Chapter 823: Fame
The small hole that had appeared before me.
I stared blankly at the hole that was sucking in the surrounding air.
'It’s the same as the one Sergeant Park Taejun opened.'
A hole leading outside the world.
In Sergeant Park Taejun’s case, he had reused a hole that had been opened when another being entered our world.
But this one was different.
“You...... how did you do something like this.”
“Listening to your story made me remember. I think I was the kind of being capable of something like this.”
I stared blankly at it.
'Even I can’t do this.'
No, well.
If I kept searching for a method, perhaps I too could reproduce something similar.
My divine power was a force capable of making the impossible possible.
It was only impossible because I still did not know the method.
If I somehow figured out how to use it, perhaps something similar would be possible.
But...... in the end, the fact remained that even the current me could not do it.
'What the hell is this thing?'
This one had done something like that...... opening a hole leading outside its own world, as if it were nothing.
That newborn-like body.
The power contained within it was not that enormous.
I could sense that the essence of that power was something unusual, but the amount itself was only a handful.
The fact that it was trapped in a place like this as well made me think that, even if it had been some incredible existence in the past, it probably was not anymore.
But I was wrong.
'If it can open a hole like that...... that means it wasn’t trapped here in the first place.'
I had thought this space might be some kind of seal.
But if it were a seal, there was no way it could open a hole leading outside that easily.
Or...... perhaps it had been unable to leave because the memory of how to do so had been sealed away, and I had restored that memory.
Whatever the truth was, there was something else that mattered more.
“You can help me?”
“Yeah, probably.”
The one who could casually open a hole like that.
Had said it would help me.
“How......?”
“I still don’t really know that. But the instant I heard your story, I had an intuition. That if it were me, I could help you. Well...... I don’t know whether it would be enough help to let you accomplish your objective.”
“Not having memories is a pretty convenient excuse.”
“I can understand why it sounds strange. But I mean it.”
I could tell from the taste on my tongue that it was sincere.
The problem was the method.
“Even so, I don’t really understand how someone who doesn’t even know the method can say they can help me.”
“That’s not wrong either. So...... if you want my help, there’s something you need to do.”
“You want something from me?”
“Rather than something I want, it’s more like something necessary for me to help you......? I want you to restore my memories.”
I frowned as I looked at it.
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want your injury treated? Are you changing your mind again?”
“No, I still feel the same way. I don’t think that will ever change....... But even now, some of my memories came back without my injury healing, didn’t they? That means restoring my memories separately from the injury is possible.”
“You want me to do that?”
“I’m certain there’s a way for me to help you. But I don’t have the memory of it...... so if you restore my memories, I can use those memories to help you.”
It sounded extremely suspicious.
Perhaps it was trying to use me to restore its own memories this way.
'......I think I would’ve felt more at ease if it actually had an ulterior motive like that.'
I looked at it with a bitter smile.
If it had been hiding something, I could simply have thought it was plotting something.
But I could sense none of that from it right now.
The taste touching my tongue told me that its reason for wanting to restore its memories was purely to help me.
“Even if you say that, I don’t know how. How am I supposed to restore those memories? Should I cook for you some more? Or will they come back if we keep talking like this?”
“Neither would be bad, but there’s another way.”
“Another way?”
Then.
It pointed with its small finger toward the hole it had created.
“Go back to your homeland.”
“......?”
“And work hard there.”
The request came so completely out of nowhere that I wondered what it was talking about.
But it continued without caring.
“Use every method available to you and accomplish as much as possible, and spread your fame far and wide. Make it so there is no one in your homeland who doesn’t know you. If even that isn’t enough, make your name known in other worlds as well. And...... come visit me from time to time and tell me about that process.”
“And then your memories will return, is that it?”
“Probably.”
“And why would that be possible.......”
“Of course I don’t know either. I have no memories.”
“Hah.”
𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
That was what its current state was like.
It knew that it could walk and run.
But it did not know when or how it had learned to walk and run, or why it knew how.
It had simply come to its senses one day and found that it could do those things, and knew that it could.
There would be no answer even if I pressed further on that part.
“Then let’s leave that aside.”
If so, there was no longer any meaning in asking ‘how.’
If there was something I needed to ask.......
“Why?”
Not ‘how,’ but ‘why.’
“Why are you trying to help me?”
It was certain that it could help me despite having no memories.
But whether or not it could help was a matter of ability.
Whether it used that ability to help me was its own choice.
And yet it had said so naturally that it would help me.
There was no way it was for some altruistic reason like being unable to refuse someone who asked for help.
I wanted to know why it wanted to help me.
“......Well. Maybe I’m just happy because you’re the first person I’ve talked to in such a long time. I don’t know why, but I’ve had that thought since the first moment I saw you.”
It quietly looked at me.
Then smiled brightly and said.
“That if it were a request from you, I’d want to grant anything...... something like that.”
***
FWAAAAASH.
And like that.
After finishing my conversation with the being I had met in another world.
Tap.
I arrived back on the land of my homeland and stepped onto the familiar mountain path.
The very hole I had first entered, the one those lizards had supposedly emerged from.
'On the way back, I didn’t pass through that void.'
When I had first entered that hole, I had been forced to pass through a lonely space that felt as though it would freeze my soul.
