Pick me Up – Chapter 280 – Mission Type – Conquest (6)
Boom!
When I opened my eyes, a piercing headache shot through my skull.
“......”
I was lying on the ground.
Clearing my foggy mind, I slowly pushed myself up on both arms.
A biting cold, like a winter wind, enveloped my entire body.
I remembered what had happened.
I was in the middle of the mission on the 80th floor.
The company had intervened to control the main boss, the Prince of Taonier, and at that moment, Pryos had taken advantage of the situation to wield his dimensional sword and cause chaos.
‘Had he planned this from the start?’
If he had truly intended to fight against us, things wouldn't have reached this point.
Manipulating the state of the scenario, betraying a transcendent entity, and luring the forces of the headquarters—all of it seemed calculated.
First, I checked the condition of my body.
Fortunately, I had no serious injuries. Bifrost was still hanging at my waist.
I could fight if an enemy appeared at any moment.
‘...Where am I?’
I looked around.
An entirely unfamiliar scene unfolded before my eyes.
A space as dark as coal. It looked as if someone had painted with a black crayon on a huge canvas. I stood on an endless surface.
This place had no sense of reality, as if I were inside a dream.
[Dimension 0000 – ???]
A holographic message appeared.
Dimension 0000.
Seeing the words on the screen, I knew where I was.
Server 1.
Or a place close to it.
‘I didn't expect to get here this way.’
I took a deep breath.
To remain calm no matter what happened.
Click, click.
The sound of footsteps was clearly heard.
Schrnk. I drew my sword and headed towards the source of the sound.
There stood Pria, looking at me with vacant eyes.
“......Han.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Come to me. This is not a safe place.”
Pria nodded and hurriedly walked towards me.
Her golden eyes showed a disturbing emotion.
“Where are we?”
“I don't know.”
I clicked my tongue.
If I had to describe this place in one word, it would be ‘space’.
But it wasn’t in its normal state.
In the darkness, the stars that sometimes could be seen were shrouded in shadows.
As if they were dead.
“It seems we've managed to escape.”
I pointed my sword towards the direction of the voice.
A man emerged from the darkness.
Dressed in a silver robe and with a relaxed smile, it was the young prince of the empire, Pryos Al Ragnar. He used to be wrapped in red bandages, but now he had the normal appearance he had shown at the 4-star ascension ceremony.
Still holding up my sword, I reassessed the situation.
There was no contact with Halgion. Jenna, Belkist, and the other heroes were nowhere to be seen.
It was just the three of us: Pria, the prince, and me.
“You said you were tired of fighting. I haven’t come to fight with you. Lower your sword.”
The prince smiled gently.
I let out a sarcastic laugh.
“You say you're tired of fighting and do this?”
“If we had stayed there, one of us would have died. We would be mere pawns in Tel’s hands.”
I couldn’t deny that.
The mission wouldn’t end until all heroes were annihilated or the boss was defeated.
Still, this guy is too suspicious.
“We don’t have much time. I somehow broke the barrier, but soon we’ll be expelled. We must finish this before that happens.”
“What do you want to finish?”
Pryos spoke.
“This place is called the Frontier.”
“......”
“It’s the end of the multidimensional universe of Mobius, the wall that touches another universe.”
Pryos looked up.
There was an infinite darkness spreading out.
“It’s where the main server of this game is located and also the starting point of everything.”
“Main server?”
“I know you call this world a ‘game’. You are a ‘hero’, property of the Master, and I am a ‘monster’, his opponent. Priacis is a neutral NPC. We are all just toys, aren’t we?”
Pryos laughed softly.
I went over his explanation in my mind.
“So, this is Server 1.”
“And also the central area.”
The prince turned.
And began to walk slowly.
“Follow me. There’s something I want to show you.”
His figure moved away.
‘I didn’t expect a situation like this.’
I bit my lip.
I knew he wasn’t an ordinary monster.
But breaking the rules like this…
“Shouldn’t we follow him?”
Pria whispered while looking at me.
“I also want to know why my brother has become like this.”
The company must be in chaos.
Not only had a simple monster escaped the scenario, but it had accessed the game’s central data.
And all of this, with tens of thousands of spectators watching.
If his goal was to ruin the game, he had already succeeded in part.
“Han.”
Pria called me.
I sighed deeply and began to move.
“Alright, alright.”
Staying here wouldn’t change anything.
I followed the prince along with Priacis.
“Pria.”
The prince spoke without stopping.
“......Yes.”
“Did you know that the universe of Mobius is made up of countless overlapping dimensions?”
“When I was little, you mentioned it to me.”
“You have a good memory. Our Taonier is just a small part of the universe. So, what do you think would happen if a million dimensions collapsed at the same time?”
“That... would be an invasion by an unknown enemy…”
“Why do you think they would invade Mobius?”
Priacis's expression hardened.
