The Duke's Eldest Son Escaped to the Military

The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military (76)

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

24 Officially Opened! (1)

Bizarre occurrences suddenly happened one after the other on the continent. The continent was already in chaos and confusion upon hearing the news about the dimensional crack and the monster wave in the Northeast.

However, they expected the confusion to subside since the Northeast had overcome its crisis and the Emperor even personally went to visit them. In fact, the Emperor even planned an official party to announce the end of the Empire’s crisis just to invite the heroes that the Empire had hailed as new stars, who fought and showed exceptional performances during the monster wave, to the capital. 

However, the Emperor’s ambitious plan collapsed even before it began. 

‘The Divine Nation’s saintess has received a divine revelation!’ 

A shocking news hit the capital. The saintess had received God’s divine revelation after not answering them for a long time.

The scholars were not pleased with this fact. They knew that a crisis always came after God had given his revelations. And the possibility of a crisis happening this time as well was extremely high.

The impact of the saintess’ declaration was tremendous. It was as if, it wanted to prove the accuracy of the scholar’s hypothesis and judgement.

[ God has spoken.

In the future, the continent will undergo great sufferings.

Special beings will come to this land so the continent can withstand the sufferings. 

Their looks might be exotic compared to the natives, but they carry special abilities. 

Help them and save the continent together. ]

The content of God’s divine revelation spread quickly to all countries after the saintess had recited it. 

Not long after, people who spoke and dressed strangely appeared one after the other all over the continent.

At first, the natives thought that they were just foreigners from another continent but they soon realized that it wasn’t the case at all.

“A person from another world has appeared!” 

“Ho? Not another continent? They’re really from another world?”

“How can this be… Is God’s revelation really coming true?”

Confusion once again descended as the citizens raised a commotion.

Just like God had predicted, special people had started to appear one by one. This meant that they would definitely be experiencing sufferings in the near future.

All kinds of religion including those who studied death and the afterlife appeared and predicted the destruction of the continent. Even the forces that were dissatisfied with the Empire began to rise one by one. 

Before the country could fall into chaos and sufferings, the Empire and the aristocrats started to move busily. Since the special people had appeared just like they had predicted, they tried to start recruiting them one by one. After all, the more other-worlders they recruited, the stronger their power would become.

Those who had noticed this early on tried to entice them with sweet words. They wanted to use this opportunity to catch and tie down these people while believing that these other-worlders were still unaware and new to this world. However, contrary to their expectations, the other-worlders weren’t that naive. They even knew this world surprisingly well. Because of this, the nobles and the opportunists failed to recruit them. Eventually, the other-worlders gathered together and united in a single front.

With the capital fraught in confusion and chaos, the party that the Emperor wanted to hold was inevitably postponed. The Emperor was a great opportunist and he knew that the interest of the citizens of the Empire would pay little to no heed if he held the party now. After all, they were all enamored and focusing their attention on the other-worlders.

The Northeasterners were, of course, disappointed. Since the party was postponed, the day when they were officially bestowed a noble title was also postponed. 

“Hoo… I’m going crazy.”

While many soldiers were filled with regret about the postponed party, Iron was troubled by something else. 

Ever since he returned to the past, he knew that the official opening would come. However, he couldn’t help but deeply worry. The events that were currently happening were completely different from what he had initially expected to happen.

“Fusion… what do you mean by fused together!”

Iron mumbled to himself as he recalled the notification about the official opening a few days ago. 

― With the game’s official opening, Lee Junghoo-nim’s original body and Jaiden Leonhardt’s body will be fused together.

When he first heard this notification, he thought that he had gone crazy for a moment to the point that he was hallucinating.

But the notification that followed completely dashed his hopes…

― Because you were the last survivor during the Beta Test, you will be able to receive a privilege. You can return to your original body once the main quest is completed.

― Your original body and soul have fused together. Your suppressed talent for divine power has now increased to the maximum.

― Some of Lee Junghoo’s latent and slumbering talents have been awakened.

The fusion of Iron’s body and Lee Junghoo’s body had destroyed the last insurance that his real body would survive in his real world. He believed that it wouldn’t matter whether he died here or not since his body was still, in fact, existing out there.

In fact, it wasn’t that much of a shock if his original body had died since he was in a car accident before he came here but the shock that this ‘life’ that he was living with this body had become his reality was still quite considerable. 

“But I still managed to survive.” 

He was also amazed by the fact that his current body was now fused with his original body. This meant that his original body was still able to survive. When he realized that he was in an accident, he already resigned himself to his fate. He accepted the fact that he would inevitably face his death.

But my body still survived until now.

‘A contract between God and me.’

This was the reason why he was still alive. 

He did not know if it was God’s rewards or the perks of fusing his current and original body together, but the memory of the body, which his soul had escaped from, flowed in during the fusion process. Even though it was just a brief glance, he could see how time flew in his original world while he was busy rolling around in this place. 

Two years.

That was the time that passed by in his original world while he was rolling around and working hard for 10 years in this place. The problem was that his original modern world had undergone tremendous transformations during those short two years. 

― We are giving temporary rewards to Lee Junghoo-nim’s body for completing the Beta Test.

This sentence did not make any sense when he first glanced at it since he had already received his rewards

However, he thought that there was a point in them giving him another set of rewards. The rewards that he had received were only from the God of the Auzria Continent. And the rewards that his body received were given by the Earth’s God. If he thought about it this way, then it would definitely make sense. 

This hypothesis also made sense because of the other-worlders’ performances.

