Chapter 2003

'That's right. Of course, it was just a dream.'

Youngwoo woke up from his bad dream. He was relieved. He was so high-level right now, no way a rabbit could fight him. He had fought against a God of the beginning and won...

"......?"

Youngwoo scowled as he touched his forehead, where the rabbit had bit him in the dream. He had been fighting Hanul just a moment ago. He could still see Hanul dying before his very eyes. Yes, he had been playing the game. He didn't remember logging out...

'...Then, what is this?'

Youngwoo looked around. No matter how many times he looked at it, he was inside his familiar capsule. It was the latest masterpiece of the Comet Group and a device customized exclusively for Grid.

This was reality. He had logged out without even realizing. He tried to get out of the capsule, only to get startled by something. He experienced pain as he tried to remove the EEG interlocking device, also known as the helmet, which wasn't normal.

He looked down and laughed.

"Am I still dreaming...?"

Several thick wires connecting the helmet to the capsule had split in half, revealing the circuits inside. Hundreds of thin thread-like gold wires had stretched out from within and were embedded like stingers into Youngwoo's body.

It was a bizarre sight. If Youngwoo was squeamish, he would've screamed at the very least. He really was squeamish, but he had witnessed so many gruesome scenes as he became a ranker, noble, legend, king, emperor, and finally, a god, that he didn't have a strong reaction to the sight.

Youngwoo gulped and swung his arms to pull the wires from his body. He heard something crack in his head.

Youngwoo lost consciousness again.

***

At the S.A. Group's headquarters.

"The nanomachines injected into The One failed to activate the evolution."

The One—this was what the thirty-three scientists called Grid. They were anxious, and they looked as if they lost ten years of their lives.

"Morpheus has succeeded. What a relief. It would have been really bad if anything happened to The One's character information."

The nanomachines built by the thirty-three scientists, which combined science and magic, had all types of systems built into them. Their role was to transfer a player's information from the game in real life. Sooner or later, the nanomachines would evolve all the players, but right now, it was still early for that to happen.

Only a small number of players could receive this blessing right now because they had passed certain tests planted for them within Satisfy. One of the lucky ones was Agnus. However, today Grid also became a blessed individual because he had killed a God of the beginning.

He had conquered the Eternal Kingdom, prevented the destruction of the Saharan Empire by stopping the clash between the insane dragon and the evil one, saved the East Continent by revealing the true myths, killed Baal to purify hell, and so on...

Killing a God of the beginning far surpassed Grid's previous accomplishments. The system judged that doing something like that was impossible to achieve. It wasn't just highly unlikely, but certainly impossible.

However, Grid had killed him. Because he did that, the system turned its attention to him. It decided that Grid was worth it, even though he hadn't passed the test, and attempted to inject him with nanomachines.

The system they were talking about here wasn't Morpheus. The system used for selecting pioneers had been created and managed by the thirty-three scientists, and it was a separate entity from Morpheus.

"Thank you for your help."

The thirty-three scientists smiled warmly and thanked Morpheus, who was watching from the monitor.

[-_-]

Morpheus responded bluntly. This child always acted like this. It only liked chairman Lim Cheolho. The scientists smiled bitterly.

Lim Cheolho scolded them. "Didn't I tell you many times that Grid should be excluded from the system you created? You ignored my advice and acted on your own, which made Grid aware that something is off. Will you take responsibility for this?"

"Don't misunderstand. How could we, who came to you after admiring your skills, ignore your advice? The system has been properly fixed. The One had been excluded from the search from the very beginning. So this... is a disaster. The One accomplished so much that the system was naturally drawn to him."

The skinny old man wasn't lying. Who would've thought that Grid would kill a God of the beginning? Grid dueled him and won. No one could have seen that coming. Chairman Lim Cheolho was finally convinced that this was but a mere accident and said nothing else.

The skinny old man comforted him. "There is nothing to worry about. The One won't remember what happened today."

There were more than a dozen types of commands imprinted on the nanomachines. They could also release hallucinogens that could stabilize a subject's mind and body.

The scientists were bragging. Chairman Lim Cheolho nodded, relieved.

***

"He's awake!"

"Aghh! Why are you screaming all of a sudden, nyang?"

"Master, are you okay?"

Randy, Noe, and the clone reacted as soon as Grid came to his senses. Randy grinned and hugged Grid, Noe snuck a well-grilled fish in Grid's hand, and the clone analyzed Grid's condition.

Grid stroked Randy's hair and handed Noe the fish back. "Why did you only give me the head of the fish?" he scolded.

"I've already eaten the rest, nyang..."

"The fish isn't even grilled properly."

"U-Uhm... I will taste it to see if I cooked it well..."

"Forget it, forget it. You can have it."

