Vol 2. Chapter 66: The Salvation of God (3)

“Keugh---!”

“Now, one more time.”

“No! This is the limit! I just heard a muscle tear in my arm! It hurts! I can feel a sharp pain!”

He shook his head while speaking in an urgent voice.

“It will hurt more when you’re getting beaten up by an ogre.”

“The test is soon, so if you keep working me like this…! Uagh! W, what the hell is with this method? Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights/ Why does it need so much Life Energy! Why do I need to train like this!?”

Jae-seok whined while hanging from a steel bar. 300-kilogram rings were attached to each of his legs, and he was trembling even more than usual. I observed him for a moment before checking the time. It was 5 A.M. The easy difficulty of level 10 would begin in two hours. So to finish things off, I struck the air lightly.

Woong!

Vibrations containing about 5 tons of force poured down on him.

“Heup!”

In an instant, Jae-seok’s face turned red. To be precise, it wasn’t only his face that turned beet red.

Woooong-!

His entire body was shrouded in a red light as if an LED lamp was shining down on him. The vibrations I shot towards him disappeared as soon as it made contact with the red light.

“Hooh. You received it with red? Not bad at all.”

The power of red was the ability to absorb vibrations and store them in the body. Red was the most fundamental color of the seven, and it was the most basic means of accumulating vibrations in the body. However, the fact that he managed to trigger red instead of green, which was a defensive technique, meant that his proficiency with Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights was reaching the levels of a master, surpassing an expert.

“Heugh… Hak! At least! It’s! Vibrations! Heuagh!”

Boom!

Jae-seok fell to the floor in exhaustion. I looked at the gasping fellow and thought,

‘He’s much more talented than I thought. No, rather, at this level… He’s strangely talented. He’s basically on the level of a genius.’

Jae-seok did not possess any talent for spirituality, so he couldn’t even receive a Life Energy implant. But now, he was showing such explosive growth.

‘Well, since the time inside the stage flows completely different from reality, so in a way, he is going through a tremendous number of real-life battles and various experiences every day. Maybe he will surpass level 20 someday too.’

I inserted a needle into Jae-seok’s body, and a tattoo approached the side of the needle. He was completely distraught through the whole process and lay there without reacting.

That was right. The tattoo inched even closer and revealed itself to me.

“Hmm.”

It was a vivid image, as if it were alive. In the picture, Jae-seok was walking around the classroom with other burly guys, and his classmates cowered and trembled.

That was not all.

Looking closer, there was a tattoo of a child secretly drinking alcohol, a tattoo of him saying harsh words to others, and tattoos that revealed the malicious comments he left on the internet. After belatedly coming to his senses, Jae-seok smiled bitterly while looking at the tattoos.

“That’s when I was playing bully in middle school. I got into a few fights as well, but… I didn’t think it was evil, but I guess it was.”

“It’s still meager.”

“That’s true.”

Among the different images, the tattoo that Jae-seok mentioned was the most distinct and the largest. Even so, it was still smaller than a fingernail. The color was blurred so it was hard to make out at first glance, and the rest of the tattoos had even lower definitions. They could only be called dots, hence they could only be described as meager or miscellaneous crimes.

“It’s funny if you think about it.”

“What is?”

“I committed murder as well. I placed a bomb inside a living man’s stomach and detonated it.”

He was talking about the war in Gwanghwamun. It was said that Jae-seok had been the one who bombed the black wizards who rebelled against the Lee Family after deserting to the Zhu Family.

“You did it personally?”

“I wasn’t in a situation to order people. They had been treating me like a servant for a long time and they had revealed a gap that could only be utilized by me.”

Jae-seok wiped his body with a towel and clothed himself in outer garments that was next to him.

“I did it at the risk of my own life because it was necessary. Kyung-eun finished them off, but murder is still murder. But… Ha.”

When his shirt covered his arm, the tattoo slowly moved to the back of his hand. I could feel its eagerness to reveal its existence somehow.

“Homicide is not considered an evil act, but a playful bluff from my childhood is a bad thing.”

Jae-seok muttered as if he could not understand, but I could roughly guess the reason behind the differentiation after witnessing the ‘voting’ process in Juan’s Curtain of Ignorance.

‘The majority of people were inclined to treat his actions as justifiable. Since the object of murder was evil, it could have been considered a good deed.’

