"Follow me."
Vayph entered the strange city's interior as if he would personally guide them himself.
"Yes."
Raon nodded just like the other people and followed behind Vayph.
"Hand it over!"
"You vermin!"
"Even rotting bread is too good for the mouths of trash like you!"
People wearing what appeared to be expensive clothes were beating those dressed in worn clothing and stealing their possessions. Even though robbery was happening right before their eyes, not only Vayph but also the Angels standing guard didn't move. They even curled their lips in mockery of those being beaten.
'This place is...'
Raon narrowed his eyes as he watched the robbery and violence occurring on the dazzlingly splendid street.
'It's like reality.'
-Like reality?
Wrath wrinkled his nose as if asking what he meant.
'Yeah. It's like the survival-of-the-fittest world we live in.'
Unlike the Cloud Land where only pleasure existed without any effort, Heaven felt exactly like the outside world.
"Fascinating?"
Vayph turned around and chuckled.
"You must be curious why we don't stop it?"
He slightly raised his eyebrows while looking at those who were staring wide-eyed in surprise.
"Y-yes."
The man who had been called to the temple first nodded with a bewildered expression.
"Why don't you stop it? That person is almost dying..."
He swallowed dryly while looking at the person who had been beaten unconscious for trying not to have his bread stolen.
"That person was really beaten for no reason at all!"
The woman whose belly had grown mountain-like from eating too much in the Cloud Land trembled her lips as if frightened.
"Wh-what kind of place is this?"
"Is this really Heaven?"
"It's, it's very different from what I thought..."
The other people also rolled their eyes anxiously while surveying their surroundings, as if questioning the very meaning of Heaven.
"This place is indeed Heaven."
Vayph rolled up his jet-black robe and spread both arms. His arms were so long that it looked like a black curtain was descending from the sky.
"It's a place where you can spread your desires even wider and higher."
Vayph raised his finger as if telling them to look carefully. The wealthy ones on the left were caught at the tip of his elongated finger.
"Behold. You people will be able to enjoy pleasures in this Heaven that you have never felt before."
Vayph twisted up the corners of his mouth while pointing at those lost in pleasure, wrapped in all the negative emotions of the world.
"On the other hand..."
He turned his finger to point to the right side.
"Those vermin are failed trash. They became like that by just leisurely opening their mouths like in the Cloud Land. They'll probably become corpses as they are."
Vayph deeply furrowed his brow as if the wretched ones were disgusting. His face, which wouldn't be strange to call beautiful, began to look sinister like a viper.
"Th-then how can we get to that side?"
The woman with a mountain-like belly clasped her hands together while looking at the wealthy ones on the left. She bit her lips as if she wanted to go there no matter what she had to do.
"Hmm..."
"Please tell us!"
"We beg you!"
The other people also looked at Vayph with tense eyes, asking him to just tell them the method.
"The method is simple."
Vayph didn't speak immediately as if enjoying the desperate gazes of the people, and paused slightly.
"Desire."
He pointed his elongated finger at the left chests of the people whose hearts were beating roughly.
"Focus on desire and be honest with your desires! To get what you want, you must be able to kick out your old parents and steal even a crumb of bread from your starving children."
Vayph curled up the corners of his mouth, saying that only by abandoning the social values built up by humans could one pursue true desire.
"This place is a dream land where desire becomes power. The more faithful you are to desire and the more you reveal your urges, the more you can have."
He clenched his fist, saying that in Heaven, desires could even be transformed into actual Martial Prowess.
'Certainly...'
Raon nodded slightly while looking at the people on the left and right sides.
'Those on the right are much stronger.'
When he released his Aura Perception, it seemed like if those on the right were Grandmasters, then those on the left weren't even at Master level.
'A place where desire becomes Martial Prowess...'
Raon let out a hollow laugh.
'They really made all sorts of strange things.'
It was absurd, yet it made him laugh because it was something Derus Robert would do.
-This also seems to have borrowed the power of those Archangel bastards.
Wrath clicked his tongue while examining the ground and buildings.
-The stench of filthy divine power comes from all directions.
He frowned, saying he was extremely annoyed to be in this place.
"If you can be faithful to your desires, you will be able to obtain true pleasure that the enjoyment you got in the Cloud Land couldn't even follow at your heels."
He giggled while pointing at the wealthy ones on the left whom others looked up to and feared.
"On the other hand..."
Vayph looked down at the people on the right who were sitting like beggars with coldly hardened eyes.
"If you just keep your mouth open like when you were in the Cloud Land, that's what happens to you."
He spun his finger around as if telling them to think carefully about what to do.
'Certainly that kind of thing is important too.'
Raon nodded calmly.
'Because discrimination is also a kind of pleasure.'
In the Cloud Land, everyone received the same treatment, but Heaven was a place where discriminatory treatment was natural. In other words, it meant one could also feel the pleasure of showing superiority by having what others couldn't have.
"Hmm..."
"If it's something like that, I'm confident!"
"We, we have to steal from our parents and children too...?"
"When it comes to desire, I'll never lose to anyone!"
"This should be interesting."
Half of the ten people dreamed of pleasure and sparked red light in their eyes, while the rest trembled their shoulders as if worried about what lay ahead.
'As expected of Derus Robert.'
Raon chuckled while looking at the people divided in half.
'He structured it quite well.'
-Structure?
Wrath tilted his head as if asking what he meant.
'It's a method of calling people with deficiencies to the Cloud Land, just giving them a taste of what pleasure is, then sending them to Heaven to compete by fighting each other with desire.'
A method of telling people who had lost in competition in the outside world about desire and pleasure, then creating a Fighting Spirit arena where they could compete again and sending them out to fight. It was indeed cruel yet efficient, just like Derus Robert.
