I stared at the System Window announcing the closure.
Then I slowly turned my gaze and surveyed my surroundings.
No one was there.
Lee Seon, who had wept black tears of blood, and Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo, who had howled like a choir, had vanished without a trace.
‘I didn’t even get to say goodbye properly.’
I remembered Smiley turning into an item before my eyes.
Now that something similar had happened a second time, I felt a little empty.
Even knowing they were merely NPCs, I rarely thought of them that way while I was inside a Trial.
Because they lived and moved directly before my eyes, I kept forgetting they were beings destined to disappear and vaguely imagined that I could meet them whenever I wished.
Indifferent to my feelings, the System Window busily produced a noisy stream of notifications.
◆ Epic Quest: Close three Trials within one month.
*Trials currently closed (1/3)
(Warning! Failure will result in the amputation of all four limbs! Success will preserve all limbs.)
“Han Goyo” makes his name known to Akasha!
■■ ■■■ is watching you.
Current Recognition: 0.05%
I shook off the loneliness and read the System Windows.
‘Wow, Recognition.’
Last time, it had raised the stat by only 0.01 percent.
This time, it had generously increased it by an incredible 0.03 percent.
I still had no idea what I was supposed to do with…