Yujun Activates Super Concentration
Yujun activated Super Concentration.
His mind grew sharper, and with that clarity the world itself changed. A faint nausea came with it, but nothing he couldn't endure. Thanks to his Genius trait, the skill's effect had been amplified 2.7 times over—its flaws shored up, its strengths driven to the limit. With Genius and Super Concentration feeding each other, the world before his eyes was simply not the same.
He could see the grain even in the air, and air was not a living thing. He had reshaped the form of Chaos before, but he had never touched its arrangement. He had always judged that too dangerous.
He meant to make that dangerous attempt now.
A rearrangement of Chaos.
Still under Super Concentration, a faint smile touched Yujun's face. The Genius trait had done more than strengthen the skill. It helped him enormously whenever he controlled his mana, and whenever he drove deeper into Chaos. The arrangement of Chaos began to shift more easily than he had imagined.
The instant it became the pattern he had aimed for, Yujun warped.
Fwaaash—!
This was nothing like the warps he had known. It felt as though he were being swallowed by some vast wormhole. So much time seemed to pass that he wondered whether he was crossing into an entirely different dimension.
Or at least, that was how it felt. Whether that much time had truly gone by, he couldn't tell.
Is it because I'm in Super Concentration?
He could see the universe.
He hadn't been imagining it. He was traveling to another world through an enormous wormhole.
Is this really the universe?
If all of this was real, and not some illusion, then couldn't he return to Earth as well, so long as he used Chaos properly?
It might have been a groundless guess. But when he thought of the boundless potential Chaos held, letting himself hope didn't seem like such a bad thing. Lingering so long inside the wormhole, every stray thought came crowding in. Yujun turned his attention to the scenery around him.
He found something astonishing. The universe had grain, too.
He wasn't sure how to explain it, but to his eyes that grain stood out with perfect clarity. Without thinking, he reached for his sword—only his body wouldn't move. All he could do was look.
"Mmm..."
Enlightenment hovered just out of reach, and the frustration of it gnawed at him.
Fwaaaaash—!
The passage through the wormhole showed no sign of ending. Yujun let his body drift and studied the grains visible across the universe with care.
Thousands of them. Tens of thousands. At a glance they might have numbered in the billions. The universe was that vast. There was grain even inside the wormhole; that alone said everything.
Incredible.
Each grain had a shape of its own. Their sizes varied wildly, and so did their depth. And what did he think, looking at them?
He thought nothing at all.
Yujun simply observed the grains, intently. That alone was enough for him to gain a great deal. It was something too subtle to put into words, but he had reached for enlightenment all the same. No skill or trait had formed, yet he understood grain more deeply than before. He could say with confidence that this, by itself, was a meaningful result.
Then, at a certain moment, the universe vanished from his sight, and a new landscape opened before him.
It was a space like paint of every color stirred together, gaudy and clashing. Stare at it too long and it felt as if your mind might come undone. A bizarre place.
And there was someone else.
Yujun blinked.
Before him stood a being so beautiful his eyes nearly flew open. A familiar form.
"An Illusion Race?"
"Huh? And who're you supposed to be?"
"Who are you?"
"Ain't I one of them Illusion folk you just said?"
"Where is this? Is it Sky Prison?"
"Sky Prison? Now why in the world you lookin' for that here?"
"It's not?"
"Nope. You got the wrong place."
"Why do you talk like that?"
"Well, ain't you a piece of work. Where you from, lookin' down your nose at country folk?"
He couldn't even tell which dialect it was. It sounded like every one of them stirred together. Whether the System's translation was off, or whether it was doing its job so well that this was simply how it came through...
"Then where is this?"
"You mean the region? Way you talk, you don't much seem like you're from this world..."
"I'm not. I'm not from here."
"Then where'd you come from?"
"The Continent. The Tower of Infinity."
"What? The Tower of Infinity?"
"You know it?"
"Course I know it. Ain't that the place that showed up once, way back, and then fell to ruin?"
"Huh? What fell?"
"The Tower of Infinity, that's what. Humans got summoned there, and then them and the other races got wiped out to the last."
"...What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Oh? Well, look at you. A young pup, talkin' filthy! You got any idea how old I am?"
Yujun's expression turned grave.
If that member of the Illusion Race wasn't simply mistaken... then had so much time passed, while he traveled here through the wormhole, that the Tower of Infinity had been destroyed?
It was a horrific thought. Yujun shook his head. Thinking that way was too bleak.
For now, what's certain is that I came to the wrong place.
This didn't seem to be Sky Prison.
"So where is this, exactly?"
"The Illusion Realm."
"The Illusion Realm...?"
He had heard the name mentioned once before. Beyond that, he knew nothing about what kind of place it was.
"This is the Illusion Realm?"
"That's right. You hard of hearin'? Why you makin' me say it twice?"
"...How far is Sky Prison from here? Can't I get there on foot?"
"Get there? Sure you can. Only it's so far it's a problem. Practically one end of the world to the other."
"How long would it take?"
"My, ain't you full of questions. You're the country bumpkin, if you ask me."
"From your point of view, I am an alien."
"You asked how long, didn't you? Even at your fastest, Sky Prison'd take two weeks at the least. And that ain't the end of it. You want to get into Sky Prison, you need the Illusory King's permission."
"...And who is the Illusory King?"
"Who else? The king of the Illusion Realm."
"...There's a king?"
"The king who rules the whole Illusion Realm. Which is to say, the strongest player in it."
