Ranker Who Lives Twice

One day, his brother had received a strange invitation from the future and entered the Tower. You had to be the best among the best in your home world or planet just to enter the Tower, and occasionally, a few outstanding people would receive invitations. However, since they were chosen for their potential and talent rather than their current abilities, they were given a special benefit to make the odds more even when they entered the Tower.

The special benefit his brother had received was Dreaming of a Dream. It allowed him to travel from the Tower to Earth a maximum of twice a day. He had been given this benefit because he was still dividing his time between Earth and the Tower, but when he decided to give it up after just clearing the Tutorial, he received a new special benefit, Drawing Dreams, instead.

[Benefit: Drawing Dreams]

[The player can draw the world he wants in his dreams. Past, present, and future don’t matter, and the answers you find can be used in reality.]

His brother hadn’t known the significance of this special benefit until after his wings had been clipped and all his friends betrayed him. He learned that by inputting his vestiges in his Soulstone, he’d be able to activate the benefit, and so he managed to create the diary.

‘And Nemesis said he was in emptiness, the world of dreams, before he was resurrected.’ Most of Nemesis’ abilities were related to the properties of emptiness. He could create emptiness and pull enemies into empty dreams. Yeon-woo thought this was important, especially since Nemesis had originally been Jeong-woo’s Mythical Beast. ‘Jeong-woo has been related to dreams from the start. Or possibly, even before that…’

The ancient dragon Kalatus said his brother’s soul had returned to where it should have been in the first place: the Black King’s darkness. If death were shaped from darkness, what if dreams came from the same place? Yeon-woo looked up at the sky.

[Hel has an enigmatic smile.]

[The King of Seven Hells refuses to reply.]

[Ksitigarbha clicks his tongue at your theory.]

[Aesma-daeva says they are not qualified to tell you.]

…

[All gods of death do not respond to your question.]

[All demons of death say your inquiry is meaningless.]

‘I see.’ Yeon-woo thought that the half-hearted reactions of the gods and demons of death were a kind of confirmation. For these gods and demons on the path of darkness, it was difficult to speak of another path. In the past, they were hostile to the otherworld gods, who had different paths, after all.

His theories seemed to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. ‘Chaos, disorder, death, blackness, dreams…these are all from the Black King’s darkness.’ Twins had identical genes, and it was said their souls were connected as well. If Jeong-woo’s soul, which was closely linked to dreams, had returned to darkness, it meant Yeon-woo had been fated to become the Black King’s successor, as well. ‘Then…what is the Black King to us?’

Yeon-woo’s curiosity grew as he continued to examine the folklore. Folklores were a type of prophecy passed down through generations of orc shamans.

In the beginning, dreams cycled endlessly in blackness…

Then, light suddenly bloomed and the dreams awoke. Blackness began to fight with light to regain its lost dreams, and various objects flowed out from this time. All kinds of deaths, plagues, misery, and hell floated around aimlessly…

One day, the things born from blackness began to think: their father was too fearsome, and they might be swallowed by their father again. They needed to cage their father before he ate them. Fortunately, their father was mighty, but also dim-witted, so he didn’t suspect anything. They planned to present him with an endless slumber where he could dream everything he desired. And so, they succeeded in pulling him down…

However, sleep wasn’t eternal, and when he realizes he is dreaming, he will open his eyes again. When blackness falls over the world again, the shell will be broken, and the world will return to the beginning of time.

‘Dreams, blackness, light, sleep…’ Yeon-woo had a strong hunch that the blackness referred to the Black King. The parts about being brought down and betrayed by his children was similar to the descriptions of the Black King’s legacies. Then was the light referring to? ‘A being who can injure the Black King…or defeat him. Is that what it is?’

Anyone who could withstand the Black King had to be a conceptual god like Mother Earth or a progenitor god. They would have a famous legend, but he couldn’t think of who it might be. ‘I have no idea who it is.’

He thought of a few beings who ruled over light. In Olympus alone, there were Apollo and Prometheus; Asgard had Baldur; and Deva had Indra, among others. But none of them seemed to be on equal footing with the Black King. Then, his thoughts turned to a different direction. ‘The Heavenly Demon?’

The Heavenly Demon worshipped by the Devil Army chose to become evil to chase away all blackness and lack of enlightenment. He was commonly said to be the bringer-of-light for the world. His followers called him Bright King for bringing the sun and the moon. In the Tower, the Heavenly Demon was the only transcendent who wasn’t classified as either god or demon.

‘No, that’s not it.’ Yeon-woo shook his head. If the Heavenly Demon were such an extraordinary being, why was he trapped in the Tower, and how come he couldn’t awaken from his slumber? Furthermore, only the Devil Army worshipped the Heavenly Demon. It was true he was strong, but why would a being related to light choose to call himself a demon? That left only one answer: ‘The Tower?’

