“This is it.”

After seeing him once more at 3 P.M., Jae-seok handed me an apricot bead. It was soft to touch, and it felt like I was pressing down on fat, chubby cheeks. It felt alive.

“What is this, a lump of flesh?”

“It’s called a Life Bead.”

The smile never disappeared from Jae-seok’s face as he explained. I wasn’t sure why he was so happy, but he couldn’t stop smiling and his face was glowing with happiness. That wasn’t all.

Ilsung

Level 16

Ascetic Bae Jae-seok

‘Why did his level go up again? What the hell happened in the last few hours?’

Naturally, I had my guesses, but I didn’t want to ask. But it seemed as if he was eager to tell me, despite my lack of attention.

“Huhuhu. Dae-ha. I’m an adult now.”

“You’re not just an adult. You’re an old man. An old, 80-years old man. We should be lighting 80 candles for your birthday, so calling yourself an adult might be an understatement.”

“A man doesn’t become an adult just because he becomes older. Huhuhu. Hahahahaha!”

“You crazy bastard… Get it together and explain this Life Bead, or whatever you called it.”

Jae-seok only came to his senses after I frowned and asked for an explanation. He spoke.

“It was probably two. No, was it three years? Anyways, I almost died of hunger and started to work on it. I managed to complete it after seven years. There’s an organ in my body that can produce a Life Bead, and the finished product can be released through my navel.”

“Released… So you mean.”

“That’s right. It’s used for Meal of Madness.”

Along with a buzzing sound, the Life Bead split into halves, revealing a clean cross-section. It wasn’t just a lump of flesh. Although it was the size of a fingernail and the outer appearance was similar to a regular pill available from any pharmacies, it contained flesh, blood, and even bone fragments.

“I don’t chew it. To be exact, I made it smaller so I wouldn’t have to chew. At first, I only included flesh, but I had to include blood and bones once my body started getting sick. Oh, for your information, you can obtain all the nutrients required to survive with just this.”

A skill that multiples the effects of cannibalizing one’s own body by tenfold – Meal of Madness. It was a skill that I had been paying attention to since I first discovered it in the vending machine. Naturally, I didn’t pay attention to it because I wanted it. Rather, I had eyed it because it was so terrible.

‘I thought that the very existence of such a skill was problematic. I can’t believe Jae-seok learned it.’

Meal of Madness was a skill that explicitly demonstrated the terrible design of the stage. It existed because it was required, which meant that the stage’s environments were absolutely depriving. It didn’t matter if you only cleared the stage once, but it was impossible to clear the stage multiple times without possessing a meal-related skill.

Additional clears could allow a person to save others who failed while receiving extra points, but at the same time, it was designed to prevent the stage from being cleared with overwhelming power.

“To be honest, no skill can match the Meal of Madness in terms of efficiency. Even if you raise your skills to the highest level, the only skill that can supply you infinitely is the Meal of Madness.”

“Ha. Unbelievable. Meal of Madness.”

Jae-seok smiled bitterly at my sigh.

“There was no other way. My honor is around the Bronze rank, but it wasn’t enough to provide me food to sustain my Life Energy.”

I could understand. I also had starved to death while clearing the stage before. However, I was able to approach the stage from a different direction because I had the Unique World. I was able to play in a manner beyond the design of the stage.

“Anyway, what do you mean by raising a skill to its highest level?”

“You don’t know? A guy who makes the guides doesn't know how to level the skills…? Come to think of it, did you really not raise any level? Those five levels were gained before the End Project initiated?”

I never bought an experience potion from the vending machine. Why would I need to? Every time the door opened, all of my stats were increased by 100 points, so there was no reason to waste my points on the experience potions.

“Ah! I did something so stupid. But I did search on the web quite a bit. I never saw or heard of there being any skill points.”

“That’s because there aren’t any skill points. You can raise your skill levels with bonus points. In fact, my Meal of Madness is level ten. It’s maxed out. The effects are increased by 20 times because I went down the stabilization route. I heard the effects can be increased up to 40 times if you take the madness route, but you need to be insane to do something like that. Although I might have been forced to head down that route if I didn’t have the Throne of Honor.”

I ignored his continuing words and ordered Genie to search for all information regarding guides on the map. Jae-seok was shouting something along the lines of “Honor is great!” anyways.

After using the proper keywords, a huge amount of information about skill levels popped up.

‘Dammit. I was just too arrogant.’

I always believed my guides to be the best. If I had asked Genie to collect information from the web, I would have been able to learn about this much quicker.

“I see. I thought you were always using the level 1 skills to show everyone that it was possible to clear with level 1 skills.”

“Well, now that I know, it’s fine. Anyhow, do you intend to continue using the Meal of Madness?”

Jae-seok shook his head at my question.

“No, I can’t do this anymore. I was only able to hang on because I had gone half insane. It wasn’t a human thing to do. I’m going to reset my skills with the crazy number of points I gained, and I’m also planning to remove the Life Bead production organ I made by meditating for a long time.”

“Then what are you going to do about the food issue?”

“That’s why I was wondering. Give me whatever armor you have. I’m sure you’ve come up with plenty of new models, right? Since you’re a production type anyways.”

I could see where he was going with this.

“You bastard! You dare sell me out to earn honor!?”

“Oh, don’t be so selfish and lend a hand. Now that I had delicious food after clearing the stage, I don’t think I can go back to eating my own body. If you support me with some powerful armors or weapons, I’ll tell the story of reaching level 17 on the 6 o’clock news. Even if I can’t achieve Diamond, I need to get Platinum at the least.”

Jae-seok begged while smiling, and I was forced to smile. It appeared that he had become more cunning after enduring 60 years with an indomitable spirit.

“For free?”

“I have lots of money. Do you want a building?”

“You have that much money? Come to the roof![1]

“Hahaha!”

Jae-seok forcefully laughed even though my joke wasn’t funny at all. But his eyes widened as I got on the elevator.

“What are you doing?”

“I told you to follow me to the rooftop.”

“…..?”

I entered the elevator with Jae-seok, who was clearly confused at the sudden turn of events. When we arrived at the rooftop, I could see Gyeongbokgung Palace, and Gwanghwamun Square stretched out below. We were on top of the Moon Tower, a building owned by the Ilsung Group.

Pewwwww--!

“What is this sound?”

He became startled at the sudden noise.

“Something’s coming!”

Woong- Woong--!

Jae-seok became alert at the sudden change, and the air within a 300-meter radius of him began to vibrate heavily. It provided a similar sensation to a huge, thumping woofer speaker. I slapped him on the back.

“It’s mine, you idiot.”

“Oh, sorry. I was surprised.”

The space in front of him started to distort as Jae-seok scratched his head.

Pat!

A drone appeared out of nowhere while holding a 2.5meter armor. After dropping the armor, the drone entered into cloaking mode once more, then disappeared into thin air.

“Wow… This is.”

Jae-seok was stunned speechless at the sight of the black armor in front of him. The humongous armor had a sharp, sleek design. It came with a buckler attached on its left arm and a short sword on its right.

“It’s called Knight Armor. In the past, I imbued the concentric circle attributes all over the armor, but it was rather inefficient, so I focused the concentric effect on the buckler located on its left hand and attached the ultra-vibration attribute on the short sword on its right hand.”

“Ultra-vibration? You managed to realize the characteristics of ultra-vibration?”

“It’s not that simple. It only activates if you inject the vibration personally or the impact received by the buckler exceeds a certain level. Oh, and both fists have shock release properties, so if you clench your fists, the power will be amplified. If you spread your palms, you can shoot out vibrations in a wide-angle.”

I knocked on the Knight Armor’s back after explaining its abilities. The minimal amount of Steel Muscle attribute was activated, and the rear of the Knight Armor opened wide, revealing its interior.

“You need to remember this vibration. If you stimulate the back with it, it’ll open up. Oh, and with the exception of fists and the other equipment, the entire armor is attached with reinforcement and restoration attributes. Even if it’s shattered into pieces, it should fix itself up, so don’t be afraid to roll around in it.”

“What if the shield and the sword are destroyed? Those two don’t come with the ability to self-restore, right?”

“Just hang it on the main body. The restoration attribute of the armor will restore the two as well.”

Knight Armor was the armor form of Knight, the gigas I was planning to use. Without the connection to Genie, the battle AI was inactivated, so the usage of Steel Muscles was minimized. Instead, the focus was set on its capabilities as an armor, which allowed it to be much lighter than the gigas form.

“Wow… This is so cool…”

Jae-seok carefully stroked the armor in awe, then soon boarded the Knight Armor.

Kiiek! Clang!

The armor’s exposed back closed and he started moving around. Ordinary people could not even walk properly in the armor, but now that he reached level 16 as a Life Energy Practitioner, it would be as light as a pair of boxers for Jae-seok. His movements were natural.

“…Dae-ha..”

He moved around for a while before calling out. He was staring at me, but I couldn’t see his hair, let alone his face. Even so, I felt like I could see his expression.

“What?”

