Chapter 343:
When the world of nightmares completely enveloped Gangneung, the Association was thrown into chaos.
The strange dome, which had appeared suddenly without any warning, not only swallowed Gangneung but was also gradually expanding in size.
Evacuation messages were sent to the citizens of Yangyang, Pyeongchang, and Donghae City, and a Collector summons order was issued.
“Haa. What on earth is happening this time?”
Choi Jung-mo, who had now risen to the position of Association President, clutched his head in frustration as the Gangneung incident broke out just when he thought the incidents had finally calmed down.
His eyes were fixed on the real-time footage being captured by drones.
The ten-layer Mental Realm incident in Gwanghwamun had been serious, but this Gangneung incident was distinctly different from the usual Mental Realms.
‘Communication with the inside has been completely cut off. And that unknown dome is getting larger and larger.’
No one knew what was unfolding inside. Just by looking at the way the dome pulsated endlessly like a heart, it was clear that whatever was inside was far from ordinary.
It wasn't a Mental Realm. Yet, like a runaway Mental Realm, it was devouring and eroding its surroundings in a similar process.
A runaway world.
A foreboding sign that was not a typical Mental Realm but something that signaled the end of the world.
* * *
Yu-hyun went inside and immediately tried to find Kang Hye-rim and Seo Sumin, but he couldn't see either of them. They seemed to have already gone deeper inside. He tried using telepathy just in case, but he couldn't reach them.
‘Is it literally another world where communication doesn’t work at all?’
He decided to go deeper. He calculated that if he reached the center of this gigantic nightmare world, he would be able to find Kwon Jia.
‘This place is quite complex.’
This nightmare world, with everything mixed together, was a massive maze in itself. Strange structures jutted out irregularly, and some terrains were so twisted that they resembled an ant nest.
Without a map or a clear path, Yu-hyun had no choice but to head inward as much as possible with his back to the dome's outer edge.
‘This is Jia’s nightmare.’
The feared scenario had come true. Kwon Jia's sealed memories had awakened, and even merged with the Fragments and the Seeds of Stories to create a massive disaster.
To stop this, he needed to remove the core, which could be called the story of this world.
‘Since it's different from a typical Mental Realm, there might not be any clear conditions for clearing it.’
At the center of all this was Kwon Jia. Though it wasn't her doing but that of Praytion, led by the Bookworm, the root of this world was ultimately Kwon Jia.
If her memories were the driving force maintaining this world.
To destroy this nightmare world, he might have to kill Kwon Jia in the worst-case scenario.
‘Phew. No. Let's not make hasty judgments. No one knows what will happen yet. There could be another way.’
It was too early to conclude anything yet. Even so, it was hard to shake off the anxious thoughts.
Yu-hyun walked and walked again. This bizarrely twisted world should have been completely new to him, but the traces within it were all too familiar.
Since the material composing this world was the apocalypse he had tried so hard to prevent, it was natural.
If this nightmare world kept growing and eventually covered the entire Earth, what would happen?
Perhaps Praytion's very goal was this. To bring Kwon Jia's nightmare into reality and overlay it onto Earth.
‘Who would let them do as they please?’
Having come this far, he couldn't let them ruin everything in the end.
Yu-hyun’s eyes burned with fierce determination.
* * *
‘Where on earth is this place?’
Since entering the nightmare world, Kang Hye-rim had been unable to get her bearings on where to go.
Even she, who had cleared countless Mental Realms, found this nightmare world, where everything was mixed together, an unfamiliar place.
‘Yu-hyun said Jia was trapped in a trap. Does that mean this world itself is somehow related to Jia?’
Really?
Kang Hye-rim had doubts in her mind about whether such a thing was actually possible, but strangely, she was convinced.
Though she didn't know much, she had seen and heard many things while staying by Yu-hyun's side.
Moreover, some of the surrounding landscapes she glimpsed reminded her too much of post-apocalyptic Earth that she had seen from Yu-hyun's past.
