The god-metal Adamantium had never once been revealed.
Only after Hyunsoo became king, and the evaluation began as one of the new Stories, did Adamantium show itself through the Sword of Judgment.
That was information known only to Hyunsoo, Kabel, and Valhalla.
So then, what was Adamantium worth right now?
A Transcendent-grade mineral sold for around 400 million won.
As a blacksmith, Hyunsoo understood that value better than anyone.
Adamantium’s current value can’t be measured in money. If I had to put a number on it, it’s at least 8 billion won.
The proof lay in Unparalleled.
Considering that the White Tiger Sword and the Great Bow of Demon-Slaying were worth over 40 billion and 25 billion won respectively, Unparalleled too was worth 40 billion.
And there was enough Adamantium to craft gauntlets, armor, a helm, and boots.
And it was a mineral that absolutely should not fall into Hyunsoo’s hands.
The thought that, if all of that became not the Judges’ possessions but Hyunsoo’s, an absolute set would be born sent a thrill through him—
but Raon’s answer shattered his expectations.
“It’s impossible to steal all of them.”
It was an honest answer, and Hyunsoo had the passing thought that if Raon had been an NPC, he might have heard a notification like this:
[Your Affinity with Raon is MAX.]
What if this had happened before Hyunsoo returned the Grand Thief’s Mask?
You fucking idiot, there’s no way that’d work!
Raon probably would have lunged at him again, gotten beaten like a dog, and then said it was impossible.
But now Raon had gotten the Grand Thief’s Mask back.
Suppose, for a moment,
that you won a 300-million-won lottery ticket.
Then you lost it.
Your own fault.
But then someone gave it back to you.
How would you feel?
Hyunsoo... he’s a god...
And on top of that, thanks to stat-based Overwhelm—
courage that normally did not exist, respect, hope—
and even a halo around Hyunsoo, or so it felt to Raon.
So he spoke honestly.
So it really won’t work?
Hyunsoo too had thought it might not be possible.
But then—
Swish.
[You have equipped the Grand Thief’s Mask.]
[It is a set artifact.]
[All skill levels related to theft increase by 3, and stealth increases by 50%.]
“I can steal one.”
It had been impossible without the mask, but now it was possible.
It was thanks to Hyunsoo’s grace.
And though Raon did not say it aloud, the reason he was doing this was not simply because respect had sprung up inside him.
[Class Quest: Grand Thief]
Grade: SSS
Restriction: Successor of Dakuan
Reward: The Disciples of the Grand Thief
Failure Penalty: You cannot become a true Grand Thief.
Description: Grand Thief Dakuan had quite a few disciples, and they have been active all over the world. However, he has given you, the most outstanding among them, a chance to become the king of thieves. Steal something that will shock the world. That shall become your great cause.
[Class Quest: It is a great cause acknowledged by the Grand Thief.]
[The examiners are neither good nor evil, yet in every way they have oppressed and scorned those who became kings.]
[In addition, each examiner has personally killed over 50,000 lives, regarding human life as no more than insects.]
[Purung is excluded.]
That was the notification he heard when he applied the Judgment series to the quest.
This was a chance not just to become the king of Dakuan’s other disciples, but of thieves across the entire world.
Their numbers could be tens of thousands.
Perhaps hundreds of thousands.
And Raon had spent a full year searching for a theft that could become his “great cause,” but had never found one.
Yet Hyunsoo had shown him that path.
“A great cause. To steal that and offer it to you—that shall be the great cause of a Grand Thief. According to the alert I just saw, the examiners have each slaughtered more than 50,000 innocent people. So you already knew that, and tried to plunder it from them. And judging by the alert, Examiner Purung is not one of them. Well, the Purung I saw never seemed like the kind of man who’d do such a thing.”
Hyunsoo—
Huh? Really? Then they’re complete pieces of shit.
He was startled, but said,
“...That’s right. I knew all of it. It’s all for the sake of justice.”
“You truly are...”
Raon’s expression was sincerely moved, and his loyalty toward Hyunsoo was growing even firmer.
