Chapter 386: The Garden of Time (2)

Chapter 386: The Garden of Time (2)

4.

140 years.

I had heard about a similar length of time before.

– When you debated with my Master, you mentioned enduring alone for 130 years... Was that what this was about?

– Ah, exactly that.

That carefree voice.

It felt as though wind was leaking from my heart just listening to it.

– My goodness. So, Sword Emperor sir....

[ No, suddenly, I thought that I could fail around the 99th floor as well. ]

The conversation I had with the Sword Emperor in the Truth Heaven suddenly flashed through my mind.

[ Sword Emperor-nim. But even someone like you died at the 99th floor. ]

Sword Emperor had shown a peculiar reaction to that statement.

[ Hmm. Well, death.... ]

I remember him repeating that.

And the kind of questions and answers that followed.

[ What is on the 99th floor? ]

At that time, Sword Emperor had not given a substantial answer.

Outwardly, he said 'I just don't want to tell you,' but surely, that couldn't have been everything. Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

[ Can you still not tell me? ]

To that question, Sword Emperor had said this.

– Let's walk a bit.

I blinked my eyes.

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

– Uh....

– Follow me, kid.

And Sword Emperor began 'walking' just like that time.

"...."

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

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

Thus, during this week that had passed, I gradually stopped performing the act of [walking]. It was more comfortable to float around as Bae Hu-ryeong usually did.

– Mahos said it looked like you had TCL-ed it.

Gong-ja said.

– I'm not exactly sure what TCL means, but I can guess.

Now, with gravity not working, all physical forces had lost their meaning. If I wanted, I could pass through floors and walls.

Therefore, I understood how difficult the act Sword Emperor was performing, this 'walking naturally,' really was. It felt like an incredible skill in the Truth Heaven, but now that I was in the same situation, I truly understood.

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

Sword Emperor glanced at me casually, his demeanor like that of casually looking back during a walk.

I suddenly realized that this was an important moment.

– Please wait a moment.

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

I first tried to place my soles on the ground. Still, there was no feeling of contact, but I tried my best to [stand up] naturally.

– Hmm.

Sword Emperor waited quietly. He neither urged me nor offered advice.

Yet, I immediately knew that what I had done was not really standing, but something else entirely strange.

– Just a moment more.

– Take your time.

– Yes.

I took a serious stance and delved into thought.

'How do you stand?'

Even to myself, the thought seemed ridiculous.

But a stronger conviction seized me.

'This is important.'

This moment was important.

'To stand... first, put your soles on the ground. Then the ground will support you... but now, there's no ground to support me. So....'

A fluffy mass seemed to float around my head.

It seemed graspable yet elusive, and I took a deep breath... Did I?

'No. Of course, that was just pretending to breathe.'

I focused my consciousness.

'I am now practically no different from a ghost. Naturally, there's nothing like [air] for me to inhale. And that means....'

At that moment, a new question arose in my mind.

'Wait. If there's no [air], how can I [hear] sound?'

I realized that this was a very strange phenomenon.

Physical age, about twenty-five.

The actual time I had to experience... roughly 1,000, no, roughly 10,000.

'No.'

Words like [roughly], [about], and [approximately] won't do.

Exactly.

-....

I think of myself... imagine myself.

I begin to recall Kim Gong-ja, from birth to this moment, without adding or subtracting anything.

-....

A mind-bending task.

It was never an easy task.

[ The voices from the tower... they aren't just automatically operated by the system, perhaps.... ]

[ Yes. It's manual. ]

But it wasn't impossible either.

[ Death King. Even if it might be simultaneous events for you, for me, it's just a task that needs to be handled one by one. ... Inefficiency only occurs when time and space are limited. ... The concept of inefficiency does not exist. ]

'Baron Gu Won-ha.'

I thought about the character I had once been possessed by and the tasks she was assigned. Compared to that amount, revisiting my own life was nothing more than a grain of sand.

'Sand... Fox~nim.'

Even the moments when my memories were jumbled by Fox~nim had become a reference now.

And it was not only that.

'Nether World.'

The space I had arrived at when I died resembled this place.

'Sanctuary.'

The experience of initially building and filling the empty world of the Sanctuary proved useful in many ways.

And above all.

'Master.'

That season, so achingly white, and this darkness, they shared similarities.

Enveloped in darkness, I recalled myself... imagined... created... thought... and then.

Eventually, I opened my eyes.

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

I breathed.

The temperature of the breath, its contours, direction, pitch, and volume, all these were felt.

Thoroughly.

A shiver ran down my neck, yes, I had a neck now—it shivered.

– Haah, haaah... hmm...

Saliva flowed from my lips.

I realized that I lacked the vocabulary to describe this sensation.

Simply put, it was due to a lack of experience. Despite having died and lived, experiencing countless lives in place of others, I couldn't properly explain this sensation.

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

It wasn't that I couldn't feel; rather, I felt too intensely.

– Sensation is supposed to distinguish between oneself and the outside, but overly sharp senses blur that boundary.

Sometime.

Somewhere.

– Remember well.

Sword Emperor's voice came through.

– That is what [seeing] is.

Thump.

With the sound of my heart beating, the darkness faded.

Light burst forth—the dam broke—the boundaries of the world were seared by the blazing light from afar—and thus, the darkness faded.

– Yes.

And thus, I found myself back in my sanctuary, in the Garden of Withered Flowers, on what corresponds to the 80th through 89th floors, and also the 91st floor.

With his arms crossed, Sword Emperor greeted me.

– Let's walk a bit.

As if urging what he had urged just a moment ago, no, certainly, it must have been something that happened just a moment ago.

– Yes.

Shaking my still dazed head, I nodded.

– Let's walk.

Slowly, I stretched my foot towards the ground, beside Sword Emperor.

Thud.

I stepped down.

Thud.

I started walking with Sword Emperor.

Thud!