Chapter 220. A Single Serpent Pt. 7
Although they were born from the same mother, the two were different from the moment they had entered the world.
The two brothers had been split into an older and younger brother relationship even though they had been born on the same day with just a difference of a few minutes had grown together. One had black hair, and the other had hair as white as snow. The difference in their hair color seemed to dominate their lives, as the two were different from the moment of birth.
‘Mommy will be back for you soon.’
Both had a hazy memory from their infancy: the last appearance of the mother who had given birth to them. With a promise to return, the mother left her own flesh and blood.
‘Die! Die!’
On the other hand, every day, their father beat them. The boy with white hair was considered cursed. Their father, complaining that everything had been ruined because of that child’s existence, beat him again and again.
That was the children's first memory of their father: endless violence at home. Outside the home was no different.
‘Look at that bastard’s hair.’
‘An albino? Or something like that, at least.’
‘Make sure you don’t catch whatever he has.’
The white-haired boy had always been the subject of attention as the children at school either harassed or completely avoided him. As time went on, the boy became increasingly despondent.
‘Die!’
On the other hand, the black-haired boy grew more and more like his father.
‘Don’t you ever touch my brother again.’
Having grown up watching his father’s violent outbursts, the black-haired boy eventually raised his fists to protect his younger brother, having made the decision to become the one to bear the wounds in place of his younger brother.
The children at school were all soon conquered by the black-haired boy.
With eyes glistening with madness and massive fists that could knock down even an adult, the child was unafraid of anything and never fled from any challenge. He had become the terror of the school.
However, even such a fearsome black-haired boy was subject to the same hell at home.
‘How dare a brat stare back at his father, someone who is like heaven to him, with such eyes?’
At home, he was just like the white-haired boy: always beaten over and over again. Eventually, as it wouldn’t be different, either way, he stood up to his father.
‘Dog bastard.’
‘You…! You! Did you just?! How dare you! You son of a bitch!’
‘I was born to a dog, so, yeah, I am a son of a bitch!’
He stood up to his father, who was always beating him, and fought back again and again. And, whenever he would be beaten half to death, the white-haired boy, with fewer bruises splattered on his body than before, would come close and cry all night.
‘Hyung…’
The black-haired boy had sworn to himself.
‘I’m okay, I’m…’
He would always protect the white-haired boy. On behalf of his weak and sickly brother, he would destroy the world. Whether his brother was the villain or the victim, he was going to protect him.
That was the image the white-haired boy had of his brother as a child.
‘I’m sorry that I have to bring you this news, but…as your father was drinking and jaywalking, he…’
Then one day, their father had finally met his end. It was a worthless death for a worthless father. Not a single person attended his funeral, and the children were sent to an orphanage, living a life that was better than the hell they had lived in before.
‘Water.’
The black-haired boy had become king.
‘Pour some for my brother, too.’
His white-haired brother was now a prince. No one in the orphanage could disobey the two's orders.
'Hyung…we could just...’
‘Shut up. If we become weak, they’ll eat us alive.’
The white-haired boy tried to stop his changing brother, but there was no going back. He was the older brother and the one who had to always take care of him.
‘Is this all the money?’
His brother changed more and more. After dropping out of school one day, his brother just never returned to the orphanage. He just left, saying that he was going somewhere and that he would come and earn money.
'Wow, he's number one in the whole school again!'
‘There definitely is something special about him.’
‘I’m jealous.’
As for the white-haired boy, he was no longer some strange alien but was becoming a special person. The empty space his brother had left wasn’t as big as it had been, as no one bothered him anymore.‘Hyung…’
However, he still had no friends, and all he did was wait for his brother to return. The only proof he had of his brother’s life or death was the money that was deposited from time to time as his brother, who had sacrificed everything for him, had left him behind.
The two children, who were separated in that manner, grew up as they lived two completely different lives.
‘O…outside…!’
Then, one day, the gates appeared.
***
‘Hyung!’
When the gates appeared and the monsters descended, the bewildered white-haired teen, worried, immediately searched for his brother somewhere. The orphanage had been trampled by monsters, and everyone they had known had died.
He had run away, seemingly forever, in order to live. In the midst of his escape, the teen ran into his brother once again.
‘Hyung!’
‘This way!’
The brothers, who had finally met after such a long time, were forced to flee without having a single moment to breathe. The black-haired teen was holding a knife he had gotten from somewhere and was slicing through monsters as the white-haired teen was relieved to feel his brother’s shadow once again.
His brother had returned.
‘I! Am! Chi-Woo!’
The older brother shouted his name out loud as he cut through monsters again and again.
‘Dodge!
However, that only lasted for a short while. When the older brother struggled against an unexpected foe momentarily, a gate suddenly appeared behind his little brother’s back.
‘...!’
The white-haired teen stretched out his hand, but the gate that had appeared with a slight chime sucked him in like a black hole. The older brother, who had been protecting his younger brother until now, screamed out as he threw himself at a gate once again.
‘No!’
A voice spoke to the brothers who had entered the gate at the same time.
[<The Master of the Blue Current> shows interest in you.]
[<The Master of the Blue Current> sponsors you.]
As the two opened their eyes, what lay before them was complete darkness.
‘Damn it…’ The older brother muttered to himself once again as if he knew something. ‘To think I’d appear here again…’
Unlike the younger brother, who was terrified by the darkness with a dumbfounded expression, the older brother was calm in the face of danger. He looked as if he had been in this darkness for years.
'It begins.'
Monsters began to pour out before them without any time for him to explain. The white-haired teen no longer stood still like an idiot as his older brother took care of him and taught him.
They had been sponsored. The older brother was a great warrior, knocking down the flocking enemies while he protected his younger brother over and over again.
However, the two brothers understood this sponsorship wasn’t for the sake of training them.
No, it was just…
‘Just the desire to be able to play with toys for a long time…’
That was the best way to put it. The enemies swarmed before them as the two brothers fought seemingly endlessly. In the spare moments that they found breathing room, the older brother taught the younger brother how to fight.
A week, a month, and even a year had passed as the brothers continued to have to deal with the monsters in the dark. However, a lot had changed.
The younger brother was no longer an existence who could only exist under the aid of the older brother. Rather, he had become the one to rush forward first, smashing and killing their enemies. It had always been like this.
‘You always did learn quickly.’
A dark expression of sorrow hung over one side of the older brother's proud face. The younger brother had already realized it by now. His older brother had already been to this space as dark as an abyss.
He had already been trapped in this dimension they called Andlangr, and he had spent so many years in this hell that it could be called immeasurable. Moreover, that wasn’t the only problem that belayed the two brothers.
[A Multiple Sponsorship Hunter is present.]
[The difficulty increases.]
[The difficulty increases.]
As time passed, the monsters became stronger. When monsters that were too difficult for even the older brother to handle appeared, the brothers had to work together to defeat the monsters. They killed and killed over and over again.
As three years passed in that manner, the two brothers were no longer able even to speak.
‘...’
Within the dark hell from which there was no escape, the brothers consumed the monsters as they just focused on surviving. Their emotions had dried up. Their brotherhood had withered.‘Someday, this will end…’
‘This might be different from what you went through, Hyung.’
Cracks had begun to form. The older brother never ceased to hold on to the younger brother, who wanted to give up. However, the younger brother could see it.
‘I want to die…’
His older brother had to undergo this dark hell now twice, so he was suffering the most. Thus, the younger brother begged and begged.
'I'll give you anything you want! So please...let my Hyung leave this hell!’
His older brother had always protected him their entire lives, so the white-haired teen wanted to protect him at least once. However, the master of the realm who was playing with them had no intention of doing anything the teen wanted.
[<The Master of the Blue Current> sponsors you.]
