The Ruined World Was Mistaken for a Game

Chapter 243: Because I'm Used to Being the Villain (2)

Translator: Dreamscribe

The rescue operation was a success.

It clearly was.

It should have been.

When Haebyul arrived at the asteroid and saw the factory and mining site, she felt a fierce surge of anger. Soldiers were shoving tools into the hands of little children, strapping only masks to their faces and pushing them into narrow cracks in the rock. It was to mine whatever lay deep inside.

Since the work required delicate handling, young children were the ones primarily used. Whenever a weakened child collapsed, they were tossed aside like garbage.

A boy tried to protect a smaller child, but the soldiers trampled him mercilessly. When a book tumbled out of the boy's arms, the soldiers laughed and tried to tear it apart.

The boy lunged at them, but it was useless. Holding the book up high, they kicked the boy around like a ball.

"Kill them all."

There was no plan or anything of the sort anymore.

Haebyul and the Romance Heroes, along with the many Heroes who had arrived with her, all charged the factory at once and swept through the soldiers.

Each soldier that reverted into armor and clattered to the floor gave an enormous amount of experience, but none of that registered in her eyes. She was just glad she could save these people.

Haebyul shot an arrow at the soldier who had snatched the book. The moment the light-infused arrow struck, the armor disassembled and vanished. Haebyul picked up the book and walked over to the boy, now covered in wounds.

He was a boy with a red gem set into his forehead.

His pointed ears made him look almost like an elf.

"Are you okay?"

"Ugh, uuugh...."

When Haebyul called for a Cleric, the Cleric healed him with a Sacred Spell.

When she handed the book to the boy, he snatched it from her hands as if scooping it up.

"Um, uh..., thank you."

The boy bowed his head in thanks. Haebyul couldn't understand the words, but she understood the meaning. A light flowed out from Haebyul and settled into the book the boy was holding.

[You have earned Dimensional Achievement Points through a good deed.]

*Dimensional Achievement Points +200

[The light of Arsilan dwells within the boy. The light wishes to share knowledge with you.]

*You have learned Luzenian.

*From now on, any Hero may spend 100 Dimensional Achievement Points to learn Luzenian.

She had learned Luzenian?

Haebyul tilted her head at the sudden information window. Not only the Heroes around her, but the viewers as well, couldn't quite understand.

"Huh?"

Haebyul could feel something being, as it were, inputted into her head.

"Wh, what?! Huh?"

Words in a language she had never spoken in her life flowed out of her mouth naturally.

Completely thrown, Haebyul blurted out whatever came to mind.

"Guys, can you tell what I'm saying? I'm literally speaking alien! Am I losing my mind?"

-wait what

-oh? subtitles showed up

-did she just learn a language???

-the tech is insane

-wait, they're dropping tech this casually??

It was confusing at first, but like drawers being tidied up inside her head, everything quickly fell into place.

"Oh, I can speak Luzenian now."

"Me too."

"This is crazy. Is this a game? This is a game, right?"

"The one-click foreign language era is finally here!"

The Heroes were wildly excited.

A significant number of those they had rescued were Luzenians. The Heroes began communicating with the Luzenians in their own tongue.

"H, how do you speak our language...?"

"Huh...?"

The Luzenians stared at the Heroes with wide eyes. The Heroes shrugged their shoulders as if they were something special. Haebyul stroked the head of the boy who was clutching the book tightly to his chest.

"I'll save you. What's your name?"

"Rudin. M, my family got taken away too! Not here, s, someplace else...!"

"What are your siblings' names?"

Rudin told her the names of his siblings.

At just the right moment, a message came in from Jamshik.

Jamshik: Haebyul, I'm sending coordinates. If you have rescued anyone, please bring them over here. We're bringing our rescued people in too.

Haebyul: Got it! By any chance, are 'Runan, Rujin, Rua' over there? They're Luzenians.

Haebyul: Ah! One second.

The names had been written in Luzenian.

Haebyul rewrote them in Korean.

Jamshik: They're all here!

Haebyul: Great! I'll head over now!

Fortunately, Rudin's family was with Jamshik's group.

When Haebyul told Rudin that his family was safe, Rudin broke into a huge smile and threw himself into her arms. Haebyul tousled his hair and laughed along with him.

They moved out with the people they had rescued.

On the way to the large warship, soldiers attacked them, but the Heroes swiftly put them down. After moving some distance, the large warship came into view.

"Crazy..., what the hell is that thing?"

Flames suddenly shot into the air.

UruBear glanced over and was startled.

A massive being clad in blazing armor was squaring off against a group of Heroes. NorthernGrandDuke and LifeHunter were among them, and they were having a rough time of it.

