Chapter 346: Ascension to Immortality (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 346: Ascension to Immortality (2)
It hurts.
In a gray space where nothing could be seen, only a sense of inexplicable pain and discomfort told me that I still existed.
…What was I doing just a moment ago?
I felt like there was something important, but my mind was strangely sluggish due to a sense of helplessness.
If it weren’t for this discomfort and pain, I probably would have fallen asleep immediately.
Even when I tried to remember something, it was as if a fog had settled over my mind, and even when I tried to move my body, I couldn’t recall the reason why I should move, thanks to a terrible lethargy.
Had I fallen into a bottomless swamp made of helplessness?
— Why do you try so hard to endure? Pain, sadness, discomfort—they all exist because you’re trying to hold on to them.
It was as if the voice was telling me to just close my eyes, forget even the pain and discomfort tormenting me, and fall asleep.
— In the end, it’s all meaningless. You realize it when it’s time to close your eyes. Obsession and desire are all futile things.
The voice claimed that even the pain and discomfort I felt came from not letting go of what I should have released.
— Yes, it will be easier if you just let go. You know this better than anyone. So why do you refuse to let go? It’s not hard. Just slowly relax the strength in your hands. If you do that, you can be at peace.
To be at peace. That sounded quite tempting.
The pain was gradually weakening. The discomfort still existed, but it had become faint enough to be tolerable.
— Ultimately, there is nothing in this world that has meaning. All that prospers must decline. No flower stays red for ten days. Isn’t that right?
Yes, there probably is no meaning. Perhaps it is just an obsession.
“Bullshit.”
But who the hell are you to tell me to let go or not?
I focused my consciousness on the fading sensation of pain and discomfort, and I forced strength back into my fingertips where it had been draining away.
— …Are you struggling? You can’t even remember anything right now. Why are you doing this when you don’t even know what you’re trying to hold on to?
It wasn’t something I could easily resist, but it was certain that I couldn’t just do nothing.
Whatever the reason I came here was, I remembered at least that it wasn’t to find peace.
“There’s no such thing as a meaningful task in this world.”
— Exactly, so stop this meaningless resistance and…
“So, paradoxically, it’s okay for a person to give meaning to anything.”
These were words I must never forget, even if I forgot everything else.
They were the words that formed my foundation.
So, I will hold on to the pain and discomfort that are gripping me now.
No matter how much this wounds me or makes me suffer, I will remember that I must not let go.
— …You stubborn bastard. But that alone isn’t enough. Recalling what you shouldn’t let go of isn’t the end of it. It’s common for the dead to be unable to let go of their lingering regrets.
When I opened my closed eyes, the space was still filled with gray.
— Are you really going to go through with this? If you just gave up on the things tormenting you and achieved enlightenment, you would be at peace. Do you really intend to dig them up yourself, recall them, and grab them with your scarred hands?
Yes, I’ll grab them. Whether it’s a thicket of thorns or shards of broken glass, they are precious to me.
The pain and discomfort grew stronger again, but as I faced them head-on instead of turning away, they soon transformed into something else.
They were memories of those I wanted to protect because they were so warm.
At the same time, they were memories of their corpses rolling at my feet and of death.
The gray landscape twisted, and a grotesque scenery began to cover the world.
It was a bizarre sight where a snowfield and a flower garden were intermingled.
There was no way life could exist in a snowfield that stole all warmth, yet the flowers in full bloom seemed to insist that this place was spring.
A landscape where colorful flowers and pure white snow repelled and pushed against each other.
— …Fine, I admit it. Seeing that you possess both things you must grasp and things you must not let go of, you are not one of the dead, but one of the living. You are a sinner who dares to set foot here without qualification.
The snowfield and the flower garden, which were originally separate, were now messily mixed together, making it impossible to tell if it was cold or warm, comfortable or painful.
This was my world of the mind, and my essence.
Perhaps because the gray had vanished, my body moved.
When I reached out, the falling snow and the scattering flower petals fell into my hand simultaneously.
