After Saving The Universe A Thousand Times: Chapter 13

Chapter 13: All Gods’ Descent 13

Should Kale be considered moral or immoral?

If you say this guy is moral, who would leave such a ghastly thing at someone’s doorstep? But if you say he’s immoral, well, he did sprinkle some lime powder on Duo Ge’s severed head and placed it in a rustic box to prevent the blood from staining the floor.

After casually closing the box again, Dong Jin’s final assessment was: Kale has some morals, but not much.

Of course, Dong Jin wasn’t really in a position to judge.

After all, Duo Ge’s death wasn’t entirely without his involvement.

Who told Duo Ge to be the only living person who knew that the thief had stolen Dong Jin’s phone? He knew too much and wanted too much. Whether as a blade or a dog, he had crossed the line.

So this box was destined to be his final resting place.

What Dong Jin hadn’t expected was how quickly Kale acted. Perhaps artists tend to have more decisive actions?

Unable to figure out Kale’s mindset, Dong Jin decided not to dwell on it. He went back to his room, turned on the TV, and prepared to relax for a while by watching the news.

As luck would have it, today’s news was directly related to him — in fact, it had a lot to do with him.

“Good evening, viewers. Today is Thursday, October 10th, and it’s the fourth consecutive day of reduced explosion incidents in Genesis City.”

“Since Monday of this week, the number of explosions in various parts of our city has drastically decreased for unknown reasons. As of today, the daily explosion count has dropped to fewer than three, with almost no fatalities.”

“Now, let’s hear what the public thinks about this…”

The Monday mentioned in the news was the very day Dong Jin had attended the meeting in the auditorium.

Since that day, the explosion rate in Genesis City had plummeted — because the villains who had previously planted bombs had all been persuaded by him to switch to setting up fireworks instead.

Yet Dong Jin still wasn’t satisfied. He had already decided to continue deceiving them at the next auditorium meeting in an hour, planning to keep leading those fools along until the instance ended on the seventh day.

When you think about it, shouldn’t Genesis City award him a “Best Citizen” prize?

The comments section seemed to be even bolder than Dong Jin, with viewers role-playing responses to the news:

【As a concerned bystander, we believe Genesis City should immediately kneel to Dong Jin. These past few days, he’s risked his life, fooling people and making donations. I’m crying here! Asking you to bow to him isn’t too much, is it?】

Amidst the laughter in the comment section, the second auditorium meeting began.

This time, Dong Jin didn’t spring any deadly surprises on the nervous villains.

He understood the principle of “a stick followed by a carrot,” so he simply repeated today’s news to the villains and generously praised it as amusing.

For the first time, after receiving positive affirmation from Dong Jin, the villains — who had been on edge all day, fearing another bomb-induced deathmatch — couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Perhaps it was because Dong Jin seemed unusually affable today, but after a while, one of the villains finally mustered the courage to ask:

“Mr. Dong Jin, may I ask where Duo Ge has gone? For such an important meeting, he actually dares to be absent…”

When Dong Jin turned his bandaged eye toward the villain, signaling him to continue, the man, seizing the chance to badmouth Duo Ge, finally stopped hesitating and quickly spilled all the recent wrongdoings Duo Ge had committed.

After some trivial accusations, the villain finally got to the main point:

“Have you noticed that there are far fewer people in the auditorium today than before? At first, I thought something had happened to them, so I checked on their whereabouts. It turns out that all the missing guys were arrested and thrown in jail!”

“These past few days, wherever bombs or fireworks were planted, it was all decided by Duo Ge. Only Duo Ge knew their movements. The more I thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. So, I checked his call records from yesterday and discovered it was him who called the police!”

“No matter what, we’re all in this together, right? What he did crossed the line. You can’t let him deceive you…”

I wasn’t deceived at all, since it was my idea for him to call the police.

Dong Jin silently retorted in his mind but maintained a calm expression as he pushed the wooden box beside him toward the informant. “Take a look.”

Inside the box, of course, was Duo Ge’s severed head.

