[Ahhh.]
[Can you hear me? Or perhaps, are you watching?]
[I hope this helps you.]
A message containing someone's warm voice.
[Beginning OS Yggdrasil installation.]
Sinhyeok slowly opened his eyes as the voice rang clearly in his ears.
And what greeted him was a house of ghosts.
Ghosts—that is, specters—filled the surroundings.
Yet this scene wasn't unfamiliar.
'I've seen this before?'
It was similar to the sight he'd seen when drinking the Specter Brew made from Ichan's recipe.
Ichan, excited, shouted to everyone at the bewildered him.
"This is my hometown!"
Sinhyeok hurriedly got up and looked around.
Everyone was in the same space.
Only, what was different was that this was the other side of the world.
"We call it the Netherworld."
Ichan hopped around, looking about as if truly overjoyed.
"I see."
Namgung Jincheon tried to calm himself, but trembled slightly.
Jegal Seun's reaction was exactly the same.
At that sight, Namgung Sohye said with a laugh:
"Grandpa and Uncle are cowards."
Both bristled.
"Hmph! Afraid of mere ghosts like these?!"
A specter brushed past his ear.
At the chill that touched his ear, Jegal Seun convulsed and shook violently.
"Mommy!"
At the sudden cry for his mother, everyone burst into laughter.
Sinhyeok first checked on the completed World Tree of Ichan.
He could see a small sprout growing in real time right beneath his feet.
'So this is Ichan's World Tree.'
Its origins were extraordinary.
A small blackwood stem was shooting upward.
[...16 hours remaining until OS Yggdrasil installation is complete.]
"That's a relief."
The system transmitted by Yggdrasil had settled in safely as well.
Sinhyeok looked around, relieved.
"Fascinating."
It was identical, yet the specters filling the surroundings and an inexplicable sense of comfort were impressive.
"Why is it so calm and stable?"
Ichan answered that question:
"It's a trait of the Netherworld. Spiritual energy is abundant here, so it stabilizes you mentally."
"So it's a good thing for now?"
Ichan glared at Sinhyeok, who hadn't understood properly.
"Yeah."
"Okay. Then that's fine. Will this be sustained?"
He asked the most important question.
Ichan shook his head with a matter-of-course expression.
"Nope. Usually, it goes back to normal about once every fortnight. It needs to photosynthesize too."
"Ah."
Everyone's expressions hardened at Ichan's answer.
A flustered Baek Arin grabbed Ichan by the collar and asked about the remaining time.
"Why, why are you like this! I'm only guilty of telling the truth!"
"So how much time is left?"
"I don't know! It varies sometimes! But it's growing so fast right now, so I think it'll be a bit sooner."
Ichan checked the growth speed of the World Tree.
"At that rate, it'll leave the Netherworld and return to the real world within a week, soon. Roughly about 12 hours."
"This is no time to enjoy ourselves."
Everyone tensed up.
Sinhyeok looked around and said:
"We should start building a castle again. Very high and rugged."
Everyone nodded.
Sinhyeok called the old knight, the old wizard, and Jegal Seun, the formation master.
"We're going to build a fortress. I need counsel on the design."
Everyone put their heads together.
"We have the Jegal Clan's sacred text. It's truly terrifying. Once you step inside, you'll wander until your energy withers and you die."
Malakai added an idea to this.
"If we add enchantments, the effects will be amplified. You and I can handle it."
He pointed at Sinhyeok.
The old knight proposed the castle's structure.
"Then I'll design a castle with a labyrinthine structure like last time. I dabbled in it as a hobby in my heyday."
Everyone burned with determination.
Sinhyeok looked at everyone's will and spoke:
"Then let's meet again in about 6 hours. We'll finalize the design then."
"Fine."
"Very well."
Having decided so, Sinhyeok parted ways with them for time to think.
"You can see that side from here too."
Sinhyeok, having risen, observed the real world.
Ichan scurried up beside him and asked:
"What are you doing?"
"Gathering information. Don't they look crazy strong?"
Ichan nodded.
"There are so many of those bull-headed things we caught before over there."
The momentum radiating from them was no joke.
Ichan and Sinhyeok could roughly sense their grade.
"At least B-rank."
"Hyung, we're going to get sliced apart. Shouldn't we at least keep the system alive?"
Sinhyeok informed him of the installation progress that remained in one corner of his vision.
"It's installing. Fifty percent done."
"Wow, so there's still a little hope."
