10663-chapter-20
Chapter 20
“…Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
He smirked.
“That goes for you too. You looked way too relaxed when you got here. So, what rank were you in World Breaker?“
“….”
Ethan turned red.
Clearly, he had expected to be the one asking questions—not the other way around.
To be fair, he wasn’t wrong.
A normal person wouldn’t have noticed he was a beta tester.
But he wasn’t dealing with a normal person.
“Poor guy. Thought he was the main character.”
Feeling a little bad, he decided to shift the conversation.
“Anyway, I should introduce myself too. Justin. I’m a Warlock.”
“…A Warlock?”
His new expression?
Pure confusion.
He played dumb, shrugging.
“What? Something wrong?”
“Well… Warlocks aren’t exactly…”
“Not exactly a good class?”
“Yeah.”
World Breaker had never treated Warlocks kindly.
They had a strong start, but their late-game performance was awful.
The fact that someone willingly chose it was strange.
“Why’d you pick it?”
“Because it’s the strongest class early on.“
That much was true.
But that wasn’t the real reason.
There was no way he was going to explain his actual strategy.
The last thing he needed was someone trying to copy or sabotage him.
Still, his answer wasn’t convincing enough, because Ethan still looked skeptical.
With a sigh, he added—”You do know Warlocks are only strong in the early game, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And that they completely fall off later?”
“…Right.”
“Of course, I know that.”
“But how many people with that mindset actually survive long enough to reach the late game?”
“….”
Ethan’s mouth snapped shut.
Any answer he gave would just invite sarcasm.
A self-aware man would know better than to dig himself into a hole.
“I’d rather take a class that guarantees my survival early on than bet everything on a maybe in the late game.”
“I… I see.”
“Anyway, what do you want? You didn’t come all this way just to confirm I’m a beta tester, did you?”
“Actually, I have a proposal.“
Ethan quickly straightened himself, regaining his composure.
His expression turned serious—like a businessman about to make the deal of a lifetime.
“Would you be willing to join me in rescuing the survivors?”
He stared at Ethan, expression blank.
A ridiculous proposal like that had to come with an explanation.
“Why?”
“Too many innocent people are dying. No matter how you look at it, this is too cruel—”
“Alright, thanks for sharing. Now, if you’ll excuse me… How do I expel people from my house again?”
“—Aside from the moral standpoint, I also have very practical reasons!“
The righteous act dropped in an instant.
Sweat beaded on Ethan’s forehead as he hurriedly changed his approach.
See? Should’ve just started with that instead of pretending to be a saint.
He had clearly wanted to make himself look heroic, but that kind of thing didn’t work on him.
Even if it was genuine, he still would’ve refused.
Let alone if it was just for show.
“Alright, then. Let’s hear the practical reasons.”
“To put it simply—we don’t have enough people.“
He nodded.
That made sense.
World Breaker was all about restoring civilization.
But civilization required population.
A ruler with no subjects was just a madman shouting at the wind.
“The original game had small villages at the start that we were meant to develop into cities. But those don’t exist in this world.”
“Yeah, no argument there. The city’s already here, and people are scattered everywhere.”
“Exactly. Which means the system intends for us to rebuild civilization with the people here. But what can we do with only fifteen people?”
He nodded again.
It wasn’t wrong.
At the moment, every survivor was a fighter.
They could kill, sure.
But could they build anything?
Could they farm?
Could they craft?
And more importantly—would any of them be willing to follow orders?
The answer was no.
They were all too strong-willed, too confident in their own ability to lead rather than follow.
A village full of warriors and no workers was just a den of wolves.
“If we want to secure a stable future, we have to bring in more people. That’s why we need to rescue those who are still hiding.”
“…Hmm.”
Again, not wrong.
Looking at the bigger picture, it was a reasonable idea.
And given their desperation, most people wouldn’t refuse to be saved.
Fear had a way of making people compliant.
But…
“Yeah, no.”
“I’m not convinced.”
“What?! If we don’t do something, all those people will die! This whole thing will be over before it even begins!”
“Who’s killing them? The system?“
“…Huh?”
“You heard me. The system is the one that summoned the skeletons, right?”
“…Yes?”
“And those skeletons are the ones killing people?”
“Y-Yeah…”
“Then doesn’t that mean the system is intentionally killing them?”
“Wait, that’s—”
Ethan faltered.
Clearly, he had never even considered that perspective.
It was actually a simple logical chain.
- The system spawned skeletons.
- The skeletons are killing everyone indiscriminately.
- Therefore, the system itself is responsible for the slaughter.
On the surface, it made perfect sense.
But there was one major flaw in that logic.
“It completely contradicts the system’s purpose.”
The system was designed for the rebuilding of civilization.
Why would it suddenly decide to massacre the very people needed to achieve that goal?
It would be sabotaging itself.
If there were no people left, then civilization couldn’t be rebuilt at all.
“No, the system isn’t trying to kill everyone. This is just… a test.”
A brutal, bloody test, but a test nonetheless.
From what he had observed so far, most survivors were painfully naïve.
They had fought goblins.
They had killed.
But they were still hesitant.
They still refused to acknowledge that this world had no rules anymore.
They feared monsters, but not other people.
They worried about their survival but still clung to optimism.
Deep down, they still believed that—eventually—someone would come to rescue them.
That society would return to normal.
“The system is trying to force them to accept reality.”
That there was no rescue.
That standing still meant death.
That their only two options were—
- Become strong enough to survive.
- Submit to those who were strong enough.
It was cruel.
But it was also necessary.
