Duo Leveling LITRPG | Post Apocalyptic | SYSTEM-Chapter 214 - 288 – The Fire That Keeps Him Alive +289

They had built a home here, carved it out of the ice and ruin—clinging to life with teeth bared and fists clenched.

"It's been… brutal," Danny said, voice low and even. "We fought hunger. We fought cold. And sometimes… we fought other people."

He looked off for a moment, then cast a wary glance at Jhin.

Maybe he realized no amount of backstory would excuse impersonating someone like Clarke.

After a deep breath, he moved to the point.

"…I have a sick son. That's why I had to do it. Why I took Clarke's name."

"…Tell me everything," Jhin said softly.

"It'll be easier to show you. This way."

Danny guided him past the office, toward a section screened off by a tarp. Jhin had noticed it earlier—oddly placed, as if concealing something.

'So this is the source of the heat. The reason this shopping center hasn't frozen like the rest of the city.'

Lifting the flap, Danny revealed a makeshift bed. On it lay a boy, softly breathing in restless sleep.

Teenaged—likely the same age as Luke or Hyden.

[Skill 'Soft skills (S)' activated.]

'…Of course.'

Danny quietly fetched a cold compress from a fridge and placed it on the boy's forehead.

Sssssss—

The moment it touched him, it hissed into steam, instantly melting into a bag of hot water.

He gently touched the boy's face, now flushed red with fever.

"His name is Felix. He caught this fever on the first day, and he's never opened his eyes since."

A fever, Jhin thought.

He studied Felix-ho's face closely. The heat radiating from him was staggering—like a bright coal, searing and unrelenting.

'It's ironic, really… This frozen city is the only reason he's still alive.'

The boy's blazing heat had found balance in a world otherwise reduced to ice.

Danny's hand trembled slightly as he stroked his son's hair, then turned to Jhin and asked—

"Do you know what the most terrifying thing in an apocalyptic world is, Kyle?"

His tone made it clear: he already knew the answer.

Jhin didn't respond, but he understood where this was going.

Danny didn't say monsters.

He said, firmly:

"People."

People.

In a world like this, humans became the most dangerous predators of all.

'For some, they're allies. For others, monsters in disguise.'

Not just talking about systems like the Grid or the Companies.

'Humans are frighteningly capable of cruelty when survival is on the line.'

When instinct overrides morality, things unravel. That's how Companies are born—cruel societies driven by survival, hierarchy, and dominance.

Danny had clearly encountered his share of such "humans." Ones who would rob, exploit, or kill without remorse.

'That's why he was so wary of outsiders.'

And it made sense.

This place wasn't Ark. Far from it.

Ark had structure. It had people like Dean, the former assemblyman, and Bellatris, of Whitevalley.

Even justice held sway—thanks in part to Detective Caleb, who'd started reforming a player-based police force.

Ark was, in many ways, the last breath of what had once been Corelands's government.

'But here…'

This place was the wreckage of a B-rank dungeon's fallout.

Just surviving was a miracle.

Building something like Ark out of this? Impossible.

How could anyone be expected to give what little they had to help others?

How could you enforce laws in a place where people barely clung to life?

Jhin understood.

"I didn't have a choice," Danny said quietly. "I had to take Clarke's name. I had to rule people. Even lie to them… if I wanted to keep Felix alive."

And in Whitevalley, that was an almost impossible feat.

His son's condition made him a rare commodity. The fever that was killing him was also the source of this center's survival. That made Felix valuable—and vulnerable.

People wanted him.

People were willing to take him.

Jhin swallowed hard, understanding now just how much pressure this man had been living under.

Suddenly, Danny reached forward and gripped his hand tightly.

"I'll confess it all eventually. But please—please let me borrow Clarke's name a little longer. Just until then."

"That's not really mine to permit."

"Please… Just for today. Help me keep this secret."

A desperate father, playing the part of a legendary player to protect his child.

Even for Jhin—who barely remembered his own father—it was a story that struck deep.

He wanted to help. Truly, he did.

But…

Jhin stared straight into Danny's eyes.

"…I don't think that's what really matters."

"…What?"

"You've done everything you could. You built all of this—kept people safe. It's amazing, really, that you've survived this long under a fake name."

And he meant it.

Pretending to be someone else only lasted so long. But to build and maintain an entire camp around that identity…

That took talent. Charisma. Iron will.

"But if this continues, Felix will die."

At that, Danny deflated.

Like a balloon slowly hissing out its last breath.

Jhin looked down again at Felix-ho's face—red, feverish, drenched in sweat. The boy looked like he could stop breathing any minute.

"A fever," huh?

Jhin doubted that was the right name for it.

If his instincts were correct, this wasn't a normal illness at all. This was likely a dungeon-derived disease—or something born from a server shutdown's side effects.

He frowned and said it plainly.

"If he's lucky, he has ten days left. Maybe less. If this continues, Felix-ho won't survive. He'll burn to death from the inside."

Danny stared at him in disbelief.

"W-wait. What are you saying? That our Felix-ho is going to die? …You're joking, right?"

His gaze burned with desperation, but Jhin's tone remained unwavering.

"I wish I were joking. But it's the truth. Jin Felix-ho doesn't have much time left."

This wasn't something to jest about—and more than anything, the signs were all too clear to ignore.

That so-called "fever" wasn't a normal illness. It was something else entirely.

Spirit sickness.

