Chapter 115: Secret of Survival

When Evan entered the cabin, a wide space came into view.

There were no separate rooms; only a wooden desk, a wooden chair, and a personal bed were visible.

And in a secluded corner stood a bookshelf packed with research journals that looked like records.

Other than that, there were only a few basic dishes and pieces of furniture needed for daily life.

It was a simple home, furnished only with the essentials.

Elisa explained to Evan.

“Somewhere in here, mana is leaking outside. There must be a passage connected to the outside world.”

As she spoke, she used Detect Eye.

Soon, her red pupils turned blue.

“Everyone, please help. If you find anything strange, let me know immediately.”

Elisa instructed everyone.

“Yes. Leave it to us!”

“Understood, Young Lady.”

Alan and Reynold replied to Elisa and began searching the house thoroughly.

Evan also slowly looked around, searching for anything suspicious.

An exit was important, but there was something here that Ellecell had left behind.

‘Fragment of Knowledge from the Final World.’

It could be the fragment of knowledge that the Archive sought.

And for Evan, it could become a crucial clue.

‘If I discover the knowledge fragment here, maybe I’ll be able to access it in the Archive.’

Remembering this, Evan looked around in search of the knowledge fragment.

‘The house where Ellecell once stayed…’

A plain cabin with nothing special.

Evan slowly approached the study.

Elisa was already taking the journals from the shelf and checking them.

She opened one wide, but finding nothing, she tilted her head.

Then, noticing Evan approach, she spoke up.

“Why are there only a bunch of blank books with nothing written in them? It’s suspicious, but I can’t figure out how to check them.”

“May I take a look?”

“Yes, go ahead. I’ll search some other places.”

Elisa handed the book to Evan and walked along, touching the wall.

Watching Elisa, Evan turned his attention to the book in his hand.

“Nothing at all.”

Not even a title was written on the cover.

Opening it wide, he found nothing but empty space inside.

Evan began to ponder.

‘There’s no way they’d just leave an empty book here.’

Of course, he could guess why the owner left it here.

They seemed certain no one could ever uncover the contents of this book—not even in death.

As if sure no one would ever find out their true name.

‘This place is inside his memory. And this house is a fragment of memory, too.’

Through a few deductions, Evan thought of a possibility.

He was someone who used the power of the soul.

‘Ordinary sight wouldn’t be enough to understand him.’

Evan opened the Eye of the Spirit and examined the book.

Suddenly, letters in the book began to shine, floating into the air.

The characters moved before Evan’s eyes, weaving together a narrative.

At that moment.

A prompt appeared.

-Would you like to view Ellecell’s Memory: Secret of Survival? (Y/N)

A message window appeared at the same time, letting Evan directly access Ellecell’s memory.

‘To think I’d be able to check Ellecell’s memory.’

This was a far greater result than expected.

Evan’s eyes gleamed as he checked Ellecell’s memory.

In that instant, Evan’s consciousness was pulled somewhere else.

Before his eyes, all the scenery seemed to stretch out stickily, and then, there stood an old man with black hair, alone.

Somehow, Evan knew who that old man was.

‘Ellecell.’

Before he transferred into someone else—a glimpse of his true self.

And then, Ellecell’s memories flowed into Evan’s mind.

His voice rang out.

—I struggled to survive in this rotten world. I never refused any experiment regarding immortality, and I spent my life scouring for ancient prophecies and relics. And at last, I found an answer in the artifact of an Ancient Empire.

The old man, Ellecell, gazed into a crystal about the size of his palm.

A beautiful crystal radiating a brilliant glow, engraved with the Red Dragon Emblem.

The crystal released strong energy waves around it.

Ellecell had never encountered such an artifact in his entire life.

“This is the great treasure left behind by the Pioneers.”

He stared at it in awe.

One of the few traces left by some Ancient Empire.

No, perhaps it was the only one in existence.

Regardless, his fate was changed by this one artifact.

Through its knowledge, he learned the secrets of the world.

And within, there was information about techniques beyond imagination.

The technology of the Ancient Empire that made anything possible.

Among their technologies, methods to prolong life and achieve immortality were laughably easy.

From that day, Ellecell collected himself and resolved to inherit the ancient will.

With the ancient technology left behind, he would change this unreasonable world.

His ultimate goal was—

“The revival of a new world.”

This crumbling old world was beyond saving.

The ways of the old world were wrong. The fate of the world was decided by a handful of beings.

Existences only superior to humans, the managers of the world, determined the destiny of all.

They adjusted the world on a whim, and because of that, countless humans died along with it.

They toyed with us as if we were flies, and in the end, their goal seemed to be destruction.

Thus, the old world ruined by them was beyond help.

Of course, even the subordinate beings bound to the old world were no exception.

Just as all life within the world was interconnected.

All living things followed the old world.

If the world broke, everyone broke; if it was destroyed, then naturally all perished.

We humans, born into such a world, were already broken.

After repeated destruction, our current lifespans had been cut into three.

