Horn (2)
The message popped up without warning. Junil’s eyes darted across it at breakneck speed.
‘What the hell is this? Parameters? Setting values?’
Junil instantly realized this was the storyboard—in other words, the literal setting data that governed the world itself.
And among those settings, these were the parameters for the World Boss.
‘This kind of thing existed?’
He had never once seen anything like it throughout all seven of his runs. As a supporting character, he had managed to glimpse the three-way power structure between the Constellations and the story fairies, but because he could never see system messages, this part had remained completely hidden from him.
It felt like suddenly learning that the entire world was built on meticulously coded parameters. And every single one of them was configured in the most despair-inducing way possible.
WORLD BOSS PARAMETERS
Difficulty Setting: Very High (Adjusted)
Boss Freedom: Very High (Adjusted)
Air Mana Concentration: Medium
Clear Possibility Evaluation: Very Low (Adjusted)
.
.
.
Every line essentially screamed that clearing the World Boss was next to impossible.
He had expected something like this the moment the old man appeared. Still, seeing the system flatly declare the clear rate as “very low” made the situation feel far worse than he had imagined.
‘Why is it set up like this?’
Junil frowned as he kept reading. ‘If this was Ram’s board, she would have made sure Kang Hae-il could clear it.’
Ram wanted nothing more than to eliminate him from the awakening race. She should have tuned the World Boss to be defeated as quickly as possible. So why had it been generated with these nightmare difficulty values?
He couldn’t find the answer in Ram’s motives. But near the very bottom, he finally discovered what this World Boss story truly wanted.
Like a Pandora’s box, after a long parade of the most hopeless words imaginable, a sliver of hope appeared.
Protagonist’s Awakening
‘Huh?’
The hope was so cruel that Junil let out a hollow breath after reading the final line.
The protagonist had to awaken.
Right now, the only protagonist was Kang Hae-il. There was no way Moon Junil could become the protagonist with a measly three thousand Constellations at this stage of the story.
‘So Kang Hae-il has to awaken for this to end!?’
In the end, that was exactly what it meant.
‘Damn it.’
Awakening.
It was the moment a hero overcame his limits and wielded power beyond his previous peak. In Ram’s story the word was thrown around so casually it had become synonymous with simply becoming an “Awakened,” but anyone who understood the massive power gap between a normal human and an Awakened knew just how monumental a true awakening was.
From Junil’s experience, a fresh awakening granted at least double the strength for a short time. If the current Junil—who was only one-third of his Julian self—were to awaken, he would become two-thirds Julian.
If Kang Hae-il awakened again, on top of the awakening that had already granted him S-rank, he would reach something like S+ (if such a rank even existed). At that point, defeating the old man might not be impossible.
Even though Junil had recovered a third of his original power thanks to the number of Constellations watching him, Kang Hae-il was still a firepower monster who outclassed him.
‘But is it even possible?’
The problem was that awakening wasn’t easy. Kang Hae-il had already failed once before. It had looked like Junil’s interference caused the failure, but the truth was the conditions had only been ambiguously met.
Having an already-dead father die again wasn’t enough. Besides, hadn’t Kang Hae-il already awakened once from his father’s death to receive S-rank?
In the end, the graveyard fight had not fulfilled the true conditions. There were probably multiple requirements, but from Junil’s experience as a hero, he knew one absolute condition.
The death of a precious comrade.
It couldn’t be the death of some casual traveling companion. It had to be someone the protagonist felt genuine attachment to—a truly precious comrade.
Who did Kang Hae-il currently feel that strongly about?
‘……No way.’
The more Junil thought about it, the deeper he sank into despair.
Thud.
Junil, who had been trying to push himself up, lost all strength and collapsed back down.
The Constellations reacted the moment he staggered. But they had no idea why his body had suddenly gone limp.
Junil could still see the faint system message lingering in the air.
Subtitle: To Lay Down One’s Life for a Just Cause
The letters gradually blurred and faded into the air. It could have been a hallucination, or perhaps it was a subtitle from a future perspective. But the fact that those exact words had appeared—even faintly—at this precise moment sent chills down his spine.
To sacrifice one’s life for righteousness.
Maybe this subtitle was foreshadowing exactly what had to happen in this chapter.
‘Is this why I got a sub-stream…?’
A sub-stream was the only way for a story to run without focusing on the protagonist. It was a narrative device that shone a spotlight on a supporting character. He had thought it came a little too early, but now it made perfect sense.
This was the classic “that kind of setup.”
“You’re boosting me before you kill me off!?”
Everyone knew how it worked—give the supporting character some narrative focus right before you kill them off.
Junil had accidentally spoken his bitter realization out loud, leaving the Constellations bewildered, but he didn’t care.
“God damn it!”
The storyboard was literally telling him to die and wrap up the chapter. Of course he couldn’t see straight.
His teeth ground together audibly.
There was no way he would accept this.
The Constellations kept hounding him, but none of it mattered to Junil anymore.
He had to find a way to survive this predetermined plot. He needed to figure out every possible variable.
He closed his eyes for a moment. He could already guess from the noise and vibrations that absolute chaos was unfolding on the roof above.
