Chapter 337

EPISODE 337 – THOSE WHO ARE PREPARING (1)

“Do you really think that… such a thing is possible?”

The man had a bitter smile at the woman’s question.

He answered in a low voice.

***

The eighth door of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.

Having opened the eighth door, Jude felt a significant change.

His body that was reconstructed when he opened the sixth door was now being broken and formed again.

Jude’s body became light as it was reformed by being united with his soul.

Beyond simply being functionally superior, it went past the level of a body containing a soul, achieving a true harmony of body and soul.

Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.

One had to reach their limits in order to transcend.

And Jude realized now. Opening the eighth door made him soon reach the limit.

Jude slowly opened his eyes.

He looked up the sky in a world that was all black.

Countless stars looked back at Jude like the night sky.

And one person.

A woman stood under the starlight.

An ancient progenitor whom he had called a female sage until now.

She had opened the ninth door and went beyond the limits, so she reached the realm of transcendence. That woman silently looked at Jude.

Suddenly, she spoke with a big smile.

“You are-”

That was it. He could not properly hear the rest.

It was the aftermath of opening the eighth door and completely reorganizing the body and soul.

But he knew one thing.

The difference between one who had reached the limit and one who went beyond the limits and achieved true transcendence.

It was like the horizon.

Through his confrontation with First Sword and the memories of the other Jude, he could tell the moment he reached the horizon.

Reaching the horizon was only the beginning.

It was impossible to realize a perfect swordsmanship unless he crossed the horizon.

The ninth door of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.

A world beyond the horizon.

“-exists.”

The female sage had a gentle smile.

Jude also smiled at her.

Someday again.

On a not so distant day.

The starlight shone down.

Jude closed his eyes amidst the sea of stars.

***

“Jude!”

“Cordelia.”

As soon as he opened his eyes and spoke, he immediately felt Cordelia’s warmth.

He was lying on Cordelia’s arms, or to be more exact, on her thighs.

There was a dark night sky with a bright moon and countless stars.

“Are you okay?”

Jude nodded at Cordelia’s question.

He clearly realized what changes had taken place in his own body.

His senses were further developed.

Despite not currently opening the eighth door, he could perceive everything around him much more clearly than before.

“Were you… able to open the eighth door?”

Cordelia asked cautiously, and Jude nodded again this time.

“That’s right, I have opened the eighth door.”

“Oh yeah!”

As soon as Jude replied, Cordelia exclaimed and raised her hands in joy.

Seeing that bright appearance, Jude unconsciously asked.

“Do you like it that much?”

“I like it! Is that bad? I can’t stop my shoulders from shaking in excitement.”

Jude had a blank expression for a moment at her bright smile, but soon smiled the same way.

His numerous memories entangled and mixed, but Cordelia was still Cordelia.

“Jude.”

“Yes, Cordelia.”

“I remember a lot of things.”

Their memories were not perfect.

The memories they remembered were fragmented and broken.

Nevertheless, they knew of some things.

“This isn’t the first time, right?”

“Yes, a few tries had already been done.”

Even Jude could not tell exactly how many tries had happened.

Because like Cordelia, Jude’s memories were not perfect.

“But… I probably know the most.”

Jude was the one who always fought to the end.

The other Jude who reached the sword horizon was the first to hear the full details of the reckless plan laid out by the young goddess Atalia.

“Explain.”

Keep it short, concise, and easy to understand.

At Cordelia’s request, Jude narrowed his brows and spoke in a cautious tone.

“Uh, well… we once talked about a classic simulation RPG, right?”

“SRW?”

“Yes, that. Super Robot Wars.”

A turn-based game wherein many robots appeared and fought.

A game for older males with the players’ ages ranging in the late 20s to 40s.

He used to think, ‘Oh, he’s a real man. He’s definitely a male.’ when he read Yellow Storm talking excitedly about it in their previous lives. But she was actually a woman who was in her teens.

“Anyway, why are you talking about that?”

“That’s what you want to ask now, right? The difference between the method chosen by Atalia and the so-called regression.”

Cordelia immediately nodded at Jude’s point.

“As expected of my Jude. You know what I’m thinking.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

The two had some idle talk before Jude continued his explanation.

“It’s the difference between Annihilation Play and Reset Marathon.”

“Eh? Uh… Ah!”

Annihilation Play and Reset Marathon.

If you were annihilated in the game of Super Robot Wars, you could restart from the beginning with the experience and funds you had obtained before that battle where you got annihilated.

In Annihilation Play, you deliberately got annihilated in order to collect experience and funds, but in Reset Marathon, you repeatedly saved and loaded the saved point until you get the desired result.

Like how you repeated the same situation over and over until you got an attack with a 10% hit rate.

Both were similar in that they repeated the same situation, but there was a significant difference between the two.

“First of all… in Annihilation Play, the total number of turns increases.”

If one played for 10 turns, got annihilated, started again, and cleared it in 10 turns, a total of 20 turns would be recorded.

On the other hand, since Reset Marathon was to return to the 10th turn after 10 turns, the total number of turns used was still 10 turns no matter how many times you tried.

“That’s right. Annihilation Play is about conforming to the flow of time while Reset Marathon is about going against time.”

At Jude’s words, Cordelia nodded for a moment but frowned again and asked.

“But isn’t the latter better?”

The latter seemed to be much simpler.

“Yes, but it’s a lot harder. Cordelia, in the manhwa and novels you recommended, regression was very easily done… but in fact, regression is a huge thing. Because you have to turn back the time of the entire universe.”

That was impossible.

If Atalia was almighty enough to do such a thing, she would not need to have repeated it in the first place.

“Uh… why is everyone who’s not the protagonist going back to the past too? Usually, it’s only the protagonist who regresses.”

“They’re still going to the past so… it’s impossible since they’re going against time. Because even a god cannot resist the unyielding flow of time. And if you don’t want to go against time, you can move to the past of a parallel world, but… it really is a parallel world. The world left by the protagonist will be left in a ruined state. Even if the protagonist saves the parallel world, it is the parallel world that was saved. It’s not the world the protagonist left.”

Of course, this was the situation if parallel worlds existed.

“In the end, it’s a matter of ability. If it can be done or not. With Atalia’s powers, turning back time is impossible. But it is barely possible to copy and paste in compliance to the flow of time. The scope is not the entire universe, but limited to three worlds – Pleiades, Heaven, and Hell.”

“Isn’t the latter one very difficult?”

“It is difficult. It’s possible because… Pleiades is an old world. This world has accumulated a lot of power. Unlike the gods of Heaven or Hell… that is, the archangels and overlords who shared the power with each other, it’s possible because Atalia exists alone.”

At Jude’s words, Cordelia’s lips squirmed and she organized her thoughts.

“Then shouldn’t it be enough for the all-powerful Atalia to kick out all the beings who appeared in the Great Summons?”

“That’s impossible. Because Atalia is a young goddess now. Atalia’s copy and paste method happens at least 10 years from now… so it’s the last part of Legend of Heroes 3. Every time Atalia uses the copy and paste method, her records are initialized too… so she’s virtually powerless now. Besides, I’m sure you know that that a skilled wizard doesn’t necessarily mean a strong wizard?”

“Ah… I see. To compare it roughly, Atalia is like a utility wizard. She’s not a combat wizard.”

“It’s similar.”

Having said all that, Jude took a deep breath and faced Cordelia again.

“As I have said… it’s impossible for her to turn back time. But besides that, there is a difference between Atalia’s method and regression. Do you know what it is?”

“Yes, I know. It’s the difference between Annihilation Play and Reset Marathon.”

“That’s right. That’s it.”

Regression was literally a reversal.

Therefore, everything that happened before the reversal became something that ‘never happened.’

But that was not Atalia’s method.

Even if she copied and pasted it, the things in between did not disappear.

“She didn’t necessarily aim for it… but thanks to her, we could remember the past like this. We were also able to get stronger faster.”

She had repeatedly overwritten the record on the same soul.

Memories accumulated in the soul every time she repeated her copy and paste method.

They did not fully inherit the experience and funds like in Annihilation Play, but they inherited a few of it.

‘And one more thing.’

A critical difference.

Or rather, an advantage they got because of Atalia’s method.

‘I don’t remember it.’

His memories blurred.

But it was clear that there was something.

However, it was at that time.

“Then Jude. What happened to… us?”

Cordelia’s face was filled with indescribable anxiety.

What Cordelia meant by ‘us.’

Before they became Jude and Cordelia – the Kang Jin-ho and Hong Yoo Hee in their past lives.

“I don’t remember that part clearly either. But… I think I can guess what happened.”

It was something that he was not that sure of unless he directly hears it from Atalia, so it was a speculation as he himself had said.

“The disadvantage of Atalia’s method is that the memories are not fully transmitted, right? Therefore, she ends up throwing the dice repeatedly and… it’s impossible to know and prepare for what’s going to happen or prevent unfortunate events like we did this time.”