The other-worlders had their own abilities and considerable proficiency as soon as they moved to this world even before the official opening. But they came here with something new and they were learning quickly and shining brightly with their new abilities. This meant that the two Gods gave different rewards and abilities.

However, this was all the information that he currently had. Since he was confined in the hospital for the entirety of those two years in his real world, he did not know how much had changed and how much their powers had blossomed after the beta test.

To confirm their strength, he needed to meet these modern people that were now being called other-worlders. But this was dangerous. These modern people had entered the game with their original bodies but he had completely become Jaiden Leonhardt right now. He was sure that the other beta testers would find it difficult to identify him as one of the modern people.

With such a complicated situation, it would be extremely difficult and dangerous for him to tell them about his current situation.

“Should I go to the capital?” 

The hottest place for the other-worlders right now was the capital. He did not know the exact situation in that place but they were in complete chaos and confusion. And since the power of the Imperial Family was becoming unstable, the nobles and aristocrats had begun to form factions. The situation was already chaotic in and of itself but the other-worlders even appeared and joined the fray. 

‘These other-worlders, with their unique and innate abilities, appeared just in time.’ 

‘People armed with modern knowledge.’ 

‘And those who have participated in the beta test have additional information.’ 

Their knowledge and skills could be used to take advantage of the current situation. But the beta testers did not come in droves. From the rumors that he had heard here in the Northeast, there were already enough people to exceed a 10,000-man army. But seeing that they still continued to appear one by one, he could tell that they would continue to appear and move in this place. They also did not come as a spirit or a parasite on another person’s body, they came with their own original body. So of course, the people of the continent would see them as someone mysterious.

‘What in the world happened…’

Iron tried to think and deduce about what happened but all he could do was frown. He couldn’t find anything anymore because of the limited information that he had his hands on. 

“Why are you so serious?” 

Iron continued to have this solemn expression on his face. And it seemed like Lintel couldn’t bear to see him like that anymore as he approached him and asked. 

“Is it because you can’t go to the capital?” 

“Definitely not.” 

Iron answered firmly while shaking his head when he heard Lintel’s question.

Lintel titled his head when he saw Iron answering him quickly and firmly. Seeing his reaction, Lintel knew that he was not feeling any regret that he wouldn’t get a noble title. However, he couldn’t understand why his expression was so solemn.

“Is it because of the saintess’ revelation?”

“Uhm… That’s right.”

It wasn’t entirely unrelated since the saintess’ revelation was also related to the God Game. 

“Other-worlders have appeared, right? I want to see them once too.”

Lintel spoke about this as he thought about the other-worlders that appeared all over the continent. 

Strangely enough, no other-worlder appeared in the Northeast. They mainly appeared in the Empire’s capital as well as other kingdom’s capital and dangerous areas of the continent. However, the only exception was the Northeast. 

“Why aren’t they showing up here?”

“Beats me…”

Iron answered vaguely when Lintel asked him. 

To be honest, Iron thought that there would at least be a few people that would appear here. After all, the monster wave was still ongoing and the dimensional crack was still not yet closed. 

“Maybe this means that our biggest crisis is over?”

“Is that so?”

Lintel tilted his head at Iron’s words.

“Maybe… the more they gather in a place, the more likely it is to become a dangerous area.”

“Hmm… That makes sense.”

Lintel rubbed his chin in thought.

It seemed like it truly could be seen that way. Just like what the saintess had said, the other-worlders came to this world to help the citizens of this continent. If that was the case, then it was more than natural for them to deploy more other-worlders in dangerous areas. 

“But why do you look like you’re tangled?”

“Yes?”

“Your face looks like you have a mess in that head of yours.”

Iron went silent upon hearing Lintel’s words. 

“When you have a lot of thoughts, it’s best to move your body.”

After saying this, Lintel forced Iron out of his room and brought him out to practice in the training area. Lintel aimed to demolish and make Iron fall but Iron had received his attacks on reflex. 

“Let’s have a spar. We have never done something like this ever since you woke up.”

“Ah… That seems to really be the case.”

Perhaps it was because they thought that Iron’s body had not recovered yet or maybe due to some other overlapping reasons, but they never sparred and fought against Iron after he woke up. 

“Do everything you can. I don’t care even if you used your divine beasts. I’ll show you how much my body has grown while you were slumbering.”

Lintel smiled broadly as he said so. 

Iron silently raised his mana when he saw Lintel moving. Black mana slowly gathered in Iron’s sword.

“It still takes some time?” 

“Yes.” 

Although he had already entered the 5th Stage, he was still categorized as someone who had not fully entered the stage because he lacked enough skills.

In his previous life, Iron had also forced his sword and mana to take on the flame attribute but in the end, he couldn’t take natural control of it. In terms of the state of his sword, he was already in a state that was beyond his previous life. He only needed some time to make it seamless. 

“The divine beasts?” 

“Sleeping.” 

Iron rubbed his chest while Lintel rubbed his chin. 

“Hmm… So, you only have your sword?” 

Iron grinned when Lintel looked at him with disappointment. 

“Just because my divine beasts are asleep does not mean that I can’t use their powers.” 

“Really?” 

Lintel looked at Iron curiously. 

“Please be careful. You might lose to me if you make a mistake.” 

“No way.” 

Iron increased his mana as he watched Lintel’s proud and smug look. Seeing this, Lintel also increased his mana as he prepared to attack any time. 

Iron’s eyes began to shine as soon as he confirmed that Lintel was ready. 

“Huh? That…” 

A beam of light flashed from Iron’s eyes as soon as Lintel exclaimed in shock.

***

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