Chapter 250 - Episode 31. Big Brother (15)
Chapter 250: Episode 31. Big Brother (15)
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Most people stood dazed before the fantastic sight. Some eagerly rose onto their toes and jumped in place toward the sky again and again.
Yet there was one thing neither those swept up in emotion nor those burning with the desire to live had noticed.
The cracks in the sky were still widening.
At that moment, the ministers of 《Carpe Diem》, the central city of 《Chaos》, were looking up at the same sight.
As they watched the sky, which looked ready to collapse at any moment, everyone, including Yulhen and Cayman, knew Jaehwan had finally accomplished his goal.
Jaehwan.
That was why they were afraid. If that stubborn, unyielding man had finally won, only one ending could await this world.
They prayed desperately. They prayed that the ending Jaehwan had longed for would not take the form they imagined.
They prayed, and prayed again.
* * *
There was an expression, “a magical sight.”
It was an idiom used in worlds without magic when one encountered a phenomenon too beautiful to comprehend.
Then what should such a sight be called in a world where magic already existed?
No one could provide an answer. Those who had transcended language saw no reason to describe the scene before them, while Jaehwan, trapped within language, could find no words for it.
So all Jaehwan could do was...
“Ah.”
Lamentably, that small exclamation was all he managed.
As though sharing his feelings, 3751 and 8741 added their own comments.
[He really is a monster.]
[He is the one who endured three billion years alone.]
Before them, the armaments of the 《Big Brothers》 shattered all at once. At the instant shock burst from Mulack’s gaping mouth, black energy flowing from Dokbul swallowed everything around them.
It looked as though a vast night were rolling in.
The entirety of the 《Tree of Illusion》 was covered in darkness in an instant. When the darkness lifted, it was all over.
It was the power of 「Fall」, honed for three billion years.
[Ugh, ugh, ugh... ?]
Mulack’s soul form was breaking apart.
Not one of the 《Big Brother》 weapons Mulack had been so proud of remained. The same was true of the 〈Panopticon〉, which Mulack had managed so carefully. Only silver fragments of the Masters were scattered around the shattered tanks, while more than eighty percent of the screens had either broken or stopped functioning.
[You do not, you do not know what you have done. What will become of this world now...]
Mulack was crying.
Yet the truly strange thing was not that Mulack was crying.
Jaehwan silently looked down at Mulack, who was struggling to breathe.
“Are you happy?”
Mulack’s expression twisted strangely.
The sensation of gravity shifted with a lurch. The gravity control device responsible for the 〈Panopticon〉 had malfunctioned.
Mulack crawled toward the edge of the 〈Panopticon〉. Bracing against the slanted floor, Mulack sat at the very edge, gave a small cough that brought up something silver, and stared beyond the broken wall.
[It is a sight that can only be seen from here.]
Jaehwan staggered toward Mulack. Through the broken eyes of the 〈Panopticon〉, the entirety of the 《Tree of Illusion》 came into view. More precisely, it was too vast to see with the eyes, so perhaps it was more accurate to say he felt it.
Jaehwan thought,
So this was what the Tree I climbed looked like.
Was this how the first person to behold the outer shape of the planet they had lived on must have felt?
Magnificent and sublime were not enough to describe it. A colossal tree had rooted itself through the whole world, perhaps the whole universe.
A tree with bare branches and roots that resembled those branches exactly.
A great tree that held the scenery of every world within its frail body stood there.
That tree was collapsing.
From its roots to its branches, everything that made up the Tree of Illusion was slowly heading toward extinction. Parched roots crumbled one by one, and weakened branches snapped in the empty air.
[I have watched this Tree for a very long time. I protected it for a long time, and struggled desperately to climb it.]
“Mulack.”
Jaehwan started to say something, then closed his mouth again.
Mulack continued.
[After so many years, I finally arrived here. I thought that once I came here, I would know everything. I thought I would find the answer I had searched for.]
As he listened, Jaehwan thought that perhaps a transcendent one had not truly transcended everything after all. Someone who had transcended everything could not possibly hold such feelings.
Perhaps every transcendent one had at least one thing they could never transcend.
For 3751, who had practiced Stab for one hundred million years, it was the fear of death. For 8741, who had spent 300,002,000 years performing slashing attacks, it was scorn for the world. For 66666, who had lent him the power of 「Fall」, it was the desire to become real.
And for Mulack now, it was...
