Chapter 105
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: The 31st Piece Overturns the Game Board
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This was another darkness.
Unless you focused intently, the space appeared utterly empty, yet it teemed with tiny lives.
Those lives had carved out a world of their own.
He opened his eyes.
'Who am I? What the hell is going on?'
Everything felt vividly real.
'No... is this reality?'
Without thinking, he touched his face and felt massive fangs protruding.
What kind of creature was he?
Judging by those fangs alone, he guessed he must look pretty terrifying.
'Am I alone?'
That didn't seem to be the case.
The noises around him proved it.
Crunch... cruuunch.
Slurp...
Sizzle...
The ones devouring their meal with greedy gusto were children like him, with long, protruding fangs.
Their eyes glowed red.
'Ugh...'
For some reason, he hated them.
He was afraid to get close.
Even so, he approached them anyway.
Cruuunch!
What they were eating like madmen was the flesh of another beast.
The flesh of a human—intelligent, capable of speech.
He couldn't tell if their skin was naturally red or if it was smeared with blood.
'Urk...'
His own eyes began to turn red like theirs.
The wild could not be tamed.
The blood boiling inside him seemed to scream that truth.
'Do I... have to accept it?'
Whoosh.
Unconsciously, he reached out.
Perhaps his mind was too weak to resist desire even as he despised them.
'I'm... hungry... so hungry.'
His hand drew near the blood-soaked corpse.
The moment his mouth touched it, he knew he'd surrender to savagery forever. But he couldn't refuse.
The severed arm was heavy for his young body; it took both hands to barely hold it up. Yet the weight brought not irritation or disgust, but joy.
Chomp...
He opened his saliva-filled mouth wide.
'Wait... no... I can't... I shouldn't...'
That's when he felt eyes watching him from somewhere.
He whipped around guiltily, searching for the gaze.
A man. Some man was looking at him.
What was in those eyes?
'That's... pity.'
Pity, sorrow, regret.
Or disappointment.
All of it swirled in the man's gaze.
Whoosh, flick.
The man shook his head gently. Then he spoke.
"Don't do that."
'Don't eat?'
The man just looked at him.
He felt ashamed for some reason.
He didn't want to disappoint those expectant eyes.
Thwack!
He lashed out at the arm in frustration, snorting.
"Makes me sick. I'm not eating this crap. I can handle the hunger."
As the words left his mouth, the others turned to stare, as if he'd spouted nonsense.
But with that man watching from afar, he couldn't eat it now. That face felt strangely familiar.
Space distorts.
Screeeeech—
Ringing pierced his ears.
"Jamad, you are a troll."
A completely unexpected face appeared.
Elder trolls, the tribe's ancestral shamans.
Four peers sat beside Jamad.
They looked utterly ridiculous.
"What are brothers in the Rock Fang Tribe, Jamad?"
"Eternal comrades and allies. Or ones who take your pain as their own and share your glory."
"From this day, you five will be brothers."
"Brothers? These idiots my brothers?"
"Yes. You will rule the Rock Fang Tribe alongside them."
A question mark formed in his mind.
'Weird. Of course it's strange—they're strangers, but suddenly brothers?'
He refused.
"...No. I won't accept it. I choose my own brothers."
"Rebellion is futile. The tribe has decided. You will now share the brothers' curse."
"No! I said no!"
Someone. Anyone, help.
'No one... is anyone there? Look at this madness!'
Jamad's eyes scanned the crowd, but all turned away.
Except one pair of eyes.
Golden eyes watched him.
"Help me... speak for me!"
He looked, but didn't expect anything.
Yet the golden-eyed man spoke for him.
"They're not your real brothers."
Flash!
Fwsh fwsh fwsh!
Every other troll glared at the man. Terrifying, but he stood firm.
He even lifted his chin defiantly.
Space distorts once more.
Relief washed over him that the man was safe.
'Huh? This place...'
The altar, also called the Primal God Temple.
Countless trolls groveled, sobbing with heads to the ground.
