Chapter 249 - Episode 31. Big Brother (14)
Chapter 249: Episode 31. Big Brother (14)
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[Destruction.]
[Destruction.]
[Destruction.]
[Destruction.]
Too loud, Jaehwan thought.
Then Mulack spoke.
[Destruction is coming to the world.]
The voice sounded almost comical.
[And you still intend to destroy the System?]
Jaehwan nodded.
[Why? Why are you still entertaining such a ridiculous idea?]
“Because I’m human.”
Human.
At Jaehwan’s answer, the transcendent ones began chattering amongst themselves again.
Cool. Amazing. Pathetic. Crazy bastard. Delusional freak. And so on.
Mulack’s expression was difficult to read. Mulack seemed to be mocking Jaehwan, yet at the same time, seemed to pity him.
[Human... Do you still think of yourself as human?]
Mulack’s narrowed eyes gleamed sharply, as if they could pierce straight through Jaehwan.
[Even if you never underwent Transcendence, you survived more than a million years by yourself. What human could do such a thing? No human can endure that much time while remaining “human.”]
“...”
[You are already a System. To endure all those years, you turned your Mentality into a System. You divided your Clothes, then maintained the System through their cultivation and transcendence. An ecosystem equal to an entire universe has already been completed within you. Yet you still pretend to be human? What do you think a human is?]
The question cruelly gouged at Jaehwan’s heart. During the two million years he had endured alone, Jaehwan had asked himself that question thousands, tens of thousands of times.
Was he really still human?
What was a human?
Every human asked themselves that question at least once between birth and death. Jaehwan had contemplated it in the darkness.
He had spent countless years thinking about it.
At first, he approached the matter through the fragments of scientific knowledge he knew.
Human.
An intelligent animal that uses language and tools. A primate. One that walks upright on two legs, and...
Of course, that could never be an answer.
So Jaehwan changed his perspective.
Existentialism. Structuralism. Post-structuralism...
Complex ideas left behind by countless philosophers swept through his mind. The Fall of Time had allowed him to conduct thought experiments comparable to the accumulated wisdom of all humanity. Yet no “human” had lived as long as Jaehwan had. In the end, he had to think beyond the ideas of the philosophers before him, using his own thoughts and his own language.
Then, from that untouched void, the answer suddenly came to him.
“I don’t know what a human is.”
It was a simple, violent, innocent answer.
Perhaps it was only a calm statement of fact.
“But I am thinking about what a human is.”
At the end of that statement, Jaehwan instinctively recognized that he was human.
“Therefore, I am human.”
A human was one who pondered what a human was.
That was the answer Jaehwan, who had lived through ten billion years alongside his Clothes, had reached.
Mulack burst out laughing.
[After thinking for more than a million years, that is your answer? Such a crude and cowardly evasion? By your logic, even the transcendent ones can become human. Why would you say something so stupid...]
Yet Mulack was the only one laughing.
None of Jaehwan’s Clothes present there criticized his answer as cowardly or crude.
Quite the opposite.
[Thank you.]
A single sentence returned through the heavy silence. Jaehwan could feel the hearts of the transcendent ones, his Clothes, in that solemn voice.
Perhaps Mulack noticed something only then, because Mulack ground their teeth.
[Is that why you gave such an answer?]
The fight began again.
Perhaps Mulack had resolved to kill Jaehwan at any cost. Mulack was now concentrating all the power that had been held back until then.
The transcendent ones dwelling throughout Jaehwan’s body responded desperately, but even so, the assault was difficult to withstand. Mulack was throwing everything into it.
As if realizing things could not continue like this, one of the transcendent ones spoke.
[Hey, main body. There’s exactly one way we can win. We might all die as the price, though...]
[Hey, wait, that’s...]
[Let’s just tell him. He treats us like humans, doesn’t he?]
[You fell for sweet talk like that...!]
The voice continued.
[There’s one of us who hasn’t descended yet. I didn’t want to say it until the end, but... Well, consider it repayment.]
Jaehwan tried to ask who they meant.
Before he could, a child’s voice rang out.
[I could help you, if you want.]
Unlike the other transcendent ones, the voice felt as if it were squeezing his entire cerebral cortex.
[Damn it, it appeared!]
[Aaaah!]
[66666!]
The terrified transcendent ones trembled throughout Jaehwan’s body.
Did ranks exist even among them?
These were beings who had reached Transcendence, yet they were making this much of a fuss.
At the same time, a flood of memories rushed into Jaehwan’s mind.
There were quite a few gaps in his memories of those ten billion years. Was this one the reason?
Memory fragments spanning three billion years.
His vision turned pure white, then returned. Again and again. Amid terrible nausea, Jaehwan felt the flow of space and time twist. The vastness of the memories that had surged in all at once made the world spin around him.
Memories vast enough to sweep away his entire sense of self.
As Jaehwan’s ego began to scatter in the overwhelming wave of memories, 8741 held him together.
[Brat, get a grip. You’ll get swept away if you’re not careful.]
With 8741’s help, Jaehwan barely maintained his identity as he drove Dokbul into the ground.
Only then did he learn the name of the one who had created this wave of memories.
66666.
That was the name of a Jaehwan who had lived for three billion years.
8741 snickered.
[This one is the strongest among us.]
Three billion years alone.
How could that even be possible?
Yet whether it was possible or not, the memories crashing into him proved the history of those three billion years. Like the other Jaehwans, 66666 was a transcendent one who had endured three billion years by training only one thing.
Jaehwan had no difficulty learning which Setting 66666 had trained. In fact, he had been wondering why no one had trained that Setting.
If it was this one...
After glimpsing the memories, Jaehwan was certain. If 66666 helped him, he might truly be able to win.
No, perhaps it would be more than simply winning...
[I’ll ask again. Do you want my help?]
When 66666 asked, every other transcendent one fell silent as if they had agreed beforehand. Perhaps they respected the years 66666 had lived. Perhaps they feared him.
Either way, one thing was certain. He was stronger than all the other transcendent ones combined.
I want your help. Can you help me?
[There’s a price.]
An unexpected answer.
As Jaehwan relived the loneliness of three billion years rushing toward him, he felt a sense of foreboding. What could someone who had survived three billion years possibly be thinking?
He was curious, but he did not want to know.
Even so, he had to ask.
What is the price?
[I want your soul.]
He wanted his soul?
Jaehwan tilted his head.
This was not some demon from a classic novel. What was that supposed to mean?
Besides, this was one of his own Clothes.
What does that mean?
Then 66666 answered.
[I want to become you.]
* * *
“Until only a few years ago, the 《Chaos》 where we lived was a graveyard for losers. It was a world for those who feared the small destruction before their eyes and closed their eyes to the greater absurdity. 《Chaos》 was such a place.”
The instructor’s voice rang out among several hundred trainees. Every one of them looked aflame with hope and passion.
The instructor looked over those faces one by one before continuing.
“But now, things are different.”
Though the instructor had repeated this same speech many times, pride still filled the voice. Looking fondly at every trainee, the instructor continued.
“Because you are here, carrying on that person’s will.”
A few trainees who received that gaze looked moved. It made sense.
They had seized a new opportunity.
They now stood at the entrance to another world.
As if blessing them, the instructor offered a tribute.
“Even if the world is destroyed tomorrow, today I will perform one Stab. Those were the words Jaehwan-nim left behind when he was in 《Chaos》.”
Normally, applause should have erupted around this point.
But the trainees of this class seemed somewhat different. Murmurs spread through the crowd.
“Did the Sole King really say that?”
“Instructor James-nim is famous for making things up.”
“Ugh, that tired old routine.”
“Instructor-nim! Did you really know Jaehwan-nim?”
Instructor James scratched near his lips. This was the first time something like this had happened. Then he gave a bitter smile.
“It’s true.”
James of the northern checkpoint.
He was the guard who had inspected Jaehwan on the day Jaehwan first visited Gorgon Fortress.
At James’s response, the trainees’ eyes lit up like children asking about someone’s first love. Questions soon poured in from every direction.
