Chapter 465: What’s This About? |
“... Umm, hello?
“Earth to Mr. Oh Kang-Woo?
“Hey, Kang-Woo.
“Oh Kang-Woo!” Cha Yeon-Joo smacked Kang-Woo on the back of the head. “Ack!”
Yeon-Joo yelled in pain as her hand rebounded due to the Deific Essence barrier.
“For fuck’s sake, what a stupidly broken power.”
She saw again how amazing Deific Essence was. She would be lying if she said that she was not interested in the Deific Essence that she would get after becoming an incarnation.
‘Since I’m… pretty much useless right now.’
She did not slack off on her training, but she knew that she would never reach Kim Si-Hun or Balrog’s level no matter how hard she worked. She was frustrated and angry, but the wall known as talent was so unsurpassable that she couldn’t even approach it.
Yeon-Joo chuckled. Among regular Players, she was a prodigy who had awakened an S-rank Trait in her First Awakening. Just like how she was feeling the insurmountable gap between herself and Si-Hun, other Players also likely felt the same with her.
‘I was merely a frog in the well.’
She was forced to realize how meager her talent had been when she looked at the truly powerful like Kang-Woo and Si-Hun.
‘But I know that they didn’t earn their strength just because of talent.’
Si-Hun trained to absurd levels every single day, and Kang-Woo had struggled to survive for ten millennia. Saying that they became that strong only because they were talented was a mockery to them.
‘But if I can acquire Deific Essence…’
If she was able to get even a few steps closer to them, she had a feeling that she would be freed at least a little from the powerlessness weighing her down.
‘And…’
Yeon-Joo coughed as she sneaked a peek at Kang-Woo, who had not yet managed to recover from the shock earlier, clenching his head. He couldn’t look any more unreliable, but she did not find it all that bad.
‘I-If I become his incarnation… will our souls be connected?’
Yeon-Joo twisted around as she thought about Layla and then glared at Kang-Woo.
‘Fucking hell, he could’ve just given it to me straight instead of saying shit like becoming soulmates…’
She was boiling with fury just thinking about what had happened earlier.
‘Well, regardless.’
Her fury quelled soon after and was replaced with happiness.
‘If I become his incarnation… I guess we’ll be able to spend some more time together.’
Yeon-Joo was getting hot as all sorts of thoughts popped up in her head. The corners of her mouth had no intention of coming down.
“F-Fuck!”
The smiling Yeon-Joo stepped back in surprise. She covered her mouth and stared at Kang-Woo wide-eyed.
‘I must be fucking crazy! Why am I so happy about being able to spend more time with that sly, perverted virgin?! You’re better than that, Cha Yeon-Joo. Did you forget what he did to you just now?’
Yeon-Joo reprimanded her body for acting differently from how she was feeling.
“Fuuu, fuuu,” she took deep breaths to calm herself down. She hugged herself and crouched.
“What are you doing?” Kang-Woo asked.
He seemed to have regained his senses after Yeon-Joo cursed loudly; he was looking down at Yeon-Joo perplexedly.
Veins bulged from Yeon-Joo’s forehead. “I should be asking you that question.”
Kang-Woo remained silent.
He couldn’t say anything in retort since he had just been in panic mode as he clenched his hair.
‘I’ll… think about Darling later.’
He got chills from seeing Han Seol-Ah wondering what color she should make the chains, but nothing would be resolved no matter how much he tried to explain to her what actually happened.
‘I’ll have to wait until Darling’s desire dies down a little.’
The crisis might escalate if he were to do anything before that.
“Haaa. Let’s get back to the main topic.” Kang-Woo sighed and turned to Yeon-Joo.
“How do I become your incarnation?” asked Yeon-Joo as she pouted. “I’ll kill you if you say that shit about rituals or whatever.”
“Hahaha,” Kang-Woo softly laughed, reminded of what happened earlier. “Well, you don’t have to do anything. Just accept my power without resistance.”
“That’s it?”
“You might lose consciousness as your body turns into that of an incarnation, but… you won’t be out of commission for over a month like it had been for Iris.”
Iris had taken a long time to become an incarnation because the process had been when the Law of Titans was still active, but now that the restrictions on the gods were gone, it would take nowhere near that amount of time.
“But why did you choose me as your incarnation? There are tons of people without Deific Essence,” Yeon-Joo asked with narrow eyes.
Kang-Woo momentarily fell into thought about whether or not to tell her the truth.
‘It’s a bit harsh tell tell her that it was because you’ll never acquire Deific Essence on your own.’
To be honest, that was not the only reason; there were plenty of people who had no possibility of acquiring Deific Essence on their own, such as Echidna, Halcyon, Vaal Zahak, and Lilith. However, Kang-Woo had chosen Yeon-Joo for one simple reason.
“Because I trust you,” Kang-Woo stated.
“What?”
“I’m not making an incarnation simply to give them Deific Essence.”
