[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

Chapter 390

[You are the first to complete the revamped quest.]

[You have gained 10,000,000 experience points + a Random Item Box.]

[Part of your level has been restored.]

[Part of your stats has been restored.]

After completing the quest, Jeong-hoon recovered a portion of his level and stats.

And the content of the quest had completely changed—like a 180-degree turn.

- Once you reach the level, make sure to do the quest where you find Ross.

- For real, if you complete this, you get an android robot made by Lafaro.

- If you get the android robot, it’s peak convenience. You have to do it.

- But you need to be over level 450, lol.

- So none of us could ever do it, haha.

- Even top rankers barely managed it, right? Maybe 5 people across the whole server?

- Then it’s just guesswork, lol. Don’t go calling that a walkthrough.

- James and Alessandro made really good use of it though.

- Are we the same as those guys?

That’s right.

If it had been the original version of the quest, Ross would have survived, and the final reward would have been Lafaro's masterpiece—earned by gaining his recognition in the follow-up quest.

But in the quest Jeong-hoon was progressing through now, not only had Ross died, but Lafaro had fallen into corruption.

Countless workers at the factory, who had once trusted him, now felt deeply betrayed and were rioting, demanding Lafaro’s execution to avenge Ross.

Even though an android responsible for law enforcement had taken Lafaro into custody, the unrest didn't die down.

“Thank you. If it weren't for you, Ross would've…”

Theo couldn’t finish his sentence.

If he hadn’t assigned Ross the task of delivering the coil, Ross would still be alive.

That guilt weighed even more heavily on him.

“It’s alright.”

“…I'm sorry, but may I ask one more favor?”

A question mark blinked above Theo's head.

‘Is this another new quest?’

The direction this was taking felt unusual.

[Sub Quest: Elimination]

Condition: Must be acknowledged by Theo

Reward: Fragment of Origin ×1

Description: Grant Theo's request

Fragment of Origin?

What kind of reward is that?

It probably means that things have changed since the Divine Realm took over New World.

Let’s accept the quest for now.

“What is your request?”

“I feel so guilty about Ross… I can’t even lift my head. So… would you go in my place and pray for Ross’s soul?”

“Pray for his soul?”

“Yes. I feel like if we just let him go like this, Ross will lose his way. I’d like to ask the chapel to pray so that he may pass on peacefully.”

Carrying the coffin containing Ross’s body to the chapel and offering a prayer for his soul.

That was Theo’s request.

“…Understood. So try to ease your guilt a little.”

“I don’t know… if that’s even possible. I don’t have the face to see Ross again, who died so young because of me.”

“…”

Jeong-hoon didn’t offer any more words of comfort.

No matter what he said, it wouldn’t reach him.

“I’m counting on you.”

As Theo said this, he placed a cigarette back in his mouth.

“Yes.”

* * *

Chapel.

In the chapel, there wasn’t an NPC, but a single angel kneeling in front, offering a prayer.

One of the angels who had crossed over to New World with Uriel.

===

[NPC Information]

– Nickname: Loel

– Level: X

– Class: Angel

===

Loel.

As Jeong-hoon approached him, Loel happened to finish his prayer and stood up at just the right time.

“Hm? You are?”

Loel’s eyes widened slightly upon noticing Jeong-hoon.

“I’m carrying out a quest.”

“Ah, I see. I’ve heard the story. You’re helping to catch those guys, right?”

“You could say we formed an alliance because our goals align.”

“Heh, so what brings you here?”

“A side quest. But more than that—it seems like the quests have changed overall… Was that the gods’ doing?”

“Yes. I changed Atlas under my own authority.”

Loel nodded as he spoke.

“Was it really necessary to turn an NPC into a murderer?”

“Hm? No. I think you misunderstood—I simply granted the NPC free will.”

“Free will?”

“Yes. Originally, NPCs only act according to the values input into them. In other words, they have no free will.”

“…Then the one who killed Ross…”

“Did it purely of his own will. More precisely, out of greed.”

“I see. Then, may I ask about the reward?”

“You mean the Fragment of Origin?”

“Yes.”

Loel responded with a prepared answer, as if he expected the question.

“It’s nothing grand. Due to the regression, causality has become severely distorted. That’s also why absolute power can’t be maintained.”

“And the Fragment of Origin helps correct that distortion?”

“There's that too, but it’ll also be a great help to you in the process of ascending to a demigod.”

“…Then you could’ve just given it to me. Why make it a quest?”

“Hehe, isn’t it more fun this way?”

“……”

Jeong-hoon frowned deeply.

Leol quickly waved her hands, flustered.

“It was a joke! Don’t take it so seriously.”

“Then explain it properly.”

“Ahem… actually, that fragment isn’t within our authority. It’s the will of those above.”

“The will of those above?”

“Yes. Even we don’t know why it was made into a quest.”

“…Fine.”

It wasn’t a satisfying answer, but since he had learned about the Primordial Fragment, that was good enough for now.

Jeong-hoon walked past her and tried to summon the NPC inside.

“Ah, sorry, but there’s no one inside.”

“No one?”

“Yes. We removed all the NPCs.”

“Why?”

“They were followers of those from the Demon Realm.”

“Then will you help me complete this quest?”

Jeong-hoon placed the coffin he was holding down in front of her.

“Hmm… I can offer prayers in your place, but just praying isn’t enough to wish for peace.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. You’ll need holy water.”

“This is starting to get annoying.”

“Sorry?”

Jeong-hoon barely suppressed his irritation and continued.

