Becoming God of a Dystopian World

Zhao Luo looked around with confusion written all over his face. 

'Drums of Bellum....so unbelievable.'

Zhao Luo thought while looking around as just a while ago his consciousness had been pulled in some space inside the last drum.

Zhao Luo rubbed his hands together while waiting for some kind of announcement.

But one thing was sure.

"Is this where I will get the reward?"

Zhao Luo said as he knew that it was time to receive the reward for all the pain he had to go through.

"Welcome to My World."

Zhao Luo heard a voice coming from the azure skies.

He looked upwards just to be shocked.

Zhao Luo could see a young man descending from within the Azure skies.

That man soon appeared in front of Zhao Luo as he inspected Zhao Luo with a smile on his face.

"You did well while clearing my War Cry Challenge."

The man said to Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo was quiet for a while and looked as if he was in deep thought.

"You mean the Drums of Bellum?"

Zhao Luo said to the man as he couldn't remember clearing this "War Cry Challenge".

"Hahaha, King's naming sense still hasn't changed."

That man laughed while making fun of King's naming sense. This King was the one who Bellum had served.

The King was the one who had decided to take a mountain as Bellum's resting place.

Also storing the things of Bellum in that mountain along with his tomb.

"I am Bellum. The 'Drums of Bellum' that you cleared is one of my top weapon sets."

The man turned out to be Bellum and the owner of the drums.

'So he is Bellum.'

Zhao Luo thought while looking at the man who was standing in front of him.

Bellum had red hair. Long spike-shaped hair going down gis shoulder. 

Bellum was wearing golden armor with a lion designed on it which had a menacing look.

Bellum's features looked chiseled with eagle-like eyes which were staring right into Zhao Luo's eyes.

"Young man, are you done looking?"

Bellum said to Zhao Luo as his smile grew even more. 

For some reason, Bellum couldn't stop smiling.

Zhao Luo shrugged as Bellum had caught Zhao Luo staring at him.

"No need to be nervous. A dead person can't do anything to a living one."

Bellum said to Zhao Luo in a sad tone.

"Senior..."

Zhao Luo addressed Bellum as Senior after hearing Bellum's words.

"There is no need to be looking down. You should be happy. It's time to reward you for clearing my War Cry Challenge."

Bellum said to Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo looked excited.

"Before I reward you, I will have to deduct some of your points for destroying my precious drum."

Bellum said with a serious look.

Zhao Luo remembered the first drum of the fourth row which had made a perverted sound when he had touched it.

"But it made a..."

Zhao Luo stopped as it was hard for him to complete his reason against such an amazing senior.

"perverted sound."

Zhao Luo completed his sentence barely with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Hah, young man. What kind of things have you been going through that made you think of my weapon's cute sound like a perverted one?"

Bellum with one of his eyebrows raised questioned Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo noticed the disappointed look on Bellum's face.

'Hah if only I didn't click on it...'

Zhao Luo thought.

A glimpse of the past appeared in his head.

A long time ago.

It was when Zhao Luo hadn't even traveled to Japan yet.

At the time Zhao Luo had a cat who loved playing the sound of the bell.

'Jingle.'

As a proud owner of his cat, there was a time when he was surfing the net looking for a bell collar for his cat.

Then suddenly a pop-up appeared on his screen.

It was like Zhao Luo was reliving this moment of his past.

'You don't wanna miss this. Your cat with a bell collar is waiting for you!'

Zhao Luo read the video ad and decided to click on it.

This was the time when the innocent Zhao Luo came face to face with some bad secrets.

The video started as a girl who was wearing a bell collar appeared.

Most of the sound in the video was that of the bell as the girl moved in all kinds of weird poses.

Since then Zhao Luo's mind unconsciously considered the sound 'jingle' as perverted.

While Zhao Luo's face was getting red while remembering his dark past, Bellum's sound pulled his reminiscing self back to the present.

"Young man I was only messing around with you. Once you are rewarded the destroyed drum will go back to the way it was."

Bellum cleared up the tension but he didn't know what was going around in Zhao Luo's mind.

Zhao Luo's glimpse of the past ended with an enchanting 'meow'.

"Haha."

Zhao Luo laughed awkwardly as he looked down.

