Chapter 182 - Episode 24. Ancient God (7)
Chapter 182: Episode 24. Ancient God (7)
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In the underbelly of 〈Caspion〉, there was a district packed with illegal Sites frequented by the lowest gods of the 《Abyss》.
It was commonly known as Moon’s Shadow.
This was where those who trafficked in Followers or illegal Parts set up their hideouts. Officially, they were all subject to punishment, but none of the high-grade gods here dared touch the “Moon Village.” The profits and conveniences flowing in from Moon’s Shadow were too substantial to ignore.
At the center of Moon’s Shadow stood a woman dressed in black night garb and an old man in a blue robe.
The old man spoke first.
“Damn, this place was hard to find. Are all Rupture branches like this?”
Yu Seolha, the woman in night garb, snapped back in annoyance.
“Master, let me make this clear. I’m not officially cooperating with you. Got it?”
“Hmph. Do you think I want to cooperate with a brat like you?”
“I’m only helping because I need the World Force detector made by a dream demon. Once we find Senior Brother, our deal is over. Understand?”
“Do not forget that Sirwen and I need to enter 〈Caspion〉 first.”
The old man was none other than Cheongheo.
Cheongheo had flown here from the Fifth Site to help Jaehwan, and he had no choice but to borrow Yu Seolha’s help to sneak into 〈Caspion〉.
Unlike Karlton, who was not on any wanted posters and could freely use Warp Gates, Cheongheo and Sirwen had gained enough infamy throughout the 《Abyss》 that they were not permitted to officially enter 〈Caspion〉.
“Who exactly are you chasing?”
“The Leader.”
“The Leader? You mean Siwoon?”
“I definitely saw him flee toward the border, but he vanished in an instant.”
The Leader’s defeat in the 〈Metaverse〉 and subsequent escape had already become well-known even on 《Little Brother》.
Cheongheo chuckled.
“Siwoon was always remarkably good at hiding. Whenever he ran off during training, I would spend the entire day looking for the bastard.”
“You found him on top of the training hall roof in the end. He said it was dark up there. Or was it that it is darkest beneath the lamp?”
“Did Jaehwan really defeat Siwoon?”
“I told you, he did.”
“Then Siwoon must have been slacking off in his training all this time.”
“Senior Brother was still strong. It was the opposite, if anything.”
Yu Seolha hesitated for a moment before adding,
“That bastard became too strong.”
“Hm. So there is a man you acknowledge.”
“It is not like I acknowledge him.”
“Do you perhaps like him?”
“What are you talking about? Someone who walks around naked wherever he pleases?”
“Still, he only takes off his clothes when he needs to.”
“He is always naked, though. Anyway, he is strange.”
That was right. He was strange.
Yet if it had not been for that strange man, Cheongheo would never have met his former Disciple, Yu Seolha, again. He would not have dared to set out on another Abyss Expedition. He would not have reunited with Sirwen, who was hiding aboard the Destruction, concealed above 〈Caspion〉 beneath optical camouflage.
“Cheongheo, are we still far away? Why are you wandering around so much? The airship’s stealth function is broken, so I cannot stay hidden for long.”
“Now, now, hold on just a little longer. And it is not me who is wandering around. It is this brat beside me.”
Yu Seolha let out a quiet sigh as Cheongheo casually dumped all the blame on her.
“In the old days, I would have beaten you senseless the moment I heard that.”
“You will not have it so easy, you arrogant Disciple.”
Over the past two years, Cheongheo had grown explosively, as though he were being compensated for the thousand years he had lost. Not only had he reached the level of 「Hypothesis」 that Jaehwan had once broken through to, he was now strong enough to contend to some extent with Yu Seolha, who had reached the fourth stage of Awakening long ago.
Yu Seolha muttered in a hollow voice.
“That bastard really is something. He made even a master with no talent whatsoever grow this much.”
“What are you talking about? I was amazing from the beginning. In fact, I taught that Jaehwan brat too.”
“Sure you did.”
Cheongheo, who had been joking around, asked,
“Since we are here, let me ask you. Seolha, why exactly are you following Jaehwan around?”
“When did I ever follow him around?”
“Why did you let Jaehwan live?”
“When did I?”
“This Metaverse incident, and what happened two years ago.”
Two years earlier, Yu Seolha had blocked Jaehwan’s path at the passage leading to the 《Abyss》.
“I know very well that you would not lose to Jaehwan in Combat Power. Or was he stronger than I thought?”
“Who knows.”
Jaehwan was certainly strong. No, he had grown strong, to the point that he could not even be compared to when the 「Rupture」 first found him. Now, even within the 「Rupture」, anyone below Division Commander rank would have trouble dealing with him.
