Volume 3 Chapter 147: The Legacy That Almost Fell

Three real-world days had passed since the rescue of Ramos.

For most players, those three days had been little more than an unavoidable interruption to their usual routine.

Evermount had entered a scheduled server-wide maintenance period in preparation for its upcoming major update. The developers had announced the maintenance well in advance, warning players that the servers would remain inaccessible for an entire day while the new content and system changes were implemented.

Millions of players had been forced to log out.

For Crowned Era, however, the timing had turned out to be strangely convenient.

For the first time in what felt like forever, they had an excuse to stop.

There were no emergency quests demanding their attention. No guild meetings waiting to be held. No dungeon raids. No mysterious enemies appearing out of nowhere. No desperate rescue missions.

And, most importantly, there was no reason for Rio and Ryota to immediately return to Evermount.

They could finally breathe.

Rio's room was unusually quiet that afternoon.

Soft sunlight filtered through the partially opened curtains, painting pale rectangles across the wooden floor. The familiar sounds of the house were absent as well. Her mother wasn't home, and Akari was out, leaving the room almost completely isolated from the rest of the world.

Rio's desk sat beside the window.

Several notebooks were spread across its surface alongside pens, loose sheets of paper, and a few books she had been using for reference. Her computer remained switched on, displaying the same maintenance announcement that had been sitting on the screen for hours.

SERVER-WIDE MAINTENANCE

Estimated Duration: 24 Hours

Upcoming Major Update

Neither Rio nor Ryota had logged into Evermount since the rescue.

They had both agreed that they needed the break.

At least for a little while.

Ryota was lying across the bed with one arm beneath his head, staring at the ceiling. He had spent most of the afternoon doing absolutely nothing, which was something he had discovered he was surprisingly good at.

Rio, on the other hand, had been sitting at her desk for nearly twenty minutes.

She was dressed in ordinary clothes rather than the equipment she wore inside Evermount. Her long silver-white hair fell loosely down her back, with a few strands occasionally slipping over her shoulder as she leaned closer to the paper.

Her pen moved steadily.

Scratch.

Pause.

Scratch.

Every so often, she stopped to reread what she had written.

Sometimes she crossed out an entire sentence.

Other times, she simply stared at the page for several seconds before continuing.

Ryota hadn't paid much attention at first.

But eventually, he noticed something.

Rio wasn't really writing.

Not in the way she normally did.

There was hesitation in every movement.

Her attention kept drifting away from the page, as though her thoughts were somewhere else entirely.

Ryota slowly turned his head toward her.

He watched her for several seconds.

He already knew what was bothering her.

Three days earlier, after the rescue of Ramos, he had asked her about something he had heard from Falco.

Project: Spectrum.

Rio had refused to explain through their messages.

We need to talk about this privately.

Don't tell anyone about it.

Those words had remained in Ryota's thoughts ever since.

He had wanted to ask her immediately.

But there had never been a proper opportunity.

The village clinic had been crowded. Their friends had been injured. Ramos needed attention. After they returned home, Rio had been busy with Crowned Era matters and checking on Silla.

Now, however, they were alone.

Ryota turned his attention toward her again.

He waited a few more seconds.

Then finally spoke.

"So..."

Rio's pen stopped.

The room became noticeably quieter.

Ryota continued looking at her back.

"What was Project: Spectrum?"

Rio didn't move.

Her hand remained suspended above the page.

For several seconds, she stared at the sentence in front of her without actually seeing it.

Then, slowly, she lowered the pen.

Ryota immediately noticed the change in her expression.

It was subtle.

Someone who didn't know Rio might not have noticed anything at all.

But Ryota did.

She didn't look irritated.

She didn't look angry.

She looked as though someone had reached into the back of her mind and opened a door she had spent years trying to keep locked.

Rio slowly turned in her chair.

Her blue eyes met Ryota's.

Neither of them spoke.

After a long silence, Rio released a quiet breath.

"...I was hoping you'd forget about that."

Ryota pushed himself up slightly against the headboard.

"I couldn't."

Rio looked down.

"I know."

She stood from the chair.

For a moment, Ryota expected her to answer immediately.

Instead, she walked toward the bedroom door.

She opened it and looked into the hallway.

First to the left.

