〈 Chapter 114 〉 Fragments of Chains

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So, the reward can wait a bit, but I heard you were looking for me desperately?

“You seem to be well informed.”

Desperate was an understatement. After hearing the news of his disappearance, I asked about him every time I entered a trial.

He was that important to me.

“The connection between heroes and divine seats has completely broken. You’re aware, right?”

The connection between heroes and divine seats had suddenly and mysteriously been severed.

This chaos affected heroes like Wilhelm, and those in other places might be experiencing the same turmoil.

The reason I had put off addressing such a significant issue until now was that it was beyond my capability to handle.

So, I had been waiting for the God of Chains to resolve this matter.

As the God of Connection had mentioned before, he had been working on this issue, which is why he had been resting until now.

Upon his return from that break, this was my most important question to him.

“Will this problem continue in the future?”

Despite him having completed his work, the divine seats had not returned.

But whether this was a temporary or permanent phenomenon was unclear. Or perhaps he could resolve it even now.

And knowing either way would definitely influence my future course of action.

I guess it’s safer to say it will continue. But you don’t need to worry. The current situation is a natural occurrence.

“A natural occurrence, you say?”

“Yes, if you truly want to save this world.”

Wanting to save this world is a natural thing?

Accepting that statement with my common sense felt nearly impossible.

No, it might even be more accurate to say it was Sung Yoo-rang’s common sense.

“If my calculations are correct, 100 players should be in a state of unavailability, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Then that’s natural?”

“Yes, it’s natural.”

He continued to speak so nonchalantly.

“Don’t you already know? Allen Pleuk. This world and the other world aren’t all that different. You’re not still under the illusion that this world is a game world, are you?”

“I know that much…”

“Then it’s normal for the other world to influence this world, but not vice versa?”

In that moment, I was left speechless.

I had always taken his words for granted.

‘I was still trapped in the fixed mindset of possession.’

Recently, while I had received the memories of Sung Yoo-rang, I had clearly recognized that I was essentially Allen Pleuk.

Still, I had subconsciously prioritized the world of Earth.

“Well, that was something I had intended while making you think you were Sung Yoo-rang. People act more proactively when they believe they come from a higher dimension.”

My head was spinning.

It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what he was saying.

However, there were still parts I couldn’t fully grasp.

“For now, I get it. But what makes that natural? Even if we assume there’s no hierarchy between dimensions, isn’t it unnatural for one dimension to influence another?”

At least from Earth’s perspective, that seemed the case.

Until now, Earth had never experienced any questions that would allow it to perceive this world through ‘Hundred Braves’.

But this incident was something different.

“Well then, I suppose it’s time to stop playing word games. I think it’s time I revealed my true identity to some extent.”

At that statement, the God of Connection intervened, seemingly surprised.

“God of Chains, is that alright?”

But contrary to those concerns, the God of Chains calmly responded.

“It’s fine. I won’t reveal my name anyway. It’s unlikely that this guy will change significantly just because he knows the truth. Rather, it’s a truth he was meant to learn eventually.”

“A truth he was meant to learn eventually?”

“Let me say this first. I manage this world’s dimensions. Not that I control the concept of dimensions, but dimensions are indeed included in the concepts I oversee.”

A god who oversees dimensions.

I had somewhat anticipated this information.

The attitude of the other gods toward the God of Chains, and the mention that he had been involved in some operations during this incident suggested that.

However, I did not expect that the concept he governed was not solely dimensions.

‘What on earth is his true identity?’

I was quite curious, but judging by his demeanor, it seemed I wouldn’t uncover any answers now.

So for now, it was best to listen to his story.

One that would undoubtedly be of great importance.

“Let’s return to your question about whether it’s natural for different dimensions to interfere with one another. To answer that… no, that can’t be a natural occurrence. It’s not natural either for us to influence the other dimension or for them to influence us.”

“Then why are we maintaining that forcefully?”

“Because the interference from the other side was essential to us.”

‘Essential interference, huh?’

“I’ll ask you one thing. If all fates of this world were already decided and flowed towards a single outcome, would you believe it? And if that outcome were the destruction of this world?”

For some reason, that echoed the words spoken by the 31st Demon King just before his death.

“All causality ultimately flows toward the world’s end…”

If we replaced ‘causality’ with ‘fate’ and ‘world’s end’ with ‘destruction’, the meaning aligned quite well.

But honestly…

“I’d not want to believe it.”

Immediately, the God of Chains replied,

“There’s no need for you to.”

That was a rather satisfying response.

Even more so than the answer itself, the reasoning behind it was crucial.

“At least for now. We wanted to twist that preordained fate, so we resorted to external dimensional interference.”

That made sense.

I had somewhat suspected that they connected the two dimensions through the game ‘Hundred Braves’ in order to save this world fated to perish.

Players from Earth weren’t bound by the causalities of this world.

“But there was a problem…”

That issue had become somewhat apparent through our conversation.

“It wasn’t a natural act, was it?”

“Yes, despite exhausting divine authority as much as possible, directly connecting two different dimensions was bordering on madness. So the method we devised was to… duplicate the original dimension and fragment it into countless dimensional shards.”

‘Countless dimensional shards?’

That phrase oddly reminded me of ‘fragments of chains’.

Yet my mind struggled to grasp his statement comprehensively.

Noticing my confusion, he added more explanation.

“I suppose it’d be easier for you to understand if I referred to them as servers, given you also possess Sung Yoo-rang’s knowledge.”

“Oh.”

“Looks like you got it. We minimized interference so that each player could only connect with one dimension and one character. Those selected characters each had the potential to significantly affect the world by themselves.”

