Above Your Head

That’s because they must have failed to clear the stage.

“…..”

I cleared the hard difficulty of level fourteen 5,000 times. Naturally, the 2nd through 6th places would have cleared it more than 5,000 times, and So-hyang would have cleared it 10,000 times. Even if the rest were not top-tier players like us, they would have cleared the stage a dozen times, or at least a few times at the least.

Obviously, the “additional clears” were established because there were ordinary players who died without doing anything. As my thoughts wandered, a worrying question suddenly came to mind.

“Will the additional clears act to cancel the Death Procession in the highest difficulty as well?”

Probably not.

“What? Why?”

Ares suddenly intervened. I asked back, and Ares proceeded with an explanation.

I’ve never faced the End Project personally, but I have experienced quite a few battles with the Unnamed. There is no way a guy like the End Project has an ability to resurrect people. Resurrection is literally the opposite of an apocalypse’ nature.

“But we had countless players come back to life until now, right?”

That was simply negating the events that occurred in the separate worlds. The deaths of the players would have ‘never happened’. But something like that is impossible since we all entered a single world. Think carefully. Why do you think the stage was to be completed individually, and why do you think the dead lost their memories once they died? Don’t tell me that you believe the End Project was thinking along the lines of ‘Oh, it’ll be traumatizing for the humans if they keep the experience of death. Maybe I should erase their memories’. There’s no way it would have been that considerate.

“I guess.”

How would the situation have played out if the players resurrected with the memories of their death? The concept of the End Project was horror. The players would have retained the memories and experiences of being ambushed by a terrifying corpse while wandering a gloomy place. Moreover, they would have remembered being eaten alive. The experience of a spear suddenly shooting out of the floor, an arrow tearing their flesh, breaking their bones, and even wandering around in pure darkness for dozens of hours before being brutally killed by an evil spirit or a cannibalistic monster – all of these horrifying memories would have remained with the players.

In addition, what if they had to go through such experiences every single day? Without knowing when the stage was finally going to end?

I could guarantee… that at least half of humanity would have committed suicide before the stage reached level 10.

Not everyone could play horror games with a smile like me. Humans could be weak, frail creatures. One could even have a nervous breakdown while playing a horror game with a keyboard and a mouse.

- 2nd wave. Start.

The battle is over. The time taken was 40 minutes and 21 seconds. Death Knight fully annihilated. Player Damage is 250,000 deaths and 6,771,000 wounded. 

- 3rd wave. Start.

The battle is over. The time taken was 48 minutes and 55 seconds. Death Knight fully annihilated. Player Damage is 280,000 deaths and 5,541,000 wounded. 

- 4th wave. Start.

The battle is over. The time taken was 52 minutes and 28 seconds. Death Knight fully annihilated. Player Damage is 150,000 deaths and 3,771,000 wounded. 

- 5th wave. Start.

The battle is over. The time taken was 58 minutes and 36 seconds. Death Knight fully annihilated. Player Damage is 110,000 deaths and 3,200,000 wounded. 

- 6th wave. Start.

The battle… is still not over.

There were still remaining Death Knights from the 6th wave, but the next wave of Death Knights respawned once an hour passed. I continued bombarding the enemies, but it was impossible in the first place to defeat the Death Knights as they appeared in billions.

“Oh, damn it.”

I finally realized once we reached this point. Even with my presence, even with the help of the Unique World, even with the addition of the priests harnessing the gods’ powers, and even if high-level players, rare finds even in the Great Universe, were well-armed and fighting…

“We can’t stop the deaths.”

Even after doing all that I could, 1 billion people were stuck on earth, unable to escape to space nor to the Unique World. This battle field was insanely large, having groups of a million people separated by 10 kilometers. It was impossible to avoid casualties when fighting an equal number of adversaries with so many humans.

In addition, as the waves overlapped with each other, the numbers of Death Knights grew exponentially.

Cumulative deaths: 1,507,663! Total number of injured: 27,559,432!

People continued falling and killing even as Genie announced the numbers.

“Pull back the injured! If you can’t fight properly, at least make yourself useful by saving others!”

“Dammit! The bodies! Get rid of the bodies! Necromancer! Get rid of the bodies! It’s getting in my way!”

The players were fighting incredibly well. A million players had formed into a gigantic circle. If anyone was injured, they were carried inwards, and others filled the void! Even if all of these people were soldiers, something like this would have been impossible unless they were elites or belonged to the special forces.

Who would want to stand in the front?

Who would want to sacrifice their lives?

But they ran out to the front while shouting, even without being told to, and saved their wounded colleagues without caring for their own lives. It was difficult to spot the selfishness and cowardice that was common on the battlefield. Rather, everyone was making sacrifices and being patient.

Unfortunately, selfishness and cowardice were unjust.

‘If you perform any bad deeds in a battlefield like this, you’ll immediately be ‘executed’ by a colleague standing next to you.’

Saving a wounded ally was an act of justice.

‘If they can build up their good deeds and gain a Justice Weapon, not only would their power increase dramatically… They can also take shelter in the Cradle of Justice from the next stage. They are willing to do anything to build up their good deeds.’

In other words,

‘Juan’s presence is actually helping humankind.’

