Chapter 490. Toward the End (3)

War brought in money. Or more accurately, other people’s wars brought in money. In any case, there were many cases where people made great profits by selling weapons during war, so there was merit to this statement. The same was true for Liber. Of course, since the value of money had fallen sharply, having money didn’t mean much, but still, war could be seen as a mechanism providing heroes the opportunity to grow using their life as a collateral. Therefore, war could be seen as a type of currency. The more difficult the war, the more merits heroes could earn and invest in their growth.

In that sense, the survivors of the war against the Abyss hit the jackpot. Of course, compared to the previous great war, the rewards they got weren’t as great. However, considering that the Abyss was one of the four factions controlling Liber, the majority ended up raising their tier by one level at least and had some merits left over. Among them, Seven Stars hit a home run.

Most normal heroes saw the Platinum tier as their highest goal among the tiers of the growth system. Frankly, reaching Platinum tier was no easy task either. Statistically, only 1.5% of all people reached Platinum tier or higher; in other words, one had to be in the top 15 in a school with 1,000 students. Since that was the case for Platinum tier, there was no need to even mention how difficult it was to reach Master tier. However, among Seven Stars was someone who managed to overcome the extremely difficult ordeal with a chance slimmer than a needle hole. Following Chi-Woo, a second hero succeeded in reaching Master tier, and he was the first team leader of the Seven Stars—Ru Amuh.

As soon as it was known that he had risen to Master tier, all the Seven Stars members congratulated him. Of course, not everyone was sincere. There was a reason most heroes set Platinum tier as their goal; one couldn’t reach Master tier just because they wanted to. Simply building up merits was not enough. All the gods involved in the growth system participated in the screening, and the hero being assessed could only rise to Master tier after the gods reached an unanimous decision. Moreover, the hero needed to prove themselves. If even one god opposed the promotion in this process, the promotion would be suspended indefinitely.

Frankly, there had been a few other people who went through the screening besides Ru Amuh. There was second team leader Emmanuel, fourth team leader Yunael, and fifth team leader Apoline. And they all failed without exception. They had not received a unanimous vote during the screening process. Since all three of them were fierce by nature, they couldn’t accept the result and confronted the gods about it, but they all received the same answer.

[If it weren’t for him, would you have been able to come this far?]

To this question, neither Emmanuel nor Yunael or Apoline could say ‘yes’, or they would be going against their conscience. Of course, Ru Amuh had also received Chi-Woo’s help. However, in the eyes of the gods, while it was true that Ru Amuh was able to grow faster thanks to Chi-Woo’s help, he would have reached the same level on his own in due time. This wasn’t the case for the other three heroes.

Since they were well aware of how astounding the powers that Chi-Woo had given them was, they couldn’t argue against the gods. In the end, they stepped back quietly with a red face, filled with embarrassment. Thus, in their innermost thoughts, they couldn’t purely congratulate Ru Amuh’s success, who, according to the gods, had already proven himself and received a promotion after passing the screening process.

Of course, Ru Amuh was also human. He humbly bowed in response to everyone’s congratulations, but Ru Hiana clearly saw Ru Amuh smiling as soon as he heard that the other three team leaders had failed their screening process. Even though he hadn’t shown it, it seemed as if he had been bothered by how the three of them had fought over the position of second-in-command for Seven Stars before.

Anyway, this made Ru Amuh equal to Chi-Woo in terms of tier. However, no one thought they would be on equal footing because whenever there was a war or incident, the number one contributor and MVP had always been Chi-Woo. Therefore, there was no doubt that it would be the same this time, and a large gap would emerge between them again. Since Chi-Woo hadn’t gone and visited the god he served yet, they were merely waiting for the day this would be revealed.

* * *

The subject of everyone’s expectations was currently staring at the air alone in the office.

[User Choi Chi-Woo’s Merit Count: 2,120,627,735]

Chi-Woo’s total merits were around 2.1 billion. Considering that the merits he had earned during the great war was 1 billion, this was an astounding amount. A hero who was not familiar with the situation would have posed the question, ‘How did you earn even more merits than during the great war?’. But, this was understandable considering Chi-Woo’s ability and his experience in the war against the Abyss.

