Side Story Chapter 2. The World Without Him (2)

Chi-Woo was currently traveling across countless worlds. The reason was simple—it was to save the ‘me from different worlds’. The scope was not limited to the worlds of those he had met in Future Yoo-Joo’s space and developed a special friendship with; he also considered those who couldn’t make it to that space or had to be sent back due to their lack of qualifications. In other words, he decided to save all the Choi Chi-Woos and Choi Yoo-Joos derived from the same fate.

Some might ask why he was going so far to save them. It was understandable for him to save the few he had made a promise to, but he had no obligation or responsibility to help the others. Thus, his actions could be seen as interfering more than necessary, and that would be spot on. If there was a world that didn’t want Chi-Woo’s help, Chi-Woo had no intention to force his way in. However, based on his experience so far, there had never been such a world, and every single person without exception wanted his help. This was also evidenced by Future Yoo-Joo’s testimony. None of them had reached the desired future, whether it was Choi Chi-Woo or Choi Yoo-Joo—no, actually, there used to be no one.

Even Perfect Yoo-Joo, who had successfully reached her awakening, albeit in an incomplete form, wanted his help. Strictly speaking, Chi-Woo had not failed, but it remained a question whether it could be said that he had been completely successful if only looking at his success in awakening as the Heavenly King. Thanks to Choi Lora, he had been able to reach the future he wanted, but if it hadn’t been for her, the best future he could meet would probably be similar to Future Yoo-Joo’s. Thus, he had stepped forward.

Since he had experienced it himself, he knew how harsh and brutal it was to tell anyone to solve such a monumental problem by themselves. He knew that it was a task that they had no choice but to ask for someone’s help for in the end. But above all, he had only managed to reach his desired future with the help of numerous people—his mentor, other heroes, the Liber natives, and Future Yoo-Joo, to name a few. Therefore, his intervention was justified in that he was returning as much as he had received.

Of course, a human pursuit of rightness or morality wasn’t Chi-Woo’s sole reason to save everyone. Those were merely the justifications on paper for his efforts to save other worlds currently in progress, which was merely a means for him to reach his final goal. In other words, he wasn’t just doing this to keep his word. The ultimate goal Chi-Woo desired to reach through this method was to solidify his position as an absolute being.

His work on Liber was over, but Chi-Woo’s war was not. As Chi-Hyun had warned him before, rather, it had only started. After returning to Earth, Chi-Woo had fallen into thought. Who in the entire universe could pose a threat to him? The conclusion came quickly. ‘I’m the only one.’ In other words, it was safe to say that there was no one in this world who could hurt him. The only one who could have possibly rivaled him had been the will of the universe, but a winner had been determined between them in the battle on Liber. Furthermore, the will of the universe had lost most of its power after Chi-Woo took law of causality from it. Therefore, it was safe to say that Chi-Woo’s worries were unwarranted—at least within the world he lived in.

But what about a different world? Or more specifically, what if another world interfered with his world? It was not completely beyond the realm of possibilities. Just as Chi-Woo was currently traveling across several parallel worlds, the opposite could happen as well. If the will of the universe from another world didn’t like this situation, and therefore used another version of Chi-Woo who had failed as the base for some kind of conniving plan…he didn’t know what exactly would happen, but it would probably be extremely troublesome.

Since there were countless parallel worlds in the first place, Chi-Woo could not rule out any minor threats. There may be places where such threats would never happen, but there must be places where such a threat could exist. Thus, he decided to go around the parallel worlds and root out any buds of threats in advance before it was too late. In short, it was a give and take. In exchange for giving the ‘me from another world’ the future they wanted, he accepted their fate in return. He made all the other Chi-Woos and Yoo-Joos into ordinary people and removed all things that could possibly pose a threat. This was the real purpose of Chi-Woo’s current journey through parallel worlds. Therefore, he expanded his destinations in all directions and didn’t just stop after visiting a few worlds.

The entry point he had decided on was immediately after the respective Choi Chi-Woo or Choi Yoo-Joo’s future in their worlds was decided. In that way, it became easier to talk to them. After experiencing their future firsthand and feeling resigned to their fate, only then would they give up their fates without regret. Like this, Chi-Woo visited various worlds without a break and was able to experience countless worlds. After going beyond the scope of those he had met in Future Yoo-Joo’s space, he came to experience different developments of the same fate.

