Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Awakening
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“Sound can exist and not exist at the same time.”
“Mm, how is that possible?”
“Ahh, you don’t know? This is why you medieval savages are…”
I shrugged confidently as I spoke.
Time to show him the glory of modern tech.
This was called noise cancellation.
It eliminates noise.
“Simple. If you play a sound identical to the original at the same time, poof! They interfere with each other and the sound vanishes!”
Of course, I had no clue about the actual principles.
It was just some half-baked knowledge I’d picked up from YouTube and Shorts, dressed up to sound legit.
But we don’t need deep electronics know-how to use computers or smartphones.
Results are what matter.
Who cares about the theory?
I could bullshit any explanation about the principles.
As long as it works.
This crazy old geezer knew zilch about physics anyway, so anything would sound groundbreaking to him.
“Interesting…. Let’s test it.”
The old man nodded with evident intrigue at my words. He snapped his fingers lightly.
A translucent face appeared in midair.
The ghostly face began to hum.
Wooong-.
A low, eerie sound resonated through the space.
The old man snapped his fingers again.
Wooong-.
This time, the same sound came from the opposite side.
Two sounds filled the space.
“It’s a spell for multiple casting. Never thought I’d use it for something like this.”
The old man added an unasked-for explanation.
But the result was failure.
The sound didn’t vanish. Instead, the two overlapped, creating a louder, more grating resonance that echoed through the cave.
“…Hm?”
The old man’s questioning gaze turned to me.
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
‘Uh, this isn’t it?’
My mind went blank. My heart felt like it was dropping.
‘Fuck. What? What? I’m screwed.’
“What happened here?”
The old man’s voice was calm as he asked.
But it didn’t reassure me at all.
That geezer seemed like the type to kill me casually.
My brain declared an emergency.
One wrong answer here, and it wouldn’t end with my arm disintegrating like before.
I might end up as one of his glass-jar organ collection, my whole body broken down.
I desperately racked my brain and spat out anything.
“Ah, ah! I think I worded it wrong! What I meant was the opposite sound! The opposite!”
“Opposite sound? What’s that?”
A faint wrinkle creased the old man’s brow.
“Uh… well… sound is a wave, right…? And waves can be inverted…?”
Damn. I don’t know. I’m a liberal arts guy.
My shallow internet knowledge had already run dry.
But the crazy old man was smarter than I thought.
He pondered my rambling for a moment, then slapped his knee.
“Hm, I think I get it. You view sound as both matter and energy?”
“Huh? Yeah….”
“That’s the fascinating part. You don’t see the opposite of existence as nonexistence.
I’ve always thought everything is either something or nothing.
It exists or it doesn’t. Isn’t that right?”
“…”
“But from what you said, that’s not the case. You’re saying if matter exists, antimatter exists too…. Intriguing. Very intriguing.”
The old man convinced himself on his own.
“Positive and negative combine to become nothing…. A new theory. Good, let’s try again.”
After concentrating for a while, the old man snapped his fingers once more.
A strange mumbling echoed through the space again—different from before, yet somehow similar.
And then, what I wanted happened.
The moment the two sounds collided, they vanished like magic.
Perfect silence.
The only sound left in the cave was my ragged breathing.
“…It opened.”
I had no idea what exactly happened or how, but anyway, success.
The box opened quietly, without a sound.
The old man looked at me with eyes gleaming with madness.
“You’re impressive. Such brilliant thinking. Reclassifying all things as positive and negative? A concept I’ve never seen in my life. Worth researching….”
I had to pretend to stay cool under his praise. I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Thanks to you, the paradox is resolved. Born from sound, yet resulting in nothing.
Now it’s possible to perfectly invoke nothing. How did you come up with this?”
“Just… a hunch.”
I bullshitted.
It was all I had.
But that answer seemed to satisfy him greatly.
The old man burst into laughter.
“Khahaha! A hunch! Excellent, perfect! I like that answer….
Magic is fundamentally the realm of senses and intuition, not logic and reason. Yet idiots obsess over formulas….
Yes, it’s been ages since I met a wild genius like you. This is enjoyable.”
The old man happily pulled an item from the box and tossed it to me.
I caught it reflexively. A heavy weight settled in my palm.
A skill book?
What landed in my hand was the golden skill book—the hidden piece that Magic Artillery had mentioned.
Finally, my reward.
After all that hell, this one skill book would more than compensate for the pain.
But why was this guy still standing there like an idiot?
He gave the reward; now he should fuck off.
As if reading my mind, the old man spoke next.
“You didn’t give me an answer; you threw me a new problem.
This isn’t the kind of teaching that can be repaid with mere compensation.”
