[Item: Cheatcode Fragment — Crimson Heart Restore (Limited)]
[Effect: Let's you return to Real Heart after Crimson Heart Effect is over, can only be used in battles against enemies in "Crimson State"]
[Coin Cost: -5 000 000 000 000/use (+2 500 000 000 000/use)]
With that, Noah's plan was getting into action. In fact, faster than he had expected. Now, the cheater needed to act on his side too and everything would have been perfect.
Noah, based on a couple of reasons, had a hunch who the other cheater may be. Or at least what their ability may be. Based on the actions of "The Cheater's Hall" so far, Noah could guess that this cheater was most likely not sent by them personally. But if that was the case, a couple of possibilities formed: 1) A cheat related to information – if that was the case, the cheater would have found a hole in the system from where to obtain information; 2) A cheat related to future prediction – highly unlikely, but in such a system, this possibility existed; 3) A cheat related to manipulation – the cheater may have a way to use crowd control skills or control other players in some way; 4) A cheat related to other cheaters – it was a slight possibility, but this cheater may have had the ability to copy/steal/use the cheats to other cheaters and may be after that. A few more possibilities were left, but Noah had narrowed it just to these.
At the moment he was most likely keeping his distance and observing. Noah suspected that [The Faculty Director] had already sensed the cheater since, while he was trying to block tens and hundreds of attacks, for just a brief moment, there was a pause. As if the enemy in front of him had attacked in another direction. Noah couldn't sense any nearby presence so the cheater was either using a camouflage skill or was pretty far away.
By now, Noah was just waiting for the perfect moment to begin his plan. It was risky, but this was the life of a cheater – a risk on its own. The other cheater was most likely choosing a "Crimson Form", something Noah had instantly predicted when he entered the "Crimson State". The bigger problem here was the uneasy feeling he had. Noah thought hard of what it could be. Whenever he looked at [The Faculty Director], he felt a strange presence. As if this wasn't the same player from before. If someone was controlling that thing, it meant that it was controlling the "Crimson State" too. And the "Crimson State" was a natural mechanic. Which meant this being was extremely powerful. Noah had 2 guesses: 1) A player at the level of [Frostmoon], meaning one from the higher tower islands; 2) A player from above the 25th island. And unfortunately for them, the latter had a higher possibility. This fact, on its own, spoke a lot. This player was probably on the level of "The Cheater's Hall".
"Crimson State" was a state beyond normal comprehension. And that player had full control over it. Being able to swap between "Crimson Forms" tens of times per second was something that even Noah would have found relatively hard to do.
For just a brief moment, everything went red and glitched, Noah could see [The Faculty Director] losing its heart.
A laugh echoed through the data, the matter, the space – distorted, hollow, infinite. Then a name appeared. A name I had never seen. I was tricked…..
「User: [Crimson Origin – ???] has descended. 」
「1 New Unread message 」
Topic: Cheater Warning
From: The Cheater's Hall
A user from above the 25th tower island has descended. It passed through the {Night of Ice Gate} and it will take the system a considerable amount of time before the user can be stopped. The information presented in this message is to not be disclosed outside of "The Cheater's Hall".
Cheat Update: Shared Protocol Synced will be provided to both early members of "The Cheater's Hall" present on the battlefield, participating in the battle against User: [Crimson Origin] as a form of compensation.
We apologize for the situation.
[Accept?]
'So, that's what it was. A user, haha.' Noah had a grin on his face. He couldn't have imagined a better progress. When he was thinking of how to progress to [Frostmoon] fast enough and get above the 25th island, the solution had come personally to him.
A map of the Crimson threads. A blueprint to rewrite it.
「Cheat Update: Shared Protocol Synced – Dual Rewrite Mode Enabled 」
The crimson winds howled like a beast trapped between realities. Noah steadied his breath, watching the crimson cracks ripple through the battlefield like veins in a dying world. His fingers twitched as the system updated, digits and glyphs rewriting themselves in midair. This whole situation was hard even for the system, it wasn't ready for such a battle, for such an existence.
「Shared Protocol Synced: Dual Rewrite Mode Active」
He knew what this meant – he and the other cheater were now bound by a temporary system bridge. Their cheats could overlap, interfere, or reinforce. But only if used in harmony. Noah didn't need to communicate this. The other one would understand. They had already seen the map of Crimson Threads. That was enough.
「Warning: Lock Progression Detected – 10/13」
「[The Faculty Director] is evolving Crimson Form: [Spiral Mode]」
The battlefield twisted again. A new pressure, different from before. Crimson no longer just scorched the land – it devoured logic. Walls bent. Physics cracked. Even Noah's carefully prepared started flickering. The moment Spiral Mode engaged, the director's presence began altering the very coordinates of space.
It reminded Noah of that time when he had studied Higher Math. Mathematically speaking, there could be more than 3 dimensions. And the user in front of him was not only aware of that but was working on a different layer from the two cheaters. Attacks glitched reality, cracked through space and arrived from multiple sides all at once. Adn this was happening on a millisecond level. Maybe even microseconds.
