The Player Who Can't Level Up

After Botis finished the story, it lowered its head, considering its work done, and Gi-Gyu silently closed his eyes. An awkward silence fell and continued for a while.

Then, Gi-Gyu opened his eyes and murmured, “So you’re saying”—he looked at Botis—“Andras opened the gates and…”

“Yes, My King. Andras opened the gates.”

After confirming Gi-Gyu’s suspicion, Botis lowered its ugly face, and Gi-Gyu closed his eyes again.

“And his goal is…” Gi-Gyu trailed off. He was having a hard time believing Botis’ story. “To lure players into the gates and steal their bodies?”

“Yes, My King,” replied Botis. 

Gi-Gyu wanted to laugh hysterically. Lure players to steal their bodies? And Andras wanted to do this; why?

Botis explained, “Because demons can only use a fraction of their power in the human world, My King.”

“Hmm…”

“That is why all demons, even the powerful ones, hesitate to enter your world,” added Botis. The demon kept his explanation short and simple so that Gi-Gyu could understand more easily.

Botis continued, “But some time ago, Andras made us an offer.”

“An offer?”

Botis continued in his scratchy voice, “He said he could help us use 10% of our power in the human world. In return, he ordered us to participate in his plan. He threatened to destroy us if we refused him. We had no other choice.”

“But how?” asked Gi-Gyu.

“Ah, that was why he wanted to steal the players’ bodies. He wants to steal the bodies to eliminate the limit on our power. We could then, in theory, use our full strength in the human world. And that is Andras’ ultimate plan.”

Gi-Gyu nodded. What Botis stated made sense now. After all, the only reason Earth was still a livable planet was that the Tower demons and monsters couldn’t use their full strength here. Consequently, the monsters couldn’t have those vile Earth-conquering ideas.

Lou murmured,

-If this is really possible, I can understand why Botis, someone less than friendly with Andras, would agree to participate in his plan.

“But there is something I can’t understand.” Gi-Gyu opened his eyes wide and studied Botis.

“Please feel free to ask anything, My King.”

“There are many powerful players here like Lee Sun-Ho, Lucifer, and such. Even you died at my hands. Didn’t you demons consider that you might all end up being killed by us, the players?”

They needed the players’ bodies to utilize their power, but they had to kill the players first for that. The risk of the powerful players killing them must have crossed their minds, right? Wasn’t this plan more likely to fail than succeed?

Botis stammered, “O-of course, we knew all those things. But you never know, right? Perhaps I was just one of the unlucky ones. The truth is, the players here can’t close all 20 unratable gates in time.”

“Huh.”

Finally, Gi-Gyu understood the big picture. Demon deaths were unavoidable, and only those demon lords with incredible luck would survive. Andras’ plan had already factored in these few sacrifices; as such, those few dead demon lords didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. In the end, only Andras would come out the victor.

Botis continued, “He didn’t tell us the details, but rumors say he has an accomplice on Earth.”

Gi-Gyu’s eyes widened since he also suspected that someone was helping Andras. Botis had no idea who this was, but if he could find even a single clue…

“His accomplice promised Andras to provide the players. Therefore, his plan has a decent chance of success.” Gi-Gyu lowered his face in shame.

Suddenly, Gi-Gyu gasped, “Oh my god!”

A shocking thought had crossed his mind, and Lou voiced it.

-If there are spies in the unratable gates with the other players…

Gi-Gyu became pale as he whispered, “They will all be killed.”

Not only that, the demons would steal the players’ bodies. If that happened, distinguishing enemies from friendlies would become impossible. Everyone would become a suspect—no one would be trusted.

It would be an unimaginable disaster.

“I need to get out of here!” Gi-Gyu announced. He had to inform the others and stop the unratable gate hunts. If the gate hunts continued like this, there was no way of knowing what might happen.

When Gi-Gyu rose in panic, Lou muttered,

-You fucking idiot. Do you think you can change anything even if you tell them now?

“What?”

-Didn’t we all suspect that Andras has an accomplice or two? The real problem is…

Gi-Gyu quickly caught on to what Lou was trying to say. “We still don’t know who the accomplice is.”

-Now you’re thinking.

Gi-Gyu finally realized what a conundrum it was. Without knowing the traitor’s identity, pulling everyone out of the gates could be dangerous. But if they left these gates alone, they would be helping the traitor.

-And if we delay closing these gates, they could break. And what will that do?

Gi-Gyu could almost hear Lou laughing at him. The safest approach would be to catch the traitor before closing the gates. However, that would take time; the unratable gates could break anytime, which could endanger many lives.

They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Are you asking me to do nothing?!” Gi-Gyu yelled in frustration. Tae-Shik had also entered one of these gates. What if a demon stole Tae-Shik’s body? Gi-Gyu didn’t want to even think about it.

-Moron. I thought you were smarter now, but I guess this is still too complicated for you.

“What?”

-Demons are sneaky bastards. I understand they are willing to accept some risks, but do you think they would have done it without a good reason? Ask Botis.

Turning toward Botis, Gi-Gyu relayed the message from Lou. Gi-Gyu asked, “Did Andras designate the gates his accomplices were to enter?”

