Chapter 244 - Episode 31. Big Brother (9)
Chapter 244: Episode 31. Big Brother (9)
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How many beings had this world sacrificed just to create a single 《Big Brother》?
Jaehwan looked at the 1,130 tanks lined along the passage and thought.
If this was the essence of the world, then what meaning did existence even have?
Though he had learned every secret of this world, Jaehwan felt as if he understood nothing anymore.
[Now that you have arrived, my role is over as well. Compared to the other 〈Big Brothers〉, my term was quite short. You could call me fortunate.]
“So you’re going into one of those tanks too.”
[One day, I suppose. Once you are able to fulfill my role completely.]
“My role.”
[That is right. Your role. Having reached the stature of Transcendence, you must understand well how trivial the lives of beings are. And how vast and sublime the history you must now manage is.]
As Jaehwan listened to Mulack’s calm voice, he felt a corner of his heart, which he had struggled to protect for so long, collapse.
Perhaps the name Mulack had meant more to him than he had realized.
The dream demon who had walked this path before him.
The being who, even when defeated, had never betrayed their pride.
And that being had become 《Big Brother》 as the price of walking their path to the end.
It did not take long for sorrow and hatred to rise in the place where his comfort had crumbled.
Jaehwan asked in a hollow voice.
“Mulack.”
[Yes.]
“You came here to kill 《Big Brother》. You came here to stop all cultivation. So why did you end up like this?”
[What?]
“You created the Fortress of Regret. You doubted cultivation and denied the System. Then you came here. So why are you...”
His voice carried grief too deep to put into words.
Yet Jaehwan’s question was met with an incomprehensible look.
[What are you talking about? Doubt? Denial? That was so long ago... Ah, you are trying to play a joke again.]
“It’s not a joke.”
[Then what... Are you seriously saying that?]
Something like contempt appeared in Mulack’s eyes. It was the same look one might give an insect.
Without realizing it, Jaehwan stepped back.
[I cannot believe it. How did you reach this place with such a fragile mind? Ten billion years must have passed in the Fall of Time.]
A coldness seeped from Mulack’s narrowed eyes.
A chill ran down Jaehwan’s spine. It was not only because of Mulack’s oppressive gaze. More precisely, it was because of what Mulack had said.
Ten billion years.
Had ten billion years really passed?
The air around them seemed to freeze solid as Mulack’s gaze shifted.
Mulack was examining Jaehwan’s soul. From its surface down to every cell that formed its deepest core.
Soon, Mulack’s expression twisted.
[Wait. Why is your Awakening still at the fifth stage? You are still at the stage of 「Proof」. To travel upstream through the Fall of Time, you should have naturally reached the sixth stage, 「Editing」...]
“...”
[You came here, yet you are still an ‘existence’... Tell me, Jaehwan. What exactly did you do in the Fall of Time?]
Jaehwan did not answer. Instead, he quietly drew Dokbul from his waist. The sword rang clear as it left its sheath, and Jaehwan spoke.
“Are you awake?”
Dokbul hummed and answered.
[I have been awake for some time.]
“What do you think?”
[Let us do what we always do. Listening to that bastard talk was making me itch to death.]
“For once, we agree.”
[You can say that again.]
Jaehwan nodded.
Along with the 「Fall」 held in his sword’s tip, the World Force of the Three Divine Artifacts blazed with dazzling light. The 「Deus Ex Machina」 he had improved within the Fall of Time took the form of armor and wrapped around his entire body, while Gestalt’s Eye spun in pursuit of itself and amplified Jaehwan’s World Force.
The Void Sword, divided in the air, prepared for bombardment.
Yet no matter what Jaehwan did, Mulack did not seem interested.
[This is impossible... How did such a primitive being reach this place...]
Mulack only muttered incomprehensible words now and then, still lost in confusion.
[But that cannot be. Jaehwan-nim must have repeatedly undergone ‘Transcendence’ and even made contact with beings from other dimensions. This is...]
Jaehwan decided that this was his only chance. Since he had no idea how strong Mulack had become after turning into 《Big Brother》, a decisive first strike was his only way to secure any chance of victory.
