Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Final Boss Lee Seung-hoon
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“I like the world you created.”
The first time this thought crossed my mind was back when Sarang hadn’t yet realized she was manipulating reality.
“There were so many entities threatening the world in the original one. Thanks to the Foundation stepping up, humanity could maintain its daily life, but even they couldn’t stop every single one.”
Sarang had said that if she could, she’d settle things in a duel when it came to combat.
This meant that even entities like Sarang couldn’t escape the rules set by the “Center of the World.”
“Humanity had no way to fight back against those entities. Unless you were the Foundation—or had special means like me—the only outcomes were to be helplessly tossed around, defeated, and meet your end. The only thing you could do was pray for a merciful death.”
This fact brought about one change.
“But in the world you created—the world of the Game—humanity isn’t helpless. The entities follow your rules too, so now humanity has ways to fight back.”
“Is that why you want to keep this world going?”
“There are a few more reasons, but let’s chat over tea.”
I reached into the Void Pocket for a tea set, but she waved her hand first.
Suddenly, a tea set appeared before us as if it had been there all along.
“Fascinating. Tell me more.”
“Darjeeling, huh? Nice choice.”
Darjeeling with cucumber sandwiches.
She knows her stuff.
“The first reason is what I just said, and the second is that it brought peace to humanity.”
A sip of black tea.
A bite of cucumber sandwich, accompanied by a detailed explanation.
“Humanity’s history is a history of war. People have forgotten because we’ve had decades of peace lately, but war was about to start up again.”
To seize control of the world.
To overcome the looming climate crisis.
For their religious beliefs.
To plunder another country’s rich resources.
To hold onto their power.
“Once war breaks out, hatred breeds more hatred, passed down generation after generation in an endless chain. In the end, the wars would continue until humanity’s extinction.”
“Isn’t that the same here?”
“Yes, but at least they follow the world’s rules, don’t they? The loser in a duel yields to the winner, and wars are fought through duels, so casualties are overwhelmingly fewer than in the original world. Less hatred passed down, too.”
I drained my teacup and summed it up.
“In short, this world protects humanity from unpredictable entities beyond dimensions, forces existing entities to follow rules—giving humanity the power to fight back—and suppresses humanity’s baser instincts as much as possible, creating the optimal environment for greater progress into the future.”
“...Impressive. I thought you’d come demanding I restore the original world no matter what.”
Her reaction wasn’t bad.
But that didn’t mean things were going smoothly.
“I’d be fine keeping this world going. But as I said earlier, every Game has an end. Even if I force it to continue.”
Games have endings.
It was like fate.
“It was the same at Göbekli Tepe. I tried everything to keep the Game going, but the harder I did, the more freak coincidences happened—gold and silver veins popping up out of nowhere, commercial geniuses being born left and right—like fate itself was helping humanity.”
This was an element of the Game that even she couldn’t control.
She called this phenomenon:
“Protagonist correction. The stronger the final boss gets, the stronger the protagonist—humanity—becomes too. Even if you take my place as the final boss with that powerhouse deck of yours, eventually a human will show up who can beat it.”
“That’s a problem.”
Of course, I’d already thought of this.
“I never thought I’d win forever. But what if this were the case? What if the current Game wasn’t just a temporary manipulation, but became real reality? Then even if I, the final boss, lose, the Game wouldn’t end.”
“I don’t have that kind of power.”
“I have something that can give you that power.”
I pulled a small glass vial from the Void Pocket.
“Special Enhancement Potion—a liquid that grants immense power to whoever takes it. Through steady experiments with weaker regular enhancement potions, I’ve found that the enhancement direction amplifies and evolves the target’s fundamental purpose.”
“Then...”
“Yes. You’re the entity who lets humanity experience the Game. That aspect would likely be massively enhanced, giving you the ability to fix the Game into permanent reality, right?”
She took the special enhancement potion without hesitation.
The single drop of golden liquid vanished past her lips.
“...Definitely.”
There weren’t many outward changes.
Except her eyes turning golden.
“With this power, it seems possible. It’ll just take some time, though. Probably about a year. I’ll have to focus solely on it, so my ability to fend off outside intrusions won’t change much from now.”
“A year? Even with protagonist correction, that should be enough to hold out.”
“Then...”
She placed her hand on my cheek.
True to form for an entity whose purpose was the Game itself, she smiled at the situation—but it slowly hardened.
“Your deck is too strong. I wanted to make you the final boss, but its power makes it impossible. I didn’t predict this...”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Just in case, I checked my deck.
One card caught my eye.
[Girl with Closed Eyes]
[Cost: 0]
[Effect: When this card is Normal or Special Summoned to the field, the player who successfully summons it permanently gains the 「Myriad Phenomena」 effect.]
