The intermediate difficulty of stage 18 was cleared perfectly. I passed through the stage while handing out 10 units of Human-rank gigas and 1,000 units of Beast-rank gigas. The players either succeeded in clearing the stage 10,000 times or died, which ended the stage for them. Then, using the God of War’s Army, I recalled the gigas and handed them out to the other players. The repetitive process was much quicker and more efficient than I originally expected, since the only time I spent was handing out gigas across the stage, while the players themselves were responsible for using the gigas to clear the stage.

However, there was a problem.

“Hmm?”

Or rather, could this really be called a problem?

“What the heck?”

The hard difficulty of level 18 was perfectly cleared as well.

“…Why isn’t it being patched?”

Then I worried for the highest difficulty of the stage, but my worries turned out to be groundless. In the first place, the highest difficulty of the stage produced an endless stream of monsters because…

- The quotas of players out of bounds will be added to the group battle until the end of the stage.

It was because of such a characteristic. The number of monsters appearing at the highest difficulty was small, since players were now participating in the easy, intermediate, and hard difficulties of the stage. Due to the nature of a large-scale battle, it was impossible to avoid casualties completely, but players had experienced the stage for dozens of years now. Humanity managed to clear the highest difficulty with only tens of thousands of casualties.

However, even after proceeding through the stage so easily, it was not patched. We entered the easy difficulty of level 19, and it did not take much time to arrive there either – only around 11 years.

At this point, I could not help but notice a certain fact.

“It’s not that you won’t stop it, but you can’t stop it, huh.”

The stage had intervened so actively to prevent me from possessing Raffley’s body in the past. I had mistakenly thought that the movement between the different players’ stage was not patched because the system had assumed my ignorance of the fact. However, it seemed that I was wrong.

Ares replied after hearing my words.

I don’t think the End Project can apply patches whenever and however it wants. It might need to ‘consume’ something in order to apply patches.

In other words, the End Project had not forgotten to block travel through the stage wall, but had prioritized other immediate patches instead.

“Ah! If I knew about this, I would have used it way earlier.”

I had a moment of regret, but I quickly came to realize. The End Project had ‘consumed’ a large power to forcefully drag the people from the Unique World and the Cradle of Justice back in, which was why I was now able to freely utilize this glitch in the stage. If I had been crossing the stage earlier, it definitely would have applied appropriate patches to stop me.

Genie spoke.

Clearing the stage was only made possible through the transcendence skill of captain-nim and Ares-nim. In fact, it was a terrifying patch. It could have caused the annihilation of the human race.

The power consumed by this patch should be humongous.

“I guess.”

It was no exaggeration to say that the End Project went all-in on this patch. It was highly likely that the patch cost most of its powers. Unfortunately, the End Project’s last resort was completely nullified by the ability, God of War’s Army. It was evident by the End Project’s lack of reaction that most of its energy was consumed by the last patch.

- Let’s not extend our lives!

- Extend your life, and it will come back with an update!

- Don’t buy a longer life, but train harder to live longer! Increasing your power naturally increases the lifespan!

- Rare metal, not longer lives! Mana stones, not longer lives!

I could see people campaigning while holding signs as I sat in the central square. Genie asked.

Couldn’t you stop them from buying a longer lifespan in earnest?

It wasn’t an issue in the past because there were very few players with enough points to buy longer lives. However, as I travelled through the stage while dishing out gigas, the number of players with a large number of points increased significantly. Even if most of the battle was fought by the God of War’s Army, the protagonists of the stage were the players.

“What more could I do? Grab them one by one and check their life spans?”

Naturally, I knew that the people’s act of extending their lifespans was largely detrimental to humanity as a whole. If everyone boycotted the vending machine, the End Project would not be able to put a stop to my actions until the end.

There is no need to go that far. You can simply check their number of clears and force them to buy rare metals or mana stones that would equal their compensation. You could punish those who don’t.

It was reasonable, but I shook my head.

“There is no need.”

It was impossible to gauge how dreadful the punishment needed to be in order to curb the human desire to live longer. It was a completely different matter from punishing politicians who were greedy for resources and authority in the Unique World. Even if that were not the case, I did not want to restrict humanity in such a way. I didn’t think the stage would continue on for much longer. If the End Project continued charging with malicious patches and updates, the answer was to raise the standard of humanity to overcome the challenges.

- You are currently Challenger Rank (temporary)!

- Currently, the number of Challenger(s) is 1.

- Accessing the Cradle of Justice!

- 1,011,118,841 people are currently watching you!

About half of the people in the Cradle of Justice were currently watching me. Of course, they were watching ‘me’ of the stage, rather than ‘me’ in the Unique World, so I started to carve without caring.

Kang!

As I carved slowly, I was struck with sudden anger.

“…That motherless bastard. How could it even think to interrupt me then?”

Stop it already. I’m so sick of hearing it.

Ares complained, but it could not be helped. I had climbed up to the 99th floor at once on an elevator, but they had cut the elevator line and forced me to walk back up from the 1st floor to the 100th floor. I felt so irritated that I could not help but frown. As a malicious player, I should feel slightly remorseful to the developer and the operator of the game, but I didn’t feel even an ounce of sorriness, not after it disregarded all rules and got in my way.

Captain-nim, captain-nim. It’s morning.

“Ahh~ Whew!”

I started my day. I no longer had to battle in the stage. Rather, my job was quite simple. I only needed to cross the wall through the stage and hand out gigas. It was possible to use a macro(?) to get the job done.

