WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 179: The Great Invasion (4)
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One Against Ten Million.
Person123’s seventy-two-hour live battle was being broadcast around the world, and countless people were gathering at the Gangneung rift.
“Please do not come any closer! This is a military operation zone!”
The site was already chaos, packed with an endless crowd.
It was only natural. Person123 was fighting in person in the real world.
The military set up temporary barriers around the curtain and controlled the crowd’s access.
Even so, the soldiers kept glancing beyond the curtain with unmistakable tension.
Person123 still appeared to be holding strong, but the military could not help preparing for the possibility that he might be overwhelmed. That was their role.
Of course, every monster had died the moment it emerged from the rift, so not a single one had come anywhere near the curtain yet.
Meanwhile, Kim Seo-hyeon’s family had also come to the site.
“Seo-hyeon...”
Kim Seo-hyeon had headed straight for the Gangneung rift and once again made a choice to save countless lives.
After urging the Climbers to vote and opening the Gangneung rift, he was fighting alone, shouldering everything himself.
Kim Seo-hyeon had told them not to come to Gangneung under any circumstances, but his family had no choice but to come anyway. He was here.
However, they could not even see Kim Seo-hyeon fighting beyond the curtain because of the crowd and military forces in the way. They had no choice but to watch through a broadcast on their phones.
Forty-eight hours had now passed.
Monsters poured out endlessly, while Kim Seo-hyeon fought among them in flashing light.
His family, too, had never seen him fight directly before.
“Th-That black tiger is the summoned creature my brother called out, right? Why isn’t it helping? Why is it just sitting there and playing around?”
Seo-a anxiously stamped her feet as she watched the broadcast.
Pli had been ordered to deal only with any monsters Kim Seo-hyeon missed. Since Kim Seo-hyeon had not missed a single one, Pli was merely sitting there, wagging its tail.
Others watched Person123’s overwhelming power with admiration and awe, but his family could only worry.
“...”
There was also someone lingering near Kim Seo-hyeon’s family.
Ye Tianwei had flown in from China the moment the Gangneung rift opened.
When the Great Invasion began, Ye Tianwei had fortunately been in Qingdao, which fell within Battlefield 3’s range.
He had come to Gangneung early to witness Person123’s battle in person and to help in case something unexpected happened.
Then, by chance, he spotted Seo-a’s familiar face.
He immediately realized that the three of them were Kim Seo-hyeon’s family.
Originally, Ye Tianwei had intended to join the Person123 Church followers praying nearby and offer his own prayers. However, a far more important duty had arisen.
He was discreetly circling Kim Seo-hyeon’s family, guarding them.
‘There are too many people...’
It would be better if they stayed somewhere less crowded for safety.
Keeping an eye on Kim Seo-hyeon’s family, Ye Tianwei occasionally checked the battle as well.
Of course, he had not the slightest doubt that Kim Seo-hyeon would kill all ten million monsters.
All he had to do was ensure that Kim Seo-hyeon’s family remained safe until the Great Invasion ended.
Meanwhile, Taylor in the United States was watching the situation in Gangneung, resenting the fact that she could not go to South Korea herself.
“He truly is a monster...”
The Director of the Climber Bureau, who had been watching alongside her, muttered as Person123 continued fighting without the slightest sign of exhaustion after forty-eight hours.
The United States had always been serious about gathering data on Person123.
Of course, it was not because they regarded humanity’s savior as a threat.
Well, no one knew the future, so it was not as though that concern did not exist at all. Still, it was only natural to gather information on the most important person in the world.
However, ever since Person123 cleared Nightmare Floor 8 and began displaying one unbelievable miracle after another, assessing his capabilities had become largely meaningless.
Even now, as the Director watched Person123 fight firsthand, it all still seemed meaningless.
Person123 was continuously using skills with terrifying power, skills that seemed to be at least Epic-grade, including the enormous golden curtain surrounding the rift.
He had not even used the wide-area skill that froze an entire region, the one Climbers had testified about during the North Korean crisis and the Joint Battle.
He still did not seem to be fighting at full strength.
...How could anyone possibly measure that man’s limits?
After watching this battle, the only new information the United States had learned about Person123 was that his stamina and Willpower appeared limitless.
Enough for him to fight without rest for days.
There were now twenty-four hours remaining until the end.
It was still too early to celebrate, but at this rate, he would succeed.
Taylor watched the screen with a tense expression.
‘Please, keep going...’
She also firmly believed it.
Just as he had promised, Person123 would end the Great Invasion without a single human casualty.
Time continued to pass...
At last, only ten minutes remained until the Great Invasion ended.
[Cola: Wow, it’s really ending now.]
[Yamada: How can someone fight for three whole days without taking a single break...! He really is no different from a transcendent being.]
[Beetle: Fuck, does this even make sense? LOL, he really killed all ten million by himself. LOLLLLL.]
[Wind: Everyone, hurry and pray toward South Korea. This is our final, wholehearted show of support.]
[12 o’clock: Yeah, I’ve already been doing that.]
[Brilliant: Hang in there, Person123! You’re almost there!]
People believed it would end just like this, and the mood was already half celebratory.
The civilians and soldiers at the site also watched with hopeful, joyful faces.
However, with only three minutes remaining...
