Episode 188

3.

There was a reason Buja had gone out of his way to spend gold to raise the grade of "Soul Collection."

"If I bring this into a Gold Mission, it could actually be pretty useful."

Gold Missions were content that required him to create variables using factors beyond his base stats.

A perfect transformation obtained through "soul plunder" would be far more effective than a simple disguise bought with gold.

That single point had been enough to justify the investment.

Yet he ended up using it much sooner than expected, and in a completely unforeseen place.

[You have collected a soul.]

[You have plundered the collected soul's 'appearance.']

"Huh?"

It was a completely unremarkable, gorilla-like monster.

It was an ape-like creature, slightly larger than him, that swung naked through the trees.

Since the skill triggered based on probability, there was nothing strange about collecting the soul of any random monster, but he hadn't expected it to happen here—and certainly not to plunder its appearance.

"Isn't this appearance-plunder chance a little too high?"

The suspicion felt perfectly reasonable.

It was one thing for Soul Collection, which he almost never saw, to start triggering thanks to the increased chance from Trait 1. But for a plunder to activate on top of that and immediately apply the brand-new trait?

It was either beginner's luck or there was some deeper reason.

"Hm."

Either way, he couldn't verify it now. He'd have to collect more data over time, so he decided to put it out of his mind.

Besides, it wasn't as if he'd lost anything.

Even if it didn't help in combat, he'd already thought of dozens of ways to use the appearance-changing aspect alone.

[Switching to Appearance No. 1.]

He decided to give it a try.

As his appearance changed, he felt his body physically shift in sync with the holographic display.

The sound of bones and flesh twisting made his skin crawl.

However, there was no pain.

After about twenty seconds, the changes stopped. The silence prompted Buja to raise a hand and check his new form.

"Growl!"

'Wow.'

Even the grunt that escaped his lips sounded completely unfamiliar, like it belonged to someone else.

He saw a thick, fur-covered hand, and when he lowered his head, he saw a strange, unfamiliar body.

"Kyuu!"

Hwangdo flitted around him, chirping with amusement as if this was the funniest thing ever, which told him the transformation had been a complete success.

Whoosh—

He threw a light punch and tried jumping a few times.

"Grrr."

Fundamentally, nothing had changed.

It was an "appearance" change, after all. If his stats had been altered to match the new body, his overall combat power would have dropped, making the skill practically useless.

As it was, only his outward appearance had changed; all of his stats were still being applied properly.

If there was any advantage, it was that this form, unlike a human's, felt perfectly evolved to maximize its physical stats. It made his movements feel more agile and destructive.

Of course, that could just as easily be a downside.

Depending on how one fought, a human body had plenty of advantages of its own.

In any case, that wasn't the important part.

'This is huge.'

He only needed to focus on two things: appearance change and plunder.

The appearance was so perfectly plundered that even his voice was identical. And because he had "plundered" it, not just copied it by sight, he could use it permanently.

That was more than enough.

"For a skill I got for 40,000 gold, this is insanely good."

It was good enough to make him greedy.

A Gold Maker passive skill.

'What would happen if I raised it all the way to Legendary grade?'

The temptation was there, but he soon shook his head and gave up on the idea.

"It would be a waste to blow 300,000 gold just to satisfy my curiosity."

It would take 100,000 gold to upgrade it to Unique grade and 500,000 gold to unlock Trait 3.

The required gold jumped to an amount that made him choke just thinking about it, and he didn't even want to imagine what came next.

He would just be satisfied with what he had.

What he had right now was already more than good enough.

"Grr?"

While he was thinking, three gorillas that looked just like his current form came swinging through the trees toward him.

"Grr?"

They had caught a human's scent and rushed over, but finding no one, their gazes fell upon the transformed Buja.

"Grrr?"

His appearance and voice were no different from theirs, but there was no way he could understand whatever language they might be using.

It wasn't like monsters had some standardized language.

It was a matter of interpreting gestures, tones, and actions.

Strangely enough, though, from their movements and intonation, Buja could grasp their intent.

'They're asking if I ate him?'

Their voices were full of confusion, and they were desperate to find the human.

Consciously or not, they didn't suspect him.

That gave him an amusing idea.

"Grr."

There was no need to cancel the transformation.

He lowered his head, shoulders slumped, with a dejected expression.

At the same time, he cautiously approached the three monsters.

With a dull impact, the head of one gorilla, its body packed with muscle, exploded.

The "Gold Ring," which had transformed into knuckles instead of a sword, had more than enough overwhelming power to smash monsters to pieces.

"Graaah!"

'What the hell!'

At the sudden fratricide, the other two monsters went berserk.

But it was too late.

Instead of trying to understand what was happening, they should have immediately attacked the one who looked just like them.

Buja, by contrast, showed no hesitation.

He killed all three monsters in an instant, then started walking again.

'This is a nice change of pace.'

It was just more mind-numbing grinding, the same as always.

He could have gone straight into a 4-star dungeon, but he didn't want to, since he was still working out a theme for the video he would upload to his channel.

