Chapter 371. Last Night’s Dream

After the Last Dragon left, Chi-Woo returned to his office and sat down, pondering the whole night. He needed to revive Asha Dubulola, and in order to do that, he needed to go back to the past. There was a way to do this: by using the World’s Milestone. He had gone through a similar experience in the past. Thanks to rolling the die and going to the future, he was able to prevent Shalyh’s destruction. However, that destruction had only been delayed at the time and was about to arrive again—many times more threatening than before.

Their current situation differed from that time in two ways. First, he needed to go back to the past, not the future. Second, the scale of the mission was different. If the work he had done was like playing with fire, now he needed to burn down an entire mountain. Nevertheless, his heart was already leaning toward using the die. Since he wasn’t certain, though, he found it hard to loosen his grip to let the die go. There wasn’t a guarantee that rolling the die would allow him to go back to the past, and it would be a disaster if he rolled 1 to 3, since the resulting unfavorable conditions could also affect his brother. Having to take on at least 43 percent of the risk was tantamount to gambling.

His brother had also told him to not carelessly use the World’s Milestone, and if he really wanted to use it, he should discuss the matter with him. Although Chi-Woo had kept his promise well so far, he was not in the position to do so anymore. Of course, he had no intention to hesitate because of a promise even in a situation like this. It was just that he had to keep asking himself if there was really no other way. Although he didn’t want to depend on luck from the very first try…Chi-Woo closed his eyes. He couldn’t think of any other way. In the end, he threw the die, and the result was….

[Result: ★★★]

[Innate ability [Blessed] Luck consumed (60 → 57)]

[The world’s flow steadily flows towards a designated place.]

[Failed. An incident occurs.]

“f.u.c.k,” He cursed without intending to. As soon as the following message popped up, Chi-Woo closed his eyes tightly because he was afraid to read it. About a dozen seconds later, he suddenly heard a piercing scream in the distance. It was so loud that it even reached his quiet office. Chi-Woo burst open his eyes and hurried outside. The intermittent screams were cut off at some point. Chi-Woo, who had run out in a hurry, stood in front of the door where he heard the sound; it was Aida’s place. Then he heard another fl.u.s.tered voice inside.

“What’s going on?” Chi-Woo slammed open the door and went in, and he saw Yunael hugging and soothing Aida, who was groaning in pain. Aida’s hair and pajamas were soaked in sweat. Her fair face became even paler, and she was trembling like an aspen tree as if she was extremely scared. He had never seen her look so terrified.

“I-I don’t know. She was sleeping well and suddenly…” Yunael shook her head while looking at Chi-Woo. Aida wasn’t able to come to her senses for a while. Then a couple other members also heard the sound and gathered around.

“Captain…” Aida managed to say, “Captain…in the darkness that fell on Shalyh…filled with thoughts of hatred and poison…” Judging by the gibberish coming out of her mouth, she seemed to still be struggling to regain her senses.

Yunael said, “Aida, it’s okay. Nothing will happen.”

“No!”

When Yunael tried to comfort her while patting her back, Aida screamed sharply, “How come the World…!” She shook her head madly to the point where her long hair fluttered. “No, it can’t be! The World’s will was definitely up to the heavens! But! Why…!” Aida cried out in a loud voice and eventually burst into tears; she seemed to have had a terrifying nightmare. However, considering her situation, it couldn’t have been a simple nightmare. It was probably a type of foresight that emerged as a dream. The Last Dragon’s warning hadn’t just been empty words.

“What in the world is happening…to Shalyh…” Aida cried out tearfully.

It was clear that even Yunael had never seen Aida react so intensely, and she stared at Chi-Woo blankly, urging him to do something. Then Chi-Woo finally read the message in the air that he had been ignoring.

[The darkness has discovered the last piece of resentment that they had been searching for at a quicker pace and completed their grand scheme. With this, the darkness, which has been quiet for a long time, is stretching its arms and ready to roar with a more definite causality than ever before.]

