Player who Returned 10,000 years Later
chapter-266

[They have entered, my king.]

"How many?"

[At least… three thousand people.]

"What?"

Oh Kang-Woo’s eyes widened.

Balrog smirked.

[It seems you have made far more connections than you had expected.]

"Hah."

He laughed in disbelief. He had never expected that thousands of people would accept a demon’s invitation to jump into an obvious trap.

’Come to think of it…’

Since his name had been appearing in mainstream media, he was becoming famous among the public and Players. Now, he couldn’t hide anymore, even if he tried. This showed how many things he’d done after returning to Earth.

"Urgh… But I hadn’t expected thousands to come."

Kang-Woo leaned back against his chair. The chair was made of tentacles that oozed sap. It was so horrible that looking at it made one want to puke.

’Well, it’s a fake…’

It was just a stage prop that would make things feel more real. This chair, which Lilith had made, looked so horrible that even Kang-Woo was reluctant to sit in it.

’As for what it was made with…’

He decided not to think too deeply about it.

The tentacles kept rising from the chair to poke and embrace the area near his groin. Kang-Woo moved his butt around in displeasure, which made the entire chair tremble for some reason.

"Well, in any case…"

Kang-Woo recalled the news that Barog had reported to him: more people had entered the dungeon than expected.

’It’s not a bad thing.’

One could say that it was good. After all, it was obviously better to have a bigger audience.

"Balrog, can you pull up the feed of the intruders?"

[Of course. Just a moment please.]

Balrog brought over a black crystal orb, and Kang-Woo was able to view the dungeon’s interior with it.

The dungeon was bustling with three thousand people in it.

’I’m a bit moved.’

He felt moved after seeing how many people had gathered to save him.

’I guess I’m blessed with people.’

Kang-Woo nodded in succession while making a satisfied expression.

It felt as if his efforts to save the world were being rewarded.

Although the actual reason why so many people were gathered was likely because of the sheer authority of the people he was close to, such as Tian Wuchen, Gaia, and Cha Yeon-Joo, he decided not to bother with the details.

"Hm…?"

As Kang-Woo was looking over the Players swiftly dealing with the trap that had activated as soon as they had entered the dungeon, he happened to see a certain woman.

"Ah."

The woman was healing the Players injured by the trap. Her glossy black hair had turned into a dry mess, and there were dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn’t been able to sleep for days.

Kang-Woo was able to tell what she had gone through these past few days from her red eyes and haggard face.

Her usual kind eyes were filled with madness.

"Darling…"

More sorrow dyed Kang-Woo’s expression than he had ever experienced before. He had honestly expected Han Seol-Ah to become like that from the moment he had thought of this plan.

"Haaa…"

He sighed.

There was nothing he could have done about it if he wanted to definitively separate ’Oh Kang-Woo’ and the ’Demon of Prophecy,’ but he couldn’t stop feeling sad.

"Kang-Woo, Seol-Ah is…" Echidna, who was watching the video with him, mumbled sadly.

"…"

Echidna knew Kang-Woo’s situation, but there was no way that looking at Seol-Ah like that would be easy for her.

Kang-Woo wasn’t often in the house because of the many things he had to do, so Echidna spent most of her time with Seol-Ah. She’d probably spent more time with her than with Kang-Woo.

"Sh-She seems to be h-having a hard time."

Halcyon hadn’t known Seol-Ah for long, so he said in a comparatively calm voice, "I-I’ll c-comfort you."

Halcyon carefully extended his hands toward Kang-Woo and embraced his head. His flat chest touched Kang-Woo’s cheek. He—or, to be more precise, he who was slowly becoming a she—smiled.

Although Seol-Ah had treated Halcyon kindly when he had been trembling from anxiety due to Kang-Woo being nowhere in sight when he had woken up, he honestly did not care much about whatever happened to anyone other than Kang-Woo.

Only Kang-Woo existed in Halcyon’s world, and nothing else mattered.

Kang-Woo said, "Haaa. Alright, everyone get ready. You all know what to do, right?"

"Ah, y-yes! Of course! I-I’ll make sure to be of help to you, M-Master Kang-Woo!"

Halcyon clenched his fists, his eyes filled with determination. His long silver hair danced.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes and looked at Halcyon.

’You’re honestly the one I’m most worried about.’

He was the strongest of his subordinates, but strength was not the key importance in this plan.

"Kang-Woo… you have to treat Seol-Ah well after this, okay?"

"Of course I will."

Kang-Woo patted the sad Echidna’s head.

Although there was nothing he could’ve done about it, he needed to make it up to Seol-Ah for putting her through such a hard time.

