A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 201

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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201.

“This is insane….”
The sight unfolding above my head made the world spin dizzyingly.
‘Am I lucid dreaming right now?’
Yet even after rubbing my eyes and pinching my cheeks multiple times, the scene remained unchanged.
It was no dream.
The inverted, familiar characters embedded near the top of the building came into sharp focus.
“Sebit Tower…?”
“You know that building?”
Serge asked with keen interest at my muttered recognition.
Know it? Of course I did.
On clear days, the ultra-high-rise structure was visible even from the Research Institute’s outlying location—it was practically Seoul’s landmark.
It had collapsed once due to a Gate and been reconstructed, with my biological father’s investment comprising a substantial portion of the funding, or so I’d heard….
The fact that a building I’d only glimpsed while crossing the Han River or passing nearby was now plummeting before my eyes felt utterly unreal.
After hearing the deranged Cult Leader’s insane scheme, I’d often imagined what would happen if this world and the modern era merged….
‘But I never said it would merge like this!’
Serge had been right.
Truly, the merging of dimensions could never unfold in any normal or gentle manner.
The hundred-story building plummeting upside-down overhead was proof enough.
Yet I had no time to gawk at the spectacle.
KRRRRAAAAAASH—!
With another deafening roar as if the sky itself were collapsing, the building that had been peeking through was thrust violently downward.
At this rate, impact with the ground would occur in mere moments.
“If it collides with the ground, everyone will be in danger!”
I spoke urgently to Serge.
“Can you stop it? Not indefinitely—just long enough for people to evacuate.”
“That wouldn’t be particularly difficult….”
His expression grew oddly uncertain.
“But I’m not sure evacuation will be possible.”
Before I could ask what he meant, his dark eyes deepened with shadow.

69%

At that same moment, his Magi barrier reading, which had hovered in the high 40s, skyrocketed dramatically.
Kuguguung—!
The building, which had revealed itself at roughly the one-third mark from the top, lurched to an abrupt halt.
Serge appeared to be holding the entire structure in place through telekinesis.

71%

Judging by the steadily climbing numbers, it seemed he wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long.
Yet in those precious moments he’d bought, the Awakeners moved with swift, coordinated precision.
“Prepare for impact!”
“All defensive ability users, assemble! We’re constructing a barrier at the base of the slope!”
The department heads commanded with practiced efficiency—this wasn’t their first time dealing with such emergencies while suppressing a Gate.
Though a skyscraper of this magnitude falling was certainly unprecedented.
The vast army of Awakeners swiftly withdrew from the frontline clash with monsters.
While preparing to minimize collision damage, Vincent and other high-tier Awakeners skilled in wind manipulation gathered directly beneath the building, huddling together.
“…With the Grand Duke’s telekinesis….”
“The Sub-Duke just now….”
I couldn’t hear the details clearly, but I gathered they were attempting to alter the building’s trajectory as much as possible.
Likely toward the Gorge below—toward the Gate Wave.
If that happened, this area would suffer minimal damage, yet a bitter taste lingered in my mouth.
‘…There are people inside that building.’
I couldn’t determine what time period existed beyond the Gate, but Sebit Tower, true to its landmark status, remained illuminated 24 hours a day.
With a department store and various financial and commercial establishments housed within, countless people must be trapped inside that structure.
Thinking of my countrymen facing such a senseless death because of one lunatic from this world I’d never known existed, my mouth turned unbearably bitter.
‘…Why Korea, of all places.’
There were countless other dimensions, countless other countries.
That it had to be Korea—specifically Seoul, where I’d lived—felt like some cruel fiction.
‘Could all of this truly be coincidence?’
Was this retaliation for the humiliation I’d inflicted upon him before?
Or was he doing this to punish me for rejecting his proposal?
If so, Sephiroth was nothing short of pure evil.
‘…And yet he speaks of an equal society.’
With so many people dying like this.
Even if he subjugated other dimensions to this one, this place would remain utterly unsafe.
What paradise could possibly be built upon ground soaked in countless lives and blood? And what meaning could such a thing possibly hold?
I suddenly realized how absurd and preposterous I’d found Sephiroth’s words, and shock washed over me.
To make excuses, I honestly couldn’t have imagined it back then.
‘If I’d known merging dimensions would be like this, I would have stopped it by any means necessary….’
Belated regret crashed over me like a tidal wave.
I know.
I cannot save everyone.
I lack both the motivation and the ability to do so.
Rather than waste hollow pity on strangers in a building with whom I share nothing but proximity, I should have been concerned with Serge’s Magi reserves holding back the collapse.
Yet despite this logic, an unfamiliar self-reproach pressed down upon my shoulders.
If only I had been more discerning, more prudent in my response.
If only I had made my decision swiftly instead of despairing over the Book of Prophecy and my inability to turn back—if I had devoted all my strength to stopping Sephiroth.
I had even lost the very crystal needed to find him.
‘How utterly useless and pathetic I am….’
While everyone teetered on the brink of life and death, moving with desperate urgency,
I could not shake the sensation that I alone was suspended in limbo, capable of neither action nor inaction.
“Why does your expression look like that?”
Had he noticed the gloom clouding my features?
Even as he pushed his abilities to their absolute limit, the man glanced sideways to assess my condition with careful attention.
“Are you displeased? Would you prefer I shove the Gate back inside itself?”
“No. It’s not that….”
I shook my head immediately.
No matter how extraordinary Serge was, it would be impossible to force a hundred-story building back through the Gate against gravity itself.
And even if he did, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t simply burst out again.
But seeing his distinctly displeased expression, I sensed he would do exactly as he said, so I hastened to speak.
“It seems we need to purify it, Your Highness.”

