Chapter 754: The man behinnd the shadows

The night over the capital had become strangely quiet.

Far below the penthouse of Tech Genesis, countless lights illuminated the city like stars scattered across the earth. Flying carriages moved between towering buildings while adventurers returned from guild commissions, merchants closed their stores, and people laughed beneath the glowing streets without realizing that somewhere above them, a single message had changed someone’s fate.

Zero stood silently before the glass window.

The communicator in his hand remained lit.

Only one sentence was displayed.

Come alone. Midnight. Do not bring anyone.

No name.

No location.

Just a coordinate attached beneath the message.

Zero had already memorized it.

His crimson eyes remained fixed on the distant horizon while fragments of memories continued surfacing within his mind.

Not memories of Edolas.

Another world.

A world filled with impossibly tall buildings reaching into the clouds.

Metal machines raced across black roads.

People carried small glowing devices in their hands instead of mana crystals.

A blue planet hanging in darkness.

Earth.

The moment that vision appeared earlier, Zero’s head nearly split apart from the flood of unfamiliar memories. Yet strangely... they didn’t feel unfamiliar.

They felt like something he had lost.

His fingers slowly tightened around the communicator.

"Earth..."

The word escaped his lips unconsciously.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then another fragment flashed across his mind.

A room.

Dark curtains.

Several computer monitors illuminating a desk.

Lines of code rapidly appearing across countless screens.

A young man typing with unbelievable speed.

His own hands.

Zero immediately closed his eyes.

The vision disappeared.

His breathing became steady again.

"...Who exactly was I?"

Ever since awakening after defeating Aamon, pieces of another life had begun emerging one after another. At first they were meaningless images, but now they carried emotions.

Loneliness.

Curiosity.

Obsession.

The excitement of solving impossible problems.

Those feelings belonged to someone who loved technology.

Someone who definitely wasn’t born in Edolas.

A soft knock echoed behind him.

"Lord Zero?"

Aidan’s voice came from outside.

Zero placed the communicator into his pocket.

"Come in."

The door opened as Aidan entered while carrying several documents. Behind him were two Rank S guards who immediately stopped outside the room before closing the door.

Aidan smiled lightly.

"I finished reviewing this month’s reports. Tech Genesis officially surpassed another Diamond Guild in commercial revenue."

He placed the documents on the table proudly.

"The gaming division alone exceeded expectations. The communication device project is also spreading into three neighboring kingdoms."

Normally Zero would have simply nodded.

Tonight...

His attention wasn’t there.

Aidan noticed almost immediately.

His smile gradually disappeared.

"...Did something happen?"

Zero turned around.

"Someone sent me a message."

Aidan raised his eyebrow.

"An assassination threat?"

"I don’t know."

Zero removed the communicator and handed it over.

Aidan carefully read the message.

His expression instantly became serious.

"No sender identification..."

He examined the mana signature embedded within the message.

After a moment his eyes narrowed.

"...Strange."

"What?"

"The transmission didn’t come through any registered communication network."

Zero remained silent.

Aidan looked back toward him.

"That shouldn’t be possible. Every long-distance communicator operates through mana relay towers controlled either by kingdoms, guild associations, or private corporations."

He tapped the screen once more.

"But this message appeared directly inside your communicator without entering through any known relay."

Zero’s eyes slightly sharpened.

"So someone bypassed the system."

"Exactly."

Aidan returned the communicator.

"For someone to accomplish this, they’d either possess absurd technological knowledge..."

He paused.

"...or something beyond our understanding."

The room became quiet.

Technology.

That single word caused another headache.

A monitor.

Keyboard.

Programming language.

Earth.

Zero pressed his fingers against his temple.

Aidan immediately stepped forward.

"Zero?"

"I’m fine."

Although his voice remained calm, Aidan clearly noticed something was different.

"Should I investigate the coordinates?"

"No."

"Then I’ll send the Shadow Unit."

"No."

Aidan frowned.

"The message specifically tells you to come alone. That’s precisely why you shouldn’t."

Zero walked toward the coat hanging beside the entrance.

"If they wanted to kill me, they wouldn’t need such a complicated invitation."

Aidan sighed helplessly.

"That’s exactly the kind of reasoning that gets powerful people into trouble."

For the first time that evening, Zero smiled faintly.

"You’ve become quite bold."

"I’ve been managing your company for years. Someone has to lecture you."

That earned another slight smile.

Aidan folded his arms.

"At least tell Amelia or Mia."

Zero shook his head.

"No."

"Why?"

"If this is connected to what I saw..."

He stopped halfway through his sentence.

Aidan waited.

Zero slowly continued.

"...then involving others might only drag them into something they don’t understand."

Aidan stared silently at him.

He knew Zero well enough not to continue arguing.

Finally he stepped aside.

"I won’t stop you."

Zero opened the door.

"But..."

Aidan’s voice caused him to pause.

"...if you don’t return by sunrise, I’m ignoring your order."

Zero glanced back.

"Do whatever you think is necessary."

Then he disappeared into the hallway.

Midnight.

The coordinate led beyond the brightly illuminated capital.

Far from the bustling districts stood an abandoned industrial zone once used for mana crystal manufacturing. After several explosions decades ago, the factories were abandoned and gradually swallowed by forests.

Moonlight barely reached through the clouds.

Cold wind brushed against the rusted metal structures.

Zero walked alone across cracked stone pathways while keeping his mana completely concealed.

His Mana Base silently compressed every trace of energy within his body until even high-ranking adventurers would struggle to detect him.

His footsteps echoed faintly.

Clank.

Clank.

A broken chain hanging from an old crane swayed with the wind.

The coordinate ended before an enormous circular building.

It looked like an abandoned research facility.

Half of its walls had collapsed while vines covered the entrance.

Zero stopped several meters away.

His crimson eyes scanned everything carefully.

No mana signature.

No hidden assassins.

No barrier.

Nothing.

Yet his instincts screamed otherwise.

Someone was waiting.

He stepped inside.

The interior was consumed by darkness.

Broken machinery covered the floor while shattered crystal containers reflected faint moonlight. Most equipment had long stopped functioning, leaving behind nothing except silence.

Then—

Click.

A single light turned on.

Zero instantly looked forward.

Another.

Click.

Another.

One by one, dozens of strange lamps illuminated the enormous underground hall.

Zero froze.

They weren’t mana lamps.

They emitted cold white light unlike anything commonly used in Edolas.

A strange feeling emerged within his chest.

Recognition.

"I knew you’d come."

A calm voice echoed from above.

Zero immediately looked toward the second-floor platform.

A figure wearing a long black coat stood behind a metal railing.

Their face remained hidden beneath the shadow cast by the overhead structure.

"Who are you?"

The figure slowly descended the staircase.

Their footsteps echoed throughout the silent facility.

Unlike ordinary people, Zero couldn’t sense even the slightest mana.

It was as though...

They didn’t possess mana at all.

The person stopped several meters away.

Still hidden beneath darkness.

"You’ve begun remembering."

Zero’s expression changed.

"What did you say?"

"The blue planet."

Silence.

"The endless cities."

Zero’s fingers unconsciously twitched.

"The glowing screens filled with symbols."

Every word struck directly into his mind.

A headache erupted once again.

Suddenly—

A vision exploded before his eyes.

Rain struck against a window.

A teenager sat alone before several monitors.

Green and blue lines rapidly moved across black screens while countless numbers changed every second.

His fingers danced across the keyboard.

A notification appeared.

System successfully compiled.

The teenager leaned backward exhausted before smiling proudly.

"...Finally."

His voice.

It was his voice.

But younger.

The scene changed instantly.

A classroom.

Students surrounded him while discussing smartphones, games, artificial intelligence and programming competitions.

Someone shouted.

"Edolas? That’s such a cool fantasy name!"

Another laughed.

"You really spend too much time writing novels, Zero."

Zero.

Someone called that teenager Zero.

The vision shattered.

He staggered backward before catching himself.

His breathing became heavier.

The mysterious figure remained completely motionless.

"You remember now, don’t you?"

Zero slowly raised his head.

"...Earth."

"Yes."

"That was me."

"Yes."

"Then who are you?"

The figure finally stepped beneath the light.

Zero’s eyes widened slightly.

He appeared to be around twenty years old.

Black hair.

Silver eyes.

An ordinary face.

Yet those silver eyes felt impossibly familiar.

Not because Zero had met him.

But because they carried the same strange emptiness reflected whenever he looked into a mirror after awakening.

The young man smiled gently.

"My name isn’t important."

"That’s not an answer."

"I know."

Zero’s voice became colder.

"Why did you call me here?"

The stranger looked around the abandoned facility.

"This place was chosen because no one would disturb us."

He reached toward a broken machine.

His fingertips brushed against the rusted metal.

"Do you know what this resembles?"

Zero remained silent.

"A laboratory."

Another memory surfaced.

Servers.

Cooling fans.

Electricity.

Research.

The stranger continued.

"Your world called them research centers."

Zero’s heartbeat accelerated.

"You know Earth."

"I know more than Earth."

The stranger turned around.

"I know Edolas too."

The atmosphere immediately changed.

Zero instinctively released a trace of killing intent.

The floor beneath his feet cracked slightly.

"Don’t."

The stranger calmly lifted one hand.

"I’m not your enemy."

"Everyone says that."

"True."

For several seconds neither moved.

Then the stranger slowly spoke.

"Tell me, Zero... when you first arrived in Edolas, what was your earliest memory?"

Zero narrowed his eyes.

A forest.

Pain.

Blood.

No...

His thoughts stopped.

Something was missing.

His earliest memories weren’t actually clear.

He remembered childhood in Edolas.

Training.

Learning mana.

Meeting people.

Yet before a certain point...

Everything felt blurred.

The stranger noticed his silence.

"Exactly."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"What are you implying?"

"I’m saying your memories don’t begin where you think they do."

The silver-eyed young man walked toward the center of the room.

"There are two lives inside you."

He looked directly into Zero’s eyes.

"One belongs to Edolas."

"And the other?"

"Earth."

Zero didn’t respond.

"The problem is..."

The stranger smiled faintly.

"...they were never supposed to exist together."

Suddenly every lamp inside the facility flickered violently.

The entire underground structure trembled.

Zero instantly summoned frost beneath his feet while extending his senses throughout the building.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

The stranger looked upward.

"They’ve noticed."

"Who?"

Before he could answer—

A deep mechanical sound echoed throughout the entire facility.

Not mana.

Not machinery.

Something else.

A circular distortion appeared above the center of the hall.

Space itself twisted.

Zero immediately took one step backward.

The distortion gradually expanded until it became a transparent sphere floating in midair.

Inside it...

He saw Earth.

Not clearly.

But enough.

Skyscrapers.

Vehicles.

A crowded intersection filled with people crossing roads beneath enormous digital advertisements.

Rain falling.

A familiar city he had never visited in this lifetime.

His chest tightened.

The stranger whispered quietly.

"Your memories resonate with dimensions."

Zero stared at the impossible scene without blinking.

"Parallel worlds aren’t simply different worlds."

The stranger’s voice echoed gently.

"They’re connected through possibilities."

The image changed.

Earth disappeared.

Now another world appeared.

Edolas.

The Royal Academy.

The Elven Kingdom.

The battlefield against Aamon.

Lilith standing upon the throne during her coronation.

Mia receiving a hero’s medal.

Amelia smiling while speaking to him.

Aidan inside Tech Genesis.

Everything he had experienced.

Then both worlds overlapped.

Buildings merged with castles.

Computers merged with mana circles.

Roads blended with flying carriages.

Reality distorted into something neither belonged to Earth nor Edolas.

Zero clenched his fist.

"Stop."

The stranger immediately snapped his fingers.

Everything vanished.

The underground hall returned to silence.

Zero remained motionless.

His heart had become strangely calm despite everything.

Because deep inside...

He already knew those visions weren’t illusions.

They were memories.

The stranger looked at him with an almost sympathetic expression.

"You’ve spent your entire life wondering why you could understand ideas nobody else imagined."

Zero remembered.

The communication devices.

Games.

Modern business structures.

Technology concepts that revolutionized Tech Genesis.

Ideas that simply appeared naturally inside his mind.

He never questioned them.

He assumed they were talent.

The stranger continued.

"Those weren’t inventions."

"They were memories."

Zero slowly whispered.

"Exactly."

Silence filled the hall.

For the first time since entering Edolas, Zero felt genuinely uncertain.

Not because of an enemy.

Not because of overwhelming power.

But because his identity itself had become unstable.

Was he Zero Elea?

Or someone from Earth?

The stranger seemed to understand that question before it was spoken.

"You aren’t replacing one life with another."

Zero looked toward him.

"What?"

"You aren’t Earth pretending to be Edolas."

His silver eyes softened.

"And you aren’t Edolas pretending to be Earth."

He pointed toward Zero’s chest.

"You’re the point where both memories meet."

Another tremor shook the facility.

This time much stronger.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

The stranger’s expression changed for the first time.

Seriousness.

"We’re running out of time."

Zero immediately noticed it.

"What exactly is happening?"

The stranger stepped backward toward the staircase.

"I didn’t bring you here to explain everything."

"Then why?"

"To warn you."

His voice became heavy.

"The moment you began remembering Earth, something awakened alongside your memories."

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"What awakened?"

The lights abruptly went out.

Complete darkness consumed the facility.

For one terrifying second...

There was absolute silence.

Then countless whispers echoed from every direction.

Not voices.

Fragments.

Millions of distorted sounds overlapping together.

Zero immediately activated Ice Embodiment.

Blue frost spread across the entire underground hall while shards of ice illuminated the darkness.

Within that frozen light—

The silver-eyed stranger had vanished.

Only his final voice echoed through the empty building.

"Find the Memory Dimension before it finds you."

Zero immediately looked around.

"Wait!"

No response.

The whispers suddenly stopped.

Then...

A notification appeared on his communicator.

It activated by itself.

One final message.

THE FIRST MEMORY HAS BEEN UNLOCKED

Beneath it was a single line.

Subject: Edolas / Earth Synchronization — 3%

Zero stared at the glowing screen.

For several moments he said nothing.

Cold wind entered through the collapsed walls while distant thunder echoed beyond the abandoned factory.

He slowly closed his fingers around the communicator.

His crimson eyes reflected both uncertainty and determination.

"Parallel Memory..."

The forgotten title surfaced naturally within his mind.

As though someone from another life had whispered it directly into his soul.

Zero turned toward the broken entrance.

Tonight hadn’t given him answers.

It had only opened the first door.

Somewhere beyond the boundaries of Edolas, hidden between countless possibilities, another world was waiting for him.

And for the first time...

Zero understood that his greatest enemy might not be the Devil King, the Church, or the Authority.

It might be the truth of who he had always been.

He silently disappeared into the darkness beneath the moonlight.

Behind him, the abandoned laboratory returned to its eternal silence.

Far above the clouds, unseen by anyone in Edolas, an invisible crack briefly appeared across the night sky before vanishing without leaving a trace.