Chapter 164 – LV.? Goddess of Beauty – [Five]

Seo Yun continued to resurrect the fallen. Each time she offered prayers of resurrection, others joined her in prayer beside her. And with each life restored, people shed tears.

Fortunately, the number of deaths wasn’t unbearably high, likely because everyone fought while receiving healing spells from priests whenever they were pierced somewhere on their bodies behind the fortress wall.

Unfortunately, however, she ultimately couldn’t resurrect everyone.

“Why can’t this Mister come back to life? He received the resurrection prayer…”

Someone well-versed in the rules answered the question in place of the asker.

“His Level is too low. Players have a higher chance of resurrection than non-players, and higher-level Players have a higher chance than lower-level Players. It’s due to the setting that both spirit and flesh must be sturdy for a soul to easily return after leaving the body…”

In the final battle that occurred in Happy Village, several non-players also died fighting to protect the village. They did not resurrect even after receiving prayers.

They would need to be mourned later with time, but that wasn’t possible now. Seo Yun asked.

“Where is Mister Oh Haengun? I heard he fell in battle. Wasn’t it here that he fought and passed away?”

“We don’t know exactly either, we heard that fellow led people and fought over in the Songpa-gu area…”

There were no vehicles left in the village to ride all the way there.

Seo Yun spread her wings and soared high. She heard the chimpanzee’s voice from behind asking to go together, but she ignored it and glided.

Along the way, there was a troll village. As soon as she stopped there, Seo Yun headed for the school building’s infirmary.

Kim Jihyeok was lying there. She let time flow for that body and tried using a Resurrection Spell.

She offered a sincere prayer for resurrection, but the prayer went unheard.

The troll was right. Kim Jihyeok did not come back to life.

Only then could she finally accept this boy’s death. Seo Yun sat on the sofa and thought. By now, would this boy’s soul be standing beside that runt Seo Rayeon?

It was just as Seo Yun let out a sigh and was about to leave the building.

“Seo Yun?”

The troll’s Avatar Body looked this way. Though its expression was hidden behind the golden mask, one could tell it was surprised now. Its voice clearly carried disbelief.

In contrast, Seo Yun greeted impassively to hide her gloom.

“Long time no see? I succeeded in what I intended to do, so praise me.”

“Yes, I knew you succeeded. But how did you, Seo Yun? Not that you had to sacrifice yourself, but seeing the skeletons stop, I thought you, Seo Yun, had Ascended to become the Goddess of Beauty…”

“Seo Rayeon. She became the Goddess of Beauty.”

“Seo Rayeon?”

“Yes.”

“Why did she…”

Seo Yun briefly considered if she had time. Having just used all her Resurrection Spells, she did have the leisure to talk while waiting for the spells to recharge.

“Well? Saying she wanted to usurp the position of Goddess of Beauty wouldn’t be a sufficient explanation. If she coveted the position, she could have just demanded it openly. She didn’t even say she would do it herself, and only at the last moment did she do what I was about to do instead… It feels like she herself didn’t want to leave the Mortal Realm but only then made up her mind and acted…”

Seo Yun quickly relayed what Seo Rayeon said at the end. After hearing it all, the troll groaned. Seo Yun asked.

“What message did you leave for Rayeon? You left some words on that video projector thing. I delivered that item. What on earth did you say?”

“Nothing much.”

“Nothing much? The girl who said she had no intention of becoming a Goddess Ascended right away.”

And the troll explained.

“To be honest, by the end, I had given up on the idea of creating all three Chief Gods. I thought I’d be satisfied if just the Goddess of Beauty was born to put out the urgent fire… The message I left for Seo Rayeon was that it’s okay not to keep the promise, just live comfortably.”

Seo Yun raised one eyebrow.

“Why such words?”

“As I said, the Goddess of Beauty must not be born through someone’s coercion. If the most powerful Goddess harbors resentment and grudges, she could inflict terrible harm upon the world. So, the one who becomes the Goddess of Beauty must Ascend voluntarily with good intentions… It seemed impossible for Seo Rayeon.”

“Then how were you originally planning to make her a Goddess? If you were trying to make an Evil Alignment Doppelganger into a Goddess, you must have had a plan.”

“The Mirror of Alignment Reversal. An item only in the 4th edition, it changes Evil Alignment to Good Alignment and Good Alignment to Evil Alignment. I had one.”

“Why didn’t you use it?”

“When I used that item on various people to experiment, the effect wasn’t as dramatic as I thought. Human behavior seems to have inertia, repeating actions done before. Whether they turned Evil or Good overnight, their behavior didn’t change drastically.

Even if you changed a clear Evil Alignment plunderer to Good Alignment, they didn’t stop plundering, and turning a good person Evil for a few days didn’t make them commit any major atrocities. It probably would have been the same if used on Seo Rayeon.”

The troll continued, saying that Good Alignment and Evil Alignment themselves weren’t highly valued concepts among Immortal Kingdom Players in the first place. In the bleak setting where all sorts of extreme actions were necessary for survival, good and evil were merely ambiguous.