[I truly wanted to create a good world. That was all.]
Jaehwan thought.
What was a good world?
Did such a thing truly exist?
As if Mulack knew what he was asking, Mulack said,
[I do not know either. But I kept thinking about it. Just as you did.]
Jaehwan thought that perhaps “Transcendence” was not learning the answer, but losing the answer forever.
Having lost everything at the end of the road, Mulack somehow looked free.
Was it resignation? Or liberation?
Jaehwan could not guess what Mulack felt at the end of that road.
“There is something I want to ask.”
At the end of this road, Jaehwan found a question he had forgotten.
A question no one had been able to answer.
A question only Mulack could answer.
“What exactly is the 「First Nightmare」?”
The mysterious words Mulack had left behind in Mulack’s Tower.
「First Nightmare」.
Even as he solved every other mystery, Jaehwan had never discovered what the 「First Nightmare」 was.
At first, he thought it might mean the Fall of Time. Then he thought it might mean the 〈Panopticon〉. Even now, he still somewhat believed that.
But he was not certain. Something felt missing.
The 〈Panopticon〉 could control a world, but it could not create one. If Mulack’s claim was true, every Tower was an imitation of the First Nightmare.
Then what had created this world first?
[The First Nightmare.]
The madness that flashed through Mulack’s eyes made Jaehwan tense.
A final flame burned in the eyes of the dying Dream Demon.
[That place is the home of every “Tower.” It is the most terrible nightmare in the world, and the origin of every tower known as a Tower of Nightmares.]
Mulack coughed several times before continuing.
[That place is never as easy as this world.]
“Not easy?”
[That is right. There is no obvious, symbolic “eye” like this one, and no way to know who leads the world. The System is not visible. Everything is absurd, everything is unreasonable, yet no one notices. Above all, Jaehwan does not exist there.]
Jaehwan could not understand what that meant.
Mulack’s mad voice even sounded eerie. With foamy silver blood bubbling from their mouth, Mulack raised their voice.
[Now, now Jaehwan will understand as well... I wanted to stop the descent of that nightmare. I wanted to repair this flimsy System, maintain obvious cultivation, and make them drunk on those dreams by multiplying exaggerated Unique Worlds, so that I could stop the destruction that was coming at last...]
Mulack’s soul form scattered in the middle of the outpouring.
Disbelief and confusion filled Mulack’s eyes.
Jaehwan was startled.
Mulack had been nearing extinction, but not so near that Mulack should have vanished immediately.
Then why?
“Adults talk too much.”
Jaehwan felt his lips move on their own.
Someone else was speaking in Jaehwan’s voice.
Then he saw the blade of the Void Sword that had pierced the place where Mulack’s heart had been.
It was Jaehwan himself who had destroyed Mulack.
More precisely, it was the “Clothes” possessing him.
Mulack, scattering into silver light, moved their lips.
That was the end.
Jaehwan clenched his lips and asked,
“What are you doing?”
He had not heard the important answer yet, and rage rose to its peak within him. Only Mulack could answer his questions. Yet his Clothes had just killed Mulack.
Then Jaehwan’s lips moved by themselves once more.
“You promised, didn’t you? I’m going to become you now.”
So it was this one after all.
The promised time of resignation had come.
“I waited too long. Three billion years.”
66666.
His Clothes, which had trained 「Fall」 for three billion years.
Jaehwan had made a promise. If 66666 lent him power, he would grant the request.
And that request was to become Jaehwan in Jaehwan’s place.
“All right.”
Jaehwan closed his eyes.
Yes. This should be enough.
His vision soon narrowed, and his consciousness seemed to take a step back.
Jaehwan realized he was no longer “Jaehwan.” Perhaps his name was now something like 66667. But he had definitely been Jaehwan, and he had lived as Jaehwan.
He thought that was enough.
Then 66666 spoke.
“That is enough? Really? Are you giving up already?”
Giving up?
“You have not achieved your goal yet.”
Jaehwan wondered whether this one was mocking him, then answered.
What are you talking about? You are the one who made me give up. You are taking my soul...
“What nonsense are you saying? I need you. You are the only one who knows the world the Little Prince traveled through. Big Sis told me so.”
It made no sense.
What did the Little Prince have to do with anything?
And who was that big sis?
“Did I make it too difficult? Adults’ language is too difficult... Fine, let me put it this way. You have not reached the 「First Nightmare」 yet. Right?”
