"Players from Zero Earth, listen to me carefully! I'll give you a quest."
<Players from Zero Earth, listen to me carefully! I'll give you a quest.>
Sungwoo made a cynical smile while saying so.
"By all means…"
<By all means…"
Sungwoo was ready to convey his feelings about the sudden disaster to them.
"Try to survive!"
<Try to survive!>
After he said that, he got aboard the Bone Dragon and started increasing the altitude.
'This is all I can do for them.'
He was thinking of going back to Earth. The reality was that Sungwoo alone could not conquer Zero Earth.
They were the ones who developed the system to which 'nano technology', the origin of Sungwoo's power, was applied, so it was a matter of time that they would be overpowered.
'Nonetheless, I received the gift well.'
After arriving at the gate, Sungwoo turned his head one last time.
'10 seconds.'
Time was almost up.
'8 seconds.'
Sunwoo looked down at Zero Earth.
'6 seconds.'
He was determined to watch the final scenes of the city center's collapse with his own eyes.
'2 seconds.'
Finally, he mentioned zero.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The hydrogen bombs exploded. Three simultaneous explosions and the ensuing wave of red flames began to quickly devour the city center. The buildings collapsed, and the ground was overturned and pushed away like the sea waves. Mushroom clouds rose from the city center and swelled double and triple, and ring-shaped clouds were created one after another around them.
It was annihilation. When he looked down from the sky, Sungwoo could notice vividly how destructive the bombs were.
Sungwoo stepped back before he knew it.
Kugugugugugugugugu-
The downtown in Zero Earth disappeared in an instant.
Then the lights of the nearby places near the city center disappeared because of electromagnetic pulses, EMP. That wasn't all.
A large amount of radioactivity fell heavily in the area, creating an environment in which humans could not survive.
Sungwoo turned his head before he was caught up in the storm. He didn't witness the last moment of the explosions, but it was certain that he dealt a devastating blow to them.
<You are a devil-like bastard!>
The helper shouted at Sungwoo at the top of her voice. <How could you take such a heinous action against us?>
"Well, I didn't know I could do this."
<You have no right to blame anyone!>
"What I want to do is not criticize somebody."
<Then…>
"I wish I had wiped out everything there and left no one to blame or criticize from now on. And I have had some success a little while ago."
<...>
"I hope I have a chance to wrap it up completely someday."
Having said that, he went into the wormhole.
He heard that he could return to 32nd Earth simply by throwing himself into the wormhole because of the coordinates embedded in the nanorobots inside his body.
So he passed through the wormhole in an instant and came out of the vertical tunnel.
The Bone Dragon thrust his head towards the light and stretched his front paws to touch the ground.
"Sungwoo!"
His allies already gathered around the vertical tunnel when he got there.
"How did it go?"
Their expressions were full of worry, but as soon as Sungwoo appeared, they stopped worrying and began to feel reassured.
"Yes, it's almost done."
The Bone Dragon leaned over and lowered his head, and Sungwoo got off.
He was not done yet until he destroyed the wormhole completely.
"Do you have the bombs ready?"
It was time to sever the link with Zero Earth.
"Of course. You can use the bombs right away."
Three hydrogen bombs were prepared on a wide cart in the direction Kyungsoo was pointing.
"Just in case, I prepared two more bombs, and everybody was evacuated to the outside."
Sungwoo deactivated the Bone Dragon, nodding at Kyungsoo.
He also had to hide inside the firewall because he was not sure what would happen if he threw the hydrogen bombs into it.
"Put them in right now. They might counterattack!"
When Kyungsoo motioned at Sungwoo's words, two men came running.
Then they operated the button to activate the hydrogen bombs.
The priming power started working.
Soon after the uranium bomb inside detonates, the tritium contained therein will trigger a nuclear fusion reaction, causing a huge explosion.
As already seen in Zero Earth, it would be enough to blow up the whole place here.
"Throw them!"
With only 10 seconds left, they pushed the bombs into the wormhole. And they quickly ran into the firewall.
Thud-
The firewall, which was dozens of centimeters thick, was closed.
"..."
Everyone held their breath, looking at the vertical tunnel.
At that moment the vertical tunnel started pouring out cipher energy. It was refreshing to watch as if to throw up everything contained in it.
The energy that poured out like that hit the ceiling, pierced everything it touched, and spewed out into the sky.
"The building may collapse! Prepare to evacuate!"
Fortunately, the building was stronger than expected. They prepared to use their skills in case of emergency while watching the wormhole collapse.
How long has it been going on?
The vertical passage, which was slowly turning, came to a halt at last.
"..."
The light disappeared, and no energy was felt in the empty hole.
That's how the wormhole collapsed.
"..."
The game was all over finally.
Sungwoo told Walter what happened in Zero Earth when three hydrogen bombs simultaneously exploded in one place. Then he asked what would happen to Zero Earth in the future.
Walter said that a chain of fusion reactions could have destroyed the Earth by creating a small miniature sun.
"But the odds of that happening are slim," Sungwoo replied.
According to Walter, Zero Earth was inevitably very slow in responding because it strongly regulated particle control using nanorobots, namely, manipulation of reality, but they would be trying to operate the wormhole after removing all the radioactive material around the Bermuda Triangle by dispatching nanorobots over the next several years.
"You mean they can recover it after all?" Sungwoo asked.
Then he stood up, so did Junghoon next to him.
"Perhaps they are most likely to do so."
Since Walter was a prisoner of war, he reacted sensitively to Sungwoo's words and deeds and flinched whenever he said something.
"Can you continue to maintain the system?"
"Well, we can do it."
They could maintain the game system, but since the wormhole had collapsed, they could operate it independently without any outside interference.
"But the lifespan of a nanorobot is 7 to 8 years. Without replacement of the nanorobots, the system will eventually become useless."
It meant that the power of the system, namely, nanorobots, could be used in the next six years or so.
"I think we can use it for system recovery, right?" Junghoon said.
Sungwoo nodded at that. Restoring a broken world might take decades or hundreds of years. But with a game system like this, the recovery process would be much smoother.
"Is it possible for you to manipulate the system to produce large quantities of items or raise skills?" Sungwoo asked.
Walter said, "I'm sorry, but that's impossible. It's out of our control. Just because we are GMs, we can't modify the system at will. It can be done only by 'Alpha Sentinel' or our head office."
What he meant was that they could not use the system itself, but they could still use its game features. That was fortunate for Sungwoo.
"Lock him back!"
"Come on, wait a minute…"
The guards standing in front of the door came up and dragged Walter out.
Walter was very cooperative, but he had no intention of forgiving him for that.
Sungwoo had a brief discussion with Junghoon about their 'Earth Restoration Plan'.
'It's all over now.'
He was not sure if Zero Earth was destroyed or not, and those still living there might try to harm someone again.
But the game met the best ending.
'And it starts again.'
The game is over, and reality has begun.
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