The Author's POV

Pitch black darkness enveloped the world

"I've always been meaning to ask, but if the demon king manages to take over earth, what are you planning on doing?"

A voice suddenly resounded throughout the nothingness.

"What? Are you thinking that I'll just go run to some other planet?"

Another voice replied back.

"Will you not?"

"…if only things were as simple as that."

The voice cracked a little.

Unprecedented bitterness and sadness hid beneath the voice as the veil hiding the obscured figure trembled slightly.

"I-I…haaa, it's not possible."

He muttered.

Obviously finding it hard to continue speaking about the topic.

"What do you mean it's not possible? If we truly can't defeat the demon king, don't you think we should just ditch this place?"

The other voice asked, with a mix of confusion and curiosity hidden beneath his words.

"Just get the people you are close with and teleport somewhere far away. Away from the demon king's reach. I know you have the mean—"

Smack—

But before the voice could finish speaking, the loud sound of something smacking sounded.

The sound was reminiscent of a hand smacking against a flat surface.

Following the smacking sound, the other obscured raised his voice.

"I've tried alright! Everything that you can think of, I've tried! I have fucking tried it all! None of it works! It's impossible!"

His voice boomed throughout the voice as every one of his words was mixed with helplessness and desperation.

One could also feel the little bit of madness hidden deep within it.

"Curb that thought of your mind. There is no escaping the demon king! Unless we defeat him, we're all fucked!"

His last words powerfully rang throughout the void.

"Haaa...Haa...I-i'ts impossible."

The voice muttered with heavy breaths.

Following this, a brief moment of silence ensued as neither of the two figures spoke.

Then, the veil that was obscuring the two figures slowly started to fade, revealing two individuals on the opposite end of a wooden table.

One was standing, while the other sat down.

The one standing was wearing elegant black clothes while the one sitting was wearing a casual white T-shirt.

Even though the veil faded, the faces of the two figures were still obscured. Making it impossible to discern the identity of the two individuals speaking.

Leaning back a bit, crossing his arms, the white shirt individual broke the silence.

"…what do you mean tried? The demon king has not even ascended yet. You make it sound as though you have tried this before."

The black clothes male's body froze for a second before he quickly waved his hand.

"You're thinking too much."

He then sat down and stared at the other individual opposite of him.

Taking a moment to choose his words carefully, the black-clothed figure finally managed to calm down a bit.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he started to explain the reason for his previous outburst.

"The reason why I'm saying that it's impossible to defeat the demon king once he conquered earth, is because by then, he will break through the world limits and finally gain to access the Akashic records."

Placing the palm of his hands on the table, the white-shirted figure was taken aback.

"The Akashic records?…What in the world are you talking about?"

Raising his hand, and touching his forehead, the black-clothed male thought for a moment. Then, instead of answering the question, he asked one.

"Have you ever wondered why we are able to see status windows? How we are able to gain access to skills, or where mana comes from?"

The black-clothed individual interlocked his hands together.

"Has that thought ever crossed your mind once? How many of those things are possible?…or did you think that everything has come just because of some supreme power out there that has given everyone access to skills and mana?"

The black-clothed male's words powerfully rank inside of the white-clothed ears as he deeply mused over his words before replying back.

"...I have had thoughts but because I've always been paying attention to the demon king, I've never had properly thought about it."

Pausing, the white-shirted male looked at the black-clothed one.

"…Are you trying to say that all of the phenomenons that you have listed are because of these so-called Akashic records?"

"Yes…"

Nodding his head, the black clothes male exhaled loudly.

"The reason why we are able to see status windows, and gain skills is all because of the Akashic records."

"...Are these records some sort of god?"

The white-shirted male asked.

It was obvious that he was having trouble understanding what the black-clothed individual was trying to say to him, but he continued to ask.

"Since as you've said, they are responsible for the status windows and the creation of skills, they must be some sort of gods, right?"

Lowering his head, the black-clothed male didn't say anything. Placing his hand in his chin, he mused for a bit.

Then, lifting it up, he looked back at the individual sitting opposite of him.

"In a sense, you can say that, but at the same time, they are not."

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated...the Akashic records are a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, mana, skills, emotions, and intents that have ever occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms. That includes all other races. They are essentially the record of the laws of the world, but..."

The black-clothed individual paused.

"But what?"

The white-shirted male asked, curious about the black-clothed male's next words.

Lowering his hand, the black-clothed male's tone became solemn.

Leaning forward, his voice became fainter.

"But the demon king is trying to gain access to them. Or to be more precise, he wants to take control of the Akashic records."

"What?!"

The moment the black-clothed male said those words, the white-shirted male stood up in shock.

"Is that even possible? Are these records a physical entity?"

His voice was filled with incredulity as he slowly started to understand the reasoning behind the black-clothed individual's previous outburst.

"They are and aren't at the same time, but once you reach a certain level, gaining access to them is not impossible, and that's what the demon king is trying to do…and in order to do that, he must conquer the earth and consume all of the mana in the world so that he can break through to the next rank."

Supporting his body with the aid of the table, the white-clothed individual asked.

"In short, we have no choice but to beat the demon king?"

"Yes."

The black-clothed individual replied. Leaning back, he stared upwards and helplessly said.

"The demon king is incredibly powerful...I'm not very confident in my chances against him."

But the white-clothed individual didn't think like that as he said.

"You haven't even faced him, what makes you think you can't face him? You're the strongest in humanity, the first to break through to <SSS>, what makes you think that you can defeat him? Have a little bit of faith in yourself."

"If only things were like that…"

The black clothes male muttered.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, sensing something, the black-clothed male's body jerked towards the right, and a powerful aura swept out of his body.

"He found me."

He muttered in an incomparably solemn tone.

"Who found you?"

The white-clothed male asked, similarly staring in the direction where the black-clothed individual was staring, but he saw nothing.

Staring back at him, he asked.

"What exactly are you looking at, and who found you?"

"The time remnant."

The black-clothed male replied, fixing the collar of his jacket.

"The time what?"

Before he got an answer, the black-clothed male disappeared from where he was standing.

"Sorry, I have to go."

"Hey wai—"

"I have no time now, I don't want it to find you. It's not something you can deal with."

"What are you—"

Before the white-shirted male could finish speaking, the world slowly started to crumble as the darkness started to envelop completely.

Before long, everything disappeared, and what remained was a chilling darkness.

***

"Huaaapp"

Sitting up straight, Kevin took a deep breath.

"Hufff…huff…"

His breathing was heavy and the bedsheets below him were soaked in sweat.

It took a while for him to fully calm down, and when he did, looking around the room and seeing that he was in an unfamiliar place, he forcefully calmed himself down as he wondered.

"Where am I?"

The room looked to be a regular hospital room.

Next to him, all sorts of equipment appeared, as they repeatedly beeped.

"Ugh."

Letting out a groan, Kevin held onto his head as an agonizing pain coarsed through his head.

'Just what was that dream?'

It was faint, but he could still vividly remember what he had just seen.

'The akashic records? The demon king is trying to take over them and the only way he can do it is through the conquest of the earth?'

The more Kevin thought about it, the more agonizing the pain in his head became. It was as though it was trying to reject all the information he had just seen.

He couldn't understand anything.

'Could this vision have just been a fabrication of my imagination?' He thought as he tried to explain the contents of his vision.

Ding—!

But before this idea could even gain any traction, a familiar chime rang in his head and his system interface showed up in front of him.

[Quest reward : Synchronisation +5%]

[Completed.]

[Additional rewards.]

+ 5000 Credits.

+ Advanced potion x 5

'…so it wasn't a dream.'

The moment he saw the quest window, he knew that whatever he had witnessed moments ago was real.

As he understood this, the questions in his head only multiplied.

Who were the two that were talking in the vision?...and what was the time remnant the black-clothed individual was talking about?

So many questions, yet no answer.

As he was trying to make heads or tails about what had happened, Kevin suddenly recalled something and his body jerked up.

'Wait, is Ren okay!?'

The reason why he was in such a state was because he was trying to save Ren.

By using the red book, he forcefully broke through to <C> rank and changed the events depicted his death in the book, but where was the book?

Frantically looking around the room, Kevin looked for the red book, but he saw nothing.

'Shit the book must still be in my room.'

It was clear that his mind was still groggy and messed up due to the sudden vision.

If not for that, he wouldn't have forgotten the fact that the book was not something he could store in his dimension space, let alone the system.

'Ah, wait, what if…'

A sudden idea flashed his mind as he raised his head and stared at the system interface in front of him.

His eyes soon paused on a certain text.

[Quest completed.]

'The quest said to save Ren, if it says that it is complete, it can only mean that I've succeeded, right?'

Once his thoughts paused there, Kevins's shoulders relaxed a little as he leaned back.

Tapping onto the system and double-checking to make sure it was like that, Kevin breathed a sigh of relief.

Slumping back on his bed, he softly muttered.

"I'm glad…I'm glad that he's alright."

As long as Ren was still alive, the little struggle he suffered was worth it.

"Hm?"

Clenching his fists tightly, he realized that his body felt a lot more powerful than before.

His vision was also clearer. Not only that, but his other senses also experienced a similar thing as they all became sharper.

'I guess this can serve as consolation for what had happened.'

Kevin thought as he bitterly smiled.

Lately, the pace at which he had been breaking through had slowed down quite a bit.

For some odd reason, the system had been assigning him a lot less missions than before.

It had stagnated his previous stellar growth, but given his talent, the speed at which he was improving was incredibly fast too.

It had to be noted that he had been spending most of the time trying to perfect the Levisha style instead of focusing on his rank.

If he had been focusing on improving his rank, he might've been able to be a lot higher ranked.

Bang—!

"Huh?!"

Out of nowhere, starling Kevin out of his thoughts was the loud sound of the hospital room smacking open.

"Kevin!"

Entering the room was none other than Emma.

Her complexion seemed haggard, and her face was quite pale.

The moment her eyes landed on Kevin, her mouth trembled slightly. Raising her hand to wipe her eyes, and said something in an almost inaudible voice.

'I'm glad that you're still okay.'

Had it been the previous Kevin, he might've been unable to hear it, but now that his ears were a lot more sensitive, he was able to hear every word that Emma muttered.

His heart warmed.

But that didn't last for long as Emma's face soon became indifferent. The moment Kevin saw that his heart froze.

Without saying anything, Emma slowly walked in his direction.

Watching Emma slowly making her way towards him, her indifferent face made Kevin swallow a mouthful of saliva.

He felt an ominous premonition.

Raising his hand in her direction, he waved slightly.

"Hey."