When I arrived… The giant body of the specter dragon was burning in a brilliant white.

Hwaaa--!

The heat increased in intensity as I neared, but transformed into a mild warmth and surrounded my body when I came into contact. Raffley’s scales and bones were originally black, but now they were dyed white.

“This is quite unusual. The specter attribute was added in from its original attribute… and now a divine attribute.”

I felt a certain coldness from the burning remains of Raffley. Ares chimed in.

It turns out that it was a Mercury Dragon. But why is it so big? Mercury Dragons are considered small amongst the dragons.

Hang on, hang on. Captain-nim! This is an Ancient Dragon! How could this be? Mercury Dragons are considered rare, but for an Ancient Mercury Dragon to appear in a place like this!?

I passed Raffley’s back while listening to the words of Genie and Ares. The creature was literally as big as an apartment building. After passing the wings, I approached the chest area of the dragon.

“Let’s see.”

I attempted to pry apart the ribs that blocked my way. It was impossible to move past the bones. As it turned out, they were more densely packed than they appeared.

Woong!

Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights. Blue.

Raffley’s giant body trembled with a brilliant flash of blue. I snorted in disbelief.

“Wow.”

The shock was powerful enough to turn multiple buildings into mere rubble, but there was not even a single scratch on Raffley’s bones.

“If it was still alive, I would have stood no chance at all.”

Seeing that even its remains were so durable, the dragon must have possessed an unimaginably solid body when it was still alive, and mana flowed through its body. It would’ve been unscathed even if it was struck with a nuclear weapon while sleeping.

Boom!

I tried one more time, but it was useless as expected. When I observed closely, I noticed that the entire rib cage trembled slightly when struck. It was dispersing the impact and spreading it throughout the body, similar to the abilities of my concentric circles. No matter how powerful the blow was, no shock would be delivered to the internal organs.

“Why is it even called a Mercury Dragon? How is this mercury at all? It should be called Indestructible Super Silver Dragon instead.”

The bones were as hard as it could get, far from the liquid properties of mercury. I clicked my tongue and gave up trying to enter through the ribs. Instead, I climbed up to the neck bone and entered the body of the dragon through a revealed gap. It was only possible because the dragon only possessed bones and scales. Otherwise, it would have taken a great deal of time to dismantle the flesh of the dragon.

Finally, I arrived at my destination.

“Cool.”

I marveled at the sight of the mass of glowing mana in the middle of Raffley’s chest. The object was rather small considering the dragon’s size, perhaps about the size of a child’s head at best. I reached for the object and grabbed it without hesitation. Then, I moved it to the Unique World.

Woong…

Raffley’s Dragon Heart blurred for a moment. However,

Boom!

“Keuk!!”

I let go of the Dragon Heart as a sharp pain seemed to strike my very soul.

Are you okay?

Is it not working? I thought it was about to transfer!

“Genie, even Ares was worried about me.”

Ah! I, I’m sorry.

I chuckled at Genie’s response.

“Don’t worry about it. I think I got a feel for it.”

Until now, taking things from the stage was prohibited. For example, if I was trying to take the trees, stones, buildings, or monsters from the stage into the Unique World, it simply wouldn’t work. It wasn’t difficult or exhaustive either, but it simply didn’t work.

But it was different with the Dragon Heart.

“I can feel something interfering.”

Naturally, there could only be one explanation for the interference.

‘The End Project.’

I had felt its presence multiple times thus far, including the targeted updates, but it was never as clear as it was now. It was similar to how one could feel their opponent’s presence on a chess board and read their thoughts, even if they weren’t able to actually see the opponent’s appearance.

‘I can’t believe it’s interfering so directly.’

I could feel confusion and bewilderment from its actions.

Woong--!

I grabbed Raffley’s Dragon Heart and climbed onto the dragon’s backbone. Raffley’s spine was the size of a large house, and there was enough room to proceed with work.

I took off my mask.

Wooooo—

An unknown resonation of the soul could be heard. It was a strange phenomenon, but it wasn’t important at the moment.

“Predator. You did well so far.”

I had crafted boatloads of avatar series so far but succeeded in only creating two Beast-rank Gigas. It was inevitable, since creating lightning hearts suitable for Beast-rank Gigas demanded the permanent consumption of aura and spiritual power.

And now, I decided to consume my first Beast-rank gigas. It had been created specifically to deal with metal aliens, and I no longer utilized it after reaching level 13 on the stage. It only served as my mask now.

“Ares!”

Aye!

I tossed my mask into the air. As the predator was thrown into the air, it melted into a handful of metal, which then took the form of a small robot. It was the appearance of Ares, the Unique Spirit of Metal and Lightning.

“Go melt Raffley’s body and bring it to me.”

Ares became bewildered at my words.

What are you saying? Melt the body of an Ancient Dragon?

“It’s metal.”

Well, I guess a Mercury Dragon’s body is technically considered metal, but…

Could it work? Ares appeared skeptical as he landed on Raffley’s wing bone.

But it worked.

A portion of Raffley’s wings began to melt and fly towards me. I took control of the mercury arriving at my side and wrapped it around the Dragon Heart.

Gwooo---

My hair had grown quite long, and it started shooting up into the sky as a storm of immense mana wound around my body. I observed the silver-coated Dragon Heart.

End Project

****************

Raffley’s Dragon Heart

I wanted to see the affiliation of the Dragon Heart. I judged that it was possible to change the heart’s affiliation if I could resolve the End Project’s restriction with the power I had over metal. But when I confirmed its title, I saw something unexpected.

‘What is this?’

I could see strange dots instead of a level. At first glance, it looked like a bunch of star shapes. But it also looked similar to an agglomeration of countless letters.

“This is…”

My eyes hurt like hell, but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The line of stars disappeared and reappeared from the title space, then it jumped to the front of the title and circled around it like a satellite.

I finally realized its identity.

‘The power of transcendence?’

Still, I wasn’t able to come to a full understanding. I had seen the titles of countless people so far, but I had never observed anything like this. The dukes of Leonhardt and Ares were transcendent, not to mention the Primordial God of Earth, Hawa, or Juan, who were Untouchables. I had never seen anything similar in their titles, so why was it that I could suddenly see the spirit of transcendence?

“Ah.”

The answer immediately accompanied the question.

“Because it’s dead.”

The Ancient Dragon Raffley had lost control of its transcendence after dying. It also explained why the dragon was only level 19, when it should have been much stronger at its peak.

Gwoooo--!

The swirling storm of mana grew fiercer and stronger. It was becoming harder to maintain my grasp on the Dragon Heart, but I fixed my body with the Dragon heart and Raffley’s spine using the attribute of metal. Then, I grabbed the pistol from my waist.

“You are… now a carving knife.”

I could not use a Justice Weapon because of its mechanism. Naturally, I couldn’t utilize True Command either. It was only a matter of course,

Kieeek!

since my spiritual nature was… on a different level altogether. It couldn’t be compared to something meager like True Command. I possessed enough status to issue absolute commands.

Woong!

I realized as the Justice Weapon transformed into a carving knife. Until now, the Justice Weapon had been free to morph into whatever form I desired, but now it was fixed as a carving knife.

What are you trying to do? Are you trying to carve a magic circle on the Dragon Heart? You know you’re not good at that.

“I can’t do anything like that. I’m just.”

I picked up the carving knife and slowly began to shave off the silver light around the Dragon Heart.

“Trying out editing.”

I began to mold the light, slowly and patiently.

The power of transcendence.

***

Rumble!

Jae-seok turned his head at the sudden thunder, a curious expression on his face. He had been blowing away the head of an evil spirit.

“What’s this? Did the weather ever change on level 13?”

He could see dark clouds gathering as he looked up. Jae-seok tilted his head in confusion while pulling out the golden mirror.

“Kyahahaha! You’re alive! A living one is here…”

Flash!

“Kiyaaaahk!”

The chimera was extinguished with a single flash of the mirror. He could have defeated the enemy without the usage of the golden mirror, but the difficulty of the stage had dropped immeasurably after its utilization. Jae-seok now understood the principle behind it as well.

“When you aim at the box, you receive a damage amplification on the mirror. When the evil spirit dies, the damage amplification disappears, but since you use the dagger to finish off the enemy, the damage amplification remains, right?”

It was a simple, exploitable concept, but it was still ridiculous that Dae-ha was able to discover it, especially since the damage wasn’t translated into visible numbers or anything.

“He’s truly a natural, bug player.”

It was when he laughed in disbelief.

Rumbbbleeee!!!

“Oh, what is it?”

Jae-seok’s gaze returned to the sky. The stage was originally dark, but it was getting dimmer by the minute.

“What’s going on?”

He could sense something unusual happening, so Jae-seok decided to observe the situation for now. He moved to the Hidden Stage to access the Cradle of Justice. Although his Justice Weapon was only Iron rank, he didn’t use it as an actual weapon. It was fine as long as he had access to the cradle.

