Chapter 343:

Chapter 343:

When the world of nightmares completely enveloped Gangneung, the Association was thrown into chaos.

The strange dome, which had appeared suddenly without any warning, not only swallowed Gangneung but was also gradually expanding in size.

Evacuation messages were sent to the citizens of Yangyang, Pyeongchang, and Donghae City, and a Collector summons order was issued.

“Haa. What on earth is happening this time?”

Choi Jung-mo, who had now risen to the position of Association President, clutched his head in frustration as the Gangneung incident broke out just when he thought the incidents had finally calmed down.

His eyes were fixed on the real-time footage being captured by drones.

The ten-layer Mental Realm incident in Gwanghwamun had been serious, but this Gangneung incident was distinctly different from the usual Mental Realms.

‘Communication with the inside has been completely cut off. And that unknown dome is getting larger and larger.’

No one knew what was unfolding inside. Just by looking at the way the dome pulsated endlessly like a heart, it was clear that whatever was inside was far from ordinary.

It wasn't a Mental Realm. Yet, like a runaway Mental Realm, it was devouring and eroding its surroundings in a similar process.

A runaway world.

A foreboding sign that was not a typical Mental Realm but something that signaled the end of the world.

* * *

Yu-hyun went inside and immediately tried to find Kang Hye-rim and Seo Sumin, but he couldn't see either of them. They seemed to have already gone deeper inside. He tried using telepathy just in case, but he couldn't reach them.

‘Is it literally another world where communication doesn’t work at all?’

He decided to go deeper. He calculated that if he reached the center of this gigantic nightmare world, he would be able to find Kwon Jia.

‘This place is quite complex.’

This nightmare world, with everything mixed together, was a massive maze in itself. Strange structures jutted out irregularly, and some terrains were so twisted that they resembled an ant nest.

Without a map or a clear path, Yu-hyun had no choice but to head inward as much as possible with his back to the dome's outer edge.

‘This is Jia’s nightmare.’

The feared scenario had come true. Kwon Jia's sealed memories had awakened, and even merged with the Fragments and the Seeds of Stories to create a massive disaster.

To stop this, he needed to remove the core, which could be called the story of this world.

‘Since it's different from a typical Mental Realm, there might not be any clear conditions for clearing it.’

At the center of all this was Kwon Jia. Though it wasn't her doing but that of Praytion, led by the Bookworm, the root of this world was ultimately Kwon Jia.

If her memories were the driving force maintaining this world.

To destroy this nightmare world, he might have to kill Kwon Jia in the worst-case scenario.

‘Phew. No. Let's not make hasty judgments. No one knows what will happen yet. There could be another way.’

It was too early to conclude anything yet. Even so, it was hard to shake off the anxious thoughts.

Yu-hyun walked and walked again. This bizarrely twisted world should have been completely new to him, but the traces within it were all too familiar.

Since the material composing this world was the apocalypse he had tried so hard to prevent, it was natural.

If this nightmare world kept growing and eventually covered the entire Earth, what would happen?

Perhaps Praytion's very goal was this. To bring Kwon Jia's nightmare into reality and overlay it onto Earth.

‘Who would let them do as they please?’

Having come this far, he couldn't let them ruin everything in the end.

Yu-hyun’s eyes burned with fierce determination.

* * *

‘Where on earth is this place?’

Since entering the nightmare world, Kang Hye-rim had been unable to get her bearings on where to go.

Even she, who had cleared countless Mental Realms, found this nightmare world, where everything was mixed together, an unfamiliar place.

‘Yu-hyun said Jia was trapped in a trap. Does that mean this world itself is somehow related to Jia?’

Really?

Kang Hye-rim had doubts in her mind about whether such a thing was actually possible, but strangely, she was convinced.

Though she didn't know much, she had seen and heard many things while staying by Yu-hyun's side.

Moreover, some of the surrounding landscapes she glimpsed reminded her too much of post-apocalyptic Earth that she had seen from Yu-hyun's past.

‘Come to think of it, Jia has always known things that others didn't.’