At that moment, Hyunsoo forgot that he had called Raon a thief bastard.
When someone else does it, it’s theft.
When I do it, it’s justice.
Now it was time to talk about what really mattered.
“Where will Purung’s execution take place?”
“At...”
Raon pointed up at the sky.
“The Heavenly Realm.”
The Heavenly Realm.
A new place that users had not yet pioneered.
I didn’t think I’d be visiting the Heavenly Realm like this.
There was always something thrilling about arriving somewhere new.
New Stories.
New rewards.
New things everywhere.
But right now, Hyunsoo probably would not be able to claim any of those.
The examiners are overwhelmingly powerful. There’s a good chance they’re more than I can handle.
That much was from what Raon had told him.
So the only thing Hyunsoo could do was rescue Purung.
He could not stay in the Heavenly Realm for long.
“The problem is, I don’t know how to get to the Heavenly Realm either.”
Raon sounded worried.
Hyunsoo gave him a faint smile.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got a bird that can go anywhere.”
FWOOSH-
Kkoko appeared at once.
[It is the legendary bird Myriad Mile Bird.]
Raon could not hide his admiration as he stared at the blazing hawk.
Especially—
Go anywhere?
That was beyond absurd.
The value of the bird in front of him was beyond astronomical.
Still in awe, Raon asked,
“Where in the world did you get such an incredible bird?”
“......”
After having called Raon a thief bastard just moments ago, Hyunsoo reflected on himself and said,
“Fate finds its own way to you.”
“Oh, o-ohhh. Ohohh!”
He could hardly admit that he had kidnapped it.
Anyway—
a kidnapper and a thief.
FWOOOOOSH-!
It was the moment that cursed duo set off for a new world.
*****
Japan Special User Management Team.
Kimura was a new employee assigned here just one week ago.
A message arrived for him from the Korean Special User Management Team.
[A Zero-grade user designated by the Korean Special User Management Team appears likely to enter the Heavenly Realm.]
[The Japanese Special User Management Team should exercise caution.]
The Heavenly Realm.
The Demon Realm.
Hell.
Story Island.
Ares still had far too many unresolved Stories.
Each branch had places where Stories were designed, and the branch in charge of that design had to take responsibility for it and monitor it.
The Japanese branch had established the setting of the Heavenly Realm, and because of that, any user who entered the Heavenly Realm had to be monitored by the Japanese branch for the time being.
Kimura sneered at the official notice sent by the Korean branch.
What a bunch of whiners.
Each branch only had a handful of users marked Zero-grade management risk.
The United States, for instance, had Valhalla, the world’s number-one-ranked player.
Japan, meanwhile, had an unrevealed unofficial ranker.
The achievements he was building—
were beyond imagination.
Kimura had only been here a week, but even so, he had already been amazed by the achievements of Japan’s Zero-grade user.
The reason Kimura thought the Korean Special User Management Team were a bunch of complainers was simple.
All they do is spread weird rumors.
There was that absurd rumor that they could not even get home five days out of a month.
But according to Kimura’s seniors, even though Japan’s Zero-grade user had caused a number of problems, the Japanese branch only had to pull an all-nighter maybe once a month.
More importantly, how did they get to the Heavenly Realm?
Even the Special User Management Teams had to submit a request if they wanted the information of users managed by another country.
And if that request was not approved, they got nothing.
Just then—
[A user has set foot in the Heavenly Realm for the first time.]
One of the five monitors automatically shifted screens, showing the figure who had appeared in the Heavenly Realm.
It was a face he did not recognize.
I can’t see the face of the person next to him. Hm. Just from the eyes, he looks Indian.
Soon, the masked man said:
-“What an amazing ability. To change your appearance immediately like that.”
The surest way to confirm their identities was to request the relevant materials from the Korean branch.
No matter that they were all part of the Special User Management Team, the Japanese Special User Management Team could not freely access the information of Korean users.
If information exchange became unrestricted, the odds were simply too high that someone from some country would violate the rules and abuse it.
And even if you submitted a request, that did not mean you would actually get to see the information.
