Chapter 139: Evolution (5)
"I'm Jang Du-sik!"
"Uh, who...?"
A shaved-head tattooed thug appeared in the Slum District.
Crack!
"Urgh!"
He road through the alleys, grabbing people and asking if they knew him.
When they said they didn't, he beat them without hesitation.
Jang Du-sik continued this for quite so ti.
'These bastards don't recognize ? Not even the Possessors?'
He felt greatly troubled that no one recognized him.
He moved toward the place with the most crossroads in the Slum District.
Following Jang Du-sik's footsteps, screams erupted.
"K-K-a thug!"
Originally, thugs were not uncommon in the Slum District—they were abundant and overflowing, but.
"Tch. This damn neighborhood is always the sa! Hey! Co here! Is there more?"
The gang mbers of the Slum District who tried to stop him were all beaten to death with clubs.
'So that's what a real thug looks like.'
The residents of the Slum District trembled at Jang Du-sik's unstoppable advance.
Silence descended upon the crowded alleys.
'Organized criminals getting crushed like that...'
All the gang mbers and imitators in this Slum District had been fake, re pretenders.
"Hey! Where did all the Possessors go?"
Jang Du-sik passed through residential buildings and arrived at a crossroads.
There, he suddenly grabbed soone by the collar and asked.
"H-Help! I don't know what that is, sir."
That shaved-head thug was the real deal.
He rummaged through the complex crossroads like it was his own ho, committing all manner of violence.
"Dammit, what the hell changed?"
The small cramped houses shut their windows, and even the beggars on the street slipped away.
And those who remained.
"Where did all the Possessors go? Why are you here?"
Jang Du-sik looked around at the remaining people.
They looked like filthy beggars, but their sturdy fras suggested they ate well and lived comfortably.
"What the hell did that Possessor do to destroy everything here?"
A man approached Jang Du-sik.
Then a club flew at him.
Whoosh!
Crack!
"Ugh!"
Jang Du-sik looked down at the man whose legs were broken.
"You guys are informants, right? Where did all those old guys go?"
"Ugh. The old guys have been dead for a long ti, sir. We're the information brokers now."
The man with broken legs spoke while enduring the pain.
Then Jang Du-sik threw out so gold coins.
Ting!
The man who caught the bouncing money shouted for him to ask anything, and Jang Du-sik asked a few questions.
"So the useful old guys who were here originally are all dead, and the kids were taken by the nobles—is that right?"
"Y-Yes, that's correct."
After that, Jang Du-sik extended his hand.
"What do you an?"
"Give that money back."
Jang Du-sik took back the information fee and smashed the beggar's head.
Whoosh!
Crack!
"Urgh!"
Sizzle!
Watching the Black Mage burn with Holy Power, Jang Du-sik scratched his head.
"Damn, Black Mages acting up again."
After that, he threatened the remaining gang mbers of the Slum District.
"If you guys run away, you all die, got it?"
At those words, everyone stopped moving.
They looked as obedient as if they'd heard an Emperor's decree.
'They still know how to read the situation, at least.'
The people living in the Slum District had a different mindset.
The appearance of an incomprehensibly strong being.
They knew well that absolute obedience was the only way to survive.
"Black Mages die. The rest, I'll let slide."
Jang Du-sik scattered Holy Power.
Then several scread and burned to ashes.
"You guys are lucky."
Jang Du-sik said this to the surviving few.
'If the boss had co, his collaborators would all be dead too...'
Jang Du-sik was different from those who grew up here.
These people had no choice.
For those who couldn't belong to the state and ended up flowing into the Slum District, cooperation was their only way to survive.
'Besides, it's necessary work to follow the boss's instructions anyway.'
Jang Du-sik commanded the surviving informants of the Slum District.
"Go to the front of the noble estates over there and keep watch on what happens. Spread the word as much as you can."
The mont the order ended, those who had been standing still began to move.
They would simply comply as always, to refuse ant death.
anwhile, Janson's situation was different.
At the headquarters of an organization engaged in human trafficking in Peran.
"There are no more Black Mages."
Whoosh!
Janson's [Holy Barrier] turned the Black Mages into pale smoke.
After that, Janson began interrogating the surviving criminals one by one.
First, he placed his hand on their head and asked.
"Did you engage in heretical activities?"
The captured gang mber from the Slum District looked at Janson in fear.
The eerie eyes visible between the helt's visor felt truly terrifying.
"N-No, I didn't!"
Then a golden holiness blossod above Janson's hand.
[Heresy Interrogation]
A skill that could prove whether the target collaborated with Black Mages or committed extre cris activated.
Then.
Poof!
[The target is a heretic.]
The judgnt was rendered.
"There's no point in lying."
Janson unhesitatingly used the [Heresy Judgnt] skill.