Sulfur surged, lightning struck, and gale-force winds tore at clothes.
The Primal Gods looked down on the dumb trolls with nothing but contempt and arrogance.
"Don't do it, stop!"
Don't serve them.
They're just using you.
Sacrifices were offered on the Primal Gods' altar.
A fairy with pearl-like skin, a plump orc, small humans, corpses of other races. Even troll bodies.
One corpse felt strangely familiar.
He knew who that woman was.
"M-Mother?"
It was his mother.
How he knew, even with her face now blurred.
In that moment, immense pressure bore down on his shoulders.
"Grhh..."
The Primal God's gaze fixed on him.
Purgar, spewing sulfurous fire, declared,
"Submit, savage. Your power comes from us. Bow to the trembling might."
He could say nothing, do nothing.
His knees began to buckle.
Then, a fragrant floral scent wafted in. Inhaling it strangely dissolved the Primal God's pressure.
He straightened his knees and looked toward the scent.
'Who? No way?'
It was that man again.
He stood with his back turned.
Now he understood the flower scent.
A flower field stitched with colorful blooms. The man stood on a windy hill, crafting something.
A flower crown woven from blooms.
The man placed it somewhere naturally.
He walked slowly through the flowers toward him.
The crown adorned a gravestone.
'...Mother.'
It had to be Jamad's mother. Why else would tears suddenly flow?
'Why?'
Why did this man keep helping him?
Curiosity about his identity was turning to resentment.
"You... who are you?"
The man didn't answer, just beckoned with his fingers.
The gesture seemed to command a specific action.
"Kneel? Why... ugh!"
In that instant.
Fwoooosh—!
Fwoooosh—!
Wingbeats like a storm shook the air. His small body nearly flew away.
"Kgh..."
Shwooooooo!
Flowers on the hill bowed before the ferocious wind.
Jamad knew who caused it.
The Earth Mother Tankrid.
Her colossal body, her nobility too divine to behold. A dragon born with the stars.
An overwhelming force of violence. His mind crumbled before that great being.
"Damn... damn it all!"
No means, no method could touch her.
Watching Tankrid soar toward the sunset, he despaired again and again.
Fwoooosh—!
"I... can't fly."
No wings, so he couldn't soar like Tankrid.
Couldn't claim the skies like her.
Then.
That man appeared again.
He always showed up like this.
"Jamad, come on."
Flash.
Tap tap...
The man who'd crowned the grave grabbed Jamad's wrist and led him.
Through flowers, over precarious paths, to the hill's edge. The man stood silently; he did too.
And realized.
Whiiiish.
Below stretched vast lands, rivers, countless lives. Awe greater than his inferiority before Tankrid surged.
Tankrid was magnificent.
But even she owned only the sky, not the world.
The world was that vast.
Untaken by any, vibrant and alive. Wheat ripened golden, animals fattened, rivers flowed.
The world simply was.
The earth was never smaller than the sky.
"Yeah... that's right."
Sentences formed in his heart.
I am a troll.
I am Rock Fang.
"...I am Jamad. Now I know who I am."
His small body grew.
Muscles defined, fangs lengthened.
He kept growing.
Until he regained his true form.
Finally, his eyes embraced the world.
"So it was you. Kahahahaha!"
The man who'd guided young Jamad had vanished.
He'd awakened the wandering child troll.
Watched until the boy became a man.
Until he realized his true self.
"I, who grasp creation's mysteries and stellar truths... Snowman, how presumptuous. I can rise on my own."
This was a dream.
A filthy, rotten dream.
- Casually meddling in someone's memories can devour not just them, but you too. Everyone dies.
Jamad took in the land.
The red glare in his eyes even looked beautiful now.
"I am Jamad. I... will one day be king of this land."
Thud—!
[You are in peril. What will you do?]
"4... 4."
Like all things in life, it didn't always go smoothly.
Right now, his choice was wrong.
"No!"
"Oh dear..."
The masked ones covered their mouths, stifling laughs. Kang Seol bit his lip until it bled, feeling their mockery.
