Chapter 17 - Episode 3. Silver Restraint (1)
Chapter 17: Episode 3. Silver Restraint (1)
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“What does someone who has never even entered Chaos know about the Great Realm? ...What? Of course I have never been there either.”
- Gainak, Lord of Sloth.
* * *
The next morning, Jaehwan learned many things from Mino.
She told him about the hunters prowling nearby, the region’s unique monsters called “Horned Beasts,” and even the locations of rocks so heavily covered in moss that they were difficult to leap across.
Yet those were not what Jaehwan wanted to know most.
“Tell me about yourself.”
Mino stopped speaking, looking confused.
“What do you mean?”
Jaehwan spoke again, carefully enunciating every word.
“About when you cleared the Tower of Nightmares. I want to hear that story.”
It was a lonely journey. There was still a long road ahead and plenty of time to spare, so it was only natural to bring up a new topic. Mino gave a playful smile.
“You already know, don’t you? You came from the Tower of Nightmares too.”
“I did until yesterday.”
“...Do I really have to tell you?”
Mino lightly furrowed her brow.
It was only natural. Nobody wanted to remember the days when they had been a Product.
Perhaps that was why more people referred to the 《Tower of Nightmares》 indirectly as the “Root” of the Tree of Illusion, rather than calling it the Tower of Nightmares.
Eight years had passed since Mino cleared the Tower of Nightmares, yet she still had nightmares from time to time.
Dreams of surviving the “Root” of that damned 《Tree of Illusion》.
“If you want to hear it as repayment for saving me.”
“...Fine. You seem like the sort of person who would take back the life you saved if I did not repay you.”
Mino paused as if choosing her words, then began her story.
“Arcal. That is the name of the place where I was born.”
Ten years ago, the 《Tower of Nightmares》 appeared in World 7651, Mino’s homeworld.
She no longer remembered exactly what the Tower looked like.
All she remembered was that, just as the world she had lived in was ordinary, the Tower that came to her world had also been ordinary.
A mass-produced Tower of Nightmares, built for large-scale cultivation.
Still, just because the Tower was mass-produced did not mean the lives and deaths people experienced inside were mass-produced too.
Every death there was real.
Every pain there was real.
Then, on the hundredth floor they had reached through a miracle...
Mino and her companions from home met the “demon,” the Tower’s Cultivator.
Even now, Mino could not forget what the demon said after casually looking them over with bored eyes. Those words that dismissed their lives and deaths as “garbage.”
“Ah, this is troublesome. Every one of you is a Non-Adapter.”
A dense deciduous forest swayed in the wind, its lush leaves rustling. It was a deep forest where they could easily lose their way. Jaehwan spoke.
“What happened after that?”
Mino bit her lip. She did not seem willing to continue, so Jaehwan asked again.
“Is it hard for you to say more?”
“...It will not be a very interesting story.”
“That is fine.”
“It is just an obvious story. An ordinary girl leaves the Root, then gets knocked around again and again in the 《Great Realm》. It is that kind of common story.”
Mino still could not forget the joy she felt when she first set foot in the 《Great Realm》.
At the time, the demon had said this:
“Money and education are meaningless in the Great Realm. The only thing of value there is a higher ‘number.’”
The promised land of opportunity she had finally reached after escaping a long nightmare. Mino thought everything would finally work out.
She thought all that remained was to live comfortably with the items and skills she had acquired in the Tower.
She had been wrong.
“S-Save me!”
“Run, Mino!”
“Please, please!”
Amid a downpour of blood and a feast of death, Mino had to watch the companions beside her die in real time.
A world where money and education were meaningless.
In one sense, that was true. But it did not mean the Great Realm were the “utopia” the demon had always described.
“I have to grow stronger. More, more, stronger.”
There, Mino had to gather skills instead of money and build up spiritual power instead of education. A higher Adaptation Count took the place of one’s background.
More.
Higher.
Stronger.
Yet Mino was a Non-Adapter, someone who did not fit any of those modifiers. She was at the bottom of the food chain, with weak skills and little spiritual power.
Cannon fodder on the battlefield.
A plaything for high-ranking Adapters.
Death, or a life worse than death.
Mino had always been the one who ran away, again and again.
She fell silent after reaching that point, staring up at the sky. Jaehwan did not say anything.
“You already know the rest. Everyone who comes to 《Chaos》 has the same obvious circumstances.”
“...”
“You can be cruel too. Making someone you just met tell a story like this.”
“I am sorry. I really wanted to hear it.”
What Jaehwan had been curious about was not Mino’s story.
He simply wanted to know the typical story of an Adapter who had cleared the Tower of Nightmares.
It had turned into something cruel for Mino, but it was too late to take it back by criticizing his own lack of tact.
No, perhaps he had become someone who could never be tactful again.
“...It is fine. Let us call it repayment for the favor. Maybe because it has been so long since I talked about it, it is not as hard as I thought. I guess time really has passed.”
After finishing her story, Mino looked relieved instead. Like someone turning the final page of a long novel they had left untouched for ages.
One forest ended, and another began.
Instead of the thick-leaved deciduous forest, they entered a sparse evergreen forest with thin leaves. Mino spoke as if she had been waiting for it.
