Chapter 91
“GAAAHHH!” Seong-Hwi screamed.
He was confident he could endure being cut or stabbed without making a sound, but this pain was different. He wondered if this was what getting repeatedly dunked into a pool of hydrochloric acid felt like, or how a fish felt being salted alive.
He could undoubtedly say this was the most excruciating pain he had experienced in over a decade in the Mirror World. His bones repeatedly broke and reassembled, and his muscles repeatedly ripped and reattached.
“Cheon Seong-Hwi! Hang in there!” Lina shouted.
Several Akasha Messages appeared, but Seong-Hwi was in too much pain to check them.
[Severe fractures...]
[Severe muscle strains...]
[Severe cell death...]
...
I’ll die at this rate! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly.
He could only hear his survival instincts warning him intensely. He instinctively examined what was happening to his body, focusing his mind entirely on his body to see the various genes.
Seong-Hwi’s gene was shaped like a transparent hexagon. It was as if each point corresponded to a D Weapon category: enhancement, emission, conjuration, manipulation, transformation, and specialization. The red orc gene looked like a typhoon, the golden dragon gene looked like an inverted ginkgo leaf, and the light green goblin gene looked like a cross with circular ends.
Seong-Hwi’s genes were the most abundant, while the orc genes were the least. However, the goblin and dragon genes shone far brighter. The genes restlessly clashed against one another. Genes of the same race could easily combine because they were the same shape, but they were hell-bent on devouring the genes of other races, as if they were trying to assert dominance over the other.
Seong-Hwi’s cells were continuously destroyed and regenerated as a result, but the number of times they could regenerate was limited; his limit would come soon enough. Naturally, his destiny at that moment would be death.
Gurgh! I have to use the wings!
Fighting through the excruciating pain, Seong-Hwi sprouted the Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings. A single multicolored wing sprouted from his back over his right shoulder.
“ARGHHH!” Seong-Hwi roared with all his might as he pushed the clashing genes toward the wing.
He could use the wing like his limbs, so guiding the genes to it was not impossible. Once he shoved the genes into the colorful wing, the wing flashed with an iridescent light.
Seong-Hwi could tell what was happening. The dormant fairy gene in the Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings was stimulated. It was no ordinary fairy gene; it was the Fairy Queen’s gene, which possessed the power of the Harmony Stone.
The fairy gene was shaped like a rainbow jelly without a defined form. Seong-Hwi’s gene, the orc gene, the dragon gene, and the goblin gene also identified the fairy gene as foreign and attacked it. However, unlike before, they did not clash. The genes were sucked into the fairy gene as if getting stuck in pudding.
The genes attacked one another because they looked different, but they did not fight the fairy gene because it could take the shape of any gene. The fairy gene now resembled a rainbow rice cake with a hexagon, a typhoon, a gingko leaf, and a cross with circular ends embedded within it.
“Hurgh... Urgh...” Seong-Hwi's wildly darting eyes slowly steadied.
He could examine the changes to the Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings now that he returned to his senses. The genes stopped fighting through the fairy gene’s arbitration and examined one another, prodding and checking if they matched.
Is this the effect of the immunosuppressant? Seong-Hwi wondered.
He finally understood why Lina had been so desperate to obtain an immunosuppressant. His hexagonal gene, which had been rejecting the foreign genes, also became docile. After some time, the genes, except for Seong-Hwi’s, slowly melted into the fairy gene and disappeared.
After harmoniously embracing the genes, the fairy gene slowly let itself be absorbed by Seong-Hwi’s hexagonal gene. The hexagonal gene, initially transparent as if it contained nothing, began to shine iridescently.
Messages began to pop up one after another in rapid succession.
[Absorbing the gene of the race Orc.]
[Stealing the caliber of the race Orc.]
[Absorbing the gene of the race Dragon.]
[Stealing the caliber of the race Dragon.]
[Absorbing the gene of the race Goblin.]
[Stealing the caliber of the race Goblin.]
[Absorbing the gene of the race Fairy.]
[Stealing the caliber of the race Fairy.]
...
[Drastically heightening the caliber of all stats.]
[Drastically heightening the caliber of all stats.]
...
The Akasha Messages notified Seong-Hwi of the heightening of his calibers, which he had longed for, but his attention was focused elsewhere. He stared fixedly at the beautiful iridescent dancing hexagons. The hexagonal genes linked with each other and expanded to create a colossal net that could hold even the world.
“Urgh...” Seong-Hwi groaned as he passed out.
Feeling an itch on his back was the last thing he remembered, along with endless ecstasy and unwavering certainty about the future.
***
Man is something that must be overcome.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
***
“Ah!” Lina shouted as she watched Seong-Hwi.
She thought he would die because he was screaming in agony as if being burned alive in a pit of hellfire. However, something changed once the colorful, pointed oval-shaped wing sprouted from Seong-Hwi’s back.
It suddenly shone brightly and changed shape. It used to be a mass of iridescent light, but now, it had net-like veins like an insect’s wing. The vein pattern was a distinct hexagonal net like a beehive, and shone iridescently like a disco ball. However, it did not look messy or flamboyant; it looked holy and sacred like the stained glass of a church window.
“Wow! It’s beautiful!” Lina shouted, amazed by the geometrical pattern on the wing that looked like a work of art.
However, she had been amazed too soon. New wings began to sprout from Seong-Hwi’s back one by one. Four additional wings sprouted, hence Seong-Hwi now had five wings on his back. They also had hexagonal veins and shone iridescently. Seong-Hwi, floating in the air with three wings on his right and two on his left, looked like a different race.
“He... did it!” Lina said, her face filled with joy.
The Ubermensch Project, which she had begun to determine if the caliber of humans, innately inferior to the other races, could be forcibly heightened, had borne fruit at last.
“Cheon Seong-Hwi! It’s you! You can become the savior of humanity!” she screamed ecstatically.
Just then, the wings on Seong-Hwi’s back disappeared, and he fell to the ground.
“Seong-Hwi!”
Lina ran to him in shock. However, his expression was serene; it seemed like he had just fallen asleep. Unlike his usual anxious expression, as if he were being chased by something, he was smiling.
Lina stared at Seong-Hwi and mumbled, “Seriously, you’re... the perfect sample!”
The project’s success wiped her fatigue clean. Being called the perfect sample by Lina was the best possible praise one could get from her.
***
Seong-Hwi sat in an audience seat and stared at a dark stage. Two spotlights illuminated the stage, each illuminating an actor. There was a woman in a white gown with a shadow covering her face, and a young Seong-Hwi.
“Is that fun, Cheon ■■?” the woman asked.
“Yes, it is,” the young Seong-Hwi replied as he fiddled with a cube with six colors.
The woman smiled as she patted his head and said, “Your dad liked that, too. Looks like you take after him.”
“Really? I’m the same as Dad?”
“Of course! I couldn’t tell you two apart!”
The young Seong-Hwi smiled widely. Seong-Hwi couldn’t remember the last time he smiled like that.
“When is Dad coming back?” the young Seong-Hwi asked.
“Hmm... You know he’s busy.”
“Will he come back after a hundred nights?”
“Yes... of course,” the woman replied awkwardly.
The young Seong-Hwi innocently fiddled with the cube to match the colors. The spotlight grew dimmer, shrouding the stage in darkness. Seong-Hwi’s face also grew darker as he sat in the audience seat.
He unconsciously mumbled, “Dad? I don’t have such a thing. He abandoned us. Come to think of it... I don’t remember it very well, but I suppose I was abandoned twice.” He smiled coldly, closed his eyes, and whispered, “At the very least... I won’t run from my destiny. I won’t abandon anything. I’ll grasp it all.”
The spotlights turned off, and everything went dark.
Seong-Hwi’s voice echoed throughout the dark stage. “I will climb to even greater heights. I am Cheon Seong-Hwi. I am destined to shine brightly.”
***
Seong-Hwi opened his eyes and saw an unmoving ceiling fan. A blanket slid down from his torso as he sat up. He was on a couch. He looked around and saw that he was in a room of the Chalisi store. He could see Lina through the half-open door. She was sprawled on her desk, sleeping.
“I... did it,” he mumbled.
He already knew he had succeeded, but it felt true only after saying it. His primary goal after reaching the Mirror World was to find a way to heighten his caliber faster, and he accomplished it.
“Status Window,” he said.
[Cheon Seong-Hwi
Health: F(18) Strength: F(15)
Dexterity: F(14) Sense: F(19)
Magic: F(88) Destiny Force: F(91)
Karma: 36,460,384
Coins: 34,225
Destiny Weapon: Tarot Deck of Destiny B(7)
Skills (4) Traits (5) Items (6) Cubes (18)]
“Hah! Hahaha!” Seong-Hwi laughed joyfully after seeing his status window.
His stats, which had been Double-B, had dropped to Hexa-F. However, his power output was unchanged, meaning his caliber had heightened enormously.
Amazing! All my stats have surpassed the intermediate caliber threshold!
