This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 663

I already knew it through my eyes, but the tree I felt through consciousness was enormous.

At the same time, it was so vast that it elicited a laugh that was almost nonsensical.

I thought it would be impossible to grasp multiple places at once, so I concentrated on one side, yet I still couldn’t see the end.

Just how far do the roots of this thing stretch?

‘Could it be…’

I hope there isn’t some ridiculous twist waiting that says the entire Heogye is one ‘tree.’

I didn’t want to believe that such a possibility existed, but at this point, I couldn’t dismiss it entirely.

Maybe it was because I started considering that as a possibility.

For the first time since I decided to take on this role, I felt my confidence shrink.

Confidence is something you can only display when the scale is reasonable; showing confidence in front of such absurdity would be sheer foolishness.

As the truth began to reveal itself more and more as time passed, I felt that such a situation was indicative of this fact, yet I had no intention of feeling discouraged or giving up.

After all… even if that were truly the case, I probably would still be fine.

If it’s her, Miss Almighty, even if her actions are annoying, she’s close to perfect when it comes to handling things, so she must have calculated for situations like this too.

So isn’t it logical to assign four people to a position where only one would suffice?

Thinking about how the strength of the entity we refer to as the Queen is practically an unknown, it instinctively feels like a rather inefficient move.

Could Miss Almighty, who can easily think of such things, really have been unaware of it?

Of course, she must have known.

Then, the fact that she put such a move into play means there was a reason it had to be that way… but what could that possibly be?

What on earth is she seeing that makes her leave five people down there?

As for now, I had no answer.

I couldn’t know right now, but… if I keep digging in like this, I’m sure I’ll find out eventually.

So, I pulled my concentration back up, which had nearly faltered for just a moment, and began pouring all my nerves into tracking the roots.

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【??? POV】

Since that ominous phrase that flowed out of the Queen’s mouth, and the shocking ‘realization’ that floated above Miss Almighty’s mental image, the dynamics of the battle had changed dramatically.

It was because the Queen altered her action pattern.

Ignoring everything else, she started focusing only on Miss Almighty, as if nothing else mattered.

What was emanating from the Queen’s attitude was an indescribably thick and sticky ‘obsession’ that surpassed anything else.

It’s only natural, but no one here could casually overlook a situation where they were openly disregarded by the enemy.

Strangely enough, this could also be seen as a sort of opportunity, and more people began to grit their teeth and rush in from every direction.

The issue was… despite all this determination to charge in, they were unable to deal any meaningful blows.

The reason was simple.

Every time they tried to unleash an attack that might wound the Queen, she would use the existence of the tree behind her as a shield.

To be more precise, she used the presence of those trapped inside it as a shield.

Everyone had joined the Expedition Team hoping for the honor this operation would grant, yet perhaps because they initially decided to protect justice from the villains called ‘Villains,’ and from monsters that devour humans, there was a sense that one of the eight members, excluding Miss Almighty—who had inadvertently become bait drawing the Queen’s attention—should have been willing to sacrifice themselves, yet none of them did.

Whether it was simply a matter of conscience or if they had become conscious of the other heroes beside them, I couldn’t tell, but that was the conclusion.

“Indeed… right after we arrived, we should have rescued the captured people.”

“Ugh… to take humans hostage…”

“They said they had ‘learned’ from humans, yet if this is the result of that learning…”

What if we had put all our effort into rescuing the people the moment we arrived?

Then, we wouldn’t be in such a tight spot.

There’s no guarantee that the rescue operation would have ended successfully, but at the very least, we would not find ourselves dragged along by the enemy’s intent in the current situation.

However, the Queen had already learned that we couldn’t possibly care about the presence of those trapped inside the tree and having learned that, executing a rescue operation now would be futile.

I couldn’t tell if she was deemed the most threatening among those present or if there were other reasons, but the Queen, who was focused solely on Miss Almighty, would undoubtedly shift her attitude the instant such a situation actually occurred.

‘Surely… didn’t she say something like there’s a way?’

‘Then why isn’t she doing anything?’

It was a vague situation that was difficult to decipher either way.

Naturally, the heroes’ gazes fell toward Miss Almighty as they found themselves stuck against a wall.

Thinking about it, it made perfect sense.

The reason we even carried out this operation in the first place was due to her.

She must have made some kind of plan that led everyone to support the operation…

‘Could it have been a bluff…?’

‘Or perhaps because of the Queen’s interference?’

To summarize, it was not a bluff.

Miss Almighty had a plan.

Until she witnessed the massive ceremony enveloping the entire Heogye, that was.

Her ability to inscribe ‘lies’ into reality with the content she desired.

That was the essence of the talent that many were curious about from Miss Almighty, and her original objective was to utilize that talent to successfully transport the people trapped inside the tree to the Forward Base, weaken the tree, and then cleanly eliminate both the empty husk of the tree and the Queen guarding it from this world.

It would have been a very simple task, just inscribing the lie ‘The people who were trapped inside the tree were safely rescued thanks to the efforts of the heroes of the Expedition Team.’ into reality.

It had definitely been that way until the moment the entity known as the ‘Queen’ began to catch on to something.

That’s the thing about lies.

If the opponent is unaware that it’s a lie, then it’s possible to fool them without any effort.

But if they somehow begin to suspect that it’s a lie?

It’s not just ineffective, but rather becomes utterly useless.

This was the first time I’d experienced a situation like this since I started believing myself to be a visionary.

And thus, I felt deep down how powerless I could become when my abilities ceased to function.

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“Is it really… all right?”

How many times have I asked that question now?

To be honest, I still didn’t get it.

It was impossible to know since I had given up counting once the number exceeded five.

Even though the same question had been repeated countless times since a while ago… I still couldn’t get irritated and tell my senior to stop asking.

After all… I understood precisely why she kept repeating the same question.

I could distinctly feel the sensation of a bead of sweat hanging precariously on my chin, then falling down onto my chest.

The presence of the droplets sliding down my cheeks was the same.

If I were standing in reality instead of Heogye right now, everyone would probably think, ‘Did she climb a mountain or something?’

That was how much cold sweat was pouring down my body.

It felt as if I had a severe case of indigestion.

Cold sweat, what I would call it, was flowing out from every part of my body, and somewhere inside my chest, I could feel an unsettling churn.

“I’m okay. I’m just a bit tired…”

It had been a long while since I walked for this long, and it was only because the terrain was so horrendous.

So there’s no need to worry so much.

I repeated the words I had already said multiple times to my senior once more.

No, it wasn’t directed at my senior.

It was directed at… myself.

Words uttered in an attempt to brainwash myself, yet still, the unease that had occupied my heart since earlier showed no signs of settling.

…I was anxious.

The level of anxiety was so much that it made me feel anxious.