Breakdown VII
――How should I write the tale of the battle that took place that day?
I think I've managed this story quite well so far.
But now, as I reflect on the moment when I first exterminated an Outer God-class anomaly, I feel a sudden, renewed difficulty in narrating it.
I always wish to be as truthful as possible with you. If I stammer while singing a poem (詩), it's not to perform tricks for you, but because there are nights in the heavens that can only be expressed through poetic words.
Starlight poured down.
Those stars had the viscosity of water rather than light. Swoosh—the red starlight poured down, speaking with the voice of a waterfall.
Like a sudden tsunami crashing onto the beach, the water-like light surged towards us, ready to drown us.
Cheon Yo-hwa quickly turned towards me. We were still holding hands.
"Ahjussi! Give the order!"
"Never dissolve into your surroundings. That anomaly will try everything to test and experiment on you, eventually turning you into a set object, a lab rat. Various illusions and visions will swallow your life like a tidal wave. Don't get influenced by them; keep yourself grounded."
"Okay!"
Swoosh. The red waterlight quickly rose to our waists. I stared unshaken at the 'Infinite Void'.
The distance between us and the Infinite Void was either just 10 meters, or 100 meters. It could have been 4,444 meters as well.
It was the distance between samsara and nirvana. It was both the Infinite Void and the Infinite. From that extreme horizon, the anomaly's unending laughter echoed.
Kya-hahaha-hahaha-ha-ha-ha—
In ancient India, if 13 kilometers were referred to as a yojana, it was one yojana and also 20,000 yojanas.
In Buddhism, it is said that the hell of sentient beings lies 20,000 yojanas below the surface. In other words, hell was 260,000 kilometers underground.
The diameter of the Earth was 12,700 kilometers. The distance from Earth to the Moon was 385,000 kilometers.
The Moon, from ancient times, was the closest otherworld to Earth.
Hell was located at a distance that was sufficient and overflowing to traverse this world but woefully inadequate to reach another world.
Ka-ha-ha-ha ka-ka-ka-ka—
The middle point between samsara and nirvana. The realm where beings could no longer stay in this world but lacked the energy to reach another world.
Thus, in the land of reincarnation where the wheel just spins idly, only the sound of laughter mocking humans endlessly squeaked and tore.
It was the scorn of the anomaly that isolated humans from the world.
"Yo-hwa. In the realm of that anomaly, both time and space can deceive you. But the fact that 'you are being deceived' will remain unchanged."
"……."
I held Cheon Yo-hwa's hand a little tighter. The distance between us was the smallest unit of distance a human could have.
"...Yes."
"The main culprit, the figure, the existence mocking you the most from the forefront. That is the nail holding the illusion in place. Understand? Everything else is normal, but there will be something uniquely abnormal. If you pull out and eliminate that nail, the illusion will disappear."
"Aah! Oh, I totally get it! It's like scenes I've seen often in comics. Okay. Ahjussi, just leave it to me―"
Blink.
The light surged to our chins, submerging us completely. The sensation of our clasped hands blurred as it was engulfed by the water's undulations.
Clunk, a sound echoed. It was like the noise of an elevator falling or the sound of a worn-out wheel rolling.
Perhaps it was the sound of time.
The world before my eyes changed completely.
Blink.
"――Undertaker. Undertaker, what's wrong?"
The smell of summer was in the air. The leaves, soaked by a recent shower, exuded a scent as rich as green tea.
It was a cedar forest. The cedar roots spread in all directions, and on those stiff legs, the blue hydrangea petals stretched out once more.
Amid the stretching of the green trees and the blue young petals, a mischievous old railway snaked like a serpent.
"Really. Phew. Be careful. If you keep getting distracted like that, you're going to bite your tongue."
On the railway, a miniature train was perched like a toy. It was a three-carriage mini steam engine, the kind you'd see in an amusement park.
Dang Seo-rin, wearing a witch's hat, was grumbling as she rode the train.
"……."
"Ah- Ah- the railway is broken again. The world might have ended, but aren't the KORAIL employees doing their jobs too carelessly?"
Uhtcha, Dang Seo-rin jumped off the locomotive.
She stretched with a long "Uhtaaa-" following the surrounding cedar trees and hydrangeas.
Well, it's been four hours since we boarded the train. I could sit still for 40 hours without any problem, but a frail wizard like Dang Seo-rin must have felt her whole body getting stiff.
"...Try to understand. The KORAIL employees probably all ended up unemployed. The world is too harsh to demand passion pay."
"Kids these days have no tenacity, none. Phew. I'll connect the railway; you check the wheels. The train has been wobbling strangely for a while now."
