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Screening Quest (5)

The High Priest pondered with a serious look on its face before reaching a final decision.

‘There’s no choice but to act in the way that man wanted for now!’

Shame and anger rose from deep inside it.

“The expedition team is already retreating, you said?”

“Yes, they’re going to step back to the dungeon and join the reinforcements there.”

“Tell them to come back to this dimension.”

“… Yes?”

The Priest, who was responding submissively, showed a different expression for the first time.

The expedition team, which was currently retreating, was only a small part of the entire Botarch military force.

In the event of a strong counterattack by the inhabitants of the expedition’s destination, it’s natural to retreat to the dungeon and prepare for the second invasion.

However, the High Priest had just issued an order that could be seen as an abandonment of the re-invasion.

“…”

Heavy silence flowed between the two Botarchs.

The High Priest spoke in a sharp voice.

“What? Do you want to protest?”

In a rather agitated response, the Priest who delivered the urgent news realized it made the wrong move.

It blamed itself for its mistake, feeling its back hair stand on end.

“No! High Priest, forgive my mistake. I’ll give them an order to retreat right away.”

The Lay Priest barely suppressed its body from trembling.

Although it was a confidant of the High Priest, there were many other Botarchs to replace it. If it showed a sign of rebellion or defiance, it would swiftly lose its life like those women with smashed heads on the bed.

The High Priest was extremely sensitive when it came to the authority and power it held. The eight Bishops were alive while keeping it in check only because they held that much power as well, but the Lay Priest was different. If they offended it, they would immediately return to its Mother Goddess of Land’s arms.

“Oh, and…”

The High Priest continued.

“The Sixth Bishop, how was his behavior during the last month?”

The Lay Priest compiled and recited the information in its head.

In addition to official activities, information obtained through covert channels was included in the report.

Most of the information was already known by the High Priest, but it listened more carefully than ever.

‘Dungeon boundaries collapsed only a month ago, and the Sixth Bishop could only afford to collude within that time with an alien race. Anomalies would’ve been observed in that timeframe.’

After hearing all the reports, the High Priest raised another question.

“How many spies do we have on his side at the moment?”

“We have fifteen.”

“Double that right now, starting today.”

The Lay Priest wanted to point out that if additional spies of such scale suddenly got attached, there was a high risk that the other side would notice it.

However, it didn’t dare speak in against the High Priest, who was very agitated.

Eventually, the Lay Priest followed the precedent of those who served the overpowering and terrifying ruler.

It swallowed its sincere advice into its throat and obeyed the order that would surely lead to bad results.

“Yes, I’ll carry it out.”

After it stepped down, the High Priest opened the window to circulate the air full of blood stench.

As it stood by the window, it watched the sun sticking out its forehead over the ridge.

The rays that burned the calm dawn sky pierced its eyes.

‘Just as the alien got what it wanted, the bastard who placed the order would have gotten something in return. There’s no way they didn’t leave a trace.’

The High Priest didn’t want to be a faithful servant following orders that way.

The ultimate goal of the insider who colluded with the alien race would eventually be its fall.

If the situation kept getting played according to their plans, it would only slow down the High Priest’s scheduled destruction a little bit.

‘The most likely perpetrator is the Sixth Bishop. I’ll shake him off and dig up the link. Then I’ll put all the blame on him if things go wrong!’

The axis that supported the unstable period of the power struggle’s truce collapsed today.

The High Priest didn’t want to die calmly with its neck sticking out when its opponent came in stabbing at it like that.

It sensed that there would be a bloodbath in the religious order, considering it had been sustaining a stubborn confrontation for a while.

*

“By the way…”

Nate, who was looking at the movements of the subordinates it summoned, suddenly spoke.

From all sides, a series of undeads were ripping out cores from the Orc hearts scattered on the floor with their bare hands like skilled handcraft workers.

Most of the bodies were severely damaged, preventing him from turning them into subordinates.

Phuk! Crush!

Lining up like a fisherman that dug clams from the mudflats, the crowd of undead harvested cores with quick and accurate movements that left no room for error. Once they bent down, they would straighten up with a sparkling core in their hands.

Hibiki, who was watching the scene together with Nate, turned to face him.

“What?”

The place where the two were located was a dungeon with gray earth.

The gate that connected to that space was located deep in the mountains and was unknown to anyone but them. It was a place that the government, the Hunters of the Gate Keepers, and even the other guild members of the Celestial Dragon didn’t know.

