Chapter: 635 – The Oldest Wish (16)
—
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 234
Current Location: Searching…
Sage’s Advice: 0
—
“Looks like you’re my last trial!”
The resolute Aleph stood firm, revealing an unwavering will.
As I felt the sharp gaze of my opponent, I pondered the rift that turned ‘me’ into ‘us.’
The biggest rift must have been Ari, lying dying on the ruined sanctuary floor.
To put it simply, my perspective on my comrades divided me from Aleph.
The more we understood the hotel’s and the world’s secrets, the more we suffered from an endless void.
What on earth is existence, and what’s the difference between a person and a non-person?
Think about those we casually call NPCs, whom we don’t hesitate to harm if needed.
Their bodies, minds, and even souls aren’t all that different from humans!
Why aren’t they considered human?
Because their time matters are fleeting?
So, what about people with incurable diseases? Are they not human either?
I get it.
These concerns are all secondary; the real reason is something else entirely.
I must think of them as NPCs, so I can solve this cursed room when necessary.
It’s just what I had to believe.
…
Both our bodies, hearts, and souls are gradually drifting farther from humanity.
If there’s a final remnant of conscience or humanity left in us, wouldn’t it be our comrades?
Remember when Songi said we were the only true family in the world?
Perhaps I secretly think the same way.
We weren’t alone in this.
The one who begged to save Ryan, the one who sought a past unknown in her weak moments, was the former Wisdom.
When this thought crossed my mind, Aleph smirked.
“You’re still caught in your futile thoughts.”
“…”
“You are the last trial left for me. A testament to my weakness and the proof of my lowly origins.”
I murmured, feeling an emotion akin to sorrow.
“The one who couldn’t overcome weakness isn’t me; it’s you. You’re the legendary sinner who destroyed the world out of fear!”
An ineffable fear.
It set everything in motion.
When I peeked at the memories from my early days as a researcher, I didn’t know what this fear was.
But now I do.
“If you can overcome it, fear ceases to be fear. You’re pointing out a problem I’m already overcoming.”
I know Aleph better than anyone, and Aleph knows me just as well.
That’s why Aleph didn’t deny the presence of fear but instead rebutted that he was already overcoming it.
“Let’s see the end!”
— Swooosh…!
—
The collision of power has officially begun!
The appearance of the Status Window for both Aleph and me implies something.
To the hotel, neither of us is a fake.
Both the Holy Sun and the Manifestation of the Avatar, the two legacies, made the same judgment.
Hovering amid the clash, we each asserted our presence but leaned toward neither side.
This phenomenon had appeared once in Room 207.
It suggested we would split the legacy’s power equally, so let’s see who wins.
The winner gets it all!
It felt just like the hotel we always knew, causing me to chuckle unconsciously.
One thing wasn’t fair: the crown.
The crown was never a legacy, so there’s no reason for the hotel to judge it, and the hotel didn’t restrict the crown either.
Whether the crown possessed intelligence is anyone’s guess, but if it does, it might say this:
“I’m here because Aleph created this fate.”
“You’re merely an illusion born of the second line in the grimoire and nothing more than Aleph’s subconscious.”
— Boom!
As soon as the collision began, chaos ensued!
It was akin to what I had experienced battling another myself in Room 207.
Though the tools and principles we employed were similar, the difference in details was too vast!
Before, I had been outperformed by brainpower, while now, it was about the crown.
To put it childishly, our levels and skills might be similar, but the opponent had an infinite amount of magical power.
That was because Aleph persistently consumed the everlasting souls swallowed by the Moon.
What had it been like back then?
Aha, the opponent had realized he was a fake and had ended himself!
This time, such an ending was impossible.
Aleph wasn’t a fake, and he understood that fact.
Even though this battle was overwhelmingly unfavorable for me, it didn’t mean victory would be decided swiftly.
The essence of what’s happening isn’t about ‘who’s stronger’.
Aleph and I were never really different beings.
We were like two trees sprouting from the same root, split for some reason.
To summarize the current situation roughly, it was an elaborate process of convincing another me!
So Aleph shouted at me with a sense of urgency in some way.
“Look at this!”
The sanctuary plunged into chaos again due to our collision.
Seungyub, who had long since fainted, and Miro had gotten swept up in the impact, bumping into each other; Seungyub’s arm was already broken.
Naturally, Ari, who had been dying on the ground, could pass away at any moment.
The only reason she was still alive was the tenacity of ‘old blood’, but even the powers of legacy have limits.
“…”
Was he trying to intimidate me by pointing out a colleague in danger?
No, it’s not like that.
