The Hero Returns

* * *

The sap of the false World Tree was also a type of elixir.

The water containing sacred power that coursed through the false World Tree was the reward distributed to those participants who managed to acquire additional points over the base of one million points.

And countless participants came to visit this world covered by the false World Tree to get their hands on that sap.

This was, in a way, manual labor. Basically, one would continue to participate in the missions, earn the sap as a reward, and then repeat this same process over and over again while diligently consuming this elixir.

However, there weren’t all that many participants who managed to fulfill the base condition of one million points.

The majority of them couldn’t meet this condition, and even if they did, they could only barely break past the one million point threshold.

“My current point tally is…”

However, the trio including Su-hyeun emphatically did not fall in the category of “barely passed the threshold of one million.”

They had surpassed that a long, long time ago, and the points they earned after killing the predators were also quite considerable.

[Total points: 17,299,330]

Over 17 million points…

Su-hyeun got to this point tally from the accumulated bonus “additional point acquisition” reward of the golden leaves, all those points that he acquired using his summons, and, finally, the points that he earned after killing a predator.

“‘Even then, I’m still number two in the rankings…”

Su-hyeun could only groan and shake his head after confirming the point ranking one more time.

Despite amassing so many points like this, there was no change to the rankings. Sun Wukong who created two thousand clones to hunt down the parasites still maintained his stranglehold on the number one spot.

And so, the remaining time ticked by.

[Remaining time: 00:00:00]

[You have cleared the first mission.]

[Total points: 17,299,330]

[Excess points: 16,299,330]

[Acquired the sap of the false World Tree.]

[Acquired the sap of the false World Tree.]

…

[The next stage will begin in 30 minutes.]

Several messages floated up one after another. To be more precise, messages popped up 16 times, and currently, in Su-hyeun’s cupped hands was quite a quantity of liquid that pooled in there.

“So this is the sap of the false World Tree?”

Su-hyeun, while looking like an entranced man, brought the sap toward his mouth.

Gulp, gulp…

Then, he cautiously drank it, careful not to miss a single drop.

The moment that the very last drop of the sap of the false World Tree traveled down his throat…

“Huh?”

Su-hyeun’s consciousness suddenly snapped awake.

All sounds and presences around him vanished, but his eyes could still see Luslec and Sun Wukong.

Could it be that time itself had come to a stop?

Shu-wuwuwu…

Only one thing continued to move in this world, and that was the sap of the false World Tree that had entered Su-hyeun’s body.

It was spreading to all corners of his body and continuously stimulating his flesh.

“What exactly is happening right now?”

He tried to move his body, but it didn’t listen to him. It felt like he had become a broken machine with all of its screws missing.

Nonetheless, he could sense the transformation happening to his flesh more vividly than ever before.

The elixir melted into his whole body and began blending with the already-existing magical energy, and the blended magical energy permeated deep into his flesh and internal organs to restructure his physical body.

[Magical energy count has risen by one.]

[Magical energy count has risen by one.]

[Magical energy count has risen by one.]

[You have acquired the qualification of godhood.]

[Your physical body is being restructured.]

Within this world of frozen time, Su-hyeun’s own internal clock continued to tick forward.

* * *

Of course, the time hadn’t really stopped. It was simply ticking forward incredibly slowly—so slowly, in fact, that it was nearly undetectable.

Sun Wukong reached out toward Su-hyeun. Although Su-hyeun couldn’t hear what Sun Wukong was saying, he could still see the latter’s lip movements.

“Hey, little bro, what’s…?”

That was the extent of what Su-hyeun managed to decipher after trying to read Sun Wukong’s lips.

He was probably asking, “What’s the matter?”

That sounded about right, though. From their perspective, Su-hyeun should be standing stiffly on the spot with a considerably dumb-looking expression on his face.

“How long has it been already?”

Su-hyeun couldn’t quite remember how much time had passed him by. It felt like at least several months.

If it was any other normal person, they would’ve gone insane by now. It was utterly boring, static, and also quite frightening.

