D.I.O

If someone were asked a year ago to pick the most famous person in the world, several people would have been mentioned: the President of the United States, a world-renowned singer, a Hollywood movie star, and so on.

However, if someone were asked now to pick the most famous person in the world, there would be only one answer: Arthur—the Knight of Light or also referred to as the Knight of Brilliance.

Arthur had acquired divine status in a human body and eliminated the extraterrestrial threat to humankind, and he was the first user to step into the transcendent realm.

Just a few weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of casualties occurred daily on Earth. It wasn’t unusual to see a powerless country destroyed or a government collapse overnight, but Arthur solved this humankind crisis swiftly. This was all possible because Arthur removed the Dimension Terminal, which the Legion troops used as a summoning portal, and the Darkness, which was used by the Grotesque to infect human beings.

The Legion nor the Grotesque had any bases within a ten-million-light-year radius of Earth’s solar system, so the two forces could no longer inflict much harm on Earth and its inhabitants unless they reestablished a relay point to exert their power across the large expanse of space.

“In other words, you’re a world-class hero. Above all, didn’t you make a video of the entire process of saving Earth from Legion forces and air it in all the countries around the world?”

The countries that had negotiated and contracted with Seyoung were not limited to just Korea; most countries around the world were now contracted with Seyoung.

Even China, which largely excluded the participation of foreign heroes within its borders, Cuba, which was a dictatorship, and Iran, which was famous for its strict control of the media, had broadcasted Arthur’s video and informed the public of Arthur’s achievements.

“That’s a very roundabout way to ask why I chose to go in such a direction,” Seyoung commented.

“Hahaha, was it that obvious?” Yongno good-naturedly replied.

No one was around Yongno and Seyoung, who were currently smiling awkwardly. After the international conference meeting, the Knight of Light and the Great Mage began their own full-fledged conversation.

“Well, I guess it’s natural to be curious. I’m sure most people weren’t really expecting any act of sympathy from me at the time.”

“Right. I would have understood if you had saved the Earth without anyone noticing… No, more than that, it seemed a bit strange that you were still trying to save people after causing such an uproar in Japan. Moreover, it would have made sense to me if you took such action much later on, but you acted so soon…”

Yongno turned his head and looked out the window. It had become winter. The world outside the window was slowly being covered in a white blanket as snow lightly fell and gathered on the ground.

Seyoung had removed all the world’s Dimension Terminals and Darkness, but he hadn’t done that as a charity project. Additionally, there was a considerable time gap between those removals.

This was because Seyoung had stated conditions in exchange for his services.

Seyoung required that a country provide him with supranational authority, a considerable number of resources, and a concerted media effort at the national level to publicize his [heroic story].

In addition, Seyoung left the relay points in countries that didn’t accept his offer.

A country’s citizens couldn’t really be angry at their government when all countries faced attacks from the Legion and Grotesque. However, if it ever became known that tens of thousands of victims and immeasurable property damage were occurring daily because a country’s government refused Arthur’s proposal, the people’s anger against their government would inevitably rise.

Seyoung had accomplished the feat of removing the extraterrestrial crisis for humanity, but it was not an act that was done purely for heroism.

Like the heroes in Hollywood movies who did not act or move for nothing, Seyoung had a clear purpose.

The countries that contracted with him knew what the results would be if they agreed to his conditions, but in the end, they had no other choice but to listen to him.

Even though he had destroyed all the relay points that were currently present… this was just the first step. There was no guarantee that the Legion and Grotesque wouldn’t recreate some or all of their relay points.

The aliens’ attack could start again at any time, so it was a huge burden for a country to not contract with Arthur, who could travel around the world at the speed of light and easily handle any safety concerns.

“…You even went as far as filming a video and broadcasting it…”

After hearing Yongno’s words, Seyoung laughed, “Hahaha, yeah. I guess it does look strange and out of character for me, huh? Well, it was unavoidable.”

In truth, Arthur’s reasoning for why he instructed the countries to broadcast his video clip was obvious. It was to let the whole world know and imprint in every person’s mind that Arthur had saved the Earth and humankind. The scariest yet most dumbfounding thing about all this was that Arthur had truly saved Earth and humanity; there wasn’t even the slightest fabrication in detailing his actions.

The result of Arthur’s actions gained him adulation from the people of the world and brought about the deification of Arthur, the Knight of Light.

Heroes with transcendent superpowers in Hollywood movies hid their identities for a reason.

Unlike those with minor superpower abilities like Spider-Man or the X-Men, worldwide fame didn’t just end with acquiring fame for those with mighty powers like Superman, who could overturn the world order alone.

For a being with transcendent power, worldwide fame and respect became real power and currency.

If Arthur wanted, he could even become a nation’s president after naturalizing as a citizen of that country.

All kidding aside, even experts predicted that if Arthur were to naturalize as a US citizen at this very moment, he would be able to become the president in record time without any issue.

That wasn’t all. If he were to create a religion, he would be seen as the second coming of Jesus, and people all over the world would worship him as a god.

“No matter how I think about it, I still can’t quite understand.”

If someone else other than Seyoung had done what he did, Yongno wouldn’t have cared as much about the reason.

It wouldn’t have been difficult to understand regardless of whether it was for worldwide fame or power, which were things that everyone wanted. Nevertheless, Yongno would probably interpret that person’s action as being too worldly.

The Seyoung that Yongno knew was a man without much sympathy, especially after his mother’s death. Before his mother’s death, Seyoung had been a hero who seemed to have come straight out of a fairy tale because he was righteous and altruistic, and he had no qualms about sacrificing himself for the sake of others.

However, Seyoung had become a completely different person after his mother, who had been his only living family member, died.

So, even with his supercomputer-like brain, Yongno couldn’t understand Seyoung’s motives.

To say that Seyoung’s personality had changed as a result of shock was an oversimplification. If Seyoung were to have destroyed Japan and disappeared somewhere, Yongno would understand, but Seyoung had chosen to save humankind.

Seeing Yongno’s puzzled expression, Seyoung answered, “Of course, I’m doing all this with a purpose in mind.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Seyoung spoke calmly, but the firmness of his voice made Yongno aware that Seyoung would not divulge his purpose, no matter how persistently Yongno might ask.

It was true that Seyoung and Yongno were close friends, but their friendship didn’t extend to the realm of telling each other everything the other party wanted to know.

“Well then, let’s talk about work.”

“Alright. Come to think of it, you are much more amazing than I am. You took control of DIO, no?”

“Yeah… A kind of illegal seizure, if you will.”

Tan, who had been the sole owner and operator of DIO, had conducted illegal actions and dealings to exclude Jenica, the Empress of Magic, from DIO and deploy Igniz, a criminal, as a chess piece in his illegal schemes. Due to this, Tan didn’t have the moral authority nor the time to regain DIO. If Tan wasn’t careful, he might even lose his position as an elder in the Noblesse, so he didn’t have the energy or the time to care about what was happening on Earth.

“Thanks to what you did, the Noblesse’s interference on Earth has substantially weakened. To be frank… the real hero might not be me but you.”

Seyoung smiled and recalled the ‘patch notes’ that Yongno had explained to the influential people that attended the conference.

Each patch note was so shocking that just one of those changes would throw the entire world into immediate disorder and chaos, and Seyoung already knew what that meant.

“You’re thinking of raising the Earth’s civilization level.”

“That’s right. Also, I’m planning to accomplish this with a balanced approach that sufficiently develops both our magic civilization and machine civilization levels.”

Of course, raising the level of Earth’s civilization was something the enemies of humankind, the Legion and Grotesque, were also aiming for. If the civilization level of Earth increased, the level of mechanical soldiers that the Legion could dispatch would also be raised, which could ultimately bring about the fall of humankind.

The Legion continuously deployed mechanical soldiers that humans could counter against when attacking Earth. The overwhelming difference in numbers and the existence of Masters were the reason why the Legion were constantly defeated and why their forces were destroyed.

Moreover… the Legion’s superior scientific power, which was clearly superior over anything on Earth, was concentrated and available in the remnants the Legion forces left behind.

Of course, there was no way that the level of Earth’s civilization would rise just from the Legion’s constant invasions. However, if one studied the remnants of the Legion forces over a long period of time, Earth would inevitably develop into a mechanical civilization.

Of course, this wouldn’t happen if all humankind decided to collectively dispose of the remains of the defeated mechanical soldiers, but how could anyone control humankind’s desire for scientific advancement?

Earth would naturally follow a mechanical civilization development path because of this, and if that continued, it would be possible for the Legion to send more powerful mechanical forces.

Under this scenario, human extinction was a foregone conclusion.

“Of course, Earth’s eventual downfall from its one-sided development in mechanical civilization only makes sense if you’re not part of the equation.”

Nonetheless, this logical scenario fell apart when Arthur, the Knight of Light, entered the realm of transcendence.

No matter how many mechanical soldiers were sent to raise the mechanical civilization level of Earth, it was impossible to contend against and handle Arthur.

“Yes. If there’s a pseudo-transcendent being like me on Earth, it becomes almost impossible for extraterrestrial beings to interfere in our world’s development. Moreover, the home field advantage of being born and raised on Earth is truly enormous. Things would be different if a high-ranking god were to interfere, but there’s no way a high-ranking god would get involved in such a trivial planet as Earth,” Seyoung said, nodding in agreement with Yongno’s assessment. Then Seyoung smiled and added, “But you know… that’s not true, right?”

“… Yeah.”

Everyone in the world knew that Seyoung was a transcendent being. Everyone assumed that Seyoung had attained transcendent enlightenment and entered the realm of a lower god.

Yet, the truth was a bit different.