Damn Necromancer

Chapter 426: Proselytizing (2)

"Ha-ap! Heup!"

"Aren't you going to straighten your back? I heard you were prominent geniuses from each dimension! Back to the basic horse-riding stance (mabo)!"

"Y-yes! Instructor! I will correct it!"

The massive marble square had now completely transformed. A bizarre yet magnificent sight reminiscent of the morning training scenery of the legendary Shaolin Temple. 30,000 elite challengers packed the square, standing in perfect lines, sweating profusely while taking the horse-riding stance, the most basic of basics.

"Your breathing is shallow! Draw mana up from your dantian!"

"The formula array is crude. Redraw it from the 1st circle basic calculation."

On the platform, the four Legion Commanders, possessed by tiger-like star instructors, were scanning the tens of thousands with eagle eyes, and the challengers who received criticism were deeply moved and busy fixing their postures.

It was a place where a pandemonium had erupted to get a single piece of bread just a few hours ago. However, that chaos was suppressed in an instant, and perfect discipline was established. The reason was simple.

Because the top-tier powerhouses who gained enlightenment first took the lead, joined the Death Cult, and knelt down.

'No, even monster-like masters like that are learning again from the basics?'

'Damn it, if I keep my pride and don't learn here, I'll be the only idiot!'

As the upper-tier threw away their pride and prostrated themselves, the mid-tier challengers who were reading the room also naturally joined the ranks, possessed by the thought that it was an absolute loss if they didn't listen. And the lower-tier challengers? They had no choice in the first place because they had to receive the Cult's food distribution to avoid starving to death from the starvation penalty.

Like that, a massive group training ground of 30,000 people was completed, perfectly controlled from top to bottom.

"Hmm."

At the very front of that queue. Kim Minwoo, who was leisurely watching, stroked his chin at a strange sense of déjà vu.

'Wait, this is a picture I've seen a lot somewhere.'

What brushed past his mind were the memories from the Super Rookie Selection Match held on Earth in the past. It was like that back then too. The Legion Commanders had disciplined the rookies gathered from all over Earth and taught them amazingly well. Even after that, didn't tutoring requests pour in from all sorts of countries as they became rumored to be spot-on star instructors.

'Our Legion Commanders' experience teaching newbies on Earth is already no joke. Everyone is completely tailored to be star instructors.'

Kim Minwoo's gaze headed toward the four busy Legion Commanders. After the overall basic training ended, they roamed the square and began their full-scale instruction.

Cedric smashed and reassembled the postures of prominent swordsmen with a single old cane, and Vulcan delivered intuitive true education with hellfire to those who could not control the temperature of their flames. Merhen and Olivia also accurately pointed out the fatal weaknesses of magic and stealth like ghosts.

Transcendent beings who had once pierced through the wall of the universe.

To them, pointing out the bottlenecks experienced by the geniuses of lower dimensions was as easy as breathing.

However, the truly terrifying point of this star tutoring was something else.

In between correcting the challengers' postures and giving enlightenment, the Legion Commanders were very naturally and brazenly mixing in brainwashing work.

"Are you envious of my swordsmanship?"

Cedric muttered solemnly while leaning on his old cane toward the swordsmen who had fallen into ecstasy.

"Tsk tsk, don't be mistaken. Until I met the God of Death, I too was merely an old man dying blocked by a wall. Even that single strand of sword aura you just realized is merely a fragment of the miracle He bestowed."

Next to him, Merhen was stealing the souls of archmages with indifferent eyes.

"Do you want to reach the end of magic? Then pack your faith before digging into formulas. Even this absolute flow of mana I handle is merely a petty firework in front of His grace."

"Kuhahaha! Are you curious about the temperature of my hellfire? Kneel and pray before His furnace first! This Vulcan's martial prowess was entirely forged by the great God of Death!"

The transcendents who had realized the laws of the universe all spoke in unison, gaslighting them by saying their overwhelming martial prowess was entirely because they believed in the Death Cult.

