Child of Destiny

……

Swoosh!

The longer Lawrence stayed in such a peculiar state, the more scared he became. He felt that his soul was leaving his body.

What was even scarier about this situation was when the sensation seemed to be coming from the real world rather than inside the game.

It was as if his main body, which was lying within the virtual cabin, was undergoing a certain change that he could not explain.

It was hard to put into words, but the sensation was real.

Along with the fact that he seemed to have lost control over his in-game avatar, Lawrence felt a horrifying fact that he could not do anything about his current situation.

Even if he tried to forcefully log out of the game, everything continued to move against his will, including his thoughts as well.

He still had a bit of resistance at the beginning, but it gradually disappeared the longer he stayed in such a state.

After losing resistance, his thoughts followed, robbing him of thinking about anything but reaching that bright dot of light in the distance.

Unfortunately, no matter how long or fast he tried to run, he seemed to be incapable of reaching that light.

The distance between them remained the same regardless of how much time had passed during his sprint.

He seemed to be stuck in such a loop where time seemed to stop.

This continued for quite a while, until Lawrence had somewhat forgotten about everything. He just continued to follow the calling while forgetting about everything else.

Swoosh!

Not long after, a sudden sensation struck him and overwhelmed his body.

His senses seemed to have all returned to him alongside his control over his body.

“Cold!”

This was the first word that came out of his mouth after his hand touched something. According to the sensation, it felt like he had been lying on the cold and hard floor.

He slowly picked himself up while trying his best to re-adjust his body and regain his comfort level.

While he was doing these stretches and such, an old voice suddenly rang throughout the place, startling him.

“It seems like it went well.”

Hearing this, Lawrence almost jumped out of fright before swiftly putting up his guard.

He swiftly and sharply swept his gaze at the surroundings, looking for the source of the voice, but failed to do so.

It was also at this moment that he realised that he was inside a cave. Moreover, it was a massive one filled with stalagmites and stalactites, which seemed to be made of a variety of minerals.

A moment later, a bit of light seemed to illuminate his surroundings and let him see his reflection from a crystallised stone not far from him.

“What!?” His eyes suddenly turned wide when he saw his current reflection. “How is this possible!? Aren’t I inside the game?”

What he was seeing right was the clear reflection of himself – him in the real world.

His first thought was that this was an illusion, but the sensation and everything else were too real to be a mere illusion.

He became more confused the more he tried to figure out what was going on.

It was at this moment that the old voice rang once again.

“This thing called technology is quite fascinating. To think that it can even pull someone’s consciousness into an independent world.”

“They seem to have been inspired by legends about the ‘world of collective consciousness’ and turn it into reality.”

Lawrence immediately snapped out of his daze when he heard these words before turning toward the direction from which the voice was coming.

He then saw an old man in a traditional martial suit sitting on top of a huge stalagmite.

Frowning slightly, he saw that the old man had bandages wrapped around their arms and feet, giving off a vibe of an ancient being.

This was what Lawrence was feeling when he saw the old man, particularly the aura that was surrounding the latter.

This was his first impression of the old man.

However, a strange feeling suddenly overwhelmed him when he stared longer at the old man.

His vision was slowly turning dark. It was as if the surroundings were slowly being erased bit by bit, leaving only the old man behind.

However, even the image of the old man slowly morphed and turned into an image of a colossal figure made entirely of shadow.

From his perspective, this person seemed to have turned into an extremely towering colossus that reached the high heavens and drafted everything.

Moreover, this image was slowly growing even larger, surpassing even the world itself. He was becoming a colossal figure of the universe.

Lawrence tried to hold his ground for quite a while before finally falling on his knees.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

His breathing became more haggard and painful with every passing second. He felt like the whole world was pressing on him.

The old man watched Lawrence for a while, waiting until the latter had almost passed out, before finally removing the bits of pressure that he was purposely leaking.

He then nodded his head repeatedly while praising the young man. “Not bad. Not bad at all!”

“Your spirit is much stronger than how it looks on the surface,” he kept on praising Lawrence while waiting for the latter to finally recover himself.

It took Lawrence quite a while to finally regain his senses before standing up once again.

He did not have to make any guesses about this old man since the answer was already obvious. There was only a single person of such power and status related to the dungeon that they were running earlier.

Recalling how the people of ancient times acted based on the novels that he had read before, Lawrence swiftly fixed his stance before raising both his arms and slightly bending forward. He also put his right fist and left palm before him, seemingly trying to mimic those ancient customs.

“I-… I greet the Dark Lord!” he tried his best to say those words, despite his trembling body and stuttering tone.

Seeing his clumsy actions coming from the young man, this Tang Hyeon, or more specifically, a remnant of his consciousness, laughed heartily, finding the situation quite amusing.

“It has been so long since I have laughed like this,” he mumbled after laughing for a while.

He then turned to Lawrence and asked. “Young man, do you know where you are?”

Lawrence furrowed his brows quite deeply when he heard this question. He first thought this place was within the game, while the old man before him was nothing but an NPC with an extremely high, highly advanced AI.

However, after a series of odd events that he had just experienced, he could not help but doubt whether that was truly the case.

After a while, he swiftly shook his head before asking the old man. “Please enlighten me, Elder Dark Lord.”

Tang Hyeon could not help but grin after hearing those words. He then added. “You’re quite a clever one, huh?”

He then thought for a moment before shaking his head. “I guess it is still too early for you to know about this place. However, I can tell that it has something to do with the innate consciousness of everyone.”

Lawrence further furrowed his brows, not understanding what those words exactly meant.

Seeing this, Tang Hyeon continued. “In a sense, it is something similar to what you people of this era called ‘virtual world’.”

“Or to be more exact, you can also say that this is the model that you people used to design this so-called virtual world,” he added.

Seeing that Lawrence still somewhat struggles to understand his words, Tang Hyeon decided to drop the topic and proceeded to the main business.

“Let’s set this aside for now and ask me about it once we meet again,” he said, disrupting the thoughts that were distracting Lawrence.

“Let’s talk about the real reason why I have summoned you here,” he added, attracting the attention of the young man once again.

‘Summoned? He summoned me here!? How is that possible?’ Lawrence could not help but have more distracted thoughts when he heard those words.

He felt like having more questions, the more he listened to the old man.

Ignoring the internal struggles of the young man, Tang Hyeon continued. “Brat, I am sure that you have already guessed why I have summoned you here. Now, I want to ask you quite a few things.”

Hearing this, Larence could not help but fall into silence, putting all his focus on what the legendary figure before him wanted to say.

Seeing how simple Lawrence was, Tang Hyeon nodded inwardly before posing his question. “First, I want to know what you are going to do if you suddenly gain a power that is so overwhelming that you can do anything you want?”

Lawrence was taken aback by the question before falling into silence. He did not know how to exactly respond to it, afraid that he would be wrong.

Seeing the internal struggle that Lawrence was having, Tang Hyeon seemed to have figured out what the young man was thinking.

He then grinned and added. “It is fine. You can tell me whatever you want since I prefer that my successor be more honest with himself.”

“Successor!?” Lawrence mumbled this word and repeated it a couple of times, seemingly unable to believe that he would become one under the legendary Dark King.

Following this, a series of memories flashed through his eyes, seemingly replaying all his experiences both inside the game and in the real world, particularly the events concerning his elder brother.

These flashes of memories slowed down when they reached the point where everyone in the orphanage was getting slaughtered.

It then stopped at the final moments of his elder brother.

He slowly gritted his teeth and clenched his fist tight, digging his nails into his palm.

After a while, a resolute expression suddenly appeared on his face before answering with extreme hatred and great determination. “Revenge!”

“I want revenge!”

…