Chapter 137
Chapter 137
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Faded Starlight (3)
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“—Ah.”
As if recalling a forgotten fact.
Riak’s blue pupils dilated.
“Khahahat! Right! That’s what it was!”
His expression was like that of someone who had found a single ray of light in the pitch-black darkness.
Trembling with excitement, Riak opened his mouth.
“You were a regressor…!”
Flinch.
Riak, who had been about to shout in joy, suddenly cut himself off.
He looked toward Ha-eun with a flustered expression.
“I already told Nunna. That I’m a regressor.”
“Ah, y-yes, you did.”
Riak let out a sigh of relief as if it were a huge stroke of luck.
“R-right! Oh-jinnie is a regressor!”
Ha-eun abruptly looked at Oh-jin and nodded jerkily, like a broken machine.
‘Just stay quiet, Nunna.’
Seeing her act so unnaturally, Oh-jin pressed a hand to his forehead as if his head ached.
“So, what exactly is this ‘Apple of Adam’?”
Riak asked, swallowing hard.
Oh-jin’s explanation followed.
“Back when I fought the Heavenly Demon, he was so strong that even the Constellations had to join the battle directly. The sacred relic they used to reduce the restrictions at that time was the Apple of Adam.”
“But I’ve never heard of such a sacred relic before…”
“Of course you haven’t. At this point in time, it’s a sacred relic no one has discovered yet.”
“Hmm.”
Riak narrowed his eyes and said.
“But I heard from Lady Vega before that the future has started to change… Are you sure this Apple of Adam actually exists?”
“It’s because the future has changed that we can get it now. Originally, the signs of the ‘Divine Tree’ wouldn’t have appeared for a long time.”
“Signs of the Divine Tree…?”
“You said the chains of light binding Vega suddenly became fifty, right?”
Oh-jin looked past the tightly shut door and continued.
“That’s the sign that the Divine Tree, where the Apple of Adam grows, has matured. Back then, we also discovered it while searching for the cause when the restrictions of the Law suddenly lessened for no reason.”
“I-I see.”
Riak nodded with a dumbfounded expression.
It was a story that was hard to believe, but Oh-jin was a regressor who had traveled back from the past.
He was the Star of Revolution who would save the world.
No matter how absurd a story was, its credibility varied wildly depending on who told it.
‘Even if it’s hard to believe, he has no choice but to accept it.’
He recalled a psychology experiment he had seen once.
It was an experiment to see if patients would follow a doctor’s orders if told they had to make an elephant trunk with their hands and spin in circles to be diagnosed.
Even though common sense dictated that making an elephant trunk and spinning in circles had no connection to diagnosing an illness.
Surprisingly, most people followed the doctor’s words and obeyed the absurd instruction.
Was it simply because they were foolish?
‘Of course not.’
It was the authority vested in the title of ‘doctor’.
Faced with that authority, people naturally followed the nonsensical command.
Of course, Riak wasn’t human, but he possessed human-like intelligence and social skills.
He had no choice but to yield before the authority of the Star of Revolution—an authority incomparable to that of a mere doctor.
‘And it’s not as completely random as being told you have to hold your nose like an elephant’s trunk and spin around to get a diagnosis.’
The fact that the chains of light, which should have numbered one hundred, had been reduced to fifty was something Riak himself was aware of.
Even Riak wouldn't have thought such a thing could happen without any reason.
When presented with a plausible explanation for an otherwise inexplicable phenomenon, people tend to follow it blindly.
“Then if we get this Apple of Adam, can we free Lady Vega from her restrictions?”
“Probably.”
“But… where do you plan to get such a precious sacred relic?”
“Leave that to me.”
Eyebrows slightly raised, gaze unwavering.
Shoulders squared, voice filled with conviction.
It was a simple trick, the kind of facial acting you might use in a job interview, but when Oh-jin did it, he exuded the spirit of a battle-hardened general about to conquer enemy territory.
“I will bring back the Apple of Adam, no matter what.”
“Lad…”
Riak looked at Oh-jin with trembling eyes, as if deeply moved.
“Grrrr! If the lad is saying this, I can’t just stand by! I, too, will lend my strength to obtaining the Apple of Adam!”
Huh?
That’s not how this was supposed to go, dammit.
“No, Riak. You stay here.”
“What do you mean by that!”
“If Vega is under the restrictions of the Law, your power must be heavily restricted too, right?”
“W-well, that’s…”
“And we can’t leave Vega alone in that state, can we?”
“…Grr.”
Unable to think of a counterargument, Riak let out a low growl and lowered his head.
“While I’m getting the Apple of Adam, I’m counting on you to look after Vega, Riak.”
“Grrrr.”
Riak let out a fierce growl and nodded.
“Don’t worry, lad. If anyone dares to harm Lady Vega by entering this sanctuary, I, Riak, will personally tear them limb from limb until they die.”
“I’m counting on you.”
Oh-jin let out a hearty laugh and extended his hand.
Riak gripped Oh-jin’s outstretched hand with force.
—*Crack.*
‘He’s going to break my hand, this crazy bastard.’
He felt a pressure so intense it felt like his hand was being crushed.
Oh-jin desperately maintained his smile and turned around.
