Chapter 372. Last Night’s Dream (2)

There was a boat waiting at the dock.

“It’s not even the next day, but I’m seeing you again,” a middle-aged man with a full beard said, looking at Chi-Hyun pitifully as he quietly got onto the boat.

“You look tired. Why don’t you sleep a bit on the way? I will wake you when we arrive.”

Chi-Hyun nodded and closed his eyes. After some time, the boat arrived at an island, and Chi-Hyun got off. He walked up a mountain and down to the crater. On his way into the cave, his face looked lifeless. He looked extremely tired and worn out. Yet the moment he passed through the portal, he showed no sign of any of that. His eyes emitted a frigid chill while his lips were firmly pressed together. Chi-Hyun was entering the Celestial Realm as a hero.

—Praise the light!

Angels lined up on both sides and exclaimed, but Chi-Hyun didn’t even spare them a glance. He didn’t seem to feel any emotions or feelings. He entered his family’s private lounge and buried himself into a sofa, waiting quietly. Soon afterward, there was a commotion outside. The door opened, and an angel with a cold impression and cascading blonde hair walked inside. It was Laguel.

“Thank you for coming, sir.” Laguel bowed politely and gulped. “I apologize. An incident we failed to account for has occurred, and we sincerely regret having to call for you—” But Laguel couldn’t finish her sentence when she saw Chi-Hyun’s dazed, empty eyes. After all the time they had spent together, she could recognize two truths from this look.

First of all, Chi-Hyun’s mood was terrible. Second, she would only be fueling his anger further if she didn’t dive into the main topic right away.

“It’s that world again?” Fortunately, Chi-Hyun asked first.

Laguel nodded. There were many things she wanted to say, but she swallowed them down. At times like this, she simply needed to immediately answer the questions asked.

“How many times has it been?”

“This is the 25th time.”

“How far apart were the last five crises?”

Laguel replied faithfully. The 21st crisis happened 255 years after the 20th crisis. Then the 22nd happened after 209 years, the 23rd after 152 years, the 24th after 106 years, and the 25th after…

“71 years,” Laguel said.

“71 years is…too short,” Chi-Hyun murmured to himself.

“The cycle is getting more frequent too,” Chi-Hyun rubbed at his temples and said, “It’s not normal.”

How could a world face a crisis big enough to cause its entire ruin three times in one era? There had been no such case anywhere. Even a century was too short for such an occurrence. It was normal for a world to remain peaceful for a couple of centuries before it faced another crisis. That was the law of this universe. If a crisis occurred after only 71 years, there was clearly a problem with the world.

“When I saved it from its 19th crisis, there wasn’t any unresolved problem,” Chi-Hyun said.

“Well…” Laguel hesitated and carefully continued, “We’ve confirmed cracks inside its world.”

Chi-Hyun’s eyebrow rose.

“We are still investigating, but our speculation is that the cracks have formed after the 20th crisis.”

As a warrior, a hero was so strong that it was difficult for them to find a worthy opponent, let alone die at someone’s hands. Even while facing dangers that would’ve killed most, they miraculously survived and pushed through. That was all thanks to the World’s backup. In other words, a hero needed the World’s powers. One had to remember that even this power wasn’t infinite. Compared to the vast universe, one planet’s energy was very limited, and there was a limit to how much one could take from it. Naturally, problems arose when too much of this energy was taken away.

It wasn’t such an abnormal thing for a problem like this to arise. Like how the ozone layer gradually recovered after the use of CFC was banned, one crisis wouldn’t escalate into a greater problem if the world was saved. The world would naturally heal itself. Yet the planet in question wasn’t doing that. After its 20th crisis, it wasn’t given enough time to restore its cracks, and at the same time, the period between each crisis was becoming shorter. Thus, these cracks were getting bigger and bigger until they became noticeable from the surface. In such an unstable world, it wasn’t strange that all sorts of abnormalities would be taking place.

Chi-Hyun stroked the edge of his nose.

“This is a huge headache. How did this happen…?” What kind of complete idiots crawled inside the planet after its 20th crisis that things of this sort were happening? It was obvious. The Celestial Realm had drastically widened the scope of heroes they recruited instead of handpicking a selective number of individuals who had been thoroughly assessed. This caused all sorts of problems. Though they were able to save many more worlds thanks to this change, events that could’ve been prevented before began to arise—just like now. There was no way a planet that had undergone only an event at stellar system scale for its 19th time would reach a state like this.

