The Author's POV

[Leviathan building, Lock.]

Bang—!

Kevin hastily entered his room, smashing the door against the side of the wall.

"Goddamn it, Where is that book?!" He repeatedly muttered out loud in haste.

Dashing towards his room, Kevin ran up to his bookshelf and threw all the books down from it as he looked for the red book.

[01 : 37 minutes]

With the timer by the side of his vision, Kevin couldn't be any more worried.

He was running out of time.

"Here it is!"

Finally, after getting rid of most of the books on the bookshelf, Kevin found the red book and placed it on the table.

Without wasting any second, he opened the book towards the last page and started reading.

"I…will…kill…you!"

Before Ren could even react, Durara aimed her staff in his direction. What followed after was a bright white light that shot in his direction, and time froze.

…Or, at least, Ren wished for it to have stopped.

Shooting at him like an unstoppable tsunami, the bright light came towards him, enveloping his entire body.

Although he couldn't tell for real, Ren felt his whole existence disappear like that.

…It all happened too fast.

What followed after the white glow was total darkness.

"Oh shit…"

Staring at the book, Kevin's face paled considerably, his arms trembled in shock. His knees buckled slightly and he uncontrollably sat down on his chair.

'The system was right… Ren really did die… This…not again…'

"What do I do, what do I do?"

Flipping through the pages of the book, Kevin had no idea about what to do next.

The system said that he had to change the outcome, but…Ren was nowhere near him! How was he supposed to help?

"How am I supposed to do this!?" Kevin shouted in desperation as he looked at the system interface in front of him.

The Quest said to use the time codex, but what exactly was that? It was the red book, wasn't it...? But, how was he supposed to use it?

He had no idea.

"System!" Kevin shouted, his voice filled with urgency and helplessness as he tried asking the system for help.

But it was useless. No matter how much Kevin asked, the interface wouldn't respond to him.

The only thing he saw was the timer slowly ticking down on him.

"Shit…shit…"

Kevin's voice echoed in the room as he flipped the book around and tried to look for anything that could help him.

At the moment, Kevin did not know how to help Ren, nor did he know how to prevent the world from ending if the demon king truly descended in two years' time as the system told him.

It had never lied to him before, so he knew that if he didn't save Ren, the demon king would truly descend in two years' time.

Even though he had many questions to ask, such as how Ren's death was correlated to the demon king's ascension, Kevin had no time for such questions.

"Ahh… Just what I am supposed to do...?" Kevin muttered as a helpless expression appeared on his face. He wanted to do something-anything-to help Ren. But what?

Ding—

Just as Kevin was about to succumb to despair, a familiar chime rang in his ears.

chime, Kevin abruptly lifted his head and a new window popped up in front of

flipped open and

rapidly, until, finally, stopping at the last page. A message

it was

you wish to make

"Yes…yes!"

hastily nodded his

"Change!"

He said out loud.

words faded, the hue enveloping the book brightened up considerably, forcing Kevin to raise

It was blinding.

Ding—

rang, and the window in front of

do you wish to

"Ren's death."

his voice filled

Ding—

command is too vague and the user

were soon dashed as the glow around the book diminished slightly and a new interface popped up

"Bullshit!"

Bang—!

in frustration as his fist heavily pounded

"Huff...huff..."

need to calm

for a short bit as Kevin forcefully calmed

time he wasted the less

too

two sentences that appeared on the screen in front

about this logically. Since it says that the command is too vague, just saying that Ren should be alive is not enough. Furthermore, it also says that my mana is

matter of a short second, he had

short seconds passed,

"94%? Haa... That's go—"

certain sentence written in the book caught his

'What if...'

suddenly popped up inside of his mind

of the book, his eyes scanned the whole text in a lightning-fast manner

"Ukh!"

suddenly let out a pained groan. The more he read, the greater

normal, it also came with downsides. One such downside was

Kevin read two pages, the pain in his

though someone had tried to

The pain was agonizing.

Kevin's strong mental strength, he

"Haaa…haaa…"

breathing

finally, after reading fifteen pages, he was

the book down, and placing his palms

that you can gain access to the portal. If so, if that 94% changed to 100% you'd survive, right? Right,

sound confident. But, after racking his brains over the matter, it was the most plausible solution

[00 : 35 seconds]

his head and seeing that time was slowly

mouthful of saliva, Kevin glanced at the system interface

change the 94%

words were short and concise, straight to the point. He didn't want to be rejected once more for being too vague in

Ding—

words faded, another chime rang in his head, and a new window appeared

invalid. User does not have enough

Kevin's heart sank completely.

a trembling mouth, he mumbled out loud, "What...do you mean not enough mana...? Is my mana still n-not enough? What is the amount of

have much hope when he asked that question, but contrary to his expectations, the system message changed as

Ding—

[C rank.]

Kevin voiced out

surprise only lasted for a brief second as his brows

he was still

within a month's

his forehead, Kevin started

in my current condition. What do—Ah!

the situation seemed hopeless, Kevin suddenly remembered