Meanwhile, inside the Inferno Guild headquarters.
"So you’re telling me," the guild leader said slowly, seated behind his massive darkwood desk, "that a novice-rank kid... had a barrier you couldn’t break through?"
His voice was calm, but every word carried weight.
Oscar stood in front of him, eyes cast down, unable to meet the leader’s gaze.
"Y-Yes..." he muttered, his fists clenched tightly at his sides.
It was already humiliating enough that their elite novice squad had been wiped out inside the corrupted rift. But worse than that—Oscar, an expert-rank awakener, had failed to even scratch a novice.
If that information got out, it’d destroy his reputation. The Inferno Guild couldn’t afford to be seen as a group of frauds. They had to maintain their image, powerful, untouchable.
"B-But trust me, leader," Oscar added quickly, trying to recover. "I can take care of him. I’ll erase him, clean and quiet."
But before he could say anything else—
A violent eruption of fire exploded across the office, a spiral of flames surrounding the leader’s chair. The temperature spiked in an instant.
"Why?" the guild leader’s voice turned sharp. "Why do you keep acting on your own?"
"You’ve already done enough damage," the leader continued, voice now calm again but with an underlying tension that made Oscar’s skin crawl. "No more reckless moves."
"I-I understand," Oscar stuttered, sweat dripping down his temple. "I’m sorry."
"It’s fine." The flames died down in an instant. "Just don’t get in the way again. That awakener... what was his name?"
"Sam Walker," Oscar replied immediately. "But he’s a nobody. I promise."
The leader gave no further response. Oscar exhaled quietly, relieved that the conversation was shifting. But deep down, he burned with anger.
He would find Sam Walker again. He’d make sure of it. No matter what it took, he would take revenge for the embarrassment.
A system announcement flashed in front of both of them. Not just in the room, but everywhere.
[Congratulations to Sam Walker for being the first human in history to complete the "First Layer" and killing the Layer Boss: Abyssal King.]
"Huh?" The leader leaned forward, confused. "That’s... what?!"
Oscar’s eyes widened. He froze.
That name. That same damn name.
He trembled in place, every ounce of his control barely keeping him from screaming in fury.
Elsewhere, within the towering headquarters of the Union Guild—
A group of awakeners gathered near the top floor, all pointing at the glowing panel now floating in the sky above the city.
David Union stood in the center of the room, a calm smile forming on his face.
"Yes?" he asked casually.
"What does that even mean?!" one member blurted out. "How can someone clear the first layer?! That was done decades ago!"
The others all murmured in confusion. They were right, this kind of announcement wasn’t normal. System messages only ever appeared inside the Forsaken Realm. Never outside. Never .
But here it was, an announcement shown across the world, in real time.
It wasn’t just strange. It was impossible.
And what made it worse, no one had ever heard of the so-called [Abyssal King].
None of it made sense. Yet David didn’t look troubled. If anything, he looked... entertained.
"It truly seems," he said softly, his grin widening, "that something interesting is beginning."
Back to the first layer.
Sam walked through the portal in front of the Abyssal King’s throne. Alicia and Lily followed behind, both still a little stunned by the announcement they’d seen. Sam’s name, on a world notification. It hadn’t made sense to them either.
They didn’t ask him about it though. They could see Sam didn’t know what it meant any more than they did.
Sam’s name had just been revealed to millions of people. And the implications were clear.
If Sam was the first person to "clear" the first layer, then that meant the entire layer that all of humanity had gone through before wasn’t the real one. It was fake, or at the very least, much easier than what Sam had just conquered.
They stepped through the final section of the portal, falling through the shimmering vortex.
A moment later, all three of them landed on solid ground.
The air was fresh. The trees swayed.
They were back in the outside world.
Sam glanced around and recognized the area. It was the same place where he’d summoned the portal that led to the true first layer.
"I guess that means... we really cleared it," Lily exhaled, still stunned. "That’s unbelievable..."
Sam didn’t even react to the Hell-Mode Analysis comment. He simply nodded.
"But that doesn’t make sense," Alicia said, rubbing her temples. "If this was the real first layer... then what was the one above for?"
"Probably just to let people advance," Sam replied without much emotion. "It’s easier, safer. It lets them move forward without ever knowing."
"I guess so..." Alicia said quietly. "But this was insane."
And that was the real issue. If this "sub-layer" was actually the true first layer, then the second and third layers humanity had supposedly conquered... were also just illusions.
"Humanity’s struggling with the fourth layer already," Lily muttered, her eyes wide, "and now we’re learning there’s one even harder beneath it?! Fuck..."
It sounded like a nightmare. A world flipped upside down.
But for Sam, none of that mattered.
Not the announcement, not the panic, not the confusion it might cause in the outside world.
He didn’t care what anyone thought. He only cared about getting stronger.
And now that he’d seen what the real first layer looked like... he knew the path forward.
"We’ll be fine," he said with a smile, eyes glowing crimson again. "I just need to kill them all, that’s all."
The intensity of his aura, that quiet, creeping power flowing out of him... made both girls pause.
But they didn’t question it.
[You have completed your Apprentice Rank advancement task: Conquer the First Sub-Layer.]
[Performance Rating: SSS.]
That was what he’d been waiting for.
A reward that matched the effort.
[Congratulations to Sam Walker for advancing to Apprentice Rank!]
"Nice," he whispered, his voice steady.
"I advanced too!" Lily said proudly. "With an S-rank rating!"
"Same!" Alicia added with a grin. "Looks like we all did it."
But Sam wasn’t focused on the rankings. His eyes were fixed on the system panels starting to appear one by one.
[You will be granted several rewards for your performance, Primordial.]
Notifications chimed in rapid succession, forming a circle of glowing text around him.
The first panel caught his attention.
[Choose a card, Primordial.]
He tilted his head slightly.
Three cards appeared beside him—black and violet in color, just like last time.
He could finally claim the skill he was meant to get at level 10 of novice rank. Now that he was officially Apprentice rank, nothing was stopping him.
He stepped closer and looked at the cards.
Two of them were familiar.
The first had a skull etched onto it. The second had a symbol of dark flames.
Both were cards he had seen back at level 5, but back then, he had picked the third card—so these two remained unchosen.
The final card was different this time. A swirling vortex-like shape etched in silver.
Sam studied them for a long second. He was curious about the other two. Really curious. But...
His gaze locked onto the second card, the one with the flames.
’I’ll see what the others do next time.’
He reached out and tapped the card.
[You have selected your card.]
The other two instantly vanished, swallowed up in black fire. And then, the selected card flipped slowly to reveal the skill.
[Description: Conjure dark flames that scorch everything in their path. They burn both the body and the will.]
[Hell-Mode Analysis: Burn them all!]
He grabbed the card and let it dissolve into his hand.
[Congratulations to Sam Walker for learning the skill: Shadow Flames (Common)]
But Sam knew it wasn’t the end, since he still had a few panels to check