Chapter 95 - Episode 13. Catastrophe (9)
Chapter 95: Episode 13. Catastrophe (9)
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Samyeong Hun continued at his leisure, giving Jaehwan ample time to lose himself in thought.
"I don't know why you hate this world so much. But I do know one thing for certain. You hate the idea of 'regression' more than anything."
Samyeong Hun had obtained countless recordings related to Jaehwan. In particular, after relentlessly pressuring Dream Demons affiliated with the Association, he had extracted interesting footage from the Tower of Nightmares' Fortress of Regret.
Footage of Jaehwan refusing the offer despite all the benefits offered by the Cultivator and the overwhelmingly favorable terms for beginning the Main Game.
That was why Samyeong Hun already knew Jaehwan would say this.
"Knowing that, you're still making me this offer?"
"I knew you'd say that."
Samyeong Hun smiled.
"What I am offering you is not 'regression.' Even with my power as a General of the 《Great Realm》, I cannot turn back time."
"...That demon bastard told me something similar."
"Yes, I suppose it did. But this is different. What I want to give you is not the 'past.'"
"..."
"What use is there in returning to a past that has already passed? Even if you turn back time, the nightmare you endured will not disappear. Isn't that right?"
Jaehwan fell silent for a moment. Samyeong Hun continued.
"Even if you return to the past, the traces of time carved into you will remain. No matter how far back you turn time, those wounds cannot heal. Nor should they. You were made through those wounds. Those wounds are already a part of you."
Jaehwan, who had become a monster through wounds inflicted by time, could not refute him. If anything, he agreed.
Turning back time meant denying himself. That was why Jaehwan had not returned to the past.
In that sense, his enemy understood him better than anyone he had met before. And now, that sole person who understood him was making him an offer.
"What I want to find for you is not your 'past.' It is the 'present' you lost."
"...My present?"
Samyeong Hun nodded.
"I know. Even in that Tower, you refused to return to the past because you chose the 'present.' That is why you are here."
"..."
"An incredible resolve. To remain unmoved by such temptation with nothing more than a human's mental energy. I cannot praise you enough. But..."
He paused deliberately. Watching Jaehwan's eyes flicker, Samyeong Hun continued.
"As I watched your unbelievable deeds, a question suddenly came to mind. Is this place truly the 'present' you wanted?"
Samyeong Hun looked around.
The scenery of 《Chaos》 churned around the barrier.
"Answer me. Is this truly the 'present' you wanted to protect?"
Jaehwan followed his gaze.
An unfamiliar world. Unfamiliar people. Scenery unrelated to him. Countless connections that did not remember him from Earth.
Then Samyeong Hun spoke again.
"I am certain. This place is not your 'present.'"
Pointing at the image on the ceiling, Samyeong Hun said, "The time that should have been yours. The 'present' you lost against your will is somewhere else entirely."
Jaehwan quietly looked up at the image on the ceiling.
The people of Earth.
The scenes created by their ordinary lives.
"If you become the General of the Ninth Zone, you can go there and spend time whenever you wish."
Jaehwan understood what Samyeong Hun meant.
He was not telling him to return to the past.
He was telling him to find his true present.
"Of course, you will be able to meet the people you love as well."
Soon, the image showed a woman quietly arranging books on a shelf before taking out The Little Prince. She stroked its cover again and again, then smiled faintly.
Jaehwan recognized her.
For the first time, deep sorrow crossed his face.
Samyeong Hun's smile deepened.
Samyeong Hun knew humans well.
The ancestors who had taken root in the 《Great Realm》 and given birth to him had once belonged to the species known as humans.
They had now lost many human traits apart from their appearance, but human blood still ran through his body.
Creatures who willingly became slaves to emotion even while knowing it would ruin everything.
You would be no different.
Samyeong Hun had meticulously analyzed the available recordings and prepared for this day.
Even after becoming an Awakened One, Jaehwan still possessed traits that could be called human. Samyeong Hun believed he could never refuse this offer.
Then Jaehwan spoke.
"...Answer me. What happens if I refuse?"
He was still asking that.
Truly an impressive Product.
"You will lose your 'present' forever."
