Chapter 759: Gold (2)
The message made of words felt like a whisper brushing my ear. Seong Hyunjae looked at me in silence, like he’d expected this from the start.
[If the source of a living being shatters, then not even a transcendent can do anything.]
“…Rookie!”
There was nothing to gain from reading Crescent Moon’s messages. But Rookie was powerless too.
[Honey, Crescent Moon has administrator privileges too! Your world is under my jurisdiction, but something as simple as sending messages is hard to block! I could interfere with the others, but Senior Crescent Moon is connected to the Creator, so…]
I remembered Crescent Moon standing in the way of the transcendents when the system had been completed. As a system administrator—and one of its makers—did she outrank Rookie’s authority? The message continued.
[Only the source can heal the source.]
…But the source was something no one could communicate with. Countless transcendents had studied it over an impossibly long stretch of time, and not one had ever confirmed any sign of will from it.
“Um… what does that mean, Mister?”
Yerim asked, shaken. Yuhyun stayed silent, his face gone cold. My tongue felt stiff, but I forced myself to speak.
“You can’t just trust Crescent Moon. How could you?”
It might not even be true. It could be a lie to keep me from interfering.
“Unfortunately,”
Seong Hyunjae said,
“she isn’t the kind of being who would tell that sort of lie. You know that too, Han Yujin.”
“…I don’t know that. You think after all this time preparing for this, she couldn’t tell one lie to make it happen?”
I pushed back, but I already knew Crescent Moon was telling the truth. I’d felt it myself. I’d been injured before, nearly died before, but this wasn’t like that. It was something worse than the threat of death. It felt like my existence itself was slipping loose.
“…If only the source can heal it.”
Yuhyun’s voice came out low. I whipped my head toward him.
“Yuhyun, Crescent Moon is just trying to—”
“Is she?”
Our eyes met. He already knew. I could see it in his face.
“Hyung, you are strong. But your body isn’t.”
“I–if it’s true, then what are we supposed to do?”
Yerim’s eyes shook. I had nothing to say. She spun toward Puppeteer.
“Is it true? Even a real transcendent can’t do anything?”
“The source belongs to the domain of creation. No transcendent has the power to create worlds, or sentient beings.”
Puppeteer’s gaze landed on me.
“As for the fragment of the source that sentient beings carry, I don’t know much about that either. Someone like Crescent Moon would have to be the one who could sense it. She’s studied it for a very long time. To create a new source, if nothing else.”
A new source. At those words, everyone’s eyes turned to Seong Hyunjae.
There was no way. You couldn’t communicate with the source, so you couldn’t ask it to heal me, or threaten it, or bargain with it. But—
“If Crescent Moon gains control over the power of the source,”
Yuhyun said.
It was what I’d thought too, but couldn’t bring myself to say.
“Then she could heal hyung.”
If Seong Hyunjae was completed and replaced the source. If Crescent Moon got her hands on that power.
I stared blankly at Seong Hyunjae. He still looked perfectly calm.
“…Just because I’m cracked doesn’t mean I’ll break right away.”
“Hyung.”
“I don’t want that. If there’s another way, I’ll do everything I can to find it, but not that. Yuhyun. Me, you, anyone—we’re not meant to live forever. We all have an end coming.”
I wanted to live longer. If I made it home safe, I’d probably want to live for a long, long time.
Even so, I didn’t want to destroy Seong Hyunjae to save myself.
“It’d be better if it were just death. It’s not that simple.”
Puppeteer said it while absently combing a hand through his long hair. He looked thoroughly displeased.
“I figured Rookie and Crescent Moon both already knew, and one of them would say it eventually anyway.”
Come to think of it, Rookie had been unnaturally quiet. Crescent Moon’s message window had stopped too, maybe because she’d left.
“Usually, dying doesn’t mean a being vanishes completely. Especially for sentient beings below a certain level—most of the ones around S-rank or below A-rank regenerate in their own world.”
“…What?”
“The source of the dead—think of it like the soul, for simplicity’s sake—is reborn in the world it belongs to. Once in a while, they even keep memories, abilities, sometimes even their appearance from before. That’s the kind of case people call reincarnation.”
“Reincarnation is actually real…?”
