Chapter 104: 7F Hidden (3)

“...Are you the Sage?”

I asked.

The old man replied,

“The world once called me by that name, yes.”

What exactly was this man?

It was a strange sensation.

Normally, my Sixth Sense allowed me to gauge at least a faint impression of how powerful an opponent was.

But from the Sage standing before me, I felt absolutely nothing.

It wasn’t as though he radiated danger, either...

I couldn’t tell.

Perhaps the difference between our levels was simply too vast.

Like in a wuxia novel, where a master who had reached an impossibly lofty realm gave off no presence whatsoever.

That was the usual cliché, wasn’t it?

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I reached the conclusion that there was nothing to lose by being polite.

I bowed my head in greeting.

The Sage chuckled.

“I am grateful that you chose to greet me rather than curse me. The Gates you passed through must have been quite treacherous.”

“Surely trials of that caliber are only natural if one wishes to obtain the Sage’s Treasure.”

In any case, the three people from before had all been nothing more than characters in a one-man performance staged by the Sage.

That meant the information I had heard from them was probably true.

It seemed safe to assume that obtaining the Sage’s Treasure was the condition for clearing this Hidden route.

Did that mean the final trial was over as well?

It would certainly be nice if it were.

“What is your reason for seeking the treasure?”

the Sage asked.

“...Because I wish to attain the truth?”

The Sage’s Treasure was supposed to reveal all the truths of the world, wasn’t it?

I offered what sounded like a reasonable answer, but the Sage said,

“If you do not answer honestly, you will not be able to obtain the treasure.”

What?

Could he see through lies?

I didn’t have any grand reason for wanting it.

I was simply trying to clear the floor.

“Honestly, I don’t have any particular reason. I’m merely a little curious about the treasure.”

There was no point mentioning the Tower.

He wouldn’t understand what I was talking about.

So I answered that way instead.

It was true that I had grown somewhat curious about what the Sage’s Treasure actually was.

Fortunately, my answer seemed to satisfy him, because the Sage nodded.

“One final trial remains.”

“...What kind of trial?”

“Anything.”

the Sage said.

“Name any trial you wish. However, I will not test luck, and I will determine the standard required to pass. You may challenge the trial as many times as you like.”

I tilted my head.

Any trial I wished...

I couldn’t help feeling a little bewildered.

“Then, for example, chess, or...”

The moment the words left my mouth, a chessboard and pieces appeared between the Sage and me.

The Sage took a seat.

“Black or white—which will you choose?”

“...White.”

I had only mentioned it in passing.

Still, since he had said I could challenge him an unlimited number of times, I sat down across from him.

I took white and made the first move.

I wasn’t bad at games like chess or go.

I had played them a fair amount in the past.

I was checkmated in thirty moves.

“...One more game.”

We played several more times.

Every time, I lost before we reached fifty moves.

I changed the conditions.

“Can we play with a time limit?”

“As you wish.”

“Then let’s limit each turn to one second.”

I intended to use Time Stop.

With only one second available, each move would have to be made instantly, with no time to think.

But for me, the amount of time available for thought was infinite.

The Sage smiled.

“Would one second not be too short?”

“I’m confident in my ability to play quickly.”

“Very well.”

[0:01]

A timer appeared in the air beside us.

The game began again.

The instant I moved a piece, the Sage responded just as quickly.

And yet the precision of his play did not diminish in the slightest.

“...”

Naturally, the result did not change either.

Another loss.

What was he?

An AI?

“...Can we switch to another game?”

“By all means.”

“Let’s play go.”

I wondered whether the Sage even knew how to play.

When he snapped his fingers, the chessboard transformed into a go board.

I took black and placed the first stone.

This game was also decided quickly.

I was dragged helplessly along, unable even to understand how I was losing until the match was already over.

I finally realized that the difference between the Sage’s skill and mine was unfathomable.

There was no way I could defeat him.

“...Do you happen to know gomoku?”

He had said I could challenge him an unlimited number of times.

Refusing to give up, I continued switching games.

Gomoku, flicking stones, even something as ridiculous as stacking go stones without allowing them to fall—I challenged the Sage at all of them.

The result?

A complete and utter rout every time.

My jaw hung open as I stared at the tower of go stones the Sage had built.

