Ch.125120 – Crumbling World

“Sis! My body… my body…?”

The moment I defeated Beelzebub.

My head started spinning, and like I was having anemia, everything went dark and my legs trembled.

I feel like I’ve experienced this before, but when was it… Right.

This is exactly how it felt when I was ejected from the world after pushing myself too hard in the capsule without caring about my physical condition.

I could faintly hear Adella’s voice.

What is she saying?

“Hic… what is this… why can’t I grab it… hic… waaaaaah!”

Adella kept waving her arms around, but frustratingly, nothing was caught in her hands.

I’ve defeated the annoying fly, and now I just need to defeat the final boss…

I think I overlooked the story too much. I simply assumed that as long as Adella was alive, a boss would appear somehow.

I should have prepared for the possibility of there being no boss.

But how?

It’s not like a boss would just appear out of nowhere, so how do I clear this? It’s way beyond what I could have prepared for.

Adella’s figure gradually faded away like a stone dropped into a pond.

A familiar scene unfolds before my eyes. It was a small 3-pyeong room with a bed, table, and blackboard.

Somehow my body was sitting in an armchair, but I immediately got up and turned on the login screen.

I can’t connect to World of Arsheria again.

[Access denied for User NoName#3947292]

[Error Code: 75015]

[Please refer to the system event log for more details.]

“Why can’t I connect when time hasn’t passed yet?”

It’s still 10:24.

-There are still people in the game!!!

-WTFWTFWTFWTF

-Why is Part 4 of the story blocked?

-Open the path now! Before I rage!

-??????????

-Maintenance hasn’t even started yet

The viewers were also feeling bewildered, not even having time to enjoy the joy of clearing.

[Access denied for User NoName#3947292]

[Access denied for User NoName#3947292]

[Access denied for User NoName#3947292]

No matter how many times I clicked on the World Tree icon, the result was the same.

[‘HotIce’ donated 1,000 won!]

-Have you tried running it as administrator?

“Nothing works…”

[‘richardsilver’ donated 1,000 won!]

-Let’s try reconnecting to the capsule account first and then try again.

Following their suggestions, I created a new account, turned the stream off and on again, but the World of Arsheria icon remained unresponsive.

“Nothing’s working… haaa seriously…”

-crying crying crying

-Streamer, are you crying…?

-Your voice is really shaking

-I’ll kill Wearsoft for making NoName cry. That’s all I’ve been thinking from the start.

-What kind of situation is this

-Only 20 minutes left until emergency maintenance…

-Adella please crying crying crying

-Forest Guardian, don’t we seem familiar? Wait, why are there tears…?

└ Stop making it worse crying

└ crying crying

└ That’s so mean

-They should at least give us a chance to finish! What is this suddenly!

“I’m not crying over this. But still. Haaaa…”

[‘OMO’ donated 1,000 won!]

-Let’s get your mental together and contact customer service.

-Yeah that would be better

-Since it’s an unusual maintenance, Wearsoft must have something in mind

-We’ll submit inquiries too. Streamer, do you have the open world seed written down?

“I think it was Q39Z487YO166ML4338JA. Thanks for helping.”

-Is that for real?

-How the hell did you memorize that wtf?

-damn damn damn

-Your brain is something else

-The streamer is getting scary at this point

Tick tock, time keeps passing.

Going around in circles, my limbs feel numb like muscle pain hitting all at once.

Above all, I was exhausted as if my whole body had been wrung out like a dishcloth. If I lose consciousness here, I’ll be kicked out of the capsule too.

What should I do now?

I feel most pathetic when I feel powerless.

It makes me feel like I’m nothing, just like when I was completely trapped in the capsule and couldn’t get out.

It was 10:55.

Of course, there was no reply from customer service.

I probably won’t get a response until 9 AM tomorrow at the earliest.

I took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to tear my hair out.

Still, nothing improved.

After doing this once, twice, dozens of times.

Dong-

The sound announcing 11 PM was heard.

I brought up the window I had set aside.

[ipfs://worldofarceria.waresoft.com/ko-kr/]

The notice board only showed the emergency maintenance schedule that viewers had mentioned earlier.

Many people were firing angry comments, but there was no response from the administrators yet.

Going back to the homepage, the World of Arsheria trailer started playing automatically.

The lush forest scenery quickly passed by, showing the brilliant imperial capital and Remnant Academy.

Students in uniforms were practicing sword fighting and magic duels, then noticed the screen and smiled brightly.

Bats rushed out of the entrance to Letiskaya’s cave, which I had quickly conquered to catch Nocturne, startling Luna Pavilis who fell on her bottom.

The scene quickly changed again to the Papal State where the hero’s party reunites with Lepi and Daniel, and the kind-looking Pope helps with their baptism ceremony using holy water.

These were scenes I could have seen if I had played on normal difficulty.

I had plenty of opportunities to choose the difficulty again.

But I didn’t because of my stubbornness.

I also didn’t care much about the Nightmare difficulty.

After all, the monsters and enemies that appeared were just minnows to me.