“Well then, I’m off to get the Apple of Adam right away.”
“How long do you think it will take?”
“I don’t know about that.”
Oh-jin himself couldn’t tell how much time he would need to be able to use Gaecheon on his own.
But.
“It won’t take fifty years, at least, so don’t worry.”
He was confident it wouldn’t even take a year, let alone fifty.
‘I probably don’t need to raise the blooming stage of the Black Heaven by that much.’
After all, the power of the Yong'an he had absorbed from Ha-eun was only a minuscule fraction.
If that alone was enough to use Gaecheon, then the path to using it on his own couldn’t be that long.
“I’ll be going then, Riak.”
“Hmph. Don’t you go getting all flustered like a rookie just because I’m not around.”
Riak snorted dismissively.
Oh-jin chuckled and left the sanctuary with Ha-eun.
“……”
Riak, standing like a guard before Vega’s room, stared intently at Oh-jin’s retreating back.
“I will be waiting, lad… no.”
Like a knight paying respect to his king, he knelt on one knee and bowed his head respectfully.
“O, Star of Revolution, who shall illuminate the darkness of the Black Heaven.”
* * *
“…Oh-jin.”
On the way home after leaving the sanctuary.
Ha-eun, who had been walking quietly beside him, spoke up.
“That Apple of Adam thing… was it real?”
“Of course it was a lie.”
“…Hah.”
Ha-eun let out a hollow laugh with a dumbfounded expression.
“Wow, damn, you’re insane. That was a lie? Even knowing the truth, I was almost convinced.”
Oh-jin had spoken with such a confident expression that even Ha-eun, who knew the truth, had nearly been fooled.
‘He really has a natural talent for scamming people.’
Suddenly.
An ominous thought crossed her mind.
“Oh-jinnie… when you said you’d take responsibility for me, that wasn’t a lie too, was it? Right?”
“What are you talking about?”
Oh-jin smirked and gently pulled Ha-eun closer by the waist as she walked beside him.
“I may live by my lies, but I don’t lie about things like that.”
“Kh-khm. Th-that's exactly what a con artist would say.”
Ha-eun poked Oh-jin’s side with her finger, but a gentle smile spread across her face.
“Well, anyway. So what’s the plan? You said that Apple of Adam thing was a lie, right? How are you going to break Vega’s restrictions?”
“I can use Gaecheon.”
Oh-jin shared what he had learned with her.
“But that Gaecheon thing, can’t you use it if you absorb a bit of my eye? In that case…”
“No.”
He shook his head firmly.
“As long as I don’t know what side effects it might have on you, I’m not using that method.”
“But last time, there weren’t any side effects…”
“Just because it was fine once, what guarantee is there that it’ll be fine this time?”
Just because you safely crossed a frozen lake once doesn’t mean the ice won’t break the next time.
“Besides, it’s not like there aren’t other ways.”
“Hmm. That Black Heaven thing, is there a way to raise its stage?”
“Of course.”
Oh-jin’s lips curled into a grin.
The smile of a hunter eyeing its prey formed on his lips.
“So far, there’s only been one way to make the Black Heaven bloom.”
To devour more, and more powerful, Stigmas.
“You’re not thinking of just randomly attacking any Awakened, are you?”
“Why would I do something so inefficient?”
Devouring low-grade Stigmas wouldn’t make the Black Heaven bloom.
“…Putting aside whether that’s a matter of efficiency. Then what are you going to do?”
Ha-eun tilted her head and looked at Oh-jin.
Oh-jin shrugged.
“Nunna, have you ever eaten a seahorse?”
“…Who the hell would eat something like that?”
“Right?”
Oh-jin licked his lips, his eyes gleaming.
“That’s why I was thinking of trying one.”
The Constellation Hippocampus faction that was running rampant in Japan.
That was Oh-jin’s next prey.
“Hmm. I’m not sure what you’re planning to do, but you’re not going to say you’re doing it alone this time, are you?”
Ha-eun glared at him sharply.
“I’ll need your help this time, Nunna.”
“Hey, wait! Aren’t those Hippocampus faction guys in Japan, not Korea?”
“That’s right.”
“Oooooh!!”
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled.
“A trip abroad! Holy crap, we're finally going on a trip abroad!”
And with Oh-jinnie, too!
Ha-eun let out a joyful cheer and threw her arms up in the air.
Just a moment ago, she had been agonizing with guilt over Vega being sealed, but it seemed that after learning there was a way to break the seal, she had returned to her usual self.
“Heeheehee. I’m gonna take a ton of pictures and tease the hell out of that wench Vega when she wakes up~♬”
“…We’re not exactly going on vacation, you know.”
Oh-jin gave a bitter smile and walked out of the sanctuary.
Just then.
“Are you Kwon Oh-jin?”
An old man in a white dobok approached them.
“Ah, yes. I am.”
Oh-jin tilted his head and looked at the old man.
The old man had a gentle face, reminiscent of a Taoist master.
His face was somehow familiar.
“Hoho. It’s a pleasure to meet you like this.”
The old man bowed politely and extended his hand.
“My name is Cheon Sang-gil.”
Tamrangseong, Cheon Sang-gil.
The strongest Awakened, one of the Seven Stars, had come to find him.