“…Ah. Fuck.”
I opened my eyes to excruciating pain.
I suppose I should say I regained consciousness. The first thing I felt immediately after opening my eyes was that my vessel, which had already reached its limit, was being forcibly stretched and had begun to crack.
…I probably rose in rank just now as I clearly recognized my own mental image, but at least for now, that wasn’t very positive news.
Seeing that everyone else was still asleep, it seemed they were undergoing a similar trial.
“I hope everyone’s okay.”
Honestly, I was a bit worried, but before long, Professor Cathy was the first to open her eyes, and the others began to wake up one by one.
The Little Witch Professor, who woke up last, took a bit longer, but seeing as she eventually stood up, I assumed she was fine.
“Ugh, damn. This is really brutal. They weren’t kidding when they said this was the Underworld. Was I the last one to wake up?”
“Hmm? It didn’t seem that bad to me?”
“Was it very hard for you, Unnie?”
“Eh, what? Everyone else seems fine except for me? I really thought I was about to cross the River Styx.”
“It was difficult for me as well.”
Hmm, and though I wasn’t sure what the criteria were, it seemed there were differences between individuals.
When I or Professor Park A-ram said it was hard, I thought maybe it was tougher for those with painful experiences, but seeing as Cathy Noona found it easy while Lilac found it hard, it didn’t seem to be just that.
“Anyway, So-hyun, what should we do now?”
Cathy Noona asked as our representative, but everyone’s eyes were on me, likely out of curiosity.
‘That’s what they’re asking. Where should we go now?’
— First, we need to find out which part of Hell this is.
‘…Excuse me? You opened the entrance yourself.’
— Maybe if I were in my prime, but at my current level, it’s hard to perfectly specify the location while creating an entrance through a loophole.
‘No, I appreciate the confidence, but does that mean we’re in trouble?’
— No, I couldn’t specify it perfectly, but the general location should be correct. The problem is which of the ten Hells this is. The place where I left the Golden Hoop is the Hell of Tongue-Ripping, governed by Yama.
So, we’re near the destination, but we don’t know exactly where we are?
— Well, each Hell has its own characteristics, so it won’t be hard to distinguish. If we move just a little…
— Intrusion of unqualified individuals confirmed.
“Oh?”
Before Sun Wukong could finish her sentence, a voice that wasn’t very peaceful rang out.
— Executing judgment after neutralization.
“…Uh, damn. That doesn’t sound very positive.”
“Everyone, maintain combat readiness!”
— Aha, I can tell where we are based on the energy I feel. You’re quite lucky.
After the ominous voice passed, what appeared with a clattering sound were swords and blades.
‘…You call this being lucky?’
— Of course, you should consider yourself very lucky.
However, it wasn’t just one or two blades. Hundreds, no, thousands? Tens of thousands? An uncountable number of swords were clashing against each other, making a metallic ringing sound.
— This is the very first of the ten Hells: the Mountain of Knives Hell, governed by Great King Jingwang. It is a place where sinners are punished on a mountain literally made of blades.
‘That doesn’t look like a mountain of knives.’
— It’s just a figure of speech. It’s easier to think of it as a hell of infinite swords. Most sinners are repeatedly sliced to pieces here, unable to withstand the blades of sin.
…Oh, I see. So what are we supposed to do now?
— What do you mean? Isn’t it obvious?
As expected of Sun Wukong. She has a plan. I knew I could count on her.
— If you don’t want to die, you have to block them.
…I’m in a situation where I can’t even use my power properly right now, though?
The moment I finished my conversation with Sun Wukong, a storm of blades made of infinite swords poured down toward us.
We’re screwed, aren’t we…?
* * *
The Hero Association.
A group where heroes belonging to the state gathered, it was also a place responsible for the nation’s security. However, that was a thing of the past; by now, it was merely a battlefield for power struggles among those steeped in vanity.
If it weren’t for the unaffiliated heroes active in the private sector or those who could still be called true heroes remaining within the Association, it would have collapsed long ago.
