He wasn’t sure how many years had passed since then. Was it 100 million years? Or a billion? Maybe even 10 billion years had passed.

Now, Jaehwan clearly knew what state he was in. He was still in that damned space, but his consciousness was not awake. Yet, it was also awake in some way. It was possible that someone had endured all that time by sacrificing its own spirit in place of Jaehwan’s.

Who? And why?

Jaehwan heard countless universes exploding in his faint consciousness and screaming. He also heard people going mad and dying because of the violence of endless time. They were all voices he had heard before.

He felt like crying.

He wanted to stop them. Why would they? Why would they need to do that?

He then heard the birth of a new universe. A total of 16 universes died and were reborn. It was that long of a time period. Then came silence. No one spoke and no one answered.

In the midst of his dream, a voice spoke from time to time. Jaehwan was able to relax because of it.

But now silence? Jaehwan became terrified.

“Hey, is anyone there? Is there no one? Don’t tell me you all died!”

Jaehwan then remembered the countless screams he had heard. So they had all died. All those beings. All of them had…

Just then, he heard a voice.

-Hey, had a good sleep? You can wake up now.

And with it, a bright light shone on Jaehwan’s closed eyes. He felt his consciousness and spirit coming back together as one and felt nauseous. He was awakening from his slumber.

Jaehwan opened his eyes and shook his entire body like a sick man. It had been so long since he had moved his body that all parts of his body felt clunky. His mouth let out a strange moan. It was his voice that he had not heard in a very long time.

He calmly took a deep breath and stood up. Then, he sat on the ground for a long time and began to rub his eyes. He also pinched his cheeks. He even tried to laugh or let out a tear. And after a long time, Jaehwan was able to accept that this was ‘reality’.

A light shone on him. It was from an exit in the shape of Ouroboros. An entrance to a new world, and an exit from this space he was in.

Ah….

As he looked up at the light, Jaehwan realized where that entrance led to.

It wasn’t to the <Depth>.

An old memory that had faded after a long time began coming back piece by piece. All those stories that Jaehwan had preserved so preciously for a long time were coming back to him.

Yes. He had lived all this time just to go there.

Jaehwan stood up and took one step after another. His walking gait looked weird and his sword swung helplessly from his waist. But Jaehwan did not stop walking.

-Yes. You go on ahead.

The voice egged him on. Jaehwan looked around but there was no sound from the outside. He then realized the voice had been coming from within him all this time. Jaehwan asked loudly, “Who are you all?”

The voice did not reply.

The darkness ended.

As he stood under the light shining down on his body, he opened his arms wide. He stood there, absorbing all the light particles into his spirit. Just like a baby that was born into a world, or a seed that sprouted from the ground, he stood there for a long time under the blessing of the light.

The pressure of time was fading away.

The pressure that kept eating away the spirit like rotten water was vanishing. It felt like he had been inside a dirty trench and he had finally dived into a bathtub full of clean, warm water. Jaehwan felt amused that he still remembered such a metaphor.

No, it was weird that he was still using ‘language’. He had to abandon this ‘inefficient way of communication’ a long time ago. He even tried to abandon it multiple times.

Yet, he didn’t abandon his language and carried it all the way here. It was this ‘language’ that kept him human.

The space seemed like it had overcome ‘time’ itself.

Jaehwan looked around as he walked along the pure white corridor. It gave him a weird sense of déjà vu. There were giant tanks placed on either side of the corridor with spirits that barely fit encased within.

Jaehwan didn’t know who those spirits were. He had never seen them before. All of those spirits within the tank were curled up in fetal positions and were in stasis. It was a bit later that Jaehwan found the name tags placed at the corner of each tank.

God of Wander, Kairos.

Lord of Dignity, Sindler.

God of Journey, Beheet.

Lord of Slumber, Gaynach.

They were names Jaehwan had never heard of. Maybe they were Gods before the time of the Three Ancient Gods. They all had complicated expressions. Some seemed like wise men who had realized the truth of the world while some also looked like beggars who had lost everything.

Jaehwan looked closely at all of the tanks as if he was trying to memorize each and every one of those faces. And after some time, he stopped.

‘This…’

He had found a much larger tank. The spirit had metal around its entire body. Jaehwan had never seen this spirit before, but he felt like he knew it. He had seen this similar shape in the [Record of the Depth]. After Jaehwan checked the name tag, he knew he was right.

‘God of Machines, Daeus.’

It was one of the Three Ancient Gods, Daeus.

‘Why is Daeus here?’

Jaehwan then felt goosebumps rise from his entire body.

Maybe Big Brother was entirely different from what people thought it was. Maybe the Three Ancient Gods, who thought that they invented it, were wrong.

So, this Big Brother was maybe…

Jaehwan’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

[Congratulation on clearing your tutorial.]

A voice spread across the white space. Jaehwan turned in the direction of the voice.

[-or is that a bad joke?]

Jaehwan realized who it was. Just like Daeus, he had never seen this spirit, but he recognized him right away. How could he not? This being was the one that Jaehwan knew the best in this world.

Jaehwan destroyed the tower, came out from it, and reached this place with this man’s journal. Every part of Jaehwan’s journey had shadows of that being in it.

“Mulack Armelt.”

The legendary Master of Nightmares, Mulack Armelt, was here.