Chapter 254 - Episode 32. The World After the Fall (4)
Chapter 254: Episode 32. The World After the Fall (4)
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Inside a university lecture hall, Jaehwan stared at the lush summer greenery coloring the campus and sank into thought.
Only about six months left.
According to the memories he retained, the 《Tower of Nightmares》 was supposed to appear in the sky around this winter.
It had to be this winter. In the past, he had drifted through university life after enrolling, then enlisted in the military as soon as his first semester ended. The Tower of Nightmares had first appeared when he reached the fourth pay step as a private first class. The first advance force had entered the Tower not long after he became a corporal. By that timeline, the Tower's first appearance had to be this winter.
Jaehwan gave a bitter smile at the web novel open on his smartphone.
“Ha ha, I've returned to the past. I've finally returned to the past! I can start everything over!”
Reading the protagonist's unbearably clichéd line, Jaehwan idly scrolled down.
He read novels like this because they stirred up faint nostalgia.
Like a tree stripped of every leaf except its branches, Jaehwan's memories had become sparse and shabby. The memories he truly needed had vanished somewhere, while pointless details often stood out like rotten leaves.
“You there, the student who has been playing with his phone this whole time. Would you care to explain the theory of parallel universes I just discussed?”
Those pointless fragments of memory sometimes collided sharply with Jaehwan's present life.
The professor lecturing passionately in front of the whiteboard was one example.
“Let's see, your name is...”
“Jaehwan, Professor Sakamoto.”
“Very well, Mr. Jaehwan. Why don't you explain the theory of parallel universes?”
Sakamoto, who should have been a middle school science teacher, had become a general education professor teaching Jaehwan in this reality.
Understanding Popular Science, Sakamoto Seiji.
When Jaehwan saw the name “Sakamoto” listed on the syllabus, he had wondered if it could be the same person. It really was the Sakamoto he knew.
It differed from his first memories, but Jaehwan had still been happy to see a Companion from the Tower. When they first met, he had cautiously asked Sakamoto a few questions. As expected, though, Sakamoto remembered nothing. If there was one fortunate thing, it was that Sakamoto did not find Jaehwan's questions too strange, perhaps because he had studied science so intensely that something had gone wrong in his head.
Remembering that, Jaehwan sighed and rose from his seat.
“May I explain it as I understand it?”
“Go ahead and tell us what you've learned.”
“So, the theory of parallel universes is...”
As he spoke about parallel universes, Jaehwan sank into old memories.
He had heard the exact same explanation from Sakamoto once before. When they found the 「Stone of Regression」 on the seventy-seventh floor of the Tower, Sakamoto had also spoken of parallel universes.
“I believe this stone will send all of us to Earth in different worldlines. Of course, that is only a hypothesis, so we cannot rule out the possibility that everyone who uses this stone will end up in the same time branch. The Tower's items are things that transcend our common sense.”
Sakamoto, did you know? That I am now repeating the explanation I heard from you back then. Repeating it to you, who chose the Stone of Regression and went into the past. No, to you, who could not even go into the past.
Now, I...
“...So, to put it simply, the theory of parallel universes is the hypothesis that an observer's choices divide worldlines, causing different universes to unfold simultaneously somewhere beyond our knowledge. For a simple example...”
Jaehwan trailed off and looked out over the campus.
Something like a vision flashed through his mind.
An enormous Tower covering the skies of Seoul.
And the terrible tragedy it had caused.
Jaehwan slowly continued.
“On Earth in another parallel universe, destruction may have just begun. After all, I just imagined Earth being destroyed.”
“Hmm. That was well put. Perhaps because you are a Korean literature major, even your example has a literary touch. I thought you were only looking at your phone, but I am glad to see you were listening to the lecture.”
Jaehwan did not understand what part of what he had said was literary, but he gave a small bow and awkwardly sat back down.
“The many-worlds interpretation of parallel universes remains unproven. Yet regardless of whether the hypothesis can be verified, parallel universes can enrich our lives through thought experiments alone.”
Sakamoto smiled at Jaehwan and continued.
“The thought that everything we imagine is actually occurring in another universe. That thought experiment itself can make every choice we make more weighty and careful. According to this hypothesis, we are creating a new universe every moment.”
Everything we imagine exists...
Jaehwan stopped reading his web novel and focused on Sakamoto instead.
“Perhaps concepts such as imagination and delusion do not truly exist in this universe. After all, every parallel universe ultimately exists. As imagination, as dreams, as allegory, as symbols, or as metaphor. We live only once and die only once, yet we are always living alongside countless parallel universes... Hmm, dear me. I've taken up too much time. That concludes today's lecture!”
Students could be heard packing their bags throughout the room. They rushed out of the lecture hall.
Sakamoto's voice followed them.
“How can you leave already? Next week's assignment is...!”
* * *
After taking Sakamoto's class, Jaehwan gradually began taking an interest in university lectures.
Classes about writing interested him the most.
At first, he attended various major courses in the Korean literature department, but he soon realized Korean literature was not his path. University Korean literature departments no longer taught writing.
Yoonhwan had put it this way.
“Students in Korean literature are too busy getting teaching certifications or preparing for jobs. Who writes these days? How are they supposed to make a living? You should hurry up too, Jaehwan...”
So the classes Jaehwan mostly took were not from the Korean literature department but the creative writing department. He took classes on fiction writing and submitted the crude stories he wrote whenever his turn came around. In his own way, he had written them with the solemn resolve to create a universe.
“No plausibility. You do know the difference between realism and plausibility, don't you?”
“You overuse commas, and the sentence structures don't even agree. Why are there so many ungrammatical sentences? What are you trying to do by cutting off sentences halfway through? Do you think that makes it sound cool?”
“Rewrite the novel. And not a genre novel this time.”
“Even if the boundaries of literature are disappearing, what is this? These days everyone and their dog shoves a novel in your face...”
The universe he had created quietly shattered beneath devastating criticism.
Still, he learned one thing. Even within the category of fiction, his stories were an unrealistic world without plausibility.
Jaehwan kept writing novels and suffering setbacks as he was battered from all sides by undergraduates' brutal workshop critiques and professors' comments.
Then winter came.
About two weeks remained until the Tower's expected descent.
As usual, Jaehwan visited Teacher and passed the consultation with idle chatter. They no longer spoke of the Tree of Illusion.
“By the way, Jaehwan. Aren't you preparing for something like the New Year Literary Contest?”
Knowing that Jaehwan had recently been taking creative writing classes, Teacher asked with a teasing expression.
The New Year Literary Contest, a gateway into literary fiction, began accepting submissions through each newspaper company in early December. It was already early December. By then, submissions to the New Year Literary Contest at most major newspapers were nearing their deadlines.
The New Year Literary Contest...
Jaehwan frowned and asked back.
“You aren't seriously saying that, are you?”
“Hm? I am serious.”
Looking at Teacher's sly face, Jaehwan thought Teacher surely knew everything and was saying this nonsense on purpose.
Still, even knowing that answering meant he had lost, Jaehwan could not stop himself.
“You must have some idea what I've heard in workshop classes. I started writing because of you, and then...”
“Hm? Did someone say something to you, Jaehwan?”
Jaehwan pursed his lips slightly. He did not want to repeat with his own mouth what he had heard during workshops. The harsh criticisms, nearly vicious attacks, aimed at an arrogant student from another department. Jaehwan had clearly learned how cruel people could become to others under the excuse of a “workshop.”
Teacher simply laughed.
“No matter what anyone says, I like your stories, Jaehwan.”
“Why don't you try writing instead? You seem like you'd be good at it too.”
“Hmm, if Jaehwan gives me the material, perhaps I'll give it a try someday.”
“Then you can use the material from all the stories you've collected from me.”
Of course, he had not meant it seriously.
Teacher probably knew that too.
Then why?
Teacher's expression changed for an instant at Jaehwan's words. It was so slight that Jaehwan failed to notice, and Teacher gave an awkward smile.
“Ha ha.”
Silence settled between them for a moment. Teacher lowered his head and looked at the consultation table, while Jaehwan quietly stared out the window.
“The day will come soon, Jaehwan.”
“...”
“Are you prepared?”
“More or less.”
Frost clouded the window beyond the cold that had arrived so suddenly. Jaehwan walked over and drew a spiraling Tower on the frost with his finger. The Tower, sketched amid softly falling snowflakes, looked rather convincing.
Fear? Terror?
He no longer knew.
More precisely, he had begun thinking that way some time ago. What if the Tower appeared, and what if it did not? He lived here now.
A faint smile touched Jaehwan's lips.
Teacher, perhaps you won after all.
“Jaehwan.”
“Yes.”
“It has already been ten years since I first met you.”
White hairs had begun to appear here and there in Teacher's once-youthful hair.
Having lived through a million years, Jaehwan had forgotten how long ten years could be for an ordinary human.
“May I tell you something funny?”
“What is it?”
“The truth is, I believe in your world, Jaehwan. Not as a possibility. I believe that world truly exists.”
Jaehwan stared blankly for a moment, then snorted.
“Is that a new joke you've come up with?”
Teacher shook his head.
“Even if the Tower does not appear, I think your world truly existed. No, I think it still exists now.”
Footnotes:
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