Yet, despite that, the prestige the Association held was not low.
The Association hadn’t fully succumbed to corruption enough to tarnish the prestige it had built before its fall.
It was also true that they were engaged in various positive activities.
Above all, the strategic value of having many heroes under its wing and the symbolism of being the center for heroes were not things to be ignored.
“…This is a headache.”
Because of this, the Association was a fortress that mediocre villains wouldn’t dare look at, but at the same time, it was a place that truly dangerous villains always targeted.
Park Deok-bae, the President of the Hero Association, was nursing a massive headache.
The issue regarding the cadet who seemed to know our secrets, as reported by Flash, was a problem.
And for some reason, Seo Ye-hwa, who usually listened well, was desperately protecting a masked villain, which was also a problem.
I mean, he was a guy who deserved to be beaten and crushed by an S-rank right now, but she said she’d consider changing jobs if he was officially registered as a villain, so how could I register him?
I also had to clean up the mess the Honor Faction made this time to some extent.
Actually, it wasn’t bad that those Honor Faction bastards got suppressed this time, but I had to prevent the image of the entire Association from worsening because of it.
“…Well, the most urgent matter is something else.”
However, the incident that tormented him the most was something else entirely.
It was a notice that had been sent to the Association just a few days ago.
The problem was the content written in that notice.
[Hello! I am the King of Villains, the one who brought down Labyrinthos!
You corrupt pigs.
Are you enjoying your false peace? Haven’t you grown fat and complacent, soaked in tranquility?
I have prepared an event that will send shivers down your spines.
You seem to have covered up the Labyrinthos incident well enough, but this time, for my official debut, I will bring down the second hell for superhuman criminals: Alcatraz, and liberate the villains.
Oh, of course, you’re free to think this is a lie.
It’ll make things easier for me to handle.
I won’t tell you the exact date of the raid.
This isn’t some friendly match, so just sweat it out until the day you’re hunted down.
Well then, from the holy King of Villains to the leader of the corrupt pigs.]
Normally, this was content he would have ignored as tabloid trash.
There were so many villains who sent such threatening letters; he couldn’t possibly react to every single one.
However, the problem was that the sender claimed to be the villain who brought down Labyrinthos.
Whether it was the person themselves or not, it was something only someone who knew the true story of that incident to some extent could say.
And now, they were claiming they would attack Alcatraz.
The new hero team ‘Starlight,’ formed after the Labyrinthos incident, was centered around Flash. It was a rookie team made up of a large number of young A-rank heroes chosen for their good looks, and they were currently the face of the Association.
The Association’s image was barely holding on because of them. If Alcatraz were to fall after they had promised to prevent incidents like Labyrinthos?
It wouldn’t end as a joke.
The Association’s stock in the eyes of the public would hit rock bottom, and he couldn’t even imagine what he would have to do to recover that image.
“But I can’t just blindly station heroes at Alcatraz either.”
The Association President was greedy, but he was reasonably intelligent.
If he stationed them there, the notice might turn out to be a feint, and they could attack somewhere else in a pincer movement. Since no deadline was specified, they might attack when everyone was exhausted and had let their guard down.
In the end, it meant he had to split his forces.
He would leave half of the Starlight team at the Association and station the other half at Alcatraz.
As for society, he’d just say they were getting a little help from private heroes or, as much as he hated it, the guild hunters.
Eventually, after coming up with what he thought was the most plausible deployment, he summoned a subordinate through a button installed under his desk.
“Yes, Mr. President.”
To the subordinate who came running at a speed that suggested he had been waiting right outside the door, the President spoke with a very solemn face.
“Let’s go eat eel today.”
Since he had decided on the deployment, the secretary would take care of the paperwork if he just left it on the desk. Shouldn’t he reward himself for his hard work?
After that, he had to call one of his mistresses to spend the night, so there was no better choice than eel.
“Yeah, whatever, let’s not be scared. We have Flash and other A-ranks. No matter how hard they try, villains are just villains.”