The Player that Can’t Level Up

Initially, human players were supposed to purge the Caravan Guild. However, that had changed because they had to find the entrance to Gehenna quickly. Therefore, a much larger and more powerful group, which also included Eden creatures, was created. It had swiftly destroyed the Caravan Guild, killing those who hadn’t surrendered and sparing those who had.

Thanks to that, Lou and El had found the entrance much more quickly. The problem, however, was that too many players had died in that affray. Unlike Eden’s foot soldiers, these players couldn’t be brought back.

Moreover, the Caravan Guild used to house demons and many human players. Unfortunately, the war had also killed many of those humans. Before the Caravan Guild purge, human players, as a whole, had been at the peak of their power. It was 30 years ago when the Tower had appeared, and the players who had survived so far were as strong as they could be. But during the destruction of the Caravan Guild, the human race lost many of its powerful players. Consequently, humans were having difficulty surviving what was happening on Earth.

The elevator stopped. It was not a normal elevator because it looked like a giant orb with a control panel; it was something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

The round door of the elevator opened, and Old Man Hwang greeted Sung-Hoon, “There you are.”

Old Man Hwang was waiting in the control tower of the Sephiroth Tree.

“Sir, how have you been?” Sung-Hoon bowed to Old Man Hwang respectfully. In the room were Hart, Hwang Chae-II, and Mammon, apart from the elderly blacksmith.

“I… didn’t know you were here too, Lord Mammon.” Sung-Hoon sounded uncomfortable.

Mammon was now a powerful ally of Eden, but his past sins couldn’t be ignored. This was why Sung-Hoon felt awkward around him.

Sung-Hoon was standing awkwardly when Old Man Hwang suggested, “Why don’t we have a seat?”

On a giant sofa, Sung-Hoon and the rest sat down together. On the armchair, a one-person sofa, sat the most senior figure here, Old Man Hwang. In terms of age and experience, Mammon was actually the most senior figure here, but while one had a criminal history, the other had a history of helping Eden. After some negotiation, Old Man Hwang and Mammon had concluded that the elderly blacksmith deserved this honor.

“I know what’s happening in the outside world,” Old Man Hwang began with a frown. Everything had happened so quickly, including the elimination of the Caravan Guild and Lou and El’s journey to Gehenna.

Due to all of these sudden changes, Old Man Hwang’s plan to turn Eden into a tourist attraction had failed. He found this upsetting, but there was at least one area of progress. The government and Eden worked together to allow people living near the Bukhan River or other Korean volunteers to live in Eden.

Old Man Hwang asked Sung-Hoon, “So I hear the gates are causing all kinds of problems, huh?”

“Yes, Sir. And it’s not just the gates. There is something odd about the Tower too.”

Old Man Hwang and Sung-Hoon looked at each other. Old Man Hwang continued, “You remember the request you made earlier?"

“...”

“There was no way to avoid Eden getting involved in the Caravan Guild’s destruction. So, you asked me to let humans fix the rest of Earth’s problems.”

Sung-Hoon didn’t deny Old Man Hwang’s words. Old Man Hwang added, “We believed that you were right at the time. Unlike the association Eden, our Eden is basically Gi-Gyu’s private force. On top of this, this place is turning into a different world where various species live together. So if we continue to help humans with every little thing…”

“Humans will regress,” Sung-Hoon replied firmly. “Your Eden is powerful. In truth, all the players combined won’t be enough to fight it.”

Sung-Hoon raised his voice a little as he continued, “I do not want Eden to help us. I know that, with your help, we will lose fewer players, and the human world will become safer.”

“However, if humans become too dependent on Eden, they will stop growing.”

“Exactly.”

Hwang Chae-Il nodded as he listened to Old Man Hwang and Sung-Hoon’s conversation. Humans tended to become dependent on their protectors.

‘But this can be very dangerous,’ Sung-Hoon thought grimly.

“If this protection disappears, then…” Sung-Hoon trailed off.

Old Man Hwang said quietly, “It will create chaos.”

“And if the master of Eden changes…” What Sung-Hoon worried about the most was this. If humans suddenly lost Eden’s protection, they would become helpless and vulnerable. And that was why Sung-Hoon was feeling hesitant about becoming independent of Eden.

Sung-Hoon said with a sigh. “But I don’t think we have a choice anymore. At this point, humans won’t survive without Eden.”

