I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-247

Ch-247. **Endgame**

—

The night’s wraith, who had suddenly revealed her true identity, was fading.

The wraith who called herself *“Isabella”*—her manifested form grew increasingly faint.

*Why?*

Randolph instinctively furrowed his brow.

For a moment, he simply could not comprehend the situation before him.

Isabella.

Her appearance—free of the wraith’s darkness—was exactly as he remembered.

A loyal subordinate who trusted and followed him.

A woman whose identity had only grown stronger through countless trials.

An existence that had stood with him from the very first memory—a testament of Randolph’s being itself.

Yet in her eyes, it was not Randolph she saw.

“Right now… who is it that you are looking at?”

“…”

Isabella opened her mouth.

But the name she uttered did not reach his ears.

Still, Randolph **knew** whose name she had spoken.

A name erased from his mind.

Three syllables that stirred a fierce, involuntary rejection.

More than anything—

“…I was told everything would be complete only after the erasure. That only then would I be whole! That name is false—a shackle, a stain, something to be wiped away. Then why? Why would you throw yourself away for a name that should never exist?”

That *name* had to be erased.

A shackle—nothing more.

And now that the shackle was gone, Randolph felt true freedom.

A sensation of surpassing every limit.

Yet despite that, why had this woman chosen to vanish for the sake of the erased one, and not for him?

No matter how he reasoned it—he could not understand.

“It is I. Look at me! I am Randolph. You saw it yourself—how I crushed the Heavenly Demon with overwhelming power! Without the me of now, such a thing would have been impossible!”

Crack!

He ground his teeth, bit his lip, shuddered with fury.

“He is a fake. A degenerate who ruins others for entertainment without sincerity. He is not the hero you imagine him to be. Nothing about him is noble or pure…!”

“…You.”

Slowly—while fading, while listening to his fiery tirade—

Isabella met his eyes and spoke.

“Can you endure failing hundreds, thousands of times for someone else, without giving up?”

“Ah, but of course. Isabella, you are mine. For you, I would—!”

“Can you die for me?”

“…”

Die?

What was she trying to say?

The point was incomprehensible.

She was disappearing already—why demand death from him?

Then Isabella smiled faintly.

*Yes, they are different.*

This man and the other one.

They could never be the same.

Their very essences were too different.

He was someone who felt compassion even for those unrelated to him.

A man who threw himself wholly into opening another’s heart.

Even if it meant his real self would die, he would never hesitate.

“How could I hate someone who refuses to abandon me… someone who tosses aside even his life without hesitation? How?”

How could she ever resent him?

Why had she despised him?

The savior she had yearned for her entire life.

Even if she had forgotten, even if she had not known—

She never should have resented him.

Even knowing she hated him, he always remained calm before her.

He smiled, comforted her, guided her forward.

Yet how terrified he must have been.

Never a peaceful day, knowing the truth might be discovered and all would turn their backs on him.

Even so, he searched for her, for Isaac, for Balte…

He had been atoning, endlessly, in his own way.

Such a pitiful, lovable man.

“…How could I ever forget?”

Even if she disappeared here and now—she would not forget.

His name, his warmth.

So he must no longer worry.

No longer suffer because of her.

“…”

Leaving those quiet final words, Isabella’s form completely vanished.

**【The ‘Night wraith,’ whose identity has been revealed, has been extinguished.】**

**【The ‘most precious thing’ held by the Night wraith has been transferred.】**

**【‘Bronzed Coin,’ ‘Park Hyunmyung’s Soul’ have been transferred.】**

**【Attack and HP increase by 50 each.】**

**【Two Night wraiths remain.】**

**【If all Night wraiths are extinguished, ‘Night’ will never fall again.】**

**【Night wraiths also extinguish even if defeated during the Starlight Expedition.】**

She was gone.

Without a trace.

Completely extinguished.

“…”

There was no way to recover the “most precious thing” taken by a Night wraith.

Except by extinguishing it.

Isabella had chosen her own destruction, forcing it into Randolph’s hands.

“I… refuse.”

It rose.

His memory.

Things he had forgotten.

But Randolph clutched his head and shook violently.

Then collapsed, writhing in agony, he forced the words from his chest as though squeezing his heart.

“I… reject… you… Park Hyunmyung!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

A familiar voice.

…The Heavenly Demon.

He had not died—he had survived.

“Only now does living feel real. Only now does it feel like I’ve truly abandoned ‘humanity.’ So *this* is the power of the Fragment!”

Only—his state was entirely different.

No one would mistake him for human.

A massive, muscular body.

A black, rugged shell protruding like a tortoise carapace.

A face twisted into a rhinoceros-like shape.

…Right.

That too was a bug created by the Fragment of Ruin.

And Randolph still didn’t know how to defeat such a bug.

But—it didn’t matter.

“…If I smash you hundreds, thousands of times, you won’t get back up again.”

He would destroy everything.

Everything in his way.

Every name clinging to his ankles.

He rose, a cold smile forming.

His headache had vanished completely.

—

—

 

He had admired heroes.

Ever since childhood, he had longed to resemble the heroes from comics and movies.

But he could never become one.

Reality was too harsh for that.

And his personality was nothing like a hero’s.

An average, utterly ordinary man.

A shut-in.

A loser.

A man with nothing praiseworthy—just someone named Park Hyunmyung.

A gamer no one respected, the worst kind of addict.

*“I am Randolph.”*

Perhaps that was why.

At some point, he began to turn away from reality entirely.

In Pangaenia, he was always the best.

A man who never lost first place in the Hall of Fame.

A miracle given form—shattering every trial head-on and producing results beyond imagination.

The thrill, the achievement—it was incomparable.

Little by little, the boundary between reality and Pangaenia blurred.

And at some point, he stopped logging out.

There was no one left to “see” him anyway.

No one who remembered or acknowledged the man named Park Hyunmyung.

*I’m sinking.*

This place was darkness.

An endlessly sinking end.

Cold, lonely—the world of Park Hyunmyung.

Who even *was* “Park Hyunmyung”?

Did he truly exist?

If he disappeared, nothing would change.

So yes—let him fade.

*—I won’t forget.*

A voice.

Isabella’s voice.

*—You possess noble humanity and a pure spirit of challenge.*

That made no sense.

He possessed nothing noble.

He was just a shut-in loser.

Isabella, you were fooled.

*—Come back. And… thank you.*

What was she thinking?

She would disappear.

Then for whom had she thrown herself away?

…For him?

*—When I transcended, I heard your name. I hated you. I wanted to kill you. But… now I understand why I came to learn your name.*

…Stop.

He was not worth that.

*—I will yearn for you for eternity, Park Hyunmyung.*

And then she vanished.

Like smoke.

Isabella no longer existed in this world.

She had spoken his name as she disappeared.

…The only one who had called his name.
The only one who had *seen* him.

Damn it.

She called me—and then left alone?

He recalled the name Isabella had spoken.

…Yes.

He was not Randolph.

If he disappeared—if he sank—her sacrifice would mean nothing.

He could not allow that.

He would not.

So—

Move aside.

That place, from the beginning and forever, is mine.

You are my proof—but you are not me.

I am myself.

“…I am Park Hyunmyung.”

Park Hyunmyung.

—

—

 

Randolph smiled as he looked toward the center of the Island of God.

**【The ‘Expedition of Stars’ has ended!】**
**【You have won every expedition!】**
**【The victor is ‘Dreadful Omen.’】**

Lines of text floated up.

At last, everything was over.

**【All memories gather and unite as one.】**
**【Rise above all memories and become the master of the Island of God and the Holy Star.】**

It was finished.

He had destroyed all obstacles.

Park Hyunmyung could never have ended things this easily.

The man could never catch up to him.

Naturally, the future could not be entrusted to him.

Only one thing remained.

To claim the island and erase that troublesome name once and for all.

*I will erase you forever.*

He would gather all memories and obliterate them eternally.

Randolph stood at the very center of the island.

It was time to proclaim ownership.

He opened his mouth.

“I refuse.”

…but something entirely different spilled out.

His mouth moved on its own.

Words not of his will.

What?

No… could it be—?!

But then he steadied himself.

How ridiculous.

Barely able to move his mouth, and yet he spoke of refusal?

He could never defeat Randolph.

From beginning to end, nothing about him surpassed Randolph.

A loser should simply fade away.

The game was already over.

What else could he possibly do besides accept it?

“This game’s ending—”

…What?

He refuses the ending?

How could one reject a game that has already finished?!

There is no way except to start anew.

One cannot undo what has already happened.

“I will return all outcomes to the beginning.”

At that moment—

Fwaaaah!

The clustered memories dispersed.

The most precious things began returning to their rightful owners.

Then Randolph realized Park Hyunmyung’s intent.

He screamed in horror.

Stop.

Stop!

Any further and even *you* won’t survive this!

“…This is the will of the Eternal Monarch.”

And thus came—the true Endgame.

—

 

 

 

---