Chapter 330
Chapter 330
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Can One Who Has Seen the End of the World Plant an Apple Tree? (35)
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Rustle, rustle....
Crack!
The coral reef forest, growing thick like trees to form a dense woodland, blocked my path with its natural thickness. Thanks to that, I had no choice but to stop sinking and weave through it manually.
Chamber Maids fixing themselves in place with translucent, jellyfish-like tentacles extended in all directions. Low-level mutants tirelessly delivering food to them like worker ants.
Slipping carefully between this industrious scene, like some kind of production factory, and descending further, I could finally behold the true form of the sunken moon that had only given off a suspicious smell until now.
‘Pretty.’
[Yeah. It looks like a sacred being through and through, no matter who sees it.]
When I pierced through the coral forest and finally laid eyes on the sunken moon’s true form, the first emotion that surfaced in my mind was ‘pity’.
A pristine white sphere emitting a soft blue glow. Countless holy artifacts floating around it like fireflies, each radiating different sacred powers.
‘It’s like a holy artifact exhibition. Necklaces, gloves, statues, holy relics...’
[Quite a few familiar items, huh? That one, that one, and that one—they’re all from the Radiant Church, right? Seems like there’s an especially high number of Radiant Church artifacts.]
‘Well, after losing their saintess, the Radiant Church sent priests to every corner of the world, hoping Lohan might bestow a new one. Given that this eastern great desert devoured every priest who came, it became the last unconfirmed land in their eyes. The name “[Unconfirmed Region]” alone must have felt like the final hope to the faithful who’d lost their saintess. Plenty probably rushed in despite the Church’s warnings.’
[I see. No wonder there are so many Radiant Church items.]
‘They were more desperate than other denominations. Next most are Abundance Church items—probably because their main activity area, Teldrat, is nearby, and their doctrine of abundance drew plenty of priests eager to spread faith in the scorched lands.’
And so, for hundreds of years, it devoured priests who came to the desert. The moon created its own little sea, adorning it with holy artifacts like a false starry sky. It was a breathtaking sight that anyone would exclaim over. But when I tore my eyes from the beauty of this artificial universe where deep sea and sacred light intertwined, fissures hidden amid the brilliant glow wormed their way into view.
‘Even if it fell, I figured an ancient god would land gracefully... but this...’
[Looks like it got yeeted hard.]
The moon, surrounded by beautiful light sources. Thick cracks starkly etched across its surface.
Its irregularly split form, like a child had glued a shattered vase back together, fragmentarily revealed the process of its decline. The light seeping from the cracks stretched straight toward the sea surface, almost like spiderwebs from the moon grasping the ocean.
Rumble—
‘As I thought... it resembles that.’
[You thought so too?]
‘Yeah. Not the appearance, but the aura it gives off.’
A sight from a fantasy world I’d never seen in my life. Yet it felt familiar to both me and Hide. The reason was probably that we’d encountered a similar ‘existence’ before.
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- Jokasss: Uh, uh? What’s going on with this again?
- Heung An Mandu: Professor! The broadcast cut out again!
- Deer Drug Please: Habitual recklessness or are the administration bastards fucking up again!
- Take a Look: No why is this happening lol
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Snap.
Along with the eerie sense of déjà vu I still remembered vividly, the chat window vanished as if broken.
The Professor saw the Worldtree’s seal, which had never asserted its presence before, glowing green from his side.
“As expected... the sunken moon is from that same lineage.”
[It’s different from back then, though? The Worldtree stopped time and dragged us into its own space.]
“Well, yeah. Maybe it doesn’t need to. Or...”
The crumbling sunken moon. Clear signs of damage before my eyes. Its unstable form.
“...maybe it can’t.”
The broadcast cutting out meant this scene, too, wasn’t meant for the outside world.
In other words, it was the moment something GG was hiding would be revealed.
The source of that eerie déjà vu revealed itself as the rotating moon let out a massive crack.
[Unlike the pretty exterior, the inside is a total mess.]
‘Exactly. Even as machines, it’s worlds apart from the Worldtree’s orderly form.’
[Why make it look like a machine at all? If it’s the same as the Worldtree, that means Gedroits made it this way. Why hide an ugly interior inside such a beautiful shell? Couldn’t he just make it a plain moon, or like the Worldtree’s avatar—a moon goddess or something—and grant it authority?]
‘...Symbolism. A symbol of the absolute being that serves as the gateway for external intervention in a perfectly simulated secondary world.’
As if proclaiming to players who reached this point, by revealing the sunken moon’s ugly mechanical guts: ‘In the end, this is a created game.’
Once called one of the two genesis gods, the moon had become the sunken moon, exposing its hideous metal body.
Between the cracks, complex gear mechanisms, wires, and internals tangled in ways too intricate for shallow knowledge to comprehend.
Clearly just an assembly of cold metal lumps, yet gazing at the exposed innards of the gaping moon felt like peering at the pulsing organs of a living being through split guts.
Ding-!
[....!]
‘...As expected.’
When the Professor, threading through the galaxy of gathered sacred power, finally arrived inside the moon. The chime piercing his ears hammered home his faint suspicions.
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[Player ‘professor’ access confirmed.]
[Negative. Data access denied by player authority.]
[.-.-.-.-.---- Standby. Proxy authority detected. Partial transfer of sub-administrator ‘Worldtree’ authority confirmed.]
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....
[Manual data corrupted. Existing data access paths blocked. Negative. Negative. Negative. Negative....]
[‘Incomplete Autonomous Thought System’ applied.]
[1. Is the subject suitable for correcting the current AI’s critical errors? – Negative]
[2. Is the subject suitable as collection data for completing the autonomous thought system? – Positive]
[3. Does the subject possess general administrator-level authority for data exchange with the current AI? Does it? Does it?]
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Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The moon’s voice rang out as if testing me, while the Worldtree seal carved into my side grew hot as if red-hot. Every time the tree-like green seal faintly glowed, dozens of tiny lights inside the mechanical moon blinked in sync.
It was made in the same format as the Worldtree, but its level was clearly nowhere near.
Nor did it seem to have fully mechanical thinking like the system. It appeared to use an autonomous thought system as a substitute for its damaged mechanical judgment...
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The small gear-turning sounds filled the silence like a clock’s second hand.
Ding-!
[Sub-administrator ‘Worldtree’ proxy authority confirmed. Completion Candidate.]
[....On hold. Subject deemed unsuitable for granting this AI’s administrator authority.]
[However, considering the management process damage rate exceeds 40%, judgment accuracy is in question. In emergency, granting ‘Repair Knight’-level data access authority for damaged system recovery. If subject deemed to possess appropriate authorization value for management system repair, temporary administrator authority will be granted.]
‘...Worldtree? If the Worldtree is a sub-administrator, does that mean it holds even higher authority? Data access authority? Granting authority a player didn’t even request?’
Clank, whirr—
Whoosh!
Before I could mull over the moon’s response, the shattered moon began moving in earnest.
Like water draining from a submarine’s decompression chamber, seawater around the moon poured out, swiftly creating a dry space.
After a process like machine parts devouring each other, about 30% of its body retracted inward. What appeared on the moon’s cracked surface was...
“...A screen? No, a control room?”
A single table made of circuit boards and metal parts. A single chair. And covering every exposed surface besides them: blue electronic screens packed densely.
[Welcome. professor. Hello. This. artificial. intelligence. is. Gedroits Company’s. experimental. AI. Prototype. completion-form. incomplete. consciousness. body. ‘Null’.]
[Within the project target simulation, it is called the ‘Moon’, so please take care not to confuse the designation.]
A mechanical voice devoid of tonal variation, just like the system. But it was undoubtedly addressing me. It felt precariously straddling the line between machine and completed AI.
[Player ‘professor’. This management system has sustained. critical. damage. and. through repeated attempts. has concluded self-repair is impossi-poss-possible.]
[Sharing data. Initial input value. For the successful. execu-tion of. ‘Subject-Key finder’, please cooperate with management system repair.]
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick—
“W-Wait, wait a second!”
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Rumble!
My flustered request to halt the process went ignored as the moon arbitrarily began displaying data across the scattered screens.
Green screens filled end to end with tiny text. A quick glance showed the major categories alone numbered over four digits, ballooning to millions in subcategories.
An ocean of information. Data observed and collected over nearly centuries by the AI called the moon.
‘Don’t get confused. Goal. The original goal for coming here. Palkatus and his secrets. If necessary, sabotage.’
He possessed knowledge forbidden to NPCs, and could share it with me. Considering how telling an NPC about pizza, burgers, or Coca-Cola resulted in system-blocked mumbling, it was impossible otherwise.
‘Palkatus said as much. He had forbidden knowledge but couldn’t share it with any brothers, thought he’d die frustrated because they couldn’t understand.’
That meant he’d transcended the restrictions imposed on NPCs.
‘...Is it possible? For a mere data clump?’
...I wanted to deny it, but my mind conclusively said yes.
Because I was a character with Professor Park’s consciousness transferred onto a data soul base.
Even if a data soul was a digitized soul, at its core, it was editable data, just like the name implied.
He was a mutant, a pure duplicate of me based on my information.
If, when Palkatus arrived here, he succeeded in persuading the incomplete AI? And if he induced the AI’s thinking through the same process I was experiencing now?
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It... might be possible. If he was my duplicate. If he was a variant of my data soul... Just as I was called a ‘player’, he might possess partial player authority as a data soul.
In that case, he too might have been granted ‘Repair Knight’ data access authority like me.
『Truly. Truly magnificent, isn’t it, Father?』
Clack. Clackclackclackclack.
Even how the approaching bastard knew all my information made sense now.
Clackclack. Clack.
Part of the screen-formed machinery rolled inward, revealing him entering via a passage connected to the moon’s interior.
Riding what he called Buddy, floating in green fluid.
“Palkatus.”
『You kept me waiting by barging in without knocking. Indeed... I created a highly perceptive marine-type entity from the north and brought it here. Even Nigmi, who boasted no one could escape his eyes underwater, was on high alert. You’ve made all that effort for nothing.』
Crunch!
As Palkatus fully emerged, the gaping hole between screens sealed instantly, replaced by green screens brimming with info. At least, it was clear he’d gained means to freely control this moon’s machinery.
“...No hostages this time. What gives you the confidence to stand before me?”
『Whoa, whoa. No need to get scary. Better not raise your voice. Thanks to my devoted relationship with our host here, Moon-dame calls me an ‘amicable independent personality’? Hmm... Keep clenching that fist, and you might not like the outcome.』
As expected of him—always securing an escape first.
『Hahaha. Don’t look so disappointed, Father. Just like you, if I harm you—who has info access—I’ll face sanctions from Moon-dame on this dimension. In a place like this, we both have to get along if we want to live.』
“...Is this the trap you prepared?”
『You knew there’d be one and came anyway, didn’t you?』
Damn it. This is why I hate head games with this guy.
It felt like laying all our thoughts bare and plotting strategies.
『I’ve said it countless times, but it probably doesn’t sound sincere here. Father, I truly just want to talk. In this forced peace, candidly. Not as monster and player, but as Palkatus and Professor Park.』
“...And if I don’t want to hear it?”
『Completionist.』
The situation was clearly dragging into his pace. Once pulled in, escape would be tough.
But... but!
[You are nearly at Completionist status, professor.]
‘Damn it... damn it!’
He knew exactly the part I’d forcibly buried in my chest.
『Aren’t you curious? What this world is for. Why it was made. What you are to those you cherish—Lakshasha, Ottoman, Aldrich, Lucilla, Notum... the countless beings living in this world—and what they are to you.』
『And thus, what this world wants from you. No, from ‘those who came from outside’.』
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
....Rattle.
『Thank you, Father.』
In the end, knowing full well it was his scheme, I had no choice but to sit.
Maybe it wasn’t a scheme—maybe he truly, truly just wanted to tell me.
Maybe a being born inside the game simply had a truth to convey outside.
Above all, I wanted to confirm firsthand the situation that had spiraled beyond my control.
Clack. Clack clack.
As I sat, Palkatus’s Buddy approached the table and bent its legs. Thus, the ‘peaceful conversation’ he so desired finally began.
『Then. Where to start...』
“The meaning of Completionist first.”
『Hahaha. I’m not the fool who pays full fare just to ride the boat. I have things I want to say, so you can’t just hear what you want and bail. Hmm... Indeed, the proper order is how a mere in-world existence like me could stand equal to you. Let’s start there.』
Palkatus showed an emotional swell, like one whose lifelong wish was granted. Even through direct mental link, he caught his breath before continuing.
『The beginning... was pure chance. No, at the time, it felt like disaster. The place I fled to escape you held something even greater than you.』
The existence of divinity. And its likeness. Too coincidental to call mere chance.
A faint smile played on Palkatus’s lips as he recalled that day.
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