Chapter 387
Chapter 387
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 387
>Chapter Title: End of the Distorted Dream
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Whooooosh…
A shadow separated from Yurin’s body.
The shadow, taking the form of a human, approached Shin Yu.
It stroked his hair.
“Cough… Seol-ah, is that Kang Seol?”
“…I’m listening.”
“Impressive… Looks like I’m the weakest among Master’s disciples. I thought… I was pretty damn strong…”
“…Don’t say that.”
“You know… I realized it while clashing with you all.”
“…What?”
Shin Yu grasped Kang Seol’s hand.
“That it wasn’t Yurin. The way out of this place… wasn’t Yurin…”
“…What?”
“It was me. Heh… It was me after all. The illusion was real. Not a side effect of the drug…”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Shin Yu’s illusion had been real.
“It wasn’t some drug-induced hallucination… The Dream Demon that dwelled within me whispered. That I had to kill Yurin… Yeah… From the start, it was me I had to kill, not Yurin… I only realize it now…”
The Dream Demon.
The wicked being coiled in the second gateway.
It had been blocking us from escaping the dream.
Swish…
“Yurin… Kang Seol… It’s over. Time to wake from the dream.”
“……”
“In the end… you were right, Kang Seol.”
Without Yurin, who had overcome the Yacha, they never could have defeated Shin Yu at his peak.
In the very last moment, Kang Seol had been right.
“…Yurin, I’m sorry.”
“It was fun, Shin Yu.”
“Take it slow… I’ll be waiting… for you.”
Thud…
[You’ve achieved an unprecedented feat in the Distorted Dream Gateway.]
[Acquiring additional rewards.]
[Upon waking from the dream, you will retain some of the abilities gained within it.]
……
The three became two.
Rumble…
[Time to wake from the dream.]
[The dream world is collapsing.]
……
Just like what happened in the Myriad Phenomena Library, the world beyond the horizon was crumbling.
It began from the farthest point away from Kang Seol and Yurin.
The world was shrinking by the second.
The continent plummeted into the void.
Srrrr…
Yurin and Kang Seol sat with their hands clasped together.
“Haha…”
“Ha…”
The blizzard stopped.
It wasn’t that the snow had ceased falling.
The weather itself had frozen in place.
The falling snow hung motionless in the air. The heartbeat of the world had stopped.
Soon, the world would vanish.
Perhaps grand music would swell with the curtain call.
“It was… a long dream, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah… it really was.”
The two talked.
The tale of a world at its end was surprisingly mundane.
“So many ridiculous things happened.”
They had dipped into brutal hells, but also guided countless people with light.
Gollun.
Santos.
Figures from the veil, and even Yu Hyun.
All were souls Kang Seol possessed.
Like a fleeting lantern show, everyone who had passed by came to mind.
“Seol-ah.”
“Yeah.”
“If I’d had people like that… maybe the Yacha wouldn’t have been born?”
“…Probably.”
The girl found in the scrapyard of the docks had held infinite potential. For such a being to become a demon lord ensnaring people in chains of sin.
Even knowing the future, it was hard to believe.
In the end, it was all about human connections.
“So many choices… so many regrets.”
“But you kept choosing right up to the last.”
Rrrrrumble…
The vibrations of the collapsing world reached them here.
“Now, let’s go back.”
“……”
“…Yurin?”
Yurin didn’t answer.
“…No?”
“Seol-ah, actually… there’s one last choice left.”
“I’m going back with you. That’s my choice.”
“No, the remaining choice isn’t yours. It’s mine.”
“…What, what the hell are you saying?!”
There was no time.
The world’s collapse would only accelerate.
“Do you know how the Yacha was born?”
“……”
“By rejecting the world. The Yacha always thought such a world should just disappear.”
“…What does that matter?”
“Through this dream… that root has crumbled.”
Drip…
Drip…
Yurin shed tears.
“I’ve come to like the world. I don’t hate it anymore…”
“Let’s go back… please…”
Yurin shook her head.
“The Yacha can’t exist anymore. If it can’t reject the world… it was never even born.”
Kang Seol wanted to tell her to reject it then, but he clamped his mouth shut.
That wouldn’t be Yurin.
Just the Yacha.
“You understand… my choice?”
“…I do.”
Returning to the Yacha was simple.
Just erase all of Yurin’s memories.
Then everything spent here would never have happened.
She would reject the world once more.
However…
“Sob… I can’t make it never happened, Seol-ah. Everything that happened to us… to me, Yurin… I can’t erase it all.”
Swish…
Kang Seol silently embraced Yurin.
“Hehe… Feels weird melting into the shadow.”
“Don’t like it?”
“It’s warmer than I thought. I was always… scared of the dark.”
“……”
“But not anymore.”
Yurin looked at Kang Seol.
“You were pitch-black light to me.”
“…Pitch-black light?”
“If I just followed where the light flowed… it wasn’t scary. We were together. What about you?”
“…What?”
“The me behind the mask, so fragile… pathetic… you didn’t hate that, right?”
Kang Seol trembled his lips into a smile.
“It has nothing to do with the mask.”
Rumble…
The vibrations grew stronger.
The collapse was drawing near.
“You have to go, Seol-ah. A stopped world doesn’t suit you.”
“…What about you?”
“I’ll vanish, just like this.”
“……”
“But I’ll remain.”
She had already resolved herself.
“As a story, inside you.”
“A story…”
- Master said it’s not necessary to have a goal to get stronger.
- …Really?
- Yeah. Instead, he said this. Ahem… You need a story.
- …A story?
- Yeah! All strength follows a story. Um… so, like, I…
Yurin finished the story she couldn’t back then.
The feelings she couldn’t convey.
“Now, I’m your story.”
“Yurin… I…”
A soft touch enveloped him.
Yurin kissed Kang Seol’s eyes.
“Now I’ll get to see the world you soar into.”
“……”
Boom…
The house they’d stayed in plummeted far below.
Soon, they would vanish too.
“The one who always stole from you… I’m grateful to have something to share now. I only ever took from you…”
“Yurin, we’re together, right?”
“Yeah! Together. Ah… and…”
She smiled.
“Happy birthday, Seol-ah.”
“……”
“I was truly happy… This dream… I was really, really happy…”
“……”
Bursting emotions.
“I… ugh… I don’t… don’t want to part like this… ugh… I’m sorry… ughhh… Because I’m… the Yacha… It was a truly happy dream.”
Plop…
Kang Seol was pushed toward the crumbling cliff.
Yurin, crying, forced a smile in this moment.
“What kind of dream was I to you?”
The world receded.
Their final moment with Yurin.
In a mere one-pyeong space, the two remained once more.
A wolf stayed by her side.
The wolf spoke.
“It’ll be lonely. Being left alone.”
“Yeah.”
“It’ll hurt. To vanish.”
“Yeah.”
“You might be forgotten.”
“……”
Yurin shook her head at the wolf.
“That won’t happen.”
“…You’re right. It won’t. I’ll carry it forever.”
They leaned on each other.
“Thank you, Yacha.”
“Thank you, Yurin.”
“Wounded by people, healed by people.”
“That’s the world for you.”
“Haha! Why…”
Yurin gazed at the vanishing world.
“Is the whole world stopped, but my tears won’t stop? Ugh…”
“Of course. You’ll get used to it.”
“Will we meet again?”
“Someday… if he even becomes a god?”
“Aw… that’s…”
“Believe it. He’s the guy who pulls off anything.”
“…Should I?”
She stopped crying.
“Yeah, this time I’ll believe in the Yacha.”
Yurin leaning on the Yacha resembled the human radical 人.
* * *
Everyone tried to wake from the dream.
[Waking from the dream.]
[Mid-settlement of the great march is underway.]
……
[Determining rewards. You will take only some of the abilities acquired.]
That wasn’t the Yacha’s way.
A world defeated by the Yacha loses everything.
[The Yacha’s final power manifests.]
[All abilities acquired during the gateway breakthrough are now usable.]
[Enlightenment! Awakening new ability.]
[Endurance: Awakening Pain Resistance.]
[Enlightenment! Awakening new ability.]
……
Countless messages appeared.
Kang Seol felt the changes in his body.
His hair was longer than before, his frame more solid.
It wasn’t just physical.
Right now, he was maintaining the Yacha state.
Kang Seol in Yacha state resembled Yurin as the night crow.
Black energy, presumed to be shadow, flowed from his extremities…
A laughing mask covered his face.
Crackle…
Suddenly, everything but the lower jaw shattered and vanished.
Swish…
Kang Seol removed the mask and stared blankly at it in his hand.
The mask was pure white.
Tears flowed from Kang Seol’s eyes, but his mouth smiled.
- What kind of dream was I to you?
“The same for me.”
On his twenty-eighth birthday, the dream closed.
“It was… truly a happy dream, Yurin.”
Ebony Labyrinth, Second Gateway.
Distorted Dream Gateway concluded.
Finally, he awoke from the dream.
No deaths, but one left behind.
Now, they could never face the same winter again.
[Prepare yourselves. A great step forward approaches.]
……
Once more, a new story is about to begin.