Above Your Head

“It’s starting to get dangerous.”

In the end, I was forced to exhale a big sigh. I had always known it would turn out like this, but it was still a painful experience.

That was right.

It was getting harder to find gaps in the stage.

The monitoring team has handed in a report. The other players have started utilizing the guide as well. But the number of deaths prior seems to number quite a few.

“Because it took me an entire day to come up with a guide.”

As I repeatedly found gaps and errors to exploit and the stage updated, the stage became more and more complete. Chaotic objects were present in the stage until a while ago, as if to mock the players. But as humanity progressed through the stage using my guide, the overall balance of the stage was stabilized. If this were a game to be played for fun, I would have praised the developers.

“Still, leveling is a big problem.”

Even the leveling issues would not have been a drawback if this were a real game. It was possible to obtain points as reward for clearing the stage, and one could equip themselves with the correct specifications by purchasing required items from the vending machine.

But reality was not a game. Competence and capabilities did not increase linearly.

“There are countless people shedding tears of blood because they can’t cross the boundaries to becoming a Compléter…”

Regardless of how perfect a given environment was, there were clear limits. Even if one consumed countless spiritual medicines and was given magic books and skills on a silver platter, enlightenment could not be achieved easily.

The only feasible answer was equipment.

“If it is impossible to continuously improve our capabilities, we need to upgrade our equipment.”

Not many humans could continue to improve without hitting a wall. However, with sufficient equipment, humans could adapt to the crazy designs of the End Project. An older male in the reserve forces might lose to a high schooler bare-handed, but when they were given a K-1 rifle, they could even take down a tiger.

Beast-rank gigas were utilized in space warfare. It would be more than enough.

“How’s the progress?’

The total number of manufactured Enchant Coins so far is enough for seven clears.

“What about the work speed?”

It is continuing to climb. Currently, one is being completed every 40 hours.

“All right.”

Chwaark!

I lifted one of the baskets placed on a desk and threw it into the air. 18,000 coins scattered into the air, taking the form of a large sphere along with a sharp sound.

Enchant Coin.

Pre-printed coins from the factory were handed over to the wizards, who could be called subcontractors. The wizards would imbue each coin with a single magical word or a letter. Although the coins could not function individually, each of them acted as a fragment of a powerful formula.

Wiiing!

18,000 coins scattered and took their place according to the magnetic properties applied on the ceiling and floor. At the same time, the mithril cylinder hanging from the ceiling was dropped, and the enchant took effect.

Woong!!!

The 18,000 words and letters engraved on the coins flew to the surface of the mithril cylinder, leaving the empty coins to pour down like rain and pile up on the floor. Only the mithril cylinder was left floating in the air. It was a huge success. It seemed the long preparation times were not in vain.

Enchant. I have confirmed its effects on the Soul Engine. Thank you for your hard work.

“The wizards did everything.”

I grabbed the 10-kilogram mithril cylinder. I called it a cylinder, but with a large dent in the middle, it was closer in appearance to a heavy dumbbell rather than a component of a mechanical device.

Beast-rank gigas. Red Bear-11 is on standby.

“How much rare metals were spent on the Red Bear?”

The adamantium spent on the main weapon and mithril in the soul engine add up to 21.5 kilograms.

“That’s pretty good for an early model.”

I inserted the soul engine into the open chest of the Red Bear. I plunged it in and turned it 180 degrees, to which the engine clicked, and an insert was revealed.

“It uses mana stone as fuel, right?”

Not just mana stone. This spell is… quite amazing. Soul energy, magical energy, mana, qi… It can even use heat and electricity as an energy source. As long as the source isn’t aggressive, anything can be utilized. I can’t believe this is possible.

“As expected of the Magic Imperial Princess.”

Naturally, I researched quite a bit about the Magic Imperial Princess. She was a great celebrity, so I was able to find an enormous amount of relevant data.

The disciple of the God of Magic. The only human to possess ten classes. War hero, ruthless killer, star destroyer, God Killer.

And…

And,

Companion of a great hero.

