Chapter 246 - Episode 31. Big Brother (11)
Chapter 246: Episode 31. Big Brother (11)
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3751 witnessed a colossal explosion.
A great explosion containing every truth of the universe.
3751 watched a new universe being born within himself, while the world he had lived in until then was destroyed.
A Big Bang of thought.
‘So this memory was...’
Jaehwan realized that the Big Bang 3751 had experienced was the “Transcendence” Mulack had spoken of.
It was the moment of “Transcendence” Jaehwan himself had nearly experienced once. 3751 had passed through that moment and reached Transcendence.
The ultimate stage, capable of governing spacetime. A realm beyond 「Proof」 that reached 「Editing」, where one could wield the power of Awakening’s sixth stage.
That was Transcendence.
Then a strange question crossed Jaehwan’s mind.
He addressed the right hand that was madly repeating Stabs.
‘Why didn’t you leave the Fall of Time then?’
According to Mulack, he had been trapped inside that Fall of Time for ten billion years. Yet 3751 had crossed the threshold of “Transcendence” in just one hundred million years, gaining the power to leave the Fall of Time.
If that was true, why had Jaehwan’s soul remained trapped there for ten billion years?
[Because I could leave whenever I wanted.]
‘You could’ve left whenever you wanted?’
[No. “Escape” is the wrong word. Nothing can imprison me.]
For a moment, Jaehwan could not understand what that meant.
[It means the concept of “escape” does not exist within me.]
As Jaehwan read 3751’s memories, he understood.
Since he was never trapped, the concept of “escape” could not exist either.
Bound by nothing. Restrained by nothing.
That was Transcendence.
[The other fifteen probably thought the same way. You won’t understand, but that’s what Transcendence is. I simply couldn’t find a reason to leave that darkness.]
He could not find a reason to leave.
Had Jaehwan been trapped there for ten billion years for such a trivial reason? What on earth had those bastards been thinking...?
‘Then why did you come out now?’
[I don’t know. I wasn’t the one who brought you out. It was probably one of the other fifteen.]
At that moment, a rift formed in the air, and space began compressing again.
Was this what an antimatter bomb felt like?
Something invisible sucked in the surrounding space near Jaehwan and exploded. His body bent sharply to one side as he barely escaped the blast radius. Silver light burst from within him.
Even after dodging, it had hurt this much.
3751 cursed.
[That bastard’s no joke, is he?]
A piercing ring filled Jaehwan’s ears from an attack that transcended physical force. Wherever he dodged, space twisted grotesquely, and spears and blades sprang out.
When he avoided a spear with an acrobatic twist, another blade was already embedded where he had moved. Before he could even groan, blades pierced his thigh and side.
Jaehwan reflexively pulled out the blades and retreated.
The fragments immediately sucked in space and exploded.
Mulack’s attacks were bizarre and impossible to predict. They were the abilities of a ruler of this space.
Mulack’s power was space itself.
Distorted space exploded violently the moment it approached Jaehwan, and the damage fell squarely on his right hand.
[What a dirty bastard! Hey! How about we fight fairly with Stabs?]
Apparently Mulack could hear that voice too, because an answer came from within the warped space.
[Even after achieving Transcendence, you remain trapped by such crude sentiment. As expected, you are unfit to be Big Brother.]
Warped space spun above Mulack’s hands like circus balls.
With 3751’s help, Jaehwan stabbed at the incoming clumps of space again and again. But their numbers were growing beyond what he could handle through Stabs alone.
Just as Jaehwan used Stabs that transcended space, Mulack repeatedly hurled space that transcended space.
In the end, what decided victory was the difference in time each transcendent had endured.
Even after barely overcoming time, they were caught by it once more.
Jaehwan asked, ‘Stabbing is inefficient in this situation. Haven’t you practiced slashing?’
[You sure want a lot from me! I only know how to stab!]
‘What about the others? You said there are fifteen of you. One of them must have spent hundreds of millions of years doing nothing but slashing.’
[There is one, but you’d better not expect help from that bastard.]
Then their conversation stopped.
There were too many “space bombardments” for them to keep talking.
The pressure of the Fall of Time scattered Jaehwan’s senses, and explosions burst in succession through those openings, steadily piling damage onto him.
[You were fairly impressive, but it seems this is your limit.]
Jaehwan bit his lip.
《Big Brother》 was still 《Big Brother》. Even after Awakening this much power, he had no chance of winning.
[It seems you achieved Transcendence after investing around one hundred million years. But that is nowhere near enough.]
An enemy who could not be defeated with one hundred million years of Stabs.
Then what could possibly defeat that monster?
Jaehwan could feel the power of 3751 in his right hand gradually fading.
[Damn it. At this rate, we’re all really going to die! Is no one going to help?]
At last, 3751 shouted.
Stabs of rage followed, without even a shred of gratitude for the universe. Still, the situation did not improve much.
Just when Jaehwan began to think this was truly the end.
[Try begging. Say, “Please help me.”]
It was someone else’s voice, not 3751’s.
As if he had been waiting for it, 3751 shouted back.
[No, where the hell have you been? What’s your name, you bastard? 9974? 11753?]
[You still have a mouth on you. Are you going to beg or not?]
[Do you think I’d do something like that?]
[Then die well.]
Irritation surged through 3751, and he roared.
[You son of a bitch... If I die, you die too! Have you forgotten that this soul is the one restraint we never transcended?]
[Of course I know. I also know that I transcended the fear of death.]
[Argh! You bastard!]
[Looks like little 3751 never transcended “Fear.”]
Jaehwan thought to himself that a man who had done nothing but Stab for one hundred million years must have lost his language skills.