The Tower’s actual name was Obelisk, which meant it was the tower of the Sun God. His theories progressed further: ‘What if the reason behind the Tower’s existence is to trap or bind the Black King…?’

It made sense. Why else would the otherworld gods search for the Black King in the Tower? Why else were the gods and demons of death trying to carry out the Black King’s will? It also explained why the Tower’s name was Obelisk.

‘This is hard.’ However, this was just a guess, since he didn’t know anything about the Tower’s creation or the Black King’s identity. He thought perhaps Allforone, the Tower’s Apostle, might have answers. ‘And the last sentence seems a bit strange.’

The shattering of the shell and the return to the beginning of time was a prophecy related to the Black King’s resurrection from the emptiness. ‘Then is Akasha’s Snake still here because it’s searching for a shell in which its master can descend?’ He looked at the Cast of the Black King. Despair, Grief, Fury. He’d earned Despair as a reward for killing Akasha’s Snake. If that had been to create a body for the Black King to awaken in…

‘That Demonism guy also said multiple times that he’s waiting for me to ripen.’ He frowned, thinking that the Demonism was probably giggling in the Sin of Stone right now at the sight of Yeon-woo with so many questions and no answers. ‘Still, this is progress.’

He thought it might be worth it to comb through the thoughts of all the orcs as he moved towards Akasha’s Snake’s location. Swish. The orc town was quiet and devoid of life.

* * *

Kiaaaaa!

“B-block it!”

There were already a few people at the nest. However, they couldn’t avoid a difficult battle against the violent, massive creature that ate everything it came across.

“Aaack!”

“Hegel!”

“Eunyul, watch out! Damn it!”

“Juha! Don’t leave! Defend your position…aaack!”

Around ten injured novices were either swept away by the lashing tail or swallowed whole. There had once been fifty of them, but they’d underestimated Akasha’s Snake.

‘With their numbers, they would have had a fighting chance, but they chose the wrong location.’ Yeon-woo laughed to himself in disbelief, sitting at a nearby cliff to watch. He never would have lured Akasha’s Snake, which grew larger as it ate, near a swamp where a community of Lizardmen lived. The novices had clearly been planning to get the snake to fight the Lizardmen, but once it already ate them all, it grew too powerful for them to handle. ‘They didn’t research anything about the monster they’re hunting and ran in blindly. There’s no excuse.’

Yeon-woo didn’t think he needed to rescue them. Even though they managed to enter the Tower, the inability to come up with a basic strategy meant that they wouldn’t get past the first floor anyway. They would only be prey for other players. This situation was for the best.

‘I was wondering when to help Akasha’s Snake grow. Guess they did it for me.’ He’d been planning to make Akasha’s Snake grow as large as possible, partly to see it destroy the Tutorial stage and partly to see what the snake actually looked like. He was glad that his workload had decreased.

“Akti, Maru! Hold on just a little more! If we can go back…!”

Two novices who were acting as tankers raised their shields with their teeth clenched. Yeon-woo could see another player in the back buffing them with all his strength. They crashed into Akasha’s Snake, and for the first time, the tankers successfully blocked it.

In the meantime, the leader of the party quickly moved behind the snake’s head. He was holding a sword that emitted a bright light. For a novice, he was acting quite decisively and quickly. The snake’s vulnerability was the back of its neck, and it was now in danger. It was also exhausted, and it would die if it weren’t careful.

‘I can’t let that happen.’Yeon-woo grinned and tossed the corpse of an orc lord he’d prepared just in case to the snake. As it gulped down the corpse, a black light glowed from its scales.

Clang! The skin grew tougher, and the sword couldn’t penetrate it. Instead, it broke, and shock spread over the leader’s face.

“N-no…!”

“Samhaaa!”

The two tankers shouted, but it was too late. The snake swallowed their leader. Crunch!

“Ah…!”

“No…!”

“Even Elqui…!”

The rest of the novices lost all motivation, and the snake crushed them easily. The snake lifted its head high in celebration of its victory. Yeon-woo opened his subspace over the snake. Thousands of orc corpses fell like snow.

Gulp, gulp! The snake looked around at first, wondering where all the food had come from, but it soon focused on devouring the corpses.

‘Yes. Eat and grow as much as you can.’ Yeon-woo’s goal was to have the snake grow to its maximum and shed its skin. Then, it would awaken its holiness and regain its lost strength and identity. It would be sufficient for it to remember its forgotten past—and Yeon-woo would get the information he wanted about the Black King.

Gulp.

He smiled contentedly as he watched Akasha’s Snake eat as though it were starving.

「Shouldn’t the Demon Kings close shop at this rate? Sheesh!」 Shanon grumbled.

[The demonic society <L’Infernal> nods in agreement.]

[The demonic society <Jie Sect> clucks their tongues, saying you’re worse than they are.]

…

[Many demons express their positive interest in you.]

[A few demons are wary that their positions might be taken.]

『As expected of the Black King’s successor.』 The Vampiric Lord nodded in satisfaction.