Conquest Complete, So Why Is the Affection Dropping? - Chapter 61
‘What?’
Just as I froze at the unexpected bad ending warning, the floor shook with a boom.
This tower is in the sky so earthquakes shouldn’t be possible, yet the golden decorations on the walls began rattling violently and falling one by one.
“Aaack!”
The floor heaved greatly, and I lost my balance and fell. Cracks appeared in the floor tiles, and the interlocked sections became misaligned, jutting out unevenly.
Is this going to collapse?
‘Why is the bad ending suddenly appearing? Wasn’t I supposed to return to Kaint’s route if I rejected Cedric?’
Don’t tell me that from the moment of the bride kidnapping, following Cedric automatically destroyed Kaint’s route?
That’s absurd. How can this be!
[BAD ENDING: World Destruction] is beginning.
The price for failing a conquest is too high if the world gets destroyed just because I rejected a confession!
If they wanted to warn me that messing with someone who can destroy a city with one spell would lead to a tragic end, they should have dropped some hints earlier!
“Cedric, wait! Let’s calm down and talk first.”
“At this point, when world destruction has begun, actions that waste cost will only accelerate the collapse, my lady.”
I don’t understand what he’s saying. Does he mean that since the bad ending is already decided, if I try to continue the story here, the system will destroy the world faster? Because it’s bothersome to process unnecessary information?
Either way, it means destruction is inevitable.
‘No, wait, wasn’t the world supposed to be safe from destruction as long as Shin Joo was here? I’m neither dead nor logged out, so why is the world being destroyed!’
Isn’t this a setting error? Or another bug?
After all my hard work trying to conquer Kaint, a bug ruined everything!
Cedric, this isn’t fair! Your lady has been scammed by the system, that’s what I’m saying! You should take that into consideration!
“Cedric, how do we stop this? You’re a mage, so you must know how to stop this phenomenon?”
“My lady. If even you, the savior from destruction, cannot accomplish this, how could I possibly do so?”
“You said I’m the savior! I’m still here perfectly fine, so why is the world being destroyed! This makes no sense!”
“I am merely the tower’s administrator. Bringing about destruction is not my jurisdiction.”
I was foolish to try to find a solution by reasoning with a madman.
What should I do? Do I have to face death here like this?
The floor shook violently. This was far more destructive than being on a ship in choppy waves.
At least if a ship breaks, you might survive by swimming, but if a tower floating in the sky collapses, my body will shatter the moment I fall.
Though I don’t know how much would actually be implemented in the game, I’d rather pass on such a death.
‘What should I do? How do I escape from here?’
In this urgent situation, my usually slow brain began spinning rapidly. Suddenly, I remembered the night at Marvis’s mansion when I obtained a fragment of Hexion’s soul.
While I couldn’t move to other locations without transportation or warp gates, there was one thing I could do at will – returning to the start point.
The start point was definitely set to Kaint’s castle this time.
“Start point! I want to return to the starting point!”
“My lady. Saying such things now…”
“I said I’m returning! Can’t you hear me? I’m going back to the start point!”
I wasn’t talking to Cedric. I was addressing the damn system that must be watching this situation.
While Cedric’s magic or ancient artifacts might not work now as they’re bound by this world’s rules during its destruction, the system is different.
The system is what’s destroying this world right now. Meaning that even if all data in the game world is destroyed, the system will continue functioning.
So, even if there are no more possible events, returning to the start point should still be possible.
I’m not trying to progress an event – I’m using a basic system function.
Would you like to return to the Start Point?
Force termination of episode is impossible during Bad Ending.
Currently designated location: Admiral’s Castle
I pressed the return button without hesitation.
Returning to the starting point.
The cold stone floor tiles and walls full of golden decorations began to blur, and Cedric’s figure standing before me was cut away in zigzags as if erased by an eraser.
Like how tearing a page from a sketchbook full of drawings reveals the next picture, the boundary between blue sky and sea appeared.
Not the blood-stained scenery, but the clean and beautiful coastal landscape I remembered.