‘Come to think of it, Jia has always known things that others didn't.’
At the time, Kang Hye-rim had dismissed it as Kwon Jia being incredibly smart, but upon further thought, many things didn’t add up.
Yu-hyun was a regressor who had returned from the future to the past.
And Yu-hyun and Kwon Jia shared each other’s secrets, hiding them from others.
The incredibly knowledgeable information Kwon Jia had shown so far.
Kwon Jia. She was a regressor.
Kang Hye-rim came to that conclusion immediately.
She then shook her head.
‘Even if Jia is a regressor, she’s still a colleague from White Flower Management.’
In the past, she might have been jealous of her, but now Kwon Jia was a precious colleague and a friend to Kang Hye-rim. It didn't matter if she was a regressor. The reason to save her remained unchanged.
‘Wait for me, Jia. I’ll come and save you right away.’
Kang Hye-rim covered herself in thunder energy and dashed forward.
* * *
“Hmm. This is indeed a strange world.”
Seo Sumin, dressed in a black cloak, let out a curious exclamation at the bizarre structure of the nightmare world.
Never in her life had she seen such a strange world. Even during her time in Central Plains Martial World, she wouldn’t have seen such a sight, no matter how far into the outer sects she ventured.
“What do you think?”
Seo Sumin looked down as she asked.
She wasn’t alone. Seo Sumin had been sitting quietly on the shoulder of [Darwin’s Demon] for a while now, observing her surroundings.
“……”
“You’re not answering? What a boring fellow.”
Seo Sumin clicked her tongue at the silent Darwin. She had encountered Darwin after dealing with the Fragment holders on Jindo Island.
Unlike other demons, Darwin was significantly lacking in abilities like hiding or stealth.
Moreover, Seo Sumin's heightened sense had already reached a transcendental level, so she could feel Darwin's gaze watching her, and she told him to come out.
Darwin had only been ordered to protect Seo Sumin if she was in danger and had no other specific instructions.
So, he revealed himself as Seo Sumin commanded.
Since Seo Sumin had seen Darwin before, she decided to travel with him.
“So where on earth is Jia?”
It had already been several hours since they entered this place.
Although it felt like she had wandered the nightmare world for quite a while, she hadn’t found any trace of Kwon Jia.
No matter how far she extended her senses, all she could detect were strange noises. This world, filled with bizarre and unimaginable things, might be why.
Wheee.
“Hoo. Again.”
She felt something approaching from afar. It was no longer new to her, so Seo Sumin sighed.
It had been several hours since she arrived here, and it wasn’t just peaceful exploration.
Rather, she had been periodically attacked by illusions wandering around, and Seo Sumin had already dealt with several illusions.
“I wonder how long I’ll have to keep fighting and wandering like this.”
Seo Sumin prepared to fight by loosening up. At that moment, Darwin raised his hand to stop her.
“Huh? What do you mean? Are you going to fight?”
Nod.
Darwin gently set Seo Sumin, who was perched on his right shoulder, down and walked towards the approaching group of illusions.
Seo Sumin crossed her arms and watched. Come to think of it, she had never seen that big guy fight directly. It wouldn’t be bad to see how strong he was.
Screech!
The approaching illusions were dinosaurs that resembled raptors. They bared their teeth at the massive Darwin leading the charge.
Darwin prepared his stance as he looked at the raptors.
‘Ho? That’s….’
Seo Sumin's eyes gleamed as she saw Darwin's stance.
It was the martial arts technique she had shown while dealing with the illusions a while ago.
Darwin immediately struck the raptor with his fist.
Boom! As Darwin’s huge fist hit the air, a tremendous shockwave spread through the atmosphere, sweeping through the raptor group.
As the fight ended in an instant, Seo Sumin uncrossed her arms and clapped her hands.
“Impressive. Just by watching, you copied my Liuhequan so perfectly. You’ve got great talent.”