So, it was considered meaningless to divide alignments within the game system itself, which is why alignment judgment existed only in the 4th edition and then disappeared, right? Recalling such facts, it seems natural that it’s difficult to change a person drastically with just one item.

Ultimately, the troll gave up on the plan to use said item to turn Seo Rayeon Good and then make her the Goddess of Beauty, and also explained that Seo Rayeon was well aware she was no longer bound by any promises.

“So it seems that once she became free to choose, she made the choice she originally didn’t want to make. She ultimately decided, as the village Leader, to take care of the dead.”

At Seo Yun’s words, the troll nodded.

“Probably.”

“Also thanks to the clone’s original personality being exceptionally outstanding.”

The troll sent a look as if wondering if the one who Ascended was Seo Yun and the one here was Seo Rayeon, but Seo Yun paid no mind.The troll cleared his throat and spoke.

“Anyway, from what I’ve checked, it seems all the Undead hordes threatening each Survivor Group have stopped.”

“That’s a relief then.”

“Yeah, for now… it’s over.”

The troll sighed, and Seo Yun shook her head.

“It’s not over yet.”

“Huh?”

“The Hearth Goddess remains. Didn’t you say the world would only be complete once even she appears? That should also stop the meteorite’s mischief.”

“That’s true, but… are you still planning to attempt Ascension?”

“Yes.”

“Then when?”

“Not immediately. Right now, a Level 15 Priest would be far more helpful than that Goddess in the sky. I need to stay and finish what needs to be done first.”

At that moment, Seo Yun felt her expended Spells returning. They had recovered much faster than her original calculations, likely a result of her Health Stat rising to 12 points.

This body with 11 Health would often receive a ‘rested’ judgment even after just a short period of inactivity, and now that speed had increased further. As a result, the cooldown times for her used Spells seemed to have sped up as well.

“We’ve chatted long enough. I should go do my work. Could you send Kim Jihyeok’s body… to Happy Village?”

Almost as soon as she heard the troll’s agreement, Seo Yun pulled a pair of wings from her back. She took flight and left the village.

While flying, Seo Yun saw countless hordes of Skeletons standing motionless on the ground. Following the Skeletons in flight, she arrived at one location.

Amidst piles of Skeletons, she saw two figures standing still: a Golem and a Gargoyle. Their solid granite bodies were completely shattered. One could guess how long they had fought and how many attacks they had endured.

Oh Haengun’s body was behind them, mixed among the other corpses.

Seo Yun frowned upon seeing the dried black blood on his chest, but took a deep breath after noticing the rest of his body was intact.

Except for the gunshot wound on his chest, Oh Haengun’s corpse was in relatively decent condition. The cold weather meant decay hadn’t progressed to a visibly noticeable degree. Furthermore, recalling that his Soul had recently been inhabiting a mosquito, unlike the other surrounding corpses, his spirit likely hadn’t immediately ascended to the afterlife.

Seo Yun knelt before him, closed her eyes, and offered a prayer. She petitioned the Goddess of the Hearth—who might be her future self—and the other two Chief Gods to return this Mage.

And when Seo Yun opened her eyes, that Mage called her name.

“Seo Yun?”

“Can you move?”

“No…”

It was only after Seo Yun cast a Healing Spell and a considerable time had passed that Oh Haengun managed to sit up. He looked around and muttered with a weary expression.

“I thought I was dead…”

“You were dead.”

“I was dead?”

Seeing Oh Haengun’s dumbfounded expression, it seemed his memories from when he was active as a Swarm Mage were hazy. He continued questioning.

“Who performed the Resurrection and how…”

“Who else is here besides me?”

When Seo Yun answered modestly, Oh Haengun’s eyes widened. That alone seemed enough for him to infer the general facts.

“I don’t fully understand… but you went through a lot.”

Seo Yun gave a slight smile.

“You did too.”

Presumably, after hearing her say she would try somehow, Oh Haengun had struggled to postpone the day of ruin however he could.

As the unwilling Chief of Happy Village, he must have felt a responsibility to save even one more villager until her goal was achieved. That sense of responsibility literally hadn’t disappeared even after his death.

And now, Oh Haengun was acting like someone who had received an unexpected gift. Still seeming unable to grasp the reality of the situation, he asked in a dazed voice.

“Anyway, if what you say is true… I’ve died twice and been resurrected twice now, so does that mean I have one death left?”

“Yes. You can use that when you die of old age.”

After helping Oh Haengun up, Seo Yun began searching for other corpses that might be viable for Resurrection.

Most of the fallen here had died days ago and couldn’t be resurrected, but there were several corpses that seemed to have suffered severe injuries, been left at this location, and only met their death later. Seo Yun and Oh Haengun found those corpses together.

Seo Yun knelt before those bodies and offered prayers, and the gods in that Celestial Realm answered her prayers.