Chapter 150: Invaders (10)
“Get a grip. This is an incredibly important moment. This isn’t the time for that.”
“True… it might feel that way to you right now. I understand.”
“You understand? Who would have thought this day would come.”
At this moment, I was not just risking my life but the lives of countless others, perhaps even the future of this world. There was no room for distraction, so I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.
Seeing Eve nodding in understanding filled me with deep emotion, but that wasn’t a comfort to me.
“It’s not that you need some grand preparation. Right now, we’re just merging your consciousness, which is being protected, with the Legion’s Collective Consciousness. It’s just about evolving and being reborn.”
“What should I do?”
“Doing this in an empty room feels a bit off.”
Eve opened a gate to REDRIUM in an instant. The barren nest of the Legion in the middle of the hotel room felt alien.
There was another Eve waiting there. Eve, dressed not in human clothing but in the shell of a monster.
“Come here.”
“Go over there.”
Both Eves spoke simultaneously. It was a chilling sight, but I didn’t show any fear. I had to get used to this moving forward. Perhaps I too would have to do the same.
Without hesitation, I stepped through the gate.
“One thing I’d like to confirm.”
“Of course. What is it?”
I initiated the conversation with the smiling Eve.
Eve’s demeanor remained unchanged. She knew it was physically impossible for me to endure. And since she didn’t know what was happening to my body right now, this was the attitude she could display.
“If my consciousness merges with the Collective Consciousness, then you’ll soon be me, right?”
“Of course. We are two becoming one. There’s no separating us. But imagining that moment now would be meaningless. A human consciousness wouldn’t be able to endure it.”
Eve affirmed my question but didn’t delve deeply into it.
Where Eve guided me was none other than a mucous pool on one side of the Legion’s nest. I had learned what this was from Reina’s work.
“Get in and be reborn. It’ll surely feel good.”
Eve’s whisper echoed. I wondered if Liam felt something like this when he was being persuaded. A slight fear began to creep in.
But this choice was mine. And it was a choice I had to make.
I cleared my mind of distractions and moved my body once more.
[You can do this. Move as you have decided.]
Those words, filled with certainty as if the outcome had already been decided, strengthened my resolve.
*
Being completely one with the Collective Consciousness. Honestly, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like.
Eve’s subminds all maintained their own selves, as their purpose required. It was true that they were connected to the Collective Consciousness, but it was merely a connection, and they held no dominion over it.
In other words, I had to perform actions with no data even Eve had, risking everything I had.
“Are you hesitating? Afraid?”
“If I said I wasn’t, that would be a lie.”
Submerging my body in the pool up to my waist, I smiled at Eve’s words as I looked down. When I made the decision, I had buried my excitement and resolve under the thrill of finding a new path, but indeed I was afraid.
Whether I succeeded or failed, I was now completely stepping away from being human.
Compared to the initial time I had united with Eve, filled with ignorance and confidence, I now understood all too well what I was paying for.
“If you can’t immerse yourself, I can help you.”
“How will you… ugh.”
Before I could finish my sentence, my body lost balance, fell, and plunged into the pool.
I thrashed around, but I couldn’t feel my legs. I understood. My body was being dismantled alive.
From every single cell of my body to my soul and consciousness, I was being absorbed by that vast Legion.
I had to maintain my self. Otherwise, even if I succeeded in becoming a high mind like Eve, I wouldn’t be able to express my will.
‘No…’
But as my body, especially my brain, slowly melted away, my consciousness faded, and my steadfast determination rapidly crumbled.
‘I can feel it. Every part of your body, and that heart is flowing in. Don’t try to resist. The memories of your human days are unnecessary for being reborn.’
Eve’s voice flowed in through the connected Collective Consciousness.
‘There’s nothing to worry about. I know you better than anyone. I’ll act well for others. You can live forever within me.’
Eve, who placed more will in me than in her own self, urged me to let go of the reins of rationality.