Was every legend about Jaehwan-nim true? Had Jaehwan-nim really torn the sky with Stab?
James answered some questions and admitted he did not know the answer to others.
Perhaps because he was talking about those days for the first time in a while, a strange longing entered James’s expression.
But when the final question came, his face stiffened slightly.
“Instructor-nim, why didn’t you leave for the Abyss with Jaehwan-nim?”
James slowly looked around the crowd.
The one who had asked was a young trainee with an oddly bold expression. James quietly studied the trainee’s face, then let out a soft sigh. He looked down at the ground, then up at the sky.
In a quiet voice, he confessed.
“Because I was too much of a coward back then, I couldn’t trust Jaehwan-nim. Perhaps that was simply the limit of who I was.”
The trainees murmured again at Instructor James’s honest words. Some looked a little disappointed, while others looked stirred up instead.
James silently looked toward the distant sky and continued.
“But as I said before, I believe you will be different. That is why you perform Stabs too. One day, you may truly pierce this ‘world’ and see what I could not. Now, everyone. With what spirit did I tell you to perform Stabs?”
“As if the world itself were ending!”
The trainees’ powerful cry rang out. Training resumed to the calls of the assistant instructors.
“One, two. One, two.”
With the regularly ringing calls, several hundred trainees repeatedly performed Stabs in unison. Whenever James called a new command, the tempo and force of their Stabs changed.
Light Stab.
Normal Stab.
Hard Stab.
These were the basic forms of Stab collectively known as the Jaehwan Three Swords. They were called basic forms, but it was difficult to find an Awakened One in 《Chaos》 who had perfectly mastered them.
“Hard Stab!”
James’s practiced Hard Stab pierced the sky. A booming crash followed, and something like a thin path appeared in the heavens. A considerable amount of cloud had been scattered in fragments above it.
It was pitiful destructive power for a Hard Stab, but it was enough to impress the trainees, who knew no better.
“Got it? That’s how you do it.”
James shrugged.
“For reference, Jaehwan-nim could change the scenery of the sky with just a Normal Stab.”
Murmurs spread among the trainees again.
“He changed the sky with a Normal Stab?”
“Was he even human?”
Training continued. Some trainees let their enthusiasm run ahead of their ability and had already begun practicing the next course on their own.
James caught those trainees one by one and scolded them.
“Hey, you! I said not to stab at the sky like that! I told you to practice Light Stab, so why are you over there practicing World Stab?”
World Stab.
The ultimate secret of the technique Jaehwan had left behind, a terrifying Stab said to be able to create rifts in the sky.
A few trainees peeked around, trying to find out who had gone ahead on their own.
Then...
“What, it’s that guy again?”
The trainees soon clicked their tongues.
Come to think of it, something similar had happened before.
The day Jaehwan descended into the empty air of 《Chaos》 through a massive screen.
The day everyone in 《Chaos》 shared their World Force with Jaehwan, that trainee had also been stabbing toward the sky and shouted something like this.
“I, I did World Stab! I tore the world!”
James yelled as he struck the troublesome trainee on the head.
“You brat! I told you to practice Light Stab, and you’re doing this again...”
“But I really did it! Look! I pierced the world again!”
“You were saying the same nonsense last time too...”
That was when someone let out a shocked cry.
“W-what is that?”
At the sound of something cracking, everyone looked up at the sky.
The instructors and trainees alike.
Crack, crack, crack, crack.
Would the sky look like that if it took tens of thousands of World Stabs?
Ominous fissures were spreading across the entire sky. As if the world were about to be destroyed, everyone swallowed nervously.
Then, a moment later.
Something like a long shadow appeared between the fissures.
“That is...!”
A branch-like object tore through the sky.
Something swayed from the end of that branch, and then small particles began to fall.
Only after a moment did everyone in 《Chaos》 realize what they were.
Golden rain was falling.
Some had never experienced that rain before. Others had experienced it once, nine hundred years ago.
Either way, the thought that came to the minds of all humanity upon seeing it was the same.
Beautiful.
Treasure containing the life they had wished for.
Fruit was falling from the sky like rain.
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