After what felt like hours, Ninten set Claus' head down and forced himself to stand up. He could keep mourning later, but the world couldn't afford to wait any longer.

"Hey," came Lucas' voice.

Ninten turned around to see Lucas and Kumatora walking towards him. Kumatora flashed a weak smile while Lucas looked down at Claus' body with silent tears running down his cheeks.

"Wait," Ninten said. "How did you-"

"Kumatora played dead," Lucas said, "And then fed me a cup of Lifenoodles."

Ninten blinked.

"Enhanced with PSI to give the body a full recovery," Kumatora said. "We have some crazy shit here on the Nowhere Islands."

Lucas knelt down next to Claus and brushed a hand over his brother's face.

"I wish it had been me to bring him back to his senses," Lucas said. "I wish I had been strong enough. But thank you, Ninten. I think that you literally just saved the world."

"Yeah." Kumatora grinned. "I think that Duster and Boney are smiling down on us right now. Thank you for making sure their sacrifice wasn't in vain."

Ninten couldn't explain why those words brought another round of tears to his eyes.

Lucas looked over at the last needle. "I think I'm ready. I…" Lucas chuckled. "I spent so much time thinking about how to get to the last needle that I guess I never really thought about what would happen once I actually got there."

Lucas led Ninten and Kumatora over to the needle, and he walked up and put his hands on the needle. The purple light from the ground illuminated Lucas' body from below, casting him in a dull glow. Lucas closed his eyes. He looked so peaceful, standing there with a serene expression. He could have been sleeping

"This is it," Lucas said. "Time to see if my heart is pure enough to protect all of the life in this world. Time to see if we can really get a second chance."

"You can do it," Ninten said. "You do want a new start for everyone, don't you?"

"Of course," Lucas said, his expression focusing. "I want to protect everyone I can."

"Then you don't have anything to worry about.'

"I… guess I don't." Lucas flashed a nervous smile.

Still, a certain line from Claus bugged Ninten. Not Claus in this playthrough, but the "moderator" Claus who had given Ninten guidance and PSI abilities. Claus said that some people didn't get second chances. What if the whole myth about the Dark Dragon was just that—a myth?

Ninten shook his head. He had come this far believing Kumatora's story about the Dark Dragon. Claus had killed himself to stop his own body from pulling the final needle. The legend had to be real.

"Here goes nothing," Lucas said. After a moment, he laughed. "No. Here goes everything."

Lucas took a deep breath and pulled the needle out of the ground. The ground started to rumble as the golden needle shattered into a million gold specks and vanished into the darkness. Lucas and Kumatora looked at each other, and then closed their eyes. Probably smart. Nothing they could do now. Ninten closed his own eyes, but a deep roar startled them back open.

Lucas' body collapsed to the ground. Kumatora knelt down and placed a hand on the side of Lucas' neck.

"He still has a pulse," she said. "I just hope that the Dark Dragon treats his heart delicately."

Ninten nodded, trying to keep his balance with the ground shaking beneath him.

The next moment, the rumbling stopped. Ninten looked over at Kumatora to see that there was no Kumatora. She and Lucas had vanished from sight, leaving Ninten in the dark.

Ninten took a deep breath. Maybe the cave had just gone dark after the ground around the needle stopped glowing.

"Kumatora?" he said.

In response, shaky white letters started to appear in the air in front of him.

CONGRATULATIONS, NINTEN. YOU MANAGED TO SAVE THE LIVES OF LUCAS, KUMATORA, AND COUNTLESS MORE.

Ninten looked down. Yep, his body was definitely still there. And this time, he could really see the words in front of him instead of having them float in front of his overall consciousness. Still, he could only assume that this was the same process as when he died in game.

LUCAS PASSED HIS HEART TO THE DARK DRAGON, AND THEN THE DRAGON DETROYED THE WORLD AND REMADE IT ANEW.

HE ALSO MANAGED TO PROTECT ALL LIFE ON EARTH.

BUILDINGS FELL.

PIGMASK SUITS FELL TO TATTERS.

YET NOT A SINGLE LIFE WAS HARMED.

THE WORLD WAS REBORN INTO AN ERA OF PEACE

Ninten smiled to himself. He had actually done it.

BUT IT WAS STILL NOT ENOUGH.

Wait, what? Ninten felt the blood drain from his face.

BECAUSE EVEN CREATING A NEW WORLD WASN'T ENOUGH TO STOP THE CYCLE OF SUFFERING.

PEOPLE FORMED BACK INTO NATIONS AND CRUSADED AGAINST OUTSIDERS.

FORMER PIGMASKS REDISCOVERED TECHNOLOGY AND CREATED NEW MACHINES CAPABLE OF EXPLOITNG WORKERS AND DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT.

"No," Ninten said out loud. "I won. I saved all of them."

A voice in the distance laughed at him.

LUCAS WASN'T THE ONE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE.

KUMATORA WASN'T THE ONE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE.

NONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT LUCAS PRESERVED WERE THE ONE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE.

YOU NEEDED TO SAVE ONE PERSON,

AND HE WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT YOU LET DIE.

The back of Ninten's throat went dry. "You mean Claus. But I did save him, earlier."

YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAVE CLAUS.

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE THE MASKED MAN.

Ninten opened his mouth, but no words came out. The distinction between Claus and the Masked Man was horribly unfair for the game to make, but thinking about Ana's haunted eyes as she talked about the possibility of Lucas' death made Ninten's own failure weigh on him more than his anger.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Lucas was supposed to come home safe.

THE MASKED MAN WAS HUMANITY'S ONLY HOPE.

HE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD TRULY STOP THE CYCLE OF SUFFERING.

Suddenly, a realization cut through Ninten's mind, culling his sorrow and anger and replacing them with horror. Ninten understood why he was supposed to save the Masked Man rather than Claus. He understood what the game wanted him to see in Saturn Valley and in the tunnels underneath Seoul, and what it wanted him to with that knowledge.

Even in the world that Lucas created with the Dark Dragon's assistance, there would always be suffering. In any world with human civilization, there would always be suffering. A pure utopia didn't exist. There would be good times, and there would be bad times.

So the only way to stop the bad times and eliminate the cycle of suffering forever was to…

Was to…

Ninten couldn't force himself to say it out loud.

DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE THE MASKED MAN?

"Yes," Ninten said, his own voice sounding distant. "Yes, I do."

For the first time, Ninten let his shoulders slump over in defeat. For the first time, Ninten didn't have a retort ready. Because he finally understood exactly what he was supposed to accomplish in the Nowhere Islands V-game.

And it was something that Ninten would never be able to force himself to do.

YES, NINTEN. I SEE NOW THAT YOU FINALLY UNDERSTAND.

Ninten nodded along, waiting for the words that he knew would come.

YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO HELP LUCAS SAVE THE WORLD.

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP THE MASKED MAN DESTROY IT.