Player who Returned 10,000 years Later

Crack-!

He could hear his skeleton distorting.

His muscles were torn apart and replaced with new ones.

A huge pain spread through his body.

It was as if his body had been torn apart and forcibly glued together again.

"…"

He remained silent and focused on the changes that were happening inside his body.

He had to know what, exactly, the Extreme Demonic Energy Body was.

The pain hindered him from concentrating, but it wasn't like he couldn't resist it.

He was used to resisting pain.

'Is this the Extreme Demonic Energy Body?'

He wasn't sure yet, as there hadn’t been many changes. Only part of his body was changing.

His muscles toughened, and his bones hardened.

Those were positive changes indeed, but he wasn't sure they were great enough to be called 'Extreme Demonic Energy Body.'

'Hmm?'

While he was wondering that, a new change happened.

The energy inside the dantian started to melt into his blood. After the muscles and bones, his blood began to change.

Blood full of demonic energy spread through his entire body.

'Woah.'

The pain stopped. Instead of pain, he felt a sense of fullness that was hard to describe.

KangWoo moved his finger.

His body, which had no sensation until then, moved according to his will.

He slowly got up.

A message window appeared.

Ting-

[The transformation to Extreme Demonic Energy Body has ended.]

[All of your stats have increased by 5.]

[The second stage to become a Demon God is beginning.]

"Woah."

KangWoo's eyes shone.

'All stats increased by five…'

It was a satisfying number.

He really liked that his demonic energy, which seemed like it wasn't going to go up anytime soon, had increased by five at once.

His demonic energy stat was at 108.

He still couldn't surpass 110 without the buff of Kraken's Rage, but a change of five at once was definitely a huge change.

The amount of demonic energy inside him had increased, similar to when the seal of the Ten Thousand Demon Core had weakened.

'But the biggest change is…'

KangWoo looked at his right arm.

The blood flowing out of his body from after he received Akiyama's attack was black.

'The demonic energy melted into my blood.'

His muscles became thicker and his bones harder, which were positive changes…

But the biggest change was that his demonic energy completely melted into his blood.

It also wasn't normal demonic energy, it was highly concentrated, similar to the energy inside of the demonic energy stone.

The energy of the demonic energy stone that was only in the dantian had spread through his entire body.

It was as if his body had become one big dantian.

"Good."

He was satisfied.

It was a strength he didn't have when he used to rule over the Hell of Nine Skies.

The sensation of getting stronger made him excited.

'Then what's the second step to becoming a Demon God?'

After he reached Extreme Demonic Energy Body, his body had changed more than he'd imagined, and he’d gotten a power beyond his imagination.

It was obvious that he'd be interested in what was next.

KangWoo opened his status window and checked the information on the second step.

[Information]

Demonic Soul: Second step to becoming a 'Demon God.'

* 1st Condition: ???

* 2nd Condition: ???

There wasn't any information except for the name ‘Demonic Soul’ and that he needed to fulfill two conditions.

'Is it the soul after the body?'

Just like before, there wasn't any information about the strength he would get after fulfilling the conditions for the Demonic Soul.

KangWoo, who was looking at his status window, moved his eyes.

Since he didn't have any information about how to fulfill those conditions, there was no point in thinking about that anymore.

KangWoo checked out the sixth Awakening Attribute he had gotten before.

—It was one set to unlock after he reached the Extreme Demonic Energy Body.

[Sixth Awakening Attribute: Demonic Art of Creation (Rank: SS)]

Effect: You can create an item that has an Authority. The more Authorities you use in the process of 'creating' the item, the stronger the item you create.

If you want to create a Myth Rank item or higher, you need material in that category.

* The number of items you can create with the Demonic Art of Creation is limited to one. If you create more than one, the item you created before will be destroyed.

"Woah."

A short exclamation left his mouth.

KangWoo's eyes shone.

'This is quite nice!'

Being able to create a weapon that had the power of an Authority was a huge merit.

To create a Myth-rank item or higher, you needed to use an ingredient from that rank, which meant you didn't need to use any special materials up to legendary rank.

Considering how much of a difference the Black Pearl Coat had made, it was an incredibly good Attribute.

* * *

'Although I'm not sure what this Attribute has to do with the Extreme Demonic Energy Body…'

Even though it unlocked after reaching the Extreme Demonic Energy Body, it seemed to have no relation with it.

'Is there another reason?'

There was no way to know at that point.

He didn't know if the Demonic Art of Creation and Extreme Demonic Energy Body were related, so there was no point in jumping to conclusions.

'That's not important.'

The important thing was that he'd reached the Extreme Demonic Energy Body and that he had reached a higher state thanks to that.

Also, the sixth Awakening Attribute he'd fully unlocked was quite useful.

Leaving his questions aside, KangWoo placed his hand over his right shoulder.

He used the Authority of Regeneration, and his wound started to heal quickly.

"Should I go out?"

KangWoo turned around after recovering from his wound.

