Ch.8787. Dream?

# Dream.

I opened my eyes with a foggy mind to see my familiar studio apartment coming into view.

“…”

I felt like something major had just happened.

Living busy day after day, I fell asleep and woke up in a strange world—

More precisely, I fell into the world of the game I’d been playing diligently, where everyone worshipped and revered me.

‘Waaah.’

Even my precious, beautiful followers welcomed me warmly.

It was a happy dream.

-Ding! Dingaling!

Turning my head toward the irritating noise, I found my phone vibrating with a buzz.

“War…! ning-“

“What is this?”

It looked like spam at a glance, so I blocked it.

Dazed, I sat back down and thought.

Did I go to my part-time job yesterday? Why can’t I remember anything from just one day ago?

Maybe it’s because I had such a grand dream.

‘Not that strange, I guess.’

Come to think of it, I’ve lived quite a troublesome life.

I never knew the faces of those two characters called Mom and Dad, and I grew up in a shelter from childhood.

The territorial behavior of the shelter natives was extremely severe.

Kids my age but relatively bigger in size would often bully me.

No matter how young they were, I was young too back then.

‘Hmm.’

Shaking off those unpleasant memories, I picked up my phone as hunger made itself known in my core.

Just as I was about to search for today’s meal on the delivery app—

-Ding dong!

At the sudden doorbell, I immediately went to the entrance and opened the door.

“Hello.”

An unusual color that couldn’t be seen in Korea.

Red.

Flawless, fair skin, and even green eyes.

Lisia.

My childhood friend had come to visit.

“Ron, did you forget about our appointment today? Why haven’t you prepared yet?”

“Ron?”

“Yes, Ron. Did you forget your name too?”

Was my name Ron?

-Throb.

For a moment, I felt an inexplicable headache, but the glaring eyes looking at me seemed ominous.

“I-I’ll wash up then.”

“Good. I’ll wait inside, so hurry up and get ready.”

“Yeah.”

I hurriedly went into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth.

I stared blankly at the bathroom mirror again.

White hair as if bleached, and a somewhat unfamiliar face.

It was truly a strange situation.

How odd that my own face felt unfamiliar.

After washing up quickly, I came out to the living room and found Lisia looking at her phone with a chic expression.

“Are you done?”

“Y-yeah. Just need to dry my hair.”

“Hurry up. Do I have to wait like this every time?”

She’s unusually irritable today.

The Lisia I knew was always calm and gentle.

-Whirrrr.

“…”

As I was drying my hair, I felt a piercing gaze on my back.

It seemed I had definitely gotten on her bad side.

Lisia was a precious follower who had risen from the bottom with me.

We came from the same orphanage, grew up together, and overcame hardships together.

That’s how we got here.

“…Follower?”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

‘Follower?’

A strange thought suddenly crossed my mind.

I felt nauseous, like I was going to throw up, and my head felt filled with white fog.

“So.”

As I was experiencing these strange emotions, Lisia’s voice came from behind.

“Did you oversleep again playing that weird game?”

“…”

“Stop that already. You used to be so bright and promising, but ever since you started that game—”

“Hey.”

Suddenly, my mind cleared.

“…Huh?”

“What do you know about Ragnarok?”

“W-what are you—”

I put down the hair dryer and turned around.

An expression of extreme bewilderment at my sudden seriousness.

That innocent attitude made my blood boil even more.

“The Father God is great.”

“Father God? What’s that?”

“This bastard.”

“Y-you! Did you just curse at me?!”

How dare they steal the face of our beautiful, filial daughter and utter such blasphemous words?

“To me, Ragnarok is like sex. Don’t speak of it carelessly.”

“You’re talking about that weird game again! I can’t live like this! How long are you going to live like this?! Huh?!”

“Shh.”

I cut off Lisia’s words as she continued her painful act.

“Your acting is fucking terrible.”

“…”

“It truly breaks my heart to say this, but I’ve never had anyone visit me like this.”

I had no connections to speak of.

Everyone was busy with their own lives, and the relationships from the orphanage were so terrible that I wanted to cut them off myself.

The director has been in nursing care for a long time due to illness, and the few people who were there were all nasty characters.

Naturally, I ended up living alone like this.

“So if you’ve crossed this line, just stop, okay?”

I wonder what this is all about during such a busy time.

No one has interfered with my life to this extent until now.

“Impressive. I didn’t expect you to figure it out so quickly.”

“Right.”

The expression that had been maintaining the act crumbled into a stoic one.

Soon, Lisia’s face sank like a doll that had completely lost all emotion.

“How did you know?”

“I can tell just by looking.”

When I responded glibly, the other side tilted their head.

“And what is this world anyway? Who are you?”

“Now you ask?”

“This clearly doesn’t seem to be ‘Dianon.’ Is this another dimension? Or perhaps a hidden world?”

“Have you heard of ‘Earth’?”

“Earth? What’s that?”

Sigh, right. I asked an unnecessary question.

“It’s a thing. A terrible world where souls are bound and tortured endlessly until death.”

“Isn’t that… hell?”

