Chapter 88 - Episode 13. Catastrophe (2)
Chapter 88: Episode 13. Catastrophe (2)
──────
Three 「Factory Masters」 stood there, watching the expedition with relaxed expressions.
They were the apex of the Horned Beasts of 《Chaos》.
Beings called the rulers of all Horned Beasts.
A few expedition members quietly took several steps back.
The timing was bad.
They had slaughtered hundreds of Horned Beasts, and had even ground the Eight-Horned Beast Garnak to pieces. If things went wrong, a fight could break out.
Each Factory Master, with ten horns growing from its body, possessed an aura comparable to an upper-tier Warlord. So no matter how formidable the expedition members were, they could not afford to relax this time.
If Jaehwan stepped in, they were not opponents he could not handle, but they were far beyond the expedition members. If a clash broke out, it would be a fight that could not avoid bloodshed.
“There is no need to fight. I do not find them very agreeable either, but the 「Factory Masters」 are not enemies.”
Cheongheo was the one who cut through the ominous atmosphere.
Cheongheo had already met the Factory Masters nine hundred years ago, so he knew their temperaments well.
It did not take long for the Factory Masters’ expressions to prove that Cheongheo was right.
Rather than angry, they looked intrigued.
[It has been a while. Are you the ones trying to go to the 《Abyss》?]
The blunt voice belonged to a Factory Master with the build of an adult man, its entire body wrapped in cold silver metal.
[Human. Courage. Admirable.]
The one who spoke next in broken phrases was a Factory Master with the build of a boy, its entire body covered in bronze-colored metal.
[Hmph, even so, it is only a human.]
The last to speak was the female-form Factory Master standing beside the boy. This Factory Master, with the curved build of an adult woman, was covered from head to toe in a metal-like substance just like the other two. It was only after seeing that Factory Master that Jaehwan realized “copper skin” could be literal rather than figurative.
The Factory Masters’ gazes soon focused on a single person.
[It is you.]
They carefully looked Jaehwan over from head to toe, then slowly continued.
[Come inside. The High Factory Master is waiting.]
* * *
A little later, Jaehwan, Cheongheo, and Karlton were inside the Strange Factory. Originally, everyone had tried to enter, but the Factory Masters had refused so firmly that there was no helping it.
[Only you are permitted. The rest may not enter.]
Even that was only because they had originally permitted Jaehwan alone, but Jaehwan had pressed the issue until the Factory Masters had no choice but to allow more people in.
His attitude made it clear that if they did not allow it, he would fight them right there, so the Factory Masters had no choice.
“Damn it, I’m jealous!”
“Hey, Karlton! Don’t go off with the Fortress Lord like that. You hear me?”
The voices of the Hall Masters boomed from the entrance. When Jaehwan glanced back, Cayman was looking this way with a strangely forlorn face.
Seeing that, Cheongheo muttered,
“Why did that brat Cayman say he would not come along? Even the Factory Masters gave permission... Hey, kid. Got any idea?”
Jaehwan only glanced at Cheongheo and did not answer. But Cheongheo had watched Jaehwan for a long time, and from that glance alone, he could sense something. Whenever Jaehwan played dumb like that, it meant he had something in mind.
“What is it now, what are you planning this time?”
“There is something only he can do.”
“Only Cayman?”
“He alone can do it.”
For a moment, a hurt look passed over Cheongheo’s face. It had sounded as though Jaehwan was saying the old man could not do it.
“What on earth is th...”
Cheongheo’s voice faded beneath the machinery echoing from every direction.
Whiiiiiing.
A great number of particle printers were frantically scattering particle waves as they shaped the skeletons of Horned Beasts yet to be born.
Skeleton fabrication. It was the first stage of Horned Beast production. Among the Horned Beasts whose skeletons had already been completed, some were being sent straight into the second stage.
When a generous amount of particle waves for the outer-skin process was sprayed into the air, the soft hide unique to Horned Beasts soon began to form in rippling waves. Those precious Horned Beast hides were being produced in an instant.
“Amazing. To think all those Horned Beasts were being made this way...”
Karlton spoke in an awed voice.
Anyone would have been impressed.
Before long, the group had reached the place where the third stage was underway. The Horned Beasts that had even completed the ego infusion process now gave off such presence that it would not have been wrong to call them living creatures. Whether viewed from the outside or cut open to see within, they were so vivid that at a glance no one would think them machines. From their specially manufactured skeletons and hides to their programmed instincts.