That was where Seo Jin-Wook brought only the two of them and planted tree seedlings harvested from other dungeons.

“What is Jin-Wook going to do with this tree?”

Seo Jin-Wook left the work to the duo, saying that he had to leave that place again, and he didn’t know how long it would take for him to come back.

It was a simple task at first glance. They only needed to examine the growth of the seedlings and clean up all the monsters around them.

But it wasn’t that simple.

Nate continued.

“And what the hell is up with this tree that attracts monsters like this? I know now because I studied. We made sure to clear the monsters inside the boundary last time, right? But they’ve already gathered a lot again in that period. That isn’t normal. “

Hundreds of corpses were scattered around the area.

Usually, even if one were to kill all the monsters on the boundary, it would take time for those monsters outside to come back in and replace them. That part was a pain in the ass for the guild that acquired the mining rights and went against the main reason for expanding the boundaries to expand the dungeon.

But the dungeon was a little strange. If all dungeons were like that, the world’s Mana core production would increase significantly.

Nate thought the reason was in the seedlings.

“Why does this tree attract monsters? Jin-Wook said it would get worse once it bears fruits…”

He said that if flowers bloomed and showed signs of bearing fruits, they might have to reside there.

That was because there would be a lot more monsters gathering from then on.

Hibiki, who listened intently, replied indifferently.

“The reason why he didn’t necessarily explain it is because we don’t need to know yet.”

“But it still makes you curious, doesn’t it?”

“He will tell us everything when the time comes. We just have to follow his instructions faithfully. All of this must be necessary for the ‘future’ as well.”

Her words showed firm belief in Seo Jin-Wook.

Nate looked at Hibiki in surprise.

“You have so much trust in him!”

Hibiki replied as if it was rather unexpected of him.

“You don’t believe him?”

“No, of course, I do. I’m just curious. How does Jin-Wook know all this?”

The same question had been in Hibiki’s head for a long time, much earlier than Nate.

However, she decided not to mention it at that moment.

Seo Jin-Wook was a person who completely changed Hibiki’s life, who lived with a bomb that could explode anytime.

Furthermore, although he was already a celebrity and a capable man who made the headlines worldwide, Hibiki thought the public’s assessment rather underestimated Seo Jin-Wook.

Considering what she had seen while staying by his side, she couldn’t help but make such a judgment.

“How? I don’t know. But one thing I’m sure of is that he is a much greater person than everyone else thinks. You know that too, don’t you?”

“That’s what I think as well.”

Hibiki nodded and continued.

“I think all this we’re doing right now is for the world and humanity. That’s why I don’t question his actions.”

“That’s great.”

Nate scratched his head.

“By the way, where did Jin-Wook go this time and for what?”

Hibiki voiced out her assumption.

“Think about it. He took the two of us when he blocked the A-Class dungeon break, didn’t he? But he didn’t take us this time. Wouldn’t it be something more dangerous?”

“Hmm.”

Nate had no idea what on Earth could be that dangerous.

“Is there a huge number of enemies? Like an army?”

“I don’t know. Although with his ability…. I don’t think it would be strange if he were actually to control a country behind the scenes.”

“Wow, Hibiki. You even know how to joke around now.”

“Hmph.”

Nate had a bright smile on his face when he pointed out her change, while Hibiki turned away, snorting disapprovingly.

*

After exhausting the cores needed to return to Earth, as I entered the [Door of Hope], I came over to a dimension full of light that I was just in recently.

– Please specify a transport location within the dimension.

I ignored the telepathic message of the Artifact for a moment and looked at the idol statue.

It was the key that solved my problem easily.

The result was the same after several observations with [The Successor’s Eyes].

‘Indeed, there’s not even a single grain of Mana. There are no holy properties as it seems that the devil’s sword stays quiet even if I let the two come into contact. It’s just an ordinary statue.’

It was the number 1 treasure cherished by the entire Botarch race.

It was a Sacred object that made even the High Priest, who was the symbol of the religious order, fall into a miserable state if he loses it.

However, there was nothing special about it.

I reached a conclusion.

‘There is a high possibility that the Mother Goddess of the Land served by the Botarchs doesn’t exist. I’m almost 99.9% sure.’

The dimension they lived in was still in the tutorial stage, just like Earth.

Great concepts beyond mortals did indeed exist, which could be called ‘God’ according to knowledge acquired in my previous life.