Put another way, though, that meant a Division Commander could deal with him well enough.
And Yu Seolha was the Rupture’s Second Division Commander.
She was the wielder of the unique weapon, Thunder Goblin, which had taken the dawn from countless Lords. Whenever her chain scythe moved through the darkness, lightning poured down, and the 《Great Realm》 revered her as the “Dawn That Comes Early.”
She was the terror of the Lords and one of the five strongest fighters in the 「Rupture」. Yet even she had let Jaehwan go two years ago.
“That bastard threatened me with 「Soul Erasure」.”
“……”
“It is true. Even I would hate to lose my Link, right?”
“You saw something.”
“……”
“You saw something in him. A possibility you could not find in the Commanders or the other division commanders. Am I right?”
Yu Seolha did not answer. She only bit her lip quietly.
“Cultivation is only the result. We have to eliminate the cause.”
That was what Jaehwan had told her when she explained the 「Rupture」’s purpose and invited him to join.
They had to eliminate the cause.
It was obvious, an argument that could not be refuted.
But because it was so undeniably correct, it was also impossible.
At that time, he had settled the ending of his own impossible story with these words.
“I will destroy this ‘world.’”
How could someone say something so childish with such a serious face, like the protagonist living alone in his own world?
Perhaps Yu Seolha should have laughed at him then. She should have warned him that it was impossible, that he should stop saying such childish things.
Yet she could not.
“Master, what exactly is a ‘world’?”
“What kind of question is that out of nowhere?”
“Nothing. I suddenly wanted to ask.”
Cheongheo thought for a moment before answering.
“No one knows what it is. The world we can know is exactly as much as we believe it to be.”
There was one truth that every Awakened One who surpassed the fourth stage of Awakening and reached 「Hypothesis」 eventually learned.
The “world” they had experienced until then was no more than one corner of the truth.
Those who barely escaped the limits of humanity and became gods underwent a cognitive revolution. Unlike the third stage of Awakening, which only revealed the truth of the 《System》, humans who became gods through the fourth stage of Awakening were helplessly exposed to a vast sea of information.
It was a sea containing all information, from sight, touch, smell, and taste to the metaphysical and physical. Gods who first underwent this cognitive revolution sometimes became intoxicated, believing they had truly become omniscient beings amid that flood of information.
Before long, though, they fell into despair. They came to understand that they could never control that information.
Information flooded beyond their capacity sank into the gods’ consciousness and threw them into confusion. To avoid going mad within it, gods closed their ears and shut their eyes. They turned away from countless pieces of information and gave up on sensing the enormous “world.”
Gods called this phenomenon Alienation.
Yet Alienation could not be called bad. It was an unavoidable choice for those who wished to preserve their sense of self.
Instead, they confined themselves within the small worlds they created and lived by cultivating those worlds.
Gods gave those “worlds” the following name.
“Unique World.”
“That is right. That is the world we see.”
“But you know that is not all there is.”
Yu Seolha recalled Jaehwan’s Unique World, where corpses imitating humans walked.
It was a world that made her uncomfortable whenever she remembered it. No other Unique World contained anything so grotesque.
Then there was the enormous eye embedded in the sky.
She knew what that eye meant.
‘That bastard could see 《Big Brother》.’
As far as Yu Seolha knew, there was only one person in the entire 《Abyss》 who could sense the existence of 《Big Brother》 through a Worldview. The Rupture Lord.
One day, a Commander had told her this.
“Seolha, overcome 「Alienation」. Then you will be able to see the ‘real thing’ too.”
Yet Jaehwan could see 《Big Brother》 as well. That meant he had overcome 「Alienation」 too.
Yu Seolha was curious.
What kind of world awaited someone who overcame 「Alienation」?
The world of someone who looked upon the terrible 《Big Brother》 and faced it head-on.
Was that world still only one among countless Unique Worlds?
Could she truly say that?
“Could it be over there?”
Cheongheo’s voice broke through her thoughts. At the entrance to a damp alley in Moon Village, there was an antique shop radiating an unusual presence.
“Oh, that is it. We found it.”
They headed straight for the shop.
The moment they opened the door, an old man with a mustache appeared.
“What brings you here?”
“It is me. I came to ask for a favor.”
“What brings you here?”
“It is me, I said.”
“What brings you here?”
Yu Seolha grumbled to herself for a moment, then spoke in a slightly stumbling voice.
“And so, we shall finally become slaves to freedom, blades for rights, and the scales of equality.”
At that, the shop lights went out and the blinds rolled down.
Slaves of freedom.
Blades of rights.
Weights of equality.
They were metaphors representing the group Yu Seolha belonged to.
Of course, there were many other names for this organization. The “anti-cultivation group,” for example, or the “worst terrorist organization in history.”