Because of my petty pride and stubbornness, this disaster happened.

I had a bad feeling when those error messages kept popping up, but now there was no going back.

Not only did I need to preserve the memories I shared with her, but now I had an additional reason to talk to her.

Because I definitely remembered seeing Adella somewhere before.

In my past life.

* * *

“Adella…”

A soft, gentle voice called her name.

She shrank from the somewhat cold air, then slowly raised her long eyelashes.

“Mmm, where am I meow…”

“Capital District 3, Winier Inn.”

“Mmm… I see… Huh? Wait, what did you say? District 3?”

Adella tried to get up quickly but rolled off the bed.

After hitting her head on the floor with a thud and making a cute “ow ow” sound, she lowered herself to the floor and looked around.

“NoName, did we… did we actually do it meow?”

“Yes. We retrieved both laurels, the Abyss companions are safe, and most importantly, we survived. You don’t have to die anymore, Adella.”

“Hic… waaah! So we did it meow… hic… sis, you have no idea how scared I was…! Hic…”

She immediately ran to the blonde woman.

It’s warm, her heart is beating. Adella shed tears of joy and didn’t leave her embrace for a while.

“It must have been hard for you, Adella. Dying so many times.”

“That’s what I should be saying to you! What were you thinking meow! And what was that regression…! Was that also the power of the laurel meow?”

“No. Not the laurel. There’s something more transcendent than that, Adella.”

“Anyway, I’m so glad you’re back… really glad… why did you go so far for me meow…”

“Because I know you better than anyone.”

“You know me? You know me?”

“Yes. Maybe even better than you know yourself.”

“There you go lying again… I can’t trust you anymore.”

Adella turned her head away.

Seeing this, the blonde woman wrapped her arms around Adella and pulled her close.

Surprised by the sudden skinship, Adella gasped.

“W-what are you doing…?”

“Pat pat.”

The hand that was stroking her crown gradually moved down her back and stopped at the top of her tail, lightly tapping it.

Her eyes widened with each light vibration.

Adella swallowed a moan as her nerves stood on end from the thrilling sensation.

“Stop it…”

But without pausing, the hand lightly grabbed her silver tail and stroked it from root to tip in one go.

“Eeeeeek!”

Adella, who inadvertently let out a sound, grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth in protest.

“Y-you… are you crazy meow? Don’t you know how sensitive a cat-person’s tail is!”

“That’s strange. I definitely enjoyed it.”

“Regardless of whether it feels good or not, it’s rude to touch without permission meow!”

That was the first meeting between Adella and the Night NoName.

Night NoName didn’t literally appear only at night (their first meeting was actually in the morning), but the nickname fit her personality perfectly.

“You can’t just take off your clothes anywhere like that!”

“Adella? Can you put some ointment on my body?”

“You’re not a child, you can do that by yourself… uh…?”

Adella, who had been covering her face with her palms, was shocked when she saw the forest guardian’s white back through the gaps between her fingers.

“These wounds… what are all these meow…? Who did this to you!”

From deep cuts made by knives to wounds that looked like they were stabbed by something sharp.

Dozens of scars of various sizes were evenly distributed across her body.

Each time she applied a thin layer of white cream on her back, Adella bit her lower lip hard.

“Were you a slave in the past meow?”

“Good deduction. Similar but a bit different.”

“Didn’t it hurt…?”

“I don’t perceive the past. I only remember it.”

She told Adella all about the Arsheria Forest and the true nature of the laurel.

Adella became angry at the cruel and shameless behavior of the Empire.

The fact that young slaves without ointment were all sacrificed as offerings for Yggdrasil’s growth, and that if she had been just a little unlucky, she would have been among them.

Having learned the secret of the world, Adella wiped away tears again.

She explained that her goal was to return the soul of Yggdrasil, now called the “laurel,” to its original place to seal the demon fragments forever.

“But why did you, of all people, take on a task that no one will appreciate?”

Her answer was simple yet profound.

“For you. And to clear the game. And this is as far as I go. If you want to meet me, keep defeating Mephistopheles.”

Unable to understand those words, Adella greeted another new morning, but after that, she couldn’t find the night form in her anymore.

“Hello, kitty.”

Now she couldn’t even remember her own name. But she roughly understood.

First, her mission was to defeat Mephistopheles with the Day NoName.

There was some conflict regarding the fate of the Day NoName, called an angel, and Daniel, but in the end, Adella succeeded in changing her mind.

The angel’s abilities were truly limitless.

She instantly cured Lepi’s incurable disease by removing the polymorph magic cast on her, and when the great demon was summoned, she didn’t even blink before sealing it in the ground forever.

It should have been a perfect day.

It definitely should have been.

She sat on the edge of a cliff with a dizzying drop and looked up at the sky.

[This World is currently under Maintenance.]

[Error 3003]

The sky is filled with a message similar to but different from when NoName died.

The world turns black and white, and begins to crumble slowly from the edges.

“Hehe… am I having a nightmare right now? If so, I hope I wake up soon…”

Because even if it’s a dream, this is too scary.