The villains, already resentful of Duo Ge’s recent arrogant behavior, didn’t react with fear at the sight of the head. In fact, they couldn’t help but show smug smiles — that troublemaker had it coming.

Dong Jin hadn’t expected the box to be so effective in rallying their support. He mentally thanked Kale for his work.

Just as the rare atmosphere of camaraderie filled the auditorium, the ram-headed figure of Wuli suddenly stormed through the tightly shut doors with a grim face.

Before the villains at the base of the steps could react, Wuli walked straight up to the conman on the tenth floor and, without warning, crushed the man’s throat in front of everyone. The conman died without even having the chance to utter a word in his defense.

After dealing with the human who had dared to sell him fake liquor, Wuli raised his eyes and cast a chilling glare at the surrounding villains, as if he wanted to warn them of something. But in the end, he said nothing, choosing to leave the auditorium in silence.

From his position at the front, Dong Jin, of course, knew why Wuli had acted this way.

If Wuli had wanted to warn the villains, he would have had to admit that he, a proud being, had been tricked into buying fake liquor from a human. Wuli, being so vain, would never allow himself to lose face like that, so he could only swallow his pride and leave in silence.

Dong Jin understood the situation perfectly, but the villains didn’t! All they saw was Wuli killing a man without a word of explanation and then glaring at them as a form of intimidation.

Some began to suspect that Wuli and Dong Jin were at odds, and that Wuli’s public killing was meant to force them to take sides. And many in the auditorium shared this suspicion.

After some deliberation, the villains, already silently filtered by Dong Jin multiple times, all came to the same conclusion:

They chose to side with Dong Jin.

After all, which supernatural being they followed didn’t really matter. Rather than clinging to Wuli, who was clearly on the decline and only capable of impotent rage, they decided it was better to stick with the newcomer, Dong Jin, all the way.

At the very least, Dong Jin was both attractive and powerful, his personal charm outshining Wuli by a mile.

Though Kale and Wuli were not present at the moment, with their combined efforts earlier, today’s meeting had been an undeniable success, leaving both Dong Jin and the villains pleased. In fact, the villains even decided on the spot to reward Mr. Dong Jin by working around the clock. 

For the next three days, they would devote themselves to planting fireworks more diligently, preparing to present Dong Jin with the grandest, most spectacular fireworks show.

Dong Jin was naturally pleased with such a result. As for whether Wuli and the others were happy or not, he didn’t really care.

Meanwhile, the viewers in Dong Jin’s livestream were stunned:

【PUA ¹ master at work, Jin Ge! Were you a beast tamer in your past life? You’ve already trained another pack of dogs this quickly. If Qishi City doesn’t send you a big banner of thanks, we’ll absolutely protest!】

【One man saving an entire city. Turns out Jin Ge wasn’t exaggerating at that tea party; at least this time, he really is the savior!】

Despite the chat promoting Dong Jin to a higher status, he didn’t spend his time leisurely wandering the hotel like before.

By now, he could navigate this strange hotel with his eyes closed.

There was no need to spend more time familiarizing himself with the layout. Now, he simply had to wait for nightfall.

The moment night descended, he would take the keys and head to the rooftop, searching inch by inch for any trace of the “door.”

And before darkness fell…

Returning to Room 1001, Dong Jin picked up the notepad by the bedside, held a pen in his right hand, and quietly began writing.

A stream of names, professions, physical descriptions, and other information flowed from his pen.

These were details he had gathered over the past few days at the hotel using his “Eye of Truth.”

Among them were not only detailed information about the criminals in the hotel but also profiles of several of the twelve supernatural beings.

It would be ideal if he could find the “door” on the rooftop tonight, along with the evidence the reporter had left behind near it.

However, if he couldn’t find either the “door” or the evidence, he needed a backup plan—and the notes he was writing were part of that plan.

As Dong Jin continued to jot down and add details, the night quietly descended outside the window.

After filling the last page of the notepad, Dong Jin didn’t bother to change into his night-roaming outfit. Instead, he grabbed the wireless surveillance cameras he’d bought with his luxury card a few days earlier and left the room.

