Ch.263

“Wow. Holy sh..”

I couldn’t help but marvel at the purification cauldron creating a massive whirlpool as it sucked in water.

Like a toilet flushing, seawater was being powerfully drawn into the small entrance of the purification cauldron while simultaneously pouring out as purified seawater.

How could water go in and come out at the same time?

While I was lost in admiration of this fascinating mechanism, the purification cauldron had already been sucked deep down into the ocean.

I decided to follow it.

How far would it go?

Even underwater, I could clearly see water entering the cauldron and coming out purified, transforming from slightly murky, dark ocean water to crystal clear water.

“This is insane.”

The purified seawater quickly filled the path where the cauldron descended, pushing away the corrupted seawater that tried to intrude.

Though the amount was still tiny compared to the vast abyssal ocean—like scooping up just one bucket—its power was strong enough to repel the corrupted seawater.

So clear.

“So this is how clear it was originally.”

I used to think the ocean looked amazingly clear from the beach, with its emerald transparency. But I was wrong.

I had thought it was just a deeper emerald color because of the ocean’s depth.

But comparing the purified section with the unpurified one, the corrupted seawater was noticeably darker—so much so that it felt unfair to even compare them.

I wanted to check something.

Just this much.

After raising the purification cauldron, how much had the purification energy level increased?

But I didn’t rush.

With things like this, checking impatiently bit by bit only wastes energy.

Instead, I adjusted the direction of the descending cauldron.

The destination wasn’t the merfolk city in the deep sea, but where the corrupted abyss had been.

That place contained the most concentrated chaos energy.

It was also the source from which all this chaos energy had spread.

I planned to release purified energy there to cleanse the abyssal ocean.

That’s why the merfolk were deployed.

“You need to guard this well.”

Would someone steal it?

Or would monsters come and swallow it?

I wasn’t too worried.

On our way to the corrupted abyss, the monsters we encountered either fled when they saw the corrupted energy being sucked into the cauldron or kept their distance—not a single one dared to confront us.

And of course, I planned to take my own precautions.

I would place the purification cauldron in the corrupted abyss, set up this location as a temporary base, and install a structure made of Bratrium.

I’d create thin openings all around for seawater to flow in and out, but design it so monsters couldn’t break through. This would prepare for any unexpected accidents.

And with that, I finished up.

It was actually a bit anticlimactic.

A level 7 dense chaos energy biome. Plus merfolk.

This was an incredibly important resource and essential biome for my life in the Rift Dimension, so I had prepared thoroughly before entering.

I’d spent nearly 1-2 weeks just on setup, investing time in configuring items, strengthening weapons, and maintaining accessories.

It was that important and seemed that dangerous, but in reality, it was much easier to conquer than I had anticipated.

Now I was certain.

“If you just keep raising defense abilities, you’ll never die.”

Of course, I’m not mindlessly focusing only on defense abilities.

The key is to build layers of defensive insurance while not adding more attack abilities and instead raising mana.

The Purified Ice Spirit Liquor.

This one item had been carrying me far more efficiently than even SSS+ tier items from the Rift Dimension.

My meeting and deal with the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, my relationship with his granddaughter, and so on.

There were some awkward aspects, but I had to admit I’d been feeling pretty good about it lately.

“The best deal of my Rift life.”

As for attack abilities, my only relative weakness was using magic as a secondary skill. But even that could be quickly resolved by learning attack magic while raising mana.

The accumulated quest rewards were also satisfying.

Just picking out the important ones:

SSS+ Ability Selection Ticket x4

SSS Ability Selection Ticket x2

SSS+ Life Skill Selection Ticket x6

SSS Life Skill Selection Ticket x2

I received over 400 farming stat points and almost 10 million Farm. Dense Chaos Energy Fragments, Rare Point Enhancement Tickets x3, Biome Enhancement Ticket, and even an SSS+ Abyss Orb.

The rewards were substantial.

I also steadily completed explorer sub-quests along the way.

As my level increased, so did the rewards—I basically got back everything I spent, if not more.

“I can see the end.”

This might be a hasty thought.

Just because I easily conquered a level 7 biome doesn’t guarantee levels 8, 9, and 10 will be the same.

But having reached the middle stage and now looking toward the later stages, if the difficulty remains manageable by Rift Dimension standards, I think I’m prepared enough to start seeing the finish line.

At the very beginning, it seems like just yesterday when I thought I needed to grow without the slightest error while watching the difficulty.

But here I am, having climbed up without slipping while thoroughly collecting all the rewards.

Looking back, there are certainly things I regret.

Most notably, Lulu’s growth.

I said I’d help her grow in the early-mid stages, but I got distracted and moved on. If I had helped Lulu grow then, our progress might have been smoother and easier.

But it’s not like I suffered any losses due to Lulu’s delayed growth.

Having created the purification cauldron copy bug, it was time to head back.

First, I decided to resolve the issues happening on Earth.

—————

Earth was in chaos.

More precisely, countries that couldn’t stop S-rank dungeon backflows were in chaos.

In a situation where dungeons were at least +1 rank due to mixing with chaos energy, even blocking A-rank dungeon backflows was barely manageable, let alone S-rank backflows.

In this hopeless situation, governments had few options.

First, evacuate people.

Then, do their best to eliminate the backflow monsters.

They gathered all domestic rankers and sent them to backflow areas to contain the spread while requesting help from other countries.

That’s really all they could do.

If they could solve it themselves, no matter the cost, they would.

No amount of money would be too much compared to cities being destroyed, casualties mounting, and the threat spreading to other cities.

Spending money on their own hunters to prevent damage isn’t wasteful.

But if that were possible, they wouldn’t be thinking about asking for help in the first place.

In a situation where their own hunters couldn’t resolve the issue, they had no choice but to request assistance.

Unconditional surrender.

They basically start with the attitude of accepting any conditions.

They have to.

Otherwise, their country faces complete collapse.

Whether they go into debt or whatever, the country needs to survive first.

Nevertheless, few countries could offer help.

Only three countries in the world had successfully blocked S-rank backflows:

The United States. China. Korea.

Countries facing S-rank backflows had no choice but to beg all three.

But China flatly refused.

The US declined to protect their domestic hunters.

Only Korea actively gathered 3-4 countries at risk from S-rank backflows and had them compete by raising their offers.

Eventually, the Korean government and Hunter Association selected one country to dispatch help to.

An oil-rich Middle Eastern country with much to offer in state-to-state negotiations.

Despite extensive publicity and news coverage:

– ?

– There was no mention of going anywhere on the Farmer Hunter’s channel.

– Is the government just making empty promises?

– He hasn’t been visible lately anyway lol

– Are they trying to control Farming Company after taking bribes?

– No mention on Farming Company’s YouTube either… is this really happening?

– It would be good to help. But it should be his own decision.

When the dispatch day came with no sign of action, the Middle Eastern country protested, and the Hunter Association released articles about the major no-show.

But Kim Soo-hyun was nowhere to be seen.

Farming Company released a counter-article:

– We’ve heard nothing about this?

– Lol, another blunder by the Hunter Association.

– Why do these bastards keep pulling this shit every time, making people want to leave Korea?

– Shouldn’t something be done about this?

– Seems like spies are deliberately trying to send Farming Company elsewhere.

The controversy continued until I finished my business and returned.