Chapter 356: Eighty-Third Floor, The Void (6)

[Uncover the truth, then decide. Time remaining: 45 hours 46 minutes.]

It truly resembled a grand fireworks display. The hundreds of shells continued exploding in the air, while thousands of lightning bolts crashed down, blending fire and lightning.

The thunder and explosions shook the ground, and every other sound seemed to vanish as if the rest of the world had gone silent.

Brilliant flashes and bursts of flame erupted in every direction, evoking the feeling of being inside a high-budget film scene.

He couldn’t be certain, but Kwon Su-Hyeok thought that a show of this scale on Earth would probably cost billions.

Dismissing the idle thought, he turned his gaze toward the city below. The lightning had successfully avoided civilians, and the wind spirit had deflected every shard from the blasts.

The civilians were no longer in danger.

Those who had been fleeing in terror had now stopped and stared dazedly upward. More precisely, they were looking at Kwon Su-Hyeok, who was radiating blue and golden light in the sky.

Not bad.

He could feel an immense surge of divinity flowing into him.

Right after slaying the queen, he had absorbed Unrefined Divinity, and this influx was nearly equivalent in scale. With mana accumulating steadily in his gauntlet, he brimmed with power.

All the monsters that had breached the city were now dead. The only remaining forces remained on the outskirts, but even they had begun to retreat.

They had lost control after the death of their supreme commander, the queen.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one. As the alien species had told Kwon Su-Hyeok, there were many queens.

Contrary to their assumption, however, power wasn’t equally divided between these queens.

The woman he had just fought was the true queen. The rest were created solely to manage the subordinate monsters.

Now what do I do about this?

He silently watched the retreating monsters. There were still a considerable number of them.

From the forward base to this moment, he had never seen so many of one species gathered in one place. Although Earth’s population was in the billions, he hadn’t witnessed them all in one spot.

Do I pursue them or not?

In any case, the monsters were fleeing toward the dimensional gate they had arrived through.

According to what he had heard from the chairman, these gates appeared and disappeared sporadically. The one that had just appeared was on the outer perimeter of the capital’s defense headquarters.

Kwon Su-Hyeok couldn’t help but feel a twinge of bitterness.

Now that I know the full story, it is clearly a trap.

That only reinforced his earlier assumption.

These gates didn’t simply appear at random. Every one of them had been deliberately orchestrated by the Void. Like baiting prey by pretending to be vulnerable, they had endured attacks for a while, only to spring a massive trap in return.

While hovering in the air, Kwon Su-Hyeok organized his thoughts.

I shouldn’t chase them.

With the apostle gone, they would continue to fall back. There was no real point in continuing. Even if he excelled at large-scale annihilation, chasing after them now would be a waste of time.

He had already gathered plenty of mana in his gauntlet. Even if pursuing them would allow him to collect more, it didn’t sit right with him. No matter how mindless these creatures were, slaughtering them indiscriminately felt wrong.

Then again, precisely because they were mindless, they simply followed orders. Killing the ones inside the city had been unavoidable, as some were in the midst of baring their fangs at civilians.

Still, climbing the tower had shifted Kwon Su-Hyeok’s perspective.

And besides, I discovered something more important.

The revised trial had tasked him with uncovering the truth and making a choice. He had, in fact, done both, revealing the truth and choosing to protect the people of this world. He had slain the apostle and saved the city from the monsters, but it wasn’t over yet.

The trial still hadn’t ended, which told him everything he needed to know.

There are no more enemies.

He had killed the apostle. The only greater enemies were the gods themselves, but the tower wouldn’t allow one to descend.

That left only one possibility: there were still people left in the Void’s forward bases.

Technically, the trial had asked him to choose, but that choice had practically been predetermined from the start.

Kwon Su-Hyeok had always believed the eighty-third floor would allow him to build more faith. By that logic, his next move was clear. He would rescue the remaining people in the Void and clean up the aftermath, earning their favor in return.

The tower probably left the choice open in case whoever discovered the hidden mission lacked the strength to kill the apostle or drive out the monsters.

He organized his thoughts.

There was no time to waste. From everything he had been told, that wasn’t the only forward base. He needed to evacuate everyone from those bases, as well. No one could predict how the retreating monsters would react now that their apostle was gone.

First, Doppy.

He opened a portal leading to the forward base he had initially arrived at.

Through it, he saw a sky still filled by lightning and a swarm of shadows rising from the ground. Even though the queen was dead, the monsters here hadn’t stopped their assault—they simply hadn’t realized what had happened yet.

Their apostle had perished in another dimension, and not enough time had passed for the other queens to relay that information.

Kwon Su-Hyeok poured more mana into both the lightning and the shadows, then began searching for Doppy.

He found him on the western side of the base, standing inside Shadow Veil and clutching a signal beacon with wide eyes.

As Doppy sensed the portal’s energy, he turned his head. His tense face brightened with relief.

Meanwhile, the soldiers still firing from the fortress stared at Kwon Su-Hyeok with mouths agape. They were clearly shocked by both the sudden appearance of a portal and the reemergence of a god they thought had vanished.

