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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 339
<Hmm? Why did we come here?>
Baal recognized the place.
“Yeah. This is where we first met.”
Because it was the place where Jeong-hoon and Baal first encountered each other.
<But why come here again? Isn’t this place useless?>
It wasn’t a place worth revisiting repeatedly.
Then why had he come again?
“Ah, I wanted to test the Genesis Engine.”
<My power?>
Tenebris tilted his head.
“Just watch for now.”
Jeong-hoon sat down and turned on the computer.
Of course, after the dungeon renewal, the internet no longer worked.
However, the internal programs still functioned properly.
“Don’t touch that.”
As he moved the mouse to run the program, Oh Jin-Soo, who had been standing still, interrupted and blocked him.
Though just a level 100 NPC, he was set to be unattackable, so attacking him wasn’t possible.
“Move.”
But Jeong-hoon subdued Oh Jin-Soo without a hint of hesitation.
A red aura of magic shimmered in his hand.
It was the Genesis Engine.
Using it, he partially erased some of the values assigned to the NPC, one of which was the unattackable status.
“If you touch that... kuhk!”
Jeong-hoon lightly twisted his jaw and neutralized him.
That should quiet things down.
He sat back down and resumed controlling the program with the mouse.
<Hmm, isn’t that the New World management program?>
Tenebris recognized the software.
“You know what this is?”
<Of course. The operation differs depending on the dimension, but the framework is mostly the same.>
“Hmm, then you must know what I’m looking for.”
<You’re trying to find a way to shut down the game, aren’t you?>
“Exactly.”
At first, he thought the game would end once he completed 100% of the episodes.
But he realized that was only a mechanism leading to a meeting with the Architect, and focused on gaining the power necessary to eliminate the Architect.
Later, through Tenebris, he learned that even eliminating the Architect wouldn’t end the game, and that’s why he came here to gather more information.
[Please enter the password.]
Password.
Jeong-hoon stood up and extended his hand toward the unconscious Oh Jin-Soo, letting the Genesis Engine flow into him.
‘Change his behavior.’
Perhaps because of Oh Jin-Soo’s low level, the task was completed smoothly.
“……”
Oh Jin-Soo, having regained consciousness, sat in the seat where Jeong-hoon had been and entered the password.
‘So this was it.’
The password Oh Jin-Soo had personally set was more complicated than expected.
A mix of numbers, letters, and special characters interspersed throughout.
Of course, for Jeong-hoon—who possessed a memory that transcended human limits—it wasn’t all that difficult.
“There, that should do it.”
Jeong-hoon sent the Genesis Engine into Oh Jin-Soo and detached him from the computer.
Taking the seat again, Jeong-hoon navigated to the surveillance tab in the administrator program menu.
After the world became real and the renewal took place, the surveillance program had stopped functioning.
That was only natural, since this program was originally designed to run while New World was still a virtual reality game.
However, previously stored files could still be accessed.
This system had recorded daily footage while the real-time surveillance program was active and saved it as files.
Upon entering the stored files, he saw that all dates prior to the world’s materialization were intact.
He randomly clicked on one of the files and opened it.
<Oh? Isn’t that you?>
Tenebris stared intently at the monitor.
On the screen was footage of Jeong-hoon acquiring the Red Dragon Bone Bow.
Originally, it would have been saved with mosaic censorship, but after the materialization, the censorship had been removed.
‘I did get the Red Dragon Bone Bow around this time.’
It didn’t feel that long ago, yet so much had changed.
Jeong-hoon checked videos from other dates as well.
As expected, they also showed scenes of Jeong-hoon in action.
Anyone would think this was a surveillance program dedicated solely to Jeong-hoon.
And understandably so—Jeong-hoon appeared in an astonishing 70% of the footage.
Back then, he was just a lone user, but to think he appeared this frequently.
<…Were you being stalked?>
Jeong-hoon gave a bitter smile.
“I already suspected it, so I’m not surprised.”
He had stirred up all of New World, so naturally, he had expected surveillance.
<Yeah? Then why are you watching this?>
“To erase all of it.”
<Erase it?>
“Yeah.”
Before the world’s materialization, the Transcendents had not intervened on Earth.
Then how had they obtained information?
It was through this program.
Aside from surveillance, the program held vast amounts of data.
All that information had been transferred to the Transcendents after the world became real.
<We already received all the information. Erasing it now is meaningless.>
At Baal’s remark, Jeong-hoon simply shrugged.
“Oh, I’m erasing it just because I don’t like it. My real goal is something else.”
<Something else?>
“This—Genesis Engine. It’s powerful enough to reverse time. If I use it, I should be able to modify the program.”
<Modify it?>
The dungeon that had appeared in the game.
That dungeon appeared exactly the same even after the world materialized.
Many aspects had been upgraded during the renewal, but the base itself hadn’t changed much.
So he began to wonder.
The program that made up New World.
Wasn’t that program still interfering with reality even now?
What would happen in reality if the program were destroyed?
Could it delay the endless destruction that kept happening no matter how much they tried to stop it?
“It’s worth attempting.”
Jeong-hoon sent out the Genesis Engine, enveloping both the mainframe and the monitor.
The only program Oh Jin-Soo had access to was user management.
Everything else had been blocked from access.
However, with the Genesis Engine, that barrier could be broken.
If he broke into the barrier and rewrote the rules, future access would become possible.
<That’s true.>
Tenebris nodded with a pleased expression.
‘He’s quite a decent human.’
The human he had chosen before had persistence and patience, but lacked the ability to break his seal.
He was truly a frustrating and pathetic man.
But Jeong-hoon, now before his eyes, was completely different.
Not only had he broken the seal, but now he was thinking of modifying the programming overlaid onto reality using what little Genesis Engine power he had.
‘He’s impressive.’
The game had been designed by a Transcendent of the God level.
However, the one who constructed the programming itself was a Named.
One of the Five—Logos.
He was a god who had built devices to bring about the destruction of dimensions, and this programming had also been created by his hand.
‘It can’t be completely destroyed, but modifying it should be possible.’
Wuuuuung—
At that moment, the mainframe began to vibrate violently.
“This won’t be easy.”
Breaking through the barrier had gone smoothly.
But the problem was accessing the code.
The moment it detected external intrusion, the code began to strongly resist.
It wasn’t unexpected, but an unexpected variable had appeared.
‘Why is it so complicated?’
He didn’t know how Logos had written the code, but decoding it was impossible.
<You can’t read the code?>
“Yeah. It’s way more complicated than I thought.”
<Hmm, it’s simple. I’ll decode it for you from here on.>
“You think you can?”
<What do you take me for? I may look like this, but I’m the one who made that guy kneel when he built this.>
Tenebris was that powerful?
Anyway, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.
Since he had tampered with the code, Escanon must have noticed by now.
He had to move as fast as possible if he wanted to modify even one more piece of code.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
<Understood.>
* * *
[!@#$ Entering code.]
With Tenebris’s help, the code was decrypted.
And in order to modify that code, the Code Sentinel guarding it had to be eliminated.
Jeong-hoon’s mind connected to the code through the Genesis Engine, turning his body into a hologram and allowing him to enter the code.
In an empty void, a sentinel formed of pure program pointed its spear at Jeong-hoon.
[Eliminating intruder.]
Jeong-hoon smirked and drew Titan.
At the same time, he stepped forward using the Heavenly Demon Lord’s Dominion and arrived in front of the sentinel.
[Activating Bane of the Heavenly Demon Sword.]
He then activated Bane of the Heavenly Demon Sword.
From the initial stance to the invasion and annihilation phases—it was all merged into one.
By condensing the chained sequence into a single strike, the destructive power had been greatly amplified.
As Jeong-hoon brought Titan down from above, the Bane of the Heavenly Demon Sword was completed.
Slash.
The sentinel tried to block it with its spear, but the sword ruthlessly severed the weapon and split the sentinel clean in half.
Boom!
The ground cracked and a quake erupted along with it.
“It’s over.”
With the sentinel guarding the code eliminated, it became possible to modify the code’s rules.
<Good. Then let’s get straight to editing.>
As if waiting for it, Tenebris quickly pinpointed the parts that needed to be modified.
‘This code forms the dungeon structure.’
In that case, it would be best to drastically lower the difficulty.
And massively increase the rewards.
Make the raid easy and leveling absurdly fast.
Ah, and boost the equipment drop rate, and make sure a large number of points can be obtained too.
Thanks to Tenebris’s decryption, Jeong-hoon learned that all the code had been changed during Escanon’s renewal process.
That meant Escanon had intervened and rewritten the code himself.
So to prevent Escanon from altering it again, Jeong-hoon finished it by applying a “Cannot Be Modified” flag.
After changing the rules, Jeong-hoon quickly moved to the next code.
Other pieces of code were also guarded by sentinels, and Jeong-hoon cut through them all as he went, modifying each code.
‘Oh, this one’s for an Abnormal Dungeon?’
While decoding, Tenebris explained it in terms Jeong-hoon could understand, and he realized this code formed one of the Abnormal Dungeons occurring in New York.
Jeong-hoon modified it so that no penalties would apply, lowered the difficulty, and set the rewards to max just like the others.
‘This is... a code for the Celestial Hall?’
It was a code related to the Celestial Hall, where Harphael, the Guide of the Heavens, resided.
At the end of the code, several other codes were densely attached.
‘Ah, so this entire code is a trial.’
[Eliminating intruder.]
[Eliminating intruder.]
[Eliminating intruder.]
There were even three sentinels guarding this code.
And they radiated a presence far beyond comparison to the sentinels from other dungeon codes.
‘No can do.’
Jeong-hoon smirked and stepped forward using the Heavenly Demon Lord’s Dominion.
Then, he activated Bane of the Heavenly Demon Sword and cut down all the sentinels, drastically lowering the difficulty of the trial.
Now, everyone would be able to obtain celestial power easily.
And that wasn’t all.
He also modified it so that upon obtaining celestial power, one could receive ultimate energy at Max level.
Though “Max” here wasn’t a full 100%, but only around 10%—still, it was something.
If he tampered with other codes to make the acquisition of ultimate energy easier, then ultimate power could also be gained in no time.
He wanted to modify it so divine energy could be supplied too, but it wasn’t possible even with the Genesis Engine, so he gave up.
‘The Genesis Engine... really is broken-level.’
<Of course, it’s my power.>
‘Alright. Then let’s move on to the next code.’
<Understood. More importantly, there’s not much time left. The Architect bastard is going to intervene soon. Hurry.>
‘Okay.’
Time to move fast.
If intervention came from above, he wouldn’t be able to modify the codes anymore.
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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