I woke up around 8 A.M., had a quick breakfast, and carved the Dragon Heart until lunch. After eating lunch, I trained my aura by bestowing various attributes to metal components and frames for two to three hours. Finally, I trained in Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights until 5 P.M.

I finished my day at 5 o’clock. After that, I ate dinner and relaxed. I read novels, watched dramas and movies, but spent most of my time playing games. Soon, two years passed.

- Stage will be opened!

- Level 19. Difficulty is set at intermediate.

- Eliminate 5 unstable space monsters within 100 hours.

- Stage will begin in 10 seconds.

- 10. 9. 8. 7….

We entered the next level, but there was still no patch. I continued living out my life.

Another year, 2 years, 3 years. 4 years… 10 years, 15 years.

I’ve always felt this way, but.

Ares spoke while earnestly clearing the stage. He had allocated a part of himself to the macros.

You’re like a Noblesse when it comes to the concept of time, aren’t you? A normal human would not be able to last for such a long time.

“It’s such a nice environment.”

In addition, my appearance did not change even after living hundreds of years. I was starting to doubt if I even had a life span.

Naturally, such facts only applied to me.

“Ha… Ha… You came.”

An old man was lying in a luxurious hospital room. He had a soft impression, as if he had lived his life with many smiles and laughter.

Great Wizard Zenon

Level 0

Principal Yul

The identity of the man was Yul, the one who helped me attain my abilities.

“You spent decades teaching and sorting out students in the academy. I think you deserve a last farewell.”

He belonged to one of the two organizations created by the Great Wizard, the selectors. As someone who belonged to an ultimate spell, he had the ability to read human talents. I didn’t really care about his existence until now, but he had entered the Unique World after an agreement with Min-Kyung. He had spent his life teaching the newcomers of the Unique World and newborns about their talents and abilities. Eventually, he rose to the post of principal of the world’s largest academy.

“Heuheu. You can really never know what will happen in the world. I had always been afraid of the apocalypse that the Great Wizard-nim warned us about… I didn’t expect to finally find the joy of life in such troubling times.”

Yul smiled weakly. He turned towards me and asked.

“Do you remember the words I spoke in the past?”

“An ordinary person and the hero.”

“So you remember.”

It was what Yul had told me when he found out about my extraordinary talents. An ordinary person would adapt to the new world, but the hero would transform it and leads it. Yul laughed.

“But you… you were a being beyond that simple frame. There was no need for you to adapt to the world. On the contrary, the world had to adapt to your presence…”

Yul stood up from the bed and kowtowed to me.

“Thank you for protecting the stupid, ignorant humanity. Thank you for protecting us greedy beasts from the apocalypse.”

His body was trembling at the exertion, but he still smiled.

“Please, continue to protect humankind…”

“…..”

I looked at Yul as he remained bowing on the ground. Genie spoke after looking over him.

He’s dead.

“…Well then.”

I left the room with a bitter smile. A little while later,

“Father!”

“Grandpa!”’

“Uwahh!”

Leaving behind the noisy complex, I returned to a building that occupied one-tenth of Center City. It was a building full of all kinds of armaments and equipment, built for just one person – me.

I checked the time – 4 P.M.

I trained in the Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights until 5 P.M. The day passed.

Another day passed.

I lived the same, unchanging life. But at the same time, I was gradually changing.

“Heup.”

I lifted dumbbells weighing dozens of tons without much effort. The process of converting vibrations into huge kinetic energy was becoming easier.

Chieek!

A large rumble resonated throughout the surroundings when I stretched out my fist. With a swing of my palm, a pair of thick, composite gloves turned red before melting. I could transform vibrations into heat and turn heat into vibrations. I could convert electrical energy to vibrations, and vice versa.

But that was it.

‘Achieving transcendence with Life Energy… will be difficult.’

I became more proficient in Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights, but at the same time, I could clearly feel my inability to look beyond a certain level with this method. With my affinity to metal, I essentially possessed metallic qualities and could be considered one with metal. As such, it was difficult for me to deeply sympathize with the view of Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights, which required one to view everything in the world as vibrations.

“Ares!”

Chwaa!

As I called out, the melted composite glove suddenly jumped up and covered my body.

‘Same goes for the spiritual arts.’

Ares and I were deeply synced and it was possible for me to wield spiritual power at will, but it was difficult to train in the spiritual arts due to the lack of specific training systems. I was utilizing it as much as possible, but my growth had been stunted after I reached the level of a Compléter.

Wooong--!

I tapped into my aura as I felt the metal armor cover my entire body.

The Undying Emperor

Lightning Flash

One Light

‘Yes, if there’s any chance at all, this is it.’

I had almost reached the peak in the art of utilizing aura. It was possible for me to instantly bestow legendary or unique properties. I was only able to mass-produce Human-rank gigas (though they were still all handmade) was because my aura had reached a certain level.

“If I succeed in bestowing a transcendent property… If I can create a Star-ranked gigas…”

I stopped training in Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights and the spiritual arts, and instead focused all my attention on aura. I felt the wall and continuously knocked on it. I believed that I could go beyond all my worries and fears if I could surpass the wall.

- The stage will be opened.

- Level 19. Difficulty is set at hard.

- Eliminate 20 unstable space monsters within 100 hours.

- Stage will begin in 10 seconds.

- 10. 9. 8. 7…..

I did not expect it.

- The system will be updated in part.

- Stage abandonment will be deleted. Even if players do not participate in the stage, they will not be given the Death Procession.

- Stage will be integrated with external world!

- All timelines will be unified!

I never expected to open my eyes to transcendence as the End Project gritted its teeth to make one final attempt.