Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Andromeda's Starlight
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[New supernova observed in our galaxy for the first time in 421 years since Kepler's supernova!]
[Supernova so bright it's visible to the naked eye even in daylight!]
[Explosion still ongoing? Astronomical community in frenzy as scale continues to expand!]
The day after returning from the Foundation.
The world was abuzz with talk of the supernova.
"Wow! Can everyone see that? That's the supernova!"
"Betelgeuse? Did that blow up? No?"
"Apparent magnitude of -8. Full moon's -12 and the sun's -26, so this is pretty bright! They say it'll get even brighter. Huh? Oh, apparent magnitude means lower numbers are brighter!"
Internet streamers were all covering the event live.
I got curious about this once-in-a-lifetime happening and did some digging.
"Never thought I'd live to see a supernova. And I figured Betelgeuse would go first, but nope—something else beat it to the punch."
A supernova is a massive explosion when a star dies.
It happens when a star much larger than the sun explodes, or when a white dwarf—the remnant of a dead star—sucks up enough external material to hit 1.33 times the sun's mass and goes boom.
"The flash from that instant explosion outshines the light of the entire galaxy. The universe sure is amazing."
『The overwhelming scale of the universe surpasses human imagination. Even just our solar system is riddled with numbers that'd make people's brains melt, but the cosmos as a whole transcends fantasy—so much so that sensitive types often feel deep terror.』
"Fear of the unknown is human instinct. Can't be helped."
It's also a survival mechanism.
After a quick primer on supernovas, I hopped onto YouTube.
["SN A2023," better known as "Andromeda's Starlight"—full breakdown!]
[What is Andromeda's Starlight? Everything you need to know about what's coming!]
[What impact will the supernova have on our galaxy? AI recreation of the night sky under Andromeda's Starlight!]
Tons of related videos, as expected.
With the whole world buzzing, there was no shortage of info. After a while, I found a video from a YouTuber with a PhD in astronomy.
『The universe is so vast that even light speed feels glacially slow. The closest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.22 light-years away at light speed. That's why most cosmic events are unpredictable—we only observe them after they've already happened. SN A2023, aka Andromeda's Starlight, is a prime example.』
"Quack!"
My hands were idle, so I plopped Rubber Rubber Duck on my lap and gave it a back rub.
"Quack quack! Quack quack quack! Quack quack quack quaaaack!"
Focused on the video, Rubber Rubber Duck chirped happily too.
『But the astronomical community is in heated debate over Andromeda's Starlight. Simple reason: it's a celestial object we've never observed before.』
In the video, the astronomer gravely raised the issue.
『The Andromeda Galaxy is our closest neighbor, so it's been studied and observed relentlessly. Any supernovas there—or in the surrounding space—should've been spotted. Yet nothing's ever been seen where Andromeda's Starlight now shines. Astronomers have proposed several hypotheses.』
Maybe thick cosmic dust hid the star that caused it.
Or the drastic variability in the star's light right before the supernova made it undetectable.
『Another theory: Andromeda's Starlight originated from deep space. A star billions of light-years away, invisible from Earth until now. But that raises more questions.』
Even for a supernova, could light from billions of light-years look this vivid?
It'd require an insanely massive star—but wouldn't it collapse into a black hole first?
『So some scholars cautiously suggest this might be a quasi-star—those hypothetical behemoths from the universe's dawn, thought to birth supermassive black holes—failing to collapse and exploding as a supernova instead. In other words, this isn't just any supernova; it's proof of a quasi-star 1 million times the sun's mass, until now only theoretical.』
More theories followed, but all boiled down to one thing: Andromeda's Starlight was no ordinary supernova.
"Not ordinary, huh? Probably an entity then."
『The universe is full of unknowns. Even the Foundation hasn't mapped it all, so yeah—this could be one too.』
"No way. Let's call it a supernova for now."
The next day.
"Nope."
The supernova had grown.
In just one day.
"It's an entity."
Twice as big as yesterday.
-Connection failed. Unable to link.
I called Dong-uk right away.
Phone was dead, and the Foundation facilities in our reality were the same.
"All contact and travel with the Foundation dimension has been severed!"
"Damn."
It was like they'd preemptively blocked any interference from the Foundation.
'Try somewhere else.'
I headed to Golden Almighty Inc.
But the business card with their location had turned into a blank sheet of paper.
"......"
Next, I unfolded the invitation to meet the shady merchant.
'This too?'
The invitation was blank.
I rushed to the office and tried the Reverse Quest Vending Machine.
[Connection severed. Cannot use.]
Then the Equal Exchange Scales.
[Connection error.]
Nothing connected.
For a split second, it felt like the Happy Apartment glitch—all entities down.
'No. Only the ones that need connections, or seem to, stopped working.'
Golden Almighty Inc. exists in another dimension.
The shady merchant seems to too.
The Reverse Quest Vending Machine has its own network, same with the scales.
'And Foundation HQ is in another dimension too.'
I called Sarang.
"Sarang, what do you make of this?"
『Dimensional distortion or severance, I'd guess.』
Sarang was fine, as expected.
That lent credence to my theory—until a sudden scream yanked me to the window.
"What the hell is that!"
"The supernova!"
I looked up at the sky.
"......"
