Chapter 33
Chapter 33
4. The Savior Who Ended the Cold Wave -9
A living will. It sounds grandiose when you put it that way.
But even the cliché love songs idols sing carry will. The lyricist who wrote those words had intentions and feelings, and the singer performing them pours in their own meaning too.
-Obey! Obey!
⋯⋯So there's no need to find that thing disgusting or unsettling just because it's showing its bare face, Noah Won.
At its core, it's no different from the company motto hanging on the agency wall. What matters is whether you can refuse it or not. Fortunately, I'd figured out how to deal with it not long ago.
The principle is the same as the Quick-Flash Inner Core I'd made before. You endure, and using the sensation of 『Download -2』, you gather that thing into one place and suppress it.
"⋯⋯Hup!"
I approached beneath that fake sun and put strength into my grip, pulling at the mass of light streaming down. It was different from the Quick-Flash I'd built through training. This thing thrashed like a wild horse.
Crackle. It felt like it was searing my skin.
But thanks to the antibodies, it wasn't particularly painful. The 『Corpse-Plague Curse』 I'd finished downloading was resisting faithfully, true to its original. But it only went as far as protecting me.
This stubborn mass of light clung to the wasteland like a leech, with no intention of letting go.
Rumble──
At that moment, dark clouds rolled in.
The Azure Wind Wanderer veiled the sky, casting everything into dimness. Naturally, the mass of light lost strength. When I pulled with all my might, a gap opened between the ground and the mass of light.
Through that gap, the 『Quick Flash』 that had been waiting for an opening rushed in and became a blade. I grabbed Quick Flash and slashed.
Then, with a grinding tear, the mass of light peeled away like skin being stripped off a fish.
They were resisting.
The powers I'd obtained were each gathering their strength with their own wills, resisting this intruder. Then, as if sensing danger, the mass of light screamed at the top of its lungs and revealed its name.
-In the name of the great sun god model 『Apollo』, achieve Unification! Gather the scattered fragments and return to the sacred one! Offer everything to imitate the primordial one!
Flash──!!
The moment that name came out, its power surged explosively. Cracks spread across my body like burns. I kept punching the mass of light to drain its strength while I thought.
⋯⋯Fragments, huh.
So that power had been struggling like that to return to the original one.
[-> Download Slot 2: 『Fragment of the Sun God (9): Plague』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 1321%)]
-For the greatest good of the cosmos, achieve Unification, so it was commanded!
A voice like thunder buzzed inside my head. It was a solemn command. It carried enough authority that a weak-willed person would have been terrified out of their wits and answered, "Yes!"
But I smiled crookedly. I'd disliked people who talked like that ever since I was young. I still do.
So I had no intention of listening.
"Whatever you are, if you've climbed aboard my ship without permission, you follow the captain's orders. This ship isn't heading that way! Stay stuffed quietly in the cargo hold!"
-Aaaaaaah!
I tore it off and shoved it into a box that had appeared beside me at some point. I repeated that stubborn sanitation work. Tear and stuff, cut and stuff, peel and stuff.
[(Downloading⋯⋯ 768%)]
[(Downloading⋯⋯ 224%)]
[(Downloading⋯⋯ 100%)]
Just like that.
Ding!
└ Curse of the Sun God Apollo (C / B~A)
Progress: 5%
'Collect the fragments of the sun model that fell to the lower realm. If you gather all the fragments, you can obtain the power of the sun.'
I had succeeded in loosely reining in an unidentified C-rank skill.
But⋯⋯
This curse—no, skill. I hadn't completely subdued it.
It was in the box because I'd pressed it down with the intention of never using it and burying it away. And isn't a 『Skill』 something that overflows the more you use it? If I used it, it would thrash around again and try to seize control of my body.
Especially the growth potential display in the Status Window was chilling. B~A?
Didn't that mean what was inherent in this skill was on the same level as that burning giant sitting on a planet—the one I'd nearly died just from seeing once through the Telescope? The letter A is heavy.
Using it probably wouldn't turn me into a carriage monster in an instant, but⋯⋯ the Internalization would occur far more violently than with the 『Azure Wind Wanderer』. No thanks. I'll bury this until I can use it safely.
Was it responding to my will?
A gust of wind blew in and struck the curse as it passed, and the Quick-Flash also stomped on it sharply several times. The disposable skills that had been dawdling in the distance also spat fire and pressed down hard on the subdued curse.
