God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 267: Episode _Sixth Awakening (4)

5.

For users, a group battle between the Demon King, top-tier demons, and upper demons was a fight from the distant future, something they would rarely, if ever, get to see.

When would they ever reach that level?

Users were already busy calculating whether it was worth participating in the Main Quest now that its objective had changed from killing warlocks to capturing them alive, complaining that the difficulty had skyrocketed. For them, this kind of fight was so far off it was hard to even imagine.

The stat difference was one thing.

You only saw as much as you knew, and since they had never moved that fast themselves, all they could do was gape in awe at such blinding speed.

And then, on top of that, the combat techniques of a warrior race were added in.

“This is insane.”

“Can you even see that? I just saw a flash, and when I looked over, that buff guy’s head was already gone. Then there’s another flash, and another one’s head is off. I honestly have no idea what’s going on.”

“I can’t really see it either, so stop talking to me.”

The other player fell silent.

It was hard enough just to follow; he wasn’t even sure if the footage would capture the fight properly.

Among the users, the only one who truly understood this battle was probably Jeong Seolah.

Even she watched in speechless silence.

“This is the most concise and intelligent AI I’ve seen so far.”

“If you fought under the same conditions, who do you think would win?”

“...I’m not sure. If I ever reached those specs...”

She couldn’t confidently say she would win easily, not even as a hypothetical.

For Jeong Seolah to say something like that spoke volumes. It wasn’t just that Epia was fast; the combat sense she displayed was beyond imagination.

How else could she be taking the head of a top-tier demon every two or three exchanges?

It was by no means because the top-tier demons were weak.

Nor was it simply the power of the +13 weapon Epia had mentioned.

Of course, the twin swords being at +13 made a difference, but that was ultimately just an increase in attack power.

Would a top-tier demon really offer up its neck so meekly just because the Demon King’s sword had gotten a bit stronger?

If that were the case, Han Simin should have been able to take down a top-tier demon as well.

In terms of pure weapon attack power, he hadn’t been outclassed before the swords hit +13, and perhaps not even now.

In the end, it came down to a difference in combat ability.

It meant that the Demon King Epia, whose combat power was supposedly not that far above a top-tier demon’s, was weaving through thousands of demons and cutting down their leaders using only the bare minimum of dark magic.

SLICE—SLICE.

At first, she had unleashed the full majesty of the Demon King.

With an overwhelming area-of-effect spell, she had massacred tens of thousands of demons.

Deaths so hollow and one-sided that one had to wonder if this was even allowed.

What followed was a demonstration.

Proof of why the previous Demon King had died.

Proof that the path of the young succubus who had claimed the life of that mighty being—one who, even after kneeling to the Five Legends and fleeing back to the Demon World, had refused to relinquish the throne—had not been carved by luck and scheming alone.

And it was confirmation that Grokile had survived his previous encounter with the Demon King purely by her mercy.

“Aaaargh!”

She targeted only the top-tier demons.

Epia, having leisurely woven her way through thousands of demons to take only the heads of their leaders, finally came to a stop.

She fell silent.

The demons held their breath.

At the same time, a heavy silence settled over the field.

Less than thirty minutes had passed since she had taken her first unhurried step, yet everyone had stopped in sync with her.

Even their breathing seemed to fall in line with Epia’s steady rhythm.

There was not a single demon present who did not understand what was happening.

Any demon too dull to grasp the situation would have already died, never having awakened from Epia’s initial area-of-effect spell.

“We pay our respects to the Demon King.”

“We pay our respects to the Demon King.”

The twelve top-tier demons had been beheaded.

In the midst of thousands of their brethren.

All within thirty minutes.

Every demon threw down their weapons and prostrated themselves.

Their voices were filled with fear and reverence.

On a battlefield where all were bowing, Epia stood alone, her figure regal and aloof.

And so, the little incident that had occurred mid-enhancement was edited and uploaded as a video instead of being streamed live, and once again, it sent shockwaves through the Fantastic World community and countless game channels.

—You could really see how terrifying a good weapon becomes in the hands of someone who actually knows how to use it.

—That was basically bullying. She deliberately ignored the other demons and went for the top-tier ones only, right?

—Aah... Cutie. I love you.

—I’m supposed to be scared, but why is she so pretty? Is this how I fall into the world of lolis?

—A dress drenched in blood. Droplets running down the twin blades. It’s surreal.

Every video he uploaded was a smash hit.

On top of that, Han Simin himself was doing practically nothing. Sure, he had performed the enhancement, but the video was essentially the Demon King doing all the work and spoon-feeding him the results.

Users went wild, marveling at the high-level warfare.

So what if it was a battle involving the Demon King, who was practically the final boss? That hardly mattered.

If anything, from a user’s perspective, that made it even better.

—Wow. If the final boss is that strong, when is Fantastic World ever going to shut down its servers?

—Doesn’t that mean if you reach that level, you can be that strong too? That’s insane.

—I can’t believe items like that even exist.

If one ignored the fact that she was the Demon King, it might as well have been a teaser trailer.

It felt like one of those pre-launch videos designed to fill users with dreams and hope.

However, the cold, realistic types quickly picked up on the problem with this video.

The true nature of what they were watching.

An issue overshadowed by the incredible battle, but one that absolutely had to be addressed.

—Wait, is Simin actually the one enhancing that monster’s weapon right now?

—LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL they said that was just +1. What happens if he pushes it to +15?

—As far as I know, starting from +12 you get aura effects and all sorts of weird options added.

