What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 799

Deus Ex Machina (1)

“…What are you doing here?”

That was the first question I blurted out.

You….

“…What are you doing here…”

I couldn’t think of any other sentence.

My mind was a blank slate, utterly empty.

The frantic pounding of my broken heart and my ragged breaths felt like a giant’s hand strangling me, suffocating me instead of saving me.

I was on the verge of passing out.

At this rate, I felt like I might suffocate here, alone.

Then ‘that kid’ said…

[Huh? I’ve been here all along.]

“…”

She said it in a slightly whiny voice.

Her eyes were red, confirming that she had indeed been crying.

I didn’t even consider getting up; I just blinked, still seated.

My temples felt heavy and throbbed.

“You’ve been here, all along…?”

[I’ve been here from the very beginning. Just 쭉 (jjuk – Korean onomatopoeia for ‘all along’).]

“…”

That kid was shrinking her huge body, a body as massive as a high-rise building in Teheran-ro [a major business district in Seoul], just for me.

Now, I was desperately trying to form another sentence, my lips trembling terribly.

First, I need to understand the situation. I need to properly process what’s going on.

The tiny sliver of reason in the back of my mind kept whispering that.

But it wasn’t easy at all.

I couldn’t muster any strength, and even standing was difficult and overwhelming.

I staggered like a newborn animal, barely managing to stay upright.

Then that kid, Jeong Eun-seo, looked down at me and frowned.

[Are you okay? Do you need help?]

“…”

It was a tone I had heard so often throughout my life that it felt as familiar as my favorite clothes or a well-worn sofa.

That was the expression the youngest made whenever she worried about our brothers.

My heart was doing somersaults for what felt like the hundredth time today.

I put my bloody finger under Tete’s nose.

I could clearly feel the baby’s warm breath. Only then did my mind cool down, as if by magic.

“That…”

No matter what happens, I have to protect this kid.

Then I can’t afford to be spacing out like this right now.

That thought breathed strength into my trembling legs.

“Are you… are you really Jeong Eun-seo?”

[…]

I finally managed to form a coherent sentence.

I gritted my teeth and looked straight up at the huge being.

The girl looked like she was wondering what kind of question that was. It was a familiar expression.

[Why are you asking something like that? Why are you suddenly acting so strange?]

“What’s Jeong Hyeon-seo’s favorite side dish? One, two…”

[Stir-fried seaweed stems.]

“What’s my major? One…”

[Law. But you didn’t want to make your older brother suffer, so you didn’t take the bar exam and got a job right away.]

“What about you signing up for three months of exercise with Auntie recently and only going twice?”

[Flying yoga. But I transferred the remaining sessions to Auntie.]

“…”

[…Why are you really like this? I’m getting a little scared.]

Jeong Eun-seo shrugged and mumbled. I was taken aback by that all-too-familiar attitude.

I almost tripped over my own feet and fell straight down….

-Thud!

“…Ah.”

That kid found a chair and sat down. Just like that.

Really, just like that. As if it were nothing.

“…”

[Why, again? Are you going to sit in your sister’s seat because you’re tired? Pig.]

The youngest still clicked her tongue in a worried tone.

I blankly blinked and looked at the chair in question.

It had a pink pig-shaped cushion, and the backrest had the checkered blanket that she had worn around her waist for three years of high school….

“…”

For a moment, my mind became distant, and my memory reached out through the fog to pull out a clue from the past.

‘…This.’

‘-Please sit down, Prince.’

‘Why is this here.’

That day. The day Sir Johann Haynes tried to kill me to save his young son.

‘How do you know this? Why is this here?’

The Ark of Shinmool Biryeom embraced me and saved me, and I met the guide ‘Nikki’ there.

He showed off his ability to transform into various human forms and said that he knew a very special secret.

‘-That is also a clue from the Main God.’

‘Explain properly. This is my sister’s thing. I have the right to know.’

Most of the people he could imitate were clues from the Main God.

He explained to me, soothing me with a kind and friendly voice.

Christel, Cedric, Benjamin….

‘-A clue refers to a fragment containing the principles of the world. It is a piece that holds the secret of creation and circulation.’

But that chair was different.

‘-That object is a clue deeply intertwined with the mysteries of this place. But I don’t know anything else about it.’

…Ah.

“From the beginning…”

[What? You’re too small, I can’t hear you well.]

Eun-seo said, leaning her ear closer. For a moment, I felt dizzy and my vision spun.

My stomach was churning as if I was about to throw up.

