Chapter 299
Chapter 299
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Can One Who Has Seen the End of the World Plant an Apple Tree? (4)
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“I don’t know.”
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- Heung An Mandu: What?
- Jokass: What the hell is this ad?
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From Lordric to the Empire. The Professor, acknowledged by all as a brilliant mind who had unraveled countless incidents, had chosen the most optimal response to the current situation!
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- Professor: I don’t know. I really don’t know, I’m telling you?
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It was to stick to a consistent “I don’t know~”.
Of course, he had anticipated the fallout from such evasive remarks. Like the Mandu and Jokass freaking out right away.
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- Speed Wagon: Professor, this isn’t something we can just gloss over. We checked your connector dozens of times, but there was nothing wrong with it. That means GG itself isolated you from the outside world, which suggests it’s tied to the intentions of Gedroits, the developer of GG. This is a really, really important issue.
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Dana repeating the same words over and over in a tone dripping with worry.
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- D.worker: I thought we were on the same team. Even we, at the cutting edge of modern technology, can’t even guess what tech GG was built with. Despite taking down so many scavengers and mutants, their numbers don’t decrease, and the drones from Gedroits’s company transporting auction house goods are the same. There’s clearly some facility storing old civilization tech and resources somewhere. This concerns humanity’s fate, nay, our very survival.
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In Sector 47’s Room 1 chat, the Dome’s Director—having slithered in who-knows-when with the ID “D.worker”—had instantly formed the equation in his head: [Isolation from outside = secret story].
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- Deer Drug Please: The value of the subscription fee! The value of the subscription feeeee!!!!! How does it make sense that I missed the important scene after turning off the screen and back on?! Refund! Give me a refund! You showed half and didn’t show the ending, so refund that half, plus compensation for my devastation and shattered expectations...!
- Professor: Or what. What are you gonna do.
- Deer Drug Please: I’ll teach our pure, blank-canvas Dana all sorts of things as a life senior! Knowledge helpful for life! Life! Birth! My professional, systematic knowledge related to the birth of life!
- Professor: You son of a—
- Heung An Mandu: Stop him! The wasteland national treasure is turning into Deer No. 2!
- Jokass: Sorry. He’s already gone.
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That one... uh.... let’s pretend it didn’t happen.
Anyway, excluding those actually working, everyone gathered here was making a fuss about what happened, but if it couldn’t be explained, it couldn’t be explained.
You need some opening to make excuses like that, but the moment he tried to even mention the word “flag”—
Ding—
A sound rang in his head. It didn’t tell him anything. It just rang like a warning. That was even scarier.
He didn’t even know from where to where was classified, or if spilling it would trigger brain deletion, so he couldn’t just open his mouth carelessly.
So he chose “I don’t know.”
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- Professor: I really don’t know, I’m telling you? The moment your streams cut out, I blacked out too, that’s it.
- D.worker: I understand it’s hard to believe. Of course, we’ve observed streams going dark when players faint. But in your case, wasn’t too much skipped between the stream cutting and you coming to? From the center of the incident to waking up at the end. If auto-play activated on logout outside a safe zone, that wouldn’t make sense either. Auto-play doesn’t solve incidents for the player; it only takes them to a safe zone and makes them lie down. If GG’s auto-play had triggered, you wouldn’t be leaving the Empire amid cheers from the capital folk—you’d be a pitch-black corpse lying in some inn in the burning Empire.
- Professor: That’s true for normal cases. But I’m a bit different from others, aren’t I?
- D.worker: Different, you say. You don’t mean that friend, do you?
- Professor: Yes. Even if I black out, I have my sub-personality, Hyde.
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[Again, only dragging me out when you need me, huh.]
‘Just go with it. If you twist words in front of that Director guy, it’ll all come out.’
[Tch.]
The most burdensome one was that guy—personally dragging his precious feet into this chat room amid his busy schedule to pry relentlessly. If he slipped up, the guy would catch on instantly, yell “This bastard’s hiding something!” and either threaten the body lying in the admin building or negotiate using Dana in the admin ward. What could he do?
The only smokescreen was that unknown entity: a “sub-personality born in the game,” which they didn’t know about yet.
