Lucifer's Scream
He had achieved countless feats beyond all measure until now.
Yet he could declare without hesitation that none of them came close to the sentences now appearing before his eyes.
‘Main Quest 11’ Hall of Fame rankings have been updated.
1st Place — Estimated 10,000 points. Randolph
2nd Place — 780 points. Lucifer
3rd Place — 499 points. Gracia
4th Place — 400 points. Barmush
5th Place — 360 points. MintChocoIsDelicious
······
The Hall of Fame was something every player eventually reached and witnessed.
Yet the players who beheld the altered rankings could only rub their eyes again and again.
A score with a digit count they had never once seen in their lives had just been revealed.
“Ten thousand points······?”
“Estimated? What the hell does that mean?”
“Don’t tell me even the System itself isn’t sure?”
“······.”
It was neither a bug nor an error.
From the countless experiences they had accumulated, they were certain this was the genuine score Randolph had achieved.
If anything, the word “estimated” only lent the matter greater credibility.
That the System had deliberately attached such a term and still displayed it on the Hall of Fame meant Randolph had accomplished something so excessive, so far beyond imagination, that even the System could only approximate it.
The problem was that this particular Hall of Fame belonged to none other than Main Quest 11.
“Abyssal monster hunting, right?”
“··· Lucifer scored 780 after hunting the ‘Prince of Desolation’ and its remnants.”
“So that means Randolph killed at least fifteen Dominator-class monsters?”
“Does that even make sense? How long has it been since Main Quest 10?”
“What the hell did he do? What’s going on out there?”
It was a cauldron of pure chaos.
Surpassing Lucifer’s score by more than tenfold was truly incomprehensible.
Lucifer himself had willingly paid countless sacrifices to forge that score.
And so everyone had quietly, almost unconsciously, been certain that ranking would never be broken!
Yet it had been shattered.
Unless one became a god··· no, even if the Goddess herself returned to life, one had to wonder whether an achievement of this magnitude was even possible.
“Summon everyone!”
“This is an emergency. Gather now!”
“Pangenia is about to undergo a tectonic shift. Keep your eyes peeled for whatever changes, however it unfolds!”
“Does anyone know anything at all?”
“What the hell is Intelligence doing, you bastards!”
The world erupted into pandemonium.
Especially among the leader-class players.
Earth was currently living through its own Warring States period.
As the Hero Council collapsed, the powerful had begun proclaiming themselves kings and raising their own factions.
The strong who had long been suppressed beneath the Hero Council.
And in their eyes, this “change” was certain to trigger a massive upheaval.
In Pangenia, and on Earth alike.
The Hero Council has quietly ostracized Randolph all this time. Treated him as taboo.
But the era has changed.
Find Randolph!
The first to find Randolph is the victor!
Until now the Hero Council had suppressed even the very name “Randolph.”
No longer.
The newly risen kings desperately sought to locate Randolph and forge a connection with him.
It was clear Randolph had no interest in becoming king of the world.
If one could merely ride upon the name of “Randolph,” there would be no more certain blank check than that.
They were all thinking the exact same thing.
The one chosen by Randolph becomes the king of this world.
Until now they had tried to dismiss it as some kind of anomaly or error.
But from the beginning, attempting to understand the unknown that was “Randolph” had itself been an act of hubris.
The unknown and the mysterious, a truth like the incomprehensible cosmos itself.
Such a thing was not to be rejected or ignored.
It was to be revered, and revered again, and held aloft.
To them, Randolph was that kind of existence.
That was why every last one of them was hunting for him with burning eyes.
······ For the one who received a god’s choice would become the emperor who led the world with absolute, unchallenged power.
“······.”
Drakestar stood atop a building rooftop, gazing down at the ground below as he thought.
—If that becomes possible······ yes, then I’ll join the Phantom Church as well.
Main Quest 11.
The words he had once spoken—that if Randolph surpassed Lucifer’s score, he would join the Phantom Church—suddenly floated back into his mind.
