Chapter 217. Exodus (1)

---

“Phew…”

Hansoo got up as he felt the pain from his creaking body.

‘…I lived huh.’

He felt like he was going to die when he had been crushed by the silver liquid but it seems he had survived and came up.

Hansoo first checked his body before checking his surroundings.

And then sighed.

‘…It seems not even 10% of my original strength can be used.’

It wasn’t from the damage to his body.

It was from his body that had been altered for that single attack.

Of course a body for a single attack was not a good body for fighting.

Since it wasn’t like he was going to lay down after a single strike of his spear.

‘Houp!’

Hansoo breathed in deeply and then started to forcibly change the parts of his body.

With his hands and brute strength.

Uuudududuk.

Duduk.

Kaddduk.

He released the twisted muscles and refit the bones and joints.

He massaged his veins and used pressure to reconfigure his spine.

Hansoo quickly reconfigured his body to how it was he had used the Nine Dragons Spear.

Though the Racial Metamorphosis had run out, the Mana Jade, Body Enhancement Surgery and the Dragon Essence Blade quickly healed the damaged cells and injuries.

Crunch!

Hansoo hit his spine by his neck, reconfigured the twisted structure and then nodded as he figured out the reason for all those twisted changes after moving his body around a bot.

And then smiled.

A skill for which one needed to even shift and twist their own bodies to use.

There was a huge risk.

But the reward was much larger.

The power.

Anybody at similar levels as him would die from just a single hit.

A single strike of ultimate destruction that cannot be dodged or blocked.

And even more so since Hansoo’s original battle style revolved around a single deadly strike.

‘This is good too.’

Whooosh!

A red powder flew out from the end of Hansoo’s hand.

Integration.

The evolved form of the Pandemic Blade which he had been able to use by borrowing the strength of the Mana Engine in the past.

Though he wouldn’t be able to use it in a huge area since the Mana Jade was a weaker version of the Mana Engine, the fact that he could use it like this was good enough.

Hansoo checked the status of his body and then activated the Fragment of Seven Souls.

He needed to check the situation below.

Oooooong.

The owner of the soul fragment in the Yellow Zone, Khan, started to speak.

— Are you okay? We were worried, it has already been three days.

Hansoo made a bitter expression at those words.

For him to be unconscious for 3 days.

‘I really should be careful when I use it.’

Hansoo then started to ask about the situation:

— Any casualties?

Khan nodded as he replied.

Everything had been taken care of completely below.

A tremendous shock wave was created from the explosion of the Gael-Tara, not much damage had come their way since it happened deep below the sea.

Though the seaside had become a mess, nobody lived there anyway so there were no issues.

10 Satellite Fortresses were more than enough for control.

— What about the sages?

Khan chuckled as he responded.

— That… the 1st rank ones got beaten up to death. By the 3rd and 4th ranked ones. It seems like they had forced them to sacrifice their lives by deceiving them. This was found out and it was all fruitless so…

— The surviving ones?

— They didn’t have any power left so they accepted to stay in isolated areas. There were too many who had sacrificed their souls so… there aren’t many that are alive. Maybe they’ll be useful for repairing and maintenance of the Satellite Fortresses.

This wasn’t bad at all.

As Hansoo nodded.

Khan hesitated but then spoke.

— Uh… I don’t think anybody will be able to come up for a while.

According to what he had heard, humongous tornadoes and tsunamis were happening at the sea because of the explosion of the Gael-Tara.

They would die before they could even reach the depths to the next Zone if they went in there.

Hansoo nodded at those words and then nodded.

‘Since it has come to this, I guess we can implant the Mana Pools with the Satellite Fortresses.’

It would’ve been much more convenient if he had a few more people with him but since it had come to this, there was nothing he could do.

The things above here would be easier for him to do alone anyway.

It was better to work alone, create a method of control and then call up the people as he saw from the example of Kaltus.

Since people whom he could not control were the same as walking disasters.

And even more so since their numbers had increased and every individual had gotten stronger.

‘I need to move out.’

His body had healed up quite a bit and it wasn’t uncomfortable to move around anymore.

Hansoo got out of his seat and then sent a message to Khan.

— I’ll head out so stay well.

Khan laughed as he spoke.

— There are a lot of people who are upset here. There’s nothing we can do. A few people here are quite envious of those who had crossed over.

— Crossed over?

Khan nodded.

— There weren’t enough people when we checked the numbers… it seems a few people who were nearby when the Garmeia transformed into the Gael-Tara just jumped into the silver sea while looking for a place to hide.

Hansoo nodded.

