Damn Necromancer

Chapter 423: Ascension Ritual (4)

In front of Zargas's massive corpse.

Kyle tilted his head and asked back.

"The God of Death…… Who is that?"

Kim Minwoo's expression stiffened slightly.

'……Huh?'

"You…… don't know the God of Death?"

"……I-if I may be so bold, it's my first time hearing of it."

The corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth distorted slightly.

He turned his gaze and scanned the other challengers scattered around the square.

Hundreds of surviving geniuses.

They harbored thorough awe in front of the overwhelming martial prowess that sliced the demonic dragon in a single strike, but their expressions were not much different from Kyle's.

The God of Death?

Who's that?

Which god is active where?

Such pure ignorance filled the hundreds of pairs of trembling pupils.

'……No.'

Kim Minwoo let out a hollow laugh inwardly.

Within the bounds of his common sense, this didn't make much sense.

On Earth, his home base, the Death Cult had already swallowed 90% of the faith market share.

On the Caesar continent as well, believers were so common you'd trip over them, making it virtually the state religion. Hadn't he caused a mess and smashed the Demon Realm, then tore off Districts 6 to 9 of the Heavenly City as a prime fiefdom?

Was that all.

Even in Galaxy, the apex of machine civilization, he had trampled on the 5 great megacorps and brought them to their knees.

On top of that, hadn't he even heard that Ananke from the Eastern Witch Coven side was pushing a critical biography of the God of Death as a bestseller and running massive marketing?

Having even grown into a Higher God, with this much of a flashy portfolio, he was inwardly proud that rumors of him would have spread widely as a universe-level named entity at the very least.

But when he actually opened the lid and stood in the middle of the multidimensional universe, a miserable reality welcomed him.

'They said they were selling critical biographies at the Witch Coven and marketing hard, but was that just at the level of a doujinshi witches pass around among themselves…….'

The universe was vaster than he imagined.

The tens of thousands of challengers gathered here meant they came from tens of thousands of different planets.

Even if he had ruled over five or six planets at most, in the infinite sea of multisimensions, he was merely a successful new venture business on the frontier.

'I was actually a small fry? ……I suppose so.'

Thinking about it quietly, compared to the predecessor Death Lord, the difference in weight class was stark.

Particularly in the aspect of universe-scale dominion.

According to the records, the past Death Lord was an out-of-standard absolute who fought against Outer Gods, swallowed nearly half of the multidimensional universe, and engaged in a tense, neck-and-neck battle.

On the other hand, what about himself right now.

Earth, Caesar, and parts of the territories of the Heavenly City and the Demon Realm.

Looking at the map of the entire universe, it was merely at the level of gulping down five or six planets at most.

Of course, the scale of Galaxy, the machine civilization, was quite large, so the number of planets under it went over dozens, but even that fell hopelessly short compared to a true universe-level scale.

So it was somewhat natural that they did not know the new brand, the God of Death.

'Has it been about 2 years since I properly started moving.'

The duration was short, and the territory was still far too small.

Kim Minwoo finished his brief objective self-assessment and smiled with a pik.

But the slight embarrassment was only for a moment.

'……Wait. Thinking differently, doesn't this mean it's a perfect uncultivated land with absolutely no market development done?'

The fact that awareness was at rock bottom meant, in turn, that it was a perfect blue ocean where competing faiths had not taken root at all.

Although the number of believers gathered by squeezing Earth, the Caesar continent, and parts of the Demon Realm was already in the hundreds of millions, now that he had risen to the ranks of a Higher God, that volume was woefully insufficient.

'Of course, I am mass-producing personality chips through the factories established in Galaxy and copying faith like running a macro, but…….'

No matter how many chips were produced factory-style, they couldn't be increased infinitely due to the physical limits of raw materials and production lines. To grow to the next status and control the order of the universe, he would need at least billions, no, tens of billions of massive faith. Ultimately, the most cost-effective and certain method was to scatter real organic believers all over the universe who would breed, proselytize on their own, and voluntarily build a multi-level pyramid network.

In that sense, those elite participants who had reached the apex of each dimension and come up were truly a massive honeypot that laid golden eggs.

Top-grade salespeople who would copy faith on a dimensional scale on their own.

It was the optimal condition that couldn't be any more perfect to instill the brand called the God of Death.

Ttiring—.

At that time, a golden system message floated in the empty air.

[The subjugation of the hidden named boss, the Shadow of Zargas (500th-floor gatekeeper), has been confirmed.]