But for some reason, I had not needed to pass through it on the way back.
If I had returned by the same method I had gone there, it made no sense.
The reason something like this had been possible was probably.
'That one opened a hole directly connected to my homeland.'
Even Sergeant Park Taejun could only make use of a hole.
Directly connecting that hole to a hole in another world had been impossible for him.
And yet that one had done it as if it were nothing.
It was extremely difficult to understand.
And while I was frowning at that thought.
“Youngjun, you......!?”
“Huh?”
From far away.
I saw Sergeant Park Taejun and the soldiers running toward me with startled expressions.
“H-How are you back already?”
A place not particularly far from the unit.
Since it was obvious that if I returned, I would come back through this hole, it seemed the unit had been keeping watch over this place.
“Don’t tell me. Did the hole I activated fail to function properly?”
“No, nothing like that. It worked just fine. I was in another world until a moment ago. Ah, I might have brought back microorganisms or something from another world, so don’t come too close.”
“......We should probably run tests as soon as we return to the Legion. But how did you get back so quickly? Was the flow of time different over there and here?”
“Hmm...... I don’t think so.”
He looked flustered.
Well, that was understandable.
Go to another world and find a method capable of letting me succeed in my challenge.
If I failed to find that.
Find some way to escape that world and return.
That had been my original plan.
Since it was something that required searching through another world, normally I would have needed to invest years into it even at the shortest.
The Legion’s Conquest War was also expected to take years, so I had intended to attempt this while the Legion focused on that.
“......Was it a world where you couldn’t obtain any clues at all?”
Since I had returned far too quickly.
From his perspective, it seemed he could only assume that the place I had gone had offered no hints at all, and that I had therefore returned as quickly as possible.
Well, considering I had come back before even a full day had passed, that was a reasonable thing to think.
But.
“Hmm...... I’m not sure whether I should say I got a clue or not.”
I recalled what had happened over there.
All I could remember was having a rather insignificant conversation.
In the end, I had learned nothing about what kind of world it was, or what that one actually was.
'If I had still been connected to the System, I could’ve checked with [Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)].'
I could reproduce other skills by remembering how the System performed them.
But Ingredient Appraisal was different.
'It’s a power that calls up knowledge I don’t possess in the first place.'
Because I had to remain connected to the System as a channel through which that knowledge could be called up.
Because of that, I had no way of knowing what that one really was.
But.
At the very least, it was certain that it could help me.
If so.......
“There is one thing worth trying.”
It was not entirely reliable, but it was probably worth trying.
***
And like that.
I decided to return to the Legion.
“By the way, are you planning to keep staying here?”
“Well, yeah. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go.”
In the past, there had been few mountains in Legion territory as high as this one.
And on top of that, there was even a facility called a radar station located here.
A facility meant for detecting things.
The concept contained within that facility could be used as a medium to amplify the power of one who studied the stars.
But.
“Wouldn’t it be worth considering moving somewhere else now?”
Things were different now.
'We conquered North Korea.'
There were now mountains higher than this one within Legion territory.
A high mountain on the border between North Korea and China.
Even Mount Baekdu was now within the Legion’s territory.
Although it had been heavily damaged during the previous battle...... its height was on a completely different level from the mountain where the 423rd Battalion was stationed.
With the Legion as it was now, they could probably construct something similar to a radar station in no time as well.
But.
“No, this place is still better.”
“Why?”
Even so, he seemed to have chosen to remain here.
I found it strange.
But he seemed to have a fairly definite reason.
“Because this is where we began.”
He spoke with a shrug.
“When looking at the celestial bodies of our world, being even a little closer to the sky was better. But now we’re in a position where we have to look at worlds farther outside, right? Even if a mountain is higher by human standards, when you consider the distance to what lies out there, it doesn’t make much difference.”
“Is that how it works?”
“If anything, this place is much better. This is where we...... and.”
His gaze turned toward me.
“Where your journey began.”
“.......”
“That fact will help me.”
“If you say so.”
And like that.
Leaving Sergeant Park Taejun, who had come to see me off at the 423rd Battalion, behind, I left the unit facilities.
Throwing myself forward at high speed as I returned to the Legion, I took a radio out from inside my clothes.
A radio that Sergeant Lee Minjae had modified again so it could function normally even in this world.
......Crackle.
And when I turned on the radio.
[Report from the Pacific Front Army. Encountered a powerful sea storm while attempting to enter the archipelago. Following advice from field staff that it is not a normal natural phenomenon, we will search the surrounding area and eliminate the cause of the storm before proceeding.]
[Continental Front Army, 3rd Strike Force. Third engagement with a large group of monsters completed. No casualties, but two tanks were damaged by enemy resistance.......]
[This is Expeditionary Command. According to currently observed information, the force believed capable of becoming a friendly ally.......]
Legion members fighting in various places.
Reports directed toward their central command filled the radio.
And as I listened to those voices, I thought.
“Spread my fame.”
After falling into this ruined world.
I had been forced to fight against all kinds of impossible things.
Every day, I was given situations that made me wonder, Is this really even possible? And somehow, I had been forced to accomplish them.
But...... how should I put it.
“Well, it’s not difficult.”
For the first time in far too long.
I had been given.
An absurdly easy task.