“Are you interested in real estate by chance? You can keep this building! No, tell you what. You can have all of my inheritance!”

“I don’t need anything of the sort~”

I continued after a chuckle.

“But this is the only armor I have. You’re the only one I have to take care of anyways.”

“What? That weird subspace was so incredible, but this is the only one?”

“Yes. Instead.”

I looked directly at him before continuing.

“Are you interested in robots?”

“…..?”

Jae-seok tilted his head in confusion.

Time passed, and evening fast approached.

- Stage will be opened!

- Level 10. Difficulty is set at hard.

…..

- All Death Processions have been cancelled!

- Congratulations! The stage has been completely cleared! Compensation will be given based on contribution.

- Your ranking is 1.

Activated Classes: Elemental Summoner, Blacksmith, Life Energy Practitioner

Current Level: 10, 10, 10

Bonus points: 300.

I raised my levels. The distribution of experience was rather inefficient because I had so many classes, but it didn’t really matter with the insane number of points I had. I bought unimaginable amounts of iron ore. I bought wood and stone as well. I also bought mana stones as well.

I even bought some pills and tried everything I wanted. I also bought some of the best available magic weapons, but their performance was too limited. Even the highest-tier goods were just barely suitable for a Compléter.

- Stage will be opened!

- Level 11. Difficulty is set at easy.

As expected, I achieved a complete clear.

- Stage will be opened!

- Level 10. Difficulty is set at intermediate.

Another complete clear. I didn’t even have anything to buy, so the points kept on piling up.

- You have earned 219 trillion 726 billion 500 million points as compensation.

- Points are a means of transaction and you can purchase Awakening Potion, Experience Potion, Equipment, Tools, Materials, Etc.

“A total of 219 trillion points?! It’s not even displaying the numbers in the millions anymore.”

I shouted in awe. The points were starting to look incredulous. At first glance, the number of digits was going up at an unpredictable pace.

It was partly due to a skill I learned.

- Suppressor (Level 10): (Extreme) 1 clear is counted as 20 clears. A 2,000-point reduction debuff will be applied to the highest stat.

The Suppressor skill had three different routes. A controlled skill tree would continue the 100-point reduction while counting a single clear as five. The exceed skill tree reduced the stat by 1,000 points while multiplying the clear count by 10. Finally, the extreme skill tree multiplied the clear count by 20 while reducing the stat by 2,000 points.

Usually, one wouldn’t be able to go down the extreme route unless they had plenty of stats to spare, but all of my stats sat at 300 points, totaling at 3,000 points. Moreover, the clears were completed by Predator anyways, so the stat reduction wasn’t a penalty for me at all.

- Stage will be opened!

- Level 11. Difficulty is set at hard.

…..

- All Death Processions have been cancelled!

- Congratulations! The stage has been completely cleared! Compensation will be given based on contribution.

- Your ranking is 1.

Perfect clear. Perfect clear. Perfect clear.

The stages of level 11 were cleared without resulting in anyone’s death. Whether others utilized the guides or not, I could handle the remaining clears by myself. Whether there were 100 million, 200 million, or 300 million clears remaining… I could stop my time and let the Predator clear it over and over.

But as I passed level 12 easy, intermediate, and finally reached the hard difficulty, I was awakened from my time hibernation by an external stimulus.

A line of text was floating in front of me as I opened my eyes.

- System will be undergoing an update.

- Abnormal progress has been detected due to excessive clears by a certain user.

- The number of clears per person will be limited to 10,000.

“…what?”

The words escaped my understanding for a moment, so I stared blankly as my brain slowly processed the information.

Excessive clears by a certain user? Abnormal progress? But a new text appeared in front of my eyes, ignoring my confusion.

- The tests have been completed!

- Stage cleared. Compensation will be given according to the contribution.

- Your ranking is 1.

- Your clear count is 10,000 times.

- Please indicate the 10,000 people who will have their Death Procession canceled.

- The targets will be listed as follows: Blood relatives, acquaintances, area of residence, region of origin.

- Please select the people to change their status.

Many people’s faces came to mind. I didn’t need to make any adjustments, since I didn’t think I even knew more than 10,000 people.

- The Death Procession will be applied without any changes.

- Number of remaining Death Procession.

- 826,639,991

- Initiated.

“What the hell.”

I finally came to realize what the End Project had done.

That was right.

The system singled me out and applied a balance patch…

1. In Korean high school or whatnot, bullies usually tell their victims to come to the roof to get beaten up. In this case, Dae-ha is making a joke, basically saying that he’s going to rob Jae-seok on the roof.