CH 111

[War of Extinction Ragnarok–!]

“—Sigh~, Yuri-chan. You’re very strong…”

“That I am. You’re not bad yourself. For a guy pink from head to toe.”

“But I’m all black now…”

I dispelled the cursed art and approached the charred Merlin.

His body had begun to disappear, which meant his HP had hit 0. Well, it was only natural considering he’d been receiving a continuous fire of weapons with status effects with his spell exploding as the finisher.

“Before you go, tell me. Why you would pick such ‘timing’ to stab me in the back.”

“My, is that it…? You’re not going to ask why I did it…?”

“Well, your being Pendragon’s acquaintance explains it all. She must have put you to it.

“You’ve had many opportunities yet you went out of your way to wait until I opened the door before striking. What’s the reason?”

If he had simply wanted to kill me, he should have attacked me on our way here.

Heck, he shouldn’t have even bothered to tell me about the new area, which seemed to hold opportunities for me to grow stronger.

“…You knew I had a piece of ‘Cthulhu’ body, so you needed me to open the door for you… isn’t the reason, is it? With Pendragon’s strength and yours, you can take down Cthulhu and get the item by yourselves, after all.”

“Ahaha… true that. That isn’t the way we do things, too.”

“Then why? Why did you try to kill me after having me open the door—”

It was at that time. Merlin chuckled and his body completely disappeared into particles of light.

Seeing that, I clicked my tongue, “He didn’t tell me anything, in the end…” but in the next moment.

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・Hidden condition: Sacrifice a soul (※Kill a player) in the ‘Demon King Tomb Yuggoth’, met!

All Demon Steel machines are now in operation!

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“W-what’s going on?!”

At the same time as the message popped up, the machines in the factory began to make noises and operate.

Steam began to be produced all over the place and the engraved magic formations shined strongly and ominously.

“What the hell… Hm? What’s this…?”

I suddenly noticed something while I was trying to make sense of the situation.

I didn’t know when it got there, but a cute pink letter lay on the ground by my feet.

I picked it up and read it…

[Pendragon-chan aims to create a great war involving all players as a stage for your rematch.

[She’s a genius but has a screw loose in the head. By hiring thousands of players with her connections in real life and loads of real money, she has amassed tens of thousands of works of literature that exist in BSO.

[And then she went on deciphered all of them in just a few hours… From there, she derived the existence and conditions to trigger the greatest World Quest.]

“A great war involving all players and… the greatest world quest…?!”

Her aim, her means, and her abilities were… grand.

That lady really had a screw loose in the head. I continued to read the letter to the end.

[There are two conditions to trigger the World Quest. First is that a player finds the Demon King’s corpse and the hidden technology he left behind ‘Demon King Tomb Yuggoth’ and makes it fully operational. I was tasked to guide you to clear it.

[The second is that a player makes the ‘Goddess’ Spirit Tree Yggdrasil’ sprout. When the two conditions are met–Ragnarok will begin…!]

–It was right at that moment.

A huge window appeared in front of me along with a huge earthquake that made it feel like something massive was emerging from the earth.

The window said–

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・World News! World News! World News!

All combats will be forcibly stopped for the next 30 seconds!

Player: Yuri has awakened ‘Demon King Tomb Yuggoth’!

Player: Pendragon has awakened the ‘Goddess’ Spirit Tree Yggdrasil’!

With both of them having fully awakened, the conditions have been met!

The World Quest ‘The First War of Extinction Ragnarok’ will begin!

All players must decide whether to join the ‘Demon King’ side or the ‘Goddess’ side from the menu–!

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“Ha… hahaha…! Pendragon, you sick bastard! You went above and beyond for our grand rematch!”

Her enthusiasm both put off and amused me, and I ended up bursting into laughter.

–But I bet this was gonna be a ton of fun…!!! It sounded like endgame content and it would be involving all the players in the game, which should have exceeded 100,000 by now!!!

“…Bring it on! This might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, no way I’m gonna miss it!”

Thus, the final battle between me and Pendragon drew near!