The Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with a Song - Chapter 161
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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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Tone-Deaf Healer Kills with Song – Episode 161
I was witnessing a story of immense antiquity.
The true account of data that now remained only as ‘mythology’.
Multiple screens flickered past as Liri’s voice—both tender and majestic—wove through the narrative like explanation itself.
【It was an incomprehensibly long span of time. An era when the very concept of measuring time did not exist.】
All knowledge was preserved under the name of divine authority, and they lived in an age of peace so profound that preservation was unnecessary.
【There were those who sacrificed their lives to gain knowledge, and those who offered their eyes as tribute. Each savored their own wisdom, spanning eons without hesitation, yet that very peace blinded them to the harbingers of destruction.】
Those whom modern humans call ‘gods’ were the first to awaken.
They waged a catastrophic war that threatened their very existence—the primordial ‘Ragnarok’.
Those who had never experienced annihilation believed the approaching signs to be ‘a fate they must accept’.
It was the arrogance of beings who had utterly forgotten that others would survive beyond that destruction.
Those who endured the barren lands and returned from the Land of Death struggled desperately to preserve what had been lost.
‘There is no guarantee that this destruction will not return, just as peace returned after Ragnarok ended. Preparation is necessary.’
‘Countless have perished. We lack even the means to prevent such destruction—how could we possibly stop it?’
‘Yet if countless worlds and their inhabitants will face this Ragnarok in ages to come, how can we who know of it turn away? Did we not witness countless deaths in worlds unknown to us, and did not our inaction in the face of that calamity birth the destruction we face now?’
‘You fail to understand that knowing and solving are two different things!’
The divine authority and knowledge they had accumulated over eons were lost alongside countless deaths.
That the Ragnarok observed in this world was merely another name for the countless destructions that had occurred elsewhere, and
That so long as beings existed with the will to survive, this chain of calamity would never cease—the ancient lifeforms who had discovered this truth debated endlessly.
They must gather knowledge and lay the foundation to prevent the destruction that would come to future generations.
But by what means?
Who could possibly preserve all this knowledge—knowledge that would perish with death—across such vast spans of time and countless worlds?
【From that chaos, ‘Baldur,’ recorded as the god of light, spoke.】
―I shall offer my divine authority to construct a space capable of accumulating knowledge from this moment forward. All those who die with honor shall follow the Valkyrie to Valhalla. I shall call this repository of honored knowledge the Valkyrie Network.
He, who had long been the symbol of light and purity, transformed himself into opposition against Ragnarok—destruction itself—and created the Valkyrie Network.
And to honor his sacrifice, the wisest among those who survived gathered and began transferring all they knew to that place.
The beginning of Baldur, and the first data.
【It was a sacrifice beyond measure to prevent the destruction that would come to future generations. We feared not the inevitable death that would come, and eternal devotion was rather a joy.】
Even as the first awakened ones accumulated knowledge in the Valkyrie Network, the remnants of destruction lingering in the world grew increasingly rampant.
Much like the Ragnarok Remnants that persisted on Earth.
Yet the traces of catastrophe here were of such magnitude that they could not be compared to Earth’s situation—merely gazing upon them caused one’s mind to ache.
Walking near them caused one to be swept up in murderous intent and destructive urges, leading them to shatter themselves and harm those they loved.
The strongest among them destroyed entire villages and incinerated all that existed.
They rushed toward the one deemed wisest among the living.
The one who had witnessed destruction and endured it, now become the Source of Knowledge itself.
A being with brilliantly white hair and wings.
I could not hear their face or voice, seeing only the movement of their lips, yet I knew who they were.
‘How can we erase these remnants?’
I focused intently to read the shape of their words.
‘The growth of destruction ultimately means that the force meant to counter it is being overwhelmed by ruin.’
‘We desire nothing more than to end that calamity. Who among us would willingly stand by and watch our cherished friends, our families, those we love transform into its remnants?’
