Chapter 11

Discussion (1)

"Ah, shit, who the hell is it."

Boom boom boom─!

The territory of the Void in the Fifth Dimension.

An intrinsic domain that no one except those who belonged to it could invade.

On the planet at its center, a gigantic black snake was slamming its head against the ground.

"Your already bad brain's going to get even worse if you keep that up. Stop it."

"...Don't make me even more pissed off and just leave. This is partly your fault too, you crazy bitch."

"Ha! As if. Why are you shifting the blame onto me? Go complain to Oz."

At those words, he had no choice but to shut his mouth.

Because all of this was practically a disaster he had brought upon himself.

There was a reason he had come out in his true body instead of an incarnation.

His head was so dizzy that he had reached the point where he couldn't even maintain an incarnation.

"Still, you went up one rank this time, so didn't things turn out the way you wanted?"

"If I hadn't gotten ahead of myself, my rank would've been the same anyway..."

Oz's claim that she stuck to her own principles seemed to be true.

Unlike the initial rankings that divided the hierarchy within the Void.

This time, there had been sweeping changes in the rankings.

[ Final Battle Rankings with Eternal Annihilation on the Line (Fifth Dimension Edition) *No Personal Bias* ]

TOP 10 [Scarlet Worm King] Dormak

TOP 9 [The One Who Knocks on the Door] Epin

TOP 8 [Inverted Womb] Nahalum

TOP 7 [Moth That Gnaws the Bones of Stars] Agravakh

TOP 6 [Sky-Chewing Maw] Belkarnon

TOP 5 [Gravekeeper] Murgar

TOP 4 [Weeping Hand] Siel

TOP 3 [Black Mountain Goat] Heukjong

TOP 2 [Archivist of Nothingness] Nirvakh

TOP 1 [Priest] Masar El Kadum

And, just as had first been previewed, his rank was recorded as second.

A combat ranking based purely on using every means available to oneself.

However, unlike before, there was an unprecedented amount of backlash this time.

[ Fine, I get number one, but why did Siel get pushed down to fourth? ]

[ Starting today, I'm withdrawing my support for Oz... I'm seriously withdrawing it, fuck ]

[ Honestly Scarlet Worm King at tenth is insanely overrated hahahahaha ]

[ Isn't this preferential treatment for the Void guys? ]

Because the contents were vastly different even from the rankings Oz herself had previously created and substantiated.

Because of that, the Transcendent Gallery was in the midst of a heated debate.

However.

Nonexistent, whose known name was Nirvakh.

Though he had reacted more sensitively to the rankings than anyone else, he no longer cared about the rankings at all.

...

...

...

TOP 2

He's existed since before the Primordial Era, so he's practically one of the Old Generation.

He's strong enough to stand alone without any subordinate faction.

He can simply swallow beings below High-Ranking God level, and can possess all abilities of anything he has devoured.

In terms of means of combat, there is no transcendent being more versatile than this guy.

Rather, the commentary written below the rankings.

That was the problem.

Of course, the first part was widely known.

Nirvakh's story was extremely famous even outside the Void, so it was something anyone could write after merely consulting the Record of Ten Thousand Gods.

But his limits are clear.

Because of the origin of his existence, he cannot defeat the number one, the Priest.

Also, against beings connected to the Underworld such as the 'Weeping Hand' or the 'Gravekeeper,' a complete victory is impossible.

I ranked him above those two because they cannot annihilate this guy, but this guy can force a mutual destruction if he is willing to risk eternal annihilation.

As an aside, maybe because he was originally a snake bastard, his mouth is fucking loose.

Seems like he really loves blabbing other people's business everywhere.

I'm considering spilling this bastard's secrets too.

However, the contents that followed naturally left him horrified.

Of course, the gallery members merely laughed it off or questioned a few details.

With only a few lines of text, they had no way of understanding the full circumstances.

But for the person involved, it was absolutely not something he could laugh off.

"...How the hell does she know that? There aren't even any people left who know."

"Well, either Oz is connected to the old geezers. Or she heard about it somehow. Though hearing about it doesn't really make sense."

"That's why I have no idea! There are barely any of the Old Generation left anymore. Most of them have even been forgotten entirely!"

"I didn't know Oz was that ancient either. She's scarier than I thought... At that point, she's not just an older sister, she's the eldest sister of all, isn't she? How many years has she lived?"

Hmm- she hummed.

...She was Epin, ranked ninth on the list, with the gallery username 'Outside the Boundary.'

"Come to think of it, though, you exposed the fact that she took those beauty-enhancing spiritual fruits? I'd be embarrassed and pissed too, you snake bastard. This is just your fault."

"Ah, fuck off! I know already!"

"Yeees~ yeees~ I understaaand~"

Bleh-

She stuck out her tongue and immediately vanished.

Nirvakh glared at where she'd been with literal snake eyes.

She had been mercilessly getting under his skin since they were inside the gallery, so it was incredibly irritating.

"...Ah, I'm seriously screwed."

He felt like crying right then and there.

Of course, his true body couldn't shed tears.

He merely lowered his head dejectedly and kept flicking his tongue.

Who could possibly have expected it?

The Old Generation, most of whom had already vanished after merging with the laws.

That Oz would be a transcendent from an era where even recalling their records had now become forbidden.

Should he at least consider himself fortunate that she hadn't come to see him directly?

Whether it was a sudden private meeting, or his secret history potentially being spread through the gallery.

Either possibility was equally terrifying.

[ Ah, Oz, there's no way I'm really tenth lol ] - Shining Sword

[ Honestly, isn't this guy from the Archive faction, so she's just looking at records and ranking people however she wants? Isn't she actually weak as fuck? ] - Shining Sword

[ Ah, wanna throw down? lol This is actually pissing me off ] - Shining Sword

"...Crazy bastard."

Perhaps the one fortunate thing was that he had realized Oz's identity, even if only now.

He shook his head while watching some fool act recklessly in the gallery.

That bastard's going to die at this rate.

And it wasn't as though there was no basis for it. Judging from several of her remarks alone, Oz seemed to know the true names of the gallery members.

If she was from the Old Generation, she would already possess a divinity on the level of creation.

With enough karma, merely calling someone's true name would be enough to erase their existence.

And there was no way an Old God who had survived until now while remaining so quiet that no one could even guess at her existence would be lacking in karma.

"Did he actually die?"

Watching the guy fail to appear afterward, Nirvakh couldn't help but shudder.

It was an incomprehensible fear great enough to be called only the second of its kind in his entire life...

_____________

"What the hell is with this guy."

There's one guy who won't accept anything even after a debate.

Usually, in cases like this, there are three methods.

Ignore them, stubbornly argue until the very end, or prove that the messenger is an idiot.

For starters, the second option is impossible.

I'm now a Four-Star (plus half) mage, so my lifespan has increased considerably.

I can probably live around four to five hundred years without much trouble.

But even the youngest of these guys have lived for hundreds of thousands of years.

And naturally, the average is in the hundreds of millions.

If it becomes a contest of who has more free time, I have no choice but to lose.

If this guy keeps insisting until the very end, he might genuinely keep the debate going for several months.

And the first option doesn't appeal to me much either.

At the very least, my tier lists need to keep being regarded as nearly flawless, just as they are now.

That way they'll attract attention, and I'll be able to keep sucking up points like this.

It's not quite at that level yet, but once the points accumulate and accumulate, they'll eventually become a fortune impossible to ignore.

So I chose the third option.

Shining Sword

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"You're dead."

Since it was impossible to identify him from his username alone, I started by going through his posts.

It would be troublesome if he were genuinely someone with absolutely no relevance, but it seemed entry into the Transcendent Gallery itself happened through invitations from acquaintances and the like─

"...It's you, you bastard."

I could usually identify them.

With a sinister smile, I immediately sent him a private message.

Me>[ Hey, I-Geom ]

Me>[ You think I don't know who you are? ]

[ Excuse me? ] - Shining Sword

[ No, who the hell is I-Geom... ] - Shining Sword

And immediately, respectful speech came flying out.

"You're going to pretend you don't know?"

What a ridiculous stunt.

He was probably wondering how I'd figured it out.

In reality, most of the transcendents in the gallery probably couldn't identify this guy's true identity.

But I'm different.

Me>[ What generation Hero are you, you bastard ]

Me>[ I even know the 13th Generation, you know? Want me to call them here? ]

[ Vic123tory! 325899th Generation I-Geom! No, sir! I'll straighten up, sir! ] - Shining Sword

Me>[ Is just straightening up enough? ]

[ Vic123tory! 325899th Generation I-Geom! I'll do it properly, sir! ] - Shining Sword

Me>[ And how exactly are you going to do it properly? ]

[ I'll reconsider it, sir!!! ] - Shining Sword

Me>[ And after reconsidering? ]

[ I won't act up again, sir! I'm sorry, sir!!! ] - Shining Sword

Me>[ Disgraceful!!!!!! ]

[ Ack!!!!!! ] - Shining Sword

Me>[ As of this moment, you will voluntarily block yourself from the gallery for 30 days. Understood? ]

[ Ack!!!!!! ] - Shining Sword

...After that message, the guy really did disappear.

"Hmm, hmm."

For reference, it's true that I know the 13th Generation Hero.

Of course, naturally, I only know about them.

Because they appear in the original story.

After disposing of that disgraceful Hero like that, I returned to the gallery.

[ Honestly, shouldn't Agravakh be excluded from the rankings? ] [32] Upvotes 5 Downvotes 61

[ Upvote if you think Oz has lost her touch hahahahaha ] [15] Upvotes 8 Downvotes 113

"Huh."

After several rebuttals on the original post, quite a few of them seemed to have accepted it.

But a handful of remnants were still resisting.

"...They do have some basis, at least."

Perhaps because this was the Transcendent Gallery, they were proper rebuttals.

That disgraceful, useless Hero from earlier had been blindly insisting without thought like the mortals on the Lower Realm gallery, so I had used that method on him.

But posts like these were worth refuting through proper argument.

└Oz) Why shouldn't Agravakh be included? Then are you assuming numbers 8 through 10 would beat him?

└Oz) No, if you go down that route, the logic becomes fucking stupid. Then are all intelligent beings weaker in combat than their mothers because they can't disobey their moms?

└Sun Picker) This crazy bastard hahahahahahahahahahaha

└Old Newbie) Can't argue with the Mom Supremacy Law;;;;;;

And so, the second phase of creating the tier list.

The 'debate' began.