Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1200

I had a thought once.

What if Lenok’s awakening in this world wasn’t a coincidence?

What if he’s standing here as a price for choosing transcendent talent, a penalty of sorts?

What if Lenok already knew about the method or process [of the Black Consumer Project]?

“……”

The Black Consumer Project.

A plan that started in the Balkans decades ago and was buried in darkness after countless failures.

Kaiser’s method to examine all those failures and find the answer to move forward.

The greatest and most hideous failure Lenok has faced since he opened his eyes in this world.

Ironically, Lenok was able to hear the truth about the project only after letting go of his lingering attachment, despite having dug into the project for so long and having chased Kaiser for so long.

The power to edit and set human destiny and talent.

A plan to control and manage innate aptitudes and causality as desired.

“……”

He tried to say something, but couldn’t.

He parted his lips and made a sound, but no words came out.

The reason why Lenok opened his eyes in this world.

The reason why he exists with transcendent talent and the corresponding ‘price’ in both hands.

The reason why he thought the truth of the project would be related to himself.

That was-

“Editing human talent… what does that mean?”

In the frozen silence, he barely parted his parched lips.

A silence that felt like it would deafen him. In the unheard emptiness, even his senses seemed to fade.

His vision blurred so much that even Edan’s figure standing at the end of the corridor looked faint.

“Resetting destiny or causality directly means…”

“……”

Beeeep-

A ringing that hurt his ears.

A sense of incongruity where even the words Lenok himself uttered felt like someone else’s.

Nevertheless, Lenok was naturally spewing out the question that had flowed from within.

“Even if Kaiser Bajur is a regressor [someone who can turn back time or revert to a previous state]… how could he have reached such a conclusion?”

Two truths Lenok learned in Kundara’s old world.

The miserable end where Kaiser’s head was cut off and disappeared. The secret that he was a regressor who used the talent of defying the heavens.

How could the conclusion of the project, which revolved around Kaiser’s regression, have been so distorted?

However, as soon as Edan heard Lenok’s question, he tilted his head.

As if Lenok’s reaction itself was unexpected.

“Wasn’t it because you reached the answer yourself that you didn’t want to hear the answer from me?”

“……”

“Is it because you chose a different answer from him while chasing the project?”

Edan, who answered in a voice devoid of emotion, nodded almost simultaneously as he realized the reason.

“You wanted to know the answer, but you believed that you dreamed of the same thing as him.”

“……That’s.”

“We tried to defy fate, but in the end, we had to realize our lack of talent.”

Leaving Lenok, who couldn’t speak properly, Edan slowly moved his steps.

“We walked a tightrope with transcendents [beings with powers beyond normal humans] and even borrowed their powers through loopholes, but even that soon reached its limit.”

“……”

“In the process of looking into all the failures of the world and finding answers, we expected, relied on, and yearned… and finally realized.”

Edan whispered, looking at the marching army outside the glass window.

“If talent and qualifications are lacking, we must ultimately create and fill the lacking parts ourselves.”

“……”

“To defy fate, we have no choice but to create fate ourselves.”

It was an answer that was similar to yet different from the conclusion Lenok had reached.

Just as Lenok had sensed and believed, they wanted the same thing, but they were not the same.

He was looking for a method, not hope.

He was creating an answer, not qualifications.

Because they wanted the same thing, he saw himself in him and tried to empathize and understand.

However, the conclusion Kaiser reached at the end of the project was not the same as Lenok’s.

“……I see.”

He knew that the project was started to create an answer that did not exist.

He already knew the bitter conclusion that everything had changed after countless failures.

However, the conclusion Kaiser reached at the end of the project that shook the world.

It was to edit human talent and destiny to create a key to reach the next step.

“That’s what it was.”

Lenok slowly raised his gaze and closed his eyes.

“The saying that Kaiser changed at the end of the project… that’s what it meant.”

The truth of the Black Consumer Project that he had been chasing for so long.

The identity of the wish Kaiser Bajur had at the last moment.

Kaiser was not trying to reach the next step with the conclusion and answer he had reached.

He was not trying to create or find an answer for him through the project either.

What Kaiser wanted at the last moment was ‘someone’ who would reach the next step in his place.

If he designed the project while hoping for someone who could give the answer he wanted, not the answer he had reached.

If he tried to tamper with human destiny and talent after experiencing countless failures in the process.

“……”

A corner of his chest ached as if it had been pierced.

Because he understood and accepted the choice he made, which was not an escape but an avoidance at the last moment.

“You would understand.”

Edan whispered as if he knew Lenok’s feelings.

“If you truly saw the same thing as us and came this far, you would be able to accept it.”

“……”

“If you came this far, wanting the same thing, chasing the same thing… you would be able to understand that feeling.”

“……I.”

“If someone has to answer in the face of the coming destruction. Even if it’s just a handful of echoes, if it can be a stepping stone for the next step.”

Edan said, looking straight at Lenok from the far end of the endless corridor.

“He thought it was okay if he wasn’t the one to save the world.”

That was what Lenok had heard directly from Kaiser himself sometime ago.

The last moment when the past Kaiser sacrificed himself for Lenok at the end of the closed area.

If he didn’t lose the heart he had at the beginning. If he could not regret it at the end of the conclusion.

Then he could always become an echo for the next step.

The last words left by the past Kaiser, who had repeated that to himself and disappeared.

Was that one word all that remained for Kaiser for decades?

Was that even the reason why Kaiser changed and failed at the end of the project?

If it was a ‘process’ to create the answer Kaiser himself wanted by editing human destiny and talent.

If that ‘result’ is standing here like this after decades.

“……It wouldn’t have been such a grand and sublime plan.”

Lenok muttered.

Even in the midst of understanding and realizing many things, his thoughts did not stop.

Even in the questions and answers that followed, Lenok was glimpsing a truth beyond what Edan was saying.

What Kaiser truly wanted. The betrayal he wanted even to the point of giving up his own structure.

The sacrifices and side effects that would have been inevitably accompanied in the process.

“If the project really reached the level of editing human destiny and talent, and if it was interfering with causality as a result…”

Lenok’s eyes flashed through his disheveled hair.

“That would have ultimately had to be done on living humans. It would have been like a large-scale human experiment conducted on a city-wide scale.”

“……”

“If they tried to dismantle and dissect humans, arbitrarily change their nature and origin, and even manipulate their thoughts and values…”

Lenok’s voice sank coldly.

“Then, how is that different from the outer gods of the sea who receive human destiny as offerings?”

“That might be true.”

Edan agreed.

“Human sacrifice is originally an act of imitating a different ending than death given to life. It is a process that induces contradictions by imitating an ending that no longer exists in this world, and thus produces efficiency that transcends causality.”

“……”

“But what we wanted was not such an efficient ‘failure’. No matter how inefficient, how poor the fuel economy, and how lingering it is, if it is a path to success, it is worth trying.”

Edan whispered, slowly raising his gaze.

“We thought it would be enough if we could ‘create’ a transcendent talent that could change everything.”

“……I see.”

Why is Edan telling Lenok this fact?

Is it because Lenok is a seeker who has chased the project and reached Edan’s front?

Is it because Lenok stopped asking questions at the last moment and even tried to abandon that lingering attachment?

No, Lenok knew that it might not be just that.

Because he had a vague idea of the identity of the project. ‘Someone’ who was not himself that Kaiser wanted at the last moment.

Because he vaguely knew that the secret of the Black Consumer Project, which he had been chasing for so long, was closer than ever.

Lenok was accepting all the explanations Edan was giving and even accepting this moment.

“……”

He tried to deny it, but what Edan said was not wrong.

Lenok could understand Kaiser’s answer, the choice he made, and even his betrayal at the last moment.

Because he had been chasing Kaiser like this, digging into the project, and seeing Kaiser’s life overlapping with his own.

Wasn’t it because he was afraid, wanted to run away, and yet wanted to know that he was standing here?

But-

“That’s… not the answer I want.”

Lenok muttered, walking in the opposite direction at the same time as Edan.

“It’s not a conclusion I can reach, nor a structure I can reach.”

“……”

“I… don’t want it that way. Not in a way that entrusts the answer to others and yearns for it…”

Since he opened his eyes in this world, he has always been here because he wanted to be himself as he was at the beginning.

In the arduous journey of trying to be himself until the end, because he himself wanted and resolved to do so.

Because he had never tried to have someone else take on that yearning for even a single moment.

“Is that why you came back at this time?”

Lenok, who had stopped thinking, turned his gaze.

“Even after the plan to edit human destiny failed, are you still dreaming an unfinished dream?”

“Ars Nova was destroyed, the project failed, and we all had to scatter.”

Edan replied.

“The trust we believed would never be broken was broken, and we lost a lot… but there is still something left.”

“……”

“The ‘success’ we gained as a price for ending the project that had only repeated failures. That result is still left in the Balkans.”

“The project’s, a success… ?”

The success achieved at the end of the Black Consumer Project.

Does that mean that Edan Bajur decided to return to regain it?

The moment he heard those words, Lenok could understand that Deadrise’s long-cherished desire was to return to the Balkans.

Not only because the Balkans was their spiritual home and base, but because they had left something more important there.

Because the meaning and maintenance they had gained while sacrificing and losing everything was there.

Then, the true meaning of the Balkan recapture operation scheduled immediately after the subjugation battle is, after all-

“You would understand.”

Edan asked the same question again.

“If you truly saw the same thing as us, you would be able to accept it.”

“……”

“The power to edit and set human talent and destiny. If you have been digging into it for so long without being sure of its identity…”

Edan said, stopping at the end of the corridor.

“That’s because you yourself thought that your existence might be related to the project.”

“……”

“An 8th-level wizard. The successor of Jintun. If you wanted to know where your talent and qualifications came from, as a seeker who reached the answer faster than anyone else, beyond such a facade.”

Edan tilted his head, looking at Lenok with a blank face.

“It would be necessary to check directly in this place whether your existence and talent were the result of the project.”

“That’s… the reason why you honestly answered me about the project.”

It is impossible to stand here without any reason or motive, with only vague curiosity or inquisitiveness.

Because he had been convinced that the secret of the project was vaguely related to himself.

Because he had been trying to find out the truth.

Edan was also facing Lenok and feeling a sense of familiarity with his existence.

Whether Lenok’s existence was part of the project that Edan had failed. How he had been drawing the answer so far to be standing here.

If he had been waiting for this moment to confirm it before returning to the Balkans.

“……Before answering the question, I’ll ask one last thing.”

Lenok slowly opened his eyes and raised his gaze to look at Edan.

“Kaiser and Edan. Which one are you now?”

Whether Lenok’s existence was the result of the project and part of it.

Whether the talent and price Lenok had set were the origin of the project.

There is one fact that must be confirmed before knowing that.

Who is that man who calls himself an enemy in front of Lenok and has never revealed his name even once?

Whether the evidence Lenok is thinking of is engraved on Edan’s neck, hidden between the collar of his old military uniform.

Whether he truly cut off Kaiser’s head and attached it to Edan’s body.

He cannot move forward anywhere without confirming that.

In order to find out where the lingering attachment is heading after the project failed.

If it is to find out what Edan truly wants in the Balkans-

“I think I’ve already given you the answer to that.”

Edan said with a blank face.

“I said that a name is no longer important to me. So there’s no reason to answer that question.”

“Is that so?”

Lenok asked back, opening his eyes and moving his steps.

The moment he took a step forward, the empty corridor warped.

Whoosh!!

At the same time as he pulled up his magic power, a hot flame was caught in his hand.

Lenok, clutching the rising flames, muttered with a blank face.

“Then, I have no choice but to check it myself from now on.”