Chapter 102: Dear God, Please Don’t Test Us

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[Quest: Mid-tier Malevolent God Promotion (In Progress)]

Normal sacrifice: 122,234,124(↑)/10,000,000,000

Sacrifices of S-rank or higher intelligent beings with the potential for transcendence: 20 (Apostle of Fire Shining in the Highest Skies+10)/100

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Clink clink!

The number of normal sacrifices and Godcoins was growing at an alarming rate!

I forgot to mention this, but defeating the fireball apostle greatly increased the number of S-rank sacrifices. At that time, I was overwhelmed by the requirement to sacrifice 100 of them.

At this rate, I’d be promoted to a Mid-tier Malevolent God in no time!

I knew it! Mobile games were all about auto-modes! I switched perspectives to see how others were doing. Firstly, the Tower of Warriors where Il-Ho was. After awakening his ultimate skill and defeating the White Dragon, he resumed his grind. Soon, he reached the 39th floor, where a bizarre-looking monster awaited. A lion and goat hybrid, with a snake for a tail...

[39th Floor of the Tower of Warriors.]

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[Chimera]

A male. Around for 1,400 years.

Special note: An apostle of Beast of Deceit and Rapacity.

-----

I clearly remembered seeing that monster before?! It was Chimera, the S-rank monster! They didn’t appear often, but I’d researched them for a Hunter genre novel before. Moreover, I recognized the god in the special note. Didn’t one of the apostles in the holy war worshiped it?

-Come, evil monster! I, Il-Ho, shall punish you in the name of God Yu Il-Shin!

Muuuuscles!

Compared to Il-Ho, a mere ant, the monster was like a vast mountain. Furthermore, there were

three

of them. In spite of facing such formidable foes, Il-Ho wasn’t fazed in the slightest.

“

Haaaap!

Ultimate skill, Super Strong Body!”

Flick! Flick!

Like the scene in

Antman

, the tiny Il-Ho moved at a tremendous speed, toying with the monsters.

“

Kekeke!

I can’t wait to rip your heads off!” Il-Ho laughed hysterically as he tore the Chimera’s snake tail.

Both the lion head and the goat head roared in agony at the same time.

-

Gaaaaaah!

-

Kieeeek!

...Scary. Okay, let’s stop watching.

I probably didn’t have to worry about him for a while. It shouldn't be long before he reaches the 50th floor.

Although the Tower of Warriors consisted of 100 floors, I heard one could get out of the tower after reaching the 50th one.

Good luck, Il-Ho.

I shouldn’t disturb him. I accessed the God’s Shop and purchased a set of the Blessings of the Growth God, before sending it to him. Il-Ho would only get even stronger at this rate. He had also gained considerable popularity in the novel I was currently working on. It’d be great to write a detailed account of his battles in the tower someday.

How’s Anty doing recently?

It’d been over a week since I left her with Akdol. I touched the screen, and was brought to another scene.

[The Holy Nation of Gayami]

After I’d solved their food shortages, the Gayami Nation had been steadily developing without any issues.

Chatter chatter—Flap flap!

Refugees who’d fled the empire flooded the entrance to the city. Angel soldiers diligently roamed across the sky, saving people from all over the continent. Just then, there was an uproar among the refugees.

“Oh! It’s the Saintess! She’s so beautiful!”

“Hey! Stop calling her that! You should refer to her as Her Majesty!”

“Look! Empress Anty is riding her new divine beast!”

A beautiful, cute girl in a snow-white dress appeared, with a garland of glowing flowers as her crown.

Thump thump!

Anty rode Akdol, leisurely waving her hand to everyone like the Queen of Amazon. Also, look at how fat Akdol had gotten. That wasn’t a crocodile, but a squishy toy. Anty must’ve been feeding him quite well, seeing that he was ten times larger than his original size. But well, he was just inherently bigger than the ants, so I wasn’t that surprised.

The refugees didn’t seem to share my sentiment. When Akdol bared his teeth at them, the wingless bees and ants helplessly fell to the ground.

“

Eek!

Divine beast! Please help us!”

“

Argh!

Look at those ferocious teeth!”

Akdol snorted and smirked, seemingly loving their reactions.

“Hey Akdol! You shouldn’t be frightening people like that!” Anty smacked Akdol on the head with her rod, and Akdol grunted in pain. “You’re a good boy, right? Be nice, Akdol.”

After patting Akdol on the head, Anty pulled out a trout and fed it. Akdol scarfed it down. He must be planning it all along!

“Welcome, everyone! To the Holy Nation of Gayami, abundant with blessings from the great and merciful God Yu Il-Shin!”

“

Waaaah!

” Cheers erupted from all sides.

Anty calmed them down with twinkling eyes. “

Hehe.

I’d like to share a piece of good news with all of you today!”

Then, Anty enthusiastically spread the fantastic greatness and marvelous deeds of Yu Il-Shin, the punishments he meted to the imperial army and the apostles, and of my angel soldiers and skull chickens.

I finally witnessed her aptitude for myself.

“Now, everyone, put all your faith in God Yu Il-Shin! Let us scream together! God Yu Il-Shin

puck puck!

”

“G-God Yu Il-Shin puck puck!”

“

Waaaah!

Puck puck!

”

Yes, her aptitude

—as a cult leader, that is!