If the target was Zero-grade management, then it was even harder.
Because their information was power.
And a weapon.
But Kimura was completely at ease.
So what if they got here?
Kimura was certain.
If the Korean branch really is crushed by overtime, it’s because they’re incompetent and made mistakes in their initial settings.
They were different.
They had prepared for everything, while the Korean branch was just a pack of incompetent fools who had not been prepared.
The intruders might have entered the Heavenly Realm, but they had only arrived at the entrance.
A great force descended from somewhere in the Heavenly Realm and blocked them from proceeding any farther.
It had all been designed by the Japanese branch.
And the design continued to its second layer.
At the entrance to the Heavenly Realm, there was a gatekeeper.
Cerberus.
Cerberus.
A Transcendent species.
Aside from the demons Ares had officially announced, it was one of the eleven Transcendent species.
So was Cerberus’s presence in the Heavenly Realm some kind of system error?
No.
Cerberus’s origin was clearly the Demon Realm.
Kimura clicked on Cerberus’s detailed information.
[Cerberus was born in the Demon Realm and served a noble demon aristocrat. However, with the death of its master, its power has been greatly weakened, and now it can exert only strength somewhere between Legendary and Transcendent species.]
[In addition, after the death of Cerberus’s master, the examiners dwelling in the Heavenly Realm, unwilling to forget the disgrace of the ancient Heaven-Demon War, captured Cerberus and hung it at their gate as a warning to the Demon Realm.]
[Cerberus has defended the Heavenly Realm from hundreds of entrants, and the wounds it suffered have never healed. That is because it lives somewhere other than the Demon Realm, and because it is a species born under an ill-fated destiny.]
[Its former master abused it, and now even the examiners abuse it as well. As the wounds accumulating from those repeated torments pile up, it will die in the near future.]
[Cerberus reacts to a certain token. That token is also a token signifying submission and service.]
[However, whether that token can still exert any power is unknown.]
That was Cerberus’s setting.
Ah... what a truly wretched fate.
Of course, things like the examiners kidnapping Cerberus had happened because of the game’s high freedom.
Abuse upon abuse, and then more abuse while it guarded the gate.
It was doomed to die.
Naturally, Kimura did not particularly care.
The important thing was that even without healing from its wounds, Cerberus was still more than enough to stop anyone trying to enter the Heavenly Realm.
Just try opening that door.
Soon, the masked Indian man grabbed the handle.
Kimura had no doubt that the instant the door opened, the breath of three-headed Cerberus would annihilate the two of them.
And then—
the moment the door opened, the three-headed Cerberus moved to unleash its breath, only to hurriedly withdraw that power.
“???”
Kimura was bewildered as he looked at the alert appearing on the screen.
[Cerberus encounters one who bears the token.]
[It is shaken by the token inherited through the line of those it once served.]
What?
A keepsake of the one Cerberus had once served, and a token?
Kimura knew who Cerberus had once served.
The Great Archdemon Gremory.
He hurriedly zoomed in on the man’s finger.
[Ring of the Great Archdemon Gremory]
The Great Archdemon who had met death at the hands of Hyun.
That means the person standing there now is Hyun?
Kimura was badly rattled.
Why of all people is it Hyun?
A cold sweat broke over him.
If Cerberus hesitated between attacking or not attacking like this, all Hyun had to do was quickly pass by, and everything would end far too easily.
And yet, for some reason, Hyun did not move.
He only stared at the wavering Cerberus.
-“Either kill us or let us pass already. My knees are shaking.”
The one standing beside Hyun urged him on too.
What the hell is he thinking?
The people who understood this best were the Korean Special User Management Team.
Kimura sent a message to the Korean Special User Management Team.
[Japan Branch: This is Kimura of the Japanese Special User Management Team. At present, this and this is happening...]
[Japan Branch: Why isn’t user Hyunsoo just passing through?]
A reply arrived from the Korean branch.
What the hell is this supposed to mean?
Kimura blinked as he stared at the response written there.
[Korean Branch: The new rookie.]
