I studied the man called the Director.
Short, graying hair mixed with strands of white and a vacant expression. There wasn’t a hint of sharpness in his eyes.
Could this guy really be the lead developer of Pick Me Up? If this were any other place, I would have smacked him across the head and told him to stop lying.
“Seris-chan…”
“Is he acting like that on purpose?”
I pressed my fingers against my temple.
Cizel cleared his throat.
“It’s not intentional. His health is not in good condition.”
“And being unwell makes someone like that?”
“Of course… there are other reasons too.”
Cizel looked at the Director with a pitying gaze.
“To evade the company’s surveillance, he had to become like this. A half-hearted act wouldn’t have worked. He had no choice but to actually go mad. Without that, inviting you here would have been impossible.”
Invite.
I squinted my eyes.
Cizel placed a hand on the Director’s shoulder and spoke.
“There should be a small room behind the office. You can watch the ending of the Dorado mission that you’ve been wanting to see there.”
I turned around to see a plain metal door with no decorations.
“I’ll arrange some time for you to speak with the Director when you return. If he takes the special medication, you two should be able to have a proper conversation for about 10 minutes.”
Cizel bowed to me before wheeling the Director away somewhere.
‘So there was another motive behind all this.’
What would have happened if I hadn’t come here?
Who knows?
I shrugged my shoulders and opened the door, stepping inside.
The air was cold.
I took a deep breath.
In the small room, which couldn’t have been more than about five square meters, there were countless monitors installed.
They covered the walls and ceiling. Each monitor, large and small, was emitting different static noise.
“…”
And in the center of the room, on a small table,
There was an old videotape.
I picked it up to inspect it.
On the label of the tape, the words #EL CID, DORADO were written.
‘El Cid.’
The former number one ranker, and the only player to have cleared every stage of Pick Me Up.
And someone who, in a way, had become a hero himself.
After completing every mission, El Cid suddenly turned on the other heroes nearby, devouring them one by one before breaking through the server’s boundaries. Even the second-ranked Muryeon was among his victims, and if circumstances had been just a little worse, Niflheimr might have joined that list.
He had only one goal.
To reach Server 1.
‘What’s in Server 1?’
From what I’d heard, the headquarters of Mobius was there.
I’d know what he intended to do there once I watched the video.
I took a deep breath and inserted the videotape into the player.
Static filled the air. Then, one by one, the noise cleared from the monitors.
Following that, videos began to play sequentially on the peripheral monitors.
The lower-level missions of Dorado.
I’d seen these scenes before in the Book of Reversal.
I shifted my gaze. The central large monitor began displaying the key scenes.
Critical missions, farewells with companions, successive awakenings, and fierce battles.
He lost countless comrades and faced death many times, but in the end, El Cid triumphed.
He defeated the monsters invading the city, repelled a mountain-sized giant monster, and even prevailed against past heroes who had turned into monsters. Afterward, alongside the allied NPC forces, he reached the 80th floor, continuing relentless battles against enemies swarming from all over the continent.
[Fragments of Chaos Lv.113]
[Fragments of Despair Lv.108]
[Fragments of Resentment Lv.121]
The so-called “Fragments Series.”
They were mysterious, attributeless monsters that consistently appeared from the 80th floor onward.
They were immune to physical and magical attacks, lacking fixed attributes, which meant devising new strategies for each mission. Numerous rankers were thwarted at this point.
‘No form.’
Sometimes they appeared as goblins.
Other times as large dragons.
Or even as amorphous blobs.
‘No emotions either.’
Mental attacks didn’t work on these creatures.
Fear, confusion, courage, or inspiration—none of these status effects had any impact.
They simply consumed and devoured all life around them.
I looked ahead.
The large screen in front of me.
On the screen, the heroes of Dorado were fiercely battling against the Fragments.
[Floor 80.]
The 80th-floor stage.
Though thousands of Fragments swarmed them, El Cid emerged victorious once again.
The next mission would be the same. The outcome was already set.
I shifted my gaze back to the large screen.
The small monitors, which had been showing videos of the lower-level missions, began turning off one by one.
On the central screen, videos of the post-80th-floor missions continued to play in sequence.
81st floor.
82nd floor.
83rd floor.
Gradually, the floor levels rose.
In the ruins of Dorado, El Cid and his companions continued their endless battle against the Fragments.
84th floor.
85th floor.
86th floor.
99% of the civilian NPCs of Dorado had perished.
Yet, the heroes continued to fight.
The Fragments kept appearing without end.
87th floor.
The current floor reached by Niflheimr.
This Dorado mission was similar to Niflheimr’s.
Dealing with the Fragments that poured in from all directions.
Their numbers far exceeded tens of thousands.
El Cid lost half of his forces but broke through the 87th floor.
They suffered wounds with each mission, but they continued to push forward to the next floor.
88th floor.
89th floor.
And then…
Flash!
A blinding light burst from the large screen, engulfing my entire body.
I was pulled into the video before I had time to react.
I'm currently Translating the following novels: Pick Me Up! | A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! | The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player. If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!