Chapter 304: Small Exhibition Hall: Birth of the Retuner
Sung-Woon witnessed a spirit just finishing changing the sign of the subsection. Guided by the spirit, Sung-Woon walked to the first changed exhibit.
-There once was a Wizard.
A man, who appeared Human, was in a forest.
-This Wizard loved to play.
In front of the man was a gameboard, unfamiliar to Sung-Woon. Perhaps through magic, it shimmered with light, and the pieces moved on their own. The man's back was turned, deeply engrossed in the gameboard.
-The Wizard had good relations with friends.
In the next diorama, Sung-Woon saw Wizards of various species gathered around the Wizard. The gameboard seemed to be designed for multiple players. Their face was hidden by a hood, but the Wizard’s friends seemed to have a cheerful look on their faces.
-But a destiny called death took all his friends away.
The next diorama still only showed the Wizard's back. But in front of him, instead of a gameboard, was a graveyard. Unable to symbolize anything with just a branch, he used tough strings to tie the wood into a cross and planted it in the ground. Occasionally, on Avartin, as on Earth, the cross symbolized death.
Many crosses were planted in front of the Wizard.
-The Wizard decided to overcome death.
Sung-Woon asked,
-His own death?
-No.
The spirits sang,
-Everyone's death.
Sung-Woon initially thought the next exhibit was a video, but then realized it was a shadow play. Peering carefully inside, he noticed spirits moving puppets around with their mouths. Sung-Woon focused on the play, not wanting to embarrass the spirits.
The narrative was simple. It was about how the Wizard decided to overcome everyone's death.
Sung-Woon found it somewhat familiar, as it was a repetition of what he had already seen in the previous exhibit, 'The Birth of the System'. The difference was that instead of focusing on a group of ancient Human Wizards wielding magical power in Avartin, it centered on an individual known as 'the Wizard'.
And if the narrative was true, the system was not the work of ancient Wizards, but rather the creation of this one Wizard. Sung-Woon began to believe this could be true.
'To come up with the idea of a system, the concept of a game must come first.’
The process was not smooth, but eventually, the first Rasdasil was completed, laying the foundational work.
As Sung-Woon and the two apostles predicted, the spirits of Demonic Magic played a role in stimulating practice or triggering new ideas. Using this as a stepping stone, the Wizard successfully built the initial system. This became a great achievement in the history of Avartin. Death became obsolete.
A festival spanning several decades enveloped the entire planet of Avartin.
'The original exhibition would have ended here.'
The subsection 'The Birth of the System' that Sung-Woon remembered concluded with a world without death, where everyone met in the afterlife, and endless happiness ensued.
However, 'The Birth of the Returner' did not end there. The tragedy began right at that point.
-The ancient Wizards ascended to the position of gods. They proclaimed that position rightfully theirs for creating the system, and all life on Avartin agreed. The Wizard too ascended to that position for his achievements.
Sung-Woon looked at the next exhibit.
'Bored Gods.'
The joy of the long festival faded—in retrospect, the festival could no longer be described as long. It only lasted a few decades after all, and what followed was 70,000 years.
The exhibit showed the old gods sitting inside the system. They were still, either in gloom, consuming drugs, or gazing at stagnant cultural arts that had been repeated for thousands of years. The retro trend had come and gone hundreds of times.
The miserable fact for the old gods was that such days were planned to last forever. The gods despaired. Then, a deviation occurred.
'An Old God on Trial.'
The diorama now displayed a courtroom with one of the old gods bowing their head. Using a magnifying glass provided in front of the diorama, Sung-Woon could read the detailed list of crimes of the old god.
The crimes were horrific. They tortured living people to death and extorted souls meant for the afterlife, torturing them again. Then they imprisoned those souls. This went on for 6,000 years, affecting 30,000 beings.
Most of the rescued souls couldn't recover, and even the old god most knowledgeable in healing magic didn't know how to help. They put the suffering souls to sleep, unable to bear seeing them in pain. That was the only solution they had.
The courtroom asked the old god why they committed such acts. The old god said they did it out of boredom. Then they confessed to feeling omnipotent and alive each time they heard the screams of the beings they interfered with by bending causality.
The presiding judge and other old gods wanted to quickly resolve this terrible crime. Since there was no death within the system, they created an exceptional concept of 'The Fall', and after making the old god Fall, they killed them.
The old god, who died without a chance for faith, simply vanished rather than had their soul stored in Rasdasil. All information related to this old god was eradicated and buried in oblivion.
The old gods believed everything was well managed. For about 10,000 years, they held this belief.
However, the deviance of an old god, now nameless, had driven a significant stake into everyone's minds. The old gods began to feel the need to experience omnipotence and being alive again.
Changes started to occur gradually. Lighter deviations and their subsequent trials occurred, incomparable to the past crimes of the old god. Even when they bent causality, they deemed death through Falling as excessive, so they only temporarily put offenders to sleep as punishment.
