Chapter 291

“Cheon Seong-Hwi... He always keeps his word,” mumbled an old man with a cane, standing on top of the Empire State Building as the wind disheveled his white hair.

He was Lee Bong-Seong, the Immortal Marine.

“Lee Kang-San... you left after raising a magnificent successor. It sure is like you,” he remarked as he looked across the horizon, impressed by Seong-Hwi’s accomplishments.

The first time he heard about Seong-Hwi’s plan for Together, he believed the chances of its success were minuscule. It was a great idea for a good purpose, but the means were the issue.

Despite that, Bong-Seong was still satisfied that Seong-Hwi had proposed a vision that could allow humanity to dream of the future. Humans couldn’t live without dreams, and a unified dream brought them together.

“I can’t believe he made a deal with the First Lord, Grandis. Haha, if someone were to tell me something like that a few years ago, I would have called them insane.”

However, Seong-Hwi had made it happen. As proof, the Capital was currently flying toward the center. Bong-Seong looked up at the night sky, flowing past them, and was reminded of a cold voice.

“Do you want me to show you something interesting?”

“Interesting, my ass. My heart almost stopped, you damn daredevil,” he mumbled.

Seong-Hwi knew how to use Chaos Mana; not just any Chaos Mana, but the Cosmos, exclusive to the Bachtashas. The appearance of the floating gold crown over his head and his signature wings filled with the Cosmos had shocked Bong-Seong.

“Lee Bong-Seong, leader of the conservative faction! I would have never expected you to be a Chaos Human!”

Bong-Seong groaned as he rubbed his neck, which Seong-Hwi had grabbed back then. “I... had no choice. I really didn’t. If you had been Lost in that era and faced the same situation as me... You would have done the same.”

The memories of his past engulfed him when he closed his eyes.

***

Exactly ten years from now, some time had passed since Bong-Seong was Lost into the Mirror World. The Capital back then was nothing like the current Capital. There were no laws or order, and the Union had not even been made yet. The city had been a hellscape filled with murder, theft, and rape, even in broad daylight.

People were broken after experiencing the mandatory quest. There were no such things as trailblazers back then, so everyone had to figure out for themselves how to use stats, defeat the Chaos, optimize their skill tree, and overcome panic and depression.

Humanity’s destiny seemed to be decided: be killed by the Chaos as they collect Karma, become a Body from failing to pay the survival tax, or kill fellow humans to pay the survival tax. The first-generation humans, including Bong-Seong, called those wretched days the Black Age.

Bong-Seong had stepped up as a pivotal figure in the miserable Black Age and shouted, “We need rules and educational facilities! Above all, we need governmental authority to keep Dark Humans in check!”

He busied himself by leading his clan, Reserve Forces. He saw that it was necessary to unite various clans to create a consolidated group. Hence, he sometimes persuaded and other times used force to expand their union. After months, he succeeded in his goal to unite a hundred clans.

“It’s finally done! This should be enough to create a vigilante group. As long as each clan finances a squad of humans, it will work!”

Bong-Seong named the squad the League of Trailblazers and waged war against the Dark Humans taking over the Capital. The league, which later became the Union, was more than enough to threaten the Dark Humans, who had been living like kings in the Capital.

Hence, the Dark Humans, who used to do whatever they liked, also began to join forces, naming their association Elysium, which meant paradise. They also had a man who had become their leader with his overwhelming charisma—the leader of Clan Dark Tomorrow, Carry Yesterday.

It was inevitable for Carry, who earned the fear and respect of every single Dark Human with his brutality and mercilessness, to clash against Bong-Seong.

We were victorious in a few battles, but had no choice but to be defeated in the most crucial moments. There was no one... who could stop Carry Yesterday, Bong-Seong thought.

Carry was far too strong. He did not tire even against hundreds of humans. Thinking back on it now, Bong-Seong was certain that Carry was already as powerful back then as a High Ranker of the present day.

Even if Carry were among the first group of people who had been Lost, there was only a difference of one or two years between him and Bong-Seong. He couldn’t believe how Carry had been ahead of him by over a decade. Unless he were a pre-awakener, which was practically a folk tale in the Mirror World, that level of power was incomprehensible back then.

Carry’s unfathomable power was enough to plunge the League of Trailblazers into despair. Skepticism bore fruit in the league, and the number of withdrawing clans only grew.

“No! Just a little longer, and we can eliminate Carry Yesterday! I have requested assistance from those focusing on the reclamation! We just need to borrow their help!” Bong-Seong shouted as he tried his best to keep them.