Absurd cult-like testimonies they would have snorted at if it were usual. However, right at this moment, hearing the blind testimonies of universe-class powerhouses who broke down the walls they couldn't cross even by dedicating their lives with a single word of advice, the psychology of the challengers began to waver strangely.

'The God of Death…… is he really that amazing of a person?'

'Earth? The Caesar continent? Galaxy, plus the Demon Realm and Heavenly City…… It's a massive force beyond thought, isn't it?'

At first, they thought he was just an unheard-of petty god. But if all those monster-like Legion Commanders were his underlings, the story was different. Unlike the brutal alias of the God of Death, offering forced prayers didn't make their heads explode or suck their souls away.

'It's not like I wear down by offering a few more prayers…….'

'Honestly, there's nothing to lose, right? With a solid large corporation like that, there's nothing bad about serving them.'

Around the time the challengers' rationalization was slowly coming to an end.

A decisive wedge was driven into the hearts of those who were still hesitating while maintaining their petty pride.

"Oh, your faith has risen to D-rank. I will set you aside separately from now on."

It was a casual remark thrown by Cedric toward a swordsman having his posture corrected.

"……Pardon?"

"From C-rank and above, I will personally teach you 1-on-1 with spot-on tutoring. Consider it an honor."

As soon as that declaration fell, the square froze exactly as it was.

They had tasted the miracle of breaking lifelong walls with just group classes or passing remarks thrown their way.

But that universe-class powerhouse would personally stick by their side and tutor them 1-on-1?

If they just raised their faith rank with a few prayers?

"……Keuk."

A suppressed groan burst from the lips of a beastkin warrior who was said to have come up after achieving a complete victory in the arena.

His bloodshot eyes were fixed toward the rival swordsman who had just been selected as a 1-on-1 tutoring subject and called out separately.

'It makes no sense. He was a guy who was neck-and-neck with me until climbing to the 150th floor. But if he receives that 1-on-1 tutoring too…… he'll pull ahead of me by two, no, three moves?!'

This is the cruel Ascension Ritual where martial prowess is the law and determines survival.

While others are receiving VIP treatment with just their faith and speccing up like monsters, I alone am talking about religious beliefs and only taking group classes? That meant confirmed weeding out.

The extreme fear that only others would grow stronger and they alone might be abandoned eventually snapped the last remaining reason of the elite geniuses without mercy.

"I will believe in the God of Death! Please teach me 1-on-1 too!"

"Instructor! Please put me in the special lecture too! I'll even dedicate my soul!"

At first, it was a shallow belief no different from a meal ticket.

However, witnessing the miraculous difference in benefits unfolding before their eyes, that shallow belief instantly began to evolve into a madness on a different dimension.

Uuuuung—!

Paaaaaat—!

The color of the faith orb placed on Kim Minwoo's table fluctuated rapidly.

"Ohhh! Oh, great God of Deathhh!"

"My soul will burn solely for him!"

The 30,000 apex-level elites shed tears, smashed their foreheads onto the square floor, and offered prayers.

Savoring the high-purity faith of 30,000 people pouring in explosively amidst the rushing praise, Kim Minwoo smiled satisfyingly like a devil standing at the apex of capitalism.

A bizarre and grand spectacle unfolded where 30,000 people sat cross-legged on the marble floor in perfect order, munching on the rye bread and gukbap distributed by Kim Minwoo, circulating mana as a group under the Legion Commanders' control, and training their martial arts.

＊ ＊ ＊

The control room of the golden altar overseeing the Ascension Ritual.

"……."

The face of the Archangel staring at the massive mana monitor was already pale as a corpse.

The perfect plan to starve the surpluses to death and expose the farmer's hypocrisy.

That had already been ruined a long time ago.

"C-Chief Administrator……."

The administrator standing nearby gave a report with a trembling voice.

"The average combat power and stats of the trash that should have starved to death are…… skyrocketing vertically due to their spot-on tutoring. This is…… Their military power has grown more than twice as strong as right after passing the 1st trial……."

A maddening data metric that had awakened the dregs that should have been weeded out into an elite legion.

