◈ Chapter 299. Ill Omen
We have to go back to the days when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
“I believe you would know this better than anyone, Chief Director, but the Magic Tower is special. Everything about it is! We put an incredible amount of effort into it from the planning stage. In many different ways.”
The Magic Tower.
It needed a background befitting its setting as Arcana’s greatest armed organization.
Antonium, the capital of the empire. It had to present an overwhelming sight in a different sense from the golden palace of Yusra, the ancient kingdom.
“It was certainly difficult to express that with magic alone. Back then, we also had to think about things like balance, after all. We had to avoid magic gaining a reputation as all-powerful and every player choosing to become a mage.”
So they used “that setting” for the Magic Tower as well.
“The setting that the Magic Tower was a creation of the Ill Omen.”
Clack.
Park Minjae picked up the paper cup.
He wanted to moisten his dry mouth a little…
“Hot, hot!”
No, why is this so hot?!
‘Damn it, making such an undignified fuss.’
He quickly came to his senses, but only for a moment.
Park Minjae’s eyes turned to Hoyeol, who sat across from him, filled with awe.
How could he drink such scalding green tea without even a change in expression?
‘…
No, this isn’t the time to be impressed by that.’
Wasn’t this the time to explain the Ill Omen?
I’ll earn my keep.
Having resolved himself, Park Minjae continued.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. The Ill Omen is a being that exists for the sake of plausibility, so to speak. To put it simply… it’s a setting made solely for balance patches.”
Arcana had presented itself as another world, but Arcana was, strictly speaking, a game.
Back when it was nothing more than a game, the developer, Cosmo, had continuously carried out balance patches and updates. Of course, the one who held full authority over that process was Raymon Sean.
“In any case, deletion is essential during the patching process.”
Arcana was no ordinary game. Simply deleting something was not the end of it. It meant that they had to release “something” with the ability to delete into the Arcana continent.
“To put it briefly, what the Ill Omen swallowed was deletion, and what it spat out was creation.”
The one that took on that role was none other than the [Ill Omen].
“The Ill Omen is, in effect, a being capable of anything. That was the very role we needed, so we gave it that setting. The Magic Tower’s wondrous functions also originated from the Ill Omen’s power.”
In the distant past.
The site where the Ill Omen had once dwelled.
Built upon that very site was the Magic Tower.
Park Minjae scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“This is… now that I’ve told you, I’m embarrassed, Commander-in-Chief. It feels as though it’s been exposed that we handled things carelessly because it was an element the players would never know about. I have no excuse.”
If they had not simply slapped on a convenient setting like the Ill Omen, but had instead given it a more concrete and reasonable one… he might have been able to offer the Chief Director more decisive help.
But even if it was the past, it was far, far in the past.
Of course, he had no time to sink into his thoughts.
“What?! Then is it all right now?”
Oh, no.
Park Minjae looked at Seong Hyeonjun making a fuss and pressed a hand to his forehead.
As if brewing the green tea hot enough to peel the roof of one’s mouth wasn’t enough.
Now he was even butting into the conversation without any decorum?
Park Minjae barely suppressed his old fogey instincts and smiled.
“What do you mean by ‘all right,’ Employee Seong?”
“That… haven’t we already acknowledged Arcana as another world that truly existed, Branch Manager Park? In reality, elements of the Arcana continent that we knew nothing about have been updated into our world.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Then that absurd Ill Omen thing might later…!!”
He had wondered what sort of question he would ask, but if that was what he was curious about, Park Minjae could let his anger subside. As it happened, he had been about to give the Chief Director an additional explanation about that.
Park Minjae wore an unnaturally good-natured smile.
“That’s a good point, Employee Seong.”
“…
Employee Seong? Please just call me Seong Hyeonjun like you usually do.”
“Ha ha, what a joke.”
Stealthily.
Park Minjae’s gaze turned to Hoyeol.
Since he showed no particular reaction, Park Minjae continued.
“If that’s what you’re worried about, there’s no need. Do you think we wanted an Ill Omen with such an outrageous setting to be released onto the Arcana continent? We buried it thoroughly.”
“You buried it? Underground? Or in hell?”
“Of course not.”
Hadn’t they confirmed that both the underground and hell existed?
Yes, the Ill Omen had to exist, and yet not exist at the same time.
Park Minjae added to Hoyeol.
“The place where the Ill Omen is located is in the depths of an immeasurable deep sea. It is a dead sea where nothing can exist, deep in the southern sea of the Arcana continent.”
