SSS-Grade Cafe in Front of The Dungeon

【…….】

“Where is Yoohyun-ssi now? Why did you drag his soul into the Gate?”

The shackles formed by the web of light led to the inside of the Ultimate Gate. His soul was wandering somewhere in this mysterious space. And yet the Saintess hadn’t said a word about him. There must be a reason.

The Saintess was silent for a long time before she spoke.

【That person…….】

【The scream of a world that repeats the same time infinitely. He is the singularity of this world.】

【That’s why he became a vessel for the Demon God.】

【He doesn’t exist in the reconstructed world.】

It was as expected. I sighed slightly.

“Okay ……. then I won’t reset the world, please return Yoohyun-ssi to me.”

【That’s impossible.】

“What? What do you mean?”

【…….】 The Saintess clamped her mouth shut.

“Speak. Tell me.”

【…….】

Only after repeated urging did the Saintess’ lips twist open. The Transcendent’s eyes were filled with grief.

【Rewinding the world’s time requires a great deal of power.】

【In order to use such great power, one must pay an equivalent price.】

An awful premonition struck me, too clear to be a mere hunch, like a warning whispered to my mind.

【The extinction of the parallel universe.】

【The disappearance of the one world that derives from every single loop.】

My breath caught in my throat. At the same time, a fact that I had dismissed as insignificant flashed through my mind.

The monster tree branches that appeared in the Super Buff Coffee incident, or rather, the World Tree of the other world. I remembered what the tree’s name was.

“The Sephiroth Branch of the ‘False World’….”

【Correct.】

【It was the last act of a world that had already been destroyed.】

And…….

“You said that before, this world is not a multiverse.”

【You have a good memory.】

That was said by the Saintess when Kwon Jiwoon was in danger in the White Silver Guild. I understand now, she meant to say that the derived worlds were destroyed in the process to create this one.

【But now the world has reached its limit.】

【I can no longer wind back time because I have lost all the worlds I could redeem.】

【He, Ki Yoohyun’s soul is … the price to pay for reconstructing the world.】

“……!”

Hearing that, I raised myself up from the sofa.

Since I’ve made up my mind, there’s nothing more to say to her. I had to find Ki Yoohyun’s soul somewhere in this infinitely vast space.

But the Saintess blocked my path.

【This is the only chance. I … I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a very long time, longer than you can even imagine.】

【Are you abandoning all the others for one person?】

“No.”

I shook my head firmly.

It wasn’t a matter of whom I chose or didn’t choose.

Perhaps it was because I entered this library and touched countless starlight, my senses becoming sharpened, I realised something I would not normally have noticed.

A library that stores the memories of the world. It’s amazing. It’s really impressive.

But no matter how great a library is, it cannot create a real world within it. Knowledge will always be knowledge.

‘If civil engineering was possible in libraries, the Department of Liberal Arts would be more prestigious…….’

More precisely, the reconstruction of the world…….

It’s replicating the world and trapping it in this space. To put it crudely, a fake. An elaborate lie.

Human perception would not be able to tell the difference, and perhaps I would be happy in it.

But, Oh Seoho once said something like this; memory proves the past. It is the memory of yesterday that proves that I am the same person today as I was yesterday.

I agreed with him.

Would I be the same person in the reconstructed world as I am now?

I don’t think so. If no one remembers who I was yesterday, how can I prove that I am the same person I was yesterday? No matter how beautiful the world may be, resetting the world is no different from death.

It was in this world, this present me, that my grandmother saved. Therefore…….

“I just want to live in the world I am now. It doesn’t matter if it’s messed up, or if it’s not perfect.”

【…….】

“So, I’m going to find Yoohyun-ssi.”

【Stop. It’s infinitely wide in here, and if a human body like yours steps into the wrong place, you’ll never be able to get back out.】

“……It’s alright.”

【……!】

The Saintess glared at me, but didn’t block my way any further. It was as if she was constrained and unable to move.

Respect my wishes. She would never force me. She said it was the conditions my grandmother had set. Did she make those conditions knowing that I would make this choice? I would never know, but…….

‘I’m sorry, but I think this is the right answer .…… I’m sorry.’

Tap, tap, tap! I ran a few steps and threw myself into the infinite sky, filled with starlight.

Before the darkness swallowed me up, I looked back one last time.

The beautiful Saintess with the golden hair was nowhere to be seen. In her place was an iridescent, bubbling bubble.

In the bubble, I felt a sense of terror that transcended human perception. And the loneliness and sorrow of a transcendent…….

I will never see her again. I had such a feeling. I turned away from the iridescent bubble.

***

I opened my eyes.

A vast universe with no entrance or exit in sight. A river of brilliant starlight, holding the memory of the world, surrounded me.

“Whoa…….”

Despite my ramblings in front of the Saintess about how I’m going to live in the present world in grand fashion, the situation was still serious. The Demon God has fallen asleep in Ki Yoohyun’s body, and the quest has been placed on hold. If this continues, the world will end in 4 minutes and 15 seconds when the Demon God awakens.

Reconstruct the world and trap it in here by sacrificing Ki Yoohyun’s soul. It’s not hard to understand why the Saintess would come up with such an outrageous plan. She must have come to this conclusion after trying and failing countless times to avoid destruction.

