Chapter 193

Mimicry dungeon. Soram shrugged his shoulders.

"Now that I know the conclusion, I can see what's strange. Most of the mutants that came out of the crack are species that don't inhabit our country except in zoos. Nothing really fits the environment. ...Is this perhaps because I've been thinking there's a zoo in Jamsil? Right. If a siege dungeon were to break out there, speeding cars or trucks should actually appear."

"That would be difficult to block in its own way."

"Haha, true."

Though he seemed to be calmly accepting the facts, Soram's expression was complicated... and had advanced one step further to clear guilt.

"Maybe the meaning of my cycling through lives was to take responsibility for this."

"I told you it's not. Your regression probably..."

Tae-un swallowed the words that were about to come out. Soram stared at him blankly before flipping over their overlapped hands and grasping them.

"You know something more, Han Tae-un."

"..."

"Tell me."

"It's a speculation without certainty."

"I trust the ability of Han Tae-un who wanted to become a prosecutor, so tell me. Who knows me better than you?"

Tae-un slowly opened his mouth.

"The collection of wishes for the world to be destroyed was going to break out in Korea by chance. In the form of a mimicry dungeon."

"But?"

"But... before the huge dungeon broke out, a 1st-grade ability user who went crazy with resentment happened to appear in Korea."

The monster in the cave from the previous 3rd Great Rift.

"Because that person caused a flood dungeon, the person who was supposed to take charge of the core of the subsequent calamity-like mimicry dungeon died. At the same time, the person who could block the mimicry dungeon in its early stages and save the world also died."

Some people in the world wish for the world they live in to remain peaceful for a long time.

Some other people wish for misfortune and destruction.

Surprisingly, these two opposing wishes were directed at one person.

"So 'someone' came to receive wishes to survive from an unspecified number of people."

As a savior to save the world.

And as a villain to destroy the world.

"...I understand."

Soram nodded.

The wishes that gathered around Soram in unusual numbers were both the prayers for saving the world and the wishes for the world to collapse.

For a boy who was born with the nature to save the world, but was placed in an environment where he had no choice but to resent the world.

Soram repeated regressions amidst this contradiction.

If there had been only one of the two missions, that wish might have scattered and broken long ago in the long time. It was because they were unfortunately entangled that it tormented him to this point.

Soram raised his gaze. His head tilted back sharply to stare at the sky. Though still in a child's appearance, his exhausted weariness and dejection were clearly visible.

"So that's how it was..."

He stared at the sky for a long time. Next to the bench where the two were sitting was a black pillar rising high like a streetlight. Behind the megaphone-shaped speaker placed on top of it, a bright blue sky spread out.

"When I was young, I must have been happy that the weather was nice on the day we were supposed to come here?"

"If it were you. I think so."

"I think I liked the animals I saw here at first too, finding them fascinating."

Soram closed his eyes.

"Haha... How many things that I liked have been taken away?"

"..."

Soram gripped Tae-un's hand even tighter. As if hiding something that couldn't be taken away. Soon he opened his eyes narrowly, only towards Tae-un's side.

"So, are you still using your ability?"

"Ah, yeah. I keep... feeling like I'm removing some kind of power."

"Hmm... Is it erasing the fear I felt by bringing you here and covering up the bad memories?"

As he said, now there was no sense of being scared at all. Not because he was an adult worn down to the core, but largely due to the influence of not being alone and constantly conversing.

'The memory of crying as a lost child changes to a memory of playing with a friend of the same age, huh...'

Hmm. It was a peaceful method befitting Han Tae-un. By Soram's standards it felt lukewarm, but since the person using the ability was Han Tae-un, he could understand and it was somewhat acceptable.

"..."

He looked at the animals howling over there. They were exaggerated appearances like a child who cried profusely at the zoo might draw in a picture diary. Then was this the reason for the appearance of the frighteningly transformed mutants too?

But... it's quite annoying.

Not when he was young and cried like a wimp, but now he felt like he could push them all away...

Shuruk.

"?"

Suddenly, a very random thing arrived in front of the bench where the two were sitting. It looked like a single-size bed.

"Huh? What's this?"

"I... don't know either."

It was truly an appearance without any plausibility. But Soram felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu from that bed. The bag hanging from the hook on the headboard, the navy blue bedding, the mattress deeply sunken on one side from curling up whenever he tried to endure hunger.

It was Soram's old bed. Containing the wish of the boy who, when trapped in his room, had hoped for this to float up and take him out the window.

"Ah, ha..."