Fearing he might draw attention, he didn’t take the elevator. He used the key to unlock the stairwell on the tenth floor and made his way up to the 33rd floor.

It wasn’t that Dong Jin didn’t want to climb up to the rooftop from the outside; it was just that the hotel’s upper floors were all suites, and the distance between the external air conditioner units on the walls was too great to find a foothold. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of finding the rooftop key.

Perhaps it was due to the effect of his “Night’s Eye” skill, but Dong Jin, who had been particularly careful about hiding his tracks, managed to reach the rooftop without any trouble.

The moment he stepped onto the rooftop, he immediately saw a colorless, semi-transparent vortex quietly standing there.

At this moment, the game’s instance panel also updated in real-time.

It displayed: [Side Quest 2: Find the “Door.” (Completed)]

Without a doubt, this was the “Door.”

Not far from the left side of the “Door” lay a blood-stained and dust-covered camera. If nothing went wrong, this camera was likely the evidence left behind by the previous journalist who occupied the room.

With this in hand, Dong Jin had already completed half of the most challenging advancement task.

Today truly was a day of double blessings.

Although everything had gone more smoothly than expected, since he had already brought the surveillance cameras, Dong Jin went ahead and installed one in the blind spot at the outer edge of the rooftop’s parapet.

From this position, not only could the vortex door be clearly captured, but with a slight adjustment, the camera could also catch countless villains entering and leaving the hotel’s entrance.

Even without the journalist’s camera, Dong Jin believed that letting this camera record for an entire day, combined with the notes he had written, would be sufficient evidence to expose the existence of the “Door.”

For now, he’d let it serve as the icing on the cake, something to enhance his final instance rating.

After quickly installing the camera and solving nearly half of the instance tasks, Dong Jin’s mood instantly brightened. Just as he dusted off his clothes and prepared to leave the rooftop, the unexpected, though late, finally arrived.

Suddenly, the sound of hurried, heavy footsteps came from the rooftop door.

It wasn’t Kale; that much was obvious from the sound.

Having immediately ruled out the worst-case scenario, Dong Jin didn’t bother to hide—there wasn’t much to hide behind on this empty rooftop anyway. He simply stood where he was, waiting for the unexpected guest to arrive.

“…Dong Jin?” To his expectations, but also somewhat unexpectedly, the newcomer was Wuli, whom he had just seen that afternoon.

The reason Wuli appeared on the rooftop at this hour was, in fact, related to Dong Jin.

After killing the con artist in the hall that afternoon, Wuli realized that such actions would only push more people in the hotel to side with Dong Jin.

Feeling that the situation was tipping out of balance, Wuli, despite knowing it wouldn’t be easy, had reluctantly come to the 33rd floor to try to convince Kale to limit Dong Jin in some way.

However, upon hearing Wuli’s intentions, Kale didn’t even let him through the door.

It became clear that convincing this love-obsessed being wasn’t merely difficult—it was completely impossible, a fool’s errand.

Frustrated, Wuli decided to come to the rooftop to clear his head, hoping to see if some new supernatural being would appear and overshadow Dong Jin.

But as soon as Wuli unlocked the rooftop door and stepped outside, he was greeted by the sight of Dong Jin standing there, as if waiting for him.

This startled Wuli immediately. Once he recovered, he absentmindedly asked, “Where did you get the rooftop key?”

As one of the previous leaders, Wuli naturally had keys to all the hotel rooms. Kale had them too.

When the leadership changed hands, Wuli had privately kept the keys out of some childish unwillingness to let go, and since Dong Jin had never mentioned it, Wuli had stashed them away. So, where had Dong Jin gotten his key? Could Kale, in his obsessive love, have given it to him?

Dong Jin, seeing Wuli standing there lost in thought, couldn’t help but feel a little exasperated.

Seriously, was there something wrong with this supernatural being’s brain? Shouldn’t he be more suspicious?

Even though Wuli wasn’t suspicious right now, Dong Jin couldn’t risk letting him leave with the chance that he might suddenly figure things out—because as soon as Wuli mentioned today’s events to the other supernatural beings, Dong Jin’s days of pretending to be one of them would be over.