Dokbul breathed fire, and a wave of 「Fall」 swept over 〈Panopticon〉.
Perhaps because he had remained in the Fall of Time for too long, he could not wield as much World Force as he wished. Even so, it was enough to surpass the Three Ancient Gods at the height of their power.
When Gestalt’s Eye began to spin, the abilities of Deus Ex Machina activated. Jaehwan’s World Force was amplified once by Gestalt’s Eye, then twice more by the power of Deus Ex Machina, and poured into Dokbul.
A Stab exploded from Dokbul’s tip, and the Void Swords, which had expanded in an instant, began firing all at once from the air.
Then, in the next moment.
Jaehwan flew through the air as though his entire body had been struck by a massive blunt weapon.
More accurately, the entire space was battering his body without restraint. Time slowed, sped up, and contracted as it pleased. Silver World Force poured from his mouth in an endless stream.
Beastrein let out a tearing scream. The blade of Dokbul, which had achieved Great Evolution, was breaking apart.
The weakened wave of 「Fall」 vanished. The Deus Ex Machina armor he wore scattered through the air, half destroyed. Gestalt’s Eye, which had been spinning fiercely, lost its light.
The cracked Void Swords were crumbling away in the air.
[I do not know the details, but it seems there has been some misunderstanding.]
Mulack appeared through Jaehwan’s reddened vision.
[It cannot be helped. It is unfortunate, but I can only wait for the next 《Big Brother》.]
Watching Mulack raise a hand casually, Jaehwan felt the awe of standing before a universe.
And within that universe, he felt his own existence, soon to vanish like a speck of dust.
Death had never been this close.
[To think I wasted time on such a trivial insect.]
The space of 〈Panopticon〉 was devouring his soul.
He was disappearing.
The time he had spent fighting was vanishing.
His unyielding will. His pride that had never broken.
Even his miserable yet precious memories.
All of it was fading away.
What words could possibly describe this death?
Jaehwan felt relieved, and empty. Perhaps this was the moment he had wanted for so long, yet he felt a fear he could not understand.
Did he still want to live?
Even after learning the truth of this world, even after understanding how fleeting, meaningless, and worthless life was, did he still want to live?
Then what was life for?
He did not know. Yet amid that incomprehension, Jaehwan felt more alive than ever before. Life was only possible when one was conscious of death.
It had been a long battle.
At the end of that desperate struggle, Jaehwan was finally existing.
Only then did he smile.
I will die here.
I will never become something like 《Big Brother》.
I will die and remain an ‘existence.’
Then, at some point, the dissolution ended.
Jaehwan finally thought he had died. But that was impossible. Thought was only granted to living beings.
Mulack was right in front of him, eyes wide.
[What is that?]
A mysterious aura was protecting Jaehwan’s entire body from dissolution.
Mulack made a light gesture, repeatedly trying to shatter the aura, but it only gave off a more intense light and protected Jaehwan.
Jaehwan knew what it was.
That power was his Unique World.
When he slowly looked around, his Unique World, the one he had lived through, was covering the entire area.
Complete Sanctuary Manifestation.
「The World After the Fall」
The Unique World that had endured the terrible Fall of Time alongside him wrapped around his body.
This world protected me?
But how?
Even though he had reached the stage of 「Proof」, Mulack wielded power that even the Three Divine Artifacts could not overcome.
How had this Unique World blocked Mulack?
Jaehwan stared blankly at his Unique World, until his gaze stopped at one point.
There were scribbles carved into the air of his Unique World.
They looked very much like his handwriting, yet it was clear they had all been written by different people. At a glance, they looked like conversations, but in truth they were piles of proof of one-sided loneliness.
.
.
87 million years.
―Damn it. I’m done here. Those of you coming after me, I’m counting on you.
―Leave it to us.
.
.
125 million years.
―I think I’m going to die.
―Me too. Save me, I’m losing my mind.
―How did the people before me endure this?
―Hey, you bastards coming after us, at least write some erotic fiction. I need something to read while I endure this. No, I guess I won’t be here by then.
―The old men have really lost it.
.
.
570 million years.
―So, back then, Sirwen and...
―Actually, Yu Seolha is more my type.
―Wasn’t it Runald?
―You insane bastards. What the hell did you scribble here? You endured for two million years at a time, then died after writing nothing but crazy nonsense.
―Let’s think of it as doing military service one more time.
―Fuck. What kind of military service lasts this long? When do we get discharged?
―If you have read this far, you endured at least five hundred thousand years just through these scribbles. Congratulations.
.
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1.53 billion years.
―Who is next after me? I lived alone for a million years, and I think I’m losing my mind.
―You have to endure at least a million years before you can say you are no longer a beginner.
―May the deceased rest in peace.
.
.
Jaehwan continued reading the scribbles.
Scribbles left by those before him for those who came after, and then for the ones after them. The mood of the scribbles, light at first, became darker as time passed.
.
.
3.12 billion years.
―You son of a bitch. Why did you come into a place like this?
―Fuck... Fuck...
―The 1,974th. I end here.
.
.
4.98 billion years.
―Please.
―Hurry.
.
.
6.78 billion years.
―Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
―...
―Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....a...h.....g
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7.92 billion years.
―I found a being from another dimension. They were riding a train. I attacked, but they ran away. Judging by the form of their Unique World, they seemed to be a regressor.
―This novel is fun. It is the most fun thing I have ever read.
―Please post the next chapter. Please.
.
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9.83 billion years.
...
.
.
And finally, 10.01421 billion years.
At some point, the number of scribbles sharply decreased, then abruptly stopped like a thread cut in midair. Even so, enough despair had gathered there that he could not read it all in a lifetime.
Of course, there were not only scribbles written there.
Beneath them, the truths of the universe had been recorded. Some were things Jaehwan knew, but most were things he did not.
All kinds of Settings and theories. Awakening and Adaptation, even magic and design. It was a vast library of the universe that seemed to encompass all knowledge in the world.
The history of the past ten billion years remained there intact.
That history of ten billion years was protecting him.
Jaehwan realized he was crying.
Before he could even ask why, tears poured down his face.
It was because he understood the meaning of that time.
And because he could not understand it.
Why had they needed to endure such a time?
What had they chosen to live through that time for?
Jaehwan did not know.
But one thing was certain.
It was them.
They were the reason he had endured ten billion years.
With trembling eyes, Jaehwan looked down at his hand.
The countless screams and groans he had heard in his dreams had all been the final cries left behind by his other ‘Clothes.’
Even now, Jaehwan remembered their words.
It’s all right, so sleep a little longer.
“What...”
What was all right? What could possibly be all right?
Jaehwan could feel that there were not many sets of ‘Clothes’ left inside him now.
Even after ending up like this.
Ten billion years.
Jaehwan could not even dare imagine the weight of the time his Clothes had endured.
[So that is it. It was not you, but your Clothes that underwent ‘Transcendence.’]
Mulack, looking at Jaehwan’s Unique World, also seemed to have realized something at last.
[But how could that happen... If you gave another set of ‘Clothes’ control over your soul, you could have disappeared forever. To trust your Clothes enough to take such a risk...]
Mulack muttered for a long time before suddenly letting out a strange laugh.
Then the laughter stopped.
[You are truly pitiful. You sacrificed your Clothes to maintain your ‘existence.’ Did you want to destroy this world so badly? What turned you into such a monster?]
“You, and this ‘universe’ you belong to.”
Jaehwan muttered through clenched teeth. His throat was choked with emotion, and his voice barely came out.
Clothes. Beings who were Jaehwan, yet were not Jaehwan.
Those beings had died in his place.
To leave him as an ‘existence.’
To protect the reason he had begun this journey.
Even after reaching this place by standing upon such sacrifice, he could not defeat Mulack before him.
It was an ironic contradiction.
Maiad’s warning to beware of time had become another paradox that blocked his path.
An ‘existence’ had reason to break the System, but no strength to break it. A ‘transcendent’ had the strength to break the System, but no reason to break it. They understood that doing so had no meaning.
Jaehwan had survived as an ‘existence.’
And because of that, he could not defeat Mulack.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion