Chapter 254
Chapter 254
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 254
Chapter Title: The Outcast God Party
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8
“…I’ll admit it. The black curtain’s trap is more cunning than I thought.”
Mu-geon said irritably.
The way she nervously twirled her ponytail with her fingers even mimicked Cheon Yo-hwa’s habit perfectly.
I had to maintain an objective perspective.
Setting aside the facts that she called me “senior” instead of “teacher,” that her uniform colors were reversed, and that she used informal speech instead of polite language—there was now hardly any way to distinguish her from Cheon Yo-hwa.
“…To deceive the enemy, first deceive yourself, is that the tactic?”
“Huh? What’re you talking about?”
“Nothing.”
“Hmm. Anyway, you noticed it too, right, senior? No matter how hard we smash through these simulation universes, it’s pointless in this state.”
I nodded.
“I agree. Even if we destroy the simulation lab again, we’d just climb to an even ‘higher’ simulation lab.”
“Yeah. …What a tricky bastard. Annoying.”
Cheon Yo-hwa—no, Mu-geon—let out a sigh.
“Honestly, I was wondering why it let itself get hacked so easily. Now I get it.”
“It doesn’t matter if it gets hacked anyway.”
“Yeah. That’s the strategy.”
Even if all the simulation universes were destroyed, it wouldn’t be a problem.
In the end, as long as the proposition “this is all just a simulation” held true at the very last moment, the black curtain would claim final victory.
From lower simulation layers to higher ones. To even higher ones. An eternal hell of ascent that never ends.
“…….”
“…….”
A brief silence settled between us.
It felt like being trapped in a maze with no exit.
“…Seriously, what’s with this cowardice? At least that All Phenomena Frolic guy gave O Dok-seo a dagger and made her stab at you whenever she got the chance! This one’s just planning to endure to the very end and land the finishing blow!”
“Well. It looks a bit different to me.”
“Huh? Different how?”
I turned to look behind me.
A universe model lay in ruins, shattered beyond repair.
“There’s something I want to test out. Mu-geon. The lab just now was distorted by the [filter] you applied, right?”
“Huh? Yeah, that’s right.”
“Is it possible to apply the filter to something other than the lab?”
“Of course it is, but….”
Mu-geon tilted her head.
“You have a specific look in mind? For reference, the lab’s the most convenient. Researchers basically hate being meddled with or meddling themselves, so that image lets you and me move around pretty freely as those kinds of NPCs.”
“That’s fine. I only plan to tweak it a little. Oh, and there’s no need for us to split up anymore, so let’s move together.”
“Ah. Okay.”
I explained the [filter] I wanted to Mu-geon.
Then we headed straight into the corridor.
Mu-geon seemed to have lost all motivation to shape this divine realm into a “plausible lab” anymore, so the outside scenery was as bleak and desolate as when we’d first seen it.
However, the endless row of labs along the corridor now had “doors” attached. That was a new addition.
Nameplates hung beside each door.
[No. 108: O Dok-seo]
[No. 109: Dang Seo-rin]
[No. 110: Sim A-ryeon]
[No. 111: Undertaker]
.
.
.
This was the filter I’d requested.
For example, inside the lab marked [No. 110: Sim A-ryeon], simulations centered on Sim A-ryeon were running. In [No. 111: Undertaker], they’d be experimenting on me.
“So I set it up just like you asked, senior, but what’s the point of this?”
“Quit talking and follow me.”
“Ugh— You’re so cold only to me!”
I’d lived nearly 100 days in the lower lab. I remembered exactly which simulations ran in which labs.
It didn’t take long to reach my destination.
Mu-geon, who’d been tagging along chattering nonstop (pointless small talk not worth describing), tilted her head.
“Huh? Here? An unexpected lab.”
[No. 1537: Sword Marquis]
That’s right.
The lab even had a mad scientist obsessed with running simulations focused on the Sword Marquis.
I kicked the door open.
“Huh? W-Who are you?”
“You don’t need to know.”
The researcher spun around in surprise and split into halves right there. Mu-geon whistled from behind.
“Guess it doesn’t matter if they look like allies—if it senses monster, it’s done for.”
“Shut up.”
I approached the simulation device the researcher had been operating and fiddled with the holograms. I’d learned how to use them in the lower lab long ago.
“In the lower lab, I didn’t pay much attention to the specific contents of the simulations. They were fake worlds anyway, and watching alien gods toy with and mock reality just made me sick.”
“What? But?”
“Now it seems not only the proposition [this world is all a simulation] matters—the contents of the simulations they’re running here are important too.”
“……?”
Flick.
I manipulated the simulation device. Countless options popped up as holograms.
[Scenario: Undertaker’s Mental Breakdown]
[Scenario: Undertaker’s Turn Adjustment]
[Scenario: Saintess’s Moral Decay]
[Scenario: Yoo Ji-won Murder]
[Scenario: Ganges Sand Cataclysm]
[Scenario: City Devourer Invasion]
These were probably the kinds of scenarios the “black curtain” favored.
But I ignored them all.
Without any extra scenarios, without editors, I started a simulation in so-called vanilla mode.
Soon, the universe simulation began from the “Sword Marquis’s” perspective.
“Huh?”
Cheon Yo-hwa, who’d been watching smugly as if to say she’d see what brilliant discovery I’d make, blinked.
“…Wait. What is this?”
She pressed close beside me to peer into the simulation.
Even with her Outcast God powers partially restored, what unfolded was utterly shocking.
“Earth… it’s Earth, but not. There are landforms everywhere that aren’t recorded in my Akashic Records. Where’s this? It’s not real Earth, right?”
I nodded curtly.
“This is the martial world.”
