Chapter 94 (1/2)

Episode 94. The Five Disasters (2)

For a moment, it felt like winter had come. My entire body felt frozen. I couldn’t move at all, and every breath I took chilled my throat and lungs.

[You know best what should be left unsaid.]

“Oh, it was a mistake. Calling you the Traveler still feels unfamiliar……… And frankly, the name does not suit you at all.”

[Interesting. So perhaps I should pick all the names that don’t suit you and smash them to pieces?]

“No, thank you. If you say so, I’m afraid it will actually happen.”

The Traveler’s voice was like a dagger, unlike his usual voice. Every word seemed to pierce like a sword. I couldn’t dare to turn my head and see his face.

I had thought he was rather friendly, but I could clearly feel his strong presence just from his voice. I couldn’t even fathom the strength of his power.

“Now, now, you should think about the user you care so much about. I think he’s going to get hurt if you don’t stop.”

The Great Sage smiled slyly and clapped.

“Let’s go in.”

* * *

The interior of the mansion was very mysterious. Each time I closed my eyes and opened them, the sight before me changed. It was as splendid as a palace and as shabby as a single semi-basement room. One thing I could tell for sure was that this place did not abide by the rules of common sense.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jeong Si-woo. What should I call you? An Analyst or a Hunter? “

“Just call me Jeong Si-woo.”

“Okay, Mr. Jeong.”

The Great Sage sat lightly on the sofa in the living room. He lifted his small hand as soon as he sat down.

“Would you like something to drink? I can give you anything you want.”

“Coffee, please.”

“Oh. Coffee. Hm… The coffee that you like must be this.”

The Great Sage moved the hand he lifted. At the same time, a mug dropped down in front of me. A coffee steaming faintly.

I took a sip of the coffee. The atmosphere was uncomfortable. The moderately bitter taste and the subtle scent were just like the americano at the coffee shop I used to go to in my previous life. The somewhat lukewarm, less-than-hot temperature was also the way I liked my coffee.

…How much does this Great Sage know?

Clank.

I put down the mug and tensed up.

“You know a great deal, Great Sage.”

“Yes, there’s nothing about this world that I don’t know.”

I looked him in the eye. The situation was not good. I don’t know in which direction the conversation will head, but he knows a lot about me while I don’t know anything about him.

I was at a disadvantage even before the start. Information meant everything in a conversation. Damn, was I too rash? It would have been better if I had prepared a little more before coming here. I was too careless.

“There’s no need for you to worry, Mr. Jeong Si-woo.”

But the Great Sage smiled kindly as if he had read my mind.

“No matter how much you prepared, things would have been the same. That is simply what I am.”

“…….”

“And I don’t mean to hurt you. Rather, I would like to help you.”

The Great Sage lifted the mug in front of him.

“Without you, the world will perish. That is the unchanging truth and fate. I know the future for sure, and there’s no reason for me to get in your way.”

“…….”

“You look like you don’t understand what I’m talking about.”

The Great Sage drank his tea and slowly put down the mug.

“I understand. You have a habit of doubting things. To gain your trust, I’d have to talk about who I am.”

The Great Sage lifted his hand again.

“Simply put, I’m the being that sits in the highest position in this world.”

The Great Sage’s eyes sparkled.

“Some call me heaven. Some call me mother or father. Some call me nature or universe.”

“…….”

His voice rang in my head. His words were nonsense. But the Sage’s peculiar voice seemed to prove that he was telling the truth.

“And some call me their god.”

Tap, tap.

And with that, the Great Sage lowered his hand and tapped on the table.

I was dumb for a moment, and then I opened my mouth and said,

“How surprising.”

“You sound uninspired.”

“It doesn’t seem that realistic.”

“Yes, well, I suppose so.”

The Great Sage chuckled.

“I don’t think you’ll be interested in hearing how great I am and what amazing things I’ve done. So let’s get to the point.”

“…….”

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

What the hell did this mean?

Instead of speaking my mind, I waited quietly until the Great Sage explained what he meant.

“Jeong Si-woo, you died exactly 499 times while I created and managed this world.”

“…….”

“Once you didn’t even join the Academy after losing your parents, jumped headfirst into the hunting industry, and died. Once, you were so full of a sense of justice that you meddled too much as an Analyst. A colleague stabbed you in the back, and you died. And once you just had bad luck and died in a car accident.”

“…What…?”

“It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. And every time you died, the world was destroyed. Every time I turned back time with all the power I had, and tweaked the world around you little by little.”

Snap!

With a snap, several scenes flashed through my head.

-Why don’t you transfer to the Analytics department?

“First of all, I tweaked a professor from the Academy. I led you to the right path. So that you would join the Analytics Department, not the Hunting Department.”

-We’d like to recruit cadet Jeong Si-woo.

“And I made it so that you could join a safe group so that you wouldn’t get caught up in big incidents before you were well established. Well, it wasn’t so difficult because your Analytical skills were quite outstanding.”

-I told you to call me Nu-nim.

-Let me touch your head just once, huh? Hey, I told you not to call me Queen!

-Martial God? That’s too grand for a nickname. There’s no way that I…….

“The crucial causes behind your deaths were your surroundings. You were brilliant, but you didn’t have anyone to match your abilities. So I created connections between you and outstanding people from every field. This was quite difficult because it was manipulating fate. But it worked well after the Five Heroes joined your division. It looked like you were somehow going to overcome the Fourth Disaster.”

-The hope of humankind who fought against the Great Overlord dies.

“But after that, no matter what I modified, you couldn’t beat the Great Overlord. I gathered all my strength and warned the world about the Five Disasters, but nothing changed. Unfortunately, you always lost by a very small margin. The legions of monsters swallowed the world, and humanity was destroyed.”

The scenes stopped flashing by my eyes.

“Now, my power is gone. I had no power left to turn back time, and when you died for the 499th time, I thought that everything was over. That all I had done had been useless.”