Chapter 200 – Trahnet (5)
Dr. Toppler was nervous, so his shoulders tensed.
The immense pressure made it difficult for him to breathe properly.
Woojin glared as he stood in front of Dr. Toppler.
If Woojin swung his fist, it would be able to reach Toppler.
Kim-kahngchul was conflicted. He didn’t know if he should stop this or not, but he didn’t dare to step forward in such an atmosphere.
Everything within the isolation room...
The objects...
The air...
It felt as if it were all being squeezed in front of Kahng-woojin’s power.
He opened his mouth.
“I’ll give you exactly 5 minutes. If you can’t persuade me, you are dead.”
This was an unexpected opportunity. Toppler’s eyes twinkled as he immediately spoke.
“This world is a lie.”
“I really want to cancel the words I spoke earlier.”
Woojin spoke with a serious expression on his face. He didn’t care that he had given Toppler permission to speak for 5 minutes. Woojin wanted to hit Toppler for using sophistry.
“..may I continue?”
“You’ve used up 20 seconds.”
At Woojin’s words, Toppler quickly took up his words again. The future of earth and the Moon World depended on his words.
“It was year 2529. War and the depletion of natural resources made it difficult for humanity to survive...”
Dr. Toppler spoke in a serious manner, yet Woojin’s expression was being contorted further as time passed. Kim-kahngchul looked on with nervous eyes.
Kim-kahngchul felt as if he was being forced to attend a boring lecture. The unfortunate part was that his life was about to end after 5 minutes, so he was anxious.
Toppler talked about the downfall of earth, and the selfishness of the population. He started getting a bit heated regarding the subject, so Kim-kahngchul had to pull him back.
“Excuse me, professor. Please speak more concisely....”
“Huh?”
Kim-kahngchul’s words broke him out of his previous state of mind.
“You have 3 minutes left.”
“Huhk.”
After swallowing a groan, Toppler started organizing the words he had been rambling on about. He spoke quickly and concisely.
“Earth was completely ruined. We needed a new place to live.”
Woojin thought about the sense of danger he felt inside the temples of Alphen.
“Is that supposed to be Alphen?”
“You are correct. Unfortunately, we developed a way to travel there, but the preparations that needed to be done to make the new place liveable wasn’t finished yet. The terraforming is still on-going. Humanity had no choice, but to wait. This was why a way station was created. We created a virtual reality world.”
“Speak in easier terms.”
“While Alphen became earth-like, we had to wait in the virtual reality world. Basically, we were placed in temporary housing until our house was built.”
“So we are in it right now?”
“Correct.”
“So what?”
“What?”
Wasn’t it normal to ask questions about his story?
At the unexpected reply, Toppler became dumbfounded, and he could only reply with a question of his own.
“So what are you proposing? You are going to take us out from this world? You want us to go to the new house, since it is completed?”
“..I wish it was so. However, there was a problem.”
Of course. A problem always arises to make everything into shit.
“Some greedy people amongst us arose, and they made more virtual reality worlds. The total number was..”
“There were 72 of them.”
“..correct. These were virtual reality worlds, yet these individual were able to god-like power within them. Some even strived to become real gods. The source of this power and authority was rooted in the Code each possessed, and they became jealous of each other. Then the numerous Dimensional wars...”
“In the end, it was an all out brawl.”
“..yes.”
“Wouldn’t all of this be solved if everyone was awoken from the virtual reality? Why are you guys hesitating?”
“A problem occurred regarding this issue too.”
“What happened?”
“The terraforming on our new home hadn’t been finished yet.”
“.....”
Woojin looked at Toppler in dismay.
“However, we found an answer.”
“What is it?”
“Trahnet. It is a network that allows movement between the planets. We can finish the terraforming using this....”
“Explain it in a way I can understand it.”
“Basically, we can dematerialize a person or object from earth. Then it could be beamed and rematerialized on Alphen.”
“.....”
“So you can log in from earth, and logout from Alphen.”
