D.I.O

The act of moving a mass number of a planet’s souls was a strange phenomenon and unprecedented in human history. However, Tan’s motive meant this phenomenon was an eventuality.

The Noblesse—no, to be more specific, Tan didn’t necessarily want the physical death of earthlings; he just wanted their [souls]. Since earthlings were born and grew up on a planet where there were no spiritual pathways, this absence of spiritual pathways gave rise to abnormal spiritual qualities in the earthlings’ souls.

If Tan’s plan had worked…

DIO, which was installed on the moon’s surface, would have been moved to one of the planets the Noblesse managed, along with the billions of earthlings’ souls.

Of course, these users’ physical bodies would perish on Earth, but this didn’t matter to Tan as he only desired their unique souls.

“But that goes against providence.”

Grim Reaper Myung stated the existence of bodiless souls in the material world was a sensitive issue for the Reaper Organization, the largest and greatest force in the Netherworld.

The Netherworld did not intervene in most aspects of human life, but when it came to the deaths of humans, the Netherworld had rules so strict they bordered on the point of paranoia.

“So, what decision has the Netherworld made? Are you planning on taking all the souls in DIO whose physical bodies have died on Earth?”

“In principle, that’s what we should do, however… Sigh.” Myung sighed deeply.

Just as Yongno said, Myung would have liked to resolve the problem neatly by guiding all the souls to the afterlife the moment their physical bodies perished after Tan’s intervention.

Of course, that would result in countless casualties, but that wasn’t Myung’s fault. However, if the Netherworld—to be exact, the Reaper Organization—were able to operate so freely, Tan wouldn’t have dared to make the choice to kidnap human souls to begin with.

The Netherworld was powerful, but it was bound by various restrictive rules precisely because it was so powerful. This meant its members couldn’t move freely in the material world. If the Netherworld were less restricted, Necromancer-type abilities and schools of thought would no longer exist in the material world.

“In general, a planet’s deity tends to reject extraterrestrial interference until the planet’s inhabitants develop abilities, their civilization blooms, and they make advances into space. This is even more so the case for Earth, which Syndroia blessed. Even the slightest violation of the rules will cause the Earth’s deity to become hysterical, like an old maid who’s lived alone for 300 million years.”

“A planet deity and Syndroia…”

‘A planet’s deity’ referred to Earth’s main god, and ‘Syndroia’ referred to the being that coordinated the Great Dimension.

These were titles that Yongno was already aware of. Information regarding [Genesis]—the creation of the world—and basic information about gods were readily available in DIO’s library.

From the start, the Noblesse didn’t hide any information about the Great Dimension and [external forces] from the users. Case in point, the introductory video—the one every user watched when they first logged onto DIO—showed Level 50 gods.

‘Well, since they tried to use users as guerrilla warfare soldiers, special agents, and even spies against the Union’s enemy forces spread throughout the universe, I guess it’s natural that they wouldn’t hide anything regarding the wider Great Dimension. If users were too ignorant about the wider universe, it would be difficult for them to become effective workers.’

The ultimate purpose of DIO was to mass-produce powerful users, and the Noblesse would then use these powerful mass-produced users in [Missions] for their own purposes.

Therefore, it was dangerous, in many ways, to falsely explain the structure of the universe to users.

With their main bodies on Earth, users could be sent out to dozens of galaxies within the [range of control] of the warp systems that the Noblesse had installed in DIO. The Noblesse would suffer considerable losses if users were deceived by the Union’s enemies while performing their missions due to a lack of understanding about the universe.

“By the way, is a planet’s deity really that powerful? You must have many god-level beings in the Netherworld, no?”

“On a planet with a developed civilization like Earth, the planet’s deity is at least a higher-ranking god. In addition, a planet’s deity is protected by the Godly World from birth, so no one would be foolish enough to contend against a planet’s deity,” Myung calmly explained the situation to Yongno.

From Yongno’s perspective, Myung seemed to be overtly kind and understanding.

‘Unless this guy’s personality is innately pure and good, it seems the situation in the Netherworld is direr than I originally thought.’

Merlin had killed Igniz, who had broken into DIO, and as a result, all of Tan’s plans were fundamentally thwarted.

In addition, it was not an exaggeration to say that since Merlin had acquired the right to control DIO’s system, he had become DIO’s main operator and administrator.

Actually, to be precise, Merlin was now DIO’s sole operator.

Merlin had defeated Igniz and memorialized the day as Independence Day.