First of all, Chi-Woo had an ability called El Dorado’s Treasure, which allowed him to accumulate additional merits, and in addition, the Abyss King wasn’t so much a single individual but the amalgamation of countless consciousnesses. In fact, it was more accurate to say that the Abyss King was the Abyss itself. Since Chi-Woo had defeated a being like that alone, it was reasonable that he would earn such an extraordinary amount of merits. Chi-Woo tapped the message printed in the air with his index finger.

A total of 2.1 billion merits. A normal hero would have cheered and exclaimed, ‘Wow, I’m rich!’, but it wasn’t enough for Chi-Woo. Although it was not a small amount by any means, he needed a lot more to reach his goal. ‘It took 10 million merits just to raise my tier to Master, so…’ Considering that the number of merits required to reach the next tier increased by the multiples of 10, the merits needed to become Grand Master would be 100 million. If he could even aim for the final tier, the Challenger, it would probably take 1 billion. Thus, he needed 1.1 billion merits for now. Moreover, he needed to set aside around 400 to 500 million merits to recharge his almost depleted Blessed Luck to be on the safe side. All in all, he was left with 500 million merits he could use on his fostering information.

‘Well, I can’t be sure yet…’ He would only know exactly after meeting La Bella. Chi-Woo got up and kneeled on one knee, his head lowered. As soon as he opened his eyes and looked up, the world around him changed. The gods surrounded him in a white space as they did when he was promoted to Master tier.

—You’re finally here.

A deep and rough voice boomed. It was the White Horse General.

—Seriously, you should have come earlier…

Chi-Woo heard a murmur of complaint about him not coming right away after regaining his senses. Although many eyes were looking at him from all sides, Chi-Woo felt a particularly intense gaze from the front. When he looked up, he saw a goddess with a balance scale in one hand. When Chi-Woo looked at her, La Bella hastily opened her mouth.

—Well…your body…I mean…

The way she stuttered awkwardly indicated that she had something to say to him. When Chi-Woo tilted his head, he suddenly recalled the message Hawa had delivered for La Bella. He could guess what she was trying to say.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Chi-Woo smiled faintly. “I’m sorry to have troubled you, and thank you sincerely for your consideration.”

La Bella smacked her lips. She was about to say something, but—

—…Yeah…

In the end, she ended the conversation with a simple reply.

—Haha, oh my.

Then Chi-Woo heard a soft laugh.

—He does look a bit thin. I guess even the goddess of balance feels a bit bad for her follower after seeing him in person?

Mamiya smirked and continued.

—Didn’t you say that he was extremely lacking just today? I’m sure you talked about how he wasn’t bold enough when he was on the road to transcendence, and that he was clinging too much to mere matters of life and death. And if he came here, you were going to give him a stern scolding…

Mamiya quickly stopped his teasing when La Bella suddenly turned to glare at him.

—Ah! The one we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Let’s commence with the judging process then.

Mamiya immediately changed the subject, and Miho covered her mouth and chuckled.

—I’ll go first.

The White Horse General said.

—This man is aiming for a greater height, and he has proven in recent battles that he has the ability and qualifications to do so. All that was left was his will… I have nothing to point out now that he wants it. I value his will very highly. Therefore, I, the White Horse General, express my approval for the promotion of user Choi Chi-Woo to Grand Master.

The White Horse General clearly expressed his opinion.

—I concur.

Then Mamiya immediately followed suit.

—I thought about whether there were any points of concern, but thinking about it, the answer came to me easily. Is there any user of the growth system out there who can surpass this man and reach Grand Master?

Mamiya looked around as if challenging anyone to step forward and prove him wrong.

—Choi Chi-Hyun.

Then La Bella, who usually remained silent, opened her mouth.

—Isn’t he already at Grand Master?

Mamiya realized he had misspoken.

—I mean apart from Choi Chi-Hyun.

—Then you have said it correctly in the first place. Not everyone, but everyone excluding Choi Chi-Hyun.

—…Ah, yes.

