Chapter 46
Baby Dinosaur Rex (1)
The Vast but Indolent World.
Unlike the first and second worlds, it was not an abandoned world but one that Blue Star, a friend Lee Shin had met through the community, had handed over to him.
As befitted a world formerly owned by a supreme god, its environment was fundamentally different from Lee Shin’s other worlds.
It was a peaceful and abundant land overflowing with enough material resources not merely to sustain itself, but to feed every one of his other worlds as well. It was practically a cheat map designed for the host.
After seeing the Vast but Indolent World, Lee Shin’s father had remarked, “Isn’t this basically a Fastest Possible Map?”
Lee Shin hadn’t understood what he meant.
Its advantages weren’t limited to its environment, either. The inhabitants themselves were in an entirely different league.
The race that had settled in the Vast but Indolent World was none other than dragons.
Countless dragons lived there.
Considering that a single dragon had nearly driven the dwarves’ world to extinction, it was easy to understand just how formidable the Vast but Indolent World truly was.
Of course, Lee Shin wasn’t the sort of person who cared much about such conditions or advantages. Hadn’t he gladly welcomed both the tiny dwarves and the skeleton who lived in a land of death?
What concerned Lee Shin was something else entirely.
「[★Blue Star★]: You want to know why those children sleep all day and never do anything?」
「[Lee Shin]: Yeah.」
「[★Blue Star★]: Why are you suddenly curious? Are you disappointed because you obtained a race far superior to dwarves and undead but can’t make proper use of them? I understand, but you shouldn’t expect anything from those children. I didn’t give you that world so you could put them to good use. I intended for you to take advantage of that world’s sole strength—its limitless productivity. I don’t need it, after all.」
「[Lee Shin]: That’s not why.」
「[★Blue Star★]: Then why?」
「[Lee Shin]: Because none of them look happy.」
Whenever he had time, Lee Shin used World Observation to glance at his worlds.
Even when he didn’t look at them directly, their prayers to the heavens still reached his ears.
He could hear them even when he wasn’t trying to listen.
「[Lee Shin]: If they’re satisfied with spending all day eating and sleeping, and if that makes them happy, then there’s no reason to interfere. But… your children don’t seem to be living that way because they want to.」
「[★Blue Star★]: Really? Then what do my children want?」
Blue Star seemed genuinely curious.
Even though she was the one who had created them.
「[Lee Shin]: I don’t know that, either.」
「[★Blue Star★]: Hmm?」
「[Lee Shin]: I don’t think even they know. They don’t seem to understand what would make them happy or what they truly want.」
The dinosaurs of the Vast but Indolent World were simply drifting through life.
「[Lee Shin]: I want to help them discover it.」
「[★Blue Star★]: …」
「[Lee Shin]: So, will you tell me?」
Blue Star sent a reply after a brief pause.
「[★Blue Star★]: I don’t know, either.」
「[Lee Shin]: Huh?」
「[★Blue Star★]: That’s why I sent those children to you, Lee Shin.」
「[Lee Shin]: …」
「[★Blue Star★]: You see, I’ve never even considered questions like that before.」
Her reply arrived instantly.
Without waiting for Lee Shin to respond, Blue Star continued sending messages.
「[★Blue Star★]: Besides… they’re your responsibility now.」
「[★Blue Star★]: I also think you’ll do a much better job than I did.」
Blue Star was a friend whose perspective could sometimes be so alien that it sent chills down his spine.
Yet at other times, she filled his heart with warmth.
Lee Shin smiled without realizing it.
However—
“We’re going to hibernate.”
He simply hadn’t anticipated what was about to happen.
「[★Blue Star★]: If it’s you, you might be able to accomplish what I couldn’t.」
「[★Blue Star★]: Because you’re special.」
***
The dwarves of the small world had bravely fought against and defeated the dragon Patmos.
Even after achieving that glorious victory, however, the dwarves remained reluctant to visit the third world—the Vast but Indolent World.
Even Eve, who had become a guardian angel, felt the same way.
Why?
“My God, my God. Just because we defeated our natural enemy in battle doesn’t mean we’re no longer afraid of them.”
“Hmm.”
“If a hundred mice gathered together and defeated one cat, that wouldn’t mean they’d stop being afraid of cats, would it?”
Eve had suddenly become remarkably logical.
As a result, Jude was the only believer who interacted with the Vast but Indolent World.
Of course, the dwarves had resolved their food shortage using the plants brought back from the dinosaurs’ world, and they had even gained a naturally fortified stronghold. Therefore, they made an effort to show their gratitude.
Whenever Jude visited the dinosaurs, the dwarves sent him carrying armfuls of beautifully carved ornaments to deliver to them.
From the dinosaurs’ perspective, however, those ornaments were barely the size of a fingernail.
In any case, that was why Lee Shin had once again come to this enormous world alone with Jude.
“Hug me!”
Jude loved the Vast but Indolent World.
Unlike Jude’s own world, where not even a single blade of grass grew, this place overflowed with life wherever one looked.
A skeleton who loved flowers and butterflies?
No one else would have believed it.
“Yaaawn. You’re here again today.”
As usual, the dinosaurs were lying around lazily. When they saw Jude running about excitedly, they gave him slight nods.
That was their way of greeting him.
“Hug—me!”
Jude charged at every dinosaur he could see.
Whenever he slammed into one with a crash, his body shattered and scattered across the ground. Fortunately, it never took him long to reassemble himself.
“Why do you… always charge at us… when you know you’ll break?”
“Because I don’t mind… breaking!”
Jude clacked his teeth together foolishly.
Of all the dinosaurs in this world, the one closest to Jude was Rex.
“The flowers… you planted… have grown a lot.”
“Really? Let’s go see them!”
The sight of a tiny skeleton scampering across the grasslands beside an outrageously enormous dinosaur was profoundly surreal.
The fact that they had met up to admire flowers made it even more surreal.
Rex’s expression becomes much brighter whenever he’s with Jude.
Lee Shin observed the pair thoughtfully.
The other dinosaurs hadn’t changed much since his first visit, but Rex—the dinosaur who was exceptionally affectionate toward Jude—looked considerably better than before.
It was as though light had begun to return to his once-clouded eyes.
Did he want a friend?
Lee Shin had overcome the great crisis in the dwarves’ world and resolved the urgent matters in reality. Now that those issues were settled, he intended to spend some time observing the Vast but Indolent World.
For now, the most important thing was getting to know one another.
However—
“You can… take all the flowers. Even the big ones.”
“The big ones too? But if Jude picks those huge flowers and takes them home, he won’t be able to grow them properly! They only grew so big and healthy because Rex took care of them!”
“It’s… okay.”
The time one was given was never eternal.
“…You don’t need… to come anymore.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
“Winter… will arrive soon.”
Rex slowly looked at Jude.
“We’re going to hibernate. For around… one hundred years.”
It was a bolt from the blue.
Surprisingly, however, Jude remained calm.
“So I only have to wait a hundred years?”
“…?”
“Jude can wait!”
Rex did not know.
“Rex, time passes faster than you think!”
He could never have imagined how many years this tiny skeleton had endured alone in the land of death.
Of course—
…But what about me?
The same could not be said for Lee Shin.
Winter would last an entire century…?
“But why is winter so long here?”
Jude asked the question Lee Shin had been wondering about.
An answer soon came.
“It’s not… that winter is long. We’re the ones… who create the long winter.”
“You create winter?”
Jude tilted his head in confusion.
“This land… was originally a land of winter.”
“A land of winter? But it’s really warm right now! Rex, a land of winter is somewhere like Jude’s world. Although only pitch-black snow falls in Jude’s world!”
Rex did not answer with words.
Instead, he showed him.
“These grasslands… were created by us.”
Boom!
Rex stomped his foot.
Then—
“The warmth, the grass, the flowers, and summer itself.”
With a sharp crack, the sky split open.
Beyond the divided clouds, a pitch-black sky was revealed, and a fierce blizzard raged within it.
It was as though the land on which Rex stood and the sky above it belonged to entirely different worlds.
Lee Shin thought,
The power of dragons…
It was the same power he had witnessed during the war against Governor Johan—the innate ability of dragons to manipulate the weather freely.
That was right.
Their wings might have atrophied, but they were still dragons.
Dragons possessing transcendent power.
“We’re merely… taking back what we created… for a while.”
Even after witnessing such a sight, Jude expressed neither amazement nor surprise. He merely asked with genuine curiosity,
“Why would you abandon this happy summer and bring winter? Do you want to watch the soft white snow pile up? Or do you want to build a really huge snowman?”
It was an innocent question.
Rex answered,
“Because our stomachs… are full now.”
“Your stomachs are full?”
“Full enough… to last one hundred years.”
Rex slowly lowered his head and met Jude’s eyes.
“We live… for winter.”
“To leave… reality behind and dream… we spend every day pressed against the ground, eating nothing but grass and filling our stomachs… with nutrients.”
“So that we can sleep… for a very long time without waking.”
Hearing Rex’s explanation, Lee Shin finally found the answer to the question he had asked Blue Star.
Why did they sleep all day?
Why did they do nothing?
Why did they only eat and lie around?
Why were they so hollow and empty?
Why weren’t they happy?
…Because they aren’t living in reality.
Rex’s words reminded Lee Shin of his recent conversation with Ji Seongwi.
“They were people who could find no comfort.”
“People who needed something—anything—to cling to…”
An enormous body.
A great dragon, despite having lost his wings.
The power to shake the heavens with a single stomp.
They possessed many grand and extraordinary things, yet their fundamental nature was no different from that of humans.
Lee Shin could vaguely perceive the soul hidden beneath Rex’s exterior.
It resembled the people Lee Shin had encountered throughout his life.
What if the surgery fails?
Choi Bom from long ago, curled up inside a hospital room.
I ruined it. I failed the college entrance exam. Three years of effort vanished as if they’d never existed. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have done anything. I would’ve just done nothing at all…
The high school senior who had lived next door when Lee Shin was young.
It’s too late for me to find a job now. I know I’ll never pass the bar exam, no matter how many more years I spend trying. I’m only continuing out of inertia. I have to repay all the money and expectations people invested in me. I absolutely have to…
The man who was always smoking in the corner of a park bench.
Whether it was a dragon dozens of meters tall or a human less than two meters tall, their fundamental nature was the same.
Fragments of all the people Lee Shin had encountered were embedded within Rex.
They had always said the same thing.
They wanted to disappear from this reality.
They wanted to escape this sickening world.
This dreadful reality.
They wanted to leave it all behind.
“If I could… I would sleep forever.”
“I never… want to wake up.”
“…”
“If we can do that… without suffering, then we’ll gladly choose it. Everyone… living in this land… would make the same choice.”
At that moment, the Rex reflected in Lee Shin’s eyes was no longer a dinosaur dozens of meters tall, as enormous as a mountain.
Instead, Lee Shin saw something that had been battered and crushed by reality until it had shriveled into a tiny shape.
Something that wished to grow smaller and smaller until it finally became dust and scattered from this world.
Jude silently stared at Rex.
Rather than speak hastily, Lee Shin waited for Jude’s response.
Jude often behaved like a child, but he had actually lived longer than any of Lee Shin’s other believers.
He had even endured most of those countless eons completely alone, without a single friend.
Perhaps Jude was the one person capable of offering Rex genuine advice in this situation.
And then—
Clang!
“…?”
With a bone—
“You! Jude thinks you need! A good beating!”
“…?”
Hmm.
Or perhaps not?