[Day 329 — Outskirts of Busan, Korea]
The sea was no longer blue.Its waves shimmered with silver mana, thrumming faintly beneath the blood-colored sky. Mutated gulls circled above the ruins of the Busan port, their cries sharp and humanlike.
Evelyn Park stood at the edge of the collapsed pier, the fragment of the World Tree pulsing weakly in her hands.
[Quest Progress: 78% — Root Energy Detected Nearby]
[Warning: Multiple Entities Converging]
"Of course they are," she murmured.
She reached out, brushing her fingers against the waves. The mana beneath the surface resonated, spreading outward like ripples in glass. Roots—thin, translucent, alive—bloomed from the water, pointing toward the ruins inland.
The second seed was close.
She took a step forward. Then another.But before she could move farther, her interface glitched.
[SYSTEM ERROR…]
[Unauthorized process detected.]
[EVELYN PARK_ID: Rootbearer-01 — Access Denied]
[Erasing Public Data...]
The world ranking board flickered across the sky.Names appeared in golden script — Jinwoo Han, Lucia Greaves, Min Jae, Aurelio Kane.
But Evelyn's name—vanished.
Her power still burned inside her veins, but her presence in the system was gone.No rank. No record. No trace.
"...You're hiding me now, aren't you?" she whispered into the air."Why?"
The system didn't answer. Only the sound of the wind replied—soft, mournful, and cold.
[Meanwhile — Sanctum, Seoul District 11]
The newly fortified Sanctum thrived under Min Jae's leadership.Children attended makeshift classes inside abandoned schools. Blacksmiths forged weapons from scavenged metal. Fields of mana-touched crops grew under protective barriers.
And for the first time since the apocalypse began, people laughed again.
Min Jae stood before the gathered survivors—hundreds of them now, awakeners and civilians alike.
"From today," he said, voice steady, "Sanctum is no longer just a shelter. It's a guild — The Haven Guild.Our purpose: protect those who can't fight.Our strength: unity, not rank."
The crowd roared. The Haven Guild was born.
But behind the cheers, Min Jae's eyes searched the crowd for one face that wasn't there.
Evelyn… where did you go?
The last message she had sent was brief, encrypted within the system.
"Keep them safe, Min Jae.When the next root calls, I'll return."
He clenched his fist around the pendant she'd left behind — a fragment of her barrier crystal. It pulsed faintly with her mana.
[Day 331 — Sanctum Outer Camp]
It began as a rumor.A girl glowing faintly with light had appeared among the refugees.
At first, they thought she was another awakener — rare, but not impossible.But when she touched a dying child, the corpse gasped and began to breathe again.
By dawn, hundreds gathered around her.
She was young—barely twenty, with short silver hair and eyes that shimmered like morning frost. She wore no armor, no weapon. Only a tattered white coat and the faint radiance of something divine.
The system spoke in unison across every interface in Korea.
[New Title Granted: Saintess of Dawn]
[Name: Lee Ara]
[Class: Saintess (SSS)]
[Blessing Attribute: Purification & Restoration]
The ground trembled as thousands of system panels appeared in the sky. The world took notice.
By the second day, emissaries from the Order of Light arrived — self-proclaimed priests in gilded armor, forming a new "church" around her awakening. They bowed to her, calling her "the chosen one of the new era."
Lee Ara wept when she heard it."I'm no goddess," she said softly. "I just wanted to save them."
But the world had already decided what she was.
[Day 340 — Global System Broadcast]
The world ranking board appeared once again, glowing across the crimson sky.
WORLD TOP 10
Jinwoo Han — Flame Sovereign (Korea)
Lucia Greaves — Celestial Blade (UK)
Aurelio Kane — Beast Emperor (US)
Ymir Engel — Frost Saint (Germany)
Tsukiko Rei — Moon Archer (Japan)
Daren Holt — War Mechanist (Canada)
Aran Voss — Shadowbreaker (Norway)
Min Jae — Berserker of Haven (Korea)
Lee Ara — Saintess of Dawn (Korea)
Park Hyunsung — Archmage Commander (Korea)
At the bottom of the broadcast, a faint notice blinked.
[Data anomaly detected — 1 identity removed from global archives.]
People whispered."Who could rank higher than Jinwoo?""Why erase someone from the record?""Could it be the Goddess of Life?"
But the system said nothing.The void where Evelyn Park's name once glowed remained blank — as if the world itself refused to acknowledge her.
[Busan — Ruins of the Temple District]
Evelyn stood within the collapsed remains of an ancient temple, vines crawling over the cracked stone altar.In her palm, the second World Tree seed pulsed faintly.
[Quest Complete: Second Root Secured.]
[Warning: Hidden Event Triggered — Observer Protocol Activated.]
The air shimmered. A figure stepped out of the light — a man in military uniform, silver sigil blazing on his shoulder.
She froze.
Her father.
Park Hyunsung's eyes widened as he recognized her — not through blood, but through power.
"You…" he whispered. "You survived."
Evelyn didn't flinch. "I always did, didn't I?"
He stepped forward. "The government can protect you now. You shouldn't be out here."
She laughed — not cruelly, but hollow."The same government that abandoned half the country when the second wave hit?"
Silence.
"Tell me," she continued, her tone sharp, "did the system tell you to find me, or are you here out of guilt?"
His jaw tightened. "I'm here because you're interfering with national protocol."
That was all she needed to hear.
"I see. Then stay out of my way."
She turned and vanished into the roots, her aura dissolving into motes of green light before his eyes.For the first time since the apocalypse began, Park Hyunsung — Supreme Commander, Archmage, top ten awakener — felt powerless.
[Meanwhile — Sanctum]
Min Jae stood at the edge of the northern wall as the Saintess finished her prayer, light rippling through the crowd like dawn.
But something in the air felt off — a whisper, distant, familiar.
He turned toward the horizon, where faint green light shimmered far away.
He smiled faintly."...You're still out there."
[Epilogue — World Expansion]
News spread fast.Foreign awakeners crossed oceans to reach Korea, drawn by rumors of the "hidden power" erased from the system. The Saintess' church grew rapidly, clashing with new guilds who vied for control of the remaining seeds.
And in the shadows, Evelyn Park moved unseen — the Root bearer, the erased ranker, the invisible goddess whose power the system itself tried to bury.
She was no longer just a survivor.
She was becoming something else entirely —a being the world wasn't ready to recognize.A secret that could either save humanity…or end it.