The Tutorial Is Too Hard

Although something terrible had happened in the evening, Yong-yong fell asleep peacefully at bedtime, although I forgot to sing a lullaby to him. As I stared at Yong-yong, his sleeping figure began to remind me of an angel.

[Our Yong-yong is far better than an angel. Have you ever seen an angel?] Ho-jae commented.

No, it’s just a feeling, and I was using that feeling as a reference. What are you talking about?

I got up from the bed and walked to the window. Sitting in a small chair in front of the window, I could see people on the street. Even though it was late at night, people still roamed around, and the city was bustling with life. The number of people remaining in the Tutorial had reduced. I thought that this tournament was a massive comfort festival for people.

Attacking a stage with a small number of people made you feel like you were getting closer to the outside world. I could sense the feeling of leaving home for the first time and facing the world. There were many good things, but there were also bad ones. In that sense, today had been a very mentally exhausting day.

“So, what the hell is Cause?”

[Yong-yong explained it to you earlier.]

But I hadn’t understood Yong-yong had gently explained Cause and Effect. Even though I couldn’t understand the concept at all, I didn’t mention it to Yong-yong, who had taught it for a long time. I just pretended I understood everything and moved on.

[That’s what I keep telling you to study.] Ho-jae had been nagging me for the whole day. [My explanation is not that different anyway. Who did Yong-yong learn from in the first place?]

“Sure... but explain it to me in an easier way. Does it make sense that I don’t know much about myself? I should know better.”

Ho-jae laughed at my words and said, [What do you know? How many people in the world know about themselves? You don’t need to think much. I know you don’t care much about Cause and Effect. If you did, you would have studied that earlier. You care because everyone has it, but in reality, you’re not the only one who isn’t bound by Cause and Effect.]

What a rotten fellow. He just spat out whatever he wanted in a roundabout manner.

“Yes, but why am I the only one who isn’t affected by Cause and Effect? I asked because I was curious about that!”

I was angry. Yong-yong might hear it and wake up, so I quieted my voice. The understanding of Cause and Effect was an essential problem to me, so Ho-jae’s nonchalant attitude infuriated me.

[Hold on, it’s not great that everyone else has it. It’s great that you aren’t bound by it. And to be exact, it’s not that you’re completely excluded.]

“Is that a good thing, then?”

[Of course, some gods would go crazy if they knew. Do you think that the gods invested their power into you for nothing?]

I was glad that it wasn’t bad. However, the desire to know more about Cause and Effect remained unchanged.

“Please explain it in detail.”

[Easy enough for you to understand?]

“Yes.”

[If you need to solve a problem, it’s necessary to look at its Cause and Effect. It would be easier to look at the result of the Cause. Let me elaborate; for example,] Ho-jae began to explain. [Your friend Seok-hyeon. The result, which was you meeting him today, required you both to have a conversation and get closer, which in other words could be considered a cause.]

That’s right.

[Of course, this fundamental Cause applies to you. If it didn’t apply, you wouldn’t be able to be on the same level as the others in the first place. The important thing is that Cause exists as a law.]

“A law?”

[Yes. The Cause is one of the laws of the universe, like time. Time cannot be rewound in 100 seconds or 100 million seconds. In the same way, the Cause and Effect applied in that way to Yong-yong’s magic....]

“I don’t understand.”

Ho-jae told me to shut up. After a while, he growled out, [You’ll be forced to study when you return. Anyway, I’ll give you another example of this. People usually don’t exist in two spaces at the same time. Likewise, a person cannot walk outside the house while washing dishes inside the house at the same time. Because they only have one body.]

No, it was possible to do that like Lee Yeon-hee, who had come to the tent this evening. It was possible if she had divided herself and made a clone, and rumour had it that Lee Yeon-hee’s body had already gone beyond the Earth’s zone to an alien server. Earlier, Park Jung-ah that Lee Yeon-hee left her clone here before moving on.

[I’m explaining it with a simple example that makes it easier for you to understand. Don’t think any further. And Lee Yeon-hee’s clone is no different than her taking a clump of her hair and sending it elsewhere. Ultimately, there’s only one existence.]

As Ho-jae spoke, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

[A man’s consciousness cannot exist in both the future and the past. Consciousness can’t exist at two different times at the same time. The basic premise of this problem is Cause. It tells why the awareness of one from the future and the past must be different.]

Hearing what Ho-jae said, I was silent for a moment. I needed time to check if what I understood was right.

When the number of people on the street decreased one by one, and the bustling street became quiet, I finally concluded: if ten years ago, when Seok-hyeon had not yet entered the Tutorial, and he had been a little baby, could he and I meet? That was impossible. Not only was I not born then, but I also had no connection with Seok-hyun.

