Chapter 1757 – 1757. Savior Of The Academy
The collapsing tower suddenly stopped.
It was as if time had frozen mid-collapse. For a moment, I wondered if I had used a fleeting moment. But it wasn’t that. The breeze felt too cool for it to have been a fleeting moment.
‘What the heck? What happened in the tower?’
It was definitely a special dungeon. Something had happened inside, not outside, the tower.
‘Is it related to Sung Hari’s scream I heard earlier?’
I glared at the tower. I tried to see inside through the broken parts of the tower. I couldn’t see anything. Even using the Heavenly Eye was the same. It was different from when I had pierced through Hasegawa Isshin’s barrier. The space itself felt different.
‘I need to go in myself.’
I rode the wind. My body floated upwards.
“Wait. What’s that tower?”
Kang Ji-young grabbed my shoulder and asked.
“What?”
“I asked what that tower is.”
“……”
Is she kidding me right now?
I was dumbfounded. I was about to say something, but Kang Ji-young’s serious face caught my eye. Kang Ji-young wasn’t someone who would joke about this. She was always serious and hardly ever joked.
“You just talked about that tower. Did you forget already? Do you have dementia or something?”
“Did I just talk about that tower? I think I did… Dementia. Am I really getting dementia at this age?”
Kang Ji-young frowned deeply as she looked at the tower. She tried to recall her memories and remember anything about the tower. But soon, she shook her head.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with my memory. What is that tower? Shouldn’t there be a dungeon here?”
“Look at the corpses scattered around. After seeing this sight, you still don’t know what the tower is?”
“I know it’s an unusual dungeon. I also know that there was a battle between Koreans and Chinese. The border area was the problem. Even though large-scale battles like this are rare, there have been similar cases. But I have no idea about the tower that’s the cause. Judging by your reaction, it doesn’t seem like an ordinary dungeon.”
“Do you know that Sung Hari went into the tower?”
“I know that. Most of these corpses are her doing. But haven’t we already had this conversation?”
“It’s a confirmation.”
Kang Ji-young’s memories of the Tower of Wishes had disappeared. No, it probably wasn’t just Kang Ji-young. It probably included everyone who knew about the Tower of Wishes.
‘It’s like they used the information erasure power. The information about the Tower of Wishes has disappeared.’
If that was the case, it made sense that there were no records of the Tower of Wishes outside the dungeon either.
‘Is it some kind of large-scale mental attack? Am I okay because of my Absolute Mind? Or is it because I came from outside the dungeon?’
How much power would it take to erase information about the Tower of Wishes without the information erasure power? Especially to erase the memories of even an S-class hero like Kang Ji-young.
‘I don’t know for sure, but it’s clear that an enormous being is involved with the Tower of Wishes.’
All the answers to the questions would be found inside the tower.
Thump.
A part of the tower that had stopped collapsed. The tower was collapsing little by little, and slowly.
“Answer my question. What is that tower?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“What?”
I shook off Kang Ji-young’s hand and flew to the top of the tower. Thanks to the partially collapsed tower, I was able to enter the interior.
The feeling of the air flow changing drastically.
As expected, the inside of the tower was different from the outside.
The interior space was wider than it looked from the outside. A floor made of white marble, thick pillars stretching high into the sky, and a golden background. It was a very solemn atmosphere. And in the center of it all were three figures.
Sung Hari was slumped on the floor.
In front of her was something taking the form of a human. It could be called darkness, or it could be called light. It was unidentifiable. It was someone not in my original knowledge.
And next to them was Laplace.
As soon as I saw Laplace, anger surged within me. Crackle. Electricity sparked from Kusanagi’s sword.
“…Oppa?”
Sung Hari called out to me blankly.
I could tell from that one word. The Sung Hari in front of me was Young Hari, whom I had met in virtual reality.
• • •
Sung Hari, who had been stabbed in the chest by another version of herself, opened her eyes.
She was in the forest. It was a place she remembered. It was the place she had been before entering the virtual reality, the dungeon. The dungeon gate was nowhere to be seen, and she was lying on the ground.
She slowly got up and checked her body. There was no stab wound in her chest. Had she been dreaming? No, that wasn’t it. Everything she had felt in that world was real. That was why the anger burning in her heart was also real.
Sung Hari gritted her teeth.
“That old hag…! She actually killed me!”
While she was angry, she also understood. She would have made the same choice if she were in her position. She would do anything for Sung Yu-jin.
‘…Still, I thought we had gotten pretty close.’
She touched her chest and got up.
Where was this? Was it reality? Or was it a world inside the dungeon, as Sung Yu-jin had said?
There was an emptiness she couldn’t hide within her burning anger.
‘I’m Sung Hari. Do you think I’d just stand here dumbfounded after being attacked? I’ll pay you back.’
Even if it was herself.
She moved.
