Chapter 188: End Point
What happened after death was something I had always wondered about.
Would it simply end after death, or would I return to my original body in the original world?
The answer was neither.
I was now standing alone in a space filled with nothingness, only darkness.
“……”
What happened and how did it turn out like this?
I looked down at my body.
The body that was a mess until a moment ago was now perfectly fine.
I felt comfortable, without any pain.
Looking at this, it’s certain that this place wasn’t reality…
Had the Demon King died?
Given the situation, there was no way to know.
I could only hope that my last-ditch struggle, even if it had cost me my life, wasn’t entirely meaningless.
Would Kaen be unharmed? If the Demon King died with me, she’s probably safe.
It’s regrettable that I couldn’t leave a proper apology for her.
Asher…
I sighed with bitterness.
I had promised to tell her the story about myself after the war ended.
But that promise would ultimately not be kept.
As I thought about each one, it seemed that nothing had been properly resolved.
I sat down heavily in my place.
There was still no change in the dark space.
Maybe I was supposed to look back at my past life before I died.
I wish someone would explain it.
“There’s no need to look back on your life.”
After hearing that voice, someone appeared in front of me without any warning. I couldn’t help but be stunned when I saw the person’s face.
…Me?
The man in front of me had my face.
More precisely, it was the face of the Seventh Lord, Ron.
I sat down in a daze and met the eyes of another me.
But wait, I had heard that voice somewhere before. Where could it be from?
For a moment, I couldn’t remember, then I realized.
The voice I heard in my head when I lost to the Demon King.
Now that I thought about it, it was also the voice I heard when I first transmigrated into the game.
…Was it really my voice?
Now that I realized that, I frowned and asked.
“Who are you?”
The other me answered.
“I am you.”
“I know that from your face. What I want to ask is–“
“I’m not the owner of this body. I’m Kang Joo-won from Earth, who possessed this body.”
Kang Joo-won.
My original name before becoming Ron.
The other me seemed to be reading my thoughts and answered.
I hesitated for a moment and then asked.
“Was it you who dropped me into the game world?”
“Yes.”
“It seems like a lot of explanation is needed.”
So, I was the cause of all this?
That didn’t make any sense at all.
Amidst my confusion, the other me spoke.
“Where should I start explaining? First, I can say that I’m the original you.”
“The original me?”
“Yes. The very first me before starting countless loops.”
Loop. That word was firmly stuck in my mind.
“Loop? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll explain everything. Just listen first.”
The other me began to speak.
“The original me wasn’t someone who got transmigrated to this world while playing a game. I was just a pitiful Earthling who fell into this world like lightning, without any knowledge, without the [Soul of a King]. It could be that the magic of this world inadvertently influenced Earth, or it could have been some cosmic error. Anyway, I ended up possessing the body of a prisoner trapped on a prison ship in this world.”
The prison ship… he was talking about the situation when I first possessed this body.
I was about to listen to the story in a daze when a question arose.
“Wait, if you had no abilities, how did you survive there?”
I wouldn’t have been able to escape the prison ship without Instant Kill.
“Just before the Fist Saint was about to blow up my head, I noticed the Chief of Staff’s hiding spot. And the two of them immediately engaged in a battle. Thanks to that, I was able to save my life.”
“What happened next? The ship was sinking, wasn’t it?”
“During the battle between the two, the shattered shockwave from an explosion broke the chain that had clung to my hands. After dealing with the Fist Saint, the Chief of Staff immediately got away from the sinking ship. I managed to avoid death by floating on a broken plank to a nearby island. It was simply a stroke of luck that allowed me to survive.”
Was it just an insane stroke of luck?
The other version of me continued the narrative.
“Escaping from the island was also largely thanks to luck, but that’s not the important part. Perhaps due to the influence of the original body’s owner, some memory remained, including the language and other world knowledge, which was a small blessing. However, having nothing, I had to strive relentlessly to survive in this world. I almost died hundreds of times, met a good mentor and learned swordsmanship, luckily discovered mysteries and grew stronger. I experienced many things, formed many connections. And the meeting with Kaen was one of those connections.”
“Kaen…”
As her name emerged, I found myself murmuring unconsciously.
“Kaen was truly a valuable comrade to me, but she eventually met her end as a hero. Kaen sacrificed her life to take down the Demon King. Compared to her, I, who was infinitely weaker, couldn’t do anything. Instead, I became a burden, forcing Kaen to expend the power of the Holy Sword to save my life.”