“I have no excuses…” Laguel said apologetically. “Why don’t you rest a bit for now? As soon as I get more detailed information, I’ll…” Laguel had to stop when Chi-Hyun waved his hand with a frown.

“It’s fine. I’ll go immediately, so get prepared.” There was no need to wait. He would figure out the details once he was there and solve the problem himself.

“…Yes, I understand.” Laguel bowed at 90 degrees and backed away. Chi-Hyun was left alone inside the room again, and he sank deeper into the sofa. He closed his eyes and became lost in his thoughts… Now that he thought about it, he recalled saying that he would have gukbap when he woke up this morning. It seemed he needed to push that off for a bit. He was craving many other dishes besides gukbap, and he wondered how long it would take for him to return this time.

“…It’s hard,” Chi-Hyun murmured to himself and suddenly opened his eyes. Then, he got up, opened the door, and headed to the transmission waiting room. He was setting out for NS21, Liber.

***

The transmission began and ended. As soon as Chi-Hyun got out of the pillar of lights, he saw a thick cluster of people.

“Oh! Finally, a hero…!” An old man wearing a crown stepped forward to greet him. “Welcome, oh hero. I’m the emperor ruling over this empire—”

“Where?” Chi-Hyun had already brushed past the emperor. He looked over his shoulder at the man as he staggered with his hands extended.

“What, yes? No, give me a moment!”

Chi-Hyun stopped walking. “Since about seven to eight hundred years have passed, Hailo and Aila must have already died.”

A look of great surprise flashed through the emperor’s face. The names Chi-Hyun just mentioned were the first emperor and empress who had founded the current empire.

“Besides those two, there should be a blockhead lizard who thinks she’s cute and a dingo whose fart smells so bad that it's basically poisonous gas.”

The emperor was astonished. A few visitors had come to this place and had been waiting for the hero to arrive. But they weren’t someone one would dare to call a lizard or a blockhead. This meant either this hero was a completely impudent bastard whose character didn’t befit a hero, or he was an existence so legendary that he could call the dragon’s successor and the wise sage dingo such names. While thinking this, the emperor recalled the great tales of the hero who had helped save the world when this current empire was first established.

According to the legends, this hero surpassed all others, and he was a hero who other heroes admired—the Celestial Realm’s legend. Soon, the emperor’s expression of discontent changed to one of awe and trust.

“Yes, they are waiting at the temple of the gods.”

“Is the location the same as before?”

“Yes. We’ve only repaired it. It has never moved locations since it was first built, sir.”

Chi-Hyun whirled around without responding. He didn’t have time to linger around the place he had visited centuries ago. When he entered the temple, he saw a couple of people waiting for him as he expected. Their faces looked a bit different from what he remembered.

“As I thought!” The girl with freckles and pigtails looked overjoyed to see Chi-Hyun stomp toward them. “See? I was right. I told you he was definitely going to come this time.”

“…Yes, certainly.” A small raccoon-like creature glanced at him. She averted her eyes in embarrassment the moment their eyes met. “It’s been…a while.”

“Yes, it's been a while. Dingo,” Chi-Hyun responded indifferently, and the dingo pouted in disappointment.

“You are as rude as ever. You could’ve at least called us by our names since it’s our reunion.”

“I got it, Bangboris.”

“W-What?” The dingo jumped up. “It’s not Bangboris, but Boboris!”

“Is that so? There’s something I remember more deeply than your name, so intense that I still can’t erase it from my mind,” Chi-Hyun said in the same tone throughout and took a seat at the round table. “Besides that, this is a surprise…” Chi-Hyun continued while ignoring Boboris as she jumped up and down in anger. He looked at the remaining person sitting in front of him. The figure was staring far off into the distance when nothing existed there.

“What?” the figure asked in a slightly agitated voice. “Are you surprised that a dirty and vile demon is here?”

“No.”

“…Then what?”

“I’m surprised that a runny-nose crybaby who had cried about revenge is still alive and sitting with me.”

“Hey.” The great demon, Bael, slammed the round table and got up. “Do you think I am the same as before?”

“Looks like it.”

“You…!”

“Hey, hey, stop.” As Bael trembled in fury, the freckled girl intervened. “It’s nice to share your greetings, but don’t we have more important matters to take care of?”