Perfect biological weapons produced from beginning to end by the manufacturing process of the Strange Factory. It was a sight that showed just how extraordinary the factory’s technology was.
Soon after, another massive Horned Beast appeared from deeper inside the factory. It was the Eight-Horned Beast that had fiercely fought Jaehwan earlier. One-Horned Beasts in charge of transport were straining as they moved while supporting Garnak’s huge body.
Boom.
At last, Garnak’s body was placed atop a gigantic process platform. Small Horned Beasts in charge of repairs appeared from all sides and began taking Garnak apart for inspection.
Grrrr...
Garnak was looking toward Jaehwan with mournful eyes. It was then that the small 「Factory Master」 walking beside Jaehwan spoke.
[Guest. Strong one. Long time.]
A child-sized Factory Master covered entirely in bronze.
[Me. Product name. JOHNIAC. You. Name. What.]
“Jaehwan.”
[Me. JOHNIAC. You. Jaehwan.]
The child Factory Master’s way of speaking gave the impression that a screw was missing somewhere.
Looking toward the groaning Garnak, it said,
[Garniak. Precious. Product. If broken. Bad. Once. Ten years. Produce.]
It seemed the name Garniak referred to the Eight-Horned Beast Garnak.
“Made only once every ten years?”
[Ten. Years. Once. Hard. To make.]
Jaehwan understood JOHNIAC’s meaning.
Well, a Horned Beast on the level of an Eight-Horned Beast would not be easy to create. If creatures of this level were overflowing everywhere, Chaos would have been torn to pieces long ago.
No, rather, considering the vast history of 《Chaos》, it was strange that Eight-Horned Beasts were this rare. Even if only one were made every ten years, that would still mean a hundred in a thousand years.
As though it had anticipated that question, JOHNIAC said the following.
[Flood. Nether Ghost Envoys. Garniak. Heavy losses.]
“Nether Ghost Envoys?”
[Nether Ghost Envoys. Strange Factory. Trespass.]
It sounded like a code, but Jaehwan had little trouble understanding what it meant.
“You fought the Nether Ghost Envoys too?”
[Fought. Won.]
Judging by JOHNIAC’s words, the aftermath of the Nether Ghost Envoys being mass-produced in Geumcheon Hall not long ago had reached even the Strange Factory. It seemed the factory’s Eight-Horned Beasts and the Nether Ghost Envoys had clashed somewhere.
I see. If there are four of these things, then of course Geumcheon Hall’s Nether Ghost Envoys would be no match for them.
Jaehwan looked over little JOHNIAC’s exterior and thought.
It was below the Dark Fragrance Lord Samyeong Garam, whom he had fought back then. But it was clearly above the Typhoon Lord and the Silence Lord. If they all charged him at once, even Jaehwan would find them difficult to handle.
Karlton seemed to have noticed that as well and spoke.
“I had heard that you were apostles of a god once famed in the 《Abyss》, but seeing you in person, you are even more impressive.”
[You. Know. About. Us.]
“I know a little.”
[What.]
“Are you not apostles of Deus, the god of the great machine?”
[Hmph, it seems the fools of Chaos these days hear too much for their own good.]
The one who replied thickly to Karlton’s words was the copper-skinned female-form Factory Master walking at the front of the group.
[Come to think of it, you seem familiar. Are you not that old man from nine hundred years ago?]
It seemed IAS had recognized Cheongheo.
When their gazes met, Cheongheo’s expression tightened slightly.
[You are stubborn. After going through all that, you still plan to climb again?]
[Do not be rude, IAS. They are guests of the High Factory Master.]
The male-form Factory Master leading the way spoke in a hard voice.
[What, that old man and that blond are guests too?]
[For now.]
[Tch.]
The female-form Factory Master called IAS closed its mouth.
Apparently, the male-form Factory Master walking in front held the highest rank among the three. A Factory Master with a sturdy muscular build and silver skin.
Then Jaehwan noticed something. Letters engraved on the back of the Factory Master’s neck. Surprisingly, it was a language Jaehwan could read.
EDSAC.
EDSAC? That name sounds familiar somehow.
Looking more closely, every Factory Master had a string of letters engraved on the back of its neck.
For example, the letters IAS were written on the back of the neck of the female-form one called IAS, and JOHNIAC was written on the back of little JOHNIAC’s neck.
The letters looked less like names and more like product names. They seemed to be labels written so that anyone could read them with ease.
How strange. These things look more like machines than the Horned Beasts do.
