Episode 158
[As the overlord, the human monarch urges the king of heroes to make a decision...』
Overlord. That is
the true name of the transcendental person who
reigns at the very top of the throne at the end overlooking this world .
That being was by no means an easy-to-understand evil spirit that looked at humans like insects and mocked them.
A human monarch.
That's why all I could do was laugh.
In addition to the Lord of the End, who hates humans as a cancer of the universe, countless transcendental beings on the throne mocked and cursed humans. However, the one who actually reigned over those 999 monarchs was a being who claimed the name of ‘human’.
[“Humans always long for a hero.”]
[The Clown Lord giggles and mocks the player Kang Yoo-seong!]
“An easy-to-understand scapegoat who will bear all the crosses and suffering for their sins.”]
Peace Players wearing UNPKF uniforms were kneeling at another shooting star there, looking at the King of Heroes. As if waiting for his decision.
Even the player ‘Kang Yoo-seong’ had no choice in front of them, who had been strengthened through the ‘overlord’s influence’. Their movements were by no means those of the busy players that Yoosung knew.
That's why I was able to intuit it. Another shooting star and ‘traitor to humanity' who fell on his knees there is the end he will face in the future.
[“Do you understand our despair now?”]
[The clown lord, the lord of heroes,
answers coldly!]
[Strategy goal: Defeat the traitor to humanity and prove the ‘hero’s loyalty’!]
“Still a hero ! Do you want to become...?”
The kneeling traitor to humanity asked back. No, the meteor there was not a traitor to humanity. Heroes did not betray humans. It was a human being who betrayed the hero.
“Why... did the humans betray you?”
“Are you asking because you really don’t know that?”
Saying that, another wounded and kneeling Yoosung glanced up.
“If it’s sweet, you swallow it; if it’s bitter, you spit it out.”
A clear and transparent sky was visible. There was no tower or anything, just a crystal-colored sky that stretched endlessly like pure white drawing paper.
“Mr. Yoosung...
Saint Mary said these words quietly next to Yoosung. She wouldn't even be able to guess how this situation was going. No, not even Yoosung himself could tell.
“You told me about the definition of a hero.”
That's why Yoosung turned his head and looked at Maria.
“A hero is someone who lives for others.”
Maria didn't answer. No, I couldn't answer.
“I think that’s right.”
That's why Yoosung continued speaking calmly.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of people those other people are. “Whether they are worth saving or not... no, even if they are not worth saving, saving them is a hero.”
Saying that, Yooseong adjusted the blade of the winter night and grabbed it. Looking at himself in front of him, another person kneeling in the hands of humans.
“And this is the result of that heroic act. “Now that I think about it, has our country ever taken care of a hero?”
“Am I... wrong?”
Maria asked again, and Yoosung did not answer right away.
He just looked at himself, another person kneeling in front of him. The hero's end, with the smiling clown's mask shattered and his bloody, scarred face revealed behind it.
“Do what you have to do, kid who wants to be a hero.”
A man wearing the mask of a broken hero and a wounded clown said.
The player's mission is to conquer the tower and protect the human world. And in order to conquer this tower, you must defeat the ‘Traitor of Humanity’ there. It was very easy.
Because the King of Heroes was there, wounded and on his knees by the hands of humans, unable to even resist.
“Child with a thousand talents and a thousand faces, what are you doing! Let’s hurry and become a hero!”]
[The Clown Lord is giggling like crazy and mocking!]
“Why are you hesitating?”
“We must kill the hero who became a monster and
protect the world of humans.”
“And then I wait for my next turn to come to you.”
In this way, heroes will become monsters, and shameless people will once again long for a hero who will give up humanity for them.
It really is like doing the same thing over and over again without end.
It was truly a ball of idiots who could only laugh out loud. And finally, I remembered the name of the ‘Puppet Master’ who was hanging the strings on the bodies of the numerous puppets at the ball.
“The human monarch...
After silence, Yoosung opened his mouth. He feels the eyes of countless monarchs looking down on him and at the same time speaks the name of the transcendent one who reigns at the peak of those monarchs.
I couldn't figure out anything.
Still, the hesitation did not last long.
After hesitating, Yoosung adjusted the hilt of the Winter Night sword in his hand. The bitter cold air contained in the hilt of the sword was scattered.
plod along.
He walked towards his mirror, the traitor to humanity, who was still kneeling.
“What happens to you if you fall in my hands?”
“We will return to the graves of heroes. “Just like it always has been.”
Another traitor to humanity, Yooseong, sneered coldly.
“No one understands it, no one recognizes that fact...
“Because that’s what a hero does.”
Saying that, Yoosung, who calls himself a traitor to humanity, smiled bitterly. I could feel it by looking at that smile. Another shooting star there was accepting his fate.
Tomb of Inadvertent Heroes Jester Lord. And I remembered what the Lord of Heroes had said.
‘I swore that I would repeat the same thing endlessly, dedicating myself to protecting the world without being understood by anyone or recognizing that fact. ‘
“My promise still stands. “Just like you do.”
“What promise?”
“A promise to remain a hero until the end.”
“Okay then, what are you hesitating about?”
“What am I hesitating about?”
Yoosung turned his head calmly as he saw himself kneeling.
“Lord of men.”
And without any hesitation, I opened my mouth to the crystal-colored sky. Leaving behind the gaze of
the incomprehensible transcendents who are looking down at you .
“—There is no such thing as ‘heroic loyalty’ to prove to you.”
.......
“My wife says a hero is someone who lives for others.”
Saying that, Yoosung looked at himself kneeling there.
“Hmm, so here is a stranger in the world who has suffered the most unfair hardships and I feel like now is the time to live for that other person. My wife is right next to me to prove my ‘hero’s loyalty.’ Isn’t that so, saintess?”
“Mr. Yoosung...
There were broken heroes with Yoosung’s face, the same strength, and walking the same path.
They are broken heroes. ‘They', who failed to become heroes and were defeated and broken, were now just weak people who desperately needed someone's help.
They just don't have the courage to accept that fact.
‘Are you scared that I might become a real hero and don't know what to do?'
I remembered the ominous silence that Yooseong showed when he spoke to the Clown Lord earlier.
But now I knew.
They were broken heroes who were repeating the same thing endlessly, waiting for a ‘real hero' to save them.
A hero who will save them from the pain of endlessly repeating the same hell.
“I will save you.”
That is why the King of Heroes spoke.
——Heroes' Grave Claiming to be the hero of the broken heroes. At the same time, the ground
I
was standing on began to shake. But I soon realized it. It wasn't in a physical sense.
Hehehe. The sound of laughter rang out.
“Save me? Who?”
Before he knew it, another shooting star wearing a smiling clown mask kneeling in front of him raised his head.
The mask of the “Laughing Clown” that he had been wearing just before now had changed into the mask of “The Clown that Doesn’t Smile (Pierrot)”.
At the same time, the laughter stopped.
“You and I... we've always been like that.”]
The man stopped laughing, bent his upper body, and wore the mask of a ‘clown who doesn't smile' and continued speaking.
[“The hero's imitator, the shadow of lies that will eventually return to being a part of me.”]
[The Clown Lord descends, exercising absolute influence...
And the wounds suffered by the ‘hands of humans' just before have been completely wiped out. It had disappeared. Before I knew it, there was a man wearing a neat black suit with no scars, a clown mask, and holding a sword of the winter night. At the same time, I knew it intuitively as soon as I saw the clown mask he was wearing.
“The Clown Lord.”
That's why Yooseong calmly said his name.
“Lord of heroes who cannot be the king of heroes.”
I leave behind the sword of the winter night that I hold in my hand, and I leave behind the ‘shadow imitators’ that are endlessly emerging from the shadows at my feet.
“As the king of heroes, I will demand the ‘monarch’s chair’ on which you sit.”
“You imitator of my shadow hero, you are repeating foolish things endlessly.”]
[The Clown Lord mutters as if he is sick of it!]
“How many of you have challenged me, claiming to be the saviors of heroes, and how many of you have challenged me? Do you think you have been swallowed up by my shadow?”] An
intangible whirlpool began to swirl around the feet of another meteor light overlord there.
A feeling of intimidation that could not even be compared to before was swirling there.
A power that is incomparable to that of any other monarch. It was a feeling of intimidation that could not
even be compared to when the Clown Lord revealed himself .
Nevertheless, nothing changed.
“Do you know what the last-place baseball team, which has ruined its results so much, says about the new season?”
A hero's job is to save others.
The ghosts of heroes who were repeating their tragedies endlessly were there, and the King of Heroes was also there.
It was time to save the broken heroes and become their lord.
At that time.
“Crimes Against Peace Crimes against humanity. That is the crime that Player Kang Yoo-seong will bear.”
A very secret conversation was going on in a room where representatives of the UN Peace Security Council were gathered.
“And we, humanity, will no longer have to rely on the ‘King of Heroes’ and will gain the power to protect the world.”
It was by no means something from the distant future or distant past, but a story that was taking place at this very moment.
“By our human hands.” Leaving behind the power of new monarchs who bless the ‘King of Men' there.