The World after the Fall

'What?'

[They are naked. If the enemy is naked, the [Naked] Setting cannot be used against them.]

'…What do you mean?'

Andersen then briefly explained and Jaehwan understood what was going on. The [Naked] Setting only worked against enemies who had clothes on. Although Jaehwan felt intrigued that having a Gigantes equipped was considered the same as having 'clothes' on, the power worked better the more 'clothes' an enemy had on.

While it meant that no armor could withstand the [Naked] Setting after only getting ripped apart because of it, but it also meant that there was no way to kill an enemy when they were naked.

[…By the way, the song ends like this, 'Finally, all friends are naked. The naked God became happy and went back home.']

'…Without killing anyone?'

[Without killing anyone.]

Jaehwan's lips trembled with rage.

'…What is that…'

It was a weird Setting. It was invincible while an enemy had clothes on, but it was powerless when the enemy was naked. It was so twisted that it even seemed to be some kind of weird fetish. Jaehwan felt a headache at his fate for having to fight with this Setting.

'Wait- I killed that Follower of Belkain with the [Naked] Setting before.'

[…They probably didn't die back then. I think it was Runald who finished them off.]

Jaehwan then turned to Runald in the distance. He first thought Runald was too young to do such a thing, but soon realized that it was possible. Runald already had years of experience in <Depth>. His brilliance and way of doing things were probably the result of that.

'I see. Anyway, thanks for helping me out this time.'

[…Whoa. I never thought you could say such a thing.]

'…'

Andersen seemed happy anyway. The battle was calming down after Jaehwan destroyed a total of five Gigantes. The Vicegerents and auctioneers were now backing off each other. However, it didn't mean that the fight was over, and Andersen and Jaehwan were well aware of that.

[Don't let down your guard. It's only the beginning. You mentioning two million soul stones made them go mad.]

'…Were you listening?'

[Of course, I was! I just couldn't say anything because the communication was unstable. I thought I was going nuts at what you did back there! Speaking of which, what made you do such a thing in the first place?!]

Jaehwan then glanced toward Myad.

'I just wanted to shock him.'

[…Gosh. I am not sure if you are cold or hot-headed.]

Andersen felt something superhuman about Jaehwan when she first saw him — an Awakener who killed Generals. She thought such a being would have the perception and judgment that exceeded that of a God. However, as more time she spent with Jaehwan, she had to rethink her original impression of him.

Jaehwan wasn't perfect.

He had the foresight of a God, but the heart of a human. He had thousands of years experience, but he was still swept away by what happened in the past and sometimes failed to do as planned because of his emotions. Even after living for thousands of years, he was still human.

[Oh well. I guess that's why you have such an impossible goal…]

'Cut the nonsense. What should we do now?'

Jaehwan went up to Runald and picked him up. He was able to see through it instinctively — the peace around the auction house was only temporary. He was in the eye of the storm right now.

'I used too much world power too.'

Unlike [Fall], [Naked] didn't allow Jaehwan to recover his world power. He didn't kill any Vicegerents, so he couldn't absorb their world powers. Fortunately, the Vicegerents of the middle-ranking Gods were backing away due to the shock from the previous fight, but the Vicegerents of the high-ranking Gods were different.

They realized that Jaehwan's world power was waning. If given a chance, they would jump on Jaehwan.

Jaehwan made a decision. It was the best choice he could make at the moment. His body quickly moved toward where the largest world powers were moving about.

"Hey, you should help me."

Myad and X were still fighting against each other. Myad smiled and answered, "Hmm. You really do get powerful quickly."

"…"

"A Setting that destroys other Settings… and a Setting that destroys Parts? There will be no other like you throughout the entire <Depth>."

Myad spoke casually even though he was intensely fighting X.

"…Drop the flattery."

"Oh, yeah. But as you can see, I'm in quite of a pinch myself."

"Don't lie. You're not using any power yet."

"Oops- you knew?"

As his world power increased, Jaehwan saw Myad in a new light. He first thought that he could fight Myad on equal grounds, but it changed his mind. Myad had much more power than he realized at first. He was the leader of the 3rd World Federation after all. If Myad were to act, there was no way the Vicegerents and high-ranking Gods would object.

"…But I'm not lying. He's really something."

Jaehwan then turned to X who was fighting against Myad. Myad wasn't wrong. In terms of 'world power rating', X was unleashing about 150 thousand world power from his body. It was much higher than any high-ranking God Vicegerents who were eyeing Jaehwan from nearby.

'And there are some monsters that I can't see through either.'

Jaehwan also knew of a few who were watching over everything. Those were the beings that Jaehwan could barely just feel that they existed.

<Depth> sure was different from <Chaos>.

The place where the best of <Chaos> came to and barely returned alive — Jaehwan now realized the power of <Depth>.

[You should run. Let's not stay here.]

Andersen came to a conclusion. Jaehwan was also thinking of running away. What was happening in the auction house didn't matter to him anyway.

[Didn't Reinholdt's Long Coat have a [High Speed Flying] Setting? You should run away with that. No Vicegerents will be able to follow you if you use that Setting.]

Jaehwan had already picked up the coat, just in case.

[What are you doing? We don't have time to waste. Go!]

Jaehwan knew this already as he had already felt the Vicegerents closing in on him. However, before he ran, there was one thing he wanted to find out. He turned to Myad and asked, "Myad, it's you who put that Machina on the auction, right?"