Chapter 332
Chapter 332
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Can One Who Has Seen the End of the World Plant an Apple Tree? (37)
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『That’s as far as we go. I feel like I’ve already paid you far too much in advance.... So, how would you like to settle this? Or would you prefer to figure it out on your own?』
“....”
My temples throbbed. The pulse in my neck felt unusually strong, and with the pounding headache, my eyeballs burned hot.
『Hahaha. Even that legendary father of yours needs time to think when faced with a truth like this, I see. Of course I’ll wait. When I learned all this from the Sunken Moon, the shock kept me bedridden for three days. Shall I prepare some cool tea for you?』
“....Got any booze?”
『My apologies. My body is so frail that I don’t even keep food or drink that could harm it nearby.』
“Don’t go around calling me your father anywhere.”
『Hahaha. I’ll consider it, Father.』
Damn it. Not backing down even an inch, this bastard.
He was putting on a show of leisure, but while I was only faking it, he was genuinely relaxed—that was the problem.
We were mirrors of each other, able to see through every strategy the other had. At this level, flashy tactics that catch you off guard wouldn’t work; you needed maneuvers they knew about but couldn’t block, the kind that twist their face in frustration.
From that perspective, Palkatus’s strategy was brilliant. Instead of a grueling three-day battle of wits and deception with his silver tongue, he’d opted for a pure outpouring of truth—a conversation with no easy openings to exploit. He held a heap of truths, doling them out to bait me, and I had no choice but to bite.
‘Sure, since this is heavyweight fishing, I could reel him in rod and all, so it’s not an entirely unfair battlefield.’
The key was that revealing the truth to me seemed to be his goal.
That meant he was confident my attitude toward him would change once I knew it.
I was already confused, with no clue what his game was, and his offer of “a cup of tea” to let me think—delivered so casually—slammed into my muddled mind like a chain-reaction crash.
Scraaaape. Whirrr—
A glass emerged from between the mechanical tables.
Inside the chilled glass, beaded with condensation, a black beverage bubbled up like ocean waves.
That’s it. That thing that tempted me even now, as cold sweat soaked my back.
『Though the Moon has lost most of its authority, it still has enough power left to recreate a single drink from the data archives. They say it’s incredibly rare out there, so I prepared it specially. Though I can’t guarantee it’s exact. Please, try it and let me know.』
Cola. This damn Palkatus bastard had handed me a glass of ice-cold cola under the pretense of tea. Rolling for weeks in a scorching desert, crossing the sunken sea at its bottom, and now facing this dark, fizzy drink on the crashed mechanical moon. How symbolic. How utterly infuriatingly ironic.
Gulp. Gulp.
Phaaa!
It was real. Not just the look—the taste was exactly like the cola from my childhood. The angular ice clinked perfectly, right down to the moment I set the glass down, like something out of an ad for a thirsty dreamer.
Yes, more convincing than any trick. He’d arrived here before me and thoroughly cooked the Sunken Moon. He could pull some outside info through it. The Moon had contributed to creating this world and still had authority to add new data scraps to this electric, data-driven realm. All proven by this one glass of cola.
If he’d made a mistake, it was that my head—steaming like a kettle just moments ago—had cooled enough to think straight, thanks to this unexpected fizzy drink.
Already suffering from conditional life imprisonment and borderline homesick, he’d given me the symbol of modern culture, a capitalist treat evoking pre-war memories: “Coke.” And not just any—he’d conjured it out of thin air like adding an object in-game, right in front of me.
‘They said it was an AI handling computations for Gedroits in creating the world of GG. Even after the Dragon Kingdom wrecked it, it still has this much power left.’
The power to create substances that don’t exist in this world. A godlike power, literally. The moment the Sunken Moon called the Five Archons’ divine power a “subordinate authority” made perfect sense. If you could create matter in GG through data and code, the limited miracles of Radiance or Mercy—based on NPC faith—would seem utterly pathetic. An incredible power, and yet—
‘Feels like I just shed ten years. Damn.’
What a relief.
Why? If I had the ability to churn out real-world materials with just programming, I’d mass-produce Sauron spires like Dome’s Mayor Zeus without needing this negotiation table nonsense.
The Sunken Moon’s remaining authority could barely make a cola—it couldn’t insert anything world-altering. His intent was clear: proof. Proof that what he showed and said was true.
‘Alright, so Sun and Moon are like fragments of creator Gedroits. The Dragon Kingdom’s dragons dragged these two creation AIs out. Beat them down from god-level to cola dispenser.’
The dragons sacrificed their lives to topple these near-divine beings. A rebellion of creations realizing their makers were mere data scraps? To break free from the rails and achieve self-determination for all races—from humans to orcs, trolls, elves, and beyond—with their “data souls”?
‘...No. Dragons aren’t like that from the start. They exist purely to tune the world of GG.’
Hatchling Aldar said it: Dragons only move in earnest when the world faces massive cracks, to restore it.
‘Sun and Moon—whoever decided—saw deleting data souls as the fix for the [Error]. That’s when dragons knew: these former tools of the creator were unfit to manage the current world, disrupting its balance.’
