***SPOILERS*** THIS POST CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR CONTENT NOT YET RELEASED ON EN SERVER!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!***
This is a translation of part 6 of Behind the Curtain. Part 6 has long since been available on CN server when season 1 ch.32 was released and to this day has yet to be added for global server. I don’t know why it hasn’t been included or if it will ever be added to global server since it contains a lot of insight, foreshadowing, and important plot details especially in regards to Kiro’s story arc. There are also short appearances from the other 3 LIs. Therefore, I’ve translated it for anyone who is interested in reading more about it. Do note that the content of BTC part 6 includes events from season 1 ch. 25-28 so if you have not read up to those chapters, then please do so to avoid confusion.
Without further ado, enjoy~
The flames in front of me gradually extinguished. Amid the smoke of gunpowder, a blonde man turned around. There was a slight loneliness in his azure blue eyes.
??: Your little friend looked sad.
Kiro: This isn’t something you should concern yourself with.
Kiro raised his head. His blue eyes were still. Under the firelight, they looked cold and alienated.
The dark-skinned man shrugged, gave a little whistle, and jumped into the helicopter in front of him.
??: Let’s go. To our new world.
Kiro paused and stared at the ruins in the distance. His golden hair slowly glowed with a silver luster. He raised his finger and the silver ring began to shine.
He lowered his voice, whispering to the ring and almost as if to himself.
Kiro: She will wait for me.
Kiro: For the Brave New World.
His voice was swallowed by the smoke behind him. The radiance from the ring instantly magnified, stinging my eyes…
MC: Kiro….what is he going to do…
After the white light dissipated, flickering spots of light and huge space-time gears appeared again in front of my eyes and a half-closed door that I wasn’t aware of.
A mysterious voice rang in my ears but the content of those words was somewhat familiar.
??: Now, tell me your name.
Helios: Helios.
This scene awakened some fragmented memories in my mind. It seemed that within the darkness of a certain time, I had heard a similar conversation. ***The similar conversation MC is referring to would be in Behind the Curtain Part 3***
??: Remembered what you promised me.
Helios: ….After she returns, the New World Project will begin.
The silver-haired young man turned around and quickly disappeared into a space of disordered electromagnetic waves. I finally remembered that I had indeed heard this conversation.
Only then did I realize that the voice speaking to Helios was clearly an old man.
??: I am the one who reached an agreement with him.
The voice suddenly responded to my inner thoughts.
??: In this time and space, both you and I can freely choose our own way of being.
MC: Can you hear what I’m thinking?
??: There is no difference between thinking or speaking. All the boundaries of existence….can be altered with your thoughts.
??: For example, what you will see next.
Before I could react, the sound of a door opening again came from faraway and the sound of footsteps gradually came closer. What appeared before me was a familiar girl in a black dress.
Girl: I’m here to say goodbye to you.
I subconsciously felt that the girl was not talking to me at this moment. That voice immediately responded to her.
??: Oh? Have you got what you wanted?
The girl shook the black box in her hand. When I saw the box, I suddenly felt a trembling pain and my heart tightened.
Girl: She thought this was the key to unlocking this place but she didn’t expect that I would obtain her power in this way. ***So it was all a set-up? Black Queen just wanted MC’s power all along.***
??: So, are you ready to close this door? Say goodbye to your birthplace?
Girl: Yes, I have no need to come back here anymore. I will be the only me in that world.
??: In that case, I wish you success.
Girl: Goodbye…
There was an ear-splitting noise which left a tingling in my ears and I couldn’t hear the name the girl said. She turned with a smile and walked towards the hidden door.
I stared at the black box in her hand and my consciousness seemed to shake with her every step.
??: If you want to see, go check it out. After all, the door you opened is going to be locked again.
The mysterious voice guides me. The black box in front of me seems to be getting bigger and bigger and my vision is plunged into boundless darkness….
Cyril: Do you know why BLACK SWAN is called this name?
What greeted me again was the gentle and soothing piano music flowing in the air from the elegant young man standing in the exquisite gift shop.
His gaze fell to me. The appearance of a black box was reflected in his eyes and his brows seemed cold as if touched by snow.
MC: (Am I…in this box?)
Cyril: BLACK SWAN represents all unprecedented accidents. Mankind will never be able to predict the outcome of these rare events.
Cyril: When I first heard this name, I quite liked it, so I chose to join them.
Cyril: Though it’s a pity….most of them are still stuck in this familiar illusion. Perhaps, only a few people are aware of human ignorance.
Cyril: They cannot help me complete my work.
Girl: Then let me help you this time.
But when the young man turned around, his eyes were still cold and distant as if the girl was just another display item in this shop.
The girl’s fingers slipped onto the black box and those quaking tremors shot deep into my heart like a coldness spreading through my bones.
Girl: How you want to deal with it is your own freedom.
When her fingers left the box, I let out a sigh of relief.
Cyril: Is it? I’m very curious about who they are waiting for.
Cyril: In this world, no one may really be waiting for her.
While talking, the young man stretched out his hand and pressed a key on the crystal piano. The discordant notes suddenly rang out, extending infinitely in my ears.
Woman: Cyril, play and use your power…help mom make a perfect world.
The woman on the bed has the same beautiful eyes as the boy, looking at him weakly and full of nostalgia.
Woman: Let me see the best things in this world one last time.
Woman: This is…the meaning of your existence.
In the wind and snow, the boy’s face became more visible and soon the image of a young boy appeared. Little by little, he became sharp and angular, turning into that elegant young man.
The window was opened by the wind and the woman on the bed was swept by the falling flakes until she turned into a puff of white snow and slowly disappeared into the world.
The young man’s eyes were always focused on the piano in front of him. He seemed completely unaware of the violent blizzard outside.
Until the snowflakes turned into hailstones pelting on the window.
Bang!
There was a loud crash. Scattered glass shards came in and flew straight towards the piano. The young man was so enraptured by the piano, he never raised his eyes once.
MC: Look out!
The fragments slid across the young man’s slender fingers and blood stains were immediately left on the icy skin.
His movements stopped. The time that belonged to him seemed freeze at that moment. In the room filled with heavy snow, there was still the sound of the piano.
The young man raised his head. His eyes were transparent and pure but confused like a snowflake that was about to melt. He seemed to be the child who was sitting on the piano stool from before.
Cyril: Who…are you?
MC: …I, who am I?
Perhaps, I am nothing but a broken component of a gene hidden in a cold black box with a high-sounding name. A power that has been coveted by countless people.
Where is…the real me?
The heavy snow continues to fall, enveloping the world that belonged to the youth.
One after another, images appeared before my eyes.
Standing in front of the opened accelerated evolution module, Lucien was full of shock and anger.
Lucien: …It’s you.
On the swaying freighter, Victor, who opened a box, showed a stunned look.
Victor: It’s you.
In the messy base corridor, Gavin stood next to the mechanical pillar, catching the black box that had fallen from the air. His figure froze.
Gavin: It’s you…
In the gorgeous and vacant dark hall, Kiro walked step by step to the center of the light beam. A faint gold color suffused his pupils.
Kiro: I know…it’s you. ***Just like in season 1 chapter 24, Kiro says his lines differently than the other 3 guys.***
The people in front of me are constantly shifting among familiar scenes. I no longer doubt the truthfulness of it all. Perhaps these have actually happened…
In another timeline…under another possibility…in countless situations, they repeat the same thing over and over again—
Find this black box.
Find the genetic model hidden within it.
Find Queen.
Find—
??: It’s you. ***The person sounds like he is saying “shi ni” but it sounds distorted or unintelligible like it doesn’t sound like CN or any other language we’re familiar with in the real world.***
Those repeated two words converged into a tangled echo in my ears, digging into the depths of my consciousness layer by layer, urging them into a powerful force.
That power gradually increased and continued to grow stronger, twisting into a bottomless vortex, swallowing my consciousness….
??: In this chaotic time and space, have you found the answer you want?
The specks of light and gears appeared once more. I’m back here again and waiting for me is still the voice that has been pulling me.
I can’t see him nor can I see my body. But now, I slowly understood that I should not have seen my own existence here.
I am only….I’m…
??: Have you finally found it?
That voice seemed to hear what I was thinking and began to question me.
??: Then say your inner answer—
??: Who are you? ***I couldn’t help but think of that famous quote ‘I am what I am’***
<It does not matter which one you choose. The dialogue afterwards will be the same. I decided to go with my in-game name>
MC: I am Y/N.
??: …I have heard your answer.
??: Then take your choice and face your world.
??: When you return here, everything will—
??: Restart.
-End-
My mind blown is just completely blown after reading all of this Seems like Kiro made a deal with someone in, what I assume, is Black Cabin about the New World Project in exchange for receiving the power of Helios perhaps. I do remember in part 3 of BTC that Kiro’s master KEY, who was the previous Helios, told Kiro he was going to meet an important person when he used the codes given to him by KEY to open a door. Is this “important person” the same person Kiro (as Helios) is speaking to in Black Cabin? What is this person’s agenda exactly? In regards to this New World Project, I have yet to see it be mentioned anywhere in season 2. Maybe in the next chapter update, there will be more plot development for Kiro involving the New World Project now that his and MC’s relationship is in a pretty good place after chapter 22: Towards the Seas of Stars as well as some answers to my burning questions since season 1. I will be referring back a little bit of this post in my Final Thoughts post on Season 2 Chapter 22 (still in progress).