Unlike the other Horned Beasts, which used elaborate machinery to disguise themselves as living beings, the 「Factory Masters」 instead revealed to the whole world that they were machines. They neither hid nor denied that they were machines.
At a glance they resembled humans, but in truth they were beings who had established their identities as complete machines. Beings living at the point where the boundary between living and nonliving became vague.
Thinking about such things made Jaehwan’s head feel slightly tangled.
After that brief exchange, an uncomfortable silence fell again. The only sounds were the footsteps of the Factory Masters and the group.
“How much farther are we going?”
[To where the High Factory Master is.]
Factory Master EDSAC answered in a blunt voice.
The “High Factory Master” they spoke of was probably the final Factory Master that could be read about in 『Record of the Abyss』.
There had been four Factory Masters recorded there in total.
The last one who had not appeared yet would be the High Factory Master.
[We have arrived.]
At EDSAC’s words, the group came to a stop.
A massive door blocked their view. A thoroughly analog-looking door, as if tangled electrical circuits had petrified in place. It was the High Factory Master’s room.
* * *
The High Factory Master, ENIAC.
The giant draped in splendid golden metal introduced itself by that name.
[So it is you. The Awakened One who opened Creation.]
More courteous than the other Factory Masters, it had enough varied expressions and gestures that at first glance one might mistake it for human. But it too was unmistakably a machine.
Still, ENIAC...
“Do you happen to know of a planet called Earth?”
The question, thrown just as they were about to get to the main point, made ENIAC’s huge body pause.
[Earth, you say?]
“It is the name of my homeland. Here they call it World 294.”
At the number 294, ENIAC’s expression changed in a strange way. Looking closely, it even seemed to be smiling. A machine’s smile felt eerie somehow.
[Why do you ask?]
“There were machines there with names similar to yours.”
ENIAC, EDSAC, IAS, and JOHNIAC...
He had thought the names felt familiar, and only now did he remember. Long ago, while studying for a computer-related certification, he had heard names like those.
ENIAC.
It was the name of the first computer made on Earth. That was why Jaehwan thought perhaps they might have some connection to his homeland.
ENIAC closed its eyes for a moment as though thinking something over.
[It is said that the god who made us came from the dimensional 《Peripheral Worlds》. Perhaps that 《Peripheral Worlds》 may be your homeland.]
“A god?”
[That is correct. A god.]
ENIAC tilted its head at the sign that Jaehwan found the word “god” unfamiliar.
[Could it be... that you still do not know much about the 《Abyss》?]
Through 『Record of the Abyss』, Jaehwan had obtained some information about the 《Abyss》. But Mulack’s memories contained many unclear and fragmented parts.
In other words, the information he needed and the information he did not need were broken into pieces without any order.
Taking Jaehwan’s silence as confirmation, ENIAC spoke again.
[To explain simply, the 《Abyss》 is the land of gods.]
The land of gods.
[If the rulers of the 《Great Realm》 are the Lords, then the rulers of the 《Abyss》 are the gods. There are as many gods there as there are Lords, each holding its own territory and competing for power.]
“So they serve the role of Lords?”
[Their roles are similar, but they are different from Lords. Most Lords are ‘Adapters’ of this System. Gods are somewhat different in concept from Adapters.]
Different from Lords and Adapters.
The information in Jaehwan’s head was beginning to fall into place. What he already knew and what he had not known were mixing together, moving toward a single answer.
Jaehwan asked,
“What exactly is a god?”
[If you ask what a god is... Well.]
Perhaps it was a difficult question, because ENIAC, the High Factory Master, remained silent for quite some time. Then again, what could be more contradictory than asking a god’s creation to explain god?
Inside the deeply contemplative ENIAC’s head, countless circuits might well have been screaming by now.
As though helping it along, Jaehwan spoke.
“In the world where I lived, gods were said to be beings that were omniscient and omnipotent.”
[...Omniscient and omnipotent. To possess both at once, that would be a contradictory being.]
Perhaps noticing Jaehwan’s consideration, ENIAC smiled and continued.
[The gods of the Abyss are neither omniscient nor omnipotent. Depending on the circumstances, they may come close to that, but...]
A being that is neither omniscient nor omnipotent.
Then what is a god?
The answer that came from ENIAC’s mouth was utterly unexpected.
[Jaehwan. Let me put it simply. As the creation of a god, I do not possess the language to explain exactly what a god is. But I can at least say with certainty what sort of being is called a god.]
ENIAC, staring at Jaehwan with a strange look in its eyes, slowly opened its mouth.
[Jaehwan, you are a god.]
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion