The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 155
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
The Return of an EX-Rank Mage Episode 155
Before the breaking news spread across the globe, Choi Kang-mok heard it first from Kang Hye.
“Brother! Brother! Brother!”
Kang Hye burst through the front door as if kicking it open, gasping for breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“Water—give me some water!”
After gulping down cold water, Kang Hye collapsed onto the living room floor.
“Maniacs have appeared in Iraq.”
“Like Emily?”
“Huh?”
“No, I mean insane-type monsters.”
Iraq.
The place I had recently ‘purified’.
The ‘monster land’ transformation had stopped, but deranged monsters could still appear sporadically.
Humans go insane too, so why wouldn’t monsters?
“No, I mean real maniacs. People! No! Aliens!”
“….”
Choi Kang-mok flinched slightly but didn’t react much.
Frustrated by his lack of response, Kang Hye thumped her chest.
“Aliens have appeared, I’m telling you!”
“Yeah, so?”
“Huh?”
“What happens next?”
“No, the aliens….”
Kang Hye trailed off.
Watching his excessively calm demeanor made me feel like the strange one.
“So aliens don’t bother you at all?”
“I’m just curious about how advanced their magical civilization is….”
“….”
Watching Choi Kang-mok show more interest in the aliens’ magical development than their mere appearance, Kang Hye couldn’t help but feel a twinge of admiration.
So that’s what true madness looks like.
‘No matter how I think about it, I’m the only sane one around me. I need to keep my wits about me.’
Kang Hye collected herself and asked.
“Did you somehow predict the aliens would appear?”
“What’s so special about it?”
Wait, aliens?
“The mages hired from other dimensions are all aliens anyway.”
“…Huh?”
Now that I thought about it, that was true.
From the apprentice mages employed at the Research Institute to Professor Raymond.
An ‘alien’ hired as an NPC in another dimension.
“Though ‘interdimensional being’ might be a more accurate term.”
Then, from a magical perspective, how exactly should this be classified and defined?
My academic curiosity about magic swelled up.
Alien. Interdimensional being.
“Aliens share the same fundamental laws of nature as us, just with different coordinates within our universe. They have gravity, time flows forward, entropy increases. So they can be defined as foreigners within the same laws….”
Kang Hye fell silent for a moment.
No one could stop Choi Kang-mok when he was like this.
It was best to just let him say what he wanted until he was done.
Right, I needed to keep my wits about me.
“…Whereas interdimensional beings have fundamentally different physical laws. Gravity could work in reverse, mana could be a fundamental constant, time could be cyclical or even branching, and….”
“Wow, impressive, truly magnificent theoretical magical brilliant extraordinary approach. So these interdimensional beings showed up, and they’re currently occupying territory.”
I’d taken a long detour just to get to this point.
“I almost got captured myself.”
“…So interdimensional beings operate under different laws… What?”
Wait, did I just hear something strange?
“Almost got captured? What do you mean?”
“Captured alive.”
“Why would those bastards want to capture you?”
“No idea. Some of the Saudi Awakeners and Seoul Guild members who were exploring with me got taken too.”
And then horrifying news broke.
[Breaking News: Interdimensional Forces Behead Captured Awakeners, Display Heads]
Just as people pour rice wine and perform rituals when buying a new car.
The ‘interdimensional beings’ had severed human heads and held a festival.
[Breaking News: Necks Inscribed with Runes, Preserved Spines]
They desecrated the corpses of captured Awakeners and displayed them publicly.
[I thought the thing about making murals out of corpses was fake, but seeing the photos… I’m speechless]
└Heard they’re taking them as slaves?
└They have no humanity. Their entire species concept seems different
└Minimum height over 2 meters. Basically half-giant race
└Why do these bastards keep howling?
└Savage warriors or whatever;
The interdimensional Awakeners who appeared in Iraq were ‘savage warriors.’
“So those bastards tried to capture you.”
Additionally, Seoul Guild members had been taken as well.
This wasn’t something to brush aside.
[Would the EX-rank Awakener really let this slide?]
└The EX-rank Awakener loves peace, though?
└Yeah, that’s why he bombed all of Iraq
“The full-scale bombing was insane, the scale was crazy.”
└To maintain peace, you sometimes need to redraw the map.
└When the EX-rank brother steps in, even war becomes peace. It’s one-sided, lol
* * *
The most accurate way to gather information about other worlds was to ask those who came from them.
Choi Kang-mok immediately sought out Raymond.
Fortunately, the professor was conducting some experiment on the 4th Floor of the Research Institute.
“Professor Raymond. It seems beings from another world have invaded.”
“I see.”
Raymond appeared utterly unmoved.
“They’ve occupied Iraq.”
“Yes, I see.”
The context of the conversation felt slightly off.
We were clearly discussing an invasion by otherworldly beings, yet….
-Professor! I ate rice balls this morning.
-Yes, I see.
It felt something like that.
Kang Hye, who had accompanied Choi Kang-mok, quietly laughed to herself.
‘That’s exactly how I feel!’
A strangely satisfying sensation washed over her.
Right, you’re bewildered too, aren’t you? I was just like that!
“But how could barbarian warriors even enter?”
“Yes, barbarian warriors have invaded.”
“That’s the region where I cast my purification magic.”
I had purified Iraq with powerful purification magic.
