Chapter 245
Translator: Pai_
After the establishment of the Empire, Turan never withdrew his watchful gaze from Earth, even while prospering humanity in the Cradle World.
It was to prevent the powerful yet fragile masters of that civilization from burning themselves to death with massive nuclear flames.
In fact, if he had wanted to, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to become the unified emperor of Earth a long time ago.
Those so-called world powers like the United States or Russia, if he transformed into a golden eagle and trampled down just a few major cities, they would have easily surrendered.
Unless the beings were complete disasters with whom communication was impossible, Earthlings weren’t so reckless as to challenge gods who could annihilate nations with a few finger gestures that triggered natural disasters.
However, the reason he did not take such a route was, first, because tormenting innocent lambs brought him no joy, and second, because he calculated that such actions would negatively affect the long-term supply of presence on Earth.
People by nature feel the most intense stimulation from the first time they experience something; if wizards simply took over and ruled humanity, people would gradually cease to be moved by the power they wielded.
Even in the Cradle World, where the Imperial Church was widespread and faith was being steadily supplied to Turan, it was still hard to match the level of presence he had gained during his display of power in Sacramento.
Therefore, Turan had strictly limited the qualifications for wizards to cross over to Earth.
Only special-grade wizards who had acquired all four types and mastered their essence, or first-grade wizards on the verge of completing that task, were allowed.
Even occasional visits had to be conducted in disguise, pretending to be Earthlings, unless the purpose was to gain presence.
Thanks to that, despite quite a bit of time passing, Earthlings were still starving for wizards and the miracles they could perform.
Since Solif had come and led a round of healing miracles, no wizard capable of producing similar feats had appeared again.
All they knew was that there was a powerful magical empire somewhere beyond their world, and that these beings were one-sidedly offering favors to them.
As a result, Earthlings considered themselves to be in a state not unlike that of stray cats being half-fed by someone.
Whether a visit or a favor, everything was decided according to the will of the other side, and they had no idea how those decisions were made or how long they would last.
Given that, they were in a position even worse than pets, who at least had some security; they could do nothing but accept whatever was given, and if one day the other side suddenly decided to kill them, they couldn’t resist.
Because of that, Earthlings made every effort to uncover the truth about the magical world. Among them, the United States and South Korea analyzed the conversations with Kim Soo-ho, who could be considered the first contact.
What caught their attention was one of the things Turan had asked Soo-ho about: the “SSMS”.
“The Song of the Sun, Moon, and Stars?”
“What does that mean?”
“First, identify the game's developer and key personnel.”
When countries around the world joined forces, or competed fiercely, with that objective in mind, results came quickly.
It was a dead game now, and most of the developers had either moved to other companies or switched careers.
The government summoned all of them under various pretexts and persistently investigated what secrets were hidden in the game.
As a result, they discovered a rather surprising fact.
“This face...”
“Since it’s 3D graphics, the feel is a bit different, but I believe it’s a match.”
An astonishing fact that some of the default character appearances in SSMS were quite similar to the wizards who had shown themselves so far.
It was laughable, but this information had already spread across various online communities even before the government discovered it.
Naturally, the people who had actually played SSMS were mostly not high-ranking government officials, but rather those who resided in such communities.
In fact, some of the people involved had noticed this, but were too afraid to say anything like “Don’t the wizards look like game characters?” out of fear of how that would be received.
In any case, government officials, convinced they had found a clue, dug into it relentlessly.
It had become clear that this game and the magical world were connected somehow.
They hoped that, somehow, they could obtain magical power.
So, in hopes of gaining the power to defend themselves from surrounding nations or from alien wizards.
The Special Investigation Division poured all its efforts into a comprehensive investigation in every direction.
And then...
“Damn it, I can’t do this anymore.”
“Same here.”
“Let’s call it quits. We just wasted money.”
As obvious as it may sound, the nearly decade-long investigation ended without a single meaningful result.
After all, they couldn’t have known that the Cradle World periodically absorbed incoming information from other worlds, and that the players of SSMS and the game’s data had simply been drawn in and transformed that world.
Instead, they constructed their own hypothesis.
That the world those beings lived in had always existed, and the creators of SSMS had unconsciously absorbed images of it and recreated it in similar form.
Given that all the wizards who had appeared so far looked well over twenty years old, it would make sense that they were born before the game had even been developed.
In a way, one might praise them for reaching the impressive insight that, in a state of complete ignorance, information can flow unconsciously between worlds, discovering a secret about collective unconscious.
The problem, however, was that the world’s current circumstances were far from ideal to boast about such findings.
***
[At 4 a.m., shelling began at the border-]
“Another war?”
“God, I’m sick of this...”
September 27, 2058. War breaks out between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
People responded with weary annoyance at this news.
From Ukraine and Russia to India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, Zambia and Congo, to various countries in the Balkans...
In an age where the entire world was embroiled in countless conflicts, the outbreak of yet another war wasn’t even surprising.
People found it more remarkable that a nuclear war hadn’t broken out under such conditions.
Many of the countries involved in these conflicts possessed nuclear weapons, and yet even those who had essentially lost wars were willing to sign humiliating treaties rather than set the world ablaze with nukes.
They believed it was because people were more rational than expected, or because launching a nuke required persuading far too many stakeholders.
Of course, Turan’s shadow was cast over this as well.
“The moment any country launches a nuke first, I will cripple its ability to wage war.”
“Always remember, a single wizard is watching Earth. Think of nukes as a weapon you cannot use, even if you have them. And if the upkeep is too burdensome, feel free to get rid of them.”
Turan made this declaration when the world was gripped by nuclear anxiety, and it provoked a wide array of responses.
Naturally, leaders of smaller, non-nuclear countries welcomed it with joy, while nuclear-armed powers like the United States were flustered or infuriated, calling it a violation of sovereignty.
China, in particular, seemed provoked by this and responded by conducting a nuclear test under the pretense of a weapons demonstration, detonating it near Taiwan.
Thanks to that, a rather strong example could be made.
“This is where China’s military is gathered, right?”
“You’re not seriously-”
“Step back! Or else-”
“Or else what?”
When Meisa’s eyes glowed blue as she asked back, the officers of the People’s Liberation Army clenched their teeth but couldn’t protest any further.
Because their bodies were already paralyzed, unable to move an inch.
Meisa didn’t go so far as to punish China in front of everyone with an open display of violence.
She simply designated gunpowder as her tracking target, then, under the cover of night, visited various military bases in the Beijing Military District and disabled their tanks, cannons, and fighter jets.
Once several units had lost combat capability, the Chinese government played its most extreme card.
They had hidden several hydrogen bombs in one of their bases and, when Meisa came to disable it, they detonated them.
It was a cruel tactic that sacrificed at least thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of their own troops.
The leaders of China, hidden in underground bunkers, watched the scene unfold through monitors.
“Is she dead?”
“She must be. Even that golden eagle monster intercepted nukes from afar, she took this one directly beneath her feet, in human form...”
“God, I hope we can study that thing and figure out something useful.”
They had dared to provoke the lion’s whiskers in order to uncover the secret of immortality.
For the past several decades, the wizards who had appeared not only did not age, but their words and actions made it clear that they were beings without a lifespan.
Many of them were expected to die of old age soon, so rather than die as is, they tried to capture and study a few of these beings in hopes of finding even the slimmest possibility.
Unrestrained absolute power was capable of enabling such irrational acts.
However, it did not take long for their hopes to prove futile.
Because from beneath the ruins of the military base, which had been completely annihilated without even debris left behind, Meisa walked out unharmed.
“Ah, these bastards really...”
Meisa was burning with the urge to transform into a storm giant and crush Beijing that very moment, but before that, she remembered the advice Turan had given her. So retaliation was carried out only “unofficially”.
Using uranium as a medium for tracking, she deactivated every nuclear missile stored across all of China.