“Are you talking about a portal?”
“We used that concept as a basis to come up with this idea. We used it to make this solution. However, this isn’t a Dimensional Shift. The movement between Dimensions is a method only used within the virtual reality.”
Woojin glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Your five minutes is up.”
“....are you going to kill me?”
“You know me well.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not? You should try running away like before.”
“Whether I run away or not, my plight is not the problem. We have to save the virtual reality earth, and the real earth. The people, who lost their Code, can only exist within the virtual reality.”
“Then let them live there.”
Did they really need to make a distinction between reality and virtual reality?
From Woojin’s experience, this was a useless distinction. The world was for the living, and the afterlife was for the dead.
“Your earth and my earth is in peril.”
Toppler had said this last time.
Dr. Toppler had said they were heading towards the same goal, and his words once again circled around Woojin’s ears. It was unpleasant when he heard it before, and it was also unpleasant to hear it now.
He felt repulsed by this person, who tried to bring about a desired result as he covered his ass.
“I’ll hear you out.”
Woojin was sure Toppler was hiding something. However, if the situation called for it, he would make an alliance with this awkward bastard. He wanted to hear about the dangers he would have to face in the near future.
“For a very long time, we kept surveillance on those, who possessed the Admin Codes. We’ve done this several dozen times, yet there was someone, who always strived to become the Supreme Being.”
“A Supreme Being...”
Is that the end game? Was this what the Dimensional lords were struggling so much to reach? One had to look at the person closest to reaching the goal.
“I’m guessing you are referring to the 72nd Throne.”
“I’m pretty sure you met him before.”
“What? I did?”
Woojin tilted his head in confusion.
When Woojin’s gaze settled on him, Dr. Toppler gulped as he spoke. Everything would end once he descends.
“I’m talking about the Dimensional Admin.”
He oversaw everything. When he gathers all the Codes that makes everything possible, he would be born-again as the Supreme Being.
He’ll merge all the Dimensions together... He’ll be a god of everything.
“..Dimensional Admin?”
Woojin thought about his meeting from before. He had been summoned to Alphen without any notice, and he had worked hard to return to earth.
His efforts had been basically like clawing out of a hole, and he had been able to meet the Dimensional Admin.
With his help, Woojin was able to return to earth.
“Your words make no sense. Why would that bastard return me to earth...”
Before Woojin could end his sentence, Dr. Toppler gave a reply. He didn’t have much time left. Captain Leone should be arriving at the Seoul Station right about now.
“You possess the Code and key he needs.”
“.....”
“An innate Code was scattered. You possess the Deletion Code.. The Dimensional Admin is trying to get his hands on the completed Deletion Code.”
“You are talking about Thrash’s power.”
“Correct. He wants to possess all the Codes.”
In the virtual reality world, humans were mere files. When one died, one was deleted.
There was a space where the dead gathered. Woojin was an existence that could revert the deletion by pulling the dead from that space.
Necromancer.
The strange sense of dissonance that had bothered him lightened. Was it because his vague goals had been clarified?
“All right. Tell me what you want.”
“He is about to descend. We would have had to complete our task before that happened, so we’ve already missed our opportunity. The virtual earth has no hope any more. We have to do a new Reset.”
“Tell me how you’ll pull this off.”
“The people of the Moon World will log you out. When you wake up, the memories embedded in the Code will give you the instructions.”
It was like opening a Skill Book. It would be as if the knowledge was placed in one’s mind... It was similar, yet it was also different.. It was akin to memories being unsealed.
“The method would be embedded in the Recovery Code you gained from Iello.”
When he killed Iello, he had gained the Recovery Code.
“You have to do something before you can do that.”
“What is it?”
“When the recovery occurs, the dead people will come back to life.”
Time would be reverted in wholesale. It was basically like a roll back. Everything would be reverted to a previous checkpoint. Meanwhile, the residue created by this action would create Dimensional refugees or beings that would wander some unknown space...
“If you want to recover earth, you need Earth’s Code.”
