Chapter 1756 – 1756. Savior Of The Academy
Seoul is being destroyed by natural disasters.
Naturally, the heroes stepped up. They prioritized rescuing people and attacked the materialized spirits. However, the spirits were not easy to deal with. If they sensed danger, they would flee or call other spirits to attack together.
A peculiar thing was that these were the movements of lower-grade spirits.
‘Lower-grade spirits are basically dumb. To put it nicely, they’re instinctual. If an opponent is stronger than them? They run away without looking back. The only time they fight together like that is when they’re being directed by someone.’
Looking around, I couldn’t sense any spirit users. This meant they were being controlled by something other than a spirit user.
‘At least a top-tier spirit. It would take at least five of them to even be able to do this.’
There was an even worse possibility. That the Spirit King had directly given the order.
“Help me! Please help me!”
A woman shouted at me. Her voice was my type, but her face was ordinary. Looking at her leg, there were pieces of asphalt embedded in it.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
A giant made of rock slowly walked towards the woman. It was a high-grade rock spirit. It looked like it was going to crush her to death with its immense weight.
‘She’s not ugly, but she’s ordinary. And this is inside a dungeon. She’s fake, so is there any need to save her?’
I could save the woman and then rape her, but I didn’t have time for that right now. I had to find Laplace and kill him.
“P-please, save me!”
The woman reached out her hand to me. I just watched. Thump! The high-grade rock spirit stepped on the woman’s body. It stepped on her again and again. I could feel hatred in its actions. I approached the spirit while using my Spirit Eye.
The rock spirit, which had been clenching its fist with murderous intent towards me, lowered its fist again.
“Human… I feel a familiar sensation from you. You’re different from the humans here.”
The spirit was friendly. It was thanks to my high spirit affinity.
“Why are you attacking humans?”
“Will you interfere?”
“I’m just asking out of curiosity. If I was going to interfere, I would have already done it.”
“I see… I don’t mind telling you, since I feel familiar with you. The Spirit King is enraged. He is disappointed in humans and has decided to punish them. We must kill humans quickly…”
I could feel the spirit’s deep-seated anger. This was anger influenced by the Spirit King. I broke out in a cold sweat. The Spirit King directly intervening was something that didn’t even happen in the original story.
“Why is the Spirit King angry at humans?”
“Seong Hari. That woman damaged and ate the King’s sacred body.”
“……”
I swallowed hard. I was taken aback by the unexpected name. The Seong Hari the spirit was talking about must have been Yeong Hari. Was Yeong Hari alive? Not dead?
Come to think of it, this was a dungeon. It wouldn’t be strange for Yeong Hari to be here. Though, it seemed like she would be a different person from the Yeong Hari in the virtual reality.
“You only need to attack that woman. Why do you need to attack all humans?”
“The humans, led by that woman, invaded the spirit realm. They tried to destroy the spirit realm and go against the natural order. The Spirit King was enraged by this. We are the King’s anger and the King’s hammer.”
The rock spirit looked around. It turned its body as if it had found another human.
“You too, act on the King’s anger. If you kill humans, the King will be pleased.”
“I have something more urgent to do than that. Seong Hari. Where is that woman?”
“She’s over there. On a high mountain. The King’s own hands and feet have moved… How could a human made of bones and flesh possibly withstand that? That woman will die. That is just.”
“Curse her all you want.”
I swung the Kusanagi sword imbued with Susanoo’s power. The rock spirit’s body was cut. The large rock was split in two. The ground shook. Before it could use its power, I cut the remaining torso as well. The head, the only part left, glared at me with murderous intent.
“How dare you betray us?!”
“Seong Hari is my woman. Who do you think you are to kill her? Neither the Spirit King nor anyone else has the right to touch my woman.”
I cut the rock spirit’s head.
The place with the mountain.
There are many mountains in South Korea. Moreover, in the [Savior of the Academy] world, unlike reality, North and South Korea had never been divided. The Korean War never existed.
‘If you include the mountains in the North… there are a hell of a lot.’
Suddenly, I realized. Should I meet Seong Hari in this world? She wouldn’t be the Seong Hari from the original story, and there was a possibility that she wouldn’t be the Yeong Hari I knew.
‘Considering the last time, there’s a possibility she knows me, but…’
Right now, I had to find Laplace and kill him.
‘It’s also a problem that I don’t know where Laplace is.’
I paused.
I was in a situation where I couldn’t go forward or backward. What should I do in this situation? It was simple. I would do what I wanted to do.
‘I have to meet Seong Hari in the dungeon. Let’s meet her and get some information. Then I might be able to find out about the real Seong Hari’s past.’
The hint the rock spirit gave was a mountain. And the fact that the King’s hands and feet had moved. If a battle had taken place, it wouldn’t be intact, so I should look for the most dangerous mountain.
I left Seoul for now.
• • •
First, I headed to the southernmost part. Since it was a mountain in Korea, Jirisan and Hallasan were the first to come to mind.
I used Susanoo’s power. I rode the wind and flew south. Not only Seoul, but other regions were also under attack by spirits.
‘I heard that China and Japan are also in chaos. Well, it’s none of my business.’
Jirisan had collapsed. A landslide had occurred, and it was a mess. It would take at least a few years to clean it up. It seemed like a top-tier spirit had used its power, but I couldn’t find any traces of battle.
Hallasan on Jeju Island had exploded. Red lava was flowing, and volcanic ash was flying in the sky. Again, I couldn’t find any traces of battle.
I looked for other mountains as well. They were all a mess. Nothing was intact. Of course, the cities were the same.
‘Millions of people will die.’
After this was over, the country of Korea wouldn’t even exist. The situation was that serious.
‘I’ve searched all the southern mountains, but she’s not there. Then the only thing left is… the North.’
I entrusted my body to the wind. The wind pulled my body and flew north. It was quite comfortable. The only downside was that it was a bit cold.
As I flew north, I searched every mountain. However, there were no mountains that showed signs of battle. They had all been brutally destroyed by natural disasters.
Now, the only mountain left was Baekdusan.
Surprisingly, Baekdusan was intact. It looked as if it hadn’t been affected by the natural disasters at all, showing a sturdy appearance.
‘But what’s that? A tower?’
There was a tower standing tall in the lake at the top of Baekdusan. It looked about 20 stories high, and it was grand and majestic.
‘Why is there a tower all of a sudden? And why are there so many people here? Did they come because Baekdusan is intact?’
I flew to the top of Baekdusan. The lake was red. There was a strong smell of blood coming from the lake. Looking inside the lake, there were countless corpses. It was the aftermath of a battle. It seemed like they had been unilaterally attacked.
“Who are you? State your name and affiliation.”
Someone who had approached me from behind asked in a cold voice. It was a familiar voice. I slowly turned around.
It was a woman with dark brown hair wearing a white coat over her shoulders.
Kang Ji-young. The head of Maruhan Academy in the original story. Her upper garment was torn at the side. There were traces of blood and a bandage wrapped around her waist. Blood was soaking into the white bandage. It was clear that she was not in a normal state.
“I asked who you are.”
I hesitated before opening my mouth. It wouldn’t affect anything outside the dungeon even if they knew my real name.
“I’m Seong Yu-jin.”
“Ah. I see. Seong Yu-jin. What’s your affiliation?”
“Maruhan Academy.”
“Academy? You’re too strong to be a student. Are you a new teacher? Why did you come here?”
“The world is a mess, does that matter?”
“…Ha. You’re right, I have nothing to say.”
“What’s that tower? It doesn’t look like an ordinary tower.”
Kang Ji-young looked back and forth between me and the tower. She seemed displeased with something, and then she let out a sigh. It was a sigh of resignation, as if she had given up on something.
“The information about the tower should already be widely known… You don’t know?”
“I don’t really watch the news.”
“It suddenly appeared two weeks ago. There was a gate reaction right before it appeared.”
“Is it a dungeon in the shape of a tower?”
“There were heroes who entered the tower first. It was a team made up of half Korean and half Chinese heroes.”
This was the border area between Korea and China. It was natural for Chinese people to be involved.
“The team came back out after a day. 80% of the team was annihilated. The survivors called that tower the Tower of Wishes.”
“…Tower of Wishes?”
“A tower that grants the wish of the person who reaches the top. The problem is that the information also leaked to the Chinese side. All sorts of people flocked to it. If you look outside, you can still see people climbing towards the tower.”
“Yeah. They’re coming to Baekdusan. But it seems like no one is actually reaching it.”
“The spirits are blocking them. Strangely, the spirits don’t come near the tower. How did you get here without being blocked by the spirits?”
“Because I’m a spirit user.”
“…A spirit user? Your name is Seong Yu-jin… Are you perhaps a member of the Jinryeong Seong family?”
I didn’t answer. Kang Ji-young just assumed and nodded.
‘Tower of Wishes, huh…’
I think Seong Hari mentioned it before.
But there was a question. If you reach the top of the tower, it grants your wish. It was a groundbreaking reward, but I didn’t know about it. I had never learned about it at the academy either. This was something that should have been mentioned in the news several times.
“Did Seong Hari enter the tower?”
“…Yes. Eight hours ago. We were confronting the Chinese side… when she suddenly appeared and attacked us. We couldn’t stop her. We were annihilated in five minutes. She wasn’t the Seong Hari I knew.”
“You didn’t die.”
“Even though she became a villain, it seems like she still had some old feelings left. Did you come to meet Seong Hari? Give up. Nothing will work on her now. Even if you’re from the same family, she’ll attack you without hesitation. Especially since you’re a spirit user, she will…”
Kukukung!
The tower shook. Cracks appeared on its surface, and it slowly began to collapse.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
A scream.
Seong Hari’s scream echoed from the top of the tower.
