Doomsday Game Developer System: Starting Out as The Final Boss
Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Chapter 14

"How is the plan going?" asked a middle-aged man with speared beards.

A few players, along with him making it six players, had landed on the Red Gate Island. All around level 20.

"Well, it’s balanced somehow. I can’t say for sure, Thor. You guys have to hurry," said the voice over the phone. A mix of fear reeked from his voice.

Thor slid his phone back in his pocket. According to the description, this was Red Gate, Aiden’s kingdom.

They had anticipated Aiden would bring the fight to them and cooked a plan for when that happens.

Six players smiled at Thor. Their job was pretty straight: while Aiden is busy fighting the hunters, they’ll enter his gate and find the source of his powers.

Or whatever it is they need to destroy to stop the apocalypse. As of now, the players were heading towards the narrow path with trees on both sides of the road.

"We don’t have much time," said Thor.

"What do you mean? How are they doing over there?"

Having heard the question, Thor kept quiet as if thinking of the word that could describe the man’s voice earlier.

"Terrified," said Thor.

————————————

The players couldn’t believe what was going on. They could feel an ocean of power running through them, and the notification proved them right.

"He maxed us out?" Perplexed, Julius muttered, looking at his teammates. What did Doomsday do that for?

Max them out, then break them, just to prove they mean nothing—even at their highest point of powers.

"Oh, you’re gonna regret doing that," Goliath growled.

Immediately he said that, he began charging at Aiden on all fours like a beast. His paws left cracks and marks on the ground.

And the sight of Aiden just standing made his mouth water. As he closed the gap, Aiden grinned and dashed at him.

Boom.

Their collision caused the glasses around the buildings to shatter. At the same time, they locked themselves in a test of strength.

However—boom—Goliath won over Aiden and tossed him, slamming him against a building like a weightless doll.

"Nice," said Julius. He was about to join Goliath, but his teammate roared at him.

"No... he’s mine! Anyone interferes and I’ll kill you," yelled Goliath.

Aiden was hit so hard he felt his spine crack. As he stood up, he saw Goliath rushing towards him and—boom—he dashed at Goliath as well.

His neck and palm erupted with fat veins. Before Goliath could know what had hit him, Aiden face-slammed him towards the building far from them.

Julius and Sally looked at each other, knowing that wasn’t good.

Unlike Aiden, a rumble of the building’s blocks fell on Goliath, and before he could stand up—

"You’re dead," Aiden growled.

He landed on top of Goliath and began punching the life out of him, every punch drawing out a mouthful of blood. Goliath tried holding the punch, but Aiden only ended up twisting his wrist.

Bam. Bam.

"Jesus, he’s going to kill that guy."

"Why are the rest of the players just looking?"

"This fight suddenly became a one-sided thing."

Those watching through the live broadcast could only feel pity for Goliath. He had himself to blame for saying no one should interfere.

"I guess his friends are respecting his wishes."

As of now, Aiden’s fist was covered in blood, and Goliath’s beast form was beginning to wear off his body.

Woosh.

Sally projected an ice shard heading for Aiden’s head, but he saw it behind him and moved, giving him a little scratch on the cheek.

"That’s enough." Accompanying Julius’ words, he was already running towards Aiden.

"Why do you have to do any of this? Aren’t you human?" asked Julius.

Aiden said nothing and stood looking at Sally. The scratch he got was starting to freeze a portion of his face.

Even his breathing was cold, as if locked in ice for many months. But they wouldn’t know that because of the mask Aiden wore.

Now cracked at the cheek, thanks to Sally.

"You led your friends to their deaths," Aiden muttered.

"What?" Perplexed, Julius didn’t know what that meant, but Sally did.

"Thor."

In the next second, the environment’s temperature was dropping very fast. The buildings were getting frozen by the moment.

"Where is Thor?!" yelled Sally, a mix of tears and emotions.

Instead of Aiden answering her statement, he dashed towards her. However, Julius blocked his way. But as he turned on his sword flames, they were unable to form.

Aiden grinned. He knew facing off fire and ice at the same time was disastrous, but with one overpowering the other, he had a fine chance.

————————

Meanwhile...

Thor led the group of players down the narrow path, which led them in front of a red-gold metallic gate.

At first, the players hesitated, looking at themselves. However, after taking a deep breath, Thor pushed the door open.

"Woah, it’s pretty dark in there."

"Hmph," a player scoffed, and a ball of flame appeared on his palm, letting him be the first to walk in.

"Tsk."

But the rest didn’t go with him immediately—until he said it was pretty dark in here.

As the rest of them brought out their smartphones to aid them, walking in, the door closed.

"That’s not a good sign in most comic books."

Accompanying the player’s voice, the room lit up with purple flames etched around the walls and pillars.

Right in front of them, they saw Belle, the succubus witch, sitting on the throne, and the loyal ant monster standing at her side.

"That’s the monster in Doomsday’s broadcast."

"The guy must have a wife."

Having heard the word wife, Thor growled. "Then it’s a good thing I return the favor. He killed my wife, and I’ll do the same. She’s mine," he growled.

Inside a female’s dormitory, XS stood at the window, looking outside through it. When the apocalypse game was updated, a labyrinth session was created.

From that labyrinth, some players claimed to have found a few missing people on some floors.

The rumors alone were enough to ignite a spark of hope in Max. But her dad had been gone for days now, with no word from him.

