God-Tier Enhancement Chapter 296: Episode 296_Descent of the Demon King (5)

Chapter 296: Episode 296_Descent of the Demon King (5)

7.

The 21st century was the information age.

If you ever wondered why people say information is power, you only had to look at who gets rich in an information society.

Even if you had nothing to your name, you could make a fortune just by securing information first.

It was true that you needed capital to back it up, but that was ultimately a secondary issue.

The same was true in games.

Perhaps even more so.

In games, the profit you could gain from information was enormous. In real life, it all boiled down to money, but in a game, you could monopolize not only money but also levels and gear.

Of course, that was just the most basic benefit.

If you thought a little further, the advantages you could gain by monopolizing information were endless.

They couldn’t be put into words.

So what happened if the ruling powers got their hands on that kind of information?

The phrase “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” existed for a reason.

No one understood that better than Han Simin.

In reality, he was a nobody with no clear future, bouncing from one tiny studio apartment to the next. But in Fantastic World, he had been ahead from the start. He’d unintentionally snagged the Main Quest and all its benefits and was now working closely with the Emperor, the de facto leader of all NPCs.

That man had obtained information about the Main Quest.

He wasn’t monopolizing it.

It had been handed out wholesale to all players.

However, Han Simin had realized the intent of the quest’s creator—the underlying essence of the Main Quest—faster than anyone else.

This wasn’t some special favor.

BetaGo.

As the player who had understood the flow of the game better than anyone and had been most directly affected by it, he had simply read the signs.

He understood the direction the Main Quest was supposed to take and how it was designed to make players protect the continent.

It was possible that a few other players besides Han Simin had caught on right away.

But there was a clear difference between them and Han Simin.

“Your Holiness, we have a serious problem.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Right now, across the nation—no, across the entire continent—cults are starting to run rampant.”

The Pope’s eyes widened in shock.

The difference was power.

The high-ranking NPCs they could mobilize.

Han Simin didn’t hesitate for even a moment to use the work he had built.

There was no need to hesitate. In fact, he couldn’t afford to.

He had already dropped hints to key NPCs that whatever the players were saying was nonsense, and he intended to continue doing so. But if the bait of the Main Quest and the lure of its rewards blinded players to the point of risking their lives, and if that sentiment snowballed into a widespread movement, the outcome could only be disadvantageous for him.

There was a clear difference between one or two people speaking up, dozens speaking up, thousands, and hundreds of thousands.

So he chose to cut the problem off at the root.

A design to prepare for the future.

He had to make sure that even if the players joined forces and shouted in unison, the NPCs would not be swayed.

He couldn’t stop it by simply insisting they were wrong.

He had to make the NPCs develop a natural aversion to the players’ actions.

The cornerstone of his plan was the Great Temple.

The Pope.

The man who served only God.

He was currently quite fond of the new Saintess, who had not only dramatically increased the temple’s donations and played a major role in uniting the priests but had also brought a wave of good fortune with her.

However, if the day ever came when the Heavenly King managed to prove himself, or if it were revealed that Epia was actually the Demon King, he would be the first to turn his back and raise his iron hammer.

That was why Han Simin had to persuade the Pope first.

“Among the adventurers, there are people going around claiming they have been given a mission from God.”

“Yes, I have heard of that.”

“In truth, that is a secret directive from the Demon King. The warlocks who have infiltrated the continent are manipulating the adventurers.”

The Pope gasped.

“They have begun operating under a completely different name, but the warlocks are behind them. Their ultimate goal is to ensure the Demon King’s safe return while framing the weakened Heavenly King as the Demon King to throw the continent into chaos. I came to you because I cannot stop this with my strength alone, Your Holiness. We have to pull it up by the roots at the very beginning. Otherwise, something truly irreversible might happen.”

“This is...”

“You know, don’t you? That adventurers don’t truly die, even when they are killed. And that if the right rewards and power are on the line, they are the kind of people who would sell out the entire continent without a second thought. Of course, there are many good adventurers like me who care about the continent, but I worry that this incident could bring chaos not only to the continent but to the Great Temple as well.”

“Hm.”

“I heard there has been a large increase in adventurer-priests at the temple lately. You need to be careful. You never know when they might stab you in the back. No matter how reliable the high priests are, everything collapses from the bottom up.”

He spouted whatever came to mind without hesitation.

It wasn’t as if anyone could prove him wrong or refute him.

At best, they could only shout baseless accusations, demanding that the Pope abandon Han Simin.

That might change over time, but for now, the advantage lay with Han Simin.

“Can you prove this?” the Pope asked with a grave expression.

If what Han Simin said was true, it was a massive incident.

Heresy.

It was, in effect, a mortal enemy of the Great Temple—something that could not and must not be allowed to exist on the continent.

It had to be erased.

Especially now, with the atmosphere so unsettled and both the Heavenly King and the Demon King having descended upon the continent.

He could not take it lightly.

But if it could be proven...

“In that case, we must rip it out. At the root.”

The Pope’s eyes turned icy cold.

Han Simin nodded in satisfaction.

On cue, the prepared actor stepped forward.

“She once stood on the side of the warlocks, and she is the heir of the Grand Warlock. She will prove it.”

Kang Yeseul.

