Chapter 835: Growth Spurt?

Athletes sometimes have no choice but to cut weight before competing in a tournament.

When they shed an enormous amount of weight in a short period of time, not only their weight but their health also deteriorates severely.

But conversely.

Weight lost that quickly can also be restored just as quickly through high-quality meals.

So, well.

It was something like this.

“......The land.”

“It’s recovering.......”

The earth had been devoured deep below the surface and dried out in an instant.

But if the monster that had eaten it was fed back to the land itself.

FWAAAAASH.......

Then the emptied land.

Could recover at an incredible speed as well.

The gouged-out earth swelled upward, and vegetation began to grow.

Streams of water burst from somewhere beneath the dried soil, moistening the land.

Hills rose and became mountains, while flowing water became brooks, then rivers.

“Those mountains and rivers.......”

“There’s no mistake. Those are the same mountains that used to be here.”

It was impossible to recreate the villages and cities that had originally stood on this land.

But this earth itself had been formed from the dissolved flesh of an ancient divinity.

The land we lived upon possessed spirituality equal to that of awakened.

There had been a reason that monster had been able to gain so much power merely by devouring the land in the first place.

The power contained within this land was by no means weak.

It was strong enough to regenerate like this simply because I fed it the proper dish.

‘No...... actually, it probably hasn’t merely been <perfectly restored>.’

I raised my head and looked toward the sky.

‘You thought you’d be able to devour this world easily if things went well, didn’t you?’

The sky had now been torn wide open.

Beyond it, I could see the shadow of some being.

‘I’ll remember you.’

-.......

The being that had given that monster its power.

It had tried to devour this land even if it had to overextend itself.

But in the end, its intention had failed, and this land had been completely restored.

And as a result.

‘We’ll put your power to good use.’

The power of all the other monsters that thing had devoured.

And even the power the being outside had given to the monster.

Every last bit of it had melted into this land.

And the result was.

[Great power settles into the territory ruled by the awakened!]

[The power of the System grows stronger.]

The power that supported all awakened.

It would lead directly to their growth.

I had already reached a level where I no longer depended on the System’s support.

But with this, the growth of the other awakened should become meaningfully faster.

And while I was thinking that.

“You...... just who are you?”

I noticed the gazes of the people staring blankly at me.

I had allowed them to defeat, with their own strength, an enemy they had believed they could never overcome.

I had returned the landscape of their homeland that they had believed could never be restored.

Countless people stared at me in such astonishment that they had lost even the words to speak.

“Just...... who are you?”

“What kind of great being are you...... to possess such power and perform miracles like these......?”

Not only the Russian awakened.

Even that powerful otherworldly being, the pale-skinned giant, lowered herself and spoke.

“Why would you grant us this kind of aid?”

At their words.

I shrugged and thought.

Something I had tried to fulfill for a long time, yet had been forced to postpone again and again.

“Because we promised.”

“......!”

The promise the Legion had made to them.

This was the moment it was finally fulfilled.

And at the same time.

[The Chef’s fame rises greatly!]

It was also the moment my fame rose dramatically.

***

After that great battle came to an end.

The Legion expeditionary force, including Corporal Jeon Gwangil, returned to ordinary occupation operations.

Now that they had gained the cooperation of the Russian awakened, they would probably use their information, manpower, and resources to advance into the surrounding areas more efficiently.

“Let’s see. Next is.......”

Separate from them.

I rode Kkamangi and flew rapidly across different parts of the world.

Rather than areas the Legion would soon be able to reach, I mainly focused on places farther away where the situation was more urgent.

“My God......!”

“Thank you, thank you so much......!”

Whenever I arrived somewhere, I always thought beyond simply defeating the enemy.

How could I deliver the greatest possible shock to the people watching and raise my fame?

Sometimes I even bluffed about things that were actually impossible.

Other times, I deliberately exaggerated enemies I could have defeated easily.

I used every method I could think of to imprint my presence as strongly as possible.

“......Thank you.”

“.......”

Deep within the Mongolian plains.

