The Last War

They turned the tables in a single move during the second match.

In a standoff, it might end in a one-on-one draw — but in a war where securing resources was what mattered in the end, it was a different story. If the Greek team gathered just one more resource, they would complete the quest for one of their victory conditions: the Trojan Horse.

"Mr. Jisan. D-did the Student get erased?"

"…He became a Component."

"……."

Technically it wasn't annihilation, but it was no different from having his personality wiped clean off the face of the earth.

Perhaps the sight of that young boy's end had piled a heavy weight of guilt onto every visitor's heart. The air around us thickened, and silence settled in.

"Hhk—"

The middle-aged woman who had faced the Student finally choked down the sob she'd been holding back. She seemed to be caught in a tangle of emotions about the man whose victory she'd just enjoyed.

"Honestly. A kid that young, climbing this tower because he dreamed of some rich and famous life…."

Muttering to herself, the woman turned back toward the game board. It was a victory that forced you to face the end of another human being — not exactly something to celebrate with abandon.

For Jang Siwoon and me, who had been on his side, the feeling was doubly complicated.

Should I have found a way to help him more?

The reason I'd let him go was that I didn't want to put him through one last cruel tease of hope.

Or maybe — looking at it another way — I had already drawn the line, decided the Student lay beyond the territory of my own worth.

No. Even if he was a villain, I don't just stand by and watch the end of someone on my own side.

As I shook my head and shook off the thought, Jang Siwoon spoke up carefully.

"Why didn't you help the Student until the very end?"

"…Whether I tried or resisted, it was already hopeless. If it were me, I would have given up on everything — though I'm sure I'd have tried something, anything."

Because even when there's no hope, resisting is the better path. But still.

"I can't force someone else to flail around with no hope."

"……."

Jang Siwoon studied me quietly for a moment, then gently patted my shoulder. As if telling me to stop carrying the guilt.

"I've already said everything I wanted to say, but I really wish you wouldn't dwell on it. I'm not trying to blame you, Mr. Jisan."

"Siwoon…"

"There's nothing to blame. I'd have done the same."

"It's just… I keep wondering whether the Mr. Jisan I saw before would have helped that boy to the very end."

The me from before…

Before I entered the tower, people used to tell me I was a genuinely kind person. Even knowing it might be hypocrisy and contradiction, I'd wanted to keep that thin shell of goodwill intact.

"Everyone has to change, I suppose. You too, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mr. Jisan. And me."

I wasn't ashamed of who I'd become — just a little bitter about it. Jang Siwoon must have felt the same, because she bit at her lip and barely managed to swallow a sigh.

"We shall ascend to the heavens ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for the third war."

KUGUGUGUNG—

Just then, a tremendous quake tore our conversation apart. Once again Zeus made his announcement, and the ground beneath our feet began to rise.

The last war. Finally.

"You have arrived at the seventeenth floor of the Museum of Wishes."

"Mr. Jisan. We can do this."

Win the third war, and we'd climb straight up to Floor 20. No — forget the multi-floor ascension benefit. To survive at all, we absolutely had to win.

At Jang Siwoon's encouragement, I nodded with a resolute expression. My fate and hers now hung on this single round.

DENG—

"We shall commence the War of the Gods. Habaek and Poseidon."

Perhaps because everyone already knew which gods remained on each side, Zeus skipped the preamble and wrapped up the introductions quickly.

"!!"

The game board, which had stretched wide and merged together like it had for Jang Siwoon's turn, restored itself to its original sixteen squares. Then my body was pulled into the world inside the board game, as if swept up in a massive whirlpool.

Shrunk down, I was drawn by the tower's power like dust sucked into a vacuum cleaner, settling directly onto the board.

"It feels so real…"

Unlike when I'd looked down at Jang Siwoon and the Student from outside, actually being inside this game world gave it an overwhelming sense of reality.

I was utterly awed by the lavish ornamentation of the Trojan royal palace where I now stood. The distance to Troy's outer walls wasn't far, so the palace's footprint wasn't realistically vast either — but still, from the castle's interior all the way to the temple visible in the distance, none of it felt like a game piece.

Even the four spaces between region tiles, with their drawn grid lines, somehow feel like actual earth.

That was when a round hill near the Trojan palace caught my eye. For terrain so close to a palace surrounded by flatland, it was oddly artificial.

It doesn't feel like it's embracing the palace at all — just one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hill jutting up like that. Strange.

A hill you could summit in five minutes if you climbed briskly. I was staring at it, a suspicious feeling prickling at me, when Poseidon's boisterous voice pulled my attention back around.

"That distant land shall witness the majesty of the sea, river god!"

Beside the Greek team's middle-aged man stood Poseidon in all his imposing grandeur. His shadow rippled and surged like a deep blue ocean current.

One colossal wave after another gouged the earth of the board. With a single swing of his trident, the whole board would drown beneath a sea.

He's the god of the sea, so of course he's overwhelming. Though the god beside me is a god too — hardly lacking in presence itself.

"The gods have breathed life into the wars of men, so one more small victory poses no trouble."

My game piece, Habaek, walked quietly forward, calm as a placid river. Where Poseidon had a curly beard churning like breaking waves, Habaek's long beard trailed down in still lines. He carried himself with his own dignity as a god.

The moment the two water gods faced each other, the battlefield fell still — as if the darkness of the deep sea had settled over everything.

God of the river versus god of the sea. Fundamentally, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Habaek can't help being weaker than Poseidon.

Habaek wasn't merely the god of the Amnok River from Goguryeo legend — he was also a Chinese river god. More precisely, a deity from Chinese lore had influenced and become a similarly named being in our own mythology.