The now-closer supernova blazed like the sun.
In its blinding light lurked a darkness, gazing down like a pupil.
"Not a supernova after all."
Enveloped in light.
That pitch-black sphere, denying even a speck of light, was a celestial body anyone without a physics degree would recognize.
"It was a black hole."
The world erupted in chaos.
All news zeroed in on one thing: Andromeda's Starlight.
[International Astronomical Union confirms: Andromeda's Starlight is a black hole]
[Supermassive black hole at least 100 billion solar masses]
[Observed over 100 million light-years from Earth—no impact expected]
YouTube streamed astronomers unveiling their research live.
『The largest observed black hole so far is TON 618: 40.7 billion solar masses. Bigger ones like PHOENIX A and last year's MISSING N clock in at 50 billion and 160 billion—but measurement errors make them debatable.』
But Andromeda's Starlight was different.
『At a cosmically "nearby" 100 million light-years, measurement error is highly unlikely.』
I searched the biggest black holes while listening like it was radio.
[Tonantzintla 618]
[Brightness: 140 trillion times the sun]
[Type: Hyperluminous quasar]
[Location: Canes Venatici]
[Mass: 40.7 billion solar masses]
[Luminosity distance: 10.8 billion light-years]
[Event horizon size: ~240 billion km]
Astronomers explained black holes.
『A black hole's appearance boils down to three main features.』
The accretion disk: infalling matter shredded to particles, whipping around near light speed, smashing together to spew light and heat.
Black hole jets: plasma gas blasted from the poles at 99.999% light speed.
And the event horizon: the absolute gravitational boundary where not even light escapes, forged by the singularity.
『The accretion disk radiates intense light and heat. If Earth got close, it'd vaporize us instantly. So fierce a single object outshines entire galaxies.』
『Jets are cosmic destroyers, annihilating all in their path. If an active supermassive black hole's jet pointed at Earth, our solar system would be obliterated.』
『The event horizon is light's inescapable prison. Bigger black hole means bigger horizon—TON 618 could swallow 27 solar systems side by side.』
Plenty more details, but astronomers agreed on one thing.
『Andromeda's Starlight appeared suddenly because a dormant black hole devoured a nearby star, forming an accretion disk whose blaze made it visible. Its growth? Jets clearing cosmic dust.』
『Nothing anomalous—just natural phenomena. No major Earth impact, so no need to worry.』
Earth is safe.
They all said it in unison.
'Hope it's really just natural.'
I checked communities.
[Earth's doomed! Earth's doomed! Earth's doomed! Earth's doomed! Earth's doomed! Earth's doomed!][0]
"Earth doomed? All-in on futures options baby! [7]"
"Apocalypse anyway, rolling gacha! SSR when!?[37]"
Everyone took it in stride.
Sure, they joked about doom, but experts said we'd be fine.
We've survived this long.
It couldn't really happen, right?
"That's why they can react like this."
『Mr. Yi Seung-hoon, is it really natural?』
"If it were, the entities wouldn't glitch out, and we wouldn't be cut off from the Foundation."
Can't hitch a Foundation ride to space.
Can't deal with Golden Almighty Inc. to fix it.
No shady merchant trades, no quest tickets, no scale swaps.
"Against the cosmos, humans are utterly powerless."
Nothing to do.
Just sit here hoping it's a harmless entity stretching its limbs.
Like an ant praying not to get stepped on by a strolling human.
『Truth is, Andromeda's Starlight is heading straight for Earth. Speed: dozens of times light speed, warping space like it's folding paper—superluminal.』
And as always, the gods ignored human prayers.
『Society calculations show: exactly 168 hours from now, the solar system enters its influence zone. Accretion disk roasts us; tidal forces shred us to dust for the disk within a day.』
"Kim Seok-du! Open the door! What the hell are you doing!"
Sudden broadcast on the Korean Astronomical Society's official YouTube.
Pounding on the door, a face drained of hope, resigned to the end.
『They're hiding it to prevent panic, but that's the truth. My conscience demands you spend your final moments with family—so here it is, exposed. Cherish your last hours.』
"You bastard!"
Door crashes; broadcast cuts.
"Well, shit. This is bad."
One week later.
Earth ends.
"Can't be helped."
I asked the girl with closed eyes for a solution.
Headed straight to Unbong Mountain.
'I avoided relying on her since I don't know her exact wants or anomalies, but no other way.'
Searched the valley where I'd met her.
Wandered forever—no luck.
'Was that space another dimension?'
Or a bookmark-fold jammed into ours?
Can't meet directly, but other ways exist.
"Surely......"
Drew the girl with closed eyes in my notebook.
Blink—and a speech bubble appeared where I'd drawn none.
[Used your head, huh?]
I drew one beside it and wrote.
[What the hell's going on?]
Each blink: my text vanished; her bubble changed.
[A muscle-brained idiot barbarian descended on your dimension. Knocked me flying too.]
[The being that descended—is it the black hole?]
[Could look that way to human eyes.]
[Then what is it?]
A name I'd heard before filled the bubble.
[Ruler of the final land beyond singularity, time, and space—the mightiest entity in material cosmos.]
Not good news for me.
[Personally, I call it this.]
Not good for our dimension either.
[Dimensional Destroyer.]