Level 4 Human in a Ruined World-Chapter 609

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 609: A New Path (5)

The black hole, Guinek.

A celestial body currently residing in an unimaginably distant part of space—so far away that, measured by distance, it would take half a day of interstellar jumps just to reach it from here.

Naturally, there was no way that black holes 49793 and Guinek had ever met face-to-face.

All this time, over those long ages, they had merely conversed through that passage.

‘Guinek… That must have been its name back when it was a star.’

And yet, strangely enough, the one that accepted its former name felt far more savage than the one that rejected it. How was that supposed to make sense?

“Um… Teacher Guinek?”

The moment Yeongwoo cautiously inserted himself into the exchange between the two black holes, a furious rebuke came crashing down.

● You insignificant being, close your mouth! How dare you interrupt our conversation?

It was Guinek’s wrath.

At that, 49793—who had already seen Yeongwoo directly—moved to restrain Guinek.

● Visitors are exceedingly rare, are they not? There is no need to be so harsh.

● He came looking for you, not me. He is not my guest.

As Guinek grumbled, Yeongwoo hurriedly lowered himself and spoke in a deferential tone.

“I need your help as well, Teacher Guinek. It’s essential to the request I’m about to make.”

● What? My help?

“That passage… isn’t it something that can only be opened with the consent of both of you?”

49793 shook its head.

● I can speak to my upper friend whenever I wish.

“Th-then… what about the lower friend?”

● I cannot speak to that one. That fellow opens the passage whenever it grows bored, entirely on its own.

“Ah.”

Only then did Yeongwoo finally understand.

That the passages between black holes were one-way only.

‘From 49793, a passage can be opened toward Guinek—but Guinek can’t open one back toward 49793.’

Which meant that somewhere in this universe, there had to be another black hole capable of opening a passage connected to 49793.

And that existence was precisely the “lower friend” 49793 had mentioned earlier.

49793, too, had a black hole companion that contacted it unilaterally.

‘Then… how does this work? If we cross over there and want to come back, we’ll have to use yet another black hole?’

Yeongwoo had never thought traveling freely across the universe would be easy—but he hadn’t expected it to work like this.

‘What, do we have to persuade black holes every single time we make a jump? That’s… really troublesome.’

Of course, the time saved compared to conventional interstellar travel would be overwhelming, so at least temporally it wasn’t a loss.

But the problem was that the counterpart was a black hole—unpredictability incarnate.

If they ever ran into one that was truly insane, an entire planetary system could be wiped out in an instant.

“……”

In any case, Yeongwoo decided to at least see this jump through properly.

“Teachers, please help me. If you allow it, I’ll come visit from time to time and tell you what’s happening outside the universe.”

He had tossed out the words almost casually, but to his surprise, 49793 reacted strongly.

● You’ll visit us often? Truly?

“Y-yes. Of course.”

If it really came down to persuading a new black hole every time they jumped, then he might actually have to visit 49793 often.

After all, this was the one black hole that had proven at least somewhat persuadable.

Either way, passing through 49793 alone saved half a day’s worth of travel.

Even if they had to carve out a new return route afterward.

● Hey, Guinek. What do you think? Not a bad proposal, is it?

49793 asked Guinek beyond the passage, its voice brimming with excitement.

Guinek muttered back, still sounding sullen.

● Coming back from time to time, you say… That would make things less boring than before.

In other words, acceptance.

Seizing the moment, Yeongwoo pressed the issue.

“Then you’ll open the passage for us, right? It’s enough if we can exit through the place where you are, Teacher Guinek!”

Guinek vanished without a word. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

In his place, 49793 raised a finger and pointed at the passage.

● The path is already open. Go, find what you seek—and do not forget to return to us someday.

“Huh.”

Caught off guard by how smoothly things had resolved, Yeongwoo stared blankly for a moment before snapping back to his senses.

‘Guess you really don’t know until you boldly face things head-on.’

He then helped Earth—who was still half collapsed on the floor—to his feet.

“Let’s go. Before they change their minds.”

『J-just like that? We’re going in?』

As Earth stared nervously at the glowing “passage” beyond, Yeongwoo grabbed his arm and pulled him past the boundary.

“I know unpredictability better than anyone, but these teachers are fickle as boiling porridge. If there’s an opening, we need to take it immediately!”

『…….』

At Yeongwoo’s words, Earth stood up and then turned to look at the rest of the group behind them.

『Is it just us who need to go in there?』

“You’re the planetary ship itself, after all. Probably. We’ll know once we go.”