Time passed. She acted as usual. She rested in a decent hotel, and then took on illegal requests to earn money. If she heard news of a dangerous villain nearby, she would go and kill them without hesitation.
As time passed, her anger towards the other version of herself decreased. Instead, her emptiness grew.
‘I’m a fake.’
She was a fake.
This world was also a fake.
There was a reason she was sure of it.
‘Oppa isn’t in this world.’
A world without Sung Yu-jin.
That alone made this world a fake. And perhaps she would never be able to meet Sung Yu-jin again.
‘…If I get pregnant and have a child, will Oppa be born?’
But she didn’t know who Sung Yu-jin’s father was. When she was in virtual reality, she had asked the other version of herself about this. The other version of herself didn’t answer. She either changed the subject or remained silent.
‘That’s a ridiculous thought. Even if I have a child, it can’t be Oppa.’
She decided to find Sung Yu-jin.
It was for the hope that Sung Yu-jin might exist somewhere she didn’t know about.
She met a broker she worked with and asked him to find Sung Yu-jin. After narrowing it down, she found 13 people with the same name. Sung Hari checked all of them. Of course, none of them were the Sung Yu-jin she knew.
Even so, Sung Hari didn’t give up. She went to those with special abilities to try and find Sung Yu-jin. The results were all failures. But she couldn’t give up.
As time passed, dark and sticky emotions filled her.
Jealousy.
Jealousy towards the Sung Hari in the real world.
Her anger towards the version of herself who had killed her surged again.
‘Oppa. I miss you, Oppa.’
‘If it weren’t for that woman… I would have been by Oppa’s side!’
‘Why is that woman allowed, but not me?’
‘Why do I have to be a fake?’
‘Is there any meaning to this fake world… to a world without Oppa?’
At some point, she started killing those who got in her way. Until now, she had tried not to kill heroes. But now, she killed heroes and villains alike without hesitation.
‘It’s a fake world anyway.’
Before considering good and evil, this world was a fake. There was no meaning.
She moved to meet Sung Yu-jin. She killed those who got in her way without question. At some point, she had become an SS-class criminal. She even had the nickname “Disaster.” It was a nickname she had earned after an S-class hero who had tried to stop her was killed.
Disaster.
She had become a disaster that no one could stop.
“Why?! Why can’t I meet him?! I just… I want to meet Oppa!”
Sung Hari shouted.
No matter how hard she tried, even after digging into ridiculous legends, there was no way to meet Sung Yu-jin.
It was when her anger and frustration reached their limit.
She heard about the Tower of Wishes from a broker. A tower that would grant your wish if you reached the top. Many people laughed it off. How could a tower grant wishes? It was a ridiculous rumor, like something from a children’s fairy tale.
But those who believed the rumor…
‘The Tower of Wishes, isn’t that what that woman mentioned?’
And then she had seemed to mumble something.
She had a feeling. The Tower of Wishes was real. Otherwise, that woman wouldn’t have asked about it so seriously.
‘The problem is that China, Korea, and all sorts of villains are swarming around like flies.’
She couldn’t negotiate with Korea and China. She was an SS-class villain.
She had no choice but to break through by force.
But even for her, was it possible to forcibly break through a place where heroes from China and Korea had gathered?
‘It’s impossible. They say that S-class heroes from China and Korea are gathering. Even if I break through, that’s not the end.’
She had to conquer the Tower of Wishes.
She needed power.
She met with the Guiluok Valley, a Chinese criminal organization, and the Madojeong, a Japanese criminal organization. She called the Korean Mine Alliance, Cryzen, through a broker.
‘All three of them will want to know the source of my power.’
She would tell them the source of her power. Of course, she wouldn’t tell them everything. She would use them by telling them just enough.
Sung Hari used them to open the Spirit Realm. She entered the Spirit Realm with them. The Spirit King was friendly. Thanks to that, she was able to catch the Spirit King off guard and absorb the Spirit King’s power with the Spirit Devourer. Having gained power, she immediately left the Spirit Realm.
The Spirit King’s anger and curse reached her, but she, who had absorbed the Spirit King, deflected the Spirit King’s curse.
She felt no guilt. It was a fake world anyway. The other villains who had entered the Spirit Realm? She didn’t care what they did. Having gained power, she headed for the Tower of Wishes.
She joined the fighting Chinese and Korean heroes and killed them all. She killed her competitors, just in case. She had steeled her heart, but she couldn’t kill her old friend.
She left the injured Kang Ji-young behind and entered the Tower of Wishes.
『Reach the top of the Tower of Wishes and fulfill your wish.』
『This is the first floor.』
『Kill the Sky Whale.』
She followed the tower’s instructions and reached the 30th floor, the top of the tower.
What greeted her on the 30th floor was an alien being. It had a human form, but it was impossible to know exactly what it looked like. It was light, and it was like darkness. His heavy voice asked Sung Hari.
“What is your wish?”
