Chapter 90
1.
Ever since humanity encountered the Mogs in the Space Era, it assigned color-coded difficulty levels to planets in space.
There were many factors that determined the difficulty.
The condition of the terrain, the amount of resources, gravity, climate, and so on - there were so many aspects that ordinary people would ask, “Do they really need to include all this?”
However, in reality, there was only one absolute factor that determined the difficulty.
“So, how many Mogs reside on that planet?”
How many Mogs were there?
First of all, the first cutoff was 1 million.
So if a planet had fewer than 1 million Mogs, that planet usually received a red level.
Conversely, if there were 1 million Mogs or more, it received an orange level designation.
It wasn’t simply because there were a lot of Mogs.
Having 1 million Mogs or more meant that the environment was that much more favorable for mog hatching.
In the case of a Yellow Level, that number increased to 10 million.
This number was practically impossible to eradicate by hunting Mogs, so nuclear bombs were dropped only periodically on a Yellow Level planet, and planet development was not undertaken.
Then this question arose.
If there are 100 million Mogs, is it a Green Level?
However, this could not be answered.
Firstly, while humanity had seen many planets so far, it had never once discovered a planet with 100 million Mogs.
They merely imagined it.
What would happen if there were 100 million Mogs?
First, everyone said this.
For that number of Mogs to be born, the amount of resources there would have to be ridiculously large.
And at the same time, there would be a hatchery of ridiculous scale.
[100 million?]
[Really? 100 million? Crazy!]
[W-we’re in big trouble!]
[Yeah, it’s a big deal. When are we going to hunt 100 million of them?]
[T-that’s true, but if it’s 100 million… the number of special individuals will be in the tens of thousands too!]
[Ah.]
Crucially, the number of special individuals would also be so high that it had never been seen on other planets.
[Don’t tell me heavyweights are going to show up or something?]
In that situation, everyone’s minds grew dizzy.
Kim Seojun was the same.
He had thought it wouldn’t be easy.
However, the situation they actually faced on Kasaknat’s home world, Planet Pora, was extremely serious.
Of course, that didn’t mean he despaired or anything.
They hadn’t come here for something like the annihilation of the Mogs.
It was for a rescue, and Kim Seojun’s Group had more than enough capability for that.
If push came to shove, they could just use the warp skill and return to earth.
Therefore, Kim Seojun first focused on slipping through the Mogs that currently filled every direction.
It wasn’t a difficult task.
By using three skills - stealth, haste, and teleport - there was nowhere Kim Seojun couldn’t go.
Of course, as he came out, Kim Seojun saw it.
“My god.”
A truly ridiculous number of Mogs were swarming together.
Even for Kim Seojun, who had seen all sorts of ridiculous sights so far, the sight of Mogdogs lying face down, bodies hunched over due to lack of space, stretching out endlessly, was incredibly dizzying.
Afterward, having reached a safe area, Kim Seojun told his comrades in the inventory about the situation.
At that sight, everyone was left speechless.
Kasaknat was the same.
[Oh, Jumara.]
He had thought the situation was bad, but the state of his home planet he actually faced was at a level impossible to explain with the word 'devastating.'
Looking only at the situation, it would be better for Kim Seojun’s Group to use the warp skill and return to earth right now.
Of course, no one in Kim Seojun’s Group had any intention of saying something like 'let’s go back.'
They merely spoke.
“We don’t have time.”
Whatever they did, they had to hurry.
“Where do we need to go?”
At those words, Kasaknat spoke without the slightest hesitation.
[Kakom, we must go there.]
2.
Someone once said.
“Space is far too vast. It is far too inefficient for only humans to live in such a vast place. Another alien civilization must surely exist.”
So when the Space Era arrived, humanity anticipated an encounter with an alien civilization while simultaneously worrying about it.
Stories about an alien civilization more advanced than humanity destroying it had come out so often it was now tiresome.
However, in the actual Space Era, humanity did not encounter an alien civilization.
So humanity thought.
That alien civilizations did not exist.
