Chapter 123

Chapter 123
Chapter 123: The Void’s End Validated

I have verified the termination of the abyss.

And the grim reality that no exit exists.

—Day 6

A desolate expanse. A realm devoid of sustenance and hydration.

The masses were hitting their breaking point.

At this rate, the hundreds of thousands of trapped souls might resort to cannibalism.

Furthermore, Baal had fully integrated the remains of the malefic avian.

A heavy sense of dread hung in the air.

—Day 8

A low, haunting drone echoed through the early hours.

…Baal stirred.

The creature had successfully intensified the corruption of the ominous bird.

Yet, a sense of wrongness persisted.

The resurrected Baal spent a vast amount of time pacing the lightless depths of the pit.

—Day 9

Since the previous day, Baal had been lashing out at itself or letting out guttural shrieks.

Gracia took the risk of approaching to observe its state.

Internal forces were locked in a violent struggle.

Was the entity suffering from a fragmented consciousness?

—Day 15

The frantic thrashing finally ceased.

Baal collapsed, gasping for air, and its physical form began to liquefy.

Had it finally perished?

No.

It had achieved a higher state of evolution.

The manifestation of the abyss had descended into an even more profound darkness.

…But what was occurring?

Baal’s abdomen tore open, and a pitch-black egg rolled out from the gore.

If that shell cracked, would it signal the final curtain?

One thing was certain: the appearance of the egg caused the “wall” confining the abyss to fracture.

A path of escape might finally be opening.

…

The Four Malefic Baal.

Known as a Calamity God, a walking apocalypse.

Now, it was being “consumed.”

—Crunch, tear! Rip, swallow!

Something with a terrifying silhouette was feeding on it.

This should have been impossible.

If Baal perceived a mortal threat, a “latent” strength should have surfaced to annihilate the challenger.

It had done so before, so how had this foe returned?

Baal was powerless to fight back.

From the moment “it” had been encountered within the subconscious, that presence had been ravenously devouring Baal from the inside out.

It bore a human shape, yet it was anything but human.

Even a being as ancient as Baal had never seen its like.

Upon contact, Baal’s will to resist evaporated.

It was divine in its scale, yet infinitely more horrific.

More predatory than itself, a fusion of vitality and damnation—more sinister than any known Calamity God.

Baal was being stripped of everything.

《The Glutton has consumed the ‘Calamity God Baal.’》

《The Glutton has consumed the ‘Core of Baal.’》

《Consumption finalized.》

《‘Attribute Metamorphosis’ initiated.》

The feeding was over.

Just as it had once dominated the carrion crows to become the monstrous bird of prey.

“It” had inherited every single one of Baal’s characteristics.

But the process wasn’t finished.

A lingering piece of Baal remained.

The final fragment, ‘Baal’s Spirit’—that gargantuan, baleful pyre of a soul.

—Screeeech!

Hell pulled it in, devouring the essence like a rare delicacy.

Total absorption. Not a single spark was wasted.

《‘Hell,’ having completed its feast, begins metamorphosis.》

《Metamorphosis finalized.》

《Gained ‘Necrotic Power of the Calamity God’!》

Then, a solitary wing tore through the back of Hell’s form.

Chapter 124: The Breaking of the Shell

Jeju Island, Korea—it was gone.

Fifteen days had passed, and the reality of its disappearance was now undisputed.

Global observers and domestic authorities were in total agreement.

The Master had made a public proclamation: “There is no salvation for Jeju Island.”

“…Master. A month has gone by since the disappearance. Yesterday, you used social media to officially advise giving up on Jeju. What is the reasoning?”

Today, the Master sat for an interview on a high-profile American broadcast.

Breaking a two-month silence, he had finally stepped into the spotlight.

The world tuned in, captivated by his reappearance.

The Master looked at the interviewer, his demeanor perfectly still.

“That location is now the ‘abyss.’”

“The ‘abyss’? Can you elaborate?”

“A realm of the fallen. A submerged territory. Once you cross that threshold, you never return.”

“…That sounds incredibly grim. But what is the technical definition of the ‘abyss’ in this context? I assume it’s more than just a deep hole.”

The Master gave a slight nod.

