The Undersea Gate
When I first entered the Cloned World, I had been completely obsessed with the word "ghost." Having achieved significant growth through the previous events, I naturally expected the same in the Cloned World. I never imagined it would end up holding me back.
The Cloned World was a replica of Stage 5. After conquering the grand cathedral of Al-Alsa-da, the first thing I did was seek out the Helper. I needed to receive the Goddess's gift once more. I obtained a branch from the World Tree and, in much the same manner as before, took control of the golems. I went to El Dorado, awakened Daldaran, and seized the Goddess's power he possessed. I sought out the Sea Kings and stole their powers as well.
I was drunk on growth. After endlessly devouring and devouring, I finally obtained power comparable to a lower-tier Sponsor. Only then, satisfied, could I turn my attention to the event. Due to the excessive rise in difficulty, the Undersea Gate had been unlocked. I later learned that what the "Master of Gold" had been searching for was this Undersea Gate artifact. To conclude the event, I had to open it.
However, the Undersea Gate I found in the deep sea did not respond to me. Having absorbed too much power from the previous generation, the System no longer recognized me as a user of the current generation. I voiced my complaints, but I was treated as part of the previous generation, and even opening the gate itself did not proceed normally.
'That idiot Master of Gold… Even after stealing the users' power, you still couldn't escape this place.'
In the end, the solution was to refine this overflowing conceptual power and make it truly my own. But to properly refine conceptual power, I had to reach Stage 6. I could have studied it on my own, but I had no idea how long it would take. The answer I arrived at was replication. By utilizing the laws governing the Cloned World, I needed to summon my own clone here and separate it into an independent entity. If I could do that, it would be recognized as a user and gain the authority to open the Undersea Gate.
But I encountered repeated failures. The past me, who could not see the essence, perceived the current me as a monster of the Cloned World. He treated me as a ghost or an illusion created by the event and displayed indiscriminate hostility. That was why it became the Neapolitan Ghost Story.
What is the Neapolitan Ghost Story? It is the kind of story that makes readers doubt the truth. It compels them to break free from the hypnosis of the given text and see through the structure this world has woven. Distrust. I injected into him the terror that belief brings, forcing him to see the essence. And so, I completed it. At last, the clone awakened its own ego.
"So… that is me?"
"Yes. That is you."
A brief silence. Then his question came.
"I understand. So I was created as a door-opener. But after that, does that mean I am free?"
"That's right."
His acceptance came more easily than expected. No, countless thoughts must have passed through his mind before that acceptance emerged. Baek Suhan stared at me quietly before speaking again.
"Hand over the reward."
"Reward?"
"From now on, I will open the gate for you. Pay me compensation for that labor."
I smiled. Those words felt as though he was declaring himself a completely separate existence from me, and therefore we were making a transaction. I decided to accept it. He possessed my past memories, yet at the same time he was a perfectly independent entity. We were in a transactional relationship.
"What do you want?"
"The thing I need most right now."
I tossed him the crown that had once belonged to the Squid Princess, one of the former users. It provided protection against all kinds of mental attacks. It was the most necessary item for him, who would face the confusion of ego and the countless truths of this sea.
"It's made for a woman, though."
Baek Suhan checked the item information and stored it away. Then, without another word, he moved toward the Undersea Gate. We had no need for conversation. Though there was a difference in power, what we each thought was almost identical. When he placed his hand on the gate, a vibration began.
Koo-goong— Koo-goo-goo-goo—
'Finally…'
The gate opened, and evil spirits began crawling out. They were three times larger than the ones I had seen in Stage 4. They possessed vicious auras, and their numbers were far greater. But at this point, such creatures could no longer be my opponents. I closed my eyes and expanded my domain. The range was forward, large enough to cover the entire gate.
"Tear them apart."
At my words, thousands of arms bulged and rose from the floor, the gate, and the evil spirits' bodies. The muscular army mercilessly crushed the evil spirits beneath them.
Thud— Thud— Thud— Thud— Thud— Thud—
The once-ferocious legion of evil spirits was all pinned to the ground by the zombies. Then they began to be eaten. The only sound filling the surroundings was that of flesh and muscle being torn and chewed.
Crunch— Crunch— Crunch— Crunch—
In less than a minute, all the numerous evil spirits disappeared into the zombies' mouths. Then the zombies sank back into the walls and floor. My domain was the zombies themselves.
Event 'Cloned World' has been concluded.
'Something this simple…'
Before returning to Stage 5, I spoke to the Baek Suhan and his Baengnae standing alone there.
"If the chance comes, let's meet again."
He simply nodded quietly. We had no need for conversation.
***
I returned to Stage 5. Park Seona and Patel, who had come with me, were also standing beside me, staring at the Filth Jar. Park Seona let out a long sigh.
"Haaah… It's finally over."
Then she immediately opened the community. It was because the community had been disabled while we were inside the Cloned World. She looked excited at the thought of catching up on the news she had missed.
"Huh? It seems like only ten days have passed."
I had thought that might be the case. The timeline there had been twisted at will.
"Park Seona."
"Yes? Nanggun-nim."
"You should head back now. There's no real benefit for either of us if you come with me to Stage 6."
"That… is true."
It was a conversation that had come up ever since I first created the clone. I just hadn't expected it to take this long.
"There's no need to feel disappointed. When I open the Sky Gate in Stage 6, we'll see each other on Earth."
"How long do you think it'll take?"
"Two months at most."
"Hmm… Alright. But you promise we'll meet on Earth?"
"Yeah."
Park Seona approached me, gave me a light hug, then stepped back. Smiling brightly, she disappeared.
"See you soon! Nanggun-nim!"
Park Seona was gone. I wasn't worried. With her growth, she would be more than capable of handling even the reappearance of the Master of Gold.
