After the light split, the world had turned white.
Seol Hwi paused for a mont within the boundless white. He needed ti to figure out where this was and why he was here.
‘This is…’
He looked down at his feet.
There was nothing there.
There was nothing to stand on, and his feet were not visible.
There was clearly a form—consciousness remained and sensations lingered.
But there was nothing to see.
A contradictory space that exists and yet does not.
‘Is this the realm of Nothingness?’
It seed to be the price for destroying the System. Not a dream nor reality, as if pushed beyond the world’s boundaries.
Rustle.
He took a step. There was no tactile sensation underfoot, but he was certain he was moving forward.
A peculiar buoyancy. A unique feeling neither like walking in water nor flying in the sky.
“Heh heh heh…”
A laugh was heard.
No, rather than heard, it felt imprinted directly onto his consciousness.
Seol Hwi’s gaze sharpened.
Far away, soone sat within the white.
A faint outline—but the presence filled this infinite space.
Seol Hwi approached slowly.
With each step, a strange sensation as if the space folded.
There was distance, yet it closed in an instant.
As if the space itself responded to his will.
“It’s been a long ti.”
He appeared exactly as the white-haired, white-bearded elder.
The fight with Jang Dal.
The God he t at that mont when ti stopped.
Because this was the being he t amid frozen ti, perhaps this eting now was a natural consequence.
“Did you summon ?”
“What are you talking about? You ca to find yourself…”
“I… did, didn’t I.”
Seol Hwi accepted it quietly.
Siming Star had called him a virus.
One who had escaped the System.
A being beyond that domain.
“One who has left the System, a being outside the rules. That is you, and now I have beco the sa.”
“The laws of the world are truly wondrous.”
The old man slowly stood up.
His form was faint, but the space rippled, responding to his movent.
As if this entire white space was part of him.
“A soul that responded to the System’s call has risen beyond its master to the realm of a god.”
“…Because of the power you gave .”
Seol Hwi replied calmly.
“You gave the power to evade the System within frozen ti. That seed brought to this point.”
The old man smiled strangely.
“Yes, in a way it may have been inevitable. The ripples I cause in the world always produce corresponding reactions.”
Seol Hwi mulled over the aning of those words.
When a god intervenes, that intervention creates new variables.
That variable was himself.
“So you helped ? Did you already anticipate this outco?”
“Who knows. The future is not fixed.”
The old man shrugged. He did not look typically godlike; perhaps because of that he felt even more transcendent.
“What is this place?”
Seol Hwi asked, looking around.
An infinite white, a space with no beginning or end.
A contradictory realm that exists while not existing.
“As you can see.”
The old man spread his arms.
With that single gesture the white space rippled like waves.
“There is nothing. Not joyful nor sorrowful, rely infinite emptiness.”
Seol Hwi felt a chill run down his spine.
Suddenly he imagined being trapped forever in this white hell of nothingness.
“Uncomfortable?”
“…I don’t know.”
Seol Hwi answered cautiously. The old man’s gaze deepened.
“That would be so. You have not long occupied a god’s seat, and the remnants of emotion still linger.”
The old man took a step closer. The distance remained the sa, but his presence beca overwhelmingly large.
“The fear of an unfamiliar place will soon vanish.”
“When will that be?”
“Not vanish—be forgotten. This is a place where ti does not flow.”
It was a cold sentence.
One could not know what that would be like.
After a brief silence, Seol Hwi spoke again.
“…Perhaps that’s why.”
“…?”
“I do not wish even that—being forgotten.”
The old man stared intently at Seol Hwi.
As if looking upon his own past.
“I was the sa.”
The old man walked slowly. Ripples spread through the white space.
“I refused to beco a perfect god. That is why I remain trapped in this void.”
“Why make such a choice?”
“To erase mory, abandon emotion, and beco complete nothingness—that I did not want.”
The old man stopped.
“Without sorrow, joy cannot be known. Without pain, happiness cannot be known. What aning does such a being have?”
Seol Hwi fell silent.
Those words sank deep into his chest.
“We yearn for perfection yet cannot let go of imperfection—like humans who hate and yet long.”
The old man pointed into the void.
A faint window appeared there.
A landscape from sowhere was reflected in it.
“So I stay here. As an imperfect god within ti that does not flow, watching a world made by soone.”
“In that world… you saw .”
“Yes. I saw you.”
The old man’s expression shifted subtly.
“And I saw one more.”
“…”
“Cheon Miryeo.”
Sothing stirred oddly in his gaze.
“I saved the one who should have died, gave her awakening and brought her out of the System. And I made her et you.”
A subtle resonance was felt.
Less emotion than a learned mory of her.
“Now, what choice will you make?”
The old man looked at Seol Hwi again.
“I…”
He was at a loss for words.
Now that he had left the System, everything had beco aningless.
Revenge, honor, the future.
They were as aningless as the empty white.
“You cannot return to the world you ca from.”
The old man’s voice sounded cold.
“The mont you ca here, your System was completely destroyed.”
It was true.
There was nowhere to return to.
He was trapped outside the System’s net, in this infinite void.
“You must still have lingering attachnts.”
The old man slowly raised his head.
“No, rather than attachnt… perhaps you want to confirm your emotions.”
“…”
“Do you want to verify those emotions?”
Seol Hwi looked up.
“What do you an?”
“Place your hand on my back.”
The old man turned his back. Beyond the faint outline, sothing vast flowed.
“No matter how you closed your last life, there will be things you have not shaken off. Through them you will see which path to take.”
Seol Hwi stepped closer, one step after another.
He stopped just before reaching out his hand.
“What… will I see?”
“The path I’ve walked. The mories from when I entered the System.”
The old man slightly turned his head.
“There you will see her. Cheon Miryeo.”
Thud.
He had the illusion his heart was pounding.
Although without a body, his chest tightened.
Cheon Miryeo.
He hadn’t realized a single na could feel so heavy.
The white space trembled slightly.
Light split, and the echo of ti brushed his ears.
After hesitating, Seol Hwi reached out his hand.
When his hand touched the old man’s shoulder.
Kwaaahhh—!
The white began to swirl all at once.
A sensation unlike a rift in ti—existence itself being pulled downward.
Like falling into a deep abyss, his consciousness was sucked into another dinsion.
The white view slowly began to take on color.
Colors seeped in one by one, and before long a vivid landscape unfolded.
Wooooooom—!
A massive snowy mountain rose up before him.
“What is this…”
As his consciousness clarified, Seol Hwi slowly tried to move his body.
His fingers moved. His feet and waist moved properly.
Vivid sensations were revived from fingertips to toes.
Ssshhh.
A cutting wind slashed his face like a blade.
It was real—the cold, the wind, everything was tangible.
‘That old man… what on earth did he do?’
He had clearly been in the white space, yet now he was returned to a vivid world like reality.
No, this was not reality.
It was a world from mory.
“Wait, this place is…”
Seol Hwi looked around.
Endless snowy mountains and peaks sharp as blades.
A place so familiar.
“The snowy mountain region of the divided Kunlun Mountain Range…”
The place he once went searching for Cheon Miryeo. The place where he saw her.
At that mont realization struck like lightning.
Why he had co here and what he would see.
Only then did Seol Hwi silently begin to climb the snowy mountain.
Took, took.
The sound of drops falling echoed from the huge cave entrance.
One step inside, a chill rushed out like a waterfall.
An extre cold that seed to freeze to the bone. A blue light seeped out from the depths.
‘An ice wall…’
A massive ice wall blocked the cave interior. Beyond it, an ice forest stretched out.
Seol Hwi passed through the ice wall and entered.
‘It was originally this cold.’
When he had been here before, the cold aura did not invade this place.
It was probably due to a special barrier Cheon Miryeo had made.
But now it was in its original state.
The vast lake was frozen too.
Seol Hwi walked across the transparent ice and suddenly stopped when he saw his reflection there.
“Well now…”
The white-haired old man.
It was the God who had stopped ti.
‘I’ve entered his mory. Borrowing his body…’
Only now could he comprehend the situation. The old man had t Cheon Miryeo at that mont.
He had placed himself exactly into the mory where he had saved her.
“Then she must be sowhere…”
“Aaaaagh!”
A desperate scream rang through the cave from sowhere.
Seol Hwi hurried toward the source of the sound.
Deep within the ice forest.
Soone lay collapsed among the ice crystals.
“Hah… hah…”
Ragged breaths.
A white robe stained with blood.
Long, disheveled black hair.
He could tell even from the profile.
Cheon Miryeo.
“Help …”
She was dying.
Seeing her, Seol Hwi felt sothing drop inside him.
Although in the old man’s body, the emotion was his own.
“So this is how we t.”
He approached slowly.
A fate that should have ended in death.
A life that would have ended here if the old man hadn’t saved her.
His intervention had changed her destiny.
And thus she could et him.
Swoosh.
Seol Hwi placed his hand on Cheon Miryeo’s wrist.
When he checked her pulse, an ice-cold aura flowed back up.
‘As expected…’
Extre yin internal qi. Her own cold qi had reversed and frozen her ridians.
The cold poison had penetrated to her lungs, slowly freezing her organs.
A severe situation, and it was a race against ti.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Seol Hwi quickly pressed acupuncture points.
Heavenly point, naval point, the dantian.
They were the minimum points to open the frozen ridians.
“Ugh!”
When he injected innate qi, it collided with the cold and white steam rose.
Cheon Miryeo’s body convulsed.
“Ugh…”
She let out a groan, but Seol Hwi did not stop.
He placed both hands on her back.
His deep internal qi flowed along Cheon Miryeo’s ridians.
He unblocked each vessel, lted frozen channels, and slowly pushed the cold poison outward.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Beads of sweat ford on his forehead.
Color gradually returned to Cheon Miryeo’s ashen face.
“Hmm…”
Her eyelids began to twitch.
When Seol Hwi withdrew his hands, Cheon Miryeo slowly opened her eyes.
Her unfocused pupils grew clearer.
And she found a white-haired being looking down at her.
“…Who are you?”
A cold voice.
Full of wariness and suspicion, yet also with eyes that knew she had been saved.
Seol Hwi t her gaze.
As if it were not the first ti.
As if they had known each other for a long ti.
“A farr.”
A brief silence passed.
Cheon Miryeo’s gaze sharpened.
She too knew no ordinary farr would possess such internal strength.
Seol Hwi—or rather the old man—slowly spoke.
“And this is the body that will beco your master.”
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