‘That old man… he’s definitely going to be tough… but there has to be a way.’
Even in his seventh run, the creature had been so unpleasant that he had simply sealed it away and left. He had never expected fighting it in this state to be easy.
He needed time.
‘Time… even just a little time to think…’
That was when an idea struck him.
“Jaruru jaruru japaguri.”
Bang!
“D-did you call, hero sir?”
It was Ham.
Whenever Ham appeared, space-time would be sliced apart and isolated.
“Yeah. I called.”
“You actually chanted the spell perfectly this time! I’m so happy! How may I assist you today?”
“Since you’re so happy, give me a shoulder massage.”
“Huh? Umm… understood!”
Boing. Boing…
Ham began massaging Junil’s shoulders. Junil pulled an elixir from his inventory, slowly drank it, and let his body relax.
In that state, he asked, “Ham. What’s happening on the roof right now?”
“That mysterious old man suddenly turned into a total hunk!”
“……What?”
“Flowers suddenly bloomed and—whoosh!”
He had just… rejuvenated like that?
The situation had become far more serious. Junil had thought the fight was manageable while the thing was still an old man.
‘So the bastard finally shed its skin.’
He had known the creature was bizarre from the moment he first saw it in his seventh run, but to think it could reverse its age as easily as molting. Neither humans nor demons were normally allowed to distort time itself.
Yet it had done exactly that. Its level was indeed on another plane.
“Damn it… is winning even possible?”
“Umm… if, if Lord Julian steps in, maybe it’ll work out somehow?”
“What does Pam say?”
“…….”
Ham couldn’t answer.
“Hey. Don’t tell me that bastard Pam thinks it’s better if the story just gets canceled here?”
To Pam, the story ending was no big deal. After all, the whole point of this run was to screw over Ram. What could be a bigger “screw you” than canceling the series?
“N-no! P-Pam is also worried sick back in the penalty room!”
“Then what did she say?”
“Th-the hero’s awakening…”
Ham mumbled the words.
‘So I saw it correctly earlier.’
He hadn’t been hallucinating from exhaustion when the parameters appeared.
‘So it really is telling me to die.’
Junil let out a long sigh.
But there was always a way. There had to be one this time too.
‘Clear condition… protagonist’s awakening…’
Stripping away all the flowery language, the clear condition the storyboard had explicitly stated was the protagonist’s awakening. If he could make that happen without dying himself—
‘Sacrifice another comrade?’
Junil shook his head. He had only met those people recently. It had to be the real death of someone he had genuinely opened his heart to. The death of fakes would be meaningless. It would only make clearing the chapter harder.
Then who was the person Kang Hae-il had truly opened his heart to?
“Hey, Ham. Kang Hae-il doesn’t have a mother or any other family, right?”
He had already seen the answer in the flashbacks. The only family had been his father.
“It was only his father… that’s why they were so close…”
“Then who is the person Kang Hae-il is most attached to right now?”
“……Why are you asking that?”
“Just tell me, you little sausage.”
“I-I’m Ham! And obviously it’s the porter! Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”
“I’m trying to trigger an awakening.”
“……!?”
No matter how much he wanted to deny it, the answer was painfully obvious.
Kang Hae-il saw Junil as his savior. He had even been willing to put off fighting the World Boss for his sake.
“So it really is just me…”
He had never brought any other comrades along. That was why all those “SF Duo” and “Batman and Robin” memes had flooded the chat. There simply wasn’t anyone else.
Right now, there was no other comrade who held Kang Hae-il’s affection. Junil was the only sacrifice available.
“Haa… damn it, Hae-il, you idiot!”
It felt like he was being punished for earning too much of the man’s trust. He never imagined it would come back to bite him like this.
“U-um, you don’t have to go that far! If we just buy a little time…”
“Time? Do you even know who that old man is?”
“Th-that’s…”
Ham hurriedly added, “There must be another way! We could upgrade the shop right now—”
“No.”
Junil cut him off. He had seen the world’s setting parameters with his own eyes. The method was already decided.
“That won’t work.”
“W-wait! Hero sir! Time is—”
Bang!
Ham disappeared again. His allowed stay time was much shorter than before.
‘I have to use it already.’
Junil took out the perfume bottle from his inventory.
Mythic-grade artifact
A perfume bottle that stores the suffering of others. The more it is used, the more the user synchronizes with Belzerack. Ordinary humans must never touch it.
This item caused the user to synchronize with Belzerack the more they smelled it. It was a monster that ordinary humans should never lay hands on. Although it was labeled “mythic-grade,” that was merely the storyboard’s judgment. The truth was that most humans couldn’t properly use it at all.
Even if one did use it, they should only do so once or twice and never release anything stronger than a Whiff. Any stronger and the synchronization with Belzerack would accelerate dangerously.
Yet Junil pressed down on the cap of the jewel-encrusted bottle.
Hiss—
Aroma.
Every last tear stored inside was consumed, releasing an aroma several times thicker than the previous Whiff. Junil summoned a wind spirit and gently guided the scent upward.
The fragrance slipped through the broken sections of the roof and quietly spread across the floor above.