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Chapter 311 - Into the Rift

“If my thoughts are correct, I can pinpoint where the Rift is to an extent,” Oh Kang-Woo said calmly.

He of course did not know to an extent; he knew exactly where it was.

‘The E-rank Gate that I first met Seol-Ah in.’

He was sure that the Rift was in the Gate inhabited by Goblins.

‘But I can’t just say that outright.’

He couldn’t afford to answer that he knew because he was the Demon of Prophecy if they happened to ask how he knew.

‘I can’t be the one to find the Rift.’

It needed to be found by someone else. Only then would he be able to escape suspicion.

“How can you pinpoint where the Rift is, hyung-nim?” asked Kim Si-Hun while tilting his head.

Kang-Woo slowly answered after taking some time to settle, “You know that demonic beasts appear in Gates, don’t you, Si-Hun?”

“Ah... Yes, of course.”

Unlike monsters that had mana stones within them, demonic beasts moved with the power of demonic energy. These beasts were known as variant monsters within the Gates, and were considered a form of disaster.

Demonic beasts appeared in all Gates, regardless of rank. In other words, demonic beasts of around the Fifth to Sixth Hell appeared within C-rank Gates. Not just that, since they did not drop the expensive energy sources that were mana stones, many Players naturally avoided them, to the point that they avoided hunting in that Gate even after the demonic beast had been subjugated.

“If we assume that demonic beasts started to appear in Gates because the Demon of Prophecy crossed into Earth, it’s highly likely that it is due to the influence of those Rifts,” Kang-Woo surmised.

“Oh, if that’s the case...” Si-Hun’s eyes shone as if he had noticed what Kang-Woo was trying to get at. “The Rift must be within one of the Gates that a demonic beast had been reported in.”

“Exactly,” Kang-Woo answered while nodding.

Not even he knew exactly if there was a connection between the two, but the important thing was to package it as something that resembles the truth. However, it was not without its flaws.

“But there are tons of Gates with unconfirmed demonic beast appearances. It’s not like every single Gate on Earth has been checked.”

Yeon-Joo pointed out the flaw in his deduction. Like she had said, the only Gates with confirmed demonic beast appearances were the ones with high Player traffic. Earth had not yet been able to reclaim all the land that had been taken by monsters, and there were hundreds of Gates that were restricted to Players. Since the operation was unbelievably risky, simply relying on probability was suicide.

“That’s why I have a proposition,” Kang-Woo suggested.

Since he had expected such a rebuttal, he continued without hesitation. He turned his gaze toward Gaia.

“Gaia, could you tell the gods to turn off Earth’s protection for three hours instead of three days?”

“Ah... That should be possible,” Gaia answered.

“If we’re unable to find the Rift within those three hours, let’s give up on this operation.”

Silence fell. Si-Hun, Yeon-Joo and Uriel fell into thought.

“Three hours should be enough to somewhat resist the otherworldly interference, right?” Kang-Woo remarked.

“Since they had brought up three days in the beginning, if it’s three hours... There may be some consequences, but I believe it’s more than possible. But...” Gaia continued in worry. “Would we really be able to... find it in just three hours?”

“We have to,” Kang-Woo replied with composure. “We can’t just stand around while the Demon of Prophecy and his subordinates slowly grow stronger.”

“That’s...”

“I also agree with Kang-Woo,” the blue-haired boy interjected while raising his hand. “I don’t know why Lady Seraph decided to take the Demon of Prophecy’s side, but... If that is what they had planned to happen, I can’t just let it be.”

Uriel still couldn’t believe that Seraph had taken the side of demons, but he did not doubt the revelation of a goddess that possessed top-grade Divinity.

‘I have to buy time.’

He needed enough time to let Michael know of the situation and think up a countermeasure. Restoring Earth’s protection and returning Gaia’s power to an extent would buy more than enough of that time.

Gaia clenched her small fists while shutting her lips tight.

She said while softly nodding, “... I understand. In exchange, I will tell Lady Gaia to reactivate Earth’s protection after three hours pass, no matter what.”

“Understood.”

Kang-Woo nodded. He slowly got up and slowly turned around.

‘Now, then...’

It was time to prepare for the operation.

***

There was not much action that Kang-Woo himself needed to take for this operation. Players of Guardians had been dispatched in parties to every Gate that had been reported of demonic beast appearances. Of course, a party had also been dispatched to the E-rank Gate through which Kang-Woo had first arrived on Earth. Even though Kang-Woo had not done anything, Si-Hun had gone to that Gate himself because it had been deemed a dangerous Gate with more than five demonic beast appearances.

‘There’s no way that Si-Hun wouldn’t be able to find the Rift.’

Although there was a chance that the Rift wouldn’t be found since each Gate differed in interior size, there was absolutely no need to worry in Si-Hun’s case; he could use Sword Control, albeit limited, to fly into the sky to look around.

“Right, then.”

With the commencement of the operation imminent, Kang-Woo raised his right hand to take a look at the black ring on his middle finger. The three of the five geometric symbols were shining faintly.

‘To acquire the fourth key...’

Kang-Woo recalled the message windows that had popped up back when Han Seol-Ah had fallen from grace. He had not been able to check them at the time, but message windows were able to be checked later.