Soram got down from the bench. With short legs, he had to slide down with his belly out like on a slide. Up close, it was indeed his bed from high school. Judging by Tae-un's reaction, this wasn't his doing.

Right, this is inside my consciousness.

What Tae-un's ability had done was transfer him into Soram's consciousness connected to the crack. This place was inside Soram's own mind. In other words, Tae-un was a guest in this small world, and the owner was Soram himself.

Then the story changes.

"Jin Soram, don't get too close since we don't know what it is..."

"Yap!"

"Hey!"

He jumped up onto the bed and nodded to Tae-un.

"What are you doing. Get on."

"...?"

With a dumbfounded-looking Tae-un on board, the bed floated up into the sky as if by magic. Tae-un kept looking around with a bewildered face, then relaxed a bit upon seeing the blue mist clinging to the bed legs.

The bed headed towards the middle of the blue sky. As it made a big circle around the area, no one noticed the two. Rather, the crowds that had filled the zoo had completely disappeared. Because extras were no longer needed here.

The bed flying freely through the sky approached a lion with horns all over its face and head.

Keureureureung!!!

"Jin Soram, what are you trying to do?!"

Without answering, Soram jumped down from the bed. Tae-un's cry with his heart dropping could be heard, but considering how he had surprised him, this much payback was deserved.

Here, things came true like in a child's dream full of bravado. Before he knew it, Soram's small hand was holding the sword he had used as a hunter. Metal airplanes also flew around.

Shwuk―!

Kwang!!!

When he swung his sword, the ground split open and the lion with a terrifying monster appearance disappeared.

The bed quickly came to pick up Soram who had defeated the first enemy and took him to the next one. It was a huge eagle raising its sharp talons and flapping its wings.

As Soram jumped off using the bed's headboard, Tae-un's nagging had reduced in volume to "Still, be careful..."

"Yap!"

The eagle blocked Soram's attack with its talons. However, it was attacked by airplanes bravely charging at the gap it revealed.

Kaak!!!

Just as it was making a threatening sound, a sword appeared from behind and cut down the eagle.

Tae-un had followed him with a sword in hand. With an expression bewildered by the long sword that had suddenly appeared in his young hand. If this was a world fully reflecting his will, Jin Soram apparently preferred fighting together with Tae-un. Seeing Soram's face, Tae-un ended up smiling too.

The monsters fell one by one under the charge of the two small outlaws.

The more Soram swung his sword, the more he realized. What he was destroying wasn't the zoo as a place, but the illusions that his young self had overlaid on it.

Had he ever fought with such laughter before?

He was invincible with Tae-un in this small world. The monsters fell steadily before his sword, and Soram took the lead to block all attacks aimed at Tae-un so that his fighting partner wouldn't get hurt at all. It was the same even when some huge and terrifying-looking monster charged at them. They gave an even harsher beating to the tropical bird flock that had tormented Ayoung.

Thus, the two defeated all the monsters and achieved victory.

Geureureureung―!!

Muuu! Muuuuu!

Kkiiiiik, kakkakkak!!

"Why are there still sounds remaining?"

They turned their heads towards the source of the sound. It was in the direction where the two had been sitting at first. The black pillar next to the bench where Soram had been curled up.

The speaker placed on top of the black pillar was emitting artificial animal sounds for the audience's realistic appreciation.

"...Soram-ah, that."

Tae-un's expression hardened as he felt a sense of discomfort. The two people on the flying bed were floating, but the pillar rose much higher than them.

That appearance looked like a black crack stretching across the blue sky.

Soram, who had been curled up on the bench all along, must have been looking at the pillar and sky like this. While listening to the rough animal sounds from the speaker.

"Why... did you keep sitting there?"

Soram, who had been looking at the equally tall pillar, opened his mouth.

"I don't know. It's such a long time ago that I can't remember the reason..."

He smiled bitterly.

"Maybe because announcements for lost children came from there."

Not knowing when his name might be called, he couldn't leave that spot for fear of missing the sound looking for him.

Tae-un was silent for a moment before approaching behind him. The arms wrapping around his waist from behind had returned to adult size. Soram's appearance was the same.

"Let's go home, Soram-ah."

"..."

"Wherever you are, if you're wandering around freely, I'll come to get you."

Soram smiled, swallowing hard. This call was enough. Nothing else was needed.

"It's okay now."

The trembling had completely disappeared too. Soram turned to look at Tae-un.

"I've come to know something much scarier than that crap. I'm not scared anymore."