Chapter 66
After reaching level 30, I’d had a lot keeping me busy, so my pace of clearing Gates had slowed down.
The truth was, Gate difficulty shot up dramatically every ten levels.
That made Gates in the twenties a different matter from Gates in the thirties.
People were probably saying that even clearing the Gates in the thirties that had been declared impossible might be too much for me.
That was why the public thought I was focusing on business and putting off my Gate clears.
Kaiser’s strategy was probably based on the assumption that I’d clear one or two impossible Gates at most.
I planned to make a move that would shatter their expectations.
You think I’m going to speed up my leveling pace?
Then all I have to do is level up by clearing impossible Gates.
That was the only way I could increase my leveling pace while earning both the first-clear rewards and the rewards I’d negotiated from various countries.
Come to think of it, I’d forgotten about the level 30 reward.
[Using ‘Small Material Item Selection Ticket.’]
[You receive 1 kg of one material item of your choice.]
As for what material I needed right now... naturally, Blood Gold.
I’d replenished my Star Relics to some extent and finished upgrading my specs, but Athena was still exactly as she’d been when I first obtained her.
She hadn’t had many chances to come out lately, either, since my overall combat strength had risen so much.
But would I really get Blood Gold?
[You have selected the transcendental-grade material item, ‘Blood Gold.’]
[1 kg of Blood Gold has been added to your inventory.]
Oh, it really gives it to me.
Well, now... I knew what I had to do.
It’s been a while since I summoned you.
“Athena.”
─You summoned me, Summoner.
“...Your voice sounds a little cold.”
─I assure you, that is not the case. I have no emotions.
Right, must’ve been my imagination.
Anyway, sorry I haven’t called you in so long.
I don’t know if this counts as a reward, but...
“I got some more Blood Gold. It’s all yours.”
As soon as I set the Blood Gold I’d taken from my inventory down, Athena absorbed it in an instant.
One kilogram might not sound like much, but she’d grown quite a bit.
The transmutation of gold must be so efficient that even one kilogram can expand to a huge volume.
She’d gone from the size of a 15-centimeter figurine to a little girl about a meter tall.
She was going to attract a lot of attention.
And not in a good way...
As if she’d read my thoughts, Athena spoke at once.
“I can adjust my size.”
She grew taller, and before long she’d become a proper warrior woman, about 170 centimeters tall.
Wow, that’s the goddess Athena all right.
“In this form, I become too slender, lowering my defense and attack power. I do not recommend it.”
“Yeah, but if you have to stay in human form, I think you’d need to be about this size.”
If I went around with a one-meter-tall girl...
It’d be bad for my public image.
But Athena was firm.
“This is not a suitable form for responding appropriately. I can take this form temporarily, but I cannot guarantee your safety if I maintain it.”
“My safety?”
“I have confirmed the limitations of my ring form. If you permit it, I would like to accompany you in my manifested form.”
The limitations she’d confirmed...
Ah, was she talking about that sniper attack?
She’d reacted a beat too late.
She looked like her pride had been hurt.
“If I had been summoned in my manifested form, no arrow like that would have come anywhere near you.”
Yep, her pride was definitely hurt.
“Well, Senior Choi Kang has switched from guarding me to guarding Ms. Gyuseon now...”
Senior Choi Kang had agreed to guard Ms. Gyuseon instead of me for the time being.
If I hadn’t gotten my new hat, I wouldn’t have felt safe sending Senior Choi away, but the Circlet of Pope Alois made me feel a lot more secure.
“In any case, wouldn’t I be fine since I turn into a spirit when I take a blow that would kill me?”
No matter how many assassination attempts there were, all I had to do was block the first strike, pull out my staff, and use Sacrificial Offering.
I had more enhanced yeast than I knew what to do with from all the liquor I was brewing.
But then came a single remark that shattered my confidence.
“That item activates only when you suffer a blow that would kill you. In other words, it won’t activate for injuries that aren’t fatal, even severe ones.”
“...Right.”
Now I’m nervous again.
I can’t bring Senior Choi back to guard me, either.
“In my manifested form, I can respond to threats.”
“...You don’t just want to get out of the ring, do you?”
“I do not understand what you mean.”
“Never mind. I was joking.”
I guess I had no choice.
Was this what they called a chibi character...?
Anyway, watching the squat, one-meter-tall Athena toddle around was pretty cute.
And if I added Kkyu to the mix?
─Kkyu?
Kkyu crawled up onto Athena’s shoulder.
Then Kkyu promptly fell asleep, breathing softly.
Kkyu slept a lot since it was still growing.
Anyway, add one cute thing to another... and it was insanely cute.
For a while, I gazed at the two adorable little things with a blissful dad-smile.
**
The first time I took Athena outside, it caused an absolute uproar.
A scandal broke out claiming she was my secret daughter, but...
Surprisingly, the most common reactions to the scandal were:
─Breaking news! Urgent news! Germ Man has a secret daughter!
└Can you prove it with a photo?
└ (photo)
└Wow, that girl doesn’t look like she could’ve come from Germ Man’s face.
└That level of cuteness is genetically impossible.
─There’s no way someone that cute could be Germ Man’s daughter.
└Wait, did he have a kid with an elf?
└The only way that could happen is if she got all her genes from her mother.
└Somehow, those ugly genes are always dominant.
─You guys disrespecting our Germ Man hyung? (Hyung, so where did you adopt her?)
─Anyone see that girl walking around with Kkyu on her shoulder?
└Cute plus cute equals cuteness from another world.
└This is seriously insane.
└What’s the girl’s name...?
─The Kkyu Squad has a rival.
└Kkyu! (It means ‘Blasphemous! But still pretty cute!’)
└Kkyu! (It means ‘I still like Lord Kkyu more.’)
...Am I really that ugly?
Just as I was starting to feel a little hurt, I got a call.
─Um, Hunter Kim Segyun.
“Yes, Director Cho.”
─Well... it isn’t true, is it?
“...If you mean the secret daughter rumor, no.”
─Phew... what a relief.
What was that relieved sigh, like you were glad someone like me didn’t have a daughter like that?
─Then whose child is she...?
“She’s not anyone’s child. She’s a golem, a golem.”
─Gasp! Is that so?
“Yes, she’s Athena, the golem I summoned.”
─Understood. I’ll make sure that’s clarified.
“...Thank you.”
Once the government stepped in, the misunderstanding was cleared up in no time.
Every major newspaper ran corrections and clarifications.
[Secret Daughter Rumor? Hunter Kim Segyun’s ‘Summoned Golem Athena’]
[A Golem of Otherworldly Cuteness Appears? A New Kind of Cute, Following Kkyu. On the Aesthetics of Cuteness.]
─Figures. They said Germ Man’s daughter wasn’t real after all.
└I doubt even 10% of people believed she was his daughter.
└10%? I bet it wasn’t even 1%.
─Her name’s Athena. Even her name is gorgeous.
└Recruiting members for the Athena Squad right now!
└Even if you don’t recruit them, there are probably already about three thousand members.
The reaction online was even more explosive.
If she were my real daughter... then, to put it crudely, fawning over a child could raise unavoidable ethical issues, but...
If she was a golem, that problem disappeared completely.
She was the second mascot after Kkyu, but the impact seemed even greater.
She’d barely been revealed, and inquiries were flooding in from all directions, nearly paralyzing the SG Group PR office.
Most were sponsorship offers.
─I think every luxury brand with a children’s clothing line has contacted us.
I smiled awkwardly at Zephyros’s call. He was also the vice chairman who handled SG Group’s business for me when I was away.
Luxury children’s clothes for Athena, huh.
It might actually be cute.
─By the way, you really don’t have a kid, right...?
“I told you, I don’t.”
─...Sigh. What a poor guy.
“Look who’s talking. I’m still not past marriageable age, you know?”
Coming from a lifelong bachelor, that’s a lot of talk.
─Hey, when I was young, I had girlfriends by the truckload. Even now, whenever I go out, they all call me ‘oppa’...
“Sure, sure. I bet they do.”
─...Don’t end up like me. Make time to date someone.
“I have to actually have free time first.”
─I misspoke. Don’t wait for free time. Make time.
Even as I bantered with Zephyros through the Ansible Earrings...
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Level 30 Gate, ‘City of Little Assassins,’ cleared for the first time.]
I cleared Thailand’s impossible Gate.
The Gate was full of a colony of hundreds of millions of ants, and the clear condition was to exterminate every last one.
They weren’t even ordinary ants.
If you got caught by one, you’d be stripped down to your bones and dismantled in an instant...
In a way, they were similar to my Gluttony.
Of course, my Gluttony was much smaller and much more powerful.
So the colony of hundreds of millions of ants was dismantled and vanished in an instant.
This Gate had remained unexplored for decades, but it was cleared with ridiculous ease in less than an hour after we entered.
After that, from level 31 through level 36...
I cleared eight Gates across several countries, one after another, and reached level 36.
Eight first clears in just a few days.
Maybe in the earliest days of Awakening... No, probably not even then had anyone done anything like this.
The first one I cleared, the ant nest... I mean, the City of Little Assassins, was a little tricky. The rest had relatively simple mechanics that I could overcome with brute force.
And what happened after that?
[Is Hunter Kim Segyun’s approach to clearing Gates really the right one?]
[Content: Of course, he is a great Hunter. He hasn’t reached a high level yet, but he has already accomplished feats and made a mark that no one can deny. Everyone would agree that he has earned the right to challenge the title of the greatest in history.
(Omitted) However, there is something unsatisfying about his approach to clearing Gates. He does not level up at all by repeatedly clearing dungeons the way ordinary Hunters do. It is obvious that he is controlling his level to prioritize first-clearing as many unexplored dungeons as possible.
But unexplored dungeons—those Gates labeled impossible to clear—received that designation for a reason. There is no doubt that Hunter Kim Segyun is capable of clearing them, but it would take a considerable amount of preparation. As a result, relying only on impossible Gates to level up inevitably leads to slow growth. (Omitted)
Kaiser and Hunters around the world have declared the end of the Under-Seventy era. At the same time, they have urged Hunter Kim Segyun to join them.
Humanity has grown this far with nothing more than the ‘Under-Seventy’ era. We can’t even imagine what kind of by-products might come from Gates above level 70.
Of course, first-clear rewards are valuable, but we hope Hunter Kim Segyun will make a magnanimous decision for the advancement of humanity.]
Before I began clearing Gates, editorials arguing along those lines started appearing in media outlets around the world.
I could guess who was behind it, but...
After I cleared eight Gates in quick succession, there was no need for me to bother responding.
─That reporter’s a fucking idiot, lol.
└You can’t level up by clearing only impossible Gates? Say no more.
└This is fucking hilarious, lol.
─It’s me, hyung. I clear eight Wonders in five days. Yeah, yeah, that’s a fact.
└A considerable amount of preparation = one day.
─Is it even possible to go from level 30 to level 36 in five days? Who said Germ Man levels up slowly?
└It’s all thanks to the blessing of the Kkyu God, Kkyu!
└No! It’s the blessing of the Athena God!
The public was arguing on my behalf.
Some outlets got such a bad reaction that they either closed their comment sections or even took the articles down.
I didn’t care if they took them down.
My followers(?) were voluntarily bombarding other articles, too.
And so...
Kaiser’s attempt to sway public opinion through the media, a ‘method from the old era,’...
was being stopped by the power of the ‘public.’