Chapter 442. Choi Chi-Woos

The moment Chi-Woo stepped inside, a brilliant light filled his vision. It was so bright that it blinded his vision briefly, but Chi-Woo tried hard not to close his eyes as he didn’t know what would be waiting for him at the end of this portal. Chi-Woo forced his eyes open to the best of his ability

‘…How much longer do I have to walk?’ No matter how much he walked, there was no end in sight. Even when he stayed still and waited, there were no signs that he would be transported to another place. When he began to think that this was a type of ordeal where he needed to endure and reach the end of this long path, he felt the bright light that filled his vision quickly subside. Then something white that wasn’t light covered his vision. The moment he recognized it, “Huuuuff!”, his stifled breath rushed out, and the same sensation he felt when he tripped came over him.

Chi-Woo barely managed to stop himself from falling before he raised his head. His surroundings were extremely noisy. All around him were voices that sounded shocked. There weren’t tens of hundreds of them, but still an immeasurable number. He had finally arrived at his destination. Chi-Woo wondered who on earth had called him here, going so far to even demand his rewards for promotion to Master tier. ‘Let’s see what they look like.’ Chi-Woo firmly resolved himself in an instant and looked up with a deep breath.

“…” Immediately, his mouth opened wide. Even though he had prepared himself, confusion spread across his face like watercolor. “What…” Then his expression turned shocked like those around him. “What the…what…” His reaction was only natural. The vast, seemingly boundless white space was packed with people, but the problem was that they were not strangers he’d never seen before.

“What the heck? Who are all of you?”

Chi-Woo looked around.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

And wherever he looked, they were all—

“…Doppelgangers?” There were Chi-Woos everywhere. Or to be more exact, everyone existing in this space was all Chi-Woo. The Chi-Woo who just spoke up continued, “Or are you all Sernitas, newly created with my information?”

Chi-Woo looked around and became speechless when he saw another Chi-Woo reveal his intention to fight. Doppelgangers? Sernitas? That was what he wanted to say. Besides, there were just too many, way too many Chi-Woos. Thousands, tens of thousands…no, maybe over hundreds of thousands—!

Bam! Suddenly, there was an explosion, and the Chi-Woos on one side quickly withdrew in shock.

“Die!”

“No, you die!”

A fight broke out between Chi-Woos. One held a burnt club, another held up a club of light conjured with Armed with the Sixth Element, and they collided in an instant.

“Yeah, I knew it! Ha! Why, was copying my weapon too hard for you?”

“Bullshit! I guess you didn’t apply the information from the Kobalos’ magic fire pit?”

They screamed at the top of their lungs and fiercely fought each other. Battles like this were taking place everywhere.

‘What should I do? First, I should also…!’ Chi-Woo, who had no idea what to do, was putting up his guard against all directions and was about to pull out his ghost-busting club. However, his surroundings suddenly became quiet, and no one said a word, including the Chi-Woos who had been secretly taking out their weapons like him. All the Chi-Woos who were fighting each other immediately stopped what they were all doing without a single exception. Then everyone tilted their heads and looked up—at the universe beyond the white space that surrounded them. The next moment, Chi-Woo was captivated by a strange sensation.

The U.S. astronomer, Carl Sagan, once pointed at Earth in space and called it a pale blue dot. More than feeling like they were no more than a lab rat, the moment they faced the outer universe, all the Chi-Woos felt as if they were even less than the dust floating in space. They felt the presence of a giant, which seemed to encompass the entire universe, lean back and look down at this space. A silence where they couldn’t even hear a pin drop permeated the entire space.

—Hmm.

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang in his ear.

—There’s more than I expected? This can’t be…

Although the voice was slightly thin and echoed in his ears, he thought it was definitely familiar.

“Who are you?” one Chi-Woo asked. “Are you the one who called us here?”

Chi-Woo was hit with a strange feeling as he saw a Chi-Woo calmly ask a question, and he thought, ‘Am I that calm?’ There was no reply from space. It seemed as if the giant was pondering. At that moment, a light suddenly streamed down. It grew bigger and left a long tail of light like a meteor falling from space. Of course, unlike a meteor, the light didn’t crash headlong. It stopped mid-air and quickly began to take shape. Then most of the Chi-Woos doubted their eyes as a figure appeared into view.

“That’s right.” The person who was speaking while floating in the air was a woman. “I’m the one who called all of you here.” No matter how many times Chi-Woo looked at her, she was a woman with a bored expression, and she looked strangely familiar. Judging by her long hair, the curve of her upper body, narrow waist, and hips, she was definitely a woman, but Chi-Woo couldn’t erase the thought that she looked a lot like him. Yeah, if he had an older or young sister, she might have looked like her.

