Episode 297 Joaquin Academy (1)
The gods, or sea creatures, resisted desperately. They were not beings who were called gods for nothing. The scale of their attack was literally a ‘cosmic’ rescue.
“You foolish child. Do you think you can destroy us all with human wishes?”
Jupiter is urging me. Where his handsome face used to be, there is now a green octopus head.
“Oh. Possible.”
I replied briefly and pulled out Murasame and Eternal Frost. A light flashed between the sashimi that was burning in the abyss.
Crunch!
The long sword light cut vertically across the abyssal horizon. With a single stroke of the sword, countless gods were separated into upper/lower, left/right directions and annihilated.
I tried to resist in my own way, but it was futile. My sashimi is a knife that cuts and cuts everything. Even God does not make exceptions.
Hurrr… … .
Jupiter created a moon the size of a soccer ball in his right hand and a sun in his left. Then he made the two spheres collide in front of his chest as if making a water sign.
○
●
The energy created by combining the opposing properties of yin and yang is darkness that even sucks up light. This is the process of forming a black hole. It is completely different from the black hole created by Kuarn.
Kookookookookung.
The abyss itself refracted and twisted my sword path. Thanks to that, the bastard narrowly missed the light of the sword. A few of the tentacles that had grown like whiskers were cut off, though.
〈You idiot. How can you be stronger now than you were in the past? Even after giving up your divinity and choosing mere humanity? When we created this world, we didn’t even include such causality!〉
Jupiter glared with bloodshot eyes. He was the only god who had withstood the sword strikes. The rest either dodged or were caught in the sword light and scattered into space dust.
The number of gods had dwindled noticeably. The number that had been close to several thousand was now less than twenty. And the remaining gods lined up behind Jupiter, glaring at me as if they were going to kill me.
〈Sword God, I know you came from another universe. Is that why? Are you so strong because you came from an outside world that we don’t know? Are our visions so narrow? Tell me. If we go outside, can we become as strong as you?〉
Even in the midst of all this, they reveal their dark desires.
‘I should say it’s really consistent.’
As Lycan said, they are the embodiment of greed, but they can’t seem to tell lies. They are strangely honest.
But they’re missing the point. Their problem isn’t who I am or where I come from.
“Do you know what your problem is?”
I said as I looked at the blade. It was a new thought, but the ripples flowing through the sashimi were beautiful. I was dazzled by this beauty and devoted my whole life to it.
“I wasn’t satisfied with what I had.”
I turned my gaze back to them.
“The point is that you always look for the cause outside. You think I’m strong because I’m from outside? Don’t be ridiculous. Do you even know what kind of life I’ve lived?”
I was unhappy in my previous life. My life was filled with persecution and violence. I was born to disgusting authors who I could even call parents.
Since there was no one to feed me at home, I started begging when I could walk. Since I had no clothes, I searched through used clothing collection boxes to cover myself. Even those were often torn to pieces by my parents.
My father, who would beat me like a dog whenever he drank, and my mother, who would always neglect me while drunk.
Even though I had parents, I was practically an orphan. Home was not a cozy haven for me, but rather a hell.
That doesn’t mean that school or society was kind to me.
The kids teased me and avoided me, calling me a beggar, and the adults were indifferent to me. They might have treated me like a burden, but they didn’t show it.
Still, I never complained. I held onto the small hope that night would eventually end and morning would come, and that gave me the will to live.
However, it was too harsh for a child who had not yet reached the age of 18 to bear, and at one point he even thought about giving up on life.
‘Why only me?’
I’ve had that thought many times. Well, someone might say that to me.
For example, ‘Where did you not starve to death?’, ‘Be thankful you were born in Korea.’, etc.
Happiness and unhappiness are relative, so it is possible that your life may not seem so bottom-tier from someone else’s perspective.
News about parents killing or abandoning their children is reported at least once or twice a year.
Compared to them, my parents were better people, at least they didn’t kill their children.
– you might think so.
Of course, from my perspective, that’s bullshit.
Those authors didn’t just kill my body, they killed my spirit.
I held on to my lifeline tenaciously on my own without their help.
And the fruit of that desperation was a meeting with the CEO.
‘Live as a human being.’
That’s what he kept emphasizing to me.
‘It’s true that life is a series of sufferings. But that doesn’t mean we should give up being human. An unfortunate family doesn’t give us an excuse to commit evil deeds.’
Perhaps it was the Master’s self-reflection or self-mockery.
‘You asked me before why I took you away? It’s because you looked so tough. I really thought you’d stab a person with a knife. Well, I don’t care if a new kid stabs someone, but I don’t want that to happen around my store. That’s my honest opinion.’
The Master, like the gods, spoke only the truth.
‘I don’t regret it. On the contrary, it’s the opposite.’
But the weight of the words is different.
Even if the gods want to do it, they ‘cannot’, but the master ‘does not’ do it. That one letter difference is as high and low as the difference between heaven and earth.
‘I feel proud that I was able to help you live as a human being.’
The Master was a hero of the poem. He was a man who had walked the path of violence and death. He was a man who had to go through trials that required him to regress endlessly for the sake of his task.
In addition, he was eventually swept into an unfamiliar world. He must have wandered the Earth for decades in search of a being who would put an end to his task.
It’s understandable why the teacher always spoke so bluntly and had such a cynical attitude. His life must have been even more difficult than mine.
‘The day I reached out to you.’
The Master saw his past self in my face.
‘… That was the most satisfying and proud day of my life.’
He taught me how to use a sword and showed me kindness. He made me human. He gave me a place and a home where I could make friends.
‘humanity.’
That’s where my strength comes from.
〈It seems like you have no intention of telling me.〉
Jupiter’s eyes darkened. He turned his head halfway back. The gods flinched at the coldness of his gaze. There seemed to be some kind of agreement being exchanged in his eyes.
After a while, the gods except Jupiter nodded silently, indicating that they would join in the cause.
〈I will correct my past mistakes here.〉
Jupiter spread his arms. Dark holes appeared in his palms. The next moment, the holes began to swirl and suck in the gods.
Gooooooo!
As the number of gods decreased, Jupiter grew bigger and bigger. Even when he tilted his head back, only the dark outline of an octopus’ head could be seen.
Flash.
A red dot shone in the huge shadow. It was a calm gaze.
〈For the first time, our Aesir gods have united as one.〉
Jupiter told me so. Every time he opened his mouth, a thick purple mist would come out. The light sashimi caught in the poisonous mist melted away. Billions of wishes went out like candles.
“There is no more hope.”
Jupiter spoke with boastfulness. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“no.”
It’s a bit far-fetched, but I can’t think of anything else to say in response.
“There’s still one left.”
A holy light envelops Murasame. After quickly cleansing these evil spirits, I want to return to my home, to the academy where everyone is. That is my wish and my humanity.
“And thank you.”
He slowly lifted the sashimi. He didn’t put any skill or emotion into the knife. Raising and lowering the knife was just a ’cause’ to bring about a ‘result’.
“Thanks to that, I didn’t have to go through the trouble of cutting it multiple times.”
A brilliant red line engraved from Jupiter’s shoulder to his side. I see the death of the god. And my sashimi is the sword that brings about that death. The realms of the past, present, and future all permeate my mind. Cause and effect are clearly explained, and the sword moves for only one purpose.
“Cut it.”
As Jupiter extended his mighty hand, my sashimi also drew a diagonal line.
The final sword. The hand of God and the sword of man crossed. The birth and end of a universe exploded at the same time.
* * *
“Mommy.”
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I opened my eyes, which had been closed. I rolled my narrowed pupils to the side.
“congratulations.”
The person who woke me up said that right away. Maybe it was because my focus was not good. I couldn’t see his face at all. When I tried to answer, my voice was stuck in my throat.
“First, lie down and listen.”
I’m lying down. But it doesn’t seem like it was a good situation to be lying down. Oh, shit. I can’t remember what happened. It’s because the fragmented timeline is all messed up in my head.
‘Fuck.’
As I bit my lower lip, the other person covered my eyes with his hand before he could speak. I could feel the feel of his calluses. Judging by the position of his calluses, his hands had been used with knives quite a bit.
“Ganggeomma, you just broke the chains of evil that were affecting a world, no, no. the entire world line.”
There was a hint of laughter in his voice. He continued.
“It’s a ridiculous probability. In terms of numbers, I’m not sure. In Earth terms, it’s the probability of being struck by lightning? I guess you could say the probability of being struck by lightning 76 quadrillion times. I don’t know exactly. I’m bad with numbers. Anyway, Geomma, you saved the entire world line.”
My lips are parched. I want to say something or ask something, but not even a hoarse sound comes out.
“Enough with Saddam. Let’s get to the main point.”
“… … ?”
“I’ll give you a choice.”
A clear energy passes through the forehead and enters the brain. The head feels refreshed. The jumbled and fragmented cause and effect is reassembled clearly.
I have now observed all the worlds without distinction of domains and realized the truth. So I have naturally come to know the identity of the person who is trying to have a one-sided conversation with me.
I opened my mouth. The other person made the sound instead.
“You are me.”
“You are me.”
Literally resonant. It’s a strange experience. It feels like two people are sharing a brain.
The other person took his hand away from my eyes. Now, as I saw his face clearly, a sentence came to mind.
[GM offers you two options.]
A proposal from my distant future self to my past self.
[1. Will you reign over all things as a foreigner and control them?]
[2. Or, would you like to remain human and return to Joaquin Academy?]
