Chapter 308
Inside the World Tree root strand where he was pulled in reverse after using the Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit.
It was a pitch-black space where not a single ray of light entered.
'The chains of the Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit have disappeared… But I can't move my body.'
With the energy in his body gone and unable to move a muscle, he could only see and hear in this dark space.
At that moment,
Flash!
A green light appeared far away.
It soon swirled and became a huge vortex.
'What is that?'
As he watched for a moment, wondering what it was.
Swoosh…
In the center of the vortex, a red light flashed.
It soon gathered into a circular shape and moved like an eye.
And then,
[Put them in.]
From within that red dot, a language Seong Jihan had never heard before resounded.
It was a language he had never heard before, but strangely, he could understand the meaning of the other party's words.
As his words ended like that.
Thud! Thud!
From above, something began to fall.
'…They're people, aren't they?'
The hundreds of people fell from above.
Men and women, young and old, of various genders and age groups, looked around with trembling eyes.
"*##$!"
"#[email protected]$…"
Seong Jihan, who could understand the words of the red eye but couldn't understand a single word of the humans who fell here.
Some of the people walked towards where Seong Jihan was.
Swoosh!
They passed right through where he was.
'Hmm… Is this perhaps an illusion.'
The people who neither perceived nor collided with Seong Jihan.
He decided to observe the situation for now.
And before long,
[I brought some too.]
Another green vortex appeared from the other side.
Thud! Thud!
About a hundred more people fell inside.
And when this process was repeated 3 more times.
About 500 people were trapped in this space of darkness.
"@[email protected]!#!"
"@#*…"
As 500 people gathered together and were confused like that.
[500 have gathered.]
[Begin the experiment.]
The red eyes in the vortex that reached the target number flashed all at once.
Then,
Drip! Drip…
Red liquid fell drop by drop from above and touched where the people were.
Sizzle…!
The people hit by those droplets had their bodies burn and instantly turned to ashes and disappeared.
"^Percent[email protected]$!!"
To avoid being touched by the red liquid, people ran in all directions.
But the droplets that fell one by one soon rained down like rain and touched all 500 people.
Then, the people quickly disappeared.
Only Seong Jihan could observe this unaffected inside.
Flash!
[Is this the price of erasing the limit?]
[The price of removing the limit is gruesome. How can they be so weak?]
'They removed the limit?'
At those words, Seong Jihan recalled the Celestial Cube.
The item that increased the limit of the race didn't work on humans.
[Instead of abolishing the limit setting, how about just increasing it? And making the basic foundation of the species sturdy.]
[Then it's meaningless. They will eventually reach the set limit anyway.]
[But with such a frail race, isn't the experiment a failure? They can't even endure a single drop of the root's sap.]
[It's too early to determine the experiment a failure. Let's continue.]
Swoosh…
The vortexes disappeared and the experiment resumed again.
How many times did hundreds of people pour in and burn up and disappear in the red liquid?
Crackle…!
The people who used to turn to ashes instantly began to endure the flames to some extent.
"Aaaah!"
Accordingly, the cases of screams erupting from all directions also increased.
'From the experimenters' perspective, it must have been more comfortable when they died in one hit.'
Compared to when they instantly burned up upon contact with a single drop, the time of suffering only increased for humanity.
Moreover, the experiment that started with 500 people gradually increased in scale.
[If we put in more, they'll die from being crushed.]
[If they die from that, they're useless experimental subjects anyway. Put in more.]
[Right. we are wasting sap here.]
Later, thousands to over 10,000 people poured in at once.
Although the dark space seemed to have no visible limits from the outside.
As people poured in in droves, humanity was blocked at a certain point and couldn't spread out any further.
Lumped together and crushed in a huge container.
Many people died before the experiment even began.
And then, the red liquid falling from above.
Crackle…!
As flames engulfed the 10,000 humans, the inside quickly turned into a hellish scene.
Perhaps because they weren't incinerated all at once like before, a terrible inferno unfolded inside.
Seong Jihan frowned.
'…To them, humanity is nothing more than a simple experimental subject.'
10,000 humans were incinerated like that.
Flash!
From the eyes in the vortex that saw this, a voice flowed out.
[Even after strengthening them to the maximum, they can't even endure the sap…]
[The experiment is a failure.]
[What a pity. I will dispose of this race.]
The vortex that declared 'disposal' for the humans who couldn't endure the red liquid.
But at that moment…
Wriggle…
Something moved in the red liquid slightly pooled on the floor.
Swoosh!
In the space where 10,000 people had melted away, a small child suddenly revealed itself.
A child unharmed even when wrapped in the red liquid that melted humanity.
[1 experimental subject survived.]
[A mutant? Not only enduring the sap but also successfully absorbing it.]
[But it's still pathetically weak… How about we just start anew?]
[For now, let's continue the experiment a bit more with this individual. If this individual dies, we'll dispose of the race.]
Perhaps because a survivor emerged after numerous experiments, the voices in the vortex were more lively than ever.
Of course, they had made up their minds to dispose of the human race if this individual died.
[It survived this time too.]
[Unexpectedly useful.]
[Let's propagate the race centered around this being.]
[There will be limits to sowing seeds alone. We'll have to give it some authority of domination.]
As the child continued to survive.
And even grew healthily, they began to engrave patterns on his body.
At a glance, they were incomparably complex patterns rather than letters.
[Granting domination code]
Letters that clearly conveyed their meaning to Seong Jihan.
It felt similar to when he saw the Destruction code.
However,
'Unlike the Destruction code, the life force is strongly felt in the elements that make up the letters.'
As Seong Jihan was analyzing the letters and focusing on them like that.
