Chapter 14

Black Box

Lee Hyuk-soo looked around.

The smell of disinfectant filled the hospital room. By the window, at the very spot where he had first gazed up at the moon.

‘It’s morning.’

As he looked out the window, the bright sunlight made him squint slightly.

The sun was now high in the sky.

Not the eerie moon with the moving eye from last night.

…It felt as if he had just awoken from a long dream.

But it wasn’t a dream.

Lee Hyuk-soo lowered his gaze.

‘The Death King’s gear.’

Armor, greatsword, gloves, belt, boots, and helm.

He was still wearing everything he had obtained and equipped during the First Night’s Abyss.

“…!”

Realizing it was all real, Lee Hyuk-soo quickly checked inside his coat.

There, he found a small bottle, shaped like a gourd and about the size of a baby’s fist.

“It’s here…”

Inside the bottle was a luminous blue liquid.

Elixir.

The miraculous potion he had purchased for 3,000 points.

The prophet had said it would wake his mother.

Tap.

Before he knew it, Lee Hyuk-soo had moved.

He quickly approached the hospital bed and looked down at the woman lying there.

She was so thin, her bones were almost visible. Her hair had lost its vitality.

This was his mother, Kim Ji-yeon, who had been unconscious for nearly ten years.

‘Oh, almighty God…’

He had called that name thousands, tens of thousands of times before.

But never once had God answered.

Still, one last time, Lee Hyuk-soo prayed.

Pop!

His hands trembling, he opened the bottle and carefully poured the liquid into Kim Ji-yeon’s mouth.

Drop by drop, slowly.

It took almost ten minutes for the entire Elixir to be administered.

‘Why isn’t there any reaction?’

But there was no change.

Had the prophet lied?

Maybe an Elixir couldn’t help someone in a vegetative state.

As countless thoughts filled his head—

“Mmm…”

“Ah…!”

Lee Hyuk-soo’s eyes began to tremble.

His mother, who had shown no reaction for nearly ten years, was now faintly opening her eyes.

“Are you awake?”

“Who…?”

“It’s me, it’s Hyuk-soo. Ah—”

Lee Hyuk-soo took off his helm.

Kim Ji-yeon looked at him, drenched in sweat like a rain-soaked mouse, and gave a faint smile.

“My dear Hyuk-soo… You’ve grown so much. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Mo…Mother…”

“But I’m still a little sleepy. Just a bit more…”

The reunion was short-lived.

Kim Ji-yeon’s body soon went limp again.

Lee Hyuk-soo’s expression immediately hardened.

Could it be that she had fallen back into a sleep from which she’d never awaken?

Dark thoughts began to consume him.

“Mmm…”

“…!!!”

Shiver!

Lee Hyuk-soo’s entire body trembled.

…It was just sleep-talking.

This was clearly different from the time when she barely reacted at all.

Suddenly, his vision blurred.

His emotions, which had always been dull, overflowed for the first time today.

Lee Hyuk-soo bit his lip, trying hard to hold back the wave of emotions, and then pulled out a coin from his coat.

—I told you, right? It won’t stop at saving your mother’s life with the elixir.

The prophet had spoken.

The world would soon become a living hell.

To keep his mother safe in that hell, this coin was necessary.

But more important than that—

—If you truly want to protect her, become a savior, Lee Hyuk-soo.

It was just before he charged at the Dragon Divine General, after the spell had been cast.

The prophet had seemed to know exactly how things would turn out for him after killing the Dragon Divine General.

Of course, Lee Hyuk-soo had no intention of becoming some lofty ‘savior’.

But he understood the point.

‘I need to get stronger.’

That’s what the message behind becoming a savior was.

He needed to become stronger than anyone else.

Strong enough that demons wouldn’t dare target him.

Strong enough that no one would even think about touching his family or what was his.

…It meant he needed to attain overwhelming strength.

—From tomorrow onward, the world as we know it will change. An unimaginable upheaval is coming. Don’t be surprised, don’t be afraid—just keep moving forward like a rhino’s horn.

Move forward. Keep moving forward, and everything you want to protect will naturally follow.

Lee Hyuk-soo approached the window once again.

Earlier, he had only seen the bright sky and hadn’t noticed the state of the world below.

“Emergency patients!”

“There aren’t enough hospital beds!”

“Aaah! It hurts! I’m in pain!”

“Damn it! Can’t you see the patients here?!”

…The world had already taken the plunge into inferno.

Injured people were flooding into the hospital.

And the overwhelmed medical staff couldn’t keep up.

Everything was collapsing.

But…

‘For the first time, the light and shadow… they look so clear.’

Not to Lee Hyuk-soo.

It was the first time since his surgery that his vision was so clear, that the world before him appeared in sharp focus.

It was as if everything had finally come into place.

Lee Hyuk-soo carefully placed the coin in his mother’s hand.

And then—

‘I’ll follow your words, prophet.’

Without hesitation, he left the hospital.

No matter how many times he had called on God, there had never been an answer.

But the prophet had answered in just one meeting.

So, from today onward—

‘You are my god.’

The prophet had become Lee Hyuk-soo’s god.

