◈ Chapter 236. From This Moment On, You Are Prey
Clack—
The sound of metal rang out.
I knew without having to turn my head.
It was the sound of Shegwin sliding Atlas back into its sheath.
What that meant was simple.
The Sword Saint’s intuition.
There was no longer any threatening presence here.
Thinking that made me feel like I had done something pointless.
Just to land one blow on Raymon Sean’s face.
I had even manifested [「Anomaly of Reversal」]
inside an already-cleared rift.
‘So there was never even a real body here to begin with?’
If only because it feels unfair, I’ll have to search the control room.
The effect of [Blessing of the First World Tree] was still active.
But my mana was not in a good state. Even at this very moment, I was forcibly holding on to a rift that was trying to close. Still, manifesting a single Light should not be difficult.
Gently floating—
A sphere of light, Light, illuminated the control room.
I had wondered, but there really is nothing here?
Of course, it wasn’t as if we had made an appointment, and I had half-forcibly barged into his hideout.
So it wasn’t like I had much to say, but…….
‘Did he never intend to meet me in the first place?’
Well, he was the one who had put a polymorphed mannequin in front of us. It seems he intended to fool me as he had fooled everyone else until now. In that sense, should I be grateful I didn’t dance to his tune?
Of course, regardless.
“You remain without pride to the very end.”
I don’t know about me.
But to Grandfell, Raymon Sean’s evaluation had hit rock bottom.
In other words, he was practically no different from a demon.
Illusion Breaker’s voice could be heard.
—Your Sword Aura has grown sharper, and yet. Are you still nothing more than a stripling?
It was speaking not to me, but to Shegwin.
As for me, even if I was trembling with rage on the inside, it didn’t show on the outside.
Unlike me, Shegwin was openly displaying his emotions.
Tch.
He looked genuinely regretful that we had missed him.
To be honest, even if I couldn’t show it, I felt the same way, Shegwin.
So we had to find some kind of clue.
‘The control room.’
Information should remain in some form.
Once the rift was cleared, no one could guarantee what shape this place would remain in.
That meant now, while I was preventing the rift from clearing with Anomaly of Reversal, might be our last chance to find traces of Raymon Sean.
So I looked around…….
‘!’
A familiar “something” entered my sight.
In truth, Shegwin was the one who found it first.
Tap, tap—
Shegwin prodded that something with his sheath.
Then he lowered his head and carefully brought his ear close to it.
He stared at me.
—The stripling asks whether it is the egg of a beast.
The egg of a beast.
To the eyes of an Arcanian, it might look that way.
But not to me.
Let’s see, the last time I saw one was over ten years ago.
I could not forget it.
If only because the red tag attached to that thing
remained vivid in my mind.
Back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
The dedicated access device for Arcana Continent Chronicles.
It was Cosmo’s VR capsule.
That access device that had cost over ten million won apiece.
In the control room illuminated by Light, there was nothing besides the access device. No traces, no items that could be called rewards. Then that meant.
That access device itself
was the purpose for which Raymon Sean had invited me.
And it was the dungeon’s clear reward.
Only then did I realize.
‘It was damn dark right under the lamp.’
Right after its release.
Arcana Continent Chronicles, a virtual reality game, had been evaluated as decades ahead of mankind’s technology. Yes, everything can only be seen to the extent that one knows. Looking back on it now…….
That was certainly a technology close to [『Anomaly』].
I murmured.
“So that was it.”
That dedicated access device, shaped like an egg,
was the path to Arcana Continent.
The moment I realized it, a message appeared before my eyes.
[World Quest: Ten Adventurers]
The ten prototype access devices hidden within CODE Rifts.
They alone are the only path back to Arcana Continent.
Adventurers, Arcanians.
Seize the opportunity to take everything in the continent swallowed by chaos.
─Discover a CODE Rift. (Success)
─Clear the rift and acquire the access device. (Success)
─Enter Arcana Continent through the access device. (In Progress)
Truly, you’re scheming right up until the very end, Raymon Sean....
As could be seen from the quest contents.
The quest had not appeared only to Hoyeol.
The players watching the video flinched.
“!!!”
The moment they realized it was an access device.
A message had appeared before their eyes.