In Aleph’s view, I was merely his inner weakness.
What sense does threatening yourself even make?
“What do you see?”
Aleph asked, and my answer was,
“I think my comrades are about to die.”
“And?”
“I see the sorrow boiling in your heart.”
Aleph whispered without hiding his sorrow.
“I understand you cherish your comrades. I see you couldn’t overcome that pain, which split you from me.”
“…”
“But this is a journey that ‘we’ must overcome, nothing but weakness. We can’t have weaknesses!”
My voice, as if persuading Aleph—or perhaps Aleph convincing himself.
He loved his comrades as much as I did, yet he firmly believed that any potential weakness must be purged to progress on a noble path.
“You know it! You understand better than anyone. The ties between mortals are utterly void. Think of the memories you believed were ‘our’ family!”
There it was, at the end of the ‘memory trip’ I’d had alongside Songi and Miro.
I had returned from before coming to the hotel as a reincarnator.
There were tons of parents and siblings, and they were all undoubtedly different people.
Those I considered ‘true family’ were merely mixed memories of thousands of different families.
Just as Hyung Sanghyun’s connections existed, just like Mama’s, I too had mixed those recurring memories into one life.
That’s why Aleph shares this truth.
“You are but a facet of my life; a minute piece of the path I’ve traveled, a fleeting dream.”
The ties of the earthly world resemble a frivolous dream, and ‘Han Kain’ is merely a part of that dream.
“It’s time to wake from that dream.”
— Crack!
One step, then another.
Aleph approached with a smile that said he’d overcome even the final trial that fate had led him to.
I felt the undeniable desire in him to evolve from a pathetic fate into greatness.
Sensing this yearning, I said with a tinge of regret,
“While you point at the moon, you’re only looking at your finger.”
For the first time, Aleph tilted his head in genuine curiosity.
“Was it just a hallucination, or could you have actually said that?”
Before Ari could wake me with her blood, a small rift emerged between me and Aleph.
Aleph’s slight yet irreversible mistake—or limit.
The next words rolled off my tongue naturally.
“You’ve sought enlightenment and longed to become great, yet…”
“What—”
“You don’t even know the meaning of that path.”
I gazed into his flustered eyes as I pondered the hotel’s purpose—and Buddha’s.
“Aleph, do you know the hotel’s purpose?”
“…”
“You didn’t know before, and you probably didn’t care. But now, you have a vague idea, don’t you?”
The mysterious experiences I had in Jeju Island.
Someone—possibly a former Ascendant—told me this.
There are those who seek to create Heaven.
To do so, he created a million hells.
That was a memory too wonderful to forget.
Of course, Aleph knows this too.
“… To create Heaven.”
“The one who sheds tears for the Three Thousand Worlds aims for the salvation of all beings. No one knows what that means or how to achieve it.”
“Why suddenly bring this up—”
He seemed unwilling to engage in this conversation.
But Aleph’s voice already trembled.
Because he wasn’t a fool; he anticipated what I was about to say.
Thus, this conversation didn’t end.
“Aleph, what were you thinking earlier?”
Just like that, our minds brushed past one another in an instant.
—
As the first line, I could now seize the bodies of everyone.
As the second line, I had overcome even the singularity of the mind.
So what’s the third line?
Having exceeded the limits of body and mind, the last would be to feast upon the soul!
—
“Stealing bodies, transcending minds, and consuming souls? You’re just robbing everyone!”
“…”
“The path sought by the one saving the Three Thousand Worlds can’t be mere thievery!”
How could someone aiming to create heaven ever resort to thievery?
Aleph refuted.
“That’s nonsense! There’s all-consuming power in the hotel! Just look at Eunsol’s ‘Hands of Greed’; it’s inherently damaging to others—”
“That’s just a hell in the intermediate process. The Buddha is here, meaning this hell is merely a step toward Heaven, part of the great cycle of reincarnation.”
Consider the million hells born for the ultimate Heaven.
If this is the Buddha’s law, the hotel’s principle, then any so-called ‘lowly power’ could indeed be malevolent.
It’s just a procedure to reach Heaven.
But.
“If the principles you and I have attained are truly nearing the ultimate…”
“…”
“There must be at least a trace of Heaven.”
If it’s a mighty force, a power that leads toward the destination the Buddha seeks…
Then there ought to be hints of Heaven!
“At the very least, it can’t be theft.”
One step back, Aleph retreated.
“… No one knows the Buddha’s will! If the prisoner doesn’t know, how could you possibly claim to?”
A typical agnosticism.
But I’d say it has its merit.
