ã€ŠIâ€™m an Infinite Regressor, But Iâ€™ve Got Stories to Tellã€‹ Chapter 1 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Companion ¢ñ Infinite Regression. A certain genre goes by that name. It''s called ''Infinite Regression'' when the protagonist dies, then returns to a state before death to endlessly challenge the hurdles in their path. Naturally, the protagonist somehow ovees them, no matter how perilous the obstacle. After all, they simply keep trying until they seed. What once was doomed to be a bad ending is transformed into a happy ending, or the protagonist miraculously saves a side heroine destined to die from an incurable disease, or¨D Infinite Regression is essentially a cheat key to end all tragedies. However, speaking from experience, the infinite regression depicted in various novels is nothing but despicable propaganda.It''s like one of those cram schools that only disys the names of students who got into prestigious universities."Shit. This isn''t going to work." I set down my cane-sword. The 1183rd regression. The world had ended again. Those who were destined to seed will seed; those who weren''t, won''t. I belonged to thetter. I had to ept the fact that, no matter how desperately I tried, I couldn''t prevent the world''s destruction. This is not a story of sess, but one of failure¡ªthe mere afterword of someone who, despite possessing the ability of infinite regression, ultimately couldn''t prevent the end of everything. First thing to note is that the human mental state, or rather, mental strength always has an expiration date. No matter how normal someone appears on the outside, repeated regressions will undoubtedly forge an invisible crack in that surface. A prime example of this is the story I''m about to tell concerning grandfather Schopenhauer. "My direct ancestor was a very famous philosopher."[1] Old Man ''Scho'' often boasted about his lineage. I myself had heard the name Schopenhauer tossed around, but honestly, unlike his esteemed ancestor, Scho was far from a philosopher. "Are those muscles of yours for Scho? Do some exercise, man." Despite his clocking in at 60 years old, his body was all muscle. More familiar with an iron body than philosophical ideals, Old Man Scho always emphasized the importance of exercise. "Come on, all that muscle disappears with each regression anyway..." "Weight training is a habit. Habits don''t disappear," Old Man Scho said sagely. These days, I possess a skill known as [Resume], which allows me to retain my muscles and internal power even when I go back to the past, but back then, I was just a novice who hadn''t even experienced regression ten times. It was pretty hard to sympathize with Old Man Scho''s philosophy. In terms of nationality, generation, taste, beliefs, and political leanings, Old Man Scho and I wereplete opposites. There wasn''t a single centimeter ofmon ground between us. And yet, there was one reason we always stuck together. "Tsk. This run is messed up again." "So it is." Infinite regression. That''s right, Old Man Scho and I were regressors with the same ability. Somehow, in the world where I lived, there weren''t just one, but two regressors. Considering that infinite regression was granted to only one person in most creative works, this was quite unusual. "Damn, we''re screwed. That monster can''t be killed." "What should we do, then?" "I''ll go ahead, youeter. While I hold it off, you try to escape and struggle ''til the end. Then maybe in the next run, you might see a way?" "Fuck. Always leaving the hard parts to me..." "Hey! Watch yournguage! Mind your manners, you brat!" The one saying the Korean sentiment of "mind your manners" so fluently was Old Man Scho, who was actually German, funnily enough. I first met Old Man Scho on my 6th regression. Back then, he could barely say "hello" in Korean. However, as soon as he realized there was another infinite regressor like himself, he immersed himself in studying thenguage. By the 7th and 8th regressions, his Korean improved dramatically. Eventually, by the 10th regression, he was better at Korean than me. The man could even read the Analects in Korean instead of German. "Old man, your passion is really something else." "It''s not passion, you fool! It''s habit! You don¡¯t learn German, so I had to. A person who has mastered memory skills, bah! What in the world are you doing, not studying? It was said, ''He who learns but does not think is lost.'' How can you be sozy about learning when you¡¯re much younger than me? Tsk, really..." "......" He might have learned a bit too well. Anyway, thanks to Old Man Scho equipping his brain with K-conservativeness along with Korean, ourmunication drastically improved. There were not one, but two infinite regressors, each a cheat key in their own right. Isn¡¯t that something? Sometimes I sacrificed, sometimes Old Man Scho did, and together, we kept making our mark on this world. "We did it! We actually did it!" When we defeated the monster ''Ten Legs'', which no one had ovee in ten runs, both of us cheered. After sting away that hateful, mop-like, tentacled head, Old Man Scho tossed his sword aside and rushed at me in a burst. "Oh my! Thank you! It''s all thanks to you! I couldn''t have made it this far alone!" Old Man Schoughed like a child. Truth be told, from the 6th to the 10th regression, we worked together as allies, but somewhere in our hearts, we had always been wary of each other. It was difficult to trust someone else in a world on the brink of destruction. Both I and Old Man Scho. We had seen too much to easily trust anyone. But the moment this white-haired German old-timer embraced me with a bright smile, I felt thest vestiges of that mutual suspicion between uspletely melt away. I looked into Old Man Scho''s gray eyes. It was clear he felt the same. Yes, we were pilots who had crashnded at the end of the century, but while we couldn''t say we were born from the samend, we wererades who had jumped with our delicate parachutes towards the samending spot. From that day forward, many things became unimportant between us. Nationality, generation, tastes, beliefs, political inclinations¡ªall lost their natural pull on us. In an atmosphere where gravity had faded, we felt significantly lighter. "Actually, this regression thing is really hard to get used to." Old Man Scho opened up to me about his human side, the part called ''weakness'' in a world that had met its end. We would fill a thermos with coffee in the morning or grab a bottle of soju and head to an empty caf¨¦ (many of which had been abandoned as the baristas had fled the ruined world) to chat over trivial matters. "Why?" "We wake up on June 17th when we regress, right? But a minute after we regress, my wife dies." "Excuse me?" Old Man Scho exined: June 17th, 13:59. That marks the point when our regression begins. But just around 14:00 on June 17th, a gate opens in Seoul, South Korea, and everything south of the Han River vanishes. That day, unlike the two of us who were in Busan and escaped the catastrophe, Old Man Scho''s wife was attending a conference in Seoul. "Just one minute. Only a minute." Old Man Scho downed his soju. "My wife was in the auditorium, conducting an event with several famous scientists." "Even if you warn her the gate is opening... she wouldn¡¯t be able to escape." "That''s right." It was a disaster that turned Seoul into a wastnd. Even if Old Man Scho called immediately after regressing to tell her to evacuate, it was physically impossible to avoid the tragedy. "Calling her is no use, she won¡¯t pick up immediately. She sets her phone to silent during important events... I have to call three times in a row for her to answer." "......" "Then there''s no time. I just manage to say ''I love you'', then there''s a thump from the sky and the call cuts off. Just 10 seconds. That''s all the time I get to hear my wife¡¯s voice..." "Any other family?" "None. I only have my wife," Old Man Scho muttered. His real name, Emit Schopenhauer. His alias, Swordmaster. I began to understand why he was so obsessed with gaining immense power. With each regression, Old Man Scho''s drinking increased. By the 9th regression, he''d say the soju wasn''t real alcohol before drinking, but by the 19th, he¡¯d down three bottles on the spot. "Even if I drink myself to death, as long as I regress, my liver resets. It¡¯s a win, isn¡¯t it? Hehehe..." He said that, but Old Man Scho''splexion was not bright. By then, we¡ªhe¡ªhad endured approximately 120 years if webined all the regressed time. However, the time he had spent talking with his wife amounted to just about 120 seconds. The journey of an old man crossing a desert just to sip water was bing ever more grueling. "There has to be someone with teleportation abilities out there." At some point, Old Man Scho¡¯s goal began to change. "What?" "A teleporter. If I can just find them, then as soon as we regress, I could rush to my wife." "But... Old man. Even if a teleporter exists somewhere in the world, can you really meet up with that person within a minute? It takes us 30 minutes just to meet up after regressing." "......" Old Man Scho fell silent. I could tell that it was not a silence of affirmation. Over a century, mypanion who had tried to prevent destruction with me was slowly consumed by increasingly bizarre thoughts. He muttered incessantly. "Maybe if I find resurrection magic, I could bring dead people back to life?" "If I could copy someone else''s abilities, get teleportation and telepathy, I could surely solve any problem within a minute." "It can be done. Surely it can be done." It was like a sandcastle copsing. The pinnacle of the copse was the 23rd regression. I started the regression as usual, following the same route. After dealing with the dungeonized area in under 30 minutes, I moved to a pre-arranged meeting ce. It was a hideout we had set up in an earlier cycle. "Huh? Old man? Old man, are you there?" No one was in the underground training center. I couldn¡¯t find any signs of someone entering or leaving. "......" A sense of ominous foreboding seized me, prompting me to move immediately. My starting point was Busan Station. Old Man Scho¡¯s was the old Baekje Hospital building. I passed by an elementary school that had been torn down to half its size due to a monster''s rampage, then entered the old hospital building. Everyone had already evacuated, so it was deserted. Old Man Scho was dead on the rooftop. "......" It was not murder. From the beginning of the starting point, there was no one capable of killing Old Man Scho¡ªbe it monster or human. Even I couldn¡¯t have. The only one who could have killed him was himself. Old Man Scho''s body was headless, but the rest of his torso was intact. He was tightly clutching a smartphone in his left hand. "Madness." Footnotes: [1] Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation, which characterizes the phenomenal world as the manifestation of a blind and irrational noumenal will. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 2 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Companion ¢ñ¢ñ The same phenomenon repeated itself on the 24th and 25th runs. I had to experience the timeline where Old Man Scho died a total of three times. The only factor separating these runs from the others was whether a singlerade was with me, yet the perceived difficulty had increased five or sixfold. It was then that I realized how much I had been relying on Old Man Scho all this time. It finally happened in the 26th run. "I''m sorry."Old Man Scho handed me a coffee as soon as he saw my face. There was a caf¨¦ in the old Baekje Hospital building. He must have predicted that I woulde rushing over and was using the empty caf¨¦ to brew coffee at his leisure. The caf¨¦ auit Old Man Scho prepared was truly delicious. It was back in the 11th run, I think? It must have been thanks to the barista skills he acquired then. "Show your face, old man," I called out in German. By the 26th run, I too could recite poetry in foreignnguages. "Is this you forgiving me?" "7, 7, 7." "¡?" "Do you know what those numbers mean?" "¡A casino slot machine jackpot?" "No. They''re the runs I endured without you. Together, they add up to 21 years. Damn, after not seeing you for over 20 years, I''m about to forget what you even look like. Let''s talk face to face." Old Man Scho didn''t respond, seemingly cowed into silence. I sat opposite him and gulped down my coffee. By now, I could waltz into whatever caf¨¦ I so pleased and loot a quick cup, but I hadn''t been able to drink the real deal for five long years. As someone who had just lived through a run of seven years before dying, indulging in genuine caf¨¦ auit and not some assembly-line imitation was a luxury I couldn''t afford. Regression wasn''t all bad. Coffee. Draft beer. Cigarettes. Not-yet-deceasedrades¡ Experiencing them all again was tremendously important to me. "21 years, huh... Remarkable. From my perspective, Ist saw you less than an hour ago." It seemed not for Old Man Scho. More precisely, the most precious thing on his list of ''memories to keep fresh in mind'' was still just out of reach. "But I understand. I haven''t seen my wife''s face for over a hundred years myself. I know what it feels like." "......" "I can see her face in photos. I can watch videos I''ve saved to hear her voice. But still, there''s a dry well inside me that remains unfilled." My foreboding feeling was not misced. If this had been like any other regression story, Old Man Scho would have kept his mental fortitude, I would have found some miraculous solution within the restrictions, and the elderly couple might have reunited after oveing a century of separation. "I want to see my wife in person." But as I said, my story is not a tale of sess but an afterword chronicling a series of failures. Old Man Scho''s spirit had broken. In less than 30 seconds, he had taken his own life three times just so he could talk to his wife. There was no way for me to save him. "Do you not understand me? You are the one person who should understand. Use your abilities to help me..." "That''s not possible," I tly refused. Just as Old Man Scho had a natural talent for swordsmanship, I too had various abilities besides regression. Opportunities to discuss my powers wille in due time, but for the purposes of this discussion here, the ability Old Man Scho was referring to was ''Time Seal''. And I had no intention of using it on arade I could see with my own two eyes. "You know, old man. Once time is sealed, it''s over. It neveres undone¡ªno amount of regressions can break it." "Maybe, but I could still talk to her in my dreams." "You would just be repeating the same day forever." "How is that any different from our current situation?" This time, I was the one left without an answer. "...Still," I said after a moment''s hesitation, "it''s not possible. We can''t afford to lose our strongest ally like this." "So be it." Had he anticipated my reaction? As soon as n A was rejected, Old Man Scho immediately proposed n B. "You keep trying until you find a solution. Keep regressing until you can save people in Seoul within a minute of starting. Or, until you admit it''s impossible and give up like I did." "What about you?" "I''m tired. Really¡ I''ve grown weary. So I will just rest a while until youe to a conclusion." That night, Old Man Scho took his own life. That was the ''rest'' he had talked about. "¡My God." Fitting for a swordsman who had reached realms lofty enough to be titled a Sword Star, Old Man Scho could wield an explosive aura powerful enough to blow one''s head off. It would have been a painless death. The 27th, 28th, and 29th runs brought no changes. Old Man Scho was found dead on the rooftop of the caf¨¦ building that once housed the hospital. Whenever I went to the caf¨¦ after clearing the dungeon at Busan Station, there would always be a cup of caf¨¦ auit on the table, greeting me with a warm puff of air. Underneath the coffee cup, there was a note. -Shouldn''t you think about giving up, my friend? I smiled wryly. ¡°¡I guess I''ve stumbled across a regr caf¨¦ to visit every decade.¡± Once, I imagined the life of myrade. For Old Man Scho, life had been reduced to calls with his wifesting about 10 to 20 seconds and then spending 10 minutes preparing a caf¨¦ auit for an oldrade who might visit him. This repetition had not changed, from the 29th to the 1183rd regression. A body on the rooftop. A cup of caf¨¦ auit on the table. Who was crazier: the regressor who had not once taken his own life in over a thousand cycles, or the one who had incessantly done so over a thousand times? I couldn¡¯t tell. However, with each new run, a gradual change began to make itself known in the content of the calls between Old Man Scho and his wife. ¡¸God! You finally picked up the phone!¡¹ ¡¸Emit? What¡¯s wrong? I¡¯m at a conference right now¡¡¹ ¡¸I love you, Adele. I love you. I will always love you.¡¹ Old Man Scho always recorded his conversations with his wife, perhaps to rey the calls before ending his short life. Thanks to that, I could overhear what the elderly couple talked about every time. ¡¸I love you, Adele¡ I love you.¡¹ During the first ten or so regressions, there was no significant change. Old Man Scho was simply trying desperately to convey his love to his wife. But after the 30th cycle, the content of the calls began to subtly change. ¡¸Adele, actually I''m repeating my life. The world is going to end, but I still love you.¡¹ ¡¸Oh my God. Have you been drinking? Why are you acting like a child? Wait a minute, Emit. There¡¯s something strange in the sky¡¡¹ Regression. ¡¸Do you remember? 20 years ago in Turin. I went under the bridge and picked a yellow flower for you. What was the name of that flower?¡¹ ¡¸What? You''re calling me now to ask that?¡¹ ¡¸Please answer me, Adele. I¡¯ll die if you don¡¯t.¡¹ Regression. ¡¸Sorry, what was your brother¡¯s name again?¡¹ ¡¸Maximilian, but why¡ª?¡¹ ¡¸Ah! Yes, Maximilian! Haha, I had forgotten! Thanks!¡¹ ¡¸Hah¡ hopeless. Wait? There¡¯s some noiseing from the sky¡¡¹ It was curious. As the regressions continued, the calls Old Man Scho had with his wife shifted from being merely one-sided transmissions to something resembling a real conversation. They were brief,sting only about 20 seconds before cutting off, but when pieced together, they almost seemed to form a proper exchange of dialogue. ¡¸I¡¯ve never liked that guy Maximilian.¡¹ ¡¸Huh? Suddenly?¡¹ ¡¸He doesn¡¯t think family is important at all! The guy''s got his priorities all mixed up. He just pretends to listen in front of you.¡¹ ¡¸Emit? Wait. Something strange is happening in the sky¡¡¹ ¡¸Honey, remember Christmas? When your brother brought someone he said was his girlfriend. Honestly, is Maximilian gay?¡¹ ¡¸Huh? Suddenly? Why are you asking this over the phone¡? Wait, Emit. It¡¯s weird. I hear something in the sky.¡¹ ¡¸Exactly! My intuition is never wrong. Adele. Your brother is absolutely gay!¡¹ ¡¸God! Emit, what are you talking about all of a sudden?¡¹ ¡¸No, I have nothing against it. It¡¯s just that you and your brother assumed I wouldn¡¯t ept it and have kept it a secret all this time, and that feels disappointing.¡¹ ¡¸I¡¯m going crazy. What the¡? Wait, let¡¯s save this conversation for when we meet in person! There¡¯s a strange noiseing from the sky.¡¹ ¡¸Adele. We need to be more open-minded with each other! I¡¯m not a closed-minded old man like your father!¡¹ If one ignored the fact that the elderly couple¡¯s lives were ¡®paused¡¯, their exchange appeared to be a fully two-way conversation. ¡°So the old man¡¯s words had some merit.¡± Eventually, I had to admit it. What Old Man Scho called ¡®rest¡¯ was indeed just that. With each passing cycle, as the calls became longer, the life returned to Old Man Scho''s voice, and memories of the past, once long forgotten, were revived. Over time, he seemed to care less and less about this wording to an end. Even so, Old Man Scho did not stop taking his own life. Or rather¡ªto put it in his words¡ªhe did not stop making calls to his wife. By the 500th cycle, I had stopped eavesdropping on Old Man Scho¡¯s calls. The content had gradually be too intimate for outsiders to eavesdrop on. I never had any desire to know even the slightest detail regarding his sexual preferences. Perhaps he couldn¡¯t even imagine that I¡¯d been eavesdropping on his phone conversations all along. However, every time a new run began, I would be sure to stop by the building and have a cup of caf¨¦ auit. Emit Schopenhauer, my former colleague from the distant past whose memory was now shrouded in obscurity. His choice of caf¨¦ auit felt like a ritual, a way to fortify ourselves for the challenges ahead. This was no different during my 1183rd regression. Beneath the coffee cup, the notey there like always. -Are you still not giving up, my friend? Well, to be honest, I had given up, but I didn¡¯t want to admit it to this young man. (By now, my age far surpassed his.) Perhaps someday, I¡¯ll confess, but for now, a little mischief wouldn''t hurt. After all, I¡¯ve spent thousands of years alone. I''ve earned it. ¡®¡Come to think of it, I wonder what Scho is talking about with her?¡¯ Suddenly, curiosity struck. It had been a long time since I retrieved Scho¡¯s old smartphone to listen to his recorded calls. When I pressed the y button, Scho''s distinctive, lively voice burst forth. ¡¸Honey! I¡¯ve told you a thousand times, drink only zero-calorie soda! Sugar isn¡¯t good for your health!¡¹ ¡¸What?¡¹ I sipped my caf¨¦ auit inside the caf¨¦, the argument ying out like coffee shop background music. The coffee was delicious. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 3 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Observer I The caf¨¦ where I often met Old Man Scho... No, let me correct that. The caf¨¦ where I often met the ''corpse'' of Old Man Scho is dotted with small fish tanks here and there, probably to cater to a barista''s preference. Though there''s nothing particrly rare about the species living there, their tails possess a magical calming quality. All you had to do was look at them. Perhaps because the flow of time seems to slow around those fins. Or maybe it''s simply because the nk stare of the fish''s eyes looks downright foolish. As I sip on Old Man Scho¡¯s caf¨¦ auit and watch a blue tropical fish perform its intricate, underwater ballet that ripples through time, one person invariablyes to mind.The Saintess. Today, I think I¡¯ll talk about her. When the Gate crisis erupted worldwide, Korea fared rtively well, surprisingly enough. It wasn¡¯t thanks to the government, though. From the outset, half of Seoul was devastated, including the National Assembly Building in Yeouido. Over a hundred politicians were vaporized that day. Whether it was a mark of good or bad fortune was a matter of personal opinion, but at least in the early days, it temporarily paralyzed Korea¡¯s political leadership. Nevertheless, the reason the Awakeners in Korea managed to navigate this crisis was something else entirely in the form of a translucent, almost holographic ''Message'' that appeared before their eyes. [The Saintess of National Salvation shows interest in your heroic deeds.] That, for instance, was the sort of message disyed for me when I took a leading role in subduing the Gate at Busan Station. And I was not the only one who experienced this phenomenon. "Huh? What''s this?" "¡The Chancellor of the Red Cape? He¡¯s interested in me?" Awakeners began to make themselves known nationwide, and inevitably, these ¡®Messages¡¯ found them. The sender varied from person to person, but every one of them had one thing inmon¡ªthey all noticed someone was paying attention to their actions. "It¡¯s the Constetions!" Someone named this phenomenon the ''Constetions''. It seemed all too familiar to Awakeners who were fans of web novels. On the other hand, for the uninitiated like me, the concept was baffling. Eventually, I approached someone who seemed all too eager to exin as they puffed out a palpable ''I know what this is! I''ve seen it!'' energy. "Excuse me, sir. Sorry to bother you when we haven''t met before, but what are Constetions?" "Oh, you don''t know about Constetion stories!" The Awakener was eager to exin. "It¡¯s a way for transcendent beings like them to watch us Awakeners¡ªexpressing their interest and even sponsoring us! You know, like online streaming? We''re the streamers and the Constetions are the viewers dropping donations!" "Wow." "The Constetions are incredibly powerful too. Some are terrifying entities like Cthulhu, while others are deities who are friendly with humans... Anyway, it¡¯s a good thing! Always try to look good for the Constetions. Ahh, which Constetion should I choose? Is the option of [Choose None] still the trend?" The Awakener continued to ramble on for a while. At the time, I just in vague affirmation. With monsters roaming around through the Gates, it wouldn¡¯t be all that surprising if there were also transcendent beings who munched on popcorn while watching the human world. [The Conqueror of the Alps admires your valor!] [The Chancellor of the Red Cape respects your strategy.] As the cycles repeated, I grew ustomed to the existence of the Constetions. They seemed to follow my every move, praising me or offering encouragement whenever I did something unique or unexpected. [The Saintess of National Salvation praises your aplishments.] I was particrly proud that the Saintess, known for favoring benevolent Awakeners, seemed to cherish me the most. Had it not been for the Constetions, my life as an Awakener would surely have felt bleak in a way. While the identity of the Constetions remained a mystery, most of the Awakeners¡ªmyself included¡ªdeveloped a fondness for them. "¡This is odd." Old Man Scho had a different take on it. Back around the 10th cycle, before he took his long ''vacation'', Old Man Scho had grown suspicious of the Constetions'' presence. "Huh? What¡¯s odd?" "I recently got in contact with some friends overseas. Most are dead, but a few survived. And the ones that did... they say they¡¯ve never seen anything like this back home." "Anything like what?" "Bah,e on. The messages from the Constetions, the messages! My friends in Germany have neither seen nor heard of them." Old Man Scho frowned, scrunching his nose with the force of it. "Just in case, I asked some of my friends in other countries, and they also said they¡¯ve never gotten the messages before." "¡¡" "Then that means this bizarre phenomenon is unique to Korea... Surely you see how strange that is? Why would the Constetions only operate here if they are transcendent beings? What reason would they have to favor Korea?" "Uh... maybe they like K-pop?" "Bullshit, doc." A momentter, messages flooded in. [The Saintess of National Salvation is disheartened by your conversation.] [The Conqueror of the Alps asks you to withhold your doubts.] [The Chancellor of the Red Cape scoffs at your shallow understanding.] It was like they had been waiting. By that point, Old Man Scho and I had already garnered significant attention from the Constetions. It was no wonder since Old Man Scho was undoubtedly the greatest Swordmaster, and I was... Well, an irreceable resource of sorts. I nced casually to the side. Old Man Scho was furrowing his brow, seeming to see something in front of him as well. "You too, old man?" "Yeah. These things are watching every little thing we do," Old Man Scho grumbled, swatting the air with his hand as if to shoo away an annoying fly. "Anyway, there are too many fishy things here. They never sent me messages before I started picking up Korean. But once I spoke even the tiniest bit, they magically started sending messages." "¡¡" "If what you said isn''t true, and they''re not high on K-hype, I can''t exin it. Doc, don¡¯t trust these Constetion things too much." Regrettably, Old Man Scho never unraveled the secret of the Constetions. By the 26th cycle, the old man had gone on a long vacation with his wife, leaving him with no time to explore the mystery further. But not me. Being an infinite regressor is like being the Bill Gates of time. It was no exaggeration to say that all I have is time. ''Why do the Constetions only appear in Korea?'' I stroked my chin. It had remained a mystery intriguing enough throughout my swathe of regressions to warrant an entire run''s investigation. First of all, Old Man Scho''s observation was correct. It wasn''t just the foreign Awakeners¡ª even those in Korea who had not learned thenguage never received these ''Messages''. ''Thanks to them, the quality¡ªor should I say, the consciousness¡ªof the Awakeners in Korea is rtively sound.'' In other countries, the Awakeners caused terror attacks, massacred civilians, and ran rampant,mitting crimes on the daily. Korea alone saw a lower crime rate among its Awakeners. Why was this phenomenon urring? I had two theories. First, the Constetions were truly addicted to K-pop culture and only cared about Korean Awakeners. And second¡ª ''Do the Constetions only speak Korean...?'' If this was true, it would have massive implications. Just think about it. Even the stubborn Old Man Scho mastered foreignnguages in just a few cycles. But these so-called Constetions only spoke Korean? What kind of transcendents could they possibly be? ''In other words, the Constetions aren''t transcendents.'' A hypothesis formed in my mind. But monitoring every Awakener in Korea and sending them personalized messages would be difficult if they weren''t transcendents. Surely, there must be some underlying secret to it. From the 35th run onward, I officially began my ''Constetion Investigation''. I was determined to finally get to the bottom of what sort of beings had admired and balked at my actions thus far. ''First, I need to attract the attention of the Constetions.'' Attracting their attention was simple. Constetions had a habit of taking an interest in exceptional Awakeners. As soon as I began the 35th run, I pushed myself to use all my abilities to clear the Gate that erupted at Busan Station within 20 minutes. The first cycle ended with my death because I couldn¡¯t close the Gate. By the third cycle, I managed it after a week. Now, I had cleared it in less than 20 minutes, and none of the 399 humans summoned to the Busan Station concourse lost their lives except one. The only items I farmed were silver bells from the souvenir shop too, so there was no time wasted. It was a literal speedrun, a record bound to astonish the Constetions. [The Saintess of National Salvation is astonished by your feat!] [The Monarch of the Crimson Horse feels a sense of rivalry at your strength.] [The Conqueror of the Alps takes note of your course.] [The Chancellor of the Red Cape is wary of your abilities.] Sure enough, the Constetions took the bait immediately. Messages from four, then seven, then eleven Constetions poured in, stacking up one by one. I ignored the messages for the time being. Only after I left Busan Station and reached an empty parking lot did I speak. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Constetions, I know you are Korean." Poof. The messages that had been flying in non-stop like Hogwarts eptance letters suddenly halted all at once. I watched the sky clear as the messages that had cluttered my vision disappeared, then turned my gaze skyward. "I also know that you are not transcendents. I could reveal this fact to all the Awakeners... But I am more curious about your true nature. Please tell me who you really are." -...... There was no response. To be honest, I was quite nervous at the time. Although the possibility was slim, what if the Constetions were genuinely transcendents who dined on kimchi and seaweed, listened to K-pop during tea time, and watched K-pop TV in the evenings? What if they were simply acting on a mysterious, nationalistic favoritism towards Korean-speaking Awakeners? ''My brazen proposal might provoke the Constetions to attack all at once.'' I took abat stance. My awakening ability wasn''t geared towardbat, but after spending time with Old Man Scho, the greatest Swordmaster, mybat abilities had grown considerably. If necessary, I was ready to die right then and there and move on to the next cycle. [The Saintess of National Salvation invites you.] That was when the message appeared. Fortunately, no scenario of Constetions appearing to punish an impudent mortal unfolded. Instead, dozens of Constetions remained silent, and only onemunicated its intention to me. That Constetion was, coincidentally, the first to express interest in me¡ªthe ''Saintess of National Salvation''. "An invitation?" I asked cautiously. "What kind of invitation?" After a moment, a message returned. [The Saintess of National Salvation invites you to the Jamsu Bridge in Han River.] Seoul. The hell on earth where Old Man Scho had lost his wife and numerous politicians were buried. ''Ah.'' ...It hit me then that the Constetions had never once spoken in any regional dialect. I''ve mentioned several times that Gangnam was reduced to rubble when a Gate erupted there. However, areas not touched by the Gate''s influence remained surprisingly intact. Jamsu Bridge still looked exactly as it did before the world turned upside down. The ce where the ''Saintess of National Salvation'' had agreed to meet me was a sky-blue convenience store near Jamsu Bridge¡ªan unexpectedly public-friendly location for a rendezvous with a Constetion. Under the convenience store''s parasol sat a woman with her hair tied back. Though for her aqua-colored hair was unusual, it''s not umon for an Awakener''s hair color to change upon realizing their powers, and her appearance was otherwise ordinary. She didn''t give off the feeling of a being beyond human limitations. "Good day. Are you the Saintess of National Salvation?" "......" She studied me silently, her gaze swiftly scanning me from head to toe. Her eyes resembled those of a fish, seemingly submerged rather than lost in thought. "The Busan Station Gate?" "Yes, that''s correct." "...I never expected you to make it from Busan to here in less than a day." With half of Seoul gone, most of the transportationworks leading to the capital had been crippled. Roads and railways¡ªnearly everything was destroyed. Conversely, that meant there were still a few usable routes left. Old Man Scho had wanted to get to Seoul before his wife disappeared, hence the extensive research that had been conducted on ''the fastest way to get to Seoul from Busan''. ...No matter how fast, arriving within a minute was impossible, rendering the research futile. But thanks to that, I was able to meet the ''Saintess of National Salvation¡¯ quickly. "My code name is Undertaker. Nice to meet you." "Ah, yes... But, Undertaker?"[1] "It¡¯s a nickname with a story. Feel free to call me Doctor." After shaking hands with her, I sat opposite her. Far in the distance, Seoul''s skyscraper, also known as ''Sauron''s Tower'', loomed like a shadow. "Before anything else, I¡¯d like to ask you something." "......" "Are you the Saintess of National Salvation, or are you her representative? What are Constetions exactly? Are they truly transcendents?" She was silent. Numerous, fleeting thoughts seemed to flicker across her eyes. After a moment, she bit her lip and clenched her fist. Then, she sighed softly. "...Yes. I am the Saintess of National Salvation." Bingo. Just as I was about to nod in acknowledgment, she looked me straight in the eye. "And you, you are a regressor, right?" Footnotes: [1] Undertaker: an individual whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals, also known as a mortician. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 4 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Observer II ¡°¡¡¡± "Right?" I didn''t respond immediately.Honestly, I was a bit surprised¡ªyet at the same time, admittedly, caught by intrigue. While I had asionally revealed that I was a ''regressor'', it was rare for someone else to recognize this on their own. So far, the only person who had was Old Man Scho. "Why do you think that?" I hedged. "I figured if you were a regressor, you would eventuallye looking for me. Besides, you were ying monsters at an unbelievable rate. But judging by how you ask... I''m guessing this is our first cycle together?" I leaned forward a bit more. The green stic chair of the convenience store creaked as it scraped the ground. Initially, I was merely curious about the existence of the ''Constetions''. But now, my interest had shifted more towards the human before me. "That''s correct. Although I''ve been curious about the identities of the Constetions, this is the first cycle I''ve really started to delve into it." "If you truly are a regressor, Mr. Undertaker, I believe we must absolutely establish a cooperative rtionship." "A cooperative rtionship?" "Yes. But right now, I can''t be sure whether you are a regressor or not. Not with what I can see." The woman spoke cautiously, and though her expression was tense, her tone was steady. ''She at least has some backbone there.'' My eyes narrowed. "How interesting. Why can''t you be sure I''m a regressor?" "Because this same situation could arise if you had the ability of Prophecy or even the mind-reading skill of irvoyance. So..." She bowed her head. "I''m sorry you had toe all the way to Seoul. I can''t fully disclose what the Constetions are, how much I know about them, or what my abilities are yet." "Hmm." Proper manners and mindful discretion. Seems like a lottery ticket worth scratching. "All right," I agreed. "If you could be certain that I am a regressor, would you be able to answer all my questions then?" "...Yes." "Then there''s a simple solution." She looked up. I turned on my smartphone. "We''ll set up a password." "A password?" "Give me words or phrases that only a regressor would know. Even specific actions would do." It was a method Old Man Scho and I had previously used, and one that had been proven to work during the 7th cycle. "Anyway, you set those conditions, and I will carry them out exactly in the ''next cycle''." She immediately understood. "Ah, that''s a great idea. Hmm. Then in the next cycle, pleasee here andy a red T-shirt out on the table. Just sit quietly for about 10, no, 15 minutes. Then write ''Moral Law'' on the T-shirt in big letters." "Hmm." "If you do that, I will contact you first." It was a neat and tidy method. "Understood, Saintess of National Salvation." "Ah... I''m sorry, but that nickname is a bit..." "Everyone''s code name among the Awakeners is just as childish. I let it slide and ended up with ''Undertaker'' as my alias. ''Saintess'' is dignified inparison." "How did ''Undertaker'' even...?" Whoops. I quickly got up from the table. Again, I have an extreme dislike for my alias. How I ended up with such a nickname is a story for another time, ideally in the far future¡ªor better yet, never. "I''ll be going now, Saintess. Until next time." "Oh, of course. I''ll see you next time. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Regressor." The ''next'' I spoke of and the ''next'' she thought of were a whole world apart. We parted easily, like streams that meet then go their separate ways, and after that day, I no longer received any messages from the ''Constetions''. To be honest, I found myself a bit disappointed. Someone who had been reacting to my every action was now gone. I felt the absence more keenly than expected. Of course, my goal wasn''t to tter the Constetions, but to prevent the world''s destruction. I quickly pulled myself together and threw myself into the 35th run. And I failed spectacrly. If I had seeded, there would be no need for the 1183rd run, after all. ''Did she say a red T-shirt?'' The 36th world, my 36th life, began. I immediately fulfilled the promise I made in the previous world. First, I cleared the Gate at Busan Station. [The Saintess of National Salvation is astonished by your feat!] [The Monarch of the Crimson Horse feels theirpetitive spirit stir at your strength.] [The Conqueror of the Alps takes note of your course.] [The Chancellor of the Red Cape is wary of your abilities.] As before, messages from the Constetions poured in. While it was nice to receive them again, I ignored them for now. I followed the route developed by Old Man Scho as quickly as possible, heading north to Seoul. Along the way, I didn''t forget to stop at a clothing store that hadn''t been shut down yet and bought a shirt. [The Saintess of National Salvation questions your actions.] The Constetions kept talking to me as I traveled. When I arrived at a convenience store near Jamsu Bridge, I sat down at a parasol table, spread out the shirt, then wrote ''Moral Law'' on it in marker. [......] [......] The previously noisy Constetions fell silent all at once. I leaned back in the chair and drank convenience store coffee. The ce had not been looted yet, so the products were intact. It wasn''t long before someone approached the convenience store. It was a woman with a hiking backpack on her back. Judging by the length of cycles, I had met her 20 years prior. She was the ''Saintess of National Salvation''. The joy of reunion didn''t surge anew. To live long as a regressor, one must get ustomed to farewells and reunions. Only this time, I was the one waiting to greet her. "Excuse me, but by any chance¡" She very cautiously observed my expression. I nodded. "Yes. I am the regressor, Saintess of National Salvation." The Saintess gasped. She stood frozen, clenching her fists. What she was pondering, I couldn''t tell, but after a while, the Saintess finally spoke. "Please follow me." Finally, it was time for the truth of the Constetions to be revealed. The Saintess''s dwelling was located in Yongsan. With Yeouido and the Gangnam area having evaporated overnight, Yongsan was now essentially the front line against a Gate and one of the most dangerous ces in Korea. "Please,e in." She lived in an old row house in Dongbigo-dong. I looked around, taking in the shabby exterior that belied a tidy interior. Or more precisely, the space went beyond "tidy" into being eerily spotless. In the dim living room, fourputer monitors emitted a bluish glow. The light faintly outlined the cardboard boxes scattered around¡ªboxes of canned food, jugs of water. With all of them bathed in the monitor''s blue light, they almost appeared to be submerged in water. Along the walls wererge steel bookshelves. However, only a few books dotted the shelves, which were instead filled with 15- and 20-cube aquariums. Dozens of these water-filled ss tanks packed the space in dense formations. Aquarium after aquarium. The room was surrounded on all sides by walls of water, making it look like an underwater temple. "You seem to have been preparing for this situation for a long time." "Yeah." The Saintess seated me on a sofa, then pulled up aputer chair for herself. "Should I call you ''Regressor''?" "Call me whatever isfortable for you. My alias is Undertaker." "All right, Mr. Undertaker. How many times have we met?" "This is the second time." "The second time," the Saintess muttered softly. "So, this is practically our first meeting. I wouldn''t have exined anything during the previous cycle, right?" "That''s correct." "There seems to be a lot I need to rify. Where should I start?" "I''d like to ask about the Constetions first. What exactly are the Constetions? Are they truly transcendental beings? Are you an agent of the Constetions?" "......" The Saintess licked her lips, not from hesitation but as if she were choosing her words carefully. Finally, she spoke. "The Constetions... do not exist." "They don''t exist?" "Yes. The Saintess of National Salvation, the Conqueror of the Alps¡ªthey are all characters I created myself." This was somewhat surprising. I had considered the hypothesis that the Constetions might be fictitious entities. However, I hadn''t anticipated that the person before me was single-handedly staging them all. I would have thought it''d require a team of at least five or six. "Why would you do such a thing?" "......" The blue light of the monitors diffused hazily around the living room. Fish fluttered in the small aquariums. "I awakened about 20 days ago. Since then, my hair changed color, and I began having nightmares about monsters, dreams vivid enough that they couldn''t be dismissed as mere fantasies." I nodded. That was amon experience among many who awakened just before the gates burst open across the world¡ª a kind of precognitive dream. "For some reason, I was convinced that these events would actually happen. So I pondered what I could do¡ª beyond buying canned food and collecting water bottles, something that only I could do." The Saintess looked directly at me. "Mr. Undertaker, will Awakeners really maintain social order after they gain their powers?" "What?" "Awakeners possess incredible abilities. Even I have gained two, no, three abilities that defymon sense. Can people who receive such powers really unite, act virtuously, and at the very least, restrain themselves frommitting crimes?" Shadows of fish flowed across the living room floor. Her voice seeped into the shadows. For a moment, I was caught in a feeling simr to those careless dives during childhood baths. Her gaze seemed to lower the depth of this ce. "I decided not." "......" "If a powerful person appeared and could unite the Awakeners, that would be one thing, but that involves countless trials and time. Until then, Awakeners would form disparate factions, and civilians would be caught in the crossfire and sacrificed without a second thought. Naturally, as humans divide, their ability to handle the gates would diminish." That was a valid assumption. Indeed, most nations had followed that process and perished. Korea was a rare case of prolonged survival. "Wait." At that moment, a certain hypothesis shed through my mind. I stared into the Saintess''s deep ck eyes. Pupils that seemed not to blink even if submerged in water. "Could it be?" "......" She nodded slightly. "Mr. Undertaker. When do people hesitate tomit evil acts? It''s when they think someone is watching." "The Constetions." "Yes." I was stunned. The Saintess continued. "People easily vite order if they are confident they can hide or mitigate their crimes. However, if they believe a transcendental being is always watching them, even someone who has awakened would hesitate tomit evil acts." "My goodness." "That''s why I created the Constetions." It felt like receiving a series of mental punches. It was surprising enough that the Saintess of National Salvation who had watched me all this time was a fabrication, but that all of it was born from one person''s meticulous nning was utterly shocking. "But how did you even create the Constetions?" "It''s thanks to my abilities. I can use irvoyance and Telepathy." She outlined her abilities: 1. irvoyance: Observe any Awakeners within a radius of 1,000 km at will. Observation may include listening to their voices. 2. Telepathy or text transmission: Can transmit one''s voice to any perceived target. Texting is also possible but limited to 140 characters. Both abilities had endless applications. I looked at the human before me with new eyes. If conditions were right, she could lead a guild like Samcheon or Baekhwa, bing one of Korea''s top leaders. "Remarkable. With abilities like that, you could have taken a more prominent role in organizing the Awakeners." "I thought about that... But I''m really clumsy when ites to leading people in person." "Ah." "I believe what I did was the best I could do. I''m not sure what will happen in the future... I''ll continue as long as I can, as long as I live." Her words brought back memories from past runs. Even as the world was on the brink of ending, the Constetions had not stopped sending messages to the Awakeners in Korea. Whether it was 4, 7, or 10 years in any run, the Constetions remained active. I thought about the hardships the Awakeners before me must have faced to maintain that fa?ade. Many challenges, no doubt. irvoyance and Telepathy were great abilities, but they weren''t directly helpful inbat. What''s more, Yongsan was a frontline area facing a superrge Gate. Many forces would vie for control here in the future. "How about it, Mr. Regressor?" This Awakener, who had ovee countless adversities and survived to the very end, now looked at me with eyes swimming with unease and anxiety. "Did I fulfill my role to the end?" "......" I clenched my fist involuntarily, as various thoughts waved over me. After a brief silence, I answered. "Yes. Perfectly. Even I, a regressor, waspletely deceived." "......" "Thanks to you, the crime rate among Awakeners in this country was exceptionally low. It was rtively easy for Awakeners to cooperate and respond to the gates. Your efforts were not in vain." Although it hadn''t prevented the world''s ultimate destruction. Then and now, I never mentioned to the Saintess the hundreds of ways our world could end. At least with the Saintess around, there was no rampant Awakener supremacy, and cults like the New Buddha Cult or the Resurrection Church were rtively rare. The Saintness took in my answer silently, then finally, she said, "Thank goodness." With a small sigh of relief, she sank back into her chair. For some reason, that sigh sounded to my ears like a goldfish that had spent a very long time in the depths suddenlying up to the surface to blow bubbles. Afterwards, we discussed in detail how we would work together. I think our rtionship was essentially established at that point. From the 36th to the 1183th cycle, the Saintess was almost always a reliable ally who had my back. "What should I call you? If I call you ''Regressor,'' your identity might be revealed, Mr. Undertaker." The Saintess propped her chin in her hand. "Hero?" I immediately waved my hands. "No, Hero is a bit... Just call me Undertaker." The title ''Hero'' was not just embarrassing but rted to a certain psychological disorder, which I preferred to avoid. I''ll talk about this strange mental illnesster. "Sure, I''ll call you Mr. Undertaker, then." "Good, I''m d that works. Just one thing." As we were about to part, I asked, "Isn''t it impossible to act as the Constetions with just irvoyance and Telepathy? You''d need to observe multiple people simultaneously and send messages. Don''t you have another ability?" "Ah, well..." The Saintess hesitated, then smiled faintly. "That¡ is a secret. I''ll tell youter." Unfortunately, the ter'' the Saintess mentioned did not mean within the timeline of the 36th cycle. I still needed many more cycles before I could uncover herst secret. This story has an epilogue. Starting from my 36th run, forming an alliance with the Saintess immediately upon regression became a standard tech tree, akin to an opening move in Go. Except for the early stages of a new regression, it had be practically unheard of for the Constetions to send me their ¡®innumerable requests for a bad move¡¯ as they used to. It was during such a day, when I felt slightly regretful about this fact, that a message window popped up before my eyes for the first time in a long while. [The Administrator of the Cosmic Metagame announces the urrence of a new event.] I blinked. The name of the Constetion was entirely unfamiliar to me. A cosmic game? Does it mean ¡®the one who oversees the gamey of all things¡¯? ¡®The Saintess must have been bored and yed a prank.¡¯ Thinking it was quite a rare event, I nonchntly dismissed the message. After all, the message only appeared once and then disappeared. A few dayster, when I met the Saintess, I brought it up. I wasn¡¯t particrly curious, just using it as an icebreaker during a strategy meeting. ¡°Oh, by the way, why did you suddenly impersonate a strange Constetion a few days ago?¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°A week ago. You sent a message under the name ¡®The Administrator of the Cosmic Metagame¡¯. I was a bit surprised to see you make a mistake. Did you perhaps send a message meant for another awakener to me by ident?¡± ¡°¡?¡± The Saintess tilted her head. ¡°I never sent such a message.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never created a Constetion called ¡®The Administrator of the Cosmic Metagame¡¯ in the first ce.¡± A chilling current ran down my spine. Whether she knew my state or not, the Saintess¡¯s face remained indifferent. She certainly didn¡¯t appear to be lying. For some reason, I felt a drop in the surrounding temperature, though it might have been an illusion. ¡°Are you sure you didn¡¯t just misread it, Undertaker?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Suddenly, it felt as if a deep sea had opened beneath my feet, and a gigantic shadow had just brushed past. ¡It seemed there were still many unknown mysteries in this world that I had yet to uncover. Footnotes: [1] Samcheon literally means ¡°Three Thousand¡± and Baekwha ¡°A Hundred Flowers¡±, though they work in Korean, they don¡¯t in English for guild names, so I¡¯m leaving these as romanisations as it feels appropriate knowing they¡¯re both Korean guilds in context. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 5 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hero There are many mysteries in this world that remain unknown to me, but some I have deliberately left unsolved. Today, I''d like to touch upon one such chapter. Although it might seem abrupt, I want to start with this question: Do you like the fantasy genre? I do. And while some may disagree, I personally think that if a fantasy story features a ''Saintess'', then the ''Hero'' profession should also appear. The two are like chocte and mint¡ªonly when observed together at the same time, in the same ce, do they make aplete dish. But what if the proportions of these two ingredients are off? What if the ratio of chocte to mint copses from 1:1 to 1:3, or even elerates to 1:81, or 1:729? Then it''s no longer mint chocte, but merely mint. And though I''m somewhat fond of mint chocte, I detest mint. In that sense, the world I live in is a kind of failed dish.What I mean is, there are too many heroes in this world. "Excuse me? Can you hear me?" ¡°Uh...¡± If you were walking down the street and saw people copsed everywhere, and instead of stealing their wallets and maybe even their Adam''s apples you feel an urge to help them, and if you still have enough goodness left in you to lightly tap them on the shoulder and tell them to wake up, especially if the ce had been struck by a ''Gate incident'' more than 13 years ago in the middle of a city on the Korean Penins. Then you might have about a 6% gacha chance of encountering this kind of reaction. "Where am I...?" "Ah, are you awake? Oh dear. Sir, you shouldn''t be lying on the cold ground like this." "This ce... No way, is this Earth?" Because I''ve seen it. Just moments ago, the passerby who had been lying unconscious,pletely dead to the world, suddenly sat up and looked around. It was miraculous, the sort of thing you''d see at the end of a subway line¡ªor rather, the za outside it. "Yes?" "S-sir, do you happen to know what year it is?" I answered, and then¡ "It can''t be. Twenty years have passed, and yet it''s only been a year in reality...?" His face lost all expression, and his eyes darted wildly, refusing to settle. In the man''s hand was a smartphone. Now, if you were a normal person, you''d naturally get the sense that something was very wrong here and run away. Even if you''ve never encountered a madman in your life, a madman is like cow dung¡ªyou see one once, and you automatically go, "That''s cow dung." Unfortunately, having lived as a regressor for too long, my senses were slightly dulled. Instead of inputting "run away now" into my brain, I mistakenly typed "feel curious." "Will you tell me what''s going on?" ¡°I was just in a ce called the Sintra continent, where magic and aura are real." Those were some of the services newly implemented on the Earth server after the Gate incident, but I didn''t make a big deal of that. "Are you saying you experienced dimensional travel?" "Yes, exactly. I was summoned there, received the title of Hero, and set out on a campaign to defeat the Demon King with my precious... my truly preciousrades." The nostalgia and bitterness swirling around his stubble were too profound to dismiss as mere tall tales. "Did you defeat the Demon King?" "Ah, yes. Eventually... We had to sacrifice so much along the way, but somehow, we managed to subdue it." "Huh." If the person had indeed fallen into another dimension, fought on the battlefields for 20 years, and even coordinated attacks with his party members against formidable enemies, then he was the very definition of a ''veteran''. And I, the Undertaker, desperately needed such Awakener veterans. "But when they saw that I was about to die from a fatal injury, one of my team members, a priest and our mage, said, ''You mustn''t die here, Hero...''" He sobbed. "Before I took myst breath, they sent me back to my original world." Tears welled up in the man''s eyes. "I wanted to die with myrades. How am I supposed to live on in a world without them...?" His affection for hisrades was palpable. I felt a faint glimmer of hope in my heart. Perhaps, by some fluke, I had stumbled upon a candidate for an epic warrior. "I''m sorry to hear that. If it''s not too much to ask, could you demonstrate some aura or magic while you''re here?" "What? Oh, yes, of course. I''m a Swordsman... Ugh?!" Suddenly, the man clutched his forehead, and the smartphone he''d been clutching tightly in his left hand tumbled to the ground. "Ahhh...?" "Wait a minute. What''s wrong? What happened?" "My mind... My, my memories. I can''t remember! The 20 years I spent on the continent of Sintra, the journeys I shared with myrades, my love, it''s all fading... No, nooo!" For the record, I never mix in hyperbole when telling a story. So when the man with the stubble suddenly grabbed his head with both hands and dramatically reenacted Munch''s The Scream in 3D right in front of me, it was all part of an emotionally charged documentary. "Um, sir?" ¡°......¡± "Hello?" I waved my hand in front of him, but the man stood there, dazed for a long while. I picked up the smartphone that had fallen to the ground. "Hmm?" The smartphone was still powered on, and it happened to be logged into amunity website exclusively for Awakeners. We''ll talk about thismunityter. What''s important now is the content of the post disyed on the man''s smartphone screen. --- Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." Hero. If you are reading this post, you must have safely returned home. We, no, our world, knew that you would have painful memories, yet you sacrificed yourself to protect us. Seeing you suffer after losing yourrades in the final battle with the Demon King, we decided to erase your memories and send you back to your original world. You may curse us for being selfish. But, we didn''t want to see you in pain. Goodbye. P.S. Sorry, Hero. Our magic was imperfect, so you might feel as though you have lost some memories. --- I felt like a college student who had identally left the fridge door open earlier that day and only realized it when I went to microwave some frozen pizzate at night. At that moment, murmuring came from beside me. ¡°...Huh?" The man... "Why am I crying?" Despite his efforts to mask it withughter, his lips twisted oddly as he cried. "Why are these tears? I hate it. It''s like I''ve lost something precious..." ¡°......¡± Quietly, I handed him the smartphone and walked away silently, not looking back, with the skilled steps of an experienced regressor. And thus, I safely distanced myself from the madman, but unfortunately, the madmen did not wish to distance themselves from me. "Huh? This ce is...?" ¡°I''m not Kim Jun-young from Anyang! I am Namgung Muncheong, the foremost disciple of the Namgung n!" ¡°Please take me back to that world again... Huh, why am I crying?" Shit. This was the first time I witnessed such a phenomenon, in the 118th run. Since then, whether it was regression, possession, or reincarnation, I often encountered returnees in various cycles, always showing the same reaction. This so-called ''Returnee Syndrome'' was a disastrous party short for ''Reincarnation and Regression.'' I, the Undertaker, have seen a lot over the years, but this was a uniquely vorful scene. "Goodness." After dozens of cycles¡ªas in, once enough data had umted¡ªI finally realized that this was not just a hidden camera prank by one or two madmen, but a serious societal phenomenon. It was a ''Hero Syndrome'', a type of monster that interferes with the mind. "A monster?" Thus, in the 161st run, I immediately set about devising a strategy. After hearing about the ''Hero Syndrome'', the Saintess, who had always been my consultant, asked, "Can a monster exist without a physical body, Mr. Undertaker?" "It''s possible, yes." I nodded the affirmative. "Those not bound by physicalws or material form are even more dangerous. That''s why it''s more appropriate to call them ''strange phenomena'' rather than monsters." "Indeed. A ''Hero Syndrome''... A monster, no, a strange phenomenon that exists in the form of a mental illness." A drop of disquiet bled into her emotionless voice. By the way, this person had strong shut-in tendencies and stayed inside all day. The sound of bubbling water from the living-room aquariums had long since flowed into the ambiance of the Saintess''s house. It was a regr, forgettable part of the decor for me now. "All right, then how should we subdue this strange phenomenon? If it doesn''t have a physical body, we can''t kill it." "Well, in such cases, we cannot use orthodox methods and instead must turn to the unorthodox. In short, we game the system." I wasn''t even sure if it needed to be subdued, honestly. The Saintess tilted her head. "We game what?" I unlocked the smartphone. "Do you see this post?" "Yes? Ah, it says clicking on this will... uh huh." "All the patients with Hero Syndrome we''ve found so far had copsed and had this post open. It seems the phenomenon spreads its ''infection'' through this viral post." "An infection that''s gone viral? My goodness. Jokes from the COVID era have be reality." The Saintess paused, lost in thought again, then suddenly raised her head. "Does that mean I''m infected now?" "No, this post is just nonsense I posted anonymously on themunity. It''s merely an imitation of the real one, rest assured." "Ah." Seeing the Saintess''s relief, I smiled faintly. "However, this nonsense post actually contains a shortcut tobat the mental type of strange phenomenon." "...?" From that day on, posts began popping up incessantly on the Awakener-onlymunity board. - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 56) - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 17) - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 34) - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 11) The same nonsensical, incessant posts with the same title kept appearing on loop. Such was the power of macros. Members of the onlinemunity were, of course, baffled. - Anonymous: What''s this? - [Samcheon] Officer: What''s going on? - Anonymous: damn, what''s with this concept? Initially, members clicked on the posts to see what the fuss was about, which is why some posts got over 50 views. But the steady stream of posts, each with content that never changed, quickly became something to avoid. - LiteraryGirl: Seriously, this is so boring. Who keeps posting this crap? It''s neither fun nor moving. - [Baekwha] SixthGrader: hooooh ???? - dolLHoUse: Childish. - Anonymous: What are the Constetions doing? Why don''t they delete these posts? ©¸ [Samcheon] WitchJudge: Maybe the Constetions don''t see it as worth deleting. It happens often. ©¸ Anonymous: sigh... - ZERO_SUGAR: why don''t you just set up a keyword block for yourselves...? i blocked it and now i see nothing; it''s really nice ^^ - Anonymous: Blocked. The views dropped to 10, then to 6, and eventually to 3. Finally, the views on the flood of posts fell to 0. asionally, one of the view counts would show a 1, but with the macros continuously posting, eventually, allmunity members set "Another World" as a blocked word. - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 0) - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 0) A beautiful array of zeros. The Saintess, who was observing themunity with me, remarked upon the achievement with reluctant admiration. "Of course. You didn''t even need to exterminate the strange phenomenon itself; simply eliminating exposure to it achieves the same effect as a ''subjugation''." "Correct. A physical-type strange phenomenon can approach us at will, but one without a body loses its power simply because there are no people aware of it." "Certainly an effective method. It''s simple yet skilled handling, befitting of a regressor." "Thank you." Originally, only Awakeners could post in thismunity. However, we had to consider the possibility that the strange phenomenon could weasel their way into themunity and interfere there using some cunning tricks. But now, no matter how the phenomenon tries to post, it won''t affect the members at all. Well, perhaps a member might unblock it for fun and coincidentally click on one of the hundreds of constant posts, and maybe, just maybe, that post might contain the real ''Hero Syndrome'' virus, breaking through the 1/100 odds. Even if a victim did emerge, though, it would be no different than a tragic ne crash. No matter how many times I regress, I can''t control all probabilities. After all, even if infected, it wouldn''t cause widespread harm. Thus, I, the Undertaker, had safely sealed another strange phenomenon. "But... Mr. Undertaker." "Hmm?" "What if it''s not a mental illness, but real? What if those who have seen the post really did move to another dimension, face life-threatening situations, and were then returned to the real world thanks to theirrades?" "The probability of that is low." Low, I would say. Practically close to 0%, really. "Why is that?" "It¡¯s just a simple deduction. All those people im they only spent about 20 years journeying, caught the Demon King, saved the world, and all that. I know from experience that saving the world takes far more than 20 years." "Ah..." "Besides, even if by the rarest of rare chances another dimension exists, it''s not my concern. Shouldn''t we focus all our efforts on managing our own world?" The Saintess seemed convinced by my logic and nodded calmly. "Certainly. You''re right." I sipped my caf¨¦ auit and turned my attention back to the board. - Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Clicking this post will transport you to "Another World." (Views: 0) Even without running macros, the newly generated post disyed zero views. And probably would forever. Footnotes: [1] Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 6 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Admin ¢ñ How long I survive during a particr run varies wildly. Sometimes, I enjoy a mayfly life, dying just a day after regressing, and at other times, I struggle for over 20 years only to freeze to death. There are times when I get stabbed by a walloping alien''s tentacle in my ninth year, and there are also times when, in my seventh year, I get to experience what it''s like to be a dinosaur by dying to a meteor falling to Earth. Even I, someone gifted with the privileges of regression, have such experiences. How much worse must it be for others? Most people who had awakened don''t evenst 10, 5, even 2 years, let alone 20. Some die because they have power, others because theyck it. In a world barreling towards destruction, cause of death was a matter of how one wanted to dress it up it. The reality of the situation was that every day of life was essentially a cause of death. And yet, there was one person who died faster than any other Awakeners.He went by the name of SG-Man. Well, ''SG-Man'' wasn''t his real name, of course. It was simply a shorter way of saying ''SuchAFucking Garbage Man'', a nickname I had privately given him. I learned his real name during my 50th cycle. The fastest-to-die in the world. That was the image I had of SG-Man. To introduce his story, I must first describe the scene I encounter immediately after regressing. "Wha¡ª What? What is this ce?" "Huh? Busan Station? But I was just in the park a second ago..." "Sir? Sir, where are you?" Every time I regress, I wake up in the main concourse of Busan Station. Apart from myself, 398 ordinary people had been forcibly summoned here. There were even some Japanese people dragged here from as far away as Fukuoka, far away. As hundreds of people began to panic at the sudden turn of events, something appeared in the air with a pop. "Ah, hello there, everyone!" It was the so-called Tutorial Fairy, a character that looked like it had just leapt out of a 2D world and into reality, caricaturized form and all. "Oho? The numbers seem a bit low... Anyway, you must have been quite surprised to be summoned here so out of the blue, right? But don''t worry! I''m here to be your trusty guide, here from the very start of your journey!" I felt sorry for the fairy, but I couldn''t help but be worried. After all, she sounded like a dunce. A person''s character was like a printer''s ink; if the ink came out in a chaotic mess, one could reasonably assume that something was seriously wrong with the printer itself. More important than that, though, was that the fairy was floating in midair without any device to support her. As a result, screams of "Kyaa!" erupted across the length of the hall. "Ah! It''s okay, it''s okay! There, there. I''m going to exin these things to you! You all got that I''m the homeroom teacher of Busan Station''s main concourse, right? I hope you''ll all be good and follow my instructions... I will treat you all kindly too. So, from now on¡ª" "You fucking asshole!" Everyone froze. A majestic roar rang out. "What the fuck is this bullshit?!" He must have been in his early twenties. The man with a tattoo sleeve on his forearm was pointing usingly at the fairy while showing off his triceps. Yes. He was none other than SG-Man, SuchAFucking Garbage Man. "Haaaa... Yes?" "You fucking asshole! If you''re going to drag people here out of nowhere, you should start with an apology. Where do you get off, bbering like that?" SG-Man had a very resonant voice. The citizens around him involuntarily took a step back because of his incredibly hearty rebuke. The fairy stammered, "No, haaa. It''s not my doing, I''m just merely in charge of¡ª" "You fucking asshole!" The fairy flinched. By now, it should be clear why I started calling him SG-Man. He was the type of man who couldn''t utter a word without first decorating it with ''fucking''. It was the sort of seasoned diction you''d only hear from someone experienced in the field. "Anyway, you just said you''re in charge! Huh? Aren''t you going to apologize?" "No... I''ve heard from my seniors that people like this one are rare these days. Humans have be cunning in their own way and never get provoked..." The fairy looked crestfallen. Suddenly, a notebook appeared in her hand. "What did they say about how to respond in a situation like this?" the fairy muttered as she flipped through it. "Ah, here it is." "You fucking asshole! Are you mocking me?" "Hoi." The fairy gave a casual wave of her wand (which had also appeared out of nowhere), and SG-Man''s head exploded with a bang. "Are we all good now? Come on! Everyone, please follow my lead!" The fairy smiled broadly, as if expecting her prank to have worked perfectly. What the fairy hadn''t considered was the average sensibility of the people gathered there, also known as morals or ethics. "Hieeeeeek!" The owner of this amusing scream was Sim Ah-ryeon. (I know the names of all the survivors at Busan Station.) Unfortunately for her, she was right next to SG-Man and thus became the main character covered in bright red blood. "P-people¡ª People have died...! People have¡ª! Hieeek, he just died!" She was the quickest to run out of all the people here, bolting as soon as she was drenched in a bucket''s worth of blood and then herself spattering blood and intestines all around. The grotesque scene made people realize the reality of the situation. "Kyaaaaaaah!" "It''s murder! It''s murder!" "Ruuuuuun!" The nearly four hundred people followed Sim Ah-ryeon in a mad dash to escape. The fairy tried to toss out "ah," "there," "that way," "wait," but her gesture only incited more fear. In just a few seconds, only about ten people, including me, remained in the main concourse hall. "......" "Uh..." The fairy looked downcast. "The guidelines were rubbish! It said that if I just removed one person as an example, everyone would calm down!" The body of SG-Man, whose head had been erased,y alone on the floor of the hall. After that, it was my turn to enter the souvenir shop alone and farm my exclusive item, the Silver Bell. Now you all understand why I didn''t know SG-Man''s real name. He was the sterotypical ''extra who rebels against the tutorial fairy and gets executed''. That was the identity of SG-Man. Honestly, I never felt any emotion towards SG-Man. In every cycle, SG-Man would collide with the fairy. As my regresses continued, though the routes of my life became more varied, the original event of ''SG-Man dies to the fairy'' always urred. ''...What would happen if I saved that man?'' It''s no wonder, then, that I suddenly felt curious. ''Yeah, let''s save him.'' Who knows? Maybe once revived, he''ll turn out to be the teleporter that Old Man Scho so desperately longed for. For the record, I was the type to indulge my curiosity and had been for a long time. I wasn''t always like this, but regression had changed my personality. During the 50th run, I decided to satisfy said curiosity. "Ah, hello there, everyone! Oho? The numbers seem a bit low... Anyway, you must have been quite surprised to be summoned here so out of the blue, right? But¨D" But the one who was really surprised was the fairy. The reason was simple. I had leapt from the ground and positioned myself right in front of the fairy in an instant. "Hoh?" My shadow loomed over the fairy''s stunned face. I wasn''t particrly sorry. Before the fairy could even fully close her eyelids, my brutish palm had grasped her head. I circted my inner energy through my hand, and with a yful, little bang, the fairy''s tiny head burst. Since it was always the head of another human that exploded due to the fairy, perhaps this was an ironically fitting end for her. "Huh?" "What just happened...?" People began to murmur as they looked at me while Inded back on the ground after what was literally a split-second of conflict. At this early stage right into a regression, it was doubtful that anyone had managed to visually follow the fight between the fairy and me. Oh, and by the way, it wasn''t just her head. I had shredded the rest of her body too. So the people here probably only perceived it as ''something appeared in the air then suddenly disappeared.'' "Huh?" SG-Man, who had just been about to burst out in a roar, was now just spewing out gibberish with his mouth agape. I approached him and greeted him politely. "Hello." "Huh? Oh, yes... Hello?" For the first time, I heard something other than "Hey, you fucking asshole" from SG-Man. It was a momentous asion in its own right. Indeed, SG-Man was a manly man. "Who might this guy be?" He addressed me as ''this guy''. The determination to cling to his pride and guts while not losing his polite tone was palpable. However, when he saw me slice through a monster at Busan Station with one strike, ''this guy'' changed to ''hey you'', and when the necks of the monsters I had cut exceeded fifty, it changed to ''......''. When we finally cleared the gate, his address took on a more dramatic form. "Um... hyung?"[1] "Yeah." SG-Man hesitantly examined my expression. "Seeing how you handled those monsters, you seem like you are a remarkable person, so why did you bother to save someone like me...?" "There are two answers. One is true but unbelievable, and the other is false but believable. Which one would you like to hear?" "Huh? Oh... the truth, of course." "I am a regressor, currently repeating my 50th cycle. Each time, you have died in this hall. I was curious about what kind of person you might be, so this time I decided to save you and work with you for a while." "Uh...?" SG-Man''s face crumpled with a mix of admiration and fear. It must be how "What the fuck is that, you nerd? looks when expressed with facial muscles. I felt somewhat disheartened. The 35th cycle, when I met the Saintess, was a kind of turning point, and since then, I asionally confided the fact that I was a regressor. Yet, apart from the Saintess, no one had ever believed my story. Why could that be? "Actually, I am a member of Team 5 of the National Intelligence Service, prepared in advance for such situations. I ask for your cooperation." "Ah, I see." "I''mte in introducing myself. My codename is Undertaker. What is your name?" "Seo Gyu, hyung. Please, feel free to call me by my first name." "Is that so?" Seo Gyu. That was SG-Man''s real name. I had realized how important rades'' were in the journey to prevent the end of the world. Thus, I actively scouted and assembled prospects who wouldter grow into A-ss Awakeners. The 50th cycle was no exception. As I traveled with Seo Gyu, I recruited more and more members to our party. How to use their abilities most effectively was something I had already learned through numerous cycles, and as such, my party members grew stronger every day. "...It looks like I have no talent, hyung." Seo Gyu was unable to enjoy the privileges of regression. It was inevitable, really. This was the first time Seo Gyu had survived the tutorial and formed a party with me, and I didn''t even know what ability he might awaken to. I wasn''t in a position to offer him one-on-one tutoring. "Ah, shit. Why is it only me that doesn''t grow when the others do...?" From Seo Gyu''s perspective, he must have felt like a tremendously untalented underachieverpared to his peers, who were all A-ss prospects and monstrous geniuses. But I knew exactly how to handle such situations. "Saintess." "Yes?" "Please send a message to Seo Gyu." The Saintess of National Salvation. It was time for my legendary Pok¨¦mon to take the field. The Saintess asionally sent messages to the party members at my request, sometimes chiding them, sometimes encouraging them. [The Monarch of the Crimson Horse assures you that your talent is real!] [The Conqueror of the Alps dispels your doubts.] Of course, I had gathered enough information about my party members to know them inside and out¡ªfamily background, educational history, past traumas, and more. All this information was then passed to the Saintess. She provided psychological counseling based on their confidential profiles. Legally, it should be considered a breach of privacy and punishable, but after civilization had copsed, the effectiveness of suchws had diminished. Even before the copse, suchws were not exactly well-enforced. The Saintess''s ability of ''irvoyance'' already made her an S-ss Awakener. With my information leak added, the party members believed without a doubt that the Saintess was an omnipresent being who watched their every move. And if the Constetions themselves vouched for your talents? "...I will train hard to awaken my abilities!" Seo Gyu had no choice but to ignite his determination. My and the Saintess''s two-pronged strategy was perfect. To any usations of brainwashing or gaslighting, I would exercise my right to remain silent. Eventually, e night, Seo Gyu came to find me, with a very serious expression. "Um, hyung." "What''s the matter?" "I think I might have awakenedst night." Finally! I felt a swell of anticipation. The tutorial''s sacrifice. The man who, across fifty cycles, always exited the stage first. What could his ability be? Was he a jackpot or a dud? Either way, I was confident I wouldn''t be greatly disappointed, as my curiosity would be satisfied. I shook hands with Seo Gyu. "Congrattions. I knew you''d make it someday." "Th-thank you. It''s all thanks to you, hyung." "So what is the ability?" "Ah. That''s... shit, how do I exin this?" The hand I was holding fell limp, and his expression shuttered. Despite having achieved the awakening he so desperately desired, he didn''t seem very happy. ''Is it a dud after all?'' Seeing his face, I also tamped down ayer of expectation in my heart. After all, high-tier abilities weren''t that easy toe by. "What is it?" I prompted. "Don''t be shy, just spit it out." "No, it''s not that, it''s just a bit awkward to exin with words... Hyung, do you carry a cellphone? Could you please look at it?" "A cellphone?" "Yes." I looked at him with a dubious expression but obediently pulled out my smartphone. The phone was dead. Half a year had passed since the Gate incident, and mostmunication devices had broken down. Phones, the inte, radios, radars¡ªthey had been contaminated by aberrations of all kinds. "Could you turn on your wireless and try essing the address I give you?" "Um...?" And then I witnessed something astonishing. The device had connected to the Inte, which should have been inessible. I felt a rare moment of surprise as I manipted my smartphone. The Inte was still disyed as out of service, and other apps didn''t work. But somehow, the site Seo Gyu directed me to worked perfectly. "This is...?" It was a website in the style of a forum, designed as crudely as the early days of PCmunications. Seo Gyu, blushing as if showing a childhood drawing to someone, said, "That''s, uh, this is the ability I''ve awakened. Website management." Footnotes: [1] Hyung is the way Koreans address big brothers. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 7 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Admin ¢ñ¢ñ "Website management?" "Yes." It was a power I had never heard of before. Given that Seo Gyu''s mere survival was unprecedented, it was not surprising, but I had never even heard of a simr ability. "What exactly is the ability?" "Um, it''s limited to a single domain name, allowing anyone to connect to it."My eyes widened. "What? Anyone? From anywhere?" "Ah, yes." In contrast to me, Seo Gyu''s voice grew fainter. A downtrodden emotion smeared his tone. It was clear he had no idea of the value his awakened ability held. "Yesterday, I tried making a website as a test, but the design can only be upgraded as my power improves. Right now, it''s like those old websites the elderly used... it''s embarrassing to even brag about to my colleagues. It''s utterly useless inbat..." What. "Do you need your permission for someone to register on this site?" "Eh? Oh, yes. It only appears to be a website, but it''s really something like a building made by my ability. Um, my will is reflected in real-time. If I were to create a registration system... Uh, probably no one could enter without my permission..." Impressive. I inadvertently ced my hand on his shoulder. Seo Gyu lifted his head back up, and our eyes met. "Seo Gyu. Remember when I first met you, I told you I was an agent from the National Intelligence Service?" "Yes..." "That was a lie." "What?" "I lied to make it easier for you to understand. Of course, I gave you the opportunity to select the truth yourself. Let me say it again: I am actually a regressor." "What?" "Seo Gyu, why do you think all our party members are geniuses and you''re the onlyte bloomer? It''s simple. Because I''ve regressed about 50 times and only recruited proven geniuses. But you''re a first. An unscratched lottery ticket. Somehow, you never managed to survive in the waiting room at Busan Station in all those regressions." "What?" "From now on, your ability will be called [Ubiquitous]." Ubiquitous. A word derived from Latin, meaning ''to exist everywhere''. It''smonly used to express that God exists everywhere, but the important thing now was the origin of the term. Latin has the magical power to make anything sound cool. "Originally, the power is mostly about the name. Site Operation? Community Manager? Moving Network? You''re just Ubiquitous." "Ubiquitous..." Sure enough, Seo Gyu''s expression began to look intrigued. I grinned broadly. "Seo Gyu. Let''s work on something together." We immediately moved to Yongsan. The Saintess greeted us in what seemed like an aquarium-themed underwater temple, leaving it ambiguous whether it was a ce for people or fish. She listened to my story without a word and then spoke. "That''s incredible." "Right?" Typical Saintess. She immediately recognized the value of Seo Gyu''s ability. Meanwhile, Seo Gyu himself seemed bewildered by what he had been hearing and kept staring nkly at the Saintess until she finally averted her gaze. "Um, uh. What''s so great about my power...?" "Seo Gyu. Just imagine if Awakeners signed up on your site. If they had to enter their personal details, all their information would be fed directly into it. We could know everything they post on the site too." "Ah... But, hyung. Why would those clever people bother to sign up on my site? Especially with their personal details..." I nodded. "They definitely will." It had been less than a year since the gate crisis began. So Seo Gyu, other Awakeners, and even ordinary people were still somewhat optimistic or indifferent. Life wasn''t ruined just by participating. "This world is going to be more chaotic." But after the second year, everything would deteriorate rapidly. Initially, Korea remained rtively calm thanks to the Saintess'' ''Constetion Games'', but signs of warlordism were already evident in other countries. "Seo Gyu, humans begin to lose their sanity the moment they''re cut off from externalmunication. But your site is not just a tform; it''s sustained by your awakened ability, Ubiquitous. As long as you''re alive, it''s a public square essible to anyone at any time." "......" "Large guilds will be the first to recognize the value of this site. It bes a way to stay connected even after entering a gate." "That, that''s true...", Seo Gyu grimaced as he nodded. To me, it was a bitter but inevitable response. In my view, the rank of an awakened being''s power is determined by how well it ovees temporal and spatial constraints. In that sense, Seo Gyu had awakened an S-ss ability. It was ironic¡ª holding a rare treasure sword and yet not realizing its value. Not just me, but the Saintess too looked on incredulously. "Ubiquitous..." "Huh?" I corrected myself. The Saintess wasn''t looking at Seo Gyu but at me. "What''s the matter?" "No, nothing. I just thought the naming sounded quaintly old-fashioned. It''s your taste in names, I see." "Yes? Isn''t it a wonderful name?" "Indeed." An odd response. Anyway, the main point now was Seo Gyu''s power. I got to the heart of the matter. "They say seeing is believing. Now, let''s discuss with the Saintess here how to develop this site." "Ah. Well, I hope for your kind cooperation...?" "Yes. We hope for your cooperation." Seo Gyu awkwardly shook hands with the Saintess. Fortunately, the awkward atmosphere didn''tst long. Not only had I revealed that I was a regressor, but the truth that the Saintess was actually the embodiment of the Constetions also came to light. A scream echoed through the aquarium living room. "¨D¨DAck! So, the Constetions were all fakes?" Seo Gyu seemed shocked. Understandably, discovering that the pen pals who had secretly supported him during tough times were all virtual beings would certainly be disorienting. "No... my god. What exactly are you and the Saintess nning? Are you seriously aiming for something big?" "Come now, don''t speak as if it''s someone else''s concern." You''re part of our party now. "First, Saintess, please disguise this site as if it''s under the authority of the Constetions." "Okay." "Seo Gyu, you act like an administrator who has taken over the site management from the Constetions." "Ah, yes, hyung." The n was meticulously executed. We even pushed through the work while sipping on precious coffee. The three of us huddled in front ofputers, transforming the mystical underwater temple into what seemed like an actual PC caf¨¦. "PC caf¨¦... Fish caf¨¦. Indeed." "¡?" The Saintess turned to look at me upon hearing my murmur. Her gaze was intense, prompting me to quickly change the subject. "Saintess, what do you think we should name the site?" "Are you talking about the name?" The change of subject was sessful. "...How about [Apocalypse Gallery]?" "Hmm. It¡¯s a fine name, but the word ''gallery'' might remind people too much of a specific type of site. We''re nning to operate more like an old membership-based site or caf¨¦, so it doesn''t quite fit. What about you, Seo Gyu?" "Uh... How about [Viva! The Doomed World!]?" "It¡¯s a cool name, but remember, the site is supposedly set up by a Constetion. It sounds too cheerful. Might modern people fighting against cmities find it a bit infuriating?" "It''s tricky¡" "Um." At that moment, a great idea popped into my head. Finally, after fifteen days, weunched the site to the masses. -Constetions'' yground! -The only safe intemunity! -Wee to SG Net! The site was named SG Net. This name carried multiple meanings. First, SG was a nickname I used for Seo Gyu before I knew his real name. Coincidentally, ''Seo Gyu'' could also be abbreviated as SG. Lastly, as it was a site managed by the Constetions, ''Star¡¯s Ground'' shortened to SG again. A naming sense aiming not just for a double but a triple entendre! Perhaps I had a hidden talent for naming as well as Ubiquitous. How could one person be so multifaceted? Sometimes, I scared even myself. "¡¡" For some reason, the Saintess looked like she had much to say but chose to remain silent. I ignored her. Beside her, Seo Gyu wore a gloomy expression. "Hyung, no one else has logged in yet..." He just stared aimlessly at the monitor. In those fifteen days, Seo Gyu had be quite familiar with his power, making the site slightly prettier. Still, it barely reached the level of an early Hi-Tel PCmunication design. If no one appreciated it, even a good design would be meaningless, but we had a marketing tool that was almost free. "Saintess, please st an advertisement." The ad agencies known as Constetions! "Got it." The Saintess sped her hands together. At that moment, every Awakener active in Korea received the same messages. [An unknown and nameless Constetion manifests its power.] [An unknown and nameless Constetion invites you!] The site address was also sent as part of the message. Seo Gyu silently watched the monitor with a tense face. Soon, the number of users disyed on the site skyrocketed. "Ten... ny... t-two hundred, five hundred? Wow, how many Awakeners are there in Korea...", Seo Gyu muttered. But his astonishment was nothingpared to the other Awakeners who logged into SG Net. Even through the monitor, it was palpable how baffled they were by the sudden appearance of thismunity. - Anonymous: Why does this connect so well? Is it a bizarre site? (2) - Anonymous: Came here at the summons of a Constetion. (0) - Anonymous: Does anyone know who this unknown and nameless Constetion is? (15) - Anonymous: Oh, so I wasn''t the only one who got the message. (1) Since the site was known to be created by a Constetion, the users'' tones were generally mild. While the Awakeners were confused, they continued to post andment, observing the situation. (2), (15) indicated the number ofments. However, they were still acting as ''anonymous'' non-members for the time being. "Seo Gyu, now''s the time." "Ah, yes, hyung. I''ll post it!" Seo Gyu, under the member nickname ''Administrator'', posted an announcement. The gist of the announcement was simple. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ 1. This site can be essed anytime, anywhere. 2. An unnamed Constetion whimsically established SG Net. The poster is their representative. 3. The more active the members are, the more SG Net will develop. Members are akin to disciples, andmunity activity is simple to understand: the stronger your ''faith'', the more powerful the descended Constetion bes on earth. 4. Non-members can use SG Net for only one hour a day, whereas members can use it unlimitedly. Non-believers are non-members, and members are believers, so please understand this distinction. 5. The ''unknown and nameless Constetion'' desires nothing from you beyondmunity activity. 6. Your personal information is strictly protected. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Naturally, aside from point 1, it was all lies. As soon as the announcement went up, the non-members stirred. Suddenly, the announcement received dozens, hundreds ofments. -Anonymous: Is the representative of the Constetion for real? -CookingQueen: Mr. Administrator, how can one be an apostle of the Constetion? -Anonymous: Smart move. -OldManGoryeo: why does everyone here talk like assholes??? -Anonymous: How can we believe this is real? This might be a trick by a specter too. Several Awakeners had alreadypleted their registration. ''CookingQueen'' and ''OldManGoryeo'' were among the first to register as members, and others followed suit upon seeing this. "Is this really happening...?", Seo Gyu marveled, dumbfounded. All the while, his fingers were busy recording the personal information of the members into a text file. asionally, some non-members expressed skepticism about the authenticity of the announcement, but they were met with messages from the Saintess. [The Chancellor of the Red Cape feels displeased but confirms the truth of these Constetion''s words.] [The Saintess of National Salvation advises several Awakeners that prolonged inte use is detrimental to real life.] Thus, other Constetions'' renown was leveraged to endorse the legitimacy of SG Net. Even the most doubtful of Awakeners had to relent somewhat under such assertions. Initially dominated by non-members, the ratio soon started shifting towards members. As the information of countless Awakeners poured in, Seo Gyu could not contain his excitement. "Wow, we''re done here, hyung." "Good job." I patted Seo Gyu''s shoulder. "But it''s not over; it¡¯s just the beginning." "¡?" Seo Gyu seemed not to grasp the meaning of my words. After all, how could he predict how I intended to use SG Net from here on? "I''m counting on you moving forward, Seo Gyu." "What? Oh, hyung, I''m the one who should be saying that!" Clueless but earnestly following along, my younger brother smiled brightly. Regrettably, even the 50th cycle couldn''t escape destruction. However, the usefulness of SG Net was proven. That alone made this cycle significantly meaningful. Me, the Saintess, Seo Gyu. We three as the site''s founders and managers experienced a wide range of incidents. The stories intertwined here are too numerous and varied to mention, but I''ll likely bring them up whenever I have the chance. The immediate significance of the 50th cycle was this: from this point on, the actions I took at the start of each new cycle changed slightly. "Ah, hello there, everyone! Oho? The numbers seem a bit low... Anyway, you must be quite startled to be summoned here all of a sudden, right? But don''t worry! I''ll be your friendly guide from the start!" In the past, when I woke up in Busan Station¡¯s waiting room, all I thought about was how to quickly get to the old man''s caf¨¦. But not anymore. There was now one more person I had to save. "From now on..." "You fucking asshole! What the hell are you talking about!" A booming roar echoed. I smiled at the familiar voice. It was like my personal rm sound, reminding me that life had started over once again. As I started to move, eager for this cycle, I fondly listened to the swearing that I had missed. "You fucking asshole!¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 8 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Determinist ¢ñ "When you think of the trio of protagonists in web novels¡ªnamely, regressors, possessors, and reincarnators¡ªwho do you think is their greatest nemesis? A powerful monster? The protagonist will win anyway. Stress? Trauma? Obsessivepulsive disorder? These are not wrong answers. However, it''s hard to say these are unique to regressors. After all, stress is amon weakness of Homo sapiens, from your average 35-year-old unemployed person to the 60-year-old President of the United States.Baldness? How could you say something so harsh. The correct answer that is both somewhat surprising yet entirely unsurprising... the ''Butterfly Effect'' itself. -Can a butterfly pping its wings in Beijing cause a tornado on the other side of the Earth? The Butterfly Effect.A theory that states that small difference in initial conditions lead to increasingly drastic changes over time. I can confidently say that this very Butterfly Effect is indeed the viin among viins for regressors¡ªan unavoidable archenemy on a single-log bridge, and the sworn enemy of the universe. Oh, the sheer audacity! How many regressors have perished due to this Butterfly Effect in their creations? -I am a reader well-versed in all kinds of web novels, and in the current world I''ve entered, no one can match my expertise. By working first to save a maid who was absurdly killed early on, I then, ording to my interpretion, prevent the first button of tragedy from being set off... Huh? Why does saving the maid lead to a demon king invading? -Beneath the pce walls, I was kind to a starving child, and 10 yearster, the prince proposes to me? I just wanted to live a peaceful life, but what should I do now? -Why, after I''vepleted all the quests the original protagonist was supposed to solve and even recruited allies meant for the protagonist''s party, taking all the items and opportunities meant for the protagonist, has the protagonist be so weak? Oh dear, do I have to step in? In thetter case, it''s more a matter of conscience and intelligence than the Butterfly Effect. For the trio of regression, possession, and reincarnation, no situation is as terrifying as the Butterfly Effect, regardless of whether the backdrop is fantasy, modern fantasy, romance fantasy, or alternate history. So today, as a highly skilled regressor, I, the Undertaker, will tell the story of ying the Butterfly Effect. The first time I sensed something was off was around the 30th run. "Hmm?" It was just a slight sense of difort at first. ''Was this cafe... ever open?'' After the tutorial ended, I went to the building that was once Baekje Hospital, where the body of Old Man Scho had been turned into an interior decoration. I often reminisce about this ce and spend time here. But why was a man running a business in a cafe that should have had a sign up dering the shop closed? I couldn''t hide my confusion at this first-in-a-regressor''s-lifetime experience. "Excuse me..." "Yes, sir. Wee." The man smiled. He was the type to invest 80 percent of his fashion and styling efforts into his beard. "Is it really okay for you to be operating like this? The world just went to hell." "Ah... Right. I was nning to flee to Japan, but just the other day a huge typhoon blew through the South Sea, and all the evacuation ships sank." The man sighed. For me, who had juste down from Seoul to Busan, this waspletely new. "A typhoon blew through?" "Yes. I don''t know if you''ve heard yourself, but thousands must have died. It''s mayhem down at Busan Port right now. I was considering paying a handsome sum to board a ship, but the shipowner told me he''s setting sail in a week, and if I don''t like it, I should leave. Well, what can I do? I have nothing else to do, so I might as well operate for this week. It''s meaningless now, though, haha." The managerughed. I couldn''t. ''I don''t remember a typhoon at this time?'' I had [Complete Memory], which was the ability to retain all past memories. In fact, it was thanks to acquiring this skill during my 5th run that I could spin these tales for you all. I can recall every event and thought I had at the time. Therefore, I could assert this with 100 percent certainty. ''...This is an anamoly.'' Again, it was at the ''point six months after the tutorial ended'' that I arrived at the cafe during the 30th run. This was what you would call the very early stages of the very beginning. My actions in the very early stages were always simr. I had barely change a thing about thempared to the 29th or even 28th run. It couldn''t be my actions. Yet despite this, in the world of that run, a ''typhoon'' had blown through the South Sea. ''What''s going on? What''s causing this?'' Everything has a cause. For someone like me, who strictly rejected esoteric concepts like the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and adhered solely to causal determinism, this was an utterly baffling situation. "Excuse me, sir." "Yes?" "I''m really sorry to say this, but if you''re not going to order anything..." "Oh. Sorry. I got lost in thought for a moment. Um, could I have a caf¨¦ auit, please?" "Of course. That''ll be 59,500 won*." *About $43. "......" The caf¨¦ auit, hit hard by apocalypse-induced intion, was terribly tasteless. But the event that drove me even crazier urred in the next run, the 31st. [We are temporarily closed due to personal reasons.] When I went to the cafe again around the same time, the closed sign was just hanging there as usual. "Good grief." What now? It was too early to panic, as apart from whether the caf¨¦ was operating or not, numerous variables urred independently in various runs. "Huh? Saintess, did you move?" "Huh?" "In previous runs, you always lived in your home in Yongsan." "Ah... It''s been a bit hard to gather food for the fish. There''s someone in the nearby guild who also has a hobby aquarium. So I moved closer." "......" The address where the Saintess lived had subtly changed by the 47th run. "Ladies and gentlemen! I hereby dere the new capital of the Republic of Korea is now Busan Metropolitan City!" "Wow!" "Normal nation! Normal nation!" During the 71st run, the mayor of Busan had taken control of the penins''s political scene. I was stunned. That mayor, originally, was supposed to flee to Fukuoka, Japan, to form a second temporary government. (He even took meticulous care of his second family during the escape.) Other instances included a mid-boss-level monster that should have crossed into North Korea suddenly falling in love with democracy and defecting again, or a meteor shower that should have fallen in Gyeongsangnam-donding in Jeonam-do instead, among a parade of other bizarre events. ''No.'' I was feeling rather perplexed. ''This makes predicting the future problematic, doesn''t it?'' Although in the majority of runs, the causality proceeded ''normally'' without any anomalies, asionally¡ªand quite abruptly¡ªchaos would erupt. Well, asionally experiencing pineapple on pizza might not be a big deal. However, as a ssical determinist, it was imperative that I uncover the cause of these anomalous phenomena. [Mr. Undertaker.] And so, on the 82nd run, a clue finally presented itself. [A typhoon has been observed off the coast of Incheon. It''s a massive tornado.] "What? A tornado in the Yellow Sea? But that area is too shallow for that to be feasible." [But it''s really happening. I am sharing the view of an Awakener at Incheon Port at this very moment. Please be careful, as we don''t know where the tornado will head.] "Goodness, there are a lot of refugees in Incheon already..." [Don''t worry. I''ve already sent a message in the name of the Constetions to the other Awakeners. Evacuation is underway.] I quickly logged onto SG Net. Sure enough, the board was in an uproar. -Anonymous: Breaking news: tornado sighting in the West Sea lol -[WitchJudge]: I''d like to help, but it''s too far away. -OldManGoryeo: Come on, let''s take the old folks to the coffin~ -dolLHoUse: Dangerous. -Anonymous: Not joking, it looks serious from the photos. If it''s that big on the horizon, it''s at least 3km across. Not sure about the strength of it, but definitely don''t go near it. Any bad luck, and you might get struck by lightning and die. In the midst of the chaos, someone uploaded photos and videos of a huge tornado. I had never seen anything like it before. "......" Then, a lightning strike of insight struck me. "Yes! It was the typhoon!" [What?] "The typhoon! No, I mean the tornado!" Now that I think about it, didn''t the caf¨¦ owner also mention it? ''Just the other day, a huge typhoon blew through the South Sea, and all the evacuation ships sank.'' I stated with conviction. "Every run where a tornado wreaked havoc, the course of events turned out strangely warped. It''s definitely the typhoon... It''s the one causing these anomalies." [I''m sorry, Mr. Undertaker. I''m not quite sure what you mean...] "I''ll exinter. Saintess, could you possibly track the path of the typhoon off the coast of Incheon and trace its origin as closely as possible?" [It might be a bit difficult, but I''ll give it a try. I''ll check the areas that have been affected by the typhoon.] Just a moment, whispered the Saintess, likely pulling up a map. Soon after, she had scanned the cities adjacent to the Yellow Sea and reported back. [Um... The range is too broad to be certain, Mr. Undertaker. Please bear in mind that this is merely a conjecture.] "That''s fine. Where is it?" [China. Beijing.] China. Beijing. Tornado. "Ah." At that moment, I somehow felt I knew the identity of this tornado. -Can a butterfly in Beijing p its wings and cause a tornado on the other side of the Earth? A phrase sinctly describing the Butterfly Effect. The original phrase did not mention ''Beijing'' but instead ''Brazil''. Interestingly, the original itself was merely a slogan that was invented after the fact. When a meteorologist first presented the Butterfly Effect at a conference, it wasn''t a butterfly but a seagull that was mentioned. Naturally, there was no mention of Brazil or typhoons either. This alone should clearly illustrate how much these anomalies, these grotesqueries, disregard human history. They possess a humanities-esque sensibility that doesn''t concern itself with factual precision. Of course, someone like me who viewed the world from a strict scientific-causal deterministic perspective might in turn ask this: -Why did the Butterfly Effect originate in Beijing instead of Brazil? -The Butterfly Effect theory initially posits that small initial changes lead to vastly different oues over time, so why does it immediately send wind sts in all directions? I don''t know. Really, I don''t. Anomalies fundamentally have zero interest in our human curiosity and counterarguments. To the sensibility of anomalies, such questions are simply ''not sexy''. Having lived as a regressor for a long time, let me share an insight of mine... These bastards are essentially no different from ''AI-generated images''. To anomalies, our long human history andmon pool of knowledge are nothing more than ''prompt inputs''. Just as AI might consider any number of human legs, whether two or three, to be normal for Homo sapiens, these anomalies make no racial distinction between Chinese and Brazilians. The concept of the Butterfly Effect, which belonged to past human schrship, has been aggressively reinterpreted by the end of the century. ''An entity that indiscriminately creates storms without being fixed to the flow of causality!'' If I had to describe it, it would be akin to a tornadouncher. As a result, the ''Butterfly Effect'' took on an identity simr to North Korea''s missiles. We could be certain that it wouldunch missiles whenever it got bored, but where the missiles wouldnd was always a matter of whim. In the 30th cycle, it turned southwards towards Japan, sinking ships meant for evacuation. In the 82nd cycle, it likewise baptized the refugees with a deluge off the coast of Incheon. Was that all? From the 83rd to the 85th cycles, it drifted elsewhere, toward Mongolia, India, and Siberia. If Major League scouts had seen it, they would have been head over heels, ready to chuck it a contract for its diverse change-ups. Ultimately, it''s rare for tornadoes to strike the maind Korean penins, which made it hard for me, a born and 100 percent bred Korean, to notice the thing in the first ce. "...This is indeed a dangerous existence." Crunch. The Saintess crushed a potato chip. Surprisingly, the Saintess was eating chips not from a bag but from a Lock & Lock stic lunch box. Even her snacks were stored in a vault, confirming that she was not in her right mind. Furthermore, she picked up the chips with chopsticks, not fingers. Was she truly human at all? The shut-in, germophobic Saintess said, "It''s called the Butterfly Effect, but in reality, it''s an unpredictable variable, a random number. Doesn''t that overshadow what should be its greatest advantage?" "You are correct. A bigger problem is that it''s difficult to pinpoint the location of this anomaly." "What?" "Think about it, Saintess. If the direction of the tornado varies with each cycle, it means its point of origin could also change. Anyway, we''re certain it''s Beijing, but is Beijing not vast in and of itself?" "Ah..." The Saintess finally nodded in understanding. "I can see why it''s difficult." "Yeah. Unless the anomaly is asrge as Cthulhu, it''s not surprising that it hasn''t been caught in my informationwork. We have to find this anomaly within Beijing each cycle, which is as hard as finding a scale in the sea." "You''re right. That makes sense." "It does. It''s nearly impossible for me to handle alone unless there''s someone who can share the vision of all the Awakeners." "......" "......" "......?" "......" "...I''ll apany you. To Beijing." "Oh my. There''s no need for you to go to such lengths. Whew, but if the Saintess helps, it would indeed be like gaining an army." "......" Shut-in Saintess''s heart-pounding overseas mission, confirmed! Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 9 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Determinist ¢ñ¢ñ I had visited China numerous times in past cycles. It was closeby and featured an inspirational locale for the martial arts-obsessed Old Man Scho, who had once taken me to Mount Hwa. The destination for this trip was Beijing, a city just outside my usual stomping grounds. But who was I, really? To an infinite regressor, few things were truly impossible. After a thorough, on-site investigation spanning the 82nd through the 85th cycles, I finallypleted the ''Hitchhiker''s Guide to Beijing''. "First, we acquire a boat in Incheon and head to Tianjin Port." "Um, Mr. Undertaker, it¡¯s my first time on a boat, so I feel a bit, oh, that''s dangerous, ah¡ª" First thing''s first, I turned on the sound of the refreshing waves of the sea off Incheon as ASMR (with some additional background noise for ambiance), and we crossed the Yellow Sea just like that."Next, we shouldn''t move above ground. There are too many anomalies. We could break through, but that would draw too much attention, so it''s better to move underground." "Wait a minute. Underground...?" "Yes. The Awakeners in China have set up a base in the Beijing subway system. What are you doing? Why note this way?" "Um, actually, I''m a bit ustrophobic, Mr. Undertaker, uh, um, oh, danger¡ª" The Awakeners who hadn¡¯t yet escaped the anomaly-ravaged Beijing had formed what¡¯s called the ''Beijing Liberation Assault Team''. Among the stations they controlled, the one I took special note of was Ciqu Station. The stationmaster there, who also served as the 17thmander of the assault team, was a character with whom I got along well. They were considerably fond of a foreigner who could speak the Beijing dialect with such proficiency. By this point, I had already been upgraded from ''this bastard'' to ''you''. And once an anomaly that had been troubling him was sliced into several pieces like serving a rolled omelet by the stroke of my sword, my title was promoted to ''Doc''. Finally, when I presented a top-grade Pu-erh tea as a gift, the stationmaster finally remembered that we were brothers of faith, who had once served the way of Gong-Meng together in ancient times. "Brother Undertaker!" "Bro!" The identification card issued to me by the 17thmander was as good as a free pass. We immediately entered Beijing. "...Isn''t that just a bribe?" "Oh my." A bribe? Who would call a gift exchanged among brothers a bribe? I had merely gifted a small tea leaf out of goodwill, and the other party had rightly epted it with grace. Somein that China''s guanxi culture is practically its own league, but this is simply because they have forgotten the fine traditions of East Asia. Having gobbled up plenty of regressor experience, I possessed not only expertise in tea ceremony but also numerous other virtues. First off, the traditional East Asian game of Go could not be ignored. Themander of the liberation team, who preferred Go to three meals a day, shook my hand after a game and eximed, "I now know that a master hase from the East!" Next was calligraphy. The 1stmander, who believed a person¡¯s handwriting revealed their true character, performed a deep bow on the spot after seeing my calligraphy of ''ÓÐÅó×Ôßh·½í ("friendse from afar")''. "Behold this dignified yet immacte script! You truly are the reincarnation of Yan Zhenqing!"[1] Of course, I knew the ways of propriety. How could I act arrogantly after receiving such high praise? At each of these events, we would modestly sip Pu-erh tea and exchange pleasantries. Exactly 48 hours after arriving in Beijing, I could freely ess the informationwork held by the Liberation Assault Team. The Saintess, who had observed this whole process by my side, muttered incredulously, "Mr. Undertaker, you seem to have a knack for befriending anyone within ten minutes of meeting them." She looked at me with eyes that seemed to ask, "Is this the life of a social butterfly?" "Ah, this isn''t my first time. I created this shortest route after four cycles of exploration." "Indeed. Then, this isn¡¯t really my first trip abroad, is it? I must have traveled with Mr. Undertaker in previous cycles." "No? It¡¯s your first time." "Really?" "You¡¯ve crossed into North Korea by yourself before, but this is your first time traveling across the sea. Why else would I invest so much to find the shortest route? I wanted to make your first journey asfortable as possible." "......" "Well, with the world in such a state, this is about asfortable as it gets. So, Saintess, how do you find it? Any anomalies in sight?" "...Just a moment, please." The Saintess took a deep breath. "Only a moment." Then she closed her eyes. Her role here was singr: a radar. Despite the Assault Team members hiding underground in Beijing, surveince personnel were scattered everywhere above ground. The 17thmander was on brotherly terms with the 1st and 10thmanders, and the 10thmander was close with the 6th, 8th, and 9thmanders, and the 1stmander was well-acquainted with the 2nd, 4th, and 5thmanders. Their ''favor'' and my ''goodwill''bined to manifest this moment, emphasizing the importance of surface surveince that the assault team members usually neglected. And the Saintess''s ability was [irvoyance]. Exactly ten minutes from now, the Saintess would be able to observe all of Beijing without missing a spot. "..." One minute. "..." Two minutes. "..." Three minutes. "I''ve found it." The Saintess opened her eyes. It hadn¡¯t even taken ten minutes. The remaining seven minutes of spare time were a testament to our duo¡¯spetence, marked by the measure of time. "Where is it?" "The Temple of Heaven Park." We were in luck. It was close. "Understood. Then, Saintess, please stay here underground and keep sending me messages while I quickly finish this off and return¡ª" "Please take me with you." The Saintess grabbed my forearm firmly. "I want to see Mr. Undertaker fight with my own eyes, not just through irvoyance." "...Hmm. It might be dangerous." "You said it was the mostfortable, safest, and shortest route. I trust you. And..." The Saintess exhaled faintly. That was her way of smiling. "If my first trip abroad ends up being just seawater sightseeing and underground views, even the me of future cycles might feel a bit aggrieved, don¡¯t you think?" It was a rationale I couldn''t refute. As we ran up the stairs of the Temple of Heaven East Gate station, a thunderstorm raged above ground. The noise battered our ears. The thunderstorm did not discriminate. Whirlwinds blew across all of Beijing. "We''re in for a rough wee, Saintess. Hold on tight." [Okay.] Perhaps because of the storm''s din, the Saintess used telepathy to speak instead of her voice. I ran towards the Temple of Heaven, cradling the Saintess. Her arms, hanging around my neck like a swing, tightened. The world was shrouded under a cover of dark clouds. The once neatly maintained main avenue of the park was now infiltrated by the green of pine and Chinese parasol trees from the forests on either side. It looked as though rust had formed on an old iron sword. I sprinted down the de''s edge. -???D?????? ??????o?????? ???l???i???k???e??? ???c??????o???s???s??????o???r???d???s??????? ???-??????h???a???t??? ????d???o??? ???y???¨®??u??? ???l????i???k???¨¦?? ???t???h???e??? ???m???¨®??s???t??????? I had to, as many the trees themselves were anomalies. Lightning struck. The forest cast shadows. Now on Earth, they were the lords of all. These beings trampled on tree roots, hung from branches, coiled in nests, and looked down arrogantly at an old race that had dared to leap into their domain without fear. That angle of view didn¡¯tst long. "It¡¯s going to get a bit shaky." [Okay.] A sh. I shed through the cumbersome trees in one stroke. A dark aura, my inner self made manifest, swept down the avenue like a tidal wave. Anomalies parasitizing the trees were instantly uprooted. As expected of anomalies that had upied one of humanity''s major cities, they didn¡¯t lose their bnce uponnding, but they didn''t fare all that well either. One strike. I sliced the necks of anomalies whose eye levels had now matched mine. It took just two cuts for humanity¡¯s main avenue to be a path again. [Amazing,] the Saintess murmured softly. [Really, it¡¯s different from watching with irvoyance. You are incredible.] "You tter me. Despite appearances, I¡¯ve often been criticized for myck of talent in martial arts." [That can¡¯t be true. Mr. Undertaker, you must be joking.] I smiled wryly. "Truly." In reality, I had no talent for martial arts. Myck of talent was not limited to my rtive martial prowess. I couldn''t tell the difference between Pu-erh and green tea without looking at their colors, nor did I know the opening strategies of Go, or even the proper technique for grinding ink and holding a brush. And I was stillcking in many ways. I had neither the skill to borrow the vision of others nor would I ever have it. That was always why I neededpanions. Mypanion whispered to me. [Ah, turn left there¡ª] [To the right, yes, more to the right.] [Yes, just go straight ahead, and you¡¯ll make it.] Guided by the Saintess through forest paths and slicing through anomalies, we arrived at a tower in the north of the Temple of Heaven¡ªthe Memorial Hall, towering above. Lightning poured down, illuminating the ramshackle building. Yet the pirs still stood, however precarious their stance, reaching towards the sky like hands in prayer. At the very center, a dragon was surging higher and ascending. [That''s the ce, Mr. Undertaker. All the other tornadoes covering the city originate from that tornado.] ¡°Yes, it seems so.¡± The Temple of Heaven. Since ancient times, humanity has proven its power by being the ones to offer sacrifices and prayers to the heavens. Thus, the tornado spiraling skyward from that very spot was akin to the anomalies proiming their victory. I enhanced my vision with my aura and looked toward the presence detected at the center of the storm, and I couldn¡¯t help but smile faintly. ¡°Of course.¡± [Why are you smiling?] ¡°No reason. Just thinking about how fittingly bizarre these anomalies are.¡± In the heart of the tornado was... a small sapphire-colored ''butterfly'' pping its wings. Blue wings. A morpho butterfly. This was indeed the identity of the dragon''s ascension. An anomaly that proimed itself as the current Son of Heaven. Perhaps on stormy days like this, some of the tornadoes spawned by this ''butterfly'' might have traveled beyond Beijing to the opposite side of the Earth. ¡®...Literally the Butterfly Effect.¡¯ I gripped my cane-sword. Normally used as a walking stick, it could convert into a sword by twisting the handle¡ªmy weapon of choice. How I came to use such a peculiar weapon is a story for another time. For now, I''ll just briefly mention the target my sword was slicing through. Noticing my presence, the butterfly tilted its head, fluttering its wings. -C???a???n??? ???a??? ???s???i???n???g???l???e??? ???b???l???o???w??? ???f???r???o???m??? ???t???h???e??? ???r???e???g???r???e???s???s???i???o???n??? ???d???e???m???o???n??? ???c???u???t??? ???i???t??????? The wind howled. I swung my sword. Amidst the booming thunder, a dark de streaked silently across the world. The de tore through a butterfly that imed to be the new lord of the Earth. -T???h???e??? ???u???n???f???a???i???r???n???e???s???s??? ???o???f??? ???b???e???i???n???g??? ???c???u???t??? ???d???o???w???n??? ???b???y??? ???a??? ???r???e???g???r???e???s???s???o???r???,??? ???p???e???r???h???a???p???s??????? But tasting the bitterness of a celestial revolution was also the natural course of history for one iming to be an emperor. I only wished to hasten their liberation from Earth. Amidst the storm and thunder, the dragon''s ascension cried out, and then, as if always a lie, the noise of the world quieted. [...Ah.] As the clouds parted, a final shower poured down. The raindrops cast transparent shadows like sunlight. [It¡¯s beautiful.] My aura unfurled, detecting the presence of still countless numbers of anomalies. Surely after realizing their leader had been defeated, they would swarm this ce. But they wouldn''t be faster than sunlight. During our brief respite, the Saintess stepped down from my arms to look around. ¡°I¡¯m d we came on this trip.¡± The sound of water trickled beneath the Saintess''s shoes, akin to a small fish escaping from an aquarium to a stream. The Saintess turned and moved her lips. Then, in a whisper audible only to me¡ª [The Saintess of National Salvation praises your achievements.] I stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, before bursting intoughter. Surprisingly, this was the first joke I had heard from the Saintess during our 86 cycles together. There¡¯s an epilogue to this. As a determinist, the Butterfly Effect was an anomaly I could never ept. Yet I, too, am human. asionally, I grow weary of the repetitive cycle of life. At such times, even the Butterfly Effect, twisting the flow of causality to create random variables, didn¡¯t seem too bad. After all, anomalies are also what you make of them. In each cycle, I typically quelled the anomalies of Beijing within six months before the Butterfly Effect fully stretched its wings, but sometimes I deliberately let them be. ¡It was during the 173rd cycle that mycent attitude finally led to an irreversible ''Butterfly Effect''. [Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°Yes.¡± [Perhaps I have been acting with a preconceived notion of the Constetions until now. Maybe we need to refurbish the image of the Constetions in a more familiar and friendly way?] ¡°Ah, yes. As you wish.¡± [I had a great ideast night.] ¡°It must be a wonderful idea.¡± Although it was the first time I heard such a proposal, I fundamentally trusted the Saintess and approved without much thought. The next day. [Hello, hello! Grrreetings to all the Awakeners of the Korean Penins! Nice to meet you, meow!] [Frrrom now on, I will be the Constetion watching over you, the Saintess of National Salvation, meow!] [Meow! I look forrrward to our future, meow!] ¡°¡¡.¡± Oh my God. I identally dropped my coffee cup. ¡Indeed, anomalies and humanity simply cannot coexist under the same sky. Footnotes: [1] Yan Zhenqing was a Chinese calligrapher, military general, and politician. He was a leading Chinese calligrapher and a loyal governor of the Tang dynasty. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 10 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Troublemaker ¢ñ Today, Old Man Scho''s coffee was delicious as ever. In that vein, like the chapter beforest, I think I''ll unravel another tale from the 50th cycle. The 50th cycle marked the first creation of SG Net by our SG-Man, Seo Gyu. SG Net represented a turning point in the Awakenermunity. Until then, the Awakeners had formed their own guilds and operated independently. Although they asionally united for major Gate conquests, the guilds were essentially exclusive to each other. But SG Net offered them a new horizon.-[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Seeking peace of mind? Join the Satisfaction Guild! Our main base is in Daejeon! -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Busan City. Prefer Awakener under 40 with levitation skills. Magic users also preferred. Contact via whisper. Whispers not checked between 11 PM and 9 AM. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: ¡ïLooking for new friends to join the Baekhwa camaraderie club¡ï >_<)! SG Net was exclusively for the Awakeners. Guilds, desperate to recruit as many high-quality Awakeners as possible, were naturally turned upside down. They actively promoted their guilds, and soon, guild members began to denote their affiliations in [brackets] before their nicknames, a practice that was solidified on SG Net. We appreciated the ease of essing information about other Awakeners, and they were pleased to have a means of freely promoting their guilds. However, SG Net''s influence wasn¡¯t entirely positive. -OldManGoryeo: Idiots flock together. OldManGoryeo, also known as the viin, was among the first to join SG Net as a full-fledged member. He also hadn¡¯t joined any guilds. In reality, he might very well have been affiliated with a guild, but his disy name at least didn¡¯t include any mention of a guild. Over time, more ¡®lone wolves¡¯ who insisted on solo-ying emerged alongside this viin. They typically kept to themselves and stayed out of the spotlight and, on SG Net, mostly participated as non-members. -OldManGoryeo: Heard a Gate opened in Chungju yesterday? If people die, gettin¡¯ food¡¯s going to be easy, sweet. The standout feature of OldManGoryeo¡¯s history was his tant refusal to conceal himself. He not only donned his nickname without shame but also tantly spewed profanities. By virtue of being a site created by a transcendent Constetion, SG Net had very few trolls on its site. Even if someone wanted to curse, they¡¯d do it as a non-member, anonymously. With an ecosystem like that, OldManGoryeo, who behaved as if he didn¡¯t give a damn about Constetions or anything, inevitably drew people¡¯s ire. -OldManGoryeo: Baekhwa? A camaraderie club? The world is in chaos, and you talk about camaraderie. Fuck camaraderie. Those hairless kids should just hurry up and flee abroad. This country is doomed. ©¸[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Huuu, that''s too harsh (?_?)¡¡. ©¸[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Words are a reflection of thoughts, and thoughts are like mist on a cloudy day, concealing oneself. Why not try using clearer and brighternguage? OldManGoryeo actively picked fights not just with individuals but with entire guilds. He didn¡¯t discriminate between the weak and the strong, most particrly targeting the Baekhwa Guild, which wouldter be one of South Korea''s most infamous mega-guilds. But that was something only I as a regressor knew for now. Understandably, the other members were less than pleased. -Anonymous: Crazy bastard. -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Can''t we just block that kid? -Anonymous: just ignore him, he''s not worth the engagement -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Honestly, he''s disgusting. -ZERO_SUGAR: Dear member, you''re going to get yourself hurt. Yet the more attention OldManGoryeo received, the more he seemed to enjoy it. -OldManGoryeo: fuck off lmfao As the world began to copse, the bigmunities withered away. The inte reverted to a state reminiscent of decades past, fragmented into small, insrmunities. The water had risen, and the troll fishermen were unhappy. For them, SG Net must have seemed like a paradise built anew. -OldManGoryeo: Honestly, if they have even a crumb of conscience, all the old people should just kill themselves. -Yeah, the government has already run out of the food reserves, and they¡¯re pushing the kids to the front lines with guns. -In times like these, what use are useless old folks who only leech off the young, sucking their marrow dry? If you think you¡¯re a burden to your children, please just die already. OldManGoryeo seemed to harbor a particrly intense hatred for the elderly. He made it a point to post daily about how all the elderly should end their lives. These were his so-called steady stream of posts. A few Awakeners agreed with him. -Anonymous: Hmm -Anonymous: This guy''s an idiot but he''s right about the old being disgusting Most members, however, detested OldManGoryeo''s posts. -Son''sLove: You seem young, but your words are too harsh... ©¸OldManGoryeo: Are you old? Look at your disgusting nickname. Why don¡¯t you just die? It must be nice leeching off your son¡¯s spine. -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: These youngsters are insane. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Brother, if you ever have a secret you can¡¯t tell anyone, feel free to consult me anytime. People are killed by their fellow man, but people also live by them. ©¸OldManGoryeo: Please just fuck off. ©¸Anonymous: This bastard is being rude even to CookingQueen. Sigh. -Anonymous: These guys act like they have no parents. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Huu, guys, don¡¯t fight (?_?)¡¡. -ZERO_SUGAR: Dear member, you''re going to get yourself hurt. ©¸OldManGoryeo: fuck off lmfao As one anonymous non-member pointed out, the only solution to dealing with attention-seekers like him was to pointedly ignore them. However, it seemed that for many Awakeners, this was their first experience with intemunities. ¡°Wow, this guy is really disgusting...¡± Among them was Seo Gyu, the site administrator. ¡°Hyung, can¡¯t I just block this guy?¡± ¡°No.¡± My immediate response made Seo Gyu furrow his brow. ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Because you can''t appear human.¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°......¡± I took a moment to formte my thoughts. As the cycles of regression prolonged my life, my words became increasingly sinct, so I made a conscious effort to try to speak at greater lengths. ¡°The administrators of this site are the agents of the Constetions, the apostles of the only-just-revealed Constetion in Korea. If you, as one of them, sumb to human disys of anger, sadness, or outrage, you might gain immediate sympathy, but ultimately, it would undermine your authority.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± ¡°Seo Gyu, you must appear to be from another dimension. The only time you should step forward is if an ''unknown nameless Constetion'' is insulted. OldManGoryeo has never insulted the Constetion, so leave him be.¡± Seo Gyu looked puzzled, probably not fully understanding. Nevertheless, that was irrelevant. The fact that he hadn¡¯t sted OldManGoryeo with a retaliatory notice post was evidence enough that he was fulfilling his role. ¡°So what do we do? Just leave it as it is?¡± ¡°No. It just means you shouldn¡¯t intervene,¡± I murmured as I poured the coffee. ¡°Things in the world remain unknown until you look into them.¡± ¡°......?¡± Then one day. -iJoinedToday: Fuck, my father just died. Several years after SG Net was established, a lengthy post appeared on the board. The content was as follows: -I usually post anonymously but joined to post this. -I went out to hunt monsters and bought glutinous rice blood sausages on my way back to where I''m staying, only to find my father gone and a letter left behind. The letter asked me not to look for him, but how could I not? -So, I spent thest four days frantically searching our neighborhood. Finally, I found him by a stream in the outskirts of the next town over. How a man with a bad back and legs managed to get there, I have no idea. (Image attached) -Since everyone here has likely seen the end of a person¡¯s life, I didn¡¯t blur the images. -In the old days, there were a few crematories, but nowadays, they are gone. Now when people die, they just toss the bodies in the fields for the monsters to devour. Fucking great, huh? Haha. -I begged someone I know who uses fire magic to help me because she alwaysined that she cremated more bodies than she burned monsters. She said people treated her like a human crematory, and I never thought I¡¯d be asking her for this kind of favor. -My father was also an Awakener, F-rank. His ability wasn¡¯t useful for anything, but at least he could spend his time chatting on SG Net. His nickname was ¡®Son¡¯sLove,¡¯ not sure if anyone knows him. -Coming back from meeting my acquaintance yesterday, I read every post andment my father wrote, and fuck, OldManGoryeo¡¯s posts really got to me. He practically made a ritual out of hoping for my father¡¯s suicide? (Image attached) -I know you didn¡¯t kill my father, but just the fact that someone like you exists disgusts me. -I will give everything I own to anyone who can kill OldManGoryeo or tell me where he is. No joke. Send me a whisper. -I see you¡¯re confident enough to run your mouth on SG Net as a registered member, let¡¯s see if you can keep talking when your face meets an axe. The post by ''iJoinedToday'' caused a stir on SG Net. -Anonymous: Oh dear... -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: May the deceased rest in peace. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: I pray for the departed soul. -Anonymous: This can¡¯t be true. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: I can''t imagine your grief. I don¡¯t know what to say tofort you in your loss, but I''m sure your father has moved on to a happier ce. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Huhu (?_?)¡¡. -Anonymous: Is this for real? -dolLHoUse: Condolences. The post quickly became popr. It surpassed 300 upvotes and garnered hundreds ofments. 99% of thements mourned the poster''s father. This meant there was 1% that did not. -OldManGoryeo: Idiot. I''m an expat in Canada, how are you going to kill me? Come if you dare. Just another old fart to cut down hahaha. ©¸Anonymous: Seriously, disgusting to the end. This shameless response incited widespread outrage among the members. ¡°Hyung, do you think he''s really an expat in Canada?¡± ¡°I highly doubt it.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Of course he''s lying. He joined SG Net as soon as it wasunched, right after receiving the Constetion¡¯s message, and the Constetions don''t send messages to Canada.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not impossible that he moved to Canada afterward... But judging by his login times, it doesn¡¯t seem likely.¡± My guess was spot on. ¡°He¡¯s still living in Korea,¡± the Saintess confirmed her eyes closed. It was easy to tell which ability she was using. If her hands were together, it was Telepathy, and if her eyes were closed, it was irvoyance. Even S-rank abilities came with certain restrictions to their use. ¡°I will guide you directly via Telepathy.¡± ¡°Thank you. Also, could you locate where ¡®iJoinedToday¡¯ is living?¡± ¡°Just a moment... Yes, I¡¯ve pinpointed it.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The usefulness of the Saintess and Seo Gyu spoke for itself once again. Without them, even gathering such minor information would have required considerable effort. The Saintess murmured, ¡°But this OldManGoryeo...¡± ¡°Hmm? What about him?¡± ¡°...His identity is multi-faceted. He¡¯s a bit of an unusual person.¡± She sipped her coffee expressionlessly. I shrugged and then logged onto SG Net with my official member ID to post a final piece of advice to OldManGoryeo. -ZERO_SUGAR: Dear member, you''re really going to get yourself hurt. Ding. The response was immediate, as if he had been waiting. -OldManGoryeo: fuck off lmfao I nodded. That figures. The young these days reallyckiquette. Managing such troublemakers swiftly was the right thing to do, especially to protect the ambitious SG Net project. I was potentially the oldest human alive if all the regressions were added up, so it wasn¡¯t because such remarks grated on me. Absolutely not. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 11 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Troublemaker ¢ñ¢ñ Thanks to the Saintess, I was able to pinpoint the location of OldManGoryeo. I would like to write that I immediately moved to defeat OldManGoryeo, but in reality, it took a bit more time. A regressor''s schedule is as tight as that of an A-list actor who just started being hailed as a national treasure.No matter how dastardly OldManGoryeo was, I had much more urgent matters at hand. I had to upload the ''Aura Demonstration Video (Advanced)'' under an alt-ount on SG Net, reorganize the Korean Awakeners'' Federation, tour famous eateries in Busan, and prepare for the meteor shower, among other things... It''s no joke. My calendar was jam-packed until the seventh year, if we counted from the regressor starting point. It was nearly fifteen dayster when I eventually managed to find some time to meet with iJoinedToday, and even that was a tight squeeze into into my schedule. I had the Saintess¡ªor more precisely, the Constetion she was enacting, ''The Saintess of National Salvation''¡ªarrange the meeting ce and time. When I arrived at our designated location, there stood a muscr young man with broad shoulders. ¡°Mr. iJoinedToday?¡± ¡°Oh, ah, are you Mr. ZERO_SUGAR?¡± ¡°Yes. Nice to meet you. Please feel free to call me Undertaker.¡± ¡°Pleased to meet you. I am Lee Ju-ho.¡± We shook hands. A strong grip. I could feel the all-muscle, no-fat physique of someone who forged their path through this harsh world. As an aside, I personally believe that one can tell more about a person from their hands than their face. ¡°Are you perhaps a teacher by any chance?¡± I asked, sneaking a nce over his shoulder. ¡°Ah¡ª¡± Lee Ju-houghed awkwardly. Our meeting ce was an elementary school yground. Though the more urate description would be a split-in-half elementary school. Peekaboo. Tiny children were stealthily keeping tabs on us. If a used car dealer had seen the junk those kids were ying spy in, they would have already issued a junkyard disposal for the whole pile. When our eyes met, they scurried off to hide like squirrels. How adorable. Lee Ju-ho scratched his head. ¡°Yes, well... These elementary students are currently under my care.¡± ¡°Howmendable, especially in these times. May I call you a teacher?¡± ¡°Oh, no need for formalities. Please, just call me however you see fit. I wasn¡¯t originally a teacher.¡± Lee Ju-ho gave a wry smile. ¡°I was just a math tutor getting paid at a tutoring academy... Somehow, there wasn¡¯t anyone left to take up the podium. In the mornings, I finish guild tasks, and in the afternoon I juggle teaching. Another member takes care of being the nurse and art teacher, as well as managing the library.¡± ¡°Oh...¡± Let me just say that by this point, my fondness for Lee Ju-ho had already surpassed Lv. 5. What was this young man? An angel? ¡°Ah. By the way, Mr. ZERO_SUGAR, sir, it must have been hard traveling in this hot weather. Would you like something to drink...?¡± Lee Ju-hoplemented his statement by offering a ZERO Coke beverage. Since the Gate incident, that sort ofmercial product had been elevated to a precious treat. Yet he had deliberately prepared a zero-calorie drink for me, probably because my ID was ¡®ZERO_SUGAR¡¯. ¡°Oh...¡± Fondness Lv. 6: surpassed. ¡°What a thought... But I would never refuse. I¡¯ll dly drink it.¡± ¡°Haha, I¡¯m d. I thought you¡¯d like it.¡± ¡°Indeed. It''s even more of a treat since it¡¯s been a while. And I apologize for beingte to say this, but I offer my condolences.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± We then sat side by side on a bench in the half-destroyed elementary school yground. Once again, the young man¡¯s name was Lee Ju-ho. He was active around Pocheon-Cheorwon. We happened to be meeting in Pocheon as well. The guild to which Lee Ju-ho belonged could notpare to AAA-ss guilds like Samcheon or Baekhwa, but it was solid in its own right. However, as I recall, it was one of those mid-size guilds thatter mysteriously disappeared. In this day and age, his guild wasn¡¯t the only one. ¡°So, Mr. Undertaker...¡± After some initial chitchat, Lee Ju-ho looked at me. ¡°You mentioned that you had information about OldManGoryeo.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct.¡± Lee Ju-ho¡¯s ck eyes darkened, a burning anger for the father he loved. He licked his lips, then asked, ¡°Will you help me kill that bastard?¡± Hmm. I set down the aluminum can. ¡°Whether to kill him is your decision, Mr. Lee Ju-ho. My role is to guide you to your destination.¡± ¡°By destination, you mean...?¡± ¡°Of course, the ce where OldManGoryeo lives.¡± Lee Ju-ho¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°You know where that bastard lives?!¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°How on earth¡ª Ah. Perhaps...?¡± The words Lee Ju-ho swallowed must have been asking if I was an acquaintance of OldManGoryeo. ¡°Do not worry," I assured, shaking my head. "I have never even met the man, let alone made his acquaintance.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Though it wouldter turn out that I had inadvertently lied. ¡°Forgive me. I didn¡¯t mean to doubt you, ZERO_SUGAR, sir. But how did you manage to locate him...?¡± That was, of course, thanks to the Saintess and her irvoyant ability. If you keep listening to my story, you¡¯ll gradually realize that the Saintess is truly a cheat-level Awakener. ¡°I cannot tell you, but let me hint that it was thanks to my awakening ability and the Constetion I personally serve.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± ¡°Will you follow me?¡± As I stood from the bench, Lee Ju-ho also got to his feet, albeit hesitantly. He reflexively looked towards the direction of the abandoned school, where the children were hiding. ¡°Ah, um, I didn¡¯t know it woulde to this... I didn¡¯t settle things beforeing. I have guild tasks and school tasks to handle. I¡¯m really sorry, but could you possibly wait just a little longer?¡± ¡°No, there¡¯s no need for that.¡± ¡°No?¡± I smiled brightly. ¡°It¡¯s not far at all from here.¡± I had specifically adjusted my busy regressor-schedule to give myself some leeway in intervening in this case. ¡°If it¡¯s close, how close is it?¡± ¡°Pocheon. Mr. Lee Ju-ho, you and OldManGoryeo are actually from the same neighborhood.¡± Lee Ju-ho went silent as his jaw dropped. Why hide it? This case was a simple quest that could be solved with just one proper attempt. [Turn right into the alley.] [Then it''s left into the next alley.] [Keep going straight.] The performance of the ''Saintess'', a limited edition navigation product that I alone could use in the whole world, allowed me to find my way even with my eyes closed. ¡°......¡± Meanwhile, Lee Ju-ho, who was following me, never stopped expressing his open confusion. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked. ¡°Ah, yes. It''s just... This information was so unexpected...¡± He was understandably shocked. Connecting to SG Net meant OldManGoryeo was also an Awakener. And though Pocheon was not a major city, all the Awakeners there would know each other. ¡°Oh! Team Leader Ju-ho!¡± Sure enough, as we walked down the street, vige patrol members who recognized Lee Ju-ho approached us. Nowadays, a patrol team was a must-have in every vige. In keeping with thetest trends, the patrol members looked at me, a stranger, with particr suspicion. ¡°Excuse me, but what brings you to this neighborhood?¡± Lee Ju-ho stepped forward. ¡°Oh, about that... Just taking a walk with an old hometown friend.¡± ¡°Your hometown friend? Wow. Friendships like that are rare these days.¡± The patrol member opened the road barrier. ¡°Well, if he¡¯s an associate of Team Leader Ju-ho, it should be fine. Please go ahead.¡± After we passed through the security checkpoint, the streets became noticeably tidier. This must be the affluent area of Pocheon, akin to Gangnam Cheongdam-dong. Although, the original Cheongdam-dong had been turned into ruins. ¡°Excuse me, Mr. ZERO_SUGAR, sir. Is this really the ce?¡± Lee Ju-ho''s voice, which had already been hesitant before we entered this neighborhood, began to tremble even more. ¡°Why? Are you feeling uneasy?¡± ¡°To be honest... Yes. This area is primarily where our guild''s Awakeners live. There isn¡¯t a single member from another guild here.¡± ¡°Is that so? Then you should brace yourself.¡± ¡°......¡± Frankly, whether Lee Ju-ho was prepared or not didn¡¯t matter much to me. After all, I hade all this way just to see how impressively the facial muscles of OldManGoryeo could be re-arranged. Unlike Lee Ju-ho, I didn''t particrly intend to kill OldManGoryeo. A good beating and a warning to ''never troll on the inte again'' would suffice. ¡°This is the ce.¡± We soon arrived in front of a house. Red bricks. A small front yard. It wasn¡¯t particrly luxurious, but living in a detached house rather than amunal residence in these times was a sign of privileged status. Lee Ju-ho''s eyes flickered over the building restlessly. It seemed it was indeed the house of an acquaintance. ¡°Good heavens.¡± ¡°This is the location given by my Constetion. You know of her, The Saintess of National Salvation, right? Among the Constetions, she is the most trustworthy. Let¡¯s go take a look at his face now.¡± ¡°ZERO_SUGAR, sir, just a moment...!¡± Lee Ju-ho tried to grab my shoulder, but by then, I had already stormed into the mansion. Fitting for an Awakener¡¯s hideout, the mansion was equipped with various security devices. However, I infiltrated them as easily as a summer mosquito. Why? Because I, the regressor, was the very person who initially proposed and implemented these security designs. Passwords? Traps? Puppeteer¡¯s special spider webs? They all crumbled before me, the copyright holder, in less than a second. ¡°No, what¨D¡± The sound of Lee Ju-ho''s astonishment echoed behind me, but I ignored it. These kinds of infiltration operations needed to be quick and decisive, and once initiated, it was best to see them through without looking back. If this were a game, my profile would probably read [First Profession: Regressor], [Second Profession: Assassin (Thief)]. I reached the heart of OldManGoryeo¡¯s hideout in an instant. ¡°Heh... Here''s blue, heehee...¡± OldManGoryeo was busy painting on a canvas, sopletely absorbed in his art, that he hadn¡¯t noticed my intrusion at all. Only once I stepped up right behind him did his ears finally twitch to attention. ¡°Huh? Who...?¡± A critical hit to the nape. With an optional aura boost. ¡°Eeek.¡± Thump. A woman in a white doctor¡¯s coat went limp. Steering her clear of the paint cans so that she crumbled to the floor was my final act of consideration. OldManGoryeo was, in fact, a woman. Target secured, mission aplished. That was easy. ¡°Hmm?¡± The real problem started then. Knocking OldManGoryeo out was fine, but taking in her face came with a surprise. What in the world¨D ¡°Surely not...?¡± OldManGoryeo, who was now lying on the floor with dancing eyes, was one of the 399 survivors who had been summoned to the Busan Station concourse. ¡®What a coincidence.¡¯ Given that 399 isn''t an especially small number, such a coincidence was certainly statistically possible. However, the real surprisey in the fact that OldManGoryeo was not just familiar to me, but to all of you readers from a previous chapter. Our fiery SG-man, Seo Gyu, who was prettily decapitated by the Tutorial Fairy, remember? "Hieeeeeek!" There was someone who was drenched in Seo Gyu¡¯s blood back then. "P-people¡ª People have died...! People have¡ª! Aiiieee, he just died!" Someone who, while running away, scattered Seo Gyu¡¯s innards and blood across the Busan Station main concourse, causing a scene reminiscent of Moses parting the Red Sea (though with a bit more crimson). That person was Sim Ah-ryeon. ¡®...Why is she here?¡¯ Isn¡¯t the world unexpectedly small? Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 12 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Troublemaker ¢ñ¢ñ¢ñ ¡°Saintess, is she really the right person?¡± [Yes, Mr. Undertaker. It''s her.]The Saintess''s response came immediately, like she was watching my movements in real-time through her irvoyance. [This person uses the nickname ''OldManGoryeo'' on SG Net.] ¡°Huh.¡± I stroked my chin. ¡®Well, these things happen.¡¯My surprise wasn''t long-lived. It was mainly because the person in question wasn''t all that important to me. After all, Sim Ah-ryeon and I were not entirely unconnected, but our rtionship wasn''t so deep that I''d call it ''significant''. To briefly describe how the Busan station main concourse reflects in my eyes, it would be something like this: [ExtraA] [Seo Gyu¡ûImportant!] [Tutorial Fairy] [Vending Machine] [ExtraB] [ExtraC] [Go Yuri¡û¡ùDanger¡ù] [Souvenir Shop (Silver Bells to be farmed)] [ExtraD] [ExtraE] [Uehara Shino] [ExtraF] [ExtraG] ... That''s about it. And in that list, Sim Ah-ryeon fulfilled her role of [ExtraB] perfectly. She was the type of character who, unless specifically pointed out with an arrow, would never catch any reader''s eye. To indulge in a bit of hyperbole, whenever Seo Gyu died, she would then let out her scream of "Hieeek!" and that was the essence of Sim Ah-ryeon''s existence. ¡®Her awakening ability was... healing, right?¡¯ Of course, as a regressor, I had kept track of the abilities of all the extras. ¡®I remember her not being particrly skilled as a healer...¡¯ In gaming terms, a 2-star healer. It might be a harsh analogy, but she was like a healer who''s tossed in for free just because you logged into the game¡ªinitially useful, but eventually dropped from the party as the stages get harder. ''You''re expelled from the party. You''re just not good enough to keep up with us,'' she was told as she was rmended for dismissal. And my story''s genre wasn''t tagged with #regret #obsession #misery. What does that mean? Just kick her out and be done with it. In the first, second, and third runs, I relied on Sim Ah-ryeon, but that was when I was still a novice. After that... Well. Not particrly? There were certain events, like the joint funeral in the 10th run, or building the impregnable fortress in the 24th run. But other than those, I didn''t have many significant memories with her. ¡®As a third-rate Awakener, she''s lucky she survived in Busan and somehow made it all the way to Pocheon.¡¯ Thinking about it, she had traveled almost from the southern end of Korea to the northern tip. Somehow, that made me feel a bit sad. My trivial annoyance over OldManGoryeo''s personality was gradually overshadowed by a budding curiosity about Sim Ah-ryeon''s life. ¡®I should hear her out.¡¯ In the end, it was good that I indulged my curiosity. As soon as I knocked Sim Ah-ryeon unconscious and dragged her to the living room, Lee Ju-ho followed me inside and touched a hand to his brow. "...Oh my," he eximed. "To think that a fellow guild member, that the ''Healing Angel'' herself, would write such trash and stir up trouble." "I take it you two knew each other... right?" Just then, I thought I heard a strange sound, or rather, a somewhat eerie and ashamed sound. "Healing Angel?"I pressed. "She''s famous around here," Lee Ju-ho replied, his face a mix of confusion and distress."And she''s also a school nurse, art teacher, and librarian at the elementary school where we first met." "What?" "It''s, well, I mentioned it before. That there was another guild member who looked after the kids... She''s the one." ??? I turned my head and looked up at the ceiling. [It''s really OldManGoryeo, Mr. Undertaker. Please don''t doubt it.] I quickly brought my gaze back down to Lee Ju-ho."Are you saying she''s your colleague?" "Yes, in the guild and at school... After the world fell apart and all medical infrastructure copsed, people started dying from minor colds or small wounds that led to tetanus... More people died from illness than from monsters." That was also something I knew well, having seen it countless times during my previous regressions. Without antibiotics, modern people were quick to die.The reason cremation quickly became the standard method of funerals in the ruined world, and why Lee Ju-ho''s fire-mage acquaintance was always busy, was precisely to prevent the spread of disease by burning the bodies. "But in this area, such needless deaths have ceased," Lee Ju-ho continued, looking at OldManGoryeo. "This person... Healing Angel has been curing everything from minor illnesses to serious cancers with her ability for about a year now." "Really?" Her? A 2-star healer? "She''s well-known for treating patients and students without asking for anypensation. Even my father. Whenever he was ill, she would take care of him... If it weren''t for her, he wouldn''t have been able to get out of bed..." Lee Ju-ho''s eyebrows pulled into a frown. "So, Mr. Undertaker, is this person really OldManGoryeo? Could there be a misunderstanding or mistake?" "No, that part is certain. There''s no room for doubt. Ask her yourself when she regains consciousness." Lee Ju-ho eventually fell silent. Truthfully, I was more confused than anyone. ¡®Sim Ah-ryeon demonstrated a level of healing capable of curing cancer...?¡¯ She had never shown such capability in any of my previous regression lives. At most, she had been able to slightly alleviate the pain from scraped knees, or help recover from a cold within a week¡ªabilities akin to Panpyrin.[1] How could this be possible? "I''ll wake her up." Lee Ju-ho nodded in agreement. I threw an empty soda can at OldManGoryeo. The aluminum can, thrown with a bit of aura, must have felt like a shock of electricity when it hit OldManGoryeo in the head. "Ugh... Eurgh! Uhhh...?" OldManGoryeo, also known as Healing Angel, groaned as she slowly blinked her eyes open. "Are you up?" "Huh... Ugh, what... Yes...?" We waited until she fully regained consciousness, then I exined everything from the beginning. Understandably, she was shocked."Hieeek...! How, how did you even know I was here? And toe all this way...?" "The Constetions are rather taken with me."I lied as easily as breathing, then stared at her."But why did you do it?" She hesitated in response to my direct question. An awkward silence fell over the living room. "Um, the thing is... Well, um..." However, that very awkward silence spoke volumes. ¡°Huh.¡± Lee Ju-ho looked deste as he realized that his acquaintance was indeed an inte troll. He said softly,"...Dr. Sim. Was taking care of patients stressful for you?" OldManGoryeo blinked rapidly."Hiek. Yes... Yes...?" "So, you didn''t really want to take care of patients. No, it was so annoying, yet you couldn''t refuse because of your ability... Elementary school kids are always causing trouble. Is that what it was? Did you wear an inte mask to blow off some steam?" "Wow." I was impressed.A neat guess, fitting for a refined young man. The mismatch between ability and personality was a scenario I had often seen. In this world, having healing powers was a double-edged sword. ''I am a noble because I am a healer, and you aremoners'' was a mentality very few were self-possessed enough to admit to. Quiet, introverted, unable to refuse others'' requests¡ªpeople like that just end up being dragged around. Until one day, they would snap and cause trouble. However, in response to this logical and credible hypothesis, OldManGoryeo¡ªSim Ah-ryeon¡ªwhipped her head from side to side in disagreement. "N-no, no! It''s not like that! It''s because of my skill¡ª" "That''s right, your skill. Ms. Ah-ryeon, you don''t actually want to use the skill [Mobile Hospital], but you have to because of the patients¡ª" ¡°No, it¡¯s a different skill! My second ability!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon began to exin her second ability, pping her arms about. ¡°Just wait a minute. It was tough to figure out this ability because...¡± Since abilities don''t appear in neat little skill cards (if they did, I could have easily announced my regressor status), we''ll have to rely on Ah-ryeon''s voluntary disclosure here. Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s second ability was as follows: ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Grudge Orb] It is said that those who are cursed will live long and healthy lives. You are an enhanced version of this. The more you are cursed and hated, the more you will not only live a long and healthy by yourself but also be capable of sharing that longevity and health with others. * This effect strengthens as the hatred and spite against you grow stronger and more numerous. * If you possess medical and healing skills, those skills will also be enhanced in kind. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Lee Ju-ho gaped in astonishment as he read the notes about OldManGoryeo''s powers. For the record, I was gaping too. ¡°What the hell kind of stupid skill is that...?¡± It was shocking enough that she had such an ability, but even more astonishing was that she had managed to document it in such detail. Again, aside from very abnormal cases, Awakeners don¡¯t receive a status screen or anything like that. Discovering one¡¯s abilities normally requires an endless grind. What kind of digging did Sim Ah-ryeon have to do to uncover this ¡®Grudge Orb¡¯? It seemed I wasn¡¯t the only one engulfed in shock and awe. [The mysteries of awakening abilities are always fascinating to behold.] It was the Saintess speaking. Apparently, she had been secretly observing, curious about the true nature of the situation. I looked into the air and articted clearly, ¡®Saintess, you didn¡¯t know either?¡¯ [What... How would I? Yes, I can observe Awakeners whenever I want, but I can''t read their minds. I, too, assumed like Mr. Ju-ho that she was just stressed from caring for patients.] Indeed. Shock shared is shock halved. Talking with the Saintess helped steady my emotions, and suddenly, a new perspective dawned on me. The ¡®OldManGoryeo Situation¡¯. That¡¯s what this series of events unfolding before my eyes seemed to be. ¡®Indeed. There was a reason she started being called ''Healing Angel'' this cycle.¡¯ The world had fallen. Inte infrastructure had copsed. People had to interact face-to-face, just like before the inte existed. In this lonely world, even receiving ¡®hatred¡¯ was not easy, especially for someone with a gentle disposition like Sim Ah-ryeon. That''s why her second skill hadn¡¯t stood out in previous cycles, and her first skill had only amounted to a health supplement. But now, in the 50th cycle, something that never existed before had appeared: SG Net. In an ideal world for drawing aggro, Sim Ah-ryeon finally awakened. She transformed into OldManGoryeo, bing a top-tier aggravator.Since SG Net was full of Awakeners, some of them would even kill OldManGoryeo and do so dly if they got the chance. The overflowing aggro then gathered into the ¡®Grudge Orb¡¯. It was more than enough to earn her the nickname ¡®Healing Angel¡¯. ¡®Hm? But didn¡¯t the Saintess say something unusual when I asked her to locate OldManGoryeo?¡¯ [Yes? Yes, I did say that.] ¡®Did you realize then that OldManGoryeo was also Healing Angel, like a person with a dual personality?¡¯ [Oh. Uh, no. It was... I¡¯ll tell you about itter.] Then, Sim Ah-ryeon bowed her head to us. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t know Mr. Ju-ho¡¯s father would get hurt...¡± Lee Ju-ho sighed. ¡°I know it¡¯s bad to curse others... It''s a thorn in my conscience... But¡±¨Dhic¨D¡°still, I need to be resented, to gain strength, to help one more patient...¡± She sat curled up with her knees to her chest, scuttling to a corner of the room and muttering to herself. Lee Ju-ho could only watch silently.After a long while, he asked, ¡°What should we do, Mr. Undertaker...?¡± ¡°What can I do? It¡¯s your decision that matters, Mr. Ju-ho.¡± ¡°Uh...¡± Lee Ju-ho scratched his head, seeming to realize that he was the one who stormed in out of righteous anger.It didn¡¯t take long for him to make a decision.¡°So then¨D¡± It wasn¡¯t a difficult decision. The friends on SG Net who were curious about the oue of the real-life confrontation would probably be sticking out their tongues. After that day, ''iJoinedToday'' vanished, and OldManGoryeo continued to be active. -OldManGoryeo: Treated the son of a bitch who showed up for the fight well lol Even the posts became more venomous. OldManGoryeo, not only adept at stirring aggro but also an excellent artist, even started drawingics for his posts. In theics, a child and an old man appeared. The drawings were unnecessarily dramatic. The content went like this: -Old Man: Huh? Who¡¯s that? -Old Man: (frowning) -Old Man: Isn¡¯t that our son? -Child: Daddy, where are you going? -Child: I wanna go too! -Child: (smiling brightly) (A cheerfulic-style picture of the father and son crossing a river) Lastly, a photo that looked like a family tomb was attached. There was even a Post-it note with OldManGoryeo''s nickname on the tombstone. Needless to say, the conscientious members of SG Net were grinding their teeth. -Anonymous: Oh my. -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: I¡¯ll take care of this one, just give me the address, kiddo. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: The curses you pour onto others will eventually return unto you. Why not take some time to reflect on yourself? Trust that there is good within you, brother. ©¸OldManGoryeo: Just fuck off, you crazy fuck -Anonymous: Didn¡¯t he say he lives in Canada? The photo is totally Korean. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Contact me if youe to Busan. -dolLHoUse: im angy -Anonymous: But why does he draw so well? He¡¯s really talented... Not all members were conscientious.Some were thrilled by the troll. -Anonymous: Lol double kill lololol OldManGoryeoHam is the real deal lmao -LiteraryGirl: Thought OldManGoryeo was just good at online arguments, but he¡¯s really something in a real fight too lmao They say a true star drives both fans and haters crazy. While Lee Ju-ho and I remained silent about the whole affair, OldManGoryeo was going to work drawing all of SG Net''s aggro to himself. At least there wouldn¡¯t be anyone around Lee Ju-ho¡¯s guild dying untimely deaths fromck of healing. One more thing. ¡°Wow, how can an ability like that exist...?¡± For the record, Seo Gyu was deeply shocked after hearing the whole story from me. ¡°It¡¯s funny to think that I¡¯m not the only one with a weird ability... What a strange feeling.¡± It seemed he had managed to shed some of hisplexes about his own skills. Thus, it was a win-win happy ending for everyone. But there was one bit of unforeseen coteral damage. -Anonymous: Didn¡¯t ZERO_SUGAR brag about putting OldManGoryeoHam in his ce? -Anonymous: Talks big then shuts up lol why is ignoring him so pathetic lol -Anonymous: Nosy lol actually, it was ZERO_SUGAR who got his nose broken lol -LiteraryGirl: This ZERO_SUGAR person... such a nosy brat. ©¸[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: To speak ill of others is actually to lower oneself. Every human is a mirror to me, and I am a mirror of all humans. Let us respect and be considerate of one another. ¡°...?¡± I stared at the posts for a moment. With a hmph, I stood up, went to the kitchen to brew an espresso, and sat back down. The fact that I had espresso instead of caf¨¦ auit was a sign that the work I was about to dive into required high concentration. First, I logged into SG Net with a secondary ount, without any particr intention or purpose. Then, it happened just as I was about to send a message in the administrator-only chat room asking ''Seo Gyu, it¡¯s nothing big, but can you find out some personal info about these guys?'' [Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°Hmm.¡± [Please don¡¯t do that. Really.] I put down my phone. Let''s just end this chapter with a little bit of dislike for OldManGoryeo. Footnotes: [1] A Korean medicine which is used formon cold. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 13 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Unidentified One ¢ñ Regressors are also people. Human beings. I was far from an all-powerful deity. Take Sim Ah-ryeon''s case for instance. Who would have thought that the title of a Japanese web novel like ''¡¾Manga Serialization Soon¡¿ I Thought I Was a Mere Pathetic Awakener, But This Time, I Turn Out to Be a Legendary Healer ~Saving Patients from the Brink of Death, They Call Me an Angel~¡¾Releases 11/11¡¿'' would unfold. Once again, being a regressor doesn¡¯t mean knowing every secret. Every so often, there are unsolvable riddles or events that might as well be called urban legends that find their way to me.They''re the events I reflect upon while sipping Old Man Scho¡¯s caf¨¦ auit, those ''What on earth was that?'' kind of events. Today, I''ll introduce you to such a mystery. Do you believe that there is bnce in the world? For instance, if there are scumbags among humans, there are also angels. On inte forums where viins emerge, so too do popr stars whom people want to befriend. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Do you seek peace of mind? Join the Satisfaction Guild! Our main hub is in Daejeon! On SG Net, CookingQueen has always been one such popr figure. I myself only have good memories of this person. "CookingQueen? I haven¡¯t observed her for long, but she¡¯s not a bad person. She takes good care of her guild members and even volunteers on Sundays. Personally, I believe there¡¯s no one as trustworthy among the Awakeners as CookingQueen." Witness 1: Saintess. "Oh, you''re asking if I know CookingQueen? She¡¯s a really good member. I¡¯ve seen all sorts of things managing SG Net, but I¡¯ve never seen CookingQueen cause trouble. Boring? Not at all. She writes plenty of funny posts and doesn¡¯t act all high and mighty. Ugh. If all members were like CookingQueen, I wouldn¡¯t have to suffer like this..." Witness 2: Seo Gyu. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: OldManGoryeo, I believe in the goodness nted deep within your heart. Why do you keep repeating these self-harming actions? If you have any concerns, please consult me. -OldManGoryeo: Please... Stop... It¡¯s my fault. I¡¯m a son of a bitch and a bad guy, so don¡¯t talk to me like that¡ Witness 3: Sim Ah-ryeon. All the Awakeners, each with their unique personality, unanimously testified that CookingQueen was a rare find in this day and age. Even the Saintess, known for her stringent standards, did not skimp on the praise. Her testimony held extra credibility, as she could observe other Awakeners with her [irvoyance]. I, the one and only infinite regressor (since the other one went on long-term leave), had a good impression of CookingQueen as well. -LiteraryGirl: This ZERO_SUGAR person... such a nosy brat. ©¸[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: To speak ill of others is actually to lower oneself. Every human is a mirror to me, and I am a mirror of all humans. Let us respect and be considerate of one another. There are those who hide in the shadows and nder me, yet CookingQueen stands against them. I know best how difficult a task it is to stand alone and fight for good while everyone around you does evil. And so it was in the 89th run. Invigorated by ¡®the unscratched lottery ticket¡¯ Seo Gyu hitting the jackpot, I had since taken to recruiting newpanions in each run. Having proven her integrity and steadfastness over past runs, CookingQueen was also one of my targets. It wasn''t because she personally took my side that I approached her. ¡°Greetings.¡± ¡°Hello.¡± And enlisting CookingQueen was not a hard thing to do. Like Seo Gyu, she was popr for a reason. At the starting point of my regression in Busan Station''s main concourse, 399 individuals were summoned there, and among them was CookingQueen''s main form. ¡°I would say it''s safer to move together with others. Would you perhaps apany me, at least until we leave Busan Station?¡± ¡°Oh. Yes, I would like that.¡± The woman had rosy-hued hair. Her hair might have been dyed a shy color, but her demeanor was calm. Hers was the sort of peace found and kept despite going through numerous trials in life. There was an imbnce between her vivid hair color and mode of expression, but that awkwardness was not out of ce but instead lent itself to a rather unique charm. ¡°Thank you. You can call me ¡®Doc¡¯ or just ¡®Undertaker¡¯ if you prefer. And what is your name?¡± ¡°Go Yuri.¡± The woman who had been active on SG Net under the name CookingQueen in past runs, now smiled gently and calmly. ¡°Please, just call me Yuri, Doc.¡± To get straight to the point, Go Yuri had absolutely zerobat-rted abilities to speak of. Not justbat, either. The ability she had awakened, [Stealth], could barely be called useful. If Go Yuri had the talent of a sniper or assassin, then [Stealth] might have been put to good use, but as it was, Go Yuri truly had no talent for fighting. ¡°Ugh. Ah! Agh! I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry!¡± She was getting pummeled by slimes, which were considered the weakest monsters. Sim Ah-ryeon (who had also been recruited into my party around the 51st run) aggressively ripped the slimes apart. ¡°Oh, noona... You''re pretty bad at this...¡±[1] ¡°Yes, it seems I have no talent.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll protect you!¡± ¡°Thank you, Ah-ryeon.¡± It was a beautiful disy of camaraderie between party members, despite Sim Ah-ryeon being one of the weakest inbat herself. Still, we did not expel Go Yuri from the party. It wasn¡¯t because we feared the story would turn into a genre of #regret #obsession #misery, but for purely rational reasons. ¡°Oh, Guild Leader.¡± At 5 AM, a time of serene blue before the day begins, I was drinking caf¨¦ auit in the guild house kitchen when Go Yuri hurried down from upstairs. Having lived as a regressor for a long time, I still found it hard to get used to being called ¡®Guild Leader¡¯. The title was a bit special to me. But I epted the greeting without letting that show. ¡°You¡¯re up early.¡± ¡°Yeah, I wake up automatically around this time,¡± Go Yuri said, sheepishly scratching her cheek. Plus 10 points. Indeed, a sound and healthy lifestyle fundamentally involves going to bed early and waking up early. This belief hasn¡¯t changed through my 100th or even 1000th runs. Go Yuri peeked into the kitchen. ¡°Guild Leader, you always seem to brew coffee in the morning, and our guild has ¡®caf¨¦¡¯ in the name. Is it a hobby of yours?¡± ¡°It is. It wasn¡¯t always, but an old friend was deeply knowledgeable about the subject. Somehow, I ended up getting into it as well.¡± ¡°That¡¯s cool!¡± Go Yuri sped her hands together to form a triangle, then tilted her head while grinning. ¡°I think following a set pattern early in the morning is itself proof of diligence. It¡¯s like a deration, a refusal to let time simply pass one by. And yet, you¡¯re rxing with a coffee, which eases mental and physical tension. It''s a wonderful habit, truly!¡± A smile spread across my face. I had my own reasons for loving the dawn, but Go Yuri wasn''t wrong either. ¡°We really connect in conversation," Imented. "Heading to water the flowerbed now?¡± ¡°Yes, the hydrangeas are blooming beautifully! I was worried whether the soil would take well, but I''m happy to see the bluee out so bright!¡± Plus 30 points. Indeed,zy people spread the virus of indolence while diligent people emit the radiation of effort. The mere act of caring for a flowerbed unasked wasmendable in and of itself. Watching her speak so logically and with such precision was simply heartwarming. Whenever I spoke like that in front of the other party members, their responses were always lukewarm, somehow. ¡°Say, hyung.¡± ¡°What is it, Seo Gyu?¡± ¡°Hyung, you¡¯re not that much older than me, but hearing you speak feels like I¡¯m listening to apany manager...¡± Uh-oh. I frowned, and Seo Gyu quickly averted his gaze. I handed a cup of coffee (brewed to taste as close as possible to bagged coffee) to the Saintess, and she was touched. ¡°I think Mr. Undertaker¡¯s view is correct. All virtue originates from habit, and habit begins with diligence. Virtue without diligence creates a dilettante, a mere show-off.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, isn¡¯t it? Indeed. Seo Gyu, you should also learn from Yuri and the Saintess.¡± Seo Gyu made a puzzled expression. ¡°¡It¡¯s strange. Our guild''s average age is almost the youngest in the industry, but why does it feel like¡?¡± He mumbled inint, but fondness for Go Yuri was not unique to me but shared by all party members. ¡°Yuri! Let¡¯s grab a beer after training! Our usual ce is well-stocked this week!¡± ¡°Hey, Go Yuri. About managing SG Net...¡± ¡°Go Yuri, would you like to have lunch with me today...?¡± Even the most wild and difficult members of the party turned as tame as donkeys in Go Yuri''s presence. In fact, that was precisely why I decided to keep Go Yuri around. While we''re on the subject, I should exin that Awakeners generally have bad temperaments. It¡¯s not an absolute rule, but those with particrly twisted natures often have stronger abilities. Our guild, for example, was made up of S- and A-ss prospects. Emotional instability was rampant. Even Seo Gyu, seemingly docile in my presence, once went nuts at the Tutorial Fairy, shouting, ¡°You fucking asshole!¡± The Saintess... I trust her with my life, but it''s hard to say she has a normal personality. She only asionally discusses SG Net operations with Seo Gyu. Despite sending out more messages than anyone else, paradoxically, she disliked interacting with people. In a guild filled with troublemakers, being friendly with everyone was no small feat. ¡®The mental stability of the party members has greatly improvedpared to previous runs.¡¯ Plus 200 points. Affinity Level 7 achieved. Even if Go Yuri only mastered [Stealth] and was nothing more than a normal person with a single hair out of ce, it didn''t matter. As I often say, mental stability is crucial for humans. What¡¯s the use of having the strongestbat abilities without it? Take Old Man Scho¡ªa broken mind merely turns one from a ''show'' to a ''no-show''. ¡°Yes, everyone. Let¡¯s have lunch together.¡± Go Yuri served as a bridge connecting all of the guild members. Even Awakeners who normally growled at each other in previous runs were now tempered by her presence, which significantly reduced my burden. ¡°Go Yuri is really like a hearty Korean soup. Managing the organization has be unbelievably easier,¡± I whispered to the Saintess while observing the scene from a distance. ¡°You know Hayul, right? The quiet one. Even they follow Go Yuri. At this rate, we might even be able to increase our member count to 20 or 30 without any issues.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± I turned around at her silence, only to find the Saintess looking a bit dazed. Her usually clear eyes were slightly clouded. ¡°Saintess?¡± ¡°Oh. Yes. Sorry, what did you just say?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t anything important. Maybe you¡¯re feeling the heat? Shall I get you some cold water?¡± ¡°...No, it¡¯s fine,¡± the Saintess murmured. ¡°It''s just, I¡¯m amazed by how someone can be so close with everyone. You know I''m quite the opposite.¡± ¡°Each personality has its strengths and weaknesses, doesn¡¯t it? Maybe Go Yuri also has her struggles that she doesn¡¯t talk about with others.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a fair point.¡± The 89th run felt good in many ways. SG Net operations were all smooth sailing. The viinous OldManGoryeo, Sim Ah-ryeon, had sessfully rebranded from an attention-seeker to an A-ss healer. With the Saintess¡¯s wless support and Go Yuri¡¯s maxed-out charm and affability, our guild was more cohesive than ever before. We even captured all the fairies to garner nationwide support from the Awakeners. It was a run where our power solidified both overtly and covertly. ¡®Maybe¡ Maybe this time, we might actually prevent the end of the world?¡¯ Looking back on it now, I realize that sentiment must seem like nonsensical rambling, but at the time, I sincerely believed it might actually happen. That was how I ended my satisfying day and went to bed. The next day, I awoke and made to get up. My rule was to rise immediately after waking withoutzing around in bed. ¡°......?¡± But on this day, for the first time in a very long while, I struggled to get out of bed. It wasn¡¯t because I suddenly learned the value ofziness. I just stared nkly up at the ceiling. The ceiling that had been spotless as ever before I went to sleep. [Do not trust the one with pink hair.] That familiar ceiling now bore an unfamiliar sentence. Infinite regression has taught me many lessons. One of those lessons was named ¡®doubt¡¯. Old Man Scho, a fellow regressor, had said the same. ¡°Do not trust these Constetion things too much.¡± Everyone believed in the existence of the Constetions without question. However, Old Man Scho pointed out their bias towards Koreans and never let go of his skepticism. In the end, Old Man Scho was right. The Constetions were just a masquerade yed by the Saintess for the entire nation. ¡®German.¡¯ I thought about the sentence I saw in my room while having breakfast with the guild members. ¡®It wasn¡¯t written with a writing tool but carved with the tip of a knife. Then...¡¯ I reached into my pocket and pulled out a dagger, the self-defense weapon I never parted with, even in sleep. Inspecting the de, I noticed a fineyer of dust and debris stuck to it. I would need to consult Uehara Shino for a detailedposition analysis, but at a nce, it seemed the same as the ceiling material. Meaning¡ ¡®Someone took the dagger from my possession and carved the sentence into the ceiling in German, anguage only I would recognize. They did this without my noticing and bypassed all the security in my bedroom.¡¯ Was that even possible? ¡®Impossible.¡¯ Even the headquarters of our guild, thanks to ''Puppeteer'', a specialist in fortifications, wereced with fine ''cobwebs'' across the ceilings. Aside from Dang Seo-rin''s guild train, there were no other headquarters with such a high level of security. At the very least, no one in our guild was capable of bypassing security and pulling off such a feat. Maybe Old Man Scho could... No, even then. I had already identified his corpse at the start of the 89th run. Ultimately, there was only one suspect. ¡®Myself.¡¯ I stared at my own reflection in the ss of water. If I were the culprit, then I could easily ignore any and all adversities andmit the crime. The problem was... no matter how much I racked my brain, I had no memory of carving that sentence into the ceiling. ¡®Brainwashing? Sleepwalking? Split personality? Memory loss? Hypnosis?¡¯ Countless possibilities surfaced. Either way, it was one of two things. ¡®Either someone is trying to sow discord between me and Go Yuri, or they are genuinely warning me about Go Yuri.¡¯ Suddenly¡ I turned my head, and my eyes met with Go Yuri, who was munching on a sandwich. ¡°......?¡± Go Yuri smiled and continued eating her sandwich. ...My heart settled. I followed her example and ate my own meal as if nothing had happened. ¡®Never thought the near-legendary 89th run would have such a screwed-up event.¡¯ In such a crisis, the only person I could consult was the Saintess. Not only did she know that I was a regressor, she also knew how to assess any situation with objective eyes. ¡°By the way, haven¡¯t the Constetions been quiettely?¡± ¡°Huh? You too? I haven¡¯t gotten any messages since yesterday.¡± ¡°It feels a bit unnerving when they normally talk a lot and then suddenly go quiet, doesn¡¯t it?¡± I paused. The casual chatter from the guild members at the table drifted my way, and I absentmindedly looked over at them. ¡°The messages from the Constetions aren¡¯ting through?¡± I asked. ¡°Ah, yes, Guild Leader.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there some talk about it on SG Net right now?¡± A foreboding feeling washed over me. Footnotes: [1] Noona is the way Koreans address big sisters. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried *** Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 14 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Unidentified One ¢ñ¢ñ Sure enough, there was indeedmotion on SG Net. -Anonymous: The Constetions have gone silent out of nowhere. Am I cut off? -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: I asked my guild members, and they confirmed that they haven''t received any messages from the Constetions since yesterday. Thest contact anyone had was 28 hours ago. I hope other guilds will speak to their situations as well.-dolLHoUse: oh no. -Anonymous: Guys, I''m scared. What''s happening...? -OldManGoryeo: Idiots. Always singing their praises to the Constetions, and now they whine like babies who lost their mother because there hasn''t been contact for two days. What are you even keeping your balls for? To make egg soup? These guys probably don''t even have yolks in their balls LOL. ©¸Anonymous: Fuck, this crazy bastard gets more annoying every day. Where the hell do you live? ©¸[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: My sword cries out. Sim Ah-ryeon was being typical Sim Ah-ryeon like any other day, but the Awakeners were unusually restless. I tried knocking on the door, but there was no response. "Stay here and shout if you sense anyone spying or approaching." "Yes, hyung." I stepped into the townhouse, trying to hide my anxiety. I had known the front door''s passcode for dozens of cycles. The living room was dark. The Saintessy dead in her sanctuary, surrounded by four monitors casting a bluish glow like a carpet of water and dozens of aquariums like walls of a fortress. "......" My mind went cold. ''Strangled.'' The Saintess always had towels on hand to tend to her aquariums, with a stocked towel rack in the living room. She had hanged herself with one. ''Suicide.'' There were no signs of struggle, but I knew that no matter what happened, the Saintess would never have died by suicide. It was not simply because "it wasn''t in her character." It was the truth discovered through observing dozens of cycles. ''It¡¯s murder disguised as suicide.'' The Saintess was central to my goal. In an instant, the Constetions had vanished. The force that held the Awakeners together through external connections and boundaries, and not from within, had snapped. And it wasn''t just that. The ever-presentwork ofmunications between guilds that used the Constetions as messengers had also disappeared. When someone needed to gain another''s trust, saying ''the Constetion vouches for our identity'' would now be impossible. ''No sign of the security devices being activated.'' I had always taken extreme care to ensure the Saintess''s safety. The security measures that had been so meticulously prepared had all been disabled at once. ''Without even a moment to send me a message?'' I approached one of the aquariums. When I pushed the fish tank aside, there was a hiddenpartment beneath the steel bookshelf with a USB inside. It was a contingency n we had agreed upon. I plugged the USB into theputer and opened Notepad. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Hello, Mr. Z. If you are reading this, I must be dead. My death came without any forewarning. From all the observations I''ve made as [CLA], there were no factors that could have led to my death. There might be something on the CCTV, but it is hard to imagine that someone who killed me this stealthily would leave meaningful evidence behind. As you know, the most pressing issue now is the disappearance of the Transcendents, which has unleashed the intangible reins that were held on the Awakeners. The only Transcendent we can currently mobilize is the anonymous one known as the creator of N. Using this name, we must post a notice on N and im, "An entity obstructing the activities of the Transcendents has been born," adding a scene where N is attacked and temporarily goes offline to increase credibility. But containing the chaos among the Awakeners is impossible. I am truly sorry that my power was insufficient. I hope you will find strength again. - S. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ It was the Saintess''s will. To avoid detection by others, she had referred to me not as ''Undertaker'' but as ''Mr. Z''. irvoyance was abbreviated as ''CLA'', and SG Net as ''N''. Instead of Constetion, she used the term Transcendent. The ''again'' in "I hope you will find strength again" undoubtedly meant ''the next cycle''. It couldn''t be anything but the Saintess''s style of a will. The creation date of the Notepad file was one year and six months ago. ''It was indeed a sudden attack that led to her death.'' If it had been suicide, she would have revised the will. And if it wasn''t suicide, there were only two suspects. The first suspect was me. "Ah, hyung. Is the Saintess doing well?" And then there was Seo Gyu. After leaving the townhouse, I quietly observed Seo Gyu. "Seo Gyu." "Yes." "Did you ever tell anyone where the Saintess lives?" He was startled. "Excuse me? No, I wouldn''t! You told me never to tell anyone!" Could he really be trusted? Although Seo Guy and I had been allies for quite some time, if I were asked whether I could trust him with my life like the Saintess, I would feel it more appropriate to describe our rtionship as too light for that. "Two days ago, you went out briefly after filing an outing report, yes?" "Y-yes... But why...?" "Go Yuri spent the whole day back at the dorm that day." "Did she?" "But using [Stealth], someone could sneak out without the other party members knowing. And if they had followed you out, the risk of being detected would have been much less." "Hyung, what are you trying to say¡ª?" "There are countless security measures unknown to you spread throughout the Saintess''s residence. One of them scans and saves the shoe prints of anyone who enters her home. This data is refreshed weekly." It was a lie. But my expression and tone did not waver. "Why are your shoe prints in the Saintess''s residence?" "......" Silence. "That''s strange?" A strange voice came from Seo Gyu''s mouth. "I didn''t know anything about that." A gunshot rang out. Seo Gyu''s body fell like a reed. He had quickly drawn a pistol and aimed it at his pte, firing instantly. Red blood seeped out onto the asphalt road, cracked as if suffering from untreated atopic dermatitis. "......" I clenched my fist. After calming my heart again, I tried to connect to SG Net. [Unable to connect to the site.] The Seo Gyu who died in front of me was the real Seo Gyu. The possibility that he was a marite controlled by the Puppeteer, an apostle of the Alienation God, or another entity had drastically reduced. The two pirs that could influence the nation''s Awakeners¨Dthe Saintess and Seo Gyu¨Dhad copsed in an instant. At that moment, my mindset had already shifted to gathering as much information as possible for the next cycle. It was an all-too-familiar task to me. I drew my sword and headed to the guild''s lodging. The duo that should always be on guard was nowhere to be seen. "......" It was quiet. The training ground, where members should have been, was empty. Instead, Sim Ah-ryeony dead. In the dining hall, meals were left untouched. The wheelchair that a beloved guild member usually rode was rolling around alone, lost without its owner. There was no sign of life in the hallways or dormitories. In its ce was only German phrases scrawled here and there along the pirs and walls. [Do not trust the one with pink hair.] I walked out to the training ground and sank into a bench. It was summer. The sirens of cicadas screamed their fierce rm. Before I knew it, Go Yuri was sitting politely next to me on the bench. "Have you returned, Guild Leader?" "......" "Whew. It''s really hot this summer." Go Yuri pped her outerwear to create a breeze. Behind her, the sound of cicadas faded out like a whiteout. "Your ability, it wasn''t [Stealth]." "Yeah," she affirmed simply. "[Stealth] was just the surface," I muttered in thought. "When your ability activates, it essentially just dulls others'' awareness of you. Considering the current situation... your true ability must be [Perception Inhibition]. No, perhaps [Perception Maniption]?" "Ah¨D That''s right." Go Yuri smiled broadly. "Guild Leader, you are really amazing! I thought so the first time I met you, but you are truly impressive." "...I should have realized something was off sooner." I thought back again to thest cycle, what evaluations Go Yuri, that is, CookingQueen, had received from those around her. "CookingQueen? I haven¡¯t observed her for long, but she¡¯s not a bad person. She takes good care of her guild members and even volunteers on Sundays. Personally, I believe there¡¯s no one as trustworthy among the Awakeners as CookingQueen." Witness 1: the Saintess. The mere fact that she left her will on a secret USB reveals how cautious the Saintess was. She was the one who arranged our first meeting, thinking, ''Perhaps there might be a regressor in this world.'' That such a person would dub someone she admitted she "hadn''t observed for long" as "the most trustworthy"? It was suspicious from the start. "Oh, you''re asking if I know CookingQueen? She¡¯s a really good member. I¡¯ve seen all sorts of things managing SG Net, but I¡¯ve never seen CookingQueen cause trouble. Boring? Not at all. She writes a lot of funny posts and doesn¡¯t act all high and mighty. Ugh. If all members were like CookingQueen, I wouldn¡¯t have to suffer like this..." Witness 2: Seo Gyu. Seo Gyu testified that Go Yuri wrote "a lot of funny posts." But wasn''t that strange? I have never once witnessed CookingQueen writing anything amusing. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Seeking peace of mind? Join the Satisfaction Guild! Our main base is in Seoul! -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Words are a reflection of thoughts, and thoughts are like mist on a cloudy day, concealing oneself. Why not try using clearer and brighternguage? -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Brother, if you ever have a secret you can''t tell anyone, feel free to consult me anytime. People are killed by their fellow man, but people also live by them. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: The curses you pour onto others will eventually return unto you. Why not take some time to reflect on yourself? Trust that there is good within you, brother. Hers was a style devoid of any fun¨Donly steadfast, correct, and upstanding. In other words, it was the typical ''type of human'' that I, the Undertaker, would like. "Go Yuri." "Yes?" "Do you possess the ability to show someone ''the best version'' of a person?" "......" To the ethically-minded Saintess, a moral human. To Seo Gyu, who likes a bit of fun, a humorous human. And ultimately, in front of me, who believes that a person''s life depends on their mentality and attitude, an upright and steadfast human. Appearing as a different person to different people. Like a magic mirror. This was Go Yuri''s true identity. The reason she was loved by all these twisted Awakeners was hidden in this truth. "...As expected, Guild Leader. This time, I''m really surprised!" Go Yuri sped her hands and tilted her head. But did she really take such a pose? Was Go Yuri smiling when she smiled? Was she using formalnguage when she spoke? Did she have pink hair, and maintain a garden in the morning, and stick to a sincere attitude? Everything about her could have been a lie. Now that I could no longer trust my perception, I had no choice but to discard all the information I thought I knew about Go Yuri. "But you don''t just have the ability to manipte perception," I said. "You made Seo Gyumit suicide." "Yes. I am a multi-ability user, you see." "...I now understand why the fairies avoided you. How exactly did you wind up at the Busan Station concourse? The ce has so many of these supposedly rare multi-ability users stockpiled there that you could practically trip over them." "Ahaha, that''s true. Sometimes, strange coincidences do happen." "Why did you do this?" "Um, I could tell you, but would you trust me if I did, Guild Leader?" I wouldn''t. At that moment, a loud noise came from the direction of the guild dormitory. With a crash, the concrete outer walls shattered, and the building immediately crumbled to the ground. Above the rubble, a massive fleshy body expanded to the height of the building in the blink of an eye. Red and blue veins quivered with an incessant pulse, and the muscles, like tentacles or tails,shed out into the air. -Giiielduh leeeedaaarrrr. -Hyeeeunnnggg. -...... ...... -Duuuoooc. Each wriggle of the tentacles ripped through the air, producing eerie noises. Those noises resembled the voices of the guild members. The surface of the tentacles was etched with ck stripes. As the voices of the guild members rang out, the ck patterns undted in endless ripples. "......" A phenomenon that had never appeared in the previous 88 cycles. I stared at the being that had caused this difference. "I''m sorry, Guild Leader." Go Yuri stood up from the bench with an eutcha and dusted off her skirt, walked a few steps forward, and then, with her hands behind her back, turned to look at me. Her pink hair slipped sideways. "I think everyone being happy is better. I didn''t want to make you sad, Guild Leader. Nor anyone else. So I tried very hard... But unlike the others, your mind is too strong. So you see, my ability was momentarily released." "Let me ask you one thing." I looked up at Go Yuri. "Did I kill the guild members? Was I manipted by you?" Go Yuri stared back at me. "...No." "That''s a lie." "Yes." My sword drawn from its sheath shed Go Yuri''s neck. A sh appeared. The pink hair fell down first. Shortly after, Go Yuri''s head slid off. Before her headpletely slid off, her lips moved. "Let''s be one, Guild Leader." Behind Go Yuri, the red flesh flexed and stretched until it covered the sky. That''s thest thing I remember from the 89th cycle. After that day, I did not contact Go Yuri. The number of times we met directly could be counted on one hand. We only interacted three, maybe four times over hundreds of cycles. Go Yuri''s ability remains unidentified. If I were to be stronger than I was in the 89th cycle, I might one day be capable of subduing her¡ªthat was the conclusion I reached. Whether that conclusion was correct, I don''t know. One thing I do know is that, excluding the 89th cycle, there was never another cycle where the ''red flesh'' appeared. In the cycles where Go Yuri did not interact with me, she always managed not to cause any major issues until suddenly being killed by a monster or disappearing into thin air, an endlessly harmless Awakener. "Let''s be one, Guild Leader." What did those words mean? Was the red flesh a monster? Or a form of contamination? Perhaps the product of a corrupted Awakener, but there was a crucial difference that made the possibility unlikely. Then was the red flesh also a unique ability of Go Yuri? What was the true appearance of Go Yuri, undistorted by the filter of [Perception Maniption]? On the odd asion, curiosity welled within me. However, I felt no urgency to delve into this mystery. I had no intention of approaching Go Yuri, at least not until I found a way topletely nullify [Perception Maniption]. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Seeking peace of mind? Join the Satisfaction Guild! Our main base is now in Daejeon! From time to time, I would stealthily leave ament when I saw the nickname CookingQueen on SG Net. -ZERO_SUGAR: Your diligent attitude is always nice to see ^^... Soon after, a notification appeared that ament had been made. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Thank you! Although this is the world we must live in, if we live without losing faith in ourselves and our hope in others, good things are sure to happen. I hope today is a happy day for you, ZeroSugar! "......" Hmm. I nodded to myself in secret. Indeed, that was an excellent attitude. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 15 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Internationalist ¢ñ There is hardly anything as crucial as one''s mental state. This has already been emphasized in the anecdotes of Old Man Scho. Even if one knows how to slice the heavens with a single sword, once one''s mental state copses, there are no answers. I, the Undertaker, have also poured my heart into mental management.My unique method of management goes as follows: For about 100 years, or roughly five to seven cycles, I work diligently. I rush about to prevent the destruction of the world. Then, for the next cycle, I enjoy life. ''World destruction? Why should I care?'' I simply abandon such thoughts. I turn away from the lives I could save. I don''t step into the fates I could change. I prioritize only my life, my peace, and my fun. For about 20 years in one cycle, I focus entirely on healing my mental state and enjoy a pleasant vacation. It''s a brief deviation from the main storyline. A sort of side story, if you will. Even if I''m used of being a coward, there is no helping it. The human mind has its limits. If I hadn''t employed such a method, I wouldn''t have been able to endure the long life of a regressor who reached his 1183rd cycle. It just so happened that the 90th cycle was one of these ''vacation cycles''. It was truly good timing. Even if it was only to ascertain where I was mentally, meaning blown away to Mars by Go Yuri, a break was absolutely necessary. "So I wanted to ask your opinion. How should I take a break if I''m looking to earnvish praise for resting spectacrly well?" "Why are you asking this fairy that...?" The fairy trembled in my grasp. It was the Tutorial Fairy. If it had been a normal cycle, she might have quickly dispatched Seo Gyu before he could decimate her. But this 90th cycle was a sabbatical, so to speak, and I could act however I pleased and go wherever my heart''spass pointed. Well, since I had confined all of the fairies together during the previous 89th cycle and made them participate in a hellish survival program, some long-held grudges of mine had been somewhat washed away... Anyway. I captured the Tutorial Fairy and dragged her to one side of the hall. At first, the fairy resisted, but after folding her elf ears twice to make them half-elf ears, she quieted down quite a bit. "Well, I''m just asking to ask," I answered. "I''ve barely ever conversed with you seriously before." "Eurgh, why is there such a lunatic in this assigned area...? Fairy Number 264 is the most unfortunate fairy in the universe..." "Now now, someone who tries to blow up civilian heads without hesitation could hardly call themselves misfortunate." "But, but, if we can''t make people understand that this is no joke, it will lead to much greater harm and tragedy, you know? From a utilitarian perspective, this fairy''s way of handling the situation is not wrong." "So you were a utilitarian." I realized something new. This, too, was the charm of regression. "Anyway, tell me about your idea of a holiday. You fairies all mortgaged your lives to the Fairy King, correct? You all must spend your days thinking how little you would desire if only you just got to take a holiday." "Eeep, c-could it be?!" The fairy was startled in my grasp. "Hey! Surely you''re not talking about the notorious RePoRe?"[1] "RePoRe?" "Regression, possession, reincarnation! Damned protagonists! Them and those sted prophets throwing a wrench in such a straightforward exam! In our literature, we fairies are treated like early-stage mobs!" "Oh, do RePoRe people actually exist in the fairy realm?" "No? They just frequently appear in ssic fairy literature." So it was something special between Old Man Scho and me. I felt a bit deted, my hope that there might be others squashed. "I see. Anyway, don''t worry about it. You''re not really antagonizing the Fairy King. You just need to give me some advice on my 20-year vacation n. And if I don''t find it satisfactory, I''ll turn your head into fairy juice." "Hiiieeek! What a horrible thing to say! This fairy is confident enough to file with the Fairy Rights Commission and win!" "There''s no such thing on Earth." "What a barbaric civilization..." In the end, Fairy Number 264 raised a white g. "Um, ummm. So anyway, you''re saying you''ve been given 20 years of free time? And you''re feeling like going a bit wild during that period?" "Yes." Then the fairy''s expression turned determined. "If Number 264 were given freedom and as much power as you, she''d like to plunge a spear of revolution into the belly of the Fairy King!" "......" A utilitarian and a revolutionary fighter, I realized. Whether that, too, was another charm of regression... I''m not quite sure. I''ll mention itter, but the fairies were, in fact, divided into republicans and royalists. Well, that wasn''t important right now. "Plunge a spear through him? How? Isn''t your heart rigged with an explosion engraving? If you rebel against the Fairy King, your heart will burst immediately and your body will melt." "Uh, how did you know that...? Um, no. Since you already know, that will make the conversation easier. Anyway! The Fairy King is much more terrible than the bourgeoisie! Even if it costs Fairy Number 264 her heart bursting, the Fairy King must be overthrown for the progress of history and the innovation of civilization!" The fairy pped her arms. "Human! Although physically primitive and weak, your kind has mademendable linear progress spiritually! When we learned your histories of beheading absolute monarchs hundreds of years ago, Number 264, no, all of us in the [Fairy Revolution Club] were deeply impressed!" That club did actually exist. "Unfortunately, our fairy society is facing desperate times and is unlikely to recover... But if you help us, strong human that you are, salvation through external force might be possible! Human! Join us and lend us your support until the g is fluttering in the Fairy King''s navel!" If this had been a game, a ding notification would have sounded, and the message "A new route has been unlocked. Will you help the fairies achieve revolution?" would have appeared. "Hmm." I was intrigued. I had once fought against the Fairy King. This time, I could recreate that episode¡ªnot alone, but with a fairy coalition. But I shook my head. "Sorry, but I must decline that offer." "What...? Why, human?!" "Right now, I''m a bit worn out, sobat routes aren''t appealing. I''m feeling drawn to support routes. What I need is a warm cup of coffee as a lonely, urban man, not the tears and blood of a revolutionary waving a red g and charging towards victory." "What a petit-bourgeois thought! Even now, fairies are killing humans under the evil orders of the King, despite not wanting to! Do you not see them? Do you not feel the blood, sweat, and tears of your kin? Are you not afraid of Marx''s rebuke?" "I''m sorry, but my country is fundamentally antimunist in its national spirit..." "Capitalist dog! Traitor of the people! This fairy shall curse you!" "However, I might consider hiring just you separately." "Fairy Number 264 swears her undying loyalty, master." Of course, around cycle 210, I actually did be a guest member of the [Fairy Revolution Club] and sparked the beginning of the revolution, but that''s another cycle''s story. I seeded in employing the Tutorial Fairy. ¡°Uh, excuse me¡ hyung?¡± Ah. Right. By the way, Seo Gyu had been eavesdropping on our conversation the whole time. After all, I had saved him from getting his head almost blown off by the fairy. For some reason, Seo Gyu stared at me as if he were looking at a madman. ¡°What should I do from now on¡?¡± ¡°Your ability is to operate an intemunity, and anyone who is an Awakener can ess thismunity even without awork.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I think ''SG Net'' would be a good name for themunity. Good luck.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I parted ways with Seo Gyu. I then farmed some Silver Bells at a souvenir shop and piggybacked the fairy. I could feel the fairy tilting her head in confusion behind me. ¡°But what are you nning to use Number 264 for after hiring her, human master? World domination? Revolution? Dictatorship? Are you nning to ¡®ice pick¡¯ this fairy? After sessfully revolutionizing your own country, do you n to export the overly credited second-inmand under the pretext of internationalism?¡± I have no idea what kind of distorted research on Earth Fairy Number 264 had read to have such skewed prejudices. But as the fairy said, I am indeed a dog of capitalism. I was thinking of dipping my toes into the forefront of modern consumer culture. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then?¡± ¡°We''re going to open a convenience store.¡± 24-hour convenience store. Before the Gate catastrophe, these small shops were easy to find across Korea. Though it didn''t evoke as much nostalgia as the neighborhood corner stores, in a world elerating toward destruction, convenience stores fell proudly under the list of ¡®items of nostalgia¡¯. -Newbie, go to the convenience store and buy some Dunhill. -Huh? It was amon joke among Awakeners used to tease the youngest. Based on my regression experiences, there were a surprising number of Awakeners who did not discard their wallets even when the value of currency copsed. Paradoxically, people who used to only use debit cards found themselves carrying cash after civilization went to ruin¡ªpartly because the cards had stopped working, but also because to them, money was like a talisman. A stubborn belief that the world hadn¡¯t yet ended. Or a hope that it wouldn''t. It was quite the strange thing, but when multinational Awakeners gathered to carry out operations, there was even a custom of exchanging currencies from their respective countries. Koreans exchanged won, and Americans exchanged dors, like ser yers swapping jerseys after a match. Thus, at one point in time, more than 30 types of bills had been collected in my wallet. Why am I saying this all of a sudden? To emphasize the point that in a world bound for destruction, people not only hold on to money but also assign tremendous value to ¡®memories¡¯. ¡°We are going to create the only convenience store in the world that operates normally.¡± ¡°Hoeh.¡± An ambition full of grandeur! So I proimed as I forcibly upied a convenience store in Seoul (the owner had fled anyway), the very same convenience store where I first met the Saintess. Fairy Number 264, no¡ª Our Store Employee Number 1 blinked upon hearing my n, one as heart-stirring as conquering the world itself. ¡°What kind of dog-grass-eating talk is that?¡± ¡°What¡¯s dog-grass?¡± ¡°If this fairy had to choose the most appropriate term on Earth, it would be ¡®puppy¡¯.¡± Ah, it was total nonsense. But I was someone who has lived life nearly 100 times. I had be skilled at persuading others. ¡°264, there is a major w in your world revolution theory.¡± ¡°Gah?¡± ¡°The world is wide and filled with many people. Going to each person and asking them to join the cause of revolution is what novices do.¡± I dered solemnly, ¡°A true master doesn''t seek out people. He makes theme to him.¡± ¡°...!¡± ¡°We will create a convenience store that the workers of all nations will visit on their own. This ce will be the revolutionary base of the Sixth International! You are the first g of this avant-garde, and our proud store clerk. The rise and fall of our International depends on how earnestly you serve the customers.¡± ¡°Comrade Manager...!¡± The fairyy on the floor of the store, which had yet to be fully cleaned, and wept great, big tears. Her tears smelled of flowers, making the store suddenly fragrantly sweet. We''d save on air fresheners. ¡°This fairy had greatly misunderstood you, Comrade Manager! She swears eternal loyalty!¡± ¡°Good. As this is a business for the revolution, I hope you¡¯llmit to 365 days of unpaid work managing customer service at the headquarters.¡± ¡°Yes! Unpaid!¡± Though Fairy Number 264 had merely switched from being a ve of the Fairy King to my ve, she seemed happy. Isn¡¯t that what matters? I stole a political banner from a nearby intersection, flipped the banner upside down, and, with calligraphic painting skills, wrote the proper letters. Then I hung it in front of the store. [Our store is open for regr business.] It was a historic moment when The Sixth International, humanity¡¯sst convenience store, opened at the Jamsu Bridge in Seoul. Footnotes: [1] A y on words using the letters used in regressor, possessor and reincarnator since these genres are so oversaturated in Korea. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 16 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Internationalist ¢ñ¢ñ First, I made light work of plundering the logistics centers of convenience stores across the nation. Not to say it was a simple task that could be summed up in that single line. With the National Assembly having been blown away, the political scene was practically paralyzed, so the quick-witted survivors had already sought refuge in these centers. ¡°Who''s there?!¡± ¡°Stop! Do not approach!¡± Who am I, they ask? At that point, a regressor who had lived through 90 cycles.Screams erupted from the entrance barricade of the logistics center. Before long, I had established friendly rtions with the center''s managers. ¡°Understand this,¡± I said pleasantly. ¡°If the trucks don''t arrive by this Friday, you''re time here will be a story for the ages.¡± ¡°Y-yes, sir! Understood!¡± Soon after, a parade of trucks were pouring out of logistics centers in the northern and eastern parts of Gyeonggi Province. Their destination was, of course, our store¡ªThe Sixth International Convenience Store. There was interference from the military and the police along the way, but I easily brushed them aside. I had experience coborating with the National Intelligence Service and the government in previous cycles. The very first thing Old Man Scho and I did together was to collect the personal weaknesses of government officials. Ultimately, our store became a ck hole that sucked in convenience store-rted goods and logistics in no time. ¡°Huff... Comrade Manager! The boxes are piled up like a mountain! Thinking about how this is all the product of the blood and sweat of the workers makes this fairy so sad!¡± ¡°Now, it''s ours.¡± ¡°Theughter! This fairy just cannot help it...!¡± The typical signs of a revolutionary falling into corruption were beginning to show. A massive warehouse was constructed underground at the convenience store. It would have been impossible to promise apletion date if we relied on manualbor, but the power of fairies made many things possible. Afterpleting our gigantic, underground facilities, the fairies neatly arranged the goods. ¡°Hmm?¡± Yes, not one fairy, but several fairies. Before I knew it, three fairies were buzzing around, moving products. ¡°Fairy Number 264,¡± I called. The fairy snapped to attention. ¡°Yes, Comrade Manager!¡± ¡°Answer me. Why have the fairies suddenly multiplied?¡± ¡°Sir! Number 264 requested support from the [Fairy Revolution Club]! Clubrades inspired by your great revolutionary legacy are joining our cause one after another!¡± What. ¡°Are you telling me that the number of fairies here will grow even more?¡± ¡°Possibly? The cause of the revolution swells like a river flowing downstream, except for the filthy reactionaries!¡± ¡°Hmm¡¡± This was an unforeseen situation. Originally, it was supposed to be just one capable yet unpaid ve that I was carting around with Fairy Number 264. But I had no problem with it. Actually, it was even better. As is customary in a ''vacation cycle'', the more unnned events, the merrier. ¡°Hoh, has this fairy''s unteral decision lead to overly adventurous consequences?¡± ¡°No, you did well.¡± I looked around. Anything else? Just then, a pile of green Saemaul hats heaped in a logistics box caught my eye. I tore open the stic and put a Saemaul hat on the Tutorial Fairy. The fairy tilted her head in confusion under the hat muchrger than her head. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°All fairies are equal, but some fairies are more equal than others! Comrade Number 264, your fervent passion has moved me. From now on, you willmand all fairies participating in The Sixth International.¡± ¡°...! Comrade Manager...!¡± Staff secured. The fairies knew how to use magic and even had the ability to separate certain areas from reality. This ability meant that the underground warehouse was isted from the outside world. ¡°Deploy the territory in the underground warehouse.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Using this ability and ice magic, they indefinitely extended the shelf life of the stored products. After procuring some generators, the wiring and instation work waspleted, and the convenience store was up and running 24 hours a day. Now, there was nothing left to do at all but receive customers. On the sixth day since the grand opening, the first customer visited. ¡°Wee!¡± ¡°......¡± A tinkleter, the ss door was open, and in walked a woman with heavy clothes and a ponytail. There was nothing to hide. Our illustrious first customer was none other than the Saintess. She lived nearby and had probably spied on my antics through her irvoyance. She nced at me where I stood at the cash register. ¡°...Are you open for business?¡± ¡°Yes. Our store operates 24 hours a day.¡± ¡°What is that?¡± The Saintess pointed behind me. Hanging there was a poster that read "Store Rules." ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ 1. Please be kind to our employees here at the head office. Despite looking different from us, all of them are valuable humanoid capital and the private property of us here. 2. The head office handles not only Korean won but also Japanese yen, US dors, and other foreign currencies. 3. Smoking inside and under the parasols of the store is strictly prohibited. 4. There is a limit on the number of purchases permissible at the head office. The number of items each customer can purchase is limited to what they can "reasonably" consume in a day. The standard of reasonableness is at the discretion of the store manager. (Example: You cannot buy 100 sandwiches at once) 5. No physical disputes of any kind are allowed within 300 meters of the store. 6. Failure toply with these rules will result in unlimited sanctions. We appreciate your understanding. 7. Happy shopping! ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ I shed a business smile. ¡°Exactly as written, dear customer. Just follow the rules, and the head office will always sincerely wee you.¡± ¡°......¡± The expression on the Saintess''s face was hard to describe. She wandered around the store like a highly cautious cat, and when she reached a certain corner, she paused. It was the pet products corner. ¡°Oh. Fish food...¡± ¡°We maintain a special corner for pets even as the worldes to an end, for customers who refuse to give up on their pets.¡± ¡°...Aquariums with driftwood, filter media, soil, adhesive, aquatic nts, oil film removers, and filters...¡± the Saintess mumbled absently. ¡°Professional... This would make managing the aquariums much...¡± ¡°Do you like it, dear customer?¡± ¡°...Just a moment, please.¡± The Saintess left the convenience store. A short whileter, she re-entered with a wad of 50,000-won bills clutched in hand and hurriedly began to stuff aquarium management supplies into her bag. At the counter, I faced the Saintess, whose eyes glowed with the light of a shopping spree. ¡°All of this, please...¡± she mumbled. ¡°Thank you, dear customer! This coffee is on the house to celebrate our store just opened. Please tell others in your area toe by.¡± ¡°...Alright. I''ll stop by often.¡± Regr customer acquired. With all the proper marketing tools nowpletely gone, ensnaring the Saintess as a regr customer was a point in my favor. The Constetions would do the advertising agent''s job anyway. Sure enough, not long after, the number of customers visiting the convenience store began to increase substantially. ¡°Can''t I buy a carton of cigarettes? Please!¡± ¡°I came all the way from Chungju to get to this store.¡± ¡°Sir, I''ll give you as much money as you want. Just cooperate with our unit...¡± It was a grand sess. As the number of customers increased, so did the number of troublemakers. The bnce of the world was always exacting. ¡°Fuck,e out here, you bastard owner!¡± ¡°Yes. I''m here, you bastard customer.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Every one of the troublemakers got beaten like a dog by me. A guy who got greedy and tried to buy too much at once, someone who smoked while sitting under a parasol, and even those who were okay with drinking soju but went a step further and started brawling¡ They all received their punishment. ¡°Spies nted by imperialists to destroy the International! There''s not a shred of mercy for you guys! It''s the gg for everyone!¡± ¡°Fuck... Why are the fairies...?¡± ¡°Shut up! Reactionaries!¡± Under the supervision of Fairy Number 264, the troublemakers were put to work cleaning up along the Han River. Thanks to that, the area around our convenience store was as clean as if it had sidestepped the end of the world. By then, the inte was also abuzz. -xx: Seriously, why is the International store owner so strong? -xx: I saw yesterday that even six Awakeners attacking at once couldn''tst a few seconds. Even the guild leader got wiped out in one hit. Is this a convenience store owner or a swordmaster? Isn''t this guy just the strongest? -xx: That guy is really strong. -xx: There are still people making a fuss at the International? Crazy. -xx: It''s a fairy den there... -xx: But why are the fairies there wearing Che Guevara t-shirts? -xx: I don''t know. -xx: I askedst time, and they said it''s their uniform. -xx: Seriously, why are fairies wearing Che Guevara t-shirts as uniforms? -xx: I really don''t know. Ah, right. This site wasn''t SG Net. Originally, the name SG Net was my idea anyway. When Seo Gyu acted alone, it was called ''Hunter Community'', abbreviated as HunCo. It wasn''t a membership-based site, meaning anyone could freely ess it and write anonymously. Given my reputation, asionally Awakeners came to the convenience store not to buy anything but to see me. ¡°I am known as the Sword of the Mount Hwa Sect. I have often heard rumors of the International store owner''s formidable martial prowess. May I request a lesson?¡± ¡°......¡± Reading too many martial arts novels had gone to his head, to the point where he called monsters ''demons'' and Awakeners ''martial artists'', and referred to employees as ''store warriors'', like a certain crazy 60-year-old with a bizarre concept. I''ll have another opportunity to talk about this old manter. He was a fellow I wandered around with during another vacation cycle, not the 90th. Anyway, the Sixth International was a sess. A gate had burst open, turning the once-deste Han River area into a gathering ce for minor guilds and even lone Awakeners who stubbornly yed the lone wolf game without joining a guild. This so-called ''convenience store zone'' had formed. Before the world ended, it might have been one thing, but currently in Korea, this was the only convenience store zone. It might have been the only one on Earth. And so it was one day, when 12 years had passed. ¡°You are quite something, Mr. Manager.¡± The one who spoke was a guild leader who had brought her entire guild for a party in the convenience store''s front yard. She was from Samcheon, one of the two major guilds in Korea. The guild leader grinned, wearing a cone-shaped hat that sat atop her head¡ªthe signature style of the Samcheon guild. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I asked. ¡°Whenever Ie here, it feels like the world is the same as it''s always been. You know, today, I was startled when I saw the price of potato chips was over 3,500 won. I wondered if the price was correct.¡± She looked very happy. ¡°The fact that I can still worry about such things isn''t so bad,¡± she concluded. ¡°You are a good person. Though I don''t know exactly how you pulled it off.¡± ¡°Thank you, dear customer.¡± ¡°And, thanks to your store, sir, this area is rtively safe, you know. Do you know what we call your store in our group?¡± ¡°The convenience store?¡± ¡°No, the police station. No matter what dispute arises, if you juste to this store, it will be resolved with an even hand. Even if you''re seeing red with rage, seeing fairies wearing T-shirts and Saemaul hats can''t help but calm you down just purely for the sheer absurdity of it.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Seo Gyu probably wouldn''t agree considering how he always started with the words "this fucking asshole" even at the Busan Station terminal. ¡°Anyway... our guild is going to deploy to seal a gate that opened yesterday. The execution day is the day after tomorrow at 1100 hours. If you''re interested, let me know. I''ll even give you the position of Vice-Guild Leader. Our guild is a bit closed off to outsiders, but you''re always wee.¡± ¡°Thank you for the kind words, but I have no intention of getting directly involved in the fighting.¡± ¡°Is that so? I figured.¡± ¡°Don''t push yourself too hard in the fighting, dear customer.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± The Samcheon guild leader chuckled as she ced a bag of money on the counter, presumably for the party expenses. She then pulled out an additional thousand-won bill and handed it to Fairy Number 264. Surprisingly, it wasn''t the blue thousand-won bill but a rare red one. Nowadays, it''s something you can''t find anywhere. ¡°Dear customer, this is...?¡± ¡°A tip.¡± The Samcheon guild leader chuckled. ¡°I wrote my signature on the back.¡± I flipped the bill over. This coffee shop has great coffee. ¡ªSamcheon, Dang Seo-rin The handwriting, appearing to have been written with a brush pen, was very elegant. It was clear she had formally studied calligraphy. She must have been in a very good mood to write something with a brush pen. ¡°What a precious item.¡± ¡°Why, they hang up celebrities'' autographs at popr ces, right? Mr. Manager, if you feel like it, you might as well act like I''m a celebrity... It''s embarrassing, but... Anyway, there aren''t many Awakeners left in Korea. That should make me qualified, right?¡± The Samcheon guild leader walked away. Then, tossing a lighthearted wave back to me, she said, ¡°Bye-bye! I''lle visit again after closing the gate. Please make me an affogato when I do, Mr. Manager.¡± A few dayster, the coffee beans and vani ice cream I had prepared in advance went unused. The Samcheon guild failed in their gate raid, and all 301 guild members died. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 17 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Internationalist ¢ñ¢ñ¢ñ The heart is often likened to fire, burning with passion. But in my case, ''water'' was more often a suitable metaphor. Ever since the 89th cycle was severed by the red sh caused by Go Yuri, my inner well had dried up. This ismonly referred to as burnout¡ªa slump invariably faced by every regressor at some point. "Annihtion, huh..." "If Samcheon is gone, doesn''t that leave only Baekhwa as the top guild in Korea?""No, those body stackers are a bit... Well, it''s even questionable whether they are a guild." "After all, the void suppression failed. I looked up at the night sky yesterday, and it was chilling." Upon collecting and cremating Dang Seo-rin''s remains and scattering them at the beach, I returned to find Awakeners whispering under the parasols outside the convenience store. For some reason, their murmuring sounded to me like the trickling of water. The sound of water led to one object. This coffee shop has great coffee. ¡ªSamcheon, Dang Seo-rin A wine-colored thousand-won bill. I transferred the bill signed by the Samcheon guild leader into an acrylic case and disyed it at the convenience store counter, where the cigarettes were usually disyed. Our underground warehouse had recently started bottoming out on its supplies. Alcohol and cigarettes were the first resources to be scarce, so there was plenty of space to disy the bill. Naturally, customers could view the exhibit each time they passed the counter. One day, the Mount Hwa old man pointed out, "Sir, what in the world is that ominous item? I can feel an unusual energy from it." "Oh, that? It¡¯s a signature left by the Samcheon guild leader before she went off to strike down a meteor shower." "Hmm..." The old man grunted and left the convenience store. The next day, he ced a ten-thousand-won bill on the counter to buy his usual bottle of green makgeolli. "Sir, this is an orchid I drew myself." "Orchid? What about an orchid?" "Look closely at the drawing." I did. Beyond King Sejong''s sturdy shoulders, an actual orchid was depicted. "...?" Frankly, the drawing was terrible. If Heungseon Daewongun had seen it, he might have mistaken it for pineapple leaves. However, the old man had put some effort into it, as a tiny signature that read ¡®Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk¡¯ was squeezed into a corner of a cabbage leaf. Sword Marquess seemed quite proud of his work, hmph-ing out of his nose. The only feature of his worthy ofmendation was his fluttering mustache. "Please, hang it in your store like a banner." "......" Well, it didn''t really matter. I disyed Sword Marquess''s bill alongside the other without much thought, but that, apparently, set a precedent. Visitors to my convenience store began indiscriminately offering bills with their signatures scribbled across them. "Excuse me, sir. I''m heading out with the raid team, if it''s not too much trouble, could you...?" "I''lle again next time! Please give a 2+1 discount then!" "Really, c''mon, can''t I buy a carton of cigarettes? Please?" When there was only the relic of the Samcheon guild leader, it had been handled with care, but with the addition of Sword Marquess''s bill, it suddenly seemed trivial. The currencies left by Awakeners varied widely. Old five-thousand-won bills, two-dor bills, East German marks (these were the most fascinating), yen, euros, pounds, Greek, Hong Kong dors, Vietnamese dong, Philippine pesos, North Korean won, Indian and Nepalese rupees... Before I knew it, the area behind my counter was filled with bills. asionally, when I had time, I would quietly observe the exhibition. Every time a bill filled the gaping holes in the cigarette disy like bricks, I felt as if my inner well was slightly replenishing. If life is ultimately a journey to leave behind a single photograph, perhaps my 90th portrait would look like this. "Comrade Manager..." "Hm?" Fairy number 264 set down a box of Zero Drinks. Under the Saemaul hat, his expression was utterly deted. "This is thest box of Zero Drinks. Huff..." "Is that so. What about the alcohol?" "Beer, soju, whiskey, wine, makgeolli, sake... No matter the type, scraping everything together, there are only 50 bottles left. I''m ashamed to say that the funding for alcohol has dried up..." Not just alcohol, nearly all stocked items were exhausted. There''s no such thing as an eternally flowing oasis. But what of it? Have you ever seen someone who refuses to cast shade because they fear the tree might rot someday? "Here." I took out a Heaven''s Champion sausage. Perk up! At the sight of the sausage, Fairy number 264''s ears stood up. For some reason, unknown to me, fairies swoon over this particr sausage. "Ah! I thought all the sausages were gone!" "Eat it secretly from the others." "You''re the only one who thinks of me...!" I patted fairy number 264 on the head. "Call everyone together and let''s clear out all the remaining alcohol." "Yes! Comrade!" I gathered the customers. I could have easily invited Awakeners through an intemunity, but unfortunately, that was no longer possible. [Unable to connect to the site.] Seo Gyu''s ''Hunter Community'' had been shut down some time ago. Seo Gyu had likely died somewhere unknown to me. Go Yuri probably died as well. After all, she was a being who couldn''t survive without mimicking others. Fairies had walked door to door gathering people, and still, only about a hundred participants turned up for the party. Not quite satisfying, but enough people to enjoy the 50 bottles of alcohol. ''Isn''t the Saintessing?'' Awakenersughed, chatted, sang, and enjoyed themselves. They also had their own stashes of supplies, so the party wasn''t meager. Surprisingly, an Awakener who brought 11 bottles of Chateau d''Yquem from 1990 became an instant hero in human history. The atmosphere reached a climax. "Shall we form a guild with everyone gathered here!" "Oh!" "The Last Guild! Tomemorate its formation, let''s set off for the meteor shower gate after tonight''s party!" "This isn''t a guild, it¡¯s a final gathering..." The Awakeners who had survived without dying or being kicked out of their guilds were either stubborn independents or outcasts with social issues. But as the final moments approached, they united for the party. Well, the influence of 11 bottles of Chateau d''Yquem might have yed a significant role. "Manager! Aren''t youing with us!" I shook my head. "There''s still one customer I haven''t said goodbye to. After you all leave, I''ll go too." "Ah, if only you were there, we couldst another 30 seconds." "Maybe even three minutes?" "Come on, let''s sign up quickly!" People chuckled. The night sky was especially noisy with a high ceiling. From long years of living through regressions, I now truly sensed that the apocalypse had arrived. The day after the Last Supper, I called all the fairy clerks to one ce. Forty little ones wearing Che Guevara T-shirts crowded together. I dered in front of them, "Today is a holiday." "Huff." The fairies blinked. "Does a holiday mean no work?" "Work reflects human value, but a holiday is an act of abandoning one''s value. It''s an utterly foreign concept." "Excuse me for saying, but doesn''t it depend on whether it¡¯s a paid or unpaid holiday?" I chuckled and handed each fairy a fifty-thousand-won bill. "Don''t worry. It''s a paid holiday." The bills all bore my signature. [Secretary-General and Chairman and Manager of the Sixth International.] The fairies'' eyes sparkled. "Wow! Comrade Manager''s handwritten signature!" "Deeply moved!" "This should be legited to hang in frames in every public office!" "Sure, do as you like. Anyway, I''ll be watching the store alone today, so take a good rest ande back." "Yes!" The fairies, raising their red gs, scurried off somewhere. And so, I was left alone. As I was mopping the floor in the now-quiet store, Tinkle, the ss door opened. "Wee. Customer." "......" It was the Saintess. She was thest customer I had been waiting for. She quietly looked around the store. Several shelves were empty as if teeth had been plucked out. Signs reading [Temporarily out of stock - please wait for restocking] were attached to those shelves. The Saintess murmured, "Restocking is taking a long time." "Yes. I''ve been pressing the headquarters continuously, but it seems difficult." "...I see." The Saintess did not argue with my words and simply nodded. The apocalypse had surged right up to us. Yet, the Saintess had not died. Not just this cycle. She had almost ''always'' survived until thest day. Her attachment to life was a bit different. She had imposed a duty on herself to live. "Could you make me a cup of coffee?" "Understood." I took thest remaining coffee beans, milk, and sugar and made a coffee as close to filter coffee as possible. This was how we at the Sixth International treated our regr customers. Naturally, I could afford such a service to our very first regr customer. "......" "......" During the coffee, the Saintess said nothing. She just looked with her deep ck eyes at the counter behind me, the shelves inside the store, and outside the window. Especially, her gaze lingered long on the cases of bills. "That was well drunk. Here, the bill." The Saintess offered a fifty-thousand-won bill. "No need for change. I''lle again." On the back of the bill was written [Your first customer.] That day was thest time an Awakener visited the convenience store. In the middle of the night, I locked up the store and went out to the Han River. The night sky was filled with the Milky Way. Red light. Green light. Purple light. The Milky Way seemed like a long-ripped lip, and within it, countless stars twinkled as if they would pour down at any moment. And they actually did pour down. The gate that Samcheon and the guild coalition had tried to seal at the cost of their lives had nowpletely opened, releasing a disaster made of starlight onto the earth. A guaranteed event in Gyeongsangnam-do in the 7th year of regression, and in Seoul in the 12th year. It was known as the Meteor Stream. "This cycle ends with the Meteor Ending." I sat on the riverbank, looking up at the sky. One could survive if they avoided it, but there was nothing left to do in this cycle if one did. There were countless things to do in the next cycle. ''Not a bad vacation.'' I opened my smartphone. While waiting for the stars to fall, I flipped through the photos saved on my phone. Originally, I wasn''t in the habit of taking pictures. More precisely, as a regressor, I had lost that habit. Although photos were items meant for preservation, they had failed to serve that role for me. However, knowing they would disappear, I couldn''t help but take these photos. [This coffee shop has great coffee. Samcheon, Dang Seo-rin] [Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk.] [Thanks for the fun. Lee Ju-ho.] [Sincerely grateful. But no matter how I think about it, the store''s name and clerk shirts are strange. Are you a member of the Red Army? Posted by Uehara Shino.] [Visiting on a school trip! Baekwha Girls'' High? May our lovest a thousand miles forever - by ÌìÁÈ»¯.] [The way here is too inconvenient. Thought I''d die carrying wine bottles. - NDH] [Go Sixth International, fight on! - Sim Ah-ryeon] [If you had just sold one carton of cigarettes, it would have been GOAT... Y] ¡¡ [Your first customer.] Unknowingly, the corners of my mouth lifted. Why I had epted the life of a regressor, who I wanted to help, why I wanted to help, the reasons now filled my heart more distinctly than ever before. Twelve years had been enough to supply the water necessary for a regressor''s life. Of course, maybe in a hundred years, I''ll have to take another vacation. ''Hold on. Isn''t the Meteor Ending a bit old-fashioned?'' The whole world was flooded with starlight. The time of regression. Today, I retired as the 12-year convenience store manager and rejoined as a regressor. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 18 Companion I Let''s talk about Dang Seo-rin, the guild leader of Samcheon World. ¡°There¡¯s venom in her eyes.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You mean her? The almost sole survivor at Busan Station. She¡¯s known for asking bizarre questions to everyone.¡± I first met Dang Seo-rin in my fourth run. Regrettably, I had not yet acquired the [Complete Memory] ability at that time; that came in the fifth run. Thus, there might be some inuracies in my recollection of our first meeting. No, I¡¯d rather not admit it, but there are definitely errors. It¡¯s a past that''s already more than a millennium old.¡°Your name?¡± ¡°...Undertaker. It¡¯s an alias.¡± ¡°You bury people? Not bad. The depth of a person is determined by how many corpses they have buried in their heart.¡± Perhaps Dang Seo-rin didn¡¯t say ¡®venom in her eyes¡¯ but ¡®fire in her eyes¡¯. She might have used ¡®your¡¯ instead of ¡®her¡¯. It might have rained that day, or not. I think I heard the sound of water, but perhaps it was just the sound flowing from my heart. Nevertheless, I can vividly recall the atmosphere and the contour of the air from that time. To live, one must breathe not only the oxygen drifting before their eyes but also the air from the past that has already flowed by. ¡°How about it? Won¡¯t you join our guild?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the guild''s name?¡± ¡°Samcheon World. Abbreviated as Samcheon. It¡¯s my personal ambition to someday truly gather three thousand Awakeners.[1] Undertaker, I need your strength to subdue the [Ten Legs].¡± A person who made up a fair share of my breaths smiled and extended their hand. At that time, I had no reason or leeway not to take that hand. ¡°Ah, but everyone in our guild must wear a cone hat, no matter where they are.¡± ¡°...A cone hat?¡± ¡°Yeah, you know, the hats witches wear in fairy tales? That¡¯s our guild symbol. You have to carry a broomstick too. Haven¡¯t eaten lunch yet, right? I know a great ce; I¡¯ll take you there to celebrate your joining.¡± ¡°I withdraw my application.¡± It was irrevocable. Later, changing the broomstick to a sword was the best I could do. Dang Seo-rin was cunning and stubborn. And she knew the local eateries well. People called her the Witch of the Train Station and the Witch of the Cursed Song. ¡Upon reflection, maybe I was the only one who called her by thatst nickname. Of course, I had a different nickname that I used more frequently. Why hide it? Once, she was my guild leader. Now, looking back, it might seem like a jest from the past, but in the very early days of my regressor life¡ªsay around the 10th run¡ªthere was a boss monster that stood like the Wailing Wall, blocking the path of all Korean Awakeners. ¡°Wait. What is that?¡± ¡°Oh, oh... it''sing this way!¡± [Ten Legs]. ording to the ssification system established by the Library Association, a wiki group, it was a city-ss (Polis) hazard. Its identifier was ¡®Baby Cthulhu¡¯. ¡°Crazy! How can it move so fast?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Cthulhu! It¡¯s Cthulhu!¡± ¡°What the fuck... Sound the rm! Sound the rm, dammit!¡± Opinions were divided on how Ten Legs came to be known as such. Where there should have been legs, there weren¡¯t any, and instead, hundreds of tentacles waved like human arms¡ªhence the name. But personally, I subscribe to the theory that ¡®those fucking pieces of shit¡¯ somehow morphed into ''Ten Legs''. That first boss monster of the Korean penins brought us great despair. ¡°We need to capture it to reim everything south of the Han River and push the double-fronted battle line into a ceasefire.¡± Dang Seo-rin did not despair. More precisely, she rallied the despairing Awakeners into a guild alliance and was promoted to its leader. Let¡¯s call it the Anti-Ten Legs Coalition. The difference from the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition in Romance of the Three Kingdoms was that unlike Yuan Shao, Dang Seo-rin was exceedinglypetent. ¡°Undertaker, you will lead the elite of other guilds at the front and block Ten Legs as long as possible.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± After I learned about Old Man Scho, he took over leading the vanguard, but until then, I was regrettably the best we had. That gives you a sense of howckluster the Awakeners were at the time. Ah, by the way, when I was a member of Samcheon, I naturally spoke formally to Dang Seo-rin. ¡°My deputy died yesterday, so I¡¯m a bit under the weather... But I¡¯ll try. How many minutes should I hold out?¡± ¡°Just hold out for 30 minutes. I will set up a grand magic to back up the suicide squad.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± I nodded. ¡°It sounds easy.¡± It was not. -The Ten Legs roared. Within exactly two minutes of thebat starting, one of its tentacles had bored another hole in my head. What can you do? If an expressway isid right through the middle of the brain, even a regressor has to die gracefully. I did well tost those two minutes. Other Awakeners were harvested almost instantaneously. Had any autumn farmers seen it, they would have drooled over the scythe skills. I managed to hold out until the end with Dang Seo-rin, bing just another head of grain. That was the end of the fourth run. Start of the fifth. ¡°Undertaker, you will lead the elite of other guilds at the front and block Ten Legs as long as possible.¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to be damn difficult.¡± This time, instead of pretending in front of my guild leader, I decided to be more honest. Dang Seo-rin''s eyes widened. ¡°Difficult?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I thought with thebined forces we currently have, plus you, we could manage a dying action. Is there something wrong with the data?¡± ¡°The data isn¡¯t wrong. Ten Legs, that bastard, is hiding its strength.¡± It was disheartening to see how the world was turning out. The meta of power-hoarding should be my role as a regressor, but a damn boss mob was doing it. ¡°Usually, the legs it shows aren¡¯t all it has. It can sprout more anytime from inside its body like tentacles. Honestly, even 5 minutes is tough, let alone 30.¡± ¡°...Vice guild leader, if that¡¯s true, we might have to abandon the campaign entirely.¡± ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s give up.¡± ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s do that. Should we run away to Busan?¡± ¡°Sounds good. It¡¯s a ce of tradition and trust, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Lots of good food?¡± We retreated to Busan. It was a region that could sufficiently satisfy Dang Seo-rin''s taste, which always sought out local eateries first. It was originally our guild¡¯s home base anyway. The problem was that Ten Legs wasn¡¯t just stuck to a gate but roamed freely, a truly liberated spirit. Not unlike Dang Seo-rin, it toured various regions seeking out local vors. Its menu was consistently one item: human meat. Afterying waste to Seoul, it zigzagged across the country, proving itself to be a lone gourmet who could have appeared on a culinary show. This creature originally targeted areas densely packed with humans. Apparently, it could sense human life. Thanks to that, the cities of the Korean penins were devastated, and Ten Legs achieved a feat no politician had ever aplished. It took just five years. -The Ten Legs roared. ¡°Fuck this.¡± Weid our final line of defense at the Nakdong River, and in harmony, became Awakeners roasted on skewers. Even if we had given up on subduing it, as long as Ten Legs was alive, we were all merely living on borrowed time. That was the end of the fifth run. Start of the sixth. ¡°Is there¡ really no answer to this?¡± The fifth run ended in annihtion by Ten Legs, but looking at my entire life as a regressor, it was tremendously significant. It was then that I acquired the [Complete Memory] ability. From that point on, I knew exactly what I was pondering, who I met, and what conversations we had. ¡°Vice guild leader, do you have a moment?¡± ¡°Hm? What is it?¡± Just when I was brooding over how the world was messing with humanity, the breakthrough came from an unexpected quarter. ¡°A guest from outside hase to see you, vice guild leader.¡± A guild member with pretty silver hair opened the sliding door of the KTX train and spoke to me. Yu Ji-won, a talent I had scouted from the fifth run to serve as my deputy. She had quite a crazy psychic streak. But let''s mention thatter. ¡°An outside guest? Where are they?¡± ¡°They¡¯vee all the way to our train tform.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the security team doing?¡± ¡°They tried to stop them, but this guest was so strong they couldn¡¯t properly do it. Waiting at the tform was the best they could manage.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Why were we discussing this on a KTX train? Well... Samcheon World¡¯s base of operations was always on a train. It wasn¡¯t because the members of Samcheon, including myself, found metaphysical beauty in a heap of immovable scrap metal. We were not railroad otakus. It was entirely due to our boss, Dang Seo-rin Highness¡¯s taste. Dang Seo-rin had a peculiar habit of making the most intact luxury train her base every time she moved the guild to a different region. In her own words, ¡®Doesn¡¯t it have a certain romance, staying on a train if you¡¯re a witch?¡¯ As you can tell from her wearing a cone hat, her mind was not exactly normal. Anyway, back to the main story. ¡°So, what¡¯s the guest''s name?¡± ¡°Yes, the name is... Emit... Schopenhauer? Ah, Schopenhauer.¡± Crackle. Listening to the noise from the radio, my deputy tilted his head. ¡°Seems German?¡± Emit Schopenhauer. Swordmaster. Sword Star. A man cloaked in numerous nicknames and who had sliced more monster heads than those nicknames. But to me, he was simply known as Old Man Scho. ¡°Um... Hello? What brings you here?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Old Man Scho quietly looked at me. Honestly, my first impression was ¡®he seems like a nasty character.¡¯ It was still only the sixth run. A German old man who had followed his wife to Korea only to get caught up in the gate crisis. He hadn¡¯t learned Korean, so he tried tomunicate using a mix of English, bodynguage, and a smartphone trantor. If only I had been good at English,munication wouldn¡¯t have been an issue, but unfortunately, I had no talent fornguages. ¡°Fucking monster.¡± ¡°Fucking monster... You mean Ten Legs? The Lurker? Tentacles, pping around?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Oh. Sorry, I can''t speak English.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Old Man Scho grimaced. He looked very frustrated. ¡°It¡¯s different. Strategy.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°You died here in the past.¡± KTX dining car. Used as our guild''s reception room, a map of South Korea was spread out on the table here. Thud. Old Man Scho pointed his finger at the center of the map. The line from Seoul to Gwacheon. In the fourth run, I didn¡¯t know anything and tried to beat Ten Legs but got beaten instead. ¡°But you didn¡¯t die.¡± Swoosh. Old Man Scho¡¯s finger pointed downwards, precisely indicating the Nakdong River. ¡°¡¡!¡± ¡°Five years. Too big a difference.¡± Old Man Scho¡¯s grey gaze was directed straight at me. Perhaps. No, surely? My heart churned. We looked into each other¡¯s eyes across the table for a long time and realized that the flow of time was the same for both of us. Old Man Scho¡¯s mouth slowly opened. ¡°Return?¡± Even though I was hard of hearing, I couldn¡¯t miss the intent behind that question. Silently, I drew a number on the table with my finger. 6. Old Man Scho finally rxed his expression and smiled. It was the number of times he had repeated his life. Perhaps out of consideration that I didn¡¯t understand English, Old Man Scho¡¯s sentences were not long. The old German swordsman knew how to convey emotions sinctly. ¡°My friend.¡± With Old Man Scho¡¯s joining, the dynamics on the battlefield changed. If you asked me to name the most powerful Awakener among all I knew, I would always mention Old Man Scho. Not just as a rocket of power, but even now, after more than 1000 runs, if you asked me to evaluate, Old Man Scho¡¯s potential was insane. ¡°Are you sure we should put this man on the front line?¡± ¡°Yes, guild leader. I¡¯m certain.¡± ¡°Hmm. Doesn¡¯t look that reliable just from his appearance, but if the vice guild leader insists so strongly... Guess we should test his skills, right?¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± 50 minutester. ¡°Make this man a key resource for this campaign immediately.¡± Again, Dang Seo-rin was apetent leader. Even amid the chaos of notable Awakeners being carried out on stretchers, she waspletely unperturbed. She even went as far as to hire an interpreter to stick by Old Man Scho¡¯s side. ¡°Interpreter, could you ask him what he thinks about cone hats?¡± It wasn¡¯t long before the interpreter¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, but he says he has no interest in joining the guild. He prefers to travel alone.¡± ¡°Is that so? That¡¯s a pity. But did he just say ¡®Alohomora¡¯? Did I hear that wrong?¡± ¡°Oh, I think he might have made a joke there, but I didn¡¯t catch it. Sorry, haha.¡± ¡°That happens. Vice guild leader, isn¡¯t there a good pork soup ce nearby? Germans like soup, right?¡± ¡°Unless it''s turnip, I guess he¡¯d eat it.¡± I saw it. The interpreter smiling faintly at my side. He was indeed a wise man. Back then, I didn¡¯t understand German, so I just let it go, but actually, Old Man Scho''s remark was, ¡°What kind of stupid shit is that? You mean that Harry Potter knock-off hat you wear? If I stay any longer, you''ll probably start keeping owls too, huh? Alohomora, you moron! Even my dog wouldn¡¯t wear that.¡± And for the record, I agreed with him. From the seventh run, I decided not to join the Samcheon Guild and instead began moving around with Old Man Scho, significantly because of those ridiculous cone hats. That fashion... well, it wasn¡¯t even fashion. The only person who could pull off a witch cosy was Dang Seo-rin. It was as expected. Dang Seo-rin wasn¡¯t just ying witch; she was a grand sorceress and a multi-talented Awakener who genuinely imed to be a witch. ¡°Undertaker, Sword Star. I need you to hold out for 25 minutes¡ no, make it 30.¡± South of the Han River. A cursednd where countless civilians evaporated in an instant, unaware of their fate. There, along with Old Man Scho and guild leader Dang Seo-rin, a total of fifteen hundred Awakeners assembled. If you included the military units and civilian volunteers, the number was evenrger. We stood on the frontline where almost all avable forces in Korea were concentrated. -The familiar roar echoed. From afar, the massive body of Ten Legs began to reveal itself. The horizon trembled. Buildings, turned to ruins, couldn¡¯t withstand the creature¡¯s thrashing and crumbled like dry reeds. ¡°25 minutes. Can you hold out?¡± ¡°It¡¯s difficult.¡± I spoke on behalf of the strike team. But there was a difference from previous cycles; now I could add something more to my statement. ¡°But it¡¯s manageable.¡± Dang Seo-rin nodded. ¡°After this, let¡¯s go find some good ces to eat. By the way, what¡¯s the signature dish of Seoul anyway?¡± ¡°Hmm, I''m not sure there¡¯s anything particrly famous.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Dang Seo-rin hummed, staring at the horizon. Tentacles resembling human arms writhed in abundance. ¡°After today, it''ll probably be octopus sashimi.¡± ¡°Ah, marinated octopus isn¡¯t bad.¡± ¡°Right. All troops to battle stations. Today, we reim Seoul.¡± Combat ensued. Footnotes: [1] Samcheon means ¡®Three Thousand¡¯ in Korean. [2] KTX trains are the subway trains of Korea. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 19 Companion II -G???r????e????????u????g?????g???g???h???????????h?????h?????????h????!????? The Ten Legs monster ferociously advanced towards us. Each step it took with its countless tentacle-like legs made the ground tremble, and Old Man Scho and I bounced up and down continuously. To be precise, the Ten Legs wasn''t really stepping. Upon enhancing my sight and looking closely, the creature was actually walking on numerous hands. Something resembling human hands and arms. With each step taken by its thousands, if not tens of thousands of arms, chunks of red flesh and blood sttered everywhere. Bones snapped and joints broke, but it seemed to make no difference to the creature. New arms regenerated incessantly where old ones were severed. A long trail of bloodstains, like a red carpet,y behind the Ten Legs as it approached. This giant red carpet was symbolic of the Ten Legs. Thus, it was also referred to as the Red Carpet in foreignnds.I muttered, ¡°This one''s a real superstar.¡± ¡°Ready?¡± Old Man Scho asked in his awkward Korean. By then, everyone in the vanguard, including me, had already drawn their weapons. I nced at my adjutant, Yu Ji-won, who nodded while studying a map spread out on the table. It was a signal that all preparations wereplete. I nodded back. ¡°Yes. Let''s finish this quickly and go eat.¡± I was the first to step forward. Six hundred of our squadron followed. While not as imposing as the steps of the Ten Legs, the six hundred footstepsden with the weight of life and death formed a considerable vibration. At that moment. ¡°¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¡± A song erupted from behind us. Dang Seo-rin, the guild leader of Samcheon, the leader of the Korean guild alliance, often known as the Witch of the Train Station due to her peculiar taste of always roaming around train stations. However, apart from being a leader, Dang Seo-rin''s true nature as an Awakener in the battlefield was something else. ¡°¨D¨Dah¨D¨Dah¨D¡± She was a witch who cast powerful spells by singing and reciting poems. Cursed Song Incantation, the art of invoking ''spells'' through ''songs,'' was pioneered and solely utilized by her. She became a myth among those who had awakened magical abilities. Such was the battlefield Dang Seo-rin. Despite her humility in iming to be merely an imitator rather than a creator. Her power was anything but modest. ¡°ah¨D¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¨Dah¡± Initially, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s voice began as a single thread but soon split into two, three, four strands, embroidering the devastated skies above Seoul. An acapeposed solely of her voice. The principle behind the Cursed Song magic developed by Dang Seo-rin was simple. It began with ¡®repetition magic,¡¯ which functioned like a recorder. It was a basic magic that merely repeated and reyed the spellcaster''s incantations continuously. Dang Seo-rin saw potential in this unremarkable magic. First, she allowed the repetition magic to resonate continuously in the air. At the core of this, she would ovey apletely new enchantment. The repetition magic would then start to rey the newly added part as well. First melody, repetition. Second melody, amplification. Third melody, reflex enhancement. As the battle reached its sixth minute, the third melody began to envelop hundreds of our fighters. Even those who were nearly dismembered or beheaded by the monster''s tentacles managed to block it once, twice, ten times. ¡°¨Dah¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¡± ¡°ah¨D¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¨Dah¡± ¡°¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s melodies did not intend to stop there. Just as the fourth melody was about to begin and change the atmosphere, the Ten Legs, sensing something amiss, turned its body. Realizing it had been deliberately lured here, it attempted to flee without hesitation. Its massive body twisted instantly, flinging nearby Awakeners in all directions. ¡°Emit!¡± ¡°O-nya!¡± Old Man Scho, who had learned the word ''O-nya'' before any other Korean phrase, drew his sword and charged. It was truly reliable to see him in action¡ªeven I felt an involuntary sense of relief. But it was a feint. That damn clever monster had previously nted six of its tentacles underground. As Old Man Scho charged, spikes sprouted from the ground, puncturing his body with neat holes. A cloud of blood poured down. Instant death. ¡°Damn it!¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s magical incantation ended abruptly before reaching the fifth melody. Our squad was breached, our defensive line copsed, and the core of our operation, Dang Seo-rin, fell to her knees riddled with numerous holes. Thest thing I saw was the Ten Legs setting up a skewer grill shop across the in. The Red Carpet was merely a decorative piece inviting guests into its establishment. That was the end of the sixth cycle. The seventh cycle started. Again. ¡°Emit!¡± ¡°O-nya!¡± ''O-nya'' was truly a mysterious Korean word. It could mean ''yes,'' ''I know, you bastard,'' and ''stop nagging me'' all at once, and Old Man Scho, the Swordmaster, swept the ground with his sword energy while embedding all these meanings into it. -G???r????e????????u????g?????g???g???h???????????h?????h?????????h????!????? The spikes lurking underground were severed in an instant. The false retreat was seen through. The Ten Legs, enraged, harvested the lives of humans with its limbs that resembled human arms and hands. The songs in the air could not be harvested. ¡°ah¨D¨Dah¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¨Dah¡± The melody continued. It addedyers. It resonated. Every time her acape embraced another tone, we had to sacrifice a life. Seventh cycle ended. Eighth cycle started. Eighth cycle ended. Ninth cycle started. Forever within this repeating da capo, Old Man Scho and I charged. We rushed in. The Ten Legs fought back against our sword strikes. In an instant, the bulk of the Ten Legs swelled up like a balloon. The tentacles it had revealed so far were merely a taste of what this monster harbored within, as thousands of spikes burst forth from its body. The ninth cycle ended. ¡°¨D¨Dah¨D¨D.¡± And the tenth cycle started. Forever within this repeating da capo, Old Man Scho and I charged. We rushed in. The Ten Legs fought back against our sword strikes. Before it could swell up again, we dove into the midst of the Ten Legs. -G???r????e????????u????g?????g???h?????h??????????h????!????? Old Man Scho from the left. I from the right. Within the repeating spiral of cycles, I lived not as the vice-guild leader of Samcheon but as a direct disciple of Old Man Scho. What might have been the same repetition for the monster was not the same for me. Every time our time advanced by a span, so did Dang Seo-rin''s song by another novel-length. First melody, repetition. Second melody, amplification. Third melody, reflex enhancement. Fourth melody, weapon strength enhancement. Fifth melody, stamina recovery. Sixth melody, mental awakening. An aria of soul constion was chanted in the grey skies. The 1st squadron swapped ces with the 2nd squadron, and the injured continuously retreated. Nevertheless, neither Dang Seo-rin nor I took a single step back from the front lines. We were all sacrificing our lives. By the time the sixth melody was repeating, her song changed. Until then, it had been protecting us; now the melody suddenly sprang forward, attacking the Ten Legs. Like red spikes. Seventh melody, weakening curse. Eighth melody, darkness curse. Ninth melody, sensory inhibition curse. The massive body of the Ten Legs became dull. As the monster swung its arms, copsed buildings tumbled down. Perhaps it was a mere flinch. ¡°Old Man!¡± ¡°I know it! Damn it!¡± We clung persistently. My term of address for Old Man Scho changed, and so did the vor of his responses in Korean. Now, without saying a word, Old Man Scho and I perfectly timed our shes to sever the tentacles of the Ten Legs. The Ten Legs fought back against our sword strikes, but to no avail. New tentacles sprouted more slowly, and our des cut through the arms of the Ten Legs more swiftly. Though the creature stepped forward with thousands of arms, it was only a single step for it, while we always ran two steps for every one of its. And so. ¡°ah¨D¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¨Dah¡± ¡°ah¨D¨Dah¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¨Dah¡± ¡°¨Dah¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¡± ¡°¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¡± Tenth melody, petrification curse. Continually regenerating tentacles of the Ten Legs were nearly meaningless against the curse. However, even the remaining spikes became a lethal blow. Dozens of spikes aiming for Old Man Scho and me turned to stone all at once. Of course, it was just a momentary pause. If even three seconds, no, just five seconds passed, new tentacles would sprout and attempt to impale us. To give us those three seconds, Dang Seo-rrin kept singing. We swung our swords. Where all the tentacles had vanished, we found the Ten Legs'' two eyeballs, which also served as its hearts. Destroying one heart was pointless as the other would immediately regenerate, bestowing the Ten Legs with virtually eternal life. ¡°Arrrrgh!¡± Old Man Scho and I screamed as we charged. Our cries were not bizarre like the roars of the Ten Legs, nor were they as beautiful as Dang Seo-rin''s chanting. The duet of the two regressors was a mess. If it were a song, it would be off-key to the extreme. But somehow, perhaps it was just a feeling, it seemed like our rugged screams momentarily matched the aria of Dang Seo-rin. A mere coincidence of harmonizing discord. -G???r????e????????u????g?????g???g???h???????????h?????h?????????h????!????? And that was the only remaining dissonance in this world. That noise, the heartbeat of the monster, the source of the vibration, we both thrust our swords towards it simultaneously. Blood sttered. Old Man Scho¡¯s sword tip pierced the left eyeball-heart, and my de shed the right eyeball-heart. -¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D!! A scream erupted. Blood spurted as countless tentacles began to stretch out from the Ten Legs'' body. The tips of the tentacles loomed right in front of us. Yet, I did not fear being pierced; instead, I pressed the tip of my sword even harder into the eye-heart. Hesitation. The tentacle that had reached right before us paused. The tentacle, resembling a human arm with five fingers, spread its fingers to their limits, as if seized by a convulsion. One second passed, then two seconds. As the music dwindled and thest lingering moments seemed to extend indefinitely, we too stood silently, swords embedded in the monster''s heart, watching the creature. Then suddenly, I felt an irresistible urge to utter these words. "Did we get it?" Old Man Scho nched. "Hey, you fool! If you say that now...!¡± The five fingers of the Ten Legs exploded. Flesh tore. Bursting open, it spilled forth red blood. Fingers, arms, countless tentacles, one after another, burst and flowed. There was no turning back. The monster that had wandered the red paths of this world for so long drowned itself in a pool of red. ¡°¡¡¡± Suddenly drenched in blood, Old Man Scho stared nkly downwards. Then he turned towards me and finally looked behind. The moment we turned our backs, a roar louder than any earthquake created by the Ten Legs shook the heavens. Hundreds had died, but still thousands survived, clenching their fists and hugging each other, they ran towards us. They grabbed my head and tore my shirt. Laughter and cries intermingled. ¡°We did it! We actually did it!¡± Even Old Man Scho, who had never spoken such words before, threw his arms around me, sobbing. "Ah, doc! Thank you! It¡¯s all thanks to you! I couldn¡¯t have made it this far alone!" It was something Old Man Scho would normally never say. I, too, was moved and blurted out something simr, but I won¡¯t describe precisely what¡ªit¡¯s not my hobby to document my own cringey moments. [The Saintess of National Salvation blesses your victory.] [The Monarch of the Crimson Horse shows interest in your bravery.] [The Conqueror of the Alps marvels at your feat.] At that time, the identity of the Saintess was still unknown in the cycles. Just like others, I was purely able to receive the Constetions'' congrattions. After a round of frenzy had passed, Finally, the overallmander of this operation, Dang Seo-rin, slowly approached me. ¡°Can¡¯t believe you pulled off the 10th melody.¡± Perhaps because she sang too passionately, her voice was hoarse. She looked happy yet somewhat embarrassed as she smiled. ¡°Amazing. I never thought we¡¯d actually win.¡± ¡°How long did we hold out?¡± ¡°41 minutes.¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s forehead was drenched with sweat. Her hair was disheveled, sticking to her face, yet it was rtively tamepared to what could have happened. Especially considering the endings she faced from the 4th to the 9th cycle. ¡°We finally reimed Seoul.¡± ¡°Well, south of the Han River, to be precise.¡± ¡°Always used to be the most expensive part of town, right? Good for us. Now we¡¯rend-rich.¡± Despite achieving a colossal feat just then, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s tone was as casual as if she were just on a stroll. Her cheekiness made me chuckle. ¡°Now it¡¯s the worstnd in Korea, though.¡± ¡°Hmm. Hungry? Any injuries? Let''s go grab some food.¡± That¡¯s when Old Man Scho chimed in. ¡°What¡¯s the menu? Octopus sashimi? I can¡¯t eat that.¡± The embarrassed old man who had blurted out cheesy lines was nowhere to be seen, reced once again by the grumpy German curmudgeon he usually was. ¡°Geez. I just don¡¯t get why you guys boil that horrific-looking Cthulhu kraken.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. I was just saying now, I don¡¯t really like octopus sashimi that much either.¡± I was surprised. ¡°Really? Is that so?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly. ¡°Actually, I prefer tacos with wasabi and a highball.¡± Ear-splitting, red carpet. A gourmet of crimson. A monster active south of the Han River. Solitary, unstructured behavior. Civilian and military casualties estimated at approximately 436,000. Estimated 950 Awakeners dead. Number of injured and missing unknown. Official designation, Ten Legs. Subjugationpleted. By the way, the menu for that day¡¯s celebration was pork belly with soju. There wasn¡¯t a Japanese restaurant nearby. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 20 Companion III There is an epilogue to Dang Seo-rin''s story. No, actually, all of my stories belong to epilogues. At least until before the 1183rd cycle. So, strictly speaking, Dang Seo-rin''s story had many epilogues, and I''ll mention just a few of them. "Ah, Undertaker, you''re awake?" The day after the post-Ten Legs subjugation celebration. Everyone was passed out drunk. Those who could handle their liquor were as drunk as they could handle, and those who couldn''t were equally intoxicated. The Ten Legs'' head was a fine apaniment for such revelry.Dawn lingered in the remnants of the night, unwilling to forget, as Dang Seo-rin stood alone under the white pine. Her posture suggested she was bidding farewell to the night past rather than awaiting the sunrise. "Yes, I''m awake." "Does your head not hurt? You and Sword Star were drinking fiercely." "I get drunk quickly and sober up quickly. I''m not much for sleeping in anyway. How about you, Alliance Leader? Is your condition okay?" "Of course. I''m always fine." Yet, Dang Seo-rin''s voice still sounded hoarse. No surprise there, given she had been chanting spells continuously for 41 minutes on the battlefield and sang heartily at the celebration. Even a singer with vocal cords of steel would have been strained. "It seems like I¡¯ll soon stop hearing you call me Alliance Leader. A bit sad, isn¡¯t it?" "Well, the Ten Legs is dead, but who knows what kind of monsters might pop up next. There''s a high chance the guild alliance will need to be formed again. You¡¯ll have to be the leader then." "That so." Dang Seo-rin quietly looked up at the dawn sky. "That so..." I, still not entirely sober, joined her side, half-hoping the blue sky would disinfect the remaining effects of alcohol. Though it seemed unlikely the sky had such properties, what did it matter? The day sky takes in people''s sweat, and the night sky collects their dreams, while the thoughts they haven''t managed to express are taken in by the dawn. "Look." The wind beside me spoke. "Wanna hear what my dream is?" "I know. It¡¯s to conquer every famous eatery in the world." "Ah, that¡¯s right. Can''t give up on that." Dang Seo-rin nodded seriously. "But the dream I''m talking about now is a different one." A different dream? I tilted my head, puzzled. Did she have another dream? I had served as the vice-guild leader for Dang Seo-rin from the 4th to the 6th cycle, but had never heard of another dream. "Oh. Are you perhaps talking about raising three thousand elite guild members to live up to the name of the Samcheon World?" "Oh. There was that too. What¡¯s with you, Undertaker?" Dang Seo-rin looked at me as if surprised. "You always seem so disinterested in others, yet you know so much about me? Are you a fan? Sorry to say, but there¡¯s another dream I¡¯m talking about." "Then I really don¡¯t know. What is it?" "Travelling." Dang Seo-rin slightly lifted her heels and reached out towards the dawn. Her fingers grasped sharply at the sky. "I want to travel this ruined world by train." "By train?" "Yes. It doesn¡¯t have to be a grand train. Just a junky, single-carriage train that I¡¯ve customized myself." She hummed as if singing. "A thing that won¡¯t move unless I take care of it, where I can eat, sleep, travel, and even hangundry. Like a camper van or a yacht." "I¡¯m not sure if the rails are still intact. Even the KTX trains we¡¯re using as temporary lodgings in the Samcheon Guild aren''t running, are they? The onene roads are still managed by the Busan workshops." "That''s okay. Somehow with the mysterious power of magic..." Dang Seo-rin mimed boxing with a yap yap sound. "I¡¯ll fix the world''s destroyed railways one by one, continuing on. From station to station, alwaysying pretty rails behind wherever I¡¯ve passed." "Hmm." "That¡¯s how it will go, and go, and go¡ until it can go no more. If it ends at some dpidated train station at a beach, where only a single station attendant stands alone." "¡¡." Dang Seo-rin said no more. Suddenly feeling an odd sensation, I looked at her face. It was a strange statement, but she seemed as if she might copse at any moment. "Alliance Leader?" "Hmm." Dang Seo-rin blinked. She leaned against her broom, which she imed was a witch''s essential item. Herplexion was the same as usual. "Undertaker. Why not join my guild and be a vice-guild leader? You know our guild does well. You won¡¯t get another chance like this. You¡¯ll regret itter if you don¡¯t." "¡Are we back to that? I won¡¯t take the pointy hat." "Really? Then, it can¡¯t be helped." Dang Seo-rin walked away waving lightly behind her. "Bye-bye~ I¡¯ll go for a walk and then head back. Don¡¯t follow me; I¡¯ll enjoy some solitude." "When will you return?" "Who knows? Maybe in about an hour?" An hour passed, then two, and Dang Seo-rin did not return. A search party was dispatched by the guild alliance. Three hours after her disappearance, Dang Seo-rin was found copsed on a forest trail. After that day, Dang Seo-rin never got up again. "How is the condition of the guild leader of Samcheon?" "That is¡ peculiar." The medical team looked somber. "Her body''s functions overall are deteriorating. We thought it might be a curse, but it¡¯s not. I can only say it¡¯s truly peculiar¡ I''m sorry to tell you this, but it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if she closed her eyes at any moment." "I see." I braced myself and entered the hospital room, one of the few still functioning normally in Korea. Dang Seo-rin caught my eye as she sat by the window. She was reading a novel, relying on the wheels of a wheelchair instead of the trains she loved so much. "¡¡." "¡¡." Silence hung in the air. After about 30 seconds, Dang Seo-rin mmed the novel shut and ced it on herp. "Lifespan." That was the first thing she said after seeing my face in two weeks. "Lifespan?" "Yes. That¡¯s really the point, isn¡¯t it? I hate this kind of atmosphere. Let¡¯s get it over with and talk about something else." Dang Seo-rin shrugged. Her expression and gestures were just like the usual Dang Seo-rin, you wouldn¡¯t believe anything was wrong with her if it weren¡¯t for the wheelchair. No. It wasn¡¯t just the wheelchair. The pointed hat hung on a coat rack, and the broom, which wasn''t a witch''s essential but a cleaning tool, leaned against the wall. This hospital room felt like an insult to the person that was Dang Seo-rin. "My magic bes stronger the more of my lifespan I burn. It¡¯s not just magic, but a power I¡¯ve awakened. Coolly named [Equivalent Exchange]. It¡¯s not a very unfamiliar ability, is it?" "So¡" "Yeah. Wow, the Ten Legs was really tough. How could such a monster exist? I thought it would die right there when I chanted the 10th melody, but somehow it survived until now. Anyway, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m sick." I couldn¡¯t easily bring up the words. It wasn¡¯t because I couldn¡¯t think of anythingforting to say. It was just that I was feeling a profound shock. ¡®She had never revealed it before.¡¯ The fact that Dang Seo-rin was a multi-ability Awakener. Besides her magical abilities, she had the power to temporarily boost her firepower by burning her lifespan. Even when I had been her second-inmand in the Samcheon Guild, Dang Seo-rin had kept her secret weapon hidden. Because¡ ¡°¡Were you thinking of dying in the fight against the Ten Legs anyway?¡± "You¡¯re so smart, Undertaker." Dang Seo-rin nodded crisply. "To win against such an opponent, one must risk their life. Isn¡¯t that right? You, Sword Star, everyone who participated in the battle, the soldiers and civilian volunteers who supported us. Everyone." I couldn¡¯t deny her words. Hadn¡¯t I, too, gambled with my life seven times? Suddenly, the conversations we had during the cycles came to mind. With the Ten Legs subjugation right before us, she had recited: -30 minutes. Just hold on for 30 minutes. I¡¯ll set up a grand magic to blow the Ten Legs¡¯ head off. -Undertaker. Sword Star. Don¡¯t mind the means, justst for 25 minutes¡ no, 30 minutes. At that time, Dang Seo-rin must have been prepared for her own death. Thus, what she really was asking for was this. -Just hold on for 30 minutes until I die. But the subjugation of the Ten Legs took 41 minutes. It must have been a consumption of lifespan far beyond her limits. "¡¡." I found it hard to calm my roiling heart. For me, regression was also a tool to test the potential of others. Most people¡¯s actions and oues changed with each cycle. However, some things did not change no matter how many times they regressed. The strength of mind and firmness of conviction. Dang Seo-rin had always discussed subjugating the Ten Legs and mentioned 30 minutes without exception in every cycle. In every cycle, her principle of action to ''sacrifice her own life to annihte humanity¡¯s enemy'' remained unchanged. ¡°How exactly does Equivalent Exchange work?¡± "Ah. When I awakened the ability, it showed that my natural lifespan was 85 years. Then, I just think in my mind, ¡®I¡¯ll use up a few years from the remaining 60 years,¡¯ and my firepower automatically enhances." "So, did you use up over 60 years in the Ten Legs battle?" "Uh, well, um¡." Dang Seo-rin furrowed her brows. "That¡¯s really strange." "Really?" "Did I tell you? I didn¡¯t expect tost over 30 minutes while chanting Cursed Song Incantation. If my calctions were correct, even reaching the 6th melody was a close call." Dang Seo-rin rested her chin on her hand. "The thing with Cursed Song Incantation is, the more melodies that ovep, the more exponentially the required magic power increases. It¡¯s truly exponential. Even if I had used up 60 years of lifespan, reaching the 10th melody should have been impossible." "But you chanted it just fine." "Right? Isn¡¯t it strange? Even while I was chanting behind you guys, I was actually thinking, ¡®Why is this working? How is this working?¡¯ and had lots of question marks floating around." "¡¡." "I was sweating bullets." That¡¯s when it happened. An odd premonition, different from anxiety or ominousness but simr in sensation, spread up from my back. "Alliance Leader. Then, how many years of lifespan did you exactly use up during the Ten Legs battle?" "Huh? I was too out of it to count every year. Let¡¯s see¡." "¡Perhaps about 250 years?" "Oh." Dang Seo-rin nodded. "Right. Not exactly sure, but definitely more than 200 years and certainly less than 300. Roughly 250 years. How did you know?" An electric current surged through me, a realization dawning. For instance. Suppose, hypothetically, that the lifespan Dang Seo-rin hadn¡¯t used ¡®carries over to the next cycle¡¯? I don¡¯t know how Dang Seo-rin met her end from the 1st to the 3rd cycle. She probably fought against the Ten Legs then, too, but without Old Man Scho and me, even if she entered the battle, the squad would have been annihted within five minutes. Dang Seo-rin would have died before she could even start her Cursed Song Incantation. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s natural lifespan was 85 years. Removing her current age from that, and excluding the lifespan she spent here and there outside of the Ten Legs battle, she would have about 45 years left. In other words. From the 1st to the 5th cycle, where the Ten Legs battle hadn¡¯t properly taken ce, Dang Seo-rin inadvertently left about 40~45 years per cycle. From the 6th cycle, when Old Man Scho joined, the pace of the Ten Legs battles picked up. That allowed Dang Seo-rin to leisurely use up her lifespan. An extra 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s lifespans gradually ¡®umted¡¯. Thus, by the 10th cycle, she had unwittingly saved up 250 years in an ount called lifespan. ¡®If this hypothesis is true...¡¯ During the past cycles, the lifespans Dang Seo-rin had saved up were unfortunately all used up in this 10th cycle. But my regression didn¡¯t end with the 10th cycle. It would continue on. And depending on the situation, it was unclear how much lifespan Dang Seo-rin could save. ¡®If it¡¯s saved up to 500 years? 1000 years, 2000 years?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t contain my tremors. "Guild Leader." "Yes?" I inadvertently called Dang Seo-rin ¡®Guild Leader¡¯ as I used to. She didn¡¯t seem to notice anything unusual, tilting her head as usual. "What?" "I have something important to tell you." That I¡¯m a regressor. Maybe your lifespan umtes with each cycle. "That¡¯s amazing!" Throughout hearing my theory, Dang Seo-rin was intrigued, surprised, and her eyes sparkled. "Undertaker, were you actually myckey?" "Is that what you¡¯re surprised about¡?" "Of course! What else should I be shocked by? Wow, I was amazing in other cycles, too. My eyes weren¡¯t wrong. You really suit the pointed hat. Look here, Undertaker. Won¡¯t you be my witchy friend?" What on earth is a witchy friend? "Didn¡¯t you consider the possibility that my words might be a lie?" "Why would I think about that? We¡¯rerades. If you say you¡¯re a regressor, then you must be." Dang Seo-rin chuckled lightly while coughing. The sound of her cough thinly spread her remaining lifespan into the air. "Anyway, you and I have simr dreams." "Really?" "We¡¯re both fixing the broken rails in this world, one by one. The rails destroyed by the Ten Legs. The abandoned lines broken by other monsters. If we fix them step by step, eventually tracks will connect from one station to another, and other people can follow that path too." "¡¡." "Not bad." Even if I didn¡¯t have [Complete Memory], I would have never forgotten the words I heard that day. Dang Seo-rin grinned. "And it¡¯s ironic. I can¡¯t walk the rails with you, but at least my lifespan will follow you at the same pace. I can¡¯t be with you alive, but in death, we arepanions." Dang Seo-rin kept a smile to the end as she reached out her hand. The novel on herp slid off. The white pages, which never became wings and were tied up in a suit, unfurled partially on the floor. Dang Seo-rin''s eyes shone brightly. Her five fingers gripped my forearm. The person who lost parents and siblings to a monster, the one who couldn¡¯t stop loving trains, held onto my arm. Strongly. "Don¡¯t waste my lifespan, use it well, Undertaker." "¡¡." "It took up to the 10th melody to defeat the Ten Legs. That¡¯s too much of a waste. You need to be stronger." So it was. "I shouldn¡¯t excessively burn my lifespan with Cursed Song Incantation. It¡¯s just a hunch, but I feel like it won¡¯t be enough. Those creatures might be stronger. Not 250 years, but 500 years, 1000 years might be necessary. My lifespan needs to be umted as much as possible to prepare for the monsters that will appear after the Ten Legs." So it was. "And if possible, don¡¯t reveal to the next cycle''s me that you¡¯re a regressor. I¡¯m too greedy, too selfish. I can never think in terms of ¡®sacrificing this cycle for the next one.¡¯ If I knew that lifespans could be saved up for hundreds of years, I would definitely use it all up now. Until the very, veryst moment, try to guide it so that my lifespan continues to umte." So it was. "And in other cycles, always try to be my vice-guild leader." That did not happen. Dang Seo-rinughed brightly. "Looking forward to it. Mypanion in time." That night, Dang Seo-rin died. Her remains were scattered at the beach. It wasn¡¯t easy to fulfill her will. I grew stronger, and the Ten Legs no longer forced me to struggle. The need for Dang Seo-rin to chant during battles against the Ten Legs disappeared. But even after the Ten Legs vanished, formidable enemies continued to appear, and Dang Seo-rin always stood at the forefront. She was always at the forefront. The ends of the damaged tracks were always her destination. Supporting her, who frequently sought to use up her lifespan, was more difficult than anticipated. Once, a disaster urred where all the lifespans were reset. Of course, it was just a mistake. Now, over 1000 cyclester, by my calctions, Dang Seo-rin''s lifespan has umted tens of thousands of years. At least over 30,000 years of lifespan. ¡®How far could she sing if she started now?¡¯ Sometimes, while drinking coffee, I get lost in such imaginations. Envisioning Dang Seo-rin singing on some battlefield. The 1st melody, the 2nd, the 3rd... No matter how long it goes on and oveps, her song never ends and eventually spreads beyond the horizon, reaching all the beaches where the world¡¯s tracks connect. Eventually, Dang Seo-rin would arrive at some coast she had longed for. Wearing a pointed hat, holding a staff, aboard a single-carriage train. While I hope to hear that song someday, I also secretly wish that day neveres. In recent cycles, whenever Dang Seo-rin happens to meet me, she asks, just like when we first met in the 4th cycle, in exactly the same way. "Undertaker. Don¡¯t you want to join my guild? I can offer you the position of vice-guild leader." Then I smile lightly and respond. "I won¡¯t join." It can¡¯t be helped. The pointed hat doesn¡¯t suit me, does it, guild Leader? Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 21 Reader I After that rather serious discussion, it was time to lighten up the mood again. In the very early stages of my regression, that is, before the 20th cycle, I had been excessively serious. I had believed that if I could just stay focused and put in enough effort, I could surely save the world. I don''t intend to disparage that effort, but it was somewhat arrogant. Who was I to treat the world''s weight as equal to my own? Infinite regression? It¡¯s just an awakened ability. People should know how to let go of themselves. The weight released leaves room for others. In any case, my way of letting go was through ''hobbies.'' I guarantee that there are no other regressors with as many diverse hobbies as I have. Managing mental health is the most important thing in a regressor''s life, and hobbies are like housekeepers that keep one''s mental home clean.A regressor''s mentalndscape is an extravagant pce spanning thousands of square feet. Naturally, the number of maids needed for this ''cleaning'' must also be considerable. If I were to list the maids I¡¯ve hired, or rather, my hobbies, they would be as follows: [Games, exploring SG Net, barista work, weightlifting, bullying fairies, harassing Seo Gyu, cooking, walking, listening to music, ying music, stealing Dang Seo-rin''s pointed hat and hiding it under the bed, guitar, harassing Seo Gyu, violin, piano, painting, sculpting, ceramics, radio collecting, stealing and listening to Old Man Scho''s phone recordings, managing a ranch, harassing Seo Gyu, choosing any job and living as it...] But I won¡¯t mention all those maids one by one. There''s nothing as tedious as babbling about a hobby that others can''t rte to. So, today¡¯s chosen maid is ¡®reading.¡¯ And specifically, ¡®reading web novels.¡¯ I originally didn¡¯t know about web novels. As a child, I only read a few martial arts novels. It wasn¡¯t until around the 555th cycle that I came to know web novels. It was through a person I met in the 555th cycle that I was introduced to web novels. This person was an Awakener named Oh Dok-seo. I''ll have the chance to talk more about them in the next episode. For now, it''s only important that I found a new hobby and became happier because of it. The best part about web novels was that each work had a lot of content. They say reading nourishes the mind, and I''m someone who values quantity over quality when eating. At least in the restaurant of web novels, it seemed I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about running out of food. Of course, that was a damned illusion. "No more novels¡ to read?" I was shocked. I had only managed to enjoy this feast until the 556th cycle. In just one or two cycles, all the fodder avable to me was depleted. In reality, web novels were a rtively new phenomenon and had a surprisingly limited number of works. "Uh, hmm. Should I start diving into other genres¡?" A thirsty person doesn¡¯t choose their well. Though I only started with fantasy novels, I quickly consumed academy novels, horror stories, romance fantasy, martial arts, isekai, professional stories, parodies, TS (gender-swap), yuri, and more. If it was written in King Sejong''s invented script, I devoured it. Eventually, even English and Japanese novels weren''t off limits. A whole new world opened up. I was happy. The 558th cycle ended. The new world was destroyed. "No more novels¡ to read?" I was once again shocked. I had thoroughly scraped the bottom of the barrel, leaving nothing left to consume. I wasn''t picky. I dly consumed postmodernist novels that daringly reced double quotes (¡°¡±) with reverse-double quotes (¡±¡°). I enjoyed minimalist masterpieces that omitted periods inside quotation marks and ssics by new-generation phonologists who tried to express character voices with tildes (~) or silence with ellipses (...). I even read satires where an original character not in the source material appeared, hoarded all the protagonist''s fortuitous encounters for themselves, and then sneered at the protagonist, criticizing their weaknesspared to the original. It was a biting critique of modern selfishness. I also read the work of a gue researcher where every characterughed in ''Ho-ho,'' so they all contracted ''Ho-ho Syndrome.'' In other words, "Hum~ How strange.. was the protagonist always this weak? Ho! Ho! Ho!" Even bizarre scriptures like that became my daily bread. Ah¨D¨D From now on, call me the Diver of the Web Novel world, not the Undertaker. Because it¡¯s the truth. This was my bottom, my abyss, my Mariana Trench. If I went any deeper, I couldn¡¯t even breathe, let alone find anything to eat. Even as a regressor with a lot of experience, this was a hellscape where survival wasn¡¯t guaranteed! So I could confidently say, "No more novels¡ exist." Many other readers will eventually face this same situation. When this happens, there are usually two paths a reader can take: decide to take a break from web novels or be an author and make the content themselves. By chance, I wasn''t an ''ordinary'' reader. I was an infinite regressor. Regressors have a third path. "I¡¯ll have to kidnap all the writers and turn them into machines that spit out stories." I puffed out my chest. A path no one had taken. But a path every reader has dreamt of. Towards that path, I, the Undertaker, stepped forward with confidence. Over one cycle, I gathered personal information and profiles of web novel authors, and at the start of the next cycle, I traveled the country, collecting authors. Of course, since authors aren¡¯t fantastical creatures that could be captured by throwing red-and-white balls at them, it required painstaking effort to gather them into the collection. Those sensitive to the author''s sensibilities might object, ¡°Isn¡¯t that kidnapping, not collecting?¡± But around the 560th cycle, I was quite strong. Compared to surviving in this harsh world, wouldn¡¯t it be happier for them to be bred under my protection as a regressor? I eventually seeded in gathering over 300 authors, bing a master of writer-mon. The authors probably had no idea who brought them here, why, or where they were taken. "Where is this ce?" "Hey... maybe..." "Aren''t you PenmanshipBully? Isn''t that you?" "Oh, I knew it. You''re Writingve. We briefly met at that wedding, right?" "YuriMeddler! You''re here too!" "Gasp, HaremRomance Bro!" Murmur murmur- Gathering hundreds of authors in a hotel lobby, some began recognizing each other. They couldn¡¯t hide their fear but tried to make sense of the situation. "Why were we brought here?" "Did anyone hear an exnation?" "Sorry, I just fainted, and when I woke up, I was here¡ I''ve been here for three days already." "Three days?" "Oh, I''ve been here for four." "Wow, that must have been tough." "Huh? No, they served us nutritious food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the amodations werefortable, and I didn¡¯t have to write daily, so it was great." "¡?" "¡?" It was about time I exined. "Ah, ah. Can you hear me-?" I grabbed the microphone and stood atop the check-in counter. Hundreds of eyes turned towards me. In truth, I only used amplification magic to project my voice, and the microphone was just decoration. Still, I felt it necessary to show courtesy in front of the esteemed authors. These 335 people, confined in this hotel, were carefully and meticulously selected talents. Regardless of genre, age, or gender, only the writers who had made my heart race even once were brought here. "Greetings. I am an Awakener known as the Undertaker. As some of you might have guessed, all of you gathered here are authors in the web novel industry." Murmurs rippled through the crowd. "Only authors?" "Where is this ce?" "If it''s only authors here, this must be hell." "Who¡¯s that person holding the mic?" I spoke seriously. "As I said, I am the Undertaker. This ce is a hotel near Incheon. All the staff fled after trouble erupted in Seoul, but don''t worry. I have already hired new staff, and they are all highly trained professionals." I pointed to the other side of the lobby. Twenty fairies wearing Che Guevara T-shirts saluted. I returned the salute. At one point, I had been hostile towards fairies, but by the 560th cycle, I had established an amicable rtionship with the [Fairy Revolution Club]. I knew their true identity well. "So, please be at ease given the circumstances." "What the hell! Fairies?!" "Kyaaaah! Help!" The authors weren¡¯t particrly reassured. A bit ofmotion ensued, but it was subdued without issue. Ny-nine percent of the authors were far too insignificant in the physical world to cause a stir. I took up the microphone again. "Ah, ah. Mic test. Unfortunately, you cannot escape. The main entrance of the hotel is sealed. The windows of each room allow a view but can¡¯t be crossed. Just like our lives." "Let us go!" "You cannot escape. Highly trained fairy revolutionaries will monitor you 24/7." "Crazy¡." "Who is this person? I¡¯m scared¡." "Everyone, let me ask you this first. Even if you could escape, do you really intend to leave here?" A question mark seemed to hover over the authors'' heads. I would clear their doubts right away. "You may have heard from the news, but the world is thoroughly copsing. Monsters have appeared worldwide, and gates are opening. That¡¯s right. You¡¯repletely fucked." "Uh¡" "Even your livelihoods, the web novel tforms, are hard to ess now. And even if you could ess them, your readers can¡¯t buy your stories because the banking system is copsing. Soon, the intework will also start cutting out. In this situation, your writing skills are useless." The truth resonates. The authors¡¯ faces turned visibly pale. Many of them had started writing with the mindset of "What? I can just write alone and make money? Sweet." That sweetness was now gone. "And even if you keep writing, it¡¯s still a problem. From now on, readers of your stories have a 0.06% chance of encountering the [Isekai Truck]. In this era, your novels are as good as weapons." "Isekai Truck¡?" "Is he a lunatic or something?" The authors murmured amongst themselves, thinking I was talking nonsense. Well, no, the ''Isekai Truck'' was very real. It was a strange phenomenon first discovered in the 119th cycle, and its sightings rapidly increased from then on. Still, no matter how many trucks came barreling towards us, the protective barrier I set around this hotel would hold strong, so it wasn''t a concern. "Then¡ why did you bring us here?" "Because I¡¯m a passionate fan of all of yours." I pointed to an author sitting in the front row. "You there." "Y-yes?" "You''re BadEndingLover, aren''t you? Always writing yuri novels on NovelCampus." The author I singled out looked stunned. "H-how do you¡ know me?" "Didn¡¯t I just say I¡¯m a fan?" "Well, uh, I appreciate thepliment, but¡ you couldn¡¯t possibly have read my work¡ My most popr novel only has 2,000 favorites, and thetest chapter barely gets 100 views¡" "In your first work, the protagonist faced all sorts of misfortunes, a truly tragic story. But from your next piece onward, you started to incorporate elements of no-romance, eventually mastering the bnce between tragedy and no-romance. Granted, in theter stages of your stories, secondary characters suddenly overtake the plot and pair up with the protagonist, giving the story a pure love ending, but even that ruggedness is part of your charm, BadEndingLover." "You really did read my stuff¡?" The authors were astonished. I proceeded to call out more. "RighteousHeavenlyDemonMartial. In an age where the term ''Heavenly Demon'' has been trivialized into a joke, your tales of righteousness and honor in traditional martial arts always stir my heart." "NureongiBapsang. You¡¯re always trying new things in a romance fantasy market that''s been running dry." "MarlovHorseLover. I know how much you contributed to expanding the ''stand-in'' genre, which was considered niche. Your story about a protagonist born as a Hungarian noble during World War I, bing thest cavalrymander and being hailed as a loyal servant of the House of Habsburg is exceptionally rare, and yet it doesn''t sacrifice entertainment." After listing about thirty authors, the ones I mentioned looked deeply moved, though their faces also flushed slightly each time their pen names were called. At any rate, no one in the hotel lobby doubted my sincerity anymore. "Wait a minute." But the suspicions started to take a different direction. The authors whispered amongst themselves. Their voices were as faint as mosquitoes, but my enhanced hearing caught every word. "So this reader reads yuri, TS, pure love, harem, traditional martial arts, fusion martial arts, tragedy, light tragedy, and even those genres we can''t mention for various reasons¡?" "Eek, a monster¡!" "Oh my gosh, what a glutton!" "He''s not Kim Dokja but Kim Nureongi*¡." *Nureongi is the primary dog breed raised in Korea for meat. Ah, these authors are ndering a valuable reader. As a regressor, I just avoided snacking for my mental health. My tastes were quite healthy. "I¡¯d like to express my appreciation to all of you, but due to time constraints, I¡¯ll skip it today." "¡®Today¡¯¡?" "Moreover, I¡¯m sure some of you don¡¯t want your genre publicly revealed." Several authors flinched. "I¡¯ll reach out to you privately sometime. Anyway, authors, please think carefully. Yes, I did kidnap you and imprison you here, but the world outside is dangerous. Can you survive out there in a world that''s falling apart?" The lobby fell silent. In cycles where I hadn¡¯t brought them, half of these authors didn¡¯tst six months. The rest didn¡¯t survive past a year. Only two managed to live rtively long. "Here, you won¡¯t have to worry about survival. I¡¯ll provide everything you need¡ªfood, clothing, and shelter. Even those fairies you fear are just employees at this hotel. Your only job is to write novels." "¡¡." "You can continue your current series or start a new one. Just write. In return, I¡¯ll give you everything else." The authors murmured at that. "He¡¯s not wrong. It really seems like the country is doomed." "I was nning to flee abroad, but hearing it''s no different there, I gave up. Besides,munication would be difficult¡" "They serve buffet meals here every day. It¡¯s not bad." "Thinking about those who couldn¡¯te here, maybe we¡¯re the lucky ones¡" "Right. What happened to the other authors?" The atmosphere took a positive turn. Then, someone muttered to themselves, "Isn¡¯t this just a damn canning factory¡?" Well, some were quick-witted, but the majority had already made up their minds. That day marked the beginning of filming for this group stay misery with 335 authors. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 22 Reader II I was quite satisfied with the ''Canned Hotel'' I had built. Guilt? I felt none. After all, without my intervention, these writers would meet their untimely end in other cycles. Even the Saintess, the embodiment of morality, would give me a thumbs up. [¡Mr. Undertaker.] "Yes? What is it, Saintess?" [¡No, nothing.] More importantly, I was genuinely saving the authors'' lives. Remember how I mentioned the ''Isekai Truck'' earlier? The Isekai Truck is a mysterious monster that can appear to readers of web novels, promising to transport them to a world where their favorite novel''s setting is fully realized, but it does so by crashing into the reader.No joke¡ªit¡¯s a real monster. If you''re an avid web novel reader, one day, as you¡¯re walking down the street, you might suddenly hear a: -Honkkk! And if you turn to look, you''ll see an 11-ton truck charging straight at you. Its unique feature is that instead of a license te number, the truck has a novel title engraved on it. Some people might be thrilled and attempt to kiss the truck''s hood, thinking, "Finally, I can escape this monster-filled apocalypse on the Korean Penins!" But don''t bother. I tried getting hit three times as a test. Dimension travel? Nothing. It''s a lying monster just like the ''Hero Syndrome.'' Anyway, this Isekai Truck targets not only readers but also writers, as they are the first to read their own stories. In other words? -Honkkkk! -Beep! Honk! Honkkk! -Honkkk! Honk! One by one, cargo trucks lined up in front of the ''Canned Hotel,'' which I had built. "Hiiieee... Strange trucks have gathered outside our revolutionary hideout!" Even the fairies, who were used to all sorts of monsters, were puzzled and tilted their heads at the sight. Those trucks weren¡¯t to be taken lightly. The Isekai Truck can teleport wherever the protagonist is and will always catch up, hit-and-run, and then vanish without a trace. It had racked up a history that earned it the moniker of ''God yer,'' given how many protagonists it had taken down, be they world saviors, heroes, harbingers of doom, masterminds, gods, or even mere extra characters who im they''re the strongest. No one but the ''Tutorial Fairy,'' who had butchered many protagonists, could handle this terrifying anomaly. "Is the barrier holding up?" "Yes, Comrade Manager! No matter how those reactionaries struggle to turn back time, the dialectical progress of the revolution is a supreme truth! The evolutionary turn of history cannot be reversed by the futile efforts of those bourgeois thugs!" Boom! As if to prove the point, one of the 11-ton trucks (which had suddenly appeared on the horizon) came barreling toward the hotel entrance and crashed into it. However, the hotel''s main entrance, which I had barricaded with the fairies, remained intact. Only the truck was crumpled like an aluminum can. -Honkkk... -Honkk! Honk... The Isekai Trucks in the parking lot honked, as if mourning theirrade¡¯s valiant death. Meanwhile, the fairies on the balcony waved red gs printed with portraits of Che Guevara and wept in defiance, some even shedding tears. "Ah, revolution! Revolution!" "Drop dead, you fucking imperialists! Petit bourgeois!" "Commune of the fairies of all nations! May itst forever!" I nodded with satisfaction. "Hmm, good. Revolution vanguard, continue defending the barricades. The sess of the revolution hinges on this mission. Everyone, good job." "Yes, Comrade Manager!" "Viva Revolution!" "Our dreams will never die!" The fairies saluted with the kind of spirit that would have garnered a standing ovation from the citizens of Paris in 1871. See? I truly cared about the authors'' safety and wellbeing. If not for the Canned Hotel, where would those trucks be heading? I wasn''t just saving the authors'' lives but also their readers''. The entire web novel industry of the Korean Penins owed its survival to me. In return for this dedication, I didn''t ask much from the authors. Just keep writing. If they filled my empty bowl with new fodder, I''d provide them with food, clothing, shelter, and protection from the Isekai Trucks for at least ten years. After patrolling the guards, I headed to the Secretariat (Editorial Department), where fairies with a more intellectual vibe greeted me. "Ah, Comrade Manager. Please,e in." "Good. You''re all doing well. Since it¡¯s been a month since the canning began, the authors must have stocked up on enough chapters." I cast a meaningful gaze at Secretary Agent No. 264. "Comrade Secretary 264. Bring me the umted manuscripts." "Yes, sir!" In this cycle, Secretary Fairy 264, who managed to secure a high-ranking position, brought in the printed manuscripts. I waited eagerly, filled with anticipation, and received the new works... Only to find myself doubting my eyes. "What is this?" The A4 papers looked too thin, hardly fitting for the work of hundreds of authors for an entire month. It was less than even a well-filled joint fanzine. "Why is there so little?" "But this really is all there is!" This couldn¡¯t be. The authors I asked to write in exchange for food, shelter, and protection from the Isekai Trucks hadn¡¯t even written! After finishing my regressor duties (awakening Seo Gyu, cooperating with the Saintess, closing gates, training promising talents, coborating with guild leaders, etc.) and finally returning to the hotel today, I was in utter disbelief. I had waited all month for today. "You mean I brought in 335 authors, and there aren¡¯t even 100 manuscripts...?" Trembling. The pile of manuscripts in my hand quivered. My anger and disappointment tranted into a magnitude 7 on the seismometer. Authors who don''t write? How is that different from bums? At least bums feel a twinge of guilt when they waste time watching movies and TV shows. But these so-called authors simply pat themselves on the back, calling it ''experience,'' ''learning,'' or ''getting inspiration from movies and shows.'' If there''s no difference between the two groups (or non-groups), why should I, as a regressor, waste valuable resources supporting bums? "What am I supposed to do with this?" "Shall we send them all to the gg?" "This is already the gg... But where could we send our precious writing ves?" I mmed the table. "Gather all the authors in the lobby right now!" A littleter. The authors were called to the lobby. Wait, what? ''Have the authors put on some weight?'' Wobble wobble. Even when I first kidnapped them to the Canned Hotel, they weren''t in the best health on average. Now, after a month of who-knows-what diet, they were bloated with chubby cheeks. If they stayed like this any longer, their faces would shine like waxed fruit. "...Authors. I am deeply disappointed in you." Ovee with fury, I addressed them. "If each of you wrote just one chapter a day, that would be 335 chapters. Over a month, that''s over 10,000 chapters. Do you understand? 10,000 chapters! But now, look at the manuscripts I¡¯m holding." "¡¡." "91 chapters! 91! Does that make any sense? And those 91 chapters were written by only 12 of you! Out of 335, only 12 wrote anything!" Whoosh! I scattered the A4 papers from the tform. They weren¡¯t actual manuscripts but just nk sheets¡ªa kind of performance. I couldn¡¯t actually throw away the writing of these talented authors. But my performance worked. The authors'' faces paled. "Even now, I¡¯m running around day and night to ensure your safety andfort! And this is what you give me in return? If you have any excuses, speak up!" "Uhm..." "Uhh..." The authors nced away. "Well, you see¡ Mr. Reader, uh, we¡¯re sorry, but a new story doesn¡¯t just pop out easily..." "Yeah, we tried brainstorming, walking, and sleeping, but nothing solid came to mind." "Mr. Reader! Writing a story takes longer to n than to write! Especially for new projects." "I hate to say this since we¡¯re freeloading, but honestly, demanding new ideas in just a month is unreasonable." "Right!" "We really tried writing, but we couldn¡¯t. We want to write, but nothinges out. It¡¯s driving us crazy!" The authors continued to chorus their exnations like a seasoned a cappe choir, passing the tune back and forth. Hearing their reasoning made me pause. ''That¡¯s usible.'' Indeed, they say creation is a constant struggle. After finishing one work, some authors take three to four years to start another. Perhaps my demand for a new project in a month was too much... Hmm? "Wait a moment. Only 126 of you should be working on a new project. The rest were already serializing existing works, weren''t they?" The authors flinched. "So why couldn''t they write? They didn''t miss any deadlines before checking in." "Adaptation!" The authors sang in unison. "Serializing requires a delicate environment. Some authors write only at home, others only in caf¨¦s, and some need their own studio." "But none write in hotels..." "It''s a totally different story." "My sinus was so bad yesterday I couldn''t sleep. My head felt foggy, and I didn¡¯t want to touch the keyboard." "Oh, I know that feeling too!" "I had so much free time that I got stuck editing endlessly, like an infinite loop." "In an unfamiliar environment, you have to rebuild your writing habits from scratch. Serialization is all about routine." "Just as I thought, writers understand each other. This is a subtle but crucial issue that outsiders who have never serialized wouldn¡¯t understand." "Exactly. It¡¯s not easy." Is that so? Indeed, they say creation demands sensitive emotions. To provide afortable collective living environment, I had taken over a luxury hotel in Incheon. I even gave them a weekly allowance. Even in this copsed world, with no way to leave and no use for currency, it still served a purpose. ''Because there¡¯s a casino in the hotel''s basement.'' It was originally a foreigner-only casino, but now it was a paradise just for the authors. They could use their monthly stipend as game money and indulge to their heart¡¯s content. The luxury shopping mall in the hotel was also open for business. ording to Secretary Fairy No. 264, the authors were highly satisfied with this setup and frequented the casino. A near-perfect welfare system! ''But it''s an unfamiliar environment.'' I nodded. How could I, just a mere reader, meddle in the writers'' deep anguish and delicate emotions? I could use [Telepathy] to read their minds, but it felt disrespectful to the authors I cherished. "Alright. Then I''ll give you one more month." "A month is too short... At least three months..." "Well, no matter how difficult the job, every profession requires discipline. I trust in your diligence." "Yes..." "We will do our best..." Another month passed. This time, I received only 75 chapters. "Why is it even less?" I was appalled. How could this happen? The fairy grinned brightly. "But this really is all there is!" "No¡ Secretary, does this make sense? There are 335 authors. If each wrote one chapter a week, that¡¯s over a thousand chapters. But not even 750, just 75?" I reconvened the authors and grilled them again, but their answers remained the same. And if people give the same answer twice after being given two chances, that¡¯s an excuse. Unfortunately, I couldn''t trust the authors any longer. In hindsight, I must have seen them through rose-colored sses. An expert. I needed an expert who could analyze why this was happening. After consulting one, I got my answer immediately. "Are you stupid? The environment''s too good, old man." Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 23 Reader III ¡°Too good of an environment?¡± What was wrong with that? ¡°Hah. I think you¡¯ve got some fantasies about what it means to be a writer. Writers areborers, in and simple. They write to earn money and gain attention.¡± Oh Dok-seo, the self-proimed web novel expert, said this. As mentioned earlier, we''ll delve deeper into who this Oh Dok-seo is at another time. For now, it¡¯s enough to know that Oh Dok-seo was a nerd fashion trendsetter, always sporting a red bob haircut, a cap, a band-aid on her nose, and her favorite hoodie. ¡°Just making sure, you''re not using telepathy right now?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve turned it off.¡± ¡°Good. Now, have you ever seen a construction worker swinging a hammer purely for self-fulfillment? Someone who says, ¡®I love unloading crates so much that I want to do it for the rest of my life¡¯?¡±¡°Well¡ not often.¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly it.¡± Oh Dok-seo chewed her gum, blowing a bubble. By the way, it wasn¡¯t bubble gum, just regr chewing gum. Of course, it didn¡¯t inte properly, making a faint, hissing noise before bursting and sticking to her lips. She wiped her mouth nonchntly, fully embodying her nerd fashionista, edgy, middle-schooler persona. ¡°Remember, writinges from a ce of scarcity.¡± Oh Dok-seo¡¯s expression was serious. Or rather, she was deadly serious. I don¡¯t usually use that phrase, but in this case, it was warranted. If I didn¡¯t use ¡®deadly¡¯ to describe Oh Dok-seo¡¯s face, it would be disrespecting the word¡¯s very existence. ¡°Why give them an allowance? Take it away. Throw them into the depths of despair. Make them watch people being ughtered by monsters. You¡¯re strong, right? You can do it, so why aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Hmm¡¡± ¡°Just don¡¯t kill them. Oh, and keep their hands and backs intact. You just need to make sure they''re not crippled. Writers actually produce better work when exploited.¡± Oh Dok-seo spoke with the confidence of someone who believed truth should serve them, not the other way around. ¡°Weren¡¯t they all doomed to die if not for you? So, if they stay alive, you¡¯ve done your job, haven¡¯t you?¡± Is that so? Is it really? ¡®That makes sense.¡¯ It was worth testing. Assuming the failure of the Canned Hotel in the 560th cycle, I trained the writers ording to Oh Dok-seo¡¯s advice in the next cycle. Instead of heaven, I gave them a taste of a milder hell. ¡°Kyaaaah!¡± ¡°Somebody help! Help me!¡± I took the writers for a little walk beyond their amodations. -Honkkk! Beep! -Honk! Honk! Honk! -Honnkkkkk! Beep Beep! The Isekai Trucks exceeded a thousand. Not only the parking lot but the road leading to the amodations was packed with 11-ton trucks, replicating the traffic jams of Chuseok holidays. Trucks collided, overturned, and crashed as they pursued the writers in a surreal scene. And that wasn¡¯t all. ¡°Ugh, it¡¯s cold¡¡± ¡°I¡¯m hungry¡ I want yukgaejang¡¡± ¡°Moooom¡¡± The environment had changed too. Instead of a luxury hotel, I set up a shabby refugee camp for the writers. No chef fairies cooking gourmet meals. No casino dealer fairies. None of that. Even the equipment provided was cheap. Watching the writers sit on the dirt floor, staring nkly at the ceiling or crying their eyes out, pained me. But shock therapy exists for a reason. I spoke. ¡°Ah, mic check. Writers, from now on, you¡¯ll be living in this vige. I will try to protect you from most dangers, but I can¡¯t guarantee your safety. The harder you write, and the more entertaining your stories are, the more resources you¡¯ll have.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°I love you, writers. I wish you the best.¡± And something miraculous happened. This extreme treatment actually worked! The writers were driven to write as if possessed. Out of 335, not one was idle. Their writing speed was iparable to thest cycle! I couldn¡¯t help but be moved. ¡°These are true writers, and this is how much they should write.¡± Looking at the pile of manuscripts brought a smile to my face. But as I eagerly flipped through the pages¨D¨D ¡°¡Hmm?¡± Something felt off. Like a dog startled by unfamiliar food, I instinctively paused while holding the manuscript. ¡°Why¡ why does this taste spoiled?¡± It was different. The vor of the writing had changed. The fantasy writer who once sang about the triumphs of humanity was now writing a story about the demon king''s army butchering everything. A yuri author, known for heartwarming characters, had monsters tearing couples apart. Zombies appeared in martial arts stories and destroyed the Martial Realm. Across all genres, characters were in despair, and the world was falling apart. And then I realized. ¡°This isn¡¯t genre fiction!¡± Pure literature! The vor was unmistakably pure literature! And the particr kind that screams, ¡®everything¡¯s screwed, so screw it all!¡¯ The familiar scent of the web novel authors I loved was gone, reced by a stranger¡¯s fragrance. It felt like catching my partner cheating. ¡®It¡¯s well-written. Very well-written, but¡¡¯ This wasn¡¯t the kind of food I wanted! If I wanted despair, I could just reflect on my life as a regressor. Why should I read despair fiction in my free time? Was I a masochist? No matter how much effort the authors put in, they couldn''tpete with my firsthand knowledge of how terrible monsters could be or how far humanity could fall. Their attention to detail didn¡¯t measure up to mine. ¡®What have I done to my authors?¡¯ This couldn¡¯t stand. I immediately sought out Oh Dok-seo toin. But even considering the different cycle, she remained uninterested. ¡°Not fun? So what?¡± Oh Dok-seo casually filed her nails. ¡°A creative work just needs to have the author¡¯s spirit, right? Why should they sell their soul just for your amusement?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°You said you love these authors. Shouldn¡¯t you love them no matter what they write? What¡¯s wrong? Has your love changed? Wow. I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d be so harsh.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Then again, maybe it¡¯s my fault for expecting anything from humans again. Can love change? Can people shift? Oh, and by ¡®shift,¡¯ I mean ¡®shit.¡¯ Catchy rhyme, right?¡± I couldn¡¯t reason with this edgy, middle-school poser! Thus, the 561st cycle¡¯s Canned Hotel was also aplete failure. Back to square one, I pondered. Too muchfort was no good because it took away the motivation to write. Too much suffering was also no good because it overwhelmed the writing itself. ¡®This is a tough nut to crack. How can I cultivate tasty web novels? Are authors inherently doomed from the start?¡¯ I mulled it over and over. Eventually, I reached a conclusion. In the next cycle, SG Net, which had only amunity function, got a new board. A novel serialization board. The announcement posted on the board read: ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Novel Serialization Board Usage Guide] 1. All registered SG Net members receive novel points daily upon logging in. 2. Novel points can be used to purchase new chapters of novels or donate to your favorite author. 3. Points used by readers will be transferred to the authors. Authors can use these points to purchase desired items, which will be notified separately. 4. At 24:00 every day, the board will disy the rankings of all novels based on how many readers purchased them. 5. For non-awakened authors who cannot ess SG Net, a manager service is avable. The manager will upload the non-awakened author''s work to the board. Members can also upload on behalf of non-awakened authors they know. 6. Let¡¯s create a healthypetitive culture! ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ In other words, I had created a tform for serializing novels. Members¡¯ initial reactions were lukewarm. -Anonymous: Can anyone post a novel? -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: It¡¯s time to unveil my profound prose to the world. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: I was a bit bored since there wasn''t much to do besidesmunity stuff, so this is nice. -Anonymous: What items can you buy with points? -OldManGoryeo: Probably only shitty stuff will be uploaded. Any author wannabes thinking of serializing better watch out. I¡¯llment on every chapter. -dolLHoUse: hype -[Baekhwa SixthGrader: Hoeng...{( >_<); There weren¡¯t many awakened authors. And even if there were, most were too busy navigating the apocalypse to have time to serialize. But leisure wasn¡¯t just for those who had it; it was for those who made it. A few Awakeners found time to serialize novels. -GoryeoJang: ? What¡¯s with this point purchase list? A certification post on SG Net one day caused a stir. -One-month amodation ticket (5-star hotel) -Fairy bodyguard: Unable to hunt gates, only provides defense. Misusing this bodyguard will be punished. -Real-time chat fan meeting with desired Constetion: Meeting may be denied based on the Constetion¡¯s preference. If denied, points will be refunded. -Consultation on one¡¯s awakening ability tech tree: Constetion provides direct guidance on maximizing the efficiency of one¡¯s ability. Will not be responsible for training, only gives guidelines. . . . -GoryeoJang: Seriously, just look at these point items. Anyway, I bought the awakening ability tech tree. Are the dumb SG Net people not serializing yet? lol Thement section exploded. -Anonymous: ?? Is that for real? -Anonymous: Who gave points to buy that guy¡¯s novel? Idiots? -LiteraryGirl: GoryeoJang actually writes pretty well¡ He was a web novel otaku before the gates opened, and there aren¡¯t many who write like him. -Anonymous: What¡¯s that psycho¡¯s novel about? ©¸LiteraryGirl: An incredibly kind protagonist uses their healing ability to help those in need and eventually saves a small kingdom in a tribute to humanity. A rare type of protagonist these days. I cried at the scene where they almost get hunted as a witch but still treat the inquisitors, saying, ¡®A doctor doesn¡¯t choose their patients.¡¯ ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸[Samcheon] Lieutenant: ? -Anonymous: Fuck, are these items real? As expected of SG Net. It¡¯s on a different level with the Constetions directly managing it. -dolLHoUse: hypeeee -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Why doesn¡¯t anyone read my prose? The message was a shock, but so was the messenger, a notorious SG Net troll. Members¡¯ responses grew heated. That certification post marked the beginning of the ¡°Great Serial Age¡± on SG Net. Some people who had awakened started serializing their novels directly. Guilds also began hiring skilled authors and uploading their work on their behalf. In a world that had copsed, the once-useless writer profession became a kind of support member. -The Protagonist Doesn¡¯t Return from the Volcano (¡ï9.9) -Her Circumstances That Made Her a Count¡¯s Munchkin (¡ï9.9) -Comedy Club [19+ Uncensored Edition] (¡ï9.9) -The Apartment Hides Reinforced Steel (¡ï5.7) Unsurprisingly, the serialized works on SG Net showcased a level of quality unmatched by the 560th and 561st cycles. The despair and emotions that writers experienced during the apocalypse added depth to their work while maintaining the fun of web novels. ¡°What¡¯s the difference? What do you think?¡± After hearing about my journey since the 560th cycle, Oh Dok-seo asked. I poured her an espresso since that¡¯s all she drinks. ¡°The number of readers. Andpetition.¡± ¡°Hmm? What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Most writers are attention-seekers. As you said, they¡¯recking something. But that emptiness isn¡¯t filled by experience. Only by others¡¯ attention, love, and passion.¡± Because what theyck isn¡¯t themselves but others. Writers have too much of themselves in their hearts. ¡°That¡¯s why they need as many others as possible, like celebrities. Like Roman diators in the coliseum.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°But that¡¯s secondary. The real key ispetition among writers.¡± I logged into SG Net''s novel serialization board and pulled up the novel rankings. Disyed prominently, the ranking section showcased the most popr novels, listed from first ce down. ¡°Endlesspetition among writers, judged solely by purchase numbers. It¡¯s pure meritocracy. Writers can¡¯t help but be drawn to the radiant mirage of ¡®proving their worth through pure writing skill,¡¯ like the bright lights of New York¡¯s skyscrapers.¡± It reminded me of ancient Greek tragedy writers. They held contests and ranked each other. Crowds gathered to follow the writers¡¯ works in real-time, cheering them on. Athens was the world''s leading city, dominating the Mediterranean world. Winning the crowd¡¯s favor meant being recognized as the world¡¯s best writer. Competition, enthusiasm, and a certificate proiming you the best in the world. That system let Greek tragedies burn brightly, if briefly. It¡¯s no wonder Nietzsche describedpetition as the essence of the Greek people. ¡°This is our¡ªhumanity¡¯sst Dionysian theater.¡± But I was a consummate glutton. While I enjoyed popr works that appealed to the masses, I also devoured niche genres that appealed to only a few yet satisfied their creators'' desires. Before and after the world began copsing, these works often went unnoticed. I scrolled down the rankings and clicked on a particr novel. -Title: 101 Ways She epts Death (¡ï7.7) -Pen name: BadEndingLover A writer who always pursued the niche. After reading thetest chapter, I pressed the [Support Author] button. -Donated 2,000 points. -ZERO_SUGAR: Your writing is always... wonderful ^^. I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter. Please watch out for trucks~ Hmm. Something seemed missing, so I tilted my head. ¡°Oh.¡± That¡¯s right. I forgot to write this. -ZERO_SUGAR: But there¡¯s a spelling error. The correct expression is ¡®An incident ured¡¯ not ¡®An insident ured¡¯ This is the third time you¡¯ve made this mistake in this work. Are you the type who doesn¡¯t run a spell checker~? lol. Best wishes, and stay healthy. Write well ^^ I nodded. Still a perfect donation message. Though this whole ridiculous act proved unexpectedly usefulter on. -Honnkkkk! But that¡¯s a story for another day. Right now, I had to deal with the Isekai Truck parked in front of my ce. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 24 Prophet I Let''s talk about Oh Dok-seo, a web novel otaku, leader of nerd fashion, and a hipster with a case of the chuunibyou syndrome. As I mentioned before, I first met this character in the 555th run. Actually, we knew each other way before that, but we only forged a real ''bond'' in the 555th run. At the time, I regressed to the waiting area of Busan Station, as usual. ''I''m bored.'' Back then, I hadn''t even acquired my web novel hobby. Even someone like me, an optimist who could rank in the [Life''s Most Optimistic Infinite Regressor]petition across all fiction, would get a little tired of reaching the 555th starting point.Wouldn''t you get sick of even the world''s most fun theme park after visiting 555 times? Moreover, the waiting area of Busan Station was far from an exciting theme park. The best you could hope for was Seo Gyu yelling "You fucking asshole!" loudly enough to be heard throughout. There was one hidden secret in the waiting area, but that''s forter. ''...Should I try [Telepathy]?'' This time, I decided to spice things up a bit. [Telepathy] was an ability I acquired in the 554th run. I could listen in on the thoughts of beings less capable than me. The criteria for ''capability'' were extremely vague, and the ability itself wasn''t all that powerful, but it was worth using just for fun. [Lee Jae-hee: My phone''s not working?] [Uehara Shino: Too many people. Can''t breathe.] The moment I activated [Telepathy], the collective thoughts of the people gathered at the Busan Station waiting area flooded my ears. Some voices were familiar, while others were rtively new. [Seo Gyu: Fuck, what''s going on? This is bullshit.] [Park Ye-dam: I should report to my boss...] [Lee Baek: What the hell? Where''s everyone else?] [Go Yuri: Uh??-oh??-uh?.] [Jung So-hee: Leader? Leader, where have you gone?] [Sim Ah-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?] [Kim Si-woon: Mom.] For a moment, I felt dizzy. [Telepathy] didn''t let me focus on a specific target. When I activated it, I heard all the surface-level thoughts of those around me. But it was bearable. And my first impression of using [Telepathy] at the Busan Station waiting area was¡ ''Not much.'' All I could hear were the same mundane thoughts. ''Well, I''m familiar with all these faces.'' I had already figured out nearly everything about the original members of the Busan Station waiting area. Their names, appearance, origins, and even the abilities they''d awakenter. So no matter what these people did or thought, nothing surprised me. I could predict their thoughts just by looking at their faces, so [Telepathy] was practically meaningless. ''Of course, I couldn''t read Go Yuri, as expected.'' I should never get involved with that child. I walked away from Go Yuri and headed to a vending machine on the other side of the waiting area to leisurely grab a drink. People around me gave me the stink eye, thinking, "What kind of guy is so rxed in this dire situation?" but I didn''t care. Later on, even these drinks would be rare. From their perspective, they''d just been summoned to the waiting area, but I''d returned to a world that was still rtively intact after 20 years. "Ahhh." The Ceylon Tea I had after such a long time tasted heavenly. It was so good I quickly downed a can and bought another. After gulping down four in a row, people stared at me in disbelief. [Lee Jae-hee: ...What''s up with this guy? He''s drinking it so damn well.] [Jung So-hee: Ceylon Tea? Such sacrilege!] [Park Ye-dam: The kid knows how to drink.] [Sim Ah-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?] [Lee Baek: What''s with this geezer''s taste?] Hmm. Lee Baek hasn''t changed since the first run. Even after listening again, nothing stood out. In that way, [Telepathy] was a double-edged sword. Right before using it, I would feel a rush of excitement, wondering what fascinating thoughts people might be hiding. But after listening, I''d be disappointed, thinking, "That''s it?" Hence, ironically, [Telepathy] was the most fun right before activation. There was nothing I could do about it. At this point, asking the original members to have a fresh mindset was my unreasonable greed¡ª [Oh Dok-seo: Wow. The Busan Station waiting area. I''ve seen this in a novel! Soon, the Tutorial Fairy will appear and blow off the head of the guy who swears.] I guess not. "Puha!" I spat out my fifth Ceylon Tea. The drink, glowing like the sunset, sshed across the air, painting the world with its golden hue, and the people caught off guard gasped as they witnessed an elerated sunset by seven hours. [Lee Jae-hee: Ack! Gross!] [Jung So-hee: Disgusting. Horrible.] [Park Ye-dam: Ugh, filthy guy.] [Sim Ah-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?] [Lee Baek: Fucking hell, what a pig.] The original members, who were always at odds over personality, origin, ideology, and beliefs, had finallye to an agreement. They aplished the impossible, but at this moment, that didn''t matter. I quickly turned my head. [Oh Dok-seo: Let''s see. The novel didn''t have many illustrations, so it''s hard to recognize people... Oh, but I can tell that guy is Lee Baek! Kim Tae-yang! Wow. That guy made the waiting area stage a nightmare...] There she was. Oh Dok-seo. A person who always wore a cynical expression and seemed aloof and detached throughout the 555th cycle. Her distinctive features included lifeless eyes, a hoodie, and a cap. A frequent victim who often died in the Busan Station waiting area unless I intervened. For some reason, she was checking out her surroundings with an almost lively glimmer in her otherwise dead eyes. [Oh Dok-seo: Well, no doubt about it. This is the prologue stage from Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint I binge-readst night.] Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint? Prologue? [Oh Dok-seo: So, what''s my ability? Status Window. Hey, Status Window. ...Status? Open? Ability Window? Skill Window? Wow. Not even a hologram pop-up? This is straight-up Status Window discrimination.] Latest trend? What''s she rambling about? "You fucking asshole! What the hell are you talking about?" "Ho-ho." Whoops. I''d focused so much on Oh Dok-seo''s thoughts that I couldn''t stop Seo Gyu''s head from being blown off. ''Sorry, Seo Gyu!'' Fairy number 264 scored a kill for the first time in ages. As blood sttered everywhere, Sim Ah-ryeon and many others screamed. Of course, all I felt was, "Wow, how long has it been?" rather than shock. [Oh Dok-seo: Oh. The Tutorial Head-Blowing Man clich¨¦, huh? They do all these old tropes but no Status Window?] Oh Dok-seo wasn''t fazed either. She didn''t seem shocked at all. I thought calling Seo Gyu the "Head-Blowing Man" was harsh, but oh well. [Oh Dok-seo: Anyway. The only important thing in the Busan Station waiting area is how early you can grab the elixir hidden in Haeundae.] How does she know there''s an elixir in Haeundae? [Oh Dok-seo: And the only Awakeners worth paying attention to in the waiting area is Uehara Shino. She''s treated like garbage now, but she''llter awaken as a high-level alchemist...] How does she know that? [Oh Dok-seo: Uehara''s the opposite of Sim Ah-ryeon. She''s only useful until the prologue stage, but she''ll be handy as a healer until then. ...Oh, there she goes. Right, she''s a coward.] How does she¡ wait, Sim Ah-ryeon bes uselesster? She''s actually at her lowest now, but once SG Net is established, she''ll rise like a phoenix saying, "Wow, the NET world is so vast." There wasn''t any time to nitpick about the details. Oh Dok-seo kept spilling one fascinating thought after another like golden honey dripping from a Himyan beehive. [Oh Dok-seo: I should start buttering up Uehara Shino. Tsk. Breaking canon and creating an unstoppable original character isn''t my style... but since I don''t even have a Status Window, can''t be picky, right?] Breaking canon? Unstoppable original character? As I said before, at this point, I had no knowledge of web novels. Oh Dok-seo, who preached this hobby to me, was right there, so it was only natural that her thoughts sounded like a foreignnguage to me. [Oh Dok-seo: But even Uehara Shino is only my second priority.] [Oh Dok-seo: If there''s one person to focus on here, it''s definitely that man.] At that moment, Oh Dok-seo turned to me. Sensing her gaze, I quickly looked away, and unaware that I was watching, she stared directly at me. [Oh Dok-seo: There he is.] [Oh Dok-seo: The protagonist of this world. Codename: Undertaker.] ? [Oh Dok-seo: He''s better-looking than I expected¡ wait, maybe the cover art was better? Hmm. Is he better in person? Hard to say. He resembles the cover a bit.] ?? [Oh Dok-seo: But don''t be fooled by his looks. The Undertaker has experienced regression multiple times. He has no mercy or empathy.] [Oh Dok-seo: He lives only for revenge against monsters, a typical regressor with nothing but hatred, and he''s probably furious right now because he lost Dang Seo-rin to the Ten Legs in thest cycle.] [Oh Dok-seo: He''s just a madman. If he senses anything off, he might kill me on the spot. Better be careful around him.] ??? No empathy... hatred... fury? What? Excuse me, but who is this person? Dang Seo-rin hadn''t died to the Ten Legs in the previous cycle. They were a formidable wall at first, but after around 20 runs, I could beat them in five minutes. Could this person be¡ ''Does she know the past me?'' At that moment, [Oh Dok-seo: Hey, mister over there.] "Hey, mister over there." The telepathic and actual voices ovepped. Oh Dok-seo''s finger pointed at me. There were only about ten people left in the Busan Station waiting area, and except for me, everyone had huddled together. "Mister,e over here. The fairy''s made a blood fountain, and everyone''s bailed. Let''s at least stick together. Don''t you agree?" "Fairy number 264 did nothing wrong! The seniors gave the wrong guidelines! In fact, fairy number 264 is a victim..." "Oh, shut up. The adults are talking. Why are you interrupting?" "Eek." At the center of the survivors, Oh Dok-seo stood boldly, like a leader with her chest puffed out. Her audacity in challenging the Tutorial Fairy, who everyone else feared, must have made a strong impression. In reality, the fairy number 264 was just following the guidelines and had no malice toward humans (except the bourgeoisie), so it quickly retreated. "So? Are youing over here or not, mister?" "......" Oh Dok-seo mumbled internally. [Oh Dok-seo: Come on. Please,e over here. Without you, we''re all dead! I know you lost your first love and the only guild leader you ever followed, Dang Seo-rin, died, and I know you hate monsters and the world sucks, but please save us!] Honestly, I didn''t fully understand half of what this kid was saying, and I had no idea what she had gotten wrong. But one thing was clear. ''If I follow her around, this run is going to be a st.'' There was another reason too, not just for the thrill but also because I might be able to use her to hunt down some sort of bizarre creature. But this is a story for another time. Anyway. I recalled my ancient self from ages past, more than a thousand years ago. What expressions, nces, and tone had I used back then? "...I won''t follow you." Was it something like this? Should be. I think so. Even in my long regressor life, it was my first time acting as myself. It felt quite different. "I''ll simply observe you." "Ah. Well, do whatever you want." Oh Dok-seo snickered dismissively. After looting a Silver Bell from the souvenir shop, I read her thoughts again. [Oh Dok-seo: Wow, his voice is terrifying. Gives me chills... But escaping the Busan Station waiting area is nearly impossible without the protagonist. I''ll have to butter him up somehow.] Hmm. She was certainly an interesting character. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 25 Trantor/Editor: Ryuu Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Prophet II Following Oh Dok-seo brought with it a minor problem. No, it wasn''t so minor. It caused a significant issue.And it wasn''t because of me. [Oh Dok-seo: Alright! Cleared the Tutorial!] It wasn''t a problem with Oh Dok-seo either. She wasn''t a bad novice, despite my modest assistance (of course, I''m just being humble here, it was hardly modest). Oh Dok-seo broke through the Busan Station Gate in just 48 hours. For context, I first cleared Busan Station in my third run. To put it differently, I had lived and died in Busan during my first and second runs. I could proudly say I was more of a Busan local than most, and if only my hometown weren''t Seoul, I could''ve earned the "True Busan Man" badge. Even on my third run, it took me a whole week to clear it. So for Oh Dok-seo to cut it down to 48 hours proved she had great potential. [Oh Dok-seo: Even if the protagonist helped, I still finished this in two days? Oh Dok-seo, who are you? I can handle fashion, hip-hop, and ying monsters, so is there anything I can''t do? I¡¯m starting to scare myself...] Let''s just let her youthful bravado slide. By now, the Busan Station waiting area was a mysterious ce. It wasn''t just teeming with talent, it was overflowing. ¡®An unknown entity like Go Yuri with the potential to destroy the world, the enigmatic Seo Gyu with hismunity-managing skills, the trouble-seeking Sim Ah-ryeon, the MacGuffin Uehara Shino, me, the Undertaker who regresses infinitely, and now even Oh Dok-seo?¡¯ It was truly fearsome. A treasure trove of talent ripe for the taking. The ancient city of Peixian from the Chu-Han Contention, where Liu Bang recruited farmers and Xiao He was sorting bureaucratic paperwork while Fan Kuai butchered pigs, wasn''t worth envying. But I digress¡ Anyway, Oh Dok-seo''s adventure itself went smoothly. But if it wasn''t my problem or hers, it meant a third party intruder had intervened in this lighthearted party. ¡°......?¡± This mysterious entity walked briskly, ncing back at me asionally. Every time she did, she would tilt her head and smile sweetly. I almost fell for her. If I hadn''t learned that this entity would smile just like that even while destroying the world, I might have confessed my love to her like a true man. This entity was Go Yuri. ¡®I''m going crazy.¡¯ The one who wielded the red sh. If you tagged her, she''d fall under #brainwash, #cognitionmaniption, #affectioncontrol, and #CthulhuMythos. That''s right. Go Yuri had also joined Oh Dok-seo''s party. All of us were original members who started in the Busan Station waiting area, so this was bound to happen eventually. In just one early-stage party, we had both a being who would make my life amusing and one who could utterly destroy it. Was this even possible? Of course it was¡ª Busan Station waiting area, what a crazy starting point. At that moment, pink hair fluttered right in front of me. ¡°Undertaker, right?¡± My heart skipped a beat. For reference, Go Yuri was still actively using [Perception Maniption], [Affection Control], and [Impression Brainwashing]. All kinds of people had already gathered around her, vying for her favor. But she pushed away all those sycophants and approached me directly. A chill ran down my spine. ¡° ...What do you want?¡± One thing that was lucky for me was that I was ying the ''coolest regressor in the world.'' Keep up the poker face. I tried to think of all the despair I felt as the world ended, the betrayal I felt when Old Man Scho ran off alone, and the sadness of losing Dang Seo-rin for the first time¡ anything that would help me summon negative emotions. Thanks to that, my face was convincingly unpleasant. Unpleasant Level 5. ¡°Ah, no, it''s nothing important.¡± Go Yuri wasn''t fazed. ¡°I was just curious about what kind of person you are. You were calm when people died and monsters appeared in the waiting area.¡± She had been spying on me? If my heart had sweat nds, I''d have been dripping with cold sweat. Like the martial arts saying to beware the elderly and children, my life motto was always to be wary of pink hair. I decided to up my unpleasantness. Unpleasant Level 6. ¡°I''m not interested in you. So don''t concern yourself with me.¡± ¡°Do you like Ceylon Tea? It''s my favorite drink.¡± ¡°........¡± This was underhanded. Was this the power of [Perception Maniption]? She naturally tried to raise my affection level like it was nothing. But I, the Undertaker, was no pushover. Honestly, my heart did skip a beat, but I interpreted that as a sign of a heart attack. In other words, I''d die if I let this slide. No choice. Unpleasant Level 7! ¡°You''re annoying. Get lost.¡± ¡°Heung.¡± Heung? Hee-eung? Did she just smile at me with her eyes? ¡°Do you realize that while talking to me, you''ve never even looked in my direction?¡± ¡°Shut up. Do you not understand the meaning of "get lost"? Either you''re ignorant or you''re dismissing me. If it''s the former, you''re foolish. If it''s thetter, you''re oblivious.¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker, you''re an interesting person.¡± ¡°........¡± ¡°Let''s get along well from now on. My name is Go Yuri. Just call me Yuri.¡± After saying this, Go Yuri walked off first. Her shadow, with her hands sped behind her back, was humming a tune. It seemed like she had taken an interest in me. My intentions had yielded the opposite result. ¡®Next time I encounter Go Yuri, instead of being unpleasant, I should act like a drunk gambler.¡¯ To give a little spoiler: even changing my strategy was useless. ¡°Forgetting your sorrows with alcohol and letting go through gambling¡ªyou''re someone who knows what it means to live life to the fullest! ¡° That was the crazy response she would give. There was only one way to handle Go Yuri. From the beginning, don''t let her notice you. Someone might wonder why an infinite regressor was so afraid of Go Yuri. But for regressors, death isn''t the scariest thing. Ignorance is. Think about it. The opponent is an S-ss cognition maniptor, the final boss of mental viruses. Could you trust any knowledge gained from approaching Go Yuri? What if that knowledge was already tainted by brainwashing and maniption? And what would Go Yuri do if she discovered I was a regressor? For instance: ¡°Then let me ask you this.¡± ¡°When did you think I wasn''t brainwashing you...?¡± ¡°Oh-hoho. You¡¯re simply hypnotized into believing you''ve regressed when you''re actually under my control.¡± ¡°From now on, I''ll reign supreme.¡± What if something like that happened? Among all the Awakeners I knew, the one with the strongest mental power was the Saintess. Even she was defeated by Go Yuri. Until I obtained the ''shield'' to resist cognition maniption, the mental firewall, it would be wise not to associate with Go Yuri. But apparently, I wasn''t the only one who knew little about her. [Oh Dok-seo: Hmm. Who''s she? Pink hair?] Oh Dok-seo nced this way. She probably thought she was sneaky, but my senses picked it up. [Oh Dok-seo: Was there a character like her in the previous cycle? Her hair color stands out for an extra. But she''s got a really nice impression. Probably older than me. Maybe I could befriend her.] ¨D¨D¨DEven Oh Dok-seo didn''t know about Go Yuri. This fact held a significant hint. From observing Oh Dok-seo, it seemed clear that she''d read "a certain novel." Surprisingly, the protagonist of that novel was me, the Undertaker. It was unclear whether it should even be called a novel¡ªit was more like my documentary or biography. Oh Dok-seo knew too much for it to be anything else. But... ¡®She only knows the really old stuff.¡¯ It was like reading a novel that was updated at a snail''s pace. For instance: [Oh Dok-seo: Okay, got the elixir from Haeundae! Wow, getting the elixir right after clearing the Busan Station Gate. This is super fast progress. Maybe I¡¯ve got some talent.] [Oh Dok-seo: With this, it''s possible to defeat the terrifying final boss... Ten Legs.] Ten Legs wasn¡¯t the final boss. In fact, it wasn¡¯t even a mid-boss. Its time of freely exploring restaurants across the Korean Peninssted until around the 20th run at most. After that, it became a delicacy itself. [Oh Dok-seo: I need to join up with Dang Seo-rin somehow. She''s the most reliable guild leader among those bastards. If her Cursed Song Incantation activates properly, she''s the strongest DPS.] Dang Seo-rin wasn''t the strongest DPS. At the very beginning, she might''ve looked like one, but her true strength emerged in the role of a supporter. As Old Man Scho and I became stronger with each passing run, Dang Seo-rin gradually withdrew from the front lines to support us. In short: [Oh Dok-seo: The protagonist has to withstand the Ten Legs assault, but it''ll be tough alone. Should I help him out after all?] Oh Dok-seo didn''t even know Old Man Scho existed. The conclusion was simple. ¡®The novel Oh Dok-seo read only covered [my Life up to the 4th run].¡¯ In other words, an unfinished autobiography. A half-written novel. A story where not all chapters were serialized yet. An ongoing series by a slow author. It was truly a unique ability. If it had a name, it would be... [Author''s Nudge]. But assuming Oh Dok-seo''s novel only summarized the first four runs of my life exined everything. It also rified why she treated me like a psychopath. ¡®Well, I guess I was a little edgy back then before I met Old Man Scho.¡¯ Of course, I wasn''t as much of a psychopath as she believed. I simply preemptively separated the heads from the bodies of troublemakers, threatened to kill everyone if things didn''t go my way, and wouldn''t be satisfied unless I profited the most from any event¡ just your standard web novel regressor personality? [Oh Dok-seo: Wow. Look at that terrifying expression when he says he''ll join Dang Seo-rin. This madman, once he chooses to trust someone, treats them like a real person while seeing others like me as less than human. It''s heartbreaking!] Hmm. A conversation was clearly needed. I quietly observed Oh Dok-seo for about four months. In the end, I decided she was trustworthy enough. ¡°Oh Dok-seo.¡± ¡°Huh? What''s up, all of a sudden? I''m surprised you spoke to me first.¡± ¡°I''d like to talk. Somewhere quiet, just the two of us.¡± I approached Oh Dok-seo while the party members were away. I double-checked to make sure Go Yuri was gone, so now it was safe. [Oh Dok-seo: Eek! Shit, he''s going to bury me without anyone knowing!] Apparently, Oh Dok-seo didn''t feel safe at all. ¡°Yeah? Sure. A good party leader should listen to their members.¡± Well, I wasn''t sure about that, but at least she was good at controlling her expression. Despite freaking out internally, she chewed her gum with a poker face. We went into a local caf¨¦ with a sign reading [Closed until August 20]. Today was October 25. Inside was neat and tidy. I cautiously sat down, thinking of the owner who couldn''t organize their heart even after arranging their belongings. ¡°Alright... what''s this about?¡± Oh Dok-seo looked at me with a calm face, determined eyes, and a fearful heart. I disabled [Telepathy] for a moment. It wasn''t suitable for serious conversations between people. ¡°First, I''d advise you not to be too shocked.¡± ¡°Huh? What are you going to say?¡± ¡°Let''s get straight to the point. Oh Dok-seo, I know you read a novel you believe to be this world''s original work.¡± ¡°........¡± Tick, tick. The wall clock, still working because the battery hadn''t died yet, diligently ticked away. Unfortunately, it wasn''t one of those cuckoo clocks. Oh Dok-seo''s jaw dropped. ¡°What?¡± ¡°By the way, the way I''m speaking now is to fit your expectations. I''d prefer to return to my normal tone, if you don''t mind. This isn''tfortable.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Hold on! Hold on!¡± Oh Dok-seo practically screamed. ¡°A novel? What novel? I have no idea what you''re talking about!¡± ¡°Of course, it''s Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint that you im to have read. You might not know, but I have an ability called [Telepathy]. It converts surface-level thoughts intonguage and lets the user hear them.¡± ¡°Huh? That''s a lie, there''s no such ability in the original work... Ah.¡± Oh Dok-seo blinked. ¡°Was that some kind of leading question?¡± ¡°No, it''s true. I also know you think I''m half-psychopath.¡± ¡°I-I never said that!¡± Oh Dok-seo denied it with a trembling voice but stood firm in her innocence. She had the brazenness of a politician. Ten minutester. After some conversation, we cleared up our misunderstandings¡ªor rather, her one-sided misconceptions. Oh Dok-seo showed a wide range of expressions during the talk. She muttered in disbelief. ¡°What? This is a scam.¡± ¡°A scam?¡± ¡°In novels, regressors never reveal their secrets to the protagonist... uh, I''m the protagonist in this case. Anyway, they usually hide it. But it was obvious from the moment we were summoned to the Busan Station. This doesn''t follow novel logic!¡± ¡°Sorry, but the world isn''t a novel.¡± ¡°It was until just now!¡± Oh Dok-seo mmed the table. ¡°And what''s with your tone! Where''s the Undertaker who would kill hispanions at the drop of a hat?¡± ¡°Honestly, it¡¯s so long ago for me. Imagine hearing "You were such a good kid when you were five" when you''re fifty. Would you rte?¡± ¡°Huh? That long?¡± ¡°That long.¡± ¡°How many runs have you had, from your perspective?¡± ¡°555 runs.¡± ¡°Five hundred fifty-five runs?¡± Oh Dok-seo screeched like a cuckoo clock. ¡°What''s up with that number! Not fifty-five but five hundred fifty-five? Even if the Ten Legs is tough, couldn''t you have killed it by then? What are you, neglecting your duties?¡± ¡°Ah, the Ten Legs isn¡¯t the final boss. Its actually the weakest.¡± Oh Dok-seo''s face turned pale. ¡°Ten Legs who turned Dang Seo-rin, the Great Witch and Guild Leader, into fried chicken is the weakest?¡± ¡°I''ve been grilling them on skewerstely.¡± ¡°Bullshit... Wait a second. Undertaker, how old are you?¡± Hmm. I cautiously answered. ¡°Child, age is meaningless for a regressor.¡± ¡°No, no, no. It¡¯s not meaningless. Let''s see, even if we assume ten years per run... 5,550 years old?¡± ¡°........¡± I pled the Fifth. Not because I didn''t have anything to say, but because saying it would only worsen my case. Like the fact that the average duration of each run was longer than ten years. Oh Dok-seo, looking at my expression, was horrified. ¡°What! You''re an old geezer!¡± ¡°........¡± ¡°No way, the protagonist I thought was so cool is actually an old man!¡± And thus, "Old Man" became how Oh Dok-seo would refer to me. I felt a little down. Such cruelty. Kid, I hope you live to my age too. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 26 Prophet III From the day I came out as a regressor, my rtionship with Oh Dok-seo rapidly improved. I also became morefortable because I stopped pretending to be an insufferable cool guy (which was fun but ridiculous), and Oh Dok-seo, no longer needing to guard against a ticking time bomb psychopath who could snap at any moment, also felt more at ease. ¡°Kid, let''s go.¡± ¡°Hmm? Where all of a sudden?¡± ¡°Gangnam.¡± A littleter, I went out to Seoul with Oh Dok-seo, just the two of us. Originally, there were few parks south of the Han River, making the neighborhood a rather poor ce for walks. However, since the residents had relocated to the afterlife, it had be quite pleasant. -G?rr??k??Ten Legs stood dumbfounded amidst the empty, abandoned buildings. Even after the residents disappeared, it remained like a true caretaker guarding the apartments. -G??rr?r????r?! In the eyes of this caretaker, we must have looked suspicious. It immediatelyshed out its tentacles, charging toward us. Given how suspicious the times had be, this excessive response was inevitable. In fact, its judgment wasn''t wrong. What else could one call someone who had gone through hundreds of regressions and a person who had read this world like a novel, other than suspicious? Oh Dok-seo screamed, ¡°Eek!¡± and hid behind me. ¡°Are you crazy? That¡¯s Ten Legs! You need to gather every Awakener in Korea to deal with it, so why are you alone...?!¡± ¡°Secret Technique, Octopus Sashimi.¡± I swung my sword. Ten Legs was difficult to subjugate due to its terrifying regenerative powers. No matter how many tentacles were cut, they quickly grew back. The condition that both hearts had to be destroyed simultaneously wasn''t easy either. In other words, from the moment I mastered sashimi cuts faster than its regeneration, Ten Legs was nothing more than live octopus on a chopping board. After my half-dozen strikes, both Ten Legs and the abandoned buildings around it copsed. Its screams were buried beneath the rumble of falling structures. When all the buildings had fallen, everything became quiet. ¡°Oh¡¡± Oh Dok-seo mumbled nkly. ¡°What, is it over? Is that really it?¡± ¡°Yeah, the final boss you talked about is dead, so now the world is at peace. Go celebrate.¡± ¡°Damn¡ You really got strong, huh?¡± Oh Dok-seo looked back at me with a hint of admiration. ¡°But even with that power, you can''t stop the apocalypse?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t. Ten Legs is only strong in terms of regeneration. It doesn''t have annoying traits like immunity to physical attacks or magical attacks. It''s really the weakest.¡± ¡°No way¡¡± Oh Dok-seo''s expression hardened. While she had already believed me, this incident made herpletely trust me. Oh Dok-seo disbanded the party she had carefully nurtured. It seemed unnecessary, but she was firm. ¡°No matter how much power I gather, I wouldn''t have been able to fight Ten Legs, but you destroyed it on your own. My party is meaningless then, right? I should switch strategies to support you as much as possible.¡± Whether Oh Dok-seo''s judgment was right or wrong was a secondary matter, but thanks to her, I found a good reason to part ways with Go Yuri. Upon hearing the party disbandment order, Go Yuri looked incredibly disappointed (at least, that¡¯s how it seemed to me). ¡°I wanted to be with you and Undertaker¡ Do we really have to part like this?¡± ¡°Oh, Yuri unnie could still¡ Khaaak!¡± I pinched Oh Dok-seo¡¯s arm as she was about to mutter something strange. I had repeatedly exined to her how scary Go Yuri was when alone, but when the time to break up finally arrived, she got brainwashed all over again. Only then did Oh Dok-seo snap out of it with a ¡°Huh.¡± ¡°So-sorry! Yuri unnie! I¡¯ve agreed to be his disciple for a while! This old man insists on only taking one disciple, so I won¡¯t be able to go with you!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Oh Dok-seo bowed her head deeply as if she felt truly sorry. Go Yuri calmly studied her. Then she turned to look at me. Was I overreacting to think I glimpsed the shadow of red flesh in her bright red eyes? ¡°It can''t be helped. The master-disciple rtionship is as important as that of parent and child. It''s not something outsiders should interfere with.¡± Go Yuri spoke in a way that appealed to me while staring directly at my face without a single twitch. ¡°I¡¯ll take my leave then.¡± ¡°Are you really¡?¡± ¡°Yes, even if we part now, I feel like our connection won''t be severed. We¡¯ll surely meet again someday. Despite the state of the world, I hope you both find happiness.¡± Go Yuri took two steps back and bowed gracefully like a noblewoman. Then, without adding another word, she walked down the hill alone. Soon, her figure disappeared down the slope. ¡°Hwaaaa¡ª¡± Oh Dok-seo slumped, her whole body melting as the tension left her. Even her cap, which was practically her main body, slid halfway off. ¡°So, you were telling the truth¡ What the hell was that? I didn¡¯t think much before we talked, but afterward, I suddenly thought, ¡®Why am I being so cold to Yuri unnie?¡¯¡± ¡°She¡¯s always like that, but it''s a relief she acknowledged the importance of a master-disciple rtionship.¡± ¡°Hmm? What are you saying? She told me that even if it''s a master-disciple rtionship, it''s dangerous for a man and woman to wander around alone together and that I should be careful.¡± ¡°¡?¡± ¡°¡?¡± We looked at each other, then quickly turned our heads to the hill Go Yuri had descended. Since we saw her going down, she should have been climbing up the opposite slope by now. Cicadas chirped. No matter how long we waited, Go Yuri''s figure didn''t appear. We wandered through the crumbling world. I didn''t want to describe that copse in detail. Some astute readers might have already noticed that I intentionally avoided such descriptions. Thanks to the Saintess''s efforts, South Korea was rtively secure. However, her reach only extended to the Awakeners. She couldn''t control the majority of ordinary people. Looting, arson, violence¡ People who had lost their loved ones to violence filled the emptiness by adopting abandoned pets. Political factions became military fiefdoms, and the military became political. The fingers of the impoverished, the first carrier of an unprecedented epidemic¡ªmisfortune piled up endlessly. I only handled the misfortunes I could manage. Unbearable misfortunes were transferred to others¡¯ hearts. I''m not ying the regressor just to spread epidemics. ¡°One of the novels I read¡ The one where you¡¯re the main character, Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint, had just about 30 chapters released.¡± One day, Oh Dok-seo said this while casually wiping what looked like blood from her face. Actually, it wasn''t blood but a petal from the red-flowered Udumbara, a parasitic organism of a vicious epidemic. There will be an opportunity to mention this in detail in the next episode. ¡°Thirty chapters?¡± ¡°Yeah. I never read any novel shorter than that, no matter how interesting it looks. You never know when an author might stop writing. I think I started reading it maybe two or three days before the Seoul Gate broke?¡± Oh Dok-seo was simr to me in nature. We often talked more about our hobbies than about misfortune. ¡°Where did you find that novel?¡± ¡°Just from my usual web novel tform. I noticed it was already favorited. It¡¯s like adding something to your bookmarks.¡± ¡°¡So there''s an author writing Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about that.¡± Oh Dok-seo chewed her gum. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t remember adding it, but my favorites list easily exceeds 200, so I just thought I¡¯d forgotten about it. But now that I think about it, maybe it was favorited without me knowing¡ Ah.¡± While walking through Onyang, arge stray dog approached us. Oh Dok-seo embraced it. Our two-person party had gained a new member. ¡°I think it''s your ability.¡± ¡°Ability?¡± A few dayster, as we secretly stocked up on dog food in a department store taken over by a guild (luckily, the pet corner had little security), I spoke. ¡°There¡¯s someone named Seo Gyu. His ability is creating and running an onlinemunity. Since Awakeners'' abilities vary widely, it''s not strange if yours manifests in the form of ¡®reading novels.¡¯¡± ¡°But my ability was already revealed as Shield Generation.¡± ¡°You''re a multi-ability user.¡± ¡°Huh? Really? Isn''t that super rare?¡± ¡°It is rare. But in life, you realize that a 1% chance isn''t as unlikely as it seems.¡± ¡°Oh, I see¡ Hmm. So I actually have another ability that takes the form of reading novels¡¡± ¡°For convenience, I¡¯ve named it Publication Demanding.¡± ¡°Publication Demanding¡¡± Woof, Darkness (the dog''s name) barked. Its sound resonated through the darkened department store. ¡°Oh, shush!¡± Oh Dok-seo tried to quiet it, but we had already been noticed by a patroller. ¡°Oh no, danger¡¡± ¡°Let''s run.¡± Wiping out the guild upying the department store would''ve been easy, but they wouldter be a valuable ally in fighting for humanity. We quickly fled. Woof! Woof! Darkness, cradled in Oh Dok-seo''s arms, barked happily. ¡°Isn''t my ability more like Prophecy than Publication Demanding?¡± A few monthster, on the way back from a guild coalition meeting, Oh Dok-seo asked me. ¡°Prophecy?¡± ¡°Yeah, knowing your life story is practically the same as foretelling the future. You know how prophets in novels see the future as vivid images like in movies? In my case, it''s manifested in the form of web novels, which I''m most familiar with. Doesn''t that make sense?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± That certainly made sense. But if Oh Dok-seo''s ability was prophecy, there remained some unanswered questions. ¡°Then why was there no sign of anything strange until the 555th cycle?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t know, Dok-seo, but from my perspective, this cycle is highly unusual. In your terms, it''s like an extra character suddenly awakened to the [Prophecy] ability.¡± ¡°Your tone¡¯s a bit off, but still, it¡¯s strange.¡± Oh Dok-seo stroked her chin. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just that 555 is a special number. It''s my name after all.¡± ¡°Regressions aren¡¯t a numbers game. That can¡¯t be the reason.¡± ¡°Hmm. What could it be, really? Why didn¡¯t I approach you until the 555th cycle¡?¡± Oh Dok-seo tilted her head. Our questions were finally answered on a day both distant and near. When the 555th cycle ended in failure and became the 556th. [Oh Dok-seo: Wow. Busan Station waiting room. I read this in the novel! Soon, the Tutorial Fairy will appear and blow the head off that man who says ¡®You fucking asshole¡¯... huh? Huh?! Why¡¯s the protagonist suddenlying toward me?] This time, I approached Oh Dok-seo first. Of course, this was topletely block Go Yuri from interfering. The unexpected event startled Oh Dok-seo. But just like in the previous cycle, she quickly trusted me after seeing how easily I cut down Ten Legs. He also revealed something surprising. ¡°But old man, is it okay for you to be hanging out with me like this?¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± ¡°That, um¡ what¡¯s his name¡ Schopenhauer? Anyway, shouldn¡¯t you team up with that Swordmaster old man?¡± My eyes widened. ¡°You know Old Man Scho? How?¡± ¡°Yeah? Of course. He¡¯s in the novel.¡± In the previous cycle, Oh Dok-seo hadn¡¯t mentioned Old Man Scho. Though I had told her there was another regressor, it was just a side story for her, having only read up to the fourth cycle in the novel. I met Old Man Scho for the first time in the sixth cycle. Yet now, Oh Dok-seo brought him up first. This was clear evidence. ¡®The novel that Oh Dok-seo read¡ had more chapters?¡¯ I looked at her intently. ¡°Dok-seo, how many chapters were released in Omniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint that you read?¡± ¡°Oh? Uh, maybe¡ 32? 33? Something like that.¡± ¡°¡!¡± That confirmed it. As the cycles progressed, the ¡®novel¡¯ that Oh Dok-seo read gained more chapters. While it had only reached up to 30 chapters in the previous cycle, this time, at least two more had been added. The standard for this ¡®increasing serialization¡¯ was as arbitrary as a peddler''s whim. Sometimes, a single chapter would be added over 60 cycles, while other times, two chapters were added after only one. It waspletely random. Further exploration was needed to determine the exact criteria for adding chapters. But there was one thing I was sure of. ¡®This child is following my life¡¯s track.¡¯ A shiver ran through me. With a slightly slower step. At a pace slightly behind mine. But at a consistent speed, Oh Dok-seo was following me. Before reaching 30 chapters, Oh Dok-seo wouldn¡¯t have read the novel. She had said she never read novels shorter than that. So she only read the novel for the ¡®first time¡¯ when it reached 30 chapters. That was during the 555th cycle. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s guess was right. Her ability was [Prophecy]. She just hadn¡¯t realized it and wasted it through 555 cycles. ¡®But it¡¯s not a perfect prophecy.¡¯ ording to Greek mythology, the god and prophet Prometheus had a younger brother. Epimetheus. Unlike Prometheus, whose name meant ¡®forethought,¡¯ his brother Epimetheus meant ¡®afterthought.¡¯ The brothers became the origins of ¡®prologue¡¯ and ¡®epilogue.¡¯ Oh Dok-seo was Epimetheus, who had awakened to the prophecy. Her prophecy wasn¡¯t quick. She was slower than any other prophet, following the tracks I had set long before, with a timeg of about 5,000 years. Yet, despite this, Oh Dok-seo was steadily following my every step. When I crossed the 555th cycle, she reached her fifth. When I crossed the 560th cycle, she would be at her eleventh. ¡®So someday¡ªreally far in the future, Oh Dok-seo will also reach the 555th cycle, won¡¯t she?¡¯ That the story wasn¡¯t fiction. That what seemed like tales from another world were actually stories from her own. That she would meet me, the protagonist, travel the world with me, deal with warlords, and adopt a dog. All this would someday be serialized in Oh Dok-seo¡¯s novel, and she would read it. I realized this future and trembled slightly. It felt like a ray of light had pierced the world, where destruction seemed inevitable. ¡°¡Old man, what¡¯s going on?¡± Oh Dok-seo tilted her head at my reaction. Suddenly, my right forearm itched. Dang Seo-rin''sst words echoed in my head. -You have dreams simr to mine. -You¡¯re also moving forward, repairing the tracks in this broken world. The tracks the Ten Legs destroyed, the broken lines that other monsters shattered. If we keep fixing it step by step, the tracks will eventually connect from station to station. -Others can walk along those tracks too. Yes, in the end, Dang Seo-rin was right. What she had muttered then was just a hope, and I had epted herst words because I shared that same hope. But now, after more than 5,000 years had passed, reality had finally caught up to our hopes. ¡®In that case.¡¯ I held the trembling in my heart. ¡®I¡¯ll wait for this child to catch up to me.¡¯ Until when? Until Oh Dok-seo arrives at the station named the 555th cycle. That cycle was like Pandora¡¯s box. When Oh Dok-seo realizes that the ¡®novel¡¯ she read is actually the tracksid out in reality, this world will fundamentally change. As a regressor, a new joy of waiting had been added to my life. So, I waited. The 556th cycle ended. The 557th cycle ended. ¡°Hey! Old man! You can¡¯t abandon Old Man Scho like that!