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Give up on this world.

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what those words meant.

Park Joon-hyuk shrugged at me.

“In short, it means go back to how things were. Your younger sister will return to being Jeong So-ra. And you, from Tristan, will go back to being Jeong Ji-hwan…”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

In one swift motion, I grabbed Park Joon-hyuk by the collar.

“Now you’re telling us to go back to how things were? Have you forgotten who caused us siblings to end up like this? Park Joon-hyuk, how long do you plan to test my patience?”

“…Haha. Calm down. If you want me to apologize, I will. If you want me to kneel, I’ll even kneel.”

“Is that the attitude of someone apologizing?”

I could feel the hot ‘wrath’ boiling inside me. I was seized by the urge to burn him alive right then and there. It was an emotion I could endure through ‘patience,’ but I chose not to hold back. I wanted to convey exactly what I was feeling to the man in front of me.

But Park Joon-hyuk didn’t even blink. Instead, he nonchalantly waved his hand.

“Haha… If my attitude upset you, I apologize. I don’t quite understand the emotions humans take for granted.”

“You don’t understand?”

“That’s right. I’m not good at understanding human emotions. Ah, of course, I know about them intellectually. I suppose the emotion you’re feeling toward me right now is anger.”

He was broken. He might have been fine before losing his two daughters. He might have been a perfectly normal human, feeling grief and loss like anyone else. But the Park Joon-hyuk in front of me, laughing frivolously while I held him by the collar, was clearly abnormal.

“So, how about letting go? Haha…”

“Stop laughing.”

“Ahaha. I’m not laughing because I’m happy. It’s just easier to deal with people when you laugh. Haha.”

“I warned you.”

“Why? There’s a saying, isn’t there? You can’t spit on a smiling face…”

The next moment, with a dull thud, Park Joon-hyuk’s head snapped to the side. I had punched him square in the face, unable to hold back any longer—no, I had decided not to hold back. But…

“Ahaha…”

Park Joon-hyuk wiped the blood from his nose and laughed.

“Guess not all sayings are true.”

“Ever heard the saying ‘a beating is the cure for a madman’?”

“Haha. That one has some truth to it. But if you’re calling me a madman, you’re wrong. I’m not mad.”

“No. You are mad, Park Joon-hyuk. If you feel no emotion for the things you’ve done, then you’re definitely mad.”

“Emotion? Hahaha. Listen, Jeong Ji-hwan. You’re living a tiring life. Those things are like cancers eating away at human life. Didn’t you see Michaela and Lukaela? Those failures were born because of useless emotions.”

“…It’s natural for humans to feel emotions.”

“Sure, it is. But if humans didn’t feel emotions, they would have become far greater beings than they are now.”

“You’re really… unpleasant.”

For some reason, the more I talked to Park Joon-hyuk, the more I couldn’t hide my discomfort. It wasn’t just because he was the mastermind behind what happened to us siblings. It wasn’t even the feeling of dealing with a madman. It was more like I couldn’t believe he was human. I couldn’t see him as the same kind of human as me.

“Haha… You feel discomfort toward me? The Valley of Discomfort? I often felt that way from poorly made fakes. That’s why I wanted to create something more real than real.”

“Don’t get it twisted. You’re not a god, Park Joon-hyuk.”

“A god? No. That’s not it. I didn’t just want to be a god. What I wanted to be was a creator. A being who could create even gods… Yes, the Creator of the World! Hahaha!”

Madness gleamed in Park Joon-hyuk’s eyes. It was the madness of a genius who, with a mere human body, had invented something capable of creating a vast universe, an entire world.

“Madman… Was that why you created the Milky Way?”

“Exactly. My masterpiece, capable of creating a real world. You’ve lived in this world for a year, so you know, don’t you? This isn’t just a virtual world—it’s a real one!”

“Then you must also know how absurd it is to tell me to give up on this world.”

This world was a real, existing world created in another dimension, something I had already confirmed through the Gate. To me, the people of this world weren’t NPCs from a game. They were real, living people. Precious people I held dear. The meaning this world held for me was beyond words.