Then to the right.

The house was quiet.

Nobody was there.

Rio closed the door again.

Then she locked it.

The soft click of the lock seemed strangely loud in the quiet room.

Ryota's expression became more serious.

Rio wasn't finished.

She took her phone from the desk and looked at the screen for a moment before shutting it down completely. She placed it face down beside her computer.

Then she looked around the room.

The window.

The door.

The walls.

Almost as though she were checking for any possibility that someone might overhear what she was about to say.

Only after she was satisfied did she return to the bed.

She sat down beside Ryota.

For several seconds, she simply stared at her hands.

Then she finally spoke.

"Project: Spectrum started a long time ago in my past life."

Ryota didn't interrupt.

Rio's voice was calm.

Too calm.

"Back when I was still with Royal Knights."

That immediately caught his attention.

"I wasn't the Silver War Goddess yet," Rio continued. "I wasn't even particularly famous."

She looked down at her hands.

"Back then, I was just one of Royal Knights' officers."

She leaned back slightly.

"Royal Knights had already established a significant presence on Floor Two. We had people stationed throughout several cities, and one of the places we monitored closely was Versoza."

Ryota listened carefully.

He knew that city.

Everyone who had spent enough time on Floor Two knew it.

Rio continued.

"At first, there were reports of NPCs disappearing."

She paused.

"Nobody thought much of it."

"NPCs disappeared all the time. Some traveled to other cities. Some died. Some were involved in quests that caused them to leave their homes. Sometimes they simply vanished because of the way Evermount's world events changed."

Rio's fingers slowly intertwined.

"But the numbers didn't make sense."

Ryota's eyes narrowed.

"Too many?"

Rio nodded.

"Far too many."

Her gaze became distant.

"And they weren't random NPCs."

She began listing them quietly.

"Shopkeepers. Farmers. Travelers. Children. People from different villages and different cities."

She looked toward the floor.

"They were disappearing from completely unrelated areas."

Ryota remained silent for a moment.

"What did Royal Knights do?"

"I investigated."

Rio's answer came immediately.

"Personally."

She leaned forward slightly.

"I spent hours going through disappearance reports. I interviewed NPCs. Checked city records. Followed rumors. Tracked player movements. I looked for anything that connected the disappearances."

Ryota frowned.

"How long?"

Rio's eyes became distant.

"Three real-world months."

Ryota's expression changed.

"Three months?"

Rio nodded.

"That was roughly a year inside Evermount."

Ryota fell silent.

A year.

An entire year spent following rumors and searching for people who had disappeared.

Most players would have abandoned the investigation long before then.

Rio knew that.

"I almost gave up," she admitted.

"But eventually, we got one lead."

Her hands tightened slightly.

"One of the missing NPCs was found."

Ryota leaned forward.

"Alive?"

"Alive."

Rio nodded.

"We rescued him before whoever was responsible could take him somewhere else."

She paused.

"He was terrified."

At first, the NPC refused to speak.

Royal Knights kept him somewhere safe and gave him time to recover. Eventually, however, the fear became too much for him to contain.

"He finally broke down," Rio said. "And he told us everything."

Ryota's expression hardened.

"The player behind the disappearances had been captured."

Royal Knights interrogated him.

Eventually, he confessed.

"He gave us a location."

Rio's voice lowered.

"An underground bunker beneath the City of Versoza."

Ryota's eyes narrowed.

"Versoza..."

"The same city," Rio said quietly. "The same city that would later burn for countless nights."

Ryota said nothing.

Rio continued.

"At that time, Versoza was still one of the most important cities on Floor Two. It was a major center for trade and player activity."

She paused.

"And beneath it was the bunker."

Royal Knights didn't treat the operation like a normal investigation.

They assembled a raid force.

"Nearly two hundred players," Rio said.

Ryota's eyebrows rose.

"Two hundred?"

Rio nodded.

"We requested assistance from allied guilds. Raiders, frontline players, healers, mages, scouts. Everyone who could contribute."

She looked down.

"We treated it like a full-scale dungeon raid."

Their objective had been simple.

Find the missing NPCs.

Destroy the facility.

Capture whoever was responsible.

Save whoever remained.

It should have been straightforward.

But the moment they entered the bunker, everything changed.

Rio's hands slowly tightened.

"What we found..."

She stopped.

Ryota waited.

Rio swallowed.

"...was horrifying."

The missing NPCs had been found.

But they weren't prisoners anymore.

They had been turned into something else.

"They had been experimented on."

Rio's voice became quieter.

"Their bodies had been changed. Twisted. Altered."

She struggled to maintain her composure as she continued.

"Some had grown claws. Others had distorted limbs. Some had become enormous. Others had developed weapons from their own bodies."

Ryota's expression darkened.

"They weren't themselves anymore."

Rio nodded.

"They were mutants."

"Mindless ones."

"They had almost no consciousness left."

She stared at the floor.

"They were being turned into combat creatures."

Ryota's stomach tightened.

"How many?"

Rio was quiet for a moment.

"Dozens."

She looked toward him.

"Forty were enough to hold back nearly a third of our raid."

Ryota's eyes widened.

Forty.

Forty mutated NPCs had been enough to keep a significant portion of a two-hundred-player raid force occupied.

"They were strong," Rio continued. "Much stronger than ordinary NPCs."

Her voice remained matter-of-fact, but Ryota could hear something underneath it.

"They were fast. Durable. Violent."

"They didn't feel pain."

"They didn't retreat."

"They didn't hesitate."

"They simply attacked."

The main raid force became trapped fighting them.

But Rio had realized something.

The bunker went deeper.

Much deeper.

"There was something underneath the facility."

She looked at Ryota.

"So I took a small team."

"Royal Knights' elites?"

Rio nodded.

"We left the main raid force behind. They kept the mutants occupied while we pushed farther into the bunker."

Her voice gradually became quieter.

"We found laboratories."

"Medical rooms."

"Containment chambers."

"Research equipment."

"Notes."

"Records."

"Everything."

Then they found the name.

Rio looked directly at Ryota.

"Project: Spectrum."

The words seemed to carry a weight of their own.

Ryota didn't interrupt.

Rio continued.

"Project: Spectrum was an experimentation program involving NPCs."

She folded her hands together.

"They injected them with different fluids. Altered their bodies. Changed their forms. Forced them to evolve into combat-oriented creatures."

Her expression hardened.

"The goal wasn't to create soldiers that could think."

She paused.

"It was the opposite."

Ryota's fists slowly tightened.

"They wanted creatures that could obey."

"Creatures without fear."

"Creatures without hesitation."

"Creatures that could be used for combat."

Ryota's jaw tightened.

"And who was behind it?"

Rio didn't answer immediately.

Her gaze remained fixed on her hands.

Then, finally, she spoke.

"The person behind all of it..."

She paused.

"...was an NPC."

Ryota frowned.

"An NPC?"

Rio nodded.

"People called him..."

She looked up.

"...the Professor."

Silence settled over the room.

Ryota had expected a player.

A guild.

Perhaps some hidden organization.

An NPC was the last answer he had expected.

Rio wasn't finished.

"There was more."

Ryota looked at her.

"Much more."

Rio stared at her hands.

"What we found there..."

Her fingers began to tremble.

"...was the reason I almost quit Evermount."

Ryota's expression immediately changed.

Rio slowly looked up.

"It was the reason..."

She swallowed.

"...the Silver War Goddess almost fell."

Ryota stared at her.

He knew what the title meant.

He knew how much Rio had endured to reach the top.

He knew about her years of grinding, her battles, her victories, and the countless enemies she had defeated.

But he had never heard her talk about herself like this.

Rio looked away.

"We went deeper into the bunker."

"Past the laboratories."

"Past the containment rooms."

"Past the mutants."

Her voice grew quieter.

"And eventually..."

She stopped.

Her eyes began to glisten.

"...we found them."

Ryota didn't speak.

Rio struggled to continue.

"Civilians."

Ryota's breathing slowed.

"They were still alive."

Rio wiped beneath one eye.

"But they weren't normal anymore."

Some had been partially transformed.

Some had become mutants.

Some still looked almost human.

Others were barely recognizable.

"But they were conscious."

Her voice trembled.

"They knew who we were."

"They could talk."

"They could cry."

"They could beg."

A tear slipped down her cheek.

Ryota remained still.

He didn't want to interrupt her.

Rio continued.

"Some of them were still hoping we'd save them."

Her voice cracked.

"They looked at us like..."

She struggled to finish the sentence.

"...like we were heroes."

Another tear rolled down her cheek.

Ryota's chest tightened.

"Most of them..."

Rio lowered her head.

"...were children."

The words seemed to drain the air from the room.

Rio's shoulders trembled.

"Some were so young."

"They were terrified."

"They didn't understand why their bodies had changed."

"They didn't understand what had happened to them."

She wiped her cheek, but another tear immediately replaced it.

"They just wanted to go home."

Ryota lowered his eyes.

Rio tried to continue.

"They had hope in their eyes."

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Real hope."

"They thought..."

She took a shaky breath.

"...that we could save them."

Ryota finally understood.

This wasn't what had haunted Rio because Project: Spectrum had been powerful.

It wasn't because the Professor had been difficult to defeat.

It wasn't even because of the danger the experiment represented.

It was because Rio had been placed in front of people who believed she could save them.

And she couldn't.

Rio's voice broke.

"But we couldn't."

Ryota looked at her.

"We searched."

"We tried everything."

"Healers."

"Potions."

"Skills."

"Items."

"Quest systems."

"Everything we had."

Her hands trembled more violently.

"Nothing worked."

Their bodies had been changed too completely.

Their systems no longer recognized them normally.

The transformations couldn't be reversed.

Rio closed her eyes.

"And eventually..."

Her voice became almost inaudible.

"...we realized the truth."

Ryota already knew what she was going to say.

But he still couldn't bring himself to speak.

Rio did it for him.

"The only way to save them..."

She stopped.

Her breathing shook.

"...was to kill them."

Silence filled the room.

Rio lowered her head.

A tear fell onto her hand.

Then another.

Ryota couldn't remain where he was.

He moved closer.

Without saying anything, he wrapped his arms around her.

Rio froze.

For a moment, her entire body became rigid.

Then her shoulders began to shake.

Ryota held her more tightly.

He didn't tell her it wasn't her fault.

He didn't tell her everything would be okay.

Those words felt far too small.

Far too easy.

Instead, he simply stayed.

Rio's hands slowly rose and gripped the back of his shirt.

She leaned against him.

And for the first time since Ryota had met her, the image of the Silver War Goddess disappeared completely.

There was no legendary player.

No Level 243 warrior.

No title.

No reputation.

No strongest female player in Evermount.

There was only Rio.

A girl who had once stood inside a bunker beneath Versoza, surrounded by children who believed that she could save them.

And she couldn't.

Ryota held her silently.

Rio's tears soaked into his shirt.

"I still remember their faces."

Her voice was broken.

"I remember every single one."

Ryota closed his eyes.

Rio continued.

"Even after all these years..."

"I can still hear them."

"Their voices."

"Their crying."

"The way they thanked us."

Her grip tightened.

"Even though we were the ones who..."

She couldn't finish.

Ryota simply held her.

He didn't need her to.

After several seconds, Rio whispered against his shoulder.

"I wanted to forget."

Ryota lowered his head slightly.

"You don't have to forget."

Rio went completely still.

Ryota continued quietly.

"You don't have to pretend it didn't happen."

"You don't have to carry it alone anymore."

For several seconds, Rio said nothing.

Then her grip tightened again.

Her breathing became uneven.

And quietly, almost as though she had finally allowed herself to stop fighting, she cried.

Not as the Silver War Goddess.

Not as the strongest player in Evermount.

Not as the woman who had spent fifteen years surviving every obstacle the game had thrown at her.

Just as Rio.

And Ryota stayed beside her.

Outside the bedroom, the world continued as though nothing had happened.

The server maintenance continued.

The next Evermount update was still hours away.

The streets outside remained peaceful.

But inside that small bedroom, a part of Rio's past had finally been spoken aloud.

For years, she had carried those memories alone.

For years, she had buried the faces, the voices, the pleading eyes, and the unbearable decision beneath the weight of everything that came afterward.

Now, for the first time, someone else knew.

And Rio didn't have to face those memories alone anymore.

Yet neither of them realized that by speaking the name Project: Spectrum aloud, they had brought something buried back into the present.

The past had not disappeared.

It had only been waiting.