Above Your Head

“I’m leaving.”

Seven Great Households or whatnot, I would rather not be protected by them.

“You’re going?”

“Yes. Oh, you can tie these guys up and leave them anywhere. They won’t be a threat to you, they already lost their inner qi.”

After speaking nonchalantly, I gently picked up Seon-ae, who was lying unconscious on the floor, and moved her to the nearby car seat. Mountain Sword was looking at me with a dumbfounded expression. It seemed he wasn’t able to understand the current situation.

“You, huh? What… Did you just really shoot them down with that gun? They would have lost their inner qi?”

“Ahjussi.”

I became irritated.

“Get it together.”

“……”

My voice caused Mountain Sword’s expression to harden like a stone. However, instead of venting his anger, he contemplated for a moment before nodding.

“I apologize. This is an unsightly scene. But what do you mean when you say you will be leaving?”

“I mean, that I’m leaving. Literally.”

As I turned around, Seon-ae suddenly jumped up from her car seat.

“No! Stop!”

Wooong--!!

A heavy wave of aura started to spread from her body.

“What the heck is this now? Do you have a hidden identity as well?”

I was flabbergasted, but it didn’t come to me as a surprise. Kang Bo-ram was a magical girl with sealed powers, and Dong-min channeled the power of King Jeseokcheon. Something as minor as this couldn’t be considered significant.

Wol-il High School

Level 8

Synthetic Magical Beast, Nike

“Krrrrr!!”

Sun-ae lowered her posture like a beast and growled.

Bang!

The animal fell as I shot her with a temporary suspension bullet. A sudden sensation of longing struck me.

“I wonder how Bo-ram and Dong-min are doing…?”

They had left to a distant place. I could not communicate with them even if I utilized the Albatross.

“Did they say Dragonian? It was a world where countless dragons resided.’

I had wanted them to return to Earth with me, but they had different plans. They had witnessed enemies with insurmountable strength during their time in the Great Universe. Those who saw the wide world wanted to experience more. Naturally, I wasn’t going to let them head off on their own.

They were considered powerful ability users on Earth, but in the Great Universe, they were worth dime a dozen. Considering their age, they possessed excellent skills, but they were still a part of the rising generation. As such, I asked Emperor Leonhardt a favor to connect them to the Noblesse. If they were going to study abroad(?), it would be better for them to go somewhere proper.

“Let’s see… Was it this?”

Click!

Wiiiiiing!!

When I pressed the switch on the wall, the tightly sealed ceiling began to open with a heavy mechanical whirl. Mountain Sword had been tying up the warriors from the Black Moon Society when he looked up and asked me in shock.

“Wait. What are you doing?”

“I told you I was leaving.”

“It is dangerous outside.”

“And it’s safe here?”

He had guided me straight into a trap. Considering that this place was only known to a select few people in the Lee Family, clearly, the hostiles were tracking my every move. Obviously, some high-ranking people of the Lee Family were coming after me.

“Well.”

Mountain Sword hesitated, perhaps thinking along the same lines as me. But soon, he violently shook his head and made eye contact with me.

“Even if that is the case, or rather, if that is the case, you must stay here. If you move on your own, it will be easier for the traitors to target you.”

His voice was sincere even though both his arms were broken and his whole body was bathed in blood. At least I was able to confirm his words contained genuine concern for me, or at least, the Lee Family. Well, then I had no choice but to ease his worries.

“I met the Primordial God last week.”

“…What? What did you say? You met who?”

He stuttered with shock. But I hadn’t delivered my punchline yet.

“She told me to call her mom.”

“…..?!”

The eyes of Mountain Sword started to quiver violently. His mouth was open agape, and he could not speak properly. I smiled at him as I spoke.

“You do not have to worry about me.”

I raised my head and looked at the fully opened ceiling. It was a place built for large vehicles to enter in the first place, so it looked to be almost five meters high.

“Let’s see.”

I crouched, my chest almost touching the ground. In that state, I focused my strength into my legs. I could feel the blood rushing to my legs at a tremendous speed, and my muscles tightened rapidly.

Then,

Bang!

My body flew up into the air with a dull sound, similar to a rubber ball bouncing off the floor. It was all too simple for me to get out of the basement onto the ground.

“…This is not bad.”

My whole body was full of energy. Life energy was just another term for physical abilities. Even though it was less mysterious compared to the other energies and easy to counter, I started to develop a liking for this power. I could feel a sense of elevation and the disparity in my mind disappear just by training my body.

Captain.

‘Yeah, Genie. What’s up?”

You are currently in the parallel world.

‘Hm?’

I finally looked around at my surroundings at her words. It was already six o'clock. Even though it was already evening, it was already pitch dark. In the summer, it should have been as bright as day. Moreover, the sky was without a moon, as dark as the deep abyss of space.

‘But even so, there’s no problem with being able to see.’

Even though the world was without a single light source, the outline of surrounding buildings and objects were clearly visible. It was obvious from the difference that I was in a different dimension.

’When did I cross dimensions?’

There was a facility in the safe house where you were just a while ago.

‘This is rather good.’

I started walking along the road. The residential area was completely silent. I couldn’t see anything alive, not even a single ant.

Are you planning on hunting?

‘I’m going to try. I have to earn experience anyways.’

