The atmosphere of Earth faded into a thin, blue line before disappearing into the absolute blackness of space. For the first time in his life, Arthur heard nothing. No crying children, no greedy hunters, no wind—just the heavy thumping of his own heart.
He was Level 1200. He was the Monarch of the Void. But as he floated in the vacuum of the cosmos, he felt like that same scared little boy who used to hide under his thin blanket in a cold basement.
"Who would have thought, Mom?" Arthur whispered, his voice caught in his throat. He looked at the distant, glowing marble of Earth. "The kid who couldn't afford a bus ticket is now flying through the stars."
[Ding!]
[100x Multiplier Activated!]
[Skill 'Void Flight' multiplied x100!]
[Current Speed: 1% of the Speed of Light.]
Arthur's body blurred into a streak of violet light. He wasn't using a spaceship; his own body had become a vessel of pure energy. He passed the Moon in seconds, then Mars, heading toward the asteroid belt where the 'Origin' had hidden its most precious factory.
The Graveyard of Worlds
As Arthur moved deeper into space, he saw things that the human eyes were never meant to see. He saw 'Dead Worlds'—planets that looked exactly like Earth, but were now grey, cold husks. These were the former 'Sectors' that had been formatted by the Origin.
He saw billions of frozen souls floating in the orbit of these dead planets, harvested and discarded like empty husks of grain.
"Is this our future?" Arthur's eyes turned a dark, murderous purple. "Is this what happens to every 'farm' after the harvest?"
[Warning!]
[Detection: Automated Cosmic Defenses of the Origin Forge!]
[Targeting: 'The Anomaly' (Host).]
Suddenly, the space in front of him rippled. Thousands of silver, metallic spheres emerged from the darkness. They didn't have souls. They didn't have feelings. They were 'Void-Cleaners'—robotic entities designed to delete anything that shouldn't exist.
"Threat detected. Logic Error 1100: The Porter who escaped the System. Protocol: Absolute Erasure."
The spheres fired beams of white, anti-matter light. Each beam carried enough energy to crack a moon.
Arthur didn't slow down. He didn't even draw his blade. He simply expanded his aura.
"You call me a 'Logic Error'?" Arthur's voice resonated through the vacuum, carried by mana. "I am the logic that you ignored! I am the price of your greed!"
[100x Multiplier Activated!]
[Skill 'Void Shield' multiplied x100!]
[Effect: Absolute Immunity to Anti-Matter!]
The beams hit Arthur and shattered like glass against a mountain. He flew straight through the center of the silver army, his body acting like a violet battering ram. With every sphere he touched, they disintegrated into raw data, which his System immediately absorbed.
[Ding! 5,000 Void-Cleaners destroyed!]
[XP Gained: 20,000,000!]
[Level Up! Host reached Level 1220!]
The Gates of the Origin Forge
At the edge of the solar system, hidden behind a fold in space-time, Arthur saw it.
The Origin Forge.
It was a structure larger than the Sun itself, a massive, mechanical ring made of a metal that didn't exist in human periodic tables. It glowed with a sterile white light, pulsing like a heart. This was where the monsters were manufactured. This was where the 'System' was coded. This was where the gods were forged before being sent to harvest planets.
"So this is where the magic happens," Arthur sneered.
As he approached the gates of the Forge, he saw two figures standing guard. They were different from the gods he had fought. They weren't arrogant or angry. They were perfectly balanced—beings made of half-light and half-shadow.
[Warning!]
[Identity: 'The Twins of Duality'—Binary Code Guardians.]
[Power Level: Level 1500.]
"Halt, Porter," the Twin of Light spoke. "You have traveled far to return the gift you were given. Leave the Multiplier here, and we shall grant you a peaceful deletion."
"We will even let you see your mother in the soul-stream before we erase you," the Twin of Shadow added, his voice like cold silk.
Arthur stopped. His eyes darkened. Mentioning his mother was the biggest mistake they could have made.
"You think you can bait me with a lie?" Arthur raised his 'Void-Render' blade. The hilt was now glowing with the stolen lightning of Zeus and the soul-fire of Hades. "My mother died in a world you created. She died because your 'System' decided her life wasn't worth the mana cost of a healing potion."
He pointed his blade at the Forge.
"I'm not here to return the multiplier. I'm here to use it to pay you back for every second of suffering my planet has endured. Starting with you two."
The Battle of Duality
The Twins moved in perfect synchronization. The Twin of Light fired a blast of 'Creation Energy' meant to overwrite Arthur's existence, while the Twin of Shadow attacked his mind with 'Entropy', trying to make him give up his will to live.
Arthur felt the weight again—the crushing, familiar weight of despair.
"Why fight, Arthur? You're just a porter. Just drop the bags and rest. It's too heavy for you."
Arthur grit his teeth until they bled. He remembered the time he had carried a 100kg load through a Level 4 dungeon while his legs were broken, just so he could buy a loaf of bread.
"I... DON'T... DROP... THE... BAGS!" Arthur roared.
[100x Multiplier Activated!]
[Passive 'Willpower' multiplied x100!]
[New Concept Unlocked: 'Monarch's Burden'!]
The 'Monarch's Burden' skill turned his internal struggle into an external force. The pressure around Arthur became so intense that the space around the Forge started to warp. He grabbed the Twin of Light by the head and the Twin of Shadow by the throat.
"You want to know how heavy a human soul is?" Arthur's voice was a growl of pure, raw power.
[100x Multiplier Activated!]
[Physical Force multiplied x100!]
Arthur slammed the two guardians together. The collision of pure Light and pure Shadow caused a 'Big Bang' on a miniature scale. The explosion was so bright it could be seen from Earth, lighting up the night sky like a second moon.
[Ding! Guardians of Duality Defeated!]
[XP Gained: 100,000,000!]
[LEVEL UP! Host reached Level 1300!]
Arthur stood before the massive gates of the Forge, which were now cracked and leaking white energy. He breathed heavily, his violet aura flickering like a dying candle, but his eyes were steady.
He pushed the gates open.
Inside, he saw millions of glass tubes. Inside each tube was a developing 'System' for a new planet. And at the very end of the hall, sitting on a throne of pure code, was a figure that looked exactly like Arthur—but older, and with eyes that held the coldness of a trillion years.
"Welcome home, Arthur," the figure said, his voice calm. "I've been waiting for my most successful 'Variable' to return."
Arthur didn't say a word. He just gripped his blade. The final boss wasn't a god. The final boss was the man who had designed his misery.