◈ Episode 235. Did You Think I Would Let It Slide?
It wasn’t only Park Minjae.
Each branch, including the branch managers.
Those who remembered Arcana’s beta test froze on the spot.
The branch managers’ faces suddenly went blank.
“Branch Manager Baker, are you all right?”
“Mm, it’s nothing.”
“I’m glad you’re all right. In any case, it’s the General Manager again!”
AAU London Branch Manager.
Baker nodded silently.
‘Of course, it’s astonishing.’
[Prototype Model: D].
A prototype from the beta test days.
Though it was fake, it was still undeniably a dragon.
The power of its breath alone should have been beyond imagination.
‘He neutralized a dragon’s breath with a sword.’
The moment the sword and the breath collided.
The breath turned to dust and scattered into the air.
It was a sight that would have made him doubt his own eyes even if he had witnessed it in person, yet there it was, plainly posted on Arcana’s official website.
But he could accept it.
‘It is none other than General Manager Lee Hoyeol.’
So the reason they were this dumbstruck
lay elsewhere.
It was the very existence of the prototype monster itself.
AAU Korea Branch.
Park Minjae muttered in a low voice.
“……
He definitely said that.”
A conversation with Raymon Sean surfaced in his mind.
-“There is no need to interfere with something that is already complete.”
Back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
At the time, he had understood it to mean that they couldn’t touch Arcana, which was already in service.
But one saw only as much as one knew. After the Cataclysm, when settings that had been no more than part of the development stage became reality and burst out through rifts.
Only then did Park Minjae realize the hidden meaning.
“It was already a completed world…….”
Cosmo had not developed the Arcana Continent.
It meant that the Arcana Continent had already been complete.
But he couldn’t believe it.
What had refuted that conjecture to the very end was his experience during the beta test. During the beta test, he and everyone else had witnessed the incomplete state of the Arcana Continent.
He couldn’t simply believe Raymon Sean’s words.
“Why are prototypes suddenly……?”
And yet, the prototypes that had been the evidence had burst out from rifts.
‘No way……?’
Park Minjae’s pupils trembled.
‘Was the entire beta test fake?’
Fake—in other words, an illusion.
If the Arcana Continent truly was a world that had existed from the beginning, then the beta test had been nothing more than a play staged to deceive them. It meant Cosmo, and AAU, had been dancing in the palm of Raymon Sean’s hand all this time.
“That son of a bitch.”
Grit.
Park Minjae clenched his teeth hard enough to grind them.
He had thought he couldn’t fathom the man’s true intentions, but to think it went this far.
It truly felt as if he had been utterly defeated.
“……
Branch Manager?”
“Give me a second. I’m trying to settle my stomach.”
“Ah, yes, sir!”
He already had a damned contrary streak as it was.
And this was like getting stabbed in the back by someone that streak refused to tolerate.
No wonder he was this shaken in front of his subordinates.
But Park Minjae forced his complexion to change.
“Phew, I’m good.”
Was that also the experience of years in society?
As if.
He had lived his life by charging headfirst at anything he couldn’t accept. To put it bluntly, he had less confidence in social life than Seong Hyeonjun. Then how had he suppressed his anger?
If someone asked, Park Minjae would point at the monitor.
“……
You saved us again, General Manager Lee Hoyeol.”
That was right.
The sting of the blow Raymon Sean had delivered to the back of his head.
None other than Hoyeol was just about to pay it back for him.
Someone shouted.
“This is the last floor. In other words, the control room!”
Park Minjae raised the corners of his mouth.
“Feel what it’s like to get hit, you bastard.”
*
Friendly competition.
The match had been decided by a hair’s breadth.
As if he could not accept consecutive defeats after physical training, Shegwin had been slicing the giant prototype apart with swift sword strikes. Yet having his attention stolen by me had been his fatal mistake.
‘Still, I understand.’
He heard “Illusion Breaker.”
How could he possibly resist turning to look?
Ruuuumble—!
As the giant prototype collapsed with a tremendous roar, messages appeared.
[Your level has risen.]
[Your level has risen.]
[Your level has risen.]
……
There were so many it was almost dizzying.
This was a dungeon I had entered in the first place to meet Raymon Sean. I hadn’t expected level-ups or spoils, but…… The human heart really was different going in and coming out.
‘I would’ve been disappointed if it hadn’t given experience.’
Instead of dropping loot, the prototype spat out a tremendous amount of experience.
That much was clear from the fact that I had already gained as many as nine levels before defeating the giant prototype. So I checked my status window with a certain degree of expectation, and……
It exceeded my expectations.
[Level: 680]
……Level 680?
[Available Points: 59]
Wait, fifty levels from that one thing?!
That meant I had gained experience all the way up to the system limit.
Fifty levels at once.
It was an experience reward even more luxurious than the experience piled up in the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
Naturally, a question arose.
‘What on earth was that lump of machinery……?’
Of course, there was no need to be suspicious when something good was good.
It hadn’t spat out any spoils, but this much was sincerely satisfying.
The levels were one thing, but there had been an even more important gain.
I had unlocked my second Transcendent achievement.
[Transcendent: Your transcendental realm is sufficient for you to be called a Transcendent.
- Current Achievements Reached: Circle (all magic manifestation power increased by 1,000%) / Sword Path of Pride (currently liberated path: First Path) / None / None…….]
Namely, the Sword Path of Pride.
‘……
It really is grandiose, just like someone.’
From the name alone, it could only be an achievement worthy of Granfell.
However, its effect was truly like me, Lee Hoyeol.
Because I had dug countless escape routes for myself.
It meant I could gain a compatibility advantage against any enemy.
‘By following my sword path.’
My companion, Gwicheol, would also change its name……
No, that wasn’t it. The name wasn’t important.
Its form and effect would change.
‘Its potential is limitless.’
The only path currently liberated was the “First Path, Illusion Breaker.”
But if I kept struggling, my feet would naturally reach the other paths as well.
Just as they had until now.
It was the moment I finished organizing my thoughts.
Illusion Breaker spoke.
-Atlas says he will admit defeat.
Is that so?
At those words, I looked at Shegwin, and somehow he still seemed astonished.
Judging from how much he looked like he wanted to say, he seemed to have misunderstood in many ways.
However, just how desperate the story behind the Sword Path of Pride was.
Granfell was not one to explain every detail at length.
So I spoke calmly.
“At last, the hindrance is gone.”
[B5
-Deep Research Laboratory]
“Let us proceed, Shegwin.”
Before that, the Deep Research Laboratory awaited, but from what I could see below the stairs, there were no prototypes in sight. True to its name as a laboratory, countless monitors were merely lined up.
If we simply passed through and went down, at the end of the depths, there was—
[B6
-Control Room]
You must have been watching everything from there through CCTV, Raymon Sean.
What, you want to talk to me?
‘It’s not as if I can’t.’
I also have many things I sincerely want to ask.
But before that, first, we should settle accounts properly.
Both I and Shegwin.
You owe us a little, don’t you?
Reviving my motivation, I descended the stairs.
Bzzzt—
Suddenly, noise dug into my eardrums.
“!”
Clack!
Shegwin reflexively raised Atlas.
A dungeon—a space where no one could guarantee what situation might occur.
However, I murmured in the same voice as always.
“There is no need to be on guard.”
Because that bzzzt just now was extremely familiar to me.
It was noise.
White noise, the kind that came out when you tuned to the wrong frequency.
“?”
However, Shegwin did not immediately lower his guard.
I suppose that was understandable.
To an Arcana native, there could hardly be a sound more unfamiliar than this.
Anyway, I had questions too.
‘Did he suddenly turn on a radio or something?’
Grumbling at Raymon Sean, I looked toward the source of the sound.
[B5
-Deep Research Laboratory].
……
Wait, countless monitors were beginning to flicker.
I was used to the Tower Master’s catlike tricks.
Thanks to that, I realized it.
So the cheap tricks begin again.
‘Do you think I’ll even give you my eyes?’
I was someone who had lightly ignored even quests that players would have gone mad over.
A few flickering monitors like this
could not stop my polished shoes from—
‘……
Huh?’
However, regardless of my inner thoughts, I stopped in place.
Because the image that appeared on the flickering monitor had seized my gaze.
It was a familiar screen.
Even if not every day.
Since I accessed it at least once every week, there was no way it wouldn’t be familiar.
What had appeared on the screen was definitely Arcana’s official website.
