Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Göbekli Tepe
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He didn't rashly jam the stone tablet into the altar.
"Using an entity without information invites death."
If it were just him, that might be one thing, but now there were people he had to protect.
According to the shared information, Dr. Roland's protective entity allowed teleportation to a space he remembered, making it excellent for self-defense but not invincible.
[It's a gem called Bastet's Navel. As an entity, it transports the owner to the place they envision. The drawback is that only the owner themselves can move.]
It could dodge physical attacks.
But he doubted the entity that had exterminated an entire civilization—or a city—without destroying it was limited to mere physical force.
"Perception alteration, or mental pollution."
Or perhaps reality manipulation couldn't be ruled out.
To counter it reliably, he needed information.
"First, let's measure their ages using carbon dating."
He watched Dr. Roland's experiment from behind.
It mixed complex foreign languages and technical jargon, but the suspicious trader's translation effect held up even outside, so he had no trouble understanding.
"Radiation emitted from the gas proportional counter will pass through the sample scraped from the stone tablet, causing ionization. By measuring the resulting energy, we can determine the carbon age and thus the tablet's creation date."
"Without an accelerator mass spectrometer?"
"It'd be tough if it weren't an entity. But with entities, it's possible."
Apparently, entities miraculously retained enough carbon or organic material to measure ages even with a gas proportional counter, making observation straightforward.
"Alright then..."
They scraped a sample from the surface of the tablet depicting a soccer game, loaded it into the machine, and activated it.
Moments later, the results printed out, leaving Dr. Roland speechless.
"...1863."
"Did I hear that wrong?"
"No, you heard correctly. This stone tablet was made in 1863."
"Darling, you hear that? Tell me about the connection between 1863 and soccer."
Darling responded swiftly.
"The birth of modern soccer."
He was starting to get a feel for it.
"Doctor, let's measure the ages of the other tablets too."
Pig.
Beast.
Wheat.
Grains and such—the tablets were from ancient times, as expected.
"Some predate the establishment of Göbekli Tepe."
"Doesn't that mean this facility existed before Göbekli Tepe?"
"Exactly. The ancients didn't create Göbekli Tepe with an entity. They discovered this place and built their city on top of it. This is the true Göbekli Tepe."
But the tablets engraved with modern objects all clocked in at the most recent dates.
"The car is from 1769."
"The airplane is 1903."
"The one that looks like someone using a computer measures at 1998."
After numerous measurements, Dr. Roland and he reached one conclusion.
"The tablets here appeared alongside specific concepts from reality the moment they emerged."
"We'll need to determine if the tablets' appearance birthed those concepts in the world, or if the concepts' emergence led to the tablets' creation."
"If it's the former, it makes sense that this facility is the center of the world."
If so, creativity wasn't humanity's exclusive domain.
It was merely a concept produced by this facility—this entity tentatively dubbed the "Center of the World."
"If it's the latter, what does it mean that human creativity is preserved on these tablets like records?"
"What if destroying a tablet here causes issues with its corresponding concept?"
"Are the tablets even destructible?"
"Let's test it."
He gripped the corner of the soccer tablet and tried to break it.
He only aimed to chip the edge, but it wouldn't budge.
"You scraped a sample for observation earlier, and it wouldn't scrape, right?"
"True, but look—the scratches from that have all vanished now."
"Indestructible, scratches self-repair."
"Now there's only one thing left to check."
Dr. Roland did.
He did too.
They both turned toward the altar.
"That's enough confirmation. Whichever hypothesis is correct, our curiosity is sated."
"Not even tempted to try slotting one in?"
"What we've learned suggests the Center of the World wields world-shaking influence. It can't be that easy to activate. The world could end."
"Take any tablet and go. If it looks like doom, I'll let you know."
"How?"
He winked his right eye at the doctor.
"My right eye can see the world's end."
His right eye could see the world's end.
It didn't have to be total human extinction—even a disaster at a certain scale would automatically show him the future.
"It activates at the branching point. When a choice risks unleashing calamity."
"Then the tablet too?"
"We've come this far. Wouldn't it be a shame not to verify it properly? On the way to insert the tablet, if my right eye triggers, we stop. If not, we slot it in."
"Hmm. We'd better choose wisely."
He and the doctor selected a tablet for the altar.
"If it vanishes, it mustn't threaten humanity."
"If it changes, it mustn't disrupt human life."
"We need something dispensable..."
After a long search, they found one.
"Indecipherable meaning."
"A monster? Dinosaur? But there's a person right next to it."
Dinosaur, person, monster on the tablet.
They were portraits framed within a frame on the tablet.
"A tablet within a tablet? Portraits of someone?"
"Let's date it."
The result: 1996.
"Modern."
"And not that old. Maybe referencing a specific comic or animation?"
"If so, there'd be tablets for countless comics and animations."
"Or some special concept we don't know."
He asked Darling, but 1996 had too many comics, animations, and movies to pinpoint.
"Let's try. Think you can lift it?"
"Here goes... Ngh... Heavy, but doable."
