Chapter 170

"Is the work going well?"

I opened the laboratory door and said .

"No . I feel like I'm dying . Save me . "

My clone bastard was making a fuss over nothing .

"It's not nothing, you know . You damn main body bastard . "

While watching the grumbling clone bastard, I clicked my tongue and sat down .

The analysis of the authorities that the clone bastard gained on the 61st floor was at its peak .

Though it was something I’d done several times before, analyzing authorities always brought new challenges .

An authority is the implementation of one’s will through divinity, which is the essence of one’s identity, by a being who acquired godhood with their own power .

It honestly wasn't much different from magic .

Perhaps the gods don't think that there's a difference between magic and authorities .

They would use the ‘power of miracles’ known as mana, and unleash their will onto the world .

Their divine power is used as a medium to invoke their authorities, which produces miracles; said authorities are determined by their divinity .

While magic is limited by its power, scale, perception, and range, gods’ power is limited by their identity .

There are gods that probably use their power without even thinking about it very much, but I couldn’t use it as comfortably as them .

I had to thoroughly analyze it, study it, and pass through countless trials and errors before I could barely imitate it .

That's why all the authorities that I use, that were gifted to me by the gods, are all imitations .

Though I could say that they're improved products .

As I continuously used their authorities, I realized the principles behind them .

I realized how my suspicions, the god’s divine power, as well as their personal identities were connected .

In this artificially restricted space where time would be repeated and stopped, I watched as the authorities were 'cast' instantaneously and analyzed what kind of process they go through as they're cast .

And I would use that data as a basis to fabricate those authorities .

Through magic .

I was the disciple of several gods, used those authority skills so much that I got sick of them, become sensitive to divine power, had a great understanding of the divine, realized the height of magic, and lastly, had the seed of the divine within me .

If not for those, I wouldn’t have been able to attempt it .

But in any case, I'm doing it now .

I had enhanced Blink Orb* on a previous evening, as well as familiar authorities like Soul Siphon . Now, I was succeeding in improving the authorities that my clone bastard had brought this time, one by one .

[TL Note: Previously translated as Blink Emblem by other translators but should have been translated as Blink Orb . ]

But because there were so many authorities that the clone bastard stole, it would take a long time before I could make all of them mine .

But ultimately, it was just a matter of time .

No matter how obscure or complicated the principle was, there weren't any authorities that seemed impossible to analyze and remodel .

"No . About half of them are impossible . I said that it's impossible . You crazy main body bastard . "

"Why are you saying it's impossible without even trying? It seems like it'll work . "

"If something goes wrong, there are dozens of things that could cause my head to blow up . You call something like that impossible . "

"But we can succeed if you overcome the risk of your head blowing up . That's what you call possible . "

"You crazy bastard . "

While my clone bastard muttered some curses, I halted the activation of the magic circle .

The giant magic circle that had been spread all across the laboratory disappeared .

Considering the scale of the laboratory, how it took a quarter of a day just to walk from one end to the other, the magic circle that my clone bastard had been maintaining was truly huge .

Of course, it wasn't to cast something, but for analysis .

Still, my clone bastard should be feeling extremely exhausted .

"Know-it-all . . . "

"Then let's rest a bit . "

"Oh, really? What's the matter?"

"Since you need sufficient rest to be more efficient . "

"So you're saying you'll give me a task that requires high efficiency again, aren't you . You damn main body bastard . "

Even while my clone bastard was complaining, he sprawled out onto the floor and prepared to rest .

I saw him take a novel out of the subspace and I too reclined on my chair .

And I opened my message window .

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Contact me when you have the time . ]

It was such a dry and brief message that I felt as if the existing moisture evaporated .

It seems like she sent me a message like that in order to minimize the interference in my authority analysis .

It's not much of a disturbance, so you can send me a long message if you want .

Is it because of what happened before?

Since I've made some mistakes, I nagged at myself as well .

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: I'm resting a bit right now . What's the matter?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: There's new information from the outside . How's your work going?]

That's what I had asked my clone bastard before .

My work is going well .

"No, it's not . It's not going well . "

I ignored my clone bastard's voice and continued to send messages .

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: Of course it's going well . And send longer messages . What do you mean by 'contact me when you have the time' . That’s too dry . ]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: I did it that way because I thought I might get in the way of your work . ]

It was the reason that I had anticipated .

I felt bitter for no special reason .

And I felt apologetic .

