[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
Chapter 396
[You have completed the quest.]
"Thank you so much! If it weren’t for you, my stress would’ve been through the roof."
"Sure. Take care then."
Jeong-hoon road all across Atlas, completing quests.
As a result, he managed to finish 37% of the total available.
‘Wow, Master… isn’t this just pure grind?’
‘There’s no other way to get to Arandis?’
At the mont, there wasn’t.
The only thod to reach Arandis was to build enough trust with the residents of Atlas to unlock and complete top-secret quests.
And that required clearing 80% of the quests.
"Not much left now."
‘You still have more than half left.’
"That just ans there’s only half left."
If he stayed positive, he could get it done quickly.
Unlike before his regression, he had more ti now. At this pace, he could break through to Arandis within a few days.
"Excuse , could I have a mont of your ti?"
Hearing a familiar voice, Jeong-hoon turned his head.
"…Jas Marcus?"
When Jeong-hoon muttered the na under his breath, Jas Marcus smiled faintly.
"Yes, I’m Jas Marcus."
"…Why are you here?"
This was inside the ga.
Since it wasn’t a real-world integration event, there shouldn’t have been any reason for them to et unless it was part of a combined server event.
Could it be that when the Divine Realm took over authority, it also rged the servers?
Or maybe they’d added a server transfer function?
"I ca to visit the Korea server for a bit."
"Ah, server transfer?"
"Yes, that’s right."
"So why’d you co up to ?"
Jeong-hoon tilted his head.
"Ah, I was wondering if you’ve seen a player with level 1,000."
"You ca here for that?"
"Yes."
It seed soone had recorded him wandering around and posted it online.
Still… didn’t this guy read the news?
Right now, Jeong-hoon’s level was well over 2,000.
Just reading the player info should’ve been enough for him to realize that Jeong-hoon was the one.
"That’s . The one you’re looking for."
On a whim, Jeong-hoon decided to answer honestly.
"…Sorry? What do you— Your level is 320."
Jas Marcus tilted his head, looking genuinely confused.
"Yes. You’re a level 320 Martial God, right? Are you trying to ss with right now?"
…What the hell was going on here?
Could this be because he had obtained one of the Seven Virtues?
"…Is that so?"
"Yes. But really—if you haven’t seen them, just be honest."
Jeong-hoon thought for a mont before replying.
"I told you—it’s . That was a bug."
"A… bug?"
"Yeah. Who’s ranked number one in the world right now?"
"That would be ."
"Right. If the top-ranked player’s barely in the 500s, how could a level 1,000 just pop up out of nowhere?"
"‘Barely in the 500s’? Really now."
Jas Marcus was still smiling, but from the way his mana began to churn inside him, it was clear he was annoyed.
"You really ought to be careful who you provoke."
Jeong-hoon placed a hand on his shoulder and lightly pressed down with his aura.
Thud—
Overwheld by the crushing pressure, Jas Marcus staggered and dropped to his knees.
His pupils trembled violently.
‘W–What the hell…’
The force was so imnse he couldn’t even open his mouth to speak.
He could barely breathe, and his vision started to blur.
"Oops. Guess I went a bit too hard."
Jeong-hoon lifted his hand from the man’s shoulder.
"Ghh… haah!"
Freed from the pressure, Jas Marcus gasped for air.
His body wouldn’t stop trembling, so Jeong-hoon walked up and used Divine Healing on him.
The shaking stopped instantly, his breathing steadied, and the chaotic emotions clouding his mind lted into calm.
"You good now? What kind of world’s number one almost keels over from just that?"
"J–Just… who are you?"
"I told you. I’m the level 1,000 player you saw."
Jeong-hoon smiled faintly.
‘Master! Was there really a need to say that?’
Honestly, Mukho was right—there was no real need to say it.
But Jas Marcus was also soone who had gone through countless regressions in an attempt to protect Earth.
Out of respect for that effort, Jeong-hoon intended to give him a little push so he could grow even further.
* * *
After that incident—
Jas Marcus refused to leave Jeong-hoon’s side.
"Ah, so the quests have all been changed. Then I guess that thod won’t work anymore."
"…How long are you planning to keep following ?"
"Until you tell how you gained that kind of power."
"You’re a real pain, you know that?"
"Yeah, I’m actually very good at being a pain. Haha!"
"Is that so."
Jeong-hoon gave a faint smirk as he accepted the quest.
"Whoa… what’s going on here?"
"Why is Jas Marcus hanging around with that player?"
Since the quest involved moving around town to complete tasks, it was inevitable that they’d cross paths with other players staying in Atlas.
Those players glanced back and forth between Jeong-hoon and Jas Marcus, puzzled by the odd pairing.
It wasn’t every day the world’s number one ranked player was tagging along with so nobody.
"But really—how are you hiding your level?"
Jas Marcus was certain Jeong-hoon was the level 1,000 player.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to overpower Jas so effortlessly.
The real question was—how was he showing up as level 320?
There were many ways to mask one’s level, but Jas Marcus had the ability to see through such disguises.
And yet… he couldn’t read Jeong-hoon’s level at all.
"It’s not like I’m deliberately hiding it, you know."
"You’re not hiding it?"
"Yeah. Otherwise, why would I draw so much attention as a level 1,000?"
"…Well, that’s true."
Even Jas himself hadn’t been able to see through his level.
If Jeong-hoon had really wanted to hide it, he would’ve stayed disguised as 320 and quietly avoided notice.
"Curious?"
"Huh?"
"I’m asking if you want to know how I was able to grow so quickly."
"Oh—you’re actually going to tell ?"
Jeong-hoon nodded.
If he had no intention of sharing, he wouldn’t have allowed Jas to follow him in the first place.
"Just rember the places I’ve been to."
"What?"
