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Chapter 537: Hidden Piece (4)

“Outer God.”

“Huh?”

“The gods you probably saw were gods from a different realm.”

“How do you know…?”

“I read it a very long time ago, in an ancient record. I don’t know exactly…but this word naturally appeared inside my mind. Were you able to see their form?”

“No. I couldn’t see them well…it was hard even to say that their forms were human. I don’t really understand what I saw. The only thing I’m certain about is that what I saw was bigger than I could possibly imagine.”

“…”

“…”

‘Fuck, what even is an outer god?’

At this, I tapped my leg in irritation. Gods from a different realm… I felt taken back that such a piece of significant information came out of nowhere.

‘What the heck? So what the hell is it?’ was the only thought I had.

It was already surprising that we were inside of a wormhole. At that moment, an outer god also popped out of nowhere. Everyone looked shocked at what just happened.

As expected, the most talkative fat pig was eager to speak up.

“I thought gods were like the head figures of the empire. What the hell do outer gods mean…? If they’re different from gods like Goddess Benignore and Goddess Elune, then what did Hee-young-nunim see?”

“As I told you, I didn’t have a clear view of it.”

“It feels as if too much information is being thrown at us, so I can’t understand what just happened at all. Does that mean there are gods outside the ordinary realm we know?”

“Yes, I think that is a strong possibility. From the ancient record I read, it said that outer gods are deities that weren’t included in any other records.”

“Not included in any other records?”

“One thing that I can be certain of is that… they are probably not friendly towards us.”

“Yes, Guild Master. I don’t know why exactly, but they don’t seem to want to establish diplomatic relations with us. To be more precise, they seem uninterested in us, but I’m not sure if that’s even the right way to describe it.”

‘Not included in any other records…’

There was a high possibility that even Kim Hyunsung didn’t know about them either.

The information given to Kim Hyunsung by Benignore and Altanus was restricted as much as possible. Hence, he probably didn’t know much about the matters regarding the upper realm.

Even if the outer god knew something…

‘They most likely won’t say something in this kind of atmosphere.’

But since I knew how the empire was running, there were some suspicious circumstances.

If the outer gods had never been recorded in other scriptures, the most rational conclusion was…

‘Is it a god who hasn’t been assigned to a dimension or planet in this realm?’

It was a logical hypothesis, but it didn’t explain why a wormhole was there to control dimensions and why the empire was floating around.

I was sure the dimension wasn’t made in vain. I didn’t know how exactly the wormhole was made, but everything was being driven by an enormous system.

The so-called gods were basically salary-workers working for a department that supervised reviving and developing their dimension, and they earned based on their performance.

There were also many rules that proved to be invisible to us. Causing any influence on the empire consumed divine power. Miracles, quests, and divine commands also consumed large amounts of divinity. If the gods of the empire directly interfered with human affairs, there was a huge penalty on them. Or they couldn’t even get involved. It was also almost impossible to cause direct harm to humans. Divine power could be obtained through human beings except in very special circumstances.

Although the gods of the empire were considered as sacred beings who managed humans, they also depended on us for their own survival.

They wouldn’t be able to exist without humans, and without the empire and dimensions, they wouldn’t even be able to continue living. If outer gods meant exactly as their name implied, it could mean that they were not bound to some of the rules listed above. They might be able to influence humans directly. No, that was definitely possible.

As if he also realized this, Kim Hyunsung’s face turned serious.

“Then are they like demons then?”

‘No, they’re probably different from demons.’

Even though their situations were slightly different from the gods, the demons were also restricted by an enormous system.

If demons directly came down, they also received a penalty, and if they performed actions that were not allowed by the system, they had to face huge consequences.

They were able to cause direct harm to humans, but if it was outside of a contract, they still had a lot of restrictions.

I hypothesized that there was a high possibility that outer gods weren’t similar at all. Beings that completely deviated from the set system…

‘Where do they get their divine power? If they don’t have divine power, can you even describe them as gods?’

There were about two possibilities that I could think of. First, they collected so many points that they didn’t even need to pay attention to divine power, or second, they appeared in a world controlled by other gods and messed it all up.

If I considered the present circumstances, it seemed as if the latter had an overwhelmingly higher probability.

‘It was because of those bastards’.

It was because of them that Kim Hyunsung had been reincarnated, and why Benignore said even they weren’t perfect beings.

‘Right. We’re not perfect. Remember that well, my proud Honorary Cardinal Lee Kiyoung. We’re not perfect either. We’re imperfect. It’s just the place where we stand that’s different from those on the continent, but we’re not very different either. Never forget that we’re not perfect.’

The words she uttered to me after she went bankrupt kept revolving around my head. I finally learned why she kept repeating the words that they weren’t so perfect either.

At that time, I thought it was to rationalize how much she had caused harm to the empire. However, it might have been to hint that the enemy Kim Hyunsung and humanity had to face were mythological beings.

It might have just been my delusion, but it felt as if the puzzle pieces were finally being connected one by one.

Kim Hyunsung’s nervous expression gave more support to my possibly useless guesses.

‘Then what about the masked trash?’

If the 1st timeline also went on like that, then why did the masked trash behave like that?

