The final key.
The journey to obtain the talent of Pelé, the Football Emperor, was far harsher than he had imagined.
As expected of the talent of the greatest footballer in football history, the difficulty was on an entirely different level.
There had been many difficult conditions, scoring over 70 goals in international matches, avoiding Pelé's curse, recording three World Cup hat-tricks, and more, but the greatest of them all was undoubtedly this one, winning the World Cup.
When he had been with the South Korea national team, he had thought it was a goal impossible to achieve.
But after switching nationality to Spain, he had not worried about it at all, and as expected, Ho-young did not let that chance slip away.
[You have coveted the Football Emperor's Perfect Attacking Sense (L).]
World Cup victory.
At last, he had achieved his highest priority goal as a footballer.
He had also lifted the trophy in every other major competition he could possibly win, so there was no longer any real goal left to speak of.
The end point.
This was the final stop.
[You have broken through the limits of a superhuman.]
[The limit point has been opened.]
[Football-related talents can now be integrated.]
[List of talents available for integration]
Transcendent Ball Sense (TS+3)
Transcendent Versatility (TS+3)
Transcendent Dribbling (TS+3)
Transcendent Shooting (TS+3)
Transcendent Physicality (TS+3)
Transcendent Mental Strength (TS+3)
Transcendent Passing (TS+3)
Transcendent Finishing (TS+2)
Transcendent Man-Marking (TS+2)
(More...)
Dead Ball Specialist (T)
Midfielder Without Flaws (T)
Magician of the Left Foot (T)
(More...)
'So in the end, most talents are being fused into one.'
An expected scenario.
Aside from talents like the language sense he had covetd from Monica or the sculpted looks he had obtained from Beckham, it seemed that most of them were being combined into one.
In other words, every talent needed for football was being merged into a single complete form.
And then.
[Beginning integration of football-related talents.]
[Breaking through the ultimate boundary in order to surpass the transcendent realm.]
'Breaking through the ultimate boundary?'
Just how far was he supposed to break through?
As he wondered at the unfamiliar phrase, a strange signal suddenly ran through his body.
'I figured this might happen.'
It had been like this when he reached the limits of humanity, and again when he stepped into the realm of superhumans.
This was not the first time, so he had been mentally prepared.
After all, there was a saying, without pain, there is no gain.
He was prepared to endure the pain.
All he needed was time.
Thinking that, he finished preparing himself to accept the new power.
But there was one thing Ho-young had overlooked.
"! "
This felt completely different from before.
Like every time before, he had assumed he would endure it without much difficulty, but that had been a mistake.
His chest sank heavily, and in the next instant, a strange sensation wrapped around his whole body.
If there truly was such a thing as the body and soul separating, then this was exactly what it would feel like.
His body was unchanged and his mind was clear, yet the two seemed to be pushing each other away like opposite poles of a magnet.
The ultimate boundary.
It was the disharmony created in the process of breaking through the final limit.
It felt as if his sense of self were being shredded into fine threads and scattered into the wind.
But then.
"! "
All the pain vanished as if it had never been there.
His mind was clear, as though he had just woken from a deep sleep, and vitality overflowed through his body.
But only for a moment.
A vague fear crept into Ho-young's heart.
The pain in body and mind had disappeared without a trace, but his heart felt completely different from before.
A lonely feeling.
A sense of being cut off from the world filled his head.
And by the time that feeling came over him, he was already in another world.
No, the world had disappeared.
He could see nothing but darkness.
By the time he came to his senses, a world where no light existed had spread out in every direction.
And then.
"My subconscious."
Only then did he realize it.
A devil with a horrifying form stood before him.
"Mammon."
"It has been a long time."
Mammon, whom he was seeing again after four years.
Perhaps because Ho-young had grown remarkably, Mammon had as well.
Now his true demonic form stood out clearly.
"What happened?"
He did not ask about his own safety.
He only wanted to know why Mammon had come to him.
It was then that Mammon's chilling voice drilled into his ears.
"Transcendence always creates disharmony. Your body, as it is now, cannot fully accept that talent. No matter how far your body has surpassed the realm of superhumans, you are still human in the end."
"Is there no solution?"
"Coexistence."
"With you?"
"That is exactly why I remain by your side. Coexistence to see the end. If I were not by your side, you would soon become insane."
Ho-young noticed something strange in those words.
More than coexistence, it felt strongly as if Mammon was using him.
Ho-young spoke.
"So you're using me."
"You may be right. I am no philanthropist. I am only devoted to my goal."
"It sounds like you're saying you'll leave me once you see the end."
That was the logical conclusion.
To begin with, thinking a devil would care about a human's circumstances was far too naive.
If you made a contract with a devil, that was the kind of thing you had to accept.
In other words, one way or another, it was still the end.
That did not mean he could drive Mammon away right now.
Since he had already stepped into the final realm, if Mammon left him now, it was obvious he would be in danger.
In other words, Ho-young had no choice.
"Then does that end mean this very moment?"
"Didn't I tell you before?"
In an instant, Mammon's earlier words came back to him.
That if he surpassed the limit and even transcended the transcendent realm, he might see the end.
But what came after mattered more.
In truth, that was not the end. When the flower fully bloomed, a new stem would grow and a new bud would open. That meaningful statement.
"So that was it."
In other words, there was still time left.
The flower had just bloomed, but now it was time for a new stem to grow and a new bud to open.
Of course, if even that bud opened, then it really would be the end.
"Yes. Then this tiresome waiting will finally end."
"Tiresome waiting..."
Ho-young felt a sense of disconnect in those words.
For the last twelve years, Ho-young had used the talent of coveting and enjoyed things no one else could ever enjoy.
There had been no time for it to become tiresome.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that every moment had been happy.
There had certainly been difficult moments, but coveting other people's talents had never been something tiresome.
Because that was everything to Ho-young. It was his life itself.
But Mammon was different.
'Is he saying he wants to stop doing this now?'
That was clearly what tiresome meant.
And that meant.
"! "
Perhaps because of all the talents he had acquired,
his mind began to race, and soon he found a solution.
Ho-young carefully spoke.
"I won't see the end until my lifespan runs out. Then you won't be able to leave me either."
"A clumsy threat will not work on me. If I wished, I could leave you this instant."
"But that isn't what you want."
A straight shot.
Ho-young calmly laid out his thoughts.
"You said this before. That human limits are fixed from birth. But you've seen humans who were consumed by coveting while trying to go beyond those limits. You said they all became madmen."
"I did."
"That means you've moved from person to person making contracts all this time. And each time the contractor covets a talent, your form becomes clearer."
Mammon withheld his answer.
Whether he answered or not, Ho-young continued.
"But when I first met you, you were nothing more than a faint pale shape."
"What are you trying to say?"
"That means..."
There was only one explanation for why he still had not regained his full form despite making so many contracts until now.
"If a contractor goes mad and self-destructs or dies, your form returns to the beginning and fades again. And your waiting turns to nothing."
A perfect deduction.
Mammon neither confirmed nor denied it.
Only Ho-young kept speaking.
"Twelve years. Don't you think the years you've spent with me are too valuable to throw away? If you just wait a few more decades, you can surely regain your form completely."
"To me, twelve years is nothing."
"But contract after contract, repeated self-destruction. Isn't that tiresome? Are you really going to throw away this chance, a chance that may not come again for who knows how long?"
For Mammon, it might have been a goal he had failed to achieve for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years.
If all was well, then surely it would be better for him to wait a few more decades.
And Mammon answered.
"So you haven't wasted the talents you've taken from others."
"I'll take that in a good way."
"Until next time."
In other words, coexistence.
And at that very moment, Ho-young felt his vision go dark.
Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
A crowd of people had gathered outside the emergency room set up underground.
They were the people worried about Ho-young, who had collapsed right after the match.
And inside the room, Spain's team doctor and a stadium specialist stood by the bedside.
Their conclusion was this.
"His condition is rapidly improving."
"It does seem he simply lost consciousness for a moment."
According to the diagnosis, everything was normal, pulse, breathing, temperature, blood pressure, all of it.
In their opinion, there was no need for major concern, as there had been similar cases before.
But the people waiting outside were going through hell.
The nightmare from four years ago.
The memory of Ho-young collapsing against Switzerland tormented them.
But only for a moment, because good news soon arrived.
It was a single sentence from the team doctor, who had just stepped out of the emergency room.
"He has awakened safely."
News that Ho-young had regained consciousness.
The first people to rush into the emergency room at those words were Woo Hwang-sun and Kim Hee-sun.
Ho-young's parents.
His mother burst into tears and embraced Ho-young tightly.
"Ho-young, you don't have to play football anymore. Don't do it. If it's hard, stop..."
Meanwhile, Woo Hwang-sun let out a sigh of relief and held Ho-young's hand tightly.
And behind them.
Behind them stood Monica, her face soaked with tears.
And his teammates as well, their eyes red.
All of that entered Ho-young's view at once.
And then, before he knew it, his nose stung and a single tear fell, blurring his vision.
But.
[Talent integration has been completed.]
That was not the only thing clouding his sight.
This was the moment when the effort of the last twelve years finally bore fruit.
[You have gone beyond the limit point.]
[Football (G) ↑]
[You have reached the final realm of talent, GOD. By coveting football-related talents, you can reduce disharmony.]
'Football.'
The one word that could represent Ho-young's life.
That alone was the end of it.
The talent list was the same.
[Ho-young]
[Possessed Talents: Football (G), (More...)]
A clean talent list with nothing unnecessary.
For the first time in his life, Ho-young experienced an overwhelming pleasure.
The difficult moments of the past twelve years had long since faded from his mind.
The award ceremony soon began.
The Spain players, wearing gold medals around their necks, went up to the podium, and the first to lift the trophy was captain Iker Casillas.
And then.
"Wooooooah!"
Ho-young, the second to lift the trophy, let out a fierce roar.
A beginning and an end.
An end and a beginning.
Perhaps today might become the new beginning of his life.
(To be continued.)