“…..”

I held the Red Bear’s inlet and exuded spiritual energy. After confirming that the fuel gauge was indeed rising, which indicated the fueling process, I switched to exuding aura. Finally, I even switched to vibration energy, which the soul engine gulped up as fuel without a hitch. After a while, the silent Red Bear began to come alive.

Kiiing! Clang!

The loose glove of the Red Bear started to contract and stuck tightly to the metal. When I took my hand off the inlet, the Red Bear slowly stood up.

Kwan Dae-ha

Level 9

Red Bear

The level was terrible. It was as expected, since I excluded automatic combat capabilities when building the Red Bear. It was built solely as a boarding gigas. The gigas’ current level was minimal. If a skilled pilot boarded the Red bear, it would be able to exert a much stronger power.

“Let’s continue.”

I shook my head to rid myself of miscellaneous thoughts and began completely focused on work. It was repetitive. After I woke up in the morning, I worked on carving the Dragon Heart until lunch. After lunch, I researched different attributes. I oversaw the gigas production designs and received Enchant Coins to create soul engines, and to manufacture Beast-rank gigas.

From 3 P.M., I did whatever I wanted. I played games, read books, or watched people in the central square.

A year passed.

People completely adapted to life in my Unique World. The fear of the End Project was already a story of the past for the residents of the Unique World.

Two years passed.

The efficacy and proficiency of the enchanters increased massively, allowing for the production of more than 400 units of Beast-rank gigas each year. The pace was expected to accelerate even more as the number of enchanter applicants kept increasing.

Three years passed.

The rogue organizations became embroiled in Genie’s operations and were extinguished. All of the leaders were sent to jail. The organizations began clamoring for a lawyer and even staged a demonstration among themselves, but it was simply idiotic. It was true that many residents of the Unique World stemmed from legal professional backgrounds, but were they unaware that the laws of earth held no power in this world?

Three years had passed.

Ten percent of the Unique World was now developed. It could be considered a meager amount, but 10 percent of the Unique World was equivalent in size to 15 Republic of Korea. It was not a small territory by any means. It held even truer because most buildings in the Unique World were skyscrapers.

Genie proposed a plan to build a new city on the other side of Center City. She wanted to build a humongous facility to manufacture vessels to travel there. I agreed without complaint.

Four years passed.

I developed a new classification of Beast-rank gigas based on the method and style of combat. For example, color represented the style of combat. Black focused on concealment. Red represented a full-frontal battle with focus on high resilience and recovery. Green focused on increasing maximum energy output. Blue acted as support with qi, magic, and other forms of energy.

The outwardly appearance was distinguished by how the gigas were controlled. For example, a tiger or a bear were designed to be boarded as larger animals, while mice or wolves were remotely controlled with helmets as relatively small animals.

Five years passed.

Countless gigas had been completed. Out of the different forms, the most successful creations consisted of black tigers, red wolves, green crocodiles and blue snakes. Unfortunately, the Red Bear, my first creation, was a failure.

It did not matter if the gigas possessed high resilience if the pilot was injured. It was inevitable, since the Avalon system had not been implemented yet. On a positive note, I added the color grey for manipulating herds. For example, a gray mouse could command about 10 to 20 goblins.

Six years passed.

Seven years passed.

The proficiency of the outsourced enchanters continued to increase. It was only natural, as enchanter was a high-income profession that could net you the most Gallats in the Unique World. Existing enchanters continued to strive to improve efficiency, and boatloads of people joined the profession every day. As a result, the production of soul engines increased steeply. Now, more than 1,000 Beast-rank gigas were being produced every year.

Alloy technology also continued to improve, dramatically reducing the proportion of rare metals required to produce gigas.

Eight years passed.

There was another demonstration. There was also an attempt of terrorism on production facilities, attempt to take over communication facilities, as well as an attempt to hijack Eden, a newly constructed vessel.

It was ridiculous.

“Don’t tell me they actually thought they could succeed?”

