Chapter 337: Those Who Are Preparing (1) (1/2)
We now begin the final arc, the Great Summons Arc. That means we only have 23 episodes left before the series ends and the side stories begin.
“Do you really think that… such a thing is possible?”
The man had a bitter smile at the woman’s question.
He answered in a low voice.
***
The eighth door of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.
Having opened the eighth door, Jude felt a significant change.
His body that was reconstructed when he opened the sixth door was now being broken and formed again.
Jude’s body became light as it was reformed by being united with his soul.
Beyond simply being functionally superior, it went past the level of a body containing a soul, achieving a true harmony of body and soul.
Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.
One had to reach their limits in order to transcend.
And Jude realized now. Opening the eighth door made him soon reach the limit.
Jude slowly opened his eyes.
He looked up the sky in a world that was all black.
Countless stars looked back at Jude like the night sky.
And one person.
A woman stood under the starlight.
An ancient progenitor whom he had called a female sage until now.
She had opened the ninth door and went beyond the limits, so she reached the realm of transcendence. That woman silently looked at Jude.
Suddenly, she spoke with a big smile.
“You are-”
That was it. He could not properly hear the rest.
It was the aftermath of opening the eighth door and completely reorganizing the body and soul.
But he knew one thing.
The difference between one who had reached the limit and one who went beyond the limits and achieved true transcendence.
It was like the horizon.
Through his confrontation with First Sword and the memories of the other Jude, he could tell the moment he reached the horizon.
Reaching the horizon was only the beginning.
It was impossible to realize a perfect swordsmanship unless he crossed the horizon.
The ninth door of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.
A world beyond the horizon.
“-exists.”
The female sage had a gentle smile.
Jude also smiled at her.
Someday again.
On a not so distant day.
The starlight shone down.
Jude closed his eyes amidst the sea of stars.
***
“Jude!”
“Cordelia.”
As soon as he opened his eyes and spoke, he immediately felt Cordelia’s warmth.
He was lying on Cordelia’s arms, or to be more exact, on her thighs.
There was a dark night sky with a bright moon and countless stars.
“Are you okay?”
Jude nodded at Cordelia’s question.
He clearly realized what changes had taken place in his own body.
His senses were further developed.
Despite not currently opening the eighth door, he could perceive everything around him much more clearly than before.
“Were you… able to open the eighth door?”
Cordelia asked cautiously, and Jude nodded again this time.
“That’s right, I have opened the eighth door.”
“Oh yeah!”
As soon as Jude replied, Cordelia exclaimed and raised her hands in joy.
Seeing that bright appearance, Jude unconsciously asked.
“Do you like it that much?”
“I like it! Is that bad? I can’t stop my shoulders from shaking in excitement.”
Jude had a blank expression for a moment at her bright smile, but soon smiled the same way.
His numerous memories entangled and mixed, but Cordelia was still Cordelia.
“Jude.”
“Yes, Cordelia.”
“I remember a lot of things.”
Their memories were not perfect.
The memories they remembered were fragmented and broken.
Nevertheless, they knew of some things.
“This isn’t the first time, right?”
“Yes, a few tries had already been done.”
Even Jude could not tell exactly how many tries had happened.
Because like Cordelia, Jude’s memories were not perfect.
“But… I probably know the most.”
Jude was the one who always fought to the end.
The other Jude who reached the sword horizon was the first to hear the full details of the reckless plan laid out by the young goddess Atalia.
“Explain.”
Keep it short, concise, and easy to understand.
At Cordelia’s request, Jude narrowed his brows and spoke in a cautious tone.
“Uh, well… we once talked about a classic simulation RPG, right?”
“SRW?”
“Yes, that. Super Robot Wars.”
A turn-based game wherein many robots appeared and fought.
A game for older males with the players’ ages ranging in the late 20s to 40s.
He used to think, ‘Oh, he’s a real man. He’s definitely a male.’ when he read Yellow Storm talking excitedly about it in their previous lives. But she was actually a woman who was in her teens.
“Anyway, why are you talking about that?”
“That’s what you want to ask now, right? The difference between the method chosen by Atalia and the so-called regression.”
Cordelia immediately nodded at Jude’s point.
“As expected of my Jude. You know what I’m thinking.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
The two had some idle talk before Jude continued his explanation.
“It’s the difference between Annihilation Play and Reset Marathon.”
“Eh? Uh… Ah!”
Annihilation Play and Reset Marathon.
If you were annihilated in the game of Super Robot Wars, you could restart from the beginning with the experience and funds you had obtained before that battle where you got annihilated.
In Annihilation Play, you deliberately got annihilated in order to collect experience and funds, but in Reset Marathon, you repeatedly saved and loaded the saved point until you get the desired result.
Like how you repeated the same situation over and over until you got an attack with a 10% hit rate.
Both were similar in that they repeated the same situation, but there was a significant difference between the two.
“First of all… in Annihilation Play, the total number of turns increases.”
If one played for 10 turns, got annihilated, started again, and cleared it in 10 turns, a total of 20 turns would be recorded.
On the other hand, since Reset Marathon was to return to the 10th turn after 10 turns, the total number of turns used was still 10 turns no matter how many times you tried.
“That’s right. Annihilation Play is about conforming to the flow of time while Reset Marathon is about going against time.”
At Jude’s words, Cordelia nodded for a moment but frowned again and asked.
“But isn’t the latter better?”
The latter seemed to be much simpler.
“Yes, but it’s a lot harder. Cordelia, in the manhwa and novels you recommended, regression was very easily done… but in fact, regression is a huge thing. Because you have to turn back the time of the entire universe.”
That was impossible.
If Atalia was almighty enough to do such a thing, she would not need to have repeated it in the first place.
“Uh… why is everyone who’s not the protagonist going back to the past too? Usually, it’s only the protagonist who regresses.”
“They’re still going to the past so… it’s impossible since they’re going against time. Because even a god cannot resist the unyielding flow of time. And if you don’t want to go against time, you can move to the past of a parallel world, but… it really is a parallel world. The world left by the protagonist will be left in a ruined state. Even if the protagonist saves the parallel world, it is the parallel world that was saved. It’s not the world the protagonist left.”
Of course, this was the situation if parallel worlds existed.
“In the end, it’s a matter of ability. If it can be done or not. With Atalia’s powers, turning back time is impossible. But it is barely possible to copy and paste in compliance to the flow of time. The scope is not the entire universe, but limited to three worlds – Pleiades, Heaven, and Hell.”