Chapter 243 - Episode 31. Big Brother (8)
Chapter 243: Episode 31. Big Brother (8)
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The fact that Deus had become 《Big Brother》 was not all that surprising. Jaehwan had expected as much.
What truly shocked him was the process through which Deus had become 《Big Brother》.
“Mulack. What exactly is this ‘darkness’?”
[Darkness...?]
“The ‘darkness’ that appeared in Deus’s memories. It was exactly the same substance that made up the zone I passed through.”
[You have a habit of explaining the world using your own terms, Jaehwan. You are correct. That is what led him to Transcendence. The darkness’s formal name is the ‘Fall of Time.’]
“What was it? What kind of place is this? What were you doing here?”
Mulack’s expression changed strangely. Something chilling briefly appeared on the face that had remained so friendly, then vanished.
[Are you truly asking because you do not know?]
Meeting Mulack’s gaze, Jaehwan felt a strange fear, if only for an instant.
It was the expression a human might wear while looking at a tiny insect. Mulack was looking at Jaehwan that way.
[You must be joking. How strange. You could not have reached this place without knowing. Have you not already obtained the answers to every question through ‘Transcendence,’ Jaehwan-nim?]
Mulack’s eyes regained their warmth in an instant. Looking into Jaehwan’s shaken eyes, he smiled lightly.
[Ah, I see. Do you wish to play at ‘existence’?]
“...”
[As expected of the one who destroyed my Tower and escaped. Very well. I will play along. What sort of concept should we use...? That is it. How about this? The concept of a demon welcoming a hero who has climbed to the top of the 《Tree of Illusion》 to prevent the world’s destruction.]
At those words, the passage began to lose its balance.
Starting from the far end, it shattered as though its pixels were breaking apart, then transformed into an entirely new setting.
The view gave Jaehwan an oddly familiar feeling. It resembled the place he had seen on the hundredth floor of the Tower of Nightmares.
The place where the Cultivator Beastrein had been, watching over every space in the Tower.
Only, the scale was on an entirely different level.
It was a circular space so vast that its size could not even be guessed.
Screens densely filled its inner walls.
Countless eyes observed the cultivation grounds of the Peripheral Worlds, the 《Great Realm》, 《Chaos》, and the 《Abyss》.
[You have always seen them, so you should know well enough.]
As dizziness washed over him, Jaehwan understood what this place was.
This was the eye that watched everything.
[Welcome to the Nest of the Tree of Illusion, 〈Panopticon〉.]
Jaehwan stared blankly at the holographic screens packed together without a single gap.
Desire began with a gaze.
With someone looking at something else.
This was the place where the tragedy of that gaze had first begun.
[Allow me to introduce the friends who run 〈Panopticon〉 alongside me.]
Jaehwan noticed that one tank after another, like those he had seen earlier, was connected throughout the areas where the screens had been arranged. It was as though each screen had been assigned to a soul form within a tank.
One by one, Jaehwan read the names written on the tanks.
.
.
Jean-Paul of Existence.
Jorge of the Virtual.
Scalzi of the Universe.
Mars of Play.
Melville of the Absurd.
.
.
The moment he saw the name Melville, a memory rose clearly to the surface.
It was the name of the Master who had created 「Moby Dick」, the Tower Cheongheo had cleared.
[They are former 「Masters」. They are friends entrusted with important duties to maintain 〈Panopticon〉.]
Jaehwan continued reading the Dream Demons’ names.
There was another familiar one.
Ignel of the Deep Dusk.
Jaehwan remembered the broken Solitary Existence tucked inside his clothes.
The old Dream Demon who had been the Workshop Master of 〈Twilight Dusk〉 and had made Solitary Existence for him.
Jaehwan knew Ignel had vanished after the Hachenold Catastrophe, but he had never imagined Ignel would be in a place like this.
Mulack tapped the aquarium containing Ignel with his fingers.
[This friend only recently managed to become a 「Master」 and was assigned here. They are still inexperienced and not very good at their work, but they will become useful soon enough.]
“Do all Dream Demons come here once they become Masters?”
[They do. They cannot help but come. Every Dream Demon must wonder where the 《Tower of Nightmares》 began, what value their existence holds, and what the ‘First Nightmare’ is. All of them travel back up the ‘Fall of Time’ you experienced and arrive here. Of course, they all go mad on the way up, so I have to go retrieve them myself.]
His head hurt.
The only question filling Jaehwan’s mind was why?
There was so much he wanted to ask, yet he did not know what question would bring him a proper answer.
Or perhaps he was afraid of hearing a proper answer.
Jaehwan forced out the words and formed a question.
“Are they 《Big Brother》 too?”
[You have been asking strange questions for a while now. Of course they are not 《Big Brother》. Can you not feel that, unlike me, you, and Deus, they have not attained the stature of Transcendence? They are only consumables. We need personnel to control cultivation.]
Jaehwan opened and closed his mouth like someone who had been caught off guard by an absurd attack.