"Snowman, ugh... your wrong choice has left the swordsman one-armed."
In that moment, the piece screamed.
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
One mistake inflicted eternal damage on the piece.
Thud!
"S-Sorry."
The game piece piece turned to Kang Seol. Blood tears welled in its eyes, embodying hatred.
"You... you did this to me."
"But..."
"You should've chosen right. You shouldn't have made me like this!"
Kang Seol bowed his head in terror.
But the horror didn't end there.
[Dissolution is occurring. All emotions are fading. What will you do?]
...
"2!"
Riiip.
"H-Huff... haa... haa..."
The woman in the ornate mask bared her fangs in mock pity. But Kang Seol sensed her stifled laughter too.
Thud—!
"Oh my, this time your mage lost an eye? And you failed to stop the dissolution too."
"N-No. This isn't my fault!"
"Making excuses? You made the choice."
The mage, bandaged over one eye, glared at Kang Seol.
"All your fault. Looking down from above, did some pathetic superiority complex grip you? Think you control me? Answer!"
Kang Seol was speechless.
He just shut his mouth, head bowed like a criminal, suffering.
Thud—!
The gods rolling dice with him, the game pieces.
Even his own shadow.
The whole world felt like enemies.
Any gap, and sharp blades would pierce his flesh.
Thud—!
Kang Seol's vision blurred.
This nightmare was stitched from his deepest vulnerabilities.
Kang Seol pretended to be normal, but he wasn't.
Strange dreams plagued him since childhood, persisting into adulthood.
Surprisingly, this secret remained kept. He'd told no one.
It wasn't normal.
Thud—!
How could it be?
But the reason was simple.
Kang Seol's inner world was twisted.
More than the loneliness and world's cruelty, he preferred the dream world of laughing dice rolls. He'd call it fantasy; others, delusion.
Reality and dream had inverted.
He hated waking, immersed in the Eternal World.
'I... don't need anything else. Just my friends and this.'
Masked friends, game board like reality.
Kang Seol was swayed more and more.
No, he wasn't even sure they were friends.
"Oh no!"
"Hahaha! Snowman, what now?"
Of course he felt guilt toward the piece. His mistake hurt it; his responsibility.
"Looks like your piece is in trouble again?"
Another mistake.
Kang Seol checked which piece was endangered.
A snowman figure like himself stood there.
'What? That's me?'
The gods cackled wickedly.
Thud—!
"Hahaha! Snowman, Kang Seol's in crisis. What'll you do?"
"Fail and he dies? Hurry!"
"Time's almost up. Fail again and it's over for real!"
"Choose..."
The gods showed their true colors, pressuring him.
"Choose."
Crimson fangs, serpentine tongues flicked from their mouths.
"Choose!"
Kang Seol hated this moment of forced choice. He wanted to abandon choosing altogether. That psychological pressure manifested real.
[■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■?]
1. ■■■■ ■■
2. ■■■ ■■■■
3. ■■■■
4. ■■ ■■■■■■
……
Life wasn't a game.
Not simple enough for snap choices on the right path.
Thud—!
Thud—!
"Uwaaaaah! Thud! Stop the thudding already! It's been so damn loud!"
Kang Seol screamed, cornered.
This space was unbearably noisy.
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't hear it? The thud thud?"
"Thud?"
Thud—!
Thud—!
Kang Seol rose as if entranced.
"W-Where are you going?"
"The sound... it's coming from here, right here..."
Thud—!
Like a doctor pressing a stethoscope to a wound, Kang Seol pressed his ear to the empty space.
Ruuuumble—!
"Ugh..."
Someone was there.
Besides those playing the game.
Thud—!
Crack...
A tiny fissure split the dark space. Through it gleamed eyes.
Beast eyes dyed red.
Kang Seol had seen those eyes before.
A distant memory.
He'd saved a child with such eyes.
That child, now grown, was shattering the wall imprisoning Kang Seol.
A voice came from beyond.
"Finally, you see me."
Jamad spoke.
"I've been pounding forever."