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The nine-headed black dragon, a legendary beast, was the one of the four divine beasts that once ruled over the Frontier.
The so-called Western Black Dragon was the protector of the West, and Wei Chun-Hak had barely managed to sign a contract with it after tracking it down for twenty-one months without sleep.
‘The hardships I went through back then still wake me up at night…’
But never once did Wei Chun-Hak regret making a contract with the dragon, because its strength was great enough to fight a war alone against most countries.
Unfortunately, there was one problem with summoning the dragon—a great price had to be paid in order to summon such a strong divine beast.
-Contractor…what is your purpose for summoning me and what are you willing to offer?
-Is it magic again? That’s not enough…
-Magic alone won’t fill me up…
“Fortunately for you, it’s a pretty big trade this time. The request is to exterminate that bastard. What I’m willing to offer in return is…”
Wei Chun-Hak lightly tapped himself on his heart.
“All of my magic and half of my remaining lifespan.”
There was no need to offer such a high-stakes trade every time he summoned the nine-headed black dragon. There was only one reason why Wei Chun-Hak was paying this ridiculous price: the price paid when summoning the dragon was directly proportional to the dragon’s strength.
-Oh…
-If you are willing to give me that much…
-It is good enough…
“Keuk!”
Wei Chun-Hak frowned and coughed. He felt a terrible pain in his chest, as if someone was squeezing his heart with the intention to crush it.
‘But even this…is worth it if it can give us even the slightest bit of hope.’
In fact, the emperor’s eyes were full of interest as he looked up at the dragon confidently raising its nine heads.
“...The Western Black Dragon, huh?”
-Do you know us?
“Of course I do,” the emperor smirked. “You were killed after desperately struggling until the very last moment of your life.”
The emperor nodded as he recalled the past for a moment.
“You, human over there. You won. I must admit you’ve prepared something quite interesting.”
The emperor decided to put off attacking Seo Jun-Ho, since the human wouldn’t be able to wake up from that state for at least a few days anyway.
“I’ll play with you first.”
At the same time he finished speaking, one of the nine heads fell over him like a meteorite.
Crashhh! Bang!
-...!
The head stopped.
The enormous head that crushed everything in its path to reach its target had been simply blocked by something.
-That is…
-No way, it can’t be!
-But they abandoned the planet and left!?
“Is that what happened on the other side of the world?” the emperor murmured calmly. His right hand had grown grotesquely huge, and it was now gripping the head of the Western Black Dragon.
“But that’s not what happened here.”
Crackkk!
The dragon’s head was crushed like a watermelon and exploded to bits.
“Keuk!”
Once again, Wei Chun-Hak spat out a painful groan and rolled on the ground. However, he did not take his eyes off of the opponent even in that state.
‘Is that…a claw?’
The emperor’s right hand had turned into something like that of a dragon’s claw. The only difference was that it was much larger than the nine-headed black dragon’s own claws.
-It’s a dragon!
-The coordinator of the world!
-This ferocious energy…it’s the Red Dragon!
“You are quite quick witted.”
The emperor smirked and took a glance at Wei Chun-Hak.
“This will be the last moment of your life, so make sure you take a good look.”
With this remark, the emperor suddenly grew explosively, and in an instant, he reached the towering height of forty meters. He no longer looked human by any standards; he sported a huge pair of wings and a slowly moving tail, while the glossy red scales covering his body looked like overwhelmingly mighty armor.
Finally, the emperor’s bright-yellow reptilian eyes opened.
“This is what a dragon really looks like. In comparison…”
His gaze turned toward the nine-headed black dragon.
“...You’re just a little lizard.”
-I won’t let you get away with saying that.
-I will avenge the dead head.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Western Black Dragon charged at its opponent. Each of the remaining eight heads shot out dragon breath and lashed forward to bite the opponent.
“How useless.”
Bang!
The emperor lightly swung his heavy tail.
The nearest head was struck by the tail and exploded on the spot, while two of the other heads managed to bite the emperor’s long neck.
-...!
At the same time, however, the heads felt tremendous danger. The emperor’s scales were so thick that they could not be pierced even by a dragon’s sharp fangs.
“You inferior beings just don’t learn anything until you experience it yourself, do you?”
Spitting out this scathing piece of criticism, the emperor opened his mouth wide and ripped one of the heads off its neck. Then he instantly summoned his Force and burned the head to ashes.
-Keaghhhh!
-Third! Fourth!
In the blink of an eye, only five heads were left. Looking at the wry dragon heads, the emperor smiled coldly.
***
The emperor returned to human form, strolling with his hands behind his back along the burning streets.
“It’s clear that excellence is determined from the moment of birth.”
The Western Black Dragon’s body, devoid of all nine heads, was lying somewhere charred black after a ridiculously short fight.
“Huff, huff. Cough.”
Helplessly lying against the wall, Wei Chun-Hak couldn’t help but laugh. He felt dumbfounded rather than terrified when he faced such ridiculous strength.
With a blood-soaked hand, he grabbed a lighter and lit his cigarette.
“How can there be such a huge difference in strength even though you are both the same kind of dragon?”
“...The same dragons?”
The emperor distorted his expression.
“How dare you say that when you saw the difference with your own two eyes?”
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but to my own two eyes, you look no different from each other…you little lizard.”
“...”
The emperor glared at Wei Chun-Hak with cold eyes.
“Is that all you have to say before you die?”
“Well, what can I say. I did sacrifice half of my remaining lifespan to summon the dragon…”
Swoosh.
Wei Chun-Hak shook his head as he exhaled the cigarette smoke.
“But I don’t think I’m old enough to leave a last will.”
“...?”
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Something felt strange.
