Episode 149. Jeong Si-woo (3)
The five guardians were powerful.
They were so powerful that the present-day mbers of the Jeong Si-woo Division couldn’t handle them. And they possessed many powers that were more incredible than what I rembered.
“Ugh… Uhhh…….”
But the ‘Five Heroes’ were way stronger. Just the five of them had always overco all sorts of incidents and unexpected events in the past.
I wasn’t aware when I commanded them directly, but I could tell for sure now that I viewed them as a third-party. They were so powerful that I was uncertain if we could defeat them if we t as enemies.
‘Well, we’re on the sa side, so there’s no need to worry about that.’
Thud!
The last guardian fell helplessly to the ground. None of the ‘Five Heroes’ were injured at all.
Many hunters were dead, and Han Yeon-soo’s army was mostly permanently damaged. But no one despaired or mourned.
“Great Overlord.”
“Ugh… Aaargh…….”
Because it was over.
The Disaster that held onto all my life was finally over.
“It… it hurts…….”
The Great Overlord looked no different from an ordinary boy. All of his allies were gone, and he was groaning as he shook, lying on the ground. He looked weak, unlike in the past when he brought about the end of the world.
“How boring. If things were this easy, it wouldn’t have ended like that. Don’t you think?”
“…Right.”
“So our job here is done?”
“Yes.”
Asked the other ‘’. He was already smoking another cigarette. He finished smoking, shook off the ash, and was now disappearing along with the smoke.
“I hope we never et again.”
“I agree.”
“I an, it’s not that I hate seeing you……. I just don’t want to be summoned to deal with circumstances like this. You understand, don’t you?”
He spoke with a grin. Although we were the sa person, he was unfamiliar in so ways. Did I use to joke like this?
The Analyst Jeong Si-woo who experienced death and sunk to the depths instead of coming back in ti, had beco a different person due to that small twist in fate.
He was a steadfast ally that was very similar to but not identical. That was the Jeong Si-woo that the Great Legacy brought back to life.
“Good. Well, I suppose you do understand……. I’ll head back with my hunters now. You can clean up the rest, can’t you?”
“Better than you can.”
“Sure. Well… If you have a chance to summon us again, make it a drinking party with everyone after the monsters are all gone. How does that sound?”
“No thanks. Let’s never et again.”
“So cranky. Okay, then…….”
Fizzle.
He disappeared before finishing his words. I snuffed out the cigarette butt he left behind. And taking a step forward, I approached the Great Overlord. He was crawling on the ground.
“What an insignificant end. Don’t you agree, Great Overlord?”
“Uhh…….”
“I guess you might find it unfair that you’re dying before doing anything significant. But… I felt pretty crappy when I died, too. So, if you don’t like it, you can go back in ti like I did, then find and kill . Okay?”
“Ughhh! You ba… stard─”
Thud, thud.
The Great Overlord tried to yell, but his head fell off. I glanced back, and the past-life Kim Seung-hyun wasn’t gone yet. He was calmly holding up his sharp sword.
“Now I have repaid my debt. I heard that he threw my head at you and gloated.”
“…….”
“I guess you wanted to finish him off, but I harbored a grudge, as well. You understand, don’t you?”
“…Of course I do, Seung-hyun Hyeong.”
The past-life Kim Seung-hyun smiled faintly. And with the flash of his sword, the old-ti ‘Five Heroes’ vanished completely.
At the sa ti, the darn monsters howled loudly all around the -Land of Death-. They were mourning the death of their overlord.
Their overwhelming noise caused a few hunters who gathered in to frown. Instead of frowning along, I picked up a dagger and thrust it into the headless Great Overlord’s chest.
With the sound of his shell ripping apart, a red core revealed itself. The source. Once this was gone, Rifts would no longer appear. The unstable Dinsional Distortion Phenona would disappear, and invaders would no longer threaten this world.
“…Mr. Si-woo?”
“I’ll do it.”
I gripped the dagger upside down. And without hesitation, I stabbed it into the core. The core was hard. It didn’t break with a single blow. Feeling my hand ache, I stabbed it once more. The core cracked slightly. Again and again.
As I repeated the process, nobody made a sound. Everyone held their breath as they witnessed the historical mont, and I quietly brought an end to the Disaster.
Crack, crunch!
With a sowhat anticlimactic sound, the core broke. And the red sky regained its original color. The sky that had been distorted due to nurous Rifts reclaid its beautiful blue glory as was recorded in the textbooks.
“Oh…….”
A voice broke the silence. It wasn’t a yell or a roar of joy. So looked up at the sky in disbelief, and so cried silently.
The world was saved. Less than 10 percent, no, 1 percent of the entire human race had saved the vast world and its nurous people. The emotions they felt were indescribable with words.
I keenly felt those emotions, as well. My heart felt overwhelmingly full. Lee Hyun-seung wiped his uncharacteristically reddened eyes, and Yoo Ji-yeon looked up at the sky in a daze.
We saved the world.
We did it all.
“…Mr. Si-woo!”
Han Yeon-soo hugged . I didn’t say anything and stood still, holding her. And at that touching mont, I felt a strange emotion.
Like a smooth turning gear had fallen out of place, it felt like a creaking sound was ringing sowhere in my head.
-You… will regret this.
It was a voice that felt like the Traveler’s, but it was entirely different.
A voice full of extre hatred and humiliation.
-How… dare you break the system and go against the rules. You are rely a chess piece in a ga… How dare you…….
The voice sounded like a broken machine, and it kept tornting . Listening to the voice, I glared into the empty space.
-I will… crush everything. Everything you had… as a mortal… and everything you gained as a Transcendent……. Everything. Everything!
There was no need to feel scared. I was no longer beneath him. I was on the sa level.
Han Yeon-soo kept speaking in a tearful voice, but I couldn’t understand her words. I held her tight and patted her back.
I wasn’t going to let go of anything. Like the Akashic Records said, I wasn’t going to sacrifice myself. I was going to get everything I wanted without surrendering a single thing. I was going to be greedy and hold on tight.
[#Freedom.]
[A story based on the keyword handed over by the Akashic Records has been completed.]
.
.
[-Two Attempts, Complete Success-]
[Your first achievent.]
[Based on the achievent, the ‘user’s class’ is stored in the Akashic Records.]
[“Good job.”]
* * *
Rifts no longer appeared in the world. Many monsters were still roaming around, but their number rapidly decreased over ti.
The world changed. Just like how the world was turned upside down when the first Rift occurred, it changed swiftly the mont the Rifts disappeared.
The mana studies and magic that nurous people developed beca useless. As the Dinsional Distortion Phenona disappeared, people slowly lost their mana, characteristics, skills, and stats.
Hunters beca a thing of the past. The -Guilds- still maintaining their forces, and the -Association- that still held onto its belief were more than enough to eradicate the few remaining monsters.
“…I’m jobless now, and I don’t have anything. So you have to take care of , Mr. Si-woo.”
“Don’t you have a lot of money saved up? The number of buildings you own…”
“They all crashed down. I can’t even get compensated for them~”
“You’re such a liar.”
And Han Yeon-soo, who lost her Queen’s army, was clinging onto . It looked like she had no intention of letting go.
Yoo Ji-yeon and Lee Jin-woo left in search of new professions, and Kim Seung-hyun was still training himself although he lost his powers. And I heard that Zhang Wei was doing very well as a doctor, the best profession both before and after the Rift occurrences…….
I thought everyone would be at a loss, but they were all adapting quite well.
“Okay, I’ll take care of you. So let go of , will you?”
I was the only one who remained the sa amid the changed reality. My powers as a Transcendent didn’t disappear. Rather, I was becoming stronger with ti.
The power inside was so much stronger than right after I transcended. As if I was absorbing the Awakeners’ disappearing powers, I grew stronger every minute and every second. Was there so sort of connection between the two? I couldn’t tell for now.
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t know.”
“I lost my powers, and the Association is going to take care of the clean-up, right? We have so much ti…….”
“Well, let’s rest first. We’ve been busy for quite a while.”
“Sounds good. We can stay at ho for a few years, sticking to each other like this. Hehe.”
Yes. It was a constant repetition of days like this.
This wasn’t so bad… but sothing kept bothering .
[Haven’t you rested enough? Why don’t you co back now?]
Ever since I killed the Great Overlord, the Traveler kept pestering .
And in response to his annoyingly persistent voice, I was making the sa excuse over and over again.
‘There’s still a lot I have to deal with. I’ll go back when it’s ti.’
[…When it’s ti? And why do you have so many things to deal with? Are you planning on having a kid? Let warn you in advance, I don’t recomnd a Transcendent making a child with a mortal…….]
‘Stop it. Just wait a little longer.’
[You haven’t made a child already, have you?]
‘……’
I shook my head at his ridiculous words.
The voice soon disappeared.
“You’re shaking your head by yourself again. Is it so sort of weird habit?”
“Yeah. It’s a habit.”
“Hehe. Oh, right. Mr. Si-woo, when did you get these? You said they weren’t scars when I asked last ti… And they don’t look particularly aningful to be tattoos.”
Said Han Yeon-soo, who was chattering away in my arms. She was talking about my hand.
The lines drawn on my palm.
“They’re just tattoos.”
“They look creepy sotis. I an… who gets all these lines as tattoos? You have so many.”
Like she said, countless lines were engraved on my palm. So many that it was impossible to count them all in one day. I grinned. Yes, they did look quite hideous.
“I’m going to get rid of them later. When it’s ti.”
Once I was done with everything, I was going to take them all off.
But I wasn’t prepared yet.
Countless Transcendents could endanger this world, including the Traveler. I had created nurous powers in preparation. And before I reached a position where no one could recklessly provoke , I wasn’t going to let go of these powers.
“Just wait.”
I saved the world, but my fight wasn’t over yet.
“Just a little longer.”
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