Bael gritted her teeth, but seeing that she calmly sat back down, it seemed the situation was truly urgent. There was the emperor’s attitude too, but the fact that a great demon like Bael was also attending the meeting made the situation at Liber more than clear to Chi-Hyun.

“What do the people from above think about this place’s situation?” the freckled girl asked.

“They think a problem formed in this world because of some idiot—quite some time ago.”

“As expected, that’s the case.” The girl nodded. “In some ways, it’s because of you.”

“What?”

“You’d numbed our senses because of how great you were. It made us trust all the heroes who came from the Celestial Realm too much.”

“If you’re going to spout more nonsense, get out of this meeting.”

“Haha, it was a joke. A joke.” The girl waved her hands and sighed. Then her face turned solemn. “But I’m not lying. The hero who came after you was…considerably lacking. It’s only natural that he couldn’t compare to you, of course, but how should I say this? Even with that taken into consideration…the hero was so lacking it made me question his qualifications.”

“…”

“He kept wandering aimlessly after receiving all sorts of buffs and privileges. Because of that, we suffered big losses, and it also strained the World. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that we saved Liber half by luck and half by force.”

Chi-Hyun listened quietly. He didn’t seem particularly surprised by the news.

“The heroes who came after that for…the 21st, 22nd, and the 23rd crises were all the same. Of course, it wasn’t like none of them were decent heroes, but the World had gotten strained after the 20th crisis and never recovered from that.” The girl licked her lips.

“To tell the truth…” the girl said, looking at Chi-Hyun while he listened quietly, “I wished that you would’ve come a bit earlier.” Before it was too late and things couldn’t be turned around.

“There’s no point blaming what happened in the past,” Chi-Hyun said. “How is the current situation on Liber?”

“It’s a mess,” the girl said. There was no other way to describe it other than a ‘mess’.

“That’s not all. Some mysterious foreign creatures have appeared, plagues are prevalent all around, there’s extreme climate change… Crises that could doom us all on its own are happening simultaneously.”

“It’s a collection of many apocalypses.” Chi-Hyun snorted and shook his head. If it was a matter of dealing with a demon lord who had reached deity status, it would’ve been easier. But Chi-Hyun didn’t know where to begin with a crisis of this level.

“First of all, we’ve gathered our heads and tried to think of a solution, but…to tell you the truth, nothing seems viable.”

“I’m sure that’s the case.”

“Thus, we’re asking for your opinion…” In addition to the freckled girl, Boboris and Bael also looked at Chi-Hyun a bit warily. If their last thread of hope had no solution, Liber would have to meet its end. Chi-Hyun didn’t respond immediately. The way his head was slightly tilted seemed to indicate that he was deeply in thought. It would be normal for him to solve each of the issues one by one.

There was a proper sequence of procedures to take when treating a patient suffering from many illnesses. First, porridge or thin rice gruel was fed to the patient so they could gain strength and given mild medicine to stabilize their condition. Then, the patient was fed meat to rejuvenate their lowered energy before they were given strong medicine. Only then could the treatment of the illness begin. That was the proper path to recovery, but they could only follow it if the patient displayed enough stamina to endure.

From Chi-Hyun’s perspective, Liber’s World was already backed to the farthest corner. It was gasping for its breath as if it was going to breathe its last any moment now. Considering the situation, Chi-Hyun couldn’t simply tell them to endure, nor was there a guarantee that the current situation could be maintained. The World was probably burdened further with his entrance, and they needed to consider the possibility that the situation could get even worse. They didn’t have any more time. Extreme prescriptions were required even if they had to risk the side effects.

“It’s difficult,” Chi-Hyun said after organizing everything that had happened. “We need to solve this matter as fast as possible, but also limit the burden put on Liber…” These were conditions incompatible with one another.

“As I thought…it’s hard for you too?” the girl said disappointedly. Liber’s fall seemed to be confirmed the moment Chi-Hyun agreed to this point. It was then Chi-Hyun said, “Gordian Knot.”

“Hm?”

“It can’t be helped. We have to follow the way of Alexander the Great. There’s no other way.”

The girl didn’t know what in the world Chi-Hyun was talking about, but her eyes sparkled. It sounded like there was a way in the end. The other three also understood this and straightened their postures.

“What are you going to do then?”

“Since I can’t do anything about what has already happened, I will tackle the cause.”

“Hm?”

“This World,” Chi-Hyun tapped the round table with his index finger, “I’ll reset Liber’s World.”