If there was one saving grace here, that would be his senses slowly coming back to him.

“Restructuring of the physical body, huh?”

In particular, his senses gradually returning to him in this manner imparted a completely new and different feeling from before the transformation.

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[Magic count: 100] [Magic level: 10]

[Strength: 101] [Agility: 100]

[Stamina: 100] [Reflex: 100]

[Death Aura: 99]

[Skill: Leap * advanced]

[Skill: Transfiguration * advanced]

[Skill: Godhood – Flame * advanced]

….

[Fatigue: 34]

Except for Death Aura, all his other stats had reached the triple-digit mark. Additionally, his Magic Level that had been stuck in its previous level also reached the 10th level, meaning he finally reached his target on this stat as well.

“Is this the process of restructuring one’s physical body?”

He could sense very slowly, so agonizingly slowly, how his body was being reconstructed.

His fatigue level continued to creep up, but all he could do for now was simply watch.

34, 35, 36…

His fatigue that kept ticking up one digit at a time eventually ticked over 50 quite some time later.

He felt rather tired; on the other hand, he also sensed a power he had never sensed before welling up from deep within his own body.

With that, time seemed to flow a little bit faster.

“Get… a… hold… of…”

Su-hyeun could now hear Sun Wukong’s voice, too, and he could also see the latter raising his hand as if to slap him in the face.

“At least don’t hit me. Please.”

Unfortunately, his wish was in vain.

Slap—!

A burning sensation soon came from his cheek. It didn’t hurt at all, but getting slapped certainly didn’t feel all that nice.

When Su-hyeun thought about it, no one had ever slapped him in the face before.

“What’s going on?”

“Maybe he’s going through something like an Ascension?”

“But it doesn’t look that way?”

“I can also tell that. All I’m saying is, it’s pretty similar.”

The voices of the Palm Leaf and the Somersault cloud came to him next.

Su-hyeun chuckled faintly in his mind as those two voices noisily conversed in his head. These two had been keeping quiet all this time, yet they suddenly chose to raise a ruckus now. It didn’t matter what their reason was, though. Su-hyeun felt a little better after listening to someone’s actual, proper voice.

“Ascension, huh?”‘

Ascension, or more correctly, “Ascending to Heaven,” meant becoming a Taoist God that the Bull Demon King so desperately wanted to become.

Both the Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf were the cloud and wind of the beginning that, in the process of reaching Su-hyeun’s hands, had to pass through several other Taoist Gods.

“They think this is similar to the Ascension?”

The restructuring of one’s physical body was how the system explained the current process Su-hyeun was experiencing.

Just as the end of the transformation that happened once all the stats reached the three-digit mark and in which even the magic level reached the 10th level drew near, Su-hyeun’s own internal clock began to match the normal time again.

* * *

“I don’t think that was effective at all,” Luslec said.

“Arghhh, man, this is driving me nuts.” Sun Wukong slapped both of Su-hyeun’s cheeks with quite a lot of force, then muttered while frowning rather deeply, “Why is this guy going all dazed and stuff like this? I mean, it’s already been over five minutes and all.”

“Maybe there’s been some kind of a change to his body after he drank the sap?”

“Eh? But with only that little amount?”

Both Sun Wukong and Luslec had also drunk the false World Tree’s sap, yet it was only Su-hyeun among the trio who displayed such a pronounced reaction.

Luslec had already received the sap before, and as for Sun Wukong, the amount of the sap he got was puny compared to the magical energy reserve he already enjoyed.

In that regard, Su-hyeun certainly should be the one benefiting the most from drinking the sap. Even if that was all true, displaying such a reaction after drinking it was still quite strange.

If he had been concentrating in order to amplify the effects of the elixir, then sure, but he was simply standing there in a daze with a pair of glazed eyes, no less.

“It’s not like something has gone wrong here, right?” Sun Wukong’s voice trembled ever so slightly. He began worrying that something might have gone wrong with Su-hyeun.

