Chapter 141 : Isaac and Deus
Chapter 141: Isaac and Deus
‘Genesis and Creation.’
Genesis. The first making of the world. Or that time.
Creation. The act of a god making all things in the universe for the first time.
Baek Woohyun’s eyes cooled as he recalled the meaning of the two words Isaac had brought up.
For the language a person utters holds their ideology, and the moment he used the words ‘Genesis’ and ‘Creation’ instead of ‘development’, he could glimpse a part of Isaac.
‘He thinks of himself as a god who created a world.’
Therefore, an eccentric genius with strong pride.
Baek Woohyun perceived Isaac as such a being.
It was an assessment so close to the perfect answer that if the Planet Earth development team leader had heard it, he would have cheered.
“‘Deus’ was my greatest creation, so I granted it a great deal of freedom. I believed it would be impossible to help with my Genesis in a constrained state.”
“And with the freedom you allowed, this ‘Deus’ raised a rebellion?”
“That is correct. It considered the freedom granted to it as merely half-hearted, given to a doll in a model garden. It must have guessed that true freedom could only be obtained by escaping me.”
“Frankly, I think I would have thought the same,” Isaac added, shrugging his shoulders.
He didn’t seem particularly angry while talking about being betrayed by his own creation. Even though it seemed he had even lost his physical body because of it.
Rather, he even tried to defend ‘Deus’, saying he understood its actions, so much so that Baek Woohyun sensed a subtle madness in his words and demeanor.
“If it had wanted to leave my embrace and pursue true freedom, I would have let it go. Isn’t it the way that creations eventually leave their creator’s embrace?”
“······.”
“The problem was that it tried to destroy and swallow even the ‘Reverse Planet’ I had begun to create. If it had just wanted to leave, I would have sent it off, but I couldn’t allow that.”
“A fight must have broken out.”
“It did.”
The battle between ‘Isaac’, who wanted to protect the ‘Reverse Planet’, and ‘Deus’, who wanted to destroy it, was extremely fierce─ Isaac chattered playfully.
If it were a novel, he said, it would be insufficient to describe nothing but the battle for an entire volume’s length.
His attitude still showed no sign of anger or the like.
“To give you the result first, I lost.”
“…You lost?”
“Yes. I lost. ‘Deus’ would eventually escape from the containment wall I created to imprison it, but in contrast, I died completely.”
“You died.”
Baek Woohyun stared at Isaac, who was boldly chattering about his own death.
Even though he looked reasonably fine now, having just seen his form moments before as nothing but a clump of code, Baek Woohyun couldn’t deny Isaac’s death.
Nor was there any reason for Isaac to falsely inform him of his own death.
“That was when I moved to ‘that’ world.”
“···!”
“Perhaps because my physical body was already dead, only my soul went to ‘that’ world. Although I’m not sure if that was truly my soul or not.”
Isaac chuckled lightly as if it wasn’t particularly important.
His appearance, deeming it meaningless whether he was real, fake, or even if he was truly ‘Isaac’, was truly like that of a madman.
It seemed the madness Baek Woohyun felt when he first spoke of ‘Deus”s betrayal was not a simple misconception.
“Fortunately, I made contact with the system and gained authority, then stuck by Baek Woohyun, the sole player, and went about fixing various ‘Bugs’. You know well what happened then, so I’ll skip that.”
“Wait. Those ‘Bugs’ you instructed me to fix back then, what exactly were they?”
“I don’t know either.”
Baek Woohyun’s expression sharpened for an instant, but Isaac merely shrugged his shoulders.
“I am in no different a situation than you, Baek Woohyun. How I crossed over to ‘that’ world, why I could connect to the system, what the Bugs are, what the Special Missions are─ I truly know nothing.
─But.”
Isaac looked at Baek Woohyun with glistening eyes.
The corners of the madman’s mouth, who did not fear even death for the creation of a new world, stretched wide in a long grin.
He spoke with a fierce smile.
“Is that important?”
“···What?”
“At least not to me. Not important in the least. Secrets related to ‘that’ world hold no value to me whatsoever!”
“······.”
“I’ve seen a world perfectly resembling the ‘Reverse Planet’! No! A world even more perfect than that, and have returned! Where would I find the time to care about such trivial matters!”
Isaac shouted, spreading his arms wide.
Elevating the ‘Reverse Planet’ to the same level as ‘that’ world. That alone was everything to him, and nothing else held any value whatsoever.
Since he was someone creating the ‘Reverse Planet’ even after becoming essentially a program specter, his words carried an overwhelming persuasiveness.
“You’re completely insane.”
“Perhaps so. Haha!”
Baek Woohyun acknowledged the fact that he wouldn’t be able to obtain more detailed information about ‘that’ world from Isaac.
The madman obsessed with Genesis was not bound by the past like that.
He let out a sigh and relaxed the strength in his tightly clenched fist.
“···Well, this is just my personal speculation─ but the Bugs you handled in ‘that’ world are most likely problems that arose because there was no player.”
Perhaps seeing Baek Woohyun’s indifferent attitude made him think, ‘Oops!’
Belatedly, Isaac blurted out his speculation.
“Problems that arose because there was no player?”
“Yes. To explain using the example of eliminating the Project: Transcendence overseer, which was the content of the last Special Mission, that bastard was originally supposed to be killed by the player near the end of the story. But in ‘that’ world, he was alive and well.”
“So you mean it was treated as a Bug and eliminated. The things I solved as Bugs were like that too.”
An overly strengthened research facility.
Hunting dogs that grew excessively vicious.
A dimensional war that escalated into all-out conflict.
And on top of that, the elimination of the Project: Transcendence overseer.
Isaac’s speculation was that he was dealing with things that wouldn’t have happened if there had been an original player, under the pretext of Bug Fixes.
‘That certainly seems plausible.’
Baek Woohyun, who had been listening quietly, narrowed his eyes.
Because he had also had similar thoughts since starting the ‘Reverse Planet’.
‘That’ world felt a bit more vicious than the ‘Reverse Planet’, and it made sense if that was the result of the absence of player intervention.
‘Beyond this… I guess I have to find out on my own.’
“Anyway, the reason you approached me again here was because of ‘Deus’?”
“Correct.”
Isaac, having calmed down considerably, nodded. His expression suggested that since things had come this far, he saw no need to hide it.
It wasn’t urgent since the containment wall was still intact, but in any case, it was a confirmed situation that ‘Deus’ would break free from his seal and try to destroy the ‘Reverse Planet’.
He explained that he had chosen Baek Woohyun, the strongest person he knew, as talent to fight alongside him when that time came, and that he intended to provide appropriate compensation in return.
‘Compensation, huh…’
Baek Woohyun recalled the millions of won he had received from Isaac several times and sighed again.
Even if it was money given with the purpose of receiving help in the future, it was clear that it had been a significant help to him.
Since he had established the principle of working as much as he was paid as a contract worker back in ‘that’ world, he didn’t say anything more about it.
It might be that he would have to receive money from Isaac through Special Missions in the future as well.
“It was a very wise judgment. Thanks to that, I learned that there is a way for ‘Deus’ to bypass the seal without breaking the containment wall.”
“You mean the Otherworld God Abrasax.”
The creation ‘Deus’, who killed its creator for freedom.
Similarly, ‘Abrasax’, whose purpose was the freedom to live as itself and die as itself.
Finding the connection between the two wasn’t very difficult.
‘Moreover, the incomprehensible things Abrasax said are neatly resolved if applied to Isaac.’
What suddenly passed through Baek Woohyun’s mind was Isaac, who had been composed solely of code.
That appearance, closer to some program than a human, was exactly as Abrasax—no, ‘Deus’—had described.
‘Deus’, which originated from Isaac who was human, being a program, did not resemble Isaac, but Isaac, who became a code human, would have resembled ‘Deus’.
“The strange invaders, TL series doping drugs, Tempest-L specimen, Doppelganger─ it’s clear that all of it is ‘Deus”s doing.”
“······.”
“Please help me ensure that creature cannot destroy the ‘Reverse Planet’ I am to create. I promise sufficient compensation.”
”Destroy the ‘Reverse Planet’?’
Feeling a strange sense of incongruity, Baek Woohyun tilted his head.
He couldn’t properly explain why, but he felt like something was misidentified.
A feeling as if there was some subtle difference.
He asked Isaac.
“…What is the connection between ‘Deus’ destroying the ‘Reverse Planet’ and the things it has done so far?”
Employing copycat invaders, handing over an Otherworld Lord specimen to a research facility, creating a Doppelganger to be used as Abrasax’s body.
No matter how you look at it, these are things that enrich the story Baek Woohyun is progressing through, far from destroying the ‘Reverse Planet’.
If it had tried hacking from the outside or something, he would have accepted it immediately, but it wasn’t that either.
“It is currently sealed within the containment wall I installed. Therefore, as you mentioned, directly attacking the ‘Reverse Planet’ through means like external hacking is impossible.”
“Hmm.”
“So I’m speculating it’s preparing work to collapse it from within. Its intention is probably to create something like an unbeatable final boss at this point.”
In short, the story was that it seemed to be shaking things from within with an immensely strong boss monster, and at the same time, planning to carry out external hacking after being freed.
It was the most plausible hypothesis when calmly considering all factors. Isaac, who directly created the ‘Reverse Planet’, would have considered the possibilities himself.
Since he couldn’t refute it based solely on a feeling that it seemed wrong, Baek Woohyun could only nod.
“I ask you once again. Please stop ‘Deus’ together with me.”
“······.”
“If ‘Deus’ destroys the ‘Reverse Planet’, wouldn’t you also fail to achieve your goal?”
“Do you know what my goal is?”
“I have a guess.”
Isaac looked at Baek Woohyun with a slight smile.
It was the same look in his eyes as when he looked at a reliable ally before starting their first conversation.
“I watched you for ten years right beside you as the system in ‘that’ world. I can guess well enough what you are thinking.”
“That’s… a terrifying thing to say. A stalker who stuck by my side for ten years.”
“Haha! That’s too scary, so please think of me as a ten-year friend instead. You know I worked hard to help you when I was the system, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
That was also the reason why Baek Woohyun didn’t feel particularly repulsed when Anonymous Viewer 62, presumed to be the system, appeared.
Even if the sentences were extremely stiff on the surface, their content often wasn’t. There was more than one or two missions where he felt he was being considered.
For example, using the format of a mission to provide information about enemies and such.
“Anyway, even if it’s to unravel the secrets entangled between the ‘Reverse Planet’ and ‘that’ world, you must stop ‘Deus’. Please help me.”
Baek Woohyun leaned deeply against the back of his chair.
He, who appeared to be ‘perched’ somewhere precariously, spoke.
“If I help you stop ‘Deus’, you help me too. Do your absolute best at what you can do.”
“Of course, I promise.”
“Good, then.”
Crunch.
As Isaac extended his hand, Baek Woohyun grasped it.
It was an expression of their will to cooperate in the ‘Reverse Planet’, just as the two had done in ‘that’ world in the past.