The Nameless Overlord
Episode 17.
The skies over the entire world were dyed gold.
A system message was forcibly broadcast to the retinas of every Awakener.
Those glorious names.
Every time a name from their own country popped up, people around the world erupted in cheers.
But.
"NONAME?"
"Why's the number one name like that?"
"Holy shit. Look at the score. It's double the second place!"
In the midst of this sudden upheaval, an overwhelming number one had appeared.
Its mere existence felt like salvation to humanity.
Yet the top ranker hadn't revealed its name.
Those lurking in the shadows behind it reacted similarly.
The gods' avatars.
"……990 points?"
"Impossible."
"No way that's real."
They couldn't comprehend it.
Countless avatars had waged battles bordering on massacres, scraping together points by any means necessary.
And yet, 990 points.
Nearly a perfect score.
"What kind of lunatic……."
But the shock didn't end there.
Soon, the Episode 2 rankings appeared.
1st: NONAME
Score: 1,100
The avatars rubbed their eyes.
They thought the numbers were wrong.
"1,100 points?"
"Is that even possible?"
"No way. 1,000 is the limit."
It defied logic.
Systematically impossible.
The maximum score per episode was capped at 1,000 points.
No perfect play could exceed it.
"A bug?"
No, the system had no bugs.
That left one answer.
Limit break.
It meant achieving a feat that surpassed even the system's set limits.
"NONAME……."
Who the hell was it?
What god's avatar could wield such authority?
Not some run-of-the-mill low-tier or mid-tier god.
To display this level of stature, at minimum.
Beings from the deepest parts of the gods' garden.
No, even beyond them.
One of the 12 Archgods?
……Choi Taemin scowled.
He couldn't even imagine who it might be.
Even at the end of Episode 2, the gap was staggering.
Choi Taemin, who had claimed 4th place, had a mere 500 points.
And he was the avatar of a high-tier Flame God.
He'd triggered disasters himself and slaughtered his summoned monsters as much as possible.
Yet the top spot had 1,100.
More than double.
This made no sense.
It was like a being from another dimension looking down on them.
Unless it was truly one of the 12 Archgods.
But the 12 Archgods wouldn't stoop to participating in mere "play."
"Who is it? What bastard……."
Choi Taemin ground his teeth.
His pride was wounded.
He'd believed no one could beat him in Episode 2.
Yet here was someone crushing him with overwhelming superiority.
Jealousy. Envy.
Avatars around the world were shaken.
That was when it happened.
Another message floated before their confused eyes.
This one wasn't golden.
It was blood-red, an ominous warning like spilled blood.
The master of Tower Floor 27, 'Low-tier Blizzard God Kalligo', has been murdered.
His existence has been completely erased from Asgard.
"……!"
Silence.
Everyone held their breath.
Kartal, and now Kalligo too.
Murdered, no less.
What a coincidence.
One god dying at the start and end of each episode.
……Was someone deliberately hunting gods?
But no god suspected it was happening on Earth yet.
An avatar on Earth couldn't kill a god.
To kill a god, you had to erase them directly in God's Tower.
At least, according to their common sense.
Floor 34 of the tower.
And Floor 27.
The gods' investigation team combed the scenes in silence.
They scanned the floors and analyzed the mana in the air.
But the results were dismal.
"……Nothing."
The investigation leader, the 'God of Pursuit', shook his head.
"Not a speck of dust. Not a single drop of blood."
It was bizarre.
A battle between gods.
Naturally, cataclysms would occur, space would tear, and traces of divinity would remain.
But both sites were pristine.
Like empty houses that had never had owners.
"Evaporated. Both Kartal and Kalligo."
A team member trembled as he wrote the report.
"No signs of external intrusion or internal combat."
If not for the system message declaring murder, they might have thought it was desertion.
"Common points?"
The leader asked.
"Two. First, both are gods affiliated with the 'Nature' faction."
Earthquake and blizzard.
Undeniably gods of natural disasters.
"Second, both were participating in the ongoing 'play' on Earth."
Silence fell.
The most promising lead.
Someone was targeting gods in the play.
"Could an avatar on Earth affect the main body?"
"Theoretically impossible. Avatars are terminals only—independent from the main body. Even backlash wouldn't erase the main body."
Solid reasoning.
That left one possibility.
Someone was carrying out stealth assassinations inside the tower.
"The problem is…… we don't know their avatars."
A team member sighed.
"No one knows what names Kartal and Kalligo used on Earth or where they were."
The gods' anonymity.
A basic rule of the play, and their minimal safeguard against each other.
Hiding their cards.
Now that secrecy had turned poisonous.
"We need to secure a full list of avatars participating in the play right now."
One investigator suggested.
