Chapter 168 - Episode 23. Driver (2)
Chapter 168: Episode 23. Driver (2)
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Anyone who wished to reach the top of the Tower had to kill everyone else on the Ninth Floor.
Rene shouted.
“How can that be a thing?!”
The startled Allies looked at one another.
Until now, they had been Companions in the sense that they had forged a bond. They could only overcome hardship by joining forces, and the fact that they had reached the Ninth Floor was proof that their unity had held firm in its own way.
But what about now?
Would any of them willingly die to send someone else to the Tenth Floor?
That was when messages rang out through the air.
[The 《Little Brother》 System has been restored.]
[The Ninth Floor broadcast has resumed.]
Rene’s drones had not been repaired yet. That meant someone other than Rene was broadcasting this place.
Yet no one among the Allies appeared capable of doing so.
In other words, the one who had opened the channel might not have been a passenger in this room.
Jaehwan quietly looked up at the Ninth Floor’s ceiling.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ asks what just happened.]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ asks what happened.]
[Multiple gods demand an explanation.]
Messages flew in from every direction, loud enough to make it seem as if the channel would burst apart.
[The Dragon God ‘Droyan’ asks what happened to Chronos.]
[The God of Aging ‘Shiyu’ asks whether Catastrophe really just appeared.]
No one answered the gods. Every passenger on the Ninth Floor was already struggling just to accept the Task before them.
Only then did the gods realize something was wrong and begin studying the passengers’ reactions.
[The ‘Driver’ reveals the Ninth Floor Task details to the gods.]
Jaehwan narrowed his eyes.
The Driver. That bastard was likely the one who had opened the channel in Rene’s place and brought the gods into the broadcast.
The gods had varied reactions after hearing the Task details.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ questions whether there is any reason to issue such a Task.]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ thinks it is a good Task for realizing true existence.]
Some gods reacted negatively, while others welcomed it with delight. Most of them seemed to be expecting something to happen.
[Multiple gods are interested in the slaughter that will occur on the Ninth Floor.]
[Multiple gods expect the ‘God Slayer’ to begin a new slaughter!]
[Some gods wonder what choice the ‘God Slayer’ will make.]
[Some gods declare that it is time to end this show.]
The gods knew as well.
Jaehwan was the strongest on the Ninth Floor. The lives and deaths of the Ninth Floor’s passengers would change depending on his choice.
Manri Shintong and Rene flinched when Jaehwan looked their way, each taking a step back.
The Leader spoke.
“They will fear you now.”
Even if they had formed some bond while fighting together, not many would give their lives for Jaehwan. Of course, Karlton looked as though he would gladly die for him.
After watching the Allies for a moment, Jaehwan spoke to the Leader.
“Did you kill your Companions and go to the next floor?”
The Leader did not answer.
Looking at the Leader’s Companions trapped inside the glass capsules, Jaehwan continued.
“Some of them must have died here on the Ninth Floor.”
“My Companions agreed to it. They thought that if I met the Driver, I could revive everyone who had died, including them.”
“But you could not revive them.”
“One visit was not enough.”
“Would it be possible if you reached the Tenth Floor again?”
“I wanted to find out, but I was just denied that chance.”
The world called the Leader the King of the 〈Metaverse〉, but that was not the truth.
If anything, the opposite was true. He was someone more bound by the 〈Metaverse〉 than anyone else, a passenger who could never get off this bus.
The Leader took a dry cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
“The gods of 《Little Brother》 like stories about people like you. You are one who breaks the rules. You remind them of what they dreamed of long ago.”
He casually exhaled, and smoke and ash scattered through the air.
“But that kind of arrogant performance is only allowed as long as it does not threaten the gods. No matter how strong you are, unless you become one of the Seven Divine Thrones, it will not be easy to survive after making the public opinion of the 《Abyss》 your enemy. After summoning Catastrophe, if you keep acting as you have, the gods will see you as a threat and try to eliminate you. That is why you must see the end of this Tower. At the end of this Tower, obtain the reward you seek. For that reward…”
The Leader ground his cigarette into the floor and looked at Jaehwan with blazing eyes.
“Kill them.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Do not be bound by shallow affection. Become a true god. The people you met here are only virtual ties formed in the 〈Metaverse〉. You did not truly feel a bond with cowards who connect through Vicegerents and Dolls, did you? Do you really think they have formed a proper relationship with you?”
Jaehwan looked at the Allies again.
Martis and Runald wore determined expressions.
Even if they wore the same expression, could anyone truly say Martis’s resolve and Runald’s resolve were the same?
“The gods will lose nothing more than a Vicegerent or a Doll here. This Tower was created for the gods’ amusement. A game must not threaten the existence of its players. Everything in this world is fake. Accept that fact.”
The Leader took miniature models of the Tower from his pocket.
The First Floor, the Second Floor, the Third Floor, the Fourth Floor… Within the models, gods were enjoying their adventures. They imitated human emotions, crying, laughing, rejoicing, and grieving. At times, they even killed one another’s Dolls.
“To reach the upper floors of this world, you must learn the human heart. But only those who discard those emotions once more can reach the final floor.”
Those who could abandon human emotions even after understanding them, then silently pursue the ‘end.’
This Tower had been created to produce such Seekers.
A Tower that cultivated true Seekers by building up an elaborate framework of ‘falsehood.’
This world was the 〈Metaverse〉.
For thousands of years, only a few powerful beings had realized it and seen the Tower’s end.
Mulack, the Rupture Lord, the Leader. And now it was Jaehwan’s turn.
The Leader smiled.
With the gaze of someone watching a new superhuman of the Abyss being born, and the expression of an old racehorse that could no longer run, the Leader spoke.
“Kill me. That will be the beginning.”
Despite the Leader’s solemn voice, Jaehwan only wiped Dokbul’s blade, as though he was done staining it with blood.
“Is the ceiling here sturdy?”
“What?”
At the distant end of the sky, Jaehwan was staring at a ceiling whose true height he could not even guess.
Perhaps the Leader had read Jaehwan’s thoughts. He glared at Jaehwan in disbelief for a moment.
“That is impossible.”
“How do you know?”
“I tried it myself. Do not think it will work this time just because you made it to the Sixth Floor by luck.”
“How many years did you try?”
The Leader was about to answer without thinking, then asked back with an expression as though he had seen something strange.
“Time has no meaning. Stabbing the sea for a hundred years will not split it apart.”
“It will split.”
“Are you insane?”
“You decide the answer before even asking the question, then why do you go on about sophistry like Big Question and small questions?”
The Leader was silent for a moment before gritting his teeth.
“Even if you strike it for a thousand years, the ceiling will not break.”
“If a thousand years is not enough, then two thousand. If two thousand is not enough, then ten thousand. Will you call something impossible without even trying that much?”
Anyone who heard Jaehwan’s words would have called them unreasonable.
No one would waste ten thousand years trying to break a ceiling. This world had not been made for that.
“Do not be ridiculous. Most of those passengers are gods who will not truly die even if you kill them. Will you spend ten thousand years for people like that? What you are doing has no meaning.”
“Did you break out of the 《Tower of Nightmares》 just to find an answer like that?”
Rage filled the Leader’s eyes. He still looked as though he wanted to say it was unreasonable, that it was impossible.
But the Leader did not know.
Jaehwan had forced that kind of impossibility forward for a very long time, and that was how he had finally reached this place.
Jaehwan turned to the Allies.
“I do not need your lives.”
Dokbul pointed toward the ceiling.
“I will go up with my own strength.”
Then the Stabs began.
Once, twice, three times. Rays of light from Dokbul began striking the ceiling. As though knocking on a door that would not open, Jaehwan stabbed again and again with his sword.
Yet most of his World Force had been exhausted in the fierce battle against the Leader, so Jaehwan’s Stabs did not possess the same overwhelming power as before.
Just as the Leader was about to speak again, someone stepped beside Jaehwan.
“I practiced a lot, Jaehwan-nim.”
Runald stabbed toward the ceiling with perfect accuracy.
The tall, handsome blond man standing beside the child smiled.
“This reminds me of what happened in Chaos.”
As though he had always known Jaehwan would make this choice, Karlton was already repeatedly stabbing toward the ceiling.
Martis did the same.
“I will be with you for a hundred years or a thousand. I cannot promise ten thousand.”
Of course, not a single mark appeared on the pure white ceiling.
Manri Shintong and Rene stepped forward next.
“It has been a long time since this old man tried Stabs.”
“I’ll help too.”
Finally, Jin Eunsae quietly approached and began stabbing beside Jaehwan without a word.
Jaehwan, Runald, Karlton, Manri Shintong, Rene, Martis, Jin Eunsae.
Some among them were gods, some were Vicegerents, and some were Awakened Ones.
They had lived different histories, and it was difficult to find any point where their paths had crossed. Their shared history was too brief to call it a bond. In fact, they had lived through years where it would not have been strange for them to meet as enemies.
Even so, they all stabbed toward the sky together.
Shallow ties that could not form any shared understanding, people who had only met in the 〈Metaverse〉 and could betray one another at any time.
Yet instead of raising their swords against one another, they aimed them at the world. Together, they decided to break this unbreakable world.
That alone was a miracle that could not happen in this 《Abyss》, a Prayer that could never be answered.
They might ultimately fail. Some would give up, and after falling into despair, they might betray one another.
Even so, they were stabbing toward the sky now.
The Leader stared blankly at the Allies.
A soft flutter of wings sounded through the air.
“Are you not sick of moving only in the direction the Driver drives?”
After saying that, Andersen flew into the sky. Then she began stabbing at the ceiling with her crow’s beak.
[Multiple gods are greatly flustered by the passengers’ actions!]
[Some gods frown at the passengers’ actions!]
Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. Time passed in an instant.
One hour, then two.
One by one, the exhausted Allies collapsed onto the floor.
Yet while everyone else fell, Jaehwan alone remained firm. His face did not waver even an inch. He looked as though he believed he could definitely break through that ‘wall.’
That was why those who saw his expression had no choice but to believe as well.
That something truly existed beyond this point. That Jaehwan had already seen it, and that the ‘end’ of this world truly existed in his world.
So their Prayer could never fail.
“Uaaah!”
Runald forced himself back to his feet and stabbed again with his sword.
Karlton, Jin Eunsae, and Martis did the same.
Bright light burst one after another from the Allies’ entire bodies. They continued stabbing even as they spent trust. The sound of enormous amounts of trust vanishing into the air echoed, as though they were casting aside everything they had gained in the Tower.
The Leader staggered to his feet and stretched out a hand toward them, muttering.
“It is useless. Your World Force will eventually run dry, and you will despair. No one will cheer for you.”
“That Prayer will not be answered.”
“The end of this fight will ultimately...”
Then, in the next moment.
[An anonymous Vicegerent has sponsored Jaehwan with 500 trust.]
Someone had answered the gods’ Prayer.
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