Chapter 294: The Choice Part II

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

“…What the hell just happened?” Navana quietly asked, but no one replied to him. The other Crootian deities also couldn’t believe what had just transpired before them.

Victory was right at their fingertips. But some woman had suddenly intervened and after that woman died, Lee Jiwon slowly and weakly attacked Adora. That same weak attack killed Adora, who was perfectly fine just a moment ago. It probably would have made more sense if Adora was killed in the middle of a fierce duel, but Adora was able to withstand all of Lee Jiwon’s previous attacks, meaning Adora’s One Kill One Shot ability was still working. In other words, Adora was still at full HP, which made it that much harder to understand and accept that Lee Jiwon’s weak attack had actually killed him.

But they didn’t have time to keep trying to understand the impossible. Lee Jiwon, the monster that killed Adora the Monster, was now charging at them at a breakneck pace. Behind him was also the entirety of the Terran army.

All eyes were now on Navana, who was now in charge of the Crootian army, expecting him to do something. But Navana let them down.

“Fuck. We’re screwed.” It was completely irresponsible, but no one said otherwise. He was right; they were screwed.

And so began the Crootians’ great escape. Even though they all knew that they were still going to die if they lost the war, they all wanted to live at least a day longer. No one wanted to die here. The deities were the first to run, and they did so without even looking back, leaving just ten of their comrades behind. It didn’t take long for the Crootian devas to follow suit.

—

“Fuck. Adora’s dead and now the deities are all running away!”

“It’s over! It’s all over!”

“I…I don’t want to die…”

“Please, take us with you! You dragged us all here in the first place!”

“Hey! Get it together!”

It was absolute chaos, but there was no one who could control the pandemonium. The only one who could was Navana, but he just stood there, dumbly watching Lee Jiwon as he drew closer.

—

“Gah!”

“No!”

Each attack flashed yellow again and again, almost as if all of the critical hits I was supposed to unleash all day were all coming out at once. But I was far from satisfied and charged in deeper to where the deities were all clumped together. Only ten of them had stayed behind.

“Scorching Earth! Titan Stomp! Fissure!” I fired all of my AoE Skills at them in quick succession. A huge crater was formed in the earth around me as the Skills unleashed their tremendous power.

==[You have obtained 611,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful opponent.]==

==[You have obtained 154,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful opponent.]==

:

==[You have obtained 243,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful opponent.]==

==[You have obtained 270,000 golden rings.]==

==[You have obtained 130,000 golden rings.]==

:

==[You have obtained 190,000 golden rings.]==

==[You have obtained 310,000 golden rings.]==

==[You have gained a level.]==

==[You have gained a level.]==

:

==[You have gained a level.]==

Countless messages came up one after the other and just as the messages said, there was not a single person remaining where the three AoE Skills went off. It was a complete massacre, but I didn’t stop. There were still more enemy soldiers around and I was still enraged.

—

Three weeks later…

“Stop, Commander Lee!”

“They’re all gone, sir!”

“They’re right, Jiwon. It’s time to stop.”

I had chased after the enemy soldiers nonstop, Blinking after them whenever I could and killing anyone in my sight. Three weeks had already passed, but I still didn’t want to stop because I still didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to face Song Daechul, Song Myungsoo, and Song Haechang. But when Song Daechul himself grabbed me by the arm, I stopped running.

“Thank you, Jiwon. You did everything you could as our commander. Earth has survived, thanks to you.” Song Daechul didn’t mention Haein.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you have nothing to apologize for. It’s probably not what happened, but if Haein helped in some way to allow you to kill Adora, then that’s good enough for me.”

“…”

“My father’s right, Jiwon,” Song Myungsoo said as he came up next to me.

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. Haein was the ONLY reason I was able to kill Adora.

And so, I finally stopped chasing the Crootians, since there weren’t any more of them in sight. We decided to take that moment to rest for a bit while we waited for reinforcements to arrive.

—

The next day…

An unexpected person paid us a visit. Hell, we never even saw him in person, so I and the Empire’s officers were all on guard when he suddenly revealed himself as none other than the Judge.

“There’s no need to be so nervous,” he said with a chuckle. He was two meters tall and dressed all in black. He was smiling, but that put us even more on edge. Why was he here?

“I’m not supposed to reveal myself until the contest is completely over, but this was really the best one so far, especially because of a certain someone,” the Judge said, looking straight at me.

“I’m going to postpone the end of the contest. Do you all know what that means? Once this contest is over, it’s over. You won’t be able to destroy any more Sections or kill any more enemies. But, since you’ve all made this contest so much more interesting, I’ll postpone the end to three months later. So use that time wisely, because you won’t get another chance.”

The Crootians still possessed over fifty Sections and there were still more than two billion of them left. Most of them were rookies but there were still a lot of them to kill.

“Now then, I’ll see you all again in three months.” That was all he said before he vanished right before our eyes.

“If he decided to end the contest now, it’d be really unfair, wouldn’t it?”

“You got that right. Now, we just need to collect our spoils of war.”

It was quite figuratively a gift from the gods. As several officers finally breathed a sigh of relief now that we had a chance, I turned to address them.

“Let everyone know that we will be moving deeper into the enemy’s territory.”

“Yes sir.”

There was no time to show mercy to the enemy. I was planning on tearing every single Crootian on this damn rock to pieces. They were all going to die anyway, and I was still furious that Adora and the Crootians had forced Haein to make that decision. I was also just as disappointed in myself for letting it come to that. I was going to kill them all, and become stronger so that I would never make the same mistake ever again.

