Chapter 118. Sky Island, Letter from the One Who Got Totally Screwed
[That’s sothing I can say because I thought the sa thing myself. Did I hit the mark? Has that dinosaur really crossed the event horizon? I wonder. But I suppose I’ll never know for sure.]
“What the hell is this even saying?”
[I am Yul.]
Yul couldn’t understand it. He had never crossed this forbidden rope, nor had he ever intended to.
And yet the person behind this letter claid to be Yul no matter what. And he had even sent a letter.
[More precisely, Yul from 12,000 years in the future.]
“……!”
[I had absolutely no intention of entering, but for various reasons, I crossed the forbidden rope, and I was trapped in this spaceti, unable to escape. Life in Dragon Land—what a long ti it was.]
Yul estimated his own lifespan. After becoming one of the Deep King Tribe, he had likely gained an enormous lifespan. But to be trapped here?
[There are plenty of magic stones here, so gaining lifespan wasn’t difficult. Anyway, I was trapped here and tried to escape, but it was completely impossible. At first, I thought ti itself was distorted, but I realized that wasn’t the case. I’ll explain it properly. This place is not a place where ti is twisted like the brown sages outside claim. More precisely, it should be seen as a place where countless parallel worlds intersect.]
Parallel worlds. Were those actually real?
[Parallel worlds filled with countless possibilities normally wouldn’t overlap. But Dragon Land is different. Countless fragnts of events are tangled everywhere here, and there was even a ti I nearly encountered myself. It was terrifying and astonishing. Because if I and another et, both of us will disappear.]
Did that an if doppelgängers t, neither would remain?
[It doesn’t an we feel the urge to kill each other. We simply vanish completely. As if the world erases that space to resolve a contradiction. I once saw another and yet another et each other. I never want to die like that. It’s horrifying.]
It was an interesting story. As Yul continued reading the letter, he slowly stepped away from the forbidden rope.
The dinosaur in front of him followed one step at a ti. It didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking.
The next page was filled with regret and remorse.
[Throughout Dragon Land there exists a current of spaceti collapse. And once inside, you cannot escape to the outside. I called that the event horizon. Once you cross a certain boundary and try to go out, you suddenly find yourself back where you started.]
So what the brown sages had said was true. Once you enter, you can never leave.
[If you want to properly perceive ti here, you must go to Kaiman and have him make the Infinite-Series Dinsional Perceiver for you. Otherwise, among the Demon Eyes, you must awaken the Demon Eye of 「Distortion」. Then you can escape this space. Do you understand? You must ask Kaiman to make the Infinite-Series Dinsional Perceiver. I don’t care how much Karma it costs. Even if you never enter Dragon Land, make sure it gets made!]
The letter revealed an almost insane level of obsession with that device.
How desperate must he have been without it?
As Yul listened to the story, he gradually began to feel that the letter might actually be real.
That Infinite-Series-whatever device was clearly the equipnt Kaiman had used during the Final War to fight an apostle of the Outer God.
Only two people knew that information—Kaiman and Yul.
And yet this letter knew it.
[Why am I sending this letter? Just in case—to save another version of myself from another parallel world. So that no more victims appear. If the starting point in this echoing space is erased, then like eliminating a temporal contradiction, every Yul trapped inside Dragon Land will disappear. That is my only goal now. To save the other ‘’s who were chosen down the wrong path like I was.]
Yul looked beyond the forbidden rope.
For so reason, he felt a chill.
“What the hell happened that made give up?”
It seed like there were countless stories behind the letter that couldn’t possibly fit on the page.
[Anyway, after about ten years of being unable to leave Dragon Land, I decided to just enjoy it. I wrote down information about all of Dragon Land here in the letter. In the beginning, I was full of motivation and did a lot of investigation. It’s a ‘strategy guide.’ It’s useless now, but it’s interesting, you know? I wonder if my records will disappear too when I vanish.]
Yul noticed another sheet of paper folded behind the letter. The mont he unfolded it, a curse and an exclamation burst out together.
“Wow, what the hell. Is this a map?”
A massive map of all of Dragon Land unfolded before him.
The map, filled with vast and dense green forests, was as beautiful and precise as if it had been painted by an artist.
This southwestern area of Dragon Land was labeled as the entrance region, and it said it was outside the domain of 「Distortion」.
At the center, however, it was marked as the core of the distortion, where an enormous number of dinosaurs and gigantic creatures supposedly lived.
[Dragon Land is a parallel world and at the sa ti a world where spaceti is distorted. Crazy things can happen here, like observing cause and effect simultaneously. I focused my studies on that aspect.]
To the east of the distortion’s core stood a massive mountain range called the Dragon Spine Mountains.
[Dragons live there, not dinosaurs. The dragons are completely unaffected by the distortion phenonon. Sohow, they seem able to withstand the storms of ti. Their nests lie beyond the event horizon. You can’t reach them.]
“The Dragon Spine Mountains, huh.”
Yul looked toward the distant mountain range.
It was so enormous that it could be seen even from the outskirts.
[After defining the event horizon, I realized that escape was impossible by any conventional ans. So I headed toward the dangerous core of the distortion to unravel a thod of escape. I conducted an experint there. I attempted to alter the fate of a species.]
“The fate of a species?”
[There’s a reason. Before I ca here, Yumankai ntioned that creatures native to this place sotis cross the forbidden rope. In that case, wouldn’t it work if I ‘created’ a creature that could cross it?]