I stubbornly moved and stood firmly on the floor with both feet.

It’s okay. This much is okay.

Probably.

“Oh…”

-Whoooooooo…

No, wait a minute. This isn’t the floor….

“…Gasp, ah…!”

Pearly white….

-Oooooooo…

“…”

In a white and infinite space resembling the ‘Pure White Interstellar’, a universe dotted with black spots unfolded.

I finally sat down on my butt and slumped back.

However, deep shock and shallow fear were consuming my mind rather than pain.

The sight flowing before my eyes was very strange and mysterious.

This seemed like a reversed image of the black universe and white stars that everyone knows.

“That’s…”

-Gooooooo…

Beneath my distant feet, a galaxy of densely packed black stars flowed.

From above my distant crown, a white hole was swirling and sucking in all the surrounding black ink.

Also, on that side, a black dwarf star with several satellites was slowly orbiting something.

In addition, behind Eun-seo, a magnificent nebula was draped like a curtain, with an irregular beauty as if someone had spilled purplish-black graphite powder.

And as if to prove that it was a living universe, none of them were fixed in place.

Slowly, but everyone was leaving on a long journey somewhere.

I grabbed my churning chest and slowly moved my gaze.

The clothes soaked in Eliser’s blood were still giving off a strong smell of blood.

-Saaaaaaa…!

“…”

What I discovered last was the golden halo that was dazzlingly illuminating Eun-seo’s head and shoulders.

I had seen many religious paintings while traveling all over the continent, but I had never seen such a large and splendidly drawn halo.

I wondered how I hadn’t noticed this until now….

“…Jeong Eun-seo.”

[Oh my gosh. Why are you calling me so seriously?]

“Are you the god of this place?”

No, I didn’t even need to hear the answer. Jeong Eun-seo was definitely the Main God of this world.

The answer had already been given since the day Dduk-ssim gave me the clue for the first time.

It’s just that I didn’t understand.

Of course, Mom made the framework of and Jeong Hyeon-seo added the flesh, but this place was already a world line independent from Toegye-gong.

Then maybe, is this the world in Jeong Eun-seo’s fanfic….

[God, what are you talking about? What’s with the chuunibyou (Japanese slang for “middle schooler’s disease,” referring to someone with delusions of grandeur)?]

“…What?”

Wait a minute. Why is the reaction like this?

“…Hey, are you embarrassed? It’s okay. I’m your brother. You can just be honest. If you are the god who created this place, the situation might be better….”

I blinked quickly and spoke in a nonchalant voice.

At least that’s how it sounded to me.

[No, really. What are you talking about?]

“…”

[…]

Our eyes met for ten seconds, maybe even more than thirty seconds.

As everyone in the world knows, it is virtually impossible to exchange such glances between siblings.

In short, Jeong Eun-seo had been telling the truth all along.

“Ha…”

Clearly, things seemed to be going wrong.

I looked around again at the background of this place, which was extraordinary to say the least, and at Eun-seo’s halo.

And I recalled the situation just before I fell into this place.

“…The Main God summoning circle of the continent was activated, and as a result, you appeared. Right here.”

[Oh, is that what it is? I was wondering what was going on because the flow was suddenly cut off.]

“…”

[헐! (Heol – Korean exclamation of disbelief) Wait a minute. Then am I really the Main God?]

‘How?’ The nineteen-year-old widened her eyes.

Main God, oh my god. I reflexively tried to wash my face, but lowered my arm when I found Eliser’s bloodstains dried on my palm.

A sense of crisis washed over me like a tide. At this rate, the conversation will go nowhere.

“…Eun-seo. Eun-seo.”

[Ugh.]

“What do you remember last? Before you came here… Before we looked into our story, what were you doing?”

[Sleeping?]

“Lying in bed? At night?”

[Yeah.]

…No way….

“Before that?”

I asked sharply.

A unique sense that I had caught a clue instantly awakened my brain and forcibly awakened my tired body.

Of course, there is no way to calm the jumping heart.

[Before that?]

“Once, this was cut off. When Oppa was stabbed in the body of Prince Yeseo. The culprit was Werner Venetian.”

[…Crazy, did that happen? When did that bastard…]

The child’s complexion darkened rapidly. She looked like she couldn’t remember at all.

Her halo seemed to weaken a little, as if she was not confident, and her dry shoulders seemed to shrink.

I tried to calm down and urged my sister in a low voice.

“Think carefully. In the neutral zone desert, you sang a lot of your favorite Disney numbers….”

[…Ahhhhh!]

