Ranker Who Lives Twice

From that point in time…Yeon-woo began traveling to various universes and planets.

"Hey! I'm not hallucinating, right? Is this really rain?"

"It's rain! It's raining!"

"Thank you, thank you!"

"The rain will relieve us from this famine, and our reservoirs will be filled with water! We'll see fields of gold once again!"

"It's God's work! God has heard our wishes!"

Soulstones existed in various forms. In some places, a Soulstone was simply buried in a subterranean rock formation. But that alone had a huge adverse effect on the planet and its inhabitants. It disturbed the circulation of the atmosphere and planted disruptive energy throughout the strata, which prevented crops from properly growing. As a result, the inhabitants' crops did not grow properly for over a decade. There was no rain, and only the hot sun continued to shine.

Due to this, many plants and animals were not able to survive the famine and died. The humans on the planet were barely able to survive by eating the remnant roots of dying plant life and the bark from trees, and when that was not enough, they resorted to cannibalism. The scenes of blue skies and green-golden lands quickly became reddened, scorching skies with dry desert lands.

However, the moment Yeon-woo collected the problematic Soulstone, the planet rained down torrents of rain as if to wash away all its past wounds. Things that had been delayed and put off for over a decade had found their place again. Animals jumped out of their caves and opened their mouths towards the sky, and the seeds that had been dormant for a long time underground began to germinate and spring to life. All the humans burst into tears and sang of God's greatness. All the divinity derived from this influx of faith was funneled into Yeon-woo.

"The blizzard has stopped! Fire! Come and bring the fire!"

"…Finally, that seemingly never-ending hellish tsunami is over."

"Who survived? Are there any other survivors?"

"Has God answered our call?"

In another place, a terrible ice age took effect after the sudden appearance of the Soulstone on the planet. The sudden ice age made it difficult for civilization to properly develop, so once the ice age was lifted, and the sea, which had been raging incessantly, quietly subsided, the development of civilization resumed its course.

"The monster… The monster wants another human sacrifice?"

"Nonsense! How long do we have to sacrifice the young women of our village?"

"Oh, God. Please save us."

"My daughter, my daughter… Such a pitiful life and fate!"

"Hey, hey! The monster… The monster…!"

"What is it?"

"That terrible monster is dead!"

"What?"

"All glory to the god! There is a merciful God after all!"

In some places, wild animals accidentally ate the Soulstones, turning them into terrible monsters. Based on their poor spirit framework, the beings tried to replace the lack of their own spirit framework by eating humans directly. This caused the terrible beings to hinder the development of civilization on each planet.

After these monsters and other barriers were eliminated from each of the planets, a completely different story began to unfold. As the suppressed desires and ambitions exploded all at once, new developments began to take place. Naturally, everyone's faith was given to an unknown God who suddenly appeared, saving them without a word, and just as suddenly left.

"Ah, my God!"

"Save us!"

Of course, there were also cases where there were no Soulstones at the place where Yeon-woo arrived.

Someone else had either already retrieved it or the effects of a Soulstone were being applied to the place through some other route.

However, wherever Yeon-woo passed, cheers and praise followed. Of course, the new amount of faith he received from these new believers was very small compared to the faith that Yeon-woo received from his original sources.

Yeon-woo was the one who collapsed the Tower, the main god of Olympus, and the Alternate Ego of the Black King. The faith he received from transcendental beings who knew of him was enormous, and the faith that was fervently sent by the gods of Olympus and otherworld gods was so vast that even the sum of all the faith from these newly acquired creatures could not compare.

Strangely, though, Yeon-woo rather liked this new source of faith. The faith had a fresh, pure nature about it and was very different from the faith he had ever received before.

***

[This is the planet, 'Desturudo'.]

Yeon-woo stood at the edge of the highest cliff on the planet and looked down at the planet's surface.

The sky was painted black, and the earth was red. Thousands of humans could be seen trudging on the surface. They had all become terrible monsters that were neither dead nor alive. They were undead.

It was a type of monster Yeon-woo had seen countless times in the Tower, and the methods of dealing with the beings and their fighting tactics were widely known.

However, the methods of dealing with the undead were effective up to a certain level, but once the undead exceeded a certain number, the story was different. The infection rate for the undead was high. They could multiply in numbers quickly and easily tilt the natural balance. Thus, whenever the number of undead begins to spread, the surrounding areas would fall into disrepair and tend to become wastelands.

Desturudo was an example of that fact. It was a planet filled with an aura of death. Yeon-woo felt rather terrified to be in the area.

'The quality is poor.' Since Yeon-woo became a conceptual existence of death, he was easily able to discern the qualitative differences of death. This place was a rather unpleasant place for him, so he intended to clean it up quickly. Yeon-woo pointed his finger and flicked it lightly at the center of the planet's surface.

Rumble! With a flashing spark, an explosion occurred. The chain reaction of the explosion spread across the planet's surface at once.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The strange thing was that the violent explosions, which were accompanied by aftershocks and heat, roiled past the surface but only affected the places where death had taken hold.

Screech! Screech! Without knowing what was happening, the undead were instantly incinerated and became particles of ash. It was a rapid extinction that gave no time for the undead to struggle or wriggle in pain.

"Hey, what's going on…?"

"All the undead have disappeared?"

"God's punishment! A God has laid down his punishment!"

Yeon-woo spread his arms wide as he heard voices filled with hope, something he was growing accustomed to. Then, something was pulled from the middle of the spot where the undead had previously congregated in. The object quietly landed on Yeon-woo's palm.

