Chapter 327: Sinner (1)

Translator: DreamscribeThe massive ship circled Arsilan once.

Arsilan had changed a great deal. Heroes had advanced into every corner of Arsilan, and the people of Arsilan had likewise spread across the entire planet. Countless territories had been established, and villages had sprung up.

The trade routes connecting one end of Arsilan to the other were lined with long processions of vehicles and ships, and the roads bustled with people laughing and chatting.

Golden farms heavy with grain, endless plains, countless living creatures, and the spirits dwelling in the land made Arsilan all the more abundant.

Enormous dragons flew up alongside the massive ship.

"Wooow!"

"So cool!"

The children aboard the massive ship watched the dragons' majestic forms with sparkling eyes. Perhaps sensing the children's excitement, the dragons even used elemental magic as they flew in dazzling displays.

As if escorting the vessel, they guided it all the way to Alusion, and upon reaching the skies above Alusion, they let out a Breath and vanished.

'They've been trained well.'

It seemed the senior Reincarnated Heroes had educated the new dragons well. These days, they apparently served the role of helping novice Heroes, and they were quite popular.

Anyone could tell they were the dragons that showed up frequently these days, but the way they desperately pretended otherwise was said to be the secret of their popularity. Their character wasn't bad, so it seemed fine to just leave them be.

The massive ship quietly descended into the inner grounds of the Imperial Palace.

A strong wind blew and the Heroes looked up at the sky, but they failed to detect the cloaked ship.

When the landed ship released its cloaking, Heina and the knights, who had been notified in advance, approached. Ella, Helby, and everyone from the Erosion headquarters were also waiting for Jinwoo and the others. When Jinwoo and the people disembarked together, everyone welcomed them with smiles.

"Hasman, can I leave them to you?"

"At last, there's something for me to do. Leave it to me."

Hasman grinned and approached the people.

They flinched at his appearance, but smiled awkwardly and followed him. It seemed his wicked looks were effective even in the dimensional realm.

Ella stared intently at Jinwoo.

"You're carrying something..., something enormous, aren't you?"

"Well, one thing led to another..."

By now, it was fairly comfortable.

Perhaps they had been well tamed, since they would fetch things on their own or latch onto evildoers and lay curses on them. It felt like having auto-hunt switched on.

That was what Jinwoo thought, but in Ella's eyes, the pain and despair of the Vengeful Spirits he carried were plainly visible. That pain was something even a god would struggle to bear. And yet Jinwoo was taking it all on completely, as if he felt nothing at all.

Ella glanced at Helby with a stiff expression. Helby's face had also gone deathly pale.

"...Doesn't it hurt?"

"It's way better than a hundred years ago? Now that I think about it, my knees do feel a little creaky."

"I think your standard for pain is broken."

Helby buried her face in her hands and sighed.

For a hundred years outside the Magic Barrier, experiencing countless deaths and being tortured alive had been Jinwoo's daily routine. She knew that all too well, so she could say nothing.

That must be how he was able to become the Lord God of this radiant Arsilan.

Tia also watched with worried eyes, and Tiris came over, measured the state of the Vengeful Spirits with a measuring device, and her expression hardened.

"Hmm..."

The mood sank considerably.

Halon and Airi, who had been holding party poppers to celebrate the return, awkwardly lowered their arms.

"Ah!"

Jinwoo remembered something.

He took Reist's treasures out of Subspace and distributed them to everyone. Ella and Helby were astounded when they received them.

"This is on the level of melting down dozens of suns whole?"

"...It's as if it was brought from the birthplace of stars."

Ella's hands trembled.

With treasure beyond imagination in her hands, she fumbled about, not knowing what to do with herself. Sure enough, nothing turned a mood around like a gift.

He returned with Tiris to Arsilan's Magic Tower and opened the storehouse. The inside of the storehouse was vast, filled with all sorts of materials including Magic Stones.

