Chapter 136: Building a Nest (14)

"Still, it was a success."

Jinseong slowly stood up on a hillside far from the well. His body was covered in damp soil and grass clumps, and he smelled strongly of the mountain. He looked similar to a sniper in a Ghillie suit.

He lightly dusted himself off and enhanced his eyes to look at the End Times Well. Soldiers were boarding two-and-a-half-ton trucks to return to their base, and Seong Min-hyeok was also moving with them in Retona. However, he seemed to be arguing with the officer inside, either dissatisfied or troubled by something.

Hahaha. He looks like he's about to die of frustration.

The officer's face looked like it might explode at any moment as he spoke to Seong Min-hyeok. It wasn't an expression of anger, but rather one of unbearable frustration, as if talking to a wall. In contrast, Seong Min-hyeok maintained a stubborn attitude of 'I've said what I needed to say, and it's right, so you should understand.'

Jinseong didn't need to hear the conversation to guess what they were discussing.

But guessing and confirming were worlds apart. He focused intently on the inside of Retona. Then as if zooming in, the faces became clear, and he could read the movements of the officer's mouth.

『 I'm exclusively assigned to Elder Kim Jong-su! 』

Jinseong smirked at the officer's aggrieved expression.

"Oh my. That bear is coveting someone else's things."

From this alone, he could understand the conversation inside Retona.

Seong Min-hyeok was coveting Cheon Hui-su. He probably thought there was nothing better than someone smart enough to work well with him, yet someone he could still dominate, and it would serve as a light revenge against Kim Jong-su who had dumped work on him.

Of course, someone as dull as that bear-like character wouldn't actually covet the officer, but...

He must have gained some confidence from getting the second question right earlier.

Without much talent but just being somewhat smart, and realizing that even that isn't perfect, his hesitation disappeared and he became covetous.

Jinseong thought this wasn't bad either.

Like an ignorant ghost not recognizing a talisman, Seong Min-hyeok alone might actually be harder to deal with.

The impulsive actions of an ignorant person truly defied the imagination. It wasn’t just 'beyond common sense' like what smart people did. It was actions that you couldn't even imagine, completely outside the realm of thought.

For example, incidents like someone putting a Dybbuk box in a hydraulic press saying, "It said not to open it, but it didn't say not to crush it with a hydraulic press," releasing evil spirits, or people in a cold place drinking gasoline because they heard it had high calories, then vomiting near a bonfire and causing a massive fire.

Seong Min-hyeok was certainly capable of such actions.

But with an external brain, these variables could be reduced, and he would become easier to control.

Of course. It's a precious Patriotic Association line, it should be easy to control.

Jinseong thought this, then pondered for a moment.

By the way, was it the Patriotic Group managing this place at this time before the regression, or is this happening because the future has changed?

If it was the same before the regression, this was just a happening due to Jinseong's lack or inaccuracy of information.

But if it was different from before the regression, it meant the future had changed, indicating that Jinseong's actions were starting to influence the world.

Deep in thought, Jinseong picked up a few stray branches and began to burn them with samadhi fire in his hand. As the branches dried out, he inserted embers into them and started shaping them in a specific way while partially burning them.

Eventually, the branches took on a shape similar to chopsticks, resembling the divination sticks carried by fortune-tellers.

However, Jinseong didn't use them for divination. According to the I Ching method, 50 sticks should be used, but he only had 4. Instead, he set the branches at an angle to form a shape with one vertex, which looked exactly like a square pyramid.

He stared at it quietly, then sat cross-legged. As he silently opened and closed his mouth, the ground beneath him began to stir. A hole formed in the stirring ground, and something slimy began to emerge from it.

Gold.

The gold that had fulfilled its role at the well earlier had swam through the earth to reach Jinseong.

Jinseong closed his eyes and guided the flowing liquid gold to the square pyramid.

The gold settled around the pyramid like a pond, and some of it climbed up the branches to fill the very top. As the top filled with gold, grooves spontaneously appeared, drawing a pattern that looked very similar to a human eye.

The pupil tilted right and left repeatedly as if alive, and eventually focused its gaze in the direction where Jinseong was sitting.

The mysterious eye of the pyramid.

The eye examined Jinseong closely.

It shone a light on Jinseong mechanically, as if a machine scanning, and looked him over from head to toe with the eyes of a king looking at one of his insignificant subjects, then closed its eyes as if uninterested.

Seeing this, Jinseong nodded.

"My presence isn't that significant yet."

It was a method of measuring the threat level of external beings by borrowing the gaze of the soul protecting the physical body sleeping inside the pyramid.

Of course, this method wasn't accurate and was rather crude, but it was a way to lightly measure one's presence.

Here, presence referred to the influence one had on the world. Not simply how much qi one had accumulated in their body or what kind of magic they could use, but the ability to influence the world. In other words, it referred to intangible things like having many karmic connections between people or having a grand destiny.

Naturally, a monarch above many people exuded a stronger presence than a martial artist with a sword, and a general leading an army felt a stronger presence than a lone traveler who could take on ten thousand.

In a way, this sorcery connecting presence to threat level could be seen as a representation of Egyptian civilization's pride. It implied that no matter how strong an individual might be, they could never harm Egypt.

The method of measuring threat level not by force but by numbers and influence contained the confidence that unless one had an enormous number of soldiers or was a powerful monarch, they could never violate Egypt.

However, history proved that this Egyptian confidence was arrogance.

This was proven by the ancient divine sorcerer who led a group out of Egypt, the curse of the Jews that fell across Egypt, and after the regression, the necromancer with the power of a one-man army who sought records of the Book of the Dead.

But even if it was arrogant, the technique itself wasn't wrong. At least, presence and ability were indeed proportional.

And now, the sorcery measuring presence was saying that Jinseong was a useless existence.

It was saying he was like a child with no power, unable to properly exert his presence.

A person can only stand on their own and live independently when they become an adult. And only when they can move forward on their own can they write history with their own hands. The coming-of-age ceremony is a ritual that clearly imprints one's existence on the world, a turning point that allows one to exert influence on the world.

He hadn't gone through the coming-of-age ceremony.

Because he wasn't yet an adult, he couldn't extend his influence to the world.

Jinseong accepted the result of the sorcery.

If he were a martial artist, summoner, or mage, such a result wouldn't have come out. But because Jinseong was a sorcerer using sorcery and symbols, he was bound by the incredibly important symbol of 'adulthood' for humans.

And, if that sorcery was saying this...

I must have had the wrong information.

The result of the sorcery was saying:

The world doesn't change that easily.

The actions of a mere individual can't change the great flow of the world.

Even if you've been moving around after the regression, that alone isn't enough to change the future.

Let's see. If that's the case, I can build a good relationship with the Patriotic Association without much worry.

But Jinseong didn't mind.

He hadn't really been active, just establishing the basics of sorcery and moving around a few places to create a base, so what was there to be disappointed about?

The important thing was sorcery, and to become closely related to the Patriotic Association for sorcery, and for that, he needed to show them help in the crisis that was coming.

Jinseong took out his smartphone and sent a text to Rise.

『 Do you have any techniques for creating or controlling yokai? 』