Past Life Returner

Chapter 266

I wasn’t there, but I heard about Lee Tae-Han's speech as it spread throughout the city. He inspired people by claiming that I was divine, and he was making them worship me. In fact, he didn’t stop there. Perhaps it was because he had great enthusiasm for giving a speech, or it ended up working well.

I naturally found out that he was now holding a rally at the end of every night raid and pretended to be a good shepherd. Also, the assembly wasn’t limited to his city, and it was being carried out throughout the six different cities. The rituals weren’t uniform, but they were basically a cult that worshiped me.

The term ‘fanaticism’ referred to a fervid belief in a religion or idea without any thoughts of criticizing it. I had experienced how people could become brutal and stupid when they indulged in fanaticism, but I didn’t interfere with what Lee Tae-Han was doing.

I had no choice as I had expected this since I had told him the truth. For now, everyone’s survival was my main priority. If one of the cities collapsed, then I would have to face a life or death crisis. I had to admit that we needed a cohesiveness that was tighter than just mere comradeship even if we had to form a religious community to do it.

***

God had said that he would answer a prayer in three ways. One was by granting it immediately, the other was by ignoring it, and the last was by granting it slowly. The phrase, ‘Believe that what you prayed for has already been received,’ had come from there. Eric felt grateful to his god while touching his necklace hidden under this shirt collar. It was a cross necklace he had made by carving branches whenever he lost it.

“As everyone knows, our savior Odin has broken through the sixth floor. There’s only one floor left now, and tonight, we will…”

They were in the middle of a rally. Since half of the city’s members were Danish, a Danish Awakened was standing beside Lee Tae-Han as an interpreter.

Anyway, Eric only had one complaint. The time had come and a savior had finally appeared, but God’s name had been tarnished. Odin challenged the boundaries during the day by himself and defended the cities from the night raids at night. Thanks to Odin, who confronted the devil Doom Kaos alone, the stage was getting stabilized. At this time, the faith in people toward God could be strengthened if the guild leadership reminded everyone that omniscient and omnipotent God was the one who sent Odin, their one and only savior.

However, the leadership didn’t mention those points, and only praised Odin instead. The problem was that the same was true for ordinary Awakened. Everyone only looked up to him, but no one thought about who had sent this savior.

Eric plucked up his courage when people began to stand up after Lee Tae-Han’s speech ended. Eric’s loud shout caught everyone’s attention.

“Is there a single Christian among all these people?”

Eric introduced himself as he saw Lee Tae-Han shooting a glare at him.

“My name is Eric Hansen. I joined Gunnarson’s group in Act One, Stage Three.”

From the very beginning, it was obvious that Eric intended to argue over something, so people’s eyes became aggressive. They looked at Lee Tae-Han’s fingertips, waiting for his order to beat Eric up.

However, Lee Tae-Han instead replied with a calm voice without stretching out his fingers, “Do you want to die and go to heaven? If someone asks me that, I would say ‘No, I’d like to go to Valhalla[1].’ I would rather believe that Valhalla exists.”

“Is it because of Odin’s name? I’ll have an explanation for that…”

Before Eric could even finish his sentence…

“Shut up,” Lee Tae-Han’s voice rose sharply. “Are you about to say that the ruler of Valhalla is your almighty God, eh? Then, try it. That’s the funniest thing I have ever heard since coming into this world.”

Eric responded defensively, “I didn’t mean that.”

“There’s nothing else. It’s the same pun.” Lee Tae-Han smirked.

“Listen up, everyone. We, Revolucion, have no intention of disregarding the beliefs of our guild members. I don’t believe there are many people like that, but it’s your freedom to have faith in anything. However, our Revolucion’s decision is that we won’t tolerate those who try to undermine our unity! We won’t bother you from thinking inwardly, but don’t bring those thoughts out in public.”

“Can I say one last thing, please?” Eric asked.

Lee Tae-Han snapped, “If there was a god, he wouldn’t have made things this bad. Today, I’ll just give you a warning, but I’ll slice your neck next time. Got that, stupid?”

Eric shouted inwardly.

No, sir. That’s exactly why God sent Odin to us.

However, the atmosphere of the crowd was too frightening, so he couldn’t bring himself to say that. He was the only Christian there.

Then, everyone looked to one side. A shadow quickly appeared and disappeared at the entrance of the city, then a man stood in front of the Spirit that gave out the quests. It was Odin. Eric looked at him with the same awe-inspired worship as everyone else did.

From a distance, they could tell that Odin’s skin had become dull. Dark circles had sunken down into his cheeks, and there was clotted blood stuck all over his entire body. He seemed to be pressed for time, so he was pushing himself at a pace that he couldn’t afford to maintain. Eric wondered if he was sleeping at all.

For the past two weeks, Odin had appeared in the city at a similar time and vanished into the boundary area every single day. Even his scattered shadow displayed how much urgency the savior felt.

Eric murmured only to himself while looking in the direction where Odin disappeared, “In the name of Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please bless Odin, the savior. Please give him an infinite amount of strength.”

