Chapter 76

“Hm… this sword feels really good in the hand. I can see why it’s Unique.”

I let out a quiet murmur of admiration as I alternated my gaze between the mountain of zombie corpses piled around me and the blade that had created them.

A spotless silver arming sword, letting off a faint bluish glow on its own, like a mana user’s aura.

Of course, it couldn’t compare to Astraphe. No matter how you looked at it, Astraphe was a sword of perfect balance in every sense—an absolute, complete blade, with its true body anchored in a higher dimension, an indestructible sword (literally “unbreakable”).

The problem was that aside from that, it didn’t have many extra features, so from my perspective—someone who couldn’t even use mana—its raw attack power felt a little lacking (setting aside the spatial fracture, obviously). This sword, on the other hand, took the exact opposite position from Astraphe.

As a sword, its overall completeness was a bit lower, but when it came to sheer sharpness, it was on a whole different level—far beyond what an aura user could achieve even by pouring aura into their blade.

If I had to put it in game terms… Astraphe was a weapon with infinite durability that, when equipped, let you use a 100% armor-piercing ultimate skill (Spatial Fracture). This one, by comparison, was more like a sword with decent durability and a strong basic-attack boost.

“It’d be nice if I could take this outside.”

Anyway, after borrowing that sharpness to wipe out every last zombie nearby and preparing to move on, fake-Bel suddenly shared an important piece of news.

‘Ah, and it looks like a small issue has come up outside.’

“Outside? What happened?”

‘It seems some people targeting you have shown up at the mansion.’

“Huh?”

For reference, unlike me, fake-Bel and fake-Shia could check on the outside situation whenever they wanted.

Apparently, the two of them would hunt monsters, wander around sightseeing, and when they got bored, casually take a look outside like they were watching a movie… though I’d really appreciate it if they refrained from doing that when I was in the bathroom.

No, more importantly—

“Attackers? When did this happen?”

‘By mental-time standards, it was about this time yesterday.’

“If the time ratio between here and reality is around 250 to 1… then that means about five minutes have passed in the real world.”

The time ratio with reality was oddly inconsistent every time I came in. The first time I’d entered after taking the elixir, it had gone up to almost ten thousand to one… so honestly, I had no idea why it was only 250 to one this time. Maybe I’d built up some resistance to the elixir?

Setting that aside—

“So who are they?”

‘Judging by how things are playing out, it looks like an assassination guild. About thirty of them.’

“An assassination guild? There was one like that in District 3?”

‘Not in the East—apparently it’s an underworld guild from the West. According to Sodin and Talos… while the East has the Adventurer’s Guild keeping the underworld groups in check and preventing them from growing, the West doesn’t have that kind of suppressive force, so shady organizations are extremely active there.’

“A Western assassination guild, huh. As for who’s behind it… I don’t even need to ask. Guess they’re really bitter about their kid dying.”

Fake-bel’s mental voice wavered slightly.

‘So… are you going back?’

“With Sodin, that old man Talos, and even Shia there, do I really need to? What are a bunch of assassins supposed to do in front of monsters like those. I’ll just keep going here—let me know the results later.”

‘Yes!’

From that day on, I continued clearing small mini-quests as I progressed through the main questline.

Defeat 200 zombies.

Rescue survivors trapped in a hospital.

Mediate between survivor groups fighting each other.

Eliminate an abomination formed from fused zombies.

And so on.

And after clearing quests while roaming around Seoul—more specifically, Gangbuk—for over a month…

I finally realized something was seriously off about these quests.

—A rock.

In English, Stone. In Chinese character, 石.

That was the reward I had gotten from the last three mini-quests.

It had already felt suspicious when I was suddenly told to do gacha pulls under the excuse of “random rewards,” but…

I hurled the rock at the ground and clicked my tongue irritably.

“Ha… get a load of this bastard(?).”

There’s a limit to how much I’ll play along—three times in a row? And after that, you tell me you’re sorry it was a dud? Who do you think I am, a chimpanzee?

“This… no matter how I look at it, you’ve clearly run out of things to give and are just throwing random junk at me now, right?”

