âHow dare these scum ignore me in front of them?!â
The nine-tailed fox bristled its fur and emitted a cold aura.
The two people in front of it showed no signs of tension even though the fox had revealed its true form a while ago.
To a predator who regarded humans as nothing but prey, this was an insult to its pride.
âOh, right. I forgot we had to catch a phantasm.â
âItâs not as impressive as I thought, so I didnât pay much attention.â
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia added fuel to the foxâs anger.
âKill them all!â
The fox leaped from the roof and charged at the two.
***
In a room on the second floor for receiving guests, Yu-hyun sat face to face with a man who looked like a lump of flesh.
A neatly trimmed mustache and beard.
A hairstyle that revealed his forehead and swept back his white hair.
Clothes that were too big for him but still seemed to burst with his muscles.
Military God Wi Muhyuk.
He was a collector who was famous not only in Korea but also in the realm.
He was the undisputed first place in the Korean ranking and there were only a few people who could match him in the whole realm.
He did not reveal his status window that changed after the second phantasm shock, but according to third parties, his estimated level was over 90.
âItâs hard to increase your level after 80, and the difference in power between each level is huge. Unless youâre really strong, you canât do it.â
But the rumor that he was over 90 showed how amazing Wi Muhyuk was in the eyes of the public.
The dazzling golden book above his head.
The color of the cover and the light from the book were almost identical.
He was not called Military God for nothing.
âHe really seems to be over level 90, not just a bloated rumor.â
This was the first time Yu-hyun met Wi Muhyuk, who rarely had any external activities.
His first impression of Wi Muhyuk was like seeing a living steel.
The man who sat quietly on the sofa with a neat posture did not show any movement since a while ago.
If he made a mistake, he might have mistaken him for a finely made doll.
Baek Seo-ryeon, who was next to Yu-hyun, was restless.
âDirector.â
âYes, yes! Mr. Yu-hyun!â
âI canât leave my seat because I have to deal with the guest who came to see me, so Iâll ask you to do me a favor for a moment. Please bring us something to drink.â
âO-of course!â
Baek Seo-ryeon was asked by Yu-hyun to bring tea.
If it was the usual Baek Seo-ryeon, she would have protested how he could do that, but now she was so glad to hear Yu-hyunâs words.
Baek Seo-ryeon left her seat as if she had been waiting for it, and only Yu-hyun and Wi Muhyuk were left in the room.
Yu-hyun opened his mouth to start a serious conversation.
âThere are no ears or eyes here now. So why did you come to see me? A teller you donât even know.â
âI have something Iâm curious about.â
Wi Muhyuk opened his mouth.
A deep voice that matched his appearance.
Even though he had the title of the number one ranker, his tone of voice was polite without a trace of arrogance. I couldnât find any hint of haughtiness even if I washed my eyes.
âI came to look for you, Teller Kang Yu-hyun, because you are different from other tellers. Other tellers look down on humans and donât want to share the information or facts they know. Ah, I apologize if you feel offended by me saying that about your colleagues.â
âNo, I canât deny it. Itâs not a false statement.â
âBut you, Teller Kang Yu-hyun, were different. You fought for your life in the Mental Realm with other collectors. Your actions and beliefs were sincere.â
âItâs an honor to hear such praise from you, Lord Wi Muhyuk.â
Yu-hyunâs natural compliment made Wi Muhyuk lower his head.
âLord is too much of a title for me.â
âI see. So what are you curious about?â
âI heard that in the mixed world, there is almost no concept of complete death.â
Why suddenly the concept of death?
It seemed like a random question, but I could see a longing in his eyes that he wanted to hear a certain answer.
I didnât bother to deny it.
ââŠWell, thatâs true.â
It was as Wi Muhyuk said.
On Earth, the death of the flesh meant the death of existence.
But in the mixed world, the disappearance or destruction of the flesh did not mean the death of existence.
Memories, thoughts, rumors that circulated among people, etc.
As long as these âstoriesâ were alive and breathing, the remnants of people remained in the realm.
The true death in the mixed world was only one thing.
To be forgotten by everyone, without anyone remembering them.
âI heard that if someone remembers them, they can come back to life.â
âWell, there are cases like that, but itâs not an easy thing to do.â
It was a disappointing answer for Wi Muhyuk, but I thought it was necessary to correct this part.
