Chapter 247
Chapter 247
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 247
Chapter Title: Humanity's Dream Ends
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7
Humanity's dream was over.
“…….”
As I said, the more intensely someone had despised Sim A-ryeon’s act as the [Collector of All Anomalies], the faster and more completely their body transformed into trees and flowers.
The [Collector of All Anomalies] had advertised to the world that she was behind nearly every incident unfolding across it.
When a certain anomaly would appear. How much peril people would face.
Using a regressor’s knowledge, I had foreseen the future. In my stead, the [Collector of All Anomalies] had fulfilled the role of prophet.
All while being treated by the public as the mastermind who had meticulously plotted the world’s destruction from the shadows.
Naturally, the more someone raged at “the culprit who ruined the world like this,” the more they loved humanity, the less they resigned themselves even after civilization collapsed, and the stronger their hope that the world could still change—the deeper their hatred for the [Collector of All Anomalies] that Sim A-ryeon had portrayed.
Dang Seo-rin loved humanity.
Dang Seo-rin was not a member of the Regression Alliance, so she knew nothing of the constellations’ true identities.
Dang Seo-rin hated the being she was rightfully supposed to despise.
That was why, when [Hundred Blossoms in Full Bloom] unfurled across all of Busan—Dang Seo-rin transformed into a single flowering tree in less than 0.1 seconds.
Violets bloomed before my eyes.
“…Dang Seo-rin.”
The violets swayed.
Deep purple petals, violets bordering on black, hung from the branches like wistaria, their long necks drooping.
Shwaaah—.
The scent of the sea breeze shook the flowers.
Was it a response to my call? Lilac fragrance wafted thickly from the purple petals.
Violets were originally ground flowers, but here they had become a tree. In the exact pose where she had leaned against me, entrusting me with her weight.
Letting go of Dang Seo-rin’s fingers, now turned to vines, I brought my lips to the violets.
I quietly kissed the petals.
“…You just had a bad dream for a bit. And it won’t last that long. See you tomorrow.”
“…….”
Across from the wistaria tree, O Dok-seo was fidgeting as she watched us.
Unlike the others, no part of O Dok-seo’s body had turned to flowers.
“Mister….”
“Yeah. Let’s go together.”
“…Okay.”
Leaving the wistaria violets blooming on the sandy beach of humanity’s last city behind, we headed for Babel Tower.
The city had become an entire field of flowers.
-Waaahhh.
In a city where, big and small, people had turned into “plant-humans,” the wail of a newborn baby echoed purely as a human voice.
Beyond that, there was only chaotic noise.
“Wh-what the hell! Why the wounds—.”
“Fuck, what the hell is that saintess bitch doing!”
“No! D-don’t rip it off! That’s my arm! It’s not a tree! It’s my armmm!”
That was right.
No one could become noble without anyone dying or getting hurt. They could sing of hope.
But when they themselves started getting hurt, only a tiny few could retain their dignity.
In the end, the “humanity’s final defensive line” was not the geological territory still bearing the old name of “Busan.”
It was the strategy I had pieced together like a puzzle through endless attempts as a regressor, the social infrastructure built through the Regression Alliance, and the illusion of a [world where no one gets hurt] embodied by Sim A-ryeon.
That was humanity’s final defensive line.
“…….”
The cityscape flashed by rapidly in my running field of vision.
O Dok-seo’s eyes, watching the fall of the last bastion in real time, wavered suspiciously.
“Sorry.”
“Huh? Uh, y-yeah? Sorry about what?”
“This is still my limit.”
“…….”
O Dok-seo pressed her lips together.
The final defensive line, which had held for 61 hours, 11 minutes, and 32 seconds, had been sweet—and thus, the sudden blast of emptiness when the dream shattered felt all the colder.
-This is F11! Chkkk, this is F11! Too many corpses! Chkkk, impossible to maintain the line! Requesting support! Support, chkkk!
-Ahahaha hahaha ha ha ha ha.
-D02 has no issues. Ah! The world is so bright. The red sunlight is sweet like tomato fresh fruit juice….
Crack! I crushed the radio.
The radios, which had barely been pulling together the sprawling lines, could no longer withstand the void poison and were contaminated.