The moment he finished the main point.
At last, Hoyeol opened his mouth.
In a voice no different from usual.
“That was a good story, Branch Manager Park Minjae.”
“Thank you…”
“Except for one thing you have overlooked.”
“…
Pardon?”
“The southern sea is not a sea of death.”
He dropped another bomb.
“Therefore, the Ill Omen, too, must be alive and breathing in the depths of the sea.”...
“No, that can’t be. The very setting of the southern sea was, from the beginning, something added because of the Ill Omen, so to speak…!”
Park Minjae, flustered, spat out words like a rapid-fire cannon.
But what could I do?
I was saying it because I had seen it with my own eyes.
The land of the elves, Sisley.
That was right.
Sisley was located above the southern sea.
This time, let’s look at the southern sea from the perspective of the Strange.
‘It’s a place where all the foreshadowing that never managed to be realized has gathered, isn’t it?’
To put it simply.
It could be said that the elements to be updated into the Arcana Continent Chronicles in the future had been trapped in the southern sea. However, among them, this Ill Omen must be on an entirely different level…
‘At least that’s a relief.’
Suppose that this Ill Omen had been related to demons. Wouldn’t Grandfell’s meddlesome nature, whose limits could not be measured, have unfolded without fail?
‘Just imagining it makes my head throb.’
Whether it possessed the power of deletion and creation or whatever else.
That lofty pride would never have backed down.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I checked the quest window.
─Progress Toward the Strange (In Progress)
●Identify the origin of the Magic Tower. (Success)
It seemed Park Minjae’s words were the correct answer.
I couldn’t know for certain because the next quest objective had not appeared.
But perhaps it would be an objective related to the Ill Omen.
Park Minjae asked, stammering.
“The Ill Omen may be alive and breathing in the southern sea… Chief Director, do you perhaps know something about the southern sea?”
“Of course.”
I didn’t merely know about it. Together with the elven leader, Ajentress, I had even uncovered the secrets surrounding the World Tree and the primordial evil. Thanks to that, my chest spread with perfect confidence. An arrogant voice flowed naturally from between my lips.
“My arrangements exist there as well.”
Arrangements again?
What a grandiose way to put it, truly.
Still, well, it wasn’t wrong, was it?
After all, I had built up enough affinity and influence with the elves, including Ajentress, to be entrusted with [Command Authority].
Of course, if one considered the process, one would have to go all the way back to the time I had used the [Hierarchy of Blessing] to threaten them… but explaining every little detail was not to my taste, either.
“Arrangements. I never imagined such a thing!”
To the shocked Park Minjae, I conveyed only the essentials.
“The elves. If it is them, they must have been keeping watch over the Ill Omen in the southern sea as well. Through them, we may be able to obtain concrete information regarding the Ill Omen.”
“……!!!”
Park Minjae.
And was it Yun Sugyeom and Seong Hyeonjun?
The faces of the three men were dyed with astonishment.
Elves, the elves’ homeland Sisley—what on earth was he suddenly talking about? That was probably what they were thinking.
Even to me, the progress did seem rather fast.
But it couldn’t be helped.
‘Time on the Arcana continent passes four times faster than in reality.’
In simple terms.
Four times as many events had taken place.
I continued.
“If it is too much to take in, you may write it down.”
“…
Ah, yes! We’ll do that.”
Ballpoint pens, smartphones—each of them recorded my statements in his own way.
Watching that sight…
This is starting to make me uneasy again, isn’t it?
“The elves regained their pride at the end of a bitter lesson.”
This damned loose tongue.
“The World Tree sowed new seeds upon the Arcana continent.”
Gilding his own face with gold.
“The dragons and the elves also recovered the pride of their blood ties.”
It considers that the most natural thing in the world…!
“And I was at the center of it all.”
The three men finished taking notes with soulless expressions.
Shake, shake—
Park Minjae shook his head and came back to his senses before asking.
“More importantly, Commander-in-Chief, is it all right for you to tell us such top-secret information? I can only guess, but just from what I’ve heard, it seems an incredible quest is involved.”
Perhaps because they had once been Arcana’s operators.
They knew the world of players well.
Especially information about a major quest like this?
It was true that nothing good would come from too many people knowing.
However, who was Grandfell?
“Everything is an exchange.”
The owner of a tiresome personality who had to keep the words he spoke.
