chapter 45: The Old Friends of Unknown
In a place filled with stars — stars of all shapes, types, and sizes...
The sizes of these stars ranged from large to small, though the smallest among them was the size of a multiverse.
And the largest? It had surpassed even distance itself.
In this place, filled with these colossal stars,
there was a dragon—a dragon so massive that its eyes alone were the size of the largest star in the entire space.
This dragon's color was white with hints of gold at the edges and scattered across its body.
Its body was so long, it wrapped around every star in this place.
And by the way, the number of stars here surpassed all known numbers.
The dragon was asleep.
Then...
A white beam of light appeared in front of its eyes.
The dragon awoke.
Its eyes were golden.
It raised its brows in surprise as information poured directly into its mind.
The dragon frowned slightly, scratched its chin with its claw, and thought to itself:
"Strange… It's not usual for him to send a message. But this... is definitely intriguing."
The dragon smiled.
Then, all the stars disappeared—
And so did the massive dragon.
---
In their place appeared a tall young man, muscular and imposing.
His eyes were golden, and his long white hair flowed.
Two horns—golden and white—rose from his head.
Then, the young man vanished.
---
In a place full of ruin, destruction, death, chaos, entropy, slaughter, and killing intent of all kinds...
A place so terrifying that if any living being were to enter it,
they'd simply die without a trace.
In this place, killing intent permeated everything.
It was so strong that even releasing a fraction of it outside—
a fragment as small as a quark's quark—
would annihilate all life.
And the source of this killing intent was a man:
blood-red hair, blood-red eyes, a face void of any feeling or emotion—except pure killing intent.
He stood 188 cm tall,
but the aura he emitted was in no way lesser than that of the white dragon.
A red beam appeared before his face.
When he saw the contents of the message,
he smiled—a terrifying, savage smile.
His killing intent surged, growing in immeasurable magnitude.
His form began to blur—except for his eyes and mouth, glowing with dense crimson.
Then, even his form vanished.
Only a smiling red face remained.
Eyes and a mouth—savage, monstrous, cruel.
Then...
That terrifying place vanished.
The killing intent vanished.
The red face vanished.
And what remained was a young man.
He resembled the terrifying figure—
but he was different.
He radiated peace, serenity, and calm.
He smiled slightly...
And then disappeared.
---
In a place full of intertwining formulas, symbols, shapes, letters, and unknown things...
Everything was woven together in ways beyond logic.
Some things were so small they made a quark seem infinitely large.
Others were so vast they made infinity itself seem tiny.
But most shocking of all was the amount of compressed, terrifying information within each object.
Even the smallest contained more data than any being could ever comprehend.
In the midst of this strange place hovered the spectral form of a woman.
No features were visible—just a ghostly silhouette.
She seemed to be searching for something, as if this was a library of forbidden knowledge.
Then...
A blue beam arrived.
She looked mildly surprised.
Then...
With a gentle smile—
Everything vanished.
And so did she.
---
In a place full of mountains greater than multiverses...
Above them floated clouds so massive that they dwarfed all the mountains combined, countless times over.
Atop one mountain sat a handsome young man,
playing a flute whose melody brought peace and calm to all who heard it.
His long hair flowed in the wind.
Behind him was a yin-yang circle, its two sides intertwining in incomprehensible ways.
Even the two fish of yin and yang moved with mysterious purpose, each shift seemingly symbolizing a deep, dangerous meaning.
The young man continued to play his flute—
Until a black and white beam reached him.
He looked surprised at first.
But after receiving the information in the beam...
He smiled.
And said:
"What are you planning this time, Unknown?"
Then—
Just like the others, his world faded.
And only the young man remained.
Then he, too, vanished.
---
In a vast, expansive space...
There was what one might call a training hall.
It contained all types of equipment, arenas, and weights.
Massive—so massive that if you combined all the previous worlds—the dragon, the killer, the spectral woman, the yin-yang man—
they wouldn't equal even the lightest object in this place.
Somewhere within this colossal gym stood a bald man,
his muscles chiseled, dense with detail.
He was performing a deadlift-like motion—
but he wasn't lifting metal or stone.
He was lifting expectations,
hopes,
and other unseen burdens.
