Chapter 82
It was clearly a space about the size of a narrow lobby.
The hotel corridor where Jeong Myeong-hak and Cha Do-hee were trapped was just wide enough for a one-on-one duel.
That was why Jeong Myeong-hak and Cha Do-hee—
The two of them could focus solely on taking each other's lives.
But not anymore.
Pop-! Pop-! Pop-!
Was it the System's trickery, or merely a whim?
As the space multiplied several times over in an instant,
“...Ghk!!”
Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp.
“...I think I understand.”
“What System-nim wants.”
With the spaces connected, new people appeared from every direction.
They were all guild masters of major guilds.
“I've been wanting to see your skills for myself.”
“This is the regulation of a rational duel.”
“We are regulating a fair fight.”
“Justice. This too is justice.”
“Dogpiling a villain... The System understands romance.”
The guild masters surrounded every one of Jeong Myeong-hak's blind spots.
Clomp.
Little by little, one by one.
Clomp.
They approached Jeong Myeong-hak.
“...What is the meaning of this! System!!! What are you doing!”
Even Jeong Myeong-hak, who had shown little emotional disturbance until now, could not conceal his panic.
“It's been a long time, Director.”
When Eunwol, who had been standing among them with an impassive expression, stepped forward and spoke to Jeong Myeong-hak,
“You've aged considerably since the last time I saw you.”
“T-Team Leader Baek...? How did you get here...?”
“You'll find that out soon enough.”
There wasn't even a gap through which he could escape.
Jeong Myeong-hak quickly began racking his brain.
There was no such thing as an exit in this hallway.
He could not leave without the System's permission, and he could not possibly take them all on at once from inside either.
This situation, where he could not even designate an area for an area-of-effect skill, was overwhelmingly unfavorable to him.
“Speedrun! Let's finish our duel first! Make them back off!”
“...What?”
“At least this duel began because of the grudge between you and me, didn't it!!! After settling things with you, I'll deal with the rest of them one by one!!!”
He chose to provoke Do-hee's desire for revenge.
But the answer he received was far beyond his expectations.
“I don't feel like doing thatttt.”
Cha Do-hee casually answered with her hands on her hips.
“What...? What do you mean...”
“Hey, old man, I think you've got something seriously mistaken hereee.”
Do-hee's playful voice immediately sank.
“I don't want to have a fair fight with you.”
“...?”
“I want to watch you die as miserably and painfully as possible. I don't care how it happens.”
“What!!! What are you talking about!!!”
“This is even more fun, isn't it? We can all watch you fall.”
“Y-You cowardly and despicable bastards...!!!”
Jeong Myeong-hak, standing alone in the center, flushed and shouted at them.
“What...? Cowardly and despicable?”
Do-hee shouted back at him just as fiercely.
“Then what about the children you sacrificed?”
“...That...!”
“How can you say something like that after thinking about all the lives you've sacrificed until now!!!!”
Her anguished cry reverberated through the space.
Just as Jeong Myeong-hak's eyes darted around in search of something to say,
“So, old man. Feel it properly...”
“...Ghk...”
“Feel what it's like to be helplessly attacked without being able to do anything. Feel it clearly, just as I did back then.”
When Cha Do-hee finished speaking, a tear she had desperately held back until now formed at the corner of her cheek and fell.
The moment that tear touched the cold floor.
Nod.
Everyone, having received silent permission, began charging at him.
*
*
*
Thus began the fight.
But the battle was entirely one-sided.
Attacks poured in from Jeong Myeong-hak's blind spots.
“S-Slowdown...!!”
He desperately spammed single-target skills, but his limitations were clear.
“Block.”
Whenever Jeong Myeong-hak tried to deploy a skill, Eunwol's power from the rear bound him down.
Swish-! Thwack-!
Every time Jeong Myeong-hak's flow was interrupted, the guild masters' attacks flew in nonstop from every direction.
“Damn it...! Damn it...!! You cowardly bastards!!!!! Come at me one at a time!! One at a time!!!!”
