Above Your Head

Vol 2. Chapter 127: The Salvation of God (64)

Dark clouds slowly formed and covered the sky. Alex was the leader of the defensive group set up in a huge circle around Dae-ha. He quietly lifted his head and looked up at the sky. He overheard the conversation between the players who were quietly keeping their positions.

“It’s going to rain.”

“It’s going to be messy. I guess it doesn’t really matter because we are riding in our gigas anyways.”

“But Iron Mask-nim isn’t, right?”

Alex saw one of the gigas turn its head slightly to look back. But there was no point in its motion, because the majority of those who were part of the Justice League possessed Justice Weapons. This meant that all of them could watch Dae-ha on a screen.

Kieek. Kieek.

Dae-ha was carving a mysterious steel ball with an unknown expression. It was quite hard to guess what he was thinking. Every time his hand moved, and every time he engraved a letter, one could see a halo behind Dae-ha’s head as well as a surge of spirit around him.

It was similar to a divine image that could only be seen in the murals of a holy land.

‘God.’

Alex was an atheist.

He believed that only man could do evil and judge evil. He thought it an intolerable arrogance for there to be an omniscient figure in the sky who judged humans according to their own set of good and evil.

But what about now?

There was a god who was evaluating all of mankind’s good and evil while providing rewards and punishments. The same god was protecting mankind from destruction. He thought he would have never accepted such an existence, that humans were arrogant beings who would not tolerate having transcendents lord over them. But the reality was different.

Iron Mask was already a devout object of faith affirmed by the whole of humankind.

“I, speak of the devil. It’s pouring down as soon as I mention it.”

The heavy shower began to descend as the players whispered. Of course, gigas would never get wet. The thin membrane of energy surrounding the machines deflected the water in all directions.

“Huh?”

“Wait, this is…”

“Wow…”

The players started to stir. Some of them were even blatantly turning their heads. Alex had been watching silently until now, but he could no longer let this level of laxity through.

“What are you all doing? Focus on your missions!”

“B, but General!”

“But? Did you just speak back to me!?”

Alex was stunned by the unexpected response. But at the same time, he realized that all of the gigas were pointing at his back.

And when he turned around.

“What is…this?”

He realized that everyone else was in awe.

“Oh… lord…”

The pouring raindrops deflected off the barriers surrounding the gigas and scattered. But since the raindrops weren’t actually going anywhere, puddles quickly formed around the machines. But… the area around Dae-ha was different.

Shuaa—

Countless petals were pouring down. Petals swarmed around Dae-ha with the wind and slowly landed on the floor to create a dreamy atmosphere. Alex looked up. His excellent cognitive abilities allowed him to see the raindrops falling from the sky combined with the gigas’ assistance.

Every single drop transformed into a flower petal once it entered a perimeter of 1 kilometer around Dae-ha. It wasn’t just one kind of flower either. There were roses, cherry blossoms, forsythia flowers, chrysanthemum flowers, and more.

Raindrops were turning into all kinds of petals

Flutter! Flutter!

Suaaaa-!

“…my god.”

Flowers were pouring down and piling up on the floor. Even rainwater flowing towards Dae-ha from outside the range turns into flowers as they approached him.

Kieek. Kieek.

And in the midst of everything, Dae-ha continued to carve. People were watching the amazing sight through their eyes, and through their Justice Weapons.

“No!!”

It wasn’t just the humans who were watching the awe-inspiring sight. The avatar of the End Project, the child of darkness, was also observing Dae-ha.

“What is this!? No!!”

He gritted his teeth, bit his nails, and screamed at the top of his lungs. It was quite a commotion, but Il-han, remained motionless in his seat, just like a mannequin.

“I have to stop him! I have to kill him!!”

The black child was terrified to see Dae-ha continuing to carve in the midst of the pouring petals. An unparalleled sense of ominousness was raging all around. It was even incomparable to when the child broke its own rules to interfere with Dae-ha’s enlightened moment in the past.

In the end, the child had no choice but to break the rules again.

- Stage has been opened!

- Level 20. Difficulty has been set at hard.

- No time restrictions. Eradicate the Giants of the Apocalypse.

The hard difficulty of level 20 began even though the intermediate stage had not been cleared yet.

“Yes!! I can just stop him this time too!!”

The child screamed maniacally while emitting a black aura. He was sure of victory. A combination of ten level 20 giants and one level 21 giant! No matter how many humans were prepared, and even if earth’s transcendent could cross space at will, they could not deal with so many enemies at once.

No matter how strong their defenses were, he would crush it to bits and get rid of that damned cheater! He was certain. But then...

“…At last.”

Il-han finally opened his eyes.

“You finally crossed the line completely.”

*** 

- Stage will be opened!

- Leve 20. Difficulty has been set at hard.

- No time restrictions.

- Eradicate the Giants of Apocalypse. 

The players freaked out at the line of texts that popped up out of the blue.

“W, what the hell is this saying? We still have a long ways to go before the intermediate level is over.”

“This is crazy! Don’t tell me that there’s going to be 10 or 20 giants appearing at one time?”

“How could they do something like this? It’s throwing a tantrum because we might clear the stage at this rate.”

“Emergency! This is an emergency! Tell them to send all the people who are on standby!”

All of the players prepared for combat at the same time. Although the enemies did not appear yet, they could guess how the situation would play out.

But at the same time, they felt a sense of despair

‘We can’t stop this.’

All of humankind’s powers were focused on destroying five giants. Although they had fighters on standby, could they quickly prepare for battle and get into formations before the enemies respawned? And what if more than 10 giants were to appear? What if some of the giants were suicide bombers? 

It would not be strange if humanity was extinguished in a day and their protector god, Iron Mask, was killed as well.

“Everyone!! Protect this place with your lives!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Dammit! We were almost there! We were almost finished!”

“Uaaahhh!!!”

Spirit exploded along with the players’ roars. The warriors did not panic or sink into fear even in the midst of despair! 

A new notice suddenly appeared in front of their eyes.

- The system will be partially updated.

- The Giants of Apocalypse will be changed to the Special Boss, Ham Eun-jung!

- The special Boss will be given two special abilities.

1. Convergence: The power of all stage monsters appearing at the same time will converge to the Special Boss.

2. Immortal: The Special Boss will not die except for on their own volition. 

“…..”

“…..”

The battlefield fell into a moment of silence. Everyone was reading the notice with a look of incredulity. 

“W, what is this? The power of all monsters… Since there are half a billion humans left on earth… Five billion Apocalypse Giants… Or 10 billion… All of that power will be concentrated on one monster?”

“Since we have monsters left from the intermediate level, it might be more than 20 billion.”

“Then what level is the enemy going to be…?”

“More importantly, what the hell is this immortal bullshit? It won’t die unless it wants to? What kind of nonsense shit is this??”

The players were at a loss due to the ridiculous explanation. However, they were not the only ones who were surprised. The child had been preparing to manipulate the Giants of Apocalypse. It cried out in bewilderment at the sudden change.

“What!? What did you do? A special boss??”

“I thought it would be better to finish things with a powerful boss rather than to drag things on.”

The child was somewhat placated by the calm answer.

“What is this immortal ability? Something like this was possible? This is basically fraud.”

“It’s possible if you specialize the abilities well.”

“Really? I don’t think that’s how it works…”

In the meantime,

Pat!

The Special Boss, Ham Eun-jung, appeared in front of the players. Beyond the players, Dae-ha was still immersed in carving.

Special Boss Ham Eun-jung spoke.

“Where… am I? I thought I died?”

She spoke in a dazed voice as she looked around her surroundings.

“This doesn’t seem like heaven or hell. Besides, what are those robots?”

As she muttered, the players spotted her appearance.

“9’o clock! A suspicious being in the form of a girl has appeared!”

“No!! It’s the Special Boss! It’s the Special Boss Ham Eun-jung!”

“Standby! Don’t pull the trigger until you have my orders!”

The ridiculous announcement prevented the players from attacking hastily. They did not know how strong the enemy was and what kind of abilities she possessed, but the pressure of the two revealed abilities, convergence and immortality, was much too great.

Some of the players spoke up.

“E, excuse me, captain.”

“What is it?”

“The name Ham Eun-jung… it sounds familiar.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I think I saw it in a history book before…”

“What?”

Players were thrown into confusion. But the Special Boss, Ham Eun-jung, was just as confused. She suddenly realized that there was a folded note in her hand.

She opened the note.

In it was a short message written in a familiar handwriting.”

Surrender as soon as you see this. -Il-han.

“What are you talking about…? Surrender?”

She spoke in a dazed voice. But as soon as she spoke, it was all over.

- Congratulations! The stage has been perfectly cleared! Rewards will be provided according to contributions. 

- Contributions do not exist!

- Congratulations! The stage has been perfectly cleared! Rewards will be provided according to contributions.

- Contributions do not exist!

Two stages were cleared simultaneously. However, that wasn’t all.

- Congratulations! All of the stages have been completed! 

- The settlement process will be completed shortly!

“What? What the hell?”

“What’s going on? This is the end? All of the stages have been completed?”

“The End Project is… over?”

The players were confused. But someone else was even more shocked than all of them.

“Cancel it! Cancel!! What are they talking about? Surrender!? Who says so!? Cancel the stage clear!! There is no surrender!”

The black child shouted frantically, but Il-han shook his head from behind the child.

“I refuse. A surrender is equivalent to defeat. It certainly qualifies as a condition for clearing the stage.”

“Cancel! Cancel! It!”

“I refuse.”

The black child threw a tantrum in response to Il-han’s stiff response. The child turned its head and glared at Kl-han. The eyes of the child, which was as black as the abyss, was starting to glow red.

“You… You---!!!”

Kuuuuuu—

Immense energy started to biol up.

“How dare you!! How--!! How dare you---!!!”

A deafening roar. Il-han took a step back as the child expressed its rage.

Chuap!

“Integration Skill activation.”

Everything went according to the plan. If a cancellation request was not applied until the settlement was completed in a moment, the stage would finally be terminated, and the End Project will be forcibly transformed into an apocalypse monster despite its lack of power.

‘In other words, all I have to do is stall for power.’

Tap.

A heavy claymore appeared in his hands after a long time. Il-han spoke while feeling the long-forgotten energy simmering within his body.

“All Master.”