- There’s a huge storm with lightning strikes. What’s going on here? Is it another update?

- Everyone, don’t leave the hidden point! I saw one of the chimera being struck to death by lightning!

- Hey, but I don’t think the lightning is striking the players. Even though I was holding a metal sword, the lightning only struck the evil spirit in front of me.

- What the hell is going on? What is happening right now?

As expected, the bulletin board was going crazy. Even as time passed, the posts on the bulletin board betrayed the players’ increasing confusion. The situation wasn’t calming down at all.

- No, wait a minute. I don’t know if you guys can tell, but I can hear thunder in the cradle as well. I’m in a space that’s less than 10 square feet, but I can hear the thunder rumbling…

- What? I don’t hear anything like that.

- By chance… Are you watching Iron Mask’s guide?

- What? No, the guide is over. Why are you… Heuk! Dark clouds appeared in my room as soon as I accessed the guide! Why are there storm clouds appearing in a small room…?

- I confirmed that the clouds disappear after coming out of the stream.

- What is Iron Mask doing right now?

- From what I heard, I think he’s trying to make something out of a Dragon Heart right now…

- Everyone, are you watching the stream right now? Iron Mask-nim just took off his mask!

- Wow. I thought he would be young, but…

- Oh my goodness. To think Iron Mask was that young.

Jae-seok frowned at the new posts.

“Dae-ha… what are you doing?

Jae-seok clicked “watch play’ to join Iron Mask’s post, which was still number 1 on the leaderboards. His background immediately changed.

Rumble! Rumble!

Kwwuooooo!!!

A storm was raging all around, and lightning descended without stop. A formidable darkness threatened to devour everything in the world, but was soon scattered by a burst of light.

He was standing in the middle of all the confusion.

“…What is this?”

Dae-ha was carving on a silver sphere with a knife.

Rumble!!

A bolt of lightning struck Dae-ha’s body, but for some reason, he remained unscathed.

Rumble! Rumble!!

Another thunderbolt fell, appearing as if it was sucked into Dae-ha’s body. In that state, Dae-ha moved the hand holding the carving knife-

King!

A new pattern was engraved on the round sphere with scattering sparks.

Huwwwuuuu—

One of Raffley’s ribs bent like a wave, then turned into liquid before swirling around Dae-ha’s body. Raising his right hand, Dae-ha pulled the string of liquid. It was obvious that the mass weighed at least several tons, but it was drawn into the sphere held in Dae-ha’s hands. All laws of physics were being completely ignored.

King!

The several tons of mass were converted into a single pattern.

Gwuooo--!

“Oh, my god.”

Jae-seok was stronger than before. He trained in the method of Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights, interpreting the world from the perspective of vibration. With the opportunity to battle against the metal aliens for dozens of years, he could now be considered one of the strongest of humankind. He was strong, strong enough that even the Guards couldn’t underestimate him. He could cause earthquakes and storms with a single blow.

Even though he was powerful, he could feel ‘it’ when he looked at Dae-ha.

Different.

Dae-ha was an existence on another level.

Kwaaaaang!!

Kuwwoooh--!

The world itself was crying out as if it were trying to harm Dae-ha. Black clouds of malice hovered around him while growling like wild animals, scattering vicious, powerful killing intent. Anxiety and nervousness could be felt together in the surroundings.

However, nothing could approach Dae-ha due to the surrounding light.

“What the hell? What is that… a halo?

From the front, he could see a light emanating from Dae-ha’s back. As soon as anything approached the line of hazy light, it lost its power. From the back, it appeared as if the light was being emitted from Dae-ha’s front. The light was still covering Dae-ha’s entire figure.

“No way.”

Dae-ha’s head wasn’t emitting any light at all, but from all angles, it appeared as if light was being scattered from behind him. It was a phenomenon that wasn’t interpretable from a physical sense.

Kuwwwooo!!

Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!!

Kyaaah! Kiek Kiekiekeiek!

Chimera and evil spirits flocked Dae-ha while screaming. Even though all of them should have been eradicated by Dae-ha already, countless creatures appeared and rushed towards him. Even the basic principles of the stage were now being ignored!

But nevertheless, they could not do anything to Dae-ha. They lost their strength as soon as they entered the radius of the light and their very bodies disintegrated. What could they do? Rather, they were exterminated by the storm and the falling lightning bolts.

“Something.

Jae-seok realized.

“Something is happening.”

He was watching a historic moment.

Not only him, but the world

The whole planet was watching.