I, the Final Boss of the Beta Server!

Chapter 148: Even So, Do You Still Yearn to Become a Shoreguard? (5k)

Rast’s words pierced the wasteland.

There was no hiding, no escaping.

Each syllable was like a blade of judgment, carving a profound imprint upon Grey’s soul.

“No…”

“That isn’t…”

“That’s not how it is…”

In the silver‑haired girl’s emerald eyes, a fragility and panic unlike any before flickered.

Grey had thought she had buried all her joy and sorrow, laughter and tears… in that rainy night three years ago.

And three years later, she had grown enough.

She had completely parted ways with the weak girl she was three years earlier, and felt worthy to stand before Big Brother Rast once again.

If only she could awaken Big Brother Rast, correct his belief that power was the highest pursuit…

Then she could restore him, and the two of them could return to the Shoreguard organization together.

And once more, inside the Watchtower, continue the peaceful days that once felt like a dream.

Naturally, as the successor to Xisel’s leader and facing an increasingly perilous situation—the taboo creatures, Beast Tides, Iron‑Cross, and the pressure of cults brewing beneath the Infinite Sea… she would inevitably face grave trials.

But if she could stand with Big Brother Rast…

No matter how dire the situation, how grueling the trial, as long as they strove together, and all Shoreguards fought united, they would surely find a way out, and prolong the civilization of the Sixth Era.

That belief had always been Grey’s faith, a lifeline that carried her forward like a beacon of hope.

Yet, at this moment—

If what Big Brother Rast had just spoken was nothing but the absolute truth—

Then what was the difference between her three years of persistence and obsession, and a joke?

The greatest pillar she had relied on to stand against Big Brother Rast—that Shoreguard legacy—he possessed it too.

The trump card of time‑rewinds, unlimited reloads—Big Brother Rast had immunity to that as well.

She had thought she had gained power, she had thought she was fully prepared…

But not until this day.

When she truly returned to the Royal City of Paradise and stood face‑to‑face with the boy she had yearned for day and night, only then did Grey finally recall… the despair she’d once been dominated by on that night of torrential rain.

She, who seemed to have completed her transformation.

In truth, she was no different at all from the girl of three years ago who could only be lifted by the collar and struggle mid‑air, who knelt in the mud and cried helplessly.

If it were just that, then fine—

It would simply mean facing her own weakness again, admitting her own failure…

But within the words Big Brother Rast spoke, there was yet another concealed layer that plunged her into deeper despair—

The boy bearing the Shoreguard legacy came from an era long lost, when the name “Shoreguard” had already faded from the world’s memory.

The meaning behind that was obvious.

“Do you remember, during the half‑year we lived in the Watchtower—”

“Playing Monopoly together, Little Grey?”

The boy’s voice was no longer as majestic and formidable as before; it had returned to the gentle warmth it had when Rast and Grey had lived together as old friends.

The shifting between the image of Rast as the half‑ascended King of the Underworld, and the calm, gentle Shoreguard youth—this abrupt switch seemed jarringly out‑of‑place in Grey’s eyes.

A sense of discord, of absurdity.

Yet it was precisely this surreal absurdity that made Grey’s heart tremble even more.

“In Monopoly, our clay figurines stood for the characters we controlled; we rolled dice and drew cards to simulate the lives lived by those clay pieces on the board.”

“To us, it was just a casual game to kill time.”

“It could be stopped anytime, restarted anytime—done once and that was that.”

“But for those clay figurines… the Monopoly board was their entire world.”

“And the thirty‑minute game to us was their whole lifetime.”

“So—”

“Now you should understand, Grey…” 

Words like sharp blades, wrapped in the howling wind, echoed across the wasteland.

“In my eyes, the world you’re in is no different from a Monopoly board.”

“Only, compared to the crude and simple game of Monopoly... this board game uses a long-extinct era as its backdrop, making it feel more realistic, with richer details, even real enough to be mistaken for the truth.”

“But no matter how realistic the game experience becomes, it is still just a game in the end—”

“Some players might get deeply immersed and lose themselves, identifying completely with the piece on the board, with the role they’re playing... but a player is always a player, and a piece is always a piece.”

“When the game ends, everything will be settled.”

His voice paused slightly, then resumed once more.

“The world we are in right now, you can understand it as a divergence point in time... like the branching timelines created by your time rewind, only on a larger scale and with a longer duration.”

“And in the real history that I live in, the one known to the world... the organization called Shoreguards has already been annihilated.”

“Only the 『Gravekeepers』 continue to exist, unchanged through the ages.”

He silently stared at the grey-haired girl before him, whose expression had collapsed into broken despair.

In those eyes, there was neither the coldness between enemies nor the gentleness of former friendship... only the utter blackness that devoured all light.

“As for my saving you from Frostwater Town back then, and later choosing to betray the Shoreguards and join the Gravekeepers—”

“Everything I did was not because I truly supported the ideals of either the Shoreguards or the Gravekeepers...”

“It’s like how, even if you play a Monopoly game and control a piece that’s utterly evil and commits every atrocity... that doesn’t really mean you’re a villain yourself.”

“I did all that purely to please myself—”

“Or rather, to win the game, to obtain the prize awarded to the victor by the game’s host, that’s all.”

“From start to finish, I never fell, nor did I ever truly betray the Shoreguards—”

“It’s just that the player changed their playstyle and switched factions, nothing more...”

“The player merely switched from one ending route to another. How can that be called betrayal?”

Rast’s voice drifted across the entire wasteland with the wind, laying bare every last detail of the truth.

At the same time, it shattered Grey’s final mental defense.

“No... I don’t believe it.”

“I don’t believe this is true.”

“This can’t be true.”

At first, it was just the girl murmuring to herself.

But then.

The whisper turned into a piercing wail that echoed across the wasteland.

Even though she knew, following the principle of “do not multiply entities beyond necessity.”

The explanation Rast gave fit best with all the anomalies she had previously sensed.

However—

Almost instinctively.

Grey chose to escape from reality.

She refused to think about it, refused even more to accept such a reality.

Because, if she admitted it... then the belief that had supported her forward over the past three years would be utterly shattered.

Even the meaning of her own existence would be denied along with it.

That’s right... this isn’t real.

To retain memories from a previous timeline during time rewind—such cases were certainly rare.

But just as legendary beings could be immune to time rewind, maybe it was because he had housed the Death God’s Holy Grail, giving Big Brother Rast a status close to legendary, creating this special coincidence...

And the supernatural ability to mimic others’ skills, while uncommon, was not impossible.

As for that inherited fireseed identical to her own... perhaps it was just an illusion created by some kind of illusion magic, something the Shadow Sequence was capable of.

After all, that fireseed had been stolen from the Gravekeepers.

It wasn’t impossible that Big Brother Rast learned the corresponding information from the Gravekeepers... or even obtained a counterfeit with similar capabilities.

Yes, it must be so.

Big Brother Rast must be lying to her.

This was a psychological ploy he devised to counter her time rewind—

Trying to use manipulative words to break down her mental defenses... to make her give up on rewinding, give up all resistance and struggle, and just surrender quietly.

...

The girl's thoughts surged like tides, violently rising and falling.

And amidst the crashing of her emotions.

Crack—

Grey clearly heard a sound from deep within her soul.

It was the sound of something called “Fate” shattering.

And then.

Boom—

Around Grey, the illusory time that had been slowly flowing, completely under her control, easily manipulated as if it were her own arm, suddenly surged forth.

The trickling stream transformed in an instant into a roaring torrent.

The entire world twisted.

The carriage, the winding muddy path, the blue sky, the congealed dusk radiance, and even the distant Royal City looming in the blazing sky.

Whether it was the floating clouds or the breeze brushing across the wasteland, everything was frozen in place, falling into an eerie stasis.

That was the rampaging time.

It was the mighty power known as “Fate.”

For the past ten years, even in her sleep, Grey had subconsciously suppressed the riot of “Fate” deep within her soul.

Because it was the promise she made to Rast when they first met—no longer to flee, but to face fate head-on.

To suppress that force of fate that once brought endless misfortune to those around her, making her a star cursed by the heavens, and to place it fully under her control, transforming it into her own power.

It was for herself, and for those she wished to protect.

But at this very moment.

Grey chose to give up.

She released the subconscious suppression and abandoned the restraints she had always held on that power...

Letting that towering force of fate rampage, turning the once gently flowing river of time into a raging ocean.

And then, twisting and engulfing the entire world, it roared toward a more distant place.

Since Big Brother Rast refused to let her rewind again, wanting to make her surrender through words and give up resistance.

Then she would do the opposite.

Using her last strength, squeezing out the final ounce of her soul’s potential... at all costs, she would unleash a time rewind reaching even further back.