It was a perfect own goal by the system, where because he had raised prices, the challengers gave up on the shop's growth items and jumped into Kim Minwoo's arms.

"Just who is that God of Death anyway! What kind of frontier petty god is he to dare intervene in the Ascension Ritual and snatch away believers!"

As the Archangel shouted with bulging veins, the administrator hurriedly typed on the keyboard in the empty air.

"Th-that is…… Checking the database, it's a person named Kim Minwoo who recently rose to the ranks of a Higher God in the upper dimensions."

"Kim Minwoo? Was there such a human among the Higher Gods? It's a name I'm hearing for the first time."

"Because he is an entity that ascended so recently, there is still a lack of information even in the Divine Realm. H-however, given the circumstances, it seems that farmer party are the apostles of that Higher God!"

The Archangel's brow furrowed.

"The apostles of a Higher God intentionally broke into the tutorial? Pull up their information windows right now! I need to confirm what their true identities are!"

"Y-yes!"

The administrator hurriedly pulled the system authority to the maximum and pulled up the farmer party's status on the monitor.

However, even with administrator authority, they couldn't uncover all the information of the participants in the first place.

Checking the name, race, and class at most was all.

[Name: Park Hyunsung] / [Race: Human] / [Class: Farmer]

[Name: Kim Dongchul] / [Race: Human] / [Class: Warrior]

[Name: Lee Sujin] / [Race: Human] / [Class: Mage]

[Name: Kang Taesu] / [Race: Human] / [Class: Rogue]

[Name: Coo Coo] / [Race: Pigeon]

"……Th-this is strange. No matter how much I examine the information window, there are no special details. They are just ordinary names, a common human race, and basic classes."

"They must have perfectly disguised themselves. There's no way guys with monster-like martial prowess like that are ordinary participants!"

The Archangel ground his teeth and glared at the monitor.

"A disguise elaborate enough to completely deceive even the system's eyes. Furthermore, to command four apostles with such overwhelming martial prowess like his own limbs…… Just how amazing of a god is he……!"

A situation where they couldn't even guess what kind of big-shot Higher God he was.

However, no matter how amazing that Higher God was, the fact that his perfect testing stage was currently being smashed to pieces due to their spot-on tutoring remained unchanged.

"Cough!"

Eventually, the Archangel, unable to endure the surging anger and injustice, vomited bright red blood and collapsed grabbing the back of his neck.

"These crazy bastards……! This is a stage of trials, not a spot-on boarding cram school……!"

The Archangel's desperate scream echoing in the control room lingered in the system's empty air before scattering vainly.

How much time had passed.

In the center of the intermediate base square, which had transformed into the Death Cult's summer training retreat, a massive change occurred along with a heavy vibration.

Gogogogogo—!

The marble floor split open, and a massive door heading to the next tier slowly began to reveal itself.

It was the moment when the one-week rest and spec-up time at the intermediate base finally ended, and the full-scale 2nd trial opened.

Ppiik—!

Ppiiik—!

At the same time, the system window floating in the square's empty air flashed with a blood-red light and began to spew out a loud warning sound.

[A critical system error or an unexpected variable has been detected.]

[The average combat power and stat figures of the challengers have exceeded the recommended standard for the 2nd trial.]

The 30,000 challengers gathered in the square simultaneously held their breaths and looked up at the text in the empty air.

The system's desperate struggle.

It was a message full of the administrators' blatant malice to somehow smash this deformed ecosystem and create stragglers.

Ttiring—!

[Warning! The difficulty of the 2nd trial will be drastically adjusted upward to Despair rank.]

[The theme of the trial changes.]

[Despair-Rank Trial: The Blood Lord's Annihilation Battle will begin shortly.]

"You all heard, right? The difficulty went up."

At Kim Minwoo's voice, the 30,000 believers held their breaths in perfect order and focused on his lips.

"The difficulty going up means the points and rewards dropped will double as well. Don't be clumsily scared."

The capitalistic Necromancer, carrying a pigeon on his shoulder, yelled while kicking open the massive door leading to despair.

"Let's go make some money."

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