---

“Wait, what?!”

My incredible patience and senses let me stop myself just in time. I was frozen, wondering if I had misheard something, and after a while, I finally opened my mouth.

“Are you talking nonsense again?”

With a whoosh, Nailatop reappeared before me. His body, which had been a pile of meat on the floor, had now disintegrated into particles without a trace. Using some kind of super science, he returned, slowly opening his mouth.

“I swear on the honor of Scientist Nailatop, this is the truth.”

“…….”

“While talking with you, I guessed something: Baek Woong, you have a serious complex about your intelligence…”

“So what?”

Nailatop looked at me with pitying eyes and said, “With the battleship Gaia and my scientific knowledge, I can treat your intelligence. Will you accept, foolish reborn person?”

This really came out of nowhere.

‘Ever since I got here, my brain has been working overtime…’

When the auction started, I never expected anything like this to happen.

I blinked for a moment, then let my sword droop as I replied, “You’re jumping around too much. The real thing I care about now is whether I can get back to my original world! First, tell me how long it would take to find the coordinates to return.”

“By boat standards, one month.”

“One month?!”

Nailatop explained. “That’s if we enter the nearest multiverse and minimize the time wreck. You know the farther the dimensional distance, the bigger the time wreck, right? With Gaia’s navigational technology minimizing that wreck, you would return exactly one month later in your world’s time frame.”

“So you can match the time difference.”

“Correct.”

Having experienced plenty of time differences before, I knew just how impressive Gaia’s technology was. Traveling across dimensions usually messed up time, and now I was looking at a miraculous technology.

But then, I felt a chill. “…No, that’s too late! My companions are probably facing those damn Eight Parts of the Divine while the King of the Life Sea is badly hurt! In that state, they wouldn’t last a moment, let alone a month!”

I didn’t know how the auction would go down, but given that I was missing, there was a high probability it was already spiraling into chaos. If the auction broke down, all that was left would be a massacre against the Eight Parts of the Divine, and my companions had nearly no chance of winning against five of them. Mengnyang, Asura, and Abe no Seimei might pull it off, but they couldn’t fully unleash their potential yet since it was still early in their rebirth.

Then Nailatop said nonchalantly, “Why not just send the Eight Parts of the Divine to another dimension? If they’re already at the entrance of the other dimension, it should be an easy feat.”

“What?”

“Gaia, open the door to the other dimension for those demon king types we saw earlier. Display it too.”

[Understood.]

Beep!

With the mechanical voice of Gaia, the screen displayed what was happening at the auction. As expected, the Eight Parts of the Divine were tense as they examined the corpse of a celestial seen from the context that I was missing, and my companions were preparing for battle against them.

[Wow. A celestial fell.]

[I can’t sense the King of the Life Sea’s energy….]

[If the auction doesn’t continue, then there’s no need to adhere to the rules. Kill the bastards in front of us!]

“No!!”

As the Eight Parts of the Divine grew bloodthirsty, I was initially shocked to see a massive dimensional door forming beside them.

Vroom!

[Wh…what is this?]

[A door to another dimension?]

[Forget about dimensions; first let’s take them down….]

The aggressive Garuda charged at my companions, but Gin Nara stood in their way.

[Stop it. There’s Asura over there.]

[Ugh….]

Gin Nara turned to Asura and said, [Asura, it looks like that’s a portal to another dimension. Do you have any idea what’s going on?]

[I don’t know.]

[Why are you standing there, our companion?]

[I’m just here to get stronger alongside them. It has nothing to do with you.]

[Are you not thinking of going to another dimension to find Chi You?]

[No. I came here to ask the King of the Life Sea for a personal favor.]

[I see….]

After a moment of silence, Gin Nara said, [The King of the Life Sea probably has ulterior motives for using us. If we’re surrounded by enemies, I’d consider this dimensional door a trial to find Chi You.]

Asura raised an eyebrow at his words. [Are you insane? Are you really considering going through that suspicious door?]

[Yep.]

[You’re crazy. I won’t stop you.]

[Asura… You have no loyalty to Chi You, but to us, he is light and hope.]

Moments later, the Eight Parts of the Divine began to enter the dimensional portal one by one, led by Gin Nara.

[For the Heavenly Demon who shall save humanity!!]

Zoom!

As the last of the Eight Parts of the Divine vanished into the other dimension, Asura stood there with a slightly confused expression.

[These lunatics… No matter what the plan is, I didn’t expect them to go this far.]

And then Mangnyang said to Asura, [Asura. We should escape quickly. This place is dangerous.]

