The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 88

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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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The Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 088
I stirred and pushed myself upright, my movements sluggish. The moonlight filtering through the window was faint, and the surroundings lay shrouded in darkness—it must have been quite late into the night.
“…Sigh….”
As I forced myself to sit up, the first thing that caught my eye was a grim face mere inches from my own. The sight of it made my body jolt violently.
“Damn, that’s insane.”
[…?]
As I cursed and leaned my upper body back, Dokjon—the owner of that face—wore a puzzled expression.
[What’s wrong?]
“…It’s nothing. An insect just flew past suddenly.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it was because your face looked so terrifying, so I simply shook my head.
[…An insect? Nothing flew past.]
This old man’s eyes were uselessly sharp.
“No, it did fly past. A night moth.”
[…Hmm. Is that so?]
Fortunately, I insisted with widened eyes, and Dokjon simply accepted it without further question.
Watching him, I exhaled silently and surveyed my surroundings.
‘The old man didn’t come in, did he?’
Yoo Cheon-gil was nowhere to be seen. Since arriving in Sichuan, he’d been so busy that I barely gave him a second thought anymore.
What mattered was.
“…So, what are you planning to do? Going after the Daehwandan, you say?”
[Huh, what? You were awake?]
“No. I heard it in my sleep.”
[Ah, well…. I see.]
Dokjon’s expression seemed to say, so you heard that, did you?
[…In any case, it seems I should give you the reward I promised. What do you think?]
“…If you’re offering, I wouldn’t refuse….”
I glanced sideways cautiously.
“Do we have to go in the middle of the night…?”
It clearly looked to be around the Hour of the Tiger.
When everyone else would be sleeping, was there a reason we had to go now? When I asked this with uncertainty.
[Yes, we must go right now.]
“Hmm….”
Hearing his words, I rose to my feet. Without asking further, I stood up, and Dokjon’s expression turned puzzled.
[Why aren’t you asking more questions?]
“Pardon?”
Instead, I looked at him as if bewildered that he would ask why I was simply following along.
“…You said we have to go now, didn’t you?”
[That’s precisely why you could ask more, so why don’t you?]
“Well, that’s….”
I paused briefly in thought before continuing to Dokjon.
“The fact that you need to retrieve the Daehwandan specifically at this hour suggests that others’ eyes are the problem. And since you’re offering to give me the Daehwandan before the commission is even complete, it seems you believe the Daehwandan and the sword you’re searching for are in the same location. Am I correct?”[…Well…?]
“Furthermore, based on the circumstances, it appears to be inside Bigo… but since people are guarding the entrance to Bigo, that’s not feasible. Which means there must be another entrance. That’s where we’re going now, isn’t it?”
[….]
The more I spoke, the stranger Dokjon’s expression became.
At first, he looked at me like I was simply an odd fellow, but now he looked at me like I was an extremely odd fellow.
Why? Why was he looking at me with such eyes? After staring at me for quite some time, Dokjon let out a hollow laugh and spoke to me.
[…That fellow’s words hit the mark exactly.]
“Pardon? What did someone say?”
[Such things exist. Anyway… get up now, there’s no need for further explanation.]
“Ah, yes.”
I forced my drowsy eyes open and pulled myself up completely.
“Where should I go?”
[There’s no need to go anywhere.]
“Pardon?”
[The entrance is right beneath you, after all.]
“What does that mea—”
I stopped mid-sentence as something came to mind.
“….”
The incident at Cheonwol Gate. Recalling that, I spoke to Dokjon.
“…Could it be, sir, that you’ve created entrances in all the residences within the Dang Clan… something like that?”
[…What? How do you know that? Did you perhaps predict this as well?]
“…No, it’s not prediction. It’s just experience.”
And I’d had a very similar experience before.
So I asked on a whim, and it turned out to be correct.
“…Hmm….”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I just stayed silent. I’d come to realize something by this point: no matter how dramatically I reacted, nothing would change.
‘Only I end up exhausted.’
Since all these old men seemed to lack any sense of normalcy, it was best to simply accept whatever absurdity came my way.
“…So, what should I do? Should I open a drawer or something like that again?”
As I asked naturally, Dokjon reacted with surprise.
[What, child, how do you know that?]
“….”
This is really annoying.
I got it right again.
Now that I think about it, these mechanisms seem to be constructed quite simply.
Opening a drawer causes a door to open, and I wonder how such things are even made….
‘…It seems somewhat similar?’
The patterns are remarkably alike. Since the creator was the same, it couldn’t be called mere coincidence.
‘Would it be more accurate to call it habit rather than coincidence?’
Regardless, this wasn’t particularly important. What mattered was, in any case.
‘…So the key point is that there’s a path from this residence to Bigo.’
There’s another passage leading to Bigo.
That’s what I need to focus on right now.
So be it.
“Elder.”
[Speak.]
“…Why didn’t you mention this during the day?”
What was the reason for going to Bigo with Dokuou in the first place?
If there was a shortcut like this, I could have just gone quickly and accomplished what Dokjon wanted.
I don’t understand why he’s only telling me now that night has fallen.
To my question, Dokjon replied.
[There was something I needed to verify.]
“…You mean with the Patriarch?”
[Yes.]
He needed to verify something with his son while entering Bigo together?
‘What?’
What exactly was he trying to verify? That remained a mystery, but I set it aside for now.
He didn’t look like he’d explain anyway.
“…Then, what should I do first?”
The moment I spoke, Dokjon pointed to something. It was a drawer behind me.
[Open the second drawer.]
I immediately obeyed. Creak! The drawer slid open. There was nothing inside.
Dokjon’s fingertip moved again.
It was pointing to an unlit lamp on the table.
