Chapter 305. Transcendent (3)

4th zone.

The cold and brutal world that the recently graduated students had to face.

***

Rumble.

“Hmm. He destroyed the War Fortress?”

Minsun slammed onto the ground and spoke after breathing in and out.

“Yeah. We all spread out from that event.”

The countless adventurers who had climbed up through the elevator from the 3rd zone.

And the scenery they had seen was extremely shocking.

— … It’s a bit barren, isn’t it?

— We did hear about it, but…

They had heard the stories.

That the upper zone would be different and much more dangerous.

But most adventurers ignored the warnings of the three rulers.

Since they were basically supernatural beings compared to themselves 1 to 2 years ago.

Beings that could topple cities back in their real life.

They could ignore bullets much less being able to dodge them as even missiles would merely tickle them.

Maybe the only thing that threatened them were the nukes.

Which meant that they had become beings that wouldn’t fear anything other than weapons of the same calibre as nukes.

But the moment they climbed up to the 4th zone they realized.

That this was the beginning.

— … It seems we just graduated from the tutorial.

— Fuck… They told us that they didn’t know how it had changed but… This is too much.

There were no rulers to control them nor protect them.

There were no seniors who, despite always complaining about how hard the previous life had been before the change, generously taught them the experiences they had gone through and fought on the vanguard.

There was only one thing they saw.

A vast plain covered in snow.

A barren world.

And as the people were filled to the brim with worry at this new and unfamiliar land.

A few people, the strongest and the most talented people, shouted out to lead the others.

— Come on guys! We need to be strong! If the people before us had failed then we can just do it instead!

— Yeah! We can do it! And there’s a lot more of us as well!

Thanks to these words, a lot of people regained their confidence.

And it was partly true.

They had countless more people than the people before.

They had gone through simulations as to what to do when they came up to this zone as well.

Though there was no organization that welcomed them, there were no monsters charging towards them from the start as well.

— Yeah! The three zones was an empty land in the beginning as well! We can just deal with this zone!

At those words.

Like the pioneers of the past.

The newly ascended adventurers started to dream.

They had to collect enough Abyssal crystals to go up to the next zone anyway.

With the War Fortress as the main base, they gathered the others who came up from the elevators.

They researched the methods to deal with the monsters that came out from the elevators and slowly and carefully advanced through the ‘Green Zone’ while collecting the Abyssal crystals at the same time.

Everything was going well and according to plan.

Until that day.

The day the monster the 4th zone had given birth to had visited them.

A single person.

— Hey, there baby chicks! How’s the real world after graduating?

Of course the rookies who were in the War Fortress laughed at him.

But with that laugh.

The War Fortress, the main base of operations against the Abyssal race, collapsed.

“… Now we’ve hidden in various places and survive day by day. Thankfully, this world is large.”

And Hansoo knew what kind of person it was.

Since there was only one possibility.

‘A transcendent.’

They were different from the normal people who slowly climbed up the stairs to reach the violet zone.

People who had climbed over the destroyed ceiling and had gained the rights to become stronger than anybody else.

But even though they had stepped onto the road towards becoming a transcendent, they were nowhere close to Tiamet who was infinitely close to the end.

Since there were a lot of hurdles to cross before becoming a true transcendent.

But the fact that they had taken that first step made them different from everyone else.

‘It’s possible.’

Transcendents weren’t invincible.

But one thing was clear.

That the newcomers who should be soaring was being stopped at the 4th zone.

This was not what Hansoo wanted.

Though he had found himself, his original goal still remained the same.

— Win.

He fought and fought.

Against the beings of the Abyss.

But nothing changed.

His friends and allies died.

The ones close to him had all died.

Their numbers never increased, only continuously decreasing.

In movies or dramas shows, when a close person died the main character would be enraged or be filled with new vigor but the reality was different.

Or at least, it was different for Hansoo.

Everyone someone died, something broke inside his heart and he wanted to fight less and less.

What was he fighting for?

Who was he fighting for?

Everybody he had wanted to protect had died.

Everybody who had given him joy had died.

Everybody who fought beside him had died.