After finishing another spectacular battle.

I looked at a man and a woman who were the only survivors in the area.

The woman stared at me warily from behind the man, while the man stood in front of her and thanked me.

And as I looked at them, I was thinking about something else entirely.

‘How did they survive in a place like this?’

Just now.

The battle that had taken place in this land had not been one where I deliberately dragged things out despite being able to win easily.

I had literally fought at full strength for quite some time and had only barely managed to resolve the problem in this area.

And even then, I had not solved the entire region’s problem.

At best, I had merely managed to rescue these two people.

I had already thought something along these lines when I first looked upon this world with my own eyes.

But there were truly more than a few places in this world that had become absurdly difficult to survive in.

......In truth, the Legion’s first priority right now was gathering the surviving remnants of humanity.

But among the regions where humanity had already gone completely extinct, there were more than a few places that even I, as I was now, could not enter alone.

‘This land was no less dangerous than those places.’

What was surprising was that a small number of people had somehow survived even in environments that brutal.

If my cooking had arrived only a little later, no one would have survived.

But there were people who had managed to cling to life by that narrow margin.

And without exception, those survivors possessed a level of strength that even I found astonishing.

After considerable persuasion, I brought people like that back into Legion territory.

‘......This is way harder than I expected.’

Digging into regions that dangerous was far more exhausting than I had anticipated.

Considering the level of existence I had accumulated, part of me had thought most problems on this land would be easy enough to handle~.

But among the beings that had flowed in from other worlds, there were more than a few that even I found burdensome to deal with.

Still...... it was not as though I gained nothing from it.

[The Chef’s fame rises greatly!]

Whenever I managed to accomplish something difficult like that, this window appeared before my eyes.

I had seen it fairly often in the early days of the apocalypse, but ironically, after the Legion grew larger, I rarely saw it anymore.

In Korea, the Legion’s reputation had already spread widely.

The moment Sergeant Lee Minjae’s radio broadcast spread the Legion’s name across all of South Korea, our fame had risen sharply.

After that, there simply had not been many opportunities for it to increase by a large amount.

‘Hmm.’

And perhaps because my fame had begun rising so frequently again.

I became able to see something else as well.

‘So this is divine power.’

Something that had become visible as my perception expanded.

Thick lines connecting the Legion members to me.

Naturally, they were not physical lines.

They were some kind of spiritual passage connected between their souls and mine.

I could see the divine power originating from the Legion members flowing toward me.

‘And this is [Fame]?’

Just like divine power.

Whenever my fame accumulated, some kind of line formed between me and those staring at me in astonishment.

What was called ‘fame’ flowed through those passages toward me and accumulated in the level of my soul.

‘So this is how the level of a soul is built.’

I felt as though I was beginning to understand, at least slightly, how a soul’s level accumulated.

The faith of others gathered together and little by little built power within that soul.

‘Does fame originating from otherworldly beings count for slightly more?’

There was one peculiar point.

The power of fame originating from beings of other worlds seemed greater than the fame coming from living beings of this land...... from humans.

Even if the emotions they felt while looking at me were similar in intensity, the power that reached me from otherworldly beings was greater.

‘If you count the numbers, there probably aren’t even that many otherworldly beings who know about my fame, and yet it amounts to this much.’

Naturally, spreading fame among beings of other worlds would be harder than spreading it among humans.

Perhaps fame recognized by such beings strengthened my soul more significantly.

And...... in that regard.

The greatest source increasing my fame was neither humanity.

Nor the otherworldly beings currently staying on this land.

It was a slightly unexpected fact I only discovered after becoming able to see this ‘fame’ with my own eyes.

‘It isn’t only coming from beings inside our world.’

I absentmindedly raised my head and looked at the sky.

The heavens had now been opened wide.

Among the lines connected to my body, quite a few originated from beyond it.

‘Outside.’

Not only the beings of other worlds that had flowed into this land.

But also those beings from Outside that wandered through the void because they had no world in which to place their bodies.

And...... even farther away than them.

Great beings dwelling within worlds of their own.

‘My existence is becoming known to beings beyond the barriers between worlds.’

Well.

I had caused quite a mess against the Demon Realm.

And I had blocked outside interference several times as well.

There were probably quite a few beings who had begun watching me out of interest...... or wariness.

It was a different kind of fame from the astonishment and gratitude I received from the awakened.

But fame was still fame.

That name became fame, and fame became power that increased the level of my soul.

The fame I had gained from the awakened was significant as well.

But the power flowing from beings outside felt incomparably greater.

‘I still don’t really understand the mechanism through which this power is transmitted.......’

I closed my eyes and checked the fame accumulated inside me.

‘......It increased this much?’

It had not even been that long since I decided to pursue fame.

And yet the amount accumulated inside me was already incomparable to before.

‘Well, I suppose that makes sense. Until now, my fame had only been accumulating inside a world that was already nearly destroyed...... and even then, mostly within that tiny Korean Peninsula.’

Other transcendent beings were probably accumulating fame as the greatest beings in worlds that would not fall behind even Earth at its peak.

I was still far short of them.

But I had at least reached the vicinity of that level.

If this world had been normal, it would have been natural for my name to spread among far more people and for me to possess fame incomparable to what I had now.

If anything, the fame I possessed until now had simply been far too small compared to the level of existence I had accumulated.

Only now was it gradually beginning to approach something closer to normal.

‘Hmm...... with this much.’

There were still many regions across the world that I had not reached.

But at least among the places I could immediately access, I had dealt with all the urgent crises through my recent activities.

Most of the survivors in the other regions still possessed enough strength to endure for the time being, so there was no need for me to rush over and help them immediately.

Those were exactly the sorts of problems the Legion should resolve gradually as it advanced.

‘It may not be enough yet, but it should at least be worth giving an interim report.’

With that thought.

FWAAAAASH.......

I returned to Korea once more.

Then stood before the black hole Sergeant Park Taejun had created.

***

SPOT!

After once again experiencing that terrifyingly cold void.

My body was thrown somewhere.

When I lifted my head, what I saw was familiar...... or maybe I should say it was something I would never be able to get used to.

A space made entirely of grotesque flesh.

The same place I had arrived at not long ago.

‘Honestly, I was worried I might end up somewhere else.’

The hole Sergeant Park Taejun created led only Outside.

It did not guarantee where someone thrown Outside through it would ultimately end up.

Even while entering the hole, I had worried that I might fall into some other world this time.

But fortunately, if that was the right word, I had managed to return to the place I wanted.

‘I have no idea how that’s possible, though.’

Well.

No point complaining when things worked out.

I steadied the ragged breathing the void had left me with and pushed myself upright.

And while I was doing that.

“Ah, you’re back.”

A voice sounded, pleased to see me.

“......I managed to make it back somehow.”

“Good. It seems you’ve been following the advice I gave you. I can feel that quite a considerable amount of power has accumulated inside your body.”

“You have no idea how much trouble I went through to build up this much.”

I answered it.

Then, after barely managing to steady my rough breathing, I raised my heavy head and spoke.

“Hoo...... so? Have you remembered anything yet?”

“Hmm?”

“I mean why you told me to build my fame. Just what.......”

As I raised my head.

I could see the form of the being that had spoken to me.

And.

“Why.......”

The moment I saw it.

I could not finish what I had been saying.

I could only frown.

“Ah, that....... Sorry, but I still don’t know the exact reason myself.”

“.......”

“Still, it’s not as though I’ve remembered nothing. After you left, fragments of my memories gradually began returning.”

Last time.

I had thought perhaps I was imagining things.

But this time, it was not my imagination.

There was no way I could mistake it.

“They’re still quite fragmentary.......”

Not long ago.

When I had seen this thing in this space, it had unmistakably looked like a newborn infant.

But.

“Still. I’m sure they’ll be useful to you.”

Standing before me now.......

‘It grew.’

Was a child who looked about three years old.

Smiling brightly at me.