Chapter 614 – The Stolen World (29)
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– 5 seconds ago, the Creepy Labyrinth
What on earth is happening to me right now?
Let’s slowly retrace my steps.
Eunsol used the Flute of Rest, yet nothing changed.
While I observed the situation from behind the consciousness of the young Miro, I realized that for the flute to take effect, I needed to pierce a hole in the ‘frame.’
After a long break, I regained my body and pierced the curtain with the Spear of Mortality.
Then the strange phenomenon began!
The first thing I noticed was that everything stopped.
It felt as if someone pressed the pause button on the video called “the world.”
There I was, stabbing the air with the Spear of Mortality.
Next to me, Eunsol was playing the flute.
And the Holy Mother was in battle-ready stance.
The three of us were as solid as a rock in a frozen world.
Not even a finger or a strand of hair could move.
…
…
…
Three hours felt like they passed.
I noticed the Holy Mother pointed her fingertip at Eunsol, shooting some mysterious purple flash.
Why is she targeting Eunsol instead of me?
It’s probably a tactic to take out the weakest first!
Though it was a critical situation, I didn’t feel panicked.
The flash was slow.
Just because it emits light, it’s labeled a ‘flash,’ but it moved like a sluggish balloon.
Some unknown harmonics seemed to have frozen everything, yet the Time Dilation Device could still operate without a hitch.
I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as I reverse-summoned Eunsol.
…
…
…
Twelve hours seemed to pass.
The purple flash had now reached near the middle point between the Holy Mother and Eunsol, and Eunsol still stood unharmed in the corner of my sight.
So, why did the reverse-summon fail?
The Time Dilation Device wouldn’t refuse my command, would it?
It was at this point I understood.
It wasn’t that my body was stiff; rather, the surrounding time had slowed down.
Or maybe only the thinking time had sped up immensely.
In reality, that purple flash must be moving at a tremendous speed—though not quite light speed—way faster than sound.
So even with the entire world paused, it appears slow like a balloon floating by.
The same goes for the Time Dilation Device.
The needle is still moving normally per my command.
It’s just that it feels incredibly slow to me right now.
I can’t turn my head to check, but perhaps the needle has moved only about 0.01mm?
…
…
…
A full day felt like it passed.
Unfortunately, the speed of the flash surpassed that of the Time Dilation Device’s needle.
That means the flash struck before I could summon Eunsol.
The flash slowly pierced Eunsol’s head.
In that moment, I sincerely thanked the Holy Mother.
Because of her aiming for the head, Eunsol’s suffering would last at most 30 seconds.
What if she had targeted an arm or a leg instead?
I shuddered at the thought.
While I might not see Eunsol as a true ally outside of Ari, I still had some human compassion.
How much did the needle move now? 0.1mm?
The Dilation Device still hadn’t made that ‘clunk’ sound.
I was starting to envy the dead.
…
…
…
I have no idea how much time has passed.
Suddenly, this thought struck me.
Why isn’t the Immutable Power protecting me?
Thinking back to Room 206, where I encountered the ‘Demon King Who Awakens After 100 Days.’
Back then, the ‘young me’ could move despite the time dilation deep in the paradise.
Immutable Power should resist time dilation.
But why doesn’t it resist now?
Luckily, since I had ample time, I came to understand.
Firstly, what I’m experiencing right now isn’t time dilation.
If time had truly slowed down, then aside from external observers, I shouldn’t be aware of it at all.
The thoughts should’ve slowed along with the world.
Now though, the world has stopped, but my thoughts are normal, indicating something entirely different than time dilation.
A more terrible and wicked phenomenon.
Secondly, Immutable Power is still resisting.
I had mistakenly thought the Time Dilation Device was ignoring my commands.
It wasn’t that it ignored orders; the needle was incredibly slow-moving.
It’s a similar context.
Immutable Power is resisting, and this is the extent of its resistance.
Thus, Aidiya must be experiencing an even worse phenomenon than I am.
I’ve been trapped in a timeless hell.
…
…
…
It’s agonizing.
I want to die.
Please, anyone, just kill me.
I envy Eunsol, who managed to escape this pain through death.
I envy everyone who’s not suffering like I am.
An endless surge of anger welled within.
I wanted to tear and kill Songee for trying to uncover the truth.
What? Discovering the truth of the Moon from various perspectives?
If she’d truly experienced this phenomenon, she would’ve gone insane in a second!
She only got this vague feeling that something bizarre was going on!
I wanted to roast Kain alive, who brought me into this hell while spouting all that insight!
How did he, as a leader, let his comrades experience this?!
He’s worse than the Silent One…!
But that’s not all!
I felt hatred towards Ari, who still couldn’t save me.
I felt disgust towards Mooksung, who hasn’t even used his One More Chance yet.
Still—
I actually know the truth.
No one knew that behind the domain of dreams lay such hell.
It’s not Songee’s fault, nor Kain’s fault.
It’s certainly not Ari or Mooksung’s fault; they’re not even here.
And I realized this too.
Even while knowing my anger was meaningless, I’d blame others endlessly for what feels like an eternity.
Blame them, realize the absurdity, fall into despair, and lament over and over again.
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…
My vision faded.
It’s nothing special; it’s just the natural cycle of closing and opening one’s eyes.
I’d be trapped in darkness for a few months.
Thanks to that, I gained a strange ability of hyper-awareness—feeling the subtle movements of the needle even without looking at the Time Dilation Device.
I could feel its minute movements.
Morning with Songee.
Noon with Eunsol.
Evening with Ari.
Midnight with Kain.
The needle that passed through Songee headed toward Eunsol.
