Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: Doomsayer III: Shin Noah
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“Don't worry too much, Guild Leader.”
Go Yo-ri gave a wistful smile. As if she were the one concerned about me.
“As you know, this place is the Well of Dreams you bestowed upon us. I'm nothing more than a role in a dream within a dream. I'm a completely separate entity from the real me.”
“…Just a mere illusion?”
“Yes. Hmm. If I had to put it into words, perhaps it's a manifestation of your fears and phobias, Guild Leader? Of course, it's quite heartbreaking that your subconscious terror took on my form of all things…….”
Go Yo-ri lowered the corners of her eyes sorrowfully, but I couldn't relax.
Imagine Godzilla wagging its tail, begging to be petted. Even a light novel protagonist equipped with the internal protocol of 'pet → conquer the target' would suspect the magic in their palm.
“On the contrary, it wouldn't make sense if I weren't an illusion. Even from your perspective, Guild Leader, no matter how enigmatic I may be, things like sitting on clouds or being 600 meters underground wouldn't happen.”
“…….”
“Everything is an illusion born from your fears. Even the way I'm calling you 'Guild Leader' right now is bizarre. Because…….”
“…You've never accepted me as the Guild Leader. That title only exists in my memories.”
“Yes! Exactly.”
What should I have done?
Trusting Go Yo-ri outright was absurd. I'd sooner believe the UFO that crashed into the East Sea was a friendly ambassador from an alien civilization promoting goodwill.
But it was also true that I couldn't escape from here.
I had to wait for the Tutorial Fairies to come rescue me, or find a way out myself.
Until then, like it or not, Go Yo-ri would stick close to me.
“Above all, I can serve as your guide here.”
“A guide? That's awfully welcome news. The guide I hired was just assassinated by someone.”
“Ahaha. Sorry about that. But wouldn't a local guide be far more reliable than some outsider?”
Go Yo-ri clasped her hands behind her back and leaned in toward my face.
“Dream demons are ultimately just bridges connecting dreams and reality. Hmm. It's hard to call us a 'complete race of this side.' However, I, as the embodiment of your subconscious, have existed here all along.”
“…….”
“I know almost everything about the events unfolding in this place. Guild Leader, you've come to explore nightmares, haven't you? I can guide you much better than any mere dream demon.”
A moment of silence.
“…I have conditions.”
“Yes. Anything you say.”
“Don't try to win my favor needlessly. Don't come too close. And don't kill dream demons without warning like you did earlier. If these conditions aren't met, I'll escape by any means necessary, no matter what.”
What would happen if I killed myself in a dream?
I'd only find out by trying, and it was worth attempting just because it was an unfamiliar way to die.
Go Yo-ri gave a somewhat forlorn smile.
“Understood, Guild Leader. I'll do my best. But…….”
“But?”
“Hmm. It's nothing. This is a dangerous place, so we need to get out quickly.”
Go Yo-ri turned her back. Tap. The crisp sound of her loafer heels echoed through the concourse.
“Please follow me. I'll show you the nightmares.”
4
The moment we exited Busan Station, a void landscape unfolded before us.
This might be a good time to remind everyone of the terror of the Void.
In our reality—before the apocalypse arrived—'space-time' was always orderly. Look left, and you'd see left; step right, and you'd go right.
The Void is different.
There, conventional space-time and physical laws mean nothing.
Especially in the depths of the Great Void.
“……!”
The instant my foot touched outside Busan Station, my mind grew hazy.
Far off, about 200 meters away, stood a yellow traffic light. It grated on my nerves, and in that very moment, the traffic light was right in front of my nose.
Blink blink blink—
The yellow light flashed furiously before my eyes. Close my eyelids for a second and reopen them, and the traffic light had vanished without a trace.
“…….”
Waaah waaah waaah!
Children's cries echoed from somewhere. Turn my head, and it was just a grassy field. Every time the wind rustled the grass, it wailed like an infant: waaah, eeeeng.
“There, there.”
Click. An old woman squatted by a flower bed, plucking an azalea bud. Waaah! Red blood spurted out, and the cries erupted. The old woman stroked the azalea petals as if soothing a newborn baby, her fingernails stained crimson with the flower's juice.