Flash!
An intense light burst out from the patterns engraved on the grown child's body.
And the world stopped.
-I didn't die.
A voice reached Seong Jihan's ears.
Swoosh…
And the grown child disappeared.
Light began to enter the dark space.
Along with it, a sense of reality was felt.
Clank! Clank!
The chains that had extended from Seong Jihan's own body to his arms and legs were now strangling him instead.
And then,
Thud! Thud!
"Did you watch closely? Child."
A man walked up to him.
"…Gilgamesh?"
* * *
A man with the exact same impression as the one Seong Jihan had seen in Pythia's prophecy.
Seong Jihan could quickly figure out who he was by looking at his appearance and way of speaking.
"To be precise, it's an illusion he left in the root."
"You sure do all sorts of things."
"All sorts of things, no, it was all carefully planned for the sake of humanity."
Seong Jihan closely observed the being in front of him.
The translucent Gilgamesh without substance.
No force was felt from him at all.
He was definitely an illusion.
'But I still need to be prepared, not knowing what this bastard might pull.'
Seong Jihan glanced around.
A cavity made of brown wooden walls.
Seong Jihan's chains were stuck in all directions here.
Is this the space inside the World Tree root?
'Life force keeps flowing in through the chains of the Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit…'
The tremendous life force being injected from the root through the chains.
It was still within Seong Jihan's body's tolerance range.
But if force kept accumulating like this, it seemed like he would be completely consumed by it.
While thinking of a countermeasure to this, Seong Jihan outwardly asked Gilgamesh, pretending to be surprised.
"A little while ago, was the survivor you?"
"That's right."
"Was that what happened in the beginning… You're showing me well what happened then."
"Hoho, speaking of the primordial events is prohibited by the agreement with the Martial God, but… You just happened to witness the memories I left in the root, so this isn't a breach of contract."
Is this how he avoided the contract with the Martial God?
This feels more like the King of Scams than the King of Humans.
Seong Jihan asked him.
"What's the reason for showing me this?"
"Hmm… Your speech is still short."
At Seong Jihan's question, Gilgamesh suddenly crossed his arms as if something displeased him.
"The king commands. Show the utmost respect from now on."
"But I don't want to?"
"…What?"
Gilgamesh's eyes widened.
He looked at Seong Jihan in surprise and nodded.
"As expected of one with a Martial Soul. You don't get dominated in one go, huh? Then, watch again."
Swoosh…
The world darkened.
And the scene Seong Jihan had seen a little while ago replayed.
Humanity participating in the experiment, starting from 500 to 10,000.
And Gilgamesh, who survived from there.
Up to the five vortexes granting the domination code to the grown him.
Seong Jihan, who had to watch the movie he had seen from the beginning again.
"Don't make it troublesome. Bow to the king, Seong Jihan."
When Gilgamesh's illusion arrogantly spoke.
"You do it."
He countered with a calm face.
Then, Gilgamesh's expressions were distorted.
"No… No matter how much of a Martial Soul, how? Humans should be dominated by me…!"
"Because of the domination code?"
"Domination code? The code… Can you read it?"
At Seong Jihan's words, his eyes widened in disbelief.
'This guy saw me using the Destruction code earlier, why is he acting like this?'
At first, Seong Jihan couldn't understand his reaction.
"Ah, you're an illusion prepared before you clashed with me in the Tower of Babel, right?"
"No, how… did you know that?"
"Because Gilgamesh in the tower saw me using the code. The one who saw that wouldn't be surprised about me reading it."
"Using the code… You did?"
Gilgamesh's illusion looked at Seong Jihan in disbelief upon hearing those words.
"Impossible! How can a human body use the code! Even I… still can't do it…!"
"So, you kept showing me the code because you wanted to dominate me?"
Since he couldn't directly use the domination code, he intentionally played back scenes of the domination code being written to try to dominate Seong Jihan.
Gilgamesh slowly nodded at Seong Jihan's words.
"…Yes. You, who have reached the root, have enough value to be dominated. I decided to definitely have you, even if I had to give up one strand. Even I couldn't stop you from becoming a constellation candidate. And you even cleared the tower. I resolved to dominate you even if I had to use one root, but…"
Seong Jihan found it absurd upon hearing the illusion's words.
How many traps does this guy set and live in?
'But… The life force possessed by the chains has decreased.'
Seong Jihan felt the chains that were strangling him in reverse weaken.
Whether it was due to the illusion's agitation or because he replayed that domination code scene.
Anyway, he couldn't miss this opportunity.
Snap!
The chains that had extended from Seong Jihan's body broke.
"Kuk… Unbelievable… Watch, again…!"
Gilgamesh's illusion retreated and replayed the earlier scene once more.
Perhaps because Seong Jihan wasn't bound, the domination code writing scene appeared in front of him as a huge screen.
Now it seemed like he was trying to bind Seong Jihan by playing only the essence.
However,
"I said it won't work."
Seong Jihan saw that and chuckled.
"Ah, right. Should I try writing it?"
He tried writing the domination code that appeared on the screen.
Following his hand, letters were engraved in the air.
Because the base was life force, the power was vastly insufficient, and the pattern didn't even fill 1/5.
"Wr-Writing the code…"
Gilgamesh's illusion plopped down on the spot as soon as he saw that.
And then,
Into the letters that were only written 1/5.
Swoosh…!
Life force got sucked in from all directions.
'I only wrote the 'Domi' of domination, but it still has this much effect?'
As Seong Jihan was looking at the collapsing world.
[Detected fragments of incomplete ability, beginning absorption.]
[Would you like to acquire the stat 'Eternity'?]
A message window appeared to him.