At the time, Kang Hye-rim had dismissed it as Kwon Jia being incredibly smart, but upon further thought, many things didn’t add up.

Yu-hyun was a regressor who had returned from the future to the past.

And Yu-hyun and Kwon Jia shared each other’s secrets, hiding them from others.

The incredibly knowledgeable information Kwon Jia had shown so far.

Kwon Jia. She was a regressor.

‘This is really troublesome.’

Yu-hyun felt frustrated as he couldn’t find any trace of Kwon Jia no matter how far he walked. Moreover, the number of illusions wandering around was so high that he encountered them everywhere he went.

Since this world manifested everything in Kwon Jia's memory, the types of illusions were endlessly diverse.

‘And they keep increasing.’

If it wasn’t a mistake, the number of illusions wandering around was continuously growing. The frequency of encountering them had also increased significantly.

‘What happened to the survivors in the city swallowed by the

nightmare world?’

Gangneung was engulfed by the nightmare world before the evacuation order could even be issued. Given the situation with these illusions wandering around, even if there were survivors, their numbers would be extremely few.

‘Even if I try to rescue them, without knowing the original location of the city, I can’t move from here.’

Unless the root cause of this incident was resolved, even if he found a group of survivors, he wouldn’t be able to keep them safe.

Yu-hyun looked up at the sky. The dome’s ceiling spread darkly, blocking his view.

Even using the Eye of Laplace, he couldn’t see where to go or what to face.

‘They said this world was created due to the Fragments and the Seeds of Stories. Is it because of that influence?’

He couldn’t see the future inside this place.

Yu-hyun immediately deactivated the power of Laplace and decided to move again.

That was when it happened.

Baaah.

He heard the sound of a sheep crying from somewhere. He couldn’t determine the direction, but if he hadn’t heard it wrong, it was definitely the sound of a sheep crying.

Realizing this, Yu-hyun shivered involuntarily.

[Yu-hyun, what’s wrong?]

‘You heard that sheep cry, right?’

[Huh? Oh, yeah. I think I did. So what about it?]

Yu-hyun had a serious expression he hadn’t shown before. Seeing him react this way, Baek-ryun felt an unusual sense of anxiety.

‘Damn. It really was the cry of a sheep. I wish I had just misheard.’

[What’s wrong with the cry of a sheep?]

‘It’s not just any sheep. It’s the cry of a lamb.’

[What’s so problematic about that?]

‘Because it’s not an ordinary problem.’

To Yu-hyun, the cry of this lamb did not hold good memories.

It wasn’t even that long ago. The events that unfolded after this lamb cried were directly related to the trials Yu-hyun faced in the final stages of the apocalypse.

‘But why is it here?’

Didn’t they say Jia hadn’t even passed more than half of the trials?

But this lamb’s cry, if he wasn’t mistaken, was a kind of ‘omen’ that occurred during the 99th trial.

From what Yu-hyun remembered, Jia had barely passed the 50th trial a few times.

There was no way Jia had lied about this. Yet, the fact that the 99th trial existed in her memory meant only one thing.

‘The sealed memories of those cycles have been released.’

Yu-hyun had no idea what Kwon Jia did in cycles 2 through 10. Her memories were sealed, and even Yu-hyun’s ability to read books couldn’t confirm that far.

However, the cry of the lamb confirmed it for Yu-hyun. Kwon Jia had reached the 99th trial during her early cycles.

‘Then this is really serious.’

[What on earth is going on?]

‘The cry of the lamb means that next comes that event.’

Before Baek-ryun could ask what it was, a ripping sound echoed in the air.

The clear sound mocked his earlier thought of having mistaken the cry.

Yu-hyun recited a verse.

“When the lamb opened one of the seven seals, a voice like thunder roared.”

「Come!」

A resonant voice echoed throughout the nightmare world. Simultaneously, a massive wave of power was felt from afar, as if a bomb had exploded.

Yu-hyun’s cold gaze turned toward the direction of the wave.

“The 99th trial. The Horseman of the Apocalypse is coming.”