Ignorance can sometimes be the source of courage.

Yeongwoo was already walking toward the passage laid between the black holes, leaving Earth behind.

And the moment the tip of Yeongwoo’s foot crossed into the starting point of the passage—

Ssshaat!

“W-what?!”

His body lifted into the air, and he began ascending along a white pillar of light rising above his head.

『That lunatic…』

With no other choice, Earth followed Yeongwoo into the passage.

Paaat!

For the first time, the surrounding darkness trembled violently, and the pitch-black space covering everything peeled away all at once.

“Wh-what is this?”

In an instant, everything brightened.

They were back in the bridge.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

“So… what was that just now? A hallucination?”

Yeongwoo muttered as if bewitched, but Earth, standing before the navigation apparatus, shook his head.

『Impossible. We’re actually inside the passage right now.』

“What?”

When Yeongwoo hurriedly looked out through the bridge window, he saw brilliant white light filling the space outside.

The entire Earth-ship system had already entered the black hole.

Kugugugugu…!

Worse still, a tremendous vibration was violently shaking the Earth-ship.

“Then we’re already in the middle of a jump?”

『…Probably. Our reference coordinates are changing at an unbelievable speed.』

Earth drew his hand through the air, revealing the Earth-ship’s coordinates flipping so fast they were impossible to track with the naked eye.

Then, a system message appeared before Yeongwoo’s eyes.

「Consent obtained from 49793.」

“…Huh? Consent?”

Another line followed immediately.

「Consent obtained from Guinek.」

Anyone could tell—it referred to authorization for using the passage.

And sure enough, a new line was added at the very bottom of the Great Exploration tooltip.

「The Great Exploration」 – Legendary Universe Artifact

【Myth Tracking】

【Explorer】

【Myth Tracking】

|Shows the location of all existing myths through various methods. Can be used to find forgotten myths.

【Explorer】

|Many paths will open for you.

【Black Accord】

| Opening new paths becomes progressively easier.

| Accords secured: 2

“…What?”

Was this, too, because it was a mythic map?

This was the first time a new tooltip had ever been generated.

‘What is this? Does increasing the number of accords make persuading black holes easier?’

As Yeongwoo tilted his head in confusion, the space outside the Earth-ship darkened once more as they finally exited the passage.

Hwaaat!

They had returned to open space.

Behind the planetary ship, another black hole—Guinek—wavered, but there was no interference or attempt at communication.

—W-we really did perform a space jump. From here, even manual navigation would be enough to reach the Sutral Planet.

Mantero spoke in disbelief after checking the star map.

A journey that would normally take over half a day even for a high-grade vessel had been completed in barely ten minutes.

—If we can move like this every time, this ship would become truly untraceable. If things go south, we could just escape into a black hole…

Jiseon murmured while gazing out the window.

If they could really use such passages at will, she was right—no pursuit could ever catch them.

“But since the black hole used each time will be different, we’ll still have to go through persuasion every time.”

Yeongwoo closed his eyes slowly, recalling Guinek’s voice from earlier.

Not on Mara’s level, perhaps—but aggressive enough.

“……”

What would have happened if they had encountered Guinek first, instead of 49793?

There was no doubt the outcome wouldn’t have been this smooth.

‘Normally, it would’ve refused passage—but maybe it let us through because 49793 had already taken our side.’

That was likely the case.

Wasn’t that precisely why a new tooltip had appeared in Great Exploration?

【Black Accord】

| Opening new paths becomes progressively easier.

| Accords secured: 2

This was essentially a metric showing how many black holes the holder of the map had already passed through.

In other words, reference data for the next black hole Yeongwoo would encounter.

‘The universe really is unpredictable. Not only are there passages that let you leap across space, but you have to negotiate with them directly.’

Yeongwoo shook his head without realizing it.

And then—another “unpredictable” event occurred before his eyes.

Piiing!

A clear chime rang out of nowhere.

“What now?”

As Yeongwoo blinked and looked up, he saw the Prestige System activating.

「+0.6 Prestige for confronting a black hole」

「+2.1 Prestige for passing through a black hole」

“Oh—then that means…”

In an instant, Prestige Level 52 was surpassed.

But the true surprise came next.

As the prestige notification began to fade, a heavy, gray string of text surfaced behind it.

Gwaaaaak!

Accompanied by the oppressive blare of massive brass instruments, something appeared that Yeongwoo had never even imagined.

[Your narrative has been filled with sufficient greatness.]

…What?

[A great deed begins.]

[The path toward a 4th-rank phase has opened.]

[Translator - Night]

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