I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-123

Ch-123

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**– Day 4**

I confirmed the end of the Abyss.

And also the fact that there was no way out.

**– Day 6**

A wasteland.
A place with nothing to drink, nothing to eat.

People were reaching their limits.

At this rate, hundreds of thousands of people might begin devouring one another.

And Baal had absorbed the entirety of the Omen’s torso.

I have a bad feeling about this.

**– Day 8**

Gooooooh.

Early morning.
A strange sound echoed.

…Baal had awakened.

Layered with even more of the Omen’s ill-boding aura.

But something felt wrong.

The awakened Baal wandered aimlessly throughout the Abyss for a long while.

**– Day 9**

Since yesterday, Baal had been hurting itself or letting out shrieks.

Gracia had courageously approached and managed to check Baal’s condition.

He said it seemed like something inside was fighting—something battling within.

Could it be dissociating? Splitting apart?

**– Day 15**

After thrashing wildly for quite some time, Baal finally stopped.

It collapsed, panting, and then began melting.

So—is it dead?

But it was not dead.

It had completed its evolution.

The one who was the Abyss itself… descending into an even deeper abyss.

…But what is that?

Baal’s abdomen split open, and from within, a black egg appeared.

If that thing hatches, is it truly the end?

What’s certain is that ever since that egg appeared, the “veil” surrounding the Abyss has begun to collapse.

Perhaps… we might be able to escape from here.

······

*

*

The Four Calamity, Baal.

That being once hailed as an evil god, a catastrophe unto itself—

Right now, it was being *eaten*.

—Crunch! Crunch!

By something in a dreadful, ominous form.

Yet this was something that should have been impossible.

Whenever Baal sensed a threat capable of killing it, the “hidden thing” inside would always burst forth to destroy its opponent.

That was why Baal survived—even after dying, it returned.

So how could it be dying again?

But Baal could no longer resist.

From the moment it first faced “that thing” inside, it had been devoured ravenously from within.

Something that was human, yet not human.

Something Baal itself had never encountered before.

And the moment it did, Baal found itself utterly powerless.

It was godlike—yet even more terrifying.

More dreadful than Baal itself, a being called life and curse incarnate, more dreadful even than an evil god.

Baal had everything stolen by that thing.

《The Glutton has devoured “Evil God Baal.”》

《The Glutton has devoured “Baal’s Core.”》

《Consumption complete.》

《“Trait Evolution” is beginning.》

Complete consumption.

Just as it once became the King of Corpse Crows, then that terrible Omen—

“That thing” had taken all of Baal’s traits.

But that wasn’t all.

Baal’s entirety hadn’t disappeared just yet.

The last remaining piece—*Baal’s soul*, that massive inferno of an essence—

—Kyahahahahahahah!

Hel sucked it in as though savoring something delicious.

All of it. Without wasting even a drop.

《Hel has finished its meal and is beginning evolution.》

《Evolution complete.》

《You have gained “Evil God’s Execution Authority.”》

Soon, a single wing sprouted from Hell’s back.

—

—

 

The disappearance of Jeju Island, Korea.

Now, nearly two weeks later, not a single person doubted its erasure.

Not only inside Korea—countless eyes overseas agreed as well.

Especially the Master, who publicly declared, “There is no hope for Jeju Island.”

“…Master. It has been 30 days since Jeju Island vanished. And yesterday, you officially posted on SNS telling people to give up on Jeju. Why did you do that?”

And today, the Master appeared publicly on a famous American TV show.

After being missing for nearly two months, he had finally moved again.

People who heard he would appear flocked to their televisions.

The Master faced the host with his usual relaxed demeanor.

“That place is what we call the ‘Abyss.’”

“‘Abyss’? What is that?”

“A dead land. A sunken land. The moment you enter, you can never come back alive.”

“…Wow. Sounds deadly just hearing about it. But I’d like a precise definition. I assume you don’t mean the dictionary meaning?”

The Master nodded at the host’s sharp question.

“You’re right. In the Otherworld, the Abyss means hell.”

“Hell…?”

“To put it simply: a place filled with countless demons and kings of hell. No matter how great a warrior is, if they stay in the Abyss for more than 20 days, they die. Without exception.”

There are no exceptions.

Not even the slightest possibility.

