I Entered an Academy in a Ruined Game

Chapter 322 : The End (4)

Belphegor was dead, and the fight was over.

But that didn't mean everything was finished.

"...Come out now."

Su-hyeon muttered, but there was no answer.

"Won't you come out?"

An invisible sword formed in Su-hyeon's hand.

Swoosh!

With one slash, space and dimension tore open, revealing something beyond.

"...I'm sorry about this."

That 'something' spoke to Su-hyeon.

"So it's you."

"Yes. That's right. I am GM. The one who brought you to this world."

He was a being that looked like a cephalopod with a giant head with one large eye and several tentacle-like legs attached below.

That octopus or squid-like being was rotting and collapsing in several places, emitting a foul odor.

"Are you surprised?"

The giant cephalopod said.

"It's unfortunate to meet in such a state. I know it's not proper, but please forgive me."

His tone sounded very polite and even affectionate.

"This is my first time seeing you like this."

"Yes. Unless you pulled me out, I couldn't bring this wounded body before you with my own power."

"Confinement?"

"That's right. Belphegor sealed me in this dying body and left me. Having been defeated, I couldn't escape this prison."

"Belphegor is dead now. You could escape if you wanted to, couldn't you?"

"Well, that's true."

However, contrary to his answer, he made no move to do so, instead extending a writhing tentacle toward Su-hyeon.

"Would you accept my handshake?"

"......"

Su-hyeon stretched out his hand and grasped the tip of the tentacle.

It was a strange sensation, both squishy and firm.

"My name is Germer. GM was a name derived from my name as well."

"Not a very interesting secret."

In response to Su-hyeon's cold reaction, Germer's tentacle quivered.

"I understand your feelings."

"I don't want to be understood."

Su-hyeon said.

"But you should speak the truth before me."

"I will gladly do so."

Germer answered.

"As you've guessed, I am the first transcendent. But I was neither omnipotent nor anything like a creator."

If I had been omnipotent, this would never have happened, Germer continued.

"I was the first scholar. The first philosopher and the first scientist. The first magician and the first alchemist. I thirsted for knowledge before anyone else, and I wandered the world alone for a very long time, accumulating wisdom."

"Wisdom, you say."

"The path to transcendence doesn't lie only in physical strength and mental resonance."

Germer's tentacles writhed.

"I belonged to the most intelligent species on our planet. If I had to say, I was close to being the progenitor of the species. But I was the only one who far exceeded the lifespan of the species. The more wisdom accumulated, the more my understanding of magic and mysteries deepened, the more my body became a pure crystallization of mana."

In other words, Germer was a being who reached transcendence as a magician.

"The time it took to get there was very long. During that time, I tried to create a family several times. But after watching their aging and death several times, I chose to exist alone."

"You accumulated wisdom alone?"

"Yes. It wasn't easy. Slowly building knowledge from the age of ignorance... perhaps it was much more difficult than becoming stronger through martial means."

Germer continued.

"If everyone could share conversation and knowledge across time and space as in your world, store knowledge in digital space, search and learn, and even create machine intelligence called artificial intelligence to amplify the accumulation of knowledge. Compared to such a place."

"......"

"My world had almost no such environment. Therefore, the speed at which my knowledge developed was very slow. It couldn't be helped. Compared to the collective intelligence built by billions of brains working together. Despite being large and ancient, it was just one head after all."

Germer raised a tentacle to point at his head.

"The first civilization. The first magic. The first scholarship was mostly created or developed by me. I had many disciples. But eventually, just transferring all the knowledge I had accumulated took their entire lifespans. So I stopped."

"......"

"At some point, nothing seemed new anymore. I couldn't even remember when I had last felt that I 'didn't know' something. Three thousand years from birth. I contemplated suicide."

"Then why didn't you die?"

"Before that, I decided to create a library. I planned to leave all the knowledge I had discovered and researched, and then die."

"......"

"But incomprehensible beings inspire fear. I realized that at some point, fear had entered the eyes of those around me."

Germer's tentacles drooped, expressing his emotion.

"Excuse me. Using tentacles for body language is a characteristic of our planet."

"...It doesn't matter."

"Then let me continue the story. I knew well that their fear would someday turn into hatred. At that time, despite having lived for 3000 years, I was hasty and irritable. Moreover, I didn't have the confidence to move all those vast books somewhere beyond their sight."

"...Did you kill them?"

"Yes. I attacked during the deepest night. After killing them all, I laughed with relief that I had protected my knowledge."

