Chapter 1314

Shwaaaah!

The torrential rain poured down, and the raging waters surged.

“Grab my hand!”

“Here! Take my hand!”

“A-Aaack! Someone pull me up!”

The Adventurers clung to the Ark for dear life, causing it to tilt even further.

Creak...!

The Ark was massive, but it would be strange if it weren't tilting at this point.

“You there! This won’t do! The Ark is already full!” Menahem shouted toward Siegfried.

“That’s...!”

“It’s not that I don’t wish to save you! But we will die if we try to save you as well! We will all die together!”

The old NPC, Menahem, was right. The Ark was already packed with all kinds of animals and NPCs. There wasn't even a bit of space left for more passengers.

Even if they somehow managed to find space, the Ark could accommodate only ten thousand people at most. Any more than that and the Ark would surely sink or capsize.

“Stop climbing! I said stop!” Menahem cried out.

Siegfried couldn’t say anything in response to the old man’s desperate plea.

Everyone would die unless they boarded the Ark.

Those without flight skills, which numbered more than a million, would be swept away by the flood. Siegfried knew that losing more than a million people at the fourth stage, when they had no idea how many more stages there would be, was definitely a huge blow to the raid.

What if they boarded the Ark? They would have no choice but to forcibly drag off the animals and NPCs who were already on board.

To survive, they would need to seize the Ark by force and drown those who were originally aboard. In fact, that was already happening.

“Move!”

“Get out of my way, you bastards!”

“I said move!”

The Adventurers scrambled up the Ark in a desperate bid to get out of the waters, shoving NPCs aside and forcing their way in.

But that was not all...

“Get lost!”

“Aaaack!”

Fights broke out on the deck, and Adventurers began tossing the NPCs overboard.

Those who were thrown overboard were swept away by the raging current below, possibly devoured by the Void creatures infesting the waters.

In an instant, the whole thing became a pirate raid.

The Adventurers had already made up their mind to take over the Ark, and the NPCs and animals had no way of stopping them.

Unfortunately, they were too weak. How could ordinary NPCs and animals possibly put up any resistance against the Adventurers who possessed superhuman strength?

“Th-They are trying to seize the Ark! Stop them!” Menahem cried out again.

“...!”

“How did this happen? Why did this happen?!”

“...”

“Oh, my god!”

Realizing there was nothing he could do to stop the pirates from seizing the Ark, Menahem dropped to his knees on the deck and lamented. “Why did you give me such a cruel trial?! I cannot save them all! We can’t die in their place, but I can’t turn a blind eye to their desperation to survive! What must I do?! What do you want me to do?!”

“Ah...” Siegfried gasped as he watched the old man cry.

He fully understood how Menahem felt.

‘We will all die if he tries to save us. The guilt will crush him if he turns a blind eye to us. And the Ark is about to be seized from them... Who wouldn’t lose their mind in his position?’

He felt the same. As the leader of the Adventurers, Siegfried needed to seize the Ark.

That was the only way he could save his comrades and advance to the next stage.

However, throwing the NPCs and animals overboard and letting them drown was not something he could easily do.

The number of animals and NPCs aboard the Ark was easily on par with the number of Adventurers.

In other words, both sides couldn't survive. One side would have to pay the ultimate price for the other to survive, and the ones most likely to perish were the animals and NPCs under Menahem’s care.

They were too weak to protect their Ark from the raiders.

“Hey, what are you gonna do?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked.

“Hmm... I’m not sure...” Siegfried replied, looking troubled.

“You have to make the call. You’re the leader, after all. Do we seize the Ark or not?”

Then, Gosran appeared and chimed in, “Yes, Oppa. You have to decide.”

Even though they were asking him to make a decision, both of them knew that there was only one choice. They needed to take the Ark to survive, so what other choice did they have?

Humans needed to be ruthless at times in order to survive, and this was exactly one of those times.

This was the time Siegfried had to be ruthless.

He finally made up his mind. “We will... just endure...”

***

Siegfried’s decision was met with fierce backlash from his comrades. Every Adventurer would be swept away by the violent currents and be wiped out if they did not seize the Ark, but the decision he made was the exact opposite of that.

What he meant by enduring was basically abandoning the Ark and swimming to survive.

“Hyung-nim!” exclaimed Seung-Gu, sounding frustrated. He didn't have any flight skills, so he had been hanging from Gosran just to survive. “How are we supposed to endure?! We’re all going to die! Are we going to die just to save those NPCs?!”

“I know what you’re trying to say, Seung-Gu.”

“They’re not even real NPCs! They’re just NPCs inside a dungeon! We can’t die just to save NPCs inside a dungeon—”

“I said I know.”

“Hyung-nim...”

Siegfried didn't bother further entertaining Seung-Gu’s protests. Instead, he infused his Primordial Force into his voice and shouted at the top of his lungs, “We’re abandoning the Ark! Just ignore it! Let’s survive using our own strength!”

Despite his decision, the others did not object.