Then logically and magically, shouldn’t beings from a magical civilization be drawn by that powerful magical influence?
Raymond shook his head.
“My
disciple
still doesn’t know something.”
“Pardon?”
“How could those with a highly advanced magical civilization enter a place where
my disciple’s
magical resonance lingers? A place marked by such destructive purification magic?”
“You mean my purification magic was so powerful that the mages avoided advancing there?”
From Choi Kang-mok’s perspective, it was simply absurd.
“How could they call themselves mages?”
To flee from magic? That’s not how mages behave.
The mages of other worlds—a disappointment.
“Are all the mages from other worlds like that?”
“Some of it is correct, and some of it isn’t. Well, I’m not sure if the information will get through, but….”
The system filters out overly classified information on its own.
For now, I continued my explanation.
“Typically, connections with other dimensions begin the moment a dimension’s Tower’s average conquest depth breaks through Floor 70. Oh? Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Kang Hye interjected.
“But our top ranker has only just conquered Floor 60?”
”
My disciple
is simply too exceptional, I believe. But do listen.”
Normally, dimensions connect only when the average conquest depth reaches Floor 70.
This is called “server integration.”
“Floor 70 tier. Dimensions of the closest comparable strength integrate with one another. Floor 70 tier. Quite ambiguous, really. Mages of that caliber might well fear my disciple’s excellent purification magic. Rather than invade, they would likely analyze first. For mages, while an enterprising spirit is important, sometimes careful exploration is equally vital, wouldn’t you say?”
My disciple
is simply too exceptional, I believe. But do listen.”
Choi Kang-mok found himself at a loss for words.
Come to think of it, Raymond was right.
It wasn’t a matter of mocking mages who hadn’t invaded as cowards.
Rather, their caution and composure deserved praise.
‘But….’
Since my conversation with Raymond, my heart had grown heavier.
‘This is because of me, isn’t it?’
Earth hasn’t yet reached the level for server integration.
The basic condition is possessing average strength at Floor 70 tier.
‘I’ve raised the average far too much.’
If nine people each earn a monthly salary of 300, the average is 300.
But if one person earns a monthly salary of 1 billion?
The average for ten people exceeds 100 million.
Earth was exactly in that situation.
[Breaking News: Desecrating fallen soldiers’ corpses with mockery, even defecating on their bodies.]
Saudi Arabia, the dominant power of the Middle East, immediately declared a holy war.
Kuwait, Iran, Egypt, and others joined the fight at once.
Earth’s Awakeners were nowhere near the level of these barbaric warriors.
However, Earth is a dimension with advanced scientific civilization.
[Breaking News: Laser satellite, first activation]
[Breaking News: Unmanned drone units launch suicide attacks against barbaric warriors]
[Breaking News: Saudi Arabia launches ballistic missiles from underground bunkers]
Israel joined the fray as well.
[Breaking News: Israel begins artillery bombardment on barbaric warrior positions]
The Middle Eastern nations displayed an unprecedented coalition.
They waged all-out war against the barbaric warriors who had occupied Iraq.
For a moment, it seemed like we had the upper hand.
But the situation didn’t develop favorably.
Choi Kang-chul, the EX-rank Dedicated Team leader, found Choi Kang-mok and gave him a brief report.
“Small towers have started appearing in Iraq.”
“Towers?”
“Yeah. They’re much smaller than the towers we normally know. You can’t even enter them.”
Instead, something resembling a cannon had appeared atop the newly formed miniature towers.
Choi Kang-chul showed him photographs.
“They look like turrets?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what they’re for.”
Turrets had sprouted across Iraq.
They intercepted every counterattack based on scientific civilization.
“…I see.”
Examining the footage more carefully made it clearer.
This was similar to Mayo’s interception.
Those turrets themselves were close to being interception pocket dimensions.
“One Saudi armored division was completely annihilated by a single turret.”
The Tower Civilization would not permit scientific civilization.
Barbaric warriors gathered around the turrets as their center.
It took them only three days to occupy all of Iraq.
“Saudi Arabia has officially requested help from South Korea. More precisely, from you.”
Science had lost.
However, there was one EX-rank Awakener on Earth.
“Withdraw all Awakeners who entered Iraq.”
Whether fortunate or unfortunate.
There were no surviving allies on their side.
They had been burned, displayed, and some had been consumed.
‘Half of this happened because of me anyway.’
I needed to settle this myself.
I would have to pause my rapid Tower conquest for now.
If the average across all of Earth doesn’t rise, this crisis will repeat.
[Breaking News: Barbaric Warriors Begin Invasion of Saudi Arabia….]
War with the otherworlders had begun.
Defense was more advantageous than offense.
Barbaric warriors charging without shields were torn to shreds by tank fire.
Yet they felt no fear.
“Charge!”
“Charge forward!”
Atublang, the barbaric warrior commander leading the invasion of Saudi Arabia.
He roared across the desert without even a megaphone.
“We shall build our shelters from their bones and decorate our banners with their hearts! Flay their skin to craft our drums! Now, this land belongs entirely to us! Whether male or female, take them all as you wish!”
Approximately four meters in height.
His muscular frame bore not a single thread of clothing.
Behind him, smaller “mobile turrets” generated from the “turret” began to arrive.
The true battle was about to begin.
“Go forth, my glorious warriors!”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————