"Is, is that the boss?"

"That thing's freakin' strong."

The Romance Heroes swallowed hard at the overwhelming presence.

Tens of thousands of Heroes were being pushed around by this single being. Every time it swung its spear, hundreds of Heroes vanished into the flames.

"First, let's get these people to safety! They look like they're buying us time over there!"

"It'll be rough, but everyone run!"

Haebyul and UruBear shouted, leading the Heroes and the rescued people toward the large warship. Haebyul scooped Rudin and the other children into her arms and ran as fast as she could. The other Heroes were also carrying those who couldn't run well.

Sprinting desperately through the tension, they managed to reach the large warship safely.

"Jamshik!"

Jamshik had cleared out the inside of the warship and was loading people in.

"Oh! You made it!"

"Yeah, but can anyone actually pilot that thing?"

"No. We'll just have to try somehow."

HandGenius stepped forward.

"I'll give it a shot. I took a look at their equipment earlier, and I think I can figure it out. As long as we can get it off the ground, we'll manage somehow."

Something ominous was starting to happen.

The atmosphere was rapidly disappearing, and the entire asteroid was shaking violently at intervals.

"Rudin!"

"M, Mom!"

Rudin's mother ran over and pulled him into a tight embrace. His siblings were with her too. Haebyul smiled warmly, then gave a thumbs-up to Rudin, who was looking at her with tears streaming down his face.

"Miss! I want you to have this."

"Are you sure it's okay to give it to me?"

"Yes! I found my mom and my brothers and sisters! I'm okay now! Hehe."

Rudin wiped his tears, came over to her, and gave her the book he had been treasuring.

KUGGGGGG!

The asteroid shook even more violently than before.

Cracks split the ground.

"Hurry up and get on!"

Haebyul got everyone on board and contacted HandGenius, who had gone to the cockpit.

HandGenius: I think I can at least get the ship airborne. The controls aren't all that different from an airship's.

Haebyul: Please do.

Except for Haebyul and HandGenius, the Romance Heroes stayed behind. They wanted to help NorthernGrandDuke's side. Just as Haebyul was about to contact NorthernGrandDuke,

"Huh?"

A far larger and more ornate warship than the one they had boarded appeared in the sky. It carved through the black sky as it descended, revealing an enormous cannon barrel.

The barrel aimed at the large warship that was just lifting off.

KWAAAAAAAAAAA!

A super-high-heat beam erupted from the cannon and struck the large warship directly. The surface of the warship bubbled and boiled, and then the entire vessel evaporated and vanished.

A blinding flash of light flared once, and then, as if it had been teleported somewhere, it disappeared in an instant.

The beam pressed on and, in a single strike, pierced deep into the asteroid.

"Ah...."

Haebyul stood there with a blank expression.

Gone.

In a single instant, the large warship and every person aboard it had evaporated. Faced with the shocking situation that had unfolded so suddenly, she couldn't say a word.

UruBear, the Romance Heroes, and every Hero who remained on the scene were all dumbstruck. The reality before their eyes was unbelievable.

They couldn't even comfort themselves with the thought that it was just a game. Every Hero here had poured themselves into Arsilan Saga and treated it as if it were real.

-oh my god....

-what is this...

-why all of a sudden....

STREAM!

Tears spilled from Haebyul's eyes.

The book Rudin had given her still held his warmth.

"AAAAHHH!"

A Mage Hero unleashed a storm of spells at the warship that had just erased the large vessel. There must have been some kind of shield, because the spells simply dissipated before they could even reach it.

The warship lowered its altitude, revealing its gaudy body for everyone to see.

[Hear me, lowly worms.]

A voice flowed out of the warship.

The incomprehensible language was being translated so they could understand. It was undoubtedly the technology of the Kalsus Dimensional Empire.

Haebyul gripped the book tightly and glared at the warship.

Killing intent radiated from every Hero.

[General Gord is deeply displeased that filthy worms like you have defiled this place. Therefore, he has decided to move up the schedule and incinerate this entire dimension.]

Dimensional Incineration.

He said the words so casually.

[A rebellion by worms like you is nothing more than a minor nuisance. Do not dare to look up at the sky; crawl on the ground.]

The warship raised its altitude and climbed back into the sky.

At the same moment, whatever had been holding the asteroid's atmosphere in place stopped working. The atmosphere evaporated in an instant, and everything that had been obscuring the sky vanished.

Multiple asteroids came into view.

The asteroids orbited each other, narrowly avoiding collisions. And around those asteroids floated a fleet made up of enormous warships.