“Exactly.”

Her expression went blank.

She didn’t seem to understand what I meant.

‘Well, it’s not wrong.’

The Constellations living freely every day wouldn’t understand.

The pain of endless repetition in daily life—commuting on hellish trains every morning.

“You’re one of them. Those so-called Past Remnants or whatever.”

“You’re quite perceptive.”

The one with Lisia’s face smirked at my words.

That attitude is truly irritating.

Barging into someone else’s memories, what gives them the right to be so smug?

“First, change that face. It’s annoying me.”

“If that’s what you want.”

-Fizzle.

Noise crackled across Lisia’s face, and soon it changed into something completely unrecognizable.

A black background embroidered with clusters of stars.

A cosmic horror appearance reminiscent of a Constellation.

“That’s better. Now you look more like a Constellation.”

“How did you know I was a Constellation?”

“I’ve already heard everything.”

The Incarnation of Dianon had told me until her mouth wore out.

About how dangerous these so-called Past Remnants were.

‘I didn’t expect them to be this aggressive.’

I never imagined they would attack through dreams.

A Constellation in a dream.

I had never fallen asleep so quietly and without a trace before.

“I came to talk.”

“Now?”

“Because if not now, it’s obvious that she would be watching.”

The Incarnation of Dianon.

They were quite conscious of her gaze.

“Then you should have come with better manners.”

-Rumble…!

Divine power ripples around my body.

Even if they were a Constellation interfering with dreams, now that my memories had returned—

I could recover my condition enough to cause a massive divine power explosion with just a gesture.

‘Should I do it or not?’

I contemplate for a moment.

I feel like I need to curse that annoying face to feel better, but my reason keeps holding me back.

‘Let’s talk first, then decide. It’s not too late.’

‘But seriously, imitating Lisia’s face crosses the line.’

‘Does it cross the line?’

What?

In an instant, my reason and instinct join forces to encourage impulsive action.

“My object level is.”

“Your… what?”

“You piece of shit. You guys lowered my sanctuary level, didn’t you?”

“…That was unavoidable.”

“Bullshit, fuck.”

Suddenly my mind becomes clear.

I immediately raised my hand and released divine power.

-Woong…!

Divine power infused with indignation and resentment concentrated at a single point and shot out.

The startled Constellation reacted hastily.

“F-fuck!”

-Kwaaang!

The wall shattered and turned to dust.

The apartment that smelled like a studio instantly became ruins, and the world began to collapse.

“Warning! The target’s mental interference has invaded to a dangerous level!”

“‘Source of the World’s’ blessing activates.”

“Resisting mental interference!”

“Resistance successful!”

“Hmph.”

When I looked up at the sky, the Earth’s landscape I knew had completely disappeared.

Stars of bizarre shapes were stuck all over the universe.

The realm of Constellations that I was familiar with revealed itself.

“How foolish. I never imagined that one called the Absolute would show such ignorance.”

“Shut your mouth.”

I’ve accumulated quite a lot of grievances against them.

The object level reset and all the other ways they’ve annoyed me.

While the Incarnation of Dianon is one thing, the bastard in front of me is undoubtedly an incomparable asshole.

“As if you’re any different!”

-Flicker!

The manifestation body in the form of a Constellation fluctuates and becomes unstable.

It was because the manifestation body couldn’t handle the status of a Constellation.

“What a shame.”

-Crack.

As the studio apartment scenery broke, the world continued to ripple unstably.

I felt quite twisted inside, but there was nothing I could do.

I could see the divine power that made up the world breaking apart.

‘These are truly terrible bastards.’

The remnant of the previous world still showing its disgusting face before me.

“See you next time.”

I feel quite twisted inside, but there’s no choice.

“Absolute…! How long do you think your world will last! Tomorrow, the Source of the World will…!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

I pushed aside the Past Remnant who was shouting something, and decided to return to the real world.

#

“…”

I woke up groggily.

A more unpleasant and stuffy feeling than when I regained consciousness in the world created by the World’s Remnant.

After staring blankly through hazy vision, I turned my head toward the status window that was asserting its presence.

“Sudden event has ended.”

“Trial of the ‘Past Remnant’.”

“You received a trial from a being that crossed over from the past, but you successfully passed it.”

Who gives and takes away trials as they please?

I’m furious, but there’s nothing I can do right now.

“Sigh…”

After sighing once, I looked around.

My themed world, no different from usual.

I got up from the bench in the middle of a peaceful park.

“Absolute…?”

Turning my head at the cautious voice, I saw Black Sun looking at me with a puzzled expression.

“What are you doing here…?”

“I had a dream.”

“A dream..? A Constellation? That’s impossible.”

“I know. That’s why I feel so disgusted right now.”

I didn’t expect them to strike so suddenly, but now that it’s come to this, I think I need to prepare a big gift from my side as well.

Black Abyss. Combined with the power of the Source of the World.

I wonder if they can easily resist temptation even after seeing this?

‘They’re so dead.’

Especially that trauma-inducing villain—I really want to catch him myself and dry him to death.