Henigus, the Mechanic, who intended to slaughter millions. Cheon-ma and Heavenly Buddha, who were already fighting. And even the healing specialist, mysterious rivals, and other duel rankers scattered around this prison.
“…”
Just thinking about it gave Yoon-seok a headache. However, once he started solving the problems in front of him one by one, it would work out somehow.
“O-oppa! That, that…!”
Was it called the Eye of the Watcher? Lee Su-yeon pointed to the ceiling with a bewildered expression.
Khieek! Khieek! Kieeeeeek-!
Soon, the color of the magic circle faded, and a huge eyeball popped out. The eye rolled and looked around, and then it stopped on them. It looked disgusting.
“It’s picking a fight with me, right?”
“If it had a polite look, would you just let it go?”
“Well, it’s not like that.”
Yoon-seok immediately infused mana into his sword. He didn’t know what it could do, but rolling around wouldn’t be all of it.
Khieek! Khieek!
It was hard to put up with the sound that came every time it blinked its eye.
‘…Does it gather strength to the eye?’
He felt mana condensing in the eye.
Yoon-seok thrust his sword.
Whoosh-!
Gray energy shot forward at the eye’s retina.
Whoosh-!
But something felt off. The sword pierced the eye directly. However, Yoon-seok smacked his lips. Henigus, who was confident he knew more about Yoon-seok than himself, couldn’t be unaware of this situation. So why was he wasting time?
Whooooong!
The underground city shook. By tracing the flow of mana in reverse, Yoon-seok could see that the source was in the direction of the retreating Imperial Army.
‘Did it have a different purpose from the beginning?’
Henigus wanted to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Other areas must be more efficient than here, where more than half of the people disappeared because of the monsters.
“Su-yeon.”
Yoon-seok hurried to the next area with Lee Su-yeon. At the end of the long passage, piles of rubble blocked their advance, and after removing them, they were greeted by the sight of disaster.
“Is this District 11?”
“Yes.”
It was similar to District 12 in size.
“…”
But there were no signs of building nor bodies. There was only a huge crater with smoke wafting up left in their place.
“How many people per district?”
“Except for District 1, which is the capital, on average, it is 300,000.”
“Right, I see…”
The population density was high. At this rate, Henigus would reach his target number faster than they could find him, but standing still wasn’t an option.
Khieek! Khieek!
Yoon-seok fired his sword at the summoned beast, clinging to the ceiling before moving to the next area. The situation wasn’t much different from District 11, except a child was standing in the crater’s center.
‘Henigus?’
At first, Yoon-seok thought it was him due to their small stature, but…
“…Father!”
“Yongyong? Why are you here? Where is Cheon-ma?”
Yoon-seok rushed to Yongyong’s side. He was uninjured but crying. Was it separation anxiety?
“We were in prison, but a bald man appeared… Mother said it was dangerous! I was waiting, and suddenly in the sky…!”
Yongyong panicked.
“It’s okay. You’re fine now…”
Yoon-seok instilled a wave of calming energy into Yongyong as he trembled.
“Father…”
“You seem to be getting a hold of yourself now.”
“I-I’ve shown you things you shouldn’t have seen…! Please forget about it!”
Yoon-seok patted Yongyong’s shoulder silently. Although Yongyong was embarrassed, it was natural to be afraid. After all, this must have been his first time being separated from Cheon-ma.
“Anyway, are you hurt?”
“I-I am fine…! But, I wonder if Mother is okay…”
“…”
Yoon-seok felt it bitter to see Yongyong worried about the well-being of his mother (?).
“If it’s her, she’ll be fine.”
He knew it was inevitable for Yongyong to worry, but…
“So from now on, go with me.”
“Yes, Father!”
Where did Cheon-ma go?
* * *
“Any contact? Not yet?”
“…No.”
Yoon-seok asked Lee Su-yeon to contact her again, but she didn’t reply. Perhaps, there was no time. After all, wasn’t it the Heavenly Buddha? Even Cheon-ma couldn’t guarantee her victory.
“Yongyong, can you tell me again what happened?”
“Yes, Father.”
Yoon-seok abandoned his impatience and first worked on understanding the situation. Why did Cheon-ma come here alone without waiting for him in the first place? Was there a reason?
“So, after taking a battleship… you were ambushed while walking around?
“Yeah! They were very evil guys!”
Unlike Yoon-seok, Cheon-ma, who started in a planetary city rather than in the middle of space, seized a battleship and went out into space on the second day. Naturally, the Imperial Army pursued them, and a battle ensued. Cheon-ma, riding on the battleship, smashed the Imperial Fleet and moved in search of Yoon-seok.
“Mother was intrigued to see this planet guarded by dozens of ships.”
Cheon-ma discovered the Space and Time Prison. Just in time, the portal was opened, which was enough to attract Cheon-ma’s attention. After all, it was her theory that there were valuable things where there were a lot of guards.
‘No wonder there was nothing around the portal when I came in…’
Cheon-ma, who destroyed the space fleet guarding the Space and Time Prison, approached to just check-in, but she ended up crossing the portal. But she found herself inside the prison in a cell with the Heavenly Buddha.
“So what happened?”
“When they met, he tried to run away, and Mother started chasing him!”
“…What? Chasing him?”
“Yeah! Did the bald uncle also get scared by Mother’s majesty…?”
“Hang on, Yongyong. If there’s anything the two talked about, can you tell me what exactly?”
“From the beginning?”
