Transformation or Death - Chapter 297



297 – Snake’s Head (6)

The world is made up of cycles.

Water, money, and emotions spin around and around, drawing a never-ending loop.

Life was like that for Jo Ayun.

“Fuck you!”

She transformed herself bravely and challenged the constellation Hydra… but there was no light coming from that challenge.

Jo Ayun, who spent most of her magic power on returning,

In the ensuing battle with the snake, I was defeated like a lie.

“You damn snake…!”

13 times so far.

14 times in this life combined.

Her life ended in failure. Fortunately, I haven’t gone crazy yet. I feel like I’m going to go crazy soon. Or maybe she’s already crazy and just doesn’t realize it.

Anyway, I had a lot of failures.

The reason is timing and ability.

The point of return was around the time when Han Jae-joong was surrounded by snakes.

I don’t know why, but the moment I was surrounded by snakes, the belts couldn’t communicate with each other. Direct communication to Jaejoong Han is impossible. It doesn’t tell us anything about regression.

At that point, Jo Ayun does not have the magical power to even use movement magic a few times due to the effects of regression.

If we were to be honest, the power was closer to sending memories to oneself in a parallel world rather than returning.

Her magic lies in unfolding and connecting countless possibilities. The ability to create possibilities that did not exist before and open the path to dreams. The possibility was like creating numerous parallel universes.

It is a possibility that even the person who created it does not know about. No one knows how it will lead to dreams.

The miracle she caused this time is simple.

Creating a parallel world and sending your spirit there.

Of course, an enormous amount of horsepower is needed for that range.

The place where magic power is collected is from both the person who cast the magic and the person in the parallel world to which they are moving. Only then can the magic be activated.

Therefore, at the same time as the regression occurred, Jo Ayun suffered from a lack of magical power.

The problem is that the enemy you are dealing with is a snake so big that it can swallow a whole country.

-Smurf.

Despite its enormous size, the snake had delicate senses. The moment anything tried to touch my body surrounded by the sky, I hit it away. It literally moved faster than a butterfly and neutralized all of Jo Ayun’s attacks and infiltration actions.

If you can’t do it yourself, borrow the power of someone else. With that in mind, even if you explain the situation to Yoon Seol-hwa or Baek A-hee and attack the snake, the same thing happens.

The snake was cunning. If he felt like he was going to lose, he would run away without any delay. And then, he took advantage of the moment when the opponent was off guard and put an end to it.

Jo Ah-yoon himself has suffered a lot and knows it well. Even if the snake was in transformation, it would not miss a chance to kill it if it could kill it.

Odette’s weak form could not withstand the snake’s teeth. Perhaps half of his failures were due to that surprise attack.

“It’s going to be a disaster, really….”

In the first place, he was not an opponent with whom a fight could take place.

It felt like I saved the game at the wrong time. In an open world game, when encountering an enemy higher than your level, the timing of the quick save key is missed, resulting in an incorrect save file that repeats infinite deaths and loading.

Life is like that sometimes. Even something that started out exciting ends up coming to a standstill.

Things don’t work out just with mindset.

If you only wish for something to come true, your dream wouldn’t be a dream-like story.

Achievement requires a price.

Even though it looked ridiculous, I couldn’t give up.

“…Because it’s not over yet.”

Jo Ayun closed her eyes and let a butterfly fly.

Kwasik! The snake’s teeth pierced Jo Ayun’s neck. The 14th life came to an end with the world turning red.

**

And without a break, my 15th life began.

“ah.”

Jo Ayun let out a deep sigh.

“Ara, I don’t have time.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“With your eyes and detection skills, you can tell where Amundsen is, right? Tie up the letter and send it that way. “Right now.”

“Why is that idiot teacher… Ah, I guess he could be useful in times like these.”

Perhaps because it was right after seeing the crazy-sized monster, Ara tended to obediently follow Jo Ayun’s words.

“We need to have at least one more person join….”

Jo Ayun muttered obsessively.

There are two ways to end regression.

Catching and killing the snake before it escapes and developing a perfect way to prepare for the snake’s surprise attack.

