< Episode 237 What's Changed (1) >
After that, we had a quick chat and moved to Jia's private room to talk.
“So my guess was correct?”
“······Yeah. It’s been six months since the foreign races started returning.”
“In the meantime, exactly 18 countries sided with the faction?”
"huh."
“That’s why Savior refuses to deal with humanity?”
"······that's right."
The two men bowed their heads with embarrassed expressions.
“I’m sorry. Even though I told you in advance that this would happen to you, I couldn’t do anything.”
Siyeon's voice was hoarse.
“I gathered the artifacts in advance according to your advice, and had a very advantageous starting point······. But before I realized it, this is how it turned out. Sorry.”
It was the same for Jia.
“Ah. I don’t know what an artifact is. An artifact is······.”
“Current name of ancient relic?”
“I knew it.”
“Yeah. I saw it on the news.”
Well, I knew that from the past.
“Speaking of which, what happened to the artifacts?”
The same goes for the Mystery Museum.
If it were the Maiden C I knew, he would have predicted the value of the ancient relics and collected them like crazy.
What happened to those relics?
“······It was stolen.”
"what?"
Jia's head lowered even further.
“Not all of them······. Only the artifacts of the Celestials, Dragons, and Demons······.”
"ah."
So Savior and Pakai took the artifact for war.
'It's like this.'
Who would have thought that the return of the alien races six months earlier than the original would bring about such changes?
'In the original, rather than stealing the artifacts from humanity, they created the artifacts themselves and used them.'
Crafting artifacts is currently impossible as the main system is disabled.
That's why they had no choice but to forcibly take away humanity's artifacts.
“Even though I tried to refuse, the power difference was too great······I couldn’t help it.”
“I guess so.”
This is also a change.
In the original, Savior, Pakai, and humanity were not ignored to this extent.
Even though Savior and Pakai were strong in terms of quality, humanity was not a force to be ignored.
'A quantitative force with a population of nearly 6 billion and a small number of elites, including the protagonist.'
However, humanity was not in an absolute position to commit the atrocity of stealing all the artifacts.
“Is the lack of artifacts and racial traits the problem?”
"······that's right."
“That’s right.”
The ultimate difference between humans and other species.
That is, the presence or absence of artifacts and the presence or absence of racial characteristics.
“The ability ceiling is the same at S-rank (99/99), so there isn’t much difference······.”
Now that the main system is not fully activated, the maximum ability value, whether human, celestial, or dragon, is only S-rank (99/99).
“The hardware is the same, but the software is overwhelmingly inferior?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s exactly what it feels like.”
I understand everything.
From the beginning, this was the situation that had to happen.
“In that situation, we ended up going to war with Savior······.”
“Honestly, I’m hopeless.”
A dark cloud hung over the two faces.
“That's okay.”
I can somehow handle the war with Savior.
"really?"
"how?"
“It’s a bit tricky to explain. Anyway, I can stop it.”
I am getting to know the Savior executives better.
If I head to Savior's headquarters, I can easily prevent a war.
“Oh, I see.”
“Wow. As soon as I got back, it was like this······.”
Two people were impressed.
“Oh, and there’s something I want to confirm. Have you ever met a woman named Shirakawa Ai?”
I'm curious about the whereabouts of Ai, Geumho, and Baekho, who returned to Hyundai a year before me.
“Shirakawa Ai······ Isn’t Seoyul the woman who disappeared with you?”
“Was the codename Rust?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
It appears Hermit has passed on information about the child.
“I don’t have one. You, Siyeon?”
“Me neither. No, but shouldn’t you know about that woman?”
As expected, there isn't any.
Since he seemed completely unaware that I had been there in the past, I had assumed that it was unlikely that he had ever met the child.
“Then what about Geumho and Baekho?”
I asked because I wondered if Geumho and Baekho had returned.
“The golden tiger and the white tiger······.”
Jia's expression darkened.
I can tell just by that expression.
It seems that Geumho and Baekho haven't returned either.
“She suddenly disappeared a year ago. And after that······.”
“I’m sorry. I should have been more careful.”
The two bowed their heads with apologetic expressions.
“No, it’s okay.”
Those two have nothing to feel sorry about.
I was the one who summoned Geumho and Baekho out of nowhere.
Rather, I should be the one feeling sorry.
How confused they must have been because Geumho and Baekho suddenly disappeared.
“What about Lena?”
Those two are those two, but I'm most worried about Lena. After me, Geumho and Baekho disappeared too, so I wonder how much Lena's sense of loss will be.
From what I heard from Lena in the past, she was semi-depressed.
It's been a year since then, so things might have gotten better.
It's inevitable that you'll be worried.
“······?”
“······.”
Two people look at me with strange eyes.
There's something ominous about the atmosphere.
“Why? What happened to Lena?”
The two people's expressions became even more mysterious. They exchanged glances as if they didn't know what to say.
“That······Seoyul-ah.”
Gia called me.
“Who is Lena?”
"······what?"
For a moment, my head went blank.
* * *
After that.
Mr. Yuhwa and Mr. Maiden.
And as a bonus, I even heard about Hermit and Instructor Pijinho.
Fortunately, everyone except Lena is said to be alive and well.
The only regret is that everyone is out on the front lines and we can't contact each other.
"under."
Now that the conversation is over, I am resting in the room that Zia guided me to.
“······Ah. Really, just do it moderately.”
This crazy worldview won't leave me alone for even a moment.
“Why did Lena suddenly disappear?”
It's so absurd that it's almost like ascending to heaven.
I have no idea what the heck is going on.
No, it's not like there's no expectation at all.
'Is it true that the problem is that Lena from the past has changed?'
Synchronization of Lena's memories from the past and present.
I'm not sure, but that's the only reason I can think of for Lena's disappearance.
It's probably because of memory synchronization.
The question is, what is the principle by which this change occurred?
'Fate isn't something that can be easily changed.'
I know this better than anyone else, having tried everything I could to change the past.
'But Lena twisted fate.'
The fact that Lena has disappeared from everyone's memories means that Lena was not sealed as in her original history.
'Either they were sealed somewhere else, or they survived the war, or······.'
Dead or something.
'No. Don't think he's dead. That can't be.'
Anyway, history would have changed if Lena didn't meet me. That's the only reason why Siyeon and Jia don't remember Lena.
'What happened to Lena, whose memories were synchronized?'
Lena isn't the only one who's curious.
What on earth happened in the past to cause this to happen?
'Lena has disappeared, and the return of the aliens has been brought forward······.'
At the starting point of every change, there will certainly be a change in the past.
'I have to figure it out.'
We must find the cause of the change and block all variables in advance when dealing with the demon.
'And find Lena.'
If we learn about the past, we will naturally be able to find out Lena's whereabouts.
'Confirm Lena's survival and, if possible, find out why Lena was able to twist her fate.'
If we can just find the cause, it will be of great help in dealing with the demon.
'Then let's contact the Savior side as quickly as possible.'
If you want to know what happened in the past, the best way is to hear the stories of those who survived until the end.
If we just meet, it won't be that difficult to hear the story.
'Savior has Michael and Metatron.'
These are two people who are familiar with me. If I just meet them, everything will be resolved.
You will also be able to find out what happened in the past.
We might even be able to prevent a war between Korea and Savior now.
'I have to go straight to Savior's headquarters tomorrow morning.'
I promised myself that.
* * *
"······what?"
This is already the second time I've said this, but nothing in this world goes the way I intended.
“This is the first time I’ve heard the names Metatron and Michael, both of us.”
If you want to work with Savior, you need someone who knows exactly who I am.
Except for Aqua, Chiron, and Celestial, who are probably dead.
The only ones left are Metatron, Michael, and Ini. These are the three.
“Just in case, have you heard anything about the Dragon Lord?”
“I’m hearing that for the first time too.”
"me too."
But all three of them do not exist.
What kind of shocking statement is this?
'Are those three still unsealed?'
It is also said that the information about the original seven evil-level demons, including Balrog and Mamon, is unknown to the faction.
'Are the figures above the Four Holy and Seven Evils exempt from the early release of seals?'
It's probably more likely that those strong people will die.
'······why?'
But why are they the only ones being unsealed so late?
All the other races returned safely, so why only the people of the Four Heavenly Kings and Seven Evils······.
“······Is it really that big of a problem that those three aren’t there?”
“Did she sense something when she saw my serious expression?” Zia asked me slyly.
“······Oh. This is a very big problem.”
"why?"
Siyeon asked casually.
“There are only three people on the Savior side who know of my existence and believe in me.”
"······ah."
If there's no one on the Savior side who knows of my existence, then there's no point in me going.
There's no way I'd trust someone I'd just met for the first time.
'If you go in the form of a celestial or dragon, I think people will believe you.'
Unfortunately, the stigmata of the Celestials and the stigmata of the Dragons have not been activated yet.
Since I used my power for quite some time in the final showdown with Masin, it will take some time for me to come back.
'The maximum cooldown time for the transcendent stigmata is ten days, so if we roughly calculate the cooldown time based on the usage time······.'
Calculations show that it will take approximately a week for the two stigmata to reactivate.
'I can't wait a week.'
Since Savior declared war, it wouldn't be strange if an attack were to occur today.
In that situation, it is not possible to delay by a week or so.
“Seoyul. So it’s become difficult to negotiate with Savior?”
“It doesn’t seem like it’ll be as easy as I first thought.”
As I thought yesterday, it seems like it won't be possible to solve it in an instant.
"I see."
Jia's expression sank.
His droopy eyes are full of worry and concern.
“Why do you look like that? I said it wasn’t easy, I didn’t say there was no solution.”
"uh?"
Gia looks at me in surprise.
“Is there a way······?”
“Oh. Right. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be as easy as I said.”
This is a much more difficult method than the initial plan where everything would have worked out if we just talked, but it is not impossible.
“Can I ask what method it is?”
“It’s a simple method that needs no explanation.”
A very simple act that can hardly be called an operation.
“I’m going to press it with force.”
“By force? Savior?”
Siyeon opened her eyes wide like a surprised rabbit.
"uh."
If there were no four-star officers, including Sepiel, in Savior, it would be a worthy opponent.
< Episode 237 What's Changed (1) > End