“Most of the time everything’s wiped so thoroughly you can barely call them the same person, but technically, yes.”
Well, when time itself could be turned back, maybe reincarnation wasn’t that shocking.
“It means they’re not ripe enough to harvest yet. The source only devours worlds that have grown past a certain point. Until they become worth consuming, sentient beings keep cycling through that world. And through that cycle, fragments of the source slowly increase, the way a crop multiplies as it grows. Some are reincarnated, sure, but others are born anew by inheriting part of the source from their parents. In those cases, the parents need to have gone through enough cycles to be developed enough to split off a piece. That’s why some worlds hit a certain era and their population explodes.”
“And then they enter harvest season.”
Like our world.
“Your world is relatively lacking in mana. When mana is abundant, the result is quality over quantity instead. If you put it in ranks, the average would be C-rank or above.”
“Then what about sentient beings that surpass S-rank?”
Yuhyun wasn’t just some ordinary S-rank. He’d even broken away from our world, which should have pulled him out of that cycle altogether…
Puppeteer looked at Yuhyun as he answered.
“When an individual grows enough, the source swallows it. Sometimes it’s absorbed and disappears outright, but sometimes it gets sent back out. Those born as S-rank, those born of a primal vein, are usually cases like that. Not sentient beings born in a world the source created, but fragments shed directly from the source itself. Of course, some are pure fragments rather than reincarnations. Your brother’s probably closer to that second kind. If he had a previous life, then even if everything was erased, he’d have at least a little more humanity left.”
Then Yuhyun really was… no longer—
“Anyway, that source is what’s breaking. It’s different from death. Cleaner, you could say. More complete than even being absorbed by the source.”
“So hyung’s existence itself will disappear?”
“There won’t be anything left for even you to swallow. Nothing but an empty shell.”
Puppeteer let out a short sigh.
“That’s probably a big reason Crescent Moon and the other Unfilial Children are trying to stop the source. If you’re absorbed, that’s truly the end. The source is creation, but it’s also absolute erasure.”
…Was that why Crescent Moon, who claimed to love all things, could not accept the source alone? Because between ourselves, we fought and killed, but still continued in the cycle.
“Since when did you know, Mr. Seong Hyunjae?”
“That your condition was poor in general? Quite a while ago. As for the more fundamental problem… perhaps from the moment you severed the system. I had no memory, but the suspicion remained. To be precise, Crescent Moon whispered it to me when I died.”
“Crescent Moon?”
“Hold your life in your own hands.”
Back then, when I killed Seong Hyunjae.
“But the one who could save Han Yujin was not me.”
“…I’m not asking you to. But why would Crescent Moon—”
If she told him I was going to disappear, wouldn’t that only crush his will to live instead?
“She must have wanted the version of me who wanted to survive to make the attempt. Betting on the slim chance that even when completely filled, I would still remain myself.”
If he had never asked about his emotions, then maybe he would have. I could picture it easily—Seong Hyunjae stepping onto the table because survival demanded a gamble. A stray memory surfaced: him saying it had been a while since he’d gambled. It wasn’t really that he liked gambling. If anything, it was the opposite. He preferred moving pieces across the board under perfect control and exact calculation.
“You’ve bet an awful lot on me, Mr. Seong Hyunjae.”
With me being F-rank, it really had been gambling too.
“And you’re still betting on me now.”
He’d buried part of himself away, but in the end, he still expected me to find it. Because he was the kind of person who never abandoned himself.
“So I—”
[I don’t know, Honey.]
Rookie’s message suddenly filled my vision.
[I don’t want you to disappear.]
“Rookie!”
[I’m sorry. But.]
[Can’t you… just leave the chain behind? I’m not saying this because I want to help Crescent Moon. I just… don’t want you pushing yourself this far.]
My heart dropped.
I didn’t want to sacrifice Seong Hyunjae to heal myself.
But that was only how I felt.
“Hyung.”
Yuhyun stepped in front of me like a shield.
“I have no reason to help the Sesung Guildmaster.”
His voice was flat and firm.
“He has nothing to do with me. The only reason he’s ever mattered is because you kept holding on to him. You know that too.”
Yuhyun had never cared about Seong Hyunjae. Not even a little. No feeling, no interest. The only reason he was involved at all was because of me.
