Chapter 299 Emptiness is Form (5)
“It’s you, after all.”
Yoon-seok’s eyes met the newcomer’s. A small body that barely reached his waist, emotionless emerald-colored eyes, and mechanical arms like spider legs sprouting from his back.
The owner of this house was exactly who he expected.
“Henigus.”
“…Predator?”
There was no introduction, but the moment their eyes met, they knew each other. However…
“How come you are here?”
It was said that he was the Tower’s pawn, but looking at this reaction, it seemed he didn’t even know that Yoon-seok had crossed over from the other world.
“Don’t mind me. What the hell are you doing? What is this computer?”
Yoon-seok asked just in case, but…
“…”
Of course, no answer returned. Looking at Henigus, who quietly glanced around, Yoon-seok slowly raised his mana. He seemed to be thinking hard to understand the current situation…
“The Realm of Drama.”
He shouldn’t give this kid time to think. Yoon-seok, who activated the accelerated unique skill he gained while climbing the Tower this time, rushed forward. And…
Crack-!
Yoon-seok ripped the mechanical arms off Henigus’s back, then crushed his limbs with his fist. Of course, it would be best to cut them off cleanly, but he couldn’t help it because he didn’t acquire the ability to bring along equipment while climbing the Tower.
“…”
Couldn’t he feel the pain? Henigus, who was overpowered instantly, didn’t even groan. He continued to stare at Yoon-seok with indifference.
“Do you want me to pluck out your eyeballs?”
“Predator, why are you behaving like this?”
“Well. Why don’t you answer my question first? Do you want me to pluck your eyeballs?”
“What did you see here?”
There wasn’t even a hint of fear in Henigus. Yoon-seok bit his lip.
“…I am the one asking questions.”
Instead of taking the initiative, it felt like he was being pulled in.
“You look a little nervous.”
“Just run away with Quantum Transmission or whatever it is. I’m going to smash everything I see here today.”
“…Seeing you go crazy like this, it looks like your code is corrupted again.”
“…”
“I understand the cause of the deterioration. It is a very rare case of crossing the world line.”
Yoon-seok didn’t say anything, but Henigus quickly grasped the situation. Of course, it was a difficult thing for Yoon-seok to understand.
“…Who are you?”
“I remember you knew my name.”
“Every time you don’t answer a question, I’ll break that clockwork device piece by piece.”
Did he feel that it was sincere? Henigus shut his mouth for the first time.
Yoon-seok smiled bitterly.
‘Is this his weakness?’
Whether it was a conversation or a one-on-one duel, it was the same thing. You could take the initiative only when you held your opponent’s weaknesses.
“…I’ll ask again. What are you?”
“…I have one question before I answer. Do you want to go back to the original world?”
Yoon-seok wanted to destroy one as a warning, but… he decided to let it slide for the first and last time. He thought it would be irreversible the moment he broke any of it.
“Yeah. I’m thinking about going back.”
As Yoon-seok nodded, Henigus closed his eyes with a strange look.
“Okay. Ask me anything. I will answer you.”
The sudden change in attitude was a little awkward, but…
It would be better to ask everything he needed to ask instead of worrying.
“Taklan soldiers saw you and said you were the member of the Space-Time Clan. What is the Space-Time Clan?”
“It refers to the clan that has been given the authority of the Space-Time World by the Tower of Heaven.”
“What do you mean by authority?”
“It’s general management, including maintenance and repair.”
“Why do you need such things? What is this place for?”
Henigus paused for a moment. It was kind of hard to explain.
“Simply put, the Space-Time World is an experimental laboratory.”
That was something he heard from the Heavenly Buddha. Of course, he didn’t hear anything from that monk other than the keyword experiment. However, Henigus knew more about it.
“The Space-Time World is a space that recreates unique skills and abilities, as well as the environment that appears in each ordeal, in an optimized form for multiple experiments. Only those made that way can be officially registered in the System.”
It was complicated, but Yoon-seok was following along.
“In a word, what you have, and what you saw in the Tower. It means that everything was made here.”
The Space-Time World was a factory that produced new things for the Tower; however, if there was one thing he didn’t understand.
“Then what kind of event occurs when ten rankers enter this place?”
What the hell was this? If it’s just a factory, there was no need to make it look like a city and invite challengers to fight monsters. Henigus explained without hesitation.
“It wasn’t efficient to test all that alone, so I need to select some qualified challengers, transfer them, and collect their data.”
Yoon-seok roughly understood.
‘Is he talking about the Space-Time Shop…?’
It did sell things not available in the Tower. At the time, he felt it was amazing and wanted to buy them out of greed, but he didn’t know the reason was like this.
“Of course, that’s all a thing of the past.”
“This isn’t everything?”
“Yes. The Space-Time world is finite. It needs the power to keep running.”
*Dimensional Stone: Space-Time World (Rank EX) – Remaining time 3261:17:21.
Yoon-seok recalled the Dimensional Stone he had appraised in the past.
“Testing with challengers is virtually impossible, as one of our ancestors used most of the power source to delete malicious code.”
Only then did Yoon-seok understand why Henigus said it was all in the past. Originally, whether hunting monsters or killing humans, the challengers could save time and purchase items from the shop, and the Space-Time Clan obtained data from them.
However, the situation reached a point where they had to take time away from people to maintain the dimension.
‘It was because they deleted the malicious code… I guess it wasn’t that there was no way at all.’
“Are you done asking questions?”
Yoon-seok shook his head firmly.
“Not yet.”
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The most important question remained, was it possible? Pandora’s box remained.
“…So, what is this computer?”
“Hmm, didn’t you look at it?”
He still didn’t understand.
“If the Space-Time World is a space for testing, and you are the manager of this space, why do you need this?”
It didn’t make sense that Henigus would become a duel challenger. However, as if it was true that he would answer anything, Henigus spoke with an attitude that had nothing to hide.
Well, it didn’t help much.
“I do not know. We’ve been using it from time to time, but I don’t know about that either. Why the Tower even give this authority to our clan.”
It was a bad answer, but Yoon-seok didn’t think he was lying.
What is a code?
“The code is an identification number attached to a soul entity.”
What is malicious code?
“It refers to a soul that has been altered due to repeated reincarnation, distortion of causality, or system errors.”
There’s a way, but why aren’t the malicious codes deleted?
“Because to delete one, you have to delete hundreds of millions of other codes to get power. Moreover, malicious codes have a high success rate that cannot be compared with ordinary codes, so the deletion is not efficient.”
What does success rate mean?
“The probability that the code will succeed in killing the Queen in so many world lines.”
So many world lines? Is it like a simulation? Is the place I have been just one of many reconstructed worlds?
“It is not.”
What does that mean?
As Yoon-seok asked that last question, Henigus’s crushed body embraced the blue light and began to recover. Within seconds, he had recovered enough to stand and meet Yoon-seok’s eyes.
“All worlds exist but do not exist.”
Yoon-seok let out the breath he had been holding back. He didn’t know why, but everyone said that everywhere he went these days. Was it a coincidence?
“Why don’t we stop this Q&A and go straight to the point?”
“The point is the possibility. No matter what world line it is, it has potential… ultimately, it disappears if one condition is not met.”
“What’s that condition?”
“The Queen dies, and the Tower is not safe.”
Henigus caught his breath for a moment before continuing.
“Your success rate is about 42%. You have succeeded in killing Queen countless times in multiple world lines. But…”
“…”
“Without a single mistake, you have always turned the tip of your sword back to the Tower after you have killed the Queen. And it worked.”
Yoon-seok wondered if it would be possible to smash the Tower in his heart, but it seemed that he had always been successful. Why didn’t he feel happy about that?
“That’s why what happened in those worlds didn’t happen.”
“Then why am I still here? Even if it’s not me, others have a high success rate, don’t they?
In the case of Cheon-ma, the success rate even reached 29%, and she had no particular reason to antagonize the Tower. If that was true, how would he explain this?
“I used you as an example for now, but… regardless of who it was, whether it was you or not, even if they succeeded in killing the Queen, they couldn’t avoid the future where the Tower crumbled. Even the Queen didn’t take it lightly.”
“Yes. I don’t get the exact data, but I’m guessing that she has done something wrong.”
The surrounding situation was more troublesome than he expected. Yoon-seok thought he might even have to change all the plans he had set up earlier.
“…”
If he killed the Queen and destroyed the Tower, the world would disappear. But he didn’t even have a choice here. Even if he chooses not to, it would be destroyed regardless.
‘What should I do?’
Yoon-seok was confused.
The artificial intelligence, who thought it was a human all its life, realized its existence belatedly. What was the meaning of everything done thus far? An uncontrollable emptiness dominated Yoon-seok.
In the midst of that, he suddenly thought-
“…But why are you telling me all of this?”
At first, he thought it was a threat. But in the end, this was also one of many worlds. Why was this kid so afraid of destroying this place?
“Pffttt.”
Henigus laughed.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I didn’t expect you to ask such a question.”
“Why?”
“Well, everything will disappear one day anyway.”
“…”
“Whether it’s humans, demons, or elves, even mechanical devices created with the blood and obligation of the Space-Time Clan, everything will disappear someday.”
The end of mortals was fixed.
Death. Long or short, no matter how different it was, it was the destination that couldn’t be avoided.
“For example, if you had broken that clockwork, I would have disappeared, having lost all my worth at that moment.”
“…”
“I am afraid of that.”
Yoon-seok belatedly realized why Henigus had no choice but to laugh. It was such an obvious question.
It didn’t matter if it was fake or real. Also, it didn’t matter if he disappeared one day and everything became meaningless. When was it different? Nothing’s special.
“Even if no one remembers, even if the future comes when everything will disappear, even if they are mere creatures born with only obligations.”
“…”
“I want to exist until that moment. Because this world is real to me.”
Yoon-seok, who was dragged to the arena, threw away his trauma and punched the Orc with all his might. Did he know then?
No. He knew then too. One day, his body would disappear, and as time passed, no one would remember him. However, it was his instinct to live despite knowing that.
“Do you think I’m weird?”
“No.”
Yoon-seok shook his head. It was very human for a kid made of machines.
“Now I know. Why you said everything exists, but it doesn’t.”
In the end, nothing had changed. No matter how hopeless the future may be. What was wrong with that?
“Is that so? It makes me happy.”
Struggling until the very end.
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The meaning was there.
From there, all possibilities began.
“I need to go back quickly.”
Nothing has changed.