Chapter 719: Escape (1)
“You ended up making me cry.”
“No, you didn’t?”
Even after wiping my face with a towel, there must still have been traces left. He went off not just satisfied but completely at ease, so why would I be the one crying.
“We don’t have time to leisurely check in on each other.”
Staggering to my feet, I picked up the spear that had fallen to the floor. It wasn’t broken, but the pure, shining white color had faded to a dull shade. As expected, cutting off even a part of the system wasn’t easy. If it were, the Filial Duty Addicts or some other transcendent would have already tried it several times. My strength seemed almost completely drained, but I carefully put it into my inventory in case I needed it later.
Guuuuung–
The ownerless space let out a low groan as it slowly began to collapse. The one who had obtained temporary administrator authority was the Seong Hyunjae who had just left, not the current Seong Hyunjae. I turned to the other two.
“The kids all made it bac– what are you doing?”
Why are they still sitting there. Flexing and straightening his fingers slowly, Seong Hyunjae answered.
“All four returned safely, and my body is in tatters.”
“Huh?”
“My mana’s empty, my magic power is scattered, and my stamina is completely spent. Is this what they call a discarded rag?”
Well. Chief Song helped the unusually exhausted Seong Hyunjae to his feet, saying it was the first time he’d ever seen him this drained.
“That’s why you shouldn’t recklessly flirt with someone like Mr. Seong Hyunjae, Mr. Seong Hyunjae. You just end up covered in wounds and thrown away. Congratulations on joining the list of abandoned relationships of Mr. Seong Hyunjae, Mr. Seong Hyunjae.”
A textbook example of reaping what he sowed. Anyway, first we needed to get back to my room… but the system refused to move properly. Ah, crap. As I started to panic, Chief Song, half–carrying Seong Hyunjae over his shoulder, calmly asked.
“Has a problem occurred?”
“…Yeah, so. I can’t teleport to my room. First of all, the system took a shock… I mean, together with the pre–regression Mr. Seong Hyunjae, we cut the connection between the system and our world.”
“Pardon?”
Chief Song was flustered.
“If the system’s connection is severed, the dungeons, what happens to the dungeons? I do not know the details, but I understand that the system blocks the monsters pouring straight through by shunting them into dungeons. But if the system disappears…”
He really was badly shaken. I quickly explained the situation to him.
“The system’s already installed like a program. We just cut the internet. The communication line. Nothing will change from how it’s been. Anyway, because of that, the system around here isn’t working right, and this space has lost its owner and is breaking down… so it’s become impossible to connect to my room.”
With my own ability, I couldn’t teleport to my room. I’d always moved with the system’s help. Now that the system had gone dead, I was stuck. Thanks to that, it seemed even Myungwoo and Newbie couldn’t contact me. At least the Mermaid Queen going quiet was a relief.
Rumble, the space began to crumble from the corners. The broken pieces vanished like melting snow. My heart pounded at the darkness beyond the empty space. I need Peace. I want to see my little brother.
“…The location of my room is my property, so I can still sense it. Which means we’ll have to go there on foot, Chief Song.”
I swallowed dryly and went on.
“Could you open the way?”
We had to cross spaces whose structure I couldn’t fully grasp, go beyond the system’s domain and reach my room. In my current state, as shredded as, maybe even more than, Seong Hyunjae, it was hard to directly handle the system and mana to create a path. But Chief Song could do it.
He wasn’t a system administrator, but he had a fundamental power that nullified everything. The system was founded on the Root, and Plunder was the shadow the Root had planted to erase Seong Hyunjae. On top of that, it had been strengthened. Opening a passage would not be difficult for him.
“Tell me what I must do.”
I didn’t have to explain at length; Chief Song realized I meant Plunder and nodded. I immediately opened the lagging system window and used the Teacher skill on Chief Song.
“I’ll find the path, link it to my senses, and pass it to you. Even if you can’t see anything, just follow that sensation.”
The shortest, easiest route to punch through. I drank a mana potion and searched for my room. The system creaked along, slow but moving. Rumble, I heard the sound of Seong Hyunjae’s room collapsing again. A strange emptiness tugged at my chest.
“…Mr. Seong, there should be a painting in your inventory. That’s mine, so please give it back.”
Aside from Plunder, which I’d given to Chief Song, there was nothing you could really call a memento. Even his body hadn’t been his to begin with, so it disappeared without a trace. Seriously, was he satisfied as long as he had fun.
“There is no painting.”
“Huh?”
“But there is a postcard.”
I turned my head. Seong Hyunjae took a postcard out of his inventory. A postcard printed with an Alpine landscape, who knows where or when he’d gotten it.
“To Han Yujin.”
“…Give it here.”
