The Return of the Legendary All-Master

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

Even while Jeong-hoon was relentlessly upgrading Jang Dae-hwi, the community remained ablaze.

[Legendary wasn't the final tier after all…]

I totally thought Legendary was the highest. How the hell are there three more tiers above it?

└ Apparently, the order is Celestial, Ultimate, then God.

└ What's crazy is… how did those guys even manage to get their hands on those?

└ Seriously, it doesn't make sense.

└ To upgrade the tier, you have to fully max out the equipment, right? That means they fully enhanced their gear to upgrade it.

└ How is that even possible……

└ I heard it costs 300,000 points for just one Legendary enhancement stone, lol.

└ And the kicker? If you fail the enhancement, the item gets destroyed.

└ Seriously, what is the true identity of HoneyTube……

"There really was another sky above the sky."

James Marcus let out a hollow laugh.

After single-handedly fending off an invasion, he had just received a call from Sophia, who was leading a party to block the invasion in France.

[Did you watch the HoneyTube broadcast?]

'No.'

[Sigh, why didn't you watch it? I told you to.]

'I saw the invasion timer was about to hit zero. Did something happen?'

[Yeah. Something huge happened.]

'…What is it?'

[Equipment that surpasses Legendary just appeared.]

'Don't tell me… you mean Celestial?'

[Exactly.]

'……!'

James Marcus hurriedly tried to pull up the broadcast on his smartphone.

[Too late. The broadcast already ended.]

'God…….'

James pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply.

He didn't regret choosing to stop the invasion.

In reality, it wasn't possible to perfectly prevent the timer from hitting zero, but he had to do everything he could to delay it as much as possible.

What was frustrating was that the broadcast and the invasion coincided.

[The live viewership hit 300 million. You know what that means, right?]

'It means a lot of people now know about the Celestial tier?'

The tier above Legendary.

It had been something known to only a select few.

Since it hadn't surfaced yet, there had been no reason to bring it into the open—until now.

[Exactly. There are already people starting to gather all their resources to upgrade to Celestial.]

'It won't be easy. Honestly, it's probably smarter to wait until HoneyTube releases their tips directly.'

[You really don't understand the mindset of people with too much money, do you? They'll keep burning resources until it works. And it's not just about Celestial.]

'What do you mean?'

[There's also the Ultimate tier above Celestial, and above that, the God tier.]

'……!'

There's a tier above Celestial?

What the hell does that even mean?

[They even had equipment of that tier. That's when it hit me. Ah, I really am just an ordinary man.]

His head throbbed painfully.

Just handling Celestial-tier equipment was already something beyond imagination. But to wield something beyond even that?

'…How's your situation over there?'

He tried his best to stay calm, but his voice trembled slightly.

Perhaps Sophia picked up on it, as he heard a small chuckle from the other side of the phone.

[Pfft. It's bad. No matter how hard I try to push it back, the situation's barely improving.]

It was a sigh-inducing answer.

Despite all their desperate efforts, they still couldn't fully prevent the timer from hitting zero. In fact, the reduction was minimal—if anything, it was probably still increasing.

'…Would things change if I became an Incarnate?'

The message had been sent to all survivors around the world. James Marcus was among its recipients.

[Don't even think about it.]

Sophia's voice suddenly dropped cold.

'So, what? You're satisfied with how things are now?'

[Sigh… If I'm being honest, I'm itching all over because I actually want to do it.]

'Then why don't you?'

[Because I absolutely despise anyone trying to rule over me.]

Right.

That's exactly the kind of person Sophia was.

'Well, for you, it's probably not even necessary.'

The message had been targeting those who were rapidly leveling up, but whose experience and battle instincts couldn't keep up.

Someone like Sophia, who was a top ranker in New World, had no reason to become an Incarnate.

But then, noticing something strange, she cautiously asked:

[Wait… Are you seriously thinking about becoming one?]

"Why? Is there some rule that says I can't?"

[Tsk. You idiot. Have you already forgotten why we refused to become Incarnates?]

To receive power from a Transcendent meant to become their plaything, their toy, just a way to kill time.

That's why James Marcus had always despised Incarnates.