[Hey, first self! What are you doing? You persuade him! Tell him to help us!]
Jaehwan said nothing.
Snickering laughter echoed again.
[Looks like he forgot. Little 3751, if you’re the Jaehwan who is “best at Stabs,” then the first self is the Jaehwan with the “most pride” among us. That bastard would rather die than beg anyone.]
Compressed spaces flew toward them.
There were already too many incoming spaces to sweep away with a few Stabs.
3751 kept stabbing again and again, as though he refused to give up. He finally spoke when it became impossible to escape the space bombardment any longer.
[Ha... damn it. Help me. No, please help me! Hurry!]
A brilliant light surged from Jaehwan’s left hand.
Something was descending into his left hand.
Jaehwan did not hesitate. He allowed the descent.
[You should’ve done that from the start. Watch closely, little brats.]
A bright light bloomed around his left hand.
The shattered 「Void Sword」 was regenerating. In an instant, 「Void Sword」 regained its physical form and grew to a length with no visible end.
Mulack’s shocked expression. The pain in Jaehwan’s left hand, as though it were being torn apart molecule by molecule. The astonishing sight that unfolded when he barely steadied himself and looked ahead.
Jaehwan witnessed every moment of that miracle from the closest possible place.
His left hand moved, and a line appeared in the universe.
It was not an ordinary line segment.
It was not a line linking one point to another, but an infinite line whose beginning and end could not be known.
A technique that went beyond cutting space, cutting away the entire “history” of a universe from beginning to end.
The compressed spaces flying toward Jaehwan crumbled in the air as though they had never existed in the first place.
A voice sounded amid fragments scattering like snowflakes.
[How’s my skill, little Stab brat?]
[No way... 8741, is that you!]
As snickering laughter followed, Jaehwan was able to read the voice’s memories.
His name was 8741.
He was the Jaehwan who had spent three hundred million and two thousand years doing nothing but slashing.
* * *
Three hundred million and two thousand years of slashing in his left hand.
One hundred million years of Stabs in his right.
A feast of points and lines raced freely through space and time.
Their movements were like an abstract work being painted into existence.
Was this what the paintings of Jackson Pollock, the great artist of the Peripheral Worlds, had been like? This battle was closer to performance art than a sword dance.
Mulack’s “space bombs” could no longer find an opening through the brilliant strokes of the twin swords. Mulack’s face darkened sharply upon realizing their power no longer worked.
[This is truly unexpected. You had two transcendent beings as Clothes?]
Even while hastily compressing and firing the surrounding space, Mulack did not lose their composure.
8741, who had spent three hundred million and two thousand years slashing, spoke as if mocking Mulack.
[You look like a little brat who has lived about as long as I have, maybe a bit longer. You should surrender now.]
[Yeah, the two of us together have lived longer than you!]
Jaehwan could not hide his amazement as he watched Mulack’s lips twitch.
The sword path launched from his right hand was a realm even a Jaehwan who had spent his entire life doing nothing but Stabs would need another hundred million years of training to reach.
The sword path slashed by his left hand was a supreme realm that even Cheongheo, who had spent his entire life doing nothing but slashing, might not reach after hundreds of millions more years of training.
Yet Mulack was enduring the attacks those two swords were pouring down.
Mulack was being pushed back one-sidedly, and the battle seemed likely to end soon. Even so, that alone let Jaehwan estimate the level Mulack had reached.
A faint regret washed over him.
What if he had trained a little harder? What if he had endured that time with a little more discipline?
Could he have become as strong as them?
3751, who had read Jaehwan’s thoughts, said, [Don’t think like that. We suffered all this time so you wouldn’t become like us.]
‘...’
[If you become like us, you’ll never achieve your goal. You know that too.]
‘But...’
8741, who had been listening, spoke firmly.
[Little brat. There is no “but” or “however” here. You have to live as a human. You must.]
Maybe because he had spent three hundred million and two thousand years doing nothing but slashing, he somehow spoke like old man Cheongheo.
3751. Then 8741.
Jaehwan remembered the voice that had pulled him from the darkness of the Fall of Time. That voice had said something similar.
It had told him to remain human.
[What a shame. If you could become 《Big Brother》, you would surely become the strongest 《Big Brother》.]
Mulack’s wounded voice carried through the rain of sword strikes. Bitterness and regret both lingered in it.
[How utterly pathetic. You achieved Transcendence, yet you still cannot understand the Sublimity of this universe...]
3751 burst into mad laughter.
[What the hell are you talking about? Do you think every transcendent wants to become Big Brother? Just die already!]
The concentrated Stab 3751 unleashed pierced through the warped space and rushed toward Mulack.
In the next instant, something like a powerful barrier formed around Mulack. At the same time, 3751’s sword strike, which had seemed impossible to stop, was deflected.
Dark red sparks crackled where the strike had been blocked.
Tzzzzzz!
Jaehwan noticed that the pulse of World Force coming from those sparks did not belong to Mulack.
[You, that power...]
3751 and 8741 seemed to have felt the same thing.
As though aware of their gazes, Mulack smiled.
[Have you forgotten? Just as you are not alone, Big Brother is not just one.]
A chilling sensation passed through both Jaehwan’s hands.
The transcendents had sensed the danger faster than Jaehwan.
He turned around.
The white path he had walked through was opening once again. A thousand or so tanks floated up through the passageway. The sleeping 《Big Brother》s were waking one by one.
Could all of those things be waking up?
「Big Brothers」
Big brothers.
The energy of the 《Big Brother》s who had ruled the universe surged from the tanks all at once.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion