I kept my pace steady, walking toward the perimeter of the field without looking back once. Every instinct I possessed screamed at me to turn around and lock eyes with that central angel—to show him that I knew exactly what game he was playing—but I forced myself to refrain.
"Excuse me," a voice called out just as I reached the edge of the clearing. I stopped, waiting for the inevitable response from the celestial overseers, but the interruption came from a completely unexpected direction. "Can I join your group?"
I turned slowly. Standing a few paces away was a young man. At first glance, he looked entirely unremarkable. He didn't have the heavy, muscular build of a warrior or the crackling aura of someone who had unlocked high-tier skills. He looked like any other youth you might find in a quiet neighbourhood back before the world ended.
"You want to join?" I asked, my voice flat and cautious. Before he could answer, another youth stepped forward from the crowd.
"Me too," the second one said.
"And me as well."
A girl approached my group alongside the two boys. I studied the three of them with questioning eyes. I couldn't tell if they were simply smart enough to realize that staying close to me was their only real chance of survival, or if there was something more sinister beneath their "normal" exteriors.
"You said anyone can join your group, right?" the girl added.
For a reason I couldn't quite name, I felt an immediate flash of dislike for her. She was far too full of herself, carrying an air of unearned importance as if she were some sort of pre-apocalyptic celebrity.
She stood tall, showcasing a slim figure and delicate, faint features, but her most annoying habit was the way she kept running her fingers through her golden hair. She treated those strands like they were a national treasure.
She was undeniably stunning by old-world standards, but in this apocalypse, beauty was a currency that had long since been devalued to zero.
"Sure, why not? The more, the merrier," I said, going against my better judgment.
I could feel the wave of surprise emanating from my own team behind me. They knew me better than this; they knew I didn't take on dead weight without a reason.
Sorry, I thought toward them, but this is a necessary step to reach the goal. To be honest, I didn't trust a single soul in this new trio, but I needed the numbers for the move I was about to make.
As if on cue, the air in front of my eyes shimmered with a cold, blue light.
[Subquest has been issued]
And here it comes at last… I tightened my jaw, doing my absolute best to control my expression and hide the surge of excitement as I opened the details of the new notification.
[Subquest: Protect the human group in the field during the upcoming quest. Issued to Human Group Leader: Hye]
Oh! He even put my name in red, I noted. On the interface, my name glowed with a violent, crimson hue, making me look like a high-profile criminal or a world-boss monster. I inwardly snorted as the screen flashed again, revealing the brutal terms of the mission.
[Subquest Details: The human group led by Human Hye is tasked with protecting the other humans in the field. Success Condition: At least one half of the humans currently in the field shall survive until the end of the quest. Failure: 50% of all personal stats will be permanently removed. Do you accept this quest?]
"This is..." One of my team members trailed off, his face paling.
"Hye, did you see this?" another whispered, her voice trembling. "C'mon! Why all of a sudden?! They're trying to sink us!"
At least my team was finally beginning to see the dirty, invisible hands behind these "random" quests. It was a harsh lesson, but they needed to realise that our enemies weren't just the mindless monsters roaming the streets; they were the ones writing the rules of the game.
Despite the crushing failure penalty, I was inwardly overjoyed. This was exactly the leverage I needed, though I still felt like something was missing—a final piece of the trap.
I turned around and scanned the wider field. Based on the panicked murmurs and the way people were clutching their heads, it was clear that the other humans had received a version of the quest as well. The intentions of the one issuing the order were transparent: they wanted to tie my hands and force me to play the role of the sacrificial guardian.
But I didn't care about their schemes. If anything, I was relieved that the system hadn't lumped the dirty traitors and the deluded fools together in the same success bracket.
"Hahaha! See? Serves you right, bastard!" one of the traitors shouted from the crowd, his face twisted in a malicious grin.
"Just like justice from heaven! You're forced to serve us now, Hye! You're our bodyguard!"
"I wanted to see how you'd keep that shitty pride of yours after this," another jeered. "C'mon, lower your head and kneel. Ask for our forgiveness, and maybe we'll make it easy on you."
I didn't flinch. I didn't even acknowledge them. Their comments were like flies buzzing around a lion; irritating, perhaps, but ultimately inconsequential.
"Let's go," I said to my team, turning my back on the shouting traitors and walking away.
"Oh… Sir Hye…" The golden-haired girl who had been showing off her beauty earlier suddenly stepped out to block my path.
"What do you want?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous chill.
She flinched as my team instantly closed ranks, surrounding her with weapons drawn. If she so much as twitched the wrong way, they were prepared to make her pay. She looked nervous now, her "celebrity" confidence wavering as she realised she was standing in the shadow of a killer.
"T… The quest…" she stammered, pointing at the hovering screen. "We can't just drop it. Our stats…"
"I didn't force you to join my group," I said, my voice as cold and flat as a tombstone. I didn't slow down, simply moving past the golden-haired girl and brushing her shoulder with mine.