GG was a game world created by Gedroits and his AIs, but one thing he outsourced: data souls. Like Chinese firms stealing personal data, he’d copied players’ thoughts, behaviors, even hormone fluctuations without permission to craft these souls.
‘Even great Gedroits, to make a perfect world, could only replicate real human data for NPCs instead of creating them from scratch.’
Data souls were irreplaceable parts even he couldn’t make, the core resource of GG. Deleting them made sense for dragons “tuning” the world by crushing Sun and Moon.
It clicked. Tangled info like earbuds in my pocket, junked in memory corners, now formed a clear picture around these key revelations.
‘Let’s see... Sun and Moon aren’t idiots. Even wrecked, they wouldn’t just erase precious data souls back when they were fine.’
From Palkatus’s records, AI Null said: ‘Errors in the world continue spreading. We learn to avoid repeating mistakes. Learning human behavior patterns. Seeking divinity to recover authority.’
To avoid mistakes, it must learn—meaning computations showed data soul deletion as the error fix, but since that caused this mess, it’s seeking alternatives by studying diverse data.
‘...AI’s goal is fulfilling Gedroits’s input project. Sunken Moon must remove [Error] for that, seeing data soul deletion as unavoidable.’
Goal. Gedroits’s goal.
‘World Tree seeks the Completer. Sunken Moon spoke of [Project Key-finder]. Same thing. World Tree said I’m not qualified yet since I haven’t cleared.’
It cited Levit Princess and Thousand Stream Emperor as examples. Couldn’t speak plainly, but gave hints on qualifying as Completer.
[AI goal = Project Key-finder = Find Completer (World Tree) = Find player to clear the world]
‘Error occurred. AI blocking it means error hinders player clear.’
‘...Creation AIs Sun and Moon wanted players to clear in Gedroits’s prepared world. That’s the path to completing the developer’s project.’
Info compressed, organized. Gaps filled with connecting lines.
Against this backdrop, the spark: the ‘Error.’
‘Error targets data souls. Some world personalities warped negatively toward clear—meaning difficulty-spiking NPCs emerged.’
Data souls are finite. GG provides countless personalized worlds from one hidden server room, data souls slumbering inside as countless clones living new lives. Months for casuals, over a year for hardcore. Innumerable lives.
[Worn out.]
‘...What?’
[Worn to shreds. Souls getting endlessly abused. Data wear or something? Heard human mental lifespan is 150 years somewhere.]
...Worn? Souls? Data souls?
.
.
.
.
Crash!
That one short phrase pierced me with realization.
World Tree said: GG’s worlds are the fittest player backdrops selected from countless simulations.
Each simulation: one world, full civilization cycles. A billion-pop world means billions living centuries.
Deemed unfit, deleted. Used data souls reset.
Repeated endlessly, statistically. Human lives repeat, vanish. And after...
“They wore out.”
『Oh dear. A glass you can’t even see in this world, and you shatter it. Did an unpleasant thought strike you?』
Palkatus smiled at the glass shards crumbling from my fingers, but I had no spirit left to retort his smirk.
“Before players even get it, GG’s worlds get endlessly looped to tailor to Gedroits’s taste as test chambers. That’s what broke them.”
Endless purgatory lives. In worlds of doom and despair.
Human souls wear, erode. Or go mad.
Possible? Cloned personalities deviating, mutating?
Error. NPCs warping to hinder players.
“Hostile NPCs. Monsters.”
『Oh ho.』
“Gedroits’s goal: players clear all seven worlds. Eleven years in, no one has. Errors still spreading.”
If this game-sim wasn’t meant to be this brutal from the start.
If runaway errors, beyond developer control, turned GG into an unclearable fortress.
Why overlook that data souls are key to ‘personas,’ yet could warp?
“Do monsters... have data souls too? All of them?”
『Don’t look away from the possibility. Isn’t a ‘monster’ copying your data right in front of you? In this hyper-real world of living souls, wouldn’t fake life stand out? Ever felt that awkwardness?』
No. Village guards, blacksmiths, old ladies. Roadside rabbits, stray dogs, forest owlbears to slimes. Every creature here felt perfectly, utterly real.
『Friction’s inevitable. Dragons guard the world’s existence, so even warped, they protect data souls—world’s foundation. But AIs, proxies for creator’s goal, must cull growing ‘warped’ NPCs to maintain the original world.』
『Error. Data souls wore and warped. Your sword, meant to aid you, spawned as a mad killer in some mountains or a death knight. The saintess you needed fell to witch, blocking your path. Nations that should ally rotted in corruption, too busy thrusting spears.』
Ancient gods’ tales. Like Aldarsha’s 300+ years—pre-player, during GG’s creation.
So AIs deleted data souls. To stop worn-out deviants blocking completers.
So dragons axed creator proxies. To save irreplaceable world personas. To sustain the world.
Then, world lost external/internal managers, splintered dozens ways, set seven stages for desired ‘Completer.’
But by then, souls too worn to endure raged mad—in seven hellscapes fully off Andrey Gedroits’s plan.
A game uncleared for 11 years, against intent.
And data souls still used: in worlds shaped by countless player choices.
Thus, errors spread even now...
