The Story is Told to the Protagonist.

“… Don’t hate me too much for lying.”

The lie revealed at the end. I’m not an Earthling.

“I’m sending you home like this, after all.”

I spilled out other final words as well.

“Don’t worry about Earth. I… no, Seol Ga-ram will protect it in your place too. I’ll help from the side.”

“I hope we can meet again if we get the chance, not in a place like this, but on Earth. Show me around your ranch. Oh, and make sure to win that gold medal. Fighting.”

“And… um… well… thank you.”

If it wasn’t for her, I might have been the one lying there.

It’s time to send her now.

“Hold your breath for a moment…”

Oh, wait a second.

I pulled out the handkerchief sticking out of her pocket.
Wow, there really are women who carry handkerchiefs around.

“Can I use this?”

I tied it to my right hand where Prayer would appear again soon. Let’s cover it up like this.

“Sorry for keeping you. Really, go now. Rest.”

I looked at her momentarily, appearing as if she was peacefully asleep.

Then I covered her face with my hands.

***

Sierra’s POV

“Kyaak!”

I woke up with a start from a terrible nightmare.
No, was it really a dream?

The first thing I saw was numerous flashlights.

Click-
Click, click-

“Oh! She’s awake!”

“Ms. Sierra! As the first survivor of the great mysterious disappearance incident, please say a word!”

“Ms. Sierra! Tell us what you saw and experienced!”

“Are the other missing people alive? Please say something to encourage the families of the victims!”

“Did you see the Korean man called the ‘Hope of Earth’ there?”

“Ms. Sierra!”

Numerous people at the room entrance were flashing their cameras.
I was dumbfounded by the barrage of questions before I could even grasp the situation.

“Ugh…”

It’s so bright…

“This is a hospital room! Get out! Hey, call security!”

“When are the government people coming!? How did the reporters get up here!”

I turned my eyes away from the flashes. Finally, I took in the room scene.

‘Hospital…?’

Artificial ceiling. Soft blanket. TV, electronic devices…

As I slowly became aware of the situation, my mouth and eyes widened.
Things I had always taken for granted. Artificial lighting, the warmth of the blanket, even Earth humans. Everything touched my heartstrings and felt like a blessing.

“Ah…”

Finally, tears burst forth.
At the same time, terrible memories comparable to this blissful moment overlap.

Life-threatening monsters. Aliens who might kill me at any moment. Exhausting marches, a wooden man laughing while cutting my throat, blood, death…

‘How did… Ah!’

And the last memory comes to mind.

The memory of my body not moving, only a hazy consciousness remaining.
The face of the most important man. His words.

<…I don’t know. I’ll just trust you.>

<… Don’t hate me too much for lying. I’m sending you home like this, after all.>

The large, warm palm closed my eyes.
The voice that was always the most reliable, even if it wasn’t the last moment.

A face I really want to see again.

‘Again… huh?’

I frantically searched my left pocket. Thankfully, my clothes were still the same.

The pocket where I had put my handkerchief was empty.

***

“If you pick up a dagger, give it to me.”

“Sure thing!”

After sending Sierra off, I cleaned up the battlefield with the team leader and Ein.
The dagger I used before was all worn out from fighting the wooden man.

‘I’ll keep it for now, but…’

I picked up the tattered dagger.

Crack.

‘Damn.’

It broke.
… Let’s think positively. It would have been a disaster if it had broken during the fight.

But no daggers came out of other corpses.
How can there not be a single usable blade?

“Think positively! You fought well enough with your fists even after throwing away the dagger you had!”

“Hmm…”

Still, a no-talent like me needs at least a blunt weapon or blade at the beginning.

‘… Can’t be helped.’

I just let it go.
Complaining won’t make something appear out of nowhere.

“Ein. How’s that apprentice knight’s sword?”

“It’s broken.”

“Huh?”

That got broken? It looked like an iron longsword.

“How did it break?”

“That’s what I’m saying. How did you break it, Noah?”

“Huh?”

Me?

The swordsman says he withdrew the sword he was swinging to defend himself when I attacked with superhuman reflexes.
So, it was broken by my fist.

‘…It really was a powerful blow.’

I looked at my palm wrapped in the handkerchief, recalling that power.

‘The effect of this Prayer is certainly…’

Originally, Prayer is borrowing the power of a powerful being for its duration.

Most have effects like being able to use a specific skill, or temporarily having greatly increased stats.

But this Prayer was different from the existing ones.

‘It’s not like other Prayers where you’re granted tremendous power.’

The power earlier was purely the strength of my mana.
In that sense, the destructive power of the Prayer itself could be considered incomparably inferior.

But the nature of the effect is different.

‘The effect of this Prayer is not something like power… but borrowing the talent of Seol Ga-ram from the novel.’

Stats and skills remain the same.
However, during the duration, I have the talent of the world’s greatest genius.

And the most significant difference.

‘The sensation remains.’

Usually, when a Prayer ends, nothing remains.
But this Prayer is different.

Of course, that sense of omnipotence disappeared. Still, the memory and sensation of handling mana at that moment became my experience, remaining vaguely.

I remember. The flow of mana coursing through my body. The sensation of handling mana.

‘This… I think I could do that level again without the Prayer?’

My mana is all gone now, so I’ll have to try later.

If I do it again, instead of pouring everything out in one shot like before, I should aim for sustained combat by using it more delicately and strategically.

Using up all my mana in one shot.
Fighting like that, I won’t win even winnable battles.

‘I’m not sure if I can control it that much with just the sensation of one shot remaining.’

I think I’d become much more proficient if I could use the Prayer again.

Just as Seol Ga-ram in the original work grew with her talent, I, too, will become stronger each time I use the Prayer.