There was a world where he died while trying to rescue Ru Amuh. A world where he failed to save Eshnunna and became livestock on the ranch with everyone else. A world where he was defeated by the Demon Empire and turned into a miserable slave. A world where he became a servant of the Abyss. While he organized these situations one by one and saved each of the worlds—

“?” A world that surprised Chi-Woo emerged for the first time. Chi-Woo looked around and blinked because as soon as he entered this world, a familiar sight welcomed him. He was on Earth, even more so, he was right in front of his house. No matter how many times he looked at it, the scene didn’t change. Although he had gone through various experiences and situations in numerous parallel words, there were things that always remained the same. One of them was that the entry point was never on Earth. Even though there were cases where he didn’t arrive on Liber, there had never been a case where he entered a new world on Earth.

And Chi-Woo knew the reason why. In Chi-Woo’s case, the incident that Choi Chi-Hyun visited Princess Sahee and made a deal with her could be considered the trigger to everything that happened in his life. Just like how Chi-Hyun always participated in saving Liber, Giant Fist always visited Earth and took Chi-Woo to the Celestial Realm, which led to Chi-Woo entering Liber; the trigger named fate pulled and led Chi-Woo out of Earth to outer space without exception. In addition, considering the point of time he had entered the world at, he shouldn’t find himself on Earth now.

At that moment, Chi-Woo, who was confused, suddenly looked back at the apartment complex. A dark figure walked down the stairs and opened the door, and the man walking through the open door looked very unstable. His flushed face looked relieved at first glance, but seemed panicked or lost after closer observation. And he even seemed to be filled with deep sorrow and overcome with intense self-loathing. His face was so distorted that it was hard to tell if he was laughing or crying.

The man walked unsteadily as if he was going to faint at any moment before he discovered Chi-Woo staring at him and looked at him with complete shock. “!”

Chi-Woo was also shocked because the man pointing at him with his index finger and gaping was none other than Chi-Hyun. “You…you…how…” Chi-Hyun’s voice came out trembling. “I…just…definitely…I…”

Chi-Woo’s eyes narrowed as Chi-Hyun struggled to finish his sentence. He could guess what had happened. Frankly, the answer had been given to him since he set the time of entry as ‘right after the end of Choi Chi-Woo or Choi Yoo-Joo’s future.’ Thus, the future of the Chi-Woo in this world had disappeared just now—at somebody else’s hand. Chi-Woo knew who it was even without asking; a strong smell of blood was coming from the Chi-Hyun standing next to him.

…Yeah, he had been wondering if there would be a world like this. As expected, there was.

“You killed him,” Chi-Woo said quietly. “Your brother.”

Chi-Hyun stared at Chi-Woo with bloodshot eyes widened so much that it seemed like they would rip at the corners. Surprisingly, Chi-Hyun didn’t attack him. Chi-Woo had expected Chi-Hyun to rush at him with murderous intent, yelling why he was still alive when he had just killed him with his own hands. Instead, Chi-Hyun’s arms dropped to his sides, and his hands shook.

Before speaking up, Chi-Woo felt the need to organize the situation first. There was no need for him to explain in detail what had happened, since he could just make Chi-Hyun understand with his infinite loop of power. Chi-Hyun groaned as some kind of knowledge was forced into his brain. He clutched his forehead and stumbled from the strong dizzying sense. However, his expression quickly settled as he understood who the Chi-Woo in front of him was and why he was here. Even though Chi-Hyun must have known that Chi-Woo was here to save his world, he didn’t look very happy. On the contrary, he looked extremely empty and despondent.

“…So,” after a brief pause, Chi-Hyun asked, “What’s going to happen to me? Do I now die at your hands for killing my brother?” He spoke in a rough and harsh voice. “To my other brother from another parallel world that I don’t know about?” Judging from his expression, he seemed to have given up on everything.

“Of course not.” Chi-Woo smiled faintly. “There’s no way I’ll do that.”

“You talk as if you’re talking about a stranger.”

“I’m saying that because we are strangers.”

“What?”

“Is that not the case?” Chi-Woo asked, “Even though he’s me in another world, that’s all there is to it. I have my own life, and the Chi-Woo in this world has his own life. So aren’t we basically strangers?”

Chi-Hyun blinked. Come to think of it, Chi-Woo wasn’t wrong, so he couldn’t argue against that logic. In fact, he knew that Chi-Woo hadn’t come here to convict him, but even then, he had asked the question because…

“Then…?”

Chi-Woo easily replied, “I’ll go back if you want. I’ll step back without touching anything. I promise.” If that was what Chi-Hyun wanted, that was. Chi-Woo raised his hands to show his sincerity and asked, “Then shall I do that?””

Chi-Hyun didn’t reply. He closed his mouth tightly and stared blankly into the air. After some time, Chi-Hyun asked, “What happened in your world?”

