SSS-Class Suicide Hunter

Chapter 379: The Gardener of the Withered Flowers (1)

1.

So.

Now then.

Let's plant flowers in the world.

"Okay. ...Let's get to work."

After stroking the bell-shaped flowers of Constellation Killer, I stretched vigorously with a grunt.

From now on, I'll need to move around quite diligently. In this world where nothing yet exists, where it's practically nothingness, blooming even a single flower will indeed require a lot.

-What do you plan to do?

Bae Hu-ryeong asked.

Thinking about it, Bae Hu-ryeong has been quiet lately. Even when he was nearly sealed by Constellation Killer, and even when he ultimately managed to counterattack and defeat Constellation Killer, Bae Hu-ryeong didn't say anything. He just watched from a few steps away.

If you ask me if I felt neglected, not really.

I guessed why Bae Hu-ryeong did not interfere. Even without any conversation, I could understand Bae Hu-ryeong's feelings. Unlike when I was climbing the 10th floor, I am now strong. I have reached a state just half a step behind Bae Hu-ryeong.

'This is where the teachings end.'

'The rest is for you to solve on your own.'

If I had been defeated by Constellation Killer and captured by eternal seal, that would have been the end. My journey towards the top of the tower would have concluded there.

Advice is unnecessary among equals who are rivals.

"That's true...."

I took off my coat and rolled up my sleeves.

"First, we need the sun."

-The sun?

"Yes. We need light, don't we? It's pretty dark here, right? Even if only withered flowers are expected to bloom here, it would still be too gloomy for the flowers."

Bae Hu-ryeong looked at me as if he was looking at a madman.

-How do you plan to create a sun? Just so you know, you can hang up something resembling a sun with aura, but even that would be difficult to maintain continuously.

"Well. I guess we'll manage somehow."

We have plenty of time.

"And I feel like we could get it from an expert."

2.

"It can't be done, can't be done. Absolutely not."

Unfortunately, after going down to Babylon and consulting with an expert, all I got back was a cat shaking its head vigorously right in front of my eyes.

"Is it too much?"

"Woof. Even though we agreed to bark like this, shouldn't you at least have some conscience? Your budget for a 'sun' is a bit, no, quite unreasonable."

[The Cat that Bit a Gold Coin] looked at me like a real estate agent looking at someone asking if a brand new apartment rent could fit within a budget of 50 million won. It was so realistic that it hurt.

"Woof, I can provide you with a long-lasting light bulb…"

"Nah, that's not cool. This is a garden after all. If it's not natural light, it won't do."

"Eeeum.... What about a phoenix then? You could hang a cage from the ceiling and put a phoenix in it, that might create somewhat of a sun-like atmosphere."

"Is that really natural light?"

"It's somewhat similar, isn't it? It all depends on how you think about it, and the world is always a series of reasonable compromises."

Hmm.

I was momentarily tempted by the cat's words, but no matter how I thought about it, the image of a phoenix hanging above the garden and screaming sounded stupid.

'However.'

The world is a series of compromises, a phrase the cat uttered without much thought, inspired me.

"That's right. We don't necessarily need to bring the sun here to get light. Sunlight might actually be too dazzling for the withered flowers."

"Yes, yes, that very self-justification is exactly what a Constellation should possess! Now, Screaming Sky, if I may elaborate on the current market price of the phoenix, the price of fire-attribute creatures has dropped a lot since Dochul went bankrupt…."

"Thank you for the consultation. Goodbye."

"Meow?"

I bought work gloves, burlap bags, and various equipment and returned to the 81st floor.

"…..You look like you're going to dig up potatoes or something."

Seeing me with work gloves on both hands and a burlap bag slung over my shoulder, [The Wand Of Ages] looked at me with eyes that saw a crazy person.

Huh? Did all people in the world, somewhere I don't know, agree to enact a new law about gazes, stating that they must look at me like that?

"I heard your talk about needing the sun and needing light. You're not planning to capture and pack the sun into a sack and bring it here, are you?"

"Um. Something like that."

"What?"

"By the way, could I stop by Constellation Killer's sanctuary for a moment?"

[The Wand Of Ages] blinked.

"What are you talking about? The sanctuary of Constellation Killer has already been destroyed. You saw it with your own eyes just yesterday."

"Yes. But the voice of the tower said the world would be destroyed, not vanished. The tower master I know, even if the Constellations, Apostles, and followers all disappear and the world is destroyed… She wouldn't completely erase that place."

"..."

"It might still be there, frozen just as it was destroyed. Somewhere. Please let me stop by there for just a moment."

[The Wand Of Ages] held his forehead.

"Screaming Sky… You really are a strange person. What are you going to pick up from a place that's completely finished? Trash? Or maybe the corpse of a slaughter pupeet? I'd understand if you asked for a legendary item, but what from a place that's left with nothing but trash."

"Ha… Wait a moment."

The magician stared into the dark void.

['The Wand Of Ages' requests an entry ticket to the already ceased sanctuary.]

[Approved.]

[You may enter the sealed sanctuary of Constellation Killer.]

The magician nodded with a somewhat displeased expression.

"You've got the permission. The tower master must be curious about what you're doing. Gaining herfavor isn't an easy task, but you do have some skills."

"Just live kindly, like me, only kindly."

"That's funny. If I lived like you, I'd have a rotten soul, not to mention no life left."

What's wrong with my soul.

"A person who wants to turn their own sanctuary into a garden of withered flowers can't be sane. No, just imagine if someone planted flowers on their balcony, but they were all rotten flowers. Would that be normal?"

Is that so?

Hearing it put that way, it does sound a bit strange.

Maybe there's a reason why starting with Bae Hu-ryeong, all started looking at me like I'm mad, but I didn't change my plans.

Transfer.