[You have acquired the Soulstone – Ira (Wrath)!]

[Soulstone (Superbia·Gula·Luxuria·Acedia·Invidia) reacts strongly with Soulstone – Ira (Wrath)!]

[The 'Hades' Spirit Eating Sword' is attempting to forcibly devour the Soulstone – Ira (Wrath)!]

[Soulstone – Ira (Wrath) strongly resists.]

[Soulstone (Superbia·Gula·Luxuria·Acedia·Invidia) crushes Soulstone – Ira (Wrath)'s resistance.]

['Hades' Spirit Eating Sword' reattempts to devour.]

…

[The Soulstones have merged into one!]

[Six Sin Stones have been gathered.]

[If you absorb the remaining Sin Stone, a complete Sin Stone shall be created.]

['The Philosopher's Stone' has become more complete.]

Yeon-woo could feel the Philosopher's Stone resonating and hardening within his chest. It was a reaction that occurred while absorbing the energy of a new Soulstone. However, the change Yeon-woo felt was not as huge of a change as when he first acquired the Stone of Superbia or the Stone of Gula.

No matter how great a Soulstone was, each additional Soulstone was like river water pouring into the vast sea, nothing changed very much. However, as he was slowly completing the Sin Stone, Yeon-woo was vaguely able to feel and understand why Sun Wukong had told him to obtain Li's Fragment. Within the energy that made up the Soulstones, Yeon-woo could feel faint traces of Li's Fragment. Even for someone at Yeon-woo's level, he would not have noticed the faint traces unless he paid close attention. However, as Yeon-woo collected the Soulstones one by one, they started to regain their original form. A solid fragment was forming at the center of the Philosopher's Stone. Yeon-woo was curious about what the final form would look like.

'It's responding well to the incoming faith. This is a bit strange.' Yeon-woo wondered if it was because Li's Fragment was derived from a 'Hwang' level being to begin with. As he wandered around the planet, his newly harvested faith was in the process of linking with Li's Fragment.

Having received only negative qualities of faith that stemmed from his fight and death, receiving this kind of positive quality faith, from hope and salvation, somewhat tickled his being. If Yeon-woo was asked if it felt bad, he would not say yes. Perhaps the proper description would be that he felt weird.

"Faith is a drug." At that moment, Erlang Shen approached Yeon-woo with a smile as if he knew what Yeon-woo was thinking.

Throughout Yeon-woo's journey, Erlang Shen had accompanied Yeon-woo and helped in collecting the Soulstones.

"Whether it's gods or demons, quite a few transcendents acquire a taste for faith. The power of faith is sweet. Moreover, the amount of faith is not really the addictive quality. Rather, it's more dangerous and addictive when one acquires faith that has a completely different nature than what one possessed before."

Erlang Shen seemed to be warning Yeon-woo to not be swayed by the momentary high. Though Yeon-woo was much more powerful than Erlang Shen in terms of strength, Erlang Shen had lived a much longer life as a divine being than Yeon-woo had, so Erlang Shen was much more knowledgeable and wiser in this aspect.

Yeon-woo nodded as if he understood. It was certainly the first time he had acquired faith of this nature, so it was true that he was possessed by a sense of uncontrollable high for a moment. If he had felt this kind of faith when he just exuviated, Yeon-woo felt that he may have fallen into danger.

However, Yeon-woo also thought, 'To acquire a type of faith that I didn't possess before… It probably means that greater development and opportunities can be made.'

Legends, divine domains, and divinity were all based on faith. At the same time, the size of one's faith was determined by how many believers one had and how much support they were willing to give the deity. Moreover, based on the knowledge-base of the believers, the legends they understood, and how they perceived each god, the type of faith that was sent out would be completely different.

For example, in Erlang Shen's case, humans regarded him as the god of water. In the early days of civilization, humans had to be very sensitive to flood damage as they lived nearby rivers and bodies of water. Naturally, the control over water was an important task for the development of civilization, so early humans naturally sent fervent prayers and faith to Erlang Shen, who embodied the legend of water.

In a similar vein, all the legends that Yeon-woo achieved were related to fight and death, so all his incoming faith was related to those two concepts. In particular, his legend as a 'god killer' was widespread, so much of his faith originated from that concept.

However, the faith Yeon-woo was receiving now was completely different. It was based on hope and salvation. These new qualities and their respective faith breathed new vitality into Yeon-woo's legends. As the Executor and ego of the Black King, these two types of faith were definitely foreign and difficult to acquire.

Yeon-woo suddenly had a thought. 'Perhaps…' If he could properly utilize these new sources of faith and their effects, they might present him with the key to escape from the clutches of the Black King, who was essentially holding Yeon-woo hostage.

'…I may transcend.' Yeon-woo had not yet achieved transcendence even though he had accumulated so much power. Having this thought in his mind, Yeon-woo moved on to the next location.

'Finding a new possibility in an unexpected place…' Yeon-woo kept that thought close to his heart.

***

[This is the 'Sirius Star System'.]

The moment Yeon-woo arrived on a planet, he suddenly encountered an unexpected message.

[The opponent has achieved a complete awakening and transcendence!]

[The opponent begins to move to prevent the execution of the end of days apocalypse.]

[The end of days apocalypse process, which was momentarily stopped, shall resume.]

"…!" The messages appeared on one of Yeon-woo's retinas. And then…

Whoosh!

[The Legion of Death returns!]

[Night (Nox) returns!]

Dis Pluto and the otherworld gods, who were ordered to stop Jeong-woo, returned to Yeon-woo's shadow all at once.

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