And to prevent this from repeating.

He had to become strong.

He had to win.

He had broken through the shackles of Eres, he had merely changed the path towards the final goal.

His final goal was the same as the one of Eres.

But this wouldn’t do.

This was, in the same, a gamble as well.

In order for more transcendents to be born, more variables were needed.

More rookies needed to climb up faster to fight in more dangerous places so they can become stronger even faster.

But if they were being stopped in the 4th zone like this, they wouldn’t be able to grow properly.

Whoooosh.

‘… Too many weeds have grown while I have been gone. I guess I’ll need to organize a bit.’

It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either.

He just needed to pull them out.

That was the only way to grow a proper field.

A field to grow his desired crop.

Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the giant elevator and the vast plains that hid the various monsters and countless adventurers.

***

Tatata.

Tadadatak.

“Eat this. It’s tastier this way.”

Hansoo cooked the meat of one of the normal beasts, the Ormadals, with a bit of flame from his hands and gave them to Taesang and Misun.

Taesang frowned as he looked at Hansoo who killed off a monster, which would be at around level 250 in the past, with a single strike and was now cooking its meat.

‘How laid back.’

And it wasn’t only Taesang who thought this way.

Hansoo chuckled at the strange gazes of the four.

“Don’t look at me that way. I don’t really like resting like this. And aren’t you going to eat? It’s really tasty.”

“… Haa.”

Taesang sighed as stared at Hansoo chewing onto the meat.

His words weren’t wrong.

Their main base was continuously on the move and they, the scouting team, had to constantly communicate with them to follow them.

And they could only wait in the promised location while they awaited for the reply from the main base.

But even if they were in the same situation, their attitudes were different.

Hansoo was the only one who was laid back.

The four others were just mindlessly eating.

And Misun muttered in annoyance.

“I guess you also starved since you lost your memory. Look how well you’re eating.”

Talking to Hansoo about the past, she remembered things she had forgotten about.

The memories of her missing allies that had been pushed aside because of her survival.

The hundreds of thousands of her allies who had split up from the War Fortress and were now in hiding.

How could she eat in a situation like this?

Hansoo looked towards the elevators while Misun and the others were thinking of the past.

‘We’ve come closer.’

The elevator.

And the War Fortress.

The place where he had fought with Arthus Krancheska and Tiamet.

At that moment.

“I have a request.”

“…?”

“It’s not hard. And I don’t have thoughts of asking you to do it for free…”

Hansoo was shocked as he stared at Lauren who was walking towards him.

He had heard about it already.

‘Look at these guys.’

Hansoo made an amused expression.

***

Rumble.

The giant elevator.

Though many were amazed at the tall scene.

The elevator spread deep into the earth as well.

It wasn’t just limited to the surface.

The Great Maze.

The elevator stretched deep into the Great Maze of the past where the Ains had previously lived.

But surprisingly, there were people living here now.

Though they weren’ in the greatest shape.

Slap!

“Uaaak!”

“Bastard! If I kept you alive then you need to show results!”

Amidst the swarms of people working.

A single person kept a laid back posture.

He didn’t care whether his underling kicked and the one being kicked screamed.

And there was nobody within a 30m radius of the man.

Everyone feared this man.

Roooarr.

The man petted the head of the Kang-Kion next to him and smiled as he looked at the melted wall in front of him.

“Did he do this before the great change.”

The entire surrounding area had melted down.

Traces of two tremendous powerhouses clashing.

One could see the person when looking at the traces.

And the stronger the person was, the clearer the image was.

The Dark King could see it clearly.

The image of the existence who had been pushed back continuously but had managed to triumph over the flaming existence.

‘Unbelievable. He’s still in this world. He didn’t go up?’

— The person who you wish to see so much… He’s still here.

He thought that the man had gone up.

He hadn’t thought that a man who was that strong 2 years ago would’ve stayed behind here.

‘I wish… I get to meet you soon. I have a gift for you as well…’

The Dark King caressed the traces of the battle between Hansoo and Arthus Krancheska as he trembled at the shocking fact that person had told him in the past.