"Everything will work out."
Hope welled up abundantly.
Sinhyeok gazed into the distance.
"We'll survive now, and we'll survive in the future too."
'And I'll kill that bastard.'
He would slit the throat of that trifling demon that kept interfering everywhere.
He engraved that resolve firmly.
[...Installation halted.]
"Hmm?"
[Negotiations with the world of the current location have not been completed. Resolve quickly.]
A mechanical voice flowed out.
At those words, Sinhyeok turned around.
"Where are you going?"
"To find the damned core. Someone's vehemently opposing the system installation."
"Hyung, I'm going too!"
Bored, Ichan scurried after him.
At that sight, Sinhyeok pointed at the World Tree.
"Your dad is right there."
"He's not my dad, more like an uncle......? A pretty young one."
"That's an odd part."
"Well, what can I do when that's how it actually is?"
Ichan and Sinhyeok bickered like that as they wandered around where a castle once stood.
They asked a resident who had come out for a stroll.
"Have you by any chance seen something small and shining?"
"Oh dear, we wouldn't know. Is there such a thing?"
'As expected, he doesn't know....'
Sinhyeok gave up asking.
"Are there any places nearby that look old or special?"
To this question, the answer came readily.
"Well, perhaps the mine? There's a shrine at the mine too. It's an old mine and a place we're grateful for because it fed our Fergana City."
At those words, Sinhyeok decided to look around this rather spacious city.
"Is it that one?"
He looked at the only mountain in this place.
The resident nodded.
"Thank you."
* * *
Baek Arin was looking after the residents when she spotted the two and shouted:
"Where are you going!"
"It's urgent! We're going to find the core!"
"Find it quick and come back!"
"Yeah!"
Sinhyeok stared at the low mountain visible some distance away.
"Ichan, doesn't that look a little far?"
Ichan felt a sense of foreboding at those words.
He tried to turn and run immediately, but it was too late.
'Damn......!'
He was grabbed by one hand by Sinhyeok.
Sinhyeok smiled and cast Fly on him.
"Uwaaaaaaack!"
At the sensation of soaring upward again, Ichan turned pale.
"Hyung~~! You're such a terrible driver!"
The problem wasn't the sensation of rising.
It was Sinhyeok's dog-like driving skills.
"Kuuugh! Uuup!"
In an instant, they flew to the entrance of the mine on the mountain.
After landing safely, Sinhyeok smiled, and Ichan was on the verge of tears.
"I-I'll kill you."
"I'm just having fun, what's the matter."
He checked the mana in his body and looked around the mine.
"Hmm...... It's quiet. But do you think there's a boss monster?"
Ichan answered as if it were obvious.
"There probably is?"
"If there is, that's strange too. Seeing as how it hasn't come out when we've caused such a ruckus."
"That's true too...."
They chatted about this and that as they went deep inside the mine tunnel.
"Hyung, why is this place so long? It's like the world was torn apart, but this place is perfectly intact."
Sinhyeok agreed with that.
"Gates are truly unpredictable."
He leaned against the wall for a moment to catch his breath.
He thought of Arin's nagging at the endless road.
"We can't go fast like this."
"Right."
'Where could it be.'
He wondered where the thing called the core was staying.
"Let's stop for a moment. If the mine is old, this place must be insanely vast too."
'It definitely came into contact with that World Tree.'
He immediately used Mapping to check if the World Tree's roots were spread around this area.
'It is....!'
The roots had grown all the way to this vicinity.
'What kind of roots spread this wide?'
He slowly scanned, checking where the roots extended.
Then he finally found it.
He saw the roots stretching far down touching something.
"Found it."
Sinhyeok thought of the location and set the path.
"Let's go that way. It's in that direction."
Seeing Sinhyeok who had found the core right away, Ichan excitedly followed.
"As expected of our hyung. You're amazing at finding cores."
Those words somehow put him in a bad mood.
"Cores?"
"Ah, come on! I was right."
"Cores too, watch your mouth."
"Yes, sir."
Going down together, Ichan continued to chatter.
"But hyung, when are you going to make me a weapon?"
"Ah, that? Hmm. What kind of weapon do you need?"
Ichan pondered briefly before answering lightly:
"A nuke! Blow them all away."
"Haha, get lost."
"Tch, then can you make me something else?"
As Sinhyeok found his way down, he listened quietly.
"Something mashed together from ghosts or whatever that changes this way and that according to what I think."
