Chapter 129
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The Eschatologist I
Shin No-Ah
1
By any chance, do you all have frequent nightmares?
I have them often.
For instance, in a dream one day, the Goryejang Villain had completely subjugated Seo Gyu as his subordinate. And thus, he was reborn as the tyrant of SG Net.
-Goryejang: F-from now on, outdated Three Kingdoms bait like that will be banned on SG Net 24 hours a day....
-ZERO_SUGAR: What are you saying, Aryun?
-Goryejang: Aah, this resentment and grudge. As expected, Guild Master's aggro tastes the best. It's so delicious. Guild Master is a supreme restaurant...!
-Goryejang: From now on, I will stand in the heavens....
And wouldn't you know it, all SG Net members applauded in admiration at the new administrator's decisive action.
Even the Saintess who always connects anonymously, and Nodo Ha who rarely engages in community activities, joined with their real names for just this moment to praise the Goryejang Villain.
What a horrific nightmare.
It was a tragedy that even if the whole world forgave, I, Jang Uisa, could not. The moment I had this dream, the next day I secretly added an extra shot of espresso to Sim Aryun's cafe mocha (Aryun was puzzled by the change in coffee taste).
There are nightmares less horrific than that but with a bit more reality added to them.
-Teacher? Teach... er?
In that nightmare, I. That is, 'Jang Uisa' was already dead.
I couldn't remember in detail how I died. Even I, who had acquired [Complete Memory Ability], found it difficult to recall the dream's scenery. Unless perhaps I purchased a 100 billion won lucid dream from the tutorial fairies.
How did I end up dying?
Was I betrayed by someone and stabbed in the back? Was I murdered by someone I trusted enough to let my guard down, when I usually always maintain protective energy? Or did I die to some strange entity that aura isn't very effective against?
Since my cause of death exceeded a thousand, unlike others, I couldn't accurately gauge it.
-Teacher, teacher. Teacher....... Please wake up, teacher. Yes? Please open your eyes....
But in the dream, Cheon Yohwa was looking at my dead body.
Actually, the expression 'looking' was not correct. Cheon Yohwa's red eyes were wet like a car windshield in the rain, seeing almost nothing.
Fumble. Cheon Yohwa knelt before my corpse, using touch instead of sight to trace my outline inch by inch.
It was rather fortunate that she couldn't see.
Perhaps because it was a dream, I observed the world in third person as if experiencing an out-of-body experience. And that world's genre was gore. There was no intact part on my corpse.
-.......
Cheon Yohwa soon realized that fact as well. Her hand stopped.
-Die.
And she chewed on the word.
-Die, die. Die. Die. Just die.
Crash, the sound of something breaking.
And the dreamscape changed drastically.
Something around Cheon Yohwa, like the noise of an old television, wriggled. White and black alternately flickering noise spread at a rapid rate.
'Ah.'
The wave of noise spreading like a tsunami centered on Cheon Yohwa swallowed a city, the Korean Peninsula, and the entire world in an instant.
Every time the noise expanded, the world screamed. Crackle- Between the screams, blood repeatedly burst forth.
Birch trees and spider lilies.
The color of the noise and the color of the blood closely resembled what had once bloomed at Baekhwa Girls' High School.
Divine Domain.
The domain of the Alienated God. When Cheon Yohwa, the master who sealed it and its shrine maiden, wished for the world's destruction, Mugan dyed the world in black, white, and red without any hesitation.
'Yohwa. No, Yohwa. Don't do that.'
Cheon Yohwa's corruption, having imprisoned all the strange entities of Baekhwa, displayed tremendous power.
Originally, this was precisely the [Bad Ending] scenario I had anticipated.
The Alienated God was dangerous. Cheon Yohwa, who came to seal such an Alienated God, always carried the risk of descending as an even more terrible disaster.
But Cheon Yohwa was never a weak child. She was strong. After the 117th iteration, I rarely witnessed Cheon Yohwa's mental breakdown while I was alive.
Yes. Only 'while I was alive.'
What if I die?
What if I die before Cheon Yohwa, and in an excessively insulting way that Cheon Yohwa couldn't even accept?
What would become of the disciple I personally handed a graduation certificate to?
Kka ha ha ha ha kka kka kka kka-
Mugan, released from its glass prison, laughed maniacally.