Happy with the praise, Darwin scratched the back of his head awkwardly and approached Seo Sumin.
Darwin knelt on one knee before Seo Sumin, and she naturally climbed onto his shoulder again.
The strange duo moved again to find Kwon Jia.
* * *
‘This is really troublesome.’
Yu-hyun felt frustrated as he couldn’t find any trace of Kwon Jia no matter how far he walked. Moreover, the number of illusions wandering around was so high that he encountered them everywhere he went.
Since this world manifested everything in Kwon Jia's memory, the types of illusions were endlessly diverse.
‘And they keep increasing.’
If it wasn’t a mistake, the number of illusions wandering around was continuously growing. The frequency of encountering them had also increased significantly.
‘What happened to the survivors in the city swallowed by the
nightmare world?’
Gangneung was engulfed by the nightmare world before the evacuation order could even be issued. Given the situation with these illusions wandering around, even if there were survivors, their numbers would be extremely few.
‘Even if I try to rescue them, without knowing the original location of the city, I can’t move from here.’
Unless the root cause of this incident was resolved, even if he found a group of survivors, he wouldn’t be able to keep them safe.
Yu-hyun looked up at the sky. The dome’s ceiling spread darkly, blocking his view.
Even using the Eye of Laplace, he couldn’t see where to go or what to face.
‘They said this world was created due to the Fragments and the Seeds of Stories. Is it because of that influence?’
He couldn’t see the future inside this place.
Yu-hyun immediately deactivated the power of Laplace and decided to move again.
That was when it happened.
Baaah.
He heard the sound of a sheep crying from somewhere. He couldn’t determine the direction, but if he hadn’t heard it wrong, it was definitely the sound of a sheep crying.
Realizing this, Yu-hyun shivered involuntarily.
[Yu-hyun, what’s wrong?]
‘You heard that sheep cry, right?’
[Huh? Oh, yeah. I think I did. So what about it?]
Yu-hyun had a serious expression he hadn’t shown before. Seeing him react this way, Baek-ryun felt an unusual sense of anxiety.
‘Damn. It really was the cry of a sheep. I wish I had just misheard.’
[What’s wrong with the cry of a sheep?]
‘It’s not just any sheep. It’s the cry of a lamb.’
[What’s so problematic about that?]
‘Because it’s not an ordinary problem.’
To Yu-hyun, the cry of this lamb did not hold good memories.
It wasn’t even that long ago. The events that unfolded after this lamb cried were directly related to the trials Yu-hyun faced in the final stages of the apocalypse.
‘But why is it here?’
Didn’t they say Jia hadn’t even passed more than half of the trials?
But this lamb’s cry, if he wasn’t mistaken, was a kind of ‘omen’ that occurred during the 99th trial.
From what Yu-hyun remembered, Jia had barely passed the 50th trial a few times.
There was no way Jia had lied about this. Yet, the fact that the 99th trial existed in her memory meant only one thing.
‘The sealed memories of those cycles have been released.’
Yu-hyun had no idea what Kwon Jia did in cycles 2 through 10. Her memories were sealed, and even Yu-hyun’s ability to read books couldn’t confirm that far.
However, the cry of the lamb confirmed it for Yu-hyun. Kwon Jia had reached the 99th trial during her early cycles.
‘Then this is really serious.’
[What on earth is going on?]
‘The cry of the lamb means that next comes that event.’
Before Baek-ryun could ask what it was, a ripping sound echoed in the air.
The clear sound mocked his earlier thought of having mistaken the cry.
Yu-hyun recited a verse.
“When the lamb opened one of the seven seals, a voice like thunder roared.”
「Come!」
A resonant voice echoed throughout the nightmare world. Simultaneously, a massive wave of power was felt from afar, as if a bomb had exploded.
Yu-hyun’s cold gaze turned toward the direction of the wave.
“The 99th trial. The Horseman of the Apocalypse is coming.”
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