The World After the Fall

"What is?"

"Why are you against Rupture? They are still bent on defeating Big Brother. It doesn't change even if they are working with the Lords right now. You have no reason to stop them."

Surha flinched. Those words were something she had not heard from Anonymous during the past 3 months. He was asking a new kind of 'question' to her. She felt anticipation and concern at the same time and answered, "…The master cannot defeat Big Brother."

Anonymous then realized something quickly.

"Is that your [Premonition]?"

"Yes. The one you created for me."

"You know it's not certain."

"…But it's usually right."

Anonymous then thought for a bit.

"Even if you are right, that's not enough."

"…Not enough?"

"Even if Master cannot defeat the Big Brother, that doesn't give you a reason to leave Rupture."

"…"

"The Master is one of the only few beings who can see Big Brother. Even if you have seen the Premonition… he is the only chance against Big Brother…"

That's when Anonymous glanced at her. For the first time, he laughed.

"You saw a different hope."

"…Don't change the subject."

"Who is it? The new hope?"

"It's not important. What's important is to stop Rupture. We cannot have unnecessary sacrifices."

"Unnecessary sacrifice…"

Anonymous said, "You sound very 'human' like."

"Yeah, I was surprised that I was still a human."

"Interesting."

Anonymous chucked and said, "I knew that the Master will not defeat Big Brother. I too have the Premonition. He will instead choose to become a ruler of [Depth] instead of defeating Big Brother."

"You knew! Then why…"

"But we have no reason to stop him from doing that."

"What?"

"If we don't destroy Big Brother and the System, nothing will change. As you know, Big Brother is a monster that not even the Master can defeat. I am not sure what 'hope' you have seen, but no one can defeat Big Brother. No one."

Surha flinched at the certainty of Anonymous's words and what despair it held. He continued, "And whether it be the Master, the 8 Gods of [Depth], or anyone else… the Master of [Depth] always changes. It's just a part of a great cycle. It's not the first time a mass massacre has happened within [Depth]. It is just another incident from history."

"And you will just watch it happen?"

"Nothing will change anyway."

"It will! As long as we don't give up, the world can change! It's not too late! We stop Rupture and grow stronger. And when we do, we fight Big Brother, and…!"

Surha was shocked by her own voice — she was surprised that she had such passion within her still. How had she had found such hope, when was she always trapped within her despair? Surha knew the answer but tried to not think about it. Anonymous laughed.

"Seems like your 700 years wasn't long enough."

"…"

"But you will know if you live tens of thousands of years. There is despair too long to hope for a change."

"Dammit. You sound like my friend."

Surha remembered her friend Adel who she met for the last time when she left Rupture — a friend who refused to leave with her. He too had the same eyes as Anonymous right now. But Anonymous' expression turned weird.

"Friend? Friend…"

"…Huh?"

Surha became confused and Anonymous smiled, "Actually, I had a friend who talked exactly like you."

"Me? Like me?"

"Yes. There was a friend."

Did he have a friend? Surha did not ask, but she listened to his story.

"There was a Nightmare who came to me once. We wanted a similar world and became good friends. He was a unique one, however. He was a Nightmare, but he talked against the [Cultivation]. He also considered himself a criminal who made a tower."

"…A Nightmare who was against Cultivation?"

"He talked just like you. That the world can change if we don't give up…"

Surha realized who this 'Nightmare' probably was. Before she could speak, Anonymous continued, "He was a Nightmare, but he was more powerful than any of the Gods I knew. He was only one who collected two [Parts] of Three Ancient Gods.

Two of them? Was he such a powerful Nightmare? Surha couldn't believe it.

"This part is not widely known. Hundreds of years ago, he had the same goal as what Myad has now. And he left for the [Nest] to Big Brother alone."

"So? What happened then?"

"Don't you know what happened? It happened hundreds of years ago. No one heard of him coming back. The world did not change."

The world did not change. It was apparent what that meant. Even the being who had hands on two [Parts] of the Ancient Three Gods failed to hunt Big Brother. Surha then suddenly came to realize the depth of the despair that Anonymous faced. This poor old God had given up on all hope when the Nightmare failed. He had accepted the fact that nobody could change this world forever.

"But… but…"

"If no one can defeat Big Brother, then it doesn't matter who becomes the master of [Depth]. It doesn't matter."

Surha became hopeless at the voice. She couldn't fight back her hopes against such giant despair. She felt like her hopes were nothing against such failures and foresight.

He was right. No matter who became the master of [Depth], it wasn't going to change anything if the System was still there. History would repeat and she was just a small particle within the history.

"But…"

But she was human. She existed here as a human and stood here as a human.

That's why she had to defend herself. However, she couldn't think of what she had to say.

That's when an explosion came from outside. Powerful world power was pressing down on the entire palace. Surha became pale.

"I told you! They are here already! They…"

But it was faster than expected. She heard that the 2nd site was going to go down soon, but she guessed it might take more time for Rupture to come to the 7th site. She took out her weapon, Thunder Demon. There was no choice but to fight.

At next moment, the door to the Throne Room burst open and a man and a boy appeared.

"Whoa, Jaehwan you're so bomb!"

There was the voice of a noisy boy and the man. Surha was shocked.

"You… You… How did you…?!"

It was impossible for him to be here. No, he couldn't be here. Why was he here?

"It's been a while."

And there was her hope.