Chapter 15: The Breaking Point
The light swallowed him whole.
When Kelvin opened his eyes, he was standing in the next chamber — Level Six: Special Dungeon.
Everything was silent, like the world had been muted.
Then the noise came.
A deep, rumbling thunder that shook the walls.
He looked around — dark gray cliffs rising in every direction, carved by wind and time. The floor was covered in strange sand that reflected the blue skies when he moved. Above him, lightning danced across the sky.
The System flickered into view.
[LEVEL SIX: LIGHTNING ECHO FIELD]
Objective: Eliminate the Guardian of Sound.
Special Condition: Every noise you make becomes your enemy.
Kelvin smirked under his hood. "Cute."
He took one step forward. The sand crunched under his boot — and from that sound, Lightning struck.
Kelvin was able to dodge. But the lightning that struck the ground was reflected by the sand and was directed back to him.
He tilted his head. "This is a very tricky level.... "Every sound I make triggers lightning, and the sand reflects it back."
The echo charged. And the cloud storm kept on raging as Kelvin dodged
"The last time I came here with my comrades was hell.... The shouting they made was enough to fry them alive."."
Kelvin raised his hands, spinning his body sideways to block the strike. The bolts collided the ground — energy crackled, sparks redirect towards Kelvin. Kelvin vanished and reappeared mid-air, moving faster than the eye could follow. But the thunder strike increased like a storm with thousand of lightning everywhere.
Each hit echoed, and with every echo, more lightning was generated.
" In my previous life, people — Even myself labels this place as an undefeatable dungeon. Until an A rank genius figured it out."
Kelvin muttered.As he closed his eyes — and Opened his thoughts.
[ Mind Action + Perception activated. ]
His mind was now connected to his surrounding and he covered his body with the sand.
"It's all about patients..... Some times the answer you are looking for is just staring at you; You just have to clear your head and think straight."
The lighting struck where he stood but was instantly deflected all around without laying a scratch on him.
It kept on throwing bolt left and right up and down until the intense energy evaporated the clouds causing the sky to be clear again.
Bringing silence once again.
The System pinged.
[Level Cleared: 6]
[Reward: +800💎 2000🌕
Kelvin stretched his neck, cracking it once. "Not bad for my first time ."
The light pulsed again, tearing the silence into red flame, before entering Level 7
He walked through the new gate as the air not heated up.
Level Seven special dungeon – The Blood Horizon
The sky was burning red this time. The air was hot enough to sting.
All around him lay the skeletons of ancient beasts — huge, half-buried bones, covered in black ash. Rivers of lava ran between them, glowing like veins of a dying planet.
[LEVEL SEVEN: BLOOD HORIZON]
Objective: Survive the hunt.
Condition: The predators adapt to your every move.
Kelvin took a deep breath. "Adapt, huh? That's my middle name."
The moment he spoke, the ground trembled.
From the molten rivers, three creatures rose — molten beasts with sharp bone masks and lava veins glowing under their skins. Their claws dripped fire. Their roars shook the canyon.
Kelvin didn't wait. He sprinted forward, sliding under the first beast's claws, punching upward into its gut. Lava splashed, burning the ground.
The second beast jumped at him — he twisted mid-air, grabbing its jaw and slamming it into the first one. The third came from behind — he ducked, spun, and kicked it square in the face, breaking its skull open.
But as soon as they hit the ground, the beasts began to shift. Their shapes melted into new forms — longer arms, sharper tails, thicker armor.
Kelvin laughed. "Oh, you really do adapt. I guess we're cousins then."
He dashed in again, swapping speed for strength using his stat swap. His punches landed like explosions, shaking the whole canyon. But the creatures kept coming — stronger each time.
They bit into his arm, their fire eating through his sleeve. He grunted, slammed his head into one's snout, and ripped its jaw apart with both hands. Blood and fire splattered his hood.
