A New Era, A Familiar Threat

While I was lost in thought, muttering to myself, something lifted my body. I sprang back and turned to see Nocturne.

“Uh, I… I don’t know what’s wrong, but let’s get up. I think we need to escape. I can’t get through these people alone.”

“Huh? Oh… right, isn’t it?”

We had to get out. That was my sole thought. In a daze, I pulled Bodangbo into my arms and forcibly handed the pile of bread I’d just bought to Nocturne. I couldn’t even recall using my inventory. Just as I grabbed Nocturne’s hand, intending to cast a spell, something firmly seized my wrist.

It was Rabi.

‘Ah, I hadn’t even considered that possibility.’ My fingertips tingled with an involuntary numbness.

“For now, could we not go to the tower? I don’t know where you intend to go… but please don’t leave like this. Hmm?”

A faint shimmer of light scattered around my feet.

[Raphael Carton has used a Calming spell on you. Confusion status has been removed.]

Confusion? Me? I hadn’t been poisoned or attacked, yet I was in a state of confusion? When in a confused state, my vision would slightly waver, and colors would appear faded. If it was severe, my hearing would also become muffled.

Yet, ultimately, this was just a game. These were merely visual effects; they had never truly impacted me, the player. A status ailment wouldn’t simply manifest without cause.

And this sudden tranquility felt utterly illogical. It made no sense.

“I was going to visit anyway. There are things I need.”

For some reason, there were too many NPCs, making it difficult to move around any further. While this sudden calmness was bizarre in its own way, my insides no longer twisted with unease. It was a truly strange sensation.

It was truly, profoundly strange.

I couldn’t fathom why mages were so fond of towers. It was the same in other games, too. Mages always gathered in towers, as if by some unspoken pact.

This magic tower, which I hadn’t visited in a long time, had changed considerably. Most peculiar of all, stairs had been added.

“But there are only mages here, so why are there stairs?”

It’s a tower. A really tall one, too. Why would they build stairs in a tower so high that its top is invisible from the ground? And besides, it’s rare for something to be added to an existing building in a game, isn’t it?

At my words, Rabi offered a bitter smile and gestured for us to sit.

“Um, we’re guests here… are we allowed to sit there?”

“Ah, right. I forgot.”

I had unwittingly taken the seat of honor. My body must have moved on its own, as it was the spot I always sat in before I handed over the magic tower. At Nocturne’s words, I awkwardly rose with Bodangbo in my arms and sat on the opposite side.

We followed Rabi into the magic tower. Rabi introduced me to the guards as a mage. He claimed I’d been in the tower for so long that my sense of reality was warped, asking for their understanding. ‘Did he think I was crazy?’ I started to protest, but Nocturne urged me to change seats first and then speak, so I simply complied.

Rabi paced for a while before finally sitting across from us. Then, he stared intently at me.

“First, and most importantly… this current generation is different from our time.”

“What do you mean?”

Did games distinguish between generations? I knew there were background timelines like 1st Generation, 2nd Generation for different titles, but those were merely part of the lore. While the era’s name might change to the Player Dynasty if a player took the Emperor route, I hadn’t followed that path.

“The current era is unaware of the existence of demons. Moreover, the level of magic has significantly regressed.”

“Regressed? How is that possible? I even caught monsters on the way here. The difficulty hasn’t decreased, has it?”

“That’s because you, yourself, annihilated countless demons.”

Could catching too many demons cause problems? When I tilted my head in confusion, Rabi waved a hand in the air. Teacups and light refreshments materialized on the low table. I picked up the teacup before me and moistened my lips. It was honey tea.

“I can’t pinpoint exactly what happened. Even if you were to explain it to me, I wouldn’t understand. But I felt countless demonic energies appear, vanish, clash, and ultimately perish.”

“This is quite the output. What does that have to do with regression?”

He must be talking about the respawn mod. According to the lore, Rabi could sense demonic energy. Though, truly, it was only a feeling of their presence.

And he could perceive and contemplate this? And then tell me about it?

“It seems to have affected the monsters outside as well. In fact, ever since you left to hunt demons, monster sightings have ceased entirely. Even when they rarely appeared, they posed no real threat.”

“But I definitely caught some on my way here!”

“They haven’t entirely vanished. They’ve merely dwindled to the brink of extinction.”

Indeed, defeating a high-ranking demon would cause nearby demons to perish. And NPC happiness would increase. But hadn’t that only affected the immediate vicinity? Could it be that I hadn’t seen field monsters because I always used teleportation, but because they had genuinely disappeared?

“So, there was no need for magic or combat, and everyone just gave up?”

“The so-called knights of today can barely even catch a black rat, let alone a kobold, on their own.”

A black rat is a mutated rodent, almost the size of a medium-sized dog. They are classified as monsters due to their immense size and ferocity. Typically, they roam in packs of five or six. In some ways, they are even more terrifying than wolves, given their incredible reproductive rate.

But even if they’re big, they’re still just rats. Even if they’re large and fierce, they’re still just rats. Their combat power is only slightly better than or similar to a dog of the same size. How can it be that they can’t even handle that?

I set down my teacup and, stroking Bodangbo’s ears in my arms, I spoke.

“Is that why the guards couldn’t even break through a basic barrier?”

“Today’s ‘special grade’ magic is equivalent to our era’s intermediate grade. There are almost no intelligent beings who can even perform basic level spells.”

“So, they built stairs because they can’t even manage basic mana manipulation, let alone teleportation?”

Rabi groaned softly and nodded.

A chill ran down my spine. This was a game. Things that didn’t exist couldn’t simply appear. Of course, things that did exist could suddenly vanish. But everything was supposed to follow a set script, yet what he was saying felt as if…

…it was real.

[Logout.]

[Cannot be executed. Please check the main quest.]

My mouth went dry. My vision seemed to blur.

A system message popped up. My inventory, skills, and items were all still there. I had only died once, when I defeated Medusa, but resurrection was possible.

Everything still worked, didn’t it? What had I missed?

I couldn’t breathe. No. I didn’t know anything about this.

Just then, Bodangbo, whom I held in my arms, gently patted my arm. I looked down to see Bodangbo blinking his large eyes, gazing up at me.

“Pata, what’s wrong?”

“Uh, uh… No, nothing.”

Don’t doubt. Don’t look back.

I deliberately hugged Bodangbo tighter in my arms. Bodangbo whined about feeling squeezed, but his complaints didn’t register. I forced down a dry swallow.

“This is a disaster. Everyone’s going to die. The paths connecting me to the demons are blocked, so I can’t catch them right now.”

“Wait? What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said. All the dimensional travel routes I used to find demons are blocked. I have to walk around and find the paths again myself.”

CRASH—!! The teacup Rabi had been about to lift plummeted to the floor, shattering. Tea splattered, yet no one spoke of it. Rabi stared at me, his face utterly pale.

“Then, the reason you’ve come here now is….”

“On the way, I met Hamman’s priests. They said they knew a few demon nests, so I came to get the information.”

“And you came to see the Great Tome of Demons, recorded in the magic tower’s restricted library, too?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Now that you mention it, that was also there.”

The magic tower contained a library accessible upon reaching a certain level. It was a place that housed books for acquiring skills, increasing proficiency, boosting stats, or simply containing game lore and storybooks.

The Great Tome of Demons also existed. It was, quite literally, a book documenting the demons appearing within the game. The problem was that it wasn’t a completed book; rather, it was a sort of souvenir that automatically updated based on my gameplay records. If one tried to view it early on, only three or four demons suitable for beginners would appear. Even then, it only contained strategies or lore about the demons, not their actual locations.

I already knew all the strategies, so they were useless to me. If all else failed, I could just go in with full gear and brute force them.

Wait a minute. This is just lore, isn’t it? It’s just a story within the game’s settings. This shouldn’t be such a serious matter. Yet, why was my throat so parched? Why was my mouth so incredibly dry?

“So, I used a respawn mod… no. I used a method of clashing and destroying demonic energies by killing and reviving them. But at some point, the demons suddenly stopped reviving. And all the paths I used to travel to demon nests were blocked.”

“Perhaps, but… I think the demons gave up on their reincarnation and severed the dimensions themselves. To cut off my path.”

Nocturne, who had been observing the alchemy workbench in the back, had also turned to look this way at some point. Only Bodangbo continued to roll his eyes, as if understanding nothing.

“I have to keep catching them periodically to make them perish, but my path to finding demons has been cut off, so I haven’t been able to catch them.”

“They’ll crawl out. Unleashing immense power, commensurate with their sacrifice of reincarnation rights.”

No. Don’t be anxious. It’s fine. I’ve caught plenty before. I can do this. What the hell do I care, anyway? Rabi is here in the capital. Just blocking them should be entirely possible.

Don’t be scared. It’s just a game.

I took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. Then, I deliberately forced a wider smile.

“But it’s okay. As always, I’ll catch the demons again.”

It’s okay. Everything will be fine. I forcibly swallowed down any anxiety.