Germer's tentacles stiffened and then drooped again.

"...And then I fell into self-disgust. An immense self-loathing overcame me. Even the knowledge and books I had protected by shedding blood now felt monstrous."

"So what did you do?"

"Indecisive as I was, I couldn't destroy it in the end. I just left that place. In the distant future, it became the first library, enjoyed by many scholars and became the catalyst for academic development into areas I couldn't reach."

"...Hmm."

"From a distance, I watched them research, discuss, and develop magic, philosophy, and science. It was truly an interesting time."

But, Germer continued.

"Knowledge proved fragile. Every time outlaws and plunderers appeared, books were easily burned and scholars easily killed. ...I just watched it for a long time, remembering and waiting for the next inheritor. Thus, a long time passed."

"Just how long have you lived?"

"...After ten thousand years, I stopped counting."

Germer's tentacle scratched his head as if embarrassed.

"So occasionally I created books containing secrets and scattered them in the world, placing hints in orally transmitted legends. Those with wisdom, courage, and recklessness followed these hints to gain new knowledge, returned, and developed it."

Collective intelligence was truly remarkable.

"Even those with less knowledge and shorter wisdom than me would sometimes pioneer new territories with flashes of insight and unique persistence. But at some point, I realized that even this had no particular meaning."

"Why?"

"How much can one who has reached the extreme of nothingness gain from watching novices fight? Mostly, one just sees reflections of previously experienced trial and error and immaturity. The same was true for magic and scholarship. To me, who had transcended boundaries, all knowledge began to appear connected to a single stem."

"That's when transcendence began, I suppose."

"Yes. You saw correctly."

Germer answered.

"At some point, my body no longer aged, and food was no longer necessary. There were many days when I glimpsed fragments of transcendence in dreams."

After another thousand years passed like this, Germer finally reached transcendence.

"Compared to you and Belphegor, it was truly at a snail's pace. I just became a transcendent luckily due to a long lifespan and a few coinciding miracles."

"What did you do after becoming a transcendent?"

"I simply watched without interfering. I was a transcendent who constantly held a magnifying glass, trying to feel even the smallest intellectual stimulation."

Therefore, said Germer.

"I truly understand Belphegor's boredom."

"......"

"How much time passed like that? When a being called Belphegor appeared in the demonic world of Nastrond. I realized that he might be a being who could reach the same realm as me."

"Did you also want him to come kill you?"

"Perhaps... a little."

Germer said as if only half agreeing.

"I thought I would properly follow if that was the natural order. But Belphegor was very different from me. He killed too many living beings and sprinkled too much blood and pain throughout the world."

"Didn't you think you should stop him?"

"I did. But there were two problems."

"What were they?"

"First, it took too long for me to admit that my decision to watch him was wrong."

"And second?"

"My sense of time, living eternally, misjudged Belphegor's once-in-a-lifetime genius and rapid growth rate. Within just a few decades of becoming free and beginning to wander, he reached the level of a quasi-transcendent."

"So he accomplished in a few decades what took you thousands of years."

"Yes. It was an unimaginably fast pace. From then on, even intervention became difficult for me. Moreover, Nastrond was too far from the planet where I was. I had no choice but to send proxies."

"You failed, I assume."

"That's right. Various beings heard my voice and borrowed my wisdom. But they were all devoured by Belphegor. My proxies became nothing but nourishment to fatten the warrior."

It didn't take him long to realize that his efforts were meaningless.

"While I failed again and again, Belphegor finally reached the level of a transcendent."

"From then on, there was nothing you could do."

"All I could do was wait for Belphegor to eventually discover my existence and come for me."

Germer affirmed Su-hyeon's words.

"With two transcendents born in one universe, it was natural that the more aggressive one would come to devour the other."

The result was devastating.

"I am not particularly skilled at fighting. Moreover, with this body as you can see, it was impossible to defeat Belphegor, who was essentially an avatar of destruction."

"Belphegor didn't kill you but confined you, and willingly waited for your counterattack."

"Because he understood the boredom of an absolute being that dwelled in my eyes."

Germer nodded his giant head slightly.

"I employed all the knowledge I had accumulated as a transcendent. I needed to find a proxy with the potential for transcendence in another world, another universe."

"Is Edge of Gate the game you created for that selection?"

"Yes. But this wasn't my unique idea. It was an insight I gained from observing a planet called Earth."

Germer's tentacles writhed with excitement.