"Alright. Leave it to me."
"Okay."
I grabbed some tools from the cargo hold and inspected the wheels of our steam locomotive... the 'Hogwarts Express'.
Please don't criticize the train's name. In this crazy plan to travel the world on a mini steam train, my authority was quite insignificant.
The planner of this trip, who loved Harry Potter so much as a child that she wore a witch's hat all year round, twirled her wand.
"Disassemble-Reassemble."
A two-line song casually slipped from Dang Seo-rin's lips.
Clink-clank, clink-clank—
The rails we had just passed separated and floated in the air. Then they moved themselves to the broken part of the railway ahead.
Clack!
The broken railway was instantly repaired. Of course, the railway behind us was now broken, but what of it?
It's hard to believe there are any other crazies in the world besides us who would embark on such a mad journey.
"Done! How are the wheels? Broken?"
"No, just a few loose screws. I tightened them with all my strength, so there shouldn't be any issues for a while."
"That's a relief. Then let's get going again!"
Clatter.
The express train moved. The locomotive let out a loud whistle and vigorously puffed out steam.
By the way, that's not real steam from burning coal. It's just an 'illusion magic' Dang Seo-rin cast.
Not just the steam; the entire express train we rode was imbued with Dang Seo-rin's 'illusion magic' that she spent 30 days meticulously designing.
In this crazy world, we were slightly crazier than others, with Dang Seo-rin being the most uniquely crazy among us.
"We're about to cross into North Korea."
Dang Seo-rin unfolded a map.
A map covered with fingerprints. It was colored with red and yellow markers here and there. The map trembled like a maple leaf from the train's clattering.
"After North Korea, we'll reach Duman River Station, cross over to Hasan Station, and then it's Russia. From there, we just ride the Trans-Siberian Railway all the way up."
"……."
"Ah, I've always had the Trans-Siberian Railway on my bucket list!"
Clatter, clatter.
"It's ironic that I only get to travel after the world has ended. Life is truly mysterious. Anyway, after Moscow, we'll head to Belarus, Poland, Germany..."
"Yeah."
"Yes?"
I murmured softly.
"Yes, this is my dream."
"……."
"To someday travel the world with you, Seo-rin. Riding this strange, uniquely modified train that suits your tastes."
"……? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
Dang Seo-rin tilted her head while holding the map.
"We're doing it now."
The cedar forest swayed in the wind. I looked up at the sky. Thick steam rose, following the sky's breath.
"One car on the train belongs to you, Dang Seo-rin. It's only natural; you wouldn't give up the first car to anyone else. That one car is also your room. You'd decorate it just like a caravan camper to your heart's content. Skulls, crystal balls, wands, brooms... You might even keep an owl."
"……."
"The second car is my room. It would start off neatly organized, but as the travel days go by, your belongings would slowly invade my space. You're always collecting trinkets, so one car wouldn't be enough for your stuff."
Clatter, clatter.
"The third car is the dining and resting space. The fourth car is storage. I have a magic trunk bag, so there's actually plenty of space. If the railway breaks, you use magic and song to fix it, and if an anomaly attacks, I defeat it. Like that, we can go anywhere, as far as we want. We can travel forever."
"……."
"But not yet."
Clatter.
"Seo-rin. On the night we defeated Ten Legs, when I first revealed that I was a regressor, and when you died. I swore. I would restore this world to its original state before traveling with you."
"...When do you think we can leave?"
"Sorry. Honestly, it's still far off."
I chuckled softly.
"But... I always remember, Seo-rin. And you need to get stronger too."
"Me? Why?"
"Because we're going to cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by train. You have to freeze the seawater in real-time to create an ice railway. Even if we reach the beach and find a lonely telephone pole standing in the sand, our journey won't end."
"Oh my God. Are you crazy? Do you know how much mana it would take to keep freezing the sea continuously?"
"Listen. Not just crossing the sea, but we're going to follow the route of the Titanic!"
"Oh my God. Are you crazy? That's a fantastic idea."
We chuckled softly.
"...I see. Undertaker, you have the [Complete Memory] ability. No matter how many illusions, you won't lose the coordinates."
"Yeah."
Dang Seo-rin looked up at the sky.
"Ah- Ah- The promise of a journey we made centuries ago is being postponed again?"
She sighed, dangling her legs outside the train like a locomotive puffing out steam.
"What's a few centuries? It's almost a thousand years now. Seriously, what kind of friend makes a travel promise for a thousand years later and then postpones it again?"
"Sorry. Mostly Old Man Scho's fault."
"Pft. Yeah—haha! That's right. It's that old man's fault. You're a supporter, but it's the damage dealer who ran away alone who's at fault."
Dang Seo-rin laughed heartily.
Then she looked at me.
"I'm probably just an illusion of the anomaly. An AI-like existence created to replicate 'Dang Seo-rin' as closely as possible using your memory. Yet, why do you still treat me as a friend?"
"Don't say something foolish. Life is just a dream. There's no need to dismiss it as a delusion just because you're dreaming within a dream. I'm just grateful that you follow me in any dream."
"……."
My companion was silent for a while.
Then she smiled at me.
"...I'm looking forward to the journey. It makes my heart race."
"Me too."
"I'll be waiting. Even if it takes a thousand years."
Clatter—
The wheels moved.
What is engraved in childhood leaves its mark for life. For Dang Seo-rin, it was magic and the existence of wizards.
Then, the first shape a person sees after being born is a circle, a circle (圓).
The pupil of a person's eye.
The eyes of mother and father. Someone's eyes. Black islands floating in an infinite white sea.
Those islands were not solitary; they were twin islands.
For humans, the most perfect shape was a circle, and a circle (圓形) was always a prototype (原形).
The archetype of a human stared at me.
"――Hah! Ah, ahjussi?"
"Yes. I'm listening."
"Just now... Wow, it's true. Just as it is... It's unbelievable. I just entered elementary school and spent over five years! Wow, really... Wow."
"It took you quite a while."
"Such—such goosebumps. Seriously, is it possible to have such an anomaly? How...?"
I smiled.
"Who was the nail in the illusion?"
"Ah—well, my mother. She passed away when I was in fifth grade. Our family is quite filled with cultists. My mother was the only sane one."
"I see."
Squeezing.
Looking around, it was still a galaxy filled with thousands, millions of colors. Schools, hospitals, prisons, movie theaters, screens, cityscapes intersected ceaselessly.
Ka-ha-ha ka-ka-ka—
The anomaly laughed.
But the universe was definitely a little smaller than before.
The size of a void was the capacity to contain a mind.
"You swam out well. But it's not over yet. Until we reach the core of that anomaly, illusions will infiltrate us with every step we take."
"……."
"Calling it an illusion might not be right. It's practically another life. You could call it a route."
"A route..."
"Replacing your time, your life, your existence with a 'substitute existence'. By doing so, the anomaly steals your place. Just like it turned Baekhwa (白花) into Baekhwa (百話)."
"...If I can't swim out of the route."
"In this reality, you will disappear, replaced by something else wandering around as 'Cheon Yo-hwa'."
"……."
Cheon Yo-hwa nodded.
"...That's something I don't like. Yes. I don't like it."
"I feel the same."
"But still... That anomaly, it still seems so far away. I feel it's closer than before, but still far."
Cheon Yo-hwa stared at the Infinite Void.
"How much further... I mean, how many more routes do we have to swim through? Honestly, having just woken up after spending three years in elementary school, I'm still dazed."
"In this void, distance has no meaning. It's always about the anomaly's own rules, the laws of its existence. And in this case..."
Step.
I took Cheon Yo-hwa's hand and took a step forward. In the world, two footfalls, two black twin islands were engraved.
"Three steps forward."
Four (死).
A spell to turn the anomaly personified as death (死) back into the reality of four steps (四). A strategy.
As it was a ritual for death, I called it a funeral.
I was the Undertaker.
"Let's go, Yo-hwa. It's alright. As long as two people don't let go of each other's hands, they can do anything."
"...Yes! Ah shit, the National Sports Festival finals were way, way harder! Bring it on!"
Blink. Clatter.
The archetype of a person blinked, and the wheel of the universe turned.
The wheel of time moved.
From nirvana to samsara.
Three steps forward.
Footnotes:
In both Korea and Japan, the number 4 is often associated with bad luck because the pronunciation of the number is similar to the word for "death" in the respective languages.
In Korean, the number 4 is pronounced as "sa," which sounds similar to the word for death, "?" (sa). Because of this phonetic similarity, the number 4 is often avoided in Korean culture, similar to how the number 13 is sometimes considered unlucky in Western cultures.
In Japanese, the number 4 is pronounced as "shi," which is also the same pronunciation as the word for death, "死" (shi). This association with death has led to the number 4 being considered unlucky in Japanese culture as well.
As a result of these linguistic associations, the number 4 is often avoided in both Korean and Japanese cultures. In buildings, hospitals, and other public places, you may see the number 4 omitted or replaced with alternative words or numbers to avoid any association with bad luck or death.
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