Absolute Dweller-Chapter 251

Busan Baek Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.

The loud cry of a baby echoed from within.

"Good job, Jihyeon."

"How's Sarang?"

"Here she is."

Seo Jihyeon briefly held the baby wrapped in the swaddle and faintly smiled.

Her exhausted expression was gently caressed by Lee Junyoung.

"You've really worked hard."

Just like the saying that love blooms even during war, amidst the chaos caused by the monsters, love had blossomed, and fruits had been born.

After Kim Jae-hyun’s safe zone covered the entire nation of South Korea, people were gradually regaining their stability and returning to normal life.

Lee Junyoung and Seo Jihyeon, the couple, were one of those people.

They had nurtured their feelings for each other while fighting alongside each other in a monster-filled Seoul. After gaining citizenship and entering Kim Jae-hyun’s domain, they quickly found stability and their love developed.

"She's so beautiful. Our Sarang."

They weren't the only ones who had found happiness.

In the past month, 7,023 babies were born.

Considering that the population of the Korean Peninsula had dropped to 5 million, this was a miraculous figure.

Last year, South Korea's birthrate was (2.78).

In a world that had fallen apart, such a birthrate was almost miraculous.

Before the monster apocalypse, South Korea's birthrate had been as low as (0.7).

The obstetrics department was full of children and their parents.

It was proof that people's lives were slowly regaining stability.

[Skill level has increased.]

[Skill points acquired.]

[Skill points acquired.]

[Skill points acquired.]

‘Am I level 70 now?’

Thanks to the S-level instant dungeon, the Ice Dragon’s Nest, I was able to level up easily.

Not just my skill level, but also the experience points for the high-level subordinates were taken care of by the Ice Dragon.

‘Honestly, it’s one of the best features I’ve used after absorbing the divinity.’

The only drawback was that the dungeon could only be opened once a month.

Still, it was fortunate that I could repeat the dungeon’s challenge 8 times once it was opened.

‘This month will be the last one.’

In total, I had used the Ice Dragon’s experience points and rewards 192 times.

So,

‘Has it already been 2 years?’

It had already been 2 years since I absorbed the Ice Dragon’s divinity.

Before I knew it, winter had arrived again.

Whhhh—

[The Clear Mirror Still Water skill is activated.]

As soon as the skill level up of the House Declaration Skill was completed, my area of influence began to expand, just as usual.

‘Now, all of Asia is within my domain.’

Not only Korea, Japan, and China, but also India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and so on.

Most of Asia had fallen under my influence.

One downside, however, was that,

‘There’s no expansion of the transparent barrier after level 50.’

It was a bit different from the absolute area that included the entire Korean peninsula and parts of Japan.

Unlike the perfect safe zone where anyone hostile to me would have their heads explode, the area covering all of Asia applied limited power.

First, I could freely use all skills, including the eyes of the Absolute.

And buffs such as regeneration rate increased by 10 times for citizens and 10 times the power of all spirits were active for all citizens within my domain.

However, there were still monsters present.

‘It’s not a complete safe zone.’

Of course, there was a clear difference between this and the outside area.

While monsters could appear anywhere outside the area, within the domain, they would show up in the form of dungeons.

If the dungeon was cleared, the monsters would disappear, but if left unattended for a certain amount of time, monsters would start pouring out.

So, it wasn’t a completely safe zone.

‘I’ve been using invisible hands to remove them when I can…’

The domain was vast, and it was impossible for me to keep an eye on every single place.

‘There’s also the annex in North America.’

Just like the main base, the central area was surrounded by a transparent barrier, an absolute safe zone, and the area where the dungeons appeared covered all of North America.

The domain was vast, and at this moment, countless dungeons were exploding in real-time. It was virtually impossible to hunt down every monster.

Instead, people gathered around the forward base, creating a safe zone within a certain range.

[Master, the expansion of the domain has been detected. Congratulations.]

"Congratulations? What for?"

The one who had contributed the most to forming the safe zones was, without a doubt, Ari.

Thousands of robots equipped with artificial intelligence were sweeping the area around the safe zones.

"Don’t worry about the expanded area, just leave it alone. How’s the refugee situation in Europe?"

[The progress of the European refugee accommodation project is 48%.]

Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South America.

Two years after the event, people living outside the domain were adapting and managing to live well.

However, that was limited to those who were awakened.

The powerless still struggled day by day in pain.

To rescue them, safety zones were set up using forward bases or the hearts of rock golems, and they were brought to safety.

The functions like the Gate of the Absolute could only be used after gaining citizenship, so temporary citizenship was granted to them, bringing them to the safe zones before eventually revoking their citizenship.

This was an unavoidable process because the number of available citizenships had already been filled.

‘Now that I’m level 70, the limit is 70 million.’

In contrast, the number of survivors had already surpassed several hundred million.

Naturally, it was impossible to accommodate all of them, so they were temporarily granted citizenship during the rescue process.

It was inevitable that conflicts would arise between those who had citizenship and those who didn’t, but these rarely escalated into riots or fights.

That was because I ruthlessly expelled anyone who instigated trouble.

Anyone causing unrest would lose even their temporary status in the forward base or the safe zone, so even if people had complaints, they refrained from voicing them.

‘Such a headache.’

Although Kim Dabin had been leading the administration and handling much of the work, conflicts still existed.

The only saving grace was that thanks to the title system, incidents like murder or violence didn’t occur.

Even if they did, criminals were immediately punished in real-time, so everyone feared committing crimes.

One positive thing was,

‘Newborn children are born with citizenship.’

And the citizenship those children held wasn’t counted as part of the ones I granted.

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

Children born to couples who held citizenship would have unlimited citizenship without any restrictions.

At that moment,

[3,000,000,000,000 KRW has been consumed.]

I frowned at the sudden message.

‘Why am I spending so much money all of a sudden?’

This message was from the avatar currently struggling in another dimension, who had used some of my power.

3 trillion.

It wasn’t a huge burden.

Since I had 30 orchards, the daily income exceeded 10 trillion.

But to burn 3 trillion in one go...

‘Why is it being overdone?’

I had never overdone things like this while targeting the World Tree roots, so I couldn’t help but feel confused.

At that moment.

Whhh—!

Massive energy poured in.

‘This is...’

It was different from anything I had experienced so far.

I’ve swallowed the roots of the World Tree countless times, but today was the first time I felt such overwhelming energy.

‘This conquest took much longer than usual.’

It had taken so long that I had almost forgotten about the World Tree for a while.

‘Come to think of it...’

I recalled the time when I sent an avatar to another dimension.

‘...It’s been almost half a year, hasn’t it?’

I hadn’t realized how much time had passed since I was so busy, but now I saw that it had already been that long.

‘Didn’t the search for the World Tree speed up significantly once I started using the AI search devices?’

It was hard not to wonder what was going on.

I turned off all the Eyes of the Absolute and briefly focused my attention on the avatar’s senses.

As I did, I connected with the avatar from another dimension, and gradually, the sensations were shared.

“Hah, hah.”

The avatar was in bad shape.

There was intense burning pain all over its body, and it seemed like the eyes had been severely damaged, making it impossible to see.

How desperately had the avatar fought that there was not even a sliver of energy left to heal its wounds?

‘The vitality of the World Tree.’

I began healing it in place of the avatar.

And then,

‘Enhance.’

With a burst, I transmitted the power containing divinity, and I could feel the avatar’s body slowly healing by itself.

The breath that had been nearly extinguished began to come back slowly.

Once some stability was regained,

“Hey, you bastard.”

The first words the avatar spoke were curses.

“You said you’d keep watching, huh?”

I asked the angry avatar.

[What’s going on? Something seems different this time.]

The avatar grinned and replied,

“Ah, I’ve hooked a big one. Look over there. Do you see it?”

The avatar looked up at the sky, where a strange sight appeared.

There, stretching across the sky, was a gigantic vine.

It took the shape of a massive tree trunk that spread out like the Milky Way.

[...The World Tree’s trunk.]

“Yeah. Damn it. Finally found it.”

The avatar, who had been smiling like a deflated balloon, spoke.

“This whole planet is within the World Tree’s domain. It’s not like the lowly dimensions that had taken over small regions. The entire planet has the World Tree’s roots, and the sky has the World Tree’s trunk.”

To summarize,

“This is one of the main roots of the World Tree.”

The places I had conquered until now were like the soft tips of the World Tree’s roots, but now, I had entered a dimension where one of the thick main roots existed.

Being able to come this far was thanks to a slightly different approach to dimension entry over the last two years.

Instead of randomly going to places in Lilith’s space, I had found a way to move deeper, to a place connected to the core of the World Tree from where I had cleared before.

“Is the crystal enough? Build the orchard right away.”

The expected profits from this place were on a different level compared to the usual roots.

‘30 trillion a day.’

It was truly on a colossal scale.

Consuming only from this place, I could feed everyone three full meals a day without any issues.

[This facility requires 300 crystals.]

[Do you really want to install it?]

[Yes / No]

‘Yes.’

Just then, in the avatar’s sight, elves were flying towards the area.

Thousands, no, tens of thousands of soldiers.

As the 300 crystals were consumed, the orchard was being built.

[Hostile entities have been detected in the territory of the Absolute.]

[Eliminating.]

The cleanup began.

[You have hunted a Pure Elf (Lv. 70).]

[You have hunted a Pure Elf (Lv. 70).]

[You have hunted a Guard Elf (Lv. 67).]

[You have hunted a Guard Elf (Lv. 61).]

[You have hunted a High Elf (Lv. 59).]

[You have hunted a High Elf (Lv. 58).]

...

...

Although the system only awarded 1x experience and 1x settlement money, the numbers were incredibly high.

Once the cleanup was finished, the avatar immediately requested that the dimension jump be prepared.

[Are you sure you can handle it alone?]

The avatar, who had become battered from heading toward the center, would certainly face even harsher conditions at the World Tree’s core.

But the avatar nonchalantly replied,

“Of course.”

After all, if the avatar died, it could be summoned again in three days.

‘The Eye of the Absolute.’

Exerting my power in the now-completely established orchard, my domain expanded.

The path leading to the World Tree’s core appeared, and I opened it.

‘Opening.’

At that moment,

Grrrr—

‘...Hm?’

The ground shook.

It wasn’t the dimension where the orchard existed, but the ground of the reality where I was.

[Master. An emergency has occurred.]

Instinctively sensing the gravity of the situation, I severed my connection with the avatar.

[Please check the TV.]

In the living room’s TV,

A massive tree was emerging from the center of Africa.