"Your first reward will be...."

Bellum spoke as Zhao Luo looked up at him.

A scroll appeared in Zhao Luo's hand.

"Open it."

Bellum instructed Zhao Luo.

The scroll was emanating strange energy that Zhao Luo could feel even when he had yet to open the scroll.

Zhao Luo opened the scroll and started reading the content of the scroll.

"Technique of the War Sovereign."

Zhao Luo looked at Bellum before returning his sight at the scroll.

"Soul Shaking War Cry."

'What a powerful name.'

Zhao Luo thought as he learned the technique of the name.

"Gather your internal energy around your chest while closing your mouth from any outer interference. After the energy is close to exploding inside your chest, hit your right chest with your index finger then release the energy in the form of sound as you open your mouth."

Zhao Luo read the instructions written on the scroll. But it didn't end there.

"The power of the technique will increase with the increase in the vassal storing the internal energy and the amount of internal energy used in the attack."

The description of the technique ended.

"So this is, Soul Shaking War Cry."

Zhao Luo said as he clenched his fist.

Zhao Luo tried doing exactly as it was written in the scroll.

"Fuuuhhhhh."

Zhao Luo inhaled and closed his mouth.

He had never done this before.

Zhao Luo tried to somehow focus all of his body's energy around his chest but it wasn't working. But Zhao Luo who was trying out a new technique didn't stop yet.

He didn't exhale even when his face turned red.

After a few minutes, keeping the air inside his body was becoming hard for him.

'Is this it?'

Zhao Luo questioned as he looked at Bellum who looking at Zhao Luo with squinted eyes. 

'This must be the moment.'

Zhao Luo could confirm while looking at the expression on Bellum's face and the pain in his chest because of holding his breath.

'Aaawww~~rrr.'

Zhao Luo roared letting out all the air inside his body.

Unexpectedly for Zhao Luo his roar came out like a lion cub's roar.

It was just a simple sound with nothing special about it unlike the name of the technique.

'No soul would shatter with this kind of roar.'

Zhao Luo thought.

"Hahahaha."

Bellum who had been watching couldn't take it anymore as he burst out in laughter.

Zhao Luo was dumbfounded.

"Young man do you not know about the internal energy?"

Bellum asked even though he already knew that Zhao Luo had no idea what internal energy was.

Zhao Luo shook his head as he could already guess that his idea of internal energy was very different.

"Then don't be hasty. The technique is yours. Learn it after you master the internal energy."

Bellum said with a smile.

"Young man do you know I was like you too once? Naive but always confident in my abilities. Never forget who you are and what your goal is."

Bellum said to Zhao Luo as he looked far ahead reminiscing about his past.

'Nod.'

Zhao Luo bowed his head as he listened to Bellum's advice.

"It's time to give you your second reward."

Bellum said to Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo looked excited.

'Hope it's a weapon.'

Zhao Luo hoped.

To Zhao Luo's surprise, the reward was indeed a weapon. 

Bellum raised his arm pointing his hand towards the azure sky.

Soon the sky split into two.

A sword descended from the crack in the sky.

It stopped in front of Bellum.

Bellum waved his hand towards Zhao Luo which caused the sword to float in Zhao Luo's direction.

The sword came to stop in front of Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo could see the beautiful sword in front of his eyes.

The sword was fiery red and had tiger markings in the middle of the blade.

The markings were so amazing that the tigers looked realistic enough that they would jump out of the sword.

The hilt had a red dragon coiling around it.

The sword was as big as Zhao Luo.

'What is this luck?'

Zhao Luo questioned while looking at the tall sword.

'I know I wished for a weapon and a sword is fine but how am I supposed to swing this?'

Zhao Luo thought while moving to grab the sword by the hilt.

"Twing~."

Just as Zhao Luo's grabbed the sword by its hilt, a sound was released from the sword.

"Ha, a resonance."

Bellum said as he heard the sound released by the sword.

"Give it a name."

Bellum instructed Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo looked at the sword in his hand that he was barely keeping straight.

'The fiery color and the beasts.'

Zhao Luo thought as he could see them like they were alive and moving inside the sword.

"Ifrit. I will name it ifrit."

Zhao Luo called out the name of the sword in his hand.