White foam formed as waves rippled across the blue sea. However, that white foam wasn’t sea spray.
Glowing 0s and 1s moving beneath the blue waves.
Each time the waves moved and broke, pure white 0s and 1s scattered everywhere, gradually erasing the vast landscape bit by bit.
Only then did I realize. The ‘destruction of the world’ they spoke of here wasn’t going to happen in ways that could occur in reality, like meteors falling or volcanoes erupting.
When a bad ending occurs, the game world is destroyed.
There was no reason to implement the specific process of destruction in the system when it could be ended in a single line.
That meant the world’s destruction wasn’t happening through some destructive natural disaster, but rather through the dissolution of the digital data that had been constructing this virtual reality.
A world made of 0s and 1s was being broken down back into 0s and 1s.
The game was over.
The moment I realized there was no turning back, I frantically ran toward Kaint’s castle.
I don’t know why. What did I want to do now when everything was already over?
What meaning would there be in seeing his face one last time before the screen went dark and the bad ending logo appeared? The conquest had already failed anyway.
Even knowing it was foolish and meaningless, I ran up the stairs until I was out of breath.
If the world was collapsing anyway, I wished the physical laws that drained my poor stamina with each step would collapse too.
“Kaint!”
I threw open the heavy door to the room where I had seen him staying with his siblings through Valhalla’s mirror.
My shoulder and waist ached from having to body-slam the door open due to lack of arm strength, but this wasn’t the time to worry about such things.
“Joo-ah? How…!”
Thank goodness, Kaint was still safe. His siblings too… Oh?
“Shin Joo…”
Chloe, still whimpering from fear, got up and ran toward me.
She must have been terrified after experiencing such a shocking event. I also reached out my arms to embrace her.
But I couldn’t hug Chloe.
The moment her small shoes with yellow ribbons touched the floor, the feet inside them shattered into pieces.
“Huh…?”
Chloe looked up at me with a blank expression, seemingly unable to comprehend what was happening to her. The child’s mouth gaped as if trying to say something, but no words came out.
Because Chloe had already scattered into glowing 0s and 1s.
“Chloe!”
“Ahhh!”
Screams from the other siblings rang out from behind. The frightened children either ran into Kaint’s arms, retreated to hide in corners of the room, or rushed toward where Chloe had disappeared.
And they all dissolved into glowing 0s and 1s, scattering into pieces.
The space that had been full of sobbing children was suddenly left with just Kaint and me.
There wasn’t even time to react. Kaint’s golden eyes wandered in disbelief over the spots where his siblings had vanished.
Only an eerily twisted silence remained in the place where ten children had disappeared like bubbles.
“…Did you know about this, Divine Master?”
“Kaint?”
“When the time of destruction came, I had intended to dedicate my life until the very end to protecting those I love.”
Kaint clenched his empty fist. He rose from where he had been kneeling on one knee while holding his clinging siblings, straightened up, and looked at me.
“The reason I couldn’t follow you even after losing you before my eyes was because I still had young siblings to protect.”
“Kaint. Actually, those children…”
“Did you know that the children I cherished were mere illusions, Divine Master?”
The despair of losing precious family members before his eyes flickered in his golden eyes for just a moment. His usually sharp, gleaming eyes lost their light, filling instead with deep emptiness like a swamp.
“Kaint. Your goal wasn’t wrong. It’s just…”
“Aaaahhh!”
Screams erupted from outside the window. Kaint and I both turned our gaze toward it simultaneously.
The white beach and dock began splitting into tiny square pieces before breaking down into even smaller 0s and 1s.
As the blue roofs scattered and left gaping holes, the people who had been hiding inside began floating up into the air one by one.
Unlike during the massacre at the dock, this time there were no sounds of agony or smell of blood.
They crumbled like powdered dolls, leaving only their final screams behind.
The floating 0s and 1s being swept away by the wind looked just like sand being washed away by waves.
Kaint watched that devastating scene and laughed with resignation.
“So it was all an illusion.”
