WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Ryuu

Editor: Abstract

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SSS-CLASS HUNTER WHO DIES TO LIVE

Chapter 386: The Garden of Time (2)

140 years.

I had heard of a similar span of time before.

-You once mentioned enduring 130 years alone during a debate with your master… Was it about this?

-Ah, exactly that.

Such a carefree voice it was.

It felt as though a breeze was leaking from my heart as I listened.

-My goodness. So, Sword Emperor, you…

[Ah, no. Suddenly, the thought that I too could fail at around the 99th floor crossed my mind.]

A conversation I had with the Sword Emperor in the Heaven of Truth flashed through my mind.

[Sword Emperor, but even someone like you died at the 99th floor.]

He had reacted peculiarly to those words.

[Hmm. Well, death…]

I remembered him repeating that.

And the subsequent exchange that followed.

[What’s on the 99th floor?]

At that time, the Sword Emperor hadn't given a straightforward answer.

On the surface, he said, ‘I just don’t want to tell you,’ but there had to be more to it than that.

[Can’t you tell me now?]

To that question, the Sword Emperor had responded:

-Let’s take a walk.

I blinked.

Before I knew it, the Sword Emperor had risen from his seat and was looking at me with the same expression as before.

-Uh….

-Follow me, kid.

And the Sword Emperor started ‘walking’ just like before.

"......."

Since entering this stage, which should be called the 91st floor, my body had lost its weight. The world no longer tried to hold me, and no matter how hard I stomped, no sound of footsteps echoed.

It felt as though I had been isolated from the world.

Thus, over this week, I gradually stopped performing the act of [walking]. Floating around aimlessly, just as the Guardian Spirit usually did, was more comfortable.

-Mahos mentioned it seemed like you're experiencing TCL.

The Gong-Jass said.

-I'm not exactly sure what TCL means, but I have a rough idea.

With gravity not applicable in this place, all physical forces lost their meaning. If I wanted, I could even pass through floors or walls.

Thus, I realized how difficult the act that the Sword Emperor was performing, this ‘natural walking,’ truly was. I had felt it was a tremendous skill in the Heaven of Truth, but now that I was in the same situation, I fully understood.

-What are you doing? Aren't you coming?

The Sword Emperor glanced at me casually, as if merely looking back during a leisurely walk.

I suddenly realized this was an important moment.

-Just a moment, please.

Instead of aimlessly floating, I said that and gathered my thoughts.

First, I placed my soles on the ground. There was still no sensation of contact, but I tried my best to [stand up] naturally.

-Hmm.

The Sword Emperor patiently waited. He neither urged me on nor offered advice.

Yet, I immediately realized that what I had done was not standing but something bizarre.

-Just a bit longer.

-Take your time.

-Yeah.

I pondered in earnest.

‘How do you stand up?’

Even to me, it sounded like a ridiculous thought.

But then, a stronger conviction seized me.

‘This is important.’

This moment was significant.

‘To stand... first, put your soles on the ground. Then the ground supports you... But now, there’s no ground to support me. So, if that’s the case...’

A sensation of fluffy masses floating around my head.

A problem that seemed graspable yet remained elusive ensnared me.

I took a deep breath... Did I breathe?

‘Of course, that too was just the semblance of breathing.’

I focused my mind.

‘Right now, I am virtually a ghost. Naturally, there’s no [air] for me to inhale. And if that’s the case...’

At that moment, immediately following that thought, another question arose.

‘Wait. If there’s no [air], how can I [hear] anything?’

I realized it was very strange.

In sci-fi movies, a common point of critique is the loud explosions in the vacuum of space.

‘Strange.’

When speaking with the Guardian Spirit or the Gong-Jass, who are on the same level as me, it felt similar to imagining sounds. However, voices of people like Silvia or the director sounded just like normal voices....

‘Sound is transmitted through the vibration of air... But right now, there’s nothing like air to affect me. So, I shouldn’t be able to hear anything. That means...’

Upon realizing this, silence enveloped me.

-.......

It was a silence akin to being in space, or perhaps, even more ancient, a time before time and space existed, where nothing held meaning.

-Hmm.

The Sword Emperor, now with arms crossed instead of behind his back, faintly smiled.

However, that smile was merely a fleeting thought in my mind, not disturbing the silence I was experiencing.

I was utterly captivated by this pristine moment.

‘Pristine.’

Then, I realized that, too, was odd.

‘It can’t be white, for the same reason, it can’t be black.’

This wasn’t about the abstract notion that silence can’t be colored.

It was more specific and fundamental.

‘How am I [seeing] this scenery right now?’

Color is a wavelength of light.

Just as sound requires air to propagate and any sound needs air to spread, to [see] something, [light] must exist beforehand.

‘But I’m unaffected by anything right now. Not by gravity or by any reaction force. No physical forces affect me.’

Is light special, an exception?

Impossible. Although light might be categorized as a special attribute in games, it’s just one aspect of physical phenomena.

As someone who wielded a Holy Sword named Shiny, I was well aware of this fact.

