After pulling off the greatest heist of my life, I calmly walked out of the underground bunker.
My heart was racing with excitement.
The dimensional storage pocket of my new robe was filled with Essence Stones, and I held a brand-new sword in my hand.
To be honest, I was incredibly satisfied with how everything went.
Sure, I could’ve been more efficient in my planning and there were some things I should’ve just done better.
But at this point in the story, the best weapon I could’ve hoped to acquire was in my possession now — the Divine Sword Aurieth.
This sword was a soulbound artifact, meaning it would continue to grow stronger alongside me as my Soul Rank leveled up.
It had many enchantments, one of which was a self-imposed condition.
A condition was basically a limitation placed on an artifact or item that suppressed or restricted its power in exchange for much greater power when the specified condition was met.
For example, imagine a bow that allows you to shoot only one arrow a day, but that single arrow would possess such explosive power that it could shatter a small mountain.
Or perhaps a charm that forbids you from speaking for as long as you can, so when you finally do speak, your voice could split oceans and shake the heavens.
Both of these types of items existed in the game, by the way.
The sword I had, as I mentioned earlier, had a condition that significantly increased its lethality if its wielder’s life was in mortal danger.
I couldn’t explain it in words, but that enchantment made this artifact feel like such a cheat item.
In a worst-case scenario, when facing an overwhelmingly strong foe, it could serve as a final trump card — a literal embodiment of plot armor.
Moreover, this sword could shift forms, splitting into dual single-edged longswords that could then transform into a bow.
It also had two more enchantments — one that allowed it to burn raw Essence from its user and convert it into light energy for attacks, and another that subtly increased the rate of Essence absorption for its wielder as long as they held it in their hands.
Truly, despite not being an actual divine sword, it deserved that title.
Oh, yes.
The Divine Sword Aurieth wasn’t crafted by the gods or something.
It was made by a human — a genius artificer who had been captured by the Syndicate. Nevertheless, it was a human creation.
The sword was referred to as divine because of its potential to grow infinitely, as long as its wielder continued to grow stronger.
The Syndicate sent this sword to the High Priest, intending for him to give it to his general once he amassed an army for their cause.
But this raises an interesting question.
If the Syndicate could casually gift such a powerful artifact to someone like the High Priest, just how precious must the treasures in their headquarters be?
How powerful an organization were they?
I knew the answer, of course.
After all, while playing the game, it took me so many attempts to completely eradicate the entire Syndicate.
They were a pain in the ass, to say the least.
But this was not a game.
This was reality.
And in this reality, I would only get one chance.
“Heh,” I smiled a bitter smile. “No problem.”
I would deal with them all when the time came.
While making that resolution, I stepped out of the safe house and onto the street.
A disorienting blend of screams, wails, and panicked voices assaulted my ears all at once.
Sirens blared loudly. And emergency announcements were being made through the public speakers, loud enough for everyone to hear even in the chaos:
«The city is under attack. We repeat, the city is under attack. We urge all citizens to head to the nearest public underground bunker and remain there until the threat is neutralized. We also plead with any experienced Awakened in the city to assist in combating the Spirit Beasts. The city is under attack. We repeat…»
To my right, houses were burning. The fire was spreading unchecked, creeping closer to where I stood.
On the road, people frantically ran in every direction while being chased by grotesque abominations.
The abominations moved on all fours. Their arched back was adorned with jagged bone spikes.
Their gaping maws were full of razor-sharp teeth, and too many limbs sprouted from their swollen bodies — some thick and root-like that helped them move, others thin and writhing tentacles that helped them catch their prey.
To my left, a woman was impaled by one of those tentacles.
Not far from her, a man tripped and fell while trying to run away. He barely had time to push himself up before an abomination lunged at him and swallowed him whole.
Suddenly, everything became too real.
The gravity of the situation came crashing down on me. For a moment, I felt like I might throw up.
It was a suffocating sensation to realize that everything that was happening was happening all because of me.
The truth was, despite trying to act nonchalant all this time, what I had done didn’t sit right with me.
But I had no other choice.
The High Priest’s treasure room was locked behind a three-factor biometric authentication system.
The only way to open that treasure room was to get Bowden’s body.
But he was never alone. He was always surrounded by a small army of high-grade, VIP-level security guards that I had no chance of defeating in a direct fight.
So I had to find another way.
I pitted the Overlord and the High Priest against each other. I made them believe they had been betrayed by one another.
I did it so they’d kill each other, leaving Bowden’s corpse for me to take. Then I’d waltz in and bypass the biometric locks.
But if I had just been stronger, I wouldn’t have needed to do any of this.
I could’ve fought the High Priest’s security head-on, dragged him to the treasure room myself, and forced him to unlock it.
If I had been strong enough, this situation could’ve been avoided.
The High Priest and the Overlord wouldn’t have had unleashed their Spirit Beasts into the city.
And all these people wouldn’t have died.
Actually, it wasn’t just about strength.
I wasn’t smart enough, either.
Juliana or Vince Cleverly or some other smart character from the game could’ve come up with a better strategy where all of this bloodshed was avoidable.
They might have crafted a plan to achieve their objective without needing to sacrifice so many innocent lives.
But at last, I wasn’t like them.
I was just not… enough.
“Haaa,” I sighed wistfully before shaking off those thoughts.
It didn’t matter.
What was done was done. I couldn’t change the past, so I focused on the present.
Instead of crying about not being strong enough to stop this massacre, I decided to get stronger so that I’d never have to make that excuse again in the future.
Besides, now wasn’t the time to dwell on regret.
Now was the time to do my job as a Hunter-in-training, answer the call for help, and save as many people as I could.
It was also a chance to test my new sword.
Smirking to myself, I started moving. First in a jog, then a full-on sprint.
I dashed forward and jumped onto an abomination’s back just as it was about to bite a man’s head off.
Without hesitation, I drove my blade into its flesh.
The beast let out a high-pitched screech and began thrashing around wildly, trying to throw me off its back.
But before it could, I ran up to its head and carved it open with my blade, basically dissecting it.
It let out a final painful growl before falling lifelessly to the ground.
I jumped off its back and shouted at the stunned man whose life I had just saved. “Run, you idiot!”
He blinked, still in shock that he was alive, then snapped out of it at the sound of my voice. With a quick, shaky nod of gratitude, he turned around and ran.
I snapped my gaze forward.
A few steps away, a little girl had fallen to the ground. Her mother was desperately trying to pull her up — but a monster was already charging at them.
They weren’t going to make it in time.
I summoned my Origin Card and knelt, pressing my hand against the pavement.
The road rippled like water before surging forward in a wave.
That wave of concrete hardened right in front of the girl and her mother, forming a solid barrier that blocked the monster as it crashed into it.
Before the beast could recover, the ground beneath it shifted and a sharp spike of concrete shot upward, skewering it through the torso.
The mother held her little girl tightly in her embrace and ran.
Meanwhile, I turned to face two more abominations.
Outnumbered, I raised a wall of concrete to isolate the two beasts.
Then, I made quick work of one with my innate power before turning to the other and killing it off with my sword in a few well-timed slashes.
After that, I moved on to fight more Spirit Beasts.
These abominations were massive and too many in numbers. Because of their tentacles, they also had a terrifyingly long reach.
And I was fighting alone.
So, I had to take them out by surprise or when they were distracted. I only picked the fights I knew I could win.
Because of that, I couldn’t save everyone.
This was going to be a long night.