Cultivation? That was a matter confined to the Tower.
Yet the screens did not show only scenes from within the Tower.
[Even as 《Big Brother》, it is difficult for me to control cultivation alone. My predecessors were no different.]
Leaving Mulack’s mysterious smile behind him, Jaehwan looked one by one at every scene reflected in the enormous eye. The back of his head throbbed as though someone had struck it with a sledgehammer.
Why had he not known?
No, how had he failed to realize?
Only now did Jaehwan understand the meaning of all these gazes, the meaning of these tragic events.
The meaning of 「cultivation」.
Jaehwan had thought it was only 《Big Brother》’s design to sustain the ecosystems of the 《Great Realm》 and the 《Abyss》. He had never once considered why 《Big Brother》 wished to sustain such an ecosystem, or what its purpose was.
Jaehwan stared blankly at the screens.
There stood the root of the Tree of Illusion, the 《Tower of Nightmares》.
- Help me! Somebody help me!
- Aaaah!
Silenced screams cried out from the screen, leaving behind only the shapes of their mouths.
The origin of all this tragedy.
The competition for survival that had begun in the 「Peripheral Worlds」.
There were fragile humans betraying one another to climb to higher floors.
Jaehwan turned toward another cluster of screens.
There stood the land of the Tree of Illusion, the 《Great Realm》.
The Great Realm. A place where Adapters who had cleared the Tower of Nightmares pursued higher Adaptation.
Humans tempered by the Tower were now slaughtering one another in even more exceptional ways.
- Kill them! If you do not kill them, you will die!
The involuntary faces they had worn in the Tower were nowhere to be found. They fought to become even a little stronger, to gain even slightly higher numbers.
The Tower’s 「cultivation」 had not ended.
Only involuntary 「cultivation」 had become voluntary 「cultivation」.
Seventh Adaptation, Eighth Adaptation, Ninth Adaptation...
At the forefront of the battlefield stood Lords who had reached the pinnacle of Adaptation. They mercilessly carved apart the Adapters rushing at them with sharpened spiritual power.
Bodies were ripped to pieces.
Biting his lip, Jaehwan turned away. Then, where he looked next, he witnessed a tragedy that continued even after death.
There stood the trunk of the Tree of Illusion, 《Chaos》.
The scene of Fortress Carpe Diem appeared before him.
《Chaos》 had formed a unified government around the Fortress.
Having grown even stronger, they had become secure enough that they no longer needed to fear the Lords’ threat.
Yet even they desired greater strength.
Tens of thousands of trainees repeatedly performing Stabs toward the sky.
Jaehwan realized something was wrong.
- You are only a first-stage Awakened One...
- Work harder! You just have to work harder!
- Your seniors all did the same. Things are much easier these days.
The Lords had been right when they said Awakening and Adaptation were separated by only a sheet of paper. Only the visible numbers had been hidden. Nothing essential had changed.
The dead could not find complete rest even after death. They had to strive to grow stronger. They longed for higher places, and wished to join the Abyss Expedition.
They yearned to walk the path of the 《Tree of Illusion》 that Jaehwan had traveled.
Jaehwan turned his head again.
Even though he knew full well what he would find there, he had no choice but to look.
There stood the Branch of the Tree of Illusion, the 《Abyss》.
A place where those who had reached the peak of their respective paths of Adaptation and Awakening gathered, those who had at last become gods.
Some time had passed. The 《Abyss》, which had entered a period of stability through the Committee’s efforts, was once again descending into a chaotic political struggle.
Gods had secretly gathered and raised the banner of rebellion against the Committee, and the Committee opposed them. The 《Abyss》, which had transformed into a Follower-centered world through conflicts between groups, was slowly changing again.
Gods who had secured many Followers began asserting their rights once more, while Followers busy pursuing their own interests willingly became the gods’ hands and feet.
They were all looking up at the sky.
Whether they knew what was in that sky or not, they built their strength to reach beyond it.
Only after seeing their eyes did Jaehwan understand.
People did not hate 《Big Brother》.
People wanted to become 《Big Brother》.
When Jaehwan closed his eyes and opened them one final time, he saw himself reflected on a screen.
The image of himself trampling and destroying every other being before walking into the darkness.
Jaehwan’s shadow flickered as it walked the path that everyone in the 《Tree of Illusion》 had wished for.
A history of strength and struggle.
A soul that had walked through all of that time.
There he was, already having become 《Big Brother》.
Strength left Jaehwan’s knees, and he staggered.
The long road to the throne.
Adaptation and Awakening. Both had only been parts of this vast Scenario. Every cultivation had begun to create a new throne, and cultivation ended where a king was born.
Jaehwan’s empty eyes turned toward Mulack.
Mulack bowed deeply in greeting.
As though Jaehwan had only now become ready to take his rightful place.
[Allow me to formally welcome you once more, Jaehwan-nim. No, the 1,131st 《Big Brother》.]
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