Surviving Among the Entities

“The steel in the sky was made by the descendants, those enveloped in sulfur flames are the fallen descendants led by the serpent, and those with identical faces are soulless shells. Truly a strange situation. Well, since they’re not opponents I can’t handle, I’ll just fight them all indiscriminately to test the skills of the descendants who led the steel.”

Adam leisurely assessed the opponents.

“I can’t believe they actually revived Adam just because it’s Uluru. I don’t know if we can capture him with this force, but the Chairman would be pleased. By the way, I heard the Foundation fell, when did they get something like that? And why is Dr. Janus here? I shouldn’t meddle with the Foundation, but Dr. Janus is another matter……”

Baal rejoiced at seeing Adam but was annoyed by the Foundation, and uncomfortable with Dr. Janus.

“A prime opportunity to collect the Primordial Human! Assistant! Quick, retrieve Frankenstein!”
“Professor? Those guys over there, aren’t they the Lucifer Company?”
“Huh? When did they arrive!?”
“The Lucifer Company’s Chairman is a regular client of the Professor’s. He even pays hefty fees, so what if we clash and cause trouble?”
“Grrr.”
“And that ship looks like it belongs to the Foundation, albeit insignificant.”
“If it’s the Foundation, doesn’t that mean the Sephiroth is involved? If we carelessly cause trouble, the information could spread multidimensionally, and there would be a massive fine……”

Dr. Janus wrestled with capitalism.

“Have you located the external special consultant?”
“We were unable to locate him!”
“There’s a high chance he has already been affected. Information on the enemy?”
“One unknown entity, a suspected demon army, what appears to be an artificial life army, we have no information on any side!”
“It seems they heard rumors of our weakening and are attempting dimensional invasion, using the Anti-Christs as a beachhead. Then retreating from here risks drawing even more enemies. This battle will proceed as an annihilation. We will display the Foundation’s true power.”

The Foundation thought this whole incident was caused by others taking advantage of the Foundation’s perceived weakening.

“Open fire.”
“Open!”
“Launch gravity bombs!”

Thus, the Foundation’s preemptive strike unfolded into great chaos.

[……sir!]
“……”
[Seung-hoon, regain your senses!]

I barely came to from Sarang’s voice.
An excruciating pain like being stabbed with needles all over wracked my body, but thanks to it, my senses returned.

“What happened?”

The tremendous chaos and thunderous sounds enveloping the entire world also contributed.

[It appears the demons, the Foundation, the Primordial Being, and Dr. Janus – these four are currently waging war.]

I chewed on ‘Dried Friendship’.
Then, lighting a cigarette, I observed the unfolding situation.

“What is that?”

The massive ship in the sky fired thousands of artillery rounds.
Instead of flames and dust upon impacting the ground, the fired rounds caused massive distortions, and anything caught in them was sucked in and annihilated.

[They appear to be gravity bombs.]
“The suit-wearing people?”
[Suspected to be demons.]

The suit-wearers had eerie appearances from the outset.
The vertically slitted serpent-like eyes, horns on their heads, and long, pointed tails protruding from their pants were the quintessential demonic look.
Their combat behavior was also demonic, tearing opponents apart with their bare hands, breathing fire from their mouths, or using psychokinesis – commonly known demonic abilities.

“So there are ranks among demons too.”

Some of the suit-wearing demons were special.
Earthquakes occurred with each step they took, sulfur flames rained down when they reached for the sky, and anything they touched had its skin and internal organs reversed, meeting a gruesome death.

“And those ones all look identical?”
[Based on my observations, they all appear to be undying.]

The identical-looking army regenerated even when hit by gravity bombs or the demons’ supernatural abilities.
Even if their entire bodies vanished, the way they rematerialized in mid-air was like witnessing a miracle where someone was creating them.

“Kuaak! The Chimera Corps! They’re dying too often! If I knew this, I should have brought the combat corps!”
“Why didn’t you?”
“The combat corps is at most twenty! Too few to apply any pressure! So I brought the Chimera Corps, but they’re dying too much! Their regeneration energy is being drained, and my own life force is being drained too!”
“Geez, is this really……”
“According to my calculations, 25% of the lab’s budget is already gone! I need Frankenstein! If Frankenstein doesn’t come and quickly quell this chaos, I’ll be eating only stir-fried radish for the next year!”

I spotted Dr. Janus and his assistant bickering.
Belatedly checking the vehicle they arrived in, it was in a scrapheap state, getting pummeled by the enemies’ attacks here and there.

‘They’ll be fine since they’re undying.’

The most astonishing was Adam.
Whenever he stretched out his right hand, countless beasts followed his commands like disciplined soldiers.

“Not beasts, but divine beasts.”

A koala performed a dumbbell press, shredding demons with its claws.
A kangaroo jumped the entire distance to the ship in one leap and tore at the outer hull with its tail.
Peacocks breathed fire from their mouths, and snakes swallowed gravity bombs whole, instantly digesting them and belching long farts.

‘So when Adam gets serious, all the beasts on Earth will become like that.’

Is that all?
When he stretched out his left hand, any enemies there vanished completely.
Some turned into pillars of salt and disappeared, some became piles of dirt and returned to the earth, and some attacks became mere passing breezes scattering into the world.

‘I didn’t know Adam possessed such power.’

I smoked a cigarette for a while, observing this spectacle.
Some kind of field or spatial distortion around me seemed to block the battle’s aftermath, but it also appeared to be gradually fading.

“Haha, what a mess.”

Only now did I realize the meaning behind the prophecy shown by the ticket.

‘It’s exactly like the Surviving Entities Gallery I saw last.’

No longer eerie tales or interesting settings, but a tendency focused solely on strength.
An attitude of indulging in ability porn by endlessly speculating whose abilities are stronger instead of caring about survival or countermeasures.

“All horror stories, SCP stories eventually transform into mythical, cosmic, Cthulhu, cosmic horror works, and the remaining fans become enamored only with excessive settings and powerful abilities, no longer feeling or desiring fear.”

This phenomenon was aptly defined in a single sentence by someone from the Surviving Entities Gallery.

“Wow, Sans.”
[Are you curious about Sans? Sans is a character from the indie game Undertale, and by progressing the story in a special way, you can battle him. In that route, Sans dodges all of the player’s attacks and deals 60 damage per second with an undodgeable attack. But this makes it impossible to actually clear the game, so the developers gave him a fatal weakness – Sans gets tired. If the player endures all of Sans’ attack patterns, during their turn, he falls asleep, and when he’s asleep……]
“Stop, that’s enough.”

Sarang provided a good example of fans enamored with excessive settings and power.

‘When the Surviving Entities gallery appeared in the prophecy, it was the possibility I most hoped would not occur.’

Why did that bulletin board appear in the prophecy?
Could it be that, like the users of that board fighting, multiple powerful entities became entangled in this incident, causing a massive event?

“Something that could never happen in a game, and that no single entity creator would recklessly attempt in settings or fiction, instead existing only as unfounded claims on that bulletin board, has now occurred.”

Just like the Munchkin Merrysue Constellation defying the odds of winning the lottery and appearing.
In reality, nothing was impossible.

‘How should I resolve this?’

I had not anticipated a battle on a scale that could lead to the Earth’s destruction occurring in this incident.

“But I did consider the possibility that the Primordial Being could be malicious and powerful.”

I took out all the remaining Quest Tickets from my Void Pocket.

[Reward: Physical abilities increased tenfold for 1 hour.]
[Mission: Donate 2.7 billion won.]
[Deadline: 1 hour.]

“I did not arrogantly assume I could resolve it solely with my own power.”

I checked the next ticket.

[Reward: Request for the Blue Moon to come.]

“So I have no hesitation in using them.”

The other one was insurance to use if things went wrong when summoning the Blue Moon.

[Mission: None.]
[Deadline: 1 minute.]
[Note: You are someone worthy of love. This reward will make your life utterly miserable and harm your existence. Please, make a wise choice and find the meaning of life.]

There was no mission.
Instead, the Quest Ticket created a new ‘Note’ category to dissuade its use.

“An eye for an eye.”

I used the ticket.

“A tooth for a tooth.”

The effect of the ticketless mission immediately activated.

“Wow, for Sans, wow, Sans.”

The battle situation was at a stalemate.

“Energy efficiency?”
“Concentrating on self-repair.”

The Foundation’s ship was not destroyed.
The near-infinite energy from the black hole engines maximized the ship’s self-repair function, continuously restoring the outer armor before the enemy’s attacks could reach the core.

“At this rate, decisive suppression is impossible!”

But with energy output nozzles only focused there, they could not invest much into offensive power and lost the ability to push the frontlines.

“We have no choice. We must use the last resort.”

The last resort was jettisoning the overloaded black hole engines.
Although they were miniature black holes, the loss of the Australian continent was inevitable.

“Prepare.”
“……Black hole bomb ready!”

The other groups were no different.

“Ah, Third Director? Don’t you miss seeing Father after so long? Oh, he hung up. Then……First Director, long time no see. I’m trying to capture Adam, would you like to come? He should still remember the Eden incident.”

Baal requested support from the main office.

“I finally retrieved him! Frankenstein! Snap out of it!”
“Ungh, Professor? Pudding!”
“Haha! Here it is! I specially prepared this for you!”
“Wow!”
“Now quickly eat and regain your senses! I need you to lend me your strength!”

Dr. Janus finally succeeded in retrieving Frankenstein.

“It seems I’ll have to annihilate them in one strike.”

Lastly, Adam concentrated all his power into his right hand.
A sun then formed in his palm.

“Black hole bomb, launch in 10 seconds! 9, 8, 7……”
“First Director, could you please hurry? ”
“Frankenstein! I’ve entered the ultimate body code! Now quickly transform into ultimate mode!”
“Alright, let’s end this.”

At the moment when everyone’s full power was about to clash.

[You.]

The sky darkened.

[You creatures.]

The starlight concealed its form.

[Creations abandoned by the Creator.]

The wind stopped singing.

[Flies writhing in insatiable gluttony.]

The beasts hid their bodies behind rocks.

[Ants who have lost their glory.]

All those waging battle looked up at the sky.

[Fools who deceived death.]

And they saw.

[Dust that flung itself into meaningless war.]
[I shall ask you.]

The Blue Moon, covered in tens, billions, trillions, perhaps innumerable eyes and mouths.

[Who dared summon me?]