Meanwhile, bored by Anty’s speech, Akdol yawned, absentmindedly looking at the sky.

Flinch!

Suddenly, our eyes met. I was watching them in secret, but could he see me?

Shudder!

Seeing how Akdol shivered, that should be the case. I raised my index and middle fingers to my eyes, then pointed them at him, signaling that I was always watching. So, he better be mindful of his actions.

Akdol nodded vigorously, so he must’ve understood me. Seeing Anty doing well, I was about to turn to leave when...

Ding!

Along with the notification, a menu popped up with the

New!

mark on it.

What’s that?

[With the growth of the Gayami nation and the promotion of God Yu Il-Shin to a Low-tier God, the Auto-Nomination menu has been activated.]

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[Auto-Nomination]

Gods never have enough time to keep a watchful eye on their followers, especially when their reach has expanded into a kingdom. This menu is designed for those busy gods.

By activating Auto-Nomination, Facility Expansion and Race Evolution will be executed automatically during the god’s absence, at the cost of Godcoins and divine power.

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“Oh, seems handy.”

If it could be of help to my followers in my absence, why not?

I activated it immediately.

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[Adjust the percentage of Godcoins and Divine Power to be used for the Auto-Nomination.]

0============100% (Gcoin)

0============100% (Divine Power)

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A scroll menu appeared.

Hmm.

I pondered for a few moments, before setting both options to 90%. I could set them to 100%, but the Race Evolution held me back. I’d faint if I used too much divine power, just like when I evolved Lilith into an Archangel.

Ding!

[You have adjusted both Godcoins and Divine Power to 90%.]

[You currently have 20 million Godcoins, 9,000p of Low-tier Benevolent God divine power and 9,000p of Low-tier Malevolent God divine power.]

[Every 1p allows Race Evolution for 1 of your people.]

[Auto-Nomination has been activated.]

The number of Godcoins in the status window at the top rapidly decreased. I could feel my energy being drained as well. I lost 90% of my divine power from each title, totaling 9,000p. This meant each title held around 20,000p of divine power.

That was enough to evolve about 20,000 citizens at once. Back then, I blacked out after evolving about 100 Gayamis. I guess I could say that I’d grown a lot.

It’d be best if I could evolve even further. With stronger soldiers, I could better protect Anty and the Gayami nation. Sighing, I closed God-Maker.

Flash! Rumble!

Just then, with a flash of lightning, a girl appeared on the rooftop.

“Oh! There you are!”

It was Sung Mi-Ri. It’d been a few days since I last saw her. Now officially recognized as an S-rank Hunter, Sung Mi-Ri had been filling in for Sung Mi-Na for a while now.

“It’s been a while, Ms. Sung Mi-Ri. How is your sister doing these days? Is there any improvement?”

“Yes, she’s doing much better now. According to the doctor, she should be able to resume activities as a Hunter after a few more treatments.”

“That’s great to hear.”

After being consumed by my Night Rose, Sung Mi-Na's mind had regressed to that of a toddler. During her time with me, she gradually recovered to the mental age of a middle schooler. However, progress had been slow ever since, so we decided to leave her in psychiatric care.

Of course, I was also somewhat anxious. Would she try to kill me again like before? But after all the time we’d spent together... she probably wouldn’t...

right?

I’ll put my trust in you, Guardian. Haven’t we become quite close?

“Oh right, Mister. Mr. Lee Geun-Wook is looking for you.”

I hadn’t heard of his name in an awfully long time.

He was the original homeroom teacher of the Hunter Academy’s high school division Class 3-A. In the aftermath of our duel, he had to stay in the hospital for a while to recover. According to him, being a teacher wasn’t just about teaching students. It also came with various other duties, such as keeping journals and submitting documents to their superiors, just like average salaried workers.

Now that the original teacher had returned, I, the substitute teacher, was extremely idle. It was the same as Sword Demon, my temporary teacher assistant. He’d started an isolated training after the humiliating defeat he suffered at Shin Yoo’s hands.

Moreover, there was also the fact that a crocodile apostle had recently attacked the academy. I was worried that I might be laid off soon. But then, Lee Geun-Wook came to see me.

“Why is he looking for me?”

“He wants you to help supervise the exams.”

Supervise exams?

***

“...I’ll trust you with this then, Mr. Yoo.”

“Yes, you can rest easy, Mr. Lee Geun-Wook. Leave it to me!”

“Thank you.”

Before he left, Lee Geun-Wook briefly glanced at me. Heavy, dark eye circles. Slumped shoulders. He must be exhausted from the amount of workload.

I should do my best as an exam supervisor! I don’t want to get fired!

But in reality, there wasn’t much for me to do. I supervised the students through a giant monitor as they each wore a helmet and battled monsters.

-

Haaap!

Thunder Punch!

-Freeze, you monster!

As a matter of course, the students, who aspired to become Hunters, had to fight monsters. Nevertheless, since it was a simulation, it felt more like a VR game that used to be popular in webnovels back in the day.

Of course, this was just a warm-up. The real deal would be the dungeon exercise next week. Today was supposed to be a session for us to assess the students’ combat skills prior to the actual test.

...Still, the monster they were fighting right now, it looked extremely familiar.

-

Kieeek!

...Why?

The monsters that roared ferociously, attacking the student, were red ants.