Leveling Up Through Eating

Half of their population and half of the army had died. There were even many buildings that have been destroyed. Many of those who wore the epaulet carrying the symbol of the revolution were dead. The dried-up mummy-like bodies of the people were scattered all over the city.

Rather than laughter, screams rang rampant.

[The stigma has disappeared.]

The stigma engraved on their bodies disappeared. With this, they would no longer be suppressed. Now, they could eat and sleep as much as they wanted. But what good could that bring when most of the survivors had lost their loved ones?

The revolution succeeded, but it left an indelible scar on them. They should have been cheering and rejoicing, but only the sound of screams and cries filled the world. How could anyone laugh?

Of course, the same was true for the girl whose hair Minhyuk stroked. She crawled to her father and hugged his body tightly. As she cried, she caught sight of him.

Minhyuk stood alone in this place, filled with despair as he watched the people wearing epaulets marked with the symbol of the revolution carry the bodies of the other revolutionaries and gather them together.

He, with his broad and reliable back, looked at Weapon Revolutionary Leo, Army Revolutionary Bharal, Story Revolutionary Gardin, and the gradually cooling bodies of those who still had a faint breath during the battle but were now dead.

Minhyuk was not involved in matters related to Pandemonium’s Country. But weren’t they the ones who had made Minhyuk fight fiercely for their sake? Everyone knew that the revolutionaries had burned themselves to support Minhyuk as the revolutionary so that they could have this ending.

The girl stared at Minhyuk’s wide and lonely back as he stood there without showing any tears, sadness, despair, or pity. Looking at his fluttering white cape, she realized the truth.

He was sad.

‘He’s not crying. Because if he cries, he cannot keep standing.’

He wanted to collapse.

‘He cannot fall. Because if he falls, the people will also fall.’

He wanted to hug them.

‘He cannot hug them. Because if he does, this sadness will linger longer.’

It was a heavy burden for a man who was just three or four years older than her. The girl slowly stood up and approached him.

She gently grabbed his big warm hand. “Thank you.”

There was a soft smile on Minhyuk’s face when he turned to look at her.

Shwaaaaaa.

A breeze blew past and caressed Minhyuk’s warm cheeks.

Then he got notifications, and he could not help but let out an innocent and child-like laugh.

Seeing his beautiful smile, the girl looked at him in a daze.

Then, Minhyuk said, “The ending of the Pandemonium’s Country is a happy ending.”

“Yes?”

His words were incomprehensible. Didn’t he see their situation? He should know that they were currently in a hopeless situation, right?

Just then, the girl saw the remnants of the ruined buildings slowly float in the air, return to their original positions, and attach themselves. It was as if time was being rewound. Just like that, everything seemed to go back to before. Everything in the world was restored.

Those who died began to appear one by one as if nothing had happened. The people, who had been sucked into the black hole, appeared all over the place with confused expressions on their faces.

Even the flames and smoke that ravaged the entire city had disappeared. The only one who did not come back was Bul’ark.

The girl’s mouth dropped open when she saw everything return to what it used to be. When she looked down at herself, she saw that her once blood-stained clothes had already turned back to white.

Then, the voice of her most beloved person rang in her ears.

“Vellane.”

“...”

It was the sound of her father’s voice. She looked up at Minhyuk with tears dripping down her cheeks. When she saw Minhyuk nod slowly, she immediately turned to her father and jumped in his arms.

“Why am I alive?”

“What?!”

“Farr! I’m sorry, but I was dead, wasn’t I?”

Cheers rang loudly all over the place. Minhyuk could also see those whose bodies had already turned cold, including Leo, Bharal, and Gardin, sitting on the floor and looking up at him with a smile.

These were the notifications that Minhyuk had heard earlier.

[The events that have transpired are similar to those written in the ending of Pandemonium’s Country.]

[Something special will be triggered.]

[Everything will return to how it was before Bul’ark used the Predatory Disaster.]

Leo’s burned body had returned to its original state, while Bharal’s abdomen, which had been pierced through, was completely healed as if nothing had happened. And, of course, the same was true for Gardin, whose bones had been crushed.

They could not even believe the current situation.

“How? How did this happen?”

