Chapter 621 – The Oldest Wish (2)
—
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 232
Current Location: Australia Northern Territory
Advisor’s Advice: 3
—
Han Kain
7 AM.
All major forces gathered in the Australian desert.
Despite it being the time when sunlight should be blinding, everything around was dark.
This was because the size of the plunderers, revealed in reality, was beyond imagination.
“Demon!”
From behind, I could hear Songyi and Elena’s conversation.
“Wow…! The internet is going wild!”
“What’s going on?”
“First contact? I see that phrase everywhere!”
“First contact?”
“Sis, it seems people think of those as, um, alien spaceships.”
“Corrupted beings…”
Alien spaceships? Well, it’s not entirely inaccurate.
“The Bureau is making a big deal about it, saying it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Does it mean anything? I doubt anyone will believe it.”
“Of course.”
After everything is over, it seems there will be quite a fuss over cleanup.
Honestly, I doubt the Bureau will care about the aftermath either.
If we can’t win against the Moon this time, there’s no point in considering the ‘next’ steps.
“Ugh!”
“Whoa! Kain, are you okay?”
“Brother!”
We are currently near the seal facility in the Australian desert.
This is the place closest to the Moon in the world—not physically, of course.
The Moon has not yet awakened.
However, the area was already filled with the curses and wrath spewed by the Moon.
“I think it’s really dangerous to keep hearing the Moon’s curses.”
“You’re right! Kain, I think it would be better to just stay close to Eunsol.”
“It’s okay.”
As long as I’m under the protection of the Flute, I can’t hear the Moon’s voice.
So I endured a bit of pain to try and understand what the Moon was thinking.
If I could grasp what it was contemplating, it might help our strategy just a bit.
For example, just like now.
“What is this golden doll?”
“Not a doll, but a life.”
“There’s no biological response.”
“It might be using powerful magic…”
“No magic under the sky can create this phenomenon.”
“It’s the hotel! It’s the hotel!”
Voices from several entities echoed at once.
As I continued to listen, their tones even felt different.
They were all thrown into confusion.
What could the Moon, who lost its memories before time rewound, think the internal maze was?
An utterly unfathomable, super-magical phenomenon?
Around 10 AM, Ari appeared with a tense expression.
“It’s about to start.”
“Soon?”
“Now!”
Right after, the entire world—from the sky to the ground—began to tremble violently.
The plunderers in the sky and the Bureau on the ground exerted their maximum strength to suppress the Moon!
The continuously echoing, cursed voice of the Moon gradually diminished until it transformed into an unintelligible sound.
The last voice was as follows:
“I’m preparing hell for you.”
*
If I were to liken what’s happening now to a siege, the roles of the plunderers and the Bureau would be to breach the outer wall of a castle.
Breaking through the outer wall is the first step of the plan, and depending on perspective, it’s the most crucial.
In any case, we must breach that wall even a little, so that the inner infiltration team—us—can spring into action!
4 PM.
The mood of the previous Wisdom appeared unusually gloomy.
Strangely enough, seeing this ‘existence’ many times now, I could faintly sense some emotions or thoughts.
“There are already negative opinions coming from the alliance.”
“Has it only been a few hours for them to be in such an uproar?”
“The calculations indicate it will take approximately 23 years and 182 days to breach the outer wall at this rate.”
“….”
“Time is on the Moon’s side. 23 years is more than enough time for all plans to unravel. Did you not figure out an easy way to enter the Moon before time rewound?”
There’s no record in the notes left by me from the time before the hourglass was turned.
At the time, I must have invited the Moon directly to open the door and usher us into the maze.
Now, forced to enter without an invitation is proving quite difficult.
“Aren’t there supposed to be colleagues inside?”
“They haven’t awakened yet.”
“Hm… When will they wake up?”
“Probably tomorrow morning.”
“By tomorrow, I’ll be running out of excuses.”
Now I realized.
The previous Wisdom seems to have an ace up its sleeve.
A very burdensome sacrifice-demanding measure.
The Owl is now urging the previous Wisdom to use that.
“Instead, you should tell me what measures you have left that are useful for the siege.”
“… I have the Last Glimmer.”
*
Late at night, I met with Seung-hyun.
He was frantically learning how to operate a highly complex machinery—the Atlas System.
After I relayed information about the Last Glimmer to the plunderers through the previous Wisdom, they sent something back.
“How is it?”
“Well, I’m not quite sure yet.”
His tone was indifferent, but his eyes were filled with curiosity and he even looked somewhat pleased.
“I heard from the previous Wisdom that if you get help from the Atlas System, the Last Glimmer could become significantly stronger.”
“Enhancing power through concentration, increasing distance, increasing accuracy—all of that seems theoretically possible.”
“In theory? What about in practice?”
“We’ll see, but I don’t have the chance to practice, so I can’t guarantee anything.”