“Do you think I’ll give up this world in exchange for freeing me and my sister?”

“You’ll have no choice but to give up.”

“I won’t.”

“Even if your sister dies?”

“Go ahead and try.”

My grip on his collar tightened.

“If anything happens to my sister, that day will be your end. I’ll tear you to pieces, even if it costs me everything.”

“Whoa, calm down. You seem to be misunderstanding. I have no intention of killing your sister. In fact, I’ve been trying to save her.”

“You’ve been trying to save my sister? You just used her for your own purposes.”

“Saving your sister aligns with my goals.”

“Sophistry…”

“I have proof.”

“What proof?”

“I treated your sister.”

“…What?”

What did I just hear?

“As you know, your sister’s brain was severely damaged in the accident. It was a miracle she was even alive. Because of that, it was unstable for creating this world. So, before using the Milky Way, I decided to treat her.”

Park Joon-hyuk flicked his finger lightly. The World Tree began to rotate slowly. Only then could I see the back of the World Tree, which had been hidden from view.

“This…”

One-third of the World Tree was made up of wires and machinery. The damaged parts of the tree had been replaced with steel and electricity. I immediately realized this was Sora’s brain condition.

“The human brain is incredibly delicate. It’s a place that could easily be ruined if handled carelessly, but I could do it. Because I’m a genius. Ah, of course, even for a genius like me, repairing the damaged parts of her brain wasn’t easy, but as you can see, I did it.”

“Nonsense.”

I cut him off sharply.

“If what you’re saying is true, Sora should have woken up by now.”

“Right. As you said, she’s in a condition where she could wake up at any moment. But she’s choosing not to. Because of you.”

“What?”

The fact that my sister had been treated enough to wake up from her vegetative state was shocking enough. But on top of that, she’s choosing not to wake up, and the reason is because of me?

“Because you’re still in this world, she’s trying to protect the ‘dominion’ of this world from me. If she wakes up, the ‘dominion’ of this world will pass to me.”

Park Joon-hyuk looked up at the World Tree.

“I’ve been fighting with Miss Sora over the dominion of this world. I’m the owner of the Milky Way. She’s the designer of this world. To put it simply, I’m the CEO, and she’s the designer I hired. So, I’m the true owner of this world. But she refused to hand it over to me.”

Leaves slowly fell from the air.

“I don’t want to admit it, but your sister is better at creating worlds than I am. That’s why I plan to take the dominion of this lovely world from her.”

“You love this world? That’s a joke.”

“It’s true. I love this world dearly.”

“Park Joon-hyuk, if you really loved this world, you wouldn’t have brought in the players.”

In the hundreds of regressions I experienced, Park Joon-hyuk stood by as the players destroyed this world. No, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he encouraged it. When the players started hunting the people of this world, he didn’t stop the service. Instead, he fueled their rampage by giving them experience points. For him to say he loved this world was beyond absurd to me.

But Park Joon-hyuk’s response was something else.

“Ahaha. Listen, Jeong Ji-hwan. I brought in the players because I love this world. I love this world just as much as you do. It’s just that our ways of loving it are different.”

“What?”

“Look at the World Tree.”

Park Joon-hyuk pointed to the branches of the World Tree. Upon closer inspection, the branches were withering. Starting from where they met the mechanical parts, they were slowly dying. Not only that, but the fruits on the branches were flickering faintly. Inside those fruits, scenes of the people of this world fiercely fighting against the players were reflected.

They were dying. Unable to withstand the players’ onslaught, they were gradually crumbling. With each death, the leaves of the World Tree withered and fell. Soon, the number of falling leaves became uncountable.

A cold wind blew from somewhere. The World Tree trembled, shedding leaves and dry branches to the ground.

Sora’s world was slowly dying.

“Unnecessary branches must be pruned. Only then can this world be reborn in its true form.”

“You bastard…”

“Now that the pruning has begun, there’s no way for you to save this world.”

“Is this… what you wanted?”