“…”
“Both the hero and the Demon King died, and a long time passed after the war ended. Thanks to Kaen, I survived, but a portion of the Demon King’s power remained within me and gradually assimilated with me over time. With that power as a foundation, I eventually gained divine power.”
“What? Divine power?”
What the hell was that?
“Divine power is the power of gods, much like the power of the Holy Sword. Although it’s not a perfect divine power like the death power possessed by the Demon King, it was a power that almost reached that level.”
“Wait, hold on…”
“Don’t think hard about it. A god is what you vaguely imagine a god to be. A transcendent who has transcended the limitations of living things and has become almost omnipotent. Anyway, still unable to come to terms with Kaen’s death, I used my divine power to turn back time. To change the past and bring Kaen back to life.”
…Was this what he called a loop?
I finally began to grasp where this story was going and asked.
“Countless loops, you said. Does that mean the first attempt failed?”
“Yes.”
“Why? You gained divine power and became a god. Wasn’t saving Kaen a relatively simple task, then?”
“Gods are beings beyond the causality of this world. With their abilities, anything is possible, but causality heavily limited their influence on the real world.”
Seeing my puzzled expression due to not understanding, the other me suddenly waved his hand in the empty space.
Then, a table and an apple placed on it, appeared.
“For example, let’s say an ordinary person reaches out and grabs the apple on the table. In that case, the apple is picked up by the person’s hand and floats in the air. The apple floats in the air because the person grabbed it. It’s a completely natural phenomenon and follows causality.”
“Right.”
“But if a god with divine power reaches out and grabs the apple on the table in the real world, the apple simply floats in the air without any causality. It’s because the god isn’t bound by the laws of that world. Even such a trivial action disrupts the causality of the world. Trying to forcibly break those limitations of causality could potentially lead to the destruction of the world.”
It’s starting to make sense.
“So, it’s difficult for the power of a god to directly affect the world?”
“Yes. And the same applies to reversing time.”
Well, that made sense. We’re talking about reversing time, after all.
“So, the way I reversed time had its limitations. I had to give up preserving my memories. But that’s the only way to reverse the time. Even if I tried reversing time without giving up my memories, nothing would change. So, I needed a variable. And that variable was the game, RaSa.”
“…Did you create the game, RaSa?”
“I know myself. There’s no better way for me to retain a lot of information over a long period of time than through a game. I know my tastes. I know what games I enjoy playing.”
Going back in time with memories preserved was difficult due to the limitations of causality.
So, he’s saying that he induced those memories into my mind by framing them as part of the game’s setting.
“Having separated the self that has divine power, I sent myself back to the past. I gave you information and even abilities like Instant Kill and the [Soul of the King]. All of those things, including the visions you often felt, were variables that would change the future.”
“But… why give the abilities in such a way? Couldn’t you have just given them normally?”
I asked, recalling how I obtained the power of Instant Kill through the synthesis of the Chaos Box.
“It was a method to minimize the pressure of causality. Think about the Holy Sword. Weren’t there various conditions for Kaen to inherit the Holy Sword? The god behind the Holy Sword also devised those conditions to provide his power in a way that minimizes the restrictions of causality.”
“…What does that have to do with the decrease in causality constraints?”
“That could be attributed to the issue of perception. Let’s say there’s a fairy tale book that tells the story of a hero’s epic. If the hero in that story goes through all sorts of hardships and challenges to obtain the power of the Holy Sword, would you seriously doubt the plausibility of it?”
“Well… probably not.”
“Exactly. It’s natural for a hero to gain strength through adversity. The causality of a world is closely linked to the perception of the entities that belong to that world. Your acquisition of the power of Instant Kill through the fusion of the Chaos Box is also nothing more than utilizing that perception.”
It was hard to understand exactly, but I moved on. It wasn’t that important of a detail.
“Anyway, you went back in time like that, but you just kept failing? Why?”
“Because there was something else that mattered. One of the laws of the universe, along with the law of causality. It’s something called fate.”
Fate?
“Like things that are destined to happen?”
“Yes. And Kaen’s death was exactly that fate. Only after dozens of loops did I realize that fact.”
I couldn’t help but be astonished by that statement. Kaen’s death was fated?
“However, I didn’t give up. I kept going back in time. Even if Kaen’s death was fated, I wasn’t willing to accept it.”
“Then how did you…”
“What I was aiming for was just a single bug. If I keep rewinding time and repeating the same period, I believed that even a predetermined fate would have errors occur at least once. There was no real basis for that belief, but I still did it.”
Once again, he reached his hand out into thin air.
“And in the end, I’ve reached this conclusion. Look.”