If the world continued to decay like this, human lifespan would soon not even reach 500 years.

No, considering history, it may have been cut several more times than that.

So, I made my choice.

Just as humans in the past had done, I would cast them down and become the true master of the world.

-You have confirmed all of Ellecell’s Memory: Secret of Survival.
-The level of Eye of the Spirit has increased.

As soon as Evan finished reviewing Ellecell’s memory, he discovered a new Hidden Piece before his eyes.

All the books on the shelf became active, and runes floated into the air.

The runes gathered into one place and formed a gem radiating a violet light.

Evan had seen this before.

‘This is what I saw in the Archive, isn’t it?’

The knowledge of the Archive.

It seemed he had found the hidden fragment of knowledge stashed here.

‘If it’s related to Ellecell…

It would be the greatest prize of all.’

Evan immediately put the gem in his inventory.

Maybe only Evan could see it, since no one else reacted—they just kept searching the mansion thoroughly.

‘Now I can more or less guess what he is. And…

Evan organized the information he had seen through Ellecell’s memory.

‘From the human lifespan, to ancient knowledge, to the managers of the world…’

So much of it was absurd information.

But each piece was surely a vital clue to this world.

This world seemed to have a far more troublesome history than he had thought.

‘If all this is true, I can roughly predict how things will play out from here on.’

Ellecell’s objective.

What he dreamed of was the revival of a new world.

He wanted to become the master of the world and play god.

His aim to change a dying world was admirable, but the problem was that he too was a brutal murderer.

From Evan’s perspective, the world’s managers and Ellecell were just the same.

‘In the end, it just means I’ll have to stop them all. And now, I can see why his Chaos Value was so high.’

The power Ellecell used was the Pioneer’s Power.

With it, he maintained his life through transitions, and with the power of the soul, he could wield overwhelming force.

Evan could tell from the Red Dragon Emblem on the artifact Ellecell possessed.

Anything related to it sent the Chaos Value abnormally high.

And whenever such outrageous power was used, disaster was sure to follow.

‘At any rate, I gained a crucial hint from this memory.’

The origin of the mysterious Red Dragon Emblem was from some ancient empire.

It seemed to be from a time even older than Ellecell’s era.

He didn’t know the details yet, but Ellecell had that information.

There was no way to get it other than defeating him.

-The World Adjustment Phase has been downgraded to Danger 0%.
-The collapse of the world is underway.

At that moment, the message window appeared before Evan’s eyes, snapping him out of his thoughts.

First, it seemed best to get out of here.

KOOOOOOOOH!

A deafening roar was heard from outside.

“Y-Young Master!”

Alan pointed at the window.

Then, beyond the window, a massive gate began to open, covering the entire sky.

Evan was at a loss for words at the majestic sight.

But soon he turned to everyone and said,

“This is bad, we need to hurry!”

They were about to witness the end of the world.

Elisa, too, wiped cold sweat as she continued to search the mansion.

“Why can’t I see the exit?”

“N-No! There’s nothing here!”

Everyone hastened their search in the pressing situation.

‘There must be a passage leading outside here, right?’

Evan calmly assessed the situation and soon recalled something.

‘If it’s a passage invisible to the eye…’

Evan used the Eye of the Spirit.

Then, he saw a door on the secluded wall of the cabin.

“Everyone! This way!”

Evan shouted and rushed toward the door.

The moment Ellecell entered the mansion, he sensed something was wrong.

When he checked the status of the traps,

They had switched to emergency alert mode.

It activated when information about his name, Ellecell, was entered into the trap.

A safeguard set up in case of emergencies, and also an alarm for the worst-case scenario.

‘They know my name…

A strange light appeared in Ellecell’s eyes.

He had discovered a dangerous variable beyond expectation.

That name was something no one could ever know unless he revealed his true identity.

His name, cast away with the fall of the old world.

If anyone existed who could know it, this was no trivial matter.

Even among all the experiences and reference materials stored in his mind, this had never happened before.

For the first time, he faced a situation with no available information.

This variable would become an important reference.

Ellecell showed an intrigued expression.

“Whoever it is, I can’t just kill them. They’ll make an excellent research subject.”

He wanted to know how they found out his name.

And how they managed to reach this place—he wanted to know the method.

It was definitely knowledge unknown to the world.

…….

At Ellecell’s reaction, Alpherion was so flustered he couldn’t say a word.

He wanted to shout out and let them know Ellecell had arrived right now.

‘Damn it!’

Elresil, having entered the mansion, slowly climbed the stairs step by step.

If he reached the trap set on the second floor, their fate would end there.

The moment he reached the second floor, the tunnel of illusions was activated.

He walked through the endless corridor of the mansion.

In front of one door, Ellecell sneered as he grasped the doorknob.

Soon, he would meet the intruders beyond this door.

Click!

He turned the knob and opened the door.

But what he saw was a world of nothingness—completely different from what he expected.

The intruders had escaped, halting the trap’s operation.

“

A deep frown creased Ellecell’s brow.