“Indeed. In the terminology of the otherworld, the abyss is synonymous with hell.”

“Hell…?”

“To be blunt, it is a territory crawling with high-ranking demons and lords of the underworld. Regardless of a warrior’s prowess, staying beyond twenty days in that environment results in death. There are no deviations from this rule.”

No deviations.

Zero probability of survival.

Jeju Island had been pulled into the void, and its inhabitants were lost.

His certainty came from personal, grueling experience.

‘I didn’t just test it once.’

The abyss of Pangeniar was a territory of the unknown.

It occasionally concealed vast wealth, but more often, it housed invincible terrors.

The Master knew that if he could master the abyss, he could command a force that could challenge empires.

So, he had delved into it.

Hundreds of times.

And he had been repelled every single time.

‘They were failures, but they provided intelligence.’

The attempts weren’t for nothing.

He possessed data that was exclusive to him.

For instance:

‘First, entering the abyss removes your name from the Hall of Fame.’

The moment a high-tier player is pulled into the void, the system lists them as ‘deceased.’

Their records are wiped from the active leaderboards.

This provided a way to track who was trapped within.

‘Notable experts who vanished simultaneously: The Ghost Randolph, The Blade Master Gracia, The Recluse MintChocoDelicious, and The Wyvern Slayer Barmush.’

Those four names were still missing from the records.

All of them were titans with ‘threat ratings’ of 9 or higher.

‘Survival beyond four days leads to psychological collapse.’

This was why he likened it to hell.

Any operation within the abyss had to be a lightning-fast strike.

A broken mind was one thing, but there was more.

‘After ten days, physical decomposition begins. Mutations take hold. Yet the host remains unaware.’

Symptoms resembling severe radiation sickness and internal hemorrhaging would manifest.

But the victims wouldn’t notice.

They would treat their rotting limbs as foreign objects.

Slowly, they would shed their humanity.

‘By the twentieth day, you either expire or transform into a thrall for the abyss’s ruler.’

No one was exempt.

No subject had ever lasted past twenty days.

He conceded that those four elites might endure a bit longer.

He hadn’t tested individuals of their caliber.

But even they would only buy a few extra days at most.

He was positive: after thirty days, they were gone.

Either dead or turned into mindless puppets.

If those legends couldn’t survive, the rest of humanity had no chance.

‘That is why I am the only one left.’

Randolph, Gracia, and the others who had been thorns in his side were surely dead.

The world had no other protectors to turn to.

“…Jeju Island is now an abyss. A prison with no doors. But do not lose heart. I will ensure your safety and prevent Baal from launching further assaults.”

He was the only savior left.

When the Glutton integrated Baal, a violent physical rejection racked the body.

It was expected.

Baal was a creature of a completely different magnitude compared to a mere carrion bird.

The idea of absorbing such a force was madness.

The bird monster understood human biology; it mimicked and hunted them.

It shared a base level of existence with humans.

Baal, however, was a primordial force that transcended such needs.

A mass of ‘malignancy’ forged by entropy to erase civilizations.

Crucially… the ‘Shard of Ruin’ embedded in Baal was a fundamental element that no secondary trait could break down.

The Glutton could eat ‘Baal,’ but it couldn’t process the ‘Shard of Ruin.’

That shard was the core ‘malice’ that had governed Baal for eons.

—This vessel is magnificent. It shall be mine.

The ‘Shard of Ruin’ began to move, attempting to hijack the body.

Baal had been overcome by the human’s abilities, but the shard was a different entity entirely.

It was a force capable of bending the laws of reality.

The ‘Shard of Ruin’ functioned like a systematic error.

— A human possessing 13 ‘universal keys.’ But a key is useless if the lock isn’t found.

Perhaps if the keys had been utilized—but they remained dormant.

A human wouldn’t even know where the ‘gates’ were located.

The shard began to slowly seize the motor functions and consciousness of the host.

As it progressed, it marveled at the potential of this physical form.

It was a body that surpassed even the vessel destruction had crafted for Baal.

However, the ‘Shard of Ruin’ hit an unexpected wall.