With about 30 times more time passed compared to now, I’d be able to summon Ari.
I want to die.
…
…
…
I had so much time to think that enlightenment struck me.
For instance, would such a thing be happening on other Arks too?
Do all souls caught in an Ark go through such a process?
No.
Ari, who knows the Ark well, has never mentioned anything like this.
It’s a characteristic unique to the Moon.
The Moon has something different from other Arks.
Why would it do such a thing?
Why does it offer such a horrible hell to the souls it devours?
Is it mere torture?
A manifestation of its cruel nature?
Is it a sadistic being?
No.
The Moon has a definitive purpose.
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A story of eternity.
In the far North lies a rock known as Svithjod.
It’s a 100-mile tall and wide rock.
Once in a thousand years, a small bird comes to sharpen its beak on this rock.
Once the rock has worn down completely, only then will one second of eternity have passed.
The sands on the beach were once part of a vast crust or mantle.
Waves crashing over colossal rocks for countless epochs birthed the grains of sand.
Mountains have their personalities and uniqueness, but grains of sand do not.
All grains of sand are the same.
Eternity is simply the process of turning mountains into grains of sand.
Ah…
I understand now.
The reason the Moon created this eternal hell is to ‘purify’ the devoured souls.
It’s a process of reverting souls imprinted with the uniqueness of life back to their primordial state.
I am slowly forgetting ‘myself.’
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The information I once had about ‘me.’
In childhood, I was attacked by a monster resembling Santa Claus and was rescued by the Administration Bureau.
While working as an agent, I resolved to dismantle the upper echelons of the Administration Bureau after learning that most of the Silent Ones had fallen.
With that mindset, I tried to ascend the hotel but failed.
Yet, thanks to some arrangement called ‘Ari,’ I got a new chance.
Even so, that ‘one hour’ left on the Time Dilation Device was all I had…
With the help of the Great One who curled up in Room 207—the ‘Apprentice’—I was freed from the constraint of time.
After that, digging up the secrets of reality led me to the heart of the Moon.
Is this truly the truth?
Or does it even hold meaning?
My memories have become blurry over time; specific recollections feel faint now.
Even shocking details I thought I would never forget have dimmed into mere afterimages.
Perhaps all this information is just a delusion I’ve concocted.
I never escaped the hotel and am still trapped in Ice Hell, dreaming nightmarishly.
Maybe even the memory of being trapped in Ice Hell is itself just a delusion?
So, what am I?
What kind of being am I, suffering in this way?
Perhaps even the thought of suffering is an illusion.
I might have originally been a being frozen in a photograph, but due to some anomaly, gained the ability to think.
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…
During the endlessly lingering second, I thought countless times.
I should hand over the reins of consciousness back to the young Miro.
The young Miro, too, is vaguely aware of what’s happening, but it’s just that—vague.
Unlike me, who fully feels the ceaseless agony, she likely perceives it as just a weird dream.
I want to awaken the young Miro and fall asleep once again.
Thus, I would escape the eons of suffering.
But I also thought.
Given my long experience as an agent, and even having faced the hotel of hell, can the young Miro handle an eternal dream?
Even Immutable Power has hit a wall; this despair isn’t something the young me could endure.
Like many souls the Moon has devoured, in a blink, she’d lose her sense of self and forget who she is.
I must not forget.
The ‘real’ one is only the young Miro.
I am just a lingering spirit bound to Miro’s body, a mere phenomenon of a creepypasta.
I must endure.
Even if I go mad, I must go mad, and even if I turn to ash, I must turn to ash.
That way, there’s a next opportunity for ‘us.’
…
When this thought struck me, I heard the whisper of someone I thought I’d never hear again.
“I once saw you; what remains is only a dark and murky fate.”
The Apprentice?
“I’ve pondered. To send you away or grant you eternal rest—what is salvation?”
Was this the hallucination birthed from my despair?
“Child, if you wish, even now I can grant you rest.”
Or perhaps it’s an arrangement left behind by the Apprentice who vaguely peered into the distant future?
Amidst my consciousness that dispersed like bubbles, I thought.
Rest—a ridiculously sweet temptation.
I’ve already shouted countless times that I want to die.
Do I genuinely wish for death?
…
I’m not a good person.
The sacrifice of cattle for the greater good is not too different from daily life; I’m not a murderer compared to the mass murderers that went down in history.
I’m a failure.
A loser who couldn’t even properly lead less than 10 ordinary people in the deep-sea hotel.
I’m selfish, foolish, and inferior to the daughter I obtained through a wish.
I’m not even human now.
I’m nothing but a creepypasta, a phenomenon, and a chaotic entity.
I’m merely a ghost parasitizing the young Miro.
But…
I’m not an easy being to kill.
At least not yet; I won’t accept my end.
I can’t just disappear without properly sticking a spear in!
That’s why I could respond to the Apprentice.
“Rest is unnecessary!”
Pain is existence.
I suffer.
Thus, I exist.
At that moment, I felt someone’s smile.
“Indeed, you are my masterpiece. A better imitation than the original.”
I witnessed an unseen hand.
It’s a contradictory expression, but I didn’t have better words.
That hand seized the needle that was moving leisurely between noon and evening and forcefully accelerated it!
— Clunk!
Finally, the needle of the Time Dilation Device arrived at ‘Evening with Ari.’
I now felt sorry for my daughter who would appear.
I felt pity knowing she would endure great suffering for ‘a very long time.’
Another eternal second passed.
…
…
The space isolation of the ‘irregular polyhedron’ sealed the gap pierced by the Spear of Mortality.
This meant the end of all suffering.
…
The five seconds longer than a lifetime came to an end.
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