If I went back in time now, it was possible to find Seok-hyeon and get to know his past version. That would create a Cause.

But I could not meet Seok-hyeon from 10 years ago when I had never met him, gotten close to him, or even been born yet. It was just, of course, impossible. But was I not saying the same? I asked Ho-jae.

[You can’t make the impossible possible by creating a Cause and Effect when you were not even born. Well, maybe you could if you were above my level, but I doubt it. It’s just that when Cause and Effect are tampered with, you are unaffected.]

Now I thought about space, not time. Earlier, Ho-jae said that people could not exist in two places at the same time.

Lee Yeon-hee broke this law by cloning herself. Ho-jae had said it was no different from pulling out a lock of her hair and sending it elsewhere. If you added flesh, and ability to a lock of hair, you could make a clone. As a result, Lee Yeon-hee did not exist in two places as two beings. Instead, she had divided herself and occupied two areas at the same time.

That didn’t seem to break the law. It was challenging to organize my thoughts because of the variable magic. It was rather a hindrance to grasp the concept at my level because it was a type of magic meant to defy the law in the first place.

Let’s think of space differently.

If there were Heaven and Hell, man would not exist in two places at the same time. Whether divided by magic or not, his existence would be only one, and it would be sent to only one place.

There was one more place besides Heaven and Hell. When Ho-jae was on the 61st floor, Ho-jae had to exist at the same time in two places. His consciousness in one place would not be the same as the other.

“You’re there, but you are also here.”

[Huh?]

“If your body is my body, and you and I are the same, then this shouldn’t be possible.”

It might have sounded somewhat out of the blue, but instead of asking what it meant, Ho-jae remained silent. The silence made me feel worse.

“In the end, the Cause needed to meet Seok-hyeon was something added on its own when I was made.”

I lowered the curtain on the window, which only reflected the empty streets, and went to bed.

[Uh- well. That-]

“Too noisy, I’m going to bed.”

Ho-jae apologized profusely, but I covered myself in a blanket and pretended to be asleep, but sleep didn’t come to me. I resented the fact that Ho-jae knew I was not sleeping and was listening to his apology. It was the worst day ever.

* * * * * *

Today, I decided not to go out and instead, rested at the dorm. Yong-yong went out a few times. After lunch, when I was eating the apple Baek Sung-woong had peeled for me, Park Jung-ah came to the room.

“A face-to-face talk?” Park Jung-ah nodded.

Everyone had been busy and distracted for the past few days. If I remembered right, Park Jung-ah had been hiding somewhere in the corner and spending time alone, but others must have been busy.

“I’ve been playing around in the market. I had been blocking the requests for a long time, but now I’ve got so many requests, I’m a little burdened.”

It seemed that she hadn’t gone to the market today. Who wanted to meet me? I asked Park Jung-ah about that.

“There’s a lot of people. The national government, a corporation, a guild, a mercenary group, religious people, and more. Not only from Korea but from all over the world. Funnily enough, Korea has the least number of requests.”

Perhaps the reason why Koreans had the least requests was because of Ho-jae. Koreans would have heard more stories about Ho-jae than people from other countries.

“Well, what should I do?” I asked.

“Do as you please. I don’t care.”

“I’ll come with you then.”

I wondered what kind of story the Order of Vigilance would tell and what kind of proposal they would come up with. Of course, Ho-jae wouldn’t mind what they suggested, but I was different. It was like a chance to get a glimpse of Earth’s situation, so I was interested.

“Uh... will you?”

“Yes. Yong-yong, will you play with Baek Sung-woong?”

“No, I want to go too!”

I didn’t think it was something to be so happy about. Somehow I felt like only middle-aged office workers would come to meet me there—no offence to Baek Sung-woong.

“Then we’ll help you with the interview or something. There are quite a few things to help out with,” Park Jung-ah said.

“Yes, please.”

Park Jeong-ah briefly asked for understanding and sent a message to the Order of Vigilance. I kind of felt that she was excited.

“So you’re not thinking of going over to another server?” Park Jung-ah asked with sparkling eyes.

I think she liked the fact that she had work to do. Somehow, I couldn’t match the memory of her complaining to Ho-jae about not helping her with work every time.

“Other zones?”

“Yes. We are in the Earth zone. There are conferences on a global scale, and people come from alien servers.”

“I want to go!” Before I could answer, Yong-yong raised his hand and shouted.

<Tournament Chapter (11)> End

Note from Imagine: Now it involves time manipulation when in the last chapter it was stated Yong-yong didn’t reverse time...