Chapter 832

Sometimes, what you’ve always taken for granted goes wrong.

A moment when something you’d always taken for granted—one is followed by two, and two by three—suddenly takes an unexpected turn.

But I’d never once imagined this outcome.

Beep.

System Main Quest Cataclysm has failed!

…What?

I froze like a statue and stared blankly at the holographic window floating in the air.

Inside its translucent frame were the same words I’d just heard.

Main Quest. Failed.

The two words drilled into my retinas, tearing through the emptiness in my mind and leaving me reeling.

Why? How could this happen?

My lips moved on instinct, but no sound came out.

With endless questions swirling in my mind, I shook my head. The world spun around me. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

Was I dreaming?

Or was I still trapped in an illusion the Doppelganger had created?

I wished I were. Unfortunately, this was real.

“…Human, snap out of it!”

A voice reached me through my blurred vision. If the Skeleton King’s hand shaking me was proof that this was all real—

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The chimes kept ringing, and the darkness scattering into the air like ash was proof that one being had been erased.

System You have defeated Level 10 “Final Abyss” Doppelganger.

Due to the extreme level difference, you receive no Reward.

With the death of this target, the Doppelganger species has been completely wiped out.

You have completely eradicated a species. The name Doppelganger will now slowly be forgotten as time passes.

You have achieved the very rare achievement, Where’s Your Do Clan From?¹

As a Reward for achieving a very rare achievement, you have gained a massive amount of EXP and Fame!

You have acquired the Title Species Slayer!

Level Up!

System You have defeated Level 10 “The Final Abyss” Doppelganger.

Due to the extreme level difference, you receive no Reward.

With the death of this target, the Doppelganger species has been completely wiped out.

You have completely eradicated a species. The name Doppelganger will now slowly be forgotten as time passes.

You have achieved the very rare achievement, Where’s Your Do Clan From?¹

As a Reward for achieving a very rare achievement, you have gained a massive amount of EXP and Fame!

You have acquired the Title Species Slayer!

Level Up!

Another Level Up. Another recovery.

Fwoosh.

My foggy vision cleared. Strength surged through my revitalized body, more powerful than before.

None of that mattered.

Something else was far more important.

I’d failed the most important Quest—the one I’d been certain I would complete.

The Doppelganger was erased. I’m sure of it.

My body was brimming with strength, but my mental reserves had run dry long ago. The shock made me stagger.

Michael Silbert was dead. The Doppelganger was dead. With my own hands, I’d eliminated the beings that threatened this world.

I’d thought it was over. It should have been over.

Even if a new threat came someday and plunged the whole world into fire, I’d believed we could at least buy ourselves some time right now.

But we hadn’t.

That smile.

I couldn’t breathe. A terrible headache stabbed through my skull like an awl, and I remembered the Doppelganger’s final moments. That faint smile I’d dismissed as a trick of my eyes.

I didn’t see it wrong…

I’d been wrong. That smile was real—the smile of someone who had finished what they’d set out to do.

Where had things gone wrong? Had I not tried hard enough? Had I not been strong enough?

Or had the calamity I’d tried to stop been in the making for so long that no mere human could have prevented it?

I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell what had happened.

I was sure of only one thing: something that should never have happened had begun.

Boom. Ba-boom.

A drumbeat suddenly reached my ears.

Neither a clear chime nor a mechanical warning, it was more ominous than any sound I’d ever heard. A war drum heralding the start of a great war—and a warning from the System.

Ba-boom.

System Main Quest Cataclysm has failed.

Some details in the Quest window have been updated.

Mission: Stop the Summoning (Failed)

You have failed to complete the mission.

The boundary of the Demon Realm has temporarily opened. Unidentified beings are invading this world.

A page of history is turning, and a new age is right around the corner.

The Rift has begun.

Current Rift progress: 10%

As the Rift progresses, the distribution and concentration of magical power will rise sharply. These changes may vary by location and over time, and may affect the laws and living beings of this world to varying degrees.

System Main Quest Cataclysm has failed.

Some details in the Quest window have been updated.

Mission: Stop the Summoning (Failed)

You have failed to complete the mission.

The boundary of the Demon Realm has temporarily opened. Unidentified beings are invading this world.

A page of history is turning, and a new age is right around the corner.

The rift has begun.

Current rift progress: 10%

As the rift progresses, the distribution and concentration of magical power will rise sharply. These changes may vary by location and over time, and may affect the laws and living beings of this world to varying degrees.

“…!”

I stared wide-eyed at the new holographic windows.

The Demon Realm.

A cursed world no one had ever glimpsed, crawling with darkness and monsters. A land of death ruled by Demon King Asmodeus.

It had opened. Only temporarily, but it had opened.

Cursed beings, summoned from another dimension by someone else, had set foot in this world.

A rift. Magical power surging.

So this was the plan the Doppelganger had prepared.

I’d underestimated it.

It had manipulated the whole world from behind Michael Silbert and made itself a divine figure in a vast religion. It was that cunning.

Why had I assumed a creature like that wouldn’t have a failsafe for a plan it had spent more than thirty years preparing?

A bomb doesn’t care who owns it. Whoever holds the switch, the slightest jolt can set it off.

Just like now.

Dammit.

My mind went blank.

The bomb had already gone off. The rift had begun. A calamity beyond anything Mutated Gates or Monster Waves could compare to would spread like wildfire.

“We have to stop it. Right now.”

Grab.

I seized the Skeleton King’s wrist. He’d been watching my inexplicable behavior ever since the Doppelganger died, and now he shouted in confusion.

“Get a grip, human! It’s already dead.”

“No.”

“What?”

“This is just the beginning. It’s not over.”

“What are you talking about—”

“Tell the main force. Tell the World Hunter Federation. Right now.”

I struggled for breath. My hand trembled around his wrist.

I was tired. I wanted to rest.

The mental exhaustion that had been eating away at me, combined with the shock I hadn’t seen coming, kept dragging me toward darkness. The sleep demon pressed down on my eyelids with the weight of ten thousand geun.²

But—

Crunch.

I bit my tongue and fought off the sleep. Forcing my fading consciousness back, I went on.

“We failed. The Doppelganger’s plan worked.”

“…!”

“They’re coming.”

That was all I managed to say.

Slump.

“Human! Human!”

The Skeleton King tried to haul me up with his powerful hands, but my body went limp against my will.

As my consciousness sank after the long fight, I thought of the best thing I could do now.

Murim.

The Main Quest had failed, but regardless of the outcome, the System’s restrictions were gone. The wall separating the two worlds had crumbled.

I had to go back.

To the other world that had given me a second life. To the place where time flowed so slowly that I could delay the flames of calamity.

But…

Why was I so sleepy? Why couldn’t I think?

Log…

The three syllables I’d always called out so confidently faded inside my mind. Before I could finish that one short word, my thoughts sank beneath the water.

And just as I was about to plunge into complete darkness—

Ding.

A clear chime sounded, followed by a voice that might have been a hallucination.

System The System is automatically executing a new update.

The System wishes to move the Player under its authority. Do you accept this offer?

The Player has not responded. Proceeding automatically.

Connecting to Murim.

Countdown begins.

10, 9, 8…

System The System is automatically executing a new update.

The System wishes to move the Player under its authority. Do you accept this offer?

The Player has not responded. Proceeding automatically.

Connecting to Murim.

Countdown begins.

10, 9, 8…

.

.

.

Login successful.

May fortune favor you in battle.

Fwoosh.

A burst of light announced the opening of a new world. I let go of the last thread of consciousness I’d held on to.

Ahomed Jemal Pasha.

His name was long by ordinary standards and short for a man from the Middle East. He trembled with joy alongside the dozens of companions gathered around him.

“Ah… Ahhh…”

“Inshallah!”³

It had been an unbearably long time. It was true for Ahomed, whose family had followed God’s will for generations, as it was for the others.

Though they’d been blessed with a talent for magic that anyone would envy, they’d had to hide from the world and live like criminals. They’d had to keep secret their great plan to change the world’s fate.

But…

We did it. At last.

Ahomed felt hot tears running down his face before he even realized it. He had devoted his entire life to following only the Prophet’s words.

In the old mage’s eyes lay the relief of someone finally free of all his hardship, the joy of fulfilling God’s mission, and worry and sorrow for someone who wasn’t there.

O Prophet. Our guiding light. Where are you now?

He had an inkling of what it meant that the Prophet had not returned from confronting the infidels’ army. But Ahomed kept his feelings to himself.

If the Prophet had died, it was a holy sacrifice in service of God’s mission. A martyrdom. He must not grieve.

Perhaps he foresaw a day like this long ago.

No. A great prophet like him would surely have foreseen it all.

That must have been why, before leaving, he had summoned Ahomed, the one in charge, and impressed these instructions upon him.

“Ahomed. If I haven’t returned by dawn three days from now, you and the others who remain must complete the mission.”

“P-Prophet, how could you say such a thing?”

“It’s only a precaution. If you all don’t stay here to protect everyone and carry on the mission, how can we fight the infidels’ army without worry?”

“B-but…”

“I trust you, Ahomed. You are my brother and Disciple, bound to me in the name of God.”

Neither the Prophet—no, the Doppelganger—nor Ahomed knew that he would never return. That a single human would erase him forever.

Yet that was exactly what had happened. Sensing that something had gone wrong, Ahomed led the mages who had studied under the Prophet alongside him to the Magic Formation they had spent so long preparing.

And now, in this very moment—

They watched the darkness rise, devouring more Magic Gems than they could count.

“O Messenger of God! O God’s hammer, come to set this defiled world right! At last, descend upon us!”

His cry rang out, carrying a lifetime of pent-up anguish and a faith that could only be called fanatical.

Fwoooooosh.

Deep within the darkness, red eyes flashed.