“Do you feel that it’s unreasonable?”

“How can a god who has never been seen nor heard judge humankind at will? And to think it’s taken such a form as well. This could completely shatter the social system. I am fine because I’m young and don’t have many evil deeds engraved on my body, but…”

The situation would be different with those in the upper class since they lived with wealth and power for a long time – especially his grandfather, the chairman of Ilsung Group, a leading Korean conglomerate.

“Young master!”

The door of the public training room slammed open and a man hurried inside.

“What’s going on?”

“The chairman wants to see you immediately.”

“Oh, as expected.”

Jae-seok sighed deeply, then looked at me.

“Then good luck. Make sure you pick me when you have extra clears.”

“You can fight for yourself and win.”

“How could I beat a level 10 ogre warrior in a head-to-head battle? The intermediate difficulty is more doable for people like us. Easy is literally impossible.”

I looked at Jae-seok as he grumbled before leaving the training room. I planned to fill up my stomach before proceeding to the next stage.

“It’s empty.”

It’s not just this place either. The whole world is rattled and locking themselves up. It’s rather amazing that there are no riots taking place in this brutal atmosphere. Is it because there are a lot of deaths?

“Oh. Come to think of you, you didn’t hear the announcement.”

An announcement? From the stage?

“No. From the new boomers.”

I relayed what I experienced in the Curtain of Ignorance to Genie and Ares. I told them of the discussions, the war of words, and the voting process that only I witnessed.

That is why people are getting weird tattoos and have strangely long noses.

Genie seemed to finally understand the situation, but Ares expressed his bewilderment.

Showing everyone people’s bad actions and giving them disadvantages? Does he think he’s the king of hell or something? He’s not planning to make some sort of heaven and hell as well, right?

“You never know. From his actions so far, he might actually do something crazy like that.”

As I walked, I found Gyeongbokgung Palace to be surprisingly empty. However, it wasn’t quiet, as I could see countless court ladies busily carrying around an armful of lunch boxes all over the place.

“…Hello.”

Seon-ae walked up in her court lady uniform and stood behind me. But she gave off a different impression than usual.

“Huh? Your nose…”

“Don’t talk about it.”

Funnily enough, her nose was very sharp and straight. So sharp and straight, in fact, that it looked to be about seven to eight centimeters long.

“Great nose.”

“I said to not talk about it… Rather, why are you fine? Have you never lied or done something bad in your life?”

As she said, my nose was no different from usual and I had no tattoos on my body.

‘Considering that I didn’t really live a truthful life, I guess I received a pretty generous judgement.’

Of course, I might have been spared because I was a ‘Newborn Son’, just as the intermediate gods had said, but Jae-seok also had a normal noise as well.

‘Even though he wasn’t always truthful throughout his life either.’

In fact, I knew many instances where he had lied. How could I not, when I had known him for such a long time? He once forged his report card and lied about his father’s occupation. I could not count the number of times he skipped school while making excuses about his grandfather, the Ilsung Group’s president. But wasn’t his nose just fine?

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

‘I guess I didn’t see anyone talking about lies when I was in that world.’

Perhaps truth used a different method of voting than justice.

“Double portions.”

“W, what? How are you so fine?”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? In the squasre, you…”

“Just give me the meal.”

“…Yes, well.”

I sat down after receiving a mountain of pork cutlet rice from the lady, who was stuttering with shock. I could hear people whispering around me.

“Wow, look at the atmosphere. It’s even more desolate compared to when people were dying in the hundreds of millions.”

“When they were dying in millions, it didn’t concern them. This time, it does.”

“Even so, is it so bad that they can’t leave their rooms? I personally thought that the judgement was more relaxed than expected.”

As expected, the topic of conversation was the three new gods and their judgements.

‘Everyone’s so calm though.’

In other words, those who could come to have their meals with such dignity were those who were recognized by the three gods as possessing more sincerity and goodness compared the average. If they could hold their heads high in front of a globally shocking event such as this, they were in the situation to observe and talk about the situation from a step away.

“But I don’t know. I didn’t live a very good life and I lied a lot.”

“The atmosphere in Gwanghwamun Square yesterday was no joke. Some people had a nose over a meter long. The politician who was encouraging people had dozens of tattoos on his body.”