79%

At that moment, his magical energy readings spiked dramatically.
The speed was far faster than when fighting monsters.
Holding onto the building with such intensity must have been an exhausting feat.
“Wait, let me just—”
“Don’t change the subject. Answer me. What’s the problem?”
But he saw through my shallow attempt at deflection.
With no choice, I answered with a sigh.
“It’s nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious about what?”
“It’s just… it resembles a building I know, so I felt a bit strange.”
“So beyond that Gate is where you originally lived.”
He pinpointed the true meaning behind my vague excuse with precision.
Seeing my shocked reaction at the sight of the building would have been enough for him to infer it.
But Serge’s expression twisting in response was unexpected.
Just like when he’d asked me before coming here if I wanted to go back so badly.
I was taken aback by the harsh glint in his eyes, as if he’d been wounded.
“What, are you homesick now? Do you want to throw yourself through the Gate this instant?”
“No!”
He’d completely misunderstood.
What I felt upon seeing the Gate wasn’t a longing to return, but only regret and self-reproach for not stopping it sooner.
But he seemed firmly convinced of his misinterpretation.
“That’s not it—!”
“Earlier, you asked why you had to verify X yourself.”
He cut off my denial with a cold glance.
“Look with your own eyes. Understand what it means to merge dimensions, to cross a Gate.”
Boom—!
At that moment, another deafening explosion thundered from the sky.
I reflexively whipped my head around.
Unlike when a Gate opened or merged, this wasn’t a catastrophe that shook the heavens and earth.
But…
The upper floors of the protruding building had exploded.
It looked to be around the eightieth floor or so.
As I gazed at the outer wall of the building engulfed in fierce flames, I estimated the meaningless floor count.
Thud.
Suddenly, something massive tumbled downward from inside the building.
The rising smoke obscured the details.
I thought it was likely just one of the furnishings or fixtures inside the building and didn’t pay it much mind.
But then…
Crash—!
The form of what had fallen precariously to the cliff’s edge was far larger than I’d expected.
A body darker than the Magi barrier itself rose sluggishly, taking shape like slime coalescing into form.
The moment I recognized it, my eyes flew wide open.
“That is….”
A visage both disturbingly familiar and utterly grotesque.
It was none other than a Monster—the kind I’d witnessed in the modern era.
A form so indescribable that no definition or name could adequately capture it.
No, this was far more horrifying than anything I’d encountered in that modern world.
The Monsters that erupted from the Gates opening in my time seemed almost merciful by comparison.
As if dozens of human corpses had been gathered, kneaded together in black clay, and molded into one writhing mass.
This grotesque creature—with eyes, noses, mouths, and limbs haphazardly sprouting from every surface—matched exactly what Sephiroth and Serge had described.
‘So this is what “blending” meant…’
It was literally blending.
Impossible to discern who was who, what was what.
A chill ran through me as I imagined what would have happened if we’d discovered a Gate connected to the modern world during an era of ignorance.
In that instant, I understood why Ruellin had gone through the tedious trouble of casting soul-exchange magic or whatever it was.
“There, there!”
But damn it all, the shock didn’t end there.
From countless points within the colossal Gate—where a single building jutted up in the center—black masses began raining down like a deluge.
Without needing to look closely, it was obvious: human amalgamations sucked in from the modern world, blended together into grotesque clumps.
Facing a situation worse than a horde of Monsters overwhelming us, my vision darkened.
Day one since the final boss began merging dimensions.
A hardcore dungeon had opened from the very start.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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