“What?” Then one person let out a shrill sound. “What? Who are you?”

Chi-Woo instinctively turned around and was shocked again. It was because the woman gaping and pointing looked exactly like the woman in the air. They looked like identical twins. On second thought, there weren’t only men in this place. Whether they were Chi-Woos or not, there were also a few women who looked like Chi-Woo, and they all looked exactly like the woman in the air.

“What do you mean who?” the woman in the air said bluntly. “Then who are you?”

“Me? I’m Choi Yoo-Joo.”

“I’m also Choi Yoo-Joo.”

“?”

When the woman in the air revealed her name as Choi Yoo-Joo, the woman who also identified herself as Choi Yoo-Joo tilted her head.

“Choi Chi-Woo…Choi Yoo-Joo…” The Chi-Woo who had boldly asked the woman in the air for her identity muttered to himself and asked another question, “Then Ms. Choi Yoo-Joo? Would you tell us the reason you brought so many Choi Chi-Woos and Choi Yoo-Joos here?”

One Choi Yoo-Joo shouted, “I didn’t call everyone here!”

“No, I’m not asking you. I’m asking the person floating in the air.”

One of the Choi Yoo-Joos who had been standing around adamantly denied it, and the Choi Yoo-Joo in the air stared down at the scene and smacked her lips. “Yeah…I should tell you. However, before that,” she stopped mid sentence, and then her eyes flashed. “I need to weed out the crowd at least once.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I tried to pull in as many as possible, but there are way more than I expected.”

“What are you talking—”

“I’m saying that there are Choi Chi-Woos and Choi Yoo-Joos who are not supposed to be here. I have no idea what on earth they were thinking when they crawled all the way here…” The Choi Yoo-Joo in the air scratched her head and continued with an irritated tone as if she found this whole situation very troublesome. “First of all, I need to see if each of you really deserve to come here. If you don’t, I’ll send you right back.”

“Bullshit!” Then a furious voice rang out. “You’re the one who told us to come here. But now, you want to send us back as soon as we’re here?” A Chi-Woo with gloomy eyes shouted with his face stained with fury. “Do you have any idea what I’ve offered to come here?”

Quite a few Choi Chi-Woos and Choi Yoo-Joos nodded. However, the Choi Yoo-Joo in the air didn’t look fazed in the least. She stared at the angry Chi-Woo and smiled blandly. “Did I force you to come here?”

“W-What?”

“It’s true that I opened the way for you, but wasn’t it your choice?”

The angry Chi-Woo gaped. He tried to shout something but—

“You and I are born as different sexes, but if we share the same fate, I’m sure your intuition must have told you this—that you can’t, it’s not you.”

The angry Chi-Woo shut his mouth at her following words.

“I gave a separate revelation just in case…well, if you didn’t even understand that, it’d be better for you to go back even if you’re qualified. How are you going to save anyone with such an empty head?” The Yoo-Joo in the air let out a cold sneer.

The angry Chi-Woo gritted his teeth, but didn’t dare to attack as he recalled how she had encompassed the entirety of the vast universe and looked down at the space where they all were before she revealed herself. Her presence had been so overwhelming that he didn’t even dare to fight.

“Anyway, can you stop making such a fuss for paying a price that’s not even worth mentioning? I don’t know how many people this applies to, but there must be Choi Chi-Woos and Choi Yoo-Joos who have given up all the rewards for their promotion to Master tier to come here.”

A buzz arose at Choi Yoo-Joo’s words.

‘What? Rewards for promotion to Master Tier?’

‘Are they crazy?’

‘Mine…mine wasn’t that big.’

Being one of the few that fit Choi Yoo-Joo’s criteria, Chi-Woo scratched his cheek in puzzlement. ‘What’s happening?’ He had thought they had all paid the same price, but that wasn’t the case. Chi-Woo organized his thoughts. The conversations exchanged so far had given him some insight into the situation, but it was still too early to jump to conclusions.

He thought he'd be more certain if he heard more, but…that woman in the air named Choi Yoo-Joo seemed like no ordinary opponent.

“If you all understand…I’ll start.” The Yoo-Joo in the air exhaled and tucked her long hair behind her ears. The next moment, there was commotion all over the place because without them willing it so, their Celestial Realm devices all opened up and disclosed their user information. It didn’t reveal everything, but one innate ability.

[Ab?????? ???????ty EX] It was the same for Chi-Woo. He looked at the innate ability printed out in the air. It was the ability he had had since he first opened his user information, but he still hadn’t been able to uncover what it was, and it was still shrouded in mystery. Why did this ability open up so suddenly? He was soon able to find out the answer.