‘Anyway, I’ve taken a step closer to using mana.’

I was worried because my talent was inferior compared to other climbers.
But with this.

‘If I can grow with the protagonist’s talent…’

Maybe I can meet the minimum qualifications to be by her side.
My heart raced at that expectation.

‘But… why is there a Prayer of the protagonist? Because I’m the author?’

I have no idea what kind of plausibility this is.

“Noah.”

“Yes?”

Ein woke me from my reverie.
She called me and looked at the bound wooden man.

“Please spare me. No, take me with you!”

He kneels and politely begs.

“You don’t need points, so there’s no benefit in killing me. As you saw in battle, I’m capable…”

He meets my eyes and closes his mouth.
Only after touching my face did I realize my expression was stiff.

The team leader and Ein were the same.

Although the wooden man also needed to pass the trial, we had inflicted too many wounds on each other.

Especially because of the wooden man, we parted with Sierra.
He, too, lost all his team members. Just as we do, he can’t view us favorably.

Perhaps there was a reason he was called Master, he seemed to grasp the situation quickly.

“Catch him!”

He suddenly gets up and runs away.

But tree roots sprouted from under our feet – mine, Ein’s, and the team leader’s – tying our ankles.

Swoosh!

While we were untying our ankles, the distance had already widened.
But then.

Fwip-

An arrow pierced the back of his head, and he fell face-first with the momentum of his run.

Ding!

[You have annihilated a 4-person team. You have acquired 200 points.]

Click. Ein put away her crossbow.

“Nice.”

“Uahahahak-! As expected of Eindnyak!”

“Let’s go now.”

Right. Now that the annihilation message has appeared and we’re standing in front of the portal, it finally feels real.
We’ve cleared the long 2nd floor.

‘First clear reward. Can we get it?’

If we have that, we might be able to use [Rewriting Causality] more substantially.

‘Ah!’

I checked my skills before receiving the reward.

[Climber Information]
…
Skills:

Okay. It’s [Grasp], not [Perseverance].
That’s probably how the reward will come out properly.

As Ein and the team leader dipped their bodies into the portal, their figures disappeared as if passing through.

As I was about to take a step to follow them, a sudden sense of unease came over me.

‘…I can manage the 3rd floor, but can I do well from the 4th floor onwards?’

I briefly took out the necklace from inside my clothes.
I held the black bead of the necklace and closed my eyes quietly.

“…”

My mind calmed down.
I tucked it securely back inside my clothes so as not to lose it again and took a step.

‘Here I go. To the 3rd floor.’

I hope I can meet her on the 4th floor.

I immersed myself in the hole of light.

***

“Ga-ram! Looking forward to working with you on the next floor too!”

Team members wave their hands.
The girl called Ga-ram waves back, and soon they disappear into the portal.

However, the girl doesn’t cross the portal with them and turns back momentarily.

Taking in the dreamlike scenery of the jewel forest, she musters courage and calls out softly.

“…Are you there?”

It was a futile echo.
The girl knew no answer would come, but she called out with the feeling of grasping at the last straw.

But she shuddered at the oncoming sense of emptiness and fear.

Why aren’t you coming?

‘In the dream… you were definitely here.’

The prophetic dream she’d had since childhood.
Among them, he was definitely here at this time, in this place.
Although she remains here now, in the dream, she clearly crosses the portal with that man.

‘Why is it different? Why isn’t he here?’

Since her prophetic dreams had never been wrong, she naturally expected to meet him on the 2nd floor. But as the end approached, only anxiety grew.

And finally, at the end of the 2nd floor now. He didn’t come.

‘The dream… was wrong?’

The girl felt dizzy from the confusion of a firmly believed rule being broken, and the frustration of betrayed expectations for their meeting.

Truly, from the auditorium, her head had been full of that man.

The more she thought of him, the more questions followed one after another.
Another question suddenly struck her mind.

‘Did he change the content of the dream?’

The girl’s shoulders flinched.

Changing the scene of a prophetic dream.
It was something no one but herself, who could directly see the future, had ever accomplished.

No, it wasn’t even a concept of someone ‘accomplishing’ it. Dreams coming true exactly as seen was a natural law.

But for the first time, it was broken. Then,

‘If he really can change the future.’

The last scene of the dream.
Could he change even the end of the world?

The girl grabbed her own forearm and bowed her head deeply while standing.

An intense desire to see him. But as that desire goes unfulfilled, emptiness washes over her in reaction.

I want to see him.

It’s not a romantic feeling like love.
It was a desperate longing, close to thrashing about, to rely on him to escape from her anxiety and pain.

Knowing the end of the world alone was a terrible thing.

Because only she knew, only she could change it. Only she could change the dream.

Thus, she took on the mission herself, which was too great a burden for a girl who was just a high school student until yesterday.
She suffered by herself.

But now it was different.
He had clearly shouted.

< You’re not the only one who knows about the end of the world!>

The simple fact that there was one more person was a great comfort. She felt a sense of kinship because they shared the same mission and relief that there was someone willing to help her.

There was confusion too.
How he knew the future like her, how he had changed her dream, and why he was trying to help her.

Why doesn’t he appear before her eyes, unlike in the dream?

The girl was neither a citizen of the Unified Universe nor someone who knew the world’s settings like Kang Noah. She only glimpsed scenes of the future in dreams.

Therefore, she didn’t know exactly who the ‘author of the prophecy book’ was.

Such things weren’t important to her.
What mattered was meeting him, whoever he was.

‘Will I be able to meet him on the next floor?’

Looking at the forest trembling with emptiness, the girl soon immersed herself in the portal, following her companions.