If left untreated, the afflicted are eventually devoured by the spirit they carry—burned out from within.

Just like Felix, whose insides were being consumed by a fire spirit.

Jhin sighed and looked at Danny.

The man was clearly still skeptical, unable to fully accept what he was hearing.

"Mr. Jin. Do you happen to know how much your son played during Exodia 1?"

"…Excuse me?"

"His level, his class, anything. Do you remember?"

Danny bit down on his lip. His brows were deeply furrowed—enough to give away his answer without words.

"I was too busy just trying to survive… I didn't really know what he liked, or what he did in the game."

"I see."

It was unfortunate, but not unexpected. Still, Jhin had already formed a rough idea of Jin Felix's level.

'He's likely high-leveled.'

Spirit sickness only occurred when someone tried to contain a spirit vastly beyond their own capabilities.

And considering the level of power required to withstand something like a C-rank snowstorm, Jin Felix-ho couldn't have found such a spirit in a beginner dungeon or field area.

That left only one explanation: he received the fire spirit as a server shutdown reward.

'But that raises another question… Why wasn't there a restriction?'

Server shutdown rewards always came with limits—level locks, conditional bindings, the whole deal. Even now, Jhin still had several powerful weapons and skills that were sealed.

There was no way the system would just let a high-ranking spirit run free in the hands of someone not qualified.

'Even the Sealed Book I have is still restricted. But this fire spirit… wasn't?'

Why had that happened?

His eyes narrowed as he activated both Soft skills and Spirit Sight to carefully observe Jin Felix-ho's entire condition.

And then… a new hypothesis began to take shape.

'Maybe… this is why Ike brought me to Whitevalley instead of New Capital.'

Not because New Capital was safer.

Not because Whitevalley needed more help.

But because this person was here.

Someone irreplaceable.

Someone who might be the key figure—perhaps even the deciding factor in the fate of Channel 0115.

Felix. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

A boy with the power to shake the foundation of the world.

And that hypothesis had more evidence to support it.

'How is he still maintaining a spirit contract? Even unconscious?'

There was a simple truth to power use: it wasn't infinite.

When you ran out ofPower, even Jhin couldn't use his skills. powerhad to be gathered, stored, and spent.

Most spirit-sick patients only showed symptoms when they had powerleft. When their power ran out, the spirit's influence would wane temporarily. That was when they could rest.

But Felix…

Even while unconscious, he was generating heat—and not just a little. Enough to suppress a C-rank snowstorm.

That kind of power didn't make sense.

So Jhin looked deeper.

[Skill: Soft skills (S) activated]

With his eyes turned gold, he examined Felix's internal structure—his spiritual and magical systems.

And what he found shocked him.

'There's no power build up.'

Normally, players absorb power from the atmosphere, store it internally, and then convert it into usable power.

That was the standard.

The higher your powerstat, the more you could absorb and retain.

But Felix… his body didn't store powerat all.

It didn't need to.

The moment power flowed into him, it was instantly converted into heat. There was no delay. No storage. No bottleneck.

Just a natural, uninterrupted transformation—like water through a pipe.

'He's not storingPower. He's using ambient power directly, without a medium.'

Then Jhin noticed something else.

'Wait… there is a place where power is building up.'

When he shifted his focus there and activated Spirit Sight—

He saw it.

The Fire Spirit.

Or more precisely… a being bound by some unknown force.

'It's restrained.'

The fire spirit—radiating immense heat—was tied down, locked in place. Not by a system mechanic or a skill, but something else entirely.

If it hadn't been held back, Felix-ho would have burned alive.

And not slowly, either—he would have combusted the moment the spirit took root.

'So that's why he's survived until now. Because of that unknown force holding the spirit in check. Combine that with Whitevalley's snowstorm, and it's bought him time.'

But the spirit was still powerful. Even restrained, its strength bled into Felix-ho's body.

And Felix-ho's unique trait—his ability to use power without storing it—made him a perfect conduit for that power.

It was a terrifying kind of synergy.

'That fire spirit… it's not normal. That's a Spirit King.'

And the body housing it had no power limitations.

If Felix could survive, if he could learn to control it…

He'd be capable of wielding the Fire Spirit King.

Not just a strong spirit.

A force of nature.

'If he recovers… it'll change the entire power dynamic of this world.'

"…T-then what do we do? Is there no way to save Felix?"

Danny's voice trembled. He looked as if the ground beneath him had vanished.

Jhin met his eyes and answered as calmly as he could.

"Relax. There is a way."

"…Th-thank God…"

"Yes. But first, let me explain what your son is actually suffering from."

He briefly summarized what he knew—about spirit sickness, the imbalance between host and spirit, and the abnormal synergy present in Felix's body.

As he spoke, Danny's expression darkened with guilt, confusion, and dread.

Jhin continued.

"Felix has survived this long because of a rare combination of conditions. But it's only a matter of time. The fire spirit's power is still growing."

"…Then…"

"There's only one solution. We have to subdue the fire spirit. That's the only way."

If spirit sickness ended in the host being devoured, then the solution was simple: take control before that happened.

Dominate the spirit.

It wasn't poison.

It wasn't a curse.

It was simply power—too much power—lodged inside a body that couldn't yet handle it.

A gift, not a death sentence.

'If we can help him master it… this game will shift on its axis.'

Still filled with worry, Danny asked hesitantly:

"W-what… what exactly do we need to do?"