"There were several planets, but only Earth showed me new possibilities. Games were truly marvelous! Another world implemented in the digital world, a world beyond the physical world. It was exactly the space that matched my purpose. I filled that game with the future I foresaw with my precognition. Belphegor watched all of this with interest."

"...I don't need to hear what happened after that."

"Yes. From there on, it was your part. I just watched you from afar and somehow gave you small help."

"That help, don't tell me."

Su-hyeon asked.

"Was it the skill shop system and status window?"

"Yes. You've guessed correctly."

"I'm sorry it wasn't much help. But I tried to give you whatever assistance I could through the system, through the skill shop. Until you reached the level of transcendence, that is."

Since becoming a transcendent, Su-hyeon had never opened the status window or the skill shop.

"It was natural because your level surpassed my current level."

"...I see."

Su-hyeon sighed.

"One thing is clear. Without you, Germer, I couldn't be here now. I would have been killed before I could even challenge Belphegor."

"...If you say so, I can only be grateful."

"Sigh."

Su-hyeon sighed.

"A fact is a fact. I won't bother to resent you now."

Su-hyeon's speech pattern changed to formal.

"Are you forgiving me?"

"There's nothing to forgive. In the end, everything was my choice."

"But I didn't explain the truth to you. I just lured you with a contract close to fraud, threw you into this world, and gave you only a small compensation."

"Thanks to that, I won."

"If you hadn't come to this world, you could have lived much more comfortably in Earth's highly civilized..."

"Rather than living like that."

Su-hyeon said.

"This life—fighting intensely, surviving intensely, and finally reaching the desired ending—has been a much more fulfilling life for me."

"...!"

Germer's tentacles trembled with emotion.

"Jeong Su-hyeon."

"Speak."

"The life left in my body is not much. But I will carry those words deep in my heart."

The giant cephalopod's head bowed deeply, almost touching the ground.

"I send you only endless apology, gratitude, and blessing. You will be a generous ruler, one who reigns but does not govern."

"Is that a blessing or a prayer?"

"Haha. Let's call it a prediction."

Germer laughed.

"For you, as one who ruled the world before Belphegor, I'd like to offer some assistance."

Germer extended his tentacle to Su-hyeon again.

"Please take my tentacle."

When Su-hyeon grasped his tentacle, Germer's wisdom flowed into Su-hyeon's mind.

How to rule the universe as a transcendent and bring forth new laws.

How to escape the limits of lifespan and the curse of aging.

And many other knowledge and secrets...

They were wisdoms quite different from the Secrets of the Stars seen as a transcendent being.

"It's done."

The transfer of all that wisdom took only a few seconds in terms of time.

"Now it's truly time to say goodbye."

Germer's wounded body was gradually turning to liquid and flowing onto the ground.

"...Do you intend to die just like that?"

"Well. Actually, if you were to win, there was one ending I hoped for."

"Tell me."

Su-hyeon urged him.

"I'll make it happen."

"...Thank you."

Germer smiled.

"Since time is short, I'll tell you right away. If possible, I'd like to abandon my body, remain only as consciousness, pour out all divinity completely, and then go to Earth to wander through digital space, swimming in an ocean of information too vast to handle."

"...That's not a difficult wish."

Su-hyeon placed his hand on Germer's large head.

"But know this. That place is filled with useful and precious information along with garbage-like bulk information, all kinds of malice and all kinds of goodwill, all kinds of truth and all kinds of falsehood."

"Hahaha! When you describe it that way, I'm even more excited!"

"...Is that so."

Su-hyeon completely extracted the consciousness from Germer's body.

"Your wish will be granted."

[I am grateful for your mercy, new transcendent.]

Germer, now only consciousness, said.

"That's enough. You don't need to address me like that."

[Haha, understood.]

[By the way, Su-hyeon, everyone must be waiting for you with bated breath. You should return now.]

"Yes."

[If you wish, come visit sometime. It was originally your universe, after all.]

"Then I'll be chatting with you again. Just like the day when everything began."

[Hahaha, somehow I think that will feel nostalgic.]

Su-hyeon smiled and bid farewell to Germer.

"Well then, goodbye."

[Farewell.]

Paat!

A moment later, Germer's consciousness no longer existed in this universe.

❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀

Rumble!

A clear blue sky revealed as the clouds parted.

The Celestial Tower, which had stood piercing that sky, was quietly dispersing into the air.

And from the highest point.

"Huh?"

"Someone's there!"

"Could that be...!"

Su-hyeon had returned.