The voice destroyed reality. It pierced tens of thousands of lives that Noah had saved. This was the power of the leader of the mere 12th tower island. Which naturally meant that the upper islands had beings stronger than this one. Which in its own way meant that Noah shouldn't have a hard time dealing with this enemy. He just smiled, then chuckled, then began laughing.
"Weaklings like you are the ones which don't know their place are the ones, because of which I'm constantly bored."
[Divine Blue Dragon was activated]
The head of [The Faculty Director] was consumed in an instant and blue flames emerged from the remaining body.
"I knew that you are so sure of your power that you will isolate us in some form of an artifact. Perfect. Here, I don't have to hold my strength. Hahahaha."
The incoming attack from behind resulted in Noah breaking the divine artifact which strengthened the weapon which the enemy held.
Noah swung his fist and cracks appeared on the blackout reality. Only the scream of [The Faculty Director] echoed in this isolated space. Noah knew this would happen. [The Faculty Director] was such a villain which believed that the battle would be over in a couple of seconds and had just decided to "toy" with the "weakling" which had dared to try to fight against it. Even after seeing Noah's strength, this being believed in its overwhelming strength so much that it thought that the system was in some way helping the weak entities in order to make them at least crawl in front of the supposed higher being. This isolated, black space was a story, a film stage, started by [The Faculty Director], his strongest and most unique skill.
The reality cracked again. The pitch-black space—the story world created by [The Faculty Director] – was no longer stable. Noah's Divine Blue Dragon had ruptured the fundamental narrative layer, fire and aura flickering like dying stars inside a cinematic void.
The Faculty Director's voice trembled – not with fear, but offense. He wasn't supposed to be touched. Not by a mere character in the divine script he planned. This higher being believed that no merely appeared entity could stand a chance against a leader, a director of an island, and an intermediate at that – beings who had spent thousands of years in order to surpass their limits. This was the purest form of offense to a prestigious director, such as itself.
Noah appeared right above him, midair, suspended in the absence of gravity. A hundred blue dragons roared behind his back like an imperial army of annihilation.
The eyes of [The Faculty Director] were looking from everywhere and Noah knew that. But at the same time, he already knew more about this skill than its very owner. This was a story – it was meant to be changed, rewritten at the will of its creator. But even in films and movie productions, the real masterpiece didn't only come from the director but from the actors themselves as well. There were many cases when actors would change something in the script and it would make the final product better. This director wasn't a professionalist.
"This is my story now. I decided to teach you how to be a better director in your final moments, so, I will choose a better ending, one that the audience won't expect."
The next second—a flurry of punches enhanced with the Timeline Splitter effect struck the director. For every blow, ten parallel strikes from other Noahs echoed through dimensions, collapsing on the target from unseen angles.
[Grade SS Artifact Timeline Splitter Effect Activated]
The director's figure buckled for the first time. Not from pain, but from narrative rejection—his own story logic faltering. He clapped once.
「Script Reinforcement: Scene Reset 」
The battlefield snapped. Noah was suddenly standing back at the start of the black zone. The director smiled smugly – until he saw that Noah wasn't surprised.
"That's reset number one. Based on my analysis, you get four more resets before the main frame breaks itself."
Noah had let this happen. He wanted to know how many more resets this place allowed.
[Item: Cheatcode Fragment — Reality Leak (Limited)]
[Effect: Destroys up to 2 scripted rewinds within director-class narrative zones.]
[Coin Cost: -3 500 000 000]
Noah had just received this item from a message. It was from "The Cheater's Hall" and nothing was written in the message. 'So, they are looking even now. How interesting….. and better.'
Noah snapped the fragment.
The ultimate skill of cheating wasn;t something simple. When you have found an exploit you would overuse it until it's not effective anymore and then what? You would have to find an even bigger exploit. The value of the coins was drastically dropping. He expected that there would be something else to the cheat but honestly – Noah didn't expect it to appear so soon.
"Reset again. I dare you."
No rewind came. [The Faculty Director] was left speechless. This wasn't just an offense. This was something more than an offense. Such an item didn't exist. It was as if everything was against itself from the very start. As if….. this item had appeared in exactly this situation and was made to perfectly fit Noah and allow him to win. But no….. such things didn't happen in this world. Many things left questions: 1) How did this mere entity possess so many coins? Entities could receive sponsorship from higher beings but there were limits. And that entity had probably used billions of coins in this battle; 2) How did this item appear? It was an extremely strong item, and one made solely for the purpose of being used in this zone; 3) How did this entity predict absolutely everything that will happen? No matter how smart one was, it wasn't possible to see this far ahead; 4) Who was behind all of that? [The Faculty Director] didn't know a lot about the existence above the 25th tower island but something deep inside it feared that this amount of power and influence was coming from above [Frostmoon]. That being was considered the strongest existence but everyone knew that there is more above the 25th tower island.
Noah knew all of that and more. "The Cheater's Hall" was above [Frostmoon], that was for sure. And there were more tower islands above the 25th. And above everything – the main enemy was [Frostmoon]. He was sure that this being was above any cheat. After all, the challenge that "The Cheater's Hall" issued had to be one that wasn't just simply using a cheat to pass.
"You broke your script the moment you dragged me here."
He vanished again. The next sequence was undodgeable. Ten gear swaps per second. Noah combined poison, fire, gravity distortion, memory corrosion, and blackout effects into a single strike. It didn't aim to damage—it aimed to overload the system buffering the Faculty Director's existence. The punch hit. The body didn't move. But the background behind the enemy shattered into static – a signal error in the story feed.
[Unique Debuff Applied: Story Overflow — Story Stability: 75% → 25%]
The Faculty Director raised both arms now, using real strength. The air was sliced apart—dimensions torn as a hundred phantom weapons emerged. Spears, axes, scripts, judgments, bans, deletions, admin-level story attacks. Noah took the first spear to the chest.
[Sixth Sense A tier Set Effect Activated in unison with other Sets ]
[Recursive Justice A tier Set Effect Activated against injustice]
[Story Breaker A tier Set Effect Activated against the enemy's story]
[Slave Rebel A tier Set Effect Activated against dictator]
[Light Day A tier Set Effect Activated against the darkness]
[Dark Night A tier Set Effect Activated inside the darkness]
[Hidden Light and Dark A (SS) Set Effect Activated in unison with other Sets]
[Storyteller S tier Set Effect Activated against bad storytellers]
[Secret Mind S tier Set Effect Activated to help the secret mind]
15 different gear set effects were being fused.
The spear multiplied. And turned. Not against Noah - but toward [The Faculty Director]. Hundreds of his own weapons slammed into it from behind. Noah wasn't dodging anymore. He was catching, absorbing, and returning.
"You look down on this world like it's a failed project."
Noah appeared on the Faculty Director's back. He placed a glowing emblem on his spine.
[Grade S Artifact Punishment Glyph has been activated]
Noah whispered, almost kindly.
"Three seconds is enough for me."
The head started to regenerate on the body of [The Faculty Director] and its eyes were glowing with black flames. The reality began cracking. Snakes, dragons and creatures outside of imagination began appearing. The story couldn't hold more. This was the final effort a failed director could make in order to milk a couple more episodes or movies.
"It should now be time."
Everything disappeared in an instant. Pith-black darkness again and just a single hole in it.
「The story has been broken. Returning. 」