Mamiya also had things to say in response to La Bella’s comeback, but held it in because he knew why she was acting argumentative. While Miho clutched her stomach and soundlessly laughed, Mamiya coughed.

—Well, in conclusion, I’m also in favor of a promotion. If I had to choose the one that best suits the title of Grand Master, I would definitely pick user Choi Chi-Woo.

—I just said…

—Ah, what I just said also included user Choi Chi-Hyun. I regarded Choi Chi-Woo more highly than him. For your information, it’s my personal opinion, so I won’t accept any argument against it.

When La Bella tried to make a snide comment again, Mamiya quickly added a disclaimer. La Bella looked frustrated, but she couldn’t say anything about it since Mamiya was complimenting her child.

—May I ask what the others think?

When he saw La Bella close her mouth, Mamiya asked triumphantly.

—I’m also in favor.

—Me too. It’s only natural. Are there even any one among us who’s against it?

Shahnaz and then Miho expressed their opinions. A few gods nodded at her words.

—Well, I like how everyone so easily gives an answer when judging this guy. When we were judging the other three, we were all on the edge of our seats.

The White Horse General said in a slightly grumpy tone.

—Yeah, it really was amazing. Since a particular someone even said during the screening process that they would rescind the vote in favor of Ru Amuh’s promotion just because another god voted against the child they sponsored.

Shahnaz added in a slightly sarcastic tone. When judging Emmanuel, Yunael, and Apoline, the gods had erupted into heated debates. Since it was also good for a god if the hero they sponsored reached a higher tier, conflicting opinions were bound to arise. However, Chi-Woo’s case was different from the others. It was no exaggeration to say that he was almost unrivaled on Liber. As a metaphor, it was as if the world’s top expert had taken a university interview test. If the gods wanted to object to his promotion, a being that had already proven himself over and over again, they needed an argument that everyone could sympathize with and understand. However, far from presenting a different opinion, the gods thought it was meaningless to even judge him.

—If everyone unanimously agreed…

Mamiya glanced at La Bella. Now, if only she agreed, Chi-Woo’s promotion to Grand Master would be formalized. However, La Bella didn’t open her mouth. Her silence seemed to be a form of protest that they had more to discuss. The same went for the other gods. No one opened their mouths carelessly, but their silence spoke loud enough. Mamiya could tell that everyone agreed with La Bella, and he smiled softly.

—I guess…it seems everyone shares the same opinion on this matter as well.

Chi-Woo looked puzzled. He wanted to hurry up and receive the special privileges for rising to Grand Master tier so that he could provoke his brother by saying that they were now equal. Moreover, the gods had been subtly fighting a battle of nerves with each other until a while ago, but the atmosphere suddenly became serious.

‘Why?’ While Chi-Woo was wondering, Mamiya opened his mouth.

—Challenger.

Chi-Woo’s eyes widened.

—What are you so surprised about?

Mamiya laughed and continued.

—Judging by the amount of merits you’ve saved up, you must have kept that in mind.

“Yes, I did…but I didn’t think it'd come out like this right away.” He had asked his brother about the Challenger tier before; at that time, his brother had told him that Challenger was not a tier that he could reach just because he wanted to. Of course, the same was true of Master tier and Grand Master tier, but he thought there were greater implications to his brother’s words.

—It’s not wrong, but…in the case of user Choi Chi-Hyun, it’s not that he couldn’t rise to Challenger tier. It’s more accurate to say that he didn’t rise further.

Mamiya continued.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

—He refused to be promoted to Challenger tier.

Chi-Woo was surprised because it was the first time he heard this. “Why?”

—Well, I don’t want to tell you on his behalf since he has his personal reasons.

This was understandable; although his brother was a human, even the gods couldn’t treat him carelessly. Instead, they respected his wishes. Thus, Chi-Woo decided to move on for now and ask Chi-Hyun later.

—Anyway, we did discuss your promotion to Challenger tier.

“Do I have to go through a separate review process? Or do I have to prove myself?”

—No, that’s not the case. The process of reaching Challenger follows a completely different trajectory.

Mamiya cleared his throat.

—First, before we discuss the terms…I have to tell you this.