—Dude, shouldn’t we stop this? The continent’s apparently getting ready to open a Demon World Gate to rescue that Simin guy. What if they slip up and the Demon King comes through?

You could call it a minor detail, something happening in another country.

*

The Celestial Realm was in an uproar as well.

“Aria?”

“Yes, Heavenly King. We have received word that she is currently being held hostage by the Demon King in the Demon World.”

Naturally, what happened on the continent made its way up to the heavens.

The Heavenly King furrowed his brow.

“I had heard that the new Demon King’s wickedness had reached its peak, but I did not imagine it would be a succubus. For such a vile and depraved race to rule the Demon World, taking a Celestial hostage is almost to be expected. What are our options?”

“The continent is currently preparing to open a Gate to retrieve Aria and the humans.”

“Hm. That alone will not suffice, will it?”

“If she is being held hostage, the odds of her escaping through the Gate once it is opened must be considered extremely low.”

“Prepare to make contact with the Demon King.”

“Yes, Heavenly King.”

The kidnapping of a high-ranking angel!

The Demon World and the Celestial Realm rarely interacted, but for the first time in centuries, a crystal ball linking one dimension to another began to glow.

After greedily consuming the Heavenly King’s divine power for some time, the crystal ball finally began to display the scene on the other side.

Of course, the other party had to consent to the connection, but the Heavenly King was unconcerned.

This was a video call initiated by none other than the Heavenly King himself.

No matter how arrogant the Demon King might be, would she really dare refuse?

VMMM.

The crystal ball’s screen slowly came into focus.

Linking two dimensions was no small feat.

The Heavenly King’s divine power was drawn out and sent toward the Demon World, and at last, the connection was complete.

POP.

A signal that preparations were finished.

The Heavenly King raised his voice.

“Insolent wretch! Even if you dare hold one of our Celestials hostage, you shall never obtain what you—”

Unfortunately, his bold declaration never reached its end.

He was confused.

CRACKLE.

The crystal ball, just as it was about to show the Demon World, fizzled with static and went dark.

That could only mean one thing.

It wasn’t that the Heavenly King’s crystal ball had broken, or that it was old and dusty and had malfunctioned.

If that were the case, it would have shattered the moment he began pouring divine power into it.

“...How dare a lowly succubus ignore my call?”

His pride was wounded.

At the same time, he felt a deep sense of humiliation.

He might be the Heavenly King, but what did that really change?

He had reached out first, and she had blatantly ghosted him.

That didn’t somehow become less humiliating just because he was the Heavenly King.

Seething, the Heavenly King drew in the energy of the Celestial Realm.

Replenishing divine power was not difficult in the Celestial Realm.

It was a privilege only the king of Heaven possessed.

He quickly restored his drained divine power and activated the crystal ball again.

’Refuse again?’

He was in no mood to consider that possibility.

The Celestials attending him had already seen him get snubbed once.

If this continued, rumors that the Heavenly King had been blown off by the Demon King would spread openly throughout the Celestial Realm.

No matter that he was the king of Heaven; just like in the Demon World, his position could be replaced at any time.

Even if their system was not as brutally survival-of-the-fittest as the Demon World’s.

Which made image all the more important.

CRACKLE.

Silence filled the room.

But in his humiliation, he had failed to think things through.

If the call didn’t connect, that meant the Demon King was choosing not to answer. And if that was the case, there was nothing strange about being snubbed a second time.

“Ahem. It seems she is... busy.”

An exquisitely awkward atmosphere settled over the hall.

*

6.

Soaked in blood, Epia flicked her hand.

“What are you doing?” Han Simin asked. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Nothing. Something annoying keeps buzzing at me.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm. Hehe. So? I’m much stronger now, right?”

“...Uh. Yeah. You are.”

And then came the cutesy act.

Epia’s sudden burst of charm, thrown at him without so much as a turn signal, made Han Simin unconsciously take a step back.

It wasn’t because she was walking toward him with that pure, radiant smile he had only ever seen on video, all while blood dripped steadily from her body.

It was because, despite all that, she was actually cute.

’Why the hell is she cute?’

A thuggish Demon King standing atop a mountain of ten thousand demon corpses.

“This is why beauty is a more powerful ruler than money.”

In a world where being pretty was everything.

He was sure that when the viewers later watched this as a video, they would feel exactly the same.

A Demon King who had just wiped out tens of thousands of her own kind and subordinates without batting an eye somehow looked cute and beautiful.

And he had already half-fallen for it.

Since Epia was starting to unconsciously project the image of the former Enhancer onto him, Simin didn’t bother to stop her.

Epia came closer and lightly grabbed his sleeve.

Then she gave him a look.

“Hm?”

“What should we do with them?”

He looked at her in confusion.

Following Epia’s gaze, he saw the thousands of demons still prostrated on the ground.

“Kill them?”

’What is this? A favor?’

Epia’s question was so unexpectedly considerate that for a moment, even Han Simin was thrown off.

It wasn’t that her kindness had come out of nowhere.

Given how the story quest was progressing, this was the natural direction things would have gone anyway, unless Han Simin had vehemently refused.

There was only one reason he was flustered.

The situation itself was surreal.

When in his life had he ever experienced something like this?

It felt like he was just sitting there when someone suddenly walked up, set down a 007 briefcase containing a small fortune, and asked:

“So, what should we do with this?”

What other answer could there be?

The response was already decided.

“Can I really do whatever I want?”

“Yeah.”

She still nodded after he checked one last time.

“Perfect.”

The upper-rank and mid-rank demons.

“Let’s sprint straight to +15.”

No need to go hunting far and wide for materials anymore.

*