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Chapter 104 – 40th Floor (7)

Gi-Gyu was ready to plunge his Death sword into El’s chest when he fell to the ground. However, his consciousness returned when he fell as if his body decided the fight was over. When he came to, he saw El on the ground with one torn wing. Then, he saw her tears.

El had her arms open wide as if she was welcoming death. Watching her, he felt a faint sadness that made him pause. Unfortunately, this was a huge mistake: The blank looked returned instantly, and she stabbed him.

And now, he was on the ground with a punctured heart.

“Master…! Master! Please wake up! Master!” The beautiful woman repeatedly called out his name. Gi-Gyu had always thought Soo-Jung was beautiful, but she couldn’t compare to this woman kneeling beside him. Unlike the seductive Soo-Jung, this woman had an otherworldly warmth and elegant beauty. When she looked at him blankly earlier, he found her annoying. So, why did she look so gorgeous to him now?

Gi-Gyu smiled and whispered, “I’m sorry…”

Even after getting stabbed in the heart, he was alive, indicating how powerful he had become. Still, he wasn’t powerful enough to avoid death.

-Tsk.

-Master! Master…

Lou clicked his tongue in frustration while Brunheart cried. Gi-Gyu wasn’t just apologizing to El—he was apologizing to all his synced Egos since they would also perish with him.

Hermes, Bi, Oberon, Brunheart, Lou, Old Man Hwang, and… the beautiful woman kneeling before him. So many intelligent minds were attached to one man.

“Master…” El sobbed while Lou muttered as if he was giving up.

-Idiot… Well, I guess it’s for the best?

“I can’t believe you think this is for the best,” Gi-Gyu muttered. But he also laughed a little. Perhaps it was because he was about to die. Was he feeling some kind of relief?

But what about his family? What about all those countless people who were a part of his life?

The fatigue was slowly getting to him.

“Master!” El screamed, but Gi-Gyu fell into a deep sleep.

***

“Ugh.” Hwang Ji-Chul grabbed his chest and fell to the floor. He felt a sharp pain in his chest as if he was having a heart attack. Still on the floor, Hwang Ji-Chul looked at his grandson sleeping soundly on the bed before him.

“Ack!” He tried to suppress the agony since he didn’t want to wake up his grandson, but the pain wasn’t something he could endure. He had hunted monsters for years, yet he had never felt something like this before.

‘But compared to that day…’?He remembered the pain he felt when he lost his wife. Compared to that, this was tolerable.

More accurately, he?had?to endure it. Hwang Ji-Chul refused to have his grandson witness his grandfather’s death again.

“I’m so sorry…” Old Man Hwang murmured. He wanted to stay with his grandson a while longer since Min-Su was just beginning to recover from the kidnapping incident. Most of his life was wasted in that workshop, protecting the Paimon’s legacy. If he could just stay a bit longer… Only if he could live until his grandson got older…

“Thank you,” Hwang Ji-Chul whispered, feeling a genuine appreciation toward Gi-Gyu. Gi-Gyu was the sole reason he got a little more time with his grandson. From the severe pain he felt now, Old Man Hwang could guess what must be happening.

‘Gi-Gyu… Something fatal must’ve happened to him. I pray for your survival, Young Man.’

“If not, I’ll have to repay my debt in hell,” Hwang Ji-Chul murmured, ready to show respect to his master. He was determined to serve Gi-Gyu in hell, which he knew existed.

“Grandpa?” Suddenly, Min-Su woke up as if he had heard the murmur. Hwang Ji-Chul overcame the agony and hugged Min-Su.

“Min-Su, listen carefully. You must be a good boy and obey the nice lady next door,” Old Man Hwang said simply.

“Grandpa…? Are you going somewhere? Please don’t go.” Min-Su begged when he heard the unexpected announcement, but he got no answer.

Plop.

“Grandpa! Grandpa!” Min-Su screamed as he shook his unconscious grandfather. Sadly, there was no response from Old Man Hwang. Min-Su could swing a massive hammer the size of his head, but he was still just a kid. Tears came rolling down his eyes as Min-Su continued to shake his grandfather.

Unexpectedly…

“Huh?!” Old Man Hwang’s eyes flew open. “W-what happened?”

***

Death wasn’t as painful as Gi-Gyu expected. Was it because his pain sensor was deactivated? Or could it be because his heart was pierced so cleanly? In death, he didn’t feel pain: He felt regret.

‘Where am I?’

.

When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by darkness. Perhaps it looked especially dark to him because he was fighting in a pure white space just a moment ago. Inside the calm darkness, Gi-Gyu thought, ‘What will happen to everyone? I guess all my Egos must be dead too? I should’ve visited Mother and Yoo-Jung one more time before the test. But I’m sure Tae-Shik hyung will take good care of them. What about Soo-Jung? She said I was her heir, so will it be okay for me to die? And I really wanted to help Suk-Woo, Sun-Pil, and Dong-Hae.’

All the things Gi-Gyu remembered he didn’t get to do turned into regrets.

‘Ironshield… Lee Sun-Ho… The demon El kept imprisoned… Andras…’

Although he had his revenge against Rogers Han, he didn’t get to go after Ironshield. As for Lee Sun-Ho, Gi-Gyu still wasn’t sure if he was an enemy.

What about the demon that escaped El’s seal? Would it become a threat to his family? Unfortunately, Gi-Gyu didn’t even know this demon’s identity.

And what about Andras? The Caravan Guild?

His enemies, those who could become his enemy, and…

‘Hahaha.’?Gi-Gyu laughed, realizing that perhaps it was all for nothing. Dying like this wasn’t within his expectations; thankfully, there was an afterlife. If he had died without remembering anything and disappeared without a trace…

‘That would be too sad.’?Gi-Gyu thought. Previously, he thought death meant losing one’s existence, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

‘Well, Old Man Hwang did return from death.’?Gi-Gyu wasn’t sure if Old Man Hwang returned 100 percent; he was the Hwang Ji-Chul he remembered. The only difference was that the elderly man was now Gi-Gyu’s Ego.

Gi-Gyu thought asking the old man if he really was Old Man Hwang was stupid, but now he regretted not asking. If the Ego Hwang Ji-Chul wasn’t the original Old Man Hwang, did that mean there were now two of them?

‘Now that I’m dead, I have so many questions.’?Gi-Gyu laughed again and began moving. The darkness made seeing anything impossible, but he could move fluidly as if he was underwater.

Clack.

Suddenly, Gi-Gyu felt something with his hand.

‘How strange.’?How could he touch anything in death? And what was it that he felt? Had he been alive, he would’ve become cautious; now that he was dead, he was fearless. So, he began patting the unknown thing with both hands.

It was something blunt. He couldn’t remember ever feeling a similar texture before, but there was definitely something there.

Fwoosh!

Suddenly, the darkness disappeared, and Gi-Gyu found countless creatures flying around in the sky. He saw dragons, some monsters he had never seen, and some gate and Tower monsters. Gi-Gyu followed them with his eyes until he saw the land where they were headed.

“Huh?!” Gi-Gyu felt like he couldn’t breathe. On the land was a gigantic, in both size and number, army. He couldn’t differentiate their species, but they were all neatly lined and wore similar armor despite being widely different. Some were so big that they could cover the sky, some were made of dozens of smaller monsters, and some looked like angels.

At the unorganized yet overwhelming sight, Gi-Gyu took a step back, realizing this army’s might had to be extraordinary.

Plop.

He sat down on the exact spot he was patting a moment ago. Still confused, Gi-Gyu looked around only to find himself sitting on a throne. It was much bigger than the throne Lou’s physical body sat on in the 30th-floor test. The throne had a strange vibe to it; it was obvious it belonged to a monarch.

Gi-Gyu opened his hands and touched them together; much to his relief, they were his own.

Someone approached Gi-Gyu, but he couldn’t hear this creature’s voice.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

There had to be over hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching together. Their thundering stomps and clanging weapons echoed all around him as one.

-Go back.

With that, Gi-Gyu lost consciousness.

***

‘What was that?’

Gi-Gyu couldn’t forget how the throne felt in his hand. He also couldn’t stop thinking about that voice. He missed the echo terribly.

And…

He wanted to feel the throne again. Gi-Gyu couldn’t see anything, but he reached out, wondering if he could feel it again. To his disappointment, he felt something entirely different, something much softer.

“Huh? This feels different.” The touch felt much more real, and he could also hear himself. He abruptly realized something and opened his eyes with a jolt.

Thud!

Something smacked Gi-Gyu’s head, and he lost consciousness again due to the severe pain.

After who knew how long, he opened his eyes and mumbled, “Mmm…” His eyes were blurry, but this time, he could see someone.

“Are you awake?” A lovely voice asked him. Such a pure voice had to belong to heaven.

“Who are you…?” Rubbing his eyes to clear his vision, Gi-Gyu sat up. He didn’t have his guard up because he could feel the speaker had no malice based on the voice.

“Master, it’s me,” the heavenly voice answered. Even before Gi-Gyu regained his full vision, he knew who was in front of him. He murmured, “El?”

Gi-Gyu’s sight returned gradually, and he saw the shockingly beautiful woman: The last face he saw before his death and the face of his opponent and Ego.

“But I died…” Gi-Gyu looked at his hands and mumbled. He was certain he died, so what was this?

“Ah.” Gi-Gyu looked around and saw green pastures all around. It was a beautiful and unearthly place. As a pleasant breeze tickled him, he found himself sitting underneath a large tree.

He murmured, “You’re dead too, aren’t you?”

Gi-Gyu felt much conviction in this hypothesis. She may have fought him to death, but that didn’t change that she was his Ego. El might have survived had their connection been severed before the test, but he could feel the connection even during their fight. In summary, if he died, so did she.

This made perfect sense.

‘This has to be the afterlife and not the pitch-black place from earlier.‘

“This is the afterlife, isn’t it?” Gi-Gyu believed they had arrived at the place where the dead gathered.

With a grin, he shook his head and asked, “Was I a good person when I was alive? Is that why I’m in heaven?”

Turning toward El with a bright smile, he whispered, “El.”

“Yes, Master.”

El’s face looked tense and emotionless when they were fighting, and he didn’t get a good look at her face. But now, he had all the time in the world.

“M-Master?” El stammered when Gi-Gyu patted her face.

“You’re pretty.” Soo-Jung was bewitching, but things felt much more intense with El. After all, he had lived and breathed with El. He felt close to her, so he was comfortable touching her face.

Gi-Gyu took his hand away and asked, “El, where are we?”

He wasn’t asking because he wanted her to confirm if this was heaven.

Guessing what Gi-Gyu was thinking, El smiled and replied, “We’re still in the test chamber.”

“I see.” Gi-Gyu nodded in understanding. He realized that he couldn’t have died because…

“There is no way I would end up in heaven,” muttered Gi-Gyu. Even if the afterlife really existed, he suspected he wouldn’t end up in heaven.

“I would be thrown into hell.” Gi-Gyu smiled bitterly.