[「Myriad Phenomena」: At the end of your turn, you may view your opponent's hand, Deck, and Graveyard, and freely rearrange their positions and order.]
[Card Text: Oops, sorry. Seems like it's my fault?]
“There can only be one final boss. But your deck is being treated as another entity.”
“I see why there’s a problem.”
Two entity values clashing.
“If this is how it is, we’ll have to abandon ‘Card Battles’ and start a different Game. Other Games would still have absolute rules like now, right?”
“Yes, but... outside of Card Battles, is there any concept where you could achieve overwhelming victory as the final boss?”
“Sadly, there is one.”
I’d thought of this too.
I’d just shelved it due to personal greed.
“Racing.”
A world born from mere cards was already this bizarre.
How bizarre would a racing world be?
“Let’s make it a world centered on auto racing.”
In a world like that, my driving skills might actually get decent.
“First, send Dr. Roland back to his mansion. You can do that, right? And make him forget about me for a while.”
“Yes, that’s possible.”
His request could be wrapped up by telling him the truth once everything was over.
“Thanks to you, I can change the concept without swapping the stone tablet. So, shall we start right away?”
“Yes. That’s fine.”
“Then!”
She seemed as thrilled as I was. As she unleashed her power, the world suddenly split in two.
‘This phenomenon isn’t visible in my left eye.’
It was only visible in my right.
Beyond my right eye, there was... another me.
The duelist me, who’d just been talking with her about awaiting the racing world.
‘She’s gone.’
Without the administrator of the “Center of the World,” only human me remained.
That world was like a new branch growing off in its own direction from this one where I stood.
‘A parallel world.’
She wasn’t some utterly unique entity like the Girl with Closed Eyes.
‘Maybe this is what the one who created her wanted.’
Creating parallel worlds with different possibilities through the Game.
The Center of the World was the central node allowing such branches to extend, so it didn’t exist in other worlds.
Just a hypothesis. Who knew if it was true.
‘Oh.’
My eyes met those of my duelist self.
He looked at me through his right eye too.
Not fully separated yet, we conversed with our minds.
‘The split happened. Parallel world? Something like that?’
‘Probably.’
‘In my world, the “Center of the World” is gone. But this space and the cards remain, so the “Card Battle” state continues.’
‘Not a bad deal, right? Mission accomplished.’
‘Yeah, not bad.’
My duelist self waved.
‘I wanted to try racing too, so have fun for me.’
‘See you, Duelist Seung-hoon.’
And with that, the parallel world vanished.
Far off, a new world approached. It felt like the loading screen between game levels.
“?”
Then, my phone rang.
“Dong-wook?”
- Ah! Seung-hoon! Finally! You’re on Earth now, right? What the hell is going—
The call cut off.
A fly buzzed by my ear next.
“Oh, Lee Seung-hoon, what have you...”
The fly vanished quickly.
Then the Karmic Call Center line rang.
- Hello? Candidate Demon King? What are you—
That call cut off too.
Next, a gold bar popped out of the Void Pocket on its own, spinning out thin golden thread that wrote words in the air before me.
[VVIP Customer? What the hell are you doing!?]
The golden thread scattered.
This time, my smartphone screen lit up on its own, showing a noisy, distorted image.
[Lee... what... Director... furious...]
Wall-mounted TVs could project their power too, apparently.
But with that much noise, it wasn’t useful unless it was the main body.
“As the world changes, there’s a brief outside interference.”
Once the world fully transformed, the interference stopped.
In the new world, I stood in an office overlooking the ground below.
“Beautiful.”
Beyond the window stretched a massive racetrack stadium.
An enormous track, dozens of kilometers long at least—something I’d never seen in the original world.
Surrounding that stadium was a gigantic mountain.
A checkerboard flag spanning kilometers was carved into it, and at the peak sat an equally massive carved car wheel, plainly declaring this world’s values.
“Racing world, huh.”
I checked my reflection in the glass.
The deep black suit screamed final boss.
My face had the same features, but it gave off an oddly sinister vibe.
“You worked so hard all this time. To gain normal driving skills. But in the end, you couldn’t change yourself.”
My new backstory flowed into my mind unbidden.
A courtesy from the “Center of the World,” no doubt.
“Instead, you changed the whole world. Maybe my driving skills changed too? Even if not, it’ll help with racing plenty.”
A top-tier racing corporation dominating the world.
Its founder and chairman—a racer undefeated in a single match.
“Everyone thinks they’re the protagonist of the world, but from now on, I’m stepping down from that role.”
Invincible and Undefeated Lee Seung-hoon.
That was my name in this world now.
“From here on out, I’m the final boss.”