“…”
“That’s unfortunate. If all the forces had cooperated from the beginning, we could have practiced these auxiliary systems beforehand.”
“From the start, everyone cooperating? That’s probably impossible until the end of the world.”
“That’s a painfully undeniable truth.”
Seung-hyun seemed engrossed in his research, inputting numbers into the dashboard.
“Kain.”
“Yeah?”
“That guy Cha Jinchul seems to be in a peculiar dilemma.”
It seems he also shared his concerns about growth with Seung-hyun.
“What did you tell him?”
“Well, as I listened, I thought of something.”
“What sort of thought?”
“Jinchul seems to be thinking of growth as some sort of martial arts breakthrough.”
“…”
“He seems to think enlightenment only comes from being struck by lightning in a snowstorm and having the ‘aha!’ moment. When in reality, what I’m doing now is also growth.”
“What you’re doing?”
“Researching the Atlas System to support the Last Glimmer.”
Even if there’s no way to improve the performance of the Last Glimmer itself, that doesn’t mean there aren’t external support ways.
With the powerful assistance of the Atlas System, the true strength of the legacy would greatly enhance.
“Even what I’m doing right now is growth. It’s not just about falling from cliffs and eating soggy, rotten books and unsanitary mushrooms.”
I can imagine my grandfather fainting from hearing those words now.
However, I understood what Seung-hyun was trying to say.
To him, ‘growth’ seems to be a very broad concept.
“Did you relay that to Jinchul?”
“Back then, I didn’t know about the Atlas System, so I didn’t give that example… But anyway, I did tell him to interpret the concept of growth broadly.”
“…”
I grasped Seung-hyun’s intention without issue.
But I was just curious about how Jinchul would take all this.
“There’s just one thing that’s regrettable.”
“What part is that?”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to participate directly in the last battle against the Moon.”
“It can’t be helped. The Atlas System is a very delicate piece of equipment, so it needs to be in a special location.”
“I’ll leave it all to you.”
*
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 233
Current Location: Searching…
Advisor’s Advice: 3
—
Day 233, the day the Moon’s internal maze awakens.
If I had designed something in the past, the results should start coming out now.
In the morning, three plunderer entities floated in the sky over the desert, emitting bizarre lights.
We were observing the ground from a position closer to space than the sky itself.
“The position has changed to searching.”
Ari nodded with a serious expression.
“They’re eroding the sealed area.”
I don’t know exactly what the previous Wisdom will do, but I assume it involves forcefully breaching the Moon’s outer wall.
It’s undoubtedly an attack of unimaginable power.
To unleash such power in reality without restraint?
I’m not exaggerating when I say the entire Australian continent could turn to ruins.
The previous Wisdom likely wouldn’t care if ten million or one hundred million civilians die.
But if the underground sealing facility in Australia is destroyed due to the aftermath of the attack, it will be the end.
Therefore, preparatory work needs to be done to make the otherworld manage the aftershock and not reality.
As the erosion progressed, the sky turned violet and an unnatural silver storm appeared in the desert—something that shouldn’t exist on Earth.
At the center of the storm, what could be called a massive wormhole appeared, revealing the Moon beyond it.
In that moment, the very boundaries between reality and nightmare blurred!
The previous Wisdom appeared in the sky.
He was emitting an enormous light like a blue star, distorting the atmosphere merely by the force of his presence.
“Was he always this powerful?”
“Couldn’t be!”
There’s no way!
Though the previous Wisdom is indeed a formidable force, even he couldn’t have been this strong!
“Supernova!”
In the final moment, a star spews energy comparable to the entire galaxy for just 2 seconds before reverting to cosmic gas, and that’s what’s called a supernova.
Like a star facing its last moments, the combined force contained in the ark transferred into a single attack.
I understood what the Owl meant by the previous Wisdom’s “heavy sacrifice”!
One single, decisive blow.
The lights aboard the airship went out completely.
The light vanished, and there was no sound.
All that flickered in black and white on the dashboard merely signified that an attack of truly ‘astronomical’ power occurred.
— CLANK!
Soon after, I heard intense metallic noises and engine sounds from everywhere.
The airships prepared for the ‘inner infiltration team’ immediately set off to seize the opportunity created by the gap opened by the preceding Wisdom’s self-sacrifice.
*
After a brief moment, we stood atop the “ultra-thin” surface of the Moon.
In that instant, I couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief, thinking if it scientifically made sense to be standing on the Moon while being on Earth.
Of course, if we go into scientific rationale, the very idea of the Moon being inside the Earth makes no sense from the start!
“Brother, what do we do now?”
From the incredibly complicated siege process that occurred from yesterday to today, Seungyub seems to have thrown in the towel a long time ago.
He appears to just be considering what to do inside the Moon.
“Just wait for 10 seconds. We arrived before the Last Glimmer.”
“10 seconds?”
