Chapter 143 - Episode 20. God of Yesterday (7)
Chapter 143: Episode 20. God of Yesterday (7)
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Watching Jaehwan's vote count rise at an incredible speed, the members of Terrorist were in a festive mood.
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Current count: 65.11%
1st, Arteina: 435,231 votes
2nd, Jaehwan: 361,501 votes
3rd, Rene: 167,631 votes
4th, Runald: 54,465 votes
5th, Rayray: 10,381 votes
6th, Gale: 543 votes
7th, Pilgrim: 321 votes
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"Whooooo!"
"I knew you'd pull it off, Naked Stab!"
"If we unite behind him, we can win this."
Cheers erupted everywhere.
Runald shouted Jaehwan's name until his throat hurt. He did not know what had happened, but Jaehwan had pulled it off again.
Still, a corner of Runald's heart felt empty.
"That Plant is next."
"Yes!"
The voices of the Anonymous Gods came from behind him.
Runald clenched his fist without realizing it.
I wanted to help too.
"Runald," Andersen said. "You're not a god. There are things you can't do."
He knew. Yet knowing did not mean he could simply say, "I understand," and accept it.
He was Jaehwan's only Follower.
"Andersen-nim, you feel it too, don't you?"
Runald could not simply let this feeling, the one his only god must be feeling, pass him by.
Why was his god still so lonely, even at a moment like this?
Runald hurriedly looked for Jaehwan, but Jaehwan was nowhere to be seen.
That was when a new System message appeared.
[The current public opinion of the candidates will be revealed!]
"Public opinion?"
"Everyone, be careful. This isn't just public opinion..."
Before Rene could finish her warning, a flood of messages poured from the sky.
「You're just a ■ copying Sirwen.」
「Stop that ■ broadcast.」
「Amazing that such a third-rate broadcast made it this far.」
「Feels good to leech off Naked Stab?」
Rene's expression hardened first. Then the gods began to stagger.
Runald instantly recognized what this was.
It was a kind of Prayer Flood Wave.
「Is Rayray a stutterer?」
「They acted all high and mighty back in Yesterday, and now they're getting taught a lesson.」
The God of Flash, Rayray, hunched their narrow shoulders even further.
「You dragon-fetishist ■.」
Pilgrim, Drake's Vicegerent, groaned.
「A lackey of some mid-grade god dares show up on the Seventh Floor?」
The mid-grade god Gale's face turned red.
Blatant insults and false rumors poured from the sky.
Public opinion shifted in step with them.
[‘Anonymous God 755’ asks whether that is true.]
[‘Anonymous God 548’ demands an explanation from Rene.]
"Ah, that's..."
"Wait. I never said anything like that."
Whenever they explained one thing, another accusation appeared. Some even took issue with the way they explained themselves.
「Are you getting annoyed right now?」
"No, that's not..."
「You made a little trust and now you think you're above everyone else?」
The barrage of criticism finally reached Runald.
「Someone like you is Naked Stab's Follower?」
「If it were me, I'd leave on my own. Get off on this floor if you have any conscience.」
「I looked up this guy's Tower of Nightmares record. He's a total nobody.」
At first, Runald responded with a smile. Before long, he wanted to cover his ears.
"Hey, Runald, get a hold of yourself!"
Andersen flew over in a hurry, beating her wings wildly as she shouted.
"Hey. Block the messages! Tell them to stop already!"
[You want us to stop? Already?]
A voice came from somewhere.
[Does this look like something that can simply be stopped?]
Andersen immediately realized who the voice belonged to.
[Did you want to become the King of the Seventh Floor with such flimsy resolve?]
"Arteina!"
Andersen snarled.
Arteina was the God of Yesterday, the one King who lived while hearing the voices of every god among the millions gathered here.
The king's face appeared on the screen.
[What you have heard is only a tiny fraction of the messages I receive. And you already want to give up?]
Only then did the members of Terrorist seem to realize what they had wanted to become.
"We have to hear this every day?"
[‘Anonymous God 511’ mocks the members of Terrorist.]
[‘Anonymous God 675’ asks whether they wanted to become king without even that much resolve.]
Runald's body slowly tilted beneath the flood of messages.
All kinds of Prayers gnawed at his soul, bringing pain so intense that his head felt ready to burst.
「Release new Parts. They're too expensive.」
「Your service management is terrible. Are you taking my trust and running?」
「Lower the gacha prices! Lower the gacha prices! Lower the gacha prices!」
Runald staggered and muttered.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."
A large hand caught Runald before he collapsed.
The instant it touched him, the messages surging into his ears vanished completely.
"That's enough."
It was Jaehwan.
Arteina's voice rang out.
[You were the one who started this, weren't you, Naked Stab?]
"What did I start?"
[Didn't you destroy my Cocoons as you pleased? And didn't you corrupt them by filling them with strange ideas?]
"I didn't do anything. They chose to live in Today themselves."
[They chose to live in Today?]
Arteina suddenly began to chuckle.
The king's gaze on the massive screen turned toward the Anonymous Gods who had left home.
[Gods. Was the Yesterday we shared really so insignificant?]
"Shut up! You were exploiting us!"
"If you had done your job properly, we'd still be in Yesterday too!"
[Exploiting you? Me?]
Arteina tilted her head as if she had heard something truly strange.
A moment later, the screen showed Arteina working diligently. The gods receiving Yesterday's services smiled happily.
Each scene came from the Yesterday of a god who had now chosen to live in Today.
"That's me..."
"Who said we wanted to see that crap?"
"We're never going back!"
Arteina asked them.
[Let us live diligently in Today. It sounds nice. But everyone, did you live diligently in Yesterday?]
"You made us helpless!"
[You could have lived diligently in Yesterday as much as you wished. No one forced you to become helpless.]
As if in response, the Prayer Flood Wave poured down from the sky.
「Today becomes Yesterday tomorrow too, you ■ gods.」
「Do they think they're the only ones who figured it out?」
[Do you truly think you can live in Today now?]
「They're definitely regretting it already.」
[To live in Today, you must have lived properly in Yesterday as well. Only then can you live properly tomorrow. But do you truly think there is such a thing as Today for people like you, who could not even live properly in Yesterday without me?]
「Are you really going to throw away everything you pulled from gacha draws?」
「We'll be grateful if you leave all your items behind.」
Perhaps remembering what they had left behind in Yesterday, the gods' expressions began to waver.
The Gods of Today were wavering.
[Come to your senses. For a moment, you may feel liberated, as if you have attained enlightenment. But you will soon learn what the 《Abyss》 is truly like. Have you forgotten? Driven into ruthless competition, you will eventually fall behind again.]
A few gods trembled and shouted that it was not true.
Their voices were too quiet to be properly heard.
Arteina continued.
[Exhausted by competition, you will begin to think the old days were better. You will seek comfort and long for this place again. When that time comes, you will think to yourselves: What if I had stayed in Yesterday?]
The moment Arteina finished speaking, several gods screamed and ran back toward their Cocoons.
They had become afraid.
As if driving in the final nail, Arteina continued.
[You do not need to live so diligently. That is not the entirety of happiness. Please cherish your Yesterday.]
A heavy silence settled over them.
Within that silence, the gods thought. They weighed the Yesterday they had lived against the value of the Today they had chosen.
They hesitated.
Could I live in Today? Had I been intoxicated by a momentary realization and made the wrong choice?
"You're right."
The gods lingering near Jaehwan all turned to look at him.
They had come this far trusting Jaehwan alone.
They expected him to refute Arteina on their behalf.
Jaehwan's response was unexpected.
"Those who want to go back can go back. I never expected much from you anyway."
The flustered gods looked at one another.
Jaehwan continued.
"I have nothing to give you for staying by my side. I'm not your babysitter. Managing your Worldviews, gathering Followers, buying Parts, that crap is all yours to deal with. If you prefer someone else doing it for you, go back."
Jaehwan knew better than anyone that there was no use telling people to live in Today a hundred times.
It had been the same when he stabbed alone.
"Doing that Stab day after day won't change anything."
"If it were me, I'd spend that time looking for good skills."
Every one of those people had been deceived by the [Stone of Regression] and fallen into a Dream Demon's dream, just as the Anonymous Gods were doing now.
「Ha! Naked Stab never admits he's wrong.」
「He goes around smashing everything while pretending to look for his friend, but he's cold as hell.」
「His friend probably got sold off to the gods and died already.」
Jaehwan ignored the words coming through the Prayer Flood Wave and looked over the remaining gods instead.
Most of those here did not know how to live in Today.
That was why he had taught them his Stab.
So they could at least do that and try to live in Today.
"I can't do anything for those who stay here. You've only lived diligently for ten years and barely managed to fall into the illusion that you're living in Today."
The gods' belief that they were living properly was only an illusion given to them by the Today they had just escaped into from their garbage Yesterday.
Real Today was made by enduring and piling up that hellish day, every single day.
"Living tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, as if they were Today is up to you. Of course, there are hardly any people who can do that. You're all soft, and you'll go back to living like trash. Only those who are fine with that should stay here."
At those words, several gods turned away as if they had made up their minds.
They abandoned Today and chose Yesterday again.
Others seemed to burn with even greater resolve after hearing Jaehwan's words.
Jaehwan watched them for a moment.
Few among them would remain until the end. Even those who did would have difficulty finding anything greater than what they had given up.
Jaehwan silently looked up at the sky.
Arteina was right.
The gods who stayed in Yesterday might be happier than the gods who lived in Today.
"But there is one thing I can promise."
Perhaps that was why he sought this world's end.
"To those who remain in Yesterday."
Rumble.
Arteina sensed the energy pouring from Jaehwan's entire body and sharply asked,
[What are you planning to do?]
"It's simple. Like you said, Today becomes Yesterday once tomorrow comes."
Jaehwan slowly drew Dokbul.
"You will all die in that Yesterday."
The murmurs of the Anonymous Gods mixed into the Prayer Flood Wave.
「No way.」
「That can't be true. No matter how crazy he is.」
「Try stabbing. Try stabbing.」
The power of Fall gathered over Jaehwan's Dokbul as it slowly began to burn.
[Are you serious? You must know what will happen if you do that.]
Jaehwan did not answer Arteina.
[The Seventh Floor has continued for thousands of years. It is not a world you can control just because your feelings were hurt.]
"Then try stopping me yourself."
[That...]
"You can't."
The increasingly desperate Anonymous Gods changed their messages and pressed Arteina.
[‘Anonymous God 481’ asks if he is threatening them right now.]
[‘Anonymous God 528’ says it is all a bluff.]
[‘Anonymous God 849’ says he cannot win the election if he kills them anyway.]
[‘Anonymous God 510’ asks Arteina whether she is just going to let this happen.]
...
The gods were not the only ones trying to stop Jaehwan.
"Please stop."
Jaehwan looked at Rene as she staggered toward him.
"If you cross that line, you won't be able to come back. If you kill that many gods, you will become a public enemy of the 《Abyss》."
"..."
"No, becoming an enemy isn't the important part. You can't possibly live properly after doing something like that. Not even you could bear that kind of sin."
Dark shadows hung beneath Rene's eyes as the Prayer Flood Wave tormented her in real time.
Jaehwan understood.
Rene was stopping him now because she knew what was right.
Jaehwan knew it too.
Someone would surely make a different choice from his.
There would be someone who carefully distinguished good from evil, forgave every god, and tried to save them all together.
"You must be a good god."
At the way he spoke as though he knew who Rene was, her shoulders flinched.
Jaehwan smiled faintly.
"But I didn't come this far to become someone like that."
Jaehwan's Dokbul moved.
Rene's cry, the gods' shouts, and Arteina's words mixed together.
[Don't worry. That person cannot harm you. The Seventh Floor does not permit such terrorism. You belong to my State, to Yesterday. No matter what happens, I will...]
Then Arteina's voice disappeared.
In the next moment, everyone there understood.
Something that had never happened before in 〈Metaverse〉 was unfolding right before their eyes.
Ironically, the last to realize it were the Gods of Yesterday, who still could not believe the reality before them.
The world of the Seventh Floor began to split in a perfectly straight line along Jaehwan's sword strike.
A short while later, a sound announced the Today that every god in 〈Metaverse〉 would never forget.
[A total of 197,412 gods have died on 〈Metaverse〉's Seventh Floor.]
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