At that moment, the true nature of the game ‘Hundred Braves’ was starting to take shape for me.

I now understood why they had insisted on a single-player rogue-lite game format.

However, one question still lingered unanswered.

“If that’s the case, then what about the intertwining encounters?”

That was clearly an alien system even within the single-player game ‘Hundred Braves’.

The system that allowed one to meet beings from different dimensional shards did not connect logically with the previous explanations.

“Do you know when the intertwining encounter was added?”

As far as I knew…

“Wasn’t it present from the launch?”

“Technically, it was added during the beta test. It was an unintended bug.”

“A bug?”

“Dimensional shards that reached the end are supposed to naturally perish. No, they had to perish. But the reality was otherwise. Those characters who had undergone sufficient growth and brought significant changes to their dimension’s fate stuck around even after their shards perished and absorbed into other dimensional shards.”

Only then did I start to wrap my head around it.

That’s why the intertwining encounter could only occur with fully developed characters.

“It was an unintended byproduct, but in the end, it worked out well. It allowed for increased interference from other dimensions. As a result, the gaps in their fates started accumulating over time.”

However, the next moment, his voice darkened again.

“Yet despite all those struggles, fate didn’t change in the end. So we decided to put all our remaining strength into a last-ditch effort.”

‘A last-ditch effort?’

“That’s you, Allen Pleuk.”

I was suddenly taken aback by the mention of my name.

He continued to elaborate.

“A frail little farm boy with weak potential. He was the limit to embedding memories from another dimension.”

Somehow, that left an unpleasant taste in my mouth, but it was a fact that it was thanks to that fragility that I had reached this point.

“However, your potential was too weak. The external memories didn’t adapt well to the sudden changes in environment. In the end, Allen Pleuk kept failing, and our time was running out. But…”

Due to the shadows, I couldn’t see well, but I felt his gaze return to me.

“Should I refer to you as the version of you from the 100th attempt or as Sung Yoo-rang? Maybe both apply. In any case, you’ve shown a distinctly different side compared to the previous Allen Pleuks of other dimensions.”

That much was certainly true.

At that time, Allen Pleuk had narrowly reached the hero candidate while facing numerous life-and-death moments.

While that might seem trivial by my current standards, it was indeed a unique record for the character of Allen Pleuk back then.

“But at the same time, I also gathered information from other dimensions.”

“Information from other dimensions?”

“I noticed that in the community, the 100th attempt declared they’d commit suicide if they failed.”

Ah.

“At that moment, we had to make a decision. Whether to keep you or not.”

I already knew the outcome of that decision.

“So you decided to keep me, using your blessing as bait.”

“Yes, it was quite an elaborate plan. You know, it eventually succeeded, and the outlook isn’t entirely grim. It’s actually shining more brightly than any of the dimensions we’ve had until now. But… it shone too brightly, and that became the problem.”

“The fact that it shone too brightly became a problem?”

“It was unexpected. The shards nearby began to cling to your dimension, abandoning their own fates.”

Only then did I start to grasp why my intertwining encounters felt off.

By all rights, the probability should have been low, yet for some reason, each hero had a divine seat.

‘It wasn’t an intertwining encounter from the start.’

In that case…

“Is the interruption of player connections due to that?”

The reasoning behind that phenomenon also seemed likely.

But the God of Chains denied it.

“No, that was precisely the issue from the other dimension. Because of it, too many users became aware of your existence, exceeding the allowed interference levels. Thus, they cut off their interference first. But it turned out to be somewhat beneficial.”

“Beneficial?”

“As I said before, it was a natural occurrence that should have happened eventually.”

That was a statement I struggled to understand.

“A natural occurrence?”

“Yes, a natural occurrence. To revert this dimension back to its original state, we needed to fully cut off external dimensional interference.”

“To return this dimension to its original state?”

That phrase implied one thing.

“It means I’m entrusting this world to you, Hero Allen Pleuk. You have become a being that has escaped fate. Consequently, the connection to the other side is no longer needed.”

‘A being that has escaped fate…’

In truth, knowing that fact didn’t change much about what I had been doing.

I had treated this world as a real one, not as a conceptual dimension.

So the course of action ahead would also remain largely the same.

Except for one thing.

“So, that means the connections between the heroes and divine seats have all been severed?”

This would need to be considered in my forthcoming actions.

The presence or absence of divine seats made a significant difference.

However, he partially disagreed.

“No, not all of them.”

“Not all of them?”

“Some incomplete connection still exists between you and Sung Yoo-rang.”

“What?”

“For some reason, that connection couldn’t be completely severed. In the end, the work couldn’t be finished.”

What did that mean?

But one hypothesis popped into my mind.

“If that guy is currently projecting himself onto me?”

Given that I also had his memories, it was a scenario I could reach.

If that were true, then I might say this.

“If breaking the connection with him is also excessively interfering with the other world?”

Of course, considering that the fellow had somewhat regained consciousness due to my influence, I didn’t think he would obsessively cling to me.

But what if he was cheering for me as someone who had projected himself onto me in the past, an existence similar to his?

“Certainly, that’s a possibility.”

…Even so, as the God of Chains said, there would be a need to sever that connection for the sake of the world at some point.

And I had just thought of a way.

“If I succeed in saving the world, won’t that end too?”

No matter what, preventing the destruction of this world was a priority.

Therefore, my course of action remained unchanged.

Still feeling a bit of weight on my shoulders, I said to the God of Chains,

“Then, send me back to reality now.”

“Very well. But before that…”

He lifted a fruit.

“You need to take this with you.”

*