The prince continued explaining in a low voice.
“To achieve my goal, it wasn’t necessary to come to a place like this, but don’t you think you should know? Only then can you choose your own fate.”
“Fate, you say?”
Priacis looked away.
Up and down, right and left.
The endless darkness twisted.
In the middle of it, grayish dots shone faintly.
“Life that is born will eventually return to nothing. From the smallest grass, to humans, to the sea and sky, stars and the universe.”
The prince stopped again.
He looked up with distant eyes.
“Our homeland, Mobius... has reached the end of its life.”
“That is... what are you saying...?”
The prince looked at me.
“Han, you should understand it.”
“Entropy?”
“They call it that on Earth.”
I had heard it once.
Entropy is a term from thermodynamics.
All energy in the universe ‘inevitably disperses’ in the process of conversion.
“Then, is that why you mentioned Earth?”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
I still remember.
His figure spinning the globe while sitting on the throne.
“Of course, your world would take billions of years to disappear. But here it is not like that.”
“......”
“Do you understand now? What Tel did? Do you comprehend the price of her actions?”
The prince lowered his sword.
Clang! The invisible barrier surrounding us broke.
Beyond that,
[Chaos Fragment Lv.113] X 256831813409136598134813409…….
[Despair Fragment Lv.108] X 349105668989696991491249134…….
[Grudge Fragment Lv.121] X 967347162312315681358341492…….
It doesn’t end there.
[Chaos Crystal Lv.322] X 953813951389413948139561301…….
[Despair Crystal Lv.315] X 895501234814819750123491813…….
[Grudge Crystal Lv.311] X 558711811123816797593493599…….
They can’t be perceived with the eyes.
Beyond the void of the universe, something infinite was moving.
“They are called ‘Harvesters’. They come from a dimension higher than ours. Their goal is…”
“To return Mobius to its original course?”
Click.
Pryos sheathed his sword.
As if they had never existed, the fragments and crystals surrounding the barrier disappeared.
Or maybe they just became invisible.
“Priacis. When you were eight years old, I gave you a small puppy. But it didn’t survive even a month. Do you remember what you said then?”
“I wanted to bring it back to life…”
“Do you think that’s the right thing to do?”
Priacis didn’t respond.
She just lowered her head with a confused expression.
“I don’t think it’s easy to accept. Even for me, it took a long time. Think about it calmly.”
I bit my lip.
‘The universe has reached the end of its life?’
The entropy of Mobius has reached its maximum.
All the light from galaxies and stars has gone out, and the universe has become a dump full of void.
Did Tel try to reverse that by force?
“If the administrator of this era of Mobius had not been the twin goddess, perhaps the result would have been different.”
I closed my eyes tightly. A headache came from the excess of information.
In the middle of it, I remembered someone.
‘This world has no hope.’
Siris, murmuring with vacant eyes.
Did she know this?
Then it makes sense.
The reason why Yurnet’s attitude changed suddenly.
The reason why Siris tried to forcefully expel me.
“Tel’s goal is…”
“Did you think it was an invasion of Earth or acquiring power? The alternative names of the twin goddesses who rule Mobius, Tel and Ikar, are purity and benevolence respectively. The problem is... they were too immature.”
Pryos laughed bitterly and started walking.
Priacis followed, staggering.
‘I’m confused.’
A mobile game was actually a real world.
The purpose of the game was to reverse a destroyed universe, and the reason for its destruction was that it had reached the end of its life. The logic is too exaggerated. It’s hard to accept for someone normal like me.
‘I had anticipated it.’
That it would be hard to accept.
But this...
‘The fate of the universe?’
I let out a bitter laugh.
A survival game is fine.
But this is too big, too difficult to handle.
I pressed my temples hard.
Calm down, nothing is over yet.
The 80th floor is in progress and soon the company members will arrive.
Something will happen there.
If I don’t stay calm, they’ll drag me down.
I clenched my fists so tightly that I almost broke my bones. And followed the prince.
‘An unstable game server.’
That was the reason for the sudden drop in popularity of “Pick Me Up”.
Sudden disconnections, constant maintenance, and various bugs.
At first, “Pick Me Up” was famous for its smooth operation, but at some point, it became synonymous with bugs.
‘Everything is connected.’
I stopped.
At the edge of the stage, someone was standing.
It wasn’t Pryos or Priacis.
「.......」
The girl wore a white robe.
With black hair down to her waist.
She looked forward with a vacant stare.
‘She looks like...’
Someone I know.
Not just looks like, she could be her.
But the girl showed no signs of life.
An atmosphere reminiscent of a wax doll.
“This girl is Ikar, Tel’s younger sister.”
“......”
“She is the server computer of Pick Me Up.”
The girl didn’t react to the prince’s voice.
She just looked forward.
The prince gave a bitter smile.
“She doesn’t have much time left either.”