[Your stamina has been restored.]
The only thing he received in response was support, as if to push them into fighting once more. Thus, ten years passed in that manner, and one day, the younger brother looked over at his older brother.
‘Hyung,’ he said. 'Kill me.'
***
The younger brother had an idea. The gate and sponsorship were things that had appeared for him. The gate had appeared behind his back, and the message he had heard countless times while going through this hell had only cemented that idea.
[<The Master of the Blue Current> has a special interest in you.]
As the smart one, the younger brother thought to himself. The pain that his brother was going through and the sacrifices that his brother had made throughout their entire lives had all been for him. That was why he felt that if he disappeared, then his brother could be saved.
In Andlangr, he couldn’t end his own life and death by monsters was also impossible. While most Hunters didn’t even know about the existence of Andlangr, those who had gone there knew that Andlangr was a place where even death was not permitted.
Death by monsters would be revived through sponsorship, and one was forced to fight in an endless hell through whatever means necessary. It was easy to understand. If it were possible to die, then how many people would have survived Andlangr to the very end?
However, the younger brother thought to himself. His brother had entered the space alongside him. If, by chance, his brother were to be the one to kill him, wouldn’t it make sense for him not to be resurrected?
No, that would only mean peace for himself.
No, if that wasn’t the case, at least, if he died and all the attention was focused on his older brother, he reasoned, wouldn’t his powerful older brother be able to leave this place eventually?
That was the solution he had reasoned, but as expected he was beaten near to death. The older brother refused to kill his younger brother, and the two stayed together until the very end and went through hell.
It took decades. Perhaps because there had been two of them, the hell had gone on longer than expected, and it had taken thirty years for the brothers to escape.
However, when they emerged, only a few hours had passed in reality. Still, their strength remained the same as when they had exited. In the end, the brothers had changed and their brotherhood transformed. The two were obsessed with each other.
They both had the conviction they had survived only because they had the other, and they had only been able to endure because they had each other. However, the creator of that Hell had no intentions of letting them go.
[<The Master of the Blue Current> created an unauthorized number of incarnations.]
[The Master of the Blue Current> offers a suggestion to the System.]
Most likely, no one else could have ever heard such a message.
[You have been granted a mission!]
[Sacrifice for the Weak.]
Sacrifice the strong for the sake of the weak.
The mission was simple.
[The more powerful incarnation will be absorbed by the weaker incarnation.]
Hell unfolded once again as if they didn’t get stronger, they would die.
‘I’m stronger than you, Hyung.’
‘What bullshit.’
However, the two brothers both wanted to die. Both had the thought: only if they died could the other live. Only by becoming strong could they make the sacrifice for the other.
The two fought, clashing endlessly to prove that he was the stronger one. However, it was impossible for the battle to end.
They fought endlessly in Andlangr’s frozen time. Because The Master of the Blue Current continued to give the younger brother an incredible amount of sponsorship, the older brother was unable to take the upper hand. Thus, the younger brother ran away.
Fortunately, the mission continued, and the older brother didn’t die from his momentary show of weakness.
The two brothers who had walked out of hell had decided to continue their journey back through a different hell once again, fighting for the sake of the other until the end of their lives.
'I have to become stronger.'
'I have to become stronger.'
They had to keep getting stronger—only then could the other live. One went to the Association, while the other to Europe. Thus, the two brothers, having become stronger than anyone else, fought with all their might while holding a hammer dripping with condensed electricity and a Thunderbolt.
“I am stronger!”
“I’m sorry, but it’s me~!”
Thunder and rain crashed down as the two brothers fought, having to take each other down for the other’s sake. It was an endless battle as a notification had come to their minds a short moment ago.
[The mission's time limit is running out.]
[Please select the stronger one soon.]
The older brother’s choice had been to find stronger and stronger people and become even stronger himself, while the younger brother’s decision had been to find his older brother and see an end to their battle.