[You have entered the sealed sanctuary of Constellation Killer.]

And so, I stepped back into the world I had destroyed yesterday.

The scenery had not changed.

The wind had stopped, and time had ceased. The sunset sky had vanished, and the red of the shattered glass sky was broken into countless pieces.

In the void, the falling trash and shattered glass-skies were frozen as if in a still frame.

"Here. I brought you here as you requested."

This time, [The Wand Of Ages] had followed me. He usually hesitated to show himself when I'm with other companions, but now that I was alone, it easily revealed its face.

"I have no choice but to ask again what you intend to take from here."

"The sky."

[The Wand Of Ages] furrowed its brow.

"Ha? The sky…?"

"Yes. I will take the sky with me."

I began rummaging through the mountains of trash in the frozen world.

What I was looking for was glass. Originally the sky imprinted with the sunset, now shattered into fragments, nothing but pieces of glass remained.

Though the world was destroyed, the glasses still retained the red color they had been etched with at the very moment they were shattered.

I picked them up, one piece at a time. Carefully.

The too small glass shards were difficult to use. I found pieces at least as big as the upper half of a person. When slowly placed into the sack to prevent breaking, the glasses inside the dark sack emitted red and yellow light.

[You are being teleported to the 81st floor.]

I filled the sack with the sunset and returned to the 81st floor.

Aside from the Lily of the valley flower, there was still nothing here.

I ascended the space filled only with darkness using void steps, as if stepping on stairs. Soon, I was able to reach the pitch-black ceiling.

"Good."

I took the glass out of the sack. Then, using my fingernail, I made a small hole in the glass. The cut made by the aura was impeccably clean.

I threaded a string through the hole, a string I had commissioned from [The Cat that Bit a Gold Coin] instead of purchasing a phoenix, which the cat had assured would never break. Then I guess I can trust it.

"If I twist this and hang it from the ceiling… there."

Swing-.

The glass, tied by the string, hung in today's darkness.

It was like a candle lit in the middle of a basement without any lights, small yet clearly shining in red and yellow, illuminating the remnants of some sunset.

"It's still too weak as a light. But it should be okay soon."

"..."

I went back and forth between Constellation Killer's sanctuary and the 81st floor, gathering fragments of the sunset.

[The Wand Of Ages] watched me silently, though he had been grumbling just before, now strangely pursing its lips.

[You have entered the sealed sanctuary of Constellation Killer.]

[You are being teleported to the 81st floor.]

[You have entered the sealed sanctuary of Constellation Killer.]

[You are being teleported to the 81st floor.]

[You have…..]

How much time had passed?

The ceiling was adorned with strings hanging densely.

At the end of each hanging string, the sunset swayed. Sometimes from glass pieces as big as a person, sometimes as small as a palm. But all of them were imbued with the sunset light of a world that had perished, quietly dripping exuding luster.

Though the lengths of the strings were uneven and the sizes of the glass varied,

"From below, it looks just like a vine."

I was satisfied.

The 81st floor was no longer dark. But if you ask if it's bright, it wasn't bright either. The sunset that once set gloriously had lost its grandeur, now only fading.

Faded sunset.

And so, I liked it.

Such light wouldn't be too much for the withered flowers, and they would willingly accept it.

"...I see."

[The Wand Of Ages] looked up at the sunsets hanging in the sky. After surveying the sunset that lightly tinged the world of the 81st floor, he murmured,

"This is the light of the heavens and earth you are creating."

And so there was light.

Probably, no other Constellation would gather such unimpressive light to decorate a sanctuary. My followers were the corpses of flowers that had lost their place to go, and my sun was the relic of a world that could no longer shine on anyone.

Trash.

Ruin.

A place where flowers blossoms instead of life,a place that merely persists rather than truly exists."

"Yes. It's not too bad, right?"

"..."

[The Wand Of Ages] did not answer. I wasn't really expecting one, so I just shrugged.

I brought back a plastic bottle from Constellation Killer's sanctuary for the last time. In that place filled with crumpled trash, it was a relatively intact plastic bottle.

"Hmm. It's been quite a while since I made one of these."

I sat cross-legged and picked up a pair of scissors.

Snip.

The scissors crisply cut through the waist of the bottle. It was neatly divided in half. As I shaped it, I was lost in old memories.

"I used to make these quite often when I was in the orphanage…'

What I was making was a planter.

A vessel to hold flowers.

Planters, when you actually go to buy them, are more expensive than you'd think. That's why at the orphanage, we used to cut plastic bottles and make them into planters. They turn out quite pretty when you make them.

"Fill this with soil…"

I pondered a lot about the soil for the planter.

But in the end, I went to the world where Kim Yul had lived—now a world where Kim Hwang-tae is enduring all kinds of hardships while studying abroad—and chose the soil there.

I went to the dumpsite where Kim Yul's house used to be, dug a hole, and brought back some dark, blackened soil.

"Phew."

After compacting the soil in the planter, I carefully planted the Lily of the valley flower. Fortunately, the flower was transferred to the planter without any harm.

The red light flowing from the glass in the sky shone brightly, glistened over the transparent surface of the plastic planter.

"Okay."

And just like that, I brought light into this world and planted my first flower.

After placing the planter with the Lily of the valley flower in the middle of my sanctuary, I turned around and looked at [The Wand Of Ages].

While giving a bright smile to the still silent magician.

"This is how I will create the sky here, make waterways, and plant flowers, many more flowers. It might not be a sanctuary fun to watch. Um. I think I will probably come to love it here."

"Shall we move on to the next one, Magician-nim."

[A sky has been created in your world.]

[The 81st floor has been cleared!]

[A land has been created in your world.]

[The 82nd floor has been cleared!]

Now it's time to climb to the 83rd floor.