The Swords I Raised Are Too Strong - Chapter 42

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 42. War Preparations (2)
Whoosh!
[Inquiring about the information of Constellations is a forbidden act.]
“Even transcendents cannot ask each other about this?”
Having declared that I would enter the Tower, the Patriot fell into deep contemplation.
‘The Sword Master Elder disappeared there too… Ugh.’
The Sword Emperor had vanished and never shown his face again in the [Tower]—a situation that forced me to enter it regardless.
With all the Japanese bastards gone, there was no longer any excuse to delay.
Two choices were given to me.
[Enter the Tower, overcome trials, and meet a new Constellation.]
[Options]
1. Constellation: Syngman Rhee.
2. Constellation: Yi Do.
‘Syngman Rhee is certainly an impressive figure, but….’
I’d heard he was the first president of South Korea.
Yet something felt ambiguous about it.
I had no memory of hearing what remarkable deeds he’d actually accomplished.
It was clearly different from the other Constellations.
Yi Sun-sin annihilated the Japanese at the Battle of Myeongnyang.
Yulgok Yi I summoned an army of a hundred thousand and punished Japan.
Cheok Jun-kyung became a Sword Master and subjugated China.
Yi Sun-sin, Yulgok Yi I, Cheok Jun-kyung.
I knew them well because many works based on them had even been adapted into webtoons.
I’d seen in “Trip to the Korean Empire, 2077” that Yi Sun-sin’s ship was actually an aircraft carrier.
I’d encountered Yulgok Yi I’s advanced forces in another work by the same creator.
‘So Yulgok Yi I, who summoned modern military forces, was the one who created the Korean Empire.’
Special forces operatives who crossed the line of humanity to defeat foreign invaders.
The sight of those who became killing machines for their homeland repelling invaders through patriotism alone stirred my very soul.
The land they protected was the South Korea I had experienced through trials.
“Hmm.”
Yet, being the cautious Patriot that I was.
I could not hastily choose a Constellation’s trial.
Still, wouldn’t the first president be an exceptionally great person?
Normally one would think so, but being the Patriot I was, I harbored doubts about the word “president.”
‘Presidents were never good people to begin with.’
Would a president truly benefit the nation’s interests?
After my transcendence, I didn’t just execute the sitting president.
I dug through records of every administration, and whenever I found evidence of corruption, I killed all past presidents and lawmakers without exception.
‘Not a single one escaped being a bastard.’
Politicians and military alike—all of them.
Congressmen who had evaded military service or those who had illegally exempted their children discussed military discipline and executed budgets.
And the military embezzled those funds, funneling money to their families’ businesses.
A single bed cost two million won, a chair ten million won.
All of this had transpired under the protection of someone called president.
Because of this, the title of president held little weight in the Patriot’s eyes.
‘Even if he were Korea’s first president….’
He wouldn’t compare to Yi Sun-sin, Yulgok Yi I, or Cheok Jun-kyung.
After all, he didn’t even have a title, did he?
Yi Sun-sin was so renowned that he possessed the [title] of “Chungmugong.”
When I first faced a trial, only the [Chungmugong] title appeared in the trial’s choices, and I was able to recognize Yi Sun-sin thanks to memories from films I’d seen.
Even after awakening, when trials from the [Tower] appear, the structure remains identical.
‘Thinking of Yi Sun-sin’s case, Yi Do also seems like some kind of title….’
[Yi Do]—a title I’d never heard before.
The first thing that came to mind was….
‘Iaido?’
But wasn’t iaido derived from those Japanese bastards?
Since this was my trial, it couldn’t possibly be related to Japanese problems….
‘There’s no answer to this.’
The Patriot felt considerable burden at the prospect of summoning a new Constellation.
Thus, I used the [Tower Quest Change Ticket] obtained after conquering the Black Gate—that elves’ brutal forest.
Whoosh!
[Choose a Constellation to strengthen.]
1. Yi Sun-sin.
2. Yulgok Yi I.
3. Cheok Jun-kyung.
The trial’s content then changed to something roughly similar to my usual trials.
‘Who should I strengthen?’
To strike down Shin Si-woo, strengthening Sword Emperor Cheok Jun-kyung would be the right choice.
But….
‘He’s not a bad guy.’
The kid was surprisingly decent.
That brutal Japanese bastard Kanpf trembled at the mere sight of him.
Shin Si-woo had clearly shown those Japanese dogs what he was made of.
And he was absurdly strong.
‘Seeing Cheok Jun-kyung back away, a single strengthening wouldn’t be enough to match him.’
So then.
Now the choice came down to two.
[100,000 Special Forces VS 12 Aircraft Carriers.]
What the Patriot had to do was wage war.
Not some commonplace civil conflict.
The first international war since the Gate Crisis.
And it was a war fought alongside allies, no less.
