Chapter 831

I could’ve sworn I heard something like that.

CRASH.

The sound of a window shattering.

It was the signal that it was time to leave the illusion around me and return to reality. An alarm waking my mind from its deep slumber.

Fwoosh.

The scenery around me melted away like ice cream. The shouts that had sounded so clear now seemed distant, like echoes.

“Chaaaarge!”

The last battle of the Great War. Perhaps the final battle, with humanity’s fate hanging in the balance.

Team Leader Choi strode forward, the Hero’s Sword held high, and countless Hunters followed him like a surging wave.

Toward somewhere the moonlight couldn’t reach.

Toward a being standing alone, cloaked in darkness.

No.

Not yet. Not yet.

I reached out with all my strength. Through my blurring vision, I moved the body that had become entirely my own and took a step toward him.

Demon King Asmodeus.

I could see the back of that calamity. He wasn’t enormous or grotesque.

Even if all of this was an illusion that would never come to pass, I wanted to see his true form with my own eyes—the form no one had ever told me about.

I wanted to catch even a glimpse of him buried in the deep darkness, to feel the power coiled within him, if only for a moment.

More. Just a little more!

I didn’t know.

Maybe my desperate cry had echoed in my heart and reached him. Or maybe everything I was seeing and feeling wasn’t an illusion after all, but something else.

There was only one thing I could be sure of: something had reacted to my soundless cry.

Rustle.

A figure slowly turning around. Darkness rippling.

“…!”

My heart lurched. An icy chill ran down my spine.

It made no sense. It was impossible.

But the Demon King was definitely turning toward me—and that was the last thing I saw.

Flash.

Everything around me disappeared. Team Leader Choi and Xiao Shen, the countless Hunters. Even Demon King Asmodeus.

But the darkness did not disappear.

No—an abyss-like presence was closing in, pressing in on me from every direction.

What the hell is this…

I was confused. I couldn’t tell what was happening.

Was what I was seeing another illusion? Or had I finally reached my limit, lost consciousness, and started dreaming?

And just as those questions gripped me—

Ding.

System You are the Chosen One. The Master of the Ark.

The System automatically activates its firewall.

The System blocks a newly detected virus.

Abyssal Swamp has been dispelled.

Power of the Abyss dissipates.

Level 10 “Final Abyss” Doppelganger has been blocked.

System You are the Chosen One. The Master of the Ark.

The System automatically activates its firewall.

The System blocks a newly detected virus.

Abyssal Swamp has been dispelled.

Power of the Abyss dissipates.

Level 10 “The Final Abyss” Doppelganger has been blocked.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Clear chimes reached my ears and rang out in every direction.

At the same time, the darkness that had writhed toward me like a living snake rapidly scattered.

It shuddered violently, as if it had encountered something it feared.

And then I realized what this abyss was.

I knew what had brought all those illusions crashing down on me, too.

Doppelganger.

A line I’d read somewhere suddenly came to mind.

When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back at you.

The line meant something else, but it described what had happened to me.

I looked at the Doppelganger, and the Doppelganger looked at me. That was how I’d been dragged into the abyss it had created.

No—that was what had happened.

But now I knew.

This was another illusion within reality. The Doppelganger’s power itself.

And I knew what I had to do.

Fwoosh.

Heat surged from my empty hands. Darkness writhed against the dazzling blue-white flames.

As if I’d made up my mind to do this long ago, I reached out with hands blazing with Scorching Yang Qi and seized the darkness.

CRUNCH.

And the instant I tore it apart—

SHRAAAK!

I saw it.

The darkness crumbled away, reduced to ash by the flames. Beyond it, the world I remembered came into view.

Huff.

Dusty air flowed through my nose and mouth.

The chunks of stone that had hung in midair began to fall again. The Skeleton King came into view, staring at me with wide eyes.

It all happened in an instant.

Had even a second passed in reality?

But I’d experienced at least several hours—years’ worth of illusions—and returned.

There probably wasn’t a single survivor among those who’d gone through what I had. They must all have been absorbed by the Doppelganger.

“What the…”

I couldn’t explain it in a few words, and there was no time to try.

Instead of answering the confused Skeleton King, I shook my head.

Then I left him behind and faced the Doppelganger, which was staring up at me in a daze.

“You—you… What are you…?”

Rustle.

Its shadowy body wavered and kept scattering, bit by bit.

What I’d torn apart with my flame-wreathed hands wasn’t just an illusion. It was the Doppelganger’s body, its very life.

“I got a good look at your last-ditch effort.”

“…!”

“Yeah. I figured there had to be some reason that dog barking its head off this whole time was cooperating so easily.”

At my offhand remark, the Doppelganger shuddered.

Darkness welled up from it like blood, then scattered like ash. Each time, the shadow that served as its body grew smaller.

“Honestly, it wasn’t a bad attempt. If I’d been in my usual shape, you wouldn’t have stood a chance. But I didn’t expect some fucker to cut in without using his turn signal.”

“This can’t… This can’t be happening.”