But now that he found himself hesitating, Sophia must have been completely dumbfounded.

Even he didn't understand why he was entertaining the thought.

"……."

[If you choose to become an Incarnate, don't ever contact me again.]

With that, Sophia hung up.

"What a temper."

James Marcus let out a small sigh. When he first received the offer to become an Incarnate, he had been planning to refuse without hesitation.

But now, after Sophia's call, the offer strangely felt a lot more tempting.

'Damn it…….'

He had managed to level up to nearly 2,000 through rapid progression.

In that process, James succeeded in upgrading all his equipment to Legendary.

After that, he had been slowly devising a plan to aim for the next tier—Celestial.

But by then, Jeong-hoon had already long surpassed Celestial and had reached the Ultimate tier and even the God tier.

That fact made James Marcus feel unbearably small.

'Damn it…….'

The strongest Paladin on the American continent.

When New World was at the height of its popularity, he ranked number one in all of the Americas.

He made his name known worldwide as a professional gamer.

He also had the highest level across all servers, and his specs were so overwhelmingly superior that no one could compare.

He had been such a star player—yet never in his wildest dreams did he think he would feel this level of self-loathing.

'Why is it that no matter how hard I try, I can't close the gap……?'

As time passed, the difference between them didn't shrink—it grew even wider.

That's why he was now considering becoming an Incarnate, something he had once despised to the core.

Because he had finally realized that no matter how many invasions he managed to block in this state, he would never catch up to Honey-1.

[Hooh, such pure energy you have.]

Just then—

A voice suddenly echoed inside James's head.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Jeong-hoon lowered his sword and called it a day.

"That's enough for today."

"Huff… Huff… Thanks for all your hard work……"

Finally, Jang Dae-hwi collapsed, arms and legs splayed out in exhaustion, gasping for air.

Jeong-hoon approached him and used Divine Healing, instantly restoring him to 100% condition.

His ragged breathing quickly settled, and his utterly exhausted body bounced back to peak form as if nothing had happened.

In fact, he now felt even livelier than before the training began.

'Wow, unbelievable.'

Jang Dae-hwi got up and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists.

Seriously, Hun's abilities are just out of this world.

"Hyung, then I'll leave the editing to you."

"Of course! You can count on me!"

Jang Dae-hwi chuckled as he began packing up the camera equipment.

"So, how long do you think the editing will take?"

"Hmm, if I go fast… maybe about four days?"

"Could you manage it in three?"

"Three? That's cutting it really close… even four days would be pretty tight……"

"Please. I'll use my divine power to keep your fatigue at bay."

"Hm… alright. If you're asking this seriously, I'll give it a shot."

How could he refuse when Jeong-hoon was asking so sincerely?

Besides, thanks to Divine Healing, his condition was at a perfect 100%.

If he worked hard in this state, finishing it within three days should be doable.

"Yeah. The sooner you finish, the sooner I can help you get stronger too."

"Hmm?"

"My goal is to make sure you're strong enough to stop an invasion all by yourself, hyung."

"No, you really don't need to go that far……"

"But I want to."

Damn it……

Even though his condition had fully recovered, Jang Dae-hwi could only walk away with his shoulders slumped.

"Puhaha! Isn't Dae-hwi hyung seriously hilarious?"

Bong-Goo, who had been watching from the side, burst into laughter.

"Alright, enough chatter. Let's go."

"Huh?"

"We need to get you home to see your family. You couldn't go because of the filming, remember?"

"Hyung-nim……"

Bong-Goo immediately stopped laughing, his eyes welling up with tears.

<Oh, I knew you'd say something like that.>

Tenebris looked at Jeong-hoon with wide, surprised eyes.

'Let's not even talk about this.'

Jeong-hoon couldn't believe how much his image had fallen apart.

Every time he saw reactions like this, he was just dumbfounded.

'Master, you've still got a human side after all.'

'Back then, you were just a guy obsessed with gains.'

'If there was no profit, you wouldn't even lift a finger.'

'Exactly. That's what I'm saying.'

'If something didn't go your way, you would ruthlessly cut it out.'

'Right. If there was something you wanted, you'd be absolutely heartless—cold as ice.'

