Chapter 417: Dimensional Management |
“I finally killed him. Deorant.”
An interdimensional place from which no one can escape without his permission.
I took Deorant there for a direct confrontation.
As a result, I managed to subdue him and trap him in the Soul Gauntlet.
Moreover, I extracted hundreds of billions of tera and a temporary skill.
[Temporary Skill – Dimensional Management]
Effect: Allows control and management of all dimensions.
“Just reading the description doesn’t give me a clear idea of what this skill is about...”
Ryu Min decided to test the skill to understand it better.
[Display dimension list]
[Examine dimensions]
[Move between dimensions]
............
............
There were several functions, but the one that caught his attention the most was [Locate Creations].
“If it refers to creations... could it mean the Hosts and Seeds?”
Could it be the ability to locate those whom Deorant considered his children?
“I was just thinking of searching for them. This will allow me to locate and eliminate the remnants of his power.”
Although he had neutralized the immediate threat of Deorant, the Hosts and Seeds still remained.
He was worried about how to find them, but here was the solution.
“Should I try the [Move between dimensions] function?”
Determined to put what he had learned into practice, Ryu Min transported himself to the dimension where the Hosts and Seeds were.
Snap!
“Oh! It definitely consumes less energy.”
Moving between timelines with time-based power involved waiting times and other penalties, but the function of moving between dimensions had no such inconveniences.
“According to the function of locating creations, the Hosts and Seeds are here, right?”
By using the function again, he was able to precisely detect the location of 300 Hosts and 12 Seeds.
“They’re all dead.”
With a malicious grin, Ryu Min disappeared like the wind.
It was time to collect the seeds scattered by Deorant.
————-
The God of Dimension despised unnecessarily multiplied dimensions.
For this reason, he planted a seed of destruction he created in every dimension.
The Hosts absorbed human energy, and the Seeds that emerged from them germinated the seed of destruction.
With just Hosts and Seeds, the destruction of a dimension was easy.
With human power, it was difficult to face even a single Host.
If left alone, the Hosts and Seeds would destroy the dimension on their own.
With this belief, Deorant planted the seeds and moved on to another dimension.
He had already destroyed ten dimensions this way.
But that was as far as he got.
Deorant failed to destroy all dimensions.
And the reason was none other than this:
“He didn’t fully understand who I am.”
Deorant never imagined that Ryu Min would travel across timelines eliminating Hosts and Seeds.
He didn’t think that someone would wipe out all remnants of his power.
“I exterminated all the Hosts and Seeds. There’s no more need to worry about the destruction of the timelines.”
I stopped Deorant.
I also stopped the destruction of the timelines.
There’s no longer any threat to Ryu Min.
But that doesn’t mean there are no problems.
“What do I do about the timeline I created?”
The 102nd timeline, which eliminated all defects, was in trouble.
The people there were suffering.
I created an ideal world without angels, demons, gods, or survival games, but that’s not the case now.
The chaos of memories has plunged the world into mental suffering.
It was as if clean water had been tainted.
“This can’t continue like this. I have to find a solution...”
But worrying about a problem without a solution doesn’t help.
I need to find another way.
“Can’t I do something with this skill?”
Ryu Min reviewed the dimensional management functions he had extracted from Deorant.
Finally, he found a useful function.
“If I use this function... can I alleviate people’s suffering?”
It would consume a lot of tera, but that doesn’t matter.
What good is having hundreds of billions of tera?
Keeping it would just be a waste.
“I’ll start right away.”
Ryu Min’s finger touched one of the dimensional management functions.
—————-
“Min Juri.”
“Huh?”
“Why are you so distracted?”
“No, it’s nothing. Dad.”
“If you didn’t even notice I came in, it doesn’t seem like it’s nothing.”
“Hehe...”
Min Juri was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t realize her father, Min Do-hoon, had arrived to take over the shift.
She wasn’t tired from working at the convenience store.
There was a mental problem that had been bothering her lately.
“Do you have any problems?”
“Well...”
“Let me guess? Is it because of those memories that appeared in your head?”
Min Juri nodded, confirming that her father had guessed correctly.
It was a problem that had spread worldwide like a virus; it couldn’t be denied.
“It happens to me too. Things I haven’t experienced appear in my mind as if I had lived them. Yesterday I couldn’t sleep because of the memory of your death.”
“My death?”
“Yes. I remember hugging you and crying when you didn’t survive the survival game. It was so vivid, as if it happened yesterday. And here you are, so healthy.”
“...Yeah, it’s quite strange. Haha.”
Although she tried to laugh it off, her eyes couldn’t join in the laughter.
Min Juri also had a headache from those implanted memories.
“I went through so many hardships with Min...”
According to the memories, Min Juri had made it to the final round along with Ryu Min and others.
There they faced a powerful enemy called Chaos and eventually triumphed.
These were memories from the 101st cycle, caused by the collapse of An Sang-cheol’s timeline, but Min Juri didn’t know that.
She only knew that she had shared life and death with Black Scythe and had fallen in love with Ryu Min in the process.
“I still like Min.”
But she didn’t have the courage to confess.
She thought there was plenty of time, so she decided to remain a friend and watch over him.
However, she was anxious.
“What if another survival game starts on New Year’s? What if I’m taken without being able to confess my feelings...?”
They had defeated Chaos, but she couldn’t discern if it was a dream or the past.
If it was a future event, that would be a problem.
Seeing proof of the future was a heavy burden.
The same was true for her father, Min Do-hoon.
“I don’t know if the survival game was real, but I’m worried our Min Juri will be dragged into one again...”
“Dad...”
“It would have been better not to know. Without those strange memories, I wouldn’t be so worried...”
Like Min Do-hoon, Min Juri was also distressed.
It wasn’t just her.
Everyone was suffering from the sudden appearance of memories of past lives or something similar.
“I hope these experiences aren’t real...”
She wished they were just dreams.
But they were real events.
Everything had happened in other dimensions, and the result was the death of 1.8 billion people.
Surviving the round didn’t make her feel good.
Thinking that she had survived at the cost of 1.8 billion lives caused deep pain in her heart.
“My mind is a mess...”
The blurry memories floated in her mind, confusing her. She didn’t know if what she had experienced was real or not.
Every time she woke up, she feared what new memories would surface. The worry of being caught by the angels again tormented her, just as it did everyone else in the world.
However, that ended at that moment.
“Huh?”
“What?”
Suddenly, all the harmful memories that had been implanted vanished in an instant.
“Dad... what are you doing?”
“What was I doing here? Oh! I came to take over your shift.”
Neither Min Juri nor her father, Min Do-hoon, remembered what they had been thinking about.
This didn’t just happen to them. The memories of the survival game that had been tormenting humanity disappeared from everyone’s minds.
——————-
The collapse of a dimension is not a simple matter. It means that an entire world disappears. The sun, the moon, the earth, and all living beings in it.
All perish due to the consequences of the collapse, turning into formless dust.
However, even if the dimension collapses, the fragments of memory remain, floating, instinctively searching for their original bodies.
“But what if the collapsed dimension is restored? Will the memories return to their original state?”
Ryu Min used one of the dimensional management functions with this thought in mind.
[Dimension Restoration]
A function that allows restoring a dimension to its original state. Although it required an enormous amount of tera, Ryu Min had no greed for it and was willing to pay the price.
It was worth it.
“I just need to restore the 10 dimensions that Deorant collapsed.”
If they were restored, the scattered memories would return to their original souls.
But that was just a hypothesis. To confirm it, Ryu Min asked Deorant, whose soul was stored in the Soul Gauntlet.
-Deorant.
-Is this voice...? Death Scythe?
-I told you not to call me that. Call me Black Scythe.
-Black Scythe... That’s just as ridiculous...
-Doesn’t matter, I have something to ask you.
-Why should I answer?
-Because if you don’t, I’ll destroy you.
-What...?
-You’re trapped in my personal prison. I can destroy you whenever I want. The destruction of the soul is true death, do you understand?
If Deorant was destroyed, he wouldn’t be able to use the dimensional management function. But Deorant didn’t know that, so the threat worked.
-What do you want to ask?
-If the dimension you collapsed is restored, will the dead come back to life?
-If the dimension is restored...
-Yes, if it’s restored.
-Yes, of course, they’ll revive. Dimensional restoration would bring them back to the point before the collapse.
-Then, if people revive, the fragments of memory will also return to their owners, right? Even if they’ve crossed into another dimension.
-Of course. Memory is etched into the human soul like a mark. If the owner returns, the memory does too. It’s only natural.
-I see.
-Was that useful?
-Yes, somewhat.
-Then will you release me from here?
-Not a chance. Be grateful I haven’t destroyed you.
-...
After the conversation ended, Ryu Min decided to restore the dimension to verify if the memories would return.
“If this hypothesis is correct, the people in the 102nd world I created will stop suffering.”
He immediately proceeded with the restoration and, as a result, Zap!
The 10 collapsed dimensions were restored to their original state, before Deorant planted the Hosts and Seeds.
“The job is done. Now, it’s time to check the 102nd world.”
Ryu Min moved to the timeline and returned to Earth.
He looked for Hwang Yong-min, whom he had left alive as a test subject.
However,
[The subject ‘Hwang Yong-min’ cannot be found.]
[This person does not exist.]
Even using the tracking skill, he couldn’t locate him.
“This only appears when someone is dead... Did someone kill him?”
There was only one person who could have done it.
Ryu Min immediately tracked down Jo Jung-sik.
“Jo Jung-sik.”
“Ahh!”
Jo Jung-sik, frightened by Ryu Min’s ghostly appearance, pulled a knife from his pocket.
“You, you bastard! What are you? A ghost? Damn it, come on, dare to... Do you think I’m afraid of a ghost...?”
“Doesn’t he recognize me?”
Ryu Min read Jo Jung-sik’s thoughts and discovered the reason.
“The memories about Black Scythe are gone.”
Black Scythe, the survival game, everything related to it.
Jo Jung-sik didn’t remember any of it.
It was as if the memories had returned to the normal era, before the survival game.
The hypothesis that implanted memories would disappear when restoring the dimension was confirmed.
“The memories are gone. But I told you clearly, didn’t I?”
Slash.
Ryu Min unsheathed his scythe and pointed it at Jo Jung-sik.
“If you touched Hwang Yong-min, you wouldn’t come out unscathed.”
“What...? When did I say that...?”
“I’m here to fulfill that promise.”
Ryu Min decapitated Jo Jung-sik with a single strike.
He decided it was better to eliminate the pest.