Chi-Woo was relieved that Chi-Hyun didn’t immediately ask him to return to his world.

“It was the same.”

“The same?”

“Yes, my brother in my world also tried to kill me.”

“But you’re not dead.” An unknown heat filled Chi-Hyun’s voice. “Did you kill your brother?”

Chi-Woo shook his head.

“Then what? Did you make a deal? Or persuade him?”

“No, I didn’t do any of that.”

“Then?”

“I just told him to kill me.”

Chi-Hyun’s mouth slightly widened.

“I told him it’s okay to kill me. He can kill me… But the funny thing is that when I said that, he didn’t kill me and hesitated instead.”

“…”

“Then, in the end, he tried to fix what he did, so he went back to shouldering the eternal cycle of being a hero that he could have finally escaped… Seriously, geez. If he was going to do that, why did he start all of this in the first place?” Chi-Woo grumbled quietly and glanced at Chi-Hyun.

Chi-Hyun looked extremely shocked, as if Chi-Woo had hit a nerve. Like someone who wished and hoped that of all things, what they dreaded the most wouldn’t happen, but eventually found out that was precisely what happened. “Why…why…”

Chi-Hyun couldn’t finish his question, but Chi-Woo didn’t have to hear it to know what Chi-Hyun wanted to say. Why did he tell Chi-Hyun that it was okay to kill him? The answer was simple. “Because he’s still my brother.”

“Why…”

Why was Chi-Hyun not able to kill Chi-Woo even though he heard that it was okay? The answer was the same this time. Chi-Woo replied, “Because I’m still his brother.”

Chi-Hyun’s face became pale; a hint of envy flashed through his expression. Even though they were from different worlds, the Chi-Woo in this world must have been a brother to him in the same way. However, the outcomes the two brothers got were so different. Chi-Woo stared at the stunned Chi-Hyun and used the infinite loop again. Chi-Hyun, who had been frozen in shock, looked around when his surroundings suddenly changed. There was nothing. All he could see was a barren wasteland and a body abandoned in a horrific state, and this corpse was none other than Choi Chi-Hyun.

Chi-Hyun realized that the corpse was himself and stammered, “This is…”

“This is the future you’ll reach if I don't intervene,” Chi-Woo said. “Far from living the life you want, you’ll wander around looking for a place to die, and you’ll die alone in a place where no one knows… It’s that kind of future.”

As soon as Chi-Hyun took a sharp intake of breath, his surroundings changed once again. This time, it was a scene 180 degree different from the previous one. He looked happy. He looked extremely happy from a glance. Chi-Woo was laughing and talking, and Chi-Hyun laughed with him, and they walked and moved forward to the future together. It was a beautiful world with no worries or troubles.

“Don’t you feel regretful?”

When he heard Chi-Woo’s voice, Chi-Hyun realized what this world was and why Chi-Woo had shown him this scene. It would be a lie if he said he wasn’t regretful as what he just saw was what he had dreamed so much about. An ending where no one cried, no one was sad, and everyone could laugh. However, when it changed and he returned to the real world, Chi-Hyun was reminded of his reality once again.

“…I don’t know…” He covered his face with shaking hands. “If I…can do that…if I can be happy…if I have the right to…” He struggled to continue with trembling lips and bloodshot eyes like those of a drug addict. “I…I…”

Chi-Woo could sympathize with Chi-Hyun, who couldn’t make up his mind, as there was a time when he had been like that. He later found out it was a misunderstanding, but he had felt this way when he thought Chi-Hyun was dead. Frankly, he had the ability to recreate his brother. However, he couldn’t do that. He contemplated and felt conflicted about it all the way back home. He wasn’t confident that he could treat his brother as the same person even if he revived him in that manner.

The same was true for Chi-Hyun in this world. All he had to do was ask for help. Then he could lead the happy life that he’d dreamed of. However, there was one reason Chi-Hyun couldn’t do that. It was because the deed had already been done, and there was another reason—it was a reason that only he would know; a reason that caused him intense pain instead of relief after fulfilling his lifelong wish. Chi-Hyun had an inkling of suspicion before killing his brother, and his suspicion deepened after talking to Chi-Woo.

Chi-Woo could understand that this was not an easy decision to make, but he couldn’t wait forever. At least for her, who was anxiously waiting for him, he needed to finish up things by now.

“…Let me ask you one last time,” Chi-Woo said. “What do you want to do?”

Chi-Hyun stopped breathing the moment he heard the ultimatum. He looked down at the ground with a blank expression for a moment, and soon, he slowly raised his head and looked at Chi-Woo with shaky eyes.

Then he said, “I…”