Killing Phantom
In the end, Park Taewoo held a press conference.
Phase 2.
They could no longer simply keep the Blade Dragon God's weakness under wraps forever.
But the despair of those who heard Park Taewoo's press conference only deepened further.
"Randolph himself is the weakness?"
"Does that even make sense…?"
"Isn't the golden rule that you beat the mid-boss before you get to face the final boss?"
"But the final boss is the weakness?"
It was something that could only exist if the world had gone completely mad.
If anyone made a game like this, the developer would be stoned to death.
The design was completely backwards from start to finish.
This was never a game meant to be cleared.
The Blade Dragon God was the mid-boss.
Yet to beat the mid-boss, you first had to beat the final boss.
But to even meet the final boss, you had to defeat the mid-boss.
The formula itself simply refused to work.
"How are we supposed to clear this?"
"She's genuinely invincible…"
"So that's why Isera couldn't find the weakness."
"Of course he couldn't. Randolph wasn't there."
"Wait. So the Blade Dragon God's birth is Randolph's achievement?"
During Isera's invasion, a Dragon Vein had suddenly appeared.
Players had desperately protected that Dragon Vein and given birth to the Blade Dragon God.
But if creating the Dragon Vein and birthing the Blade Dragon God had all been Randolph's will, this was not something that could be brushed aside lightly.
"…Main Quest 10. That was around when the Trial of 'Mad Dragon Ainharthar' changed to the Trial of 'Dragon God Ainharthar,' right?"
"Did 'Dragon God Ainharthar' help with the birth of a new Dragon God?"
"That might have been the reward."
"Has anyone cleared Dragon God Ainharthar's achievement recently? Can we ask them?"
"To ask Ainharthar, you'd have to push through Main Quest 10 and use the reward question for that — who'd give up all the other good rewards just to ask that?"
Clearing Main Quest 10 allowed you to ask Ainharthar one question as a reward.
Used well, it was a question that could even lead you to Unique-grade blueprints, so everyone who cleared it was extremely careful about what they asked.
Naturally, no one was going to waste such an important question on something related to the Blade Dragon God's birth.
But if Randolph was the Blade Dragon God's master?
…Randolph would instantly ascend as the one and only Guardian of Earth.
Randolph.
Who was he?
They couldn't just sit around blankly because there was no weakness.
People began investigating Randolph more diligently than before, and the more they investigated, the more astonished they became.
"Is this all the information you brought?"
"How is there not a single solid piece of intel?"
…Far too little.
They knew so little it was almost absurd.
No matter how quietly and secretly Randolph had acted, the footprints of someone who had achieved such feats should have remained somewhere.
A man who had completed countless myths as naturally as breathing.
And yet — nothing.
There was no trace of Randolph anywhere.
As if someone had cleanly erased them all.
"We knew far too little about Randolph…"
"Even after he achieved all those accomplishments, we were too busy rationalizing — calling him a bug, a cheater, a GM…"
"We instinctively didn't want to admit it. The gap between Randolph and ourselves."
"It didn't make sense within our common sense."
"We looked away and averted our eyes… In a way, we tacitly went along with the Hero Alliance's Killing Phantom campaign."
"Honestly, doesn't the Hero Alliance know more about Randolph than we do?"
That was right.
They had always cursed the Hero Alliance for spreading false information and pointed fingers at them for controlling the players — yet they had never properly tried to learn about Randolph themselves.
Subconsciously, they had thought the Hero Alliance's false information might actually be true.
That Wilhelm's Great Expedition had failed miserably, that all of Randolph's deeds were lies, that Phantom was a hypocritical monster without blood or tears.
Killing Phantom.
It was no different from everyone tacitly going along with that campaign.
And so, they hadn't known.
Where Randolph had started, and how far he had reached.
Even though he had achieved countless impossible legends and myths.
Then the players stepped forward of their own accord and declared their convictions.
Through social media, through broadcasts, through every channel of communication.
"This tower is the karmic retribution born from our turning away…"
"Cause and effect. We corrupted our own hero with our own hands."
"…I stayed silent. Because it wasn't my business. I knew it was a lie, but even so, I couldn't quite believe that Randolph's life story was the truth either."
"This tower is showing us. That everything Randolph did was true. It's making us experience it firsthand."
"Everything the Hero Alliance said was a lie! They trampled our idol, and we stayed silent, ultimately giving weight to their claims. The result is the reality now upon us! Look at that cursed tower!"
"Stay silent no longer. Rise up! Rise and climb the tower! Let us all walk the Life of Randolph together!"
They raised their voices.
They would no longer look away.
They faced Randolph head-on.
The moment when not just players but all people engraved Randolph's name into their hearts.
Earth's 2nd Generation Awakened began climbing the tower one by one, and more challengers from Pangenia visited the Tower of the War God.
The number of challengers currently climbing the Tower of the War God has surpassed 100,000.
One hundred thousand in total!
And in that very instant the message appeared before everyone's eyes—
The Tower's curse is weakening.
The combat power of Phase 2's Blade Dragon God has been weakened by 20%.
It had weakened.
But a clear strategy was still impossible.
"Is there really no answer?"
"Even after all this?"
"How are we supposed to ease his wrath…!"
Some players defined this phenomenon itself as Randolph's rage.
They had thought that if enough people climbed the tower and empathized with his life story, his anger would be soothed.
But still there was no answer.
No path was visible at all.
Just as everyone was falling into despair—
The Weakness has been liberated.
The Blade Dragon God's Invincible status has been temporarily released.
Suddenly, out of nowhere.
…The Blade Dragon God's invincibility was lifted.
"Of all the ill-omened things — you really only pick the most cursed ones to summon, don't you!"
The God of Ash was furious.
The entity the God of Ill Omen had summoned for their contest.
Of all things, he had called forth the Dreadful Omen.
That cursed omen was no ordinary member of the Ill Omen Clan.
Like the sun and the moon, it was a mass of pure curse existing on the reverse side of the Ill Omen Clan.
A monster that a young crow who had only just joined the Ash Clan could never hope to face!
"Don't worry. I fully intend for this to be an equal contest, caw!"
"Equal in what way? Is there a hole in your head, caw?"
"A contest of who can clear more Trials, faster. That's equal enough, isn't it, caw?"
"…Oh-ho."
Only then did the God of Ash nod.
Who could more quickly subjugate ten thousand skeleton soldiers of the same level.
Moreover, additional Hidden Traits would be layered on.
"Void, Giant, Druid. Three traits added to the skeletons."
"Not enough, caw. Throw in Dexterity, All-Master, and Weapon Master too."
"Hmm. It'll die, though?"
"Doesn't that just make for a more definitive sample, caw?"
"Fair enough."
The God of Ash went one step further.
He decided to deploy ten thousand skeleton soldiers with a full six traits added.
But there was a separate problem.
Paradox of Fate has activated.
Park Hyunmyung's presence grows faint.
…My body wouldn't move at all.
The moment the Dreadful Omen appeared.
It stood frozen, as if someone had hit pause.
Only then did I understand.
That thing was the Dreadful Omen — and at the same time—
…It was Randolph.
More precisely, it was one of the forms he had taken when he transformed into Randolph himself — the form that had driven Baal to the brink of death in the Abyss.
One of Randolph's forms had been given shape and appeared here.
It was a fake, and yet it was not a fake.
It was a part of Randolph, realized within this tower.
The tower itself has become Randolph's hands and feet.
The Tower of the War God.
Everything that existed within the tower was a part of Randolph.
And among them, that concretely manifested Dreadful Omen was practically Randolph's hand or foot.
That was why the Paradox of Fate had activated.
"Now then — begin."
"Child of Ash, I believe you will succeed!"
Whether they knew that or not.
The two of them were utterly carefree.
BOOOOM!
At the same time, a transparent wall rose at the center of the world.
That wall cleanly divided me from the Dreadful Omen.
And then—
Clatter.
Clatter.
On my side, and on the Dreadful Omen's side, massive skeleton soldiers revealed themselves.
Ten thousand each.
And this time, they would not fall so easily.
With a full six Hidden Traits, even if their base stats fell short of supporting those giant frames, the traits would more than make up the difference.
They wielded every kind of weapon, summoned spirits, and overwhelmed with countless classes.
Far harder than climbing the Tower of Mysteries and the Hall of Myths to the very end.
Even back then, skeleton soldiers with six Hidden Traits had never appeared.
No more lucky breaks will work.
Was that the meaning?
Only now did it feel like a proper Trial had begun.
Everything I had done so far felt like child's play by comparison.
CAAAAAAW—!
From the other side, the Dreadful Omen let out a howl.
Caw!
Caaaw!
At the same time, a black sun rose, and countless Daoist Crows revealed themselves.
From the black sun, tears of blood continuously streamed down.
And as that fallen blood soaked the ground—
CRACK!
THUD! THUUUD!
The skeleton soldiers began collapsing one by one.
Absolute death.
Even Baal had been forced to reveal a Fragment of Ruin just to escape that death.
Without the Fragment of Ruin, Baal would have met his end before that black sun.
I couldn't win.
No — if I stayed like this…
I die.
…I would die for certain.
The Blade Dragon God, Hana.
Someone who faced her head-on murmured a quiet admiration.
"What a tremendous divine rank."
A new challenger.
Hana slowly turned her gaze toward the challenger.
There stood an ant roughly the size of a human.
A variant — or a mutant.
But the presence it radiated could never be called that of a mere ant.
Its aura was far fiercer than any challenger who had come before.
But having climbed this place, it was nothing more than an enemy to be destroyed.
Shiiing.
The ant that drew its sword against Hana spoke.
"My name is Feromone. King of the Ants."
Feromone, the Ant King!
A variant created by the Black King.
A monster that had been locked away like an isolated island among countless insects granted mutant Hidden Traits — and the only one that had survived.
And the sword Feromone held was a most peculiar blade.
A sword in which red energy flowed like a lake, steeped in a curse so hideous it defied description.
A Demon Sword — the complete opposite of a Holy Sword.
As Hana's gaze fell upon the blade, Feromone explained with the bright innocence of a child.
"For reference, this sword seals a demon. Hmm. What was it again — some kind of sin or other."
Feromone's antennae twitched busily.
As if he couldn't quite remember.
Not that it particularly mattered.
"But you're too good to lock inside a sword. So I'm going to eat you."
Having made his decision, Feromone nodded.
Then he continued.
"Just like I devoured the Four Calamity known as Despair."