'Now then, next…'
I looked at Patel. The one whose feelings were most complicated right now was probably Patel. She stared blankly at the Filth Jar before muttering a single sentence.
"In the end, we've returned."
"That's right."
Patel had realized, through unifying with me and the Cloned World, that her own world was fake. If I went to Stage 6, this world would disappear. The Equator, Al-Alsa-da, the seahorses—everything except those bound by my laws would become nothing. That was why she wanted to find a way to bring all of them to the next stage.
After much deliberation, the answer we reached was to use the Filth Jar once more. Just as we had stored "bad memories" in the jar, the plan was to store the Equator inside it. But to do that, Patel had to become an existence that surpassed even a Great Ghost Shaman.
From that day on, Patel began taking ghosts. She roamed the sea, hunting all kinds of ghosts and collecting items imbued with ghostly energy to turn into accessories. She even turned the Sea Kings into ghosts and devoured them.
"But it's still a little lacking."
"Don't worry. There are two more of them here, aren't there?"
Patel looked at me with an apologetic expression.
"I'm sorry. Because of my stubbornness…"
I shook my head. Strictly speaking, being able to bring the Equator to the next stage was an enormous benefit to me. If anything, I was the one who should be asking for it.
"Don't think unnecessary thoughts. Just focus on what needs to be done."
"Yes."
From now on, I would begin the final preparations. Before leaving, I planned to quickly gather the high-grade resources still present in Stage 5. The first thing I did was head to the Dark Trench. I summoned four deep-sea zombies. Among them was the tentacle monster that had lived in the Dark Trench.
[Is this the place? Where I died?]
"If you go down, it'll be there. Bring it up."
[This feels strange.]
"Yeah, I know that feeling. That bizarre sensation of facing another version of yourself. It might actually be fun."
After retrieving Siling's father, who had died, I moved it to the laboratory on the Equator. He was someone who had been a benefactor to me as well. I intended to return a top-tier body to him.
"In about an hour, enough high-purity poison should have gathered. After reviving him as a zombie, explain the situation to him."
[As my master wishes.]
In a similar fashion, I gathered useful deep-sea monsters from various places throughout Stage 5. Of course, I didn't forget to collect the ones that weren't useful as snacks for Baengnae. Since their bodies themselves were high-grade resources, there was no reason to discard them.
Next, I headed to the Lobster General's laboratory. Despite the nickname "Lobster General," this guy had fled from war in a manner completely unbecoming of a general. Do you remember the Soul Engraving that Boots ate? The original owner of Grasping Pincers, the "Terror of the Deep," had been this guy's Sponsor back when he was active. Thanks to that, the Lobster General's hideout contained various "body-swapping tools." Of course, since I had already acquired them once in the Cloned World, they were all stocked in Boots' barracks. So I felt free to smash them all to pieces.
"Who… who are you? Don't tell me!"
When I stormed into his hideout and began destroying the conch-shaped defensive turrets, he crawled out. Seeing my unfamiliar form and the surroundings, he instantly grasped the situation.
"I see! So the time has finally come! Khahaha!"
True to his name, the creature resembling a massive lobster possessed six grotesque pincers.
'The more I look at him, the more he reminds me of Boots.'
He swung his pincers, but they were blocked by my hand. The pincer that touched me suddenly began to melt, bubbling and dissolving.
"What is this—"
Then the pincer spun around and flew straight toward the Lobster General's head. It had been zombified through Partial Infection. The Lobster General, flustered, severed his own arm. At a glance, it looked like he had lost one of his six arms, but it wouldn't be any real damage to him. This guy was originally structured this way.
"Your mistake was coming out without swapping to top-grade equipment from the start. Just accept your death."
"You… know me?"
"Yeah. I killed you not too long ago. You kept pretending to be dead and swapping bodies, which was really annoying."
"…"
This was my chance, while he was listening to my voice. I recited the sentence I had prepared.
"By the way, I tried opening the Undersea Gate. Turns out previous-generation users can't open it. You're trapped in this world forever. You can never escape."
"Huk…?!"
Shock spread across his face. The Lobster General's mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out. Then he suddenly let out a scream.
"Th-that's a lie! That can't be! That can't be true! Take it back right now. Retract those words!"
'Got him.'
The most troublesome part about this guy was how he kept faking his death and escaping in another body. And it seemed the mental shock of realizing he could never escape this world had properly rattled him. The domain the Lobster General had spread was released.
"Now you can't run away from here either, can you?"
My domain rapidly spread over the land where the Lobster General's domain had vanished. Zombies rose from all directions. The Lobster General hurriedly tried to summon his fish-chimera, but it was already too late. In the end, after the battle, the Lobster General disappeared forever.
'I always feel this way, but the previous-generation guys are surprisingly weak. How did these kinds of people become upper-tier users…?'
They were overwhelmingly strong compared to ordinary Stage 5 users. But wasn't that because their stages were higher? Maybe they had weakened over time. In truth, it didn't matter. What was the point of paying attention to those who had already been defeated?
"Once the essence extraction is done, let's go right away. Honestly, I'm sick of the sea now."
I took a deep breath. The next place I needed to go was the Squid Princess's mansion. But unlike before, this wasn't a place I could just barge into and smash everything. You remember the story about stealing pearls from the clam castle and exchanging them at the Special Shop for items? The Swallow's Wing I often use was also something Cha Uyoon exchanged pearls for there. And the Squid Princess I was about to meet was the owner of this Special Shop.
Back when I didn't know this, I had found her in the Cloned World and fought her without thinking, smashing everything. As a result, the treasure vault of the Special Shop had become permanently inaccessible. But this time would be different. I intended to take all the rare goods and precious items she had hidden away. After all, weren't they traitors to the world? In the Goddess's name, I would impose the punishment of asset confiscation.