The old gods slowly escalated the severity of their deviations. The beings of Avartin didn't quite understand what was happening.
Knowing their actions were dishonorable and shameful, the old gods were more cautious in enjoying their diversions. They shared thoughts on what actions were more entertaining, what excuses they would make at trials, or if they felt they had the right to commit such acts. They each began to gain the others' agreement. Even the most upright judge among them came to understand how to enjoy this delusion.
Avartin gradually deteriorated. Sung-Woon understood what this was. There were many examples, but similar things could happen in The Lost World. After winning the game, all players exit, except for the last victor.
The final victor, remaining in that world, gained the right to do as they pleased. They could drop unnecessary nuclear bombs on weaker nations or change the belief systems to doom them all to hell. Having won the game, they meaninglessly racked up Faith points and lined up the heroes who fought alongside them to throw them into prison.
No one could resist the urge. The winning player was a true god. Sung-Woon, too, had once done such things. It was just a game, so he felt no guilt.
'In a finished game, the death of an entity means nothing. I've already won. The same might have been true for Avartin, which had overcome death.'
But Sung-Woon didn't enjoy such actions, nor did he think he would do them given the chance. It wasn't a way to enjoy the game. At least, it wasn't Sung-Woon's idea of fun.
And among all this, only one old god shared Sung-Woon's view. ‘The Wizard’, now an old god, known by another name, 'The Returner.'
The Returner didn't think of himself as special. He was the technician who created the system, and the system continually had issues. He was too busy to ever feel bored. He thought that kept him from falling into the trap called boredom.
Sung-Woon read the Returner's thoughts. He guessed these were the Returner's remaining consciousness in the depths of the Demon World.
'The system is a failure.'
‘I have failed.’
‘The system must be destroyed.’
But now, the Returner alone couldn't rebel against all the other old gods. The old gods had found suitable ways to overcome their boredom. Trials no longer occurred. Even the judge, Bifen Dial Robane, was more interested in exciting activities than in trials.
They thought they had lost the freedom to interfere with each entity due to the system's constraints, but finding ways to violate these causal laws and celebrating their achievements became a source of joy.
It had been over 10,000 years. The Returner thought they had endured for too long.
‘I can't just stand by and watch.’
The Returner sought out the most tender-hearted among the old gods. He shared his plan with that old god. The Returner's persuasion worked, and a plan to gradually take away the system control, equally held by the old gods, was set in motion.
The Returner almost succeeded. He nearly did. He brought the system to the brink of collapse and stripped some of the old gods of their powers. He managed to change the minds of some of the old gods and freed countless souls suffering under them. This great deed could perhaps make up the sin of having created the system.
But, ultimately, the Returner failed. He knew that the tender-hearted old god had immense compassion for the beings of Avartin, but was unaware that their tender heart also feared the ruin of their fellow old gods, their family for so long.
Aldin, the tender-hearted old god, betrayed the Returner.
Before the judge, Bifen, he asked the Returner, "Do you have any other words?"
"I have seen the secret. I will return."
The ancient Wizards rarely spoke of secrets. Uttering a false secret was a taboo among taboos. If one spoke of a secret, it had to be the truth. The old gods murmured.
The Returner proclaimed, "When I return, the system will be destroyed."
Bifen responded, "You will not return." Bifen sentenced the Returner to Fall and face true death. "You won't even get the chance to leave."
The anger of the old gods, who almost lost everything, did not end there. After a torturous death, the Returner's soul was collected. Until the system was once again shaken and partially obliterated by an attack from an evil god, the Returner's soul remained imprisoned for tens of thousands of years. It was long enough for the old gods to mock and then forget his promise of return.
Sung-Woon now stood in front of the last exhibit of this subsection. The spirits' song had already ended.
'Returner Who Faces Eternal Torture (Replica)'
The last exhibit was a small emerald-green gem. Inside the gem, a silhouette writhed continuously. It was a man screaming.
Sung-Woon peered closely at it through a magnifying glass positioned in front of the gem. The face, which appeared only as a silhouette, was familiar to Sung-Woon.
Sung-Woon murmured,
-Why does it have the same face as me?
Mazdari said,
-Because you share the same soul as the Returner.
Kyle said,
-It's just a coincidence.
Sung-Woon lightly shook his head. Though looking at the emerald, his gaze was directed toward the back.
-I wasn't asking you guys.
Sung-Woon looked at a corner of the small exhibition hall, where the reflection from the emerald shone. A small shadow was hiding within the exhibition hall.
Mazdari and Kyle, realizing what Sung-Woon meant, turned to look behind them. The figure that had been hiding above a partition in the exhibition hall jumped down. It was Aldin.
"How did you get here?"
Sung-Woon, taking his eyes off the magnifying glass, slowly turned around and said, "What about my question?"
"You will never know the answer."
Aldin took out a staff that the Returner had given her long ago. Then she consciously pulled her hood deeper over her head.
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