“That idiot Jinsung needs to be in the human system. What is he even doing now?”

Harin was back in Kailan and wondering.

When she arrived in the game, the place where she spawned was at the Pyro Manor.

She recalled the conversation she had with Jinsung.

– Open the back gate of the Pyro Manor.

– Why all of a sudden?

– Let’s talk more about it in the game. I’ll be there when you enter, so we’ll talk there. If you can’t enter through the gate, message me.

“What does he mean by ‘not being able to enter’ the gate…”

Harin shook her head and began to move.

After a moment, she found the gate of dimension that Ian told her about.

“Should I go in…?”

Cautiously, Harin took a step into the gate without hesitation.

The moment she entered, new system messages appeared in front of her.

[You have entered the gate.]

[Moving to another dimension system.]

[You have entered the map of ‘Spirit Mountain’.]

Woong-!

With a familiar resonating sound, the eyes of Harin which had been filled with darkness began to see light.

A familiar silhouette appeared in front of her.

Ian and Harin looked at each other.

And somehow, Ian started to shake.

“Oh, oh, oh! It worked? It did work?”

Harin who didn’t understand what he was talking about narrowed her eyes.

“I told you there was something urgent. Why did you call me here?”

However, instead of responding to Harin, Ian talked about something else.

“What do you mean by why? This was a test!”

“Test? What did you test?”

“Harin you… Where do you think you just stepped on?”

“This is the spirit dimension.”

At the answer from Harin, Ian smiled a little and pointed his finger somewhere.

“Do you see that monster over there? The level of the monster to be exact.”

“Hmm… Are you talking about that monkey-like-robot monster?”

“Right.”

“Uh, level 13? Is this the beginner’s hunting ground?”

The mouth of Harin which had been talking opened wide.

Rather than being a beginner’s hunting ground, she realized that it was a level 13 transcendence monster.

“Huhu, do you understand now?”

With her eyes still stuck on it, Harin spoke.

“Uh, uh… level 13 transcendence monsters are coming out…”

The information to the Middle-Earth had been officially opened.

It had been officially released by LB, but before that, a lot of the rankers had already been entering the Underworld.

Among those informations, the fact that the current middle-Earth system had been opened was like a ‘trial version’, and that was what everyone had been thinking, including Harin.

It meant that all the content after the transcendence level of 10 got locked in Middle-Earth.

In the case of the Underworld, the highest level of monsters that one could fight against was level 10, and a large update notice had been released right after that. It indicated LB’s note, which mentioned the need to be an ‘Intermediate-being’.

The things that Harin knew weren’t different.

And she was now looking at a transcendence level 13 monster.

Which meant that…

‘Don’t tell me… Did he already turn into an intermediate-being?’

Surprised, Harin opened her mouth again.

“How in the world did you even get here?”

With a bright smile, Ian spoke with a rather arrogant tone.

“How do you think? I got in because it’s me!”

At the words of Ian, Harin became more nervous.

“You are not using bugs, right?”

“What the!? I came to this place in a very normal way!”

“Then, did you become an intermediate-being?”

“My transcendence level is only 8, so I still can’t be one.”

Harin looked at Ian with a suspicious pair of eyes.

“You’re not an intermediate-being, but you’re here… and you’re saying that you didn’t use a bug?”

“I told you, I didn’t!”

“Hmm, fishy…”

Harin who heard about the Ian Bug User theory couldn’t get her doubts out of her mind. However, Ian seemed to be very excited.

‘Keu, this is done!’

Ian’s dimensional beads, the gate that could be opened. It wasn’t an item that had no restrictions.

For example, it did have a specific condition that wouldn’t allow a user to bring in another user who hadn’t met the conditions of the dungeon or the region.

Using the gate like that was dubious.

Intermediate-beings were the only ones that could enter the place where Ian was currently at.

However, Ian himself got into that place because he needed Harin.

‘If I’m gonna be here for a while, then I need some lightrep.’

The transcendence levels of the machine monkeys were around 11 to 13, and they would be very tough to deal with for users below the level of 5.

Of course, the only user who could probably hunt there was Ian, but he was in need of a few rankers and wanted to ride the bus easily.

‘Hoonie, Yu hyun, Fiolan, Remir and a few more. If I can get around five to six members and get them to level 6, then hunting here will be possible.’

With his rough plans, Ian asked Harin to join his party.

[Guild member ‘Ian’ requested you to join his party.]

[Do you accept? (Y/N)]

Seeing the system messages, Harin was rather flustered.

“Uh? Why a party all of a sudden? You need to meet with the guild members because of the update, remember?”

“I know, I know. Tell the guild chatroom to wait for 10 minutes. What I’m doing now is related to the update.”

“Ah, okay.”

Harin nodded and with a little sloppy look, she posted in the guild chatroom exactly what Ian had asked her to do.

