Chapter 325: Dopamine (4)

Translator: DreamscribeThe city's atmosphere had changed.

The dull, listless air, like watching jellyfish drifting through the sea, was gone.

Bloodshot eyes.

Trembling hands.

Nobles pacing anxiously back and forth, or stuffing their mouths with snack after snack.

The nobles looked like a school of ravenous sharks desperately waiting to be fed. They also looked like drug addicts suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

"Come on! Hurry it up!"

"The work is going far too slowly!"

"Honestly, tsk tsk!"

Unable to endure their Withdrawal Symptoms, countless nobles had flocked to the construction site, pointing out flaws and offering unsolicited advice. Quite a few had even set up chairs and sat there all day long.

Thanks to that, the building was going up at a tremendous pace, but even that looked slow to them.

"We ought to bring in more construction equipment!"

"Let's do it!"

"His Highness desires a swift completion! Work harder!"

Amid all this, construction proceeded smoothly.

Jinwoo had built a Magic Tower deep within Reist's planet, completing a communication system inside the Dimensional Barrier. Thanks to that, Spatial Movement was possible as well.

The problem was the Dimensional Barrier.

It was about time to check on how Arsilan Saga was progressing. He had set up a stand-in on Earth, so operations weren't affected, but he was curious how things were going.

'I wasn't planning to stay this long in the first place.'

He couldn't punch through the Dimensional Barrier, but it seemed he could establish communications. The Kalsus Dimensional Empire's army communicated with the outside of the Dimensional Barrier through connections between Dimensional Portals.

Jinwoo used that technology to develop a way to link communications with Arsilan.

Establishing communications required a relay device that wouldn't break easily. It had to withstand the pressure of the Dimensional Barrier, so ordinary materials wouldn't do.

He had plenty of materials.

He had scraped Reist's treasure vault clean, so S+ rank materials were piled high. Using treasures worth more than an entire dimension without holding back, he completed the relay.

"As for the core component…."

There was one component that mattered most.

The Dimensional Barrier extracted dimensional energy by grinding souls into it. The structure was designed so that souls, at least, weren't destroyed right away but suffered for a very long time. Coating the relay with a soul would extend its lifespan even further.

"Berto."

Berto came running and immediately slammed his head to the floor.

He was trembling all over. He had lost every coin Jinwoo lent him and owed the nobles a great deal of debt besides. The stress must have been severe; all his hair had fallen out, and his face was creased with wrinkles.

He looked twenty years older.

He was the very picture of total ruin.

"I-I have committed a sin deserving death."

"Then you should die."

Berto shook violently in sheer terror.

"Do you remember the terms of the contract?"

"M-my s-soul…."

To offer up his soul.

It had sounded like utter nonsense.

When Jinwoo snapped his fingers, the contract appeared. The contract became stained with blood, and chains burst forth, piercing through Berto's body.

"Gaahk!"

Black flames rose from Berto's body, and his soul began to slip out.

Overwhelming pain shook Berto's soul. He screamed and begged for mercy, but unfortunately, the Evil God's contract was absolute.

His suffering was only beginning.

Berto's body collapsed to the floor as his chain-bound soul slipped out completely.

A foul stench rose.

Black liquid dripped down, fouling the floor.

The soul, a warped orb that looked like a rotten apple, showed just how much Evil Karma Berto had accumulated.

The Evil Karma built up in Berto flowed into Jinwoo, converting into Sacred Power and Authority. It wasn't on the level of Erosion's servants, but he was able to store up a fair amount of power.

[Wh-what on earth is th-th-this….]

Berto, now in soul form, was utterly bewildered.

Jinwoo took out the relay and coated it with Berto's soul. Berto screamed at the pain of his soul being stretched, but no one listened.

"Hmm, it's a little short…."

Fully coating the relay would require a soul of slightly better quality.

"Ah!"

As it happened, there was a soul of quite good quality on hand.

Jinwoo turned his head and looked at the teddy bear. Reist, trapped inside the bear and steeped in despair, had been watching Berto's final moments.

[N-no way…, n-no!]

To Reist, that relay looked like the entrance to a hell that would burn for all eternity. Jinwoo grinned and reached out his hand, and Reist's soul was drawn out of the teddy bear and settled into the relay.

