Chapter 27

Chapter 27
## Chapter 27: The Golden Rule Shop

Serengeti’s silence was born of a specific caution.

She likely suspected that I was the Demon King himself, or perhaps a vessel for his essence. It was a rational suspicion, considering that dark shadows had once attempted to seize control of my physical form.

“So… within the game’s mechanics, the Demon King was essentially invincible?”

As I processed this, the fragmented pieces of the puzzle began to align. Only a “player” endowed with unique administrative rights possessed the capability to truly extinguish the Demon King’s core existence. However, the Knight King Wilhelm was no such player. He was merely a digital construct, a puppet I manipulated through my interface.

“If this entire world is a script written by the goddess, then my act of slaying the Demon King using a mere game character must have been an unforeseen glitch in her design.”

The software was structured to prevent such an outcome. Defeating the Demon King was a feat reserved strictly for a player. Consequently, I had to scrutinize the specific parameters required to attain player status.

“In the game, the transition to player status is triggered by death. Yet, Wilhelm’s demise wasn’t the first time I lost a character.”

In my experience, after Wilhelm fell and I initiated a new save, a notification regarding a “hidden piece” surfaced, followed by my actual summoning into this world. If simple character death was the only requirement, the logic failed. I had managed hundreds of different avatars over the years, many of whom had met their ends. Yet, the summoning only occurred when Wilhelm perished.

Was it because of his legendary equipment? No, there were far too many players in existence for that to be the sole factor. If it wasn’t the gear, what was the underlying logic for the selection?

“When the pinnacle of your achievements—the strongest character you’ve ever meticulously developed—dies, that is when you become a player.”

That felt like the most plausible deduction. Given my penchant for brutal, hardcore difficulty, I frequently cycled through characters, discarding those with suboptimal builds to start anew. This created a massive power gap, and the deaths of those lesser characters never signaled the system. Eventually, I used those secondary accounts to funnel resources to Wilhelm, spending years of dedicated effort to shatter his growth ceilings.

While his innate genius might not have matched Randolph’s, his physical vessel was a masterpiece of refinement. He possessed a body tempered by endless labor. He had ascended to the rank of a demigod. Only when that peak—Wilhelm—was snuffed out did the system recognize the condition for my summoning as a player.

…And thus, I had finally managed the impossible task of decapitating the Demon King.

“But then the blue screen manifested. It was likely a reaction to the Demon King’s inherent authority.”

It was a hard-coded limitation of the game. Wilhelm, lacking the necessary player permissions, was fundamentally barred from victory against the Demon King, regardless of his stats. That digital wall bled into reality. The blue screen paralyzed my ability to command the character. Simultaneously, the Demon King attempted to execute a soul transfer.

“Before the Demon King could seize the star, the goddess intervened, reclaiming Wilhelm’s life and his celestial essence.”

Game Over. In the end, I was forced into a total reset. But from that failure, a singular, unprecedented character was forged, gifted with overwhelming potential and thirteen hidden attributes.

“While some mysteries have been solved, new complications are surfacing.”

The tapestry wasn’t fully unraveled yet.

The first lingering question: Who was responsible for extracting Serengeti from the Demon Realm?

She had returned to the territory under a linguistic seal. I had assumed that she had simply managed to survive the Demon Realm and find her way home. Later, during my time in the Golden City of Arcana, Hudson confirmed her arrival at the estate. But the mechanics of her escape remained a void. Serengeti herself claimed to have no recollection of the event.

Either a third party had intervened to smuggle her out past the Demon King’s gaze, or she had navigated the abyss through sheer, primal tenacity. Considering the circumstances, the latter seemed highly improbable.

“My former self… Wilhelm’s corpse… did it fall into the Demon King’s hands?”

The goddess had only extracted the life force and the star; the physical shell remained in the Demon Realm. The Demon King could have easily utilized that vessel for his own rebirth. The legions of hell are teeming with entities capable of reanimating the dead.

“Regardless, the Demon Realm is in shambles. To fuel the spell intended to kill me, the Demon King sacrificed half of his own domain. In that sense, the Great Expedition wasn’t a total loss.”

It wasn’t an absolute catastrophe. The expedition had achieved a pyrrhic victory of sorts. That explains the silence from the Demon Realm following the supposed failure; they sustained over fifty percent damage to their infrastructure.

But.

“The traitor. And the other eight heroes who stood with me—they are undoubtedly involved.”

If not for the betrayal, would the victory have been absolute? I must identify those who conspired with the forces of darkness.

“I will destroy them all.”

I won’t show mercy just because they were once NPCs. Anyone who has stood in my way—past, present, or future—will face a reckoning. To achieve that, I need to accelerate my progression.

“Damn it! How many warp gates have failed?!”

“Get me a blade! Where is the armory?!”

“Clear the way, move!”

…The environment outside had descended into chaos. A monster wave was occurring; the city was under siege. It appeared that the various landmasses of Pangeniar were disconnected.

“Warp maintenance was neglected for far too long. They’ve breached into the dark space.”