But contrary to that thought, there were far more alien civilizations in outer space than humanity thought.
And among those alien civilizations, the one that reached the very pinnacle was the Xeno species.
Around the time humanity still thought earth was stationary and space revolved around it, the Xeno species was already operating at a galactic level, roaming space.
And at that time, the Xeno species was expanding its influence very aggressively.
However, all greed is bound to face ruin.
The Xeno species was the same.
Their excessive greed eventually led to an unspeakable war, and in that war, the Xeno species suffered irreversible damage.
They lost the profound technologies they had achieved, lost their weapons, and the home planet of their species, the starting point of the Xeno species, became stardust.
Afterward, the surviving Xeno species thought.
[Our ancestors faced ruin as the price for ignoring the balance of the universe. Therefore, in order for us to survive, we must become the Balancer of the Universe.]
They should now lay down all greed and dedicate everything to the balance of the universe.
Under that value, the Xeno species gathered the technologies left behind by their brilliant ancestors and rebuilt their civilization.
Of course, the civilization they built was different from the past.
They no longer acted out of greed.
At the same time, they thought.
[All greed stems from numbers. Our ancestors built massive cities, and those cities eventually became the starting point of ruin. Do not gather.]
That they should live divided.
From then on, the Xeno species began to place a limit on the number of people who could reside on a single planet.
They also limited the number of people who could live in a single city within that planet.
They lived thoroughly divided.
Kasaknat’s home world, Planet Pora, was the same.
Only five cities existed there, and the number of people residing in those cities was strictly limited to 999, and that number was managed so thoroughly, almost desperately.
So when the Xeno species had a child, from that moment on, one of the parents had to leave the planet.
That was the rule of the Xeno species.
Conversely, there was only one way to return.
Only if the child died.
Of course, not all of these rules were strictly followed.
Xenos received training and education to control their emotions from a young age, but the heart was not something that could be controlled as one wished.
Above all, the Xeno species was by no means a good species by nature.
They were beings who had started a massive war capable of putting space in danger.
So they placed beings in each city to protect these rules of the Xeno species, and these beings were the priests.
These priests, naturally, possessed incredibly powerful strength.
Not only did they possess physical strength, but they could also wield Akar, a power that only the chosen ones among the Xeno species could use, the power to move objects with will alone.
There was also a priest in Kakom, one of the cities on Planet Pora.
His name was Babamut.
In fact, he was not someone who belonged as a city priest.
He was originally someone walking the path of a High Priest, and was a very strong candidate for High Priest.
That was a tremendous thing among the Xeno species.
A High Priest was not a simple executive, but a being who could exert the most powerful influence in maintaining the balance pursued by the Xeno species.
However, for some reason, he voluntarily gave up the path of a High Priest and became the priest managing Kakom on the remote Planet Pora.
And most of what he did in Kakom was teaching children and going to places that needed help to provide it.
Nowhere was there the feeling that he had been a High Priest candidate.
To the children of Kakom, Priest Babamut was merely a fun, yet slightly foolish, being - just that kind of existence.
[Oh, Jumara!]
However, right now, there is no sense of fun or foolishness anywhere in Priest Babamut.
Rather, at this moment, an unfathomable aura was pouring out from Priest Babamut’s body.
It wasn’t just his momentum.
Kkieeeek!
Priest Babamut did not cower in front of so many Mogs that estimating their numbers was pointless.
Kkieeeek!
Far from cowering, the moment the Mogdogs rushed at him, Priest Babamut spread and swung both hands.
Whoooosh!
Then, an invisible force, Akar, was exerted, crushing the Mogdogs just like that.
Crunch!
Then the Mogdogs began to explode as if crushed in the palm of a giant.
That wasn’t the end.
[Oh, Jumara!]
As Priest Babamut brought his palms together with a prayer, all the Mogdogs within a 30-meter radius centered on him rose high into the sky just like that.
After that, they plummeted straight down.
Kkieeeek!
The plummeting Mogdogs screamed, and the other Mogdogs that collided with them also let out screams.
