Chapter 432 – Fragments of Mist (1)
I hurriedly pulled out the gun and aimed it at Ruka Feiya. I swallowed hard.
You definitely died back then! I killed you, so how!
“Don’t worry. I’m only a fragment of myself.”
Smiling, she spun lightly in place. Her white clothes billowed out in a round flare, and the hands that had looked just like a human’s changed once more into several tentacles.
“There was that newly created race called dokkaebi, wasn’t there. It had finally come to possess the power of a vassal, so I marked it for later investigation.”
“So part of you remained because of that?”
“That’s right! It’s my fragment that stayed connected all the way until just before I died. Still, by itself it couldn’t really do anything, but then the dungeon came into being. A dungeon where my vassal plays the main role.”
I remembered that the King of Harmlessness had been included among the dungeon’s creators. Had the fragment been able to exert influence because the dungeon was created? I couldn’t know the details myself, of course.
“…Was the message window I saw in Haeyeon Guild yours?”
“There were two paths there. Han Yoojin and Han Yoohyun face an L-rank nightmare. Or Han Yoojin faces an S-rank nightmare. The one who chose the latter was you.”
“I don’t remember making any such choice.”
“Really?”
Of course, if I had actually been given the options, I would have chosen the latter. Even if I had not been able to use the trick of overlapping skill-sharing, if the opponent was S-rank, it wouldn’t have been impossible. It would’ve been harder, but there still was a way to clear it.
“I thought the little moon was simply one of Crescent Moon’s children~”
Ruka Feiya swayed as if dancing. She looked like a giant jellyfish swimming in water.
“Just a child that was a little more outstanding and more to my liking. But my, my! To think it had been piling things up layer by layer. How many worlds must it have passed through? I want to try that too! Crescent Moon was so petty, having all the fun alone! I would’ve kept my mouth shut too, but still!”
Seeing her get excited out of pure curiosity made my stomach churn. The victim was in a position where they might lose their sense of self and be carried away at any moment, so what did she mean, she wanted to try it too? Then again, the first thing this one had said upon seeing me was that it had been fun and enjoyable.
To the King of Harmlessness, the desperate struggles of the people inside this dungeon were nothing more than interesting entertainment, something fun to watch. In the end, it meant she did not regard us as beings like herself. Maybe we were lab mice at best. Even lab mice become pitiable once you get attached to them.
No wonder Transcendents couldn’t help but be unsettling. Except Elder. Newbie had changed quite a bit by now too.
“I never expected Young Chaos to show up! Just what is happening? It was interesting that Crescent Moon entered your body too. Even if it was only part of the traces left behind in the dungeon, your ego retention rate was far higher than expected!”
“…What?”
“I expected more of Crescent Moon’s characteristics to show up. Usually, when it’s an avatar body, the flesh changes quite a lot too. But only your eyes changed. The eyes change first, then body hair. And depending on the degree of assimilation, the body itself changes as well. Even species or sex can change.”
Damn, thank God nothing changed. The King of Harmlessness looked down at me with sparkling eyes.
“Could it be that your existence grade is higher than I thought? Because of your titles? The Caregiver title is the most suspicious. Sometimes there were cases where the system values and the actual values didn’t match. Ah, if only I’d had a little more time!”
Watching her chatter away excitedly by herself felt exactly like looking at Ms. Seok Hayan explaining her test results.
“So you have no intention of harming me, and you’ll disappear soon?”
“That’s right. I only came out like this because I’m handling the rewards as the dungeon manager. Newbie is probably handling the others. I was curious about the little moon and Eclipse too, but with my power I could only take charge of one person, so I brought you, Han Yoojin. I’m not very gifted on the system side.”
I silently looked at Ruka Feiya as she spoke regretfully. To the Transcendent in front of me, the story of me and my brother was nothing more than a curiosity. And yet she was also the only one who had watched everything.
She knew that I had regressed, knew the brother beneath the tree, knew the two left behind in the dungeon. And she was someone who would neither empathize with my grief nor tend to my wounds. Someone I also did not need to worry would care too much about me, or someone from whom I had to hide things. The moment I thought that—
Tears spilled down.
“Han Yoojin?”
“…I wanted to tell him too.”
“Hm?”
“I wanted to tell Yoohyun it was okay too! Even if that, even if that ending couldn’t be changed no matter what. I still could’ve at least said the words!”
Without regressing, without my brother dying, Rauchitas could not be defeated. That much was an ending that could neither be changed nor altered.
But I still could have said the words.
“There was a little time… I should’ve told him to apologize too. No, I should’ve just said I forgave everything, that it was okay.”
I should have smiled, even if I had to force it.
“I could’ve told him I loved him……”
The sobs burst out uncontrollably. I just sat down and bawled. I was never going to see her twice anyway, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about.
“I too, hic, I too should have said I loved him, and hugged him!”
“Mm, I know. That’s the kind of regret a lot of people have.”
“You’re saying this means… we reconciled, hic—”
“You’re probably envying the other ending inside the dungeon.”
“My little brother… I sent him away like that……”
Even if it had been an unavoidable end, I could have ended it better. A little more, just a little more. I should have stroked his hair at least once. I should have shown him a smiling face at least once. Would my chest have felt even a little less torn apart if I had?
There may be no bottom to regret over the dead, but even so.
A handkerchief was held out in front of me as I cried my eyes out. Look at her, acting human. There was no reason to refuse, so I took it.
“…Give me water to wash up too.”
“Are you done crying?”
“Even if I cried for three months and ten days, it wouldn’t all go away.”
Even if I got Yoohyun back, the knot would still remain. It couldn’t be helped.
“If that bastard dares to live badly, just you wait. He seriously has to live well.”
I got up and washed my face in the water served in a round bowl.
“Yeah, of course he has to live on. If it ends there, then all my bitterness will be for nothing.”
You think it can end after just celebrating a birthday? The New Year would come, and then his birthday, and then spring too. Beneath the warming air, the plum blossoms would burst into bloom.
I wiped away the moisture with the handkerchief. I shouldn’t leave traces of crying.
“Hey, let me ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“You’re one of the creators of this dungeon too. They said they’re going to close this dungeon, so then what happens to the beings left inside it?”
“I can’t say for certain.”
The jellyfish waved her tentacles lightly as she continued.
“A dungeon is, in practice, the power of the Source. The system twisted the Source’s power, which tries to devour worlds, and made it safer. In other words, the existence of a dungeon itself is something the system cannot interfere with.”
“…Uh. I mean, what I’m curious about is whether the world inside the dungeon will remain as it is. From our point of view, it’s fake.”
“It is something that was made. But your world too was made by the Source’s power, wasn’t it? In the end, the root is the same, so you can’t simply call it fake. So whether a closed dungeon will remain or disappear…”
Ruka Feiya tilted her head slightly.
“Wouldn’t that depend on the Source’s heart?”
“The Source’s heart?”
“Opinions have long been divided over whether the Source has a will, whether it has a self. Most of the Immoral people say it doesn’t, and the Filial duty addicts say it does. I think it does.”
I thought of the white tree with snow falling around it. That enormous existence.
“Up until now, nobody except the White Bird has confirmed the Source’s will. In truth, with the White Bird too, people only speculate that perhaps it’s because communication is possible. But one thing is certain: the Source possesses at least a minimal instinct for self-preservation!”
Ruka Feiya asserted that with confidence.
“Eclipse appeared at just the right time!”
“…Chief Song?”
“In my view, that was a kind of antibody. A defensive measure to oppose a virus trying to attack the body, the Source.”
I didn’t like the comparison, but I had to listen to the explanation, so I held it in for now.
“Normally antibodies arise naturally, but if that were the case, the little moon is still incomplete, isn’t it? It hasn’t harmed the Source yet. Ah, then would it be more accurate to call it a vaccine than an antibody? Going in ahead of time and waiting, only to swallow the little moon just before it fills. And a vaccine is an intentional act.”
“So you’re saying the Source, the Fifth Source, had its own will, sensed a threat, and created Chief Song…?”
“It isn’t a normal kind of existence.”
I had expected it, but it still stung.
Crescent Moon created Sung Hyunjae to eliminate the Source, and the Source created Song Taewon to eliminate Sung Hyunjae. In the end, that was what it meant.
“Even so, he’s still a person.”
“If he himself and the people around him acknowledge him as one.”
Isn’t that so? Ruka Feiya sat with her legs—or rather, tentacles—crossed in the air. So she did know how to say something sensible.
“I couldn’t tell exactly what happened between Crescent Moon and those two here either…”
“Want me to look into it for you?”
“Hm?”
“Crescent Moon has disappeared, so it’s mostly scattered, but I should be able to scrape together at least a little information.”
“Really? You can do that? Elder said Newbie couldn’t.”
“Handling memories is my specialty.”
“Then please.”
To think a jellyfish would help me like this. You really never knew about life.
“But in exchange, let me take one more close look at you.”
“…Again?”
She had done that before too. Even if she was only a fragment about to disappear, did she still want to satisfy her curiosity? Then again, in a sense, people’s endings were predetermined too. To the Transcendents, the moment I was living now probably felt as short and fleeting as the moment in which I was looking at Ruka Feiya.
But even so, you lived.
“Don’t you have anything besides tentacles? Earlier you had hands.”
“Fingers are short and there aren’t many of them. How long would it take to touch everything?”
Ruka Feiya said that as she reached out her tentacles. Even feeling around with hands would’ve been weird enough, but—aaagh.
“I really hate tentacles!”
“They’re so convenient, though.”
“It feels like bugs are crawling around inside my clothes! Hey, just touch my back!”
“I have to check all of you to be accurate. Your mana engraving has stabilized quite a lot.”
Just think of it as a simple checkup. The instrument doing the examining was just disgusting, that was all…
“Open your mouth wide. I should look inside too.”
“What? Mmph, mmph!”
I quickly shut my mouth and covered it with my hand as I protested. Are you insane? No!
“Think of it like an endoscopy. You people in your world do that.”
“Mmph!”
“The other holes would hurt, though. Like your ears—”
“I said no!”
“Be good. Shall I give you candy?”
That damn jellyfish smiled as she changed her clothes into a familiar doctor’s gown. A stethoscope hung around her neck, and the background around us changed into a hospital too. What was with the candy cane in her hand—no, at the end of her tentacle. I seriously hated the tentacles…
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“Congratulations, you’re a little healthier now.”
“…Really?”
“When a Transcendent settles into an avatar body, there’s usually a process of reinforcing the vessel. It differs depending on the degree of assimilation, and as I said before, yours is on the low side, so the difference isn’t huge. Still, your mana engraving has taken proper root now, so your lifespan will be worn down less, and it’ll be easier to use too.”
“So anyway, it means it’s a good thing, right? If the assimilation rate had been higher, would I have gotten sturdier? Would my stats have gone up too?”
“If your body had changed to the point that even your sex changed, then even after Crescent Moon disappeared, you would probably have reached around C-rank. But at that level of assimilation, you would become subordinate to Crescent Moon.”
Suddenly I remembered what Young Chaos had said before, that if I wanted to lengthen my lifespan, I would have to become subordinate to a higher-ranking being. If even Crescent Moon’s remnants alone could raise me to C-rank, then could the main body bring me up to S-rank?
“What exactly does becoming subordinate mean?”
“There are degrees of subordination too. At the lighter end, it can mean your sense of self remains intact but it becomes difficult to disobey orders. At the heavier end, it can mean that even continuing to live requires permission.”
“So even at the light end, you still have to obey most orders?”
“Unless it’s something extreme like, ‘Die!’”
Why in the world had Elder recommended something that dangerous? Though I suppose if I met a good target, they might simply make my body healthier and then leave me alone.
“And compared to the last time I checked, it seems like the power of your Caregiver title has gotten stronger too.”
“Stronger?”
“Titles and skills do grow over time. Ah, your Teacher skill might go up in grade soon. You used it diligently. And the things you put inside your body are growing well too.”
It really did feel like I had just undergone a medical exam.
“The problem is that abilities that are already too strong for your physical body are continuing to grow. I’m curious what will happen. You seem more intact than I expected, which makes it even stranger. You were definitely born an ordinary human, so why was something like this made?”
“I just lived my life and ended up like this, why.”
“As if chance alone could do that.”
“Show me Crescent Moon’s memories like you promised.”
The jellyfish nodded, then drifted back. Thick fog rolled in around her. Then a faint voice was heard.
[I protected humanity.]
It was Chief Song’s voice.