“You gave trust, so I give trust in return.”
Of course, I, Lee Hoyeol, was not a saint like someone.
There was a reason I had spoken willingly.
After all.
The primordial evil connected to the elves, the World Tree, and the dragons.
The quest related to that thing was…
[Class Quest: The Fruit of Good and Evil]
The last survivor of Akshan.
The last demon hunter.
It was a class quest only I could carry out.
In that sense, let me be grateful once again, Hoyeol.
‘Seriously, what would I have done if a demon had popped out here too?’
Upper Demon Kings, great evils, primordial evils, and whatnot.
There were more than one or two demons to worry about.
If even the origin of the Magic Tower, the Ill Omen, had been tangled up with demons, there wouldn’t have been a moment left to breathe. Yes, I don’t know what kind of outrageous thing you are, but for now, thank you, Ill Omen.
‘And please, stay quiet for as long as possible, quest.’
The three men had fully come to their senses.
Their eyes shone differently from before.
It seemed as though vitality had returned to faces that had been nearly dead.
“To think you would say that to us. I am deeply moved, Chief Director. Then we will immediately announce the Chief Director’s achievements on the Arcana continent to every AAU branch!”
“If we collect information from each branch, we may be able to produce meaningful results.”
“It looks like going home on time today is out of the question too…! But that’s all right. I’m honored just to have met you like this, Commander-in-Chief!”
……
How would the achievements spreading like this return to me this time?
I couldn’t guess, but one thing was certain.
It seemed I wouldn’t be able to live with my face held high for a while…
*
She looked down at the surging sea.
She tried hard to ignore her throbbing head.
She bit her lip as though crushing it and spoke.
“Hey, haven’t you gotten chattier lately?”
The Witch of the Southern Sea.
She spoke toward the Great Calamity of the deep sea. Her homeland, her family, her friends, her lover… The Ill Omen that had taken everything from her was, even at this moment, whispering incessantly.
“Destruction, you say. How greedy can you be?”
With trembling hands, she lit a cigarette.
Hoo—
The reason she smoked such harsh cigarettes was simple. Even if only for an instant, her mind would become clear. Thanks to that, the people the Ill Omen had swallowed surfaced vividly, one by one.
“Do you know? Maekaena’s quill pen was an extraordinary masterpiece. It was made from a griffin’s feather. Do you remember Seolhwa Kingdom? By now, snow blossoms would have been in full bloom across its lands.”
This was not merely a tale of ancient kingdoms from the distant past.
Even less than a hundred years ago.
The Ill Omen had crawled out from the depths of the sea and revealed itself.
The witch exhaled smoke and asked.
“But that ‘thing’ you swallowed last. You swallowed even that, and you still weren’t satisfied? I can’t even begin to guess what you’re doing this for.”
The cigarette had, before she knew it, burned all the way to the end.
Flick—
The witch threw the cigarette toward the southern sea.
“But do you know? I don’t know about anything else, but the last thing you swallowed—you clearly touched something you shouldn’t have. No matter where you go, rumors about those insane people are everywhere.”
If it was them.
Even if they fell into hell, they would never forget humiliation. Leaving aside whether they were strong or weak, they were a more tenacious group than anyone the witch had ever known.
And so…
The witch smiled bitterly.
‘I will no longer ask for your help.’
O Claudi....
I doubted my own eyes.
……
Had I become farsighted?
No, that couldn’t be.
The quest window before my eyes was blinking.
A lament escaped me even before I checked it.
Yes, of course my fate would be like this.
‘I have so much work that no one would even notice if I died from overwork…!’
It was the moment I was about to lament as usual.
……
But.
The shining quest was not the one I had expected.
[Class Quest: Akshan-Style Diversionary Operation]
……
A class quest?
At this timing?
And what the hell is this diversionary operation?!
At the same time, my loose tongue babbled.
“I see.”
The quest objective was updated.
─Track down the Ill Omen of the southern sea that swallowed Akshan. (In Progress)
Only then did I realize.
Ill Omen, you messed with the wrong ones. Far, far too wrong.
Of all things, you messed with our seniors?
‘Do you even know what kind of people they are?’
Even after becoming demons and falling into hell.
They are people who hunt demons.
And you swallowed them without fear?!
Their spite was already showing itself in the quest objective.
“A new prey, is it.”
●Track the Ill Omen’s movements through the mark left behind by Akshan. (In Progress)
“That is what I desired. Akshan.”