Naturally, all of their efforts failed. The Unique World was already a space that was no different than Genie’s own stomach. Genie had settled down in this world hundreds of thousands of years ago, not just a year or two. There was nowhere in the Unique World that was beyond her sights and reach. Terrorism?

“Even if it was a futile attempt! We had to!”

“Why?”

When asked back, the man shouted while kneeling before me. Indeed, his grim expression and attitude made him appear as some kind of an independence fighter.

“Freedom! We must find freedom! No matter how hard you try to sugar-coat it and cover it up, you’re nothing but a dictator!”

“Ha. You ignorant… Bring them, Genie.”

Instead of responding to the moron, I instructed Genie. A door opened and dozens of people were dragged in. The man’s expression distorted when he saw their faces.

“Gaju-nim? Marvin-nim? Why are you here…? You bastard! Why have you brought these innocent people here? Are you trying to blackmail me?”

“Innocent my ass. I brought them here because they were the ones who manipulated you and supported you from the dark. You’re so stupid. No wonder you were being used like this.”

I thought the ones responsible for causing commotion would come from Japan or China, but all of them turned out to be westerners. To be exact, they were from the European Union and Make America Great Again.

Nationality and status held no meaning in the Unique World, but it seemed they could not rid themselves of their country and race. I played videos of them conspiring and devising schemes so that they would not feel wronged or remain martyrs.

“Gaju-nim! Marvin-nim! H, how could this be!?”

The most ridiculous part about the situation was that the responsible people were being shocked by something else.

“What is this? You’ve been wiretapping and recording everything that was happening in our personal space?”

“T, this isn’t right! Even Big Brother’s actions pale in comparison to this! We aren’t your pets! Even if you try to suppress us like this…”

“Why do you keep talking about principle? Besides, you were all notified when you first came in, so don’t feign ignorance. Feel free to repeat that nonsense at the hearing, you idiots.”

Jokes aside, there wouldn’t be any problems even if I slaughtered all the people in the Unique World. Dictator, Big Brother… What nonsense were they spouting when they sought shelter to escape certain death?

That day, the death penalty was executed for the first time in the stage. The decisive response greatly dampened the atmosphere of the Unique World.

From then on, another 6 years passed. It had already been 15 years since the level 14 intermediate stage had begun. At one point, people resumed living as if they had forgotten the executions. They also became numb to the fact that eyes could be watching their every move. Perhaps it was because they believed in Genie’s promise to not spy on their private spaces.

Time flowed like a stream.

Nothing exciting or new happened.

I had spent my days like this for level 14, as well as level 12 and 13. This was nothing new. The same held true for levels below that. I had always spent the maximum amount of time clearing the stage. Although I hadn’t actually experienced it, I had spent hundreds of thousands of years in the stage as well. What more did I need to say?

15 years wasn’t a long time.

But perhaps it was different for the average person.

The elderly closed their eyes one by one. The children, who made up one-third of the population, grew up to become adults.

New lives were born.

More time passed, and 20 years passed since the intermediate difficulty of level 14 began. An announcement was made throughout the Unique World.

This is an announcement for all personnel in the Unique World.

There are 20 hours remaining until the end of level 14 intermediate stage.

I repeat, there are 20 hours remaining until the intermediate stage ends.

People stopped in their tracks at the unexpected announcement. They had been busily living their lives or leisurely enjoying their time. The young people were puzzled by the announcement.

“Level 14 intermediate? What does that mean? The stage is over? Were we doing something?”

“Is it telling us that a level 14, high-class gigas was developed?”

“Well, I don’t think that warrants an announcement of this level.”

The older generation held their mouths agape.

“Oh, I see. It’s over.”

“That’s right. Stage… Yes. I remember. Huhu. That’s right. Haha. We came here from earth to avoid the apocalypse.”

“Come to think of it… can we go back to earth?”

“I do miss it… Huhu. Even though I definitely ran away.”

“It’s been 20 years since I’ve last seen the sea.”

As the end of the intermediate stage of level 14 neared its end, the residents of the Unique World, now known as the Iron World, were buzzing.