Ex-level Player With the Greatest Civilization of All Time - Chapter 66

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 66

“Ahhhhh!”
Selin resisted the colossal pillar of light, easily ten times the size of her own body.
But the agony of her flesh melting held her back.
‘No… I can’t die… I have to hold on…’
If she died, she would lose her Authority.
After all the suffering it took to reclaim these powers.
She couldn’t let it end like this.
Selin pushed back against despair with grim resolve, yet enduring to the finish proved beyond her strength.
Forced backward by the beam, she met resistance, but against such terrifying force and pain, she had no answer.
Had she not possessed her Authority, it might have been different.
Just as she was growing accustomed to the scalding agony of dissolving skin, the pain surged anew in real time; her consciousness shattered in that instant, and the beam pierced through without mercy.
Boom—
The Ultra-Focused Photon Cannon swept across barren ground.
Selin was born anew in that desolate place, silence and heat the only witnesses.
Regenerate—
“Ah… ah…”
Her Authority had diminished again.
The very power she had yearned for so desperately.
“It’s not over… not yet… the scales still tip in my favor…”
But suddenly the sky darkened with an ominous light.
Selin’s head snapped up, her pupils trembling.
A violet cascade of meteors bloomed across the heavens.
And they were falling toward her.
Boom-boom-boom—
The bombardment was too wide; there was nowhere to run.

“Ahhhhh!”
Her arms, her legs, her body.
Consumed by light, annihilated.
Death, and rebirth.
But when she raised her head again, nothing awaited but despair.
The merciless punishment still raining down.
Death, and rebirth.
Death, and rebirth.
Death, and birth again.
Each time, her Authority slipped further away.
“Please… no more…”
A plea to no one in particular.
But retribution for sin showed only cruelty.
Boom-boom-boom—
Her hands, her arms.
Her legs, her toes.
Melting away.
As though denying her very existence.
Annihilation without a trace was pronounced upon her.
In her final moment, freed from the torment of agony, Selin felt only regret—
For the woman she had been, clinging so desperately to the curse that wore the name Authority.

* * *

Ding—

[Defeat the Vampire Queen awakened from deep slumber. 1 / 1 or Bring peace to the Vampire Clan. 0 / 1]

The mission completion alert.
“Cease fire.”
I stopped the Seisrunner’s fire once I confirmed the result.
What made her cling to life so stubbornly?
Only after expending four shots did Selin finally vanish completely.
The Seisrunner’s rate of fire was sluggish.
That a single weapon could handle the threat at all came down to one thing.
Each time Selin died and resurrected, the interval between her returns grew longer.
Without that, I would have faced the hassle of deploying Ar and Sermin all over again.

– Finally dead?

The viewers who had watched the indiscriminate carpet bombing in silence erupted into excited chatting the moment the mission completed.

– Selin down!!
– Kyaa~ did you see that kill angle?
– Of course, only Neia can direct like this.
– Why even watch movies? Just watch Neia’s stream.

I was catching my breath, relieved to have overcome yet another crisis amid the cascade of massive donations, when I froze.
A single thought suddenly crossed my mind.
“Wait, Kryle! Where are you right now?”
When a mission was completed.
Of course, I would be forcibly transported back to the Waiting Room.
Kryle was positioned at such a distance that even Ar or Sermin moving at full power would need fifteen minutes to reach him.
Knowing the system was not merciful enough to wait that long, my heart sank.
“You needn’t worry about that.”
Kryle’s familiar voice came from directly behind me.
So he’d managed to relocate here with perfect timing after all….
I let out a breath of relief.
“Whew… glad you made it back in time….”
“Yes, I’d meant to report it sooner, but the mood seemed too tense to bring it up. My apologies for the worry.”
As long as Kryle was safe, that was all that mattered.

– Krk… the perceptiveness of Kryle never misses.
– This is the veteran operative right here. Awesome!
– No matter what anyone says, Kryle’s a total crowd-pleaser.

