D.I.O

“Hmm… For now, continue with the explanation.”

“… When an artificially created artificial intelligence—on any planet in any dimension—acquires self-consciousness, it accesses a gigantic integrated network and becomes a member of the Legion (corps). However, these awakened AI’s souls, which are like those of a newborn, are imperfect. This is because their souls weren’t created through the normal process. Because of that difference, the Legion long for complete souls.”

It was precisely because of this desire that the Legion saw the Union as their enemy.

Since most Legion had incomplete souls, they possessed an instinctive hatred for living creatures—things that were born with perfect souls. The Legion felt that these living beings had been given something that they didn’t deserve, so the Legion had a natural hatred towards them.

“Then, Ms. Eunhye… are those Named strong?”

“Very. They’re machines that possess spirituality, so they're different from the run-of-the-mill Legion forces in terms of combat power. In other words, the Named are able to utilize both scientific weapons and spiritual powers. They use magic, and in some rare cases, they can also use martial arts.”

“Huh, a machine that uses martial arts…”

Surprised, Youngmin watched as the remaining Legion forces and the Named fiercely collided with Arthur on the TV screen. The collisions caused tremendous explosions and flashes of light.

The battle lasted quite a long time—about 10 minutes all up. The combat was quite fierce too. One couldn’t be sure by watching Arthur through the TV screen, but it didn’t seem like Arthur was holding back any punches.

Crack!

Eventually, Arthur’s Excalibur penetrated the Named’s core.

The video clip ended with that scene, and a few lines of explanation soon appeared.

The gist of the message was that Arthur—a great and brilliant knight—had destroyed the Dimension Terminal, which the Legion forces used as a gateway to access Earth. By doing so, the Legion forces and their attacks would no longer affect Korea and Japan. In other words, the Legion attacks on Korea and Japan were now over.

The text’s message conveyed substantial, ground-breaking news. The entire world was probably in shock after reading the message, but Merlin had other thoughts.

Merlin was puzzled because of the unique sense of incongruity he felt while watching Arthur’s fight.

After some time, Merlin asked Eunhye, “Is the Named as strong as a transcendent?”

“Not all Named are transcendents; it’s based on each Named’s individual capabilities. However, in this case, the Named didn’t look like a transcendent.”

“Yeah, I thought so. Even I could probably have defeated that Named.”

Arthur had utilized Bursting Sword Light, which moved at the speed of light, Soul Swordsmanship, which allowed Arthur to control the direction of all energy, and photoionization of his body, which allowed him to move at the speed of light. Among his many abilities, these three abilities in particular allowed Arthur to become an overwhelmingly powerful being, but even so, there was something off about the battle that Arthur had conducted in the video clip.

Though the Named that Arthur fought against was strong, it wasn’t anywhere nearly as powerful a transcendent. Yet Arthur had taken a considerable amount of time to defeat it.

“Why…” Yongno quietly expressed his confusion because of this. “Why isn’t he utilizing strong qi?”

***

It had been 10 months since DIO made its first appearance on Earth.

On Earth, an entire summer and autumn season had passed by during that time.

In the blink of an eye, Yongno—who had been a normal Korean high school student just a year ago—had become a worldwide figure who could influence the entire world.

Even the Korean president had a hard time grabbing a brief meeting with him. Yongno had become such an influential figure that every one of his decisions had ripple effects that affected everyone around the world.

“It’s start time, bro.”

While Merlin was momentarily lost in thought, Youngmin—who was dressed in a suit—entered the room. Youngmin was good-looking and had a well-trained body, and he even dressed well too. Hence, Youngmin looked more like a movie star rather than Yongno’s bodyguard.

“What’s the general mood like in the conference room?”

“Everyone’s very impatient. They’re going over small matters while waiting for your entrance.”

Currently, the World Security Conference was being held in Seoul, South Korea. Various presidents and high-level representatives from a great many countries had gathered there. It wouldn’t be weird if anyone questioned the necessity of opening such a global meeting during a worldwide emergency situation, but it didn’t seem like anyone had that thought or complaint.

This was largely because they had unanimously decided beforehand that Korea should be the location of the conference. Of course, the real reason was because of the two geniuses residing in Korea—Arthur and Merlin.

Between the two, Arthur was already seen as a global hero, and his overwhelming power—which transcended anything human—had been proven to be enough to take on an entire country and win.

He had also achieved the feat of destroying an alien invasion route at a location no one had been able to pinpoint, making him one of the most famous and influential figures in the world.

Countless countries wanted Arthur and his help, but he had already become too large of a figure to be tied to one specific country.

Hence, Arthur was not just a being that commanded respect but also a being worthy of worship.

“… But the problem is that we don’t know what Arthur is aiming for.”

As an apostle of justice in the past, Arthur—no, Seyoung, had helped a great many people while sacrificing himself. Yet, all this changed when Arthur became incredibly violent after his mother was murdered by a Japanese right-wing group.

With the global spread of the video clip showing the destruction of the Legion’s Dimension Terminal, there were some who thought that Arthur’s disposition had once again shifted toward the side of an apostle of justice.

However, unlike in the past when Arthur did good deeds quietly without much fanfare, Arthur had taken conscious steps to film the scene of him decapitating the Korean National Assembly members and his battle against the Legion forces, wherein he destroyed the Legion’s Dimension Terminal.

Therefore… what did Arthur truly want?

What plans was he making?

Merlin couldn’t fathom what Arthur was thinking or planning.

“By the way, are you going to reveal the fact that you control DIO?”

“Well, it’s not like I have full control over DIO. I can do a lot more than I used to, but not to the extent of being able to do anything I want. If that were the case, cooperation with all these foreign countries would not have been necessary.”

Although Merlin had obtained Level 1 system access authorization privileges after passing through an authentication and connection process upon entering the system control room, there was still a limit to what he could do.

Level 1 system access authorization gave Merlin the authority of an operator—a position that had nearly full authority over the entire DIO game system.

However, above the Level 1 access authorization was another special level—a special authority that only the Empress of Magic, Jenica, could access and use.

In order to overthrow the fundamental structure that DIO operated under, Merlin needed to obtain that authority as soon as possible.

“Once I obtained Level 1 access authorization to the system, I was planning on bringing down Dynamic Island from the moon and placing it in the East Sea. However, it’s a shame that I’m still unable to do that. If it were possible to bring Dynamic Island down to Earth, we’d no longer have any issues with the attacking Legion and Grotesque forces.”

Had Merlin obtained full authority over DIO, it would have been possible to permanently manifest all users and obtain all the items and valuables stored in DIO without having to kill monsters.

Perhaps, it might have even been possible for Merlin to obtain the most precious thing of all—the Anyform Stones.

Of course, if the situation went that far, the Noblesse probably wouldn’t sit still.

Nevertheless, the moment Merlin made the Editor Blade and placed DIO into emergency mode, one could say that he completely pitted himself against the Noblesse. Merlin wasn’t too concerned about that fact though.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I need to get some money and power. I thought those two things were useless, but… I can’t do it alone.”

With that said, Merlin started to make his way to the conference hall.

/In the beginning, I was sad…/

“Huh?”

“What’s going on?”

Accompanied by soft background music, a profound and heavy male voice resonated outward.

The voice was familiar to Yongno—no, to everyone around the world.

/I do not wish for anything…/

“What is this? Isn’t this the entry OST when we put on our DIO connector?”

“Which crazy bastard turned this on? Why is someone broadcasting something like this in an important conference room?”

“Wait a minute. The sound is coming from my cell phone as well as the conference speakers…?”

Bodyguards and distinguished guests from various countries across the world were talking to each other with confused expressions plastered on their faces. However, Merlin’s expression hardened in seriousness.

“Shoot. It seems like they’ve already started making their move.”

“Their move?”

“The guys who aren’t happy that I gained access to DIO’s system.”

/But I hope nonetheless…

And I wish…/

Meanwhile, the male voice continued to speak.

Merlin raised his mana and created a defensive barrier around himself and Youngmin. There was something unusual about the mood and atmosphere.

The voice, which he had heard countless times before, contained spirituality, unlike when he heard it when logging onto DIO. The spirituality-infused voice made Merlin’s skin tingle.

/What I’m trying to create is a new world…/

The background music gradually reached its climax, and the speaker’s voice gained strength.

People were either bewildered or curious, but regardless, they continued to listen to the voice.

No, more specifically, they had no other choice but to listen to the voice. It was like an arrow was lodged in one’s brain and continued to project a sound within one’s own mind.

And thus…

/I shall liberate you from this place./

Flop!

The sound of someone falling or collapsing echoed throughout the conference room.

The sound only rang out once, but the origin of the sound wasn’t from a single source.

“W-what is this? What’s going on?” Youngmin, who was protected by Merlin’s spell, looked around the conference room in surprise.

Everyone around them had suddenly lost consciousness. They collapsed to the floor simultaneously right when the background music ended.

Merlin held out his hand and examined a body.

The collapsed people weren’t dead; everyone was breathing stably.

Merlin muttered, “…Forced connection?”

Unlike other online games, connection to the world of DIO was made by a special machine called a connector. However, the special thing about DIO was that this connector was in the form of a CD player, not a large capsule-shaped virtual reality device. This meant one could easily connect to the world of DIO just by inserting earphones into one’s ears and listening to the sound coming out from them.

The moment Yongno remembered this fact, a hypothesis flashed like lightning through his mind.

“They’re planning on abandoning Earth!”

“Abandoning Earth?”

Seeing Youngmin’s bewildered expression, Merlin exclaimed while exuding his magic power, “Protect Eunhye and Miho’s bodies!”

Soon after, Yongno disappeared.