“…….”
I steadied my breathing.
Amid the eternal echoes of the traffic light's blinking, the flower-baby's wails, and the old woman's stroking—in the center of this conscious ritual—I focused solely on the straight path ahead.
Go Yo-ri blinked beside me.
“Wow. Impressive. You're truly maintaining your sense of self. How do you do it?”
“…Thanks to my own know-how. More importantly, where are the nightmares?”
“Ah. Right there.”
Go Yo-ri pointed with her finger.
I froze.
My gaze naturally followed, and I couldn't help but hold my breath.
“What… is that……?”
There lay a landscape both familiar and alien.
The familiar part was the architecture first. The National Highway Management Corps headquarters. That landmark of Busan towered like the Tower of Babel.
In the cycle when Busan had devolved into a 'utopia,' I'd watched fireworks from that top terrace with Dang Seo-rin.
“A—ah—a——.”
Even now in this dream, Dang Seo-rin was there.
Except not on the terrace—she was nailed to the spire.
Her wrists and ankles were pierced with huge nails, as if crucified. A true witch trial inflicted on the self-proclaimed witch. Blood dripped from her limbs, yet Dang Seo-rin never stopped singing.
The blood drained from my own limbs.
But the horrific scene didn't end there.
“—Ah—ah—.”
Directly below Dang Seo-rin, another person was nailed in crucifixion.
It was Sim A-ryeon.
Using the singing technique learned from Dang Seo-rin, in Latin song, Sim A-ryeon echoed the refrain after her master.
No expressions on their faces. The dual a cappella woven by witch and saintess vibrated the city's night sky endlessly, the entire universe.
“That… what the hell…….”
“You already know, don't you?”
Go Yo-ri said.
“It's a perpetual motion machine. Miss 'Great Witch' burns her lifespan with every note. It's an ability destined to end someday, but if Miss 'Northern Saintess' joins in, it's a different story.”
“…….”
“Even if Miss Great Witch's lifespan runs out, Miss Northern Saintess can refill it. That essentially creates an eternally inexhaustible dream fuel.”
“…….”
“Miss Great Witch dies with every movement of her lips, revives, dies again, all while singing solely for world peace. That's the nightmare.”
I swung my sword immediately.
The Babel Tower crumbled. Dang Seo-rin and Sim A-ryeon's song was swept away and faded in the tower's collapse.
Perhaps it was my imagination, but it felt like Dang Seo-rin and Sim A-ryeon looked at me and let out a short 'ah' death rattle. Even that rattle was buried in the dust cloud and vanished.
My heart pounded.
Yet the nightmare didn't end.
“…You can't kill the dream, Guild Leader.”
Go Yo-ri said awkwardly.
“As I told you, the nightmares here are mere manifestations of your fears. You're wise, so surely you've imagined it once or twice: What if those two fell simultaneously and their powers intertwined? Perhaps an eternally peaceful utopia could be built—that kind of thought.”
“…You have rotten tastes. I'd never choose that option.”
“Yes. And this place could be called the landfill of possibilities you didn't choose.”
“…….”
“Worlds after bad endings. Or the ends of parallel worlds. Or fragments of possible worlds. Or simply nightmares. Evil tastes.”
Tap. Go Yo-ri took a step.
The surrounding landscape changed instantly.
Sejong City had become a vast white sand desert, and in its center, Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul sat facing each other.
Even from an impossibly distant separation, their conversation rang crystal clear.
“…But Teacher sometimes brings up random analogies like Records of the Grand Historian or Book of Mountains and Seas. Shouldn't we implant knowledge about those for 'Teacher' too?”
“Denial. Better to pursue a perfect brother than the brother as he is.”
“Uwaaa…. Ha-yul, you and I seem to have matching hobbies, but we really don't.”
“Agree. Can't understand why he's fixated on outdated trends like realism.”
“What're you saying, doll otaku?”
Chatter chatter.
The two babbled on. It should have been heartwarming, but my mouth went dry instead.