By now, the communications officers on each line were probably receiving orders like “reinforcements will arrive soon, hold your position,” commands that didn’t exist.
Carrying O Dok-seo on my back, I ascended Babel Tower. Then, arriving at the terrace, I set her down.
“Whee, welcome….”
No Do-ha greeted us first.
No Do-ha was also maintaining a relatively intact body. However, tiny coreopsis buds had formed on both her cheeks.
Like tear tracks. From under her eyes to her jawline.
“I see you again, Awakener Undertaker. Honestly, when I saw the monster wave, I couldn’t understand how the hell you planned to fight those damn things, but you’ve reached the level of spouting regressor bullshit after all….”
“…….”
“So, is this the end…?”
I looked around.
No Do-ha. O Dok-seo. Cheon Yo-hwa. Yoo Ji-won.
And Sim A-ryeon, still silently offering prayers.
“Where’s Ha-yul?”
“Ah. No word since she radioed that she’d try to hold something back somehow. Thinking about it, I’m not even sure that was really that puppeteer kid’s voice….”
“Ms. Lee Ha-yul is presumed dead.”
Yoo Ji-won said.
“Her chess piece fell on the minimap. Your Excellency. All lines are collapsing simultaneously already.”
“Ahaha.”
Cheon Yo-hwa laughed awkwardly.
“Normally, I should’ve died on the line with my kids too—but since Teacher begged me to survive no matter what, yep. I bolted here while they held out!”
“Thanks.”
I nodded.
“And there’s an anomaly among us.”
“Huh?”
I swung my sword at Yoo Ji-won, who tilted her head. Yoo Ji-won’s body split cleanly in two.
The others around us widened their eyes.
“M-Mister? Even if Ji-won unnie’s a crazy psychopath who jumps into power struggles whenever she gets the chance, you can’t just kill her suddenly…!”
“Yoo Ji-won is already dead. Dok-seo.”
I sheathed my sword.
“Forgot? We decided to abandon the lines precisely because the Saintess and Yoo Ji-won had died.”
“Ah…?”
“The corpse collapsed here isn’t Yoo Ji-won.”
O Dok-seo and the others looked down at the floor.
On the terrace, Yoo Ji-won’s bisected corpse had vanished without a trace.
In its place lay only the scattered remains of an anomaly with a mouse head and raccoon body.
As O Dok-seo gaped in shock, I muttered.
“This place has already started getting corrupted by void poison too.”
“…….”
“Highway Chief No Do-ha. To answer your earlier question—yes. Correct. This is our end.”
I approached Sim A-ryeon.
Sim A-ryeon was dressed in saintess robes, her face veiled thicker than muslin.
Lightly—I lifted the veil.
-…….
There was Sim A-ryeon, or rather.
The face of the Fallen “Victim.”
“…….”
The smile she used to give me was no longer there.
Coreopsis. Baby’s breath. Daisies. Wisteria. Globe amaranth. Daffodils. Azaleas. Primroses. Moonflower. Poppies. Rapeseed flowers.
Flowers and vines of every color formed Sim A-ryeon’s eyebrows, forehead, glabella, nose bridge, eyelids, pupils, cheeks, earlobes, philtrum, lips, and jawline.
Embracing the flower language of every bloom in the world—the stuttering child who had called me “Guild Leader” was here, silently in flower.
……Guild Leader……
I didn’t want to look below her face.
Already, from the center of the terrace where Sim A-ryeon knelt, countless tree branches stretched out, wrapping around Babel Tower. No, extending further across all of Busan.
……A-are you okay?……
Even now, the tree branches kept growing endlessly.
Considering how the “flattened” Earth wasn’t that vast anymore, the Victim’s tree roots would soon blanket the entire world.
I spread my arms and embraced the Victim.
Plop. In my arms, the flowers bowed their heads. A million floral scents wafted intensely.
――Suddenly, a conversation from a past cycle came to mind.
8
“A-ryeon. This is your fate.”
Blink.
Sim A-ryeon, sketching the “Udumbara” with her sketchbook, peeked her head up.
“Y-Yes? Y-Yeah?”
“This cherry tree. The anomaly flower blooming from that mother and child—that’s the end awaiting you.”
“…….”