Mukho and Anima chimed in, clearly amused.

"…I'm sorry."

Looking back, it had been a relentless, crazy sprint to get here.

Of course, the destination was still far, far away, but maybe—just maybe—they were about halfway there now?

"Hyung-nim! I'll head off now!"

"Okay. Take care of yourself."

"Yes, sir!"

Bong-Goo quickly ran off.

Almost as if waiting for that moment, Jeong-hoon's smartphone began to vibrate.

When he checked the caller ID, the corners of his mouth lifted, and he quickly answered.

"Yes, sir."

[Hun! I must've kept you waiting, huh?]

"Not at all. Did you complete your 6th Advancement safely?"

[Thanks to you, I managed to finish it successfully.]

That's a relief.

Yeo Sun-woo also completed his 6th Advancement successfully.

With that, everyone who had left for their 6th Advancement had succeeded and returned.

"Congratulations! Min-ji also completed hers—why don't you go and join her?"

Apparently, Yeo Min-ji had been holding off numerous invasions on her own and had now rejoined the Ho-yeong Guild.

It was now time for Yeo Sun-woo to return and lead Ho-yeong forward.

[I feel bad. I should've visited you first.]

"Don't worry about that. I'm a member of the Ho-yeong Guild too, you know."

[Then, does that mean you'll be joining too, Hun?]

"I've got something else I need to take care of right now. More importantly, what's your result?"

Did he, like Bong-gu, advance to become a Dark Emperor?

[It's Black Extremity.]

"So, not a Dark Emperor, huh?"

[Yes. Back when I was a Dark King, I focused a lot on darkness, so rather than upgrading everything overall, I decided to fully specialize in just one path.]

"Ah, I see."

[May I ask what your advancement was?]

"I'm Heavenly Martial Divine Emperor."

[Oh… just hearing it sounds overwhelming…]

"By the way, did you accept the contract?"

Jeong-hoon had sent a message to everyone.

He had informed them that a global message regarding Incarnate contracts would be sent out, but the choice to accept or decline was completely up to them.

[Should I have accepted? I just rejected it without properly reading it.]

"No, actually. I was hoping you wouldn't."

[Haha, then I guess we're on the same page.]

"Seems like it."

After that, Jeong-hoon and Yeo Sun-woo continued chatting about trivial things, and the call lasted much longer than they had expected.

* * *

"This is strange…"

Commander Banas couldn't hide his confusion.

It had already been three days since he had stationed himself here with a force of 50,000 troops.

In that time, they had only managed to kill about twenty humans.

No matter how high their levels were, once caught in the traps they had set, no one should have been able to escape.

But starting about two hours ago, things had begun to take a strange turn.

'How did they figure it out?'

No trap is perfect.

That's why the traps were designed to activate automatically when disarmed.

Up until now, even the humans who had been killed ended up triggering those follow-up traps, unable to withstand the concentrated attacks that followed.

But now, only a single intruder had entered.

And that person seemed to know the exact location of every trap, rapidly closing the distance to the front-line forces.

"Commander! We've lost contact with the front line!"

"What?!"

One shocking report after another began to pour in.

"Commander! The intruder has completely annihilated the front line!"

"At this rate, it's only a matter of time before they reach the command post! You must evacuate immediately!"

Damn it!

Banas hurriedly escaped through the back door to evacuate the command post.

Boom!

In that instant, a man landed right in front of him, blocking his escape.

'Is it him……?'

Who was this man, charging in here all alone?

"Hand it over."

"What?"

"I said, hand over the command authority."

"Wait, who the hell are you—"

Banas couldn't finish his sentence.

Thud.

His head fell to the ground.

Everything happened in an instant.

His expression was still frozen in shock as his life came to an abrupt end.

"I've eliminated the commander. Now, as promised, hand over the reward."

The man—James Marcus—murmured as he looked up at the sky.

[You certainly have great execution skills. Let me make you an additional offer.]

"An offer?"

[Since there's no commander now, you take over this place. If you can hold out until the timer hits zero, I'll double your reward.]

"…You better keep that promise."

James Marcus's gaze shifted to the soldiers trembling in terror.

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]