It was a statement that could carry many meanings.
Yet no matter what it meant, it was horrifying to Jaehwan above all else.
"What do you think? I believe that is more than enough reason to join us."
It was an offer that would be almost impossible to refuse.
"Even if you reach the end of the 《Abyss》, you will not obtain what you want. No, there is no guarantee that you can reach its end in the first place, is there?"
Jaehwan could not deny a single word.
He remained silent for a long time. His gaze seemed to weigh something, yet it also seemed to long for a distant world.
"Then what happens to them?"
"Them?"
For a moment, Samyeong Hun wondered whom Jaehwan meant. Only after following his gaze did he understand.
"Are you seriously worried about the dead right now?"
Wraiths who had lost their lives long ago.
Defeated beings who had adapted to the damp, gloomy realm of 《Chaos》.
Samyeong Hun looked at the expedition members shouting outside the barrier.
"They die, whatever choice you make."
For a moment, Samyeong Hun worried that his answer might affect Jaehwan's decision. Then his thoughts changed when he recalled how the humans of 《Chaos》 had appeared in Jaehwan's Unique World.
He sees humans as corpses.
Could someone with such a horrifying worldview, someone who portrayed humans as corpses, possibly feel sympathy for them?
"...Is that so."
From Jaehwan's acceptance, Samyeong Hun realized that he had made up his mind.
Jaehwan looked at the image of the woman on the ceiling and slowly closed his eyes.
It was respect for the time he had lived on Earth.
And guilt toward the new time he would live.
Dokbul let out a low, humming cry.
The Calamity Flame surrounding it swelled.
Samyeong Hun narrowed his eyes.
"...What are you doing?"
At that moment, Jaehwan abandoned humanity.
At the same time, he chose humanity.
"I will not return. I will go up."
"Why? You do not want to return to your hometown? You do not want to see the people you love?"
Samyeong Hun could not understand.
"Are you going to throw the present you finally found into the trash?"
Into the trash.
Perhaps that was the right way to put it.
"I was in the trash from the beginning."
Flames rose from Jaehwan's blade, and the aura of Blue Madness began to swell around Samyeong Hun's entire body.
"Why...!"
Longing?
Of course he felt it.
People?
He wanted to see them.
Jaehwan was human too.
How could he not have such feelings?
But.
"Past, future, or present."
Whoosh.
"In this 'world,' none of it means anything."
Dokbul collided with Samyeong Hun's raised right fist. With a screech, blue flames flew in every direction.
"So what?"
The impact forced Jaehwan back several steps.
Yet he did not give up. He charged again.
"At some point, you bastards will come back and start your damned 'cultivation' again."
He might be able to stop them for a while. At least while Jaehwan was alive, Earth might remain safe.
But that would be all.
Nothing would change.
Samyeong Hun said, "Of course! Cultivation cannot be stopped. It is the law of this world. It is natural."
"Perhaps. In this 'world.'"
Jaehwan understood now.
In this world, cultivation was natural.
It was as natural as a farmer farming or a swordsman training with a sword. Like the logic of natural selection and survival of the fittest, cultivation was one of this world's laws.
A world where everyone considered cultivation natural.
Perhaps it was not any individual's fault.
Not Cheongheo or Cayman's fault for gradually forgetting the time when they had been Products.
Not Sirwen's fault for being raised from birth to create Towers.
Not even the angels and demons' fault for overseeing cultivation under the orders of a Higher Being.
If there was fault, it lay with this.
The fault of this 'world,' which had never defined it as wrong.
"That is why I want to destroy this world."
It was absurd. Nothing could be more absurd.
No one took responsibility for the present, so he placed that responsibility on the world. To avoid blaming any being, he poured all his hatred onto this System.
Samyeong Hun clenched his teeth and shouted.
"That is childish logic. Everything you love is also part of this world. Can you destroy all of it with your own hands?"
"..."
"There is no such thing as the System. You cannot destroy it, nor can you touch it. The System is nature!"
Instead of answering, Jaehwan swung his sword.
An answer that could not be expressed in words took shape through the blade.