“Then it is your turn now.”
“My turn?”
“It should be fair. I told you mine, so you should tell me yours.”
“You said that was repayment for saving you. Was that not the end of it?”
“Hm? What are you talking about? I do not remember that.”
Jaehwan narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Are you still curious about who I am?”
“I just want to hear your story.”
It depended on how one put it. In a sense, what made up a person’s identity was their story. Listen to a person’s story, and their identity naturally revealed itself.
Jaehwan thought the word fox suited this woman better than it did the Red Foxes.
“Did you forget? I told you I do not remember.”
“You really do not remember? From what I can tell, you do not seem to be an Abyss Powerhouse. Did the shock of entering Chaos make you lose your memories?”
“Something like that.”
He answered as he pleased, but it was not exactly wrong.
Jaehwan had come here while out of his mind, and that was why he knew nothing about this place.
But Mino’s expression grew strange at his answer.
It was like...
“If that is true...”
She looked like someone who truly envied another person.
“That is something to envy.”
“What?”
“I really envy you, the you who has no memories.”
“What is there to envy about amnesia?”
“Most people here would probably envy you.”
“Why?”
“That is...”
In the distance, something like the spires of a fortress began to appear. Great battlements came into view through the thinning evergreen leaves. Their destination was close now. Jaehwan asked.
“Is that the 《Great Realm》?”
“...What kind of nonsense is that?”
“A demon told me. It said that after graduating from the Tower, people would live in the 《Great Realm》 as subordinates of the Lords.”
Mino blinked at Jaehwan for a while as if she found him absurd, then asked,
“Was what the demon told you wrong?”
“No, it was not wrong, but... I think you are seriously mistaken about something.”
“...?”
“Good grief. It looks like you have forgotten not only your memories of entering 《Chaos》, but your memories of the 《Great Realm》 too.”
“What do you mean?”
Mino’s expression had changed before he knew it. Pointing at the battlements, she said,
“I will say it again. This is not the 《Great Realm》, it is 《Chaos》... And that place is called Gorgon Fortress. It is the largest fortress around here.”
Looking at the magnificent fortress, Jaehwan felt a little strange.
There were people here too, people who formed groups and communities, built fortresses, and lived together. At the very least, this land must have guaranteed a minimal environment for survival.
“Do people not emerge directly into the Great Realm after clearing the Tower of Nightmares?”
“Usually, they do.”
“Then why am I in 《Chaos》? And you...”
Mino’s eyes trembled at that moment, as if pleading with him not to ask that question.
“Why did you come here?”
Mino slowly closed and opened her eyes. The cold air lingered around them as though time flowed much more slowly for her alone.
“I am answering because I am assuming your amnesia is real. So...”
She wore an expression Jaehwan had never seen before.
“Never ask anyone else that question. Why are we in 《Chaos》? Once you understand what you asked, you will regret it deeply.”
After saying that, Mino strode ahead.
The long stretch of woodland ended completely, revealing enormous medieval-style walls in their full glory.
Jaehwan had never seen a fortress that large anywhere.
Even Atopos, built by humanity pooling its strength on the fiftieth floor of the Tower, was no more than a rural village compared to that fortress.
The colorful patterns carved along the outer walls and the traces of repairs showed that the fortress had a long history.
Jaehwan stared at the walls for some time. When he finally lowered his gaze, he saw an unusual sight near the entrance.
A place where a massive circular magic formation had been drawn.
The moment Jaehwan saw it, he stopped walking. He knew a similar place.
That was...
“Ugh, I-I do not want to die!”
“Save me! Save me!”
It had the exact same structure as the “Summoning Ground” on the first floor of the 《Tower of Nightmares》.
Naked people trembled atop the shabby magic formation. Some clutched their chests and cried, while others groaned in pain. Their faces were miserable, as if they had suffered a fatal attack.
Others looked peaceful, as though they were asleep.
A chill ran down his spine.
Everyone wore different expressions, yet all their faces could be described by the same expression.
And Jaehwan knew very well when people made those faces.
The circular magic formation glowed, and more people appeared upon it. Naked people, soaked in fear and trembling violently.
Screams, shrieks, a distant loneliness and despair...
Goosebumps slowly rose along his spine.
“Do you understand now? What you asked me?”
Mino spoke in an indescribably pained voice.
“...Do not ask anyone here why they came to 《Chaos》.”
As she spoke, Mino took a dagger from her clothes and lightly cut the tip of her little finger. Silver droplets gathered on her fingertip, then scattered and fell through the air.
The droplets soon turned into particles of light and vanished.
In this world, souls scattered as silver particles.
It was not a particularly surprising fact. Jaehwan had known it in the Tutorial Game, and he had seen it here too while killing Red Foxes.
Because it was not surprising, Jaehwan had completely forgotten.
That bodies were matter that bled, spilled their entrails, and died miserably.
That they never scattered into silver dust.
Only then did Jaehwan realize the truth of this world.
“I see. The people of this world are already...”
Mino nodded at Jaehwan, who looked toward the Summoning Ground with sorrowful eyes.
“Welcome. To the world of the dead, 《Chaos》.”
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion