Chapter 4
The snapshots began to flip past rapidly. Seong-Hwi’s timeline fast-forwarded like an old movie projector eating up a roll of film.
***
The Mirror World was an unknown world where people who vanished along with the metal pillars arrived. It was also known as the tattered world because it was like locations of Earth and various other dimensions were crammed together like mismatched pieces of a puzzle. Mirror World meant that it was an imitation of their original world, as if it were a reflection in a mirror.
Seong-Hwi only learned this later, but the Mirror World tended to copy worlds on the verge of ending. Although it could copy worlds, it couldn’t copy its inhabitants. Hence, people were forcibly brought here, creating the phenomenon Lost. They were practically deported from their world.
Simply put, Earth was on the verge of ending, and there were other races besides humans on the verge of extinction, inhabiting the Mirror World. There were superior races such as angels, demons, dragons, and giants, intermediate races such as elves, dwarves, and beastfolk, and inferior races such as orcs, spirits, and insectoids.
Various races inhabited the Mirror World, and humans were the weakest of the inferior races—the very bottom of the food chain. The enemy of all races was the Chaos, monsters that existed throughout the Mirror World. Their objective was simple—to take the Race Stones of various races. If the Chaos took the Race Stone of a race, that entire race turned into Chaos.
No one knew how someone acquired a Race Stone or who had it. There was only one Race Stone for each race. Hence, it was held by one person, and its holder would never openly reveal themselves because that race would become the slaves of the race that took their Race Stone.
This was why the Race Stone was the most precious treasure as well as the most dangerous bomb for a race. Since so many people were after the stone, it was difficult to protect it if it were out in the open. However, the one who acquired it could not only control the race to which the Race Stone originally belonged but could also use the special power infused in it.
There was also one stone at the pinnacle of all Race Stones, and the inhabitants of the Mirror World called it the Master Stone. It was a stone of fantasy because no one had acquired it or even seen it, but it existed. The Master Stone was known to be at the center of the Mirror World, but not even the strongest of the superior races could reach it because the center of the Mirror World was guarded by the Chaos.
At least, this was as far as Seong-Hwi knew.
***
When people arrived at the Mirror World for the first time, they needed to complete a mandatory quest. The quest content slightly varied by race but was generally the same.
Humans received a quest called The Path to the Mirror World, which allowed one to experience a miniature version of the Mirror World’s ecosystem. Powerful Chaos appeared the closer they approached the center of the Dark Forest, and everyone was divided into different districts. They would commonly meet people from other districts later on and possibly fight against them to the death.
They had thirty days to complete the quest by acquiring a Teleport Rock at the forest’s center. It felt like a hint that they also needed to acquire the Master Stone at the center of the Mirror World when they got there.
Some people called the mandatory quest a rite of passage, ticketing, or baptism. The term rite of passage came from the fact that those who failed the mandatory quest would be naturally selected out in the Mirror World anyway. The term ticketing came from the fact that they needed to take hold of the limited number of Teleport Rocks. As for the term baptism, it meant their past selves would die and be reborn in the Mirror World as humans.
The mandatory quest was a vivid part of every Mirror World inhabitant’s memory because they were sent to a world they knew nothing about—nothing was scarier than the unknown. It was also true for Seong-Hwi and was especially worse for him because he was in a prison uniform, and a few people recognized his face on the news. No one wanted to entrust their back to a murderer, especially when they received Akasha Messages like these:
[The safe zone is 300 meters wide.]
[The Chaos cannot enter the safe zone.]
[One individual has the Dark Seal.]
[The one with the Dark Seal will be given Black Quests involving acts such as murder and theft.]
[If the one with the Dark Seal does not carry out the Black Quests, the seal will be transferred to someone else in three days.]
Seong-Hwi was chased out of the safe zone because of the highly malicious Akasha Message contents. It was only natural because he was a criminal.
The first entity he encountered outside the safe zone was a Chaos in the form of a dog that gave Seong-Hwi unsettling vibes just by looking at it. It looked as if it were an aggregation of putrid, bloody mounds of flesh.
Seong-Hwi had to fight the Chaos with a tree branch and a rock he picked up. It was about the size of a large dog breed, but was as strong as a bull. He was instantly covered in claw marks, and as he was about to die, the branch he was randomly swinging happened to break the black orb embedded in its chest. The orb turned to dust, and the Chaos melted away like ice cream in the summer heat.
Seong-Hwi later found out that the orb was a core known as the os, which every Chaos possessed somewhere in their body. Although not necessarily the case for every Chaos, the os was usually their weakness, especially for the inferior Chaos.
This saved Seong-Hwi’s life, and the subsequent Akasha Messages lit up his life.
[You are the first in all districts of the Dark Forest to defeat a Chaos.]
[Hidden Quest: First Act of Bravery, complete.]
[1,000 Karma obtained.]
Seong-Hwi blankly stared at the message and smirked.
The Mirror World, huh?
He thought this was a new world, but it seemed not much different from Earth. Ironically, he had gotten ahead of everyone else because he was chased out of the safe zone due to being a murderer. One could say it was the privilege of one who faced destiny head-on.
Seong-Hwi used the 1,000 Karma to quickly adapt to the Mirror World. He learned how to view his status window, how to use and grow via the Cube System, and what stats, skills, items, and, most importantly, Destiny Weapons were.
Destiny Weapons, D Weapons for short, was a powerful ability exclusive to humans, manifested from one’s subconscious, trauma, wishes, and background. This was Seong-Hwi’s D Weapon.
[Old Tarot Deck (Destiny Weapon)
Rank: F(0)
Description: A deck of 78 tarot cards.
Unique Skills: None.]
***
Seong-Hwi managed to acquire a Teleport Rock after getting a head start on everyone else. He realized what kind of place the Mirror World was after experiencing betrayal, trickery, and murder in those short thirty days.
One couldn’t survive in this world if one weren’t independent. Being carried or given free passes was impossible. Every inhabitant of the Mirror World needed to pay a certain amount of Karma or coins every thirty days as a survival tax. It was a form of gratuity because they were saved from a dimension on the verge of collapse.
The survival tax rose each month, and they needed to head to the center of the Mirror World to handle the rising rates. If one didn’t pay the survival tax in time, they turned into Chaos with their memories erased and only their instincts intact. Hence, the Mirror World did not guarantee anyone’s survival; the only way was to independently fight for one’s survival.
Seong-Hwi set a goal for his new life in the new world. As for his personal goal, he refused to be swept along by destiny and wanted to become someone who shone brightly like the name that Mother Maria gave him. The meek young man Cheon Seong-Hwi vanished after he committed his first murder on Earth. He turned from sentimental to progressive, adventurous, bold, and firm—the most important qualities one needed to survive in the Mirror World.
Seong-Hwi was especially a natural at using his D Weapon and used that talent to quickly make a name for himself. However, the longer he lived in the Mirror World, the less inclined he was to chase only after personal goals.
Just like Earth, the Mirror World was run based on survival of the fittest—the only difference was that the power structure was more obvious. For example, the strongest of the Mirror World were known as the Ten Lords and Ten Fiends.
The Ten Lords were the ten strongest beings of the Mirror World who acted as its masters or pillars. Most of them were from superior races, and none of them were human. On the other hand, the Ten Fiends simply lived as they liked with no interest in harmony or balance. Rumor had it that the Fourth Fiend was a human, but it was unconfirmed.
As one could tell, humans were not a major faction of the Mirror World—rather, they were an inferior race that only received persecution. The superior races treated humans as humans on Earth treated livestock. To change that, Seong-Hwi created Clan Calasanz with those who shared the same goals as him to help his fellow persecuted humans. He named his clan Calasanz because he thought everyone abruptly sent to the Mirror World was like an orphan.
The Mirror World was a place of parting. The families still on Earth were separated from the Lost. Even if members of the same family were Lost, each of them would carry out a mandatory quest for thirty days with no knowledge of whether their family was still alive. On top of that, even if they luckily survived and reunited in the Mirror World, some of them might not survive the harsh conditions and become Chaos.
Suffering and sorrow were for those left behind to bear, and it was especially so in the Mirror World. Seong-Hwi and his comrades of Clan Calasanz did their best to raise the status of the human race. His work for the clan was also for the human race, but it was also for himself because it was a more concrete form of his vague goal of grasping destiny and shining brightly.
Seong-Hwi’s ultimate goal was to acquire the Master Stone because he believed everything would turn around once he acquired it. All he knew about the Master Stone was the rumors that it was omnipotent—that it could give its holder control over all races, that the race who possessed it could return to their original world, or that the stone’s power could prevent their world from meeting its demise. If even a tenth of the rumors were true, the holder of the Master Stone could become a god.
Seong-Hwi had resolved himself to acquire the Master Stone and fulfill his shining destiny, but thinking back on it now, he had failed. Even if he did shine brightly, he was like a spark that momentarily shone and vanished into darkness.
***
The timeline snapshots clumped together and jumped forward. Ten years after Seong-Hwi arrived in the Mirror World, rumors that the Fourth Fiend died and that they formerly possessed the human Race Stone spread throughout the Mirror World.
“The human Race Stone is the Destiny Stone! One of the human clans has it!”
