Chapter 266 - Side Story. “Revision” (4)
Chapter 266: Side Story. “Revision” (4)
──────
A place where planes could suddenly fall from the sky, houses could vanish beneath landslides, tidal waves could sweep in and overflow, and volcanic eruptions could trigger massive earthquakes.
His life could end at any moment. He might die in a traffic accident today or be struck by a falling sign tomorrow.
And perhaps today, he was fated to die beneath this reinforced concrete.
Jaehwan exhaled and wiped the blood running down his forehead. He steadied his breathing, then pushed against the reinforced concrete with all his strength.
He had to get out somehow. If nothing else, he had to save this girl.
But the concrete would not budge.
He was powerless. In the 《Tree of Illusion》 where he had lived, humans could become anything through effort. If only he could use a Skill, if only he could perform a Stab, he could have shattered this chunk of concrete with ease.
But Jaehwan in this nightmare was an ordinary human.
He was not a superhuman, a god, or a Lord. He was only a human capable of writing a single sentence that could change nothing.
Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Breathing grew harder and harder. It felt as though there was less oxygen around him than before.
He could not bring himself to believe anyone would come to save them.
He could tell from the scale of the earthquake alone. If a massive underground bookstore had collapsed, the entire area must have been devastated. Even if someone came to rescue them, it would take a long time to dig them out from beneath the rubble.
He would quietly die in this cramped space.
Jaehwan tried several times to wake the unconscious girl, then gave up.
When he twisted his body slightly, the concrete rubble creaked and settled lower, pressing down on his shoulder. Even so, he thought he could endure that much weight for another hour or two.
The cracked screen of his smartphone flickered weakly. He tried every possible way to call for help, but the phone could not find a signal at all.
As he struggled for breath and looked around, he saw books scattered across the floor.
At least there will be enough to read until I die.
With weary eyes, Jaehwan looked down at the books and picked one up to read. He wanted to forget the pain in his shoulder.
By coincidence, it was the very novel Jaehwan had planned to buy earlier.
One page, then two.
Jaehwan slowly turned the pages. Even knowing this might be the last story he ever read, he kept turning them.
Just as he expected, it was an absurd novel. A novel that one person alone had read became reality, and its sole reader struggled through destruction until the end.
A novel becomes reality.
A laugh suddenly escaped him through his fading consciousness.
The course of the story was different, but perhaps this novel was ultimately telling the story he had wanted to tell.
This world was the 「First Nightmare」.
Every story in this world was nothing more than delusion. But if everyone in this nightmare dreamed of the same thing, if they believed it was true, then at least that world became real somewhere beyond this universe.
The 「First Nightmare」 could be changed simply because it was true. This nightmare, too, was ultimately just a delusion granted authority.
Jaehwan had come this far with such a naive thought, only to realize how naive it had been.
No matter what, death was reality.
Whether this place was the First Nightmare or not, he would dream a long dream within this nightmare and die.
The strength in the shoulder holding up the concrete was slowly giving out.
This is it.
Jaehwan accepted the end of this story.
Then he looked at the girl’s face one last time.
He began piling books nearby to bear the concrete’s weight in his place. At a glance, the stack of books looked like a crude tower. Books that would protect the girl in his place, even if he lost consciousness.
When the pile finally reached the concrete rubble, a vibration echoed from somewhere.
Another earthquake?
Then faint sparks rose from the cover of the last book he had stacked. Jaehwan’s eyes widened in surprise.
As if by magic, the concrete rubble before him split apart.
The concrete scattered as though it were a sky torn open by a Stab.
The weight crushing his shoulder vanished, and his view opened up. Beyond the pitch-black darkness was something like a light bulb, shining with brilliant white radiance.
[Baat.]
A man stood beyond the light.
The moment he saw him, Jaehwan remembered a conversation with Yoonhwan. They had spoken of how, in another universe, his story might have become a webtoon.
That was exactly how it felt. In that unreal moment, Jaehwan felt as though he had stepped into a panel of a webtoon.
“The lines between worlds have finally connected. Is the revision complete?”
He thought he heard the man say something like that.
Looking closer, the light floating beside the man was a cotton-candy-shaped life-form. Faced with such a bizarre sight, Jaehwan could not gather his wits.
Only then did he notice the man’s clothing.
A pitch-black coat and black combat boots.
It felt familiar. Jaehwan had seen this man somewhere before.
The man looked down at Jaehwan with indifferent eyes, then spoke to the glowing cotton candy beside him.
“Biyoo.”
The cotton candy flew over with a baat sound, hovered above Jaehwan and the girl, then scattered something like powder. When the finely ground, graphite-like dust touched their wounds, Jaehwan’s and the girl’s injuries began healing at once.
Jaehwan wanted to ask.
Who are you? What is this?
“Our worldline has a similar structure.”
[Baat.]
“But it is far more desperate and lonely. A world that assumes an enemy no one can ever defeat alone, then repeats an eternal struggle.”
He did not understand what that meant, but for some reason, it felt as though his chest were being torn apart.
The man looked at Jaehwan again.
“So that is the Lord Slayer.”
Jaehwan wanted to ask how the man knew that nickname. But his voice would not come out.
His arm and shoulder were trembling. Before his mind could even recognize it, his body had already understood.
The ominous power flowing from the man before him.
Jaehwan knew what that power was.
An Unique World.
There was no mistake. The man before him was an Awakened One.
“He is far too different from what I heard. Do you really think someone this weak will be useful?”
[Baat.]
“Has the story not been updated yet? Begin, Biyoo.”
[Baat! Baaat!]
Brilliant light spread out from the cotton candy.
A moment later, something changed within Jaehwan’s body.
Power slowly welled up around his heart.
A desperately familiar, aching sensation slowly colored his body.
Just as he had when Karlton helped him receive World Force from the residents of 《Chaos》, Jaehwan felt World Force sent by someone else springing up throughout his body.
His breathing gradually steadied. When he slowly blinked, a golden Ouroboros pattern appeared over his eyes.
He did not know why, but the power he once used was returning.
The first thing to return was 「Doubt」.
“Who are you?”
The next was 「Understanding」.
“And... who has been talking in my ear this whole time?”
Jaehwan stared into the darkness around him and sensed the sentence that described it. Beyond that sentence, he felt a gaze watching him. He sensed another sentence describing that gaze, and beyond that sentence, the distant existence of you who watched him.
At that moment, Jaehwan instinctively understood what was happening.
He thought of Sakamoto’s parallel universe and remembered Teacher’s words. He imagined a universe existing simultaneously with his own.
Just as he had desperately imagined 「The World After the Fall」, he imagined an unknown existence on the other side of an unfamiliar universe, an existence that might be imagining him. He imagined a Follower whose face he did not even know.
Jaehwan knew it was an absurd delusion. But what if that delusion could occur simultaneously? What if, just as this side imagined that universe, that side was imagining this universe at the same time?
Jaehwan muttered in a hollow yet relieved voice.
“So it was only possible with help from another universe...”
The man’s voice reached him.
“There are things that cannot be changed alone. It took me a long time to realize that too.”
Jaehwan looked into the man’s face. Only now could he see it clearly. He knew simply by looking at him.
That man had come from a universe other than the 《Tree of Illusion》.
He could see traces of the Unique World flowing around the man. That Unique World spoke to him.
[A fable, ‘Hellscape of Eternity,’ bares its fangs at you.]
But unlike before, he did not freeze.
The man before him was among the strongest enemies Jaehwan had ever faced, yet he did not think he would lose.
His heart pounded fiercely, and World Force began flowing through his entire body. He felt as though he could perform a Stab at any moment. Without realizing it, Jaehwan moved his hand toward his waist.
Then.
Hummm.
To his surprise, his broken Dokbul was there.
It did not seem able to speak yet, but it was undeniably Dokbul. The sword that had endured a damned ten billion years with him. The very sword containing the sealed demonic species Beastrein.
The man watched Jaehwan silently before speaking.
“It seems the fable has spread quite far. It already appears to have surpassed the Mythical Constellation level.”
[Baaat!]
The cotton candy floating above the man’s shoulder bounced excitedly.
Jaehwan asked them again.
“I will ask again. Who are you? Are you gods? Or Lords?”
“We do not belong to your universe.”
“Did you cause the earthquake?”
“We are not the cause. The timing merely happened to overlap. We have no intention of destroying your world.”
“Why did you come here?”
A cold voice escaped him without his realizing it. He was grateful they had saved him, but judging by their appearance and everything else, they did not seem to have come to his world with good intentions.
The man frowned as though Jaehwan’s attitude was absurd.
“I went to all the trouble of saving you, and you do not even thank me.”
“Because you will demand a greater price than saving me from now on.”
The man watched Jaehwan for a moment, then turned to the cotton candy. He said something incomprehensible.
“Does that guy only pick books with protagonists like this?”
The cotton candy burst into giggles.
Jaehwan asked, “That guy?”
“It is nothing. More importantly... fine. I will be honest.”
The man withdrew the pressure flowing from his body.
“I need your help, Lord Slayer Jaehwan.”
“Help?”
“There is a world you must destroy.”
Hearing those words, Jaehwan slowly steadied his breathing.
A world he had to destroy.
Dokbul, gripped tightly in his hand, let out a low hum.
When he closed his eyes, countless questions briefly came to mind. When he opened them again, only one remained.
“In this universe...”
As always, it was the only question he could ask.
Jaehwan lowered his head without realizing it and asked, “Does a next floor still exist?”
He did not ask because he expected the man to understand. Jaehwan simply could not ask any other question.
The man replied, “I do not know what you mean, but... there probably is not anything like a ‘next floor’ in this universe.”
It was the answer he had expected.
Come to think of it, he had always asked the same question and heard the same answer.
Everyone had told him the same thing.
There was no next floor in this world.
Then the man said something unexpected.
“But there may be a ‘next story.’”
“What?”
“I do not know exactly what your question means, but one thing is certain. Your story does not end here.”
Jaehwan slowly raised his head.
As though he had been waiting to hear those words all along.
Soon, Jaehwan looked up at the ceiling of the building, stained with pitch-black cracks.
There was no next floor in this universe.
Jaehwan understood what the man meant.
The idea of a next floor could only exist when there was a higher floor. But just as the 《Tree of Illusion》 had been, a universe was not a simple tower.
A world with no known beginning or end. Could there be an end to everything in such a world?
Was this universe truly a world where destruction was possible?
“At least this is not the end.”
To bring about destruction in this universe meant acknowledging that destruction did not exist.
To doubt the world he faced, understand it, forget the self that had adapted to it, establish a Hypothesis again, prove it, and edit it. To walk into that distant process of destruction.
Jaehwan stabbed toward the ceiling with all his strength. A deafening crash followed as a round hole opened in the ceiling, allowing brilliant rays of light to pour through.
An exit leading to a world other than this one.
Carrying the girl on his back, Jaehwan stood beside the man at the passage leading aboveground. The moment he stood there, Jaehwan realized.
「The World After the Fall」 had not yet come.
Therefore.
“Lead the way.”
His destruction was not over yet.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion