Chapter 218
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 218
Chapter Title: Game, Experiment, Truth - Part 2
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Lee Hyun-wook couldn't fathom what was happening at this very moment.
*‘But one thing is certain—an unexpected variable has emerged.’*
A crack had formed in the plans of this game's 'Administrators'—the beings Gordon Price had firmly believed were 'gods.'
Whether it was an artificial 'experiment' or a 'trial' bestowed by gods, there was no guarantee the process would unfold exactly as the orchestrator intended... After all, even in countless myths, the trials gods gave to heroes didn't always go according to their will, did they?
In other words, a variable meant a reversal.
*‘And that voice just now...’*
Lee Hyun-wook had just been told to come outside to learn the truth. That someone might be trying to help him and humanity.
*‘...Even if that’s not the case, they’ll at least be more amicable than the Administrators.’*
Clinging to a sliver of hope, Lee Hyun-wook followed the voice out of the Black Gate.
Whoooosh—
He once again faced the ruined landscape of Seoul. Not much time had passed since he entered the Black Gate, so the scenery was largely unchanged.
Players and airships had gathered around the Black Gate, seemingly surrounding it in preparation for any unforeseen events.
"—Oh, Steelrain is out!"
They were surprised that Lee Hyun-wook had emerged earlier than expected, and their faces showed curiosity about what he had seen.
But a strange, rumbling sound—*gu-u-u-u*—echoed from above, and when Lee Hyun-wook looked up at the sky...
-%@A!$f| f|$! *@$!%#&$#@@%
*$$a%#!$a-tEE%#@@—%
*‘Huh?’*
The sky, which had originally displayed an <Overall Notice> related to the ending, was now filled with strange characters, like a computer program had glitched.
"It changed like that about three minutes ago."
The voice belonged to Kim Se-hee.
She approached Lee Hyun-wook and pointed at the sky.
"We were discussing whether we should go inside, wondering if something had happened."
"I see."
"Inside... what happened?"
Just then, the text in the sky changed again into unrecognizable characters.
"Hey, look! It changed again!"
"...But what country's script is that?"
"I don't know. I've never seen it before."
No Player could read it. It meant the language and script were not supported by the system's automatic translation feature.
Lee Hyun-wook was also examining it when it happened.
- Lee Hyun-wook, I am the one who called you.
A voice spread across the world.
Following the voice, everyone looked up.
A small figure was floating there.
Lee Hyun-wook used his 'Clairvoyance' skill to get a closer look.
A girl, a young one at that, was floating in mid-air.
*‘That girl is the one who crashed the Administrators' system and called for me.’*
But...
"Uh... that's... that's Nicole, isn't it?"
A voice cried out as if recognizing the girl.
Lee Hyun-wook turned his head in that direction.
The Water Spirit King and his subjects were gathered there. Their gazes were fixed on a single spirit.
"...Daughter, what did you just say?"
The Water Spirit King asked his daughter, Jane.
Jane nodded her head with certainty.
"That child... she's the prophet I told you about, Father."
Meanwhile, the Players who heard this couldn't help but be confused.
"That's ridiculous... The one and only Player with the Prophet Trait died a long time ago!"
The one who spoke so aggressively was Kang Seo-yoon. She looked at the Water Spirit King with a suspicious expression.
That was because the S-rank Player known as the Prophet, Ando Suzu, was the only one in history. And Ando Suzu had been a member of the Guardians, someone Kang Seo-yoon knew well.
But then, a memory suddenly surfaced in Lee Hyun-wook's mind.
*‘Come to think of it... the word 'prophet' came up often back then.’*
Lee Hyun-wook recalled rescuing the Spirit King's daughter in 'Yggdrasil City' a few months ago, and the children he met then, Jack Harrington and Hannah Tate.
*‘Those kids mentioned the name Nicole several times, and each time, they said Nicole had prophesied something.’*
At the time, Lee Hyun-wook had overheard them saying that the girl had prophesied the Spirit King's daughter would be in danger and that she would be rescued by someone.
However, as far as Lee Hyun-wook knew, no Player with the 'Prophet Trait' had ever appeared again, so he had dismissed their conversation as a misunderstanding born from some silly prank.
But for such a being to appear at this very moment... her identity couldn't be a Player in the first place.
*‘It means a being capable of influencing this game has been watching me closely for a long time.’*
Soon, she descended slowly from the sky, looking at Lee Hyun-wook.
"Hello. It's a rather absurd situation, isn't it?"
"You are..."
"Yes, you could say I'm one of the 'Administrators' too."
She cut him off and answered as if she had anticipated his question.
"But I'm not on good terms with those guys who put on that clumsy act earlier, so you don't have to be so wary. I need you too, but I won't deceive you. I'm going to... persuade you to come with me."
Unable to grasp the context of this situation, Lee Hyun-wook openly frowned.
She chuckled and took a step toward him.
"Now, you must have a lot of questions... The system will be restored in about fifteen minutes. I'm willing to play twenty questions until then. How about it?"
Beneath that relaxed expression, Lee Hyun-wook sensed a business-like attitude rather than genuine goodwill.
In other words, he could tell she was definitely not a being who pitied humanity and intended to save them.
*‘She has another motive.’*
Lee Hyun-wook didn't let his guard down; instead, he became even more alert. And since he needed more information to achieve the best outcome, he asked a question without hesitation.
"...Who are you?"
