Leveling with the Gods

Side Story 66

In a green meadow.

A man with tan skin and intense yellow hair, similar to Zeus, bent down and looked into the eyes of a goat.

"Hmm..."

Ananta murmured as he observed the goat. He looked it up and down, touched its fur, and even playfully pinched its nose.

Beeeh-.

The goat bleated softly while looking at Ananta.

Small and with a single eye, the goat was undoubtedly a monster.

However.

Ananta knew for sure.

"You're not one of my offspring, are you?"

The goat in front of Ananta wasn't a monster. It wasn't a Player, not a regular goat, nor a normal monster.

That's what the goat in front of Ananta was.

"You're a weird one..."

Fwoo-.

Beeeh-.

The goat resisted as Ananta pinched its nose, bleating.

And then...

Crunch!

The goat's mouth opened wide, and it bit Ananta's shoulder.

Crunch!

Drip!

The sound of bones breaking. Blood gushed from his shoulder and spilled onto the grass.

A force that tore his shoulder off in one bite. However, Ananta didn't let go of the goat's nose that it was tugging.

"Look at how strong you bite. Despite being so small."

Beeeah-.

The goat resisted, as if asking him to stop.

Ananta stared at it and smiled.

"Oh, yes. Now I understand."

Crunch!

The goat's head tilted.

Purple blood spurted, and its bleating gradually faded away.

"So, you're the one from the outside."

Crack!

A blinding lightning bolt, tinting the world yellow, erupted. The goat's body, charred, dissipated into violet smoke.

Ananta blinked, feeling an energy of a nature different from Arcane Power.

'This energy...'

He had felt it somewhere before. While pondering for a moment...

Hiss~

Memories of his release from the seal flooded back, and Ananta smiled.

"Was it you?"

Ananta licked his lips as he remembered YuWon's face. By devouring several Administrators, he had regained his lost heads.

No.

He hadn't just regained them.

"I've been looking forward to seeing you again, so this is perfect."

By devouring some Administrators, Ananta had increased the number of his heads even more than at his peak.

Administrators were the best food.

Since he first devoured an Administrator, Ananta had been relentlessly hunting Administrators.

And that was why Ananta seemed to have disappeared.

Of course...

"Soon, we will meet again, all of us."

Although the prey Ananta desired the most was YuWon.

Step-.

Ananta, who had eliminated the goat, resumed his march.

This hunt for Administrators would be the last.

Once he devoured the Administrator of Floor 93, he wouldn't have to hide and act in the shadows anymore.

His next destination was Olympus.

And his goal, YuWon, the man who had cut off his heads.

---------------------------

[Goat number 192 has been eliminated]

YuWon, who had detected Ananta through the goat, stopped eating and stood up from his seat. He hurried to the location where the goat had been, but the place was too far.

"Floor 93?"

Exactly now that he had descended to the Murim World on Floor 10.

'It's too far.'

The distance was considerable to chase Ananta.

Even traveling on the prototype of the Sun Chariot, it was impossible to track Ananta at such a distance.

And there was no guarantee the guy would stay on Floor 93 until then.

'Am I going to have to let him escape this time?'

YuWon pondered for a moment and then shook his head.

'No.'

It was not in his nature to let a guy he had caught once escape.

'I can't allow it.'

He couldn't fail. He couldn't stand idly by, deceived by that uncertain possibility.

And then...

Buzz~

The Player Kit in YuWon's pocket vibrated.

The person calling was Zeus.

"What do you want?"

-I found him.

A sentence without a subject. But it wasn't difficult to know who Zeus was referring to.

"Ananta?"

-Yes. The guy who escaped from us.

It was what he expected. Zeus had been only looking for Ananta from the beginning, and coincidentally, YuWon was also searching for him.

The perspectives of YuWon, who had released the Black Woods Goats to find Ananta, and Zeus, who had opened the eyes of Olympus to find Ananta, aligned.

"I just found him too. He's on Floor 93."

-And do you know what he's been up to until now?

"Until now?"

-It seems you don't know.

A voice with a hint of mockery came through the Player Kit. It seemed Zeus felt a sense of victory for discovering Ananta's movements before YuWon.

"Stop gloating over nonsense and tell me already."

-He's been hunting Administrators.

"Administrators...?"

Administrators were the ones who released Ananta from the seal. Therefore, the issue was that they were considered allies. They only thought that the Administrators had hidden him, but they never imagined that Ananta would be hunting the Administrators in return.

-That guy has become an enemy to both Players and Administrators.

"...His fate is sealed."

Ananta's choice was quite extreme.

"He either swallows them all, or he dies at the hands of both."

Players and Administrators.

Both could be considered as the entirety of the world.

However, Ananta chose not to join one side and fight against the other but to become an enemy to both.

It was easy to figure out what the guy's goal was.

'Does he want to become the strongest being?'

It was a foolish choice. A guy walking a difficult path, seeking his own destruction. And that's why YuWon felt a chilling sense of crisis over Ananta's existence.

"…Looks like we'll have to postpone the search for the guy for a while."

"Are you going right now?"

Pandora, who was greedily moving the chopsticks, stood up from her seat. While he briefly spoke with Zeus, she had managed to devour all the food YuWon was eating.

"Yes."

Now that he knew what Ananta was up to, the guy had to be the top priority. They had to act quickly before Ananta swallowed more Administrators and became even stronger.

"It will take some time. I'm on Floor 10."

-On Floor 10? What are you doing in the Murim World?

"There were some matters to attend to."

-Let's try to catch him first. Floor 93 is quite far from here.

"Understood."

-Don't be too late. For better or for worse.

Click-.

The call ended with those words.

"For better or for worse..."

YuWon reflected on Zeus's final words.

"It seems they intend to catch him on their own."

The good side would be if Olympus succeeded in hunting Ananta by themselves. A message not to arrive late at a place where the hunt had already ended.

And the bad side meant if the hunt failed.

'I have to hurry.'

It's not that YuWon ignored Zeus, but he didn't have a good feeling about it.

Ananta, who had devoured the Administrators. It was impossible to know how much the guy had grown, and hastily fighting against him wasn't a good idea at this moment.

YuWon and Pandora left their lodging and ascended the Heavenly Mountain without delay.

Their destination was up.

Floor 93 where Ananta had appeared.

----------------

A light so bright it could eclipse the moonlight. Chun Mujin drank while observing the Sun Chariot soaring through the sky.

The top of the Heavenly Mountain, as bright as day. Chun Mujin's face reflected on the surface of the liquor that mirrored the light.

"…He's leaving."

Chun Mujin muttered quietly and emptied his cup. The bitter taste reached his throat without even enjoying the aroma.

It was a pity.

"I was going to greet him properly tomorrow."

"Do you remember who he is?"

A middle-aged man who had approached silently.

It was Shin Muguk, the Celestial Swordsman, known to be the closest to Chun Mujin among the pillars supporting the Heavenly Demon Cult.

"Sit."

"If you command it."

"Let's drink together."

Knowing that his guest would drink, Chun Mujin had prepared a cup in advance.

Shin Muguk received the cup, drank the liquor Chun Mujin poured, and then refilled it.

Only after emptying several cups.

"I remembered. Everything."

"Is he really the Young God we should serve?"

Shin Muguk learned of the Sub-Boss's existence through Gwang Hamuk. At first, he thought it was just a hallucination resulting from his recent exhaustion.

Or that the Sub-Boss had deceived Gwang Hamuk.

A Sub-Boss that not even the leader knew about.

It was impossible for such a thing to be possible.

However...

"The System doesn't lie. And only I can name the Sub-Boss."

"Then…"

"Yes. It was true."

The existence of the Sub-Boss was real.

But it was strange. Why had everyone in the Heavenly Demon Cult forgotten such an important person?

"Maybe you secretly named him Sub-Boss?"

"No. It can't be."

In response to Shin Muguk's question, Chun Mujin unintentionally laughed.

It made him laugh to think that he would have reacted like this before recovering his memories.

Kim YuWon.

Shin Muguk was the one who first informed him about him.

--"He defeated the Celestial Dragon. And then said he would face Kwon Cheonju's trial."

--“Isn't that arrogant? Although I sent him to the Training Cave since there's a procedure, I'm not sure if he can pass Kwon Cheonju's trial.”

Shin Muguk chattering, telling him about YuWon without knowing that he had already faced YuWon in the first trial.

--“He received Kwon Cheonju's Three Strikes.”

-- "No, it wasn't just the Three Strikes. He fought on equal terms."

-- "Isn't that amazing? Maybe he really can become the Master of the Holy Fire!"

Shin Muguk, who was always boring to the point of being tasteless, was excited.

Chun Mujin had completely forgotten how fun it was at that time.

"He went up to Floor 10, broke the formation I had set up on the Heavenly Mountain, and climbed up here on his own."

"Eh? What does that mean...?”

"And he fought Kwon Cheonju, that friend, and drew."

"Yes, yes?"

Shin Muguk was surprised with wide-open eyes. It wasn't that the leader was joking about something like that, and if what he said was true, it meant that a Floor 10 Player had drawn in a fight against Kwon Cheonju.

And the most surprising thing was that this fact had been completely forgotten within the Heavenly Demon Cult.

"Why did something like that happen...?”

"Who knows. It's really incomprehensible."

It was a question that even Chun Mujin, who couldn't understand the reason, couldn't answer.

Chun Mujin bowed his head and looked up at the sky.

The Sun Chariot that had already disappeared.

Chun Mujin drank the next sip while looking at the place where YuWon had gone.

"However, what is clear is that we all knew him."

"All of us...? What do you mean?"

"That's right."

It was an incomprehensible answer. No matter how much he thought about it, he had no memory of the Sub-Boss.

Chun Mujin smiled bitterly without giving more explanations. He looked back at the tea cup and remembered YuWon.

The Master of the Holy Fire.

The only Player who passed his Trial.

And also...

'Right. We all knew him.'

The one who saved this world from the Outers.

Even though everyone in this world had forgotten him.

"We were all saved by him."

Chun Mujin finally remembered.

-KO-FI

'Ko-Fi' for Advanc3 Ch4pt3rs (Up to '95' more ch4pt3rs)Publication of up to 6 weekly ch4pters, thanks.

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