The savior wasn’t taking care of himself at all.

***

I raised my Health whenever I leveled up. Now that I had enough firepower, I desperately needed more stamina, enough to maintain my frenetic pace. Earlier, I had reached the limit of upgrading my Strength at my Challenger level rank.[2]. Unfortunately, I suffered from sleep deprivation for the past month in order to maintain the seventh level of my trait, Passion. I could only sleep for about an hour every day. I needed someone to wake me up on time, and of course, it was Seong-Il. I had never pushed my body and mind to the limit like this before. I even did my best to minimize how much I slept in the Land of the Dead, but not to this extent.

On that day, I could barely wake up.

Whoong-

Although I felt the strong wind pressure wrapping me around, I couldn’t easily open my eyes. The world was spinning.

“I couldn’t help it because you didn’t wake up.” Seong-Il said while putting me down carefully.

His dialect and the way he looked at me with pity in his eyes annoyed me. I felt an extreme pain in my temples that made my whole head throb. The nerves that stood on edge in pain were making me feel extremely negative. Even the clear sky was unpleasant to me. It was clear what would happen if I opened my mouth now. Unpleasant words full of irritation would pop out, and it’d make Seong-Il feel bad.

I suppressed the anger surging up in me and got up. Seong-Il handed me a water bottle that he had prepared in advance, but it was lukewarm. It didn’t keep me alert at all and only aggravated my discomfort. Yes, I needed to sleep. Sleep deprivation was gnawing at my very bones and sapped any positivity away from me.

However, I woke up, thinking that I would be able to reach the light pillar by finishing all the last quests on the seventh floor. Minimizing the damage to this stage was the only thing that motivated me now. That determination made me try to finish Act Two, Stage One as soon as possible.

Nothing else helped me. Not even my frequent level-ups from the massive amount of exp I got, the Master-level boxes I gained from the fourth floor, and even the Challenger boxes I would get today were no longer motivating anymore. Also, the awe-inspiring looks of those who had become fanatics and the pitying look Seong-Il had given me today weren’t supportive either. The only thing my admirers could do to help me was by not talking to me and just appreciating what I did for them.

However, everyone seemed to have a hunch that today was the last day of Act Two, Stage One. Excited shouts echoed in every city I visited. My stiff face due to my frayed nerves might have actually looked majestic to them. The noise only got louder.

“O-din!”

“O-din!”

“O-din!”

Act Two, Stage One was a frightening and painful stage. Everyone wanted this stage to end soon, but I was the one who hoped for it the most.

[The seventh-floor boundary has been destroyed.]

The moment I broke the boundary in the last section, a monster screamed and popped out along with its minions. It was the boss monster of Act Two, Stage One, and it was so powerful that usually many people in a corps were needed to fight back together.

I couldn’t even activate the Man Who Overcomes Adversity as I was severely sleep-deprived. I was half-asleep, but my body acted on reflex. It felt like something was running an external program on me. My moves were natural even though they happened before I could even think. Within my realm of Sense, I was able to use my skills at the right time without a single error occurring.

It was a mind-blowing experience. Even if I didn’t check the window or make a rough estimate of what to do, I had a grasp on my maximum attack distance and the remaining points in my defensive barriers as well as the reduced cooldown times due to effects of my items and traits. In the past, the First Evil was a pinnacle S-class Awakened, and I was now back at that same position. I had fought so many battles, and those experiences had accumulated into my body’s muscles and brain. All of that had sent me into an unbelievable state. I felt like a part of the System was melted in my body.

However, I was still suffering from terrible fatigue even at that moment. Therefore, I wanted to finish it quickly and get some sleep. Wherever this state was, I only moved mechanically like a robot.

Devi’s Sword soon sliced the monster’s head off at an incredible speed. The monster didn’t even know what had happened.

Swoosh-

The gigantic body tilted slowly and plunged to the ground.

[You have completed the quest ‘Guardian of the Light Pillar.’]

[You have destroyed the seventh-floor boundary.]

I finally saw the fucking final message as the blood from the dead boss poured down on me like a shower.

[You have leveled up.]

[Level: 534]

[Birth of Doom Man (1): 532 / 561]

[You have obtained a Challenger Box for being the first one to complete the quest.]

Items were my priority right now, and I wished I could get something on the level of Ra’s Sun Cape. It needed to be something I hadn’t gotten before. I hoped it would soothe my suffering. If the damn System had a little bit of conscience…

Are you listening? If you give me something shitty just because people on my stage worship me instead of you, I will do the same thing to you. Before doing that, think about what I have done for you. Think about who is serving your purpose!

[You have opened the Challenger Box (Item).]

So give me something I can use as my main set!

[You have gained Odin’s Golden Armor.]

1. The place where the Odin in Norse Mythology lives. ☜

2. Remember, there is a ceiling to how high one stat can be upgraded within each level rank. Basically, a person at Platinum can’t upgrade their stats above the Platinum ceiling. ☜