“We’re all alive?”

“Gardin, did this really happen because of your power?”

Everyone looked at Gardin, but he was puzzled by the sudden turn of events.

“The only thing that I did was make it so that I can try and relieve the sadness of the survivors when the ending is similar to the events that happened in reality.”

Gardin’s words left them shocked. If that was the case, then how did this happen? Although they were happy, they could not understand what was happening, so they all stared at him.

At that moment, Minhyuk stated, “Gardin, you are the god of this place. You are the god of Pandemonium’s Country.”

“...?”

They even forgot to be surprised because Minhyuk’s words were so out of the blue. They stared at Minhyuk as if saying, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

Gardin looked at Minhyuk incredulously. “What in the world are you saying…?”

“Has anyone here actually seen the envoys?”

No one answered the question. No one had seen them. The only one known to have ever met the envoys was King Bul’ark.

Gardin’s face had an unpleasant look as he said, “Boy, you shouldn’t make guesses…”

“Why do you not have the stigma?”

“...?”

Gardin has lived in this place for a very long time.

In the past, people were stigmatized the moment they stepped foot in this land. But after the first revolution, this stopped. They no longer got branded the moment they entered.

And Gardin? He had been in this land even before the first revolution had started and ended. Furthermore, he had no stigma.

“Why did you give those who visit this place for the first time a mission? Why do you get food if they complete the mission? In the first place, it doesn’t make sense for you to obtain food in a place that has been controlled and suppressed, no?” Minhyuk’s words were very rational and credible. “How else did you think an author could survive as one of the revolutionaries for a very long time?”

“...”

Gardin was rendered speechless. Even if he wanted to refute, he could not think of any words to refute him. How was he able to buy and eat food? Why did he not have the stigma?

At that moment, something snapped in Gardin’s head.

“Kghhhhk!”

At the same time, a series of unusual notifications rang.

[The Story Revolutionary… Pandemonium’s Country… has been corrected.]

[The Storyteller has created… Pandemonium’s country… has been corrected.]

[The Story Revolutionary…]

[The Storyteller…]

There was apparent confusion in the notifications. This was caused by the instability in Gardin. Why? Because these notifications were something that he had created in the first place. The long series of notifications then came to an end.

[The Story Revolutionary has awakened his identity as the Storyteller.]

“Keuaaaaack!” Gardin grabbed his head and screamed.

At that moment, they began to hear what they or anyone in Pandemonium did not know.

[For the longest time, he has always written down the stories of actual people.]

[He had written a story about a brave war veteran.]

[A story about a god.]

[And even a story about the Supreme.]

[He had also written stories about ordinary people.]

[But in these stories, most endings did not go the way Gardin wanted them to.]

[The war veteran died.]

[The god fell into corruption.]

[The Supreme was punished.]

[Even the ordinary people eventually succumbed to time and died.]

[As he wrote the stories of hundreds of people, he began to see them as his own. And it slowly made him go crazy.]

[Then, one day, he entered Pandemonium to create his world.]

[Inside Pandemonium, his existence became even more special.]

[He wanted to make a world without any limits or restrictions. He wanted to create a world where everyone was happy.]

[That was how the Pandemonium’s Country was born.]

[As he watched the Pandemonium’s Country thrive with happiness, he realized that many people had started to come to this place in hopes of experiencing a world without limits and finding the infinite.]

[He was overcome with confusion.]

[The confusion brought along exhaustion. And in his already exhausted state, he began to forget his identity. He no longer knew whether he was the Storyteller or someone else.]

[And this was where the problem began. He was the Storyteller. And he was the type of person who wrote provocative stories. So, in his confusion, he followed his habits and put in a character named Bul’ark.]

[A long time had passed, and he had utterly forgotten his identity.]

[And now, the story of the Pandemonium’s Country is over.]

[Now that it’s completed, there is no need for this world to exist anymore.]

[This was what he thought when he was a Storyteller.]

“Ugh!” Gardin, or to be precise, the Storyteller, continued to scream as all of his memories rushed back to his head. “N-no!”

When he finally awakened, he knew better than anybody else what it meant for this world once the story was completed.

