Chapter 16

“Waaah! Waaah!”

To Seoyoon, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

“How could the baby…?”

“Oh my goodness.”

The female doctor and nurses who helped deliver the baby were shocked.

Despite the grueling 10-hour labor, Seoyoon asked with difficulty:

“Is… is the baby okay? Nothing… wrong?”

It was a question she was even afraid to hear the answer to.

Despite undergoing monthly checkups during her pregnancy, she couldn’t shake off the anxiety.

“She’s so beautiful.”

“Her eyes, nose, and mouth… how can they be this perfect?”

The great genes overwhelmingly favored Seoyoon’s looks over Hyun’s.

“Mommy! Daddy!”

Seoyoon felt pure happiness raising a cute little girl who resembled her own childhood self.

Though the world was vast and technology advanced, she was happiest in the small house with Hyun and their little girl, Daye.

Their home was warm and full of life, with pets like Body-recovery and Half-seasoned Half-fried (their quirky-named animals) running around in the yard.

But…

‘But my body…’

Seoyoon started getting sick frequently after giving birth. Her arms and legs began stiffening little by little.

Hyun and the AI, Versa, quickly noticed something was wrong with her health. After thorough examinations, they found the disease.

“Normally, it’s incurable… but there’s one way.”

“What is it?”

“It’s part of the Superhuman Project I received…”

Hyun explained Dr. Yoo Byung-jun’s Superhuman Project.

A bioengineering experiment designed to make the successor the best in every way.

It didn’t just enhance physical abilities—it involved gene manipulation too.

“You’ll enter a long sleep… and have many dreams. But you must have the will to live. If you do, you’ll wake up.”

“I’ll do it.”

Seoyoon didn’t hesitate.

She wanted to live in a world with Hyun and their daughter.

She could never go back to her lonely old life. She just wanted to live happily with the two of them.

“Come back quickly.”

“Okay, I’ll wake up soon.”

With Hyun cheering her on, she lay down on the operating table.

* * *

As the Superhuman Project began, Seoyoon fell into countless dreams.

“She’s so pretty… how could she be that pretty?”

“She must have had work done.”

“I heard her family’s loaded.”

“Yeah, she’s from a chaebol family.”

“Looks and money… she’s got it all. Aren’t we treated like bugs compared to her?”

“Of course we are. That’s why she doesn’t hang out with us.”

Back in her school days, Seoyoon remembered the kids whispering behind her back as she walked by.

‘I will survive.’

Seoyoon endured the loneliness at school.

Because she knew what happiness felt like, it wasn’t too hard to bear.

* * *

“Kill them all!”

“Wipe them out!”

Her life as a berserker in Royal Road.

Fight when enemies appear, kill them.

She fought so fiercely, she barely had time to think.

Everyone she saw was an enemy. She was always alone—but she survived.

Deep inside, she wanted to live.

“……”

Wandering the continent of Versa, she found sculptures.

The smiling statue of herself in Baran Village.

The ice sculpture in Morata.

‘The sculptures my husband made for me…’

In an instant, the dream shattered, and all her memories with Hyun flooded back.

The emptiness in her heart filled with happiness.

* * *

Another dream.

Hyun was playing in the yard with Daye, Body-recovery, and Half-seasoned Half-fried.

‘I’ll go back…’

As a wife, as a mother.

Her heart was set on living with them again.

Just seeing them made her happy. The thought of living together felt priceless.

“Dear…”

But there was another woman next to them.

Someone else living as Hyun’s wife and Daye’s mom.

‘I… have no place to return to.’

She lost her reason to live.

Not wanting to wake from the painful dream, Seoyoon sank deeper into sleep.

* * *

“Those are corpses! We’ll never win!”

“Please spare me!”

At the abandoned fortress, the undead were slaughtering and devouring the living.

The defeated soldiers of the Ifrota Empire lost their morale and ran.

The troops had lost their will to fight.

They were already demoralized, but for Weed, this was unwelcome news.

Getting through Hell Difficulty Stage 3 wasn’t the issue—he wanted to kill every single one, and deserters complicated that.

“Head that way! Guard the entrance!”

He ordered the skeletons to block the gates.

The fortress guards had already been turned into undead.

“A necromancer controlling corpses… how utterly vile.”

The surviving soldiers regrouped for battle.

As elite soldiers of a military empire, they stood in formation with swords, shields, and spears.

(Do you see the red aura around their bodies?)

“I see it.”

The troops were radiating a faint red energy.

(They seem to have taken the cursed herbs.)

“Cursed herbs?”

(It’s a type of evil drug. It reduces pain and greatly enhances strength and muscles.)

“They really are bad guys.”

Weed conveniently ignored his own use of stimulants and the forbidden spell Mirror of the Abyss.

In life, there were people with low self-confidence and constant regrets.

But living like that was unnecessary.

Whatever I do is always right, and even the tiniest mistake from others is terribly wrong!

A perfect mindset for mental peace and easy living.

“Crush them.”

Weed ordered the undead.

—Kuwaaaah!

Mutant skeletons charged into the soldiers, slamming their bodies into them, followed by regular skeletons charging in.

Skeletons with broken legs ran, heads twisted at odd angles but still clattering forward with relentless vitality.

“We can fight! Don’t back down!”

“There’s no escape! Trust your comrades and fight to the end!”

The defeated soldiers steeled their will and fought bravely.

And then, Weed cast a silencing spell over them.

“Corpse Explosion.”

The corpses trembled, turned red, and exploded with a thunderous boom.

The ground shook violently, with rocks, dirt, and bone fragments flying from where the soldiers had gathered.

The remaining soldiers were elites, wearing thick armor with high defense, but…

“Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion! Corpse Explosion!”

The explosions continued.

Among mage area attack skills, Corpse Explosion ranked near the top for destructive power.

Though it required corpses and consumed them, the killing power was unmatched.

With repeated Corpse Explosions, bones flew and pierced the fleeing soldiers like spears.

Elite soldier Croker has died.
Royal spy Suel from the Ram Kingdom has died.
Patin, heir of the Born Kingdom, has died.
Fame increased by 560.
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
……

As the soldiers died in waves, Weed’s level soared.

‘Some strange names mixed in these messages…’

(Seems like, unlike Master, some tried non-combat methods to clear the challenge.)

The defeated soldiers were from multiple factions.

Hell Difficulty Stage 3 had various researchable routes for challengers to exploit.

‘And people didn’t know about this?’

(The Extreme Difficulty one step below Hell wasn’t even cleared yet. Many challengers lost their lives to the orcs.)

(Few people even reached Hell Stage 3.)

Even if there was a possible strategy, approaching the soldiers in this broken fortress was near impossible.

‘Back in my day, people would spend 6 months just hitting scarecrows. These VR players today lack commitment.’

(The times have changed. That’s a classic boomer statement, disrespecting younger players’ efforts.)

‘Even if they knew other methods, with Hell Difficulty’s level, brute force was probably still better.’

Weed’s goal wasn’t just to clear Hell Difficulty Stage 3 first.

It was to get stronger. Stronger and stronger.

“Ugh!”

“Save me!”

The remaining soldiers were dying.

Seven-meter-tall mutant skeletons rampaged, and the few survivors completely lost their will to fight.

“We surrender!”

“Please, spare our lives…”

Throwing down their weapons before the skeletons swinging bone swords.

Weed ignored them.

“No prisoners. Kill them all.”

* * *

Han Sung-hyuk, the key developer behind the Roanoke Incident.

Carrying coffee, he overheard other developers at the company chatting.

“Didn’t expect Weed to suddenly show up in Roanoke.”

“No one cleared Hell Difficulty Stage 3 before, but Weed cut through it easily.”

“Shows he didn’t come back for nothing.”

Among the developers, talk about Weed was constant.

He kept crafting sculptures even inside Hell Difficulty Stage 3—producing masterpieces and stunning successes.

‘Even I didn’t expect Sculpting to play this kind of role.’

Han Sung-hyuk and the core developers never intervened in the artistic skills.

Their vision was a world of death and destruction where combat was the focus.

They figured artistic jobs wouldn’t gain much popularity among players.

And reality matched their expectations—few players actively chose artist classes.

‘We only left artist jobs in as a flavor—thinking a few players might want to leave beautiful art before the world’s end.’

Romance born alongside death.

There are always a few noble fools.

Even in a dying world, art had its place.

‘But to use it like this?’

Nobody, not even the core developers or AI, expected Weed would stack legendary points through Sculpting this way.

Many users accumulated artistic experience across Royal Road and later VR worlds…

But mass-producing masterpieces, while also fighting and leveling up in Hell Difficulty? That was unimaginable.

‘If it weren’t Weed, it’d be impossible.’

Weed’s name carried real weight.

As Han Sung-hyuk approached the main system, the other core developers—Cho Un-chan and Kim Soo-won—turned to greet him.

“Team leader, you’re here.”

“Good afternoon, sir.”

“Watching Weed’s footage, I see.”

Han Sung-hyuk sat beside them, watching the monitor.

Weed casting Mirror of the Abyss and wiping out the soldiers.

“Hm, I wonder… will he really survive clearing Stage 3?”

Han Sung-hyuk took a sip of coffee.

The developers, knowing exactly what he meant, smiled.

“Ultimate magic, even with low mana and soul power… its destructive force is enormous.”

“Mirror of the Abyss is hard to learn, and because of its penalty…”

Warning!

After casting the spell, the user will suffer unbearable pain.

Failing to endure it will lead to death and transformation into an undead.

That was the penalty of Mirror of the Abyss.

Before the Roanoke Incident, for players’ enjoyment, the pain mechanic wasn’t fully applied.

Now it was at 100%.

“He’ll experience pain as if his whole body is splitting apart.”

“Ultimate magic should never be taken lightly. It’s a level of pain no human can endure.”