Chapter 298 Emptiness is Form (4)
It was a little ironic. Yoon-seok was speechless when he saw the Heavenly Buddha attain enlightenment through a mental victory. Still, he couldn’t believe he reached enlightenment after screwing him over and laughing happily. It felt like they were the same, but…
Well, it was probably just his feeling.
‘It’s just that the timing coincided.’
Yoon-seok slowly opened his eyes. He struggled to somehow accept this momentary enlightenment, but…
‘I don’t know if it went well.’
He completely understood with his head, but it wasn’t to the point he could explain it. If he could check it with his body, he could be certain, but he couldn’t check while his old abilities were missing.
‘More than anything else, I have a feeling that I will know it more clearly if I meet that little boy.’
Though it was merely intuition, it was good enough. After organizing all his thoughts, Yoon-seok decided to move slowly. Only then did he realize that now that Lynn wasn’t there, it was almost impossible to reach his destination in the middle of this universe.
‘…Did I come here too recklessly?’
Before too long, Yoon-seok was relieved to find a space battleship sailing in the distance.
‘It doesn’t seem like a space pirate ship.’
That would have to do for a ride.
* * *
Yoon-seok, reaching the space battleship, ripped off the iron plates and broke in. As a civilized man of Earth, he also thought to wait in front of it with his thumb up, but come to think of it, there might be no hitchhiking culture in the Taklan galaxy.
Wheeeee-oooowww-!
As soon as Yoon-seok entered, a siren sounded out, and a group of soldiers presumed to be the Imperial Army rushed in.
‘I’m glad I grabbed the stealth technique.’
Yoon-seok listened to their conversation from a distance. It didn’t matter even if they had detection technology. This stealth wasn’t a general skill sold in the store but a combination of unique skills. If he didn’t hit first, he wouldn’t get caught.
“What is it? Did the prisoners escape?”
“Looking at the traces, it appears there’s damage to the outer hull.”
“…It came from outside?”
They look pretty confused. Their battleship was suddenly damaged, so of course, it would be suspicious.
Yoon-seok’s eyes lit up as he listened.
“How much time until we reach our destination?”
“46 hours.”
“The repair should be postponed until after we escort the prisoner to the Space and Time Prison. I will report it to the Captain. You guys should search the ship thoroughly to find the cause.”
“Yes!”
He guessed it when he heard the word prisoners. Luckily, the ship’s destination was the Space and Time Prison. Yoon-seok chuckled.
‘This is a win-win.’
It was lucky. He didn’t have to do anything annoying to take control of the ship, and they didn’t have to fight.
Yoon-seok looked around as he waited. He wondered if he might get some information about the Space and Time Prison, but he found nothing.
[You have entered the Space-Time world.]
[The number of people currently entering is 8,762,232.]
Eventually, he arrived at his destination and entered the Space-Time World while hiding among the prisoners. But unlike before, no special rules were applied. The location where he started was also in a dark prison.
“Forget your memories of being human. You are no longer human, after all.”
The guards who disciplined them and the prisoners whose faces turned dark as soon as they realized where they were. While the guards checked the list and put them into prison uniforms, Yoon-seok quickly passed by and left the entry building.
‘Is it District 10?’
Yoon-seok, who confirmed the huge number written on the ceiling, soon headed for District 1 at the center. It was a bit fascinating to see it still intact, though. It wasn’t much different from an ordinary city.
‘I guess it’s because it’s a place where only Imperial soldiers live.’
People sold their wares and sat around in stores laughing and talking. Would they ever know that this place would turn into a war zone in a few months? They probably never even dreamed of it.
“…”
For now, Yoon-seok is headed to the tower located in the city’s center. It was a different district, but that place was where he met Henigus. If he started and looked all over, he would find the kid someday.
‘I just hope he’s not in the Tower.’
Yoon-seok searched the areas one by one, starting with District 1. He might have missed them because he couldn’t feel his mana, but… Henigus was nowhere to be found.
‘…Do I have no choice but to wait here?’
Maybe that was the wisest choice. However, Yoon-seok decided to visit the other places since he had spare time anyway. The Space and Time Prison meant this underground city, but there was a world above them.
“It’s the same here.”
Yoon-seok, who reached aboveground through the tower, flew up to the sky and glanced down. Jungle, snowfield, volcano… the tiled terrain was identical to what he had seen before, except there were no monsters. And that meant that if he followed the route like before, that mysterious drop-off would appear.
“Was it that way?”
Yoon-seok picked a direction based on the jungle and headed back that way. Before long, the cliff appeared, and the murky depths below.
‘…What should I do?’
Yoon-seok pondered for a moment.
‘Well, let’s go down since I’m already here.’
He thought it couldn’t get any worse than now, even if he were sent somewhere else.
‘Since the monsters haven’t woken up, it might be different now.’
Yoon-seok slowly climbed down the wall.
But was the cliff always this high? Unlike when he jumped off, it was slow going.
‘…Still, I think it’s time for something to appear.’
He didn’t know the exact distance as there was only fog everywhere he looked, but it felt like he had gone down as much as he did before.
‘Huh?’
Yoon-seok, who paused and stared intently through the fog, was startled. He heard something down there.
Tap-tap.
It started to grow clearer. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the sound of the wind.
Yoon-seok continued to climb down while keeping his guard up.
Swoooooosh-.
At some point, the fog cleared, and finally, the bottom of the cliff was visible.
‘What the hell?’
Yoon-seok paused, unsure of what to think. Monsters were crowded across the vast plains with no end in sight. None of them moved, but they didn’t appear dead. Were they sleeping?
‘Will these guys wake up when there are ten rankers?’
He didn’t know, but for now, Yoon-seok approached the source of the sound.
Tap, tap, tap.
It was coming from a cave dug out under the cliff base.
What the hell was this sound? Yoon-seok followed the faint light leaking out of the cave.
‘A computer…?’
An old monitor and something like a black pad were placed on a table. There wasn’t a console but a long line connected to a single blue bead. It was an object he remembered. Was it the Dimensional Stone? That’s what the kid said controlled this place, and if it broke, this world would be over.
“What the fuck…?”
Yoon-seok cursed without realizing it. He didn’t know what that thing was, but he felt an intuitive sense of rejection toward it.
Tap-tap, tick-tap.
This deep cave where a beast might live, the computer placed in it, and the mysterious clockwork that started to rotate whenever the bead was lit with blue light.
‘Appraisal.’
Approaching the table, Yoon-seok used Appraisal. The monitor didn’t respond, but fortunately, the pad came up with information.
*Input Device (Rank EX) – When used, it changes to the input device most familiar to the user.
When used…
Yoon-seok tried to press the pad, and it instantly changed to a Korean entry-level keyboard.
“…”
Feeling goosebumps up his arms, Yoon-seok looked at the monitor screen again. There was nothing on the black screen other than a small square reminiscent of a search bar.
Tap-tap. Tap.
It was indeed a search function. Yoon-seok, thinking about searching for it, quickly tapped on the keyboard. He thought that he would try once. Something might go wrong after searching, so he started with something simple.
[Incarnation of Buddha]
Yoon-seok, typing in the Heavenly Buddha’s nickname, pressed enter. New letters appeared on the black screen.
—Codename: M521d18542.
—Success Rate: 0.781%
He had no idea what these phrases meant. However, as soon as he saw it, his heart started pounding.
—Are you sure you want to permanently delete this code?
—Y / N
What would happen if he clicked Y here? Would the Heavenly Buddha be erased from this world? That insanely strong Lowly Monk, from a little typing on a keyboard?
As Yoon-seok stood dazed, new messages appeared.
—Malicious code that has been altered by repeated recovery.
—Deletion is not possible.
Yoon-seok breathed out a sigh of relief. So it wasn’t as bad as he assumed… but he’d have to search for his name first to be certain.
Tap-tap.
—Codename: E01
—Success Rate: 41.9421%
His success rate was much higher than the Heavenly Buddha’s, but he still didn’t know what this number meant. Anyway, after waiting for a while, the same message popped up.
—Malicious code that has been altered by repeated recovery.
—Deletion is not possible.
Yoon-seok smiled bitterly.
‘Malicious code, huh? Should I be happy about it?’
It was annoying to be treated like a virus by the Tower, but it was nice to know that they couldn’t interfere with him as they pleased.
‘Anyway, that’s the standard for handling malicious code.’
Yoon-seok remembered the passage in the center of the Tower he had arrived at after breaking down the walls. At that time, a similar message appeared that the Non-Loss Muscle resisted the deletion code. Perhaps the criteria for classifying maliciousness was determined by such a technique’s presence.
Simply put, the irregulars the Tower couldn’t control.
‘…I need to check the others as well.’
Yoon-seok went through his colleagues.
—Codename: M2C8
—Success rate: 29.311%
First of all, Cheon-ma had immunity to deletion. Her success rate was also quite high. However, when he was about to search for Lee Su-yeon’s nickname-
Step.
He heard footsteps behind him.
The owner of this house had returned.
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