Grid shook his head and looked around. It seemed that he was still in the East Continent.

"I was out cold... For how long?"

"It has been an hour and forty-one minutes since you fainted."

"Um..."

For a player, fainting was just another negative status effect. They couldn't move, but their consciousness would be fine. What's more, they usually recovered in seconds or minutes.

However, Grid had fainted for an hour and forty-one minutes. This made no sense.

'Did I faint because I was supposed to die...? Then, shouldn't I have died?'

This whole thing made him feel terribly uncomfortable. But he soon felt better again. He opened his status window and saw that he had gained more than two hundred levels. He'd gained new titles, such as The Faith of a God of the Beginning and Another Light. It didn't look like he had lost anything, which meant that he hadn't died.

Well, if he had died, he would've woken up at the resurrection location.

"...Wait, what?"

Grid noticed something a bit too late. His armor was gone. He thought he hadn't died because his level was still the same, but had he actually died?

The clone said, "Even the dragon armor couldn't handle the Annihilation energy. It was blown to pieces during the fight against Hanul. We tried to recover as many fragments as we could, but we thought King Sobyeol would show up any second. Thus, we left without picking up all the fragments. I'm sorry."

"You did well. There is no need to apologize. By the way, why are you so polite? We are one and the same person."

"You are me, but I can't be you."

"I know what you mean, but... Try your best to talk like I do. That way, other people can't easily distinguish between us."

"Well, that's not very hard to do."

The way the clone was speaking drastically changed. His facial expressions and gestures also matched Grid's. Grid wasn't controlling the clone, so it was now in auto mode. The clone was very much still Grid in some way.

'He will become progressively more useful as time passes.'

The clone had been directly imbued with Grid's consciousness. It was completely different from the clones created in the Behen Archipelago, which meant that he wouldn't betray him. Grid was satisfied.

"By the way, King Sobyeol died a little while ago," the clone said.

"What?"

The Hwan Kingdom's condition was as precarious as a sandcastle. They had lost all the yangban that had been raised as soldiers, and Hanul also died. It was currently left unguarded. Anything could happen to it.

If King Sobyeol had been in peak condition, he would've easily calmed the waters and claimed the throne. But now, well...

"...Did the three masters betray King Sobyeol?"

Just a few months before, Grid had stabbed King Sobyeol in the back and defeated him. This had clearly weakened the king. Grid also knew that the three masters had regained their old powers for some reason. The Apostles had told him this during the battle against the imoogi. Grid was suspicious of the three masters.

The clone shook his head.

"No, Garam killed him."

The clone was a magician. He had placed magic crystals everywhere to monitor the enemy's movements. Using them, he had witnessed Garam killing King Sobyeol.

"Garam...? He came back to life? How is that possible? Wasn't his soul destroyed in hell?"

"It seems that Hanul nominated Garam as his successor and resurrected him. Hanul could easily do that with his powers as a God of the beginning."

"...Indeed, if I had been in Hanul's place, I wouldn't have appointed King Sobyeol as my successor."

King Sobyeol had betrayed his own brother, King Daebyeol, and sent him to hell. He hadn't been able to surpass his brother. Hanul had a better opinion about King Daebyeol than he had about King Sobyeol. Hanul had always been angry at King Sobyeol, and he had never trusted him. He wasn't fond of him.

"But why Garam...?"

"Because you got Mir," the clone explained.

'Out of all the talented yangbans that Hanul created, Garam and Mir were the best. Hanul had no other choice.'

"Indeed, Garam is very skilled."

However, he was an awful guy. If he got the chance, he would surely cause a lot of chaos in the Overgeared World and Asgard. The three masters weren't that much of a threat, but Garam had the potential to reenact Hanul's resentment.

"He left a bomb behind..."

Grid scowled when he heard that Garam, who had inherited Hanul's divinity, had even absorbed King Sobyeol's.

"But now it looks like he is destroying all the Full Moon Fortresses..." the clone muttered.

Grid cocked his head.

"Who? Garam?"

"Yes."

"...He is just a madman."

Why? There was no need to question Garam's choices and actions. He just acted according to his mood.

In any case, they currently had a shortage of fighters, so Garam was doing them a favor. Grid smiled when he read the constantly updating guild chat. The Full Moon Fortresses on the West Continent were being destroyed one after another. It seemed that all the cultivators were being slaughtered. Even without Grid, Lauel and the Overgeared members were still performing their tasks.

"Let's do some repairs first."

Grid pulled out his hammer and anvil.

He was ready to make a new piece of armor with the flames of the Red Phoenix.

Just then, he received a whisper from Lauel.

[I found Agnus. He used a skill in real life.]

"...Hah."

Grid's fears had become reality. His eyes widened, and his back was drenched in sweat.