Chapter 718: Farewell
Every world has a power that protects itself. Not just a simple barrier, but a kind of dimensional wall that separates one world from another. That’s why even Transcendents can’t easily set foot in a world they don’t belong to. Originally, the wall was so thick and sturdy that they would have to risk all of their power to cross it.
But once the System settled over every world, cracks appeared. Through the System, Transcendents could interfere with worlds they didn’t belong to and invade them far more easily than before.
“Kugh–!”
A violent backlash surged in. The System’s intricate mana circuits lost their paths, rampaging and spraying out in all directions. The white light pouring out from the spear swallowed and swallowed them again, but it couldn’t completely block the shockwaves.
“Canceling the internet is stupidly hard!”
If the System is like a program installed on the computers of our world, then a Transcendent’s interference is a remote connection through the network. In other words, if you cut the internet line, outside access becomes impossible. But once a program is installed, the System itself remains and still runs.
That was probably all the original System creators ever intended. The program runs on its own, and the administrators, the Transcendents, only log in when something goes wrong to do maintenance.
But the Transcendents we have now are remotely controlling someone else’s computer as they please, fiddling with this and that. They even said they were going to take away critical software. Even though the odds of the computer breaking down without it were sky–high.
Crack, crunch!
The tip of the spear drove in even deeper. The backlash grew stronger. It sank its sharp teeth into my whole body, like it wanted less to tear my flesh and more to wreck my magic power and mana circuits inside.
“…Urk.”
My vision went blurry for a moment, flickered like a lightbulb about to go out, then turned pitch–black.
“Seong, Hyunjae.”
“I’m watching.”
He was looking at me while keeping the path to the System open. And at the screen inside it, at the System that the spear was stabbing into, tangled like countless spiderwebs. Clinging to the shared senses between us, I held on to the spear. The weapon, already pure white, grew even whiter and hotter.
Every last bit of power contained inside it. If one Transcendent’s share wasn’t enough, then the other one left, and more on top of that.
My ears went numb. The feeling in my fingertips and toes dulled away. It felt like my body was leaving me. Or like the me inside my body was being shattered.
Screeeech–
The passage connecting my world and the System buckled. The gap the administrator could reach through tore away.
‘Right now it’s just one, but.’
All the Systems operate organically. If one of the administrator’s access routes disappears, it will gradually affect the paths to the other worlds as well. Even if they don’t vanish completely, it will make it much harder to interfere than now.
I was grateful to the System’s creators. Their goodwill had been pure, and they took responsibility by sacrificing themselves. The System itself helped people adapt and kept them from falling into chaos. It was a soft carpet spread beneath, not a weight pressing from above. So that those who stumbled would be hurt a little less, and could stand up again. But the Transcendents now were looking down from above, yanking on puppet strings.
People trying to live their lives don’t need false gods.
“…!”
Only ragged breaths forced their way out of my mouth instead of groans. My voice was gone too. I couldn’t even tell how my body was positioned. My arms and legs felt like they were just dangling any which way, like a scrap of wood drifting on water.
In completely vanished senses, I could see myself. I was still reflected in Seong Hyunjae’s gaze. I was still holding the spear. Like I was controlling someone who wasn’t me, I somehow stayed standing. Curling my fingers tighter, stepping one foot forward, hard.
Thuuud–! Thunk!
Through Seong Hyunjae’s ears, I heard the sound of something old and thick bursting open. For the last time, I threw my whole body into driving the spear in. A red line split across the spear’s shaft. I saw my shoulder wrench out of place. Yet nothing of it reached me.
And at last.
Crunch. With that last small sound, stillness fell. The storm of mana subsided. The white spear rolled across the floor, and my body collapsed forward with it. Right before even my teacher skill cut out, I took from my inventory the bottle holding the jewel the King of Predation had given me. The small glass bottle sloshing with the melted jewel went clink as it hit the floor. Darkness came.
No, I couldn’t even feel the darkness. I was just imagining it from memory. Right after a brief confusion, fear surged in. My body should have been trembling, but I had no body. My physical body had only light injuries. It would just be lying there. It should have been there, but I couldn’t feel it. There was nothing.
‘…I’m scared.’
I’m scared. How much time has passed? I couldn’t tell if it was right after I collapsed, or if an hour, or more than that, had gone by. What if the jewel from the King of Predation didn’t work? Does it all just end like this? My heart beat. Or I hallucinated that it was beating. But I still had no senses. I couldn’t feel the sound of my heartbeat or the movement of my pulse. I was trying to move and think, but I had no idea where that “me” was. I would have rather felt pain.