I said I would live in the world as it was now, but it would be useless if the world was going to be destroyed.

Wait, am I being too dramatic? My cheeks flushed with embarrassment as I remembered my grandiose statements in front of the Saintess.

It’s okay. No one heard me. Everyone deserves to say a fabulous line once in their life, hmm.

Anyway….

I didn’t just blindly declare that I wasn’t going to reset the world without any measures in place.

There’s been one change in the system since I entered this place.

‘The Bond of a Cup of Coffee.’

[The Bond of a Cup of Coffee (B)

Details: (Lv.1) You can copy the skill of the person who drank the Ultimate Coffee. (00:05:00)

Cooldown: 24:00:00

Available for: Ki Yoohyun, Choi Yichan, Kim Taewoon, Jijon.]

Ki Yoohyun has been added to the available targets.

In the past, I wanted to get Ki Yoohyun’s coffee satisfaction up to 100%, half out of curiosity, half out of pride. However, no matter what coffee I tried to get him to drink, his satisfaction level always stopped somewhere around 98, indicating a failure.

I understood now. I couldn’t achieve 100% because his soul wasn’t complete in the first place.

But being able to use this skill now meant that…….

….I’ve already made him drink the Ultimate Coffee. And it also meant that somewhere in this vast universe, there was his complete soul.

[Target: ‘Ki Yoohyun’ is selected.]

[The Power of White Light (S)

Details: (Lv.max) Summons a web of light.]

I chose this skill without hesitation.

[※ Caution: This skill is too strong for the user’s body.]

[Excessive use may cause strain to the user.

Calculate the number of times you can use it …… Completed.]

[You can use this skill only once. Do you want to use it?

Yes / No]

‘Yes, I will use it.’ I nodded my head resolutely.

Fyaaaah━

A dense net of light appeared. The net of light stretched out to the end of the infinite expanse of space, reading the memories of the world.

“Euh…..”

Numerous memories turned into data and rushed into my mind. Was this what he felt every time he used this skill? The amount of information was overwhelming. If it weren’t for the coffee’s buff of ‘remain sane no matter what happens‘, my head might have exploded.

But it’s amazing how a single cup of coffee could have such a powerful effect. Was it because it was made from the fruit of the World Tree? Or was someone helping me? I have no idea, but…….

“….I found you.”

Among the memories I read through the net of light, there was one that made me feel nostalgic. It had to be him. This intense longing couldn’t be anything but the person that I missed so dearly.

I walked toward the fragment of the memory. The memories of countless worlds lined up before me like the Milky Way. This world had been accumulating time for eons. I moved on, unfazed by the countless stars, until I found just one, the one I wanted.

Tak! I grabbed the tiny shoulder and spoke, “Hello. We’ve met before, right?”

…… I didn’t expect you would come this far.”

The little boy, who looked like he was two-thirds the size of Ki Yoohyun, turned his head and looked at me.

I had met this boy once before. He had helped me when I got lost on my way back from the Garden of Cthugha. The boy indeed looked like the younger version of Ki Yoohyun. But something about him felt different, and he didn’t seem to know me.

“Are you … the same person as Yoohyun-ssi?”

“Hm. Strictly speaking, no.” The boy smiled broadly, ” A long time ago …… I was the first fragment of his soul to separate from him. I’ve been wandering around in various places, watching that man’s path …… his trajectory of failures.”

“…….”

“So I am both him and not him.”

The boy lowered his head down, a sad expression appeared on his face.

“I’m sorry, I’m not the person you’re looking for.”

“Ahaha ……. no. I was looking for you, to take you to Yoohyun-ssi.”

“That person is here. But he’s asleep and doesn’t answer when I call him.”

“Can you take me to him?”

“Sure.”

The boy took my hand, and a long, narrow path appeared before my eyes. I followed the boy’s lead and made my way through the space of darkness.

When we had walked for some time, I blurted out, “Why me?”

That was the question I kept asking myself. For some reason, the words spilled out naturally for this boy. Perhaps it was because he resembled Ki Yoohyun as a child, but was a separate being.

“My grade is only F-Class. Just like that … I’m not a great person enough to make important decisions like resetting the world.”

The boy replied in a clear tone, “There’s no particular reason.”

“Ah, yeah. I see….”

“I mean ……. there’s no set reason why people meet people. It just, you know, happens that way.”

“…….”

“Everything is a matter of coincidence, but it’s also destiny.”

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew in.

“Ugh……!”

Brilliant starlight swirled around me. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to bear it. The boy’s voice continued.

“I’ve been wandering around here for a long time, waiting.”

“…….”

“For the moment when your destiny crosses paths with that person.”

…….

…….

…….

…….

When I opened my eyes again, the boy was nowhere to be seen. The stars that had illuminated the sky around me had also vanished. There was nothing but darkness everywhere.

Then, the wind gently pushed my back. As if to show me where to go.

The last words I heard were these: “Please don’t be sad. That child has only returned to where he came from for a while.”

“…….”

“But soon…….”

Soon, even the wind died down and the voices faded away.

I walked for a long time. I didn’t know exactly how far I had walked because it was dark everywhere.

I didn’t know if I was going the right way. I pushed forward with only the faith that he was out there, and the wish to see him. I really missed him.

I just walked and walked and walked, until I eventually reached the end.

There he was, Ki Yoohyun.