If only the website had appeared, I would not have stopped.
However, a certain video was playing on that website.
Shown from an observer’s point of view.
Silver hair.
An excessively splendid jacket and attire.
And even the sword in hand, whose appearance alone was extraordinary.
That was me.
“……!”
Since the angle showed me from afar, Shegwin was also visible on the screen. A real-time stream—again, it must have been an experience Shegwin could not understand.
Whip!
Shegwin turned his head and surveyed the surroundings.
That very image of Shegwin appeared on the screen in real time.
Again, I spoke calmly.
“There is also no need to be surprised.”
Of course, my words and my inner state were different.
Why?
Because right now, inwardly, I was sweating buckets!
A memory suddenly surfaced.
The CCTV I had encountered as soon as I entered the rift.
‘Is that the CCTV’s point of view?’
I forced myself to calmly organize the situation.
At present, the sight of me captured by the CCTV was being broadcast live through Arcana’s official website. I had seen countless CCTVs like that from the moment I entered the rift until now.
‘……
Then that means they’ve been watching everything all this time.’
Making the prototype kneel.
Raising Gwicheol against the giant prototype just now.
And the Illusion Breaker I was holding too……?!
Thinking that, the words I had uttered came back to me.
-“Are you ready, Illusion Breaker?”
T-That got preserved on Arcana’s official website?
This damned world!!
Talking to a sword in itself would already make me look insane. And on top of that, the sword’s name was Illusion Breaker. I stared hard at the monitor.
Raymon Sean.
I don’t know what you were thinking,
broadcasting my every move live.
But I said quietly to Shegwin.
“With this, I too have come to stand in the same position as you.”
You dare turn me into a spectacle?
I take back what I said about you owing us “a little.”
The crime of threatening my life through death by shame
shall be judged all the more severely.
My gaze moved away from the monitor.
It turned toward the stairs leading underground.
There was no longer any hesitation.
Click—
[You have entered B6
-Control Room.]
The control room.
The heart of the dungeon.
I stepped into the place where Raymon Sean, who must have been watching everything, should have been.
My footsteps had barely echoed through the control room
when my vision flickered.
What is this? Don’t tell me you’re shoving another quest at me.
As I said, I, being materialistic, might fall for cheap tricks.
But Granfell would not waver.
“How absurd.”
First, I spat the words out coldly.
But wait……
This wasn’t a quest message.
[You have fulfilled the conditions.]
……
Conditions?
The first thing that came to mind was the quest objective. However, there was no quest objective that would be fulfilled by entering [B6
-Control Room]. Soon, messages appeared one after another.
They were……
[A reward has been issued.]
An abrupt reward message.
[You have cleared the rift, ‘Dungeon: CODE-009’.]
……
I see.
‘So you intend to send me out like this?’
I don’t know what your scheme is.
But you intend to kick me and Shegwin,
both of us thoroughly provoked, out of the rift?
But I told you clearly.
‘I have a debt to pay back to you.’
I said I would collect the price of my life without fail.
So you can’t just close the rift as you please and run away, Raymon Sean.
I drew up my mana with all my might.
Wooooong!
Even [Blessing of the First World Tree]
would struggle to regenerate this vast quantity of mana!
The place where that mana would be used was the strange space—the rift.
At this moment, I would reverse the clearing of the rift.
Was such a thing possible?
‘You never know until you try.’
And, setting aside whether it was possible or impossible.
Raymon Sean.
Until I landed one proper blow on that face of yours.
It meant I had absolutely no intention of leaving the rift.
[Your mana is too low.]
A message instantly appeared, warning of mana depletion.
But I did not stop.
Craaaack—!
I stared clearly at the scenery of the rift as it shattered.
Within my mind unfolded
the abstruse process of exploration, procedure, and manifestation.
!—kcarC
The collapsing rift began to reverse once more.
My vision flickered.
[You have entered B6
-Control Room.]
“Did you think I could be bought off with a reward?”
My voice once again echoed through the now-silent control room.
“If so, that is regrettable.”
Utterly cold.
“The act of offering a bribe shall also be included in your punishment.”
So show me your face, Raymon Sean.
-Come, master of illusion.
My beloved sword, Illusion Breaker.
My fist, soaked in shame.
My Pride Punch is weeping!