Then.
└ ■■■'s Curse (C/??) (Inactive)
(Failed to activate due to an error of unknown cause)
The curse was sealed, half-buried beneath the sandy soil of the wasteland.
I did it.
⋯⋯⋯⋯
But what is this lingering unease? Even though everything had been handled properly, something didn't sit right. It wasn't because of this incident. It felt like there was something I'd left behind in the past. For some reason, déjà vu kept pricking at my head. I had, definitely.
⋯⋯I felt like I'd done something similar before.
I woke up.
It didn't seem like much time had passed outside. A minute at most? I clenched and unclenched my fist, checking my senses. Everything was fine.
The curse had also been cleanly sealed.
As I let out a sigh of relief, Sergios lamented like a doctor looking at a patient who only ate things that were bad for them.
"⋯⋯I told you skills were dangerous."
"It's not like I ate it because I wanted to."
Of course, even if I'd had a choice, I would have taken it anyway⋯⋯
And if I hadn't taken this curse into my body and absorbed it, Sergios, who had no antibodies, would have been exposed to it directly. Looking at the results alone, both the dealer and the tank survived, which meant I'd done my job as the tank properly.
"Ha⋯⋯"
"The carriage seems dead. I'm not sure if death exists for a being that was transformed from a person into a carriage, but there's no movement and I can't feel any power from it."
"That would make sense. You ripped the skill out of it. It was a creature that had been dominated by a skill, its very life prolonged by it. With the source gone, it couldn't sustain its life⋯⋯ In that case, you're the one who killed it."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Could you phrase that a little more nicely?
I looked down at the carriage, cracked in several places, and clicked my tongue bitterly. What had this person gone through to end up like this? How pitiful.
"This place appears to be a Starfall Site. A fragment of a world fell here from a higher world for some reason. A higher world means a world that contains great power. In some places, hunters are born at B-rank from birth, and their size is tens of thousands of times larger than lower worlds, or so I've heard."
"⋯⋯I didn't even ask, and yet the explanation is so detailed?"
"You were going to ask, weren't you? And then you'd tell me to keep it brief. Impatient bastard. So I did it in advance."
"You didn't have to insult me in advance too⋯⋯"
A Starfall Site, huh.
So in the end, the truth of the Zombie Virus was this: it wasn't that the person who possessed the 『Skill』 had any malice toward the world. It was nothing more than the flailing of someone who was simply being swept along by an enormous power.
This place, called the place where a star fell, looked exactly like that. At a glance, it looked like a temple built in Greek style, but if you examined it in more detail, the scenery here was incredibly alien and varied.
Round circles carved in relief, diagonal lines that seemed to represent rays of light, a three-legged crow visible somewhere, and a snake wearing a laurel wreath drawn as well. It looked like someone had haphazardly gathered the 『sun』 and its associated symbols from cultures all over the world.
As if someone had ripped those things out and shoved them into Sohye's world. Forcibly, things that didn't belong together.
Just like when the Gate opened in the sky and plants fell, I felt an irresistible force that humans could do nothing about.
But. But still.
The monster invasion and zombie crisis that occurred in Sohye's world—at least one of those disasters had been brought to a close. Since I'd pulled this out and taken it with me, this kind of catastrophe wouldn't happen again.
And it was a tremendous relief that the plant bastards hadn't eaten this. If a monster had eaten a C-rank skill and mutated like the Monstera⋯⋯ without exaggeration, Sohye's world might have been destroyed.
Zombies, the sun, the human carriage. And even the déjà vu I'd felt in the wasteland of my inner self. Questions still remained piled up like mountains.
But at least the danger was over.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Once the story was wrapped up, a strange feeling came over me. A kind of refreshing feeling, like having a bad tooth pulled.
"Noah Won, why are you smiling?"
"No, I mean⋯⋯"
Why indeed.
The smile just came out. Because it felt refreshing.
I said my farewells at Camp Ace. Sohye and the others—Sojin, Mingyu, Taemin—all came out in a crowd to see me off.
It was only natural. I'd finished the trade, resolved the Zombie Virus, saved Sohye and, as a bonus, resurrected her sister, and even pulled out the last remaining source of trouble by the roots.
So there was no reason to stay here any longer.
Just like always, I needed to go to other Stages, earn Credits, barter, pay off my debt, and keep inching upward. Knowing that, Sohye wore a regretful expression but didn't try to hold me back.
Well, it's not like we were parting forever. I'd see Sohye often enough.
Maybe I'd even stop by a few more times for supply trading.
Sohye fumbled out a letter. At a glance, it was packed so densely it looked like punishment-copying. And instead of handing it to me⋯⋯ she was reading it herself?
"Um, first of all⋯⋯ regarding what you, Noah, mean to me—"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Surely she wasn't planning to read all of that right here.
Rip—!
At that, Sojin snatched the densely written pages and tore them into quarters.
"Ah⋯⋯!!"
"Sohye, something that long is rude too. It's not like you'll never see him again. Right, Noah?"
"B-but still, I wrote down everything I wanted to say here⋯⋯"
"Just say one thing each."
Thanks, Sojin.
Mingyu cleared his throat once and spoke.
"Um, you were really amazing, Noah. I'll live fiercely too, like you! I'll become a great man!"
Next was Taemin.
"⋯⋯You worked hard."
His words were short, but he genuinely seemed grateful, not just going through the motions, so I accepted it. Still, I wouldn't have minded a bit more flattery. Not that I wanted to receive it, but as a matter of courtesy.
Sojin just flashed a thumbs-up and that was it. With her⋯⋯ it felt less like she was sparing her words and more like she was yielding her time for Sohye's sake.
And then Sohye.
She skimmed over the quartered letter, pushed up her glasses, and mumbled to herself. Then she stuffed the crumpled pieces into her pocket. Looking up at me, as if selecting only the most important words to deliver, she spoke with all her sincerity.
"⋯⋯Thank you for saving our world, Noah!"
I, well.
Honestly, my mind went a little blank. I was more flustered than I wanted to admit.
I agonized over how to respond to that. When I couldn't think of anything suitable⋯⋯ I ended up giving the most clichéd answer imaginable.
"Don't mention it, Sohye."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
Maybe that was too much like a movie hero. Would it have been better to ask for Credits if she was grateful?
And so, the zombie apocalypse that had unfolded in Sohye's world came to an end.
There's a question that's pointless to ask, yet won't leave my mind even if I don't ask it.
'Can I really save the world?'
If I don't answer, it won't disappear, and even if I do answer, it only breeds another doubt. To determine whether this is arrogance, vain hope, or a pale, fleeting mirage cast by my own delusion, I have to go all the way to the end.
If some future version of me fails at some point and dies, this answer will just become the ramblings of a madman. A pathetic man who thought he was something, thrashed around, and then fell.
So I'd put off answering.
I have no certainty. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know when the misfortune stuck to my life will erupt again. I'm anxious. I don't want to disappoint my people. I can't stand before people without any basis.
I think I'd been covering my eyes with those excuses and turning away.
But the truth is⋯⋯ if I could do it, of course I wanted to. I really, truly wanted it. If I could lift up a crumbling world with my own hands and save it, who wouldn't throw themselves into it?
I miss the past.
I miss the days when killing a person drew pointed fingers and condemnation. I miss the neon-lit streets of Gangnam late at night. I miss the green parks near the Han River. I miss Gwanaksan, which I could climb without worrying about plant bastards.
I miss the look in Minsik's eyes as he grumbled over a can of beer in that peace, saying that once he put a little more into his savings, he'd quit this damn company and become a skydiving instructor.
I'd made my own efforts to return to that warm nostalgia, but it was only a tiny fragment. It was the desire to arrange even a small space, maybe the size of a coin, in that way. It wasn't some grand ambition to save the world.
But today's events made me realize. I'd received enough that I could no longer look away.
I'd connected to the System. I'd discovered a Hidden Piece. I'd encountered a stroke of fortune. I'd learned a new method of growth and gained the first step toward promotion. I'd received a fragment of some colossal being.
Above all, I had 『Download -2』.
Looking back, I'd really gorged myself to a shameless degree.
If I'm being pushed this hard, I have to go even if I can't stomach it.
This opportunity placed in my grasp is a precious one that someone somewhere in the universe wept tears of blood over and still couldn't obtain. I can't waste it. If I dawdle even after all this, I'm not a man.
Ask again.
<Can I really save the world?>
⋯⋯⋯⋯
Now, I think I can answer that question.
I can save it.
No.
──I will save it. Seoul, Earth, and if possible⋯⋯ even the planets of Sohye and the rest of my friends.