Noah winced. This wasn't just a state change – it was a system rewrite. And he wasn't the one doing it. He analyzed fast. Crimson Form: Spiral Mode. Its properties weren't logged. He had now just confirmed the cheating of the other cheater and that he could access the system code. Which proved his theory that all of this was a game even more. Which meant one thing – it came from outside the established Crimson State spectrum. It was either a personal evolution or a borrowed form. Considering how the locks were rising, or more like "unlocking", this was likely the Faculty Director's last gambit. Thirteen Locks. If they reached full completion, defeat wouldn't just mean losing the battle. It meant system corruption – irreversible.
He glanced at the hovering system log:
「Crimson Lock (Progress: 10/13)」
「Projected Time Until Lock Rewrite 00:01:32」
Ninety-two seconds.
Far above, hidden beneath an optical cloaking field rewritten through the smallest exploit in the tower's weather API, the other cheater watched. Crimson energy flickered around them like a flame barely contained. A single wrong thought and they'd be consumed. But the blueprint pulsed in their mind—a map of rewrite points buried in the Faculty Director's form. They could see it. Barely.
"I only have one shot," he muttered. "Noah knows that. He's counting on it."
They opened the Cheat Menu manually. A line of unregistered, unauthorized code burst open. It was illegal in every sense of the system's framework. And yet…..
「Coin Penalty will be inflicted for accessing protected resources, cannot be forfeited. 」
[-1 000 000 000 Coins]
And with that, his Coins increased. If it wasn't for Noah's cheat here, he would have been into serious trouble. He had tried to access a lot less protected code before and besides the coin penalty, there was a strict verification as well. Here, a verification didn't even occur.
Just in the next couple of seconds, for every line of code that appeared, a new coin penalty was generated.
$ > Force Injection: Personal Crimson Variant – Thread Split Path
$ > Risk: Total Data Loss – 82%
$ > Potential Override Access – Locks: 2
$ > Require Dual Rewrite Sync – Confirm from Entity: Noah? [Pending]
They paused. Time was slipping. If Noah didn't accept the Sync request, this attack would collapse them both. They didn't even need words. They needed trust.
「Dual Rewrite Mode – Cross-Sync: Confirmed by Entity: Noah」
「Thread Split Path Initiated」
Noah's vision doubled. The battlefield split into two layers. One – real. One – Crimson-projected. On one layer, [The Faculty Director] was performing an unspeakable attack: a compression of space itself into a sword form. On the other – it was vulnerable. This was it. The cheat they had just activated had split the projection layer. The Faculty Director could not exist fully in both at once. Not while Spiral Mode was active. For a split second, the locks stuttered.
「Crimson Lock Progress: 10 → 9」
Noah dashed forward. He didn't need to speak – the cheater moved too. They both needed to touch the enemy for the rewrite to begin. Sounded easier in thoughts.
Even though Noah could now see the attacks, more like the pattern and algorithm behind most of them, they were both still pretty far from success.
Age: [Corrupted]
Gender: M
Level: 200
HP: 20000/20000 (Base); 400 000 000 000 000/400 000 000 000 000 (Crimson); 52 000 Additional Lives (Base); 100 000 Additional Lives (Crimson); 250 000/250 000 Shield HP (Borrowed Teammate Skill)
Damage: 2000 (Base); 890 000 000 000 000 (Crimson); 2 900 000 000 000 000 (Added Damage from Potions); 3 100 000 000 000 000 (Added Damage from Additional Skills); 13 400 000 000 000 000 (Added from Temporary Berserk Form)
Core Attributes:
Strength: 20 → 200 (current limit battle limited is extended: 200 → 9999)
MP: – To Unlock –
Dexterity: 20 → 200 (current limit battle limited is extended: 200 → 9999)
Intelligence: 20 → 200 (current limit battle limited is extended: 200 → 9999)
Luck: ????
Charisma: 20 → 200 (current limit battle limited is extended: 200 → 9999)
Endurance (Physical/Mental): 20 → 200 | 20 → 200 (current limit battle limited is extended: 200 → 9999)
Perception: 20 → 200 (current limit battle limited is extended: 200 → 9999)
The enemy was still far ahead, but with every second, Noah was "investing" into his stats. He wasn't about to let a rare chance like this escape.
「Crimson Threads Destabilized – Lock Integrity Compromised」
「You are attempting a Dual Rewrite on a higher existence」
「Success Rate: 0.00%」
「Override Initiated. Do not let go.」
Time bent. Threads screamed. The battlefield warped. And just as [The Faculty Director] turned toward them, void slashes trailing from a world he'd already broken.
Noah whispered, "Let's break this world back."
Just as he said that –
「A fatal hit was received while in "Crimson State", converted to non-fatal damage from Tranquil Set. Cooldown: 2 days 」
HP: 1/20000 (Base); 0/400 000 000 000 (Crimson); 0/250 000 (Shield HP)
A single slash had penetrated through everything he had.
「(Looks like they found some new pawns. We had just cleaned the old ones to hear new ones appeared. I guess we'll just have to be faster this time and get rid of the insects as soon as they hatch.)」
[Item: Cheatcode Fragment — Tranquil Extender (Limited)]
[Effect: Increases Tranquil Set Rank tier: SS → SSS. Current entity capacity allows additional extension. |
Effect: Increases Tranquil Set Rank tier: SS → Crown Ⅲ SSS. Note: Using this on current level will inflict Coin penalties. Note: Using this outside of this battlefield will inflict severe consequences.]
[Coin Cost: -750 000 000 000 000 → -4 500 000 000 000 000]