[C-could it be, Y-Your Highness?]

[Berto…! Aaaaargh!]

The two of them were coated onto the relay together, side by side!

Jinwoo rose from his seat, concealed himself, and used Spatial Movement to travel to the front of the Dimensional Barrier.

It happened to be the day the Dimensional Portal opened, and the four legions led by Kalgul and General Gord had finished their departure ceremony and were waiting before the Dimensional Portal. When the Dimensional Portal opened, the legions slowly advanced into it.

Jinwoo let out a small laugh and tossed the relay inside.

Reist and Berto, stuck to the relay, began screaming in unimaginable agony.

The pressure of the Dimensional Barrier became a blender, shredding their souls to ribbons. They would have to endure agony worse than being carved apart alive, slice by slice, for a span of time bordering on eternity.

"Well, at least they're useful this way."

Once the relay settled inside the Dimensional Portal, Jinwoo immediately opened his Information Window.

[Connecting…, connection complete.]

The connection quality was poor and the Information Window was full of static, but it linked to Arsilan Worlds.

Nodding, Jinwoo returned to the mansion and checked the update logs. FS Games was managing things well, and the response was still positive.

'A liberated dimension has appeared, too.'

At last, a dimension that had driven out the Kalsus Dimensional Empire's forces had emerged. Its passage had been completely sealed, and a Soul Gate had even been generated automatically, making it Arsilan's territory now.

Title: That was a hard fight.

We won by the skin of our teeth, seriously.

Now that we saved the dimension, we can build here and trade with the locals.

Seeing them celebrate is filling me with some serious Arsilan pride.

You can even learn the exclusive techniques the natives use.

The local specialty here is no joke.

It's adults-only, but if you rub it on... there, the effects are incredible.

The traders have already bought a ton of it and are getting ready to ship it to Arsilan.

Anonymous1: For real?

└Anonymous2: Yeah. You can even wreathe it in flames.

└Anonymous1: Insane....

└Anonymous2: Works for both men and women.

Anonymous3: The natives originally use that stuff for ascetic training, why are you putting it THERE? Who even started this? The natives were horrified.

Anonymous4: Ah..., please stop dragging down the Hero average. But now I'm kinda curious.

└Anonymous5: It feels like your sensory limiter gets switched off. But if your Endurance stat is low it might melt right off, so be careful ㅋㅋ

Anonymous6: Heroes have always been like this. The natives do love us a lot, but every time we cause trouble they look at us like we're pathetic.

└Anonymous3: They're seriously madmen living on pure instinct.

└Anonymous7: If someone says it's good for virility, straight into the mouth it goes, no questions asked.

└Anonymous8: How is anyone supposed to resist a Virility stat!

Anonymous9: They gave up on understanding us after watching Heroes hit on cursed witches.

└Anonymous1: Sure they're monsters, but they're pretty! I couldn't help it....

└Anonymous9: And then they all got their heads chopped off and died.

└Anonymous10: Got to see her panties before dying. Not a bad trade.

Jinwoo nodded.

Heroes were Heroes, all right.

Madness and greed were the driving force of Heroes.

Arsilan Worlds had filtering, so explicit words couldn't be used, but everyone understood anyway.

Things were going far better than expected, which was a relief.

'This place is still sorely lacking as content material, though….'

Someday, the day would come when Heroes arrived here.

For that day, he might as well lay the groundwork in advance. It would be fair to say that everything Jinwoo did in the Sanctuary was game development.

Jinwoo chuckled and spent a while poring over Arsilan Worlds.

'Fed the natives kimchi and their reaction was insane.'

'Dimension native reaction videos seem to be trending lately? The view counts are crazy.'

'There's a plant here similar to napa cabbage, anyone wanna get together and make a winter batch of kimchi?'

'People are the same wherever they live, huh.'

Reading through the various posts, Jinwoo felt as if he were traveling across dimensions himself.

* * *

Time passed, and the gambling hall was complete!

It was as large as the Golden Palace, a modern building in Earth's style. Its dazzling neon signs and luxurious interior were more than enough to captivate every noble's eye.