‘Well, quests or not, at their core they’re just distorted fragments carved out of a very small portion of your own power. You’ve already been handed plenty, so there really isn’t anything left to give. And honestly, isn’t this your own fault for “having fun” and destroying two mini-quests a day?’

“It’s just that the apocalypse genre was pretty fresh… and farming loot kind of hit that gamer nerve, you know. Tch, anyway, I guess that means it’s about time to wrap this up.”

To be honest, I figured out pretty quickly that this wasn’t a proper quest system in the first place. How, you ask?

Because if they don’t even tell you the clear conditions for over a month, there’s no way that counts as a normal quest.

In other words, the “distortion” that created this quest in the first place had never intended to let me clear it.

Well, knowing I was being run in circles and still playing along because it was fun meant I didn’t really have the right to complain.

“Fine. I was starting to get bored anyway. Should we wrap this up now?”

‘You’re going to give up and exit?’

“No. I already put too much time into this to just walk away. Don’t you think I should at least finish it?”

‘How? We still don’t know the clear condition.’

“I do. Well… more or less. It’s honestly pretty obvious.”

First, I left Gangbuk, the quest field.

The swarming zombies and the ruined streets vanished like a lie, replaced by the familiar scenery of an ordinary Seoul right before my eyes.

As a test, I lightly poked my head back in—and sure enough, along with the demon bastard sticking his head out through the clouds, text immediately started flashing across my vision.

The quest’s opening scene.

Yeah, no, I’m good.

I stepped back again and motioned to fake-Bel and fake-Shia, whom I hadn’t seen in a while.

Maybe she’d been missing physical contact, because fake-Shia came sprinting over and threw herself into my arms. And fake-bel subtly but firmly wrapped her arms around me from behind.

Held tightly by both of them, I voiced the clear method I’d come up with.

“If we just stop the quest from existing in the first place, it’s over.”

Fake-bel sent a mental message while burying her nose against my back, breathing in and out.

‘Snff, snff, what does that mean?’

“What’s the starting point of this quest? That demon asshole called Angolmois. Smash his skull, and the apocalypse that serves as the quest’s setting disappears too.”

‘Hmm. But… will his skull actually smash?’

“You said it yourself—resources are limited. The power of mine that this quest contains, its resource pool, was probably mostly spent just making the quest function. In that situation, do you think there’s any resource left to allocate to some role inside the quest? That thing’s definitely a balloon. Poke it, and it’ll pop.’

‘That… does make sense.’

“The only problem is how to get close to the guy in the sky…”

‘If I could enter together with you, it’d be simple… how about finding a mount?’

I shook my head.

“That’s iffy too. He only appears for the first ten minutes. Do you think it’s possible to find a mount and pilot it all the way up there within that window?”

‘…Hmm.’

That was when fake-Shia muttered, almost to herself.

‘If you go in, can your position change?’

I realized a beat later that she was asking whether the coordinates outside and inside the quest matched.

“No. The coordinates should be the same. My position never changed the moment I entered the quest.’

‘Then just enter from the sky. What’s the problem?’

Fake-Bel and I fell silent for a moment, then looked at each other and exclaimed at the same time.

“…Eureka.”

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Fake-bel lifted me and flew up into the sky. Higher. Higher. Even higher.

‘The black clouds he pierced when he first showed his face were nimbostratus clouds. That means the height of where his head is would be around three thousand meters above ground.’

‘So if I throw you from here at a forty-five-degree angle, you should land squarely on his head.’

“Alright. Do it.”

‘Yes. Leave it to me.’

Fake-Bel grabbed both my legs and began spinning wildly through the air at a terrifying speed. Feeling the dizziness kick in, I yelled at her.

“Hey! Do you really have to do a giant swing!? You could just throw me normally!”

‘Hehe. It’s a matter of style. Here I go!’

“Styyyyyle my aaaaass—!”

With a sharp shout, Fake-Bel hurled me with all her might.

‘Go! Zacian! I choose you!’

“How do you even know about that too!?”

‘Yuribel is a Poké×mon fanatic.’

…Do your job, Archangel!

The moment I entered the quest area, I saw it below—a gigantic, purple, bald head. Well, it had horns, so maybe not bald? Hard to categorize.

I said cut it out already!

Feeling the harsh wind as I plummeted diagonally, the purple horned head tilted downward, piercing through the clouds. It was a scene I’d already seen countless times from the ground.

-I am called ‘᤟᤟᤟᤟᤟.’

‘The first scene of the quest.’

What was interesting was that only the head existed—there was no body to be seen anywhere. I guessed the parts invisible from the ground were just omitted.

‘Ah. I shouldn’t laugh, but it’s kind of funny.’

It looked like a purple-painted egg rolling atop the clouds, and I almost wanted to watch it tumble a bit more…

“…Sword!”

The familiar, perfectly fitting sensation in my hand.

I summoned my silver Arming Sword, now officially my sword, and with the momentum of my fall, struck the demon squarely on the crown of his head.

KRAAAASH!!

-Krrrrrreeeeeeeek!!

Unfortunately, the demon’s durability seemed just slightly better than a balloon.

He withstood my strike, but instead of popping, he screamed and his horned head tumbled wildly in every direction.

-Who… who are you!?

I braced myself against the horned head to avoid falling and shrugged.

“Me? The one here to smash your skull.”

-Pathetic creature! You mortal dare wound me!? Now, you shall pay the price!

“How?”

-Hahaha! How, you ask? First, I will savor your pain by tearing out your limbs…

I cut him off mid-sentence.

“So… how does a purple egg with no body plan to rip out my limbs?”

-What…?

The demon slowly moved his horned head, looking around. Then, as if realizing his own state of being, his eyes widened.

-No… what is this…? Where did my body go?

“Why are you asking me?”

The demon paused in blank disbelief, then burst into a hollow laugh so large that shockwaves scattered the clouds.

Then, in a tone completely different from before, as if he had just woken from a dream, he muttered.

-Ha, haha, hahahaha… absurd. Human. Tell me… where is this place?

Sensing that his hostility had vanished, I answered obediently.

“My Imagery.”

-Imagery… I see. So that’s it. I wasn’t even a true body, nor a manifestation or clone, just a fragment of memory. To think you would humiliate me, ᤟᤟᤟᤟, so.

Seizing the opportunity while he muttered, I jumped back onto his crown and raised my sword.

“Done with your last words? Then may I kill you?”

-Wait… just one more question. Are you… from Earth?

“Yes. Though I’m somewhere else now.”

-As I thought. As a debt for pulling me from my slumber, I’ll give you one piece of advice.

“…Hm?”

-If you truly are from Earth…

“Hmm?”

-If, if you are Earth-originated….

“Why do you keep trailing off?”

-Earth ori… ca, ca, ca…

-Earth… e, e, e, ca…

“Uh? Did you glitch? What’s with the suddenly scary wide eyes?”

-e-e-e-e-e-ca…ca-ca-e-e-e…

Before I could even react, he inflated like a real balloon and POP!

Purple blood and ichor scattered.

“…Huh?”

The darkened space shattered like glass, and countless cars and people that had filled the streets turned to dust.

Saaahhhh…

I watched as faint glimmers of light spread across Seoul, smiling bitterly.

“Well… that’s over.”

…But what was that thing in the end?

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“Time to head back, I guess.”

Fake-Bel and Fake-Shia’s expressions darkened slightly at my words.

“Been here almost a month and a half. Time to go back.”

Rarely using strong mental intent instead of gestures, fake-Shia sent one now.

‘It hasn’t even been five hours there yet. Can’t you stay a bit longer?’

I grinned and lifted her up.

“Being together too much gets boring. Waiting makes meetings more enjoyable.”

Fake-Bel let out a low laugh.

‘Says the one with almost no acquaintances.’

Ignoring her, I pressed my forehead against fake-Shia’s.

“When I’m gone, time flows the same inside or outside. Have fun, I’ll be back soon.”

“……”

“And… after all, we’re always together, right? This Imagery is part of me too.”

Reluctantly, fake-Shia muttered a mental reply.

‘Use magic… often.’

“Yeah. I’ll come by even if only for semi-spells.”

She nodded.

“And… here, take these.”

I handed them the gifts I’d prepared beforehand.

Fake-bel’s eyes widened.

‘This…?’

“Yeah. Items I got from this quest.”