Chapter 185
Chapter 185
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 185
Chapter Title: Park Dong-wook's Rebirth
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The deepest core of the Magic Tower—not the spire stretching upward, but its central heart.
The massive tree rooted there had transformed dramatically from before, incomparably thicker and sturdier.
“How is it.”
Yu Se-hwa appeared.
“Impressive, isn’t it? Right there...”
But Go Yohan walked right past her without a reply.
*Ta-at.*
Yu Se-hwa, who had somehow cut in front of him again, puffed out her cheeks hugely.
“Would it kill you to play along a little?”
“...You weren’t like this in Travania. What’s gotten into you?”
“Simple.”
*Twirl.*
Yu Se-hwa spun around.
“It’s those kids’ influence.”
That massive tree bore a great many fruits containing people.
Apostles, and believers selected later through screening.
—We need kids.
They were awaiting fresh evolution from within those fruits.
“They were just brimming with naughty thoughts in their heads.”
“...?”
“Ha-yeon, was it...”
In the end.
*Swipe.*
Go Yohan brushed Yu Se-hwa’s face aside and pressed forward.
“Who fell?”
Apostles slumbered inside the fruits.
Believers too, along with Park Dong-wook, Park Sung-hu, and others.
For such a fruit to fall.
‘Means it awakened.’
He tried probing with his energy, but it was no easy task. Even his Divine Eye strained.
Now Yu Se-hwa’s formidable energy permeated the space, warping it.
“See for yourself.”
Yu Se-hwa sounded miffed, but she grinned brightly.
*Step, step.*
Go Yohan advanced.
“...”
Yu Se-hwa, standing at his back, had already gone expressionless.
‘Take a short break.’
Her impish prank in blocking him was just a hope he’d rest if the fallen fruit didn’t satisfy—if he might climb the tower again.
What had fallen now.
‘Wasn’t the ones you wanted.’
Not the Apostles or seeds he so longed for, nor Lee Jae-kyung.
“You’ve changed so much.”
Watching him, the old Michael didn’t even come to mind.
—Great Holy Knight.
Dry and expressionless.
—Noble Paladin.
Gazing at everything devoid of emotion.
—First Knight of the Goddess.
The fanatic knight, little more than illusion, seemed gone entirely.
—Brother.
Dry even to his own blood kin—to the point he didn’t feel like he belonged to this world.
She welcomed his change, yet Go Yohan scaling the tower this past month was pure past Michael.
Exactly the same.
Just hunting foes, slashing, slashing, slashing again.
Whether that end was enemies’ slaughter and annihilation.
‘Or his own ruin—to the point of doubt.’
Even his habit of muttering the Goddess’s name was identical.
*Swipe.*
It was merely Yu Se-hwa’s consideration, wishing this moment would last just a bit longer.
“...”
Right before the tree, one massive fruit had indeed fallen and split wide open.
Yu Se-hwa already knew which.
“I-I...”
Only then did Go Yohan face the fallen one.
“Are you... alive...?”
The voice came in disbelief.
It was him.
“Yes. Park Dong-wook. Congratulations.”
Park Dong-wook, who had endured every experiment.
*
*
*
The upright Park Dong-wook looked quite different from before.
Gone was the weary middle-aged man steeped in worldly fatigue. Petite in build perhaps, but his sturdiness and solidity shone through effortlessly.
His face had once evoked a feeble office worker, but now it burned with a viper’s fierce glare.
“...”
Even Park Dong-wook himself struggled to adjust to this body.
“How is it? Like it?”
It was a gift from the World Tree—Yu Se-hwa.
The World Tree was life incarnate.
A power to bear its own fruit every few centuries and birth elves.
To revive dying ley lines, turn deserts to verdant plains.
To mend shattered continents and make life bloom.
‘Divinity.’
That was the toll for receiving such power.
“...Awkward.”
“No need to overthink it.”
Go Yohan interjected then.
“Se-hwa didn’t overhaul you that much, Park Dong-wook.”
“...?”
“The World Tree’s power simply realigned your distorted parts, Park Dong-wook.”
Its mighty life force had restored his culture vat-altered body to its rightful state.
Retaining that power, in an even more fitting form.
As Se-hwa had once said.
—Body change.
A metamorphosis into new flesh.
“You were born with immense mana, Park Dong-wook. Anywhere else, you’d have become a splendid knight or mage for sure.”
That radiant talent would have shone anywhere.
Earth’s peculiar environment aside.
“Your current form is simply the ideal body you were always meant to have, Park Dong-wook.”
“This...”
Muttering to himself, Park Dong-wook clenched his fist, entranced.
*Bang!*
He thrust into empty air.
Air burst with a sonic boom; feeling that raw power, Park Dong-wook’s eyes flew wide once more.
“...!”
Different.
The body’s lightness, its strength—worlds apart from before.
Not just that.
Some bizarre power, utterly unfamiliar.
*Bang!*
It swirled fiercely even in this simple punch.
“What is...”
“That’s not all of it.”
Go Yohan spoke, taking a small step forward.
*Flinch.*
Park Dong-wook tensed and retreated.
That reaction speed made Yu Se-hwa’s eye twitch.
‘Eye.’
Go Yohan had dubbed Park Dong-wook the Eye.
“Care to test it?”
Park Dong-wook pondered Go Yohan’s words at length before.
*Nod.*
Nodding.
The instant he did.
*Shrieeek!*
Something sliced through the air toward him abruptly.
The lethal edge hidden in its feint lightness made Park Dong-wook twist away on instinct.
‘Can’t block.’
Judgment made.
*Kwang!*
He moved.
Stamping to crater the ground, Park Dong-wook leaped back.
Where he’d stood.
*Kwadrruk.*
Earth split, stone dust spraying.
“Huhk.”
Only then did he fully comprehend.
Go Yohan had jabbed with a finger.
Terrified by it, he’d moved—and that tiny flick had pulverized the ground, flinging gravel.
And.
‘I...’
He knew.
“How?”
How had he dodged it?
“Beginning now.”
Go Yohan smiled faintly—unlike his usual self—and moved.
*Drip, drip.*
By the time Park Dong-wook blinked, blood trickled from his cheek.
*
*
*
“Hahk, hahk...”
Exhausted, Park Dong-wook slumped to the ground, heaving ragged breaths.
Wounds marred him here and there, but.
*Sruk.*
They regenerated swiftly.
“...”
Astonishment filled his eyes.
“Different.”
At first, he’d thought Go Yohan truly meant to kill him.
But realization dawned soon enough.
‘He’s really holding back.’
Just coaxing his power out—no intent to injure.
These scrapes.
‘Tried to dodge, but body wouldn’t obey.’
His own clumsiness; couldn’t evade.
‘Later, I managed.’
As time passed and familiarity grew, dodges succeeded.
“The Eye... impressive indeed.”
Yu Se-hwa approached, laying on a hand as she spoke.
The wounds, rapidly mending, vanished clean as if washed.
“Eye?”
“The power within you is the Archdemon’s Eye. They tried forging demons from it in the culture vat.”
“...”
“A force even demons couldn’t bear—too valuable to waste, so they schemed to exploit it. You succeeded.”
He recalled hearing something like it before, but not in such detail.
“Have I... become a demon?”
Park Dong-wook recoiled in horror.
Demons were the enemy.
They’d stolen his life, everything.
Unforgivable.
“That would have been the case originally.”
“Then?”
“Not anymore. Neither demon nor ordinary human.”
Even summoning the Player system yielded nothing.
“A wholly new existence.”
Yet his body surpassed his old Player days; that eerie power writhed, eventually venting as intangible force.
He recognized the sensation.
‘Skill.’
Just like wielding a skill.
“What the hell am I now?”
“Human.”
“...?”
“New humanity, say.”
New humanity.
“Go Yohan and I completed you. We rebirthed you—one fated to turn demon from overusing power, or burst without even that.”
Hands on hips, Yu Se-hwa posed as if boasting her feat.
“So Yohan’s like your father, I’m the mother sort of...”
“Spouting nonsense again.”
Go Yohan had drawn near.
“True...”
Grabbing Yu Se-hwa’s cheek mid-sentence, Go Yohan eyed Park Dong-wook.
“The experiment’s done. Imperfection turned to perfection—no more erosion from the Archdemon’s Eye.”
“...”
“We can save Sung-hu too.”
“...!”
Park Dong-wook’s eyes bulged wide.
Moments ago, that piercing gaze had seemed viperish.
*Ripple.*
Now brimming with tears.
*Drop.*
As they spilled down, clearly no viper.
One month in real time, surely.
Yet in agonizing torment, far longer—he’d never once forgotten Park Sung-hu.
“Thank you... Thank you...”
“Not over yet.”
Go Yohan said.
“We’ll use you to create something more.”
“...?”
“Don’t worry. Won’t hurt.”
There was something planned once Park Dong-wook was complete.
“We’ll birth new Players.”