Chapter 333 (1/2)

* * *

Darkness settled after dusk had come to the world.

A trail of dust cloud was heading toward a small and humble-looking thatched-roof house located in the deeper part of a mountain valley.

Tadadadadada—

Inside the house, the Bull Demon King had just finished brewing tea and was about to drink it, but after hearing all those raucous approaching footsteps, he quietly put the teacup down.

Du-rururuk—

Bang—!

“Big brother!”

“You’re being too loud. You might break the door, too.”

The Bull Demon King spotted the tea’s surface rocking about and looked back at Sun Wukong with a somewhat stern expression.

If it was any other occasion, Sun Wukong would have calmed down a little after getting scared by that expression, but he didn’t budge an inch this time.

“Big brother, I heard that you went to see the fourth brother.”

“Did you hear that from the second brother?”

“That’s not important right now, is it?!”

Sun Wukong rushed over to the Bull Demon King’s side and settled down there. Even though they hadn’t seen each other for a while, the monkey king didn’t seem to be all that interested in the latter’s return.

Then again, the Bull Demon King was far too powerful to be worried about anyway, and more importantly, he hadn’t been gone as long as the fourth brother.

“Where did you see him? Was he doing well?”

“You know better than anyone that I didn’t see him on this side.”

“What I’m saying is, on which world did you meet him?”

“It was a place with many strange gods.”

“Can’t you, like, tell me in detail already?”

Sun Wukong’s highly excited face got really close, and the Bull Demon King lightly flicked his finger on his younger brother’s nose. He then began leisurely talking about what had transpired in the other world.

Unlike in the past, the Bull Demon King was now well aware of the kind of world Su-hyeun was originally from. Sun Wukong was currently climbing the tower, the one with countless many floors, the same as Su-hyeun, after all.

These two got to learn a lot more about who Su-hyeun was.

“Maybe because there’s no more need for secrecy, he told me quite a lot of things. Like, what the world he’s living in is like, what kind of people are around him, and how he’d been living until now.”

“That punk. He’s never told me anything like that, though.”

“And his life has been a lot harder than I thought. After listening to him, I finally understood a little why he was making those kinds of expressions when we first met him. He lives every day with billions of lives shackling him like a lump of lead, so how could he relax and be more carefree?”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Well, there is something like that.”

“Big brother! Are you going to keep the fourth’s matters a secret, too?!”

Sun Wukong shot up from the spot with a wounded face, but the Bull Demon King simply nodded his head as if it was the obvious thing.

“You should hear it directly from him when you two meet again later.” The Bull Demon King stared at his face’s reflection on the ceramic teacup’s surface and continued with a slightly sorrowful voice, “Because this tale isn’t something I should convey.”

“…”

After hearing that, Sun Wukong sat back down on the spot even though he was still frowning deeply. “Dang it.”

He couldn’t continue asking anymore.

Sun Wukong rested his elbow on his knee and placed his chin in his hand. The Bull Demon King saw that and smiled faintly. The monkey king must have been worried about their fourth brother because his expression showed how jittery and nervous he was.

“If you keep climbing that tower, wouldn’t you someday run into him?”

“But I wanted to know when that will be. Could it be that I won’t ever get to run into him for the rest of our lives?”

Sun Wukong must have been feeling frustrated because he was replying with an unusually higher tone. Judging from what he said, he seemed to be worried about the possibility of never seeing Su-hyeun ever again.

“Hmm…I wonder about that.” However, the Bull Demon King’s thoughts were a little different from Sun Wukong’s. “I’m sure it won’t be that long from now.”

Those were some meaningful words.

Sun Wukong made yet another pouting unhappy expression and slapped his knee. “Fine, but when will that be, big brother?”

“I also don’t know that.”

“Brother, are you going for that ‘I know, but I’ll pretend to not know’ again? I mean, you didn’t even tell us and went behind our backs to meet the fourth brother all by yourself.”

“That’s because you’re still too lacking.”

“Ae brothers in arms.”

“Hmm, is that so?” Sun Wukong scratched his chin while thinking for a bit and then nodded contemplatively. “Well, since the fourth brother is a human, let us do that,” he said, the corners of his lips curling up ever so slightly. His expression said how hard he was suppressing a smile from breaking out. It seemed that he was feeling rather pleased after thinking about the future.

“Indeed, let us.”

The Bull Demon King began picturing it—him, the second brother, the Roc Demon King, the third brother, Sun Wukong, and the fourth brother, Kim Su-hyeun—all four of them together, drinking happily.

“It’ll be nice if that day comes sooner rather than later.”

* * *

[Strength: 101]

“…”

Su-hyeun confirmed his stat one more time and quietly stared at his palm for a little while.

It hadn’t been all that long since his strength stat had increased, yet it went up again. Was it because the trial was related to Hercules? Out of several different stats he had, it happened to be his “strength” that went up.

“Is this kinda like the evolution of godhood, then?”

According to what the administrator said, class differences existed even within the same type of godhood.

Currently, Su-hyeun possessed the godhood of strength and fire, and the fact that his strength stat had risen up indicated that the godhood of strength had gone up a level.

“It would’ve been nicer to have either agility or stamina rise up, though.”

In any case, an improvement in his stats was something to be happy about, like the sweet rainfall after a lengthy drought.

Although it was just a one-point increase, Su-hyeun began thinking that even if he were to fight Hercules again, he would not be pushed back so much now with his current level of strength.

Of course, he would still need another point added to his “strength” stat if he wished to compete with Hercules in purely physical power alone.

Su-hyeun sheepishly scratched his head while scanning his new surroundings.

Tumble, swah-aaah—

Splash, splash—

Tall waves crashed and scattered away. The sounds of the ocean coming from the beach felt so refreshing to him, while the bright and clear skies above tried to burn his eyes.

Su-hyeun found himself standing in the middle of a small island, completely surrounded by an endless stretch of ocean. More correctly, on a beach where not even a single tree could be found, just plenty of sand under his feet.

“So, this is the 103rd floor.”

He couldn’t see the administrator for the floor. He couldn’t even sense any presence here at all. It seemed that just like the 101st and 102nd floor, this world had already been destroyed as well.