“Yeah, from the beginning.”
When Yoon-seok nodded, Yongyong reproduced the conversation without missing a word.
-O-Old Maiden? Why are you here?
-Ohooo, I was wondering when I’d be able to grab that neck of yours, but we finally meet here!
-My, my! Thank you for missing me so much, but I don’t have time today! See you next time, Old Maiden!
-Yongyong, it’s dangerous, so wait here. Do you get it?
-Huh? What? Mother? What does that mean, Motheeeeeeeeeer…!
After excluding Yongyong’s subjective interpretation, the situation became clearer. Yoon-seok was speechless.
“…”
He wanted to take back what he said earlier about it being inevitable. Cheon-ma was searching for a fight, and even the Heavenly Buddha tried to avoid it.
‘…Anyway, it is a real coincidence that the two met.’
“So, do you know where she went?”
“At that time, I couldn’t see the outside like now…”
“Right. Did you say you were inside a dark iron cage?”
“But, I can tell where Mother is now!”
Yongyong also had a tracking function, although the process was different from Lynn’s. Well, it was a little amazing that Yongyong could do things that even Lynn couldn’t because of the mana distortion.
‘…Is it because his real parents are dragons?’
The dragons could stabilize dimensions, and at the time he discovered this, Yoon-seok had to pay a bitter price.
‘I’ve died tens of thousands of times…’
Yoon-seok turned his head to see where Yongyong was pointing, shoving those memories aside.
“Hmmm, it looks like she went to District 1?”
According to Lee Su-yeon, that was the central area.
“Let’s go there first.”
It was more urgent to join Cheon-ma than chasing Henigus, and her safety was more important than the lives of millions of space pirates or the people of the Empire who managed them. Compared to that Lowly Monk, Henigus was a small fry.
‘Besides, she said there were nearly 3 million people in District 1 alone…’
His decision was made, Yoon-seok headed to District 1 with Yongyong and Lee Su-yeon. District 1 was the center where all the districts connected, so they needed only to pass through a single corridor to reach it. It was an extraordinarily long corridor, however.
‘By the way, how long has it been?’
Yoon-seok checked his wrist as he ran.
[44:51:31]
Approximately 45 hours. In other words, it’d been about three hours since he entered the Space-Time World.
‘…This is also bothering me.’
If the time engraved on his wrist reached zero, no matter how strong he was, he would die. However, Yoon-seok decided to postpone obtaining time. First of all, meeting Cheon-ma was their top priority, then finding Henigus to confirm the meaning of what he said earlier was second, and thirdly, recruiting the healing specialist.
[TIP: In the Time Shop, you can buy things you can’t normally buy in exchange for your time.]
He wondered what he could buy, but it wouldn’t be too late to start farming time in earnest after he finished those three things. Thinking like that, they neared the end of the tunnel.
[It is midnight.]
As that message appeared, Yoon-seok stiffened. However, there was no turning back. It was time, not his body, that stopped.
[The Time Shop is activated for 10 minutes.]
The space in front of him swirled and swallowed him.
When he finally returned to his senses, Yoon-seok was in a familiar place.
‘This is the waiting room…?’
His body moved again. Yoon-seok looked around blankly. He hadn’t bought any furniture here before, but it almost coincided with the initial appearance of the Tower’s waiting room with a stone statue, tablet, and timer.
[00:09:58.]
[00:09:57.]
[00:09:56.]
He immediately checked the time on his wrist, but luckily it stopped ticking.
‘The Time Store is like this?’
The accessibility was good. For a challenger, the design was intuitive.
‘Shall I take a look?’
He’d be here for 10 minutes anyway, so Yoon-seok approached the tablet without hesitation. The items were different from the Tower, which had several categories. Could it be much simpler?
[Buy], [Sell].
Sell or buy only one of the two. Yoon-seok first touched Buy. A long scroll stretched out on the screen without any signs of classification or organization.
*Partkan Swordsmanship Book (Rank A)- When used, all experience and knowledge related to the sword of Velun Partkan, a member of the 4th great family of the Taklan Empire, is acquired.
Price: 37,000,000 T
*Low-Level Talk (Rank F) – When used, acquires a speech that is attractive to a few lesser beings.
Price: 320T
It said that he could buy what couldn’t be bought. Was it something like this? It was ranked, and the sale price was set, but they weren’t skills. They were things a person could obtain according to their time, effort, and the environment.
‘First of all, it seems that 1T is 1 hour…’
Tick -tock. Tick-tock.
The timer continued, but Yoon-seok took it easy and looked around slowly.
*B-Rank Unique Skill: b Unlock}- When used, acquire the unique skill b Unlock}.
Price: 790,000T
*Power: Earth’s Energy- When used, acquires the power of the administrator Hyper Rebellion.
– Sold Out
The shop also sold unique skills and powers. It was like a dream shop for challengers. Though it was an error that it took 90 years to purchase a single B-Rank unique skill.
‘But why is it sold out? Does it mean that if one person buys it, others can’t?’
Yoon-seok roughly inferred the rules of the Time Shop with his experience. Of course, it didn’t mean much. Even after organizing the list, he couldn’t find an item he thought was necessary to buy.
‘Which one is the most expensive?’
Soon, out of curiosity, Yoon-seok changed the sorting criteria to the most expensive. A certain item now caught his eye.
*Elixir of Unique Skill (Rank S)- When consumed, the rank of one unique skill lower than Rank S increases by 1 rank.
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