Although he didn’t know exactly what it meant, he could understand that this was very bad news, which seemed to have made a big impact on Aida.

“Boss, what’s going on?” Waking up belatedly, Eval Sevaru rubbed his bleary eyes and asked. “Did someone ambush us?”

“…No,” Chi-Woo replied with a despondent face. “It’s my fault.”

“…What?” Eval Sevaru was fl.u.s.tered. Yunael also looked at him with a questioning gaze.

However, it was true. Chi-Woo had failed to roll a successful number. He had lost the gamble and was robbed of their short grace period.

Chi-Woo clenched his teeth and said, “Mr. Eval Sevaru.”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“I might go somewhere for a while. Do you remember that I fainted not too long ago?”

“Yes, well. That’s…”

“I might do that again. I’m telling you this in advance so you won’t panic. I will wake up on my own when the time comes.”

Eval Sevaru looked confused. He might go somewhere but he might faint? The words didn’t add up.

“What are you saying? Why are you being like this? What happened?”

Although Yunael asked, Chi-Woo turned away instead of responding. He threw the die, and an incident occurred; there was no turning back. He needed to make up for this somehow.

“That guy…” When Chi-Woo left without a word, Yunael chewed her lips with a face full of discontent. He was acting strange no matter how hard she thought about it. She felt uneasy like he might disappear alone and never come back. Although she had no idea why she felt this way, she was not the type of person to stay still like this. She didn’t know the circ.u.mstances, but thought that she should try to hold him back, and she acted immediately. Of course, since she couldn’t go in her pajamas, she needed to change first.

Chi-Woo returned to his office and inhaled. Now that the situation had come to this, there was no other way. Without a moment’s hesitation, he threw the World’s Milestone again, and the die rolled on the desk.

[Result: ★★★★★★]

[Innate ability [Blessed] Luck consumed (57 → 51)]

[The world’s flow clearly changes.]

[Success. An incident occurs!]

Fortunately, it was a success this time. However, the number was six, not seven. Chi-Woo decided to read the message first.

[A blessing falls on the Kobalos tribe. Divinity gathers back into the magic fire pit, which had been broken due to extreme overuse. Depending on how you use it, you can delay the intended future for a while.]

Knock, knock.

“Ah, come on!” Chi-Woo angrily yelled. It was not a bad outcome per se. It was one of the results he wanted, but it was not something he needed immediately, even more so when he had a finite amount of Blessed Luck. Chi-Woo threw the World’s Milestone without delay again. The die flew over the air and rolled over the desk once more.

‘Please, please…’ Chi-Woo stared at the die with bloodshot eyes. It didn’t take long for the World’s Milestone to come to a stop.

[Result: ★★★★★★★]

[Innate ability [Blessed] Luck consumed (51 → 44)]

[The flow of the world fluctuates and flows back against the current!]

[Huge success! An incident occurs.]

Knock, knock.

Chi-Woo clenched his fist. This was it. However, it wasn’t over yet. It remained to be seen what would emerge.

[A long time ago. A time so long ago that what happened then was pa.s.sed down only as a legend, one hero made a decision to save a world with frequent cycles of crises for good. At that time, there was no way to know whether the choice was right or wrong. The only thing that was clear was that the choice was leading to a distant future. At this rate, more than half of the World’s grudges that have been waiting for the right time would erupt completely.]

[To change this result, you need to change the cause. You need to change the choice at the time and correct the past. However, you only have one chance to do it.]

At that moment, Chi-Woo, who was focusing all his attention on the message, heard another knock.

“Geez, why aren’t you answering me?!” Yunael burst through the door angrily.

[The current time axis will stop. The flow of time and s.p.a.ce will be fixed only around the user.]

Everything around him stopped, as if they had become frozen.

“…Ah?” Yunael also stopped in front of the desk; nothing but her voice came out of her open mouth. It was the same for Chi-Woo; his body didn’t move even an inch. They could only exchange gazes with each other; Yunael looked at him, asking what the h.e.l.l he was doing, and Chi-Woo asked her with his eyes why she had come.