“If a bastard like you can exist, why can’t a bastard like me?”

The Doppelganger muttered as if groaning.

“The Chosen One…”

The Chosen One. The Master of the Ark.

I didn’t know why the Doppelganger and the System called me that.

I didn’t know who had chosen me, or what the Ark was. I couldn’t know that right now.

But if those two words referring to me weren’t just nonsense, then I knew at least this much: stopping that fucked-up scene the Doppelganger had shown me must be the mission I’d been given.

“Brace yourself. Everything you saw will soon become the future—and reality.”

“Are you sure? I may be a genius, but I’m not exactly planning to die young.”

The Doppelganger laughed out loud at my reply. Its helplessness and madness were impossible to hide now that it had accepted its complete Erasure.

“If the King returns, will you still be able to say that?”

I thought of the deep darkness I’d seen in the illusion.

I thought of that last glimpse of Demon King Asmodeus, whose appearance I’d never managed to make out clearly. I thought of the overwhelming strength I’d felt from him, even from a distance.

If I fought him, could I really win?

An empty question.

I already knew the answer.

Demon King Asmodeus was strong. No—there was no point even talking about how strong he was.

If that had been reality, and the power I’d felt was real, just meeting his gaze would’ve frozen my hands and feet.

But sometimes a question has more than one answer.

Especially when I’m the one solving it.

“If I fought him as I am now, I’d definitely die. Miserably, without even managing to hurt him properly.”

At my answer, the Doppelganger’s laughter grew louder. It didn’t seem to care that more than half its body had already disappeared.

“Yes. That is the truth. Accepting the death our King has decreed is all you can do…”

“You’re leaving out a premise.”

“What?”

I looked at the Doppelganger as it fell silent and continued slowly.

“If it were me right now. That’s the most important premise.”

At some point, I’d changed. I’d had no choice but to change in order to survive, in order to protect what mattered.

I’d thrown away the caution I’d held on to as an F-rank Hunter. Sometimes I’d faced my enemies boldly—and with even greater recklessness.

And every time I risked my life in a fight, I’d reaped the rewards of that risk.

That’s how it’s been so far, and that’s how it’ll keep being.

The man I am now and the man I’ll be in the future are different.

So the future has to change, too. Whatever risks I have to take—even if it costs me my life—I’ll change it with my own power.

That’s all I can do. And it must be why someone I don’t know chose me.

“An illusion is just an illusion. We’ll have to wait and see how the future changes… but some bastard who’s about to drop dead won’t be around to find out, so it’s none of his business.”

The Middle Dantian is moved by mental strength, and mental strength comes from a steadfast heart.

I won’t be shaken by some horrible illusion or a few words from the Doppelganger.

“And you seem to have forgotten something important.”

I was tired. I felt like I could collapse at any moment.

But as I looked down at the Doppelganger, which had stiffened, I wanted to make sure I said this.

“The future’s already changed.”

I pulled at the corner of my mouth, stiff with dried blood. Fighting off the sleep that threatened to overwhelm me, I went on.

“I put an end to your plan. With my own hands.”

I didn’t know exactly what the Doppelganger had planned to do or what it had hoped to achieve.

I’d wanted to hear it directly from the thing itself, but it would be completely gone in a few seconds. There was no point asking now.

I could find everything out.

Even if I had to scour the whole world, I’d track down every trace of the Doppelganger and pull up the roots it had left behind. Then the illusion would remain an illusion.

Peace would settle over the future that had been filled with calamity.

I can do it.

This wasn’t just a wish. I was certain.

At last, the world had come together. I’d sounded the alarm for those who’d grown complacent in times of peace and thrown cold water in the faces of the powerful who’d refused to confront reality.

And I’d brought those known as humanity’s sword and shield—the countless Hunters—together under one flag.

The World Hunter Federation.

An organization that transcended gender, race, age, and national borders.

I was the Alliance Leader at the head of that vast federation.

Everyone had chosen me. Everyone trusted and followed me. So there was no room in my heart for the word impossible.

“So…”

My voice trailed off, growing weak.

My vision slowly tilted against my will. Without a word, the Skeleton King suddenly came up beside me and reached out to support me.

He helped me finish what I hadn’t yet managed to say.

“Quit your bullshit and go link arms with your friend who went ahead of you. You can watch from there.”

Whoosh.

My toe came down hard, with a heavy rush of air.

And in that moment, something inexplicable caught my eye through my hazy vision.

Was it… smiling?

I couldn’t possibly know.

Was the smile an illusion brought on by exhaustion? Or was it a reality I couldn’t understand?

Before I could even think back over that fleeting question, the toe, still wreathed in a faint flame, had already stamped down on the shadow. It led a monster that had lived through ages beyond imagining to Erasure.

BOOM!

The shadow shattered and scattered with a deafening crash. Through it rang the clear chime announcing the Doppelganger’s Erasure.

Ding.

It was over. At last.

At least in that moment, I was sure it was.

Until an unpleasant noise pierced my ears.

Beep.

System Main Quest Cataclysm has failed!

…What?