God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 279: Episode _Legend of the Demon World (12)

18.

The succubus did not hold back.

On top of that, Epia was the Queen of the succubi.

She had no use for pretense with the man who would be her lifelong consort.

Han Simin toppled under Epia’s overwhelming passion and turned the stream off.

[The broadcast has ended.]

—What the hell. Turn the stream back on.

—Hey. Report him.

—Already did.

—Ah, damn. He cuts it here?

—seething

The content hadn’t just been sufficient; it had been overflowing.

A live broadcast of a +15 attempt on the Demon King’s weapon.

Who in all of Fantastic World would even dare to attempt such content?

Even at the level range of the gear they themselves wore, there were countless people who would hype themselves up, saying they would attempt +10 on a Unique weapon and were ready to throw money at it.

And the viewers who watched those streams would applaud the streamers’ attempts.

But Han Simin was in a different class.

In enhancement streams, there was literally no one who could be compared to him.

On top of that, the tension was off the charts.

Even though viewers knew this streamer would somehow manage to succeed in the enhancement, even when he spent an entire day on a single enhancement, burning sacrifices and performing rituals and dragging things out until they were boring, his streams were so addictive that viewers couldn’t bring themselves to switch channels.

The fact that the screen was filled with beautiful women during the preparation phase certainly played a role. In any case, the 200,000-won stream had ended on a heartwarming note: after the twist of one weapon exploding, the Story Quest was successfully completed.

Only the little “side story” at the very end had been cut off.

However, for the viewers right now, that side story was the most important part.

—Please, slap a 19+ on it.

—You don’t get banned for this. Not for something like this. There are streams that just show skin outright, so why cut a story-critical scene!

—Ah, please. Lord Simin, I’m begging you. I don’t care about you at all. Just please let us see Epia.

—You can raise the price to a million won, I don’t care. Just let us hear the audio.

Even with R-rated movies, the ones with great stories drew big audiences, but in the end, the most important thing was the one or two bed scenes sprinkled throughout.

Not every viewer was like that, of course, but quite a lot of people judged the “completion” of a movie based on that.

Why would it be any different for a stream?

People were already saying Han Simin’s broadcasts should be evaluated as full-fledged films, and in fact, his war story—well, it wasn’t really ’his’, but the war broadcast he had filmed like a movie—had become so famous that people were seriously debating whether it could make it to Cannes.

So the viewers’ insistence that he had to show this was perfectly natural and reasonable.

But the stream remained offline, deaf to their calls.

The viewers had no choice but to gather and imagine.

What would Epia, who had been on top of Han Simin’s fallen body in that dark underground storeroom, do next?

After they dropped the twin swords, now a +15 one-handed sword, to the floor like worthless trash, what would the two of them do?

Why were the cops not kicking down the door?

Damn it.

They cursed like that as they speculated.

*

While Han Simin’s +15 enhancement was underway, the Heavenly King could do nothing but run in circles.

“It seems the demons are toying with us.”

Every time they arrived at a place where they sensed Aria’s presence, all they found were large groups of demons. Aria herself was nowhere to be seen.

It was impossible not to feel like the demons knew the Celestials had come to rescue Aria and were openly mocking them.

His brow furrowed.

It wasn’t because of the annoying demon traps.

“There is a possibility Aria is cooperating with them. Or she may have been brainwashed...”

It was because doubt kept creeping in.

The Celestials were not moving based on demon intel; they were tracking Aria’s divine power.

Even if the demons were exploiting that to lure the Celestials in, that would only be possible with Aria’s cooperation.

Even if he tried to lean on the “brainwashing” explanation, it was hard to accept the idea that she had been brainwashed by mere demons, or even by the Demon King.

Wasn’t this the same Aria who had stood before him and declared that even he was not above reproach, that his actions violated God’s will?

It would be a problem even if she ’had’ been brainwashed.

Even if they rescued her, would that be acceptable?

His thoughts grew more tangled.

“Where is Aria right now?”

“The source of the divine power is currently on the move.”

“If she wished, she could completely conceal her divine power. Why would she...” 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Heavenly King. I believe you must assume the worst.”

...

Even if she had gone over to the demons, if she still had any affection for the Heavenly King and the Celestials, any thought for them at all, she shouldn’t be actively helping to lure them into traps.

This was not something that could be brushed off as “helping out a little.”

The Heavenly King and the Celestials had crossed into the Demon World with their lives on the line, considering the current state of relations between the realms.

Solely to save her.

If Aria was now putting the Celestials in danger—

It was time to make a decision.

After wrestling with it, the Heavenly King spoke.

“We still don’t know for sure. We will find grounds for a firm judgment, and then we will decide.”

That was how deep the trust between Celestials ran, that even in this situation, he chose to preserve it.

*

...

Aria let out a sigh as she watched Han Simin and Epia emerge from the Demon King’s castle’s underground storeroom.

“So you really are the demons’ dog...”

“Dog? At least call me her consort. You’re the one freeloading off the demons and living comfortably right now, so why are you talking?”

“I...”

“Honestly, if there really were a god—no, if I were god—and I saw some Celestial sucker get tricked by a demon’s dog, put on a collar, come all the way to the Demon World, shake hands with the Demon King, and help enhance the Demon King’s weapon, I’d smite her on the spot. But there’s been no reaction at all. So there is no god. Or if there is, then he’s as fair to everyone as the Celestials like to claim.”

