Death… And Me

Chapter 4374: The Advantages

It was a peaceful day within the territory of the Numou Falcons. This race of Godly Creatures ruled over a mountain range stretching for more than six hundred kilometers across that area, making it nearly impossible for anyone to cross it by air without eventually spotting one circling the skies.

Yet, far above those mountains, a vessel flew through the heavens completely unnoticed.

Its altitude was so extreme that only Godly Beast-level Numou Falcons normally reached that layer of the sky. Even then, the airplane crossed their territory at such tremendous speed that very few Falcons ever had the opportunity to notice its passing.

To be more precise, a handful of them actually did.

They looked toward the disturbance, sensing what appeared to be another Godly Beast crossing their domain. However, when their sharp eyes searched the skies, there was nothing there. Since the unfamiliar aura wasn’t descending toward their nests, wasn’t challenging their territory, and was already disappearing into the distance before they could properly investigate, the Falcons simply ignored it.

Among Godly Beasts, unnecessary fights were rare.

Naturally, that "Godly Beast" was none other than Rean’s airplane.

At the controls, Harksha continuously supplied Godly Beast Crystals to the disguise arrays, personally witnessing their effectiveness for the first time. Every crystal fed into the formation released its Godly Pressure without damaging its original quality, allowing the airplane to perfectly imitate another Godly Beast flying overhead.

Even knowing how the array worked in theory and having read its description beforehand, seeing it fool an entire territory of Godly Creatures firsthand was something else entirely.

Still, despite how smoothly everything appeared to be going, most of those inside the cabin remained tense.

These weren’t ordinary Godly Creatures below them.

The Numou Falcons were infamous among exploration groups. Normally, experienced cultivators would rather spend extra time flying around this mountain range than risk crossing it directly. Yet here they were, cutting straight through its center.

Well...

Not everyone was nervous.

*Snore...*

*Snore...*

Kentucky was in his humanoid form and slept peacefully in one of the rear seats, completely oblivious to the fact that they were currently flying through one of the more dangerous aerial territories near Besgol.

Cantra glanced toward him before looking at Celis. "...Does he always sleep like this?"

Celis nodded without even opening his eyes. "When he has nothing to do."

"...How?"

"We stopped asking countless years ago."

Before anyone could continue the conversation, another scent slowly spread throughout the cabin.

Freshly brewed coffee.

Everyone instinctively turned toward the small compartment near the center of the airplane.

There stood Rean, completely focused on the coffee machine.

The seriousness on his face made it seem as though he were adjusting some world-shaking array instead of preparing a beverage. Every measurement was carefully observed, every movement precise, and even the brewing time appeared to be meticulously calculated.

Senkiyu couldn’t help but mutter, "...He’s taking this more seriously than the Falcons."

A few moments later, the brewing finished.

Rean smiled in satisfaction before picking up the pot and making his way through the cabin. "Coffee delivery."

He personally handed a cup to everyone aboard.

Even Roan received one. "Here’s yours."

Roan accepted it with a slight nod before taking a sip. "Hm..." He remained silent for another second before giving his verdict. "...Better than I expected."

"Hmph." Rean looked thoroughly satisfied. "Never underestimate either my coffee machine, my ingredients’ quality, or my measurements."

Roan simply continued drinking, choosing not to encourage him further.

Rean eventually reached the cockpit, handing another cup to Harksha. "Here, Senior. This should help keep you awake during the trip."

"Th-Thank you..." Harksha honestly didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry.

Stay awake?

Inside the Godly Creatures’ Territories?

Most cultivators couldn’t fall asleep there even if they wanted to. After taking a small sip, she finally looked sideways at Rean. "I was the one who wanted to test your airplane... but aren’t you nervous at all?"

Rean blinked. "Nervous?" He looked outside the cockpit before shrugging. "Why would I be?"

Harksha almost laughed. "We’re flying straight through the Numou Falcons’ territory."

"Exactly."

"...Exactly?"

"I know exactly what my airplane can do." There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his answer.

"As long as someone keeps supplying the disguise array with Godly Beast Crystals, we will appear to be nothing but another Godly Beast. Add our altitude and speed on top of that, and there isn’t much reason for them to bother us."

He casually sipped his own coffee. "I’ll start getting nervous if a Godly Predator decides to chase us."

That confidence wasn’t blind optimism. It came from understanding every single array aboard the airplane. Compared to the original prototype, this version had received yet another improvement to its Godly Pressure Disguise Array.

Instead of merely disguising the airplane with generic Godly Pressure, the array now preserved the quality of the pressure extracted from the Godly Beast Crystal itself. To every surrounding creature, the airplane genuinely appeared to be another Godly Beast-Level Creature flying through the sky. Back then in the war, it could only look like a Godly Spawn at most.

Unfortunately, that was also the array’s current limit. Rean had naturally tried using Godly Predator Crystals. After all, Tobao and Arcis had rewarded their group with ten of them.

The experiment had failed.

The Godly Energy inside Predator-level crystals was simply too concentrated. While separating the Godly Pressure from the Celestial Energy, the pressure itself became damaged, preventing the disguise from working correctly.

Of course, Rean had no intention of leaving that limitation unsolved forever. He simply wasn’t capable of overcoming it yet.

"Godly Beasts don’t attack other Godly Beasts without a reason," he explained while leaning comfortably against his seat. "We’re not invading their nests, competing for territory, or provoking them in any way. On top of that, we’re flying at an altitude where even most Godly Beast Falcons don’t patrol regularly."

He pointed toward the rapidly passing clouds outside. "And even if one became curious enough to investigate our ’invisible godly creature,’ we’d already be gone. All they can do is feel our presence in the area and nothing more."

Harksha silently nodded.

That much was obvious just from piloting the airplane herself.

The speed was unbelievable.

She was a Zone God and could naturally fly faster under her own power, but the difference honestly wasn’t very large. Judging from experience alone, Mark had already reached the upper limits of what an ordinary Godly Beast flying creature could achieve.

Even more impressive was its efficiency.

The airplane consumed noticeably less energy than her own model while maintaining a much higher cruising speed. In fact, some Celestial Energy still ended up being wasted.

The disguise arrays extracted both Godly Pressure and Celestial Energy from every Godly Beast Crystal. While the Godly Pressure sustained the disguise, the remaining Celestial Energy was redirected toward the Celestial Thrusters and other components of the airplane.

Unfortunately, all of them together couldn’t use that much Celestial Energy. Godly Beast-Level Crystals are still Godly Beast Crystals. They do have a lot of energy stored, far more than normal Celestial Stones.

Even if more energy became available, the arrays simply couldn’t do much with it all.

Roughly an hour later, the mountain range finally disappeared behind them. Harksha gradually reduced the airplane’s speed while allowing the disguise arrays to shut down.

The Godly Beast aura surrounding the airplane faded away, and she stopped feeding new crystals into the system. After checking the consumption records, she couldn’t help but whistle softly. "Forty-seven Godly Beast Crystals."

She turned toward Rean. "The commercial versions that were announced aren’t anywhere near this efficient."

Rean wasn’t surprised in the slightest. "They shouldn’t be." Everyone looked toward him as he continued to talk. "The blueprints I released were already outdated by the time they became public."

That wasn’t arrogance.

It was simply how his development process worked.

"Since then, my team and I have continued improving every major subsystem. The Arrays Guild assigned me several Arrays Masters specifically to help test new concepts, verify modifications, and optimize existing arrays."

He smiled. "Unless someone is willing to maintain an entire research team dedicated to a single airplane, they’ll always be playing catch-up."

The others exchanged helpless smiles. When he described it like that, the difference became obvious.

Manufacturers had production schedules, budgets, maintenance standards, standardized replacement parts, and thousands of customers to consider.

Rean had none of those restrictions.

He could redesign anything whenever inspiration struck him.

"I’ll still upload future improvements to the Arrays Guild Network," he continued. "The companies will eventually receive every upgrade I create."

"But..." He patted the control panel affectionately. "They’ll always need time to adapt those designs into mass production."

"I don’t." That single sentence perfectly summarized the situation.

Mark wasn’t simply a superior airplane. It was a continuously evolving prototype.

Harksha stared quietly at the instrument panel for several moments before finally asking, "...Would you build one like this for me?"

Everyone immediately turned toward her. "I’ll pay whatever it costs."

Rean smiled apologetically. "I honestly wouldn’t mind." He then wrote a long string of numbers on his communicator before handing it over. "But I don’t think Senior can afford it."

Harksha looked down and her expression froze.

"..."

Senkiyu and the others quickly leaned over to see.

Their faces turned pale as well. "...That’s insane."

The number wasn’t merely expensive. It represented the ongoing cost of maintaining an entire research project rather than manufacturing a single airplane.

Harksha slowly raised her head. "How are you even paying for this?"

Rean shrugged as though it weren’t worth mentioning. "I’m not. The Arrays Guild is." He smiled.

"For an individual cultivator, it’s a ridiculous amount of resources. But for the entire Arrays Guild..." He spread his hands. "...it’s simply another long-term investment for the safety of Besgol."

Harksha couldn’t even argue anymore. Stealing Mark would be pointless, too. By the time anyone managed to copy every improvement inside it, Rean would probably have already upgraded it several more times.

Finally, he smiled reassuringly at everyone. "Don’t worry. As long as we’re on the same exploration team, Mark belongs to all of us."

With that, he stood up and walked toward the rear compartment housing the Celestial Thrusters. Opening the fuel chamber, he took out a large pile of Celestial Stones and fed them directly into the propulsion system.

The response was immediate.

The engines hummed louder, and the airplane surged forward once more, accelerating back to the incredible speed it had maintained while crossing the Falcons’ territory.

Harksha immediately understood what he had done. "Right..." She smiled. "Celestial Stones are practically free compared to Godly Beast Crystals."

"Exactly." Rean nodded with satisfaction. "The disguise arrays are expensive. The engines aren’t."

He leaned comfortably against the wall, coffee still in hand. "At this speed, we’ll reach the Konvey Ruins in roughly half the time your airplane would’ve needed."

Then he took another sip before grinning. "So... sit back and enjoy the flight."