‘Did Kim Hyunsung also work under the outer gods?’

As far as I knew, after joining the brigade and making a contract with the demon, the masked trash caused enormous damage to the empire. Since then, a lot of things would make sense if the masked trash began working with the outer gods after that. But there were still things that remained beyond my understanding.

First of all, there was a strong possibility that the demon who signed a contract with the 1st Timeline masked trash was Belial.

Belial was one of the representative demons that could be classified as moderates. It was hard to imagine that a moderate like Belial would join forces with the outer gods with the goal of destroying humanity.

Of course, there was a possibility that they might have just held hands together for their benefits and signed a contract…

‘No, it’s hard to say that Belial wouldn’t join forces with the outer gods. There’s nothing strange about making an agreement with an outer god for your advantage.’

That type of relationship moved according to each other’s interests. Belial would have the best understanding of what would be in his best interest.

‘And, of course, the contracted demon might not even be Belial.’

There were still many thoughts hovering inside my head, but I thought I first had to fix some of the problems in front of me. Although most of my thoughts were guesswork, I knew it wouldn’t be a bad decision to conclude them as highly probable except for a few errors.

But what was even more surprising was that other than me, there was another bastard who thought of the same thing.

“I’m probably wrong, but… and it might sound a little ridiculous, but… I just had a feeling that…”

“What?”

“If you promise not to laugh, I will say it out loud.”

“Okay, I won’t laugh, so tell me about it.”

“Well, do you think it’s possible… that this is the threat that Goddess Benignore mentioned after our war with the Republic?”

“…”

“…”

‘This fat bastard has some good instincts.’

Park Deokgu’s face looked a little taken back. Even though he thought everyone would laugh at him, the guild’s whole atmosphere was deathly serious.

In particular, Kim Hyunsung looked at him with surprise, as if he could not believe that Park Deokgu could think that far.

“That is…”

“It’s just from my instincts. I don’t know what is happening, but… well, didn’t Lee Kiyoung hyung-nim say that there’s a reason for everything? I just thought that there was a good reason why we ended up here.”

‘It’s because of you, you punk.’

“Don’t you also find it strange? It can’t be a coincidence that the first time we brought our boat out, we ended up in this particular dungeon at this exact moment. Didn’t Jeong-yeon-ssi also say that some transcendent beings might have led to use here?”

“…”

“Maybe, it’s to show us what types of enemies we would have to fight against in the future. To tell us that the power we have right now is not enough, and we have to overcome more ordeals to power up! Well, maybe it’s something like that…”

“…”

“I’m almost getting goosebumps thinking that someone might be watching us from up there.”

I got goosebumps for real. It was the same type of shiver that I would get if I woke up one day, and Park Deokgu introduced himself as Park Deoksip. (*Gu is 9 in Korean; sip is 10 in Korean.)

He just randomly stumbled upon the answer, and his guess was probably right.

It also seemed correct as it was hard to contact Benignore and Elune right at that moment. The ‘higher up’ that Benignore mentioned might have exerted their influence upon them.

A transcendent being who remembered everything from the 1st timeline might have intervened.

“It doesn’t sound like a wild guess. Of course, it’s hard to say for sure, but I think it’s a good idea to keep Deokgu-ssi’s words in mind.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Whatever it is, I think we should first complete this dungeon. I don’t see any other way out of here. Teleportation doesn’t seem to…”

“Y-Yes… it’s i-impossible here.”

“That’s right. I’ve looked into a lot of dungeons, but it’s the first time for me to hear about a… Mythic-level dungeon. I hope you keep in mind that the level of difficulty to clear this dungeon would probably be nothing like we faced before.”

‘I don’t even want to imagine. Fuck…’

“Even if we are faced with the worst circumstances, Kiyoung-ssi, you should remain safe…”

“Ah… Okay, I understand.”

“Even though danger and dungeons go hand to hand, I just want to say to them we might really die here…”

“Yes, we are prepared, Guild Master.”

“It has always been hard, but the Blue Guild was able to overcome all of our ordeals. I’m sure we will be able to overcome this too. Don’t worry about us too much and just take care of Kiyoung hyung-nim.”

“Park Deokgu ahjussi (middle-aged man) is right. You don’t have to worry about us… We are all prepared.”

“…”

‘Of course, it’s not going to be easy.’

This was a Mythic-level dungeon, for goodness’s sake. It probably didn’t exist in the empire and would probably never appear again.

The previous dungeons were at least controllable by Kim Hyunsung, but not the one we were currently in. People could get seriously hurt or die.

The guild members said they were okay, but I was sure Kim Hyunsung was still extremely worried.

Even though everyone was nodding, his eyes began wavering.

Everyone was silent due to the unexplainable tension surrounding all of us.

[Welcome to the abandoned sea of mythical dungeons. Get random items in the sea of dimensions to your heart’s content. Only one item can be taken with you, but it doesn’t matter what the grade is. Return from Fishing (0/1)]

“Ah?”

I wasn’t the only one to hear it.

Everyone began looking at each other.

‘This…’

“Awesome…”

“Hah…”

“I can’t believe it…”

Ordeal my ass, this was basically spoon-feeding.