[You must complete a prerequisite quest to acquire the fourth key of the Demonic Sea, ‘Greed’.]

[Prerequisite Quest: ‘Light-Craving Demon’]

[Create one or more techniques that combine sacred power and demonic energy.]

“Holy fuck, what a fucking name for a quest.”

Kang-Woo couldn’t help but cringe no matter how many times he looked at it. He sighed as he read the quest description.

He had thought at first that it was actually simpler compared to what he had to do to acquire the second and third keys because he was sure that there was no one better than him when it came to controlling energies within himself, whether that be sacred power or demonic energy.

It was not wrong; his control over demonic energy was so impressive that he had even forced the Demon God back into the Abyss of the Demonic Sea, and that control was improving even more through sleeping with Seol-Ah.

‘But...’

That had not been the case after actually trying it out. Combining sacred power and demonic energy was impossible; it was like being told to make a cold fire.

‘I didn’t think it’d be this difficult.’

It was possible to maneuver them so that they did not clash with each other, and to use each of them separately. However, creating a technique that combined them was impossible. The power aside, it was not feasible since they violently rejected one another as soon as they came into contact.

“What an annoyance.”

Kang-Woo wondered if it was possible to clear the quest in the first place.

‘There is... one way.’

There was a way to combine the two energies. If he just made them clash by force instead of trying to mix them together, the power generated from such an attack would be unreal.

‘But the problem is whether or not that would count as a technique.’

Kang-Woo was just adding two chemicals that reacted aggressively with one another and throwing it. And like he had expected, the system did not acknowledge such a thing to be a technique.

“... I’ll have to leave it aside for now.”

He honestly did not know how. There could be a way if he raised his demonic energy control some more, but if it could be raised so easily, he would never have had to go through that shitshow known as molting.

“Mm... Come to think of it, the symptoms are kind of similar to molting.”

When he had tried to mix demonic energy and sacred power by force, pain akin to his skin being ripped off radiated through his entire body like what had happened with molting. It had been so bad to the point that he was worried that Seol-Ah would fall again if she ever saw him like that.

‘The effects of mixing demonic energy and sacred power is... similar to molting.’

Kang-Woo fell into thought with his arms crossed. It was very stifling to feel like something was about to come to mind, but wasn’t.

“Tsk,” Kang-Woo clicked his tongue and stood up.

This was not the time to be thinking about this. He looked over the details of the operation one last time and waited for Gaia’s call.

Creak.

“Kang-Woo,” Seol-Ah called.

“Yeah, darling?”

“They’re all gathered in the living room.”

“Okay.”

Kang-Woo stood up and went out his room door. He was supposed to investigate whether a Rift had appeared in an SS-rank Gate in the Middle East, but he obviously did not go there.

‘Since the Rift will be found in the E-rank Gate that Si-Hun is in.’

“My king. I, Balrog, have come in accordance to your summons to act as your swor—”

“Kang-Woo!”

“Master Kang-Woooooo!”

A little girl and a woman(?) ran toward Kang-Woo while cutting off Balrog, who had been speaking in seriousness while kneeling.

“It’s been a while, guys. How did your training go?”

“Kang-Woo, I trained super hard,” Echidna said while looking up at him with sparkling eyes.

Kang-Woo smirked and patted her head.

“Waaaaahh! I’ve missed you, Master Kang-Woo!”

“Y-Yeah.”

Kang-Woo lightly pushed back Halcyon, who had run at him with terrifying speed. He gave it no concern and wrapped his arms around Kang-Woo’s neck.

Kang-Woo quickly turned his head.

‘Fuck.’

He could see the light disappearing from Seol-Ah’s eyes.

“Urgh... Ngh. D-Did you m-miss me too, Master K-Kang-Woo?”

‘No.’

“H-Hehehe. W-Would you like to sleep with m-me since it’s been a while?”

‘You’ll die if you do.’

Not by Kang-Woo, but by his darling, currently holding a kitchen knife.

“Ahem,” Kang-Woo coughed while pushing off the clinging Halcyon.

The light in Seol-Ah’s eyes gradually returned. She put down the kitchen knife.

“Now... The operation is about to begin. Gather around. I have something to explain to all of you.”

Kang-Woo sat on the couch, and across him stood Seol-Ah, Balrog, Echidna and Halcyon. They were the ones who more or less knew about Kang-Woo’s true self, unlike Si-Hun and the other Guardians members. They were the ones that would join him in closing the Rift.

“Where’s Lilith and Vaal Zahak?” he asked.

“Lilith is regulating information from the Hall of Protection, and Vaal Zahak is keeping an eye on Lucis.”

Kang-Woo nodded.

“Balrog, have you succeeded in what I told you to do last time?”

“Yes. I have almost perfectly adapted to this human body,” Balrog answered while manifesting the Overlord Armor on his right arm.

Kang-Woo nodded again and continued, “You guys will be...”

He slowly explained the details of the plan.

Whoom!

Kang-Woo’s communication crystal rang. It was from Si-Hun.

- Hyung-nim! A purple Rift that we’ve never seen before has appeared!

“Got it,” Kang-Woo answered concisely and turned to his four party members. “Let’s head out.”