“No, I don’t think that’s the case.” Luslec’s thoughts were different.

He faintly noticed the transformation taking place within Su-hyeun. “He’s definitely standing still, but the vibe he’s giving off has changed,” he quietly observed.

It wasn’t just Luslec who had noticed this change, of course. Sun Wukong also sensed it, and that’s why his worries only grew a lot worse.

“Dammit, it’s not like he drank some poison or something, so why…?”

The structure of his body itself had begun changing.

A human’s body consisted of bones, skin, and muscles, yet Su-hyeun’s body seemed to be breaking down its own boundaries. It was as if he was transforming into an existence that was no longer human.

This phenomenon seemed to be in a different realm when compared to the concepts of either “leaving the fetters of the old body to become new” or “reverting from old age to young.”

It was right then that Sun Wukong realized something and muttered softly, “Ascension…”

“Ascension?”

“I’ve only heard about it from my first brother. He said that when one experiences Ascension, your body will leave the boundaries of mortal man and experience a complete rebirth.”

“Could it be that this Ascension thing is somewhat like ascending to become a god?”

“Well, yeah. Something like that, but…” Sun Wukong scratched his head with a complicated expression. “But I’ve met a dude calling himself ‘god’ already, you know? And to be perfectly honest, I was really underwhelmed back then.”

“Eh? How come?”

“Well, you know, that Ascension thing that my big bro so badly wanted to experience, becoming a god or whatever, did it only amount to that much? That’s what I thought.”

Sun Wukong had been observing the Bull Demon King for a long time from a close vantage point. As such, he often imagined vaguely in his head what this “god” thing could be since the Bull Demon King was so ardently focused on becoming one—not like those fake gods found in the Heavenly World but a real, bona fide god.

However, when Sun Wukong finally ran into one, he walked away bitterly disappointed by the encounter.

“I mean, that dude looked super weak, you know? A lot weaker than even my big bro.”

“Just what the heck is up with your siblings if you don’t mind me asking?!”

“Well, we should at least be like that if we want to keep our titles of ‘Great Sages,’ you know? In any case…” Sun Wukong pondered for a little while before shifting his gaze on Su-hyeun. “Right. Rather than an Ascension, calling this an ‘Awakening’ is far more accurate, it seems.”

“Awakening? Now, what is that?”

“Dunno. I just came up with it on the spot.”

“Eh?”

“It’s not an Ascension, but his physical body is still transforming, after all. Besides, that alone is already plenty amazing, anyway. Whatever the case may be, that’s what’s going on here, so we might as well come up with a new term, don’t you think?”

Crack, split…

Sun Wukong watched Su-hyeun’s skin split apart only to reveal blemish-free pristine new skin underneath before asking another question, “Don’t you agree, little bro?”

When he did, Su-hyeun’s lips parted, and a half-hearted reply came out, “Sorry?”

* * *

How much time had passed just now?

Since the next stage hadn’t begun yet, it shouldn’t have been over 30 minutes at least. The remaining time for breaks wasn’t even indicated, so there was no accurate way of telling how much time had passed by.

“Don’t you agree, little bro?” Sun Wukong suddenly asked a question.

Agree on what exactly, though? What was he even talking about?

Su-hyeun, who had been completely out of it until a second ago, reflexively asked back, “Sorry?”

“Uh? Looks like he came to.” Sun Wukong asked that while not expecting a reply, so when Su-hyeun did respond verbally, he smirked deeply and wrapped his arm around the latter’s shoulders. “Hey, dude. Congratulations!”

Sun Wukong then used his incredible strength to place Su-hyeun in a headlock, then began grinding his fist into the latter’s head.

Su-hyeun was still unable to figure out his current situation properly and could only ask back with a slightly more dazed expression and voice than his usual self. “Eh? For what?”

“Huh? What’s this? You don’t know?” The clearly excited Sun Wukong, who was playfully grinding his fist into Su-hyeun’s head, let Su-hyeun go and replied, “Hey, man. You just became a demigod.”