No Way That Would Happen

No way. It couldn't be.

Yena was a little upset.

Okay, calling it 'upset' felt a little off, but whatever — she was upset.

She prided herself on being Lily's closest friend and companion, a fellow streamer, and even a neighbor living in the same apartment building.

And that wasn't just her own opinion.

Wherever she went, whenever people ran into Yena, the first thing out of their mouths was always 'Lily' this, 'Lily' that.

After all, Yena was the streamer who had discovered Lily in the first place, and she was the person Lily was closest to.

"But why..."

It felt like she hadn't seen her lately.

Quite some time had passed since the war with the Empire ended. Yena appreciated that Lily had been careful, worried the Empire might retaliate against her — but since then, they simply hadn't managed to meet at all.

She could understand why.

They'd just run the siege war against the Angel Guild, and there hadn't been any special events since then.

There was nothing strange about inviting Lily to run a dungeon together, but calling her out like any ordinary guild member felt awkward when Lily's status had risen to the sky. Inviting her to some random dungeon where she couldn't land a single fresh clip?

Then Yena would inevitably receive hundreds of emails saying, 'There she goes again, leeching off Lily for content.'

Given Yena's personality, those kinds of comments didn't really bother her. The problem was that, deep down, she half agreed with them.

We're in completely different weight classes now...

By this point, Lily had gone beyond being a walking corporation — she was treated as a cultural phenomenon in her own right. Every stream drew hundreds of thousands of viewers, advertising inquiries poured in without end, and during the siege war her peak concurrent viewers had even broken 2.3 million.

Granted, that was just a momentary spike and things had settled back down — but even so, it was hundreds of thousands.

Yena, catching some of Lily's overflow, had her viewership pinned at a solid forty to fifty thousand, but the gap between their tiers was so vast that reaching out without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a good excuse felt hopelessly awkward.

"Uuuugh..."

And so, as she combed through every dungeon and event that might produce decent content, the World Tree had opened.

She'd suggested going to the World Tree together, but Leo had already called dibs.

Honestly, she'd been tempted to force her way in, but Leo was so deeply tied to the World Tree that she even held the title 'Savior of the World Tree.'

There was absolutely no squeezing in there...

"...I don't care, I'm going!"

And so she'd spent three days circling the World Tree, waiting for her chance.

"...Lily got kidnapped?"

Hearing something that made no sense whatsoever, Yena frowned in confusion.

If Lily had kidnapped someone, maybe — but there was no way in hell Lily would ever be the one getting taken.

This was the woman who had fought the Empire head-on, beaten Hwangyeolgong within an inch of his life, and driven off Vlack the Duke. Not to mention she'd walked away with an entire ducal territory as her prize.

The idea that someone like that had suddenly been kidnapped was absurd. But whatever the truth was, it was an opportunity for Yena.

Yena hadn't spent those three days idle, either.

She'd been grinding the World Tree-exclusive quests while watching the streams, and only on the third day had she finally managed to squeeze in through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the World Tree's leaves.

The black roots she'd seen on stream, the ones thrashing wildly at so many rankers, posed no real challenge to a considerably stronger Yena.

She swept aside the withering roots with ease, holding her own even against the rankers.

And then.

"Yena. It's been a while."

She ran into Lily.

It seemed like the first time since the siege war.

It hadn't actually been that long, but meeting face-to-face like this, outside of chat, really did feel like ages.

"It's been forever!"

Yena folded her wildly waving hand and darted quickly toward me. In her grip was the Green Hermit I'd lent her — and judging by everything, she'd been putting it to very good use.

She'd clearly been making quite a splash with it even from a distance.

"Looks like it's serving you well."

"Oh! Yes! It's amazing!"

Yena grinned sheepishly and scratched her head with the hand holding the Green Hermit.

A Masterpiece of Talikal, and a weapon I'd lent her for the time being. Once Yena learned to use Spear's Roar, I'd agreed to let her keep it until I collected every last one of the Masterpieces.

