Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Special Debuff: Center of the World
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“If this remains, the same thing will happen again.”
The buzzing of flies echoed from all directions.
Baal had seen sights like this before, but the atmosphere was far from ordinary.
“You're right! If this stays, the flow of the world will be disrupted again! The cycle of reincarnation will break, and the number of souls reaching enlightenment will dwindle!”
A woman in ancient judge's robes shouted as well.
Her face was hidden by the white veil hanging from her official's hat, but her words and voice made it clear she was the Ultra-Strong Great King.
“We need to destroy it before it activates again.”
“Destroying it feels a bit much. How about sealing it instead?”
“Oh dear, you're so harsh on sinners yet so naive in these matters?”
“I've abandoned harsh punishment, you know?”
The two were set on destroying or sealing the Center of the World.
The Center of the World quietly listened to them before nodding.
“If it can no longer function, then destruction might be the better path.”
She had already resigned herself to everything.
“I'm tired of waiting endlessly for someone else to activate me again.”
Her very reason for being was amusement.
She activated to let the people of the world enjoy games centered around specific concepts.
Rather than lose her purpose in life again, she preferred to choose death.
‘Enhanced abilities only take effect after activation, huh.’
If it was the type that only exerted power once a concept was triggered, she had no means of resistance.
“Wait. If I promise never to use her again, will you leave her be?”
“We can't trust that. Even if you mean it, what if some other human accidentally activates her? Then the chairman would be truly furious.”
“I agree. Yama stayed calm this time, but if he gets properly angry, no one can stop him.”
Words alone wouldn't sway them.
Since there was no way to prove the Center of the World would never be used again, the best way to stop them was to deactivate her or render activation impossible.
‘But that would be putting the cart before the horse.’
What could he do?
Enhancement potion? She was already enhanced by the special enhancement potion, and it meant nothing before activation.
‘Wait, potion?’
The changes from the Forgotten Alchemist's potion altered output.
They didn't change the fundamental functions of entities or objects.
“What if she could still provide amusement to humanity, but on a reduced scale or with limited functions? Would you accept that?”
“What do you mean?”
“For example, limited to a village, city, or nation-wide scope, or unable to alter reality and only workable through dreams or virtual reality.”
“I'd be fine as long as I can activate. Even with fewer people, it's better than nothing.”
Having experienced it once, she seemed to grasp what he intended.
“What are you planning?”
“What are you trying to do?”
He showed the potion to Baal and the Ultra-Strong Great King.
“This is the special debuff potion. From now on, I'll use it to restrict the Center of the World's functions.”
It was a sort of gamble.
Like with “Your Wall-Mounted TV,” the enhanced power might be too strong for the purification potion to work.
“Debuff, you say? We'll watch and see.”
“It won't be too late to decide after observing, right?”
The two transcendents permitted it for now.
With their approval, he dripped the purification potion onto the Center of the World.
“My power is fading. I leave the rest to you.”
With those words, her form vanished.
It wasn't just any enhancement potion—it was a special one, but apparently, the Wall-Mounted TV was a special case.
‘Next, the special debuff potion.’
A regular debuff potion wouldn't cut it.
It had to be weakened enough to satisfy them completely.
‘If it's only partially weakened, they might get suspicious and take the opportunity away.’
So, he used the special debuff potion to weaken her in one go.
‘This is the second gamble.’
Would it debuff her enough to satisfy them?
He dripped the special debuff potion onto the altar.
At that moment, a brilliant light flashed, and the entire Göbekli Tepe ruins vanished.
‘This is...’
What appeared in its place was a perfect cube, one meter on each side.
It wasn't an ordinary cube; with various connection terminals, it seemed like some kind of machine.
“Darling, can you check what this machine is?”
『Understood.』
He connected Sarang to the cube.
Moments later, Sarang reported her analysis.
『Scan complete. It's an online server with multiple games built in.』
“A server?”
『Yes, but not typical games—they appear to be virtual reality games. It also has the entity's unique surreal power embedded, so I can't specify effects without direct playtesting.』
The two beings behind him also evaluated the specially debuffed Center of the World.
“The aura feels relatively weakened. Reality manipulation should be impossible at this level.”
“But we can't let our guard down. Mr. Lee Seung-hoon isn't the type for petty tricks, but he could still cancel the debuff and re-enhance it.”
“I'll need to find a way to earn your trust on that front.”
First, he needed to check the debuffed Center of the World's abilities.
He stored the cube in the Void Pocket and returned to Korea.
“This is Göbekli Tepe?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, the ruins are gone.”
Before that, he met Dr. Roland at the suspicious trader's banquet hall and completed the commission.
