Ch. 003: Welcome To The Closest Place To Hell (2)
[Kik… kik… kik… how amusing. Even I couldn't begin to imagine you human-darlings chattering fearlessly before death itself. And worse… most of you haven't even touched the Arcane.]
Dssal frowned.
It wasn't a voice from a human.
Instead it seemed to pour straight from the burning sun itself, vibrating through every heartbeat, every breath.
Every fragment of his being trembled in response.
Of course, murmurs spread, causing everyone to look up.
"Oh my god… is it here?"
"A real Star Guide…"
"No way, already?"
Suspense rippled across the crowd—half awe, half reverence. Almost everyone believed the presence of the so-called Guide meant guaranteed safety.
However, Dssal had brutal misgivings about that.
He almost laughed.
Humanity has always been mistaken. Star Guides weren't mentors but executioners wrapped in quiet riddles.
Dssal pushed closer into the crowd, as he did he wore a smile.
"Quiet."
As he sighted the person.
He whose voice cut through the noise like a blade.
Kahrdan Reinhardt.
He stepped forward, his calm and collected presence slicing the panic apart.
The air around him was fiery, the crowd instinctively shifted for Kahrdan, unlike Dssal, who was forced to push his way forward, recognizing strength even if they didn't yet know his name.
"You fools. The entity must've proclaimed something important. We all stand before death,"
Kahrdan declared firmly, eyes fixed on the sun, arms folded.
Dssal observed the crowd.
It stirred yes his voice was powerful but not convincing enough to soften the implications.
After all he had essentially told everyone they were probably going to die here.
'Well that's a bad approach.'
"Nonsense! She called us darlings! Obviously she isn't hostile!" a balding youth shouted, waving a microphone—how he even got one in, Dssal couldn't begin to guess.
"Yeah! Exactly!" another chimed in. "She's all-powerful, right? If things go wrong and we beg, she'll just help us."
"Yeahhh… Star Guides are known to be benevolent."
Kahrdan looked disappointed.
Dssal sneered, once again noting he shouldn't pity anyone of them. After all, they all deserved to die.
'So stupid.'
Contemplating, he found his eyes glued to Kahrdan Reinhardt.
Yes at least I still have him here.
'My potentially submissive ducky.'
Dssal, grinning, gazed sinisterly at him, not minding appearances.
Kahrdan, apart from his mild sadness, felt a cold chill.
'Hero boy. I'll make sure I milk every last bit of worth out of you until you become lean.'
Dssal birthed a threatening thought.
Kahrdan wasn't lean.
Incidentally, his appearance was somewhat muscular hell one could only imagine what he would be put through to become a lean figure.
However Dssal was only joking right?
At most he meant he would have him slaving away right?
No one would deserve worse.
Kahrdan was athletic looking.
Dssal admitted his attractiveness although he bore a scar across his left eye, he had long dazzling orange hair spilling over his shoulders to combat it with a shade only describable as molten coloured eyes.
He could pass as an inconspicuous bodyguard especially with his Arcane Control running on his gripped silver sword, which caught the blood-red light of the sun—further adding to his imposing bodyguard figure.
'What's even better is he wouldn't be able to steal attention away from me considering how clueless he is about his own appearance.'
Dssal noted with mild sympathy: it's good maybe he could've been called more handsome, if not for the overly masculine image he insisted on forcing not even combing his hair.
Dssal flicked his hair with a smirk.
'Yes of course, none could ever hold a candle to me.'
Somehow, his narcissistic thoughts built here.
Vanity survives even in hell. Maybe that's why gods still bother watching him.
A moment later, the elegant voice rang out again, clear and mocking, causing Dssal to regain awareness.
[Such idiots.]
A figure abruptly appeared, floating in view. Morphed from the blazing sun itself.
It was a female-shaped silhouette that snapped her fingers—
And instantly made the world shift to it.
Kahrdan frowned.
The blazing red sun twisted into a pale moon, its glow draping the plains in eerie silver.
"Tsk. Cumbersome," he hissed under his breath.
He didn't like night.
As a flame swordsman, his aura recovery was drawn from the sun's heat.
Under this condition, his combat ability was almost cut in half.
Dssal noticed but couldn't dwell on Reinhardt's handicap for too long.
The Star Guide had begun ranting again.