Crack...
[Disaster: ? What the fuck is that? Why is it doing that?]
[Vodka: Emergency! The rift is getting bigger!]
With the hair-raising sound of space tearing apart, the rift began splitting wider.
* * *
I killed monsters, and killed more monsters, and kept killing monsters...
As night and day changed several times, I continued fighting.
I had trained much more intensely than this in the Mindscape, so it was not particularly difficult. Mentally, either.
For nearly seventy-two hours, I spawn-killed every monster that came out of the rift.
Finally, I could see the end.
[Nightmare]
Participants: 1,473,610
Time Limit: 8 years 334 days 12 hours 5 minutes 36 seconds
Reached Floor: 17
The time when the Great Invasion began had been 8 years 337 days 12 hours 2 minutes 10 seconds.
There were now about three minutes remaining.
I was still dealing with monsters without letting my guard down when...
“...?”
What?
I cleared out the lesser monsters with Elemental Arrow Barrage and looked at the rift.
The monsters had suddenly stopped coming out, as though they had been cut off.
‘There are still three minutes left?’
Just as I wondered about it.
Crack...
The rift suddenly began splitting wider.
I watched the scene with startled eyes.
The crack in the rift continued stretching vertically...
“...!”
It shattered even the Cradle of Light I had deployed and kept extending into the sky.
It had been destroyed in an instant, so I could not even restore its durability with Willpower.
People screamed from all directions. The entire area fell into chaos.
I cursed inwardly.
Fuck, I knew it was ending too smoothly.
The rift did not stop until it extended nearly several hundred meters into the air, taller than a high-rise building.
The long, vertical rift then split horizontally across its middle.
A gigantic rift in the shape of a cross.
Then, as if unfolding a flat surface, space opened in all four directions.
I thought I knew what was about to happen.
‘The remaining bastards are coming out all at once.’
Tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands.
They would all pour out of that enormous rift at once.
Dealing with them would not be a problem, but...
The people around me were the problem.
At least the rift had expanded toward the sky, so no one had been directly caught up in it.
Still, even I could not protect everyone while covering that entire enormous area.
Not in my current state.
‘I’ll have to use it.’
I had wanted to finish without using it if possible, since it would be a waste to put it on cooldown.
I stopped time and began concentrating.
My level had risen considerably, and my body might be able to handle the Demon King’s power without Radiant Incarnation now, but...
I was not certain. It was too uncertain.
I could not gamble with people’s lives, so I decided to use Radiant Incarnation.
Fwaaaah!
The moment I finished concentrating and activated Radiant Incarnation.
Rumble...!
An unimaginable number of monsters poured out of the rift all at once.
An army of hundreds of thousands of monsters.
Then, I’m counting on you.
I handed my body over to the Demon King.
‘You cannot let even one person die.’
With a snort, the Demon King took control and shot upward.
The Demon King reached out toward the massive army of hundreds of thousands of monsters.
Immense cold compressed without end before engulfing the entire rift.
A brilliant white light flashed.
* * *
Even the curtain Person123 had deployed had shattered, while the rift extended endlessly toward the sky.
Everyone watching was horrified.
“Th-The curtain has been destroyed! The rift is getting even, even bigger...!”
The reporter broadcasting the scene spoke in a trembling voice, panicking.
People screamed. The crowd surged away from the rift.
“Ahh...!”
Kim Seo-hyeon’s family was swept up in the tide of people as well.
As they were pushed back in a daze, someone stood behind the three of them and blocked the crowd pressing in.
“This way.”
It was Ye Tianwei.
He protected Kim Seo-hyeon’s family as he led them to one side.
Seo-a recognized his face and looked surprised, then turned trembling eyes back toward the rift.
“M-My brother is in there...!”
“He’ll be all right.”
But even Ye Tianwei could not hide his grim expression as he said it.
The area around the Gangneung rift turned into pandemonium in an instant.
“...Everyone, get a hold of yourselves! Maintain formation!”
The soldiers also stared at the rift in terror.
Someone unknowingly let out a sigh at the sight that followed.
“Ah...”
An enormous rift covering an entire section of the sky.
Monsters pouring out from it.
Their number was beyond imagination, incomparable to anything before.
It was all over.
Someone naturally thought that. Then, at that moment.
A beam of light shot upward from where Person123 had been standing.
The next instant.
Flash!!
The entire world turned white.
The people fleeing in panic all stopped at once.
Feeling a chilling cold, everyone looked toward the rift.
“...?”
Someone absentmindedly held out a hand.
A drifting ice crystal melted softly in their palm.
There was no trace of the monsters that had emerged from the rift.
Only finely shattered ice crystals fell like snow.
[The Great Invasion has ended.]
Everyone looked upward.
Amid the swirling snowstorm was a single point of light floating in the sky.
“...Ah.”
One follower of the Person123 Church fell to their knees, shedding tears of emotion.
“God... Our god...”
One by one, the other followers also fell to their knees and bowed toward the light.
A quiet stillness settled over the area.
Kim Seo-hyeon’s family could only stare blankly at the light, unable to look away, while Ye Tianwei smiled faintly.
Waaaaaah!
Soon, thunderous cheers erupted.
All the citizens cried out Person123’s name in ecstasy.
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