However, that one small crack in the league only grew, accelerating its destruction. On the other hand, Elysium was only growing stronger by the day.

It’s... over... A nation of murderers will be born, Bong-Seong thought, also having become exhausted after months of a hopeless battle.

He walked through the streets of the Capital, witnessing the corpses strewn about. The city was filled with death, and flames were eating it alive.

“Carry... Yesterday... You won. A dark tomorrow... is upon us,” he mumbled.

They had lost, and the Capital would soon fall completely into Carry’s hands.

Filled by negative emotions, Bong-Seong mumbled, “Hah...haha... Perhaps I’ll kill myself.”

Once a dark void engulfed his entire being, a formless entity suddenly asked, “Yahaha! Are you sure?”

“Who’s there?!” Bong-Seong shouted, quickly turning to the source of the voice.

An entity resembling black jelly with stardust inside oozed from within a pile of rocks and stood up.

“Yahahahaha! This is an interesting place. Mm, truly interesting!” the entity laughed playfully as it squirmed like an earthworm. “But I have no idea why that person is so interested in this city. It would be so much better for a weak race like this to be given salvation—”

“I asked you who you are!” Bong-Seong shouted, interrupting the jelly-like entity.

The entity shook like pudding and said, “Well, I’m sure he has his reasons. Yahaha! Oi, inferior race. My name is Ajingya. I was once the king of the slimes.”

“The... slimes? The slime race went extinct,” Bong-Seong mumbled.

“You’re not wrong. I was reborn into a more almighty race, after all. Yahahahaha!”

The formless entity exuded unfathomable amounts of Chaos Mana. Bong-Seong had never felt Chaos Mana so pure.

“T-this is—”

“Yahaha! I will give you a chance, inferior race. Become my Child. I shall offer you sweet power!”

The formless entity pulled out a black orb embedded with stardust—it was its os. Once Bong-Seong saw the pure Chaos Mana wrapping the os, which he later found out was the Cosmos, he knew what the formless entity wanted.

“You want me... to betray humanity?”

“Yahaha? Didn’t you just say you were going to kill yourself? Is that important?”

“But...” Bong-Seong hesitated.

“Hmm? If you don’t want to, then forget it. I have more than enough candidates to bestow Grace upon. Next human on the list is... Carry Yesterday.”

Bong-Seong’s eyes widened, and he hysterically screamed, “NOOOOO! I WILL DO IT!”

“Yahahahahahaha!”

That day, Bong-Seong became Ajingya’s Child.

***

Bong-Seong opened his eyes, and the wind blowing on top of the Empire State Building was as refreshing as always. He raised his right hand, a grey aura lingering around it. It was Chaos Mana, the strangest and most atrocious of the secondary forces, which humans had not been born with.

He had used this power and the help of the crazy motherfucker Lee Kang-San and his party to defeat Carry Yesterday and disband Elysium. That victory was the decisive trigger for the birth of the Union, and allowed them to drive the Dark Humans to South Earth and keep them in check.

“You could’ve at least told me about the Cecil Hotel, Lee Kang-San. No, perhaps it was better that I didn’t know. I am... a traitor to humanity, after all,” Bong-Seong mumbled as he grabbed the head of his cane and pulled it open, revealing a capsule medication. “If the daredevil is right... I won’t need this anymore.”

The capsule was a poison, which he had prepared for when he became a full Chaos Human and lost his humanity. Once an individual accepted Chaos Mana, they stopped recognizing their former race as their own and developed a sense of familiarity toward the Chaos.

Bong-Seong was not a Reborn, who accepted inferior Chaos Mana, but a Child of the highest tier who had received Grace from a Bachtasha-rank Chaos. He was destined to slowly, but surely, betray humankind. Every morning, he looked at himself in the mirror and asked himself if he was still human. Thankfully, that answer had always been yes, so far.

But I am a puppet that can’t defy my Parent, Ajingya. I was planning to kill myself if that day ever came, but... Bong-Seong trailed off as he grabbed the poison capsule and smiled.

“Ajingya... How did Cheon Seong-Hwi devour an almighty being like yourself?” he mumbled.

He had revealed the entire truth to Seong-Hwi on the day that Seong-Hwi grabbed him by the neck.

“I’m sure you don’t believe me... when I say that my sense of reason is still intact, but it’s true! I am still human! If you truly are a Parent, you should be able to bestow Grace! Please use the Chaos os skill, Ruina, on me!” Bong-Seong desperately shouted.

He believed that if Seong-Hwi became his Parent, he would be freed from the command that Ajingya may one day give him to betray his own kind.

“Please, I beg of you! Please, trust me. I did not order Henri Konan to attack you. That organization has long since been out of my hands!”

Seong-Hwi remained silent.

“I... don’t want to betray my people. If I’m going to die, I at least want to die as a human! If Ajingya comes for me one day, I—”

“Ajingya won’t come for you,” Seong-Hwi interrupted.

“What?”

“Because I devoured him.”

Bong-Seong was in shock and disbelief.

“I don’t trust people easily. I only trust what I see,” Seong-Hwi said.

Bong-Seong remained silent.

“That’s why your words feel trustworthy. I saw you fighting desperately for humanity until your dying breath, after all,” Seong-Hwi mumbled.

Bong-Seong did not understand what he meant. Seong-Hwi nodded, bloodlust fading from his eyes.

He separated from Bong-Seong and said respectfully, “Lee Bong-Seong. I am about to head to Lunatic. The Union needs a World Ranker who will replace Lee Kang-San.”

Bong-Seong remained silent.

“Restore your connection with that organization you’ve mentioned until I return to the Capital.”

“What... do you...”

“Preferably, I want you to hold a meeting with every Chaos Human gathered while Together is being made.” Seong-Hwi smiled chillingly and continued, “They can’t run from the Capital while it’s in midair. I will use you as the dustpan for the spring cleaning this time. You can do it, right?”

“Ahaha! Ahahahaha! Of course, I can!” Bong-Seong shouted, laughing as he recalled his conversation with Seong-Hwi.

He had not been able to laugh to his heart’s content like this due to the extreme anxiety that Ajingya would come to him one day. He trampled on the poison capsule and turned westward.

“I should make my way there soon. I can’t be late for the meeting.”

***

Tallinn, the westernmost city of the Capital that had been the first to be attacked by the army of Nivalis, was now in ruins, with the wreckages of buildings filling the streets. There was usually no sign of life in this city, but people in black robes began to gather, easily over a thousand.

The robed individuals recognized each other even in the dead of night and smiled. It was only possible because their scleras were entirely black.

“Man, they sure chose a banger location.”

“I’ll say.”

“How long has it been since we’ve gotten together?”

“What in the world is this grand reunion supposed to be about?”

“Huh? You just came without knowing anything?” said a robed individual sitting with his legs crossed on a giant beast. “Gehehe, our old comrade has called us here.”

“Old comrade?”

“The one who named our organization.”

“Our name? The League of Trailblazers? That’s... Lee Bong-Seong!”

Chaos Mana surged from the robed individuals at the mention of Bong-Seong’s name.

“Kekekek! Finally!”

“The time has come!”

“Lee Bong-Seong has switched to our side! Ahahahaha!”

“The Child of the highest tier who has received Grace from a Bachatasha has returned!”

“On top of that, as the leader of the Union’s conservative faction! Gahahaha!”

The League of Trailblazers, a group of Chaos Humans who had been growing in the shadows of the Mirror World, sincerely welcomed the return of their comrade.

“Can we finally wipe out the moronic humans now?”

“Ahaha! It will be the rebirth of our beloved Black Age!”

“I won’t stand by and watch as that laughable city, Together, is formed!”

“Lee Bong-Seong mentioned that would be this grand reunion’s main topic of discussion.”

An odd sense of exhilaration filled the Chaos Humans. Just then, the giant beast under the robed individual with his legs crossed sniffed and growled. It had the body of a black tiger, the head of a middle-aged Asian man, and the mouth and tusks of a pig.

“Mm? Oh?” the robed individual mumbled with great interest.

A man with things sticking out from under his robe asked, “What is it, Zhao Benshan?”

“Gehehe, my Taowu has caught a scent. We have an uninvited guest,” the man on the beast said as he turned to look backward.

“What?!”

The man with things under his robe quickly turned around and activated a skill. Six swords flew out through his robe and pierced the wreckage of a building at supersonic speed. The individual hiding behind the wreckage jumped, evading the swords, and landed on the ground amid a dust cloud and falling rocks.

“You’re...” the robed man trailed off.

He had black hair, blue eyes, and a giant zweihander on his back, glaring through his gold-rimmed glasses at the man with holes in his robe. The robed man removed his robe, revealing an Asian man with six empty scabbards on his back and four swords at his waist.

“Gao Weiguang!”

“Gustav.”

Their eyes were the exact opposite. Gustav’s blue eyes blazed with rage, and Gao Weiguang’s pure black eyes sank coldly.

“You traitor!”

“You followed me!”