As Jeong Myeong-hak, becoming more battered by the second, let out a desperate scream,
“Yes. That voice. That's exactly the voice I wanted.”
Cha Do-hee darted in from a blind spot at a speed he could not react to.
Stab-!!!
Her dagger mercilessly pierced Jeong Myeong-hak's right chest.
*****
At the same time, the System's structures began to fade faintly.
Pop-!
When the structure isolating the space disappeared, an old man was kneeling in the middle of it with blood streaming from him.
“Cough...”
Jeong Myeong-hak.
Everyone who had been waiting outside with bated breath watched the scene.
“...Director Jeong Myeong-hak...”
“...!!”
The high-ranking Hunters being held prisoner outside the structure lowered their heads.
“H-Head Mod!! Speedrun!!!”
“G-Guild masters!!!”
By contrast, the Stalker allied forces and the guild officers greeted them with bright expressions.
The Hunters were the quickest to assess the situation.
“P-Please spare us!!!!”
“We surrender! We surrender!!!!”
The Hunters, already incapacitated, began desperately begging the guild masters.
At their pleas, the guild masters' gazes focused on one person as though they had agreed beforehand.
“...”
“...Head Mod.”
The one person who implicitly held the authority to decide on behalf of the Capital Area.
The administrator of the Capital Area Gallery, Baek Eunwol.
“...Wait.”
She, too, looked down at the people kneeling and begging at her feet.
“Team Leader Baek...! You know me, right? It's me!! Kim Ji-han!!! We went on missions together before...!! We even ate together!!”
“Senior! Senior Baek!! We only did it because we wanted to survive!!! We're sorry!! We're so sorry!!”
"Eunwol! It's me!! Lee Min-jae!! We've been together since the apocalypse began!!!"
“I only did what that bastard told me! I should have realized he was senile!!!!”
They were all high-ranking Hunters who had once been close to her.
“Senior Eunwol!! I'll truly repent and join forces with you!!!”
“We were scared too! We were scared!!!”
“You know, Senior!! You know what our situation was like at the beginning of the apocalypse!!!”
“No one understood us!!! Weren't we no different from the soldiers who were ground down at the very start!!!!”
“...Yes, you must have been afraid too.”
But their piteous pleas were dismissed by a single resolute sentence from Eunwol.
“But these people are afraid too. Everyone lives in fear every day. But not everyone made the same choices you did.”
“What...?”
“We all had a chance to make the right choice. You simply made the wrong one.
“B-But that's...!”
Eunwol shook off the Hunters clinging to her and approached Jeong Myeong-hak.
“...”
Jeong Myeong-hak had taken in every part of this scene.
The dead Ha Do-jin, and all the Hunters who had immediately abandoned him and sided with the other side when the situation turned unfavorable.
“...Baek Eunwol... Isn't this enough? Are you really going to kill me?”
He spoke to Baek Eunwol while struggling to catch his breath.
“I can do it...! I mean, I can turn this ruined world back into the past!!!”
“...You've changed considerably.”
“But if you kill me, everything ends...! This entire city will crumble away!!! The chance to restore its infrastructure to the past will be gone too!!! Are you really going to give all of this up!!”
At his words, Baek Eunwol fell into thought for a moment.
“...I suppose that's true.”
“Yes! I've understood your intentions now!! Stop this and join forces with us!! I'll turn the entire world back to the past and give all of you the world from before the apocalypse.”
At that, Eunwol turned her gaze toward the scene unfolding on the top floor of the penthouse.
Two different worlds entered her eyes.
One was the small city inside the Green Zone, which, although a mess from the battle, still retained the splendor of its past.
“...”
The other was a place that had become so ruined it could not even be compared to this one.
It was a safe zone located within the Yellow Zone and Orange Zone.
A place where it was difficult to find even an intact building, let alone infrastructure.
People who risked their lives entering and leaving dangerous zones every day just to survive one more day.
In that place, where hope seemed not to exist at all, Eunwol was looking at something else.
The safe zones somehow carved out by the survivors, and the tents and tarps clustered together there.
People somehow struggling to live while dreaming of a today better than yesterday and a tomorrow better than today.