Jeju Island had vanished, and every person who was on Jeju Island had died.

He spoke with such certainty because he had run the experiments himself.

‘Not just once or twice.’

The Abyss of Pangaenia is an unknown realm.

Sometimes immense treasures were hidden there; sometimes undefeatable monsters lurked.

But if one could freely explore the Abyss, one could build a force strong enough to fear no empire.

And so the Master explored the Abyss.

Dozens, hundreds of times.

And failed every time.

‘Failure, yes—but I gained data.’

It was not entirely meaningless.

He obtained information no one else could easily get.

For example—

‘When you enter the Abyss, your name vanishes from the Hall of Fame.’

When a Ranker sinks into the Abyss, the Hall of Fame instantly marks them as “dead.”

Their name disappears entirely.

From that, he could identify approximately which rankers had fallen.

‘The High Rankers who hid their names around that time were (Phantom) Randolph, Sword Saint Gracia, Recluse MintChocoIsTasty, and Dragon Slayer Barmus.’

The four whose names still have not returned.

All of them combatants rated at “danger level 9” or higher.

‘If you stay in the Abyss for more than 4 days, your mind breaks.’

This was another reason he described the Abyss as hell.

Which was why Abyss expeditions were *always* short-term assaults.

If it were only the mind that broke, that would be one thing—

‘After 10 days, the entire body bruises and physical deformation begins. But the person doesn’t notice.’

As though exposed to radiation, their body bruises and bleeds—

Yet they remain unaware.

They treat their dying body as though it isn’t theirs.

And gradually… they stop being human.

‘After 20 days, you either die or become a monster serving the Abyss’s master.’

There were no exceptions.

No one survived past 20 days.

Sure, the four mentioned earlier might last a little longer.

He had never tested such monsters of strength—but at best, they might endure a few more days.

He was certain: after a month, they were done.

Either they had forgotten themselves and become monsters, or they were already dead.

If *they* couldn’t endure, could ordinary humans from Earth survive the Abyss?

Nonsense.

‘Which is why I’ve come forward.’

Randolph is dead.
Gracia is dead.
And the two others who gnawed at his thoughts—dead.

This world has no alternatives left.

“…Jeju Island has become the Abyss. A hell from which entry and exit are impossible. But do not despair. I will ensure Baal cannot begin his next invasion. I will keep you safe.”

No one but him.

*

*

When the Glutton devoured Baal, his entire body reacted violently.

Naturally so.

Baal was a monster of a completely different class than the Corpse Crow.

To absorb it and wield its power as one’s own—how could such a thing be possible?

The Corpse Crow understood human physiology, mimicked humans, lured them, devoured them.

It possessed a partial understanding of humanity and its traits.

But Baal was a monster that had no need for such things from the beginning.

A creature forged by Destruction—an embodiment of “evil” created solely to annihilate worlds.

Above all… the “Fragment of Destruction” hidden inside Baal possessed an absolute nature that no hidden trait could dismantle.

The Glutton devoured “Baal,” but it could not digest the “Fragment of Destruction.”

The Fragment was the very “evil” that had driven Baal for so long.

—This body is extraordinary. I will make it mine.

And so the Fragment sought to seize this body for itself.

Baal had yielded to this human’s trait, but the Fragment was different.

It was a being capable of distorting the world’s balance and rules.

A kind of bug—a loophole of existence.

—A human with all 13 “Master Keys.” But a key unused is worthless.

Had he used the keys, perhaps it would be different.
But not a single one had been properly used yet.

Naturally—what human would know where the “doors” were?

The Fragment of Destruction slowly stole the body’s control.

The more control it seized, the more satisfied it became with the body’s potential.

A vessel with greater potential than Baal, whom Destruction itself had created.

But things did not go entirely as the Fragment wished.

《Secret Option has activated.》

《All conditions met. The “Transcended Baal Set” is merging with your body.》

《Initiating “Complete Control of Baal.”》

《The Fragment of Destruction is resisting from within Baal!》

《Beginning suppression.》

《Resistance has weakened.》

…Just when the Fragment was about to seize full control—

The Transcended Baal Set fused with the body.

This was the hidden option.

The final measure for complete control of Baal.

The people of the Old Empire had known about the “evil” residing inside Baal.

They had prepared this last measure for future generations.