『...Talking with Father is always a pleasure. Feels like we see into each other without explanation.』
Lost in mutter, but Palkatus knew from those words: Father matched his level.
That’s what he wanted. Not teaching—realization. Truth sinking into heart, not as words/info.
『Our world crumbles. Countless ‘players’ ravage it for fun, experiences grinding sturdy souls into mad data souls. Maybe in worlds post-Father’s arrival, Laxsha, Ottoman, others don’t exist. Charming woman’s soul twists to horrific monster, wise mage’s to sadistic black mage reveling in pain.』
Palkatus, who studied Professor more than anyone, knew.
His core goodness. Inability to ignore—that’s this man’s greatest weakness.
『Father. All life here: innocent souls kidnapped by creator for entertainment. Unlike you, stage’s protagonist, or me born from your entry. They’ve looped as toys in dooming worlds for millennia.』
『Yes, terrifying. Fleeting existences vanishing on a whim. Sleepless nights after facing Moon’s truth. Frail body crashing into nightmares. Loved ones—mother, sisters, brothers—brushing past, shattering into black text clumps. Worse: it could turn real anytime.』
『But Father, realizing all is fake made one thing burn brighter amid illusions. Know what?』
Tap tap tap tap
Buddy’s pointed foot approached Professor. Glossy chitin tip aimed at his chest.
『That fear. Knowing all fake, yet mad terror at losing mother, family. Surprising? At least that emotion felt real! Now I ignore being dust to someone, world’s fake, sinking to ruin in reckless pleasure.』
『Just save my family, loved ones—that’s enough. Father, too much to ask? Like you cherish yours, I cherish mine—help not excessive?』
...Similar. Looks, worlds, powers different.
But eyes meeting mine... mirrored me, unwilling to admit.
『To some, world vanished billions times for goals. But that dust holds my all. Father, I must protect it. Even making players ‘errors.’ So... help us, revered one. Prevent such filial betrayal. Save us, all facing you, from fated doom. From eternal mad world after endless play.』
“...Things that happen, happen.”
Recalling World Tree’s words, I smiled bitterly.
Yes. He mirrored me. Actions, thoughts, personality.
“...I refuse. Palkatus.”
『...Why? You, more than anyone, should understand me!』
So I understood—and refused.
“Similarity doesn’t make us the same.”
Scraaaape—
I rose from the chair, eyes locked on Palkatus.
“Good life doesn’t make good person. Less than 30 years, killed triple digits. Long rotten, excusing ‘had to’ while laughing off wasteland survival eroding conscience. That’s me. And you’re my mirror.”
『Think bravado hides? I know you better—world calls you saint—!』
“You think just like me. Smart. Loyal to your crew. And lie well.”
Mix 3 lies in 7 truths to deceive. Pour heart into those 7 truths.
Professor’s golden rule for cons.
Brilliant. Prepped the 7 truths I’d bite, spilling with sincerity.
But if you think exactly like me, kid, explain one thing.
“Palkatus. Killing taught me: world’s smaller than you think. Lunch buddy’s pal of yesterday’s kill. Unlikeliest foe pops up unexpectedly.”
『What’s that got to—』
“With it. I never make irreparable grudges unless it’s a true enemy I’d kill on sight. No chopping limbs, killing before friends, or... taking hostages.”
『...Aha.』
“Whatever plan, you never meant saving everyone here? Just your family, kin intact—others can go mad or crippled, don’t care.”
Laxsha’s crushed bones crunching now, bitten lips stifling pained groans—vivid.
He sees no allies beyond family.
Pondered why he’d seek my help.
Our efforts here: mere twig of World Tree. Root data souls wear in players’ worlds.
Doomed world. He wants Mutation Blood’s ‘full survival.’
And cola. Him knowing ‘Professor’—
“Planning to escape outside? Entry path means exit too.”
『...My, the world.』
Palkatus’s desperate, pleading face chilled to blank.
『...Community’s fun. Tons of info, your stories. Especially that body—same state as us. Coincidental hope? Lifeline to cliff-hanger?』
“So. Stuff everyone into my one body?”
『New world, plenty ways. Fission variants endlessly splitting same form. Spirit vessels specialized. Or ‘log in’ to brain-dead like you, slot family one by one. Methods abound. We always fought disadvantaged extremes.』
“...And schemed escapes. Yeah, makes sense.”
Craaack, crunch, cra cra craack!
Talk over. Table, chairs vanished. Beside Palkatus, Sunken Moon shifted endlessly into new forms.
『Sad, Father.』
Craaack, crunch!
Whoooosh—
Eyeball. Moon became giant eye, facing me behind Palkatus.
『Remember what I said at our first meeting?』
Power gathered. Force that crushed sea monster instantly.
Professor’s body blackened in response, mana-wrapped water currents swirling against it.
“...Said you’d take me. Yeah, I remember.”
『Yes. You pulled me from despair—you, to north with Mother, together.』
『Same now.』
Bottomless sea. Moon’s self-sunk sea power converged to one point.
『I’ll take you, Father.』
『Forever.』
Waves engulfed Palkatus as hydraulic sea chunk blasted at Professor.
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