Experience. The word naturally brought forth the name of a certain someone.

Zenon ho Kyprios. He was the guardian of mankind, the great wizard.

He would have been the absolute being on Earth, far beyond anyone’s reach. He was a transcendent who could have enslaved all humankind on Earth if he so desired. But he did not. Instead of displaying his might and receiving love and respect, he hid himself. Instead of enjoying luxury, he installed a ginormous infrastructure over the entire world. Instead of honing himself to reach higher heights, he created a system to select and nurture almost every ability holder in the world.

System. Yeah, like this game. The system that resembled the titles that I had seen my entire life.

“There are too many overlaps to say it is merely due to coincidence. I can’t help but judge that there is a connection.”

How had he constructed the system?

How involved was my biological father in the system?

I had as much as 300 years’ worth of my biological father’s memory, but it was a memory of an unknown planet from the remote past, somewhere in the vast universe. The father in my memory had fallen to a human with a little bit of authority and superpowers, not the almighty Machine God Dekarma written in the history of the Leonhardt Empire.

“What actually happened?”

How had my father regained his supreme status after his downfall into a human? Why did he wage a war against the entire universe with the Legion? And how in the world… could a First-Tier God have a child with a human, giving birth to an irregular?

Now that I thought about it, there were ridiculously many things I was ignorant of. It was rather absurd I had not been curious after finding out my biological father’s true identity. Maybe I had purposely ignored these questions.

As my head flooded with such thoughts, Genie suddenly interrupted.

There are 13 hours remaining.

“Of what?”

Until the last battle of Kwan Yeong-min-nim.

“Oh, that.”

The Zhu family had attempted to gobble up the entire Lee Family with one major battle. It wasn’t a bad idea. No, realistically, it had been a rather excellent idea. There was a huge gap between the power of the Zhu Family and the Lee Family, as well as an equally large information gap. In fact, the Lee Family had not even possessed much information about the words of command nor the captain’s war. If things had gone according to the Zhu Family’s plans, they would have been able to swallow the Lee Family whole without suffering any damage.

They would absorb one of the Seven Great Households without a single feather of theirs ruffled.

“How much were they looking down on the world?”

However, their plans had been thwarted by the unexpected appearance of my brother. The representative of Zhu Family, Sword Saint Zhou Hongyi, had been utterly crushed by my brother. Then, Sword Emperor Xu Jiayin, who made his appearance to resolve the critical situation, was also crushed. The Zhu Family was recognized as one of the strongest powers in the world, but now they were facing the biggest adversity in their history.

Also, they must have been the ones who attempted to kidnap you, Captain. Shall we punish them with simple artillery fire?

“Enough with the nonsense. Check my condition, please. How are my physical stats?”

In response to my question, magic Armament Udjat emitted a strange wavelength that spread throughout my body before being reabsorbed.

Genie spoke.

It is increasing at a rapid pace. You would be capable of joining the imperial army.

“An officer?”

A soldier. Private.

“Still only at that level?”

But even so, it was a significant growth. In terms of bare combat, I would be able to knock down 10 replicas of myself from a week ago with one hand. I took out a mirror and reflected the area above my head.

Earth

Level 3

Disaster of Mankind Kwan Dae-ha

I was level three already. Generally, levels 1 to 3 were considered to be novices, which meant that I was on the verge of becoming an expert. Considering that I had gotten my classes not too long ago, it was an exponential growth.

However, there was a problem.

Active Classes: Elemental Summoner, Blacksmith, Life Energy Practitioner

Current Level: 1, 1, 1

“It’s different.”

I remembered the conversation I held with Do-geom a few days back. I had been seeking his advice with aura and elemental summoning. He had explained it like this,

“You can gain experience by defeating demons or monsters in the parallel world. Ah, for your information, you can’t earn it by killing other players or through quests, so don’t try anything stupid. The system was created by the Great Wizard to cultivate warriors to suppress the parallel world. You will receive a penalty if you PK[1].”

“A penalty?”

“You lose 30% of the total experience of the player who was killed. There is no such thing as a level down, so you won’t get weaker, but if you keep killing other players, realistically, you have to give up on leveling up.”

“Hmm.”

Although the system took the form of a game, the system was not created for the sake of the players’ entertainment. It discouraged murder between humans. Perhaps it was only natural, considering that the system was designed to maintain order in the world while eliminating risks from the parallel world.

I asked Do-geom to clarify something.

“What is your level right now, Do-geom-nim?”

He answered, “Level 5.”

I recalled the title that had appeared over his head. His title had been Equipment Manufacturing Expert – Level 9.

“Okay, so it’s different.”

The level of the system did not accurately reflect the current standards of the target as it did with my titles. Just like ordinary online games, it displayed the levels in proportion to the total amount of experience a player had earned. In other words, in order to raise one’s level in the system, they had to train but also fulfill what the system desired.

“Krrrr!!”

“Finally, I knew something would pop up.”

I cracked my joints as I stared at the wolf, which was much larger than a tiger.

Level 5

Hungry Shadow Wolf

The monster’s level was higher than mine, but I didn’t think I would lose. In fact, I didn’t think that the level written in my title accurately reflected my power.

“I’ll have to test it.”

1. player killing.