The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2

Chapter 629:

Only three humans were left in existence.

And besides Urd, the others were trapped, so in effect, only she was actively doing anything.

'Hmm. Is that really true...?'

While Seong Jihan was doubting her words,

"...What kind of nonsense is that?"

Id, who was sitting on the ground, shouted incredulously at the Divine Eye.

"Only three humans left alive! Where did everyone else go?"

[Do you wish to know?]

The Divine Eye, glinting as she looked at Id.

[Then please come to where I am. I will tell you everything I know.]

With those words, she began to leave through the door they had come in.

"T-that... She's just trying to get us to rescue her! Primitive man! That woman must be lying!"

"Primitive man? Are you talking about me?"

At his words, Seong Jihan frowned, and Id avoided his gaze.

"Well... Didn't you call yourself a lab rat? I couldn't bring myself to call you that, so I called you primitive man instead..."

"I can call myself a lab rat or a primitive man, but it's not okay when others say it."

"Hah. You're picky... Then what should I call you?"

Why is this guy so eager to introduce himself properly?

"Just call me Seong."

"Seong...? Got it. I'll call you that. Seong. Anyway, listen carefully from now on."

Id gritted his teeth as he looked in the direction the Divine Eye had left.

"Don't believe what that eyeball says. Humanity has already reached the stage of immortality. Do you think we could be reduced to just three and be annihilated? She's just trying to pique our curiosity to get herself rescued first!"

Seong Jihan slightly nodded at his words.

Well, the owner of the Divine Eye probably wouldn't help him out of pure goodwill.

She must have her own motives, and she chose Seong Jihan as the means to achieve them.

However,

"She's better than you."

"W-what...?"

"From the very start, you tried to brainwash me as soon as I got here."

"T-That was..."

"Besides, whether there are three survivors or more, the more people who know about Ark, the better. So I'm going to follow her. Do you want to stay here and eat?"

As Seong Jihan pointed to the server access device with his finger,

Gulp...

Id swallowed audibly, looking longingly at it.

Then,

"Ugh!"

He reluctantly tore his gaze away.

"No... I think I should also hear what that crazy eyeball has to say. I'll eat when we get back later."

"Then it's settled. Let's go."

With that, the two left through the door of the southern sector.

[This way, please.]

They began to move in the direction the Divine Eye guided them.

Occasionally, Light Clocks would pop up to block their way, but

Whoosh...!

Seong Jihan easily destroyed them, clearing the path.

How long did they walk like that?

[At this pace, we'll reach the western sector.]

From within Blue and Red, the Red Administrator spoke to Seong Jihan.

Having gathered various information when they had entered Hephaestus's body in the southern sector, he saw the direction the Divine Eye was leading them and figured out what lay at the end.

'If it's the western sector... Didn't they say Yggdrasil was there?'

[Yes. It's the sector that supplies infinite life force. Among the eastern, western, southern, and northern sectors, this one was probably created first.]

'Yggdrasil being the first...'

Being guided by the Divine Eye to rescue someone, and the fact that the destination was the western sector where Yggdrasil was located—was that just a coincidence?

With a strange feeling, Seong Jihan continued to move forward.

And when they came to a fork in the road with two paths,

[Please come this way.]

The Divine Eye guided him to the left.

'From the right, I can feel a strong vitality.'

Was that the western sector, where Yggdrasil was?

Seong Jihan looked in that direction for a moment before following the Divine Eye.

Then, there,

Four women were lying on the ground, bathed in light.

"This is... the female isolates' quarters..."

As if he was entering a women's room for the first time, Id's eyes darted around the space without rest, taking in the interior.

[Please, come to me.]

The Divine Eye returned to the woman lying furthest to the left among the four.

Then,

Sssss...

The Divine Eye entered her eyes, and the lips of the woman lying there began to move.

"Allow me to introduce myself formally. My given name is Noah. I am an isolate with the Power of Observation."

And then she added,

"I am also the officially appointed... supervisor of Ark by the government."

She promptly revealed even her hidden identity.

Noah in Ark.

"...Is this Noah's Ark?"

"It's just a name given by a superior obsessed with the ancient text, 'The Old Testament.' It has no connection to mythology."

As Noah lay there, only moving her mouth, Id said incredulously,

"You're the supervisor...? How can an isolate be...?"

"Only isolates can be here. To supervise this place, an isolate had to be appointed as the supervisor."

"...I see. But you're trapped in the Prison of Time. How can you speak?"

As he said this, he pointed to the clock patterns covering Noah's entire body like tattoos.

She was covered in flashing clock patterns all over her clothes, just like the others beside her.

But unlike the lifeless colleagues next to her, she was moving her mouth, albeit unnaturally.

"The Prison of Time forces one to relive painful pasts repeatedly to break them... But my Power of Observation allows me to avoid it."

"Avoid... it?"

"I can choose not to see what I don't want to see."

So even if Urd replayed the past through the Prison of Time, she just didn't watch it?

'So that's one way to avoid it.'

As Seong Jihan thought this, looking at the Divine Eye,

"Well... Fine. Supervisor. What was that you said earlier? Now that we've come all this way, you're not going to say, 'It was all a lie!' are you?"

"You seem to wish it were a lie. But it's true. There are only three humans left alive."

"No... How is that possible? How could the once-thriving humanity be reduced to only three?"

"Do you remember 'Transcendence'?"

When Noah brought up Transcendence, Id's expression turned serious.

