Chapter 95. The Birth of a New Life
Inside the enormous pit, the wildly excited roots were tearing through the ground.
The countless corpses of mice that had been thrown into the pit were disappearing without even leaving a trace behind.
Standing just outside the tree's attack range, In-gwang watched the scene with the expression of someone who had already accepted everything.
As usual, he quietly spoke to Jjikjjiki beside him.
"How many times... has it been now...?"
Jjikjjiki, who was holding the still-unbroken cocoon in his arms, crouched beside In-gwang. His body gave off a faint glow as he answered softly.
"This is the third time we've brought a full army. Including the battles to measure its strength, we've fought it more than twenty times."
"Right! Today, we're definitely burning that giant piece of firewood to ashes! Just trust me, Dad!"
"I will also do my best to support you."
In-gwang had spent an entire week trying to conquer the Small Tree of the Continent.
He had tightened his schedule in the real world as much as possible and invested even more time into the game.
Before he knew it, he had become a general standing before thousands of mouse soldiers.
"Huuh... Shall we finally begin?"
"Just give us the order."
With thousands of soldiers behind him and even more reserve troops waiting at their base, In-gwang now possessed enough power to wipe out a small town.
Before beginning his twenty-fourth attempt against the raid boss, he climbed onto a nearby rock.
He looked down at the huge swarm of mouse soldiers.
It was honestly a little disgusting seeing so many of them packed together.
Still, as always, In-gwang cleared his throat and began a speech to raise the morale of the soldiers who might all be wiped out today.
"I pray that every one of you returns alive."
Just that one sentence was enough to make everyone except Modak shed strangely emotional tears.
Their morale shot through the roof.
"I can no longer stand by and watch that demonic tree take away my precious children. I will stand at the very front and clearly open the path you must follow."
"That's too dangerous!"
The one who shouted was Jjikjjiki.
Of course, he knew perfectly well that In-gwang had always fought at the very front in every battle.
But he deliberately acted as though this were something unusual.
He wanted to create the image of the being they worshiped like a god willingly sacrificing himself for their safety.
In-gwang raised a hand.
"Quiet. You are my people. My children. Are you telling me to simply stand by and watch my children suffer?"
For In-gwang, this wasn't only about raising morale.
Thanks to the effect of Monster Commander, increasing the soldiers' morale could actually increase their stats.
And after three experiments, he had discovered something important.
The more dramatic and touching his speech was, the stronger the buff given to the soldiers became.
Because of that, he and Jjikjjiki had carefully prepared this speech together.
Naturally, they were now acting with everything they had.
"I wake up together with you. I eat together with you. I spend my days with you. And together, we have grown stronger."
In-gwang stretched out his arm.
"We share everything!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
"Even victory!"
The mice trembled emotionally.
"So there is no reason to fear that monster. We will win, and you will survive!"
Interestingly, when he talked about surviving, he had quietly removed the word "together."
But the mice had already become fanatics.
They neither noticed nor cared about that small detail.
To them, only one thing mattered.
Their god was showing them endless love.
Most of these mice had only been alive for two or three days.
To them, In-gwang was practically their entire world.
There was no reason for them to doubt him.
"Oh dear. You cry so easily."
By now, In-gwang had collected enough tears from newly born creatures that he could probably make alcohol from them.
Even so, he wiped the tears from another crying mouse.
The buff, which had already reached an incredible level, rose even further.
[The mouse soldiers have reached a point where they could almost be considered completely different beings!]
'Good enough.'
In-gwang had actually put a little sincerity into his speech, so he smiled in satisfaction.
To the soldiers, however, that smile looked like the gentle smile of a merciful god.
Their loyalty and faith practically pierced the heavens.
"Jjikjjiki, explain the plan."
"Yes!"
The plan itself was actually simple.
While In-gwang attached himself to the tree's trunk and drained its energy, the soldiers would throw away their lives distracting the tree.
That was basically it.
Still, Jjikjjiki puffed out his chest as though he was about to explain some legendary military strategy and climbed onto the rock.
While Jjikjjiki passionately explained the plan, In-gwang and Modak quietly moved away.
The two walked closer to the tree.
After countless invasions and battles, the tree had already become exhausted.
Listening to its furious cries, the two casually talked.
"Dad, don't you think we could chop that tree into pieces and sell it for a pretty good price?"
In-gwang's eyes widened.
Then he looked at Modak emotionally.
"Son... you've finally learned how to think about things like that."
He placed a hand over his chest.
"Dad is so proud of you. I've already been experimenting with some pieces we cut off earlier, so let's come up with a plan to sell them together."
"As expected of Dad! I knew I could trust you~!"
"Ahem! Of course! Whose dad do you think I am?"
"Hehehe!"
"Kekeke!"
In-gwang had already discovered that pieces cut from the tree could store its energy without losing it.
That meant there was a possibility they could be sold as some kind of potion or energy item.
His mind was already filled with plans to recover the losses from the entire week he had wasted here.
"I think we might actually succeed this time."
"Oh... So you're finally planning to use that ring?"
The Ring of Twisted Affection.
It was the reward he had received from the previous quest.
It allowed the wearer to interfere even after death with beings that held powerful affection toward them.
During the previous three expeditions, more than ten thousand mouse soldiers had died.
