Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode-Chapter 573: Remember

Another chime rang again and the translucent panel flickered again, giving them another update.

[ NOTICE]

[ Time Remaining: 30 Minutes ]

[ Reduce Safe Zone occupants to 50 ]

[ Failure will result in forced ejection of all occupants ]

The words hung in the air. For half a second no one moved or said anything. They just stared at the text with shocked expression.

Then the silence shattered.

"Thirty minutes?!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"This is bullshit!"

"They’re just trying to kill us!"

Cursing erupted from every direction. Panic boiled over into rage.

People began shoving each other. Small groups broke apart as trust collapsed completely.

Someone tried to count again and was shoved aside before finishing.

A man drew his weapon and screamed for people to back off. Someone else tackled him.

A woman cried out as she was pushed to the ground. An old man stumbled and fell hard, his head hitting the pavement.

A wounded survivor was dragged aside and abandoned as bodies pressed forward, fighting for space, for safety, for survival.

The safe zone became chaos in the blink of an eye.

Mina’s hands clenched at her sides. Her jaw tightened as she watched it happen.

"Stop it," she muttered. "This isn’t—"

She took a step forward, then stopped.

Who was she supposed to help?

The woman crying was terrified. The old man was weak and slow. The wounded man was bleeding and barely standing.

But every single person here was desperate.

Every shove came from fear and from the need to live.

There were no villains here. Just people being crushed by the rules of this world.

Mina’s anger burned, but it had nowhere to go.

Clyde watched the scene with cold clarity. The system panel hovered above them, counting down without mercy.

"This place is done," he said.

Mina turned to him. "What?"

"Look at them," Clyde continued calmly. "This isn’t a safe zone anymore. It’s just another battlefield."

Another scream rang out as someone was slammed into the boundary dome.

Mina swallowed. She hated it. She hated walking away from this.

But Clyde was right.

Staying here meant getting dragged into a fight where strength decided who deserved to live. And eventually they would also need to kill these people to survive.

"...Let’s go," she said quietly.

They turned.

As they stepped toward the boundary, someone noticed and shouted. A few pairs of eyes followed them with disbelief. Others with hostility. Some with envy because they were confident enough to go outside.

Clyde and Mina crossed out of the safe zone.

The pressure returned instantly. The vibration crawled back up through the ground.

The city breathed again beneath their feet.

Behind them, the shouts grew louder.

Ahead of them, buildings moved.

A house down the street moved. Its bricks grinding as it turned toward them.

Mina let out a sigh.

"Inside the safe zone was worse," she said.

"Yes," Clyde replied. "And out here, at least we get EXP after killing the houses, just like we always do."

He lifted his spear and pointed toward the moving structures.

"Let’s just start killing the houses."

Mina looked at the city. At the towering shapes dragging themselves through the streets and the impossible scale of what waited ahead.

She let out a helpless sigh.

"Yeah," she said. "Let’s do it."

They moved forward together to leave the collapsing idea of safety behind them when the people already started to kill each other.

They just walked in silence for several steps. The houses already moved far from the safe zone.

Clyde’s gaze stayed forward, fixed on the moving city, but his mind drifted elsewhere.

He knew the one supervising this world was insane.

Not careless or ignorant. Insane in the deliberate sense. The kind that understood suffering and treated it like seasoning, something to be added in just the right amount to make things entertaining.

The kind of being that adjusted rules not for balance, but for spectacle.

The notice at the safe zone was proof enough.

Clyde had met the World Master once before the Selection Stage had even begun, back when the world still pretended to be normal. Back when the sky had not cracked open yet and people still believed tomorrow was just a normal day.

That meeting had been brief. And it had been enough to tell Clyde about what kind of being he is.

The smirk, tone, and the way that World Master spoke of people as products to be tested, not lives.

Clyde tightened his grip on the spear.

When his level and power fully returned, when the limits placed on him were gone, he had made a promise in his heart that he would not start by fighting the Higher Being first.

He would look for that World Master first.

The thought settled heavily in his chest.

Then his brow furrowed.

Something surfaced from the back of his mind, when he was thinking about World Master, like a memory forcing its way up after being buried too long.

Agatha. He had not thought of her in a long time since everything had fallen apart.

Agatha, the World Master who had worked with him in his previous life. The only one among them who had chosen betrayal over obedience. The one who had helped him plan the overthrow of the Higher Beings from the inside.

The realization made his steps slow for half a second.

If the Higher Beings had found him in his hidden dimension with Asqa and sent forces after him across worlds, then it meant something else.

They would have traced every connection. Which meant Agatha had been exposed as well.

A traitor discovered by beings that erased worlds with humans without hesitation, of course she would not get mercy.

Clyde’s jaw tightened. What had become of her? Was she dead?

Or worse, captured and stripped apart piece by piece to pay for her betrayal?

The city groaned nearby as a building dragged itself across the street, snapping him back to the present.

Clyde exhaled slowly. There was no answer yet. So he didn’t need to think about that.

Mina glanced at him. "You okay?"

Clyde nodded simply. "Yeah."

His eyes hardened as he looked ahead. Either way, he was certain that he would find out later.

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