The last one jumped high, its tail spinning like a saw. Kelvin jumped higher — flipped mid-air — and crashed his boot into its skull, pushing it straight into the lava river.
It screamed as it burned.
He landed, chest heaving, body covered in cuts. The system chimed.
[Level Cleared: 7]
[Reward: +900💎2500🌕 | New Ability: Flame Resistance ☆☆]
Kelvin looked at his burned arm and flexed it. It healed slower than usual.
"Alright," he muttered, grinning. "Next."
He walked into the next gate, the air still glowing red behind him.
Level Eight Special Dungeon– The Memory Vault
Everything turned blue. Cold. Still.
The ground was made of glass. Beneath it, he could see memories — his own, flickering like fragments of light. His first death. His clone fight. The time he swore to break the System.
[LEVEL EIGHT: MEMORY VAULT]
Objective: Defeat the Guardian of Self.
Condition: The more you remember, the weaker you become.
Kelvin's hand twitched. "You're really trying to mess with me now, huh?"
The world shifted — and another version of him appeared again. But this one wasn't like before.
This one smiled. Genuinely. Peacefully.
"You've already done enough," it said. "You can stop."
Kelvin's eyes hardened. "Not happening."
They clashed.
The peaceful Kelvin fought with calm precision, countering every move perfectly. Every punch Kelvin threw was caught, redirected. Every kick blocked.
The real Kelvin was getting slower — his mind was starting to remember. His first kill. The faces he couldn't save. The screams from the first timeline.
He dropped to one knee, gasping.
His other self walked up to him slowly. "You think you're free because you broke the rules," it said softly. "But you're just afraid to see you have already lost."
Kelvin gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand. His heartbeat thundered in his chest.
[(50%) All Stat → Will power]
He whispered, "Fear's what keeps me alive."
Then he head-butted his other self so hard the glass ground cracked.
Blood ran down both their faces.
Kelvin grabbed his clone by the collar and slammed him again, over and over, shouting between each hit.
"I! — Don't! — Need! — Peace!"
" I Want Problems!!!!"
"Enough problems to make even my enemies SUFFER."
"Enough problems to break my enemies just like how they broke me!!!."
One last punch — the clone with fear in it's face shattered into the light.
The floor broke open. A blue pulse rose around him.
[Level Cleared: 8]
[Reward: +3000 🌕 1000💎
Kelvin stood in the flickering glow, breathing heavily.
He touched his forehead, eyes closed for a second. Then smirked.
"Thanks for the reminder. I almost forgot I was broken from the start."
He stood, giving a murderous smile, and stepped into the light once more.
Meanwhile, on Earth.
The world wasn't calm anymore.
In the government data center beneath a research facility, alarms flashed red across a hundred monitors. Dozens of analysts were shouting over one another.
"Who posted it?!" one officer yelled. "Where did the data come from?!"
The head of the room — Governor Maric — slammed a hand on the table. "Talk to me!"
A nervous tech replied, "Sir, an anonymous account uploaded a full breakdown of dungeon weaknesses — all levels up to fifty— along with predictions of future events. It includes something called 'The Catalytic Apocalypse.'"
Maric frowned. "Apocalypse?"
"Yes, sir. It says the event will wipe out fifty percent of the population. But that's not all." The tech officer swallowed. "Everything he wrote… it matches classified dungeon intel. Word for word. Even his future predictions were accurate."
The room went silent.
Another general officer asked, "Who is he?"
The tech shook his head. "We don't know, sir. He only used one name — 'The hooded angel.' The post was posted in only one day. He hasn't posted in two weeks. Every trace of his signal is gone."
The governor's voice dropped low. "You're telling me someone out there knows how to break the dungeons… and what's coming next… and you can't find him?"
"Yes, sir."
He turned toward the security chief. "Then find someone who can."
The chief nodded quickly. "Should I bring in the A-class agents?"
"No," Maric snapped. "Bring me a tracker. An S-Rank one. The best We've got."
The room went silent again. The order echoed through the underground hall.