He'd blocked Lilith's summoning and had reached the Extreme Demonic Energy Body.

Considering his level hadn't increased, it seemed like he still had the restriction, but he'd solved two issues that had been bothering him at once.

He was enjoying the situation so much that he wanted to dance.

KangWoo approached the altar while whispering a song.

'Is she the Maiden of the Skies?'

Based on her outer appearance, she just looked like a beautiful girl. KangWoo lifted her.

Boom-!

He was about to use the Authority of Divine Power to return to the surface when the roof of the passageway was destroyed.

"Oof, oof."

A good-looking young man was breathing heavily; he looked at KangWoo with his eyes that had heterochromia.

"What…"

"You were late."

"The summoning ceremony was taking place here?" Fujimoto Ryoma asked with sharp eyes.

KangWoo pointed to the altar with his chin.

"As you can see."

"How did you know that it was taking place here…?"

"Because I noticed that there were no Demon Cult members on the way up."

"Ha. You didn’t follow the plan just because of that?”

He seemed annoyed.

KangWoo smirked.

"Our role was from the beginning to cause chaos, right? Just because I didn't go up doesn't mean I didn't follow the plan."

"Then you should have—"

"It was just my guess. Why would I call you when I wasn’t sure about it?"

"…"

Fujimoto Ryoma closed his mouth at KangWoo’s smooth answers; he was trembling as if the situation angered him.

'He wanted to monopolize the achievement.'

Honestly, KangWoo knew that from the first moment he’d seen him.

KangWoo walked past Fujimoto Ryoma, who was looking at him with glaring eyes.

He didn't have a reason to care about his intentions.

"Ugh."

Fujimoto Ryoma frowned.

He glared at KangWoo, who was walking in front of him while biting his lips.

There was doubt in him; his lips flapped as if he were anxious.

He was looking around when it seemed he had made up his mind. He picked up the transmission device.

[Urgent! I ask for support from all units! The place is the underground passage!]

"Are you serious?"

[There's a Demon Cult member infiltrated among the Korean players! I ask for support!]

KangWoo turned around and looked at him in disbelief.

It wasn't hard to imagine why Fujimoto Ryoma was saying something like that so suddenly.

'Has this guy gone crazy?'

His excitement quickly vanished.

KangWoo opened his mouth while frowning.

"I know what you're trying to do, but you better stop."

"Don't say stupid things, you filthy Demon Cult member! Let the Maiden of the Skies go!"

"Don't say bullshit. If you want to monopolize the goal, just do it. I don't want to have anything to do with you."

KangWoo passed Kurosaki Yurie to him.

Fujimoto Ryoma stepped back and raised a strong current of wind from both hands.

"Hmph! Don't make excuses!"

Unlike his anger-filled voice, he was smiling.

"Oof…"

KangWoo sighed.

He could hear people running toward him.

The group of Japanese players that had taken the role of bait was running toward him. Prime Minister Yamada was among them.

"Wh-what happened?!" Prime Minister Yamada hurriedly asked.

"It's just like you're seeing. The moment I defeated the Demon Cult, this person appeared and tried to kidnap the Maiden of the Skies again!"

"…"

Before KangWoo could say anything, Fujimoto Ryoma shouted.

Prime Minister Yamada looked at KangWoo.

"Hmm…"

Many things that Fujimoto said made no sense.

First, Fujimoto didn't have a trace of having fought…

He also didn't seem to be in a situation where he needed to ask for reinforcements.

The second thing was Kurosaki Yurie's status.

Her clothes were too neat.

Her hair wasn't messy, either.

"Prime Minister! What are you doing?!"

"Ah, so-sorry."

Prime Minister Yamada was surprised and shouted at the players.

"Catch the Demon Cult member!"

KangWoo was surrounded by Japanese players.

KangWoo smirked at Prime Minister Yamada.

"So you're in cahoots with him."

He had clearly felt that something was off—it was obvious by looking at his expression.

But his attitude changed after Fujimoto screamed at him.

'Were they prepared for a situation like this from the beginning?'

At that point, he had no choice but to think that they were planning to make the Korean players look like members of the Demon Cult if they saved the hostage first.

If that wasn't the case, there was no reason for the prime minister to be in that area instead of the bunker.

'Not bad.'

It wasn't like there were any cameras installed there that had recorded the footage.

In situations like that, the only way to prove his innocence was via testimonies.

But if everyone there was part of the same team, they could label anyone passing by as a member of the Demon Cult.

It was a typical witch hunt.

KangWoo began to laugh.

He found the trap so cute that he wasn't even annoyed anymore.

'Now that I think about it, that eye was a Myth-ranked weapon, right?'

Susanoo's eye…

It was Fujimoto Ryoma's trademark—a weapon that was famous worldwide.

'Since it's a Myth-ranked weapon, I guess it's a Myth-ranked ingredient.'

A deep smile appeared on his face.

"I surrender."

He put Kurosaki Yurie down and raised both hands.