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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 130: Zeus, Restrained.
A mark of electricity.
That was the first thought that came to mind when I saw the lightning embedded in the traces of the uprooted apartment.
Normally, real lightning just flashes and crashes to the ground in an instant.
But this golden current didn’t dissipate; instead, it flickered in a finely twisted state.
“Astrapē……”
Hades murmured quietly as he gazed at the lightning.
Elprian responded to Hades' words.
“Zeus’ divine artifact. An SSS-rank weapon, Astrapē.”
“Lightning has always been a symbol of the King of Gods. And Astrapē is the most powerful among them—the ultimate divine relic.”
“What does he plan to do with that?”
“Who knows……”
The golden lightning took on a distinct form.
At first, it wasn’t that large, but as it began spreading its currents in all directions, its size steadily increased.
As Astrapē grew, the screen zoomed out.
Ambulances and police cars dispatched to the accident scene now looked tiny compared to the expanding Astrapē.
It had already grown to the size of a neighboring apartment complex.
[Humans.]
A majestic voice echoed through the screen.
It was Zeus’ voice.
He was speaking in an entirely unfamiliar language, yet it was understood effortlessly.
The divine speech that a god grants to lower beings.
[From this moment on, I, Zeus, am the sole god on Earth.]
A declaration of absolute arrogance.
Yet, with his current power, Zeus had the qualifications to make such a claim.
He was EX-rank, after all.
[I shall cleanse every remnant of other gods from this world. Each and every soul shall submit to me.]
The moment Zeus’ proclamation ended, Astrapē exploded.
No—it didn’t just explode.
It expanded in an explosion-like surge.
The lightning, which had been the size of an apartment complex, instantly spread outward, engulfing everything in its wake.
As the scale of Astrapē increased, Hades likewise continued zooming out the screen.
Bit by bit, the screen pulled back, but Astrapē’s thunderbolts expanded even faster.
The divine lightning kept stretching outward.
“No way… the range….”
“Just how far is this going to spread?”
As the zoom-out continued, I suddenly realized something.
At this rate, my apostles would be caught up in it, too.
I needed to bring them into the Garden of Apostles.
I opened the apostle window—Diana, Drakina, and Lee Jinseong weren’t on Earth.
Diana was already inside the Garden of Apostles, and Drakina was active with Drakia in Kevrian.
Lee Jinseong was out hunting in Eshtar.
But the others… they were still on Earth.
I attempted to summon them back to safety.
[Apostle Summoning is unavailable.]
That was the only message that appeared.
No matter how many times I pressed it, the same “Unavailable” message kept popping up.
Damn it……
Were Kang Sia and the guild members all about to die like this?
The screen continued zooming out.
It had already expanded past Seoul and was now showing the entire Korean Peninsula.
The whole land was bathed in golden light.
Not a single gap remained.
Hah.
At this rate, the entire country is going to be wiped out.
“Zeus… with that much power, he could consume the entire planet. Is he planning to kill all humans?”
“By his own hand? Why…?”
[I shall cleanse the impure souls. Be reborn anew!]
Astrapē engulfed the entire Earth.
Land, sea—everything was swept away.
Minutes passed.
And then, slowly, Astrapē began to shrink.
Like rewinding a tape, the screen, which had zoomed out to display the Earth, gradually zoomed back in.
The thunderbolts that had swallowed the planet converged back toward the Korean Peninsula.
The once-massive lightning storm rapidly diminished in size.
The screen continued to zoom in until it finally returned to the origin of this chaos.
The place where my home used to be.
Strangely, despite the overwhelming surge of electricity, the buildings remained intact.
The roads were untouched, and there were no signs of explosions.
But there were no people.
The firefighters and police officers who had responded to the fallen apartment were gone.
The bystanders, volunteers, journalists, and reporters—everyone had vanished.
Not a single trace of human life remained.
“There are no signs of life.”
“Keh keh… So, he only killed the people? But why?”
The camera panned around, but only animals were visible.
A dog trotted by, barking.
Pigeons pecked at the asphalt as they walked.
A cat lazily stretched under a parked car.
The animals were fine.
Only the humans were gone.
[1%... Hmm. It seems the purification is not yet complete. I shall begin again.]
1%?
As Zeus spoke his cryptic words and declared his intention to start over, the world turned completely white.
“Huh……?”
Hades, watching the screen, furrowed his brows and manipulated the display.
Suddenly, the brightness dimmed.
Did he adjust the lighting or something?
But no matter how dark the screen became, the world remained pure white.
Just as I was wondering what was happening, the light suddenly stopped.
And the scene that emerged was…
“The people… they’ve come back to life.”
“The timeline has been reversed. But this is even further back than before.”
That was right.
The world had returned to before my home was uprooted.
Before Odin had summoned me.
[Odin, the contract has been fulfilled. By the authority of the Creator, time has been reversed, but debt remains unchanged. Hahaha! Even an EX-rank reversal cannot overcome the system. Your debt shall remain—and you shall be erased along with it.]
People looked up at the sky in shock, reacting to the booming divine voice.
Was that broadcasted to the entire planet?
Now this was the presence of an absolute god.
But more importantly…
This bastard.
Was he experimenting to see if reversing time would erase his debt?
Fortunately, even time reversal couldn't nullify debt and interest.
The system…
I still didn’t know exactly what it was, but at times like this, it was damn useful.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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[Then, I shall restart the purification. Hm…?]
Zeus, who had been making his grand pronouncement from the heavens, suddenly paused in shock.
[You… Kim Jiho…! You insolent wretch!]
Huh?
Why me, all of a sudden?
Hades and Elprian also turned to look at me in confusion.
“What did you do?”
“Keh keh… What kind of prank did you pull on that guy?”
“What do you mean, what did I do? All I did was pass on the penalty.”
I checked the system window, and a new message had been added.
[Penalty target 'Imperfect Creator' Zeus has turned back time with the intention of debt relief. Strengthening the penalty.]
[SP acquisition rate has drastically decreased.]
“Hehehe. What exactly did you do?”
“I just slapped Zeus with a penalty that reduced his SP acquisition rate.”
As Hades laughed, he read further into the system message.
“So, he turned back time again with the intent of ‘debt relief,’ and the penalty got even harsher?!”
“Hahahaha! Is that for real? That bastard Zeus, acting all high and mighty, and now look at him! Serves him right!”
“Hm. It’s just an SP acquisition decrease, though. Originally, the penalty was strong enough to burn Asgard to the ground.”
“Hehehe. Maintaining divinity requires SP. Zeus, being EX-rank, needs an absurd amount. We can’t even imagine how much.”
“That’s true.”
Hades pulled up another screen.
It showed Earth being completely swallowed by Zeus’ lightning, Astrape.
He pointed at the screen.
“This insane feat… How much SP do you think that took?”
“A ridiculous amount, obviously.”
“Exactly. At first, I couldn’t figure out why he did this attack… but now I get it. He was trying to perform precise strikes on humans to modify their souls while supplying himself with SP.”
“Soul modification?”
“He’s turning all humans who recognize and worship other gods into his own followers.”
“But why is he killing them all?”
“It’s a process. He’s stripping other gods’ influences from their souls and replacing them with his own essence. You said 1% conversion, right? If he does it 99 more times, all of humanity will be Zeus’ slaves.”
“If they get hit with that lightning torture a hundred times, they all become Zeus’ followers?”
“Most won’t last a hundred times; it’s literal electric torture.”
“True, people have different levels of resistance. But judging from how he’s doing it, he might not just be aiming to subjugate them. Maybe he’s actually changing their species—like turning them into lightning spirits.”
“Hehehe. Zeus would totally do that. Changing their entire race! That makes sense.”
“Then why rewind time? He could just keep electrocuting them…”
“He must’ve had some kind of talk with Odin. There must be a reason. Hehehe, Zeus doesn’t waste resources for no reason.”
Elprian and Hades added more explanations from the side.
So, Zeus is working on converting all humans into his slaves, removing the influence of all other gods?
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just make them obedient humans?”
“Hehehe, Zeus doesn’t trust humans. He tried ruling alone as the king of gods, but during the Roman era, Yahweh took everything from him. That’s why he has an extreme obsession with exclusivity—he outright despises the human race itself.”
“So instead of controlling them as humans, he’s just changing their species? That’s insane.”
“Yes. He’s insane. That’s exactly who he is. Hehehe… If his plan succeeds and all 7 billion people on Earth become lightning spirits or whatever, he’ll become an incredibly powerful being even on a cosmic scale. But your penalty completely screwed him over. Hehehe!”
Hades was laughing his heart out.
Well… At least things aren’t going the way Zeus wanted.
Not that I planned this.
I was worried the penalty was too weak, but…
[Soul Harvesting… Grrr!!]
Zeus’ furious voice roared from the sky.
Ah.
Did I mess up his soul harvesting on top of everything else?
So his plan was to electrocute people, harvest SP, rewind time to revive them, then repeat the cycle?
Was he planning to loop this over and over?
“Haha. Ever since Yahweh stole all his followers, Olympus has struggled financially. Zeus has been a cheapskate ever since. He must’ve made a super tight SP supply plan. Seeing it fall apart feels so satisfying. Hehehe!”
Zzzzt.
As time rewound again, Astrape embedded itself back into the ceiling of a restored apartment…
[Kim Jiho… I will show you hell…]
His voice trailed off as it faded away.
The Astrape had been forcefully recalled.
Hades rolled on the floor laughing.
“Hehehehehe! Seeing him reduced to a defeated mutt! Ahhh, this is bliss! Kim Jiho, I’ll make sure to repay you for this. Hahahahaha!”
“Wait. So is Zeus sealed now?”
Did it end just like that?
That guy made a grand entrance, waving his divine ojo, but he’s already out of commission?
But Hades abruptly stopped laughing and shook his head.
“No, no. He’s not sealed. His SP income took a hit, so he can’t spam that move anymore, but he’s still powerful. However….”
“However?”
“He might mobilize his underlings instead. They don’t require his SP.”
Even if Zeus himself stays put to conserve SP, the rest of Olympus is still a threat.
Especially those gods wielding Hercules’ abilities—they’re seriously dangerous…
So, while the worst-case scenario was avoided, Olympus was still a problem.
“What will Olympus do next? Will they come for me?”
“Maybe. Or they might target other pantheons. Hehe. Zeus might even go after the freed deities and wipe them out before they get too strong.”
Hades smirked as he pondered Zeus’ next move.
Then, suddenly, he turned serious and spoke to me.
“Kim Jiho. You should contact Asgard.”
“Asgard? Why?”
“You need to assert your rights as a creditor and check on Odin’s status. If Odin has returned to normal, he’s probably holding a massive grudge against Zeus. We need to drive a wedge between them. Hehehe…”
That makes sense.
Loki did say Odin had returned to normal.
Might as well confirm it myself.
I connected the communication line.
Loki picked up immediately, grinning from ear to ear.
[Kim Jiho! That was you, wasn’t it?]
“Well… yeah, I guess you could say that.”
[Haha! Having the right connections makes all the difference. Damn, why are my connections so useless?!]
He rolled his eyes at someone offscreen.
The screen shifted sideways.
[Odin has something to say to you.]
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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