The physical contact was dismissive, a silent reminder of the hierarchy here. "But as long as you are standing under my banner, you are obligated to follow my words to the letter. You do not question me. You do not hesitate."
"B… But the quest!" she cried out, spinning around to face my back. This time, she didn't try to physically block me, but her words were frantic, echoing with a desperate, high-pitched edge. "Will we really fail it? Can you really risk everything on a whim?!!"
I stopped. This was the exact question I had been baiting. I turned my head just enough to give her a sidelong glance, my expression a mask of casual indifference.
"The quest isn't obligatory for us," I said, my voice carrying across the field as I approached the jagged, broken gate. "The system provides an option. We can accept, or we can deny. Watch closely—I'm going to reject it right now."
"But the penalty for failing it!" one of the youths shouted, his face contorted in a mix of fear and disbelief. He looked at me as if I were a madman, as if I were too stupid to understand the basic text flickering in front of my eyes. "Half our stats, Hye! Half! You're committing suicide for all of us!"
"A quest's failure or success conditions are never activated unless the quest is officially accepted," I said, pausing to give the three newcomers a glance so frigid it seemed to steal the breath from their lungs. "And since I am going to reject it, we won't be subject to any penalty at all. It will be as if the quest never existed."
This was the trap. In this early stage of the apocalypse, most humans were too terrified to read between the lines. They mistook every system notification for a divine command, a forced decree that had to be obeyed. They didn't realize that by simply acting upon a quest, they triggered an "automatic acceptance." To the system, obedience was consent.
"I'll reject it now just to put your minds at ease," I said.
With a slow, deliberate motion, I opened the subquest window. My movements were calm, my fingers steady as I touched the glowing "Rejection" button.
To any observer, I looked like a man who truly didn't give a damn about the "merciful" opportunities provided by the heavens. I wasn't violating a single rule; I was simply playing the game according to its own internal logic.
Anytime now, motherfcker!* Deep inside, my stomach was in knots. My heart hammered against my ribs as I waited for the response from my unseen enemy.
I was poking a god with a stick, trying to provoke him into taking a step that would reveal his hand—a step that would cost him dearly in the eyes of the cosmic law.
The screen in front of me flickered, turning a violent shade of purple before the text warped.
[Quest decline is not available for you.]
A new message broadcasted, not just to me, but to every single human still standing in the blood-stained field.
[The Guides have decided to intervene for the well-being of the human survivors. They have paid the required price of the Blessing to enforce this subquest upon the leader party: Hye.]
[The subquest is now ACTIVE until the end of Part Two of the First Main Quest.]
[Group Leader Hye can no longer decline the quest.]
"D… Damn!" the girl cursed under her breath. I noticed her face was pale, her features twitching with a nervousness that seemed far more intense than that of the two boys beside her.
Is she different from the rest? I wondered briefly, but I quickly shoved the thought aside. I didn't have time for her. To make the spectacle complete, one of the three angels hovering in the sky descended slightly, his voice booming with a false, resonant warmth.
"Humans… this is the best we can do to assist you in these trying times," the angel proclaimed, his golden armour reflecting the dim light. "Sometimes, raw strength does not equate to goodness or kindness.
These are virtues that cannot be purchased with coins or stats. Do your best to survive, for your sake and the sake of your brothers. We shall see you after the quest is concluded."
It was the perfect finale to their little play. As the angels ascended, I watched the crowd behind me. They weren't grateful to me for trying to protect them from a forced contract; instead, they were shouting and cursing, hurling insults at my back as if I were their deadliest enemy. To them, the angels were heroes who had just scored a major victory against a "tyrant."
It was pathetic. The scene was a masterclass in how easily the masses could be fooled. Here I was, a man who had returned from a dark future, holding the only spark of hope for their species, and I was being branded a traitor.
Meanwhile, the actual traitors in their midst and the predatory "Guides" in the sky were being treated like idols and saviours. Since when had the world become this f*cked up?
I maintained a bitter, defeated expression on my face until the three angels had vanished into the clouds and the oppressive darkness of the apocalypse returned to the field.
"Now you can't leave us, hahaha!" one of the traitors jeered, emboldened by the system's forced decree.
"I dare you to move away now! Let's see how you like it when your precious stats are cut in half!"
"The angels are truly merciful," a woman cried out, her eyes shining with a deluded fervour. "God bless them and curse you demons!"
The air was thick with the sound of praising words for the enemy and curses for the only man trying to save them. I let the noise wash over me for a moment before I slowly opened my mouth, speaking in a low, gravelly voice meant only for my team.
"Open your eyes wide," I whispered, my gaze fixed on the shadows beyond the gate. "Look at them. See for yourselves just how twisted and dark this world truly is."