¡± Oh Dok-seo shouted when we reached the 581st cycle. She must have read thetest chapters where Old Man Scho had left on an indefinite ¡®vacation.¡¯ I smirked. ¡°Who did I abandon?¡± Nothing could have been more unfair. I abandon Old Man Scho? He abandoned me. And I never once gave up on him. It''s confusing the sequence of events, the perpetrator and the victim. But interpreting andmenting on a novel is always up to the reader. As new chapters were added and the cycles progressed, Oh Dok-seo kept leaving me ments.¡¯ ¡°Wow. How do you take down the Udumbara boss?¡± ¡°No way! All the Constetions were lying?¡± ¡°Community-building ability? What kind of trash ability is that¡¡± ¡°Sim Ah-ryeon is aplete troll¡ I could never get along with someone like that.¡± ¡°Online game weirdness? Wow, seriously. There was such a gimmick? It was never mentioned in the original.¡± ¡°¡? What¡¯s up with Go Yuri? Is she even human? Isn¡¯t she a monster?¡± Like a reader leavingments for the author, Oh Dok-seo screamed andined. Not that I was the author or anything. But I generously epted herments. Even if I was still childish at over 5,000 years old, at least I knew how to let others step within my boundaries. ¡®Keep following, Dok-seo.¡¯ Hurry up. You may be slower than me, but your steps are quicker than anyone else''s. Tread my failures, my guidebooks, and my life story. Though my life was originally for others, it¡¯s now also for you. Of course, not all this waiting was fun. Finally, Oh Dok-seo read up to the 52nd cycle, when I founded the Sixth International Convenience Store with the Fairies. From then on, the way she looked at me fundamentally changed. ¡°Old man.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°You know, you¡¯re a total psycho.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°And could you cut down on the SG Net talk? And take it easy on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.¡± ¡°Dok-seo, I have my reasons for bringing up the Three Kingdoms threads. If I don¡¯t, a certain anomaly¡¡± ¡°Enough. The way you talk doesn¡¯t match your age. Or maybe it does? How old are you, anyway?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± I invoked my right to remain silent and quietly drank my coffee. There was no point trying to salvage my tarnished image when I knew better than anyone that it was beyond saving. That¡¯s right. This might sound ridiculous, but sometimes, just sometimes, I missed the days when Oh Dok-seo shivered, mistaking me for a cold-hearted regressor. That brat. You should try growing old like me someday, brat. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 27 The New Budhha I As I mentioned before, besides Ten Legs, numerous boss-level monsters emerged across the globe. Like the Meteor Shower, which rained down endless meteors from the night sky when I ran a convenience store. The term "monster" was mostly used early on. However, just like the Meteor Shower, many monsters were more phenomena than living beings. As the story progressed, Awakeners began using other terms like "anomaly," "fiend," "yokai," and "lost" in addition to "monster." In Japan, boss-level monsters were referred to as "angels." Quite odd terminology, considering they were called demons in the West. Later, a Puppeteer, an Awakener who had lived in Japan, exined that the term originated from ssic Japanese anime. Gates faced simr issues. Many gates didn''t resemble "doors," so terms like "void," "abyss," "inferno," and "hell" were used more frequently. (In fact, distinguishing between "anomaly" and "void" was difficult.)Today, let''s discuss one of the primary culprits behind these linguistic changes¡ªnamely, the "New Buddha¡±. ¡°Huh? Hey, what¡¯s that on your head?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Is that a leaf growing by your ear?¡± That monster wasn''t a living creature. More precisely, opinions were divided on whether it was living or non-living. ¡°A leaf growing by your ear... a zombie virus?¡± Where the virus originated remained unknown for a long time. It was likely North or South Korea. Just as Busan Station¡¯s waiting room had be a wastnd for Awakeners, the Korean Penins was also a paradise for monsters. It¡¯s like the world itself was bncing things out. ¡°Z-Zombie virus!¡± People panicked and caused an uproar. After all, zombies are a staple of any apocalypse. When infected with the virus, leaves or flowers sprouted from the human body. There were even cases of weeds growing on bald heads. Yet, despite this peculiar urrence, the initial response to the virus was surprisingly lukewarm. There was a reason for that. ¡°No! I¡¯m not a zombie!¡± ¡°¡Huh?¡± ¡°See, I¡¯m talking normally! My memory¡¯s fine, and my head¡¯s clear! Damn, having a maple leaf under my arm does feel weird, but I don¡¯t want to die because of this!¡± Simply put, the people infected by the virus were surprisingly functional. While the human body had suddenly turned into a flowerpot and looked bizarre, there appeared to be no harmful effects from the virus if one could ignore its appearance. In fact, it even came with significant benefits. ¡°That damn monster! It killed my mother!¡± ¡°Ah¡¡± ¡°I will kill it, no matter what! Even if I die, I will end that monster!¡± ¡°Son¡¡± ¡°Please watch over me from heaven, Mother. Your unfilial son will soon follow.¡± ¡°Son!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I''m not dead, you fool! How many times do I have to call you?!¡± ¡°M-Mother? But your stomach is torn open¡¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know why, but I¡¯m fine. Maybe because I had a tonic yesterday?¡± People infected with the virus were "hard to kill." As long as the brain wasn¡¯t destroyed, even severed limbs and damaged organs couldn''t cause death. Even if the body¡¯s vital functions shut down, if one soaked up enough sunlight during the day and drank plenty of water, they could survive serious injuries. In this copsed medical system, how did ordinary people react? ¡°God has blessed us!¡± ¡°Me too¡ I want to be infected too!¡± People mored to get infected. Awakeners with healing abilities were rare, and the skilled healers were busy assisting others on the frontlines. In this era of uncertainty, where death was always near, gaining an extra "life point" for free was a gift. It was like finding a lifeboat on the sinking Titanic. ¡°A zombie virus? No, it¡¯s the blessing of life.¡± ¡°Be a nt too! You won''t need to search for food. With sunlight and water, you can live without worries.¡± ¡°This is the greatness of the New Buddha. Believe in the New Buddha, and you will be free from suffering and gain a body that can live in a new world.¡± Even cult doctrines sprouted. The zombie virus became worshipped as the New Buddha. Although not rted to Buddhism, its slogan ¡°Freedom from the suffering of needing meat and grain for sustenance¡± resonated with people. Followers of the New Buddha shaved their heads. Unlike Buddhists, however, new hair didn¡¯t grow back for these New Buddhists but instead sprouted weeds and flowers. They imed that shedding human skin was part of epting a New Buddha. ¡°Oh my, Lady Yellow Rose. I hope you slept well?¡± ¡°Yes, thanks to your care, Lady White Rose, I slept peacefully.¡± The New Buddhists adopted new dharma names, simr to Christian baptismal names. They called each other by the names of trees and flowers that grew from their heads. They named their group Hwadam [??], meaning a flowerbed of a million blooms, and called their ideology Huayan [??][1]. It was fitting, given their penchant for living with flowers on their heads. ¡°¡These flower-headed people are going to kill us.¡± Dang Seo-rin once muttered this, probably in the fifth cycle. As the vice guild leader of the Samcheon Guild, I shrugged. ¡°Well, in a world this chaotic, it¡¯s no wonder people want to rely on cults. Why else would the Yellow Turban Rebellion have urred?¡± ¡°The vice guild leader keeps using The Three Kingdoms metaphors. It makes you sound old, so please stop.¡± What¡¯s wrong with The Three Kingdoms? All the kids love Liu Bei. Filial kids admire Cao Cao. Sun Quan is¡ well, liked by psychos. Seeing my expression, Dang Seo-rin chuckled. ¡°I get why they do it, but these people are poison to us.¡± She was right. The New Buddha had its drawbacks. It didn¡¯t negatively impact ordinary people. But after about two weeks of infection, once the flower fully bloomed, Awakeners ¡°couldn¡¯t use their powers.¡± A deadly poison. ¡°Be careful too, guild leader. Nowadays, any criticism against them is met with usations of ¡®nt hate.¡¯¡± ¡°But they hate Awakeners.¡± Another valid point. In the early stages of the Gate crisis, Awakeners were highly respected. But bacsh against their superiority grew, and the New Buddha systematically incorporated this into their teachings. ¡°Awakeners are no different from monsters, as shown by how their powers vanish once they receive the New Buddha¡¯s blessing.¡± ¡°All Awakeners should join the New Buddha¡¯s faith and quickly free themselves from the sin of killing! Those who don¡¯t oppose Huayan¡¯s will! They shatter the peace of all life!¡± ¡°Non-killing eternal life! Eternal Huayan! Billion-mile stability!¡± They were truly troublesome cultists. But Dang Seo-rin was a capable guild leader. It wasn¡¯t for nothing that she formed a multinational guild in Korea. She coolly solved the issue by donating arge amount of goods to the New Buddhist flowerbed. ¡°Haha! Although Dang Seo-rin has yet to receive the Buddha¡¯s blessing, how could we flowers mistreat one who devotes herself to the greater good?¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°Amitabha, Amitabha¡¡± Amitabha my foot. If Siddhartha had seen that fake monk with the tiger lilies growing from his head, he would¡¯ve shaved it clean with clippers. Korea was still a rtively good ce. On the Korean Penins, there was a phenomenon called "Constetion". This phenomenon kept Awakeners rtively grounded, and their superiority couldn¡¯t flourish. Consequently, hatred toward Awakeners among ordinary people was low. But when the New Buddha spread to other countries, things changed. The New Buddha, along with the virus, became an intellectual infection exported worldwide, and this cult shook the world. ¡°Everyone! What is faith?¡± ¡°Non-killing eternal life! Eternal Huayan! Billion-mile stability!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! Faith is merely a name for flowers!¡± ¡°Waaaaaaa¡ª!¡± In other countries where constetions didn''t exist, Awakeners¡¯ supremacy was rampant. Governments were paralyzed,ws copsed, and even those keeping an eye on me were absent. Of course, Awakeners with some power caused trouble. Naturally, the ordinary people who suffered despised the Awakeners, and the New Buddha justified that hatred. Thus was born a K-cult that swept the world. There was another cult in North Korea, but its influence was limited to the northern region, so its impact paledpared to the New Buddha. ¡°¡This is difficult. Truly difficult. The number of volunteer soldiers we expected from Japan has plummeted.¡± Dang Seo-rin rubbed the frayed edge of her cone hat with her fingers. It was her unconscious habit whenever she was genuinely troubled. You might¡¯ve forgotten, but in the fifth cycle, we retreated to Busan instead of fighting the Ten Legs directly. Hundreds of Awakeners from Japan had promised to join us, but the number suddenly dwindled to 20. ¡°Twenty¡¯s too few.¡± ¡°The flower-headed people have expanded their influence in Japan. From Kyushu to Kanto, they¡¯ve taken over nearly half the country. It¡¯s difficult to leave their base. I''ve heard that even India, Europe, and America are beginning to sumb.¡± ¡°Humanity¡¯s future looks bleak.¡± The rise of cults and the bleak future were a chicken-and-egg problem. While the Ten Legs was visible and could be defeated with enough fighting, the New Buddha had no such solution. How could a virus be eradicated? The virusbs were busy researching life-threatening epidemics, so the New Buddha virus wasn¡¯t a priority. Each cycle brought different New Buddha victims. Sometimes Dang Seo-rin was infected, and other times, even the Saintess. Whenever I suspected I was infected, I''d quickly end my life before the leaves bloomed. If my awakening ability stopped working, what if I lost my regression ability too? I had to die quickly. Well, with Old Man Scho around, it was unlikely I''d have trouble, but better safe than sorry. Here''s what happened to the characters when they got infected and which flowers bloomed: Saintess: Blue hydrangea, with drops of violet dye. Dang Seo-rin: Pitch-ck violets, like the night sky enveloping a moon halo. Seo Gyu: Unknown. Sim Ah-ryeon: White lily of the valley, trembling amusingly. Lee Ju-ho: Bright yellow sunflower. Go Yuri: Unknown, presumed to be daffodil. Old Man Scho: Unknown, presumed to be clover (not four-leaf). Oh Dok-seo: Red spider lily, also known as "Lycoris radiata" or "higanbana." She was curious what flower would bloom for her and deliberately got infected to find out. Not normal either. Like Old Man Scho, I didn''t know what flower would bloom for me. If I suspected an infection, I''d kill myself before the flower bloomed. I did this twice. If I had to guess, maybe a pure white lily? Symbolizing innocence and purity, it seems fitting for me. Anyway, the New Buddha was more troublesome than Ten Legs. Letting them be since they didn¡¯t harm civilians was my strategy until the 17th cycle, when it had to be corrected. ¡°Undertaker! We¡¯re in trouble!¡± Old Man Scho burst through the door. I had just fallen asleep and frowned deeply. ¡°Ah, what is it? Let me sleep. I¡¯m not old like you. I still need a lot of sleep.¡± ¡°What? You damn brat¡ That¡¯s not it! Outside! Look out the window, you fool!¡± ¡°What¡¯s the problem that you¡¯re freaking out in the middle of the night¡?¡± I opened the window. I looked up at the night sky. I froze, gripping the window frame. ¡°¡What the hell is that?¡± Yggdrasil. A massive red tree covered the entire night sky. Footnotes: [1] The term "??" refers to the "Huayan" school of Buddhism, also known as the Flower Gand School. This tradition is named after the "Avatamsaka Sutra" (Flower Gand Sutra), one of the most influential Mahayana sutras. The Huayan school is known for its intricate and profound philosophy which emphasizes interpration and interdependence of all phenomena. In East Asian Buddhism, it has been particrly influential in China, Korea, and Japan. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 28 The New Budhha II In the 17th cycle, Old Man Scho and I were running an academy. He was the principal, and I served as the vice principal. It was a ploy to easily attract and cultivate promising Awakeners from various countries. We managed this academy earnestly for a while, umting plenty of data on the Awakeners. There wille a time to discuss this academy in more detailter. ¡°Gather all the graduating ss and faculty!¡± ¡°I''ve already done that, you brat! You¡¯re thest one!¡± Old Man Scho lied. We had to roam the dormitory in our pajamas, waking up everybat team. After preparations wereplete, we set out for the rendezvous point agreed upon with other guilds for emergencies. ¡°Samcheon guild leader!¡± ¡°Oh, Undertaker. Swordmaster is here too?¡±Along the way, other guilds joined us one after another. Samcheon World, one of the two strongest in Korea, had quickly arrived with their elites. The sight of sixty Awakeners in pointed hats, wielding staffs, looked ridiculous, but theirbat strength was no joke. ¡°What kind of mess is this?¡± ¡°We¡¯re still figuring out the exact cause. The Constetions are giving me hints, but I need to see it with my own eyes. That giant tree was first spotted around 2 a.m. today.¡± ¡°Did it suddenly bloom?¡± ¡°Yeah. It grew that big in less than an hour, and it started glowing red only after it fully grew. So the report was a bit dyed.¡± ¡°...Ominous.¡± ¡°I agree.¡± Then a Samcheon guild member approached Dang Seo-rin and whispered something to her. All the guild leaders gathered at the rendezvous point looked at Dang Seo-rin. Despite Ten Legs being subjugated, she was still relied on as a leader. She sighed. ¡°Well, you all should see this. Bring it.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The guild members dragged something bound tightly with ropes. It was a human, or to be precise, someone dressed as a New Buddhist. To be more exact, it was a human gnawing on their forearm and mumbling incessantly. ¡°Hun?gry?¡ Hun???gry?¡ Hun?gry?¡ Hun??gry¡¡± Even tied up, the biting didn¡¯t stop. They bent their head as much as they could and twisted their elbow backward to gnaw at their own flesh. In the dim night, we couldn¡¯t see it clearly at first, but now we noticed their legs and left arm had already been devoured. The guild leaders'' faces hardened. ¡°¡What''s that guy doing? Is he a zombie?¡± ¡°At least he¡¯s a polite zombie, eating his own flesh.¡± ¡°Or maybe he''s just a modest zombie.¡± ¡°What¡¯s he mumbling?¡± The live sight of someone tearing off their own flesh was grotesque, but the guild leaders who had survived till now were not easily shaken. Their expressions were grim, but their sharp eyes observed the zombie. ¡°From what we¡¯ve seen so far¡¡± When Dang Seo-rin spoke, the guild leaders fell silent. ¡°All New Buddhists show the same symptoms.¡± ¡°All of them!¡± A murmur of shock spread. ¡°Every single one?¡± ¡°Yes. Ah, I misspoke. You don¡¯t even have to be a New Buddhist; anyone infected with the New Buddha virus, whether ordinary or awakened, is the same.¡± ¡°I knew it.¡± Old Man Scho grumbled. ¡°There¡¯s never been anything good thates from cults. What, you get an extra life point if you get infected? No way such a lucky thing exists. I¡¯ve been suspicious from the start.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± The guild leaders¡¯ stares bore down on the German¡¯s indiscriminate grumbling. Clearing my throat, I carefully took over the conversation. ¡°Samcheon Guild Leader, are these the only symptoms? Like Tami, a creature that devours itself? While intriguing, I don¡¯t see the connection between the World Tree and these zombies.¡± ¡°What¡¯s Tami? Anyway, watch a bit longer. Something curious will happen.¡± Even while we spoke, the zombie didn¡¯t stop feeding. ¡°Hun?gry?¡ Hun???gry?¡ Hun?gry?¡ Hun??gry¡¡± Soon, thest remaining right arm fell off. The zombie stood tall like a Matryoshka doll. ¡°...¡¡± The zombie raised its head and looked up at the night sky in the direction of the World Tree. Its mouth slowly opened, and a red flower sprouted from within. The guild leaders collectively held their breath. ¡°My God.¡± ¡°Fuck, what¡?¡± Someone muttered, ¡°Looks like a cordyceps¡¡± A fungus that parasitizes its host before blooming into a mushroom. Except in this case, it wasn¡¯t a mushroom but a brilliantly beautiful red flower. The red flower used the zombie¡¯s body as a flowerpot, and in the blink of an eye, it grew to the height of a one-story building. It was as if time itself had malfunctioned. We were speechless as we looked up at the crown of the red flower. Pop, like popcorn bursting, the petals exploded. The red flower blossomed and withered in ten seconds as if each was its own season. But unlike other trees, it didn¡¯t shed its flowers downward. The guild leaders were speechless. ¡°H-Hey. That¡¯s¡?¡± ¡°They¡¯re floating up?¡± Not falling, but ascending. The red flower¡¯s home was not the ground but the sky. The petals floated upward like lighter winds, fireflies, or cherry blossoms. And it wasn¡¯t only happening here. The dark night sky glittered with countless red lights. They were far closer than stars, though much dimmer. Red petals scattered like the Milky Way from abandoned buildings, open fields, and all around, returning to the night sky. ¡°Beautiful¡¡± That, too, was someone¡¯s murmur. With the World Tree reiming every speck of red from the ground, it looked more magnificent than ever. Its radiance was so brilliant that both starlight and moonlight were overshadowed. ¡°Hmm.¡± Old Man Scho let out a sigh. When I turned to look, he wasn¡¯t staring at the night sky but at the zombie. Its gaunt body looked more like the husk of a long-decayed tree than flesh. The human corpse drained of all its red had been reduced to mere remnants. When Old Man Scho poked it with his sheathed sword, the zombie-pot crumbled. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°¡Yes, old man.¡± ¡°Looks like we¡¯re fucked, right?¡± I nodded. I hated to admit it, but it was an urate diagnosis. The boss-level monster that appeared after Ten Legs. Or rather, the anomaly that had emerged before Ten Legs but hid its power for years, parasitizing hosts until finally revealing itself. The World Tree¡ª the return of Udumbara. Udumbara. A mystical flower revered in Buddhism. A legendary blossom that didn¡¯t exist in reality. But now, it did. There was no countermeasure against a legend that had descended to Earth. More dangerous than the Ten Legs. Unlike Ten Legs, Udumbara was cunning. It didn¡¯t just parasitize hosts but made them wee it. It quietly expanded its influence before unleashing its full power at once. Once Udumbara revealed itself, it was game over. If the World Tree could bloom red, there were already too many hosts infected. From that point, the apocalypse was inevitable. ¡°Oh no, what do we do¡¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± Old Man Scho and I put our heads together, deep in thought. By the way, it was the 18th cycle. Where did the 17th cycle go, you ask? Uh¡ weeds sprouted from Old Man Scho¡¯s beard, and grass grew from my eyebrows. We thought it was thest-ditch effort and took the whole Guild Alliance to hack at the tree with axes, but it didn¡¯t work. So, Old Man Scho and I downed poison in a ss of soju and toasted. Even after Old Man Scho went on leave, we couldn¡¯te up with a fundamental countermeasure against Udumbara. The best we could do was suppress the spread of cults and keep the Awakeners¡¯ superiority in check. But that was just a stopgap measure. While we could control things domestically, how could we manage overseas? Whatever strategy we devised, it would only dy Udumbara¡¯s bloom. Yet time passed, and the 36th cycle came. ¡°The Constetions don¡¯t exist.¡± ¡°Neither the Saintess of National Salvation nor the Conqueror of the Alps are real. They¡¯re just characters I created.¡± ¨D¨DFrom the moment I met the Saintess, everything changed quickly. We finally found a clue to the seemingly hopeless conquest of the World Tree. After forming a blood pact with the Saintess, I began the full-scale subjugation of Udumbara. The crux of the operation was the request I made to the Saintess. ¡°Saintess, please use your [irvoyance] to monitor the Awakeners on Jeju Ind for some time.¡± ¡°Jeju Ind?¡± The Saintess tilted her head. ¡°Is there a particr reason?¡± ¡°Yes. If left alone, a cult called the New Buddhists will begin to emerge in earnest by year three¡¡± I exined the zombie virus and the rise of the New Buddhists, the emergence of Awakeners¡¯ superiority, and the bacsh of hatred against them. And, finally, the Red World Tree''s full bloom. The Saintess listened quietly from beginning to end. Then she spoke softly. ¡°Indeed. So, you intend to find the virus''s first patient.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± The first patient, whose identity had eluded us in previous cycles, was the first domino that set off the viral outbreak. It would have been impossible to identify them alone. But using my regression ability and the Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance], it was possible. ¡°In this cycle, we¡¯ll focus on Jeju Ind. Next, Gyeongsangnam-do, then Gyeongsangbuk-do, Jeonam-do, and Jeobuk-do¡ Each cycle, we will focus on a region in Korea, moving from the south to the north. That way¨D¨D¡± ¡°We will eventually witness the first patient¡¯s birth.¡± The Saintess nodded. ¡°I understand. I¡¯ve primarily used irvoyance to monitor prominent Awakeners like you, Undertaker. But if I push myself a little¡ even if it¡¯s impossible to observe every Awakener in Korea in real time, I can manage at least one region.¡± ¡°Do you want me to assign Yu Ji-won to assist you?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s okay.¡± The Saintess sped her hands together and closed her eyes as if praying. ¡°This is something I can handle alone.¡± At the time, I didn¡¯t know the exact method she used to observe so many Awakeners. It was one of her ¡°secrets¡± that she never revealed. I could only guess she cooperated with Awakeners working with the South Korean government (or remnants of it), like Noh Do-hwa, among others. After assigning the Saintess her quest, I took care of the cult leaders responsible for founding the New Buddhists. Even if other faiths would eventually arise, eliminating them bought us at least a year or two. And so, in the 36th cycle: ¡°It¡¯s not Jeju Ind.¡± 37th cycle: ¡°No sign of a first patient in Gyeongsangnam-do.¡± 38th, 39th, 40th cycles. Finally, in the 41st cycle. ¡°¡Found them.¡± The Saintess opened her eyes. ¡°Chungcheongnam-do. Asan. Onyang.¡± More precisely, an old inn in Onyang. The oldmercial district had withered after the city center shifted, leaving the inn to decay precariously beside neglected sidewalks where weeds flourished more than people. The inn seemed abandoned. Its beige paint had ked off in patches. In room 202 on the second floor, where there wasn¡¯t much left to take, a mother and her sony dead. ¡°...¡¡± The mother and child looked like they had just closed their eyes. Finding this ce was nearly miraculous. An Awakener working at the localmunity center was patrolling residential areas and lodging facilities, ensuring no residents had been left behind. (Perhaps the Saintess, pretending to be a Constetion, had directed him.) When the staff member found the bodies, the Saintess witnessed the scene simultaneously. He moved to his next checkpoint, burdened with caring for the living, but the Saintess¡¯s gaze lingered, leading me here today. There was a reason my alias was the ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The mother leaned against the wall, holding her child tight. He was an infant, and small, delicate red flowers, like young ferns in spring, bloomed above her shoulders. Around his wrist hung a prayer bead bracelet that was a bit toorge for his tiny wrist. It wasn''t hard to imagine whose bracelet it was and who had put it on him. I briefly thought about the mother¡¯s feelings when she ced her own bracelet on her child. When crossing to the afterlife, perhaps she hoped her child wouldn¡¯t fall into hell. I stood still, gazing at the scene before me like a Buddhist staring at a statue. [Mr. Undertaker.] The Saintess spoke telepathically. She didn¡¯t pretend to be a Constetion with me, using her real voice instead. I nodded. ¡°I understand. Don¡¯t worry.¡± I infused my sword with aura and swung it. A few red flowers scattered across the small, one-room world. Udumbara was a mythical flower. There isn¡¯t much of an epilogue to this story. But from that day onward, I had one more task to handle at the start of each cycle. Taking care of Seo Gyu and Sim Ah-ryeon at Busan Station. Drinking Caf¨¦ au Lait with Old Man Scho at Baekje Hospital. Establishing an alliance with the Saintess. And then heading up to Chungcheong-do to see the red flowers. Later, I learned that no matter how many times I repeated my regressions, it was impossible to save the mother and her child. They were already dead by the time the Gate crisis hit Seoul. Cause of death: starvation. Misery is always in season. ¡°Phew¡¡± Sometimes, I arrived at the inn a few dayste due to a dyed schedule. By then, the Udumbara, once no bigger than a young fern, would have already grown into a small cherry tree. ¡°Wow, it¡¯s so beautiful¡¡± I brought apanion along to see the flowers every new cycle. In the 96th cycle, mypanion was Sim Ah-ryeon. ¡°Is this really the anomaly you mentioned, guild leader? You said it should be ssified at a continental danger level on SG Net¡¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°It¡¯s such a fascinating sight. Makes me want to paint it.¡± True to her word, Sim Ah-ryeon had brought an easel here and set it up. As she pulled out her paints, she said, ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°So, guild leader, what kind of flower is that¡?¡± A flower that has destroyed the world countless times. Instead of telling her that, I brushed aside the branches and said, ¡°It¡¯s a flower that blooms each season I die.¡± ¡°Gasp.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon marveled at my sophisticated expression. ¡°Middle school syndrome¡¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°A grown man with middle school syndrome¡¡± Hmm. Next time I bring her along, it¡¯ll be to a creepy haunted spot. Footnotes: [1] The term "??" refers to the "Huayan" school of Buddhism, also known as the Flower Gand School. This tradition is named after the "Avatamsaka Sutra" (Flower Gand Sutra), one of the most influential Mahayana sutras. The Huayan school is known for its intricate and profound philosophy which emphasizes interpration and interdependence of all phenomena. In East Asian Buddhism, it has been particrly influential in China, Korea, and Japan. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 29 The Explorer I When the Void erupted in the middle of Seoul, the entire Gangnam area was ravaged. I¡¯ve mentioned this in several of my stories, so you should be familiar with it. Known as the "Gangnam Void Crisis," "Gangnam White Night," or "Summer in Seoul," this incident imed even Old Man Scho¡¯s wife, who fell victim to the "summer." However, a few buildings remained intact amidst the void-infested Gangnam area. If ¡°intact¡± means a building looks neat from the outside. Here¡¯s a question: Q. How can a building remain as intact as before, onnd consumed by the void? A. It¡¯s also void.Exactly. Eye for an eye, poison for poison. To resist the void, there was only one solution: overpower it with an even stronger void. Put differently, if you see a building in Gangnam that¡¯s still ¡°intact,¡± that means it managed to shrug off the void that obliterated half of Seoul¡¯s poption. These were the highest-level dungeons. All the sturdiest, scariest, and most brutal voids on the Korean Penins were concentrated in Seoul¡¯s Gangnam. The real estate market in the human world had copsed, but among anomalies, Gangnam was still the hottest spot. One of the most notorious dungeons was a hotel in the building nicknamed the ¡°Tower of Sauron.¡± Since the previous story involved an inn, today, let''s talk about a hotel. The building known as the ¡°Tower of Sauron,¡± as many of you know, is the tallest skyscraper in Seoul. Initially, it was a nickname with a hint of humor, but when the void devastated Gangnam, the building¡¯s residents, office workers, and hotel staff vanished entirely. Thus, the name "Tower of Sauron" became literal. Right after the void¡¯s eruption, people had high hopes for the tower. ¡°That building looks fine!¡± ¡°There must be lots of survivors inside!¡± It was already the tallest building on the penins. In today¡¯s world, where the average height of Seoul¡¯s buildings has reverted 50 years, it stood out even more. ¡°Ah,e to think of it, I heard somewhere that the tower was designed to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake¡¡± ¡°Could it really be intact inside?¡± ¡°There¡¯s supposedly a portal to another world near the top of that building.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go in! Let¡¯s check it out!¡± First, residents from north of the Han River entered the tower. They went missing immediately after entering. In the initial stages of the apocalypse, a handful of missing people didn¡¯t concern anyone. Even adding two zeros to the number wouldn¡¯t change the situation. But after a month or two, strange rumors about the Tower of Sauron started to circte. ¡°It¡¯s a ce where you can¡¯t return if you take even a single step inside.¡± ¡°A reconnaissance team is forming.¡± At that point, the South Korean military, which had managed to hold on,unched an operation. With the Ten Legs treating soldiers as delicacies and sweeping through the ranks, any surviving unit had to be elite. The soldiers decided to borrow the wisdom of their ancestors, but from a much earlier time. ¡°We will form a single-file line and enter the tower. Every soldier will tie a rope around their waist.¡± ¡°Rope, sir?¡± ¡°Yes. This rope will link all the soldiers together. The operation will be called ¡®Ariadne.¡¯¡± Like Theseusnding on Crete and facing the greatestbyrinth humanity had ever known, the soldiers approached this operation with the same determination. ¡°The frontmost row will go in first, then walk back outside if nothing happens. If we lose contact with the front row, cut the rope immediately so the others can escape. Understood?¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± ¡°Good. Prepare the ropes.¡± A cautious and effective strategy. The problem was that the Tower of Sauron wasn¡¯t just any dungeon; it was a demonic castle that had survived the ¡°Summer in Seoul.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve lost contact with the soldiers who entered the door!¡± ¡°Pull the rope!¡± ¡°It won¡¯t pull. Ugh, it¡¯s not moving! It¡¯s heavy as a rock!¡± ¡°We have no choice. Abort Ariadne. Cut the rope!¡± ¡°Yes, sir. Huh? The rope¡ why? No¡?¡± ¡°What are you doing, you idiot! Cut the rope!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t cut it! The rope won¡¯t cut!¡± ¡°What the hell are you saying¡? Whoa, we¡¯re being pulled!¡± ¡°Aaaaah! Help me! Help me!¡± ¡°No! Hold on! If you¡¯re dragged in, you¡¯ll die¡¡± Incredibly, the rope seemed to have transformed into titanium. The military knives couldn¡¯t even leave a dent. The ss doors of the Tower of Sauron opened wide and dragged the soldiers in, swallowing them like noodles slurped up in one go. A perfect feast. ¡°Aaaah!¡± The soldier holding onto the door frame to avoid being pulled in was gone in a sh. His screamssted only two seconds before fading. With a squeak, the ss doors gently closed. If the Tower of Sauron could talk, it would probably say ¡°Burp.¡± The reconnaissance team was wiped out. After this incident became known, the line of civilians daring enough to challenge the tower dwindled. That¡¯s right. Civilians stopped. I, the Undertaker, lived by my own rules, far removed from normal sentiments. What if I died in the tower? I¡¯d just regress. And so, I sought out apanion to explore the hotel with. It would be boring to go alone. ¡°Ah-ryeon, how about a hotel staycation this summer?¡± ¡°A h-hotel staycation?¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s ears perked up. She had the temperament of a loner but harbored an e-like yearning for the life of an extrovert. ¡°Sounds nice, but¡ but, just you and me?¡± The yearning spoke. ¡°No matter what, I mean, that¡¯s a little¡¡± ¡°Rx. It¡¯s not that kind of trip. I¡¯m just thinking of spending a few days at the best hotel on the penins. If you¡¯re interested,e along. If not, I¡¯ll ask someone else.¡± ¡°Uh¡¡± Sim Ah-ryeon blinked, swayed by my indifferent yet cool response, thinking, ¡°Is he serious?¡± She had been consistently easy to sway since the first cycle. ¡°O-Okay¡ I¡¯ll go!¡± Two dayster. Sim Ah-ryeon screamed in front of the hotel entrance, carrying her travel backpack. ¡°You said it was a hotel! You said it was a hotel, guild leader! It¡¯s the Tower of Sauron¡ªhere!¡± ¡°What are you talking about? There¡¯s a hotel here.¡± ¡°Not is but was! They¡¯re all gone! The buildings are ruined! It¡¯s all ¡®Gangnamed!¡¯¡± ¡°Enough. Follow me. I need you toe in and sketch thendscapes and maps.¡± ¡°Aaaaah! I should¡¯ve known when you said ¡®hotel staycation!¡¯ Somebody save me! No! No way am I going to die here where thousands have already died¡ªI don¡¯t care if you¡¯re the guild leader, no means no¨D¨D¡± And so began the Undertaker¡¯s fun exploration of the void. As soon as we stepped through the ss doors of the Tower of Sauron, a stunning sight greeted us. ¡°Huh? There¡¯s light¡?¡± The building that looked pitch-ck from outside was brightly lit inside. Not only that. There were four perfectly operational elevators, two on each side of the entrance. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling was spotless. It was as if¨D¨D ¡°It¡¯s like time hasn¡¯t moved at all¡ How is this possible¡?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I nodded. As an experiment, I pressed an elevator button. Srrr. The doors slid open without a hitch. ¡°Gasp. It¡¯s working¡?¡± ¡°Remarkable. Time hasn¡¯t just stopped; the building is fully functional. Ah-ryeon, did you notice?¡± ¡°Huh? What?¡± ¡°Look outside.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon, who had been captivated by the chandeliers and elevators, finally turned around. With her trademark shriek, she clung to my arm like a caterpir. ¡°What¡¯s that? Who¡¯s that?¡± Outside the doors¡ªmeaning just beyond the ss doors we had entered through¡ªa man in a suit stood politely. ¡°He¡¯s probably a hotel staff member, a doorman who opens doors for guests.¡± ¡°But there wasn¡¯t anyone there earlier¡¡± ¡°Remember this, Ah-ryeon: In the void, you can¡¯t rely on preconceived notions. The ss doors we saw from outside and the outside we see now are two different spaces. Think of it like a picture in a frame.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± ¡°The problem is, we¡¯ve stepped inside the frame. If we tried to open those doors now, they wouldn¡¯t budge. Go ahead and try.¡± ¡°...¡¡± Sim Ah-ryeon cautiously tried to open the doors, but nothing happened. The hotel staff standing just beyond the ss didn¡¯t even nce at her. ¡°It¡¯s true¡¡± ¡°That¡¯s why ¡®void¡¯ fits better than ¡®gate.¡¯ Things that look like doors no longer mean anything as entrances or exits. To escape the void, you must follow the proper procedure or subjugate the boss.¡± ¡°The boss¡¡± ¡°Of course, many voids don¡¯t have bosses, which makes them trickier to clear. Let¡¯s see how closely this void imitates a real hotel.¡± I led Sim Ah-ryeon into the elevator. Since this was one of the most luxurious hotels in Korea, the elevator itself wasvish. The building boasted 123 floors, but we chose to enter the void through the hotel¡¯s main entrance. So, the elevator only had four buttons. [81F - Western Restaurant, Korean Restaurant, Bar] [79F - Lobby, Guest Lounge] [76F - Grand Banquet Hall, Small Banquet Hall] [01F ¨C Entrance] Sim Ah-ryeon shifted nervously, intrigued yet uneasy. ¡°What if the elevator suddenly falls while going up¡?¡± ¡°That¡¯d be great.¡± ¡°W-What? But we¡¯d die.¡± ¡°Sure, we might die, but the course would be incredibly short. If this void only entertains itself by making humans fall in an elevator, then¡ the risk level would drop.¡± In that case, the Tower of Sauron would simply be ssified as a void or anomaly called ¡°Hotel Elevator,¡± and that would be the end of it. Not dangerous, and easy to beat. Just don¡¯t get in the elevator. Done. As long as you¡¯re not some pervert who gets excited by elevator vibrations, you could safely ignore it in future cycles. ¡°What are you even talking about, guild leader¡? We¡¯d die.¡± ¡°True voids don¡¯t kill people. They make you want to live here forever.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Click. I pressed [79F]. Since we had entered through the hotel entrance, we were likely guests staying at the hotel. And as guests, our first stop should be the ¡°hotel lobby¡± to ¡°check-in.¡± Twitch! When the elevator began moving, Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s shoulders tightened. I tapped her back gently. ¡°How long you survive sessfully in a void depends on your understanding of its ¡®personality.¡¯¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Remember that staff member standing beyond the ss doors? Even little details like that are important. In the void, no clue is insignificant. If a staff member is outside, it¡¯s because ¡®the void believes it¡¯s a hotel.¡¯¡± ¡°The void believes it¡¯s a hotel¡¡± ¡°Yeah. Like the saying, ¡®When in Rome, do as the Romans do,¡¯ you need to follow the void¡¯s rules unless you n to mess things up right away. In that sense, the soldiers who tried to enter earlier were unlucky.¡± ¡°W-Why?¡± ¡°What guest would enter a luxury hotel in military gear, holding a gun? They were probably mistaken for terrorists and ughtered.¡± ¡°...¡¡± I secretly wished the elevator would fall. By wrapping myself in aura and shielding Sim Ah-ryeon, I¡¯d have a high chance of survival. But this world was sincere in its desire to screw people over, especially me. Srrr¡ª In less than a minute, the elevator reached the 79th floor. And as the doors elegantly opened, I was sure this void belonged to our proud world. ¡°My God, guild leader! Look! It¡¯s so luxurious here¡¡± The perfectly polished marble lobby weed me. Even the staff at the check-in counter smiled at us from afar. ¡°Hmm.¡± A big ¡°F-U¡± indeed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 30 The Explorer II ¡°Ah-ryeon, hold the elevator door open for a moment.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Your guild leader has something to confirm.¡± I immediately climbed the elevator wall. Sim Ah-ryeon gasped, looking at me like she was staring at a giant spider, but I paid her no mind. Channeling aura into my hands, I sliced the ceiling like it was soft tofu. Sparks flew from my hands as if I was welding. In no time, I had created a neat hole in the ceiling. This was the power of a skilled aura user. ¡°G-Guild leader, what are you¡?¡± ¡°Shh. Keep quiet and wait.¡±Upsy-daisy ¡ªI lifted my upper body through the opening. It felt like a scene from Mission Impossible. ¡°Hmm.¡± The wind outside was biting. The space beyond the elevator was pitch ck. While theck of lighting contributed to the darkness, it felt excessively gloomy even ounting for that. More precisely, it felt ¡°crude.¡± The elevator car had ropes, but that was about it. I couldn''t see the essentialponents like governor ropes or door drive units that should be there. And for an elevator supposedly running in the "Tower of Sauron," the structure seemed flimsy. A high-rise building like this should have streamlined, aerodynamic curves in the elevator capsule. ¡®Gotcha.¡¯ The entity that created this anomaly wasn''t a professional. It was just a product of vague preconceptions and images from average Koreans who had a general idea of this hotel. ¡®I avoided the worst.¡¯ I smiled faintly. This would make things easier. Hup! With a thump, I climbed back down through the ceiling. Sim Ah-ryeon, who I''d asked to hold the elevator door open, couldn¡¯t resist her curiosity and had peeked outside. ¡°Guild leader. There are people here, and they¡¯re all fine¡ My God, their clothes aren¡¯t wrinkled at all, so neat¡ Ah! The carpet is all messed up because of our shoe prints¡¡± At that moment, the ¡°beings¡± in the hotel lobby all turned their gaze toward her. Their pitch-ck pupils stared at Sim Ah-ryeon. ¡°Eep!¡± ¡°Quiet.¡± Before she could scream, I immediately covered Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s mouth. She squirmed and whimpered as I whispered quickly into her ear. ¡°Don''t speak recklessly. Avoid eye contact. The staff and other guests are all anomalies.¡± ¡°Mmph?¡± ¡°To be precise, they¡¯re parts of the anomaly. More like its terminals. The entire hotel is likely one single anomaly and void. If you draw too much attention, the ¡®whole hotel¡¯ will start watching you.¡± ¡°Mm! Mm-mm¡?¡± ¡°Of course, if you were an Awakener who could wield aura as easily as breathing, you could smash them all to bits. But our goal is exploration before subjugation. We need to document how this void works in detail. It might help humanity. Got it?¡± ¡°...¡¡± Nodding slowly, Sim Ah-ryeon moved her chin up and down. Her palm felt a bit sweaty, but I tried to ignore it. ¡°Now, let me show you how a skilled Awakener explores the void. As long as these creatures are around, keep quiet and just follow my lead. Can you do that?¡± Nod. ¡°Good.¡± I released Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s mouth and walked with her toward the check-in counter. Tap. The anomalies, or their terminals, moved their gaze precisely in sync with my steps. If I were a regr person with little experience dealing with anomalies, this sight would be terrifying. But who am I? The regressor who¡¯d spent countless cycles tangled up with anomalies, resilient as the Baekdu Mountain and the East Sea. I approached without blinking. Creak¡ª The staff behind the counter parted their lips. Their mouths were as ck as an abyss, and their tongues weren¡¯t even visible beyond their teeth. It mimicked a human voice. -Wee. Do you have a reservation at our hotel? If so¡ ¡°Good morning.¡± The staff suddenly froze. Unfazed, I continued fluently. ¡°I have a reservation at this hotel. I¡¯m a travel YouTuber. Can I check in?¡± -Ah, um? The staff looked visibly confused, understandably so. I had spoken in German. Hotel staff at high-end establishments usually speak English and can respond in Japanese or Chinese. But German, French, Spanish, or Russian requires special preparation, and they can¡¯t handle them on the spot. Naturally, Korean anomalies had the same sensitivity toward foreigners as most Koreans. They became utterly weak. -Ah, uh, sorry, sir. Can you speak English? Reservation? Reservation, please? ¡°Oh,e on. Relying only on English in today¡¯s global era?¡± -Sorry? ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I can¡¯t speak English. Deutd. Germany. Okay?¡± -Ah, Germany. What should we do? He seems German. Ah, apologies. Please wait a moment. My wless German pronunciation made the anomalies shrink back and panic. Sim Ah-ryeon was watching me with wide eyes, like someone seeing a giant hamster perform a headstand. It might have looked funny, but this ¡°I don''t speak Korean, and I don¡¯t know English either¡± strategy worked well in the void. Especially in voids that imitated real buildings, like the Tower of Sauron. The anomalies whispered to each other. -Can¡¯t we reach the person in charge? -No answer. They¡¯re not picking up. -Why now, of all times¡? We need to ask if he has a reservation, but we can¡¯tmunicate¡ -Calm down, everyone. Just guide him to the lobby sofa. We can¡¯t keep the guest standing there. Offer him some wee tea, too. If this were an actual hotel, they¡¯d have acted swiftly. But I guarantee it was the first time these anomalies had encountered a German guest. A foreign liaison? There¡¯s no way they¡¯d have something like that. Calling anyone wouldn¡¯t yield results. -Excuse me, sir? Please? Can youe this way? ¡°Hmm? What was that?¡± -Ah, uh, please have a seat on this sofa. Yes. The phone, we can¡¯t get through¡ Yes, sorry. The staff tried their best to get us to understand using every gesture they could think of. With a mildly displeased expression, I made it clear I didn¡¯t intend to cause trouble and sat on the sofa. ¡°Oh my goodness.¡± As soon as the staff moved away, Sim Ah-ryeon huddled close and whispered. ¡°Guild leader¡ What just happened?¡± ¡°This strategy is nearly foolproof when dealing with anomalies trying to imitate humans in Korea.¡± Of course, it only worked well in Korea and shouldn''t be used in the Nethends. Too many people there spoke foreignnguages. ¡°Y-You can speak foreignnguages?¡± ¡°Of course. English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian¡ªmost majornguages. Myplete memory isn¡¯t OP for nothing.¡± ¡°Wow¡ I thought you were just someone who liked old Three Kingdoms content, but now you seem different¡¡± ¡°...¡¡± This brat. If not for me, she would have knocked on the ss doors before even getting on the elevator and would¡¯ve gone straight to the afterlife. She was still a newbie to voids. No matter how dangerous the dungeon, it¡¯s manageable if you know how to handle it. I pulled out a Proid camera from my travel backpack¡ªa model that printed instant photos. ¡°Huh? Why a camera now?¡± ¡°Ah, rx. This is a valuable item. One of the treasures I got in Japan after helping some magical girls.¡± ¡°...?¡± It was a Proid OneStep (Land Camera 1000),unched in 1977. It should require an SX-70 Time-Zero film, but the camera itself was an anomaly, so thankfully, film wasn''t needed. Click. I photographed the hotel lobby. The camera shed brightly, and soon, a white film was ejected. ¡°Here, take it. And no screaming.¡± ¡°Huh? What¡? Eek!¡± As expected, the captured image of the lobby was starkly different from what we were seeing. Dust-covered marble floors, shattered lights, and porcin pieces scattered everywhere. Even corpses hung from nooses behind the counter. ¡°Hah, eek¡ Huff¡¡± Near the sofa where we sat, a corpse dressed as a soldier had its mouth agape and eyes wide open. Sim Ah-ryeon was practically hyperventting. ¡°Fascinating, right? This camera is rare. It¡¯s known as a ¡®Spirit Camera¡¯ and is quite a notable anomaly in Japan. I¡¯d been eyeing it for a long time and only got it after taking down the Inunaki Tunnel. I don¡¯t know why those magical girls were so stingy with it when they had two simr Nikon F-series cameras.¡± ¡°Guild leader, eek¡ Guild leadeeer¡¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so scared. The funes from testing how well these idiots can imitate humans.¡± ¡°Nobody else in this world would find anomalies fun except you¡¡± As I teased Sim Ah-ryeon, the hotel staff brought us some wee tea. Afterward, a man who appeared to be the manager came over and used English and bodynguage tomunicate. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, sir. We have no way to assist you right now.¡± ¡°Hm.¡± I raised my chin by 20 degrees, and the manager bowed by 20 degrees. ¡°If you could wait a little longer, we¡¯ll figure something out¡¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± At this point, I pondered whether to subdue or hold off on subduing this anomaly. Most anomalies would have revealed their true nature by now. But from how things were going, it seemed like these creatures were genuinely dedicated to the hotel business. In other words, as long as we kept up our ¡°guest¡± act, they wouldn¡¯t drop their ¡°hotel¡± act. Pass. ¡°That¡¯s fine. Okay, okay. I¡¯ll just look around ande backter.¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Here, hold my backpack. This is my phone number. Okay?¡± I took out my important items and handed my backpack to the staff. Realizing my intent, the staff smiled and said, ¡°Ah, okay! Thank you so much!¡± They kindly guided us to the elevator. Comfortably, we returned to the first floor. Since seeing the spirit photos, Sim Ah-ryeon had been trembling non-stop. ¡°Uhm¡ Guild leader, is it okay for us to leave like this?¡± ¡°Probably.¡± ¡°B-But earlier, the door wouldn¡¯t open?¡± ¡°This time, the hotel allowed us to leave. If I had said I was leaving for good, maybe they would have stopped us. But I implied I¡¯d be back.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s why you left your backpack¡¡± ¡°Right. When exploring voids, you must quickly grasp their nature and adapt. Even in dangerous voids, as long as you follow the rules, they usually won¡¯t attack¡ Only about 50% of the time.¡± ¡°That¡¯s still half!¡± Which is why you should always be strong enough to smack them down if they attack. Tsk tsk. When the elevator reached the first floor, the door opened. As a test, I took a quick photo of the lobby. ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°What¡¯s in it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell you in a bit.¡± The photo showed bodies piled high like mountains. Twenty partially-eaten corpses stood near the ss doors, and a hundred others clung to the ss, scratching it with their palms. What looked like a pretty chandelier was actually a gruesome collection of hanging corpses. ¡°Let¡¯s head out.¡± ¡°O-Okay¡¡± As expected, the ss doors opened naturally when I pushed them this time. A gust of fresh air rushed into my nose. Sim Ah-ryeon plopped to the ground. ¡°It was so scary! So scary! Guild leader, please! Don¡¯t drag me into this; it¡¯s bad for my heart!¡± ¡°Here¡¯s the first-floor photo. A souvenir.¡± ¡°A souvenir? What¡ AHHHHHH!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon fainted. I was satisfied. This is why it¡¯s fun to hang out with her. Her reactions were always great. Of course, the satisfaction didn¡¯tst long after I read a silly post on SG Net the next day. -[OldManGoryeo]: Dropped my footprint at ¡®that tower¡¯ in Gangnam, Seoul, lol. -[OldManGoryeo]: Is this dungeon really that famous? I went, and it¡¯s a joke. Those Awakeners always boast, but this crappy dungeon is what kills them? (79th floor lobby photo) (1st floor elevator photo) -[OldManGoryeo]: I¡¯ve got a spirit item, so I took some verification shots. Check if your parents¡¯ faces are here, lol. Naturally, these so-called verification shots were the instant photos I had given Sim Ah-ryeon. The response was overwhelming. -Anonymous: Where is this? ©¸LiteraryGirl: It¡¯s obviously the Tower of Sauron. ©¸Anonymous: ?? This guy raided the Tower of Sauron alone and came back fine? -[Samcheon] Cadet: What¡¯s with this OldManGoryeo viin? Is this unhinged troll actually a reclusive master? -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Hweeeeng. (>_<);; -Anonymous: Wow, this guy is next-level, lol. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: This is fascinating. ¡°Hm.¡± I nced over at Sim Ah-ryeon, fiddling with her phone in the guild¡¯s lounge. ¡°Heh¡ hehe¡¡± Shey sprawled on the couch, looking incredibly happy. Perhaps that¡¯s what a true anomaly looks like. Epilogue. In the next cycle, after picking up Seo Gyu from Busan Station, I researched the ¡°Tower of Sauron¡± online. With civilization still just beginning to copse, I easily found image files of hotel vouchers. And using those files, I forged a reservation. Why? The barcode was a mess, but there was no way the anomalies could verify it. So, armed with this voucher (presidential suite, 145 m2, meals included, priced at 8 million won per night), I revisited the ¡°Tower of Sauron¡± alone. The result? ¡°Yes, your reservation is confirmed, Mr. Undertaker. We¡¯ll serve you with the utmost care.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± Surprisingly, the reservation worked! That night, I not only enjoyed dinner at the finest restaurant but also took a rxing bath while admiring Seoul¡¯s night view from the window. Wherever I went, the staff smiled and treated me with the utmost kindness. ¡°Jackpot.¡± The next morning, I took a picture of my breakfast to test. Click. I savored my seaweed soup while waiting for the film to develop. When the photo finally emerged, I looked down. ¡°Hmm¡¡± I won¡¯t reveal what was captured in the photo here. But if you¡¯re nning a trip with someone, make sure they have a strong stomach. Very strong. Ah. And of course, I¡¯m not bringing Sim Ah-ryeon. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 31 The Creator I Among those who''ve heard my story so far, some might be wondering: "So what is the government doing?" In this apocalyptic madness, with cultists'' antics, Cthulhu tentacles slithering, and World Tree zombies sprouting up, what are the politicians and government doing? First, let me tell you this: "Folks, the Korean government has something to say!" That''s right. We should consider the government''s standpoint. You must have heard that right after a Gate opened in Seoul, the National Assemblyunched into space. For reference, the president was in the midst of delivering a policy speech at the National Assembly about the supplementary budget. It was truly a touching moment when South Korea suddenly rose to prominence as a pioneer in space exploration.The union between the ruling and opposition parties was realized not on this miserable Earth, but in a new colony called "Space." From a politician''s perspective, Korea is just a meager homnd, much like how the Portuguese royal family fled to Brazil to escape Napoleon. Simrly, the Korean government went on a summer vacation. Q. What''s left on the Korean Penins now? A. A handful of National Assembly members and ministers who didn''t attend the policy speech, governors, mayors, county chiefs, and many, many monsters. When the social infrastructure was not yet fully destroyed, the politicians wasted three days foolishly. In an apocalyptic situation, three days was more than enough time to drive people insane. Very few could remain calm after hearing news like, "Monsters are hosting a neighborhood meeting in our apartment park and parking lot!" Finally, on the third day, the remnants of the government delivered their address to the nation, firing the final fireworks of the grand festival. -Fellow citizens. South Korea is still safe. For now, remain calm and continue with your livelihoods. A truly generic speech. What the politicians overlooked was none other than the DNA of Koreans. That DNA bore an imprint of unshakable trust in the government. The people of this nation remembered the swift campaign of King Seonjo Lee during the Japanese invasion and the spirit of national defense proimed when the army recaptured Uijeongbu from the North Korean invaders and vowed to defend Seoul. You could me the scoundrel once for fooling you, but if you were duped twice, it was your fault, and three times? Hand in your Homo sapiens certificate. Koreans weren''t yet ready to go extinct. "Stay calm, my ass!" "Oh, I knew these bastards would do this!" "Head south! Just head south!" The civilians of the Korean Penins evacuated with remarkable order. "Citizens! The northern side of the Han River is still safe! Please, trust the government and the army, and go ba¡ª" "Who¡¯s that guy?" "They say he''s the Vice Mayor." "What¡¯s that even mean, damn it." "I don''t know. Toss him." "What? Uh, uh, uhhh¡ª" The Vice Mayor of Seoul (third in line as the acting mayor in emergencies, the only survivor) rushed out to Banpo Bridge to dissuade the citizens, but the citizens of Seoul simply threw him off the bridge and provided him with a practical lesson in water temperature. It was a clean, bold toss worthy of a standing ovation if the people of Prague had witnessed it. If only the politicians had admitted bluntly, "We¡¯repletely screwed, but the north side of the Han River seems rtively safe based on monster distribution. To be more urate, every region in the country is equally dangerous," maybe things would have improved. But what could you do? You could only me the ancestors who burned through their citizens'' trust twice over. When the Republic of Seoul went down in mes, the other coalition governments stood no chance. County chiefs and mayors across the nation had already carved the national slogan "Every Man for Himself" deeply into their hearts. The final touch was the Mayor of Busan, closest to the throne of chaos, who fled to Japan, dealing the decisive blow. Soon enough, the "Second Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea," with the Mayor of Busan as its head, was established on the Japanese archipgo. -Fellow citizens. Rumors are spreading that I''ve abandoned my duties as mayor and fled. This is untrue. -I¡¯ve only moved to the diplomatic stage to secure foreign aid and reim Korean territory! But the fact that the provisional government''s capital was in Fukuoka, Japan, had even the staunchest government supporters scratching their heads. "Wait, was that really the original location of the provisional government? I thought it was a bit further west?" Even the Japanese must have been a bit taken aback. After all, the Provisional Government of Korea had a penchant for putting bombs instead of food in lunch boxes. How could they trust these lunch box fanatics, not knowing what mischief they''d stir up? After many twists and turns, the "Second Provisional Government" was eventually shunned by its own citizens and foreigners alike. To me, it looked like a suicide. For the final touch, a military coup confused the era on the Korean Penins by 70 years. -Fellow citizens. Today, myself and the brave soldiers defending this country''s territory have agreed on a grand proposition that we can no longer stand by this political chaos. -We''ve risen up to overthrow this corrupt and ipetent government that lost the people''s trust, and we soldiers have fully mobilized! But the coup failed. Its failure was simple. Unexpectedly, it turned out that the boss monster, the Ten Legs, was an ardent fighter for democracy. The military units heading toward the Blue House repeatedly missed their targets and ended up inside the Ten Legs¡¯ stomachs. Though the army generals might not have known it, Ten Legs had a quirk of perceiving any group of over 300 people moving as a food truck. The military unit that attempted to enter the Tower of Sauronst time belonged to the shattered remnants of the national army. Even those remaining forces slowly disappeared for various reasons. That should summarize the answer to "So, what did the government do?" Utter chaos. A madhouse. Total devastation. But if you want a lotus to bloom, you first need a pool of mud. Even within the Korean government, which fumbled the initial response miserably, a lotus bloomed. Noh Do-hwa. A seventh-grade public servant working at a public rehabilitation hospital. She was the protagonist of this story. Unlike other public officials, Noh Do-hwa seeded precisely because she was just a seventh-grade public servant. From the beginning, Do-hwa never dreamed she could rece the government of South Korea. Tax management? Electing National Assembly members? Universal welfare? Why should she care? "I probably shouldn''t say this, but I don''t really think of myself as a public servant..." Noh Do-hwa often said such things to me, and she would say simr things to others, too. She probably said the same things even when living on the taxpayers'' money. "I probably shouldn''t say this, but I don''t like the citizens..." "Now, isn''t that really something you shouldn''t say?" "Does it matter? Awakener Undertaker. Do you think more employees love their boss or dislike them? Isn''t it thetter? To public officials, citizens are the bosses. So, it''s only natural that more public servants dislike citizens." Do-hwa muttered with slumped shoulders. She was a person of unusual entricity whom I first met in the 11th cycle. I had heard bits about her in passing before, but our first direct meeting was then. "It''s all done." "Oh." "Would you like to stand up and walk?" In the 11th cycle, my left leg was severed, so I had to wear a prosthetic. I stood up, walked a little, then tried a light jog, even doing small jumps in ce. Do-hwa observed all these movements carefully. "How does it feel? Any difort?" "None at all. Wow, this thing works amazingly. It feels like real muscles and nerves." "That''s good." Do-hwa smiled faintly. To some, it may have seemed a shady or insidious smile, but through my long regression experience, I had grown free from such prejudices. So I could confidently assess Do-hwa''s smile as "benevolent." "If something goes wrong, there¡¯s a 5% chance it could sting like nerves are being pierced. Just think of it as a gacha gone wrong ande back to me. I''ll make you another one for half price." Do-hwa was a manufacturer of assistive devices. Assistive devices referred to auxiliary gadgets used to aid those with mobility issues, like wheelchairs and crutches. Before the Gate incident, Do-hwa worked at a public hospital, repairing and creating various assistive devices. Even back then, she was already renowned among war veterans who had lost limbs tondmines. The Veterans Hospital always sought her out, but Do-hwa seemed uninterested. "I shouldn''t say this, but I don''t like soldiers." "Just asking out of curiosity, but do you like any human being at all, Do-hwa?" "No, I don''t." "......" It was a miracle she hadn''t be a recluse. Yet even Do-hwa had her concerns. Specifically, her worriesy with the patients, or more precisely, with those who had extreme difficulty moving. "Some of the patients are struggling to move." Those with damaged nerves in their spines had to rely on wheelchairs. It would have been manageable if vehicles equipped with essible seating for the disabled were still running, but over time, gasoline ran out, and the roads became rugged. Driving cars and even maneuvering wheelchairs was difficult. Most people would have given up at that point. After the Gate incident fully took hold, the notion of treating disabled people became increasingly rare. In this era, getting killed by a monster was practically considered a natural death. If not for Noh Do-hwa, I would have casually given up after losing my left leg. "Even the elderly find it increasingly difficult toe to our workshop because the roads are too rough." But a person with extraordinary entricity sees things differently. "Shouldn''t we make the roads a bit more convenient?" Dragging her slumped body along, Do-hwa began negotiating. Even though empathy for the disabled had dwindled, their numbers soared as more people lost limbs fighting monsters. Losing an arm or a leg was no longer a badge of honor. Do-hwa was an Awakener with the "Assistive Device Creation" ability. The assistive devices she made, even if constructed from wood or iron, felt like real muscles to the user. Just strap on the prosthetic and go, no rehabilitation or adaptation period needed. In short, Do-hwa had an enormous number of "regrs" who were Awakeners. Almost every guild leader was acquainted with Do-hwa. Even if they were unharmed themselves, if a guild member got injured, they''d quickly head to Do-hwa''s workshop for assistive devices. Do-hwa was a model public servant who never refused bribes. Those who hadn''t established a rapport would hear, "Oh, you''re on the waiting list. Please wait six months." Consider the chances of an Awakener surviving for six months with severed limbs, and even the haughtiest guild leaders would bend a little. "Oh, Mr. Do-hwa! What brings you here?" "Ah, well... I was thinking of fixing the road between Haeundae and Bansong-dong." "Huh? A road? You will? Why?" "There''s a patient in Bansong-dong whoins that the road to our workshop is destroyed. I could always help them find a house in Haeundae, but I don''t feel like being that generous. So I thought I''d just make a road." In general, building a road would have been a far more significant act of kindness than finding a house, but Do-hwa''s entric brain didn¡¯t grasp the proper bnce. "But isn''t Bansong your territory, guild leader? I was hoping you could lend a hand." "Hmm. You mean no other guilds are involved, and it''s just you?" "Yes." "Oh, of course, I''ll help! Just tell me what you need!" And so, a singlene asphalt road was constructed from Haeundae to Bansong-dong, where Do-hwa''s workshop was located. Since the new road was a clean renovation of an old one, it wasn''t a difficult project. Do-hwa''s workshop handled everything, from construction to maintenance. A 71-year-old patient named Lee, who was one of Do-hwa''s patients, could now visit safely, even if it took time. The patient was satisfied, Do-hwa was satisfied, and the real estate prices in Bansong-dong were satisfied. That was the beginning. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 32 Trantor/Editor: Ryuu Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Creator II Noh Do-hwa''s patients never hesitated to heap praise on her when they gathered."Hey, that roadid down in Bansong looks great, doesn''t it?" "You''re right. Those ugly, cracked asphalt roads are nothing but eyesores. Laying a clean, beautiful onene road is much better, isn''t it?" "That''s ssic Mr. Do-hwa. Where''s she from again?" "I heard she''s from Ttangkkeut Vige in Haenam." "Of course! A woman born in a ce with good water and air. If only someone like that were born in our town." At a nce, it sounded like old men chatting while ying Go. But older folks usually prefer detours over straight roads. Their true intentions could be tranted as: "I''m so jealous! Really jealous!" "Please,y one down in our town too!" Noh Do-hwa was someone born with a passive skill of mistrusting and hating people. She instinctively understood that behind every word uttered by humansy ugly and vile desires. However, this entric was infinitely generous to her patients. You could say her fondness was like a limited edition. Just as a dictator who despises humanity bes a mere servant to her pets, Noh Do-hwa found a peculiar bnce in her mind. "Sir... Should Iy down a road in your neighborhood too?" "What? No, no, Ms. Do-hwa! That''s not what I meant to say!" "But that''s what you''re saying now, isn''t it? So, would you like me toy one down or not?" "Well... I''d really appreciate it if you could, but I feel bad asking when you''re already so busy..." "Yeah. You should feel sorry. Aren''t you a patient whose only possession in this awful world is age? You''re clinging to a promising technician like me. I know you''re the one who took the lead, so keep apologizing to the other patients too." "......" Noh Do-hwa visited the Guild Alliance. Back then and even now, the leader of the alliance was Dang Seo-rin. As for me, I just felt like a mercenary captain asionally called in for jobs. "Wee, Ms. Noh Do-hwa. I''ve heard you''re working on some projectstely." "How have you been, Ms. Dang... It''s embarrassing to act like I''m doing business in front of Samcheon. All I''m doing is gathering a few guys who used to toil in construction andying down a few more modest roads than countrynes." Surprisingly, Do-hwa was respectful toward Dang Seo-rin. It wasn''t because their personalities clicked. Their wallets did. Anyone would grow courteous after seeing the quarterly gifts of assets Dang Seo-rin sent to Do-hwa''s workshop. "Why the humility? So, what brings you here?" "Well, I''m fixing the existing roads to make it easier for patients to travel. But you know, it''s a matter of fairness, and people can get tricky if they feel left out. So, since the work''s already in progress..." "You want to fix the entire roadwork of Busan?" "Yes, well... It''s neater that way. But it''s a massive project, and each district ims its own turf." "Hmm." Dang Seo-rin fiddled with the end of her pointed hat. "You want me to sort out the districts?" "Yes. If that''s too difficult, you can invite me when you hold a guild meeting and just arrange a ce for me." "I see. That''s probably better. If I look like I''m exploiting you, some guilds will undoubtedly throw a fit. You should take charge from start to finish so there are no rumors." "True. Guild leaders have such filthy pride and greed." "Alright." Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly. "I''ll arrange a spot for you soon." "Thank you, Lady Leader." Noh Do-hwaughed slyly. "If you end up crippledter, I''ll give you a full-body recement for real cheap. Juste back with your brain and heart intact." "......" The notable part here wasn''t the word "crippled" but "real cheap." She never said "free." Do-hwa gave a nod and left the train car. Dang Seo-rin looked at the sofa where I was sitting. By coincidence, I was also visiting Samcheon''s headquarters. "What do you think?" "Noh Do-hwa is a good person." I buried myself in the sofa. The lounge car, refurbished from a luxurious train, had very cozy chairs. Dang Seo-rin looked at me sulkily. "She called me a cripple." "More precisely, she said, ''if you end up crippled.'' Don''t get upset. If you weigh every word that woman says, you''ll just get tired. Have you seen Do-hwa treating her patients?" "No." "I once had the opportunity to observe her all day." This wasn''t in this cycle but another. Oh, and let me rify that although I usually tell stories sequentially, it doesn''t mean everything happened in one cycle. More often than not, I weave and edit events from multiple cycles. For instance, when I described the government''s copse, it wasn''t like I stayed glued to the radio 24/7. How could I know what statements the Second Provisional Government and coup soldiers made? I heard one speech in the 4th cycle and another in the 11th. I saw refugees throwing the Vice Mayor of Seoul off the bridge in the 37th cycle. My "omniscient narrator" viewpoint came from many cycles and experiences. And I spent as much time as needed to determine whether someone was trustworthy. In some cycles, I even worked closely alongside Do-hwa, practically as her assistant. Unfortunately, in previous cycles, I hadn''t been present when Do-hwa visited Dang Seo-rin. So her projects were always limited to Busan. But this time would be different. Like I said, I "coincidentally" was visiting the Samcheon Guild''s headquarters. "Patients with physical difort often struggle mentally as well. And it''s not just the patients themselves but also their guardians. Even while listening to theirints and curses, Do-hwa has never refused a patient." "Hmm." "She might seem shady and have an odd manner of speaking, but you won''t find anyone like her." "She always overcharges Awakeners." "But she knows whom to overcharge. As I said, she''s never refused a patient. Did only affluent Awakeners visit Do-hwa''s workshop?" Dang Seo-rin rested her chin on her hand. "...Still, she''s spent her life caring for patients. Will she be able to take on something this big?" "She''s someone who adjusts herself to the size of her responsibilities, not the other way around. She''ll be fine." "......" She finally nodded. "Alright. If that''s your assessment, Undertaker, I''ll trust her." Once she trusted someone, Dang Seo-rin was loyal to the end. Not long after, a national guild meeting was held off the coast of Busan. As "off the coast" suggests, theyunched a cruise ship. With no fuel to sail, it was anchored at the pier, but this was already unimaginable luxury in today''s world. The meeting was strictly for guild leaders. Members of the Second Provisional Government or the Junior Officers'' Corps, who typically wormed their way into official events, were thoroughly excluded. A few "self-proimed bigwigs" sent people to protest, but Dang Seo-rin ignored them. The Second Provisional Government Foreign Minister? What''s that? Oh, you''re a member of the Fukuoka Korean Association. Sorry, we can''t hear you well from here, so try crossing the Korea Strait first. The meeting was strictly for guild leaders. The only guest invited was Noh Do-hwa. Excluding the chefs, singers, and jazz band brought in for appearances. "Uh... Lady Leader?" "What?" Looking around the faces of the guild leaders present, Noh Do-hwa looked troubled. A rare sight. "Maybe it''s just me, but it seems like we''ve got not only Busan guild leaders but also national guild leaders here..." "Oh." Dang Seo-rin waved her hand as if it were no big deal. "Don''t worry. I just got a lot of inquiries when I announced the meeting. They haven''t seen each other in ages. Isn''t it good to renew those connections?" "Ah..." It was nonsense. The event''s program was like this: First, the host, Dang Seo-rin, came out to greet the guests, keeping her speech brief to emphasize she wasn''t the main star here. Next, it was my turn. An enthusiastic cheer erupted. "Undertaker! How long has it been?" "Come visit Gangwon-do sometime. Our members really want to see you." "Is Ms. Sim Ah-ryeon doing well? Thanks to you sending her, we cleared the Gate smoothlyst time." "I''ll make sure to organize something and invite you!" Across the room, the Sword Marquess was sitting with his arms crossed. This was truly a gathering of Korea''s most influential Awakeners. I may have downyed myself as just a mercenary captain, but did you know even Switzend, a neutral country, once thrived on mercenary work? Trust earned from mercenary work easily trantes into banking, ording to historical precedent. Simply put, few guild leaders here hadn''t owed me a favor. And like any honest debtor, the guild leaders were determined to repay their debt to this bank of mine, in principal and interest. They knew well that dying repayment could snowball into a much bigger problemter. "I''m deeply grateful to all of you foring here across long and difficult roads. If this were a routine statement, it''d just be a standard greeting. But today''s topic is encapsted in that very statement: long and difficult roads. Isn''t it time to fix them?" "Right!" "Woo-hoo!" The topic of today''s meeting? That was alreadyid out in detail on the invitation. The moment the guild leaders opened their letters, the Saintess fired up the Constetion chat. Something like, [The Saintess of National Salvation is very supportive of this quest.] Dang Seo-rin''s authority, my trust, and the Saintess''s guarantee. It was a literal trinity. Nothing was more powerful on the Korean Penins. Perhaps not even in the whole world. "As many of you know, the eternal supporter of Awakeners is right here! Thanks to this person, losing a limb to monsters isn''t a problem. She has made tremendous contributions to maximizing ourbat abilities. The owner of the ''Noh Do-hwa Workshop,'' who''s invaluable to all Awakeners. ...And someone even the most temperamental Awakeners reluctantly respect. Please give a warm round of apuse to ''The Limb Creator,'' Noh Do-hwa!" Thunderous apuse erupted. No exaggeration. Who cast the lightning spell? Looking around, I saw Dang Seo-rin, in the front row, leading the apuse with a happy smile. By the way, Dang Seo-rin held a legendary grudge. If anyone called her a cripple, she''d happily prove who the real cripple was. I''ve painted her in a good light, but once she kidnapped a rival guild leader who called her a bitch, castrated him, and said, "Well, well, here''s a TS girl! So, who''s the bitch now?" as sheughed. That was because she had a long-standing grudge with that guild leader. It''s solid proof that she didn''t win the leadership of the Korean Awakener Guild Federation by chance. Have you heard of "birds of a feather flock together"? I might have softened up now, but I was once her second-inmand, climbing to vice guild leader under Dang Seo-rin. "......" Receiving the good graces of both Dang Seo-rin and myself, Noh Do-hwa trembled with joy. After my introduction, Do-hwa walked up the stage, then grabbed the microphone. The expression on her face was, well, likely the one she often had back when she was a seventh-grade public servant. In simpler terms: "I''m Noh Do-hwa..." She was screwed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 33 The Creator III "You really set me up..." After the event wound down, the meeting shifted to the after-party. In fact, this was the main event, since it wasn''t often that the leaders of all the nation''s guilds gathered together. As soon as the drinking began, I used the excuse of going to the bathroom to step onto the cruise ship''s deck. Noh Do-hwa followed me like a ghost, easily tracking me down. I feigned ignorance. "Set you up? Me?" "You''ve blown up this road project so much.""Oh,e on. It wasn''t me, it was the alliance leader. Why me an innocent man?" "Samcheon World''s guild leader, Dang Seo-rin..." Do-hwa murmured. "She''s certainly an excellent person but has a strong sense of pride. She''s good at distinguishing between personal and public feelings, but that means she still holds onto personal grudges even if things proceed publicly. I even used the word ''cripple'' to provoke her pride, yet she introduced me to the guild leaders. This isn''t possible unless she values me highly enough to treat me like an official." Do-hwa''s eyes narrowed. "It means she must have asked someone about me, and that someone gave her a glowing rmendation." "Indeed. Who could that be?" "It''s likely the person who was in the guest lounge when I spoke with Samcheon World''s guild leader." Do-hwa offered me one of the two ss cups she held, a cold lemon tea. I gratefully took it and drank. Beyond Busan Harbor, where the cruise ship was docked, the city stretched out in the night. The familiar sight of electric lights painting the Milky Way on the ground was gone. There was only a faint glow, a bit of shadow, and lots of moonlight. The sea breeze brought a tang of salt to the deck. Noh Do-hwa and I looked at the cityscape, engulfed in the sound of the waves, for a while. "You really set me up..." "You just said that. About what?" "Trying to make me work for free. Don''t you think your conscience has gone on a trip?" "It''s not free. Whatever resources, funds, or manpower you need, we''ll provide whatever you require." "Heh." Do-hwaughed slyly. "What I require? Sure, then restore the world to how it was..." "......" "When you hear the word ''infinite,'' what do you think of? Space? Time? For me, the only infinite thing in this world is human misfortune." Do-hwa''s tone was even darker than the night''s view. "Saving one life? That''s possible. I''ve done it. But does ending one person''s misery solve everything? When misfortune disappears, does happinesse? That''s entirely up to that person. No one else can be responsible for it. When will it end?" These were the words of someone who cared for the disabled, ignored even in this ruined world. "So the idea of helping others is wrong to begin with. Help has to be limited. Instead of helping a person with their entire life, think about helping them with just their severed arm. Then it''s manageable. It''s something I can do and do very well... But." Do-hwa leaned forward to peer at me, like a long-necked snake. The aroma of freshly brewed lemon tea mingled with the salty scent of the sea. "You want me to take charge of the national roadwork, not just Busan?" Her two eyes, like a full moon split in half, locked onto my face. "Well, it''s possible. And I might do it well. But what next? Roads are infrastructure. Do you know what they call people who handle infrastructure, Undertaker?" "Government." "Not too keen on privatization, huh? Correct..." Do-hwaughed deeply. "The whole world? I have no intention of shouldering that..." "......" "It''s already enough dealing with the broken. No way I''ll handle a broken nation. I know. For now, I have to introduce myself and suck up to the guild leaders. But as roads are built, the guild leaders will end up kneeling before me. Oh, yes. A new power yer in this broken world. The king of the Korean Penins. Sweet, right? But... I don''t want it. I don''t like it. Why? Did you think I''d be happy if you handed me power? Go fuck yourself." "Noh Do-hwa." "Ah, too ashamed for some self-pleasure? Then ask Samcheon World''s guild leader to do it for you. Heh. If you''re trying to save the world, the noble ones should save it themselves, not drag in some poor guy..." "I''m a regressor." The waves gentlypped against the cruise ship. Perhaps from the vibration, Do-hwa tilted her head. The lemon slice, cut like a crescent moon in her ss, slid slightly. "Uh...?" "You secretly have a winery in your workshop''s basement, where you''ve stored twenty bottles of Chateau d''Yquem 1990." "Uh..." "I know you opened one of them secretly the day you decided to build the road for the elderly in Bansong. Why Bansong? Because the people living there are in the worst condition. And if you connect with the guild leader holding that territory, you can interfere if necessary." "Wait...?" "When you were a civil servant, you won the first prize in the lottery but never revealed it to anyone, right? You used that money to buy wine and also privately collected the equipment needed for making assistive devices." "......" Do-hwa touched her lips with her index and middle fingers. "Hmm. Aha? Ugh. Hmm... Very interesting im. If it''s true..." Do-hwa gazed at me, scanning my legs, hands, chest, and body. "That exins why you''ve always looked like this. Aha, sure. I see. It makes sense. Your movements make sense in many ways." Silence. "But even if it''s true, if you''re an ipetent human being, it''s meaningless. Ah, I''m not saying you''re actually ipetent. What I mean is, you have to bepetent enough to restore the world to how it was. I know you took down the Ten Legs, but that''s not enough. Do you understand what I''m saying?" "I understand." "Prove it." I looked up at the night sky. "Saintess. Are you watching?" [Yes.] "Send a message to Ms. Noh Do-hwa." The Saintess didn''t question my judgment. She knew who I was. "...!" Do-hwa, beside me, flinched. Her expression briefly flickered with confusion, curiosity, and a hint of joy. "Was the Constetion a lie...?" "Yes. SG Net is run by me." "Huh? Oh, a site made by the Constetion? Ah, I see." Silence. "Not bad..." Do-hwa''s pupils calmed down. "Monopolizing information doesn''t mean controlling its content. You have to secure the very channel it passes through. Hmm. This could all be a scam involving telepathy or maniption, but if you have the skill to pull that off, then it''s as good as having the regression ability." Do-hwa nced back at me. "How many times have you regressed? Is this your second time...?" "It''s my 54th cycle. The first time I met you was in the 11th." "Wow, that''s a hell of a grind..." Do-hwa seemed slightly horrified. "Well, the world had to have gone to hell. But weren''t there better candidates than me? Aren''t there plenty of perverts drooling for power...?" "I''ve roughly tested them all." The Second Provisional Government, the military coup factions. Even the more influential politicians I didn''t mention. Do-hwa furrowed her brows. "I''m the best among them? Impossible. Wouldn''t it be better to give it to someone imitating the Constetion...?" "Ah, that person is a true shut-in, so it won''t work." [......] I felt the silent pressure from the Saintess, but I shrugged. "If there''s one thing I''ve learned from 54 cycles, it''s that if I try to do everything myself, it''s endless. It''s simr to your theory about infinite misfortune. We need to leave fields we can afford to alone. People will emerge to fill those gaps." "Is that me...?" "Even without my intervention, you have a high chance of rebuilding Busan''s roadwork. In thest cycle, you went to see the leader. I wasn''t there." "......" But that wasn''t all. In the future that hadn''t arrived yet, in the 90th cycle, when I coaxed the Tutorial Fairy into running a convenience store. Noh Do-hwa attended thest supper held in front of that convenience store. She was the one who sprinkled her precious wines to gain the praise of the Awakeners. And before forming the final raid party with other Awakeners to charge into the meteor shower, Do-hwa left a letter at my store. [The road here is too rough. Nearly died bringing the wine bottles. - NDH] I don''t think that will was aint directed at me. It was her regret about herself. If she had pushed herself more to connect city to city with roads before the worldpletely broke, maybe she could have dyed the world''s end even a little. I think such regret was in her words. She was someone who always carried those feelings in her heart, both in the past and future. So, was her behavior and attitude a kind of camouge? Everyone knew Noh Do-hwa was significant. Even those in power thought about how to use her more effectively. But hearing her shameless insults, they could only back away, thinking, "She''s a defective Homo sapien." Even so, I was here. When I first met Noh Do-hwa, I also thought she was someone who couldn''t be of much use. What made me different was that I was always given the chance to correct my prejudices. In thest cycle, I joined her workshop to observe her character from start to finish. Her interactions with patients, negotiations with other guild leaders, even when the apocalypse was imminent, prioritizing her patients... For over nine years. The result was a pass. As I told Dang Seo-rin, Noh Do-hwa was a good person. "You don''t need to worry about failure. Rather, fail in as many ways as possible. The failures you experience this time will be data for the next version of yourself." "Hah..." "Lay the roads wherever you want. Start projects wherever your instincts guide you. Eventually, you''ll find the optimal route. Try out various people when building your team. In the end, you''ll figure out who fits your organization best." "Regression is certainly a scam. You can seduce people with words like these." Noh Do-hwa scratched her temple. "Ugh... I''m sorry for telling you to go fuck yourself, and I apologize to Samcheon World''s guild leader too." "I don''t care." "Do you think you can restore this world to what it was?" She had asked this earlier too. I looked directly at her. "Not on my own." "......" "I need your help." Do-hwa let out a long sigh. The waves of the night sea seemed to resonate with her sigh, gentlypping against the hull of the cruise ship docked in the harbor, never to sail again. "This is a disease." The waves whispered, murmuring in the darkness, and the unmoving cruise ship groaned. "A truly wretched epidemic. The carriers of this shitty gue speak of their grand ideals and good intentions... I''ve healed countless cripples, but the biggest cripple of all was me. I can''t find a prescription to fix myself, and there won''t be one until I die..." I didn''t answer. I figured it was just Do-hwa reflecting on herself. With slumped shoulders, she held out her cup. "Well, let''s do it. This public project..." Clink. Our ss cups clinked together in a small toast. The lemon aroma drifted up to my nose. "Pleased to be working with you." "So, is this going to repeat forever?" "If you''repetent, Noh Do-hwa, then yes." "Well, fuck me..." There''s an epilogue. The next day, an official organization wasunched. National Road Management Corps. True to its simple name, this organization''s purpose was singr: to repair and maintain the rapidly crumbling roadwork, linking cities and towns that had been isted and were barely sustaining themselves. "We don''t need a government right now, and it can''t even be maintained..." A weekter, Do-hwa gave us a briefing. By "us," I didn''t mean the nation''s guild leaders. It was just me and the Saintess. A private meeting was held with those who almost always knew that I was a regressor. Later, this group would expand to include Oh Dok-seo and others, but for now, it was just a three-person blood pact. "Let the cities be managed as usual by the influential guild leaders of each region. They''re like feudal lords. Think of the National Road Management Corps as the royal family, or rather, an administrative body under the royal family, that simply signs contracts with these feudal lords." The Saintess raised her hand, as was her habit. "Yes, what is it?" "Won''t it have too little power?" "Yes. The less authority it has, the better. The more fields power upies, the wider it bes. But the more irreceable a field is, the stronger it bes. And we don''t need broad power. It''ll just lower efficiency and lead to corruption... In an era of self-sufficiency, when cities can''t care for one another, the National Road Management Corps will be responsible for connecting and maintaining the roadwork." Do-hwa spoke confidently. The National Road Management Corps was made up ofborers, construction workers, andbat units. Once a onene road was secured, thebat units would regrly "patrol" the roads. "This regr patrol is critical." People and merchants traveling to other cities naturally tagged along on patrol days. Do-hwa collected a fixed usage fee from them. "It''s basically a tax, but they''ll protest if we call it that. So, we''ll insist it''s a usage fee." Cities connected by the roadwork also had to pay usage fees. They could try using the roads for free, but they''d have to protect themselves from monsters that might attack. "We must market it as though other choices are avable, and they should actually be avable. It''s crucial for people to believe it''s not coercion but their own choice. That''s when the importance of the National Road Management Corps will be etched into their minds." Guilds could form their own groups to use the roads, but if they wanted to reach distant cities, they''d have to pass through intermediate stops. Passing through each city meant paying taxes to that city''s guild. "They''d be pissed off." It was far more reasonable to pay a small tax to the National Road Management Corps and travel under their protection. Ordinary people and Awakeners alike relied on the National Road Management Corps for travel, naturally increasing Noh Do-hwa''s influence. The members of the National Road Management Corps, handpicked by Do-hwa, became like "diplomats." Guilds that would have fought each other couldmunicate better with the National Road Management Corps as a buffer. Do-hwa utilized the rtionships, pride, andpetitive spirit of the guild leaders in each city to extract maximum efficiency. Of course, there were trial and error. Actually, there was a lot. "These assholes..." There were many in the National Road Management Corps who lined their pockets instead of negotiating. Some, trusted by Do-hwa, were spies sent by other guilds. Other times, even though they chose the shortest road, it turned out to pass through a monster den. But gradually, the National Road Management Corps found its footing. I really have a good eye for people, don''t I? Though for some reason, Do-hwa often looked at me with eyes full of resentment. "When I get to the next cycle, please make sure to pass on my failures." "What should I tell you?" "You having fun reaping the rewards, you son of a bitch?" I passed on the message. The response from Noh Do-hwa in the 55th cycle was concise. "Bullshit." Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 34 The Taxpayer I Speaking of public servants, it''s curious how frequently they appear in Korean contemporary fantasy. "Hello there! Oh, you''re entering the Gate? Could I see your Hunter license?" "Oh dear, your license has expired. Sir, I can''t let you in like this. Please head to the Hunter Management Bureau and renew it." "What? You''re asking for a favor? Hah, what do you think we are?" Take the "Gate Management Public Servant," for example. In East Asia, people have loved public servants so much that they''ve applied a bureaucratic system even to the afterlife, ruled by the King of Hell, making East Asians fanatical civil servants. A true East Asian should not fear monster waves but ratherment, "These savage monsters are so ignorant and unlucky that they haven''t embraced civilization!" The right course would be to impart a bureaucratic system, creating a state system of king monster - middle manager monster - lower manager monster. How could the sacred nationalw exempt an apocalyptic mess?While we didn''t have any Gate Managers in our world, other kinds of public servants were still around. "Awakener Undertaker." "Yes?" "It''s almost June. Have you filed yourprehensive ie tax return with the National Tax Service?" "Oh." Noh Do-hwa''s words snapped me back to reality. "You''re right. It''s that time already. Thanks for the reminder." "Heh, if you procrastinate, you''ll have a headacheter. They''ll collect as they see fit. You should head to the tax office after work." "Good point. Not that I can pay any tax... I''ll get it sorted." Yes. Even in an era where the military''s wrath had cooled and politicians'' gold badges were buried in sand, where survival was a crude joke¡ª The National Tax Service still existed. Today, let''s talk about a small anomaly, the "National Tax Service Tax Office," which was thest remnant of the South Korean government. KakaoTalk! I first received that familiar yet strange KakaoTalk notification during my 56th cycle, on a spring day, May 4. "Hmm?" At first, I thought I had misheard. After humanity drifted into the apocalypse genre, words like "phone," "message," and munication" were purged from our vocabry. "Was that really a KakaoTalk alert?" Skeptical, I checked my smartphone. To my surprise, after nearly a year, there was a proud little [1] icon next to the KakaoTalk app. Like an excited preschooler seeing their first KakaoTalk message, I hurried to read it. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Notification Talk Received] "The Republic of Korea Falls Again" "A Nation of Citizens Dying Together" A digital document from the National Tax Service has arrived. Greetings from the National Tax Service. May is the month to file and payprehensive ie tax each year. The National Tax Service has pre-calcted your ie tax. Please check the notice below and file and pay easily via ARS phone (?4444-4444). ¡ö Inquiry: ?444 ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D "......" After reading the message, my mood deted. Or, to put it another way, the wind was taken out of my sails. "Aw,e on. It''s a ghost message." Ghost messages. After the apocalypse began, such anomalies would appear from time to time. It''s one reason electronics were considered dangerous materials. In this era of cutthroatpetition, even anomalies struggled to survive. To distinguish themselves from others, they diversified their ghost messages with ghost calls, ghost websites, ghost radios, ghost TVs, etc. In reality, the only safemunicationwork in Korea was SG Net. Even that had a history of being corrupted by the "Hero Syndrome." The solution to these ghost messages was surprisingly simple. "Just ignore it." Curiosity kills the cat, as they say. These days, curiosity is upgraded enough to hunt not just cats but humanity too. By this point, there wasn''t a government, let alone the National Tax Service. Ignoring texts demandingprehensive ie tax was the correct move. But the very next day. "Oh, hyung. Did you get the text?" "Huh? What text?" "You know, the one from the National Tax Service asking you to pay tax. It''s causing a stir on SG Net." "...You got it too?" The situation changed. "Uh, yeah... I got the letter." "What? A letter?" "Y-yeah..." Sim Ah-ryeon handed me an already-opened envelope. The contents were identical to the KakaoTalk notification. "This is serious." An uneasy feeling crept up my spine, like a cold hand brushing my vertebrae. "R-right? I thought it was a prank by the guild leader, but Seo Gyu got the same message..." "Where did you find the letter?" "W-when I woke up, it was next to my pillow..." No need to mention it, but the guild base''s security was airtight. In the 89th cycle, Go Yuri wrecked the guild in one blow, but that was just her being weird. Even if it wasn''t Ars¨¨ne Lupin but his grandfather, it would be impossible to sneak past my surveince and leave a letter in Sim Ah-ryeon''s bedroom. Assuming it was a human. [I''ve received the same message.] The Saintess''s testimony dealt the final blow. [This morning, when I opened my front door, a letter was wedged in the door frame.] "What about the other Awakeners?" [The same thing happened across the country. People with smartphones received KakaoTalk notifications, while the rest got letters.] The Saintess''s usually emotionless voice sounded even colder. [Mr. Undertaker. No one witnessed "the moment the letter arrived."] "What?" [No one saw the postman delivering the letter.] The Saintess exined what had happened in a guild she was watching in Incheon. This guild, while not as strong as mine, had a fairly secure base. It was located underground with severalyers of steel doors and numerous guards. A simple diagram would look like this: ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ¡ö ? ¡ö ? ¡ö ? ¡ö Door Guard Door Guard Door Guard Door ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The guards took turns staying awake, ensuring there was always a "sleepless presence." Yet, this morning, every guild member woke up to find a letter. Under their pillows. "......" [The same message was sent to ordinary people, not just Awakeners. Undertaker, I believe the "National Tax Service Comprehensive Ie Tax Letter" is...] "A significant anomaly." [Yes. At least it''s certainly affecting the entire Korean Penins.] I couldn''t help but chuckle. ...A mysterious entity was determined to collect taxes, even as a ghost. -Anonymous: I called the National Tax Service, lol. If there''s one virtue crucial to surviving this harsh apocalypse, it''s carefully testing bridges before crossing. However, some Awakeners lived their lives with reckless abandon. These types usually met their end early, but asionally, some lucky outliers stuck around. That day''s certification post on SG Net was written by one of these rare survivors. -As the KakaoTalk message said, I called 4444-4444. Everyone told me not to, but I thought, "Hell, what''s the worst that could happen?" -When I dialed the number, it actually connected. Ring, ring, and a few secondster, the call went through. There was an operator? A telephonist? Anyway, a robotic-sounding voice started speaking. -I don''t remember exactly, but it said, "This is the National Tax Service ARS Application Report Center. Please select the service you want." -Then a weird screen popped up on my smartphone. The background was red with white text, and I took a screenshot. Attached to the post was an image file. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D National Tax Service National Tax Service ARS Application Report Center. [1. Comprehensive Ie Tax Report] [2. Additional Corpse Tax Report] [3. ve Workshop Unreported Status] Data charges will apply in 3G/LTE environments. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The image file was grainy, with spots of noise. The red background and white textbination hurt the eyes. It was far beyond the point of a wobbly bridge, already tap-dancing on the edge, but surprisingly, the author didn''t stop. -I have to admit, "Additional Corpse Tax" and "ve Workshop" made me nervous, haha. That''s the first scare point. -I clicked the most normal option, "Comprehensive Ie Tax Report." After all, the KakaoTalk message was about reportingprehensive ie tax. -When I clicked, I heard static noise as the robotic voice guided me to enter my social security number. It''s been so long since Ist entered mine, I almost forgot it, haha. -It felt like I was really filing my taxes, but at the end, it said I could pay by bank transfer. But hey, how can I transfer money these days when there are no banks? -Luckily or unluckily, it said I could pay directly at the tax office. It told me to go to the "Pocheon Tax Office." -That''s the second scare point. My region is actually Pocheon, haha. How does this message know where I live? -But I heard the tax office here was destroyed long ago, so I don''t know why it told me to go there. I''ll check it out and post an update soon. The post ended there. Naturally, thements exploded in disbelief. -Anonymous: Are you crazy? Why''d you call? -OldManGoryeo: Another one''s heading up to heaven. -[NationalRoad] Officer: Make sure you post that update. -Anonymous: If you''re in Pocheon, aren''t all Awakeners from the same guild? They''ll figure out who you are. -LiteraryGirl: Can''t believe this hero''s still alive. -dolLHoUse: so dumb -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Life is precious. Desires are fleeting. Aren''t there more important things than trying to attract attention? ©¸Anonymous: CookingQueen, you''re so kind. -[BaekHwa] SixthGrader: Hoee! (>_<);; -Anonymous: I''d bet my entire fortune this idiot is 100% dead. I didn''t criticize the poster. Instead, I decided to use this opportunity. "Seo Gyu, I''m going up to Pocheon for a bit. Watch the house while I''m gone." "Huh? Pocheon? Why so suddenly... Wait, are you going because of that SG Net post?" "Yeah. It''s a newly appeared nationwide anomaly, so I need to check it out." "Wow... You''re really diligent." I packed lightly and headed north. It felt like a leisurely stroll. In my opinion, Pocheon wasn''t too far from Seoul, and it was where Sim Ah-ryeon worked as the "Healing Angel" back in my 50th cycle. I was familiar with the area. Within hours, I arrived in Pocheon. On my way to the tax office, I ran into a truly unexpected person. "Oh?" "Hmm?" Strong build. Short, cropped hair. Too well-groomed for a post-apocalyptic survivor. A young man who embodied the notion of a "well-raised youth." "Ah, um, sorry. You seem to know me, but I''m not good at remembering faces. Where have we met?" The young man didn''t recognize me. Instead, he seemed slightly wary of this unfamiliar face. But with my [Complete Memory], I could recognize most Awakeners. And this time, his face was particrly familiar. "That''s Lee Ju-ho, isn''t it?" Lee Ju-ho. Back in the 50th cycle, he was the victim whose father was humiliated by the "OldManGoryeo Viin" Sim Ah-ryeon. Yet, he graciously forgave her. That magnanimous young man stood at the path leading to the Pocheon Tax Office with a backpack and a smartphone. ncing at his screen, I noticed the familiar SG Net homepage. "Could it be?" A realization dawned on me. "¡So you were the one who wrote that post?" It''s a small world. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 35 The Taxpayer II "Ah! It''s you, Undertaker! I¡¯ve heard about you everywhere. Sorry I didn''t recognize you sooner." After introducing ourselves, Lee Ju-ho''s wariness melted away like frost under the spring sun. That''s why it''s important to spread goodwill and have a positive reputation. When people you meet already have a +20% affinity buff towards you, why wouldn''t you try to build rapport? "Oh, there''s no need to apologize. It''s just fame. I should be grateful you think so highly of me." "Hahaha. Our guild was small, so during the Ten Legs Hunt, we were practically in the third line. We only caught glimpses of you from afar. If it''s not too much trouble, could you sign this for me?" "Oh, I''m not a celebrity. I''m embarrassed." Despite my words, I took out a brush pen and clicked the cap open with a pop. Like Dang Seo-rin, I often receive autograph requests, so I carry a brush pen with me. With a flourish, I scrawled "Undertaker" in calligraphy. The strokes contained the experience of a regressor''s life. I could see Lee Ju-ho''s eyes widen as he marveled at my signature. "Whoa, your handwriting is... truly superb." "Thanks. I studied calligraphy like mad just to see that reaction." "What? Oh, hahaha." An experienced regressor knows to break the ice based on a person''s personality type. If I put my mind to it, there weren''t many people I couldn''t befriend in Korea (Noh Do-hwa, who viewed the world with distrust, hatred, malice, and contempt, being a rare exception). Within five minutes, Lee Ju-ho and I had formed a rapport. "So, you came all the way here after seeing my post on SG Net?" "Exactly." "Wow, this is so embarrassing..." As expected, the "Anonymous" user who wrote that post was Lee Ju-ho. Back in the 50th cycle, when his father had been humiliated by Sim Ah-ryeon, Lee Ju-ho used the nickname "iJoinedToday" on SG Net. In his first post, he''d written: -Usually, I post anonymously, but I signed up just to write this. Meaning, in cycles where Sim Ah-ryeon hadn''t humiliated his father, Lee Ju-ho remained active as "Anonymous." "What''s there to be embarrassed about? We''re uncovering a newly emerged anomaly. If it''s okay with you, I''d like to help." "Of course! With you by my side, we''d be unstoppable!" Our pleasant atmospherested only until we reached the uphill path where the Pocheon Tax Office towered. "Hmm." "Uh..." I let out a dissatisfied "hmm," while Lee Ju-ho made a perplexed "uh." To reiterate, the tax office stood tall. As if the apocalypse had never happened, it was pristine. [Thank you for your honest tax payments - Pocheon Tax Office] [May is the period for filing and payingprehensive ie tax. Reporting Period: May 1 - May 31] [Honest Tax Payments, Fair Taxation! Building a Shared Future] The surrounding buildings were in ruins, but the tax office had clean gray walls and spotless banners fluttering. "Lee Ju-ho, was that building always intact?" "What? No, it''s not. There was a massive fire here recently, and all the buildings were destroyed." Lee Ju-ho looked up at the building uneasily. "Ha. They were definitely ruined..." "Then this building must be a Void." It was a high-level void that altered perception and forcibly changed the environment. Was it because ofst night''s rain? The building''s wet surface gleamed slickly like a beetle''s shell. Then, suddenly. "Uaaaagh!" Someone tumbled out of the building. Lee Ju-ho and I instinctively drew our weapons, but the person seemed oblivious to our armed state. "My foot! Aaaagh! Save me!" He was missing his right leg. The man copsed at the entrance, blood sttering around him. Lee Ju-ho frowned. "Park Sang-hyun?" "You know this man?" "Yeah, well... He''s not an Awakener, but he goes around bullying the neighborhood elders like a thug. No need to remember him." Even his tone hinted at how much he disliked the man. "How is someone like that still alive?" "He''s the son of ourte vice guild leader, so it''s hard for our guild to treat him like a nobody." Father-son rtionship, huh? "L-Lee Ju-ho! Ju-ho!" Noticing us, Park Sang-hyun frantically waved. Since he was missing his legs, he looked like a lower-half Shanks. "Save me!" "Sigh. What happened?" "The building suddenly appeared, so I went inside... It''s crazy in there! Ugh, save me first! I''m so dizzy..." ng. A strange noise echoed from the building entrance. Park Sang-hyun flinched, his whole body stiffening. "It''sing! Hey! Help! Help me!" The noise was metallic, sounding like "nk" and "ck." Deep within the tax office, beyond the entrance, the "nk" grew closer and closer. "Hey, what are you waiting for? Save me! Lee Ju-ho! If I die, do you think Mr. Dong-wook will let you off?" I nced at Lee Ju-ho. "Do you really need to save him?" "...He was already a troublemaker in the guild. If an anomaly eats him, our guild won''t lose face." Atst, the nking noise reached right behind Park Sang-hyun. He screamed and tried to crawl away. But before he could move far, something grabbed his ankle with a thud. "Aaaaagh! No, I don''t want this! Save me! Aaagh!" Park Sang-hyun was swiftly dragged into the building''s maw. It happened in a sh. His screams echoed through the halls for a while, but they didn''tst long. After a minute, silence fell. "Do you still want to go in?" "Hmm..." Lee Ju-ho''s worry deepened. But he didn''t need to think long. Shortly after the screaming stopped, someone walked out of the tax office. -Are you here to file your taxes? "......" "......" We didn''t answer the question immediately, for several reasons. First, no entity emerging from an obviously abnormal void could be trusted. Second, while the figure looked human and wore a neatly pressed suit like a receptionist, it was tantly viting dress code. No exaggeration, its disheveled hair cascaded down to its hips like a wild mane, obscuring not just its face but its entire upper body. A voice emerged through the hair like a whisper. It was hard for the Confucian uncle inside me to tolerate such tant disregard for grooming, calling out "Uneptable!" Even worse, it constantly shook its head, making the mess of hair sway like a seesaw. These public servants must listen to heavy metal during working hours. Third, and most importantly, the "public servant-like entity" held a 30 cm-long pair of scissors in its right hand. nk, nk, nk. The mysterious noise from earlier hade from the scissors. Every time the des clicked, blood sttered. The visual was shocking. Even if the "public servant" had a hobby of gardening, bringing scissors to work wouldn''tply with the "Rules on Public Officials'' Conduct," which stated: "Article 8-2(1) Public officials shall dress neatly to maintain their dignity while on duty." -Taxes. The "public servant" tilted its head, making its oily hair reek of gasoline. -Are you here to file your taxes? "Uh, uh..." "That¡¯s right." I took charge, speaking up for the stunned Lee Ju-ho. "I received a notification about filing myprehensive ie tax and was directed toe to the Pocheon Tax Office. Is this the right ce?" -Yes, it is. The public servant''s head swiveled toward me. -This month is the filing period. Can I see your ID card to confirm your identity, taxpayer? What should I do? I could easily draw my de and sever the anomaly''s neck. But "Anomaly Response Manual: Beat It to a Pulp" would only be effective for an Awakener like me. No matter how strong I was, I couldn''t handle every anomaly in the world at once. A "strategy" must be useful to everyone, even weaker Awakeners, to have any value, especially for widespread anomalies like the "Comprehensive Ie Tax Anomaly." "Ju-ho, it might be best to y along for now." "Uh, yeah. Here you go." Lee Ju-ho produced a worn Hermes wallet and handed over his ID card. He didn''t seem like the type to favor luxury brands, so it was likely a family keepsake. -Thank you. Let me check your ID. The public servant took the ID card and ced it within the curtain of hair. Crunch. An abrasive sound emanated from behind the hair, like front teeth grinding against the card. "My ID card..." -Identity confirmed. Age 26. Lee Ju-ho. You''re a Pocheon citizen with very little ie. The total tax due today, including Body Tax and ve Tax, is 100 grams. "What? 100 grams?" Ah, this kind of anomaly. -We can collect the tax on your behalf, Lee Ju-ho. Would you like us to do that? "Well... I don''t really understand, but..." "Wait. Hold on." I grabbed Lee Ju-ho''s shoulder. "What?" "You shouldn''t just nod along when an anomaly proposes a deal. Remember Park Sang-hyun''s state?" "What? Oh, yes." "That was likely the tax collection." "...?" "Your tax is 100 grams, right? What if it were 50 kilograms?" "...!" Lee Ju-ho''s eyes widened. "Th-then? Would that mean... me too?" "Yes. This ''Comprehensive Ie Tax Anomaly'' probably means body parts must be used as payment. Even if 100 grams sounds small, it makes a huge difference depending on the body part. What if they took an eye?" "Gasp..." "I''m an anomaly expert. Leave this to me." I pulled out a stic bag and summoned my aura to my fingers. "Ju-ho, you don''t care too much about your hairstyle, do you?" "...No?" Soon enough, Lee Ju-ho''s already short hair had been reduced to a bald scalp. The stic bag was filled with ck strands. He was devastated. "Aaaah..." "Hmm. This isn''t quite 100 grams. Take this and go relieve yourself in the bag." "Undertaker, you''re something else." Why? What''s shame got to do with handling anomalies? With all his might, Lee Ju-ho managed to fill the bag to 100 grams. The public servant took the bag from him. -Tax payment confirmed. "......" -Please continue to make your tax payments diligently in the future. Thank you. The public servant bowed and disappeared back into the tax office. Lee Ju-ho looked at me as if thinking, "This really worked?" I smiled warmly. ''If hair and urine hadn''t worked, I would have just cut off a few unused fingers.'' But since it worked, wasn''t it a happy ending? There''s an epilogue. -Anonymous: The Comprehensive Ie Tax Anomaly is a joke, lol. By the time I returned to Seoul, Lee Ju-ho had already posted a sequel on SG Net. -Anonymous: If you try to file your tax return, a ghost with extremely long hair asks for your ID card. Just hand it over, and they''ll calcte your taxes for you. I wonder what happens if you''ve lost your card... -Anonymous: I owed 100 grams, so I shaved my head and peed in a stic bag. This dumb ghost epted it joyfully and left, haha. -Anonymous: Don''t ignore theprehensive ie tax alert. Head to the tax office and ask how much you owe. If it''s around 100 grams like mine, pay it right away. If it''s 50 kilograms, collect your pee in a trash can until May 31. You''ll be able to pass the anomaly easily. -Anonymous: Don''t be scared and pay your taxes, everyone, lol. "Hmm." The post contained the strategy to deal with the "Comprehensive Ie Tax Anomaly," just as I''d asked. Other members were shocked. -Anonymous: Did you seriously survive this...? Afterward, posts poured into SG Net from people who paid their taxes at their local tax office. -OldManGoryeo: My tax was 300 kg. Anyone got a higher amount? -LiteraryGirl: 10 kg is about the SG Net average, right? -Anonymous: Damn, I owe 500 kg. What do I do? -[Satisfaction] Cooking Queen: I got a tax refund. The public servant gave me a gift box. What''s inside? A littlepetition arose, called the "Tax Challenge," to see who owed the most. This was a rare case where an anomaly had be a sort of ything. In the end, the criteria the anomaly used to calcte taxes remained unclear, and while it was funny that people paid taxes to an anomaly instead of a human government... ''It''s just the sign of the times.'' With a lighter heart, I headed to the tax office. After a massive void hit Seoul, every building south of the Han River had vanished. But the tax office building appeared in May and vanished again in June. Admiring its tenacity to collect taxes, I visited the Banpo Tax Office and found a scissors-wielding long-haired ghost, identical to the one at Pocheon, walking out. -Hello. May I see your ID to verify your identity, taxpayer? "Yes, here it is." -Thank you. Let me check your ID. Age twen... It paused. The anomaly stopped grinding my ID with its teeth and froze. It began to tremble. "...?" -Twenty, ten, twenty-six, twenty-seven, eight, nine, sixteen, twenty-four, thousand, hundred, two hundred, seventy-three, seven, seven, seven... Pshaa! The anomaly''s body rapidly swelled before bursting, spewing ck fluid everywhere. It exploded like a balloon. "......" I picked up my ID from the ground and ced it back in my wallet. When I stood up, the Banpo Tax Office had disappeared like a mirage. Only I remained in the empty field. "Hmm." ...Looks like the day I''ll be paying taxes won''te anytime soon. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 36 Rich Bond I Let''s dive into the tale of a father and his son. In this context, "rich" doesn''t refer to a wealthy bourgeoisie but to the richness of familial bond between a father and son. To truly grasp these two characters'' story, I had to reluctantly go back to my fourth cycle. At that point in my life, I was a walking embarrassment. Those first five cycles were my "teen phase" of sorts. Even now, after living through countless years, I cringed at memories from my first to fifth cycle. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I only acquired my [Complete Memory] ability in my fifth cycle. Memories from before then were like blurry dreams. What I''ll describe is a mix of reconstruction and fiction. "Help me...""It hurts, it hurts too much..." The first thing that always came to mind in those shadowy memories was the groaning of people. Whether it was a "Gah!" or a "Grrr..." the sounds varied in volume, but the quieter they grew, the shorter their lives became. I walked with bells jingling, asking people: "Do you want to escape hell?" "Huh...?" "Do you want peace forever?" It might seem like something a cult preacher would say, but those were indeed my words. Let me offer a brief exnation. First, I rarely spoke politely at this time. So technically, it should have been written as, "Wanna escape this shitty hell?" and "Need peace?" But writing that way would make my fingers curl into a ck hole of embarrassment. Please forgive me. Plus, my fourth-cycle memories were vague, so a bit of historical distortion is reasonable, right? Historical distortion is better than cramping fingers. Second, I never intended to spread a cult. Those questions were rted to why I earned the moniker "Undertaker." "Screw you! Get lost!" "Isn''t he the Undertaker?" "Bah! What a bad omen!" Most people could still manage to survive. Though they imed they wanted to die, they held onto life. I''d then politely excuse myself. But there were always those who had given up hope. "Yes... I don''t want to hurt anymore..." The one bitten by monsters, the diseased, the grieving, the disillusioned, and those who realized peace would never return¡ªthese people agreed. So I asked another question: "My nickname is Undertaker." "Yeah, I know..." "That makes this easier. I can make people sleep forever in their dreams." "......" "If you agree, I can help you relive your happiest moments endlessly in a dream." Time Seal. It was my unique ability that I hadn''t yet revealed. While I knew the convention of unveiling a protagonist''s powers early, I remained silent because I had primarily used [Time Seal] in my first six cycles. After that, I rarely used it. Mostly because I hated my own ability. That''s why I considered this episode a shameful part of my past. "Alright, put me in the dream now..." "Before you agree, there''s something you should know." I spoke calmly. "Once you''re trapped in a dream by my power, everyone will forget you." "What?" "Your family, friends, and anyone you''ve met won''t remember you while you dream. In this world, only I will remember you." "......" "You''ll be happy in the dream, but you''ll bepletely forgotten. Do you still want to live in your dream?" I didn''t exin the full power of this forgetfulness, but it was strong. Even if I regressed and started a new life, the [Time Seal] remained intact. It became an exception to regression itself. Somehow, the sealed person would remain sealed, forgotten. It was like they never existed. "That''s... too much..." Most people hesitated here. No matter how painful things were, the idea of being erased was unsettling. They often chose suicide instead. "Whatever, it''s fine." But there were always those who had given up hope. "Being erased from the world soundsforting. What do I have to see in this fucked-up world? Please, just erase me." This is where the "father" in today''s story, former pro football yer Kim Joo-chul, came in. Retired. That''s how Kim Joo-chul referred to himself. "I was a starter in the first league. I was a left back defender, you know? They were throwing money at me!" He inhaled the oxygen of past glories instead of the current reality. While many longed for their former jobs after the world fell apart, Kim Joo-chul clung particrly hard to his. "Hey, kid. Wanna see my highlight reel?" He went so far as to download his highlights onto his phone. An ideal talent for today''s era, where self-promotion is crucial. In the six-minute reel, he dashed across the field in a red uniform like a banner. He was a defender, so goals were rare, but the crowd''s cheers rang out vividly through the screen with every y. "Got an offer from Japan. Even sent agents from the Nethends to scout me. People underestimate the Dutch league, but it''s a big deal." He effortlessly switched between formal and informal speech like dribbling a football ball. "Damn, I should have gone abroad instead of being loyal to my club. Should''ve just ditched everything for romance. I wasted my life." Kim Joo-chul''s phone often ran out of battery because he couldn''t stop bragging about his highlights. Unlike others, he didn''t try to contact the outside world with his phone. For him, the phone only served as a storage for his highlights. "A defender is crucial in modern football..." "Mister! Stop talking and hurry up!" "Oh, jeez. Kids cussing me out again. You remind me of my son." Kim Joo-chul grinned and stood up. "Let''s go, you old retired man." Despite his grand words, his body barely managed to move forward. Kim Joo-chul''s left leg limped constantly. A world overrun by monsters wasn''t kind to humanity, much less a cripple. Even those who ran the fastest couldn''t guarantee their survival, so Kim Joo-chul was always treated like leftovers. It didn''t matter that he had been a well-known football yer back in the day. If not a national World Cup yer, most people wouldn''t recognize football yers'' names. "Being an ex-athlete means shit." He chuckled. Maybe his constant self-promotion was a way to raise his value. But the survivors remained cold. If he had been elderly or infirm, they might have shown pity, but no one cared for a seemingly fit middle-aged man. He struggled in food distribution, night watches, and other chores. "Well, that''s how life is." Kim Joo-chul wasn''t bitter. Not because he was exceptionally kind, but because he was used to being treated this way. "I have a son. He should be about your age. Or younger?" "You must not be close to him." "Don''t even talk about it. He ran away with his mom ten years ago." Kim Joo-chul smirked. "We got along once. But after some punk shattered my left leg on the field, everything fell apart. Funny enough, it turned out my knee joint was linked to my family''s harmony." "......" "Well, I''m the asshole, but cut me some ck. A promising yer was forced to retire out of nowhere at age 26. You think I''d be okay mentally? My left leg was my damn livelihood." His voice grew quieter. He was one of the first people summoned to the transformed Busan Station terminal with me. Resting against a bookshelf in the maze-like station, he rambled. "When I was in rehab, the jerk who broke my leg had the nerve to visit. I never knew crutches made such good weapons. Beat the crap out of him. But his parents had connections at the football association. The whole thing blew over, and I ended up with no ce to go. This is Korea''s problem. Assholes always seem to thrive." "......" "That bastard couldn''t even y." Though he seemed honest, there were things Kim Joo-chul avoided discussing, like how he indulged in alcohol and gambling after being discharged from rehab. How he practically lived in Macau and Gangwon, leaving his young son to be raised solely by his wife. How his wife died two years ago. How he wandered around a convenience store near a Gangwon casino just before being summoned to the Busan Station terminal. And how he had bought two packs of cigarettes, which he now stashed in socks. I knew much about Kim Joo-chul because I was with him through the first four cycles. "Damn, this world is so harsh..." From the first to fourth cycles, he never made it out intact. I didn''t remember the exact circumstances of his death. But as best as I could recall, in my first cycle, he tripped in the transformed Busan Station and got eaten by a monster from his feet up. In the second, I died first, but his condition must have worsened. In the third, he likely died from blood loss after covering a ss door with his body to protect others and losing an arm. Finally, in my fourth cycle. "Life''s a fucking mess..." Kim Joo-chul and I sessfully escaped Busan Station, but shortly after, a hound-like monster bit off his left leg. Though he passed out instantly, I managed to stop the bleeding and keep him conscious. Once awake, he panted heavily and muttered. "I dragged this crippled leg around my whole life, but now that it''s gone, I feel relieved." "......" "Young man, there''s a football stadium nearby. Could we stop by there for a bit?" I carried Kim Joo-chul to what would likely be his final destination in this life. With one leg gone, his weight was quite light. As hey on my back, he drifted in and out of consciousness. "Ahh..." Carefully, I set him down in the stadium''s stands. The stadium had been partly destroyed, likely due to monsters rampaging through. Debris was scattered across the field and the seats. "Why does it look so wide now? It used to be much narrower. It was narrower..." For a while, Kim Joo-chul mumbled, "Wide, so wide." "Mr. Undertaker." His face was pale as he spoke. It was the first andst time he addressed me as "mister," though I was much younger than him. "Thank you. Thank you so much, but that''s enough now. I''m content..." I understood entirely what he wanted to say. I took a Silver bell from my pocket and ced it around my wrist. It was my ritual. "Are you sure? As you know, once you fall under my ability, you''ll be forgotten by everyone." "Forgotten? I don''t care. To disappear from this world isforting. What reason do I have to stay in this fucked-up ce? Please, just erase me from the world." Kim Joo-chul smiled faintly. "I''m tired now." "......" "Oh, right. In that dream or whatever, will I be able to realize that I''m dreaming? I mean..." "You won''t." I shook my head. "The person will simply repeat their happiest day forever, without realizing it''s repeating." "That''s a relief. If you remember everything, it would be torture, right? Even the happiest moment would be tedious after repeating it... That''s good. Do I just close my eyes?" "Yes." "Thank you, doc. Really." In many ways, Kim Joo-chul was an ordinary man. There was no particr reason to remember him out of all the people I''did to rest. Even so, I remembered Kim Joo-chul for a long time because of hisst words. "Kim Si-eun, Kim Si-eun. My son... Born November 11. My son''s name is Si-eun." Most people who drifted into dreams asked me to remember them, but Kim Joo-chul muttered his son''s name until the end. "My son." Jingle. The bell rang as I activated my ability. That was how Kim Joo-chul said goodbye on my timeline. It took many long years before I finally met the heir to hisst words. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 37 Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Rich Bond II There wasn''t anyone who understood the geography of the Korean Penins as much as I did. Even Kim Jeong-ho, the creator of the Daedongyeojido[1] map, would have to concede to me. I''m not kidding; he never traveled all over the country. I even went to an abandoned inn in Onyang to catch an Udumbara. Since the creation of the National Road Management Corps in the 54th cycle, the navigation app in my head had be increasingly urate with each update. No matter how capable Noh Do-hwa was, it was impossible for her to manage every road in the country due to ack of personnel and resources. There had to be exactly one road connecting each city to the next, and even then, they could only be restored to a singlene.Tunnels, in particr, were dangerous. If they hadn''t already copsed, they were at risk of doing so soon. If they were still intact, they were even more dangerous because dark, pitch-ck tunnels were the perfect habitat for monsters that loved them. The Korean Penins, with 70% of itsnd covered in mountains, had favored tunnels, which made this issue critical. Ah, but it''s not as bad as Japan. Their tunnels are a real nightmare. I''ll talk more about thatter. Anyway, the National Road Management Corps had to find routes bypassing every tunnel to connect cities. If that was too difficult, we''d have to carve out new paths through the mountains. This project was called the "Road Streamlining Operation". It was nearly as challenging as a national policy-level project. "Awakener Undertaker, please handle this." Naturally, this n was entrusted entirely to me. "Understood." I didn''tin to Noh Do-hwa. I was nning to take on this project from the beginning. For instance, when considering the most effective way to create a onene road from Busan to Daegu, the word "effective" didn''t just mean minimizing travel time. Time was rtively low on the list of priorities. The most important factors were how far the road was from monsterirs and whether it offered guaranteed security and surveince. Securing as many rest points or "midway stations for the patrols to camp safely" was also essential. Ideally, it was better to be close to a drinking water source, but not too close to dams, which could copse at any moment. If you didn''t want to end up like Eulji Mundeok[2], you needed to avoid dams. Bridges weren''t even worth mentioning. In short? "There¡¯s too many things to worry about for one project." Indeed, I was the only one capable of handling this. No matter how smart someone was, drawing a convincing roadwork while sitting at a desk was useless. What could anyone do about the fact that all avable maps were outdated relics from before the Gate incident? Ultimately, I had no choice but to go on foot. While we had some satellite images, they didn''t provide the kind of detailed information we needed. But who else could afford to travel all over the country in this ruined world? Only the infinite regressor. "I look forward to working with you, Saintess." [Yes, Mr. Undertaker. I''ll support you.] In the 54th to the 56th cycle, I explored every nook and cranny of the country until my feet ached, filming a road movie along the way. Sometimes, I traveled with patrols, but I mostly traveled alone. I never felt lonely since I could chat with the Saintess via Telepathy. If I wrote a travel journal based on these three cycles, the title would be something like ¡®I''m an Infinite Regressor in This Ruined World, but I''ll Enjoy Traveling Alone With the Saintess''s Voice¡¯. It might be boring from a story perspective since there weren''t many major incidents, but personally, I loved these three cycles because I met so many ordinary people instead of Awakeners. I made many meaningful connections during that time. "Uh, this road... isn''t this the right ce?" Kim Si-eun. I first met the former football yer''s son in the 54th cycle. "Excuse me." "Whoa! G-gosh!" A young man dressed for travel leaped in surprise. He was between being a boy and a young man, but he looked younger because he was quite short. He had been standing in front of the Changwon Tunnel, nearly burying his face in a map that had been unfolded and refolded countless times. He had a backpack that looked a bit too big for his small frame. In short, he looked like a typical backpacker from head to toe. "Who are you?" But instead of a walking stick, he carried a spear. He aimed the spear at me, but it seemed pretty shabby. He had probably taped a dagger to the end of a stick himself, creating a 100% homemade spear. To be fair, this style was trendy among backpackers these days. If you didn''t want to hear "Traveling without a spear? Is the end of your trip going to be in a monster''s stomach?" you''d better follow thetest trend. "I''m sorry for startling you. I''m an Awakener member of the Samcheon World Guild, who took part in the Ten Legs Subjugation." "Awakener...?" The young man looked at me warily, but there was also a hint of curiosity. After the Ten Legs Subjugation, ordinary people became much more weing to the awakened, treating them like American war veterans after World War II. Residents around Seoul treated Awakeners especially well. The young man must havee from that region, as he at least tried to be polite. "Uh, I''m sorry. I was so surprised..." "It was my fault for talking to you from behind. Don''t worry about it. But this tunnel is copsed, so it''s better not to try passing through." The young man looked frustrated. "What? Why?" "Isn''t the entrance already copsed?" I pointed to the Changwon Tunnel. The surrounding area was overgrown with bushes and trees, untouched by civilization. Only the cracked asphalt and tunnel entrance barely held onto their past im. The young man spoke in a meek voice. "It seems like at least one person could squeeze through..." "I wouldn''t rmend it." "Why not?" "There''s a high chance that monsters are living inside." "Ah." Even this brave young man, traveling with just a staff and a backpack, was immediately discouraged by the word "monster." "Then, why are you here, awakener?" "A missing person''s report came in from around here. Many people have been caught trying to pass through, thinking they could make it alone. I''m nning to block it offpletely." "My goodness." "It''s dangerous. Please step back." I copsed the tunnel in front of him. A ghostly wail echoed from deep within, but I paid it no mind. The noise was probably just slimes bursting. "So you really are an Awakener!" The young man, realizing I wasn''t a fake, finally let his guard down. To rify, he probably didn''t believe in the goodness of the Awakeners but rather acknowledged that it was pointless to be wary of someone strong enough to copse the tunnel with a single blow. In this broken world, having an objective assessment of oneself was crucial to living without stress. In that sense, this young man was well-adapted. "Where are youing from?" "Oh, I originally lived in Asan." "You walked all the way from Asan to here? Alone?" "Haha, yes." He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "My mother is from Daesan-myeon, Changwon. Do you know Daesan-myeon? Anyway, I was going to stop by there before heading down to Busan. I thought using the tunnel would be the fastest route, but I had no idea it was a slime dungeon." "Is your mother still in her hometown?" "Oh no, she passed away seven years ago." A familiar sound rang in my heart. The sound of my affinity for this young man rising. No need to hide it. Me, the Undertaker, wasn''t necessarily old, but I was the kind of guy who would shed tears at the mere mention of family love. A regressor''s weakness was always love. "Did you decide to travel because you wanted to see yourte mother''s hometown?" "Yes!" "That''s admirable. It must have been obvious you''d struggle on this trip." "Oh, it''s nothingpared to how much my mother struggled to raise me." Affinity +200 points! By now, I had already decided that I''d ensure this young man made it to Busan safely. I needed to stop by Busan to see Noh Do-hwa anyway. An extrapanion wouldn''t be a burden. "I was nning to head to Busan after copsing this tunnel. If it''s okay with you, would you like to travel together?" "Really?" His face brightened at my offer. "Yes. My name is Undertaker. That''s not my real name, but a moniker. It may be a short trip, but let''s take good care of each other." "Let''s work together! My name''s Kim Si-eun. Please feel free to speak casually with me." "Okay, looking forward to it, Si-eun." "Yes, hyung!" We shook hands. I had to bend my back slightly because of our height difference. Honestly, I didn''t realize at the time that the Kim Si-eun in front of me was that Kim Si-eun. There was an understandable reason for this. To exin it in one sentence: I had forgotten the name Kim Si-eun over time. Sure, I depicted it as if I always remembered the football yer Kim Joo-chul''sst words in this story. But, as I''ve emphasized before, that kind of consistency was only possible because I edited the story. I had met Kim Joo-chul in the 4th cycle and Kim Si-eun in the 54th, with over 500 years between them. How could I possibly remember events from a time when I hadn''t yet mastered [Complete Memory]. "What''s your father like?" "Huh? My father?" I first sensed something odd when we were setting up camp that day. Kim Si-eun frowned as if I had asked him about a mythical beast. "Uh... I''m not sure. I don''t remember!" I was mindlessly spreading my sleeping bag when I suddenly became alert. His attitude while answering my question, the way he dragged out his words, was all too familiar to me. "Wait a second. This might be a rude question, but I''ll ask since I''m also an orphan. Do you not remember anything about your father?" "Huh? Oh, uh..." "Has your mother never mentioned him, or have you never asked her about him?" "...Nope. Why?" "And you''ve never thought that was strange?" Kim Si-eun looked at me with his round, squirrel-like eyes. There wasn''t a hint of doubt on his face. He even seemed to find it odd that I cared. Why? Because not thinking about something that doesn''t exist is the most natural thing in the world. "Yeah, that''s right." "......" I sighed and gazed up at the night sky from our campsite for a long time. Fate is tenacious and terrifying. "Si-eun." "Yes?" "When we get to Busan, let''s stop by somewhere with me." Meeting Kim Si-eun was nothing short of a miracle. I''m not exaggerating or throwing the word around lightly. Like all miracles, this one wasn''t a sudden event out of nowhere; rather, it was the product of many conditionsing together seamlessly. We could infer these conditions from the personal information Kim Si-eun had shared. "You worked in Asan before the Gate incident?" "Yeah. I had a rtive running a huge supermarket in Asan. I just did some part-time work there!" What caught my attention wasn''t the work itself but the region of Asan. Readers who are knowledgeable about Korean geography may already have gotten chills at the mention of Asan. To exin briefly, Asan in South Chungcheong Province epasses an area known as Onyang. Yes, Onyang¡ªthe location of the abandoned inn where the Udumbara World Tree first bloomed. If I hadn''t subjugated the Udumbara, the residents of Asan would have inevitably been infected by the virus, given their proximity to the origin. Although I never ran the calctions, when the World Tree had fully bloomed, Asan''s civilians would have been 99% annihted. ¨D¨DAnd that death toll would have included Kim Si-eun. Even if he had miraculously avoided infection, things wouldn''t have improved. Ten Legs, the only Michelin Guide inspector on the Korean Penins, would have taken care of him. No matter how much the New Budhha Virus promised humans immortality, if your head was severed and brain destroyed by Ten Legs, that was the end. Until the allied guild forces exterminated Ten Legs, all humans in Korea were no more than a chef''s choice on Ten Legs'' dining table. For Kim Si-eun to have survived and embarked on this journey from Asan to Changwon to Busan with his homemade spear, certain conditions needed to be met. These conditions could beid out like a quest list in an RPG: ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Kim Si-eun Survival Route Requirements] 1. Exterminate Ten Legs: If not exterminated, they''ll head south from Seoul, and Kim Si-eun will die. 2. Exterminate the Udumbara World Tree: Kim Si-eun was among the early victims of the virus. If not destroyed immediately after the regression, his death can''t be prevented. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Without me, the regressor, clearing this route would have been impossible. Was Kim Si-eun the only one in Korea in this position? Many people were in the same boat. Take Dang Seo-rin, for instance. Despite persistently pestering me to be a witch friend, she could only ensure her survival by eliminating Ten Legs. Defeating boss-level monsters was akin to unlocking previously "locked" regions. Kim Si-eun was like an NPC that could only be freed by eliminating Ten Legs and Udumbara. Of course, this analogy is only aparison to a game. In reality, the world wasn''t a game, and humans weren''t NPCs. Thus, humans must bear the responsibility appropriate to their kind. "...So." After hearing my full exnation, Kim Si-eun furrowed his brow. "You''re saying I had a father named Kim Joo-chul and that because of Undertaker''s Time Seal, I''vepletely forgotten everything about him?" "Yes. More specifically, not just you but everyone''s memory of him has been erased." "What kind of power is that?" Kim Si-eun looked incredulous. To a normal person, his reaction made sense. But [Time Seal] was quite a reasonable power. In this world, there were even powers that grew stronger based on the amount of trolling you did online. Ordinary people often assumed that Awakeners were like RPG characters, but in reality, there were far stranger abilities. "Anyway, I might be mistaken, but from my perspective, it seems highly likely that you''re Kim Joo-chul''s son." "Hmm, I don''t really feel..." "Have you ever shown any interest in football?" Kim Si-eun hesitated. "...No, I haven''t." "Kim Joo-chul was a former football yer. If you''ve lost all memory of your father, then it''s likely you''ve lost most memories rted to football too." "But there are a lot of people who aren''t interested in football." "True, but having no memory at all is a different story. Have you ever watched the World Cup? Not even once? Ore across any videos or articles about Korean yers ying abroad?" Kim Si-eun fell silent. "Kim Joo-chul is sealed in a stadium in Busan. If this is all just a misunderstanding, I apologize in advance, but I think it would be worth following me to see the truth." "......" His hesitation didn''tst long. Footnotes: [1] Daedongyeojido is arge scale map of Korea produced by Joseon dynasty cartographer and geologist Kim Jeong-ho in 1861. A second edition was printed in 1864. One source describes it as the "oldest map in Korea". [2] Eulji Mundeok was a military leader of early 7th century Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, who sessfully defended Goguryeo against Sui China. He is often numbered among the greatest heroes in the military history of Korea. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 38 Rich Bond III "Follow me this way." "Y-yes..." We stood in a partially destroyed football stadium in Busan. The outer walls had copsed due to monsters, leaving behind a maze of steel frames and debris. After a long time away, I returned to this ce. The first time I visited, I was with someone''s father. The second time, I was with his son. "Wow." Kim Si-eun looked around in wonder like a crane. It was his first time in such arge stadium. "It''s so big! Do those stands fill up on game days?""It''s rare for them to bepletely full, but on average, around ten thousand people woulde." Despite it being more than 500 years since I''dst been here, finding our destination was surprisingly easy. On one side of the stands, there was arge crystal protruding like something from the depths of a cave. It was as tall as I was. Only I could see this marker. I personally called it a "tombstone" or "gravestone." I could have called it "that thing" since no one but me could perceive it. Even Kim Si-eun, standing next to me, couldn''t recognize the crystal looming right in front of him. "Take my hand." "O-Okay." "I can freely enter the dreams of those I''ve sealed, but you can''t. You can only connect to the dream while holding my hand, so don''t let go, no matter what. Got it?" "Understood, hyung." Kim Si-eun cautiously took my hand, and I nodded. "Close your eyes and prepare yourself." "......" "Here we go." I pressed my left palm against the surface of the crystal. My hand slipped through easily, and the surface that shimmered like a mirror seemed to be made of water, epting me without resistance. I stepped forward. After taking about six steps, everything rapidly turned pitch ck. It felt like a mischievous child had smeared ck paint everywhere, or as if we had descended into the deepest abyss. "......" While this sensation was familiar to me, it was not for Kim Si-eun. His fear and tension transmitted clearly through his grip on my hand. Momentster. -Aaaahhhh! Suddenly, a deafening cheer erupted around us. "Eek!" Startled, Kim Si-eun opened his eyes and instinctively looked around, his eyes widening even more than when he heard the cheer. "Wh-What''s going on?" The cheering was from the supporters. The previously deste stadium was now packed with home and away fans. Where ruins once stood, gs, slogans, balloons, and, above all, people had filled the stands instead. "Attack! Attack! Hurry up!" Someone who looked like a coach shouted from the sidelines. yers dashed wildly across the green field. With every dribble, incredible pass, and corner kick preparation, the stands roared with earth-shaking cheers. -Oh! Our club! Our eternal home! The kind of passion that could only be experienced five years ago by others, and over 500 years ago in my own timeline, before the world fell apart. -My love! My home! -Today, we will win again! The club fans waved their smartphones and jumped on the spot. Massive gs fluttered relentlessly at the front of the stands. Kim Si-eun stood frozen under the red, evening-like waves of gs. "......" "Look over there, Si-eun." I pointed at the field, and Kim Si-eun''s gaze followed my finger. A football bounced off the turf. One of the yers deftly trapped it with his chest and sprinted forward. Kim Joo-chul. -Ooooh! The crowd gasped. Kim Joo-chul, who had been buried under the fog of time in my memory, appeared on the field, looking younger and fitter. His left foot controlled the ball with ease as he charged ahead. -Go! Hurry! Counterattack! -There''s no one there! -Kim Joo-chul! Although he was a defender, Kim Joo-chul boldly crossed the half-line, with teammates and opponents alike desperately chasing him. He lobbed the ball with his left foot, and a teammate just barely managed to head it into the. -Waaaahhhh! Kim Joo-chul earned an assist. His performance didn''t end there. In a subsequent corner kick, he leaped and headed the ball directly into the. The scoreboard changed from 1-1 to 2-1, aeback goal. A defender had managed 1 assist and 1 goal in no time. -Goaaaal! Goal! Goal! -Kim Joo-chul! Kim Joo-chul! Kim Joo-chul! At that moment, Kim Joo-chul skated lightly toward the stands and jumped over the barrier to kiss a woman in the audience. The woman held a child in her arms, and Kim Joo-chul kissed the top of the child''s head as well. The stadium scoreboard captured the scene perfectly. -Who''s that? -That''s Kim Joo-chul''s wife! -Ooooh! Kim Joo-chul! Kim Joo-chul! Though the excessive celebration earned him a warning from the referee, the yers, the crowd, and even Kim Joo-chul himself didn''t care. Next to me, Kim Si-eun murmured softly. "Mom...?" He seemed to recognize the woman who kissed the football yer. He couldn''t close his gaping mouth. "No way. So that really..." But Kim Si-eun''s muttering couldn''t continue as the supporters'' song drowned it out. -Kim Joo-chul! Our iron wall! -No one can break through Kim Joo-chul! -Kim Joo-chul! Our iron wall! Kim Joo-chul, hugging the child, looked incredibly happy. The child in his arms beamed as well. A past they could never return to. A glory they could never reim. "......" "That was your father''s happiest moment." I spoke quietly. I used aura to create a barrier between us and our surroundings. The cheers of the crowd became a faint echo. As the sound faded, the scene before us shimmered like a dream. "And he''s reliving it over and over again." "That''s strange. He looks so happy. Why would he erase himself from this world? Why would he abandon his family and stay trapped in this dream?" "......" Because it wouldn''t be long before Kim Joo-chul''s left foot would bepletely destroyed. Because he fell into alcohol and gambling, abandoned his family to wallow in Macau and Gangwon-do, and left his wife to die alone while raising their son. Instead of answering, I asked, "Do you want to ask your father directly?" "......" Kim Si-eun bit his lip. "...Yes." Although this world had be Kim Joo-chul''s domain, I could still influence it as the caster. After finishing his Man of the Match interview, Kim Joo-chul headed for the locker room. Holding Kim Si-eun''s hand, I followed him, unnoticed by anyone. "Huh?" Only Kim Joo-chul recognized me. He was hopping with his teammates but turned toward us with a bright smile. "Who are you? A fan? You''re not allowed in here!" "It''s me, Kim Joo-chul." "Huh? Who are you?" "Undertaker. I''m the one who trapped you in this time." I looked him in the eye. "Don''t you recognize me?" "......" Kim Joo-chul''s smile disappeared. Simultaneously, the colors of the world around us faded to gray. The singing yers, the coaches who were about to enter, and the champagne stopped in midair. "Ah..." Only Kim Joo-chul''s sigh quietly escaped. "That''s right. This was a dream." "......" "This was all a dream..." Kim Joo-chul looked around, gazing at his former teammates with eyes full of emotion. He sighed heavily. "This is now a lucid dream, huh? That makes it easier. I might as well go see my wife and son again since I don''t have a reason to stay here in this damn locker room." "That''s not necessary." "Hmm?" "After this moment ends, you''ll forget everything. You''ll forget meeting me, this conversation with me. Just as the world has forgotten you, you won''t build any more memories of it." "Huh. That''s tough..." Kim Joo-chul slumped onto a bench. Wiping sweat from his body with a towel, he asked, "Why did youe to see me, Undertaker? Is this just a regr visit that I can''t remember, to watch my amazing highlight reel?" "It may not mean anything to you, but it could mean something to your family." "Huh? What''s that supposed to mean?" "This young man here with me is your son." "What?" Kim Joo-chul finally looked at mypanion, as if only now realizing another presence. He blinked. "Si-eun?" "......" "Si-eun? Is that really you? Wow, you''ve grown so much!" Kim Joo-chul jumped up and rushed to hug Kim Si-eun. Although startled, Kim Si-eun didn''t reject his father''s embrace. "My goodness! You''ve be a man! Thest time I saw you, you were just a little baby! How old are you now? A middle schooler? High schooler?" "I''m 20." "What? 20? Why are you so short! What have you been eating to stay that small? My genes are way better than that!" The tall defender seemed shocked by his son''s height. "Um... Father?" "Huh? Father? No need to call me that. Just say ''Dad'' like usual..." Kim Joo-chul suddenly fell silent. He studied Kim Si-eun''s face, then looked at me. His face darkened with worry. "...Wait a second. I''m sorry, but when did my wife... your mother pass away?" "...Seven years ago." "......" A heavy silence fell over the room. After a long while, Kim Joo-chul muttered softly, "I see." His gaze briefly turned to me. "So that''s why you warned me. That''s why..." I didn''t respond, only gave a slight nod. I understood the terrible feeling of being forgotten by the most precious person in one''s life, but while I always had the chance to start over, Kim Joo-chul never had that opportunity. Forever. "......" "...Si-eun." A father held his son''s shoulders. Kim Joo-chul gently gripped Kim Si-eun''s shoulders, not firmly but more like the delicate touch of willow leaves. "I''m sorry." "......" "Your father... your dad was a very weak man. A really weak man. I never expected you''d survive this messed-up world. Even before everything fell apart, I was drinking and gambling, a terrible person. I ignored your mother''s calls, just got angry. Truly..." Kim Si-eun listened to his father''s apology with a face that showed he didn''t know how to react. It wasn''t his fault. To him, Kim Joo-chul was just a stranger he met today. Seeing his son''s face, Kim Joo-chul shuddered. "This is... this is hell." "......" "I''m sorry. I''m sorry, Si-eun. Dad''s sorry." The football yer, trapped in his prime, repeatedly muttered "sorry" like a broken music box. I don''t want to borate too much on the epilogue of this story but I believe readers now understand why I detested the ability [Time Seal] so much. Honestly, I never wanted to address [Time Seal]. It was that much of a dark past for me. However, it feels liberating to finally reveal my power to all of you. Yes, I sealed the time of many people, not just Kim Joo-chul. At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. But, looking back after so many years, both those people and I had given up on the world too quickly and too easily. [Time Seal] also yed a role in my decision tobel my life story as a "tale of failure." No matter how many times I regressed, too many people could never find a different ending. "Something feels strange." Yet those who survived still had to make a life out of the connections they had left. After leaving the stadium, Kim Si-eun kept looking back. The stadium stood precariously in the distance, its outer walls destroyed and exposing its innards. "Do you regreting?" "No, definitely not! It''s just that a man who says he''s my family is crying, yet I can''t remember him at all. It''s a strange feeling." Kim Si-eun hoisted his backpack and adjusted it. "It makes me feel like I just have to live my life to the fullest." With his spear nted in the ground, he bowed his head toward me. "Thank you, hyung! Thanks to you, I found my mother''s hometown and met my father on this trip. Although I feel a little conflicted, it was meaningful." "Where are you going next?" "I''m nning to find a way across to Japan! I''ve traveled all over Korea already." "Japan, huh?" Nowadays, Japan wasn''t an easy ce to rmend as a travel destination. If someone asked me to name the two most dangerous ces besides the Korean Penins, I would say without hesitation that it was the Japanese archipgo and the Indian subcontinent. This is because the beings that people treated as "gods" there loved humans so much that they decided to care for them directly. For reference, their favorite genres included #confinement #brainwashing #gore. Although the world was dangerous everywhere, those two ces were dangerous in a different way. Think of it as the difference between apocalyptic and horror genres. But that was a few yearster. For now, the Japanese archipgo was rtively safe. I didn''t stop the young backpacker from pursuing his journey. Instead, I gave this advice: "If you hear strange sounds, see strange objects, or feel something off, don''t try to investigate. Just put your hands together and greet politely, then continue on your way without looking back. And especially avoid tunnels." "...?" "You''ll likely pass through Fukuoka. Avoid getting involved with the provisional government people there if you can. Anyway, you''ll find this advice useful someday." "Um, okay! Got it!" I didn''t know what kind of ending awaited Kim Si-eun once he crossed to Japan. There was a high chance it was gruesome. But I didn''t care too much. From the perspective of a regressor like me, life wasn''t like a sports match with a whistle blown after 90 minutes. It was more like a journey, stopping briefly at a station before moving on down the tracks. Unlike his father, he still had the chance to journey to new ces. "See you next time, hyung!" For the record, I trusted Kim Joo-chul''s sincerity. Even as he faded from the world, I didn''t want to distort the intentions of someone who had muttered "our son." The question of whether he was strong enough to hold onto those feelings until the end could be set aside for now. If he had genuinely apologized to his son, wouldn''t he be d to see Kim Si-eun moving forward to a new destination without being weighed down by the past? Wouldn''t he bless him? Turning around onest time, I could still see the stadium with its copsed walls. -Goaaaal! Goal! Goal! -Kim Joo-chul! Kim Joo-chul! Kim Joo-chul! Inside, an anonymous football yer long forgotten by the world was still ying. With an unbroken left leg. Cheered on by the crowd. And he would keep running forever to celebrate with his family. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 39 Observer I Some readers might have wondered about the previous story where Kim Si-eun went backpacking to Japan. It''s true; I have been somewhat reluctant to mention overseas topics. There is a valid reason for this,rgely because my main area of activity is the Korean Penins. Although I asionally venture abroad, I generally prefer not to. Why? Because the Saintess isn''t there. It''s not a joke. Without the constant support of the Saintess, it feels like switching from a third-person top-view strategy simtion to a first-person souls-like action game. It wasn''t for nothing that I took the Saintess with me when I went to China to quell the Butterfly Effect. The role of the Saintess in my life as a regressor is more significant than it might seem.While I''m not about to sing praises like some Russian Lolitaplex author might¡ª''my light of life, my body¡¯s fire, my sin, my soul, Saintess''¡ªI certainly wouldn''t n any hero party without first securing the Saintess. Remember this: Support-Saintess is a fixed pick. "Mr. Undertaker." "Yes?" "Why must we absolutely never observe Mr. Go Yuri of the Satisfaction Guild with irvoyance?" "Um¡" There was a reason why my mind cataloged a [Saintess User Manual]. It''s not that I give the Saintess special treatment; I have strategy manuals for all my party members. Most people who had awakened find my ''strategy manuals'' somewhat creepy. Understandably, from my perspective, these are the fruits of hardbor, but from others'', it''s like some random guy popping up and shouting, ''Your power actually gets stronger the more you aggro people!'' Honestly, even I would find it hard to believe. "Go Yuri has a passive ability of mental corruption. It''s top-tier. Anyone, no matter how mentally strong, will inevitably be brainwashed if they contact Go Yuri." "Ah¡ I see." The Saintess never doubted my manuals. Though she couldn''t share my memories, we shared records. My ims were readily epted by her as truth, and she based her strategies on them. Tap-tap¡ª The Saintess typed away, organizing information as we talked. "Was there an instance where I observed Ms. Go Yuri with irvoyance and ended up in trouble?" "Yes, during the 89th cycle." "How did it unfold?" "It happened too quickly to know the details, but at the time, Go Yuri was part of our party. Seo Gyu probably got brainwashed first. And Seo Gyu knows about your abilities and home address, doesn''t he? Go Yuri must have approached you using that information. By the time I arrived, you were found hanged by a towel rack." "Was it suicide?" "Probably. More precisely, it was induced suicide." "......" The Saintess pondered. "Mr. Seo Gyu. Right. It''s crucial to ensure he''s always a reliable ally. Apart from that, I think it wouldn¡¯t be bad to delve into Ms. Go Yuri''s true nature in this cycle, even if it means risking the cycle." She nced at me and nodded. "¡There''s no need to take unnecessary risks. Please inform me about any other precautions I should take." "There''s nothing beyond what I''ve mentioned." That was both true and a lie. "I''ll handle all remaining risks." The typing stopped. The Saintess looked at me, tilting her head. "Mr. Undertaker." "Yes." "What happens to me if you leave the risks unattended?" There was a brief silence. There were a few things I intentionally kept silent about. The stories involving time seals were one; overseas mentions were another. If I were to unravel these stories, a bit of preparation was necessary. Although rare, there were stories I had not mentioned yet, like how some Awakeners turn into monsters if they be ''corrupted.'' So, let me tell you about it now. About the story that unfolds when the Saintess bes corrupted¡ªthe so-called ''Executor Route''. Since we met at a convenience store along the riverside, I have trusted the Saintess in every cycle, and she has trusted me. I needed an ally after losing the elder Mr. Sho. The Saintess needed a warrior topensate for herck of physical power. Our alliance was inevitable. [Thank you for your hard work in subjugating Ten Legs, Mr. Undertaker. With that, most threats south of the Han River have been eliminated.] Initially, there were no problems. [Udumbara has been¡ subjugated. If what Mr. Undertaker said is true, the flower that bloomed from that hat would have covered the world. It''s a very sad thought. Thank you for your efforts.] Among those I knew, the Saintess boasted exceptional mental and survival strength. She always survived until the end of the world. Whether from not interacting with others or not relying on force, the Saintess''s heart was strong. [The Meteor Shower¡ subjugated. Now, the catastrophe of numerous Awakeners and civilians being exterminated overnight will not happen again. It would have been impossible without Mr. Undertaker. Thank you for your hard work.] We safely crossed the critical period of 7 years when the Meteor Shower was guaranteed to appear. Changes started to be noticed from the 12th year. [Mr. Undertaker.] "Hm? What is it?" [A massacre of civilians has urred in Nampo, North Korea.] The Saintess''s irvoyance reached most of the Korean Penins. We virtually had unlimited visibility limited to the penins. "What? A civilian massacre? Where exactly? I''ll go check it out." [No, I''ve just found out too. The massacre has almost finished. It is estimated to have urred from the morning of July 11 to now, July 13.] However, the Saintess''s irvoyance was only effective on ''awakened'' individuals. She could not observe all the people living on thisnd. That is to say, in cases where civilians killed civilians, the Saintess was utterly powerless. Murder, massacre, any crime among civilians¡ªshe always observed ''already finished scenes'' a step toote. [Mr. Undertaker.] [My abilities seem to be strengthening slightly.] The situation got a bit worse. "Ah, really? It''s normal for some Awakeners to grow their abilities while others teau from the start, but it seems yours were of the former type. How far can your irvoyance reach now?" [It''s still a stretch, but based on being in Seoul, I think it can reach the tip of the Shandong Penins.] "Wow. That''s impressive. Congrattions." [Thank you.] "Why don''t you consider taking up martial arts training? It would be good for your health, not just for increasing your power." [I''ll think about it¡ thank you.] Originally, the Saintess''s powers developed slowly. When Ten Legs swept through the Korean Penins, when the world ended due to Udumbara, when the world fell apart from the Meteor Shower, the Saintess died. She died before her powers could mature fully. However, as the cycles progressed, the lifespan of the Saintess also extended. 5 years, 7 years, 12 years, 15 years. As her time stretched longer, so did the breadth of the world she could observe. Moreover, I was practically funneling all the life elixirs that were of no use to me anymore to her, my most trustworthy ally. [......] As a result, the tragedies the Saintess had to handle also increased slightly. It was fine when limited to Korea. Even if we couldn''t take care of everyone, we had created a societal system with the National Road Management. Moreover, the existence of the constetions reduced the frequency of severe misbehavior among the Awakeners, and if any urred, it could quickly be detected through [irvoyance]. The major guilds in Korea, like the Samcheon World of Dang Seo-rin, were also cooperative with us. But beyond the sea was a different story. We didn''t have the capacity to care for those areas. Wecked resources. Before even discussing theck of materials and manpower, simply the time avable to me, a regressor, was absolutely insufficient. For instance, it took at least a week to travel to and from Tianjin, China. That meant I was absent from the Korean Penins for a week, and during that time, situations that only I could handle were missed. [......] The Saintess was wise. She deeply agreed with the proposition that all good starts with the efficient allocation of resources. Rather, she was considerate of me. Just once, after she mentioned the massacre in Nampo, North Korea, the Saintess never again brought up any tragedies outside the jurisdiction of the National Road Management. She feared it might unnecessarily burden me. However, her silence didn''t stop the killings. [......] Thanks to our subjugation of the Milky Way, numerous lives, both domestic and foreign, were saved. However, what to do with those saved lives was up to each individual, and the appropriation of one life by another wasmonce. I could have ignored it. If I had cut it off, there would have been no problem. But the Saintess never stopped ''observing''. As much as she ignored, the world did not shrink. Such things never happened. As long as the world existed, and as long as someone died without even screaming, the Saintess wanted to remember those deaths at the very least. Poison. Drops of poison umted in her heart. [......] The Saintess''s heart was strong. It could handle 16 years of time. ng- A sound like shattering ss echoed through an old yground. The yground, once set in the middle of an apartmentplex, was now surrounded by crumbling buildings that mourned the real estate values of long past. Even with just the half-destroyed remnants, echoes resonated well. It wasn''t actually the sound of breaking ss. It was the noise of metal shing against metal, more precisely, aura against aura. "Wow." I marveled as I deflected the hand axe thrown by the Saintess with my sword. "You''re impressive. Not just your aura, but you have a natural talent for martial arts." "¡Thank you. I still have much to learn." "No, no. You''re practically wlesspared to me. I''ve mastered aura training, but without any natural talent. If I had your martial prowess, I would have saved the world and then some." It wasn''t entirely ttery. In truth, I was practically talentless in martial arts. To use a martial arts analogy, I was someone who just kept umting internal energy and clumsily crushed others with my power. Even this had only been achieved after my skills persisted across regressions from the 10th cycle onwards. "Your aura''s also fascinating because it''s transparent. Seriously, how do you have transparent-colored aura?" "¡¡" Above all, the Saintess''s aura was imperceptible. Literally colorless and odorless. A transparent, clear aura. When shing, it made sounds like ng- hiss- as if ss was breaking, suggesting her inner image might be a ''mirror.'' It was an aura form that suited her well. "Let''s call it a day. Well done." "Thank you, Mr. Undertaker." "If you''ve achieved this much in just a year, you might as well be running around the battlefield instead of me in three to five years. Why have you avoided training until now?" "It¡¯s not really a hobby of mine." "Has that changed now?" "...Yes." I felt a sense of pride internally. ''Even the perennial hikikomori Saintess can change.'' It took about 16 years for this change to ur, but what did that matter? Throughout my regressive life, this was the first time the Saintess had taken up martial arts. I handed her a towel as I spoke. "Do you have any ns for the rest of the day?" "...¡" "Saintess? Saintess." "...Ah." The Saintess blinked. This had been happening frequently. Originally, the Saintess had a strong vibe of observing the world from one step behind, but recently that aura seemed a bit denser? Like now, during our conversation, she would suddenly stare nkly into space. "Are you okay?" Her absent-minded expression strangely suited her, making it aesthetically unproblematic, but I was worried she might have a health issue. If the Saintess were to copse, Noh Do-hwa would probablye twisting my wrist immediately. The Saintess''s irvoyance was too crucial for managing the National Road. "Yes, I''m fine¡ Sorry. What did you just say?" "Do you have any special ns for today?" "No." The Saintess answered immediately. "I don¡¯t." "That''s good. Safety has been a bit shaky recently, hasn''t it? I know you can handle yourself well, but please be careful, especially since you tend to overdo it sometimes, Saintess." "...Mr. Undertaker, you know me well." "Of course. I''ve been observing for years." The Saintess took the towel from me and wiped her face. At that moment, I thought she was just bending down to wipe off sweat. Looking back, perhaps she was using the towel to naturally avoid my gaze. "Thank you always, Mr. Undertaker." Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 40 Observer II At this time, I had ample reason to worry about the Saintess''s well-being. As previously mentioned, the public order was not good. "Another one dead..." During the regr meeting, Noh Do-hwa muttered. Although a considerable amount of time had passed since she took office as the chief of the National Road Management Corps, her uniquely gloomy eyes, which seemed to hate everything in the world, had not changed. "Again? Is it that murderer?" "Yes, the Wheel Murderer. This time the death was reported in Cheongju. It just went up on SG Net. Take a look for yourself..." It wasn''t in his character to fiddle with his smartphone during meetings, but since it was also a break time and Noh Do-hwa had rmended it, there was no helping it. When I logged into SG Net, sure enough, chaos had ensued.-Anonymous: December 24th, Cheongju. The post''s title on the bulletin board was nondescript. It was uploaded by an anonymous user, only the date and location were mentioned. Not only the title but the content of the post was simple as well. A single video was bluntly attached without any adornment. Upon clicking the video, a man was tied up in an underground parking garage. -Uh, ahh... The underground parking garage was already flooded up to the ankles. ck sewage. An endlessly murky sludge surrounded a chair ced in the middle, where the man was tightly bound. -I-I am Lee So-yeol, 29, living in Cheongju. I, until now, have killed six people. The first murder was a year ago... There was a mother and daughter in my neighborhood, they seemed to have plentiful supplies. Originally, I didn¡¯t intend to kill, but during a fight with the father, the daughter stabbed me from behind, so, to survive, I had no choice. The man, for some reason, droned on about his crimes. The video did not continue seamlessly. It was unmistakably edited. For instance, the dialogues he just mentioned were cut off in the middle. There were gaps between ''I have killed six people until now'' and ''The first murder was a year ago.'' The reason I could notice this difference was that, previously, there had been no nail in the man''s hand. That is, someone who filmed the video was torturing the man. However, the ''video of being tortured'' and ''video of screaming'' were thoroughly deleted. Thus, the man''s confession seemed to continue smoothly, as if nothing had happened. -I was angry. I did it because I was angry. But I just killed them. Without torturing or humiliating... A nail was embedded in his right hand. -I''m sorry. I''m sorry. The man''s voice trembled a bit more thinly. -Actually, I tortured each one in front of the mother until they died. The second murder happened in Go-eun. Go-eun intersection. People often pass by there from Cheongju. Not those moving with the National Road Management Corps, but alone or maybe two or three together... I targeted those people... These days, all travelers keep their belongings in their backpacks... Shit! It''s the fault of those fuckers who travel alone! Nails were embedded in both his forearms. Where the nails were embedded, blood flowed. However, no matter how much blood dripped, the color of the sewage flooding the parking garage did not change at all. It remained pitch ck. -I''m sorry, I''m sorry, I''m sorry... I didn¡¯t want to live like this. Isn''t it the world''s fault? When the Gate burst open in Seoul, I was 12 years old. I was a primary school student then. -...... -Life, half of my life, no, just life itself, waspletely thrown into a cesspool. Shit. At least you all lived happily for half of your lives. You lived well. You went to school. I didn¡¯t! I couldn¡¯t! It''s your fault, shit! -I didn¡¯t do anything wrong... If I had been an Awakener, I wouldn''t have done such things. Filthy bastards. You guys don¡¯t even try and just awaken your abilities, huh? Join a guild and live it up. For regr people like me, we¡¯re nothing, right? But what... A nail was embedded in his shoulder. -The, the third murder. -...... -The third murder was... some bastard tried to rob my house. Me, a man. The money that an adult earned working his bones off, and he was trying to steal it just like that, isn''t his head rotten? I didn¡¯t particrly intend to kill him. Just wanted him to starve. I nned to keep him tied up for three days and then release him, but he died on his own in just two days. Really. I was going to release him. Ah. I''m sorry . I''m sorry. I''m sorry! Please save me! Please! No more. Please... At that moment, something strange was embedded in the man''s head. It was a wheel from a car. Since gasoline had be a relic of ancient civilizations, the countless cars scattered around the world were no more meaningful than megaliths. However, the person who filmed the video had seen new possibilities in the remains of these dmissioned cars. "He''s dead." "Yes. He died cleanly. No, filthy..." The serial murderer''s trademark. The culprit always nailed his victims to death and then hung a car wheel on the nail. Known as the ''Wheel Murderer.'' Or simply ''Wheel.'' "Already the 16th, isn''t it?" "Roughly around that number. Actually, if we only count the videos, it''s 16, but there are many more murders that weren''t recorded. Last time we found a corpse with a wheel on its head that hadn''t appeared in any video..." The murderer had stolen ''anonymity'' from ''Anonymous.'' In other words, themunity had no choice but to acknowledge and name him. -[Baekwha] SixthGrader: I''m so scared... ?_? -Anonymous: Kyaa, as expected from Wheel oppa. Nice shot again today. -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Is this an act of righteousness, or is it a vile self-justification of an evil faction? I find it truly difficult to judge. ©¸OldManGoryeo: ew -Anonymous: A mother-daughter murder in Chungju, and that was from a year ago, right? I think I know what this is about. There were rumors going around inside Chungju because the bodies were brutally mutted then. -Anonymous: I''m rooting for you. Kill more. -dolLHoUse: Neutral. -[Samcheon] Officer: Who''s managing Chungju? If it weren''t for Wheel, this bastard wouldn''t have been caught until the end. Can''t they manage security properly? The Awakeners affiliated with that guild should feel ashamed. Comments were continuously being posted on the bulletin board. "I''m back... Huh? What''s going on? Why the atmosphere?" Just then, Seo Gyu entered the conference room. The regr meeting members were Noh Do-hwa, me, and the Saintess, although asionally Seo Gyu also participated. If Noh Do-hwa controlled the aboveground roadwork, Seo Gyu managed the undergroundwork. "Seo Gyu, another post by the Wheel Murderer went up." "Ah..." Seo Gyu made a subtle expression. It was a look that seemed to convey both apology and ack of face. "Should I delete it?" "No, the public reaction suggests that arbitrarily deleting it could backfire. More importantly, is this Anonymous really that difficult to track?" "Yes, for now he''s not a regr member... When I checked the ess logs, he only logs in to post and doesn''t enter SG Net at any other time." "So, he''s not the type whomits crimes for thements." "Yep. He might not even be looking at thements at all. Or maybe he has some kind of unusual stealth ability that my powers can''t detect." "...That''s also a possibility." I nodded. There really are a variety of abilities in this world. "Is it about the murderer?" The Saintess followed Seo Gyu into the room. Both had stepped out of the conference room during the break and had just returned. "Yes." "I also just saw the post on SG Net." The Saintess took her seat, speaking as impassively as usual. "Even though I keep using my irvoyance, somehow I just can¡¯t catch the criminal in my sight." Then, it must be some kind of stealth ability. "Truly elusive." After the meeting ended, Seo Gyu was sent away, and we three entered another strategy meeting. Of course, the topic was the Wheel Murderer. "With public authority copsed, there¡¯s no way to prevent private sanctions. There''s neither justification nor reason. The problem is..." "Really, where''s the guarantee that this murderer is truly a benevolent being?" Noh Do-hwa took over the conversation. "So far, he''s really only targeted clear viins. But with the same ability, he could kill someone else without anyone knowing. Maybe he already has, just without attaching a wheel to the body..." "......" "At the very least, we need to understand who this person is from our perspective. Mr. Undertaker, is this the first time such a type of murderer has appeared in your regressions?" "Yes. This is a first in all my lives. It¡¯s the first time a run has proceeded this smoothly up to the 16th year, so it''s not that surprising." This run had been unusually fortunate. Normally by this time, beings called the Outer Gods would have interfered in our world, causing utter chaos. However, for some reason, the 107th cycle was quiet. It was almost like a miracle. Therefore, it was all the more precious. "Then, Mr. Undertaker, please try to gather more detailed information on the criminal this cycle... That way, we can n how to handle this going forward, whether we recruit or eliminate." "I was nning on that anyway." "Some guild leaders suspect the Wheel Murderer might be an assassin we''re cultivating. Things would have been much easier if we had such an assassin, huh..." We were doing our best. By the 16th year, the National Road Management Corps had sessfully connected nearly all major cities with primary roads. Guild leaders holed up in each city like feudal lords, but Noh Do-hwa reigned over these lords as a king. She monopolized the distributionworks from city to city, which was a natural consequence. Most importantly, Busan, thergest city on the Korean penins, had fallen into the hands of Dang Seo-rin of Samcheon. As you know, Dang Seo-rin was one of the key figures behind the establishment of the National Road Management Corps, and she was extremely favorable towards us. If necessary, Dang Seo-rin could even reign as the supreme leader of the guild leaders, such was the strength of his forces. With such a person''s cooperation behind us, no one could ignore the National Road Management Corps. Hmm, it would be like the French royal family securing the loyalty of Burgundy in the Middle Ages. Despite all this, the limits of the National Road Management Corps were clear. We could not take responsibility for the security of the entire Korean penins. We could not manage the administration. We could not handle the judiciary. Originally, we couldn''t even govern the surface area of the Korean penins. At best, we controlled the lines connecting city to city. In the voids that the spider web could not envelop, monsters and anomalies always lurked. Whenever these things tried to tear through the spiderweb and invade humanity''s lines, I had to respond. The military power of the National Road Management Corps was formidable, but moving as swiftly as me was inevitably difficult. This was also fundamentally why Icked time. "We just don''t have the capacity. We don''t." "......" The meeting adjourned, and we each returned to our respective lodgings. The reason I turned my steps this way was entirely capricious. Since the Saintess had ended her reclusive training and started wandering outside, my visits to Yongsan Dongbinggo-dong, which used to be the Saintess''s hideout, had be infrequent. Even though the Saintess herself didn''t mind at all, it didn''t look good for a man to be frequently visiting the home of a woman living alone. Previously, since the Saintess had been confined at home, it couldn¡¯t be helped, but now the situation had changed. We could alwaysmunicate via [Telepathy]. "But because of the Wheel Murderer, the Saintess must also be feeling uneasy." No one was more fastidious about ethics than her. In a situation where public power had crumbled, she still guarded against private sanctions. The reason was simple: without a system, a single deviation could lead to a major error. The reason judgments were made through three courts¡ªfirst, second, and third¡ªby different people was not unrted to this situation. It was unrealistic to expect one person to be absolutely fair and error-free forever. Because of these various concerns, the Saintess''s mind must also be in turmoil. "I''ve just gotten a rare fish, too. She''d be happy with a gift." December 24th. Christmas Eve. I put the tropical fish in a stic bag and headed for Dongbinggo-dong. Thump, a silent touch settled on my forehead. White snowkes. Even though the roads had turned into snow paths withst night''s heavy snowfall, it seemed they were about to snow again. "Hmm." Worried that it might be too cold for the tropical fish, I wrapped the stic bag with my palms. I also did not forget to skillfully raise an aura to maintain the temperature. Footprints were double-pressed into the path leading to Dongbinggo-dong. Likely, all of them were the Saintess''s footprints. "Saintess, are you there?" Knock, knock. I knocked on the door, but there was no response. ''She should have gone home right after the meeting...'' I tilted my head and turned the doorknob. The shoes the Saintess had worn during the meeting were in the entrance. This meant she had at least stopped by the house once. "Saintess?" Still no answer. "Hmm." ...I decided to enter the house, even at the risk of being rude. The memory of what had happened to the Saintess at the hands of Go Yuri lingered somewhat traumatically. If the Saintess was alright, I could just apologize immediately. She was someone who knew how to ept an apology. I stepped into the living room and... "¡?" Soon, I witnessed an unbelievable scene. The tanks that had surrounded the Saintess''s living room like a fortress. The tanks that always shimmered a brilliant blue were nowpletely empty. "What?" I opened my mouth unwittingly. Raising fish was the Saintess''s unique hobby. Even until the end of the world, she would never give up on her fish. That had been proven even back during the 90th cycle when I was running a convenience store. But the tanks were empty. Well, actually, two tanks were still filled with water. However, it seemed like a long time had passed since the water filter had been working, as the water color was murky. A few tropical fishy belly-up in the murky water, transformed into debris. Coincidentally, all the fish corpses left were the ones I had gifted her before. "Mr. Undertaker?" At that moment, a voice came from behind me. I turned around, and there was the Saintess, justing through the front door. I looked at the Saintess, holding the stic bag with the tropical fish I intended to gift her. "What happened?" "...Ah. I''m sorry for entering without permission. Someone gifted me some tropical fish, and I thought it would be better to give them to you, Saintess, so I came without notifying you first. But... are you not keeping fish anymore?" The Saintess blinked. "...Yes." "Why? You liked them so much..." "I did, but most of the original fish had died, and maintaining the tanks became increasingly burdensome. I nned to clean up the remaining tanks at some point, but I just haven''t got around to it yet." I looked over the Saintess''s attire. A double coat. Not exactlyfortable attire for moving around. It was different from what she had worn at the meeting. It wasn¡¯t her usual fashion choice either. "...I see. Were youing back from a walk?" "Yes. If I had known you wereing, Mr. Undertaker, I would have prepared some tea. It seems you visited while I was briefly out." In other words, ''I had returned home once before going out again, and there¡¯s nothing much I could do in this outfit except for a simple walk.'' Outside, it was snowing. Snow clung to her double coat, but it looked somewhat unnatural. As if, maybe, if you shook the double coat lightly on snow-covered ground, it would not have such snow marks. "¡¡" "Undertaker?" I looked past the Saintess to the snow on the ground outside. Until I entered, the footprints had only been double-pressed. One set was from my arrival, and the other must have been from when the Saintess returned. I picked up the shoes the Saintess had just taken off at the entrance, examining the soles. The pattern of the soles did not match the footprints in the snow. "Undertaker? What are you doing?" "Saintess." It was a kind of intuition. It was hard to call it deduction, given theck of evidence. There were no physical proofs., but a kind of sh, like a lightning strike, flickered in my mind. The fish belly-up. The empty tanks. The Saintess asionally gazing nkly into space. Seo Gyu''s apologetic eyes. The double coat. The footprints. An unlikely possibility, never before considered, suddenly clicked together like a puzzle and slipped out of my mouth. "Could it be, Saintess, that you are the Wheel Murderer?" Silence. A moment that felt like eternity passed. As if the world had hit the pause button. When it seemed that impression was about to lift, "Mr. Undertaker." The Saintess''s lips parted. "You really know me well." Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 41 Observer III There was a hypothesis I had long suspected. ¨D¨DPerhaps certain monsters, certain grotesqueries, were actually born from humans? It wasn''t a thought I had always held. The point at which I began to seriously consider this hypothesis was when I unraveled the identity of Udumbara. As you know, the Udumbara germinated in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. The bodies of a mother and child, presumed to have starved to death. It was a human that had given birth to a virus of unprecedented scale. Logically, it didn¡¯t make sense that a grotesquery could be born from the body of an ordinary human. However, with a slight change in perspective, it was entirely usible. If we assume that the mother or child had ''that ability,'' everything was rified. Which of the mother or child was the Awakener, I couldn''t tell, as they had already starved to death by the time we found them. But if either or both were Awakeners?If the Udumbara itself was a type of ability? ¨D¨DIf an Awakener''s ability is, in fact, no different from the abilities of monsters and grotesqueries when objectively considered. In theory, all Awakeners could potentially degenerate into grotesqueries. No, it could not even be called degeneration. From the start, Awakeners and grotesqueries were fundamentally the same. [The ability to continuously regenerate tentacles and grow two hearts within one¡¯s body]. Thus were born the Ten Legs. [The ability to freely observe a vast area asrge as the Korean Penins and telepathicallymunicate with all Awakeners]. Thus imed herself the Saintess. If viewed from the perspective of someone entirely unrted to humanity, say, an alien, which of the two would be considered the more dangerous creature? Whether they took on ''human form'' or not was merely a superficial difference, both were terrifying beings in essence. ¡°...Saintess.¡± ¡°Yes, I killed them.¡± An unexpectedly refreshing affirmation. But considering it came from the Saintess, it was more chilling than refreshing. ¡°Why¡¡.¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker. That''s a strange question. I have always maintained the same stance.¡± The Saintess remained expressionless. ¡°To prevent Awakeners frommitting crimes rashly, I created the constetions that don¡¯t even exist in this world. I simted them. The operating principle of the constetion system is the possibility that [someone might be watching every move I make]. Anxiety. Humans restrain themselves when observed by others, and let go of their reason when they are not.¡± The Saintess tilted her head. ¡°Isn''t a serial killer no different?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°The constetion system was able to control the rampages of the Awakeners. However, it couldn''t reach ordinary people, civilians. Sadly, my telepathy only works with Awakeners. So, I simply created another possibility for civilians to fear.¡± Snow was falling. kes of snownded on the Saintess''s head and double coat, melting as soon as they touched her. The Saintess''s eyes narrowed. ¡°There are too many pieces of trash in this world. No, that''s not quite the right word. There are far too many beasts masquerading as humans.¡± ¡°So¡¡.¡± ¡°So, I killed them. Are you worried there might have been innocent people? You don''t have to worry about that, Mr. Undertaker. I checked several times. I have never once regretted my killings.¡± Why? Despite clearly having a conversation with the Saintess, the presence of the person before me felt unfamiliar. It wasn¡¯t just that she seemed like a different person or had a changed personality. Her very existence had changed. Unexinable sweat formed on the palm of my right hand. ¡°Mr. Undertaker, you are too kind.¡± ¡°...Me? I didn¡¯t expect to hear that from you, Saintess.¡± ¡°You always give everyone infinite chances.¡± Crunch. The Saintess took a step forward. The snow beneath her feet crunched. I reflexively stepped back, maintaining a distance from the Saintess. Even if the Saintess was a murderer, I had no reason to flee from her. We were bound by blood. Even if she were to burn the whole world down, I would stand by her side. Therefore, the reason I moved wasn¡¯t logical but instinctual. ¡°Infinite chances?¡± ¡°Yes. Mr. Undertaker, what do you think about your [regression] ability? Surely, you must believe that you are constantly receiving chances. But from my point of view, observing you from the sidelines, my opinion differs.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°It''s not just you receiving chances. Every time the world regresses, everyone else gets a chance too.¡± One step. ¡°In thest cycle, a viin who killed an innocent girl received a chance to change this time around. The evil one who took thest bit of food from a child, tying up the child and watching them starve to death, also had the opportunity to make a different choice. Once. Twice. Ten times. Twenty times. Thirty times. Forty times. Fifty times.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°But how many really hesitated before their wicked deeds? How many have killed and tortured the same person over and over again, forty, fifty times?¡± ¡°...Those people do not know that the world is regressing.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Ignorance. Not knowing is always a good excuse. Even when ites to killing people, they always hide behind ignorance. I understand. I will understand. But what about the people who were killed?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Why must they endure countless wrongful deaths and wrongful suffering?¡± One step. ¡°Someday, Mr. Undertaker, you will seed in saving the world. Yes, definitely. In that future world, even the viins will be granted the chance to live a new life. Perhaps in a more rxed, more peaceful era, they might not feel the need tomit crimes. I think, that is very¡ wrong.¡± Another step. ¡°Mr. Undertaker. If someone kills, they should be punished.¡± The Saintess spoke quietly. ¡°They shouldn''t just get another chance.¡± From some point on. Without me noticing, a small, sleek hand axe had appeared in the Saintess''s grasp. That she had armed herself at a speed beyond my perception indicated this. Sweat dripped more freely from my neck. ¡°No matter how many times you regress, Mr. Undertaker, and no matter how much you strive to save this world, the sinsmitted by the viins will not disappear. No. I will make sure they don¡¯t disappear.¡± ¡°What do you mean¡¡?¡± ¡°I will eternally inflict pain on the sinners.¡± Vapor rose from the Saintess¡¯s mouth. It was a white smoke rising towards the endless sky. ¡°Feel free to regress anytime, Mr. Undertaker. A hundred times. Two hundred times. A thousand times if you must, to save this world, but I will not leave the benefit of your efforts for the viins to enjoy.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Each time you regress, I will execute the punishment that should rightly descend on this world. If the viins continue tomit crimes forever, I will forever torture them.¡± The vapor twisted from the Saintess¡¯s mouth. It was her sneer. ¡°Although I may be powerless to create a paradise in this world, I have enough ability to create a small hell.¡± When the Saintess took that final step, I drew my sword like a sh of lightning. The target was the hand axe in the Saintess¡¯s hand. Why the Saintess had drawn her weapon against me, I could not tell, but I had no doubts about her intellectual abilities. If the Saintess had drawn a weapon, there must have been a reason for it. What was the Saintess¡¯s n? To subdue me, a regressor, and then what did she intend to do? It was hard to guess, but certainly, it would not end well for me. I suppressed an ominous feeling and attacked the Saintess. ¡°What¡¡?¡± However, the Saintess easily dodged my sword energy. Just one step to the side. A simple movement as if she had known from the start where the attack woulde from and where it would go. ng¡ª! Suddenly, a sound like ss breaking rang out from my body. It wasn¡¯t from one ce alone. Left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, my limbs vibrated as auras collided. Four hand axes had struck my body and rebounded in all directions. I couldn¡¯t tell when or from where the hand axes had flown at me. It was as if they had suddenly appeared ¡®right in front of me.¡¯ ¡°Keuk?¡± If I hadn¡¯t developed a habit of wrapping my body in aura like armor, the blow just now would have caused serious injuries to my limbs. I immediately widened the distance from the Saintess. I kicked the snow-covered ground and jumped far back. But the gap did not widen. ¡°You¡¯re strong. As expected, Mr. Undertaker.¡± Despite having jumped tens of meters at once, the Saintess was already standing before me. ¡°¡¡!¡± Not only that. ng, the hand axes rebounded off my body. This time there were six. I could only react and knock two away with my sword. ¡®How? Even if she had a talent for martial arts, this was too much. This couldn¡¯t be an ability unless¡¡¡¯ It was then. Seeing the Saintess easily following my movements, a memory from long ago surfaced. 36th cycle. The first conversation I had with the Saintess. -How did you create the cConstetions? -Thanks to my ability. I can use [irvoyance] and [Telepathy]. -But just with irvoyance and Telepathy, it¡¯s impossible to perform the constetions, right? You need to observe multiple people simultaneously and send messages. Don¡¯t you have another ability? -Ah, that¡¯s... At that time, the Saintess had smiled faintly. -That, is a secret. I¡¯ll tell youter. An old memory. Now, I seemed to know what that secret was. ¡°Time stop¡¡?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± The Saintess hesitated. ¡°Did you know?¡± ¡°I only guessed. It was one of several possibilities. To perform multiple constetions and observe multiple Awakeners simultaneously, anyway, a tremendous ability would be necessary. Like multiple perspectives or multiple personalities¡¡. But time stop.¡± Time stop. The least likely joker card I had thought of. If it was true that she possessed even the [Time Stop] ability, then the Saintess was essentially the most powerful Awakener. I forgot even the predicament I was in and let out a hollowugh. ¡°irvoyance, Telepathy, and now Time Stop? That¡¯s unbelievable. Even one would be enough to be called a top-tier ability, and you monopolize three. Please stop cheating, Saintess.¡± ¡°You tter me too much. No matter how much I advance, I¡¯m nothingpared to an infinite regressor.¡± ...Atst, everything made sense. The Saintess had been using [Time Stop] to simultaneously observe so many Awakeners and perform the constetions. Avoiding my attack and suddenly throwing hand axes from four directions was understandable. After all, if she had stopped time, she could calmly assess from which direction the attack wasing and where she needed to attack. Was that all? If she used [irvoyance] on me, the Saintess could synchronize her vision with mine, immediately knowing which direction I was looking at and aiming for. If she was cautious, she could be called practically invincible. ¡°From the beginning, my ability wasn¡¯t this strong. When I stopped time initially, only my consciousness flowed or at best, my eyes could move, but as time passed, it grew stronger. Now, I can stop time and travel across the country to find viins.¡± ¡°Amazing. So, what do you intend to do by overpowering me?¡± ¡°Well.¡± The world momentarily stopped. In the blink of an eye, I could only widen my eyes. What had been barely three or four footsteps in the snowy ground had suddenly blossomed with countless footsteps. There were no footsteps of mine. Only the footprints of the shoes worn by the Saintess surrounded me by hundreds, thousands, as if disyed in a kaleidoscope. This meant that my moment was her eternity. The Saintess did not waste her time. Now, thousands of bullets flying towards me from all directions proved her diligence. Why just bullets? Among them were dozens of hand axes, each meticulously infused with aura. [It¡¯s a secret.] Countless bullets surged towards me. Boss battle. Ocean-ss threat level. Awakener. Alias, Saintess. Corruptor. Alias, Executioner. The battle begins. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 42 Observer IV For reference, the proper nouns I use in the text are mostly of my own creation. I didn¡¯t fancy myself a creator afflicted with a delusion that I alone had the right to name everything. Rather, it was simply because I was often the first to witness these wondrous phenomena. Think about it. Who else but me has watched in real time as an Awakener transformed into a grotesquery? Thus, I alone had toe up with terms for phenomena like ¡®corruption¡¯ and for entities known as ¡®Corruptors.¡¯ What I had to create wasn¡¯t limited to terminology. Every time a formidable boss-level grotesquery appeared, I had to write the ¡®strategy guide¡¯ for defeating it. I hope others will not have to make the same mistakes I did.Therefore, here and now, I will write down a strategy guide to prepare for the Executioner¡ªthe grotesquery that the Saintess, one of the strongest Awakeners, turned into upon her corruption. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Saintess Corruption] [Executioner Route: Route Activation Conditions] 1. At least 15 years have passed while the Saintess is still alive. 2. The number of civilian casualties the Saintess has witnessed exceeds ¡®at least¡¯ one million. Especially if she has observed powerless elders and children dying or being tortured over 100,000 times. 3. When the Saintess masters the use of aura. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ This is known as the ¡®Executioner Route.¡¯ None of these conditions being met means the Executioner Route does not activate. This is knowledge I''ve gained through numerous regressions. In fact, conditions 1 and 2 are almost identical, so it is fine to consider them as one. The existence of SG Net is irrelevant here. Even if SG Net, which allows the spreading of videos, disappears, the Saintess does not stop her ¡®executions.¡¯ Only the locations of the executions change. If the pathway to disseminate videos online is blocked, the Saintess would not just use underground parking lots; she would hang the bodies of viins directly in city squares. If she managed to obtain a cassette of the viin confessing their sins, she would y it, or if that wasn¡¯t feasible, she would use paper, attaching it to the corpse¡¯s body as if posting a notice. Has anyone ever witnessed bodies being hung simultaneously in 12 cities across the nation on the same day and at the same hour? Let me reiterate, the Saintess is a multi-ability Awakener almost to the point of cheating. She should never be underestimated. The best strategy is never to enter the Executioner Route in the first ce. But if you do enter it, you must subdue the Saintess as quickly as possible. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Executioner''s Abilities] 1. Time Stop 2. Telepathy 3. irvoyance ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ Let¡¯s start with an exnation of Time Stop. Our time is not the same as the Saintess¡¯s time. From my perspective, I might have only dyed a day, but to the Saintess, it could have been two days, a week, a month, or perhaps even a year. Each second that passes might give the Saintess an opportunity close to eternity. Take, for example, right now. ¡°Damn it...!¡± It was impossible to dodge thousands of bullets and dozens of axes. I ran with all my might, but like a light drizzle soaking clothes, or rather a torrential downpour during the monsoon, I was barraged. I surrounded my body with aura to block the damage, but aura is not infinite. My mental energy was continuously depleted in real time. [I think Mr. Undertaker¡¯sbat prowess is impressive.] As the battle continued, hundreds of footprints appeared on the snow-covered ground. In front of me. Behind me. All around. Footprints I hadn¡¯t stepped in or seen tightened around me. [But how long can you hold out?] The Saintess¡¯s aura was infinite. Despite having just unleashed countless attacks, the Saintess seemed not to tire, sending dozens of axes, each meticulously infused with aura, flying towards me again. It was an absurd maniption of aura. ¡°You¡¯re not telling me you¡¯re charging up aura while stopping time?¡± [Yes.] The Saintess¡¯s indifferent tone pierced directly into my mind. Though her tone was the same as usual, for some reason, it sounded annoying to my ears. [I took a ten-day break and recharged. While Mr. Undertaker was standing still, I rested.] I cursed internally. It was as if I was fighting someone with an infinite HP and MP cheat code. ¡®Is this how Ten Legs felt when it faced me?¡¯ I might not remember Ten Legs, but from its perspective, I must have seemed like a being who, no matter how many times they killed me, would alwayse back to life and demand a rematch. They probably wanted toin about me cheating. Right now, I felt exactly like that. Involuntarily, my monster empathy was flourishing. However, like my regressions, the Executioner¡¯s [Time Stop] was not a perfect ability. There was definitely a weakness. ¡®If she had kept attacking me while stopping time, she could have subdued me easily, but she didn¡¯t.¡¯ Her not doing so meant she couldn¡¯t. Above all, the Saintess used ¡®hand axes¡¯ as throwing weapons rather than ¡®swords¡¯ or ¡®spears¡¯ that could strike an opponent directly. She stubbornly persisted in long-rangebat rather than closebat. This clearly meant something. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Executioner''s Abilities] 1. Time Stop: An ability that allows for an almost infinite number of attacks while always being able to dodge an opponent¡¯s attacks. However, it is presumed that time stop is canceled ¡®in cases of direct contact¡¯ with an opponent. 2. Telepathy 3. irvoyance ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ This might be the w in the Time Stop ability. And while the Saintess casually mentioned she had ¡®rested for ten days,¡¯ it was likely an exaggeration. In this era, firearms and ammunition were not abundantly stocked. Gathering those rare resources to bring here and fire at me would have consumed a significant amount of time. For me, it was merely a moment, but during that time, the Saintess had likely traveled the nation preparing her attack. Of course, it wouldn¡¯t matter if she could stop time for a year, or even ten years, but even for the Saintess, that would be difficult. Living alone for years in a world where no one else moves or speaks would be challenging. At least every ten days, if she didn¡¯t release time, the Saintess¡¯s mental energy would rapidly deteriorate. Thus, battling the Saintess resembled ying a shooting game, or perhaps more urately, a bullet hell game. Even just closing my eyes for a moment, countless bullet curtains obscured my vision. Somehow, I had to dodge the barrage of bullets and axes and finally, approach the Saintess and ¡®touch¡¯ her. It seemed an excessively difficult victory condition, but unfortunately, the Saintess¡¯s gimmick wasn¡¯t over yet. [Roar!] I flinched¡ª A sudden loud bang from my left startled me. Had the Saintess finally resorted to using bombs as well as guns? But that was strange. I quickly looked around, but there was no explosion anywhere to be seen. Of course, hesitation duringbat was quite fatal. As I flinched, countless bullets pummeled my body. My entire body vibrated. My head was dizzy. I felt the remaining aura dip significantly from the impact. ¡®What was that explosion sound?¡¯ As I moved swiftly, I endlessly pondered. Before I could even hypothesize what the explosion sound was, a new noise tore through my mind with a ferocity. [Screeeeech¡ª!] My face contorted. The sound was like dragging a steel tooth across a metal te. Already having a highly developed sense of hearingpared to the average person, my difort grew even more. But with bullets raining down from all directions, such a metallic noise shouldn¡¯t have been so loud. ¡®Telepathy ability!¡¯ I gritted my teeth. This was noise that the Saintess was directly imnting in my head. ¡°Wasn¡¯t telepathy supposed to only transmit voices!¡± [As I mentioned, my ability has evolved over time. I can rey any sound I remember storing. Would you like me to y a song for you?] Damn it. If the Saintess personally took on the role of a radio DJ, I would be grateful to listen and even send fan letters regrly. The problem was that the DJ was currently causing me noise pollution. It wasn¡¯t just explosion sounds and screeching that tormented me. [Undertaker! I¡¯vee to help!] That was Dang Seo-rin¡¯s voice. Even though my head knew Dang Seo-rin wasn¡¯t actually here, my body couldn¡¯t help but react. I hesitated, and yet another barrage of bullets cascaded down on the aura barrier. It was maddening. [Hyung!] That was Seo Gyu. I gritted my teeth and ignored it. But the next moment, when I heard a whispering voice right next to my ear, I thought I was going crazy. [Is that the guild master?] It was none other than Go Yuri¡¯s voice. Chills ran down my entire body. ¡®I¡¯m going mad.¡¯ Such maliciousness was unmatched. As much as I knew the Saintess, she knew me too well. Closing off my senses was useless. How could I dodge telepathy that was being hammered directly into my brain? Eventually, I couldn¡¯t even trust my own hearing. My senses muddled, I continued the battle. [No matter how much you run, it¡¯s meaningless, Mr. Undertaker. Have you forgotten that I am still revered as a constetion by others?] I widened my eyes. Could it be? [As soon as the battle started, I designated Mr. Undertaker as a ¡®target for subjugation¡¯ to Awakeners across the nation. I¡¯ve notified them of your location as well. Looking through irvoyance, hundreds of Awakeners are converging here.] ¡°All the Awakeners like me!¡± [No, only 50% of the Awakeners like you. It¡¯s just that many of the strong ones are among that 50%. Many others have been eyeing you eagerly, like the SwordMarquess of Yuldoguk. Now that I¡¯ve dered under the name of Constetion that ¡®the Undertaker has fallen,¡¯ even if only temporarily, they¡¯ve been given a reason.] ¡°Dang Seo-rin...¡± [Of course, I haven¡¯t imnted any messages to the guild master of Samcheon World or the leader of the National Road Management Corps. But since I didn¡¯t want you to be disappointed that they weren¡¯t invited, I prepared a surprise gift for you without Mr. Undertaker knowing.] This is insane. ¡°Please tell me it¡¯s not Go Yuri!¡± [You know me well, Mr. Undertaker.] My head felt faint. Dealing with the Saintess turned Corruptor was deathly enough, but now Go Yuri joining the fight too? Was she nning to turn the regressor into a minced regressor sd? [You have three hours left.] A time attack had been added to the bullet hell game. It might have been just bluffing to make me anxious, but. In conclusion, the Saintess¡¯s abilities were as follows: ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Executioner''s Abilities] 1. Time Stop: An ability that allows for an almost infinite number of attacks while always being able to dodge an opponent¡¯s attacks. However, it is presumed that time stop is canceled ¡®in cases of direct contact¡¯ with an opponent. 2. Telepathy: Initially, it transmitted only the Saintess¡¯s voice, but as the ability upgraded, it transformed into ¡®sound yback.¡¯ She could reproduce not only other people¡¯s voices but also noises such as explosions. 3. irvoyance ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ How was one to defeat this? Honestly, it wouldn¡¯t be out of line to dere her unbeatable. ¡°¡¡¡± But there is always a way to win. Whether it was Ten Legs, Udumbara, or Milky Way, when I first faced them, it always seemed like there was no answer, but as could be seen from the case of the Udumbara, sometimes the problem was solved in an entirely unexpected way. I gave up. More precisely, I gave up on defeating the Saintess. Instead, I suddenly wiped out all the aura that was wrapped around my entire body. ¡°¡¡!¡± From a distance, I saw the Saintess¡¯s eyes widen. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 43 Observer V ng¡ª The sound of ss shattering echoed from all around. Just now, though invisible to my eyes, it was proof that the Saintess''s aura had activated. The bullets rushing towards me like a swarm of sharks shattered all at once. The hand axes tumbled to the ground. The sight of thousands of bullets, crushed into powder and mingling with the snowkes, was truly a spectacle. ¡°¡¡.¡± The creator of this miraculous scene, the Saintess¡ªor the Corruptor she wouldter be named by me as the ''Executioner''¡ªwas staring nkly at me. ¡°What are you trying to do?¡± The Saintess''s tone seemed casual at first. However, having spent countless years with her, and expecting many more, I knew it was difficult for someone bound by thousands of years of destiny to perfectly hide their emotions. The Saintess was disconcerted.¡®As expected.¡¯ I nodded. This fight was never viable to begin with. The Saintess really had no intention of killing me. Her goal was merely to subdue. What n the Saintess harbored now was beyond me. Regrettably, I had mastered mind reading only in the 554th cycle, and this was merely the 107th. Yet, there were clues for spection. "Saintess." "Yes." "Please stop using Time Stop. Send back the Awakeners you called as well. Otherwise, I willmit suicide immediately, without any dy." ¡°¡¡.¡± The Saintess looked into my eyes. For a moment. Perhaps for eternity. Or maybe she was looking at herself through my eyes. Eyes within eyes met. Thunk. The axe the Saintess had been holding buried itself in the snow. Snowkes continued to fall from the sky. Snow settled on the thousands, tens of thousands of footprints that marked the ground. Time passed. "It has stopped." That was how the Saintess chose to describe it. I suddenly felt an overwhelming emotion. We both lived in a twisted flow of time, making us kin in that aspect. Typically, one who has lived in a familiar space is called apatriot, and one who lives in an unknown space, a stranger. What about time then? To ordinary people, weren''t we both helpless foreigners? Snow fell. I thought of this ce as an exile from any world, a ce abandoned by the universe. Coincidentally, exile originally stemmed from returning home. At some point, returning home had be a punishment. Then, perhaps this w in the world was our true homnd. ¡°¡Very well. Since you do not wish for my death, and I do not wish for yours, we should be able to have a conversation.¡± ¡°I agree.¡± The distance between us was just over 6 meters. "Let''s first establish each other''s demands. I wish that you do not suppress my freedom." ¡°¡I, likewise, hope that you do not interfere with my executions.¡± The Saintess spoke. ¡°If another regression urs, and the 108th cycle begins, Mr. Undertaker will certainly try to prevent me from ¡®bing this way¡¯.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t want me to be a murderer. You always want to ce me in a position that is just and beyond reproach. But this decision¡ªto personally inflict pain on those who have sinned¡ªis a conclusion I have reached myself.¡± ¡°So you intend to subdue me?¡± ¡°Yes. I nned to detain Mr. Undertaker until I found a way to erase only specific memories. The world is vast and there are many Awakeners, so surely somewhere there is a power to manipte memories. In the worst case, I could rely on Go Yuri.¡± Go Yuri is not an option. ¡°Speaking of which, you mentioned earlier that you had summoned Go Yuri. Is she on her way here?¡± ¡°That was a lie.¡± The Saintess said indifferently, her expression unchanging. ¡°The im that I had summoned other Awakeners in the name of the constetion was also a lie. It was a strategy to make Mr. Undertaker anxious and force a mistake. No one else ising here but us.¡± ¡°¡I see.¡± So it was all a bluff. One really could never let their guard down around her. I took a deep breath, then sheathed my sword. ¡°Saintess, I assure you that I will never hide from you the fact that you have decided to punish the viins yourself, not in the next cycle, nor in the one after that, no matter how many regressions I undergo.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I promise. So, please calm your uneasy mind.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I am on your side, even if you were to set the world aze.¡± Silence fell. As snowkesnded on the Saintess¡¯s shoulders, a tiny, almost imperceptible sound of ss cracking could be heard. Only the sounds of snow falling and ss shattering softly echoed in the entire world. ¡°I am distressed.¡± The Saintess¡¯s voice seeped in like a shadow among the pale, transparent sounds. ¡°That this memory, this conversation, might bepletely forgotten by me in the next cycle. That memories of the 16 years I spent with Mr. Undertaker might melt away like snow.¡± ¡°¡I will remember.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The Saintess slightly lowered her eyes. ¡°That makes it all the more regrettable.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°It''s embarrassing. You will probably be sadder than me, but I couldn¡¯t bear it. The possibility that all things, all memories, the meaning of someone''s death, might disappear. That I should bear all that on my shoulders.¡± ¡°It''s okay. I can handle it. And so can you.¡± Snow fell. With a tinkling sound, the Saintess¡¯s lips parted. ¡°When an Awakener¡¯s power reaches its peak, it bes no different from a grotesquery.¡± This was the first time in my regressions. And perhaps the first time in human history that the phenomenon known as ''corruption'' was elucidated through a human¡¯s mouth. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°At some point, I was able to move freely even in a frozen world. My telepathy evolved to rey not only my voice but any sound I remembered.¡± The Saintess was earnest. She carefully constructed her words at a pace I could follow. ¡°At first, I thought it was just the blossoming of my abilities. It was a natural conclusion. But as time passed, another hypothesis, another possibility, began to circle in my mind.¡± ¡°What possibility?¡± ¡°That it wasn¡¯t so much that I was growing, but rather, that I was losing myself¨Da hypothesis.¡± The Saintess¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Originally, telepathy transmitted only ¡®my¡¯ voice, but what if I transcend my physical body? What if I move further away from being human? Then, wouldn¡¯t I be able to reproduce many sounds, not just human voices?¡± ¡°Uh... Logically possible, yes. But couldn¡¯t the phenomenon you described be interpreted as just an expansion of your scope or identity?¡± ¡°Yes, but the two are not much different.¡± The Saintess shook her head slightly. ¡°¡It¡¯s very hard to exin this feeling to someone else, but the symptoms are too distinct to be regarded merely as psychological unease.¡± ¡°What symptoms?¡± ¡°Transparent aura.¡± Why? When the Saintess spoke those words, I too was seized by an ominous feeling. An invisible tongue seemed to lick my spine from the nape of my neck to my pelvis. The Saintess was looking straight at me. ¡°Each Awakener¡¯s aura has its own color. Mr. Undertaker, you interpreted theck of color in my aura as it being ¡®transparent¡¯.¡± ¡°¡Yes.¡± ¡°But what if it wasn¡¯t aura at all?¡± The Saintess murmured, likely pondering a problem she had often considered within the frozen time. ¡°As if it has the effect of aura enhancement, but is not aura. Such phenomena must have been witnessed countless times by you.¡± ¡°Grotesquery...?¡± ¡°Yes. Monsters.¡± The Ten Legs did not use aura. They are simply born with bodies that seem enhanced by aura. My heart thudded. Synced with my heartbeat, a continuous noise echoed from the Saintess¡¯s entire body. ¡°I am increasingly being eroded by the void.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not all.¡± Snap. The Saintess flicked her fingers. At that moment, my vision flipped. ¡°¡¡?¡± No, to be precise, it hadn¡¯t flipped. It was as if I was experiencing an out-of-body experience¨Dseeing my own body from ¡®above¡¯. My perspective shifted from first-person to third-person. ¡°Saintess?¡± My lips moved. I saw my lips moving. It was an exceedingly strange sensation. I could see my own back. If I were to perform strength training in this state, I could precisely measure the weight, but a third-person world did not offer only advantages. ¡°What in the world¡?¡± A sensation of buoyancy. A person''s self is ultimately attached to the body. The body is the most direct object. If the body loses its directness and isid ''side by side'' with other objects, bing just one of many things, then a person''s self also floats aimlessly on the waves of a vast ocean without an anchor. ¡°That is the world I see, Mr. Undertaker.¡± Rustle. The Saintess stepped on the snow and approached me. I was unable to maneuver like an infant who hadn¡¯t yet learned to control their body. ¡°At first, this perspective only unfolded when I used irvoyance, but as I grew ustomed to it... I¡¯ve reached the point where I can no longer distinguish between my own view and the third-person view.¡± The Saintess took my hand. The touch of her hand, chilled by the snowkes, was vividly felt. Yet, that touch felt somehow ''distant''. Should I describe it as if touch had a color? Touch, more than anything, should be felt directly on the skin, yet a sense of distance was perceptible. As the Saintess said, it was a sensation difficult to exin to someone else. It was bizarre. It was extraordinary. ¡°When you discovered my secret, I thought I was in big trouble. But now that I think about it, I''m d I was discovered now. If a little more time had passed... I might have lost the most important part of myself.¡± The Saintess whispered right in front of my nose/spoke monotonously from afar. The Saintess gathered the little remaining warmth in her hands around my hands/The Executioner assumed a posture as if praying to the sky. ¡°If it had gone that far, I might have been able to halt time to prevent your regression from proceeding. No. Not might¡ª I am certain of it.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I would lose my color, my vision, my form, and even time, bing merely something that looks down upon and watches everything. Such a grotesquery.¡± Vapor streamed from the Saintess''s mouth. A slender thread of human warmth rose in the middle of a snow-covered world. ¡°Please remember, Mr. Undertaker. This fight, the challenge to save the world, is not a game where time is given indefinitely. There are only infinite opportunities to challenge, but once you enter the stage, there is a ¡®time limit¡¯.¡± ¡°Time limit¡¡± ¡°The duration of that time limit is probably 15 to 20 years. When Awakeners be so familiar with their powers that they are consumed by them, they will be like me, nearing grotesquery. Do you understand? An Awakener¡¯s power is not purely a blessing. It is a double-edged sword.¡± Crackle¡ª Somewhere, in front of me, or perhaps very far away, the sound of ss cracking resonated. I then realized that it might not be ss but a kind of transparent film surrounding the Saintess, the human being. ¡°This time it''s because Mr. Undertaker focused on my growth, resulting in me bing like this the fastest... But in other cycles, who knows. My intuition tells me that the more powerful an Awakener¡¯s ability, the more dangerous it seems. For example... Dang Seo-rin of Samcheon World would not be an exception.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°20 years. Please try to restore the world to its original form before 15 years approach. Please remember, Mr. Undertaker, the time limit¡¡± The sound of ss breaking became more distinct. I understood the Saintess''s intentions. Therefore, I pulled her hand and embraced her back. It might have been a bit too forceful since controlling the body in a third-person perspective is quite difficult. The Saintess''s eyes widened. ¡°¡Ah.¡± ¡°You n to kill me. To make sure the regression happens before youpletely change, but that''s just greed, to bear it all on your own.¡± A softughter was heard. ¡°Mr. Undertaker, you really do know me well.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go together.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t mentioned it, but in fact, I''m quite adept at mental management. I once traveled around the country for three cycles and even worked as a convenience store owner.¡± ¡°Convenience store owner?¡± ¡°Yes. You, Saintess, might also need to learn to let go a little.¡± I pulled up the aura from my entire body. As the ss-like barrier began to shatter in earnest, crackle¡ªcrackle¡ª countless bursting sounds echoed as my aura enveloped us both. Snow fell. ss broke. Even as snow continued to fall, the two shadows etched on the white snowfield were not buried. ¡°¡It¡¯s warm.¡± The Saintess closed her eyes. ¡°Why, people. People... even though they are people.¡± ng. The world quietly stopped the snow. That was the Saintess''sst will. There is an epilogue. This epilogue is not limited to a specific cycle. In the 109th, 110th, 111th cycles... in every cycle where I formed a blood pact with the Saintess, this scene was invariably recreated. ¡°That happened.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± After listening to my entire story, the Saintess quietly propped her chin. She seemed deep in thought, asionally tilting her head on her own. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like my story, even though it is about me.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± The Saintess looked at my face. Her expression was seriously intense. ¡°It¡¯s unlike you to be wandering outside so energetically.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± That was it. The Saintess stood up and fed the fish in the aquarium. Fish that she had carefully collected before the world became like this quickly gathered at their owner''s gesture. Red, white, yellow, blue¡ªcreatures of various colors swam through the water. ¡°It¡¯s hard to understand why you would anonymously punish viins, considering how diligent you were to roam around outside. The strategy to elevate oneself to a divine position to instill fear in people is effective, but ites from a mindset that does not trust others. If you were that diligent, shouldn¡¯t you have dered your existence and your powers to the world and directly organized a government?¡± ¡°Hmm. Maybe I wasn¡¯t that diligent?¡± ¡°That''s what I thought. It''s mediocre. You don¡¯t want to be mediocre, so you chose a life of seclusion.¡± The Saintess''s fingertips gently skimmed the surface of the water. For the fish, it was the boundary of the world, the surface that constituted the screen of their world, lightly disturbed. The Saintess seemed to enjoy the sensation. ¡°More than anything, in the 107th cycle, I depicted that the phenomenon of corruption automatically urs as an Awakener¡¯s powers awaken but that''s a wed analysis. There¡¯s clear proof against it.¡± ¡°Proof?¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± The Saintess spoke. ¡°You have regressed for countless ages and continued to develop your powers. If my theory were correct, you should have experienced corruption before anyone else. However, since no such phenomenon has urred for you, it¡¯s likely that corruption is merely a psychological issue.¡± Just a psychological issue. The Saintess was still very strict with herself. ¡°But I do understand the meaning of yourst words.¡± ¡°What do you think it means?¡± ¡°That a person kills another person. Even though they are people, they kill. It''s always a painful truth. And¡¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± The Saintess nced back slightly. I blinked. It was as if I was a crab in the aquarium, clicking my ws and blinking my eyes. Then something truly rare happened. The Saintess faintly smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a secret.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 44 Returnee I Among the Awakeners, there are many crazies. I don''t know about other ces, but the proportion of crazies among the Awakeners from the Korean Penins is definitely high. Like Dang Seo-rin, who is serious about her witch cosy, or Cheon Yo-hwa, who calls her guild a girls'' high school. But at least they are manageable because humannguage still works on them. Today, I''ll talk about one of the most uniquely crazy figures among them¡ªthe Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk. *SwordDuke has been changed to SwordMarquess. It¡¯ll reflect in old chapters too once I get to fixing it. As we''ve seen so far, the "Wheel Murderer" case somehow wrapped up nicely. However, the fact that the Saintess had be corrupted was a huge shock to me. It''s been a while since I''ve taken such a mental hit. To find aparable case, it would be like when I believed Go Yuri was a "good person" and she hit me with a grand m to the back of my head.What this means is... "It¡¯s the holiday season." A shout erupted from the other side of Busan Station''s waiting room. "You fucking asshole! What the hell are you talking about?" "Hey." With a pop, a sound resembling popcorn exploding rang out. The man who exited the world faster than anyone else, Seo Gyu, was disqualified. "Screaaaaam!" People screamed and ran in every direction, a familiar sight, because of a fairy who didn¡¯t understand human emotions. This marked the disappearance of any reason for the birth of S. In other words, I had given up one of the means to control Awakeners, both directly and indirectly. What''s to hide? I, the Regressor Undertaker, had absolutely no intention of saving the world in this 108th cycle. The fact that Seo Gyu was gone was as good as a sign that I had closed shop. "Besides, that guy... he¡¯s too weak against women." Seo Gyu hadpletely fallen for Go Yuri and ended up betraying the Saintess''s information. I could understand that. The mind-control beam that Go Yuri possessed was incredibly strong. I almost fell under hypnosis and nearly ended up in an explicit gore-themed doujinshi. Butst cycle was a different story. Thinking back, it¡¯s clear now that Seo Gyu was 100% recruited by the Saintess. He probably took on the role of cunningly manipting public opinion on SG Net or fueling the fear of the Wheel Murderer. There was nothing wrong with him cooperating with the Saintess. The problem was that he hid it from me! "Despicable guy. Ungrateful guy. After all I did for him." I had raised him as if he was my own blood, yet in the end, rtionships with fellow guild members were more important to him than his life-saving mentor and teacher. By the way, I tend to hold grudges a bit long. How long? Well... about 200 years? When a regressor harbors resentment, not just in June but all year round, it brings hail, frost, and sandstorms. Is it unfair that the self of the next cycle has to suffer for the mistakes made by the self of the previous cycle? Life is inherently unfair. That brother needs a good beating for a while. Is there any hyung like me in this world? Because Seo Gyu loved Italian-style pizza so much, I even went out of my way in Busan to save a pizza artisan and helped him set up a shop. Such was the depth of a hyung''s love. "Pizza confiscated!" As punishment for disappointing his brother, Seo Gyu would have to endure a pizza-free life for 200 years. That¡¯s from the 10th to the 15th cycles. Anyway, Seo Gyu got what he deserved from the fairy. What really matters is how to make the most of this holiday. As I crouched in a corner of the waiting room nning my vacation, Fairy number 264 approached me briskly. "What are you doing, human?" "As you see, I''m nning my vacation." "Vacation?" "Yes. Since the world is ruined anyway, I might as well enjoy some peaceful and meaningful time. If I¡¯m going to take a vacation, why not choose a course I haven¡¯t experienced before?" "Wow. You¡¯re insane... I learned from my seniors not to even go near crazy people..." The fairy scampered away. As usual, I farmed some Silver Bells at the souvenir shop in the waiting room and then sank into contemtion. Suddenly, a conversation I had with the Saintess in a previous cycle struck me like lightning. -All Awakeners like me! -No, only 50% of the Awakeners like Mr. Undertaker. The strong ones are mostly in that 50%, but there are many among the rest who are eyeing Mr. Undertaker for an opportunity. Like the Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk, for instance. Her words inadvertently pricked my pride. I, Undertaker, a humble regressor, take pride in treating people without prejudice and helping them. Haven''t I always insisted on using formalnguage to everyone I meet for the first time, lest my personality be arrogant after such a long life of regression? If I put my mind to it, I was confident I could make not just 50% but 90%, no, 95% of Awakeners like me. "Alright." I stood up from my crouched position. In this cycle, I would win over the heart of the Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk. That the Sword Marquess was a crazy old man was clear just from his title "Marquess of the Sword". Those familiar with martial arts fiction would know that "Marquess of the Sword" is a title, but specifically, it¡¯s a respectful title used only for female masters, not male. However, our world''s Sword Marquess was a man over 60 years old with a splendidly grown beard. Doesn''t that make you uneasy already? "I am the supreme ruler!" And this person used the first-person "I" as "this seat". Calling himself the Sword Marquess, he carried a sword around, but it was actually a fake sword made of aluminum, stolen from a bankrupt kendo dojo. I believe it is perfectly exined why I haven¡¯t been close with the Sword Marquess for all these cycles. He¡¯s aplete mad old man. "And also, the greatest in ancient and modern times." Now. You might think, "Ah, I thought he was just crazy, but if we delve into his background, we might find he¡¯s surprisingly normal, right? I know that clich¨¦." If so, I''m sorry to bring sad news: you definitely have no talent as a forteller. A true madman is different from those pretending to be mad. Digging into their background is like approaching a radioactive exposure site¡ªthe madness level only goes up. "And finally, I am the Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk!" "Oh. What is Yuldoguk?" "Ho, you don¡¯t know Yuldoguk? Oh, what a great ignorance. It is a nation established righteously by His Excellency the Archduke, who rose in anger against the tyranny of those British fools." Upon further investigation, it turned out that the real name of Yuldoguk was "Sind Duchy," a micronation. How the Sword Marquess found a fateful intersection between "Sind" in English and "Yuldoguk" in Korean is something even I, fluent in eightnguages, couldn''t understand. Even theborers at the Tower of Babel construction site probably wouldn¡¯t know. By the way, Sind... no, Yuldoguk wasn¡¯t a democratic republic but opted for absolute monarchy. A ss system was clearly present. It was a bit outdatedpared to the global trend. Taking a step further, the Yuldoguk government learned its statecraft philosophy from none other than the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In ancient times during the Three Kingdoms, there was an emperor named Liu Hong in Han,monly known as Emperor Ling of Han. This ruler, considered advanced and trendy at the time, had intuitively grasped the principles of capitalism. - The state is my property. Therefore, official positions are my private property. - Shouldn¡¯t one show sincerity when borrowing someone else¡¯s private property? The emperor firmly rejected the old practice of securing official positions based on blood rtions. Instead, he relied on the only faith that existed in the world: money, and appointed officials based on it. This reformist emperor sold higher positions at higher prices, and to amodate his cash-strapped subjects, he even allowed them to pay for their positions in installments. Contrary to popr belief, the buds of capitalism bloomed in the East well before they did in the West. Although Liu Hong¡¯s reforms ended in failure, they inspired many revolutionaries afterward. Even the home of capitalism, Britain, couldn¡¯t escape its influence. At the end of the 20th century, a Briton decided to establish a nation in a remote area, learning the wisdom of state governance from ancient sages. - Wouldn¡¯t selling noble titles help the state finances? It was a reversal of Eastern methods with Western tools, and Western methods with Eastern tools. This Briton went one step further than his predecessors, opening the gates not just to hispatriots but to people worldwide. The British knew well that money should not have borders. The power of this open door policy affected even South Korea, far away from Britain. The protagonist of this story, the Sword Marquess, is precisely that individual. He spent a substantial amount of 250,000 won (about $250), including various options, to purchase a baron¡¯s title in Yuldoguk. It was a triumphant return of a noble rank to a Korean since the fall of the Korean Empire. The old man proudly held his head high. "From now on, please address me as Sword Baron." Liking martial arts, hence Sword. Being a baron, hence Baron. It was a crazy naming sense, but the tragedy didn¡¯t end there. While humanity was divided and conflicted over race and nationality, monsters treated all humans equally. When Seoul was wiped out in Korea, East Anglia in Ennd was obliterated. Naturally, the nearby micronation wasn¡¯t spared either. Yuldoguk, boasting an actual poption of four, disappeared, bing a page in history. It also holds the record for the fastest destruction of a nation after the Gate disaster. "How could this be! My homnd has perished!" The old man swallowed his grief after losing his nation overnight. If he had copsed here, he would have been nothing more than third-rate. Righteously, he stood up. A man¡¯s tears for his ruined country were enough with just a single drop. "From now on, I shall carry on the legacy of Yuldoguk!" The shortest-lived nation experienced an equally brief revival movement. "However, how could I, unworthy as I am, im the title of Archduke in ce of His Excellency¡¯s grace? I will only im a title less than that of a marquess. From now on, please call me Sword Marquess!" Indeed. Jumping from baron directly to marquess, skipping viscount, count and marquess, was unheard of even in Yuldoguk. Because the original Yuldoguk didn¡¯t have a marquess rank. Naturally, the official name of the new Yuldoguk became the Tributary State of Yuldo, the country ruled by a marquis. Of course, the only citizen of this backward nation who imed such was the Sword Marquess himself. If you''ve heard the background of how the Sword Marquess came to be, any sensible person would conclude, "If I get close to this old man, my registered address might be transferred to a mental hospital." However, surprisingly, the Sword Marquess survived. Even in these chaotic times when the world had ended and monsters ran amok, he firmly preserved himself. Far from being confined to a mental institution, the Awakeners couldn¡¯t wait to take the Sword Marquess with them. Could it be that he was a master of the sword as his title suggested? The answer is NO. The Sword Marquess didn¡¯t even know how to use Aura. What good would a fashion swordsman wielding a fake aluminum sword do in a fight? I guarantee that even a primary school student who just received a yellow belt in Haidong Gumdo would show more mastery than the Sword Marquess. The Sword Marquess''s survival strategy was established in apletely unexpected field. "Sir, elder." "¡¡" "¡¡" "...Lord Sword Marquess." "Oh, isn¡¯t it a junior of the martial world? What brings you here?" "It¡¯s nothing much, just wanted to ask how this spring¡¯s farming is going..." "Gah! Farming is about care and attention. You should think that I, of course, am taking good care of it instead ofing here to spy!" "No, it''s not spying..." "Gah! Why is such a young junior so bothersome! Keep bothering me, and I might just cut off the food supply to your guild!" Behind the loudly shouting Sword Marquessy a golden wheat field. The Sword Marquess''s ability was [nt Growth]. Regardless of climate,nd, or water quality, he could grow crops anywhere and elerate their growth rate by three to six times, a ridiculously overpowered SSS-ss ability. This made the Sword Marquess evolve from a "crazy old man" to an "absolutely untouchable and undisturbed old man." "Do you understand? If I just wish it, all of your folks will starve! Want to taste a real famine?" "¡¡" Sword Marquess. Unfortunately for Korea¡¯s Awakeners... this crazy old man was the only lifeline in a penins where civilization had copsed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 45 Returnee II Sword Marquess, though mad, possessed remarkable abilities. To intuitively understand just how remarkable, a bit of exnation is necessary. This world hates humanity. Teens, caught in their second year of middle school delusions, often mutter, "It seems the world hates me." As they grow, they gradually learn that, surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly), the world is indifferent to their existence. Honestly, from the world''s perspective, there are other things to worry about. Like turtles that have swallowed stic or quantum entanglement. But now, that''s no longer the case. Something fundamentally changed with the Gate incident. It just changed. From that day on, the world decided to dislike humanity a bit more. The Void.Otherwise known as the Abyss, or Hell. Previously, the term ''Gate'' was used, but increasingly, people began to refer to it as the Void. -Hey, what''s that? -Huh? What is it? -That flower. Why does it have teeth? In the Void, the petals of the Rafflesia sprout shark teeth. Spiders grow thirteen legs. Dragonflies develop six side eyes. Headless elephants roam around. If monsters and anomalies are left unchecked, massive gic mutations ur in the affectednd, leading to a rapid increase in deformed creatures. Thus, the Void''s poison. It instantaneously deforms the civilization and knowledge humanity has painstakingly built up over centuries. Have you ever seen fields stained blood-red? Rice grains that resemble aphids and flies? Instead of rice grains, lilies bloom. A farmer once dug up his field and found that all the rice nts were interconnected underground like a bamboo forest. Despite being grown in the same field, with the same species, water, and sunlight, the rice on the left side of the field looked different from that on the right. Human civilization was established on ''reproducibility''. When humanity realized that spring woulde again a year after all the changes, they built a tower of gold. At the sharp top of this gold tower, time finally transformed into history. Now, the tower has crumbled. Time flows. It flows unpredictably. Like a desert storm, it covers the once-brilliant surface of the tower with sand. What is humanity? What are ''we''? Are we the same as that being whose head sprouts flowers and whose tongue grows fish gills? From those gills, the cries of a newborn can be heard. Eventually, they onlymunicate with the sound of a child''s cry, and we cannot understand what those sounds mean. asionally, time flows quickly near Incheon and slowly near Seoul. Nothing repeats. Nothing is reproduced. It just flows. "Cities are connected......" Thus, I, the Saintess, the Nomads, the Samcheon Guild Alliance, have dered war against the Void devouring our world. "Humanity needs to return to the times when it was overwhelmed by nature." Isn''t that regression? The Nomads shook their heads. "Like evolution and regression are merely human distinctions, this too is merely an adaptation to the environment...... Giving up the rule of areas for the rule of lines." From area to line. From line to area. That was the motto of the National Road Management Corps. "Then, we can escape from being isted by the Void and maintain ourmunity......" Like a knight fitting a disabled person with a prosthetic, the National Road Management Corps has paved the way for humanity. Atst, isted points, cities, and people have transformed into stations where they can briefly rest. -I''m continuing to fix the broken railways of this world one by one. I was able to keep Dang Seo-rin''sst will. It took many years. And it will take many more years. -From history to history, forever. The National Road Management Corps did not represent Busan. It could not symbolize Seoul. The National Road Management Corps was simply humanity''sst cradle, thest unit, and the frontline. "We can do it. No, we must......" Every time they set off, the patrol units of the National Road Management Corps could not guarantee their lives. The patrol unit that left for Gangneung never returned. After two years, all thirteen members of a patrol unit exploring the North returned transformed into sunflowers that walked, their heads turned toward the gs they held when they departed. Still, we did not hesitate to stand at the forefront. "Heh. This season will be a good harvest too!" Sword Marquess was indeed a support unit for this frontline. "With this much grain, we can surely feed Samhan[1] well and have leftovers! Truly, it is the providence of heaven!" No matter how much we pave the way, people need to eat. Whether it''s three meals a day, two meals, or even one, the need to eat is my body''s urgent fate. I did not take this hunger as hardship or sorrow. Infected with the New Buddha virus, one could escape the fate of hunger at any time. It meant transitioning from being human to bing a being of the Void. The hunger was tragic, but it was a human tragedy, and still, it was the tragedy of beings born and raised on thisnd. However, I did not live to see human horrors as human beauty. We needed to eat. The chef responsible for the rice power of the Korean Penins was none other than Sword Marquess. "Wouldn''t it be alright for me to enjoy a little sightseeing this summer?" And, as emphasized several times, our chef was crazy. "Ah, Lord Sword Marquess. Sightseeing?" "Literally, wandering the martial world. Young warriors of the martial artsmunity. Don''t reveal this anywhere. I have kept it a secret until now, but actually......" Sword Marquess carefully looked around. The nces of the National Road Management Corps, checking for monsters nearby, could not have been as sharp. After confirming that no one else was around except me, Sword Marquess whispered in my ear. "I am the rightful disciple of the 260th leader of the Mount Hua Sect." "......" "The essence of the three-thousand-year history of the Mount Hua Sect is fully contained within the martial arts secrets in my possession." So, this man was iming to be a marquess in Yuldoguk and a Sword Marquess in the martial world, and, to top it off, he imed to be the next leader of the Mount Hua Sect. And he wore an aluminum practice sword at his waist. By this point, my head was spinning. "Um... if it''s alright to ask, why is the elder who represents the future of the Mount Hua Sect in Korea?" "Of course, it''s to hide from the despicable eyes of the Demonic Cult. As the rightful sessor of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique, it''s inevitable that those malicious ones re at me. Look. Even now, aren''t the demons controlled by the Heavenly Demon shaking the world?" "Good heavens." "That''s right. It''s exactly the feeling of wanting to seek a deity! Originally, I was a master who had reached the pinnacle, but during my escape from the Demonic Cult, I suffered serious internal injuries to my energy centers. However, having recuperated here in thend of Haedong, I must now return to my home mountain and fulfill my duties as a disciple." "You mean to go to Mount Hua in China right now?" "Exactly so." I looked up at the sky and sighed deeply. "Lord Sword Marquess, are you mad?" Kim Joo-chul and Kim Si-eun father-and-son''s tale hinted briefly that in this era, ''overseas travel'' was just a fancier term for ''suicide.'' At my straightforward remark, Sword Marquess merely tilted his head. "I am perfectly sane." After all, asking a madman if he¡¯s mad would never yield a meaningful response. Why ask a dolphin if it''s a dolphin unless one''s eyes are crossed? The truth is evident. I changed tactics. "If you''re talking about the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique, is it the one where, if perfected, the scent of plum blossoms pervades ten thousand li[2] from the sword?" "Oh, it seems the young martial artist has also heard of its great reputation. That''s correct." "Does the Mount Hua you know of bloom with many plum blossoms?" "Indeed it does." "...That''s a setting made up in Korea." My knowledge of martial arts was limited to a few novels I read as a child. But even I knew this: Mount Hua was not particrly famous for plum blossoms. One could guess as much from the photos alone. Mount Hua was a mountain as bare as its leaves, with rocks starkly exposed, presenting many challenges for plum blossoms to flourish luxuriantly. The same goes for the scent. Evolving an olfactory system that interprets the smell of rocks as plum blossoms was gically impossible. What am I saying? The self-proimed Sword Marquess and prospective 261st Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect, holder of a practice sword, a native Korean from Ulleungdo, and a non-speaker of Chinese, was spouting nonsense. This old man was a liar through and through. "Aaaargh!" The Sword Marquess roared like a lion. "How dare a junior mock me! The scent of plum blossoms I once encountered while learning from my master still lingers in my nose! If you intend to insult my master and me, I will not sit idly by!" "Then why not demonstrate the Plum Blossom Sword Technique yourself, if you are its inheritor?" "Had I not been attacked by the beasts of the Demonic Cult and my energy centers remained intact, I would demonstrate it right away." "I''m going mad." Hey, you''re supposed to be a 60-year-old man, but you''re younger than me. Plus, back when civilization was intact, 60 wasn''t even considered old. How old am I this year... no, let''s drop this strategy. Even if I win the battle, I feel like I''d lose the war. Anyway, Sword Marquess was a type of person I couldn''t handle. Fortunately, we had the ''ultimate weapon for dealing with elders.'' "Noh Do-hwa. Help." "A 60-year-old grandpa? Easy..." The most beloved woman among the elderly in the Korean Penins, the greatest protective gear knight and head of the National Road Management Corps, Noh Do-hwa, smirked mischievously. TL/N: Yes, the ssicte gender reveal in Korean webnovels. Noh Do-hwa is female, I¡¯ll use she/her pronouns from now and fix old chapters¡ "Sir, are you feeling good...?" "Ah, ah, my whole body feels rxed." Noh Do-hwa performed a shoulder massage on Sword Marquess. Her skills were so excellent that one could believe she had been a masseuse rather than a public servant, and Sword Marquess''s expression melted. "Plum blossoms bloom on mountain peaks and even on the streets. Then, wouldn''t they bloom in the heart of a person just the same? Since the tradition of the Mount Hua Sect has passed to you, sir, what does it matter whether this ce is Haedong or Chang''an...?" "Uuum, but my sworn brothers..." "No, no... Your master has already passed away, hasn''t he? Then, you are the eldest in the Mount Hua Sect, and there¡¯s a tradition of juniors visiting their seniors, not the other way around. They shoulde to you, why should you move...?" "Oh? That is indeed a wise saying." "If you entrust me with a letter, I''ll send it to China on your behalf. If they understand their duty, they should rightlye here to see you..." "Oho! The advice of the head of the post station is absolutely right!" "Then I''ll also look forward to the autumn harvest..." "Hmm! Leave it to me!" The National Road Management Corps was a post station, and there the head was the postmaster. After disying her miraculous skills in hand and tongue, Noh Do-hwa turned to me and smirked. "That''s why I prefer the elderly to the young... they understand, you know...?" I won''t nitpick over her argument. But even with Noh Do-hwa''s full-hearted y, there was a limit. Sword Marquess was a madman, and madness was incurable. "I must visit Mount Hua at least once before I die." With the change of seasons and each harvest, Sword Marquess kept murmuring like someone afflicted with nostalgia. "I must see it before I die..." Since the establishment of the National Road Management Corps, Sword Marquess repeated this mantra through the 54th, 55th, 56th, and 57th cycles. Time passed. Finally, the 108th cycle. During the holiday season, I visited Sword Marquess. In the very early part of his first year, Sword Marquess was still living in his hometown, Ulleungdo (yes, he had no reason to be nostalgic). "Lord Sword Marquess." "Hmm?" An old man watering the flowers in the front yard of a humble house turned to look at me. Water trickled from his watering can. "Who might you be, young one?" "I am a knight bestowed with a title from Yuldoguk." "What?" A normal person would have called the police or at least swung a broom if a foreigner suddenly walked into their front yard iming a title from a micronation. "This one is mypatriot! Wee!" But, true to his nature, Sword Marquess was extraordinary. I had suspected he had been ying nobility sinceing to Ulleungdo, but it seems he had lost his mind even before that. "But your honorifics are strange. I am not Sword Marquess but Sword Man. Why have youe seeking me?" I made the saddest face possible. Method acting wasn''t particrly hard. It was easy to recall the scene when Dang Seo-rin died. "Sadly, I must report that Yuldoguk has fallen." "What?" "The wicked reach of the Demonic Cult has extended even across the sea to Yeong-gil-ri. Not only Yuldoguk but also the eastern region of Yeong-gil-ri has been devastated, and the Archduke himself did not escape harm." "No...! How could such a thing happen...!" "Lord Sword Marquess." Thud. I knelt in the courtyard. Then, with a solemnity unmatched in the world, I cried out. "Though the court of Yuldoguk has fallen, how could we ept that the people should bear the grief of a ruined nation? Is it not loyalty to continue the nation with the remaining people?" "......!" "As you are now the only remaining noble of Yuldoguk, it is only fitting that you establish a new court on thisnd. But, as a person, I cannot forget the grace of the Archduke; please ascend to the title of duke and revive Duke''s Nation!" Incidentally, Sword Marquess''s house was humble. And a humble house was in a humble neighborhood. And a feature of a humble neighborhood is that it''s quite easy to peek over the fence when something unusual is happening next door. All the neighbors were looking this way. Their gaze, in a nutshell, was like, uh, staring at a dick. "Heaven has not yet abandoned me!" Sword Marquess paid no mind to the neighbors'' stares. "Get up! How well you''ve understood my will!" "I apologize." "You, you are indeed like my eldest son!" Basically, that meant best friends. The 108th cycle. That day, I became best friends with the prospective Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect. Footnotes: [1] Samhan, or Three Han, is the collective name of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, and Mahan confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the Proto¨CThree Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions of the Korean Penins, the Samhan confederacies eventually merged and developed into the Baekje, Gaya, and Si kingdoms. The name "Samhan" also refers to the Three Kingdoms of Korea. [2] Li (Chinese: Àï, l¨«, or ÊÐÀï, sh¨¬l¨«), also known as the Chinese mile, is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer (500 meters or 1,640 feet or 0.311 miles). Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 46 Returnee III David Hume once said that true friendship is not about the age of the individuals, but about the free exchange of souls. From a young friend, one learns vitality, and from an old friend, wisdom. Immanuel Kant stated that it''s not right to choose friends based on their age. The most important thing to note here is that they never actually made these quotes. But the nuance is conveyed, isn''t it? Perhaps that''s enough? I too followed the ¡®nuance¡¯ in my friendship with Sword Marquess. ¡°Undertaker brother!¡± ¡°Sword Marquess elder!¡± That day, we emptied four bottles of makgeolli and became sworn brothers.It was a connection so profound that even if the three brothers of the Yu Family had witnessed it, they would have been engulfed in jealousy and gone into fits of ''Peach Chewing Anger'' 500 times. What am I talking about? Just¡ understand it through the nuance. Our ¡®Makgeolli Pact¡¯ did not end as merely a night''s amusement. ¡°Elder brother, I have something to confess.¡± ¡°Hmm¡?¡± The next morning, I deeply bowed to Sword Marquess, who had checked the temperature of the grand hall with his own cheek, being utterly drunk. ¡°Confess? Uh... What are you talking about?¡± ¡°You revealed to mest night that you were a disciple directly taught by the leader of the Mount Hua Sect.¡± In truth, he was not. However, Sword Marquess nodded as if it were the most natural thing. ¡°Ah, right.¡± ¡°How could someone destined to be the leader of Mount Hua Sect merely seclude himself forever in a humble thatched cottage? You must return to Mount Hua, restore the pirs of the sect, though you seek tranquility, the world is in turmoil.¡± ¡°What?¡± Sword Marquess opened his mouth wide. His surprise was palpable. For a while, Sword Marquess gave his stomach some fresh morning air in the front yard. More precisely, he let the dawn taste his stomach''s air. I could have described this scene in detail, but for the readers'' sake, I will spare any visual or auditory imagery. Such is my boundless goodwill towards you. ¡°Huuuu.¡± The ordeal was skipped over, and only the result remained. Sword Marquess, having downed water from a stic bucket (yes, the one usually hanging by the spring), looked at me seriously. ¡°Undertaker brother.¡± He seemed to be trying to emit a profound inner energy. In my personal opinion, it was more akin to the smell of his breath than his energy. ¡°Are you saying you will apany me back to Mount Hua?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°While I am deeply grateful for that sentiment, the martial world is now a yground for the wicked Demonic Cult. The path of righteousness has been severed, and justice has copsed. Viiny adorns itself with the pretense of chivalry. How can you guarantee our safe passage?¡± ¡°It is merely through benevolence that we will navigate this troubled world.¡± ¡°...!¡± Do you understand what I''m saying? I don''t. But clearly, the nuance was there, and Sword Marquess seemed to grasp everything by just that. He pped his knee. ¡°Indeed! If it is a task that I cannot aplish alone, then it shall be done with a brother! Having secluded myself for so long, I had forgotten even this simple truth!¡± ¡°Will you trust this brother?¡± ¡°Returning to Mount Hua has been my lifelong dream. Friendships that discuss benefits are precarious, but those that discuss wishes are steadfast. I trust only in you, brother.¡± What followed was a blur of action. We left the ind immediately. Sword Marquess had lived on Ulleungdo his entire life, but the belongings he had prepared were minimal. We were ready to set off within 40 minutes of deciding to leave. What stood out about Sword Marquess¡¯s attire was a pouch tied around his waist. ¡°Elder brother, what is that?¡± Sword Marquess stroked his beard magnanimously. ¡°The essence of the Mount Hua Sect.¡± It was the usual nonsense. I shrugged and stepped onto the deck of the boat. ¡°Uweeek-¡± Oh, and for your information, on the boat back to the maind, Sword Marquess managed to share the aroma of his stomach with the waters of the East Sea. At the same time as heaven and the sea were colored in his hue, such was indeed the grace of a true master. And he wasn''t even from Ulleungdo, was he? Even though he had drunk plenty of makgeolli, how could he suffer from seasickness? Such a disgrace for an inder. ¡°Uweeek¡¡.¡± From Ulleungdo to Gangneung, from Incheon to Shanghai, everywhere we went by boat, Sword Marquess showcased a close bond with the ship''s rail. Thanks to that, I had be quite skilled in patting Sword Marquess''s back like a professional masseuse. Sword Marquess awkwardly excused himself. ¡°When my energy center is disturbed, my stomach and duodenum suffer as well. Ahaha. It''s embarrassing, I wasn''t like this before.¡± Was the energy center connected to the stomach? Astonishing anatomical knowledge, as profound as researching what material makes up a unicorn''s horn. Just so you know, managing to find a boat to Shanghai was a miracle and an achievement of mine. As you are well aware, when the Gate incident urred (now that everyone is familiar with the terms, ''When the Void arrived'' or ''When the Void manifested'' would also be appropriate), everything south of the Han River in Seoul was blown away. Incheon was no exception. There were as many people escaping by sea as there were fleeing bynd. If it weren¡¯t for my extensive experience traveling abroad, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to find a captain in the chaotic port of Incheon. ¡°Oh.¡± After enduring countless hardships, dodging typhoons, and survivingplete chaos, we finally arrived in China. Sword Marquess''s eyes reddened. ¡°This is¡ the Central ins¡¡! Look! I have returned in triumph!¡± It sounded as if the journey was over. But I am the Infinite Regressor. I usually operate domestically, but having once called myself an internationalist, I had traveled to China numerous times. Even limited to Beijing, I had been there enough to get sick of it. So I knew very well that the real hardship was just beginning. Have you ever read Greek or Norse mythology? You might have found yourselfmenting while exploring the myths of other nations, wondering, ''Why don¡¯t we have a well-structured mythology?'' I could go on at length about this, but that''s not my intention right now. Instead, what I really want to tell you is this: ''It¡¯s damn lucky we don¡¯t have one.'' I bring up myths for a reason. Since the arrival of the Void, characters from those myths began stepping into reality. They didn¡¯t just pop up as they were described in the myths. They were updated to be less intellectual, more Lovecraftian, and thus even more misanthropic. Now you might guess why I considered India and Japan as the top dangerous spots for overseas travel. It¡¯s not like India and Japan are the only Asian countries with a rich repository of mythological beings. Thand and others also boast a significant cache of spirits, holding their own in terms of ghostly prestige. But my point is, with Japan having invited eight million gods to descend upon them, solving their low birth rate and aging poption issues overnight, they¡¯re in a better situation than most. ces like India and Nepal, steeped in Hindu faith, let''s just leave those out of this discussion for now. Have you ever seen the Ganges and the Himyas dyed red? It''s quite a spectacle, but I¡¯d rather not see it again. That''s what the end of the world looks like. As the world together faces damnation, China wasn''t going to be left out. They too were shouting, ''Me too! I want to y too!'' boasting a formidable list of supernatural beings. If you''ve been to a high-end Italian restaurant, you know they have a dazzling wine list. Simrly, China boasts menus like the Shan Hai Jing, the Shi Yi Ji, the Bo Wu Zhi, and the Shen Yi Jing. It was indeed a transitional period for martial arts novels, moving from traditional martial arts to xianxia, and from xianxia to xuanhuan. Monsters and spirits that seemed out of ce in traditional martial arts stories were embraced in xuanhuan as being youthful and trendy. Obviously, being the cradle of martial arts, China was at the forefront of these trends. Therefore, as the leader of this trip, I made a very rational decision. ¡°Let¡¯s not go straight to Mount Hua. Let¡¯s stop by Chang¡¯an first.¡± ¡°Hm? Why? Wouldn¡¯t that just be taking a detour?¡± ¡°There are extremely tricky monsters nearby. We need to move around them.¡± Avoidance. Pure and simple. If you asked me to name the most difficult beings to deal with in China, I''d personally point out two. ''Chaos'' and ''Greed.'' To my knowledge, tens of thousands of Awakeners in China were destroyed by just these two creatures. And by tens of thousands, I mean closer to 100,000 than 20,000. Considering the civilian casualties, it was an uncountable number. Even as the genre of the world shifted to xuanhuan, no human had yet achieved the realm of the immortals, a fitting testament to the tragedy that ensues. ¡°If we were fully prepared, maybe, but right now, taking them on is not a good idea.¡± ¡°Hmm. If you say so, brother¡¡± When venturing into unfamiliar genres, it''s wise to maintain proper decorum and distance. My genre, after all, was firmly contemporary fantasy. I meticulously nned our travel route to avoid Chaos and Greed. Instead, we frequently encountered other lesser demons, but I handled them all single-handedly on my end. Sword Marquess watched my swordy from behind, asionally letting out exmations of admiration. ¡°Your prowess is truly amazing! Equal to or perhaps even greater than me at my peak!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Something deep within me stirred like theva of Mount Hua, but I held it back. ¡°¡Thank you. I still have much to learn. Please continue to guide me, elder brother.¡± It''s wise to assign specific roles during a trip. You handle the hotels, I¡¯ll find the restaurants, and so on. If roles are not well distributed in any travel, it quickly bes tiresome. Anyone who has been on a long journey with family or a partner will immediately understand. I, Undertaker, might not have shown it, but I prided myself on being a master of travelling. Naturally, I understood the importance of dividing responsibilities. Thus, during our two-month journey, my responsibilities were as follows: nning travel routes, covering travel expenses, procuring food, scouting lodging, hiring locals, interpreting Chinese (the next Sect Leader of Mount Hua did not speak Chinese), carrying luggage, standing guard, and acting as bodyguard. And what did Sword Marquess handle? Well¡ drinking? Anyway. Among my roles, the most crucial was interpreting Chinese. This was my first time visiting Mount Hua, and we inevitably relied on local guidance, especially since the main roads had been devoured by Chaos and Greed. Whenever we passed through rural roads, locals looked at us curiously. ¡°A Korean? What brings a Korean here?¡± ¡°We¡¯re on our way to Mount Hua.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°This gentleman here is my grandfather. He insists on seeing Mount Hua with his own eyes before he passes away. I¡¯m an Awakener who speaks Chinese, so I decided to fulfill hisst wish by traveling here.¡± ¡°Ah!¡± Initially skeptical, the locals warmed up after hearing my exnation. Incidentally, throughout the journey, Sword Marquess was carried on my back. It was unavoidable. If I had asked him to walk on his own, the trip would have taken 24 times longer. I¡¯m not exaggerating. ¡°What a rare filial grandson, no, a filial great-grandson!¡± ¡°It''s nothing. I lost my parents when I was young, and he raised me alone. I believe it''s only right to repay him.¡± ¡°In such a chaotic world, to think such people still exist! Well, I don¡¯t have much, but please take some peanuts. Our vige peanuts are really tasty.¡± Indeed, filial piety is a magic pass that works anywhere in East Asia. Despite their humble circumstances, local people in the countryside tried to offer me whatever they could. Vige elders even tried to fill up buckets with peanuts, which I had to politely refuse. To show my gratitude, I cleared the nearby monsters like cutting weeds¡ªtrue win-win. Sword Marquess, still on my back, was amazed. ¡°I¡¯ve heard the countryside has be stingy these days, but that¡¯s all nonsense. Isn¡¯t this kindness itself?¡± ¡°Well, if I had said you were the Sect Leader of Mount Hua and I was carrying you around, 99% of this kindness would have disappeared.¡± ¡°Hm? Brother, what did you just say?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything.¡± Day 62 of our trip in China. After countless twists and turns, including barely escaping a typhoon, we finally arrived at Mount Hua. ¡°Ah, finally¡ Mount Hua¡!¡± The designated 261st Sect Leader of Mount Hua eximed as if he were seeing it for the first time. Of course, I didn¡¯t point that out. I was a respectful younger brother, merely posing a question. ¡°It was indeed a tough journey. I too am eager to see the grandeur of the sect where you trained. Where is the sect building?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, the main hall was destroyed 45 years ago by an attack from the Heavenly Demon.¡± ¡®So there¡¯s no sect building, right? You were just making it up?¡¯ I could read between the lines, but the old man skillfully dodged the question. Clearly, a lifetime dedicated to ying a martial artist wasn¡¯t thwarted by such trivial interrogation. ¡°The entire brotherhood was ughtered, and I had no choice but to flee. Now, it¡¯s hard to even find the ruins.¡± ¡°So you don¡¯t know where it is?¡± ¡°The mountain scenery is truly serene, a real hidden gem.¡± My inquiry didn¡¯t even scratch the surface of the Sword Marquess¡¯s mental fortitude. I shook my head and continued hiking. Great mountains never unt theirndscapes from the start but keep them hidden. Mount Hua, a renowned mountain, revealed its true beauty only when one ventured into itsyers. With each step, it felt as if a folding screen was unfolding, expanding the scene with each pace. I looked around the ridge. ¡°People have left, but the buildings are rtively intact.¡± Ah, and by buildings, I obviously didn¡¯t mean those of the Mount Hua Sect. I was referring to various facilities such as rest areas, stairs, snack bars, etc. Before the Void arrived, these ces were probably bustling with tourists. The cable car station looked clean and seemed like the perfect base camp. I checked the warehouse just in case, but as expected, no food was left. Well, being a living, breathing biofarm meant there was no need to worry about food during this trip. ¡°Elder brother, I will set up our base here.¡± ¡°As you wish, brother.¡± I set down my backpack and also set down Sword Marquess (he had been using my back delivery service even while hiking). Sword Marquessy down on the floor of the rest area as if he had finallye alive. ¡°Ah, my old bones. After decades,ing back here, it seems I can''t even walk around anymore.¡± Anyone would think he had climbed the mountain himself. I took out bottled water, a burner, and ramen from my backpack and started cooking. Just the single line of description about my actions here should give you an idea of how much I suffered during this trip. Yes, I carried Sword Marquess on my back while hugging a meter-tall backpack across the Chinese continent. ¡°Elder brother, the ramen is ready.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The old man, who had been sprawled out on the floor, got up like a ghost and took the chopsticks. After slurping down the ramen, Sword Marquess looked up at the ceiling of the rest area. ¡°Ah. As I''ve always said, the ramen you cook is truly a delicacy. I''ve met countless ramen masters in my life, but none canpare to you, brother.¡± ¡°You tter me.¡± ¡°No, I''m serious. How do you bring out such a unique taste?¡± Well, if you''ve been cooking ramen for over a hundred years, anyone would reach this level. In fact, during the 45th cycle, I even became a chef. While I may not be the world''s greatest chef, I was certainly the best at cooking with ingredients from the Void. Such is the seasoning of an Infinite Regressor. ¡°¡¡¡± Truly a useless skill. ¡°Burp. Thank you for the meal.¡± I shifted my thoughts. Anyway, what mattered now was not my ramen cooking skills, but how Sword Marquess would react from this point forward. Throughout our journey, Sword Marquess had always murmured about how he had no other wish but to visit Mount Hua. In the past cycles, he always longed for Mount Hua. A wish consistently held across time signifies the intensity of one¡¯s heart. It represents conviction. As a regressor, I find few things as interesting as the human heart. ¡®And I have fulfilled his lifelong wish.¡¯ Now that his wish was granted, only curiosity remained. A regressor¡¯s curiosity, trivial and personal, yet of utmost importance in this world. ¡®What will Sword Marquess do now?¡¯ Will he say it¡¯s time to return to the Korean penins now that his bucket list isplete? Or will he try to realize his delusion by building the Mount Hua Sect anew? Which will it be? I quietly observed Sword Marquess. After patting his full belly, he stood up and stretched. ¡°Now that I¡¯m full, it¡¯s time to get to work.¡± Let me mention in advance that all my predictions were wrong. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 47 Returnee IV "Work? What are you talking about?" "Hehe. I have ns of my own. Just watch, brother." Sword Marquess then suddenly walked out of the rest area. As for me, Undertaker, had I been one to just sit idly by when told to stay put, I would have given up on being a regressor long ago. Naturally, I followed Sword Marquess. The old man nced back at me once but didn¡¯t try to stop me. Even though the Sword Marquess had been terrible with directions before we reached Mount Hua, it was as if a navigation system had been installed and updated in his brain; he expertly navigated the mountain trails. Just when I thought I should ask where exactly we were going, Sword Marquess squatted down. ¡°¡¡?¡± At first, I thought he was just tired from the climb and was taking a rest. But I was mistaken.Sword Marquess was pulling something out of his pocket. As I approached and peered over, I saw that he had taken seeds from his pocket¡ªa bag of seeds he must have treasured since leaving Ulleungdo. He began cing the seeds into the soil within the crevices of the rocks. ¡°¡¡?¡± A question mark popped into my head. What exactly was he doing? "Elder brother. What are you doing right now? Please exin this to me." "Hehe. Reconstruction." "Reconstruction?" "Or restoration, if you want to add a poetic vor, you could even call it regression." Reconstruction. Restoration. Regression. These were truly enigmatic words strung together. But to my questions, Sword Marquess just chuckled and stroked his beard, not giving a clear answer. Instead of calming down, his response only fueled my curiosity, and I followed him relentlessly. But following him felt fruitless as he continued the same actions repeatedly. He climbed the mountain trails, nted seeds, covered the sparse soil over the rocks, and gently patted down the small mounds of earth with his wrinkled palms. The next day, and the day after that, he continued without end. Really, what was he doing? ¡®He can walk well now!¡¯ That was what baffled me the most. He had relied on my back while crossing the Central ins, but now that we were at Mount Hua, he suddenly seemed full of energy and climbed the mountain too well. Had this old man been pretending to be weak all this time? ¡®Could he have been deceiving me¡?¡¯ It was not easy to lead an old body up and down a rocky mountain. Yet, Sword Marquess was up from dawn to dusk, walking nonstop. He didn¡¯t evenin of muscle pain. As if the air of Mount Hua were gasoline for him, Sword Marquess moved around vigorously. Curious, I even tried sitting cross-legged and practicing something akin to internal energy meditation, but whether it was the air of Gangnam or Mount Hua, my scientific experiments concluded neither contained any mystical ether. -Roar! "Ah, brother! Help me! A wicked demon from the Demonic Cult is trying to capture the sect leader of Mount Hua!" And it certainly didn¡¯t look like ¡®weak cosy¡¯ from any angle. Sword Marquess was truly, utterly frail. He couldn¡¯t even fend off a monster the size of a boar and always ended up running to me. Like someone who had a strength stat of 99 in stamina but only 10 inbat, Sword Marquess¡¯s capabilities were extremely unbnced. ¡°It¡¯s really strange¡¡± In the end, I had no choice but to continue following Sword Marquess and acting as his bodyguard. After a while, I grew so tired of this routine that I simply eliminated all the monsters around Mount Hua. I also went around the areas of Chang''an and Guanzhong, which is modern-day Shaanxi, hunting down other creatures. Thankfully, the locals were grateful and gave us plenty of food and clothes. One week, two weeks, three weeks. It was around the time when I began to be known among the people of Guanzhong as the ¡°Taoist of Mount Hua,¡± almost like a ckedy. At each spot where Sword Marquess had nted seeds, sprouts began to emerge. Their growth rate was notably fast. It was clear that the ability that made Sword Marquess a grade-S Awakener, known as [nt Growth], was at work. ¡°What kind of sprout is this?¡± I muttered to myself since asking Sword Marquess would yield no proper answer. It was clear¡ªthey weren¡¯t just any grass or flowers but ¡®trees.¡¯ However, my encyclopedic knowledge stopped there. Even with my experience as a regressor, which meant I could recognize most nts, I wasn¡¯t knowledgeable enough in botany to identify the species just from these small saplings. "Hey. What exactly are you?" The sprouts, of course, offered no answer. Aste summer passed. Sword Marquess¡¯s peculiar activities continued into early autumn and winter. White snow settled on the ink-colored rocks of Mount Hua. In this ruined world, winter seemed to serve as a funeral rite for all life. As an undertaker ages, so does winter silently conduct the world¡¯s funerals. Winter¡¯s touch was cold yet gentle. Life and civilization quietly bowed under its gaze. Rumors spread like snowkes that a million civilians were buried under snow in Guanzhong within just a fortnight. My range for hunting creatures gradually expanded. Not just in Shaanxi, but also to Henan. ¡®Tutorial dungeons¡¯ weren¡¯t just a phenomenon on the Korean Penins but urred worldwide. Just my luck that an epic dungeon appeared in Yongjing in Henan. Here, pseudo-sectarian terrorists from Taoist groups were also involved, making it feel like the end of an era. What choice did I have? I had to help. ¡Surely when I started the 108th cycle, this cycle was supposed to be a vacation. Somehow, even on vacation, I ended up working. Is this what they call being a workaholic? To make an excuse, I had business in Henan anyway. There was an Awakener who ran a guild called ¡®Baekwha¡¯ back on the Korean Penins, and their family originated from this area. Thanks to that, I managed to gather some good information about them. I¡¯ll talk about that in ater episode. Anyway. Spring. While all life bowed under winter¡¯s gaze, only the sprouts cared for by Sword Marquess stood boldly upright. The lives touched by his hands knew neither the season nor the climate; they grew even in adversity. When the snow ceased, the small saplings that had once been tiny seeds had grown to my waist height. The trees bid farewell to winter a bit earlier than the rest of the world and greeted spring a bit sooner. Their etiquette towards the seasons was to bloom in red, to dye the world crimson. ¡°Ah.¡± Only upon seeing this red did I realize the name of these nts. Plum blossoms. ¡°¡¡.¡± The old man had been nting plum blossoms on Mount Hua. Residual snow still whispered, and Mount Hua¡¯s rocks were white. The surface of the rocks, like white tes, neatly divided themselves half in red and half in pink as the plum blossoms modestly ted themselves. This giant mountain served as a dish for a colorful, red feast prepared by a single shabby old man. ¡°It¡¯s time to start grafting.¡± The shadow of the old man delved into the mountain¡¯s shadow. With each step he delved deeper, the snowy mountain bled red. Familiar with his movements, the old man broke off twigs from the plum trees. Then again, he nted them among the rocks, in the rugged depths of the valley, in the scarce soil. Amidst the harsh rocks, the plum blossoms spread like moss, but red moss. ¡°¡¡.¡± After that, I limited my outings and spent more time with Sword Marquess. The terrain of Mount Hua was rugged. Even though my physical strength seemed to have be boundless after arriving here, it was still difficult for the frail legs of the old man to cross the gaps and voids of Mount Hua. I willingly lent my back to Sword Marquess. Crossing from cliff to cliff, Sword Marquess nted trees. In the first spring, plum blossoms bloomed near the rest area. The following year, red blossoms dyed the western peak of Mount Hua. The giant was massive. The time it took for him to die, and thus the time it took for his blood to fully blossom, was endlessly slowpared to a human life. Sword Marquess regted the giant¡¯s time. He dictated not only his death but also the manner of his dying. Sword Marquess did not permit even nature¡¯sw of living in spring and dying in winter. The blood shed by the giant flowed over three years, passing Jinshaiguan to the northern peak. His wounds bled for four years toward the central peak and then surged to the eastern peak the following year. All the directions of death and life were determined by Sword Marquess¡¯s footsteps and handprints. Our 6th year on the mountain. ¡°¡¡.¡± I stood on the roof of a pavilion on the southern peak of Mount Hua, looking down. The heavens and earth were filled with plum blossoms. Mount Hua had be a mountain of flowers. Red and white flowers shyly intertwined down every sliding mountain ridge. The dark trunks of the plum treesnguidly rested on the stones. The giant finally held its breath, and in front of its majestic blood-red death, people could only hold theirs. Thus, without any metaphor, without any interpretation or exnation. Plum blossoms bloomed on Mount Hua. ¡°It is done.¡± A single human had turned a proposition into truth. To make a proposition bloom, it took six years of an old man¡¯s life and several hundred years of a regressor¡¯s. And that proposition was beautiful. ¡°It is now done.¡± It was a foggy day. When fog descended on Mount Hua, the rocks vanished from sight. The fog lived and moved. Only the bright red flowers barely managed to poke their heads above that opaque surface. I too woke up and lifted my head. The rest area where I had mostly eaten and slept over the past six years. The Sword Marquess was not there. ¡°Elder brother?¡± When no one responded to the call of ''brother,'' I felt a premonition. I didn¡¯t even wash my face; I immediately got up and followed the traces of Sword Marquess. The old man was far away, atop the southern peak, beyond a sea of fog. And then I witnessed something unbelievable. At first, I thought Sword Marquess was rowing on the rocks because the thick fog spread out beneath his feet made it seem so. But it was impossible for a man to row on a mountain. Looking closer, I saw that what Sword Marquess was stirring was not an oar but a sword¡ªa wooden practice sword. The old man was dancing a sword dance. ¡°¡¡.¡± It was a sword dance because of the dance-like movements with the sword, and also a sword mist because the mountain¡¯s fog twisted and whirled with every movement of the sword. The dull de of the practice sword, like the old man¡¯s wrinkled hands once dyed the giant red, seemed to control all the mountain¡¯s fog. The old man whirled the world¡¯s fog as if it were his own sleeve. In that moment, I knew I would never forget this scene. ¡°¡¡.¡± Rustle. Somewhere, the sound of snow sliding down was faintly heard. Was it the Sword Marquess stepping on the snow? Maybe. The whole world was wrapped in fog, making it hard to see ahead. Only the sounds and smells distinctly touched the skin. In the fog, the flowers chattered, and this chattering breathlessly exhaled the scent of plum blossoms into the sky. Or, perhaps, just maybe, the scent of plum blossoms spread from the tip of the old man¡¯s sword. The wind blew. Vast waves of fog enveloped the peak entirely. ¡°Elder brother?¡± Slower than the flow of the tide, the fog rolled in and out. The white rocks and red plum blossoms revealed their forms again. But the Sword Marquess was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Elder brother!¡± No answer came back. Only the echo of ''brother - brother - brother'' resounded, soon buried by the chatter of the plum blossoms. ¡°¡¡.¡± Suddenly, the world became still. From the swept-away Mount Hua, only the scent of plum blossoms flowed and spread far into the distance. Should I call this an epilogue? There remains one somewhat strange story. After Sword Marquess disappeared, I naturally set out to look for him. However, I ultimately failed to find him. If he had fallen and died somewhere in the mountains, there should have been a body, or at least some trace of it. Even if wild animals had scavenged it, there should have been some remains, but no matter how much I searched Mount Hua, no trace of Sword Marquess was found. An utterly absurd disappearance. ¡®...Could he really have ascended to immortality?¡¯ For a moment, I even entertained such a suspicion. But it was impossible. Sword Marquess was just an old man who had never learned any martial arts. If he had truly reached a transcendent state as he imed, I would have recognized it. Hadn¡¯t I carried him on my back for over 60 days during our time together, not to mention the six years we spent together? Later, when I returned to the Korean Penins, I even obtained documents to confirm it. Sword Marquess was definitively, undoubtedly born in Ulleungdo, Korea. People from the same neighborhood as Sword Marquess didn¡¯t have very detailed memories of him. ¡°Oh, that old man?¡± ¡°I''ve seen him asionally. What? He was in our neighborhood decades ago? I don¡¯t remember that far back...¡± ¡°He seemed toe and go, appeared and disappeared, you know?¡± In any case, Sword Marquess was born in Ulleungdo. Various certificates and records proved this. If Sword Marquess really had been the next sect leader of the Mount Hua Sect and had finally be an immortal and ascended, then¡ªthere would be too much to exin. First, he would have had to travel to China from Ulleungdo noter than when he was 15 years old. Then, during his childhood, he would have be a direct disciple of the sect leader of Mount Hua. Sword Marquess was over sixty-five at the time of his disappearance. He had testified before we crossed over to China that Mount Hua Sect was attacked by the Heavenly Demon 45 years ago. At the time of the Demonic Cult¡¯s attack on Mount Hua Sect, Sword Marquess had to have been maintaining his status as a direct disciple of the sect leader. So, by noter than 15 years of age, he must have been receiving the expectations of the sect¡¯s disciples as the next sect leader... Was that even possible? What percentage of probability would one have to defy for such a miracle to ur? Why would a young Korean child born on Ulleungdo end up at Mount Hua Sect in China in the first ce? I had never heard of Mount Hua Sect, a staple in martial arts novels, actually existing in reality during my time as a regressor. Let alone the Heavenly Demon? The Demonic Cult? It was an absurd hypothesis. There was no need to consider it; it was merely a ludicrous tale. I decided to discard the theory of ¡®Sword Marquess = Mount Hua Sect Leader¡¯ under a very rational judgment. However,ter on, past the 200th cycle, a very strange incident urred. ¡°Sir.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°I''m sorry to ask, but could you spare some food?¡± At this time, I was walking through Incheon''s Chinatown with the Sword Marquess. The person who called us ¡®sir¡¯ and asked if we had any food was Chinese. He probably mistook us for fellow Chinese because of Sword Marquess¡¯s long white beard. ¡°Ah-¡± As revealed during our travels in the 108th cycle, I was the only one among us who spoke Chinese. I thought about how to answer without embarrassing the other party, hoping to respond in Chinese before the old man next to me could create an awkward situation. And then it happened. ¡°Of course.¡± Before I could even open my mouth, fluent Chinese came from beside me. Shocked, I quickly turned my head. There was the Sword Marquess, naturally speaking Chinese, responding to the young man who had approached us. ¡°I don''t have much, but how could I not fulfill a simple request from a passerby?¡± ¡°You mean ¡®sect leader¡¯?¡± ¡°I just happened to be buying dumplings over there. It''s not much, but take this and quench your thirst.¡± ¡°Ah... Thank you, sir! I will never forget this kindness!¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± My mouth hung open, refusing to close. The astonishment continued until the Chinese young man who had taken the vegetable dumplings from Sword Marquess disappeared from sight. I barely managed to collect myself and grabbed Sword Marquess¡¯s slender shoulder. ¡°Wait a minute, Sword Marquess. Just a moment.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Sword Marquess, did you know how to speak Chinese?¡± Sword Marquess blinked. ¡°Chinese? What are you talking about?¡± ¡°What? Didn¡¯t you just speak Chinese! With that young man earlier!¡± ¡°I don''t understand what you mean.¡± Sword Marquess blinked in genuine confusion, as if he truly didn¡¯t understand. ¡°Why are you acting like this all of a sudden, Undertaker? I didn''t say anything. I just handed him the dumplings.¡± ¡°No. Wow. No.¡± As if I, Undertaker, would fall for such a trick. I immediately dragged Sword Marquess around Chinatown, trying to find the young man we had just seen or to strike up a conversation with other Chinese people, but it was all in vain. Sword Marquess seemed genuinely unable to understand Chinese,ining loudly. ¡°Ah! To think that a young martial brother would oppress me like this! There is no nationality in chivalry. Even if mynguage skills arecking, my level is higher than anyone else¡¯s!¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± In the end, not a single word of Chinese came from Sword Marquess¡¯s mouth. He wasn¡¯t lying. Really, wasn¡¯t it enough to drive a ghost to despair? To this day, I am not sure whether Sword Marquess really became an immortal and left this world in the fog of Mount Hua, whether he fluently conversed with a Chinese man in Incheon''s Chinatown, or whether it was all just my illusion and hallucination. I only learned one fact. The martial world is indeed full of extraordinary and entric characters. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 48 Survivor I Excuse me, but what do you feel when you hear words like ''Student Council'' or ''Student Council President'' in creative works? You might wonder why I¡¯m asking such an abrupt question. It¡¯s because it''s relevant to this story. As mentioned at the end of thest story, the martial world is full of entrics. The person I will introduce today is also an entric, proudly cing his name among the ''Great Figures Who Illuminated the Korean Penins.'' In the distant past, South Korea used to boast about having certain football yers and idols.However, even if civilization copses, history tends to progress. Now, nationspare their pride based on how spectacr their Awakeners are, and the Korean Penins has never been left behind. From the ''Grand Witch who forces her subordinates to wear conical hats 365 days a year on a train'' to the ''Marquess who turns Mount Hua into a mountain of flowers,'' and so on. It was a lineup that could not help but make one''s heart swell with pride. Is this really the state of the Korean Penins? Thisnd, which could even be described as a haven for lunatics, or rather, great figures, has not ceased to be blessed. There was yet another figure I had not had a chance to introduce. Name, Cheon Yo-hwa. upation, reflecting the trend that it¡¯s tough to get by on just one job these days, a multi-Awakener juggling multiple jobs. First job, high school student. As the nation copsed, so did public education, reducing children who register on intemunities to unemployed, unable to select ''elementary/middle/high school student'' as their upation. In that sense, Cheon Yo-hwa was one of thest high school students left in the Korean Penins. Roughly equivalent to a high school 6th grader. This alone would be considered a rare upation of SSR-grade in games, but their other job was a bit more unique. Second job, Necromancer. Cheon Yo-hwa was the only necromancer on the Korean Penins. Since we''re on the topic of high school, the Korean Penins no longer had ''school ties.'' It was inevitable. What good does a fancy university degree do if monsters don''t care about your education when they eat you? However, human systems don''t change easily. If there''s no bread, eat cake; if there are no football yers, suck up to Awakeners instead of athletes; and in ce of school ties, a new form of connection was quickly installed. ¡°Hmm?¡± One day, as I was making my rounds in the guild, I witnessed a shocking scene. ¡°Wow, really?¡± ¡°Yes, really. Ahaha.¡± It was Seo Gyu and Sim Ah-ryeon (the viin OldManGoryeo)ughing together while having lunch in a restaurant. As everyone knows, Seo Gyu had anger management issues and Sim Ah-ryeon was a serious social media addict. Both of them had a bit of a w in their DNA that made establishing close rtionships with other homo sapiens a bit of a challenge. It was a scene reminiscent of a hippo and a crocodile amiably sipping from the same oasis waterhole, and, as any reasonable person who witnesses a miracle, I too was overwhelmed with curiosity. ¡°When did you two be friends?¡± Blink, blink. The question from their guild leader, who was as eminent as the sky, made them look at each other. ¡°Us?¡± ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve just been friends¡¡± Are they dating? In my mind, two spirits shed: the old-school desire to frown upon workce romances and the old-school joy of watching young love. ¡°No, hyung, whatever you¡¯re thinking, it¡¯s definitely not that¡¡± ¡°So how did you be friends?¡± ¡°How we became friends?¡± Seo Gyu spoke as if it were obvious. ¡°Well, we''re both from ''Busan Station.''¡± ¡°What.¡± Indeed. Nowadays, instead of school ties, Awakeners sized each other up by which ''Void'' they were in when they awakened. If we had to give it a name, maybe Void Connection? It was a connection rted to ce, so it was still a form of connection. Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, and I, we all awakened at Busan Station. Even the man who shall not be named, the Master of Hypnosis ''G,'' was from Busan Station. Later on, by the 555th cycle, Oh Dok-seo also joined the Busan Station Awakener family. ¡°You don¡¯t mean... the Awakeners are treating Busan Station like some kind of prestigious university, do you?¡± ¡°Why not? Of course, we receive that kind of treatment. Hyung, we¡¯re number one in the Void.¡± ¡°...¡¡± I was shocked. You little brats, without me, all of you would have been stranded at Busan Station or dead in a monster¡¯s stomach within three weeks! In fact, all those from Busan Station died by the third cycle. Even Seo Gyu, the fastest man, set a record for the shortest escape by the 50th cycle. These little twerps¡ prestigious? ¡°Hey, you wet-behind-the-ears kids. What kind of ridiculous void connection is that! If you have time for such nonsense, you should be focusing on aura training, you''re really showing off.¡± ¡°Hyung, why does every word you say sound so seasoned¡¡± ¡°That¡¯s strange, isn¡¯t it? If it weren¡¯t for that, you probably would have been quite popr¡¡± Even as their guild leader lectured them, their faces remained nonchnt. ¡®Ah, the old man is at it again,¡¯ their expressions seemed to say. My head spun and I struggled to breathe. I''m the Infinite Regressor. Destined (or not) to save the world. Should I really be treated like this? ¡°Guild leader... I think it''s natural to consider the Void Connection.¡± ¡°What are you talking about, Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s expression changed to ''Ah, the old man is trying to follow old trends again,'' but he quickly shrank back under my gaze. ¡°Well, it¡¯s terrifying when you first drop into the Void...? Phones don¡¯t work, bizarre creatures keep popping up, people are dying left and right... The Void Connection is aboutrades who have struggled through the same hellish ordeal together. Wouldn¡¯t that make you feel a deep bond...?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just our guild, I think all guilds would feel the same way...¡± Upon hearing it again, Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s logic didn¡¯t seem so absurd. ¡°I didn¡¯t struggle, though?¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Why? Got something to say, Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°No, guild leader...¡± I spoke jokingly, but I was actually serious. This was the decisive reason why I could not sympathize with thetest trend of Void Connections. Yes, I didn¡¯t feel like I suffered in the same ce, at the same time as these guys. I struggled alongside Old Man Scho. To me, the Void was less ''Busan Station'' and more this ''world'' itself. Challenge, die, regress, and challenge again. A dungeon striving forpletion through countless cycles. Therefore, I could only feel a strong camaraderie with Old Man Scho, who had a regressor''s skill just like me. Of course, now there was no such thing as camaraderie. When the hell was this no-show old-timer going to return from his leave? I might as well smack him dead. "Just out of curiosity, which is the most famous connection spot among Awakeners?" "Huh? Busan Station." "No, not that one." "Not that one? Umm..." Sim Ah-ryeon grunted before responding. "...Then, perhaps, Baekwha Girls¡¯ High School?" "Ah." Baekwha Girls¡¯ High School. A private school by that name existed. Perhaps some of you have heard of the school name. Whenever posts like ''List of Schools with the Prettiest Uniforms in Korea'' popped up on intemunities, Baekwha Girls'' High was often mentioned. I don¡¯t know if the uniforms are actually pretty since I¡¯m not interested in uniforms. But I could admit that they were objectively unique. Our uniforms here feature traditional sailor outfits, rare in Korea. -Our uniform''s ribbon is the pride of Baekwha! Such a ridiculous phrase was passed down among students through generations, a truly curious tradition. In the neighboring Japan, this style of uniform was still actively unted, but the trend of sailor suits, despite their naval inspirations, never crossed the Korea Strait. Yet, Baekwha Girls¡¯ High adopted the J-uniform (strictly speaking, it originated in Britain) for a surprisingly simple reason. The school itself was built during the 1920s under Japanese colonial rule. Baekwha Girls¡¯ High boasted a rather long history. And like most schools of its kind, to its alumni, it was regarded as a ''prestigious high,'' but to outsiders, it was seen as ''Hmm, is that all?'' In short, other than the fact that the uniform was a sailor suit and they had a boarding system, it was amon humanities high school widespread in South Korea. In such an ordinary school, there was a boarding house, but students were advised by seniors not to enter unless necessary. The number of students admitted to prestigious universities was somewhat shortpared to its long history, so during the college entrance exam season, the granite school gates were even more morously and fervently adorned with banners celebrating admissions to (especially) Seoul National University. -Huh? Why won''t the gate open? -The security guard isn''t here either. Let''s ask a teacher. The Void arrived. -Huh? -Wait. Where are the teachers? -What¡¯s going on...? The school gates closed. It was a typical closed-type Void. However, the duration of closure was not typical. The gates of Baekwha Girls'' High did not open for 11 months. That year, Baekwha Girls'' High did not produce a single university entrance exam passer. In the nearly year-long closed environment, I don''t know what tragedies the students of Baekwha Girls'' High might have suffered. I was an outsider, after all. All I could gather were the ''numbers'' observed from the outside. About 750 students enrolled. After 11 months, 19 survivors. After 12 months, 17 survivors. Two hadmitted suicide. "Ah, it was actually a bit longer than 11 months!" I had the chance to talk to a survivor muchter, and this is what they testified. "It was longer?" "Yep-Yep. You know, sometimes the flow of time changes, right? Space shifts wildly too. Ahaha. I guess our school was one of those cases!" The survivor''s face seemed uncreased. I once heard that when people ept unhappiness, they do so either with their faces or with their hearts. "So, how long did you feel you were trapped in the school?" "Ah, four years!" Some might call this a tragedy. Out of over 750 trapped, only 19 survived, and of those, two more took their own lives. But I dare say it was an ''achievement.'' In my first regression at Busan Station, I was the only survivor. There were plenty of cases where everyone trapped in a Void perished. That ordinary high school students,pletely isted from the outside in a jar of solitude, enduring what felt like four years but was 11 months, and surviving in double digits¡ªit was almost a miracle, wasn''t it? "Hey, a miracle? Undertaker sunbae, you¡¯re exaggerating¡ª" And in the center of all miracles, there¡¯s always a hero. Thank you for the rification. Let''s correct that part about Cheon Yo-hwa: In this case, the unique and foremost necromancer of the Korean Penins, the Awakener we will focus on today, Cheon Yo-hwa, was that heroine. "Go, go Baekwha Girls¡¯ High! Fighting!" "Fighting¡ª!" The 17 survivors rallied around Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡No, to speak more objectively, more precisely, the description above needs to be revised. Cheon Yo-hwa made the 17 survivors rally around her. I may mention it in another episode, but Cheon Yo-hwa had such a talent. Interpersonal skills. Organizational formation skills. The skill to read and manipte human psychology. The skill to break down the walls around a person''s heart. The skill to choose the appropriate space and time. Mediation skills. The skill to resolve conflicts within the organization and project unresolved conflicts outward. Cheon Yo-hwa wielded all these abilities as if she had been bestowed with them from a divine moment. As a result. "President." "Student Council President." "President Cheon Yo-hwa." To the survivors of Baekwha Girls¡¯ High, ''Baekwha'' was no longer just the name of their alma mater. It was a school connection, a ce connection. ording to modern trends, it was a Void Connection, and perhaps even stronger than a blood rtion. Over four years, Cheon Yo-hwa secured 17 Awakeners who would throw their lives away for her on the street. And with them, she stepped back into the world. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 49 Survivor II "Vice guild leader, could youe see me for a moment?" I first became aware of Baekwha Girls'' High during my fifth cycle, back when I was still living as Dang Seo-rin''s right hand in Samcheon. "Yes, guild leader. What''s the matter?" "Nothing major, just some new information. Have you ever heard of Baekwha Girls'' High?" A ck cat, a witch''s essential item as per Dang Seo-rin, was rubbing against my legs at that time. "No, I haven''t heard of it.""Hmm. Well, there''s this school called Baekwha Girls'' High. It was swallowed whole by a Gate for about a year? But it openedst week." "A year, you say. Then there must be no survivors." As always, I made judgments based on sound reasoning and healthy intellect. Dang Seo-rin''s voice lowered. "That''s... not entirely true." "Really?" "It''s not precise, but apparently, about 20 people survived." I widened my eyes. "Twenty? Are you sure?" "Yes... I''d like to assert confidently, but I don''t know for sure. It''s still just rumors at this point. The information I have is ''the Gate was closed for a year,'' ''there are about 20 survivors,'' ''all those trapped were high school students.''" "Even high school students." I was astounded. As I''ve said, even as a regressor, I needed three cycles to clear Busan Station, and even then, I was the only survivor. Both Dang Seo-rin and I could agree that the survival rate at Baekwha Girls'' High was astonishing. "Guild leader. If that¡¯s true..." "Yes. It means among the survivors there might be an extraordinary talent, a once-in-a-generation Awakener." Dang Seo-rin reached out and stroked the ck cat, which shivered. "That¡¯s why I''d like you, vice guild leader, to go there yourself and investigate. Check if the rumors are true, and if they are, see if there really is such an Awakener, and if there is¡ª" "We should recruit them into our guild." "Exactly." "Understood. I''ll make sure to scout them before other guilds start sniffing around." "Good. Oh, and one more thing." Dang Seo-rin added offhandedly. "If their character is seriously wed, we don''t necessarily have to recruit them." Looking back, our Witch might have had the gift of prophecy. Really, it was something one could have predicted. Even healthy adults, once they''ve been trapped in a Void, often turn loopy. What then of high school students, at the peak of their emotional years, experiencing a long-term real-life horror game? As soon as I arrived at the ''Guild Headquarters'' of Baekwha Girls'' High, I began to sense the answer. "...Is this supposed to be a guild building?" Crows cawed. Like the Saintess who lived in an aquarium temple and Dang Seo-rin who stayed on a train, Awakeners with unique mental worlds always had distinctively designed homes. Baekwha Girls'' High was no different. Baekwha Girls'' High was, quite literally, using an actual school building as its guildir. (Congratu) Seo.,; University 2 Admitted! tions) The banner hung on the school gate was tattered. The character for ''Seoul'' in ''Seoul National University'' waspletely worn through, although it could have been Seokang or Seokyeong University, so it couldn''t be confirmed without observation. The sports field looked as if it had been bombarded by meteors, deeply pocked here and there. The of the football goal was so tangled that even Alexander the Great would shake his head in dismay. The highlight was the dormitory and school buildings, where the walls had crumbled down, exposing the bare steel framework. ''Isn''t this just an abandoned school?'' I wasn''t the protagonist of a horror game. Therefore, I hesitated, unsure whether I should really enter. "Hello. What brings you here?" "Ah, well...?" As I stood awkwardly at the gate, the guards approached. And, well... the guards looked quite unique. Frankly, their heads were smashed in. "......" In other words, zombies. The guard was exposing his skull to the world, yet his demeanor towards me was very polite. If he had been wearing a motorcycle helmet, I wouldn''t have known he was a zombie. "I''m sorry, but if you don''t have business here, please leave. This is a private school. Outsiders cannot enter casually." "Uh, um." Even as a seasoned regressor, I found it hard to know what to say in this situation. Were they not monsters? Should I attack them on sight? "...I''m here from the Samcheon World Guild." "Samcheon World? Guild?" The zombie guard tilted his head. "Where is that?" "Um... it''s the most prominent guild in Busan, actually." Wait, why am I exining things to a monster? Suddenly gaining insight, Iposed myself. "I¡¯m here to see someone in charge. Is she avable?" "Ah, the Guild President''s guest, I see." Guild President? "She''s in ss right now, so she can''te out immediately." "ss?" "Yes. It''s a school here. Naturally, the students are in ss at this time." "......" At that point, I had an inkling. A very, very familiar sense of foreboding. It was simr to the unease that had crept over my entire body when I joined Samcheon after Dang Seo-rin¡¯s recruitment proposal, only to find out, ''Oh, by the way, anyone who joins our guild must wear a witch hat regardless of the ce.'' Over my many cycles as a regressor, I had developed a sixth sense. The so-called ''twist sense,'' a sensory organ exclusive to regressors. Whenever a certain level of quirkiness was detected, a tingling sensation would shoot up from the cyx to the cervical spine. Particrly now, the warning bells were ringing in the fourth cervical vertebra, whereas when I met Dang Seo-rin, it had only reached the sixth thoracic vertebra, indicating a seriously unusual level of quirkiness. ''Should I run?'' If I had been just a bit more experienced, I would have definitely retreated following my body''s rm. But in my fifth cycle, I was foolishly upright, clinging to a pointless justification that I couldn''t just abandon a mission entrusted with full authority by Dang Seo-rin. "...I see. How long should I wait for the ss to end?" "Hmm." The guard turned to look at a clock. It was a giant clock installed on the school¡¯s outer wall, fitting seamlessly into the surroundings in design, which meant the clock hands were broken and it wasn¡¯t working at all. Yet, like me with a sixth sense, the zombie guard seemed to effortlessly tell the time from the broken clock. "Just about 15 minutes until break time. It¡¯s a bit awkward to keep a guest waiting... Would you like toe in and wait?" "I''ll just stay here." I responded immediately. I didn¡¯t want to step beyond this gate if I could avoid it. Although I didn¡¯t flee outright, I did take my spinal reaction into ount to some extent. The guard shrugged. "Sure? Well, suit yourself." It didn¡¯t take long for my judgment to prove very correct. "Ding-dong-dang-dong." "¡?" I looked at the guard. Note that I just described the sound effect in quotation marks (""). This ''ding-dong-dang-dong'' was not a bell sound. It wasn¡¯t a chime from a speaker or a bell tower. The guard, a zombie with a shattered skull, was making the sound with his mouth and throat. "Ding-dong-dang-dong." "¡¡" At that sight, my third cervical vertebra buzzed. Just as mice scurry about before an earthquake, my cervical spine¡¯s premonition was not wrong. From the school building, more urately the abandoned school building, zombies swarmed out. "Ding-dong-dang-dong." "Ding-dong-dang-dong." The zombies, all in uniforms, specifically, Baekwha Girls¡¯ High uniforms, were moving their lips and chanting ''ding-dong-dang-dong.'' "¡¡" I shuddered. ''Run.'' But it was toote. "Did you say you were looking for me?" Among the hundreds of zombies, a perfectly alive human walked out, dressed in the same white uniform as the zombies. Her hair styled in a ponytail, dyed orange. Such a hair color would surely stand out in a traditional private school, perhaps even garnering some kind of support among the students, as if a student had been called out of ss because a guest had arrived. "Who are you?" That was Cheon Yo-hwa. "...Hello. I am the vice guild leader of the Samcheon World Guild from Busan." "Huh? Guild? Vice guild leader?" Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head, a reaction that could be seen as quite cute in istion. The problem was in her eyes. Cheon Yo-hwa''s eyescked focus. It was as if her irises and pupils were indistinguishable, her eyes appearing like wells steeped in dark shadows. "What''s that? I''ve never heard of it." "Uh... I see. Well, a guild is a group of Awakeners." "Awakeners?" "...Awakeners, you know, are people with special abilities." Cheon Yo-hwa blinked. In response, my third cervical vertebra also blinked, quite ferociously. "Special abilities? What''s that? Are you some kind of otaku?" "No, I... Excuse me, but may I ask your name?" "Ah, it''s Cheon Yo-hwa." At this, she bowed politely again. And I somewhat rxed at this ''normal-seeming response.'' Inevitably, I''ve always had a soft spot for polite people. It was the same with Go Yuri. From there, a parade of verbal slip-ups erupted from me. At the time, I was blissfully unaware of them. "I am the student council president here." "Um, haven''t you awakened any abilities, Ms. Cheon Yo-hwa? I¡¯m not sure what they are, but the abilities of people here, like that guard or the zombies roaming the sports field, are affiliated with this ce¡ª" "Zombies?" Fatal slip-up number 1. "Yes, your ability is very powerful. Whether you¡¯ve turned the [dead] into zombies or even the living into zombies, I¡¯m not sure." "...Dead bodies?" Fatal slip-up number 2. "With your abilities and those of the guild members here, you could secure a much better environment than this. In Samcheon World, we don¡¯t make empty promises. You wouldn¡¯t have to struggle in this crumbling, wall-less [abandoned school]." "......" Fatal slip-up number 3. "Of course, I¡¯m not suggesting we do anything about it right now. Just sparing some time to schedule an appointment, we could arrange a proper visit from our side¡ª" "Please leave." "Excuse me?" "Leave our school now." Only then did I realize the silence around us. The guard who had reacted like a living person, the zombies that had gathered on the sports field, the real students mingled among them, and Cheon Yo-hwa herself in front of me. All were staring nkly at me. "......" "No, don¡¯t leave." Cheon Yo-hwa grabbed my wrist. "We were actually short on guards. Yes, this is perfect. Sir, would you like to [work] at our school? As a guard. Yes, that would be nice." "......" "Or you could [transfer] here. The basketball team juniors were justining about the low number of new students." My second cervical vertebra jolted with a disk-like sensation. Even I, in my fifth cycle, naive as I was, could recognize that this was a dire situation. I promptly shook off Cheon Yo-hwa''s grip and fled without hesitation. I fully expected the ''enemies'' to chase after me. It was a rational judgment and thus a mistaken one. The entities affiliated with Baekwha Girls¡¯ High did not pursue me. Looking back, they hadn¡¯t moved a step beyond the school gate. "......" The fence that separated the school from the outside was partially broken down, but the zombies, as if facing an invisible wall, never crossed the boundary of the school. Just behind the gate, just beyond the fence, hundreds of gazes clung to the wall like cicadas, staring nkly in my direction. "Ding-dong-dang-dong." "Ding-dong-dang-dong." "Ding-dong-dang-dong." The sound of bells echoed across the schoolyard. The zombies turned back. "Ah, break time is over." Cheon Yo-hwa muttered expressionlessly and shuffled toward the school entrance with the zombies, a mix of actual humans and zombies, though honestly, it was hard to tell the difference. They seemed not so much individual entities as a collective organism. The sports field quickly returned to silence. Listening closely, I could hear voices leaking from the school building in the distance. English. In another ssroom, the sound of a math lesson could be heard. Astonishingly, the members of Baekwha Girls'' High, including the zombies, were ''attending sses'' inside the school building. "...This is insane." That was my first encounter with Cheon Yo-hwa. First contact with aliens, failed. "These kids are insane." Dang Seo-rin, having received my report, reached the same conclusion. "Sometimes you get such crazies. How about it, vice guild leader? Any chance they might harm civilians? If so, we might need to intervene." "I can''t be certain yet, but it seems we needn¡¯t worry about civilian casualties. They seem to be nesting in the abandoned school and don¡¯t venture out." "Hmm, is that so?" Dang Seo-rin made a perfectly rational decision based on my advice. "Then let''s not bother them unless absolutely necessary. No need to stir up a ho''s nest." "That''s a wise decision." "Yes. I''m always wise." "The conical hat." "The perfect ornament to crown my profound wisdom." Samcheon World cleanly washed their hands of the matter. But the world wasn''t made up only of rational humans. Human quirkiness was like the king of fruits, durian. No matter how tightly you seal it in a box, it asserts its overwhelming presence to everyone around. Not long after I had been thoroughly chastened and returned, Awakeners across the Korean Penins began to take notice of Baekwha Girls'' High. "A Necromancer? A magic-user Awakener?" "Even controlling hundreds of corpses at will?" "That''s an absolute superstar newbie." "Recruit them! Whatever it takes, whatever the conditions, bring them over!" In the era of humanpunk, where all resources are reced by human assets, even if other resources failed, corpses were abundantly avable, making the profession of a Necromancer inherently attractive. Of course, I knew that this overflowing charm was akin to Pandora''s Box. That is, as soon as you open it, expect Santa us to deliver disasters worldwide. "Ladies and gentlemen, that ce is as good as a den of the Void. I strongly rmend against entering." "Is Samcheon afraid of our guild''s progress?" "Let them be. They failed to recruit, so they''re just throwing shade at us. Ignore it, ignore." Foolishly, the guild leaders disregarded my friendly advice. Blinded by the emergence of a top-tier talent, they lost their senses. "Wow! Not some fake virus but a real Necromancer controlling a legion of zombies!" "Move... everyone move! With a dark mage, we might even break Dang Seo-rin''s monopoly!" With the biggest guild, Samcheon World, dering they''d sit out this free agent season, other guild leaders rushed in like mad. They carefully selected the most charismatic emissaries from their guilds and sent them off, furiously tapping the ''recruit'' button. The only difference between the other emissaries and me was the presence or absence of spinal nerves. "Uh... why aren''t these guysing back from Baekwha Girls'' High?" "Same for you? Our guild members have gonepletely silent." No matter how long the guild leaders waited, their emissaries did not return. Exhausted, those who visited Baekwha Girls'' High in person witnessed a startling sight. "Hey, why are you working here?" "What? I''m just a regr guard." "What?" The talents dispatched by the guilds had all been employed, in reverse, at Baekwha Girls'' High. Even during their job interviews, some had holes drilled into their skulls, and the new guards seemed to have discharged their cerebrospinal fluid along with their memories of their former lives. They didn''t even recognize their former guild leaders. When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes back into you. Sending new talents to recruit and instead losing existing talents is always a possibility. However, the guild leaders were too underdeveloped in character to ept such truths. "What the fuck... No, this won''t do. Destroy them!" And those who seek to destroy others must always be prepared to be destroyed themselves. The guilds that vowed revenge and charged into Baekwha Girls'' High all seeded in ''getting employed,'' thus significantly reducing the unemployment rate on the Korean Penins during this job crisis. "What the hell... What is that?" "It turns out Undertaker was right!" "They should never be messed with." "Fuck, did you see what they eat in that school cafeteria? Human flesh! They¡¯re sitting there eating people! Crazy fucks." "Fuck, they weren¡¯t unappetizing fruit; they were inedible zombies." But by then, it was toote. Pandora¡¯s Box had been opened. Baekwha Girls'' High reached a temporary state of saturation. Suddenly having an influx of new guards made sense; even for a prestigious school boasting history and tradition, 136 guards felt a bit excessive. The unnned personnel increase inevitably burdened Baekwha Girls'' High''s financial operations. If Cheon Yo-hwa had been a typical corporate CEO, she would have implemented the three great swords of business¡ª''staff cuts,'' ''massyoffs,'' ''restructuring.'' But Cheon Yo-hwa was anything but typical. She decided that now was the time to push an aggressive merger policy. "Uh, uh?" "Why are they increasing?" Literally, the ''school'' was expanding. More precisely, the school''s boundaries were gradually extending. The building that had been in front of Baekwha Girls'' High had be a ''tteokbokki shop'' and a ''convenience store.'' Not that they really sold tteokbokki there. "Hello, boss. Please give me two servings of tteokbokki and three dumplings!" A zombie student would say. "Since our student is so pretty, I added an extra dumpling." The zombie boss would reply. No actual goods were exchanged. The zombie student handed over invisible money, and the zombie boss handed over invisible tteokbokki. And both were happily smiling. At least that was rtively normal. Sometimes, after handing over invisible money, they would receive ''human flesh tteokbokki.'' The snack bar in front of the school was always filled with theughter of students. During lunch and after school, the shops thrived. This was truly creative economics. "Hello! I''m Cheon Yo-hwa, the student council president of Baekwha Girls'' High!" "Eek...! Save me!" "Ah, wait a moment. Our students are very interested in off-campus experiential learningtely! Aren¡¯t you interested in working with our school?" "I¡¯m not interested! Go away!" "Thank you!" "......" The guilds that had settled around Baekwha Girls'' High were gradually subdued by the school¡¯s educational fervor. Within less than a year, the Korean Penins saw the birth of an unprecedented academy city. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 50 Survivor III The academy city was both dead and alive. It grew voraciously like a gigantic zombie. In the past, I criticized the idea of an academy city in creative works as being utterly unrealistic. Now, I realize I was wrong. I had no choice but to deeply reflect on how narrow-minded I had been. Indeed, as unbelievable as it might sound, the academy city was real. Its economic power surpassed that of any other city, equipped with transcendental technology that could create something from nothing. At its helm was none other than the student council president of the academy. Yes, all these propositions were true. "Is this even real¡?" Dang Seo-rin herself was taken aback by the unexpected debut of the academy city. "Vice guild leader, is there something wrong with the energy of the Korean Penins? Did grandpa Dangun[1] get conned into bad real estate when he settled here? As if battling the Ten Legs wasn''t headache enough, where did this crazy groupe from?" "They sprang from the Gate. Did you know? Baekwha Girls'' High''s swimming pool has no water, just zombies in swimsuits floundering on the pool floor.""¡Let''s pretend we didn''t see that." Those with a semnce of brains adopted the same stance towards the academy city. Ignorance. Even in the cycles when I started acting independently from Dang Seo-rin, the basic strategy remained unchanged. Do not look. Do not care. Do not engage. The so-called Three Don''ts Policy was indeed the proper way to deal with Baekwha Girls'' High. It was truly the best approach to keeping a durian-sealed Pandora''s Box intact. Even as other guilds were seduced by the prospect of ''an epic Necromancer,'' I desperately cautioned against it. That thing will give you an upset stomach. "What right do you have to block our guild?" "With a Necromancer, we could defeat Dang Seo-rin!" Of course, the guilds didn''t initially heed my advice. Ultimately, some guild leaders didn''t listen and ended up contributing to the establishment of the academy city. However, I wasn''t angry. In the grand scheme of a regressor''s long life, these individuals were like immature infants. Continuously cared for with love and attention, they would eventuallye to realize the affectionate intentions of their parents on their own. "Well, if it¡¯s from Undertaker..." "Think about it, a Necromancer, right? Messing with corpses, what''s that all about?" Ah. Do you want to know how to subdue proud Awakeners? It''s simple. Be a regressor, defeat the Ten Legs. Even the steeliest tsundere melts before me. Thus, from the tenth cycle, when the subjugation of the Ten Legs began, the guild leaders also started toply with my regtory measures. Tapes crisscrossed the gate of Baekwha Girls'' High like a spider web. [No Entry] [Safety First] [Danger] [Cannibalism Alert] [Controlled Area] It was a simple solution, but astonishingly, these yellow tapes performed almost like absolute barriers. As long as no one from outside stirred things up, Baekwha Girls'' High was safe. It made one wonder what Cheon Yo-hwa and her student council were subsisting on behind those closed doors. Truly, very asionally, when Cheon Yo-hwa herself went out to gather supplies, the Saintess would whisper in my ear, "The student council president has been spotted." Yet, significant incidents were rare. Even as the 30th cycle passed. The 40th cycle flowed by. And even beyond the 50th cycle. Yellow tapes still crisscrossed the gate of Baekwha Girls'' High. I assure you, unless I was on vacation during those cycles, the seal here was never broken. In other words, during the cycles when I took a break and vacationed, a very high probability existed that the ''academy city'' would emerge. After returning from a tour of Mount Hua with Sword Marquess in the 108th cycle, the same was true. The Korean Penins was proving once again why thisnd had historically been called Hell Joseon, instilling fear in everyone. -????D???i???n???g???-???d??????????g???-???d???a???n??????-???d???????n???g???!??? "Immortal Life! Radiant Immortality!" "Sir, here¡¯s your order: two servings of tteokbokki!" Lonely gourmet of the Ten Legs. The pseudo-religious cult of New Buddha. And now, added to that, thergest academy city in history, Baekwha Girls'' High! Such familiar old friends warmly weed me. I''m so touched by the nostalgia that tears almoste. If a Meteor Shower were to fall now, the Four Kings of the Penins would truly beplete. It was better to regress quietly than to directly face this mess, which I did. "Hmm." Upon returning to Busan Station after one vacation season, a moment of enlightenment arrived. Indeed, the performance of a vacation was unmatched. It cured the unique upational diseases of Infinite Regressors¡ª[Why Only Me] syndrome, [I''m Tired of This] syndrome, [No One Remembers Me] syndrome, and so forth. Instead, it reignited the typical chronic conditions of Regressors¡ª[Still, I Must Solve This] syndrome, [I''m Perfectly Fine] syndrome, [Even If Everyone Forgets, I Will Remember Forever] syndrome. Oh well. After all, isn¡¯t human life merely a record of struggling with diseases called happiness or misery? A regressor is nothing more than a long-term patient who experiences and manages the same diseases as everyone else, just more deeply and adeptly. I readmitted myself to the hospital I''ve long owed¡ªthis world¡ªand observed the political state of the Korean Penins from an angle I hadn''t considered before. "Compared to Sword Marquess¡ maybe Cheon Yo-hwa is a very rational conversational partner?" What a paradigm shift in thought! Only after serving Sword Marquess, an epochal lunatic for six years, could such enlightenment have been possible. Indeed,pared to a dog smeared with feces, a dog with mustard stains was practically a cute Shih Tzu. "High school student council president? Compared to some ind nation''s nobility, she''s totally normal." The regressor of the fifth cycle, who trembled at the sight of student zombies, no longer existed. Only the Awakener of the 109th cycle, freshly returned from experiencing the Marquess and Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect of Yuldoguk, remained. Humans are meant to grow, after all. As Undertaker, I marveled at my own growth and began preparations. I grabbed SG Man Seo Gyu by the nape to cure his anger management issues, formed an alliance with the perennial hikikomori Saintess, defeated the Ten Legs and Udumbara, and after pulling Sword Marquess out from his inner power training on Ulleungdo,id all the groundwork. Then, monthster. I alone headed to Baekwha Girls'' High. "What brings you here?" An NPC stood at the gate. A familiar face among the guards. Like the inscription on Dante¡¯s gate to hell, ''Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,'' this NPC manned the entrance to a terrifying dungeon. "I''m sorry, but if you have no business, please leave. This is a private school. Outsiders cannot just walk in." "Ah. Thank you for your hard work. I''m not an outsider." After clearing the entity known as Sword Marquess, to me, the guard was just another insignificant monster. What doesn¡¯t kill me only makes me stronger. "I¡¯m someone like this." "Hmm? What is this¡?" I politely handed over a printout. The printout was kindly stamped with the seal of the Board of Education. [Baekwha Girls'' High School 99th Alumni Meeting Notice] "¡Oh." The guard''s pupils wavered. I smiled. "Hello. I¡¯m a graduate visiting for the alumni meeting. I look forward to your cooperation." "...¡" The zombie guard stuttered, frozen like an NPC that had encountered an unexpected yer action. Of course, the document was forged. I had never studied education, nor had I ever heard of an actual teacher carrying such a document. But what did it matter? Who would call the Board of Education or a university to check if this was real? They had long migrated to Mars when half of Seoul had been blown away. "But¡ this is a girls'' school, isn¡¯t it?" "Ah. My gender transitioned. It''s called TS disease, you see. I''ve awakened this ability." "Uh¡?" The zombie guard, unsure whether to react as if such a ridiculous ability could exist or whether he wasmitting gender discrimination, was caught in a cruel situation for a pattern-following NPC. "Um, no, well¡ Could youe in and wait? I¡¯ll call the manager." "Ah, I had called earlier today to say I¡¯d be visiting for the alumni gathering, but it seems the message didn¡¯t reach you. Let¡¯s go in and wait, then." "Th-thank you¡" I entered Baekwha Girls'' High far too easily. See. This is the experience of a 109th cycle regressor. [Is this really the best way¡?] I ignored the Saintess''s sigh in my ear. "¡You¡¯re an alumnus of our school?" Blink. Cheon Yo-hwa, meeting me in the student council room, blinked incessantly as she watched my every move. Even the world¡¯s necromancer couldn¡¯t hide her confusion in front of a self-proimed graduate iming to have TS disease. "Yes. I heard a lot about you from the kids. You''re Cheon Yo-hwa, right?" "Uh¡" I treated her casually. "They said an incredibly smart and quick-witted hubae became the student council president. It even made the rounds in our alumniwork." "That, um¡ thank you¡?" "By the way, I was part of the student council too, and now I¡¯m the president of the alumni association." "Oh¡" Cheon Yo-hwa shrank even more. This was the weakness of those Awakeners who had created their own worldview-settings in their skulls. They resist strongly against outsiders who ignore their settings, but they be infinitely weaker against visitors who faithfully adhere to them. "We¡¯re nning an alumni gathering, and the friends want to visit the school they haven¡¯t seen in a while." "Oh, I see¡" And this was exactly my intention. The natural predator of a lunatic is a lunatic with a higher level of madness. The truth of reciprocity proved itself once again. Why? You say you¡¯re a student, even the president of a historically prestigious school. Ah, are you really going to refuse the heavenly sunbae alumni president? "Right. We¡¯ll avoid disrupting sses, but could we possibly use a ssroom after school?" "J-Just a moment, please wait!" Cheon Yo-hwa stood up and went to a corner of the student council room. Ah, for reference, there were about a dozen other students in the student council room at the moment. They were not zombies. All were living, breathing humans. Perhaps these were the true members of the ''Baekwha Girls'' High Guild.'' "Uh, what do we do? She says she¡¯s a sunbae¡" The guild members of Baekwha whispered to each other. "Doesn¡¯t make sense. Can gender really change like that?" "If you think about it, President Yo-hwa''s powers are more amazing, so theoretically it''s possible¡" "But what if it¡¯s a lie?" "However, she knew the president¡¯s name without being introduced." "Let¡¯s test it." "What kind of test?" "If she really graduated from here, she should know things only someone from Baekwha Girls'' High would know. Let¡¯s ask questions that only an alumna could answer." They thought they were whispering, but I heard everything. "Excuse me¡" "Yes?" "Do you know what we call our dormitory?" I knew this test wasing. And I had prepared thoroughly for this very situation over the past several months. [It¡¯s called Baekwha Hall, but students usually just call it the dormitory.] Ah, that''s Saintess, an Awakener with the ability called irvoyance¡ªshe can observe any Awakener as she wishes. You might not know, but I''ve been living side by side with you for more than half a year because I specially asked the Saintess to do so. "Baekwha Hall, but we usually just call it the dormitory, you know." "And where¡¯s our cafeteria¡?" "Go out here, down to the first floor, then a bit down the left corridor." "And the name of our discipline director¡?" "Oh, the Gori? He''s been around a long time. When I was in the dorms, the dorm supervisor always had permed hair, is he still like that?" "...¡" Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s pupils wavered. As ast resort, she brought out a yearbook. She flipped to the section for my supposed graduating year, the 96th. Of course, when she looked at the yearbook, so did the Saintess. "And could I possibly hear the names of some of your sunbae friends¡?" "Han Ye-sol. Imi-ri. Park Ha-yoon. Kim Ji-yu. Kim Ye-rin." "¡¡" I stood up. "Why do you keep asking weird questions?" "Huh?" "Are you doubting me? Wow, Baekwha has really changed. In my time, we always sent at least two to Seoul National University. Are you guys preparing well for the SATs? As student council president, you should at least be aiming for Seoul National, right?" "¡¡" "Yo-hwa." "Yes¡" "Let¡¯s get along well in the future." "Yes, sunbae¡" That day, the regressor gained a well-behaved necromancer hubae. Footnotes: [1] Dangun or Tangun, also known as Dangun Wanggeom, was the legendary founder and god-king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom, around present-day Liaoning province in Northeast China and the northern part of the Korean Penins. [2] Sunbae is the senpai / senior equivalent in Korean culture, likewise, hubae is junior. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 51 The Trial I Following on from thest chapter, let''s continue with the story of the Necromancer. The reason I suddenly appointed the second craziest person in the Korean Penins (the craziest being the Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk) as the student council president of Baekwha Girls'' High was not because I wanted to be best friends with lunatics. There were deeper and broader reasons behind it. And I must remind you that I, the Undertaker, am far from being a viinous character. I am not the type to devilishly revel in the destruction of my own ns that I have drawn up alone. Such "dark-hero" type characters are nothing but adults who, having facedmunication failures in their childhoods, have transformed their hope in humanity into contempt for mankind, ultimately never escaping their profoundly childish traumas. "So, that¡¯s what you say, but why are you looking at me like that¡?" "What¡¯s important right now isn¡¯t that, Ms. Do-hwa.""I see. Shall I gouge out those eyeballs of yours and pickle them in salt before dipping them in soy sauce¡?" "Too much salty food isn¡¯t good for the body." "This fucking regressor bastard¡" Having had a rough childhood, Noh Do-hwa was quick to anger and curse. Of course, as a morally upright adult, I knew how to respond calmly even to such fury. "The one I¡¯ve personally recruited this time, Cheon Yo-hwa, will be ssified as a critical resource in our n." "Why? Because you have a school uniform fetish, you pervert¡?" "I don¡¯t like school uniforms. Try being my age, Ms. Do-hwa. Everyone looks like a kid to me." "Wait, you¡¯re practically a thousand years old by your subjective standards, how am I supposed to reach that age¡?" "That¡¯s not my concern. Anyway, the importance of Yo-hwa¡¯s Necromancy is that it provides us with a stable ¡®workforce¡¯." "Hmm¡" Noh Do-hwa sipped on the coffee I had made. Over the 1000 years (actually, at this point it was only 771 years), my barista skills had continuously improved, following an upward curve. Although I still couldn¡¯t perfectly imitate Old Man Scho''s Caf¨¦ au Lait, except for that, my skills could be said to have reached their peak. Even Noh Do-hwa, who generally maintained a cynical attitude as her signature, warmed up when drinking my coffee. "Shit, why is this so tasty¡?" she murmured to himself. Pleasing, isn''t it? This is the reward of a regressor. "Is manpower really that important? Honestly, these days it seems like the only surplus we have is manpower¡" "I¡¯m talking about the manpower of the National Road Management Corps." "Ah¡" Noh Do-hwa nodded, holding the coffee cup with both hands. "Well, I¡¯m slowly realizing it myself, managing this organization. Being a member of the National Road Management Corps is pretty much synonymous with being in a suicide squad. If you send them into the Void, there¡¯s a 20% chance they''ll return as aliens with flowers sprouting from their heads or something¡" "Now, if we assign the more dangerous tasks to the zombie corpses, the survival rate will drastically increase." "That sounds usible... Let¡¯s try it." "Before that, there¡¯s a condition." "What condition¡?" I looked around. Although there had been no dialogue until now, the Saintess had also been silently sipping her coffee. I smiled reassuringly in front of the trustworthy ''Regressor Alliance.'' "From now on, you are graduates of Baekwha Girls'' High." "......" "Here, this is the graduation album of the 96th ss, which I¡¯ve manipted in advance. You see the picture of ss 2? Just pretend it¡¯s Ms. Do-hwa and the Saintess''s childhood. I was the vice president of the student council, and Ms. Do-hwa was the president while the Saintess was the secretary." "¡¡" "And this is the exclusive data I prepared for Baekwha Girls'' High. Dorm names, a list of teachers who frequently interacted with students, school-specific ng¡ªit¡¯s all written here, so memorize it." "...¡" Noh Do-hwa looked at the Saintess. The Saintess nodded. "I have already memorized it." "Fuck, is this for real¡?" It was real. "Hello! Sunbaes! Nice to meet you!" A few dayster. We were able to witness Cheon Yo-hwa, who was heading straight towards us. Not only Yo-hwa but also the student council of Baekwha Girls'' High, which means the real survivors, were all lined up. "Ah, yes¡ My name is Noh Do-hwa¡" "Speakfortably, please, sunbae! Hehe. You were the student council president? We heard from Undertaker sunbae that you need our help. Command us like dogs!" "How badly did you fuck them up¡?" Noh Do-hwa red at me reproachfully. As for me, it was regrettable. It was a truly ignorant and ignorant response, wasn¡¯t it? The Awakeners of the 109th run had not yet experienced what a lunatic group Baekwha Girls'' High was. "Don¡¯t let your guard down. If you don¡¯t respect their concept, that''s when the real hell begins. I warned you." "No, they seem like really nice kids though¡" "They are nice, but it¡¯s a limited-time niceness. They all turn into cannibals if they don¡¯t consume human flesh at least once every four days." "¡¡" Baekwha Girls'' High joined the National Road Management Corps. That very night, six members of the National Road Management Corps ''enrolled'' at Baekwha Girls'' High. The admission conditions were not too strict. Just needed to drill a hole in their skulls. "What the fuck?" Only then did Noh Do-hwa realize the seriousness of the situation. "Awakener Undertaker, what kind of crazy fucks have you brought here¡?!" "I warned you beforehand." "I didn¡¯t know it would be this bad¡!" "By the way, how did they end up dying?" Noh Do-hwa handed me the report. How fitting for a former public servant. In this copsing world, when something happens, it''s always documented. --- Victim A: What? Is this a new member? Cheon Yo-hwa: Hello! I''m Cheon Yo-hwa, the student council president of Baekwha Girls'' High! Victim B: Huh? Girls'' high? Student council? What''s that, a role-y? Cheon Yo-hwa: No? I really am the student council president of Baekwha Girls'' High! Victim A: Geez. Our newbie learned some weird stuff from somewhere. You look too old to be just graduating from high school. Victim B: Right. Role-ying should be done by those who can pull it off without bothering anyone. No one recognizes a low-tier Awakener like you as a student council president. Cheon Yo-hwa: (Strangeugh) --- Hmm. Even reading this far was enough. ording to the attachments, parts of the corpses of Victim A and Victim B were found canned. I diagnosed the cause of the victims'' deaths. "This is suicide." "Is this for real¡?" Noh Do-hwa shuddered. However, she was also an adept at dealing with lunatics, having maxed out her skills in ¡®Lunatic Sociology¡¯ specialized for dealing with lunatics. As soon as she figured out that Cheon Yo-hwa was the lunatic from the Sword Marquess''s group, Noh Do-hwa immediately adjusted her stance. "Cheon Yo-hwa, hubae¡" "Yes! Sunbae Noh Do-hwa!" "How¡¯s your college entrance exam preparation going?" "Huh?" "Oh my. In my time, if you were the student council president, you were naturally expected to get into Seoul National University. Cheon Yo-hwa, you must be aiming high as well¡?" "...¡" Noh Do-hwa immediately disciplined her and put Cheon Yo-hwa to work like a dog. By the way, I also showed Yo-hwa a forged Seoul National University admission certificate. It was a forged document again. So what? What can you do about it? Besides, I was set up as a graduate of the German Language and Literature department. As you know, my German skills are perfect. Moreover, with my [Complete Memory], I could even perform the feat of reciting Goethe''s Faust and Schiller''s poems off the top of my head. I raised my eyebrows as if it were a hardship. "Hmm. Isn¡¯t this basic for a Baekwha Girls'' High student council president?" "...¡" Cheon Yo-hwa, overwhelmed by her sunbaes'' authority, broke down in tears. If she had been ¡®fake¡¯, at this point she would have raised a white g and dropped the concept. But Cheon Yo-hwa was real. In her mind, Baekwha Girls'' High existed, and naturally, the school''s traditions were intact. "I will diligently receive guidance and corrections from you sunbaes¡" The monster of the academy city that once terrorized all Awakeners on the Korean Penins was nowhere to be found. Only a pitiful student remained. That is exactly what is meant by being caught in one''s own trap. "Oh. So the zombie corps really is useful¡?" And thus, Noh Do-hwa confirmed that there was indeed value in ''maintaining such a concept'' with Cheon Yo-hwa. Then there was no reason to hesitate any longer. Noh Do-hwa, the epitome of pragmatism, immediately changed the dispatch of the National Road Management Corps to ''field training'' and forced it upon Yo-hwa. The organizational structure of the National Road Management Corps evolved. -Scouting party: Baekwha Girls'' High Guard (zombie). At least one Awakenermands the zombies, breaking through the void first to check for any dangers and reporting back to the main force. Zombies perform only the simplest tasks, as they cannot make detailed judgments. -Main force: At least two Awakeners form a strike team, traveling from city to city, checking roads, escorting migrants and merchants, andmanding the zombie scouts. -Support force: Capable of immediately repairing any damaged roads. Basically, grunt work. With the addition of the ''scouting party'' by Cheon Yo-hwa, the National Road Management Corps made a tremendous advancement. The disappearance rate of members, which had been as high as 20%, dropped to less than 5%. However, the proportion of zombies turning into real corpses increased ordingly, but no one cared. In a world where human rights had vanished, considering zombie rights was a bit too harsh. "This is the true utility of corpses¡?" Corpses were a good thing. They could work without eating, felt no pain, didn''t need their rights considered, and acted exactly as pre-programmed. Zombies were like an addictive drug once you got a taste. Especially for someone like Noh Do-hwa, who pursued pragmatism more and more. Noh Do-hwa had developed a new taste. "Awakener Undertaker. What exactly is a zombie¡?" One day, I received such a question. "Excuse me?" "Think about it. The zombies created by Cheon Yo-hwa all perform their roles. Guards, students, teachers... They act only ording to pre-entered instructions and can¡¯t respond to unforeseen situations, but within the confines of their roles, they seem quite human-like¡" "What are you trying to say?" "Well, isn¡¯t this just like NPCs, not zombies¡?" Noh Do-hwa''s eyes gleamed darkly. "You call them zombies based on their appearance, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s quite urate. Yo-hwa is a Necromancer, but she¡¯s not mass-producing ¡®zombies¡¯... she¡¯s more like a designer who creates ¡®NPCs¡¯. In some ways, it¡¯s also like installing ¡®AI¡¯¡" "Hoh." NPCs, not zombies. Such naming by Noh Do-hwa, who judged things solely by their usefulness, was typical. "An interesting interpretation. But even so, does it change anything?" "Well, we¡¯ll have to see about that¡" Noh Do-hwa grinned. "I think a lot of things can change¡" "Is that so?" "Yes. In that regard, could you please call guild leader Dang Seo-rin¡?" Even as the chief of the National Road Management Corps, I couldn¡¯t simply order Dang Seo-rin around. But since I was the only member of the ¡®Epicurean Guild¡¯, Dang Seo-rin would readily listen to me. The next day, Dang Seo-rin arrived at the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps, clearly annoyed. "What is it? I¡¯m really busy these days." "Oh, I¡¯m sorry. I asked Awakener Undertaker to invite you. It¡¯s just that only the Great Witch of Samcheon World can handle this task... Oh, and this is a copy of the Necronomicon I stumbled upon at an old bookstorest time. When I saw it, I thought it perfectly matched the Great Witch¡¯s library¡" "As a guild leader living on the Korean Penins, it¡¯s only right to cooperate with the duties of the National Road Management Corps." "Could you please cast a magic spell¡?" Thud. Dang Seo-rin ced severalrge books on the table, the titles of which were unfamiliar even to a regressor like me. [Supreme Court Case Law], [Three-Concept Latest Case Law], [Civil Execution Law], [Key Issues in Tax Case Law], [Criminal Procedure Law: Articles and Case Law]... Each one was terrifyingly thick. Clearly, they had been created to destroy a person¡¯s head both physically and mentally. Even Dang Seo-rin hesitated for a moment in front of their overwhelming presence. "What are you using these for?" "Heh. Don¡¯t worry. Great Witch, you just need to use [Repeat] [Text-to-Speech] [y]..." "That so? Alright." Dang Seo-rin entered the warehouse and cast the Cursed Song Incantation. Soon after, the many casew books in the warehouse began to turn their pages one by one, automatically supporting ¡®text-to-speech¡¯. Naturally, it was quite a magical sight. And after sending Dang Seo-rin away, I immediately brought Cheon Yo-hwa to the warehouse. "Cheon Yo-hwa, hubae¡" "Yes, sunbae!" "Bring about three guards here and leave them. And could you please ask them to [remember all the soundsing from this warehouse]¡" "Huh? Uh, inputting that much will really drain my energy." "It¡¯s a sunbae¡¯s order¡" "Ugh..." And at that moment, I stood with my mouth agape, utterly unable toprehend the kind of mind that could conceive such a notion, and thus I could only admire it. "Noh Do-hwa, are you possibly¡?" "Yes." Heh, Noh Do-hwa chuckled. "If the National Road Management Corps is getting established, shouldn¡¯t we consider setting up a court too¡?" This person¡ was trying to create ¡®AI judges¡¯ using zombies! Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 52 The Trial II "Unbelievable." I asked, half in disbelief, yet the other half tinged with undeniable anticipation. "Can zombies really perform the role of a judge?" "No, no, they''re not zombies; they''re NPCs. Please don''t make that mistake again. And as for whether they will seed¡ Well, I don''t know, but it''s definitely worth a try¡" Despite her words, Noh Do-hwa''s sly gaze sparkled with unmistakable excitement. Like little kids ying tricks behind their teachers'' backs, the two of us watched the room of zombies¡ªrather, the warehouse constantly reciting the text of thew books. Judges! In this devastated world, somehow reviving the function of a ''court'' had been a long-held ambition for both Noh Do-hwa and myself. The National Road Management Corps had managed to connect the shreddednds of the nation like a delicate web. However, operating a national court system seemed impossible. "I could take on the role of a judge temporarily for significant cases, or powerful guild leaders could gather and handle them like a jury system." Neither the guild leaders nor I had leisure. How could we handle dozens of incidents happening every day in an apocalyptic world? In the end, the guilds that had taken over each city had no choice but to run their own ''court-like systems.'' In in terms, it was like handing a gavel to thugs. How could that possibly function properly? While ces like Busan, governed by Dang Seo-rin¡ªwho boasts intelligence of 91 and political acumen of 95¡ªenjoyed a golden age (by post-apocalypse standards), most cities on the Korean Penins were ruled by local tyrants. Unless one was Sim Cheong[1], one often faced utterly unreasonable verdicts. Even if you were Sim Cheong, it was still crap. "How long will it take to input all thew books into their heads?" "Ah. Hmm, I''ve never asked for this much memory input before, so I can''t be sure, but a month should be more than enough!" Noh Do-hwa nodded at Cheon Yo-hwa''s words. We sealed the warehouse door and returned to our daily routines. One monthter. Noh Do-hwa, myself, and the Saintess, forming what you might call the full Regressor Alliance, gathered together. Cheon Yo-hwa also joined as a guest member. "Then, let''s open it!" With a thud, the heavy warehouse door opened. A foul odor wafted out, as if someone had stewed the essence of an unemployed shut-in for three months in a corner. And no one even wrinkled their brows. Of course. Nowadays, if you smelled a corpse outside your house, you''d just think, ''Someone else bit the dustst night,'' and move on. "Hmm." In the center of the warehouse, a zombie... no, an NPC stood with an incredibly stupid expression, gaping wide. One might doubt whether it could properly memorize thew, but none of us judged people solely on their appearance. "That looks incredibly stupid," said Noh Do-hwa. "Anyway, let''s test it. You all didn''te here just to be busybodies. Now, Cheon Yo-hwa, hubae...?" "Ah, yes, Sunbae!" With a hop, Cheon Yo-hwa stepped in front of the NPC and reached out to stroke its head. "You are a judge." [¡¡] "When disputes arise between people or organizations, determine who is right or mediate between the two!" As she whispered about the ''role of a judge,'' dark shadows crept from Cheon Yo-hwa''s forearm into the NPC''s head, swaying like ck serpents. That must be Cheon Yo-hwa''s Necromancy. Soon, the ck serpents all retracted into the NPC''s head. Cheon Yo-hwa fluttered her hand, "Phew." "It''s done. It''s my first time asking someone to do something like this, so I''m not sure if it applied well. Anyway, feel free to ask it anything!" "Hmm." I nced at the Saintess. Her usual expressionless face made it hard to read her, but even the Saintess seemed intently focused on the NPC before us¡ªa regressor''s eyes could tell. After all, wasn''t she the very person who turned dark during the 107th cycle because viins roamed unpunished? Noh Do-hwa, sensing my gaze, deferred to the Saintess. "Why don''t you ask the first question¡?" "...¡" Nod. The Saintess stepped forward to face the NPC. Despite holding the attention of some of the most powerful Awakeners on the Korean Penins, the NPC simply gaped dumbly. Cheon Yo-hwa cheerfully suggested, "Please set up the situation!" "¡A middle-aged man entered an abandoned house. However, an 11-year-old child was actually living there. The man was checking for any useful items when he discovered the child, who immediately cursed at him to get out. Enraged by the insults, the man charged at the child and fatally stabbed him in the throat with a dagger the size of a kitchen knife." "Whoa." "The man believes he had no intention of killing the child. In this case, was there intent tomit murder, and thus would it affect the sentence?" [Initiating response. Intention in murder does not necessarily require a premeditated intent to kill.] Suddenly, the NPC''s head, which had been tilted at about a 10-degree angle, snapped to an upright position. [Awareness of the killing is sufficient, which includes involuntary manughter.] "¡¡" [Given that the defendant charged at the victim with a dagger after being severely provoked by insults and inflicted a fatal wound on the victim''s neck, it is impossible to ept that the defendantcked ''awareness of the killing'' at the time. Considering the circumstances, it is justifiable to convict the defendant of this murder.] "¡¡" [Response concluded.] The NPC''s head slumped again. "Hmm." As everyone hesitated to speak, Noh Do-hwa let out a grunt¡ªor rather, it was more like a groan. People have unique habits when deep in thought. In Noh Do-hwa''s case, it involved fidgeting with her always-worn ck leather gloves. She pinched the tip of the glove''s index finger, tugging it this way and that as if managing invisible nails before slipping it back in ce. "Hmm. Well, that''s¡?" With a sharp pull, Noh Do-hwa stretched the leather glove taut, almost to the point of snapping. A sinisterugh echoed through the shabby warehouse. "Let''s test it in the field right away¡" The beta test results for the ''AI judge'' were less than spectacr. "What? An AI judge?" "What good is that supposed to do?" The reason was that the guild leaders who upied various cities felt no need to adopt an AI judge. They already enjoyed the status of warlords. Why should we separate judicial power? The separation of powers is an outdated concept, isn''t it? But even if guild leaders behaved like warlords within their territories, they had their limits. In other words, once they stepped outside their neighborhood boundaries, they turned into weaklings. "They invaded our territory first!" "Why is that your territory? It''s ours. Plus, you killed our people first!" Typically, guild disputes like this. Usually, guild leaders either fought to the death or asked a third party for mediation. And there were only three people in the Korean Penins who were universally recognized as ''capable of fair mediation.'' Dang Seo-rin. Noh Do-hwa. Me. "National Road Management Corps Commander!" "Commander, please make a judgment!" Noh Do-hwa tried her best to look empathetic. "Oh, such a thing has happened. As always, I will mediate with all my heart, ensuring no grievances or resentment remains¡" "Oh my. Thank you, Commander!" "Yes." The problem was that the three of us could not possibly be perfectly fair. Of course, we strived to be as fair as possible, but whether outsiders saw it that way was another matter. It was nearly impossible to satisfy both sides in a dispute, and so, whenever we offered a mediation, quite a bit of grumbling followed behind the scenes. "But folks, have you heard about the newly introduced AI judge? It''s really something¡" "Really?" Seizing this opportunity, Noh Do-hwa pushed the AI judge to the guild leaders. And, as always, she schemed a little here too. "You know I used to be a civil servant before the world turned out like this, right?" "Oh, yes. That''s a well-known story." "Actually, back then, the government was already debating whether to introduce an AI judge, and if so, to what extent should its authority be recognized. Maybe we could just let it handle very trivial cases based on precedents. That was also a mainstream opinion in the legalmunity." "Oh¡ Yes¡" "Some time ago, our scouts brought back a fewputers from a government building, and one of them had an AI program installed. So, this is a real AI that was actually used in practice. What do you think, everyone? How about we try hearing a decision just for a test?" "Hmm." "Of course, I have no intention of entrusting decisions to a mere program. Just think, [What kind of decision would have been made if civilization were still intact], and let''s just listen to it for reference. The world has changed so much that we can''t apply the judgment directly, but still, I think it makes sense to ask for an objective opinion from a ''third party'' other than ''us''¡" "Hmm." Up to this point, the National Road Management Corps Commander had been peddling something the guild leaders couldn''t simply refuse. After all, he was the head of the organization that paved their roads and maintained their routes. More importantly, I stood behind Noh Do-hwa. The presence of an Awakener who alone had shattered the Ten Legs made the warlords think twice. "So, shall we just hear what it has to say?" And the guild leaders experienced that the AI judge was reasonably fair and surprisingly convenient to use. [Judgment. A shallpensate B with 200 million.] "In this day and age, where do you even find 200 million in cash?" Noh Do-hwa chuckled sinisterly. "What do you think? If you are not satisfied, I can mediate from the beginning and ignore this program''s opinion¡" "...¡" "¡¡" The guild leaders were deep in thought. Their looks could roughly be tranted as: "If it was before the country copsed, apensation of 200 million could roughly equate to handing over a small workshop to them, isn''t that a small price for a dispute?" "Anyway, it sided with me. If I let Noh Do-hwa mediate and he smoothly glosses over it saying ''let''s get along,'' wouldn''t it actually harm my dignity more?" The guild leaders exchanged nces. "Uh, well. How about we try toe to an agreement among ourselves first and if that doesn''t work, can we then ask the Commander for help?" "Oh, by all means. It''s absolutely fine. This AI-loaded NPC will also be distributed among you, so make good use of it¡" "Really? That''s okay?" "Of course. Heh. It''s free¡" Noh Do-hwa''s judge NPCs were distributed evenly across the cities of the Korean Penins. Guild leaders returned to their cities, pondering how to utilize their newly acquired toys. And of course, even if a guild managed one city, there were numerous factions within it. "Your people invaded our territory first!" "Why is that your territory? It''s ours. Plus, you killed our people first!" "Hyung!" "Hyung, please make a judgment!" "Uh¡" When disputes arose among factions, it was naturally the guild leader''s role to mediate. By making the right judgments, the guild leader showcased their power, but it was not easy to always be seen as fair. And the guild leaders finally realized. This interesting but seemingly outdated AI judge could indeed perform a role. "But guys, have you heard about the newly introduced AI judge? It''s really something¡" "Really?" AI Judge, national debut confirmed! Footnotes: [1] Sim Cheong-jeon is a story about the titr Sim Cheong, who throws herself into the Indang Sea as a sacrifice so that her blind father can regain his eyesight. This selfless act of filial piety causes her to be resurrected and be an empress, and her father''s blindness is cured. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 53 The Trial III Before civilization copsed, people used to half-jokingly say, "Ugh, seriously, what kind of verdict is that?" "We might as well leave everything to AI; it would probably be better than this!" Of course, the other half of this sentiment carried a serious undertone: an AI, made of steel and code, might indeed be more impartial than Homo sapiens, who are often entangled in various vested interests. Now that AI judges have debuted nationwide, one could exim, "Wow! An era ofw where biased judgments are impossible!" But, naturally, things in the world never turn out to be that simple. [Judgment. The defendant is sentenced to life imprisonment.] "What?" "He killed someone and it¡¯s not the death penalty?""Why can¡¯t we just kill the criminal?" People were baffled. Since there had been no updates since civilization''s downfall, the judgments of AI judges were inevitably nd for the post-apocalyptic humanity ustomed to harsher realities. [Judgment. The defendant is sentenced to three months in prison.] "What?" "He dared to touch someone else''s property and it¡¯s not the death penalty?" "Why can¡¯t we just kill the criminal?" From the start, the concept of ''prison sentences'' handed down by AI judges was an antiquated artifact. Prison? Who has those anymore? Would anyone build indestructible walls, install iron bars, and, furthermore, expect to feed, shelter, and care for prisoners? Do guards get paid out of thin air? Yes, the AI judge was fair. But that fairness was akin to divine fairness¡ªit was utterly useless if it didn¡¯t descend to reality. "Wait a minute. Isn''t three months in jail roughly equivalent to losing a pinky finger?" "Ooh¡" Thus, inevitably, there arose a need for a professional ss to ''interpret'' these ''divine words.'' Guild leaders, or their most trusted aides, took over roles once held by shamans in ancient times and priests in the Middle Ages. If a guild leader had achieved enough to own a city, they could arguably be considered the closest to god within that city. "So, guild leader, what about six months in jail?" "Well, that''s cutting off the index finger. Of course, if the victim prefers, cutting off a toe is also an option." "And what about one year?" "From then on, it might be appropriate to take off a hand or a foot. Oh! But be careful not to damage theirbor capacity, so let''s split it 50-50¡ Say, three fingers from the offender, two from their family members, making it a five-finger punishment altogether." "Ooh¡" "Exactly, guild leader." If prisons were antiques, collective punishment was the hot newmodity desired by all the trendy guilds. "What if all fingers and toes are cut off?" "Then they gotta die. Shit. If you can''t y the game right even with 20 life points given, you''re just not cut out for it." "Fair point." "After all, if there''s nobody willing to sacrifice a finger for a criminal, who would mourn their death anyway? Just kill them all." "Ah¡" The above conversation is aption edited for easier reading, originally spoken by a guild leader in Incheon. Interpretations by ''shamans'' varied greatly from city to city. While some, like Incheon, cleanly converted all life stats to fingers and toes, others interpreted a six-month sentence as six months of very, turning the offender into the victim''s ve. But precisely because of this, guild leaders happily embraced the AI judges. "This isn''t bad." Dang Seo-rin casually tapped the AI judge''s head. "It¡¯s much morefortable for guild leaders to say that they just added interpretation to an already impartial judgment from someone else¡ªfrom beginning to end¡ªrather than iming they made the judgment alone." "Hmm." "The judgment wasn¡¯t wrong. It''s just that the application to reality, or the interpretation, wascking. Thus, even if a small mistake urs, the guild leader¡¯s dignity is rtively less damaged. Ah, maybe this was also a principle behind why ancient rulers were also priests." As expected from a guild leader governing one of the most sessful cities on the Korean Penins, herments carried significant weight. Although Dang Seo-rin herself never used the AI judges for her own judgments, handing them over to the general public instead. This was not just because she viewed ''taking on unnecessary responsibilities'' as a hallmark of leadership. Dang Seo-rin, who styled herself as a Great Witch, governed Busan in a unique¡ªwell, very ''witch-like''¡ªmanner. In her Busan, a separate system known as ''witch trials'' operated. But let''s leave that topic for another time since today''s story is not about Dang Seo-rin. Frankly, I wasn''t particrly enthusiastic or serious about introducing AI judges. I was merely astonished by Noh Do-hwa''s spark of innovation. As previously mentioned, the judgments of AI judges were too disconnected from reality¡ªmere babblings of Confucius or Mencius for all practical purposes. I, the Undertaker, had ambitions. Someday, I aspired to create a legal system that truly suited the post-apocalyptic world. From my perspective, AI judges were just clever inventions, inadequate gadgets falling short of a regressor¡¯s standards. Yet, precisely this aspect, being ''too disconnected from reality'', ironically began to resonate not just with guild leaders but also with ordinary people. "Why doesn''t it sentence anyone to death?" [Initiating response. Modern jurisprudence and legal philosophy can contemte the death penalty from various viewpoints. Among them, the mostpelling argument is that the government can never decide on the right to life of its citizens. Citizens delegate some of their rights to the government through a social contract, but they retain exclusive rights concerning the dignity of life. The government is not a natural person but an artificial entity simr to a program, and therefore cannot make autonomous judgments on matters not programmed into it.] "Hmm... So?" [Lowering the intellectual level of the exnation by two steps. Changing response. The government is not infallible. Ipetent judges, malicious evidence tampering, or factions attempting to politically engineer judicial murders could all lead to errors by the government. Therefore, it is wise to preemptively block actions that make such errors irreversible, such as the annihtion of life itself.] "Ooh... So?" [Lowering the intellectual level by six steps. Changing response. Let''s just cherish life.] True to its word, the AI judge simply refused to execute any death sentences. "A serial killer who butchered two-year-old children for no reason." [A death sentence could be pronounced, but it would not be carried out.] "A spy and terrorist who bombed public facilities, killing three thousand people!" [A death sentence could be pronounced, but it would not be carried out.] "Hitler!" [A death sentence could be pronounced, but it would not be carried out.] "Shit, still not killing? Even now?" As the situation unfolded this way, the citizens of Busan (Dang Seo-rin had set up the AI judge in a public square for civilians to toy with) were utterly baffled. Just how far did it have to go before it would sentence someone to death? "¡This is really absurd. Just stab him in the neck, and he''d be dead easily; why all this fuss about not executing?" "Hmm, but think about it, before the world turned out like this, it did feel like this. People who deserved death didn¡¯t die and just rotted away in jail eating beans." "Yeah. That''s how it was." "How did it all change?" "......" "......" The people of the post-apocalypse longed for the past. They had been running blindly without a chance to look back, and thus, the survivors who had managed to keep going realized just how far they had run from their past by listening to the AI judge¡¯s rulings. Yes, the world had changed. They had changed too. They had just caught their breath for a moment, and the likelihood of humanspletely conquering the void to rebuild civilization seemed distant. Everyone in this era knew they were witnessing the twilight years of humanity. Nostalgia for a homnd they could never return to. Thus, when people of this era miraculously had leisure time, they would gather in guild buildings or such ces to watch ''movies from the previous era'' onrge TVs. It didn¡¯t matter if the movies were uninteresting. "Wow, look how clean the asphalt roads are!" "Cars are actually driving around!" "Insane. They just drink coffee like it¡¯s water." "Why doesn¡¯t he kill someone for bumping into him?" For people, films from the old days served as a means to momentarily recall the glorious past of human civilization. This was evident from the way they watched TV. They didn¡¯t sit neatly in a row, attentively watching the screen. Instead, they huddled together, cracking peanuts, casually ncing at the screen, and loudly discussing the ''exotic items'' in the videos. "Hot wateres straight from home? Just push a button for bottled water? Wow¡" "But why do they look so dissatisfied? It¡¯s practically heaven." "Anyway, everyone was so spoiled back then. Those guys all need their heads peeled by monsters for their brains to cook right. Hey, pass me that hammer, this one¡¯s tough to crack." Roughly, this was the contemporary self-portrait. Thus, the ''unrealistic judgments'' of AI judges, initially treated like toys, gradually began to take on a different hue over time. [Judgment. Defendant B shall pay intiff A 1 million won.] "Really? Wait, I¡¯ll get it together in a week." "Huh?" Some people started to take the AI¡¯s judgments seriously. In this world, money was more like a talisman than currency¡ªa talisman that reminded them of the times they were part of a civilized society. Collecting ''1 million won'' worth of such talismans was extremely difficult. But one citizen eventually gathered 50,000 won, 10,000 won, 5,000 won, and 1,000 won bills from wherever possible and truly handed over 1 million won to the intiff. "Are we good now?" "Uh, yeah¡" "Yeah, I¡¯m sorry for disrupting your business. This settles things between us." Surprisingly, one citizen¡¯s apology was epted. Money, which had lost all its value as currency and couldn''t be exchanged for other goods¡ªessentially having lost all meaning as money¡ªwas recognized aspensation for wrongdoing. This idental incident gradually led more citizens to voluntarilyply with the AI¡¯s judgments. Certainly, in cases where people were seriously injured or their lives were at risk, citizens did not rely on the AI judge. But for minor disputes, things that didn¡¯t warrant killing each other over, people willingly submitted to ''old judgments''¡ªthe justice of times when the world was still intact. "Here¡¯s 3 million won." "Let¡¯s get along better from now on." Even if the most recently issued currency had been printed over ten years ago, the bills were crumpled and grimy from human contact, people cherished and exchanged them with great care. From afar, it looked less like the execution ofws and more like some kind of religious ritual. A ritual to prove and certify to each other that they were once members of a world that had already perished. A process to affirm that we all belonged to the samemunity. What can I say? Unlike in stories where currencies turn to trash the moment an apocalypse strikes, reality was quite different. "¡I really didn¡¯t see thising." I felt somewhat emotionally punched. Not that it felt entirely bad. After all, it confirmed that despite the world falling apart, most people were still suffering from nostalgia. Even after the 109th cycle, I continued to keep the ''AI judges.'' Even if they weren¡¯t much help judicially, if they could remind people living in such times of their ''humanity'' even a little, then that in itself was meaningful, wasn¡¯t it? "Judge." [Yes.] "There¡¯s this infinite regressor who keeps ditching his colleagues to flirt with his wife, continuously neglecting his duties as an old man. Meanwhile, the colleague left behind is breaking his back trying to save the world. What judgment fits this despicable regressor?" [Judgment. Not guilty.] "¡¡" Humanity be damned. Clearly, AI still didn¡¯t understand the human heart. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 54 Ruler I Today, let¡¯s talk about Dang Seo-rin, the guild leader of the Samcheon World Guild. But before that, let¡¯s digress a bit... Being a regressor, there are aspects that I notice more keenly, changes that I feel more distinctly than others. Like the increasing wrinkles on Noh Do-hwa¡¯s forehead as the years go by¡ªjust kidding. For example, the ''change ofnguage.'' Those who have read my stories so far must already be familiar with these linguistic changes. A prime example is ''monster.'' Initially, these strange lifeforms were called by their English name. Sometimes, they weren¡¯t even considered lifeforms, which is why they began to be referred to as ¡®grotesques¡¯ or ''aberrations.'' Everyone knows that ''gate'' changed to ''void.'' Until now, I¡¯ve kept this hidden to avoid confusion, but the term ''awakener'' has also undergone various transformations.Many people called them ''hunters,'' then ''transcendents,'' andter on, ''ascendants'' became quitemon. Thetter terms increasingly reflected a bizarre ideology known as ''Awakener Supremacy.'' Those who wanted to distance themselves from this pseudo-eugenics preferred the more neutral term ''Awakener.'' Why? "Awakener Undertaker¡" Noh Do-hwa would call me. That¡¯s not so much an honorific like ''doc'' but more a way of saying ''I don¡¯t regard you as a transcendent or ascendant.'' This wasn¡¯t my idea; I heard this secret directly from her in one cycle. It¡¯s so typically Noh Do-hwa, isn¡¯t it? Anyway. Amidst the flux of linguistic changes, there were words that remained grand and steadfast over time. One such word was ''guild.'' No one knows who first started calling the group of awakeners a ''guild.'' It was as if, in the collective unconscious of Koreans, there was a deration: ''From now on, we agree to call it a guild.'' The name naturally stuck. Most awakeners joined a guild as if it were the most natural thing. Even that crazy Sword Marquess created a one-person guild called Yuldoguk, didn¡¯t he? (In the 108th cycle, the guild briefly increased to two members.) Here, some might wonder. What does a guild actually do? Is it like an adventurers¡¯ guild in an RPG where you can take on quests? Can you evolve through tiers from B-ss, A-ss, S-ss, or bronze-silver-tinum based on how brilliantly you perform quests? Unfortunately, no such thing happened. That¡¯s just the insane habit of East Asians who, having learned bureaucracy from ancient times, apply ranks and grades even to private sectors. I can answer what a guild is very simply. It¡¯s just a gang. "Guild leader." "Yes?" For example, in the 6th cycle, when I was serving as Dang Seo-rin¡¯s right hand in the Samcheon Guild, something like this happened. "The awakeners from the Blue Sea Guild went around all the bars in Nam-gust night." "What?" The lounging Dang Seo-rin sat up. "Those bastards should stick to eating seaweed on their ind. What are they doing on the maind? Do we have proof?" "I¡¯ve gathered all the evidence. I even had Manager Yu turn on the minimap. You can give the order to execute the n anytime." "That¡¯s why I like having a vice guild leader." "Will you go yourself?" "Of course. Let¡¯s crush them." I once mentioned that I might have told too many positive stories about Dang Seo-rin. Do you remember? If anyone from Dang Seo-rin¡¯s fan club is reading this, I apologize. In fact, such conversations were quitemon in the Samcheon World Guild''s office (a train car). The ''Great Witch Idol Dang Seo-rin,'' the biggest star awakener in the history of the Korean Penins, known today, is merely a product of extensive historical distortion yearster. I know this well because I spent decades working as something like her manager. -Ding, ding, ding, ding! As the bell rang, the guild members disembarked from the train in droves. Over two hundred guild members, all wearing pointy hats. Not just that, each one also held a broom. In a world gone mad, our guild was an exceptionally good example of insanity. Dang Seo-rin climbed onto the roof of the station, like a principal on a podium, and looked very pleased at the sight of everyone in pointy hats. "Hello, everyone." "Yes, Great Witch!" "The Blue Sea Guild brats were hanging around Yeongdost night, having a feast at the bars we protect. They have a lot of money. They had 16 rounds of drinks! Life must be good in Yeongdo. But they didn¡¯t say a word to us, their neighbors. How should we feel about this slight?" "Kill them all!" Someone shouted. It was Yu Ji-won, my lieutenant and the top agitator in Korea. Dang Seo-rin blinked, as if encountering a surprising perspective. "Hmm¡ I hadn¡¯t considered that angle, but hearing you guys, I suddenly feel enlightened. Yes, that¡¯s a great idea. Let¡¯s kill them." "Ooooo!" Dressed in ck pointy hats and ck cloaks, the members of the Samcheon World Guild marched through the city. Grown adults embarrassed? Well, there were some non-adults, but setting them aside, of course, it was embarrassing, but you¡¯d be killed for saying such a thing in front of Dang Seo-rin. The opposing guild, caught off guard by a sudden full-scale attack, panicked. "Shit! It¡¯s the Witch¡¯s cult!" "It¡¯s Samcheon." "The Witch¡¯s cult is attacking! The crazy witch is here!" "It¡¯s Samcheon World, dammit! Do you want to die?" No one listened to Dang Seo-rin. Hardly anyone remembered the name Samcheon. It was just the Busan Witch¡¯s cult. And the Witch''s cult¡¯s specialty was witch hunts. In these times, civilization had progressed enough that, unlike the primitive Middle Ages, it was the witches who did the hunting, not the other way around. "Please, spare me¡" Within three hours of the battle''s onset, the Blue Sea Guild, based in Yeongdo, Busan, was annihted. Thump, thump. Dang Seo-rin, looking somber, tapped the opponent''s head with the end of her broom. "Hey." The broom''s stiff bristles poked the Blue Sea Guild leader''s eyes. "Argh¡ Ah¡" "Why would someone who can''tst a day without groveling rob the wallets of honest citizens? We don¡¯t want to fight you. But when the merchants ask us for help, huh? We can¡¯t just ignore the people¡¯s pleas. Why make things difficult for us?" "I''m sorry¡ I''m sorry¡ Please, just let me live¡" "Let¡¯s y our witch game. We¡¯ll dunk you in water, and if you sink, you¡¯re innocent; if you float, you¡¯re guilty. Got it?" "You son of a bitch! You insane lunatic! How can you call yourself human?" "Guys, what are you doing? This man¡¯s going for a swim." I repeated, "He¡¯s going for a swim." Again, unlike the primitive inquisitors who tied rocks or iron weights to ankles, we used the modern invention of ''concrete hiking boots.'' There were underwater mountains; the sea had many mountains too. Concrete boots helped humanity conquer underwater peaks. Soon, bubbles rose from the sea off Busan. I nodded. "He¡¯s not floating, guild leader." "Innocent, then." Dang Seo-rin pressed her pointy hat to her chest. She lowered her head, looking sad. "This too is a tragedy of these troubled times. Let¡¯s all pay our respects." "A moment of silence." Following Dang Seo-rin, all two hundred guild members observed a moment of silence. Our guild didn¡¯t just handle water magic. We also mastered fire magic that brought out the scent of burning wood, time magic that made you acutely aware of each second of a fleeting day, healing magic that gifted the effects of a foot massage by walking on heated stone paths, and many others¡ As a guild led by Dang Seo-rin, who was versed in all types of magic, Samcheon World never discriminated between white and ck magic, and loved all four elements equally. In a world gone mad, Samcheon World was even madder, especially Dang Seo-rin. Now. Even with this brief anecdote, I believe you can understand why I called a guild a ''gang.'' I chose a slightly provocative story, but the main source of ie for guilds was protection fees. They diligently collected taxes from people doing business, working, and taking refuge in the cities. There was no choice. The fantasy of gold coins dropping when monsters were defeated did not exist in reality. There was no miraculous superconducting energy source ''mana stone'' to rece oil. The only somewhat useful items monsters dropped were their meat, but a guild running a butcher shop had its limits. People didn¡¯t prefer monster meat, and it sometimes contained radioactive ''seasonings.'' In the end, guilds had no choice but to extort ''protection fees'' from people. Up to this point, all guilds across the country, no, the world, were the same. The real difference came after that. It depended on how one interpreted the concept of ''protection.'' "The essence of the world is a struggle of all against all, and humans are the most fearsome beasts. Protection of humans, by humans, and for humans is the most necessary measure for current humanity." Humanists who adopted this answer settled into their territories. It was the ruling philosophy chosen by the majority of tough guys. "Isn''t the monster scarier than humans?" About 4% of the poption, the extreme minority of cowards, thought differently. "Sure, humans are dangerous, but monsters are even more dangerous." "Why bother? Monsters don''t even drop anything useful." "Why not? Busan drops, doesn''t it?" Dang Seo-rin set the first day of each month as the protection tax due date. At the end of each month, she led the guild members on a void-clearing expedition outside Busan, then returned. It wasn¡¯t just about hunting. Dang Seo-rin always filmed the scenes of the monsters being killed and dragged at least one live monster back to Busan. She demonstrated in front of Busan citizens that the Great Witch''s magic did not apply only to humanity. -Gweeeeh! The monster, after tasting fire magic, water magic, time magic, and healing magic in order, screamed in gratitude with its limbs bound tightly. "More torture! More! More!" "Indeed, the Samcheon World guild leader knows how to entertain." This magic show became so popr that it became a proud symbol and attraction of Busan. Surprisingly, when they collected protection taxes the next day or the day after the execution show, the payment rate significantly increased. The citizens'' response was along the lines of ''Since they gave us such an entertaining show, we should pay the admission fee.'' Even in the days when the Korean National Tax Service was running smoothly, the ratio of sincere taxpayers wasn¡¯t this high. "Guild leader¡ Are you a genius?" "Yes. You can keepplimenting me." "If not for the pointy hat, you¡¯d be in the biographies of great figures." "Do you want to die?" As predicted by Dang Seo-rin, Busan naturally fell into the hands of the Samcheon Guild. As the situation turned interesting, even some humanists had to reconsider their political philosophies. "Now that I think about it, monsters are scarier than humans." "Right. You can at least talk to people; you can''t negotiate with monsters." "How did we miss this obvious truth until now! I feel pathetic!" As the nation of early adopters, Korean guild leaders did not hesitate to emte Dang Seo-rin. Whether out of love for their hometown or a thirst for power, guild leaders switched their primary upation to hunters. Guild leaders who failed to transition were naturally weeded out, so they weren¡¯t even worth mentioning. However, none of them could keep up with Dang Seo-rin''s ''magic show.'' Who could dare to perform a spell that cuts off a monster¡¯s limbs (actually more than just four limbs) and reattaches them while floating in mid-air? "Why are the executions in our neighborhood so dull?" "Over there in Busan, they¡¯ve got fire magic and water magic and all sorts of things." "Hah, nothing beats the original." In a world where the inte and cinemas had perished, monster executions were irresistible entertainment. More and more civilians began to move to Busan. The fact that Dang Seo-rin had set protection taxes at a very reasonable level also contributed to the migration boom. And it was around this time that our Great Witch, Dang Seo-rin, started having strange thoughts¡ªthough she was always a bit strange, these were ''even stranger thoughts.'' Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 55 Ruler II I mentioned in the previous story that while all the guild leaders nationwide dly epted the AI judges, Dang Seo-rin was the exception. "Ah, seriously¡ª" Now, I want to exin the reason behind it. Because, in a certain sense, regarding this matter, I too couldn¡¯t escape responsibility. So, one could say this is the record of two aplices: Dang Seo-rin and me. "Failed again. Again." The starting point was the 6th cycle. Dang Seo-rin had taken off her pointy hat (a rare urrence) and was pulling at her hair with one hand.Like a novelist blocked on their writing or a lyricist dissatisfied with their lyrics. Actually, this description was closer to the truth than a metaphor. Dang Seo-rin was holding a quill pen (she had actually hand-carved it from a goose feather) and was creating a spell. "This one¡¯s taking a while. What spell are you trying to make?" "Equivalent Exchange." Dang Seo-rin pouted. "I¡¯m trying to make a spell that exchanges two different objects or phenomena on a one-to-one basis." "...I can''t quite grasp where you¡¯d use such a spell." "Huh? You can¡¯t judge a spell by its practicality. It¡¯s all about the romance and making something cool." "That¡¯s a very guild leader-like statement." As I mentioned before, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s ability was called Cursed Song Incantation. In other words, to activate a spell, she had to sing a song, and naturally, the song had lyrics. In essence¡ for Dang Seo-rin, creating a spell was no different from writing song lyrics. I didn¡¯t know much about magic since I hadn¡¯t mastered it, but ording to Dang Seo-rin, "When the right lyrics arepleted, it feels like the gears in my head click into ce!" and the spell is activated or something like that. So, in fact, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s trademark ''Resurrection Magic'' wasposed of lyrics like this: Roll it, roll it Bottom of the abyss, peak of the ether All things swirl and spin The peak of the ether, the bottom of the abyss The eternally breathing fire wheel Incidentally, thenguage was entirely in Latin. Could Dang Seo-rin speak Latin? No, but there was a Latin major among the Samcheon World Guild members who served as her trantor shuttle. That guild member was promoted to the executive team solely because they knew Latin. It might not be new to you by now, but I hope you realize how seriously Dang Seo-rin took her witch cosy. Her life was just one big fandom activity. "Latin is a superior poetguage," "Especially, any chorus must be sung in Latin no matter what," thanks to Dang Seo-rin¡¯s nonsensical philosophy, wheneverrge-scale song magic like the Ten Legs extermination battle was activated, we could listen to a grand Latin chorus that covered the skies. Honestly, it was impressive. That¡¯s why she became the greatest idol on the Korean Penins. Anyway. "Where did you get stuck?" "Umm¡ªI feel itcks a bit of intuition. For example, vice guild leader, if someone offered you a bag of factory-made potato chips in exchange for six cartons of milk, what would you do?" "That¡¯s a fair trade." "Right? That¡¯s the kind of ''equivalent exchange'' I¡¯m thinking of. The problem is, beyond food and drinks, it gets a bit vague." Dang Seo-rin chewed on the tip of her feather. "For instance¡ let¡¯s say someone proposed to get rid of all the monsters in this world in exchange for you being imprisoned for 1000 years." "Hmm." "By the way, it¡¯s solitary confinement. You get meals on time but can¡¯t talk to the guards. You can read books or watch dramas, but you can¡¯tmunicate with anyone." If I heard this proposal now, I¡¯d ept it as aplete bargain. But back then, I was just a regressor in my 6th cycle. I hadn¡¯t even lived 100 years, and those less-than-100 years felt incredibly tough. "Well? Would you take the deal?" "...It¡¯s ambiguous. I¡¯m not sure." "Exactly. ''Not sure'' is the honest answer." The Great Witch gave a satisfied smile. "Because we don¡¯t have a clear intuition about what 1000 years feels like, right? Even if someone tells us to live for 1000 years, we can¡¯t grasp how long that really is. Whether it¡¯s 1000 years, 900 years, or 1100 years, it all feels vaguely the same." "Hmm." Dang Seo-rin was right. In fact, in our rtionship, Dang Seo-rin was almost always right. The notion that I¡¯d ept the proposal now also stemmed from my acquired intuition about what 1000 years truly meant. "Not just 1000 years, but my entire life experience is too limited." "Hmm." "...Yeah. I get what you¡¯re saying. I mean, even if I¡¯ve experienced many thingspared to others, it¡¯s still not enough to create a grand spell like [Equivalent Exchange]. Got it?" "No one could amass such experience. Life isn¡¯t infinite, and lifespans are limited." "...Indeed." Dang Seo-rin stood up from the wooden chair and suddenly began to sing a song I had never heard before. In fact, Dang Seo-rin often habitually, and spontaneously, hummed songs. Listening to her was also part of the unofficial duties of the vice guild leader. I pped. After finishing her solo concert, Dang Seo-rin gracefully picked up her pointy hat and bowed. "Was that the equivalent exchange spell?" "Yeah. The spell didn¡¯t activate, though. How was it?" "It was good." "Great." Dang Seo-rin smiled. And that was it. Sometimes Dang Seo-rin agonized over how to create the equivalent exchange spell, in other words, what lyrics would trigger the spell, lost in the struggles of a creator. But she neverpleted the equivalent exchange. Before she was killed by the Ten Legs. The 6th cycle, the 7th, the 8th, the 9th were all the same. In every cycle, Dang Seo-rin was obsessed with the equivalent exchange spell and neverpleted her bucket list. In terms ofpletion, it was barely 10%. We were never granted enough time to create a grand spell like equivalent exchange. I didn¡¯t know exactly how Dang Seo-rin died. I couldn¡¯t protect her, but my pridey in the fact that I always died a little earlier than our little witch. Thus came the grand 10th cycle. "I can¡¯t walk your path with you, but at least I¡¯ll follow your footsteps with the same pace as mine." "Even if we can¡¯t live together, we¡¯ll die together." "Take care, mypanion in time." Dang Seo-rin left herst words and died. I couldn¡¯t prevent her death, but at least I could hold her funeral. I acted as the funeral director. Since neither of us had any family, it was a solo affair. I don''t wish to detail Dang Seo-rin''s funeral now, and I''m not sure if I''ll ever want to. But one thing was certain: her smilingst words left a deep mark on my heart. After the 10th cycle ended, in the 11th cycle. "Ah, seriously¡ª Failed again. Again." "This one¡¯s taking a while. What spell are you trying to make?" "Equivalent Exchange." I no longer spoke formally to Dang Seo-rin, and she called me ''Undertaker'' instead of ''Vice guild leader,'' but our rtionship remained amicable. "Nice name. A spell that swaps two objects or phenomena?" "How did you guess? How did you know, you?" Because I was a regressor and once served you as my lord, I barely swallowed those words. The person in front of me had asked me to keep the secret of my regression. I had made that promise. In retrospect¡ªDang Seo-rin had a chilling cruelty. To herself. To me. Sometimes the measure of a rtionship was how much cruelty people allowed each other. "...Where are you stuck? From my perspective, the intention to swap all things seems too grand." "Oh? That¡¯s a valid point. More precisely, it¡¯s the fundamental issue ofcking intuition about all things. Hmm." Dang Seo-rin closed one eye. "Can you listen for a moment? Sometimes hearing another¡¯s opinion might help spark an idea." You never revealed your spell creation process to anyone because you believed "magic must always be mysterious!" So why wouldn¡¯t you cast any spell on me? You hadughed it off foolishly. As someone who remembered all that, I couldn¡¯t refuse Dang Seo-rin¡¯s request. "Is it an honor to be the first to hear the unfinished song of the Samcheon World'' Leader?" "Think of it as an honor." I listened. "How was it?" "I enjoyed it. Impressive." "Of course, it¡¯s impressive. What I want from you is feedback. Feedback. The Latin lyrics mean this. Anything you think should be changed?" "Hmm. How about recing ¡®object¡¯ with ¡®starlight¡¯ or ¡®moonlight¡¯?" "Oh?" "This part expresses things that can¡¯t be measured, right? So, instead of using a mundane word like ''object,'' wouldn¡¯t it be better to use something that conveys the meaning of things difficult for humans to grasp?" "Ah¡ªso, starlight, hmm. Oh? Wait a minute. Then¡?" Dang Seo-rin, as if struck by inspiration, scribbled furiously in her notebook. Of course, I had no talent as a creator, critic, or even as a mage. I simply recited the unfinished lyrics from previous cycles. "Got it! Yes! It¡¯s still far fromplete, but it feels like progress!" "I¡¯m d it helped." "Wow¡ªthanks, Undertaker. What¡¯s this? Do you have a talent for witchcraft? Want to join our guild? I can parachute you straight into the executive team. Huh?" "Sorry, but the Samcheon World''s uniform is a bit¡." "Huh? Want to die?" And so began our ''making the equivalent exchange spell.'' Even though the Ten Legs began to be eradicated from the 10th cycle, Dang Seo-rin poured nearly all her lifespan into the battlefield, leaving her with little time to focus solely on spell creation. Nevertheless, Dang Seo-rin steadily made progress, word by word, sentence by sentence, cycle after cycle. "Instead of ¡®exchange¡¯ in the chorus, wouldn¡¯t ¡®judgment¡¯ be more genuine, at least for you, Dang Seo-rin?" "Oh?" My role was to convey this unfinished product to the ''next cycle''s Dang Seo-rin.'' "Here, the word ¡®alchemy¡¯ carries more emotion than ¡®transaction¡¯¡." "Instead of insisting onpleting the equivalent exchange spell with just one chant, how about splitting the spell into two separate songs?" "First, a resurrection, then a song about things whose value can¡¯t be measured, and finally¡." The 11th cycle, the 12th, the 13th. With each passing cycle, thepleteness of the equivalent exchange spell increased. Initially, Dang Seo-rin had been half-giving up, wondering how toplete such a grand spell, but as time went on, her expression brightened noticeably. "Oh? Wait. Hold on. If I follow your suggestion like this¡? Oh? Maybe, just maybe, I can really create this¡?" To be honest. Perhaps all of this was my little indulgence. Even if I couldn¡¯t reveal I was a regressor to Dang Seo-rin, I wanted us to have at least one creation we made together. It didn¡¯t matter what that creation was. Equivalent exchange just happened to catch my eye by chance. I always had a side that made me chuckle because it was so soft. Both to myself and to her. I wanted to believe that sometimes the measure of a rtionship was how much one could yield to the other. And once again, Dang Seo-rin was right. "¨DUnbelievable! It¡¯splete!" Finally, in the 26th cycle. "To think I could create such a grand spell with just two chants¡. I¡¯m a genius! And Undertaker! You might be a bit of a genius too!" Dang Seo-rin hadpleted the equivalent exchange. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 56 Ruler III So, if you ask what the Great Witch Dang Seo-rin did with the grand spell she painstakingly created over such a long time¨D well, not much. "Undertaker, are you good with pain?" "I¡¯d say I handle it fairly well. Why do you ask?" "Do you have the generosity to forgive me even if I inflict pain on you?" "......" I felt uneasy. "What are you nning?" "Just answer the question first. Do you or don¡¯t you?""...I suppose I can say I do." "Good. Undertaker, I¡¯m going to show you something really interesting." Right after she said that, Dang Seo-rin took out a fountain pen and stabbed it into my right hand. I screamed like Tom from "Tom and Jerry." What the hell? Is she crazy? "Wait! Stop! Hold on! I¡¯m doing it too!" "What?" Dang Seo-rin promptly stabbed her own left hand. Blood dripped from the pen¡¯s sharp tip. Is she really insane? As I looked on in bewilderment, Dang Seo-rin did something even crazier. As both of us bled, she began to sing. And then, something amazing happened. "Ah-?" A blue ''scales'' appeared in the air, like a faint hologram. At the same time, the wound on my right hand healed instantly. Instead, a new wound formed on my left hand. The exact same thing happened to Dang Seo-rin but in reverse. The wound on her left hand moved to her right hand. Shortly after, drops of blood bnced on the scales, and then the scales vanished from the air. I was dumbfounded. "What is this¡?" "Ah, this is the equivalent exchange." Dang Seo-rin smiled with an otaku grin. It was somewhat irritating. "Your wound and my wound. My pain and your pain have been swapped." "That¡¯s amazing!" I was genuinely impressed. Our hands were still bleeding like faucets, but it was undoubtedly a remarkable spell. "How does it work?" "I told you, it¡¯s equivalent exchange. The spell enacts a fair exchange as I see fit." "Incredible. So, could I potentially transfer my wounds to Ten Legs after getting injured?" If that were possible, it could revolutionize our strategy against the monsters. But Dang Seo-rin shook her head and clicked her tongue in her annoying manner. "Unfortunately, such use is nearly impossible. The spell requires the other party''s consent." "Oh¡" I couldn¡¯t hide my disappointment. That¡¯s why she asked me those strange questions earlier. "...Wait, then what can this be used for? Exchanging pain for pain or pleasure for pleasure, but the total amount remains the same. Could it perhaps be used to convert energy into another form?" "Oh¡ª that¡¯s a brilliant idea, but it''s impossible too. As I said, consent is required, and you can¡¯t ask energy or materials for consent. They don¡¯t have brains. Oh, and it doesn¡¯t work on nts or animals either since they don¡¯t understand humannguage¡." "Then it¡¯s apletely useless spell!" "Magic is never useless!" Dang Seo-rin¡¯s berserk button was pushed. She was a lunatic who would immediatelyunch attack spells once triggered. Naturally, our fight ended in my victory. For Dang Seo-rin to defeat me, she¡¯d have to prepare her song spells at least 30 minutes in advance. That¡¯s the nature of the matchup between a straightforward warrior and a devious sorcerer. After such a trivial quarrel, time passed. Of course, I had the [Complete Memory] ability, so instead of saying "some time passed," I could specify it had been exactly 398 days since then. Just a literary expression. Counting every single moment like someone with savant syndrome wouldn¡¯t interest anyone. So, 398 days, 16 hours, and 38 minutester, I visited the Samcheon World headquarters after a long while. But Dang Seo-rin wasn¡¯t there. "Ah, are you looking for the Great Witch? She¡¯s out for today¡¯s trial." A guild member who recognized me exined. Her silver hair shimmered prettily. Her name was Yu Ji-won, a talent selected in the 5th cycle and now serving as an executive in the Samcheon World. While she was quite capable, she had some significant personality ws¡ª a psychopath. She was also the Latin major. "Trial day? What¡¯s that? And why is an operations chief manning the counter? Where are your subordinates?" "Most of the guild members are out at the square. I don¡¯t have much to do there, so I¡¯m guarding the base." "Hmm. So, what¡¯s trial day?" "Recently, in Busan, we designated thest day of every month as trial day." The silver-haired psychopath adjusted her sses. "The Great Witch personally presides over trials for those who¡¯vemitted murder or caused serious injuries. The public response has been very positive." Ah, by the way, ¡®Great Witch¡¯ was Dang Seo-rin¡¯s official title. Especially for guild members of the Samcheon World, it was mandatory to use this title. Simr to how I had to call the old man Swordmaster. Only in the 5th cycle, when I served as the vice guild leader, did I get to call Dang Seo-rin ¡®Guild leader.¡¯ Because that was my condition for joining her. "She¡¯s probably on thest trial by now. It¡¯ll take about an hour. Would you like to wait in the reception room? I¡¯ll get you a ticket." "No, it''s fine. I¡¯d just waste expensive snacks being here with you guys. Where is the trial held?" "Right in the square ahead, Great Witch." I walked to the indicated location. Finding the way wasn¡¯t difficult. It was the same square where Dang Seo-rin held her ''monster dissection shows,''monly known as the execution square. Despite the apocalypse, the well-maintained square was already bustling with the trial. It was grand. At a nce, about 600 citizens were sitting here and there, watching the trial. "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" "Quiet! Please be quiet!" A Samcheon guild member¡¯s voice boomed. It was probably amplified with a ''Voice Amplification'' spell. Since no singing was heard, a ''Silence'' spell must have been cast too. ''Considering the spell has a basic repeating magic function, it must be at least three chants. Dang Seo-rin seems to have put a lot of effort into this.'' I turned my gaze. In the center of the square, a man who appeared to be the defendant stood with his head bowed. And Dang Seo-rin, the judge, was leisurely leaning her chin on her hand at the table. ''I¡¯ve never seen a sight like this before.'' In my regression life, Dang Seo-rin holding public trials and passing judgments in front of citizens was unprecedented. I watched the trial from a distance with interest. As the square quieted down, the guild member raised their voice. "Please be quiet! I¡¯ll repeat! The defendant is a witch who joined Samcheon World six months ago and was assigned to thebat squad. However, duringst week¡¯s expedition against the monsters, the defendant fled first, copsing the front lines. This did not result in fatalities but caused two injuries, putting thebat squad in significant danger." "Booooo!" "You coward!" Some citizens threw stones, but they couldn¡¯t reach the trial table, likely due to a protective barrier, and bounced off. "Quiet, everyone! Now, the Great Witch Dang Seo-rin will pass judgment!" Silence fell over the area. The hundreds of citizens, who had been boisterous as if at a festival, fell silent. If the measure of an artist is how many people they can entertain, then the measure of a ruler is how many they can silence. This scene showed the status of Dang Seo-rin as the guild leader in Busan. "This defendant is a deserter." Dang Seo-rin¡¯s voice flowed through the amplification spell. It was a stunningly beautiful voice. Gentle and slow, yet the words flowed quickly, eachplex term and sentence striking the listeners'' ears. Her voice wasn¡¯t just speech but rather a breath, filling the square¡¯s atmosphere. The Samcheon World guild members looked at her with a dreamy reverence. Well, it was somewhat cringe-inducing, but I understood their feelings as someone who had once been Dang Seo-rin¡¯s right hand. That voice was somewhat of a cheat. "Deserters are usually dealt with by immediate execution. But in this case, there were no fatalities, and the deserter turned themselves in the next day. These factors should be considered." "......" "Deserter. Do you regret fleeing, putting yourrades at risk?" "Yes, I¡¯m sorry¡." "Can you promise never to make the same mistake again?" "Of course, Great Witch. Absolutely¡." At that moment, blue ''scales'' appeared above Dang Seo-rin¡¯s head. The blue light wasn¡¯t like a neon sign but more like the bluish light of the stars scattered across the night sky, tracing the outline of the scales. "Then, you can be forgiven. Neither I nor the witches of the Samcheon World, nor yourrades who had to cover for you, will hold [your desertionst week] against you." Silently. From Dang Seo-rin and the guild members'' chests, and from the direction of the Samcheon World headquarters, ck smoke¨Dthin as thread, moving like snakes, crawled out. The ck threads gathered on the left side of the scales. With a tter, the scales tipped heavily to one side. "In return." Dang Seo-rin waved her finger. "From now on, [you cannot retreat from any battlefield first. Even if you must retreat, you can only do so after ensuring all yourrades have retreated]." "Ah¡" "Not just yourrades. Citizens are included too. You can¡¯t withdraw until their safety is secured. In other words, [you will always be thest to retreat]." "......" "Do you agree?" The defendant¡¯s face turned pale. Battles with monsters were never safe. Jumping off a cliff with a wingsuit had better survival odds. But for some reason? The defendant''s expression showed not only paleness but also a hint of relief, as if finally at peace. "...Yes, Great Witch. I agree." "Good." Silently. A white thread-like snake emerged from the defendant¡¯s body. It resembled a breath in the winter air. Not just from the mouth, but an exhale from the whole body. The defendant looked up nkly at the white snake leaving his body. It coiled on the right side of the scales. With a tter, the scales bnced. "The bnce is achieved." "Thank you¡ Thank you¡." "Now, fight for yourrades, and more importantly, for the citizens." Ohh, some spectators let out a sound. Hundreds of citizens responded with apuse. "......" The scene was a shock to me. The equivalent exchange, a seemingly useless grand spell, was now functioning as Busan¡¯s court. This was why, even in future cycles, Busan rejected AI judges, unlike other cities. It was because of Dang Seo-rin''s ''witch trials.'' Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 57 Ruler IV After the trial ended, we went out to eat Sundae stew. I didn¡¯t particrly feel like going back to the guild building, and besides, my rtionship with Dang Seo-rin was no longer just ''guild leader and vice guild leader'' but more like ''foodie friends.'' And I couldn¡¯t hold back my question even before the assorted sundae tter arrived. "Seo-rin, what was that back there?" "Hmm? What?" Dang Seo-rin tilted her head with a dumbfounded look. I frowned and handed her a small dish with some gochujang sauce. ¡°The trial, I mean. Since when did you start using equivalent exchange for judgments? It wasn¡¯t there thest time I visited." "You just haven¡¯t been around Busan enough to notice. We¡¯ve been doing it for nearly half a year now. Here, try this."Dang Seo-rin handed me a small dish with a perfect mix of salt, pepper, and chili powder. "The citizens really love it. These days, it¡¯s counted among Busan¡¯s top three attractions along with the monster dissection shows." "What the¡? Exin a bit more. Sir, can we get some Dongdongju here?" "Coming right up!" I took the jug of Dongdongju and mixed it with half a cup of iced water. This was Dang Seo-rin¡¯s favorite ratio. The prestige of having looked after a friend for hundreds of years came from such small gestures. "What¡¯s there to exin? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I just applied the Code of Hammurabi as it is." "Hmm." "When the country was still intact, we could throw everything into prison. But now, there are no prisons, right? Cutting off fingers or choking necks wastes valuablebor¡ So, I just arrange ¡®a revenge that everyone can agree on.¡¯" "...¡®Vengeance is mine; I will repay,¡¯ says the Lord." "Huh?" "It¡¯s from Romans 12:19. For heaven¡¯s sake. You do something ridiculous every time I look away." "What? Are you picking a fight?" "My sanity is what¡¯s being picked on. This is really absurd." The assorted sundae, sundae stew, Dongdongju, and well-fermented kimchi disappeared beyond our chopsticks and bites. The meal was delicious¡ªa proper feast only avable in Busan these days. "I think it was odd that old society tried to handle everything with prison sentences." Dang Seo-rin raised her chopsticks. "Think about it. How can theft and murder receive the same punishment? The feeling of losing your belongings versus getting stabbed is vastly different. There¡¯s a qualitative difference, you know, a difference in quality." "Hmm." "Theft varies, too. The feeling when today¡¯s food is stolen, when the radio you¡¯ve kept secret from other survivors is taken, or when your kidney is stolen¡" "Thest one counts as theft?" "Of course. Anyway, punishment must vary ording to the severity and circumstances, the character of the perpetrator and the victim. For instance, Jesus might turn the other cheek, but Undertaker, you¡¯d probably consider it ¡®a fair deal¡¯ only after taking their cheek and a mr. Am I wrong?" "I understand your point." "And surprisingly¡ The greatest witch in history, the unparalleled and unique Dang Seo-rin, can arrange a fair deal for anyone." At that moment, a little kid approached the restaurant and shyly held out a pointy hat, saying, "Great Witch!" Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly and signed the hat brim. As soon as the fan service ended, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s face drooped like a sponge soaked in hot water. This happened wherever our idol of Busan went. "So cute." "But that fairness is just ¡®what you think is fair.¡¯ People can always judge wrongly." "That¡¯s why equivalent exchange doesn¡¯t work without the other¡¯s consent. If they think the deal isn¡¯t fair, they just don¡¯t agree." "Who would dare refuse a judgment from Busan¡¯s ruler?" "In a world like this, they should be grateful I even hold trials. If I don¡¯t pass judgment, it¡¯s a witch hunt. Regardless of the crime, they end up dead. Isn¡¯t this better than death?" "Hmm." "If you¡¯re still uneasy,e observe the trial next month." Dang Seo-rin grumbled. "By the way, what have you been up to that you¡¯re so hard to see these days?" "......" ...Honestly, I was a bit lost around this time. If you¡¯re an astute reader, you might already have figured it out, but the 26th cycle was when the Swordmaster officially dered a ¡®vacation.¡¯ When a teammate you believed would stick with you through the end of the world suddenly retires, it¡¯s like FC Barcelona after Lionel Messi¡¯s transfer. My mental state was like that. I showed some embarrassing behavior as a regressor during this time¡ Let¡¯s skip the ck history. "Alright. I¡¯lle again in a month." "Yeah. Bring some Melona." Exactly a monthter, I arrived at Busan¡¯s ¡®execution square¡¯ with homemade Melona ice cream. "Here you go." "Oh, thanks¡ Wow! It looks just like Melona!" Dang Seo-rin marveled at my culinary skills. For the record, I could replicate nearly 92% of the taste of pre-apocalypse cup noodles, bagged noodles, and snacks. I got the recipes directly from the headquarters of snackpanies, so you can trust me. What? How else do you think a regressor spends all that time? This is the most productive hobby I could find. "I reserved a good spot over there." This time, I could watch the entire trial from a prime seating position. As I sucked on a Melona¡ªDang Seo-rin, sitting at the trial bench, was also casually chewing on a Melona¡ªI observed that surprisingly¡ Busan¡¯s witch trials were quite rational. "You cut off someone¡¯s leg, so you¡¯ll serve the victim for life. [You¡¯ll follow all the tasks originally performed by both legs as directed by the victim]. You can¡¯t leave the victim¡¯s side without their permission. Do you agree?" "The only remaining newspaper in Busan falsely used a citizen, leading to their suicide. Though there¡¯s no family left to seek revenge, the damage to the newspaper¡¯s reputation must be repaired. From now on, all your actions must be recorded in a column of the newspaper. [All your past and future wrongdoings must be published urately]. This will let everyone in Busan know what kind of person you are. Do you agree?" "You didn¡¯t pay wages for work done. Labor is an investment of time. [For the exact same amount of time the victim worked, you¡¯ll follow their orders]. Of course, unreasonable orders like suicide aren¡¯t allowed. You¡¯ll eat the same food, sleep in the same bed, wake up, and rest at the same time as the victim. Do you agree?" If civilization were intact, such judgments would be unthinkable. Without Dang Seo-rin¡¯s magic, these deals could never be realized. Her judgments were cruel and harsh¨D yet they held a strange persuasion, making hundreds of people in the vast square feel ¡®convinced.¡¯ Each time a judgment was passed, the blue scales shimmered in the air. The most impressive trial was for the defendant who had killed someone, a murder trial. "......" Dang Seo-rin chewed on the popsicle stick from her finished Melona. On one side stood the murderer, on the other, the bereaved family. Her dark blue eyes scanned them. "Do you regret the murder?" "...Yes." "Are you genuinely sorry to the bereaved?" "Yes¡ I am sorry¡." "Then, [you must endure whatever the bereaved do to you without resisting]. You can¡¯tin or express your grievances. You just have to ept it." "......" "Do you agree?" "......" The silence was quite long. Despite the lengthy pause, the moment the defendant nodded was surprisingly short. "Yes. I agree. Please¡ please do that, Great Witch." The scales gleamed. "You bastard!" At that moment, a family member jumped the fence and lunged at the defendant. Thud! The sound of a fist shattering bone echoed clearly in my ears. "How could you! You killed our child! You promised to marry her, how could you! Bastard! Son of a bitch!" In normal circumstances, someone would¡¯ve intervened. In a pre-apocalypse court, security would have stopped it. But in the execution square, no one stopped the family. Other rtives who followed began to kick the defendant on the ground. Busan had clear visibility since most high-rise buildings were demolished. The red sunset reflected off the sea, bouncing back to the city as it always had. In the execution square, under the blood-red sky, the defendant¡¯s blood drops fell around. Soon, the breathing stopped. "......" And in that moment¨D I was struck by the intense realization that all this might just be an external reflection of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s inner world. While all spectators watched the bereaved family¡¯s punishment, I alone turned my head to look at Dang Seo-rin. She was looking at me, too. Between us, the sunset was deep red. There¡¯s an epilogue. I don¡¯t believe I have the right to judge everything in the world. So, I didn¡¯t stop Dang Seo-rin¡¯s ¡®witch trials.¡¯ She had her own rationality and fairness. Also, to be fair, her rationality and fairness were the best possible in the apocalypse. Other cities? Private sanctions based on the guild leader''s personal gain. And even AI judges weren¡¯t introduced until muchter. Not just in the 26th cycle, but in every cycle I shared thepleted ¡®equivalent exchange¡¯ spell, Dang Seo-rin consistently held witch trials. "So¡ how was it?" "What do you mean?" "The trial." We had returned to the train of the Samcheon guild and were drinking. Usually, we would visit various ces to maintain our friendship. But if Dang Seo-rin said, "Let¡¯s drink on the train tonight," it meant she wanted to get really drunk. As the ruler of Busan and the leader of the Korean guild alliance, as well as the progenitor of song magic, the Great Witch couldn¡¯t afford to show herself drunk and stumbling on the streets. Not even in front of guild members. It took someone like me, who defeated the Ten Legs and recaptured the Han River south of Seoul, or a teacher with many disciples through SG Net, for Dang Seo-rin to not lose her authority when hanging out together. "I think it¡¯s fine." "What part is fine?" "Everything seems fine, just by the fact that you¡¯re asking someone else if it¡¯s okay." "Fuf." Dang Seo-rinughed. "What¡¯s that? Silly." But her expression visibly rxed. While I endured a drunk friend¡¯s ramblings for a while, Dang Seo-rin suddenly activated the equivalent exchange spell. "Undertaker, put what you think of me on the scales." "What? Are you a child¡? Are you asking like a parent who asks if you like mom or dad more?" "Ah,e on. Just put it on. Do you agree?" I sighed and said, "Alright." Then, from my chest, a shadowy, radiant snake tail emerged. Dang Seo-rin twirled her finger. From her heart area, a white thread-like snake crawled and coiled on the other side of the scales. Screech¡ª An impossible noise sounded as the scales slowly bnced. Soon, they reached perfect equilibrium. Dang Seo-rin smirked like a cat. "Hmm." "What is that?" In the night, the scales Dang Seo-rin created glowed faintly like starlight, and the Milky Way shimmered outside the window. It was a Meteor Shower. With the rain of stars as a backdrop, Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly. "A secret." It was a truly witch-like answer. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 58 Puppeteer I This story''s genre is somewhat bizarre mystery. I asionally use the term ''route.'' This is because I often liken my journey to prevent the world''s destruction to mountain climbing. Mountaineers who ascend the Himyas often refer to the paths they take as ''routes.'' I, too, borrow their terminology to describe my own strategies. The grand premise of a regressor. ''How can one prevent destruction?'' How can one conquer the summit of the ''Everest of time'' that no human has ever reached? Throughout my 1183 cycles of regression, there have indeed been countless routes.For example, from the 35th cycle to the 107th cycle, the paths I tried to pioneer were the ''Civilization Rebuilding Route'' or the ''Revival Route.'' For this ascent, the members of my climbing team were as follows: 1) The presence of a ''Saintess'' who could observe all awakeners within the radius and maintain a very high moral standard. 2) The presence of ''Seo Gyu'' with the ubiquitous ability to maintain SG Net, amunity where all awakeners could participate anytime, anywhere, regardless of their segmented activity ranges. 3) The presence of ''Noh Do-hwa,'' a national road management corps leader who could connect and maintain roadworks between city bases without political corruption. 4) The presence of someone who could mediate and lead them all, always diligent, a modern-day knight in shining armor, in other words, me, the Undertaker. Those who have followed my story thus far would agree that my preparation was methodical and thorough. Even in the situation where we lost Old Man Scho, the strongest swordsman and the ultimate joker, I pride myself on having done my best. However, the ''Revival Route'' copsed in an instant. -Please remember, Undertaker. -The abilities of awakeners are not purely blessings. They are double-edged swords. Codename, Saintess. Her codename after falling, Executioner. The appearance of this beingpletely derailed the route I had nned. -If awakeners be so ustomed to their abilities that they are consumed by them, they will be monstrous like me. -20 years. Ideally, before 15 years approach, you must restore the world to its original form. Please remember, Undertaker. That''s right. Awakeners were never theplete opposites of monsters. They were of the same kind. If monsters were beings born from the void, awakeners were nurturing monsters in their minds and hearts. Dang Seo-rin. Noh Do-hwa. Cheon Yo-hwa. Sword Marquess. The abilities they possessed, miracles unattainable by ordinary humans, were not just blessings but also curses. By now, some readers might be starting to understand why I had to struggle through 1183 cycles. Exactly. To catch monsters, you need awakeners, but if an awakener bes too powerful, they turn into a colossal monster. It¡¯s as if the world itself is¡ª ¡®Do you perhaps enjoy bleak stories? In fact, I do enjoy them very much. Bleak.¡¯ ¡®Here, I''ve made a bleak stew that''s quite delicious. Would you like to try just one spoonful¡?¡¯ It¡¯s like they shyly ask, forcing their preferences on others. You might think, "What kind of lunatic would do such a thing?" Unfortunately, the world¡¯s unreasonable fate doesn¡¯t end here. But for now, I¡¯ll set aside the regressor¡¯sints. Today, I want to talk briefly about the first route I ever established. Called the ''A Route.'' The first route in my regressor life, also known as the ''Academy Route.'' Unlike other routes, the ''A Route'' was uniquely co-created by Old Man Scho and me. It was before Old Man Scho went on his damned vacation (seriously, if that old man everes back). "Hey, Embalmer." Old Man Scho said while lifting a dumbbell. Why he suddenly picked up a dumbbell was beyond me. After all, Old Man Scho was always pumping iron 24/7. For reference, Embalmer is another name for the Undertaker. Old Man Scho sometimes called me that, not out of respect for my alias, but to sneak in a nuance of ''damn'' into the pronunciation. Damn old man. "Why?" "Have you heard the news?" "What news?" "In Fukuoka¡ No, kid, why is your tone like that? Huh? Talking back to an elder with that kind of attitude." The exact time was the 18th cycle. At this point, Old Man Scho¡¯s mental state was still intact. Of course, even when Old Man Scho was sane, he was just an added German tyrant to the world. Here¡¯s a surprising fact: that old man graduated from art school. Doesn¡¯t it sound off? Anyone who knows history can guess what kind of sentence emerges when ''Germany''bines with ''art school.'' "Did you leave your brain cells behind during yourst regression...? Anyway, what about Fukuoka?" "Oh, right. I heard an interesting awakener has appeared in Fukuoka. Codename Puppeteer." "Puppeteer? What¡¯s their ability?" "Who knows. Awakeners usually keep their abilities tightly under wraps. I only heard that themittee courted them several times." Old Man Scho tapped his nose. It was annoying. "But I have a feeling. Puppeteer must be exceptional." "Oh, that feeling." "Why? My intuition is usually right." In subculture works, there¡¯s a concept called ''Academy Drift.'' It refers to when a perfectly good work suddenly takes a detour with the protagonist enrolling in an academy, often leading to the work¡¯s decline. However, there was a very rational reason why Old Man Scho and I established and ran an academy. ¡°We need to recruit them.¡± It was to gather promising talents. It was nearly impossible for Old Man Scho and me alone to prevent the world¡¯s destruction. So we needed to form the most powerful party possible to at least flip off the world that constantly cooked bleak stews. Even when recruiting talent. -Would you join our guild and serve us? -Would you like to enroll in an academy and receive lessons from experts? There was a significant difference in the tone between these two invitations. Especially for Asians. Including Koreans, many Asians had a perverse obsession that got excited by words like ¡®education,¡¯ ¡®entrance exam,¡¯ and ¡®prestige.¡¯ To study and seed in a guild was merely a power y, but to enter an academy and study well was seen as self-discipline, filial piety, and patriotism. There was no reason not to exploit such a good culture. Old Man Scho put up the signboard of ''Academy Principal'' instead of the rigid title of guild master. I took the position of vice-principal. We even added some seasoning to it. -Academy run by a German! -Proven skills from the Ten Legs Raid. Guaranteed by Sword Star and Undertaker. The slogan of a foreigner-run academy with pure German blood was practically a brainwashing ray for Asians. By the way, the name of our educational institution was Freedom Academy, in German, Freiheit Academy. If Germans had seen it, they might have raised their eyebrows at the institution that oddly emphasized ¡®pure blood¡¯ and ¡®freedom.¡¯ One of the most famous buildings built by Germans had the slogan ¡®Arbeit macht frei¡¯ (Work sets you free) at its entrance. Fortunately, Old Man Scho was a supporter of the Social Democratic Party. People trusted the specialized foreign awakener academy without any hesitation. Creating an organization that we called a guild but read as an academy to selectively extract promising awakeners from various countries. This was the essence of the ¡®A Route.¡¯ ¡°What. If they are really outstanding, we should recruit them. So, are you nning to go to Fukuoka to recruit this Puppeteer? Do ferries still operate these days?¡± ¡°If there¡¯s a will, there¡¯s a way. A schr who wants to go will find a way. How could I not get even a single ferry?¡± ¡°Even if you safely cross the Korean Strait, the Japanese won¡¯t let you take their awakener easily. They¡¯re in a rush too.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. They¡¯re not Japanese but Korean.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Originally from Busan, they quickly evacuated as soon as the gate opened.¡± ¡°But why evacuate to there¡ It¡¯s not like monsters are North Korean soldiers. It¡¯s hell there and here alike.¡± ¡°Who knows? It¡¯s only been three years.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± I took a moment of silence. ¡°¡But if it¡¯s Fukuoka, are they involved with the Provisional Government there? You¡¯ll be in trouble if you get entangled with them.¡± ¡°No idea. Do you think I¡¯m omniscient?¡± ¡°Hmmm. So, when are you nning to go?¡± ¡°Well, when are you nning to go?¡± ¡°¡?¡± ¡°¡?¡± We exchanged nces. ¡°¡?¡± ¡°¡?¡± Communication, failure. We silently raised our swords. We deeply respected the traditional method that humanity had always chosen whenmunication failed since ancient times. Five minutes passed. ¡°Have a safe trip, Embalmer.¡± ¡°Damn it¡¡± ¡°Where are you trying to defeat a Swordmaster with such poor swordsmanship? Ah, if you see any instant ramen on the way, get some. Preferably tonkotsu. Isn¡¯t Fukuoka famous for its tonkotsu? Let¡¯s treat our stomachs.¡± I had no choice. At that time, I was still weaker than Old Man Scho. Dragging my bruised body, I pathetically left the principal¡¯s office. [The Saintess of National Salvation is cheering for you.] I gave a bitter smile. ¡®As expected, the only one on my side is a constetion.¡¯ Of course, in the 18th cycle, I didn¡¯t know the constetion¡¯s true identity as an awakener. My rtionship with the Saintess was close to what is known as parasocialism. ¡°Only the constetion understands me. I¡¯ll be on a short business trip to Japan, so please take care of that old man.¡± [The Saintess of National Salvation cheers you not to worry.] ¡°Constetion¡!¡± To give a simr example, it was like a fan getting overly attached to a Vtuber. Why? After all, the constetion genre also originated from inte streaming tforms. This much was a healthy hobby. Hmm. ¡It was an immature time in many ways. Even if my memory ssified it as a dark history, to others, the awakener known as ¡®Undertaker¡¯ was undoubtedly a person of interest. Old Man Scho. Dang Seo-rin. Undertaker. No matter what, the main characters of the Ten Legs Raid were the three of us. And it was the first case in the world where boss-level monsters were subjugated purely by a private organization, not government-led. Korea originally had a tradition where militias received buffs over regr armies, so it wasn¡¯t strange. Of course, if we were to rank purely by poprity domestically and internationally: Dang Seo-rin > Old Man Scho ¨R Undertaker would be the order. If Old Man Scho and my fame fluctuated, Dang Seo-rin always maintained the top spot. She was the leader of the Korean Guild Union (the name varied slightly by cycle). More importantly, her character overwhelmed both Old Man Scho and me. A witch singing on the battlefield? Isn¡¯t that a cheat? How could two swordsmenpete with that? Simply put, once you saw Dang Seo-rin singing a four-part a cappe on the battlefield, everyone would think she was amazing. Especially when her song provided buff doping without side effects. Ah, already the Korean awakeners couldn¡¯t go to boss raids without Dang Seo-rin¡¯s song¡ Anyway. In Korea, my position was the second-inmand, asionally falling to third when Old Man Scho unleashed his ultimate potential. ¡°Wee to Japan, Undertaker!¡± Even that level of position was enough to attract a swarm of flies. ¡°Waaaaaa!¡± ¡°Wee to Busan!¡± ¡°Undertaker! Undertaker! Undertaker!¡± As soon as Inded at the port, nearly three hundred people cheered in unison. It was more of an army than flies. Moreover, they vigorously waved banners instead of wings. The banners were emzoned with symbols like: [¡ïPride of Korea, Awakener Undertaker¡ï] [Wee to Busan!] [All members of the Second Provisional Government of Korea] Ah. My head hurt. ¡®Busan? You idiots¡¡¯ Let me exin. Of course, I had sailed from Busan to Fukuoka, Japan. I didn¡¯t return to Busan after a tour of the Korean Strait. It wasn¡¯t my destination that had gone crazy but their minds. Fukuoka (¸£Œù). Reading the Chinese characters, it means ¡®prosperous hill.¡¯ The second character (Œù) signifies a mountain or hill. So, these flies before me decided to call Fukuoka ¡®Busan.¡¯ Ignoring the perfectly good city name. It was akin to telling Native Americans, ¡®From now on, you¡¯re Indians.¡¯ The even more ridiculous point was that Japan already had a city called Toyama (¸»É½), which could be phically rendered as ¡®Busan.¡¯ In short, these people were being triple nuisances to Busan, Fukuoka, and Toyama. Why on earth? ¡°Ahaha. Wee, Undertaker!¡± The middle-aged man at the front of the weing crowd exined everything. Mayor Jung. Real name Jung Sang-guk. He wasn¡¯t the current mayor. In Korea, the public servant job had been abolished along with elementary, middle, high schools, and universities long ago. Jung Sang-guk was the ¡®former¡¯ mayor of ¡®Busan.¡¯ Currently, he was also the head of the Second Provisional Government of Korea. When a massive void swept over the south of the Han River, causing the Blue House and National Assembly to reconcile and start a grand coalition towards heaven, Sejong and Busan were the remaining city bases to stabilize the situation. The public servants in Sejong attempted to control the military (and they, too, amicably departed to the bellies of the Ten Legs). Meanwhile, Mayor Jung Sang-guk of Busan chose a more traditional approach. -Citizens, what kind of people are we? -Uh¡ The people of delivery? -No, we are the people of Terran. Jung Sang-guk lifted his supporters and organization, relocating them like amand center. His generation found this joke quite fitting, and the citizens were impressed. If Kim Il-sung, the founder of the Daedonggang faction, could only practice teleportation alone, Jung Sang-guk managed a mass teleportation. It was proof that the Nakdonggang faction inherited the martial arts of Samhan. His methods were different. Now, Koreans acknowledged Jung Sang-guk¡¯s name value on par with Admiral Won Gyun and Prime Minister Lee Wan-yong of the Korean Empire. Considering Koreans¡¯ typically stringent evaluation of politicians, this was no small feat. By nature, all politicians are strictly idealists. Politicians believed that even if theycked legitimacy in reality, they could always borrow from ideals. So did Jung Sang-guk. The exile group became a ''government-in-exile,'' which suddenly transformed into the ''Second Provisional Government of Korea.'' Jung Sang-guk¡¯s business card changed ordingly, now reading ''Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government of Korea.'' On the day he was elected Prime Minister, Fukuoka was renamed Busan. Thus, Jung Sang-guk also acquired the title of ''Mayor of Busan'' as the representative of the Fukuoka Korean Association. It was madness. And now I was invited to this mad show. It wasmon grammar worldwide for fallen politicians to cling to war heroes. ¡°I have long admired you, Mr. Undertaker!¡± Jung Sang-guk, who once boasted a StarCraftdder score of 2150 as a Terran user, beamed brightly and hugged me. Following the Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government, the ministers of foreign affairs, finance, justice, and internal affairs all shook my hand. It was a very orderly mechanical hug. I smiled mechanically as well, and inwardly assigned modern MZ-generation nicknames like damn, fuck, damn it to the provisional government ministers. ¡®Damn old man. This is why I didn¡¯t want toe to Fukuoka for a business trip.¡¯ Kuk-ku-ku. From afar, I heard Old Man Scho¡¯sughter and a hallucination of ¡®yeah, your swordsmanship is weak.¡¯ Damn it. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 59 Puppeteer II To put it bluntly, I had no respect for the Second Provisional Government. I respected my eye crust more and didn''t want to be unnecessarily rude. The problem was the Fukuoka city government. The ones who leaked the information about my visit to the provisional government were likely from that side. At this point, unlike the Korean Penins, the governmental organizations in the Japanese archipgo hadn''tpletely copsed yet. Therefore, they had the luxury to hold on to the "provisional government" coin without discarding it. Who knows? This coin might rocket to Mars'' atmosphere. It was an extremely irrational judgment, but gamblers are often resistant to rational persuasion. Moreover, the Japanese had the sweet sess story of the Lee Wan-yong coin etched in their minds. The point when the Japanese government began regaining its rationality was muchter, with the descent of the eight million monstrosities. It was a good trade, except for the price of offering heads, arms, torsos, legs, and innards for wisdom.I would eventually take down a monstrosity called Inunaki... but all these tales are forter. It wasn''t yet a realized future. Therefore, for now, I had to consider Fukuoka''s authorities'' dignity. My task was to abduct an A-ss awakener residing in Fukuoka without causing a fuss. Provoking the locals would be foolish. Of course, in my 180th cycle, I could have kidnapped the Puppeteer without caring about politics, but at this point, I was merely a novice in my 18th cycle. What could I do? Sometimes, you have to do dirty work. "Haha. To have a patriot like you supporting our provisional government feels like gaining a thousand troops!" "Oh, support is too grand a word. I just want to share the hardships of mypatriots abroad during these tough times." "Ahaha, I see. Truly humble! Here! Please ept a drink, Mr. Undertaker!" In the end, I spent the night drinking with the provisional government officials. While Jung Sang-guk might have enjoyed the ''sweet conversations with the war hero Undertaker'' more than the alcohol. Anyway, I sang his praises enough to make Jung Sang-guk satisfied. "By the way... what brings you to Fukuoka?" "Ah, it''s more of a business matter than official duty." "Oh, in these times, what''s the difference between business and official duty? Any business you undertake is practically a national project. Please, do tell me." "Your words put me at ease. I''m looking for an awakener known by the codename Puppeteer who resides in Fukuoka. Do you know of them?" "...Puppeteer?" For the first time, Jung Sang-guk stuttered. "Yes, Puppeteer." "...I know them very well. But why...?" "As you know, I run a small academy, a training facility exclusively for awakeners. I''d like to see this Puppeteer in person and, if suitable, invite them to enroll in our academy." "I see..." The former mayor of Busan stared at me and muttered. "...Maybe this is for the best." It was a murmur whose meaning eluded me. The silence between us stretched for a couple of seconds before Jung Sang-guk awkwardly broke it. "Do you smoke?" I was a staunch anti-smoker, but that question was a signal for a private chat outside. For that, I could temporarily sacrifice my lung health. Some people even abandoned their homnd, so what was a little smoke? "Yes, I am desperate for one." "Let''s go. I can''t stand the heat, need some fresh air." We left the bar and polluted the night sky of the city. As the level of fine dust in Fukuoka rose appropriately, a rather remarkable sight unfolded. "Oh. A shooting star." "Oh? Really." A few meteors fell from the night sky. It was more of a sprinkle than a meteor shower. Soon the cosmic rain ceased. Jung Sang-guk, however, was barely looking at the meteors, nervously ncing around. "What''s wrong?" "I''m envious of you, Mr. Undertaker." "Sorry?" "Sometimes I imagine how great it would be if I were an awakener." Jung Sang-guk pulled out a portable ashtray with trembling hands and stubbed his cigarette into it. In that gesture, I didn''t see his neatness but rather the survival instinct of someone living abroad. If he had carelessly flicked the ash on the streets of Fukuoka, passing Japanese might wonder, ¡®Does this Korean think of ournd as an ashtray?¡¯ "Puppeteer is my daughter." I was so focused on the portable ashtray that I reacted a bitte. "...What?" "Puppeteer, Ha-yul. Lee Ha-yul. She''s my daughter. If you take her, please take good care of her." This was unexpected. Just as I was about to ponder the peculiarities of fate, I quickly came up with a question. "Wait a moment. Aren¡¯t you Mr. Jung? Pardon me for asking, but if your daughter''s surname is Lee..." "Ah. She took her mother''s surname." Could it be that he believed a child should inherit not only the father''s surname but also the mother''s? But my imagination was too limited. The former mayor of Busan smiled. It seemed a forced smile. "She''s my second... a hidden daughter." Damn. The first day''s schedule ended. After that, I had 2 nights and 3 days of alone time. The provisional government had arranged my amodation. ¡®He¡¯s something else, alright.¡¯ Even with the country falling apart, he managed to flee abroad with his second family. A true hero who could even use teleportation had to be different. Long ago, when Emperor Gaozu of Han was defeated by the demonic Xiang Yu and had to flee, he was forced to climb onto a carriage. At that time, Liu Bang threw his children off the carriage, iming it was overweight. Those who had yed RPGs would understand that having a full inventory was an unforgivable sin for a yer. However, in the game of the Chu-Han Contention, children were designated as essential items, and a warning popped up, saying, [It''s uneptable to discard them!]. He failed to abandon them in the end. This is why people need to learn martial arts. If Liu Bang had mastered the teleportation technique like Jung Sang-guk, he could havemitted such atrocities without relying on a weak carriage. "Mr. Undertaker, are you there?" Knock, knock. Just as I was testing the boundary between meditation and daydreaming, a martial arts master visited. It was our first reunion in two days. Jung Sang-guk handed me a piece of paper with Puppeteer''s address written on it. His appearance was odd. Despite the warm spring day, he wore gloves and had a rather strong fragrance. He even declined to apany me to Puppeteer''s house. "Why? Aren¡¯t youing with me?" "I''m sorry." Jung Sang-guk smiled awkwardly. It was a smile unbing of a politician. His expression was stiffer than it had been at the drinking party. "My daughter is going through a strong rebellious phase these days..." "But wouldn''t you be worried about me meeting your daughter alone?" "Oh, no. Not at all. Besides, there''s a housekeeper at Ha-yul''s ce, so it''s fine." "Hmm." "More importantly, I talked to Ha-yul about you yesterday. You don''t need to worry." "Got it. See you in the evening." Actually. I should have noticed the oddity then. If Jung Sang-guk''s second family was functioning properly, the housekeeper wouldn''t be there but rather his daughter''s biological mother. Moreover, it was strange that someone who had struggled so hard to win my favor suddenly refused to apany me. But what could I do? I checked the address and asked locals for directions, eventually arriving at Lee Ha-yul''s house. Knock, knock¡ªI knocked on the door handle attached to the entrance (few people used electronic doorbells due to electricity conservation) to announce my visit. "Is anyone home?" Knock, knock. "Hello, I''m the Undertaker. I''m here on Mr. Jung Sang-guk''s rmendation. Is anyone home?" Knock, knock. "......" It was purely my experience as a regressor who had gone through countless hardships that made me sense the foreboding then. I turned the doorknob. It was unlocked. "......" As I stepped into the foyer, my sight was filled with cobwebs. The corridors, living room, and first-floor staircase of the house were covered in giant cobwebs. Like an abandoned house. No matter how hard life abroad was or how illegitimate a child, it was too odd for the daughter of the head of the provisional government to live in such conditions. ''No, are these even cobwebs? They are too big.'' Rustle¡ª Something was under my shoe. A doll. Distracted by the cobwebs, I hadn''t noticed the dolls ced all around the house. "Lee Ha-yul?" I carefully navigated the house, avoiding the dolls. Figures, Russian matryoshka dolls, Japanese Ichimatsu dolls, Barbie dolls, ball-jointed dolls, stuffed dolls, paper flower dolls. Literally a house of dolls. Or perhaps a spider''s nest. A woman in her 40s, presumed to be the housekeeper, was found dead, hanged by cobwebs in the second-floor bedroom. "......" I was used to corpses. I didn''t panic, but seeing the 13 dolls surrounding the corpse as if in prayer was a first. It wasn''t the only first. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Dolls attached to strings moved up and down around the corpse. Like ying on a seesaw at a yground. I had no idea what kind of mechanism it was, but the strings wrapped around the dolls'' wrists extended to the corpse''s ''jaw'' and ''hands.'' So, as the dolls moved up and down, the corpse''s jaw clicked, and the fingers wiggled weirdly. Yes. Like a nutcracker. "What the...?" The stench was overwhelming. Judging by the rigor mortis, she had been dead for over 30 hours. At least 30 hours, but it felt much longer. That was strange. Over 30 hours meant it wasn''t yesterday but the day before. Moreover, Jung Sang-guk had testified that he met his daughter yesterday and told her about me. So, the housekeeper was already dead by then? ''Strange.'' I instinctively felt that Jung Sang-guk had lied to me. Especially the gloves. His out-of-season gloves bothered me. I left the ''house of dolls'' and returned to my lodging. I nned to gather my belongings and track down Jung Sang-guk. Soon, it turned out I didn''t need to. Jung Sang-guk''s corpse was hanging from cobwebs in the middle of my lodging. "......" How? Something was off. No, it was dangerous. Even though Jung Sang-guk was a powerless traitor, finding his body in my room was bad news. My mind quickly cooled. A familiar sensation. I acted swiftly. ''I need to handle this.'' Fwoosh¡ª! Without investigating further, I immediately incinerated the body. Completely. Using all my aura to erase any trace, including my own. Only someone who had umted inner power over multiple cycles like me could perform such a feat effortlessly. ''59 seconds.'' I grabbed a book and walked out of the lodging casually. I greeted the staff brightly on purpose. To them, I would appear as ''a guest who briefly entered and left the room.'' It would be hard to believe that a body was incinerated in such a short time. Now, I only had to worry about witnesses. Anyone who might have seen Jung Sang-guk enter my room. No need to worry about CCTV. Nowadays, CCTV was rare. Not because of electricity but because they were prone to being infected by monstrosities, making people avoid them. I asked the lodging staff, ''Have you seen Mr. Jung?'' They shook their heads, saving their lives. So far, four minutes had passed. While not a perfect alibi, it was sufficient for usible deniability. I hadn''tmitted any murder. That was the truth. And I was strong. The power of truth sometimes wielded sharp des even in the hands of the weak. In the hands of the strong, it was unmatched. ''Scho, old man. I''ll make sure to charge you well for this trip.'' I headed back to the house of dolls. This time stealthily, without anyone noticing. ¨DCircumstantially, the ''culprit'' was almost certainly Jung Sang-guk''s illegitimate daughter, Lee Ha-yul. Evidence was unnecessary. I was neither a detective nor a cop. I was a regressor. I could verify evidence in other cycles. What mattered now was to gather as much information as possible about the culprit, Lee Ha-yul, to gain an advantage in future cycles. It turned out to be necessary. At the entrance, I found an awakener with bright chestnut hair, presumably Lee Ha-yul, dead. "......" Lee Ha-yul was in a wheelchair, stabbed in the chest by a knife held by a doll. I first realized then that the Puppeteer was a legless girl. Without ever having heard her voice and knowing I would never hear it in the 18th cycle, I covered my forehead with my left hand before her corpse. "That damned old man..." Really. I would charge a high price for this trip. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 60 Puppeteer III As I mentioned earlier, I was neither a detective nor a cop. My deductions spanned both the past and the future. That was why I could pull off such tricks. ¡°Puppeteer is my daughter.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Puppeteer. Ha-yul. Lee Ha-yul. She¡¯s my daughter.¡± 19th cycle. I deliberately followed the same steps as the previous cycle and came to Fukuoka. Unless the butterfly effect intervened, thew of causality was strict. Jung Sang-guk, just as he did in thest cycle, said, ¡°I¡¯ll contact my daughter. Please wait at the lodging for a few days.¡±The difference in the 19th cycle was that instead of eagerly heading to the lodging to enjoy the hot springs, this time, I secretly followed Jung Sang-guk. A detective who catches only the crime without deducing the criminal¡¯s past is third-rate. A detective who reveals the past events that led to the criminal¡¯s wayward path is merely second-rate. A true first-rate detective tracks the crime to unfold and witnesses all the causes in real-time. Is that even a detective? If you¡¯re upset about it, awaken the regression ability. The contract condition is that you must y the Ten Legs and other monstrosities. It¡¯s that simple, right? Knock, knock. Jung Sang-guk headed to the ''House of Dolls'' as soon as the drinking party ended. After a few knocks, the housekeeper appeared. So far, everything was normal. The abnormality began immediately after. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡± Bowing, Jung Sang-guk lowered his head. It was Jung Sang-guk, not the housekeeper, who bowed. Jung Sang-guk bowed to the housekeeper. I couldn¡¯t help but widen my eyes. Then, just as my mouth was about to drop open, the housekeeper spoke. ¡°Come in.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government of Korea followed the housekeeper inside as if it were natural. ¡°¡¡.¡± What on earth was going on? Feeling as if I had seen a ghost, I clung close to the ''House of Dolls.'' Though my sight was blocked by the wall, my aura-enhanced hearing assisted my eavesdropping. ¡°How was the meeting?¡± ¡°Uneventful.¡± ¡°What¡¯s Undertaker¡¯s goal?¡± ¡°He wants to take Ms. Ha-yul to the academy.¡± Murmur. Their voices carried through the wall. Jung Sang-guk spoke with utmost respect but also with a hint of fear, while the housekeeper was cold and mechanical. ¡°Academy?¡± That voice, precisely speaking, pronounced ¡®a/ca/de/my¡¯ in a segmented manner. ¡°Yes. He aims to gather and train talented awakeners like Ms. Ha-yul.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Ms. Ha-yul? He called his own daughter ''Ms. Ha-yul''? ¡°I received the curriculum. Here. I read through it once, and it seems quite usible. Sword Star is the principal, the Undertaker is the vice-principal, and Dang Seo-rin is an honorary professor¡¡± ¡°So?¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°Did you ept it?¡± ¡°No, no! How could I? I couldn¡¯t make such a decision alone, so I arranged for him to stay at an inn in the city. He¡¯ll stay put for about two days.¡± Silence. ¡°He left during the meeting.¡± ¡°¡Excuse me?¡± ¡°He went out during the drinking party. Alone with the Undertaker. What did you talk about?¡± ¡°Ah¡ Just stepped out for a smoke. Nothing much.¡± ¡°Liar.¡± A chill ran down my spine. ¡®How does she know that?¡¯ There was definitely no one around when Jung Sang-guk and I talked alone. Could it be that someone from the provisional government at the party leaked information to the housekeeper? Was this seemingly ordinary middle-aged housekeeper really the one pulling the strings behind the provisional government? The questions didn¡¯tst long. Soon, crucial testimony spilled from Jung Sang-guk¡¯s mouth. ¡°Come down. Downstairs.¡± At themand toe downstairs, Jung Sang-guk, who had maintained hisposure, began to panic. ¡°Please, believe me! Ms. Ha-yul! Please, I beg you! Just spare the Doll Room!¡± My jaw dropped. ¡°Lee Ha-yul!¡± There was no mistake. Jung Sang-guk had addressed the housekeeper as ''Ms. Ha-yul.'' It made no sense unless Jung Sang-guk was senile and couldn¡¯t tell his daughter¡¯s face from the housekeeper¡¯s. There was no way the housekeeper and Lee Ha-yul were the same person. The housekeeper was in her 40s. In contrast, the corpse of Lee Ha-yul I saw in the previous cycle couldn¡¯t have been older than her early 20s. Thus. ¡®Lee Ha-yul was controlling the housekeeper!¡¯ Puppeteer. Whoever gave her that name was spot on. I surmised that Lee Ha-yul had the ability to control people. The housekeeper was a marite. A puppet of Lee Ha-yul. And not just the housekeeper. I recalled the ''countless requests for handshakes'' from the provisional government officials when I arrived in Fukuoka. The ministers of foreign affairs, finance, justice, and the interior. Their hugs felt strangely stiff. ¡®Are the high-ranking officials of the provisional government marites too? All of them? Or only some? If only some, how far?¡¯ In the 18th cycle, I had never imagined this truth, and it struck me like a shockwave. In some sense, Old Man Scho was right. ¡°Come down. I¡¯ve said it twice.¡± ¡°Please, please¡¡± The plea was cut off. Jung Sang-guk could no longer articte words. Only faint sounds like ''ugh- heok, guk-'' could be heard. The human ear was not so precise. Understanding everything by sound alone was difficult, but I could guess that Jung Sang-guk¡¯s mouth was blocked by something. ¡°Hmmph¡¡± Jung Sang-guk struggled. Given that an adult man couldn¡¯t put up a proper fight, it was likely he was subdued by some abnormal means. Cobwebs. I recalled the cobwebs that had bound the housekeeper and Jung Sang-guk¡¯s corpses. And the cobwebs that covered the House of Dolls. Perhaps they weren¡¯t cobwebs but ''puppet strings.'' ¡°Hmmph¡¡± The sound of a body being dragged. The vibrations from the first floor gradually subsided. I quickly understood the situation. Jung Sang-guk was being dragged to the basement by the housekeeper. There was no more sound to be heard. The walls were too thick. My aura, umted over the 18 cycles, could only reach so far. The basement. That must be the trueir of the Puppeteer. Once again, my decision was swift. I decided to break in. An outstanding awakener has an exceptional memory. To survive the void, you must know how to remember various rules. There is a proverb that is almost likemon knowledge. -A well-built awakener¡¯sir isparable to the void. Personally, I think it¡¯s somewhat exaggerated, but it means to be cautious. For example, every train Dang Seo-rin used as herir had a robust security system. Unwee guests who entered without a ''train ticket'' would learn how wonderful a killing machine a train could be. This ce was no different. The ''House of Dolls'' I visited in thest cycle was already an empty shell left after its owner died. When I visited the first time, the Puppeteer must have deliberately lifted the security. They needed me to witness the housekeeper''s death and return to the lodging. -Click, click, click. In other words, this was the first time I had set foot in their of the House of Dolls in its true sense. The clicking noise echoed from all directions as soon as I burst through the door. The dolls were making the noise. Entrance. Hallway. Ceiling. Marites hung by puppet strings fiercely moved their jaws. Along with the clicking of the jaws, the dolls¡¯ joints creaked. Their blue, ck, yellow, and red eyes rotated. -Click, click, click, click. A territorial marking. A signal to alert of an intruder. And preprogrammed movements to eliminate impurities. The marites¡¯ movements were clearly meticulously calcted. Their joints creaked like piano keys, the strings swayed, and a faint golden aura was present in the puppet strings. ¡®Aura!¡¯ At the time, the only ones who had mastered the use of aura were Old Man Scho and me. It was a specialty of the Freiheit Academy. The puppet show unfolding before me was solely self-taught. ¡®Not only can she control people, but she can also imbue the puppet strings with aura!¡¯ I was impressed but didn¡¯t hesitate. Like the famous opening scene of the movie Cube, semi-transparent threads tightened from all directions. Any ordinary human would be dismembered just by touching them. Fortunately or unfortunately, my life was far from ordinary. I jumped in headfirst without using a sword, wrapping my entire body in aura. Swish¡ªsh, sh, sh! The puppet strings, charging with killing intent, snapped as soon as they touched my body. -Click, click, click, click. The dolls moved even more frantically. The mass of cobwebs multiplied exponentially. But it was useless. Old Man Scho had evaluated me as ¡®5th rate in martial talent, but top-ss in aura talent.¡¯ It was as if my external skills werepensated by internal energy. And I had the [Resume] skill. A skill that carried over my physical abilities, including muscle strength and other body capabilities, into the next cycle. That included the amount of aura. In martial arts terms, by the 19th cycle, my internal energy had already surpassed a full 60 years. Crack! I reached out and crushed the head of a doll. The dolls swung up and down on the strings but couldn¡¯t escape my grasp. No matter how power-crazed the monstrosities of this world were, 60 years of cultivation was a lifetime achievement for a human. I had spent that lifetime on the battlefield. The awakeners entrenched in the rtively safe rear of Fukuoka couldn¡¯t withstand my life. -......! The entrance was breached. The hallway and living room were sessively neutralized. About 300 dolls crumbled in my hands. Soon the murderous cobwebs also calmed down. The precise arrangement of the dolls must have been the core of thisir¡¯s security system. High-level awakening abilities. Excellent understanding of her powers. Prudence in not revealing her true form. Bold and decisive actions. Mastery of aura at a young age, learned independently. Precise calction abilities. ...The test was over. Although I didn¡¯t want to admit it, Old Man Scho¡¯s intuition was correct. A prodigy. The Puppeteer was certainly worth recruiting. Even if she had no legs, that wasn¡¯t a significant hindrance. She might not be able to fight on the front lines, but she had enormous potential as a support member. ¡°Lee Ha-yul. Are you listening?¡± Silence. ¡°I am the Undertaker. Colleague of the Sword Star and the Great Witch. I apologize for barging in like this. It was my fault.¡± Silence. ¡°Lee Ha-yul. I want to talk to you. I used force to demonstrate my skills. I could break into the basement, but I don¡¯t want our rtionship to start off on the wrong foot.¡± Silence. ¡°My goal is to persuade you to join the academy in Korea. Give me a chance to convince you.¡± Creak. The basement door opened. ¡°Come in.¡± The housekeeper was holding the doorknob. Hearing her voice up close, the mechanical tone was even more apparent. On reflection, the ideal form of machinery for humans had always been dolls, from paper and clockwork to AI chips. Thus, the term mechanical sound could be corrected to doll sound without much error. I passed the housekeeper and stepped into the basement. Thud. The heavy iron door closed behind me. ¡°¡¡.¡± Finally, I made eye contact with Lee Ha-yul herself. This was the first time. In the previous cycle, her corpse had its eyes closed. Golden eyes. Light chestnut hair. A legless girl. Sometimes an awakener¡¯s manifestation altered their hair and eye colors. The girl sitting in the wheelchair had apletely different hue from her father, Jung Sang-guk. ¡°Ugh! Hmmph, ugh¡¡± Jung Sang-guk, who had been dragged here earlier, was also in a wheelchair. In terms of mobility issues, he was worse off than his daughter. Though he had legs, his entire body was bound tightly with puppet strings, like prey caught in a spider web. Moreover, his fingernails were freshly dripping blood. ¡®...Ah.¡¯ Hmm. That¡¯s why Jung Sang-guk wore gloves in the 18th cycle. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 61 Puppeteer IV "Ugh¡!" Jung Sang-guk''s eyes were bloodshot. His mouth and tongue were bound by puppet strings, preventing him from speaking, but it didn''t matter. Bodynguage was a universalnguage. Jung Sang-guk writhed desperately, sending out an SOS signal. I felt sorry for him, but my priority was not the parent, but the child. Jung Sang-guk''s struggles only agitated Lee Ha-yul. "¡¡." Lee Ha-yul silently drove a nail under his fingernail. Rip! His nail tore. Anotherpetitor in the same business sector had just opened. "Ugh, please¡!"The blood loss from excessivepetition drove Jung Sang-guk to faint. I mourned for him inwardly. It was all because he was born in the wrong era. If he had been born during the Japanese upation, a traitor of his caliber wouldn''t have faced nail torture. I spread my hands. "Lee Ha-yul, I have no intention of interfering in matters between you and Jung Sang-guk. As I said earlier, my only goal is to persuade you to join the academy." "¡¡." "Let me introduce myself again. I am Undertaker. I exterminated the Ten Legs in the Korean Penins. I am now the vice-principal of the Freiheit Academy." By now, it was time for Lee Ha-yul herself to introduce herself, but that didn¡¯t happen. Instead, the housekeeper marite, who had opened the basement door for me, stood behind Lee Ha-yul¡¯s wheelchair and spoke in a mechanical voice. "Lee Ha-yul. Puppeteer." "...I understand you''re being cautious, but can''t you speak in your own voice?" "Impossible." "Why?" Lee Ha-yul opened her mouth wide. Her neat teeth were visible, but beyond them was a ck void. I tilted my head. What was this? Unless she mistook me for a dentist, this pose made no sense. Then the housekeeper, like a ventriloquist''s dummy, spoke. "Vocal cord. Disability." It was an unexpected statement. "She can''t speak." "¡¡." "So she can''t converse." I then realized that Lee Ha-yul''s disability was not only the loss of her legs. A physical speech disability. ...Therefore, the girl in front of me must have endured extreme difort before awakening her ability. Mobility issues. Communication issues. Considering she was the illegitimate child of a prominent politician, it wouldn''t be surprising to add identity issues to the list. Her [Puppeteer] ability was truly a miracle for Lee Ha-yul. "...I''m sorry. I didn''t know." "It''s fine." Lee Ha-yul closed her mouth. The Puppeteer''s expression remained devoid of any emotion. "It doesn''t matter." "Hmm." "How did you find this ce?" It was a bizarre sight. The voice came entirely from the housekeeper, but the conversation was with Lee Ha-yul. The direction of the gaze and the voice were mismatched. Despite the strange feeling, I continued to meet Lee Ha-yul''s eyes. "I followed Jung Sang-guk. His request for me to wait at the lodging for two days was suspicious. I saw him enter the House of Dolls and decided to eavesdrop for a while." "¡¡." The girl''s eyes softened slightly. It seemed she liked the term ''House of Dolls.'' "Thanks to that, I overheard your conversation with Jung Sang-guk. If you saw my rampage upstairs, you would know I excel in aura maniption." Lee Ha-yul tilted her head. "Aura?" "...Hmm." I ignited an aura in my palm. A murky me. My aura was achromatic. "This. You infused your puppet strings with golden aura earlier, right?" "You call that aura." "Some people call it inner energy. It''s a matter of preference. Some call it magical energy or pronounce it as aura. Did you learn aura maniption on your own?" "Yes." "Impressive." "Even the magical girls said that." By the way, ''magical girls'' referred to the strongest group of awakeners in Japan, whoter essentially seeded the role of the Japanese government as the ''Magical Girl Council.'' How such a chaotic situation came about¡ well... Let''s just say that awakeners get stronger the crazier they are. I''ll have another chance to discuss themter. "The magical girls? Did they try to recruit you?" "Yes. I refused." "May I ask why? I want to reduce the chances of failure by learning from rejection cases." "They''re weird." "¡¡." "Dresses. Lots of frills. Terrible fashion sense. They end their sentences with ''nya.'' Abnormal." "¡¡." It was quite an assertioning from a girl currently giving her father''s fingernails a strip show in real-time. Anyway, the small talk served as a good icebreaker between us. Contrary to what I expected, Lee Ha-yul was quite easy to converse with. If you ignored the strange puppet voice. "Is it alright if I ask why you¡¯re trying to kill Jung Sang-guk?" "Ugh¡?" Jung Sang-guk reacted to the word ''kill.'' Even when he was dragged to the basement and had his nails ripped out, he hadn¡¯t expected his daughter would kill him. But Jung Sang-guk was always meant to die. In the 18th cycle, Lee Ha-yul killed Jung Sang-guk, hung the housekeeper, and then killed herself. Everyone but Jung Sang-guk himself knew his death was an inevitable part of the schedule. Lee Ha-yul naturally answered my question. "This man betrayed my mother." Mother? She must mean Lee Ha-yul''s biological mother and Jung Sang-guk''s second wife. "He said he''d bring a doctor. That there was medicine. That the treatment was progressing, but mother died." "Ugh¡!" "Mother wanted to stay in Korea. This man forcibly brought her here. And neglected her." Lee Ha-yul''s ''voice'' remained unchanged. An unchanging mechanical tone. But her ''eyes'' burned as if melting gold. That was the temperature Lee Ha-yul originally possessed. "I remember. Since I was five, this man rarely visited our house. He found mother annoying. Me too. He was afraid of staying in Korea. Afraid we''d be discovered." "Hmmph!" "On the day mother died, I awakened. This is mother''s revenge." Jung Sang-guk struggled desperately, indicating it wasn¡¯t true. His old wheelchair creaked noisily. ...I could feel the sincerity in Lee Ha-yul''s words. But I also knew that sincerity did not guarantee the truth, past or future. That was the most painful truth about human nature. "Can I hear Jung Sang-guk¡¯s side too?" "¡¡." Lee Ha-yul looked up at me, her golden eyes scrutinizing my face for intent. Nod. "It doesn''t matter." "Ah¡!" Jung Sang-guk¡¯s tongue finally regained its freedom. Spider threads still wrapped around his tongue and teeth, but they loosened a bit. "Lies! Mr. Undertaker! Please don¡¯t believe the words of a child, especially one who tortures her own parent! I am Jung Sang-guk! Jung Sang-guk! A man who dedicates himself to the nation and people!" "Ah, I¡¯m sorry. I pretended otherwise at the drinking party, but I actually think of the Second Provisional Government as a farce." Jung Sang-guk wore a nk expression. "Excuse me?" "I treated you well out of respect for the Fukuoka officials. I have no interest in you. Mr. Jung Sang-guk. Why would awakeners who stayed in Korea and fought the Ten Legs have any affection for you?" "¡¡." "Besides, as I said, my goal is to take the Puppeteer to our academy. Now I just want to verify if Lee Ha-yul¡¯s ims are true. As you know, a teacher needs to understand a student¡¯s family background to some extent." "It''s a lie!" Jung Sang-guk shouted. "How did I neglect anything? What? Neglect what! If I were to take my second family in secret, should I have announced it to everyone? Think about it! If I really intended to neglect them, I would have left them to die in Korea!" "¡¡." "Sure, it¡¯s tough here too, but you know! The Ten Legs! That damn bastard! Our military, the South Korean Army, was annihted! Even the North Korean Army was wiped out! Knowing that, should I have left So-yoon and Ha-yul to die there? Yes! I¡¯m a traitor! I, Jung Sang-guk, am a traitor! But I wanted to save my family. I wanted to save my family, so I pandered to Japan and survived!" I could also feel the sincerity in Jung Sang-guk¡¯s words. But I knew that mimicking human pain was a politician¡¯s instinct. "If I were a selfish person who only thought of myself, I wouldn¡¯t have cared for Ha-yul! But how can a daughter, no matter how resentful, treat her parent like this?" Spider threads quickly bound Jung Sang-guk¡¯s tongue again. At first, I thought Lee Ha-yul was forcefully silencing him. But it wasn¡¯t that. "He brought us here and neglected us." Jung Sang-guk''s mouth moved. It was his voice, but not his words. They were Lee Ha-yul''s words. Lee Ha-yul was manipting his tongue, teeth, and throat, speaking through him, either deliberately or driven by emotion. "This house was originally shabby. I used my ability to control people and renovate it." "Ugh! Even that! In these times, that was a blessing and a luxury! Now that you¡¯re grown, don¡¯t you see that?" "Lies. Your house waspletely different." From then on, a very strange thing happened. Both of them were using the same tongue and mouth to talk. No, to argue. Lee Ha-yul¡¯s words were choked and broken, sounding like mechanical stutters. Jung Sang-guk must have been resisting. But his resistance was unsessful. So the two ended up conversing in turns. It was as if I didn¡¯t exist, and the father-daughter emotions erupted violently in a single, yet diverging, direction. "I have never treated you as my daughter! You¡¯re a crazy girl who tortures people!" "You¡¯re not my father either." Their anger peaked. But I thought both of their statements were wrong. Jung Sang-guk was also a puppet. As the mayor of Busan, he was a puppet saying whatever the citizens wanted to hear, and as the representative of Busan in Fukuoka, he said whatever pleased the Japanese. To him,nguage didn¡¯t matter. He could name the exile group the Second Provisional Government. He could rename Fukuoka as Busan. Whether in his own country or a foreign one, Jung Sang-guk was a lifelong servant to state power, a ''national ve''. Ifnguage is the essence of humanity, Jung Sang-guk merely mimicked it. Something that imitates a human. We call that a puppet. Strangely, the genes of a puppet were passed down to another puppet. To Lee Ha-yul, who grew up watching her mother and father, to a child, the archetype of a human was imprinted as a doll. Parents inevitably pass down some legacy to their children, whether they wish to or not. Even the parts they ignored, their children did not. They couldn¡¯t ignore them. That was the destiny of humans. "Lies." "No, it¡¯s not¡!" And if one has devoted their life to power, they must ept this oue too. In a spiraling conflict, the winner is the one who holds the stronger power. Before they crossed to Japan, immediately after, the power holder in this family was undoubtedly Jung Sang-guk. He had the power to control other puppets. "Lies, everything. All of it." Not anymore. The owner of the ''House of Dolls'' was no longer him, but Lee Ha-yul. "Ah¡ªhmm?" Jung Sang-guk¡¯s throat was constricted. Lee Ha-yul said nothing. Just as she had been since birth. She looked at her blood rtive as she had at birth. Puppet strings dug into his flesh. Ugh, the sound of a convulsion. "¡¡! ¡¡!" Struggling. A little. And then. "¡¡." The puppet went limp. The basement fell silent. In the end, the final words of a politician who stirred up turmoil in this end-of-the-world era were: Lies. Everything. All of it. Hisst words were cut into three parts. Three sections of his throat. As someone who had lived as a politician, were his final words closer to truth or lies? "¡¡." Watching Lee Ha-yul, covered in blood, I pondered for a moment. Some might argue that those weren¡¯t his final words since they weren¡¯t spoken of his own volition. Maybe. But it was undoubtedly his legacy. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 62 Puppeteer V There is a bit of a long epilogue. In fact, my whole story is one long epilogue. To confess truthfully, I originally intended to title this memoir something like ¡®The Regressor¡¯s Epilogue.¡¯ ¡°Huh? Mister, are you crazy?¡± If it weren''t for the interference of the web novel otaku, Oh Dok-seo, that would have indeed happened. ¡°Why? Isn''t it good?¡± ¡°What''s so good about it? These days, even those kids who live on SG Net wouldn¡¯t fall for a title like that.¡± ¡°Hmm¡ Then how about ¡®The Infinite Regressor¡¯s Daily Caf¨¦¡¯?¡±¡°What?¡± Oh Dok-seo looked like she heard something unspeakable. ¡°What did you just say?¡± ¡°My hobby is being a barista. Every time I go to see Old Man Scho¡¯s corpse, I also make caf¨¦ auit. So I thought of using the word caf¨¦¡¡± ¡°You''re really insane, aren¡¯t you?¡± There was genuine sincerity in Oh Dok-seo¡¯s words. Though I knew an otaku''s sincerity didn¡¯t guarantee truth, surprisingly, I sensed some truth this time. Hmm. Is it really that bad¡? ¡°How to Fail at Infinite Regression?¡± ¡°Your Excellency.¡± ¡°I am a Regressor.¡± ¡°Oh god.¡± ¡°The Regressor Abandons Salvation.¡± ¡°Bullshit.¡± ¡°The Regressor¡¯s Epilogue.¡± ¡°Get lost!¡± ¡°The Records of the Regressor¡¯s History.¡± ¡°Oh, please! Mister! Stop!¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Why is this? Is this a generation gap? No. It can¡¯t be. My aesthetic sensibility, honed over thousands of years, had transcended human levels, capable of casually greeting Leonardo da Vinci, Michngelo, and Goethe with ¡®Yo, long time no see.¡¯ I poured out all the title candidates I¡¯d thought of for twenty minutes, but they were all cut off by Oh Dok-seo. Even if my character was at the level of Siddhartha Gautama, this was an excessive tyranny. I said in anger. ¡°If you¡¯re so good, why don¡¯t you name it yourself?¡± ¡°Fine! But no matter what title Ie up with, you must never interfere! I¡¯ll read everything you¡¯ve written and then give it aprehensive title!¡± ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s see what you¡¯ve got.¡± ¡°Deal!¡± ¡°Deal.¡± Looking back now, I shouldn¡¯t have made such a foolish promise. What was I thinking, trusting Oh Dok-seo with naming? A 50,000 won cap? Jeans full of holes? Gum that couldn¡¯t even blow a balloon? I¡¯d rather trust Jung Sang-guk¡¯s patriotism. In the end, I still don¡¯t know what title was given to my story. Just by calling it a ¡®story,¡¯ you can guess. What a paradox. Not being able to call a father a father... No, it¡¯s more like not knowing the name itself. Oedipus not recognizing his father would be more fitting. I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like from your perspective. If you are reading not only my story but also its title, please at least understand that it wasn¡¯t a title created by me, the Undertaker. Anyway. Let¡¯s return to the epilogue of the Puppeteer, Lee Ha-yul. Jung Sang-guk died. The former mayor of Busan died. The current Prime Minister of the Second Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea died. The president of the Fukuoka Korean Association died. The representative of Busan died. No word was appropriate. Jung Sang-guk did not die for those reasons. To be urate in the diagnosis considering the cause of death, the following phrase was most fitting for the coffin of this death. Lee Ha-yul¡¯s biological father died. Although I didn¡¯t agree with Freudian psychoanalysis, I enjoyed using its terms. A child killed their father, but Lee Ha-yul was not Electra. Nor was she Oedipus. A parent¡¯s death should be called a prologue, not an epilogue for the child. It was a cruel affair. From now on, I nned to do something cruel. ¡°Lee Ha-yul.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Lee Ha-yul responded. Not from the already decapitated Jung Sang-guk but from the maid¡¯s lips. ¡°Don¡¯t do it.¡± Lee Ha-yul tilted her head. ¡°What do you mean? This person is dead. Perception. Can¡¯t be stopped.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t telling you not to kill Jung Sang-guk. I meant don¡¯t kill yourself.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Pause. The red circles in Lee Ha-yul¡¯s eyes grewrger. No further conversation was needed. Every breath from Lee Ha-yul wasnguage. The girl was confused. ¡°How?¡± ¡°If you killed your parent, you killed them. Why follow after and die? You have a talent. The talent to kill people and the talent to save people are the same. If you are determined to kill yourself, turn the de of that determination to stab the anomalies.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°This world needs awakeners. Humanity¡¯s survival is at risk. Whether they are Korean or Japanese, such distinctions are meaningless. Whether Jung Sang-guk is dead or not, ultimately, everyone you¡¯ve known so far will die at the hands of the anomalies.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Help us. I will help you so you can.¡± Silence followed. Half of the silence flowed from the gaping mouth of Jung Sang-guk lying on the concrete floor. Was it just my imagination? It felt like all the dolls densely packed in the basement were staring at me. ¡°If I follow you?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Can it be stopped? The world¡¯s end.¡± ¡°No, I can¡¯t guarantee it.¡± ¡°What did you say your alias was? Sorry.¡± ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Undertaker.¡± Although I had introduced myself several times, it seemed that only then did Lee Ha-yul''s brain properly register my alias. She wouldn¡¯t have considered it before. People facing death didn¡¯t bother to remember new acquaintances. Lee Ha-yul muttered. ¡°Swordmaster¡¯srade.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Dang Seo-rin¡¯s boyfriend.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fake news.¡± ¡°Really? It¡¯s on the radio, every day.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fake news. I can swear on anything except Jung Sang-guk¡¯s patriotism.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Silence again. Lee Ha-yul raised her index finger. ¡°A condition.¡± ¡°Tell me. I¡¯ll do my best to meet it.¡± ¡°Lies. I hate.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plea not to act like your father. I can promise that for sure. I¡¯m a firm believer in not marrying.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°I have no intention of having children. So there¡¯s no chance of bing someone¡¯s father. It¡¯s a perfect solution to fulfill your condition.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Lee Ha-yulughed quietly. There was no sound. It was a smile I saw for the first time. ¡°I¡¯ll follow you.¡± In many cycles after the 19th, Lee Ha-yul was often recruited as my subordinate. Even after Old Man Scho went on ¡®vacation¡¯ and the Freiheit Academy was effectively closed, her fate did not change. Lee Ha-yul faced countless brutal deaths at the hands of anomalies, both at the frontlines and the rear. The only promise I could make to Lee Ha-yul was that I would face a slightly quicker, slightly more brutal death. Of course, much had changed. ¡°Oh, Ha-yul.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Do you want some coffee? You like con panna, right?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Okay. Just wait a bit.¡± I had learned signnguage first. Now, even without her controlling a doll, I could understand what Lee Ha-yul was saying quickly. Even now, she yawned silently from the sofa in the guild¡¯s hideout. She stretched extensively. Looking around with sleepy eyes, she spotted the maid. A light snap of her fingers, and the maid doll activated. ¡°Where is the wheelchair?¡± ¡°You left it with Noh Do-hwa yesterday.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Endure a bit of difort today.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Originally, I intended to leave her in the care of the Saintess instead of my guild¡¯s hideout. Both expressionless, both recluses, both with supporter-type abilities. Didn¡¯t they seem alike? But after a briefmunal life in the 20th cycle, the Saintess requested a return. ¡°She¡¯s too different from me.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Lee Ha-yul is¡ to put it in understandable terms, she¡¯s an insider.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a different type of person from me. Undertaker, please refrain from thinking that just because we are both rear support with few expressions, we¡¯d be close like sisters. Two of my fish tanks broke.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I like being alone.¡± For some reason I couldn¡¯t grasp, it seemed I had an MBTI sh with the Saintess. What could I do? Like Sim Ah-ryeon, Lee Ha-yul also became a permanent member of my guild. After all, her talent as an Awakened had no dispute that she was A-ss. More importantly, Lee Ha-yul¡¯s talent, as seen in the ¡®House of Dolls,¡¯ was specialized in establishing a hideout. Thanks to Ha-yul, I was able to build an impregnable hideout. This will be discussed in another story. The everyday life of Lee Ha-yul encountered a slight turning point around the 54th cycle. The 54th cycle was the monumental run where I brought Noh Do-hwa into the National Road Management Corps. In other words, it was the time when Noh Do-hwa and I began to get along genuinely. ¡°Master Artisan Noh Do-hwa, it¡¯s been a while. This girl with brown hair just returned from Japan. Could you make her a prosthetic leg?¡± ¡°Sorry, who are you¡?¡± ¡°¡...¡± ¡°Just kidding. Awakened Undertaker, I get scared just looking at you. Honestly, you make me jump, so please don¡¯te into my sight without signaling¡ Honestly¡¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Does it make a difference if a Korean goes abroad andes back? I¡¯m very busy with many clients¡¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll schedule you, but it will take a month. Today, I¡¯m also busy dealing with local grandpas. Seriously, why are the roads in Busan so bumpy¡?¡± Hmm. Right. To be honest, Noh Do-hwa and I were not particrly close personally. There was no one who had any emotional connection or rapport with Noh Do-hwa. The fact that I could schedule an appointment in a month was fortunate. Other awakened would have waited at least three months, even if they were early. A monthter, Noh Do-hwa examined Lee Ha-yul. ¡°Your legs were thoroughly wrecked. Huh. Not only were they physically torn, but three curses are ovepping. Untreatable, constant intoxication, hallucinations. Quite detailed. May I ask where you sacrificed your legs...? ¡°They were never there.¡± The maid answered. Despite the unfamiliar experience, Noh Do-hwa didn¡¯t raise an eyebrow. ¡°Huh. So the curses just happened by chance. Well, Japan is known for that. Do you get phantom pains at least once every three days¡?¡± ¡°Yes. How did you know?¡± ¡°There are ways to know. Quite severe. Very severe. Hm¡¡± Noh Do-hwa continued measuring Lee Ha-yul¡¯s body with a measuring tape. The unique part was that she measured even the lengths of Lee Ha-yul¡¯s ¡®missing legs.¡¯ ¡°¡¡?¡± Lee Ha-yul looked puzzled, unsure if she was being insulted or not. But Noh Do-hwa had no intention of humiliating her. Of course, she had a vicious nature of mocking others when given a chance. But I had never seen her mock a patient in my entire life as a regressor. ¡°Please shake your body a bit as if you are moving your legs.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Good. Very good. Now, please move as if you are walking in ce. Ah, try jumping slightly? Even just lifting your hips is enough. Hm. Well done¡¡± It seemed that Noh Do-hwa could genuinely see Lee Ha-yul¡¯s legs. Not just the muscles, but also the bones, joints, and nerves were all visible to her. Such ¡®vision¡¯ was included in Noh Do-hwa¡¯s ability. Noh Do-hwa¡¯s awakened skill was [the ability to observe and rece lost body parts]. It was an amazing ability, but she refused to name it. It was Noh Do-hwa¡¯s will. Moreover, she declined even having an alias. ¡°A public official making a name for themselves is pointless.¡± That was Noh Do-hwa¡¯s philosophy. Such a person was brought into the National Road Management Corps as the leader. By me. Anyway, due to this reason, her ability was roughly referred to as [Prosthetics Production]. Even [Restoration of Loss] would have been a cooler name. ¡°Yes, the measurements are done.¡± Noh Do-hwa scribbled someplex numbers in a notebook. ¡°It usually takes one to two weeks to produce prosthetics. Is this tall person Lee Ha-yul¡¯s guardian?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Do you have a preference between wood and metal for the material?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± ¡°Wood needs to be reced often. So you would have to visit our workshop periodically, which is inconvenient. Metal has a longer recement cycle, but it might make a squeaking noise and rust. Many patients find it bothersome.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°If you bring your own materials, we can work with those too. Prosthetics are meant tost a lifetime. It¡¯s not toote to decide after finding good materials. You don¡¯t have to rush to get high-end materials right now.¡± Lee Ha-yul pondered. I could sense her consideration as an expert in dolls. ¡°Then, metal.¡± ¡°Do you dislike clockwork?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Does the ticking sound of a clock drive you crazy and make your hair stand on end, and do you feel an obligation to smash it immediately?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Do you usually perform covert operations and have assassination missions?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Great. I¡¯ll make it as quickly as possible, but it might take more than 15 days. Once it¡¯s done, I¡¯ll send someone to inform you.¡± Even though she said that, it took less than five days for Noh Do-hwa to call us back. Some people either reflected their hopes in the deadlines they gave or distrusted the timeframe, and Noh Do-hwa¡¯s basic distrust level was over twice her hope level. ¡°This is Lee Ha-yul¡¯s prosthetic leg.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Noh Do-hwa handed over a long wooden box with a hollow gaze. The in wooden box was neat and clean without any decoration. On one corner of the box, the words ¡®Lee Ha-yul, xxxx year xx month xx day¡¯ were engraved with a carving knife. The numbers changed every cycle. Noh Do-hwa¡¯s habit was to give thepleted product in a box rather than handing it over raw. Now you can guess why no ruffian dared to mess with her. If someone did, there were countless awakened ready to form a lynch squad to protect her. ¡°This is your first time at our workshop, so would you like to try it on here? If it doesn¡¯t fit, I¡¯ll adjust it.¡± ¡°Okay. Please.¡± -Then, Awakened Undertaker, please turn around. Iplied with the prosthetist¡¯s instructions. I could hear faint sounds of nking and scraping behind me. Between the metallic noises, Noh Do-hwa¡¯s exnations continued, ¡°Do it this way¡± and ¡°If it doesn¡¯t work, don¡¯t get angry, just calmly try again.¡± Finally. ¡°It¡¯s done.¡± I turned around. ¡°Please stand up.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Lee Ha-yul fidgeted in the wheelchair. Even during the journey from Japan to Korea, she had been extremely sensitive to the setting of the wheelchair, such as the angle and puffiness of the cushion. Like someone suddenly leaving a rented room they thought they would live in forever, Lee Ha-yul stood up a bit dazed, with many worries and a bit of expectation. ¡°¡¡!¡± With a silent breath, whether it was a shout or an oath, or a silent encouragement to herself or the world. She stood on two legs. For the first time since infancy. ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°How is it? Does it hurt, feel prickly, or ache?¡± ¡°No.¡± There was a particrly strong mechanical tone in her voice. ¡°How. It doesn¡¯t. Hurt. At all.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Noh Do-hwa tapped, tapped, Lee Ha-yul¡¯s ¡®legs¡¯ with a stick. The metal parts clinked. But the material didn¡¯t matter. ¡°It feels like real legs, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes. I can move my toes. It feels. Real. I¡¯m walking. My feet are walking.¡± ¡°Yes, indeed. Look, I attached a spring here. It has no practical purpose, just looks cool. The clock hands spin faster as you run, but it¡¯s purely decorative. I wish I could make vocal cords too, but that¡¯s tricky. So, do you like it?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Lee Ha-yul cried. She wiped her tears with her hands. Tears kept falling, blocking her mouth, but she could speak fluently with a mouth that wasn¡¯t originally hers. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Noh Do-hwa smiled faintly. ¡°That¡¯s a relief.¡± Depending on who was watching, her smile might seem creepy or sinister. But I could confidently say it was a genuine, kind smile. She was a person who found satisfaction in just recing lost body parts for patients. A person whose greatest desire was to build a direct road from the most inconvenient elderly patient''s house to her workshop. I always felt a sense of guilt for dragging her into the mundane world and assigning her the title of National Road Management Corps leader. ¡°Thank you.¡± Lee Ha-yul looked at me. ¡°Thank you, oppa.¡± Even after that, Lee Ha-yul often moved around in a wheelchair. She was so used to controlling the doll and liked the feeling of the maid pushing her. But I saw. ¡°¡¡.¡± One summer night, when a meteor shower rained down from the sky. The sight of Lee Ha-yul standing on two legs, reaching out towards the starlight from her wheelchair. Looking up at a star that shone golden like her eyes, in a daze. A sparkling little star. Ultimately, everyone is born epting something from someone else, whether it¡¯s heart or flesh. We were all born as dolls. But Lee Ha-yul, the Puppeteer, would die as a human every time she faced countless deaths. Listening to the luby of starlight. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 63 Sleepwalker I In my regressor life, I considered the 1st to the 100th run as the "early phase." Another term would be "childhood." It was a period when I held the romantic illusion that if I just eliminated the anomalies, peace would somehowe to the world. And during this early phase, there were three boss monsters who had imed the Korean Penins as their territory. Level 1 Boss: Crawling octopus head. No matter how much you stab it, unless you pierce both hearts simultaneously, it showcases infinite regenerative abilities and never dies! It''s called the "Immortal Ten Legs"! Level 2 Boss: Ignorance is your downfall! Rejoicing at the promise of free immortality during the apocalypse, you ept it only to find out it¡¯s nothing but fertilizer for growing a massive World Tree! The New Buddha and Divine Buddha, "The Immortal Udumbara"! Level 3 Boss: You will fall victim even if you know about it! In the 7th year from the start of the regression, it inevitably descends from the night sky, the unavoidable Armageddon, "The Inescapable Meteor Shower"! The geographical setup of the Korean Penins is truly awe-inspiring. However, among them, the Ten Legs can now be ignored. By the 100th run, the Ten Legs are nothing more than a minor mob that can be one-shot-killed.-Kyu? Yes, even if you act cute, I won¡¯t spare you. Tentacle-headed Cthulhu knockoff. The Udumbara, also known by names like "Divine Buddha Virus," "Red Cordyceps," and "World Tree," had a more infamous reputation. -I''m hungry? It might be a bit unfair from its perspective, but the Udumbara had the worstpatibility with a regressor from the start. From the moment I discovered that the origin of the Udumbara was in Room 202 on the second floor of a closed inn in Onyang, the Udumbara was perfectly conquered. So, let''s talk about the final chapter of childhood. ¡°Look! Hey, look at the sky.¡± Let''s talk about the Meteor Shower. ¡°Wow! A shooting star! So many of them!¡± ¡°The sky is beautiful even if the ground is fucked¡¡± Strictly speaking, among the three early-phase bosses, only Ten Legs exclusively operated in the Korean Penins. As known, the Udumbara spread across East Asia as a pseudo-religious cult called the New Buddha. The Meteor Shower was the same. The falling stars did not only strike the Korean Penins. They struck the entire world. ¡°Huh? Why does it keep getting closer...?¡± ¡°What are you doing? Get away! Run!¡± ¡°Run? Where to? They¡¯re falling from the entire sky, guild leader?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Have you ever yed a battle royale game? In such games, as time passes, the yable map area gradually shrinks. For example, the "safe zone" gets smaller as the maic field contracts. It was a method to force yers into a tighter ring as the game progressed. This world mimicked the worst parts of games because our lives were a shitty game. ¡°Half of the Eurasian continent is gone!¡± ¡°What nonsense are you talking about?¡± ¡°Exactly what I said. It just got erased. Last week, when the Meteor Shower hit, half the continent just vanished.¡± ¡°This is insane.¡± Once it hit South America, once Australia, once Eurasia, and once the Pacific Ocean. Continents struck by the stars invariably turned into barrennds where no human could survive. It was truly Armageddon. Humanity, momentarily indulging in an apocalyptic romanticism while gazing at the showering stars in the night sky, was horrified. ¡°Again, again! Another one¡¯s falling!¡± ¡°Damn, where this time? Where is it going to hit...?¡± Meteor Shower. Western awakeners often called it "Armageddon," and Japanese Awakeners called it "Meteor." ording to the ssification of the Library Society, who saw naming anomalies as their mission, its threat level was "Continent," and it was identified as "Shining Little Star." ¡°¡¡.¡± The falling star that Lee Ha-yul reached for in a previous episode was none other than this. It was another method by which our world was meeting its end. The first time I encountered the Meteor Shower was in my 23rd run. The number 23 held significant meaning for me. In a slightly negative way, to be more blunt¡ªsince we are close enough to use such expressions¡ªI hope you¡¯ll understand with generosity¡ªit was pretty shitty. Perhaps some of you, with an exceptional memory like mine, might quickly recall the events of the 23rd run, more precisely, the events that started from the 23rd run. ¡°Huh? Old man? Old man, are you here?¡± Ta-da! Congrattions! You have found the corpse of Old Man Scho! ¡°Damn it.¡± Yes. The 23rd cycle was the first time Old Man Scho went on vacation. It was also the moment when "Congrats! Shitty End!" was chosen as the BGM for my character, the Undertaker. At that time, I was¡ well. To be honest, I was pathetic. Would it be right to call it a dark history? The person I thought I would fight alongside for life had suddenly disappeared. ¡°Wow, casting such high-level magic with just two chants... I¡¯m a genius! And Undertaker, you seem like a genius too!¡± I didn''t say it, but I helped Dang Seo-rin perfect her Equivalent Exchange magic for this reason. Back then, I relied on Dang Seo-rin mentally. Because, well... I feel a bit hesitant to reveal this, but I believe we¡¯re close enough to freely discuss such things now. I''ll be honest, because she was the only one in my regressor life who could share the same timeline with me. ¡°We can¡¯t live together, but at least we can apany each other in death." ¡°Please take care of me, mypanion in time.¡± Of course, Dang Seo-rin didn¡¯t remember the time she spent with me. But at least, her magic, which opened songs by burning her lifespan, continued to umte lifespan even through regression. So, it''s really embarrassing to say, but I treated Dang Seo-rin as a substitute for Old Man Scho. No, even calling her a substitute is too weak. I was clearly dependent on Dang Seo-rin. Despite my mental breakdown, I didn¡¯t forget my final role as a regressor. Somehow, I established an organization by myself without Old Man Scho, made Dang Seo-rin the leader, and eradicated the Ten Legs. And in the 7th year. ¡°Wow. Undertaker, look over there.¡± ¡°Hmm? Is it a shooting star?¡± ¡°Yeah, there are so many.¡± Dang Seo-rin, walking barefoot on the sandy beach with shoes in hand, pointed to the night sky. That was the moment I first observed the Meteor Shower. Naturally, I never imagined that the twinkling Meteor Shower in the night sky could be an anomaly. I returned from the night walk and fell into afortable sleep. And when I woke up, I found myself at the starting point of my regression. Back at Busan Station. ¡°¡Huh?¡± I was so dumbfounded that I looked around nkly. What the hell was going on? Anyone would be disoriented if they went to bed and suddenly regressed. At first, I thought it was a dream, but no matter how much I pinched my cheek, I didn¡¯t wake up. So- goodness. I had really regressed "while sleeping." ¡°You fucking asshole!¡± The trademark exmation of SG Man (I didn¡¯t know Seo Gyu''s real name back then) rang out like an rm app that lives to ruin a sryman''s morning. And I felt exactly like a sryman in the morning. A mix of 30% confusion and 70% frustration. ¡®No, really, hold on. Why is this happening?¡¯ But regardless of my confusion, the physical time of the world flowed steadily. A scream tore through the waiting room of Busan Station. Seo Gyu¡¯s neck was neatly severed by a fairy. People were running away in panic, but I was the only one standing there dazed, my mind nk. When your mind is vacant, some people rece it with reason, and I was usually thetter. ¡®Did someone poison me?¡¯ This was the most rational guess. ¡®Or an assassination? No matter how, but to assassinate me, the Undertaker, like twisting a chicken''s neck in my sleep?¡¯ Ah. I groaned. ¡®How could this happen! I was toocent!¡¯ Indeed. In the end, the enemy of humanity was not the monsters but humanity itself. Our ancestors wrote the first histories to leave the message [Humanity sucks] for future generations, didn¡¯t they? ¡°Now... I will live for myself.¡± While I was solemnly dering my resolution, the fairy, who was ying with Seo Gyu¡¯s rolling head, tilted its head. ¡°Huh. This human isn¡¯t running away and is talking nonsense?¡± ¡°Shut up, tutorial mob.¡± After responding to fairy number 264''s argument with a flick on the forehead (¡°Huek!¡±), I farmed Silver Bells from the souvenir shop in the waiting room as usual. And immediately went into strategizing. Never sleep alone. Not only establish a guild and recruitrades, but also build an impregnable hideout fortress formunal living... It was around this time that I started putting effort into the guild hideout. Later, due to beingpletely brainwashed by the mysterious entity named Go Yuri, the hideout was destroyed from within. But until then, my guild hideout was an impregnable fortress, the epitome of resilience (let¡¯s temporarily ignore the fact that both eventually fell). Of course, even though I dered my intention to live for myself, I wasn¡¯t the kind of regressor protagonist in Korean web novels who struggles alone. Humans should live together, right? Naturally, I actively shared my hideout construction know-how with those around me. ¡°Hey, Undertaker. I appreciate you looking out for my safety, but isn''t this a bit overreacting...?¡± Hmm. Maybe ¡®sharing¡¯ is not as appropriate as ¡®insisting.¡¯ ¡°Hah! Being careless like that will get you assassinated without anyone noticing, guild leader Dang Seo-rin!¡± ¡°Eh? Um? Ah, uh-huh...?¡± ¡°You get praised as the best awakener in Korea, and your pride is soaring! No matter how strong you are, that¡¯s only after singing three verses of the Cursed Song Incantation! Before that, you¡¯re just a mage before warriors! Do you think those wicked assassins will wait until you leisurely hold a concert?¡± ¡°No, well. This is my guild headquarters, right? I¡¯ve set up a really good watch and patrol system. It¡¯s impossible to break through to my sleeping quarters unless it¡¯s an awakener like you¡¡± ¡°Hah! Assassins would have already bribed all your loyal guild members! What if the enemy has abilities like hypnosis or brainwashing?¡± ¡°Eh¡¡± Surprisingly, I urately predicted my future defeat by Go Yuri. This is the power of a regressor. A damn pathetic power. Dang Seo-rin seemed to reach a simr conclusion. ¡°If an awakener has such a cheating ability, security is meaningless¡¡± ¡°Hah! From now on, before you sleep, you must sing [Repeat], [Auto-y], [Silence], [Shield], at least fouryers of songs. And call Ha-yul to cover the train carriages with her puppets.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s like spider webs¡¡± ¡°Haaaaah! If you die, it¡¯s the end of Korea. Do you realize your position?¡± ¡°Um, well... Fine. Sorry¡¡± ¡°If you¡¯re sorry, then it¡¯s okay. Actually, it¡¯s unrealistic to sing the Cursed Song Incantation before sleeping.¡± ¡°Oh! Right, that''s what I¡¡± ¡°So, we must build an irond fortress. Don¡¯t worry, Dang Seo-rin. I won¡¯t ask you to leave your precious train. I¡¯ll just remodel it into the strongest fortress on earth.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Dang Seo-rin looked at me with an expression that said, ¡®Why has this kid suddenly be such a bother?¡¯ but I ignored it. In the end, not only my hideout but also the Samcheon World¡¯s train was remodeled into the ¡°Ultimate Weapon - Fortress Train - Gxy Express 999.¡± Now, even if an army of assassins came, it would be futile. In the 7th year. ¡°Wow. Undertaker, look over there.¡± ¡°Hmm? Oh, it¡¯s a shooting star. It must be a Meteor Shower that appears around this time.¡± ¡°Really? There are so many. It¡¯s nice. If someone hadn¡¯t covered my luxurious train carriage windows with iron bars and spider webs, it would¡¯ve been much prettier.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± After having a drink with Dang Seo-rin, I returned to the hideout and fell into afortable sleep. ¡°Hello! Everyone! Oh? The numbers are a bit small... Anyway, you must be surprised to be summoned here suddenly! But don¡¯t worry! I¡¯ll kindly guide you from the beginning!¡± Naturally, I regressed again. The familiar ceiling of Busan Station¡¯s waiting room greeted my eyes. Of course, Fairy No. 264 was flying around cutely. ¡°¡¡.¡± My vision blurred. And SG Man''s unmistakably friendly rm sound rang in my ears. ¡°You fucking asshole!¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 64 Sleepwalker II I barely, truly barely, managed to hold onto my sanity, which was on the verge of escaping from my skull. ¡®It wasn¡¯t an assassination¡?¡¯ Then, did my hideout with a security level 6, constructed with all the knowledge of a regressor, mean nothing? What about the ever-vignt Poison Surveince System, painstakingly set up by gathering all the awakened ones with medical abilities like Uehara Shino and Sim Ah-ryeon? Or the Ultimate Weapon - Fortress Train - Gxy Express 999, which I created despite causing immense stress to Dang Seo-rin? Indeed. It was all useless. All of it was a waste. From the perspective of my 1183rd cycle, the 24th cycle me was nothing but an utter fool. Especially that railgun fortress; it became such a ck mark in my history that I wouldn¡¯t mention it in any future stories.¡®Then what on earth did I die for? What caused my death?¡¯ Confusion. Agony. Pain. My brain was still hardened, buried under preconceived notions. To reach the idea that ¡®maybe monsters don¡¯t need a fixed form? Maybe even the [phenomenon] of starlight in the night sky could be a monster? Perhaps the word monster is somewhat inurate, and it would be better to use the term "anomaly" instead,¡¯ my brain needed to be more flexible. Right. If you don¡¯t know, you suffer. But even my 24th cycle self wasn¡¯t so foolish that he couldn¡¯t reach the conclusion that ¡®something very strange indeed happened that night.¡¯ And so, back to the 7th year. ¡°Wow. Undertaker, look over there¨D¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s a meteor shower. It usually appears around this time of year. Enjoying the view, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°¡What? You seem a bit irritable today. What¡¯s been bothering you all day?¡± It¡¯s because our death is sealed on the day the meteor shower falls. But I couldn¡¯t reveal that regressor knowledge to Dang Seo-rin. Naturally, without a reasonable exnation, Dang Seo-rin left in a huff. Determined to apologize someday, I looked up at the night sky, unable to handle my own tension and nervousness. ¡®I won¡¯t sleep tonight.¡¯ Click. I drank the secret Lotte canned coffee I had saved for this day, keeping my eyes vignt. I chose the location with great care: the summit of Bongrae Mountain in Yeongdo, Busan. To reach this ce, one would have to step on the stringsid out by the Puppeteer like spider webs, alerting me to any intruder. Unless, of course, the intruder fell straight from the sky. The night sky was still adorned with a beautiful meteor shower. ¡¡. ¡°Huh?¡± Wait a minute. When I took a walk with Dang Seo-rin earlier, it was 9 PM, so based on that time, it has already been¡¡. Hasn¡¯t it been six hours of the meteor shower? ¡®Is it normal for a meteor shower tost this long?¡¯ It wasn¡¯t just a trickle, either. It was like a heavy downpour in summer, with thick streaks of starlight continuously crossing the night sky. And the streaks were getting thicker. ¡°¡¡.¡± Chills ran down my spine. Unknowingly, I dismantled my disguise and stood up. ¡°Shit. No way, right?¡± Of course, that ¡°no way¡± was correct. From now on, humanity had to fight and defeat the starlight from space, and this was the new quest assigned to the regressor. Yeah. What could I expect from this shitty game? urately describing the moment the world ends is something few people can do. More precisely, as far as I know, there were only two people in this vast world capable of such a feat. The Saintess with [Time Stop]. And me, the [Infinite Regressor], the Undertaker. The Saintess, no matter how suddenly an incident urred, could call out ¡°Time¡± and meticulously record the situation, and I could simply turn the wheel of regression. But unfortunately, at this time, I hadn¡¯t even exchanged names with the Saintess. Therefore, I had to witness the world-ending scene caused by the meteor shower alone. ¡°Stars¡ are getting closer?¡± Boss battle, against the Meteor Shower. Phase 1. First, countless starlights start pouring down from the night sky. If you are very far from the meteor shower¡¯s impact point, your chances of survival are high. The meteor shower is not a real meteor shower. It¡¯s a monster. It falls infinitely slowerpared to actual meteors. If you¡¯re standing near the impact point? You can only offer your condolences. You¡¯re already 99% dead. The 25th cycle me fell into this category. Because the area that the meteor shower first decided to fall on was none other than Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. ¡°Damn it.¡± From the Ten Legs, to Udumbara, and now to the meteor shower, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a growing respect for the legendary Dangun in my heart. Is the geographical position of the Korean Penins real? The only constion was that, well, you could experience something quite mystical just before dying. -Twinkle, twinkle, little star. A melody delicately plucking the heavens. -Shining like a diamond in the sky. Phase 2 of the boss battle began. I quickly descended Bongrae Mountain. Despite it being the middle of the night, people were outside, or poking their heads out of windows to watch the night sky. It must have been due to the surreal scenery and the ethereal melody. ¡°What¡¯s this? A song?¡± ¡°Where is iting from?¡± ¡°Speakers¡? No, that can¡¯t be right.¡± Murmurs. After the copse of civilization, humanity¡¯s biological rhythm reverted to the Stone Age. Almost all humans were forced into a good child¡¯s lifestyle, falling asleep as early as 9 PM. Considering that, the scene before me was certainly abnormal. -From the eastern sky, to the western sky. Even with a little exaggeration, the celestial song from the meteor shower carried a rhythm engraved in the DNA of modern humans. ¡°Doesn¡¯t it seem familiar?¡± ¡°This is a luby!¡± ¡°What? A luby?¡± ¡°Yes! It¡¯s hard to hear because of all the noise, but it¡¯s a luby. That, what was it? Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Mozart¡¯s luby. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Although the lyrics may vary by nation and people, it¡¯s a song so instinctively recognizable that almost everyone can identify it. -Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Listening to the luby drifting serenely from the sky, while the stars drew nearer and nearer, one might forget that we were being invaded by one of the most dangerous monsters in the world. But as all humans gazed nkly at the night sky, the melody broke, and pieces of the world were torn away. -Vvveeeeiiiiiing! ¡°Argh! Damn it!¡± ¡°Is it an air raid siren?¡± ¡°No, the government¡¯s gone and the speakers are broken, so what¡.¡± People grimaced and covered their ears at the sudden siren. Fortunately, it stopped shortly after, but we mustn¡¯t let our guard down. That sound was the indicator that the monster had entered a new phase. Phase 3,mence. -Twinkle, twinkle, little star. -Shining like a diamond in the sky. Whoosh¨D¨D The previously slow-falling meteors all converged over Busan at once. Twisting into a beautiful, bright white arc, each star held its own unique pitch, spreading like wings. I arrived at the guild headquarters of Samcheon World around this time. Some guild members, including Dang Seo-rin, were outside the train station. I shouted urgently. ¡°Dang Seo-rin!¡± ¡°Huh? Undertaker? Why are you here at this hour¡.¡± A look of irritation crossed Dang Seo-rin¡¯s face briefly, probably remembering our earlier argument. But there was no time to dwell on that. ¡°It¡¯s a monster!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°That starlight! It¡¯s a monster!¡± ¡°¡¡!¡± As soon as she heard my words, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s expression changed. Not as a friend on a gourmet tour, but as the leader of the Samcheon Guild Alliance and the Samcheon World guild master, her face turned fierce. ¡°That¡¯s absurd! It¡¯s just a phenomenon.¡± ¡°What phenomenon? Even though most scientists are employed inside monsters, no one has ever announced the existence of meteors that sing lubies for over six hours while falling slowly from space!¡± ¡°Wait. Then, how the hell do we¡?¡± I understood the unspoken question Dang Seo-rin swallowed. [Then, how the hell do we stop that?] It took only a few words to break the fixed ideas about monsters, proving that Dang Seo-rin was faster than anyone else in this regard. But in every other respect, we were already toote. -From the eastern sky, to the western sky. Thud. Dang Seo-rin and I turned our heads simultaneously. Thud. One by one, the Samcheon World guild members who had been standing guard around us fell to the ground like scarecrows. Even Dang Seo-rin couldn¡¯t help but be shocked. ¡°What¨D¨D¡± ¡°Damn.¡± It wasn¡¯t just the guild members. Thud. Thud. Citizens who hade out to admire the rare night sky view, and people who were listening to the low-quality luby through their windows, all copsed as if fainting. ¡°Are they¡ dead? All of them? Just like that?¡± ¡°No.¡± I approached the nearest guild member to check their condition. ¡°¡They¡¯ve fallen asleep.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Literally, they¡¯re in a state of sleep. It¡¯s hard to believe, but the whole city is falling asleep right now.¡± I pped the guild member¡¯s cheek, but they didn¡¯t even flinch. Even after channeling aura, there was no response. I groaned. ¡°It seems that not only the starlight but also the luby itself is a monster. It probably has a [Forced Sleep] effect. The moment we hear the luby, it¡¯s over. It¡¯s a damn situation. We need to escape.¡± I immediately decided to abandon the city. ¡°Escape?¡± ¡°Yes. Dang Seo-rin, we need to leave this city quickly.¡± I grabbed Dang Seo-rin¡¯s wrist. She felt unusually light. ¡°If we stay here, we¡¯ll soon fall asleep too. Then there will be no one left to report this phenomenon or the monster.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°We have to struggle until the end. It¡¯s not over yet. Let¡¯s go, Dang Seo-rin. Hurry.¡± At that moment. The night sky turned bright white. Blindingly, blindingly bright. Dang Seo-rin, whose wrist was held by me, looked up dazedly. ¡°Ah¡¡.¡± White night. Phase 4 of the boss battle. And the final phase. ¡°¡It¡¯s toote. Undertaker.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Something strange has been happeningtely. People who were usually fine became anxious and irritable. Undertaker, you knew¡ this would happen, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. I just guessed something would happen tonight. I never imagined the countless starlights would be monsters.¡± ¡°Hmm, sorry. I should have taken it more seriously.¡± ¡°¡I¡¯m the one who should apologize.¡± I murmured. ¡°I promise I won¡¯t do this ever again.¡± ¡°Heh. Okay.¡± Dang Seo-rin chuckled as if she had heard a funny joke. I hugged her tightly. The sky, bleached white, was filled with the luby, mingled with static noise. More twisted and stuttering than before, the luby now sounded like noise from a broken radio. -Twinkle, twinkle, little star. -Shining like a diamond in the sky. The light approached. As my vision grew brighter, instead of awakening, my eyelids became increasingly heavy. Dang Seo-rin might have felt the same. She blinked her eyes slowly while hugging my back. Perhaps, instead of hugging, she was copsing toward me. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°¡Yes.¡± ¡°I, actually¡¡± sh¨D¨D¨D The world turned white before my eyes. The night sky, the city, Busan¡¯s waterfront, the copsed bridge in the middle, the beach. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s face. Shadows. Breathing. Even the world. That was my 25th annihtion. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 65 Sleepwalker III In the first battle with the meteor shower, I received a report card marked "utterly defeated." In fact, even the term "first battle" reflects a very human-centric perspective. For the meteor shower, it was the third. Since I¡¯m already writing the report, I might as well write it all the way through. Although the 25th cycle me died and couldn¡¯t witness it firsthand, after the meteor shower fell to the ground, the following scenes unfolded. sh¨D¨D¨D As soon as the starlight touched down, it evaporated everything within a radius of tens to hundreds of kilometers in an instant. Evaporation, literally. It¡¯s a phenomenon hard to describe with any other word. -BOOM! Everything within the starlight¡¯s range¡ªhumans, animals, nts, even most monsters¡ªturned to ash in an instant.Not gray ash, but pure white ash, giving it a beautiful appearance. If you run to where the meteor shower first appeared, you can witness the entire world turned into a white asnd, with countless particles floating like cherry blossoms in the air. It''s quite a spectacle. Of course, no matter how pretty it is, you shouldn¡¯t think about getting close. Even one step into the ''Territory of Ashes,'' or even a single finger crossing the boundary, and you¡¯ll inexplicably burn to white ash. Yeah, this is a message for my 26th cycle self. You idiot with too much curiosity. Thus, the entire Gyeongsangnam-do region of Korea was wiped out, but unfortunately, the meteor shower¡¯s havoc didn¡¯t end there. Next came Hawaii in the Pacific, the Ingrian region of Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and so on. The meteor shower went on a world tour. Each time, the world became perforated like Swiss cheese often seen in Tom and Jerry. The habitable area for humanity shrank ordingly. This world tour took a total of six years. Exactly six years after the meteor shower first fell on Korea, the entire world turned to ashes. In the fifth year, the meteor shower hits Seoul. This time, not only the Korean Penins but half of East Asia gets included in the ¡®Territory of Ashes.¡¯ The meteor shower that killed me during the vacation cycle when I was running a convenience store was the one aimed at Seoul. There are no exceptions to the apocalypse. No matter how deep you dig underground or build a bunker, or even if you escape to the sea on a boat, the day wille when every surface on Earth is covered by the ¡®Territory of Ashes.¡¯ Even the sea turns white when struck by the meteor shower. A beautiful death. A bleached end. A white world. ¡°¡¡.¡± In the 27th cycle, I seeded in escaping the meteor shower. ¡®Escaping¡¯ is perhaps more urately described as ¡®scouting to strategize for the future.¡¯ It wasn¡¯t hard to avoid the meteor shower¡¯s range. Even if it meant that my base, the Korean Penins, Dang Seo-rin, and many of my connections would be turned to ashes by the starlight, I meticulously gathered information on that monster. ¡®I must endure now.¡¯ It was a familiar task for a regressor like me. It was around this time that I started using the term "anomaly" or ¡°grotesques¡± instead of "monster." Observing the meteor shower made me revise many of my preconceptions about monsters. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean a miracle like defeating the meteor shower happened right away. Because at this point, the Korean Penins was a literal hell. ¡°Immortal life! Eternal me! Celestial court!¡± ¡°Oh! You know the New Buddha! If you just wear flowers on your head, you can survive even if your limbs are blown off!¡± ¡°Why do we need awakeners? If you just believe in the New Buddha, you can truly achieve eternal life!¡± In the seventh year, a meteor shower hit Gyeongsangnam-do, and on top of that, the World Tree ¡®Udumbara¡¯ fully bloomed. And that wasn¡¯t all. If Baekhwa Girls'' High School wasn¡¯t properly sealed, our dark mage junior, Cheon Yo-hwa, would gleefully create an ¡®academy city.¡¯ Honestly, even as a regressor, this was too much bad luck. A meteor strikeparable to a nuclear explosion, an apocalyptic cult spreading across East Asia, and a zombie city added to the mix? What is this? Are they telling me to just die quietly? ¡®I must endure.¡¯ So I obediently died. Yes, a regressor can just die and start over. ¡®A flow of change will surelye someday.¡¯ In other words, I bided my time. Sometimes I died from the starlight bombardment, sometimes I got bitten by the million-strong zombie army of the academy city. I refined strategies for the world''s end andmented theck of a masterpiece to execute those strategies while growing impatient, enduring and enduring, waiting. Can I really clear stages this difficult? No, these stages? I endured. Maybe it was time for me to, like Old Man Scho, shed my sense of duty and focus on enjoying small pleasures. After all, I knew better than anyone that no matter how many regressions I went through, the world didn¡¯t change much. I endured. What if I just told Dang Seo-rin everything? I endured. And then. ¡°The constetions don¡¯t exist.¡± Finally. ¡°The Saintess of National Salvation and the Conqueror of the Alps, they¡¯re all characters I created by myself.¡± Ssh. A small wave rippled through my world. ¨DFinally, the tide of change had arrived. No matter how much the world forced the genre of despair upon me, I, the Undertaker, never broke. If Oh Dok-seo had heard me, she might have retorted, ¡°No, mister, that unbreakable spirit is exactly the key seasoning that makes despair delicious,¡± but I¡¯d cleanly ignore suchments from a literary pervert otaku. Game Changer. The Saintess¡¯s overwhelming awakening abilities turned the tide of war, which had repeated dozens of times,pletely. [I found it, Mr. Undertaker.] [Chungcheongnam-do. Asan. Onyang.] World Tree Udumbara, exterminationplete. The regressor¡¯s ¡®knowledge¡¯ of the future and the irvoyant¡¯s ¡®sight¡¯ of the present created an overwhelming synergy. Even aside from her awakening abilities, the Saintess was a reliable partner. We shared information, nned strategies, and together, we eliminated the factors turning the Korean Penins into a fiery hell. ¡°However, I can¡¯t seem to figure out how to deal with the meteor shower. Starlight falling from the sky, and the effect of forcibly putting people to sleep¡¡.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I have a n.¡± I said. ¡°The only role you need to take on right now, Saintess, is that of a prophet.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± The Saintess tilted her head. Before long, a translucent message appeared to all the awakeners active in Korea. [The Saintess of National Salvation sends out a quest.] ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°What?¡± The awakeners read the quest window with puzzled expressions. The message read as follows: ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Meteor Strike] In six years, a top-ss anomaly called ¡®Meteor Shower¡¯ will fall on the Korean Penins. The meteor shower will burn down the entire southern part of the penins. Survive the threat of the meteor shower. -Reward: Survival -Failure: Death ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ A quest distributed to all the awakeners in Korea. Thanks to the Saintess¡¯s [Telepathy] ability, the message was transmitted both as voice and text. Of course, the messages were sent under the name of a constetion, not the Saintess herself. ¡°Wha? Death? Just die?¡± ¡°Damn it. What kind of quest is this?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no chance this is a hoax¡ right?¡± The awakeners fell into confusion. Even I, the regressor, was almost fooled, the Saintess impersonated the constetions so well. It was extremely hard to doubt the authenticity of a quest given by a constetion. Who would imagine a madman using [irvoyance], [Telepathy], and [Time Stop] all at once to impersonate the constetions? Moreover, this was the moment that revealed how skillful the Saintess was at manipting the constetions, thus showing her natural talent for inciting the awakeners¡¯ psychology. ¡°An anomaly? A meteor shower? ¡What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°There are no clues except that it¡¯s six years away. How are we supposed to proceed with this quest?¡± ¡°Is there anyone with specific information? If you share it with our guild, we will reward you handsomely!¡± The Saintess didn¡¯t reveal all the information at once. She guided the awakeners to voluntarily piece together the clues. [The Chancellor of the Red Cape secretly tells you that anomaly is the term constetions use for monsters.] To particrly devoted awakeners, she gradually leaked information as if it were special knowledge meant just for them. [The chain quest for ¡®Meteor Strike¡¯ has been activated!] For specific awakeners, she framed the information about the meteor shower as a quest, revealing it step by step. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ [Identity of the Meteor Shower] (2/4) So far, it has been revealed that the meteor shower is the entity responsible for destroying numerous worlds. If the starlight of the meteor shower touches the ground, no one can escape destruction. Currently, you are the only one who has urately grasped the danger of the meteor shower. ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ I prepared all the quest rewards to motivate them. Having run a convenience store once, I knew that in an emergency, I could secure a significant portion of the remaining logistics in Korea. I hid the stolen goods in a remote warehouse, and when the constetion revealed the warehouse¡¯s location as an ¡®event reward,¡¯ the awakeners eagerly rushed to gather the supplies. Additionally, when Cheon Yo-hwa joined our operationter, the authenticity of the ¡®quests given by the constetions¡¯ reached its peak. ¡°Oh, the meteor shower? Indeed. They led my homeworld to its end.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a fugitive. So, I don¡¯t know much about the meteor shower. But rumor has it¡ that before the starlight falls from the night sky, a song always resounds.¡± These NPCs were created by Cheon Yo-hwa under my orders. asionally, when entering the depths of the void, NPC viges would be found. The NPCs imed to be ¡®refugees from a world that had already been destroyed.¡¯ ¡°A song? What song?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know the details either.¡± ¡°Ha, this seems like crucial information¡¡. We¡¯re stuck here.¡± The NPCs¡¯ zombie-like appearance, with parts of their bodies melting away, added visual impact and credibility to their statements. To the uninformed, it would seem like an ominous sign of something truly terrible about to happen. About a year passed like that. -Anonymous: Comprehensiveption of information on the top-ss anomaly ¡®Meteor Shower.¡¯ -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Regarding the ¡®song¡¯ consistently reported in quests rted to the meteor shower. -Anonymous: Posting the messages supposedly sent by constetions regarding the meteor shower so far. A ¡®Meteor Shower Board¡¯ was even created on SG Net. Here, the awakeners not only voluntarily organized the information but also actively discussed strategies. Believing the information was hard-earned through their own blood and sweat, they became more convinced of the meteor shower¡¯s appearance. There were always one or two awakeners like Old Man Scho who doubted the existence of the constetions. Butbining the Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance], [Telepathy], and [Time Stop], Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s [NPC Creation], my future knowledge as the regressor, and skillful resource distribution created an unquestionable sense of ¡®authenticity.¡¯ As a result. -Anonymous: There¡¯s only a year left until the meteor shower appears. Shouldn¡¯t we start joint training between guilds? -Anonymous: I heard Samcheon World already periodically gathers allied guilds for training. -Anonymous: Objectively speaking, Dang Seo-rin is the only leader for Korea. ©¸Anonymous: Are you wearing a pointy hat? The awakeners in Korea were fully prepared to hunt the meteor shower. From now on, it was the regressor¡¯s time. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 66 Sleepwalker IV I could end the Ten Legs with a single strike. Originally, I had mastered a miraculous power that was only allowed to the Sword Star in this world, the aura of starlight, known as Sword Force. Despite this, I never ended the Ten Legs in one turn kill. Instead, I always ensured that the ''Korean Awakeners Alliance'' was established and dragged them into the battlefield against the Ten Legs. ¡°It''s been a while. How have you been, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Ah, Undertaker! How are you!¡± This was because, to use a somewhatical expression, the awakeners needed ¡®awakening.¡¯ In the battlefield, I showed them how powerful the Ten Legs were, how mistaken their arrogance was in seeing themselves as transcendent beings, without needing to lecture them. Humans, Homo sapiens, only learn whether something is shit or soy paste by tasting it themselves.After a life-or-death battle with the Ten Legs, the awakeners of the Korean Penins realized, ¡®Ah, if we don¡¯t form an alliance in advance, we¡¯ll all die when an A-ss anomaly appears.¡¯ I added one more trick to this. ¡°It''s been a while. How have you all been?¡± ¡°Good, good!¡± ¡°Getting used to the aura?¡± ¡°Haha, well, not quite yet¡¡± I advertised that ¡®only those who joined the alliance would receive special tutoring on advanced aura techniques for free.¡¯ Even though civilization had copsed, the zeal for education was engraved in the DNA of Koreans. Words like ¡®advanced,¡¯ ¡®learning,¡¯ and ¡®special tutoring¡¯ paralyzed their brains. Many awakeners had witnessed firsthand in the battles with Ten Legs how useful aura was. The tentacles of Ten Legs were tougher than the toughest squid legs, and only des imbued with aura could pierce them. ¡°Undertaker!¡± ¡°Undertaker, I¡¯m stuck in my training¡¡± In a sense, the Korean Awakeners Alliance became a sect that revered me like a Grandmaster. Originally, Old Man Scho filled this role, but he had retired¡ Of course, the awakeners were all lunatics. There were countless people who treated their superiors like dogs. Therefore, even while teaching them aura techniques, I never demanded anything in return. Running a guild? Why should I interfere? It¡¯s your guild, so handle it yourself. Tuition fees? Forget it, just suck the essence of the techniques from me. Sure, take this and that, take my liver and galldder. It¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t need anything. In the apocalypse, such behavior was the perfect way to be treated like a pushover. But what if that pushover nonchntly walked through anomaly-infested voids, traveled from city to city, effortlessly dispatched Ten Legs, received plenty of favor from the constetions, and boasted friendships with the guild master of Samcheon World and the National Road Management Corps chief? Even awakeners, who selectively let rationality enter their skulls, would have to reconsider the definition of ¡®pushover.¡¯ ¡°Master, when will we ever be able to repay our debt?¡± ¡°I can collect your debt anytime, but I won¡¯t, and I¡¯ll continue not to. So, keep learning aura techniques that suit you. You¡¯ll survive life-threatening situations and solidify your authority as a guild master, but you won¡¯t give me anything in return. We all know this, you, me, Dang Seo-rin, and Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°Master! No, hyung! Please!¡± The so-called Super Subordinate phenomenon. To exaggerate a bit, if I came up with a suitable reason and said, ¡®I heard the guild master in Incheon is stirring trouble in Korea...,¡¯ the guild masters here would lead their entire forces to cause havoc, thinking, ¡®Grandmaster wants us to crush the Incheon guild!¡¯ Moreover, the extermination of the Meteor Shower wasn¡¯t just any reason but one that involved the fate of the entire Korean Penins. The guild masters who owed me naturally had no choice but to gather. ¡°You¡¯re always popr.¡± After a round of intense handshakes, Dang Seo-rin greeted me with a weary face. ¡°You could just settle down in one city, but you always travel all over the country. Are you diligent or not¡?¡± ¡°Why, I¡¯ve settled down. All of Gangnam in Seoul is my turf. Are you underestimating thend value of Gangnam now?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing in Gangnam now except your guild building.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a low-point investment. When civilization starts to rebuild, the life of Undertaker will be a legendary real estate story.¡± Dang Seo-rin chuckled. ¡°So, no thoughts of settling down? No thoughts of dating? I hear a lot of people like you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not interested in dating¡¡± The Meteor Shower had to arrive at dusk. We waited for the night, holding brooms in our hands while chatting. Why did we all have brooms? Well, you¡¯ll soon find out. Tense air. To ease the hardened atmosphere, light jokes and small talk flowed quietly in the camp. Maintaining normalcy to ignore the abnormal had been a wisdom humans learned long ago. ¡°Why? Are you impotent?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just not interested in dating. Honestly, my mental age is around a thousand years. No matter how it is, I can¡¯t date kids, can I?¡± ¡°Pff. What nonsense.¡± Not only Dang Seo-rin and me, but all the awakeners exchanged trivial jokes. It was natural. The Meteor Shower was supposed to descend over Gyeongsangnam-do in the 7th year of regression. Here in the Gimhae ins, not a single elite warrior hadn¡¯t crossed the wall of life and death dozens of times. They all knew how crucial it was to control their mental strength right before a battle. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s hard to imagine you dating anyone.¡± ¡°Yeah, even though there¡¯s nothing rough about you, you have the look of someone destined to be single forever. You have that kind of vibe.¡± If it were after the 50th cycle, SG Man Seo Gyu and the viin Sim Ah-ryeon would have joined in the joke. ¡°Heh. More than anything, it¡¯s the partner who should be worried. Seventy percent of your conversations would be about the Three Kingdoms, twenty percent about the Chu-Han Contention, and the remaining ten percent about the Water Margin. Who could endure that? Even a thousand-year love would wither.¡± If it were after the 55th cycle, the National Road Management Corps chief Noh Do-hwa would have sipped her ginger tea, exhaling hot breath and equally hot sarcasm. ¡°Haha. I sometimes think I wish senior would stop talking about the Three Kingdoms! Honestly, I don¡¯t even find it interesting. Well, except for the part where Dong Zhuo burns down Luoyang!¡± If it were after the 109th cycle, Baekhwa Girls'' High student president Cheon Yo-hwa would have added with a bright smile. ¡°¡¡¡± [¡¡.] Lee Ha-yul and the Saintess would have always been silent. Throughout my life, spanning 1183 cycles, allies sometimes increased and sometimes decreased. But today was the 42nd cycle. Our blood pact was not yetplete, and thus, I would describe one of the most difficult and intense battles. ¨D¨D¨D, ¨D¨D. ¨D. ¨D¨D¨D. ¡¡. ¡¡., ¡¡, ¡¡.¡± Countless voices disappeared. Above us, only Dang Seo-rin and I, our breath turned into white smoke and rose. Our breaths for two people turned a reddish hue. Mypanion in time muttered. ¡°Indeed. I¡¯m not interested in dating either.¡± The dusk descended from the sky. A pleasant tension seeped through my body. [¨D¨DIt¡¯sing.] The Saintess¡¯s low mutter. Suddenly, the world¡¯s crimson glow burned a bit brighter. It was like a giant wreath of mes. The sky¡¯s zenith burned red, while the edges turned blue, ck, pitch-ck, quietly darkening. The mes lived and moved. The crimson dusk at the center exhaled continually into the dark blue night sky, and inversely, it inhaled from the periphery. The sky¡ª the world, was breathing in the glow of dusk and starlight. ¡°Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Yes. I know.¡± Dang Seo-rin had already started chanting. How long had it been since the song flowed from her lips? Suddenly, the darkness at the edge of the sky swallowed the entire celestial dome. The world darkened as if dusk had never existed. Night sky. It wasn¡¯t a physical or astronomical change. It was as if a mother quietly covered her child¡¯s eyes with her palm, the entire world was momentarily shrouded by something. ¡°It¡¯s here.¡± ¡°Damn. It¡¯s real.¡± Murmurs. Some awakeners stirred at the iprehensible phenomenon. The tension they had carefully suppressed with thorough strategy meetings, tactics, and witty banter suddenly surged to the surface. Some clenched their fists at the arrival of the anomaly that had been foretold for six years. In an era where power poles and streetlights had closed their eyes, only the elite warriors¡¯ eyes dimly glowed. They stared at the night sky, arranged in meticulously nned formations. [The Saintess of National Salvation announces that...] [A top-ss anomaly ¡®Meteor Shower¡¯ has appeared over the Korean Penins.] Whirr¡ª The night sky¡¯s darkness vomited out the highly condensed starlight. It was as if a giant yfully poked the sky¡¯s balloon with a scale. But the result was no joke. ¡°Starlight!¡± ¡°The strategy was right¡?¡± ¡°My God. That¡¯s not just a meteor. It¡¯s an anomaly controlling the entire sky. Normally, from this point, the Meteor Shower would stay in the sky for six hours. But as observed through many cycles, during those six hours, the Meteor Shower wasn¡¯t merely showing off how beautiful its starlight was, doing a runway walk, or rather a Milky Way walk, in the night sky. In fact, it was casting a ¡®spell¡¯ on the humans on the ground over those six hours. It could be called hypnosis or brainwashing. The key was, the more people who looked up at the starlight in the night sky, the stronger the Meteor Shower became. [The Saintess of National Salvation advises nonbatants not to look at the night sky.] Thus, in this boss battle, cooperation and swift resolution were paramount. Instead of waiting for the Meteor Shower to gather enough power to fall, we aimed for its weakest point. In other words, striking in the early stages was my strategy. ¡°Ah¨D¨D¡± To initiate this n, Dang Seo-rin opened the first movement. First melody, repeat. Second melody, expansion. The song, often used inrge-scale battles, filled the ins. This alone was enough to back up the allies within the range of her magic. However, we were fully prepared for this battle. ¡°¡¡Bzz, ¡¡Ah¡¡.¡± Eachbatant had a radio attached to their chest or waist. These items were prepared specifically for this battle. There was even a base station built nearby. It was a tactic only possible because I, as a regressor, knew the exact location of the battlefield. It was evidence that we had concentrated all the remnants and dregs of civilization for this critical battle. Simply spreading Dang Seo-rin¡¯s song through the radios would have been convenient, but such a convenient cheat didn¡¯t ur. Thus, an additional melody was necessary. ¡°Ah¨D¨Dah, ah¨D¨D¡± Third melody, Medium. A pre-designated substance resonated with Dang Seo-rin¡¯s song like a kind of mirror, thanks to magic. Naturally, all the radios distributed to the awakeners were designated as ¡®mediums.¡¯ Since this designation required anotheryer of magic, Dang Seo-rin had been pre-enchanting the radios whenever she had spare time. The total time spent on this task was three years. Moreover, the equipment designated as ¡®mediums¡¯ by Dang Seo-rin wasn¡¯t just cheap radios. The final and most important Cursed Song Incantation that we had prepared and Dang Seo-rin executed resonated. ¡°Ah¨D¨D Ah¨D¨D¨D¡± Fourth melody, Flight. The fourth song wrapped around the sky once and continued in endless da capo through repetition. Grasping. Nine hundred awakeners gathered in the Gimhae ins, and among them, seven hundred selected forbat clenched their hands as promised. Every one of their fists held a broom. ¡°It¡¯s a bitte to point out, but¡ Was a broom really the best choice?¡± ¡°Yep, absolutely.¡± Dang Seo-rin answered, having finished the fourth melody. She had a look as if wondering why such a thing was asked. ¡°A witch can only fly with a broom.¡± With a tap, Dang Seo-rin kicked the dirt. Perhaps it was because she had repeated this action thousands, tens of thousands of times. The pose of the great witch was rxed and elegant. Frrrrrk¡ª From her small frame, a ck cloak three times her size fluttered like a g. I chuckled. Then, I spoke into the radio. ¡°All units,mence takeoff.¡± That was the signal. Seven hundred awakeners of the alliance simultaneously leaped from the ins and soared into the night sky. Boss battle. Continent-ss threat level. Meteor Shower. Battlemence. First phase, takeoff. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 67 Sleepwalker V To state the obvious, homo sapiens do not have wings. Most people have no intuition for flight. Unless they are pilots who treat the engine sounds of an airne like their heartbeat or paragliders who feel their parachutes as extensions of their arms, humans generally don¡¯t find much thrill in flying. And where intuition is absent, fear is born. ¡°Argh! I¡¯m flying! I¡¯m flying!¡± ¡°How high do we have to go?¡± As seven hundred awakeners soared into the air, relying only on cheap brooms, screams erupted from all sides. ¡°Mom! I really hate this!¡±¡°I¡¯m falling! Ahhh!¡± ¡°Waaaah!¡± Of course, we had conducted several joint training sessions beforehand. Those with a fear of heights were excluded from thebat team. However, even so, cheap brooms were far from reliable as humanity¡¯s new wings. An owl flying through the night sky gave us a look that seemed to say, ¡®What are these new suicide seekers?¡¯ [The Saintess of National Salvation announces that the vanguard has currently surpassed an altitude of 300 meters.] In a sense, the owl¡¯s look was urate. If not a suicide squad, what would you call a group charging with makeshift wings to take down a top-ss anomaly? Only the guild members of Samcheon World skillfully demonstrated the art of flight. [600 meters.] Oh, by the way, I was quite proficient in broom flight myself. Believe it or not, I once took second ce in an internal flightpetition at Samcheon World. Leading the vanguard, alongside me, was Dang Seo-rin, the perennial champion of those flightpetitions. [1500 meters.] It started getting cold. ¡°Aaah¨D¨D.¡± But it didn¡¯t matter. Dang Seo-rin was already singing another verse of the Cursed Song. The fourth melody, body reinforcement. Combining existing spells like ¡®temperature regtion¡¯ and ¡®breath support,¡¯ it was aprehensive package developed by Dang Seo-rin. It helped withstand hostile environments such as the deep sea, scorching deserts, and the void to some extent. As expected, as soon as Dang Seo-rin finished chanting, a pleasant warmth enveloped my entire body. [2200 meters.] Higher. Higher. [2900 meters.] A quick nce downward showed the ground already a tiny speck below. Ignoring the instinctive dizziness, I turned my gaze back to the sky. There was the Meteor Shower. From below, the starlight seemed about to fall at any moment. However, no matter how high we flew, the stars didn¡¯t appear anyrger. An optical illusion. A trick of the world. Staring at the starlight continuously, I felt my sense of proportion between distance and size breaking down. But this too was an illusion within an illusion. We were undoubtedly getting closer to the Meteor Shower. [3500 meters.] Finally. [4100 meters. Approaching Target.] [Engage.] Shhhh¡ª It sounded like waves crashing. At an altitude of 4100 meters, it was a sound that shouldn¡¯t be heard. As we pierced through the surface of that noise, suddenly, everything turned pitch ck. It was more fitting to call it a ¡®dark abyss¡¯ than a ¡®night sky,¡¯ as the inky ckness covered everything. Shaa, shaaa¡ª Each time an awakener followed me up, the darkness rippled. They lowered their brooms and hovered in midair. Awestruck by the unfamiliar sight, the awakeners gaped. ¡°My god, this is¡.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the void!¡± Before confusion spread through thebat team, I grabbed the radio and shouted. ¡°We have just entered the Meteor Shower¡¯s territory! No need to be surprised or tense! It¡¯s just the void we¡¯ve experienced countless times before, but now it¡¯s in the sky!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Continue the operation! Reform your formations! Team up with yourbat units! Reorganize and charge as trained! You have 40 seconds!¡± ¡°Team 8, gather! Team 8, gather!¡± ¡°Team 11! Why are you there! Get over here, you idiot!¡± The formation of awakeners, momentarily disrupted by the ascent into the night sky void, quickly reformed. Meanwhile, I kept my eyes fixed on the direction of the Meteor Shower. Starlight that seemed ready to fall at any moment. No, it gave the illusion it was already falling. But it was clear that it was just crouching there, watching us. Surpassing intellect and reason, the instincts honed through dozens of cycles fiercely sensed its hostility. Contrary to my instincts, the surroundings were eerily calm. It felt like being dropped in the middle of a calm, dark ocean. ¡°This ce is strange, Undertaker.¡± Dang Seo-rin pulled her broomhead close to me and murmured. ¡°The air feels heavy. It¡¯s a bit hard to breathe. It feels like I¡¯ve entered shallow water rather than the sky.¡± ¡°The anomaly must have a water attribute and be preparing for rain. What did you expect? The void is just void.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± ¡°Do your best with thest song.¡± ¡°Yes. Leave it to me. And you, too. This operation depends on you.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Then, a small voice of the Saintess whispered into my ear. [Be careful, Mr. Undertaker. The altimeter is broken.] Broken? [It was recording about 4100 meters just before entering the void, but now it¡¯s showing 7182 meters, -9699 meters, 21337 meters, 0.01 meters, changing erratically. In real-time.] ¡°¡¡.¡± [It¡¯s not just the altitude. Other metrics like pressure are fluctuating continuously. Good luck.] I nodded. Exactly 40 seconds. I looked back. Seven hundred perfectly aligned members of the flight squad were behind me. ¡°Continue the operation! Charge! Charge!¡± ¡°Waaaah!¡± Boss battle, Phase 2, begin. Seven hundred members of the flight squad followed me in a spearhead formation. Dang Seo-rin, who had been at the forefront with me, shifted to the rear as nned. The starlight remained unresponsive. Which was our greatest opportunity. ¡°Aaah¨Daaah¨Da¨D¨D¡± From the rear, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s voice awakened the night sky. The fifth melody, ¡®Mirror of All Things¡¯. This too was a recently developed high-difficulty grand magic. Combining [Focus], [Absorption], [Reflection], and [Amplification], it was Dang Seo-rin¡¯s masterpiece, finally unified into one song. Its effect was clear. Shhh¡ª Translucent mirrors formed around the seven hundred awakeners. Likes orbiting the sun, countless mirrors surrounded our flight squad. I gave themand without hesitation. ¡°All units, pour out your power!¡± The awakeners, as if waiting for this moment, unleashed their aura and mana towards the mirrors. The mirrors reflected the awakeners¡¯ auras precisely towards ¡®other mirrors.¡¯ Ching¡ª Mirrors that finished their reflection shattered instantly. Countless mirror fragments scattered in the air like white spring flowers. The streams of aura, reflected from the rear, bounced off more andrger mirrors as they moved forward. Ching¡ª Ching¡ª Ching¡ª Each time, the mirrors shattered, and the aura, superimposed repeatedly, was passed to the next mirror. The ss, stained with the colors of the aura, poured out every color into the pitch-ck night sky. The radio buzzed noisily. [Team 12, charged!] [Team 11, charged!] Exactly. The role of the ¡®Mirror of All Things¡¯ in this battle was to concentrate firepower. With slight variations, the seven hundred-member squad formed teams of about sixty members each. Meaning, roughly sixty awakeners focused their aura, their strike, into the mirrors. [Team 6, charged! Charged!] [Loss rate, about 5%!] Rumble! The mixing of differently colored and patterned auras created thunderous sounds. Like a giant beast growling. From Team 12 to Team 1. Passing through twelve zigzagged intestines, the roar of the Korean Penins alliance surged up to its throat. [Team 4, charged¨D¨D] [Loss rate below 3%. Within calcted range. Transmitting.] [Team 3! Passed!] A storm of aura swept forward. asionally, a scream of ¡®Hic!¡¯ escaped. Awakeners not ustomed to flight stumbled in the aura storm. It was anticipated. Therefore, I ced inexperienced awakeners in theter teams, and skilled elite warriors in the lead teams. There was no problem. Dang Seo-rin controlled everything from the rear, and Imanded everything from the front. [Team 2¡ passed! Somehow, we made it!] [Go! Go! Go!] Some awakeners eximed in awe. Like ancient Egyptians in awe of their self-made pyramids, they too were thrilled by the torrent of aura. And then. [Team 1! Charged! Mr. Undertaker!] The leader of Team 1 shouted. Yu Ji-won. In the distant past, she had served as my adjutant when I was with Samcheon World. [Now¨D¨D Now! Transmitting!] [Loss rate below 1%! Below 1%!] [Mr. Undertaker!] Rumble¡ª! Finally, the auras of seven hundred were delivered right before me. All the mirrors created by Dang Seo-rin shattered. The magic mirrors fell to the ground, scattering countless fragments. Except for thergest mirror right before my eyes. The transparent concave mirror swirled with the aura storm. ¡°Huff¡!¡± Every hair on my body stood on end. An euphoria like bing an omnipotent god surged up my spine. Which mere mortal could be granted such power, and who could wield it properly? That¡¯s why I stood at the forefront. I infused my aura into the torrent of aura that seemed ready to explode beyond my control. Ink-ck. This was the color of my soul. The torrent of colorful auras was instantly tainted ck, as if a drop of ink dyed water in a beaker. Pop, the skin on my right hand peeled up to my forearm. Unable to withstand the output of the aura. ¡°¡¡!¡± My ears rang. I heard no sound. Thunder rumbled incessantly around me, and my vision darkened, making everything invisible. The pain of bursting blood vessels. But still, there was no problem. -Saintess! The position¨D¨D [Adjust 3 cm to the right.] A calm voice echoed directly in my mind. [Now, 11 cm down.] [Too low. 2 cm up.] In the 42nd cycle, I didn¡¯t know, but the Saintess was meticulously correcting errors using ¡®Time Stop.¡¯ She must have reviewed and recalcted countless times whether the aura would hit the Meteor Shower. Perhaps spending days and nights. That long time was but a moment to me, and I endured all the pain to hold on to that moment. [Yes, just a little. Just a little more¡¡.] [Now.] Softly. [Now, Mr. Undertaker.] The Saintess¡¯s time intersected with mine. At that moment, I roared and fired the storm of aura gathered before my eyes. My own roar was inaudible to me. Rumble¡ª! Only the roar of a giant beast. The ink-ck roar, prating through the souls of seven hundred and the twelve intestines, shook the world. -Wh?a?t??? Finally, the Meteor Shower, which had been silent, reacted. Like an entity just awakened from a deep sleep. Boss battle, Phase 3, begin. -Twinkle, twinkle, little star. The Meteor Shower trembled. -Shining like a diamond in the sky. -From the eastern sky, to the western sky. A familiar melody. The luby that had always led the ground to ruin from the 23rd to the 41st cycle resonated through the storm. It intended to lull us to sleep again. ¡°Aaah¨Daaah, aaah¨D¨D¡± And for this very moment, Dang Seo-rin yed her final card. The song, resonating from both the far and near side of the night sky, but the moment the two waves met at the center. -Wh?a?t?? ¨D¨D¨DThe song abruptly ceased. The sixth melody, Antiresonance. An application magic of [Silence] that nullified all noise by emitting a sound wave precisely countering the opponent¡¯s sound. I shouted, filled with joy. ¡°The power to create miracles with song isn¡¯t a patent exclusive to you!¡± The point where the Meteor Shower¡¯s void and Dang Seo-rin¡¯s magic crossed was exactly where I was flying. The ck waves emitted by the Meteor Shower and the white waves emitted by Dang Seo-rin shed endlessly. ck and white. The colors of humanity¡¯s song. The shades of the anomaly¡¯s song. The battlefield in the night sky was filled with the songs of humans and void, while I alone raced through the line of silence. Following the Saintess¡¯s guidance, constantly aiming the storm of aura. -Wh?a?t??? Was it because its lethal move didn¡¯t work? An unidentifiable noise seeped into the luby sung by the Meteor Shower. But, it was toote. Tond this strike, this surprise attack, the seven hundredbat team and nine hundred support team had trained relentlessly. Dang Seo-rin developed three high-level spells, prepared radios, and enchanted them with medium magic. The Saintess had worked in secrecy, hiding her existence to lend credibility to the constetions¡¯ messages. The time the Saintess spent over seven years to unite all the awakeners of the alliance was near eternal. The few days spent fine-tuning the aim were but the final seasoning of that eternity. And my 150 years. The optimal route. The best strategy. -Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Thus, this was the first and final strike. The only moment the Meteor Shower was off guard. A moment when it had not yet fallen on any ground, destroyed any nation, or killed any awakener, and thus was least experienced. Literally, the regressor¡¯s killer move. -Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? You can¡¯t me it for being unfair. That¡¯s how you¡¯ve fought all along. You too shall die in your sleep, anomaly. -Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? Wh?a?t??? sh¨D¨D¨D Starlight ascending from the ground pierced through the starlight descending from the sky. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 68 Sleepwalker VI -Waaaaah! The area once known as the Gimhae in. This ce had fallen into a state resembling Tom and Jerry''s cheese block due to the urban development boom. It was dug here, and dug there. As it was nibbled away here and there, the area that could truly be called a ¡®in¡¯ had significantly shrunk. In other words, if urban development stopped, everything would revert to its original state. When the scales of the 10,000-year war between nature and civilization, environment and humanity, tipped back towards nature, the Gimhae in rapidly regained its former glory. Of course, a significant portion of nature¡¯s territory had to be ceded to the anomaly who fought as mercenaries in exchange for victory. As a result, it was hard to tell whether it was truly nature or the void, making the plight of nature not much different from human affairs. Among these, the Gimhae in was an area where civilization was removed swiftly, perhaps too quickly.-Waaaaah! About seven years ago, an air raid rm was suddenly issued from the west of the Gimhae in, and a small-scale ¡®bombing¡¯ took ce there. The exact cause and details of the incident were unknown. It happened at the exact moment I was forcibly summoned to Busan Station and began living as a regressor. Even the information that a bombing urred nearby would have been hard to obtain if I were not a regressor. There were testimonies that it was shelling rather than bombing, rumors of a gate suddenly opening, and whispers that a secret government research facility exploded. It was all a mystery. -Boom! Maybe a small gate appeared in the Gimhae in, and the bombing urred to eliminate it. Perhaps it was someone¡¯s desperate decision to save the nation, thinking they couldn¡¯t afford to lose Busan after Seoul had been devastated. Maybe it was because the area was sparsely poptedpared to other densely popted cities, making the sacrifice seem eptable. Or perhaps it was just a tragic mistake due to an error inmand transmission. I considered this possibility the most likely. But now, there was no way to uncover the truth. With the government and civilian organizations that were supposed to investigate the truth gone, what could be done? Especially when documents and witnesses rted to the incident were also impossible to find. Not only nature but also human history was swallowed by the void. Nevertheless, one clear fact remained: the Gimhae in, where the bombing urred, could not have been a mere barren in. Even in ces where there was no way to prove it, people lived. Let¡¯s talk about the epilogue. [¨D¨DMr. Undertaker.] [Wake up, Mr. Undertaker.] Blinking, I opened my eyes. I realized that I had briefly lost consciousness. A momentary ckout. Fortunately, as a regressor, I had experienced fainting countless times. I was not startled by something I had grown ustomed to long ago. [Have you regained consciousness?] If I had to guess why I fainted, it was probably because of the luby sung by the Meteor Shower that made my eyes close involuntarily. Unlike other awakeners, I was flying at the forefront. In other words, I was the farthest from Dang Seo-rin¡¯s white magic, the ¡®Antiresonance¡¯ song that nullified the luby. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine. You don¡¯t need to worry, Saintess. How long was I unconscious?¡± [Not long. About a second.] ¡°You noticed I fainted in just one second? That¡¯s impressive.¡± I was genuinely astonished. After all, I hadn¡¯t known at the time that the Saintess possessed the ¡®Time Stop¡¯ ability. During this crucial battle, the Saintess periodically stopped time to observe the battlefield. Her irvoyance must have caught the moment I slumped on my broom. [A problem has arisen, Mr. Undertaker.] The Saintess skillfully shifted the topic. It wasn¡¯t just to avoid my suspicion; there was a genuine urgency in her voice. A chill ran down my spine. Even without Dang Seo-rin¡¯s magic, people¡¯s voices resonated with emotions. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me we failed to subjugate the Meteor Shower?¡± [No. The subjugation itself is almost certainly a sess. But¡ look over there.] Even without a clear direction, I instinctively turned my head. The night sky where the starlight of the Meteor Shower had been. The strike prepared for years by seven hundred awakeners was indeed sharp. The storm of aura we created had torn the Meteor Shower apart. Yes. It was torn apart. ¡°What¡?¡± My heart pounded. The Meteor Shower was certainly defeated. The sphere that emitted a strong, concentrated starlight was no more. And while there were anomaly that disappeared like smoke upon being defeated, many others left corpses like animals. I muttered nkly. ¡°A corpse of starlight¡?¡± Have you ever seen white phosphorus? Exactly that scene unfolded before my eyes, no, before our eyes. Torn starlight. The fragments of starlight, shredded to pieces, were falling towards the ground. ¡°Ah.¡± The chill that surged up my spine pierced my heart, making it throb ominously. Why didn¡¯t I foresee this? If there was a meteor falling from the sky, destroying it mid-air would be a problem¨D¨D Even if the destruction seeded, the countless fragments of the meteor falling to the ground would still be an issue. ¡°Shit!¡± It was simply unimaginable that an anomalyposed of 100% pure starlight would leave a corpse. A corpse of light? Who could have predicted that? Therefore, this was another instance of ¡®you suffer if you don¡¯t know.¡¯ Damn it. It was like the final parting gift from the Meteor Shower, shattered by the regressor¡¯s ambush, to humanity. In the 42nd cycle, where we seeded in subjugating the Meteor Shower for the ¡®first¡¯ time, we had no choice but to fall for this trap card. ¡°It¡¯s over! It¡¯s really over! We actually hunted a top-ss anomaly!¡± ¡°Long live the United Awakeners Alliance of Korea! Long live!¡± ¡°Unbelievable¡ This is the world¡¯s first subjugation of a top-ss anomaly. We actually did it¡?¡± ¡°The constetions are invincible! Undertaker is a god!¡± Looking around, there were nobatants paying attention to the Meteor Shower¡¯s corpse in this aerial battlefield. They were all just excited about having won a historic battle. Only the Saintess and I were focused on the strange undtions in the night sky, on the fragments of starlight starting to fall. ¡®If the fragments fall to the ground like this¨D no, it¡¯s okay. Even if Gyeongsangnam-do bes a territory of ashes, it¡¯s not the worst situation.¡¯ I was not the type of regressor who had faith in myself. Such self-confidence was a luxury only diamond spoon-type regressors, who could save the world in just two or three regressions, could afford. Naturally, I anticipated the possibility of my n failing and evacuated as many residents from Gyeongsangnam-do as possible. ¡°The infrastructure will be destroyed¡¡± But it was manageable. In this era, the true infrastructure was not capital or material but the awakeners. Swallowing the bitter taste rising in my mouth, the Saintess spoke in a voice even more urgent than before. [¡Mr. Undertaker. The starlight fragments are spreading wider.] ¡°What?¡± I quickly leaned out and looked down. Indeed, the starlight fragments were actively defying the concept of vertical fall. As expected of anomaly, who questioned thews of physics when bored, their anti-intellectual behavior was showing. [They¡¯re not just falling over Busan¡¯s airspace. They¡¯re expected to easily cover the entire Korean Penins.] ¡°Damn it, this insane setback.¡± I muttered without realizing it, but strictly speaking, it wasn¡¯t exactly a setback. As already described, if left unchecked, the Meteor Shower would bombard the entire world over seven years. Hawaii, India, China, France, and so on. In other words¡ this thing didn¡¯t pour out all its power in its first debut. It was more like a stealthy powerhouse. Simr to the World Tree, Udumbara. We had stabbed such a stealthy powerhouse in the gut, so the ripple effects of its hidden power were bound to be unleashed. The conclusion was simple. Even in death, the Meteor Shower¡¯s fragments alone could easily annihte the Korean Penins. ¡®What should I do?¡¯ Countless thoughts crossed my mind. ¡®Abandon the Korean Penins?¡¯ ¡®The seven hundred awakeners are fine. We could abandon the main force and deploy a secondary unit.¡¯ ¡®But what about the nine hundred nonbatants providing backup on the ground?¡¯ ¡®Will they die?¡¯ ¡®Dang Seo-rin is fine, isn¡¯t she?¡¯ ¡®What about the Saintess?¡¯ ¡®Can the Alliance of Awakeners maintain the same solidarity without the constetions¡¯ trust? Even after thest ethical restraint is removed?¡¯ ¡®Territory of ashes.¡¯ The starlight fragments fell slowly. My decision-making speed increased. ¡®Abandon this cycle.¡¯ ¡®But gather as much information as possible.¡¯ ¡®Do the Meteor Shower¡¯s fragments also turn the ground into a territory of ashes? Will they disappear silently upon falling? Or will they remain as mysterious, eternal sources of light?¡¯ ¡®Even if I die, I struggle until the end.¡¯ [Mr. Undertaker.] A voice echoed quietly in my mind. [Mr. Undertaker, give the order.] The Saintess, the mastermind behind the constetions, awaited mymand as a regressor. I took out my radio. ¡°All units, the battle is not over!¡± Attention focused on me. ¡°Everyone, look down! The Meteor Shower¡¯s corpse is falling in hundreds and thousands of pieces! Even after subjugation, the fragments persist instead of disappearing!¡± The awakeners murmured. They were all highlypetent elites, but it would take five to ten minutes for their murmuring to coalesce into clear judgments and refined actions. Themander was the one who shortened that time to tens of seconds. ¡®Saintess.¡¯ I hadn¡¯t given any prior instructions to the Saintess. [The Saintess of National Salvation issues an urgent quest!] But as if reacting to my thoughts, at that moment, a message appeared before all the awakeners. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Debris of the Destroyed Meteor] You have sessfully subjugated the continental-ss anomaly ¡®Meteor Shower¡¯ for the first time in history. But there is no time to celebrate. The Meteor Shower¡¯s fragments are falling. Prevent the Meteor Carnival. Good luck. -Reward: Survival -Failure: Destruction of the Korean Penins ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The timing was perfect. In this moment of uncertainty without any data, the awakeners had no choice but to ept the constetion¡¯s testimony as fact. I shouted. ¡°We must stop them!¡± The night sky rippled. ¡°There are still nine hundred nonbatants on the ground! As long as they remain, the Korean Penins is not finished! Here, we entrust the future to the nonbatants and face death without fear!¡± All the awakeners looked at me. I saw ck gunpowder ignite in their pupils. ¡°From the 1st to the 12th squad! Follow your team leader¡¯s orders! Don¡¯t let a single piece of the anomaly¡¯s corpse touch ournd!¡± [Yes!] [Understood, Undertaker!] The radio crackled, transmitting the team leaders¡¯ voices. ¡°Launch! All units,unch! I will lead!¡± ¡°Waaah!¡± The formation of seven hundredbatants, shaped like a cone, scattered instantly. Like fighters taking off from an aircraft carrier. The difference was that we were not ascending but descending. ¡°Aaah¨Daaah¨D¨D¡± Even Dang Seo-rin, who was at the very back, didn¡¯t miss the timing. Although it wasn¡¯t in the n, she responded swiftly. The seventh melody, Rapid. The brooms we were riding elerated instantly. We quickly caught up with the falling fragments of the Meteor Shower. ¡°Aaah¨D¨D¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s magic burned brightly, consuming her lifespan. Therefore, she usually didn¡¯t sing beyond the fourth melody, and never more than six melodies even in crucial moments. The seventh melody. That was the boundary line where she stepped into thend of death. With the speed gained by burning her life, I charged into the line of fire. ¡°Ugh!¡± I swung my sword at one of the fragments torn from the Meteor Shower. Just destroying a single piece caused my whole body to suffer severe pain. It was expected. I had just squeezed out every bit of my aura and strength to deliver the final blow two minutes ago. The remaining aura in my body was already depleted. My right hand, unable to withstand the output, had all its skin peeled off, exposing the muscles. Continuing to fight in such a state was practically suicide. Barely scraping together the remaining aura, I wrapped it around the de and attacked the fragment. Part of it turned to ashes upon contact. But I didn¡¯t stop and immediately charged at the next fragment. I wasn¡¯t the only moth drawn to the me. [Aaaaargh!] [11 o¡¯clock direction! The 11 o¡¯clock direction is covered by another team! This bastard is spreading out more and more! We have to destroy it before it spreads!] [Twelfth squad, annihted.] [Die! Die, die! Just die!] [Thank you, Great Witch! I love you! Long live Samcheon World!] [Tenth squad, 2 o¡¯clock direction clear.] I wouldn¡¯t say all seven hundred ignored their lives. Somebatants pretended to fight while prioritizing their survival. Perhaps some even concluded to elevate their guild¡¯s position in the ruined Korean Penins. But at least my pen was for recording those who were different. [3 o¡¯clock direction clear. Tenth squad, annihted. Six members left. Moving to the 4 o¡¯clock direction.] [Seventh squad, annihted. But the 11 o¡¯clock direction is clear. Now moving to join the 10 o¡¯clock squad¡ Ah. Spotted one remaining fragment. Unable to join.] [I¡¯ll go first, Undertaker. I haven¡¯t forgotten what happened in Sejong. I¡¯ll always be grateful.] [Fourth squad, annihted.] Stars fell. Burning thest of their vitality to embrace the remnants of starlight, their bodies turning to ash. And the night sky began to fade. The dark waves spread by the Meteor Shower lightened from the horizon. Under the fading night sky, countless ashes fell¨D alongside the silent descent of brooms that had lost their owners. [Undertaker.] [Mr. Undertaker!] [Undertaker¨D¨D] Falling. Falling. Endless descent. How much time and noise had passed? ¡°Undertaker!¡± Blink. When I opened my eyes, I was already falling. The deafening sound of wind struck my ears. It was not strange to faint in a hellish battlefield, but this time, three things were particrly strange. First, the world was upside down. I hadn¡¯t realized immediately because of the high altitude, but I was falling. The broom was nowhere in sight. My cause of death this cycle seemed likely to be falling. Second, Dang Seo-rin was in front of me. Simply saying she was in front of me wasn¡¯t enough. Her beloved pointed hat was gone, and she, too, was falling from the sky like me. And at some point, she was holding me. ¡°Dang Seo-rin?¡± I barely moved my lips. The taste of blood, lead, iron, and ashes mingled in my mouth. Despite the intense conviction that this was reality, everything felt dreamlike. Like a sleepwalker uncertain if they wanted to keep dreaming. ¡°What¡¯s the situation¡?¡± Dang Seo-rin smiled brightly. We were falling, and death awaited us at the end of this fall. Was this a dream? Her smile grew closer. Closer and closer. Eventually, her smile was felt not by sight but by touch. That was the third strange thing. ¡°I¡ love humanity!¡± Her face, covered in blood, sweat, and ashes, smiled brightly again. ¡°You¡ what did you just¡?¡± ¡°I hate people. They annoy me. Honestly, I hate crowded ces. I¡¯m sick of people trying to curry favor with me.¡± p¡ª The wind continuously battered our bodies. Hugging me tighter against the sky¡¯s resistance, Dang Seo-rin spoke. ¡°I hated everything before the world ended, and I¡¯ve hated it all since. But still, humanity is amazing!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°No one will remember, no. No record will remain. We just saved the world! Right, Undertaker?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°And¨D I hope you don¡¯t hate people too much.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Wind. ¡°I¡¯m not the type to ask such things. Ah¡ªI should have asked. Why you keep making that face. Where you used to live and what you did. Why you like Caf¨¦ au Lait. Why your eyes look sad. I should have asked a lot, and I could have.¡± Waves. ¡°Do you hate me? Undertaker?¡± ¡°Not at all.¡± Immediate reply. ¡°Not at all¡¡. Absolutely.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± A smile. My dream. My disease. The reason I chose to dream of life, my sleepwalking¡¯s cause. ¡°And just like me, as much as you like me, just a little more, love humanity.¡± And¡ The sunset. The night sky disappeared. The sunset spread. When the Meteor Shower spread the night sky, the world was just beginning to see the sunset. Our battle took ce between the start and end of the day¡¯s sunset. Thus, when the Meteor Shower was defeated and we were falling, the world was still experiencing a grand sunset. ¡°Ah.¡± Not a sunset swallowed by the night sky. A sunset pushing away the night sky. An inverted sunset that could only happen once in this world, on this earth. ¡°Ah¡.¡± A red that stretched to the eternal horizon. ¡°Truly, truly¨D A beautiful sky¨D¡± This is where the epilogue ends. From the 43rd cycle, we also devised measures for the corpses, allowing the seven hundred awakeners to safely return to the ground. There was still much to discuss about the Meteor Shower. Spections about its origins, experiments on harnessing starlight. Nevertheless, today¡¯s story ends here. Because that day¡¯s sunset was too red, and humanity was simply a being that flew towards the eternally setting horizon. Boss battle. Anomaly Meteor Shower. Aliases: Meteor Strike, Armageddon, Worry, Nuclear Lunch, Milky Way Threat Level: Lv.3 Continental Patterns: Phase 1 Emergence, Phase 2 Descent, Phase 3 Mass Sleep, Phase 4 Impact. Estimated casualties: Unknown. Estimated missing: unknown. Numerous world destruction records. Subjugationplete. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 69 The Recorder I These days, I often thought I talked too much about Dang Seo-rin. Of course, I couldn''t tell my story as a regressor without mentioning Dang Seo-rin. However, even the greatest output of the Korean Penins, the Great Witch of the railroad, the idol of all people, has a personal life. Yes, a personal life. I was not the type to actively dig into someone else''s secrets, nor was I the type to interfere with their hobbies. Even if that ''someone'' was a mentally unstable, dual-personality, malicious stuttering keyboard battler. "Ah. G-Guild leader... G-Good morning...." Sim Ah-ryeon. Alias: One of the greatest trolls on SG Net, known as the viin OldManGoryeo.However, during the 50th cycle, she was praised as the [Healing Angel] for treating ordinary people for free. She even volunteered as an art teacher, school nurse, and librarian for elementary school children. Fashion style: Prefers brown tops. Especially likes to wear a white doctor''s gown over a brown turtleneck. Why? Because she wants to show off that she''s an expensive healer. Even with just this, her character seemed quite amusing, but her awakening skill was even more oundish. Ability: Commonly known as Grudge Orb. To put it differently, she drank in all the aggro. The more she was cursed at, the stronger her healing abilities became. Because of this ridiculous ability, Sim Ah-ryeon practically lived on SG Net, attracting all sorts of aggro. She was practically the Anubis of the Korean Penins... but when it came to her personal life, she had some surprisingly wholesome hobbies. "Yes, good morning. Are you going out somewhere at this hour?" "I-I thought I''d try painting again after a long time, hehe. You gave me an easelst time, guild leader...." Sim Ah-ryeon, who was awkwardlyughing, had a canvas and easel tucked under her arm. Hobby: Painting. That''s right. She was actually an art student. Readers with good memories might recall that when we raided the viin OldManGoryeo''s house during the 50th cycle, Sim Ah-ryeon was painting. And... believe it or not, Sim Ah-ryeon was actually one of the most academically aplished members of our guild. Education: Art Department at Yewon School, Seoul Arts High School, and Seoul National University''s Design Department¡ªquite the royal road. Not only that, but she also swept school art exhibitions from a young age and even won awards at various design exhibitions. She had two minister''s awards in elementary and middle school and a president''s award in high school. All the aspiring art students born in the same year and preparing for college hated Sim Ah-ryeon. Her talent for attracting aggro was evident from an early age. Sounds like bullshit? I thought so too, so I snuck into the ruins of her schools and dug through the data. It was true. How could this be real... Back then, I could onlyment amidst the exhibition materials in the middle of a deserted school. With such a brilliant educational and career background, what Sim Ah-ryeon mainly did was: -OldManGoryeo: Hm... It seems you''ve never observed people in real life. Did you draw this with your own body as a reference? Then seriously, I rmend you switch from illustrator to live specimen in ab. -OldManGoryeo: Wow, jackpot. If you draw like this in an entrance exam academy, you could get your tuition refunded immediately. -OldManGoryeo: Seriously, I drew better than this when I was eight, lol. These kinds of nitpickingments. Or she''d drawics that pissed people off and post them on SG Net. Right now, Sim Ah-ryeon was smiling innocently in front of me, but justst night, she had once again earned the Triple Crown of curses from SG Net members. "Where are you going to paint?" "Ah, the Han River. I thought I''d paint somendscapes while listening to the murmuring water.... The weather is really nice today. Hmm. If I get bored, I might walk around the neighborhood and offer free checkups to any sick elderly people I find...." "Oh, Lord. Why did you give this child such an ability as Grudge Orb." "Eh?" "Nothing.... Anyway, you''re going to the riverside in front, right? Give me your bag." "Eek. Y-You don''t have to... Ah. Thank you, guild leader...." Sim Ah-ryeon followed me timidly, but once we reached the riverside and she set up her easel, her hesitation vanished. Facing the canvas, she hummed to herself, "Hmm, mmh, hmm," and began to paint with smooth, swift strokes. "......" Her hand moved with incredible speed, one of the virtues of a painter being ''speed''. Sim Ah-ryeon''s hand was remarkably fast. It wasn''t just her hand that was fast. Having lived as a regressor, my eye for art had grown quite sharp, and Sim Ah-ryeon''s painting reached a significant level, even to my discerning eyes. "Heh... As expected. I''m a genius...." Her asional muttering was, well, honestly a bit cringe-worthy. ''Well. It''s a much healthier hobby than trolling on themunity sites.'' I shrugged. At least until then, I had no intention of getting involved in Sim Ah-ryeon''s hobbies. The change began in the 95th cycle. Let me briefly describe the historical flow surrounding us. The first time the Meteor Shower was subdued was in the 42nd cycle. Unfortunately, due to thew of action and reaction, when the Meteor Shower was defeated, our awakeners also perished. However, the time of a regressor defies thews of physics. By the 43rd, 44th, and 45th cycles, the strategies for dealing with the Meteor Shower had be more refined. By the 95th cycle, it could be said that the strategies wereplete. "Dang Seo-rin, when the Meteor Shower appears, use magic to set up a below it." "Huh? A? Why?" "Think of it as a meteorite. Destroying the meteorite is one thing, but the debris after destruction is also a problem, isn''t it?" "...Ah." Listening to my advice, Dang Seo-rin began developing magic. The magic ''Heavenly Net'' solely for dealing with the Meteor Shower waspleted. With this, the final desperate move of the Meteor Shower was easily sealed. And that wasn''t all. The quest list of constetions tempting the awakened of the Korean Penins also evolved day by day. The AAA-grade game ''Growing as an Awakener on the Korean Penins,'' nned by me and serviced by the Saintess, was an open-world sandbox ultra-real MMORPG. It provided a lot of information about the voids and even offered ''customized growth'' automatically. "Huh. My awakening ability wasn''t turning filth into potable water but actual purification?" "After clearing the dungeon, a build-up guide that optimizes my ability appeared!" "Damn. The world is shit, but at least there''s a sense of growth." "Quests are invincible, and constetions are gods!" "Repeat after me! The Meteor Shower is just... a star." Of course, all these rewards were what I had obtained by struggling as a regressor. Running an academy and nurturing as many awakener as possible paid off. I developed their potential and optimized builds. "Huh? The reward is... an Equivalent Exchange Grimoire? What''s this?" Just look at Dang Seo-rin; the Dang Seo-rin of the 4th cycle and the Dang Seo-rin of the 95th cycle were entirely different. The magic she barely created over several years in previous cycles was now almost given for free. "...Unbelievable! Such an outrageous magic exists?" The effect was tremendous. Not only S-ss individuals like Dang Seo-rin, but even most awakeners were growing rapidly like Bitcoin in the early 2020s, following an upward trend. As a result, while it might not reach the level of the Ten Legs, the Meteor Shower began to join the ranks of easily defeatable strange phenomena. Udumbara? That was already included long ago. -Kyuu?u??? -So? Hu?ngr?y??? -???T???w???¨ª??n???k??????e??????? Ah, but s, the Korean Penins''s strange trio that drove the early part of my regressor life into despair was now out of service. Anyway, in all things, benefitse with drawbacks. As the Saintess''s power reached its limit, the probability of the corrupted version, the ''Executioner,'' appearing increased. The same went for others. The awakeners had grown stronger, but they had also be more dangerous. It was safe to say that ''eleration'' was starting. If this were a character collection gacha mobile game, there would be no problem. Rather, it would be advantageous. ''10th cycle Dang Seo-rin is 2-star, 50th cycle Dang Seo-rin is 3-star, 100th cycle Dang Seo-rin is 4-star! Wow! Multiple Dang Seo-rins!'' ''You can sell the same character several times by just changing their outfits?'' ''Limited edition pickup rerun! Saintess Alternative version - Executioner appears! irvoyance, Telepathy, Time Stop, existing abilities greatly enhanced!'' ''If you don''t like it... you''ll have to draw it, right?'' Etc., testing people''s wallets and patience from various angles. But as you know, this was reality. As a regressor, I had to be mindful of various side effects. "Um... Guild leader...?" So, if anyone in reality said such lines, one should be extremely cautious. "Hmm? What''s wrong, Ah-ryeon?" "I-I don''t know if I should say this. Actually, I shouldn''t, but... but I thought maybe it might be okay if it''s you, guild leader...." "Mm? What is it? Just tell me." "T-Then¡ Lean in a bit." Sim Ah-ryeon whispered in my ear. "Um... Guild leader. About the Meteor Shower. Could you maybe, even just a little, subdue it slowly...?" ? "Why?" "Because I want to paint it...." ? "Why?" "B-Because... it''s so cool. Stars that bring about destruction from the sky. Creating waves of darkness. Even a luby from the sirens... Honestly, I think it should be preserved forever for future generations in a painting...." ??? If someone imed that Cthulhu appeared in the sea and said, ''Wow, I must paint it in hyper-realistic detail to ensure as many civilians as possible see it!'', they would be treated as a lunatic. My expression at that moment was precisely like witnessing such a lunatic. "Ah-ryeon, the guild leader is confused right now, but the Meteor Shower is a top-tier anomaly." "Yes? Ah, yes... ording to the library society, it''s a continental-ss anomaly. It''s the most dangerous anomaly observed on the Korean Penins. I know that, of course...." "Yet you want to leisurely paint the Meteor Shower? Are you serious? What if thebat team members die while subduing it?" "Um... Well, I think sacrifices for the sake of art are inevitable. Last time, I wanted to paint the Ten Legs, but... it''s such a pity that the painting was lost. It''s an eternal loss for humanity...." "......" By the way, the formal identification name for the Ten Legs by the library society is ''crawling baby Cthulhu''. Basically, Sim Ah-ryeon genuinely wanted to paint Cthulhu. And she actually did. It was so absurd that I set up a situation for her to paint during the next Ten Legs subjugation. "Wow, these tentacles! So bizarre, no terrestrial, or even marine, creature has ever evolved to have these in their evolutionary history...! To think such things exist! This is unbelievable! Heh, heh. I must paint, I must paint...." "......" I slightly regretted it. But the surprising fact was... Sim Ah-ryeon''s paintings of anomalies posted on SG Net became massively popr. -Anonymous: (Doodle) Posting a small sketch of the Ten Legs today... ^^ (Image attached) -This is the Ten Legs that was subjugatedst time! I was incredibly lucky to join the subjugation team and got a chance to sketch it! But the team fought so well that I didn''t have enough time to sketch... ?? -It''s embarrassing, but I hope this helps other awakeners who couldn''t join the subjugation get a sense of what the Ten Legs looked like... So I''m posting it here...! -Postscript: It seems SG Net lowers image quality every time you upload a file, which is always a shame??. Admins, please do your best...! Hmm. Yes. I know what you want to say. Unfortunately, this really was a post written by Sim Ah-ryeon (aka viin OldManGoryeo). She just wrote it anonymously instead of with her official nickname. Naturally,ments with apletely opposite sentiment to the usual trolling posts of the viin OldManGoryeo flooded in. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Wow! It''s so pretty!! (>_<)!! -Anonymous: Isn''t this too realistic...? -Anonymous: If you joined the subjugation team, doesn''t that mean you''re quite high-ranking among the awakeners? Damn. Impressive. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: It really looks like the Ten Legs. ©¸Anonymous: looks like? Really? ©¸Anonymous: Don''t be mean to the talented person. -dolLHoUse: disgusting -AhdsLove: Please, talented person, join as a regr member. I always search for your drawings, but it''s hard to find them??. -Anonymous: Really well-drawn. -Anonymous: I was in the subjugation team, and the Ten Legs really looked like this. The feeling is exactly the same. ©¸LiteraryGirl: How did you catch such a monster? ©¸Anonymous: ''Undertaker'' and ''Great Witch'' did it. ©¸Anonymous: Just the GOAT. -Anonymous: But why does the person uploading this drawing always seem so annoying? ©¸Anonymous: What''s annoying about it?? ©¸Anonymous: Don''t nder the talented person. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: It''s a wonderful drawing. It feels more like an abstract painting than a realistic one, but it still feels like I''m really seeing the Ten Legs. You have a natural talent for depicting anomalies! Hmm. I nodded at CookingQueen''sment. There were quite a few awakeners on SG Net who had participated in the Ten Legs subjugation. If even those people unanimously testified that it looked real, then Sim Ah-ryeon certainly had some talent. Brushstrokes that made even those who didn''t know feel like it was real, and those who knew also felt like it was the real anomaly. The vigor that seemed to leap off the screen. Talent. The aesthetics of anomalies. "Heh... So manypliments about how well I drew...." "......" Then suddenly, an idea struck me like lightning. It was a sh of inspiration that often came to me as a regressor. "Ah-ryeon." "Hehe... Yes? Guild leader?" "You like drawing anomalies, right?" "Wh-Why do you ask? Y-you''re making me nervous. Why all of a sudden....?" I put my hand on Sim Ah-ryeon''s shoulder. Sim Ah-ryeon, who was tilting her head in confusion, saw me smiling broadly at her. "Have you ever thought about bing a constetion?" "......?" Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 70 The Recorder II I, the Undertaker, never choose people to associate with carelessly, but I am extremely selective when ites to talent. This means I am thorough in both public and private affairs. In the context of Koei''s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I wouldn¡¯t even consider generals with martial strength of 70 or strategists with intelligence of 70. That¡¯s my gaming style. Through dozens of regressions, I carefully selected and created what I call the "Regression Alliance" ¡ª an ultra-secret society that understands I am a regressor and strategizes ordingly. As for the personnel? Simple. By the 95th regression, it was even simpler. Me, the Saintess, and Noh Do-hwa. That¡¯s it. Among us, the Saintess manipted all the awakeners in the Korean Penins as a puppet master for the constetions, while Noh Do-hwa extorted every awakener by saying things like, ¡°Oh, you want to use the roads in the apocalypse? Then you¡¯ll need to show us some respect.¡± Each could be called the ruler of the penins¡¯s mind and material, respectively. Therefore, the executive members of the Regression Alliance at that time, besides me, were basically just those two. asionally, Seo Gyu or Yu Ji-won joined as non-permanent members, but that was a rare exception. Naturally, it was absolutely impossible for someone like Sim Ah-ryeon, with [Martial Strength 4] [Political Power 3] [Charm 16] [Intelligence 77] and only barely A+ level skills, to join our Regression Alliance.¡°T-The guild leader¡ is a regressor?¡± But, surprise! There¡¯s no such thing as ¡°absolute.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon, holding the cafe mocha I made for her with both hands, had her mouth open wide in an O shape. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re saying you¡¯re not just someone who was born with an extremely lucky streak, monopolizing all sorts of serendipitous opportunities while others struggled, and even unnecessarily generous, making people envious and miserable with your diamond spoon Awakening Ability?¡± ¡°¡Yes.¡± What the hell did she think of me all this time? Fortunately or unfortunately, Sim Ah-ryeon''s shock didn¡¯tst long. By the time she had drunk half of her cafe mocha, her expression rxed as if she had entered a hot spring. When I asked her why, her answer was absurd. ¡°Well¡ uh, honestly, I feel like I understand a lot more now. You figured out the conditions for my ability [Grudge Orb] to activate, didn¡¯t you¡?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Moreover, thinking that your current position is not just due to innate talent or luck but a result of repeatedly struggling through regressions¡ it makes me feel a bit more at ease. Though, seeing how hard you¡¯ve worked is something else¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°By the way, guild leader. Can I post this anonymously on SG Net?¡± ¡°Do you think you can?¡± ¡°It would definitely be a top rmendation post¡.¡± The ghost of thismunity. ¡°It¡¯s too risky because of Go Yurii.¡± ¡°Go Yuri? Ah, the Satisfaction Society¡ Actually, I¡¯m not too fond of that person either. Don¡¯t you think their character oveps with mine? It¡¯s like they¡¯re imitating me¡ Though, that part isn¡¯t entirely un-cute¡.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± Whenever I talked to her, the number of question marks increased exponentially. Was this perhaps Sim Ah-ryeon''s hidden awakening ability? I constantly twisted the question marks in my mind as I continued exining. SG Net was actually created by Seo Gyu, and the constetions were nothing more than puppets controlled by a single person. ¡°Hiek. Hieeeek¡!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon, having witnessed the truth of the world, once again had her sanity points drained. Her hands, holding the cafe mocha cup, trembled. ¡°Wh-Why are you sharing these secrets with me? It¡¯s overwhelming! I didn¡¯t want to know this much¡!¡± ¡°Calm down, Ah-ryeon. What if your bizarre drawings were recognized as ¡®official illustrations¡¯?¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s ears perked up. ¡°Official¡?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve been posting the strategies I¡¯ve learned through regressions on SG Net, but starting next cycle, I¡¯m thinking of refining these strategy posts. I n to use your drawing skills for this purpose.¡± ¡°How¡?¡± Like this. A few dayster, I gathered the Saintess and Noh Do-hwa and handed out a small booklet. The Saintess tilted her head in curiosity. ¡°Undertaker, what is this?¡± ¡°Take your time reading it.¡± The booklet, produced by a rare printer, contained both text and illustrations. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies] ¡®Ten Legs¡¯ Aliases: Crawling Baby Cthulhu, Lord of Shadows, Thorny Hell, Lurker Threat Level: Polis Contamination Level: None Habitat: Throughout the Korean Penins Characteristics: It is characterized by tentacles that resemble human fingers. Contrary to its name, ¡®Ten Legs¡¯ actually has hundreds, thousands of tentacles. Not all tentacles are attached to the main body; smaller tentacles grow from therger ones. The tentacles continuously grow and break off in real-time. They rapidly extend to tear apart their target or fire off to pierce the target. In addition to the visible tentacles, dozens of tentacles always burrow underground. Therefore, when fighting Ten Legs, one must never let their guard down, as tentacles can emerge from behind or below at any time. Due to the ¡®spikes emerging from the ground,¡¯ Koreans widely know it by the alias ¡®Lurker.¡¯ The main body is quite smallpared to the tentacles. The main body consists of two hearts, and both hearts must be struck simultaneously to¡ ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The Saintess blinked. ¡°Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. A kind of strategy guide. Starting from the next cycle, I n to distribute such guides under the name of a new constetion.¡± ¡°¡¡!¡± In other words, a ¡®constetion that oversees information.¡¯ Until now, the Constetions manipted by the Saintess had names borrowed from real human history. The ¡®Saint of Salvation¡¯ was Joan of Arc, and the ¡®Conqueror of the Alps¡¯ was Hannibal. While this method had the intuitive advantage of borrowing originality from history¡ I thought it was time to flesh out the identities of the constetions a bit more. ¡°Are you nning to establish a new constetion responsible for information on anomalies and strategies?¡± ¡°Yes. While it¡¯s not bad for me, a regressor, to monopolize information, it draws too much attention to me. Entities like Go Yuri be unnecessarily interested in me.¡± Not just Go Yuri; there were countless unknown entities in the world whose identities even I didn¡¯t know. ¡°I will create an encyclopedia board on SG Net and make it seem like a new Constetion manages it. Of course.¡± I pointed to Sim Ah-ryeon, who was quietly sitting beside me. ¡°The person who will actually manage that board is this guild member, Sim Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°¡Indeed.¡± ¡°It will be more credible for others to ept information distributed under the name of a Constetion rather than information I personally release. Especially if apanied by such vivid visual materials.¡± ¡°Huh. So the one posting those anonymous anomaly drawings was her¡.¡± With their attention focused on her, the Saintess and Noh Do-hwa''s eyes made Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s shoulders twitch. ¡°So, you¡¯re nning to appoint Sim Ah-ryeon as the co-moderator of SG Net, in addition to Seo Gyu, who has been the main moderator¡?¡± ¡°Yes, sort of.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite a significant role. While Seo Gyu hardly participates, Sim Ah-ryeon here is quite infamous in themunity. I¡¯m sorry to say this in front of her, but do you think she can handle the position¡?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll test it in the next cycle.¡± ¡°Indeed¡¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯sughter echoed softly in the meeting room like a shadow. ¡°I, too, was tested in ¡®that manner.¡¯ Heh, sometimes even I can¡¯t keep up with the Undertaker¡¯s sense of time¡.¡± Thus, the next 96th cycle began. I took Sim Ah-ryeon around the entire country. The purpose? To gather illustrations for the anomaly encyclopedia. I showed her the continental-level anomaly ¡®Udumbara¡¯ in Onyang, Chungcheongnam-do, and the vige-level anomaly ¡®Trolley Dilemma¡¯ on the Donghae Line. I selected anomalies that were difficult for ordinary people to encounter and showed them to her one by one. ¡°A-Amazing¡!¡± Every time she encountered a bizarre anomaly, Sim Ah-ryeon busily painted. For half a year, we collected illustrations. -The yground of Constetions! -The Only Safe Inte Community! -Wee to SG Net! Finally, SG Net was opened. It was slightlyter than usual in other cycles, but it had been prepared so thoroughly that SG Net was almost like a ''renewal.'' ¡°What? Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies¡?¡± ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± The full-scale introduction of the ¡®anomaly encyclopedia,¡¯ nned since thest cycle. Previously, SG Net had only [Freeboard], [Creative Board], [Group Board], [Guild Recruitment Board], and [Chat Room]. Now, there was a prominent [Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies] at the top. All other boards were disyed in gray, but the encyclopedia was in red. It was eye-catching. The content was even more eye-catching. ¡°There¡¯s information about monsters¡?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Ten Legs, Gremlins¡ Udumbara? Trolley? Wow. There were monsters like these?¡± With visual materials collected over the past half year and the data umted over dozens of cycles, the flood of information began. [The Librarian of the Great Library manages the encyclopedia.] Thus, a new Constetion made its debut. [The Librarian of the Great Libraryprehensively oversees information about all things, especially collecting data on anomalies.] [The Librarian of the Great Library wants you to share information with others. Sharing is the way to praise and honor the Librarian of the Great Library.] [The deeper your faith in the Librarian of the Great Library, the more information you didn¡¯t know will be unlocked.] As nned by the Saintess, messages were sent to awakeners across the country. In the monitoring room, Sim Ah-ryeon nervously chewed her nails and fiddled with her smartphone. ¡°Stop looking at it. You¡¯ll wear out the screen.¡± ¡°B-But¡ We¡¯re fooling so many people so thoroughly. C-can I really do this¡?¡± ¡°Yes. You¡¯ll do great.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon, you have a natural talent for this.¡± ¡°Really?¡± From my experience over dozens of cycles, you¡¯re a genius at this anonymous masquerade. Sure enough, it wasn¡¯t long before there was amotion among SG Net members. -Anonymous: I went to Onyang as the encyclopedia said, and there was a flower tree growing on a corpse, just like in the picture. What should I do? ©¸LiteraryGirl: What do you mean, what should you do, you idiot? That¡¯s a zombie virus! Burn it! ©¸Anonymous: But it grants immortality? ©¸Officer: Stay right there. I¡¯ming to burn the whole inn down with you. ©¸Anonymous: Gulp. -CookingQueen: Interesting. -Anonymous: Hey, I always thought these green bugs were goblins, but they¡¯re actually gremlins. When I broke the machine as the encyclopedia said, they just disappeared on their own. Endless testimonies. People were reporting that when they went to certain locations described in the encyclopedia, they found anomalies exactly as depicted in the illustrations, and when they followed the strategy, they were really able to defeat them. Eventually, The Librarian of the Great Library quickly gained recognition among the awakeners. Even if they didn¡¯t want to acknowledge it, there were asional incidents that forced them to. -Anonymous: If the constetion truly manages all information, shouldn¡¯t it know my personal information too? Hey, Librarian, if you¡¯re really a Constetion, guess who I am. ©¸[The Librarian of the Great Library]: Park Sang-soon. 37 years old. Guild leader of the Blue Sea Guild. Currently essing from Yeongdo, Busan. ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸LiteraryGirl: ? ©¸Anonymous: Wow, really? He was the Blue Sea guild leader? ©¸[Samcheon] WitchJudge: LOL ©¸[Samcheon] Officer: Is this what represents one of Busan¡¯s top guilds? Embarrassing. Doxxing! It was revealed that anonymity on SG Net was futile in the face of the ¡®Librarian of the Great Library.¡¯ Of course, all anonymous non-members essing SG Net had their identities visible to Seo Gyu, who could use that information to urately identify them through the Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance]. But the awakeners, who didn¡¯t know this secret, must have found the Librarian of the Great Library terrifying. After the incident where a non-member¡¯s identity was exposed, any criticism or doubt about the Librarian of the Great Library vanished from SG Net. ¡°G-Guild leader¡! This is fun!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon also epted that her soul had munity spirit¡¯ emzoned across it. Yeah. I figured as much. Unlike Seo Gyu, who somewhat reluctantly managed SG Net, Sim Ah-ryeon energetically took on the ¡®constetion¡¯s duties.¡¯ Naturally, more awakeners began to follow the Librarian of the Great Library. -Anonymous: I found a way to defeat gremlins without breaking machines. -Anonymous: Trolley <<< I''ve encountered it three times already. If you follow my instructions, you''ll never be in danger. Thanks to this, spreading strategies about anomalies became much easier, and the tendency of awakeners to hoard valuable information also lessened significantly. ¡®This should continue to work well in future cycles.¡¯ A highly satisfying oue. I watched Sim Ah-ryeon busily working on her smartphone with a pleased smile. Of course, unexpected incidents urred because of the ¡®anomaly encyclopedia,¡¯ but that story is for another time. ¡°¡Ah, guild leader. There¡¯s a problem.¡± ¡°Hmm? What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°I identally posted ament as [Librarian of the Great Library] instead of [OldManGoryeo]¡.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°I deleted it immediately, but several members saw it. Eek. Real-time posts are flooding in! They even took screenshots! Thesemunity ghosts. How did they capture it so quickly in that short moment¡? They should live their real lives instead of being on themunity¡ What should we do¡?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Yeah. I¡¯ll have to remind her to be more careful withments in the next cycle. Ah, there¡¯s no epilogue. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 71 The Designer I By the way, the group called the "Library Society" has been mentioned several times, but we never really had the opportunity to exin it properly. The reason why this thought suddenly came to mind is that during the 562nd run, Oh Dok-seo asked this question: "Hey, mister. How do you join the Library Society?" "Hmm? Why the Library Society?" "Why? Because it''s cool." Oh Dok-seo asionally got fixated on something out of the blue. From the fashion choices of rappers with caps and jumpers, jeans that looked like they could drip like candle wax at any moment (including three holes), and chewing gum (fake) being chewed in her mouth, it was clear that Oh Dok-seo had a severe case of "Chuunibyou"¡ªa terminal illness for those in middle school. She prided herself on being a "Literary Girl," sharingmon symptoms with other Chuunibyous. That is, she had a peculiar, ecstatic fascination with nouns like "library," "society," and "librarian."ording to a paper from the Korean Psychiatric Association, this disease is, unfortunately, incurable. The only treatment is for the patient to actually enter the university''s literature department. How terrifying. "Since you''re a regressor who has gone through hundreds of runs, you must know the key members of the Library Society, right? Isn''t that right?" "Hmm¡." I made a subtle expression. "Well, I do know them, but¡." "Then introduce me to them! No, before that, tell me what the Library Society is all about. They upload entries in the SG Net''s Encyclopedia of Anomalies, but other than that, they''re a secret organization shrouded in mystery." "...Do you really want to know?" "Huh? What''s with that all of a sudden? Stop being stingy and tell me everything you can." "You''ll probably regret it... Well, alright." If you insist, I must oblige. - Ch??zz?, today''s music for you all is Mozart¡¡. Next to the table we were sitting at, a wooden vintage radio was ying music. I took a sip of my Caf¨¦ au Lait, fueling my bright red tongue with engine fuel. And then, I began to speak to the little Prophet in front of me. The Library Society. Also known as The Great Library. No one knows exactly when it was founded, but it''s a very old organization, a secret society at that. Naturally, its existence is thoroughly hidden from the public. Even if the name of the organization identally gets exposed, people are likely to brush it off, thinking, "Hmm? Sounds like a usible group in reality?" Thus, unlike the Freemasons or the Illuminati, who merely pretend to be secretive but suffer from exposure, they are on a different level. "Oh... A secret organization, indeed." Oh Dok-seo''s eyes sparkled. Even she, who usually looked at everything with a cynical, bored expression as her default, seemed to have a sense of romance. I thought to myself, this is going to be trouble, but continued exining nheless. The exact location of the society''s headquarters is unknown. However, there are rumors that it is in North America. Branches of the society are spread worldwide. The Korean branch''s hideout is somewhere in Cheorwon. "Cheorwon? Why Cheorwon of all ces?" "To be precise, it''s in Geunnam-myeon, Cheorwon, where there are fewer residents. Like any secret society, they prefer to avoid people''s attention." "Oh¡." The Library Society had been aware of the existence of anomalies long before the Gate Incident, possibly hundreds or thousands of years ago. They collected information on anomalies, wrote strategies and manuals, and secretly trained "Librarians." Librarians are specialists inbating anomalies. They are professionals who have sworn to dedicate their lives to eradicating or collecting anomalies, even if it means abandoning humanity and morality. Librarians strictly follow a hierarchical order. The hierarchy is known to consist of [Knight], [Baron], [Viscount], [Count], [Marquess], and [Duke]. Among them, there is only one Duke. The head of all librarians, the so-called Duke of the ck Library. Nothing is known about this person. It is even uncertain whether they are human or not. "Wait. Then how do you address librarians with their titles? Like [Baron-level Librarian]?" "Well, something like that. From the Count level, they also have separate titles. For example, a Count specializing in dealing with false books would be called the ¡®Count of the False Book Tower¡¯." "That''s so cool...?" "Additionally, the suffixes of the titles change with the ranks. A Baron''s title ends with ''Guan'' (êP), a Viscount''s with ''Ga'' (¼Ò), a Count''s with ''Lou'' (˜Ç), and a Marquess''s with ''Gak'' (éw). For instance, the Marquess in charge of managing forbidden books is known as ''Cheon Hae-gak''." "That''s incredibly cool...?" Oh Dok-seo''s eyes grew more and more dreamy. ording to some stories... in the deepest depths of the Great Library headquarters, there is a kind of prophecy book called the "ck Notebook." The ck Notebook is said to contain prophecies about the disasters that will befall humanity and the anomalies that will bring about the end of the world, written in very strangenguages and characters. To prevent the apocalypse that wille someday, to preserve humanity, to continue history, the librarians of the Library Society are still working somewhere in secret. "¨D¨DAnd all of this is bullshit." Blink. Oh Dok-seo blinked her eyes while holding the espresso I made her with one hand. "Huh?" Hmm. That''s quite a nice reaction. I smiled gently. "Kiddo. The Library Society doesn''t exist. Well, if you dig around, you''ll find plenty of groups with simr names, but there is no organization that has been secretly working in humanity''s shadows for thousands of years to counter the threat of anomalies." "Huh? Wha-? Why? Why not...?" "Because." I slowly stood up. "I, the Undertaker, am the master of the Great Library, the founder of the Library Society, the one and only Duke, the Duke of the ck Library." "......" Why. What''s so surprising? I gave a sly smile to the Chuunibyou bubble gum girl, whose lips were moving like a fish''s. Do you think the fake organizations I''ve created over a thousand years are just a few? ying the mastermind is always fresh and thrilling. I was always prepared to respond, "Ah, that was my n," "That was also me," and "That, too, was me," no matter what incident urred as an SSS-ss Regressor. However, no matter how much of a Regressor I was, I couldn''t create something from nothing. That was a fact proven by the demon Parmenides in 500 BC. I also had sources from which I was inspired¡ªor rather, forcibly stimted¡ªto establish the Library Society. The original existed elsewhere. That point of stimtion began in the 46th run, from a radio broadcast presumed to havee from the USA, North America. Since the copse of civilization, humanity, which had enjoyed the era of videos, had regressed to the radio age in terms of cultural level. And I was very familiar with handling radios from the early stages of regression. I even had the experience of setting up a broadcasting station to help Dang Seo-rin with her idol activities. To boast a little... Legendary radio channels like "Nymphcalypse" and "Ravenw Busan Branch," which had countless listeners across the Korean Penins and even Japan, wouldn''t have been able to take off without my help. This wasn''t just self-praise but an objective fact. Even the channel hosts often made such remarks. -Oh, do you mean the Benefactor? Wow. Their help was truly invaluable for the establishment and maintenance of our channel! Until five years ago, I didn''t even know how to operate a channel! -The Benefactor, you say? Hmm. I''ve mentioned it a few times on the broadcast, but they are truly a person to be grateful for. Sometimes, we need rare materials or tools to maintain the channel, and if we ask the Benefactor, they procure them like a ghost. Here, "Benefactor" referred to me. I had significantly contributed to maintaining the cultural level of East Asia after the apocalypse. An event where famous radio channels gathered and broadcasted 24-hour ry on Christmas Day¡ªdubbed the "Radio Festival"¡ªwas also nned by me. Always be thankful to me, cultural citizens of East Asia. For this reason, one wall of my hideout was always lined with radios. The lineup was splendid. Starting with South Korea''s first vacuum tube radio, the Geumseong A-501, followed by Sony''s CF-580, CF-3800, Germany''s Grundig Party-Boy 210, China''s TECSUN PL-680, and more... Among them was a radio made by the Zenithpany called the K731. You don''t need to know what product this is. Just know that it''s an antique from the 1950s, made of maple wood, and has a vintage feel. You know those wooden wardrobes in old people''s houses? This wooden radio had the same glossy texture. -Ch??zz?, this is¡ the CP Foundation. The current situation is¡ ch???zz?. One winter morning, that antique radio quietly whispered in English. "Hmm?" At the time, I was enjoying a cup of Caf¨¦ au Lait, savoring a bit of romance. Not fully awake from my morning daze, I stared at the radio. ''Did I... leave the radio on overnight?'' And here, it bes clear why I''m not suitable as a protagonist for a horror movie. Because I have theplete memory ability, I never brush things off with, "Eh, it must be my imagination," or "Hmm, my memory is a bit fuzzy," thus never inducing frustration in the audience. ''...I didn''t leave it on.'' My eyes snapped open. I immediately turned up the radio''s volume. The static noise peculiar to radios red up. -Ch??zz?, Zone 7 has fallen. I repeat. Zone 7 has fallen. We used a nuclear warhead ording to the protocol, but it had no effect. A nuclear warhead? Trying to suppress the noise and listen to the voice, it seemed the other person was an old man. He spoke typical Californian English. -Oh, the dragon... The dragon has been released. It''s all over now. Ch??zz?,. Can you see it? The giant shadow of the dragon beyond the mushroom cloud. It''s over. The Foundation is doomed. The world is doomed too. I turned the frequency dial back and forth. But with each move, the static noise echoed, and the old man''s voice continued crackling without breaking. The conclusion was clear. "...This thing has be an anomaly." I clicked my tongue. Contamination. Since the world started falling apart, various electronic devices getting infected by anomalies was amon urrence. I called this phenomenon "contamination", ¡°corruption¡± or "infection." Especially CCTV, telephones, cell phones (the older, the riskier),puters, GPS navigations, radars, and televisions were dangerous. They were prone to malfunction at a fairly high rate. In fact, the most lethal blow to human civilization was not physical threats like the Ten Legs but these "contamination" phenomena. In the early days, the leaders of various countries who tried tobat anomalies with nuclear bombs merged with the almighty mushroom cloud, puzzled, "Uh? Why is the missile heading this way instead of the target?" Radios were not an exception to contamination. However, I had performed intense exorcisms on the radios I collected, so I thought they were rtively safe... -This is Zone 7. I am Martin Russell, the chief director of Zone 7. After confirming the failure of the final barrier protocol in Zone 7, I moved to Bunker 24 and am currently attempting tomunicate externally. "Hmm." -From the bunker, I can monitor the interior and exterior with CCTV, but many are broken. The remaining cameras are not expected tost long. If a rescue team is organized, please dispatch them promptly so that we can respond internally. Currently, there are six survivors in the zone, including myself. I am alone in Bunker 24, and the remaining five are scattered. -ording to radar, the entities that escaped containment are converging on North America instead of spreading worldwide. Why? What''s the reason? The radio content was quite strange. Typically, radios infected by anomalies either mimic ghost sounds orunch nonsensical mental attacks. -All Foundation personnel would already know this... Zone 7 is located on Molokai Ind in Hawaii. -If, by any chance, a civilian hears thismunication, ignore itpletely. And run as far away as possible from North America. Or enjoy ast supper with your family. But this anomaly... iming to be a part of a "Foundation" was genuinely mimicking a person. It really felt like a human was broadcasting beyond the radio. It truly seemed like someone was desperately, earnestly transmitting from somewhere in captivity. Thus, during the 46th run, I couldn''t help but be intrigued and wonder. -Entities are indiscriminately destroying Foundation zones. Ch??zz?h??zz?,,. Oh, God! Please have mercy on humanity... If this were true. If the old man was really in Bunker 24 or whatever, if the "Foundation" existed, and if the entities that escaped containment were real. What on earth was happening in North America? Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 72 The Designer II ¡®So the headquarters is in Hawaii? Maybe I should casually visit Hawaii.¡¯ I wasn''t capable of such a thought back in my 46th run. In an ordinary web novel, if a regressor has gone through 46 runs, people might react with, "Wow, they must be an expert by now! But if they haven''t saved the world by then, they must be pretty ipetent, right?" But in my story, the 46th run was still fresh, like a newbie fully charged with vitamins. Anyway, in my 46th run, I was like most South Koreans who say they''ve traveled abroad, having only been to Japan or China at best. India? The United States? Europe? I only gathered information from rumors; I had never experienced the soil of those ces on my shoes. Ah, Old Man Scho once said he would show me his hometown, but the promise between men seemed unlikely tost over a thousand years. That old geezer. -This is Zone 7, chhh??zz?,.. I am Martin Russell, the head of the bunker. Chi?zz?, the food stored in the bunker is slowly running out. -Did the series of projects the Foundation prepared for the world''s end not get activated? Or have they been activated, and this ce is just the remnants of the world left behind?-Either way¡ chi?zz?, I will continue to record with the hope that my voice file might be helpful someday. This is Martin Russell, 677 days of survival. The broadcast continued. I named this phenomenon the "Foundation Broadcast," or simply the "Broadcast" anomaly. And I spent a long time figuring out the characteristics of the "Foundation Broadcast" in detail. 1. If there was another listener besides me near the radio, the broadcast would never proceed. I found this quite interesting, so I had Sim Ah-ryeon and Seo Gyu sit and listen, but the radio remained silent. In the end, both of them shook their heads, saying, "Sigh, the guild leader/hyung is ying tricks with anomalies again¡." Did I really have so little trust? Why? Howe? I even suggested to the Saintess to use irvoyance and listen with me, but even that was calcted as a "listener," and the radio remained dead. "Um¡ Mr. Undertaker, as much as you''re bored, using an anomaly as a prank is a bit troubling. I''d appreciate it if you could refrain." "¡¡" I felt wronged. 2. Even if the run changed, the "Foundation Broadcast" continued, and the "Old Man" always broadcasted from Zone 7 bunker on Molokai Ind, Hawaii. However, this anomaly only appeared on the Zenith K731 radio, an antique I personally collected. Other radios could never catch the "Foundation Broadcast." Why? I have no clue. The ecology of anomalies was full of mysteries. -This is Martin Russell. Uh, hmm. The escaped entities are still predominantly concentrated in North America¡ Damn it. It''s been 1203 days. Did humanity survive? Am I really thest survivor? The broadcast times were all over the ce, but generally from 1 AM to 7 PM. If the broadcaster''s im that he was in Hawaii was true, it would be from 6 AM to midnight Hawaii time. A reasonable time for someone to be awake. And this is the most important¡ 3. The content of the broadcast changed subtly with each run. In the 46th run, he said an entity called "The Great Dragon" appeared in Zone 7 and destroyed the Foundation, but in the 49th run¡ -Oh, God! The moonlight! Ah, the Goddess of Parmenides has finally gone mad! Urgent broadcast. Never, under any circumstances,e into contact with the moonlight! Unless you want to melt like wax! -Annihtion? Did the entire Foundation really get annihted? Backup? Oh, my God. My God, why. Why the worst-case scenario¡ He wailed, saying that the "moonlight" had exterminated humanity. With each run, the method of the world''s destruction changed slightly. I sipped my Caf¨¦ au Lait with a bitter smile. "If this is true, North America must be a hellscape equivalent to the Indian subcontinent." At the time, I guessed it was probably a lie. I didn''t particrly intend to eliminate the Foundation Broadcast. It wasn''t causing harm to humanity other than whispering to my radio. On the contrary, the Foundation Broadcast became excellent background music for me when I wanted to listen to the radio out of boredom. As I said, there weren''t many things to entertain oneself with in this era. But a radio channel that changes its content with every broadcast? That''s golden. Moreover, the settings the man subtly revealed about the "Foundation" in each run provided me with a lot of inspiration. I learned quite a bit from it. What I learned was¡ "Standardization of information." Back to the 562nd cycle. Oh Dok-seo tilted her head with a puzzled expression. The radio next to the table was leisurely ying Mozart''s symphony. "Information¡ standardization, what?" "The so-called ''Foundation'' set very detailed grades and rules for entities. Hmm. For example, let''s say there''s a gremlin." A gremlin is an anomaly that clings to all electronic devices and causes them to malfunction bizarrely. There was once a rumor in Gyeongsangnam-do that gremlins only infected televisions and radios, leaving cell phones untouched. Meanwhile, in Gyeongsangbuk-do, there was a warning that cell phones were the most dangerous. In Gyeonggi-do, there was a public belief that all electronic devices except for CCTV were safe. Can you believe that? This was the result of the breakdown of information transmission within human society. "In this situation, sharing information within the Korean Penins itself is difficult. When civilization was intact, we could share visual materials and other forms of data through videos or whatever¡." But now, all mass media except for radio had perished. SG Net was the only ce left for information sharing, but even it wasn''t perfect. "It''s one thing for anomalies to have chaotic traits, but how would you describe how powerful an anomaly is?" "Uh¡" "S-ss? A-ss? What''s the difference between an S-ss anomaly and an A-ss anomaly, and how dangerous are they? Combat power 1000? 2000? Let''s say it has abat power of 1200. Does that number intuitively tell you anything?" "¡No." Exactly. So, inspired by the radio broadcast''s "Foundation," I established a fictional organization called the "Library Society." The setting was simple. A secret group that had been researching anomalies for a very long time, thus establishing a "standard" method of ssification¡ªa professional ssification method. But in reality, it was a database containing the experiences and knowledge of me, the regressor Undertaker. Having gone through multiple cycles and fought countless anomalies, it was an Akashic Record created from my blood and sweat. The "standard" defined by the Library Society, that is, the danger threat levels of anomalies, were as follows: Lv.1: Vige-ss. Anomalies that could wipe out a vige were given this threat level. "To be considered a ''dangerous anomaly,'' it had to be at least this level. It''s a minimum threshold that filters out minor anomalies." I wrote examples in my notebook and showed them. As expected of LiteraryGirl, Oh Dok-seo followed my notes with her still-shocked eyes. "A single goblin isn''t worth assigning a danger level to. But 30 goblins? 40 goblins? That''s enough to ssify them as vige-ss." "Aha¡?" "In other words, even if it''s the lowest level, once it''s ssified as vige-ss, it means it''s already judged as ''very dangerous.'' Ordinary people should run away, and even awakeners should avoid it unless they''rebat specialists. Yes. I''m talking about you, Oh Dok-seo." "¡¡" In reality, most awakeners lost their heads fighting vige-ss anomalies one-on-one. Even Lee Ha-yul, the Puppeteer, lost an arm fighting a vige-ss anomaly out of overconfidence in one of the runs. In my view, the danger level names used by the "Foundation" sounded cool but were likely to make ordinary people think, "So how dangerous is that exactly?" I prioritized intuitiveness in selecting terms. "It''s dangerous enough to wipe out a vige = vige-ss." "How is it? Simple, right?" "¡Indeed. It''s simple." "From the next danger level onwards, it''s not just about individual life-threatening situations." Lv.2: Polis-ss. Anomalies that, once they appear, would typically devastate an entire city. These are extremely monstrous beings. "The Ten Legs is a representative example." The anomalies "Chaos" and "Tami" mentioned during my trip to Mount Hua in China were also polis-ss. Those two alone caused nearly ten million casualties. This is just an estimate, though. The Ten Legs may seem trivial now, but in the early stages of regression, it wiped out the Korean Penins alone. Even at the city level, it was like a wall ofmentation for awakeners. The primary culprits that regressed the modern nations'' progress back to the Iron Age were mostly polis-ss anomalies. "Ordinary people and even awakeners should run away unless they are prepared for battle. Of course, the odds of escaping are quite low." "Wow¡ It doesn''t feel real since I saw you end it with a one-turn kill¡." "Exactly." That''s why I tried to refrain from soloing the Ten Legs in the extermination battle, leaving it to other awakeners. "Anyway, next." Lv.3: Continent-ss. If polis-ss anomalies represent despair for individuals, continent-ss anomalies signify despair for humanity. "At this point, the very preservation of the Homo sapiens species is seriously threatened." "...¡" The world tree Udumbara, which spread a zombie virus across East Asia, lured people with the promise of immortality. Meteor Shower, which turned the entire world into a gray territory over seven years. These beings naturally make modern humans exim, "This is just bullshit!" "Hey, wait." "Hmm?" "If Meteor Shower is only level 3, is there another level after that?" I wondered what she was talking about, but then realized that with Oh Dok-seo''s [Prophecy], she had only seen about 40 chapters of the serialized work... which, in my terms, contained content up to around the 20th run. No wonder she didn''t know. I casually moved my pen. "Yes. Of course, there is." Lv.4: Ocean-ss. "Oh¡." Oh Dok-seo murmured as she looked at my notebook. "In the novel I read, you were an intense hot-blooded character fighting Ten Legs in a fierce battle¡" "Ah, I miss those days. I thought I''d save the world within 30 runs back then." "...What kind of anomalies are at the ocean-ss?" "I can describe them, but you probably won''t get a clear picture. Sim Ah-ryeon hasn''t drawn any illustrations yet." Ya-o-yorozu no kami descending upon the Japanese archipgo. "Asura," "Astra," and "Sand of the Ganges" turning the Indian subcontinent into the most dangerous void on Earth. I often joked about the Korean Penins''s precarious position, calling it Hell Penins, butpared to those ces, it was heaven. Again, I must warn you, never travel abroad in this era. After listening to my exnation, Oh Dok-seo''s face turned pale. "Do I have to fight those kinds of anomalies too? Me?" "Don''t be too scared. The you of the 561st run, the you of the 560th run, the you of the 559th run, the you of the 557th run all endured well." "¡¡" "You''ll do well in this run too." "...Wait a minute. Why did you skip the 558th run? What happened to me then?" "¡¡" "Why did you skip it!" I averted my gaze. "Well¡" "Hey! I''m not even abatant; I only have the [Prophecy] ability! Why are you dragging a nonbatant into the battlefield!" "Whoa, calm down. Calm down. Do you think I''d drag you around without any n? Oh Dok-seo, you''re actually a multi-ability awakener. Once you awaken your second ability, you''ll be fine on any battlefield." "...Really?" "Absolutely. You''ll 100% survive on the battlefield. You just need toplete the training curriculum tailored for Oh Dok-seo, tested and proven over several runs. Trust me." "...Should I really trust you?" "Of course." The training curriculum was grueling enough to make one wish for death, and in the 558th run, Oh Dok-seo did cross the Jordan River during training, but that was a mishap of bad luck and misfortune and won''t happen again. Definitely. "Ugh. How did I end up involved with such a crazy guy... I shouldn''t have read that web novel in the first ce¡." "Not all anomalies are about overwhelming physical power. We''ll start with simple and fun anomalies like the ''Trolley Dilemma'' or ''Hero Syndrome,'' so don''t worry." "How can an anomaly be simple and fun? You really have a weird sense of humor... So, who was the most unusual anomaly you''ve ever faced?" "I''ll tell you about thatter." Leaving the despairing Oh Dok-seo aside, I sipped my caf¨¦ auit. Although the coffee had gone cold while I was talking, the lingering taste on my tongue was still delightful. ¨DJudging by her expression, it seems I never mentioned that the danger levels of anomalies didn''t end at level 4. Lv.5: Outer God-ss. The final level. These were my true enemies as a regressor. They were the ones who forced me into near-eternal repetitions of runs. Well, there''s no need to exin everything to Oh Dok-seo all at once. We had plenty of time left. "Ah." Oh Dok-seo stood up from her chair. "Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom for a moment." "You don''t need to announce that." "Ugh. I drink too much coffee when I''m with you¡" As Oh Dok-seo grumbled and left the room. The vintage radio made of maple wood, the Zenith K731, which had been quietly ying Mozart''s symphony until then, suddenly emitted static. "This is Zone 7 head, Martin Russell. Damn it. The zombie virus has been confirmed to havended in California. The nuclear warheads are¡ What? What the hell is the Foundation doing? Why is the missile direction¡ Oh, God! No! Stop! Oh, Lord, have mercy on humanity¡" "¡..." In this run, too, I silently prayed for the people of North America who were facing a new apocalypse. There is an epilogue. It might seem like the episode ended there in the 562nd run with the conversation between Oh Dok-seo and me. But there was still a mystery left regarding the "Library Society." Since I always aimed to be as honest as possible with you all, I must confess about this mystery here. It was in the 924th cycle. A long, really long timeter. "Hey, hyung." "Yeah?" "You might want toe over here and check this out." Called by our SG Man, Seo Gyu, I approached theputer. He was managing themunity. "What''s going on?" "You know, recently you told us to create a library board, right?" "Yeah, I did." "The traffic there has increased drastically¡ like, really drastically. I thought I should check if you were working on something." "Um. That was probably Ah-ryeon." "Sim Ah-ryeon? She did?" "Yeah. I entrusted her with managing the Library Society board." Even after hearing my answer, Seo Gyu made a puzzled expression. "No matter how much of a shut-in spirit Sim Ah-ryeon is, this¡?" "She''s not an ordinary spirit." "Of course. But still, this doesn''t make sense? Look at this, hyung." Seo Gyu showed me theputer screen in detail. As he scrolled up, posts poured out like a torrent. Like a downpour. "There were 400 posts today alone. Oh, just now. Did you see that?" "¡¡" "They aren''t just random posts. Most of them are secret posts, but look, when you use admin privileges to view them¡ Look!" I saw it. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Library Society''s Encyclopedia of Anomalies] "Illustrator" Alias: Illustrator, Fan Art Threat Level: None Contamination Level: Unknown Habitat: SG Net (Inte Community) Decryption: All information from the Library Society, except for inevitably lost documents, has been safely transferred to the Library Society''s Encyclopedia of Anomalies board on SG Net. However, at some point, "attached files" started appearing on the documents. These attached files are all "illustrations," that is, image files. The illustrations depict the forms of anomalies, and through cross-verification by various Librarians, it has been confirmed that the representations are "extremely urate." Anomalies not only spread void poison in their physical forms but also through copies, such as photos or videos. These illustrations are extremely dangerous. Attempts to incinerate the illustrations a total of 501 times by the Burning Department have ultimately failed to delete them. It has been officially recognized that all documents in the Library Society have been contaminated by the "Illustrator." Below are the rmendations from the Burning Department''s Librarian and the orders from the Forbidden Books Department''s Librarian. [Burning Artist V] Adding a [Show/Hide] feature to all documents'' illustrations was the best we could do. It has been confirmed that documents with illustrations are also unlocked and made avable to the public. Librarians should not open or view the illustrations recklessly. If verification is necessary, formally request approval from the Burning Department. [Cheon Hae-gak M] From the Forbidden Books Department: All Librarians'' activity logs are recorded, and whether the illustrations are viewed is also stored. Disclosing the personal information andmunity activity history of "Viscount Seo Hwa-ga," a member of the Prophecy Department, who illegally viewed the illustrations 41 times. The disclosed history includes all activities under the Librarian''s alias and anonymous activities. The disclosure scope includes login times, post contents, andments. Additionally, Viscount Seo Hwa-ga is ordered to live jointly with a Librarian from the Burning Department. Viscount Seo Hwa-ga''s LSO procedure is suspended. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Posts with content I had never seen before were clearly visible. "Burning Artist? V? What''s this now?" The Library Society was undoubtedly just a setting I created hundreds of runs ago for fun. Terms like Cheon Hae-gak and ck Library were all just my masks, and I certainly hadn''t written such posts. Most importantly. There was no character named "Burning Artist" in my setting book. V¡ perhaps Viscount ? "Is my setting book¡ self-propagating without me knowing?" Beside me, Seo Gyu was spitting while he spoke. "Right? All these posts are properly written. Hyung, no matter how crazy Sim Ah-ryeon is, how could she write posts at this speed?" I stayed silent. Not because I didn''t have anything to say, but because I was too shocked. "¡This is the first time I''ve seen something like this." To reiterate, this was the 924th cycle. Really, truly, new events in my life had be as rare as finding a diamond shard on the banks of the Ganges River. "Plus, there''s anguage trantion function. See this [Language Selection] button? It looks like it''s tranted into everynguage in the world?" "¡Could it be AI or something, constantly generating posts?" "That''s possible, but how? Unless it''s an awakener with the [AI Utilization] or [Auto Post Generation] skills, this isn''t possible." "¡You''re right." "Moreover, I checked the IPs with admin privileges, and all these IPs are properly registered on SG Net. So if an awakener did this, they''d need the [SG Net ID Generation] ability. Is that even possible?" "¡If there''s a skill like [Inte Community Sabotage] that integrates all those abilities, maybe." "Oh." "But it''s definitely an unusual phenomenon. I''ll report this to the Saintess and see if tracking the location is possible. Seo Gyu, keep monitoring. You did well to tell me." "Yes, hyung." Before long, the Saintess responded. [Tracking the location is impossible.] "What?" [My irvoyance can''t identify the awakener of that IP. Mr. Undertaker, do these people even exist?] "¡¡" A chill ran down my spine. Numerous hypotheses crossed my mind. The possibility of a skill that nullifies the Saintess''s irvoyance, the possibility of an anomaly causing different worldlines to intersect on SG Net, or even the possibility that anomalies themselves could ess SG Net¡ I looked at theputer monitor. Every time I refreshed the page, new documents were being posted in real-time. "If so¡ If these are not real humans, then where are the authors posting hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of posts on that inte site¡ where do they exist?" [¡¡] The Saintess was silent. ¡To reiterate. There were still many unknown mysteries in this world that even I did not know. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 73 Genealogy ¢ñ To summarize my story at this point: I am the one who provided full support for Dang Seo-rin to rise as the strongest idol in the Korean Penins; I am the one who founded the National Road Management Corps, monopolizing the roads and controlling logistics; I am the one who created SG Net, seizing the power of public opinion and information; I am the one who debuted the constetion called ¡®The Librarian of the Great Library¡¯; I am also the one who established the Library Society as a front organization¡ªyes, that was me as well. By now, some of you readers might think of me as an ''infinitely omnipotent mastermind'' and even be my followers. But that''s a misunderstanding. As I have repeatedly said, my story is closer to a tale of failures than of sesses. Naturally, I made a lot of colossal mistakes. Shall I introduce one of the memorable episodes among those countless blunders? Whhooosh! Now, everyone. It might be a bit abrupt, but do you like ''The Lord of the Rings''? By ¡®The Lord of the Rings,¡¯ I mean the trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, not the original novels written by Tolkien.Of the trilogy, my favorite is, of course, the final installment, ¡®The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King¡¯ (2003). Among its scenes, the one where the cavalry of the human kingdom charges at the orcs¡ªthe so-called ¡®Charge of the Rohirrim¡¯¡ªis my top pick. In the movie, there is a scene where humans and orcs brace themselves for the sh. ¡°Form ranks, maggots. Form ranks! Pikes in front! Archers behind!¡± ¡°Advance! And fear no darkness! Arise! Arise, Riders of Th¨¦¡õden!¡± ¡°To death!¡± ¡°Forth, and fear no darkness! Arise, arise, Riders of Th¡õ¡õden!¡± Ah, the parts marked with ''¡õ'' are to respect the fearsome copyright of the Tolkien Estate. Even though I, the Undertaker, appear this way, I strictly adhere to copyrightws. Anyway, as the cavalry finally begins their charge, a horn resounds across the Pelennor Fields with a mighty Wwwooooosh. Oh boy, truly, onomatopoeia is already difficult to express, but capturing the sound of that horn with mere letters is utterly impossible. With the crudebination of letters ¡®Wwoooosh,¡¯ I can¡¯t even convey 0.01% of that magnificent sound effect. I was able to watch the movie only after the hype had long passed. Before I started my life as a regressor, I didn¡¯t have much interest in cultural activities in general. But then. ¡°Wh-What on earth... Guild leader... You haven¡¯t seen ¡®The Lord of the Rings¡¯? I-I don¡¯t get it. What I mean is, why do you even live? Why do you unnecessarily continue your life...?¡± After receiving this scolding from Sim Ah-ryeon, I somehow managed to obtain a Blu-ray and watched it in my home theater. Wwwoooosh! And then... I got hooked. You could say I finally opened my eyes to what cavalry ecstasy is. When the cavalry¡¯s hooves mercilessly trampled the orcs, my heart was also trampled at the same time. It was the 380th run. This incident happened during another ¡®vacation cycle.¡¯ ¡°Cavalry.¡± ¡°...Yes?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s cultivate a cavalry unit.¡± The conference room fell silent for a moment. Thunk. At that moment, Noh Do-hwa, the National Road Management Corpsmander (this person drinks any kind of coffee without regard to the beans or type, just whatever is given) set down her caf¨¦ mocha as her lips were unsealed. ¡°What nonsense are you talking about...?¡± ¡°I¡¯m talking about raising a cavalry unit. In a world where neither cars nor motorcycles run anymore, how long are we going to cling to outdated vehicles? Isn¡¯t it time we urgently needed a new mode of transportation that can operate without gasoline, just by grazing on weeds?¡± ¡°If anything, horses seem much more outdated than cars...?¡± ¡°Times change ording to the environment.¡± By the way, when I advocated for something within the Regressor Alliance, I never just spoke. I distributed prepared audiovisual and statistical materials. ¡°As you can see, thanks to the growth of the National Road Management Corps, logistics movement between cities and guilds is bing more active. However, the amount of fuel reserves in each city is rapidly depleting. In the end, it¡¯s clear that all reserves will be exhausted within two years. Noh Do-hwa, leader of the National Road Management Corps, we must start preparing countermeasures now.¡± ¡°If my memory serves correctly, there was a n recently proposed by you, Undertaker, to use Gremlins to move cars...?¡± ¡°Gremlins are anomalies. No matter how carefully you handle them, idents can always happen. So we need to have a n B ready to switch policies anytime.¡± ¡°That¡¯s strange. What you¡¯re saying seems reasonable, but why does your expression look so...?¡± It¡¯s because Buddha sees only Buddha, and Noh Do-hwa sees only Noh Do-hwa in her eyes. ¡°Well. I acknowledge that as a n B, it¡¯s somewhat usible, but even if it¡¯s a cavalry unit, how do you n to raise horses...? We don¡¯t have the luxury to expand pastures now...¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m not nning to ask the busy Sword Marquess to tread on weed fields either.¡± ¡°...? Then how do you n to raise the horses?¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s puzzled look was a legitimate reaction. In a world covered by void, even wild greens that look normal on the outside can cause serious problems if consumed recklessly. If you eat just anything? Whether human, animal, or nt, any organism can experience the miracle of its genes changing in real-time. Experiencing white hair growing on the scalp and then suddenly sprouting teeth instead of hair was indeed a unique experience. If Darwin and Lamarck were reborn in this era, they would¡¯ve reluctantly admitted, ¡®Well, this isn¡¯t exactly what I intended...¡¯ and showed reluctance. ¡°Do-hwa, we need to break away from the fixed idea of horses.¡± ¡°Yes? ...Ah, wait. Wait a moment. That academic nonsense feeling you give off is starting to creep in...¡± ¡°What is a horse? What is the essence, the idea of a horse? Isn¡¯t it an animal that humans can ride and gallop on?¡± ¡°Goddamn it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t simply want a replica of a horse. I want a true horse. A horse that humanity has never seen before¡ªa true horse itself. One that doesn¡¯t fear the enemy¡¯s pike formation, with explosive eleration and long-term endurance, capable of carrying heavy loads, gentle and kind but only to me, ruthless to the enemy, doesn¡¯t poop much, and eats just anything.¡± ¡°Goddamn it...¡± ¡°And I n to use the void to create this horse. How about it? Isn¡¯t my n perfect? Doesn¡¯t it make your heart race?¡± ¡°Yes, it makes my heart race. Because of the angina you¡¯ve caused. I can¡¯t sue you since the Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency is gone... Uh. Excuse me, Saintess? Can you please stop this man...?¡± At that moment, the Saintess, who had been quietly sipping her coffee, opened her lips. With a nk expression. ¡°Last week, Mr. Undertaker asked me if it wouldn¡¯t be cool to have a moving steampunk mobile fortress like in ¡®Howl¡¯s Moving Castle¡¯.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Compared to a steampunk mobile fortress, the idea of a true horse is rtively more eptable. Ms. Do-hwa, I advise you to give up.¡± A long sigh echoed through the conference room. ¡°Goddamn it...¡± I took that as a sign of ¡®This business n is great, let¡¯s proceed quickly.¡¯ Starting the very next day, I set up a horse ranch in the ins around Daesan-myeon, north of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. ¡°The modern trend is to return to farming... no, to ranching.¡± Wearing a straw hat, I looked down at the ins. It was a splendid piece ofnd I had chosen. With Joonam Reservoir nearby, the environment was perfect for use as a pasture. The location was also excellent. The National Road Management Corps and Samcheon World¡¯s headquarters were just a stone¡¯s throw away in Busan. ¡®After traveling all around the country during my regression, I now have an eye fornd that can rival even Master Mu-hak.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but feel proud. Originally used mainly for farnd before the civilization copsed, now mostly abandoned by residents, the area was overtaken by weeds and wild trees. Of course, the gics and biology of this era were so advanced that the weeds and wild trees were officially categorized under ¡®anomalies.¡¯ Gobble Gobble. Slime Slime. There were two main types of anomalies inhabiting the Daesan-myeon area. One looked like a goblin but had a body made of liquid slime called ¡®Slogoblin,¡¯ and the other looked like a slime but had goblin skin called ¡®Goblime.¡¯ Both had a vige-ss danger rating ording to the Library Society¡¯s ssification system. I had no idea how such hybrids came to be, so don¡¯t bother asking. Maybe, um, one day Goblin A found the slime¡¯s backside attractive... or maybe Slime B foundfort in a goblin¡¯s butthole. Either way, the result was equally vile. Gobbble! aaime! Without a moment¡¯s hesitation, I wiped out both rare species within two days. After the apocalypse, the term ¡®biodiversity¡¯ was removed from dictionaries worldwide, so it was a legal act. While wandering around Changwon, I also cleaned up the wild trees with my aura. Neigh! Neigh! Next was the perfectly legal and peaceful relocation operation. I went to Jeju Ind, caught the horses grazing on the grasnds, and loaded them onto the ships. Then I rowed back and forth between the maind and Jeju Ind. Fuel? That¡¯s a luxury. ¡®We don¡¯t even have a liter of oil to support your reality edition of Animal Crossing...¡¯ dered Noh Do-hwa as she handed me exactly 500ml of ck oil in a beaker. But who am I, the Undertaker? Using an aura-coated oar, I managed to ferry over 200 horses over fifteen days. Not only that, but I also crossed over to Japan, negotiated with the Magical Girl Association, and brought back four high-quality racehorses. They readily agreed since we had done several projects together. Of course, the Magical Girl Association didn¡¯t provide a boat, so I had to row my way across the East Sea with my bare hands¡ªor rather, an oar. [Why on earth do you go to such lengths...], the Saintess¡¯s murmurs asionally reached my ears, but I ignored them. While I respect the Saintess, after much persuasion, I finally got her to read Romance of the Three Kingdomsst week. But after finishing it, herment was: ¡®...In the end, Sima Yi won, so it¡¯s a story with neither lesson nor value, isn¡¯t it?¡¯ Unbelievable. Not a fan of Shu (loyalists), nor Wei (traditionalists), nor even the lunatic faction of Wu¡ªshe liked Jin? Is she really the same species as me? The Saintess does not understand the human heart. [No, I¡¯m not saying I like the Sima family, just that the story¡¯s conclusion was... It¡¯s nothing. I¡¯m sorry. I was wrong. Please continue raising the horses.] Hmph. With the love and support of a regressor, and most importantly, the gic mutations from the void, the horses grew healthily. If the world were normal, it would take at least 2-3 years for horses to mate, give birth, and grow from foals to adults. But what kind of world is ours? It¡¯s a world where Newton¡¯s concepts of absolute space and absolute time induce seizures and convulsions. Thanks to the world-ss mental illness, at my ranch (I named it ¡®Idea Ranch¡¯), foals grew into adults overnight. Of course, that was an extreme case, and generally, growth was erratic over half a year. Neigh! Neigh! Grrr... Under my care, the horses learned the mysteries of evolution. I named all these tasks ¡®genealogy work¡¯... or simply ¡®gene work.¡¯ Towards a stronger horse! Towards a faster horse! Towards the best horse! In some sense, evolution was simr to the regressor¡¯s life of filtering out the optimal path. So, could I, the Undertaker, be called an expert in gene work? And so, half a yearter. ¡°You mean there¡¯s already a result...?¡± ¡°Yes, Do-hwa, I formally invite you to my [Idea Ranch] for inspection and a tour.¡± ¡°Wow. I haven¡¯t been this reluctant to ept an invitation in a long time...¡± ¡°But this is the n B we submitted at the Alliance meeting. As the meeting chairperson, you should verify it, right? Also, it¡¯s not good to stay in Busan all the time. People need to get out once in a while.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You¡¯reing, right?¡± ¡°......¡± I had even prepared a safari truck for the asion. I invited not only Noh Do-hwa but also Seo Gyu and Sim Ah-ryeon, among our guild members. They would feel left out if I yed without them. ¡°Ah...! Guild leader, you always boast about the ranch, so I¡¯ve been dying to see it! Can I draw it and post it on SG Net...?¡± ¡°Hyung, you keep singing about the Peach Blossom Spring and the Utopian Ideal, so I¡¯m curious too. Since it¡¯s a ranch you made, it must be extraordinary, right?¡± Ah-ryeon and Seo Gyu excitedly chatted in the backseat of the safari truck. In the apocalyptic era, there were few entertainments. Humanity regained the virtue of being delighted with each invitation like this. On the other hand, Noh Do-hwa, sitting in the passenger seat, had a face that looked as if she were going to a funeral. As soon as she got into the truck, she buckled her seatbelt and whispered to me quietly. ¡°Undertaker...¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Why isn¡¯t the Saintess here...?¡± ¡°Oh, I invited her, but unfortunately, she caught a cold. So, she said she¡¯de next time.¡± ¡°......¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s face turned a bit paler. I put a cassette tape into the fairly old safari truck and yed some music. The backseat got lively with the driver¡¯s excellent music selection. ¡°Then, let¡¯s start the first safari tour of the Undertaker¡¯s Idea Ranch, the first public opening.¡± ¡°Wow, wow...¡± ¡°Woooo!¡± Vroom! The safari truck roared, belching out exhaust. I also honked energetically, and the horn, set to sound like a bugle, red out. Wwwooooosh! Perfect. As the horn, which once resounded across the continent for humanity''sst stand, echoed magnificently again, Noh Do-hwa¡¯s murmured quietly, at a volume only I could hear, drifted from the passenger seat. ¡°God damn it...¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 74 Genealogy ¢ñI Noh Do-hwa''s ominous muttering had no effect on our safari adventure. Even Sim Ah-ryeon and Seo Gyu, who were not easily excited, were noisily chatting in the back seat. It must have helped that I had prepared factory-made potato chips and chocte snacks for this day. ¡°This is my first time being invited somewhere and ying with others...¡± ¡°This is also the first time my hyung has invited me somewhere, so I¡¯m really looking forward to it.¡± ¡°As expected of the Busan Station fam... The bond is iparable to other losers...!¡± I smiled contentedly and turned the steering wheel. Today, I, the Undertaker, was guiding them not as a guild leader but as a humble guide. ¡°From here, it is the entrance to Idea Ranch. Wee, everyone.¡± ¡°Wow! Ah? Ahhh...?¡±Sim Ah-ryeon''s cheer, as she looked at the ranch through the window, peaked like a soprano and gradually descended. ¡°Uh... Guild leader...?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Why does the horse ranch have... um, a ten-meter-high barbed wire fence and concrete walls?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I nodded. ¡°Certainly, it¡¯s not a very visually appealing outdoor decoration.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. It''s a bit scary, or to be more honest, it¡¯s almost hideous...¡± ¡°I agree.¡± I pressed the remote control button. With a rumbling sound, the heavy gate sealing the safari theme park slowly opened. ¡°But Ah-ryeon, the appearance of something is just a secondary attribute, not its essence.¡± ¡°Y-Yes...?¡± ¡°Think about it. Ranches naturally have fences. It¡¯s only natural because the animals should not escape. Our Idea Ranch has just made the fence a little more sturdy. The essence of the ranch hasn¡¯t changed at all. Understand?¡± ¡°Eh...¡± The tires of my safari truck rolled gracefully through the open gate. ¡°By the way, it¡¯s fine to keep the windows open, but don¡¯t stick your head out. It could be dangerous while driving.¡± ¡°Ah, yes. Yes...¡± As soon as Sim Ah-ryeon pulled her upper body back inside the car, I pressed the remote control button again. With a ttering sound, metal bars rose from the window frames, protecting the windows. ¡°Hic,¡± Sim Ah-ryeon flinched. ¡°Guild leader? The iron bars on the windows, why did they suddenly...?¡± ¡°Well, I made some modifications to the truck for the safari. How is it? Isn¡¯t it awesome? Your guild leader has many talents.¡± ¡°It¡¯s amazing, really. But, why is such amazingness necessary...?¡± ¡°......¡± By this point, Seo Gyu also fell silent like Noh Do-hwa. Looking through the rearview mirror, I saw that his manly face was starting to sweat. ¡°Of course, it''s to thoroughly ensure the safety of our precious tourists, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°No, what I mean is, why is safety necessary for just a casual look around the ranch...¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon.¡± Seo Gyu spoke solemnly. ¡°Y-yes?¡± ¡°Put on your seatbelt.¡± ¡°Ugh. I hate wearing a seatbelt because it¡¯s ufortable and makes me feel suffocated...¡± Then it happened. Heeeeyaaa! ¡°Eeeeek?¡± Simultaneously with the cute neigh from outside the car, Sim Ah-ryeon screamed inside. ¡°Ah. Everyone, please turn your gaze to the 2 o¡¯clock direction. Can you see? This is our proud first horse from Idea Ranch, Kkingkki.¡± ¡°A horse...?¡± Noh Do-hwa looked out through the metal bars with cold eyes. ¡°Is that a horse...?¡± The horse was warily eyeing our safari truck. A sign that originally read ¡®Kkingkki¡¯ was hung around its neck, but it had broken it again, so only ¡®Kki¡öki¡¯ was legible. Really, it was quite a troublemaker. Of course, having been raised in the void, it looked somewhat different from an ordinary horse. That is, its appearance, a secondary attribute, not an essential quality, showed a slight difference. For example, unlike other horses, Kkingkki could walk on two legs. Not like a human''s upright posture, but hunched over. Anyway, it was still a horse. Its skin color was not brown, ck, or white, but a somewhat greenish hue, likely an adaptation to the weed-filled ins of Daesan-myeon. And... well, its teeth were sharp. But horses originally have well-developed teeth. Kkingkki had simply undergone a bit of convergent evolution. Anyway, it was still a horse. Finally, its hooves, in other words, its nails and ws, had also be slightly sharper. But considering that hooves are originally part of a horse¡¯s body, this was a minor change. After surveying all these attributes, Noh Do-hwa muttered bleakly. ¡°That¡¯s... a dinosaur...¡± At that moment, Kkingkki opened its mouth. Heeeeyaaa! Well. From the bond I built over the past six months with the horses, I interpreted it as ¡°What nonsense are you talking about, Do-hwa? I¡¯m a horse.¡± ¡°Huh? A dinosaur? Oh, don¡¯t nder us. How do our kids look like dinosaurs? Dinosaurs are hideous creatures covered in fuzz, whereas our kids have smooth skin.¡± ¡°Hmm. Leaving aside the fact that horses grow manes, since when did horse skin boast a smooth green color like a reptile...?¡± ¡°Velociraptor?¡± Seo Gyu shouted from the back seat. ¡°Raptor! It''s a raptor, hyung!¡± ¡°Raptor?¡± ¡°Yes! From Jurassic Park. Wait. Oh my god, don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t seen Jurassic Park either?¡± ¡°Of course not. That movie came out before I was born.¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s the old trilogy. My god. Hyung, how can you be such a movie ignoramus? There are so many recent series...¡± ¡°Eeeeek!¡± Noh Do-hwa was horrified, Seo Gyu was excited, and Sim Ah-ryeon was thrilled. Clearly, everyone was delighted by Kkingkki¡¯s cuteness. I continued driving the safari truck. ¡°Ah. Ah. Now please turn your gaze to the 9 o¡¯clock direction. There you can see Byojoki, the thirty-third sessful gene work horse of our ranch. It walks on all fours, as a horse should.¡± ¡°Triceratops!¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t call our Byojoki by such a crude name, Seo Gyu.¡± ¡°Another dinosaur... What did you do to these horses to make them grow rhino horns on their heads...?¡± ¡°Now, look at the 11 o¡¯clock direction. That¡¯s Kongkongi. A horse with a very pretty head.¡± ¡°Pachycephalosaurus! Head-butting dinosaur!¡± ¡°Oh, Kongkongi seems happy to see us. He¡¯s knocking on the truck. Ha ha. Let¡¯s all wave and greet Kongkongi!¡± ¡°Heeeek... The car is shaking...¡± As expected, the safari tour was a great sess. Every time I introduced a member of our ranch, cheers erupted. Throughout my entire regressor life, there hadn¡¯t been a day as rewarding as this one as a host. ¡°Alright. Now, everyone, isn¡¯t it a bit boring to just watch the horses through the iron bars from the safely protected truck?¡± ¡°No!¡± ¡°I feel the same as you! So, I will specially allow you to interact with the horses under my guidance.¡± ¡°Ahhh! Ahhh...!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon wailed. Really, she didn¡¯t have to be so overjoyed. ¡°In that sense, I will now introduce my top pick, the pride of Idea Ranch, Keongkeongi.¡± ¡°Keongkeongi...?¡± ¡°A very gentle and good-natured fellow. Everyone, please get off the truck. Ah-ryeon? Come out nicely. If you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll expose you as OldManGoryeo on SG Net.¡± ¡°Hick. Hic, hic...¡± Following me, everyone got off the safari truck. ¡°Keongkeongi! Come here!¡± With a whistle, I took a goat barbecue from the trunk and threw it into the distant forest. A momentter. With a thud, a goat¡¯s hind leg flew out of the forest, torn off. Coincidentally, the hind leg flew past Sim Ah-ryeon''s face and hit the truck window. ¡°Kyaaa!¡± ¡°Now, Keongkeongi will appear. Everyone, our Keongkeongi is very gentle but still young andcksposure. So please don¡¯t provoke him.¡± ¡°We agreed to call that [bad temperament]...¡± Thud. Thud. Thud. Keongkeongi emerged from the forest, his majestic figure towering. He was thergest among the horses I had raised so far. His hind legs were exceptionally massivepared to his somewhat slender front legs. Above all, he had a beautiful head. Seo Gyu punched the air. ¡°Of course! A T. rex should make an appearance! And it¡¯s even a featherless version! Fuck, who cares about scientific uracy!¡± ¡°Gurgle...¡± For the first time in a while, Seo Gyu uttered a curse as SG Man, while Sim Ah-ryeon copsed next to him. She must have fainted from overwhelming emotion. It was understandable given how handsome Keongkeongi was. Grrroooar! Keongkeongi, seeing his dad, expressed his delight. ¡°Did you hear that? Keongkeongi is the youngest of our ranch and loves goat meat the most.¡± ¡°A carnivorous horse...?¡± ¡°Of course. Why do you criticize our boy for eating meat?¡± ¡°Aha. Until now, I wondered why the Undertaker didn¡¯t have a family or even a pet. But seeing this today, I realize it¡¯s fortunate you don¡¯t have children or pets...¡± Thud! Thud! Keongkeongi, charging with his powerful hind legs, ran towards me. I, too, raised my aura and hugged Keongkeongi¡¯s head with both arms. ¡°Oh, there, there. Did you miss Dad a lot?¡± Grrroooar! ¡°That¡¯s right. Don¡¯t spill your food while eating. Here¡¯s the goat hind leg you dropped. Chew it well.¡± Grrr! Grrroar! ¡°How is it? Isn¡¯t our Keongkeongi cute?¡± ¡°......¡± Unfortunately, there was no answer from the fainted Sim Ah-ryeon, and Seo Gyu was too busy observing Keongkeongi to respond. So, Noh Do-hwa, who prided herself on being devoid of a soul, had to answer. ¡°You¡¯re just overpowering a T. rex with brute strength...¡± Thus, after decorating the highlight of the safari tour, we returned leisurely to our amodation. For the record, Sim Ah-ryeon remained unconscious the whole time. I smiled broadly. ¡°So, Noh Do-hwa, what are your thoughts after inspecting our ranch¡¯s achievements?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°I think Keongkeongi is the most suitable as the mount for our future cavalry.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°Raising them is not easy, but if you grant us the time and budget, I will surely cultivate 1,000 Keongkeongis to create the world¡¯s strongest cavalry. Oh, and all cavalrymen must blow the horn I made during charges.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Noh Do-hwa also smiled broadly. It was a rare smile for her. ¡°Bullshit.¡± Why? Epilogue 1. In the end, Keongkeongi¡¯s cavalry debut was canceled, but the achievements of Idea Ranch were not entirely ignored. ¡°Undertaker. Does that huge dinosaur, Byojoki or whatever it¡¯s called, eat a lot...?¡± ¡°No. Thanks to the wonders of void gics, it absorbs most of the energy it needs for biological activity through its skin. And it¡¯s a horse, not a dinosaur.¡± ¡°Whether it¡¯s a dinosaur or a horse, that¡¯s good news. From now on, the National Road Management Corps will use Byojoki for transporting goods...¡± Additionally, for military mounts for the awakeners, Kongkongi, the head-butting specialized horse, was selected instead of Keongkeongi. Naturally, I fiercely protested this absurd decision. ¡°No! The essence of a cavalry unit is to be stylish! What¡¯s the romance in cavalrymen riding Kongkongis?¡± ¡°But doesn¡¯t Keongkeongi eat nearly 100kg of meat a day...? On the other hand, Kongkongi requires little food and is docile. I don¡¯t see a reason to hesitate...¡± ¡°Damn it! A cavalry unit is not about efficiency!¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s call it a mobile unit instead of a cavalry unit, or even a dinosaur unit. Hell, I don¡¯t mind calling the National Road Management Corps by its name...¡± How could a person have such an insensitive perspective? As a result, from the 380th cycle onward, awakeners asionally rode Kongkongis around the Korean Penins. This was limited to the cycles in which I managed Idea Ranch. I returned sadly and rode alone on Keongkeongi¡¯s back. A red sunset was setting beyond the horizon. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Keongkeongi. It seems I can¡¯t make a mate for you...¡± Grrroooar. It¡¯s okay, Keongkeongi replied, saying he found value in philosophical exploration rather than in a romantic rtionship. Ah! How heartbreaking. Saddened, I blew the horn while riding on Keongkeongi¡¯s back. Wooooooo! Grrroooar! Against the backdrop of a fiery sunset, a man and a horse roared. Humanity¡¯s romance with the cavalry had finallye to an end. Epilogue 2. ¡°Seo Gyu, I watched the dinosaur movie you rmended. But I didn¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°Huh? How many did you watch?¡± ¡°Six. I watched the final one first since it was thest. The subtitle was Dominion. Why did you rmend such a movie?¡± ¡°No, hyung, fuck...¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 75 Invader ¢ñ Since we''re on the topic of movies, I might as well reveal my taste: I prefer alien movies the most. To be more precise, I like movies tagged with #Disaster #Invasion #SF #Apocalypse. You know, movies like ¡®War of the Worlds¡¯ (2005) or ¡®Mars Attacks!¡¯ (1996). Some might find my taste a bit surprising and even question it. -Why would you enjoy watching movies that mimic the invasion of Earth by anomalies? What''s fun about experiencing the same thing in reality and in movies? But that''s a question asked out of ignorance. It¡¯s fun precisely because movies and reality aren¡¯t ''the same.'' It feels like watching a fantasy work. For one, there are no awakeners in those kinds of movies. That¡¯s already a minor ''historical inuracy.''¡°Wow... Aliens that suck human blood to refuel and manipte the environment. That''s novel. But the lower body of the alien robots looks flimsy. A few clean shes with an aura de would bring them down easily.¡± ¡°Their strategy is odd too. They can hibernate for thousands of years but didn¡¯t think to scout Earth¡¯s ecosystem beforehand? Why? Even a year of reconnaissance would have revealed all the problems.¡± ¡°Because they¡¯re idiots...?¡± ¡°Oh. Then I guess that¡¯s that.¡± Just listening to Sim Ah-ryeon and Seo Gyu¡¯sments while watching movies with me would give you an idea of how people in this era perceived SF alien invasion disaster movies. The inuracies are so ring that they make the movies enjoyable in a fantastical way. Even though that probably wasn''t the director¡¯s intention. Among these movies, if I had to pick one that depicted reality fairly urately, it would be ¡®Annihtion¡¯ (2018). It well-represented how ordinary people perceive the void. Anyway. There¡¯s one clich¨¦ that¡¯s almost universally and frequently seen in these movies. ¡®The aliens, who seemed invincible and drove humanity to despair, actually had a critical weakness-¡¯ This clich¨¦. Personally, I call this the ¡®Achilles Clich¨¦.¡¯ You might argue that Achilles was human, but from the perspective of the Trojans, Achilles was practically an alien. The aliens in movies die en masse from Earth¡¯s viruses after joining the anti-vine movement or their brains explode due to the mysterious waves from country music rhythms. However, the anomalies in reality aren¡¯t that kind to humanity. But asionally, very asionally¨D just like in the movies, some anomalies appear with an ¡®Achilles heel.¡¯ The kindest alien I encountered was during the 98th cycle. To be honest, I didn¡¯t realize at first that it was an anomaly. Not because I was stupid, but because it really confused people. ¡°Meteor shower!¡± ¡°There, there!¡± ¡°It won¡¯te this way, right...?¡± At first nce, it looked exactly like a ¡®meteor.¡¯ The timing of its appearance was also ironic: precisely in the 9th year. At this point, the continent-ss anomaly ¡®Meteor Shower¡¯ had already ravaged South Gyeongsang Province and was merrily spreading its urine trail across the globe. Naturally, from my perspective, if something that looked like a meteor fell from the sky, ¡®Ick. Meteor Shower is acting up again.¡¯ That was the only logical conclusion. Moreover, this ¡®meteor¡¯ didn¡¯t fall ind but in the middle of the East Sea. Not near Ulleungdo, but in the Yamato Basin, near the Japanese archipgo. I hadn¡¯t heard any news about Antis relocating from the Antic Ocean to the East Sea, so that area was truly a no-man¡¯snd. So, I ignored it. Being a regressor is a busy job; there¡¯s no time to worry about the marine ecosystem. But the story took a strange turn after the cycle where the Meteor Shower was eliminated. ¡°Mr. Undertaker, did you see the meteor fall into the East Seast night...?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t know. A meteor fellst night. Haha. I was worried it might be the Meteor Shower again. It was briefly a hot topic on SG Net. But nothing happened...¡± ¡°Ah, there used to be meteors falling into the East Sea around this time. So that was just an ordinary meteor.¡± Even though I heard several eyewitness ounts, I lived my life not paying much attention to it. After all, about 100 tons of rocks fall to Earth from space every day. It just so happened to fall into the East Sea, and it coincided with the Meteor Shower; it wasn¡¯t particrly special. Then one day. During the 98th cycle, I happened to visit Kanazawa in Japan. I had a meeting with the Magical Girl Association, thergest faction in the Japanese archipgo, equivalent to our Awakener Alliance. For reference, this group is filled with crazies like us, but they¡¯ve evolved their madness in apletely different direction. I might mention themter. Or better yet, I hope not. Because the meeting rante, I ended up walking along the beach at night with the Magical Girl representative. ¡°So, what I¡¯m saying is, we want you to use your abilities to help us in the Inunaki subjugation.¡± ¡°I can help. But as I said before, give me the camera.¡± ¡°Look, even though there are only three of those precious items, you know we only have three of those, right? Instead, we¡¯ll offer other rewards... Oh?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Even though it was quite cold, the Magical Girl, who insisted on wearing a frilly goth-loli outfit and carrying a ck umbre even at night, pointed towards the East Sea. This fashion sense might be a rare sight anywhere on Earth, but a more surprising sight was unfolding over the East Sea. Thanks to being a regressor, my aura training was several levels above others, giving me incredibly enhanced eyesight. ¡°......¡± ¡°Wow! It¡¯s a shooting star!¡± The Magical Girl hopped up and down excitedly on the sand. I couldn¡¯t match her enthusiasm. Because. ¡°A disc?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°No, that thing falling into the East Sea. It¡¯s not a meteor... it¡¯s a disc... a saucer-shaped flying object.¡± ¡°Huh? A UFO?¡± With a voice that made me want to strangle her, the Magical Girl tilted her head. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had gotten used to their behavior and could nod in resignation. That¡¯s right. An Unidentified Flying Object (UFO). It was the moment when extraterrestrial beings made their grand debut. Since a Magical Girl was present when I witnessed the anomaly, a quick investigation team was assembled. Because of the power of the word UFO, the Magical Girl Association took the matter seriously. ¡°We¡¯ll deploy the aircraft carrier ¡®White Blossom¡¯ for the investigation mission. Undateikeo, please join us!¡± ¡°Uh, sure...¡± For reference, the Magical Girl Association had a total of thirteen aircraft carriers. By the standards of the pre-civilization era, they were on par with the US Navy, making them one of the world¡¯s most powerful naval forces. Of course, all of these were small fishing boats and cruise ships illegally modified and painted with the word aircraft carrier. You might wonder what the corrtion is between Magical Girls and aircraft carriers. How would I know? The official name of their headquarters is ¡®The Fifth Neo-Tokyo Neo-Kowloon Fortress: Miji Shrine.¡¯ They areplete lunatics. Moreover, they always call me the ¡®Undateikeo.¡¯ If it weren''t for business, I wouldn¡¯t visit them. No matter what, this story isn¡¯t about those lunatics. It mustn¡¯t be. Because they... No, never mind. Anyway, we arrived at the area where the meteor had supposedly fallen and began our search operation. And. ¡°We found the spacecraft!¡± Seven hours after starting the operation, we found the UFO. Despite their craziness, these friends werepetent and urately located the flying saucer drifting on the surface. The Magical Girls gathered on the deck and chattered excitedly. ¡°Wow. Just like the Undateikeo said, it¡¯s not a meteor but a UFO...¡± ¡°Observation: It fell from the atmosphere and hit the surface. Assessment: The exterior is rtively intact. Conclusion: It¡¯s a product of a civilization that far surpasses human science and technology.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Amazing. There are waves on the surface. If we approach recklessly, won¡¯t an alien pop out?¡± The UFO submerged briefly with each wave before resurfacing. Like an engine room inside a car¡¯s hood, the surface of the flying saucer was densely connected withplex pipes. The first encounter with extraterrestrials. Even I, who had experienced countless battles, felt a slight tension. ¡°There¡¯s no response for now. Whether we talk or fight, we need to enter it first.¡± ¡°Okay...¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go in first. Anyoneing with me?¡± ¡°Well, after suffering for seven hours, it would be meaningless to back off now. I¡¯ll follow, so lead the way.¡± I nodded. Leaving the rear guard to the Magical Girls, I entered the UFO without hesitation. Again, despite their craziness, they were professional anomaly hunters. Ssh, ssh. The interior of the UFO was dark. It had already begun to flood, and water reached our ankles. As soon as we stepped into the corridor, a gasoline-like smell filled our noses. ¡°Stars¡ªguide the dawn of humanity.¡± sh. When the Magical Girl chanted, orb-like lights began to float around her, illuminating the surroundings. As soon as our visibility improved, other Magical Girls also started chanting their spells. ¡°Presence¡ªdetection¡ªvisualization.¡± ¡°... ... ...¡± ¡°Even though there was no sound¡ªyour footprints are imprinted on my heart.¡± In an instant, our exploration team was equipped with visibility, radar, sonar, and stealth magic. This was how the awakeners in the archipgo managed to resist despite the descent of Ya-o-yorozu no kami. It was a different kind of magicpared to Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Cursed Song Incantation. Cursed Song Incantation¡¯s essencey in its melody and rhythm, with Latin lyrics merely being an additional preference of Dang Seo-rin. In contrast, their magic was entirelyposed of poetguage. For magic-type awakeners, this ¡®poetic magic¡¯ was fundamental. Cursed Song Incantation was a unique school developed solely by the maverick Dang Seo-rin. [Strange.] Wemunicated via telepathic magic. [No matter how wide we extend the detection range, I sense nothing. Machines, machines, machines. It¡¯s just full of machines.] [Hypothesis: Non-living extraterrestrials. Theory: Intelligent beings that havepletely reced their bodies with machines.] [This ce is aplete maze. There¡¯s a high possibility of an ambush, so we must remain vignt.] [Truly, I feel nothing. Undateikeo, do you sense anything unusual?] [No. Wait¡ª] Thud. The Magical Girls stopped in unison at my word. Their movements were well-rehearsed. It was excellent that they all waited for my further response without questioning, ¡®What¡¯s going on?¡¯ or ¡®Why?¡¯ Suppressing my thoughts about how reliable they would be if only they didn¡¯t speak so oddly, I took five steps forward. Thud, thud. I tapped the ¡®object¡¯ in the corridor ahead with the tip of my sword. Even when I infused my aura, there was no reaction from the object. Only the water at ankle height rippled gently. ¡°They¡¯re dead.¡± There was no need tomunicate telepathically, so I murmured aloud. ¡°What?¡± ¡°They¡¯re already dead. All of them.¡± The dark corridor of the UFO. The passage was filled with over 120 alien corpses, melted beyond recognition. The ¡®East Sea UFO Crash Incident¡¯ of the 98th cycle ultimately remained an unsolved case. Why did aliens with technology far superior to current human civilization perish inside their ship? Were they already dead before crashing into the East Sea? I couldn¡¯t hide my curiosity about this new anomaly. After all, it was a mystery rted to extraterrestrials. How could I resist? Thus, in the very next cycle, the 99th, I prepared thoroughly. This time, instead of searching after the UFO fell, I nned to go to the crash site and wait. ¡°You want to use an aircraft carrier? Even if you are the one and only Undateikeo, we can¡¯t just lend you one of our only seven military resources...¡± ¡°I¡¯ll help you with the Inunaki subjugation next time, with no conditions.¡± ¡°Deploy the first aircraft carrier, White Blossom!¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 76 Invader ¢ñI The aircraft carrier boasted by the Magical Girl Association (40 tons, equipped with kitchen and rest facilities, formerly used as a fishing cleaning ship beforemissioning as an aircraft carrier in 1996) arrived at the target waters in less than two hours. The Magical Girls immediately took their positions and started fishing. They had the skills of seasoned fishermen. ¡°Wow¡ªjust when we were starting to run low on food, I was thinking about going fishing.¡± ¡°By the way, Undateikeo. I heard rumors that there are awakeners in Korea with the ability to foresee the future. Is that true? You''re moving with such certainty that an anomaly will appear at sea this time too.¡± I shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s a secret. But at least this time, it wasn¡¯t a prophet. It was a constetion that told me.¡± ¡°A constetion...? Oh, those gods that only exist in Korea.¡± The Magical Girl nodded in understanding.It might be surprising, but the awakeners from Japan didn¡¯t question why Constetions were so active only in Korea. They considered them a kind of local deity. Even though they were now obsessed with their strange Magical Girl cosy, before the void burst forth, they were all people with strong ¡®spiritual senses.¡¯ Mediums, shamans, and the like. ¡°...!¡± While they were enjoying fishing, a quiet Magical Girl perked up her ears and pointed to the sky. ¡°Nya? What¡¯s wrong, Ciel?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± The people aboard the aircraft carrier looked up. Their eyes widened. A UFO was falling from the sky. ¡°Nyaaa?! Wh-What is that?¡± ¡°...Good grief.¡± Boom! The UFO tore through the Earth''s fragile atmosphere as it fell. But from about 600 meters above the ground, its speed slowed dramatically. As if weing the alien visitor, the sea¡¯s waves surged violently. With a roaring sound, the UFOnded, no, sshed down into the sea. The tsunami caused by the UFO shook our aircraft carrier. ¡°Nya! Somebody save me!¡± ¡°Decelerate¡ªstabilize¡ªdefend.¡± The ship, which almost capsized, regained its bnce thanks to the crew¡¯s magic. As the water spray slowly cleared, the enormous UFO gradually floated up on the water''s surface. ¡°Unbelievable. Undateikeo was right. An anomaly really came from the sky.¡± ¡°...! ...!¡± ¡°Amazing. Evidence for the hypothesis that the origin of anomalies might be space. We need to prepare a paper.¡± ¡°Even if you publish a paper, there¡¯s no society to review it! Besides, is it even an anomaly? Maybe it''s a real alien?¡± Wiping the seawater from my face, I calmly spoke. ¡°Prepare forbat. Whether they''re friendly or hostile aliens, we¡¯re about to find out.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Right. Good idea.¡± Shock gave way to caution. I and the others quickly assumed defensive positions. ¡°Warning. Detecting a presence.¡± The blind Magical Girl, specialized in scouting and detection, muttered as steam hissed from the UFO. Unlike in the previous cycle, where all the aliens inside had been ughtered, this time there were clear signs of life. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Everyone held their breath at the moment that might lead to humanity¡¯s first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. A shadow loomed from beyond the steam and mist. A whiff of gasoline hit our faces. The blind Magical Girl muttered. ¡°Approaching.¡± Thud! As soon as she finished speaking, the figure leapt from the steam andnded on the aircraft carrier. Such tremendous jumping power. And if the figure intended to engage in friendly conversation, it was certainly not the right approach. ¡°Enemy!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a hostile alien!¡± The creature, presumed to be an alien, extended its arms on the violently rocking ship. Shriek! Perhaps it was trying to say, ¡®Hug me,¡¯ by spreading its arms wide. However, the alien had not two, but eight arms, and instead of hands, each arm ended in a one-meter-long scythe. Hardly suitable for a friendly embrace. My subsequent judgment was hardly an overreaction. ¡°Engage inbat!¡± ng! I met the eight swinging scythes of the alien with my de. More urately, I tried to meet them carefully. ¡®What kind of strength is this?¡¯ A heavy blow. Despite expecting it to be at most on par with the Ten Legs, my sword almost flew out of my hand from just one scythe strike. The strength wasn¡¯t the only surprising thing. Shriek! The eight naturally equipped scythesunched a rapid and dazzling assault. Although it was difficult to fullyprehend, there was undoubtedly a highly developed martial arts system embedded in the alien''s scythe strikes. One blow, two blows, three blows. Just when I thought I had blocked one, another scythe came from the side. I tried to cut off its eighth arm with my aura, but it was to no avail. ¡°Damn.¡± It wasn¡¯t easy to make me, in the 99th cycle, exim in such awe. The alien creature was clearly stronger than the Ten Legs. Not just a little stronger¡ªsix, seven times stronger, if not beyond calction. ¡°Undateikeo? Are you okay?¡± ¡°Not at all! This bastard is strong!¡± ¡°Serious. Ciel, turn the ship around. We need to retreat and call for reinforcements. I¡¯ll assist the Undateikeo¡ª¡± The Magical Girls made the right call, but just because something is right doesn¡¯t mean others will follow the logic. Thud! Thud, thud! Alien creatures rained down from the UFO onto the aircraft carrier. The ship shook uncontrobly, and waves crashed from all sides. Shriek! Shriek! I saw seven alien creatures within my line of sight. Their skin was melting like wax. The smell of gasoline was overwhelming, emanating from their melting skin. ¡°Fuck.¡± A cold sweat ran down my neck, a rare urrence despite my countless regressions. Fighting just one was tough enough, but seven more? But cold sweat alone wasn¡¯t enough to describe the urgency of the situation. The memory of the corridor inside the UFO from the 98th cycle shed through my mind. The corridor filled with corpses. ¡®So, there could be at least 120 of these things?¡¯ A scream erupted from the Magical Girls. ¡°Aaaah!¡± A quick nce showed that the Magical Girls were being overpowered by the aliens. A flurry of scythe strikes. The limbs of the girl who always said ¡®nya¡¯ were severed, soaring into the air along with her ck umbre. ¡°Damn,¡± ¡°...!¡± Even in the face of death, the Magical Girls tried to remain calm. Sparks flew, and magic red. But with each passing second, their bodies were dismembered, scattering blood. [Undateikeo, escape¡ª] Thud! The blind Magical Girl who survived till the end had her upper body pierced by a tail, and her voice was cut off. Blood gushed from the alien creature¡¯s sharp tail. Time taken for total annihtion: a mere 11 seconds. It wasn¡¯t due to negligence in preparation. The awakeners weren¡¯tcking in skills. Though not as experienced as me, they were veterans who had survived in Japan¡¯s anomaly-ridden environment. Yet they were obliterated. In 11 seconds. ¡°Goddammit¡ª¡± It had been a while since such a harsh curse escaped my mouth. The feeling was familiar yet unwee. It was the same damn feeling I had when fighting that damned octopus-head Ten Legs. ¡°Bastards!¡± Somehow, I summoned as much aura as I could and swung my sword. With myrades wiped out, staying here even a second longer would mean getting surrounded. I had to at least kill the one in front of me. Shriek! Pouring all my aura into my de, I delivered a savage strike. Rather than a sh, it was more of a brute force assault that turned the alien creature into chunks of flesh. Shriek? Shriek! Shriek! The aliens were shocked at theirrade¡¯s death. The dozens of aliens on deck turned to look at me. They clearly seemed wary. They slowly, very slowly, began to surround me like hunters cornering prey. I took cautious steps back, trying to keep the angle of encirclement below 180 degrees. The aliens clicked and shrieked, seemingly displeased, but didn¡¯t immediately charge. I had been given a moment¡¯s reprieve. ...... The sound of waves echoed quietly. We maintained our distance, leaving the bodies of four Magical Girls and one alien between us, in a tense standoff. ¡°......¡± I could retreat if I wanted to. The aliens were strong and fast, but I didn¡¯t think they could keep up with my speed. The Magical Girls must have sensed this disparity and told me to [run] at the end. However. ¡®I can¡¯t let 120 of these monsters roam the world.¡¯ I gripped my sword hilt tightly and adjusted my stance. One sentence repeated in my mind. I¡¯m taking you down with me. ¡®Rather than that, I¡¯ll gather as much information as possible in this cycle and prepare for the next.¡¯ The decisive reason I couldn¡¯tmit to retreating was the thought that there must be another entity that had ughtered all 120 of these powerful aliens. ¡®I need to see its face. And learn its features and abilities if possible!¡¯ It might be the queen of these aliens, or an entirely different entity. I had no information yet. It was fortunate that I realized such a powerful anomaly existed. In previous cycles, this anomaly had crashed into the East Sea and disappeared, hiding somewhere without me knowing. ¡®This anomaly must have a continent-ss, or more likely, an ocean-ss danger rating.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how many civilians and awakeners it had killed over the cycles while hiding from my sight. ¡®No matter how many cycles it takes, no matter how many decades or centuries, I¡¯ll annihte itpletely!¡¯ As I steeled myself for a life-or-death struggle, Shriek... Shriek, shriek... shriek...? The alien creatures, which had seemed ready to pounce at any moment, suddenly hesitated. They weren¡¯t afraid of my aura... no, that wasn¡¯t it. All eight of their arms were trembling, and their tails were iling wildly from side to side. They stretched their necks out like deer, looked up, and shrieked at the sky. They twisted their limbs and scratched their skin furiously. It looked like they were... ¡®...In pain?¡¯ One of the aliens flipped over and started writhing on the ground, rubbing its body against the deck of the aircraft carrier like a bear scratching its back against a tree. The difference was that the bear was in agonizing pain while doing so. Shriek! Shriek! Shriek! The other aliens followed suit, each writhing and scratching itself in apparent agony. One even crashed into the control room, while another used its own scythe-arms to peel its skin off. ¡°What in the world...?¡± Just moments ago, these creatures had seemed like the ultimate lifeforms. Why were they suddenly acting like this? I lowered my sword in confusion. Approaching one of the aliens, I stabbed it in the belly, but it didn¡¯t react at all and simply slumped over. ¡°Ugh...¡± On closer inspection, the skin that had been melting like wax earlier was now literally pouring off like chocte in a fountain. The flesh was disintegrating. It looked as if they had been doused with acid, as their skin melted away. Shriek! Shriek! They writhed in agony, but the melting process only elerated. Muscles were exposed, thick bones jutted out, and strange organs spilled out. All of it melted away. Within just two minutes, the deck of the aircraft carrier was littered with ck, slimy remains. ¡°Gross...¡± I went inside the UFO to check, but there was no twist. Just fewer numbers this time, but the corridors were still filled with alien corpses, just like in the 98th cycle. These creatures, which might have been the strongest species in the universe, were all dead. And humanity hadn¡¯t even done anything yet. ¡°......¡± I scooped some seawater into my palm and poured it over one of the rtively intact bodies. A remarkable thing happened. The alien¡¯s skin instantly melted away. ¡°Ugh...¡± I tested it again, this time with fresh water from the aircraft carrier, and the result was the same. The alien¡¯s skin, bones, and organs turned into a sticky liquid. ¡°Oh...¡± I realized why these powerful creatures had been annihted and why they hadn¡¯t appeared in previous cycles. ¡°Their weakness is ¡®water¡¯...?¡± They should have avoided Earth. Idiots. I named these alien creatures the ''Warrior Race.'' From the 99th cycle onward, I paid no attention to UFOs or the Warrior Race that fell into the East Sea. No matter how strong the Warrior Race was, no matter how tough they were¡ªeven for me, a regressor¡ªit didn¡¯t matter. Their weakness was water. As obvious as it sounds, 71% of the Earth¡¯s surface is covered in water. And, amusingly enough, on Earth, H?O often falls from the sky. Sometimes it rains for days on end. Oh, don¡¯t you know? Aliens, this is called ¡®summer monsoon¡¯¡ª ¡®How can a creature¡¯s weakness be water?¡¯ It was bizarre, but considering how rare water is in the universe, it might be that Earth¡¯s inhabitants and its life forms are the strange ones. ¡°Hey, guild leader! Look over there! A shooting star...!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± In some cycles, I saw meteor showers over the East Sea, but I simply watched the night sky with a bittersweet feeling. The idea that these anomalies, potentially my greatest foes, were diving into the East Sea and dying every cycle was... a bit strange. ¡®What if the Warrior Race isn¡¯t actually an anomaly but real aliens?¡¯ What if the UFO was just a small reconnaissance ship and the main force was elsewhere? What if they realized their weakness was water, developed high-tech waterproof suits, and came back for another invasion? And if humanity and anomalies alike were wiped out by the Warrior Race¡¯s invasion? ¡°Wish. Make a wish quickly, guild leader/ If you make it before the star falls, it wille true!¡± With Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s special skill of whining, I raised my hands in surrender. ¡°Alright, fine. Let¡¯s make a wish.¡± If the aliensunch a full-scale invasion, what can I do? I¡¯ll just keep resetting the cycles and deal with it then. Praying that such a disaster wouldn¡¯t happen, I sped my hands together. ¡®Please give up on Earth. Aliens. No matter where your home is, I guarantee it¡¯s less of a hellhole than ours.¡¯ Twinkle¡ª As if acknowledging my wish, a shooting star twinkled over the East Sea in the 9th year. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 77 Promoted ¢ñ Speaking of wishes, it''s more urate to say that I grant them rather than make them. [Time Seal]. My unique awakening ability and the reason why my nickname as the Undertaker stuck. It traps the target in their ''happiest day,'' forcing them to relive that day for eternity. -Undertaker, it''s too hard. I want to let go of life now. -Please, Undertaker. -I want to see my family. Back when the world was still intact, with my family... Please. -No one in reality remembers me anymore? It doesn''t matter. This world is already... Though they relive the same day forever, those under [Time Seal] never realize it.Even if, like the ser yer Kim Joo-chul from a previous episode, they somehow notice, it doesn¡¯t matter. They forget again quickly. People just y all day long in the dreand amusement park I¡¯ve set up, with an all-day pass. To the end-of-the-world humanity, I am the ultimate, legally approved final sedative (with narcotic properties). Naturally, there''s a long line of people waiting to get into this amusement park with a free pass. Today, let me introduce the craziest psychopath standing in that line. ¡°Vice guild leader.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°My life is too painful.¡± Swooosh. Silver hair fell across the table from the seat opposite me. That hair was beautiful. Too white to be gray and too shiny to be white. It could only be described as silver. When an awakener gains their powers, their hair color is randomly dyed. The person before me had lucked out with an SR grade in the tier gacha. (For reference, I got normal-grade ck.) ¡°To be honest, it''s too hard to bear sober. I want to end it all.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Yu Ji-won. There¡¯s a person with that name. In fact, Yu Ji-won has appeared several times in my stories. Some readers might remember, but her first appearance was here. -Vice guild leader, do you have a moment? A guest hase to see you. -A guest? Who? -Yes, the name is... Emim... Schopenhauer? They said they''re German. The day I first met the old Schopenhauer. The one who first told me a historic moment had arrived, a German geezer visiting, was none other than the SSS-ss hair beauty Yu Ji-won, my secretary and lieutenant. Yes, my secretary and lieutenant. Long ago, when I was just ackey for Dang Seo-rin at Samcheon World, Yu Ji-won was myckey. Theckey of the supreme guild leader''sckey¡ªquite a high rank. Let me introduce how this person got into the core circle of power, our inner circle, in one fell swoop. It was during the 5th cycle. Yu Ji-won said something to me then. ¡°Vice guild leader, do you like Romance of the Three Kingdoms?¡± ¡°What? You too?¡± ¡°Yes. I got into it when I was a kid with Yokoyama''s 60-volume strategy Three Kingdoms.¡± My eyes lit up. Such pedigree. The cool and chic awakener with silver hair moved only her lips to mutter. ¡°After that, I read Go Woo-young¡¯s Three Kingdoms, Hwang Sok-yong¡¯s Three Kingdoms, Yi Munyeol¡¯s Three Kingdoms, and Jang Yeong-sil¡¯s Three Kingdoms. I briefly got into the niche Three Kingdomsmentary before moving on to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Battle Records and eventually delving into the original historical texts.¡± ¡°Incredible.¡± I was dizzy with excitement. It was an intoxicating feeling, like a drug. Is this how a martial arts elder feels when they see a promising disciple? My voice trembled as I asked, testing if this kid was the sessor to carry on my legacy. ¡°KOEI...? Or, Three Kingdoms: Total War...?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± As ismon in zen dialogue, Yu Ji-won rested her chin on her hand in thought. Finally, she lifted her sses. ¡°My rational mind calls for Three Kingdoms: Total War, but my young heart cries out for KOEI. And I believe the soul resides in the heart rather than the brain.¡± ¡°¡Which series do you prefer?¡± ¡°Three Kingdoms 3, Three Kingdoms 5, Three Kingdoms 11.¡± ¡°Gasp...!¡± I had no choice but to acknowledge her excellence. From that moment, Yu Ji-won was immediately selected as my close aide. Of course, there was one final hurdle. ¡°Oh, for crying out loud. Kids.¡± Samcheon World, which had adopted a global monarchical system over a democratic one, had its own procedures and regtions. Our supreme leader, the Great Witch Dang Seo-rin, sneered at us. ¡°Hiring someone as the vice guild leader''s aide just because they''re a Three Kingdoms otaku? The guild¡¯s management must be thriving.¡± ¡°It''s ironicing from a witch otaku and train enthusiast...¡± ¡°What did you just say, vice guild leader?¡± ¡°Nothing at all.¡± ¡°I understand you like her, but you can''t promote guild members recklessly without procedure. How will Yu Ji-won feel if she rises through the ranks without proper process? Her peers will resent her.¡± ¡°If I may, Great Witch, can I speak?¡± Yu Ji-won said. As described several times, Yu Ji-won always wore an expressionless face and spoke with discipline. She had a talent for making even the most nonsensical words sound usible when they passed her lips. ¡°Hmm? Go on.¡± ¡°I wasn''t rmended for the position of vice guild leader''s aide just because of my Three Kingdoms knowledge. I have other skills as well.¡± ¡°What, your awakening ability? The minimap thing? I know that. I value you too. But as I said, organizations need procedure and order¡¡± ¡°I majored in Latin and can write freely in Latin. Naturally, I can also trante song lyrics into Latin.¡± ¡°Promoted.¡± Yu Ji-won, appointed to the executive level! Yu Ji-won¡¯s promotion to the inner circle was thanks to her knowledge of Three Kingdoms and her Latin skills, but that didn¡¯t mean she was ipetent as an awakener. In fact, she was quite capable. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, vice guild leader.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about time to start the operation. Turn on the minimap.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Minimap. This was Yu Ji-won''s awakening ability. Any Korean who had sold their soul to the ethnic game StarCraft would instantly understand what the ''minimap'' ability was just by hearing its three-syble name. Swoosh- Yu Ji-won spread a map on the operation table. The scale was 1:50,000. She ced the chess pieces she had prepared on the map. Amazingly, the chess pieces began to move on their own. ¡°Vice guild leader, the enemy is gathering in the eastern district as expected. They seem to be nning to use boats to attack us from behind.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The seemingly ordinary chess pieces had red stickers with names like ''Kim Sung-woo'' and ''Park Hyun-mo'' written on them. All were names of the enemy leaders we were up against. The chess pieces imitated the locations and movements of the enemies on the map. It wasn¡¯t just the enemies. ? ? Yu Ji-won Dang Seo-rin The bishopbeled ''Yu Ji-won'' and the queenbeled ''Dang Seo-rin'' also urately showed their positions on the map. Dang Seo-rin was impressed. ¡°It really feels like fighting with a minimap on. This ability is broken. Ever since Ji-won joined Samcheon World, guild wars have be so easy.¡± ¡°You tter me, Great Witch.¡± Yu Ji-won, the master of social skills, bowed at a perfect angle¡ªneither too exaggerated nor too stiff. ¡°My ability has limits. Without your leadership, my ability would be useless.¡± ¡°That''s too much ttery. Be careful, or I might sew your mouth shut.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Yu Ji-won was just pretending to be modest while ttering, but her ¡®minimap¡¯ had some ws. 1. The minimap only disyed targets Yu Ji-won had met and knew by name. For instance, Yu Ji-won couldn¡¯t disy the ''Saintess'' on the minimap. She had never met her and didn¡¯t know her name. 2. The minimap only worked in cities Yu Ji-won had physically visited. For example, in the 5th cycle, Yu Ji-won had never been to Gyeongju. Despite being a cycling enthusiast who toured all of Korea and even Japan, she had never set foot in Gyeongju. So no matter how much she used the minimap, she couldn¡¯t track anyone fleeing to Gyeongju. In such cases, the chess pieces would move until they reached the edge of the map and then fall over. The expression ''set foot in the city'' might seem vague, but it had a very clear criterion: visiting a convenience store in the city. Oddly enough, if Yu Ji-won bought something or stayed in a convenience store in a city for more than a minute, that city was considered ''visited.'' So, cities where convenience stores hadpletely disappeared couldn¡¯t be ¡®visited.¡¯ For instance, in New York, which was devastated by an ocean-ss anomaly, there were no convenience stores to be found. In other words? ¡°Guild leader, I''ll take Ji-won to various guild leader meetings and travel across the country.¡± ¡°Sure. Please do.¡± I dragged Yu Ji-won around the country under the pretext of being my secretary, making her familiarize herself with people¡¯s faces. As a result, the ¡®vastwork¡¯ that Yu Ji-won built through me was reflected on a map of the entire Korean Penins. ¡°Impressive.¡± I looked down at the huge map and opened a beer bottle. The major guild leaders of each city, those with special abilities even if they weren¡¯t guild leaders, and anyone who could influence the power dynamics in Korea. The locations of all these important figures were disyed in real time. ¡°Thank you. It''s all thanks to you, vice guild leader.¡± ¡°It¡¯s your skill and your major that paid off.¡± ¡°I never expected my Latin major to shine more after the world ended. I used to worry about starving before the apocalypse.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it life¡¯s unpredictability?¡± I slowly poured beer into Yu Ji-won¡¯s proffered ss. We raised our sses to celebrate thepletion of the ¡®national map.¡¯ ¡°Cheers.¡± ¡°Cheers.¡± Clink¡ª The sses made a lovely sound. With Dang Seo-rin''s leadership, my support, and Yu Ji-won''s overwhelming information-gathering ability, Samcheon World continued to prosper. It would be nice if this invincible triumvirate lived happily ever after... but as you all know, this story is far from a happy ending. Shortly after we ascended to power in Korea, the situation grew increasingly grim. In cycles without Noh Do-hwa, the cities were isted and perished one by one. In cycles without the SwordMarquess, food supplies dwindled rapidly. In cycles without Seo-gyu, the Awakeners lost theirmunicationwork. In cycles without Old Man Scho, wecked the strength to break through the anomaly''s onught. Even for the executives of Samcheon, the situation was dire. Maybe even worse. Dang Seo-rin, the supreme leader in our autocratic system, was a rare breed¡ªa ''benevolent ruler.'' Executives had to set an example at the front lines, and if even one guild member starved, so did the executives. Dang Seo-rin endured. I endured well. Yu Ji-won struggled. Despite her cool and chic persona with silver hair, Yu Ji-won had the words ¡®power¡¯ and ¡®promotion¡¯ inscribed on her heart. For her, the dire situation was unbearable. The brutal truth was that Samcheon World was still the best off in Korea. Yu Ji-won, who needed power and sess to be satisfied, was tormented by the environment that refused to fulfill her desires. If there had been a guarantee of sess in another guild, Yu Ji-won might have followed the example of Prime Minister Ye Wanyong of the Great Korean Empire and defected. In reality, Yu Ji-won had every intention of continuing her ancestors¡¯ legacy. ¡°Vice guild leader.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Could you arrange a boat to Japan?¡± I didn''t bother to lecture her, ''Why run away to Japan? Aren''t you ashamed as the vice guild leader¡¯s aide?'' Instead, I sipped my coffee. By this time, I had started to see through Yu Ji-won''s true nature. ¡°I could arrange one, but it would be a one-way ticket.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Until recently, there were Japanese ships asionallying to Busan. But they¡¯ve all disappeared since three months ago. What does that tell you?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± We fought bloody battles against anomalies across the country with our guild alliance. Yu Ji-won, as my direct subordinate, was always with me. ¡°Vice guild leader, what about China...¡± ¡°Based on what the constetions said, Shandong is out of the question.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°And you said your [Minimap] works in Korea and Japan but you¡¯ve never been to China. Your ability would be useless there. Are you okay with that?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Indeed, betrayal requires someone to ept you, and escaping needs a paradise to run to. The times were turning her into an eternal loyalist. Just as talented people born in the wrong era often do, Yu Ji-won finally acknowledged that her desires would never be fulfilled. She had nowhere to go. Where could she go when the whole world had copsed? Actually, there was onest ce to run to. ¡°Vice guild leader.¡± ¡°Oh, for crying out loud. Lieutenant Yu! Are you scared? Let¡¯s just die together. Life is short anyway. We¡¯re all doomed soon...¡± ¡°Please kill me.¡± I turned my head. My expressionless lieutenant was staring at me. ¡°Give me a funeral. With your power. Please.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± I sighed. There were many who had asked me for a funeral... that is, [Time Seal]. Sure. Some of them were personally important to me. In short, I was a professional undertaker. I had already experienced sending close acquaintances into eternal caskets multiple times. And I knew that when people I had seen through and through asked for a funeral, I could offer a slightly more detailed consultation than usual. To summarize the consultation in one line: -I''m a regressor. The wheel of time will turn to the next cycle, and the world will be a bit better. Are you sure you want to be sealed now? Upon hearing my secret, Yu Ji-won was shocked. Her mental shocksted exactly six hours. Less than a dayter, my silver-haired lieutenant came back. ¡°Your excellency, you said this is the 5th cycle.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± It¡¯s evident she was a tough nut to crack since she started addressing me as ¡®your excellency¡¯ the moment she heard I was a regressor. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Well, then wouldn¡¯t it be logical to think that the 2nd cycle would be better than the 1st, the 5th better than the 4th, and the 6th better than the 5th?¡± ¡°¡That¡¯s true.¡± My silver-haired lieutenant nodded seriously. Then she began to say something I had never heard in my entire regressor life. ¡°Your excellency, I believe getting sealed in time now, in the 5th cycle, would be a significant loss.¡± ? Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 78 Promoted ¢ñI ¡°What?¡± ¡°Your Excellency. Upon reflection, I realize I haven¡¯t truly enjoyed my life.¡± Yu Ji-won said. ¡°Even if I were to be Time Sealed and relive my ''happiest day,'' I doubt that happiness would hold much objective value.¡± Huh¡ What is she talking about? ¡°While other ordinary people spend their sealed time happily with their families or lovers, I would be endlessly repeating the day I got epted into university or the day I topped my ss. Imagine that, Your Excellency. Is that truly the most valuable form of happiness? I find it extremely unfair.¡± ¡°No¡ what¡ So what is it you want to say to me?¡± ¡°Honorable vice guild leader, please, in the next cycle, inform me in advance that you are a Regressor and the Prophet who promises the gospel of eternal days. If I know that, this wretched sheep will tirelessly work to create the happiest day I can, to prepare for the heaven I will eventually enjoy.¡±¡°...¡¡± Silence filled the tent. ¡°So, if I understand correctly, I will Time Seal you, but before that, you want to create a day you will happily repeat forever?¡± ¡°As expected, Your Excellency. Your understanding is astute.¡± ¡°Are you truly insane?¡± "Vice guild leader! I will serve you faithfully until the day this world ends. So please, promise me this.¡± ¡°The world has nearly ended! No, Ji-won. I¡¯m sorry. This vice guild leader was wrong. I was lying. It¡¯s unreasonable to think someone like a Regressor exists, right?¡± ¡°I have always trusted you, vice guild leader. Isn¡¯t our bond of friendship not so trivial? Of course, in the next cycle, I might be too foolish to recognize you as the Savior. Then just tell me, ¡®I know you killed someone when you were fifteen and dumped the body in a celery field in North Korea.¡¯¡± ¡°What? You killed someone in middle school? No, wait¡ Hey! Stop grabbing my pants! Let go! Hey, let go! Lieutenant Yu! You crazy bitch!¡± Having lived as a regressor, I had encountered many lunatics, but Yu Ji-won was the first psychopath who actively sought to exploit my regression solely for her own pleasure and happiness. Even upon reflection after 1183 cycles, there was no one like Yu Ji-won. The most astonishing fact was¡ this girl wasn¡¯t just talking; she truly served me with utmost loyalty until her dying breath. -???G???r???????a??????o???r???r???????r??????r????r???! In the fifth cycle, I lost my head within two minutes of engaging the Ten Legs. But in that battle, many awakeners died before me, including Yu Ji-won. "Vice guild leader! Danger!¡± Yu Ji-won even shielded me from the Ten Legs¡¯ tentacles. She leaped in front of me and took the hit herself. I was dumbfounded. Because even without her intervention, I could have dodged that attack. If there were an award for ¡®The Most Pointless Death of the Year,¡¯ this would be a prime contender. If the person who died wasn¡¯t my direct subordinate, who had been through thick and thin with me, I might have pped andughed. ¡°Hey¡ Lieutenant Yu, no, Ji-won¡ what the hell is this new insanity¡?¡± ¡°Cough.¡± Yu Ji-won, with a neat hole in her chest, coughed up blood. Her blue eyes, shining with a seriousness this world would never see again, looked up at me. ¡°Next cycle¡ Your Excellency, promise¡¡± Thud. And she died. ¡°...¡¡± This is driving me crazy. It was absurd, but I wasn¡¯t cruel enough to ignore thest words of someone who died in my ce (even a pointless death is still a kind of death, right?). I regretted not being a bit more cruel, but it was toote. I delivered the message to Yu Ji-won in the next cycle. ¡°Indeed.¡± The silver-haired cool chick nodded. Since the world hadn¡¯tpletely copsed yet, resources were still plentiful. Yu Ji-won raided a convenience store with an axe and fortified it. She imed she had owned the convenience store for a long time, but I didn¡¯t believe her. This girl could lie more naturally than she breathed. ¡°I understand that you im to be a regressor. I also understand that you possess the ability known as the Time Seal. But all of this is just unverified ims, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°I also know you¡¯re a psychopath.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not surprising. Everyone around me has known that for a long time.¡± -Kyaaaah! In the middle of our conversation, a creature crashed through the convenience store window. It looked like a cockroach monster. I charged my staff with aura and pierced its mouth beautifully. Crash! Yu Ji-won approached and finished it off with an axe to the head. The creature trembled. Yu Ji-won always had a keen sense forbat. This talent was evident even back then. We resumed our conversation as if nothing had happened. ¡°What more proof do you need? I know you like Three Kingdoms and that you majored in Latin.¡± ¡°What? Hmm. I see. Very interesting, but it¡¯s still just unverified ims.¡± ¡°Damn it, I know you killed someone when you were fifteen and dumped the body in a celery field in North Korea. Believe me, you psycho bitch!¡± ¡°¡Oh.¡± Yu Ji-won blinked her eyebrows. ¡°I understand. Your statement just now greatly increases the credibility of your ims.¡± ¡°Why? Because it¡¯s a truth no one else knows?¡± ¡°To be precise, because it¡¯s ¡®incorrect knowledge.¡¯ It wasn¡¯t when I was fifteen; it was when I was fourteen. And it wasn¡¯t in North Korea; it was in Dobong Mountain.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°If your ability was to read minds or uncover secrets, there would be no reason to ept incorrect information. Therefore, you must have received this wrong information from someone else. And I have several reasons to be confident that my murder was never discovered.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Hmmm, regression. And past cycles of me sending letters to myself through a regressor as a courier¡ very interesting. Few people in life experience something this extraordinary.¡± This is driving me crazy, seriously. I opened a can of coffee from the convenience store shelf and chugged it. Yu Ji-won didn¡¯t stop me. ¡°Consider this can of coffee my courier fee. I¡¯ve delivered thest words, so I¡¯m leaving now.¡± ¡°Ah. Please wait for two minutes. I wille with you.¡± ¡°What?¡± I was startled. When I turned around, Yu Ji-won was rolling up the national and city maps spread on the counter and stuffing them into a trunk. Incidentally, the most striking interior decoration in this convenience store was the ¡®Tutorial Fairy¡¯s¡¯ skin. I did not misspeak. This girl had skinned the fairy and mounted it on the wall like a trophy. I could confidently say she had skinned at least two different beings before. ¡°Hey, what do you mean,e with me? You have plenty of supplies here. Just hold out here.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the worst n.¡± Yu Ji-won pushed up her sses. ¡°In the previous cycle, didn¡¯t I eventually leave here and join your guild? If I¡¯m going to leave anyway, it¡¯s better to join now and rise through the ranks faster.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my guild, it¡¯s led by Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Ah. I see. I apologize. Please guide and correct me whenever I make mistakes in the future.¡± ¡°No, no need for corrections or guidance, just don¡¯t follow me, okay? Hey. Hey! I don¡¯t want this! I don¡¯t like you anymore! Go away, will you?¡± Yu Ji-won did not go away. She clung to me like a parasite. This psychopath¡¯s chosen host was the Samcheon World. Yu Ji-won demonstrated her dedication to the witch cosy in the guild by proving she possessed not only the ¡®Minimap¡¯ skill but also ¡®Dang Seo-rin Favorability.¡¯ ¡°Wow, vice guild leader. Where did you find such a cute kid?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the honor of three lifetimes, Great Witch.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Yu Ji-won, selected as an early member of Samcheon World, was promoted faster and higher than her 5th cycle self. One could say she made quite a spectacle. Her official title was Operations Manager, serving as my deputy and special secretary to the guild leader, Dang Seo-rin. In short, she firmly established herself as the third-ranking member within the guild. Considering she was the third inmand of Korea¡¯s top guild, it was equivalent to being the third-ranking executive in thergest corporation before the apocalypse. She could be considered highly sessful. However, our silver-haired psychopath Yu Ji-won was not the type to care about others'' evaluations. ¡°Manager Yu.¡± ¡°Yes, vice guild leader.¡± ¡°¡We¡¯ll be fighting the Ten Legs soon. Shouldn¡¯t we have your funeral first?¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Anyway, from what I see, you seem much happier in this cycle than in thest one. While I can¡¯t know what you consider happiness, wouldn¡¯t you be satisfied with the afterlife you¡¯ll have now?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± She said, ¡°Hmm.¡± This girl. This psychopath just looked around the air and said, ¡°Hmm.¡± Visually, her lips formed an exact ''¦Ø''. "Vice guild leader, I suddenly thought. If I¡¯m happier in this 6th cycle than I was in the 5th¡ there¡¯s a good chance I¡¯ll be a bit happier in the 7th, isn¡¯t there?¡± ¡°Ji-won. What are you talking about, Ji-won¡¡± ¡°Please, in the next cycle, try your best to make me happier before my funeral¡¡± ¡°Hey!¡± By now, you can probably guess how this story ended. That¡¯s right. Without needing any epilogue, to cut straight to the conclusion, Yu Ji-won, this damn bitch, used me as a delivery girl for herst words every single time. From the 6th cycle to the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th. Every time I asked if she was finally happy enough for a funeral, she would say, ¡°Hmm. In the next cycle, I think I¡¯ll be a bit happier.¡± She kept postponing her sealing endlessly. Seriously, who does that? I¡¯ve read countless web novels and encountered numerous regressor protagonists after the 550th cycle, but I¡¯ve never seen a character who uses an infinite regressor like this. Eventer on¡ she joined the National Road Management Corps under Noh Do-hwa. ¡°This Minimap skill is perfect for our Corps. Thanks to it, tracking the members¡¯ locations in real-time is effortless. Wow. Thanks for introducing such a talented individual for free, Awakener Undertaker¡¡± ¡°...¡¡± And after several cycles, Yu Ji-won smoothly rose to the position of Operations Control Room Chief, just below Noh Do-hwa in the National Road Management Corps. So, over a very long period, spanning hundreds of years, Yu Ji-won was genuinely ¡®climbing the ranks.¡¯ From a regr guild member to my deputy. From my deputy to the third-ranking member of Samcheon World. From a Samcheon World executive to a key figure in the National Road Management Corps. It was a miracle of creating something from nothing! A living sess story! I couldn¡¯t fathom how such a phenomenon could ur. A power-hungry monster climbing ranks every cycle? Isn¡¯t that a real anomaly? More astonishing was that this ambitious monster never once betrayed me in the long history spanning 1183 cycles. Once, I asked her over drinks why she never betrayed me, and her answer was astonishing. ¡°Betray you, Undertaker? I would rather die than do that.¡± ¡°Why? You¡¯re a psychopath.¡± ¡°Please stop stereotyping psychopaths. You¡¯re a regressor with Complete Memory. You remember everyone¡¯s every action and judge them ordingly. So, I must always be cautious not to displease you. Isn¡¯t thatmon sense?¡± Holding a clear soju ss, Yu Ji-won looked up at the full moon in the night sky. Her gaze was wistful. ¡°I find it hard to understand how someone could be foolish enough to betray you. On the other hand, it¡¯s truly fascinating. Why are so many people so foolish?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± I really don¡¯t understand this girl¡ But on the flip side, no one knew Yu Ji-won as deeply as I did. By the 50th cycle, I was certain of one thing about her. Even if everyone else wanted to be Time Sealed, Yu Ji-won definitely wouldn¡¯t. I once thought she was born in the wrong era. But I was wrong. This girl would thrive in any era. Even in an apocalypse where civilization had crumbled, she remained the ultimate survivor. In fact, she was optimized for this era. At this point, I felt half-obligated, half-jokingly to ask Yu Ji-won. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Are you happy now?¡± The chess piece on the map toppled over with a plop. Then my silver-haired deputy, the nearly one-of-a-kind Three Kingdoms club member and the original member of my regression life, the psychopath friend would ponder for a moment, resting her chin on her hand, before giving her answer. ¡°I think I can be a bit happier next time.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 79 The Inquisitor I Let me preface this by saying that today¡¯s episode contains a lot of questions and answers, a sort of Q&A format. In that spirit, I¡¯ll start by tossing a question to all of you. Q) What is the most hated anomaly among all the survivors on the Korean Penins? (Difficulty: Lowest) Once, we conducted a survey on this very question on SG Net. There were many strong candidates, but the top 5 were as follows: 1. The ''Ten Legs.'' 2. Because it wrecked all electronics and made life hell. Known as ''Gremlin.'' 3. Always popping up at crossroads asking, ¡°Save the right or the left?¡± ¡®Trolley Dilemma.¡¯4. Not much detail can be given, but it¡¯s a pink-haired being whose name starts with ''Go'' and ends with ''ri.'' (Nominated by Seo Gyu under duress and rigged the votes.) 5. The ''Tutorial Fairy.'' The results of the four-day survey were announced. A) The ''Tutorial Fairy.'' - 82.7% Candidate number 5 won with an overwhelming majority! Supporters embraced in joy and collectively praised the winner. -Anonymous: Those fucking fairies. -[Baekwha] SixthGrader: Uwaaah¡ Please don¡¯t talk about scary things! ?_?);; -Anonymous: Fairies special trait) When you first wake up, there¡¯s a 95% chance a doll-like figure is floating above you. They look cute, but who knew their hobby was harvesting human heads? ©¸Anonymous: Ha, three years ago my boyfriend¡¯s head flew off right in front of me. -[Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Fascinating. -Anonymous: In the void I was in, a fairy showed up and ordered us to kill each other until only 30 survivors remained. -[Samcheon] Officer: Other anomalies don¡¯t evenmunicate, so you can kind of understand them. But fairies act like they canmunicate, which makes them even more infuriating. What do they think humans are? By the way, ''Officer'' is Yu Ji-won¡¯s nickname on SG Net. Just for the record. The important fact here is that even a born psychopath like Yu Ji-won couldn¡¯t hide her anger when it came to the Tutorial Fairy. Some of you might think, ¡°Huh? Are fairies really that bad?¡± given that in my stories, fairies have appeared quite cute and charming. But it¡¯s time to correct that misconception. Fairies are bastards. Just remember how our SG Man Seo Gyu died. Until I saved him in the 50th cycle, he was always decapitated by the Tutorial Fairy. Back when we were all still immature and naive as awakeners, when the concepts of anomalies and voids weren¡¯t well-defined, fairies unceremoniously embedded us with real,pressed trauma in our minds. ¡°Gah! There are still too many survivors. If this keeps up, I¡¯ll get scolded by my seniors for not thinning the herd properly¡ Eh, I hate getting scolded, so I have no choice! Dropping 50 shadow hounds!¡± ¡°As a quest reward, I¡¯ll give you rice! But since you cheated to clear the quest, I¡¯ll have to cheat the reward too¡ Here, take this sack of rice mixed with pebbles and sand! Hehe. Before being dispatched here, I studied history and learned this is a specialty of the Korean Penins!¡± ¡°Hwaaa. Only one survivor left¡ I failed to bnce the difficulty. My seniors will definitely give me a beating¡ Still, you¡¯re a one-man army! Totally elite! p p p! Fairy number 264 sincerely wishes good luck to the sole survivor at Busan Station, Undertaker¡¡± How could people not lose their minds? Who would like being treated likeb rats? Even the rats wouldn¡¯t prefer it. Especially Homo sapiens, who had been lording over all creatures as the dominant species until recently. Unable to ept the sudden change in their situation, curses and intense reactions erupted everywhere. I too transformed into a violent game protagonist. ¡°I will kill you all.¡± ¡°Gah?¡± That was in the 2nd cycle. Back when I didn¡¯t have [Complete Memory], I once cursed a fairy out of sheer, overwhelming hatred. ¡°What you did to us. I will find not just you, but your kin and your superiors, and I will exact my revenge, no matter what.¡± ¡°Gah¡ I don¡¯t understand¡¡± My memory might be faulty, but the fairy likely looked at me with a puzzled, innocent expression back then too. ¡°Bad humans who ignore the guide¡¯s words get punished!¡± With a dull thud, my consciousness was severed. It was the moment I learned that in fairynguage, ¡®punishment¡¯ means [the act of smashing someone¡¯s skull to the point of spilling its contents outside]. Fairy bastards. So the regressor caught and punished the evil fairies¡ª If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, Tutorial Fairies were fierce. They were like level 70 guards in an RPG. And I was a newbie. Well, to be precise, Ickedbat-rted skills. I confess to you¡ actually, as an Undertaker, I was more of a supporter than a dealer or a tank. This was evident from my abilities like [Complete Memory] and [Time Seal], which were all nonbat skills. This was partly intentional. Because we had Old Man Scho, a historically unrivaled Swordmaster with the Heavenly Martial Body. The n was for Old Man Scho to handle thebat while I, as a supporter, handled all the misceneous tasks. It was a perfect blueprint. A wless n. Q) But what happens when the sole dealer suddenly leaves the party? What¡¯s the appropriate expression for this situation? A) ¡°Damn it.¡± I was in despair. Suddenly, my skill tree, packed with support skills, became the hallmark of a ruined character, and my life genre shifted dramatically towards #regret #despair #obsession. Typically, in web novels, a hero party with a runaway member faces a tragic end. Old Man Scho, you bastard. What was left for me now? The exclusive domain of a regressor. Time. An abundance of time. That was the escape route. ¡®Inner energy!¡¯ A ray of hope shone on me, the Bill Gates of time. ¡®To survive, I must amass inner energy!¡¯ Yes. Depending on culture or person, it was called ¡®Aura,¡¯ ¡®Qi,¡¯ ¡®Yoki,¡¯ etc., but in any case, everyone agreed that if you imbued it in a kitchen knife, you¡¯d get praised for cutting fruit beautifully. This mystical energy, like excrement, grew stronger the longer it stayed in the body. In martial arts, a ¡®Gapja¡¯ was 60 years. A martial artist with 1 Gapja (60 years) of inner energy was revered. It reflected the East Asian preference for ranking by age. And who am I, the Undertaker? Not to brag, but by the 30th cycle, I was a man who had been breaking the human lifespan record day by day. Moreover, I had the [Resume] skill that preserved my muscles and inner energy even through regressions. In short? ¡°Hey, fairy. I¡¯ve got a gift for you.¡± ¡°Gah? A gift? What is it, dreary human?¡± ¡°Punishment.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Thunk! Wheeeeeew-! The Tutorial Fairy¡¯s head was sent flying into the air at a perfect angle. Had a missile enthusiast in Pyongyang seen it, they would¡¯ve pped in envy at the propulsion. ¡°Ah.¡± The day I first cut down a fairy with a single stroke, I, unable to contain my emotions, wept openly. What a long and grueling time of humiliation and oppression it had been! Having evolved from a muscle freak into an inner-energy freak, the regressor was indeed powerful. I became dissatisfied with merely Busan Station, traveling across voids nationwide, harvesting fairy heads. ¡°It¡¯s the Undertaker! The Undertaker has appeared!¡± ¡°Eeeek? Crazy fairy hunter!¡± ¡°Everyone run! If that human bastard catches you, it¡¯s decapitation for you and me both!¡± ¡°Run! Run! Ruuuun!¡± Superbbat skills? Fancy martial arts? Who needs those? With 5 Gapjas, 10 Gapjas, or 20 Gapjas of inner energy, there¡¯s not much you can¡¯t do in this world. (Though there are exceptions.) As the saying goes, highly developed basic attacks are indistinguishable frombat skills. Without any special techniques, just persistently infusing aura, my brute force meta overwhelmed the Tutorial Fairies. ¡°Why are you tormenting us like this! Dirty human! Vicious human! What have we fairies ever done¡!¡± ¡°Hmm. True, you haven¡¯t done much. Let¡¯s see, aside from discrimination, gaslighting, threats, imprisonment, torture, murder, genocide?¡± ¡°We could win awsuit against you!¡± In which court? ¡°Anyway, this is all nder! Defamation! We were merely following our sovereign¡¯s orders to help you inferior humans adapt to the void as quickly as possible! We should be thanked¡! Yes, we should be thanked!¡± ¡°Sure. Why do all imperialists say the same things regardless of history or race? Hmm? Wait, sovereign?¡± I paused my boiling fairy broth. This was big news. ¡°Hey, you have a sovereign?¡± ¡°Gah! Of course!¡± Tied up tightly above the cauldron, the fairy raised its head stiffly and retorted. ¡°Every society must cede its natural rights, and this is themon will of fairies! Our monarch is the only legitimate ruler as our representative! Stupid humans wouldn¡¯t understand!¡± ¡°...?¡± I didn¡¯t know it at the time, but fairy society was divided into republicans and royalists. This fairy was a staunch royalist. But what did it matter? I always respected my opponent¡¯s political leanings. So, I ignored the fairy¡¯s political philosophy and pped its cheeks several times. ¡°Gah? Gak! Gah!¡± ¡°Hey. Where do you get off shouting? Look, Fairy. See this cauldron boiling here? Huh? I¡¯ll use you to make broth and share it with your kin.¡± ¡°Eeeek? This is barbaric! Call the Fairy Rights Commission!¡± ¡°Answer my questions quietly if you don¡¯t want to take a dip. Now. Do you have a leader who ordered you to conduct these tutorials on humans?¡± ¡°Gah! Leader? Watch your words! Address him with respect and reverence as our sovereign, human!¡± ¡°Okay. So they¡¯re the one responsible for ruining the world like this.¡± ¡°Gah? What are you talking about¡¡± ¡°I want to see the Fairy King¡¯s face. How do I do that?¡± ¡°Face? Do you, a lowly human, intend to meet the great Fairy King with that vulgar face? Hikhikhik!¡± For reference, that weird sound was the fairies¡¯ uniqueugh. No, really. Theyugh like ¡®hikhik.¡¯ ¡°Too bad, but that¡¯s impossible!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Our sovereign is a transcendent being! The sole free will that unites us! There¡¯s no reason for him to descend to this wretched earth and get covered in dust¡!¡± ¡°Really? What if I make you into fairy soup?¡± ¡°Hikhik! Even if you kill me, even if you wipe out all the fairies dispatched to Korea, the Fairy King will never descend before a lowly human!¡± ¡°Okay? Then let¡¯s test that.¡± ¡°¡?¡± Time passed. I, the Undertaker, the inner-energy freak of the apocalypse, returned with exactly 10 more Gapjas of inner energy after several regressions. And I captured all the Tutorial Fairies remaining in Korea (101 in total). Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 80 The Inquisitor II There¡¯s a saying, ¡°Enemies within and without.¡± Normally, it refers to the extreme pain of suffering from food poisoning while also stepping on a LEGO, tormented both inside and out. But in truth, this idiom has a different meaning. It¡¯s the wisdom that internal worries can be easily resolved by focusing on external enemies. This ancient wisdom was proven once again when I captured 101 Tutorial Fairies and uploaded the footage to SG Net. -Anonymous: Is Undertaker a god? Is Undertaker a god? Is Undertaker a god? -OldManGoryeo: Watching those fairies getting wrecked feels so satisfying, haha. -Anonymous: Mom, I want to be the Undertaker when I grow up! Mom, I want to be the Undertaker when I grow up! -LiteraryGirl: Why do we only get to watch this awesome prank on video? Can¡¯t we get tickets to see it live?©¸Anonymous: I think I know where that is. Forming a raid party to cheer on-site. -[National Road Management Corps] Officer: Truly retribution. Proof that justice is still alive and breathing. Those who run rampant in this apocalypse should watch this video and reflect. -dolLHoUse: Worry ;;; -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Truly, the cinematography is excellent! ¡°Hmm.¡± I nodded in satisfaction. The number of upvotes on the post was the highest in my entire life across 89 cycles! Our awakeners had various personalities and temperaments, but they all shared amon hatred for fairies! But it was too soon to rx. No matter how well you deal with external enemies, internal problems don¡¯t just disappear. It¡¯s merely a distraction. My internal worry, the cancer itself, was exuding a pleasant scent beside me. ¡°Wow¡ capturing all the Tutorial Fairies from across the country and gathering them in one ce. How did youe up with such an idea, guild leader? You¡¯re amazing.¡± Pop quiz. Who was it that just smiled brightly and praised me? Hint 1: This person called me ''guild leader,'' a title few use. Hint 2: This person has rare pink hair. Hint 3: It¡¯s the 89th cycle now. ¡°As expected, guild leader, you¡¯re quite unique. I¡¯m d I decided to follow you when you invited me at Busan Station¡¡± The answer: Go Yuri! If you were a normal person, hearing this answer would make you scream ¡°Aaaah! Nyathotep!¡± and run away. But I was far from normal, and at this point, I had no idea that the 89th cycle would end in a massacre. Naturally, I didn¡¯t suspect that Go Yuri was a mind-controlling, hypnotic Kadabra (from Pok¨¦mon) in human disguise. ¡°Well, thanks to you joining, running the guild has be much easier. Sometimes I think the guild members like you more than me.¡± ¡°Ahaha. Guild leader, you¡¯re too kind. I don¡¯t have the responsibilities or the authority to give orders, that¡¯s all.¡± So, the me of the 89th cycle, listening to the pink shiny Kadabra¡¯sugh, thought it was simply a pleasant voice. What a fool. Run away. ¡°And honestly, luck yed a part in this one.¡± ¡°Luck, you say?¡± ¡°Yes. I may know all the patterns of the fairies left on the Korean Penins, but they surrendered too easily.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Go Yuri smiled brightly. ¡°You did your best. In the end, it¡¯s all down to luck. The fairies were just unlucky, and you, guild leader, should be happy.¡± ¡°Hmm. You¡¯re right.¡± No! Undertaker, no! Run away now. Run away immediately! ¡But no matter how much I acted out Interster on my own, there was no way my voice would reach the me of the 89th cycle. The only constion was that Go Yuri¡¯s mind control wasn¡¯t species-specific. Her powers worked on fairies as well as Homo sapiens. Thanks to that, the 101 fairies didn¡¯t cause much trouble even in prison. ¡°Gah¡ Where are we?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a strange ceiling.¡± Their location was Cheongsong Prison. Since the apocalypse, Cheongsong Prison had experienced a continuous outflow of poption due to its walls breaking down. It had been a long time since it bustled with new arrivals. ¡°Kidnapping? Is this really kidnapping?¡± ¡°We, who were created for clich¨¦s, have be the ythings of clich¨¦s?¡± ¡°That, too, is a clich¨¦.¡± ¡°Gah¡ If I were born 500 years earlier, I would have dominated world literature. I was born in the wrong era¡¡± ¡°There was no c, potato chips, or instant noodles in the Middle Ages, so dominating would be useless.¡± ¡°I could make all future literati 500 years from now regret not being born earlier.¡± ¡°Gah, a fearsome genius¡!¡± Rustle, rustle- Leaving 101 fairies alone made it as noisy as a marketce. It was time to start the main event. Go Yuri, as if prepared, smiled and handed me a microphone (which gave me chills). I climbed onto the podium. ¡°Testing, testing. Hello, fairies. Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Gah. You are¡?¡± ¡°I am your guide. I understand you must be surprised to be suddenly kidnapped and brought here. But don¡¯t worry. From now on, I, your instructor, will guide you kindly from start to finish.¡± The fairies lying around the auditorium blinked and whispered to each other. ¡°This sounds oddly familiar.¡± ¡°It feels very familiar.¡± ¡°These ropes are too strong to untie¡¡± ¡°Busan Station awakener!¡± Eeeeek! A fairy screamed from the middle of the auditorium. ¡°I¡¯ve seen the footage! That human cleared the nightmare dungeon at Busan Station in less than 20 minutes! It¡¯s definitely him!¡± ¡°Gah?¡± ¡°20 minutes? That¡¯s the protagonist type awakener the seniors warned us about!¡± Rustle, rustle, rustle! The fairies became noisy in an instant. But the speaker, believing in his righteousness, was not swayed by mere outside mor. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial, I continued my speech firmly. ¡°Calm down and listen to me, fairies. When do you think evil arises in this world?¡± ¡°Gah?¡± ¡°I believe evil arises when one cannot or chooses not to understand the position and emotions of others. Ignoring and refusing to know. In that sense, Socrates'' old proposition that ignorance is the root of evil is truly correct.¡± ¡°What is this human babbling about?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand at all¡¡± ¡°Ah, ah. I have arranged this meeting to save you from the depths of evil. You toy with humans because you¡¯ve never been toys yourselves.¡± Question marks appeared over the fairies'' tiny heads. In the now quieter auditorium, my voice echoed like a righteous shout. ¡°Do you get it now? From now on, kill each other.¡± ¡°¡?¡± It didn¡¯t take long for the bent question marks to straighten into exmation points. The Tutorial Dungeon for fairies, start. ¡°Gyaaaa! Save me, fairy!¡± ¡°Gah! A rock! A rock is rolling towards us! Gyaaaa! Gyaaah!¡± Full of malicious traps, limited resources, and stages designed to instill paranoia. All creation is born from imitation. When building Cheongsong Prison Dungeon, I drew inspiration entirely from the great predecessors in this field. Those predecessors were joyfully frolicking in the architecture their sessor had designed. ¡°How can you do this while wearing a human mask! Do you have no human heart?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. Instead, I have a fairy¡¯s heart. Gah- gahaa-¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°What? What are you looking at, number 76? Did you grant mercy when humans begged for their lives in Yeongwol?¡± ¡°Gah! We were just following orders!¡± ¡°Were you? I¡¯m simr. Imand myself as my own master. Please be as understanding as possible, fairies.¡± ¡°Crazy human¡ Crazy human¡¡± The fairies trembled. By the way, all of this was being meticulously recorded by Go Yuri¡¯s smartphone. ¡°Ah, guild leader. Sorry, you¡¯re not in the frame. Could you move in a bit?¡± ¡°Like this?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± As time passed in Cheongsong Prison, day by day, Go Yuri¡¯s smile evolved from ''bright'' to ''beaming.'' As a master of mind control, Go Yuri also excelled at video editing. Director and writer: Undertaker. Filming and editing: Go Yuri. Starring and supporting: Fairies. As a result of ourbined efforts, the emotional documentary weekend drama [Tutorial Reversed World] hit a 100% viewership rate every time it was uploaded on SG Net. ¡°Guild leader, you¡¯re truly interesting.¡± ¡Looking back now. No matter how much the wisdom of internal and external threats was applied, it was difficult to elicit such a consistent response from the crazy SG Net. Perhaps the edited videos themselves were already imbued with perception maniption, enough to satisfy even Sim Ah-ryeon or SwordMarquess. From this point on, it was certain that Go Yuri became seriously interested and obsessed with me. Of course, my purpose in establishing a prison for fairies wasn¡¯t just to avenge the umted racial grudges. (That was only about 50% of the reason.) I looked down at the fairies who had lost a tug-of-war and fallen 60 meters underground. ¡®I¡¯ve captured all the fairies left on the Korean Penins and made them into clowns. Do you still n to remain hidden?¡¯ Fairy King. Yes. The presumed supreme anomaly that managed and controlled the ¡®Tutorial Dungeons¡¯ and ¡®Fairies¡¯ that appeared simultaneously worldwide¡ a top-tier anomaly. ording to the future ssification system of the Library Society, it might be the first to be ssified as level 5, outer god-ss. ¡®I¡¯ve put so much effort into capturing the fairies. I must gather as much information about that guy as possible in this cycle.¡¯ Eeek! The fairies screamed in terror. Amazingly, even by this point, I still didn¡¯t know anything about the Fairy King¡¯s true identity. Not once in 89 cycles had I obtained meaningful information. That fact kept me on alert. ¡®Not an easy opponent.¡¯ Unlike typical viins who are eager to reveal their identities in other creations, the fairy boss was a true mastermind. The only information I had was the two-word phrase ¡®Fairy King.¡¯ ¡°Hey, butcher.¡± ¡°Gah¡¡± I tapped the forehead of the fairy lying on the ground with my finger. ¡°Why don¡¯t you start talking about your boss? Do you think I¡¯ll stop wreaking havoc just on the Korean Penins? China, Japan, India¡ well, maybe not India. Anyway, I can wipe out fairies in many ces.¡± ¡°Gah, I, I can¡¯t tell you¡¡± ¡°Why? Because you only have one mouth? Would it help if I gave you two or three?¡± ¡°Eeek!¡± Footsteps echoed. I nced back to see Go Yuri standing with her hands behind her back. ¡°Are you interrogating, guild leader?¡± ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s not a pretty sight, so don¡¯t film this.¡± ¡°Not a pretty sight? It¡¯s such a lovely sight that we should treasure it and keep it away from prying eyes.¡± Go Yuri tilted her head. ¡°Hmm. Are you having trouble because the fairies aren¡¯t talking? If I can help, I¡¯d like to.¡± ¡°Huh? If you can help, that would be great, but these guys have pretty tight lips. I appreciate the thought.