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: You're not getting in the way at all . In fact, I'd appreciate if it you sent me messages more often . ]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Are you sure? You said you were busy doing something lately . ]

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: It's ok . And am I busy? You're the one who's busy . Is your work going alright? You're not pushing yourself too hard?]

While I could analyze as much as I want, when I want to, as well as rest and play whenever I wanted to, Park Jung Ah was finishing her work on schedule .

Aside from that, she was focused on counseling, coordinating opinions, and even trivial matters, so she was really busy .

Rather, it's to the point where I'm the one who's waiting for her messages more .

After Kim Min Hyuk went outside, it looked like she didn't even have a few hours of spare time a week .

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: What’s this? Why are you so nice all of a sudden? It's not like you . ]

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: You don't like it?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: No, I like it . ]

"You crazy . . . "

My clone bastard cursed at me .

I ignored him .

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: I wonder why you're doing this all of a sudden . You wouldn’t have contracted a terminal illness; are you having an affair?]

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: What do you mean by an affair; there are only the three of us here: Yong Yong, my clone bastard, and me . ]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: If a man becomes kind all of a sudden, they say that it's evidence of cheating . ]

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: Says who?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: The community . ]

She's like that because she learned about dating from books too .

Though I'm no different .

For a short while, I talked to Park Jung Ah about trivial matters .

The conversation had no value to it, but it was a joyous talk nonetheless .

My clone bastard, who was listening beside me, twisted his body around, and when he started to look tormented, Park Jung Ah brought up the main point .

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Lee Joon Seok failed to defeat a G-rank monster . To be exact, the information states that before he attacked, Lee Joon Seok declared that the attack was inadvisable and ran away . ]

That was unexpected .

"That's a surprise . "

My clone bastard thought the same as me .

Right before Lee Joon Seok cleared the Tutorial, he had told me that he was level 201 .

Level 100 had been the maximum value in the early phases, and if you compare him to the other Awakened on Earth, there really was a overwhelming gap that existed .

That's why I had been optimistic .

That Lee Joon Seok would be able to defeat it, since Earth's Awakened had already successfully hunted a G-rank monster before .

So he should've prepared for the attack .

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: Was it by chance an attack initiated by Lee Joon Seok alone?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: No . Korea, China, and Japan temporarily transferred a considerable amount of Awakened, and the ASEAN and the U . S . became the key members; it was an attack they had prepared for . ]

It doesn't seem as though they lacked anything for the attack .

Then what could've been the problem?

They had succeeded in safely subjugating the G-rank monster on the U . S . 's eastern shore .

Back then, the force of rallied Awakened, and the American Navy had taken considerable damage, but had, in any case, successfully taken care of the monster .

Under the assumption that they prepared a similar force, Lee Joon Seok joining them should’ve raised their chances of success by more than 50% .

And I relayed my thoughts to Park Jung Ah .

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Then it makes sense that he cancelled it . A 50% chance of victory isn't very high . And the casualty count wouldn't be low . Wouldn’t they consider cancelling the attack and look for the next opportunity with a success rate like that?]

Is that so?

Is it because I think too lightly of danger and sacrifice?

"Obviously, you crazy main body bastard . In that sense, isn't continuously pressuring me into doing a job that doesn't even have a 10% chance of success too much?"

"You wouldn't die from it anyway . "

After I had ignored my clone bastard's complaint, I sent a message .

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: Do you by any chance have any detailed information regarding the attack on the monster at the eastern part of the U . S . ?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Nope . The only things we know are in the data that was officially published by the press . It didn't convey any detailed information regarding the G-rank monster . ]

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: What about the Academy Line?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: They had the same information that the press had revealed . ]

Academy Line .

The Korean government, after the Tutorial had been disclosed, required the entire nation's citizens to train their physical fitness, as well as undergo battle training; at the same time, they had established facilities to train special elites .

The government would sort out the individuals with extraordinary physical abilities and decision-making abilities, and started to train them in preparation for the Tutorial .

Of course, there was no guarantee that the Academy trainees would enter the Tutorial at the right time .

It was much better than standing still and gawking .

Honestly, there are occasionally a few trainees that enter the Tutorial .

These trainees had more information than what was revealed by the press, and they remembered messages that they had to transmit to the challengers within the Tutorial .

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Firstly, we'll use the people who have cleared in this round to relay a message to the outside that we want information regarding the G-rank monster . ]

Lee Joon Seok's failure was a really serious issue .