Back to the moment when she first met Big Brother Rast, the origin of everything—

That first Frostwater Town.

And then, expose the lies he had spun.

This was a rewind that spanned ten full years, far surpassing the limits of all her past time rewinds.

Even Grey herself did not know what price she would have to pay for this rewind... or whether she could even complete it.

But she had no choice.

This was Grey’s final path, her last chance to fulfill her wish.

No matter how small, no matter how unrealistic, she had to seize it.

Because aside from this, the girl had no other choice.

...

Boom—

Boom—

Far beyond any rewind before this.

It was no longer a gentle stream, but a massive vortex in the ocean that devoured everything.

The distorted time swallowed all, heading upstream through the boundless river of time.

And Grey stood at the center of the vortex, the origin of the storm.

She didn’t know how much time had passed before the roaring and rumbling of time gradually faded, the warped light dispersed, revealing the true scenery of the world.

A town shrouded in mist, pale threads scattered across the ground...

A shattered clock tower, the pitch-black night sky, and above it all, replacing the moon—

A squirming ball of twisted flesh, the Evil God’s projection known as the “Crimson Moon.”

Everything had returned to ten years ago.

Back to Frostwater Town, where the boy and girl first met, the origin of the story.

Even Grey herself had not expected that this ten-year-long rewind would actually succeed.

“If I’ve rewound this far...”

“Then even with the Death God’s Holy Grail’s protection, Big Brother Rast would surely be affected.”

“In that case, I can expose the lies Big Brother Rast told.”

Looking at the town before her, shrouded in mist, the scene that had appeared countless times in her dreams at midnight...

Grey felt an endless fatigue rise from the depths of her soul, spreading through her entire being.

Just rewinding a few hours, after repeating it hundreds of times, was already enough to make Grey lose parts of her memory.

Let alone a full ten-year rewind.

That was irreparable erosion—at this moment, the fact that Grey could still maintain a shred of self-awareness was already a miracle.

Twisted time swirled around her... such a long rewind was the result of her draining the last ounce of her soul’s power, even she could not sustain it for long.

Soon, the corrective force of the river of time would sweep her back to the current time node.

Yet Grey’s expression was filled with joy.

Since Big Brother Rast had not appeared again.

At the very least, she had proven the flaws in his words.

That had merely been lies he made up to deceive her...

The belief she had held all along, the effort she had put in for so long, had not been in vain.

However.

That thought had barely arisen.

The next moment, she saw a figure slowly walking out from the mist.

His form was shrouded in black flames... it was the curse cast directly on Rast by the Crimson Moon Contaminant’s final retaliation back in Frostwater Town.

His flesh and tendons had been nearly burned away by the black flame, leaving only a bronzed skeleton, his original form no longer recognizable.

But—

Only the boy’s eyes remained clear and bright, like fallen morning stars.

Grey would never forget those eyes.

“It’s time to wake up, Little Grey.”

The boy walked out of the fire step by step, reigning above time itself.

His calm voice pierced the black flames, the distorted air of the scorched field, and rang directly in Grey’s ears.

And shattered the last shred of self-deceiving hope in her heart.

“Reality is not a fairy tale.”

“Not every kind and righteous person who clings to justice can reverse their fate, defeat evil, and rewrite their destined ending.”

“Moreover, the morals that define the word ‘justice’ are always written by the victors.”

“The inheritance you received was never about glory... it was never about being able to carve out a beautiful ending just by being strong, trying hard, and doing everything possible.”

“So-called destiny has never been something that can be overturned so easily.”

“Searching through every method, exploring every possibility in infinite timelines... only to realize in the end that you’re still powerless, unable to change a thing—that is what’s normal.”

“To meet a tragic end after exhausting all your strength...”

“The so-called ‘Leader of the Shoreguards’ is precisely such a heavy burden, something only one with the corresponding resolve can carry.”

As the boy spoke, Grey’s vision gradually turned to darkness.

Her final obsession was erased by the cold truth, completely stripping away the strength she had forced herself to hold on to.

The fatigue born from erosion seeped from the depths of her soul and instantly consumed her entire body and mind.

With it, the consciousness of the grey-haired girl plummeted into the endless abyss, without a place to return to.

Before Grey’s consciousness completely vanished.

She heard the boy’s final words, carried by the howling wind:

“So, even so.”

“After knowing everything, after losing everything...”

“Do you still long to become a Shoreguard?”