The skill dealt damage equal to 'Consud GP × 1,000' to the detected heretic.
Janson consud 10,000 from his total GP of 5,000,000.
As a result.
Boom!!!
A trendous force surged through Janson's hand.
It was brilliant golden light, but the force was heavy.
As if struck by a giant hamr, the heretic's body was crushed and disappeared.
This was Janson's judgnt.
"Next."
Janson continued the interrogation with a cold voice.
'My wife and daughter died because of those collaborators.'
He was a man who lived carrying anger in his heart.
That anger was sothing that could fade but could never be washed away.
'That's probably why I can't beco a true believer of the boss.'
Janson was fine with not becoming a true believer.
Boom!!!
Seeing the collaborators disappear before his eyes, he felt that way.
'Even if I'm not recognized, if I believe, that's enough.'
The power to identify collaborators without hesitation.
How subli was it?
A being that gave certainty to uncertain matters.
'The boss is not a Possessor.'
To Janson, Erik was already a god.
***
On the garbage heap piled in the Slum District.
Erik looked down at the city and nodded.
'It's fortunate that everyone is handling their assigned tasks well.'
Erik, who had finished his work first, was waiting for his companions at the promised location.
'Du-sik seems to be leaving too many alive.'
To Jang Du-sik, the task of cleaning up the lowest-tier gang mbers of the Slum District.
"This is my hotown, right? I'll do it right!"
To Janson, the task of crushing the human trafficking organization.
"How could I forget the place where my family disappeared?"
Erik was different from when he was young.
There was no one left to obstruct him, and there was no strong being to worry about in Peran now.
'This much should be enough.'
Erik had been exterminating Ducal Houses.
Though called Dukes, they were actually just wealthy trash nobles.
It was easy work.
However, Erik's energy had beco more savage, and the Holy Power that surrounded him had been sharpened more keenly.
'I forgot for a while that I was living in luxury what kind of world this actually is.'
It was a world of brutal savagery.
The state exploited residents under all sorts of pretexts and drove them to this Peran region.
The powerless weak who couldn't receive the state's protection instantly fell to the status of slaves or sacrifices.
They were played with in the hands of evil people and departed miserably in the end.
"Phew. Six was the limit, then."
Erik had exterminated the Ducal Houses that were the root cause.
Erik sighed and turned around.
"Did you have enough fun?"
A small child with vertically-slit pupils was looking at him.
With long golden hair and even a tail, it was unmistakably a Dragon Human.
"Are you the one called Gold?"
The small girl with golden hair tied in two braids giggled and tapped the ground with her tail.
"I'm not Gold. That piece of will? Fragnt? Sothing like a small piece."
The small Dragon Human's vertical pupils beca perfectly round.
"You're the little one who travels with Riferoze! Wow, you've grown a lot. You were smaller than before."
"Have you seen before?"
"Of course. You've been committing all sorts of massacres here since you were young, so how could I just watch?"
Erik felt confused.
"But I've never seen you before?"
"Oh, didn't the master always appear right before you died? That was late because Riferoze was busy dealing with ."
Erik's eyes glowed with rainbow colors.
'It's the truth.'
When the verification up to this point was complete, the small Dragon Human tapped her tail again.
"I'll let you off this ti, but no more than that."
Erik realized that the small Dragon Human was incredibly powerful.
So he had to ask.
"I don't understand at all. You're a strong being like that, so why are you ignoring this place?"
Then the little one laughed.
"This is a land that doesn't permit civilization. It's a place that must not belong to any nation."
"That's a contradiction. Isn't that civilization?"
Erik was standing on the garbage heap of the Slum District, and his hand pointed to the splendid noble streets at the center of the Slum District.
"Ha! That's luxury and pleasure. Fleeting joy. Not civilization."
This too was the truth.
Erik looked at the Dragon Human child with mysterious eyes.
He was observing.
"Wow, you're really sothing special, aren't you?"
That Dragon Human child was also observing like Erik.
"You're a Possessor!"
Erik unleashed brilliant Holy Power.
"Hmm? You think I'd fall for that power thing?"
"Huh. What the hell are you?"
Then the small Dragon Human swung her tail.
"Humans who revere strength without aning as Holy Power are funny. I'm usually the normal one."
"I see."
Erik nodded silently.
The exotic being related to Gold felt quite mysterious.
But only for a mont.
"Why? Can't you seem to gauge no matter how much you look?"
The small Dragon Human asked with a bright smile.
It seed she had felt sothing, watching Erik fiddling with his sword the whole ti.
"You've got good instincts."
Instead of denying it, Erik readily admitted.
'I can't gauge it at all.'
That a cute little one with an indistinguishable gender could be this strong.
He put the Sword of Creation into his inventory.
"Good judgnt."
The Dragon Human also smiled.