The other people probably thought 'a G-rank Awakened has appeared, so let's try it out once . If not, we can just cancel it . ' and had prepared accordingly, but Lee Joon Seok should've been different .

Through the conversations we had before he went outside, Lee Joon Seok had assured me that he'd be able to take on a G-rank monster on his own .

I thought the same .

If we go by the data we've been given regarding the G-rank monster, it was certainly possible .

That Lee Joon Seok had given up on the attack .

I wonder why?

If the data we have isn't true .

If there are far more casualties than we're aware of .

Or perhaps the success of the attack in its entirety is a lie .

How should I determine the danger of the G-rank monster?

There's no standard .

So long as we can't trust our reference point, the last attack, we can't blindly assume the G-rank monster's strength .

I sorted out all my thoughts .

In conclusion, I could only wait until new information came in .

The evidence that Lee Joon Seok had given up on the attack .

Precise data on the G-rank monster .

The information was lacking .

Like always .

After I had finished thinking, I suddenly had a weird feeling .

That Lee Joon Seok, after clearing the Tutorial, had went outside .

And for the news of Lee Joon Seok on the outside to be relayed .

It was truly a strange feeling .

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: Jung Ah, how old are we again?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: 29 . ]

[Lee Ho Jae, 60th floor: What? Haven't you also passed thirty now?]

[Park Jung Ah, 90th floor: Since I haven't counted my age after 29, I'm 29 . ]

What's with that unbelievable stubbornness?

* * * * * *

For a while, I chattered with Park Jung Ah through my messages, and eventually closed my message window .

I had finished resting, and looked at my clone bastard .

He was still lying prone on the floor, reading a novel .

"Aren't you going to work?"

"Let's just rest a little more . No, can't we just rest for the entire day?"

So you really don't want to work .

"It's not that I don't want to work, I really feel like I'm going to die . "

He was laying on the floor, and spoke while swinging his legs around .

I clicked my tongue, seeing him lie on the floor and speak while swinging his legs around .

"I told you to do some magic training . At this rate, Yong Yong will catch up to you . "

"I don't really care if he catches up to me, you know . Yong Yong isn't as cold-hearted as you, so even if he becomes stronger than me, he'll take care of me well . "

I didn't believe a single word of what my clone just said .

Really .

The phrase, 'desire to improve myself' was always extremely important to me .

I fundamentally liked to improve myself through my own efforts .

And I can't stand falling behind others .

Along with that, I really, really hated passing the boring and tedious time without doing any work .

I always had to be doing something or I wouldn't feel satisfied .

My clone bastard's personality was created using mine as the base .

To be exact, it was a personality formed by using my memories inside of the Tutorial .

He should obviously be doing his utmost to train, as he doesn’t know much about the world outside the Tutorial, and only holds intense memories from within the Tutorial .

Despite that, the reason he doesn’t want to improve is clear .

He must think it’ll have an adverse reaction to his development .

Regardless of how important you regard the desire to improve, or how your personality develops, if someone else coerces you and pressures you to do so . . .

As soon as you’re born at that .

You'd have no choice but to have an adverse reaction to it .

"I'll go call Yong Yong . Since it's already dinnertime . Let's eat together . "

My clone bastard said, and as I watched his back, I once again had mixed feelings .

With an apology .

I don't know why I'm remembering so many memories that I feel sorry about today .

My clone bastard who had been walking along paused, and turned his head towards me .

"Why . What . You got something to say?"

I’d thought after closing the link, but it seems like my emotions had leaked out .

"If not, then whatever . "

He once again turned his back on me and started walking; I spoke to his back .

If I don't say it now, I felt like I wouldn't be able to say it in the future .

"I was sorry about what happened before . "

He had been walking, yet stopped .

His back was still, yet he couldn't help but turn his attention towards me .

I felt embarrassed so I touched my chin or my nose for no special reason .

The brief silence continued on, and soon I heard his responding voice .

"As long as you know, it's fine . "

As he opened the lab door and walked out, he added one more thing .

"Your apology’s way too late . You damn bastard, Ho Jae . "

And he left, closing the door with a thud .

My embarrassment wouldn't end .

I hadn’t felt anything like displeasure or fury from him before he’d closed the door and left .

Rather, his feelings were warmer and brighter .

My embarrassment really wouldn't fade .

I pondered briefly and I sent this through telepathy .

[Thanks . ]

He was my younger sibling, something that the protagonist of a fantasy novel yearned for .

Lee Ho Chi quickly sent a message back .

[I'm really feeling goosebumps here, so stop it . ]