“Well, I figure you’d say that.”

“Oppa...”

“I’ll follow your decision, Siegfried.”

Seung-Gu still couldn’t understand the logic behind it, but he shut his mouth and followed in the end.

That was the kind of power Siegfried possessed. People still followed him even if he made the most unreasonable decision, and this was all thanks to the rapport he had built with them over a very long period of time.

This rapport also applied to other Adventurers as well.

“Are you insane?! You want us all to drown together?!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Damn it! We need the Ark!”

The Adventurers strongly opposed his decision at first, but that lasted only for a moment.

“Ah, damn it all!”

“You’re taking responsibility if we all die!”

“Here goes nothing!”

Soon, they followed his decision and abandoned the Ark.

They would have to withstand the violent waves that made it nearly impossible to maintain balance while fending off the Void creatures, but no matter what the threat was, they had to endure.

“Please forgive us. We were just desperate to survive, so we acted out of desperation. But we can’t let the others already on the Ark die just so we can live,” Siegfried said politely to the old man.

“Oh?”

“We will find a way to survive with our own strength. I pray that you all survive this great flood.”

“But you are a leader guiding so many people. How could you make such a difficult decision?”

“That is... Killing others for the sake of my survival is completely natural. It is the way this world works.”

“That is true.”

“But that is what separates beasts from humans, isn’t it?”

“...!”

“We possess more than just the instinct to survive. We have a wide variety of emotions and conscience, and we also have a moral duty to uphold. Well, we must live like beasts at times, but still...”

“...?”

“In times like this, won’t upholding those moral duties be the true essence of being human?”

“Ah...”

“We are strong. But the people and animals here in the Ark are not. We still have a chance of surviving out there, but your chances of surviving this flood without the Ark are zero. So even if it will be dangerous, we have to yield this Ark to you.”

“I see...”

“But if I may ask you something... Why did you build this Ark, sir?” Siegfried asked.

“The Creator gave me a prophecy that a great flood would soon come. I was told to build an Ark and save the people and animals.”

“Oh?”

“I am truly sorry that I cannot help you. I told everyone to prepare for the flood when I received the prophecy, but many did not believe me.”

“A pioneer always walks alone. I am sure you did your best.”

“It pains me... I want to help you and your people so badly...”

“Please, do not be troubled. And I apologize sincerely once again for what happened. Now, please continue your journey. We will now take our leave.”

With those words, Siegfried jumped off the Ark.

“Just where did those people come from...?” Menahem muttered as he watched Siegfried and the others get carried away by the rapids.

***

“Why did you make that decision?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked.

“Well...” Siegfried pondered for a second. Then, he replied, “To be honest, even if this is just a game and it’s inside a dungeon... I just couldn’t let those people drown just so we could survive.”

“You’re not ruthless when you have to be, you know that?”

“It just... this doesn’t feel like a game anymore.”

“You’re too invested. That’s the problem.”

“I guess it’s fate or something,” Siegfried replied with a shrug. Then, he retorted, “But hey, how can a gamer playing a virtual reality game not get immersed? It’s not like I’m a psychopath, right?”

“That’s true.”

“And also, should I really continue playing a game where I go around killing NPCs just to survive?”

“Hm? What do you mean by that?”

“We’re living in a world where we, gamers, and NPCs live together, aren't we? But if it’s a game where I have to keep doing cruel things to ordinary people just to survive... then I'm not going to play that game. Immersion or whatever. How could I keep playing a game that’s making me do such repulsive stuff?

"We have to find a way for everyone to live.”

“I guess you have a point.”

“Let’s survive somehow.”

Siegfried unleashed the Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain once again, summoning hundreds of thousands of aura blades. He planned to use the aura blades to lift the others out of the water. He knew he couldn’t save everyone, but he could at least save a few hundred thousand using the aura blades.

‘If I scoop them out and freeze the water then...’

Ding!

While he was trying to figure out a solution, a system notification popped up in front of his eyes.

[Alert: Congratulations!]

[Alert: You have cleared the fourth stage!]

Surprisingly, the notification informed him that the fourth stage was cleared.

Then, the entire world slowly changed.

The rain that poured so hard one could barely see in front of them suddenly stopped. What was even more surprising was the fact that the raging currents, Void creatures, and even the massive Ark had all vanished without a trace.

“Eh?”

Siegfried was startled by the completely different scenery.

A grassland spread out before his eyes, and this was the very same beautiful, serene grassland he saw when he first entered the Void.

[Alert: Entering the next stage!]

[Alert: 10 minutes remaining until the next stage!]

[Alert: Prepare yourselves!]

[Alert: You will move on to the next stage in 9 minutes and 59 seconds!]

“It seems you were right,” Cheon Woo-Jin said with a grin.

In the end, Siegfried had made the right call. Instead of sacrificing others just to survive, he chose to uphold his duty as a human being. Ironically, that was the key to clearing the fourth stage.

The Void tested even the essence of humanity, making it a truly impossible dungeon to clear.