The Udumbara’s origin was an old inn in Asan Onyang, South Chungcheong Province.
At the fraying edge of a civilization crumbling even before the world’s end, a mother had starved to death embracing her child.
The Udumbara bloomed in room 202 on the inn’s second floor. Climbing half-collapsed brick walls, branches stretched through the window gaps, a cherry tree hanging down.
From long ago, whenever I came to Onyang to subjugate the Udumbara, I often brought Sim A-ryeon along.
This day was no different.
“A-ryeon, your awakening ability and the Udumbara belong to the same lineage. They heal people and delay death.”
“…….”
“Plants don’t feel pain. No pain means no wounds. No wounds means even death can be transcended. Denial of pain—that’s your power, A-ryeon.”
Sim A-ryeon’s eyes stared at me roundly. Surprisingly, even emotions felt faint on her face, where the smile had faded from her lips.
I told her many stories.
How to draw “aggro.” Strategies using the constellation [Collector of All Anomalies]. Using demon light scripture to establish the puppet state of Dongbang Singuk. How she’d earn the moniker “Saintess of the North” there and become a living bulwark against the monster wave.
“If you refuse, A-ryeon, I can make it all never happen.”
“…….”
“Really. No need to decide here. If you try it and it doesn’t feel right, just say so anytime.”
“Mm.”
Sim A-ryeon chewed on the round brush tip.
“B-but. If I don’t evolve into that ‘bird that drinks poison,’ eventually, the anomalies swarming from the continent…. M-monster wave? It’ll be hard to stop them, right?”
“Yeah.”
I paused for a moment.
“If a better strategy comes to mind, that changes things—but so far, you’re the only solution this guild leader has found. And it’s just an unstable stopgap.”
“Even so, if you can’t stop it without me, e-everyone dies? The people? All of them?”
“Yeah.”
“Mm…. …Guild Leader. J-just curious, but.”
Sim A-ryeon tilted her head.
“Then, does my will even matter?”
I nodded.
She didn’t agree.
“Why does it matter?”
“Having the power to save the world doesn’t mean you must. A-ryeon.”
“……?”
“I believe every human in this world has the power to destroy it. Each person is a world unto themselves. People think they just live their lives, but actually, they’re sustaining worlds.”
“…….”
I bent my knees.
Matching eye level with Sim A-ryeon, who peered at me over her sketchbook.
“So if someone commits suicide, it’s not just saying their life is worthless. It’s also saying [this world is worthless].”
“…….”
Why did the world suddenly end?
Why did anomalies appear without warning, as if it were natural, exterminating humanity?
I’d pondered this long but found no certain answer.
But if it was an emotional guess.
It was just that more people thought the world was worthless, so it responded by becoming void.
The anomalies might even brag, “We granted humanity’s wish—shouldn’t you be grateful?”
So this was a nightmare, but ultimately the dream humanity itself had wished for, the anomalies would jeer.
“You have the power to decide the world, A-ryeon. The world repeats endlessly, and even if you don’t remember, your actions now, your words now, always come back to reach you.”
“…Wh-what are you talking about?”
Sim A-ryeon looked down at her sketchbook.
Then met my eyes. As if reading something in my pupils, she continued haltingly, carefully.
“But…. Being with you, Guild Leader, feels really comfortable.”
“…….”
“Talking, my heart doesn’t itch. Mm. Even not talking, that stuffy feeling in my heart isn’t there. St-stuttering…. Doesn’t embarrass me. The other people you introduced me to, they’re fun…. Ah! That cafe mocha you treated me to last time, uh, was super tasty! Amazing. How coffee can taste like that, ho-nestly, I don’t get it.”
Sim A-ryeon set down her brush and sketchbook.
Then, with very awkward movements and gestures, she slowly hugged me.
“S-so….”
9
……Don’t cry, Guild Leader……
I lightly held the Victim’s shoulders.
My aura was nearly depleted from battling human corpses and the city’s carcass.
But enough remained to hold the funeral for a certain child who had crossed the outer god’s domain just to smile for me.
Jingle.
A silver bell shook on my wrist.
From my body, dark aura flowed into the Victim’s petals, branches, roots.
And at the same time.
Humanity’s last city burst into flames.