He had worried that specially debuffing the Center of the World might erase Göbekli Tepe from existence and memory, but that wasn't the case.
“I'm glad to know the truth, but Turkey's in chaos. Who on earth made it? I've heard rumors of transcendent entities among the entities, but one that turns the world into a playground? Unimaginable.”
After finishing the commission, he returned home and experimented with the cube.
『Scan complete. No external power source required. Only connection terminals are needed.』
“So even standard VR works.”
He didn't remember the terminal shapes.
They weren't ordinary, yet anything plugged in fit perfectly—not just VR, but anything.
“The entity's quirks are convenient sometimes.”
He then activated the VR.
In that instant, his consciousness was pulled somewhere else.
“Ah! You've arrived!”
“You didn't disappear after all.”
The place he arrived was a space overlooking Earth from orbit.
The being waiting there was the Center of the World in her final boss form from “Card Battle.”
“I don't have a fixed form, but since we met like this first, I appear this way.”
“What can we do here? Sarang said it has game functions.”
“Yes, you can enjoy virtual reality games. Want to try one?”
“Please.”
She snapped her fingers.
Unlike the normal state requiring stone tablets to activate, this virtual reality allowed free manipulation without reality alteration.
“Oh.”
The world shifted once more.
『This is a virtual reality built around the concept of ‘Guns.’ Of course, as amusement, if you take a fatal wound, the Gun God revives you—that's the setup.』
A drizzling rain-soaked field.
The hard feel of the gun in his hand.
The scent of wet earth mixed with acrid gunpowder, and a bullet whizzing past his ear from somewhere.
“Thrilling.”
『Pain is set to 40%. If it's unpleasant, I can lower it.』
“No, this level is perfect.”
This wasn't conventional virtual reality.
It wasn't just 360-degree screens and speakers—his consciousness was inside the game, sensations indistinguishable from reality, the only difference being pain feedback.
“The kind of surreal virtual world common in web novels. Full dive, they call it.”
『Ah, that concept! As an MMORPG! It was pretty popular.』
“How many can connect simultaneously? If I link a relay server to you, can multiple people join at once?”
『Of course. Up to 10 billion.』
“What about building multiple worlds at the same time?”
『That's possible too!』
From an amusement perspective, the previous Center of the World had been too powerful.
Like powering a game console with a nuclear reactor.
Now weakened, it was far better suited for amusement.
‘Who would've thought debuffing fit the original purpose better than enhancement.’
No.
Without reality manipulation, it could no longer generate the parallel worlds speculated as a hidden purpose.
『Oh, before that, I need permission. For ‘Commerce,’ ‘Card Battle,’ and ‘Racing,’ which you've activated before, the virtual worlds are based on the final records, with the humans from those worlds copied over intact.』
“Then the virtual worlds for the latter two concepts have copies of me too.”
『Yes. Is that okay?』
“Fine by me. Use them as NPCs. They'd probably agree if asked.”
Copies with the same ego as me.
Were they really just NPCs?
Back in reality, he went to the office.
“I need relay servers for an online game. Buy as many as possible.”
He planned to spread the game worldwide via relay servers, so he couldn't keep them at home.
That's what the company was for, right?
‘Hm?’
After placing the order, curious about the Franken squad's status, he headed there and spotted a familiar face.
“This fucking company, I should quit right now, but damn, they pay well. But the boss is a retard... Ah, keep slipping into curses... Why do curses keep coming out?”
It was Lee So-young, who had beaten him and restored the world.
‘Her body's back to normal.’
Wasn't she immune to reality manipulation?
That's what Baal and the Ultra-Strong Great King had said.
‘Not immune to reality manipulation, but the effects from that reality-manipulated world vanished with the world.’
She didn't remember events from that world because memories were part of it too?
In any case, her confused state suggested the soul-engraved memories from that world were lingering.
‘She experienced more than most.’
He met the Franken squad first.
“Pudding!”
“Yeah, eat up.”
World back or weird, she was still a pudding-loving girl.
“The executives have one task.”
He gathered the company executives next.
“I want to start a racing team at our company. Do it for me.”
“Then we'll need to scout drivers.”
“Ah, there's someone I want to test for that.”
He handed over Lee So-young's interview documents.
“For some reason, she seems to have racing talent. Want to talk to her?”
He didn't know how much of her soul-engraved racing skill remained.
“Offer her this salary.”
Still, give her a shot.
“And one more thing. I want to start a business.”
“What kind?”
“Virtual reality games.”
Don't forget the purpose of coming here.
“A full-dive virtual reality game so real it's barely different from reality, playable by everyone worldwide.”