I accepted the postcard. For a moment, the Seong Hyunjae from the nightmare dungeon flickered in my mind. It had taken ages, looping around and around, but in the end, I received it. I stared at the postcard for a little while, then put it into my inventory. A crooked smile slipped out through a jumble of indescribable feelings. He really did do everything he wanted before leaving.
“Chief Song! Get ready! Mr. Seong, you eat this.”
“So that was your taste.”
Accepting the mini–mini cookie, Seong Hyunjae commented. What taste.
“It was more convenient when you were small. When you got that big, I honestly thought half a body would have been enough. You took good care of the kids, too.”
“Child–rearing requires stamina.”
That part was true. I picked up the shrunken Seong Hyunjae and tucked him into the belt at my waist. Then I hopped onto Chief Song’s back, slinging myself over one shoulder. It would have been easier if I ate a cookie too, but strictly speaking, the cookie was like a potion that went into your body and altered it. In my already bad condition, I had to refrain. Once external mana mixed in, handling the system became even more inconvenient.
“Be careful not to fall.”
Kugugugung– darkness surged right up behind us. Chief Song’s body lowered slightly. Then, with a loud boom, he slammed his foot into the floor. Following the path I fed him, he sprinted forward. As he stepped onto empty air, I quickly created footholds beneath his feet, just as Seong Hyunjae had done before. Taat, he leaped high, and shadows gathered around his right hand. Darker and wider than usual.
Thump!
His fist struck the air and drove deep into it. The space squished like mud and opened into a path. Not missing the brief gap, Song Taewon ran again. With me on his back, his massive body moved lightly as he cut across a space stained with light, shadow, and every color imaginable.
“Good, just keep going like this!”
My space, my room, drew steadily nearer. At the same time, I felt Seong Hyunjae’s room disappearing completely. I didn’t look back. The past sank once more into the past.
Boom! Shadows spread and a path opened again. The fragments of the past receding behind us opened the way forward.
“…There’s still some cleanup left, though.”
I explained to the two of them that once the connection to our world was severed, the transcendents wouldn’t be able to interfere anymore.
“Once every trace of the connection is gone, the transcendents will withdraw. But the seed of destruction is still there.”
The transcendent’s seed that Crescent Moon had planted, which I’d encountered in Life Game. I told them about that as well.
“…I hope it’s not someone we know.”
“To start with, it won’t be me or Chief Song Taewon, and those who died before the regression can also be excluded.”
It wasn’t Yuhyun, Myungwoo, or Noah. Since it was a transcendent’s seed, the person wouldn’t be ordinary. It could be someone like Liette, born an S–rank, or someone we didn’t know yet, but the most suspicious person was—
“I think it might be Mari.”
Mari Taylor. The S–rank hunter Crescent Moon had tried to marry off to Seong Hyunjae. On top of that, she possessed a power closely tied to the moon – the realization of illusions, of dreams.
“She didn’t exist before the regression. Then suddenly she appears – an S–rank with a rare ability deeply related to Crescent Moon. I don’t think Crescent Moon is strong enough to create an entirely new S–rank from scratch. So maybe she awakened the transcendent’s seed she’d planted into an S–rank she could use.”
“Mari really was unusual.”
“What do you think, Chief Song? You’ve been with her all this time.”
“I was too busy being attacked by Hunter Seong Hyunjae to have any lengthy conversations with her.”
…I told him not to bully Chief Song. Seong Hyunjae asked enviously if they’d had a fun little private time together.
“If the connection gets cut, there’s a chance the transcendent’s seed won’t hatch at all. If we can safely wrap that part up too, then we’ll finally have time. Leisurely time.”
Time for Seong Hyunjae to look after himself. And time for Song Taewon as well.
“We’ll be able to hold the dungeons back just fine, and the world will be more stable. Then you won’t have to run around like this anymore, Chief Song. We’ll have more high–rank hunters in Korea, and more people going into the Awakener Management Office. There are people who think you’re amazing and cool, Chief Song.”
Even after Song Taewon’s death, the Awakener Management Office had stayed afloat better than expected because he had existed in the past. There were of course more people who looked up to rich and famous hunters, but there were also many who admired the broad back of a man who could live large if he wanted, yet chose to devote himself to society.
The kids grow up watching Haeyeon’s guild master, Sesung’s and Breaker’s guild masters, but they also see the one person who stands in front of them and protects everyone.
“You can share the burden. Once people who’ve already adapted become even more used to dungeons and awakenings as everyday life, your workload will shrink. So how about taking on a second job?”
“…Side jobs are prohibited.”
“Ah, I can take care of that part somehow. How about being a principal? If that’s too much, just a teacher for now! I’ll insist we’re half public–funded or something.”
Chief Song pressed his lips together in a straight line. From my waist, pocket–sized Seong Hyunjae backed me up.
“So he’ll become Teacher Song. I find myself coveting the principal’s seat.”
“What are you talking about, if Chief Song won’t do it, I’ll be the principal. Mr. Seong, hmm… I’ll make you the nutritionist.”
“I’ll have to think about an appropriate college–entrance present for Han Yujin.”
“Huh? College… ah!”
Right, I’d need a college diploma to work in education. Even if it was a school exclusively for Awakened, you still had to graduate college. I’d only been joking about being principal, but still.
“There are already three kids who need to go to school. That number will go up, and it’d be better if the goblins went to a proper school too. If we recruit Awakened kids who aren’t properly protected, that’s enough to fill a school right away.”
Chief Song remained silent.
“The food will be good. Right? Nutritionist and ingredient procurement officer.”
“I will serve them with utmost care.”
Above all else, kids needed to be well fed. I could feel my room just ahead. I could also sense the familiar presences waiting for us there.
“…I do not know.”
Kuung– bursting open a new path and charging forward, Song Taewon spoke. His gaze turned to the shadow of Plunder, now darker than before. His eyes trembled as he looked at the shadow on himself.
“You’re a selfish person.”
Our run stopped in front of the last wall. Since it was my own space, there was no need to break it. I climbed down from Chief Song’s back. Song Taewon looked at the tiny bag where Seong Hyunjae was poking out his head.
“From beginning to end.”
“Tha–”
I started to chime in, then shut my mouth when his eyes shifted to me. The long list of things I’d done flashed rapidly through my mind.
“This time, I was honestly angry.”
“…I’m sorry. Mr. Seong, you apologize too, quickly.”
“I do not know the circumstances, but I’m sure I did similar things, so I won’t apologize.”
Seong Hyunjae brazenly looked up at Chief Song.
“I like Chief Song Taewon.”
“I like Chief Song too.”
Chief Song let out a long sigh. He turned his body.
“…It’s not that I dislike you. But I cannot give you an answer.”
“That’s fine. Now we have time, so you can take it slow. So for now—”
I stepped up to the wall and touched it with my fingertips. My space opened, and a familiar sight approached.
“Let’s focus on finishing this safely and coming back.”
“Hyung!”
With a delighted voice, two arms reached out toward me. I was pulled into the crowd in an instant.
“What the hell happened? Why is your face like this…”
“Mister! Did you cry?”
– Kkiaaang!
“Yujin, you’ll catch a cold like this.”
“What the, who made you cry, big bro? Was it Seong Hyunjae? Get that bastard out here.”
“Mmph, mmph!”
What the, why was Hwang Rim gagged and kneeling in the corner. What did he do. Iryn came over to me and dried my soaked body.
“I’m fine. And this Seong Hyunjae is the current Seong Hyunjae. The Mr. Seong who took part in the bet, uh, went back. To his own time.”
To his ending.
Seong Hyunjae lightly waved at the gazes on him.
“So Mr. Seong… has gone. I wanted to at least say goodbye.”
“Is that why you cried?”
“No. Why would I cry. It’s something else, like, something got in my eyes.”
“It’s okay to cry. You hold back too much.”
“I said I didn’t. And that Mr. Seong was happy. He got to see everything he wanted, and said his farewells properly.”
“Really?”
Mari blinked wide, slightly misty eyes. She must have grown really attached to that Seong Hyunjae. He’d been kind, cheerful, and a much better person than I’d expected. So I hoped she wasn’t the transcendent’s seed. Even if she was, I wanted her to keep living just the way she wished.
[Ho ney!]
A crackling message window appeared. Newbie? Probably Newbie, right? The Mermaid Queen called me Honey too, so just from the messages it was confusing.
“Newbie, that you? I broke part of the system!”
[Th is way]
[Esc pe]
[Honey]
…It was the Mermaid Queen.
[Wait.]
Rumble– a sound like distant thunder rolled in from far away. The old house from my memories melted away. An empty expanse spread wide, and everything shook.
[A passage, I’ll make a passage!]
[While we talk]
[As I connect you]
[For a moment]
[The connection will be]
Messages from Newbie and the Mermaid Queen alternated back and forth. As Newbie repaired the system to talk with me, it seemed the Mermaid Queen also managed to log in. Checking the messages and system window, I turned to the others.
“Explanation later, we need to get out!”
Yuhyun immediately scooped me up. Peace took on his adult form, and Noah unfurled his wings.
[Run!]
[Honey–]
Guuung! Space twisted, and a wide, straight passage appeared. At the same time—
Swoooosh–
Water began to pour in. In an instant it rose to our ankles, and raging waves surged up from every side.
“Run!”
With sheer walls of deep blue water at our backs, we began to fly and sprint along the passage.
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won’t get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt