As Nigel watched, the quest window’s rewards continued to escalate. An absurd amount of gold coins. Experience points that would instantly turn Nigel into a powerhouse—still far weaker than Inas, of course. A beautiful lover—Nigel shattered something in rage at that part—along with various other tempting offers.
Several days passed like that.
Around the time Nigel figured Inas would arrive tomorrow, the quest window updated once more.
â–· QUEST (new!)
The All-Inclusive Quest
Eliminate <Inas Idenbach>. No higher rewards possible.
Reward:
The world is restored to a normal flow of time.
Upon <Inas Idenbach>’s elimination, the world will be reset to April 14th one time.
Under the condition that the quest is not revealed to <Inas Idenbach>, a version of him with no memory of prior loops will survive.
Will you accept the quest?
YES
YES
Nigel’s hand froze mid-motion, having intended to brush it off as usual.
Inas Idenbach’s survival.
He read that line several times in a row, narrowing his eyes.
This wasn’t bad. Truly… this wasn’t bad at all.
Inas’s words—that he would fix everything no matter what for Nigel’s sake—had certainly been sweet. And yet, even setting aside how moved he’d been, Nigel was acutely aware of how empty those words were. They were nothing but baseless faith wrapped in comforting lies.
If this had been something that could be solved by human will, it would’ve been done long before Inas ever hit Level 40,000, let alone now. How could any mere human interfere with the power to reverse time?
The System’s assertion that “this current version of Inas is warping the flow of the world” seemed perfectly valid. Nigel himself had harbored that same suspicion before.
While the System had designated Kay as the <Protagonist>, if this strange narrative—including the warped flow of time—were being written as a proper story, then Inas would undoubtedly be the true protagonist.
But even that wouldn’t be a normal story. A story, like time, ought to flow forward. The one they were trapped in had no ending. It just spun endlessly in place.
The System claimed that removing Inas once would restore everything to normal. There was certainly a need to reset things, even if it meant resorting to extreme measures. The System’s threats weren’t entirely wrong—as things stood, both Nigel and Inas would remain shackled to this miserable loop.
If the one wielding this unknown power—whatever the “System” really was—had clearly laid out a way to return things to normal, then maybe, just maybe, this nightmare could actually end.
Nigel still felt uneasy about the fact that he’d have to kill Inas… but if it didn’t work out, well, time would just reset like always.
Just in case, Nigel waited for a better offer. But unlike before, the quest window remained quiet. As if it truly had nothing more to offer, it simply shadowed him everywhere he went.
And so, the night before Inas was expected to arrive, Nigel finally hit <YES>. After all, pressing <YES> didn’t mean he had to kill Inas immediately. There was no heavy burden, not yet.
It still felt unpleasant, the notion of killing Inas. But—Inas had killed Nigel several times already. He decided to set his guilt aside.
Quest accepted.
A confirmation window popped up as if it had been waiting all along. Then, in rapid succession, another new window appeared.
<system: user02 account has been created.>
But that message disappeared almost instantly, too quickly for Nigel to fully register it. He turned the phrase over in his mind, then dismissed it. Probably nothing important.
There was a more pressing concern.
“Even if it says to kill him, how am I supposed to do that?”
Nigel muttered in exasperation.
He checked his Character Info Window. His pitifully low Level still stared back at him. Level 3. He had just barely managed to reach Level 7 before the last Reset, but apparently, level accumulation only applied to Inas. Everything had reverted for him.
Well, Level 3 or Level 7—hell, even Level 77—it wouldn’t matter. Inas was far beyond compare. Even Kay, who had been strong enough to kill Nigel with a single punch, was a mere flickering candle next to the blazing sun that was Inas.
Using a gun slightly improved his attack power. But despite the bullets making direct contact with a target’s body, even damage output scaled with Level. If Nigel and Inas went head-to-head, Inas could stand there doing nothing, and Nigel would probably exhaust himself and collapse first.
How the hell was a Level 3 supposed to kill a Level 40,000? Inas had 90 million HP.
The quest window had to know that.
Just then, the window flashed rapidly. When Nigel opened it, as if it had been waiting for attention, one final line appeared at the bottom.
tip: If you can’t do it yourself, find someone who can.
The fact that the quest window eagerly spat out this advice the moment Nigel accepted the quest was annoying in itself, but he read it over carefully anyway. Still, even with someone else’s help, could anyone really eliminate a being like Inas, who had already transcended humanity…?
Nigel’s expression darkened as he pondered. There was one person who might stand a chance. The one person with even the slightest possibility.
It was the dead of night, but Nigel summoned Hayes immediately.
“I need to meet with Sir Schumacher.”
The final boss of the original story. The man Kay and his party barely managed to kill in a past loop. A knight known as the strongest in the kingdom. If anyone stood a chance, it would be him.
Sure, he had ultimately died at the hands of Kay’s group, so it wasn’t exactly a surefire bet… but in this situation, Nigel didn’t have many options. Schumacher had a much better chance at killing Inas than Nigel ever would.
“Understood. When should I arrange the meeting?”
“As soon as possible. I don’t care if it’s nighttime. I have to see him by tomorrow morning at the latest.”
“Is something going on, sir?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Hayes nodded, a puzzled look on his face. There was no way to explain the details to him right now. Even Nigel himself knew that what he was about to attempt was absolutely insane.
Still, Hayes was a loyal aide and would make contact immediately. And Schumacher would likely agree to meet with Nigel.
In brief, here was what Nigel had learned from a year’s worth of investigating before the last Reset:
Long ago, during the war of the ancient gods, the god Glarus used a legendary artifact to seal the evil god Edelta. A fragment of Edelta remained sealed within that relic. Schumacher dreamed of collecting all the pieces of this artifact and using them to conquer the world.
The final piece of the relic had been sealed near the Magnus Duchy, in a forgotten temple. Kay had also discovered this location and set off toward the temple. But Schumacher beat him there and obtained the last piece first.
When Schumacher finally assembled the entire relic, a massive, ominous black light surged like a river, visible even from the base of the mountain. The sight was as terrifying as it was awe-inspiring—as if Edelta himself had returned. The very image of the world’s end.
But almost like a mercy from the narrative itself, before Schumacher could fully wield the artifact’s power, Kay managed to catch up. The relic held immense power, but it took time for a human to absorb it completely. Kay had struck during that window of vulnerability.
After a fierce battle, Kay defeated Schumacher and re-sealed the relic using Glarus’s holy sword, which he’d found in Orta. He became a hero, having prevented the world from spiraling into chaos.
But Nigel wasn’t trying to follow the original storyline.
What he wanted was the version where Kay didn’t arrive in time—and Schumacher fully absorbed the relic’s power.
This was the artifact that sealed the evil god Edelta himself. If Schumacher wielded its complete power, surely—even Inas could be killed.
Sure, the world might get destroyed as a side effect… but sacrifices had to be made. All of this was ultimately for the world’s sake, wasn’t it?
“……”
He really was starting to sound like some grand villain. Even storybook villains always had some kind of justification. From anyone else’s perspective, this was pure villainous nonsense…
Nigel shook his head fiercely, despite being alone. No. No, it wasn’t like that. The System said it would reset time anyway. Right. Nigel clung to that logic, forcing himself to believe it.