Tiris used spatial magic to keep expanding the storehouse.

"Will this be enough?"

"I think we'll need it bigger."

"Pardon?"

Tiris tilted her head and expanded the storehouse further.

Jinwoo told her and the disciples to step back, then opened his Subspace.

CLATTERRRRRR!

Treasures on a level never seen in Arsilan poured out of the Subspace in torrents. It was like a dam bursting.

Tiris picked up a mineral that had rolled to her feet. It was an item worthy of an S rank.

'S rank, A rank....'

There was almost nothing at B rank.

Everything was S rank and A rank. As the storehouse filled with fascinating things she had never seen in her life, the faces of Tiris and the disciples were dyed with shock.

The sight left Jinwoo immensely pleased.

"What on earth... did you do over there?"

"I swiped it. But what I brought is only a fraction."

"This is a fraction?"

Reist's fortune existed in great quantities not only on the planet in the Sanctuary but on other planets as well. And if the Imperial Princess's fortune was added on top of that, it would be astronomical.

If it were scattered across Arsilan, wouldn't the whole of Arsilan be filled with treasure?

The disciples gulped as they gazed at the minerals that absorbed dimensional energy, and Tiris had already pocketed a few. Even so, she was thrown into confusion over whether she could really keep them, hit with a wave of cognitive dissonance.

Even Tiris was breaking out in a cold sweat.

Jinwoo grinned and spread both arms wide.

"I am generous."

At Jinwoo's words, Tiris and the disciples looked at him with shining eyes. He could see their expressions coloring with joy.

"Use as much as you like. Tell me if you run short."

Now the Imperial Princess's fortune was as good as Jinwoo's.

It was probably more than Reist's.

He didn't care if everything here was used up as experiment materials. Making Arsilan stronger served the good of the dimensional realm, so Jinwoo authorized every experiment the Magic Tower could possibly conduct.

"Kyaaaahoo!"

"Waaah!"

Seeing his disciples rejoice, he felt it had been well worth going to the Sanctuary.

Tiris breathed raggedly as she stuffed her personal Subspace full of treasures. Then, feeling Jinwoo's gaze, she composed her expression.

"Are you going back there?"

"Yeah, I just stopped by because there are things to prepare."

He had also left the place unattended for too long and needed to check on things.

"The heart of the mightiest nation in the dimensional realm... I'm curious. Do you happen to have any recorded footage?"

"I d..."

Jinwoo, about to say he did, quickly shut his mouth.

Thinking back on the videos he had broadcast or recorded, he suddenly felt embarrassed. All he had done was stir up trouble or swagger around, fully immersed in playing Reist's role.

'I did get a little too into it....'

Aside from the major events, he had kept the broadcast running quite often in daily life. Jinwoo recalled the list of broadcasts.

'Framed a Noble and Ransacked His House.'

'Having a Department Store All to Myself.'

'Can You Swim in a Pool Filled with Imperial Gold Coins?'

'Servants Dancing K-pop.'

'Fed Berto Nuclear Bomb Ramen.'

Those were just the titles that came to mind.

They had been broadcasts meant to entertain the people he had rescued, but showing them to Tiris and the disciples, who were burning with such scholarly passion, was embarrassing. Seeing the respect brimming in their eyes made it even more so.

"I was too busy running around to prepare any. Ha. Ha. Ha."

-liar

-the Evil God lies

-ㅋㅋㅋ.

The mouths sprouting from his shadow poured out those words. Jinwoo cleared his throat and quickly turned his back.

"I've got urgent business, so I'll be off. Study hard!"

When Jinwoo vanished with spatial teleportation, the disciples embraced one another and shared their joy.

"Hm?"

Tiris blinked and looked down. A hand had slid up out of her own shadow. The hand was holding a video storage orb.

A mouth sprouted beside the hand.

-for you

"...Thank you."

When Tiris received the video storage orb, the hand and mouth disappeared.