“Martial world? That alternate-history fantasy space from wuxia novels?”
“…You sure know how to toss out words that’d shock All Phenomena Frolic or O Dok-seo. Anyway, yeah, it’s that fictional space. First time seeing the real thing myself too.”
No, this too was just an illusory simulation conjured by the black curtain.
In the hologram, the “Sword Marquis” was purified. Decades flew by in fast-forward: entering Mount Hua Sect, rigorous training, becoming sect leader.
Each time, scenario options bubbled up in one corner of the hologram.
[Scenario: Return of the Heavenly Demon]
[Scenario: Blood Cult Stirring]
[Scenario: Great War of Righteous and Evil]
[Scenario: Yao Demon Emergence]
These scenario options popped up mostly in “edges of the map” the Sword Marquis hadn’t perceived.
Places he hadn’t visited personally birthed demonic cult conspiracies, grew evil faction forces, spawned variables to topple the Murim Alliance.
‘As expected. To manipulate causality, the black curtain needs as many spaces as possible that the subjects haven’t perceived.’
The classic fog of war.
Just as unexplored map areas in games are shrouded in darkness or fog, the martial world had “places the Sword Marquis didn’t know about” scattered everywhere.
Frankly, it was a concept all too familiar to us. Replace “places the Sword Marquis didn’t know” with “places humanity didn’t know,” and it was simply the void.
Our world was full of voids too.
‘That’s why the black curtain freaked out when I tried installing beacons beyond the Ural and Himalaya Mountains—to keep the void as vast as possible.’
Why?
If it yielded that much ground to me, the space to craft those [scenario options]—or rather, [causality manipulations]—would shrink dramatically.
In the end, like any monster, the Outcast God was dead serious about defending its territory.
“This is… basically just a paper world.”
Mu-geon muttered beside me.
“Look closely—the spaces the Sword Marquis hasn’t perceived are all blanketed in darkness. The moment he perceives them, that’s when the backgrounds generate and NPCs spawn.”
A model garden of the Sword Marquis, by the Sword Marquis, for the Sword Marquis. That was the true nature of the simulation universe before us.
But soon the simulation model shifted.
The Sword Marquis clashed with the Heavenly Demon in a life-or-death duel, suffering grievous wounds. Having drawn on his innate true energy, his dantian shattered too.
Immediately after, a hologram of the “modern Earth” we knew rose parallel to the “martial world.”
“…The Sword Marquis crashed on Ulleungdo.”
“Aftereffects of his fierce battle with the Heavenly Demon left his intelligence and memory unstable.”
“Oh my god. So that’s why the Sword Marquis was like that?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“This is how the black curtain defined the Sword Marquis.”
“……!”
“No one knows if the Sword Marquis really was Mount Hua Sect’s leader. But just now, the black curtain defined him through simulation as [a martial artist returned from the martial world]. And….”
Time acceleration.
Crops flourished abundantly wherever the Sword Marquis tread fields. At the same time, in the “martial world”—geographically identical to “modern Earth”—vegetation withered into deserts.
“As you see, when the Sword Marquis grows crops, the martial world deserts in compensation.”
“Ah.”
“One world grows prosperous while the other turns barren. That’s how the black curtain defined the Sword Marquis’s [plant cultivation] awakening ability.”
I looked at Mu-geon.
“Rings a bell, doesn’t it?”
“…Just like it degraded your [regression] ability to mere simulation data. The black curtain’s twisting all the awakeners’ abilities in its own way.”
“Exactly.”
I glanced around the lab.
“I thought this place was a factory built solely to kill me. But that’s not all. It’s an lab and prison defining not just me, but all awakeners on Earth—and even monsters like you.”
“…….”
“Whether regression, plant cultivation, the Saintess’s telepathy, Dang Seo-rin’s song enchantment—probably all turned into ‘simulation data’ with similar tricks. Even your Akashic Records, Mu-geon.”
That’s why calling the black curtain a vile camper or finisher was off-base.
From start to finish, it focused solely on subjugating the world beneath its knee.
Look—even now, every human and monster was being reduced to simulation data.
“…How do we win?”
After a long silence, Mu-geon mumbled.
Was it my imagination? She seemed a bit cowed by the black curtain.
“Destroying it just shifts the lab lower to higher, and leaving it be means no matter how we struggle, we end up in the ‘black curtain’s calculated simulation.’ Checkmate, right?”
“Hm.”
“W-We have no choice but to make a baby with you, senior, and create a totally new variable…!”
“No. Wait.”
I gripped Mu-geon’s shoulder as she started to spiral.
“You saw it, so you know—the black curtain isn’t just my enemy. Not humanity’s either. It’s also the fiercest rival to you Outcast Gods.”
“So?”
“Wu-Yue same boat. The enemy of my enemy is my friend—an eternal truth about to prove itself again, don’t you think?”
Blink.
“Eek. Senior, no way…?”
9
One turn passed.
The simulation universe lab now had one new family member besides me, Mu-geon, and the slime-Fairy Lord.
Of course, “family member” might not fit. The new recruit had no mouth for eating.
Specifically, the newbie looked exactly like a “laptop.”
“Introduce yourselves. Mu-geon, this is All Phenomena Frolic.”
“…….”
“And All Phenomena Frolic, this is Mu-geon. First time facing each other sealed in human and laptop forms, right?”
[……. ]
“I explained already, but the Outcast God we have to take down this time is no pushover. Even as strangers, let’s cooperate to overcome the crisis. Now. Shake hands.”
Beep beep.
Text auto-displayed on the laptop screen clutched to my chest.
[MSYH - Question. May I shut down?]
“No.”
[MSYH - Very harsh curse.]
Outcast God party, complete!