And one that was none other than a World Quest.
“What the hell is with this atmosphere all of a sudden?”
The Kingdom of Yusra.
The Golden Calf Tavern.
Lakid looked around at the tavern that had fallen silent.
Those adventurer bastards’ expressions were anything but ordinary.
As he downed a whole barrel of beer, he gauged the mood.
‘The way only their eyes are moving, it’s just like…….’
Those are the eyes of people thinking only about stabbing one another in the back, aren’t they?
Because Lakid had been through all kinds of hardships, he could tell.
The strange tension flowing between the adventurers.
For the players, it could not be helped.
‘An access device?’
‘Does that mean if we have that prototype access device, we can enter Arcana Continent?’
‘Just entering Arcana Continent might be insane…… but there’s a quest. A World Quest, at that.’
Even class quests granted enormous rewards.
There were countless rankers who had advanced dozens of steps ahead of others simply by carrying out class quests.
But what if they could carry out a World Quest, which was rarer even than those class quests?
‘This is an opportunity!’
The reward would be beyond imagination.
The players watched one another’s reactions.
Since Hoyeol had found one access device, only nine remained.
Naturally, there was no one who thought of stealing Hoyeol’s access device.
‘Am I insane, to mess with Lee Hoyeol?’
‘No sane person could even imagine it.’
‘And no matter what, if you’re even remotely human…….’
How much had they received from Hoyeol until now?
On top of that, the one who had discovered this World Quest was also Hoyeol. So the players could only engage in a battle of nerves over the remaining nine spots.
The news also reached the AAU.
“Haha…….”
Park Minjae let out a hollow laugh.
How long had he been racking his brains over this?
Ever since the Magic Tower had risen in the middle of Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea.
Truly, not a single day had passed without him thinking about it.
How they could send the Arcanians
back to their Arcana Continent.
It was not solely a concern of mankind.
The Magic Tower had also clearly declared it.
—“The purpose of the Magic Tower is to return to Arcana Continent.”
Both mankind and the Arcanians had struggled desperately.
To return to the lives they had before the Cataclysm.
And yet, as if mocking all that effort.
“You really do make a mockery of people until the very end.”
Raymon Sean had simply tossed out the answer.
And with an Arcana Continent Chronicles access device, of all things.
With a VR capsule that was all too familiar to Park Minjae.
Yun Sugyeom asked Park Minjae.
“Director, do you perhaps know about it?”
“About what?”
“The shape of the access device is slightly different from the one I know.”
“If that’s what you mean, it’s nothing special.”
Park Minjae desperately suppressed his anger as he continued.
“During the beta test. That’s a prototype access device.”
“……!”
“You really took us for idiots, Raymon. Arcana Continent Chronicles was nothing more than a means to him from the beginning. Everything was just build-up for the Cataclysm.”
That was right.
Everything had been a fake prepared for the Cataclysm.
The beta test, the dedicated access devices for Arcana Continent Chronicles, the Arcana service—all of it had merely been groundwork for the Cataclysm. A damned sense of powerlessness pressed down on his body.
‘Then what the hell were we working for all this time?’
From the very beginning, they had been dancing on the palm of his hand.
‘What were you thinking as you watched us?’
How ridiculous must it have seemed to him when they founded the AAU, pretending they knew something, and made a fuss about responding to the Cataclysm? Park Minjae clenched his teeth.
‘……But I can endure it.’
He could tell himself that the one who was fooled was at fault.
With his rebellious streak at the forefront, he could endure it.
The problem, however, was that Raymon Sean’s deception had not yet ended. Even if everything had been acting and illusion, they had experience operating Arcana Continent Chronicles.
Inside the AAU Korea Branch, sunk in shock.
Park Minjae opened his mouth.
“Everyone, please pay attention.”
The murmuring died down.
In any case, their faces were truly a sight.
As he had said, because they had experience, they could see the future all too clearly.
“To summarize the situation, enormous rewards will be given to only ten players……. No, Chief Lee Hoyeol must be excluded. To a total of only nine players.”
Naturally, tremendous competition would follow.
But the problem was that it would not be competition between players alone. The ones who wanted to return to Arcana Continent more than anyone else would be the Arcanians who had fallen into reality.
Someone opened their mouth.
“……Even so, don’t we have the Chief?”
Park Minjae nodded.
“That’s right. As long as the Chief is there, the Magic Tower, the Lion Heart Knights, Muon, and even massive forces like the Shadow Mercenary Corps won’t move. But you all know they aren’t everything, don’t you?”
Like the forces he had mentioned.
There were those who had harmonized with reality.
“The Karpen Rebels and the Red Wing Warriors are examples.”
And there were also those who had not.
If they were to hear this news…….
“They will gladly throw themselves into the competition.”
Park Minjae could say that with certainty.
“Raymon has handed us one hell of a giant screw-you.”
Harmony between mankind and Arcana.
To break the new order established through Hoyeol’s sacrifice.
Raymon Sean had put up a reward.
A reward that neither players nor Arcanians could possibly ignore.
Park Minjae swallowed dryly.
“We don’t know what kind of ugly scenes will unfold from now on.”
As for what could happen in the face of competition,
had they not recently confirmed it in the Zero Mountains?
They could take Unification Under Heaven as an example, advancing with their nation’s aircraft carrier at the forefront
as they attacked the Zero Mountains.
“It means the targets of naval gunfire could shift from monsters to players or Arcanians. Anything is hard to start, but the moment even one incident breaks out? I trust you all know what will happen.”
Moreover.
“I trust you also know that if it’s Luo Junchun, he won’t hesitate to be the one to start it. His infamy was already widespread back when Arcana was nothing more than a game, wasn’t it?”
Class, Monarch.
Overwhelming violence.
Luo Junchun had risen to his current position as a tyrant.
It was the same after the Cataclysm.
No, if anything, it had only grown worse.
Unification Under Heaven, recorded in the Arcana database.
One could tell just by looking at the abnormal level distribution of its guild members.
“He forces the sacrifices of others for his own goals.”
In Unification Under Heaven, there were countless players whose level growth had completely stopped. Would that situation have changed after the Cataclysm?
“The Monarch class has tremendous potential, and as much as that is true, it has the massive drawback that leveling up is not easy. But what about Luo Junchun? After the Cataclysm, he instead climbed the rankings sharply and established a three-way contest with Skal and Rox.”
Park Minjae let out a bitter smile.
“It isn’t only Luo Junchun. Certain infamous players, including Supernova. And even Arcanians. Raymon Sean has laid out the board for those dangerous bastards.”
He was no different from a demon, inciting conflict.
So now that they had realized his intentions, there was no time to hesitate.
Park Minjae said,
“The only thing that can stand in Unification Under Heaven’s way is, in the end, a nation.”
“……Do you mean the Chinese government?”
“Yes. The whole world has no choice but to step in and try to persuade them.”
The moment Luo Junchun pulled the trigger, chaos would begin. If they could restrain Luo Junchun even for a while, they could at least feel at ease for the time being.
“The directors’ meeting for that purpose will begin now.”
Park Minjae looked at the monitor.
To be precise, at Hoyeol on the screen.
Hoyeol was simply standing still, staring at the access device.
Park Minjae clenched his fist.
‘This time, we will share the burden you have been carrying.’
...
Raymon Sean.
The level of his scheming was no different from that of a demon.
Was it thanks to having carried out more quests than others?
I could clearly see the hidden meaning behind the quest.
In short, he was telling us to fight over the ten access devices.
It was a Cataclysm that would become difficult to respond to even if everyone was united by pride, just as Grandfell said. Yet instead of helping, he intended to interfere in this way?
I murmured coldly.
“Is this an imitation of the Demon King Contest?”
If you only changed the access devices into thrones, wouldn’t it be exactly like the Demon King Contest? In that sense, Raymon Sean, from this moment on, there is no longer any room left for dialogue with you.
I declared.
“Then I, too, shall regard you as prey.”
Of course, even so, if you think I’ll be played by your schemes—
─Enter Arcana Continent through the access device. (In Progress)
By the quest objective.
By mere letters.
You’re mistaken.
Because to my eyes, which had entered the domain of Anomaly,
I could see it.
The structure of the prototype access device.
What did that mean?
Simple.
It meant that I, too, had come to tear through dimensions like the dragons.
Goooooo—!