-What is that Derus bastard aiming for?
Wrath raised his eyebrows as if curious about that.
'He's probably gathering the negative Aura that comes out when people pursue their desires. This place called Heaven is a massive breeding ground for that.'
Raon rubbed his stiffening neck.
'Everyone in Heaven is nothing but slaves of Derus Robert.'
Both the wealthy ones who acted arrogant as if this Heaven were their own land, and the wretched ones so thin they wouldn't be strange to die soon, were nothing but dairy cows trapped in cages having their milk extracted.
-Ha, now that I think about it, that's right!
Wrath nodded his blue hair vigorously as if he finally understood.
'Since there are both those who will become stepping stones and those who will step on them to climb up, this place is truly the wild.'
Raon realized Derus's plan to make humans slaves to pleasure and shuddered slightly.
'He's a frightening and petty bastard.'
-This king finds you more frightening.
Wrath frowned, saying he found himself stranger than Derus.
'Why me?'
Raon tilted his head while looking at Wrath.
-As soon as you entered the game that sinister bastard set up, didn't you grasp everything! No, even coming in here is something not even a ghost could do!
Wrath sighed, saying that even Derus Robert probably never imagined that Raon would enter this place.
'That's probably true.'
Raon curled up the corners of his mouth in a long arc.
'So I need to see and feel as much as possible.'
To kill Derus, he needed to understand as much as possible about him. Even in this land called Heaven, he had to extract as much information as possible somehow.
"Take one each."
Vayph put his hand in his chest and took out ten pouches. Inside each pouch were twenty gold coins engraved with Angel wings.
"Wh-what is this?"
A middle-aged man with a bald head blinked as he received the pouch.
"It's the currency used in Heaven."
Vayph showed the winged gold coin between his fingers as if asking why he was asking something so obvious.
"C-currency?"
"There's currency too?"
People turned their heads as if they didn't know there would be currency.
"I told you earlier. This place is different from the Cloud Land. There are no servants anywhere who will give you food and shelter just for staying still. You have to sell your desires to make a living."
Vayph sneered, saying that everything in Heaven was competition.
"But if you have desire, whether it's money, Martial Prowess, women, or men! You can buy anything at all!"
He handed pouches containing gold coins to each person as if telling them to fight well from now on.
"Thank you!"
Raon raised his voice confidently as he received the bundle Vayph handed him.
"Yes. I have high expectations for you."
Unlike with the others, Vayph handed him the pouch containing gold coins and even patted his shoulder.
"Yes!"
Raon said he wouldn't disappoint and bowed his head again. As he slowly straightened his back, he felt sharp gazes from around him. These weren't the gazes of those who had come to Heaven with him. The fierce eyes of people who had already established themselves in Heaven were piercing down like arrows.
However, people's gazes weren't focused only on him. Interest and desire were concentrated on all the people who had received gold coins.
'That bastard...'
Raon bit his lips thinly while watching Vayph's back as he walked away after handing out the gold coins.
'He gave them here on purpose.'
The place where he was currently standing was a busy district where many people passed by. Seeing that he had handed out the gold coins in such a crowded place, Vayph's intention was crystal clear.
"Now, go forth. Spread your desires to your heart's content in this land of freedom!"
Vayph drew a big smile as if he trusted everyone.
"If you become strong, we will be able to meet again."
He nodded as if he would look forward to that day and left.
A low murmur.
Raon gripped the heavy gold coin pouch and rolled his eyes as if anxious. But inside, he was thinking the complete opposite and hiding laughter that was about to burst out.
'This should be interesting.'
***
The young man called Charlie crouched down and suppressed his presence.
'I absolutely cannot fail this time.'
He trembled his hands nervously and chewed his lips persistently.
He drew in a breath.
Charlie slowly inhaled and then held his breath.
'If I mess up today too, I'll really starve to death.'
Heaven. No, it had been half a year since he came to this land that wouldn't be strange to call hell. At first, he thought he could do anything for the pleasure he had tasted in the Cloud Land, but on the very first day he was betrayed by a companion and had his gold coin pouch stolen, and had been living like a beggar ever since.
Every time he targeted newcomers' pouches he had failed, but the guy he had marked this time looked weak and stupid, so it seemed like he could definitely succeed.
'Stupid fool...'
He could have protected his pouch by sleeping at an inn, but seeing him enter the grassland trying to save money reminded him of his past self who had his pouch robbed by a companion.
'It's pitiful but can't be helped.'
If he couldn't get money today, he would be the one to die, so there was no time to think about the newcomer. He resolved to steal the money no matter what and nodded his head. Charlie entered the thicket where the newcomer had hidden his body while suppressing his footsteps.
'He probably thought he used his head, but it won't work.'
The newcomer probably hid in here thinking he would hear the sound of people entering between the grass, but everyone living in Heaven possessed their own Martial Prowess. Moving without making sound was as easy as eating cold porridge.
'There he is!'
Charlie's eyes flashed as he discovered the newcomer breathing faintly between the grass.
'If stealing doesn't work, I'll just take it by force. Being a newcomer, he has to be weaker than me right now.'
He resolved to absolutely not miss this chance and reached his hand toward the newcomer's chest. Flash! The sleeping newcomer opened his bright blue eyes and quickly grabbed his hand.
"Wh-what!"
Charlie was startled and tried to pull his wrist from the newcomer's grasp, but it wouldn't come free as if he had been caught by an Ogre.
"You're too late."
The newcomer smiled brightly like someone who had been waiting desperately for his girlfriend and gripped Charlie's wrist even tighter.
"I've been waiting for quite a while."