“Th-Then what?”
“You know that the Church of Splendor is slowly spreading throughout Earth, right?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard about it.”
“I’d like you to keep them under control.”
Yeon-Joo may not look like it, but she was a born leader. If she wasn’t, she would never have been able to create a massive guild like Red Rose no matter how high her Awakening Traits were.
“Wouldn’t Lilith be a better fit for that kind of job?” Yeon-Joo asked.
“No. Lilith is extremely capable, but she’s not a leader.”
A leader needed charismatic qualities that allowed others to be naturally drawn to them even without forcing loyalty on them. Loyalty became meaningless the moment it was pressured on someone.
‘It’s an innate quality.’
The charisma of a leader was similar to the Heavenly Martial Body in martial arts; it could not be learned.
“R-Really? Hmm. Hehe. I guess I can’t argue with that.” Yeon-Joo shrugged as she giggled, feeling good from Kang-Woo’s compliments. However, she frowned soon after. “... Wait, then do I have to say shit like Ohmen and preach like Iris does?”
“If the situation calls for it.”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Let’s do the ritual then.”
“You wanna die?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Haaa. Why do I have to praise a scumbag like you?”
“I won’t force you to do it.”
Kang-Woo needed an incarnation but had no intention of forcing anyone to do it.
Yeon-Joo bit her lip as she mumbled curses and then plopped down on a chair. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
Kang-Woo smiled. “I knew you would.”
Yeon-Joo turned her head away in dissatisfaction. Kang-Woo smiled and approached her. He slowly placed his hand on her head and recalled the incarnation chant that he had heard in Olympus.
“I command you in the name of my Deific Essence,” he chanted in a low tone.
Whoooom!!
Blinding golden light poured out of Kang-Woo.
‘Draw out only Divinity.’
Yeon-Joo would turn into a demon the moment that demonic energy mixed with the Divinity.
‘I can’t let her become a demon.’
The body of a demon caused one to endlessly desire. Kang-Woo knew better than anyone how agonizing it was to keep that in check. Telling a demon to suppress their desire was the same as telling someone dying of thirst not to drink water or a starving person not to have the lavish feast laid out in front of them. Their mind would slowly deteriorate under endless thirst and hunger. Kang-Woo would be placing an unfathomable amount of weight on Yeon-Joo to bear if he were to make her a demon.
“One who accepts my power.”
The golden light gathered around Kang-Woo’s hand that was on Yeon-Joo’s head.
“Become my flesh, become my blood, and become my bones.”
Whoooom!!
“Ngh…!” The blinding light began to flow into Yeon-Joo. “Hurgh!”
Yeon-Joo grunted as overwhelming power raged within her. She felt unfathomable fear; her body was naturally rejecting the enormous power that entered her.
‘No.’
Yeon-Jo shook her head at her instinct to reject the power. She bit her lip and clenched her fists. Kang-Woo had said to accept the power without resistance.
‘Fucking hell, easier said than done.’
Yeon-Joo cursed at Kang-Woo, who had talked about it as if it was a piece of cake. Not rejecting the power flowing into her was like telling someone not to tense up during an injection with a giant needle. They knew that they shouldn’t tense up but the body did naturally.
“Kurgh!”
The mana within Yeon-Joo was desperately rejecting the Divinity flowing into her through Kang-Woo. She could instinctively feel that it would be for naught if Kang-Woo’s Divinity forced her mana to submit. Knowing that, Kang-Woo also did not try to force Yeon-Joo’s mana to submit.
“Huuu, huuu,” Yeon-Joo panted heavily.
‘I have to… trust Kang-Woo.’
She needed to trust the man who had embedded himself deep within her heart before she had realized it.
“Hah,” Yeon-Joo chuckled.
Her body began to accept Kang-Woo’s Divinity without resistance as soon as she thought about trusting him.
‘It’s… not so hard.’
She easily realized the reason why but she shook her head to deny it as she snorted.
‘There’s no way I trusted that pervert from the very beginning.’
She had simply decided to trust him so that she could acquire Deific Essence. There was no other reason.
‘Yup, that’s it.’
Yeon-Joo nodded with a leisurely expression. The entirety of the golden light flowed into Yeon-Joo through Kang-Woo’s hand.
Riiing.
[You have been chosen as the incarnation of the ‘God of Splendor(???).’]
[Drastically raising all stats!]
[Promoting all Traits by one rank!]
[You have acquired a portion of the ‘Deific Essence of Voracity.’]
[You can now use Deific Manifestation!]
“Huh?” Yeon-Joo’s eyes widened as she stared at the messages in front of her. “Hey… Wh-What’s this about?”
“What?” Kang-Woo asked.
“Uhh… Weren’t you the God of Splendor? It said that I acquired the Deific Essence of Voracity.”
Kang-Woo remained silent.
‘Oh fuck. I forgot I was the God of Voracity.’