A Temporary Victory

... The all-encompassing pure white radiance lingered for a full thirty minutes before it finally dissipated, leaving Apocalypse silent and lifeless within its embrace. Had he still been alive at that moment, he would have noticed that not a single blade of grass nor tree in the vicinity had changed; the overwhelming white light seemed never to have existed, leaving Egypt’s soil untouched.

I imagine Apocalypse would have sighed in awe then:

Egypt is truly remarkable!

...

[Detected transfer of Apocalypse’s mental form...]
[Main quest—Defeat Apocalypse: completed]
[Side quest—You were empowered: failed]
[Hidden quest—Utterly destroy Apocalypse: failed]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Received 20,000 points of Self-Destruction Source, debt deducted, current total: 13 points.]
[Received one guaranteed SSR lottery opportunity.]

At last, as the system panel displayed these words, Jos let out a long sigh of relief.

At that moment, he was being carried by Laura, who was sprinting away at breakneck speed; Black was parasitizing Laura, boosting her pace even further.

After seeing the system prompts, Jos tapped Laura’s shoulder, signaling her to put him down. The three finally ended their frantic, aimless escape.

“What on earth happened? What was all that just now? What are those things you pulled out? Why isn’t that monster chasing us anymore?” As soon as they stopped, Laura’s questions fired out in rapid succession.

Though Laura didn’t need rest—her body able to run almost indefinitely—the experience of being completely buried alive by Apocalypse had left her genuinely frightened.

Neither she nor Logan possessed truly overwhelming power; once their movement was restricted like that, it was the beginning of an endless nightmare.

“You’re asking way too much at once... But to sum it up—he scared himself to death, or rather, this body is dead now.”

“As for what those were just now... See for yourself.” As he spoke, Jos took out the Sword of Separation, Ea, from the system backpack and tossed it to Laura.

“Hey, hey, hey?! What are you doing?!”

Watching Jos casually throw away a weapon powerful enough to tear through space, Laura hurriedly caught the Sword of Separation, alarmed.

“Wait... This... I can’t sense any power from it at all?” Holding the sword, Laura immediately sensed something was off, turning to Jos in confusion.

Jos merely shrugged and admitted, “Exactly, it has no power. It’s just for show.”

Everyone knows: items produced by the system are either utterly useless or extremely useful.

That’s not a mistake—it’s a statement.

The Ea in Laura’s hand, whether in appearance, material, or the aura it exuded, was indistinguishable from the original even to the most ancient connoisseur at first glance.

Yet it possessed no power.

During his previous hundred draws, aside from the Super Saiyan wig, Jos had acquired nearly forty similar items—the very batch he used to intimidate Apocalypse.

According to Jos’s understanding, these should be categorized as “cosplay props”—they held no power but looked impressively high-class.

He’d always thought Apocalypse’s insistence on recruiting him and his companions as knights was suspicious. Apocalypse liked shaving heads, but in that situation, why would he suddenly recruit enemies on the battlefield?

Moreover, after the three had inflicted such heavy wounds on Apocalypse, his momentum only grew. With those factors combined, most people would have buckled under such pressure.

But Jos was different. He knew the plot, and even though things had been wildly altered, some truths remained unchanged.

For example, Apocalypse’s current power clearly wasn’t as overwhelming as it appeared. If he could destroy a city with a gesture, why bother recruiting Jos and his friends?

Piece by piece, the clues led Jos to suspect Apocalypse was, in fact, burning out—the flicker before extinction. If they could just endure, Apocalypse would be powerless to harm them.

Unfortunately, in their state at the time, it was impossible to survive Apocalypse’s final wave. So Jos chose another path.

He decided to perform.

If Apocalypse could act, so could he.

Super Saiyan wig, Eight Gates red steam card, glowing Rinnegan contact lenses... Jos donned every usable item he had just drawn, and sure enough, it stunned Apocalypse!

As for the final “Sunshine Over All,” that came from another peculiarly drawn ability:

[Name: Cheap Special Effects]
[Rarity: R]
[Effect: For five cents per second, allows a target to see an extremely low-quality special effects animation.]

[ps: Don’t ask about the five-cent exchange rate.]

Jos hadn’t considered using this skill at first. Though it sounded like an illusion ability—a decent one—the phrase “extremely low-quality” exposed its true nature.

It was guaranteed to be seen through instantly, with effects so poor they were laughable.

It might create a humanoid illusion, but end up as a Minecraft blocky figure instead.

Yet, for an all-encompassing white light, such an effect posed no problem, since the requirement was so simple.

Thus, Apocalypse witnessed the world submerged in blinding white light.

Meanwhile, Jos removed all his props, had Black pull Laura from the ground, and the three fled at full speed.

Originally, Jos had planned to use the performance to buy time. With their pace, thirty minutes would put dozens of kilometers between them and Apocalypse, who’d never find them.

Even Jos hadn’t expected Apocalypse to ultimately abandon his body, forcibly transfer his mental form, and revive somewhere else in the world.

Of course, there was another possibility: Apocalypse had, without Jos realizing, dragged him into a psychic battlefield—just as happened when Jos fought Charles.

But Jos had no way to verify it. So, true or false, he simply responded the same way.

The outcome was perfect: Jos got his reward, and Apocalypse wouldn’t be causing trouble anytime soon.

As for the future?

Even if Apocalypse returned at full strength, Earth still had the Phoenix and the Sentinel to teach him humility. That had nothing to do with Jos.

“In short... that’s how it happened.” Jos carefully explained the situation to Laura and Black.

“That really was lucky...” Laura looked exhausted, clearly drained mentally.

“Yeah, let’s rest for a bit first, then figure out how to get back to the States.”

“How are we supposed to rest... in this situation?” Laura frowned at Jos, only to find he was already asleep!

A master of sleeping—a terrifying talent!