Ranker Who Lives Twice

Chapter 774 - Li's Fragment (8)

[Draconic Eyes]

[Fiery Golden Eyes]

[Philosopher’s Eyes]

[‘Eye of the Heavens’ is trying to access the other party’s data!]

[‘Ear of the Heavens’ is analyzing the other party’s processing capabilities!]

[The other party cannot be analyzed or identified through the current system’s processes. Data interpretation is not possible.]

[Updating the system.]

[Identification and analysis failed.]

[Updating the system.]

[Identification and analysis failed.]

[Updating the system.]

…

[Major updates have been made to the system!]

[The system is attempting to identify and analyze the other party once more.]

Yeon-woo wanted to analyze Oceanus through the system first. Oceanus was someone who defeated Vimalacitra with overwhelming martial power and forcefully detained him on Earth. Yeon-woo, who had received much help from Vimalacitra, felt a sense of duty to avenge him. If Yeon-woo was successful in transforming the current ‘wheel’ and ‘dream’ through repair after his transcendence, he would possibly be able to bring Vimalacitra back to life.

However, regardless of that possibility, a grudge was a grudge. Yeon-woo was unwilling to give Oceanus a pass. Furthermore…

[All analysis has been completed.]

[Outputting the results.]

“You seemed to have been seriously injured. Did you even fight the Resident of the Border or something?” In a very short time, Yeon-woo grasped almost all information about Oceanus. Once he was able to analyze the many vestige thoughts that surrounded Oceanus, Yeon-woo was able to tease out a considerable amount of information. Thus, through this trove of information, Yeon-woo found that Oceanus was in a badly wounded state.

Oceanus looked unharmed on the outside, but he had much less divine power than when Yeon-woo saw Oceanus through Vimalacitra’s vestige thoughts. Furthermore, his spirit body was full of wounds. Each one of those wounds contained tell-tale signs of the Resident of the Border. This most likely meant that Oceanus had a fight with the Resident of the Border.

“It doesn’t seem like you came out on the winning side.” Yeon-woo did not know exactly what happened between Oceanus and the Resident of the Border. However, seeing that their fight pushed Oceanus to the cusp of annihilation, it seemed that they both knew of each other’s power levels and decided to go all out for whatever reason.

‘Perhaps Oceanus was attempting to do the same thing to the Resident of the Border as he did to Vimalacitra.’ The thought made Yeon-woo’s heart a bit uneasy. Although the Resident of the Border had delayed giving his loyalty to Yeon-woo, the Resident of the Border was still a member of the Night, which Yeon-woo led. Yeon-woo could not help but feel bad about someone trying to harm his future familiar.

“Hahaha! It’s a bit embarrassing to have you see everything about me as if I’m naked.” In embarrassment, Oceanus scratched his nose with his index finger.

Yeon-woo did not know if Oceanus' friendly demeanor was because of his caring personality, as he was originally known to be very caring of others, or if it was just a fa?ade or mask that he had built up over time to hide his true nature.

“I never thought that my nephew would show any interest in this uncle of his. How about chatting for a while?”

“I’m not interested.”

“I know my nephew is very busy. Also, I know that there are many complaints and rumors about this uncle of yours. But you can probably spare a little bit…!”

“I’ve already said it once. There’s no need for that. Not interested.” Yeon-woo raised the corners of his lips and gave Oceanus a cold smile. “Once I throw you into my Purgatory Furnace, you’ll be telling me everything I want to know, so why should I bother wasting my time chatting with you?”

「Haw! Our Master is so cool! Isn’t it amazing that you possess a personality and temper that doesn’t allow you to even hear the other party’s words?」 For a while, Yeon-woo could hear Shanon giggling.

Bam! Yeon-woo made his move without any hesitation.

[‘Shukuchi’ has been used!]

The moment Yeon-woo took a step forward, he suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Oceanus. he was wielding his sword made from his shadows. By elongating the shadows on his middle and index finger, he was able to recreate a copy of Scythe. This temporary sword was based on Scythe’s data that Yeon-woo acquired from Kronos while they were connected through unity.

Since the Scythe copy was made with darkness, and as Yeon-woo’s many powers were imbued onto it, the Scythe copy boasted a hard and sharp cutting power that was not far behind the real Scythe.

Boom! However, as if Oceanus was proving that his overwhelming victory over Vimalacitra was not a fluke, Oceanus swung his body to the side with great ease and threw out his own sword strike. As Yeon-woo’s sword and Oceanus’ sword collided, the shockwaves from the impact reverberated out in all directions.

[You have entered the instance dungeon, ‘The Vast Open Sea’!]

As Oceanus’ illusory world opened, their surroundings suddenly changed into an endless sea of blue waves appearing without a speck of land in sight. Oceanus’ divine domain was the ‘sea’. To be precise, it was the ‘primitive sea’. It was the sea where all divine beings and creatures originated from.

“Oh my. Even if you don’t like me, you should still show enough respect to listen to a few words. Aren’t your actions too harsh?”

“Haven’t I already told you multiple times?” Yeon-woo pulled his sword inward. “If you have something you want to say, you’ll have more than enough chances to say it once you’re in the Purgatory Furnace.”

[Black-Red Gubitara]

Yeon-woo launched one offensive strike after another. Every time he wielded his sword, sword thunder strikes shot out. His sword thunder strikes, which should have been capped at the limits of the Eight Extreme level, had continued to advance. Hence, Yeon-woo was now able to continue growing and multiplying his powers exponentially.

Ninth Extreme of Sword Thunder… Tenth Extreme… Eleventh Extreme… At the Tenth Extreme of Sword Thunder, Yeon-woo was able to output a sword thunder strike that carried 24 times the power of a basic sword thunder strike. However, without even batting an eye or showing any visible strain, Yeon-woo continued to throw out sword thunder strikes.

The force of Yeon-woo’s last strike was enough to gobble up and wipe out an entire galaxy. The sword thunder strike not only dried up the seawater that made up the illusory world in an instant, but it also reached the inner and outer barrier of the illusory world, causing the entire world to tremble and shake to the point of collapsing. The sword thunder strike left a crack on the barriers, which were growing larger as Yeon-woo shot out more sword thunder strikes. Additionally, the shockwave from the strikes were rapidly quickening the spread of the cracks.

Of course, outputting this amount of firepower was burdensome for Yeon-woo, who had to also maintain his polymorph state. However, based on his current expression, it did not seem like he cared.

[Your fate as the Executor is accelerating!]

[The end of days apocalypse is fast approaching!]

[Armageddon is unfolding far ahead of schedule!]

…

[The ‘wheel’ is quickly turning and spinning!]

[The ‘dream’ is quickly coming to an end!]

Yeon-woo’s use of his remaining law of causality was that much. The sword strikes he shot out were more effective than before, as he received the Black-Red Gubitara as a parting present from Vimalacitra, and because his body reflected his position as the Alternate Ego of the Black King.

Of course, his overload status did not go away, but Yeon-woo did not care. If he did not defeat Oceanus now, there would be nothing left anyway.

Boom! Rumble. Rumble! Bam! Whenever Yeon-woo’s sword thunder strikes flashed, Oceanus was pushed further back.

“I didn’t…think that you’d be…this strong… This might be a problem?” Each time he was pushed back, Oceanus gave out an exasperated chuckle. The difference in their strength was so overwhelming that Oceanus could not even give an excuse that he was only losing out to Yeon-woo due to the wounds he suffered when fighting against the Resident of the Border.

Oceanus prided himself on being strong, as he thought he would never lose out to anyone other than Yvlke. He thought that this was just too big of a difference.

Of course, Yeon-woo did not pay attention to whatever Oceanus was feeling. Rumble! Eventually, Oceanus was pushed to his limits.

[Instance dungeon, the structure of ‘The Vast Open Sea’ has reached its limit!]

[The essential being of ‘Oceanus’, which maintains ‘The Vast Open Sea’, is shaking!]

[Legends are crumbling.]

[Shards are pouring out.]

As the illusory world started to collapse, the legends that made up the existence of Oceanus also crumbled little by little and were thrown into the air.

[Eye of the Heavens retrieves the fragments of the legends.]

[Ear of the Heavens analyzes the fragments of the legends.]

Through the fragments, Yeon-woo was able to read, to some extent, into Oceanus’ past.

***

From one of the fragments…Oceanus was a child.

“Our first doesn’t act much like a child. Is it because he’s the eldest? He has no desire or motivation. He doesn’t even whine.”

“You don’t know how proud I am because of those qualities he possesses.”

Oceanus was different from other children. He did not cry or fight like other normal children. He looked as if he had transcended the history of the world, and everyone said that he was an old man trapped in a young person’s body. Nevertheless, almost everyone praised him and expected Oceanus to become Olympus’ next true king.

However, Oceanus possessed a secret that he could not tell others. ‘Am I remembering my previous life?’ To be precise, he possessed memories of his life in the previous ‘dream’. It was the memory of an existence called Oceanus, who lived in the past ‘dream’, which had now become completely non-existent. The memories of his past ‘dream’ life remained in the young Oceanus.

Because of this, Oceanus was confused about his identity and suffered through a lot of hardship growing up. Just as how the other ‘dream’ Thor that Yeon-woo met was completely different from this dream’s Thor, the previous ‘dream’ Oceanus was a completely different person but with the same name as the current ‘dream’ Oceanus.

Because of this, Oceanus was not able to gain complete consciousness even after being reborn. Though people around him praised him for being virtuous, the truth was that Oceanus did not really care for world matters and values. He did not have much affection for this world. The world he saw through his eyes was completely different from the world he remembered, so where was he supposed to lead his heart and mind? All the facts he remembered were obsolete, and even the beings he remembered, who had the same names, had completely different faces and personalities.

This clash of worlds bothered the young Oceanus. However, his suffering did not stop there. As he became older, new memories emerged from his subconscious. As expected, they were memories that were made from an Oceanus, but not the Oceanus that he was now. He possessed memories of various separate Oceanus’.

Some versions of Oceanus were utterly villainous, while others lived the fate of an Opponent in their respective ‘dream’. Some Oceanus saw the end of their respective ‘dream’ firsthand, while others did not even understand the basic concept of a ‘dream’ or ‘wheel’. The problem was that all these memories of different Oceanus’ were in the young Oceanus’ mind. Furthermore, each of these separate versions of Oceanus clearly revealed their different identities and shouted out to him to follow them.

Oceanus was able to quickly gain strength and power beyond what was expected for his age and became wise beyond his years. However, his reclusive nature also started to show. And, at some point, the young Oceanus asked himself, “Why am I experiencing this? These are all facts that have obviously disappeared into oblivion… Why did these memories remain intact and get passed on to me?”

It may have made sense if he shared the same soul as the previous Oceanus’, but that was not the case. He and the other Oceanus all had completely different souls. They were separate beings…separate existences…

Then, Oceanus had an idea. “Are you all asking me to stop dreaming this damn ‘dream’… Is that what you all want?” To be honest, it was a fatalistic thought. Oceanus could only survive if his current ‘dream’ continued. By pursuing the end of this ‘dream’, he would be taking away his own life. Oceanus came to the conclusion that, as long as he could delay the ending of this ‘dream’, he would be able to live.

Once he came to this conclusion, from that point forward, Oceanus did not run away from the other Oceanus’. He began to ‘talk’ to the other Oceanus’ who were asleep in his mind. He wanted to hear firsthand the life they went through and hear their thoughts. There were countless options, and Oceanus thought that if he put them together well, he would somehow find a way to prevent the end of the ‘dream’.

Oceanus soon realized that two conditions had to be met to prevent the end of the ‘dream’. One was to find the Executor. The other was to cover the eyes of the Black King. However, it was difficult for Oceanus to get the timing right since no one knew when the end of days apocalypse would start. Some ‘dreams’ ended so quickly that they disappeared before a proper civilization was even established, and some ‘dreams’ only ended after the universe lost all its laws and slowly declined into oblivion.

Oceanus thought that he should tell other people about what he knew and seek their opinions. He knew that Olympus stood at the forefront of the Day, so one day, after much deliberation, he met his father, Uranus, for a consultation. However, it was on that day that Oceanus met Kronos.

“This is your new brother. Why don’t you say hello?”

Upon meeting a very young Kronos, Oceanus intuitively knew that this child signaled the beginning of the end.