He knew Hyde well now, but that was only because they shared thoughts 24/7. To outsiders, Hyde looked like just another severe mental illness.
Which meant no one could predict Hyde’s actions.
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- Professor: While I was out with the stream, it seems Hyde moved my body. Already exhausted from using all his power, right next to the Emperor voluntarily giving up his power, so he got caught in that power’s backlash.
- D.worker: Sub-personality.... Convenient or unsettling, I’m not sure. Then we could just ask this “Hyde” what happened.
- Professor: Thing is, Hyde isn’t a complete personality; he’s more like... a part between conscious and unconscious? Hard to explain.... Anyway, he says he doesn’t know either. Just that after I vanished with a whoosh, he lost his reason and rampaged. Probably the sub-personality destabilized when the main one suddenly disappeared.
- Take a Look: That doesn’t add up. That insane situation resolved automatically without player intervention?
- Professor: No. I was rampaging like a monster dropped in the city center, and the key stuff—like the Emperor’s promise—was handled by the assembled Covenant holders. Sword Duke, Duke Glenn, the Executioner, even the Elf Forest guardian came.... All the Empire’s veteran bigshots gathered and beat it down.
- Speed Wagon: Hold on. You know nothing, but how do you know how it resolved?
- Professor: Oh, that. He told me.
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Thud thud thud thud thud!
Clop clop, clop clop, clop clop, clop clop!
The Professor nodded toward Gregorius, who was somehow keeping up on horseback beside the soaring airship.
There’s a use for everything—even dung. The guy had buffed his horse to the max and, for hours now, was chanting Roham’s scriptures. But thanks to Gregorius’s devout persistence, something remained in his hands.
The item Gregorius had forcibly shoved into his arms, insisting he check for errors or omissions.
[At Last, Light Descends Again – Chronicle of the Saint Professor]
This.
If he’d really claimed total ignorance, he’d have to make up stories later when Astraad or the Schwartz Sword Duke acted like they knew. Luckily, he had a perfect excuse now.
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- Deer Drug Please: ....Huh?
- Professor: It started with the bishop of that border county at the Empire’s entrance, spread quietly through the Radiant Church, and now it’s being real-time updated on the Archbishop’s orders. It’s all here. Let’s see.... [And so, the wrathful hand of Light struck the crimson fiend, and no matter how much foul power it gathered, it crumbled in an instant’s beam. The new Emperor beheld this and shed tears of remorse, saying, “O Light, be witness to illuminate this foolish one’s path.” And the Saint Professor...]
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Clop clop, clop clop, clop clop, clop clop!
“Saint! I dare not question your deeds! But reading an unfinished chronicle while racing so fast risks damaging precious records! I understand your desire to engrave holy words in your eyes even while moving! I, Gregorius, presume to offer the Light’s words to you, Saint...”
“Agh! Fine, fine! Take the book, man! What do you mean it’ll get damaged...”
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- Professor: See? It’s about like that.
- Take a Look: Hm. So all the buildup in the Empire culminated and exploded at the end. With that lineup plus the Radiant Church’s holy knights, yeah, the witch crisis resolving makes sense.
- Jokass: Not the first quest like that. Ones where all your actions in the background region get evaluated in the finale.
- D.worker: In the end. You know nothing. Clear signs GG intervened with the player, but nothing learned.... Alright, got it. No need to stay then. Glad you’re safe without issue. Take care, and hope to see you outside soon.
- Professor: Take care.
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Hm. They sounded hugely suspicious, but somehow he’d said nothing and passed safely.
He’d cleared one hurdle.
[Treat me.]
He nodded inwardly at Hyde’s quip.
Now seeming ready to pick him up, a rope descended fluttering from the airship.
The majestic Blueline mountains faintly came into view.
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“Grooo. Good work.”
“If you saw me working hard, couldn’t you have dropped the rope sooner?”
“Ooom.... Not the words of one who followed without sleep.... To stick this far.... If the wind had helped just a bit....”
“Want me to call you grandpa?”
His body must’ve improved. To chase and catch this airship crossing the massive Empire in under 48 hours on foot.