Their bodies and souls had all become nutrients for the tree.
Their souls were still trapped inside it.
And by using this ring, it wasn't impossible to use all those souls to disable the tree.
Of course, the tree had lived for an extremely long time and possessed an overwhelmingly powerful soul.
The souls of around ten thousand insane mice that had died less than a week after being born probably wouldn't be enough to kill it outright.
But that wasn't necessary.
"Ten minutes... No, even if we completely disable it for only five minutes, that's our victory."
The tree's enormous body and soul had allowed it to endure direct exposure to madness multiple times without being shaken.
However, exploding thousands of souls infected by madness inside it would be different.
And if In-gwang poured madness into it during the brief moment it was helpless...
That would be extremely dangerous for the tree.
"If this works, we won't even need to destroy the tree. Once it gets infected by madness, it'll basically become my subordinate anyway."
There was one problem.
Once his Territory Skill ended, even the mice became slightly less fanatical.
For the tree, there was a high chance it would regain its senses the moment the Territory Skill ended and become hostile again.
Still, In-gwang didn't care.
"All we need are two drops of dew from the sprout. Once we clear that objective, we have no reason to stay here!"
"Exactly! I want to leave this forest too! Holding myself back from burning everything is hard work!"
In-gwang stared proudly at Modak.
"Son! You've even learned how to control yourself now...! You've really grown up!"
"Hehe!"
During the past week, In-gwang had occasionally met Pie in reality.
But inside the game, he hadn't met the rest of his companions at all.
As a result, In-gwang and Modak had become even more soaked in madness than usual.
The two laughed like lunatics.
The tree seemed genuinely terrified by them.
"Master! All preparations are complete!"
In-gwang turned toward Jjikjjiki.
"Good! Then shall we get started?"
These days, the moment In-gwang entered the pit, the tree immediately attacked.
So In-gwang activated his Territory Skill without hesitation and merged with Modak.
Then he charged directly toward the tree.
[Battle against the 'Small Tree of the Continent' has begun!]
[Due to the Territory Skill, the mouse soldiers cannot be absorbed by the tree!]
[Tree: AAAAAARGH! WILL YOU JUST GET LOST?! YOU DAMN MICE!!!]
Seeing the tree focus on the mice instead of himself made In-gwang even more confident that the plan would succeed.
He rushed toward the trunk.
Chains shot forward and stabbed into it.
Then he began pulling out its energy.
The tree immediately tried to knock him away.
But the mouse soldiers threw themselves in front of its attacks.
At the same time, Jjikjjiki's smoke created hallucinations.
Unable to properly recognize In-gwang, the tree was forced into battle against the mice.
[Tree's remaining vitality: 78.2%!]
[The absorbed vitality is being transferred into the tree fragments!]
[Insufficient tree fragments!]
'There's still that much left?'
More than two minutes had already passed.
At this speed, In-gwang realized that defeating the tree would be impossible.
His eyes quickly moved around.
Then they stopped.
He looked at the pure white cocoon Jjikjjiki was carrying.
In-gwang extended a chain toward Jjikjjiki and pulled the cocoon into his hands.
Then he tore off part of the tree's bark and stabbed the piece into the cocoon.
Crackle!
Crack!
For a brief moment, he felt some strange resistance.
But it didn't last long.
The tree fragment sank into the cocoon.
In-gwang immediately redirected all the tree's energy into it.
[...Real-time update in progress...]
[Please wait just a moment. Mr. In-gwang, please. We're begging you.]
A message window appeared.
It practically contained the screams of the Super Real employees assigned to monitor In-gwang.
Of course, In-gwang didn't stop.
"You told me to give the baby good prenatal care! I'm just feeding our baby something nutritious so it'll be born healthy! How could you not prepare for something like this?!"
[...You're too much! Seriously! You're way too much! We haven't even been able to go home for an entire week because of you...!]
[The tree's energy has successfully begun to be absorbed by the cocoon!]
In-gwang felt slightly sorry after seeing the developers' desperate cries.
But he still didn't stop.
If anything, he decided to show his gratitude to the developers, who had spent an entire week unable to go home while somehow operating technology beyond common sense.
And the way he showed that gratitude...
Was by trying even harder to make sure the tree died.
That was completely different from what the developers wanted.
And so began the most chaotic event of the entire week.
"Master! We've lost half our troops!"
"Hold out a little longer! It's only been five minutes!"
"We will do our best!"
The number of soldiers cutting apart the tree's branches continued to fall.
Their buffs were also gradually running out.
The mice began dying faster and faster.
'Damn it. This is our chance...!'
Now that the cocoon was successfully draining the tree's energy, the tree's attention gradually shifted toward In-gwang.
At this point, it was obvious.
No matter what In-gwang or the mice did afterward, the tree would target In-gwang first.
If they failed now, their next attempt would begin with an absurd disadvantage.
In-gwang gritted his teeth.
"No way... Absolutely not!"
His eyes burned.
"When an opportunity appears, you grab it! I'll always live as though today is my last day, even if I have to burn myself away!"
Crack...
Those words had come out without much thought.
But they strongly stimulated his Indomitable Will.
The flames surrounding his chains suddenly became hotter and stronger.
Before In-gwang even realized what was happening, the flames flowed into the cocoon.
And finally...