[Aren’t you going to look for Baek Woong, who’s missing?]

Mangnyang shook his head firmly. [Don’t you get it? If Baek Woong dies, the next round just starts. What hinders him is our safety. We need to survive so he can worry less.]

[That makes sense. Now that the King of the Life Sea has fallen, is this our last chance to flee?]

[[Old Ruler] hasn’t been obliterated in one go. Once he wakes up, he’ll have no choice but to be captured. Our only chance to escape is now.]

[Okay, let’s go.]

With that, the screen went dark as my three companions disappeared. I sighed in relief, but then a strange thought popped into my head, and I shouted at Nailatop.

“Hey!! Why can you open a dimensional door on that side and see what’s going on, but you can’t just return?!”

“Observing and returning are not the same difficulty. This ship is tiered between levels 4 and 5 of scientific technology, and moving itself carries a high risk of being noticed by the observer. If we try to go back directly, we might get caught and wiped out right away, so we need to make a detour via another world for safety.”

“Damn it…. You’re making excuses with all this nonsense….”

“Haven’t you confirmed that your companions are safe? We achieved the objective of eliminating the Eight Parts of the Divine, so I think you can wait about a month without a fuss.”

“…….”

I fell silent for a moment. Then, I glanced at the other side where Nailatop was sitting, and suddenly, a fancy antique chair appeared there. I plopped down and said, “Damn it. Fine…. I’ll go with what you said. But how are you going to make me smart?”

“Hehe.”

Nailatop chuckled lazily. Even after all that chaos just moments ago, his ability to smile like that was downright insane. Then, after summoning some tea and taking a sip, Nailatop continued, “There’s a low-level method to activate neurons and increase brain efficiency relative to volume, and another way is to melt the core of the World Tree and grant you talent.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The former simply speeds up pure brain speed by chemically enhancing brain cell efficiency. However, this method does have side effects, and the rate of improvement in intelligence is drastically undermined by the slow rate of wisdom enhancement.”

“…….”

“The latter involves extracting the core of the World Tree, melting it, and creating a reagent mixed with talent. Considering the value of the World Tree, it seems quite wasteful, but…”

I sat there, momentarily dumbfounded by Nailatop’s words before speaking. “Wait a sec. I just thought of something…”

“What did you think of?”

Recalling the past, I shouted, “The prophet said! Increasing talent is akin to changing personality, so blessings that uplift talent are extremely rare and can have significant aftereffects! Plus, the first method you mentioned is a pile of side effects!”

This was a vague memory, but now it hit me. Long ago, I had asked the prophet if there was a blessing that could raise my talent, only to be told it was too risky because talent was directly tied to personality, so I had given up!

Nailatop nodded in agreement. “Directly influencing brain neurons is indeed riskier. That’s a valid point.”

“Damn it!! You suggested that knowing it was dangerous?!”

“That’s why I also recommended the second method, remember? Extracting the World Tree’s core.”

“…What’s that about?”

“Hmm. Tell me everything you know about the World Tree.”

I shared everything I had learned about the World Tree with Nailatop. He seemed to be impressed. “You know quite a lot. Especially your theory about crossing worlds using the forbidden fruit, I’ve even written a paper on it—so someone’s already tried?”

As he muttered that, Nailatop continued, “…Well, it’s tough to destroy the World Tree by conventional means. Extracting the core is a grueling process. It adheres strongly to the life roots of the tree, so you can’t pull it out easily. However, using a parasitic tree (寄生木) changes the game.”

“Parasitic tree?”

“You grow a tree that roots next to the World Tree’s core. Once that parasitic tree flourishes, you can extract the core and melt it, then infuse it with talent before consuming it, allowing you to get significantly smarter.”

“……!!”

“It’s the core of the World Tree, so the effects are guaranteed.”

Whoa!!

What an intriguing thought! I felt an overwhelming curiosity and responded.

“How did you even come to think of such a thing?”

“Well, even if I find the World Tree, aside from acquiring the forbidden fruit, there’s really no use for me…. Because I have Gaia, I can traverse worlds without the fruit.”

“…….”

“But I figured I might as well exploit the World Tree somehow as I kept thinking about it.”

“…….”

“However, there’s a downside to this method.”

“What downside?”

Clack.

Nailatop set down his teacup and said, “As you know, the World Tree is a pure entity of chaos. It’s incredibly rare. Considering the value of the forbidden fruit you can obtain from it, it’s a significant waste… and the World Tree without its core will surely perish. Even I, who roams the multiverse, have only found one World Tree so far.”

