WeTried Translations

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◈ I Made a Tier List the Transcendents Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 31: Cleaning

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Wendy had recently been unable to shake a nagging sense of doubt.

'...Do I really have talent?'

Of course, Jin, the master who had taken her in and whom she still relied on, had assured her.

You definitely possess brilliant talent.

But proof of that still felt far away.

So far, all she had achieved was becoming a 1-Star Concept Mage.

Even that achievement had only been possible with Jin's help, the principles of which she could not even begin to guess, and the aid of precious medicinal ingredients whose names she did not know.

As things stood, all she could trust was his word.

Could Wendy trust those words?

'Of course.'

The occasional defiance or teasing was simply an expression of closeness.

At least to Wendy, Jin was no different from a god.

...That was why, childish as it was, at least half of the jealousy she had felt toward Judy had been sincere.

She hated herself for being so pathetic, but she could not do anything about those honest feelings.

Of course, now that she had learned about the girl's circumstances and personality, she no longer felt that way.

"Sigh."

What could she do?

She just had to keep working hard.

Wendy continued training as she looked over the summarized grimoire Jin had given her.

She felt it every time she read it, but the content was remarkably easy to learn.

How could someone make something like this?

It was entirely different from conventional grimoires, which could even be called somewhat disorganized.

It was easier and far more learner-friendly.

"Nngh!"

The problem was that even this was not easy for her.

After wrestling with the grimoire for a while, Wendy realized that quite some time had passed. Shaking her head, she headed for her room.

"...How am I supposed to reach 2-Star?"

She did not know whether it was truly the case, but Jin had reached the 6-Star realm despite being only four years older than her.

Of course, he was the impossibly abnormal one...

Still, she feared that he would one day fly somewhere beyond her reach.

"I'm back."

The door opened along with her gloomy, worried voice.

Inside, Judy and Jin were talking.

"Oh, you're back."

"Wow! Big sis!"

Judy scampered over and thump! threw her arms around Wendy.

Wendy smiled faintly at the sight.

Was there anything more ridiculous than feeling jealous of this little thing?

"Big sis! I did it!"

"Huh?"

As she was thinking that, a yellow light floated beside Judy's head.

Like sunlight... it shone far more intensely than Wendy's own star.

1-Star?

...No, really?

Of course, she already knew that Judy's talent was beyond words.

Had she not seen it with her own eyes? But this was too much.

"She just did it. I didn't expect this either."

At Wendy's gaze, which seemed to demand an explanation, Jin looked somewhat dazed as well.

There was more than pure surprise at Judy's achievement in that expression.

"...What else is there?"

Why would Jin have anything to feel sorry to her about because of Judy's achievement?

Wendy sensed something odd and pressed him. Jin made a sheepish face before opening up his realm.

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

"..."

Seven stars.

Seeing the dizzying trails of light appear before her, Wendy looked up at the ceiling.

"A father and daughter pair..."

This filthy world.

* * *

After that unintentional flexing.

Wendy cried out, Why did Heaven make Master, Judy, and all those other people who are better than me, then make me?!

But from a truly broad perspective, Wendy also possessed talent that appeared only once in several quadrillion people.

Considering the number of living beings in a single Great Heavenly World, it could not exactly be called rare even among Transcendents and beyond, but...

Still, with my help, they were good enough to beat the crap out of people called geniuses even by Upper Realm standards.

So I would leave her to overcome that emptiness on her own for now. She was probably crying in some corner.

"...It's about time."

8-Star was close at hand.

Mastery of Concept Magic came at 9-Star.

But even at the 8-Star realm, I could break through into the path of magic.

System Magic was the stage where one could manifest mana into a single form.

Concept Magic was when that form could be expanded and woven into a concept.

And the realm of the path of magic was when one could make that concept continuous, allowing them to manifest anything they wished to manifest.

It could be seen as a progression like a film's shot, scene, and sequence.

It was not an analogy I had come up with. It was an expression used by a Transcendent called the Actor in the original story.

I seemed to remember seeing it occasionally in the Transcendent Gallery as well.

Anyway.

I would be able to reach 8-Star soon.

And when I did, I could immediately reach the realm of the path of magic.

But I had no intention of doing that.

My innate talent was terribly lacking. If I broke through realms at every opportunity like other geniuses, I would be in serious trouble.

There was a high chance I would become a hollow shell.

At the Transcendent level and beyond, I would become practically useless.

Of course, even if they would be nothing but worms at the Transcendent level and above, most Ability Users desperately wished only to reach that point.

I knew this world's ending.

And in my opinion, it was not the right ending.

Each time I read the story through, that regret was always waiting in the final chapter.

So I did not know if it would be possible.

But having come this far, I intended to twist that ending with my own power.

Fortunately, I knew how even people without talent could grow stronger.

Not every Transcendent was a genius. Even among the highest-ranking deities, some were not.

And I intended to use every one of those methods.

"...The timing should work out well enough."

By the time I reached the final act, I should be able to attain the realm I wanted.

Of course, there was still a span of time so long it felt hopeless.

It was a period that could not be compared to a few hundred or thousand years.

To someone who had lived just over thirty years, including my twenty-seven years in my previous life, it was simply unfathomable.

Still, there was one thing I was almost certain of.

At first, I had wondered whether my initial resolve would remain the same in the future, but I no longer doubted it.

All I had to do was look at the state of the Gallery.

The Transcendents did not seem mentally much older than me, no matter how I looked at them.

Of course, that could not be helped.

To begin with, a person's intelligence did not grow with age.

Experience merely accumulated, bringing seasoned judgment and firmer personal philosophies.

Intelligent people could lose their sharpness as they aged, but fools did not naturally become wise with age.

The latter required tireless effort. The former was far too easy.

Once you settled into your position and began clinging to it, you became stupid.

And an example of that was spread out right before my eyes.

[ Why the Security Bureau Is a Necessary Evil ] [24] Upvotes 554 Downvotes 2144

[ This Is the Goal the Precept Court's Judges Pursue ] [65] Upvotes 521 Downvotes 1995

[ Frankly, Opposing the Precept Court's Position Is to Accumulate Evil Karma... ] [43] Upvotes 507 Downvotes 2776

[ There Is a Lot of Dissatisfaction With Security Bureau Officers' Excessive Suppression, but... ] [9] Upvotes 531 Downvotes 1198

[ First, We Must Think About Why We Were Granted the Grand Dao of Causality and Narratives... ] [188] Upvotes 560 Downvotes 4225

"What a load of bullshit."

I shook my head at the Gallery, which was overflowing with sockpuppet accounts.

Countless Transcendents were already filtering them out on their own, but new ones kept appearing.

Then again, considering the tendencies of the current commissioner of the Security Bureau and the Head of the Precept Court, there was no way they would allow lower-ranking adjudicators and Security Bureau officers to use a place like the Gallery.

That was probably why they could keep pouring them in endlessly. Filthy parasites.

"This pisses me off."

They were the great evils I could harm the most right now.

Of course, they were people who would eventually be removed on their own, but if I could get rid of them sooner, that was clearly the better option.

I hesitated a little at the thought of altering such a massive current of events, but...

"Well, when have I ever cared?"

Having already decided to twist the greatest part of all, the ending, there could be nothing more foolish than hesitating because of delusions like, What if a future different from the one I know unfolds?

I just had to act according to what I thought was right.

"Die, you bastards."

The tier list and ranking list I had made before were pure gossip without any personal agenda.

But this time, my intent was clear from the start.

I intended to completely remove the two giant piles of shit in the Great Heavenly World.

To do that, everyone had to learn of their secrets and ugliness.

I had to bind them so thoroughly that not even a rat could find an escape route, then wipe them out in one stroke.

"You gave me cancer."

They had been central figures in one of the most infuriating episodes in the original story, so my murderous intent could not help multiplying several times over.

The entire thing flowed from my pen in one uninterrupted rush.

There was no place in my world for frustrating sweet-potato plotlines.

Footnotes:

In Korean web fiction, "sweet potato" is slang for frustrating, slow-moving plot developments.

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