Chapter 72 - Episode 11. King of Chaos (3)
Chapter 72: Episode 11. King of Chaos (3)
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White linoleum floors, pink wallpaper covering the walls, and hundreds of books lined up on the shelves. Beneath them stood glass display cases at regular intervals, shaped like enormous upside-down flasks.
At the center of it all, Sirwen Armelt gritted her teeth as she operated a control panel floating in midair.
How the hell had she ended up like this?
Recalling what had happened moments ago, she twisted her face into a scowl.
“Why would I go there?”
When Jaehwan pointed at her, Sirwen thought she must have misheard him.
He wanted to take her to the Palace of Rebirth.
After they had even stabbed Darkness in the back, he expected her to walk right in there?
Then Jaehwan spoke again, and Sirwen’s mouth fell open.
“Don’t you want to know what was inside the Eighth Gate?”
Her face went pale. Her eyes darted anxiously as she listened to him.
“If you help me, I’ll tell you what I saw in the Eighth Gate.”
Was this what an irresistible offer felt like?
No, how did he even know?
She was so creeped out that she could not even bring herself to question him. Covering her eyes with both hands, Sirwen leaned her head back and thought for a moment before speaking.
“How do you want me to help?”
“Send us to 《Palace of Rebirth》.”
“Send you? How?”
“Use Warp.”
Warp.
A spatial movement skill only dream demons could use.
Only then did the people in the room seem to understand why Jaehwan had chosen Sirwen. Sirwen herself still looked unconvinced.
“That’s impossible. I can’t Warp that far, and there are too many people.”
Warp allowed its user to travel to any place they remembered, but its range was limited. Jaehwan shook his head.
“You can.”
“I said I can’t!”
Jaehwan narrowed his eyes.
“Even if you open your 「Personal Workshop」?”
Sirwen froze.
「Personal Workshop」.
A multidimensional pocket dimension every dream demon possessed, and a private place where they created their works.
“Let us into your 「Personal Workshop」, then use the ‘Warp Drive.’ That will get us there.”
Sirwen’s eyes widened in shock.
Jaehwan was right. A Personal Workshop was not only a useful shelter for dream demons in an emergency. It was also a pocket dimension equipped with a Warp Drive capable of long-distance Warp.
“How could a human possibly know about that...”
“How I know isn’t important. What matters is that you can do it.”
Regardless of whether it was possible, Sirwen could not agree to his request.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Th-That’s...”
Sirwen could not explain how she felt in any logical way. It was not an emotion that could be properly explained in the first place, and she did not want to explain it.
Every dream demon closes their Personal Workshop before dying.
It is a workshop containing the entirety of their history.
Inside it, dream demons release the unconscious parts of themselves they keep hidden so they can devote themselves freely to creation. That is why they never invite others into their 「Personal Workshop」. For a dream demon, having someone discover their Personal Workshop is more shameful than dancing naked before a crowd.
“...Damn it.”
Even so, Sirwen had no choice but to accept Jaehwan’s condition. Even if it meant selling her old pride, she wanted to know what reward lay within the Eighth Gate.
And this was the result.
After finishing the Warp Drive’s settings, Sirwen caught her breath and turned around.
“Hey, I’m done setting it up, so we’ll arrive at the Palace of Rebirth any moment now...!”
Sirwen could not finish.
The three men who had been standing behind her moments ago were now looking through the exhibits in her workshop. They even seemed to be critiquing them.
She felt so ashamed that it seemed as though her arms and legs were curling in on themselves.
“Hey! What are you doing? I told you not to look at those! I don’t make Towers anymore!”
Her godfather, Mulack, had once said that making a Tower was like showing someone your ass. Getting caught with a failed work was even more humiliating than having a hidden mole on your ass exposed.
...No, what could those idiots possibly know about Towers?
Her hopes shattered at Cheongheo’s next words.
“Brat, look at this. That girl actually made something like this and called it a Tower.”
Cheongheo let out a hollow laugh as he pointed at the description beside the miniature Tower in the glass case.
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[Work Information]
Title: The Ten Billionth Regressor
Description: You who have regressed ten billion times, receive the blessing of the legendary dream demon ‘Sirwen Armelt’ and conquer the Great Realm!
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“Don’t laugh! I made that when I was only twelve hundred years old!”
Her face bright red, Sirwen rushed over and hurriedly covered the case with a sheet of cloth.
Long ago, after Master Mulack created the first regression Tower, ‘Fortress of Regret,’ and received rave reviews from the monthly 《T.O.P》 magazine, regression became popular for a time.
“If every idiot is going to make Products regress, then I’ll make them regress ten billion times.”
Sirwen’s 『The Ten Billionth Regressor』 had been created out of resentment toward the regression trend. If regression was popular, she would repeat it so many times that regression itself would become strange and alien. It was a work born from a belief that was very much like a dream demon’s.
Naturally, it failed miserably.
Not only hers, but countless regression Towers made at the time were all discarded. It was discovered that deceiving Products into thinking they had regressed through illusions did nothing for cultivation. Worse, it damaged the Product’s Mentality and lowered the quality of cultivation.
For reference, 『The Ten Billionth Regressor』 received half a star out of five from the monthly 《T.O.P》, a magazine specializing in Towers.
It was still a dark chapter of her past that she wanted to forget.
“Has anyone ever cleared this Tower?”
“W-Well...”
Sirwen stammered at Cayman’s question.
She could never admit that 『The Ten Billionth Regressor』 was still in cultivation in World 9,766,245. The Cultivator had even died after growing tired of waiting, making it impossible for the Tower to ever be cleared.
Then Cheongheo spotted something else and spoke again.
“What’s this one?”
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[Work Information]
Title: The Cultivator Doesn’t Cultivate
Introduction: Good heavens! The Companion beside me was actually a Cultivator? An incredible Tower is coming!
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Sirwen’s face turned white. She ran over with a scream.
“Aaaaaah! Don’t look at it!”
“Kuahahaha! This is hilarious!”
“I could make them better now! I made all of these when I was young!”
“The Cultivator doesn’t cultivate!”
Cheongheo’s booming laughter made Sirwen want to disappear into the ground.
This was why she had not wanted to bring them here!
『The Cultivator Doesn’t Cultivate』 was her ambitious masterpiece, made to mock the so-called mass-produced cultivation tastes favored by Cultivators.
Instead of lounging at the top of a Tower just because they were Cultivators, they were meant to go through hell and fight alongside the Products from the first floor onward, enjoying the game with them. Yet it was rejected by the Cultivators as expected and failed completely.
“Heh. Seeing things like this and feeling nothing much, I must really be getting old.”
“...That doesn’t mean it feels good.”
As Sirwen frantically covered the Towers with cloth, she stopped at Cheongheo and Cayman’s casual exchange.
She had forgotten for a moment because their conversation was so natural.
They had all once been Products.
Come to think of it, she had never considered Towers from a Product’s perspective. She had always been focused only on how Cultivators and harvesters would react, or how the Dream Demon Association would critique her work.
Something felt strange.
What kind of place was a dream demon’s workshop to people who had once been Products?
Sirwen looked at Cheongheo and Cayman for a while before covering the remaining Towers. She knew that anything she said now would be nothing but hypocrisy.
Between her, who had been born a dream demon, and them, who had been chosen as Products, there was a gap no words could ever bridge. A wall that would never crumble, no matter how much time passed.
Thinking that way made Sirwen feel strangely lonely.
She could not understand why she felt that way. Guilt she had never experienced before came rushing over her all at once.
She did not know what was wrong. Still, the sense that something was wrong filled her chest and relentlessly tormented her soul.
Perhaps this was why her godfather had gone on that expedition.
With her head lowered, Sirwen focused on covering the Towers. For now, hiding her work was the most considerate thing she could do.
Then she noticed Jaehwan standing before the final exhibit.
The miniature Tower Jaehwan was looking at was Sirwen’s most recent unfinished work. She had planned its outline four days ago, inspired by a sudden idea.
“What is this Tower called?”
Sirwen’s shoulders flinched.
She tried to say something, then closed her mouth and looked at the Tower with Jaehwan.
A gigantic eye hung in the dark sky.
Thick, black mist surrounded the Tower.
The Tower took the form of a tree floating in the air. Its bare branches held not a single leaf. Unable to put down roots, unable to go anywhere, the tree looked lonely. Yet there was also something sublime about it.
It was a Tower with scattered ideas and a chaotic structure.
She had first imagined its appearance ten days ago, the moment she met Jaehwan. She did not know why. The instant she saw him, that tree had come to mind.
After hesitating, Sirwen spoke.
“...The World After the Fall. That’s the name of this Tower.”
“I see.”
Jaehwan answered briefly, then stared at the Tower for a long time. He looked as though he had left something behind inside it. His expression was strangely sad, and Sirwen could not bring herself to explain the Tower any further.
That was when a brilliant light burst from the Warp Drive.
Everyone knew what it meant. Space and time rippled, and a massive Warp gate appeared before them. Beyond it, they could faintly see the distant place they had to destroy.
“We’ve arrived.”
At last, it was time for the decisive showdown.
Footnotes:
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