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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Our Great and Omnipotent Lord God
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A vortex swirled within the GM's red velvet cloak, forming some kind of shape.
In a bleak underworld without a single point of light, children with dark gray skin and bald heads huddled together, drinking filthy sludge.
The "dead ones," whose flesh was sloughing off in chunks, approached the children. They were fixated on the living.
Mothers offered up one of their arms to the dead. In that way, they begged for the lives of their husbands and children. Men dug up withered moss and mushrooms from deep caves, only to hurl them away and charge at someone.
It was a priest with a black jackal head, like the Temple Guardian.
"Guardian, when will Ra-Djehuty descend upon us once more?"
"We were born here, but we know this place is utterly horrific. Here, we can only wait day by day to die, without any hope."
"This place is unbearable. My family and I, Urban and I, will leave. We'll go to the 'exclusive cities' where those who climb the tower reside."
Two men dragged their families away.
The priest holding a round ankh cross shed quiet tears.
"Omnipotent Lord God, our Ra-Djehuty. Please save us."
The two families who had left their nest carefully evaded the dead and fled to the entrance of the 48th floor.
There, they encountered a group of armed soldiers.
It was the Babel Expedition Knights of the Pezelon Continent.
"What do these dimensional refugees want with us?"
"We wish to enter the exclusive city on the 5th floor where you great ones reside. We'll do anything. Please take us in."
"Anything? How delightful!"
The holy Pezelon knights laughed joyfully.
The family of twenty was reduced to four.
"Holy Sword of Balmaier has been recharged. We can use it sixteen more times now."
"There were no decent souls here. Lucky timing."
Urban, trembling in a corner as he watched the knights, muttered to himself.
"They were families doomed to die here anyway."
Now no longer two men but one, Urban tried to rationalize it. The girl who had lost her father barely stifled her sobs as she prayed.
"Omnipotent Ra-Djehuty. Please save us."
Fortunately, having lived in the 48th floor's lion world, Urban had a talent for necromancy.
He leveraged that talent to become a mercenary for the Pezelon people. Always at the forefront of the battlefield, he fed the families who had come with him. The exclusive cities prepared on the 5th floor for those climbing Babel were safe havens.
Dimensional refugees like him—survivors from already perished worlds—often came begging for safety.
Only the useful ones could sustain life in the cities, while the incompetent met their ends outside. To survive, one had to continually prove their necessity.
Urban always strove to be a useful tool. Clear Babel? He had no luxury to dream that far. Surviving tomorrow, a month, a year—that was satisfaction enough.
Crisis arrived.
On the 55th floor, Demon Archduke Balbarus and ten Thousand Knights triumphed in the mission.
The victory reward: Three Touch Death. A law where touching the enemy three times kills them instantly.
3,000 Pezelon heroes were thoroughly ravaged by a mere eleven demons.
Block three times? No good. Attack three times? You die. Ranged attacks? Useless. Any contact with them meant death. Resistance was fundamentally impossible.
All of Pezelon retreated from the 55th floor, biding for the next chance.
Of course, that required sacrificial lambs to hold off the eleven demons.
"Urban, use your necromancy to block the demons. Death Knights and zombies die after three touches too, but they'll at least serve as shields."
"N-no, please, sir! Don't abandon me! I have a family..."
"If you run, I'll kill you. I'll kill your whole family in the city too. Your wife and daughter—I'll rape them day and night for ten days straight, then kill them. After, I'll throw their corpses to hunting dogs dosed with aphrodisiacs until they rot and their limbs fall off. I'll even go to your hometown on the 48th floor and do the same to those bastards there.
You've enjoyed peace and happiness in our city until now. And you say that crap? A once-defeated race that knows no grace or pride? Filthy loser of Babel."
Urban had no choice. He gripped the ankh cross he couldn't bear to discard from his bosom.
"Ra-Djehuty. Please save us..."
The Pezelon people left. Urban summoned every last bit of his life force to raise the corpses. He desperately guarded the rear until the last Pezelon hero escaped.
And died.
...
He got lucky.
A week later, he rose amid the corpses. The demon's blade that delivered his final blow was a necromantic weapon. He perished in one strike without three touches, and fragments of his soul were scattered into the corpses via the weapon's power.
Grateful to be alive, Urban returned to the 5th floor exclusive city.
"Death God-level lich! Everyone, battle formation!"
"Sirs, sirs! It's me, Urban. Please lower your bows."
Pierced by a hundred arrows and spells, Urban rubbed his head on the ground to show submission.
"Urban? Not quite alive, but more useful than before. Good job."
"No, sirs. My only wish is to be of service to you."
"Fine. This time, I'll give you a big reward. I'll talk to the city's 'king'—you'll be exempt from missions two more times. That's huge for a refugee merc like you. Go rest."
"My gratitude is as vast as the sea, sirs."
Urban kissed the elder's feet and withdrew. He wanted to rush back to his family and tell them he was alive.
Passing screams of passersby echoing in his ears, he finally returned home to his family.
The house was as always. Cheerful tableware, ample sunlight. Furniture clumsily made by his son helping at the forge. A wardrobe prepared for his friend's daughter, now his adopted daughter, for her marriage. An armchair for his wife, who had sacrificed her leg to the dead.
The house was the same as always.
But no one was there.
That was the last shred of sanity granted to Urban.
"Urban's gone mad! Urban's lost it!"
"Priests and holy knights, pour more holy baptism! How many hours of sunlight does it take to shrink that thing?"
"Prepare for Archduke-level raid! Where are the heroes and tribal reps?"
"They left for the 55th floor raid again four hours ago!"
The day Urban died, his family was discarded outside the city and died too.
They had never promised to care for his family since he was covering the rear.
City residency was limited. They simply discarded three useless incompetents and one infant.
They made no promises to Urban and acted as needed.
That fact drove Urban to despair and madness.
Urban went mad. Or more precisely, perhaps he finally came to his senses.
Because everyone here was already insane.
"Ra-Djehuty! Please!"
He begged for mercy.
"Ra-Djehuty, please. Ra-Djehuty!"
He called desperately.
"Ra-Djehuty, Ra-Djehuty! Raaaa-Djehuuuutyyyyy!"
He hated.
The lich's roar echoed throughout the city.
An army of the dead rose, spewing darkness, while the remaining heroes in the city gritted their teeth, unleashing torrents of flame and waves of light.
At the city's tallest spire, a massive lich cradled four ghouls he'd picked up from the wall's end, gently stroking each one's head.
...
448 years later.
In the ruins of the 5th floor city dungeon, a man picked up a book.
"Anubis Lich, Urban's..."
Flutter.
The GM's red cloak closed.
"The story ends here."
Gonghyeok had somehow pulled out a pipe from his bosom and was holding it in his mouth.
"Yeonsi, light."
"Yep!"
As Ju Gonghyeok snapped his fingers, Yeonsi scurried over and handed him a lit match.
- What was that just now...
"Omnipotent our Ra-Djehuty. You'd know, right? If what I just showed was true or false."
- .....
Smoke trailed from the glowing red pipe tobacco. Gonghyeok inhaled deeply, closed his eyes as if savoring a heavenly flavor, then slowly exhaled with a benevolent smile.
"This is a notice, Ra-Djehuty. I'm climbing Babel now. Wanna just sleep here cozy?"
Ra-Djehuty closed his eyes. After a brief silence, a low resonance spread.
- I shall be your strength. I, too, shall climb Babel. Open your bosom.
[Welcome to Residency]
"Come on in. Number two."
With mutual agreement, Ra-Djehuty was sucked into the GM's cloak like a shadow.
[SS-rank Avatar. God of Oaths and Time, Ra-Djehuty (Lah-Djehuty), binds to Master.]
[Current Avatar Slots Remaining: 2/2. 'Game Master (Game Master)' 'Ra-Djehuty (Lah-Djehuty)']
[Avatar: Ra-Djehuty (SS)] LV.01
Stats Boost - Mind +100, Mana +200, Will +120, Technique +80.
1st Ability "Open" '365 Days Oath'
2nd Ability Sealed 'Omniscience Magic Tome?'
3rd Ability Sealed 'Wisdom of Time?'
Ultimate Ability Sealed '?Myth'
'Abilities totally useless right now.'
SS-rank in name, flashy boosts of +100, +200, but stats Gonghyeok didn't need immediately.
Of course, if he wanted a combat avatar right away, he'd have claimed Cerberus (S+) from the Hellgate Labyrinth. Ra-Djehuty's 1st ability was useless in combat, and overall suited supporters or ranged dealers.
But as abilities unlocked, Ra-Djehuty revealed his utility avatar traits.
Especially, his 365 Days Oath was an 'Oath-type ability'—one possessed by only three out of tens of millions of avatars.
Unobtainable on the 1st floor; only from Seshat, goddess of libraries on the 48th, or Nabu, god of records on the 72nd.
Moreover, the 2nd ability 'Omniscience Magic Tome' halved mana costs for all magic skills while doubling power and efficiency. The 3rd, 'Wisdom of Time,' had limits but freely manipulated time's flow—a cheat skill.
Not all combat-oriented, but undeniably SS-rank, paved with top-tier skills.
'This should round out the conditions.'
Hunt the Twin-Headed Hellhound in Hellgate Labyrinth for combat power next.
Then Gonghyeok planned to fully dominate this game.
"Demons, angels— this is a game for humans."
In a human game, humans should be the masters.
"NPCs, stick to quests and stay outsiders. I'll run the game."
Watching everything and Gonghyeok's back, Soma quietly marveled.
'What a bizarre man. Seeking avatars in dungeons and taking them in.'
Soma Sangai felt a desire to watch this gentle-hearted Yeonsi and unfathomably eccentric Gonghyeok to the end.
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