"Heh... heh heh..."
Gabriel stared blankly at her dead character on the screen, then at the constant stream of taunts coming from the player Trash Fox.
A string of broken, eerie laughter echoed through the dimly lit apartment.
"This trash game wasted my youth and drained my wallet! I spent a whole month grinding and whaling, yet I still can't beat a single lucky bastard?"
"If you won't let me live, Trash Fox, then nobody lives!"
"Let's all die together today! When I catch you in the afterlife, I'll make sure to get my revenge!"
As she spoke, Gabriel reached out and grabbed the golden horn resting beside her.
This instrument bore a name known only in legends.
The Trumpet of the Apocalypse.
"So you're Trash Fox, huh? I'll see you in Hell!"
.....
Mount, The Summit.
[Ding! World Request Issued: Gabriel is preparing to blow the Trumpet of the Apocalypse. Please stop her immediately.]
[Reward: 10,000 Origin Points]
"What? Just for a little trolling?"
Kawashima Toya nearly spat out his tea, his eyes going wide with shock. "It's just a game! Is she seriously going to end the world over a PvP match?!"
"Is she actually going to blow the horn?!"
Seeing that the World Request didn't disappear, he realized Gabriel was not bluffing. She was legitimately about to start the Apocalypse.
"Damn it! I can't make it back to Japan in time!"
Toya frantically brainstormed ways to stop her.
Idea after idea was shot down simply because the physical distance was too great.
Just then, Toya saw his character on the screen, decked out in a full set of divine-tier gear—items that were statistically impossible to obtain without cheating or divine intervention.
"I have a plan!"
"A useless, fallen angel versus the temptation of a unique, full equipment set... let's see if you can resist this!"
Without hesitation, Toya commanded his character to drop the entire set of unique gear—the only one of its kind on the server—onto the ground.
Golden, shining equipment instantly cluttered the screen, emitting pixels of pure luxury.
Then, he cast a resurrection spell on Gabriel's corpse.
[Player "Gabriel" has revived.]
"Eh? He dropped his gear?"
Gabriel, who was mere seconds away from blowing the Trumpet of the Apocalypse, stared at the pile of treasure on the ground in disbelief. Seeing that Trash Fox wasn't moving to pick it up, she immediately dropped the horn and lunged for her keyboard.
" Trash Fox has lost his mind! He actually threw away his gear!"
While Gabriel was happily looting the full set of divine-tier armor, Toya launched himself into the sky from the mountain peak, rocketing toward Japan.
BOOM!
Sonic booms exploded in the air one after another, the intervals between them growing shorter and shorter as he accelerated.
Toya's flight speed increased exponentially, disappearing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Not far away, Tohru and Kanna watched curiously.
As time passed, the two dragons were shocked to find that they couldn't keep up with the human.
"I don't believe it."
"He's just a human. How can he fly so fast?"
Kanna, the white dragon, stubbornly tried to chase after the direction Toya had disappeared.
But the distance only grew, until finally, he vanished from her sight completely.
"Kanna, don't be sad. Let's go play on the mountain instead!"
Tohru flew over to comfort her.
In just a few minutes, Toya crossed the boundless ocean, streaking across the clouds like a meteor until he arrived in Japan.
"I can't leave the Trumpet of the Apocalypse with Gabriel. It's too dangerous."
Suddenly, a sense of crisis flooded his mind.
Without hesitation, Toya followed his instincts and dodged to the side.
Swish—
A brilliant silver sword beam slashed through the space he had just occupied.
"Sinner who blasphemes against the Lord, you shall atone with death!"
"Who?" Toya looked toward the source of the voice. A small girl wearing a nun's habit stood in the void, a dark shadow seemingly cast over her forehead.
The halo above her head and the pure white wings on her back confirmed her identity as an angel from Heaven.
"Pekola?"
Just as Toya was about to speak, the angel named Pekola gathered pure light energy into a sword and charged at him.
"I don't have time to waste on Pekola. I need to get the Trumpet from Gabriel first."
Toya's eyes turned cold. "Angels don't die easily anyway. I'll just use a little more force!"
Terrifying, surging power gathered, condensing into a strike capable of shattering heaven and earth as he blasted it toward Pekola.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed through the sky. Pekola, who knew nothing of Toya's true strength, took the hit head-on.
The angel was sent flying like a dazzling meteor, disappearing into the horizon.
Crack!
Toya vaguely heard the sound of something shattering. "Whatever. Solving Gabriel's problem is the priority."
He immediately turned into a streak of light and flew toward Gabriel's apartment.
Not long after, Pekola crashed heavily into the ocean.
After struggling to swim to the surface, she realized with horror that something was missing.
"My halo... it's broken?"
Toya had no idea that his casual strike had shattered an angel's halo.
At this moment, he was already hovering outside Gabriel's apartment building.
"This is the place."
Toya stood quietly in the void, his gaze easily penetrating the balcony doors to see inside the apartment.
The room was a mess—squalid, chaotic, and dark. Trash bags were piled in the corners.
The only source of light came from the computer screen.
If other angels knew that Gabriel, the top student of Heaven, lived in such a dump, they would likely faint from shock.
Gabriel was completely immersed in the joy of obtaining new equipment, oblivious to the person standing outside her balcony.
Perhaps the peaceful life in the Human Realm had caused her to lose her vigilance entirely.
Toya looked at the golden horn sitting on the computer desk, well within Gabriel's reach.
"That must be the Trumpet of the Apocalypse."
"I'll just grab it. Gabriel won't be able to stop me anyway."
[Name: Trumpet of the Apocalypse (Replica)]
[Rank: A+]
[Description: The Trumpet of the Apocalypse belonging to Gabriel's older sister. It is a weakened version with limited power.]
[Effect: Blowing it can only cause the destruction of a single "Nation."]
"A single nation?" Toya fell silent.
The System's definition of "Nation" didn't care about size or population; it was destruction on a conceptual level.
If there was only one nation left in the world, blowing it would mean the end of humanity.
Toya openly walked onto Gabriel's balcony and strode straight toward her.
"Who are you?!" Even with her guard down, Gabriel couldn't miss a brazen intruder walking right into her room.
Without saying a word, Toya walked past Gabriel's confused gaze to the computer desk and reached for the horn.
"He knows I have the unique server gear?!" Gabriel completely misunderstood Toya's intentions and immediately hugged the computer tower protectively.
"I won't give it to you! This is my gear! Mine!"
"Tch." Toya sneered. "It's just a bunch of pixels."
With that, he picked up the Trumpet of the Apocalypse.
Between game gear and a world-ending artifact, his priorities were very clear.
"You came for the Trumpet?" Gabriel's eyes widened in shock as she realized he wasn't after her computer. "Give it back! That belongs to my sister!"
Although she had fallen deep into the abyss of online gaming, she still had a shred of conscience left.
She knew the importance of the Trumpet of the Apocalypse. It couldn't fall into human hands.
"Give it back?" Toya looked at Gabriel with a teasing glint in his eyes. "Impossible."
"I'll be keeping the Trumpet for now. If your sister wants it back, tell her to come get it herself."
With that, Toya turned his gaze to the computer screen.