The World after the Fall Chapter 211 - Big Brother (5)

Chapter 211: Big Brother (5)

He walked in darkness. He walked and walked and walked. He sotis ran and swung his sword at emptiness, but he knew everything was pointless. Unleashing his world power, walking or running. Nothing worked. He could not get out of this space. Maybe Jaehwan had realized this too late.

A space of endless darkness. Maybe the space at the beginning of ti was like this. Jaehwan had just walked a few steps into this space when he felt everything was upon him now. He would et Big Brother, defeat him, and everything would be over.

However, the darkness did not stop no matter how far he walked. The darkness was so complete that he did not know where he was walking. The only sound inside of this empty darkness were his footsteps and his own voice when he shouted.

“Big Brother!”

He also looked for any signs of people, but no one replied to his presence. He was completely alone in this giant space.

A month passed. The only reason Jaehwan was certain of how much ti had passed was that he used his unique world to keep track of ti. And after a month of investigation, he found out many things about this place.

First, there was no way of getting out. The only possible way might be using the entrance he used, but he had long forgotten where it was. It was possible that he might exit when the eye ‘blinked’ again but...

‘I can’t go back.’

He couldn’t go back to . That was not an option. The only option left was to move forward, but the problem was that he did not know which way was ‘forward’. Jaehwan wasn’t sure how big this place was as it seed to span infinitely. Maybe this space was sothing that Big Brother created, that seed like the only possible answer.

‘Dammit.’

Jaehwan had no choice but to walk aimlessly, and like that, a month had passed.

“Hey, is anyone there?”

It was quite painful that there was no one to answer his call.

Painful? What was painful? Painful that he was alone?

Jaehwan felt like he had beco weak. He had stabbed alone for years in the Tower of Nightmares and did not need anyone to talk to him. But maybe it was those stabs that allowed him to endure being alone. His goal and the change that ca from all those stabs allowed him to endure everything, but what about now?

‘If I stab like before...’

He thought about it. He had given up on wishing that his ‘stab’ would beco powerful by repeatedly practicing, but there was a possibility that he might co to so kind of realization through stabs and find a way out of this place by ripping it apart.

Jaehwan then decided to think simply. If Big Brother did not co to et him, then he needed to cause enough trouble for Big Brother to co. He began to stab into emptiness.

Once, twice....

They were precise and powerful stabs. Stabs that did not care about how many tis he repeated. Stabs only made for the sake of stabbing. Jaehwan focused on his stab, and repeated it, again and again.

Three years passed. Jaehwan threw down his sword to the ground as he scratched his long, ssy hair. His stab, as expected, had no growth. It did allow him to use the power of [Fall] more precisely, but there weren’t that many results for three years of stabbing.

‘Has it really been three years?’

He was losing his sense of ti. Maybe it was because he was in the darkness, or maybe there was so other reason.

‘Ti flows differently here.’

Jaehwan rembered the strange feeling when he first ca here. It was a similar feeling to how he felt when he stepped into the Tower of Nightmares with its concentrated ti flow. It seed that ti flow here was much more concentrated than the Tower of Nightmares at its maximum.

He was certain that three years and two months had passed here, but it had probably only been a short mont in .

‘How did Myad challenge this place 127 tis?’

He had challenged it 127 tis and failed, but he still lived. It ant that he found a way to go back down to .

‘I guess the exit back to will reappear after a certain amount of ti.’

However, the exit did not appear, at least for the last 3 years. Jaehwan rembered that Myad had never seen Big Brother himself. It ant that Myad had failed in this space without being able to move forward. He had given up in this exact space. For a mont, Jaehwan felt everything was pointless, but quickly ca back to his senses.

‘How did I train for two thousand years back in ?’

That was quite strange. He had once stabbed for two thousand years back in . It didn’t feel like he had spent two thousand years, but the ti flow was so concentrated so it felt as though it had.

However, after coming here, he wasn’t sure if the ti flow was really expedited back then. It was hard to think that he was able to stab for 2 thousand years without going mad.

Jaehwan shook his head, this was not a ti to think. It was better to just stab at least once more. It was the only way out of here.

10 years passed.

He wasn’t afraid of the darkness anymore. His heightened senses now allowed him to see through the darkness as if it was bright daylight. However, Jaehwan felt ntally fatigued. He saw Cayman or Chunghuh from ti to ti when he trained in . But there was no one here.

Maybe he had really beco weak now. In the process of saving people, and after fighting many enemies, his ‘human’ mind had grown bigger.

As he heard the sound of his sword thrust, he realized he was alone. Many thoughts ca to his mind as he heard the sound. He thought of all those people he t in . Andersen, Runald... he also rembered Chunghuh and Karlton who he t in . Sirwen, Euren Chiver, and Cayman... he also rembered Mino. And when he was tired of rembering them, he went back through the [Record of the Depth] again, slowly. Of course, the records did not have anything about this space.

However, it was obvious. The records were created before Mulack had challenged Big Brother.

But that was reassuring. Mulack was certainly able to get through this space and t Big Brother. Jaehwan wasn’t sure what happened to him then, but he was certain that this path was definitely a way to reach Big Brother.

He then recalled his mories of Earth. He didn’t have many mories, but still had so such as of his parents. He wasn’t very close to his parents though. His father left Jaehwan and his mother when he was young to create another family. And after that, Jaehwan’s mother was busy working to feed Jaehwan. So it was the sea of the internet that raised him, and the anonymous people in there. It was also hundreds of books, movies, and animations that raised him. And also himself.

...The little prince said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye...”

Even then, he rembered sothing as he closed his eyes from ti to ti. It was a faint and distant voice. A voice that seed to co from far deep within his mory. The days of peaceful tis before his parents divorced, before Jaehwan’s ‘world’ was completed.

...Then, what happens to the world that the little prince left?

...Oh, that world is...

Jaehwan realized it was his mother’s voice. What was she doing now? Was she still working part-ti jobs? Was she still alive? Jaehwan rembered the voice as he fell asleep quietly.

50 years passed. That was absurd. 50 years?

Was it really so short to shoot past just like that? 50 years was a lifeti on Earth. However, 50 years really did pass. It didn’t feel like it, but Jaehwan’s unique world was telling him that.

You have spent 50 years here.

His stab did not show any signs of growth, and his [Setting] did not have any changes either. But, there was a slight change in Jaehwan’s daily routine. It was the space where one could not tell if it was night or day, but Jaehwan used the space in 24-hour routines.

He stabbed for 18 hours of the day, spent 5 hours ditating, and slept for one hour.

He did not need to sleep, but he still slept. The short amount of sleep helped him endure the long days. It was on one of those days, that Jaehwan opened his eyes during his ditation.

He felt like he needed to say it, but he also felt like he didn’t want to speak with such a thing. However, he felt like he would go crazy if he didn’t talk.

“It’s about ti you talk now,” Jaehwan declared and then he heard the sound of sothing moving. But it wasn’t coming from afar. It was from very close, next to Jaehwan.

“Say sothing before I break you in half.”

Sothing shook. It was like it was fearful or hesitant. Then, it opened its mouth while it was in the grip of Jaehwan’s hand.

[...Since when did you know?]

It was his sword, speaking for the first ti.