As the meaning of his words sank in, my gaze sharpened.

“So you’re telling me, since finding a World Tree is tough, you can only eat the fruit of talent once in a lifetime?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Even once would be great. I’m a reborn person!”

“That’s right. So I expected you would accept my offer.”

With a chuckle, Nailatop added, “Fortunately, the multiverse we’re heading to has a high probability of containing a World Tree. If we find it, I’ll plant a parasitic tree right away, and you can consume the fruit of talent. That’ll be all I can do for you.”

“What if there isn’t a World Tree?”

“Then I suppose after a month, I’ll take you back to your world. Your world has a World Tree, so you can definitely eat it there.”

“That makes sense!”

I nodded, then had another thought, “Wait a minute. What about your disciple? Seems like he’s just left alone in the Destruction Sea…”

“Hmm…?”

“‘Hmm’ doesn’t cut it! This is a big deal….”

What’s going to happen to Major Lee Hwan-woong?!

Seeing me panic, Nailatop calmly said, “No need to worry. Anyway, the King of the Life Sea will send Lee Hwan-woong back to the original world when he finds him.”

“What? How can you be so sure? Isn’t he evil just like the [Old Ruler]?”

Nailatop raised an eyebrow and sipped his tea. “Evil or not, it’s the duty of the guardian of the [Gate]. It’s a low-level job to send back the drifters who luckily wander into the world. If he doesn’t do it, the observer will scold him.”

“……?”

“My disciple would also be treated that way. So there’s no need to worry.”

It was a bit ambiguous, but there was certainty in Nailatop’s words. Given how much more he knew about the multiverse than I did, I decided to stop worrying about Lee Hwan-woong.

‘Eh. He’s my disciple; he’ll figure it out.’

I thought and said, “Alright. Let’s head to where the World Tree is located. But does that mean I can freely get whatever talent I want?”

“Hmm…”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Since it’s a reagent made from the core of chaos, I can’t guarantee the outcome will be fixed. But I think I can at least point it towards intelligence enhancement.”

“…….”

“Either way, it shouldn’t hurt to try.”

What a strange situation.

As I absorbed his words, a ridiculous instinct suddenly shot through my mind.

This talent I would gain would surely be something outrageous.

Boom! Boom!

[Battleship Gaia, departing for mooring area.]

A short while later, the sound of the ship moving echoed around us as the surroundings turned into a white chaos. A spectacular scene unfolded, black flashes of light flashing vividly against the backdrop of white chaos beside the battleship. Facing Nailatop, who was enjoying his tea while lounging in an antique chair, I sat there, doing nothing but waiting.

Roughly a moment’s length of awkward silence followed. Finally, Nailatop said, “You seem bored.”

“Of course I’m bored. You’re telling me to sit here for a month?”

“Hmm… You were a master of martial arts, right? Then I think you’ll receive quite the treatment in the world we’re approaching.”

“What?”

“We’ll be arriving soon. It won’t take too long to reach the mooring.”

Swoosh!

[Arrived at the mooring.]

The announcement from the battleship Gaia came through. I looked up as Nailatop gestured for me to follow him. “Before we search for the World Tree, I need to help the human race here for a moment. Will you assist me?”

“Sure.”

Vroom!

We descended to the ground using a beam of light, landing in a military base filled with guns and machines. As Nailatop walked toward the base, the guards looked tense and saluted him.

“Loyalty!!”

“I would like to see the commander.”

“I will guide you.”

Following the guard’s lead, we walked for a while until we arrived at what appeared to be the command room. The person who seemed to be the commander there bowed deeply and greeted Nailatop.

“Thank you for returning, Sir Nailatop.”

“Commander Seo Mun-gbaek, it’s been a while.”

“Who is the boy beside you?”

“His name is Baek Woong. He’s an expert of the master class.”

Hearing this, Commander Seo Mun-gbaek was taken aback.

“Ugh!! Is that true? Could he be a Half-Transition Master like the Martial Hero of Joseon…?”

“He’s even more than that.”

“……!!”

Whispers filled the command room as humans stared at me with astonished eyes. I felt a sense of puzzlement under their gaze.

‘Seo Mun-gbaek? No way….’

It struck me that I’d just heard that name today, and I was shocked a moment later.

“Wait, wait! Don’t tell me, is this world…!!”

Nailatop grinned at me and said, “Welcome to the Human Alliance’s Northeast Asian Liberation Army, fighting against aliens, Baek Woong.”

 

---