‘Ground forces are sufficient with a million Demons, so let’s strengthen naval power with ships.’
Naval warfare.
Sea and sky.
That’s why an aircraft carrier.
The Patriot thought this way.
“Wouldn’t it look pretty cool if missiles fell from a flying aircraft carrier?”
Nuclear warheads, to be precise.
Let’s make the aircraft carrier, already transcendent in its own right, even stronger!
The trial’s difficulty would increase significantly, but the Patriot had confidence nonetheless.
With the Constellations at his side, there was no fear.
Still…
“Hmm.”
Right before entering the Tower one last time.
The Patriot logged into WorldNet to check public opinion about himself.
He needed to do this regularly to put his mind at ease.
“Huh?”
But something felt off.
The praise for himself—who had opened portals across all of South Korea—had vanished without a trace.
Every citizen was absorbed in Shin Si-woo’s statement.
【The Transcendent Shin Si-woo has declared he will strengthen internal enforcement throughout South Korea.】
The Patriot nodded.
This guy wasn’t ordinary either.
“I’m really curious what exactly he’s planning to enforce.”
Violent criminals didn’t exist in South Korea.
Moreover, drunk drivers—potential murderers—had been completely eradicated.
Even the major con artists had all been executed.
What remained was just real estate and stocks?
And…
I had no idea.
‘He’ll handle the enforcement as he sees fit.’
* * *
The Demon Worshippers are moving.
The cause lies with me.
‘The more it’s perceived, the clearer it becomes.’
For example, there are [Guided Awakeners].
They undergo trials in recreated environments, sharing the experiences of existing Awakeners.
This is possible because the more widely the trial’s details are known, the more distinctly they take root in the world.
【The more observers there are, the lower the probability becomes.】
Of course, that too is the truth.
If that were the case, the number of people undergoing trials and awakening would naturally decrease, but reality proved different.
An awakened one with a sound mind had been born in a ‘degraded’ state.
That’s why they’re called ‘guided awakened ones.’
In other words, lowering the level of awakening doesn’t reduce the probability itself.
‘The Demon Worshippers would be the opposite.’
If the old rule was that killing a few people would make you a Demon Worshipper, now you’d need to kill far more to become one.
A fact proven in the [Swords] world.
Reality was no different.
“With conditions like this, the possibility of Demon Worshippers being born in secret would certainly decrease.”
The President, who had been discussing countermeasures with me, nodded in agreement.
As a result of publicly proclaiming Demon Worshippers before all the world.
Now, we could monitor the conditions for becoming a Demon Worshipper in real time.
[Murder 1,666 people and offer their deaths to the Demon God.]
The more something is observed, the lower the probability becomes—that’s the nature of awakening trials.
Demon Worshippers exist in the realm of ‘choice,’ and the conditions had shifted toward becoming stricter.
The old condition of killing one or two people, at most ten, was something that could be hidden with enough will.
But killing over a thousand people wouldn’t be easy to accomplish.
“Shin Si-woo, you truly had a plan.”
Director Kang Mu-jin regarded me with a serious expression.
Then he asked.
“Are those all the threats derived from humanity?”
A question asking if there was anything else.
Of course, Demon Worshippers and the Demon God weren’t the end.
“That is correct.”
In truth, those terrifying beings called external deities still remained.
But I had no intention of even mentioning them.
‘I shouldn’t mention the external deities at all.’
Some things are better left unknown.
The more people who know and recognize them, the more vivid they become.
If external deities appeared without any countermeasures, humanity might be completely annihilated.
External deities were incomparable to abstract phenomena like [Darkness] or [Death].
So I skillfully redirected the conversation.
“What are the most likely candidates within the country?”
“So you’re truly planning to strengthen internal surveillance.”
The reason I said I would strengthen internal surveillance was because of Kim Chang-seok, who came to me requesting to defect.
Korea’s Demon Worshippers were ground to dust by the Patriot before they could even try anything.
Most of them were already wicked people who swore to kill and harbor evil.
But—.
“There are still quite a few Demon Worshippers hiding within the country.”
The [gathering] that Kim Chang-seok mentioned only brought together Demon Worshippers from Seoul, and their numbers were extremely small.
However, the provincial branches were said to be much larger in scale.
The capital Seoul, threatened by the Red Sea in Goyang City and the curse of Ghost Cry, had the greatest military forces concentrated there.
The relatively relaxed provinces had looser surveillance, so it was suspected they had established bases there entirely.
“There are three likely candidate locations.”
According to intelligence gathered by the Presidential Office, there were roughly three suspected bases for Demon Worshippers in South Korea.
The characteristic was that strange phenomena were occurring without any particular cause, like anomalies without Gates.
“The first candidate is the dragon’s nest in Jamsil Lotte Tower.”
A dragon’s nest.
It seemed far removed from Demon Worshippers.
“This one appears to be a precursor phenomenon to a Black Gate.”
