What You See Is Deception

The moment that landscape appeared on the screen, the chat window went into an absolute frenzy.

First came the flood of shock and praise.

And then, of course, the people shrieking that it was all staged.

On the screen, Jeong Wooseok swept his gaze across his surroundings and thought.

Not yet. The stage match could have been a coincidence. He still had to confirm whether Shin Suryeon's father was truly in here.

But something about the air was wrong.

This was a stage Wooseok himself had run before. The beasts should have come charging the moment he set foot inside. Instead there was only stillness—as if every monster in the place had its attention fixed somewhere else entirely.

Wooseok moved forward slowly.

The castle grounds stretched wide. Colonnades that must once have boasted of their grandeur now stood as rows of collapsed pillars and crumbling stone walls. Underfoot, dry earth and bone fragments crackled with every step.

Past the broken walls, a stairway led down into the underground.

The moment he began descending into the pitch-black dark, a roar rolled out from somewhere below. Krrrrr—

They're all gathered underground?

Wooseok lit his way with an item.

The underground of the castle site wound on like a maze. Water that had seeped down the walls dripped with a soft, ceaseless patter.

Then—

Skrrk—

A monster lunged out of the darkness.

A sword slid smoothly into being at Wooseok's hand. One light flick of the wrist—

Crack—

The bipedal beast was cut in two before it could even make contact, scattering into pieces.

Deeper in, the passage opened into a broad chamber.

Dozens of monsters prowled the space, drool stringing from their jaws, worked up into a fury.

When Wooseok appeared at the far end of the long corridor—

KRRRRRRR! GYAOOORR!

As one, they surged at him like he was prey. A second sword appeared in Wooseok's left hand.

Wooseok walked toward the horde at an unhurried pace.

Fwish—!

The beasts lunged.

Cra-crack!

Two blades crossed left and right. Dazzling light drew a lattice through the air and split space itself.

The charging beasts shattered into cube-like fragments and scattered before they could so much as touch him.

Blood rained down.

The plaza was cleared in the space of a heartbeat.

The chamber lay carpeted in carcasses. Without so much as a hard breath, Wooseok strode toward its center and swept his eyes around.

Hweeeng—

And there, on one side—a stone door, sealed fast.

The summoned sword dissolved away. Wooseok stood before the stone door and pushed it open.

And inside—

A man caked in blood, the light guttering out of his eyes, looked up at him on a breath thin as thread. Shin Suryeon's father. Shin Hoyeon.

"D-DAD??!!!"

Shin Suryeon shrieked and ran to him.

Shin Hoyeon's parched lips quivered, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Su... ryeon?"

"A hallucination... a vision before I die...? Is that... what this is...?"

Tears poured from the man's eyes.

Doyeon's mutter was caught faintly by the mic.

"Whoa. There really was someone in there..."

And then the donations exploded in a frenzy.

Wooseok watched it all with an expression stirred by something deep.

No one who entered the Tower could be brought back out. For ten years, that had been common sense. The Tower's interior was a parallel world—it could never overlap with the world outside.

And now, right before his eyes, that common sense was breaking apart. A single sentence from that shaman had saved a human life.

One corner of his chest turned heavy. Something long pressed down was slowly lifting its head.

Then the 7th floor, too...?

The moment the message appeared, the screen cut to black.

Crack—

Space split open, and four figures stepped through. Jeong Wooseok, Shin Suryeon, Doyeon—and Shin Suryeon's father, Shin Hoyeon.

The crowd in the lobby swarmed around them.

Someone stepped forward ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to examine Shin Hoyeon's condition.

"Please wait just a moment."

A healing incantation settled over him, and the raw wounds slowly closed.

"I've taken care of the urgent injuries, but his vitality is badly drained. He'll need a few days in the hospital once you're out."

The uncle who had first commissioned the reading came shoving through the crowd.

"Hyung...!"

"Hojin... what on earth is happening..."

"This man here... he's the one who found where you were. Shaman Bong did."

Every second of it streamed out live through Doyeon's camera. The viewers, seized by emotion and disbelief alike, couldn't tear their eyes from the screen.

Shin Suryeon, drenched in tears and snot, ran up before Bonghyuk—and dropped flat to the ground.

"Thank you. Thank you. For saving my daddy... thank you so, so much."

She broke into heaving sobs. Bonghyuk quietly watched her for a moment, then answered flatly,

"You saved him. Not me."

A slender thread. What it actually was, even Bonghyuk couldn't say. He could only guess it was something born of Shin Suryeon's desperate heart.

Bonghyuk laid a hand on the head of the kneeling girl.

"You've been through a lot, child."

For a moment, it looked as if light were pouring down from the heavens onto the two of them. A scene beyond holy. And what would you call a scene like this?

Exactly.

A 'miracle.'

Just then, Jeong Wooseok stepped up in front of Bonghyuk.

"So can I get my reading now?"

When Bonghyuk looked up, Jeong Wooseok's face was lit up bright.

"Go ahead. Ask."