She pulled down her hood, walking to and fro in the room.

"Fuck this," said XS.

- [Ding]

- [Invitation From Jones]

Since the labyrinth was created, top players like her were often pinged in the global chat room.

Except, XS had pinged Aiden a thousand times and received no response. The system kept saying no such player existed.

Unlike when she pinged someone else, it would say the player was dead or was never a player—but Aiden’s was different.

- [Accept] --------------------------- [Decline]

The blue screen floated in front of her as she sat on the bed, huffing out a heavy sigh.

- [Ding]

- [Player XS has declined the raid request]

Like every other time she declined a labyrinth raid request, the whole chat would give her a bad-mouth attention.

- [That whore actually has a lot of pride}

Ding—

- [Let her face the labyrinth herself, she’d die anyways]

- Ding

- [System Notification: you’ve set message notifications to only when pinged]

"Aiden," said XS, staring at the ceiling of the room. "The savior," thought XS.

She recalled Aiden saying something about looking for the savior when they first met.

"System, open up the chat room."

Accompanying her words, the blue screen appeared, filling the room with various messages in the chat room.

"Send this message... ’I know where the savior is.’"

Immediately after she said that, the message was delivered. The only thing was, she prayed Aiden was looking at the chat room.

Without dismissing her system, the screen disappeared. Perplexed, XS wondered what had happened.

And then, a single blue rectangular screen materialized in front of her with one question encrypted on it.

And the name it displayed sent chills down her spine.

- [Doomsday: Where Is He?]

———————————

"Are you kidding me? You’re really meeting whoever this person is?" asked Belle.

"Tsk, she’s no threat," Aiden replied with a shrug.

He stood up from the couch, stretching his bones with a yawn.

"Besides, she’s XS. I’ve seen her around somewhere," said Aiden.

"And you had to reply to her as Doomsday?"

"Look, I’m not some superhero who’s planning on hiding his identity. The only reason I have this mask is because of the savior."

For the first time, Aiden yelled. Although he regretted seeing Belle’s face like that, he didn’t reply.

Aiden stopped with his fingers already on the doorknob.

"Look, someone has an idea about this guy. I gotta check it out, okay?"

Belle ran forward and hugged Aiden tight, with a few tears rolling down her cheek.

"Why did you have to die anyway?" she muffled.

From this alone, Aiden was sure he made her recall the memories with his future self. "It’s okay, Belle. I’ll be fine," said Aiden.

————————

The location XS sent was a very quiet place. It was where they first met—the bus station.

Aiden was standing at the entrance, the only place where he could see. His eyes kept shifting between up, down, left, and right.

"Aiden?"

And suddenly, he heard his name from the abyss. It sounded like XS.

"Oh my God, Aiden!" XS dropped her blade and immediately ran towards Aiden, who was a bit surprised when she hugged him.

"You’re alive," she muffled.

"You don’t know where he is, do you?" asked Aiden, not wanting to prolong things.

As soon as he said that, three men walked out of the abyss—one with a big battle axe matching his big size, the other more of a gun shooter.

The last one was slender, wearing a black hood—a magus-type player.

"Is that the guy? The Doomsday guy?"

Having heard that, XS tightened her hug against Aiden, as if not wanting to let go. "N...no, this isn’t him," said XS.

Even if she had said Aiden was the boss, three level 30 players wouldn’t be enough. She’d never find the right amount.

"Well, nice reunion. So now what?"

"Yeah, we’ve waited for half an hour, and your guy hasn’t arrived. Can’t wait any longer," said the shooter.

XS turned around. She had made a deal with them—which was that she would join their party, and in return, they would help her fight against Doomsday.

"What? You honestly thought the four of you could scratch Doomsday?" Aiden chuckled after hearing the magus player repeat the bargain.

"What about him? You think he’s tough?" the magus player growled.

"No. I think he’d crush you," said Aiden.

His gaze met with the player’s deadly ones, eyes locked on each other as if preparing for a cowboy showdown.

"Enough. Are we raiding the labyrinth or not?" XS immediately buried the tension, knowing it was escalating.

"Listen to the beautiful guys," said the shooter.

"Sure. Why don’t we go now? There’s a labyrinth on the northern side of the city."

"That’s too far," said Aiden.

"Shut up," the magus player quickly retorted.

"What did you just say?" Aiden growled.

Boom!

In a split second, the two of them dashed at each other with killing intents at their max. The ground cracked from their tremendous strength.

However, the magus was held back by his friends, who had trouble holding him still, while Aiden’s fist was the only thing XS could muster the strength to hold.

The fat veins on his fist were just inches away from the player’s eyeballs.

"Jeez, man, cool it down."

Aiden sighed, and they both stood looking at each other, knowing deep down the fight was far from over.

The next moment, a purple circle with two triangles facing opposite sides and intricate symbols on it appeared underneath their boots.

After the glowing purple light, everyone was transported to a construction site.

"How’s that for far, jerk?" said the magus.

"Jeez, man, cool it already," the shooter apologized to Aiden on his behalf.

Meanwhile, Aiden had his eyes gazing at his creation—a purple wormhole. Many existed like this as well. Inside is the labyrinth filled with monsters, traps, and different floors.

One thing was certain—once you’re in, the player would be consumed with greed and power.

"Let’s get going."