Blessing in Disguise

The size and mass of the falling object.

The speed increasing as if being pushed by someone.

The calamities, anticipating the destructive power that would occur when it collided with the ground, turned and fled without hesitation.

It would be difficult to survive within the direct impact range.

Even if completely escaping the damage radius was impossible, they needed to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the impact.

“You might have come as you pleased, but you won’t leave as you please.”

“Who came as they pleased?! I was forcibly summoned!”

“Was that how it happened? Whatever.”

“W-wait, don’t do that!”

Alice ignored the pouring flames and tore off the wings attached to the magical girl’s shoes to remove her flight ability before changing direction to chase after the Knights of Apocalypse.

If they had scattered, at least one might have succeeded in escaping.

However, the Knights of Apocalypse moved together and couldn’t help but be caught after going just a short distance.

Alice used her tail to bind the legs of the horses the knights were riding while showering them with ranged attacks as she moved at top speed away from the impact point.

Attacks too weak to cause damage but sufficient to bind their feet.

The magical girl and Knights of Apocalypse desperately tried to flee, but death was already close.

Boom!

Burning sky, howling wind, surging sea.

As Leviathan, belatedly grasping the situation, let out a sorrowful cry, the moment of doom arrived.

———!

A flash bright enough to blind.

And a sound loud enough to split eardrums.

A mushroom cloud reaching to the edge of the sky rises up and the earth undulates like waves from the impact.

It was power sufficient to destroy the world, but as if being suppressed by an invisible hand, its aftermath was not as severe as its visuals suggested.

At most, everything within several thousand kilometers radius of the impact point vanished and a thin dust cloud covered the skies worldwide?

The destruction of one continent and decades of ice age.

It was unremarkable damage for vertically dropping a mountain from space.

And Yuseong, who had accomplished all this, was floating silently in the sky looking down.

“……”

“Mr. Yuseong?”

“Ah, yes. Did you call?”

“Are you alright? You don’t look well…”

Lifting a mountain might have been one thing.

But taking it to space, protecting it from breaking apart with telekinesis while dropping it with pinpoint accuracy on the target point was far beyond Brain Eater’s capabilities.

As if proving this, most of the giant brain had turned black from cerebral hemorrhage.

“I’m fine. Brain Eater might not be, but Kim Ganghyeon’s brain is okay. Just feeling a bit strange.”

“About what?”

Instead of answering Alice’s question, Yuseong stared at the message window that had appeared in his view asking whether to end the quest here or continue.

‘If this appeared, it means I’ve met the quest clear conditions but…’

Seeing a massive chunk of earth several kilometers in diameter falling from the sky, naturally the calamities would evacuate.

Yuseong had dropped the mountain not to kill the calamities but to cause confusion among them to buy time to escape.

Of course, he did hope that with some luck he might be able to catch Leviathan at least.

However, the window he was looking at now betrayed that expectation in a good way.

‘Why are there three windows?’

Did they trust their defensive abilities and gather to watch the mountain falling on their heads instead of fleeing, meeting a pitiful end?

Or were they weaker than expected and died after being caught in the aftershock while fleeing?

Either way was hard to believe.

But the message window floating before his eyes claimed all calamities were dead.

“Hmm, more importantly Alice. Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine as you can see. They just acted tough but weren’t much when I actually fought them?”

“R-really?”

‘Was I overestimating the calamities too much? Was it only particularly difficult up until escaping the virtual world and brain-in-a-vat situation, while the calamities weren’t that strong so it was easy from there on? I guess even for an S-rank quest, it did seem too difficult…’

It was a bit suspicious that the monsters who had driven a world to destruction weren’t actually that strong.

But Yuseong’s thoughts couldn’t go further than that, as his only experience was fighting briefly with Mad Magician who specialized in special abilities and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse whose individual combat power was low.

‘Should I be grateful to Mad Magician?’

Yuseong let out a hollow laugh as he looked down at the devastated ground.

Thanks to Mad Magician gathering all the calamities in one place, he was able to achieve the impossible feat of hunting all calamities.

How much time had passed?

Kim Ganghyeon’s weakened voice echoed in his head.

-…Is it really over now?

“…Seems so.”

Yuseong gathered Brain Eater’s weakening body and headed toward where the underground city was.

It was time to put a period on this long, long quest.

* * *

[You have cleared the quest ‘One Day Suddenly’.]

[Analyzing clear process, please wait a moment.]

[Fate Change Rate 384%, Otherworld Skill Usage 91.1%, Otherworld Artifact Usage 162.2%.]