“.....”
“You have to take it.”
Woojin stood still, and he didn’t budge an inch.
“She’ll be reborn again. You don’t have to hesitate.”
“Hooo.”
At Toppler’s heartfelt plea, Woojin just replied with laughter.
His anger settled into something cold... This was why his gaze caused goosebumps as it headed towards Toppler.
“Just think of those words as your last will.”
“Please think.....”
He wouldn’t change his mind. Toppler could see it in Kahng-woojin’s expression and he could hear it in his voice. Toppler could guess at his fate.
“There’s no other way except for a Reset.... ”
Toppler couldn’t give a solution to the problem, but he had a way to prevent the worst case scenario. It was the only way forward.
Time had to be tampered, and the the problem had to be solved anew.
Shwahhhk.
Kahng-woojin swung his fist.
Instead of taking the test again, he chose to rip up the test.
Gwah-ahng!
“Please go!”
Kim-kahngchul blocked the path of Kahng-woojin, but Toppler didn’t have time to be thankful or be touched by his action. He was only a Rank A Roused, so how many seconds would he be able to last against Kahng-woojin?
Toppler quickly ran to grab the handle to the restroom.
“We’ll log you out soon. Please do not forget the words I told you.”
Ggee-eek.
The door opened, and Toppler entered into the entrance. Woojin kicked Kim-kahngchul, who was holding onto his leg.
“Let me go.”
Kwah-ahng.
Kim-kahngchul was sent flying into the wall, and he ungainly rolled across the floor.
“Oooh-ooh-oohk.”
The impact was too much. Kim-kahngchul didn’t even think about getting up. He just moaned.
Woojin quickly grabbed the handle of the restroom’s door. It had been quickly closed by Toppler.
Tuhk!
He felt someone grabbing at his thigh, so Woojin looked down. He saw a bloody face of Kim-kahngchul. It looked as if his head had been split open, yet he desperately grabbed at Woojin’s leg.
“You are the only one. Please.. Save me.”
Who will save whom?
It seemed everyone was thinking of themselves.
Woojin roughly kicked Kim-kahnchul away, and he opened the door to the restroom as if he was about to rip the door away.
Kwahng!
However, Dr. Toppler couldn’t be seen across the door. The soulless and sneaky bastard had returned to his world.
He had used a Dimensional Shift without a Dungeon... No, should he call it a logout now?
Woojin glared at the blameless Kim-kahngchul.
“.....”
From the tip of his toe to his head, he felt an extreme rage suffuse his entire body.
“Our goals aren’t the same.”
Their goal was to block the descent of the Supreme Being and saving earth?
He had heard what the other side wanted. However, their goals wasn’t his goals. Those bastards were delusional if they thought otherwise.
“Reset? Huh!”
It was a non-starter for him. Go back and do what? He would have to go through the 20 years of wandering again, which had been extremely painful. Then he would have to return to earth to see it crumble.
His goal was different.
“I’ll end this.”
He didn’t care what happened to the Moon World.
He’ll protect earth. He’ll destroy all the Dungeons. He’ll cut the connection between Dimensions, and he’ll make this his own earth.. He’ll protect this earth.
“I’ll kill them all.”
He’ll pursue a method that he was most confident about.
The only way to gain the Thrash’s Executioner was through shedding Sooah’s blood?
“I don’t need it.”
He didn’t care about the Executioner. He didn’t need it even if it was the only viable method.
He’ll become Thrash, and he’ll execute all those bastards.
Woooooooo.
When he was filled with rage, Kahng-woojin was able to see the evil spirits that always hovered around him.
Their cries were chilling, yet Woojin’s eyebrows didn’t even twitch.
There were thousands upon thousands of evil spirits attached to him.
He couldn’t even count how many.
He had always shouldered this burden.
The wailing evil spirits around him started to hide their presence as always. However, his situation was a bit different from before...
He divided them through the Trash’s Set Item he wore.
Too-oohng.
Kahng-woojin stepped out of the room.