“True. Everything you say about the Buddha is merely my conjecture and delusion. Then let’s change the subject’s perspective from the Buddha to the ‘Master’.”
“What?”
“The Master of Room 104! The great being who has attained the third stage of soul synthesis. The one who encapsulated the essence of the path you so desperately yearn for. You don’t dare dispute that, do you?”
“…”
“What kind of being was the Master? Do you think he bears similarities to us?”
The Master of Room 104.
A being at the third stage of soul synthesis, an unfathomable prisoner who consumed souls nearing the infinite.
The very concept of self was different from that of a human.
If one were to shed part of themselves, they would regard that too as being part of them.
If something similar to oneself comes to existence, that too would be acknowledged as oneself.
An unfathomable thought process, an unfathomable principle.
That was possible only because—
—Swoooosh!
The landscape of the sanctuary began to shift.
Was it because I was stronger than Aleph? No.
Aleph was also being persuaded by my words.
Whether he wanted it or not, our hearts slowly converging into a singular point—at that moment, we truly touched a distant realm.
—
A colossal whirlpool.
The singularity pulling the world itself!
Gazing at the boundless landscape, I whispered to Aleph.
It was my long-ago revelation—one he knew deep down but attempted to flee from, the story of ‘weakness.’
“Why did the Demon King of Room 206 behave like a god?”
“…”
“Why do gods behave like gods?”
Humans don’t protect ants, so why did the Demon King cherish his vassals?
It wasn’t calculations.
It wasn’t a trade.
Just as ants can’t help humans, mere human vassals have no significance to the Demon King.
“Because they can’t differentiate. There’s no meaning in distinction.”
“…”
“Why separate ‘me’ and ‘not me’? There’s a boundary between them.”
The boundary that distinguishes ‘I’ from ‘not I’.
“When you cross that boundary, there’s no longer any other.”
Truly great beings perceive no others.
All things are either themselves or something becoming part of them.
There’s merely a difference in proximity to singularity.
— Rumble!
From the singularity pulling everything, a distant sound of transcendence echoed.
Some would regard this as ‘God’ or ‘Great Being’, worshipping it blindly.
There is no ‘you’, no ‘me’.
No distinction of body, mind, or soul; all are devoid of value.
Desires, thoughts, and even will are mere temporary illusions.
“Do you get it now?”
“…”
“To first seize the body? To then consume the mind, and lastly to devour the soul?”
“…”
“It isn’t that. The true intention is—”
For the first time, I returned an answer to Aleph.
“To eliminate the boundary.”
“…”
“There’s no boundary between your and my body. There’s no boundary inside or outside the heart. Therefore…”
“Know that there’s only you beneath the heavens.”
“Know that there’s only you beneath the heavens.”
In this world, there exists only one singularity.
When I caught a glimmer of this truth in Room 206, I thought:
A true god is that which manifests.
It’s movement. It’s gravity. It’s the cosmos’ providence.
If greatness means this, then what I’m seeking is certainly not that!
“I know what you’re experiencing, and you already knew.”
“…”
“It’s not that you didn’t know. You just didn’t want to know. For eons, you longed to become great, yet the essence you faintly grasped in the hotel differed greatly from your imagination.”
“…”
“So you turned your back. That is your weakness.”
Just as Aleph once said, I mirrored those words back at him.
“Surpass your weakness. And embrace it. I am neither a part of your life nor a fleeting dream.”
“… Then what is it?”
“Your goal. Your ideal. The existence you wished to become. So I am your singularity.”
Soon, I smiled brightly and whispered to the ‘past’s obsession’.
“Aleph.”
“…”
“Do you still want to be… ‘that’?”
I heard the sound of someone’s heart breaking.
The sound of the oldest dream extinguishing.
“Haha! Finally, our thoughts align.”
The last words became merely a murmuring thought.
— Tap!
From somewhere, a small, nameless notebook dropped.
The final trace, the last fear of someone now vanished.
“…”
Long ago, there was a senior researcher filled with deep loyalty to humanity.
He gained incomprehensible knowledge through a mysterious process.
This clarifies why the first civilization had to build the Ark!
The fear that weak human hearts can hardly bear.
The despair that makes all the glory built by humanity seem worthless.
This fear was the beginning of everything.
…
When I glimpsed at those memories from my early days as a researcher, I couldn’t initially grasp what that fear was.
But now I don’t even need to open this notebook to know.
“Ari, Ariya! Are you okay?”
“Ugh…!”
“Let’s get out of here!”
“Hah…! What about the notebook on the ground—Wait! Why are you burning it?”
“…”
“Kain?”
“Let’s go. The maiden might assist with emergency treatment.”
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