The World after the Fall

Jaehwan shook his head in confusion.

'What is he trying to say?'

"Or if I am not one of them, I don't have the right to believe in your world?"

The doctor's head was bleeding. It seemed like he struck his head as he fell. Before Jaehwan could say anything about it, the doctor spoke again.

"I'm sorry Jaehwan. It's all because of me. I ruined you. I destroyed your world and I dared to try to analyze it."

"Hey! Don't say anything! You are…"

The doctor continued however.

"But Jaehwan, in some way, that wasn't me. I wasn't the one who declared your world to be a delusion and connected it to your 'father' without consent. It wasn't my will…"

Jaehwan wanted to ask, 'Then what was it? If it wasn't your will, then what?'

"That is…"

The doctor's voice began fading as shouts erupted around them. Jaehwan shook the doctor's body so that he wouldn't faint and tried to listen to his voice. The doctor then came back to his senses. This time, Jaehwan asked the question he really wanted to ask.

"What should I do now?"

"…"

"There's nothing I can do in this world! I… what is this world? The reality… what is…"

"Jaehwan. You came here because you already know the answer."

The doctor smiled and looked up at the sky over Jaehwan's shoulder. It seemed like he was looking at something.

"It's a beautiful sky."

Jaehwan became dumbfounded for a second and asked in shock, "Do you see something?!"

"Huh? Yes. I see a sky."

"No, I mean… an eye for example or…"

"Eye? Haha, Jaehwan. There's nothing in this world's sky."

The doctor's mouth was shaking now.

"There is no Big Brother in this world."

A calm voice came with the despair but also faced the despair straight on.

"But there are others."

'Others?'

"Jaehwan. It's you who taught me the world. Chunghuh, Karlton, Runald, Cayman, Sirwen, Yoo Surha… all those people and the stories. It was you who told me that."

"…"

"Open your eyes. Your world still exists. It did not go anywhere. It stays within you."

The doctor bit his lips with a painful look on his face.

"Don't look at the world in other people's eyes. Use your own eyes. Look at it with your own eyes!"

My eyes.

"It's not a metaphor or symbolic words! It really exists! Jaehwan. That world really exists."

Jaehwan's body began to shake. The jolt started creeping up from the ends of his fingers to his body. With a familiar sensation, heat began to gather in his eyes.

Jaehwan closed his eyes.

Every sight within the world disappeared and only Jaehwan remained. In that silent darkness, Jaehwan focused.

'My sight. My lost eyes.'

And in the next moment, Jaehwan saw a strange circle-like shape appearing in his line of sight. It was a snake eating away at its own tail. Jaehwan knew that snake.

Ouroboros.

He heard the sound of something spinning fiercely. It was an old and familiar sensation.

-Yes.

-It's about time to start again.

Jaehwan opened his eyes slowly. Something was exploding inside him. Something was being born. It felt like the moment of his first Awakening when he was pulled away from the system.

The different universes began to overlap each other. This world was connecting to another world.

The doctor was right.

"Do you see it, Jaehwan? Are you seeing it?"

The doctor looked up to Jaehwan. The doctor who gave him confidence was now asking him again.

"Your world… it really existed. Doesn't it? Haha… I.. I wasn't wrong."

And then the doctor fainted. Jaehwan hauled the doctor up on his shoulder and looked around. The world was different now. There was no shouting, but there were hollow moans. It was all too familiar to Jaehwan.

'I see. So, you were protecting this world all this time after I abandoned it.'

And in the middle of the unique world where everything seemed to have fallen, Jaehwan finally felt deep relief. Yes, this was his world. It was the world that he had protected for 10 billion years. The world that declared the fall of every world. The world that brought salvation by giving up salvation.

This was the World After the Fall.