Cipher held his breath, waiting for her response.
"I really hate people like you."
He was surprised - she was already before him, stretching out her hand toward him. He wondered if he had pushed it too far, but he really wanted to gather more information on the apocalypse, even just for a tiny chance.
"Like those self-righteous hypocrites from the Murim Alliance," she continued.
He felt her hand on his shoulder. It was weightless yet as heavy as a mountain at the same time.
Just as he wondered if she was about to kill him, he found himself hanging on her shoulder, flying at immense speed.
"Fine, I'll take you with me. I want you to see the difference in power between you so-called heroes and the monsters, and even more... me. Report this back to where you came from and tell them we don't need any heroes here," she said.
Cipher was surprised by her words, but thinking about it, it was indeed true - she didn't need any saving, at least not from people like them.
"You don't like the outsiders?" Cipher asked through the immense air pressure hitting against him.
"I hate weaklings," she said.
"Weren't you also a weakling once?" he asked.
She didn't respond.
It seemed he had hit a sour spot, so he decided to change the topic. He didn't believe she really disliked them that much, considering she created a fake apocalypse with monsters about their level, not letting them face the true monsters here.
"You seem to know quite a bit about us outsiders," he spoke, changing the subject.
She scoffed. "Of course I do. I've encountered millions of you."
Cipher froze for a moment.
That was not possible. Didn't the world reset every time they went in? Or could it be that there were other worlds with the apocalypse system that were also raiding apocalypse worlds like this one? But even if that's the case, it would have to have happened before the save point that their world sets the Murim World at.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" she asked.
"There is no need to overthink. I know about the existence of the time loop."
…
"You know that the world resets?" he asked.
"Of course I do. Every time the world ends, it loops back to the original point, which is today," she said.
"Does everyone know about this?" Cipher asked. He had never heard about this before.
"Of course not. You need an extremely strong soul to be able to handle the erosion of time," she said.
"Erosion of time?" he asked.
"That's right. Extremely strong people can remember the loops, but as time goes on, their souls are eroded and they eventually disappear," she said.
"Disappear?" he asked.
"Yeah, they cease to exist. They don't appear in the next cycle anymore," she said.
Cipher was stunned for a moment. To think that such a thing was happening inside the apocalypse worlds.
"Wait, but there are even weaker people in the world. How come they're still fine?" he asked.
"Since they're weak, they don't gaze into the abyss of time, and thus it doesn't gaze back into them," she said.
Cipher was in thought. He didn't completely understand it, but this was definitely not good. If there were powerful beings in these apocalypse worlds always looping, then wouldn't this be extremely dangerous for the heroes?
They might start capturing heroes and researching on them, looking for a way out of the apocalypse.
"Do you now understand why you shouldn't come here anymore?" she asked. "If not for me, those Alliance bastards would've already opened up your intestines."
Cipher remained silent.
She watched him, wondering if he was too shocked.
"Thank you for taking care of people from my world. You're really a good person," he said.
"What good person. I only do it because I find it disgusting for the strong to prey on the weak," she retorted.
"The reason doesn't matter. You're still doing a good thing," he said.
"You're quite naive," she said.
"Not naive. I just have a good judge of character," he said.
"Hmph. Suit yourself." She increased her speed.
Cipher had a serious expression. It was true - he wasn't naive. He was trying to gauge the character of this old lady. Although she pretended to be tough, she also seemed a little soft. He needed to take advantage of this to gain even more info.
What he had gained was already great information, but none of it was a direct solution to handling the final apocalypse.
…
Some time later, Cipher sat against a rock, watching the Heavenly Demon fight from afar.
She really was strong, he thought.
"Oh right, I leveled up to a major level," he thought, summoning his system.
According to the Cheater Class, he should be able to unlock a Genuine Cheat every major level up.
He opened the Cheat Shop.
This time, it was quite different from before. There were the usual cards - a Class Card and a Delete Card. And there were also the usual packs, this time a Mega Code Pack and a normal Mod Pack.
But that was not all of it this time. There were two more options.
There was a Voucher section, selling a "Skill Merchant" voucher worth a thousand points. And on the other side was a button with the description: Roll for a Cheat.
He didn't wait and instantly pressed the button.
[Congratulations! You have awakened a cheat]
[Cheat: Absolute Appraisal (Max Level)]
[Type: Passive]
[Description: View complete details of anything - skills, stats, items, people, monsters, and hidden information. No rank restrictions. Cannot be blocked or resisted.]
His eyes brightened. This was exactly what he needed.
His Mana Sense not only just detected mana, ignoring other stats, but it could also be overloaded by an extremely powerful presence, forcing him into a state of Overload which wouldn't be good in combat.
And this had actually come at the perfect time.
He looked at the cards he had received. He had already seen the Class Card before - it allowed him to add the Elemental edition to a skill, which allowed it to deal additional elemental damage.
As for the Delete Card, it was new. He decided to use Appraisal on it. The usual description from the system wasn't always all that comprehensive.
Name: Delete Card
Type: Code Card
Description: Delete a skill or edition.
Note: Removes editions first, THEN the skill. 1 Delete Card: Removes one edition. 2 Delete Cards: Removes skill with one edition entirely. Multiple editions: Need one Delete Card per edition + one for the skill. Example: 3-edition skill requires 4 Delete Cards (400 points) to fully remove.