Even allowing for the connection between China and Korea — he's still a river god.

Which meant we'd have to overcome this with my Perk and strategy.

If the opponent were Apollo instead, I could channel an artist's soul and move him to pity. But Poseidon…

Our opponent was Poseidon. Beethoven's music or van Gogh's paintings wouldn't sway him much, no matter how moving.

Either way, I'd have to use my Perks aggressively to maximize Habaek's power.

"First, it is Habaek's turn."

Jang Siwoon sent me a silent signal with her eyes, then threw the dice.

"Two."

A perfect number — enough to advance carefully and secure a resource.

I looked up at the enormous Jang Siwoon and nodded. Just as the Greek team's middle-aged visitors had pumped each other up earlier, we needed to lean on each other and steel our courage.

The moment I advanced two squares from the starting point, a Leaflet bearing content I'd never seen before floated up.

"Mr. Jisan. This is asking whether we steal the enemy team's resources or gather our own, right?"

"Yes, that's what it looks like. So landing on this square lets you raid resources without a standoff at all."

But the wording was far too simple. Wanting to dig into the finer details, I looked at Habaek, who had moved along with me.

"How does the raid take place?"

"A standoff in which resources are staked instead of lives."

So a mini battle, then.

If this, too, followed the standoff format, my odds of beating the Greek team's man were vanishingly low.

But the Greeks only need one more resource to complete the Trojan Horse. Right now, stopping that takes priority.

"If I lose, are my own resources seized as well?"

"The choice is raid or acquire. Even in defeat, nothing of yours shall be taken."

Good. Then it's worth a shot.

Even if my chances of success were slim, I'd landed on a mini-game with minimal risk — I had to try. Jang Siwoon must have been thinking the same thing, because she simply nodded at me without a word.

I drew one deep breath, then spoke.

"I choose to raid."

"The raid shall be fought with the god's innate abilities and the visitor's Perks alone."

Oh no.

I'd expected a simpler mini-game than the full standoff, but wasn't this too much? Of course it had to limit offensive capabilities — but this much?

"Begin!"

From high above, Zeus announced the raid's start. On the face of the middle-aged man standing far across the field, pure confidence bloomed.

"No need to burn a Perk on this, brother. Sea against river — come on, yeah?"

Unfortunately for him, my problem wasn't that I didn't need to use a Perk — it was that I couldn't. My Docent ability and Soul Rental would be utterly meaningless here.

"Here comes the wave!"

Poseidon unleashed a torrent of wave attacks in our direction. What good was a Docent Leaflet against that?

Still, I couldn't just fold. As a citizen of the Republic of Korea, I decided to put my faith in the god of the Amnok River.

"Habaek!"

"Behold the power of the river."

Habaek solemnly stroked his beard and raised his arm high. As his hand swept through the air, river water came welling up out of the bare ground.

And then—

"Ugh, aaaagh—"

Habaek's river was swallowed whole by Poseidon's seawater and swept away, limp and lifeless. Spray battered my body; against that enormous current, it felt like my bones were breaking.

Thankfully — if you could call it that — the seawater didn't pour down long enough to drown me. I glared viciously at the Leaflet showing my reduced stamina and ground my teeth.

"Damn it, shit."

"Mr. Jisan, you told ME to hold it in!! He's a god, for crying out loud!"

Who knew a god's attack could be bent so helplessly in a single second? If this was a tower shared by visitors from all over the world, there was no home-field buff just for being a Korean god.

The moment the curse burst out of my mouth, Jang Siwoon frantically tried to calm me down. Funny — I was the one who'd stopped Jang Siwoon from losing it during the first match. Now that I was participating directly as a Sacrifice, I couldn't hold my temper to save my life.

"Habaek has failed the raid."

"Nice going, mister!!"

"We've got this!"

The moment Zeus proclaimed my defeat, the Greek team's middle-aged visitors erupted in enthusiastic cheers. While their spirits shot skyward, Jang Siwoon and I could barely conceal our bitterness.

"Poseidon. Three."

The middle-aged woman was in such a frantic hurry that she threw the dice before Zeus had even finished speaking.

Wrong answer, please. Just let me buy a little more time.

Or better yet, let that monster that had clung to Jang Siwoon come out and waste their stamina—

"A sacred site!! Resource choice, let's go!"

Oh no.

The man leapt into the air, cheering yet again. Advancing three squares from the start, the middle-aged man had landed, of all things, on a sanctuary square. Naturally, he chose to acquire a resource and was now solving the question with a careful face.

Miss it. Come on, miss it.

"Correct!"

"We're screwed."

Jang Siwoon and I swore in perfect unison.

"We did it, sweetheart!!"

Before the middle-aged man, the three resources the Greek team had gathered floated in midair. Wood, mana, stamina. The three combined, blazing with dazzling light — and when the light faded, a colossal Trojan Horse of timber stood revealed.

"From this moment, we march with the Trojan Horse."

Poseidon stirred seawater beneath the horse's wheels, letting it roll along on its own power. The middle-aged man stamped his feet in small, restless hops, clearly aching to charge forward at once.

One of Greece's victory conditions has been met.

I called the final victory conditions I'd seen earlier back to mind.

Now, to defend the palace, I would have to hold back Poseidon, the middle-aged man, and the Trojan Horse itself. And on top of that, we had to drain the Greek team's resources.

Hold on. That order, actually…

Yes.

It isn't over yet.

Fate flowing against us — that's what I'd believed. But the way I've always done it, grinding my brain desperately even at the极限 of desperation, even in the most extreme circumstances, is how you seize a chance to turn the tables.

That's right, Kim Jisan. Let's do this.

I clenched my fist hard as I glared at the Trojan Horse.