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.

Kevin abruptly lifted his head and a new window popped

the book in front of him flipped open and a

the book continued to flip rapidly, until, finally, stopping

was

you wish

"Yes…yes!"

nodded his

"Change!"

He said out loud.

enveloping the book brightened up considerably, forcing Kevin to raise his hand to block the bright light

It was blinding.

Ding—

chime rang, and the window in

do you

"Ren's death."

his

Ding—

command. The command is too vague and the user does not have enough

hopes were soon dashed as the glow around the book diminished slightly and a new

"Bullshit!"

Bang—!

as his fist heavily

"Huff...huff..."

need to

only lasted for a short bit

he wasted the less time he had to

is too vague...

two sentences that appeared on the screen in

says that my mana is not enough… Does that

activated, Kevin's thought process was quick. In a matter of a short second, he had carefully analyzed

seconds passed, Kevin lifted his head and looked

"94%? Haa... That's go—"

certain sentence written in the book

'What if...'

suddenly popped up inside of his mind as he grabbed the book with

the book, his eyes scanned the whole text in a lightning-fast manner as he quickly read through the

"Ukh!"

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

and process things at a rate far higher than normal, it also came with downsides. One such downside was the fact that the skill put a heavy strain on his

read two pages, the pain in his head had almost

as though someone had tried to split his

The pain was agonizing.

mental strength, he would've long crumbled on

"Haaa…haaa…"

his breathing became

finally, after reading fifteen pages, he was able to understand what was

book down, and placing his palms by the desk, Kevin supported his exhausted

see… So you're basically trying to shut down the dampening system so that you can gain access to the portal. If so, if that 94% changed to 100%

brains over the matter, it was the most

[00 : 35 seconds]

was slowly

a mouthful of saliva, Kevin glanced at the system

change the 94%

short and concise, straight to the point. He didn't want to be

Ding—

his words faded, another chime rang in his head, and

User does not have enough

Kevin's heart sank completely.

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

to his expectations, the system message changed as another chime rang

Ding—

[C rank.]

rank?" Kevin voiced out

the surprise only lasted for a brief second as his brows then knitted

was because he

would increase within a month's time, but still not

Kevin

in my current condition. What do—Ah! right, I

situation seemed hopeless, Kevin suddenly