[Final Evaluation SSS Rank]

[Amazing! User Han Yuseong has not only escaped the false world and hunted all calamities that drove the world to destruction while in the worst state with only a brain remaining, but also achieved the great feat of creating a foundation for humanity to continue! Rewards will be given!]

[Basic Clear Reward: 150,000,000 Karma, Calamity Fragment×1]

[Additional Condition Clear Reward: 800,000,000 Karma, Calamity Fragment×4]

[SSS Rank Clear Additional Reward: 600,000,000 Karma]

[Return to original world will begin shortly.]

Flash!

A dazzling light and brief floating sensation.

Opening his eyes, Yuseong first checked his smartphone.

Just under a month had passed.

He had worried about large time ratio differences while progressing through the quest, but fortunately the flow of time was similar between Earth and the world of [One Day Suddenly].

“Good work!”

“You too. Go get checked by Sophia.”

“But I’m fine?”

“Still, just go check just in case.”

“I’m really okay…”

She had fought alone against the calamities for a full ten minutes.

Though she looked fine on the outside, there might be internal damage.

After forcibly sending out the protesting Alice, Yuseong began checking the messages filling his screen.

[Currently 67,290,000 minus karma points exist.]

[If minus karma point status continues, penalties such as karma point withholding, forced quest assignment, skill and item confiscation will be imposed.]

[Please clear minus points as soon as possible.]

“Interest accrued in the meantime.”

The first thing to handle was the minus karma points.

After removing the flashing debt collection message, Yuseong let out a relieved sigh and checked the quest clear message next.

‘Considering the proportion of Eye of Truth and Puppet skill, the skill usage rate makes sense, but why is the artifact usage rate so high?’

The artifact usage rate that had never once exceeded 100% until now recorded an absurd 162.2%.

Fortunately, thanks to the fate change rate also recording a high value of 374%, he was ultimately able to achieve SSS rank by exceeding 100%, but if he had ended the quest after catching just Brain Eater and Mad Magician, a disaster of F rank or below might have occurred.

“Whew, this ungrateful bastard.”

Could Mad Magician actually have been Santa?

Yuseong berated himself for cursing at Mad Magician who had pulled out presents, no, calamities from his hat, then closed the message window and entered the karma shop.

[Current Karma: 1,482,710,000]

[Product List]

-Great Magician Hendrik’s Silk Hat(S-): 300,000,000

-Strength Increase(B): 1,000,000

-Agility Increase(B): 1,000,000

He had slightly hoped Brain Eater’s telekinesis might be there, but of course such a dream didn’t come true.

Instead, an unexpected item was registered.

“Great Magician Hendrik’s Silk Hat? Could it be that?”

Recalling the scene of Alice snatching away the hat Mad Magician was holding, Yuseong raised all his stats to their limits and purchased the silk hat.

<Great Magician Hendrik’s Silk Hat>

-Rank: S-

-Type: Hat

-The treasure of the great magician Hendrik who tried to save a dying world but ultimately failed. Has the mysterious ability to pull out any object the user desires without restrictions on space, size, or weight. Has suffered severe damage from consecutive uses and excessive output, and will lose its power and become an ordinary hat after a few uses.

-Can summon desired objects (2 uses remaining)

Content so shabby it was hard to believe it was an S- rank item.

It didn’t even have bonus stats attached and only had one skill with just 2 uses.

Essentially bought a 2-time use skill for 300 million karma points.

It wouldn’t be strange to be furious, but Yuseong’s expression was extremely solemn.

If he had just seen the description he would have raged about how such an item could cost 300 million karma points, but having seen Mad Magician use this silk hat, Yuseong could recognize this item’s true value.

‘This is an item that could be worth more than 300 million points depending on how it’s used.’

A silk hat that could pull out anything the user desires.

That power reached not only intelligent beings like Magical Girl of Death and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but even the giant monster Leviathan that was dozens of kilometers in size.

‘Could it perhaps even transcend dimensional limits?’

Yuseong had been imagining calling forth Hae Cheongyeong or the goddess for help when facing a critical crisis he absolutely couldn’t overcome with his own abilities, but he shook his head.

He could try testing it if there were spare uses, but he couldn’t stake his hopes on uncertain probabilities.

Even if successfully summoned, it would be problematic.

What could he do with a transcendent being when there was no way to send them back to their original world?

Though he might overcome the immediate crisis, an even bigger crisis would follow.

“For now I should assume it can only summon things that exist on Earth.”

Even just that was an absurd ability.

Nodding with satisfaction, Yuseong put the silk hat in his subspace, lightly patted both cheeks, and made a serious expression.

“Now let’s make it.”

Translator Note:
Oh thank god. The Mad Magician’s name is Hendrik. So this confirmed Mad Magician’s gender is a male.