Cordelia nodded at his words.

The fact that Atalia had to repeat the copy and paste method several times was proof of that.

“I think that’s why she used an expedient. Instead of copying and pasting it right away, she postponed it for a while and sent our souls to another world.”

“On Earth?”

“I don’t know if she chose it on purpose… but anyway, she sent us to another world, had us learn what would happen to Pleiades, and brought us back. It’s like adding a bit of data to the data that would be copied and pasted.”

So the memories of Kang Jin-ho and Hong Yoo Hee were added like that.

“Then did Atalia create Legend of Heroes?”

“She didn’t make it herself but… she probably sent a record. Someone must have unconsciously received it and turned it into a game. If the recipient wasn’t a game developer, it could have appeared as a manhwa, novel… or something like that.”

“Hmm… that doesn’t answer all the questions though.”

Like the reason why their memories were cut off at the time when they logged out.

“We won’t know that until we meet and ask Atalia.”

Jude said and suddenly let out a long breath.

Because as he answered Cordelia, the scattered blurry memories in his mind became quite clear.

Everything really happened.

The fact that Cordelia became a demonic human, and that he fought against that Cordelia. And in the end, he killed her himself.

“Jude.”

Cordelia’s call made Jude come to his senses.

She had also regained some of her past memories, though not as much as Jude.

That was why she was able to understand what Jude was thinking and what was making his heart ache.

So Cordelia tightly held Jude’s hands.

It was embarrassing and sudden, but she opened her mouth and spoke.

She put out of her mouth the words that the Cordelia who became a demonic human wanted to say in her last moments.

“I really, really like you.”

She smiled without realizing it.

Her smile stunned Jude, and he smiled back in the same way before saying.

“I like you too. No, I love you.”

I’m glad that we can meet again like this.

I’m so glad that we can be together again.

“Cordelia, what about you?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I love you, but what about you?”

It was a sudden question that was childish and mischievous.

But she could not help answering it.

Cordelia’s lips squirmed, but she soon whispered with a red face.

“I-I love you too. I love you very much.”

Why is this short statement so embarrassing?

But I like saying it.

Seeing Jude’s happy face, I want to say it again and again.

Let’s not hold back, let’s say it one more time-

[Okay, okay, let’s stop here.]

[Let’s stop here. We still have a lot of things to do, okay?]

It was Valencia and Melissa.

Both of them sounded like they were enduring something annoying.

But as always, Jude ignored the two and sat up.

He caressed Cordelia’s cheek and kissed her lips.

And it was just up to there.

He wanted to go further, but that was too much. Because Cordelia pushed Jude away as she pointed towards a side of the destroyed Red Gate where Lucas was standing awkwardly.

“Ahem, ahem. Ahem, ahem.”

Lucas blankly stared at them and awkwardly coughed.

“Come to think of it, Jude.”

“Yes, Cordelia.”

“What’s going to happen to Lucas?”

Although her memories were blurred, she recalled that Kajsa and Scarlet were both his lovers.

To be exact, Kajsa was his lover when Scarlet was their enemy, and Scarlet was his lover when Kajsa was their enemy.

And when the two women were close, Lucas was a demonic human.

“Uh… well…”

Wouldn’t they do well on their own?

“Let’s just eat popcorn and watch.”

At Jude’s casual remark, Cordelia giggled and stood up from her seat.

“Anyway, let’s deal with the situation first. The army that followed First Sword is a problem too.”

They could have withdrawn since First Sword died, but they were not an ordinary human army.

First Sword was not the only one who led the army.

However, neither the speaking Cordelia nor the listening Jude were that worried.

The main gate of the Red Gate had collapsed, but many elves were still inside and there was one more thing.

What they saw while they were running in a hurry.

Another army advancing from a completely different direction.

Time passed.

The chancellor’s army originally led by First Sword now appeared in front of the Red Gate.

The advance squad of the huge army prepared to attack the Shadow Forest.

In front of such an army full of demon followers, the faces of the elves turned pale, but Jude and Cordelia did not lose their smiles again this time.

Because they heard the sound of galloping horses coming from afar.

“Lucas.”

Lucas turned his head at Jude’s words. Cordelia grinned and looked in the pointed direction, and soon let out a bright smile.

At the southwest direction.

The fierce guardians of the north shook the ground.

The flags of the Jackdaws that passed through the wild lands fluttered in the wind.