Chapter 382: Move the World’s Line. |
‘Don’t... touch him?’
For Jo Joong-sik, this was an insult to his pride.
Who was he?
He was Jo Joong-sik, the leader of the Chinese gang, who had unified Seoul with his charisma and boldness.
And now someone dared to give him orders?
It could only be someone unaware of who he was or someone with a death wish.
However, this wasn’t the case.
‘That guy is Black Scythe... I’m sure.’
Even if memories from another world had been injected into him, Jo Joong-sik couldn’t know Ryu Min’s true identity.
This was because he held a black scythe in his hand, his trademark weapon.
Ryu Min raised the scythe and warned him again.
“You haven’t answered, Jo Joong-sik. Don’t you understand my words?”
“No, no. I understand. I’ll stop.”
Jo Joong-sik quickly backed down.
He had already been beaten in the illusion prison and had no intention of resisting, but more than that, he was facing Black Scythe.
He had no desire to challenge someone who could cut a shovel in half with just one finger.
‘It’s a shame I can’t kill Hwang Yong-min... but I have no choice.’
Jo Joong-sik turned without saying another word.
“Let’s go.”
“...Yes, boss.”
His subordinates quickly followed him, eager to get away from Ryu Min.
However.
“Who said you could leave?”
Ryu Min’s voice stopped the gangsters and Jo Joong-sik in their tracks.
“I have a question for you, Jo Joong-sik.”
“What... what is it?”
“How much do you know about Black Scythe?”
Why was he asking that?
While Jo Joong-sik looked at him, trying to read his intentions, his subordinates murmured among themselves.
“Black Scythe?”
“What’s that?”
“It sounds like the name of a scythe.”
Jo Joong-sik seemed to know something, but his subordinates were clearly confused.
It wasn’t surprising, as most of them hadn’t even survived the first round.
Even if memories had been injected into them, they couldn’t remember Black Scythe.
Jo Joong-sik, who had reached the third round, was the exception.
“Why is Black Scythe asking about Black Scythe...?”
“Do you think it’s time to ask questions?”
Swish-
Ryu Min moved a scythe even larger and more ominous than the one Jo Joong-sik had seen before, causing him to swallow nervously.
“What... what do you want to know?”
“Everything you know about Black Scythe.”
Ryu Min’s words made Jo Joong-sik think about many things.
‘What do I know about Black Scythe...?’
As he considered this, Jo Joong-sik was about to speak when—
“Oh, you don’t have to say it.”
“What?”
‘I’ve already heard it.’
For Ryu Min, who could read minds, he had already gathered the information.
“You can go now, Jo Joong-sik.”
“...”
“Just remember this before you leave. Don’t touch Hwang Yong-min. If anything happens to Hwang Yong-min...”
At that moment, Ryu Min’s black scythe seemed to radiate a deadly aura.
“I’ll come after you and hold you accountable.”
“...Understood.”
Jo Joong-sik quickly replied and hurriedly left.
In front of Black Scythe, there was no room for pride. He could only flee.
—————
‘He’s gone.’
When Jo Joong-sik and his subordinates disappeared, Ryu Min looked at Hwang Yong-min.
He was unconscious but didn’t seem to be in danger.
‘Fortunately, he’s not dead.’
If he had wanted to kill him, he would have done it in the alley.
Ryu Min had left Hwang Yong-min alive for a reason.
‘He still has his uses.’
After discovering that he had been injected with memories from a player, Ryu Min had followed Hwang Yong-min in an invisible state.
He needed to verify how much he knew.
‘He knows almost everything about me, even that I got my neck cut.’
Clearly, he had absorbed all the memories from that world.
As he followed him, Jo Joong-sik had appeared looking for Hwang Yong-min.
That had led him to this point.
‘I can’t kill Hwang Yong-min yet. I need to see how he changes as other worlds collapse.’
So far, six worlds had collapsed, but he didn’t know how many more might fall.
He didn’t know if more fragments of memory would continue flowing here.
He needed to observe any changes in Hwang Yong-min’s memories and the information they held.
‘It’s like keeping him as a lab rat. For testing.’
The same applied to Jo Joong-sik.
‘He doesn’t seem to have any intention of taking revenge on me, so there’s no need to kill him yet.’
There was no need to worry about potential retaliation.
Reading minds meant understanding someone’s true intentions.
‘I’ve confirmed he’s been injected with memories... should I check one more person?’
Leaving Hwang Yong-min unconscious, Ryu Min disappeared.
————–
A world is a dimension.
Dimensions are surrounded by barriers that prevent them from interfering with one another.
However.
‘Now, those barriers are crumbling, and memories are being shared.’
The memory fragments scattered by the collapse of a world.
They were drawn by the same frequency and injected into the memories of people in the 102nd world.
Like Jo Joong-sik and Eom Jun-seok that he had seen before.
‘So, have memories from other worlds also been injected into Min Juri?’
Ryu Min hid invisibly in front of a convenience store to check this phenomenon in Min Juri.
If his assumption was correct, the memories of a player would also have been transferred to Min Juri.
And so it was.
-Was I... a player? And Black Scythe?
Ryu Min could hear Min Juri’s thoughts while she worked in the convenience store.
Min Juri had also received memories.
This also seemed true for her father, Min Do-hoon, who was an ordinary citizen.
