Chapter 137
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 137: How to Set a Goal (11)
The golden light collapses. When I closed and opened my eyes, my vision had suddenly changed. I was standing in front of the orphanage door. In the distance, I could see the Fox leaving. I saw my younger self run and grab him. Don't go. To the me who said that, the Fox made a conflicted expression, then took my hand. Soon, I saw you, growing up with the children I had never seen, and never would. You were smiling. Happier than anyone. …Ah, right. The day I heard from Nika that the Fox had been poisoned. I had this dream.
“If I had been a little more careful, that child wouldn't have had to be in pain.”
“I suppose.”
I replied to her words indifferently. As if she didn't like my indifferent appearance, she snorted.
“Pretending to be calm.”
At the same time, the scenery warped again. Now, what appeared before my eyes were the friends who had come with me to this battlefield. And the current me. The only difference was that the "me" there was frowning, laughing, and revealing my secrets more honestly.
“You're an idiot. Why don't you do it properly?”
“Ugh.”
Lightly scolding and grumbling at Na Yuhan.
“How is it? Does it look good?”
“Yeah.”
I saw myself proudly wearing the brooch Park Siwoo gave me, smiling proudly.
“So, my sister—”
“Really? Ah, speaking of family, it reminds me of my Nana. My teacher told me, my Nana—”
“Stooop…!”
“Ugh….”
I saw myself, sandwiched between Na Yuri and Min Jaeyun, excitedly chattering with Shin Baran about family. I looked happy.
“If you were a little more competent, you wouldn't have had to lie to your friends.”
“I suppose.”
“Right. You wouldn't have been short on money in the first place.”
“That's true.”
“Kang Yu wouldn't have been sick from ineffective medicine, your teacher wouldn't have cried over the orphanage's future, and the other children wouldn't have been unable to do the things they wanted to do.”
“……”
“You were truly incompetent.”
The space distorts. I was back in the golden space.
“You lacked money, and you lacked ability. If you were lacking, you should have at least sharpened your intuition. What have you been doing all this time?"
Sharp words stab at me.
"Without the Meta System, without your past life's memories, you would have been nothing. You would have died long ago.”
“...Well, that's true.”
“I know what you want. I also know that you know what this mirror is.”
“……”
The Mirror of Greed. A mirror that disgustingly exposes the person I am, reflecting the regrets and desires hidden in my deepest core. This mirror wants to see one thing.
“But you know I'm more competent. The probability of me stopping the Flood of Calamity, which you want to stop, is also higher.”
“...Perhaps.”
Can I truly be confident in front of a more competent me? The doppelgangers in this mirror are always set to be more outstanding than the original. But they don't have a body that can operate for long outside the mirror. Therefore, the mirror doppelgangers inside here want the original's body. They whisper sweetly that if I give them my body, they can create a better future.
“Give me you. Then I'll grant what you want. You know. I'm better than you.”
If I lend her my body, she'll grant my wish. Or, it provokes.
“If it were me, not you, I could achieve a better future without deceiving everyone.”
If the original, unable to ignore the taunt, attacks the doppelganger in the mirror first, the doppelgangers can break the mirror's law and take the original's body. A trap that sees through my greed and uses it to shake me. …It's a doppelganger that will disappear with time anyway.Don't mind it.
“……”
“Are you really going to miss this chance?”
It sneered at me.
“You're not confident, are you? You, who fears the reaction when your lies are discovered, who fears the great disaster you have to stop—you're going to miss this chance? A coward like you?”
“Now you're just insulting me.”
Its form shimmered like a heat haze.
“Do you know your future?”
The scenery changes. It's the sight I saw before, with that damn Tiger bastard. In that scene, Choi Sujeong and Min Jaeyun are desperately shouting something at me. And they collapse. They become monsters. And just like the illusion I saw then, they kill people, and then, and then... they are hunted.
“Everything might be ruined because of an impurity like you.”
The one who kills them is me. The blood and corpses of my precious people, already dead, are scattered around. I see the future I fear most.
“You? The one who can't even tell your lies properly, who can't even beg for forgiveness?”
If this really is a novel, and it's just a story where good triumphs over evil. Then I'd be the one punished when my deception of the protagonist is revealed. The people around me come into view. Their faces are overlaid with thick contempt. Ah, this is a bit…
“You're scared, aren't you?”
It mocked me to the very end.
“Don't regret it. When you've ruined everything, can you still say, 'That was my choice, I did my best'?”
“...I probably couldn't.”
If many things are broken because of my mistake, I'll regret it enough to wish for death, and I'll never be able to forgive myself.Even so…
“But if I pass it off to someone else, I think I'd regret it even more when they screw it up.”
“...I'm confident…”
“You're lying. To me. In the first place, you don't even have the intention of trying to stop the disaster, do you?”
If it truly resembles me, that thing must be trembling inside right now. But its desire to have a body is taking precedence, so it's barely hiding its trembling and putting up a bluff. I know myself too well, so I also know what the weakness of a being that resembles me is. I have to. I sneered at that thing that looked like me.
“I know myself well. I know your scheme, too. You're planning to run away as soon as you take my body, aren't you?”
At that thing, which is just a coward.
"You don't have them, do you? Precious people to protect."
The doppelganger, flustered for the first time, repeated. “No, no, no…”
I know what kind of person I am. I know all too well how much more of a coward I could be if I were alone. It wouldn't keep any promises. As if its time was up, my, that thing's form, which looked just like me, began to slowly collapse.
“Do you think I'd let my people be abandoned? Get lost.”
“You think someone like you can protect everyone?”
“I don't know. But I will struggle to protect my people until the very end. That's definitely better than just crying and leaving it to someone else, better than just hoping for someone else's mercy.”
In the end, the only one who can change my fate is me. I have to walk this path myself.
“Ha…!”
With that last sigh, the mirror doppelganger in front of me crumbled and slowly turned transparent. As it disappeared, as if it were just an illusion, a shining path appeared. I just have to follow that path.
I followed the yellow, shining path, and saw a mirror that looked like a smaller version of the giant mirror from before. Beyond the small mirror, another cave and a rock door were visible. It was a peculiar door, a disc-shaped stone that you roll to the side. The rest of the group seemed to have already finished their ordeals and were gathered together. I must be the last one.
“Nahyun-ssi!”
“Nahyun!”
Na Yuri and Na Yuhan, who had spotted me from beyond the mirror, called my name. I smiled, waved at them, and leaped toward the mirror in front of me. It was Park Siwoo who carefully caught my falling body.
“Are you okay? You're not hurt?”
“I didn't fight, so… yeah.”
I slipped out of Park Siwoo's arms and lightly raised both arms to show I was fine. I looked around; everyone seemed to have made it out safely. Na Yuhan clapped his hands, gathering our attention.
“Alright, this is the last part. Go, Park Siwoo! Push the rock!”
“You weakling Junior~”
“Normal people can't push open a stone door! Park Siwoo's the weird one!”
Park Siwoo, who shook his head at Na Yuhan bickering with Choi Sujeong, stood at the side of the stone disc and began to push it. The disc began to roll to the side with a scraping sound. Once it was moved, the disc smoothly rolled to the side along a sloped and grooved path.
Kukuung—!
At last, in the place where the rock had been moved, there was what looked like a passageway.
“This place is long…”
“I know.”
“I wonder if there's any more gold?”
Lee Hana quietly agreed with Shin Baran's grumbling. I grabbed the hand of Min Jaeyun, who was looking around as if wondering if there were any more shiny things, and headed toward the passageway's entrance, just as Na Yuhan directed. Na Yuhan walked with a composed stride and said.
“There won't be anything else dangerous now.”
“That's a relief!”
“Yeah. Now, we just need Jaeyun to go and get the Key.”
The passageway was shorter than expected. Beyond the passageway, I could see the outside, faintly lit. And when we stepped out of the passageway,
<Hmm, who are you?>
We met a giant black dragon, crouched over something.