Chapter 295. The Great Collapse (1)
Would it be possible for a weak person to not be selfish?
In a world like this?
There were no exceptions.
In order to survive, weak people needed to adopt the mindset of trampling upon others and stealing.
And it was the case for me.
But everyone is granted a chance to change.
No matter if that change if one you wanted or not.
***
Rummble.
TMT-1 stopped attacking as it saw Hansoo emitting a strange aura.
Mudusella had told him to stop his attacks as soon as something changed about Hansoo.
‘… I wouldn’t want to attack him even without her order.’
TMT-1 mumbled to himself as he watched the strange creature in front of him whose entire bone and muscle structures were being reconstructed.
It seemed like every part of Hansoo was changing.
And even the color of his reinforcement skill was changing as well.
The previous beautiful, dark gold light turned chaotic.
As if it was purifying and stabilizing itself before going up onto the next level.
And as most of these lights entered Hansoo’s body, Hansoo stood up.
Hansoo looked around as TMT-1 met his gaze.
‘… Something clearly changed.’
It wasn’t just a physical change.
His mentality had also changed.
And another existence came up inside TMT-1’s head once he saw this ‘new’ Hansoo.
‘Tiamet.’
Hansoo’s previous eyes were very similar to them, the TMT series.
Eyes which only followed orders and sought after battle.
So TMT-1 had actually looked down on Hansoo.
He was befuddled at how this guy, who had been born with something none of them had, had fallen to the same level as them.
But now, his eyes were completely different.
His eyes now had countless emotions and desires which he was suppressing as much as he could.
And TMT-1 had seen this before.
There was one among their ranks who had gone through the same thing.
Tiamet.
A man who had been born a machine, a tool and had succeeded after chasing after his desires until the end.
With the single desire to climb over the wall.
TMT-1’s speculations weren’t wrong.
A lot of changes were indeed happening both inside and outside of Hansoo.
‘This was erased… Was this erased too? Gosh.’
Hansoo mumbled as he chuckled.
His memories were coming back.
Memories of the past when he had climbed up alongside Jang Oh.
When he had met Clementine, Eres, Keldian and Kangtae.
When the Abyss had opened up and he and the others had defeated Clementine.
And how he had reached the Time Crystal deep within the Abyss with the surviving humans.
Most of this was along what he originally remembered.
Minus a few missing things.
‘… Eres, Keldian.’
Eres’s trait, <Lord>, created gaps in his mind as Keldian’s skill rushed into his head.
Not in a harsh way.
Very softly.
But very effectively.
So they could lead Hansoo towards the direction they wanted.
By erasing memories that got in the way and planting information inside him that created an obsession deep inside his heart.
But it was all coming back.
And his physical body was evolving as his Demonic Dragon Reinforcement advanced.
The suppressed soul dispersed and reformed and was completely fixed.
“… Saving humans… How tedious.”
Hansoo looked towards the golden army below the spaceship that had risen high up as he mumbled.
For them to prepare such a large amount of tools for him who preferred to work solo.
Though it was him who had done it in the end, it didn’t really feel like it was his work.
Since if it was really him, he wouldn’t have done any of this.
‘I guess I understand why they have done this.’
Hansoo compared his original memories and the new memories he had made after coming back to the past and chuckled.
If it was his original personality then he would’ve given this all up many times over.
Crack.
Hansoo checked his body and started to ponder.
About what he would do from now on.
His body had changed and his mentality had changed as well.
He found his lost memories, escaped his binds and found himself again.
His goal should change as well.
Different from the original plan of Eres and Keldian, he should achieve what they wanted through his own style.
‘I understand your good intentions, but… you really shouldn’t treat a friend like this.’
Eres and Keldian’s plan was very simple.
Stop the release of the information regarding the future and the Abyss and strengthen the humans step by step.
By gathering the various relics throughout the seven zones and preventing infighting between the humans.
And both of these things had been going well up until this Green Zone.
‘It wasn’t bad. At least until now.’
Hansoo chuckled.
The past him would’ve never been able to do any of this.
It wasn’t his abilities that were the issue but rather his personality, it didn’t fit him.
But the result wasn’t bad.
Though him having been forced by somebody didn’t feel that good, the fact that he had created a basis for a large amount of people to survive was a good thing.
This was why he liked Eres.
He had been able to chase after a goal that he usually could never even dream of because of his personality.
‘But not like this… I’ll see you after I climb back up.’
