Nightfall - Hidden Route (5)
The instant a Ruler forced its way through a tear in space, the chat exploded harder than it had at any point since the stream began.
It was a full-on detonation—and for good reason.
Ariandel in the tutorial had been a boss no one had ever managed to kill, but his existence itself had never been a secret. The boss now rising before Yujin's eyes, however—Eve Ster, Who Gazes Upon the Stars—was a hidden boss that not a single player of Nightfall had ever encountered. He was being revealed for the first time in the world by the only person progressing the Hidden Route: Yujin. Anything short of absolute hysteria from the viewers would have been the strange part.
So this is a Ruler… the thing that sits at the very heart of this game's darkness.
Yujin watched, eyes sharp with wariness, as the Star-Gazer forced its way into the world by prying open a spatial rift with thrashing tentacles. As a hero he had slain just about every kind of monster imaginable, but something that wore a writhing mass of tentacles over its entire body was a type of enemy even he had never seen.
It wasn't the appearance that put him on edge, though.
…That's a complete monster.
Looking at the Ruler, Yujin swallowed a quiet groan. Even a glance was enough to convey a dizzying vastness—a being whose very rank of existence stood on a plane utterly apart from humans and nearly every other living thing. It was the same sensation he used to feel facing the Four Heavenly Kings or the Demon King.
In terms of raw strength, of course, it could not even begin to compare to those beings—but within the bounds of this world, a Ruler almost certainly wielded absolute power.
What do I do? Fall back for now?
The question had barely formed when the messages hit.
You have come face to face with the true form of a Ruler that has manifested in the Phenomenal Realm.
You have violated a universal taboo.
You have absorbed knowledge beyond human comprehension. Your Insanity value is increasing.
Kiiiiing—
"Kh—!"
Pain knifed through Yujin's skull; his body lurched. A ringing filled his head at the same time a sensation like a sharp needle boring into his cranium seized him, and for a moment he could not keep his footing.
"No, it's nothing serious… A message window just popped up saying my Insanity value went up, and my body started hurting. Is this some kind of status ailment?"
Unlike when he had fought Ariandel, the viewers carefully explained what Insanity was and what happened when the value rose.
"So… Insanity goes up when you face or hunt something inhuman, and the higher it climbs, the more a hunter's mind slips into madness while the body starts breaking down. Is that right?"
And precisely because it was so hard to raise, Insanity carried brutal penalties.
Fever. Chills. Dizziness. Hallucinations and auditory illusions. Tinnitus. Headaches and nausea.
That was already everything Yujin was feeling right now. An ordinary person would already be on the ground, emptying their stomach—or worse—and no one would have blamed them. According to the lore, the more you faced a Ruler, the higher Insanity climbed. His condition would only worsen from here; there was zero chance of it improving.
Watching Yujin struggle even to hold himself upright as Insanity spiked, the Ruler seemed to find it hilarious. It burst into a peal of mad laughter.
[■■! ■■■ ■■like ■■■s ■is ■chi ■■ ■gu■!]
After mocking him to its heart's content, the Ruler abruptly changed its posture and brought a tentacle crashing down toward him.
It was only a single tentacle—but given the Ruler's sheer scale, even one of those appendages rivaled an entire building. A direct hit would kill any ordinary human on the spot.
"Master!"
Sensing the danger, Yuria—perched on his shoulder—cried out.
Her warning had not even finished before the Ruler's swinging tentacle was already above Yujin's head.
KWA-AAAANG—!
A colossal blast roared out as the tentacle smashed the ground where Yujin had been standing. The impact was so violent that the earth around the strike point split clean in two.
The viewers were sighing in regret when something odd struck them.
The stream feed had not cut out.
In Nightfall—and in every other Power Software title—a player death instantly sent you to the respawn point. The fact that they had not been yanked away meant—
"…Radiant Flash."
Puhwak—!
A golden flare appeared like a mirage, etching countless fine lines through empty air. For a breathtaking instant the whole world seemed to drown in gold.
Those golden threads shredded the Ruler's extended tentacle in a heartbeat—and in the next, that impossibly thick appendage fell apart like cubed steak, sliced into neat pieces.
[■■■■-!]
While the chat erupted in cheers, an indescribable howl tore from the Ruler's mouth.
[■hat ■■ hol■■■■! Ho■■ ■■s ou■ ■■■s■ sa■■■ ■or ma■ ■■!]
"…Damn it. My head already feels like it's splitting—could you at least speak in words a person can understand?"
As Yujin clutched his throbbing skull, mini Yuria leaned in and whispered.
"Master, it would be wisest to withdraw for now. That thing is an opponent you absolutely cannot defeat in your current state."
"…An opponent I can't beat?"
"That is a Ruler's true form. And the longer a mortal stands before a Ruler's true form, the faster they sink into madness. I imagine you are already restraining a surging frenzy just to swing your sword, are you not?"
"Mm…"
"I am not saying you should never fight a Ruler. I am saying that fighting while your madness is climbing like this is suicide. Without a fundamental means of holding the frenzy at bay, victory against a Ruler is impossible."
Yujin was growing familiar enough with virtual reality games by now that he roughly understood what Yuria's suggestion meant.
In short, this was a branch point.
Either dig in and face the Ruler no matter how it turned out—or take Yuria's advice and fall back. And the fact that Yuria was urging retreat was as good as the developers hinting that he should not fight the Ruler here.
She was right. Even with the Holy Sword compensating for his physical abilities, going up against a Ruler while smothered in status ailments from Insanity was, as she said, little better than suicide.
Yujin was just about to accept her counsel and withdraw when—
"If you fight the Ruler here and win, I'll donate ₩500,000. What'll you do?"
The moment he read the donation message, Yujin froze in place.
As far as he was concerned, this was not even a question worth hesitating over.
"LonelyPatron, thank you for the donation. And about that mission you just put on me—"
Ssrrrng—
Yujin smirked and drew the Holy Sword from his waist.
"I'll take that mission."
Five hundred thousand won. No matter how you sliced it—he was never walking away from that.