[Rewind begins.]

The moment the following message appeared in the air, everything started to move except the frozen area. Chi-Woo and Yunael held their breaths as the desk, the door, the window, and the walls began to disappear one by one. It looked like a time-lapse video of a construction being played backward. At first, things disappeared slowly, but then the process gradually accelerated. In the blink of an eye, all the buildings were demolished. Then a little later, the city turned into ruins, and they could see the Demon Empire confronting the League. It was when they fought with Vepar. They went further back in time, and the scene of Shalyh in ruins continued for a while, but at some point, the destroyed city began to rise up again.

When Chi-Woo came to his senses, countless people were busily moving about. Considering that he couldn’t recognize anyone, it seemed to be during the past when Shalyh had been a flouris.h.i.+ng city. The end was not yet in sight. No, this was merely the beginning.

The rewind accelerated, and Yunael made a shrill sound. “What the h.e.l.l…!”

It rewinded to the point where they didn’t know how far they"d gone back.

* * *

Chi-Hyun punched in the pa.s.sword and opened the front door. Then the interior of the house he hadn’t seen for a long time appeared before his eyes.

“Chi-Hyun, you came back?” When he went in after taking off his shoes, his mother came out and warmly greeted him. “It’s been a while, but you came back sooner than I thought this time. In 1 year and 2 months—”

“It’s been 52 years.”

Elrich paused.

“It was pretty difficult,” Chi-Hyun calmly continued with a slightly tired voice. “I needed to regress about ten times so…”

His mother looked at him with pity; soon, she smiled and hurriedly put on her ap.r.o.n. “You should rest for now. I’ll cook for you. It’s been a while.”

“No, it’s okay. Mother, your food is not go—”

“What did you say?”

“Where’s Chi-Woo?” Chi-Hyun immediately changed the subject. Then his mother’s expression noticeably darkened. Rather than asking further, he looked around the house. He saw something small sitting alone in the living room; his brother turned around, seemingly having felt his gaze. When Chi-Hyun met his brother’s empty eyes, he looked away unconsciously because there was something indescribably chilling about them.

“I’ll take a break. I think I need to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, you should. Mr. Suho will be back around tomorrow evening, so let’s have a family meal we haven’t had for a long while.”

Chi-Hyun nodded and was about to enter his room.

“You can quit.”

Hearing a murmur, Chi-Hyun paused.

His brother spoke with his head turned towards him and continued with an empty voice, “If you don’t want to do it.”

“No, that’s not the case,” Chi-Hyun answered in a nonchalant manner. “I’m dying to do it.”

His brother didn’t respond, and as soon as Chi-Hyun entered his room, he opened his closet. He picked up a snack that he had carefully left behind and turned on the TV while lying down on the sofa. From the corners of his eye, he saw his brother sitting absent-mindedly on one side.

“…You want one?” He offered a piece, and his brother shook his head. The snack that he offered went into Chi-Hyun’s mouth. Nothing that was going on in the TV registered in his head. Everything felt different. Chi-Hyun looked at the screen with hollow eyes for a while and then closed his eyes. He had finally returned home after enduring 52 years. He needed to get some sleep first. When he woke up, he thought he should eat a bowl of gukbap. However, his wish did not come true because he heard an alarm rang relentlessly in his head at the crack of dawn. Chi-Hyun prepared to go out immediately because it was definitely an emergency.

“No, what…!” His mother got angry, saying it was ridiculous considering that it’d been less than a day since he came back. “No, you can’t do this, Chi-Hyun. Just rest. I’ll go this time so—”

“Mother, it’s fine,” Chi-Hyun answered flatly and tied his shoelaces tightly before standing up. “I’ll be back.” He opened the front door and left. His mother reached out to grab him but faltered. When he gradually moved further away, she could only stare at his back until he disappeared into the elevator while the morning breeze swept him by. In the end, she couldn’t say anything.

“…” Because she knew about the ‘karma’ Chi-Hyun had decided to carry on his shoulders as the eldest son and the older brother.