“It’s that bad, is it?” asked Old Man Hwang.

“Yes,” Sung-Hoon answered promptly. “Ranker Kim Gi-Gyu… I owe him so much. As a matter of fact, this whole world should be grateful to him and consider him a hero, but…”

“We have no idea if Gi-Gyu would change in the future. Of course, we have no choice but to side with him no matter what,” said Old Man Hwang. They were unconditionally loyal to him due to the sync. Things were okay now, but if Gi-Gyu made wrong choices in the future, the world could face an even bigger problem.

Sung-Hoon replied, “Even if we survive this, the world might face extinction again if Ranker Kim Gi-Gyu changes his mind.”

Sung-Hoon rose and continued, “We haven’t told many people about this yet, but…”

“...”

With a concerned look, Sung-Hoon added, “We’re expecting a gate to appear in Seoul. And no country has ever seen a gate of this scale.”

The gate-detecting machine told them beforehand when a new gate was to appear. The newest version of the machine had been recently completed and was brought to Korea during the Caravan Guild’s destruction. According to the machine, the biggest gate in human history of the highest class was about to appear in Seoul.

When Old Man Hwang remained calm, Sung-Hoon muttered, “You don’t look surprised, which tells me you knew about this already.”

Sung-Hoon shook his head, telling himself that it didn’t matter how and why Gi-Gyu’s creatures knew about this.

“I’m begging you. Please protect Seoul—no, the entire world from this gate,” Sung-Hoon requested.

Old Man Hwang rose, his eyes calm as he watched Sung-Hoon, who waited anxiously.

‘I know I’m being shameful.’ Sung-Hoon was ashamed to be asking for help like this. He had refused Eden’s help not long ago, claiming that humans could care for themselves. But here he was, begging for help now that things had worsened. The situation had changed so quickly that his action seemed understandable, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty.

‘Especially because I doubted Ranker Kim Gi-Gyu…’ Sung-Hoon felt like he had betrayed Gi-Gyu.

Just then, Old Man Hwang walked up to Sung-Hoon and placed his hand on Sung-Hoon’s shoulder.

“Eden is here for you. Gi-Gyu wanted that, so…” Old Man Hwang confidently continued, “Don’t worry.”

Heo Sung-Hoon slumped before whispering, “Thank you…”

***

“We need to move fast. I’ve already wasted a lot of your time, so we need to make up for it,” Oh Tae-Shik urged Gi-Gyu. The group continued to climb to higher floors.

‘We’re already on the 88th floor.’ Gi-Gyu thought. Before long, they would be on the 89th floor, one floor below their destination.

“We will meet Lee Sun-Ho soon,” Gi-Gyu announced.

“Indeed.” Oh Tae-Shik nodded. He also knew that Lee Sun-Ho was on the 90th floor.

While traveling together, Gi-Gyu and Tae-Shik had shared a lot of information. They didn’t have enough time to talk about everything that had happened to them, but they still managed to go over the main events.

“...” Gi-Gyu looked at Tae-Shik quietly. ‘I’m so thankful to him.’

When Ha Song-Su had targeted Gi-Gyu’s family, Tae-Shik rushed to save them. Tae-Shik had to abandon his father to save Gi-Gyu’s family, and he had then escaped with Suk-Woo through a portal.

Knowing he wasn’t powerful enough to defeat Ha Song-Su, Tae-Shik had left to become stronger to protect the woman he loved—Gi-Gyu’s mother—temporarily entrusting Gi-Gyu’s family to Suk-Woo. Tae-Shik believed that with Suk-Woo’s portal skill, he could safeguard Gi-Gyu’s family.

‘Tae-Shik hyung said he felt helpless.’ Tae-Shik was desperate to become stronger to protect the woman he loved. He had explained to Gi-Gyu that he had known how to become stronger.

It turned out that there used to be a seal on Tae-Shik’s shell. Consequently, he couldn’t level up like other players using experience until not too long ago. Apparently, Gi-Gyu's father, Kronos/Kim Se-Jin, had forced Tae-Shik’s growth. And a seal was placed on his shell during the process. Before Oh Tae-Gu had been imprisoned in Gehenna, he had told his son how to undo the seal.

“Find Behemoth,” said Oh Tae-Gu.

At the time of the early high-rankers, Behemoth was considered the worst monster. But Behemoth had supposedly been eliminated by these high-rankers.

‘However, Behemoth never died. It was just sealed away.’ Gi-Gyu remembered Tae-Shik explaining that this monster had been exiled to the dimensional gap in the Tower’s basement.

So Tae-Shik had gone to the Tower’s basement to find Behemoth. Locating something in a dimensional gap was nearly impossible, but Tae-Shik had no problem because he had the key to Behemoth’s prison.

‘And that key was Tae-Shik hyung’s identity and favorite weapon, Behemoth’s Thorn.’

Kronos had injected incredible power into Tae-Shik. He had used that and Behemoth’s thorn to locate Behemoth. Tae-Shik had planned to undo his seal, but Behemoth had refused to let him borrow its power. And that was the start of a never-ending battle.

Being in exile for so long had weakened Behemoth. Thanks to that, Tae-Shik could handle the monster but not defeat it. And so, their fight continued. They had fought for so long that, at some point, they had somehow become one. Their existences had mixed to become one. The dark barrier Gi-Gyu had seen earlier was actually Tae-Shik’s seal, which had devoured both Tae-Shik and Behemoth.

After becoming one with the beast, Tae-Shik had failed to maintain his consciousness. As if possessed, Tae-Shik and Behemoth had left the dimensional gap and ended up inside the Tower.

“And that’s when we met Lee Sun-Ho,” Tae-Shik explained. He couldn’t remember which floor it was, but he was certain that he had met Lee Sun-Ho. Even though Tae-Shik had become much more powerful thanks to becoming one with Behemoth, Lee Sun-Ho had trounced him.

“Then, Lee Sun-Ho made us a ruler,” Tae-Shik added. Lee Sun-Ho had ordered Tae-Shik to become a ruler protecting the 85th floor from invaders.

Gi-Gyu was shocked to hear that Tae-Shik and Behemoth could not disobey this order. Tae-Shik's eyes trembled with nervousness as he looked at Gi-Gyu.

“He gave Behemoth and me more power and commanded us. We were helpless against him. It was as if…”

Gi-Gyu could guess what Tae-Shik was about to say. “That sounds like my sync ability.”

“Exactly. Just like that,” Tae-Shik replied. It appeared that Lee Sun-Ho could inject power into his opponent and force obedience. However, that was different from Gi-Gyu’s sync. The fact that Tae-Shik was back to normal proved this.

‘Lim Hyun-Soo.’ Gi-Gyu turned to see Lim Hyun-Soo lying unconscious on top of a dragon. Lim Hyun-Soo must have gone through the same thing as Tae-Shik. He most likely received power from Lee Sun-Ho and had been forced to obey him.

Of all the things Tae-Shik had said, what bothered Gi-Gyu the most was how Lee Sun-Ho had turned Tae-Shik into a ruler.

Just then, the ground began shaking.

Tae-Shik announced, “We better get to the next floor.”

Soon, a giant door leading to the 89th floor appeared before their eyes.

***

“Haa…” Lou sighed and looked down. He and El were still inside the Pandemonium palace. They were currently at the top of the highest tower. When they looked down, they could see the entire Pandemonium.

“Everyone has gathered,” Lou whispered. All the survivors living in Pandemonium were standing at the square in front of the palace. And their number was much higher than anticipated. There was only one reason so many had survived in this hellish place where one couldn’t even find daily necessities.

Oh Tae-Gu thanked Lou and El, “We survived all thanks to you two.”

Lou and El didn’t deny his claim because it was the truth. So many had survived because they had built Pandemonium in the past.

Lou shouted at the crowd, “You guys all know that, right?!”

Most humans in the crowd were new to Gehenna, so they had no idea who Lou and El were, but the other species had been here much longer. There were even some species that had gone extinct outside this place. Some angels, demons, and others had been here since the day it was built.

Lou continued to yell, “I’m sorry I couldn’t remember you! But now, it’s time to leave this fucking place!”

The crowd went wild, and El whispered, “They’re coming.”

A fair distance away from Pandemonium, a dust storm began. Their remaining dormant enemies were waking up as if they had been waiting for Lou and El to regain their memories.

Lou looked at the dust storm coldly and added, “I’m sure you know how to get out of this place. People, it’s war.”

Lou leaped into the air. He shot out faster than a bullet; in the sky, two horns grew from his forehead.

“Let’s go,” Lou announced. The war to escape Gehenna was about to begin.

“Ackkkkk!” The survivors in Pandemonium began transforming into soldiers.