There were only two days left until the instance ended, and Dong Jin didn’t want any unnecessary complications.

So, before Wuli could react, Dong Jin immediately activated the “Eye of Truth” and deliberately provoked him: “Since there are con men on the tenth floor bringing you wine, naturally, there are also thieves bringing me keys.”

The incident with the century-old wine had nearly made Wuli a laughingstock, and it had since become his sore spot.

Hearing Dong Jin bring it up again, anger flared in Wuli’s heart. However, he retained enough rationality to know that he probably couldn’t beat Dong Jin, so he didn’t make a move right away.

But Dong Jin slowly approached him and said, “You know what? I sniffed that wine carefully that day. It was at most thirty years old. At the time, I thought that con man was really bold—if you’re going to lie, at least put more effort into it. So, that afternoon, I had someone look into him. Guess what I found?”

Already enraged to the point of being clouded in judgment, Wuli’s attention was completely drawn to Dong Jin’s words.

At this point, Dong Jin was just one step away:

“I found out that although that con man used to deceive you, at worst, he would pass off ten-year-old wine as twenty years old. On the surface, it wasn’t that noticeable. So, why in the past few days did he suddenly dare to treat you like a fool?”

Why specifically in these past few days? What was different about these days?

Right—following Dong Jin’s line of thought, Wuli finally realized the biggest difference these past few days was that Dong Jin had replaced him as the new leader.

That’s why the con man no longer took him seriously!

The more Wuli thought about how he had investigated the con man and found nothing like this, the angrier he became. Just as he was about to lose control and say something in a rage, a dagger flashed and sliced across his throat.

It was from an angle Wuli had never anticipated.

It was also the most stunning strike he had ever seen.

Even in his final moments before death, Wuli wasn’t thinking about why Dong Jin had killed him. Instead, he was wondering:

—This strike… it doesn’t seem like something a human could pull off.

If Dong Jin could hear him, he would kindly tell him:

This blow, which perfectly exploited Wuli’s weakness, had cost him 30 minutes of his lifespan. It was the most expensive strike he’d delivered in this entire instance.

Fortunately, yesterday, while he was tricking Dorg into calling the police, he also had him offer up his dagger. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even have had a handy weapon today.

After quietly wiping the blood off the dagger, Dong Jin glanced at Wuli’s corpse, feeling a headache coming on.

The whole story about the con man had been something Dong Jin made up on the spot to provoke Wuli. He didn’t have the time to bother with other people’s affairs.

Now that Wuli was dealt with, what was he supposed to do with the body? He couldn’t exactly carry it out of here, could he?

With all that blood, the moment he stepped off the rooftop, Kale would follow the scent right to him.

After some thought, Dong Jin decided to just leave the corpse here and lock the rooftop door again.

Judging by the thin layer of dust on the rooftop and the scattered footprints, it seemed like Wuli was the only one who came here regularly.

Considering that it was already the fifth day of the instance, soon to be the sixth, and most of the instance’s plot had been explored, it was unlikely that any new mutants would appear at this stage.

So, Dong Jin simply moved Wuli’s body to a concealed spot on the rooftop, cleaned up the bloodstains, and left the rooftop to begin his Nth night exploration.

Without Wuli causing trouble, Dong Jin’s sixth day went very smoothly.

When he returned to the rooftop at 00:00 on the seventh day to retrieve the surveillance camera that had been recording for a full day, he once again heard footsteps coming from outside the rooftop.

This time, the footsteps sounded like leather shoes tapping against the stairs, exuding an inexplicable sense of pressure amidst their steady rhythm.

Listening to the unchanging pace from start to finish, Dong Jin had already reached a conclusion in his mind, even before seeing the person.

—Those were Kale’s footsteps.

The author has something to say:

After Dong Jin went to the rooftop for the first time, he deliberately locked the door from the inside to cover up his tracks.

Unfortunately, Wuli had a key and opened it again from outside. Otherwise, it may not be discovered.

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Translator Notes

1. Pick Up Artist but in this context, it refers to someone mentally controlling others.[↩]