’Si-Hun and Yeon-Joo, too.’

Besides them, there were many people he was sorry to, for example, Kang Tae-Soo and Gaia, among others.

’Well, I have to get this mess resolved first.’

If he wanted to have the leisure to make it up to everyone later, he first had to extinguish the fire burning his feet.

"Balrog, show me the map of the dungeon again."

[Yes, my king.]

Balrog showed him the dungeon blueprint.

Balrog and Lilith had helped a great deal with constructing this dungeon, which they only had a few days to build. Thanks to the experience of having built a dungeon previously, they’d created many parts in great detail.

’If I had to do this alone… Sheesh.’

Kang-Woo shook his head.

This dungeon was five times bigger than the one they’d created before to corrupt Ludwig. Kang-Woo’s demonic energy had skyrocketed compared to back then, so they were able to make it much bigger.

He couldn’t even think about how much he would’ve struggled if he had to fill the interior all by himself.

’I mean… there was a slight mishap in the naming process.’

However, no one seemed to pay much attention to the dungeon’s name since a trap had activated as soon as they entered, just like what had happened with Ludwig.

"Echidna, you go here. Halcyon, here. Balrog, stand by over there."

The dungeon was structured like a labyrinth resembling a net. There was no way three thousand people could move all together, so they would naturally divide into groups.

Kang-Woo wanted the leads of the stage, such as Si-Hun, Yeon-Joo and Gaia, to lead the groups to where Kang-Woo was.

’You gotta have traps and minibosses along the way to make it feel more real.’

It couldn’t be too easy or too hard.

Only after one desperately survived hardships would the hard-earned victory have meaning.

Balrog, Echidna, and Halcyon would be in charge of the balance.

[Hm. I have a question, my king.]

"What is it?"

[Who are you going to reveal as the Demon of Prophecy?] Balrog asked while tilting his head.

He’d heard everything from Kang-Woo.

Since he’d failed to make Satan the Demon of Prophecy, he had to find another demon as an alternative, but he had not given them any instructions in regards to that.

"I’m not gonna reveal it."

[Pardon?]

"The identity of the Demon of Prophecy will stay within this labyrinth."

[But…]

Balrog seemed confused.

Kang-Woo had prepared angel wings dyed black and a red demon mask to hide his face. They were the props he had prepared.

"Well… you’ll see."

Kang-Woo laughed.

There was a way to hide the identity of the Demon of Prophecy while clearly showing his existence.

From the moment Si-Hun had entered the dungeon, 90% of the plan had already succeeded.

"Oh, right. Suggest me an angel name."

"An angel name?"

"Yeah. Any name that ends with -el."

Balrog fell into thought.

"How about Michael or Gabriel—"

"Those already exist."

"How about… Rakiel?"

"Oh, not bad. Where did you hear that?"

"Mm… I am not sure. It suddenly came to mind, but I do not really remember."

"Well, I guess that’s fine."

Kang-Woo shrugged.

Rakiel… It had a nice ring to it.

"Make sure you all stay true to your roles and change into the disguises that Lilith prepared for you so that no one recognizes you. Everyone has their voice-changers, right?"

"Yeah. Lilith prepared them for us," Echidna answered.

"Try not to kill anyone even by mistake."

It would honestly be better if they killed a few people to make the stage feel more real, but not even Kang-Woo had the slightest intention to kill the people who had come to save him.

"Alright, begin," Kang-Woo commanded after receiving the video crystals installed in various areas of the dungeon.

Halcyon, Echidna, and Balrog each moved to their positions.

Moments later…

- Kuh! Wh-What the hell is that tentacle dragon?!

- A-A succubus…?

- You idiot! There’s no way a succubus would look that hideous!

- Sh-Shit! Wh-what’s up with that muscle monster?!

Screams spread out from all around the dungeon.

He saw that the rescue party, which had divided into groups, was struggling because of the minibosses.

’Right, how’s Si-Hun doing?’

Kang-Woo turned on the feed where Si-Hun was.

- Advance.

’Man, he’s advancing like crazy.’

- C-Captain! This is a trap area—

- Advance.

’Huh?’

Huff! Huff! H-How about we take a short brea—

- Advance.

’Hey, don’t overdo it, man. Someone’s gonna die at that rate.’

- Undead!! Undead made with the corpses of angels…!

- Advance.

’Crazy son of a bitch.’

Si-Hun was advancing at insane speeds while wiping out all the traps and monsters in his path.

’Stop, you idiot!’