Botis bowed and replied, “Of course.”

Gi-Gyu frowned in frustration. Why didn’t Botis say this earlier? Did this little demon need more beating? Physical punishment was always the best medicine.

Gi-Gyu was distracted when Botis continued, “He said his accomplice lived in a country named America.”

Gi-Gyu’s eyes widened for the nth time.

***

“Can we trust Botis?” When Gi-Gyu asked, Lou answered immediately,

-Of course! Can’t you feel it too?

Gi-Gyu nodded, ignoring Lou’s ridiculing tone. He knew the answer, but his frustration made him ask that. He clenched his fist and felt the sync he now shared with Botis. It wasn’t a physical connection but a spiritual thread-like connection.

Strangely, the connection he had with his other Egos also felt much stronger now. Perhaps it was because of Botis. Or maybe it was because he had gotten stronger.

It felt so real now that he thought he could grasp it in his hands. On top of this…

-You can feel their emotions, right?

“Yeah,” answered Gi-Gyu. His Egos could read his feelings; now, he could do the same. This was why he knew Botis was telling the truth.

-The real question is…

“Did Andras tell Botis the truth? I know.” Gi-Gyu finished Lou’s thought. Botis being truthful wouldn’t count for anything if Andras only fed it lies. All the information Botis had spilled would become useless.

-But as I said earlier, demons are sneaky. They wouldn’t agree to help their enemy, Andras, without some kind of proof that he was telling the truth.

Gi-Gyu nodded in agreement. He knew what this proof was because Botis had told them earlier.

‘Paimon’s inheritance,’ Gi-Gyu thought. According to Botis, Andras had shown several demons Paimon’s inheritance as proof. Only the most powerful demons could steal a player’s body, and one of the tools in Paimon’s inheritance made this process possible. Moreover, Andras had found a magical tool in the inheritance that let him open 20 demon territories on Earth as gates.

-You should ask Old Man Hwang about this. He should know the most about Paimon’s inheritance.

“All right.” Gi-Gyu nodded and continued, “And we’ll have to set a date to teach Botis another lesson. Then, we’ll take some time to get more information from him.”

Gi-Gyu didn’t stay to listen to everything Botis knew because he didn’t have the time. He only heard the relevant parts, including everything about Andras and his plan, what happened to hell after Lou disappeared, and…

‘About Suk-Woo…’ 

Botis had explained what happened to Suk-Woo, who was found trapped inside its cocoon. Unfortunately, Botis didn’t give Gi-Gyu any information that could help Suk-Woo’s condition.

While Suk-Woo was at least safe now, the same couldn’t be said about Tae-Shik, who entered a different gate.

Gi-Gyu left his gate briefly to call Sung-Hoon. To his relief, Tae-Shik’s team had successfully closed the gate.

“I’m glad,” Gi-Gyu murmured. He still needed to see Tae-Shik in person to believe this, and he planned to do this later.

For now…

“Master,” El called out to him in her warm voice.

Turning toward her, Gi-Gyu asked, “Is everything going okay?”

Behind El, several figures lay on the ground. Gi-Gyu spotted Hamiel, the otṣher angels, and the best of his soldiers. The only one still standing was Botis, who greeted, “Good day, My King.”

El had just finished sparring with the creatures from Brunheart’s gate. After glancing at Botis, Gi-Gyu asked El, “What do you think? Are you getting the hang of your new condition?”

“Well…” When El hesitated, Gi-Gyu asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I have a favor to ask, Master,” El replied without answering Gi-Gyu’s question. He looked at her curiously since Lou and El rarely asked for favors.

Still hesitating, El murmured, “Could you…. train with me? I beg you to forgive me for even making such a rude request.”

When El bowed, Gi-Gyu suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He had no idea where this strange sensation was stemming from.

-This is a good idea. You need to train too, don’t you? Besides, it’s not like you can leave the gate right now.

“Yeah, I might cause even more problems outside,” Gi-Gyu agreed with Lou. Currently, Gi-Gyu’s shell was in shambles. Previously, he had created a fragile barrier to keep Death in one place, but this barrier was long gone. Death had invaded other parts of his shell. In a manner of speaking, his shell was in the worst state ever.

‘Lou even said he was confused about why I was still alive.’ Gi-Gyu also asked himself the same question. He should have died.

“All right.” When Gi-Gyu nodded, a bright smile appeared on El’s face.

“But…” Gi-Gyu murmured.

“Yes, Master?”

“You’re in your physical body, so what should I do?” Gi-Gyu asked since he was used to wielding Lou and El simultaneously. Now that he lacked a sword, he wasn’t sure he, a double-sword technique user, could fight at his best.

Maybe…

‘Should I start using a Death sword from now on?’ Gi-Gyu wondered. It was a solution, but using Death took a huge toll on him.

Lou had also previously warned him,

-Until things settle down, don’t use Death.

“Please don’t worry about that, Master.” El smiled widely and brought her hands together.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, dozens of beautiful wings appeared on her back like a peacock’s wings, forming a circle. Gi-Gyu’s eyes widened as he stared in awe.

Snap!

Then, El plucked one feather from her wings.