“··· This is absurd.”
Drakestar could only laugh from sheer disbelief.
Ten thousand points.
He had never once in his life seen a five-digit number on the Hall of Fame.
“Did he actually hunt an Abyssal King or something······.”
A score that seemed impossible unless one had turned the Abyss itself into a wasteland.
He could hardly believe it, yet he had no choice but to believe.
Gracia refused, but Lucifer has also lost the Angel Statue.
The one silver lining was that, because of this, the balance had been restored once more.
Having lost the Angel Statue, Lucifer would no longer be able to run wild as before.
With a soft rustle, Drakestar drew a thick file of documents from his coat.
What Obsidian handed me when she came to curry favor.
The nine-tailed fox Obsidian.
A member of the Hero Council, and a cunning woman who had long been playing both sides between Drakestar and Lucifer.
The moment the Hall of Fame rankings changed, Obsidian had sought him out and pressed this file into his hands.
The dead Master’s journal.
The journal left behind by the deceased “Master.”
A secret journal that even Lucifer did not know about.
It ran to over a hundred pages, yet the content was simple.
That Master bastard. He was searching for Randolph even more desperately than Gracia.
······ It was a journal entirely about Randolph.
Master had been tracking Randolph with something close to obsession.
Unlike Gracia, who sought the “Hydragon’s Core,” the precise reason remained unclear.
What was certain was that he had drawn far closer to Randolph than Gracia ever had.
Pages whispered as they turned. After slowly reading every last word of the hundred-plus sheets, Drakestar let out a long, heavy sigh.
“······ I’ll have to go to Korea.”
He needed to meet Kim Hana again.
And at the same time, Drakestar thought:
········· Perhaps he really would have to convert to the Phantom Church after all.
“No······!!!”
Lucifer screamed.
Clutching the Angel Statue, he shed tears.
The light that had dwelled within the statue had vanished the very instant the Hall of Fame rankings changed.
“How could you abandon me······!”
An Angel Statue whose light had gone out.
No longer could he feel the presence of the “Angel of Blessing” within it.
Everything he had accomplished had been for the angel alone.
A Main Quest he had completed while bracing himself for countless sacrifices!
And in a single moment it had all been overturned.
By a gap in points so vast it could never be closed.
“Aaaargh!”
CRACK!
Lucifer smashed the Angel Statue to pieces.
Without the angel dwelling inside, it was nothing more than a useless husk.
Gurgle! Gurgle-gurgle!
The moment every blessing vanished, Lucifer’s body began to transform.
Two horns erupted from his forehead, a long tail stretched out behind him, and his flesh turned pitch black.
Staring down at his own hands, Lucifer shook his head.
“I······ am not······ a demon. I······!”
Denial of existence.
He was rejecting himself.
The angel had bestowed a blessing that remade him into the form he desired.
Not merely his outward appearance, but an absolute blessing that rewrote every perception and every thought.
Yet with the blessing gone, he had no choice but to return to his original form.
“No, no······!”
Gurgle-gurgle!
Once more he shifted into a human shape.
But it was form alone.
Lucifer could no longer look up at the sky.
The instant he recognized himself as a demon, the demon’s curse that forbade gazing upon the heavens had activated once again.
In this world, I am free!
How long had it been since he last tasted freedom?
He could not let that freedom slip away so easily.
The dream of standing at the pinnacle of this world and reigning as an Absolute.
Though he had fallen here against his will, Earth had been a paradise to him.
So long as he possessed the angel’s blessing.
“Even knowing how much······ I loved you······!”
Moreover, Lucifer had loved that angel.
But the angel was no more.
Stolen by Randolph.
GRIND!
Lucifer ground his teeth until they nearly shattered.
For now, it’s still all right.
The blessings accumulated over so long a time would not vanish all at once.
Yet the moment those blessings completely evaporated from his body, Lucifer would return to his true nature.
A demon of pure rage.
A monster that wanted to destroy everything.
The worst possible form, stripped of every emotion such as compassion or love!