"There were two hidden opportunities in the places I visited."
"What the…?"
"Anyway, I’ve told you. The rest is up to you to find."
"You’re just ssing with now, aren’t you…?"
Jas had followed him everywhere, but not once had they gone anywhere that seed like it could be hiding a fortuitous chance.
That’s why he figured Jeong-hoon was just making things up to get rid of him.
"If that was my intention, I wouldn’t have let you tag along from the start."
"Th–That’s true, but… then why didn’t you take the opportunities yourself?"
In New World, hidden opportunities were essentially cheat codes that could massively accelerate a player’s growth.
If you knew their location, it was always better to take them for yourself.
In all his ti playing, Jas had never once seen anyone just hand such a chance over to soone else.
"I don’t need them."
"You… don’t need them?"
"Either way—if you don’t take them, I’ll just give them to soone else. So, what’s it gonna be?"
"I–I’ll take them."
If those opportunities really existed, there was no way he could let them fall into soone else’s hands.
"Then let’s get moving."
"J–Just a mont. Are you absolutely sure there are still hidden opportunities left in Atlas?"
Jas Marcus was one of the very few players who had conquered Atlas and moved on to Arandis.
That ant he had already scoured all of Atlas in search of opportunities.
And in that process, he had found exactly zero.
Yet now, Jeong-hoon was claiming to have found two in such a short ti?
"If you don’t believe , then don’t bother."
"Ah, I understand!"
Jas Marcus quickly rushed off toward the place where he had first t Jeong-hoon.
* * *
With Jas Marcus shaken off, Jeong-hoon was about to resu his questing.
However, players who had been watching from a distance approached him the mont Jas left, curious about him.
They, too, saw Jeong-hoon as nothing more than a level 320 Martial God.
‘Master, let’s just drive them away.’
‘Really, this is getting annoying.’
Just as Mukho and Anima said, it was troubleso—yet this was also a scene he hadn’t experienced since before reality rged with the ga, so he decided to deal with them politely.
A ga was a ga.
And that, in itself, was sothing to be thankful for.
Of course, he made sure to send them off after a short while, then focused once more on his quest.
[Partially restoring level.]
[Partially restoring stats.]
With his level further restored, he surpassed 3,000, and his overall quest completion reached 50%.
Now he needed only 30% more to et the first requirent to move on to Arandis.
The current quest involved taking children from an orphanage to visit the cathedral.
The objective was to watch over the kids and help them enjoy the cathedral’s event.
"Welco."
Loel greeted Jeong-hoon with a forced smile.
"Don’t you think you’re making it way too obvious that you don’t want here?"
"When did I ever do that? Can’t you see the smiling face right now?"
"You’ve got kids with you—try keeping your expression in check."
"I am keeping it in check…"
"More importantly, is the reward for this quest coming from you?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Because it’s offering two Fragnts of the Beginning."
On the surface, this quest was nothing more than spending ti with children at the cathedral.
Yet the reward was two Fragnts of the Beginning—a surprisingly large payout.
Which ant this quest wasn’t as simple as it looked.
‘What are they testing for, to be giving away two Fragnts of the Beginning?’
A quest related to the cathedral.
"R–Really? It’s not like we’ve got Fragnts of the Beginning to spare…"
Loel seed genuinely unaware of the quest’s details.
"Two whole fragnts are on the line."
"Two?!"
The shock on Loel’s face confird it for him.
This quest clearly had nothing to do with Loel.
"Um…"
At that mont, a small child—looking to be around six years old—fidgeted with their fingers as they looked up at Loel.
"Hm? Do you have sothing you’d like to say?"
Loel knelt down to et the child’s eyes.
Perhaps reassured by his gentle deanor, the child slowly began to speak.
"Actually… Teacher Lucas has been acting strange…"
"Strange? Can you explain what you an by that?"
"Every night, he shouts… and keeps making weird noises that stop us from sleeping."
The other children nodded at the statent.
"Yeah. He didn’t use to be like that… but at so point, he started acting weird."
"He’s scary now."
"Last ti, he took Aru and Hugo sowhere… and they never ca back. He told us they went to a better place, so we shouldn’t worry."
As the children poured out their words, Jeong-hoon gave a small nod.
‘Just as I thought—this isn’t a simple quest.’
There was a reason the reward included two Fragnts of the Beginning.
If it was Lucas, then he must be the orphanage’s director.
The Lucas Jeong-hoon had seen before was an exceedingly kind man.
You could feel how much he truly loved the children, and he carried himself as a middle-aged man with deep pride in the orphanage.
"Hmm… yeah, that does sound strange," Loel admitted.
The children nodded quickly, as if relieved to have soone agree.
"See?!"
"Please make our teacher go back to how he used to be!"
"Teacher Lucas was always super nice before!"
Straightening from his kneeling position, Loel turned to look at Jeong-hoon.
"You heard that, right?"
"Heard what?"
"Huh? You said this quest has two Fragnts of the Beginning on the line. That ans you should go and fix this right away, shouldn’t you?"
"Let’s go together, then."
"What?"
"This kind of thing seems to be your specialty."
"What…? I can’t handle evil spirits or anything like that!"
"Evil spirits? You sure about that?"
Were there even evil spirits in New World?
"It’s just a figure of speech. But given how evil spirits act, the symptoms seem similar."
"Huh… so the Divine Realm took control of New World, yet there are still evil spirits?"
"…How would I know?"
"Oh? Kids, he says he’s not going to help you."
Jeong-hoon looked at the children as he said it.
"Huh? Why not?"
"Why won’t you help…?"
The children’s eyes began to well with tears.
"Haha… No, no! Of course I’ll help!"
Flustered, Loel hurried to comfort them.
"See? He says he’ll help. That’s great, isn’t it?"
Jeong-hoon smiled down at the children.
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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