“I mean… I want Mister Sesung to make it too…”
Yerim said weakly. She looked completely lost. Ms. Hyunah grimaced.
“This is a nasty one. Funny how it being a situation where we just throw one person away and solve everything somehow makes it worse.”
Puppeteer said nothing. He couldn’t afford to lose Seong Hyunjae, and yet I had no idea what he was planning.
“He already tried to take only you before. That’s even more reason not to get involved. Let him deal with it himself.”
“…Yuhyun.”
“I mean, still. It’s not great to just not help Mister Sesung. But of course, Mister needs treatment too…”
“Chief Song, what are you going to do? They’re saying if you want to save your boss, you have to leave Seong Hyunjae behind.”
Chief Song said nothing.
Until just recently, all of us had been moving toward the same goal. Even people we’d only just met had come to help us.
But now I could feel it splitting apart.
Everyone had different priorities, so the paths in front of us were starting to diverge.
“…First, Han Yujin, you need to get somewhere safe. No more overdoing it.”
Chief Song’s voice came out tightly restrained. Yerim immediately agreed, saying of course that was the only answer.
But then what about Seong Hyunjae?
If I did nothing and hid, there was no way he’d trust me again. Even beyond that, I didn’t want to let go now, not at the very end.
Not after all this.
“There’s not much time left!”
Yerim shouted. Yuhyun’s hand reached for me.
If he grabbed me, it was over.
I—
[00:00]
Rumble—
The sky shook. Dense mana rippled like an aurora overhead. The presence of the nearby S-ranks swelled all at once. Yuhyun caught hold of me.
Right before he could scoop me up, I ate a Mini Mini Cookie.
“Hyung!”
I already had the White Lynx set equipped. I slipped from Yuhyun’s grip and ran. I didn’t get far before Peace, with his body already shrunk down, blocked my path.
– Krrngh!
“Peace!”
Had Peace understood Crescent Moon’s message too? I jumped toward him.
“Grab hyung!”
“Take off!”
The conflicting orders made Peace flinch. But then he spread his wings. His body expanded as he surged upward. Blue Willow Leaves scattered into the air, and Yerim hurriedly teleported up after us.
“Peace! Mister needs to rest!”
Peace hesitated. The sky was growing more and more violently distorted with light. As Peace hovered in midair, Yuhyun came up to us.
“Hyung, please—”
Yuhyun jerked.
A thin red flame skimmed over Peace’s body, searching.
“He’s not here. Hyung!”
“What? Mister!”
The two of them, startled, looked at empty air at the same time.
Like they were reading a message window.
No way.
‘Rookie!’
[I’m sorry, Honey.]
Yuhyun spun around. Yerim vanished. I’d been trying to quietly slip off the rooftop under a stealth skill, but Yerim appeared right in front of me. A second later, Yuhyun’s hand snatched me up. I could feel the weight of his emotions in the way he looked at me.
“I’m going back to normal size, so let go.”
“Hyung.”
“I’m not going to stay put quietly.”
I canceled the cookie’s effect and faced Yuhyun directly.
“I’ll keep trying to run. Maybe I’ll even succeed. Just like earlier. Just like I always have. If that’s how it’s going to be, then it’s better if you help me instead of trying to stop me.”
“…Yeah. You would do that. But I—”
I saw his hand clench into a fist.
“I’ve already held back. And I’ve kept holding back.”
My lips parted, but no words came.
Yuhyun was right too.
I knew that. I knew it, and my chest was twisting with guilt and sorrow, and still I couldn’t say I’d stop.
I didn’t want to hurt my little brother.
I didn’t want Yerim worrying herself sick.
I—
Boom!
The ground shook. The Haeyeon building rising beyond the Breeding Facility vanished in an instant. Dust exploded upward from where it had stood, and a second later the air rang again with a violent shudder.
[So you hold system administrator privileges?]
[The wager is not over. Why are you still.]
[Where is the false source?]
[Hello! It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to someone who belongs to the world!]
[What is your name]
[Say my name. Call me.]
[Honey! Close the message window! I’ll help you!]
At the exact moment we were breaking apart under our own conflicting choices, the transcendents began to interfere.
–TL Notes–
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