Erik continued to gauge the Dragon Human's power.
'The smile and the state of the pupils seem to be triggers.'
Then the small Dragon Human suddenly said sothing strange.
"This is a different topic, but the Emperor might be okay, but Gold is different?"
"What are you suddenly talking about?"
"Ah, don't spend money carelessly. You might run into trouble."
"Do you an the Dragon's Wrath would actually co?"
"Who knows?"
The Dragon Human let out a mysterious laugh.
Then, with a ting!, she threw a coin at Erik.
"Still, I liked you!"
The Dragon Human opened her large wings.
"Thank the World Tree."
And then she suddenly disappeared high into the sky.
***
'A coin with a tree drawn on it.'
Erik's brow furrowed.
He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was related to the World Tree.
However...
'Would that crazy tree give an answer?'
The possibility of getting back nonsensical words even if he asked was high.
That prediction ca true.
Poof!
[Ah! Where did you learn about my past—! I'm embarrassed. P-Please no more!!]
He thought the World Tree wouldn't know what happened outside the temple, but that seed not to be the case.
Erik deleted the ssage window before him and let out a sigh.
"Huh."
Since Erik knew well what the World Tree would be like, there was nothing to regret.
Because what was truly important was sothing else.
'That tail and those eyes. It's definitely a true Dragon.'
Erik recalled the Ancient Dragons that appeared in the ga.
Unlike the Dragons hunted by the Imperial Army, the Ancient Dragons were beings that operated on a different level.
'Those crazy things that cause magnitude 20 earthquakes in designated areas.'
It was an event that made users run around with Labyrinth Penalties, but this world was reality.
Erik thought about the small Dragon Human's power.
Then he thought that the settings in the ga would apply directly to this world.
'A Dragon's Fragnt with strength I can't even gauge.'
The inability to even comprehend, aside from winning or losing, was a major problem.
Lost in such thoughts.
"The boss really knows how to find comfortable spots even in this garbage heap."
Janson appeared with a furrowed brow.
He approached Erik while wiping the blood off his helt.
"How was it?"
"It was terrible."
"It was the sa for ."
The two felt no affection for this land that brought back old mories.
"Where's Du-sik?"
But Jang Du-sik was different.
"Du-sik seems to be going to greet an old girlfriend and the old folks in the back room first, he said?"
"That one grew up here from childhood, so it would be different."
Erik ca up with a good idea to relieve the heavy mood.
"Should we take a quick look?"
"Oh, can we do that?"
Jang Du-sik was also his believer.
Moreover, they were bound together as a [Subjugation Party].
If he wanted to eavesdrop, there was nothing he couldn't do.
Whoosh!
Erik unleashed Holy Power and found Jang Du-sik's aura.
Then clear voices centered on Jang Du-sik were heard.
This was loud enough for Janson to hear as well.
"Du-sik! Where the hell did you go? You got pregnant and then......"
"Uh, that kid is mine?"
"Brother, do you know how hard it was for ?"
The content was beyond shocking—it was closer to astonishnt.
"Oh my god. Boss, what is this?"
"......Crazy."
"Boss, did brother Du-sik have a kid?"
"There was originally a woman he lived with. I heard he got rejected by at so point, saying ‘brother, brother.'"
Jang Du-sik had brought up the topic of taking the woman and coming to Erik.
But not long after that finished,
"I can see them there."
At the bottom of the garbage heap, Jang Du-sik and a middle-aged woman appeared.
And behind them, there was even a child about ten years old.
"H-The hair color is similar too?"
"The timing roughly matches."
"What if it's real?"
"That's the question."
A sigh escaped involuntarily.
'If the Princess finds out, there might be chaos.'
But Jang Du-sik's expression as he climbed the garbage heap was very bright.
Erik held the back of his neck.
"Brother! I have a kid!"
His smile was radiant and pure.
"Even if I have a wife, it's right to take responsibility for a kid from when I was young, isn't it?"
The justification was also perfect.
"I can't let this little one live as a beggar in the Slum District like , right?"
And the sentint was full of goodwill.
Erik couldn't think of what to say to stop him.
But he still had sothing to say.
"Du-sik, let's just do a paternity test once."
At Erik's words, the woman grabbed Jang Du-sik's arm.
"Du-sik."
Erik examined the woman carefully.
Despite the heavy makeup, prominent wrinkles stood out.
And her smile gave off a sohow frivolous feeling.
"But how would a paternity test work?"
Even that Emperor didn't have a proper ans and ended up raising a Cuckoo.
So what was Erik going to do about this?
Genetic testing was impossible even with magic.
"I'm different."
Erik's eyes glowed with rainbow colors.
Those mysterious pupils passed over the child and directed at the woman.
And the voice that followed.
"Is that child really Du-sik's?"
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