Harin: I just met Ian, and he said to wait for 10 minutes. He said he has something he needs to try.

Less than a minute later, the members of the guild chat, including Fiolan, responded.

Fiolan: Yeah, 10 minutes, so okay… I’ll have some snacks and then come back.

Remir: Uh, okay. I too haven’t had the chance to have a meal because of the morning update.

But the very next moment, beyond the surprise of Harin, the one who was already surprised turned stiff.

The system messages which were covering up the guild chat window were so unrealistic.

Tring-!

[Party member ‘Ian’ has successfully defeated the monster ‘Kariopitecus’!]

[Obtained transcendence experience of 26.]

… syncopation…

[Obtained transcendence experience of 34.]

…syncopation…

[Transcendence level has risen to 2.]

[Transcendence level has risen to 3.]

* * *

It seemed like something very complicated was going on, but what Ian was doing at the moment wasn’t so easy.

Aside from the mass update about the ‘Warrior’s Village’, the most urgent task at hand was to reach transcendence level 10.

In addition, in order to collect the materials which were needed for making the robot, he had to hunt non-stop.

Furthermore, the plan to collect attribute essences was laid out in detail.

‘I need to ride the bus with the guild members… and I need to take the attribute essences that are dropped with the bus play ratio. Haha.’

Ian needed one day to collect all the essences he needed for the production robot.

It would take around 5 days for the guild members to reach the transcendence level of 6.

If he could do an infinite hunt with all of them, maybe Ian could reach level 10 quicker.

‘Let’s see, there are exactly 20 days until the update…’

Ian’s goal was to be at the gate that was at the Ulphir mountains.

He needed to reach transcendence level 10 to be able to enter the Warrior’s Village.

And so, as soon as the server opened after the update, his goal was to enter the Warrior’s Village.

Of course, being a transcendence level 10 wasn’t enough.

There was another condition which stated that the user had to be recognized by the ‘ancient heroes’ who were guarding the gates.

However, Ian didn’t have to worry about that.

Ian had the ‘Champion’s Mark’ which he previously got from the Courageous Commander of the Dragon Cavalry, Camires.

‘I’m not sure until I try it out, but… I do have a hunch.’

There was no way for him to know until the update was done, but Ian guessed that it was an item that was probably related to the ‘ancient heroes’. He believed that the item would help him be recognized as someone worthy.

‘Huh, the time is a little short. Even if I do it on a tight schedule, it would take around 3 to 4 weeks before I get to level 10…’

Ian clenched his fists.

He established a goal. And once he established that goal, all he had to do was run toward it.

“Okay, if I stay overnight, I’ll be able to reach level 10 before the opening day.”

With various plans running in his head, Ian was ready for the challenge.

Woong-!

The gate began to vibrate, and familiar faces started to show up.

Harin, who entered the gate, showed up with the guild members starting from Herz, Remir, Fiolan, Yu Shin, Hoonie, Canoel, Carwin and Colban

A lot of retainers were there along with the guild members. Soon, the calm mountain began to get crowded.

“Ah, Is this the spirit dimension?”

“Why is the air so fresh here?”

“Right. This is just what I had been thinking about, the spirit dimension.”

The guild members were talking among themselves.

But it didn’t take long for them to turn stiff and nervous.

“Kay, you have all slept well and connected, right?”

The first words that came out of Ian’s mouth were freaking scary for them all.

* * *

Kang- Kang-!

Drrrrk-!

The machine workshop in the contaminated mine had crystal clear sounds of beeps and buzzing of machine sounds.

And in such a place, two beings of unusual appearance were standing side by side.

To be precise, they weren’t exactly standing beside each other.

Sitting on the shoulder of a boy that seemed to be around ten years old was a small creature that looked like a winged lizard.

Those two were Kaka and 77.

“You said it was Kaka?”

“Yeah, robot friend. What can I call you?”

“Haven’t you heard from Ian? I am P-77. Feel free to call me no. 77.”

“No. 77, huh? Calling you that feels a bit awkward. I’ll just call you 77.”

“…!”

The reason why Kaka was left at the machine workshop was for supervision.

Kaka’s role was to make sure that 77 wouldn’t have the time to be lazy.

However, unfortunately, the scene wasn’t going in the direction where Ian intended it to go.

“Kaka, have you ever seen anything like this?”

“…!”

“If you do me a favor, I can make you something like this…”

What 77 was showing Kaka was a small figure that was similar to a toy robot.

A high-quality robot that had a blue light shining from its body.

Since it was Kaka’s first time to see something like that, her eyes couldn’t move away from it.

“This… what is this!? It is so cool!”

“Right? It’s cool, right?”

“Tremendously! How could you even make such a thing!?”

When 77 touched a small remote, the figure started to move around on its own.

Kaka started to look ecstatic.

“What… what is the favor you wanted to ask, robot friend!? Ask me anything you want!”