And so, I led the army and began the true and final invasion of Croot. The remaining sixty deities and two billion devas were unable to stop us at all. In this war, this contest was already decided, and they knew that. It actually took us fewer than three months to destroy all of Croot’s Sections and kill hundreds of millions of Crootians. The rest fled into dungeons or killed themselves. When the last visible Crootian fell, every single person still on the Continent received the same message.

==[The victor of the contest between Earth and Croot will now be decided.]==

The leaderboard that was always high up in the sky suddenly shined brightly.

==[World 1455

Devas/Deities: 953,300,875

Controlled Sections: 51]==

==[World 1512

Devas/Deities: 557,206,308

Controlled Sections: 0]==

==[Earth has won the contest.]==

The message was way too simple for such a fierce war that had lasted years.

==[You will now be granted a reward based on your accomplishments.]==

A bright, white light enveloped me. I wasn’t the only one, either. Song Haechang, Aman Lagus, Madun Yateking, and many others of our greatest warriors were enveloped in the same light. Soon, I felt myself getting taken somewhere.

—

I found myself back in front of the same giant Don Gate I was taken to when we were first taken to the Judge’s Continent. This was my third time receiving rewards from it, so I was pretty excited, to say the least. But this time, someone was standing beneath the Don Gate. It was the Judge I had met three months ago. He greeted me like we were long lost brothers.

“Whew…I’ve been a Judge of the Judge’s Continent for several thousand years, but I have never seen this many points. They’re incomparable. I bet the next time we meet, you’ll be at a higher position than me,” the Judge said with a chuckle. “I look forward to working with you in the future, since I did give you three extra months. Now then, let’s start, shall we?”

Not waiting for my reply, the Judge turned around and placed a hand on the Don Gate. The moment he did, the Don Gate began to glow red.

“Whoa! It already turned red! I’ll always like that color, no matter how many times I see it.” Soon, the Don Gate had completely changed into a deeper hue of red.

“Wow. Something like this also existed? I think this is my first time seeing it in all my years as Judge.” Soon, the Judge stepped away from the Don Gate and walked towards me. “Well, it’s yours now, Lee Jiwon. I never saw it myself, so I can’t tell you much about it. The choice is yours, though,” the Judge said as he nonchalantly tossed something my way. It wasn’t an item, but a message.

==[You have accomplished phenomenal achievements on the Judge’s Continent.

You will be granted a hidden reward.]==

==[This hidden reward will grant the ability to return Earth to its state before the Otadolon stage.

Once Earth returns to its previous state, it will never enter the Otadolon stage again.

Everything pertaining to the Otadolon stage will be removed. (Devas, Deities, abilities, items, etc.)

Yes/No]==

“As I said, the choice is yours. I really didn’t know that a reward like that existed.”

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“Sure, go ahead. I can answer whatever questions you have.”

“I…I came back in time.” It was the one secret I could never reveal to anyone else, but I was always curious as to why I was the one sent back in time, without any explanation or warning. Afraid of what might happen, I never told or asked anyone about it, but the man before me was the Judge. He had to know something.

“I know.”

“Eh?” It was a huge decision for me to ask him that question, but he just replied so simply. It was almost as if he didn’t get why I was asking a really simple question.

“Wait; do you still not know?”

Of course I didn’t know.

“I see you’ve got a slow side to you. That regression in time; well, it’s…”

I pricked my ears, waiting for his answer.

“It’s a Random Skill.”

“What?”

“It’s a Random Skill.”

“I…I never learned a Skill like that!” I existed on the lowest class during my past life. I never had the chance to learn a Random Skill.

“Of course you didn’t. The Random Skill known as Regression; it’s just how it works. If you were given a second chance at life, would you keep living your current life?”

“…” No, I definitely wouldn’t. If I could live two lives, I would definitely make my second one my best life ever. I would use my first life to learn and gain as many experiences as I could, just so I could live my perfect life during the second one.

“That’s exactly why once you learn the Regression Random Skill, you forget you ever learned it.”

“But I lived as a bottom feeder. I didn’t possess any special trait, so how did I even…?”

“Well, you’re the first person I met who got to learn it. As for as I know, there was only one other person who learned it, so I guess out of everyone in the entire universe, only two people ever obtained that Skill.”

“What happened to him?”

“Hmm…should I tell you?” The Judge waited a moment for suspense before replying. “That guy committed suicide the moment he realized what happened. He was a hero of his world, strong enough to destroy everything with just his pinky finger. But, like you, he was sent back in time when he died, which was why the first thing he did was commit suicide,” the Judge said, ending with that chuckle of his.

“…”

“Hmm… you probably didn’t kill yourself because you already tasted rock bottom. Anyway, hurry up and make your decision. You need to choose first before you can get your other rewards. And trust me, they’re pretty amazing.”

I turned back to the message that was still up in front of me.

==[This hidden reward will grant the ability to return Earth to its state before the Otadolon stage.

Once Earth returns to its previous state, it will never enter the Otadolon stage again.

Everything pertaining to the Otadolon stage will be removed. (Devas, Deities, abilities, items, etc.)

Yes/No]==

I hesitated as thousands of thoughts raced through my mind. Noticing that I was still hesitating, the Judge spoke up again.

“Come to Mamon, the next stage. If it’s you, Lee Jiwon, you can do it. You can become an even greater hero than me, or the other guy who learned Regression.”

“…” I still couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

“Well, I guess you’re still pretty traumatized by Adora’s crazy abilities. But I can promise you that you can gain even stronger abilities. After all, you were one of the best to come out of the Continent alive.”

“I choose…” I made my decision.

“Kekeke. Good. I knew you would.”

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