***

After returning home from the ‘First Night’s Abyss’, Park Chan-woo had spent over 30 minutes staring at the black box in front of him.

“A Black Box…”

What could it be?

He had never seen a box of this color before.

Of course, there had always been rumors that the colors of the boxes known to humanity weren’t the only ones that existed.

Bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond.

There were even rumors of people seeing ‘pink boxes’ or ‘white boxes’.

But none of those rumors had ever been confirmed.

Even among those spreading the rumors were some ‘Avatars’, who had concocted lies to lure others into the Abyss their creators controlled.

Given the circumstances, most rumors were not to be believed.

Park Chan-woo himself had always been convinced that no other box colors existed.

And yet…

“To think there was actually a different-colored box…”

His previous understanding had been shattered.

The Black Box was given to him because he had defied the expectations of all the ‘Creators’. Not a single one of them believed humanity would succeed in hunting down the Twelve Divine Generals.

Yet, Park Chan-woo had made it possible.

He had used the ‘Reflect’ spell he learned upon obtaining the Original Mage class.

‘There are limits to my attack power.’

At a level deep in the negatives, his stats barely increased, even with leveling up. His weapon damage was equally abysmal, and even if he used attack magic, it wouldn’t be effective.

That’s when he thought of ‘Reflection Magic.’

‘If my attack power is too low, I’ll just use someone else’s.’

By enhancing the ‘Reflect’ spell into a Great Magic, he was able to reflect even the Dragon Divine General’s attacks.

‘Before I open this box… I should check everything else first.’

It was a foreboding black box, and who knew what might come out of it? The unspoken rule of survival was to never touch the unknown. However, he couldn’t just leave it unopened either.

He just needed to prepare himself.

First, he needed to organize. Checking and sorting the items he had obtained from the Abyss of the Night came first.

Park Chan-woo spoke the command to display his status window.

He looked directly at the center of the window that appeared before him:

“…!”

Park Chan-woo’s eyes trembled.

After clearing the First Night’s Abyss, his class level had increased to 2.

Although his basic stats hadn’t changed…

‘But I’ve gained class level points!’

That was far more important.

He would gladly give up stat increases in exchange for ‘Class Level Points’—something he could never afford to lose!

In the past, Park Chan-woo had only managed to raise his Mage class to Level 9.

‘…Thinking back on it brings tears to my eyes.’

The dual class system had been his downfall. After growing to level 90 as a knight, switching to a mage was a foolish decision that only Park Chan-woo had made.

‘The reason I could only learn basic magic was because of the low class level.’

In this world, where levels meant everything, having a low class level severely limited what you could do.

For a swordsman, raising the class level allowed them to use sword energy or specialized techniques. It was the same for mages—higher class levels meant learning higher-tier magic.

A Level 9 Mage could only learn basic spells of the normal grade.

‘I sacrificed all the equipment I had as a knight just to upgrade my basic magic.’

He had spent almost everything to upgrade his ‘Fireball’ spell, turning a normal-grade spell into an eternal-grade one, just to reach the heart of the Dragon God Sephiro.

And later, his basic ‘Telekinesis’ spell had also been upgraded to eternal grade, which eventually led to his ability to use ‘Dominion Magic’.

‘They said no matter how many sacrifices you make, if you lack magical talent, you can’t upgrade the spell.’

It was only thanks to the God of Sacrifice that Park Chan-woo discovered his true magical potential.

—God of Sacrifice, do I have any talent? Is there anything I’m good at?

—Contractor Park Chan-woo, your magical potential can reach the ultimate level.

After losing a duel with the Sword King, Lee Hyuk-soo, he had offered a significant sacrifice to find out what his talent was.

The God of Sacrifice had answered that his talent lay in magic, with the potential to reach the highest level. Encouraged by this, Park Chan-woo had immediately abandoned the sword and begun walking the path of magic, albeit a bit late.

But now, things were different.

In just one day, he had reached Level 4.

If he could raise his level efficiently despite being in the negatives, his effective maximum class level could reach 198.

‘That’s nearly the 20th tier of mastery. Insane.’

It was nearly impossible, but not entirely out of the question.

Taking a deep breath, Park Chan-woo laid out the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and ‘Void’ on the ground.

The Philosopher’s Stone was, as its name suggested, a stone—a blue, slightly darkened stone.

It was a growth-type item that boosted magic power, which in turn increased his abilities as a mage. The earlier he obtained it, the greater the long-term benefits—hence why Park Chan-woo had gone to such lengths to acquire it.

‘Void’ was even more important than the Philosopher’s Stone.

It was a tiny gemstone, about the size of a fingernail, radiating a mesmerizing gray light.

As he shifted his gaze to it, the description appeared:

The description was extremely brief.

But that one unique option was enough to surpass everything else.

It was simply overpowered.

The description only said, Allows the user to possess opposing elemental attributes, but in essence, this meant he could possess all elemental attributes.

It removed all penalties related to opposing elements.

“This is… incredible.”

He had gained so much on the first day.

These were treasures he couldn’t have obtained in several years, even in the past.

Now, only one thing remained.

“…Open.”

Carefully, Park Chan-woo opened the Black Box.

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