And even the System's structures embedded here and there among the ruins.
“Director, the apocalypse has already happened. And the answer isn't in the past.”
“...What?”
“We can't go back to the past. But... we can move forward.”
After taking in all of that, Eunwol continued in a firm voice.
“We have to accept what has already happened and move toward tomorrow, no matter how painful and hopeless that process may be.”
“That's... That's impossible.”
Jeong Myeong-hak shook his head at Eunwol's words.
“Baek Eunwol!!! Don't pretend to be noble!!! You can't always make the right choice!!!”
“...”
“What you're saying is nothing but childish idealism!! Look at reality!! Look at this city I've maintained!!!! Are you going to give this up!!”
To the enraged Jeong Myeong-hak, Eunwol answered in a flat voice.
“...At first, you used your ability by burning away your own lifespan, Director.”
“...”
“The way you devoted yourself to reconstruction while growing older day by day was more than enough to serve as an example to everyone. I was no different.”
A momentary silence enveloped the space.
“I don't think I could live with a clear conscience in a world where other people were sacrificed and time was forcibly turned back.”
“...That... The sacrifice of the few for the sake of the many—”
“It may be convenient, but it is clearly the wrong path.”
At those words, Myeong-hak lowered his head and muttered.
“...What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me?”
Eunwol answered him with an indifferent expression.
“That isn't for me to decide.”
Then the Head Mod turned her gaze toward a woman watching the situation from a short distance away.
“I'll leave the decision to you, Speedrun.”
She was Cha Do-hee.
The two exchanged gazes for a brief moment.
Cha Do-hee, who had hated Hunters with all her being.
And Eunwol, who, despite being a former Hunter, had protected the people outside until the very end.
It was the moment when the hearts of two people who had shared a group chat yet failed to understand each other and remained on parallel lines touched, if only slightly.
Cha Do-hee opened her mouth.
“...My revenge is already over.”
She, too, was looking straight through Jeong Myeong-hak before her.
The demon in Do-hee's memories had disappeared long ago.
What stood before her eyes now was merely an old man pathetically making excuses and begging for his life.
“I respect you. Administrator of the Capital Area.”
After saying that, Speedrun turned around without hesitation.
Eunwol watched the scene for a moment, then answered with a faint smile.
“...Thank you.”
Just as Eunwol's endlessly heavy shoulders were beginning to feel a little lighter,
“Heh heh heh... Deciding whether to kill or spare someone... How touching...”
Jeong Myeong-hak rose and turned his gaze out the window as well.
Everything spread out below entered his field of vision.
“This is... the paradise I built... by me... for me...”
But only one place caught his eye.
It was the small city in the Green Zone that retained the glory of the past.
“This is a world I built with my own hands!!!! If I can't have it, none of you will have it either, you bugs!!!”
Sensing Jeong Myeong-hak going berserk,
“...!!”
“Stop him!”
In the brief instant when everyone in the space tried to rush at him,
“Status window...!!”
Jeong Myeong-hak opened his status window.
All he could control was the time within a space.
That was why he had been able to restore the city's infrastructure to the past.
‘A half-formed power...’
Therefore, he had no right to interfere with absolute time itself.
But that did not mean he had no means of turning this situation around.
[Time Mage]
[Stolen Lifespan : 2,252 hours]
[Would you like to use all of it as a substitute?]
[Warning: This ability cannot be reversed]
“...Yes. I'll use it all.”
If necessary, even his own lifespan.
Just as I had done in the past.
The next message appeared along with Jeong Myeong-hak's answer.
[Set the area to which the effect will be applied]
“...”
The area he designated covered the entire penthouse and even the place beneath the building where the Stalkers had gathered.
“...The area is this building and everything around it.”
After finishing the area designation, Myeong-hak murmured.
“...Mass Aging Acceleration.”
****
Meanwhile, I was watching the situation unfold in real time.
The situation's been settled!!
ㄴ It's all over!!!
ㄴ Green Zone –done–
Looks like all that's left is for the people holding the prisoners and the people on the top floor of the penthouse to finish talking?