Earth was reduced entirely to a mass of black and white noise. The Alienated God, unexpectedly assassinated by a regressor, finally returned and declared final victory.
Though it was merely a dream, the ominous laughter that was too sinister to dismiss as just the Alienated God's spiritual victory embroidered the universe.
The funeral dirge the world played as it ended was derision.
-Oh?
It was then. Cheon Yohwa, who had swallowed Cheon Yohwa in reverse, stopped the laughter.
Steadily-
It looked at me. I felt with my entire body that the black and white noise, Earth, the universe, the god who ostracized the world, was staring right at me.
-You're not dead? Not yet?
There my dream was cut off.
2
Similar nightmares repeated several times.
It wasn't only Cheon Yohwa who appeared in my nightmares.
The protagonist changed every time I dreamed. Dang Seorin, the Saintess, Lee Hayul, Sim Aryun....
Of course, dreams were just dreams. It was simple to dismiss them as 'what an unpleasant nightmare' and move on. I had actually ignored them that way.
"Hweh? A nightmare?"
But after obtaining the information in the 205th iteration that the tutorial fairy was actually a Dream Demon, my thoughts changed.
I judged that I needed to take my nightmares a bit more seriously.
"Yes. Dreams are your specialty area, after all. Can something like 'a strange entity parasitizing dreams' exist?"
"Hwehh. Of course!"
Fairy 264 wiggled her hips.
"Not just us fairies, but all sorts of strange entities are in dreams!"
"Lots of them?"
"Hweh. Humans have had the habit of regarding dreams as another dimension for a very long time! Describing the situation based on the terminology dictionary personally developed by Comrade Secretary, dreams are 'another world that is completely different from this world yet one I can enter, or end up entering'!"
"...How empty."
"Heekheekheek. Correct! There may be humans who have never entered the void, but there cannot be humans who have never dreamed...! Humans are a pitiful species that cannot help but experience the void called dreams from birth! And living in that 'first void' is precisely us fairies...! Truly a species overflowing with roots! If there are reactionaries targeting our legitimate Lebensraum, the domain of dreams, it's time to beat them up!"
"Hmm."
Dreams too could be a type of void. No, they are voids.
After conversing with the fairies, experts in that domain, I was able to gain certainty. But questions still remained.
And I wasn't the type to suffer alone when questions arose.
I immediately went to the counselor I trusted most and opened up about the 'nightmares.'
"Why did it have to be me as that counselor...?"
"Because not even once have you been the protagonist in my nightmares."
"Haah...."
Nodo Ha, the Management Division Commander, cleaned her glasses lenses. There was no particular meaning. The glasses cloth itself was dirty from who knows how long she hadn't washed it.
Tap, I snapped my fingers to generate aura. Then I delicately cleaned the grime on Nodo Ha's monocle.
"I told you to wash it with water, not a cloth."
"I don't have time for that leisure. I'm incredibly busy. Heh. If only someone hadn't kicked down my door claiming they needed psychological counseling, I might have had some leisure time...."
"Are you saying Jiwon said that? I'll scold her thoroughly later."
"Does this guy really have no conscience...?"
"Anyway, please think about it with me. If this 'nightmare' is a strange entity, why does it keep showing me these dreams?"
"Hmmm...."
Nodo Ha chewed on the tip of her pen with her teeth.
"...First, let's set aside the possibility that all of this is just an unpleasant dream created by your unconscious mind."
"Exactly what kind of human do you take me for?"
"I can only conclude that its purpose is to shake your mentality. Well, strange entities don't have intelligence or rationality. But thinking of strange entities as intelligent beings like humans, honestly, Jang Uisa, you would be an incomprehensible thorn in their side...."
"A thorn in their side?"
"Yes."
Nodo Ha grinned.
"You know when and what strange entities will appear, and furthermore, you defeat them using all sorts of bizarre methods.... If that's not incomprehensible, what is? There are only two ways to defeat someone like you. Overwhelming numbers or mental attacks...."
"......."
"Overwhelming numbers. That would correspond to monster waves, but.... According to you, thanks to that 'drinking poison to quench thirst' or whatever, we can hold out for about 8 years, right...?"
"Yes."