“Make that 3 seconds.”
“Huh? So right now—”
— THUNDER!
Piercing through the hazy fog, an intense flash struck the surface of the Moon.
The astronomical power unleashed by the previous Wisdom as a sacrifice shot down, followed by the Last Glimmer shot within a minute!
— CRACKLE!
Finally, at last!
A sinister aura began to ooze from a gap formed!
“Run!”
Members of the hotel party, as well as everyone in the area, including Ryan and The Silent One, dashed toward the gap in a frenzy.
*
Inside the gap felt like perpetually squirming flesh, almost as if it were a living organism.
“It’s blocked!”
“This way!”
With no idea when the gap would close, there was no time to hide any abilities.
The cunning Ryan, with his face blazing red, detonated his legacy, ‘Noble Guardian,’ point-blank to clear a path.
A nameless woman with black hair, reminiscent of Chinese aesthetics, suddenly pulled out a dagger that glittered with jewels, summoning blue flames as it sliced through the air.
Meanwhile, something ambiguous—whether robot or human—was blaring explosives from its right arm, creating quite the spectacle!
“Wow…! Looks like all the superhumans who can show off their skills have gathered here!”
“It’s no time to be impressed! The gap keeps closing!”
Just as Ari said, with a frantic expression, the writhing flesh was continuously filling in the gaps.
If we were to liken the Moon to a gigantic creature, this must be the healing process for a wound.
By this analogy, what are we?
It feels as if we’re insects trying to wound the skin of a colossal organism and then break through into its innards!
“Young Wisdom! Could it be that we’ve already arrived? Is this the interior of the Moon?”
A nameless strong individual sent by the plunderers asked me with a worried expression.
“Not yet. If we’re relating this to a living organism, it’s still in the dermal layer—”
“GAAH!”
“Hey, looks like there’s some white blood cells too.”
“Is that supposed to be funny?!”
I didn’t mean to make a joke.
My bewilderment resulted in an awkward laugh.
How much effort was required to create this tiny transit?
This was the culmination of the plunderers and the Bureau’s chaotic effort, combined with the previous Wisdom’s self-destructing tactics and the Last Glimmer!
Despite all this chaos, we’re still only at the ‘skin’ level!
We need to delve deeper into the innards!
“Young Wisdom! If you have any tricks up your sleeve, pull them out now!”
“I’m waiting!”
“Waiting for what?!”
“‘Something’!”
“What’s this ‘something’ supposed to be?!”
“I don’t know either!”
Even to me, that response sounded insane, and everyone around wore a stricken expression.
They looked as if saying, ‘I came here trusting you, and this is the irresponsible answer you give me?!’
I, too, had no clue from here.
If these people came along trusting me, I ended up relying on my ‘past self’!
The ‘something’ that my past self must have thought of while leaving the maze beneath the Moon before turning the hourglass!
“Come on, past Kain, did you think of something and leave behind a maze?”
We’ve all given our best, yet this feels like the extent of our limits!
I trust you!
“Let’s pray!”
“You madman!”
“Anyone with any abilities? A wish-granting one—”
In that moment.
[Colleague Location Information*]
The status window signaled that the maze was nearby.
“Are you trying to drag everyone into despair—”
“Get out of the way! Everyone! Here, drill through this position below!”
I immediately summoned my Holy Sun and shot a ray.
Ryan didn’t question or hesitate, immediately tossing his last remaining sphere into the gap, detonating it, while Ari summoned an irregular polyhedron.
What was finally revealed was a transparent membrane.
“Something’s coming out!”
“That, if we tear that, doesn’t it lead us to the inner Moon?”
“Step aside!”
The elderly man, who had been scolding me just a moment ago, suddenly pulled out a huge spear from his back, glowing with strange light, and jabbed it into the membrane.
“Gah!”
“It didn’t pierce?!”
“Hasbah’s ‘Spear of Annihilation’ should pierce concrete buildings in one go!”
“Don’t you have something stronger?”
— Squirm!
Surrounding spaces were gradually constricting like they were mocking everyone.
The Moon’s wound is healing!
“Young Wisdom!”
“Stop calling me that, you jerk!”
For heaven’s sake, just bring out something!
As everyone was on the verge of suffocation…
On the other side of the transparent membrane appeared ‘the Maze.’
In this hellish place, the sight of a beautiful girl sent everyone’s eyes bulging, and even the Maze displayed a surprised expression as it gazed at us beyond the membrane.
It seemed she pulled out a tool from her embrace, as if she had been directed to do so by someone.
— Click!
Ari, who had been right next to me, vanished.
Soon, the camera shook and spat out a picture of ‘Ari captured!’
“Ha…!”
This was it!
This was the final method to enter the Moon’s interior!
Just like I thought, in this dire moment, I was moved by my past self who had the foresight to prepare this method!
Thanks to that, we’ve set the stage for a big feast!
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