Following the cataclysmic conflict between light and shadow, the passing of Goddess Lea left the continents adrift in a void. Beyond the borders of a city lay only the “dark space,” a realm of absolute shadow. The warp gates served as the solitary links between these isolated worlds. If these gates were not meticulously kept, the monster waves would begin to leak through.

The catch? Maintaining those gates required an immense fortune in gold.

“You ran out of funds and cut corners on the maintenance, didn’t you, Marquis Wyzer?”

I made a quiet clicking sound with my tongue.

“…I’ll settle this quickly and return.”

—

The dark space. Also known as the rift.

If one ventures into its blackest depths, the sovereigns of the void appear. If the ruptured warps were left open, those horrors might find their way out.

“That would be the end of everything.”

The moment a ruler of the abyss sets foot here, the city is doomed. No typical urban defender or transcendent being could hope to stall them. Certainly not the “Garden of Knights,” which had been bled dry of its elite warriors. If those entities emerged, even I would be forced to retreat. I would have to flee before the remaining gates collapsed, or risk being marooned in the rift for eternity—where the only way out is a permanent death. Dark space nullifies all “links,” rendering even the Teleport Book a useless piece of paper.

“Stand your ground! Protect our home!”

Marquis Wyzer, despite his bulk, had ascended the battlements, brandishing his weapon.

…Several knights were currently obstructing access to the gates that were still operational. A terrified mass of civilians was huddled in front of these working warps.

“Marquis Wyzer! During a monster wave, the nobility’s first priority is the evacuation of the people! Why are you blocking the path?!”

In the middle of the crowd, Priest Andrew’s voice rang out. Why seal off the functional exits? He argued that the vulnerable citizens should be prioritized for escape.

Marquis Wyzer gave a stiff nod.

“Priest Andrew! If you intend to assist us, then let it be done!”

“I will.”

“Clear the gates!”

The knights moved aside, and a portion of the populace began to flee through the warps. However, when Priest Andrew declared his intention to remain behind, many of the citizens refused to leave his side.

“You must go now. Save yourselves so we can see each other again!”

“How can we leave when the Priest stays to fight?!”

“If we wait any longer, the other gates will fail! Move!”

“No! We will stay and defend this city together!”

…It was a testament to the absolute, almost fanatical devotion the people felt for Priest Andrew. Furthermore, if the city fell, they would all become stateless refugees. Marquis Wyzer was well aware of this, which is why he was manipulating Priest Andrew’s presence to bolster the defense.

“Kraaak!”

“Hold the line!”

“My leg! My leg is gone!”

In the streets, knights were locked in a gruesome struggle with the encroaching monsters. Some of the warps were located deep within the city interior, meaning the fighting had already moved past the walls. For the moment, it was only minor threats like dark goblins, but more formidable entities would soon emerge from the destabilized gates.

There were two ways to halt the tide. One was to employ an “alchemist” to stabilize and fix the ruptured gates. The other?

“Obliterate the broken warps.”

It was the most direct and certain solution. However, the path to the gates was treacherous. The sheer volume of monsters pouring out was comparable to a full military division. The city’s remaining garrison didn’t have the strength to cut through. I couldn’t simply ignore the situation and leave, either.

…The side objective had triggered. Massive XP—I couldn’t afford to pass that up. And it wasn’t the only notification.

…I hadn’t expected it to trigger here of all places. Main Quest 4 was starting at the most inconvenient moment possible.

“This is a nightmare.”

Without preparation or a solid strategy, tackling a main quest was a massive risk. Completing it without a high rank would be a waste of potential. The logical move was to retreat and try again later, but skipping it wouldn’t count as progress. More importantly, the Golden Rule Shop was at stake.

“A shop that utilizes the Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule?”

That was a specific privilege I absolutely required. It was the primary reason I needed to secure a spot in the Hall of Honor. Under normal circumstances, I would have fled without a second thought.

“But there’s Priest Andrew. And Serengeti.”

I couldn’t just abandon them. If the city was erased, they would be erased with it. One was a man of peerless virtue, and the other was a knight who had risked everything for my sake.

“Even ten minutes is too long.”

The ticking clock was the real enemy. The Hybrids would appear every ten minutes, and every named Hybrid was a nightmare to face. A Black-Skinned Hybrid was a level 10 threat on its own. The ones following it were even worse.

“I have to end this quickly.”

A clear under ten minutes was the goal. But could Isabella and Hudson manage it alone? No. Even with the Hydragon’s help? Still unlikely. Destroying every faulty gate in under ten minutes seemed like a mathematical impossibility.

However, I still had one card to play.

*Ziiing!*

I activated the Teleport Book. Within moments, a shimmering portal stabilized, revealing the lush landscape of the ‘Basrak Forest.’

“Oh! Our companion! Have you come back to the woods? We should throw a celebration!”

The High Dryad! The guardian of the forest and leader of the dryads waved enthusiastically from across the threshold.

A thin smile touched my lips.

“I need a favor, my friend.”

What are friends for, if not for moments of crisis? This was where our bond would truly be tested.

“……”

“…… What is that……”

“What in the world is happening right now……?”