In other words, all of Seong-Hwi’s stats had reached a caliber that intermediate races were born with.
On top of that, my Destiny Force, which had already accumulated a lot of caliber through feats, is scratching the edge of superior caliber!
Seong-Hwi raised his hand and gathered Destiny Force around it. He couldn’t see it, but could feel an energy lingering in the air. It meant his Destiny Force had become superior in caliber. Before, Seong-Hwi couldn’t materialize Destiny Force; only he could feel it. But now, he could extend it beyond himself.
“It’s finally time to empty the storeroom,” he said as he examined his cubes, like entering a department store carrying a card without a credit limit.
[Cubes: Stat cube (A) x2, Stat cube (C) x4, Stat cube (D) x10, Item cube (A), Item cube (B)]
Seong-Hwi had been saving low-ranking cubes to use once his caliber heightened, allowing him to save on Karma.
He decided to stop thinking for now and started using the cubes in succession.
[Strength F(10) obtained.]
[Strength F(13) obtained.]
[Strength F(15) obtained.]
[Strength F(11) obtained.]
[Strength F(15) obtained.]
...
***
The repetitive work was finished. After spending 29,524,600 Karma, Seong-Hwi re-examined his status window.
[Cheon Seong-Hwi
Health: C(64+35) Strength: C(64+35)
Dexterity: C(99) Sense: C(99)
Magic: B(99) Destiny Force: B(99)
Karma: 6,135,784
Coins: 34,225
Destiny Weapon: Tarot Deck of Destiny B(7)
Skills (4) Traits (5) Items (6) Cubes (4)]
First, he raised his Health, Strength, Dexterity, and Sense stats to C-rank. However, an inferior C-rank couldn’t compare to an intermediate C-rank. Seong-Hwi clenched his fists. With grip strength this strong, he could compress an elephant into a tiny ball. He then raised his Magic and Destiny Force stats to max B-rank.
Seong-Hwi checked his remaining cubes.
[Cubes: Stat cube (A) x2, Item cube (A), Item cube (B)]
And I coincidentally have two A-rank stat cubes.
Seong-Hwi chose one Magic and one Destiny Force stat cube without hesitation.
[Magic stat cube
Rank: A
Description: A 7x7 golden cube made up of 343 small cubes. The user’s Magic stat will rise randomly between A(1~10).]
...
[Destiny Force stat cube
Rank: A
Description: A 7x7 golden cube made up of 343 small cubes. The user’s Destiny Force stat will rise randomly between A(1~10).]
Seong-Hwi could get one stat point at minimum and ten at maximum, ten times as much.
It’s been a while since I’ve used this, Seong-Hwi thought.
A card, showing a white man in a brown raincoat and cowboy boots sitting at a bar table, flew out of the Tarot Deck of Destiny.
[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]
[William the Foolish Gambler]
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Dice Gimlet]
[Activating Exclusive Skill: Craps Game.]
Seong-Hwi drank the Dice Gimlet and let the dice fall from the cocktail glass and roll on the ground. He opened the two A-rank stat cubes simultaneously without even checking the numbers.
Two golden cubes, roughly a meter in each dimension and made up of 343 smaller golden cubes, shuffled before him. The cubes stopped shuffling and flew in all directions. Two rays of light, one at the center of each cube, flew into Seong-Hwi’s solar plexus and lit him up.
Will it be one or ten? Seong-Hwi wondered.
The destiny of William the Foolish Gambler was about all or nothing. The destiny was unnecessary when opening F or E-rank cubes since the results were relatively similar, but this destiny showed its full potential when opening high-ranking cubes.
Then, he got the notifications.
[Magic A(10) obtained.]
[Destiny Force A(10) obtained.]
“It worked!” Seong-Hwi shouted.
Seong-Hwi’s A-rank Magic shook the furniture in the room, and his A-rank Destiny Force filled his mind with hope and energy that augmented his anticipation and optimism for the future.
He took deep breaths to quell his overflowing mana and exhilaration, and moved to the next step. He was not done powering up yet. He needed to examine an item.
[Wings of Evolution (Artifact)
Rank: D(99)
Description: The wings of Cheon Seong-Hwi, created from the wings of the Ancient Fairy Queen Dryas, who lived for a millennium. It currently holds the genes of humans, goblins, orcs, fairies, and dragons. Up to Five Wings can be used. They can store, amplify, and convert the stats and powers of the races they hold.]
“Its name changed,” Seong-Hwi remarked.
The Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings had changed to Wings of Evolution.