“You go back.”

“You too.”

“You haven’t even unlocked a single letter yet? No, weren’t you able to? Anyway, that’s amazing in itself too. You stay for now.”

“Wow. What’s up with you? You unlocked only the latter two syllables…you’re crazy. You’re definitely going back.”

It wasn’t even a second. 0.1 second. No, it might be even less than 0.01 second. In less than the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of Chi-Woos and Yoo-Joos were disappearing. It was hard to believe even though he was seeing everything unfold with his own eyes. It was a frightening speed. He heard her voice everywhere but couldn’t follow her movement. Like this, countless numbers of Chi-Woos and Yoo-Joos were one-sidedly dismissed without being able to say a single word. After careful observation, Chi-Woo thought he could guess what her criteria was in deciding whether to let someone stay or to kick someone out and send them back.

‘She mentioned syllables.’ Chi-Woo couldn’t see the other Chi-Woos’ and Yoo-Joo’s user information. However, judging by how his ability was forcibly disclosed, he could guess what she was looking at. it must be the number of ‘?’ that had been revealed.

‘No. That’s not it.’ She didn’t send back someone that hadn’t even revealed a single syllable and let them stay. Then rather than how many ‘?’ they revealed, it was—

“Wow-!” It was then he heard an exclamation. The Yoo-Joo in the air, who had been moving so fast that he couldn’t even see her, stopped for the first time. She stopped in the air and was looking down at one person. It was another Choi Yoo-Joo just like herself.

“You unlocked two syllables in the first word? At this point in time?” She stared at the Yoo-Joo standing right below her with surprise. “The latter part is clean on top of that. Amazing. It’s perfect. At this time, I could also only open up the first syllable of the first word but…” She clicked her tongue and let out an empty laugh. “I see. You must be the counterpart of that crazy guy earlier. If there is such a ruined fate, there must be a perfect fate like yours.”

She rubbed her chin and nodded. Then the Yoo-Joo, who received such lavish compliments, smiled softly. “Then may I stay here?”

“Of course. Even if you want to go back, I’ll cling to the edge of your pants and beg you to stay.”

“Then I’ll stay.”

“Good. Just wait for now. It’s almost over.” The Yoo-Joo in the air smiled and turned right away. Then numerous Chi-Woos and Yoo-Joos began to disappear again. Chi-Woo felt an unknown sense of anxiety as the crowd around him thinned. He felt confident, but no one knew what would happen. And his concern turned out to be warranted. Although he couldn’t see her—Chi-Woo clearly felt Yoo-Joo pass by him at a tremendous speed, and while she did, she reached out toward him without hesitation. “You retur—”

Return like this? Really? Although he didn’t know the exact criteria, he had come here after giving up all his rewards for promotion to Master tier. Just when he was thinking this—

“…What?” Yoo-Joo, who seemed like she wouldn’t stop again, stopped. Then she soon revealed herself. “You came here at the price of your promotion rewards to Master Tier? You?”

All eyes focused on him, including the Yoo-Joo who had been praised for her ‘perfect fate’. Chi-Woo’s posture stiffened further.

“No way. How can a fate that reveals a syllable in the latter word…” Yoo-Joo muttered to herself as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing and then, getting a good look at Chi-Woo’s innate ability, she froze. “…Uh?” She blinked like crazy in that state and then tightly shut her eyes and opened them again. Then she softly said after seeing that Chi-Woo’s user information had remained unchanged, “A syllable from the first and second words…are both revealed…?” She frowned, and her fair brows arched. “What, what’s with you?”

The Yoo-Joo in the air showed a similar but different reaction from when she saw the Yoo-Joo with perfect fate. “This…a fate like this…” Her reaction beforehand was ‘that’s amazing’, but this time, it went beyond mere surprise to extreme shock, as if she was witnessing a miracle that should have been impossible in front of her. “What came first?” The Yoo-Joo in the air was speechless for a while and then shouted like a thunderbolt, “‘Ab’ or ‘ty’, which was unlocked first! Hurry and tell me!” She didn’t even give him time to answer and quickly urged him.

“The latter. And the first syllable unlocked next.”

“…No way.” Yoo-Joo’s frown deepened further. “The star that should have already entered the path of retrogression are going back in order…it’s something that should have never happened. Unless you changed your own path…” Yu-Ju quickly muttered to herself and turned around. “And there’s no counterpart either?” She bit her lower lip gently and continued muttering, “If it’s the one and only fate…then…” She suddenly opened her eyes to the fullest. “…Perhaps.” She raised her head and stared blankly at Chi-Woo. “Don’t tell me you’re…”