WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 128

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A Serious Table Flip

Thud, thud.

After Jiseon arrived, the ground would sometimes shake when we wandered the Abyss. Every time she nodded to herself and stamped her foot, Tantalus pulsed as if it had grown a new heart. An artificial heartbeat, appearing in the Abyss, the place farthest from life.

After all those noisy, frantic escape preparations were done, and we were just waiting for the moment to come.

"Preparations are complete!!"

A booming voice rang through the entire Abyss. It was Jiseon calling.

We'd been waiting for that, so we moved immediately.

Tyr headed over with her huge coffin in tow, and the immortal packed a box full of food and water and slung it onto his back. Callis was fidgeting, but then the immortal said,

"I can't make an injured person carry luggage! Hand it over. I'll carry all of it!"

So she couldn't protest and ended up handing over even her own bag.

When everyone gathered, Azzy quietly showed herself, a disc clamped in her mouth. That damn puppy really had no concept of patience. Well, she was a dog.

Nabi didn't even come out, let alone pack anything. Fine. Your turn was coming.

Once everyone preparing to escape had gathered.

"Is everyone here?"

In the square courtyard lit by the day lights, Jiseon stood at the center.

She looked exactly as she had when she came in, earrings with little clay dolls hanging from them, five rings on her arm, standing firm like an old tree as she faced us.

Beside her was a concrete structure that looked freshly made. It was shaped like a clothesline post, and it was hard to guess what it was for.

As people looked around, Jiseon checked each face, nodded, and began to explain.

"Then let this one explain the plan."

Though calling this an explanation was debatable.

"This one plans to flip Tantalus over."

Questions rose in everyone's mind.

What did that mean? Why? In what sense flip it? Flip our clothes inside out?

Luckily, the person speaking was the concrete avatar of military state history, and she knew how to explain her own design clearly.

"As this one has investigated, many people have lived in this prison for a very long time, enough to earn the qualification to reach the very bottom of the Abyss."

Jiseon phrased it indirectly, but the meaning was simple: the military state had kept shoving people into this prison to die, so the history layered into this land had finally grown thick enough to touch the Tyrant King's massacre.

"So this place should have reached the Abyss bottom, but this land and the Abyss bottom are separate lands. To arrive, there was a need to merge the two into one."

Even if enough history had built up to reach the same space, they still couldn't meet because they were on different layers.

So the solution was...

"Jiseon. Then do we dig a hole and go down?"

"That is not so. Distance has no value in this space. We must finally reach, in the truest sense, the land with no bottom."

I wondered if I'd read that right.

Because even after reading her thoughts, I still couldn't believe it.

Jiseon held out her palm, facing upward. Then she said,

"This land, in the purest sense. I shall rotate it halfway and flip it over."

As soon as she said that, she flipped her palm over, the back of her hand facing up.

Jiseon had boldly declared she'd flip the ground like a hand, and while all of us stood there blankly, she tapped the structure beside her.

"This is the support this one made. It will not break easily, so tie your bodies to it with ropes while this one flips the ground."

"No, that..."

"This one earnestly asks you to follow my words first. Tie yourselves tightly, so you stay safe even if your bodies are inverted."

When Jiseon asked so earnestly, we set our doubts aside and started tying ourselves to the support. People and luggage hung there like fruit. While the immortal tied up Callis and secured her, I took a rope and walked toward Azzy.

"Azzy, come here."

"Woof woof! I hate being tied up! I like freedom!"

Maybe it was because she remembered being chained before. Azzy fiercely refused to be tied. I tried to calm her down.

"Don't regret it later. This ground is going to flip. If you don't secure your body..."

"Woof! My insides are already flipping!"

"Where does she learn this stuff? Her vocabulary keeps getting better..."

Azzy barked furiously and kept dodging my hand. While I was stuck dealing with her, Tyr made a suggestion.

"Just leave her. If she is the Beast King, she will dig in with her claws and endure, and if she looks like she will fall, I will catch her with darkness."

"That might be best. This little beast, seriously."

I was growling in a standoff with Azzy, who had run just far enough to stay barely out of reach. Then the regressor, who had been quiet, suddenly thought of Nabi and said,

"Tyrkanzyaka. If Nabi runs out in a bit, can you catch Nabi too?"

"That will be no issue. Even if it is not the Beast King, if anyone falls I will catch them. Shei, I will do the same for you."

"I'm fine. I can stick my feet to the ground with energy and stand upside down, and even if I fall, I can fly."

Why? Why can you hang upside down like a bat? And how do you fly? She was the same human as me, so why was she the only weird one?

Tyr turned to me with a suggestion.

"Hyu, my coffin can float in the air too. It only works when no light shines on it, but that does not matter in the Abyss. If you don't mind, would you ride on it with me?"

"No thanks. If not now, when will I ever get to experience the ground flipping over?"

"Is that so..."

"And Tyr, be careful too. From what Jiseon-nim said, you need to stay anchored to the ground. Don't float too much. Hold on tight. If not, we might part forever."

At my words, Tyr hurriedly grabbed the support with darkness.

After everyone finished preparing, we just stared at Jiseon. She checked us, took a deep breath, and gently waved her hand.

A soft motion, like a butterfly flapping its wings. But every time her fingers snatched at the air, the ground roiled. Concrete, which should have been solid, slowly churned thick and sluggish under Jiseon's power, like acorn jelly.

"...earthcraft."

The regressor murmured.

The power called Mother Earth's authority, a power only her apostles could use. That force which had overturned the military state's land from beginning to end was unfolding from Jiseon.

Then, after Jiseon compacted the ground firmly with earthcraft.

"I will begin."

She stamped hard.

Kuuung.

The force exploding from Jiseon's foot spread across all of Tantalus. With a shock this strong, the ground underfoot should have shattered, but her peak Gon energy, supported by earthcraft, spread the power evenly through all of Tantalus.

Maybe that was why. Even after taking such an impact, the ground beneath Jiseon was fine.

"Ohh. It looks like she means to flip the ground with earthcraft!"

The immortal muttered with an excited expression, like someone watching a miracle right in front of him. But beside him, Callis was terrified and chattering her teeth.

Well, for a normal person, being scared of this absurd power would be natural.

"I, I need something to hold..."

"I see. For those who die easily, this could be frightening! The blood demon will hold you with darkness, so don't worry! If you have nothing to hold, I'll lend you my hand!"

The immortal reached out his hand. Callis grabbed it with a trembling hand, but another shock hit, and with a sharp scream she yanked him and fell into his arms.

The distance vanished in an instant, and the immortal looked puzzled.

"Hm. Did I tie us this close? At this rate we might bump into each other! Sorry, let me hold you for a moment!"

"Please do...!"

The immortal wrapped his arm tightly around Callis's waist and pulled her in. The two ended up fully pressed together.

Held in the immortal's arms, Callis narrowed her eyes sharply.

...It looked like Callis wasn't exactly normal either.

Tyr watched that scene for a moment, then spoke to me.

"Hyu, might you hit something too?"

"There's no one tied near me."

"...I just asked in case."

So we chatted without knowing what was about to happen.

Kuuuuuuuuung.

A far heavier, larger impact rolled through than before. The support shook, and my body hanging below it trembled too.

While I was marveling at that unreal vibration.

"Hm? Where did Jiseon go?"

The immortal pointed to where Jiseon had just been standing. Jiseon, who should have been there, was nowhere to be seen.

"Did she step away for a moment? Haha. She must have had urgent business!"

The answer to that question appeared soon enough.

Because Jiseon fell from the sky.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung.

A fall, then impact.

A massive quake shook all of Tantalus. It seemed even earthcraft and Gon were not enough, because a giant crack had formed under Jiseon's feet, starting from that point.

I could feel the vibration spread out, hit the Abyss wall, and come back. Power on the level of a natural disaster. So much that it was hard to believe a single human had done it.

"Kyaa...!"

Callis's scream this time was real.

Power so irrational that even someone unusual would still feel fear.

"...Haha. This is insane."

I laughed in disbelief. Because my body was swaying left and right.

There was only one meaning.

The ground was tilting.

"No way. This works?"

It felt like my body had become a seismograph. So this was what feeling tremors was like.

As I muttered that to myself.

Right after, Jiseon kicked off the ground and shot upward. A shock similar to her fall rang through Tantalus. She had only jumped, but it felt like the earth itself had caved in.

"...Gon at the peak. Kan brought to mastery."

The regressor read the situation calmly, without moving an inch on the slanted ground.

'The instant she falls, she scatters the impact through the whole ground, then uses the reaction force aimed back at her body to jump up again.'

I understood thanks to reading her thoughts. Still, sometimes even after reading, you wonder what you just read.

'Right now Jiseon is basically... a giant rubber ball.'

How did that make sense?

A human body wasn't rubber, and if you fell from that height you were supposed to die.

Most of all.

Why was the ground actually flipping?

Kuguguguguguuuuuuuuuuuuung.

"Woof! Woof woof! Earthquake, woof!"

"Nyaah! Nyaaaahk!"

I heard Azzy and Nabi screaming. The two Beast Kings each crouched flat at places that looked safe, claws dug into the ground.

Serves you right, beast brats. It's not like I got tied up because I wanted to.

No matter. Jiseon jumped again, then slammed down again. A pounding sound like grain being hulled echoed out, and each time, Tantalus tilted more. While Callis clung to the immortal in real terror, and Azzy and Nabi barked and yowled loud enough to shake the Abyss.

Thud.

Then, when Jiseon jumped higher than ever and slammed down again.

Crack.

The concrete rim that had been supporting Tantalus so it wouldn't fall couldn't withstand the impact and crumbled.

After that, everything happened fast. Jiseon shouted one last time.

"It will flip now! Everyone, hold on tight!"

She didn't need to say it. Everyone was already holding onto something with all their strength.

And when Jiseon jumped into the air one final time.

Kkiiigiigik.

My body shook. The world tilted. No, maybe I was the one tilting.

Tantalus was a tray set on a stand. Press one side with a finger, and the stand, unable to endure, crumbles. Then the tray flips and falls toward the ground.

Only now did I realize why Tantalus's buildings had all been pushed to one side. An L-shaped building with only the yard spread wide, it had never looked symmetrical.

It had been built for this from the start.

Gugugugugugung.

Final collision. A human collided with the earth. In an ordinary situation we would have called that a fall.

Not now.

Jiseon collided with this land as an equal.

Whooong.

The ground flipped. Instead of jumping again, Jiseon planted her feet firmly with Gon energy.

Even without Jiseon's force, speed had already built up. On top of that, with Tantalus and the prison's own weight added in, the flipping accelerated faster and faster.

Dog barks, cat cries, human screams, and all kinds of thoughts filled the air.

Then wind blew.

Wind that should never exist in the Abyss started blowing again as the bottom opened up. Air was sucked into the gap made by the void.

It was a bizarre sight. The ground I had been standing on moments ago became a slanted wall, and the prison building became protrusions on a cliff face. I didn't even want to imagine it, but if the rope snapped, I could probably drop onto the building wall and stand on it.

A roar came from the prison building. A huge water tank couldn't defy gravity, snapped, and fell far below. As if vomiting debris, desks, fixtures, boxes, and chairs poured out of windows and holes.

Then, unable to bear its own weight, the prison cracked in the middle. Watching a four-story building become three stories was quite a spectacle.

After everything that could fall had fallen, the last thing to break was the tall day lights.

That artificial light that had illuminated the Abyss this whole time. The day lights that had dared imitate the sun snapped in the middle and fell deep into the Abyss. Even the light that had once lit the whole prison looked like a faint candle in the Abyss's darkness.

So darkness swallowed everything around us.

But it still wasn't over.

The ground, now with momentum, flipped even farther. My body shook violently.

"Woof woof!"

"Nyanyan!"

"Aaaagh!"

Dog, cat, and human screams formed a trio. Naturally, the last one was mine.

I reached both hands upward and made sure not to "fall" onto the support. If I flipped upside down and slammed into it, that would be a nightmare too.

In the Abyss filled on all sides with darkness, where only screams and thoughts could be heard.

At the moment this land, built from the start to be flipped, finished its role.

The world twisted.

Splash.

My feet touched the ground.

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