âJust by remembering them, they wonât die. Then attention seekers who try to get noticed would be immortal beings. Even if their existence itself is not erased, itâs almost like death if they have no flesh or lose it. ResurrectionâŠI canât say there is no such thing.â
âBut there is a possibility.â
âItâs very difficult and almost impossible to meet the conditions for that. Itâs something that you wouldnât even dare to try.â
If there was such a thing, Yu-hyun in his previous life would have done his best to survive and save his precious people.
He didnât do that because it was almost impossible to revive someone.
The various and detailed memories that make up an existence.
The huge amount of points and materials needed to create a new flesh.
And also, there had to be someone who had the ability to perfectly weave them together.
Even if he was lucky enough to make it possible, how could he be sure that the person who was resurrected was exactly the same as before?
But Wi Muhyuk seemed to feel some hope in my words, and his voice was filled with excitement that I hadnât seen before.
âSo itâs not completely impossible.â
âIâm not sure either. There is nothing perfect in this realm.â
I couldnât understand what this manâs purpose was for coming to me.
He said he came because he was curious, but the questions he asked were about the possibility of reviving the dead.
I answered him as much as I knew, but I couldnât help feeling a strange sense of alienation.
âThat was enough of an answer for me.â
With that, Wi Muhyuk handed Yu-hyun something.
âNo, not something⊠this is, a point, right?â
This thing with white texts clustered together was TP, the origin and currency of the mixed world.
The lump that filled Wi Muhyukâs palm as big as a pot lid looked like at least 500,000 TP.
âThis is a token of my appreciation for answering my question sincerely.â đđŻđąđąđŽđđđ«đđđđ.đ đŹđȘ
âNo, this is too muchâŠâ
âItâs just spare change for me. Please accept it.â
ââŠâ
If I could get 500,000 TP with a few words, it would be a great deal. But Yu-hyun felt more suspicious of this man who was trying to force such a generous reward on him.
ââŠI know this is rude, but what are you trying to do, Mr. Wi?â
âIâm sorry. I canât answer that. But I can assure you that itâs not what youâre worried about. I stake my honor on it. Iâm sure itâs something that wonât harm anyone.â
ââŠâ
âI wonât pry any further.â
âThank you for your hospitality, even though I came here without notice.â
âNo. Itâs an honor to have the strongest collector in the country visit me personally. Iâm sorry I couldnât treat you better.â
âNo. As I said before, that title is too much for me. Iâm not that great of a man.â
Despite having the title of Military God , he said he wasnât a great man.
If someone else had heard this, they would have laughed and said that Military God had a sense of humor.
But Wi Muhyukâs words were sincere, without a trace of falsehood.
His face, which downplayed himself as not great, was full of deep sorrow.
What showed on his expression was sadness, pain, and longing.
Wi Muhyuk got up from his seat. He wanted to ask him to stay longer, but he didnât dare to do so because Wi Muhyuk looked busy.
âIt was very nice to meet you today.â
âIt was an honor to meet you, Mr. Wi. I hope we can meet again if fate allows.â
âThat is⊠yes. I hope so too. But Iâm afraid that might be difficult.â
âWhat?â
It was just a polite remark, but Wi Muhyuk apologized seriously, making Yu-hyun confused.
But Wi Muhyuk seemed determined to say this.
âI probably wonât be able to meet people often in the future.â
âDo you have something urgent to do? Or are you going into training because of some new insight?â
âSomething like thatâŠâ
Military God answered vaguely, but Yu-hyun knew he was lying.
He didnât ask about reviving the dead or the meaning of memory in the mixed world, and he didnât answer as if he had made up his mind about something.
âThere must be something.â
But he couldnât know what it was right now.
âPlease take care.â
Yu-hyun smiled and saw him off, while casually taking his book.
As long as he had the book in his possession, he could keep it for at least three days even if the owner disappeared or went far away.
He couldnât take the book from somewhere the person wasnât, but the authority over the book he had already taken was surprisingly generous.
âMaybe this became possible because my level went up.â
Yu-hyun looked down at the golden book in his hand with a sunken gaze.