Still, more famous than all those trivial nicknames was the group’s name.
「Rupture」.
This was the Fifth Branch of the Rupture, the greatest and most infamous terrorist organization of the 《Tree of Illusion》.
The person who appeared from the darkness was not the old man from before. He now looked like a middle-aged man with completely different facial features and contours. He likely possessed a manipulation-type Setting.
Yu Seolha grumbled.
“Branch Leader, do we have to do this every time?”
“It is the rule. Who is the one beside you?”
“An Ally. You could call him former 「Rupture」, I guess. Anyway, I will vouch for his identity, so open the way. There are two in our group, including this old man. They want to sneak into 〈Caspion〉.”
The Branch Leader answered with a displeased expression.
“Now of all times? You know the timing is bad. Wanted posters are everywhere, and things have been unsettled since the recent collapse of the 〈Metaverse〉.”
The Branch Leader looked toward a screen installed in the shop’s corner. It showed the 〈Metaverse〉 being destroyed, along with Jaehwan and Yu Seolha falling amid its wreckage.
“Ah, sorry. But you can still let us in, right?”
“It is possible. What is your companion’s name?”
“I am Cheongheo.”
“Cheongheo?”
The Branch Leader’s eyes widened.
“Do not tell me you are Cheongheo the Lustful Immortal?”
“Ahem, you must mean someone with the same name. In any case, I am not that lustful fellow.”
“Really? Well, that crazy old man could not possibly be here.”
The Branch Leader scratched his cheek and nodded. Yu Seolha asked,
“Who is this lustful fellow?”
“Not as famous as the ‘God Slayer,’ but he is a fairly well-known old man in the eastern 《Abyss》. They say he leads a small pirate group called the 「Guide of Destruction」 and has slaughtered Vicegerents of high-grade gods. There is quite an uproar over there. Anyway, be careful too, Seolha. They say he is an Awakened One of considerable ability. Apparently he is especially interested in beautiful female Vicegerents.”
“Yes, I should be careful.”
Cheongheo cleared his throat at Yu Seolha’s playful reply.
Apparently the verification process had finished, because an alarm rang from the Branch Leader’s terminal.
“I have arranged it, so a Guide will come get you. By the way, stay away from the area around the Haechnold Grand Auction House. It is lawless territory right now.”
“Why?”
“There are rumors that the Three Divine Artifacts have appeared.”
“The Three Divine Artifacts?”
The Branch Leader nodded meaningfully.
“For your information, the Rupture Lord is attending the auction too.”
“Huh? That person already arrived? They did not even contact me. Who came with them?”
“Kasim, the Fourth Division Commander.”
“At least that is a little better if Kasim is there. Who is attending from the other side?”
“The Seven Divine Thrones.”
Yu Seolha and Cheongheo’s expressions froze at the same time.
The Rupture Lord and the Seven Divine Thrones gathered in one place.
It was a major event rarely seen in the 《Abyss》.
“They are not all gathered there, right?”
“Only about two seem to be attending.”
“Nothing will happen, right?”
“It is obvious what would happen if they clashed, so they will each be careful.”
The Branch Leader waved a hand as if telling them not to worry. Only then did Yu Seolha nod with some relief. Certainly, whether it was the Rupture Lord or the Seven Divine Thrones, leaders of major factions would not act rashly.
That was when a second alarm rang from the Branch Leader’s terminal.
“Urgent news just came in. A fight broke out at the auction house. Twelve Vicegerents of high-grade gods have died.”
“Twelve? That is practically a war. Did they start fighting each other?”
“No, I heard they were all slaughtered by one person.”
“What? What kind of lunatic did that?”
At that moment, Yu Seolha fell silent, seized by a strange feeling. She turned her head and saw Cheongheo staring at the screen.
“Seolha.”
“What?”
“Did the 〈Metaverse〉 have a place like that?”
On the screen Cheongheo pointed at, a naked man was relentlessly stabbing Vicegerents to death.
Kraaaash!
“Aaaaargh!”
Kraaaash!
“Gyaaaaargh!”
The naked man’s identity was obvious.
The problem was...
“That is not inside the 〈Metaverse〉.”
“Has it not been replaying since earlier?”
Yu Seolha tilted her head in confusion.
At the center of the screen lay the shattered sign of the Haechnold Grand Auction House.
The Branch Leader spoke.
“That is a live broadcast.”
Since when had it been there? A live indicator was displayed on the screen.
“Kueeeeeee!”
Cheongheo asked blankly,
“Who is at the auction house?”
“The Seven Divine Thrones.”
“And?”
“The Rupture Lord.”
The two looked at each other, their faces pale.
“We are going to the Grand Auction House right now.”
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion