When Did I Become An Artifact Dealer?!
Chapter 69-70: GOD

Chapter 69: Chapter 69-70: GOD

The name that was written on the name tag was Sanien Ven.

"That’s him? The person on the recording?" Sellene didn’t attack first because she was shocked at how pitiful it looked. Every step it took seemed to pain the monster.

The abomination charged without warning. Its speed was very disproportionate to its twisted body.

Sellene reacted a second late. The abomination’s appearance was different from how brutal its speed was.

She slammed her feet into the ground. A huge wall of ice sprung out of the ground, covering her and Cail.

The abomination didn’t give up. It clawed at the wall of ice. Sellene and Cail could hear its bones breaking. Because of how unnatural its body’s form was, every time it moved, it broke a bone. Cail noticed that this abomination seemed to be regenerating.

"What is that?" Sellene couldn’t comprehend what type of creature and suffering she was looking at.

"No idea." Not that Cail cared, but something about it bothered him more. "But it’s definitely stinky." It smelled rotten.

Sellene conjured another ice wall. The broken wall from before turned into sharp ice blades. They flew toward the abomination and plunged into the spots where Sellene saw the skin seemed thinner.

"ROAAAAAAAAAR!" The monster dug out a piece of ice that was stuck on its head. But the moment its hand touched the ice, something smashed its hand into its skull, making the ice dig deeper into its brain.

"Noisy!" Cail thought, but he still tried to maintain his image of normalcy, so he didn’t say anything. He struck the monster with his rifle.

"This guy... it doesn’t seem that strong..." Cail pointed at the healing wounds, "But it seems to be pretty good at regeneration."

Sellene saw it. With her hands glowing blue, a thin ice blade came out of the ground. It sliced the abomination in two.

Cail looked at the blood that had frozen, splattering all over the mine. With no time to waste, Cail grabbed the other half of the body.

He noticed that the organs inside no longer looked like human organs. It was a work of art. The intestines were twisted to resemble a flower, and each lung was carved into something else. Other organs also looked unique. It was a wonder how this guy was still alive and how it was possible for an organ to work after being twisted into that shape.

"What are you doing?!" Sellene was a bit startled by his actions. The innards of the abomination splattered onto the ground, and it started crawling.

Cail stepped on something that resembled a kidney. "I’m not sure if it’s really regeneration, but let’s see what will happen if we take away the other half of the body."

Sellene was silent. She felt something was a bit off with Cail for some reason.

Cail had no time to consider her thoughts. He stomped on the other crawling substance on the ground. He saw that the other half of the abomination had started to grow small tentacles. It was slowly crawling toward the other half.

Sellene didn’t need to be told. She made an ice coffin for each half. Despite being separated, it was still very vigorous and alive. It slammed its half-head on the ice coffin over and over again.

"Raaaaaarrrrr!" The monster kept roaring. At this point, Cail was a bit amazed. His vocal cords were probably halved now, right? Then he realized that the other half of the body seemed to be in sync with the rest.

"How do we kill this?!" Sellene was having a headache about that issue. True, this abomination seemed weak, but it was very hard to kill.

Cail was also a bit clueless when it came to that. He had an idea, but he wasn’t sure if Virehn had made a trap. He wanted to use his null ability to see if it had any effect, but considering that null was also Virehn’s ability... and for some reason, that scum knew that there was another Cail in another world... he should be ready for Cail to use null, right?

Just as they were vexed about what to do, the growl suddenly turned into something more intelligible.

"Project Coreline... Don’t touch it..." Both sliced parts spoke.

"It can speak?" Sellene stumbled back a bit.

Cail was also surprised. This guy still had sanity?

It seemed to be having a final burst of life. It opened its mouth. "The Project Coreline is a trap... Lock this rift and escape."

Then it was silent except for the abomination’s labored breathing.

Sellene was unsure what to do. This guy was sentient and didn’t seem to mean any harm. She opened her mouth and asked, "What do you mean that the Project Coreline is a trap..." Don’t joke like that. Her father spent a lot of resources to dig up the Project Coreline.

The monster’s eyes flashed. It seemed to be shifting between madness and sanity. It struggled to form words but still tried hard to answer Sellene’s question.

"Demon Virehn... He was treating the world like his playground... He wanted to see what was beyond the void... He fed the people to the Project Coreline..." the monster said as it gasped for breath.

"What do you mean by ’fed’?" Cail thought about the inconsistencies he had discovered. "The existence of the people here seemed to vanish, except for yours and Virehn’s."

The monster smiled. It looked grotesque. With half its body sliced, each half formed half a smile.

"Project Coreline... Did all of you think it was a machine?" the monster’s voice had a hint of mockery.

Sellene’s eyes widened. "It’s not?!"

Cail was also silent. He realized he had a lapse in his thinking. When it was said that Virehn invented Project Coreline, he thought it was something tangible and lifeless. Although his guess wasn’t limited to a machine, he never really considered other out-of-the-box options.

Seeing that the two of them were shocked, the man laughed—a laugh that sounded like a cry. "Invention means machine to you, right? You guys must be from the other world. I know your existence. Virehn showed me, and I’ve seen a lot of you roaming around."

"Humans play with dead objects, but Virehn is a demon..."

"He created something out of the human imagination."

"He created a god."

...

Chapter 70

"Creating a God?!" Sellene felt that she was filled with questions this time. Just hearing the word God, she knew the severity of the situation.

She never thought that it would escalate to this point. They had been looking for the project Coreline with no success, but don’t tell me...

Sellene paled when she remembered those guesses, but she couldn’t help but voice it out, "Don’t tell me the God is underneath us?"

There had been news about a strange energy from underground. If that’s really the case...

The abomination didn’t speak, but the dull and crazy look in his eyes said it all.

The monster spoke slowly. "No. He wanted to see who would survive it. But after a while, like the child that he was, he got bored. He fed all the people who signed the contract to the God that he made."

Cail looked at the sliced man. A sense of mischief was rising from his chest. He knew that he was very out of pocket even in serious situations, but he kinda realized that his ’morals,’ which weren’t really there, were starting to shift. In short, he felt his restraints loosening.

"Why are you telling this to us?" Cail tilted his head. "Since you know the existence of the other world, you don’t have anything to do with that—"

"I HATE VIREHN! I HATE HIM TO DEATH!" the monster growled with pure hatred. Cail could sense how much he despised the guy. Still, very reasonable.

Sellene was feeling very anxious now. "T—this! Nothing should have happened for now, right? Nothing went wrong before..."

Cail looked at her with a dead look in his eyes. "Don’t be that assured." He acknowledged that Virehn seemed to be a plague God.

"Then what should we do?!" Sellene crumpled her hair. Cail realized that she seemed to be very expressive through her body language. Like when she’s happy, she would twirl; when she’s anxious, she would pull her hair.

Like a clown, Cail thought badly. Hmmm, maybe we could be a bit kind. Like a theatre actor?

Cail was feeling a bit proud. A progress! A good progress in camouflaging like a normal person.

But Cail didn’t forget the main agenda. He pointed at the mine entrance. "How about you check what’s going on? Don’t go too far... If you can’t sense anything, then keep guarding. Find a way to stop them."

Sellene was confused. "Then what about you?"

This time, Cail bet. "I’m going to ask him some questions... I’ll tell you what I gathered." Cail poked her shoulder. "Trust me. We are already in this together."

Because of her lack of experience, although Sellene once again felt something was off, she nodded and ran outside the mine.

Looking at her departing back, Cail sighed in relief. Her goodwill was still useful. She seemed to be averse to people with Cail’s personality, so he needed to wear sheep’s clothing.

Sensing that her connection with the ice had vanished, Cail walked towards the abomination...

"Sanien Ven, right?" He squatted down as he poked the ice. "I heard your recording... I wonder what happened to Virehn after that?"

The abomination’s eyes looked at Cail. It wasn’t a good look. "He vanished. He said he would explore the void."

Cail nodded like a good listener. "Why did he leave you here?" He picked up the name tag that had fallen to the ground. It was bloody, but the name was still visible.

The abomination sneered—well, it looked like a sneer to Cail. "He said I’m his perfect creation. He hates me. He wanted me to suffer."

"You’re speaking very clearly now," Cail commented.

Sanien Ven didn’t respond, but the rage in his eyes vanished. It was filled with something else... resentment, exhaustion, and shame.

"So," he said casually, "Virehn made you. Hated you. Left you. And now you’re here, in an abandoned mine hole, hoping someone would find you?"

Cail looked at the abomination straight in the eye. Others might find it difficult because of how scary it looked, but to Cail, this guy was still human... a human that could be manipulated.

"I can feel that you are hiding something." Cail felt this in his gut. He knew that although he wasn’t Virehn, the two of them had similarities. There was no way he would keep a useless pawn, even just for entertainment.

The abomination was startled. But Cail didn’t give him a chance to respond.

"Come on, tell me something... Something about Virehn," Cail murmured, walking in a slow, deliberate circle again.

"You don’t look relieved..." His eyes surveyed the monster’s face...

He smiled coldly. "You weren’t interested in hurting him." It was a guess.

"What are you talking about?! I am!" But its response was enough confirmation to Cail.

His eyes widened in excitement when he caught the hook. "I think I know what happened to you," Cail said, his way of speaking quickening in excitement.

"All those years underground. No contact. No escape. You were tortured. Rotting in hatred, thinking about vengeance, about getting free... and then something changed..." Then Cail whispered, "Did he come back? What did he promise you? What are you hiding?"

"YOU’RE TWISTING THINGS!" The monster’s face turned hideous. Cail looked at the face objectively. This reaction further confirmed his guess.

"Virehn could create a God," Cail said, his hand slamming the ice coffin. "Such a genius! What did he offer you? Turning you into a God? Goodness, such a tempting offer." But if that was really the case, then Cail believed that Virehn was just tricking this guy.

"Following that line of thought... The God is still in a dormant state until now..."

Looking at the abomination inside the ice coffin, Cail could see that it no longer wanted to interact with him.

"You want us to awaken the ’God’," Cail said.

Since this Virehn seemed to have similarities with him, it was time for Cail to evaluate his line of thought. What could have been Virehn’s plan? And also, that God... What do they do with that?

When you want to dig for hidden information. You just need to grab that tiny thread and the guilty will confess.

But before all of that, Cail felt that Virehn had good taste in choosing a prey. Looking at this already battered man but still having the capacity to scheme and think, even Cail felt the urge to toy with him.

Maybe he’ll have a bit of fun before working on his agenda.