The players continued to fight reasonably and efficiently due to the presence of good and bad deeds. If it weren’t for the concepts, the players would have been crushed by the Death Knights while searching for ways to save their own hides.

“Everyone!!! Don’t die!”

A player with the power of True Command shouted in a loud voice. Some players had been bleeding profusely, but it subsided at the words of the player. The bodies of the injured were quickly transported by the other players to the middle of the circle.

It was amazing, but there was something else that was even more astounding.

Crack!

Surprised by the immense light, I looked down. An overwhelming wave of light washed over hundreds, no, thousands of Death Knights. Naturally, the destroyed Death Knights didn’t even add up to 1% of the total enemies, but the shock disoriented a large portion of Death Knights as well. The players quickly took the chance and smashed apart the Death Knights.

“The priests of the three gods.”

I would undoubtedly be the number one contributor to the battlefield, but it was thanks to the activities of the priests that the current situation could be maintained. The priests were evenly spread throughout the battlefield, and they were generously exuding the sacred power of the three gods.

- 7th wave. Start.

- 8th wave. Start.

- 9th wave. Start.

- 10th wave. Start.

The waves continued. After overcoming the initial chaos of the highest difficulty the players were becoming increasingly efficient in dealing with the Death Knights.

“We pushed them back! Keep digging! Hurry up!”

“It needs to be deeper than 3 meters! Quickly!”

Players received tactical instructions from Genie and dug up the ground surrounding the giant circle. It was a type of moat, designed to place the players on advantageous terrain. Naturally, the moats were nothing but shallow puddles for the level 14 Death Knights. They could jump over it without any difficulty, but the moment they crossed, players would be waiting for them in gigas. In the split moment they landed after crossing the moat, they would be exposed to attacks from the players.

- 11th wave. Start.

- 12th wave. Start.

- 13th wave. Start.

- 14th wave…

As players adapted to the situation and used the terrain to their advantage, the order of rotations became stabilized, and the number of deaths began to decrease. I diligently flew over the sky and continued with the bombing.

I became dizzy after repeating hundreds and thousands of bombings with the human-rank gigas. Finally,

- 24th wave.

- Start.

A day passed.

“Genie. Status.”

Cumulative deaths: 3,502,213! Total number of injured: 511,193,377!

The death toll was low. It was quite a surprising outcome considering that we were fighting for an entire day. But there was another problem.

“The injured…”

I felt the atmosphere subsiding with the increasing screams of the injured and the spilling blood.

510 million injured.

Considering that the initial number of players was 1 billion, it was truly a ridiculous number. There were only 3.5 million deaths so far, but… Could this state be maintained in the future? The number of injured players could translate into the death toll at a moment’s notice.

Not to mention.

“I’m thirsty! Water! Does anyone have any water?”

“The Death Knights are dropping water and food from time to time…”

“How are we to grab the supplies in our current formation!? Ahk! They’re stepping on the water bottles and destroying them!”

There was a shortage of water and food. The ones possessing the Throne of Honor could summon food, but it could not be handed over to others.

“I, I’m going to get some sleep…”

“Keugh! My mana…”

“I, I can’t fight anymore…”

People’s stamina, strength, mana, and spirituality began to run out. It had only been a day, but it was an extremely consuming day of continuous war. It was something that even superhumans could not endure. In the meantime, Death Knights continued to respawn every hour.

“Genie, how many Death Knights?”

2.37 billion units.

“This is going to drive me crazy.”

Hope of annihilating the Death Knights was a thing of the past. The monsters were regenerating faster than the humans could kill them, which meant that the number of Death Knights was gradually piling up. Fortunately, there was a limit to the number of Death Knights that could battle at the same time. In fact, most of them were waiting in groups while waiting to battle the players.

“…Over there looks good. Genie!”

Yes, captain-nim. I will make an announcement immediately.

About 30 kilometers from my initial group, I found a group that appeared to have a particularly high number of injured players. After bombing the Death Knights, I landed on a nearby space.

“It’s Napoleon!!”

“It’s Iron Mask-nim!”

“Uaahhh! Please help us!”

I brushed away the resounding screams and moved to the center of the group. The people naturally cleared the road after seeing the 30-meter giant.

“Iron Mask-nim! We gathered the critically injured here, just as Genie-nim instructed us to!”

The person who reported in a loud voice was Korean. Even though I moved quite a distance from my group, I was still amongst Koreas. I stepped out from Napoleon’s chest and approached the wounded.

A person with all of their bones crushed. One who fainted from shock after losing too much blood. There was even someone with all of their limbs amputated.

But I wasn’t here to treat them. Since when did I have healing abilities? But now, 24 hours had passed since we began the stage. I had the power to send them to a space where they could receive the treatment they needed.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

I tossed them to the Unique World. Inside, medical personnel were on standby. They began surgeries as soon as the wounded were received.

After transferring all the wounded into the Unique World, I headed to the next group.

Pat! Pat!

Pat! Pat! Pat!

I moved the wounded, or the unhelpful, lower levels into the Unique World. Only weapons and gigas were left in the place where they had been.

‘Of course, there is a limit to the number of people I can accept. After accepting as many people as possible, they will have to endure another 24 hours. But how many people will be able to survive until then?’

As such thoughts passed through my head,

Special Planet Unique World (Legend++++) ranked up! Rank S → Rank SS

The game began in full swing.