"Transcendence...? Wasn't that just nonsense?"

"What is that? Don't talk among yourselves, explain it to this lab rat too."

Pointing to himself, Seong Jihan asked.

"Transcendence is the process of unifying humanity, which has undergone Photonic Transformation, into a single consciousness."

"A single consciousness...?"

"Simply put, it's like merging all of humanity into one."

Merging all of humanity?

When put like that, it was easy to understand.

But,

"Why would you do that? Weren't the humans with light traits thriving? Why merge into one?"

"Exactly. We are the first intelligent species in the universe... Immortal beings who have obtained photonic bodies beyond the limits of flesh. There's no need to undergo Transcendence..."

At Id's rebuttal, Noah's Divine Eye glinted.

"There are various reasons, including centuries of great wars... But ultimately, it's due to resource depletion."

"Resource depletion?"

"Photonic Transformation of humanity requires special resources. Stars that are in harmony with the human species... Stars we call the Sun."

"You're saying the Sun is a resource?"

Maybe future technology had advanced a lot.

Treating the Sun as a resource and all.

As Seong Jihan looked at Noah incredulously,

"There are countless stars in the universe, but only a limited number can lead humanity to Photonic Transformation. Humanity waged great wars to obtain them, and after 95% were annihilated, humanity was unified under one government."

"...The great wars are events of the distant past. Since only 5% of the population survived, we actually have an abundance of Suns we can use."

"But humanity is already immortal. Without another great war, it's only a matter of time before the population returns to previous levels."

"That..."

"To prevent the foreseen extinction, we must fundamentally reconstruct humanity through Transcendence."

When Id seemed at a loss for words, unable to respond,

Swoosh.

The Divine Eye turned to look at Seong Jihan.

"Unlike Id, you might find this hard to understand."

"Uh...? Well, yeah?"

"As expected... Let me explain in detail."

Then Noah began to explain why humanity can only undergo Photonic Transformation with Sun-type stars.

"Humanity originated on a planet influenced by the Sun. From the beginning, our ancestors were absolutely influenced by this star."

"Uh... That I can understand."

"Perhaps because of this, the Sun's energy was essential when humanity advanced to achieve the new milestone of Photonic Transformation. There are countless stars in the universe, but only those similar to the Sun reacted. The proof of this is..."

However,

'...I have no idea what she's talking about.'

When equations proving the connection between the Sun and humans appeared, Seong Jihan gave up trying to understand.

He hadn't fully grasped what Photonic Transformation—humans made of light—was yet.

And now they were talking about compatibility with the Sun, it was too much.

"Um. Never mind. So, basically, you're undergoing Transcendence due to resource shortage?"

"...Yes. You can think of it that way."

When Seong Jihan had grasped it to that extent,

"But still... This doesn't make sense! I admit Suns are scarce. But that's in the distant future... We don't know how technology will advance by then. Why give up and undergo Transcendence already?! You... Could it be you're in league with Urd?"

Id, who had been momentarily silenced, regained his momentum and shouted loudly.

"To say that I'm in league with Urd, the rebellion's leader, when I'm a government official... That's the most unpleasant thing I've heard in my life."

"Hah. People couldn't have agreed to this. My father, my mother... They wouldn't have participated in such ridiculous Transcendence rituals..."

"Do you think we sought individual consent for each person?"

Noah's lips twisted, unlike her usual expression.

"What...?"

"Regarding Transcendence, there was more opposition than support. Opinions like yours, questioning why we should do it when we still have plenty of stars for Photonic Transformation, were mainstream."

"But... You ignored all that opposition and proceeded anyway?"

"Yes. For the future, the government modified the Photonic System so that all of humanity would undergo 'Transcendence.'"

Zzzing...

Light poured from the Divine Eye, and a screen appeared.

On it,

Flash! Flash!

People with parts of their bodies made of light flashed white and disappeared.

Only fragments of their untransformed flesh remained, scattered on the ground.

"Those who couldn't participate in Transcendence were only the isolates with just one light trait. The remaining normal humans all merged into a single light, the 'Transcendent Being.'"

So the normals all transcended, and the isolates couldn't participate.

As Seong Jihan continued to understand the situation outside Ark,

"And the Transcendent Being, which gathered all of humanity's light, took on an incomplete form."

Zzzing...

The Divine Eye showed a new scene.

A cluster of light, about the size of a fist, floating in midair.

It was like the faint glow emitted by an incandescent bulb, its brightness wasn't particularly impressive.

But,

'...Having experienced the power of white light, I can tell. That cluster contains highly condensed white light energy.'

Having taken a step into the realm of the Light Clan, Seong Jihan could see and understand the essence of that small light mass.

If it were displayed as a stat figure, perhaps the symbol for infinity, ∞, would appear.

Id seemed to feel the same.

"That's... the Transcendent Being..."

Unlike his previous skeptical reactions, upon seeing that small cluster of light, he immediately recognized it as the Transcendent Being.

'But even though it's that small, and contains infinite light power, it's incomplete?'

As Seong Jihan pondered while gazing at the Transcendent Being,

Zzzing...

The screen, which had been zoomed in, slowly zoomed out to show the surroundings.

And there, Urd appeared, standing with her eyes closed.

"Why is that woman... in front of the Transcendent Being?"

Id asked in a trembling voice upon seeing her.

"Well, the Transcendent Being is at the core of Ark, after all."

Noah answered in a matter-of-fact tone.