Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Chapter 240
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The Monad II
The second Monad.
“Hyung.”
“Oh, Seo Gyu.”
“I― am this SG Man, fufufu. The mastermind behind everything.”
“......”
And so we begin another story linked to Mastermind Syndrome.
‘Here we go again with this pattern.’
I sighed.
To remind anyone who might have forgotten: Mastermind Syndrome refers to the phenomenon wherein a person becomes convinced beyond all doubt that they are secretly orchestrating every tragedy from behind the scenes to bring about the end of the world.
So, when and how does one catch Mastermind Syndrome?
The condition was deceptively simple. All you had to do was survive to the end with me, the Undertaker, and cheerfully shout “Chicken for dinner tonight!” in unison.
Naturally, the more sociable a person, the lower their survival rate.
Awakeners who spent their days roaming around and fighting against Anomalies, like Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, had an extremely low chance of contracting Mastermind Syndrome. After all, survival is the prerequisite to contamination, isn’t it?
On the other hand, our guild’s proud anti-social union members got selected as masterminds like regulars whenever things got a little boring.
Sim Ah-ryeon, who didn’t choose the Saintess of the North route. Lee Ha-yul, who wasn’t led by the restless spirit. Oh Dok-seo, who dedicated decades to seclusion training after her serialization stopped...
Seo Gyu, though not exactly anti-social, was also a strong candidate. The guy spent all his time holed up at the base, living his 24-hour routine of sleep, eat, lift, eat, manage the Cyber Anomaly Prison, eat.
“Right, Seo Gyu. Even though your head would’ve been lopped off by a fairy and you’d be dead if I hadn’t saved you at Busan Station, somehow, you’re the mastermind that orchestrated every tragedy and massacre on Earth.”
“Fufu. You know me well, hyung.”
Normally, I would’ve just smacked Seo Gyu over the head and moved on to the next run.
But this day, precisely as the 682nd cycle was set to end, I felt an odd spark of curiosity.
It was already a lost cause of a run. I figured, why not humor Seo Gyu, who’d always been a certified babbler, a little longer?
Without any serious thought, intent, or purpose, I casually asked him a question.
“Just tell me one thing. You would’ve been eliminated in the beginning if it weren’t for me, so how exactly do you claim you controlled everything behind the scenes? Wouldn’t it all end if you died?”
“A foolish question, hyung.”
But to my surprise, Seo Gyu answered with full confidence, “Of course, even my own death was part of my calculations.”
“What?”
“Think about it, fufu. If I died, it would only mean that you lacked the ‘force to defeat the Tutorial Fairy in an instant’ or that you possessed the kind of morals that would passively watch a fairy massacre civilians.”
“......”
“In such a world, I could never succeed as a mastermind. For me to flourish in this role, I need to latch onto the world you created—a world that requires a protector strong enough to overpower Anomalies and a soft-hearted fool who would willingly share his warmth with those around him. That fool being you, hyung.”
Seo Gyu wagged his finger, giving me a disapproving click of his tongue.
“Why would I bother striving for glory in a world that doesn’t meet these conditions?”
“What?”
“Hyung. Right after the Anomalies appeared and I was dropped into the Tutorial Dungeon, I quickly made up my mind. I would either become the mastermind controlling all evil, or I would die right then and there and escape from all suffering.”
I stared, dumbfounded. Why did this nonsense sound almost... convincing?
“Wait... Isn’t it difficult for you to Awaken to your power without my help, let alone pull off an omnipresent scheme? Let’s say you did survive and join my guild. How could you be so sure you’d succeed as the mastermind, Seo Gyu?”
“Fufu.” He flashed me a sly smile, an expression that a beefy man of his build would normally never be able to pull off.
A part of me wanted to punch the daylights out of him, while another part was curious to see just how far he could twist this absurd story. The latter won, for now, since I could satisfy the former desire anytime.
“Do you really think I didn’t know?”
“Come again?”
“I Awakened my power early on. However, you had no way of confirming whether or not I had Awakened... The longer I delayed my Awakening, the more you let your guard down around me.”
“Huh?”
“All I had to do was manipulate the timing of my Awakening to my advantage. After all, it was obvious you’d eventually come to rely on me. Securing a critical position without raising the ruler’s suspicion... it’s a tactic straight out of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, akin to the scheming of Jia Xu, wouldn’t you say?”
