I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy-Chapter 496

The corrupted forest was home to thousands of trees, each attacking with a unique, harmonious pattern of extending roots and branches. Yet, not a single attack touched Baek Yu-Seol.

3 hours and 30 minutes.

That was the time it had taken the game-player Baek Yu-Seol to clear the corrupted forest in the past. During that span, he had died 66 times. It was only on his 67th attempt, using the knowledge from those deaths, that he finally succeeded.

But how much would that experience help him in reality?

Back then, his understanding of the forest's traps and dangers had been purely mechanical. He had only managed to clear it by memorizing locations and patterns, not by mastering the intricate movements required to evade every attack.

Yet now, why was he able to avoid everything so effortlessly?

The difference was clear: the current Baek Yu-Seol had transcended human limits. His senses, honed beyond anything possible in his previous life, combined with the memories of 67 versions of himself, granted him an unparalleled edge.

In this forest, at this moment, Baek Yu-Seol was virtually invincible.

Reaching the center {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} of the forest, where the World Tree stood tall, was not difficult for him.

Jelliel and Althericia shouted warnings from behind, urging him to be cautious, but their voices no longer reached him.

The sounds of bulldozers faded into the distance, leaving only the desperate thrashing of sentient trees around him.

The World Tree was dead.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it had withered.

Devoid of life, the World Tree had lost its power and offered no resistance to Baek Yu-Seol’s approach.

If he chose to set it ablaze, it might burn entirely to ash.

But Baek Yu-Seol hadn’t come here with such intentions.

“...This is the place, isn’t it?”

—"Huh? Uh, y-yeah, that’s right.”

When Baek Yu-Seol spoke, Twilightis stammered in response, clearly flustered.

"How is a mere human this terrifying...?"

Twilightis could feel his heart pounding with fear—a sensation he hadn’t experienced since encountering the Returner of the Void. For a being who had never imagined encountering another as strong as himself, the fear was overwhelming.

"It’s a humble little house," Baek Yu-Seol thought as he gazed at the structure near the World Tree. It was a small, wooden cabin—perhaps better described as a hut.

Lowering his gaze to his hands, a strange feeling washed over him.

"It’s unsettling..."

He had absorbed the memories of 67 different versions of himself who had died within just three and a half hours. And yet, he felt like a completely different person.

Each of those Baek Yu-Seols had been living, breathing individuals with their own thoughts and motivations. Even in the brief time they had existed, they had fought fiercely to protect their worlds.

"I owe them an apology... but thanks to them, I’ve grown."

He wasn’t referring to his personality or soul. His abilities had ascended to a higher level.

The shard of the Otherworld still rested in his hand.

"As I suspected... the Otherworld is nothing more than a parallel dimension of Aether World."

Baek Yu-Seol thought back to the countless dimensions he had failed to protect during his time as a player. Many of those worlds must have been ravaged by disasters, corrupted beyond recognition, or rendered uninhabitable.

These parallel dimensions endlessly sought to merge with the one remaining living reality. Finding it, however, was nearly impossible.

But the worlds Baek Yu-Seol had unwittingly destroyed were far too many.

"This is my responsibility," he admitted, his thoughts heavy.

"If this warped fate of Aether World is because of me..."

He clenched his fist.

"Why? Why is this happening? All I did was spend ten years playing a game from my home."

—"Why are you hesitating?"

Twilightis’s uneasy gaze fell on Baek Yu-Seol. Fixing his expression, Baek Yu-Seol answered firmly.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

—"A bad feeling? What do you mean?"

Without replying, Baek Yu-Seol walked toward the cabin. Twilightis followed him, bewildered, as Baek Yu-Seol pulled at the rusty hinges of the door.

The creaking, ear-piercing noise was unsettling, but the door barely moved. With a stronger tug, it snapped off entirely.

Twilightis frowned, looking pained. “Couldn’t you be gentler with my house? It’s important to me...”

But Baek Yu-Seol had no time to humor him.

He stepped inside the cabin.

The interior was shrouded in complete darkness.

If Baek Yu-Seol recalled correctly, the elf residing here was afflicted with an illness that sunlight aggravated.

The darkness didn’t hinder him. His enhanced vision allowed him to see clearly even without light.

And so, he saw it first, before Twilightis did.

A single elf lay motionless on the bed, their body cold and withered.

—"W-what...?"

Baek Yu-Seol stopped in his tracks. Only then did Twilightis realize something was wrong. In a panic, he rushed to the bedside.

—"K-Kaya? What’s going on? What happened...?"

The elf’s name was Kaya, the one Twilightis cherished above all else—the only living being he had cared for.

But she was gone.

—"Why... Why...?"

Twilightis stared at the body with vacant eyes. At first, she refused to believe it, but reality quickly set in, and a whirlwind of anger consumed her.

“Calm down, Twilightis,” Baek Yu-Seol said evenly.

—"Calm down...?"

Her voice trembled as she turned to him, her eyes wild.

—"Do I look like I can calm down right now...?"

—"This is bad! When she loses it, she stops listening to reason!"

Crack! Zzzzap!

As Autumn Crescent’s panicked warning proved accurate, purple sparks began to arc around Twilightis’s body.

Among the Twelve Moons, Twilightis was renowned for her unparalleled single-target destructive power. People joked that if she decided to unleash her lightning, she could split the continent in half.

Teleportation to evade her attacks? Useless. If you were agile, she would simply unleash attacks that couldn’t be dodged.

—"What do you know about me or my sister...? How dare you tell me to calm down after this!"

Baek Yu-Seol maintained a calm expression, locking eyes with her. After a moment, he glanced at Autumn Crescent and signaled with a nod.

“Just calm her down enough to talk. That’s all we need.”

—"You...! Fine!"

Autumn Crescent quickly understood and extended her hand. Though her powers had weakened, she could still instill a sense of tranquility.

Fzzzzt—

As the crackling sparks around Twilightis began to subside, Baek Yu-Seol acted swiftly.

“That’s not real,” he said firmly.

—"What...?"

“Think about it. What happens when a human dies?”

If she hadn’t been calmed, she wouldn’t have heard him. Thanks to Autumn Crescent, Twilightis unconsciously considered his words.

—"When a human dies... they decay and disappear."

“Exactly. Humans decompose. But what about elves?”

Unlike humans, elves didn’t decay. Their bodies returned to the earth, becoming part of the forest and fading away.

—"Wait..."

Finally, Twilightis noticed something strange. She looked at the elf woman’s body again.

From the condition of the corpse, it appeared to have been dead for over a year. But why hadn’t it decomposed?

And why was it lying neatly on the bed, as though arranged for someone to find?

It was as if the body had been staged to provoke a reaction.

"This is... a decoy," Twilightis muttered under her breath.

Examining the body more closely, she realized it wasn’t a corpse at all.

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It was a doll, intricately carved from wood.

The moment she touched it, the rigid texture confirmed her suspicions.

"So that’s how it is."

The Returner of the Void had anticipated that Twilightis might betray him and align with Baek Yu-Seol.

This decoy was a trap designed for such a scenario.

If Twilightis had revealed her sister’s existence to Baek Yu-Seol, they would inevitably come to this place.

And upon seeing what appeared to be her sister’s corpse, Twilightis would lose her composure and spiral into a destructive rage.

Everything had gone according to the Returner’s calculations.

"If I hadn’t brought Autumn Crescent, this could’ve ended badly," Baek Yu-Seol thought.

He wasn’t confident he could completely evade Twilightis’s attacks, even with teleportation. While the help of the other Twelve Moons could have prevented his death, sustaining injuries here would have derailed his plans.

—"Who did this...?"

“Probably the Returner of the Void,” Baek Yu-Seol replied calmly. “He predicted you might betray him and planned accordingly.”

—"He even anticipated that I’d lose control...?"

“The Returner of the Void doesn’t have psychic abilities, yet he manipulates emotions from afar. Impressive, isn’t it?”

Twilightis felt a pang of shame as the reality of her outburst sank in, but she couldn’t muster a retort to Baek Yu-Seol’s subtle jab.

—"Wait! Then where is my sister?"

“Ah,” Baek Yu-Seol muttered, crouching to examine the floor. With a quick nudge of his foot, he flipped the bed.

Beneath it lay Twilightis’s real sister, Kaya, fast asleep.

—"Huh? Isn’t this the part where the villain takes her hostage and runs?"

Autumn Crescent mused thoughtlessly, earning a sharp glare from Twilightis that seemed ready to summon a storm.

“In most cases, yes,” Baek Yu-Seol replied. “But here, the Returner planned for Twilightis to rage uncontrollably. Hiding Kaya beneath the bed was a brilliant move.”

—"Why...?"

Cradling Kaya in her arms, Twilightis asked. Baek Yu-Seol answered with a faintly troubled expression.

“If you had lost control and unleashed your lightning, could Kaya’s frail body have survived it?”

—"Ah..."

The trap was insidious. The Returner’s plan had been to provoke Twilightis into unleashing her powers and accidentally killing her sister.

If she realized afterward that she had been responsible for Kaya’s death, the ensuing guilt would have driven her into complete madness.

Hearing this, Twilightis sank to the floor, her face a mixture of exhaustion and despair.

—"...If you hadn’t been here, and someone else had come instead... I would’ve fallen for it completely."

Twilightis imagined herself as an uncontrollable monster, destroying half the world in her rage. The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

From start to finish, she had been dancing in the palm of the Returner of the Void’s hand.

“Don’t worry,” Baek Yu-Seol said, his voice calm and steady.

—"But I..."

“You have me now.”

For some reason, Twilightis felt an overwhelming sense of relief from his confident tone.

She looked at him with a weary smile and nodded weakly.

—"...I’ll trust you."