“Aren’t you just trying to overwrite the old quest with this revamped one?”

Right now, New World had fallen into the hands of the Divine Realm.

But that didn’t mean the remnants of the Demon Realm had disappeared.

Giving away the Primordial Fragment through a quest was most likely a type of purification effort.

By making Jeong-hoon complete quests at high speed, they intended to completely erase the original ones.

Even if ordinary users could clear out the lower cities, the population dropped drastically from Atlas onward.

Also, this quest required a minimum level of 450 to even attempt the sub-quests. At present, only a very small number of users were capable of that.

“…I apologize.”

Leol bowed quickly.

There was nothing to gain from making excuses here.

“Why did you try to deceive me?”

If she had just been honest, there wouldn’t have been any bad blood between them.

“I didn’t intend to deceive you. From the start, this quest was only considered complete once the holy water was delivered.”

“So you have to be the first to finish the quest in order to erase the original one completely?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Where do I go to get it?”

“There’s a cliff at the northern end. If you go down below, you’ll find a cave. Inside, there should be a sacred sword embedded in the ground. Water flows through there and pools around it — that’s what you need to bring back.”

“You really placed it in a tough spot.”

“Well, it is top-tier information that I’m only sharing with you, Jeong-hoon.”

Leol winked with one eye.

“…Alright. I’ll be back soon.”

“You can leave the coffin here.”

* * *

[New World feels kinda weird lately.]

—I’m a newbie who started six months ago, right? So I’ve been using the guide that was posted in the Welcome section. It helped a lot with quests and leveling up, but lately things suddenly changed — is that normal?

└They said they revamped the quests.

└But they’re just changing things out of nowhere?

└For real, they could’ve at least posted a notice.

└People in the middle of questlines had them reset and now have to do them all over again.

└Some folks pulled all-nighters for days and now it’s for nothing, seriously LOL

└What’s going on with New World all of a sudden… They always posted ahead of time before, where’d that go?

Players were outraged.

And the reason was simple.

The quests had been completely overhauled — totally different from before.

The issue was, they didn’t announce the update in advance.

That’s why the players were so angry.

[What’s worse is that New World hasn’t said a single word about any of this.]

—Can you believe this? Should I just quit New World?

└Sigh, I would quit if there was something else worth playing.

└Nothing quite like New World though…

└We’re just livestock at this point…

└I hate myself for still playing even after this

But that wasn’t the only issue.

“Huh…? This isn’t what Hoon told me.”

Before HaJin could go after the rare opportunity, he had to complete a quest — but the revamp completely changed the contents.

So the strategy Hoon gave her no longer worked.

[Whisper/zlHaJin12 → Hoon: Hoon, they said the quest got changed?]

He sent Hoon a whisper.

And shortly after, Hoon replied.

[Whisper/Hoon → zlHaJin12: Yeah, I just found out too.]

[Whisper/zlHaJin12 → Hoon: So what should I do? Just go in without a strategy?]

[Whisper/Hoon → zlHaJin12: Yeah, you’ll have to.]

[Whisper/zlHaJin12 → Hoon: Got it. But if I fail, you better acknowledge it, okay?]

[Whisper/Hoon → zlHaJin12: Don’t talk crap. Just succeed.]

[Whisper/zlHaJin12 → Hoon: ……]

[Whisper/Hoon → zlHaJin12: You got this.]

“You got this” my ass.

The quest was already hard enough — and now it was even worse.

“Why? Think you can’t do it?”

The NPC in front of Hajin sneered, provoking him with a mocking tone.

“Hah… When did I ever say I couldn’t?”

Right.

A fortuitous encounter is classified as an item, so even if the quest was reworked, it should still remain.

In that case, he just had to succeed and obtain it.

And then, he’d break the nose—figuratively—of that arrogant NPC named Porco who was looking down on him.

* * *

At that same moment—

Jeong-hoon was busy whispering messages not only to Hajin, but also to his mother, Bong-Goo, Yeo Sunwoo, and Yeo Min-Ji.

Because of the quest overhaul, all his custom-tailored strategies had become useless.

“The fortuitous encounters better still be there…”

Their destination was the fortuitous encounter—a rare opportunity or blessing.

Experiencing such an encounter would let them take a step forward in growth.

That’s why Jeong-hoon had carefully selected specific encounters that were perfectly suited to help them accelerate their progress afterward.

So, the encounters absolutely needed to still be there.

‘Master, but why aren’t you using Fly magic?’

Mukho asked with a puzzled look.

As he said, Jeong-hoon was currently descending a cliff—but he wasn’t using the Fly magic he had previously learned.

“It doesn’t work.”

‘It doesn’t work?’

“Yeah.”

Before his regression, Jeong-hoon had learned Fly magic through the Staff of Radiant Sol.

However, upon returning in time, several of his abilities—including his level and stats—had been sealed, and Fly magic was among the sealed abilities.

That’s why he had to manually climb down the cliff like this.

‘That’s unfortunate…’

“It’s fine. I’ll be down in no time.”

As he said, Jeong-hoon quickly reached the bottom of the cliff.

Just as Roel had said, a massive cave stood there at the base.

‘This is it.’

Let’s quickly obtain the Holy Water and complete the quest.

[You have explored an Unknown Region.]

[A portion of your level has been restored.]

[A portion of your stats has been restored.]

[Some of your sealed abilities have been released.]

Upon entering the cave, his level and stats were partially recovered again.

His current level: 1,500.

With the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion footwork, Jeong-hoon headed toward the spot where the Holy Sword was embedded.

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]