[You have satisfied a special condition!]

[You may skip climbing the remaining tiers, immediately clear the 1st trial, and move to the intermediate base.]

[Would you like to move now? (Y/N)]

"……."

A message that an ordinary challenger would have cheered at and pressed Y immediately.

However, Kim Minwoo's finger pressed reject in the empty air without a single bit of hesitation.

'Are you crazy? Leave these gold mines behind and just go?'

He smoothly scanned the tens of thousands of challengers still scattered around the 150th-floor square and the stairs below it, shivering.

Elites who had conquered their respective planets.

Geniuses on a dimensional scale.

If these cute newbies just returned alive to their planets, they would naturally become public relations ambassadors for the God of Death equipped with planetary-scale megaphones.

A magic where hundreds, thousands of believers automatically copy per planet.

But for that to happen, these guys unconditionally had to 'survive' and pass the 1st trial.

'Sweeping them all up and giving them a free bus ride is the answer.'

A thick smile spread across Kim Minwoo's lips.

He mixed mana into a voice that seemed to scrape the lungs and shouted so it would resound loudly even to the lower floors.

"Hey, you guys sitting down there."

Flinch.

At the call of the absolute who sliced the demonic dragon, the tens of thousands of challengers scattered throughout the stairs simultaneously held their breaths.

"Looking for a party of people who will survive until the next stage."

"……Pardon?"

Kyle, who was the closest, looked at Kim Minwoo with a bewildered expression.

"The system just offered to let me pass through, but I refused. You guys, honestly, do you have the confidence to survive and climb up to the 500th floor from here?"

The challengers swallowed dry saliva and stared blankly at each other.

There was no way they did.

They were already coughing up blood having hit their limit at the 150th floor.

Climbing the remaining 350 floors meant an inevitably confirmed dog's death.

Even so, just sitting down here and choosing to hold out?

That was impossible.

Because even at this moment, the stairs on the lower floors were being swallowed and collapsing into the system's fog of erasure.

If they stopped, they would be erased, and if they climbed, they would be torn to death.

A hell of a perfect dilemma.

It was not for nothing that the number of people who passed the Ascension Ritual was extremely small.

"Of course you don't. So stick behind me. I will guarantee your safety to the end."

"……I-if you do that, it would be a lifelong favor for us, but just what is the price……."

"The price is your faith."

Kim Minwoo rested his old sword on his shoulder and arrogantly raised his chin.

"You just need to return alive and serve the God of Death well. That is the toll fee I will receive. I am also his believer, you see."

"……!"

The expressions of the tens of thousands of challengers distorted bizarrely.

The God of Death.

The name itself was somewhat unusual.

It gave off the thick, uncomfortable scent of an evil god where they didn't know what terrible price they would pay later if they carelessly sold their souls.

Furthermore, were they not elite geniuses who had reached the apex in their respective dimensions and come up?

No matter if they were in front of a living hell, their pride would not be broken so easily.

'If that guy takes the lead and clears the path, can't we just keep an appropriate distance and follow behind to suck up the sweet honey?'

'Rather than mortgaging my soul to an unknown evil god, I will find an opening to break through with my own strength.'

It was when more than half of the challengers, unable to abandon their calculations and arrogance, were hesitating and only reading the room.

Tuk.

There was one who took a heavy step first and approached right under Kim Minwoo's nose.

It was the dragonkin Sword Demon, Kyle.

"……."

He was different from the other challengers who were reading the room.

In Kyle's head, only that bizarrely perfect slash where Kim Minwoo sliced the demonic dragon in a single strike was replaying.

If he could just catch a glimpse of that absolute ultimate martial art, he could sell off his soul as much as needed.

Teolsseok—!

Kyle was the first to kneel on the marble floor and bow his head.

"I will live for his glory! Please, take me in!"

"Oh. Look at that decisiveness."

As Kyle, one of the most famous top-tier rankers, threw away his pride and prostrated himself, the taut psychological line of resistance of the crowd crumbled down.

"I-I will board too!"

"I will serve him too!"

Those who were quick to grasp reality, and the desperate ones who were on the verge of death having hit their limit right away, scrambled to follow behind Kyle.

Like that, roughly one-third of the personnel threw away their face and lined up behind Kim Minwoo's back.

However, the remaining two-thirds. The vast majority of challengers, numbering in the tens of thousands, still kept their distance, looking at the party with impure eyes aiming to appropriately pick up crumbs from behind.

Kim Minwoo smoothly scanned that selfish group and let out a pishik laugh.