“Yes. Once I take dominion, this world will be used again. You could call it a remake. It’s no different from me rewriting the novel your sister wrote.”

Finally, I understood the meaning of the love Park Joon-hyuk spoke of. What he loved was the world Sora created, not the people of this world. What he wanted was the ‘world’ Sora made. He planned to use the players to annihilate all the people of this world for the sake of the ‘world.’

“Your story ends here.”

Park Joon-hyuk lightly brushed off my hand gripping his collar.

“Now face the facts. You’re not Tristan. You’re Jeong Ji-hwan. The one and only older brother of Jeong So-ra. It might be hard to adjust now, but you’ll manage. Humans are creatures of adaptation, aren’t they? Just think of it as having had a bad dream until today.”

“A dream… It’s true, the time here felt like a nightmare at times.”

The excitement of entering the world of my favorite novel was short-lived. At first, I was just trying to survive. I struggled to escape the doomed fate of the villain Tristan. I tried to avoid the hatred, resentment, and murderous intent directed at me.

“Haha. Right? You must have suffered a lot living as Tristan. Now that suffering…”

“But looking back, it wasn’t all a nightmare.”

“Huh?”

One day, amidst the war-like days spent trying to escape destruction, I suddenly realized something. There were many people around me.

Bella, as aloof and prickly as a cat. Helga, with her quirky and whimsical side. Blanshe, blunt but thoughtful. Wendy, the mistake-prone maid. And countless others… They worried about me, comforted me. They believed in me and stayed by my side.

“After my only family, Sora, had her accident, I was always alone. I thought a lonely life was normal. But for the first time, I had precious people in my life.”

I looked Park Joon-hyuk straight in the eye.

“Park Joon-hyuk, telling me to give up on this world is no different from telling me to give up on them.”

“So… should I take that to mean you’re choosing to remain Tristan instead of Jeong Ji-hwan?”

“No. I am Jeong Ji-hwan. But I am also Tristan.”

“You can’t give up either world, is that it?”

“Yes. That’s because I’m Jeong Ji-hwan.”

At that, Park Joon-hyuk shook his head.

“My, my… You’re too greedy. Trying to catch two rabbits? That’s truly reckless.”

“That’s because I’m Tristan.”

“……”

“I won’t give up on anything. Even if you try to turn me back into who I was, I won’t give up. I won’t abandon my greed. And my sister will be the same.”

My sister, Jeong So-ra, is that kind of person. A writer who is deeply attached to her work. Even if it’s a poorly written piece, she reads it over and over with affection. My obsession with my sister’s novel was also because of that attachment she poured into it. And as her older brother, I, too, have a deep attachment to this world as its avid reader.

“Park Joon-hyuk. If what you say is true, and my sister hasn’t woken up yet because I’m still in this world, then my thoughts are a little different. The reason she hasn’t woken up is because she knows what kind of person I am.”

“What kind of person…?”

“That I’m the kind of person who will never give up on this world.”

“…Huh.”

Park Joon-hyuk fell silent. A heavy silence hung between us. In the end, he had failed to persuade me. That’s why he couldn’t say anything more.

Finally, Park Joon-hyuk let out a deep sigh and spoke.

“…You’re the most foolish human I’ve ever met.”

“Is that so? Coincidentally, I thought the same. You’re the most foolish human I’ve ever met.”

“Haha… Right. It was foolish of me to think I could persuade you. Thanks to you, I know for sure now.”

The wires where Park Joon-hyuk stood began to squirm and rise.

“Now, it’s either you die or I die. There’s no other way.”

“Just realized that now?”

“Haha…”

His frivolous laughter carried no malice or fear. Only emptiness. A sense of facing endless futility. Because of that, the discomfort I had been feeling grew even stronger. I couldn’t tolerate his existence. Him, who sought to ruin my precious world. And it must be the same for Park Joon-hyuk.

“I’ll wake you from this dream.”

Facing a formidable enemy, I smiled with ‘pride,’ as I always did.

“Go ahead and try.”

 

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