Handling entities had made the doctor unusually strong.
"Alright then..."
Dr. Roland, straining to hold the tablet before the altar, glanced at him.
"Go ahead. My right eye hasn't triggered."
"Right. Then..."
The old scholar mustered his strength and lifted the tablet.
"!?"
In that instant, the tablet floated up on its own and slotted into the altar.
It happened in a flash, before even he could react.
"It won't come out."
"Let me try."
He applied force, but the tablet didn't budge.
His body could exert tonnage-level strength, yet it failed—this suggested a conceptual lock that couldn't be undone by force.
"Guess we can't investigate further right now."
"If the slotted tablet affects the world, wouldn't problems arise outside?"
They left the equipment and headed to the nearby village.
"Doesn't look much different."
"True, but let's check more."
While wandering the village, some young men rounded a corner and bumped into Dr. Roland.
"You alright?"
"Ugh! This old fart!"
The youths were the ones who fell.
Dr. Roland, sturdy and strong, offered a hand to the fallen youths, but they angrily swatted it away.
"You messing with us? Shoving people around?"
"It was an accident. And you came running."
"We deserve a proper apology, yeah? This'll do."
The youths rubbed their fingers, demanding cash, furrowing the old scholar's brow.
"Oh dear, a gang?"
"Not a gang—just claiming what's owed."
The gangsters reached into their pockets.
He stepped forward, but Dr. Roland held out a hand to stop him.
"I'll handle this."
The doctor reached into his own pocket.
"Guiding the young is the duty of the old."
The gangsters did.
The doctor did too.
They drew simultaneously.
"Card battle!"
"?"
"Duel start!"
What?
Did he hear that wrong?
A hologram materialized between the gangster who'd pulled a deck and the doctor.
"First turn decided by dice."
"Young man, you choose first."
"I'll go Low."
"Then High for me."
The hologram die rolled, landing on 5.
"I'll start then."
Dr. Roland placed his deck in midair; it was absorbed into the hologram.
A card auto-drew into his hand, which he slotted into slots before him.
"Summon Baby Wyvern. End turn."
"Garbage card."
"Young man, there are no garbage cards in this world."
The hologram felt like the laws of reality.
If his memory wasn't intact, he'd have mistaken it for one.
"Summon Western Hunter! Magic card, Dual Pistols activate! Fuse Western Hunter into Legendary Gunslinger!"
"Not bad. But too hasty."
"You're the slow one!"
He watched the incomprehensible card battle unfold, pondering.
This was a blatant anomaly.
"Uahaha! It's over! Trap card! Bounty activate! Sacrifice one Bounty-attribute monster on the field to summon a random Cowboy card from the deck! Magic card activate! Outlaw of the Sunset! For each Cowboy summoned this turn, randomly summon one Cowboy from the graveyard to the field!"
"Field's full."
"You're done, old man!"
Since when did the world settle disputes with card battles?
Since when did holograms appear sans machinery, absorbing real cards and teleporting them to players' hands?
Impossible without entity intervention.
Thus, this was undoubtedly the "Center of the World"'s doing.
"Magic card activate: No Country for Old Men."
"Wh-what!? What card is that!?"
"Can activate when only one monster remains on the field. For each card sent to the graveyard last turn, boost the remaining monster's attack by 1,000 points."
"What!?"
"And one more: Trap card activate. Old Man's Mettle. Activates only when one monster remains on the field. Exclude all monsters with lower attack power from the game."
"Whaaaat!?"
"This effect applies to all monsters on the field, in the graveyard, and in the deck."
"No waaay!!"
"Young man, this is the power of the old."
What they'd done: slotted the tablet depicting monster, human, dinosaur in a frame.
And those were illustrations in a frame.
"Time to end it. Queen's Guard, direct attack! Guard's Greatsword!"
"Graaaah!"
The defeated gangster's cards scattered in the air.
Among them, he glimpsed the artwork on the cards.
"Not illustrations in frames, huh."
They were card arts.
And they'd slotted a tablet depicting cards into the altar.
"Darling, any card-related info from 1996?"
"Probably existed."
Not perception alteration.
Reality manipulation.
The kind even machines couldn't escape.
Why was he unaffected? "Notebook in My Head"?
Or "Dried Friendship"?
Or something else?
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"No, Doctor. But what's this card battle?"
"Must be mental pollution. The solemn Card Laws created by the spirits of cards that exist in this world, no?"
"Card spirits..."
"The foundation of the world and origin of all universes are the card spirits."
"Do you remember Göbekli Tepe?"
"Göbekli Tepe? What's that?"
Göbekli Tepe was indeed the Center of the World.
An entity that elevated the slotted tablet—and its engraved concept—to the 'center' of the world.
Surpassing perception alteration.
Surpassing mental pollution.
A mighty entity wielding reality manipulation.
"More importantly, why were we here? What were we looking for... Ah, right, the card that caused the Big Bang. Forgot we were hunting primordial cards. Heh, it's been ages since a card battle—got my blood up and made a fool of myself."
Now, the world had become a "card battle story."