In that moment, I felt tempted by those words. If I let go of this rein, it might be so much easier. To become one with her and to be a part of that extending Legion.
‘…What is this?’
But the moment Eve, who had been watching calmly, suddenly raised her guard. I sensed some variables in the void where I felt nothing.
‘What is it?’
In that darkness, where I could neither feel nor see anything, I found solace in the fact that I was still me, Kang Shin Woo himself.
Moreover, this space was not entirely devoid of anything.
A faint point shining in the distance. That light, glimmering alone as the only star shining in the empty space of the universe, sparkled in solitude.
I suddenly remembered Isabel’s words. The power she gave me was merely setting up a small marker.
If something could serve as a reference point, the situation could change drastically. Using this sense of sight, I stabilized my other senses and began to walk forward without reservation.
It didn’t matter if I got closer or if I could reach it. I was just walking and walking and walking.
But I was certain. Being able to walk in this space where any person would go mad, devoid of any stimuli and unable to do anything on their own, meant that my consciousness was not doomed to collapse.
Just because of that, I could withstand numerous thoughts.
“I think this world is better right now.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Ji Chang-hyun, who had become a major player in the Guardian Alliance, spoke when we returned together from the demonic realm.
It was certainly not something someone who had been severely injured and lost an arm to the high demon skull should be saying.
“Think about it, Shin Woo. Everyone is fighting together as one. Those wretched ideologies, beliefs, and religions that tore each other apart are so fleeting in this world. Only when we faced true crisis did we achieve true unity.”
“Um, are you sure you’re not overthinking things?”
“Of course, I don’t think I’m absolutely right. It’s just something I’ve been contemplating.”
He smiled faintly and nodded. In retrospect, he wasn’t a normal person either, but still, I believed what he said held significance.
Now was the time to put everything down and fight. That was my only thought.
Then the light began to come closer. I had forgotten even the concept of time, and as I kept walking, I finally reached that glimmer of light.
“Why didn’t you say anything next to me? I was bored and it was tough.”
[Compared to an ordinary human, you’ve achieved transcendent power. Have you determined what to do with it?]
In this world, now filled with pure white light, a few words that only I could see floated before me.
“I thought about what Eve needs the most. What is required so that the end of that evolution isn’t the ruin of everyone?”
[So what is it? Please, respond well, carefully, and slowly. It’s a very important moment.]
“A challenger. Eve needs a challenger. Someone who can fight her forever, who can make her feel her limits.”
[…Is that truly your answer? Do you believe it to be possible? Are you not ultimately saying you want to fight Eve?]
“Fighting? I call it self-feedback. I have no intention of fighting Eve. That’s not my plan.”
I couldn’t help but smile. It was madness, but my current state was mad as well, so it didn’t matter.
[For now… I’ll say congratulations. You have managed to endure without losing yourself in the waves of the Collective Consciousness, akin to a vast ocean. But ultimately, you only endured; you failed to completely become one with the Collective Consciousness. It is a contradiction to dominate both a consciousness rooted in being human and the Legion’s Collective Consciousness simultaneously. As a result, you have become an incomplete high mind of the Legion.]
“I was prepared for that much.”
[Eve’s anger is beyond imagination. Can you feel it? Eve currently believes that you have betrayed her.]
“I can calm her down. And what will happen if she gets angry? Ultimately, we are the same being destined to share fate.”
I bitterly smiled and thoroughly dismantled the barriers surrounding me.
Simultaneously, a massive pressure pressed down on my consciousness. It seemed more frightening than her anger.
‘Why, why did you do that! How… did impurities infiltrate the Collective Consciousness!!’
“It’s not an impurity; it’s me, Eve. And it’s you. You should listen because this is for all of us. I’m not trying to deny you. I’m not saying I want to fight you…”
The pressure disappeared. Although it was incomplete, I could now handle at least a part of the Collective Consciousness. And as long as I was bound to the same Collective Consciousness, Eve could never harm me.