“That’s nonsense.”

“Look. The Heavenly King and the Celestials have already crossed into the Demon World, and he’s not lifting a finger to help them, is he? Proves my point. They go on about how God is omniscient and omnipotent, but he can’t even find you and is just flailing around.”

...

“They say they’re tracking you by your divine power, but all they’re doing is chasing random Sanctuaries around. From where I’m standing, holding hands with those idiot Celestials is way dumber than teaming up with the demons and living the good life. So just trust me and stick with me.”

“He’s right, Celestial girl,” Epia added. “You’re my consort’s dog, so I’ll make an exception and dote on you even though you’re a Celestial.”

She was standing in the middle of what should have been a den of villains, and yet, strangely, she did not feel any revulsion.

The thought that she should refute them right now and cut down this band of evil kept rising in her mind, but for some reason, her body wouldn’t respond.

Even though nothing was physically restraining her.

It was a change that had come from spending months together with Han Simin.

’Does a true god exist?’

If so, why was He putting her through this trial?

With her values in turmoil, she could not help but be swayed by Han Simin’s words.

That was why she had agreed when he told her to hide her divine power, and why she felt little guilt even as the Celestials walked into trap after trap.

There was no grand reason. When she traced her thoughts back to their source, wondering why she was doing all this, she arrived at the fundamental reason she had come here—or rather, the reason she had gone to the continent in the first place: the Heavenly King.

Of course, it wasn’t his fault.

She had been foolish enough to get caught by Han Simin and willingly put on the collar, and when you had nothing to do but think, resentment could creep in.

Still, he had come to rescue her, had he not?

If she made up her mind, she could risk her life and return to the Celestials right now.

With the two of them gone to the Demon King’s underground storeroom, the conditions for escape were more than sufficient.

But there was one decisive reason she didn’t go: she was confused now.

Even if she went back, could she really hate the demons as extremely as before and kill them?

The demons she had seen in the Demon World were, in truth, not so different from the Celestials.

Aside from the fact that they fought whenever they met, the demons formed families, lived ordinary lives, and didn’t spend all their time fighting.

Granted, most of the regions Aria had seen were places where people chose a fistfight over a greeting when they met, but among the areas she had visited while traveling for enhancements, there were also places where people lived peacefully, choosing to avoid conflict by mutual agreement.

The demons who lived in those places—if you ignored their demon-like appearance—were indistinguishable from humans or Celestials.

It was like a resident of North Korea seeing how people lived in South Korea.

And so, Aria was confused.

Which was why she made up her mind.

“Let’s go, darling,” Epia said to Simin.

“Hm? Where?”

“The Heavenly King is here. We should at least go say hello.”

“You sure about this?”

“Of course. With this, I’ll never lose to the Heavenly King one-on-one.”

“Oh yeah? Then let’s take down the Heavenly King and go loot the Celestial treasure vault.”

“Okay!”

“Let’s go, Aria,” Simin said.

“...”

She would see for herself, one last time.

19.

The Celestials were exhausted.

It had already been two weeks since they had come to the Demon World.

That was how long the preparations for the +15 had taken, and during that time, countless demons had stalled them.

The biggest factor, of course, had been Han Simin’s Sanctuaries.

The demons had to carry them around and expose themselves directly to the Sanctuaries, but for demons who charged in with the sole determination to screw over the Celestial bastards, that kind of sacrifice meant nothing.

Naturally, the demons lying in wait in those traps also threw themselves in without fear of self-destruction, and the Celestials’ casualties inevitably piled up.

Even so, the Celestials could not complain.

This was war.

They were the ones who had come here.

Who could they whine to?

Letting their fatigue show would only hurt them.

But no matter how hard they tried to hide it, too much time had passed.

They suffered no penalties in terms of sleep, but their mental exhaustion had gone beyond its limits.

“We will pursue them no further.”

By this point, even a mutt wandering the Demon World knew that the divine power they were chasing was not Aria’s.

They had been duped.

Their misunderstanding of Aria had shifted into a question of why she had hidden her divine power, but either way, they could not contain their anger.

So the Heavenly King changed tactics.

Their strength had diminished, but it was still formidable.

“If they won’t come to us, we will simply have to call them.”

His expression as he spoke was utterly cold.

With that, the Celestials stopped chasing divine power and began destroying everything in sight.

Of course, the demons did not care if the barren lands of the Demon World were blasted apart at random.

But it was different when it came to the places where ordinary demons lived together.

“Aaaah!”

Demons and Celestials were enemies on a level completely different from demons fighting each other to establish a pecking order.

Between the two races, any act of aggression was not only permitted but applauded, so long as one didn’t openly side with the enemy.

The Celestials’ massacre was no different.

It was only natural.

If the demons had gone to the Celestial Realm, the same thing would have happened in reverse.

They believed the death of a single Celestial weighed more than the deaths of ten thousand demons.

In their eyes, there was no problem.

The demons did not die feeling particularly wronged, either.

They simply cursed them.

There was just one problem.

“...Heavenly King?”

That, of all times, like something out of a drama, was when Epia arrived at the scene with Aria.

A historic meeting was about to take place.

*