"Hell Floor 7. What's in there?"

The mood around them flipped in an instant. Hell difficulty—a challenge even SSS-ranks balked at. At the prospect of hearing that reading firsthand, the murmuring crowd pressed in tight around Bonghyuk and Wooseok.

Bonghyuk invoked his skill.

Just as his lips parted—

A lurch.

Along with a sensation of his stomach turning over, he saw something wrong.

A red aura was coiling, smoky and slow, around the eyes and ears of everyone ringing him. Around Jian's, standing at his side. Around the eyes and ears of Doyeon, lens raised on him.

A chill crawled up his spine, and with it the force crashed over him—ominous, breath-stealing, painful enough to put your eyes out.

He knew it instinctively.

This was a warning.

A chill voice slid out of Bonghyuk's mouth.

"Everyone... step back. Those without the right to hear it must not."

Hell grade. Even a glimpse of that place. Not just anyone could listen. Everyone here was at risk.

The crowd buzzed uneasily.

Bonghyuk rose from his seat and, stepping into the teepee behind the booth, said,

"Jeong Wooseok. Follow me."

Wooseok trailed after him, face full of misgiving. When Doyeon tried to stumble in after them, camera still raised—

"Don't you DARE come in!!"

Bonghyuk's voice jabbed like a blade. Doyeon flinched.

"Only Jeong Wooseok hears this reading."

In the end, Wooseok alone followed him inside.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Wooseok sat down cross-legged.

"What now? All this fuss."

"Anyone else hears it, their eyes and ears are gone. They'll be puking blood."

"Hah."

"What you want to know is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hell Floor 7. Right?"

"Yeah."

Bonghyuk closed his eyes.

The vision rose.

A space of endless white.

Nothingness.

No monsters. No maze. Nothing at all.

In that vast, snow-white expanse, a single number hung alone.

What is this?

The number dropped, one tick per second.

Could that be... time?

His breath snagged. An endless, fathomless bleakness closed in, and despair cinched tight around the heart. Screams scattered through the empty space; out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed pupils going dull and crumbling away.

No one could ever run that math with ease—yet intuitively, a single phrase surfaced.

One hundred million years.

"Hah."

The exclamation burst out of Bonghyuk's mouth.

"One hundred million years?"

At those words, Jeong Wooseok's face hardened to stone.

"What?"

"A space of pure white with nothing but red numbers. Three-one-five-five-seven-oh-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine."

The color drained clean out of Wooseok's face.

A hundred million years? That space—the one that greets you the first time you ever challenge Hell difficulty?

Goosebumps crawled over his skin. The terror he had barely, desperately kept stuffed down began devouring his mind at speed.

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

No one must ever set foot in there.

Hold out a hundred million years, in a place you can't even escape from? It defied belief. Countless SSS-ranks across the world curse and bolt the moment that stage appears—and now the fortune-teller standing before him was saying that very space was his destiny?!

Wooseok shot to his feet and roared.

"Fuck, you're kidding me!"

"Wait."

Bonghyuk's eyes narrowed.

And then—what Bonghyuk's eyes showed him.

The number began to fall precipitately.

The flow of time was accelerating. And then the number reached its end—

Crack! The space warped, tore itself apart, and collapsed.

That was it.

Ah.

Bonghyuk understood.

"So what the eye sees is not all there is."

"What?"

"8,640,000 seconds."

"What kind of bullshit is that!"

"What's visible is deception. A lie."

Bonghyuk opened his eyes.

"Don't be fooled by the numbers you see."

"...What... are you saying."

"One hundred days."

"?"

"Not a hundred million years. All you have to do is endure one hundred days."

Wooseok's face crumpled.

"What?"

Bonghyuk drew in a deep breath. Then, grinning,

"Looks like you'd better pack a whole stack of manga."

And at that very moment, before Wooseok's dumbfounded eyes—

Pwugh—!

Bonghyuk suddenly spewed blood from his nose and mouth and dropped.

"Hey! Hey! What's wrong with you!"

Wooseok came out of the tent with Bonghyuk slung over his shoulder, chin and chest soaked dark with blood.

Every eye in the crowd went round.

Don't tell me Jeong Wooseok beat the shaman senseless?

The bizarre sight sent the chat into pandemonium.

"B-Bonghyuk!? What happened?!"

"Shaman Bong!"

Jian and Doyeon came running and grabbed hold of him.

The commotion swelled louder, and Wooseok, flustered, burst out,

"He did the reading and came out like this. I didn't hit him!"

A healer hurried over and cast a healing spell, but it had no effect.

"A hospital! We have to get him to a hospital!"

Just then, Bonghyuk stirred upright, eyes bleary.

"It's fine. I'm all right."

Inside, Bonghyuk spat out a curse.

That backlash was one hell of a bastard.

Hell. Merely glimpsing a fragment of it had placed an enormous burden on him.

"Jeong Wooseok. Etch my words into your skull. What you see is deception. The reading... you and no one else."

Jeong Wooseok had no words at all.

© KAY™#13lul