He looked at the girl hugging her beloved father, the soldier, who was delighted at his comrade’s revival, and a knight, who was looking for his family. All of them gradually grew transparent.

The Storyteller blamed himself. His greed pushed him to write this novel, and his greed as an author also drove him to bring to life the character Bul’ark. It was also because of him that this world was deemed unnecessary upon completion.

[The completed Pandemonium’s Country will now begin to disappear.]

Everyone started to turn transparent, except those who had come here from the outside. It was precisely Gardin’s power that was making them disappear.

“I-I don’t want to!”

“I was just starting to think if we could be happy now.”

“There was no revolution!”

They felt despair after realizing the truth. Meanwhile, the flustered Storyteller’s eyes flitted all over the place. That was when he caught sight of Minhyuk.

Ring!

[Sudden Quest: Prevent the Deletion of Pandemonium’s Country.]

Rank: SSS

Requirements: The one who received the request of the Storyteller.

Rewards

: Authority to rule the Pandemonium’s Country.

Penalty for Failure: The deletion of the novel Pandemonium’s Country.

Description: The Storyteller discovered that his power has been triggered and is about to delete Pandemonium’s Country. Finally, back to his senses, he wants to protect this place. He has judged that the best method is for him to die before his power deletes everything.

The Storyteller shouted, “Hurry up! Kill me! Cut my head off!”

“...”

“If you kill me, then the deletion process that I have set will disappear. Once that happens, you will be the ruler of this land. It will definitely be a great help to the Beyond the Heavens Empire. No! Perhaps the Beyond the Heavens Empire will become the strongest!”

Perhaps that was indeed the case. After all, Pandemonium’s Country had Bharal, Leo, and many other outstanding individuals. Thousands of people stared desperately at Minhyuk.

‘Go on! Kill him!’

Minhyuk took a step toward him. He said, “We both had a drink on the first day we met.”

The Storyteller picked up the sword on the ground and handed it to Minhyuk.

Minhyuk continued, “You were drunk and spoke to me as Gardin. You said that you wanted to make a story with the happiest ending. You also spoke to me as the Storyteller. You said that you wanted to leave your masterpiece, a best-seller. So, you added Bul’ark. In that way, the revolution will take place, and the story will end in the coolest possible way. So, who are you?”

Everyone looked at Minhyuk as if he was crazy. The Storyteller was the one who made this world and put in Bul’ark. Perhaps he was also the one who made them this way.

“You are the ‘Revolutionary Gardin’ who possesses the power of the Storyteller.”

Minhyuk grabbed the blade of the sword with his bare hands.

Everyone looked at him in resentment.

[In ten seconds, Pandemonium’s Country will be deleted.]

“Please! JUST KILL HIM!!!”

Minhyuk said, “The Storyteller is the one who made this damn Pandemonium’s Country. The thing that you wanted most was to see everyone happy. You should keep in mind that you are Gardin. The Gardin who possesses the power of the Storyteller.”

“...”

The Storyteller—no, Gardin’s eyes grew bigger.

Minhyuk urged, “Please remember what you are capable of. Create a happy ending yourself. Create the world that you want. Throw away your greed as the Storyteller who wants to make a masterpiece and become the most famous person.”

Gardin laughed in tears. He realized what Minhyuk said was true. Just like Minhyuk noted, he was Gardin who possessed the power of the Storyteller.

Shwaaaaa!

He opened the book and hurriedly grabbed his pen. Then, he began to write.

[Side Story.]

[Title: The Happiest Country.]

[God has disappeared from Pandemonium’s Country after the revolution succeeded.]

[Then, the grasses and trees started to grow.]

He was making them. Just like he had written, grasses and trees began to grow in the Pandemonium’s Country, where even these things were being suppressed.

[The dark sky slowly turned blue.]

The overcast sky began to clear.

[A new king, Gardin, appeared.]

[King Gardin wants to pay for all of his sins.]

[To pay for his sins and crimes, Gardin began to write another story.]

[He was writing a never-ending story of the Happiest Country.]

At the same time, everyone present returned to their original state.

Then, Gardin put his pen down.

[The Side Story: The Happiest Country’s serialization has begun.]

[The Happiest Country’s serialization will continue forever.]