Waves like the surface of water appeared in the air, revealing a certain scene.
I quickly realized it was the reality I was in just moments before.
Kaen lying on the ground with her eyes closed, clutching her Holy Sword, and the Demon King and I lying in front of her.
And the soldiers of Santea surrounding such Kaen, guarding her.
“She’s not dead. She’s just unconscious.”
“……”
“Kaen’s death was confirmed at the end of the battle with the Demon King. That fate has now been averted.”
Was that so? Was Kaen alive?
Feeling relieved, I looked towards where my body lay.
Then Asher, who had appeared from somewhere, was seen sitting down in front of me.
Asher was safe, too. That’s a relief.
She stared at my face for a long while, then she started sobbing and embraced my lifeless body.
Two versions of myself watched over that scene.
“How many times have you rewound time?”
“It’s been so long. I’ve lost count after thousands of times.”
“…You’ve really gone crazy.”
He nodded his head.
“Congratulations on fulfilling your lifelong wish. Let’s end this now. It’s hard to keep watching.”
Now that I had destroyed Kaen’s destiny, there’s nothing I can do to turn back time from the end point I had finally reached.
Even after hearing my other’s self’s explanation, I couldn’t ask for time to be reversed.
It’s regrettable, but now I would truly meet my end.
“No, you won’t die.”
I opened my eyes wide.
“I will bestow my divine power upon you. Come back to life and return.”
“What? The causality…”
“It hasn’t been too long since your death, so you can endure that level of causality.”
I looked at the other me in silence.
“If you give me your divine power and I resurrect, what will happen to you, then?”
“I will cease to exist. As I said, I am a separate entity, bearing only the divine power without a body.”
“…Then, couldn’t you resurrect in that body instead of me?”
The other me raised his head.
“I have memories accumulated over countless eons, reversing time. My identity is already vastly different from that of an ordinary human. Resurrecting in this state would be meaningless…”
He glanced at Kaen and let out a bitter laugh.
“So, now I just want to rest. I’m satisfied with seeing the end. You should go.”
I nodded.
“Then I won’t refuse. Thank you. Honestly, I felt quite unjust about dying like this.”
The other me burst into a wry smile.
“But are you really okay? Weren’t you in love with Kaen? The person I care for now is…”
“It doesn’t matter. Live your life. Return to Earth with divine power or stay in this world.”
Shhh.
A door to reality opened in front of me with a bright light.
I locked eyes with the other me one last time as I felt the immense divine power flow into my body.
“Thank you. For ending it all.”
The other me said.
“Now rest peacefully.”
Leaving my final farewell, I walked towards the door that led to reality.
My vision was engulfed in light, and my consciousness faded into obscurity.
***
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Asher’s hair.
I lightly tapped Asher’s shoulder, who was holding me so tight that I couldn’t breathe.
“Asher.”
Startled, Asher raised her head urgently.
I let out a small chuckle.
“Are you trying to suffocate me?”
“Sir Ron…”
Asher’s tear-streaked face lit up with surprise and excitement.
Feeling much the same way as her, and unsure of what to say, I said the first thing that came to my mind.
“My name is…”
Hearing the name, Asher stared at me blankly, then laughed uncharacteristically.
“It’s a difficult name to pronounce.”
What a trivial observation.
I turned my gaze to the side.
On the other side, Kaen was slowly getting up.
The Holy Sword she held gleamed faintly in her hand.
The god behind the Holy Sword would have remembered the countless loops the other me had made.
I should be grateful to him for his willingness to endure those endless loops.
With the death of the Demon King, the demons lost their morale, and the war was coming to an end.
I looked across the sky and saw the Wiseman, the Mad King, and the Thunder Lord flying this way.
Where did the Overlord disappear to?
Did she disappear after the death of the Demon King?
In any case, it was fortunate that the other Lords who stopped the Overlord were unharmed.
I looked at Asher again.
“Let’s go back, Asher.”
With the divine power bestowed by the other me, I could now return to Earth.
I hadn’t decided what to do next, but for now, I should keep the promise I made.
“I’ll tell you my story. It’s not really anything extraordinary, but still.”
T/N: Yes, this is the end of the story. I know, some will probably be disappointed by this rushed ending. I was. There’s a lot of things that was brushed off, characters that were not utilized properly, foreshadowing that did not come into fruition, etc.
Then, I read somewhere that the author suddenly had a health problem and they had to rush the story. I’m not sure if it’s true, but considering the start of the story and how abrupt it ended, and if we think of all the foreshadowing at the start and other characters that had been built up, I believe that the author really had no choice but to end it this way.