The latter is close to impossible. The snake always targets when the opponent is at their weakest or when their guard is off guard. Even in its transformed state, it is difficult to keep up with its moving speed. It’s not possible to maintain the transformation every hour, and even if someone else is there to guard you, there will be a gap at some point.

So, you should aim for the former.

You must kill the snake before it escapes.

“From now on, write down what I say, tie it to an arrow, and shoot it. The contents are…”

The timing was decided in advance. It is time for Han Jaejoong to use his strongest technique.

Chronic supplementary angle.

If you focus all your firepower on that technique, even the biggest snake will disappear without a trace. There are also two supernova magical girls. You can win. You can do it.

In fact, it was an operation that had already failed once.

“…are you okay.”

Jo Ayun suppressed her trembling hands and consoled herself.

“are you okay.”

As failures pile up, there is no way anxiety won’t arise. What started out with the most hope ended up failing most miserably. How can I not be anxious?

There are no two miracles. Just being able to transcend time was already enough luck. Even if we create the possibility, something like this won’t happen twice.

No, maybe that wasn’t luck but the beginning of another misfortune. Hope gives you the strength not to give up. Therefore, it also serves to keep the rest that could have been achieved sooner if one had given up as far away as possible. Hope can sometimes be an extension of pain. What if this is the time?

This is ridiculous. Jo Ayun twisted the corner of her mouth and smiled.

It was Jo Ayun herself who caused this miracle, and it was Jo Ayun herself who did not hesitate to hope for this miracle.

What would you blame? In the end, it’s a difference in perspective. How you view hope is up to you.

You will find out everything in the end anyway. Was this hope suffering, or was it a bridge to happiness?

And Jo Ayun knows the end.

The moment Jo Ayun gives up is the end of hope.

And Jo Ayun had no intention of giving up everything until she succeeded.

So, it is as if it has been confirmed that hope is the bridge that leads to happiness.

“Hehe, hehehe….”

Jo Ayun imagined the end and smiled with happiness.

“….”

Ara glanced at her with fearful eyes and took a step back.

“You can continue….”

A monster from the constellation Hydra.

The information is gradually accumulating.

Snakes are world-eating monsters that travel across parallel universes.

It is presumed that the reason it is able to hide its gigantic body is because of its power to cross parallel universes.

When escaping, it seems to move into a destroyed parallel universe and hide its body.

The snake has a total of nine heads.

Six heads that can spew out the powers of poison, fire, ice, lightning, wind, and earth from their mouths.

A snake that eats starlight and a pair of heads that can spit out the starlight it eats.

It becomes the last body with golden scales.

Also, the main body is not fixed and any head can be inherited as the main body.

Even if the head of a snake is cut off, it grows from the main body over time, and those that are too weak or small to form a sea snake are separated from the heads that have grown. Separated snakes eat the world like the main body. Fire, water, steel, anything.

Although it is not at the level of Argosae, it has its own regeneration system, so in order to completely kill the snake, it must be annihilated without leaving any trace behind.

However, the snake that had already suffered that method came back alive.

“Heh, heh heh… it’s okay… then… then…”

The most terrible memory. The first regression came to mind.

It was a more painful memory because it was the time when I was most hopeful.

In that return, the person who drove Han Jae-joong to death was none other than Jo Ayun.

For a better future, he chose death. He used it as an excuse for himself to make a regression.

Although this repetitive life of regression is likened to a game that repeats saving and loading, this life can never be thought of as a game.

Each person in your life is a real person. It’s not like a piece of data. They are real people who live, breathe, think, and suffer. Therefore, not even a single regression can be wasted.

Because she failed, it means that real people die.

That’s why the first regression is more meaningful. The person who was the purpose of return was driven to death to become a means of return.

Knowing that I could have endured more, knowing that I could have lived longer.

The sadness that I had no choice but to let go of even though I knew it was more miserable than I could imagine.

Because of that memory, Jo Ayun could not give up. He must succeed in this life so that his death would not be in vain.

Is it ugly to take on a challenge without acknowledging the end? If he said it was ugly, he could have been as ugly as he wanted.

Now we just need to find out one thing.

How do snakes not die?

That immortality must be destroyed.

There are three possibilities that I have thought of so far. Like the constellation Argo, if there is will, remnants can remain there and grow.

Or, maybe there aren’t actually only nine heads.

The snake is smaller than the other heads and difficult to find, so it regenerates from it.

Or, there is a head hidden in a parallel universe that can regenerate.

I don’t know about the former, but if it’s the latter, it’s over.

How to find the head hidden in a parallel universe? Not only is it impossible to find a snake in a parallel universe where there are literally countless possibilities, but even if you find it, you cannot go there.

Therefore, Jo Ayun kept the former in mind and pursued it.

“Even if I tracked it using Amundsen or Ara, I never found a small snake…”

Jo Ayun traced her memories of her past life and thought about additional hypotheses.

At that moment, she felt uncomfortable.

Slurp. I heard a snake approaching.

From noble mtl dot com

“…why?”

Without a moment to question, the snake bit her neck.

A butterfly flew from Jo Ayun’s hand.

Without even thinking about it, the memories continued into the next life.

“…what.”

Jo Ayun groped her neck with trembling hands. I vividly felt the snake’s teeth entering my throat.

‘…Snakes are cunning animals.’

A cruel beast that takes its breath when you are at your weakest.

Jo Ayun was at her weakest immediately after her regression. A time when her magical power was consumed to an extreme extent and both her stamina and energy were close to zero. The best time to take her breath was now.

But it was strange. How could the snake know that Jo Ayun is the weakest right now? In the first place, the snake wouldn’t have time to be wary of Jo Ayun right now…

The thoughts were quickly organized.

Because I was thinking about it right before now.

The snake does not have nine heads, but the other heads are in a parallel universe.

But what if the head not only exists in a parallel universe, but can also travel between parallel universes and observe them?

If so, Jo Ayun’s world can also be observed.

That regression could be caught by the enemy.

There is only one action that the snake will take after noticing Jo Ayun’s return.

“ah.”

It kills your motivation before you even start working.

Slurp. The sound of a snake crawling on the wind passed my ears.

The reason why snakes did not know about regression until now is also simple. Because parallel universes are literally infinite.

But similar cases can pile up.

As parallel universes of recurrence piled up, the possibility of the snake observing the possibility of that repeating world increased.

And it was actually observed.

‘…If this happens, what should I do?’

Now the snake will continue to attack Jo Ayun.

Until I give up, until I make myself stop doing magic.

Resistance is hard. She can’t afford to use magic now. Even if she used magic to escape, the snake would quickly find her location and attack again.

Also, if such escape is repeated, there is less response that can be taken. If we let go of the snake like this, it will kill the world again in a petty way of repeating attacks and retreats.

The only opportunity is at this moment.

Even snakes know that.

Because I know this, I am trying to eliminate her, who is the biggest variable.

At the starting point, when you are at your weakest.

If death and return to the starting point repeat like this…

‘…Is this the end?’

Jo Ayun’s heart wavered little by little.

Hope was about to lead to pain.

**

That’s right.

As the parallel universes that Jo Ayun moved into piled up, the possibility of Snake observing the possibility of those repeating worlds increased.

But it’s all at the same time.

A snake-like being that can observe parallel universes.

This leads to giving Sky Polaris the possibility of observation.

Additionally, that observation extends to those who accompanied her.

Jaejoong Han.

He unleashed the power of the universe and found memories of all parallel universes that existed with Sky Polaris. The memories of her destruction were carried with her.

If Sky Polaris had read the world of return.

“uh….”

[what’s the matter?]

It goes on to say that Han Jaejoong received something from her.

A word that had never been seen before in the world.

The butterfly flew.

Just as the wind of a tiny butterfly causes a typhoon,

Starting with that statement, a new trend was created.

Just a little advice. Advice related to time.

Han Jae-joong, conscious of that advice, sprouted time-related powers in his microcosm.

It’s not a great power. To the point where I can be conscious of when the flow of time is distorted.

A trivial ability that was only used to detect Yun Seol-hwa’s time stoppage.

And, that was enough.

“…Is something strange?”

The cycle continues soon.

Just like water, money, emotions, and Jo Ayun’s life were like that.

Miracles also circulate.

Miracle continues.

From Jo Ayun to someone else.