The air within my team was thick with a suffocating, jittery nervousness. I could relate to their feelings all too well; to them, it felt as though the floor had dropped out from under their feet, leaving them plummeting into a deep, dark trap with no visible exit. They saw the 50% stat penalty as a death sentence, a leash tied firmly to the neck of every person in this field.
However, they didn't see the board the way I did. Every frantic heartbeat, every glowing notification—it had all unfolded exactly according to my will and my design.
"Listen up," I said, my voice dropping to a low, authoritative rumble that cut through their panic. "You're going to stay here and keep guarding these fools. Don't overextend yourselves and, for God's sake, don't get scattered. Stay together in a tight formation. Isabella, you're in command until I return."
I threw these orders out with a cold finality before calmly turning my back on the crowd and walking toward the edge of the park.
"W… Where are you going?" Isabella asked, her voice cracking with shock. She took a step toward me, her eyes wide. "Are you really just leaving? Won't we be coming with you?"
"No need," I said, raising a hand without slowing my pace.
But before I could take another step, one of the two youths who had "volunteered" to join my group earlier decided to find his voice. He stepped forward, his face twisted in a mask of simulated righteous fury.
"Stay right where you are!" he shouted, loud enough for the entire field to hear. "You can't be this damn selfish, Hye! You can't just walk away and leave us all behind to fail the ques—"
Slash!Slash!
I didn't give him the satisfaction of finishing his sentence. My sword left its sheath in a blur of silver light, swaying with a speed that defied the natural eye. In two clean, horizontal arcs, I decapitated him and his friend in a single heartbeat.
The two heads hit the dirt and rolled away, their expressions frozen in mid-sentence. The sudden, brutal execution startled everyone. A heavy, pregnant silence fell over the field as they stared at the headless corpses.
I had risked a great deal with that move, but my gamble paid off. As I had suspected, these "youths" were traitors. Under the current rules of the quest, I was forbidden from killing "humans," but the system was very specific about biological definitions.
Traitors were humans who had already accepted the tainted, dark energy of the angels. They had become a hybrid race—a new, corrupted species that the system no longer recognised as "pure human."
That was the fatal mistake the angels had made. They assumed I would be bound by the word "human," forgetting that they themselves had already stripped these spies of their humanity to make them more effective tools.
"Hye..." Isabella whispered, walking over to look down at the dead boys. Her face was a mask of confusion and horror. "Why? Why now?"
"Traitors," I said, my voice dripping with disgust. I cast one last, lingering gaze toward the golden-haired girl who had joined them. I hadn't made up my mind about her yet, but these two had been too eager, too obvious in their attempt to control me. They had to die first.
I reached out and placed a heavy hand on Isabella's shoulder, leaning in close. "Make sure you watch out for more of them," I whispered.
The meaning was clear. I wasn't just warning her about the loudmouths in the larger crowd; I was telling her to keep a razor-sharp eye on the girl who remained.
The angels wanted a mole inside my inner circle—a set of eyes to analyse our combat patterns and report back our weaknesses. Even if they had forced my group to stay behind, they were still hunting for data they could use to kill us later.
I had already tasted how patient and cunning these bastards could be during the Arnold incident. Arnold had been a ghost, waiting for the perfect opening. This girl was no different; she was a viper in the grass.
"Didn't you just accept the quest?!" a voice screamed from the crowd. "Where are you going, coward?" "Loser! Go ahead and curse your team with your selfishness! You're going to kill us all!"
The insults rained down on my back, but I didn't owe these fools an explanation. I did, however, need to ensure my team understood the logic of the trap I had laid. It wasn't an easy plan to comprehend for those who hadn't seen the end of the world before.
I hadn't staged this entire confrontation for nothing. If I had simply wanted to leave the field, I could have done it hours ago. But the central park held a secret—one of a few scattered locations across the globe that hid a "secret weapon" I desperately needed for the next phase of the war.
If I had gone straight for it, the angels would have intercepted me. So, I had to lure them into a game of political theatre, making them think they had me cornered and "tethered" to a protection quest. Now that they were gone, convinced they had neutered my mobility, the path was clear.
"Don't worry about the quest," I said to my team, my steps never faltering as I reached the dark tree line.
"The quest is a group task. Its conditions can be met by any part of the group—even a single person. You stay here and do exactly what we did earlier. Use the light and the fire to keep the monsters weak and at bay. And above all, keep your eyes open for the vipers."
I stepped into the shadows, the darkness of the park swallowing me whole. Behind me, the field was dead silent.
That was the simple, beautiful fault in the subquest's phrasing. It wasn't luck that had saved me; there was no such thing as luck in my life. I had intentionally triggered the angels' hatred, making them focus entirely on "binding" me. And at the very moment they thought they had won, I was the one walking away with exactly what I wanted.