I’m scared. How much time has passed? It felt like my very existence was fading. No, I just couldn’t tell where I was. Is my heart beating? How are my thoughts even continuing? It felt like I was floating somewhere, and I couldn’t even sense that “somewhere” itself. I forced myself to keep thinking, desperate, because if my thoughts were cut off too, I felt like I would completely disappear as I was.
I’m scared. How much time has passed? So then… this place is… I am… Yuhyun.
‘My little brother.’
I thought of when we were little. The small hand, the warmth that had reached me. The sensations that should have been vivid in my memory were fading fast. What was warmth again. His voice, the way he looked in my eyes. The feel of the hand that grabbed me and the arms that hugged me, trying to protect me somehow. With nothing of me left, it was hard to recall.
I thrashed, refusing to forget. I forced myself to picture my brother’s back as he left me. I barely managed to recall the sensation of the chest I didn’t have turning cold. The body that had lain in my arms. The blood. The warmth cooling away. A breath I didn’t have panted.
It was like hacking at myself with a knife. A merciless butchery, but because of that I could barely hang on to myself. In a time that flowed endlessly and infinitely far, yet was fixed, a time that didn’t even exist.
My lips grew wet.
‘Ah!’
Damp. Moisture soaked in. A tiny spark lit in the emptiness where even I had been fading away. I clung to that sensation as it tumbled down to me. Like ambrosia, the fire flowed in between my lips. I could feel my teeth and the tongue inside my mouth. They moved. My Adam’s apple bobbed. Beyond that, it flowed and flowed, my heart beating and my blood surging.
“Hah! K–kh!”
My eyes flew open. The colors pouring in all at once clumped together into a tangled blur so everything just looked white. My flailing hand grabbed onto something. Pain shot from my fingers, their tips worn raw and nails twisted. It was sweet.
“Ugh, hhuu, hic…”
My face was soaked. Tears poured down uncontrollably. The light was so dazzling it hurt and burned, and every sense and emotion tangled together into a knot. Even so, I clung desperately to whatever my hand was gripping.
“How long, I–”
My tongue felt stiff. I wasn’t sure if I was even speaking properly.
“About five minutes. I finished up with the System and had you drink it right away.”
“…Five minutes?”
Only that short. I finally managed to focus on Seong Hyunjae. I saw my hand clutching his coat like it was a lifeline. It was embarrassing as hell, but I couldn’t let go. Having every sense completely erased really does drive a person crazy.
– Beeeep!
Grace peered at me anxiously.
“You… okay?”
– Beep!
The tip of a blue wing tapped on the bracelet that had been cracked. It had been restored smooth as if it had never broken. Seong Hyunjae patted my back, surprisingly gently. My ragged breathing more or less calmed down.
“The System…”
“I confirmed it’s cut. But there’ll still be some leftovers.”
“It’s not like a real cable you can just sever clean. Still, they won’t be able to take pieces of our world anymore, right?”
By now, London should have come back too.
“I’ll be asking Rookie to help until it’s completely shut down. There’s the Elder too, and the one who gave us that gift.”
With support, I managed to sit up. But my hand stayed clenched in his coat. When I tried to let go, my whole body started shaking.
“We belong to our own world, so we can go back as much as we want. We’ll be interfered with, sure. But as long as we make it back safely.”
I met the golden eyes looking down at me.
“You’ll be given time. A long time you can use to melt down all the years that have piled up.”
Transcendents can no longer meddle in our world so easily. To break through, they’d have to be ready to lose all of their power.
“Even if Crescent Moon orders another Transcendent to smash the barrier, the Unfilial Children and the Filial Duty Addicts would find it strange. Forcing their way into a world whose System connection is cut, a world that can protect itself just fine. On top of that, if they slip up, our world itself could shatter.”
They might expose the existence of the small moon, or even lose it entirely.
“Rather than take that kind of risk, they’ll just wait. Wait for our world to head naturally toward destruction, until its protective power weakens. Seong Hyunjae will still… exist until then.”
The eclipse would annoy them, but even Crescent Moon must have realized by now that Song Taewon won’t easily harm Seong Hyunjae. Especially in a safe world where Seong Hyunjae can remain himself.
“You’ll do well, Seong Hyunjae.”
I smiled. Seong Hyunjae’s lips curved gently in return. He snapped his fingers.
“…Han Yujin!”
Chief Song appeared. Even after being suddenly teleported, he calmly took stock of the situation, then panicked when he saw me.
“What on earth happened here?”
“Huh? No, it’s just–”
Chief Song pulled me away from Seong Hyunjae. Huh? Why are you… ah.
‘I must look like a mess.’
Getting hurt was nothing new, but on top of that I was a tear–streaked wreck. I was already soaked, and now I’d bawled my eyes out, so my eyelids were probably swollen red. I’d taken plenty of beatings, but I didn’t cry much. Hardly ever in front of Chief Song, at least.
“I’m okay.”
I said, grabbing on to Chief Song. He frowned at the textbook signs of anxiety.
“Uh, I really am okay, but… is it alright if I hang on to you for a bit?”
Peace wasn’t here. Chief Song took a towel out of his inventory. It was a commemorative Dodam Breeding Facility towel, washed and dried all fluffy.
“Looks like you’re putting it to good use. Want me to give you a few more?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“They’re freebies, you know. Souvenirs.”
“Everyone else is fine. There were no fights.”
“That’s a relief. Then–”
“You should say your goodbyes.”
Seong Hyunjae spoke. Chief Song and I turned to him at the same time. He was smiling brightly. It was a youthful, vibrant smile, almost indistinguishable from that of the current Seong Hyunjae.
“…What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”
“The backlash hit me too, you know.”
The backlash of holding the path to the System open and enduring it. And the drain from invading that space before that. He picked up the glass bottle on the floor. A little red liquid still remained inside.
“Why are you giving up so easily! There’s gotta be a way.”
“This was never a place I could stay long anyway.”
“S–still. Or we could seal you in a magic stone or somewhere else for a while–”
“I finally get to be the one doing the leaving.”
His voice was cheerful. I stared at him, speechless. He was smiling like a youth, no, like a kid.
“For the first time.”
…Seong Hyunjae had always been the one left behind. Even his very first world disappeared, leaving him. Every world that later settled down in turn left first, one after another. No matter what life he lived or what bonds he formed, he was always alone at the end, seeing everything off.
I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t ask him to force himself to stay in a place that wasn’t his time.
“I told you, I came here to say goodbye.”
As if to soothe me, Seong Hyunjae spoke gently. His golden eyes, holding light, turned to Song Taewon.
“Will you take it?”
“…Hunter Seong Hyunjae.”
A black shadow gathered in Seong Hyunjae’s hand. With a mischievous glint in his eye, he looked down at the power of Plunder.
“The me of now is planning to keep this for himself, I’m sure, but there’s a bit too much piled up in it for me to just hand it over quietly.”
“…Yeah, the current Seong Hyunjae was pretty annoying about it.”
My throat tightened a little, but I still managed a smile as I spoke.
“Seducing someone else into taking on his baggage and all.”
“So I’m thinking of returning it to its original owner. Doesn’t look like he’ll need it anyway. My cold–hearted love will take care of it in my place, won’t you, Han Yujin?”
“Wow, you’re really dumping everything on us just because you’re leaving.”
Seong Hyunjae held his hand out toward Song Taewon. Song’s eyes, heavy and sunken, looked at Seong Hyunjae’s hand, at the shadow.
“…I…”
“It’s yours.”
“…”
“My faint little hope.”
It was the gift Chief Song had left him with. Seong Hyunjae was calling it his hope. Hesitating, Song Taewon reached out his hand to meet it. The hope of someone fading away. For Chief Song, it was a voice he couldn’t refuse, even if it felt like a brutal poison to himself. Plunder slipped back, gentle, into its original place.
“Mister Song Taewon. Live a long time, this round.”
Seong Hyunjae’s body swayed slightly. Chief Song and I grabbed him from both sides at once. I could feel his presence weakening at my fingertips. We slowly laid him down on the floor. A soft, snickering laugh escaped him.
“…Having fun all by yourself, huh. Do you really not have any lingering regrets?”
“Of course not. Everything I have is here. In the way my current self would phrase it, both my death and my life.”
His eyes drooped shut as if sleepy, then slowly opened again.
“The Han Yujin I know wouldn’t have given up either, would he.”
“We’re the same person.”
“Right. He would have endured to the very end and grown just as lovable as now. It’s a bit of a shame I didn’t get to see it.”
He laughed again. What was so amusing, really.
“But I did see it.”
Me, and Chief Song too. The sight that, for him, was his past but could also call up the future.
And finally, for himself as well, for Seong Hyunjae.
He really didn’t have anything left to regret.
To leave others behind like this, to be the one remaining in someone else’s memory rather than the one remembering… that might be something even the current Seong Hyunjae could never have. This farewell, the first and last that only this Seong Hyunjae could experience. No wonder he was laughing. For Seong Hyunjae, it really would be something to enjoy.
“Goodbye.”
His eyes closed. His presence vanished for an instant, completely, and then, like a dried–up spring welling up anew, another presence slowly filled the space.
Golden eyes took on the light again.
“Hello.”
The current Seong Hyunjae greeted us. The one who would go on living.
–TL Notes–
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