The old man stepped closer as he spoke.
“So I’ll give you a gift in return. I’ll teach you any magic you want. Name it.”
Looks like a legend event triggered.
I nodded eagerly.
I could pick any magic!
Doesn’t that mean I could get a rainbow-grade skill?
No. Maybe the magic this guy teaches goes beyond that.
My gut told me he might reveal magic outside the tower’s rules.
“Can I think about it a bit?”
“Of course. But your time doesn’t seem infinite.”
I flinched at his words and checked the timer.
[Time Remaining: 1 min 30 sec]
Damn, barely any time left.
I quickly sorted my thoughts.
What magic was most important?
The first thing that came to mind was something simple and powerful.
Did magic like this even exist?
“Instant-kill cheat. Is there a spell that kills on sight?”
“Of course. I’d swear it could even slay demigods.
But the price is your lifespan. You age 10 years per use. Still want to learn it?”
I shook my head in horror. 10 years? No way.
But I gained info.
As far as I knew, spells like that never appeared in skill book lists.
This guy really could teach ‘any’ magic.
[Time Remaining: 1 min]
No time. I started naming the things I’d always dreamed of.
“Immortality?”
“If you want a curse that lets you endure any wound or pain without dying, easy.”
The old man’s black eyes gleamed ominously.
His voice was so sinister I refused immediately.
[Time Remaining: 45 sec]
“Money duplication magic?”
“Then everyone in the world learns of your existence and location.”
“Fuck, if everything’s like this, there’s nothing to pick. You joking?”
No matter what powerful magic I named, the old man recited its horrific risks.
I couldn’t decide easily.
[Time Remaining: 30 sec]
The old man looked at me and murmured softly.
“Pick what you truly want, what you truly need. Just grabbing the strongest magic won’t help.
Powerful magic demands a heavy price. That’s the world’s basic law. And you’re not ready to pay it.
Choose magic that fits your station. Power you can handle.”
His words made me think again.
What I really wanted right now. What I needed most.
It surely wasn’t power or wealth.
Those were tools.
But tools for what?
Why was I climbing the tower?
Why did I become a mage?
Suddenly, a scene flashed in my mind.
Me glued to my phone all day, chuckling at dumb memes. My joy. My peaceful days.
“…Right. I started all this just to shitpost on the forums.”
In that moment, I realized everything.
Why I was alive.
Why I existed.
At this instant, my mind leaped to a higher plane.
All the truths of the world became self-evident.
[Time Remaining: 15 sec]
Yeah. Forum trolling. Free, unbridled shitposting.
How many days had it been? I couldn’t even write a single post without worrying about the Agency tracking me or that Demigod guy finding me.
I needed anonymity. Perfect anonymity.
The ability to shitpost peacefully without anyone tracking me!
That was the magic I truly needed.
I looked up at the old man.
“Sir… do you know what an IP is?”
***
The old man didn’t understand my question. Naturally.
But he interpreted my request in his own fantastical way.
“Hm. You want to erase your existence from all causality in the world?
You do have a knack for intriguing ideas.
Become a ghost free from fate’s pursuit?”
He eyed me with interest for a moment, then snapped his fingers.
Black particles enveloped my body.
It didn’t feel bad.
Just a faint sense of a thin membrane forming between me and the world.
“There. You’re now free from causality.
You can evade fate’s tracking.
Sadly, it’s a spell even I haven’t tested, so it might not be sturdy.”
“Um… no side effects, right?”
“Well, that depends on how you see it. Everything’s like two sides of a coin, existing together.”
The old man gave an enigmatic answer and turned away.
His form began fading with a glow.
The hidden cave’s walls and ceiling were vanishing too.
“For some reason, I feel we’ll meet again soon.”
With those final words, the old man and his bizarre lab disappeared completely.
[Time Remaining: 0 sec]
[Congratulations on clearing Tower Floor 5 (EXTREME).]
[First Clear Bonus Applied!]
[Ranking 1st Bonus Applied!]
[All Stats +10]
[Mana Stone 800g]
The familiar clear messages appeared.
No level-up, apparently—no skill book.
But I didn’t care.
I’d already snagged a gold skill book as a hidden piece, and more importantly, I’d gotten something worth more than any skill book.
I bolted straight home after leaving the tower.
Without hesitation, I turned on my computer.
My heart pounded like mad.
How exactly would this magic work?
I logged into the Hunter Gallery and typed up a post with my usual provocative title.
[Title: Hunter Bro's Lil Sis (17) Got Knocked Up, Awkward?]
[(A pathetic-looking cat staring pic)]
[Hunter bros… what were you hoping for?]
And then, something unimaginable happened.