The Apocalypse Has Been Downloaded – Chapter 56

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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As we fell, a light enveloped us.

It was a nostalgic and indescribably warm light.

My senses faded, and I lost hold of Merhere’s hand.

“Mer! Where are you!”

“H-here! I’m here!!”

I quickly moved towards the source of her voice. I couldn’t lose her here.

“Got you!”

“Yes! I… I’ve got you too!!!”

I finally grabbed her hand. As soon as we found each other, Merhere and I naturally hugged.

And we continued falling into the nostalgic light, eventually losing consciousness.

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“Ugh…”

Everything was white. An empty space of nothingness.

I was lying there.

“Mer… Mer! Where are you!!”

I had been embracing her before losing consciousness.

But now I was alone.

“Mer!!!”

I shouted while searching for her.

But there was no reply. Only a faint, mournful cry, presumably hers, could be heard.

“Are you there?! Mer! Answer me!!”

I followed the sound of Merhere’s cries. Everything was so white that I couldn’t even tell if I was moving forward.

“Found you…!”

After running for a while, I finally found Merhere sitting on the ground and crying.

“Mer. Hey! Gasp… Gasp… Mer!”

“Sniff… Huh…? M-master…?”

“What? Ah… I’m out of breath. Why are you here alone? And why are you crying…?”

“Sniff…”

I looked down at Mer, who was crying alone, and embraced her from behind.

I wasn’t usually the type to comfort people, but she, who was so tall, looked so pitiful and heartbroken while sobbing.

“It’s okay, Mer. Tell me. What happened? Did you see something scary?”

“I-I… I saw it. I didn’t want to know… I didn’t want to see… but I saw it…”

“What? What did you see…?”

What had she seen that made her cry so mournfully?

I held Mer in my arms, stroked her arm, and asked.

She finally stopped crying and spoke.

“I don’t know what it was. I… I have no idea. It was… yes, giant eyeballs. Looking at me. No, reading this world… Countless eyeballs.”

“Eyeballs…?”

“Yes… This world… is someone’s dream. No, maybe it’s someone’s story. I don’t know. I just knew that I was being read. Those countless eyeballs… I… No, perhaps we are… created beings… Just characters in some narrative… It’s terrifying… Master… I… I can’t bear it, it’s so terrifying and frightening.”

Merhere burst into tears again.

“Was my life… my choices and thoughts… all meaningless…? Master… no, Jo-joon… Tell me. Am I… just a created being? What is the value of my life? Are we… Is this universe… just unfolding according to someone’s will…? This is a closed world. The ending is already predetermined… Master. What am I supposed to do…? I… I… I know the secret…”

“Merhere…”

She spoke of an ancient dream.

She scoffed while saying this world was just a plaything created for someone’s amusement.

And she sobbed while lamenting that her existence and her life had been completely denied.

What had she seen? It didn’t seem like she had simply sensed a god’s gaze.

She had encountered something more profound.

“Mer, let’s take this pill.”

“Wh-what is this…?”

“It’s medicine. A very good psychotropic drug. Here, just take one.”

I took out Kran’s Nerve Stabilizer from my bag and put it in my mouth.

Then I kissed Merhere, transferring the pill into her mouth with my tongue along with my saliva.

She swallowed the Nerve Stabilizer and my saliva like a baby bird.

Her breathing calmed, her tense body relaxed, and she nestled herself completely into my arms.

The tears streaming down her cheeks stopped.

I gently stroked her hair and said.

“Mer. Listen carefully.”

“Yes… I’m listening…”

“As you said… this world might be someone’s dream. Or maybe it’s just a story. But does that matter?”

Merhere slightly raised her head and looked up at me.

I looked into her clear, innocent eyes and continued.

“If it’s a predetermined story, if the ending is already set, so what? We… we just have to find our own happiness.”

“Happiness… our happiness?”

“Yes. So don’t be swayed. Even if someone is reading us like a novel, what does it matter? If the ending set for me, for us, is a bad ending, we should struggle to survive as much as possible. Don’t you think so?”

“Struggle… as much as possible…”

“Yes. Let’s struggle together. I’ve done a lot of cruel things, but… maybe those countless eyeballs you saw will enjoy this kind of story.”

Merhere closed her eyes tightly.

“I see… Yes… Master. You’re right. If the ending is already predetermined, if all the misfortunes that have befallen me are just for someone’s amusement, I want to give them the middle finger. I want to fly again. And… I want to live as I please…!”

She opened her eyes and smiled at me.

It was a beautiful smile. A pure smile I didn’t dare to tarnish.

She was so beautiful that I was captivated.

She snuggled deeper into my arms.

“Thank you, Master. I feel… a little better… thanks to you.”

“Yeah…”

Just as I embraced the calmed Merhere…

Poof…

She vanished into white smoke.

“Huh…? What…”

Nothing remained. As if she had never been there.

Merhere was gone.

“What… is…”

As I stood there, bewildered, a hazy figure appeared before me.

Seeing that figure, I thought that perhaps this was the god who had led me here.

The presence I felt from it was similar to Kashnax and Indikron. This was a divine apparition.

The divine apparition shifted its form from a childlike figure to a man, then to a beautiful woman, then to an old man, and then back to a young girl.

As its form flickered, it spoke to me.

[Stand up. This is no time to sit around.]

It was a man’s voice I had never heard of before, yet it felt so familiar.

He sternly warned me.

[Run. And reach me.]

A nostalgic voice, so nostalgic, but I didn’t know who it belonged to.

She gave me a goal.

[The power to change the predetermined ending.]

A stern yet warm voice of an old man.

The old man lamented what had been lost.

[Take it, Cultist.]

A frivolous yet cute voice of a child.

The girl showed me the future.

The smoky figure flickered and disappeared.

The white space cracked and shattered.

Giant hands emerged from the cracks trying to grab me.

But their hands were blocked by an invisible barrier and couldn’t reach me.

“Oh no…!”

I stood up and ran.

Everything around me shattered and collapsed, as if trying to engulf me.

But the single path I was running on remained intact and withstood the impact.

A god was calling me.

An evil god I had yet to encounter had paved the way for me.

The white ceiling shattered, revealing the universe. Giant beings were looking down at me.

They were furious.

[Stop!! Please stop!!!]

[You bastard! You’ve already been banished from the game!!!]

[You should have been forgotten!! Just disappear!!!]

They were shouting at me, and at something else I couldn’t see.

They were holding scales, gavels, and lanterns.

I recognized them from their symbols.

They were the good gods. And they were enraged.

They were intervening to prevent me from reaching the end.

“Argh!!!”

I ran frantically while dodging their hands.

And at the end of the path, I threw myself into a dark, gloomy hole.

The milky way path I had been running on shattered, and the good gods’ hands reached for me.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

I tumbled down for a long time.

I finally stopped, caught my breath, and looked up.

“What… the hell… is that?…”

A vast, expansive space.

A star resembling the sun was burning below, and the ceiling was filled with a holy light. It was an indescribably astral place.

And in the center, there was a giant white snake bound by chains.

The white snake was floating in the air, its body coiled and rotating like an armillary sphere.

Red eyes appeared from between the coils of its rotating body.

[You’ve come.]

[You’ve finally arrived.]

[The one who will inherit my karma.]

[It’s so cramped in here.]

[I’m so tired of being alone.]

[I want to go outside!]

[Please… remember me.]

“Argh!!!”

My mind was in chaos.

I had learned something I shouldn’t have. The nostalgic longing had turned into pain.

“You… Who are you?!”

I clutched my throbbing head and asked the snake.

The moment I recognized and acknowledged its existence, I instinctively knew I had to ask who it was.

The rotating white snake flickered its tongue and replied.

[I am the one forgotten and erased.]

[And the one yet to be known.]

[The one who knows everything,]

[Yet knows nothing.]

[The beginning of mutual destruction,]

[And the end of all things.]

[I am the decomposer and the eraser.]

[My name is Bothamili.]

[The Master of the Void.]

[And the God of Oblivion.]

Something was engraved on my hand. It was a triangular shape.

“Ugh…!”

As I endured the pain in my hand, I saw the snake reach out to me.

I didn’t know why it was a hand, or why a snake had a hand.

That was just how my eyes perceived it.

The snake’s form, its arm censored with mosaic, disappeared, and a completely distorted, mosaic-covered being stood in its place.

[When you leave this place,]

[You will forget me.]

[So, I must engrave myself in you.]

[I want to create a place for myself in your soul.]

[Please. Lend me a space.]

Bothamili asked to create a space for herself in my soul.

“Ugh…! Okay!!”

I agreed, not knowing what kind of disaster might occur if I refused.

Besides, my body and soul already belonged to Kashnax and Indikron, so they could fight over its ownership amongst themselves.

[Thank you.]

A finger touched my forehead.

Something was embedded within me.

“Ugh…”

My skill had changed. At the same time, I felt Bothamili’s presence settle within me.

Bothamili could now see the world through me, just like Kashnax and Indikron.

[Good. I’ve finally set foot on the board again.]

So, she had been banished? What had she done to be trapped in this space?

[I committed a small transgression. As a result, I was trapped here.]

A small transgression? It couldn’t have been an ordinary intervention.

[To be trapped in a place like this…]

[Making me devour Errors… It’s so agonizing.]

Bothamili started lamenting. She was a talkative god. Once she started talking, she wouldn’t stop.

“But… didn’t you say you would give me the power to change the ending?”

[Oh. I forgot.]

[Forgive me. I’m the God of Oblivion.]

[Forgetfulness is my nature.]

The snake spat something out at me.

It was a reddish orb.

“This is…”

[Swallow it.]

[Then you’ll be able to greatly alter your predetermined fate.]

[And your final choice will change the ending.]

[Of course, you have to survive until the very end!]

[Overcome all disasters,]

[And reach the Chamber of Choice.]

I picked up the red orb.

No description appeared for it. It wasn’t a system item.

‘Can I really eat this?’

After a moment of intense contemplation, I put the red orb in my bag.

I would ask Kashnax and Indikron about it before consuming it. Something terrible might happen if I ate it carelessly.

A light coalesced before me, forming a door.

[Thank you for coming, Cultist.]

[And I’m sorry for dragging you here.]

So, it was Bothamili who had led me here.

The sudden rampage of the security forces, the appearance of the door to the Upper Floor, and even the voice that had guided me… it was all her doing.

I wasn’t sure if she was a he or a she, but I would just call her a she for now.

But where had Mer gone? She couldn’t have… disappeared, could she…?

“Where’s… where’s Merhere?”

[She’s safe.]

[She’ll reappear by your side as soon as you leave this place.]

Bothamili twisted her body.

The chains binding her dug into her scales, causing her pain. It meant her time was running out.

[It was nice meeting you. But some time must have passed outside.]

“Huh?”

Time had passed?

Had years gone by…? Oh, for fuck’s sake… If that was the case… I would never forgive this snake.

[Not that much. Just four days. Four days have passed.]

“Four days…”

Fortunately, years hadn’t passed.

‘But four days… a new disaster must have been updated by now.’

I hoped Eun-ji and the others were safe.

[Now, I’ll let you go. Just open the door and leave.]

“Then… I’ll be going.”

I quickly opened the door, leaving the Master of the Void behind.

Clank.

I had finally completed this dreadful Black Market full course.

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“Oh no…”

“U-unnie…”

Lee Eun-ji gulped while looking at the incoming zombies, as she heard Sung Ha-rin’s lament.

“Why… at a time like this… when Oppa isn’t here…”

She saw the monsters leading the zombies in the distance.

“Kyaaaaa!!!!”

Draugr.

A new, evolved elite zombie that had appeared after the update. An undead martial artist with sentience capable of regenerating and possessing overwhelming strength and physical abilities, specializing in killing Awakened individuals.

“Kuwaaa!!!!”

Revenant.

Another new elite zombie that had appeared after the update. An undead warrior with sentience, equipped with armor and weapons, capable of slaughtering Awakened individuals with skilled swordsmanship.

“Le-Via… Gransio…”

Wraith.

Another evolved zombie with sentience capable of wielding a staff and using dark magic.

Monsters, each difficult to handle on their own, had attacked the supermarket. And they had come with a horde of other zombies, including special zombies like War Boys and Zombie Centipedes.

“Oppa… When are you coming back?…”

Eun-ji made a crying face as she threw shadow throwing blades at the approaching zombies.

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T/N – Hey guys! I’ll be unlocking 2 chapters today to account for the one that was supposed to be unlocked last Thursday. Enjoy!

Oh, so the author is going for the Lovecraftian Mythos. Mer’s description reminds me of Azathoth, the Blind Idiot God who sleeps at the center of the universe, dreaming worlds into existence.

Also, holy sh*t! The new evil god’s introduction is so badass! Though the aggro the MC drew after this is insane. Hopefully, the thing she gave him is OP enough.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.