1.

Before the vast Heavenly King’s Castle.

The overflowing Divine Power was gone, leaving only traces of desolation and destruction.

You would hardly believe this was Heaven, much less the highest layer where the absolutely pure God was worshipped—the Heavenly King’s own castle.

On this land that should have been holy, rivers of blood flowed.

From the tens of thousands of Celestials to Simin’s pets that had come to Heaven, they lay sprawled across the ground, gasping for breath.

Of course, those who were still breathing were the lucky ones.

"Haah. Fuck, I’d rather just die."

Simin, whose life force was annoyingly tenacious, lay on his back with his limbs spread wide. He stared at the sky through closed eyes and muttered to himself.

Even though this was a game where he felt no pain, he was mentally exhausted beyond belief.

And of course he was.

Just dealing with the endless waves of Celestials had been enough to kill him, but on top of that, the clash between the Heavenly King and the Demon King had continuously applied a stubborn, persistent damage-over-time effect to everyone on the battlefield, friend and foe alike. All the while, they had had to do everything they could to block the Celestials rushing to protect their king. Above all, once the fight had passed the hundred-hour mark, he had been forced to constantly glance between the Heavenly King and Epia, wondering when this tedious, mind-numbing battle would finally end.

The Rabbits had died off one by one, the Specialists were exhausted, and at some point, even Sudal and Squeaker had followed Simin’s orders and fled for their lives. In that situation, the deepening pall of defeat didn’t matter in the slightest.

Either way, if Epia won, the war was over.

Likewise, if the Heavenly King won, it was over.

From his perspective as a tragic side character watching from the sidelines, the grand, passionate finale had fortunately ended in a way that left him just enough energy to gasp for breath and spit curses.

"Gotta do what needs to be done."

And those who had the luxury to enjoy that reprieve were also granted the right to claim the spoils of victory.

Simin opened his eyes and turned his head toward the center of the destruction.

Countless craters pocked the ground.

And in the middle of them, Epia knelt with her head bowed.

Her succubus outfit, which had barely covered the essentials, and her monstrous +15 armor had long since been shredded into unrecognizable rags. Her small frame, despite belonging to the Demon King who carried the weight of the Demon World, sagged with exhaustion—a testament to the brutal fight.

It wouldn’t have been strange if she had collapsed at any moment.

Though she was naked and covered in blood, the sight inspired not lust, but an overwhelming sense of awe.

"BetaGo really is incredible."

Even Simin had to admit it.

His impression after watching the fight from start to finish could be summed up in a single sentence: the battle had been so fierce and spectacular that he hadn’t even had a moment to wonder if he was really watching an AI-controlled NPC.

Mistakes had been made that one wouldn’t expect in a fight between final bosses like the Heavenly King and the Demon King, and in the end, a victor had been decided.

Unlike Epia, who was on her knees, the Heavenly King was still standing, his body limp.

Like a scene from a movie, the two were positioned back-to-back.

At a glance, one might think the Heavenly King, still on his feet, was the victor.

However, anyone who saw the real reason the Heavenly King was still standing would never have accepted that outcome. He remained upright for one reason only: the sword that should have been in Epia’s hand was driven into the ground, piercing his heart and pinning him in place.

Winner and loser.

The Heavenly King had offered his heart, and now, he breathed his last.

[You have completed the quest.]

*

The moment Kenji saw the Heavenly King allow Epia to land the final blow and die on Han Simin’s stream, he turned his entire army toward the Emperor without a second’s hesitation.

He had half-expected it, half-doubted it, but in the end, Han Simin had pulled it off. That meant the war was effectively over.

The system hologram confirmed it.

In the sub-main quest that followed, a hologram appeared before every user, ordering them to deal with the defeated remnants. In an instant, the Liberation Army, once servants of God, were branded traitors in that same God’s name—heretics seeking to plunge the continent into darkness.

They had gone through something similar once before, but the weight of it was on a completely different level this time.

Back then, it had been a misunderstanding; now, it was a nail in the coffin.

There was only one way to turn the situation around.

’Kill the Emperor and take the continent.’

He had lost the war, but Epia still couldn’t wield her power freely on the continent.

The war on the continent, however, was still in Kenji’s favor.

He just had to end things before Han Simin and the Emperor could join forces.

If Han Simin’s hidden trump card had been to ascend to Heaven, then Kenji’s final move was this.

The path to the Emperor was short.

He didn’t even need to go looking for him.

As Kenji marched toward the capital, the heart of the Empire, the army led by the Emperor also turned and headed for the same destination.

And so, they met.

—So we’re getting a war here too.

—The war in Heaven was so insane. Can this even be fun by comparison?

—I’ve got this and Simin’s stream both open.

—This side’s going to be fun in its own way.

The two forces faced each other on a vast plain.

As always, the Emperor stood at the very front. Kenji, too, took the lead to confront him.

They were far apart, but their voices, amplified with magic, carried clearly across the field.

“Why are you helping them?” Kenji demanded. “You know full well that Simin and his followers are part of a plot hatched with the Demon King. Is the continent truly choosing to side with darkness? Is that how badly you want to cling to your throne?”

There was no ulterior motive in the question, no attempt to coax anything out of him. It was a question born of pure, genuine doubt.

Kenji really wanted to know.

Could an NPC, whose core principles had always been so firm, actually change?

What he knew for certain was that, at least before Han Simin appeared, the Emperor would have considered demons an evil to be wiped out by any means necessary.

Yet now, even with a strong suspicion of what was going on, he was standing on Han Simin’s side, restraining the Great Temple’s power and even raising an army to annihilate them.

All on the basis of a few words with no proof whatsoever.

Was that even possible?

“Heh heh.”

In response to Kenji’s question, the Emperor only let out a hearty, carefree laugh.

At the same time, he looked up at the sky with a smile.

“A lot has changed. A whole lot.”

He paused for a moment.

“And through it all, there is one thing I have come to understand.”

His smile shifted, now directed at Kenji.

“The peace of this continent cannot be entrusted to anyone—not a god, not a Demon King. It is something we must protect ourselves.”

Kenji remained silent.

“And if I can use them to achieve that peace, then it matters little if the one I use is the Demon King himself.”

That was the end of the conversation.

The Emperor had nothing more to say, and Kenji had no time to waste.

Once their intentions were clear, millions of soldiers drew their weapons.

That was the signal.

“Charge!”

“Exterminate the enemy!”

It was the start of another legendary battle, one destined to be replayed endlessly.

If the battle between the Heavenly King and Epia had been a fight in the heavens above, this was a brutal, human war—a gritty conflict that users could relate to more than anything.

Magic that blotted out the sky flew ahead of the soldiers.

With that magic, a true hell was about to be unleashed.

At the point where the spells cast from both sides were about to cross—

Pop.

A flash of light burst forth.

It was not a phenomenon caused by absolute spells colliding.

The spells were erased by that light.

No, they were absorbed.

The mages were bewildered.

Confusion rippled through the ranks.

The mages on both sides, who had each prepared their most powerful spells to seize the initiative, could only stare in disbelief.

Dino, in particular, was speechless.

’How the hell...’

It had never once crossed his mind that a mage capable of blocking his magic could exist.

How could there be? His very class was superior to all other mages.

His bewilderment was quickly resolved.

Because as the light that had absorbed every spell vanished—

“Everyone, freeze!”

—the triumphant general had returned.

2.

A lot had changed.

And yet, in some ways, nothing had changed at all.

The Empire had regained its former glory—no, it had gone beyond that to build an even more extreme dictatorship. The Great Temple, meanwhile, was a temple in name only, a place where priests offered prayers and people came to change their class.

Kenji, after dying a brutal death, had become a fugitive.

The countless demons who had appeared in the final war slaughtered the humans of the Liberation Army without mercy, but most of them were also annihilated, the survivors scattering once more.

The hero of the war, the hero of the continent, Han Simin, had once again made his name resound across the land.

It wasn’t just the continent—he became so famous worldwide that there was hardly anyone who didn’t know his name.

Han Simin.

Citizen Han.

The first person in the world to conquer the virtual reality game Fantastic World.

The one who cleared the Main Quest.

Even if he hadn’t wanted to be the center of attention, he couldn’t have avoided it.

Of course, the most fundamental thing about him remained the same.

“I made a killing. Way more than I put in.”

In a penthouse of over 7,000 square feet, Han Simin sprawled on a sofa in the middle of the living room—a sofa wider and softer than a king-size bed—and grinned in satisfaction.

The victor takes all.

Han Simin had won, and he had taken a lot.

Even though he had ceded everything that could be gained on the continent to the Empire—enough to be awarded the title of Honorable Hero of the Continent—the haul from Heaven had been so enormous that he had been able to move, refill his once-empty bank accounts, and then some.

It was so enormous that he was reluctant to even reveal the full amount.

Above all, the greatest prize he had gained from this war and the Main Quest lay elsewhere.

“Simin. I acknowledge you. I hope we can remain good business partners going forward.”

“Of course. Just contact me. I’m always open-minded and I never hold grudges, so if you need anything, just say the word.”

The Fool had acknowledged his defeat.

There was no longer any need to waste brainpower on a war of nerves with him.

“Heh heh heh.”

For that alone, Han Simin felt like he would never have to be stressed out by Fantastic World again.

How to put it?

’It feels like I’ve secured a lifetime pension from my job.’

“Ugh. This is a pain. I should go travel for a while.”

As the reconstruction of the shattered Rich Kingdom began, Han Simin and the Specialists vanished.

Thanks to that, all the costs needed for reconstruction were covered by the Empire and by donations from across the continent.

3.

Lying back on a beach, wearing sunglasses and sipping a cocktail, Han Simin heard Kang Yeseul’s question.

“Simin.”

“Yeah?”

“You know when Epia and the Heavenly King were fighting? That Sanctuary thing? What was that? You never told us about it.”

“Oh, that?” he answered casually. She had rolled onto her side in her bikini, her eyes shining as she looked at him.

“When I hit full Awakening after spamming +15 enhancements on everything, I was finally able to use that stone I got from the former Enhancer.”

“What does it do?”

“It lets you change the options on a +15 item to whatever you want.”

“No way. That’s actually possible?”

“Man, I seriously thought about changing the Blessing Ring’s option so it only applied to me, like, two thousand times.”

“So that was it.”

“Yeah, that was what I was banking on. Almost went to hell thanks to that bastard BetaGo, though.”

“Well, it all worked out. So what are you going to do now? The Main Quest is over.”

“What do you mean, what? I’m going to take it easy, travel around, and keep making money.”

“More than this?”

“I’ve got a new goal.”

“What goal?”

“To live as rich as Kenji’s family dog.”

He tossed the line out like a joke, but there was real sincerity behind it.