He had accomplished the seemingly miraculous feat of stacking more than twenty stones, once again demonstrating the vast gulf between us.

What the hell was this?

Was there anything the Sage couldn’t do?

Trying to find a game he might be bad at seemed pointless.

...Rather than competing with my mind, perhaps I should try using my body.

He had said anything was allowed, so a fight should count as well.

The problem was that I didn’t see much chance of winning that way either.

He was undoubtedly a far more powerful mage than I was.

“How about a contest using only our bodies, without magic?”

I hastily added,

“And killing is forbidden, of course.”

The Sage laughed, rose to his feet, and put some distance between us.

“I will not counterattack. If you manage to graze me even once, you will pass.”

It was an extremely generous condition.

But I interpreted it in the opposite way.

Tch.

Was this hopeless too?

He would only propose such a condition if he were completely confident that I couldn’t touch him.

Bang!

I kicked off the ground and lunged at the Sage.

The instant I reached out, believing I had finally caught him—

The Sage’s body blurred and vanished.

When I turned around, he was standing behind me.

“...Didn’t you just use magic?”

“I did not.”

Then what had that been?

Was he simply so fast that my eyes had failed to follow him?

I charged again.

This time, the Sage did not vanish.

Perhaps to prove that he wasn’t using magic, he dodged every one of my attacks while moving at roughly the same speed as me.

Even with Exaltation active, I chased him through the Cavern at full speed, but...

He remained just beyond my reach.

I couldn’t so much as brush the hem of his robe.

After running in circles around the Cavern for what felt like an eternity, I finally stopped to catch my breath.

...This wasn’t working.

It didn’t feel as though I was merely a little short of succeeding.

The difference between our abilities was obvious.

Considering the speed he had displayed when he first disappeared, he was still going easy on me.

When I looked at the Sage, his eyes curved into a smile.

He wasn’t even breathing heavily.

‘How am I supposed to beat him?’

My mind was useless against him.

My body was no better.

I called out to the Demon King.

‘Demon King, can you defeat that man with magic?’

The Demon King answered.

– Do you even need to ask?

‘Oh. Then could you perhaps—’

– I cannot defeat him.

‘What?’

– In my true body, perhaps. But how could I possibly win while trapped in this pathetic flesh? That one is no mere insignificant creature, either.

So even the Demon King couldn’t beat him.

– Think clearly. It is not that I lack the ability. Your worthless body is simply so wretched that—

I ignored the Demon King as he began throwing a fit.

Hah.

There was no answer here.

After thinking for a while, I opened my mouth.

If this didn’t work either, I had no idea what else I could use to defeat the Sage.

“Let’s have a memory test.”

The Sage nodded.

“I will display one thousand digits. If you memorize all of them before I do, you will pass the trial.”

The Sage waved his hand.

[124572305804329502589320323...]

An endless sequence of numbers appeared in the air.

I raised my hand.

“Hold on. Isn’t it unfair to hold a memory contest using numbers you presented yourself?”

“You believe I have already memorized their order? These numbers were generated randomly.”

I shook my head.

“Even so, I can’t help feeling suspicious. Instead of competing directly against you, could we conduct the trial in some other way?”

“Such as?”

“You set a time limit, Sage, and I’ll memorize every number before that time expires.”

This was the same Sage for whom even a one-second turn limit in chess had proven meaningless.

In a memory contest, he would probably declare that he had memorized everything the instant the match began.

The Sage readily agreed.

“Very well. How many seconds do you require?”

Would you listen to this man?

“...Seconds? To memorize a thousand digits, shouldn’t you give me at least several hours?”

I made a show of complaining, even though there was no real need.

The Sage laughed.

“At that point, it would hardly qualify as a trial. I will give you one hundred seconds.”

“Haah... That’s brutal.”

I restrained myself from laughing.

Internally, I was cheering.

‘I’ve won.’

The truth was, it didn’t matter how much time he gave me.

I carefully managed my expression so that I wouldn’t seem suspiciously confident.

[100]

A separate timer appeared.

At the same time, the sequence changed to a new set of numbers.

“I will begin.”

The moment the Sage spoke, I stopped time.

The Demon King sneered.

– What an underhanded wretch.

‘This counts as a skill too.’

Besides, the Sage was far more underhanded than I was.