“......?”
It sounded... convincing!
Adding a comparison to Three Kingdoms, the greatest classic of all, made Seo Gyu’s story unexpectedly persuasive. I couldn’t help but listen to his eloquent speech, captivated.
“I subtly encouraged Anomalies without you or the Saintess noticing. For example, you ordered me to keep Three Kingdoms content playing on a smartphone around the clock for ‘narrative support Anomalies’...”
“Hyung—”
Thud. Roll...
His head rolled onto the floor as his neck slipped at an angle.
“......”
“Fufu. My apologies, Mr. Undertaker.”
The Saintess, bloody ax in hand, smiled sweetly. An uncharacteristic expression for someone who was usually so stoic.
“Did I startle you?”
“...In a way.”
“To you, Mr. Undertaker, it’s been around 20 years, I suppose. I was a little surprised back then, too, when you first told me to monitor Seo Gyu as if he were a mastermind. It seemed you’d grown quite wary of those around you.”
I rubbed my forehead. “It’s the Saintess’s turn to be the mastermind this time, isn’t it?”
“Mastermind, huh? That’s rather hurtful, Mr. Undertaker. I orchestrated every bit of destruction, watching over you from the start as...”
In an instant, her body burst into flames and vanished—my Aura had incinerated her. Watching Mastermind Syndrome toy with the Saintess’s personality was too much to bear.
‘Anyway, if she set her mind to it, the Saintess could easily pull off the mastermind role.’
Manipulating Awakeners through her Constellations, subtly distorting reports to me, freezing time for the perfect crime, and more.
Only now did I grasp the ruthless nature of Mastermind Syndrome.
‘...Is there really no way out of this?’
[Option 1]
Whoever survives until the end, whether it’s Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, or anyone else, is automatically designated as the “Mastermind.”
This Mastermind will claim to have orchestrated all their crimes during moments I, the Undertaker, failed to observe them.
Since I can’t monitor those moments, I will have no way of confirming whether the claim is true or false.
[Option 2]
If I rely on the Saintess’s Clairvoyance to observe every moment, it is the Saintess herself who ends up designated as the “Mastermind.”
Since the Saintess can freeze time and commit acts outside my purview, I won’t be able to disprove the Saintess Mastermind Theory.
[Option 3]
I suppress my allies’ growth to ensure that none of them ever rise to claim the “Mastermind” title. I forbid them from acting heroically, restrict their judgment, and prevent them from exercising free will.
I abandon my comrades before they can be designated as Masterminds. I stand by and allow them to die.
Efficiency is sacrificed for control.
Then, when the world inevitably falls to ruin, the true cause of its destruction becomes my tyranny, my distrust, my arrogance. And at last, I am the one designated as the Mastermind.
Only this fact would stand proven.
‘...Whichever option I choose, the Mastermind Syndrome remains unavoidable.’
Take this current cycle, for instance.
Ah-ryeon had been successfully holding back the Monster Wave as the Saintess of the North when it suddenly surged, overrunning New Shinuiju and causing the Eastern Holy State to fall. The Armies of Annihilation engulfed Busan soon after.
‘What if the Saintess froze time and traveled across the globe, wiping out city after city, causing the sudden increase in the Monster Wave’s strength?’
Could such a hypothesis be proven or disproven?
No.
No matter how many times I looped, it was impossible to witness every event.
Whether Seo Gyu, the Saintess, Lee Ha-yul, Sim Ah-ryeon, or even Oh Dok-seo, might have hastened the world’s end in different cycles—
I could never entirely deny the possibility.
And I never would be able to either.
“......”
I looked down at the earth, now fully blanketed by the Monster Wave, leaving no place for life.
The Anomalies stared back up at me, the last human left on this planet.
The twisted limbs of monstrous beings mocked me with grotesque smiles.
- Hyung, I brought about the end of the world.
- Mr. Undertaker. I orchestrated every bit of destruction.
This was the second piece of the puzzle.
Footnotes:
[1] The devil’s proof is a logical dilemma that describes how the presence of evidence can prove something exists or is true but a lack of evidence fails to disprove it.
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