Chapter 248
Chapter 248
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 248
Chapter Title: The Heart of the World Tree
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Trees resemble human bloodlines.
The roots that the victim had spread throughout Busan, and indeed the entire surface world, were just like veins.
Starting from "this thing" that clumsily mimicked Sim A-ryeon's appearance, the blood vessels sprawled out like a spiderweb.
Thus, in this world that had shrunk endlessly, it wouldn't be wrong to call the being before my eyes the "heart of the world tree."
"Ah."
From behind, O Dok-seo let out a short breath. It was admiration, but also lamentation.
How much difference in resolution was there between the world-ending apocalypse she'd only ever encountered through "text" and the one now right in front of her?
"...It's burning. The whole world."
It was exactly as O Dok-seo murmured.
I spread my aura while embracing the victim. The ink-black aura departed from Babel Tower and in an instant quietly spread across all of Busan—the narrowest alleys, the shantytowns, and beyond the final defense line.
-Ah.
The injured whose limbs had turned into vines by the victim lost their balance here and there and collapsed.
The plant humans whose entire bodies had transformed into flowering trees blackened and burned gray without a single exception.
The petals scattered as flames.
Dang Seo-rin's violet wisteria, which had bloomed alone at Haeundae, also burned, scattering purple.
There was no pain.
"......"
No matter how exalted the realm of my aura, conjuring such a spectacular sea of fire at the tail end of a war was difficult.
Yes. If the fallen one before me had rejected my aura even slightly, it would have been utterly impossible.
But the victim ultimately did not resist.
Even though it had seized the perfect opportunity to take over the city one step ahead of the "monster wave" and dye it in its own colors, the victim simply quietly accepted my aura and burned.
The being that had postponed the world's end for 61 hours, 11 minutes, and 32 seconds had once again eliminated the crisis of apocalypse by its own hand.
Swish swish swish-.
As all the plant humans turned to ash along with the final defense line, the "heart of the world tree" also crumbled into a pile of cinders in an instant.
Even Sim A-ryeon's silhouette scattered as ash beyond the terrace.
Silence flowed for a moment.
"Hmm."
The first to break the silence was No Do-ha.
A glance. Her eyes looked down at the monster wave now freely charging toward Babel Tower now that the final defense line had collapsed.
"And now, what do you plan to do...?"
"The route diverges."
I stood from my seat. I didn't brush off the ash on my face and clothes.
"If you want to resist further here and extend humanity's survival by even one second, you must evacuate to Inunaki Tunnel and rendezvous with Seo-gyu. If it goes that far, the anomalies sealed in SG Net will all break free at once."
"Oh my."
"Monster wave plus SG Net escapees joining in—a total madhouse party. Inunaki Tunnel is specialized for holding out, too. If you put your mind to it, you could last over 100 days."
"Ah... I see. I was wondering why you'd choose some seaside tunnel as a base, but you selected a narrow-entrance hideout precisely anticipating a situation like this...?"
"Correct."
No Do-ha adjusted her monocle.
"However, since this regression's goal is to seize the nape of the neck of the outer god linked to 'black curtain syndrome'.... There's no particular meaning in keeping the SG Net operator alive until the end, is there...?"
"Yes."
"I see...."
No Do-ha picked up the radio.
On the operations table before her, there had originally been 31 radios prepared. Thirty of them were smashed.
Strangely, the last one had never been used even once during the battle. No Do-ha lifted the final radio and spoke.
"Now. Take the shot...."
Bang!
From beyond the radio came static, a grating noise, and then a gunshot.
Everyone remaining on the terrace widened their eyes and stared at No Do-ha. No Do-ha let out a soft "Heh" laugh.
"What. No need to thank me. I figured we've gotten somewhat attached through all this, so I handled it myself...."
Before we could even grasp the meaning, kwarrrrng!
A massive explosion roared from the sea off Busan. It was the direction of the shared entrance to Inunaki Tunnel-Dream Casino-Cafe Hideout.
Suddenly, a blizzard swirled, and the sea surface froze solid in an instant. Breaking through the ice sheet poured forth anomalies of all sorts of bizarre forms.
The collapse of SG Net, the cyber prison.
In other words, Seo-gyu's death.
"...Y-you!"
O Dok-seo belatedly came to her senses and grabbed No Do-ha's collar.
"You killed Uncle Seo-gyu? Using a National Highway Management Corps member? H-how could you! He's a comrade!"
"We weren't that close...."