[Disappointing how utterly disappointing…you're lucky it's my role, I'll begrudgingly inform you useless lot. Simply put here isn't a White Gate as you expected. It's a mighty Void Gate. And you sorrowful souls are basically here to provide its nourishment.]
'No way, that's bullshit.'
Every Arcane Bearer shared the same thought but somehow couldn't voice it.
Yet the beratement continued.
[Pitifully, you all are so unimaginably weak that you will probably perish even before the end of the tutorial, so I don't expect I need to inform you about your chances.]
[Nevertheless, I will—survival isn't impossible here. You can crawl off the dinner table… if you grow strong enough.]
[I mean even bugs are allowed to survive in cosmos though they are much stronger than you lot besides the point]
[So I digress.. our Pantheon, the Seven High Gods, the Twelve Zodiacs, and countless Chaos Constellations are watching. Perform well enough, and you may be spared death. You may even earn a Constellation's blessing. But becoming an apostle? Or earning sponsorship? Hah. None of you are worthy. Know your place. I'm pretty sure not a single god would tune into my broadcast this time so die quickly would you?]
Dssal's eyes left Kahrdan as he sighed.
'She has finally shown her true colours.'
People wailed.
The whole crowd almost many broke into tears on the spot whilst others adamantly denied it.
Just what good would that do instead it's better to maintain calm.
Dssal coolly recollected her words
He eyed sponsorship as that had no strings attached but the others were all bastard like.
A blessing, dammit?
'Yeah right, That was just soft words the 'blessing' is basically a penalty after all to receive such—"you will be, in return, offering your body as a potential vessel to a god; in other words, you are offering your life."
'It's so stupid. The correct approach is to refuse any such unfair offer even it's slightly better to become an apostle.'
[You're weak. So weak I have to take action. Most of you haven't even touched the Arcane yet, which would make a boring show for the gods. Luckily, I'm here to do it for you. Consider this your one and only gift. Now… do you finally understand your predicament?]
'There it is.'
Dssal really couldn't care though he would still try to avoid the gods until he is strong enough not to fear them.
And for the first step he conjured another deeper thought.
According to the original gameplay, after asking that question, every Star Guide would have sent a fraction of their Arcane directly into the participants, forcing them to awaken before continuing their endless speeches about the Three Realms of Pantheon—how players had to ascend through the Tutorial Realm before saving the dying continent of the Middle Realm, and finally reaching the End Realm Zero to become an immortal.
But he didn't need this explanation.
He helped make this game. He already knew everything.
What he needed now was something far simpler—
To check his stats.
Now that he had forcibly become… an Arcane Bearer.
With a sly grin, Dssal softly called out:
"Status window."
---
HOW TO USE A WORLD'S APOCALYPSE
In the world of Pantheon, Arcane Bearers are beings who surpass the limits of humanity.
To bear the Arcane means to literally break the natural ceiling of human potential—shattering the built-in "limiters" that keep us mortals bound to weakness.
In the same way you describe cultivators.
Naturally, a Bearer steps beyond the peak of what a human body or mind could ever achieve.
From that moment onward, they shed mortality's restrictions, becomes the very peak of human capability— and their growth only begins from there.
Dssal? He had just become one.
The only problem was his stats.
It was strange.
Unbelievably strange.
Because rightfully so, even after hammering his brain cells, he couldn't figure out—
'Come on man, you all should feel for me.'
'Why the hell are my starting stats so damn low?'
---
[Status Window]
Name: Dssal Guengji
Age: 25
Trait: Methodical Spectator (Tier: Abnormal)
Class: N/A
Title: Feeble Wanderer — [You are trash worse than a dog]
Authorities: N/A
Disposition: 1st Level Arcane Bearer
Equipment: N/A
Spells: Elven Sovereign Insight (Tier: Mythical)
Physical Attributes (Average 1st Level Arcane Bearers = 20)
Strength: 9
Agility: 19
Vitality: 4
Endurance: 7
Intelligence: 30
Mystic Attributes
Magic: ???
Luck: ???
Arcana: 3
Aura: ???
---
"…Like what the actual fuck is this literal garbage?"
At the least, the average total stats of a new Bearer started at 20.
He had coded the baseline himself.
These numbers, significantly scraping under the bottom of the barrel, were his—how?
And, that damned humiliating title stapled to his very existence.
Ah yes. The gods never resist irony.
Feeble Wanderer.
Trash worse than a dog.
Dssal gnashed his teeth, a vein throbbing in his temple.