I scooped up the rice while eavesdropping on their conversation. But at some point, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.

“It’s the princess.”

“You idiot. Don’t you know that the lady doesn’t like that title?”

“Well, yeah. But wasn’t Lady Kyung-eun a part of the Adjudicators? I don’t see any tattoos.”

“Maybe punishing evil isn’t counted as an evil deed.”

“Even so, it’s still murder.”

I was certain that Kyung-eun could hear the whispering voices, but she paid them no attention and calmly received her food tray before sitting in front of me. She was dressed lightly as always.

As soon as she sat down.

Pat!

Suddenly, the chair transformed. The original chair, which was luxurious but modest in design, suddenly changed into a steel chair with a sharp design.

“Hmm? What’s wrong with your chair?”

Kyung-eun looked rather puzzled at my question.

“Rather than asking me what’s wrong with my chair, you should be telling me why your chair is fine. Why is it normal? Is it because of the mask?”

I thought back when she mentioned the word mask.

“Is it honor?”

The three gods had declared in the Inner World.

Those who acted with injustice will not be able to conceal it from anyone. It will be engraved in their bodies.

Those who liked will not be able to conceal it from anyone. Their noses will be elongated.

Those who were dishonorable will not be able to conceal it from anyone. They shall not sit and lie in peace at any place, any time.

Come to think of it, there was punishment for being dishonorable as well.

“Are you dishonorable?”

Kyung-eun became furious at my words.

“Of course not! The dishonorable people get spikey or tiny chairs, not a nice chair like mine. It’s rather the opposite. This is a symbol of honor.”

Kyung-eun spoke in a proud voice, and I took another good look at her chair. Her chair was made of steel and had a sharp design. I immediately thought of something.

“…No way, is it Iron Rank?”

“Wow, you’re quick to notice. That’s right. I heard people giving reports to my sister. People who receive respect and love are given a rank.”

“Then who are the dishonorable people? Sinners?”

“Criminals are included. Any famous serial killers or child rapists literally cannot lie or sit down. But technically, the standard of judgment is a little different from justice. Even evil people are given thrones of a high tier if they are recognized for their skills or abilities. It seems that people who have been despised and ignored are being counted as dishonorable.”

“For example?”

“Distasteful politicians, businessmen, religious figures. Commentators, far-right cartoonists, et cetra. Basically people who were disliked. Well, there are some people who certainly deserved it. Some just didn’t know how scary the world was, and now they are getting beaten up by karma.”

Kyung-eun sighed.

“Some people deserved it, but now there’s a ton of work to do. Society as a whole is on the brink of collapse.”

I nodded while chewing on a big piece of pork cutlet.

“Yeah. I guess that’ll happen.”

Even though deaths from the stage numbered in tens and hundreds of millions, society operated relatively normally. How could such a thing be possible? It was because the dead were the losers of society. They were people who were judged to be of little importance to society, people who lacked abilities and didn’t have any connections to rely on. They were the first ones to die.

Even though it was cruel… the deaths of such people did not have a significant impact on society. But it was different now.

The people who could live without any problems – the ones who committed countless wrongs and lied to millions – they were the people in power, the ruling class, the rich.

“That’s right. The bad guys aren’t showing their faces.”

Paradoxically, the problems began to arise in the social system when those who were unjust, untruthful, and dishonorable panicked and stopped their activities. It wasn’t that they were a necessity to society, but that their position granted them a huge influence.

“Unni is still busy meeting all kinds of influential people. I spent the entire day patting the backs of people involved in my line of work! I was missing my bed after spending so much time in the stage, but I guess I’m going to have to sleep in the stage!”

Kyung-eun pointed to the TV while lamenting.

“Look at that. You don’t even have to see them to know the fates of the journalists and announcers.”

The TV she pointed at was repeatedly playing the stage guide that I had filmed.

‘It doesn’t make sense if you think about it.’

A new event was occurring in Earth every single day. Why was the news playing a re-run of a guide when they should be talking about the latest developments and events? It was evidence of how panicked the broadcasting officials were.

But it was then.

Hello. I’m Seok Jeong-in

The screen changed and a familiar announcer appeared.

His appearance was comical, with a nose over 50 centimeters long and a smudged face.

This morning after the end of the second test of level 9.

He spoke.

I tried to kill myself.