He’d placed the traps in a way that minimized the risk of death, but recklessly advancing like this would cause deaths. People in Si-Hun’s rescue party group were being wounded one after another.

- C-Captain… th-the wounded are…

- The injured can fall back. The rest of us will keep advancing without rest.

’Hey, Si-Hun…’

The dungeon clearing, which Kang-Woo had expected to take about three days, was being cleared at an astronomical pace.

’Stop.’

He had been planning on fine-tuning the situation leisurely, but he was forced to quickly get his costume ready. He honestly had not been able to get everything ready due to the time constraint.

- Advance.

’Take a break, dammit. You’ll exhaust your Qi and die at this rate.’

- Advance.

"Don’t."

BANG!!

"For fuck’s sake."

Eight hours after entering the dungeon, Si-Hun broke down the wall and reached the last room.

* * *

"Huff, huff."

"Y-You crazy son of a bitch…"

Pained groans sounded from all around.

Yeon-Joo, covered in wounds, collapsed in place.

The same went for Wuchen—he knelt on one knee and vomited blood.

"Cough! Cough!"

Si-Hun blocked his own mouth. Red blood flowed from his mouth due to him drawing out even his innate Qi.

Despite that…

"Kang-Woo… hyung…"

He kept going forward while staggering.

At that moment…

Clap, clap, clap.

"I’m surprised you managed to get all the way here."

An anonymous person appeared at the end of the tunnel. He was wearing a red demon mask and had black angel wings.

"Who…"

He seemed different from the Demon of Prophecy, whose body had been made of black mucus. Not only did they look different, but their atmosphere and voices were also completely different.

Si-Hun’s eyes shook after he saw that someone that wasn’t the Demon of Prophecy had appeared.

"I am Rakiel, the king of ’Corruption’ among the Four Heavenly Kings."

"Rakiel…?"

Si-Hun frowned at the mention of a name he hadn’t heard before. He looked around. Everyone else also seemed to have never heard of the name.

Kang-Woo—no, Rakiel—was smiling behind the mask.

’Of course you’ve never heard of it before.’

He had only just heard it as well.

Kang-Woo nodded in satisfaction with the name that Balrog had made for him.

’The name doesn’t matter anyways.’

What mattered was that Rakiel was an imaginary being that Kang-Woo had created. Since he wasn’t real, the issue with the real one appearing like what had happened with Satan would not arise.

’Shiiiet, Four Heavenly Kings, huh? It’s cool as fuck!’

He felt proud of what he’d come up with.

A way to prove the existence of the Demon of Prophecy while hiding his identity…

The best way to do that was to create a subordinate that served him.

’And with this, there’s absolutely no chance of my true identity being found out anymore!’

From now on, he could just use the imaginary card that was Rakiel in situations similar to past ones that had required him to use the Satan cheat code.

Rakiel wasn’t the ’Demon of Prophecy,’ but his subordinate, so there was no danger of Gaia appearing out of nowhere and trolling.

’Now, I can just keep the identity of the Demon of Prophecy hidden within this dungeon forever and use Rakiel whenever I need to.’

There wasn’t a risk of being discovered as the Demon of Prophecy anymore.

’Yes, this is it!’

Kang-Woo shivered in excitement. He had been in need of a coin that could replace the Satan Coin that had crashed into oblivion.

’I just needed to make one.’

As if creating something out of nothing, he just needed to create a coin he could buy.

Kang-Woo nodded in satisfaction. The peak of the setup wasn’t simply creating the Rakiel Coin.

"Four Heavenly Kings…?" Si-Hun mumbled with a hardened expression. Something flashed past his mind. "C-Could Satan have also been…"

"Keke, you are quick on the uptake."

"So Satan was also one of the Four Heavenly Kings!"

Satan had pretty much become irrelevant at this point, so it was time to let him go. Although it had not been intended, it had pretty much been revealed that Satan had been a pawn of the Demon of Prophecy all along, so there was no reason to doubt it.

Kang-Woo threw a prop he’d prepared beforehand to Si-Hun.

Thud, roll—

Si-Hun grabbed the item on the floor. His eyes widened.

"Th-This is…!"

"How dare you compare me to Satan?"

The thing that the man with black wings had thrown to the floor as if it were trash was… Satan’s head.

"He was but the weakest among the Four Heavenly Kings."

Kang-Woo—no, the king of Corruption among the Four Heavenly Kings, a former noble angel who had ended up serving the Demon of Prophecy, dying his wings black…

Rakiel burst into laughter.

- Waaaah. Stop… Please stop, you son of a bitch…

He heard a faint voice from somewhere but ignored it.