ㄴ Yeah, yeah, almost done ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Let's get reorganized now
“Oh, what a relief.”
Still, from the CCTV, it seemed like their grudges had been settled to some extent.
But when I looked back at the comment section.
“Huh?”
The atmosphere had somehow changed.
Something seems to be happening in the penthouse...???
ㄴ Something's wrong!!!!
No...! Something's wrong with those of us around it too...!
ㄴ M-My body feels like it's melting...!
Uh... Why do I suddenly have wrinkles...?
ㄴ I'm getting white hair...
ㄴ Fuck... ?
ㄴ I'm getting old!!
ㄴ I'm getting old!!!!
ㄴ Gyaaaaaaah!!!
My fingernails are falling off...!
ㄴ ???
ㄴ What the hell!!!
“Huh?”
Apparently, the S-bros were suddenly aging in real time.
“No, I'm turning into an old lady!!”
Just as I was looking at the Gallery again, not knowing the reason.
Title : [Upstanding Young Man] Tsk tsk... foolish friends...
You... vermin... like... bastards...
From the moment... you struggled... to survive... outside... and posted... on the Gallery...
I... have been... watching... every one... of you... from the very beginning...^^
This is... the paradise... I built...!!
I... pitied... you... and intended... to use you... as fertilizer... for my paradise...
Yet you went... and dirtied... my paradise... I say... to all the children... around me...
I will watch... closely... as your youth... disappears... and you rot... in real time...^^^
Now let us... all return... to a handful... of ash...^^
??!!
ㄴ ??!!!!!
ㄴ !!!!!
Huh?
ㄴ What the fuck!!!!
ㄴ No... fuck, the old Gallery geezer was Myeong-hak...?
ㄴ ??!!
ㄴ What the fuck... ?
This bastard had been watching everything from the very beginning!!!
ㄴ Crazy voyeuristic, scheming, manipulative old bastard, fuck;;
ㄴ For real, what a fucking asshole;;
ㄴ This feels so fucking disgusting ㅅㅂㅅㅂ
What's even more fucked up is that he had been watching from the start...
ㄴ For real, these bastards were doing absolutely nothing;;
ㄴ They really were just lurking and acting like none of it was their problem
ㄴ Exactly this
Myeong-hak-nim, why us!!!
ㄴ Please spare us!!!
ㄴ [Upstanding Young Man] Heh heh... you too... bear responsibility...^^
ㄴ No, what the fuuuuuck!!!!
I couldn't hold back a hollow laugh after seeing the post.
“Wow... this is insane...”
This Upstanding Young Man bastard was a user I'd seen ever since I first logged into the Gallery.
“It was you...?”
This bastard had been watching us from the beginning and making plans.
“Seriously, what a Grade-A pest...”
And there was one more thing that pissed me off.
“This bastard was a member of my shop!!! Fuuuuuck!!!”
No, I'd been inviting him to the shop from the very beginning, and it turned out to be this bastard.
“Haa...”
Anyway, there really is always some hidden mastermind like this.
But that was fine.
All we had to do was get out of the area that old man had designated!!
ㄴ If you stay nearby, you'll disappear in real time...!!
ㄴ You'll eventually turn into a skeleton...!!
Run away!!
ㄴ Get away from the penthouse area...!!!
Checking the comments, the space where that curse-like effect was taking hold was the penthouse and its surrounding area.
[Remaining copyable tiles : 108/200]
And I still had all the tiles I'd collected after the battle.
That was more than enough to cover the surrounding area.
“Do these bastards not learn...?”
No, you're not the only ones who can designate and manipulate areas.
****
Meanwhile, the people near Jeong Myeong-hak began screaming.
“M-My body...!”
“I'm getting old!!!”
“D-Damn it!!”
Eunwol hurriedly deployed her power, wrapping Do-hee and some of the surrounding allied forces in it.
“Block!!”
The time of those who entered her sphere of control barely came to a stop.
“S-Save me...!”
“D-Director...”