"Otherwise, we're sitting ducks. We don't even know who's being targeted or where."
"It'll be shot down."
The leader cut him off.
"No god will reveal their info over two low-tier deaths. They're arrogant. They'll think it won't happen to them."
Skeptical mood.
Not enough evidence yet.
Were they targeting play participants or the Nature faction?
The investigation was at a standstill.
A case lost in a maze.
The only sliver of possibility.
"……Find out whose avatar 'NONAME' is."
There might be a connection to the new name in the Honor Hall.
But even that was just a 'possibility.'
No clear way to track it.
Thus, the investigation fizzled without even a shadow of the culprit.
To fill the vacancy on Floor 27, hierarchies are shifting.
The master of Floor 26 ascends to Floor 27.
The master of Floor 25 ascends to Floor 26.
……
The master of Floor 1 ascends to Floor 2.
It was a domino effect.
With the middle link broken, the gods below were forcibly pushed up.
Rag was no exception.
Just days after becoming master of Floor 1.
He'd done nothing and was now master of Floor 2.
And then.
Preparations to accept a new god are complete.
Floor 1 was vacant again.
But there was a problem.
The previous trial had just ended.
Not enough time to gather and select new seeds.
The system made an efficient call.
Gap too short for a new trial.
Authority transferred to the previous trial's runner-up.
'Darakan' is appointed master of Floor 1.
In the underground waiting room.
Darakan's eyes, steeped in defeat, snapped wide open.
"……Huh?"
A dream?
No, the system message was crystal clear.
Second place.
A humiliating 2 points.
Thoroughly crushed and discarded by that monster Rag, now he was master of Floor 1.
"Hahahahaha!"
Darakan burst into mad laughter.
Fate.
Proof that the heavens hadn't abandoned him.
Darakan boldly opened the door to Floor 1.
Light poured in.
Drunk on ecstasy, he stepped forward.
"Just you wait, Rag."
Darakan ground his teeth.
"You dare mock me?"
He hadn't forgotten the humiliation.
He'd find that bastard and crush him.
Now he was the undisputed master of Floor 1.
Starting line even.
No, he'd cultivate his floor better than that punk and earn the gods' recognition.
"Just one floor ahead? I'll catch up in no time."
Darakan clenched his fist, eyes blazing.
And then.
"……?"
He was speechless.
Empty.
Nothing there.
White earth. White sky.
Not a monster, not a blade of grass. A barren wasteland.
"Wh-what the hell is this?"
Darakan's voice trembled.
Overwhelming emptiness.
What was he supposed to do here?
Felt like a rowboat adrift in a vast ocean.
Meanwhile.
Whiiiiiing!
I blinked.
The scenery hadn't changed.
Still white earth, white sky.
The only difference was the air's density, perhaps.
Heavier, laced with a divine aura.
Floor 2, huh.
Dazed.
Just snagged one avatar on Earth, and I got a promotion to boot.
Two birds, one stone.
A new message window appeared before me.
Congratulations on your promotion to Floor 2.
From Floor 2 onward, 'Nectar' is provided periodically.
Nectar.
The gods' divine drink.
Seeing the word triggered a memory.
Kim Insu.
Kalligo's avatar.
That murky golden light he'd forcibly summoned with divine power right before dying.
-Did you feed Nectar to your avatar?
His words echoed.
Puzzle solved.
Nectar wasn't just a drink.
An energy source to sustain and amplify divinity.
Feed it to an Earth avatar, and it could temporarily channel the main body's power.
Similar to my 'Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule.'
100 Nectar granted as promotion gift.
Floor 2 provides 100 Nectar every 30 days.
Jingling.
The inventory ticked up: 100.
Who knew if that was a lot or a little.
I approached the central crystal and opened the shop.
"……Cheap."
My face soured.
100 Nectar.
Enough for some front-yard grass and a few trees, then done.
Couldn't even afford a goblin squad, let alone a fountain.
This was a month's salary?
Even the gods' world was rich get richer, poor get poorer.
How am I supposed to develop the floor and climb like this?
One condition to ascend the tower: 'Floor Prosperity.'
How well you developed your floor and built a powerful ecosystem was the key to promotion.
Hit the threshold, challenge the next floor.
But starting capital like this.
I was about to sigh.
You can exchange held special items for Nectar.
Exchange service?
Curiosity piqued, I tapped it.
The exchange list popped up.
Mythic grade and up can be exchanged, huh.
So this was how you farm Nectar.
Wait.
But there was one more item on the list.
The Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule is exchangeable too?
I casually checked the rate.
And.
"……?"
I doubted my eyes.
Looked again.
Counted the zeros.
[Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule x1] ↔ [1,000,000 Nectar]
"……Insane."