Kim Minwoo did not bother to persuade them further.

After all, he had plenty of time.

As he went up first, he sent his thoughts to the four Legion Commanders.

[You four. Come here and do some escorting and sales.]

[Minwoo, what sales?]

[If we save those tens of thousands and send them back to their respective dimensions, they are all dimensional-class faith copiers. You know what I mean, right? As you slowly climb up, save the ones who look like they'll be eaten by the fog or are about to die, and proselytize. The liberation of authority, the evolution of status, eternal rest after death. Package it as grandly as possible.]

[……Tsk. How bothersome. You're saying we have to save the dung-catchers one by one?]

[It's a structure where you guys get stronger only when I get stronger, isn't it. I'm telling you it's a profit.]

Like that, the unprecedented carry bus in the history of the Ascension Ritual departed.

200th floor, 250th floor, 300th floor.

As tens of thousands of people simultaneously entered the corresponding areas, the system viciously exploded the spawn amount, but it was completely meaningless.

Every time Cedric swung his cane, the golem legion turned into ashes, and when Olivia, wearing baggy monppe pants, swung her market basket, space itself caved in, and the gatekeepers were crushed like minced meat patties.

Added to this, every time the painfully skinny civil service exam student Merhen nonchalantly turned a page of her book, and Vulcan irritably kicked, the massive monsters crumbled into absolute zero or popped like puffed rice.

The prospective believers following behind could not close their jaws at the sight of the dimension's apex-class monsters, which they had to risk their lives against, being erased literally like weeds swept away by a weed whacker.

And right in the middle of that overwhelming demonstration of force, the brazen testimonies of the Legion Commanders rang out loudly across the square.

"……In the days when this old man held a sword, I was merely a corpse waiting for death. But when he reached out his hand, the wall of my limits crumbled and I touched the ultimate martial art. The God of Death is not the end. It is an eternal resurrection!"

"If you become his believer, the truth of the dimension becomes as light as a page in a book. And at the final moment, you are guaranteed absolute rest in the domain of death."

The earnest and heavy shouts of the old man and the student.

And the cruel wedges added onto that.

"Those who enter his shadow place one foot above the causality of the universe. It opens the door to a status that you couldn't reach even if you honed yourself your entire life."

"If you don't believe…… I'll throw you into my furnace as firewood."

A middle-aged woman speaking the words 'causality of the universe' as if haggling over the price of bean sprouts at a market, and a chilling little kid talking about a furnace.

Looking at the overwhelming backs of the absolutes walking ahead, the tens of thousands of challengers massively engraved the image of the Death Cult in their minds.

The liberation of authority.

Rest after death.

Absolute ruin if disobeyed.

It was a scene of perfect gaslighting where faith could not help but be born even if they tried not to.

Three hours after sweeping up the hundreds of floors of stairs as if taking a stroll like that.

They reached the edge of the 500th floor.

Perhaps because they had beaten the boss first, the 500th floor was actually just quiet even when they came up.

And before long…….

Ttiring—

[The 1st trial, the Stairway of Struggle, has ended!]

[Tallying the remaining challengers of the 1,322nd round…….]

The golden messages floating in the empty air flickered with static, seeming to cause a strange error, then soon displayed a shocking number.

[Survivors: 31,422 people.]

[……Error check complete. It is a normal survival figure.]

[Congratulations. All have obtained the qualification for the 2nd trial.]

Checking the messages, the challengers opened their mouths blankly.

The Ascension Ritual.

A universe-level living hell where if tens of thousands enter, only hundreds, or tens if unlucky, survive.

However, right now, the over 30,000 people clinging to Kim Minwoo's back and following like a train play had passed the 1st trial.

A survival rate of over 90%.

An unprecedented bizarre phenomenon in the history of the ritual.

No, it was a perfect violation of the system.

'……I lived.'

The legs of Kyle and the other 30,000 challengers gave out.

With a single promise to believe in the God of Death, they had passed through this terrible hell without a single scratch.

It was the moment the shallow faith that had sprouted in their chests took root as an unquestionable, blind giant tree.

[Transferring all survivors to the intermediate base to enter the 2nd trial.]

Paaaaat—!

The golden light swallowed Kim Minwoo's party and the 30,000 challengers whole.

Their vision brightened, and the transfer to the next stage began.

The place where the light faded and their vision opened up again.

Kim Minwoo, who opened his eyes anticipating the stage of the new trial, slowly stiffened his expression.

What spread out beneath his feet was…….

"……This is."

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