Thus, “Complete Control” existed solely to bind the Fragment of Destruction.

—Even so, it is still 5:5. As long as I maintain half, you cannot awaken.
Forever sleep and be slowly consumed.
In the end, time is on my side.

He was slightly flustered, but ultimately, time favored him.

However, the Fragment had overlooked one thing.

As the Transcended Baal Set melted into the body, as it tugged in a struggle against the Fragment—

《Accumulated experience has increased. Level up!》

…An unimaginable amount of experience had accumulated—leveling up.

FWOOOOOM!

—…

The Fragment was dumbfounded.

A level up?

When one levels up, *all abnormalities are restored.*

All accumulated experience is consumed to ascend in rank and instantly recover.

Of course, that didn’t matter.

The Fragment’s control over these “abnormalities” was not something a mere level up could undo.

But this body required an *absurd* amount of experience just to level up.

And yet, it had leveled.

A massive, overwhelming torrent of experience burst like a volcanic eruption—

FWOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Countless blessings scorched through the body.
Not a mere step up the stairs—
A transcendence that surpassed the boundaries of space itself.

*—What kind of absurd “required experience” is this…!*

Yet the “Fragment of Destruction” could not understand it.

*—Only the eighth lock has been undone, and this is the amount of “required experience”? Out of ten locks, only the eighth has opened.*

Yes, possessing all thirteen keys meant that the total required experience would naturally increase—but this quantity was far beyond what could be explained by that alone.

To think such “required experience” was needed for merely level 7?
It was overwhelming.
Vast to the point of resembling the universe.

There was something else.
Something else increasing the required experience.

*—Is a seal being undone? It feels as though a seal is being erased one by one.*

Then what would happen when the tenth lock was undone?

If something truly were sealed, there was no way *he*, the Fragment of Destruction, would fail to notice.

Then how was one supposed to explain this monumental “amount of experience”?

Everything was incomprehensible.
Utterly beyond understanding.

After that—because of the level up—all “abnormalities” were wiped away in an instant.

And then—

“…What a laughable creature you are.”

…My eyes opened.

*

*

No more—he couldn’t hold on any longer.

He didn’t want to hold on.

A long, endless wandering in the Abyss.

Gracia was reaching his limit.

Not only Gracia—every one of the 600,000 people trapped here.

“······Lord Gracia. The collapse of the barrier has stopped.”

“I know.”

The barrier.
When the end of the Abyss began collapsing, everyone had dared to dream of escape.

But that phenomenon ended today.

Faces and bodies gaunt from starvation.

The “warriors” could still withstand it somehow.
The problem was the civilians from Earth.

They had endured solely on the hope that the barrier was falling—but once they realized that hope had stopped, what would happen then?

“Are we… all going to die like this?”

The players.
They, too, were at their limit.

Gracia had subtly warned them to keep the truth hidden, but that was only delaying the inevitable.

The only small mercy was that no one had shown signs of “mental breakdown” yet.

“······We will not die.”

He said it—but even he had no confidence in his own words.

In this Abyss, there was nothing to eat, nothing to drink.

The only reason they had survived this long was because the players had divided every last drop of water and scrap of food they possessed.

Players had considerable reserves stored in their inventories.

But even that had run out long ago.

In the first place, no player carries food for 600,000 people.

*Nothing can grow in this land.*

They had tried planting “seeds” in the ground, using every method imaginable to accelerate growth—but everything died before it could even sprout.

“The emergency food we set aside for the very end is gone too. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before people start eating each other.”

“I will not allow it.”

“······Is it not acceptable to eat those who have already died?”

One player spoke.

Those already dead—why not use them as food?

The problem was not that one person thought this—
It was that many did.

“He’s right. How long are we expected to take care of all these people?”

“We have strength. If we reduce the number of mouths, we can survive longer.”

“If we continue like this, *we* will die!”

“If everyone dies anyway, what is the point of moral purity!?”

Everyone had gone mad.

Gracia silently shook his head.

“As long as I live, I will not allow it.”

“Are you perhaps eating ‘food’ in secret by yourself?”

“······You speak nonsense.”

“That’s easily proven! We aren’t as noble as you. We can’t keep following your will forever.”

Srrrk—

(A blade being drawn.)

 

 

 

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