Afterward, Meisa contacted the Chairman and other high-ranking members of the Communist Party, who had hidden themselves in underground bunkers, via video call.
It wasn't impossible to track them all down one by one after the nuclear explosion, but it was excessively difficult and bothersome, so she settled the matter with a threat.
‘Since this is the first time, consider this a warning. I don’t want to harm innocent people unnecessarily. But starting from the second time, I will erase Beijing. And if that’s not enough, I’ll go as far as Shanghai. Got it?’
‘...Got it.’
‘And make sure to tell the other countries what happened this time. One cleanup of a stupid act is more than enough.’
With that, the matter ended with China’s unofficial surrender, and every nation had to acknowledge that nuclear missiles were now effectively unusable weapons.
If you launched a nuke because you thought you were going to lose, then what?
The wizards would come and destroy everything.
And firing a nuke at a wizard? Even after seeing that it didn’t work?
Thankfully, the wizards did not interfere with wars fought using conventional weapons.
That was because Turan, who didn’t spend much time on Earth, was unable to judge the good or evil of every war they waged.
After all, not every war was always the invader’s fault.
Just look at World War I, didn’t it begin with Serbia assassinating the Archduke of Austria and acting provocatively, which led to retaliation?
If they had to manage every justification for invasion, they’d be no different from a babysitter, so the understanding was that it was fine for the kids to hit each other to some extent, just don’t use weapons.
At any rate, the world continued to burn with all sorts of conflicts even after that, only nuclear missiles were left unused.
Religious and cultural clashes due to immigration, resource depletion, economic collapse, and so on.
Even after the AI revolution, science and technology didn’t advance as quickly as expected, and the once-dismissed theory of oil depletion was once again being taken seriously.
There was no need to even mention the collapse of population structure due to low birth rates in several advanced countries.
Had it not been for the Cradle's wizards stepping in to deal with serious environmental issues like air pollution a few times, the situation would undoubtedly have been worse than it was.
At a time when everyone living on Earth was screaming into the darkness of the future, truly astonishing news rocked the world.
A portal to another world had opened.
***
While running the Empire and focusing on internal matters of the world, Turan also did not forget to investigate beyond it.
After scouting the twelve worlds branching out from the Cradle, he learned that all of them were closed worlds.
Among them, two were close to Akasha, and two were scheduled for invasion by the Phantom Beast Realm, leaving eight remaining.
As they were closed worlds, he couldn’t descend into them directly, but from what he was able to observe, the environments of those worlds were much closer to Earth than to the Cradle.
In the sense that they were composed of something far more fundamental and complex than mere information separated from the essence of the human soul.
By inserting the dimensional sealing tool he had received from Akasha and a copy of the Jade Mirror, Turan was able to create a limited dimensional gate, and the idea occurred to him to send a pioneering party there.
Although there were still many unexplored regions within the Cradle World, many resources such as oil did not exist there at all, so his intention was to supplement those from the outside.
However, unfortunately, the residents of the Cradle World could not survive long in foreign worlds.
Just as it had been on Earth, their spirit forms, composed of processed information, could not endure a fully materialized world without a special veil.
By contrast, those who were not made from essence and could cross into the closed worlds without strain were the Earthlings.
Earth, which had until now been seen merely as a source of presence supply, had suddenly become newly useful.
“You're saying you want to send Earthlings to another world?”
“That contradicts the policy we’ve maintained all this time. They’ll no longer see us as mysterious beings.”
Ashiz frowned as he responded to Turan’s proposal.
That had been the very reason why the Cradle's wizards had minimized interference with Earth until now.
At this, Turan nodded and shared his thoughts.
“That’s how it was until now. But lately, it’s becoming increasingly meaningless.”
“You’re saying Earthlings no longer view us as mysterious?”
Luska, who had just turned twenty and was now formally attending imperial meetings, asked in a calm tone.
Turan smiled at his son’s question and nodded.
“There’s that, but also the fact that their situation has worsened so much they can barely pay attention to us anymore. Their technology and culture aren’t necessarily superior to ours. When you consider that they would have essentially self-destructed without our intervention.”
Earthlings, embroiled in endless disputes due to various problems, were on a path of self-destruction.
Turan believed that opening a dimensional gate would serve as a breakthrough for them by easing some of that pressure.
As a bonus, they could also benefit significantly from it.
And it didn’t matter even if they obtained magic or mysterious powers from those other worlds and became stronger.
If those places had enough power to give rise to beings capable of threatening the Cradle, they wouldn’t have been closed worlds in the first place.
Before long, Solif, who had been dispatched to Earth, gathered the ambassadors of each nation and revealed this information.
“Another world? You don’t mean the Cradle World where you live, do you?”
“Unfortunately, no. It’s been my long-time dream to invite Earthlings there... but sadly, it seems the environment there just doesn’t suit you. Maybe that’s the case for most other worlds too.”
At one ambassador’s question, Solif shook his head in denial.
Though Earthlings and the Cradle’s humans looked identical at a glance, magically speaking, they were completely different lifeforms.
Primitive lifeforms like planaria or amoebas were actually closer.
While Cradle humans could at least endure on Earth by erecting a spirit-form veil, Earthlings couldn’t withstand the overflowing magic of the Cradle World even for a moment.
This had been confirmed after bringing over several of Earth’s most heinous criminals through extradition.
It was possible to recreate their memory data into spirit form and possess a new body, just like the old Preah God Tribe had done, but in that case, they would never be able to return to Earth again.
Effectively, it became no different from permanent immigration.
Upon hearing the explanation, the ambassadors nodded as though they understood.
“So you're saying you want us to carry out interdimensional colonization on your behalf.”
“That’s right. But your side won’t be getting the short end of the stick either. I’ve heard one of those worlds has massive oil reserves-”
Before he could even finish speaking, the conference room, which had gathered ambassadors from various nations, instantly descended into chaos.
Because of everyone clamoring to say their country would participate.
Watching the scene, Solif scratched his short silver hair with a sigh.
‘Seriously, stuff like this is such a hassle.’
After several rounds of coordination, each country on Earth agreed to send pioneering teams through the gates to the eight worlds, under the guidance of the Cradle World.
Surprisingly, the conditions demanded by the Cradle were not many.
The first condition was to spread Turan’s name among the intelligent beings living on the other side.
There was no need for full-scale proselytizing, just letting them know that such a being existed was enough.
The second was a kind of customs duty: a portion of the massive resources brought back by the pioneering teams was to be set aside as the Cradle’s share.
It was an opportunity to legally secure resources like oil, which didn't exist at all on their side, without resorting to plunder.
After lengthy discussions over transportation methods, locations for opening the dimensional gates, and contingency plans in case of powerful enemies beyond human capability appearing from the other side, the first gate was finally opened.
“Move out!”
“God, I hope they make it back alive.”
The first exploration team, clad in protective suits modified from space suits and sweating coldly, threw themselves into another world.
Fortunately, most of them succeeded in returning without serious harm.
“It’s an unbelievable place. You just dig into the ground and oil comes out.”
“The place is under constant volcanic eruptions with insane heat and pressure...”
“I encountered a crazy monster. Bullets didn’t work on it.”
Evaluations of the exploration sites were polarizing.
Some worlds were unimaginably rich, while others were harsh to the point of making survival nearly impossible.
However, it was confirmed that most of the atmospheres were similar enough to Earth’s that no special breathing equipment was needed.
Moreover, there were no overwhelmingly powerful beings like the Cradle's wizards, against whom resistance was futile.
Blessed with iron and gunpowder, the pioneering teams defeated the monsters of the other worlds, made contact with the natives, and transported massive resources back to Earth, and not long after, to that desolate, collapsing world that seemed doomed to destroy itself through internal conflict.
Thus, in the 21st century, a new Era of Exploration had dawned.
*****
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