A massive dust cloud appeared around the collapsed mountain, sweeping through the forest like a fog mist.
"...It’s gone. The mountain is gone."
A player, who was far from the mountain, whispered in shock as what he just witnessed was sothing that he would be unable to forget.
"Wheeze... Huff..."
Around him, dozens of players were sitting on the snow, catching their breath, and looking towards the collapsed mountain.
They had been running away from the Ice Goblins for a good while, so they were all quite exhausted.
"Since the mountain collapsed, maybe the Ice Giant and the Ice Goblins also died in the chaos?"
A player said.
It was sothing that every player wished for so that they could get their "reward" that they had been coveting.
"Where is that guy? He stayed behind, didn’t he?"
The blue-haired Mage said, as she rembered the "leader" of their group actually stayed behind.
And could even be dead.
The players thought about it for a while and then shrugged their shoulders, as they simply didn’t know.
In that chaos, everyone was just running away, and they believed that their so-called leader did as well.
...
Near the destroyed mountain.
"...Stupid."
Anna stood on a hill, the dust cloud everywhere around her, and she got a good look at the destroyed mountain.
No way anyone could survive that.
Her lips trembled as she just wished that her brother would just walk out of the rubble any ti now.
But she couldn’t sense any life signals anywhere near.
Not Ice Goblins. Not the Ice Giant. And definitely not any player.
Fang Raon did exactly what he said he was going to do. Kill the entire Ice Goblin colony and the Giant as well, and he succeeded.
Flicker~! Flicker~!
In that mont.
In the skies above the second floor, sothing bright flickered. As if soone were turning a lightbulb on and off.
And then...
A holographic ssage appeared. It was an announcent ssage. It was a really long ssage.
[TOWER ANNOUNCENT: The Players of the Second Floor have Cleared the Secret Quest "Giant’s Dawn and Destruction" and Successfully Saved the Second Floor and its Local Population!]
[CONGRATULATIONS: Fang Raon, Fang Anna, Reek Malik, Ingram Rust, Helena Greece, Sofia Irene, Kana Lee....]
[SPECIAL REWARD: Player Fang Raon is awarded a special reward for his heroic actions and selfless intentions. He united the players and sacrificed himself to achieve the unlikely victory]
[As a result, he shall receive his very own Hero Statue at the heart of the Winter Village—the first of its kind in the history of the Black Online]
"...You couldn’t have just stayed low-key? Congratulations, brother, we can’t go anywhere now without soone knowing your na..."
Anna mumbled with a pissed-off look.
She was angry at her brother, but at the sa ti, she was beaming with pride, as now the whole tower knew how amazing he was.
Just like she had always known.
...
2nd Floor, the Winter Village.
The snowstorm stopped. Snow stopped falling. Even the wind stopped as if the world were holding its breath.
Feeling like sothing was amiss, the locals left their houses and looked over to the sky—amazed by the sight.
Beautiful sight of aurora borealis dancing across the night sky. Greenish, purple, and pink hues swirled together in a srizing display.
"...Whoah!"
"...Amazing!"
Children, especially, were excited beyond words.
Then, Opal, with Hero in her arms, who was wrapped tightly with a blanket, walked out with her father, Onion.
They looked at the sky with wonder and awe.
"There is sothing new at the village square!"
In that mont, one of the locals shouted, and one by one, the locals started heading for the village square.
Opal, Hero, and Onion did the sa.
At that mont, they saw a new statue. It was that of a magician, wearing a robe and holding a grimoire-like book in his left hand.
Under the statue, there was a slab of rock, used as the base for the statue, and it had sothing written on it.
[The Statue of Fang Raon, the hero of the Second Floor, who selflessly sacrificed himself to save the Second Floor from destruction]
"I-It is a statue of Raon."
Opal whispered in shock, and tears appeared at the corners of her eyes as she read the "sacrificed" part in her mind.
It ant that he was dead. He died for them.
It was a much heavier concept to them than to players, as in the locals’ minds, death usually ant a permanent end to all.
"He did it..."
Onion whispered with sorrow in his voice, and he walked to the statue and knelt before it and touched the foot of the statue, tears streaming down his face.
At that mont.
