Chapter 2060 – 2060. Savior Of The Academy
The entire lake swirled. The water rotated powerfully, massacring the aquatic life within. It was of no concern. No one here cared about fish. Not even Tera, the highest-grade water spirit wielding the power of water.
The vortex soon exploded, overturning the lake. The lake, which had soared into the sky, fell back to the ground as rain. A building within the lake rose. It looked like a temple at first glance, but it was quite old and looked very precarious.
Tera sent the lake’s water underground, causing it to surge up again and support the building. The temple gradually rose and began to activate. A dark purple light gathered at the entrance, forming a gate.
‘As expected, it activates the moment it comes out. It’s a relief that this went as predicted.’
The next problem was maintaining this state. Tera was using my mana to overturn the lake and lift the building. To maintain it, a constant supply of mana was needed.
‘Of course, this was also something I predicted when I made the plan.’
I took a mana cube from my inventory and threw it towards the temple. Tera, reading my thoughts, appeared above the temple and absorbed the mana cube into her body. The mana cube glowed faintly within Tera’s body and activated. Mana flowed endlessly from the mana cube, a perpetual power source.
“How is it? Can you maintain it with the mana cube’s output?”
“I can do it as much as you want with this. But it might get too boring if it takes too long.”
“It won’t take long, so please bear with it.”
“Okay.”
Yuria, Elena, and I entered the gate. Of course, I knew what was inside this dungeon gate.
• • •
Three minutes after Sung Yu-jin’s group disappeared into the dungeon gate, two men and one woman walked over. They looked around. They spotted the highest-grade water spirit above the temple.
One of them said,
“There’s a highest-grade water spirit. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be interested in us.”
“To it, we probably seem no different from beasts like boars or deer. It won’t attack us unless we antagonize it first. It must have a contractor… It seems they haven’t given it any specific orders. Are they stupid? Or arrogant?”
“Arrogant, probably. As the contractor of the highest-grade water spirit, what would they be afraid of? Now, will you finally tell us? Why did you call us here?”
The man in the middle looked at the dungeon gate. There were wet footprints. Someone had gone inside.
“You all know about the Great Rite that took place in Japan recently.”
“I heard about it. It failed, didn’t it?”
“The Demon Mother foresaw its success. Alpha was supposed to become the god of all yin and turn half of Japan into a land of ghosts. The Demon Mother herself confirmed it.”
“…The Demon Mother foresaw it?”
They were surprised. The Demon Mother. One of the four sect leaders under the Great Joyful Valley Master. She was responsible for one of the vast forces of the Joyful Valley. The Demon Mother was a seer with the ability to foresee the future. None of her predictions had ever been wrong. That was how it was supposed to be.
“The prediction was wrong. The Demon Mother said an incomprehensible variable occurred.”
“…It’s hard to believe, but even the Demon Mother can make mistakes.”
“Unlike other unstable predictions, this one was certain. The Demon Mother herself guaranteed its success. But it failed. The Demon Mother said a variable that shouldn’t exist in this world had appeared. And she sent us here.”
“To eliminate the variable? What’s inside there?”
“We don’t know. The Demon Mother strangely can’t foresee anything about Korea. She said the center of fate is in Korea… I don’t know. Anyway, our task is clear. Identify and eliminate the variable. That’s our first goal.”
“Is there a second goal?”
“If we determine that we can’t handle the variable, we return and inform the Demon Mother about the variable.”
“We don’t have to do any political maneuvering, right? That’s convenient.”
They had come from different places. They confirmed their mission and approached the dungeon gate. They had no fear, nor did they worry about failure. They were the elite of the elite, with a mission success rate of nearly 95%.
Swoosh.
They entered the dungeon gate.
Tera watched them blankly from above the temple. There was only one reason she didn’t stop them. She had no orders to stop them.
• • •
Sung Ha-ri appeared before me. Her face was definitely Sung Ha-ri’s, but her hair was white, and her eyes were as red as if they were filled with blood.
It wasn’t Sung Ha-ri, but Young Ha-ri. No, she was now called Baal.
She smiled and reached out her hand to me.
I stared at her hand for a moment, then summoned the Hwaryeon Flying Daggers and swung them at her. She looked shocked as her body was cut, then turned gray and disappeared.
‘I knew from the start that she was fake. There’s no way Young Ha-ri would suddenly appear without any context.’
『You have seen through the lie.』
The dungeon I had entered was called an Ancient Demon Dungeon.
In the original game, one of five types of ancient demons was randomly selected. Each of the five demons had different characteristics.
‘Personally, I wanted the Demon of Heavenly Punishment to appear.’
Because killing the Demon of Heavenly Punishment would grant me the powerful authority of heavenly punishment.
‘Of all things, the troublesome Demon of Truth appeared.’
I moved forward.
A woman with wavy black hair and a voluptuous figure appeared. She smiled, her eyes slightly drooping.
“Yu-jin.”
She opened her arms and pulled me into her embrace. The scent of a fully mature woman tickled my nose, and the soft sensation of her breasts made me sink deeper.
Kang Su-min, my kindergarten teacher.
She was seducing me in her younger form.