Jaehwan’s neck stiffened.
Do you know what the 「First Nightmare」 is...
“I need you if I am to go there. A companion for the journey. You could say I need a ‘fox.’”
What are you talking about?
“I am taming you. Just as you once tamed me, I am taming you too.”
Explain it so I can understand.
“I need you.”
I am only Clothes now.
“That's not true. You call me Jaehwan, and I call you Jaehwan too. You are still Jaehwan.”
At that moment, Jaehwan felt the shape of his vision change.
The sensations of his soul form returned. Every sense was alive again, as though he were still the “first body.”
“I said I wanted to become you, but I never forced you to become Clothes. I am only telling you to become one with me. It is not as if I would really steal your soul. I am you.”
66666 continued.
“A human without Clothes is not human. A human is only the sum of all their Clothes.”
Jaehwan suddenly looked around.
Why was it that only then could he see the transcendent ones who had been invisible until now?
At last, he saw the true forms of the “Clothes.”
Jaehwan faced fifteen transcendent ones.
[Yes, you can see us now.]
That one simple sentence made his chest ache.
It was them.
These were the “selves” who had fought beside “him.”
The ones who had endured eons of time together.
[Goodbye, Jaehwan.]
[That little brat has finally fulfilled his wish, so this is as far as we go together.]
Jaehwan wanted to ask what that meant.
[Ha ha. The place you are going now is that kind of place. We cannot set foot in that world. Only you and that little brat can go. That is the kind of place it is.]
[We are talking about the 「First Nightmare」.]
[Oh, you poor thing. If I were you, I would never go with him.]
You are not coming with me?
[Brat, we cannot go with you. We were not born there. Only you and that little brat were born there.]
Jaehwan did not understand their words well, but he understood at least one thing.
They had to part ways now.
They had only just met.
It felt strange.
He had gone through countless farewells, but he had never felt this way before.
The transcendent ones looked at one another and smiled. They wore expressions as though they already knew what Jaehwan would say.
Perhaps that was only natural.
They were Jaehwan himself.
They already knew each other’s hearts without needing words.
[Do not look at us like that. We have lived too long.]
[Too long to exist as humans.]
A cold ache spread through his chest.
Jaehwan held back the feeling and listened to the Clothes. One by one, they spoke to him.
[I envy you.]
[Existence itself. Sometimes, I miss it terribly.]
[Do not lose that feeling.]
[Even if you have no strength.]
[Even if you have no wisdom.]
[Even if you lose hope.]
[Even if you fall into despair.]
[Do not lose that feeling.]
Jaehwan had no way to bear the emotions swelling within him.
He could not understand every word they said, yet he could hear their hearts.
He felt the space and time around them disappearing.
The power of 「Fall」 was spreading even to the highest level of the 《Tree of Illusion》. Of course, its influence extended to Jaehwan himself as well.
Memories spanning ten billion years were disappearing one by one.
Wait. There's still something I haven't said. There are so many things I haven't asked.
Where am I going now?
What do you know?
You...
The First Nightmare...
But time came like death.
The time that had given him these “Clothes” was now taking those “Clothes” away from him again.
I don't want to forget. Not a single one of them.
Even so.
Jaehwan’s body gradually grew smaller.
As though he were returning from adulthood to childhood. The memories of ten billion years faded into the distance. Before he knew it, Jaehwan’s body had become that of a child around ten years old.
As though that had been Jaehwan’s first form all along.
Ten-year-old Jaehwan listened to the voice coming from his own mouth.
“Isn’t it strange? The end of this 「Branch」, where one can learn every secret of the world, looks so much like the 「Root」 in those Peripheral Worlds. It is almost as if there is no way to tell which is the Branch and which is the Root...”
Together with that voice, Jaehwan looked at the collapsing 《Tree of Illusion》.
Withered branches and desolate roots.
A plain trunk connected those branches and roots.
A tree standing alone forever in its gaunt body.
It truly was a lonely tree.
In crushing loneliness, Jaehwan closed his eyes.
This world no longer existed. His part was over.
Yet why did it feel as though nothing had ended?
Something like wind brushed past him from somewhere. Ancient hatred and rage unraveled through the wind like a tangled thread.
The leafless 《Tree of Illusion》 trembled mournfully.
Then no sound could be heard.
His world met its quiet destruction that way.
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