'He wants me to make something just like himself.'
Sinhyeok was dumbfounded by the novel weapon request.
"Is that a weapon? That's just a clump of souls, a monster."
"Ah, come on! You said you'd make me one!"
"The Commander promised you that, not me."
"It's the same thing!"
Sinhyeok nodded for now.
"Later."
"Make me one soon. Definitely."
"Argh, be quiet. You're confusing me about the path."
"Tch!"
They bickered like that until they arrived.
Far away, they saw a being emanating an intense source.
There was a small but old fairy wearing a safety helmet, residing inside a massive obsidian.
The World Tree's roots were touching around it.
'Are you the masters of these roots?'
He spoke to them the moment he saw them.
Sinhyeok cautiously advanced slowly.
"Yes."
'A bit unpleasant. This is clearly my land.'
"I apologize for that."
The fairy inside the crystal slowly opened his eyes and raised his body.
'Do the humans on the surface yet live?'
"Yes."
'That is fortunate.'
He spoke with a lonely face.
'It is the natural providence of fate, yet my heart cannot accept it, indeed.'
Sinhyeok arrived at the crystal and faced him head-on.
"It is natural. There is no helping the instincts of all beings."
'Heheheh, you speak well indeed. You look accustomed to dealing with ones like me.'
Sinhyeok was slightly taken aback by those words.
'O human who has escaped fate. What do you intend to do?'
"We will survive. So can you please accept this?"
The fairy looked at the roots enveloping the crystal.
'Survive, you say. Having watched for tens of thousands of years, I do not know, indeed. Is that correct? Is that truly right?'
At the fairy's question, having spent tens of thousands of years underground, Sinhyeok shrugged.
"I don't know. If we hold out, we'll find out someday. But for now, we must live, must we not?"
'Hahaha. Yes. That is the answer. I too am but a mere creation.'
The crystal shattered.
The fairy spoke, grasping the roots.
"I shall assist you, O one who bears the fragment of creation."
The fairy's form, having grasped the roots, gradually scattered and was absorbed.
"We shall meet aga—"
[Continuing installation.]
[A variable has occurred. The estimated installation time has been shortened.]
Sinhyeok discovered the World Tree's roots explosively growing before his eyes.
"Hey, hey! Run!"
The two hurriedly ran.
[...Estimated time until OS Yggdrasil installation: 10 minutes.]
Sinhyeok ran to survive.
"Uraaaaa!"
"Kuaaaaaa!"
The roots were surging to engulf everything from behind.
When they barely got out alive to the surface, an enormous blackwood tree they hadn't seen before had grown.
"Damn it."
[Installation complete.]
The system voice he always heard had changed.
It had shifted to a slightly low, middle-aged voice.
[Changing the system's name.]
It was somehow strangely familiar.
Sinhyeok and Ichan thought of the fairy they had just met.
[From now on, this system shall be named Nottdrasil, the World Tree of Night.]
[Pleased to meet you. Humans of the surface.]
The blackwood World Tree soaring high into the sky emanated brilliant spiritual energy.
[Hidden conditions have been met. The World Tree's blessing is activated.]
[Two primordial World Trees have been born and connected.]
[The World Trees of Day and Night encompassing the universe have formed a union.]
[Nottdrasil, the World Tree of Night, is added as your pet.]
"What?"
[Status Window]
Name: World Tree of Night (Lv.1)
Vitality: 10,000
Spiritual Power: 20,000
Traits: Source of Spirits, Source of Shadows
[Held Skills]
=========================
OS Nottdrasil (Lv.1)
==========================
'Mommy......!'
A mother he'd never had came to mind unbidden.
He had gained the World Tree in one fell swoop.
Soon after, another system message burst forth.
[The expansion of the World Tree makes a system upgrade possible.]
This message was visible only to Sinhyeok.
[Yggdrasil has appointed you as the deputy 'Administrator' of the system.]
[If you agree, your administrator's unique skill can be reinterpreted as a new function of the system.]
There was no need to hesitate.
"Proceed immediately!"
[Proceeding with upgrade.]
A moment later.
[The World Tree's blessing descends upon all places where the system exists.]
[A new stat, 'Spiritual Power,' has been added.]
[A new class has been added.]
[The range of qualified system users has been expanded.]
[A new function, 'Map,' has been added.]
[A new function, 'Fame,' has been added.]
Splendid messages burst forth in succession.
[Please refer to the description window for details.]