I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 239

239.

Startled, Seo-ah tried to pull her hand away, but the old man held it firmly.

“It’s okay. This is just a glimpse into the past.”

[Emotion Transference] activated, seemingly against her will. Seo-ah focused, examining the images unfolding in her mind.

Light and darkness swirled together, but unlike the clear divisions here, they were intertwined, excessively bright and dark areas mixing, separating, gathering, and scattering.

“What is this?”

Perhaps because her magic power was sufficient, or because Chronos was guiding her, Seo-ah managed to speak even while maximizing [Emotion Transference].

“The Age of Chaos. Before the universe was born.”

“……”

Seo-ah fell silent at the explanation, which felt impossibly distant. Surely ‘time’ must have existed even then. She didn’t feel much emotionally, not yet.

Then, the light gathered in one place, wriggled, and exploded, scattering luminous dust through the darkness in an instant.

‘So this is what they call the Big Bang.’

She never thought she would witness the birth of the universe. It felt like watching a cosmic documentary.

Time passed quickly, and she saw the creation of planets and the birth of life. From that point, she faintly felt something akin to ’emotion’ – mainly curiosity and anxiety.

‘So, can I assume that time developed a self as life was born? And that self is Chronos?’

As living beings developed intellectual abilities, Chronos’s emotions became more diverse.

Chronos felt attached to individual living beings. He sometimes materialized himself and mingled in their lives. This was a misstep.

Compared to his infinite existence, the lifespan of living beings was fleeting, yet it was enough time for him to become attached. When he slowed down time out of regret, the attachment grew stronger, turning into obsession.

Each time the object of his obsession disappeared, Chronos felt profound sadness and anguish. Moreover, Chronos was an existence that could not forget. Something that disappeared 10,000 years ago felt as fresh as yesterday.

‘…Ah.’

Seo-ah was swayed by the intense loneliness and sadness conveyed through [Emotion Transference]. A corner of her heart ached as if burning, but she struggled to regain her composure. These weren’t her emotions.

“Then I met him.”

The old man’s soft voice broke through her thoughts, tinged with a languid smile as he recalled the memories.

In the world seen from Chronos’s perspective, one planet housed a civilization with highly developed science. They had unlocked the universe’s secrets and were exploring distant realms, controlling their entire planet with a virtual system.

A genius scientist lived there, named ‘Serpens.’ He was a young and confident human male.

He designed and managed the planet’s system.

Seo-ah focused her attention on him.

‘Could he be…?’

Serpens showed curiosity about the worlds that had disappeared and been destroyed before time. He was saddened by the fact that his own world would eventually meet the same fate.

Furthermore, he found the universe’s structure too chaotic.

“Can’t we apply this planetary system to the entire universe?”

In theory, it seemed possible, but time was too short. ‘Serpens,’ with his finite lifespan, was aging, realizing he would die before completing the project.

“Time is not on my side.”

Chronos heard Serpens’s lament and proposed a contract.

【I will grant you eternal time.】

In return, Serpens would create a system to govern the universe. By weaving Chronos’s magic into it, he created another world using data from lost worlds.

Through Serpens’s system, Chronos had more opportunities to intervene in the world. At first, it was comforting to meet the beings he missed, but Chronos soon realized:

‘Data is just data.’

The beings that mirrored his memories perfectly were no longer appealing, only amplifying his emptiness.

He couldn’t bear to experience such despair and sadness again. All living beings ended in death, but Chronos was immortal.

He pleaded with Serpens.

【Serpens, there must be someone! There must be a strong person in this vast universe who can kill me. Find them and send them to me, please.】

By this point, Serpens barely resembled a human, more like a desiccated mummy. His lifespan and consciousness were eternal, but his organic body couldn’t withstand the ravages of time and gradually deteriorated.

Still, Serpens silently heeded Chronos’s request, even in his deteriorated state.

Serpens used data to train the worlds that were still alive.

‘That’s the Gate.’

As the Gates were created, the creatures of each planet unleashed their latent abilities to survive. On Earth, they became the Awakened, the Hunters.

Many worlds were destroyed in the process, but it didn’t matter. Serpens’s emotions had long since eroded.

Seo-ah thought that emotions might wear out faster than the body.

Then one day, Chronos noticed a particular Earthling in one of the Gates.

She was a young woman with reddish-brown skin and an attractive, bright smile.

It was the first emotion Chronos had ever truly experienced. He had felt attached to individual living beings many times, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her, overwhelmed by an intense feeling.

The emotion he was experiencing for the first time was love.

‘The ghost of time is in love with a human…’

Seo-ah felt Chronos’s fluttering emotions and grew a little uneasy.

Chronos slowed down time in that Gate very subtly, watching her for as long as possible. He materialized in the Gate, talked to her, and even shared physical affection. The woman gave him the name ‘Chronos.’

His heart was captivated, and Chronos didn’t want to let her go.

So, he subtly interfered with the Gate’s capture, slowing down its progress. But the difficulty of the Gate, warped by distorted time, increased rapidly. In a moment when Chronos lost sight of the woman, she was killed by a monster.

【No…!】

He couldn’t accept it. Chronos forcibly reversed time without Serpens’s consent.

But for some reason, she was not present in the reversed timeline. Chronos despaired.

So, he turned time forward again each time Earth entered the destruction process. Seo-ah, who was watching this, wondered and looked at the old man.

“Then how is it that Hunter Yoo Ji-an remembers all those things? Why does only that person remember everything?”

“That person was the strongest on Earth. He was the human most likely to reach this place. So, Serpens and I were paying attention to him. But…”

Chronos stroked his grizzled beard and slowly continued.

“I didn’t return that person’s memories. I have neither the ability nor the reason to do so.”

“Then you’re saying Serpens, the system administrator, did it.”

“If it’s not me, it can only be him.”

Why would the system administrator do that? Seo-ah recalled Chronos’s memories and the emotions she felt from the system administrator simultaneously, trying to piece it together.

An existence that had lived as long as Chronos, but unlike Chronos, who was close to a divine being, Serpens was a living being with a finite lifespan.

His body had completely deteriorated, unable to maintain its shape. What could have sustained him until now?

What she felt from him was despair and disappointment. Disappointment in whom?

‘…Chronos.’

Chronos was now the only thing that mattered to Serpens: the god of time who granted his wish, the god who gave him eternal time and despair.

The object of love, hate, and awe.

He had seen that god tormented by a mere human from Earth, breaking taboos and turning back time.

‘Isn’t it disappointment in him?’

If Yoo Ji-an has memories and regresses, Yoo Ji-an becomes even stronger than before. The only use for the strengthened Yoo Ji-an to the system administrator is one thing.

‘Chronos’s death.’

The system administrator also wants Chronos to die.

‘Serpens also wants to escape now.’

Clunk.

The old man put down the empty teacup. Seo-ah had now confirmed everything, at least roughly, from Chronos and Serpens to what was happening on Earth.

Seo-ah looked at the intimacy level 4 written above his head and the remaining time. There were about 20 seconds left.

She had to solve it within 20 seconds. Otherwise, Seo-ah would grow old and die here like those who had gone before.

Thump, thump, thump.

In the slowly flowing time, Seo-ah heard her own heartbeat.