***
âHuh? Military God came here? I came back early to see him, but he already left?â
âHmm. I heard he doesnât show himself much in private, but thatâs surprising.â
Ten minutes after Wi Muhyuk left.
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia returned from the Mental Realm.
They looked disappointed because they wanted to see Wi Muhyuk in person, but they heard he had already left.
âBy the way, whatâs that white scarf?â
Yu-hyun asked about the item Kang Hye-rim brought.
âOh this? Itâs a reward I got for clearing the Mental Realm today. A fox fur scarf.â
âIt looks pretty luxurious. It doesnât seem like an ordinary animalâs skinâŠâ
And there were nine scarves like that.
Did they catch a nine-tailed fox or something?
He wondered that for a moment, but that wasnât important.
Yu-hyun asked Kwon Jia quietly.
âDo you know anything about Military God ?â
He said that, but what he meant was âdid you have any contact with Military God in your previous life?â
Kwon Jia shook her head.
âMilitary God was always shrouded in mystery. He rarely showed himself even when something big happened. Even if he entered the Mental Realm, he would only do his business and disappear like the wind. Heâs not someone you can easily meet even if you want to.â
âI see.â
As I thought about it, I remembered that even in my previous life as Yu-hyun, Military God was a famous name, but I had never seen him in action.
Even after the apocalypse, Military God seemed to stay in one place, and as time went by, the rumors about him faded and he was naturally forgotten.
âWhy do you ask?â
âNo, I was just curious.â
Yu-hyun dodged the question and recalled what had happened 10 minutes ago.
Military God disappeared, and Yu-hyun immediately opened the book he had left behind. And he read the book of Wi Muhyuk carefully, not wanting to miss a single letter.
âHe said he lost his family on the day of the Ideological Integration.â
He had a wife and a daughter. But on the day of the Ideological Integration, when the phantoms poured out of the Ideological World, Wi Muhyuk lost his wife and daughter.
And, as if fate was playing a cruel joke on him, he awakened his power.
It was the moment when a man who had lost everything became Military God .
Wi Muhyuk fought like a madman, swinging his sword at the phantoms.
He had no grandiose motives like saving the realm or saving people.
He just fought like this because if he didnât, if he didnât burn his life away, the faces of his dead family would haunt him.
âRevenge⊠Is that it? He didnât seem like that.â
Years passed like that.
And Wi Muhyuk earned the title of Military God .
The realm stabilized, and the threat of the Ideological World running wild disappeared. The Collector Clan and Management were rampant, and people called Collectors heroes.
The government thought of the Ideological World as a treasure trove of resources and deliberately left it uncleared.
Wi Muhyuk, who had fought like crazy, didnât like that at first, but maybe because he felt a kind of emptiness, he soon settled in his own home.
And he never showed himself outside except for really important moments, when there was a national crisis.
âThat man suddenly started to move actively recently.â
There must have been a reason for that.
And when Yu-hyun tried to read the contents of that reason in the book,
The letters emitted a golden light and then disappeared.
No.
âThey didnât disappear. The letters themselves were hidden by the dazzling light.â
Something similar had happened just before.
The future that he tried to see with Laplaceâs power, the unknown power that obscured it like fog.
Military God Wi Muhyuk was connected to a being with golden light.
It was a pity that he couldnât see his book.
âBut thereâs something I can tell from just not seeing it.â
Who was the owner of the golden light that was connected to Wi Muhyuk? Yu-hyun naturally thought of an organization that was active in Korea recently.
âUnleashed. Theyâre in contact with Military God and plotting something.â
Military God asked if he could bring back the dead.
He came to ask Yu-hyun that question to get some certainty about Ban Shin Ban Eui.
If a man who didnât usually show his whereabouts came so blatantly, it was likely that Wi Muhyuk was very desperate despite his appearance.
âCould it be that he wants to revive his dead daughter and wife? In this realm?â
It would be hard even if the earth was completely dyed by Mental Realm, but it was practically impossible at a level where only 30-40% of it was done.
Wi Muhyuk must have known that too, but seeing him like thatâŠ
âMaybe thereâs another way. Maybe Unleashed bastards are up to something.â
He didnât know enough to be sure right now.
But Yu-hyun had a hunch that he would soon be involved in some kind of incident with Wi Muhyuk.