There was a basis for thinking this way.
After the Japanese transcendents departed, the Patriot had shared the trials he experienced.
The government summarized this and announced it to the world.
[A non-human, barbaric cannibalistic race that is extremely hostile to humanity—Elves.]
[A colossal tree-type monster that views humans as fertilizer—the World Tree.]
My conjecture is that the Patriot encountered the remnants of a corrupted World Tree.
Or perhaps it was a group of World Trees with intact minds.
‘Regardless, those beings were extreme in either state.’
In any case, considering the American cases as well, the dragon infesting Jamsil Lotte Tower was also likely a precursor phenomenon to a Black Gate appearing.
So, moving to the next matter.
“Next is Paju… a region where the corpses of corrupted monsters are piled up.”
Corrupted monsters continuously flow out from North Korea.
Endlessly, without pause.
Corrupted monsters were horrific beings whose corpses could not be completely erased even by the Patriot’s firepower.
Therefore, the government had built a disposal facility on the devastated land of Paju.
And that land was now an uninhabited wasteland that no one visited.
“If there were a way to hide from the bombardment, it could certainly serve as a hideout.”
Naturally, the Patriot was periodically conducting bombardments to eliminate even a fraction of the corrupted monster remnants.
If one could evade those bombardments, it would be an ideal location for a hideout, and the ability to flee to North Korea at any time would certainly be an attractive factor for the Demon Worshippers.
And finally—.
“Jeonju in Jeolla Province.”
An anomalous phenomenon where an entire city and approximately 300,000 citizens were sucked into the void.
Yet it was the only place where the Patriot did not conduct bombardments.
And for good reason—.
【This is Jeolla Man! Reporting on survival day 1,134.】
【Today, 3,000 residents disappeared, leaving a total of 170,000 survivors. We are still alive and maintaining our sanity.】
【We urgently request rescue from the government….】
Jeolla Man, the civil servant who promoted Jeolla Province.
Before the Gate incident, he was a famous civil servant with millions of subscribers on NewTube.
He had maintained his position even after the Gate ruptured and the WorldNet era arrived.
Moreover, he had gained even greater popularity as a civil servant who had escaped the Patriot’s judgment.
Even after he vanished into the void, he continued sending survival signals.
“That does have merit to it.”
The precursor of the Black Gate.
And the possibility that Demon Worshippers had cultivated their territory coexists with it.
If hundreds of thousands of survivors actually exist.
“If I may, I would like to request Jeolla Province first.”
I wish to do the same.
However, the world operates on priorities.
The moment the Evil God—Necribas—manifests, a catastrophe that renders hundreds of thousands trivial might unfold.
A complete Evil God is an existence that can only be killed if my blade sustains contact for ‘1 minute’ or longer.
One minute may sound pathetic, but enduring my blade for that duration means transcending any ordinary level by an immeasurable margin.
“As the President of this nation… I earnestly, sincerely beseech you.”
“Time is not that pressing. Please do not worry too much.”
We have yet to receive contact from Jesus or the United States.
“For now, I will handle them one by one.”
I will establish priorities and resolve every problem cleanly.
One month until war.
In other words, I will completely erase all traces of Demon Worshippers from South Korea within that time.
To accomplish this, there is someone I must meet.
“Do I truly need to meet her?”
Yet somehow, Director Kang Mu-jin seems to be subtly discouraging me.
“When you can know the answer and choose accordingly, wouldn’t it be foolish to simply overlook this?”
“…Since the Patriot returned, his mind has not been entirely sound, so I hope you will forgive Shin Si-woo if something seems a bit odd.”
“Do not worry.”
The Patriot had entered the Tower.
This bold visit had become possible because of that.
* * *
I headed to the Blue House Underground Bunker to meet the Saint of Destiny, Im Ji-ah.
And what greeted me there was a horrifying sight I had never anticipated.
—Squelch. Squelch.
They said the Saint had gone even more mad since the Patriot returned.
She had lost all her flesh and vanished.
No—only a single finger remained.
And that finger….
Writhe—.
It flipped over an invisible card resting on the table.
⦗Ohhh… what a bizarre iron I behold for the first time!!!⦘
Muratan marveled at the sight.
Moments later, the invisible entity vanished in a panic.
Soon after, a hand materialized above my fingers, and The Saint’s body began regenerating in succession.
The resurrected Saint cried out.
“Lotifle!!! Haha! You pathetic fool!”
She appeared to have achieved a dramatic victory against all odds.
Stacks of coins piled high atop The Saint’s table, and several golden cards materialized.
She trembled with the joy of victory, and our eyes met.
“Oh, that’s not right, is it?”
She asked me with wavering eyes.
I shrugged and averted my gaze.
Regardless of anything else….
‘I’ll have to use up all those cards myself.’
Perhaps The Saint’s lifespan would be shorter than I had anticipated.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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