really had just died. He took out an item shining with a white light from his inventory.

==Resurrection Crystal (Rank 8)

This is a crystal imbued with resurrection magic. You will receive its effects as long as it remains in your inventory.

Increase all Stats by 100 points. (No effect)

Increase VIT by 200 points. (No effect)

You will be asked to resurrect with no penalties upon death. (No effect)

Choosing to resurrect will cause the Resurrection Crystal to lose all of its effects.==

Dunia had thought that this item was useless. All it did was protect him from one death penalty. To Dunia, a single death penalty was nothing to worry about. Dunia had believed that it wasn’t worth being Rank 8. Still, he didn’t want to sell it to deities who feared death more than devas, so no matter how much they offered he had just kept it in his inventory all this time. He could at least do with the increase in his Stat points. But it had just saved his hide here on the Judge’s Continent. He frowned now that his one insurance policy was gone.

“Fine. I can acknowledge that you can kill me with one attack. I knew that when I saw you fight Angel. But how the hell did you know?” He didn’t care that he died instantly. He wasn’t very strong, thanks to Claudia, and he had seen Lee Jiwon kill Angel with just a couple of swings. But the way Lee Jiwon had just casually walked up to him and asked what it was that he wanted to know so badly had freaked Dunia out. No one on Croot knew about Dunia’s ability, so no one on Earth should know, either!

“But Absolute Trust didn’t work on him, either.” It was only for a moment, but his red eyes had locked on to Lee Jiwon’s. He had used Absolute Trust in that short amount of time. He had to, no matter how surprised he was. But all he received in return was a stab through the heart without hesitation.

“Fuck…” Dunia was afraid. The three insurance policies that could keep him alive against Lee Jiwon were all gone. Dunia no longer had an escape route for the next time they met.

“Just what in the world are you, Lee Jiwon?” Dunia stayed rooted in place for a while, thinking about the mystery that was Lee Jiwon.

——

Section 35’s Center D weapon shop…

“Activate: Fated Crossroads.” My heart was beating hard in my chest. I was about to attempt to upgrade my Harrier to Rank 10.

==Fated Crossroads has been activated.

You are presented with two paths.

Path 1: You attempt to upgrade your Heart’s Blood Harrier to Rank 10.

Path 2: You decide to not upgrade your Heart’s Blood Harrier to save your golden rings.==

==Please select one of the two paths.==

It was the same message as last time and I made the same choice as well.

“Select first path!” A video appeared before me.