Even Gregorius waving and barking below had barely kept up, pouring knight-captain-level holy power into a top-breed warhorse bought by the Radiant Church.
The Professor wiped sweat heavy with cloud moisture and took in the vast Blueline below.
“Oooom.... So, where to now...?”
“Oh, destination? How far can you go?”
“Past Blueline is tough. The mana center flowing across the continent, Blueline’s mana, affects up to that windless sky zone. Gotta watch for flying monster attacks, but key issue is the mana-gathered wind dispersing in Blueline’s mana.”
“Damn. Was hoping to ride to the Lordric front.”
“Probably impossible. Luckily, winds near Storm Hill mostly cooperate with me, so even without spells, they’ll help if I ask.... But it’ll just be a slow glide at best.”
Hm. Disappointing news. Secretly he’d thought, “Astraad, can’t you just ride with and it’s fine?” But with lightning grandpa glaring, ready to summon a gust to shove him off anytime, he kept it internal.
Seemed the old man had no intention of tagging along either.
‘Anyway, destination....’
Gliding from Storm Hill on wind meant starting from the Empire’s southeast, Blueline foothills. He’d probably get over the mountains somehow, then pick a glide direction.
Direction. Next place. Things to do. Must-dos. Hm....
Hmmmmmmmm....
.
.
.
.
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- Jokass: Finally, it’s here.
- Deer Drug Please: Bogdanoff. He, is pondering.
- Speed Wagon: .....
- Take a Look: Destination, huh. Let’s see.... Come to think, something I buried in memory corner and ignored, right? Ugh.... Sandstorm’s fierce today, throat’s parched? Wasteland really is ‘desert’-like.
- Deer Drug Please: Ah, right. Wasteland ‘desert’ification worsening daily, polishing greenhouse glass is real toil. Desert. Desert.... Something’s on the tip of my tongue....
- Heung An Mandu: Starlight flickers afar, desert night chills to the bone, yet my awaited love brings no word~ Oh cruel wind~
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Damn bastards, really.
....Yeah. Next destination brought plenty to mind.
First, the Lordric front, neglected for a while.
After shoving Edeorna and Bazur to the foes, the front—pushed back all day—had advanced decently. They’d reclaimed up to Tobrun near Kingsland already.
Empire’s massive reinforcements and Elf Forest elves would take time to reach Lordric, but going ahead wasn’t bad. Solidify command, cull rotten commanders infesting every battlefield—one or dozens per war—humanity’s fate be damned. Plus, get that formal sainthood the Archbishop awaited. Plenty to do there.
Or head further south from Empire south to the primal great forest, rally non-human races: gnolls, trolls, ogres, orcs, goblins, etc.
Unlike human-adapted like Haunuman, friction expected, but he had Notum—three mighty ancestor spirits attached.
Orc and troll shamanism strong around sorcerers; seeing real ancestors they prayed to daily, they’d kowtow foreheads flat instantly. Their ferocity and strength enough to crush endless mid/low muties.
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- Professor: Wh-what do you think? Both seem decent choices to me—
- Jokass: Hey now.
- Take a Look: Dodging? Is this really our guy, Professor Park? Holy power really boosts virility that much?!
- Deer Drug Please: Hurry and say the third one you can’t utter!
- Speed Wagon: .....
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Goddamn bastards.
No denying it—reaching here meant no retreating.
Third. East of the eastern trio: Lordric, Free Cities Union, Teldrat.
Mystic desert nation Taklan and its ancient humans.
And, now scar-covered and faint, but still sharply etched under skin: the shaman tattoo’s owner.
Anaya Tam Shandea. Or, Rakshasa.
In a blink, she’d claimed him lover then vanished—hero unit and his, uh.... damn, undefined old flame.
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- Speed Wagon: ....Think carefully. Rationally. Your life’s on the line.
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Vulnerable to extremes in such matters. That brilliant mind never imagined human Professor Park agonizing over this—not once! So while he hesitated, someone’s patience burned like his fraying nerves.
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- Jokass: Personal advice: answer quick. Dragging with pondering irks certain someones.
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“The sky’s so.... clear.....”
Clear enough he wanted to jump.
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