Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 110
Chapter 110: Heaven’s Verdict
The woman in the white-haired suit was holding a white card reader engraved with the ?Astral Online? logo of angel wings and the World Tree.
First, Kirie took out her adventurer card and touched it to the card reader’s LCD screen.
As the card was read, it emitted a faint, translucent light, which then traveled through her hand, enveloping her entire body.
“Kirie-san!?”
Both Kirie and I were startled by this, but as the light surrounded her body, it soon vanished.
“Are you okay?” I asked, concerned.
“Yeah, no problem so far. In fact, I feel strangely refreshed, like all my fatigue is gone… which is kind of scary,” Kirie replied.
Meanwhile, on the card reader’s display, a rotating ring appeared with the word “Loading” in English.
Aside from the supernatural phenomenon we just witnessed, the device functioned like any ordinary machine.
The reading process took about a minute.
Then, the screen changed, displaying Kirie’s player name, ?Kirie?, along with the ?Astral Online? logo of angel wings and the World Tree, and a single letter in the center: ?F?.
“Rank F, huh? I can’t tell if that’s high or low. El, how many tiers does this ranking system have?”
“There are 9 tiers. The lowest is Rank G, and the highest is Rank SS. Starting at F means she’s been doing her best to help clear ?Astral Online?,” El explained.
“Is this some kind of rarity scale from a social game?” I wondered.
As I mused over the adventurer ranks, I glanced at Kirie, who wore a clearly dissatisfied expression.
She seemed to be checking the changes in her body by opening and closing her hands.
After politely excusing herself from the principal and the chairman, Kirie began doing a few small jumps. Then, she suddenly stepped forward with her right foot, aiming at the empty space in front of her, and followed up with a sharp right punch.
Next, she stepped forward with her left foot and delivered a powerful right roundhouse kick—so sharp that it looked like it could sever someone’s head if it connected.
“Hmm,” she muttered, as if she had come to some sort of conclusion, before straightening her posture and turning toward me.
“Looks like getting a rank doesn’t automatically enhance your physical abilities.”
“Th-That kind of movement without an ability boost? Kirie-san, are you secretly in the same monster category as my master…?”
“Please don’t lump me in with that real monster. Sure, I’m confident I’m a lot stronger than the average person when it comes to martial arts, but there’s no way I could fend off a bear with my bare hands.”
Kirie shook her head in disbelief.
Can you believe it?
The legend of a high school senior who fought off a wild bear with her bare hands.
This kind of story shows up fairly often in manga and novels, but Shino Tsukinomiya supposedly accomplished it during a school trip to protect her friends.
And she did it without getting a scratch.
You have to wonder if a human being could really do something like that, but with Shino, it’s easy to imagine her doing it as casually as a morning jog.
It’s one of the most iconic feats in her unstoppable legend.
“So, how does it feel now that you can use skills, Kirie-san?”
When I asked, Kirie closed her eyes and focused inward, as if searching within herself.
After a moment, she opened her eyes and said to me, “It seems like the only thing I can use right now is the ?Weapon Creation? skill from my current profession.”
“A blacksmith skill, huh? So, does that mean you can make swords or something?”
“No, I don’t think so. It feels more like I’m a Level 1 blacksmith,” she replied.
With that, Kirie pulled an iron ballpoint pen from her pocket. Then, she pulled a small hammer from thin air.
Right in front of my eyes, she lightly tapped the ballpoint pen with the hammer. As soon as the spot she hit glowed faintly, the pen transformed, rapidly changing shape.
What was completed was a small knife.
“Wait, that was a ?Skill?, right? You pulled that hammer out of thin air, too. Is that also part of the skill?”
“Yeah, I followed the guide that appeared in my mind. In reality, the ?Weapon Creation? skill lets you reconstruct iron objects into weapons. The little hammer seems to be just an extra part of the skill.”
“That feels less like a blacksmith’s skill and more like an alchemist’s,” I remarked.
“Yeah, I agree. If they let us craft weapons in real life the same way we do in the game, the skill would be kind of useless, so maybe that’s why it works like this.”
“That makes sense,” I nodded in agreement.
Now, it’s my turn.
El’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she eagerly awaited, so I stood in front of the card reader, pulled out my adventurer card from my wallet, and touched it to the screen.
“Whoa!?”
Immediately, a torrent of light enveloped me, far more intense than what had happened with Kirie earlier.
The entire room was bathed in a dazzling silver glow.
And all of it converged upon one person—me.
When the light finally faded, I felt a sense of omnipotence wash over me.
In my mind, I could see various skills—enchantment magic skills, one-handed sword skills, and even the unique skill, ?Lucifer?—all except a few others.
“This is the power you get from ranking up…”
I glanced at the card reader’s screen, where the [Loading] message, along with a spinning ring, kept displaying.
Even after a minute, it still hadn’t finished loading.
Realizing waiting wouldn’t change anything, I decided to test something. Forming a knife-hand strike with my right hand, I stepped forward with my right foot and activated a ?skill? I had used only once before, during my fight with Kuro.
With a flash of blue light, I unleashed the piercing strike, ?Strike Sword?, at full power.
The sharp thrust cut through the empty space, leaving the sound behind.
Kirie and El could see it, but the headmaster and principal couldn’t.
They had no idea what just happened, alternating confused looks between my extended knife-hand and El.
Ignoring their stares, El glanced at the now fully loaded card reader with a very pleased expression on her face.
“Impressive, Sora-sama’s rank is ?C?. That’s three levels above most of the top players, who are still at ?F?.”
“?C? rank, huh…”
“It’s probably thanks to Sora’s skills, but that thrust was insane. Couldn’t you kill someone with just that?”
“Yes, Kirie-san. I think this is dangerous.”
“Hey, can you still say the same thing after seeing this?”
“Yes, I can. And you’ll soon understand why.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Kirie and I both turned our gaze towards El.
Suddenly, a loud fanfare blared from the heavens, echoing down to the earth.
Could it be!?
The majestic sound was familiar to me from the game, and I had also heard it recently in the real world.
I quickly opened the window and looked outside.
What I saw was Kamisato City, enveloped in particles of pure white light.
No, it wasn’t just Kamisato City.
This was likely covering the entire planet.
With my newly acquired ?Insight? skill, I grasped the situation. I couldn’t help but catch my breath at the monumental change happening in the world.
As everyone around the world watched the event unfold, the World Tree, with a voice like that of a young girl, spoke to the people.
—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–
?From the World Tree ?Yggdrasil?, an announcement to everyone. From today, causing harm to others outside of a ?Duel? is restricted.?
?Anyone who violates this will have their ?Sin Count? tracked, and if they exceed a certain value, their ?Life Point? will be reduced by 20 years for each offense, and a ?Seal? will be placed, preventing the use of skills.?
??Sin Count? will also apply to criminal acts. Heavier crimes will incur corresponding penalties, so please be careful.?
—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–
This is the ?Restriction? El mentioned, the one imposed on people.
On that day, crime disappeared from the world.
Because those who ignored the warning and continued to commit violations lost their lifespan and disappeared, turning into particles of light.
On that day, many began to revere the ?World Tree? as a divine entity, seeing the judgment described in the Bible as having become a reality.
The chosen players, who received the tree’s blessing, came to be known as ?Apostles? and were deeply respected.