-Clap!

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, Jeong Eun-seo clapped her hands and jumped up from her chair. Whoooo! I was thrown out by the tremendous aftershock.

Hugging the sleeping baby, I rolled through the universe several times, and almost had a major accident colliding with a pen-nib meteor.

Only after hurriedly checking that Tete was safe could I raise my head.

“Ugh…”

[I remember, that’s right! That’s what happened! I was so excited at that time…!]

The youngest, who was very excited, got up from her seat and was gesturing at the universe.

At that moment, I witnessed the child’s forehead shining darkly in purplish-black.

No, to be exact, it was some kind of pattern….

-Jiiiiiing…

“Jeong-eun, what’s that on your forehead… Ah.”

…The downward arrow pattern.

The symbol of the ‘Main God Church’, which I had encountered several times in religious facilities such as temples and confessionals.

But looking up at it from a distance like this, suddenly….

[Listen, you know. I originally liked Toegye-gong. There’s only one musical episode in the original work, and the readers were strongly divided, so the writer never wrote it again, right?]

-Jiiiiing…

The arrow is becoming clearer and clearer as if it were stamped, and it shines clearly as if it has done some kind of ‘work’.

[Honestly, it’s not like it’s a novel with four or five hundred episodes, and I didn’t want the writer’s continuous reading to drop, so I was just satisfied with having fun once. But…!]

-Jiiiiiiing…

A sharp sense of déjà vu washes over me. I have definitely seen that special character somewhere.

Certainly….

‘Work introduction’

‘⤓ Download complete.’

In that app.

-Jiiiiiiing…!

-Pajijijit! Pajijijik!

At that time, purple sparks flew and Jeong Eun-seo’s figure was blurred like a broken TV screen.

I was horrified and jumped forward right away.

“Jeong Eun-seo! Jeong Eun-seo! Are you okay…!”

[Ah, I liked that too so much!]

…Huh? The run stopped abruptly.

[Personally, I didn’t really like the original musical episode. But is it because it’s a dream? I felt excited and good for no reason.]

“…Who…”

It was a completely unfamiliar person that I had never seen before.

She felt much older than Eun-seo and was wearing a white blouse and slacks.

However, she also had the symbol of the Main God Church on her forehead….

-Jiiiiiiing!

“Excuse me…”

[…I cried and cried and cried so much to save our Yeseo because I was sad that he died, but he died again in my dream. I really went to a coin karaoke [a small, inexpensive karaoke room] at two in the morning. No joke.]

“Gasp, what, what is…”

I pounded my chest with my fist to somehow let out the rising breath.

But my respiratory system seemed to be completely out of order.

The woman wearing a loose T-shirt and jeans suddenly disappeared before my eyes. Again.

-Pajijijik!

[…I thought that was an inevitable flow. I’m a little careful, but anyway, because of that death, our Yeseo realized his feelings for his friends? Did his feelings get deeper? I definitely felt that way.]

“Gasp, pant…”

Next is a student in a school uniform.

-Pajijijit!

[…Sometimes it’s boring, but overall it’s my taste. The kids are so lovely and the gods are so cute. It’s the only healing in my life, so I keep watching it… These days, I wonder if this is really healing…]

-Papapapat!

[I sometimes get confused whether this is a gyro drop or a web novel [referring to the ups and downs of the plot].]

“No, until when, stop…”

-Pasusssut!

[But in the end, will the three of them live together?]

-Pacheutcheutcheut!

“Stop, everyone stop! What suddenly…!”

Working mom, college student, job seeker, part-timer, test taker….

Numerous faces shining with their own stories like the stars of the universe.

“I know, so stop now, stop and give me back Jeong Eun-seo!”

-Pachichit!

[Too]

-Papapat!

[Like]

-Pacheutcheut!

[Keep]

-Chichichik!

[Reading]

“Hey―!”

I was scared and my voice trembled, and my hands and feet were cold and stiff as if I was about to collapse.

It was at that moment.

「Please calm down.」

-Kagagagang!

With an unpleasant noise of a sharp blade scraping against a meteorite―

[…Ah, I was so excited that I talked like an otaku [a person with obsessive interests, commonly anime and manga related]. again. Sorry.]

“Huff, cough, cough cough! Huff, cough…”

Finally, everything returned to ‘normal’.

In front of my eyes, the large Jeong Eun-seo was sitting again. And….

「…Welcome, precious one.」

“…”

And those damn three sisters of probability too.

I gnashed my teeth as I looked at the scythe held in the hand of one of them.