"General Gord...."

Haebyul spoke the name aloud.

That fleet had to be General Gord's fleet. The fleet merely hovered there imperiously, still motionless. But soon the Dimensional Incineration that voice had foretold would begin.

She didn't know how it would work or how it would be carried out, but one thing was certain: everything would disappear.

GRIND!

She clenched her teeth.

Something boiled up inside her.

It was a strange sensation, like a scorching spear stabbing into her soul, like her soul being tempered in flames.

It felt as if she might lose her reason.

Haebyul and the Heroes choked down their rage and ran toward where NorthernGrandDuke was. Flames erupted, and NorthernGrandDuke, LifeHunter, and all the others were blown back hard.

The Executioner, holding a massive spear, gazed at the crack in his armor and shook his head.

"Not a mere rebel army, it seems."

The Executioner lowered his spear.

Magma oozed out from the crack in his armor and dripped onto the ground.

SSSSS!

The magma that touched the ground evaporated, giving off a red smoke. There were still plenty of Heroes around the Executioner, and Haebyul's group had joined them as well, yet he remained entirely at ease.

And with good reason.

They had poured on attacks that not even the lesser Erosion creatures could withstand. Yet all they had managed was a small crack in his armor.

"I'll offer you a special proposal."

The Executioner extended his massive spear to one side, and it broke apart into pieces, reforming into just the handle. He attached the handle to his hip and reached out a hand toward the Heroes.

"Come under my command. I'll treat you as proper soldiers, not slaves. I promise you wealth, honor, and power. If you distinguish yourselves, you might even end up with a dimension of your own."

The Heroes were stunned by the Executioner's proposal.

"Kneel and bow your heads. That's all it takes."

The answer was already decided.

WHOOOSH! KWAAAA!

Haebyul loosed an arrow made of light. The light swirled and became a streak of radiance flying toward the Executioner's head. The Executioner raised a hand and casually caught the arrow.

CRUNCH!

The light shattered and fell to the ground.

NorthernGrandDuke raised her two-handed axe, and LifeHunter regenerated his severed arm as he glared at the Executioner. The killing intent of the Heroes surrounding the Executioner clung thickly to his armor.

"Foolish. Then disappear along with this dimension."

A capsule that had been behind the Executioner rose into the air. The Executioner gave a light jump and caught the capsule. Space then rippled, and in an instant, he vanished.

A brief silence settled over them.

They hadn't lost.

They hadn't been struck down. But they had been utterly defeated.

"Kalsus Dimensional Empire...."

"Executioner...."

And General Gord.

Those names were burned into the minds of the Heroes as if branded. The hundreds of millions of viewers felt the same.

Everyone had witnessed the atrocities General Gord had committed. The way he treated people like insects and wiped them out was nothing short of shocking.

The chat window was flooded with curses.

Viewers watching on holographic TVs or through SoulLink were even in tears.

A sense of defeat and grief they hadn't felt in a long time left the Heroes unable to move.

"...They say Executioners appeared in other places too."

A Hero next to NorthernGrandDuke quietly reported.

Apparently, on the other asteroids floating above, Executioners had appeared and obstructed the Heroes there as well. The results had not been good.

NorthernGrandDuke and LifeHunter, having come to their senses, looked at each other.

"We'll need to retreat to Arsilan via the Dimensional Flower."

"...A sound judgment."

The Dimensional Flower was some distance away.

They couldn't stay lost in a daze forever. Since these Heroes had overcome countless hardships, they got moving immediately.

That was when it happened.

In front of the fleet floating above the asteroid, an enormous amount of energy began to gather. Even at that distance, the energy was so overwhelming they could feel it on their skin.

Every Hero raised their head to look at the fleet.

Sharp, pointed protrusions extended from the front of each warship. Vast energy gathered there and then linked together from ship to ship.

The vast energy, concentrated into a single point, began to blaze like a sun.

"That's...."

"No way...."

The Heroes realized at once what that terrifying energy was meant for.

KWAAAAAAAA!

A red beam erupted outward and struck one of the asteroids floating nearby. The asteroid was pierced through, the ground split open, and flames shot up. It detonated then and there, and huge shards, riding a shockwave, scattered in every direction.

Countless fragments bore down on the asteroid where the Heroes stood. They looked as if they were drifting in slowly, but they were coming at tremendous speed.

A warship emitted a stream of energy and took the exposed core from the asteroid. The core was a color similar to the blue light seen in Dimensional Rifts.

The asteroids hovering around them were destroyed one after another.

The fleet turned its hulls and aimed at the asteroid where the Heroes were.