Jinwoo introduced not only the games he had installed in the Golden Palace but brand-new forms of gambling as well. He created areas that only high-ranking nobles could enter, and set up a currency exchange, a bank, and an appraisal office where personal belongings could be converted into gold coins. The appraisal office was also set to purchase slaves abducted from other dimensions at good prices.

He couldn't forcibly seize every slave the nobles owned, but he could make them offer the slaves up through gambling.

"Your Highness, we have corrected everything you pointed out."

"That was fast."

Jinwoo's Follower, wearing Berto's skin, spoke respectfully. Like Kalgul, it had been created with a heavy infusion of Authority, so it was exceptionally capable. It possessed all of Berto's memories, and its abilities had risen beyond comparison.

"All that's left now is the opening."

Even though the opening date hadn't been announced yet, nobles were flooding in like clouds. Word of mouth had spread throughout the entire Sanctuary, and even nobles from deep within the Sanctuary had crossed over to get here.

A servant approached Berto and whispered in his ear.

"Your Highness, I'm told the Imperial Princess has arrived."

"The Imperial Princess?"

"Yes, it seems she has brought a retinue of nobles as well."

Jinwoo grinned and nodded.

The Imperial Princess in Berto's memories was quite a clever figure. She had hit a wall for now, but she had risen to sixth in the line of succession on her own merit alone. She was also well regarded among the imperial family and proudly held the ninth planet.

A ship descended before the mansion.

Arriving unannounced like this was terribly rude, but she didn't seem to care about such things in the slightest.

"I suppose I should give her a welcome."

Prey had come rolling right in.

At Jinwoo's gesture, Berto grinned and headed outside with servants in tow. Jinwoo slowly stepped out of the mansion just as the Imperial Princess and her escort knights reached the front gate.

"It has been a while. That idiotic face of yours hasn't changed. It shames me that you are my younger brother."

Sixth in the succession, Scharnhilde Dion Kalsus.

She was quite beautiful.

She had bright golden hair, with silver underneath. Her green eyes brimmed with intelligence and will.

She was as if the very word "princess" had taken physical form.

The kind of princess Heroes expected in a fantasy world would be exactly this. Though, being so typically resplendent, she was rather boring.

'Hmm, then again, maybe she'd feel fresh.'

Arsilan Saga didn't have anyone with that vibe.

Jinwoo disliked the typical, after all, and everyone there had clawed their way up through rough battles.

'As for her Evil Karma….'

Surprisingly, she was right on the line.

What determined Evil Karma was the Evil God's own standard. She had plenty of blood on her hands, but most of it came from internal power struggles. Because she had killed quite a few evildoers, she was sitting exactly on the line. One more step past it, and she would become an evildoer herself.

"Have you forgotten the face of your beautiful elder sister?"

"How could I ever? Welcome, dear sister."

"Consider it an honor that I have come to this shabby mansion."

She said so with an arrogant expression and bearing.

'Oho?'

It wasn't a bad look on her.

Having one character like her in the Kalsus Dimensional Empire didn't seem so bad.

Under Jinwoo's blatant gaze, Scharnhilde faltered.

The feeling of being seen through, as if he were peering into her very depths, sent a chill down her spine.

'That fool couldn't possibly be capable of that.'

Scharnhilde told herself as much and suppressed the sudden surge of unease.

"Please, come inside."

"I have no desire to enter such a squalid place, but seeing your sincerity, I shall make the effort."

"You honor me."

They moved to the drawing room.

The drawing room had been redone to Jinwoo's taste, and Scharnhilde seemed to rather like it.

Jinwoo personally brewed coffee and served it.

The aroma of the coffee brought a startled look to her face, but she quickly composed herself. She took a careful sip, and her eyes glazed over with rapture.

"...A fine tea."

"Have some sweets as well."

The flavor that had corrupted Erosion itself worked just as well on Scharnhilde. It wasn't quite the reaction Erosion had shown, but she lingered in the afterglow for quite a while.

Jinwoo looked at the knight standing behind Scharnhilde.

It was the woman he had seen at the Golden Palace. Her hands were trembling faintly; she was without a doubt a gambling addict.

"You. I hear you've been scheming something rather amusing."

Scharnhilde came on strong so as not to lose the initiative in the conversation.