At last, Samyeong Hun fell silent. He had given up trying to persuade him. He stared silently at Jaehwan, who stood unsteadily, then said,
"You will regret this."
The image of Earth shining from the ceiling faded in blue flames.
Every possibility Jaehwan could have lived through was disappearing. Jaehwan saw it off.
He would never be able to return.
He knew.
But this was the 'present' he had chosen.
It was miserable and trash-like, but it was a true present, neither mortgaged to the future nor bound to the past.
Samyeong Hun's cold voice rang out.
"Then die in the present you chose."
Samyeong Hun's fierce World Force shot toward Jaehwan.
The World Force soon took the form of a blue lion.
That bastard's Pineal Thread is still connected. If he dies, his soul will return to its first body.
Samyeong Hun spoke as though he wanted Jaehwan dead, but he knew better. Jaehwan, who had escaped to the 《Tree of Illusion》 without finishing the tutorial, was still a living being. That meant Samyeong Hun could force Jaehwan out into the 《Great Realm》 and deal with him later.
His soul will suffer some damage, but it cannot be helped.
Samyeong Hun decided to show no more restraint.
The blue lion let out a thunderous roar.
Blood flowed from Jaehwan's ears before oxidizing into silver. The death he had chosen was drawing near.
His thighs felt ready to shatter. Flesh was scraped from his ribs. His diaphragm hurt as though it would burst, and his breathing was unbearably ragged.
It cannot be helped.
Seeing the blue lion's approaching jaws, Jaehwan slowly closed his eyes.
* * *
"No...! You can't, brat!"
Outside the barrier, Cheongheo's face turned pale as he watched Jaehwan through the transparent wall.
With his eyes closed, Jaehwan reached into his robes.
He pulled out a dark-colored stone. The substance people called a Soulstone lay in his hand. Jaehwan quietly looked down at it, then bit into it and swallowed it.
The blue flames spewed by the lion immediately engulfed him.
Jaehwan could no longer be seen amid the blue Calamity Flame.
Cheongheo slowly dropped to his knees.
Ah...
He had thought Jaehwan might do something like this.
Since when?
Perhaps Cheongheo had foreseen this day ever since contaminated turbid energy began flowing from Jaehwan's body.
Was that why Jaehwan had not properly consumed Horned Beast horns?
Jaehwan had already been driven into a dead end.
His enemies were far too powerful. He had been given nowhere near enough time to strengthen his Unique World or build up his power.
In that situation, Jaehwan could do only one thing.
Borrow power from an enemy far stronger than himself.
The problem was the price of borrowing that power.
Cheongheo sprang to his feet and ran toward the barrier.
He repeatedly slashed at it like a madman.
"Brat! Stop! Can you hear me? Brat! Please...!"
His brutal slashes continued, but the barrier did not receive even a scratch. Cheongheo did not stop.
The loud sword strikes finally drew the Generals forward.
"Get lost, insect."
Cheongheo flew back from Dragon Leg Lord Serim's kick.
Even as he flew, he did not look away from the barrier.
Spiritual Pressure was intensifying at a monstrous rate. Something that could no longer be called a living being was being born within it.
Serim, who had been cackling, stopped laughing. Mikata, standing nearby, also stiffened.
Poison King Lord Nokmyeong Chundo asked with a grave expression, "What is that?"
Samyeong Yuha was the first to step forward.
"Samyeong Hun! Open the barrier! What are you standing there like an idiot for? Right now, that bastard is...!"
Samyeong Yuha's voice was cut off.
With a cracking sound, fractures spread across the barrier. The next moment, it shattered in a massive explosion, as though it had never existed at all.
Everyone on the battlefield looked toward it.
Something so terrifying it choked the breath stood beyond the cloud of smoke.
Some fainted simply from sensing it.
Some wet themselves because they could not accept that such a thing existed in the world.
Others became incapable of doing anything just by feeling its power.
All of 《Chaos》 trembled, as though the world itself had been struck by lightning.
At last, a lone puppet emerged from the explosion.
It looked like Jaehwan, but it was not Jaehwan.
The being this world had revered as its one and only king.
[It has been a long time, insects.]
He was the Sole King, Catastrophe.
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