A memory test was one thing, but expecting someone to memorize a thousand digits in one hundred seconds?

Was that even remotely reasonable?

Within the frozen world, I began committing the numbers to memory.

‘52839472...’

I remembered trying to memorize the digits of pi when I was a child.

I had managed around a hundred digits, hadn’t I?

This was ten times that amount.

I had no idea how long it would take.

Would several days be enough to memorize everything perfectly?

My victory was already guaranteed, but an unbearably tedious ordeal of memorization had just begun.

‘Demon King.’

– What?

‘Why don’t you memorize them with me?’

– Have you lost your mind? Memorize them yourself.

If he helped, we could divide the work and cross-check each other afterward.

But apparently, that was too much to ask.

In any case, I continued drilling the digits into my head.

I had no idea how much time passed.

‘...1231289924585...’

All right.

Done.

After memorizing the entire sequence and checking it several times, I finally allowed time to resume.

I deliberately waited until the timer had nearly run out.

“I’ve memorized them all.”

I spoke to the Sage with an exhausted expression.

It wasn’t an act.

I genuinely felt as though I was going to die of boredom.

Damn it...

The Sage waved his hand, and the numbers disappeared.

“Recite them.”

“5283947212525110...”

I began rattling off the sequence.

I recited all one thousand digits without forgetting a single one.

“...Was that all correct?”

I felt a little nervous.

If I had made even one mistake, I would have to memorize the entire sequence again from the beginning.

Clap, clap, clap...

The Sage smiled and applauded.

“Correct.”

“...”

“Congratulations. You have passed the final trial.”

It was a rather restrained celebration.

More importantly, there was something strange about the Sage’s behavior.

It was almost as though he had known from the beginning that I would pass.

As if this were nothing more than a formality he was obligated to complete.

The Sage waved his hand again.

The surroundings changed.

The dark Cavern transformed into an enormous library.

“Follow me.”

I looked around in surprise before following the Sage.

We climbed endlessly along a spiraling staircase.

“All my life, I have explored the world. By a fortunate twist of fate, I defied even the destiny imposed upon those born mortal. For an immeasurable span of time, I have devoted myself without rest to filling the gaps in my knowledge. There is no greater joy than learning what one did not know before.”

the Sage said as we walked.

The stiffness that had marked his earlier speech had vanished.

There was now a sense of vitality in his voice.

For a moment, the subtle change felt strangely out of place.

Then the Sage stopped and pulled a single book from one of the shelves.

It was a thick volume with no title.

When he opened it, every page was completely blank.

‘...Is there still more?’

When exactly was he going to give me the Sage’s Treasure?

Just as the thought crossed my mind, the Sage ran his hand across the empty page.

Fwarararack!

A powerful current of air erupted around us.

“...!”

The library trembled.

There was no other way to describe it.

The books lining the shelves pulled themselves free and began floating through the air.

Letters poured from their pages and streamed toward the book in the Sage’s hands.

Every last one was absorbed into it.

Whoooosh...

The storm of letters gradually subsided.

The book that had once been blank was now filled with dense lines of text.

The Sage closed it.

“This is the Sage’s Treasure.”

“...”

“Every truth in the world is contained within this single volume.”

Overwhelmed, I nodded blankly.

More importantly, was something like this really the reward for clearing a single Hidden route?

“Well? What truth do you wish to learn from it?”

the Sage asked.

A truth I wanted to know.

Naturally, there were plenty of things I was curious about.

For example, the Tower.

I wanted information about the Nightmare floors I would have to clear in the future.

I also wanted to know what awaited me if I climbed all the way to the top.

But there was no chance the book could tell me anything like that.

No matter how grandly it was described as containing every truth in the world, this was ultimately still just part of clearing a single floor.

It was nothing more than a theatrical stage prepared by the Tower.

“Does that book also reveal the Tower’s true identity?”

I asked half-jokingly.

He wouldn’t understand the question anyway.

I merely wanted to see how he would react.

But then—

“Of course.”

“...What?”

I flinched and stared at the Sage.

The Sage looked back at me with a smile.

“Kim Seo-hyeon, currently attempting the Hidden route of the seventh floor on Nightmare difficulty. The truth you desire is contained within this book as well.”

He held the volume out before him.

“Do you wish to learn the Tower’s true identity?”