When Tiris cast magic on the orb, an Information Window appeared. The disciples gathered around her and watched the footage.

"Ah..., Master."

Having watched the whole thing, Tiris squeezed her eyes shut.

* * *

After bestowing swords upon Heina and the knights, Jinwoo returned straight to FS Games. It felt like coming home after a long journey. After looking around the FS Games building, Jinwoo called for Han Yong-seon.

"You seem a bit different today, sir?"

"Pardon?"

"Wow! Your face is practically glowing!"

"Have a seat."

Jinwoo chuckled at his flattery and served tea. It was a tea Reist enjoyed drinking. It had the effect of slowing the body's aging and boosting male vitality. The taste was about the level of plain barley tea, but its medicinal effects weren't bad.

"This tea has quite a unique flavor."

Han Yong-seon's body must have already been heating up, because his face flushed.

"There aren't any predatory gambling-style games coming out these days, right?"

"No, they all disappeared after Arsilan Saga appeared. Even the EL Soft of Chairman Han Mong-gyun, the man once called the great evil of the gaming world, went under."

"EL Soft..., they really did go too far."

EL Soft had invented predatory gambling systems that danced along the very edge of the law. Inspired by Japanese mobile game gacha systems, they created a Korean-style gacha system, and it was utterly notorious.

Starting with EL Soft, the once-innocent mobile and PC game markets fell into a 'microtransaction hell.'

On top of that, they set up schemes bordering on outright gambling, drawing condemnation from gamers around the world. It was the game company that made Korean games the target of P2W mockery.

They polluted the internet broadcasting scene and deliberately manufactured conflicts between users, which even led to a murder case.

"Their CEO once publicly smeared Arsilan Saga, too. He even worked his political connections, but Arsilan Saga was so fun that it all got buried."

"What is that man doing now?"

"Who knows. I heard the game he poured reckless investment into flopped a single day after launch, and the company was blown to pieces...."

Han Yong-seon shrugged.

The people who had led EL Soft's operations and planning were permanently expelled from the game industry. If 'EL Soft' appeared on a resume, it was rejected on sight, and even those who lied their way past the paperwork failed at the interview stage.

'It was karma.'

Did working at EL Soft instill a sense of superiority?

He recalled how EL Soft employees had bragged on workplace community forums.

'One click and we rake in billions. Why bother making AAA games?'

'They're like little kids throwing tantrums.'

'Game companies that fall behind deserve to go under.'

'Even if those game-addict losers bark like dogs, EL Soft's stock will keep rising.'

'If you have a brain, invest in EL Soft! It's going to a million won.'

There were quite a few troll posts among them, but a considerable portion was confirmed to have been written by actual EL Soft employees. The Heroes reportedly even threw parties when they heard EL Soft had gone under.

Jinwoo nodded.

'For me, they're the ultimate dream team.'

The techniques and knowledge built up over more than a decade, getting gamers addicted, making them fight, and squeezing out mountains of money, did not exist at FS Games.

Since Jinwoo hated that kind of spending inducement, game companies around the world had all steered clear of it, and by now it had become a discarded lost technology.

"Understood. Nothing else out of the ordinary?"

"The Heroes have surpassed one billion, so shouldn't we hold a major event? And I think we should also start preparing the fourth anniversary grand festival."

"It's already been that long."

Four years.

Many things had changed in that time.

The world was full of hope and joy. The dimensional realm would change that way too. As the god of Earth, Jinwoo felt deeply proud.

"Can I leave that part to you?"

"Of course! I'll prepare it thoroughly and report back!"

The fourth anniversary and one-billion-Hero events were entrusted entirely to Han Yong-seon and the rest of the FS Games development team. After chatting a while longer, Jinwoo rose from his seat.

He left FS Games and soared into the sky.

He flew far enough that the Earth came into view all at once, then stirred up his Sacred Power. An amount of Sacred Power beyond any comparison with before poured out of him.

'I can feel that my rank has risen.'

The Sacred Power he had accumulated as the Evil God and as Arsilan's Lord God was far greater than all the mana he had gathered over his entire life.

Could there be dimensions near Earth as well?

Jinwoo used his Sacred Power to heighten his senses. Linking with the Soul Gate, he searched for dimensions. Even though he poured in vast amounts of Sacred Power, no other dimension was detected at all. He only sensed a universe so vast that even its end could not be felt.

'Is it because this is a higher dimension?'

Jinwoo instinctively felt that everything in that vast universe was permitted to him.

Why was that?

Even after becoming a god, there were far too many things he still didn't know.

'Hmm....'

The natives of the dimensions were mostly good.

The people of Arsilan were the same.

Of course, it wasn't that evil people didn't exist, but most pursued peace or had gentle temperaments. There were also many beings who radiated nobility.

Only the Kalsus Dimensional Empire, the mightiest power of all, and the Erosion were different.

Jinwoo shrugged and looked down at Earth.

It was time to find EL Soft's game developers, no, technicians. Attuning himself to the Soul Gate, he wrapped the entire Earth in Sacred Power and mana.

As long as they were still alive, he could pinpoint every being who had ever worked at EL Soft. The history engraved in a soul could not be erased, after all.

[Searching....]

[Search complete.]

Jinwoo looked over the list of employees.

Most had left the game industry and were doing other work. Some were living well, while others were struggling to get through each day.

Jinwoo decided to give those who could be called good people a chance to make a comeback in the game industry.

'Now then, let's pick.'

Jinwoo grinned and examined their Evil Karma values.

Evil Karma beyond redemption was at the level of having intentionally killed someone. Since Evil Karma was reduced if the victim forgave them or if they fully regretted and reflected on their actions, no one would have cause to call it unfair.

'As for EL Soft's CEO....'

Regrettably, EL Soft's CEO Han Mong-gyun had crossed the line, and more. Even setting aside his influence in ruining the game industry, he was an evil man. He had colluded with countries where Arsilan Saga wasn't in service and ordered technology theft, and he had completely destroyed the social standing of employees he didn't like.

Bribes to politicians went without saying, and he had even hosted drug parties as entertainment.

It was all to block the game-related legislation gamers had longed for. Of course, it had all become useless after Arsilan Saga appeared.

He checked what Han Mong-gyun was doing through the Information Window.

"Hm?"

The building that had once been EL Soft's headquarters.

Han Mong-gyun was standing atop that building, which had since been sold to FS Games and turned into an Arsilan Saga merchandise shopping mall. He must have kept a key to the rooftop, sneaking in and making his way up.

His hair had grown out every which way, his face was covered in a scruffy beard, and he wore a tracksuit stained with grime. It was a pitifully shabby look, utterly unbefitting the CEO of EL Soft, who had once held the Korean game industry in his grip.

Han Mong-gyun staggered as he began climbing onto the rooftop railing. To anyone's eyes, it looked like he was about to kill himself. Jinwoo chuckled and teleported behind him.

"Ugh, uugghh!"

Han Mong-gyun looked down below, his legs trembling. It seemed that now that he had actually climbed onto the railing and looked down, he couldn't summon the courage to jump.

"Not jumping?"

"Huagh?!"

At the sound of Jinwoo's voice suddenly coming from behind him, Han Mong-gyun shuddered and nearly fell. Barely regaining his balance, he turned his head and looked at Jinwoo.

"L-Lee Jinwoo?"

"Yeah, that's right. Mong-gyun, good to see you."

Jinwoo walked toward Han Mong-gyun.

Han Mong-gyun couldn't comprehend the situation.

Was this a dream?

Why would Lee Jinwoo suddenly appear?

But Han Mong-gyun's thoughts went no further.

Before he could properly react,

"Let me help."

Tap!

Jinwoo lightly pushed him.

*****

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