The clan in question was immediately exposed, and various inhabitants of the Mirror World killed and searched the clansmen and even their families. The Destiny Stone seemed to have been passed from one human clan to another after that, and each of those clans was destroyed by those who were in pursuit of the stone. The human race was desperate to protect the stone because they knew what they would be reduced to if it were taken by another race: slaves.
The lives of humans, who were already at the bottom of the Mirror World food chain, would be over. Countless humans lost their lives in war against other races who coveted the Destiny Stone, and via betrayal and plots by fellow humans. Even amidst such a crisis, Seong-Hwi innocently believed they could overcome it as long as they joined forces because the many were always stronger than the few.
How foolish he had been.
***
Rumblings and explosions sounded from everywhere. It felt as if the world was falling apart. They were at the Capital, a city populated by many humans, located east of the first border. It was falling apart at the hands of one individual.
“To think the Race Stone of these puny and weak humans holds that much power. It is quite a surprise. It is likely not a lie, considering the Fourth Fiend.”
The being floating in the air was a handsome young man with ruby hair and eyes, wearing a flashy red robe and white pants embroidered with gold. However, his golden horns sprouting perpendicularly from each of his temples showed that he was not human. He was the Third Lord—Dragon King Regnator, known as the pinnacle of the dragons, a superior race.
“Filthy coward! Why is the Third Lord killing members of other races?!” shouted Leo, a member of Clan Calasanz.
The Ten Lords claimed to be friends of all races—they claimed that the Chaos was their only enemy and that all races needed to join forces to face them. However, it was only surface-level. The dragons, known for their pride, would never see humans as on the same level as them—especially their king.
“Your loud voice is hurting my ears, creature.”
“Kurgh!”
Leo’s lion head shield shattered before Regnator even finished talking, and he exploded. Leo, a young Maasai and the best tank of Clan Calasanz, died with just one word from a dragon.
“This is... the power of the Ten Lords,” Seong-Hwi mumbled.
He felt like he was facing an unavoidable absolute destiny. He had thought he could defeat at least one of the Ten Lords if all the human clans performed a joint attack. He had been sorely mistaken. He finally realized why other races went as far as sacrificing their entire race just so a member of their race could be included as a member of the Ten Lords. He realized today that one individual could be stronger than an entire race.
Seong-Hwi wondered if that was what someone who had a grasp of their destiny looked like. He had become a High Ranker among the humans through his extraordinary talent with his D Weapon, but that was all. Dragon King Regnator was on another level from birth.
Seong-Hwi bit his lip and thought, ‘Was I destined to be defeated by him from birth? No, there’s no way!’
There had to have been a way; Seong-Hwi simply did not take that path.
“Huff, huff. Seong-Hwi... it was true.”
A slender white man with pale blond hair approached him. He was Hector Jameson, a fellow clansman from Nevada, USA. He pulled out a leather pouch from his breast pocket and handed it to Seong-Hwi.
“The Union really had the Destiny Stone. Crazy humans! But... everyone else is dead. We’re the only clan left standing. I’ll buy you some time, so take that and run! The destiny of humankind rests on your shoulders!”
𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
Hector jumped and soared up to the sky, his fist enveloped in orange mana in the form of fire. It was his skill, Straight Punch, that earned him his alias, Nuclear Punch.
“Chaaaa!”
Hector’s Straight Punch was blocked in midair right in front of Regnator.
Regnator, who had been expressionless until now, said in surprise, “Oh? What a surprise. To think a mere creature managed to break my shield.”
“Cough!”
Hector vomited blood because he had drawn out all of his mana for his explosive attack.
He mumbled sorrowfully, “If only I... perfected my D Weapon...”
“But it appears to be a one-off. How trifling...”
Hector was split into two, like a soft piece of bread, blood splattering like strawberry jam.
“Seong-Hwi! Go!”
“We’ll keep him at bay!”
Kim Seo-Yeon, Park Tae-Jin, Go Gil-Rae, Lina Ahn, Jurie, Melody Mulder, Charles Dullin, Ugyen Dorji, and many other Calasanz clansmen charged at Regnator.
“Kurgh!”
Seong-Hwi had no choice but to turn his back on them and run. Guilt, helplessness, rage, frustration, and many other complicated emotions were on the verge of bursting in his head, but he did not look back. The destiny of humankind was on his shoulders.
***
They were at the final snapshot.
Click.
Cheese. Smile. It’s the end.
Regnator caught up to Seong-Hwi before the day even ended.
He smiled proudly and remarked, “Give me the Destiny Stone, creature. I would rather not have it dirtied by the blood of your filthy kind.”