One might think that such a grandiose term was being misused, but this was not the case.

Due to the enormous losses that the earthlings suffered recently, many of them had yet to realize that they’d become completely free from the interference of extraterrestrial beings; they had truly gained independence.

“What’s going to happen to Tan?”

“Public opinion is against him… It’s to the extent that Tan may be dropped from the Noblesse Senate. Since the Netherworld has also filed a complaint to the Union regarding Tan, it’ll be difficult for the Noblesse to turn a blind eye and try to bury the issue.”

Tan’s liberation of Igniz, who had previously violated Union Law and had been officially considered a serious criminal, placed a great political burden on Tan.

Even though Tan had the stature as an elder of the Noblesse, he couldn’t completely hide his despicable actions, which had taken advantage of the shady loopholes within Union Law.

Had he succeeded, Tan might have gotten away with his shady acts, but since he failed, Tan’s options were greatly limited. In other words, Tan could no longer act or move carelessly.

“Well, anyway, that’s not important right now. Let’s go back to the main issue,” Myung stated.

“You mean the people in DIO?”

“Yes.”

Many people had died in the mass forced log-in incident, but the problem was that only their physical [bodies] were dead. Those who died in the large-scale forced login incident were still alive in DIO even though their real bodies had perished on Earth, were buried, and were given funerals.

This lack of a physical body was a [natural] result for most beings who had their souls stored in DIO. DIO NPCs were a prime example of that.

However, the current situation shocked and confused many earthlings who didn’t even know about the existence of souls, let alone information about soul transferring and storage.

“So, what will happen to those people?”

“I’m sure you already know the answer to that.”

Myung’s voice was calm, but the underlying meaning contained in his words was by no means light.

In short, Myung was telling Yongno that he wanted Yongno to use DIO’s management system to log out the souls from DIO.

“You’re asking me to kill hundreds of millions of people?”

Of course, as DIO’s main operator, it was a simple task for Yongno to log out the users. It was even possible to shut down the server itself and kick out all users from DIO, so logging out a few hundred million or so users wasn’t too big a task.

Nevertheless, if the souls of these specific users whose physical bodies had already died in the real world were sent back to Earth, their souls would all be transferred to the Netherworld.

It was extremely rare for a bodiless soul to remain on Earth.

“Why should I commit such a massacre?”

“Because it is in line with providence and the status quo.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Yongno laughed heartily. Of course, Yongno knew that the Grim Reaper in front of him was strong enough to kill him a hundred times over, but Yongno also knew that Myung would never be able to do that.

If beings from the Netherworld were able to act freely in that way, there would be no reason for Myung to show up and explain the situation so kindly and in detail to Yongno.

If a person had overwhelming power and moral superiority, why would they have to explain themself to another? It would be enough to just enforce the rule.

“Are you saying that you’ll go against providence and rules of the Netherworld?”

Myung had been smiling kindly, but his expression hardened at this moment, and his voice turned cold. Along with his chilling voice, the surrounding space seemed to freeze. Even Yongno, who had been preparing for Myung’s change in mood, felt short of breath.

‘Wow, amazing. His level is beyond the early 20s… Perhaps it’s the latter half of the 20s? No, maybe Myung’s already a mid-rank god (Level 30)?’

As Myung revealed his momentum and aura, Yongno felt a power that even the Grand Masters residing in DIO wouldn’t be able to contend against.

If Yongno had to define the power level based on his experiences…

‘Perhaps… the Emperor Rank?’

Myung didn’t launch a direct attack or mental suppression move, but a sense of fear washed over Yongno. If Myung really had the intent to kill and released his true power, Yongno might die from just Myung’s stare.

Considering that high-ranking beings rarely exerted their powers in the material world, Myung’s show of force didn’t seem to reveal his dominance over a single planet but over the greater universe.

“Are you threatening me?”

Even so, Yongno wasn’t intimidated.

There was no reason for Yongno to feel intimidated just because his opponent was strong.

In the end, weren’t beings like Myung restricted from freely operating in the material world?

“… Ugh, you’re driving me nuts.” Myung let out a deep sigh after seeing Yongno’s stiff attitude and hearing his response.

Violating the laws of the Netherworld was an unforgivable act, but strictly speaking, those who violated the laws were the Noblesse, not Yongno. Moreover, since Yongno was a natural citizen of Earth as he was a human that had been born there, the Netherworld couldn’t really enforce any punishments upon him.