"A modest diversion. As you know, there's nothing to do around here. Is that why you've come?"

"Know your place. However much you thrash about, nothing will change."

She fixed Jinwoo with a sharp gaze.

Jinwoo smiled gently and nodded.

"I hadn't planned to open today, but since you've come, dear sister, I'll have to move up the schedule. I hope you'll give it a serious evaluation."

The escort knight behind her lit up. If she'd had a tail, it would have been wagging furiously.

The Imperial Princess was already as good as caught in the web.

Since prey had come rolling in like this, he might as well exploit her thoroughly.

As her reward, he would keep her from becoming an evildoer.

That was plenty.

In exchange for everything she owned, she would escape eternal torment. What a blessing that was.

'I really am better suited to being Arsilan's chief god.'

The Evil God title was, after all, nothing more than a symbol he'd stumbled into.

No matter how he looked at it, he seemed like far too benevolent a god.

-So sinister.

-Scary.

-So vicious.

The Vengeful Spirits did not agree with Jinwoo's assessment in the slightest.

"Well then, shall we?"

Jinwoo escorted her toward the center of the great city. Countless nobles were desperately awaiting the opening. When Jinwoo appeared, a tremendous roar erupted.

Scharnhilde was taken aback by the sight.

Even she had never seen nobles cheer like this before.

'I can feel their loyalty.'

How had he won the loyalty of those arrogant, lazy nobles? She grew more and more curious about this "Reist Game."

Together with Scharnhilde, Jinwoo climbed onto the platform Berto had hastily prepared.

"Looking at the resolve in your eyes, I believe we can open today."

WAAAAAAAH!

At the announcement that it would open today, everyone let out cries brimming with joy.

"I am generous. I am merciful. I possess treasures more than enough to shower every one of you with immense wealth. Within these walls lies the battlefield you have craved so desperately! Fight, seize, and claim! I will give you my everything!"

A shiver ran through the crowd.

Yes, that place was a battlefield.

A place of one heart-pounding contest after another.

A space where true nobles were born.

"My sister has also come to bless this occasion. You are sacred warriors, blessed by the beautiful Imperial Princess!"

"Your Highness the Princess! Thank you!"

"Your Highness! May you live ten thousand years!"

Scharnhilde was displeased that Jinwoo had used her in his speech, but with the nobles cheering, she raised a hand in acknowledgment.

"True heroes and champions of the Kalsus Dimensional Empire! Are you ready to fight?"

"Yes!"

"We're ready!"

"I brought my entire fortune!"

Heroes and champions.

The suckers' eyes had gone completely wild.

Jinwoo slowly raised his hand and snapped his fingers. At once, a massive ship appeared, blotting out the sunlight. Neon signs lit up across the building, and festive music rang out.

"Welcome to Reist World!"

Reist World.

That was the name of this enormous gambling hall.

When the great front gates of Reist World opened, the nobles began charging inside like madmen. Even Scharnhilde's cheeks were flushed with anticipation.

"I've prepared a special place just for you, dear sister."

"If it bores me, I'm leaving at once."

"I shall live up to your expectations. Now, this way."

The moment Jinwoo took her hand, the Vengeful Spirits slipped into her shadow.

-Hand 1,231 reporting ready.

-Eye 3,233,2… will keep watch on her cards.

-Ear 221 standing by to listen to the voice of her heart.

Jinwoo immediately turned on a broadcast.

[The Evil God has started a broadcast.]

*Title: Let's Clean Out the Imperial Princess!

[Chat has been activated.]

Arondo: 1! I'm first!

Raphne: 2! Ah! I missed first place! What a shame.

Hollani: 3! Success!

[Raphne has donated Good Karma.]

*Good Karma List

Cleaning, cooking meals, healing the injured, playing with children.

[Arondo has donated Good Karma.]

*Good Karma List

Composing songs of praise, education, sharing knowledge

.

..

...

With communications to Arsilan restored, the donation system had been upgraded as well. The freed slaves, now fully citizens of Arsilan, could donate the Good Karma they accumulated to Jinwoo.

"I-it's not even that impressive."

The Imperial Princess said so even as she swallowed hard upon stepping inside.

How long could she keep up that arrogant front?

Jinwoo was very curious to find out.

*****

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