The Chief Guard, and other guards, who stayed behind in the Winter Village, walked over with shocked looks.
"...A Hero Statue?"
"...Unbelievable..."
"He did it."
The Chief Guard said with a lot of emotions in his tone, and then he also knelt before the statue and lowered his head.
Seeing that, other guards did the sa, and when the locals saw them doing it, they also copied them, touching the snowy ground with their knees, and lowering their heads in reverence to the fallen hero.
"Rest easy... hero."
...
"Wow! Tower Announcent! That’s freaking aweso!"
"Haha, I am going to be famous. My na is shown there, haha. The whole tower now knows my na!"
"I can’t believe it. This was a Secret Quest after all. It must an that the reward we will be getting will be amazing!"
The players excitedly celebrated, and then, at that mont, in front of them all, a holographic treasure chest appeared.
"Wow, a treasure chest!"
"I don’t see a treasure chest in front of you all. Does that an everyone got their own treasure chest?"
"It does look like it!"
The players said.
And with excitent in the air, they opened the treasure chests and got their rewards for the completion of the Secret Quest.
"Hahahaha, I got a Tier IV sword. That’s two tiers higher than my current one. Hahaha, let’s go!"
"Whoa, I got an amazing skill scroll. Wow, a teleportation skill. And it only has like ten seconds of cooldown too. Wow!"
"This was so definitely worth it. Hahahaha!"
The players excitedly equipped their new gear. anwhile, the blue-haired Mage took just a quick look at her reward.
She then stored it in her inventory and started heading back for the Winter Village, as she wasn’t in a big mood to celebrate.
’Fools. We all ran away from the fight. Do we really deserve any of this? Without his sacrifice, you wouldn’t have gotten anything.’
She just shook her head.
...
12th floor, the Training Camp.
[TOWER ANNOUNCENT: The Players of the Second Floor have Cleared the Secret Quest "Giant’s Dawn and Destruction" and Successfully Saved the Second Floor and its Local Population!]
[CONGRATULATIONS: Fang Raon, Fang Anna, Reek Malik, Ingram Rust, Helena Greece, Sofia Irene, Kana Lee....]
"...What the fuck."
Rock looked towards the sky, disbelief written all over his face, and he rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things.
’Why the hell are you on the second floor?’
For a mont, he thought that it must be soone else with the na Fang Raon, but then he saw Fang Anna there as well.
It could only an one thing—Fang Raon was playing with his sister with a secondary character.
’So, once you’ve finished training for the day, you’re going on that second character of yours to play more?
’Don’t you know that you can burn yourself out, you dipshit moron?’
Rock pinched his glabella and shook his head.
...
27th Floor, Discord City, Bastard n House.
Sitting outside, on the balcony, Raikou looked towards the sky and, with his free right hand, grabbed a cup of alcohol.
He drank it.
After he swallowed, he crushed the glass cup in his hand, even cutting his own hand in the process.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"
Over at the front lawn, the several mbers of the Bastard n looked over at the balcony and shook their heads.
"It doesn’t look like the guild master is happy."
"Yeah, well. Raikou is already only the third-most famous child of the Fang Family, and it is about to look like he is about to drop to fourth place."
"If you say that to him, he will kill you."
The guy just laughed.
While Raikou was the Bastard n’s guild master, he actually wasn’t feared all that much by his own mbers.
Bastard n was the gathering of rejects, gangsters, thugs, and all kinds of people who couldn’t fit anywhere else.
Raikou thought that they would be easy to control—with money—but he was very much wrong about that.
...
56th floor, Cliffside City.
"Criminals of the Dead Redemption. You’re surrounded on all sides. Drop your weapons and surrender peacefully!"
A police officer of the Cliffside Yard shouted, his voice magnified with a magic voice spell that allowed his voice to travel great distances.
The officers of the Cliffside Yard were surrounding a three-story building that was now in the complete control of the Dead Redemption.
"Fuck off!"
A shout ca from inside. It was followed with mocking laughter. The police officers turned red-faced in anger.
They had never been humiliated this much before!
anwhile.
Sitting on the roof of the building, Raizen looked towards the sky with a deep look on his face—as if he were thinking about sothing.
The announcent ssage was slowly fading off.
"...ow."
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