Chapter 94

Episode 94. The Five Disasters (2)

For a moment, it felt like winter had come. My entire body felt frozen. I couldn't move at all, and every breath I took chilled my throat and lungs.

[You know best what should be left unsaid.]

"Oh, it was a mistake. Calling you the Traveler still feels unfamiliar......... And frankly, the name does not suit you at all."

[Interesting. So perhaps I should pick all the names that don't suit you and smash them to pieces?]

"No, thank you. If you say so, I'm afraid it will actually happen."

The Traveler's voice was like a dagger, unlike his usual voice. Every word seemed to pierce like a sword. I couldn't dare to turn my head and see his face.

I had thought he was rather friendly, but I could clearly feel his strong presence just from his voice. I couldn't even fathom the strength of his power.

"Now, now, you should think about the user you care so much about. I think he's going to get hurt if you don't stop."

The Great Sage smiled slyly and clapped.

"Let's go in."

* * *

The interior of the mansion was very mysterious. Each time I closed my eyes and opened them, the sight before me changed. It was as splendid as a palace and as shabby as a single semi-basement room. One thing I could tell for sure was that this place did not abide by the rules of common sense.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Jeong Si-woo. What should I call you? An Analyst or a Hunter? "

"Just call me Jeong Si-woo."

"Okay, Mr. Jeong."

The Great Sage sat lightly on the sofa in the living room. He lifted his small hand as soon as he sat down.

"Would you like something to drink? I can give you anything you want."

"Coffee, please."

"Oh. Coffee. Hm... The coffee that you like must be this."

The Great Sage moved the hand he lifted. At the same time, a mug dropped down in front of me. A coffee steaming faintly.

I took a sip of the coffee. The atmosphere was uncomfortable. The moderately bitter taste and the subtle scent were just like the americano at the coffee shop I used to go to in my previous life. The somewhat lukewarm, less-than-hot temperature was also the way I liked my coffee.

...How much does this Great Sage know?

Clank.

I put down the mug and tensed up.

"You know a great deal, Great Sage."

"Yes, there's nothing about this world that I don't know."

I looked him in the eye. The situation was not good. I don't know in which direction the conversation will head, but he knows a lot about me while I don't know anything about him.

I was at a disadvantage even before the start. Information meant everything in a conversation. Damn, was I too rash? It would have been better if I had prepared a little more before coming here. I was too careless.

"There's no need for you to worry, Mr. Jeong Si-woo."

But the Great Sage smiled kindly as if he had read my mind.

"No matter how much you prepared, things would have been the same. That is simply what I am."

"......."

"And I don't mean to hurt you. Rather, I would like to help you."

The Great Sage lifted the mug in front of him.

"Without you, the world will perish. That is the unchanging truth and fate. I know the future for sure, and there's no reason for me to get in your way."

"......."

"You look like you don't understand what I'm talking about."

The Great Sage drank his tea and slowly put down the mug.

"I understand. You have a habit of doubting things. To gain your trust, I'd have to talk about who I am."

The Great Sage lifted his hand again.

"Simply put, I'm the being that sits in the highest position in this world."

The Great Sage's eyes sparkled.

"Some call me heaven. Some call me mother or father. Some call me nature or universe."

"......."

His voice rang in my head. His words were nonsense. But the Sage's peculiar voice seemed to prove that he was telling the truth.

"And some call me their god."

Tap, tap.

And with that, the Great Sage lowered his hand and tapped on the table.

I was dumb for a moment, and then I opened my mouth and said,

"How surprising."

"You sound uninspired."

"It doesn't seem that realistic."

"Yes, well, I suppose so."

The Great Sage chuckled.

"I don't think you'll be interested in hearing how great I am and what amazing things I've done. So let's get to the point."

"......."

"I've been waiting for you."

What the hell did this mean?

Instead of speaking my mind, I waited quietly until the Great Sage explained what he meant.

"Jeong Si-woo, you died exactly 499 times while I created and managed this world."

"......."

"Once you didn't even join the Academy after losing your parents, jumped headfirst into the hunting industry, and died. Once, you were so full of a sense of justice that you meddled too much as an Analyst. A colleague stabbed you in the back, and you died. And once you just had bad luck and died in a car accident."

"...What...?"

"It's hard to believe, but it's true. And every time you died, the world was destroyed. Every time I turned back time with all the power I had, and tweaked the world around you little by little."

Snap!

With a snap, several scenes flashed through my head.

-Why don't you transfer to the Analytics department?

"First of all, I tweaked a professor from the Academy. I led you to the right path. So that you would join the Analytics Department, not the Hunting Department."

-We'd like to recruit cadet Jeong Si-woo.

"And I made it so that you could join a safe group so that you wouldn't get caught up in big incidents before you were well established. Well, it wasn't so difficult because your Analytical skills were quite outstanding."

-I told you to call me Nu-nim.

-Let me touch your head just once, huh? Hey, I told you not to call me Queen!

-Martial God? That's too grand for a nickname. There's no way that I.......

"The crucial causes behind your deaths were your surroundings. You were brilliant, but you didn't have anyone to match your abilities. So I created connections between you and outstanding people from every field. This was quite difficult because it was manipulating fate. But it worked well after the Five Heroes joined your division. It looked like you were somehow going to overcome the Fourth Disaster."

-The hope of humankind who fought against the Great Overlord dies.

"But after that, no matter what I modified, you couldn't beat the Great Overlord. I gathered all my strength and warned the world about the Five Disasters, but nothing changed. Unfortunately, you always lost by a very small margin. The legions of monsters swallowed the world, and humanity was destroyed."

The scenes stopped flashing by my eyes.

"Now, my power is gone. I had no power left to turn back time, and when you died for the 499th time, I thought that everything was over. That all I had done had been useless."

The Great Sage laughed.

"But I was wrong."

The scenes started to move again.

My body fallen on the ground. The Great Overlord laughing horribly in front of it. Seung-hyun's head rolling on the floor, and pools of blood. The whole scene plays in reverse.

"All of my efforts brought out your talent to the limit. And something far up in the heavens chose you."

Back to the sophomore Academy cadet Jeong Si-woo.

Time rewound.

"That's how the 500th life of Jeong Si-woo began. Knowing all the information and holding more power than anyone else."

The Great Sage drank the tea in front of him.

I grabbed my mug as well. The tea was no longer lukewarm but cold. I had been so immersed in the conversation.

"Mr. Jeong Si-woo, some call me a god, but there is nothing I can do."

"......."

"I can't turn back time anymore, and I can't grant you powers. Rather, that Traveler in the back can do those things."

His face became bitter.

"All I can do is warn you."

Snap!

With the snap of a finger, the mug in front of the Great Sage disappeared.

"The Great Overlord, the Last Disaster. His strength is different from what you know."

"......?"

"There's information you haven't been able to find. You've completely analyzed the Great Overlord, but you don't know the rules that bind him."

What was he talking about? I unconsciously frowned.

"The Great Overlord becomes stronger in proportion to the strongest human being."

"...What?"

"So it's going to be different this last time. The Martial God Kim Seung-hyun was the strongest human before, but this time you are."

"Wait a minute, let alone the Great Overlord's ability... You're saying I'm the strongest?"

I know better than anyone how powerful Kim Seung-hyun was when he was about to face the Great Overlord. Although I was quite strong now, I was like a puppy compared to the Martial God of that time. Even if I employed the full power of the Akashic Records, I would barely last a few minutes.

No, I didn't even have to compare myself with Seung-hyun Hyeong. My current self was weaker than Han Yeon-soo or Yoo Ji-yeon at their peak. But how could I be.......

"Yes. I can see it clearly. Your power will explosively grow at some point. You will advance rapidly, so much that what you've achieved until now will seem silly. People will stand in awe of you and even fear you."

"......."

"If you can't believe it, I'll show you just a little."

The Great Sage clapped his hands.

A scene passed through my head.

-This is annoying.

Echelons of Monsters rush forward. I could see that my face was a little older than now. Every time I move my fingertips, the monsters turn into pieces of meat. The scattered sticky blood wet the grass plains, and the carcasses were piled into mountains in the corner.

I didn't even know what stories I was using. Perhaps I wasn't even using the link to the Akashic Records.

A single step killed thousands of Monsters, and their screams echoed in the background.

In the scene I was watching, I was incomparably strong. So overwhelmingly strong that I doubted whether I was human.

Meanwhile, a hole appeared above me, where I was standing loftily. From the hole crawled out the Great Overlord who had finished me in my previous life.

"......."

A Great Overlord who exuded horrible energy that was so much more threatening than the Overlord I remembered.

"That is your future, soon to come."

"......."

"Even if you become that strong, you cannot defeat the Great Overlord, according to the future that I have seen."

I could see myself reflected in the eyes of the Great Sage.

"The Fourth Disaster will soon come. Before it is over, we need to make a plan."

"Ah......."

"The fate of the world will depend on what you do."

There was no expression on the face reflected in the Sage's eyes. Was he unaware of the situation? Or did he finally let go of his mind, having faced such a harsh truth? It was neither.

"I see."

It was because I had only one option.

"So I have to become stronger."

"What?"

"I have to become stronger than what you showed me. A lot stronger."

"What are you talking about? I told you the Great Overlord gets stronger in proportion to you......."

"There must be a limit to what he can handle. If I become strong enough to exceed that limit, no matter how strong the Great Overlord becomes, I will be stronger."

It was a very unsophisticated remark, considering my career and track record as an Analyst. But it was my mind speaking. The Overlord could not be beat using human methods. So you had to deal with him using the methods of monsters.

To deal with a monster, you have no choice but to become a monster.

"...Whew."

The Great Sage sighed deeply.

"Sure, I suppose you'll take care of it. I don't know. I guess you never know. Since the perfect plan failed hundreds of times, it might be best to fight head-on as the final attempt."

He slowly started to fade away.

"Now, I no longer have the strength to show myself. I guess we'll see each other again when everything is over. Whether you fail and die or succeed and save the world, we'll meet. No matter what happens... I'll tell you that you did a good job."

The shape of the mansion and the Great Sage became blurred, and with one blink of the eye, they disappeared like smoke. I looked around the now empty countryside plain. Then I turned my gaze towards the Traveler, who was floating around behind me with a serious look on his face.

"Mr. Traveler."

And I spoke what had been dwelling on my mind for a while.

"I need power."

I've never said it myself before.

"Overwhelming power that can crush everything."

An outright request.

"Please help me."

I still don't know what the Traveler is. But one thing was clear: none of the beings I had met were as powerful as the Traveler. And I would never meet anyone who could be.

[Hahahahaha! You really are unsuitable to be an Akashic Record user!]

The Traveler laughed for quite a while as soon as he heard me. His laugh was loud and slightly unpleasant.

Nevertheless, I waited patiently with my head bowed.

[Hahahaha.]

Sometime later, his laughter subsided.

[That's why I like you.]

And soon I heard his reply.

[I will help you.]