Signs of Doom: That One Offhand Question I Asked
The moment that name popped up in the 1:1 chat window after I tossed it out without thinking, the text that had been going berserk over desserts came to a screeching halt. It was like a brief silence hung in the air before the messages came flooding in.
Jermad's texts reeked of sheer shock.
Suddenly developing dimensional transfer magic?
Staring at Jermad's hyped-up chat, I broke out in a single bead of cold sweat. A dragon tunneling through dimensions to get here. Reassuring, sure, but what if this guy causes a ruckus once he arrives?
Oooh. Great God of Sugar. Has your sweetness saved Earth today?
……Huh? Did I just read that wrong?
In response to my worried question, Jermad hammered out a chat that was deliberately grave and solemn.
Damn, this guy's even crazier than I thought. Faced with the great dragon's determination to risk it all for sweets, I was left speechless.
I was lying on the hotel bed, chuckling dryly at Jermad's insane chat, when—
Ding-ding-ding—!
A system alert? But the tone was a bit different from usual. And without me even willing it, a system popup forced itself in front of my eyes.
Earth dimension hierarchy upgrade and mana density increase confirmed!
From this moment, all gates' difficulty and monster instance levels will rise!
Gate clear rewards' quality and quantity greatly increased!
"Gate difficulties going up…?"
But the real shocker was the next line.
Added anomaly: From now on, intelligent entities may spawn within certain gates.
"?????"
I couldn't believe my eyes. Gates were monster paradises. In decades of gate history, there'd never been a single report of anything inside thinking like humans—plotting tactics, holding conversations, anything intelligent.
Intelligent monsters in gates? That meant the war with gates was about to change completely.
Before I could even process the real-world system update, the Multidimensional Secondhand Market app lit up on its own, forcing an emergency notice to all users.
Hierarchy shift detected in core community dimensions.
Conditions met. Major community update commencing!
Key changes: New trading methods, added tabs, etc.
User agreements fully revised. See announcements for details.
"What the—another one?!"
The Earth hunter system and the multidimensional market community were updating simultaneously, like they'd planned it. I gawked blankly at the floating windows.
And on the other side of the screen, Jermad was facing the same madness, equally stunned.
In answer to Jermad's question, I filled him in on the Earth system freakout.
Solo three dragons? I stared blankly into space. Earth's top hunter right now was America's S-rank 'Bill Kent'—a fist that packs Tomahawk missile power. But could missile punches take down three dragons that erase mountains with a single breath?
……No way in hell. Impossible. Not even close.
Fantasy novels had spells alone that'd chew missiles for breakfast.
My despairing reply made Jermad's text tremble like mad.
With that frantic outburst, Jermad vanished offline like he'd been yanked away.
Left alone in the suite, I stared dumbly at the terrifying update window floating in the air.
Hierarchy upgrade…? Dimensional barriers pierced? Earth really doomed? Max 100 years?
I hurriedly flipped on the hotel room's massive TV. The anchors were pale, sweating bullets as they blared emergency news.
The sudden system level-up had the whole world in panic.
But some panel experts were yapping that "increased rewards mean a leap in hunter gear and skills," spinning the hierarchy upgrade positively.
I set down the remote and rubbed my dry face.
This insane cataclysm… d-don't tell me it's because of me?