"What does that matter! We were all cooperating together, with him, to stop humanity's extinction! This is insane! Are you stupid? How could you betray—"
Bang!
O Dok-seo couldn't continue. She released No Do-ha's collar and slid down.
Bang!
No Do-ha pulled the trigger once more. A mercy kill. Sometime during, a pistol had appeared in the management chief's hand.
It was a familiar gun.
"Hmm. Even calling it an outer god's shaman or whatever, it seems it can't resist the curio that shoved bullets into its master's gut. So this is the matchup you mentioned...."
Walther PPK pistol. Chekhov's gun.
The weapon deliberately used to subjugate [Operator of All Phenomena Playground].
After the subjugation battle, it had been isolated in the National Highway Management Corps headquarters' underground prison.
"As expected. I hypothesized that the攻略 method for the outer god would naturally become the攻略 method for its shaman. Looks like I chose correctly...."
"No Do-ha Management Chief."
"Heh."
No Do-ha laughed long.
Her head tilted.
"Wait for me in hell...."
Bang!
The doctor's gown shook. No Do-ha collapsed with a thud. The pistol that had spat its final bullet from her grip rolled limply away.
"Waa."
"......"
"Seriously, wow. Amazing, Teacher."
Now, the only survivors left on the terrace were Cheon Yo-hwa and me.
In just a few more minutes, it would be fine to call us "the survivors left in the world."
The world was rapidly collapsing under the anomalies pouring from both the final defense line and Inunaki Tunnel.
From Babel Tower's terrace, Cheon Yo-hwa looked down at the ground. And she stuck out her tongue.
"I ran simulations in [Reincarnation Project] dozens of times, but real 3D feels and impacts are totally different. You've repeated this hundreds of times, Teacher?"
"It's different every time. When the monster wave causes the world-ending, it's generally like this."
"Th-that.... Is your mental okay?"
"I told you."
I covered No Do-ha's corpse with the doctor's gown and O Dok-seo's with Sim A-ryeon's saintess robes.
After a brief moment of silent prayer, I turned my head.
"It's generally like this."
"......"
"Ah—" Cheon Yo-hwa sighed.
"...In other regressions, whenever I died, you held funerals like this for me, huh."
"Yo-hwa, you're a guild leader who wanders the front lines so often. You have such a wildly free spirit that this teacher worries a lot."
"If I'd known, I'd have stayed cooped up obediently at Baekhwa Girls' High School instead of wandering around to relieve stress—too late to regret it now, and the me in the next regression won't remember anyway, right?"
"Mm."
"Even if you pass on my words, she won't get it.... Ah. Wait. Déjà vu or something. Gasp! Come to think of it, didn't you once say this was a dying message from my past self to pass on?"
"You remember well."
"I was such an idiot...?"
Cheon Yo-hwa clutched her head and groaned.
It was Cheon Yo-hwa's way of comforting someone.
Pat.
I patted Cheon Yo-hwa's cheek.
Soot stained my palm. This child, too, had been wandering the battlefield for over two days and was battered.
"See you next time, Yo-hwa."
"......"
"Always grateful."
"Me too, Teacher."
Cheon Yo-hwa placed her palm over the back of my hand. And with a smile, she leaned her cheek into it.
"Always.... Well, not always, but thank you for coming to find me even knowing we'd part like this. Take care of the next me, too."
"If you could just drop the habit of kicking the guards every time we meet in the first hallway. Then maybe I'll go easy."
"Ahaha.... Ah. I miss it already."
Cheon Yo-hwa closed her eyes.
"Already...."
When she opened them again.
Cheon Yo-hwa's red pupils had turned into Mugeon's abyss-like gaze, gleaming with gloomy malice.
"Crazy."
The first words from Mugeon upon opening his eyes. He shook off my hand and muttered crazily, "Crazy, crazy, crazy—"
"Is it really crazy? For a human, how could a human—. Even with regression powers, how."
"Prepare. The outer god's tentacles will reach soon."
"Which outer god?"
Mugeon laughed hollowly.
"In this tiny world right now, three outer gods have descended! Ah, including me makes four! Add the true black curtain of 'black curtain syndrome,' and that's five!"
"......"
"You.... Held out over 60 hours in this hellscape? A mere mortal. Impossible...!"
"If you want to kiss my ass, train your tongue more. It does nothing for an anomaly."
"You're insane...."
Mugeon muttered blankly.
"No. Wait, on second thought, I've secured the [former enemy turned ally] position at least. Plus, they've forcibly imposed human intelligence and form on me. Right.... Yeah! This is actually good! Undertaker coin! Yeah! If I ride the Undertaker coin like a dog from now on, I can survive to the end and claim victory?"