Come to think of it, that one too, sooner or later...

"...?"

"...No. Absolutely not."

I'd been staring at the dagger a little too meaningfully, and Yena shook her head.

There were still 'two' left. The Masterpiece held by the 'Cursed User' above the World Tree was one thing, but prying Black Destroyer out of Vlack's hands would be a little harder.

Black Destroyer was his signature weapon, after all.

"Have you been doing well?"

"Of course. Oh — wait, you're not about to say you need this back, are you...?"

Yena hid the Green Hermit behind her back and shook her head rapidly.

I couldn't help but smile and held out my hand.

"Oh, you don't need it anymore? Then you've collected almost all of them, so I should probably take it ba—"

"Nonononononono. What are you even saying?"

Yena's head-shaking accelerated.

Cute.

"D-did you clear the boss already?!"

"Yes. It's about time for things to wrap up."

Yena changed the subject. I briefly considered teasing her a little longer, but I decided to hold the rest in reserve for after we got out of here.

Berd was defeated, and both Merni and Asuka were secured. Once we dealt with the last remnants of the Corrupted World Tree...

The World Tree was moving.

Not the Corrupted World Tree — the true World Tree, the one holding all of us aloft.

The darkly stained traces of corruption were swallowed whole by emerald life mana, and the rankers who'd been gleefully spamming their skills found themselves floating helplessly into the air.

Green orbs enveloped them. Panicked, they pounded on the spheres of green magic with everything they had, but the barriers didn't so much as scratch.

"Wh-what?"

Even Yena beside me was trapped in a transparent sphere, clawing furiously at its wall — to no avail.

If she used the Roar of the... well, of the dagger, she could probably cut her way out, but Yena didn't see this as a crisis.

And in truth, it wasn't one.

The will of the World Tree fixed its gaze upon me — the only one not confined.

......

I could feel it hesitating. There were still plenty of viable candidates.

"Choose me."

The answer was already decided.

Finally.

I had reached level 100.

Ding!

A portion of the power that had been restraining my body came flooding loose in bulk.

This wasn't just dungeon-penalty stats returning to normal.

The increase in my stats was unmistakable. It felt like I'd climbed about twenty percent above my baseline.

As someone with angelic blood and a divine nature, my stats had always been high, so this was all it amounted to — but any other ranker would have felt the difference keenly.

One thing was certain: from level 100 onward, rankers would grow exponentially stronger. If anything, their power would likely at least double.

"So I can do the 4th Advancement now. I thought it wouldn't be possible until after the Great Cataclysm."

DeoEn — Devil of Angel — received one major update per year, and outside of that window, aside from minor events, it didn't update at all.

The only exception had been the 'system stabilization' brought about by me.

The path of the 4th Advancement, silent ever since levels 20, 40, and 60, had finally opened. Rankers would surely throw themselves into grinding levels with everything they had.

Sword God was around my level, and Leo was at 90 or so, right?

In practice, most rankers' levels had plateaued somewhere in the early 80s to 90s, which was why people kept saying the 4th Advancement wouldn't arrive until after the Great Cataclysm. The official site had even posted a notice with that exact implication.

"...That would be a bit of a problem."

Honestly, I was a little scared myself.

The 1st Advancement had required 3,000 normal monsters, and the 3rd had demanded 30 field bosses or a single world boss. The 2nd had been skipped over through level grinding, but the 4th surely wouldn't let me through on levels alone.

I wonder what it'll ask for.

I didn't particularly need more power right now, but there was nothing bad about reaching the 4th Advancement. Only at my full former peak could I bring out the likes of Pharaoh or Rasty, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after all.

Somehow I've got a feeling they really will make me hunt dozens of world bosses.

Or maybe they'd order me to slay high-ranking celestials or demons.

I laughed off the absurd daydream.

No way. It couldn't be.

...No way.