"...We're done for."

"We die on our very first expedition?"

The Heroes had no choice but to resign themselves.

A crushing helplessness bore down on their entire bodies.

Up until now, they had endured and won by force, technology, magic, and Sacred Spells, but this time, that wouldn't be enough.

Overconfidence had been the cause of defeat.

The Kalsus Dimensional Empire's soldiers themselves were easy opponents, so if they had drawn up a proper plan and acted accordingly, the outcome might have been different. If they had moved a little more carefully, a little more covertly, they might have managed to rescue the people successfully.

The massive energy was just about to fire. Even reaching the Dimensional Flower would be no easy task.

"Put up barriers!"

"Ugh!"

The Heroes poured out Mana and Sacred Power and spread barriers. They knew it was pointless, but they wanted to at least go down kicking.

The beam fired.

The entire sky was dyed red as if on fire, rushing down toward the Heroes. It ripped through the layered barriers and, at the very last instant, refracted and slammed into the ground. As the asteroid exploded, every Hero was vaporized along with it. Every single Hero who had come to this dimension had died.

When the Heroes came to, they were resurrected before the Dimension Gate in Alusion. Normally they would have had to wait an hour, but Ella had used an enormous amount of Sacred Power to remove the resurrection wait time.

"Fucking hell...."

"Those sons of bitches...."

The Heroes trembled with rage.

It was the first time so many Heroes had died all at once.

And they hadn't even been able to do anything.

-they just erased the whole asteroid zone

-the scale is insane....

-these guys are seriously pieces of shit

-this isn't one of those villains who stalls until they lose. they just wiped us out before we could even react

Up until now, the Heroes hadn't had any strong rivals or opponents worth matching themselves against. Even the higher Erosion creatures could be taken down if everyone pooled their strength. They had been nothing more than main episode bosses.

But this time was different.

The enemies were numerous, and their technology surpassed Arsilan's. On top of that, the Executioners' might overwhelmed the Heroes.

They hadn't even seen General Gord's face.

And even he was merely part of a massive empire called the Kalsus Dimensional Empire.

"If we go back in...."

"The dimension looks like it's gone. Can we even cross over again?"

The Heroes turned their eyes to the Dimension Gate.

[Dimension destruction confirmed.]

[Coordinates lost.]

The colony dimension had been completely annihilated.

A silence fell.

"The light the Heroes carry within them is never frail."

Ella looked at them and extended her hand. At that, light began to stream out from the bodies of Haebyul, NorthernGrandDuke, LifeHunter, and all the other Heroes, sinking into the earth.

"The souls of the departed arrived in Arsilan together with the Heroes. Rather than perish with their dimension, they will remain here alongside Arsilan."

It was the only consolation for the Heroes.

Haebyul clenched her fist and watched the lights seep into the earth. Several Heroes seemed to be able to see the souls that had arrived in Arsilan, but Haebyul couldn't see anything at all.

"Let's move on to another dimension."

"...We can't just keep taking this."

"That's right! Let's cross over right now and...."

[Coordinate search failed.]

The Dimension Gate immediately searched for dimensional coordinates, but it couldn't search past the Wall of the Abyss.

"Is this it?"

"It's over the moment it starts?"

The Heroes' faces contorted as rage overtook them, and then,

Light streamed out of the book Rudin had given Haebyul.

"Huh?"

Haebyul opened the book.

Inside were photos of Rudin and his family, along with drawings of Luzen's landscapes.

[Information containing coordinate data has been detected.]

[Name: Luzen]

[Location: A frontier dimension of the Kalsus Dimensional Empire overlapping with the territory of a Dimensional Predator]

[Threat Level: Grade A]

'An order has been issued to incinerate the entire dimension before the Dimensional Predator can consume it. The great General Gord is on his guard against the Dimensional Predator....'

The Dimension Gate, having fully absorbed the orb, even detected and displayed General Gord's order.

"Luzen...."

"Let's go to Luzen."

"This time, let's prepare completely before we go."

"We can't be caught like that twice."

"Let's set up a chain of command and unify our communications."

The Heroes were more serious than they had ever been.

Haebyul held the book tightly and stared at the Dimension Gate.

She would never, ever forgive the Kalsus Dimensional Empire and General Gord.

Every Hero felt the same way.

Ella gave an awkward smile as she watched the Heroes, who were radiating a savage aura. Helby, who had come out to rally the Heroes, flinched at the thick killing intent. The killing intent was so dense that it looked as though it had taken on physical form and was visibly flowing.

"Ah! Something urgent came up...."

SWOOSH!

Helby immediately retreated!

*****

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