《Secret parameter triggered.》

《Prerequisites fulfilled; ‘Ascended Baal Regalia’ merges with the host.》

《Commencing ‘Absolute Subjugation of Baal.’》

《The ‘Shard of Ruin’ within Baal is fighting back!》

《Subjugation in progress.》

《Hostility is being suppressed.》

…Just as it reached for total dominance.

The Ascended Baal Regalia dissolved into the bloodstream.

That was the hidden mechanic.

The ultimate safeguard for the ‘absolute subjugation’ of Baal.

The scholars of the ancient kingdom knew of the ‘malice’ within the beast.

They had engineered this failsafe for the future.

The entire purpose of this subjugation was to chain the ‘Shard of Ruin.’

—Even with that, the struggle is equal. As long as I hold half the territory, you will never wake.

The host would remain in a permanent coma, slowly being erased.

It was just a waiting game.

The shard felt confident, but it had miscalculated.

As the Regalia battled the shard for control…

《Gained massive experience; Rank Up!》

…An astronomical surge of experience points flooded in, triggering a level increase.

Flash!

—…

The ‘Shard of Ruin’ was stunned.

A level increase?

A rank up instantly mends all ‘status irregularities.’

By burning through the experience to ascend, the body underwent an instant restoration.

In theory, it shouldn’t have mattered.

The ‘irregularity’ caused by the shard wasn’t something a standard level-up could purge.

However, this body required a monstrous amount of experience to advance even one level.

And yet, it had happened.

A volcanic eruption of experience had occurred.

Whooooosh!

This wasn’t just a small step forward—it was a divine cleansing, a leap into a higher state of being.

—How can the ‘required experience’ be this massive…?!

The ‘Shard of Ruin’ couldn’t grasp the scale.

—Only the eighth seal has been broken, yet the ‘required experience’ is this high? Only one of the final three latches is open.

Even accounting for the 13 universal keys boosting the requirements, the volume was illogical.

Reaching Level 7 with this much input? It was a cosmic anomaly.

There was something else.

Another hidden factor was inflating the experience threshold.

—Is it unsealing something deeper? It feels like layers being stripped away.

What would happen at the tenth latch?

But if something were truly sealed inside, the shard would have sensed it.

Then how to explain the sheer volume of experience needed?

It was beyond comprehension.

The level-up purged every ‘irregularity’ in a heartbeat.

And then.

“How pathetic.”

…I opened my eyes.

No more. She couldn’t take another step.

She didn’t want to.

Gracia was at the end of her rope after the endless trek through the void.

And she wasn’t alone—all 600,000 survivors were fading.

“…Lady Gracia. The cracking of the boundary has ceased.”

“I am aware.”

The boundary wall. Its initial fracturing had given them a sliver of hope.

But today, that hope died.

The people were skeletal from the lack of food.

The combatants were barely holding on, but the civilians were the real concern.

They had bet everything on that crack, and now that it had stopped, the atmosphere was volatile.

“Is this the end for all of us?”

Even the players were reaching their breaking point.

Gracia tried to keep the panic contained, but the clock was ticking.

At least the ‘void sickness’ hadn’t claimed their minds yet.

“…We will find a way.”

She spoke the words, but they felt hollow.

There was no life in this abyss.

They had survived by rationing the players’ private supplies.

But those stockpiles were long gone.

No one prepares a backpack for 600,000 people.

‘Nothing can grow in this soil.’

They had tried planting seeds and using growth magic, but the plants died before they could even break the surface.

“The food is gone. Even the emergency scraps. We’re going to start eating each other.”

“I will not permit that.”

“…Is it really so wrong to use the bodies of those who have already passed?”

A player stepped forward.

The suggestion was clear: use the dead as a resource.

And it wasn’t just one person thinking it.

“He’s right. How long do we have to protect these people?”

“We are the ones with power. If we reduce the number of mouths to feed, we survive.”

“We’re going to starve!”

“What good is morality if we’re all skeletons?”

The madness was setting in.

Gracia shook her head firmly.

“As long as I am standing, I will not allow it.”

“Are you only saying that because you have a secret stash of ‘rations’?”

“…That is an insult.”

“We should search you! We aren’t as ‘noble’ as you claim to be. We’re done following your lead.”

Clang!