Creak—
Something stood between Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul. 'Me.'
A doll resembling the Undertaker—or rather, the Undertaker's corpse—hunched between them.
“Hmm—then skip Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Mountains and Seas, just input Three Kingdoms knowledge. Omit too much, and it won't feel like Teacher at all!”
“Agree.”
Creak. Creak.
Cheon Yo-hwa was inputting data into my corpse. Just like turning a zombie into an AI judge.
And the limbs and every muscle of the created 'Undertaker' were connected by Lee Ha-yul's puppet strings.
The 'Undertaker' opened its mouth.
-You girls…. What do you think humans are? I've told you over and over. Yo-hwa, you need to look at humans a bit more warmly.
“Wow! Just like Teacher!”
-And Ha-yul. I told you not to play doll games with living people. No, not with dead ones either.
“Satisfaction.”
The two were delighted.
In a world turned white desert, only they perpetuated their puppet show forever.
The scene looked so distant.
“That's one of the bad endings too.”
Whisper. Go Yo-ri murmured beside me.
“With the Infinite liberated, covering the world in Void, but a small oasis granted only to Miss Cheon Yo-hwa and the Puppeteer.”
“…….”
“Oh, and whatever you do, don't approach them? They look normal, but Miss Cheon Yo-hwa and the Puppeteer there have fallen to an extreme degree. Monstrosities that could destroy the world alone……. Guild Leader?”
I ignored Go Yo-ri's words.
Crunch. My footprint sank into the sand desert.
Just one step, and Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul's gazes locked onto me instantly.
“…….”
“…….”
Stare. Gaze.
My disciples looked at me. I approached them slowly, but never sluggishly.
During that time, Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul became utterly expressionless, as if they'd never bantered amiably.
I stood before the two.
And hugged them.
As tightly as possible. As preciously as possible, without breaking them.
“Yo-hwa.”
“…….”
“Ha-yul.”
“…….”
“You can't stay here. Kids. Let's go home. Home…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Swoosh—
The outlines of Yo-hwa and Ha-yul in my arms crumbled. White sand, turned to sandstorm, scattered from my embrace.
The desert itself vanished in the wind. I sat in the middle of cracked asphalt road.
“Amazing…….”
Go Yo-ri muttered.
“Really, how do you maintain your ego so steadfastly? Here, you can indulge your desires as you wish. No, you can't help but indulge.”
“…Nothing amazing about it. Even I take vacations sometimes, letting everything go.”
“But that vacation is just another means to return to reality, isn't it? Why, why won't you let yourself go completely? Just once. No one could attack you if you did.”
If I could answer that it was because my mind as an existence was that strong—
Would that have made me feel a bit better?
But that wasn't the right answer.
To grow strong as a person, one's own reasons were always insufficient; the existence of others was necessary.
The reason I could endure strongly.
“—Ah.”
Paradoxically, it was because there were always 'others who collapsed before me.'
“Big trouble, Guild Leader. That 'ending' is truly dangerous.”
“…….”
“One of the two most perilous beings even in this apocalyptic world. I recommend fleeing quickly. Unlike Miss Cheon Yo-hwa or the Puppeteer, handling the funeral there won't be easy.”
Even before Go Yo-ri's warning, I'd sensed a chilling presence.
'Something' was approaching us.
My scalp prickled. The nape of my neck, which always detected threats before my senses, bristled fiercely.
I enhanced my senses with aura. Across the asphalt forest of collapsed buildings, it walked toward me.
“Ha.”
Confirming the opponent's form, I couldn't suppress a hollow laugh.
Of course.
If this was my nightmare, the unconscious of humanity, a gathering place of 'the worst bad endings' as Go Yo-ri said, then naturally, even that old bastard had to appear.
“That damn geezer who's never been any help in my real life…….”
Emmett Schopenhauer.
My old comrade-in-arms.
Awakener. Alias, Sword Saint.
Fallen One. Alias, Sword Ghost.
The swordsman born with the Heavenly Martial Body, the supreme martial genius on earth, emanated an aura 'utterly incomparable to when he existed in reality,' approaching me.