"Should we head out?"

"Kyuu!"

It was time.

Still in his transformed state, Kim Buja finished the dungeon and opened the door.

* * *

[Holy War]

▶ Grade: Chapter 2-3

▶ Objective: Win the Holy War!

▶ Reward: Level 5, 300,000 gold, Stat Points (20), 20,000M, VIP Tokens (50)

▶ Time Limit: 90 days

▷ If the imperial princess or the saintess dies, the mission will automatically fail.

▷ If the mission fails, re-entry into 'Gold Missions' will be restricted for 2,400 hours.

Once he reached level 21, Gold Missions up through Chapter 3 had been unlocked.

Judging from the content of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2-3, it seemed highly likely that Chapter 2 would also wrap up here before moving on to Chapter 3.

That was probably why the rewards were so good.

"They're throwing around levels like candy."

For a moment, he even wondered if this was really okay, given how generous it was.

"Maybe starting from Chapter 3, they'll put level caps on things."

If the system had any sense, it wouldn't keep unlocking chapters based purely on his level. It was more likely that as the chapters progressed, even the sub-chapters would start having their own level requirements.

That would explain why they were handing out levels so freely right now.

"Fine by me."

From Kim Buja's perspective, this direction was actually better.

High risk, high return.

The more that was on the line, the higher the difficulty climbed, and the faster he could grow.

On top of that, the higher the rewards, the more deeply he could immerse himself in the mission.

"Protect the saintess and the imperial princess and win the Holy War within ninety days, huh."

Of course, enthusiasm aside, he had to make a cold, rational assessment of its feasibility.

He fell into thought for a moment.

There had been another gap of several months, so he couldn't accurately predict the current political situation on the continent.

If the plans he had set in motion before he left had gone as intended, this chapter would probably be the stage where the enraged Temple finally revealed its true colors.

That was what worried him.

"Is this even doable?"

A holy war was, quite literally, a war.

Just as the Allied Forces had done against the Empire, the Temple would launch a merciless, indiscriminate offensive against the Black Magic Cult.

Likewise, the Black Magic Cult would continue to avoid full-scale battles and stick to thorough guerrilla warfare, just as they had done so far.

The problem started there.

Until now, that strategy had been sufficient for the missions and the overall situation.

They hadn't been fighting with "victory" as the goal. Their objective had been to shatter the unity of the Temple and the Allied Forces and to erode the "trust" that ordinary people across the continent had in them.

However, this time, he had to seize victory.

'How?'

Was there even an answer?

There were variables, at least.

"Kyuu!"

"If your level were, say, sixty…"

Even though he still had about 80,000 gold left, that was nowhere near enough to raise Hwangdo to level 40.

Hwangdo's stats were overwhelmingly high, making his presence a far more stable asset than going it alone. And on a fantasy continent, he could easily imagine scenarios that leveraged the image of a dragon.

But whether that would be enough to decide the outcome of a war was another question entirely.

"I don't know."

He knew that no amount of agonizing would change anything, so he stopped.

Should he go in or not?

Even if he could gauge the odds, it wasn't as if he had the power to act on that calculation perfectly.

"It's better to get in there as soon as possible and see for myself."

Time on the continent flowed whether he was there or not, and the Holy War would begin the moment Chapter 2-3 was activated.

The only question was when it would fully kick off.

Rather than worrying about something he couldn't change, it was better to go in early and prepare a solid response.

"Let's go."

"Kyuu!"

[Activating Gold Mission Chapter 2-3: 'Holy War.']

[Use of your current equipment will be restricted to match the mission.]

[You have obtained 50,000 gold.]

[This gold will be reclaimed when the Gold Mission ends. Items purchased through the Gold Shop will not be reclaimed.]

['Hidden Mission: Ruler of the Battlefield' has been triggered.]

['Hidden Mission: Good and Evil' has been triggered.]

Light swallowed Kim Buja and Hwangdo.

4.

At that moment, in the Arctic.

A land filled with massive sheets of ice.

A natural expanse that, instead of polar bears, was now occupied by four-legged scorpions and monsters no one had ever seen before.

Rrrrumble—

In this place, the dungeons' presence had actually been a "positive" influence; people joked that the melting ice was freezing back over and the Arctic was finally regaining its true form.

Now, with a tremendous quake, something surged up.

"GROOOAAAR!"

"Awooooooo!"

Countless monsters gathered and howled.

It was not a cry of vigilance, but of welcome.

More precisely, it was a chorus of fear, terror, and worship.

A massive castle of ice rose up from beneath the Arctic Ocean.

As if it had always been there.

Monsters from all directions swarmed toward the castle, which was large enough to hold tens of thousands of them.

And at the very top of the castle—

A lone woman looked down on them.

She wore a dress of ice and a crown of ice.

Even her skin was so pale it was hard to tell if she was human.

When she swept her hand through the air, it began.

The once-quiet sky darkened, and something started to fall.

A blizzard.

It was the harbinger of a new catastrophe.

* * *

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