“Ran—dolph······!!!”
The demon of wrath howled.
The overwhelming rewards left me speechless.
Even obtaining “ten complete Golden Rules” through the activation of a Hidden Piece was a reward beyond imagination—yet on top of that I had received the “Hidden Talisman Cube,” along with “God’s Island,” the “Holy Star,” and the option to choose a special “Talisman.”
And that was not all.
The Angel of Blessing, ten thousand achievement points, ten thousand hours of Broken Fragments of the Golden Rule. This is completely insane.
The phrase “all-time greatest” rose unbidden to my lips.
Rewards were not merely pouring out—they were overflowing.
And every single one of them was content that could slap Unique-grade items across the face.
Talismans bearing the names of the participants. I’ve never seen anything like this before.
Whichever one I chose, it would clearly possess tremendous options.
Moreover, I already possessed the Archetypal Armor.
······ The Archetypal Armor amplifies a talisman’s abilities by 1.5 times.
And now I had also obtained the “Hidden Talisman Cube.”
A special and unique cube that enabled hidden combinations.
Depending on how it was used, combinations of staggering synergy would become possible.
Which left me with a dilemma.
What should I choose?
Which talisman would suit me best?
I could select only one, so I had to be careful.
A name is proof. That a name has been refined into the form of a talisman means the equipment will be powerfully influenced by that name’s authority.
A talisman is a jewel that strengthens equipment.
A treasure that carves special options the gear never possessed, making it shine all the brighter.
Often it even added options that did not—and could not—normally exist.
Lowering an equipment’s equip requirements, granting the ability to track talismans of the same type, raising a specific trait or resistance the gear already held, or completely rewriting every option the equipment possessed······.
Properly combined, a “talisman” could double an item’s performance.
Furthermore, a talisman bearing a specific name amplified related contents.
The participants’ characteristics. A name that suits the Archetypal Armor.
These would almost certainly be talismans containing the participants’ traits.
And the equipment into which I would socket the talisman was the Archetypal Armor.
Which meant it had to be a talisman capable of maximizing the Archetypal Armor’s performance.
Six talisman sockets, equipped talismans possessing 1.5 times amplified power, form-shifting capability, a minimum of 50% physical resistance, 210% physical damage reflection, level-proportional total penetration, and the ability to use Archetypal Despair—an armor that already defied all reason.
It was already absurd, so what talisman could push this armor even further?
There is one certainty, at least.
I dredged up my memories.
The participants’ characteristics, their abilities.
Information about them that only I still remembered.
The deliberation did not last long.
You have selected the ‘Whale of the Celestial Axis’ Talisman.
The Whale of the Celestial Axis, who possessed the power of transformation.
Her talisman would surely carry similar options.
That was when it happened.
Once more, text rose before my eyes.
Select a vessel for the ‘Angel of Blessing’ to inhabit. Depending on the vessel, the ‘Angel of Blessing’ will bestow a more powerful blessing.
The ‘Angel of Blessing’ cannot exist outside for long.
You must decide within 564 seconds.
When time expires, the ‘Angel of Blessing’ will vanish forever.
It was urging me, as if the matter would not end until I designated a vessel for the Angel of Blessing.
I frowned.
Appearing out of nowhere and demanding a decision in less than ten minutes—what kind of nonsense was this?
You must decide within 499 seconds.
You must decide within 387 seconds.
You must decide within 284 seconds.
Time flowed mercilessly onward.
I, too, had no choice but to grow desperate.
‘Randolph’ cannot be designated as a vessel.
Just in case, I tried selecting myself—and that message appeared.
··· What should I make into the vessel, then?
The finest thing I possessed.
Should I have it inhabit the Archetypal Armor or Winter (Ultimate Twilight) after all?
Or did I have something else suitable to serve as a vessel?
While I deliberated, time had already closed to within ten seconds.
You must decide within 6 seconds.
You must decide within 4 seconds.
You must decide within 2 seconds.
You must decide within 1 second······.