Jingle-
“Min Juri, Min Juri!”
He ran in as if he had something urgent.
“What’s wrong? Dad? What’s happening?”
“No, I just wanted to ask you something. Didn’t you give me something before? Something that filled me with vitality...”
“Do you mean Bless?”
“Ah! Yes, that. I thought it was a dream, but it seems it wasn’t, right?”
“You also have memories? Memories about Players?”
“Of course, I remember them as vividly as if they actually happened... What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, I don’t understand this situation. Strange memories keep coming to me...”
“This isn’t something that’s going to happen in the future, is it?”
Ryu Min left the two of them, full of anxiety and confusion.
‘This is something very serious.’
The world currently shared by people is from the 101st cycle’s memory.
The memories of a successful cycle where 97 players conquered the final round.
But.
‘What if memories from other failed cycles start infiltrating here...?’
Min Do-hoon might vividly remember Min Juri’s death.
And he wouldn’t be able to distinguish what was real and what wasn’t.
‘This isn’t just an issue affecting Players. This affects everyone.’
Ryu Min could confirm this by reading the mind of a passing person.
It wasn’t just the Players but also the civilians.
Everyone was experiencing the phenomenon of shared memories.
The memories from other worlds were being embedded into their minds as if they had actually lived them.
‘This will cause massive confusion among people due to the dissonance of memories.’
Chaos and confusion can lead to social instability, making people doubt themselves and suffer mental stress.
‘In extreme cases, they might perceive themselves as having multiple personalities, experience hallucinations, hear voices, and not believe anything.’
It can’t be left like this.
Deorant must be stopped before he destroys more worlds.
The problem is that no one knows where he is or what he looks like.
-Cronos.
-What do you want?
-I’m asking one more time. Do you really not know how to stop Deorant?
-I told you I don’t know. If I did, I would’ve told you already.
In fact, Cronos hasn’t even spoken to Deorant.
There isn’t enough information to discover his weaknesses or behavior patterns.
-Do you know how he destroys worlds?
-I don’t know. But I have an idea of how he does it.
-Explain.
-He likely plants his power in the world like a seed. And when that seed bears fruit, he makes it explode and destroys the world. That would be the most efficient way to do it.
-What exactly does “destruction” mean?
-The death of humans. The complete annihilation of that dimension.
Ryu Min’s expression grew serious.
The fact that his world was being systematically destroyed gave him a headache.
‘I can’t just worry about this world. Other worlds are also in danger.’
The inhabitants of other worlds are also real living beings.
They too could receive these memories and descend into chaos.
And they could face complete annihilation due to the destruction.
Even though they’re in different dimensions and can’t meet, Ryu Min feels a responsibility to save them.
It was he who, by repeating cycles, created these worlds.
-Fortunately, the dimensional god can’t destroy the worlds all at once, right?
-Of course, even for a dimensional god, that would be impossible. It would require an astronomical amount of tera energy.
-Can you guess where he might be?
-No, I already told you I can’t determine his location.
Hearing Cronos’ response, Ryu Min sighed.
There was only one option left.
-If we want to find him, we’ll have to search through the worlds. The only way is to locate the “seeds” he has planted.
-It seems so.
It was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
-Have you decided where to start?
Ryu Min’s answer was swift. He had already chosen the world he would investigate first.
-I’ll go to the world where my brother is.
——————–
Time doesn’t flow the same in every dimension.
Just as a river’s current varies depending on the place, in one world, three years might pass while in another, thirty.
Although he doesn’t fully understand the flow of time, Ryu Min believes this is the first world he should inspect.
‘This is the 100th world, where I don’t exist.’
From the first cycle to the hundredth, Ryu Min had failed and died repeatedly.
‘Strictly speaking, in the 100th cycle, I didn’t die but disappeared after fulfilling my wish.’
After surviving alone in the 100th cycle, Ryu Min entered the wish room and asked for a fresh start in the 101st cycle.
As a result, there would be another Ryu Min in the 101st world, but not in this 100th world.
‘In this world, I don’t exist.’
It would likely be recorded that he died in the final round and couldn’t return.
And that’s exactly what happened.
‘That guy! What is he doing? Did he really think I was dead...?’
If not, his brother, Ryu Won, wouldn’t be trying to hang himself in his home.
Slash!
He quickly cut the rope, and his brother fell to the ground.
Though he was coughing and struggling, Ryu Min felt relieved.
He had saved his brother’s life.
‘That was close.’
It wasn’t that he was desperate to stay alive.
Who would have thought his brother would try to commit suicide because he believed he was dead...?
He definitely needed a serious talk.
First, calmly.
“Ryu Won, have things been tough all this time?”
“Brother? You’re alive? How...?”
“Wait. Don’t cry and listen. I know it’s been hard without me, but trying to kill yourself... How do you think that makes me feel?”
“Brother...”
“You have to keep going. No matter how tough it gets, the living must keep moving forward. What do you think you’re doing? Do you really want to get into trouble?”
With a face that mixed joy, surprise, and guilt, Ryu Won averted his gaze.
“Don’t die. Never. If you die because I’m not around, I’ll never forgive you.”
With those words, Ryu Min turned invisible.
As a silent tear fell down his brother’s cheek, he vanished without a trace.