Hansoo decided to forget about Eres and Keldian for now.
There was no point in agonizing over Eres and Keldian whom he couldn’t even see right now and everything that had happened up until now was because of their interference.
It was time to forget about them.
He had to plan his future.
‘Well, I do have to win.’
He agreed that he had to win against the residents of the Abyss just like Keldian.
He also agreed that the entire human race had to become stronger just like Eres.
But their methods were wrong.
‘… Was our plan the perfect plan?’
They created a new clan by using the knowledge they gained from the Abyss as the basis as well as the experience they had gained when they passed through the seven worlds.
Stopping the invasion of the Abyss as much as they could, increasing the strength of individual humans to the utmost limit and fight the Abyss together.
But after putting together the countless secrets of the zones he hadn’t known in the past, a new solution appeared inside his head.
‘Not like this. Look at them all.’
Hansoo clicked his tongue as he looked at the golden army that was below through the panel on the spaceship.
They looked good on the surface but that was it.
The beings of the Abyss were strong.
Very strong.
This was nowhere enough.
Hansoo spoke towards TMT-1 who had been staring at him the whole time.
“Hey. Let me borrow your ship for a bit.”
***
Ooooooong.
“… What is that?”
“What the hell. Did the Ains do something?”
“… It’ll be bad if it’s the Kingdom’s weapon.”
A formidable surface and its overflowing energy.
If a weapon was on board then it would become an indestructible weapon and even if there weren’t any weapons, it would still be dangerous.
From the amount of energy that flew through it, merely self destructing it would cause a tremendous explosion.
And there might be a ton of things inside it since it seemed like there was a lot of space within it as well.
Every adventurer looked towards the spaceship that had flown into the sky in a worry.
It would best if it was their ally but the chances of that being true was very low.
At that moment.
Kiiiiiiiiing.
A few beams of light came out from the ship as a giant hologram appeared in the air.
A hologram which resembled a certain someone.
And the moment everyone saw this.
“Huh?”
“… Where the hell did he even get such a thing.”
“Phew… Thank god. What took him so long.”
The adventurers sighed out in relief with a slightly confused expression.
An extremely familiar face had shown up.
And it filled them with hope.
‘I don’t know how he’s using it but… Not bad.’
And they could tell that it was good for them from the expression of the people from the Kingdom.
‘Could we climb up without fighting this time again?’
‘That would be nice.’
Though they didn’t say it out loud, they had all thought the same thing.
As to how much they could climb while avoiding the fights.
Most people didn’t like fights.
Fights where their lives were on the line.
But as most of the adventurers sighed.
‘… Is that really Hansoo?’
Some people who had been with Hansoo for quite a bit of time, like Mihee, made confused expressions.
Something felt different about Hansoo’s expression.
Karhal and Ekidu looked towards Mudusella to see what this all of this was about but Mudusella merely shrugged her shoulders.
No, she wasn’t just pretending not to know.
She actually didn’t know how Hansoo would change.
She had just smashed apart his restraints as payment for releasing them but even she didn’t know what would happen as a result.
As Karhal and Ekidu made worried expressions while looking at Hansoo.
— Mudusella, I know you’re listening. And you, Cykrus, let’s talk.
A giant voice came out from the spaceship as it rang throughout the entire area.
‘… What’s he planning?’
Everyone was confused at this request.
***
TMT-1, who had projected Hansoo’s hologram outside according to his request, asked Hansoo because he was curious about why Hansoo had called Mudusella and Cykrus over.
“What are you planning.”
Hansoo shrugged his shoulders as he replied to TMT-1’s question.
“I’m going to flip everything upside down. That’s the answer right?”
“…”
‘Why is he asking me?’
How would he know what Hansoo was thinking?
But then Hansoo asked another question.
Not at TMT-1 but rather, into the air.
“Answer me, the thing we are doing… Is not the right path right?”
This wasn’t the path that led towards victory.
One would find the answer if they combined the path Tiamet took and the hints hidden throughout the world.
An answer they would be able to find only by smashing apart their common sense and logic.
At that moment.
Craaaack.
The space split open as a small creature replied to Hansoo with a smile.
“Not bad. Taking care of you guys was really annoying me. Thankfully you’ve figured out the intent of the creator of this game. Did you feel something while you were playing war?”
Hansoo nodded.
With a slightly bitter expression.
“Yeah… We should’ve… Opened the Abyss from the very beginning.”
And then.
“You pass.”
The fairy smiled in contentment.