‘They are not omnipotent either.’

In situations where even the system wasn’t omnipotent, even those beings close to godhood coexisted with the system. They could also follow their rules in a broad sense.

Of course, Earth was still in the tutorial stage in my previous life, so humans had never directly contacted or experienced direct influence from them.

‘I can’t believe that a religious order that serves a god that doesn’t even exist can rule a whole race with that ideology. It’s so strange.’

Shrugging off my insights, I stuffed the idol into the snake’s mouth.

– Please specify a transport location within the dimension.

The Artifact irritated my mind again as if it was rushing me.

Woop!

Light flashed before my eyes.

The message that penetrated my mind at that time wasn’t from the Artifact.

It was a system message that periodically contacted me.

In other words, it was transmitted by the control cognition in charge of the system.

– QUEST COMPLETE!

– Quest Name: Dimension Defense(2) – ‘Botarch’

– Description: The name of the species that are retreating is Botarch. They had given up on the expedition site after their month-long local occupation. They are currently leaving, but it’s unknown when they will resume their invasion again. Consider and implement measures to curb subsequent dimensional invasion and take preemptive defensive effects.

– Reward: 2 million Experience Points have been awarded to the user!

It was clear that the High Priest had taken some action.

‘It has ordered for their race to retreat to their main dimension!’

The threat I pushed worked, so I think it did as instructed.

In terms of time, it didn’t take long for it to follow my orders.

Thanks to the High Priest, the system decided that I had completely suppressed the possibility of re-invasion at that point!

And the reward is…

‘Two million?!’

I was amazed deep down.

That was quite a big deal!

According to the list of quests, the reward started at 1 million points.

‘That’s a double bonus.’

It judged that the actions I took were that effective and had a big impact.

‘Wait, with this much point…’

I could exchange it for items that could affect the entire tutorial.

It was also possible to make other demands to the system instead of items.

It was just like when I made a deal with the ministry spirit before.

‘I got more points than I expected.’

Adam spent 1.4 million experience points just to cross to Earth.

He also said that it was a lot of points, even for a species that completed the tutorial.

But the points I collected had already reached a total of 2.68 million after just going through 2 quests.

‘I think we need to change the plan. It’s much more than what I was aiming for in the first place…’

I looked at the list of things I could do by consuming that many experience points.

Apart from the system message, the telepathy of [Door of Hope] rang out once again.

– Please specify a transport location within the dimension.

– If there is no desired location, you will be sent to an arbitrary location.

It was rushing me quite hard.

I put aside what I was about to do and focused on what unfolded in front of my eyes.

In the dimension I resided in, the whole map of the universe planet Earth was in had been laid out.

It was such a vast space that it made me dizzy just by looking at the mere sight of it.

I grumbled inwardly.

‘That’s less sensible than the automatic completion of a web browser.’

Was it impossible for it to infer that since I had crossed the Earth, I’d go to that planet when I returned?

I spoke to the Artifact.

“You don’t have to show me a map this wide. I’m going back to Earth.”

Upon saying that, the [Door of Hope] narrowed the screen down to a single planet.

– Please specify the transport location within the dimension.

“Show me the spot I’ve crossed.”

I was going to see how Adam was doing first.

The screen changed in an instant.

“Oh! Is it already over?”

The clear view of all the buildings inside the barricade allowed me to witness the emptiness of the gym and exhibition halls where the hostages were being held.

Adam seemed busy dissecting the giant worm while the hostages were fleeing. He continuously cut out huge organs and muscles and put them into a subspace Artifact.

Shhhh!

When I turned my glance on the worm’s corpse, the [Door of Hope] even showed me the space inside the giant creature’s skin.

Did that mean that it could send me in that worm’s body if I wanted?

‘Oh, it’s so senseless. There is no need for me to see even…’

At that moment, a lightning-like sting passed through my spine.

‘Oh, wait a minute. This one right now–!’

I had so far considered the functionality of the [Door of Hope] to be limited as an interdimensional transport device.

But after using up the Mana core equivalent for the opponent’s dimension.

I found out that there was another function.

‘I can look into the destination dimension in detail. I can observe wherever I want. With a perfect see-through view! Should I say that this is a satellite that turned into an Artifact? No, it’s an incredible feature that can’t even be compared to such!’

It was more useful than I thought.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Naturally, I also thought of the list in my head.

The list of aliens having infiltrated the Earth at that point, who I only knew their appearances and locations of!