He attempted to look away but strangely couldn't.
No matter, it was how that's more important.
How was he expected to survive now then?
Thankfully his eyes at least caught something useful—
his spells.
'…Okay. I understand. This isn't totally random incompetence. Something—or someone—is tampering with me.'
His gaze lingered on the spells.
Yes, his stats were really terrible, but this was Mythic-tier, it was beyond overpowered.
Dssal formed a fist.
No one ever received such at the start.
Obviously he deduced there was tampering.
In the same way tampering meant a higher power had taken interest.
Thus Dssal's lips curled into a grin.
'In this case it's good.'
In Pantheon, the weaker you began, the less room you had to grow.
But now he could turn that inherent logic upside-down
[Spell: Elven Sovereign Insight (Tier: Mythical). Do you wish to view further information?]
'Why not.'
'View more information.'
The panel appeared shortly after.
[Elven Sovereign Insight: You can view the tier of one's Ascension Potential—be it yourself or another—and edit one person's stat potential tier once per year.]
"…Great," Dssal muttered, his eyes watering with joy.
However, the origin of the spell was deep.
Evidently moments prior—
The Eighth High (the true god) intervened, he raised Dssal's spell tier but remained fair hence in exchange he subtly tampered permanently with Dssal's stats potential and temporarily with his perception only to be broken if he is touched.
Dssal didn't realize when it happened.
It felt natural whenever he tried to look away that is after gnashing his teeth, he found himself more glued to the system window.
Even now, as he blinked, the edges of his vision only seemed slightly slower to register movement.
A faint, disorienting haze crept into his mind.
Until—
Crash!
A man barreled into him, Dssal stumbled back, almost losing his balance—
Ting!
The suppressed system window finally appeared.
[Quest: Survive the Dire Wolf Tide]
[Time remaining: 58:57]
"…Huh?"
Dssal regained his five senses.
Loud, distant roars echoed carrying across the red plains.
Dssal blinked, scanning the area.
While he was preoccupied with his status window, the massacre had already long begun.
Human screams from prior silence tore through the air as people scattered in every direction, chaos erupting without anyone knowing where the wolves were coming from.
It felt surreal.
Dssal felt small rightly confused about what had happened.
'I swear to gawd at this point?.'
But he wasn't one to dull.
Acting fast, he lunged toward a fleeing figure—ofcourse he'd targeted a frail-looking woman—someone he could dominate in strength.
"What happened before this?"
Dssal demanded as he roughly dragged her toward him by her shirt, but her terror-stricken eyes showed she wouldn't answer quickly.
"Useless bitch."
Without hesitation, Dssal struck the back of her neck with annoyed force, knocking her unconscious.
Time was worth a life here.
His expression darkened.
'I overreacted.'
But who'd blame him
Looking around
It seemed this had gone on for a minute or so thousands of people running wide and thin, yet he heard nothing while using his window, feeling almost cut off from the rest of the world.
Unease settled over him.
More people ran past.
Why did his senses dull suddenly? Would it happen ever again? Dssal shivered at the thoughts.
He hoisted her up and hurled her toward a person.
Specifically one of the running men who he'd seen socialising earlier, believing the man wouldn't let her go easily.
Yes if things got worse, the fact that the man would be slowed by carrying her might buy him some time to escape.
He cautiously ran in front of the man. Timing his pace, everything
However more clarity hit him.
Considering everyone was running blindly, without pinpointing where they were or what threatened them… they were probably wolves blending in.
Paired with the unleveled ground that did nothing to help one could easily be killed as a unit.
Why would I stick together thats suicide.
Dssal scrambled, changing his feet westward from the rest.
"REINHARDT!"
Unfortunately, Kahrdan was nowhere to be seen.
Dssal darted farther away from the panicked crowd.
'Yes it will be stupid to stay near the rest.'
He was right.
As people fled haphazardly, he spotted crimson eyes glinting through the chaos—predators hidden in plain sight.
The people spotted it too but was too late. Flesh was torn.
He increased his sprint, maneuvering around any area where those eyes lingered.
But before he could cover twenty meters, another pack of red eyes suddenly emerged in front of him from darkness.
Dssal spun around, again hoping to escape in the opposite direction, only to realize— more eyes.
A circle.
He was trapped. And worse, surrounded.
"Fuck!"
HOW TO USE A WORLD'S APOCALYPSE
(END OF CHAPTER THREE)
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