The emperor slowly turned around and discovered that Seo Jun-Ho, who had been swinging his sword for quite a long time now, had stopped moving.
‘Has he already established his new self? No way. There’s no way he can finish learning so soon.’
The emperor recalled taking two days to master the new concepts of existence after reaching the Star Destruction Stage.
‘He’s human, so it should take at least three or four days.’
The emperor wasn’t completely wrong.
“Sigh…”
Actually, he was half right and half wrong.
Seo Jun-Ho slowly opened his eyes.
He had recognized the emergence of the emperor even as he was swinging his sword. However, he could not stop. The enlightenment, the process of re-establishing his proprioception, was not something that could be paused and restarted.
Of course, lots of things still felt awkward, and his every movement made him utterly uncomfortable. In all fairness, Seo Jun-Ho didn’t think he could fight as usual in this state.
‘Well, I guess I took care of the most urgent problems at least.’
To put it simply, Seo Jun-Ho had learned and re-established only the minimum basis necessary to fight as soon as possible.
Unless he re-learned how to breathe, walk, run, sit, stand up, hold a sword, cut, and stab, there was no way he could ever fight against the emperor.
Seo Jun-Ho stared blankly for a moment, then spoke to Wei Chun-Hak first.
“Thank you.”
If Wei Chun-Hak hadn’t bought him time, he wouldn’t even have been able to establish these basic concepts.
No matter what anyone said, the MVP of this battlefield was Wei Chun-Hak.
“What an honor. So…do you think you stand a chance against him?”
“...”
There was no change in Seo Jun-Ho’s expression, but he felt uncertain.
‘There’s a difference.’
Seo Jun-Ho and the emperor were both at the same Star Destruction Stage.
However, the energy radiating from the emperor was much stronger and more fearsome than Seo Jun-Ho’s. The difference in power was simply far too great to say that it was simply due to the difference in the period of time they spent in the Star Destruction Stage.
‘I think I know why.’
The emperor was in his natural state. Meanwhile, Seo Jun-Ho could only use the same amount of energy as the emperor if he deployed the 400% Overclock.
‘In other words, right now, I am not actually at the Star Destruction Stage.’
Although Seo Jun-Ho would have had a clear chance of winning if he was given a little more time, in his current state, he wasn’t sure that he could even match the emperor.
‘Oh well, it’s not like contemplating any longer will buy me more time.’
Seo Jun-Ho held the sword in a calm manner.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Mr. Specter! Please let us help and…”
“No. Please stay back.”
Seo Jun-Ho firmly shook his head.
‘I feel bad about this, but they won’t be of any help.’
If anything, there was a high possibility that the emperor would brutally kill them first to shake Seo Jun-Ho’s mind.
“Pull Mr. Shin Sung-Hyun and Mr. Wei Chun-Hak out and give them treatment first. You need to hurry.”
“...Yes, sir.”
“I wish you the best of luck!”
They were well aware of the harsh reality that they would be nothing but a burden. The players and Failures stepped back, biting their lips.
“That was a smart choice. But you will regret not taking advantage of them,” the emperor snorted.
If Seo Jun-Ho hadn’t woken up from his trance, the emperor would have killed the random players around him first, because he expected Seo Jun-Ho to take at least a few days to wake up.
“If you had taken your time to re-establish your concepts while I butchered them, you would have been much stronger.”
“I know.”
Seo Jun-Ho knew that the players and Failures would have gladly sacrificed their lives for him if he decided that it was necessary.
“But I just didn’t want to.”
“...What a fool.”
“Unlike you, I refuse to have others die for my own selfish purposes.”
“I know. And that’s the proof you are an inferior creature swayed by emotions.”
The emperor raised his hands.
“I gained strength at the expense of others. And with this power, I created a world that no one could even dare to dream of.”
“...”
“I will continue to sacrifice others in the future to fulfill my purpose. And the day I step up to the last stage, they will finally be rewarded for their sacrifice.”
“Reward them for their sacrifice? How are you going to do that?”
“It’s simple. I can just revive them. The Transcendent can do anything.”
Seo Jun-Ho smirked at the emperor’s remark.
“So you’re going to use them like a consumable item now because you can revive them later anyway?”
“Hmm…do you not understand the way of this solitary emperor?”
No.
There was no way Seo Jun-Ho could understand the emperor, and neither did he want to understand.
“My life was rather short compared to yours, but I definitely learned one important thing. That is, no one can predict the future.”
No matter how perfect a plan was, it was bound to go wrong as soon as the smallest variable was off. This tenet held far more weight when it came to the actual future; predicting it was such a complex endeavor that no one in the world could embark on it in earnest.
“People spend each day with faith because they know that.”
“That’s what a loser would think. If they leave their life to me, they can live in a more perfect and happy world. They can live in a utopia where only the superior ones exist. They won’t even have to put in the effort.”
“Have you…ever thought that you might fail yourself?”
“...”
The emperor shut his mouth.
“What if you fail? How will you reward the people then?”
“...There is no room for failure in my plan.”
“You’re right, there isn’t. That is the blind spot of your plan. That is also the reason why your ‘perfect’ plan is nothing but a delusion.”
Seo Jun-Ho’s gaze was cold
“I will make sure that your delusion ends the way it’s destined. In failure.”
“How arrogant of you.”
The emperor’s body radiated light as he frowned.
Once again, he turned into his Red Dragon form, tens of meters tall, and replied in a fervent voice, “No matter what you say, I will eat you and take a step closer to the Transcendence Stage.”
“You can try it.”
The energy flowing out of Seo Jun-Ho was abruptly amplified.
‘Overclock, 405%.’
“If you can, that is.”
The energy that Seo Jun-Ho emitted was not any less than that of the emperor’s.