"If that's a complete declaration of surrender, I'll accept anytime. Will you relinquish all your powers?"
"Aaaah.... Aah! Aaaa! Fuck! I don't wanna be human! This short memory, crippled emotions, eternally repeating the same behaviors, thoughts, actions like some drone—why the hell do I have to become flesh?!"
Mugeon bit his own nails.
"...No, wait. Isn't my behavior right now already way too human? Aaaa—. Aa! Undertaker! Undertaker! I hate your existence! The anomaly that turns anomalies into humans! Human-anomaly!"
"Keep the slander moderate."
I looked down at Babel Tower.
The ground was already swarming with anomalies, dyed pitch black and blood red. Some were climbing up Babel Tower's walls.
"And whether you surrender or not, this regression's objective is already achieved."
"What?"
"Now it's truly just the two of us left alive."
I looked at Mugeon.
"Show yourself at last. Black curtain."
"......"
Mugeon's mouth gaped open.
From the open hole flowed a voice half Cheon Yo-hwa's flesh and half mechanical, thus infinitely alien.
"Yes. I cast [NPC Writing] on No Do-ha Management Chief. While you were away."
Static. Crackle.
As if his vocal cords were resonating with a radio, noise mixed from Mugeon's throat.
At the same time, from the 30 smashed radios on No Do-ha's table and the one final one she'd used, "Mugeon's" voice emanated.
-Undertaker, I timed it for the moment you returned and executed Sim A-ryeon.
-Once the city burns, you'll truly be perfectly exhausted in every sense.
"Right. Even No Do-ha Management Chief, with zero combat power, pulling the trigger—too drained to stop it instantly."
-Is that all? In truth, Seo-gyu was already brainwashed under my control. The gunshot over the radio wasn't from a corps member—it was from Seo-gyu's own hand.
"In short, SG Net's sealed prison was long since under my control and manipulation."
-Why eliminate the saintess first? Why kill Yoo Ji-won? Obviously to eliminate any risk of me, Cheon Yo-hwa, being surveilled.
"Those two were annoying."
-Right! Annoying!
"The saintess's eyes relay all observed data to the Undertaker. The 'fog of war' that should blanket this world clears on its own. Can't manipulate causality without the fog. Yoo Ji-won same. Who, when, where, with whom—her 'minimap' reveals it all. Annoying. Can't create causality. Can't manipulate. Can't distort. Can't steal."
-Create?
-Manipulate?
-Distort?
The radios crackled.
-What are you talking about?
-When did we manipulate?
-No distortion. Seo-gyu was brainwashed by [NPC Writing] and pulled the trigger himself. That's what really happened in the world.
-Right! Undertaker can never discern true causality from false!
"No."
Mugeon muttered expressionlessly.
"No no no no no. Cheon Yo-hwa didn't use abilities on No Do-ha or Seo-gyu. I definitely 'collected' this data. It's my data. You can't arbitrarily edit my data."
-……….
-……….
"The white birch trunk pattern on the hospital gown, red blood splattered on the patient bed like peony marks, school flower garden torn to shreds...."
I opened my mouth.
"Mugeon."
Mugeon whipped around to face me.
The "human-like" troubled expression from moments ago had vanished.
Endlessly inorganic pupils.
Within the pupils, the irises ceaselessly colored red, white, black, blue, yellow.
"For this regression only, I'll restore some of your powers."
"......"
"I'll return control of the dream demons. Smash the hourglass."
Clang!
The moment my words ended, Mugeon drew the hourglass from his waist and crushed it barehanded. It was the glass vial sealing the doppelganger.
"Color" spread from Cheon Yo-hwa.
The sky and ground, once dyed red, were instantly overpainted.
It wasn't a single color.
The color ceaselessly shifted, allowing not even a second's interval. Kaleidoscopic.
Earth's blue from space, dogtail grass green, ant brown, smartwatch screen black when charging, the red flush on a newborn's milky flesh, and, and.
Cheon Yo-hwa's body had already vanished.
-Ah.
-Ah?
-Ah.
-Ah.
The radios wailed with static. Soon the sound vanished. On the blackened background, the letter "Ah" appeared in yellow.
That yellow too quickly melted into black and faded. "Ah" "Ah" "Ah?" "Ah." Letters serially colored and dissolved.
-Aha.
Soon, crimson letters etched into the sky.
-Found you.
At that moment.
The sky tore open.