"Then is there any other option? There's no choice but to gradually shake your mentality. I've been meaning to point this out for a while.... Jang Uisa the Awakened. You have a strong tendency to dismiss strange entities as overwhelmingly powerful enemies."
"That's because they are overwhelming enemies."
"Well, actually, if they're Ocean-class Alienated God level, they can view us humans as insects. Even the Ten Legs, merely City-class, was despair-inducing until you grew.... But.... Conversely, from the strange entities' perspective, wouldn't you also be a sufficiently terrifying existence...?"
"Hmm."
"Therefore, if I were a strange entity, I would try to destroy your mentality. Showing you scenes of people you cherish being ruined one by one.... Not a bad tactic, what do you think...?"
Certainly.
Nodo Ha's analysis had merit.
Of course, as she herself emphasized, strange entities didn't have human-like intelligence.
Rather than a strange entity having the 'purpose' of destroying 'me,' it was more appropriate to view it as 'a phenomenon that threatens me somehow occurring.'
However, whichever the case, the fact that 'a strange entity seeking to cause my mental collapse' existed remained the same.
"Talking with the Management Division Commander, I feel more organized. But still, it's just a dream, isn't it? It doesn't seem to have any particular negative effect on our reality right now, so let's leave it be."
"Heh. As you wish. I'll leave matters concerning strange entities to Jang Uisa the Awakened. By the way, it's not bad that I never appeared in those gloomy nightmares...."
But as several more iterations passed, our judgment was revealed to be overly complacent.
"Teacher!"
Tap, tap, tap.
Cheon Yohwa, the former basketball club ace, ran up to me. Cafe hideout, depth 1,200 meters. It was a cozy depth where running wasn't necessary, yet Cheon Yohwa approached me hurriedly.
As if I might disappear somewhere.
Only after coming right up to my nose did Cheon Yohwa breathe a sigh of relief.
"Ah.... Ugh, teacher is fine. Thank goodness...."
"What's wrong? Why do you look so bad?"
"...I'm sorry. Last night, I had a really unpleasant dream."
"An unpleasant dream?"
My long life as a regressor had formed highly developed sensory organs at the back of my neck. The moment I heard the phrase 'bad dream,' the back of my neck broke out in goosebumps with all its might.
"Yes. In the dream, teacher experienced bad things. It was so cruel. Teacher tried their best to help people, but no one appreciated it, and I don't remember well, but there was betrayal too...."
Just as I expected.
My premonition wasn't wrong.
"So I was really, really angry. People around me suddenly didn't feel human, and if they weren't human, I didn't particularly need to help them.... So."
"You broke Mugan's seal."
"Ah.... Right. Um, Mugan covered the entire world, and humanity went extinct, but I didn't feel any particular emotion. I hated that so much...."
That's right.
There was a part I hadn't considered, and Division Commander Nodo Ha hadn't paid attention to either.
If 'nightmares' were really strange entities, it wouldn't make sense for only me to experience them. Every time all humans dreamed, they would be possessed by the same strange entity.
I was only able to vaguely remember these nightmares because I was an Awakened with [Complete Memory Ability]. Most people simply forgot after having nightmares.
I wasn't particularly worried about my own mentality. I had prepared various means to maintain mental health, after all.
But if other people became a problem too?
That changed things significantly.
As we know, Dang Seorin, the Saintess, Cheon Yohwa, Sim Aryun, and others all had the potential to 'fall' and cause world destruction if things went wrong.
A strange entity that gnaws at their minds without them even properly remembering it needed to be treated with a higher danger rating.
I immediately moved to the casino.
"Fairy 264."
"Hwet. What is it, Comrade Secretary?"
"Assemble as many Dream Demons as possible that are currently available. Prepare for lucid dreaming too. It's time to raise the red flag once more."
"Hwek.... We can gather about 90. But, what revolutionary enemy has appeared that a full mobilization order is being issued?"
I said.
"I need to destroy the strange entity parasitizing humanity's dreams."
"Hwehh? As expected of Comrade Secretary...!"
Grab. Fairy 264 took my hand with both hands in a handshake.
"Dreams are our legitimate territory...! If it's beating up reactionaries who dared occupy our ancestral land, our Fairy Revolutionary Club will fully cooperate!"
The fairy shed flowery-scented tears in streams.
It was the moment the first human (me)-strange entity (fairy) allied forces in history were formed.