Chapter 146: The Lost Light

At Jinhoo’s current location...

The two of them arrived at a house that had been reduced to ruins.

Jinhoo stood on top of the pile of rubble, trying to dig through it.

Min-seo, standing at the edge, looked confused by what Jinhoo was doing.

"Uhm... Oppa? What are you doing?"

"There’s something here. Come on, stop watching and help me!"

"Huh... All right."

Min-seo replied and began helping Jinhoo dig.

A while later, they finished digging. Beneath the rubble was a wooden door leading to a basement.

"Phew... Fortunately, this is still here..."

Jinhoo said before immediately opening the door.

"A basement? How did you know there was something like this here?"

Jinhoo looked confused for a moment.

"Uh... Instinct?"

"... Yeah, whatever."

Min-seo replied, clearly unsatisfied with Jinhoo’s answer.

The two of them then descended into the basement through the staircase.

Deeper and deeper they went. The further they descended, the darker it became, until even the light could no longer reach them.

When they finally reached the bottom, the atmosphere was incredibly quiet and cold.

Jinhoo turned toward Min-seo.

"Can you use those lightning particles of yours for illumination?"

"Of course."

Min-seo extended her hand, clenched it for a moment, and then opened it.

Instantly, a glowing ball of lightning particles appeared, spinning around and illuminating their surroundings.

After that, the two of them continued walking forward.

The atmosphere was extremely quiet and still. The only sound that could be heard was the occasional chirping of geckos.

Min-seo trembled slightly from fear.

Jinhoo noticed and glanced at her.

"Are you... afraid of the dark?"

Jinhoo asked Min-seo.

Hearing that, Min-seo immediately pretended to be brave.

"N-no! Of course not! I’m a brave person, you know?"

Jinhoo gave a faint smile.

"Is that so?"

As he said that, Jinhoo secretly reached toward Min-seo’s back.

The moment she felt something touch her from behind, Min-seo immediately jumped in fear and tightly hugged Jinhoo’s arm.

She closed her eyes, clearly terrified.

Jinhoo couldn’t help but laugh when he saw this.

"Is this what you call being brave?"

"T-this is just a natural reflex, okay!?"

Min-seo replied while still gripping Jinhoo’s arm tightly.

The two of them continued their journey, but Min-seo still refused to let go of Jinhoo’s arm.

"Uh... Min-seo... Can you let go of my arm? It feels numb..."

"Shut up and keep walking."

Hearing that, Jinhoo fell silent, feeling awkward.

In the end, he had no choice but to let her continue holding onto him as they walked.

After walking for a while, Min-seo finally opened her mouth.

"Actually... What are we looking for down here? We’ve been walking for several minutes, but we don’t even know where we’re going."

"There’s a Matrix Emblem here."

"A Matrix Emblem? What’s that?"

"Hmm... Simply put, it’s like an artifact, but it’s actually very different from ordinary artifacts. Matrix Emblems provide powerful buffs, but there’s always a price to using them. To put it more clearly, a Matrix Emblem is an artifact that provides both buffs and debuffs."

"Both a buff and a debuff? Isn’t that basically useless? Then why do you still want to take it?"

"It’s not for me. There’s someone I’m going to give it to."

’And this will have a huge impact on the future...’

’In the original story, there are twelve parts to the Matrix Emblems, and this one is the strongest as well as the most deadly. I’m going to give it to Aeron.’

After walking for some time, they finally reached the end.

There was nothing but a wall standing before them.

Min-seo looked confused.

"This... is a dead end."

"Don’t worry. This is part of the mechanism designed to deceive people trying to obtain the emblem."

Jinhoo glanced at Min-seo.

"Can you... Uh... shock me with your lightning?"

"Shock you? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. My strength is very limited right now. If you shock me, I can recover some of my power temporarily."

"Uhm... All right..."

With that, Min-seo placed her hand on Jinhoo’s shoulder and began channeling her power.

A powerful bolt of lightning surged through Jinhoo’s body.

’Ugh!! It feels like I’m being torn apart...’

"T-that’s enough..."

Hearing his command, Min-seo immediately stopped using her power.

Afterward, Jinhoo looked like he was about to collapse, but Min-seo quickly caught him.

"Hah... Hah..."

"Oppa! Are you okay?"

"Yeah... It feels like I was bitten by an ant..."

’Millions of ants...’

Jinhoo stood upright again and extended his right hand toward the wall in front of them.

"Huh..."

Jinhoo let out a long sigh before channeling all of his power into his right hand.

A dark blue light emerged from his hand.

At that exact moment, time seemed to stop.

Min-seo, who was standing beside him, froze like a statue.

The colors around them suddenly faded into black and white.

’Even though I already knew this would happen, experiencing it firsthand is still fascinating...’

Suddenly, a system screen appeared before Jinhoo.

The system screen displayed a message.

[Green clouds of the blue land, rivers flow like the sea, ######]

’Green clouds of the blue land, rivers flow like the sea... It’s telling me to continue the verse.’

"Green clouds of the blue land, rivers flow like the sea, barren earth and dense forest trees, fierce winds like flowing cloth."

The moment Jinhoo finished speaking, the surroundings returned to normal.

The system screen disappeared.

The colors returned as well.

Everything went back to the way it had been.

The room around them began to shake.

The wall that had been blocking their path slowly began to open.

"Woah! Oppa! What did you do to make it open like that?"

"Uh... I don’t know either."

’In the original story, it was Lightnova who came here. She was given the same question, but she kept failing until she became frustrated and destroyed the wall blocking the way. Well... She did succeed and obtained the emblem, but unfortunately, because she entered without permission and destroyed the mechanism protecting the passage, it triggered the room’s security system and summoned several enormous golems to stop her. She did manage to defeat the golems, but it also consumed half of her energy, and I’m not the kind of person who likes dealing with unnecessary complications.’

The wall finally opened.

When the two of them entered, the torches inside the room suddenly lit up, illuminating the cube-shaped chamber.

At the center of the room stood an altar.

On top of the altar was a golden necklace with a red gemstone embedded in its center.

’There it is... The strongest Matrix Emblem, "The Lost Light." The emblem Lightnova will use for herself, which will eventually consume her own life force. A weapon that turns against its master.’

Jinhoo walked closer to the altar.

Min-seo followed behind him.

Jinhoo stopped in front of the necklace.

Before taking it, Jinhoo carefully observed it.

’If I didn’t know anything about this necklace, I might have used it immediately. It looks incredibly beautiful, but in reality, this necklace is a ticking time bomb for its own master.’

Jinhoo picked up the necklace and stared at it in his hand.

’Aeron wants Lightnova to open that gate, but since I don’t want Lightnova to sacrifice herself again, I’ll give this to him as a replacement. After all, this thing also possesses the power of light. If Aeron uses it, he won’t realize that his life is slowly being consumed.’

Jinhoo thought as he wore a sly smile.

Min-seo, who saw Jinhoo’s sinister grin, looked disgusted.

"Uh... Please don’t smile like that again... It’s disgusting..."

Min-seo said to Jinhoo.