The Silver Sea was actually the best option to run away from that beast.

Since that thing couldn’t chase beyond dimensions.

Khan spoke to Hansoo.

— Maybe they’ll meet you if they’re lucky. Stay strong.

Khan saluted with sincerity and then stopped the communication.

‘I should move out.’

Green Zone.

This place was very special.

Hansoo looked around.

An entirely white space.

It looked similar to the private dimension of Karmen from before but it was different.

The moment Hansoo took a step.

Craaack.

The air split apart as a familiar face popped out.

“Ah, as I expected! You were alive! I believed in you! Heheheh. How was it? It’s an amazing skill right?”

“…”

Hansoo made a small sigh as he looked at the mess of his body.

The Fairy enjoyed Hansoo’s reaction for a bit and then spoke as it spun around Hansoo.

“Now…The people ahead already departed. Only you need to go now. But before that…You need to listen to the important details.”

As the fairy said this.

A panel opened up in front of Hansoo.

— Please choose the location to Log in/out.

* Kasias Village/Beltirum’s mountain.

* Holy Ground of Epos/Akainu’s valley.

* Garimto Village/Lake of Achilles.

…

“Well… I should explain right? Heehee.”

The fairy smiled and then started to explain about the details.

“The login area will tell you about the place where you start off. If you press them a brief explanation will be shown.”

Hansoo pressed a location after hearing the Fairy’s words.

Chwaaaak!

Simple information regarding the village came up.

There wasn’t much of a reason why Hansoo tried pressing it.

Only because this was the place Hansoo had gone to in the past.

Of course he had to go to a different place this time.

The fairy spoke towards Hansoo who was expressionlessly flipping through the villages.

“The logout area would be determined by the login area. The logout areas are simple. It tells you how far you need to go until the next zone. Let’s see…Where to go? You will go to…”

As the Fairy played around, Hansoo mumbled quietly.

‘Exodus.’

<Exodus>.

The Green Zone’s nickname.

A realistic game.

A game-like reality.

The name of the virtual reality game that was actually being hosted in a world that was created by the god.

‘It’s probably similar to modern society.’

Even without having been there, one could determine a few things about this place.

A world where the virtual reality, <Exodus>, that god had created was being run on.

The residents of that world didn’t realize that god had created this game and enjoyed an alternative life after logging in.

It was the most famous game in that place.

The fairy’s explanations started to come into Hansoo’s ear.

“Well. Just think of it as a game and enjoy it. You played a lot of games right? Thankfully your systems are similar to this game. There are skills and items. You just need to continue what you were doing. Enjoy it like the residents there.”

‘It’s the same you say?’

Hansoo scoffed.

It was indeed similar.

The players could obtain artifacts, learn skills and increase masteries like them.

There were just a few core differences.

The first one being the logging in and out.

The players could log in and out whenever they wanted.

Like a game.

But he and the others were different.

Login.

After coming in here from the Yellow Zone.

Logout.

Going into the Blue Zone’s entrance after coming out of the Green Zone.

Towards the exit corresponding to the entrance.

Of course the entrance and the exit wouldn’t be close to each other.

If one picked a wrong starting point here then they would taste true hell.

The difficulties were similar at the entrances but the difficulties of the exit zones were like the difference between heaven and earth.

The true meaning of <Exodus>, <The Great Escape>, was very befitting.

And the second thing.

The Fairy continued to speak.

“The Exodus is a really well-made game so there are no bugs. Well, that’s obvious. Look who made it. Hehe. But as the players observed, there is actually a strange bug.”

Players would receive a small penalty or a larger one depending on the situation at death.

But there was a common result.

They revived.

They all died differently but they would all eventually revive.

But the players of Exodus found something strange.

9 years ago according to the time of this place, after the 4th patch.

There were people who didn’t revive when they were killed and instead dropped every single artifact they had.

And these guys dropped such large amounts of experience, finding people like this between the players was basically a very lucky break.

The people were curious so they asked their company, Exodus.

Why this was happening.

The company’s response was simple.

— They’re bug players. People who login illegally. There wouldn’t be an issue to kill them on sight. Just think of it as a part of the game.

Everyone rejoiced.

There was nothing to lose.

PK was limited to a large degree but there were no penalties for killing these guys and they were even rewarded with large amounts of experience and artifacts.

There were actually people who found out the charracteristics of bug players and chased these guys around.

This was what the residents of that world knew them as.

And this was the cruel reality for them.

They were players.

And…

He was a bug player.

“You.. Get what I mean right? You are now a walking treasure chest. Mister bug player. Shall we start?”

The fairy spoke while giggling.