The beings who created this game and inflicted violence upon humanity across dimensions in the name of trials... They were not gods, at least. Then what exactly were they?
He had to know that first to prepare for what came next.
"As you might have guessed, we're not gods or anything. But you could say we're beings who want to become gods... and have found the clues to do so? Hmm, that seems about right."
She scratched her chin, then snapped her fingers.
Vwoom—
The <Overall Notice> in the sky was modified again.
- Warning! The system's 'Player Potential Suppression' will be downgraded to Level 2!
* Some Players will experience a rapid progression of suppressed Mana Embodiment. Some Players' nervous systems may collapse due to exceeding their Mana Embodiment limits.
"Khk!"
Lee Hyun-wook felt his senses expand immensely. At the same time, his eyes caught sight of sparkling blue somethings all over the world. They were in Players, monsters, items, and everywhere else.
Observing them, Lee Hyun-wook muttered briefly.
"Mana—"
Those invisible entities were 'mana,' the operating principle behind all the mysteries that had appeared since the world turned into a game.
"Yes. We call it something a little different, but we configured it so it would be used by that familiar name in your world."
"...I'm not asking about our world. I want to know where your world is and who you are. That's my question."
"Alright, alright, don't be so impatient. I'll tell you everything. Hmm... let's see... how about we say we're from another universe in another dimension?"
She snapped her fingers, and the world turned to night. She snapped them again, and the sky filled with the Milky Way.
It must have been some kind of illusion magic.
With the universe as her backdrop, she spread her hands.
"This world is vast, and we came from quite far away. Well, in a word, we're aliens, to use your term."
In other words, an alien species was conducting experiments on humanity.
She recounted this shocking story so casually, as if it were nothing, but Lee Hyun-wook felt an instinctive hostility boiling inside him.
*‘So all the disasters I’ve been through were just an alien experiment?’*
Whether she knew what he was feeling or not, she continued to speak.
"Mana. It's a 'super-material' positioned in the rifts between dimensions. This is knowledge from a much higher dimension, something incomprehensible with your humanity's basic understanding of the universe, like physics."
"And what it does is, as you've all experienced, it's a medium that allows sentient beings to manipulate matter through their will... by intertwining a sentient being's nervous system with the material world..."
She raised her left hand mid-sentence.
Then—
Vwoom— Vwoom—
Lee Hyun-wook's metal weapons, scattered across the area, began to float one by one. Then they oxidized and turned into hot flames, before flash-freezing and turning to ice at a certain point.
"...You can create miracles like this, without delay, without limits! Well, you've all experienced it, right?"
Lee Hyun-wook couldn't grasp it with perfect clarity, but he could understand it to some extent.
That thing called mana...
"...is the material that can give birth to a god, is that it?"
At Lee Hyun-wook's definition, she smiled brightly and nodded.
"Yes. And for certain reasons, we absolutely must make that happen."
That raised another question.
"Then why on earth are you experimenting... on us?"
Instead of answering, she opened her palms. A mouse materialized on each of her hands, left and right.
Squeak— Squeak—
"The thing is, the method of handling this mana hasn't been fully researched yet, so it's too dangerous to apply it directly to ourselves. I mean, you don't test new drugs directly on humans, do you? Do you know how many animals die for a single drug to be developed? In other words, we need clinical trials to confirm safety, but since this is an incredibly difficult technology, we need an unimaginable amount of data."
"So, we became the clinical trial subjects. Mere consumables for accumulating that data..."
"That's right. Our researchers were wandering through dimensions when they found a species with a highly developed nervous system in a small star system. And that was you. Well, I do feel sorry about that in many ways."
In other words, being consumed as mere experimental material for the aspirations of an alien species... no different from lab rats...
That was the true nature of this game.
Those who heard the story, perhaps all of humanity, were utterly horrified.
"N-No way..."
"Is what I'm hearing real?"
"Damn it, this has to be a dream..."
Just then, the mouse on one of her hands popped—with a sound, it burst and crumpled, then simply vanished.
On the other hand, the remaining mouse began to grow fur and size, transforming not into a rat but into the form of a small dragon.
She held out the dragon toward Lee Hyun-wook.
"And here, this one is you, Lee Hyun-wook."
It meant he was the most successful test subject in the experiment.
"You are the prototype on the path to godhood, a very precious experimental result for our species. Your nervous system has now completely fused with mana... Would it make you a little happy to know you're practically close to being a god? Haha— Anyway, without the system suppressing you, you'd be able to perform much more powerful miracles."
Come to think of it, Lee Hyun-wook had been feeling his senses constantly expanding ever since he started seeing mana a moment ago.
*‘Something that was binding me has been released.’*
It was a growth far faster and more powerful than any he had experienced before... Now, he could feel not just metal, but all matter in the area—earth, fire, water—in fine detail.
It felt like he would soon be able to move them.
"So, the Administrators intend to study you further to complete this experiment... but a few of us, myself included, think a little differently from them, which is why I came to join hands with you."
In other words, there was internal strife among the Administrators, and they were competing to possess Lee Hyun-wook.
"Hmm, we have about ten minutes left. Any other questions?"
Lee Hyun-wook nodded.
There was one last question left.
"Then were you the ones who made me regress?"
He wanted to know the reason, the starting point of this entire journey.
"Ah, that? Well, about that..."
She giggled, then waved her hands as if embarrassed.
And the words she uttered after catching her breath were rather absurd.
"That was, purely and simply, a bug."