A wave of praise from the viewers.
Kryle seemed even more impressive to me today than usual.
And well he might—when we’d been driven to the very cliff’s edge with nowhere left to retreat, he was the one who struck back first.
“Anyway, hurry back to the Gate. We don’t have much time….”
Wait.
Only now did I realize something that should always be there was missing.
The Waiting Room transfer notification.
It always appeared after completing a mission.
But no matter how hard I looked, it wasn’t there.
I pulled up my quest log.

[Defeat the Vampire Queen awakened from deep slumber. 1 / 1 or Bring Peace to the Vampire Clan. 0 / 1]

‘It went up?’
As for what might explain it—
There was indeed something that stood out.
The second objective, not the first.
I tapped on the quest log.
Then a notification message appeared.

[An incomplete mission remains. Proceed to the Waiting Room with the mission unfinished? (Completion Rate: 50%)]

So my instinct had been right.
This changed everything.
I was already completely caught up in the Vampire Clan incident, so I had a genuine interest in learning more.
Especially that first form we saw emerging from the Cave.
‘What on earth was that?’
It had looked just like Gluttony.
And once we’d dispatched that, why had the Vampire Queen appeared in the first place?
Of course, there was also that other Quest nagging at the back of my mind.
“By the way, Commander.”
I’d opened my mouth to speak, then stopped myself short. Kryle, who’d been waiting quietly for me to continue, finally broke the silence.
“What is it?”
To my question, Kryle replied with that same solemn expression he always wore.
“There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
Wondering who he meant to show me, I watched in silence as Kryle stepped quietly to the side.
A figure emerged from behind him into my view.
It was the Vampire Queen—with a face identical to Selin’s.
“Thank you for helping our Clan.”
The Queen bowed respectfully.
But something felt off.
There was something about her appearance that put me on edge.

– Don’t be fooled, she might betray you too.
– Pretty girls are all two-faced. That’s why I don’t date.
– Just get with the program lol

Fortunately, it seemed that wariness wasn’t mine alone.
Not after taking a solid blow to the back of the head from Selin right before this.
Fair point.
“Selin was my twin sister. We each inherited half of our Authority from birth.”
The Vampires, after much deliberation, had elevated her as their Queen.
Naturally, they’d forcibly transferred all of Selin’s Authority to her as well.
“Simply because I saw the light of the world a few moments first, I inherited all the Power. I can understand why Selin resented me.”
Now, finally, the full picture began to come into focus.
The fog in my mind lifted all at once.
And learning the truth behind it all, I found myself feeling a measure of pity for Selin—even though she was already dead.
Though I couldn’t condone the way she’d chosen to express it.
After finishing her explanation of the situation, the Queen spoke again.
“More importantly, shouldn’t we handle the cleanup first? The situation isn’t really conducive to a leisurely conversation.”
“Cleanup?”
“Those who had their life essence drained by Selin. I’m referring to them.”

– Oh right!
– The Players, that’s right!
– Weren’t they dead?

I’d been prepared to mourn them later, but—
They weren’t actually dead?
“Yes, they’re still alive. Though if we leave them as they are much longer, they will certainly perish.”
The Queen’s appearance alongside Kryle hadn’t been merely to offer her thanks, it seemed.
This was the real reason she’d come.
“Shall we head there now?”
I led Baek Jin-seong and the Humanoid forces forward, moving together with the Queen.
The Initial Skirmish Area—where the Players had collapsed en masse.
Upon arrival, I saw them: withered to skin and bone, barely drawing shallow breath.
The moment I laid eyes on those desiccated frames, like dried squid—
The viewers’ voice chat erupted.

– Damn, I’m so jealous!
– Why the hell am I not on the 25th Floor right now?
– This is so unfair!

At the viewers’ remarks, the Queen tilted her head in confusion.
“But where’s that voice coming from, just before that…?”
“Does it matter?”
She shouldn’t respond like that, but perhaps it’s because she reminds me of Selin.
I keep finding myself reacting with a slant to things.
“Ah, well. But what exactly are you envious of?”
“I think it’s the ritual for treating the Infected.”
“A ritual?”
Upon hearing the explanation, the Queen looked even more bewildered.
The viewers answered.

– The kiss! Totally the kiss!
– Like, tongues and everything, right?
– They were going at it, going at it!
– Does the Queen kiss as well as Selin does?

The Queen’s face turned crimson.
“That’s a misunderstanding!”
The Queen explained in detail.
There’s no need for a kiss—just feeding them her own blood in reverse would suffice.
Not much at all. Exactly one drop.
She proved it through action.
When she pricked her pinky finger and supplied her blood to those withered players, they began recovering one by one.

– Wait, so that was just a reward then?
– It was just like Selin’s thing?
– The flowers fell and now I understand spring.
– As always, the first one to get infected reaps the benefits.

In any case, the Queen began restoring the players one by one, and afterward the vampires too began infusing them with vigor.
I found it awkward just to follow along, so I decided to satisfy my curiosity instead.
“But I do have a question.”
“Yes, please ask freely.”
I asked her about Gluttony.
She glanced at Kryle.
From the atmosphere, it seemed she’d already told him the story, but…
I asked her to explain it once more, even if it was tedious.
“Just tell us again right here. There seem to be others curious about it besides me.”
Certainly not just Baek Jin-seong, but the viewers would be too.
The Queen nodded slowly and, tending to the vampires, began to speak.
“I’m not sure why it’s called Gluttony, but it was one day.”
Listening through and summarizing, it came down to this:

One day, Gluttony suddenly attacked the Village.
At first they were caught off guard by its indiscriminate absorption of everything, but the Queen, recognizing that the creature’s essence lay in absorption, enlisted her clan’s strength and stopped it alone.
“Then what happened to it?”
The strange form I’d first witnessed.
She laughed bitterly and opened her mouth.
“I let my guard down.”
Just as it had been with Yamada.
The moment she thought it was done, it caught her off guard.
However, since absorbing others was something even the Vampire Queen herself had some skill in, she didn’t succumb entirely.
Rather, she matched its power and gradually weakened Gluttony.
“It’s simple to tell it like this, but it took quite a long time. About five years.”
The problem was that during all that time, the exertion of mental energy became so severe that she fell into extreme hunger.
Because of that, she had no choice but to awaken the ferocity within her clan.
And actually, there was a separate reason why it took five whole years.
None other than Selin.
While she poured her efforts day by day into eliminating Gluttony,
Selin, seizing the moment when the Queen grew weak, reclaimed the Authority that had been taken from her.
And she, now a half-powered queen, reached a stalemate with Gluttony—the decisive blow.
And in the midst of it all, Kryle had even attacked, making matters worse.
“That hurt quite a bit, you know?”
The Queen lodged a complaint that was almost like a pout.
The sight of it was undeniably cute.
To such a degree, in fact.
That even viewers who already harbored reservations about her found reason and desire warring within them.

– Wow, she’s actually cute.
– Don’t let your guard down. Elves are like this too, but vampires live for hundreds of years as a baseline, don’t they?
– So she’s a grandmother!
– But she’s beautiful though?

On top of that, she had even stated that vampires were not monsters.
Like elves, they were one of the sentient beings that existed within the Tower.
I’d gained a bit of knowledge from it.
Whether it would prove useful remained to be seen.
“So you’re leaving now, then?”
“Of course.”
Behind her, once treatment was complete, stood countless vampires with expressions of goodwill.
Speaking once more on behalf of her clan, she said:
“Thank you again for saving our clan.”

Ding—

[Defeat the Vampire Queen awakened from deep slumber. 1 / 1 or Bring peace to the Vampire Clan. 1 / 1]
[All quests have been completed.]
[You will be transported to the Waiting Room on Floor 25 in a moment.]

After confirming the message, I pushed the drones and humanoids through the Gate.
Having finished preparations to depart, I confirmed the countdown to return to the Waiting Room.

[You will be transported to the Waiting Room on Floor 21 in a moment. (5…)]

I returned to the Waiting Room amid the Queen and vampires’ warm farewell.
Back in the Waiting Room, I opened my hand.
A red gem-like object lay in my palm.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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