[I told you that cause and effect can be observed simultaneously here, right? I selected a species of dinosaur—the Hypsilophodon. I used one of them for an experint. I infused a fragnt of my soul into a Hypsilophodon egg and released it. When that Hypsilophodon matured, it laid eggs of its own. I then moved to the spaceti where the result manifested and observed the mont a creature receiving part of my soul hatched from the egg.]
“You used the Soul-Splitting Art on an egg? But wait—my communion with Lucian was cut off. Was that even possible?”
Weren't skills impossible to us unless it was the Seaborn you had Communion with?
Yet in this letter, Yul seed to have used the skill naturally.
[I didn’t pour all of my soul into it. Just a tiny, microscopic amount of soul was given to the egg……. At first, there was no reaction. It was the sa.]
[I used the sa thod on the egg of the Hypsilophodon that had received a trace of my soul. I perford the sa thod, and the sa thod again.]
[But after repeating that for roughly ten thousand years, the Hypsilophodon acquired one trait similar to mine. It was born with the 「Evolution Skill」 on its own. And if it worked, the result should be the one standing in front of you.]
“Huh? This guy?”
Piru?
Sensing Yul’s gaze, the creature glanced at him briefly. Then, apparently losing interest, it scratched the side of its neck with its hind leg.
[That Hypsilophodon is my masterpiece. It moves in response to my soul. Once you get used to it, you can even move it with just your thoughts.]
[Consider it both a gift for eting you and a farewell gift. Why? Because the mont you receive this letter, every ‘Yul’ inside Dragon Land, including , will disappear. You’re not going to enter, right?]
“……Of course not.”
Holding the letter, Yul muttered to himself.
As expected, he had no intention of entering.
[It was fun. Even if I disappear, I hope my letter and map remain. So that my legacy won’t vanish.]
That was the end of the letter. Yul realized that the man had ultimately ended his life in death.
“He was already dead even before the letter arrived.”
Feeling like he had to do sothing, Yul made a naless grave despite there being no body.
A morial for every Yul in Dragon Land.
“I can’t believe he left both a warning and a guide to conquering Dragon Land.”
The future Yul had sent a dinosaur—trained through a strange thod refined over nearly ten thousand years—to co back across the storm of ti.
“How did you get out? Do you have so special ability or sothing?”
Piru?
The cute, dumb-looking dinosaur tilted its head at Yul’s words.
“I’m asking how you got out of that spaceti storm. You even crossed the forbidden rope so easily.”
Pirupiru!
The dinosaur nodded as if it understood what he said, then stopped moving again.
Ah, so it’s like I totally understand (doesn’t understand at all)…?
“Should I give you a na first? The letter didn’t ntion one either. Hmm. How about Hippo?”
Pippiru.
Judging by the way it shook its head, it seed like it understood.
“Then should I call you Piru?”
Pippiru.
Looking at Yul as if he were pathetic, the creature suddenly began writing Hangul on the ground.
“Huh?!”
It wrote ‘Beru.’
“You can talk, and you even learned how to write?”
This definitely looked like sothing the future Yul—who had spent ten thousand years completely absorbed in Dragon Land—had done.
Piru?
It tilted its head again as if it didn’t understand.
This guy… sotis communication worked, sotis it didn’t.
“Anyway, I got it. Beru. Your na is Beru, right?”
Piru!
“You can’t write any other letters?”
Piru?
This wasn’t going anywhere. They couldn’t communicate. But judging from the reaction, it didn’t seem like it truly knew much either.
Yul slowly approached and took off its backpack. It looked like it had been woven from reed-like plants.
Inside the backpack were piles of papers.
They were densely filled with notes about the dinosaurs on this island, their ecology, and phenona such as spaceti distortions and interference from parallel worlds.
There were even notes on how to observe cause and effect simultaneously.
An astonishing level of obsession.
The future Yul had beco an incredible paleontology researcher and explorer.
As a side note, nearly every record was filled with regretful comnts like If only I had that device or If only I had awakened the Demon Eye of Distortion, which made the writings feel almost insane.
“It really is a strategy guide.”
Yul put the letter and the papers back into Beru’s bag.
Then he slung the backpack over himself and climbed onto Beru’s back.
There was even a saddle and reins attached—clearly ant for riding.
“Let’s go.”
Piru!
Riding Beru, Yul slowly moved through the prival forest toward the ivory-colored tower above.
When Yul appeared confidently riding a dinosaur, the brown sages all froze.
Especially Yumankai.
“W-W-What in the…?”
“I'm taking him with .”
“The reins and saddle don’t look like sothing from our era. What happened?”
Yul didn’t feel like explaining everything in detail, so he brushed it off.
“I found him while taking a walk in the forest. He took a liking to .”
“What? Really? Let try touching him.”
When one of the brown sages reached out to touch Beru, Beru imdiately opened its beak and tried to peck him.
“Eek!”
The mont the sage pulled his hand back, clack!—the beak snapped shut.
“He says not to touch him.”
Piru!
Seeing that, Yumankai spoke.
“……It’s the first ti I’ve seen a dinosaur from Dragon Land beco this ta toward a human. Other sages tried everything to ta them, but they all failed.”
“I want to take him out with . That’ll be fine, right?”
“It should be possible. As long as he stays calm on the chain climber.”
“You’ll stay calm, right?”
Piru!
“……That’s what he says.”
“…….”
And so, when they went down, there was one extra dinosaur with them.
User Comments
0 comments from readers