Like that, Priest Babamut was dealing with the Mogdogs swarming around him.
He was showing overwhelming authority.
But this was something that defied common sense.
Priest Babamut was currently showing overwhelming authority, and for him, floating his body with Akar was a laughable matter.
So right now, Priest Babamut had no need whatsoever to fight this hard.
He just had to fly away and escape.
Nevertheless, far from escaping, Priest Babamut instead did his best not to move a single step from the spot.
[You cannot pass this place!]
He intended to defend that spot to the death.
The reason was simple:
[Children, I am here!]
Right now, beneath Priest Babamut’s feet, the children of Kakom City were hiding there.
[Priest, priest!]
From beneath Priest Babamut’s feet, the children’s wills were being transmitted without rest.
Naturally, Priest Babamut had no intention of moving even a single step from here.
And he was confident.
[Children, I am here. Rest assured. Those things will not be able to harm you.]
Whether there were a thousand or ten thousand Mogdogs, Priest Babamut was confident he could block them all.
Kkieeeek!
[That is?]
However, the moment Thorn Snakes suddenly appeared in the distance, the situation changed.
Thorn Snakes, at least a thousand strong, swarmed in and soon planted their tails into the ground.
Meaning, they prepared to spew thorns toward Priest Babamut and the Xeno children hiding beneath his feet.
[Ah, Jumara!]
Faced with this fact, Priest Babamut let out a sigh.
He felt dizzy.
Of course, that didn’t mean he had given up.
One of the most important virtues for Xeno priests was to never give up until the end.
At the same time, it was not to fear sacrifice in any situation.
Priest Babamut was the same.
Becoming stardust could not instill fear in him.
[Jumara.]
For him, only one thing remained as a fear.
[Please grant these children a little more time.]
The fact that if he died, the children beneath his feet would die was his greatest fear.
At that moment, Priest Babamut was feeling the greatest fear and despair since becoming a priest.
It was then.
Pshhh!
The Thorn Snakes that had planted their tails began to spew hundreds of thorns simultaneously, flying toward Priest Babamut.
There, Priest Babamut exerted Akar to create an invisible wall above his head.
Pububububut!
The thorns of the Thorn Snakes began to stick into that wall.
It looked as if the thorns stopped in midair.
It was a marvelous sight.
However, to create that marvelous miracle, Priest Babamut had to pour in all the Akar he had.
Kkieeeek!
In other words, he had no way to deal with the swarming Mogdogs.
Here, Priest Babamut prayed earnestly.
[Jumara, please have mercy on the children.]
It was that moment.
Thud!
Suddenly, with the sound of something falling, a single being appeared among the Mogdogs rushing toward Priest Babamut.
That being immediately began to destroy the Mogdogs with overwhelming power.
Seeing that, Priest Babamut shouted in surprise.
[Kasaknat!]
[Priest Babamut, I have come to help!]
[Oh, Jumara!]
At Kasaknat’s appearance, Priest Babamut expressed the greatest surprise of his life.
He couldn’t help it.
It had already been decades since Kasaknat went out into space to maintain the balance of the universe.
He, who should be in distant space, was in Kakom City on Planet Pora?
This was something that couldn’t be achieved by even a miracle.
[Kasaknat!]
In front of such a miracle, Priest Babamut spoke:
[Leave!]
He told Kasaknat, who had come a long way, to run away.
Of course, it wasn’t for a reason like upholding the rules of the Xenos.
Priest Babamut was not so rigid as to enforce the rule of numbers even in this situation.
So, it was a desperate plea.
[There are children beneath my feet! Please take the children and leave!]
A plea to please save the children.
To that desperate plea, Kasaknat sent a will more full of confidence than ever before.
[It is fine. I have brought reinforcements.]
[Reinforcements?]
Priest Babamut was surprised by those words, and at that moment, Priest Babamut could see it.
The Thorn Snakes that had been tormenting him,
Swoosh!
Light began to fall upon those Thorn Snakes.