His face turned red—
for he was lifting Hope itself.
Then—
An orange message appeared before his eyes.
He looked mildly surprised.
Then, the information flooded in.
He forgot what he was doing...
And casually tossed the weight into the air—
as if it weighed nothing—
sending it flying a distance beyond comprehension.
Then...
His training ground disappeared.
And like the rest...
He vanished too.
In a place filled with countless swords — swords of every kind and size,
the sizes of these swords ranged from the largest, whose size was unknown,
to the smallest, which was smaller than a quark.
Each sword symbolized something specific: a sword of speed, cutting, brute force, tearing,
and many many more swords with various meanings,
and each sword emitted a terrifying aura.
In the midst of this place stood a person.
His features were very cold, his eyes closed, his hair long and pitch black.
His clothes were long and loose, and he placed his hands behind his back, then... he opened his eyes.
When he opened his eyes, a blue line of endless length appeared,
cutting this sword-filled place into two parts,
but nothing happened to the place, because the aura of this blue line was infinitely weaker than the weakest sword in that place.
His eyes were calm and very cold, then a gray beam appeared before him.
He looked at the beam, then information was transmitted to his mind.
He glanced around a little, then smiled.
This person disappeared, and all the countless swords vanished.
---
In a place full of all kinds of plants and herbs of various sizes, from small to very large,
in the middle of this place, there was a tree...
Well, it's better to say something like a tree.
It was so huge that it made everything else around it disappear from its vastness.
In the middle of this huge tree was a small hollow, and in this hollow was an invisible place, but it could be recognized as a bedroom.
In this room lay a person deeply asleep.
The shape of this character was not shown, but from the visible features of the room, it could be identified as a woman.
Snnnnoooorrreee (snoring sound)
Then... a green beam arrived before this woman.
She began to rub her eyes and yawn from the sleepiness, and from outside the room, nothing of her shape appeared except long ears.
After finishing yawning, she looked at the green beam with surprise, then information flowed into her mind.
She blinked several times, seemed to be thinking about something, then...
The huge tree, which had been completely still, began to shake with what could be described as a feeling of joy.
The woman's voice spread in the place:
"The fun has come."
Then everything in this place disappeared.
---
In a space larger than any known measure,
this space was in a state of severe destruction, full of terrifying forms, fear, madness, and all kinds of other emotions.
In the middle of this place, which could only be described with one word: "Fear,"
there was something so terrifying that if fear in this place were real, it would be afraid of this terrifying thing.
This thing had no definite shape; it twisted and took impossible forms,
and every part of it was terrifying to the utmost extent.
It kept twisting and changing its shape calmly, until a beam appeared in a color...
that cannot be named by any known name, but if described, it would be the color of fear.
When this beam arrived, countless eyes appeared, each eye symbolizing something, but there was a common trait among them all: fear.
These eyes brought intense fear no matter what they symbolized.
These eyes began to blink, and each blink spread terror and fear in this destructive space.
Suddenly, a terrifying mouth full of frightening teeth appeared.
The mouth smiled in a twisted and terrifying way after knowing the information in the beam,
then the destructive space disappeared with this mouth and the countless eyes.
Their place was taken by a man of ordinary appearance, wearing black pants and a black shirt, then he also disappeared.
---
In a place full of stars and planets of all sizes and types,
on every planet and star, countless people were practicing different techniques.
For example, on a planet larger than an entire universe, people were training their grip,
and on another planet, they were training their feet,
and on the other planets, the matter was similar.
But there was something strange about all these people: they looked exactly the same, no difference in their appearance,
but there were differences in their mood and what they trained on.
Each planet had its own specialization, and no planet resembled another's specialization.
In the midst of these planets, there was a person with calm features full of tranquility and harmony,
his hair long and red.
He was lying on the smallest planet in this place, and there was no one else.
He had a straw (the kind horses eat from) in his mouth, and he was muttering something.
He was somewhat strange because he looked exactly like the other people training,
but there was something different in his mood that put him on a different level.
Suddenly, a red beam appeared before him.
His eyes widened a bit, and after knowing the information in the beam, he smiled lightly and said:
"This will be fun."
Then all the planets around him disappeared, and he also disappeared.