Wearing a witch’s robe, she stood before the Pope.

*

Naturally, the Pope knew Kang Yeseul’s face.

He had seen her when Han Simin came through the Gate with Specialist, but at the time, she hadn’t been with the other warlocks, so he had been unsure. He’d simply wondered why the leader of the warlocks was with Han Simin and left it at that.

Now, however, she openly demonstrated her dark magic and even presented the token of the former Grand Warlock, leaving him no choice but to believe.

Disgust was plain on his face.

Even so, he listened intently to her words.

“There are already demons on the continent. They received the Demon King’s orders and made contact with the warlocks, who are now slowly seeping back into human society. I was ordered to go to the capital to cause confusion and buy time for the other warlocks to operate more easily, but...”

From the Great Temple’s perspective, it was a welcome betrayal.

“I’ve lost all hope for the warlocks, and honestly, I only took this offer to make some money. But this side seems to have far more potential. Besides, Simin is in my guild. If you’ll accept me, I’ll work hard. If you say I should be punished, I’m ready to accept that as well.”

On top of that, her reasoning was sound.

The Pope, though displeased, had no choice but to nod.

Dealing with a bat-like turncoat was not the immediate priority. What mattered were the facts she had presented. Whether he liked her or not, her words came from someone he had reason to trust. He would have to consider whether to believe her completely, but this was more than enough justification for the Great Temple to act and ascertain the truth.

Day by day, the number of people denying the authority of the Empire, and even the very value of the Great Temple, was growing. More than anything, that was what infuriated him.

’The Great Temple is mistaking the Demon King for the Heavenly King and shielding him.’ Was that not, in effect, a statement that dismissed the final decision made by the Pope himself?

He had never once thought of himself as a god, but he had never believed that the divine power granted by God could lie. In his eyes, Epia was absolutely not the Demon King.

In the end, the Pope was only human.

Holy Knights were secretly dispatched from the Great Temple to every corner of the continent.

8.

Han Simin immediately climbed onto Kardian and headed for his next destination.

“Man, this is hectic. I’ve never been this busy, not even in real life.”

“Are you managing your money properly?”

“I don’t know. I just stuffed it in my bank account and forgot about it.”

“What? How much is even in there?”

“Beats me. Last I checked, about a month ago, it was around seventy billion won.”

Yeseul was speechless.

Lately, he was truly beginning to understand the meaning of being too busy to even blink. Han Simin lived for money, yet it had been over a month since he had last checked his account balance. If anything, he felt like he was becoming numb to money ever since he started handling the real thing. He had a list of 101 things he wanted to do once he got rich, but the reality was that he hadn’t managed to do a single one, a fact he could only lament.

“I guess I really am just a commoner at heart. When you get money, you’re supposed to think about how to spend it, but all I can think about is how to keep earning in case the gravy train stops.”

“Well, it’s not exactly the time to be thinking about money right now, is it?”

“That’s true. I have to see this plan through to the end. If I screw this up, Kenji might take everything from me.”

’Just this one time. If I can get through this cleanly, I’ll kick back and live the easy life.’

This was the biggest hurdle.

If he could just get Epia firmly seated as the Heavenly King... and then get rid of the Heavenly King. If he could just avoid being exposed until then and keep sabotaging the users’ Main Quest progress.

“I’m going to cash out big, buy ten or so buildings so I can live easy, travel the world, hit up resorts, enjoy beach vacations, and spend the rest of my life never looking at Enhancement again.”

“As if you’d ever actually do that.”

He neatly ignored Yeseul’s painfully accurate jab.

That was the nature of hope. Even if it seemed unattainable, you held onto it anyway.

While they were talking, Kardian arrived at the warlock stronghold.

*

The number of warlocks had noticeably decreased since the last time he was here.

“What the hell? Did they all go on a field trip or something?”

Silence answered him.

The place felt truly empty. Before, the stronghold had been so full of warlocks that it made him wonder if they were really living in hiding. Now, with such a huge base and so few people, he honestly doubted they had enough hands to even keep the place clean.

On top of that, their eyes were filled with suspicion, even though Yeseul had returned. If she hadn’t been the Grand Warlock’s disciple, they might have attacked on sight.

“Hey, hey. Relax. If I came here to kill you, do you think I’d be standing around making small talk? With a dragon parked outside?”

They remained silent.

Han Simin treated them with uncharacteristic warmth. For some reason, he wanted to be friendly, at least with the warlocks. To him, priests and warlocks alike were nothing more than chess pieces for squeezing out money, but something about their nature gave him a strange sense of kinship, as a piece of human trash himself. A primal sense of familiarity. That was what it was.

“Life’s rough these days, huh? You lost the war, and now you’re getting pushed around by the Heavenly King in the Demon World, so the demons don’t have the strength to cross over. You’re probably worried about how you’re going to survive for the next few hundred years. I’m here to put an end to those worries, so just stick with me.”

In truth, as long as there was mutual trust, deals with warlocks were easy to close. No, with warlocks, it was even easier.

Items poured out of Han Simin’s subspace.

“This is the collateral to prove I’m serious. Let’s put on a show together.”

All sorts of gear he had obtained in the Demon World appeared on the continent—on a completely different level from the keepsakes he had looted off dead warlocks during the war.