He smiled gently.
【Despair spread like a plague. Those drawn to the remnants of calamity were those who desired calamity, those who understood what it was.】
Just as all Valkyries’ knowledge offered itself to those who sought to understand it, so too did all the power of calamity extend its hand to those who wished to comprehend it.
I would rather perish than endure this.
Better to have it all end than to drag on existence in such unbearable torment.
I wish I had died when Ragnarok came.
Such thoughts summoned the power of calamity.
‘Then does this mean calamity cannot be stopped as long as those who despair exist? The remnants of calamity linger throughout this entire world.’
It was a question I’d heard countless times before.
Wasn’t it nearly identical to the times we’d put our heads together, wondering what we could possibly do to prevent this calamity?
Remnants of calamity lingering throughout the world was strikingly similar to Earth, where traces of Ragnarok persisted across all continents.
Without thinking, I stepped closer.
Of course, since memory was merely data playback, those conversing remained unaware of my presence.
His lips moved.
‘All those calamities are connected as one. If we stop where the first calamity began, they will all vanish.’
‘But how exactly do we stop it?’
The origin point of Ragnarok—like the eye of a typhoon.
【It was then I realized that the remnants of calamity persisting meant it had not completely ended. It was a harbinger of a second catastrophe, far lesser than the primordial Ragnarok, yet catastrophic nonetheless.】
A second catastrophe.
My heart sank.
【It was an inevitable calamity, yet one we could prepare for since it was already foreseen. That is the power of ‘knowledge.’】
His lips moved again on the screen.
‘We can stop it.’
After that, countless memories compressed and flooded into my mind.
He and others fought against the Ragnarok that occurred again and succeeded in erasing its final traces.
And they sacrificed themselves to become the first Staff Members.
“Liri…”
The remnants left by the first catastrophe devour the ominous things around them and become the second catastrophe.
But its scale reaches only a fraction of the first, and all who have experienced one catastrophe are prepared.
Once that second catastrophe is concluded, the remnants disappear completely.
This held true across all dimensions.
Ultimately, the role of Staff Members was to ‘prepare defenses so that when the second catastrophe arrives, people do not collapse as they did in the first situation.’
“So that’s why we appear where the first catastrophe exists, and Awakeners are born.”
Liri’s voice reached me from nearby.
I turned my head to see her approaching in her avatar form.
“Then if we stop the second catastrophe, will this land finally know peace?”
“No, Gates will continue to appear. But such catastrophes won’t return again.”
This meant this was humanity’s final calamity to face.
In other words, this statement meant—
‘The colossal Gate Ragnarok opens once more.’
“Humanity is sufficiently prepared now. It won’t be like it was then. We exist, and you exist. And we have the knowledge from that time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this beforehand?”
Even as I voiced my reproach, Liri’s tone and expression remained infinitely gentle.
As if she’d already fielded such questions countless times before.
“To convey our understanding and knowledge, there must exist someone capable of receiving an Assigned Staff Member of that caliber. This knowledge lies buried in the deepest reaches of Baldur.”
So among the Assigned Staff Members, only an extremely limited few could transmit this.
“Then Hwan-jae senior is….”
“Moreover, merely receiving the knowledge consumes tremendous mana. Without sufficient mana reserves, it would only kill an Awakener. But because Ye-ah replenished his mana, he can now reach the truth.”
“…One final question. Is there no way to prevent Ragnarok from opening?”
Liri shook her head with unmistakable regret.
It meant that confronting it was inevitable.
As despair settled over me, her hand gently cradled my cheek.
I reflexively lifted my gaze, and Liri lowered her head, her lips brushing softly against my forehead.
“No matter what happens, all my strength will stand with you to bring about the ending you desire.”
A window shimmered before my eyes.
Special Contract: The divinity of the Assigned Staff Member ‘Source of Knowledge’ shall eternally protect you for as long as this contract endures.
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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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