The Hunters who had not received Eunwol's protection and were fully exposed to the skill began taking on horrific forms.
Their taut skin shriveled in an instant, and within just a few seconds they became emaciated skeletons.
Fsssss-!
Soon, they turned into a handful of dust.
“Heh heh heh...”
Mass Aging Acceleration.
A curse and self-destruct ability that used every bit of lifespan stored within him to accelerate the time of living beings within the designated area.
The ultimate skill he could use against living beings—and his self-destruct skill.
If he accelerated the time of more living beings than his stored resources could support, he had to use his own lifespan as the price.
“Baek Eunwol, how long do you think you can hold out? Huh!!!!”
“...What are you doing?”
“As long as you're inside the area I designated, the effect will last forever!!! But you must be at your limit just from blocking it!!!!!”
His mad shout rang across the entire area.
“You arrogant bastards!! All of you, turn into a handful of dust!!!!”
Just as he was overcome with ecstasy,
Pop-!
A single blue grid-patterned tile appeared outside the window.
“S-System...?? Could it be...!”
But his shock lasted only a moment, and a smile soon bloomed across his face.
“Wahahahaha!!! Just one?!”
What could the System do?
Until now, the System had managed only one space at a time.
At most, it could summon a few corridors to neutralize Park Yu-jin's barrier.
“I designated this entire area as my domain, System!!! It's useless!!! I can even surpass you—”
As he shouted that, Jeong Myeong-hak's expression began to stiffen.
Pop-! Pop-! Pop-!
Grid patterns kept appearing everywhere.
Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!Pop-!
.....
The endlessly appearing grid-patterned tiles ended up covering most of the area he had designated.
“I-Impossible...!!”
Eventually, the System's structures covered the entire penthouse.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!!! Creak-creak-creak-!!!
They soon began wildly intertwining, fusing, and expanding into one another, covering the area Myeong-hak had designated.
But that was not the end.
“...What is this.”
The entire penthouse where Myeong-hak stood was soon transformed into the System's domain as well.
“...!!!”
“It's gone!!!”
“We're okay!!!!!”
“Head Mod...! System-nim helped us again!!!”
The people soon returned to normal, as though his curse had been canceled.
“No!!!! What are you doing!! This is my designated area!!!”
Jeong Myeong-hak shouted and hurriedly brought up his status window.
[Set the area to which the effect will be applied]
“I designate the entire area around here!!!!”
He tried once again to designate the penthouse and its surroundings as an area.
But all he received in return was a rather concise message.
[This area cannot be designated]
[Area designation forcibly canceled]
“What...?”
Along with the incomprehensible message, all the lifespan he had expended began flowing back into him.
Fsssh-!
The few strands of hair remaining on his head and his fingertips slowly began turning to ash and scattering.
“Fuck... damn it...”
As his life hung by a thread, he opened the Gallery.
[Jobless Troublemaker] Huh... Does that man never learn...?
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Ah!! Perhaps he's too old to gain any new insight...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Ah!! Perhaps he's too old to gain any new insight...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Ah!! Perhaps he's too old to gain any new insight...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Ah!! Perhaps he's too old to gain any new insight...
They say that people see a flash of memories when they face death.
But when Myeong-hak saw Jobless Troublemaker's derisive comment, he gained a new insight.
“...Wait.”
One person had seen through his entire plan from the beginning and interfered with it.
And another entity had stopped and obstructed everything he did in real time.
The images of the two overlapped in a strange way.
“C-Could it be... you... you!!!!”
[Jobless Troublemaker] Grandpa... you're doing it again... Go eat your meal...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Grandpa... you're doing it again... Go eat your meal...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Grandpa... you're doing it again... Go eat your meal...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Grandpa... you're doing it again... Go eat your meal...
ㄴ [Jobless Troublemaker] Grandpa... you're doing it again... Go eat your meal...
That was Jobless Troublemaker.
No...?
“S-System...! System!!!!!!!!! You fucking bastaaaaard!!!!!!”
But it was far too late for him to gain that insight.
That was his final death cry.
Fsssh-!
He began turning into ash and scattering.