‘Then, like how I shouldn’t be able to hear anything, I shouldn’t be able to see anything either....’

Upon feeling this, light vanished.

-.......

Complete darkness. A pure absence of light engulfed me.

When I was born, Earth was an incredibly radiant star.

Cities were everywhere. Just a short walk from one city led you directly to another. Although the population had peaked and was slowly decreasing, the number of buildings was on the rise. It was as if the cities, leaving the people behind, were frantically breeding among themselves.

Each of the increased number of buildings overflowed with light. Even after people left, the light remained like a debt. While the eerie ghost towns, the dark ruins, should have made more sense, somehow that logic didn’t apply.

Some called it a singularity. But many more knew it was merely the limitless proliferation of cancer cells.

[The night sky used to be much darker than it is now.]

The director had said, but as a child, I couldn’t imagine such a landscape. Throughout my life, the night sky was always shrouded in a murky haze, shimmering in purple.

[This star is sick with fever.]

So, the first darkness I saw was not in the night but in the water.

And even more so, in the hearts of people.

-It used to be like that.

I murmured without realizing.

-This is darkness.

True darkness was not black. It was merely devoid of anything.

Blankness.

Emptiness.

Thus, it could feel blindingly white or unfathomably black, but it was certainly neither.

Nothingness. I gazed at a world yet unfilled.

-It’s beautiful.

-Yes, Gong-Ja.

The Sword Emperor's response was felt from somewhere.

-What’s filled can only be emptied, making it beautiful. Similarly, what’s empty can only be filled, making it lovely.

I turned towards the direction from which I felt his response.

-Fool. Do you realize the ridiculous thing you're doing?

-Indeed.

I groaned.

-I don’t have a head right now.

-Right. But turning your head? That’s not bad, but doing it unconsciously makes it no different from before you saw this darkness.

The Sword Emperor spoke, with his robe fluttering— no, that couldn’t be sound— saying…

-Move knowingly. That’s the only way to move correctly. Be aware and feel. That’s how you can truly understand.

I nodded.

No.

First, I created [myself].

-I… Kim Gong-Ja.

Physically about twenty-five years old.

The time I actually had to endure… roughly 10,000, no, about 10,000.

‘No, that’s not it.’

[Approximately], [roughly], [about], none of those would do.

Precisely.

-.......

I thought about myself… imagined myself.

From birth to this moment, Kim Gong-Ja from the beginning to now, recalling without addition or subtraction.

-.......

A task that made my consciousness fade.

It was not an easy task.

[The voices from the tower... not automatically generated by the system, but could it be... manually done?]

[Yes. Manual work.]

But it was not impossible.

[Gong-Ja, even if events occur simultaneously for you, for me, it's just work that can be tackled one by one... Inefficiency arises only when time and space are limited... The concept of inefficiency does not exist.]

‘Advisor Gu Won-Ha.’

I thought about the character I once inhabited and the tasks she handled. Compared to that, recalling my own life was trivial.

‘Sand... Fox.’

Even the moments when the fox tampered with my memories were now a reference.

Not only that.

‘Netherworld.’

The space I reached upon death resembled this place.

‘Sanctuary.’

The experience of filling an empty world when I first built my sanctuary was quite useful in many ways.

And above all.

‘Master.’

The season that was too white and this darkness had something in common.

Embraced by darkness, I recalled myself... imagined... created... thought... and then.

Eventually, I opened my eyes.

-......,.......,............

I breathed.

The temperature, contours, direction, pitch, volume of my breath, all of it was perceptible.

In every detail.

Feeling the breath I exhaled, my neck, yes, I had a neck right now— shivered.

-Ah, ah… Um….

Saliva flowed from my lips.

I realized I lacked the vocabulary to describe this sensation.

It was simply a lack of experience. Despite dying so often, living countless lives in place of others, I couldn’t adequately describe this sensation.

I couldn’t intuit the state of my own body.

Not because it wasn’t perceptible, but because it was too vividly felt.

-Sensation is supposed to distinguish between oneself and the outside, but overly vivid sensations blur that boundary.

Once.

Somewhere.

-Remember well.

The Sword Emperor's voice reached me.

-That is what it means to [see].

Thump.

With the sound of my heartbeat, the darkness faded.

Light burst forth— the dam broke— the boundaries of the world, seared by the scorching light from afar, collapsed. And just like that, the darkness faded.

-Yes.

Thus, I found myself back in my sanctuary, the Garden of Withered Flowers, the place corresponding to the 80th to 89th floors, which is also the 91st floor.

The Sword Emperor, still with his arms crossed, welcomed me.

-Let’s take a walk.

As if suggesting the

same thing he had just a moment ago, or rather, certainly, it was something that had just happened.

-Yeah.

Shaking my still dazed head, I nodded.

-Let’s walk.

Slowly, I extended my foot towards the ground, towards the Sword Emperor’s side.

Thud.

I stepped.

Thud.

I started walking with the Sword Emperor.

Thud!

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