"So I just need permission?"
"If you can get that far, sure."
"Doesn't sound hard."
"Human. Ain't you takin' the Illusion Realm a little too lightly?"
"Of course I am. It's my first time."
"It'll be more than you can imagine."
"Thanks for the concern. So—are there only Illusion Race here?"
"In the Illusion Realm? That's right. Other races exist, I s'pose, but most of us are beautiful Illusion folk, same as me."
"...What kind of abilities does the Illusion Race actually use?"
"Askin' that right to an Illusion folk's face. You got any shame, or don't you? Hm?"
Yujun had met a few of the Illusion Race on the Continent, but he had never seen their abilities with his own eyes. He didn't know what they used.
"I'm an alien, remember? A little curiosity's allowed. What's the harm in telling me?"
"Didn't you say you came from the Tower of Infinity? Comin' from a place that's already been destroyed is suspicious enough as it is..."
"If I'm suspicious, shall we start with names? I'm Shin Yujun."
"Vanessa. Not every Illusion folk uses the same ability. We handle powers of the mind better than most, and each of us carries one special ability of our own on top of that. That's all."
"So you can't tell me what that special ability is."
"Why you askin' what's obvious?"
"If I want to reach Sky Prison, which way do I go?"
"Walk long enough and you'll figure it out. It's to the north, so head that way. Course, no matter how strong you are, it'll be rough. You be careful."
"Right. Thanks for explaining it so kindly."
Yujun tossed over a single Legendary-grade item.
"...Why you givin' me this?"
"A thank-you."
"All I did was run my mouth a little, and you're handin' over somethin' this precious?"
"Almost no one tells an outsider that much."
"That so?"
"Anyway, thanks."
"Say, what's that on your shoulder? Cute little thing. Mind if I give it a pet?"
Right then, Harp woke up.
Somehow, the moment anyone mentioned him, he opened his eyes as if he had a sixth sense for it.
"You can ask him yourself."
"Dad, I don't mind!"
"You don't?"
"If a pretty big sister wants to pet me, why would I say no?"
"..."
Harp. That is not a girl.
He wanted to warn the little one to be careful, but the Illusion Race member was already stroking Harp.
"Mmm. All fluffy like this—soft as can be."
"That's enough petting. I'm going."
"All right. If we get the chance to meet again, we'll meet again."
Vanessa waved, wearing a smile that seemed to mean more than it said.
"Sure."
For the time being, he wouldn't be running into her again.
No—into him.
Right now, the most important thing was reaching Sky Prison, where his companions were.
Yujun broke into a run across a grassland with no visible end.
The Illusion Realm was a peculiar place. Beneath a grotesque sky, as if someone had slapped it with paint, a green plain stretched away. It made him feel as though he were dreaming.
For a moment he wondered whether he had fallen under an Illusion Race ability, but no matter how he turned it over, that wasn't it. Equanimity, already absurd in its effects, had grown drastically stronger under the Genius trait. His perception was beyond any comparison with before. If someone powerful enough to plant an illusion in him truly existed, Yujun wouldn't have been able to do a thing about it in the first place.
"Harp."
"Yes?"
"Are you fully awake?"
"Yes! I slept great!"
"Didn't you notice anything different after taking that pill?"
"I got so much stronger!"
"And?"
"Hmm? I'm not sure."
"Did the Breath from that mouth of yours get stronger too?"
"Yes. But that got stronger because of you, Dad. I don't think it has anything to do with the pill."
"Is that so?"
The true effect of the divine beast growth pill was not to change something on the spot. It was to draw a divine beast's potential sharply upward.
"But Dad, why are you suddenly alone?"
"My companions went to a place called Sky Prison. Whether it was a problem with the System or not, my warp didn't work, so I couldn't go."
"That's too mean."
"Tell me about it. It wasn't even my fault, and the heavens have no heart."
Harp believed every shameless word Yujun tossed out without a shred of doubt.
"Then are we going to meet that pretty big sister?"
"...Pretty big sister? Who's that?"
"Ummm."
Harp groaned over it for a while, then spoke.
"Oh! Your wife!"
"...Her name is Manuela."
"I didn't know."
"..."
Thanks to Harp, Yujun realized just how close Manuela's name sat to the word for wife. When Harp had taken her name for my wife, wasn't it because that was how it sounded whenever Yujun called her?
I'll have to watch my pronunciation.
His sprint was on a level no one else could match. Before long, the edge of the grassland drew near.
Feels like riding a jet.
He had never actually ridden one, of course. He was only guessing it might be something like that.
Once he left the grassland, a broad highway opened before him. The Illusion Realm seemed to have kingdoms, or perhaps empires. From a distance that would take about an hour at his speed, he sensed tens of thousands of presences.
He looked up.
A sky mixed with purple, blue, red, brown, and yellow. The sense of wrongness hadn't faded. There was no ordinary sun, and no clouds. And yet the surroundings were bright. He didn't feel darkness at all.
No monsters.
Another peculiarity of the Illusion Realm. Then how did the Illusion Race raise their levels? He was curious, but it wasn't a question he could settle right now.
He opened his messenger.
This is a region where the messenger cannot be viewed.
"..."
He couldn't open the messenger?
That didn't mean he was out of options. Yujun opened his inventory and took out a video orb—the one linked to Do Jiyun's.
Tak. Tak.
But no light came into the video orb either. Pouring mana into it changed nothing.
This is bad.
Every way of reaching someone far away had vanished. He was completely cut off from his companions.