[Move that onto the drawer.]
I lifted the lamp and placed it on the drawer. Then.
[Now channel your inner energy into it.]
Dokjon commanded, and without hesitation, I activated the Cheonwol Heart Technique in my palm.
Whoooosh—!
Blue energy flowed and clung to the lamp.
At that moment.
Click—!
A sound came from the floor. When I lifted the mat, sure enough, a rectangular opening had appeared.
There was even a ladder. It was identical to the one I’d seen at the Cheonwol Gate.
[What do you think? Isn’t it fascinating?]
Dokjon asked me proudly, seeming quite pleased with the situation.
He clearly took considerable pride in this.
“…Ah, yes. It’s quite remarkable.”
I responded as enthusiastically as I could. In truth, since I’d already seen something similar at the Cheonwol Gate, I wasn’t particularly surprised.
[What’s this? Your reaction seems rather dull.]
“No, it’s just that I was too startled to respond properly.”
[Ah, is that so? Then that’s understandable.]
“….”
Dokjon didn’t realize it, but he seemed somewhat naive.
In any case.
“…So I just need to go down?”
[Yes.]
After receiving Dokjon’s permission, I descended the ladder as instructed.
This felt familiar too.
The difference was that at the Cheonwol Gate, I had to descend for quite a while, but this time the descent wasn’t nearly as deep.
Splash.
The moment my feet touched the ground, a damp sensation enveloped me.
The space I had descended into was pitch black. I immediately circulated my energy and focused my eyes.
An entrance appeared before me in the brightened vision.
[Go slowly. There’s nothing particularly problematic.]
“…Nothing particularly problematic means there’s something slightly problematic, doesn’t it?”
[It’s fine. Even if something explodes, only a few toes would fly off at most… I’m joking, child. Come down from the ladder.]
“…Please don’t joke with that expression. It’s genuinely frightening.”
I tried to go back up immediately but was stopped.
Looking at Dokjon with suspicious eyes, I moved forward. True to his word, there were no other traps.
After walking a bit further, a door came into view.
There was no door handle. It seemed I would need to open it through some special method.
As I stared at it quietly.
[That door is now….]
Dokjon was about to explain how to open it.
Whoosh.
[Huh?]
But my hand moved first.
[Child, what are you… eh?]
Dokjon tried to question my actions.
Swish, swish.
Seeing my hand move, Dokjon closed his mouth. Without hesitation, I traced several lines.
드르르르륵—!!!
The door before me opened.
“Oh, it worked.”
Nodding as I watched the door open, Dokjon stammered and asked me.
[…How. How did you do that.]
“Pardon?”
[I never taught you how to operate this mechanism…?]
“Ah, this.”
It was nothing special.
“I noticed there was a pattern.”
[…A pattern?]
“Yes.”
I had felt it when opening the mechanism during the day, but there was a peculiar rule to disarming Dokjon’s mechanism.
“There are dots on the wall. You connect them together.”
[…!]
The moment I spoke, Dokjon’s eyes widened like lanterns.
[You saw that…?]
“Yes. They were so small it was hard to see, but once I concentrated, they became visible.”
The sizes varied and the heights were different.
‘But the pattern they formed was identical.’
The shape created by the dots was the same, and the same rule existed within it.
There was much talk about how to move my hand and which direction to turn, but ultimately it came down to one thing.
‘How to connect those dots.’
That seemed to be the criterion that determined whether this mechanism would open or not.
[…But there must be more than just one or two dots?]
Dokjon asked, unable to understand.
That was correct. There weren’t just one or two dots. To open the door, I had to connect six dots total, yet there were dozens of such small dots drawn on the door alone.
Moreover, since the material was stone, at first glance it just looked like the natural form of rock.
If someone asked how I could find the dots that comprised the mechanism in such a situation.
“I calculated it.”
[…What? Calculated?]
“Yes. Since the pattern formed by the dots appeared to be the same, I established a reference point and calculated by estimating the size.”
[How could you establish a reference point among so many dots?]
“Ha, why are you like this?”
I spoke to Dokjon as if it wasn’t even amusing.
“You kindly made the two largest dots for me. How could I not find them?”
[….]
Among countless dots, one in the north and one in the south were different sizes.
That was my reference point, and using that as the starting point, I estimated the size and length of the pattern, found the remaining four dots, and connected them.
[…You found that…in such a short time…?]
As I continued my explanation, Dokjon’s expression grew increasingly strange.
Why was he like that?
“I simply calculated and connected them. Why are you so surprised? Once you know the pattern, it’s a simple task.”
[Simple…? No, it can’t be simple…?]
He looked as if something had broken.
As I watched him quietly, not long after, Dokjon regained his senses and asked something else.
[No, wait. Finding it is one thing. Child, as I said before, if you touched the mechanism incorrectly, it could have caused a serious accident. It doesn’t make sense that you would do something so dangerous knowing that.]
“…Ah….”
True enough, that was the case. Touching it carelessly could have caused it to explode.
“You’re right, though.”
I spoke to Dokjon in an even tone.
“It seemed like it wouldn’t go wrong anyway.”
[What…?]
“Looking at it, there seemed to be no possibility of failure, so I just did it.”
[No… You’re saying that’s why you just…?]
“Yes. Since it wouldn’t fail, there was no need to hesitate.”
[….]
“In the end, it worked out fine, so isn’t that what matters?”
[…Ah, um… yes.]
“We just need to go inside, right?”
Leaving the bewildered Dokjon behind, I stepped through the open entrance.
[…This child is twisted in the same way as their master, it seems.]
Dokjon muttered this with a somewhat troubled expression.
But the voice was so faint that I couldn’t hear Dokjon’s murmuring from behind.

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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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