Kwon Su-Hyeok calmly addressed them, “From here on out, I’ll handle this. Everyone, start moving. Go.”

***

Evacuating everyone from the first forward base took considerable time. The base was fairly large, and gathering those scattered across its perimeter proved to be annoying.

Even though I had clearly stated my intent, some people refused to put their weapons down because of the nearby monsters. Fortunately, the monsters unexpectedly stopped their assault midway and retreated, which made the process easier.

The real issue lay with the people hiding in the basement. When I returned, they scattered and hid again.

Finding them wasn’t a problem, but collecting them one by one was a pain.

Thankfully, Master of Shadows allowed me to restrain each of them individually and shove them through the portal.

Unfortunately, herding the surviving individuals within the other bases was even more challenging. Moreover, they had established even more forward bases in the Void than I had expected. Traveling between locations within the Void was easy thanks to the dimensional gates, but everyone who hadn’t seen me fight refused to listen.

It made sense, though. Any sane person would resist a stranger appearing and demanding that they suddenly leap through a portal.

When they pointed their guns at me, I simply summoned the chairman through a portal and forced them to cooperate.

Still, some mistook me for a kidnapper and tried to attack me, forcing me to subdue them.

Even if I gained some divinity in the end, this was an exhausting process.

On top of everything, the flood of questions was relentless.

People from the first base kept asking who I was and whether I was really a god.

I hadn’t bothered answering them. Speaking would only break the mystique. Also, I wasn’t about to reveal my true identity either.

Even after I transported everyone, the questioning didn’t stop.

They saw the half-destroyed city and asked what in the world had happened.

I didn’t explain that, either.

In the end, after several hours, I transported everyone from the Void back to this place. Once I had assured that no one remained, I immediately took the chairman to the central government hall.

I had shielded the hall and the dimensional gate with lightning so that no one would be able to escape.

What will come next?

I shifted my gaze to one side.

The chairman was kneeling on the ground, head bowed before a camera, tears dripping down his cheeks.

Given the world’s advanced technology, its broadcast system was highly developed. I decided to make use of that.

Through the windows of the central hall, holograms projected the image of the chairman kneeling in various corners of the city.

“I... I’m truly sorry...”

Tears streamed down his face as he repeatedly apologized, following it up with a full confession of the incident’s true cause. Whether he meant it or whether it was simply a desperate plea for survival, I couldn’t tell.

Even I couldn’t peer into the depths of a person’s heart.

Though I remained inside the government hall, I could still feel the noise of the citizens’ reactions rippling through the city.

Angry shouts echoed like a rising tide. They were on the verge of starting a full-scale riot.

Well.

I wasn’t too concerned. I had already subdued the city’s military forces. They were disarmed, so the civilians wouldn’t be harmed.

The reverse was also true. The area surrounding the hall was protected by a barrier, and apparently, something was kept in place as a last resort.

That was why they had fired missiles within the city.

They figured they could just escape through the dimensional gate afterward.

Honestly, I didn’t care much either way. As far as I was concerned, it was a citizen’s right to hold corrupt leaders accountable.

However, I went out of my way to seal this place off because of one concern. During a riot, indiscriminate violence could easily erupt—for instance, against the soldiers.

How much blame can one really put on a low-ranking soldier?

One of my friends who had served as a riot-control policeman had shared the hardships of the role. According to him, people in his role were universally hated.

Though this wasn’t necessarily the same situation, the sentiment still applied. The guilt didn’t lie with those who had fought on the front lines, putting their lives on the line; the blame lay with the commanding officers.

The chairman would be judged by the people, but even that judgment had to be carried out through lawful and proper procedures. The people here still had a future ahead of them, after all.

This was their capital.

If a rebellion broke out, military forces from other cities could intervene, and that could lead to an even greater catastrophe.

Even after I leave, any punishment should be legal and humane.

Of course, I didn’t mean to say I couldn’t understand why the people wanted the chairman dead.

This should be enough.

I cut off my train of thought.

The broadcast was still running, and the chairman had spent over five minutes repeating nothing but apologies.

The person holding the camera had been staring at me for a while, clearly asking what to do next. Of course, I had noticed their gaze for some time now.

The noise outside was growing louder. I could see people pounding on the barrier. There was a mother holding the bloodied body of a child, and a man drenched in blood from head to toe. Even the soldiers inside the barrier had started banging on the doors, enraged by the broadcast.

It was only natural. Their comrades and family had been sacrificed, so of course, they were angry.

I turned away from the window and met the eyes of the person behind the camera. I nodded, signaling them to keep filming.

Then I stepped forward.

After standing before the camera, I kicked the kneeling chairman hard in the chest.

“

Ugh!

”

He collapsed with a choked cry and toppled over. The crowd that had been clamoring moments ago fell instantly silent.

I took my place in front of the camera.

Huh. Should I call this a press conference?

It was my first time on a broadcast, but I didn’t feel nervous. It wasn’t like this was my first time speaking before tens of thousands of people. I had done the same for the climbers on several occasions—including the Koshark—before leading them into battle.

I cleared my throat. “Good day, citizens. This is Kwon Su-Hyeok speaking.”