If I could, I would have loved to have sex with her right here. But if I did, I wouldn’t be able to reach the end. Unfortunately, there was a time limit in this dungeon.
Thud.
I stabbed the fake Kang Su-min in the stomach with the Hwaryeon Flying Dagger. Kang Su-min turned gray and disappeared.
『You have seen through the lie.』
I walked forward.
What I saw were the landscapes of [Savior of the Academy] from my memories and the relationships I had in [Savior of the Academy].
There were relationships with people like Young Ha-ri and Kang Su-min, who were quite close, and there were also prostitutes I had met by chance and random women I had seduced at the academy. They all seduced me. With their bodies, with their voices.
『You have seen through the lie.』
Even though I knew they were lies, I didn’t feel good.
‘Demon of Truth… I want to meet it and kill it quickly.’
I moved forward, cutting through the lies.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
A bloody woman screamed. The woman was holding a young girl’s hand and running away. A man with a kitchen knife was chasing after them.
A murderer and his victim.
I frowned at the sight. It was a scene I didn’t remember.
‘The way this dungeon creates lies is always based on truth. And it can show the truth itself, not just lies. That’s what makes it more confusing.’
That scene was probably a lie or truth created from someone else’s memories, not mine.
‘Did someone else enter this dungeon?’
I focused on it for a moment. The background of the woman being chased and the murderer chasing her was a dark rural area. There was a signpost stuck in the ground. It was full of Chinese characters.
‘…Chinese?’
“You damn bitch! You betrayed me after sleeping in the same bed as my sister?! Die with your daughter! You evil woman!”
The man was yelling in Chinese.
The woman begged for her life before being murdered. Just as the kitchen knife was about to strike the little girl, the police appeared and arrested the murderer.
‘A guy from China entered the dungeon. I didn’t think there were any people nearby.’
I ignored the truth and killed the lies as I moved forward.
“Do you know the truth of this world?”
There was an S-class hero from America that I had seen on TV. His eyes were directed at the empty air, not at me. He asked the empty air.
“…The truth of the world?”
“There are demons in this world. There are gods. What are their goals? Have you ever thought about it? Did you really think that humans were the masters of all things?”
‘He’s doing everything he can to get my attention.’
I sent a sword aura and cut down the S-class hero who was talking to someone. He didn’t even react to the sword aura.
The notification that I had seen through the lie didn’t appear either.
I walked forward.
A family appeared, sitting around a table. A man, a woman, and twin children. They were having a happy dinner.
“I don’t like mushrooms.”
“You have to eat mushrooms to grow tall.”
“What can I do if I don’t like them? I don’t want to eat them.”
“Just try one. Mom cooked it, so it’ll be delicious. Do you trust Dad?”
It was in Chinese.
I realized that the man was an intruder who had entered the dungeon. The man was too busy talking to his fake family to notice that I was nearby. He didn’t even realize that it was fake. The man was gradually turning black from the tips of his limbs.
‘He’s going to die as food for the Demon of Truth.’
There was no reason to save him. He was going to die anyway, so there was no reason for me to kill him myself. I could roughly guess why they had entered this dungeon. It was because I had seen them as I passed by.
And if I turned my head, I could still see them.
“Get a grip! Don’t get eaten by ghosts! Do you want to wander the nine heavens as a mere ghost?! You must know how to handle ghosts to become a true member of the Joyful Valley!”
Joyful Valley. These guys were from the Joyful Valley.
‘This is starting to get annoying.’
I killed anything that blocked my path and ignored everything else as I moved forward.
“Yu-jin. Your name is Sung Yu-jin.”
My unstoppable steps came to a halt. The voice of Sung Ha-ri behind me was hard to ignore. I turned slightly to look back. Sung Ha-ri was holding a newborn baby. The baby’s umbilical cord hadn’t even been cut yet. The floor was stained with amniotic fluid.
‘A scene I don’t remember.’
I was a little curious, but I ignored it and moved forward.
“Let’s name our baby Sung Yu-jin.”
A young man’s voice was heard. A man who looked like me was talking to a pregnant Sung Ha-ri.
‘Is he trying to say that’s my father?’
Sung Ha-ri was smiling happily with the unidentified man who looked like me. My mood soured, and I sent a sword aura towards the man. The man and Sung Ha-ri turned gray and disappeared.
『You have seen through the lie.』
I could see light ahead.
I could finally see the end of this dungeon.
“Aren’t you curious about the truth?”
It asked me.
“I can find out with my own power, even if you don’t tell me.”
“One of my hobbies is telling the truth to those who don’t know it.”
There was Sung Ha-ri.
Sung Ha-ri, kneeling on the floor, was speaking as if she was venting her anger to someone, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I don’t… I don’t want to be lonely anymore! I want a family! A family that looks at me, only me! A family that I can rely on, and a family that relies on me…!”
“Your wish has been granted.”
Sung Ha-ri’s belly swelled instantly.
Sung Ha-ri had made a wish at the tower, and her wish had been granted.
The truth that the Demon of Truth had forcibly shown me.
The demon chuckled.
“You knew a fragment of the truth. How do you feel now that you know the truth? Is it boring?”
“That’s a relief.”
“Huh? What is?”
“In the end, I was the one who took Sung Ha-ri’s virginity.”