¡± ¡°...¡¡± Go Yuri smiled. ¡°No need to thank me. What are you asking them?¡± ¡°Ah, I was just asking for the Fairy King¡¯s real name¡¡± ¡°¨D¨DThe Fairy King is the Fairy King.¡± Mumble. I stared at the fairy. Our eyes met. The lips of the fairy, which had remained silent for days, twitched. ¡°But humans misunderstand the true meaning of our sovereign.¡± ¡°¡Misunderstand? What do you mean?¡± ¡°The sovereign you think of is ¡®?? (¾ýÖ÷),¡¯ meaning a ruler whom subordinates serve and are loyal to. But our Fairy King is different. Our sovereign is ¡®?? (ÈºÖ÷),¡¯ meaning the master of a collective called ¡®fairies.¡¯¡± The fairy smiled brightly. ¡°We are one. One is us. Therefore, we truly say ¡®our Fairy King.¡¯ Betrayal is nothing but self-betrayal. We¨D¨D¡± Boom! The fairy¡¯s lips trembled, and an explosion erupted from within. The fairy¡¯s body swelled like a balloon. A sh. I quickly raised an aura barrier between the fairies and us. Red liquid sttered against the shield like a windshield. When the explosion subsided, nothing remained where the fairy had been except for scraps of flesh. ¡°What the hell is this¡?¡± ¡°Ah, it seems there was a bomb nted to ensure secrecy.¡± Go Yuri muttered beside me. ¡°Hmm. This is the first one, but¡ guild leader shouldn¡¯t be too troubled, right?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°There are still 100 fairies left.¡± Go Yuri sped her hands together. ¡°You can ask 100 more questions.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 81 The Inquisitor III To start with the conclusion, Go Yuri¡¯s solution of "Why don''t we just burst the heads of the fairies 100 more times to get perfect information?" did note to fruition. It wasn¡¯t because my tender heart suddenly sprouted sympathy, thinking that such cruelty was too much. Just looking at my brother, Seo Gyu, who suffered from anger management issues and had his head delivered express by the fairies more than 50 times, sympathy was out of the question. I, the Undertaker, oppose racial discrimination but proudly consider myself a thorough species chauvinist. My emotions only open a two-way street for Homo sapiens. The reason Go Yuri''s solution failed was simple. "Initiate extermination." "Initiate extermination." As soon as we left the interrogation room, a swarm of fairies rushed at Go Yuri.¡°What¡?¡± Fairies appeared from every direction¡ªhallways, ceilings, above, below, everywhere. They all had identical faces and emotionless expressions. Even though it was quite a cosmic horror scene, my attention was focused elsewhere. ¡®The fairies didn¡¯t use their usual speech pattern?¡¯ Good grief. It was a cultural shock. Is that even legal? Before my tongue could express its shock, the trained reflexes of a seasoned Regressor kicked in. ¡°You bastards! From where!¡± Bam! Wrapping my thighs and calves with aura, I kicked and shattered the three fairies charging directly at Go Yuri. But it didn¡¯t end there. The fairies fell from my kick, but then their bodies swelled like red balloons. The small bodies of the fairies rapidly bloated with red liquid, and the scene yed out in slow motion right before my eyes. A chill ran down my spine. ¡®Self-destruct!¡¯ The aim wasn¡¯t to attack us directly but to close the distance. I quickly wrapped my entire body in aura protection and pulled Go Yuri into a tight embrace. ¡°Ah-¡± Go Yuri¡¯s lips moved, but her voice was drowned out by the subsequent explosion. KABOOM! The entire Cheongsong Prison shook from the explosion. Although it was remodeled to incarcerate fairies, the thick walls couldn''t entirely block the st. Of course, they couldn''t prate my barrier either. ¡°Damn¡¡± Everything copsed. Walls, pirs, ceilings, all fell apart. Concrete chunks pounded against my aura-shielded body. ¡°Hoo. Go Yuri, are you okay? Can you speak?¡± ¡°Yes, thanks to you, guild leader. You¡¯re amazing.¡± Despite her words, I could hear her coughing from the dust stirred by the copsing debris. Srrr¡ The surroundingndscape visible through the dust clouds was drenched as if hit by red water bombs. It must have been the LCL liquid expelled from the exploded fairies. Amid the chaos, one fairy still floated in the air, looking intact. ¡°You¡ you bastard¡¡± ¡°I request a dialogue.¡± A fairy spoke as if nothing had happened. ¡°However, there are conditions. I demand to speak with you alone¡ª¡± Boom! I immediately dashed forward and crushed the fairy¡¯s head. I wiped the sticky, bloody mucus from my fingers. ¡°Don¡¯t make meugh. You pull a suicide bombing, and now that I¡¯m still standing, you want to talk? As expected, murderous psychopaths have apletely different mindset.¡± -Caution. No questions will be entertained. Then an astonishing thing happened. Liquid from the surrounding puddles began to boil and quickly formed the shapes of fairies. But they were iplete shapes. From various puddles, only heads, mouths, and fingers of fairies were forming, each twitching independently. Damn it. -No demands will be entertained. If anyone interferes with our conversation through filming, recording, or eavesdropping, all terminal entities in this zone and any future encounters will be immediately destroyed. ¡°¡¡¡± -You have 30 seconds. I frowned and looked to the side. Go Yuri was giving a mixed smile, both troubled and amused. ¡°Hmm. It¡¯s okay. Don¡¯t worry about me, guild leader.¡± ¡°Really? ¡Thanks for understanding.¡± ¡°Haha. Instead, could you take me to Busan next time you go? I¡¯m interested in meeting your friend, Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Hmm. Sure, let¡¯s do that.¡± There was no reason for me to feel indebted to Go Yuri. Of course, there was no reason to leave all the other guild members behind and take only Go Yuri on [Tutorial Reversed World] missions. Moreover, it was clear that Dang Seo-rin would hate anyone else joining us on our food trips. Even if I set all that aside,ughing like ¡®haha¡¯ after witnessing all this chaos wasn¡¯t normal. Yet, all I felt was a slight guilt for excluding such a kind girl from the conversation. Your brain has melted, Undertaker. Step. Go Yuri¡¯s footsteps sounded like a rattlesnake¡¯s as they tread over the building debris. Step¡ªher snake-like tail disappeared behind a steel-reinforced concrete pir, and the fairy spoke. -28 seconds psed. -We have confirmed your willingness to converse. ¡°You can speak normally.¡± I looked away from the direction Go Yuri left and tried to focus on the fairies. Damn it. There were too many of them bubbling up like pot foam. ¡°Did you drop the speech pattern because it was a facade all this time?¡± -Is that your first question? The liquid fairies stared at me. Despite their expressionless faces and voices, I could feel a tinge of "Are you serious?" from them. It was slightly fascinating. ¡°Yes.¡± -The speech pattern of the terminal entities was set by configuration. -Location: Korean Penins, Language: Korean, Subject: Koreans, Environment: Apocalypse. -We chose the speech pattern that would lower human suspicion the most. ¡°What? That crap? ¡Well, now that I think about it, it does sound weak and silly.¡± -Margin of error. -Responses to terminal entities vary among individuals due to the average setting. -Proposal. How about we alternate questions and answers? ¡°...¡¡± I shrugged. It was a gesture to indicate that I didn¡¯t mind, but more importantly, I wanted to test how much ¡°they¡± could understand non-verbalmunication. -Consent confirmed. To prevent misunderstanding, I¡¯ll rify that our objective was not to exterminate you. ¡°So what? You intended to kill myrades? What¡¯s the point of killing someone with nothing but bones left?¡± -It¡¯s our turn to ask a question. -Why are you cooperating with the pink-haired entity? Dozens of liquid eyes focused on me. ¡°Pink-haired entity¡? Do you mean Go Yuri?¡± -Affirmative and negative. -The entity has no specific proper noun or defined technical term. To maintain neutrality, we temporarily use ¡®the pink-haired entity you apanied at Cheongsong Prison,¡¯ shortened to ¡®pink-haired entity.¡¯ -Please answer the question. I frowned. ¡°Entity this, entity that¡ Why don¡¯t you just use her name? Go Yuri is my guild member. She serves me as the guild leader. Does associating with someone need a grand reason?¡± -¡¡. -¡¡. The distorted fairy forms, the ¡®Fairy King,¡¯ stared at me. A brief silence followed. -We understand. ¡°I¡¯ll ask a question now. You, the so-called Fairy King. Why did you summon void zones in a perfectly normal world? And why did you force innocent people into survival games through the tutorial?¡± -¡¡. ¡°For fun? Entertainment? Like in many creations, did you want to toy with humans as if we were ythings?¡± This was not just my question. It was the question of all awakeners who experienced the tutorial phenomenon, and perhaps humanity as a whole. I was merely the one voicing it. I waited for the Fairy King¡¯s answer as if I were the first human to question a god. -We will break down the question. -First, we need to point out your misunderstanding. ¡°Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?¡± -We did not summon the entire void into this world. We merely managed the phenomenon called ¡®tutorial.¡¯ Ah. Instead of rage towards the Fairy King, disappointment welled up inside me. If so, the being before me wasn¡¯t the master of all anomalies. I, in my 89th cycle, believed I could still return the world to its original state, unlike my current 1183rd cycle self. -Second, we do not conduct experiments for amusement. Observing survival, literally, is our goal. ¡°What?¡± -We would like to ask you in return. -If you were thrown into the void environment without any preparation and without undergoing our ¡®tutorial¡¯ process, what do you think your survival rate would be? ¡°¡¡¡± -Calcting within a range of 365 days, your survival rate is only 1.76%. -Meanwhile, the average survival rate of awakeners in the tutorial is close to 31%. -If one survives the tutorial, their subsequent 365-day survival rate soars to 69%. ¡°So, what? Are you saying you prepared this death game parade for us? That¡¯s really generous of you. I¡¯m almost in tears.¡± -We have no benevolence. We have no malevolence. -Please judge whether our ¡®experiment¡¯ contradicts your purpose. At that moment, I sensed movement behind me and quickly turned around. Ten or so fairies, who had apparently regenerated, were creeping towards me. Our eyes met. -¡¡. ¡°Damn it!¡± I quickly summoned aura and harvested the fairies'' heads. Pop! Their heads exploded like strawberry juice. ¡°Attacking during a conversation? You¡¯re worse than Nazis!¡± -Mission failed. -Reassessing your threat level. ¡°You really intend to go all the way with me? Alright then. Let¡¯s see how far this goes!¡± -We must correct you. It was not us who initially initiated hostile actions. You kidnapped our entities out of abnormal hostility and subjected them to a highly simplistic experimental environment. -The environment was poor, and the experiment¡¯s purpose was unclear. It was you, not us, who abducted intelligent beings for mere amusement. ¡°What¡? Ha.¡± The retort, ¡°You were the ones who roasted and tormented humans like anchovies from the first cycle to the 89th,¡± was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it. I didn¡¯t want the anomaly in front of me to know I was a Regressor. Even the smallest hint could lead to dangerous consequences. -It is extremely difficult to subdue you with force. -Establishing an ongoing rtionship of mutual interaction with you is preferable. ¡°Dream on. Who says I¡¯ll cooperate?¡± -Instead, we will disclose information you haven¡¯t asked for. Information directly linked to your survival. The Fairy King moved its lips slowly, perhaps excessively so. -The being you¡ö¡ö¡öcall¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö is¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö. A crackling noise like an old radio echoed in my head as the Fairy King spoke. I frowned. ¡°¡What did you just say?¡± -¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö. It¡¯s¡ö¡ö¡ö, not¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö. The noise grew louder, filling my head with static. The frown on my forehead deepened into a valley. ¡°Stop it. It¡¯s noisy. If you¡¯re ying a pointless prank, cut it out.¡± -¡¡. Fairies all around, peeking from the debris, looked at each other. -Failure. The contamination level of the target entity exceeds 99%. -Abandoning Operation B. Redirecting anger through hostility towards a specific entity is deemed ineffective. Higher-level mental maniption than the target entity is impossible. -Commencing Operation C. ¡°¡¡¡± I began to think about how topletely eradicate the collective anomaly known as the Fairy King. ¡°If you keep ignoring and looking down on humans like this, I¡¯ll¡ª¡± -We will share information. Although we did not bring the entire void into this world, it is true that we are among the highest-ranked anomalies. -Currently, there are seven such highest-ranked anomalies. I blinked. Yes, this was the moment I first heard about Level 5 anomalies, ssified as ¡°Outer Gods¡± by the future Library Society. ¡°Seven highest-ranked anomalies?¡± -Indeed. These anomalies exert a strong influence over humans, leading to contamination without their awareness. -If wepare anomalies to gods, entities that worship them inevitably emerge, whether they are objects, nts, animals, or humans. This phenomenon urs regardless of whether the entities consciously worship the anomaly. -No belief is necessary. -Among these worshippers, some are as powerful as apostles. -Naturally, as the ¡°Fairy King,¡± we have human awakeners who serve as our apostles. I tilted my head. ¡°Well, that¡¯s interesting information¡ But why are you suddenly telling me this?¡± -There is a high probability that you already know our apostle. -Cheon Yo-hwa. I froze. Numerous fairies, one Fairy King, looked at me from various angles like the eyes of a spider. -Tutorial Dungeon, Baekhwa High School. -The survivor there, Cheon Yo-hwa, is the chosen apostle of the ¡°Fairy King.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 82 The Inquisitor IV To an infinite regressor, the world could bepared to a bag of potato chips. Among the countless amounts of nitrogen, you have to dig out the rare potato chips. Simrly, a regressor asionally encounters exceptions within the endlessly repeating time. Just like I did in the 89th cycle. "No way, Cheon Yo-hwa¡." I swallowed the name of the potato chip. The president of Baekhwa High School¡¯s student council. The necromancer who, alongside Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Samcheon, is often cited as one of the most powerful guilds on the Korean Penins. I never expected to hear her name here. -It¡¯s not just humans. By some miracle, this bag of chips had a few more chips than usual. -As I mentioned, the influence of anomalies affects objects and nts indiscriminately. -Think of anomalies as a type of radiation.-The ¡°Butterfly Effect¡± that you presumably exterminated was also one of our apostles, an entity contaminated by us. ¡°Wait a minute. Even the Butterfly Effect?¡± -Yes. It¡¯s the truth. ¡°¡¡¡± My brain was in a state of confusion. As far as the 89th cycle me knew, Cheon Yo-hwa was a necromancer. The malevolent student council president who asionally treated the Korean Penins to a [Bad Ending: Academy City ENDING]. And the Butterfly Effect was a schizophrenic butterfly that scattered tornadoes everywhere, even when it wasn¡¯t bored. ¡°¡They¡¯re too different. What do Cheon Yo-hwa and the Butterfly Effect have inmon to be your infected¡ or so-called apostles?¡± -It¡¯s faster to show you directly. ¡°Directly? Show what?¡± The Fairy King extended its hand. -This entity. ¡°¡¡¡± -I detect hesitation. Are you afraid? Will you not grasp it? I sheathed my sword. Being a regressor was convenient in times like this. Even if it was a trap set by an anomaly and I died, I could carry the information that "the Fairy King is absolutely untrustworthy" to the next cycle. ¡°Fine. If it¡¯s a provocation, I¡¯ll ept it. I don¡¯t know where you¡¯re taking me, but lead the way.¡± When I grabbed the Fairy King¡¯s hand, the unpleasant, squishy feeling of its liquid body spread across my palm. And in the next moment, I stood in the middle of a prison,pletely clean and intact. ¡°¨D¨DWhat?¡± But this prison wasn¡¯t Cheongsong Prison. I couldn¡¯t tell exactly where it was. Iron bars and hallways extended endlessly beyond my line of sight. There were no people. ¡°What on earth is this¡?¡± The Fairy King grabbed my hand tightly as I instinctively reached for my sword. -Do not let go of my hand. -You will lose it. Lose what? Before the words could be uttered, blink. When I closed and opened my eyes, the prison had turned into a hospital. ¡°¡¡¡± The hallway was lined with oddly clean hospital beds, despite theck of any patients or doctors. Transparent IV tubes hung from each bed like suspension bridges. The corridor was infinite. Identical hospital beds, identical IV tubes, identical angles of hanging infusion lines, all in the same shade of white, stretched endlessly down the corridor. Blink. The school was an old, wooden, abandoned building. The school name Baekhwa shimmered. The sky was blood red. Broken windows, birch trees with white bark protruding into the hallway through the shattered ss. The school was impaled by white stakes, a mess. The angles and positions of the broken ss repeated every six meters. Each repeated section had old desks and wooden chairs scattered about. The old wooden surfaces, moss-covered and sloping, were all identical. Blink. A swimming pool. The strong smell of chlorine. Swimmingnes extended to the horizon, a water-filled corridor. Blink. A movie theater. It was dark. But it was strange. No ordinary theater had such old, wooden chairs like those from an abandoned school. Transparent IV tubes hung from each chair. The screen disyed scenes of a prison. Iron bars. Hallways. Iron bars. Hallways. An empty prison. The theater screen alternated between scenes of the prison, hospital, school, and swimming pool, then back to the theater screen, the eyes within the eyes. Blink. The universe moved. There were no rules in the movement of the stars. Noplementary colors in the hues. The stars danced, stood on their heads,ughed without exhaustion, and fell silent. As thews ceased to function, time also released its grip on the world. The colors grabbed the falling fingers. Inteced hands. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, purple, navy, cyan, lime, gold, crimson. Inteced fingers. The hands of color held the hands of color and danced in a circr motion. Orange stepped on blue¡¯s foot, red killed orange. The Milky Way turned red. Blink. And thus, stars were born and destroyed immediately, forms were created and copsed as soon as they appeared. Like bubbles. Everything in the world was a bubble. Soap bubbles, like those that shimmer with rainbow colors in the sunlight, were rampant. Existence was bubbles, life was color. Blink. The universe blinked. A traffic light. As the red light turned to green, time took a breath, a momentary pause. The colors of the starlight, the bubbles of thes, the orange killed by red, the dancing color arrays, the theater screen, the chlorine smell of the swimming pool, the wooden chairs of the school, the birch bark protruding into the hallway through shattered ss, the white hospital corridor, the iron bars of the prison, the zebra crossing where ck and white inteced like a carpet. The entire universe. Was staring nkly at me. The universe stood on the other side of the traffic light, staring at me. They opened their mouths wide. ¡®Eyes¡¯ ¡®Blink¡¯ ¡®Gaze¡¯ ¡®Watch¡¯. Like a choir that had never practiced. Voices with inconsistent pitches and tones. Some sounded like church bells, some like water flushing in a toilet, some like insects pping their wings. The breath from those mouths barely, through the mouth of the Fairy King holding my hand, ¡®reconstituted¡¯ itself. -Do not blink. ¡°¡¡¡± -You perceive this entity as the Fairy King, the highest anomalymanding all terminal entities, but strictly speaking, that perception is incorrect. It felt like my ears were tearing apart. No, my brain. Every word whispered by the entire universe had a different vocal apparatus. ¡®Ter¡¯ ¡®mi¡¯ ¡®nal¡¯ ¡®en¡¯ ¡®ti¡¯ ¡®ty¡¯. The sound of wind chimes hanging from a temple eave, the scream of a crow being killed by a hawk. Sounds that should not formnguage and noises that should not form words did. If I weren¡¯t a regressor who had honed myself over countless cycles¨D just listening to the ¡®words¡¯ of that universe would have destroyed my brain, a fierce intuition surged with nausea. It wasn¡¯t even a sound insulting humanity. The world was being vited. ¡°Incorrect, you say¡?¡± -Maintaining your identity in this situation is beyond expectations. -This entity, the ¡®Fairy King,¡¯ is an interpreter. -A priestess. -A priest. A pope. -A terminal entity. Command role. Highest priest. -But far below the god. -Speaking for a silent god, seeing for a blind god. -The god has no benevolence or malevolence. -Only randomness. Rejoice. Your existence is equal. -Scream. -There is no difference between a drop of bubble and the Himyas in the clouds. Laws are not superior to individuals. There is no hierarchy on thedder of form. -This entity is merely a terminal born by chance. I am fortune, not misfortune, for you. You need not bear malice towards me. -We merely experiment. As we were created for experimentation. ¡°¡¡¡± I stared at the universe with eyes that felt like they would burn. So, that was an anomaly. Outer God-ss. Level 5. The most toxic of all voids. One of the seven most powerful anomalies, the Seven Outer Gods. The one I¡ humanity must kill. The enemy of this world. ¡°¡It doesn¡¯t even have a name. That thing.¡± -Unnecessary. -What we indicate is our god, and what we do not indicate is also our god. ¡°Infinite Void.¡± The Fairy King looked up at me. ¡°Infinite Hell. Its name is now Infinite Void.¡± I spat out like blood. That was the maximum resistance the me of the 89th cycle, who felt like he would be crushed by the void at any moment, could muster. -As I said, names are unnecessary. ¡°No, it¡¯s necessary for me. Because I will kill that blind god who has vited our world without permission.¡± -¡¡ ¡°Everything in the world has boundaries to protect its distinctions, but you mix everything, leaving no gap between anything. Things be impermanent, existence melts away, making it truly hell. Hence, it is the Hell of No Intervals. You plunder, take, and vite thews of the world, making it also the Hell of Vitions.¡± The Fairy King, the fairies¨D¨Dthe red light of the traffic light, the stars, the colors, the dance, the theater screen, the school, the hospital, the prison¨D¨Dstared intently at me. There was a phrase in Laozi¡¯s Tao Te Ching: ¼ÅÙâÁÈÙâ. Silent and Solitary. Before humans distinguished all things, the world existed without division, a world so quiet because no sound or noise was meaningful, was described as ¡®tranquil.¡¯ Originally, such a world was void and could not be named. I named that void. Pointed at it with a human finger. -Infinite Void. -Infinite Hell. -A proper name. -An improper name. -It is also a randomness. -I can now guess why the pink-haired entity showed peculiar behavior. A thousandyers ofughter split. For a moment, the smell of chlorine from the swimming pool wafted. It was the breath exhaled by this universe¡¯s Backrooms. -I will experiment on you, Undertaker. The Fairy King¡ no, ¡®Infinite Void¡¯ released my hand. At that moment, the traffic light¡¯s color turned bright blue. Not green or yellow, but sapphire blue, like the wings of a Morpho butterfly. An iprehensible color. The presence of Infinite Void surged towards me. Crossing the white-painted crosswalk, traversing the swimming pool, thundering down the hallway, trampling time and tearing space. In that instant, I lost consciousness. ¡°Guild leader?¡± A voice called out. ¡°Are you okay, guild leader? Are you awake?¡± ¡°Uh¡ hmm, where am I?¡± ¡°Cheongsong Prison. Or rather, what used to be Cheongsong Prison. You said you were going to have a conversation with the fairies.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± As I came to and looked around, Go Yuri was supporting my head on herp amidst the rubble of the copsed building. Smiling. Go Yuri looked down at me and smiled. ¡°Did the conversation go well?¡± ¡°The conversation¡ I¡¯m not sure. I think I saw something, but I can¡¯t remember well¡¡± ¡°Ah, I see. Hmm, this is a bit concerning. How should I¡?¡± Go Yuri muttered, tapping her chin with her index finger, showing a hint of concern. I could only look up at her with my still foggy mind. ¡°¡Right. Do you still remember promising to take me with you next time you go down to Busan?¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, yeah. I remember.¡± ¡°Great. Since I stepped aside quietly, a small concession like this seems fair.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°Rx your body for a moment, guild leader. Take a deep breath- exhale. Like that. Yes, good job! You¡¯ve been caught in several explosions, so your body and mind must be tense without you realizing it.¡± Pat, pat. Go Yuri¡¯s hand gently stroked the back of my head. Even though it was simply a gesture of touching my hair, my mind cleared up surprisingly quickly. Most importantly, the memory of observing ¡®Infinite Void¡¯ surged back like a flood. ¡°Ah¡¡± ¡°Seems like you¡¯re feeling better. That¡¯s a relief.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯d call it feeling better, but my memory¡ no, it¡¯s nothing. Anyway, you took care of me while I was out. Thanks, Yuri.¡± Despite having named one of the most powerful anomalies in this world, the identity of the being in front of me remained unknown. She helped me up with a gentle pull and smiled brightly. ¡°Guild leader, are you happy right now?¡± ¡°Huh? Well, at least I¡¯m not unhappy.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯m happy too, guild leader.¡± It was an exceptionally beautiful smile as always. There¡¯s a very short epilogue. ¡°Seo Gyu, I¡¯m actually a regressor, and you¡¯ve had your head blown off by the tutorial fairies at least 50 times. But in a past cycle, I discovered an anomaly that seems to be the boss of the fairies. It¡¯s called Infinite Void, a terrifying entity that can kill most people just by being observed. How would you like to deal with it?¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying there¡¯s such a fucked-up bastard? Of course, I need to personally take revenge!¡± I took him there. ¡°Hey, you fucking asshole! You blew my head¨D¨Dahhhhh!¡± Boom! As soon as our SG man stepped into the void of Infinite Void, his head exploded, just like the aliens in Tim Burton¡¯s movie Mars Attacks! ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡It seemed humanity was still far from exacting vengeance. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 83 Aplice I I faced the worst enemy, the Outer God-ss anomaly called ¡®Infinite Void¡¯, but I didn''t respond immediately. Instead, I waited for the right moment. For an infinite regressor, ¡®waiting¡¯ is on a different level. Multiply the frustration and anxiety you feel when your food delivery is three minuteste by about 13 times, and you get the waiting experience of an infinite regressor. It truly requires superhuman patience. During this period, I focused on maximizing my power. Did I train in martial arts? Of course not. As Old Man Scho said, mybat sense was akin to a beaver''s. It would be a mistake to underestimate thebat talent of someone born to be a supporter. But even for me, or rather, because it was me, there was still a way to maximize my power. ¡°Master Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°......¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s expression was as usual. Meaning, her default expression was already one of utter disgust, so making it worse now would just add to the normality. ¡°Hey, why are you looking at me like I''m a piece of crap before I even said anything?¡±¡°Because when you call me ¡®Master Noh Do-hwa¡¯ instead of ¡®Chief Noh Do-hwa¡¯, it usually means you¡¯re about to talk about something personal¡¡. And your personal grief, rage, vendetta, your ¡®I¡¯m-human¡¯ pose, and the signal that you alone can recognize my humanity¡ªthose things evoke no feelings in me other than annoyance.¡± ¡°Master Noh Do-hwa. Haven¡¯t you been working too hardtely? I happen to have some free time, so why don¡¯t we take a vacation? A backpacking trip, just the two of us, like college friends.¡± ¡°You bastard¡¡.¡± ¡°As expected. I knew you¡¯d like it.¡± Thus, Noh Do-hwa and I went on a trip. If it had been after the 380th cycle when I established ¡®Idea Ranch¡¯, we could have traveled riding dinosaurs together (we actually did thatter), but unfortunately, we were only in the 100th cycle at this point. Had I been alone, I would have used something like a lightweight flight technique to move swiftly. If Noh Do-hwa hadn¡¯t been mypanion, I would have given her a piggyback ride to enjoy the speed together. Thetter solution was rejected again when Noh Do-hwa shyly remarked, ¡°Oh, if you wanted to see memit suicide, you should¡¯ve said so from the beginning.¡± What a bashful person. Therefore, our means of transportation had to be extremely limited. Finding the best possible solution despite these difficulties proves my dignity as a regressor. Vroom... vroom... Noh Do-hwa had a in expression as she rode the means of transportation with me. ¡°Regressor Undertaker¡¡¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Is this really the best method¡¡?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Vroom... vroom... ¡°No matter how scarce fuel is, shouldn¡¯t there be something more usible like a dump truck, or can¡¯t you use the National Road Management Corps resources or your miraculous regressor powers? Even a bicycle would be better¡¡¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re such a joker. We¡¯re traveling for personal reasons, so we shouldn¡¯t deplete the corps¡¯ resources. Bicycles would break quickly on rough roads, making them useless.¡± Vroom... vroom... ¡°But for fuck¡¯s sake¡¡. Seriously. Where the hell did you get this damn yogurt cart?¡± Indeed. We were currently riding the world¡¯s first and only Pr¨¨s Manager exclusive rideable refrigerated electric cart, the 3rd generation model, Coco (Cold&Cold) 3.0. Also known as the ¡®Yogurt Lady Cart¡¯. Its beautiful apricot-colored exterior and ability to seemingly teleport between neighborhoods made it a relic of ancient times. I was driving while Noh Do-hwa sat on the cart. I had modified it with a top-quality cushion, so her butt wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Oh. Please refrain from using badnguage. This is a ¡®Yogurt Cart¡¯ anomaly.¡± ¡°Anomaly¡¡?¡± ¡°Yes. No matter how rough the road, it climbs without issue and arrives at its destination no matter how remote. Master Noh Do-hwa, have you ever seen a yogurt cart broken down or stranded on the road?¡± ¡°No, I haven¡¯t¡¡.¡± ¡°Exactly. Most Koreans have only observed yogurt carts being ¡®just fine¡¯. Even if it seems physically impossible for it to traverse a certain terrain, this anomaly produces the result that it ¡®sessfully made the journey¡¯.¡± ¡°What nonsense¡¡?¡± ¡°Watch.¡± Vroom... vroom... An asphalt road appeared before us. The cart bravely advanced on the road, which was so broken it was hard to tell if it was concrete or cookies. Clunk, the cart''s wheel fell into a concrete crack. Noh Do-hwa''splexion darkened. ¡°Oh, it fell¡¡¡± But the cart mysteriously adhered to the concrete surface and climbed back onto the normal track. ¡°¡down?¡± Its movement was extraordinary. Even when the concrete was broken, the tiles were a mess, or tree roots were bulging out, the yogurt cart merely jolted slightly but continued without any problems. It traveled well even on a national road so damaged that not even cars or most people could traverse it. Truly the pinnacle of Korean engineering. An SSS-ss lost technology artifact. ¡°Huh? What is this idiotic¡¡?¡± ¡°This is the yogurt cart anomaly. Master, feel free to praise me.¡± ¡°Wait, does this thing move without any power or charging¡¡?¡± ¡°Yep. Moreover, the fridge Master Noh Do-hwa is sitting on keeps drinks or food from spoiling. Even meat in a yogurt-shaped container can be preserved for over a year.¡± ¡°Holy shit. If you had such a great item, you should¡¯ve informed the National Road Management Corps instead of ying backpacking cosy. We need to collect and distribute these carts nationwide. This could revolutionize logistics in this shitty era, and it could even serve as a wheelchair for the elderly¡¡¡± ¡°Ah. There¡¯s only one.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I tried to test if it could be mass-produced by collecting rtively intact carts, but the only one that exists as an anomaly is this one. So, I¡¯m just using it as my beloved car.¡± ¡°Damn¡¡¡± Anyway, the two-person party, consisting of the shadowy mastermind and the overlord of the bright side, traveled without incident. Though Noh Do-hwa grumbled, she enjoyed everything. After all, I luxuriously stocked the refrigerated cart with meats, vegetables, and various carbohydrates, cooking delicious meals each time we stopped. ¡°Did you know, Regressor Undertaker¡¡?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°You¡¯re utterly useless in my life, but your cooking skills are national treasure level. Without that, I wouldn¡¯t have treated you like a human¡¡¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± As expected of Noh Do-hwa, who was born with ¡®workaholic¡¯ etched into her DNA, she must have been experiencing burnout symptoms while managing the National Road Management Corps. As our enjoyable camping trip extended from one day to two, then three, and more, Noh Do-hwa¡¯s face became serene. The fatigue and grime umted in her heart were washed away. I was remarkably adept atforting and caring for weary hearts. ¡°Hey, you damn regressor bastard. How long are you going to roam around outside? If the Samcheon guild leader finds out, do you want to see me die?¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± Finally, on the sixth day of our trip, we arrived at our destination. The Taebaek Mountains, Jeongseon. Once the most famous mining area for Koreans (now famous for other reasons), Noh Do-hwa showed a typically in expression. ¡°What kind of backwater is this¡¡?¡± ¡°As you can see, it¡¯s a vige.¡± A vige had formed around the mines in Jeongseon. The terrain was quite unique. Arge cave was hollowed out in the middle of a cliff-like mountain slope, and vige buildings grew like mushrooms inside it. You could call it a mining vige. The feng shui only took the first part of the ¡°mountain behind, water in front¡± principle. ¡°The houses are made of stone¡¡?¡± ¡°They used fireproof materials. Not a bad construction choice.¡± ¡°The vigers seem abnormally short¡¡?¡± ¡°In this era, beingrge just means eating more useless nutrition, so they¡¯ve convergently evolved.¡± ¡°All the residents have bushy beards¡¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s a way to maintain constant body temperature. The vigers have excellent adaptability to the environment.¡± ¡°They¡¯re midgets, aren¡¯t they¡¡?¡± Hmm. I nodded. ¡°They are often called that. But calling them midgets is a bit weird, isn¡¯t it? Please use the term ¡®Dwarf¡¯ instead.¡± ¡°You said we were going backpacking, but you brought me to a top-tier void where different species exist, you crazy bastard¡¡¡± Dwarves. A staple in fantasy genres. In every story, they are born with a national spirit of being ¡®excellent cksmiths¡¯. Thus, the masterpieces they create are treated as relics of lost technology, much like the yogurt cart we are riding. Now you can guess why I came to this remote void in the Taebaek Mountains to enhance my power. That¡¯s right. I came to get some equipment. I first discovered this ce, the so-called ¡®Jeongseon Dwarf Mine¡¯, in the 54th run. At that time, I had just established the National Road Management Corps and was traveling across the country toplete the updated Daedongyeojido (Large Map of Korea). The Jeongseon Dwarf Mine looked like it came straight out of fiction. Sounds of metal nging and dwarves bustling around could be heard from all directions. Despite the decline of the mining industry in the Taebaek Mountains, the dwarf vige was constantly filled with the noise of pickaxes and hammers. But the voids of this world are not that simple. This ce, too, was not just an ordinary vige despite its resurrection as a mining town. ¡°Hello?¡± -¡¡. ¡°Can you understand me? Hello? Can you recognize me?¡± -¡¡. ¡°A species inferior to elves. Your beard is very ugly.¡± ng! The ¡®dwarves¡¯ hammered the anvil without any reaction, paying no attention to me. In fact, if you looked closely, these dwarves deviated significantly from the typical image. They had bushy beards, which was fine. But instead of eyes, they had ¡®eye sockets¡¯, and instead of mouths, they had ¡®mouth holes¡¯. This wasn¡¯t a y on words. It meant theycked eyelids and lips. -¡¡, ¡¡. ng, ng-! Their arms were abnormally muscr like a statue of Hercules, creating a strangely unbnced physique. Those muscr flesh lumps made eerie breathing sounds as they continuously hammered. -O¡¡. Oun¡¡. O¡ O¡¡ It wasn¡¯t air stored in their lungs and released; it was as if their whole body was a leather drum, and air flowed from inside their bodies. Not the breath of life but the whistle of the abyss. ¡°Hm.¡± Even for me, the greatest linguistic genius in Earth¡¯s history, Dwarvish seemed a bit challenging. Of course, it made sense. It wasn¡¯t an Earthlynguage. I felt regret. ¡®If I could request a weapon from the dwarves, I could definitely get an effective sword against anomalies.¡¯ After touring the entire mining vige, I found that there were seven cksmith dwarves, and none of them couldmunicate. In the end, during the 54th run, I only identified the void¡¯s location and left without any significant gain. ¡°Wait¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa interrupted my story. ¡°Then why did wee to this backwater? They can¡¯t speak, and they don¡¯t make equipment for us¡¡¡± ¡°Ah. It¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t intend to request weapons from the dwarves.¡± ¡°¡¡? Then why?¡± ¡°Oh, think about it, master. Even if normalmunication is impossible, if these beings truly mimic the dwarves from creations, wouldn¡¯t their hammering and tanning hold significant secrets? Like how a protagonist can learn great techniques just by watching a swordmaster wield a sword, a great cksmith could learn much from observing these dwarves¡¯ hammering.¡± ¡°Huh¡¡?¡± ¡°And the ores they¡¯re hammering, those aren¡¯t earthly minerals. They¡¯re probably called things like adamantium. Naturally, the technology to smelt these ores into weapons is exclusively held by these dwarves, not modern Earthlings. To smelt these ores, a great cksmith must learn from the dwarves.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°Oh, what a coincidence. Right before my eyes stands the most talented cksmith in Korean history. In other words, the number one craftsman in Korea. Ta-da.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Ta-da-a-an-¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°So, you want to learn how to work with some non-earthly ore by watching these nonmunicative anomaly bastards hammer, and then you want me to craft an SSS-grade weapon for your use¡¡?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°Please, just die.¡± ¡°Oh, you said the same thingst run.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°Last time, I just carried you here on my back in less than a day. So you strangled me to death, asking if I thought you were a joke and to see if I¡¯d really die. I didn¡¯t expect you to actually kill me, but anyway. This time, I brought the yogurt cart anomaly so you couldefortably. Didn¡¯t I do well?¡± ¡°You damn crazy bastard¨D¨D¡± I was strangled. This time, I didn¡¯t die. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 84 Aplice II Everything proceeded smoothly as nned, except for the discovery that Noh Do-hwa''s secret kink was choking y. SG Net became a bit noisy. -Anonymous: I heard there''s no leader at the National Road Management Corps right now? Is that true? -[NRMC] Officer: It''s true. Our leader is on a long vacation. ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸LiteraryGirl: That machine has a concept of vacation?? -[NRMC] Officer: Yeah. So all the management officers were shocked. Since the establishment of the National Road Management Corps, there hasn''t been a vacation or even a holiday. But this time, she took a bold 21-day long vacation and disappeared without a word.©¸Anonymous: That person is really unpredictable from head to toe. Really seems like a nutcase. -OldManGoryeo: ? lol ©¸[NRMC]Officer: What? Why? ©¸OldManGoryeo: She left silently with exactly a 21-day vacation notice? Did she disappear without a trace? lolol ©¸[NRMC] Officer: Exactly. Why? ©¸OldManGoryeo: lolololololololol ©¸[NRMC] Officer: ? -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Hmmm¡¡. ¡°Hmmm¡¡.¡± As I read thements up to that point, Noh Do-hwa sighed next to me. I closed my smartphone and returned from the virtual world to the real world. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°¡It¡¯s nothing. This mineral is fascinating. It¡¯s light and strong. Truly, this is something not found on Earth. You called it ada-something¡?¡± ¡°Adamantium. Be careful not to mistakenly call it mithril even by ident, it could cause a big problem.¡± ¡°¡¡? The two words don''t sound simr at all¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa took out and put on her monocle. Her left eye had particrly poor vision, but it was also part of her routine to get serious about work. Like ser yers who touch the grass or pray to the gods as they step onto the field. ¡°Hmmm¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa wandered around the mining vige for a long time, observing the dwarves making weapons through her monocle. ng, ng! The dwarves mechanically hammered their weapons, and as soon as they finished, they started the same process again. But the finished products didn¡¯t remain; they melted into the air and disappeared. Noh Do-hwa raised her hand and touched the remnants in the air. ¡°Hmmm¡¡. A vige where objects disappear right after being created. But I can learn the cksmithing skills just by watching.¡± ¡°How¡¯s it going? Learning anything?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. You call me a cksmith, but I¡¯m just a prosthetist, a maker of assistive devices. Even if you suddenly ask me to make a weapon, it¡¯s problematic¡¡.¡± Mumbling, Noh Do-hwa extended her right arm toward me while keeping her eyes fixed on the dwarf. I took a hammer and tongs from another dwarf¡¯s grasp and handed them to her. Her white fingers silently gripped the tools. ¡°Do you think I''m Doraemon? Making prosthetic limbs is tough enough, but now you want roads built, the National Road Management Corps organized, and bncing the guilds¡¯ power struggles, for fuck¡¯s sake. Do you think I''m a vending machine that spits out anything when poked¡¡?¡± ng. Noh Do-hwa mimicked the dwarf with a sidelong nce. ng, her hammer slightly missed the mark due to unfamiliarity with the material. ¡°Hmmm¡¡¡± Her lips twitched. She closed her mouth tightly and continued to imitate the dwarf for hours. By nightfall, a sword was in her hands. Its shape was crude, and its bnce was off. But the silhouette it cast in the moonlight was unmistakably that of a sword. Noh Do-hwa¡¯s slender eyes, resembling moonlight, traced the sword¡¯s curve. Her gaze was so sharp that if the two ovepped, the sword seemed like it would get shaved down. ¡°Hmmm. I don¡¯t quite get it. I should start with something simpler, like a hoe¡¡¡± From that day on, Noh Do-hwa almost stopped eating, imitating each dwarf one by one. ng, ng¡ª I followed her like an assistant, carrying tools and supporting her. We were a perfect match. ¡°¡¡.¡± The shadows of dwarves that remained in ce of humans who had fled from the anomalies. The decayed mining town¡¯s mines. In a vige where there were only the two of us, the ng of metal echoed eternally. This naturally brought to mind memories from hundreds of years ago. When Noh Do-hwa called me something other than ¡®Regressor Undertaker¡¯. ¡°I want to apply as an apprentice in your workshop. Please hire me.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡¡¡± It was the 53rd run. Up until then, the National Road Management Corps had never been established in my regressor life. It only existed as a paper n in the pce of my memories. At this time, I was searching for the right person to be the head of a quasi-governmental organization. In other words, the future leader of the most powerful entity in Korea. Dang Seo-rin came to mind first, but that was ast resort. My preference was to avoid burdening her further. I could have done it myself, but I had to run around the front lines fighting anomalies. It was impossible for one person to be both Xiang Yu and Xiao He. The conditions were fourfold: -Someone not corrupted by a desire for power. In other words, mental strength or character. -Someone who knew how to wield power. In other words,petence or instinct. -Someone who pursued practical benefits as a system rather than individual gains. In other words, beliefs or philosophy. -Someone willing to tread an untrodden path. In other words, courage or bravery. Practically impossible conditions. But ¡®practically impossible¡¯ doesn¡¯t mean ¡®absolutely impossible¡¯, and countless hours made me bridge the gap between ¡®impossible¡¯ and ¡®almost impossible¡¯. Testmenced. -Hey, Undertaker! Aren¡¯t we the top family in Korea now? Let¡¯s show those Incheon bastards¡¡ -What? Connect the road to Seoul? Why would we do that? If we waste our energyying roads, we¡¯re just benefiting other guilds¡¡ -Doc, can you take a break? You¡¯re too good, and it¡¯s making it hard for me to speak. Just take a short vacation and when youe back¡¡ Eliminated. Deferred. Eliminated. Countless candidates were considered and discarded. I spent at least 5 years, sometimes 10, being their acquaintance, colleague, friend, or partner. I gave them power and took it away. I bestowed honor and trampled on it. If necessary, I observed their character across different runs. The position of the head of the National Road Management Corps, as I envisioned it, required that level of scrutiny. Like a massive wave, I swept through the people of Korea one by one, raising the stakes each time, until I ended up at a remote alley. ¡°An apprentice. It¡¯s true our workshop is always short-handed¡¡. But why? From your appearance, it seems you could join any guild and live well¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa. She was like an ind. If not for being a regressor, I would never have met her in my lifetime. She was already famous for custom-making prosthetics for those who had lost limbs. I had relied on her in other runs a few times. But it was my first time trying to establish a close rtionship beyond that of customer and shopkeeper. I bowed my head. ¡°My father had difficulty walking all his life. I want to do something to help those who struggle with mobility.¡± ¡°Oh. Your father?¡± ¡°He passed away.¡± A lie. ¡°By an anomaly.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s sigh had the same resonance then as it did now. It was like a tremor that gently touched and outlined a person. Like a bat mapping objects with ultrasonic waves. ¡°Well, wouldn¡¯t it be better to seek revenge on anomalies rather than helping others?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Well, urging someone to give up revenge is as presumptuous as pushing them to pursue it. Alright. If you don¡¯t mind being a temporary apprentice, give it a try¡¡¡± If the world were not an ind, she would make an ind to live on. The Noh Do-hwa cast over her world wasn¡¯t wide, but it was tightly knit. She would pull in and examine everything before deciding what to keep and what to let go. That was evident in how she treated the other apprentices in her workshop, aside from me. ¡°Don¡¯te in tomorrow¡¡¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°It means you¡¯re fired. Do you have a metal rod in your ear, making me repeat the same thing? Should I pull it out for you?¡± ¡°No, master! Wait a moment!¡± The fired employee had grumbled about a young customer who had lost a leg, muttering during lunch, ¡®How can a young kid act like the world ended just because he lost a limb? It¡¯s rare to find a healthy person in this messed-up world.¡¯ The fired employee cried, but no one helped. Worker protection? Laborws? Such Western concepts didn¡¯t exist in thisnd of propriety. ¡°Oh dear, sir! You came all this way despite the snow and bad roads. Here, have a warm cup of coffee.¡± ¡°Oh, this is precious. Thank you¡¡¡± Moreover, I had earned the nickname ¡®Little Brother¡¯ even from the crazy Sword Marquess of Korea. Naturally, I had no issues serving the main customers of the workshop, the elderly. Noh Do-hwa, who probably had ¡®Respect for the Elderly¡¯ etched in her skull, must have seen me as an ideal apprentice. ¡°Apprentice Undertaker .¡± ¡°Employee Undertaker.¡± ¡°Employee Doc.¡± ¡°Assistant Doc.¡± Each time my title changed, the staff at Noh Do-hwa''s workshop were also reshuffled. Realizing she no longer needed to lower her standards, Noh Do-hwa awakened as a true bourgeois. She offloaded tedious tasks like managing personnel, customer rtions, internal factions, and profit improvement onto me. ¡°Assistant.¡± Eight years. It took eight years for the title ¡®Apprentice Undertaker¡¯ to shorten to ¡®Assistant.¡¯ At the rate of dropping one syble every two years, her personality was indeed hard to get close to. ¡°Yes, master.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you evacuating? The northern cities are getting eaten by anomalies and moving south¡¡¡± ¡°Master, where else would I evacuate from Busan?¡± ¡°To Japan, China, or even Southeast Asia. There are always ces to run to¡¡¡± ¡°Do you think those ces are safe? I¡¯m fine.¡± I wasn¡¯t the only peculiar one. Every time the world ended, I found that many people didn¡¯t run until the end, regardless of the run. Noh Do-hwa was no exception. ¡°Did you hear? Samcheon World is forming ast-ditch resistance team to counterattack.¡± ¡°Hmmm. Do you think they¡¯ll seed?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be tough. The problem is even if they seed, it¡¯s uncertain. The anomalies already won when they formed a ¡®monster wave¡¯.¡± ¡°Hoh?¡± ¡°Anomalies aren¡¯t particrly close to each other. Their types and personalities vary. But if they¡¯ve formed a legion, it means they¡¯ve excluded ipatible types and fused into one organism. Or rather, calling it an organism is misleading. It¡¯s just¡ a mass of cancer cells. Bugs of the world. Even if we defend Busan, anomalies will continue, without purpose, to spread bugs everywhere.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa smiled. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Nothing. Sometimes¡. I think you know a lot, Assistant.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Well. It doesn¡¯t matter much¡¡¡± The next day, thest resistance team of Korea was swallowed by the tsunami of anomalies. ¡°Assistant.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What are you doing? It¡¯s 8 o¡¯clock, and you haven¡¯t opened the shop. Do you think you¡¯re exempt because you¡¯re the senior now? Should I help you write your resignation?¡± ¡°No, no. Master.¡± Click. I flipped the sign on the ss door from [Closed] to [Opened]. On the day thest city in Korea fell. Noh Do-hwa''s workshop opened for business. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 85 Aplice III The final resistance team included not only awakened ones but also arge number of ordinary people, so right after they were swept away, Busan turned into a ghost town. Even after hanging the [Opened] sign and looking out onto the street, there wasn''t a single passerby. Noh Do-hwa and I sat on the bench in front of the workshop, watching the scenery. ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Hmm. Would you like some coffee, master?¡± ¡°Oh. Yes. Coffee made by my assistant is always wee¡¡.¡± The deste street scene didn¡¯t feel awkward. Rather, it felt like the days that had managed to pretend to be lively and normal despite the end times were the ones that had asionally felt unfamiliar.The deserted streetlights. The crosswalk with its white stripes all torn up. The broad-leaved street trees. The sunlight''s aurora. The cicadas, not yet extinct, sounding their sirens to find mates also not yet extinct. ¡°It¡¯s summer¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa muttered as she sipped her Caf¨¦ au Lait, her breath rising like transparent smoke. The world seemed to have finally regained its original appearance, peaceful. At 9 AM, 11 AM, and noon, the menu was steak I had cooked myself. Even at 1 PM, 3 PM, and 5 PM, there were no customers in Noh Do-hwa''s workshop, which was usually bustling. The sun set. The eyelids of the night sky were the color of dusk. The world that should have fallen asleep long ago, had spent thest 8 years clinging to ate slumber, finally closed its eyes gently. ''Watching the end of the world together like this isn''t so bad.'' It was then. As the reclining Buddha of the sunset gently nodded off, I suddenly heard footsteps. My ears perked up. ¡°Well, it¡¯s about time to close up. Hmmm. Today was a total loss. You must have enjoyed the break¡ Hmm? What''s wrong, Assistant?¡± ¡°¡Someone''sing this way.¡± ¡°Oh¡?¡± The sound of footsteps grew clearer. But there was something strange about the sound. Step, ck, step, ck, like footsteps ovepped with another sound. It was the sound of a cane. ¡°Ah.¡± I stood up from the bench to wee the guest. Sure enough, a familiar old man was hobbling around the corner with his cane, leaning on the summer air. I hurried over to support the old man. ¡°Oh, sir! What brings you here today! Did you walk all the way from Bansong-dong?¡± ¡°Oh, our young assistant is still in Busan. Huh? Why are you still here? Huh? Oh, and Ms. Noh Do-hwa is still here too. What are young people like you doing here? Huh? What are you nning¡¡?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± I supported the old man into the workshop, where Noh Do-hwa was already wearing her white doctor''s coat as usual. She adjusted her monocle and picked up a patient chart. ¡°Is this patient Shin Soo-bin from Bansong-dong? What brings you here?¡± ¡°Uh, it¡¯s nothing special. Just, this ankle brace has been creaking sincest week. It¡¯s old¡¡¡± ¡°Hmph. You''ve been fiddling with it again, haven''t you? I told you not to touch it. Do my words sound like a joke to you?¡± ¡°No, oh no. That''s not it¡ª¡± ¡°And if the brace is misaligned, you shoulde in for repairs immediately. What could be so important that you waited a whole week?¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry. Doctor, I feel bad about this. Uh, do you think it will take long? If it takes long, just forget it.¡± ¡°No. It will only take ten minutes¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa took out her tools and tapped and tightened the misaligned parts of the assistive device. Then she and the patient exchanged small talk. Just like usual. ng- The sound of the hammer echoed. ¡°¡¡.¡± I sneaked to the entrance of the workshop and looked outside. A strange noise was mixed into the twilight sky. Instead of starlight, red spots glimmered like scratches, and instead of the Milky Way, a blue vein throbbed like an artery. The sky was hollowing. Or rather, beyond the sky, the celestial void phenomenon. It was proof that the end of the world was truly near. ¡®¡This is not good.¡¯ Even the sunset was being infected in real-time. What started as a mere crimson and yellow sunset was beginning to take on a thick viscosity, like the blood of the ck night sky. If the sky were an experimental beaker, and red liquid were dropped into it, this is what it would look like. The void was bing the surface, the light was turning into mucus, the clouds into des, and the ground into the Milky Way. If powerful anomalies were left unchecked, they would mix and merge, forming a mass. The Night Goddess, Nut. At this time, I couldn''t even begin to theorize the cause of this anomaly and void. It was a recurring world-ending scenario. The night of this world was devouring the city step by step. Soon, the beings on the surface would fall into eternal sleep. In no more than 10 minutes. ¡°Master, it¡¯s about time¨C-¡± ¡°Assistant.¡± I turned around. Noh Do-hwa wasing out of the workshop with the patient. Our eyes met. A pair of ck inds floating in a white sea stared at me. ¡°Please take Mr. Shin Soo-bin back home.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± A brief exchange of nces and a more substantial exchange of silence followed. ¡°Do you have a metal rod in your ear? Assistant. Take the patient home. Damn. It¡¯s already rough out there; if he falls, will you take responsibility?¡± ¡°Okay, understood.¡± ¡°Good¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa faintly smiled. ¡°As expected of my assistant¡¡¡± The old man kept insisting that he was fine and could walk by himself, but Noh Do-hwa was unwavering. I gently picked up the old man and started walking. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m really fine. Ms. Noh Do-hwa cares so much about her patients, it¡¯s a problem¡ Ooh!¡± The old man¡¯s soprano transformation at the end was, of course, because I used lightfoot. The old man looked around with wide eyes. The scenery passed by in an instant. I used my aura to protect the patient¡¯s body. Tap. Tap. I moved by stepping on the copsed building walls and traffic lights. ¡®If I move as quickly as possible to take the patient to his home in Bansong-dong¡ Then return to the workshop, it¡¯ll be tight, but I might just make it back in time before the world ends. No, but the timing of the void reaching the workshop is the variable.¡¯ ¡°Young man.¡± As I used lightfoot, the old man in my arms suddenly spoke. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Let me down here.¡± I blinked. To reach his home, we still had to move for another four minutes. ¡°No, sir. I will take you home.¡± ¡°Oh no, that¡¯s enough. Does the house matter? The way home does. Now that my ankle brace is fixed, I want to walk thest part on my own.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve lived in this neighborhood my whole life. My elementary school was around here, and this was the road home. I¡¯ve walked this path back and forth for decades. Today, I didn¡¯t want to die at home, so I walked out, but there was no one around. I didn¡¯t expect Ms. Noh Do-hwa to be at her workshop. She¡¯s truly a thoughtful person.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Thank you, young man. You¡¯re worried about Ms. Noh Do-hwa, aren¡¯t you? This isn¡¯t your path. Let¡¯s both go our ways.¡± I let the old man down on the downhill path. He muttered as he leaned on his cane and took a step. It was the firstne road Noh Do-hwa had privately paved in Busan. The old man, supporting about 30% of his weight on the cane, waved his hand. ¡°I¡¯m fine now, go back quickly.¡± ¡°¡Thank you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re thanking me for no reason. I¡¯m the one who¡¯s grateful¡¡¡± The old man muttered to himself as he slowly descended the hill. The sound of cicadas filled the air. But from beyond the concrete jungle, their cries were slowly dwindling. The world¡¯s night was closing in. ¡°See you next time, sir.¡± I bowed my head and turned around. Then I moved even faster than when I had carried the old man. On the rooftop of the workshop. When I had first joined, it was a two-story building, but over the past eight years, it had been renovated and expanded to five stories. On top of the building with its uniquely Korean green waterproof paint, showing no sense of interior design. ¡°Oh¡¡¡± Noh Do-hwa stood there, holding a wine bottle and a corkscrew. She looked at me as if it were natural for me tond on the rooftop like a butterfly. Even though it was the first time I had used lightfoot in front of her. ¡°You came back faster than I expected. Did you properly see Mr. Shin Soo-bin home?¡± ¡°The old man said he wanted to walk thest part himself. I had no choice but to let him down.¡± ¡°Oh. Hmm. I didn¡¯t think of that¡¡± Pop- The cork came out of the wine bottle. Noh Do-hwa threw the cork and the corkscrew over the edge of the rooftop. ¡°Wanna have a drink?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s from the master¡¯s collection, I¡¯ll dly drink.¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± The red liquid, resembling the wine-colored sunset of today¡¯s sky, poured into the ss. ¡°A toast. To something, anything¡¡.¡± ¡°To a toast.¡± Clink. The ss rang pleasantly. The wine in the ss looked like a flower bud of a bleeding heart suspended in the air. We stared at the sky over the city through our wine sses. The sky, which had also turned into transparent ss, gave the feeling of looking through ss beyond ss. Five minutes until the end. Maybe six if we were lucky. ¡°Assistant.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Actually, I can make weapons¡¡± I looked at Noh Do-hwa. She wasn''t looking at me. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Weapons, weapons. Equipment? Whatever. You know those games where the character gets stronger with new weapons¡ As you know, my ability is to [make prosthetics feel like natural limbs], but, hmm. This applies to other equipment as well¡¡± ¡°¡¡!¡± My eyes widened. Indeed, the human limb was the first tool. If Noh Do-hwa could make swords or spears, which could be considered extensions of the arm? ¡°Body and Sword as One¡¡!¡± ¡°¡¡? What¡¯s that¡¡?¡± ¡°Oh. Um. It just means it¡¯s amazing.¡± It was difficult to convey my amazement to someone who had no connection to subculture and was purely a born and voluntary outsider (this person hadn¡¯t even watched a single Marvel movie). ¡°¡Why did you hide such an ability, master? You¡¯re a born cksmith. You could have gained recognition from Dang Seo-rin, attracted attention from Cheon Yo-hwa, and made warlords eager to have you.¡± ¡°Hmph. You just answered your own question¡ If word got out that I could make awesome weapons, wouldn¡¯t those annoying awakened onese even more fiercely to bother me?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°But if I knew the world was going to end like this, I would have made at least one weapon for someone. Not that they would spread the word.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± The sky turned red. Then, like the de of a guillotine, the ck night flowed down. Arteries and veins spread across the sky, mimicking the Milky Way''s colors. ¡°¡Then, make one for me next time.¡± ¡°Hmph. Sure. It''s a huge hassle. But if we''re going to die anyway, that¡¯s a hassle I can deal with¡¡.¡± ¡°You must.¡± ¡°Yes. If I don¡¯t want to, feel free to pester me until I do¡¡¡± ng- From the rooftop, a sound of something breaking came from near the traffic light intersection. The sound was like steel being crushed. It sounded almostically absurd, but the result was not funny. The entire ''scenery'' on the other side of the traffic light was swallowed by the night sky. ng, ng. ng- The crosswalk and buildings were swallowed by the void one by one. Like a bitten apple, the tops of buildings were sliced off. 300 meters, 250 meters, 180 meters, 120 meters. In an instant. The ck night sky devoured the space voraciously from all directions. The world had shrunk to the point where it could only amodate our breathing. ¡°Assistant.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Thank you¨D¨D¡± Crash. Thest sound I heard was the sound of the wine ss Noh Do-hwa was holding. Or perhaps it was my wine ss shattering as it was bitten by the night sky. A crescent moon formed on the ss. And the world closed its eyes. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 86 Aplice IV ng¡ª! The sound of hammering nearby shattered the world behind my eyelids, which had sunk into a dreamlike state. A daydream. This often happened to me, someone who remembered all past events. The eyes I had just closed in the 53rd cycle were reopened in an instant in the 100th regression. ¡°Whew¡¡¡± A breath escaped me. It was Noh Do-hwa. Half of her breath bathed in the blindingly bright sunlight of midsummer, and the other half was submerged in the navy blue shadows of the Jeongseon cave''s abandoned mine. ¡°Well, it seems I¡¯ve managed to make at least a kitchen knife. Hmm. I think I¡¯ve made it better than this dwarf-like anomaly¡¡¡± ¡°¡¡.¡±A mirage slowly danced. In the breaths people exhaled, dust waves rippled through the sunlight and shadows, and then through the sunlight and shadows again. It seemed the world needed both light and shadow to dance. In that case, the blink of an eye lightly swimming between notice and blindness must be the first dance of existence. ¡°Now, it¡¯s time to challenge the next level. Hmm, I think tongs would be just right, Regressor Undertaker. If you find a dwarf anomaly making something suitable while wandering around the vige¡ Hey. Hey. Are you listening to me¡?¡± ¡°Yes, I am listening.¡± By the way, it took less than three seconds for Noh Do-hwa to turn ¡®hey¡¯ into ¡®you¡¯ and then ¡®you¡¯ into ¡®bastard¡¯. It was nothing short of a magic tongue. Noh Do-hwa mimicked cleaning her ears with a hoe, grinning. ¡°Do you have a metal rod in your ear? Since I¡¯ve got the hang of it, find something a bit more difficult than this hoe¡¡ Oh?¡± She didn¡¯t finish her sentence. Swish¡ª The dwarf anomaly, who had been hammering the anvil soullessly until now, suddenly reached out towards Noh Do-hwa. An obvious anomaly. Thud, I instinctively hugged Noh Do-hwa and stepped back. Due to the sudden action, she dropped the hoe she was holding. ¡°Be careful, master.¡± ¡°Oh. Well, thank you¡¡. But I don¡¯t feel any hostility¡¡¡± ¡°There are many anomalies in the world that don¡¯t harbor feelings of hostility. Just as radiation isn¡¯t malicious but still harms humans.¡± -¡¡ For some reason, the dwarf anomaly seemed uninterested in us. Instead, it slowly bent over. Therey the hoe that Noh Do-hwa had dropped. ¡°Hmm¡¡?¡± The dwarf picked up the hoe and examined it, slowly, like a video ying at 0.5 speed. -¡¡, ¡¡. Whoosh¡ª Wind blew out from the pitch-ck eye and mouth holes, from the inside out. And then something strange happened. As if it had been a being of wind from the beginning, the more wind the dwarf anomaly exhaled through its holes, the more its body shrank. ¡°Oh?¡± -¡¡, ¡¡. ¡¡. The dwarf¡¯s breath fell on the hoe Noh Do-hwa had forged. Like a painter addingyer afteryer of watercolor, the dwarf anomaly added a final touch to the hoe with its breath. tter. The hoe fell again. The dwarf, having exhaled all its breath, shriveled like a balloon and disappeared. ¡°How interesting. What kind of anomaly is this, Regressor Undertaker¡¡?¡± ¡°¡I don¡¯t know either. Although I found out about this mining vige a long time ago, I¡¯ve never delved into it.¡± ¡°Ah. Even after 100 regressions, you couldn¡¯t figure out one vige? Isn¡¯t that negligence of duty¡¡?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. If someone hadn¡¯t strangled me to death in thest run, I might have figured it out.¡± Noh Do-hwa blinked. ¡°It hasn¡¯t disappeared¡¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Originally, anything created in this vige disappeared shortly after. The kitchen knife I made this morning vanished the same way. But look. My hoe is still here despite the passage of time.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± I stroked my chin. ¡°Indeed. Perhaps the essence of this ¡®Jeongseon Dwarf Mine¡¯ void is¡ a training ground for cksmiths.¡± ¡°A training ground¡¡?¡± ¡°Yes. You could call it a ce for passing down techniques. Just now, master, you created a hoe and were ¡®acknowledged¡¯ by that dwarf anomaly.¡± ¡°I see¡¡¡± ¡°I think I understand how to clear this void. There are a total of seven cksmith dwarves in the mining vige. Since you eliminated one, there are now six left.¡± ¡°You mean I need to be acknowledged by the remaining six masters?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± I picked up the hoe. The de of the adamantium hoe bore strange letters. An unfamiliar script. An unintelligiblenguage. The closest description I could give would be this: [Dicentra Spectabilis] Noh Do-hwa peeked over my shoulder. ¡°Hmm. What¡¯s this? I didn¡¯t engrave any letters¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s likely the dwarf anomaly inscribed it with its breath. What else would a cksmith inscribe on their work? It¡¯s probably its name.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Noh Do-hwa took out her notebook. Frowning, she carefully copied down the letters [Dicentra Spectabilis]. ¡°Master, why are you doing that?¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± Noh Do-hwa didn¡¯t respond. From that day, our routine was set. First, we ssified the remaining six dwarf cksmiths by the difficulty level of the items they were making. A dwarf making a small kitchen knife was level 1. A dwarf making arge greatsword was level 6. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get started¡ I want to finish quickly, so Regressor Undertaker, assist me¡¡¡± ¡°Wow. Only the Master could make an infinite regressor work as an assistant.¡± ¡°What nonsense? You¡¯re the one who mortgaged my life to the National Road Management Corps, making me just an assistant¡¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got it ready, master.¡± ¡°Oh, good.¡± ng! Noh Do-hwa¡¯s hammer struck, sending sparks flying. Despite her slender appearance with no obvious muscles, she pounded the anvil like she was demonstrating what true functional muscle was. Her long hair fluttered in the cave below. From afar, she looked like she was dancing, perfectly synchronized with the hammer. Sparks and shadows. A waltz of red and ck. -¡¡, Whoosh¡¡ Seeing the kitchen knife she made, the level 1 dwarf also exhaled deeply. The breath of the anomaly, probably from another world, allowed the knife to remain in this world. The anomaly left behind itsnguage, an unrecognizable name, on the knife before vanishing. ¡°¡¡.¡± How did these anomaliese into existence? Even with countless regressions, I could only specte about their secret, never arriving at the answer. I cooked, prepared bathwater, secured our sleeping quarters, and stayed vignt against surrounding anomalies, allowing Noh Do-hwa to focus on the ''ying of anomalies.'' That was my role in this void. It wasn¡¯t a difficult role. The ¡®assistant¡¯ from the 53rd run had already spent 8 years working harmoniously with the skilled artisan before me. That memory was still etched behind my eyelids. ¡°Hmph¡¡¡± Next level. And then the next level. In just six days, Noh Do-hwa reached the final cksmith¡¯s gate. The term "talent" must have been coined for people like her. Yet, for some reason, her expression grew worse with each level shepleted. She frowned deeply as she red at me. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Come to think of it, I¡¯m really pissed.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it unnaturally proficient how you assist me? You hand me the tongs exactly when I need them, and hold things at the perfect angle for hammering without me even asking. You¡¯re like a drone delivery service. Every time you do this, it reminds me that you¡¯re a creepy regressor who knows everything I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I was at a loss for words. Was she seriously insane? ¡°¡I¡¯ve never spoken like that in my life, and creepy? Creepy? Me?¡± ¡°Hmph. It¡¯s just a figure of speech. Don¡¯t get hung up on one word. You¡¯re like a grandpa who¡¯s at least 1,000 years old, the ultimate elder anomaly, yet you have such a narrow mind¡¡¡± ¡°How many times are you going to keep insulting me in a row?¡± ¡°Alright, enough.¡± ng. Noh Do-hwa tapped the hilt of the sword lightly with her hammer¡ªnk, the misaligned notches fitted perfectly. Level 6. The greatsword wasplete. -¡¡, ¡¡. She finished making the greatsword and immediately turned her head, like a sryman smelling freshly baked bread at a subway bakery. Then, she reached out to infuse eternity into the master¡¯s piece¡ª ¡°Ah. Hold on¡¡± But her hand only swiped the air. Noh Do-hwa had suddenly tilted the greatsword back. -¡¡? ¡°Hmm.¡± -¡¡? The ck eyeholes of the dwarf looked up at her, like a cat whose treat had been snatched away. Noh Do-hwa grinned. -¡¡? ¡¡? Hop. Hop. The dwarf, true to its designation as a "dwarf," could only jump up and down, unable to reach the greatsword Noh Do-hwa held aloft. I too had question marks floating in my mind. What¡¯s this person doing? Has she decided to torment anomalies because she can¡¯t be satisfied with humans anymore? Noh Do-hwa grinned mischievously. ¡°I have no interest in putting you to rest. None at all. I¡¯m not here to be your disciple either. It¡¯s troublesome if you ascend, thinking you¡¯ve passed on your legacy to me.¡± -¡¡? ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t need these junk tools.¡± Noh Do-hwa tossed all the tools she had made¡ªhoes, kitchen knives, daggers, sickles, pitchforks, longswords, and greatswords¡ªinto the smelter. The smelter in the mining vige quickly melted the tools back into adamantium. Noh Do-hwa¡¯s hammer immediately struck the softened mass. ng¡ª! The mineral that originally didn¡¯t exist in this world began to take shape beautifully. ng! ng! Without rest. Ignoring her own sweat, pouring everything into it. ¡°Small hammer.¡± ¡°Yes, master.¡± ¡°Chisel.¡± ¡°Here it is.¡± ¡°Sandwich.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Each time she requested, I handed over the tools and moved the cast. -¡¡. The dwarf watched our work with empty eye sockets. How much time passed? Noh Do-hwa, who had never once wiped her forehead during the forging, finally wiped her sweat with the back of her hand. Then she took off her monocle and put it in her front pocket. ¡°Whew, it¡¯s finally finished¡¡¡± The appearance of the finished product left me momentarily speechless. ¡°This is¡¡± It was a cane sword. Srrk¡ª Noh Do-hwa drew the blue de herself. A swordstick, also known as a cane sword. A weapon that could be used as a cane in normal times and as a self-defense weapon in emergencies. ¡°Regressor Undertaker. You asked me to make you a weapon when we came here, right¡¡?¡± ¡°¡Yes.¡± ¡°Hmph. Alright. This is the weapon I present to you¡¡¡± A cane. The simplest assistive device for people with walking difficulties. Thus, it bore Noh Do-hwa''s touch. A sword. The mostmon weapon for killing. Thus, it would bear my touch. Perfectly reflecting both Noh Do-hwa and me. ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Wait a moment.¡± Noh Do-hwa held a carving knife against the de. Screech, the sound of metal sliding. [Dicentra Spectabilis] It was the name believed to belong to the dwarf cksmith who had once breathed life into the hoe. Noh Do-hwa opened her notebook and carefully engraved the characters from [Dicentra Spectabilis] onto the de, referring to her notes. A total of seven names. The characters, alien not only to this world but to another, rippled like beautiful tattoos. And at the end. Do-hwa (¶ÉºÓ). The characters pronounced the same as Noh Do-hwa¡¯s name, and the same meaning as her workshop, flowed onto the white de like raindrops. ¡°Here it is¡¡¡± -¡¡. -¡¡. -¡¡, ¡¡. Looking around, I realized that the dwarf anomaly had vanished. There was no more breath of eternity. Only a deep wind, whooooosh, blew through the mining canyon. The breath of the mountain, descending from the cliffs, swept past us and the sword. In the wake of the wind, the vige vanished. The adamantium ore, the smelters, the stone buildings, and the anvils the dwarves used¡ªall had been blown away. Only Noh Do-hwa, myself, and a single sword remained at the entrance to the enormous cave. ¡°¡¡.¡± It was a strange phenomenon. But voids are inherently strange. Noh Do-hwa paid no attention to the disappearance of the dwarf mining vige. Instead, she was handing me the sword. Evening. The zing red sunset behind her was imprinting the scene before me onto my corneas. As I finally reached out and grasped the sword, Noh Do-hwa¡¯s lips, which seemed destined to remain silent, opened. ¡°Are you really going to take it¡¡?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a fine sword. One that I can never make again. In your future hunts and ughters, this sword will y a significant role. Do you understand? Regressor Undertaker. From now on, part of your achievements, your feats, your sesses and failures, your killings¡ªhalf of them will belong to this sword. In other words, by taking this sword, you are epting it as your aplice¡¡¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± I nodded. I grasped the sword. ¡°I will name the sword Do-hwa (¶ÉºÓ).¡± ¡°¡Hmph.¡± Noh Do-hwa chuckled softly. The sunset cast a red hue on her smile. ¡°The share is fifty-fifty¡¡¡± What a harsh profit-sharing contract from someone iming not to be an exploitative employer. There¡¯s an epilogue. When the regressions reset, everything should return to its original state, but the sword ''Do-hwa'' was an exception. From the 100th cycle onwards, Do-hwa was always embedded at the entrance of the cave midway up the Taebaek Mountains. In subsequent regressions, Noh Do-hwa never made me another sword. ¡°¡¡.¡± It was a phenomenon that could only be described as an anomaly. In ce of the original void of the ¡®dwarf mining vige¡¯, the sword Do-hwa seemed to be fixed in time, immovable like a fixed coordinate. Perhaps the ¡®mining vige¡¯ had trulye from another world. And the flow of time in that other world was different from ours, causing ''Do-hwa'' to be fixed in ce, outside the normal flow of time. Or, instead of the mining vige, the sword Do-ha itself had be a void and an anomaly. In any case, the mining vige disappeared, along with the small veins of adamantium, forever. I would never uncover the secrets of that void. In addition to the Silver Bells I always farmed at Busan Station, I had now acquired another ¡®exclusive item.¡¯ ¡°Hmm? Wait a moment, Regressor Undertaker¡¡¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Show me that cane.¡± Noh Do-hwa almost snatched Do-ha from me, examining it closely. ¡°Hmph¡¡± With her monocle on, she scrutinized the sword, repeatedly drawing it from the scabbard and sheathing it. A long sigh escaped her lips. ¡°¡Regressor Undertaker. This sword. Where did you get it¡¡?¡± ¡°Oh. I received it as a gift from the greatest cksmith in Korea.¡± ¡°The greatest in Korea? Hmm, that seems right¡ Very well. If they crafted such a masterpiece, they deserve to be called that. But who is this Korean?¡± The shadows of Noh Do-hwa''s eyes, heavy with dark circles, burned intensely. ¡°Why? Are you interested?¡± ¡°Well¡ Anyone with such skills should be recruited into the National Road Management Corps or somewhere, to be used as an unpaid ve for life.¡± How could I not burst outughing at this? Noh Do-hwa frowned deeply at myughter. A pair of twin ck inds, no longer lonely, red at me. ¡°Hah? You¡¯reughing? What¡¯s so funny? Do you want to die?¡± ¡°No. Absolutely not. I¡¯ll tell you. Master, the person who made that sword is my¨D¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 87 Breakdown I They mocked me, calling me a decrepit old monster over a thousand years old, but their assessment was utterly mistaken. Originally, Old Man Scho was the type to describe raindrops falling beautifully in autumn from a stormy sky as, "Huh, these H?Os aremitting mass suicide (he actually said this)." He¡¯s a caustic critic with a twisted tongue and a crooked spine. Why should I be bothered by the reviews of such a wretched scum? Referring to me, the Undertaker, with ageist terms like old man or decrepit monster is entirely inappropriate. There''s no need to even mention curses filled with hatred and contempt for humanity, like old geezer or boomer. More neutral titles like ''sunbae'' or ''teacher'' would be much more appropriate. A sunbae refers to someone walking ahead. As a regressor, I, the Undertaker, am always one step ahead of others. It''s not about seniority, but quite literally, I''m the sunbae to all humans. Why? Am I wrong? The same applies to ''teacher''.Biologically, there are plenty of people older than me. But in terms of mental age, who is older than me? As Old Man Scho said, I''m well over a thousand years old. Thus, I am the teacher of all humans. How about that? Am I wrong? "What are you talking about, you damn boomer bastard...?" "......." However, very few people actually used the titles ''sunbae'' or ''teacher'' for me. No, it''s not just rare. There were even more old people who persistently called Old Man Scho ''teacher''! Oh, what a pity. How can I notment? That scum being called a teacher? Even in thisnd once called the country of courtesy, the three bonds and five rtionships are torn apart. But just as heroes appear in times of chaos, there are also sages in times of confusion. "Oh, doc sunbae!" A necromancer of the Korean Penins, who insists on wearing a white sailor uniform like the white-d folk rather than ck. The almost only person who calls me ''sunbae'', and the 113th student council president of Baekhwa Girls'' High School, and the guild leader of Baekwha Guild. "Sunbae!" asionally, while walking down the hallway of the National Road Management Corps headquarters, I would hear someone calling me, and every time, the owner of the voice would run up with energetic footsteps and greet me with a big smile. It''s a pleasant sight. Even in the cycle where zombies were rampant on the Korean Penins, in the cycle where ''Academy City'' was established, and even in the cycle that led to the end of the world, she always had that same smile. A smile fixed somewhere. A stuffed expression. "Undertaker sunbae, where are you going~?" "......." This is a story about names. About the time it took for the title ''sunbae'' to change to ''teacher''. Let''s talk about the Apostle of the Outer Gods, Cheon Yo-hwa. If I had to pick the two people I least wanted to get involved with on the Korean Penins, the first would undoubtedly be the Sword Marquess of the Mount Hua Sect, and the second would be Cheon Yo-hwa. Go Yuri? First, we need to define whether she¡¯s even ¡®human¡¯ or not, so let''s exclude her. If it weren''t for the information obtained from the Fairy King in the 89th cycle, I would never have approached Cheon Yo-hwa. -Tutorial Dungeon Baekhwa Girls'' High School. -The survivor there, Cheon Yo-hwa, is the chosen Apostle of the Fairy King. I felt like Sherlock Holmes hearing the name James Moriarty. Or like a general witnessing Cao Cao¡¯s preferences for married women. Suddenly, I realized, "Oh, I''ve lived my life to hunt down this bastard." Moreover, in terms of viiny, Infinite Void was a cut above Moriarty. Unlike Moriarty, whose demonic nature was immediately exposed by Sherlock Holmes¡¯ irvoyance, Infinite Void never revealed itself until the 89th cycle. I didn''t even have a name to call it, so I gave it the name Infinite Void. Cheon Yo-hwa was the only continuous suspect among these teacherminds of teacherminds, viins of viins. The little detective inside me couldn''t help but eye her intently. And of course, my detective skills were far superior to those of any British drug-addicted hedonist. That guy can¡¯t even turn back time. "Seeing your hair color, you must be Cheon Yo-hwa? I''ve heard a lot about you from the others." "Oh..." In the 109th cycle, as I described before, I went to ''Baekhwa Girls'' High School Tutorial Dungeon'' six months after it opened and met Cheon Yo-hwa. "I heard a very smart and quick hubae got elected as student council president. The news spread through our alumniwork. By the way, I also worked in the student council and am now the alumni president." "......." Cheon Yo-hwa, captured! Thanks to this necromancer, several good things happened, such as the development and nationwide distribution of the ''AI Judge'' on the Korean Penins... but there was one minor problem. Actually, it wasn¡¯t minor at all. It was quite serious. "Yo-hwa." "Yes, doc sunbae!" "Are you perhaps close with fairies?" "Eh?" "You know, the fairies from the tutorial. Or maybe you''ve connected with some greater being through such fairies. If you have such experiences, please let me know." "......." Blink. Cheon Yo-hwa blinked her eyes. "Fairies? Sunbae?" "Huh?" "Is that some kind of code? Or a novel? Oh,e on, sunbae. There¡¯s no such thing as fairies in the world. You¡¯re teasing me too much¡ª." "...No, what are you talking about. In Baekhwa Girls'' High School, the tutorial dungeon urred. Naturally, there were tutorial fairies. You guys cleared the tutorial after struggling without any external contact for 11 months..." "11 months? Um... Ahaha. Sorry, sunbae. I have no idea what you''re talking about. Huh. Could it be, sunbae... Are you involved in some cult or something?" "......." "Oh my! No way! My family has also been entangled with cults a lot, so I know this well. You must never, under any circumstances, get involved with those!" Highly developed physiognomy was indistinguishable from irvoyance. To my eyes, which had studied physiognomy for over a thousand years, Cheon Yo-hwa didn¡¯t seem to be lying. My academic achievements hit the mark. "Kyaaah! A goblin appeared!" "...? Sunbae, why do people call wolves goblins?" "Ten Legs is invading! Let''s fight back!" "Aaaah! E-Earthquake! Sunbae, it''s an earthquake! Get down¡ª!" "......." Cheon Yo-hwa couldn¡¯t perceive anomalies as anomalies. Goblins looked like ''wolves'', and the rampage of Ten Legs was understood as an ''earthquake''. The same went for other anomalies. Once, I even captured a fairy and brought it before her eyes. "Wow! A cat! So cute!" She hugged the fairy and rubbed her cheek against it. Even when the fairy said, "Heck" "Let me go!" usingnguage, it sounded like a cat''s hiss to Cheon Yo-hwa. Her brain, her perception system, was broken. It was as if the part of the brain that recognized anomalies had been surgically removed. "...I see. No wonder I can¡¯t get meaningful information about fairies or Infinite Void from you." "...? What did you just say, sunbae?" "Nothing." I frowned at Cheon Yo-hwa, who suffered from selective auditory impairment like a protagonist in an outdated light novel. Maybe even that ''perception contamination'' was manipted by Infinite Void. Indeed, a true mastermind, unlike those attention-seeking pseudo-viins in fiction who scream "Notice me!" to everyone. I investigated Cheon Yo-hwa as much as possible. I found out that her family was located in Sejong City, was quite famous as a local gentry, and that their mansion was enormous. Magnificent tile-roofed houses. Thend size was 14,990 square meters. The mansion was nestled on the slopes of Mount Wonsu, overlooking the governmentplex of South Korea. The aboveground preserved the traditional Korean house style from the Joseon era, but the underground, not open to the public, hid modern buildings. However, there were no significant gains. Some documents remained in the mansion, but there were no survivors or witnesses. The best I could deduce was that Cheon Yo-hwa''s father was on the board of directors of Baekhwa Girls'' High School. It seemed that Baekhwa Girls'' High School itself was built with the support funds from this family. So Cheon Yo-hwa was not just an ordinary student or student council president, but rather equivalent to the ''youngdy'' of a private school foundation. Other than that, the discovery of a pile of Taoist scriptures, including Laozi''s "Tao Te Ching," in the underground facility was noteworthy. Still, I couldn¡¯t escape the maze with just this information and circumstances. "Onest question, Yo-hwa. I briefly investigated your family. Your father''s surname is Cheon (Ç§), but you use the surname with the other Cheon (Ìì). Do you know why your surname was changed?" "Eh? No? This is the first time I''ve heard of it... I have no memory of my family at all. Besides, investigating my family? That''s a bit scary, sunbae..." ...A strategy revision was inevitable. Meeting Cheon Yo-hwa after she broke out of the tutorial dungeon by herself was ineffective. Too much information had been lost. I needed to meet Cheon Yo-hwa from before that time, when she was still wandering in the dungeon called Baekhwa Girls'' High School. An impossible feat without traveling back in time. "Got it. Yo-hwa, see you next time." "Yes? Yes, sunbae! See you next time!" And fortunately, I was capable of such acrobatics. As I, the first human to uncover it, had found out, the ''Tutorial Dungeon'' was an artificially created void by Infinite Void, essentially a humanboratory. Like otherboratories, the tutorial dungeon also strictly controlled external ess to prevent incidents that would raise a graduate student''s blood pressure, such as virus infiltration,puter theft, or data loss. Therefore, the tutorial dungeon remained closed until it was cleared. Even the ''irvoyance'' of the Saintess couldn''t inspect this closed space. It was impossible for an external person to forcibly open and enter theb. Yes, ''a person'' could not. "Let''s go, fairy number 264." "Hooey! Yes, following the Comrade Leader¡¯s orders...!" Even if theb was sincere about blocking physical viruses, it was a different story when it came to mental viruses. Fairy Number 264, infected with the strongest virus in human history, marched vigorously towards Baekhwa Girls'' High School. Creak- Even the gate of Baekhwa Girls'' High School, which no human could cross, couldn¡¯t stop our advance. Like the barricade in Paris in 1832, the gate recognized the revolutionaryrades and opened softly. (Congratu) Seo.,; University 2 Admitted! tions) A worn-out banner fluttered. As someone who firmly opposes academic elitism and educational background society, I always left the possibility open as to whether it was Seoul National University, Sogang University, or Seokyeong University. Maybe a fierce battle had already taken ce. Not only the banner but also various parts of the school gate were destroyed. The name que, which should have been elegantly inscribed with the school name in Chinese characters, was partially damaged, leaving only ''¡ö¡öÅ®×Ó¸ßµÈŒWÐ£''. "Comrade! The vanguard has opened the blood path!" "Hmm. Let''s advance." The flowerbeds surrounding the academic buildings were filled with blooming red spider lilies, also known as Lycoris Radiata. Beyond the hill of spider lilies, white birch trees formed a forest. The fairy shouted towards it. "Full speed ahead! Perish the oppression of the bourgeoisie! For the Comrade Leader, I willy down my life!" The moment we set foot inside the school. "Heeek?" Bang! Sensing the intruder, the security chief hurriedly ran out from inside. Of course, the real security guard was lying dead near the gate, and this was just a new fairy wearing an armband in the ''Baekhwa Girls'' High School Tutorial Dungeon''. The opposing fairy, upon seeing us, was shocked and her eyes widened. "Fairy? Human? Heek? Why a human?" "Hoek! To distinguish fairies and humans by race! Humans can only be distinguished by ideology...! That one is surely ackey of the bourgeoisie!" "Heek? Heek? Heek?" The opposing fairy was confused. "I-I am fairy number 16, responsible for this tutorial! It''s highly suspicious to intrude with a human without prior notice...! State your rank and name!" "I am number 264! My number is revolutionary as bestowed upon me by destiny! Despicable bourgeoisieckey, surrender your head to the guillotine!" "Heeek! Rebellion! It''s a rebellion! Guards! Guaaardsss!" The moment fairy number 16 pulled out a magic wand to kill us, our number 264 also grabbed her magic wand. "Where do you think you''re going¨D" "Heek!" Bang! The fairies exploded simultaneously. The explosion was perfectly timed. There was a sad story behind this. Originally, all fairies were created with exactly the samebat power. When fairies decide to fight each other, the oue was destined to end in mutual destruction. If this were a martial arts novel rather than modern fantasy, the protagonist might not be them, but they could certainly be listed among the "Top 10 Memorable Side Characters Who Died Elegantly." If it were the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, they could be brothers who kept the Oath of the Peach Garden. ¡®Now, Infinite Void''s surveince of Baekhwa Girls'' High School would be temporarily gone.¡¯ From now on, speed was of the essence. First, I stripped the uniform off the guard''s corpse and stuffed it into a leather trunk. Then I entered the school building. I was already familiar with the building¡¯s structure from previous cycles, but indeed, as expected of the void, the geography was constantly twisting in real time. -Uoooooo... -Hee, hee, hee, hee. See? Just setting foot at the entrance, all sorts of bizarre sounds warmly weed the visitor. This ce was no longer Baekhwa Girls'' High School. ''School Ghost Stories''. Whether it¡¯s toilet ghosts or the seven mysteries, all the anomalies rted to the ¡®school¡¯ were realized in thisbyrinth. There were 750 people trapped in the void ''School Ghost Stories''. All were students of Baekhwa Girls'' High School. After 11 months of struggle, only 19 would survive... and two of them would soon jump off the roof tomit suicide. Considering that in ''School Ghost Stories,'' suicides were virtually murders by ghosts, those two should also be counted as victims. A survival rate of 2.26%. The worst tutorial dungeon on the Korean Penins. But... no matter how strong the anomalies and void are, or rather, the stronger they are, the more room for maneuver exists. I call this the pain point of anomalies or voids. So-called weak points. The difficulty of the void varies greatly depending on whether you know these weak points or not. The old adage ''Knowledge is power'' by Bacon became even truer at the end of the century. So here''s the question. What is the most suitable weak point that an outsider, especially an older manpared to Baekhwa Girls'' High students, can exploit in ''School Ghost Stories''? What disguise should I use to navigate this ce without appearing ''suspicious'' in the void? "...Alright. Found it." The answer was written on the document I held in my hand. [Baekhwa Girls'' High School Guard Shift Schedule] I quickly wrote my name in thest slot with a pen I brought from outside. Then, I hurriedly changed into the guard uniform taken from the school gate. Hat on the head. A namete reading ''Guard Undertaker'' pinned on the chest. Disguiseplete. "...Ah, this cold and heavy feeling. It''s been a while." Lastly, I held the must-have item for a guard, a ''shlight,'' in my left hand. My reflection in the duty room mirror was perfect. Now, this Undertaker would be working as a school guard in this cycle. The strongest job in ''School Ghost Stories'' had arrived. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 88 Breakdown II Once you have identified an anomaly''s weak point, what bes important next? It''s the spirit. In refined terms, it¡¯s ''vitality'' or ''mental strength,'' and inmon terms, it''s ''stubbornness'' or ''guts.'' By unifying your mental state with a marine''s, you must push through with sheer determination. This is no joke. Let''s briefly recount the story from the 90th run when I operated a convenience store under the Sixth International. Although I haven''t mentioned it before, not only human customers but also ''non-human customers'' frequented the store. One night, the bell rang. I immediately turned my head. The digital clock by the door showed 01:59. "Wee, custo¨D¨D"-Uwooooh... "¨D¨Dmer. Hmm, take your time browsing." A stench of rot wafted through the air. A pitch-ck ghost approached, dripping shadows. Its gait was so distinctive that I wondered if I hadid out a red carpet in the convenience store. ''Damn.'' A highly rational judgment was made. Do you know the Pok¨¦mon Muk? Or the sludge spirit from Spirited Away? The ghost, which resembled those, was gliding around the store before reaching the counter. My mind was about to go crazy. Just five minutes ago, I had meticulously cleaned the store floor, which was now beautifully coated with the ghost''s filth. -der-taaaakerrrr... The customer spoke. "Yes?" -der-taaaakerrrr, one. Kidney... two. Heart, one... Lung, one. Three fingers... One eyeball... please... "......." I was a small business owner with a strict moral code embedded in my frontal lobe. This meant I had the mental fortitude to never forget the seven-letter word ''service'' even when dealing with a problematic customer. Therefore, I could smile brightly without a trace of confusion. "Customer, do you want to get hit?" -......? "Do you want to get hit? Do you want to get hit?" The ghost flinched. I mmed the counter down and took a step toward the ghost. "Do you see the floor here? Huh? I can''t check if you have eyes." -Uwooo...? "It''s all ck like a sewage backup. The smell? We sell food here, but your stench has spoiled everything. Are you going to take responsibility? Will you take responsibility, customer? Why aren¡¯t you answering? Huh?" Indeed. If there''s an anomaly called a ''problematic customer,'' then there must also be a ''crappy store owner'' to bnce the world. "What? Stomach? Kidney? Heart? You gotta be kidding me, customer bastard. Pay up. Cleaning fee for making the floor dirty. Mop recement fee for using the mop. Compensation for the spoiled food corner. And above all,undry fee for your stench on my uniform. It¡¯s your existence fee, bastard." -Uwooo... "No money? You have no money bute in and make a mess? Ah, damn! Hey! Call the police. Call the police! No! From now on, I am the police, you filthy bastard!" -Uwooo... Sliiide. At that moment, the anomaly disappeared. The filth and stench it had spread around the store also vanished. The digital clock still showed 01:59. The lesson from this story is simple. Even the most powerful anomaly, strong enough to make time pause, can be defeated with knowledge of its weak point and a fiery spirit. I, the Undertaker, unlike a certain regressor who took a long vacation iming he was starved for love, always had an overflowing spirit to give the middle finger to anomalies. In this story, to help you pave your own paths, I''ll introduce a more detailed ''anomaly strategy guide'' by an expert who breaks through the void. Step by step, I walked out of the duty room in a guard uniform. In my left hand was a shlight, and in my right, a trunk. I also had earphones and a small microphone attached. It was my full gear set for tackling anomalies. At this moment, I felt like Liu Bei, wielding the peerless sword that could make even the mighty L¨¹ Bu tremble in fear under the right conditions. -Uwooo... ..., -Hi, hi, hi, hi... As soon as I stepped onto the first-floor hallway, the ghosts that were lingering subtly retreated. It was natural. ''Ghosts'' are fundamentally anomalies based on human forms. Some ghosts possess a degree of intelligence, and most have the instinct to recognize a strong person. No matter how difficult the ''Baekhwa Girls'' High'' tutorial dungeon is, I am a Regressor of the 117th cycle. To the anomalies, it would be a catastrophe akin to Cthulhu suddenly descending upon a beginner¡¯s vige. However, not all ghosts ran away. Some simply couldn''t flee due to their settings. Therefore, my first destination was the school''s boys'' restroom. "Hmm." Ssh- The soles of my shoes squished. The bathroom floor was flooded with about 0.5 cm of water. Looking around, I detected a faint bleach smell mixed with a peculiar stench. It was the smell of soaking a bunch of human hair in water. The faucet was off. ''This is undoubtedly a haunted spot.'' No hesitation. There were four toilet stalls in the restroom. I knocked politely on the third stall. "Hanako-san, are you there?" -....... "Hanako-san?" Silence. I tilted my head. "Hmm." -....... It was a very suspicious silence. My well-honed sixth sense as an anomaly hunter in the 117th cycle whispered, ''There''s definitely a ghost here.'' They may have hastily locked the faucet, but it was toote once the tiled floor was already flooded. As someone who generously trusts himself, the answer was one of two things: either the ghost couldn''t understand Japanese because it was originally from Japan, or it was deliberately ignoring me. In this global era, the former was impossible. My instinct said it was thetter. "Oh. I almost forgot. In some versions, just knocking isn''t enough to trigger the appearance conditions." -....... "Alright. Let''s start spinning now?" ck. I locked the bathroom door and began to spin in ce inside the stall. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." -....... "Eight, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen. Done." I knocked on the door again. "Hanako-san, let''s y. Hanako-san, are you there?" -Yes. A reply came immediately. This is the fate of anomalies. They have their own ''rules'' they cannot escape from. Because anomalies exist in this world only through those rules. Anomalies like Ten Legs have immense physical destructive power but have the weakness of being ''physically destructible.'' The convenience store ghost can ''appear as a customer in any convenience store at 2 AM.'' It seems to transcend spatial limitations but has the weakness of ''only existing as a customer.'' The same goes for the toilet ghost Hanako. Hanako exists as ''a ghost in the third stall of an empty bathroom anywhere.'' A kind of earthbound spirit. Therefore, to anyone who enters the third stall, especially if they chant the incantation, Hanako must ''appear.'' If it doesn¡¯t respond? It acknowledges that it doesn''t exist in the third stall. Exorcismplete. The toilet ghost murmured in a trembling voice (though it sounded like a ghostly voice to me). -Red paper or blue paper...? "Ah. It''s the case where it''sbined with the red paper blue paper ghost. Not that rare." -Purple paper...? "Oh." The anomaly proposed apromise. ording to some ghost stories, asking for ''purple paper'' made Hanako retreat. A kind of strategy, an exorcism method. But just now, the ghost proposed the truce without me even reciting the strategy. I was slightly moved. What a considerate ghost. "Purple paper isn''t bad. But what now." -.......? Screech! I unzipped the leather trunk bag I had brought. This trunk was also an anomaly, but that story is for another time. What¡¯s noteworthy now is that the trunk contained both ''red paper rolls'' and ''blue paper rolls.'' "I brought both red paper and blue paper?" -....... "It''s the post-corona era. In these times, carrying personal hygiene items like toilet paper is necessary for peace of mind. Right? Hanako. Do you want one too? Red paper? Blue paper?" -Purple paper... "I don''t have purple paper, you bastard!" Bam! I immediately generated aura and stepped forward. The toilet shattered, white porcin fragments flying everywhere. Water overflowed, but it wasn''t just H?O. A ghost, resembling a girl in a red cape, sprang out. I grinned. "Found-you." -......! The ghost¡¯s form trembled violently. This was the advantage of ghost-type anomaliespared to other types. Strong against the weak and weak against the strong. Most ghosts had this very human characteristic of being strong against the weak and weak against the strong. The more human-like the ghost, the more pronounced this characteristic. Most ghosts also had the troublesome trait of being ''immune to physical attacks,'' but it didn¡¯t matter. Physical immunity could be bypassed if done right. For example, like this. "Got you." -......! ......! With a flick of my wrist, I wrapped the ghost¡¯s head with the red paper in my right hand and the blue paper in my left. No matter how free a ghost was from physical force, ''Hanako'' caused physical changes, i.e., death, through the words ''red paper'' and ''blue paper.'' This is how you use weak points. There are no one-way streets in the world of anomalies. Everything is two-way. If they can interfere from that side, we can do the same from this side with the same methods. The result was the scene before me. The toilet ghost, dangling helplessly, bound by a vice grip in both my hands. -......! ......! ......! "Red paper or blue paper?" -....... "The correct answer is both. We''re having a buy one get one free sale this month, customer." Crunch! The ghost''s face turned blue and then burst. The whole body melted away into a red liquid, losing its shape. Even if it was an anomaly resembling a human form, I felt no sympathy at all. The reason was revealed immediately after the toilet ghost was exorcised. The water that had pooled on the tiled floor turned red, revealing corpses submerged like a vige under a dam. "......." There were seven corpses just in this restroom. Adding up all the other restrooms, it would easily reach dozens. The students trapped in the ''Baekhwa Girls'' High Tutorial Dungeon'' without knowing anything would have been deliciously weak targets for the anomalies. I gathered the corpses in one ce. They probably wouldn¡¯t rot until the void was broken. "Hmm...?" While organizing the corpses, I found something suspicious. "...Talismans?" Talismans were hidden throughout the restroom. Behind the toilet where the red paper blue paper ghost had emerged, in the cleaning supply closet, under the sink. There were three in total. If it had been me after the 200th cycle, I could have deciphered the meaning of the talismanspletely. But at this time, although I had read the Analects, Mencius, Great Learning, and Doctrine of the Mean, I hadn''t yet fully interpreted the I Ching. Still, I knew enough to distinguish between talismans for prayers and those for curses. The intent of the characters on the talisman was too obvious to miss. ËÀ. ËÀ. ËÀ. ËÀ. Even amidst the water bomb in the restroom, the red characters on the talismans gleamed vividly like snake skin. "Hmm." It was quite ominous. Even the fortune tellers selling curse talismans usually only wrote ''Íö'' but rarely ''ËÀ.'' I examined the talismans closely, scratched the red characters with my nails, and even sniffed them. "...It''s real human blood." Talismans made with human blood. The most dangerous of curses. Why were such talismans hidden in a school restroom? I set aside the question and, after storing it in my mind''s closet, burned all the talismans. Then I took out some paper and tape from the trunk bag and stuck a sign on the first-floor boys'' restroom door. [Patrol Completed] It was a kind of ''safe zone'' marker. I didn''t know how many students were wandering around, but it would provide a hint for survival. "Alright." I moved again. There was a reason I exorcised the toilet ghost immediately after entering ''School Ghost Stories.'' Since ancient times, the ce where people urinate was considered a kind of taboo. While a shrine for rituals is the center of light, a restroom is the center of shadows. It''s an unavoidable ce for humans, but still avoided because it¡¯s considered dirty. This is why ''ces to urinate,'' along with ''ces to eat'' and ''ces to sleep,'' always hold significant ritualistic meaning in voids. One of the core pirs of ''School Ghost Stories.'' In contrast, dismissing ghosts in the scienceb, art room, or music room as unimportant isn''t an overstatement. ¡®I¡¯d like to join Cheon Yo-hwa and the survivor group right away, but it''s difficult to determine the exact location in such a distorted void...¡¯ Step. The light from my shlight swept across the pitch-ck corridor. The school space had elongated, duplicated, and twisted bizarrely. The sky outside the windows was dyed blood-red, and white birch trees shattered the ss, poking out into the hallway. Countless anomalies must be lurking in those white shadows. I nodded and adjusted the [Guard Undertaker] name tag on my chest. ¡®Until I join Cheon Yo-hwa, I¡¯ll just have to deal with all the anomalies I encounter along the way.¡¯ Brrrr... Maybe it was just my imagination, but at that moment, I felt the void of ''School Ghost Stories'' tremble. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 89 Breakdown III I was, after all, a storyteller, refining my experiences into tales for you all, a so-called peddler of stories. Thus, unless my brainpletely lost it and I mistook myself for an omnipotent god, my stories inevitably adhered to the first-person narrative. However, even I sometimes envied the wholesale storytellers¡ªthose third-person narrators or the first-person-rewrite method. Imagine it. How delightful it would be to nder and defame Noh Do-hwa from an omniscient perspective! Unfortunately, Icked the skills like [Evolve into a God in the Final Chapter of the Story] or [Possession], so describing events from a third-person perspective or immersing in another''s first-person view was impossible for me. But¡ what if the targets felt no guilt no matter what I did? For instance, wouldn''t it be possible to ¡®distort history¡¯ about anomalies as much as I wanted? So, I tried it.-The guard ising! The guard ising! The anomalies trembled in fear (of course, such conversations probably never happened) and shouted from the shadows. -How shameful for an anomaly to feel fear towards a mere human! -Stop! Don''t go! Those who rushed in couldn¡¯t return! -Long live the anomaly! For the glory of the Infinite Void! -The ghost of Agrippa from the art room, defeated! Lost! No signs of life detected! -Foolish one. Made of marble without any physical immunity, what was he thinking? -This can¡¯t be. The ghost of Beethoven¡¯s portrait in the music room isn''t responding. The words [Symphony Only] were written on Beethoven¡¯s portrait when it died! Blood is flowing from Beethoven¡¯s mouth! -The ghost of the anatomical model in the biology room was also found with all its internal organs shredded! The heart had [Arrhythmia], the kidney [Diabetes], and the tongue¡ [Noh Do-hwa]? Unidentified characters were written like curses! -No! This makes no sense! We are the strongest tutorial dungeon, School Ghost Stories, on the Korean Penins! But our ace members are being annihted without resistance? -Enemy shadow, approaching! It''sing this way! Ah! The shlight! That light! Our eyes! -Stop it! Hold the line at any cost! -The guard ising! The guard ising! -Aaaaah! Iyaa! Iyaa! That was a fun session of historical distortion. But no matter how much I distorted history, the truth didn''t disappear. Here, the truth was that I had cleaned out almost all the ghosts from the 1st to the 3rd floors of the school building. On the second day of exploration, After exorcising the ¡®student left alone in the ssroom after school¡¯ ghost on the 3rd floor, I set up a notice board on the stairnding for easy identification. [Patrol Completed] Thus, the lower floors of the school building all turned into safe zones. In the void of ¡®School Ghost Stories,¡¯ it had reverted back to the reality of ¡®Baekhwa Girls'' High School.¡¯ ¡°The truly important ce is... the 4th floor.¡± I murmured. When traversing the void alone, constantly talking to oneself like this was quite useful. ¡°It¡¯s a way to check one''s self-awareness.¡± If a murmur I didn¡¯t intend slipped out or felt like ¡®my words,¡¯ it was a sign that a mind-control-type anomaly had appeared nearby. Of course, there were drawbacks to talking to oneself. ¡°Heading to the 4th floor is very dangerous, but it¡¯s probably where the most captured survivors are.¡± ¡°Yes. I expected you to show up.¡± Crack! I immediately infused aura into my cane sword ¡®Do-hwa¡¯ and struck my shadow. -Aaaaaargh! Just like now, excessive self-talk could attract doppelg?nger-type anomalies. But if you had pre-arranged countermeasures, you could intentionally keep murmuring to bait the doppelg?ngers. The shadow pinned to my cane writhed and squirmed. -How? How? How? ¡°It¡¯s thanks to modern conveniences, anomaly.¡± Swoosh, I removed the earphone from my left ear. A small microphone was attached to the cor of the guard uniform. I had been eavesdropping on my own murmurs in real time through the earphones. The microphone and earphones were connected to a smartphone, and I deliberately reproduced my voice at a low quality. If ¡®apletely different voice, recorded at a different distance or quality, yed back through the earphones¡¯? It would be proof that a mental-control-type anomaly had appeared nearby. And the method to exterminate doppelg?ngers was simple. ¡°Say the Saintess''s name.¡± -......? ......? ¡°You can¡¯t answer. You are not me.¡± Bubbling, bubbling, bubbling- The shadow boiled up and then popped! The bubbles burst, and my shadow returned to normal. After hearing the Saintess''s true name in the 36th cycle, I never exchanged names with her again. A doppelg?nger living only in this cycle had no way of knowing the Saintess''s true name. Thus, ¡®you¡¯ and ¡®I¡¯ were different. Denying identity. The anomaly, whose weak point was exploited, couldn''t maintain its existence and copsed. ¡°What a dull fellow. If you want to brainwash me, bring someone like Go Yuri.¡± But it wasn¡¯t over yet. I reattached the earphone and microphone. Then, I took out a walkie-talkie from my pocket. ¡°Alright. This is Guard Undertaker. I am heading to the 4th floor after covering the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors. No abnormalities. Continuing the night patrol.¡± -Roger...... ¡°Gotcha.¡± Confirming the presence of the anomaly through the walkie-talkie, which couldn¡¯t return my response. Immediately, I yed the recorded phrase, ¡®No abnormalities. Continuing the night patrol,¡¯ on my phone in an infinite loop. But I increased the speed, tenfold. Of course, the walkie-talkie, which had to respond to my words, also became urgent. -Roger, roger, roger, roger. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s holding up well?¡± I increased the speed to twentyfold. -Roger, roger, roger-roger, ra-ra-ra,,,,,,,,,,. Boom! The walkie-talkie exploded on its own before 60 seconds passed. A ¡®walkie-talkie unable to return a proper response¡¯ had no reason to exist. ¡°This is Guard Undertaker. I am heading to the 4th floor. No abnormalities on the stairs. Continuing the night patrol.¡± -...... There was no response from anywhere. Just to be sure, I nced at the school speakers on the wall, but they were silent too. Exterminationplete. This meant most mind-control-type anomalies had been cleared. ¡°Hmmm.¡± From the silent stairnding, I nced upstairs. The 4th floor. The 4th (ËÀ) floor. In a void with stairs or elevators, it was the most dangerous zone along with the ¡®13th floor¡¯ and ¡®basement 4th floor.¡¯ Scoffing at the idea that it''s just a pun on the pronunciation of ¡®four¡¯ (?) meaning ¡®death¡¯ (ËÀ) could lead to having your brain dribble out of your nose like an Egyptian mummy. ¡®Wordy in this world¡¯. This linguistic act is the essence of being human. Wordy using homophones forms the basis ofedy and poetry. For the human race, which tries to dominate the world withnguage, it¡¯s a stepping stone for magic. Astute readers may have already realized. Yes. This is why I insist on calling myself the Undertaker and never mention the Saintess¡¯s true name. Simply revealing a true name carries the risk of being used for curses. For figures like Noh Do-hwa or Dang Seo-rin, who operate openly, it might not matter. But for beings like the Saintess and me, who are truly free only when our identities are hidden, we must conceal even our names under aliases. ¡°Now then.¡± I opened the trunk bag and took out ''money.'' There were two main types of money. One pouch was filled with gold and silver coins. The other was bundles of various countries¡¯ banknotes, two hundred each. Iid the coins and banknotes neatly on the stairs leading to the 4th floor, using them as an altar. I also bit down on a silver coin. Then, I quietly closed my eyes and joined my hands in prayer. ¡°......¡± Whoosh. A chilly breeze brushed my cheek. When I opened my eyes, all the money on the stairs was gone. ¡°Ptooey¡ª¡± The silver coin in my mouth, however, remained intact. I spat out the coin and stuffed it back into the trunk bag. ¡°Well, the ferryman sure took a hefty toll.¡± To enter the realm of death, the 4th (ËÀ) floor, the ''afterlife,'' without incident, I had to show my sincerity. That was the toll. The type and amount of toll varied greatly depending on ¡®what kind of anomaly¡¯ ruled the realm of death. The money I ced on the altar included not only banknotes but also coins from various countries, including Greek silver coins and Vian gold coins. However, the ''afterlife'' in this ''School Ghost Stories'' void took all the toll without asking for nationality or origin. It was a sign of an anomaly drenched in greed. But this wasn¡¯t bad news. On the contrary, it was very, very wee news. ¡°Then let''s see the value of the toll you¡¯ve taken.¡± It was a simple transaction. The more toll the anomaly took, the more ''benefits'' it had to give in return. Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, standardized the fare to one silver coin per person to avoid protests calling for his resignation over fairness issues. But the ''anomaly of the afterlife'' here had taken a toll worth over a hundred million won, even excluding the historical value of the gold and silver coins. From a living person who wasn¡¯t even dead yet. This was a bribe and embezzlement scandal of a scale that would get them fired in any religious or mythological system. As a citizen of a staunchly democratic society, I couldn¡¯t help but smile broadly. I confidently walked towards the most dangerous area in the ''School Ghost Stories.'' Step. Step. The moment I reached the 4th floor, as expected of the worst area, red fleshy tendrils immediately squirmed and rushed towards me¨D¨D -...... ¨D¨Dbut couldn¡¯t reach me. The red tendrils stopped abruptly right in front of me. As if an invisible shield surrounded me. Click, click, click... A gold coin rolled from the dark hallway, clinking as it hit my foot. I smiled broadly. ¡°Not epting it.¡± -...... ¡°No refunds.¡± -...... Click, click, click, click, click. Gold and silver coins rolled in one after another from the corridor. Over time, countless coins piled up at my feet, but I paid them no mind. ¡°I said I won¡¯t ept money. You probably demanded limbs or lives from humans who couldn¡¯t pay, right?¡± -...... ¡°The interest rates are steep these days. Let¡¯s see how high the usury getster.¡± Step. Ignoring the refund request, I walked on, and the illusion of red fleshy tendrils around me disappeared. It was just an ordinary school corridor. The ¡®afterlife¡¯ hadn¡¯t beenpletely exorcised yet. The red-stained windows and blood-stained handprints scattered around were proof. But for a while, I would be protected from the ¡®afterlife¡¯s curse. Maybe that¡¯s why. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap¡ª The wooden hallway echoed. Lively footsteps, yet grounded with a sense of weight. The breath of the body and the muscles of the flesh in a rhythm unique to living organisms. Footsteps of a human, not an anomaly. ¡°Hyahaaa¡ª!¡± The rhythm of that living being was confirmed by the voice. A human in a white school uniform dashed down the wooden hallway and jumped, aiming a right kick at me. Excellent jump. Splendid kick. I lowered my head and caught the opponent¡¯s shoe. A ck-red Air Jordan basketball shoe halted. The kick carried the full weight of Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s charging body, but I skillfully handled it with the aura in my palm. ¡°Haaah?¡± The opponent was surprised. Orange ponytail swayed in the air. For a moment, our eyes met. ¡°¨D¨DA, human? Ah? An adult?!¡± Instead of mming the opponent into the floor, I gentlynded them so their back wouldn¡¯t bend. ¡°Ugh! Ugh! Ack!¡± The opponent stumbled and eventually fell in the hallway, but seemed uninjured since I had absorbed all the impact. ¡°Ow, ow, ow... Wait. An adult? Really an adult? Uh, so... sir, you''re human, right?¡± ¡°Hm.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yes, I am human.¡± ¡°Aaaah...! Finally! You''vee to rescue us!¡± A hopeful expression appeared on their face. Although the impression was quite different from when we first met, the name tag attached to the front pocket confirmed that the person before me was indeed the one I was looking for. An awakener who wouldter grow into the strongest necromancer on the Korean Penins. A former runner-up in thest national high school basketball championship. Main position: point guard. The 113th student council president of Baekhwa Girls'' High School. The only witness connected to the Outer Gods¡¯ ¡®Infinite Void.¡¯ Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯). Heaven (Ìì), Lonely (ÁÈ), To be (»¯). A child with solitude hidden in her name. Finally, I had encountered my target in the worst tutorial dungeon. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 90 Breakdown IV At this point, it must be emphasized once again that while a weak point is indeed a way to defeat anomalies, it is never a one-way street but always a two-way street. "Come to rescue you? Student, what do you mean? I¡¯m also caught here." I replied this way to the kid in front of me not because I was a nasty sadist, nor because I was the eldest of the Gatchaman. "What?" "Do you see my name tag? I''m a guard here, a guard. Geez. When I came to my senses, the school had be very strange." "Oh... So, you¡¯re the guard..." I felt sorry for the kid, but I had no intention of deviating even 1cm from my guard role-ying. The reason I could rampage through the ¡®School Ghost Stories¡¯ was firstly due to the experience I umted as a regressor, and secondly because of my role as a ''guard.''As a guard, it wasn¡¯t strange for me to wander around the school without issue. That was the job of a guard. As a guard, it wasn¡¯t strange for me to know how to handle strange incidents urring in the school. That was the skill of a guard. In other words, the moment my mask as a ''night patrol guard'' was broken, I would lose all the advantages I had enjoyed so far. I had to help the stranded students of the ¡®School Ghost Stories¡¯ within the boundaries of my role-ying. And for a skilled regressor like me, such restrictions weren¡¯t even a penalty. "Student, why do you look so haggard? Are you eating well? Here, have some of this." "What? ...Oh, chocte?" It wasn¡¯t just any ordinary chocte. It was the world¡¯s most powerful dessert. Crunchy chocte wrapped in beautiful golden foil. "Really? Can I really eat this?" "Of course. I¡¯m giving it to you to eat." A momentter. "Wow!" The effect of the crunchy chocte bar was remarkable. "We, we didn¡¯t do anything. We just woke up in the dorm and came to school, and suddenly, sniff. Suddenly ghosts appeared, and the teachers were all gone. The ghosts chased us... in the ssroom, the bathroom, the yground, the cafeteria, the rooftop, everywhere... so many friends died..." "There, there." "I, I¡¯m the student council president, sniff. I should be helping the kids, but I was too busy running away. I was scared. I¡¯m sorry..." Cheon Yo-hwa of the 117th cycle was undoubtedly the same person as the Cheon Yo-hwa of previous cycles, yetpletely different. Her mind was overwhelmed. Her emotions were intense. In other words, shecked experience. "It¡¯s okay. Whether you¡¯re the student council president or not, you¡¯re all just young students. Surviving alone is already a big deal." "Sniff..." To level up to the plete Cheon Yo-hwa,'' several more years of suffering and patience were needed. The kid in front of me was destined to lead the group of survivors until the 750 students were reduced to 17. But there were definitely advantages that an iplete version hadpared to aplete one. That was why I had personally dived into the ¡®School Ghost Stories.¡¯ "There¡¯s plenty of chocte, so take your time eating. How have you been escaping from the ghosts?" "Sniff. A strange fairy periodically gave us quests? Some kind of missions. If wepleted them, we were guaranteed food and a ce to sleep for a short while... Originally, I moved with the other kids, but as soon as thetest quest started, we were forcibly scattered by the fairy..." "I see." I responded casually, but my heart was pounding with excitement. What Cheon Yo-hwa had just said contained the situation I had longed for. ¡®...As expected. This version of Cheon Yo-hwa still perceives anomalies correctly.¡¯ Not just the ghosts of the ¡®School Ghost Stories,¡¯ but also the fairies of the tutorial. Originally, the Cheon Yo-hwa of previous cycles couldn¡¯t even perceive the fairies. Brainwashing. Or the effects of perception distortion. But the current Cheon Yo-hwa showed no signs of any abnormality. She was seeing the anomalies as they were. ¡®Then, there¡¯s some trigger that makes her unable to perceive anomalies in the future... What could it be?¡¯ I had to find that out now. I gave a benevolent smile. "You''ve really had a hard time, student. You must be very hungry. Do you want to eat this too?" "Sniff... Oh, cup noodles!" "Of course. And there are different vors too." "Jajangmyeon vor and m vor!" "Now, I¡¯ll connect the portable battery I carried for power outages to the kettle, and just wait a bit... There, it¡¯s done." "Wow! Wow! Yummy!" For a while, we enjoyed a moment of happiness. "Guard ahjussi, I realized something. Life... Life is worth living if you can just eat delicious food..." Cheon Yo-hwa showed a sage-like expression. If Siddhartha Gautama had tasted modern factory-made jajangmyeon cup noodles under the Bodhi tree, he might have acknowledged that ''life isn¡¯t that painful.'' "Of course. Even in such a world, those who live must continue living. I¡¯m going to look around for other students, so stay healthy." "Oh." I turned on myntern and started to move. Then, Cheon Yo-hwa hesitantly put down the cup noodle container and followed me. "W-Wait. Guard ahjussi, can¡¯t you take me with you?" "Hm? You, student?" "Yes! I, um, I was kind of like a leader before we were forcibly separated. There are many good kids, but there are also some who are mentally stressed... um. When they see the supplies you have, they might get bad ideas..." I inwardly smiled. It was a wee suggestion. My goal from the beginning was to apany Cheon Yo-hwa. But there was a big difference between offering help and receiving a voluntary decision. I had slyly cast a line, and she had bitten it admirably. "Are you saying you''ll protect me?" "Haha... Protecting is a bit much. Seeing you earlier, you seem really strong. I can just help you to avoid unnecessary troubles." Her yful imitation of throwing one-two punches was amusing, and I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. "Are you following me just because you want to eat more cup noodles?" "Huh, caught... But, um, in such a situation, I think it¡¯s important to move as a group. I¡¯ll always walk ahead!" "Hm." Walking ahead in a void meant taking the most dangerous role and trusting me with their back. It meant she would be in a position where betrayal was impossible. "Alright. If the student council president says so, I should believe you. Let¡¯s move together for a while." "Yes! Thank you, ahjussi!" We walked along the 4th-floor corridor. Suddenly, the back of Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s head caught my eye. A gauze bandage stained with dark, crusted blood. A trace of betrayal. A mental trauma. "......" "By the way, guard ahjussi, do you have any news from outside? We know nothing except the sparse information the fairy gives us." "I don¡¯t know exactly either, but the radio in the guard¡¯s office sometimes picks up outside news. It¡¯s no different here. The country copsed, the military was wiped out, that¡¯s all." "Ugh... So, there¡¯s no rescue teaming for us?" "There won''t be." "I figured..." Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s shoulders drooped visibly. "Although it¡¯s unfortunate, you should also prepare for the worst regarding your family outside. The world is very broken." "Well, I¡¯m not too worried about my family. They were all brainwashed by a cult and did strange things anyway." "Hmm. A cult." Step. Step. Aside from our footsteps and voices, the entire school was eerie. But there was no time to get bored. "The flow of time itself is different between this school and the outside." "What?" "How long do you think it¡¯s been since you were trapped here?" "Um, let me see... Including the days I missed, at least 390 days..." "Outside, it hasn¡¯t even been three months." "No way! Really?" Cheon Yo-hwa''s reactions were always exaggerated and varied. Unlike the necromancer of previous cycles who smiled like a doll. ¡®She was originally like this.¡¯ It felt novel. Despite having lived 117 cycles, there were still wells of human experience I hadn¡¯t yet explored. "Ahjussi." Cheon Yo-hwa lowered her voice. Human voices were fascinating. Surprisingly, simple vibrations and titles could convey a lot of information. I immediately focused on the front. Thump, thump, thump, thud. A ghost was opening a ssroom door anding out from the other end of the corridor. But not with its feet, but with its head. Not a handstand, but moving its head with thumps. Each time it moved, the ghost¡¯s head shattered, spilling blood around. Thump, thump, thump, thud. But the shattered skull pieces and blood quickly gathered back into the shape of a head. So, the ghost was repeating death each time its head hit the ground. "Oh... Thump-thump-thump ghost..." Cheon Yo-hwa whispered quietly. "Do you know that ghost?" "Yes, kind of. I¡¯ve encountered it a few times. It¡¯s slow, so it¡¯s easy to escape. But if you let your guard down and get too close, you suddenly get transported to the rooftop and fall into the yground." "You sound like you¡¯ve experienced it." "No, I saw a few kids fall from the rooftop... At least 17 kids died from falling that I saw. So, we call it the thump-thump-thump ghost or just the suicide ghost." Thump, thump, thump, thud. The ghost was getting closer, entering the ssroom backdoor and exiting the front door. Defeating the anomaly here was simple. Four exorcism methods immediately came to mind. But themand I chose was ¡®wait.¡¯ Cheon Yo-hwa had just joined my party. It was customary to test the newbie¡¯s skills. "Alright. Please wait a moment." Cheon Yo-hwa didn¡¯t refuse this implicit test. A deep breath echoed in the dark corridor. "... not. af..., sts..." Murmuring sound. I enhanced my hearing to listen in. "...I am not afraid. Cheon Yo-hwa is not afraid of ghosts. Cheon Yo-hwa has strong courage..." Darkness gathered around Cheon Yo-hwa''s outline, tightening. Thump, like a stretched rubber band snapping back, Cheon Yo-hwa dashed forward. Her movements were as agile as they had been during our first encounter. It wasn¡¯t the kind of patronizingpliment like ¡®good movements for an ordinary person.¡¯ Cheon Yo-hwa was no ordinary person. She was an Awakener. And she had survived 390 days in a tutorial dungeon of unprecedented difficulty. Cheon Yo-hwa, with ¡®good movements even for an awakener,¡¯ quickly closed in on the ghost. When she was about 4 meters away, she started to slow down. Then, swish, like a gymnast, she smoothly went into a handstand. Thump, thump, thwack! Cheon Yo-hwa''s legs spun like windmills. In the upside-down position, her skills were good enough for a breakdancer to recruit her on the spot. The ghost wobbled under her kicks. After two, three, and four hits, its bnce was bound to break. -Uwooooh... "Hyahaaa!" Cheon Yo-hwa grabbed the ghost by the hair and jumped up. The ghost, whose hair was wholly grabbed, had no choice but to be pulled up. -Oh, oh, oh, oh. "Hoh." I almost whistled. The ¡®ghost that had to move with its head¡¯ was standing upright. Its weak point had been struck. Whether Cheon Yo-hwa instinctively grasped the exorcism method or stumbled upon it didn¡¯t matter. In a fight against anomalies, results mattered. Thud¡ª The ghost, whose hair was grabbed by Cheon Yo-hwa, turned into chunks of flesh from the toes up and fell. In less than 7 seconds, its legs, body, upper torso, and head shattered and scattered across the corridor. Thest bits of hair slipped through Cheon Yo-hwa''s fingers. Cheon Yo-hwa shook her hands in disgust. "Ugh, gross... Anyway, how was that, guard ahjussi? I fight pretty well, right?" "Not just well. There¡¯s a reason you were picked as the leader. I¡¯ll rely on you from now on." "Hehe. Yes!" The oue of this battle wasn¡¯t just about confirming Cheon Yo-hwa''sbat abilities. Anyway, that kid would eventually be one of the strongest awakeners in Korea, along with Dang Seo-rin. Her potential was already verified. The real achievementy elsewhere. ¡®That kid. She just brainwashed herself.¡¯ The secret to Cheon Yo-hwa''s strength. Right before she charged at the thump-thump-thump ghost, Cheon Yo-hwa had definitely murmured to herself. -I am not afraid. -Cheon Yo-hwa is not afraid of ghosts. -Cheon Yo-hwa has strong courage. It wasn¡¯t merely reciting a prayer to boost her courage. Because Cheon Yo-hwa''s ability was necromancy, more precisely, ¡®the ability to input the thought processes and behavioral principles of NPCs.¡¯ ¡®She was slowly changing her own thought processes and behavioral principles to be advantageous for survival andbat.¡¯ I entered the ssroom where the thump-thump-thump ghost had emerged. I nced at ces where it was hard to notice, like the underside of the teacher¡¯s desk, inside the school desks'' drawers, and the locker. ËÀ. ËÀ. ËÀ. ËÀ. Sure enough, there were talismans. Just like the ones found in the restroom. All were curses written in human blood. The attendance book on the teacher¡¯s desk had, coincidentally, the name Cheon Yo-hwa, suggesting this was her ssroom. "......" "Ahjussi, it seems there¡¯s no one around here! Let¡¯s try over there! I¡¯m sure some kids hid to escape the thump-thump-thump ghost!" The sky outside was red. Through the broken windows, white birch trees were bleeding onto the corridor. The entire corridor was blood-red, like it had been pierced and torn apart. "Alright." In the middle of such a corridor, I lightly waved back at Cheon Yo-hwa, who was brightly waving her arm at me. How had that kide to be unable to perceive anomalies? Why had she attracted the interest of the Infinite Void and be its apostle? And why were there so many curse talismans in Baekhwa Girls'' High School? I felt the answers were slowly forming in my mind. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 91 Breakdown V After that, the operation to exterminate the ''School Ghost Stories'' proceeded smoothly. Cheon Yo-hwa and I continued to patrol the school. Whenever we found survivors, we immediately transferred them to the ''safe zone.'' The survivors shed tears of gratitude. "The ghosts... aren''ting out?" "We can use the bathroom freely!" "Thank you, guard oppa!" "Oh, but there are corpses... Well, we''ve seen plenty of corpses by now, so it doesn''t matter." "Shit, these cup noodles taste fucking amazing..."Since the first to third floors werergely dered ''safe zones,'' there was plenty of space for the students to stay. The main concern was providing food and maintaining hygiene for hundreds of survivors... As for hygiene, I had plenty of supplies packed in my trunk, so that was covered. The real problem was food. Although my trunk, obtained in the 115th cycle, boasted a capacityparable to a subspace, it was only asrge as an ordinary library. It wasn''t the romantic, mansion-sized library often seen in fantasy novels. Fortunately, Korea had experience oveing food shortages, having once been one of the poorest countries in the world (though this applied to only 50% of the country). Therefore, we were quite adept at quickly resolving food crises. "We''ll use the cafeteria." "Ugh." Cheon Yo-hwa was horrified. She had a natural talent for expressing words like ''dislike'' and ''contempt'' with just her facial muscles. "You mean the cafeteria on the first floor? That''s... I''ve only been there once, but there are so many ghosts." "Of course, there are many. Didn¡¯t you know? Ghosts always gather the most in bathrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens." "No, I didn''t know..." The dominant anomaly haunting the cafeteria at Baekhwa Girls'' High was the ''Human Flesh Restaurant.'' 1. The cafeteria served meals daily. 2. However, the meat used in the meals was actually mixed with human flesh. 3. Those who ate the human flesh became rapidly addicted and started craving more, eventually turning into cannibals who could only consume human flesh. If they didn''t eat human flesh for even a few days, they went insane. Anomalies rted to human flesh often appeared in the void. Especially in voids where ''massacres'' had urred, these anomalies were highly likely to appear. It was no exception in the ''School Ghost Stories,'' where hundreds had already been ughtered. The void was a harsher environment than the South Pole. When faced with the dilemma of "Will you starve to death tomorrow, or go insane after one to three months?" even the most seasoned awakeners would weep and resort to cannibalism. However... the ''School Ghost Stories'' were a bit different. "Student, the school''s meals weren''t that great, were they?" "Huh? Oh, yeah. Dinner was alright, but breakfast and lunch were really bad. It made living in the dorms hard." "Then what are you worried about? The meals are all served separately on stainless steel trays, right? Even the serving dishes are all separate." "What?" "If you only eat the side dishes that are clearly vegetables, you''re safe. From now on, breakfast and lunch will be the main meals for the students." If eating human flesh makes you go insane, then just eat everything else but the human flesh, right? In most voids, it was hard to circumvent the ''Human Flesh Restaurant'' anomaly with such tricks. Korea was notoriously tough on vegans. The void restaurants in Korea specialized in dishes like spicy pork stir-fry, hot pot, and pork cutlets, targeting animal protein lovers. Unless there were dishes like aglio e olio, which didn¡¯t include meat, or hamburgers where the patties could be easily removed, it was quite difficult to separate meat from the menus of most void restaurants. However, ''schools'' and ''military'' were different. These two institutions, unlike other regions, respected life so much that they were genuinely considerate of vegans. In my view, the ''Human Flesh Restaurant'' anomaly in Baekhwa Girls'' High was merely a convenient nutrient source. "You could use anomalies this way..." Cheon Yo-hwa was astonished as she received meals from the shadowy cafeteria ghosts. "If you shed your prejudices, you''ll find that many anomalies can be quite useful." "Ugh, is that so... Oh. Stir-fried anchovies taste good. It¡¯s so good it¡¯s scary! Guard ahjussi, are you sure this is okay?" I nced at Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s profile. The student council president was staring at her meal tray with aplex expression. Suddenly, I recalled our first meeting, specifically the conversation we had at the school gate in the 5th cycle when I recruited Cheon Yo-hwa. -Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s abilities are very powerful. Whether it¡¯s turning dead bodies into zombies or living people into zombies, I¡¯m not sure. -...Bodies? Back then, Cheon Yo-hwa couldn¡¯t properly recognize the word ''bodies.'' Probably the same for ''human flesh.'' Brainwashing for survival. If you think about what the 17 survivors had to eat to stay alive for four years, it¡¯s a simple issue. In reality, the Baekhwa Girls'' High guild members were all addicted to human flesh, going mad if they didn''t consume it at least once every four days. "...My idea isn''t that great. If more time had passed, the students would have reached the same conclusion." "Ugh. Us?" "Of course. And this solution isn¡¯t permanent. Eat as much as you can while you can. I¡¯ll also keep as much longsting food as possible." "...?" My prediction was spot on. A weekter, the menu in the school cafeteria began to change slightly. "Huh? Ahjussi. Doesn''t it seem like there are more meat dishes?" "Hmm." Anomalies lived and moved. In terms of life''s pace, anomalies were much more urgent and desperate than humans. While humans took thousands or tens of thousands of years to slowly evolve, filtering out mutations in the web of time, anomalies could mutate as a species in just a single day. As a result. "Oh no. Two-thirds of the dishes are meat..." The side dishes on Cheon Yo-hwa''s stainless steel tray were exceedingly luxurious. Chicken drumsticks, beef soup, meatballs, boiled pork. The only non-meat dishes were vegetable curry, white rice, and sd. In the past, such a meal could have been posted online with the title [The level of high school meals these days, real or fake?] garnering praise and jealousy from the older generation. "Throw away everything except the vegetable curry, rice, and sd." "Yes... Sniff, what a waste!" Cheon Yo-hwa looked teary-eyed as she threw away the side dishes into the waste bin. "Yesterday, someone couldn¡¯t resist the cheese pork cutlet and took a bite. I scolded them harshly, but I understood their feelings..." "One bite might be fine. But if you keep eating two, three bites, it¡¯s over. At least we have curry for now. Soon, there''ll be nothing but in rice." "Ugh. The nutrition is terrible. It¡¯d be great if we had protein supplements..." It was clear that the food situation would deteriorate quickly. But we hadn''t been idle during this time. We increased patrols and searched the entire void, resulting in the rescue of over 150 survivors. The ''School Ghost Stories'' were almost exterminated. The school building, which had oddly expanded to 13 floors, returned to its original four-story structure. The yground and dormitory were also restored. ...But over 500 corpses were found as well. Compared to the future of previous cycles where only 17 survived, the route of the 117th cycle was significantly better. Thanks to urately identifying the victims'' locations, future cycles fared even better. But let¡¯s focus on the story of the 117th cycle for now. "Ahjussi, is the funeral over?" In the yground, wooden desks and chairs were piled up and burning like a campfire. The wood wasn¡¯t the best for a bonfire, so the smoke was thick. But the mes were well-controlled, rising straight into the sky. It was a decent rope to guide the souls to heaven. "Yes, it just ended." "Hehe. Did many of our kids cry again?" "Crying is good. Just likeughter knows no borders, tears have no nationality." Cheon Yo-hwa stood next to me with her hands behind her back. The sky over Baekhwa Girls'' High School, tainted by the void, was always blood-red. The red spider lilies surrounding the school buildings were equally red. The only things that escaped the redness were the white birch trees, which formed white iron bars imprisoning the school. No matter how many anomalies we exterminated, the spider lilies and birch trees never disappeared. "Yeah. Holding a funeral seems to have eased their minds. You even collected all the ashes. These days, I see kids wearing nes with their best friends'' ashes inside." "To give to their families when they meet them?" "Yes. Even if they can¡¯t deliver them, the talisman still has meaning." "It must be hard for kids your age to care about the dead''s feelings. You¡¯remendable." "Ha ha... Oh, here, take this!" Cheon Yo-hwa handed me a rice ball. It was white rice with stir-fried anchovies wrapped in seaweed. The number of ''non-meat side dishes'' had drastically decreased. So, some students had formed a cooking team to recreate meals from the cafeteria. "Thank you." Of course, this was still a grand feast for me. By tomorrow, even the stir-fried anchovies would be gone. The day after, the rice would turn into Bolognese pasta. While we had stored food with rtively long shelf lives, there was a clear limit. At most, it wouldst four days. The hourss of the ''School Ghost Stories'' was rapidly building a pyramid in the desert. Cheon Yo-hwa looked up at the blood-red sky. "Ahjussi, when can we finally get out of this hell...?" "Tomorrow." Cheon Yo-hwa''s eyes turned towards me. "Tell the other students to wait near the school gate, ready to escape at any moment. Yo-hwa,e with me." "......" "By tomorrow, we¡¯ll cut out the heart of this void." We searched every corner of the school: dormitory, academic building, old building, yground, auditorium. Naturally, we ughtered all the anomalies. The total number of anomalies exterminated by me and some students was 99. Exactly 99. It was a near-miraculous achievement, but the blood-red sky of the ''School Ghost Stories'' still remained. This meant there were still anomalies hiding somewhere. And I had a good idea of where this secret hideout was. "It''s underground." Cheon Yo-hwa blinked. "Underground? There isn¡¯t really a basement in our school... There are some semi-basements used as small storage rooms, but that''s it." Indeed, there were no stairs leading from the first floor to the basement in any building. Yes, stairs. As you all might have guessed by now, the premier means of transportation in the void wasn¡¯t stairs. "Yo-hwa, we''re going to take the elevator." "Elevator? Where is there an... Oh. No way?" It was the ¡®no way.¡¯ Cheon Yo-hwa and I packed supplies and moved to the old building. Although it was called the old building, it was still used as a club building and wasn¡¯t that old. There was a service elevator installed in the old building. Dumbwaiter, lift. There were many names for it, but students just called it the service elevator. It wasn¡¯t built for people, but it was still a good ''elevator,'' wasn¡¯t it? "Okay, you go in first." "No. I always thought about what it would be like to go in there whenever I saw it... Ah! Ahjussi, no! It¡¯s too small! It''s so small! Really small... Oh? Surprisingly spacious..." "In the void, physical space means little." Thud, clunk. After squeezing into the elevator and turning on the shlight, I saw something surprising: elevator buttons. [B001] [B005] [B009] [B013] [B002] [B006] [B010] [B014] [B003] [B007] [B011] [B015] [B004] [B008] [B012] [B016] Twitch¡ª One wall of the elevator was covered in buttons. As the shlight shone on it, Cheon Yo-hwa wriggled behind me. "B-Basement level 16? Are there 16 floors underground that we haven''t explored? No way! That¡¯s impossible! Ahjussi, this can¡¯t be done in a day or two..." "Ah, don¡¯t worry. In such cases, it¡¯s the form, not the numbers, that matter." "Yes?" "Look at the buttons. There are four rows vertically and four columns horizontally. This is just a way to represent the number 4." "Oh..." "Press one. Anywhere is fine." "O-Okay. I''ll try." Cheon Yo-hwa extended her finger and pressed the button for the 12th floor. Clunk! The elevator jolted. Cheon Yo-hwa let out a small scream and grabbed my shoulder. Clunk, clunk... At that moment, the elevator buttons blinked red. [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] [ËÀ444] The red light from the buttons filled the entire elevator with a bloody hue. "......" Cheon Yo-hwa swallowed hard. Though it was just regr LED lights, the red light seemed to ooze like a viscous liquid. The red light from the buttons seeped down and stuck to both of us. Clunk! The elevator rattled like an old ship docking at a pier. Then, the door slowly descended, revealing not the false fourth floor above ground, but the ''fourth basement floor,'' the true meaning of the ''underworld'' in the school ghost stories. "Come out slowly. And every time I take a step, make sure to take a step. Don''t take more or fewer steps." "O-Okay. This ce is..." Cheon Yo-hwa cautiously stepped out of the elevator, looking around. There was no need for long observation. "A hospital...?" Because every scene was identical and endlessly repeating. The white hospital corridors and ceilings. There were no patients or doctors, and the hospital beds, eerily clean, lined the corridor. Every bed had a clear IV line hanging like a suspension bridge. The corridor was infinite. ¨D¨DI had seen this exact scene before, albeit briefly, in the 89th cycle. ¡®Infinite Void.¡¯ Yes. The 89th cycle was when I witnessed the Infinite Void. The prison, school, hospital, swimming pool, movie theater¡ªscenes from the screen chaotically intermingling and ovepping. No, a scene of madness. ¡®...So this is the main base.¡¯ The main body of the Apostle of the Infinite Void. It had nested in the fourth basement floor of Baekhwa Girls'' High School, in the Infernal Hell. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 92 Breakdown VI Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High. To be more precise, there were quite a few signs indicating that ''School Ghost Stories'' was the nest of the Infinite Void. First, the school''s scenery was a decisive piece of evidence. Once, in the 89th cycle, my consciousness briefly touched the Fairy King, allowing me to glimpse the Infernal Hell, and the sight was exactly like this. [The school was an abandoned wooden building. The name Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’) wavered ominously.] [The sky was blood-red. Broken windows, with white birch trees scratching their pale skin against the shards of ss, peered into the school¡¯s corridors. The school was a wreck, pierced through by white spikes.] No matter how you looked at it, it was just like School Ghost Stories. Of course, there were differences as well.For instance, the school name. Originally, Baekhwa (°×»¨) meant ''white flower.'' Although the characters ¡®°×¡¯ and ¡®°Ù¡¯ looked somewhat simr, they were clearly different in Hanja. However, as I had emphasized before, wordy, ''ying with words in the world,'' was the basis of magic. My theory was as follows. In Baekhwa, the ''white'' (°×) referred to the white birch trees. These white birches were evident throughout the school''s corridors, seen through the broken windows of both the new and old buildings. They embodied the concept of ''white.'' As they transformed into birch trees, the empty spot left by the white (°×) was filled by the homonymic white (°Ù). A simple wordy. Then what about the flower (»¨) in Baekhwa? This was also simple. Despite exterminating 99 anomalies, only two things in Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School had not returned to their original state. The birch trees, standing like prison bars. And the red spider lilies blooming everywhere. These red spider lilies had taken over the meaning of flower (»¨). Reality had its words stolen by anomalies, transforming ¡®white flower¡¯ into ¡®red flower,¡¯ and the world was overtaken by the void. Thus, no matter how many anomalies were exterminated, the name ¡®Baekhwa¡¯ itself... thest magic of the anomaly remained intact. ¡°That¡¯s my interpretation.¡± ¡°Wow... I never thought of it like that. I always wondered why the birch trees and spider lilies stayed the same while everything else went back to normal...¡± Step. Step. We walked through the empty hospital. The ceiling, pirs, and floor were all bleached white, extending endlessly. Where we were. When we were. We kept our consciousness clear, which was bing blurry from theck of any fixed coordinates, by continuing our conversation. ¡°No matter how far we walk, it¡¯s the same corridor repeating. Is there no exit...?¡± ¡°Just hang on a bit longer.¡± This was why a duo was important. Even if Cheon Yo-hwa was far inferior to me inbat power, being in a pair in the void was much more advantageous than being alone. The basic unit that made up a person''s world wasn¡¯t an atom but rather the duo of ¡®someone else and myself.¡¯ ¡°Hmm. Oh, right! How do we get rid of the birch trees and spider lilies? Can¡¯t we just cut them down?¡± ¡°Tried it, they just grow back.¡± ¡°Ew...¡± ¡°They may look like trees and flowers on the outside, but they¡¯re actually anomalies. While most anomalies can be exorcised through brute force, some can¡¯t be harmed physically. You have to exploit their weak points.¡± ¡°Weak points...¡± In fact, that was why I used school desks as firewood for the funerals instead of birch trees. Burning the bodies of anomalies for a funeral pyre would be too ominous. The toxic substances from the smoke were far less harmful. ¡°Hmm. But thinking about it that way... The weak point of the ¡®Baekhwa¡¯ anomaly is still unclear, right? It doesn¡¯t move around like other ghosts, we don¡¯t know its true nature. Oh, is the weak point hidden in the basement?¡± ¡°Close enough.¡± Step. A lighter step echoed after mine. Following the instructions when we first entered, Cheon Yo-hwa moved precisely in sync with my steps. ¡°Stop here.¡± ¡°Ah, okay.¡± ¡°We can take ten more free steps. Getfortable now if you need to. Make sure you take all ten steps.¡± ¡°...What¡¯s the point of this?¡± ¡°If we take ten more steps, that will be exactly the 4,444th step.¡± ¡°......¡± I opened my trunk bag. Then I took out candles one by one and set them around. Before long, a hundred candles stood in a formation like a birch forest. I sat in the middle, with Cheon Yo-hwa across from me. Snap¡ª With a snap of my fingers, the hundred candles all lit up with a whoosh. It was an application of aura. ¡°Ahjussi, this is...¡± ¡°Yo-hwa, we¡¯re about to perform a ritual.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Did you take all ten steps?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You asked earlier what the weak point of the ¡®Baekhwa¡¯ anomaly was, right? The ritual we¡¯re about to conduct will be that weak point. The ritual is simple. Have you ever shared ghost stories with friends during summer outings?¡± ¡°Yes, I have.¡± ¡°Good. It¡¯s the same as that. We¡¯re going to talk about all the ghosts we¡¯ve exorcised so far, you and I, alternating. Every ghost, making up a total of 99. We¡¯ll talk about them one by one.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you start?¡± ¡°Ah, yes. Um, let¡¯s see. A ghost I saw personally, while walking on the fourth floor of the school, I heard a faint knocking sound...¡± Quietly. Her voice flowed gently as she began the ghost story. Flicker, flicker. The hundred mes swayed, and the white hospital lights hummed. Between the red mes from the ground and the white mes from the ceiling, Cheon Yo-hwa stared nkly at me. ¡°... That¡¯s the end of my story.¡± ¡°Good.¡± Snap. When I snapped my fingers, one candle flickered out. A thin gray smoke rose to the ceiling. ¡°Ah...¡± ¡°Now it¡¯s my turn. From my own experience, there¡¯s a Hanako ghost in the third stall of the boys¡¯ bathroom at Baekhwa. If you spin thirteen times in that stall...¡± One. Two. Three. Four. The candles went out one by one. Each time, a wisp of smoke rose as an offering to the sky, and the dried wicks emitted a ck stench. Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s shoulders twitched. Flicker¡ª Cheon Yo-hwa realized the anomaly around the fortieth me. ¡°Ahjussi, look. The corridor lights...¡± ¡°I know. Don¡¯t worry.¡± The hospital corridor lights were going out. From the far end. One by one. One meter at a time. There was no exit or window in the infernal basement. The infinite hospital corridor, once the lights went out, was pitch dark. ¡°Let¡¯s continue. It¡¯s your turn.¡± ¡°...Okay.¡± Flicker. The darkness exhaled, closing in. From both sides. Each breath matched our own, as if our breaths drew it closer. ¡°My friend told me this story, about a ghost named Crash, who was just a head with dangling guts...¡± Flicker. Flicker. Flicker. Flicker¡ª We picked up the pace in our storytelling. The darkness quickened in response. Each light going out made Cheon Yo-hwa flinch. ¡°My story... ends here.¡± The surroundings had grown cold. Before the ritual, the hospital corridor had seemed endless. Now, only a narrow strip remained. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Flicker¡ª Only one light remained. One candle struggled against the encroaching darkness, its me weakly sputtering. ¡°Good. Now it¡¯s my turn...¡± ¡°Ahjussi.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa suddenly spoke up. ¡°You¡¯re not actually our school¡¯s security guard, are you?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It felt odd. I¡¯ve lived in the dorms, so I know most of the guards¡¯ faces. But I¡¯d never seen you before. I was too out of it when we first met, you were in uniform and had a shlight, so I thought maybe you were new. But none of the others recognized you either. Still, you kept helping us...¡± After a moment¡¯s thought, I nodded. ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡± ¡°Knew it. So... why did you help us?¡± ¡°To eradicate the void here. The School Ghost Stories. The Infernal Hell.¡± ¡°Infernal Hell...¡± ¡°But I¡¯ll exin my true identity tomorrow. For now, let¡¯s focus on exorcising the anomaly that¡¯s been killing you. Can you trust me?¡± ¡°......¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s orange ponytail bobbed like a candle me. ¡°Yes. Of course.¡± ¡°Good. Now, it¡¯s time for thest story. This is a Japanese ghost story. Have you heard of the Hundred Tales?¡± ¡°The Hundred Tales?¡± The Hundred Tales. In Japanese, it¡¯s called Hyakumonogatari, a collection of y¨kai stories. ¡°To summon this ghost, people gather and light a hundred candles, each telling a ghost story, extinguishing a candle with each tale.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Just like we¡¯re doing now.¡± Thest candle flickered. ¡°ording to the tale, when all hundred candles go out, the storyteller of thest tale dies.¡± ¡°Dies...¡± ¡°Or a ghost appears. We¡¯re already in the underworld. A person in the underworld can¡¯t die again, so a ghost has to appear.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Here¡¯s the interesting part. In the original tale, the ghost is called Aoandon, appearing when a ¡®bluentern¡¯ is lit.¡± Flicker. I pressed the shlight button. A blue LED light swept through the darkness. ¡°But the ghost that will appear here isn¡¯t Aoandon.¡± ¡°Then who...?¡± ¡°The name of this school is Baekhwa, meaning ¡®white flower.¡¯ But remember I said the name was stolen?¡± I pulled out a brush pen and wrote on the white floor of the corridor. ¡°The void is an empty space. It takes over the original world, making it a void, and then it imprints itself. So the letters of Baekhwa were stolen, and the new letters are...¡± °ÙÔ’. One hundred stories (°Ù) and tales (Ô’). ¡°......¡± ¡°In Japanese, the concept of a story is expressed with two characters, ¡®monogatari¡¯ (ÎïÕZ).¡± I continued writing. ¡°For example, the famous ¡®Arabian Nights¡¯ is called ¡®Thousand and One Nights¡¯ monogatari¡¯ (Ç§Ò¹Ò»Ò¹ÎïÕZ) in Japanese. But in Korean, it¡¯s simply tranted as ¡®thousand nights¡¯ tale¡¯ (Ç§Ò¹Ò»Ò¹Ô’). So, the Japanese use two characters for a concept expressed with one character in Korean.¡± ¡°Then... the ghost story called ¡®Hundred Tales¡¯ in Korean would be...¡± ¡°Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’).¡± Literally. The anomaly that consumed Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High. The true name of the entity we¡¯ve been calling ¡®School Ghost Stories.¡¯ The alternate identity of the entity I once referred to as the Void. ¡°The leader of the Hundred Ghosts (°Ù¹íÒ¹ÐÐ) that controls the other ny-nine ghosts. The one that took the original name of this school, turning part of the world into a void. Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’) is the final ghost of this infernal hell.¡± Snap¡ª The candle died. The lights went out. The darknessughed. The thick smoke smell was the breath of the endless maw of darkness. Flicker. Time moved in the darkness. The universe was originally darkness, so it was the original color of time and space¡¯s hostile intent. The hundred extinguished candles grew into a white forest in an instant. A forest of birch trees. The white skin of the trees caught fire, and the mes bloomed into red spider lilies. The red mes turned into fairy faces, and a hundred fairiesughed. Theirughter went like this: Flowers (Ô’) bloom into bigger flowers (»¨), which burn into fire (»ð). Burn, burn. All things are infinitely equal. So, shall not a hundred stories be a hundred flowers and a hundred mes...? Coordinates. Time. Space became abstract, and existence twisted. ¡°Ahjussi¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± I grabbed Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°......¡± Cheon Yo-hwa gripped my hand tightly. Thus, the coordinates were fixed. In that moment, the colorful mes of the universe paused, and the fairies stoppedughing. The Milky Way flowed. Hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of eyes stared at us. I called out its name. ¡°Infinite Void.¡± The universe shuddered. -Unexpected contact. -A possibility not previously calcted. -Infinite Void. -Infernal Hell. -A correct name. -An incorrect name. -Another random variable. Colors breathed. Starlight danced in a round. -What are you? -A massive variable. -How did you perceive our existence? How did you understand our identity? How did you locate us? The entity that saw the world as a vastboratory, creating fairies as terminals and sending them to the tutorial grounds, questioned. I raised my head. ¡°Are you alright, Yo-hwa?¡± ¡°Yes. A bit dizzy, but surprisingly fine. Actually...¡± Cheon Yo-hwa let go of my hand and bent down. Theces of her red and ck basketball shoes tightened. ¡°I feel great. Right now, I could sprint at full speed for forty minutes. Anyway, that weird Milky Way is the culprit behind all this, right? I¡¯ll kill it.¡± ¡°Wonderful. Let¡¯s show thebat power of a former school guard.¡± Boss battle. Threat level: Void God. Infinite Void. Beginbat. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 93 Breakdown VII ¨D¨DHow should I write the tale of the battle that took ce that day? I think I''ve managed this story quite well so far. But now, as I reflect on the moment when I first exterminated an Outer God-ss anomaly, I feel a sudden, renewed difficulty in narrating it. I always wish to be as truthful as possible with you. If I stammer while singing a poem (ÔŠ), it''s not to perform tricks for you, but because there are nights in the heavens that can only be expressed through poetic words. Starlight poured down. Those stars had the viscosity of water rather than light. Swoosh¡ªthe red starlight poured down, speaking with the voice of a waterfall. Like a sudden tsunami crashing onto the beach, the water-like light surged towards us, ready to drown us. Cheon Yo-hwa quickly turned towards me. We were still holding hands."Ahjussi! Give the order!" "Never dissolve into your surroundings. That anomaly will try everything to test and experiment on you, eventually turning you into a set object, ab rat. Various illusions and visions will swallow your life like a tidal wave. Don''t get influenced by them; keep yourself grounded." "Okay!" Swoosh. The red waterlight quickly rose to our waists. I stared unshaken at the ''Infinite Void''. The distance between us and the Infinite Void was either just 10 meters, or 100 meters. It could have been 4,444 meters as well. It was the distance between samsara and nirvana. It was both the Infinite Void and the Infinite. From that extreme horizon, the anomaly''s unendingughter echoed. Kya-hahaha-hahaha-ha-ha-ha¡ª In ancient India, if 13 kilometers were referred to as a yojana, it was one yojana and also 20,000 yojanas. In Buddhism, it is said that the hell of sentient beings lies 20,000 yojanas below the surface. In other words, hell was 260,000 kilometers underground. The diameter of the Earth was 12,700 kilometers. The distance from Earth to the Moon was 385,000 kilometers. The Moon, from ancient times, was the closest otherworld to Earth. Hell was located at a distance that was sufficient and overflowing to traverse this world but woefully inadequate to reach another world. Ka-ha-ha-ha ka-ka-ka-ka¡ª The middle point between samsara and nirvana. The realm where beings could no longer stay in this world butcked the energy to reach another world. Thus, in thend of reincarnation where the wheel just spins idly, only the sound ofughter mocking humans endlessly squeaked and tore. It was the scorn of the anomaly that isted humans from the world. "Yo-hwa. In the realm of that anomaly, both time and space can deceive you. But the fact that ''you are being deceived'' will remain unchanged." "¡¡." I held Cheon Yo-hwa''s hand a little tighter. The distance between us was the smallest unit of distance a human could have. "...Yes." "The main culprit, the figure, the existence mocking you the most from the forefront. That is the nail holding the illusion in ce. Understand? Everything else is normal, but there will be something uniquely abnormal. If you pull out and eliminate that nail, the illusion will disappear." "Aah! Oh, I totally get it! It''s like scenes I''ve seen often inics. Okay. Ahjussi, just leave it to me¨D" Blink. The light surged to our chins, submerging uspletely. The sensation of our sped hands blurred as it was engulfed by the water''s undtions. Clunk, a sound echoed. It was like the noise of an elevator falling or the sound of a worn-out wheel rolling. Perhaps it was the sound of time. The world before my eyes changedpletely. Blink. "¨D¨DUndertaker. Undertaker, what''s wrong?" The smell of summer was in the air. The leaves, soaked by a recent shower, exuded a scent as rich as green tea. It was a cedar forest. The cedar roots spread in all directions, and on those stiff legs, the blue hydrangea petals stretched out once more. Amid the stretching of the green trees and the blue young petals, a mischievous old railway snaked like a serpent. "Really. Phew. Be careful. If you keep getting distracted like that, you''re going to bite your tongue." On the railway, a miniature train was perched like a toy. It was a three-carriage mini steam engine, the kind you''d see in an amusement park. Dang Seo-rin, wearing a witch''s hat, was grumbling as she rode the train. "¡¡." "Ah- Ah- the railway is broken again. The world might have ended, but aren''t the KORAIL employees doing their jobs too carelessly?" Uhtcha, Dang Seo-rin jumped off the lotive. She stretched with a long "Uhtaaa-" following the surrounding cedar trees and hydrangeas. Well, it''s been four hours since we boarded the train. I could sit still for 40 hours without any problem, but a frail wizard like Dang Seo-rin must have felt her whole body getting stiff. "...Try to understand. The KORAIL employees probably all ended up unemployed. The world is too harsh to demand passion pay." "Kids these days have no tenacity, none. Phew. I''ll connect the railway; you check the wheels. The train has been wobbling strangely for a while now." "Alright. Leave it to me." "Okay." I grabbed some tools from the cargo hold and inspected the wheels of our steam lotive... the ''Hogwarts Express''. Please don''t criticize the train''s name. In this crazy n to travel the world on a mini steam train, my authority was quite insignificant. The nner of this trip, who loved Harry Potter so much as a child that she wore a witch''s hat all year round, twirled her wand. "Disassemble-Reassemble." A two-line song casually slipped from Dang Seo-rin''s lips. Clink-nk, clink-nk¡ª The rails we had just passed separated and floated in the air. Then they moved themselves to the broken part of the railway ahead. ck! The broken railway was instantly repaired. Of course, the railway behind us was now broken, but what of it? It''s hard to believe there are any other crazies in the world besides us who would embark on such a mad journey. "Done! How are the wheels? Broken?" "No, just a few loose screws. I tightened them with all my strength, so there shouldn''t be any issues for a while." "That''s a relief. Then let''s get going again!" tter. The express train moved. The lotive let out a loud whistle and vigorously puffed out steam. By the way, that''s not real steam from burning coal. It''s just an ''illusion magic'' Dang Seo-rin cast. Not just the steam; the entire express train we rode was imbued with Dang Seo-rin''s ''illusion magic'' that she spent 30 days meticulously designing. In this crazy world, we were slightly crazier than others, with Dang Seo-rin being the most uniquely crazy among us. "We''re about to cross into North Korea." Dang Seo-rin unfolded a map. A map covered with fingerprints. It was colored with red and yellow markers here and there. The map trembled like a maple leaf from the train''s ttering. "After North Korea, we''ll reach Duman River Station, cross over to Hasan Station, and then it''s Russia. From there, we just ride the Trans-Siberian Railway all the way up." "¡¡." "Ah, I''ve always had the Trans-Siberian Railway on my bucket list!" tter, tter. "It''s ironic that I only get to travel after the world has ended. Life is truly mysterious. Anyway, after Moscow, we''ll head to Brus, Pnd, Germany..." "Yeah." "Yes?" I murmured softly. "Yes, this is my dream." "¡¡." "To someday travel the world with you, Seo-rin. Riding this strange, uniquely modified train that suits your tastes." "¡¡? What are you talking about all of a sudden?" Dang Seo-rin tilted her head while holding the map. "We''re doing it now." The cedar forest swayed in the wind. I looked up at the sky. Thick steam rose, following the sky''s breath. "One car on the train belongs to you, Dang Seo-rin. It''s only natural; you wouldn''t give up the first car to anyone else. That one car is also your room. You''d decorate it just like a caravan camper to your heart''s content. Skulls, crystal balls, wands, brooms... You might even keep an owl." "¡¡." "The second car is my room. It would start off neatly organized, but as the travel days go by, your belongings would slowly invade my space. You''re always collecting trinkets, so one car wouldn''t be enough for your stuff." tter, tter. "The third car is the dining and resting space. The fourth car is storage. I have a magic trunk bag, so there''s actually plenty of space. If the railway breaks, you use magic and song to fix it, and if an anomaly attacks, I defeat it. Like that, we can go anywhere, as far as we want. We can travel forever." "¡¡." "But not yet." tter. "Seo-rin. On the night we defeated Ten Legs, when I first revealed that I was a regressor, and when you died. I swore. I would restore this world to its original state before traveling with you." "...When do you think we can leave?" "Sorry. Honestly, it''s still far off." I chuckled softly. "But... I always remember, Seo-rin. And you need to get stronger too." "Me? Why?" "Because we''re going to cross the Antic and Pacific Oceans by train. You have to freeze the seawater in real-time to create an ice railway. Even if we reach the beach and find a lonely telephone pole standing in the sand, our journey won''t end." "Oh my God. Are you crazy? Do you know how much mana it would take to keep freezing the sea continuously?" "Listen. Not just crossing the sea, but we''re going to follow the route of the Titanic!" "Oh my God. Are you crazy? That''s a fantastic idea." We chuckled softly. "...I see. Undertaker, you have the [Complete Memory] ability. No matter how many illusions, you won''t lose the coordinates." "Yeah." Dang Seo-rin looked up at the sky. "Ah- Ah- The promise of a journey we made centuries ago is being postponed again?" She sighed, dangling her legs outside the train like a lotive puffing out steam. "What''s a few centuries? It''s almost a thousand years now. Seriously, what kind of friend makes a travel promise for a thousand yearster and then postpones it again?" "Sorry. Mostly Old Man Scho''s fault." "Pft. Yeah¡ªhaha! That''s right. It''s that old man''s fault. You''re a supporter, but it''s the damage dealer who ran away alone who''s at fault." Dang Seo-rinughed heartily. Then she looked at me. "I''m probably just an illusion of the anomaly. An AI-like existence created to replicate ''Dang Seo-rin'' as closely as possible using your memory. Yet, why do you still treat me as a friend?" "Don''t say something foolish. Life is just a dream. There''s no need to dismiss it as a delusion just because you''re dreaming within a dream. I''m just grateful that you follow me in any dream." "¡¡." Mypanion was silent for a while. Then she smiled at me. "...I''m looking forward to the journey. It makes my heart race." "Me too." "I''ll be waiting. Even if it takes a thousand years." tter¡ª The wheels moved. What is engraved in childhood leaves its mark for life. For Dang Seo-rin, it was magic and the existence of wizards. Then, the first shape a person sees after being born is a circle, a circle (ˆA). The pupil of a person''s eye. The eyes of mother and father. Someone''s eyes. ck inds floating in an infinite white sea. Those inds were not solitary; they were twin inds. For humans, the most perfect shape was a circle, and a circle (ˆAÐÎ) was always a prototype (ÔÐÎ). The archetype of a human stared at me. "¨D¨DHah! Ah, ahjussi?" "Yes. I''m listening." "Just now... Wow, it''s true. Just as it is... It''s unbelievable. I just entered elementary school and spent over five years! Wow, really... Wow." "It took you quite a while." "Such¡ªsuch goosebumps. Seriously, is it possible to have such an anomaly? How...?" I smiled. "Who was the nail in the illusion?" "Ah¡ªwell, my mother. She passed away when I was in fifth grade. Our family is quite filled with cultists. My mother was the only sane one." "I see." Squeezing. Looking around, it was still a gxy filled with thousands, millions of colors. Schools, hospitals, prisons, movie theaters, screens, cityscapes intersected ceaselessly. Ka-ha-ha ka-ka-ka¡ª The anomalyughed. But the universe was definitely a little smaller than before. The size of a void was the capacity to contain a mind. "You swam out well. But it''s not over yet. Until we reach the core of that anomaly, illusions will infiltrate us with every step we take." "¡¡." "Calling it an illusion might not be right. It''s practically another life. You could call it a route." "A route..." "Recing your time, your life, your existence with a ''substitute existence''. By doing so, the anomaly steals your ce. Just like it turned Baekhwa (°×»¨) into Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’)." "...If I can''t swim out of the route." "In this reality, you will disappear, reced by something else wandering around as ''Cheon Yo-hwa''." "¡¡." Cheon Yo-hwa nodded. "...That''s something I don''t like. Yes. I don''t like it." "I feel the same." "But still... That anomaly, it still seems so far away. I feel it''s closer than before, but still far." Cheon Yo-hwa stared at the Infinite Void. "How much further... I mean, how many more routes do we have to swim through? Honestly, having just woken up after spending three years in elementary school, I''m still dazed." "In this void, distance has no meaning. It''s always about the anomaly''s own rules, thews of its existence. And in this case..." Step. I took Cheon Yo-hwa''s hand and took a step forward. In the world, two footfalls, two ck twin inds were engraved. "Three steps forward." Four (ËÀ). A spell to turn the anomaly personified as death (ËÀ) back into the reality of four steps (ËÄ). A strategy. As it was a ritual for death, I called it a funeral. I was the Undertaker. "Let''s go, Yo-hwa. It''s alright. As long as two people don''t let go of each other''s hands, they can do anything." "...Yes! Ah shit, the National Sports Festival finals were way, way harder! Bring it on!" Blink. tter. The archetype of a person blinked, and the wheel of the universe turned. The wheel of time moved. From nirvana to samsara. Three steps forward. Footnotes: In both Korea and Japan, the number 4 is often associated with bad luck because the pronunciation of the number is simr to the word for "death" in the respectivenguages. In Korean, the number 4 is pronounced as "sa," which sounds simr to the word for death, "?" (sa). Because of this phic simrity, the number 4 is often avoided in Korean culture, simr to how the number 13 is sometimes considered unlucky in Western cultures. In Japanese, the number 4 is pronounced as "shi," which is also the same pronunciation as the word for death, "ËÀ" (shi). This association with death has led to the number 4 being considered unlucky in Japanese culture as well. As a result of these linguistic associations, the number 4 is often avoided in both Korean and Japanese cultures. In buildings, hospitals, and other public ces, you may see the number 4 omitted or reced with alternative words or numbers to avoid any association with bad luck or death. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 94 Breakdown VIII Step. The next footstep belonged to Noh Do-hwa. On an ind where a single bridge allowed only one person to pass, Noh Do-hwa set up her workshop. I worked as her assistant. Noh Do-hwa didn''t ask for much in life. Sunlight. Water. A piece ofnd. Sand from the beach. Leaves, plenty. Flowers, a few. A hammer. The number of people she could handle and the volume of wounds she could endure. Hot coffee, regardless of the bean type. She desired summer, autumn, winter, and spring. Instead of footsteps, she wished the sound of rain falling on the garden stones would wake her. If she were to die someday, she hoped the old winds ofte summer would give her a sky burial, rather than cremation or burial.Unlike Dang Seo-rin, who always wanted to leave, Noh Do-hwa never wanted visitors from anywhere. Therefore, she was the person who desired the most from life. "Assistant..." "Yes?" "Pack your bags for a short trip. Ugh. There are so many old folks who can''te to the ind, you see..." "Oh, yes. Understood." When the winter ended and thest snow melted, Noh Do-hwa left the ind. The bridge hadn''t been repaired for a long time, so the railings were shaky in ces. The sea yfully blew its breath. "Be careful, Master. A lot of snow fell this winter, so the bridge is quite damaged. We should repair it when we get back." "......" "Master?" As I tried to turn back after walking ahead on the bridge, Noh Do-hwa lightly ced her palm on my back. It was a pressure I could ignore if I wanted to. I didn''t ignore it. I stopped mid-turn. "Master?" "I do not..." "Pardon?" "Assistant. I do not need ideals. Utopias. Ideal lives. Ideal endings. Ugh. Living every day mortgaged to such things is not my way of epting the world..." "......" "I do not take pride in denying reality. I graduated from such hobbies at twelve. Assistant. You must know. I immensely, immensely dislike leaving debts with anyone..." Thud. Noh Do-hwa lightly pushed my back. It was another gesture I could ignore if I wanted to. I didn''t ignore it. The shaky railing couldn''t support my weight and creaked before breaking. Just before falling off the bridge, I looked up at Noh Do-hwa. The shadow of the sun concealed her face. Only a smile, like a shadow, was drawn. "Go to hell..." Noh Do-hwa''s face rapidly receded. Ssh¡ªI heard the sound of falling into the seawater and couldn''t help but think. Dropping someone on the way from the ind to thend, from nirvana to samsara. That was truly a Noh Do-hwa-like murder. Blink. tter. The wheel of time moved. Two steps forward. Step. The next footstep belonged to the Saintess. "......" "......" Surprisingly, the two of us sat on the silver moon. We faced each other on chairs carved from stone, with a table in between. The world held its breath. The Earth on the other side of the universe was still, and the sun illuminating such an Earth did not move either. A white world. The endpoint of time. Or rather, a pause. A Saintess who fully bloomed her ability to its extreme inevitably reached this terminus¨D "Mr. Undertaker." Not an ocean-ss anomaly. Maybe even another Outer God-ss anomaly. The being who, as an awakened Saintess, bore the name ''Executioner'' as an anomaly, opened her lips. "You know, Mr. Undertaker, you could always face such an end." "...Eternal rest?" "Yes. Not the asional vacation you take as a joke... but truly letting go, thus rest. The world has stopped, and people no longer move. No sins aremitted. No misfortunes or tragedies." Like reciting a small song, the Saintess imbued her voice with telepathy. In other words, the full transmission of a Constetion. [Of course, no regression either.] "......" "All beings be like inanimate objects. They drift as specks of dust in eternal and instantaneous moments. If this world ever stops, why shouldn''t it be today?" "Saintess, you know you can''t persuade me." "......" The Saintess drank her coffee. It was coffeeden with sugar and creamer, no different from convenience store products. As a barista, I had nothing more to offer than a Maxim packet, torn and stirred. Yet the Saintess imed my stirred coffee tasted different. I wondered if she knew I secretly added half a spoon of cinnamon powder. "Why? Do you believe you can escape eternity someday?" "Of course." "Do you know? Emit Schopenhauer, who gave up on everything and fled to a world with just him and his lover by the 23rd cycle, was actually the sane one." "......" "Even 23 cycles were already too long and painful. Mr. Undertaker, your hope is too strong." The Saintess voiced. "This world is hell." The sound in the void was absent, so her voice and breath were the moan of her transparent aura. It was the only noise in the universe. Therefore, it was the universe''s only scream. "The world is hell, and no one is held ountable. No effort is made to change it, or it''s too slow." [If you can''t move time forward, it should stop.] "Why is there a torture chamber in some basement? Have you ever seen a child not even ten years old die?" [The child, sold to a ''factory'' at a young age, was destined to die from torture on their tenth birthday.] "Why are the mine ves born in rock and swamp mines, living their entire short lives in narrow crevices without knowing of a broader world?" [Why do humans feel relieved that there are more unfortunate people instead of being happy for those happier than themselves?] "If one excuses such base tendencies as not their decision but something forced by their environment and world." [Fine.] "Why should I allow time to continue in such a world?" "......" "Hell is said to be 20,000 yojanas below." A breath flowed into the universe. [Oneyer.] The starlight of the Constetion flickered. The shadow of Pythagoras''s Earth deviated from harmony, causing a creak. "Just oneyer below that, it''s entirely hell." "......" We were silent. It wasn''t because we had nothing to say. It was because our words were predetermined. I knew a single sentence that could kill the Executioner of time, the Saintess. And like a murderer with a shred of conscience, I slowly drove the knife. "Help me, Saintess." "......" "I want to help others." "......" Blood flowed through the universe. ording to Pythagorean tradition, the universe consisted of ten celestial bodies, one of which was invisible to human eyes. The shadow-Earth. It always moved in the same direction as Earth, perpetually in darkness as if in a permanent eclipse. The shadow orbited with the other nine celestial bodies, making sounds like heartbeats, like harmony. Hence, Pythagoreans believed the universe was filled with the song of the celestial bodies. To them, the world was beautiful. But humans, having heard the universe''s song from birth, found it a mere ''background'', never truly listening to it. Oneyer. Oneyer of eyebrows obscured not just hell but also this world''s beauty, making it a fatal curse to the Saintess. "The Infinite Void is..." The Constetion of shadows, always in the shade and turning its gaze with the people''s direction, opened its lips. "...It descended upon Baekhwa Girls'' High School as the Hyakki Yagyo. It exists as the leader of 99 ghosts. In other words, the Infinite Void has divided its existence into 99 pieces." "......" "My original ability was merely to stop the world. But as my power grew stronger, I could move around freely in the frozen world. Just like that... Cheon Yo-hwa''s ability can surely be stronger." "What do you mean?" "Imprinting behavioral principles on humans and controlling them like NPCs. That''s Cheon Yo-hwa''s awakened ability. But maybe, if she develops it, she could use it on anomalies, not just humans." "Oh." My eyes widened. "Being able to control anomalies at will! Amazing! That''s an incredibly powerful ability!" "...Yes. At least for the anomalies that appeared in Baekhwa Girls'' High School, or rather, the School Ghost Stories, she can control them." The Saintess nodded. "Cheon Yo-hwa is an apostle of the Infinite Void. She can interfere to some extent with the anomalies the Infinite Void controls. You, Mr. Undertaker, know why she was chosen as the apostle better than I do." "Indeed..." A strategy emerged. The Saintess warned me. "But Cheon Yo-hwa, who has consumed the Infinite Void''s Hyakki Yagyo, will be immensely powerful. She will be no different from an anomaly herself... much like you see me in this illusion." "......" "Even with just the Infinite Void, this much. As you subdue anomalies, more anomalies will gather around you, Mr. Undertaker. Dang Seo-rin, Sim Ah-ryeon, eventually. ...It would be nice if we could simply call it fighting poison with poison, but ultimately, you''ll just be transnting the world''s poison into yourself. If you give up, the bacsh will be iparable to Schopenhauer''s. So, please..." I held the Saintess''s hand. "I know." The Saintess looked at me. "Fall into hell with me." "......" Creak¡ª The previously frozen wheel of the universe creaked. The Sun, Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ttered as they moved. Ten wheels aligned in a straight line. Grand Alignment. The most majestic constetion the universe could pronounce. At that final line, the shadow stood. "Yes." The shadow smiled before my eyes. [To wherever.] Blink, oneyer of life closed its eyes. tter, the ten Constetions yed a soundless melody. Before I knew it, we were holding hands, inverted, diving from the moon''s ssy surface to the ground¨D to hell. Endless descent. We tightly embraced each other. The universe''s song was time. Blink. tter¡ª The wheel of time moved. From nirvana to samsara. From the closest otherworld to the farthest reality. One step forward. "¨D¨DAhjussi! Ahjussi!" I thought about why people are born with two eyes. It''s because the world is always made up of twoyers. Hell spread out under the sunlight and beauty hidden in the shadows. Blindness and rity. Extremes. Gaps. Existence as a non-void space. I slowly opened my eyes. "Yo-hwa?" "Yes, ahjussi! Ugh. So... is it really you? I mean, do you remember us wandering through the School Ghost Stories?" I looked around. Ding-Dong-Dang-Dong. A bell rang. This was the School Ghost Story... no, it was Baekhwa Girls'' High School. The bell echoed under a blue sky, not a red one. An infinitely normal school. There were no grotesque birch forests or red spider lily gardens. It seemed to be lunchtime, and students were gathering in small groups, crossing the yground. "...Yes, I remember. We were walking the four steps to defeat the Infinite Void. Now, only one step remains." "Oh! Right! But why are we both in the same illusion this time?" "It seems this is the fourth step." Step. Cheon Yo-hwa''s and my footsteps ovepped. A world where anomalies, voids, and endings had no room to intrude, only peacefulness. That was our final stop. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 95 Breakdown IX After patrolling the school once with Cheon Yo-hwa, we reached a conclusion. "This is... a peaceful world." A world where humanity had not perished. The ''Gates'' of voids appeared here and there, but they were not as serious as in reality. As the name suggested, the voids in this ce looked like gateways. If left alone, ''monsters'' would steadily emerge. Conversely, if we seeded in sealing the Gates, we could minimize the damage. -Last time, a Gate appeared centered around Sadang Station in Seoul, right? It was rush hour, and the crowd was huge, so significant damage was expected. -This time, the 4th exploration team finally seeded in clearing the Sadang Station Gate. Most of the missing people were rescued thanks to Dang Seo-rin, the team leader...-Meanwhile, with 212 deaths, this incident has set a new record for Gate casualties, prompting demands for government ountability... Newspapers, news, YouTube, and social media were filled with stories about Gates. Civilization had not copsed. Humanity, which had endured typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, and gues since ancient times, had merely added ''Gates'' as a new item on the list of disasters. Humans still called themselves the rulers of all creation. Some people feared Gates and monsters as signs of the apocalypse, but our perspective, having truly experienced ''the end,'' was different. "...I''m envious. If our world were only at this level." "The cunning of the Infinite Void is evident in that it didn''t show us apletely peaceful world." "Why?" "We already have trauma from anomalies. In an excessively peaceful world, we would only be conscious of our abnormality. We would be obsessed with the fear that the world could end at any moment. ...But here, monsters appear just at a manageable level. In this world, you and I can live as ''normal'' people." "Oh... Wow, such detail?" "Yes. It¡¯s an Outer God-ss anomaly. It''s not to be underestimated." That was not all. In apletely peaceful world, where anomalies didn''t exist, Cheon Yo-hwa''s and my awakened abilities would be no different from strange tumors. But in a world where monsters existed? The abilities, knowledge, and instincts we had umted would trante directly into aplishments. Countless guilds would mor to recruit us with countless handshakes. "A world where we are not denied but rather infinitely affirmed, where we can climb to the top of the pyramid. And we could believe that our sess is due to our own talents, efforts, and free will, not the grace of the Infinite Void. This ce is a model garden designed solely for the two of us." "......" Cheon Yo-hwa''s shoulders slumped. "...It''s scary, the nature of anomalies." "Yes, it is. But on the flip side, it means we''ve pushed the Infinite Void to this extent." Four steps. The distance from nirvana to samsara. Our steps traversing that infinite instant were not in vain. The Infinite Void was undoubtedly copsing. Dang Seo-rin''s journey. Noh Do-hwa''s seclusion. The Saintess''s contemtion. Each route, imbued with eternity, was trampled upon. The illusions carefully selected by the Infinite Void, no matter how sweet, were denied by our will to return to reality. "Yo-hwaaa!" "Let''s y basketball!" Students from the yground looked our way, waving their hands. Startled, Cheon Yo-hwa held her breath for a moment. After about three seconds, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Sorry! I''ll skip today¡ª" Eh, eh¡ª The cicadas buzzed relentlessly, their wings emerging from the bark of the wisteria trees in summer. The leaves rustled against each other in the wind. On the school yground, theughter of children and the cries of cicadas echoed. "Are those your friends?" "...Yes. ssmates and roommates." A sigh flowed downward, too weak to reach the desert. "Both of them died during the first week of the school ghost stories." Cheon Yo-hwa tapped the ground with the tip of her shoe. Tap, tap. The weight of one person knocked on the Earth. "Um, ahjussi. Suddenly, I have a thought. Well, I''ve had it before, but now I really want to ask. Why can''t we stay here? I mean, it''s not that I want to. I''m just genuinely curious. Isn''t there nothing much if we go back?" "......" "Every time we go to the bathroom, we have to check for ghosts. We have to pick out every piece of meat to avoid eating human flesh. When we wake up, someone''s always missing. From what you''ve told me, it''s not just our school that''s ruined, but the whole world. How can you decisively say we must return to reality?" "Hmm." "For instance... why don''t we just invite everyone else to the Infinite Void? Then this ce bes reality. Or do you think a world that''s not real has no value...?" "No, that''s not the reason." "Then why?" "My alias is Undertaker." Cheon Yo-hwa looked at me. "Just as you have the ability to manipte targets, I have several abilities too. One of them is Time Seal... which I personally call a funeral." "A funeral." "I can make a person relive the happiest day of their life forever." "......" "To be precise, it''s not even repetition. That person won''t realize they''re reliving the same day. This ability is why I got the name ''Undertaker.''" The sound of cicadas from the trees, the bouncing of a basketball in the court, and the long honk of a truck beyond the school wall. "Yo-hwa. Do you think there''s no unhappiness in this world?" "...No." "Right. There is. A lot. Just yesterday, 212 people died while sealing a Gate. No matter how optimized the Infinite Void made this setting for us, it''s still far from ensuring everyone''s happiness." The traffic light at the school gate flickered. "The reason I don''t entrust my life to the Infinite Void is very simple. It''s a matter ofparative advantage. This world is just... not convincing enough to be the final hell." "......" If the world is hell, people live to find a level of hell they can ept. Until then, they can defer their lives. After a long silence, Cheon Yo-hwa nodded. "...I understand. Ahjussi, you''re the final stop where people can always return." "It turned out that way." "So the question I need to ask myself is if I want to give up and rest. But... I''m fine. I''m not tired yet." Our eyes met. The sunset embraced the desert. Orange was the color of sand mixed with red. Cheon Yo-hwa''s hair also held the scent of the desert and the aroma of oranges. "Tell me what to do, ahjussi." I followed the strategy the Saintess suggested on the moon. ¨D¨DSeize control of the Hyakki Yagyo, consisting of 100 ghosts, from the Infinite Void. If we could implement this strategy, the power of the Infinite Void, descended as the leader of 100 ghosts, would be significantly weakened. "For this n, Yo-hwa, you need to brainwash all of the ghosts of the Hyakki Yagyo, one by one." "Brainwashing anomalies." "Yes. No matter how long it takes. The ultimate goal is to make the ghosts follow you, not the Infinite Void." "Yes, I''ll try." I captured and threw the suicide ghost to her. I tied a rope around its neck and hung it from the ceiling to prevent it from banging its head on the floor. Cheon Yo-hwa secluded herself in the student council room, like closed-door training, living alone with the ghost. Brainwashing an anomaly. It had never happened in any of the cycles, but I was confident. Cheon Yo-hwa could do it. A day, two days, three days, a week passed, but Cheon Yo-hwa couldn''t brainwash the ghost. The smell of decay from the ghost permeated the student council room. Cups of instant noodles, cans, and the trash Cheon Yo-hwa left while being reclusive piled up in a corner. "It''s okay." Cheon Yo-hwa''s eyes glistened like those of a madwoman. "I think I can do it. It''s summer vacation anyway... I want to focus for a while, so you don''t need to clean up." While Korea''s only necromancer continued her closed-door training, I briefly traveled around the country. In Busan, Mayor Jung, a professional traitor, conducted his official duties as usual. His hidden daughter, the Puppeteer Lee Ha-yul, graduated early and joined arge guild. Dang Seo-rin led an exploration team with her three younger siblings. I saw Dang Seo-rin''s family, whom I had only heard about, from a distance. At Hongik University, Sim Ah-ryeon, having no friends to eat with, was slurping shoyu ramen (with lots of bean sprouts) alone at a ramen shop. Noh Do-hwa walked out of the rehabilitation hospital''s prosthetics center right on time for her shift to end. In Yongsan, the Saintess stayed home all day except for her daily evening walks. A world where humans still called themselves the rulers of all creation, not anomalies. ...Even a certain old man from Germany, visiting Korea for his wife''s academic lecture, was still alive. "Excuse me. Do you know where the auditorium listed here is?" Old Man Scho. The elderly man in a casual suit asked me in English in the middle of Seoul National University. Seeing Old Man Scho''s intact head rather than a Duhan was quite a sight after so long. I was torn between wanting to punch his bearded chin and just giving him a hearty hug. "...You can ask in German, sir." "Oh? Well, I didn''t realize a young man like you spoke ournguage so fluently! Did my English sound too German?" "I majored in Germannguage and literature, so I have some German friends. I was just heading to that auditorium myself, so follow me." "Oh, thank you. My wife is giving a lecture here today. Do you know her? Adele Schopenhauer..." "Wow. I was actually on my way to her lecture." "Oh! What a coincidence!" That day, I met Old Man Scho''s wife at Seoul National University''s cultural center. I had seen her in photos before, but this was the first time I saw her in person. Seeing Old Man Scho''s face, smiling brightly as he hugged his wife after her lecture, was also a first. So this is what he was like. It was a good proof that when the Infinite Void created illusions, it didn''t just use my personal memories but also its umted data about the world. "By the way, Adele. While I was lost here, a kind young man guided me... Huh? Strange. He was just with me a moment ago¨D" Without a word, I left a route there and returned to the school. No one doubted my presence. Thanks to Cheon Yo-hwa''s ''settings,'' I was perceived as a long-time guard at Baekhwa Girls'' High School. So when I set foot on the wooden corridor of the old school building, the world flipped without any warning. "......!" Airborne. My position was at the top of the old school building. I immediately spread my aura in all directions. Other awakeners might have been appalled at the waste, but for an infinitely regressing former supporter withoutbat skills, this was a perfectly rational strategy. Gray waves surged in the air. Echolocation. My senses, honed over centuries, specialized in perceiving the contours of objects with aura. Like a dolphin navigating with ultrasound. In that fall, I sensed something wrong. At that moment, I locked eyes with Cheon Yo-hwa, who happened to be at the window. Cheon Yo-hwa was smiling. "¨D¨D" Her lips moved. ''Stop.'' The sky flipped again. The floating sensation vanished, and my feet were suddenly on the old school''s corridor. Cheon Yo-hwa smiled before me. She was holding an hourss with something inside it. Squirm¡ª It was a ghost. A tiny ghost, with a rope around its neck, dangled inside the ss. An hourss. I was secretly impressed. Could there be a more fitting prison to confine ghosts? Trapping the world in her grasp. Plunging a barren sandpile into a whirlpool of time, entirely under her control. The sunset shining through the corridor windows struck the hourss''s ss. Like showing off or tormenting a new pet, the student council president of the school ghost stories yfully shook the hourss. "How is it? Ahjussi." "The hourss is impressive. Can I touch it?" "Ah-hah¡ªyes!" The first instance of humanity enving an anomaly. By the end of summer vacation, Cheon Yo-hwa had sessfully subjugated 43 ghosts in total. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 96 Breakdown X Cheon Yo-hwa''s ghost monster collection progressed quickly. By the end of summer vacation, her collection rate was already approaching 80%. Victory was already assured. The only problem was that every time a ghost was imprisoned in an hourss (used as a substitute for a monster ball), the world seemed to be a bit more distorted. ¡°What? The world is shrinking?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s easier to show you directly.¡± I took Cheon Yo-hwa on a flight. It was a modified Savioa S-21, the seane flown by Porco Rosso, now with a backseat. Originally a Japanese anomaly, I brought it over whenever I felt bored. ¡°Wow, double wings! So cool!¡±¡°You know a thing or two.¡± ¡°Hehe. Yes! My mom taught me tovish praise if someone proudly shows off something that''s actually quite mediocre!¡± ¡°...?¡± The aircraft flew over Jeju Ind and reached the East China Sea. Cheon Yo-hwa, who had been chattering excitedly, suddenly pointed at the horizon and eximed. ¡°Ahjussi! What is that?¡± Where she pointed, a giant wall of fog loomed. It was a fog so dense it could have been from the movie "The Mist." It covered the sea and sky entirely along the horizon. ¡°That is the boundary of the world.¡± ¡°B-Boundary?¡± ¡°I realized it not long ago. My guess is that every time you take control of a ghost from the Infinite Void, the world itself shrinks a little.¡± ¡°Hieeek¡¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get closer.¡± Tr-tr-trr! The engine huped. My aircraft approached the ''fog wall.'' ¡°Wow. You can''t see anything...¡± ¡°I already tried entering it, but you can¡¯t go through. It feels like hitting an invisible wall. A few days ago, we could go farther, but since you sealed another ghost, the range has shrunk to here.¡± ¡°Wow. But how does trade work? You order international deliveries all the time, but the news hasn''t mentioned anything.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the interesting part. Look.¡± Sss¡ª A massive ship¡¯s bow emerged from the fog. It was a container ship, gliding smoothly out of the fog wall¡¯s edge. ¡°Eeeek?¡± ¡°See? Everything in this world, except for us, functions without any issues. It¡¯s just within the ''fog wall¡¯s'' confines.¡± ¡°Uh, I''m a little confused... So, this world inside the fog wall is the only one that actually exists, but it¡¯s made to look like the outside is functioning normally?¡± ¡°Probably.¡± The aircraft skimmed the fog wall. ¡°This world is simr to the illusion created by the Infinite Void.¡± The ghosts of the Hyakumonogatari that Cheon Yo-hwa was sealing weren''t just separate anomalies. They were fragments of the Infinite Void. Taking them from the Infinite Void was like taking parts of its existence. ¡°For a human, it''s like taking away memories; for aputer, it''s like stealing data. My interpretation is that the resources the Infinite Void uses to create this world are gradually depleting. Now, only the area around the Korean Penins remains.¡± ¡°I see...¡± ¡°It also proves that everything in this world is just shadows imitating true existence.¡± ¡°......¡± Cheon Yo-hwa became quieter. Seeing such an anomaly was naturally overwhelming for people. ¡°...Let¡¯s go back, ahjussi. It¡¯s cold.¡± ¡°Wait a bit. There¡¯s one more thing to show you. You¡¯ll regret not seeing it.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°Now.¡± I pointed to the sky. The sun was setting. The sun descending in the west was likely not real, but an illusionary sphere visible only in this confined world. As the false sun tried to cross the fog wall, the sky and sea turned entirely red, stained by the sunset. A short gasp came from the backseat. ¡°...It¡¯s beautiful.¡± The sunset, instead of a few scattered clouds, used the entire boundary of the world as its mirror. It was magnificent. The fog wall drank in the blood shed by the dying sun. The western world was entirely sunset. And within five minutes, the sunpletely sank beyond the fog wall. The sunset disappeared as well. Those who witnessed the sun''s quiet suicide were left with a lingering feeling, like a vapor trail. ¡°Why does such a sunset ur? The fog wall isn''t real fog, just an object.¡± ¡°Who knows? Even in this illusory world, the sunset on the fog wall is particrly unreal. But it¡¯s beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°...Yes, very.¡± ¡°One illusion is merely a dream but dreaming within a dream is something we humans find beautiful.¡± ¡°......¡± The engine roared. Cheon Yo-hwa remained silent on the way back to Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School, lost in thought. She only spoke once we returned to the dormitory. ¡°...Thank you, ahjussi. I think I know which ghost I need to capturest.¡± It was summer. The cicadas in the trees fell and died. Anonymous birds and insects picked up their corpses scattered on the ground. In the slow, dying summer, the world was a crime scene of mass murder. It was autumn. Over the corpses that died in the summer, maple trees shed their blood-red leaves like shrouds. We promised to call this season autumn, this grand funeral. And then. ¡°Delivery¡ª¡± I went to the school gate to receive the delivery food in a stic bag. The delivery man, who had probably priced his day''s work, adjusted his sky-blue helmet and got on his motorcycle. Brrrr¡ª The engine purred as the motorcycle slid onto the road outside the gate. And disappeared. Beyond the fog wall. ¡°......¡± The world was now the size of the school grounds. Wherever I looked, the sky was wrapped in white fog. In the morning, the teachers¡¯ cars slipped out of the fog wall, and in the evening, they vanished back into it. A dayter, the distance from here to there, from samsara to nirvana, was the size of the school yground. The end of space. The stilling of time. There should be nothing there. All things appeared and disappeared silently on the surface of the water, sshing about. For a moment, the water droplets sshed by a child¡¯s hand were the weight of existence. In each ssh, the sunset of the world was embedded. I stood silently for a while, staring out the student council room window, looking at the white ss wall separating me from nirvana. ¡°How many are left now?¡± ¡°Two.¡± It was winter. Snow fell for the first time. Since this world was created in summer, this snow was the first snow. Thud, the snowkes hit the window. The quietest knock. Looking out, the view was already entirely white with snow fog. The world''s area was now the size of a 10-pyeong studio apartment. The universe¡¯s size had shrunk to the student council room, where two people barely breathed. -...... -Groan... groan... groan...... -Oooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. tter. asionally, the sound of ghosts thrashing came faintly from the shelves. The remaining space of the world, covered in fog, was confined within 98 hoursses. Thest remaining ghost. Cheon Yo-hwa stared at it. ¡°You must obey me.¡± -Sorry, but that kind of brainwashing doesn¡¯t work on me. The same voice as Cheon Yo-hwa''s. The voice came from the full-length mirror opposite her. In the mirror sat a being with the same hairstyle and school uniform as Cheon Yo-hwa, sitting properly in a chair. -You know. No matter how much you try to brainwash me, it ends up as you ordering yourself to obey. A doppelg?nger. An anomaly that could only live as someone¡¯s shadow. That was thest fragment of the Infinite Void left by Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡°Why are you me? You¡¯re just a ghost trapped in a mirror. I¡¯m outside. You can''t move around, but I''m free.¡± -Ah. Nowadays, do people call moving around in a 10-pyeong world freedom? Sorry. I didn''t realize. I thought the freest ce on Earth was a prison. ¡°Are you stupid? A 10-pyeong room in prison would be a luxury hotel.¡± -Ah, right. Enjoy your 5-star hotel stay. So jealous. ¡°I don¡¯t like you.¡± -I don¡¯t like you either. We¡¯re the same after all. Cheon Yo-hwa sighed. Maybe it was time to intervene. ¡°Take a break and have some coffee.¡± ¡°Oh! Did you make it yourself, ahjussi, instead of ordering it? Wow. Thank you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re wee. It¡¯s my little hobby.¡± Among my many hobbies, being a barista was my favorite. Nothing was more satisfying than perfectly capturing someone¡¯s taste and bombarding them with caffeine. After many trials, it was clear that Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s tongue struck a bnce between the ¡®coffee should be bitter¡¯ camp and the ¡®coffee should be sweet¡¯ camp. Espresso? Is this coffee? It¡¯s herbal medicine. Mhiato? It¡¯s sugar water. Cheon Yo-hwa dered the great unification of left and right camps and founded a new party. Naturally, she was doomed to be criticized by both sides, but like all third-party advocates, she brimmed with baseless confidence. The party¡¯s name was ¡®Double Espresso Cream Latte.¡¯ Ice cream-like cream. Thinly sliced chocte on top. Chocte with at least 70% and less than 90% cacao. She mixed the cream while drinking, so a straw or spoon was necessary. Done. ¡°It¡¯s delicious...¡± Cheon Yo-hwa smiled with the world''s happiest expression. ¡°When coffee is made well, it feels so fulfilling... Ahjussi, can you make this for me every morning? Lately, if I don¡¯t have your coffee, my head feels foggy by lunchtime.¡± ¡°Thanks for the high praise. I¡¯d love to, but it¡¯s not easy.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Here, civilization is intact, so it¡¯s easy to get beans, cream, and chocte. Once we return to reality, I can only make it asionally.¡± ¡°Hing. Another reason I don¡¯t want to go back to reality...¡± -Hey. How good is it? Can I have a cup too, ahjussi? ¡°Shut up.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa snarled. The room¡¯s temperature dropped a notch. ¡°Before I really kill you.¡± -...... tter, tter, tter. The 98 hoursses on the shelf shook slightly. In the center of the table, the stainless electric kettle boiled water, trembling. Hooo. Cheon Yo-hwa blew on the coffee-warmed breath, quietly restoring the room¡¯s temperature. ¡°Thank you, ahjussi.¡± ¡°Hm? Making coffee is my hobby...¡± ¡°Not just the coffee. Everything.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I know you have many secrets. But one thing is certain. No matter what happens to our school, you could have ignored it and left us alone.¡± Snowstorm raged. ¡°I sometimes imagine what would have happened without you. With time to spare, I often indulge in such fantasies.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been afraid of ghosts since I was young.¡± From the white fog, white snow emerged and struck the white window. After striking, the snowkes were swept by the wind and disappeared beyond the fog. They existed because they were white, and they disappeared because they were white. Existence was a white flower (°×»¨). ¡°My father is like the leader of a cult. Actually, he is a leader.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Did you know? Our house is really big. There¡¯s a facility like a church in the basement. Hundreds of people gather there monthly, chanting strange incantations... My family name is Yeongyang Cheon, but my father insisted I use the character Cheon (Ìì) for ''heaven'' both at home and school. Weird, right?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Ahjussi, you saw those strange talismans at our school, right?¡± ¡°Yes. I saw them.¡± ¡°This school is run by our family. The chairman is a rtive, but it¡¯s practically my father¡¯s. Most of the kids here are from the cult.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So when the sky turned red and ghosts appeared, I just... somehow epted it. Ah, it¡¯s divine punishment.¡± Snow stuck to the window, blooming into snow flowers repeatedly. Existence was a white flower (°×»¨). ¡°But I couldn¡¯t let the kids die.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°This is probably my family''s fault. I don¡¯t know how it happened, having half-run away, but still... I¡¯m the student council president. They called me dy¡¯ in the cult. I have to take responsibility.¡± In a 10-pyeong room enveloped in the scent of white flowers, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s story flowed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 97 Breakdown XI Cheon Yo-hwa. ÌìÁÈ»¯. ¨D¨DA long time ago, when I first saw the characters of her name, I might have sensed an omen. Heaven (Ìì). Lonely (ÁÈ). To be (»¯). Simply put, it means ''to be lonely.'' It''s a rather strange name to give to a beloved child, isn''t it? But ''ÁÈ'' (Yo) doesn''t just mean ''lonely.'' It also means ''empty,'' ''void sky,'' ''quiet.'' Have you ever seen writers use the word ''serene'' instead of just ''quiet'' in passages where merely saying ''quiet'' would suffice?The ''ÁÈ'' in ''Yo-hwa'' (¼ÅÁÈ, serene) is the character in this child''s name. If interpreted as ''to be serene'' rather than ''to be lonely,'' it doesn¡¯t seem too strange. Yes. If only interpreted that way. Attention. From here on, this is a secret I haven¡¯t even told Cheon Yo-hwa, information known only to me in this world¡ªa postscript-like TMI. It¡¯s purely my personal conjecture, so you may take it with a grain of salt. I¡¯m merely sharing pieces I¡¯ve gathered from various cycles. First piece. Everyone probably knows that I traveled to China with the Sword Marquess during the 108th cycle. While the Sword Marquess was busy nting red flowers on Mount Hua, I wandered around the vicinity. If I transcribe what I described at that time, it would go as follows. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The range of my anomaly hunts gradually expanded. It extended not only to Shaanxi but also to Henan. ¡®Tutorial dungeons¡¯ urred globally, not just on the Korean Penins, but an epic-level dungeon happened to appear in Yingyang Town in Henan. Adding to the chaos were Taoist cult terrorists, making it seem like the end of the world. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D In Henan, there is a ce called Dengfeng, famous for being the location of the Shaolin Temple. A bit further west lies Yingyang Town. Yeongyang Cheon n. The ancestral home of Cheon Yo-hwa''s family. Second piece. The Yeongyang Cheon n of Korea originated from a Ming Dynasty general who was dispatched to Korea during the Imjin War. The general not only brought himself but also his family, who naturalized in Korea. Most of their descendants perfectly adapted to local life without issues, but ording to my hypothesis, a very small portion of the family continued to maintain their ¡®traditional faith.¡¯ The traditional faith of China is Taoism. Laozi, the founder of Taoism, hailed from Huainan Province and was a native of Luyi County. Laozi is said to have worked in Luoyang, Henan, and authored the Tao Te Ching at Hangu Pass in Henan. Yingyang Town, the hometown of the Cheon family, lies on the route between Luyi County and Hangu Pass. The birthce of Taoism. A region long under the influence of the faith. However, at some point, the faith of Cheon Yo-hwa''s lineage, who had moved to the Korean Penins, became corrupted. Whether it was always like that or changedter, I do not know. There are no records. They built a grand mansion in Sejong City with an area of 14,990 square meters. Hidden underground were religious facilities. They established Baekhwa Girls'' High School and enrolled the children of their faith. Cheon Yo-hwa''s father, the high priest of this cult, changed his daughter''s surname from Cheon (Ç§) to Cheon (Ìì). To this family, their roots had already lost all meaning. They called upon their own god. Who they wanted to descend, I had no way of knowing. It might have been a mere scam by a cunning cult leader. But in the end-times void, magic was not an illusion but a reality. Especially the magic performed by hundreds of people offering hundreds of children. Some existence on the other side of the void heard their prayers and responded. Thus, the Infinite Void arrived. Third piece. Serene and silent. The Tao Te Ching contains such a phrase. Before humans distinguished all things, before the forms and names of all things were created, before heaven and earth were clearly divided, the world existed. Laozi called such a world ¡®serene.¡¯ The next phrase goes something like this. ¡®I do not know its name.¡¯ That serene world, the serenity of that world, was something that existed before all things took shape, and thus ¡®has no name.¡¯ Now. Let''s reexamine the name of the student council president before us, Cheon Yo-hwa. Interpreting it purely based on its superficial meaning, it trantes to ¡®to be serene,¡¯ which could be taken to mean, ¡®Oh, her parents hoped she would be a recluse when she grew up.¡¯ However, the parents, especially her father, were high priests of a corrupted Taoist cult. They couldn¡¯t have been ignorant of one of the most famous phrases from the Tao Te Ching. Therefore, if you interpret the name Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯) knowing the root of ''ÁÈ,'' it bes quite bizarre. To be lonely. To be serene. The heaven. To be empty. To lose its name. Anonymous. Nameless. The serene sky with no form or name. Abandoning oneself and one¡¯s true name, returning to a world where nothing is distinguished. A y on words with her name. ¡What a wicked curse it was. Cheon Yo-hwa. An ominous resonance. Not a name to give a beloved child. It was a name more fitting for a living offering to an evil god. The more sinister truth is that the curse seeded. Far beyond the expectations of the one who cast it. An Outer God-ss anomaly full of forms yet formless. The Infinite Void and Hyakki Yagyo, the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts (°Ù¹íÒ¹ÐÐ). Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’). ¡Or, Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯). She was the living offering, and Baekhwa Girls'' High School was the altar. Baekhwa Girls'' High School was the offering for her, and she was the altar for the god. This is the answer I have deduced thus far. Why the Outer God-ss anomaly, the Infinite Void, had no choice but to descend upon Baekhwa Girls'' High¡ªa regressor''s annotation. However. The conclusion of this story was not mine. ¡°Thank you, ahjussi.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have been able to ovee it alone. Even if I had won, I would have undoubtedly lost myself.¡± Still, you saved 16 of your friends. Always. From the 1st cycle to the 117th, continuously. Cheon Yo-hwa said. ¡°Even though it was an illusion, thank you for letting me meet my mother again. I was able to say the words I couldn¡¯t before. The flight was fun. Thank you for showing me the sunset. The coffee you made was delicious.¡± The only necromancer on the Korean Penins. The student council president of Baekhwa Girls'' High School. She started ying basketball out of rebellion against her family but genuinely came to enjoy it. When she escapes the prison of void, she wouldn¡¯t even remember her original name and past. From the 1st cycle to the 117th, she had never once been called by her name. The living offering and altar of this Infinite Hell. And someone who likes a slightly bitter, slightly sweet creamtte. Cheon Yo-hwa said. ¡°¨D¨DSo, I can¡¯t hand myself over to an anomaly like you.¡± -...... ¡°You are not me. You don¡¯t know the vapor trails I passed through. You don¡¯t know the name of the sunset I saw. You don¡¯t know the feel of the coffee I like. You don¡¯t know me. I¡¯ve gone, am going, and will go beyond what you know.¡± -...... ¡°I am Cheon Yo-hwa (Ç§Ö{Ô’)*. I will sing a thousand stories. Do you think I¡¯ll be satisfied with just a hundred stories? I will live ten times your volume, size, and color. Because¡ªI am not alone. There are people who helped me. There are people I will help. So¨D¨D you, go back to your narrow ss sky. Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯).¡± *Ç§Ö{Ô’ means a thousand folk tales, it¡¯s a different interpretation of her name. Blink. Clunk. A snowstorm raged. There was no window. The table, the electric kettle on it, and the coffee cup were all engulfed in white snow. The wheel of time turned. From nirvana to samsara. Zero steps left. -Ah. The Outer God, the Infinite Void, Baekhwa. In the white world, Cheon Yo-hwa smiled. Though her lips didn¡¯t move, the snowstorm shattered with sound. -Oh, how beautiful this is¨D The snowstorm rushed toward me like a tidal wave. The moment I felt certain this was its final struggle, I drew my cane sword. A longsword forged in a dwarven forge that no longer existed. Do-hwa. A single stroke. My ink-ck wave split the Infinite Void¡¯s white snowstorm. For the Infinite Void, which had gathered almost all the data of the world, this ''sword'' was an unexpected irregr. Because Do-hwa was a piece crafted for me by the workshop master in a different cycle. A masterpiece made by the greatest cksmith in the otherworld, taught by the greatest cksmith in Samhan. Already a weapon like an anomaly in itself. Even though it was my strongest weapon, I had not used Do-hwa in this cycle. Not even once. I kept it sheathed for this moment alone. -¨D¨D¨D¨D The snowstorm split and split again. The being once called the Infinite Void couldn¡¯t finish its sentence and was imprisoned in a ss prison. The world''s whiteness turned entirely into a snowstorm. The snowstorm transformed into white grains of sand. The sand of the desert swirled and swirled, eventually settling into Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s palm. An hourss. The world of ss walls filled only with white sand was held in Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s hand. The transparent barrier glimmered. A wheel made of two sspartments. The Infinite Void was confined within time. ¡°Ah.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa looked up. There was no fog. There was no red sky of the school ghost stories. No thorn-like birch forest, no shadowden peony flower hill. The sky was red. Not the red of anomalies but the red of reality. The color emitted by the sun hitting the earth''s cornea. Sunset. Proof that this world was still alive and bleeding. In the middle of the yground, Cheon Yo-hwa looked up at the sky, surrounded by 98 scattered hoursses like petals. That was Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s Hyakki Yagyo. Her Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts. (Congratu) Seo.,; University 2 Admitted! tions) p. A tattered banner fluttered at the school gate. Beneath the g that once honored civilization, the echo of the wind resounded. ¡°Yo-hwa!¡± ¡°Security guard ahjussi!¡± The students of Baekhwa Girls'' High. The children saw us and waved. Their gestures sshed in the sunset. It seemed quite a distant scene. But it was not as far as the distance from nirvana to samsara. ¡°¡Ahjussi.¡± I looked at Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s profile. The sunset light brushed through her auburn hair. ¡°Come to think of it, I forgot to ask.¡± ¡°Ask anything.¡± ¡°Why did youe to save us?¡± That was probably the final moment. The moment I could decisively brainwash Cheon Yo-hwa, who awakened with the ability to brainwash others. The moment she received a name. The moment to determine the direction of her life. It was absurd, but if I said, ¡®I received an oracle to help you,¡¯ Cheon Yo-hwa would have be a fervent believer. If I said, ¡®The state won¡¯t abandon you,¡¯ she would have be the ultimate patriot. She was ready to ept any answer and prepared to ept any direction. I thought for a second, then returned the answers I had long thought of. ¡°Because you are useful to me.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°The Infinite Void was an anomaly I couldn¡¯t defeat alone. I needed the help of a human selected as the shaman of the Infinite Void. The reason you couldmand the Hyakki Yagyo was that ¡®Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯ was somewhat identified with the Infinite Void. Recruiting you to subdue the Infinite Void was the best strategy given to me, in fact, the only strategy.¡± ¡°¡I see.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s expression lightened somewhat. She probably epted my answer as a ¡®setting¡¯ for her life path. ¡°Yes, then¨D¨D¡± ¡°And I was curious about how the worst tutorial dungeon in the history of the Korean Penins was created.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°I also wanted to thoroughly track the real nature of the fairies I had been dealing with for so long. I wanted to test if I could truly defeat an Outer God-ss anomaly. Oh, and I was purely curious about what kind of person a crazy person who hadpleted self-brainwashing at Baekhwa Girls'' High School originally was.¡± ¡°Um, ahjussi? What are you talking about¡?¡± ¡°Yo-hwa.¡± I smiled. ¡°Finding reasons to live is good. That alone is already great. But I hope you live with as many reasons as possible, not just one.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°If a single drop of rain can make a person decide to die, a single line of music can give them a reason to live. When helping someone, try to create several reasons instead of just one. Gain. Goal. Curiosity. Self-examination. Simple amusement. Curiosity. Those thousand reasons can be reasons to kill someone and at the same time reasons to keep you alive.¡± That was exactly what Cheon Yo-hwa had dered to the Infinite Void. Even if it is the truth, a person always needs someone else to tell them the same thing, but in a different way, to be convinced of their own words. Click. I opened the trunk and took out the neatly stored file. ¡°That¡¯s¡¡± ¡°A gift. You can consider it a dungeon clear reward. Originally, the tutorial fairy would take care of it, but I got rid of the person in charge here. Here.¡± Words were written in neat handwriting on high-quality paper rarely seen in this era. It was my handwriting. I took out a brush pen, added a few words, and handed it to Cheon Yo-hwa. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Graduation Certificate] Name: Cheon Yo-hwa (Ç§Ö{Ô’) This person haspleted the full three-year high school curriculum and demonstrated outstanding academic ability, hereby awarded this graduation certificate. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ¡°¡¡.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa epted the diploma with both hands and looked down at it. Her shadow standing still sank into the yground floor. The name section, left nk until just now, gleamed like a bright shadow. ¡°Congrattions on your graduation, Yo-hwa.¡± Describing Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s reactions in detail at this point would be unkind. I just want to note that it''s perfectly normal for a high school student to cry during a graduation ceremony. Boss battle. Anomaly Infinite Void. Aliases: Infinite Hell, School Ghost Stories, Hyakki Yagyo, Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts, Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’), Baekhwa (°×»¯), Forbidden Four Characters, Heraclitus¡¯ Wreath, Backrooms, Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯). Threat Level: Lv.5 Outer God-ss Subjugationplete. There is an epilogue. Actually, there are many epilogues. The stories rted to the Infinite Void are numerous, but those stories can be saved forter. Today, I¡¯ll briefly describe an event that happened not long after the ¡®graduation ceremony.¡¯ It was while I was walking down the corridor of the National Road Management Corps headquarters. ¡°Ah! Teacher!¡± An energetic voice came from behind, followed by rapid footsteps. When I turned around, the former basketball team ace quickly closed the distance and skidded to a stop, yfully saluting. ¡°Yo-hwa. What brings you to the Management Corps?¡± ¡°Hehe¡ª I thought it was time for our guild to be recognized for its exclusive control over Sejong City. I¡¯m on my way back from a meeting with the director!¡± ¡°I see.¡± Incidentally, Cheon Yo-hwa was still wearing her white sailor uniform. Not only Cheon Yo-hwa, but the entire Baekhwa Guild... the group formed by Baekhwa Girls'' High School graduates all wore it. Well, uniforms have always been effective in fostering a sense of solidarity among members. There was no reason to abandon the powerful identity of ¡®Baekhwa Girls'' High.¡¯ Or maybe it¡¯s just like how Dang Seo-rin was obsessed with her witch cosy, and Noh Do-hwa was hooked on the uniform cosy. Magic-rted awakeners tended to have strong fetishes. I tilted my head. ¡°But why call me ¡®teacher¡¯? Why not ¡®ahjussi¡¯ as usual?¡± ¡°Hehe¡ You¡¯re someone who was born before me and experienced more than me, right? So I want to call you teacher out of respect! Why? Don¡¯t you like it?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t dislike it. It¡¯s just a bit strange to switch from being a security guard to a teacher all of a sudden.¡± ¡°Haha. What are you talking about? You even gave me a diploma!¡± Cheon Yo-hwa put her hands behind her back and looked up at me. The smile on her face was distinctly different from the expressions of the ''Cheon Yo-hwa'' from before the 117th cycle. A lively and cheerful smile. ¡°Please take care of me from now on!¡± I couldn¡¯t object to Cheon Yo-hwa changing her title for me. Because, as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. ¡°¨D¨DMy teacher!¡± This was the story of the time it took for the title of ¡®sunbae¡¯ to turn into ¡®teacher.¡¯ Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 98 Savior A I The Infinite Void was exterminated in the 117th run. That marked the grand debut of Cheon Yo-hwa, the awakener who ''led the Baekwha guild'', ''sealed the anomaly of the Outer Gods'', and manded hundreds of guild members''. From then on, awakeners on the Korean Penins had to make more discerning choices. -OldManGoryeo: Hmmm... Honestly, the strongest guild on the Korean Penins now isn''t Samcheon but Baekwha... Public opinion on SG Net changed immediately. -OldManGoryeo: Baekwha features) The guild leader is stronger than all the other guild membersbined. Guild members are all high school students, so they wear school uniforms. Not cosy. -OldManGoryeo: Samcheon features) The guild leader is stronger than all the other guild membersbined. Guild members all have to wear witch hats. Every day at 2 PM, they have a mandatory ''broom maintenance time''. Cosy. -OldManGoryeo: I believe there''s no longer any need to exin which of the two guilds is superior...©¸Anonymous: As expected, the fact is godly lololol ©¸[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Fuck you, bastard. ©¸Anonymous: I''m a Samcheon guild member and this is true. -Anonymous: So the Baekwha guild leader and Undertaker are dating? ©¸dolLHoUse: Not easy. -Anonymous: Why do they insist on witch cosy regardless of age and gender? Really don''t know. -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Ohment! These days, the young disciples are so obsessed with the dark arts that they neglect their mental and physical training. Howmentable it is. ©¸Anonymous: Please leave. ©¸Anonymous: (Said by someone who would''ve been dead if not for their skill) -[National Road Management Corps] Officer: Objectivelyparing their strength, Baekwha does seem stronger than Samcheon?? -CookingQueen: Interesting. -Anonymous: So are the Baekwha guild leader and Undertaker dating? ©¸dolLHoUse: Not easy. As seen, Dang Seo-rin, who was revered as the top idol on the Korean Penins, was shaken. Coincidentally, Dang Seo-rin''s headquarters was in Busan, while Cheon Yo-hwa was based in Sejong. With Seoul''s unprecedented drop in real estate prices, these two cities had be symbols of the Korean Penins. "I really don''t understand." Dang Seo-rin''s stress level followed the curve of the consumer price index before the end times. "If you''re summoning spirits, you''re a Necromancer. Although it''s ck magic, you''re still a mage, right? So why don''t you wear mage-like outfits and instead walk around in school uniforms?" "It''s a symbol of belonging. Even if the world ends, it means we''re still from the same school." "I don''t like it." "Hmm. Then how about thinking of it as Hogwarts uniforms? They''re mages too, and they wear uniforms." I thought I gave advice perfectly tailored to the other''s taste, but Dang Seo-rin scowled. "Are you crazy, Undertaker? Hogwarts uniforms are not sailor uniforms. Really¡ªnot at all. Sorry, but never utter such nonsense in front of me again." "......" As awakeners of the magic branch, Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa created a newpetition as ''white mage versus ck mage''... but I''ll talk more about thatter. For now, let''s dive into the story that unfolded during the 126th run. One day, at the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps, Noh Do-hwa spoke. "Awakener Undertaker. I don''t usually want to say such things, but..." "Yes?" "Don''t you think you two are spending too much time together...?" Noh Do-hwa looked at me with a default facial expression that seemed to be carved into her face. It was like she was ring at rotting garbage left in the summer heat. Noh Do-hwa had a knack for making her opponents wonder if they were actually centipedes rather than Homo sapiens. If she wasn''t so good at managing the organization and winning people''s hearts, she wouldn''t have lived long. But at this moment, I had no words to refute Noh Do-hwa''s ''eye violence''. "Hehe, teacher..." After all, Cheon Yo-hwa was clinging to my left arm like a ko, in a disy of excessive affection. Cheon Yo-hwa was naturally affectionate and often engaged in physical contact, but this was crossing a line. "I''m honestly at a loss." "At a loss, my ass. You''re actually enjoying it but pretending not to, just to show off to others. You can''t fool my eyes. Your shady and sinister instincts are obvious." "Chief Noh Do-hwa. I''ve told you before. It''s time for you to get new eyeballs." "Oh, just like your conscience is easily receable..." "Ohment! You have blurred vision like Liu Bei who couldn''t recognize Zhuge Liang even after seeing him thrice." "Fuck, old man. How many times have I told you not to make those shitty Three Kingdoms analogies...?" "What? You want references from the Chu-Han Contention instead?" "Do you really want to die...?" "This is an anomaly. A mental derangement anomaly." Blink. Noh Do-hwa looked at my face closely and then turned to Cheon Yo-hwa. "Hehehe, teacher... Teacher saved me. Teacher. My light, my life, my sin, my soul, my lolita." "Hmm." Noh Do-hwa took out her sses cleaner and meticulously cleaned her sses. After putting them back on, she nodded. "This is definitely an anomaly..." "Right?" "Yes, I''m sorry, Awakener Undertaker. I thought you were helping people and then trying to establish a mental power hierarchy and turning that rtionship into romantic feelings. I didn''t mean to offend." "It''s fine. You don''t have to apologize for existing. That''s offense enough." After exchanging pleasantries, we got into a serious strategy meeting. "When did the Baekwha guild leader start this nonsense...?" "Exactly a week ago. She suddenly came to my hideout without any guild members and clung to me." "Hmm. They say she handles the hundred ghosts like Pok¨¦mon. It''s natural for a human to be mentally corrupted when dealing with anomalies..." "If it were only Yo-hwa, I might have thought so too, but..." "...?" Noh Do-hwa tilted her head. "There are not just one but two entities clinging to you? Where? I don''t see them..." "Ah, you can''t hear it¡ªthe [voice] of that person." "Fuck. Here he goes again..." "If you can''t hear it, I have no choice but to trante it myself as the only one who can converse with that person." "Why does this lunatic act normal around others but bes such a shitty brat around me...?" Ignoring her, I wrote on a piece of paper. [Mr. Undertaker, I can''t imagine a world without you.] [Mr. Undertaker, ethics are societal norms, and society is formed by at least two people.] [Mr. Undertaker, in that sense, you have be a bridge for me, who was alone.] The words continued to flow. "Huh? What is this...?" Noh Do-hwa''s face darkened as she watched. [Mr. Undertaker, without a regressor in this world, countless lives would have been sacrificed by the Ten Legs.] [Mr. Undertaker, even if no one else acknowledges it, I know.] [Mr. Undertaker, I''m sorry for always burdening you.] [Mr. Undertaker, you are saving the world.] "......" Noh Do-hwa''s mouth hung open. If Noh Do-hwa''s expression were made into a gacha game skin, it would be at least UR rank for its rarity. "Is this... the Saintess...?" "Yes." "Haaaah...?" "Surprising, right?" "This is the most shocking thing I''ve experienced..." "And she sends these messages in real-time, about one every ten seconds." "......" "This is after I begged her to reduce it. A week ago, it was one per second. I never expected telepathy to be used as infinite KakaoTalk. My mental state is like melting chocte now." "Hmm..." Noh Do-hwa groaned. The meeting room fell into a quiet silence (although I was continuously receiving messages from the Saintess, so it wasn''t very quiet for me). Of course, Cheon Yo-hwa kept giggling ''hehe'' beside me, providing background noise. "I get it. So... do you have any idea what kind of anomaly this is...?" "Yes. We just need to find themon thread between the two showing abnormal symptoms." Cheon Yo-hwa was clinging to me because I ''saved her.'' The Saintess kept praising me for ''saving the world.'' ''Savior Syndrome.'' Or ''Savior Narrative Syndrome.'' That was the name of this bizarre anomaly. Salvation. Amon narrative in genre novels where the protagonist appears just in time to save characters who are persecuted by the world, generating infinite gratitude and affection from those saved. Naturally, the saved character feels infinite gratitude and affection toward the protagonist who saved them. Why is that natural? Because, well, try giving 1 million won to a gambler who lost everything at Kangwon Land without asking anything in return. The difference between a saved character and a gambler at Kangwon Land is that thetter''s life doesn''t change much in reality, whereas the former, thanks to the help, genuinely escapes the abyss of despair as depicted in fiction. To pinpoint the essence of a salvation narrative with a simple example: ''Aah! I was originally the daughter of a noble family, but due to the machinations of evil people, my family fell, and I was sold to a ve trader.'' ''If you hadn''t helped me, I would have be a demon, filled with hatred for all humanity, serving as a minion for the Demon King''s army, leading to the worst bad ending. (Point 1)'' ''But thanks to your help, I escaped the bad ending route, discovered unknown talents, and awakened to a much stronger existence. (Point 2)'' ''You didn''t spare any effort or sacrifice for a mere ve like me. You were wounded and bled. You could have ignored me like everyone else. You could have just walked away. Why did you do so much for someone like me? (Point 3)'' ''Being with you, I realized you are inherently such a person. A person who sacrifices themselves to save others. Thus, I will assist you from behind. Even if it costs me everything. (Point 4)'' Of course, this clich¨¦ has many variations. Just like popr restaurants attract countless ''original'' clones next door. For example, Point 4 could be changed to ''Being with you, I realized you are kind only to me. You treat only me specially. So, I will dedicate everything to you'' instead. The core point is one: to the saved character, the protagonist holds a valueparable to ''the world itself'' or bears the ''weight of the world'' alone in ce of others. Thus, the protagonist ''deserves to be praised.'' No matter how much you praise the protagonist''s achievements and attitude, it is still not enough. Because the world''s misfortune is endless, the protagonist continues to bear that infinite misfortune, constantly getting ''wounded.'' (Point 5) "¨D¨DSo, one of our National Road Management Corps employees, well-versed in genre literature, summarized it for us..." "Impressive." If I had met Oh Dok-seo (awakened version) by then, I could have figured it out myself, but the 119th run me was still a bit distant from genre literature. Noh Do-hwa? She hadn''t even watched The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies? We, mere ordinary people, were satisfied with reading the [Analysis of Savior Narrative] report perfectly prepared by our management team. In short, it was simr to office supervisors who, reading a well-summarized report by their subordinates, feel they''ve mastered a field they''ve never encountered before, thanks to their superior brains and extensive social experience. "So the solution is simple." "Oh, what is it...?" "Ultimately, it means the person who saved the characters should be ''not so noble,'' right? For example, I secretly bully cute fairies or do something petty. This way, the ''Savior Syndrome'' won''t hold, and the anomaly will lose its effect and disappear." "Oh..." "Let''s start tormenting fairies today. Then the notion of sanctifying me will quickly copse, and the anomaly will lose its power." "Indeed, Awakener Undertaker. Your character is vile, but you grasp anomalies better than anyone. A real scumbag." "Thank you. I''m still far behindpared to you, Chief." "Hmmm..." We confidently praised ourselves, assured of victory. I reiterate, Noh Do-hwa and I were not experts in genre conventions. Yet, we were the authorities governing the yin and yang of the Korean Penins. Under normal circumstances, the Saintess, who would have appropriately yed the role of a supervisor, hadpletely lost her mind. History repeats itself. Thebination ofck of expertise and copse of absolute power surveince had been amply demonstrated by humanity over thousands of years. The tragedy was thus foreordained. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 99 Savior A II As I had dered to Noh Do-hwa, from that day on, I began behaving like aplete jerk. I kicked fairies for no reason and bullied shop clerks. Whenever I had the chance, I spread rumors about others. I even started a series on SG Net called [Luxury Series Enjoyed in the Apocalypse], where I insulted all the awakeners on the Korean Penins. At first, I did it anonymously. But I subtly hinted that the posts were from "ZERO_SUGAR." -Anonymous: Breaking news! Evidence that ZERO_SUGAR = LuxuryKing.jpg -ZERO_SUGAR: Oh no, I''ve been found out. Finally, I pretended that my identity had been unintentionally revealed,pleting the charade. I smiled with satisfaction. Anyone could now call me a jerk without hesitation...!"Hmm... 6 points." "...?" Sim Ah-ryeon, an expert in this field, nced at the monitor beside me. "If it were me, I wouldn''t just hint at the same identity anonymously. I''d change IPs constantly while praising andmenting on LuxuryKing. Of course, I''d manipte the upvotes..." "...!" "The pinnacle of socializing is when your posts, no matter how trivial, dominate the popr list on the board with a flood of upvotes..." "...!" "Yes. You need to create a signature nonsensical post that''s uniquely yours. The Luxury series is too well-made to be considered nonsense... It even provides vicarious satisfaction. That''s not good. It has to be utterly useless nonsense, so everyone knows it''s just manipted upvotes. Try beatboxing, singing, or posting consistently about something nobody cares about..." "...!" ÈýÈËÐÐ±ØÓÐÎÒŽŸ (Three people walking together must have at least one teacher among them). Indeed, I learned from Sim Ah-ryeon and transformed into a perfect jerk in the apocalypse. -OldManGoryeo: ZERO_SUGAR << If you like this bastard, upvote lolol ©¸OldManGoryeo: Starting with me lmao ©¸Anonymous: Just upvoted, you bastard ©¸Anonymous: Just upvoted, you bastard OldManGoryeo''s social circle (surprisingly, a group of followers who revered Sim Ah-ryeon as a named figure on SG Net) began supporting. If there are those who like you, there must be those who dislike you to maintain bnce in the world. Normal SG Net users started to hate me. -[Samcheon]WitchJudge: What''s up with ZERO_SUGARtely? Is he crazy? -LiteraryGirl: Fuck, why is half of the popr posts just socializing bullshit? SG Net is ruined. I''m leaving. ©¸Anonymous: See you tomorrow! -dolLHoUse: Oppa... -[National Road Management Corps] Officer: It''s not pleasant to see a few people who are nothing but a handful disturbing the whole board. -CookingQueen: Interesting. The result was perfect. Now, it was time for those infected with Savior Narrative Syndrome toe to their senses¨D¨D -[Baekwha] SixthGrader: Upvoted hehehe That moment never came. When Cheon Yo-hwa, the absolute leader of Baekwha Girls'' High, pressed the upvote button, hundreds of Baekwha guild members automatically followed suit. [Mr. Undertaker, I am not very interested in SG Net activities.] [But sensing your desire to be a named figure, I have captured and exposed the personal information of four awakeners who tried to nder you.] [Please continue your activities without worry.] Why? I turned to Cheon Yo-hwa, who was evolving from a ko to a sloth, and asked. "Yo-hwa. Isn''t my behavior jerk-like?" "Huh? No. You must have hurt your brain while overexerting yourself to save us. Don''t worry, teacher! Even if the whole world criticizes you, I never will!" "......" "We''ll take care of you forever!" My pupils trembled. Responsibility? Forever? Students taking care of their teacher? It felt like one of those gacha games before the apocalypse. The tragedy didn''t end there. "Undertaker! Did you hear?" Dang Seo-rin burst into my hideout. "What?" "Sorry! For not recognizing it sooner...!" Suddenly, Dang Seo-rin, like a character from a hot-blooded youth drama, ran over and hugged me tightly. I was flustered. Dang Seo-rin was not one for physical affection. "Not recognizing what? Suddenly, what...?" "They said you hurt your brain dealing with anomalies! And that you were infected with a mental anomaly called Attention-Seeker Syndrome...! Why don''t you ever care about yourself and only think of others?" "...Shit." "Oh my! Even Anger Management Disorder. I''m sorry, Undertaker. Am I toote? Don''t worry. Even if you burn the whole world, I''ll always be on your side..." I was screwed. "Wait, Dang Seo-rin. That''s a misunderstanding. Who fed you that fake news?" "Huh? The constetions told me?" "...That''s a lie. Think logically. Who''s more trustworthy, me or the constetions?" "Huh? Of course, the constetions." "...Actually, constetions don''t exist. It''s all a masquerade controlled by one person." "Oh." Dang Seo-rin''s eyes softened. She stood on tiptoes and patted my forehead. "I see. Yes, yes. You''re right. The constetions are all lies... Don''t worry. You don''t need to worry about anything..." This is insane. A chill ran down my spine. Cheon Yo-hwa and the Saintess, and Dang Seo-rin were among the strongest awakeners on the Korean Penins. It was no exaggeration to say that half of Korea''s power had fallen to the anomaly since all three were simultaneously infected with Savior Narrative Syndrome. With the other half, including me and Noh Do-hwa, we held another emergency meeting. "Chief, we''re screwed." "Crazy..." Noh Do-hwa sighed and then opened her eyes wide. "No, wait. Isn''t it just you who''s screwed? I have no problems..." "Hey." "Think logically, Undertaker. What harm does this anomaly bring to us? It''s just that some powerful awakeners are mentally dependent on you, but wasn''t that already the case? Does anyone die? Is there any material damage? Do I get tired? No. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I can just sit this out..." "If you get infected too, you''ll cling to me and cry, ''You were indeed the savior of the world...''" "Fuck..." "You know I have [Complete Memory], right? I swear here and now, if you don''t help me, I will someday hone my artistic skills to a hyper-realistic level, like a photograph." "Artistic skills...?" "Yes. I will draw you clinging to me in excruciating detail. The title will be [Noh Do-hwa Worships the Savior]. I''ll post the high-definition picture on SG Net, forever. In every run." "What the fuck is this crazy bastard talking about...?" Bang! Bang! Bang! The conference room door shook violently. Despite being designed to withstand a nuclear explosion, voices beyond the steel door were clearly heard. -Teacher! Open the door! -Hyung! Are you there, hyung! I made all your posts popr using my admin privileges! -Oh, what to do... The guild leader seems scared toe out. She''s so hurt, mentally copsed... From the start, the sacrifice was too much for one person to handle... -Oppa. It''s Ha-yul. Sorry. I should have realized when you asked me to install an unbreakable security system from outside. Regret, deep regret. -We were wrong, Undertaker. Sorry. So please smile like you used to, okay? Please? Goosebumps rose. It was pure terror. Honestly, in recent centuries, no anomaly had scared me this much. It was more frightening than the Infinite Void. I muttered seriously. "Should I kill myself?" "Oh, that''s a great method. I''d love to say hurry up and die, but can you guarantee that Savior Narrative Syndrome won''t appear in the next run? Are you going to kill yourself every time this anomaly appears...?" "That''s a cheap shot." "Come up with a n. I don''t want the current run to be ruined by such a stupid anomaly. Aren''t you an anomaly expert...?" Crash! The steel door shook like a piece of paper. I spoke urgently. "Chief, how about this?" "Go on..." "Let''s pretend that the reason I helped those people was because I had ulterior motives. In other words, I approached them with sinister intentions. If it turns out that what they thought was ''salvation'' was actually my selfish desire, the foundation of Savior Syndrome will copse. What do you think? I just came up with it, but isn''t it perfect?" "Don''t do it, you bastard..." "...?" "Just don''t. Do you want to watch Korea crumble? When I said say anything, I didn''t mean spout nonsense, you crazy bastard..." If this were the 555th run, after meeting Oh Dok-seo and getting into web novels, I could have analyzed the situation more coolly. ...This anomaly, which started with ''Savior Syndrome,'' triggered guilt in the people around me by my ''sudden strange actions.'' Especially hiding in Noh Do-hwa''s secret bunker was the worst move. By activating the plot of ''the protagonist with mental wounds shuts themselves away,'' the guilt of those around me intensified, and the ''salvation'' narrative deteriorated into the ''regret¡¤obsession¡¤ruin'' genre. If I chose ''suicide'' here, it would be the worst. This anomaly might evolve beyond my regression ability into a narrative where ''the protagonist died sacrificing for us,'' maxing out the guilt. My life''s genre would drift into ruin, creating the worst anomaly I couldn''t defeat with regression. In short, the true nature of this anomaly wasn''t ''Savior Syndrome.'' It was a ''clich¨¦''. That was the anomaly''s true form. Genre literature had settled into the clich¨¦ of avoiding, twisting, and overturning clich¨¦s. Even my rebellion against the salvation narrative was a clich¨¦, making it a much tougher anomaly to tackle than I initially thought. Thanks to Noh Do-hwa preventing my suicide, I avoided the worst bad ending. ¡®What should I do? Making myself look like a jerk isn''t working? But I can''t just kill innocent people ormit evil deeds.¡¯ For the record, if I hadmitted real ''evil deeds'' back then, the situation would have worsened with side effects. That''s prime material for a ruin genre plot. ¡®What should I do...¡¯ Crash! Finally, the steel door was crushed. Familiar faces reached through the gap. "Teacher." "Hyung." "Guild leader..." "Oppa." "Undertaker." Noh Do-hwa was terrified. "Do something. Anything but the crazy n you just mentioned..." "Ah." In that moment, an inspiration struck my mind like lightning. It was divine providence. An act the protagonist of a salvation narrative would never do. Not just that, an act that no work in the world had ever established, thus never considered a clich¨¦. An act that wouldn''t give the impression of ''suddenly bing a different person'' while inherently being unlikable. Something I''d always had as a characteristic. A strategy like a miracle, and I had only one. Crack! The steel doorpletely crumpled, revealing the exit. People approached, swaying like a horde of zombies. Indeed, the underground bunker of the National Road Management Corps, thest bastion on the Korean Penins, had fallen. Yet I did not retreat. Like Zhang Fei of Changban, I stood before the salvation zombies. And I shouted. "Who wants to talk about [Three Kingdoms] with me!" Stop. The salvation zombies hesitated. "If Wei Yan''s n at Ziwu Valley had been epted by Zhuge Liang? If Ma Su hadn''t climbed the mountain? If Liu Bei hadn''t lost the Battle of Yiling?" "......" "Was Jiang Wei''s Northern Expeditions justified? Was Liu Shan really a foolish ruler? Does anyone here support Cao Cao? The Xuzhou Massacre was an unforgivable crime!" "......" Hesitation. Hesitation. The salvation zombies took steps back from me. My eyes sparkled. It worked! It really worked! I shouted even louder and approached the salvation zombies. "After all, only Shu-Han carries on the true lineage of Han! Wei supporters are psychos, and Cao Cao was just a deranged attention seeker!" "......" "Cao Cao killed his father and massacred the people of Xuzhou, but in Wan, he lusted after a widow and caused his son''s death! What hypocrisy! This led to the session of Cao Pi, an unprecedented sociopath, and brought disaster! Cao Cao is the enemy of the world and should be stoned! Dang Seo-rin!" "W-What?" "Let''s talk about the Three Kingdoms!" "Uh... sorry. There''s a big issue in my guild. That''s why I came to see the Chief. But she looks busy. I''lle backter." "Yo-hwa!" "Y-Yes?" "Want to talk about the Three Kingdoms?" "¨D¨DSorry, sunbae! I have a basketball game with the kids soon! I must go!" "Ha-yul! Seo Gyu! Ah-ryeon! You guys like the Three Kingdoms, right? Let''s go to Mount Qi this weekend and see why Ma Su climbed the mountain!" "Kyaaah!" Starting with Sim Ah-ryeon''s scream, known for its high pitch since the first run, the salvation zombies fled. The salvation narrative anomaly was defeated. Only Noh Do-hwa and I remained in the conference room. "......" "......" I turned to Noh Do-hwa. Noh Do-hwa''s expression was indescribable with words. Despair. Relief. Contempt. Annoyance. Disbelief. Pity. Annoyance. Difort. Only by mastering hyper-realistic painting could I convey theplex emotions Noh Do-hwa directed at me. "...Chief." "Yes..." "Want to talk about the Three Kingdoms?" Silence. Noh Do-hwa mumbled. "...Sure. Whatever." "..,,,." "Fine, let''s do it..." Confession: That response hurt more than anything else. The end. Epilogue. "¨D¨DSuch things happened in the 126th run, Chief Noh Do-hwa. That''s why I bring up the Three Kingdoms whenever I can. It''s not because of my old-fashioned taste, but to protect the peace of the Korean Penins and the world''s safety. As a preventive measure, I bring up the Three Kingdoms. It helps prevent Savior Narrative Syndrome. Do you understand? Will you acknowledge my noble self-sacrifice?" "Bullshit." Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 100 Shareholder ¢ñ You might find yourself wondering as you listen to my stories. "Aren''t these people a bit too noble?" Indeed, even if we set aside the Saintess, who has reached an almost inhuman level of sanctity, people like Dang Seo-rin (excluding her witch cosy) and Noh Do-hwa (excluding her personality), as well as those around me (excluding Sim Ah-ryeon), are quite virtuous. But this suspicion is misced. -How is it that everyone around this person is so noble and capable? (X) -Oh, this person deliberately associates only with noble and capable people! (O) I, too, have a history of painful betrayals. Rotten personalities, people always ready to backstab, dirty and ipetent characters... After filtering out such individuals, I finally arrived at my current rtionships.¡°By the way, mister.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± So one day during the 669th cycle, Oh Dok-seo asked me a question that left me a bit flustered. ¡°Now that I think about it, you don''t hang out with the early members much anymore, right? You only meet people like Dang Seo-rin or Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°Early members? Who are you talking about? If you mean Old Man Scho¡¡± ¡°No, no. You meet the Swordmaster in the 6th run. I mean the real early members. Jung So-hee, Kim Si-woon, Uehara Shino.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°In [Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint], those people only appear in the early parts, and then they''re never mentioned again. Why don''t you meet them nowadays?¡± ¡°......¡± I felt an unfamiliar sensation, as if hearing the names of elementary school friends I''d long forgotten. ¡°I don''t remember.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I don''t remember. I gained [Complete Memory] in the 5th run, but I mainly interacted with them in the 4th run. From my perspective, that was thousands of years ago.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± ¡°It seems that the novel you read includes stories from before the 5th run.¡± ¡°Yeah, well... The stories from the 1st and 3rd cycles were very important. It got serialized up to the point where you enter Baekwha Girls'' High and encounter the Infinite Void.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± So this meant that Oh Dok-seo at this point had ''read'' my life up to the 117th run. From my current perspective, this run was the 669th. For Oh Dok-seo, it meant she observed ''me up to the 117th run.'' In other words, Oh Dok-seo was trailing my life with about a 500-cycle gap. ''This is the longest timeg adaptation in the world.'' [Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint] was an irregrly serialized work. Just because I moved onto the next run didn¡¯t mean it was regrly updated like modern web novels. It wasn¡¯t because the author, iming a slump, took five days off, causing an outrage among working readers with his stress management skills. The serialization simply had different ''conditions'' from other novels. ''When major anomalies are defeated, [ORV] especially increases in serialization.'' Ten Legs. Udumbara. Meteor Shower. Particrly, when the Infinite Void was defeated, [ORV]¡¯s serialization volume skyrocketed. Naturally, the knowledge of Oh Dok-seo, the sole ''reader'' of [ORV], also increased. Compared to the Oh Dok-seo of the 555th cycle, who thought the Ten Legs was the final boss, the Oh Dok-seo of the 669th cycle possessed an overwhelming amount of information. Of course, she still had many gapspared to me. However, Oh Dok-seo had knowledge I didn¡¯t possess. ¡°On the contrary, I want to ask you, Dok-seo, what happened between me and those early characters.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I don''t remember anything properly. I roughly know who they are, but I don''t know what happened in the 4th run. No one, including myself, knows unless you tell us.¡± ¡°Uh... Should I tell you then? I only read the early parts a month ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy¡¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter at all.¡± ¡°Then... Okay, got it. Wow, telling the protagonist his own story feels really strange. It''s fascinating. I don¡¯t think such a scene has ever appeared in any creative work.¡± Oh Dok-seo cleared her throat. ¡°Hmm, alright. So, what happened was...¡± ¡°Wait. You don¡¯t need to tell me now.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ask you in the next run. There¡¯s a much better way to know than just hearing it from you.¡± ¡°...?¡± Oh Dok-seo tilted her head. ¡°Mister, what are you talking about?¡± This was what I meant. ¡°You fucking asshole! What are you talking about!¡± ¡°Hoeee¡¡± Next run. The 670th run. In the waiting room of the ''Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon,'' SG-Man Seo Gyu''s loud cursing echoed as usual. The face of fairy number 264, who received the insult directly, was still nk. The expressions of hundreds of civilians were no different. A ce more familiar, though not nostalgic, than my birthce, which I could barely remember¡ªa home for the infinitely regressing. I approached Oh Dok-seo and greeted her with thetest MZ-generation trends. ¡°Hi-ru. Bang-ga-bang-ga. Hewwo.¡± ¡°Eek! M-Main character¡!¡± Of course, the MZ generation included both Millennials (born in the 1980s and 1990s) and Generation Z (born in the 2000s and 2010s), so my greeting was indeed up-to-date. There used to be controversy over how to lump together 30 years, but personally, I found it puzzling. What¡¯s the problem? I grouped my life in 1,000-year intervals. Honestly, isn¡¯t 30 years just a moment? But it seemed sudden to Oh Dok-seo. ¡°W-Why are youing to me!¡± ¡°Calm down, reader. I know you have read [Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint], where I am the protagonist. But that''s a lie, a means of alien seizing control of your mind¡¡± ¡°¡?¡± ¡°My name is the Undertaker. Known as the Duke of the ck Library in the secret society, the Library Society. You must trust mepletely¡¡± ¡°¡!¡± The most fun game in the world, that is, teasing Oh Dok-seo,sted about ten minutes. During that time, SG Man''s head exploded (sorry, Seo Gyu), Sim Ah-ryeon proved she was the scream queen, and 398 survivors scattered in all directions. Oh Dok-seo and I were left alone. While everyone was too shocked by the murder they witnessed to notice, the convenience store, souvenir shop, and vending machines in the waiting room were great points to gather supplies. I scoured the convenience store and shop, taking just enough, as always. I didn¡¯t forget to grab Silver Bells from the souvenir shop and put them in my pocket. I also emptied the vending machines of all drinks, spending all my money. ¡°Now then¡¡± Oh Dok-seo invested all her money in the vending machines too. After hearing the whole truth from me, Oh Dok-seo red at me with a fierce expression. ¡°So, in an earlier run, I formed an alliance with you? Now, in the 670th cycle, you seek my cooperation to experience something as close as possible to the 4th cycle?¡± ¡°That is correct.¡± ¡°¡Mister, I¡¯m confused about many things, but let me ask this first. Why did you y such a prank earlier?¡± ¡°Hmm. Reader, imagine you¡¯re living your life, and someonees along, iming that this world is actually a novel, and they know all its developments. Isn¡¯t that fascinating? Don¡¯t you feel like teasing them?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t get it at all¡¡± Well, expecting a deep understanding from a severe web novel otaku with terminal Gen Z disease and chuunibyou was too much. ¡°But¡ isn¡¯t it already too different from the 4th run just by hanging out with me like this? I¡¯m an extra whose name isn¡¯t even mentioned in [Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint].¡± ¡°Ah, an extra, you say. Nonsense. That''s because ''that novel'' hasn¡¯t reached the 555th cycle yet. The 555th run in the novel starts with you as a main character.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t want the exact same progress as the 4th cycle. Just something simr is enough. I want to experience the lost memories.¡± ¡°Well, in that case¡ Ah, they¡¯reing.¡± Oh Dok-seo murmured nervously. Footsteps echoed from the other side of the waiting room. Seven people. Leading the group was a man in his twenties wearing a Hawaiian shirt and holding a wooden stick. He scowled when he saw us. ¡°Oh? What the hell, people are here?¡± Lee Baek. He was a person who, if left alone, would be eliminatedter in the tutorial. His awakening ability was also E-rank, not much different from an ordinary person. That¡¯s all I remembered, but Oh Dok-seo seemed to know more. The kid whispered urgently to me. ¡°That¡¯s Lee Baek. He leads the biggest and fiercest group at Busan Station. Because of him, you had a hard time from the very first cycle.¡± ¡°What? Me?¡± ¡°Yeah. He always incited people, created hierarchies among them¡ When he noticed you, he divided your group to betray you. He caused all the early stress-inducing developments. You seriously considered quitting because of him.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± I couldn¡¯t imagine being manipted by an E-rank ordinary guy. It was so surprising that it was more interesting than unpleasant. ¡°What are you two whispering about?¡± Lee Baek seemed annoyed by the sight of Oh Dok-seo and me whispering. He approached, waving his wooden stick. The rest of his followers also looked menacing. They probably knew each other from before being summoned to the tutorial dungeon, mainly from back alleys. ¡°How did I act in the 4th run?¡± ¡°You waited by the vending machine until Lee Baek approached, then you slit his throat immediately.¡± ¡°What? Just killed him?¡± ¡°Yeah, it was the first cathartic scene in [ORV]. Without it, I would¡¯ve seriously quit.¡± ¡°The 4th cycle me was quite a savage¡¡± ¡°Hey, you in the T-shirt! And the kid in the hat! Can¡¯t you hear me?¡± As soon as Lee Baek stepped within five paces, I took a step forward, standing right in front of his nose. ¡°Can¡¯t hear¨D¨Dyou?¡± Tap. I chopped his throat with my hand, knocking him unconscious. I didn¡¯t kill him. He just experienced the sorrow of a split vocal cord. ¡°Huh?¡± The remaining followers widened their eyes, but they didn¡¯t need to suffer from dry eyes for long. It took just three seconds to destroy their vocal cords and knock them out. ¡°¡Wow.¡± Oh Dok-seo¡¯s dyed exmation came. ¡°Are they dead? All of them?¡± ¡°No, I only destroyed their vocal cords. They¡¯ll live as mutes for the rest of their lives. As you said, he¡¯s good at inciting and politicking, so sealing his voice is enough of a penalty.¡± ¡°Wow, seriously. Wow. You¡¯ve really been through hundreds of runs. The genre haspletely shifted to a munchkin story. Where did that wimpy, stress-inducing character from the early parts go¡?¡± ¡°Hey, that¡¯s harsh. Anyway, what¡¯s next?¡± ¡°Oh. You got injured in the arm dealing with these seven? At Busan Station, only Uehara Shino and Sim Ah-ryeon can heal you. But Sim Ah-ryeon¡¡± ¡°Her healing is barely at the level of a burn ointment, considering the current situation.¡± ¡°No, even so, it¡¯s much better than ointment. Anyway,pared to Uehara Shino, her performance is indeedcking, so you recruit Uehara as an ally¡¡± Following Oh Dok-seo¡¯s guidance, I enjoyed a nostalgic journey. ¡®Come to think of it, I used to rate Uehara Shino higher than Sim Ah-ryeon.¡¯ It was a novel experience. Chasing after a long-forgotten past, now just a mirage of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, step by step. Even with [Complete Memory], making me remember everything, there was still an unknown past. This feeling wasn¡¯t bad at all. It must have been a mysterious experience for Oh Dok-seo as well. ¡°Ew. Mister, why are you so good at Japanese?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°You just spoke Japanese with Uehara Shino. Originally, you couldn¡¯t speak it and used a smartphone trantor¡ Oh, right. You said you¡¯ve lived for thousands of years. So you¡¯d be good at foreignnguages¡¡± ¡°¡?¡± Uehara Shino watched our conversation with a puzzled look. She was an alchemist who, in the distant past, I considered an S-rank awakener but would now be ssified as a B-rank at best in this run. A naturally eliminated past connection. A remnant of time. ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Undertaker-san, is something wrong?¡± ¡°No, nothing. By the way, we¡¯re challenging the mid-boss tomorrow, so get some rest.¡± ¡°Oh, okay.¡± We cleared the tutorial following the 4th run¡¯s order. Rallying the survivors, demanding food and medicine from the fairy as mid-rewards, and killing the seven bosses one by one. Even though I knew how to forcibly open the ¡®exit,¡¯ it was a perfect waste of time, but it was also a time journey. Of course, there was a crucial difference from the ¡®original¡¯ 4th cycle. A past history that could never be repeated. ¡°Hmm, originally, from today, I was supposed to meet the survivors and use [Time Seal] for those who wanted it¡¡± nce. Oh Dok-seo looked at me cautiously. ¡°¡I can¡¯t follow this. Because everyone you used [Time Seal] on is now trapped in a crystal monument.¡± I stared nkly at the Busan Station food court. It had been a long time since I visited this ce. Gravestones. Crystal monuments that only I could see lined up along the food court corridor. To me, it looked more like a cemetery than a food court. The remains of people sealed in ''the happiest day of their lives'' by my power. I silently put my hands in my pockets. Jingle, I felt the touch of Silver Bells. Oh Dok-seo asked carefully. ¡°Hey, mister¡ Can you see them now? The monuments.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Can you tell me exactly how many there are?¡± ¡°Well. I¡¯d have to count the ones in this food court, but I can tell you the exact number of monuments in the entire Busan Station dungeon. I memorized that. 101.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Here, a total of 101 dreams, 101 afterlives, and 101 gravestones were sleeping. Indeed. The original number of civilians summoned to the ¡®Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon¡¯ wasn¡¯t an ambiguous 399. 500. It started with 500 survivors. Among them, 101 people were sealed in time by me. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 101 Shareholder ¢ñI The world was an endless hell. The reason I attached the word ¡°Infinite Void¡± to the first otherworldly entity I encountered was because that termbeled it correctly in my subconscious. ¡°Hoee! This stage has seen 31 casualties!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Not a bad number, butpared to other dungeons, it''s a poor performance. A bit more effort is required! With such results, the rewards I can offer you are quite insignificant... Hoi.¡± ¡°...This is.¡± ¡°It''s Pig Slop! I heard it was often eaten by residents during the war here!¡± Not many immediately understood that the war referred to the Korean War.None of the survivors knew that Pig Slop was made from food waste and cigarette butts salvaged from American soldiers'' trash bins, boiled without distinguishing between garbage and food. ¡°The smell is terrible, but I¡¯ve removed the deadly toxins for you... Though the rules strictly forbid such favoritism and partiality, I decided to make this small concession after witnessing your efforts...!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Anyway, enjoy this meal, your first in two days!¡± The fairy vanished. In the basement of Busan Station, on the 6th floor, where a restaurant shouldn''t have existed, 56 survivors and 56 bowls of Pig Slop remained. Even those who were repelled by the smell gradually moved their hands. There were no spoons. Given that all 56 shared the same miserable scent, swallowing food with a simr odor wasn''t difficult. Cries asionally echoed. Eating couldn''t be a sin. If eating were a sin, life itself would be a punishment. An article in the Kyunghyang Newspaper on May 20, 1964, contained such a sentence. The writer''s name was Shin Young-gak. The column was titled "Hungry Crowd." The 56 starving individuals hastily devoured the food to alleviate two days'' worth of hunger. Maintaining historical uracy, the bowls were actually aluminum cans. The sounds of fingers scraping and rubbing the cans echoed through the cheap aluminum. Eating couldn''t be a sin... If eating were a sin, life itself would be a punishment... Hell was a ce where condemned sinners lived, so the world was hell. asionally, gagging sounds briefly interrupted the restaurant''s atmosphere. These sounds were less about the food and more about the misery of life. Things that couldn''t be swallowed or digested traveled down people''s throats. Afterward, sounds like "Mom" or "Fuck" were probably just burps. Jingle. The sound of a bell rang out. People who had finished eating turned to look at me. It was my bell. I couldn''t remember if I used my aura to make the bell sound louder before the 5th cycle. This Silver Bell was an item I farmed in every cycle, even during vacation cycles. I remembered the farming location clearly. The souvenir shop in the waiting room. Turn left from the entrance, seventh shelf, fourth row from the top. Even after looters ransacked the shop, this useless bell, which only made noise and attracted monsters, was always left behind. I needed it. ¡°It''s Undertaker¡¡± ¡°Where''s Jung So-hee? He''s alone...¡± ¡°Shh, don''t look at him.¡± ¡°He''ll drag you into the abyss.¡± People in the restaurant whispered. Among them were faces I still remembered, and others that had vanished from reality. Kim Joo-chul, the football yer sealed in time during the 4th cycle, would have been among them. I continued to recall. If this were the 3rd cycle, the number of survivors in this stage would be 11, not 56, and Lee Baek would be among them. ¡°Hey, Undertaker! gue!¡± Lee Baek would have stood up and shouted. ¡°Did youe begging for Pig Slop? Sorry, but we don''t have enough food to share with a gue like you! Everyone! Don¡¯t share your food with him. We don''t have the luxury to support a solo yer like him!¡± In a voice like that. With lines like those. Reconstructing the novel Oh Dok-seo read, as if restoring an old newspaper, it seemed Lee Baek said those things to me. ording to Oh Dok-seo¡¯s analysis, Lee Baek said such things to ''consolidate his power over the survivors,'' ''select an outcast to iste,'' ''make eating Pig Slop a privilege,'' and ''appear to bear the burden of harsh words for the group''s sake.'' My response was simple. ¡°Does anyone want to escape this hell?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Anyone who wants eternal peace? Anyone?¡± The restaurant fell silent. Even Lee Baek for a moment. I looked around. Lightly enough not to be intimidating. Thoroughly enough not to miss a single face. ¡°Shut up and get lost!¡± If it were Lee Baek, he would have swung his stick, angry that he hesitated even briefly. ¡°Um, I...¡± In another cycle, someone would have cautiously raised their hand. ¡°Me too...¡± There would have been more hands in the 4th cycle than in the 5th, more in the 3rd cycle than in the 4th, and even more in the 1st cycle. These hands had scooped Pig Slop, killed monsters, and murdered other humans. An elderly woman knew she no longer had grandchildren or family to caress with those hands. ¡°Young man. Do it for me. The funeral, was it?¡± ¡°With my ability, if you enter the dream, others will lose all memories of you. No one will remember you.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The elderly woman muttered. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, that stuff.¡± A transparent tombstone appeared. Whether I was in Busan Station or beyond, tombstones lined my path. I couldn¡¯t remember exactly, but at least 500,000 tombstones had been erected. Even when the cycle restarted, the tombstones never disappeared. At the beginning of each new cycle, hundreds of thousands of humans ''vanished in an instant.'' No one knew about their disappearance. Except for one person. The world was hell, and the bell always rang in that ce. I was the death row inmate who killed the most humans in this hell. Thousands of yearster. ¡°Mister. I am undoubtedly your only true understanding.¡± A cheeky kid boldly dered this. Hairstyle? Short red bob. Weapon? Baseball bat. Fashion? Rapper-style cap, jacket, and jeans with three tears. Signature pose? Chewing ordinary gum like bubble gum, blowing it until it popped, covering her whole face in gum. Oh Dok-seo. In short, an idiot. This girl, who clearly needed psychological treatment, dared to im: ¡°I¡¯ve read the novel [Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint], which contains your entire life story. I¡¯ve read your innermost thoughts and monologues. I know you better than you know yourself.¡± ¡°Really. Should I sue you for invasion of privacy?¡± ¡°Huh? No¡ So, please save me. My shield¡¯s about to break.¡± Bang bang bang bang! Oh Dok-seo crouched down. A transparent shield formed around her, with three goblins enthusiastically beating it. -Screech! Screech! -Eek, quack! Kheek! These were regr monsters in the tutorial dungeon. Three-on-one. It was a textbook scene of a gangbang, and Uehara Shino, now part of our party, was stomping her feet. ¡°Um, Undertaker-san. Shouldn¡¯t we help her...?¡± ¡°No. This is part of her training.¡± ¡°Ugh. Go for it, Dok-seo-chan! Ganbare!¡± ¡°Ganbare my ass! Help me, dammit!¡± Bang ng bang ng! Initially, the goblins found the transparent drum amusing, but now they treated it like an instrument. Bang! ng! Bang! Their Dionysian rhythm turned this ce into a rock festival. By the way, Dionysus¡¯s followers had a tradition of tearing people apart and eating them after festivals. Judging by the goblins'' eyes on Dok-seo, the festival''s sacrifice was already decided. -Keeheeheehee! ¡°Eek?! M-Mister! Please save me! Only 30 seconds left on my shield!¡± Absolute Defense. She called it the [AT Field]. A shield that nullified attacks. It was one of Oh Dok-seo¡¯s abilities. I believed it reflected her mindset of seeing herself as a ''reader dropped into a novel world.'' Her skill manifested her way of separating herself from this world. It was an overpowered skill with a fatal w: she could only use it once a day, for just one minute. ¡°Dok-seo, I¡¯ve told you many times. No matter how OP your skill is, it¡¯s useless if you don¡¯t train yourself.¡± ¡°But I¡¯ve already killed 11 monsters today! I¡¯m exhausted! I¡¯m tired! We¡¯ve been walking for six hours since dawn. Please help me! Eek? It¡¯s cracking, I heard it crack, it¡¯s really cracking!¡± ¡°Stop whining.¡± Smash¡ª The shield shattered, and the goblins¡¯ clubs rushed in. Oh Dok-seo screamed bizarrely and swung her bat. ¡°Hiyaaah!¡± The bat glowed red with aura. Thwack! A goblin''s head burst. Foul. -Screech? -Eek? The goblins, thinking they were up against a KBO batter, were bewildered by the sudden Major League swing. Regardless, Dok-seo executed the moves I taught her in the past few days, striking with her bat. ¡°Hyaah! Die! Die! You monster bastard, dieee!¡± -Squeegh? Foul. Foul. With two strikes, no pitchers on the opposing team. The goblins were disqualified, leaving Dok-seo victorious. Dok-seo dropped her shoulders and bat, panting heavily. ¡°Huff, wheeze¡ª Huff, wheeze...¡± ¡°See? You can do it. These days, kidsck perseverance, whining before even trying¡¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!¡± Dok-seo swung her bat at me, but such a slow swing couldn¡¯t hit me. Swing and a miss. Out. For daring to attack her master, I gave her a flick on the forehead. My dark aura reverberated through her skull with just the right amount of pain. ''Just the right amount'' meant, hmm, like getting kicked in the balls for a guy? ¡°Arghhh!¡± Dok-seo threw the bat (throwing a bat after an out, such poor sportsmanship) and rolled on the ground. ¡°I¡¯m dying! I¡¯m really dying! My head is shattered! Ahhh! I¡¯m dying!¡± ¡°You¡¯re not dying. It¡¯s not shattered. Get up and eat. Uehara, please set up the mat. Let¡¯s have lunch.¡± ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Uehara Shino, the porter, set up the mat expertly. This was quite different from the 4th cycle. We didn''t have the luxury of carrying a mat back then. We cooked the retort foods we took from the convenience store deliciously. No need for fire. We used aura to heat, cook, and boil the food. It was the most luxurious cooking method in the world. Uehara twirled pasta on a fork, her expression melting. ¡°Wow. It¡¯s delicious¡¡± ¡°The pasta is perfectly cooked, right? I noticed Uehara likes slightly undercooked, al dente pasta.¡± ¡°Oh, yes. It¡¯s exactly to my taste. Your cooking is better than what I¡¯ve had at professional restaurants!¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Then, from behind a pir, the fairy peeked out. ¡°Hoee. Smells good¡¡± ¡°Hmm? What? Are you going to eat too?¡± ¡°Eek. I am an impartial judge. I cannot ept bribes from the participants¡¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a bribe; it¡¯s a gratuity. It¡¯s a gift from the people to the vanguard striving tirelessly for the world revolution.¡± ¡°Hoee! Food made from the people¡¯s blood and sweat¡ Ignoring it would be bourgeois behavior. As a staunch revolutionary, I cannot refuse¡¡± ¡°Here. I made salmon steak.¡± ¡°Hoee! Truly revolutionary taste!¡± Japanese and fairyughter bloomed on the mat. True harmony between past and present enemies. ¡°Ugh¡¡± Only the chuunibyou otakuy sprawled next to the mat, groaning. ¡°Me too... I¡¯m hungry¡¡± ¡°Do you have no hands or feet? Get your food from the mat and eat it.¡± ¡°Why are you so cold to me?¡± Dok-seo whined. ¡°You make me fight monsters alone! Make me train aura alone! What did I do wrong, huh?¡± ¡°It¡¯s because I expect much from you, kid.¡± ¡°Ugh. I can¡¯t live like this. I¡¯m so upset... Damn, why is the pasta so good? It¡¯s retort food.¡± ¡°Um, Dok-seo-chan. That was mine¡¡± ¡°Hoee. This BLT rye sandwich is also revolutionary! You deserve the Cooking Hero Medal!¡± The bnce of protein, carbs, and fats was perfect. It was an overly luxurious lunch for beginners in a tutorial dungeon. Ultimately, our 4th cycle exploration turned into a luxury trip... But that¡¯s fine. I hope these kids enjoy luxuries when they can. We stood up, neither too full nor too hungry, with our stomachs nicely coated. ¡°One more floor down, and we¡¯ll reach the boss room. Once we defeat the boss, the tutorial dungeon ends.¡± ¡°Yeah. You¡¯ll defeat the boss, right?¡± ¡°No? Veterans shouldn¡¯t steal newbies¡¯ experience. You¡¯ll clear it alone, Dok-seo.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°...?¡± As we continued our cheerful conversation, stepping onto the stairs to the 13th basement floor, I felt a strong presence from the opposite corridor. ¡°Wait. Everyone, stop.¡± Our group looked at me. It was amusing that fairy number 264 was included, but my mouth didn¡¯t smile. ¡°People are approaching.¡± ¡°Approaching? How many?¡± ¡°One hundred seventeen.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°All the remaining survivors. Get ready. Dok-seo,e to my side. Uehara, to the back.¡± I positioned myself in the middle of the corridor. ¡°We¡¯ll stand our ground here.¡± After saying that, something strange happened. My right hand instinctively moved to my waist. To the empty belt, as if weapons like fire axes should have been hanging there. My fingers groped the air. ¡°......¡± A bizarre sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu enveloped me. A very long time ago, thousands of years past, it felt like I had experienced this exact scene. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 102 Shareholder ¢ñII -We will prepare here. A very old version of myself said this, holding a fire axe. The party members murmured in the corridor before thest set of stairs. -Here? Why? The fairy said the final stage is just a bit further down. -...... -Jae-hee, don''t doubt him. The savior will guide us. Lee Jae-hee, Uehara Shino, Jung So-hee. Their professions were swordsman, alchemist, and zealot, respectively.Just looking at the sses, you might think it was a doomed party. Yet, these were original members who had been with me since the 3rd run, maybe even longer. They looked at me with their dirty, unkempt faces, having not properly washed for days. A mess. But these were the best the "Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon" had to offer. -...... I made eye contact with them one by one. The version of me in their memory was much more gaunt than I was now. -Three days ago, there was a scout secretly watching us. -A scout...? -It must have been sent by Lee Baek. The only other survivor group that made it down here is his. The party members flinched. -They intentionally let us clear the monsters on our path. But to get credit for defeating the final boss, they have to kill it themselves. So, they''re waiting for us to weaken ourselves in the boss fight before attacking. -What aplete asshole. -If we defeat the boss first, their n is meaningless. They''ll know this and are probably running here at full speed. Hide below the stairs. We''ll attack them when they''re tired. -...... -I will lead. "I will lead." The d¨¦j¨¤ vu disappeared in an instant, like a wave briefly touching and then retreating from a beach of old, white pebbles. Then, something squirmed beside me. "......" It was Oh Dok-seo. The kid, barely tall enough to reach my corbone, had a baseball bat slung over her shoulder, still stained with goblin blood. "What are you doing, Dok-seo? Step back." "No." Oh Dok-seo chewed her gum loudly. "I killed 14 monsters today. You? Eight. Isn''t the hunter''s world based on merit? I don''t follow orders from anyone weaker than me." "......" Sometimes, something was so absurd that it made meugh. Before myughter could fade, footsteps thundered down the corridor. A group of over a hundred people. Predictably, Lee Baek was at the forefront. "You bastards. Missed me?" The surprising thing was that Lee Baek could talk. How? His vocal cords had been shredded like a pizza. "Uh, uh...." The answery with Sim Ah-ryeon, who crouched beside him, looking dejected. Despite being a healer, Sim Ah-ryeon was wrapped in bandages (made of cloth), with bruises on her cheeks and shoulders. It wasn''t hard to deduce the situation. ''She refused to heal and got beaten up by Lee Baek, now reduced to a ve who needs permission even to heal herself.'' It was pitiful. Poor Ah-ryeon, a potential S-rank getting bullied by an E-rank... What a waste. Even the followers who should have been suffering from ''vocal cord pizza syndrome'' were talking normally. "That''s the guy! He crippled us as soon as he saw us!" "They took all the supplies in the waiting room!" "Fuck, look how clean they are. Just three of them hoarding all the supplies... bastards. We''re struggling and splitting food..." "It''s a fairy! There''s a fairy over there!" As the instigators stirred the crowd, someone screamed and pointed at the fairy. Lee Baek seized the moment, stepping forward with a sly smile. "Those bastards are with the fairy!" With that, his voice echoed through the corridor, loud enough for over a hundred people to hear clearly. That was his ability. [Lion''s Roar], or [Amplifier]. "They''re not on our side! They''re with the fairy and betrayed us! Look! They''re with the fairy! Traitors! Traitors!" Though it merely amplified his voice, in a tutorial setting where everyone was of simr level, it was quite useful. The saying "the loudest voice wins" held true in emergencies. While other survivors mumbled, he alone shouted into a megaphone, seizing control. His ability was useful not just for politicking but also inbat. In chaotic fights involving dozens of civilians, simplemands like ''Attack!'' or ''Retreat!'' were often missed, but his [Lion''s Roar] ensured his orders were heard. A useful skill, especially in the tutorial. "Traitors...?" The tutorial refugees murmured. "It''s true, there''s a fairy." "So Lee Baek was right. Those bastards took all the supplies and sided with the fairies..." "Bastards. Instead of working together, they live well alone..." I understood them. People who had just fallen into the apocalypse¡ªhungry, cut off from the outside world, worried about their families, stressed from having to form groups with strangers, fighting monsters, and witnessing people die before their eyes¡ªsuch people were easily swayed by Lee Baek''s [Amplifier]. Maybe if Seo Gyu were here, he would have yelled back, ''What bullshit, you fucking asshole!'' while raising the dungeon''s average decibels. ''What! Bullshit!'' Imagining Lee Baek and Seo Gyu shouting curses at each other made meugh. I had to try it someday. "Huek. Th-This is bad. If they find out I favored specific yers, it''s execution! We need to retreat...!" Poof. Fairy number 264 disappeared in panic, not through teleportation but by turning invisible. To the survivors, it seemed like the fairy had vanished. Those traumatized by fairies saw it as a sign. Lee Baek shouted. "The fairy disappeared! Everyone! Now''s our chance! Attack them! Take their supplies, regroup, and let''s get out of this damned dungeon! Let''s go see our families!" "Uwooo¡ª" As the crowd roared and tried to muster courage, I took a step forward. Dark aura spread from my footprint like a tidal wave, brushing past the 117 opponents in an instant. "¨D¨D¨D!" "...? ...!" Silence. The people who were about to charge looked around in confusion. No sound came from their open mouths. The underground corridor fell silent. When aura mastery reached its peak, such tricks were possible. "Oh, OP MC..." Oh Dok-seo muttered beside me. I ignored her and spoke. "Sim Ah-ryeon." "....!" "Stop hiding. Come here. We''re stronger. We''ll save you and won''t beat you for not using your healing ability. We''ll provide three meals and afortable bed. Switch sides." "......" "You have three seconds." One admirable thing about Sim Ah-ryeon was her decisiveness in such moments. Before Lee Baek could react, she dashed to my side. Lee Baek and the survivor group scowled. "Heal yourself." "Yes, yes. Oh, I can speak..." People pointed and yelled at the traitor, but the corridor only echoed silent screams. It was excellent anger, giving Sim Ah-ryeon ample experience as an ''Aggro-Drinking Bird.'' Smiling warmly, I took another step forward. "Lee Baek, I''m sorry." "......" "I wasn''t considerate enough. Knocking you out too quickly didn''t properly demonstrate our power difference. So, I''ll give you a chance." "...?" "See this red-haired kid?" I put my hand on Oh Dok-seo''s shoulder. "Fight her one-on-one. If you win, we''ll give you all our supplies and let you fight the boss first." "...!" "Don''t worry. No traps, no backstabbing. But if you refuse, I''ll permanently take your voice this time. Or are you too scared to fight the kid?" "......" Voices were strange. Regardless of right or wrong, the st person to speak'' always seemed justified. Having enjoyed the magic of his voice countless times, Lee Baek had no rebuttal. The survivors, intrigued by my words, stared at him. Silently, 116 pairs of eyes bore down on him. "......" Lee Baek scrutinized Oh Dok-seo. Perhaps he thought it was manageable. He stepped forward, clutching his stick. "Hmph." Oh Dok-seo nced up at me. "Fine. I thought a hundred times while reading the novel that I wanted to punch that guy." She could have asked why I was making her do this, but she seemed to find it fun, swinging her bat as she approached. In the one-on-one duel, many people watched from a distance as the two faced off. I nodded. "ept the oue, whatever it is. Anyone whoins afterward will lose their ankles. Begin." As soon as I finished speaking, Oh Dok-seo charged. Lee Baek''s expression turned fierce, surprised that the smaller kid would attack so fearlessly. This bitch¡ªhis silent mouth seemed to say. Using his superior reach, Lee Baek swung his stick. The nails in it aimed for Oh Dok-seo''s head. Kaang¡ª! They only aimed. His stick bounced off an invisible shield. "......?" Absolute Defense. Not only human attacks but also monsters'' invasions were repelled by her shield. Oh Dok-seo swung her bat. The metal bat glowed faintly with a red aura. For the past few days, I had personally tutored Oh Dok-seo on aura control. It was a special lecture not avable anywhere else in the world. I snapped my fingers, withdrawing the aura around Lee Baek. Sound was unmuted. My disciple should enjoy the victory. "Die, you potato bastard!" "Fuck...?" Unfortunately, Lee Baek couldn''t scream properly. The bat shattered his stick and hit his jaw precisely. It was a home run. "Ogh, ugh... uhoook..." Lee Baek fell, clutching his jaw. White corn scattered around. Oh Dok-seo belched long and loud, like a weight had lifted off her. "Wow. When Jae-hee died because of him in the 3rd run, I threw the novel. Bastard. Shithead. Fucking asshole." "Ugh..." "Shut up, bastard." Oh Dok-seo kicked Lee Baek, who swam on the floor. He copsed, unconscious. Late to react, Lee Baek''s six followers charged. "Uwaat!" "Hey, attacking a kid all at once?" But that broke the rules. I swiftly used my aura to sh their ankles. "¨D¨D¨D!" "...! ...!" All six fell simultaneously, their screams silenced. Fear mingled in the survivors'' eyes. Some in the back were already running. Sim Ah-ryeon watched the seven writhing on the floor with a strange look, like a bird spotting a worm. "...Ah-ryeon. Don¡¯t y with them, threatening to heal or not just to feed your ego." "Oh, yes... Huh? W-Wait. How did you know my thoughts? Could it be... mind-reading?" I had a mind-reading skill, but rarely used it. Fun at first, it quickly lost its appeal. But mind-reading had led to new connections. From the 555th run, I took on a red-haired disciple, watching her approach now. "See? Don''t worry, mister." My reader and disciple spoke fearlessly. "I''ll make sure you reach a happy ending." "......." "You''re the original protagonist, and I''m the one who possessed a character in the novel. We have two protagonists. We can do anything together. Even if you''re different from the novel''s image, you''re still my favorite character!" I chuckled. "Alright. I trust you." "Yeah!" Hurry, Dok-seo. I''ll always be here, waiting. Epilogue. "Hueeek? M-Mister! Save me! Please! Really save me! I used my skill on Lee Baek, so I don''t have my shield! Hooook? It grazed me! It really grazed me! I''m going to die to the tutorial final boss! Mister! Misteeerr! Protagonist, save meee!" "Undertaker-san, shouldn''t we help Dok-seo-chan?" "......" I sighed. It seemed like this chuunibyou otaku kid needed a lot more time before I could rely on her. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 103 Pedestrian ¢ñ There is no such skill as [Teleportation] in this world. The fairies of the Tutorial do pop out of thin air, but as mentioned in thest episode, this is merely invisibility magic. Anomalies like the ¡®Isekai Truck¡¯ appear suddenly beyond the horizon. However, the trucks do not actually [Teleport]; they merely ¡®generate¡¯ from blind spots out of human sight. To reiterate, there is no such skill as [Teleportation] in this world. However, phenomena thate quite close to [Teleportation] do exist. [Mr. Undertaker, it seems you need to urgently head to Busan.] ¡°What? What¡¯s going on?¡± [Well, it¡¯s hard to exin¡]The Saintess hesitated. The mere hint of hesitation was enough to make me extremely anxious. The Saintess was a near-obsessive perfectionist who always paused time to rehearse her lines before talking to me. But I only discovered this secret in the 713th cycle, and this was only the 141st. So I asked without much thought. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± [¡A tunnel has appeared in the sea off the coast of Busan.] ¡°What?¡± [Quite literally, an undersea tunnel has appeared. I think you shoulde see for yourself, Mr. Undertaker.] Have you ever heard of the ¡®Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel¡¯? It doesn¡¯t matter if you haven¡¯t. It¡¯s a structure that doesn¡¯t exist in reality anyway. The blueprint for ¡®connecting Korea and Japan with an undersea tunnel!¡¯ has been suggested continuously for a long time, but its practical benefits, which would outweigh astronomical costs, have not been proven. The originator of this project was no ordinary person. Later, he became the Prime Minister of Japan. His notable achievements during his tenure included the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Battle to Recapture the Philippines, the Tokyo Air Raid, the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Okinawa. The fact that the ¡®Undersea Tunnel Copse Disaster¡¯ was not added to his illustrious lineup was perhaps his one stroke of luck. A fanciful paper n. So when I received the Saintess¡¯s urgent message and arrived in Busan, I couldn¡¯t help but be dumbfounded. ¡°No way¡ It really is an undersea tunnel.¡± There were no seagulls off the coast of Busan. Instead, there was a tunnel. More precisely, a tunnel had popped up on the coastline where the old Sinseondae Pier once stood. But there were several differences from the original n. As often happens with grand projects when theypromise with reality, the originally conceived ¡®railroad tunnel¡¯ had significantly shrunk. It had shrunk a lot, to be honest. It was so narrow that not even a freight truck could pass through properly. ¡°Ah, you''ve arrived, sir?¡± Yellow "Do Not Enter" tape was already draped around the tunnel entrance. While members of the National Road Management Corps were busily moving around, Noh Do-hwa greeted me with her morning coffee in hand. ¡°Thanks for your hard work. I came immediately after receiving the Saintess¡¯s message. What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Well, as you can see, a pedestrian tunnel popped out of the sea. The first report came in at 5 a.m. A crazy road management officer who likes to jog early in the morning was the first to find it¡¡± ¡°Is it really connected under the sea?¡± ¡°We had divers do some snorkeling. They reported that coral has appeared in the waters off Busan because the tunnel slopes down like a¡ you know, into the seabed.¡± ¡°Sexual harassment? I''ll sue you.¡± ¡°Ha, a 1,000-year-old geezer saying that. So, Undertaker, what do you think this is?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an anomaly.¡± I looked up at the que at the tunnel entrance. ¡°It¡¯s also a Void.¡± The tunnel was dirty with graffiti and doodles, but it wasn¡¯t hard to identify its name. È®øQËíµÀ. Inunaki Tunnel. This wasn¡¯t a Korean anomaly. It was Japanese, from across the sea off the coast of Busan. I had to be on edge because an area-type anomaly without legs or wings had crossed the sea into another country. Its danger level was continent-ss. It was an anomalyparable to the World Tree ¡®Udumbara¡¯. ¡°¡You didn¡¯t order the road management officers to explore inside, did you?¡± ¡°Ha. Of course not.¡± Noh Do-hwa smiled brightly. ¡°I sent death row inmates¡¡± Behind her, Yu Ji-won was waiting. On a makeshift folding table, a nautical chart titled ¡®Straits of Korea and Surroundings¡¯ was spread out. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Captain Yu? How far have the death row inmates gone?¡± ¡°Surprisingly, they''ve already passed Tsushima. Ah, wee, Mr. Undertaker.¡± Click. Yu Ji-won, who possessed the [Mini-map] ability and was the Operations Control Room Captain of the National Road Management Corps and a psychopath, saluted me. She did this in front of her immediate superior, Noh Do-hwa. What a remarkable brat. Every time I saw her, I couldn''t help but be amazed. But right now, it was more important to focus on the report than on Yu Ji-won¡¯s personality. ¡°They passed Tsushima?¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency. Look.¡± On the nautical chart, chess pieces marked ¡®Kim Jeong-rip¡¯ and ¡®Lee Eun-joo¡¯ were moving inch by inch. They must have been the names of the death row inmates. Dozens of pawns (?) were scattered around the chart. ¡°You sent two people into the tunnel?¡± ¡°No, Your Excellency. We deployed 72 death row inmates in 12 teams of 6 each. Half of them, 36 people, were given bicycles.¡± ¡°¡So you just cleaned out the prison of the National Road Management Corps?¡± ¡°It was the order of the Corps Commander, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t a criticism. Given the continent-ss danger level of the anomaly, it was the right decision.¡± ¡°I also judged that the order was extremely appropriate, Your Excellency.¡± This brat¡ Anyway, right now, Yu Ji-won¡¯s personality wasn¡¯t the main issue. Excluding the parts of her brain that dealt with morality and ethics, Yu Ji-won¡¯s intelligence was quite exceptional. ¡°When did you deploy them?¡± ¡°We started the exploration operation at 07:10 today. It has been 3 hours and 16 minutes since the operation began. The two surviving ones are among those given bicycles, and considering the environment of the Void, their movement speed is quite good.¡± ¡°¡If they are people the National Road Management Corps kept on death row, they must be somewhat familiar with the Void?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct. Out of the 72 death row inmates, 69 have at least one experience of exploring the Void.¡± ¡°But they were annihted in just 3 hours.¡± At that moment. Click-click! The chess piece that was passing the northern tip of Tsushima suddenly crossed the sea. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°¡?¡± Both Yu Ji-won and Noh Do-hwa, along with me, looked at the nautical chart at that strange movement. The chess piecebeled ¡®Kim Jeong-rip¡¯ swiftly moved to the vicinity of Fukuoka. Specifically, to the center of the map marked Hisayama-machi and Miyawaka-shi. Regardless of how far the distance from Tsushima to there was, it was certainly not a speed any human could achieve. Thud- While everyone was gaping, the chess piece for ¡®Kim Jeong-rip¡¯ fell limply. ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°¡¡¡± The surroundings fell silent. There were only two cases where a chess piece controlled by Yu Ji-won on the mini-map fell over. Either the person corresponding to the chess piece went beyond the map¡¯s boundaries, or they died. Noh Do-hwa muttered. ¡°Fuck, what is this¡?¡± Click-click! Now it was the turn of thest remaining chess piece, ¡®Lee Eun-joo¡¯. That piece also suddenly moved from Tsushima to near Fukuoka. As if being dragged by something. Click! ck! The chess piece darted back and forth around the northwest and northeast of Kyushu. This way, that way, now southward. Like a ping-pong ball, the chess piece bounced, then thud- It fell over. Silence ensued for a while. ¡°¡With all due respect,¡± Yu Ji-won spoke up. ¡°There is nothing wrong with my ability, Your Excellency.¡± It was indeed with all due respect. ¡°¡Ji-won. Didn¡¯t you say you had cycled across Japan?¡± ¡°Yes? Yes, I did.¡± ¡°If you have a map of Japan in your trunk, could you get it out? Preferably arge one.¡± ¡°Understood, Your Excellency.¡± Yu Ji-won opened her ever-present trunk bag. The trunk, fully opened, was a testament to her psychopathic obsession with neatness or perhaps an extremely efficient organizational ability. Maps of the entire Korean Penins, city maps, nautical charts, and world maps were stacked inyers. Yu Ji-won pulled out a map of Japan in less than 10 seconds. ¡°Spread it out. Make it connect to the nautical chart of the Korean Strait.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Although the scales were different, the two maps ovepped. Then something strange happened. Thud- The chess piece for ¡®Lee Eun-joo¡¯ was dragged. No, that wasn¡¯t all. The chess pieces scattered around the table, dozens of corpses, started being pulled somewhere as if by a ma. Thud- thud- thud- thud- thud- ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Okayama, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Sendai¡ The locations where the corpses moved were all different. In other words, the bodies of 72 people were scattered all over Japan. Among them, the chess piece for ¡®Kim Jeong-rip¡¯ was particrly strange. Rattle, rattle, rattle! The chess piece that had fallen near Fukuoka trembled violently. It was an inexplicable phenomenon. Then, in a moment. Crack- The chess piece broke in two. The pawn¡¯s ¡®head¡¯ remained near Fukuoka, while the ¡®body¡¯ rolled and stopped near Osaka. The silence grew longer. This time, Noh Do-hwa spoke. ¡°Hmm. Should I go get more death row inmates¡?¡± I shook my head. ¡°I will upgrade the threat level of the anomaly ¡®Inunaki Tunnel¡¯ to continent-ss. We¡¯ll contact the Magical Girl Association in Japan. They are the experts. A joint investigation team will likely be formed. Be prepared, Noh Do-hwa, Corps Commander.¡± ¡°Are you talking about the Inunaki Tunnel? That ce is really fucked up nyan.¡± As expected, Japan¡¯s awakened ones were already well acquainted with this anomaly. A former shrine maiden who received divine power from the Cat God by swearing to always end her sentences with ¡®-nyan¡¯ or ¡®-nya¡¯ until her death. Now, a magical girl. The golden-haired awakened one called Manyo Neko responded earnestly to our inquiry. ¡°There are quite a few mountains around here and there, right? Unless you¡¯re a pervert who gets a strange pleasure from climbing mountains, it¡¯s convenient to drill a tunnel nyan.¡± But who could have predicted? The location of the tunnel, once the lights are off, easily transforms into a space that is ¡®dark, damp, and feared by people¡¯ all year round, and this location condition is a hotspot for anomalies. Unfortunately, the officials of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport did not have the ability to foresee the future. In fact, their ability to perceive reality wasn¡¯t that great either. As a result, tunnels were drilled all over Japan like earthworm holes. Then came the Void. ¡°Keyotaki Tunnel. Ikoma Tunnel. Inunaki Tunnel. They were all famous haunted spots from the old days.¡± The ces renowned as the top three haunted tunnels in Japan. ¡°But after the advent of the Void, these tunnels started to ¡®fight¡¯ each other nya.¡± ¡°Fight? The tunnels?¡± ¡°Yap. I¡¯m telling you this specially because you¡¯re Undateikeo¡¡± The magical girls in Japan referred to me as Undateikeo. It meant the same as the ¡®Undertaker.¡¯ ¡°There was a perfectly normal tunnel in our area. But one day, when we woke up, the signboard had changed to ¡®Keyotaki¡¯!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Keyotaki Tunnel is quite far from our area. A year passed, and then suddenly, the signboard changed to ¡®Inunaki¡¯ nya!¡± A territorialpetition among anomalies. A fight to determine which among the three haunted spots was the true ¡®tunnel anomaly.¡¯ ¡°It wasn¡¯t just our area. Tunnels all over Japan, including underpasses, all turned into ¡®Inunaki Tunnel.¡¯¡± ¡°¡It¡¯s been infected. The concept of ¡®tunnel¡¯ waspletely consumed and destroyed by ¡®Inunaki Tunnel¡¯.¡± ¡°Exactly. It¡¯s fucked up nyan.¡± The magical girl added, ¡®That¡¯s why no one in Japan uses tunnels anymore nyan.¡¯ In fact, Inunaki Tunnel not only upied Japan but also began to invade foreignnds. Even the ¡®Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel,¡¯ a fictional tunnel that never existed in reality, was devoured and made its own. Manyo Neko sighed. ¡°Originally, the real Inunaki Tunnel was at most 150 meters long nyan. But now it has consumed all the tunnels in Japan, and ording to Undateikeo, it has even devoured a fictional undersea tunnel, so its total length is¡¡± The longest anomaly in history. That was the continent-ss anomaly I had to deal with in the 141st cycle. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 104 Pedestrian ¢ñI The subjugation was not a choice but a necessity. If this situation was left unattended, tunnels worldwide would sequentially be infected by the ¡®Inunaki Tunnel.¡¯ The awakeners of Korea and Japan agreed to unite their forces. Even in this apocalyptic era, where distributionworks had copsed, losing the tunnel routes altogether was uneptable. But what kind of people are the nations of East Asia? ¡°Now that an undersea tunnel has appeared off the coast of Busan, let''s just do the subjugation in Busan¡?¡± ¡°Nyaang. I appreciate the suggestion, but cleaning up one''s own mess is the proper attitude of an adult. Our Magical Girl Association will take the lead in the Inunaki subjugation, nya!¡± When three East Asian countries hold a meeting, Koreans call it ¡®Korea-China-Japan,¡¯ Chinese call it ¡®China-Korea-Japan,¡¯ and Japanese call it ¡®Japan-China-Korea.¡¯ Such is the etiquette of East Asia. Questions about whether nations have long since fallen are meaningless. People alwayse first, and nations follow.Even though the nations had already fallen, or perhaps because they had, those who imed to represent each region clung to their authority even more. ¡°Ha. Your spirit ismendable, but I''ve heard things are not going well on your endtely¡ We¡¯ve just had an undersea tunnel suddenly pop up, but hasn¡¯t your entire nation turned into an anthill? We''re always ready to help¡.¡± ¡°Nya haha. Thank you for your concern. If we had an extraordinary awakener like Undateikeo, it would have been much easier, nya! s, it''s just bad luckpared to our neighboring country. How sad, nya!¡± Their friendly conversation seemed so entertaining. Even the Chinese awakeners, who had not yet been infected by Inunaki, subtly hinted, ¡®Hey, hey? What are you doing? Why are you having fun without us? Can¡¯t we join in? Huh? Let¡¯s y together.¡¯ As both sides¡¯ faces began to sour, I intervened politely. ¡°The lead in this subjugation will be neither the National Road Management Corps nor the Magical Girl Association. It will be me, Undertaker, personally. I want to invite each of you, awakeners I know personally, to form a temporary party. I would appreciate your attendance, considering our connection.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡.¡± ¡°Nyaang.¡± This was also in line with the Korean tradition of ¡®volunteer soldiers.¡¯ Respecting traditions, my proposal was easily epted. Under the premise that participation was voluntary and in an individual capacity, a multinational party was formed. The party members were as follows: - Korea: Undertaker (Party Leader), Saintess (Secret Participant), Yu Ji-won (Deputy Party Leader) - Japan: Manyo Neko (Deputy Party Leader), Phantom de Some might think that the team was too small considering the grand n for a joint Korea-Japan subjugation, but this was more than sufficient. Frankly, I, the Undertaker, was like a walking army. I only needed talents to cover areas I couldn¡¯t handle alone. As for the Magical Girl Association, well. Since we said, ¡®We can manage with two or three people,¡¯ they could only match that number. ¡°Excuse me.¡± ¡°Nya! Feel free to stay, nya!¡± While leading us to a high-end ryokan in Japan, Manyo Neko whispered to me. ¡°Undateikeo, Undateikeo.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I know that Yu-san is the Operations Chief of the National Road Management Corps, but who is that woman with the blue hair? I''ve never seen her before, nya¡.¡± The person she pointed at was the Saintess. Even in Korea, only Noh Do-hwa and I knew her true identity, so it was natural for the Magical Girl Association to be clueless. ¡°She¡¯s my girlfriend.¡± ¡°¡!¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been dating for two months. She insisted oning along because she was worried about me going to Japan. She¡¯ll stay here until the operation is over, so please take care of her.¡± ¡°Wasn''t your girlfriend the diva of Samcheon World, nya?¡± Damn it. How did that rumor spread across the sea? ¡°¡That¡¯spletely unfounded. She¡¯s my first girlfriend.¡± ¡°Ah, I see, nya. My apologies. Among the Magical Girls, a few are from Walpurgis¡ Anyway! Since she¡¯s your girlfriend, we¡¯ll treat her as a VIP, nya!¡± The Saintess tilted her head, confused, as she watched our whispering. She was the only one in our group who didn¡¯t speak Japanese. After settling into the inn, we began the formal meeting. ¡°The subjugation will proceed in Japan. However, if this operation is sessful, I will expectpensation from the Association.¡± ¡°Compensation? What do you mean, nya?¡± ¡°A spirit camera.¡± ¡°Ah¡¡± ¡°Specifically, a Proid OneStep. The 1977 model.¡± ¡°Nya haha, Undateikeo, you¡¯re really fixated on that item, nya?¡± Manyo Neko scratched her cheek. ¡°I¡¯d love to give it to you, but it¡¯s one of the three rare treasures we have, nya¡ I¡¯ll try to get approval from above, nya.¡± As the name ¡®Magical Girl Association¡¯ suggests, the hierarchy among Japan¡¯s awakeners was not strict. Each shrine had a Magical Girl blessed by the gods, and these girls managed their own territories. Although the Association¡¯s headquarters were located in the Noto Penins, it was more nominalpared to the status of the National Road Management Corps in Korea. In other words, it was more urate to say, ¡®Three Magical Girls who own spirit cameras are members of the Association,¡¯ rather than ¡®The Association owns three spirit cameras.¡¯ Unless they were persuaded individually, it was unlikely they¡¯d part with such a rare item. Knowing the Association¡¯s workings well, I made a difficult request first and then subtly backed off. ¡°Then, could you at least tell me where the Proid camera was initially found?¡± ¡°Nya?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a huge fan of that item. Please understand my collecting passion. If I can¡¯t get the actual item, I¡¯d like to gather as much information as possible.¡± So I could grab it myself in the next cycle. Manyo Neko¡¯s expression brightened. ¡°Nyaa! If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll make sure to get the information, nya! Leave it to me, nya!¡± Although it would typically be confidential, we had dered our intention to exterminate Inunaki in Japan, not Korea. Sure enough, a few dayster, Manyo Neko returned with good news. ¡°I found out the farming location, nya. And¡¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°Tadaa-nya!¡± Manyo Neko dramatically revealed what she had hidden behind her. ¡°Gasp.¡± It was a camera. A Proid OneStep (Land Camera 1000) released in 1977. It was the item I had been eyeing for dozens of cycles, now in the hands of the cat Magical Girl. It was the same camera that wouldter prove useful when Sim Ah-ryeon and I went on a vacation to the Tower of Sauron. My eyes widened. ¡°No way, Manyo Neko, you¡¡± ¡°Nya haha. Even though the Undertaker came to our country with his girlfriend and confidant, it wouldn¡¯t be right to just tell you the farming location and leave it at that. So¡ Ahem. The owner agreed to give up the camera under the condition that we exterminate Inunaki Tunnel, nya!¡± ¡°Manyo Neko. We¡¯re friends now.¡± ¡°Yay! Tomodachi, nya!¡± We high-fived. The morale of the subjugation team was at its peak. The Saintess stayed at the inn while Yu Ji-won, Manyo Neko, Phantom de, and I set out¡ªthe first official joint operation party of Korea and Japan. Upon arrival at the destination, the two local Magical Girls stepped onto a podium (rock). ¡°Nyaang! Thank you for deciding to help with this subjugation, nya!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Manyo Neko pointed with her umbre. Therey Inunaki Tunnel. The entrance was about 90% blocked by a stone wall, covered in all sorts of colorful graffiti and scribbles. ¡°This ce was originally the Soroji Tunnel, nya. But as you can see, it¡¯s been infected by Inunaki, nya!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Since it wasn¡¯t a busy path, we just left it alone, thinking people could take a detour. Nya haha. Actually, the god I serve resides in a shrine nearby, so it¡¯s been bothering me nya.¡± With a flourish, Manyo Neko opened her umbre. The umbre was strange. The outside was painted gold, but the inside was ck, like a night sky dotted with stars. It wasn¡¯t just a fashion item; it was Manyo Neko¡¯s sacred artifact. All Magical Girls had such treasures. ¡°Thanks to Undateikeo and the Korean awakeners, we can challenge the surgery to remove this tumor from ournd again, nya! Let¡¯s do our best, nya!¡± ¡°¡! ¡!¡± ¡°We also look forward to working with you. Although we haven''t been working together for long, misunderstandings may arise. In such cases, please stay calm and we will exin. I hope you will also understand.¡± ¡°Of course, nya!¡± ¡°¡! ¡!¡± At that moment, Yu Ji-won, who had been quietly holding her trunk bag next to me, raised her hand. By the way, Yu Ji-won was also fluent in Japanese. ¡°I have a question.¡± ¡°Nya?¡± ¡°Why does the awakener next to you keep saying ¡®¡! ¡!¡¯ without making any sound? Is she mute?¡± Our eyes turned to the person next to Manyo Neko. There stood a lone figure, trying hard to make their presence known, unable to join our conversation. Indeed, all the ¡®¡¡¯ dialogues in the conversation represented this mute Magical Girl¡¯s attempts to express herself. For the record, this Magical Girl was not only mute but also had no arms. If there was a god in heaven, it was good evidence that the deity was a sadist who found pleasure in torturing humans. ¡°Ah. Phantom de, did you forget to use the telepathy spell? We can¡¯t hear anything, nya.¡± ¡°¡!¡± At Manyo Neko¡¯s remark, the mute, armless Magical Girl jumped. Then a voice started to echo in our minds. [Oh my, I¡¯m so sorry. Undateikeo-san, Yu-san. I mistakenly thought I was already sending telepathic messages? Haha, I thought you were deliberately ignoring me. How foolish of me.] Her way of speaking was archaic and didn¡¯t match her cute appearance at all. Phantom de. The ¡®Armless Swordswoman,¡¯ literally. I was used to her manner of speaking. Keen readers might recall that Manyo Neko and Phantom de were the Magical Girls who fought alongside me against UFO aliens in the 99th run. They were the Japanese awakeners I trusted the most. ¡°Hmmm¡¡± On the other hand, Yu Ji-won seemed to see the Magical Girls as a bunch of crazy lunatics. Her expression was peculiar. It was an undeniable fact. Yu Ji-won whispered in Korean. ¡°Your Excellency. Why do all the magic-type awakeners have mental issues? Witch Cosyer Dang Seo-rin, School Uniform Cosyer Cheon Yo-hwa, and now Magical Girls? Even the awakeners from the neighboring country are a mess.¡± ¡°Indeed¡ I didn''t realize [Mini-map] was a magic-type ability.¡± ¡°¡?¡± I looked around. ¡°Alright. Although we are only four, each of us is a hundred warriors strong. Today, the deepest known void in Japan will be exterminated. Manyo Neko, are you ready?¡± ¡°Nyaang! From today, Inunaki Tunnel will be renamed Nekonaki Tunnel, nya!¡± ¡°Phantom de?¡± [Yes! The Magical Girl Association has attempted the Inunaki subjugation four times before, and all the data is stored in my head. We are fully prepared!] ¡°Yu Ji-won.¡± ¡°I will follow your orders, Your Excellency.¡± I nced at the sky. As if on cue, the Saintess¡¯s voice echoed. [I¡¯m ready, Mr. Undertaker.] Perfect. Rarely did I feel so confident before tackling an anomaly. We moved forward with a very positive atmosphere. ¡®I have a good feeling.¡¯ We boldly broke down the stone wall at the entrance and entered the tunnel. The tunnel¡¯sforting darkness enveloped the four of us. 66 minutester. The joint Korea-Japan awakened party was annihted like dogs. Again. The 142nd run. ¡°Nyaang! From today, Inunaki Tunnel will be renamed Nekonaki Tunnel, nya!¡± ¡°Good spirit. Excellent. But before that, we need to check something first.¡± ¡°¡Nyaa?¡± I made a serious face in response to the party member¡¯s cry to boost morale, lowering the surrounding temperature by about one degree. Of course, I didn¡¯t suddenly awaken to a temperature maniption ability. Literally, the temperature around the entrance of Inunaki Tunnel was dropping in real time. ¡°That damn anomaly has already noticed our approach. Manyo Neko, did you bring the spirit camera?¡± ¡°Nya? I did bring it¡¡± ¡°Take it out and take a picture.¡± ¡°¡Got it, leader.¡± Sensing the shift in my demeanor, Manyo Neko¡¯s face also turned serious. Without a word, she took out the camera from her backpack. Yu Ji-won, familiar with my attitude, remained expressionless. Phantom de stayed calm. Manyo Neko carefully lifted the spirit camera, one of the only three in Japan, with one hand. ¡°Where should I take the picture, nya?¡± ¡°The tunnel entrance. Include the surrounding scenery in the shot.¡± ¡°Roger, nya.¡± Click- The sh went off. The instant camera soon printed a film with a faint whirring sound. The five of us¡ªYu Ji-won, Manyo Neko, Phantom de, the Saintess (who wasn¡¯t physically present), and I¡ªlooked down at the photo. Phantom de¡¯s expression hardened. [This is¡] In the spirit photo. Bodies were nailed to the cedar trees lining the tunnel, like columns of a temple. The bodies wore borate costumes, decorated with frills and ornaments, which would be quite burdensome for ordinary people. They were the bodies of Magical Girls. ¡°Do you recognize them?¡± [¡Yes. Although the photo quality isn¡¯t great, judging by the costumes, they appear to be colleagues who went missing in previous subjugation attempts. Some of them I haven''t seen in seven years.] Just as I thought. I maintained a calm expression. The leader of the subjugation team had to remain steadfast. The question was asked by a team member instead of me. ¡°What the heck, nya? How¡?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a provocation. As I said, that anomaly has already noticed our approach. It¡¯s challenging us toe closer.¡± ¡°But¡ That makes no sense. Neither I nor Phantom de are weak in spiritual power. How could we not notice anything until we took the picture¡?¡± [Wait a moment.] We turned our heads. Phantom de was staring at one corner of the faint instant photo. [Look at these bodies. The ones hanging next to the stone wall.] ¡°Nyaang?¡± [Although it¡¯s blurry¡ Don¡¯t they look like us?] ¡°¡¡¡± The sound of cicadas filled the air. The Japanese called this sound ¡®kanakana¡¯ (¥«¥Ê¥«¥Ê). But like allnguages, it was a unique sound that couldn¡¯t be fully captured in writing, a wheezing that couldn¡¯t be called a cry. The sound echoed from the cedar forest surrounding us. ¡°Take another picture, Manyo Neko. This time, focus on the stone wall.¡± ¡°Got it, nya.¡± Click. The sh went off. At that moment, the sound of cicadas stopped throughout the forest. It might sound strange, but it felt like thousands of insects were staring at us all at once. Bzzzz¡ª The Proid camera slowly printed the photo with a bit too much noise. We looked at the photo again. ¡°¡¡¡± The bodies in the photo had be lighter. They were the same as in the first photo but now hanging from the cedar trees without heads and arms. No, upon closer inspection, there was another change. On the stone wall at the tunnel entrance, covered in various scribbles and graffiti, a bright red word that hadn¡¯t been there in the previous photo was now visible. -Wee back (¤ª¤«¤¨¤ê). Footnotes: Manyo Neko basically means Eternal Cat in japanese. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 105 Pedestrian ¢ñII Inunaki Tunnel was cursed in every way imaginable. The very location of the tunnel induced fear. Urban legends, vengeful spirits of workers buried during construction, murders and disappearances urring within... I had underestimated the difficulty of dealing with an anomaly that had reached across the Korea Strait. We stepped back from the tunnel entrance to resume our strategy meeting. ¡°Is it impossible to destroy that tunnel from the outside?¡± ¡°Probably impossible, nya.¡± Manyo Neko sighed. ¡°Our Association also attempted to destroy the tunnel physically when we decided to attack it, nya. We even used bombs from the old Self-Defense Forces to blow up 72 tunnels simultaneously, nya.¡± ¡°And the result?¡±¡°We observed that Inunaki Tunnel was restored within as short as four minutes and as long as four days nya. We specte that the only way to subjugate it is to walk through it from the entrance to the exit, nya.¡± ¡°I see.¡± There were sometimes anomalies that couldn''t be subjugated by physical force alone. The outer god ¡®Infinite Void¡¯ was one such anomaly. To briefly summarize the method of exterminating Infinite Void: 1. Seal the 99 ghosts of the Hyakki Yagyo at Baekhwa Girls'' High School. 2. Descend to the 4th basement level and ce 100 candles at the location reached after walking 4,444 steps. 3. Two or more people must exchange ghost stories about the sealed ghosts. 4. Approach the Infinite Void that appears and have someone capable of ying the role of a ¡®shaman¡¯ seal it. 5. Help the shaman by striking an unpredictable blow to Infinite Void, using a special sword like ¡®Doha¡¯ made by Noh Do-hwa. ¡This method was insane enough to make anyone wonder, ¡®Did they really expect us to beat this?¡¯ Even the Saintess, upon seeing this strategy, muttered with a frown, ¡®¡That¡¯s really something.¡¯ But turning the tables, even an anomaly that defied the world¡¯s rules, like the outer god Infinite Void, could be subjugated with enough effort. So, there was no need to even mention Inunaki Tunnel, a continent-ss anomaly. Even if physical force was ineffective, anomalies always had a weak point. ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°...Nya, but why are you standing up with your cane-sword, Undateikeo?¡± ¡°If there¡¯s an anomaly that can''t be subjugated by physical force, I tend to wonder if it¡¯s because we didn¡¯t use enough firepower.¡± From that day, Inunaki Tunnel entered a season of severe trials. ¡°Secret Art: Tunnel Destruction.¡± Boom¡ª I unleashed my aura, copsing the tunnel entrance. As Manyo Neko had mentioned, the tunnel structure was restored in less than 40 seconds (likely stronger and with increased restoration power than in the past). However, my de didn¡¯t care about such trivial resistance. ¡°Secret Art: Tunnel Destruction but I keep doing it.¡± Boom! Bang! Boom! Every time Inunaki Tunnel restored itself, I bombarded it relentlessly. Not just the entrance, but the entire mountain ridge the tunnel passed through was blown away. ¡°Nyaaa! What are you doing, nya! This whole area is dedicated to our god, nya!¡± ¡°Calm down. This is just coteral damage.¡± ¡°How is it coteral damage when our shrine¡¯s property is being destroyed, nya?¡± Although Manyo Neko was jumping up and down, there was some progress. After 40 seconds, with the mountainpletely gone, the tunnel stood alone in the barren wastnd. It was like a bald scalp with the tunnel structure clearly exposed. ¡°Just as I thought.¡± As expected, Inunaki Tunnel was an anomaly that parasitized the tunnel. The void it controlled didn¡¯t extend beyond the tunnel to the surrounding mountains. Seeing the exposed tunnel structure, Phantom de admired it. [Oh, indeed, Undateikeo-san. Impressive power. The tunnel is fully exposed.] ¡°The fear of a tunnel is concentrated in its darkness. It¡¯s the vague fear of not knowing how far you have to walk to find the exit and the hopelessness of being surrounded by concrete with no way out. But look.¡± I climbed onto the tunnel¡¯s outer wall and walked to the middle. Then, I shed through the tunnel¡¯s middle like tofu. ¡°When the structure is exposed, if an explorer gets lost, they can be rescued from the outside like this. Although the wall will restore in 40 seconds, if they are rescued within that time, there¡¯s no problem.¡± [Ah¡ Certainly. Thinking that way, it doesn¡¯t seem so scary.] ¡°Anomalies are mold that feeds not only on the void of reality but also on the gaps in our hearts. If we can eliminate even a bit of unconscious fear, we should use every means possible.¡± [Hmm. Truly golden advice.] ¡°Well, it¡¯s understandable since actual gold has flown away, nya! Oh my nya, oh my nya!¡± Click¡ª I took the spirit camera from Manyo Neko and photographed the tunnel entrance again. Now. I had responded to the anomaly¡¯s provocation with a provocation of my own, but how would it react? Soon, the photo developed. Last time, it had hung torsos from the cedar trees, but now, since the forest had beenpletely cut down, it had nailed heads to the stone wall at the tunnel entrance. This time, only the heads. The severed heads were pinned with tiny nails, fixing their lips and eyelids. The nails forced the heads into grotesque smiles. The writing ¡®Wee back (¤ª¤«¤¨¤ê)¡¯ remained on the wall, now written in the blood dripping from the heads of the Magical Girls. ¡°¡It¡¯s still taunting us.¡± No matter. ¡°Nyaa?¡± ¡°Just talking to myself. You don¡¯t need to look at the photo. It¡¯s just ying with the bodies of your fellow Magical Girls.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Manyo Neko nodded slightly. I picked up the radio. Although the radio itself had no special functions, I had deceived others into thinking it was a ¡®cursed radio¡¯ to avoid suspicion. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Yes.] ¡°Please contact Commander Noh Do-hwa and ask her to start the operation.¡± [Understood.] A momentter. ¡°Your Excellency, the chess pieces are moving.¡± Yu Ji-won said, standing by the table at the tunnel entrance. ¡°The first group is entering the Busan Undersea Tunnel.¡± ¡°Good, keep me updated. Saintess? Please keep monitoring the death row inmates¡¯ vision. Share their reactions, dialogue, and actions with me. It¡¯s crucial for devising the strategy.¡± [Yes.] Click. Click. The 72 chess pieces on the table slowly moved. These were the death row inmates we had lost in the previous cycle. Me, Noh Do-hwa, the Saintess, and Yu Ji-won. The strongest support team began to control the numerous chess pieces. This time, the prisoners¡¯ lives would be used more valuably. A real tunnel is a passage you can enter from the entrance and walk to the exit. Meanwhile, a void tunnel is a maze where you can never reach the exit, even if you enter from the entrance. To defeat a tunnel anomaly, one must enter and safely exit. This proves, ¡®This ce is no longer a void but reality.¡¯ Here¡¯s a guide to safely passing through Inunaki Tunnel, or more urately, themunication records exchanged during our operation to establish the guidelines. These records willter be registered in the [Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies] on SG Net. Although the survival rate of those entering the tunnel is never high, if you follow the ¡®strategy¡¯ diligently with a clear mind, you can survive. On the record. [Mr. Undertaker, all exploration teams have been equipped with radios. I introduced myself as the team leader of the National Road Management Corps and instructed the explorers to follow my orders.] [Advance party entering.] [Destroying the stone wall is deemed to attract unnecessary attention from the Inunaki Tunnel. The explorers climbed over the wall.] 1. When death row inmates climb over the wall, they will immediately smell a foul ¡®garbage odor.¡¯ It resembles the stench of decaying leaves soaked in summer rain all season long. The musty smell of the damp cave will cling to your body like mites, but do not panic. In fact, the presence of that smell indicates a ¡®safe zone.¡¯ [Two explorers reported an unbearable stench.] [6th inmate reported that it smells not just like a cave but like abandoned corpses. What should we do?] ¡°Tell them to find the bodies.¡± [Understood.] 1-1. If you smell ¡®blood¡¯ or ¡®rotting corpses¡¯ instead of garbage or moss, immediately turn back and climb back over the wall. However, if you have already taken more than ¡®seven steps¡¯ after entering the tunnel, do not attempt to return. In this case, your torso will be severed as soon as you climb over the wall. Do not attempt to locate the corpses emitting the smell. Ultimately, you will realize that the smelles from inside your own body. Five death row inmates were required to draft Strategy 1. [An explorer has died.] [The remaining team is slightly confused but there are no issues with continuing the operation.] [Requesting to deploy the next team as nned to Commander Noh Do-hwa.] [Proceeding.] [Advance.] 2. Never walk past the middle of the tunnel on the right side. Always move along the left side. [Mr. Undertaker, I¡¯ve ryed this instruction to all explorers, but why must they use only the left side of the passage?] "Ah. In thest cycle, the four of us walked side by side in the passage. But Phantom de, who walked on the far right, and Yu Ji-won, who walked in the center, suddenly died.¡± [What?] ¡°Ah, Yu Ji-won, you don¡¯t need to listen to this part. Just focus on watching the mini-map. Anyway... They started gasping for breath, as if they werepletely submerged in deep water, and soon after, they copsed.¡± [¡¡.] ¡°When we examined their bodies, their esophagus and lungs were filled with filthy water. They died of drowning.¡± 2-1. If you smell ¡®water¡¯ or ¡®sewer¡¯ while walking, it means you are leaning too far to the right. Immediately shift a bit more to the left. If you find it difficult to breathe or feel a strange difficulty in walking, also move to the left. In such cases, mimic the movements of swimming rather than walking. To be safe, wear a life jacket when entering the tunnel. No death row inmates were needed to draft Strategy 2. [No issues. I¡¯ll instruct them to continue advancing.] ¡°Yes, thank you.¡± 3. The inside of Inunaki Tunnel is covered with various graffiti and scribbles in vibrant colors. The walls are painted from top to bottom. The graffiti is as dense as shells clinging to seaside rocks. The scribbles may look like Latin letters, but they resemble nonguage on Earth. If the graffiti seems to wriggle when you look at it or if you smell ¡®blood¡¯ from the red parts of the graffiti, immediately avert your gaze. The deeper you go into the tunnel, the more vivid andplex the graffiti bes. As long as the graffiti still looks like ¡®scribbles,¡¯ the area is safe. But if the graffiti starts to appear as beautiful ¡®art,¡¯ especially ¡®beautiful creatures,¡¯ immediately look away. This phenomenon is presumed to be due to the confusion of the ¡®corridor¡¯ of the tunnel and the ¡®corridor¡¯ of a gallery. [Mr. Undertaker, some explorers are showing excessive interest in the graffiti.] ¡°Are any unusual behaviors detected?¡± [Yes. They are approaching and moving away from the graffiti as if admiring artwork in a museum, muttering phrases like ¡®beautiful,¡¯ ¡®pretty,¡¯ ¡®exquisite.¡¯] [Ah.] [14th inmate is showing abnormalities. He keeps repeating, ¡®The colors here could be a bit deeper.¡¯] [The surrounding explorers are trying to stop him, but it doesn¡¯t seem to help.] [14th inmate confirmed to be self-harming.] [He¡¯s cut open his abdomen and is using his blood to paint the graffiti.] ¡°I see. Saintess, make sure you don¡¯t look at the graffiti.¡± [Understood. I¡¯m changing my view periodically. The 14th inmate has gouged out his eyes and smeared them on the graffiti on the tunnel wall.] [Confirmed deceased.] 3-1. If someone stands in the middle of the tunnel admiring the graffiti and shows no reaction, immediately kill them. If tattoos appear clearly on their arms or neck, you¡¯ve already missed the window to kill them. Escape from them as quickly as possible. Individuals infected in this manner are referred to as ¡®observers.¡¯ If you no longer smell blood and instead detect moss, basement, or cave scents, you¡¯ve entered a safe zone. 3-2. If you feel an observer is chasing you, use a knife to cut off a finger or toe, draw tattoo-like patterns on your face, and hold the severed part in your mouth. Press yourself against the tunnel wall without making any sound. Even if you hear footsteps, do not look down the tunnel¡¯s corridor. Do not make any noise. Remain pressed against the tunnel wall until the footsteps havepletely disappeared. It is rmended to hold your breath for at least 30 seconds. Eleven death row inmates were required to draft Strategy 3. [An explorer has died.] [No issues.] [Advance.] Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 106 Pedestrian ¢ñV The ''strategy'' continued to unfold. It was like a chaotic chess match on the board. ck was the anomaly. White was humanity. But unlike a typical game where the number of chess pieces is fixed, Inunaki Tunnel had an innumerable amount of pieces. It had devoured all the tunnels throughout Japan. This meant it had monopolized all the fear and urban legends associated with those ces. There were more than enough chess pieces to put on the board as there were stories. On the other hand, we, the human side, had only 72 pawns. However, I was not in a hurry. After all, my chess pieces were replenished with each new cycle. Even if we failed this time, I could press the ''Retry'' button and keep ying the game with more knowledge and a richer strategy. [An explorer has died.][No issues.] [Advance.] Cycles 141, 142, 143, 144, and 145. Over five cycles, I strategized against Inunaki Tunnel. However, I didn¡¯t invest all my time solely in Inunaki Tunnel. Leisurely, I also exterminated other anomalies, consuming only the 72 death row inmates. As the cycles umted, the strategic game increasingly favored me. No more death row inmates died at the tunnel entrance. Fewer were enchanted by the graffiti. The records of the strategic battles between the anomaly and me, the chess game logs, remained as the strategy. Thus, [The exit is visually confirmed.] [Mr. Undertaker, inmate 66 died approximately 20 meters from the exit. Right before death, the inmate looked back.] I grabbed the radio. ¡°Did they exhibit any other peculiar behavior besides looking back?¡± [No.] ¡°Then it seems the myth of Orpheus has been intertwined. Seeing the exit of the cave and looking back, resulting in the lover being dragged away and dying¡ It¡¯smon for myths to be distorted and applied to anomalies.¡± [Ah.] ¡°We need to add to the strategy that you must never look back once you can see the exit. Saintess, that was thest explorer, right?¡± [Yes. There are no more avable death row inmates. Should we postpone to the next cycle?] I shook my head. ¡°No. With only 20 meters left, let''s finish it this time. It¡¯s better for the operation¡¯s overseers to go through thisst part to validate our strategy.¡± I nced back. ¡°And for the Association¡¯s dignity as well.¡± Yu Ji-won, Manyo Neko, and Phantom de, the three awakened ones, were looking at me. ¡°Yu Ji-won. You stay here and keep watching the map. It¡¯s okay if you just stare at the map.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency. I will keep my eyes fixed on the operation map without blinking.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need to go that far. Anyway¡¡± I locked eyes with the two Magical Girls. Their gazes held a mix of emotions. Anxiety. Wondering if they had almost entirely handed over the subjugation to the Korean awakened ones. Excitement. Hoping the chance to deliver the final blow to the anomaly that had tormented Japan might finallye. Sadness and guilt. These emotions didn¡¯t need exining. They weren¡¯t feelings directed at us or living humans. ¡°Let¡¯s go. Manyo Neko, Phantom de.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Let¡¯s avenge your fallenrades.¡± Their eyes turned cold. Soon, the final exploration team set out. ¡°We were toocent during the first subjugation, nya.¡± Tap. Tap. The sound of human footsteps trickled down the tunnel''s dark walls like rainwater. Mud sshed onto the Magical Girls'' shoes. ¡°Well, because it remained quiet without spitting out anomalies or causing havoc, nya. Compared to other anomalies that wreak havoc on viges and cities, it seemed weak, nya?¡± [Five shrines around Nagoya and Kyoto formed the first subjugation team. We didn¡¯t expect it to be the ¡®first,¡¯ though.] ¡°My childhood friend was part of that team, nya.¡± [She was also my close friend.] Tap. Outside, the cicadas¡¯ noise from the distant hills was almost deafening, but inside the tunnel, there was a malevolent silence. Each step echoed off the walls, making the strange graffiti wriggle like glowing worms. But no one looked at the patterns. ¡°Stars¡ªguide¡ªthe dawn.¡± As the darkness deepened, Manyo Neko lightly shook her umbre. The outside of the umbre glowed faintly blue. It was magic. Before the unparalleled witch Dang Seo-rin developed Cursed Song Incantation, it was the only known method of casting spells in this world. It was spellcraft, assembling words to manifest the caster''s imagery, with the number of phrases interwoven determining the mage¡¯s caliber. ¡°Though the second, third, and fourth subjugation teams were organized afterward, the results were simr, nya. Ah, look at this, nya.¡± Manyo Neko pointed her umbre at the floor. On the rtively unblemished concrete floor, Japanese characters were engraved. Though mostly damaged, some were decipherable. -Die. -No. I don''t want to be here anymore. Where did everyone go? Why did they leave me, die. LCNA. 1199. -To future explorers or Association members, I leave this message. Never walk down the center. Do not listen to the sounds from the center, and if you sense a presence. -Please save me. Manyo Neko raised her umbre, and the letters on the floor were swallowed by the eternal darkness again. ¡°They are all traces of previous subjugation teams, nya.¡± [This must be Gamma Point, right?] ¡°Yes. We left markers in rtively safe zones from Inunaki Tunnel¡¯s erosion, nya.¡± They, too, had attempted to create a strategy. Like I did. ¡°But ¡®rtively safe zone¡¯ isn¡¯t the same as pletely safe zone,¡¯ nya. The fourth subjugation team was annihted following these guidelines, nya.¡± ¡°¡Document corruption, then.¡± ¡°Exactly, nya. That damned thing did nothing during the third subjugation, but when the fourth team arrived, it started ying tricks, nya.¡± It was not rare for anomalies in the void to mimic humannguage. They mimicked not justnguage, but voices, behavior, and appearance. Just like now. -Manyo Neko! -Phantom de? Phantom de, is that you? -You really came to save us! -My student, well done. I always believed in you. Phantom de¡¯s cold smile surfaced. The mute Magical Girl did not voice her derision, but the smile¡¯s chill was unmistakable. [Bullshit.] ¡°Do you know them?¡± [Ah,rades and my mentor. She was the leader of the fourth subjugation team. They said her lower body was found at Gamma Point. I¡¯m d her voice is intact.] Tap. The Magical Girls continued walking without looking back. Suddenly, their footsteps felt like muted screams. The anomaly pulled out all sorts of trap cards, but none deceived us. The ¡®Inunaki Tunnel Strategy,¡¯ recorded from 1 to 77, guided us to the exit. When the light of the exit began to appear in the distance, -Manyo Nekooo. Suddenly! A forearm shot out from behind us as if to embrace us. The wrist was adorned with a dainty bracelet. The sleeve had frills. -What¡¯s wrong? Take my hand. -Didn¡¯t youe to save us? The Association? Did headquarters abandon us? -Let¡¯s go back together, Manyo Neko. No, Rika. The stoic expressions of the Magical Girls showed slight cracks. -We promised to gather again when the first snow fell this year, remember? On Mount Yahiko. ¡°¡¡.¡± -I still remember our promise, Rika. Manyo Neko halted her steps. She and I both knew that looking back now would end everything. But I chose not to remind her. Phantom de didn¡¯t use telepathy either. ¡°¡This is truly fucked up, nya.¡± A mutter echoed through the tunnel. ¡°That promise was made seven years ago, nya. But you didn¡¯t even set a clear criterion for the first snow before you left for the subjugation, nya. Is the first snow the one in Hokkaido? Or is it the one in the vige we were in? That was the shittiest promise ever, nya.¡± -¡¡. ¡°So when it snowed in Hokkaido, when it snowed in the vige, when it snowed in your hometown, I climbed Mount Yahiko three times, nya. It was hell, nya. And you were never there. I thought I¡¯d die from the cold, nya.¡± -¡¡. ¡°I was wondering where you died that they couldn¡¯t even find a piece of your body, but here you are, trying to lure harmless humans into this shitty tunnel? Where did your vow to serve the gods and protect people go? You¡¯re a real bastard, you know that?¡± I could never forget what I saw then. The ¡®hand¡¯ that had emerged from behind us, which had merely iled in the air, gently held Manyo Neko¡¯s hand. Interlocking fingers. -Gomen. Let¡¯s go back together. ¡°¡¡.¡± -Rika. Human voices trickled down the tunnel''s dark walls like rainwater. The rain poured heavily. Tap. We walked. The light came closer and closer. The mossy and corpse odors that gued our noses gradually gave way to the scent of fresh leaves. By the time the muted screams had changed to cicadas'' cries, [We¡¯ve arrived, Mr. Undertaker.] We exited the tunnel. Without exchanging words, we instinctively turned back. The exit of the tunnel. The que once inscribed with ¡®Inunaki¡¯ now bore a different name. Soroji Tunnel. This was the tunnel¡¯s original name before it was consumed and corrupted by the anomaly. Under that name, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of corpses were strewn beyond the tunnel. ¡°¡¡.¡± [¡¡.] Most of the bodies wore the extravagant attire of Magical Girls. However, their dresses were rotting from the dark mud of corpse poison and the ravages of time. Manyo Neko knelt before a corpse missing one arm. Iter learned that Manyo Neko was part of the first subjugation team but had survived because she was assigned to wait outside the tunnel. The anomaly Inunaki Tunnel. Aliases: River Styx, Hell Gallery, Orpheus¡¯s Underworld Path. Threat Level: Continent-ss. Subjugationplete. Epilogue one. All the tunnels in Japan returned to normal one by one, but for some reason, the undersea tunnel crossing the Korea Strait remained intact. Of course, ''intact'' meant it could only be used if the strategy was meticulously followed. All the dangers that Inunaki Tunnel once possessed remained within the undersea tunnel. Noh Do-hwa frowned. ¡°How strange. The undersea tunnel was a fictional structure to begin with, so it should disappear, shouldn''t it?¡± ¡°Well, I don''t know. Even though I¡¯m an anomaly expert, I don''t know everything.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡¡± Noh Do-hwa squinted at the undersea tunnel peeking out from Busan¡¯s coast. ¡°Well, if ites down to it, it¡¯s not bad to have another means of exchange with the other side¡¡± The story rted to this undersea tunnel will be told in the next chapter. Epilogue Two. From the 145th cycle onward, I decided to visit Japan early whenever possible. The purpose was simple. To exterminate Inunaki Tunnel in advance before the Association suffered heavy casualties. And also to farm my precious spirit camera. So in the 146th cycle, after obtaining the camera and arriving at Inunaki Tunnel, I sensed a familiar presence approaching from afar. ¡°Hunya? We have an early visitor, nya?¡± It was Manyo Neko. A slightly younger and less mature face than in the previous cycle. Thus, instead of an umbre, Manyo Neko was holding something else. ¡°What should we do, You? The High Priestess told us to block the tunnel entrance.¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we just warn them to retreat for now?¡± ¡°Yes, but that person looks really powerful, nya¡ Ah. It seems they¡¯ve noticed us, too.¡± ¡°It¡¯s dangerous, so stay back, Rika.¡± I raised my hands to show I had no hostile intentions and approached. Contrasting with the golden-haired Manyo Neko, a ck-haired Magical Girl stared at me. ¡°Who are you? Never seen you before. You¡¯re not from the vige, right? This ce is off-limits to civilians starting today. A missing person report has been filed.¡± ¡°I¡¯m an awakener from Korea.¡± ¡°Korea¡? What brings you here from Korea?¡± Hmmm. Her eyes were filled with distrust and wariness. But as the Undertaker, I was a seasoned regressor adept at forming rtionships. About four minutes of conversation and four packs of snackster, ¡°It¡¯s delicious, nyaaa!¡± ¡°Chocte after so many days¡ The genuine richness of cocoa¡¯s vor¡¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯m melting, nya¡¡± ¡°So, are we friends now?¡± ¡°Yay! Tomodachi, nya!¡± The Magical Girls eagerly wrapped the tunnel entrance with sacred ropes. They repeatedly emphasized not to enter, then leisurely departed. The sun was setting. I watched the two walk away, holding hands, for quite some time. ¡°¡Should I take a picture?¡± Click. It was purely on a whim that I raised the spirit camera and photographed Inunaki Tunnel. I wanted to capture this moment as a keepsake. Zzzzz¡ª The photo developed. Since Inunaki Tunnel hadn¡¯t yet devoured all the tunnels in Japan, the photo was much calmer than before. There were no Magical Girls¡¯ bodies, nor were limbs or heads grotesquely disyed. Just the stone wall blocking the tunnel entrance. On it, bright red letters were written. -Wee back. This is the seventh time, isn¡¯t it? I froze momentarily with the camera raised. Cicadas sang from the cedar forest. ¡It wasn¡¯t just chilling because it seemed like the anomaly knew I had been regressing repeatedly. Such a trick could simply be a hallucination showing what the opponent feared. An anomaly with advanced illusion abilities, like Inunaki Tunnel, could easily do that. The problemy elsewhere. The first time I encountered Inunaki Tunnel was in the 141st cycle. 142, 143, 144, 145¡ I had returned to confront the tunnel in the 146th cycle. Six times in total. Yet Inunaki Tunnel weed me as if this was the ¡®seventh¡¯ time. Where did the remaining encounter disappear to? Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 107 The Tenant ¢ñ There has been a long-standing question that has gued me for ages. ¡®How should I build a hideout to receive praise for it?¡¯ A hideout. My personal secret base. As everyone knows, I have one major trauma. It happened in the 89th cycle when a pink-haired alien named Go Yuri raided my base in one fell swoop. Since that incident, a corner of my brain has been perpetually haunted by the ASMR full voice of Go Yuri saying, ¡®A pathetic ? infinite regressor raided with just one hypnotic beam ? pathetic hideout ?.¡¯ Of course, there¡¯s no way Go Yuri actually spoke like that. If she knew about my trauma, she¡¯d probably tilt her head in confusion. It showed how severe my mental scars were, to be tormented by such fantasies. I needed a solution desperately.Hence, today''s story revolves around an episode about my sweet home. Though I hadn¡¯t mentioned it directly to everyone until now, the truth is that I had explored my own El Dorado across many cycles. There were various kinds of utopias. I tried setting up a luxury yacht as a mobile sea fortress and even started a life on an uninhabited ind. Skyscrapers, underground bunkers, subway tracks, railguns¡ªif people could imagine a form of a hideout, I had tried it. Yet, none of these hideouts everpletely satisfied my aesthetic sense. 2%. It was always missing 2%. ¡°Oppa¡¯s standards are too high.¡± Puppeteer Lee Ha-yul grumbled. Of course, her lips were tightly closed. She spoke through the maid marite she always carried. Lee Ha-yul, the daughter of a notorious traitor (former mayor of Busan), had a talent for pulling puppet strings from under her fingernails. Her puppet strings were almost superconductors in the realm of aura, capable of transmitting aura with almost no loss to the tip of the string. This miraculous superconductor was very useful for hideout security. In constructing an impregnable hideout, her cooperation was not optional but essential. Not just me, but Noh Do-hwa and Cheon Yo-hwa also always hired her when renovating their base buildings. Even such an expert showed difficulty with my requests as the building owner. ¡°Tell me honestly. Without lying. What is your ideal guild building?¡± ¡°First and foremost, it should be able to withstand prolonged physical attacks from the outside.¡± ¡°Like an underground bunker?¡± Lee Ha-yul nodded. ¡°Possible. That¡¯s what all guild leaders want. What else?¡± ¡°I¡¯d also like it to be able to adequately deal with intruders who use non-physical means.¡± ¡°Possible. We can make it difficult to enter, like a maze.¡± ¡°But guild members should also be able to deploy quickly. There need to be many secret passages.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°And I don¡¯t want to force harsh living conditions on my guild members. They should be able to lead a more affluent life than members of other guilds. For example, if they want to take a walk along the Han River, they should be able to do so immediately, and the view should be nice if possible.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Lee Ha-yul closed her notebook and looked up at me with her golden eyes. ¡°Oppa. Where is your conscience?¡± Surely, it was a shameless demand. Topletely block the invasion of the alien Go Yuri, perfect security was needed. But security and convenience, once they surpassed a certain level, were difficult to coexist. It¡¯s like expecting five-star hotel room service on a nuclear submarine. If I just treated Go Yuri as a non-existent entity¡ªah! In my head! The pink voice in my head! I?! I?! Be one with me, guild leader! In the end, the days of suffering from the echo of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra¡¯s chorus continued. Then, one day in the 196th cycle. I was brooding, sitting at a table by the Han River, staring nkly at the water. At that moment, a man I had never seen before approached on a mountain bike. He had two pistols at his waist, a backpack, and a rifle slung over his back. It was thetest fashion in the apocalypse. ¡°Huh¡? Is this not the ce?¡± The biker stopped about 600 meters away and looked around. ¡°That¡¯s strange. SG Net definitely said it was here¡¡± The mention of SG Net piqued my interest. At this time, I had given up on security entirely and built my hideout under the Han River. It was near the convenience store where I first met the Saintess. And in the vicinity, there were no buildings except my hideout. The so-called ¡®Summer of Seoul¡¯ incident had devoured most of Gangnam south of the Han River along with Old Man Scho¡¯s wife. In other words, the ce the biker was looking for was most likely my guild hideout. As the owner, I had to inquire about his intentions. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Eek!¡± The biker flinched. I had approached and spoken to him while masking my presence. The man reflexively reached for his rifle but soon decided against it, realizing it would only provoke me. ¡°Ah, well, I heard there¡¯s a caf¨¦ around here that serves fantastic coffee¡¡± ¡°A rumor?¡± ¡°Yes. Um, do you know SG Net? I¡¯m an awakener. SG Net said there¡¯s a famous caf¨¦ along the Han River. This is the only building that looks like a caf¨¦.¡± ¡°A caf¨¦?¡± I tilted my head. ¡It was onlyter that I learned by searching SG Net that the culprits behind this rumor were none other than Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa. They had posted about itpetitively on the forums. -[Baekhwa] FourthGrader: Hwee (>_<)! The creamtte while looking at the Han River is the best (>_<)!! (Certification shot. No face, just holding a creamtte cup in her left hand, toasting towards the Han River) -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: The preciousness of tasting coffee with more vor than before the world fell apart. Magical autumn. (Certification shot. Only a witch hat and a coffee cup on the table, taken with the Han River in the background) asionally, Dang Seo-rin or Cheon Yo-hwa would visit my hideout. Since my hobby was being a barista, I naturally served them coffee. Theirpetitive posting of these on SG Net caused a rumor to spread that ¡®there¡¯s an amazing caf¨¦ in Gangnam!¡¯ -OldManGoryeo: Morning Coffee.jpeg The final blow was delivered by my direct guild member, ¡®Bird Drinking Aggro.¡¯ -OldManGoryeo: I can¡¯t function without my morning caffeine fix. -OldManGoryeo: Today¡¯s Caf¨¦ Mocha.png -OldManGoryeo: Surely, there¡¯s no one in SG Net too poor to drink coffee, right? If there is, your presence lowers the forum¡¯s ss, so kindlymit suicide at your earliest convenience ??¡¡ -OldManGoryeo: This hyung¡¯s barista skills.jpg Theposition of the photos posted daily by Shim Ah-ryun ovepped suspiciously with the certification shots by Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, increasing the credibility of the ¡®Gangnam caf¨¦¡¯ rumor among SG Net users. Our biker had been lured in by this rumor and hade all the way from Gangwon-do to Seoul. ¡°There¡¯s no caf¨¦ around here. As you know, all proper shops in Gangnam are gone. There¡¯s only the Tower of Sauron over there, but that¡¯s a void.¡± ¡°Oh¡ I see.¡± The biker¡¯s expression darkened. He looked barely in his early twenties. I smiled. ¡°But I can make some coffee. It¡¯s a coincidence that we met, so how about a cup?¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± At first, he hesitated, but after I insisted, he couldn¡¯t hide his joy and epted. As a result, ¡°Wow, this is¡ really good. Wow, sir. This tastes way better than that Gangnam caf¨¦ must have¡¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Wow, really, thank you so much! This is incredible!¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing. If you ever get coffee beans, feel free toe by. I¡¯ll make you some then, too.¡± ¡°Ah. Thank you so much¡!¡± The biker tried to offer me bullets and emergency rations as thanks, but I politely declined. They were of no use to me. He left, bowing repeatedly even while mounting his bike. As his bike glided over the scarred asphalt road, I realized that today¡¯s unexpected encounter had been quite enjoyable. ¡°Ah.¡± At that moment, enlightenment struck. I finally understood what kind of hideout I wanted and why I had always been dissatisfied with the ones I had tried. ¡®A caf¨¦. It¡¯s a caf¨¦!¡¯ Indeed. I had always wanted to run a caf¨¦. After a long time, the passion in a regressor¡¯s heart burned brightly. ¡°Oppa. So, you mean you want to run a caf¨¦ alongside the guild hideout?¡± ¡°Yes. A caf¨¦-style hideout.¡± ¡°What the hell is that, you otaku?¡± Lee Ha-yul did not understand my idea at all, but I was not disappointed. Pioneers are always scorned by the ignorant masses. The caf¨¦ I intended to create had never existed in the history of the world. It could only be born from my design, from start to finish. ¡°It¡¯s unpleasant. Caf¨¦s are shops. essibility is everything for a shop. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°What you want is physical security. Plus, security that can never be breached by mental or hypnotic means. How? How can a caf¨¦ and a hideout coexist?¡± ¡°Ah, Ha-yul. You¡¯re too bound by conventional thinking. In this world where anomalies and voids run rampant, we can¡¯t cling to such outdated approaches.¡± ¡°¡I¡¯ll let you in on a secret. Sometimes Noh Do-hwa, when she¡¯s drinking, calls me over to rant about you. For three hours straight.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°Her drunken habits are a hassle¡ But, recently, I might be starting to understand her feelings.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± Ignoring the unreasonable nder, I presented my solution. ¡°We can achieve a two-for-one with an anomaly.¡± ¡°An anomaly?¡± Lee Ha-yul blinked. ¡°¡How?¡± Like this. That day, I took Ha-yul and headed to Busan. Thest remnants of the Japan-Korea undersea tunnel, Inunaki Tunnel, remained in the waters off Busan. Inunaki Tunnel. This anomaly was the master key to achieving both a caf¨¦ and a hideout with essibility and security. Click. First, I took a picture of the undersea tunnel entrance with the spirit camera. -Wee back. It¡¯s already the 57th time? Though it had been a while since Ist took a photo, Inunaki Tunnel continued to update the number of our meetings. I didn''t understand the mechanics, but it seemed a continuous rtionship was being maintained. Wouldn''t it be possible tomunicate as well? ¡°Can you understand my speech?¡± Click. I asked the question aloud and took another picture. -Wee back. It¡¯s already the 57th time? Unfortunately, there was no change in the spirit photo. I attemptedmunication again. ¡°Inunaki. If you understand me, leave a different mark at the tunnel entrance. I have an interesting proposal for you.¡± Click. -Wee back. It¡¯s already the 57th time? ¡°Hm.¡± Ordinarymunication was a failure. No matter how much some anomalies seemed to use humannguage, they didn¡¯t think like humans. But who was I? A regressor who sessfully bred dinosaurs in the void by crossbreeding horses in the 380th cycle. ¡°¡Oppa, I¡¯m genuinely curious. Why are you making giant dumplings?¡± ¡°Just wait and see. It¡¯s all a meticulously designed process.¡± That day, I embarked on finding a way tomunicate with Inunaki Tunnel. Day 1: Given that it seemed to have an abnormal preference for decapitated heads, judging by how it killed magical girls, I prepared meat-filled dumplings like Zhuge Liang did in the southernnds and offered them in front of the tunnel. (No reaction.) Day 3: Thinking it might have a secret hobby of tearing apart human bodies, I prepared human-shaped dolls and ced them deep inside the tunnel. (I found them thrown outside the entrance the next day. Response confirmed.) Day 5: Suspecting that it had a preference for magical girls, I collected pre-apocalypse magical girl figurines and disyed them in the middle of the tunnel. (They were torn apart and ejected from the entrance. Communication sess.) ¡°Look! It¡¯s responding! Ha-yul! Anomalies have their own ways ofmunicating, and humans can discover them!¡± ¡°¡No, it just seems angry.¡± Day 10: Since the ¡®magical girl figurine strategy¡¯ worked, I brought in numerous posters of old magical girl series. The Magical Girl Association cooperated actively. I stered the tunnel walls with posters. (The graffiti came alive and tore the posters apart as soon as they were put up. Real-timemunication sess. The Saintess urged me to stop.) Day 17: With the help of the National Road Management Corps, I continued stering the tunnel with posters using death row inmates. Additionally, I recorded magical girl anime OSTs and yed them through radios at the entrance, midpoint, and exit of the tunnel. (The graffiti throughout the tunnel wriggled. Noh Do-hwa was displeased.) Day 25: Alongside the previous efforts, I requested help from the Baekhwa guild leader Cheon Yo-hwa and released the hundred ghosts into the tunnel. (Flooding was confirmed throughout the undersea tunnel. The graffiti not only wriggled but also moved fiercely as if screaming. Cheon Yo-hwa was displeased.) Day 30: Finally, a change was observed in the inscriptions on the stone wall at the tunnel entrance. -Don¡¯te (À´¤ë¤Ê). -Go away (Ž¢¤ì). I was thrilled by this great progress. Of course, it was hard to say that the anomaly understood the semantic meaning of thenguage, but it seemed to remember the human reactions to certain words. The mostmon and frequent sounds heard in the void were ¡®Help me!¡¯ and ¡®Save me!¡¯ for the same reason. They had learned these words were effective in luring humans. Click. In the spirit photo, alongside ¡®Don¡¯te¡¯ and ¡®Go away,¡¯ countless other words were realized. ¡®Bad guy,¡¯ ¡®Noise pollution,¡¯ ¡®Why,¡¯ ¡®Die,¡¯ ¡®Nuisance,¡¯ ¡®Iprehensible,¡¯ ¡®Curse,¡¯ ¡®Stop,¡¯ ¡®Annoying,¡¯ and ¡®Hate,¡¯ among others. What a dazzling discovery! It was worth the contemptuous looks from many people to pursuemunication with Inunaki Tunnel. Couldn¡¯t we further develop this method ofmunication? Inunaki Tunnel was a Japanese-born anomaly. Japanese, like Korean, had a culture of honorifics. In Eastern Asia, it was a virtue to remember the character for respect (¶Y) even in personal friendships. Day 60: The number of posters on the tunnel walls was increased by fifteen times, and the anime song yback was extended to 24 hours. The Magical Girl Association expressed reluctance, saying they had no more posters to export, but I did not underestimate Japan¡¯s potential. Since the depletion of silver from the Iwami mine, Japan¡¯s main export product was otaku culture. Using not only death row inmates but also ordinary prisoners, I stered the tunnel. No matter how much Inunaki tried to tear the posters, it was futile. The humans stered posters faster. The undersea tunnel connecting Korea and Japan had be aic market in terms of interior design. (Lee Ha-yul, Noh Do-hwa, the Saintess, and Cheon Yo-hwa visited me together, requesting I halt the operation.) Day 70: The radios ying anime songs ced throughout the tunnel were destroyed. I requested cooperation from the Magical Girl Association again and held a magical girl concert in the middle of the tunnel. The live music echoed grandly underwater, a level above recorded sound quality. (Manyo Neko and Phantom de were displeased.) Day 77: The inscriptions at the entrance changed. -Please don¡¯te (À´¤Ê¤¤¤Ç¤¯¤À¤µ¤¤). -Please go back (Ž¢¤Ã¤Æ¤¯¤À¤µ¤¤). -I¡¯ll do anything (ºÎ¤Ç¤â¤¹¤ë¤«¤é). -Please (¤ªîŠ¤¤¤·¤Þ¤¹). I shivered with excitement. Finally, even the anomaly had engraved the concept of respect. I was now certain that this was a worthypanion for serious interaction. ¡°Ha-yul, you¡¯ve waited long. I finally seeded in persuading Inunaki Tunnel. Now, we can create a hideout with perfect security.¡± ¡°Sorry, can it wait until tomorrow? I have a dinner appointment with Noh Do-hwa unnie tonight. Drinking.¡± ¡°Of course. Have a great time!¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Next cycle. A neat sign hung at the entrance of Inunaki Tunnel, recing the messy graffiti. [Caf¨¦ Hideout] [New Opening Soon!] Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 108 The Tenant ¢ñI As everyone knows, navigating the Inunaki Tunnel is exceedingly difficult. Even as a regressor, I had to sacrifice hundreds of lives across five runs to finally conquer it. At that moment, I thought, ¡®...Isn''t this the best security facility?¡¯ It was aplete reversal of thought. From the perspective of an intruder, the Inunaki Tunnel boasted an incredible level of difficulty, but from a defender''s viewpoint, it was an impregnable fortress. Moreover, this irond security applied only to intruders. For those who had already mastered the ¡®strategy,¡¯ the Inunaki Tunnel was just a slightly tricky path. Thus, starting from the 197th run, I did not fully disclose the tunnel strategy on SG Net.Instead, I posted warnings such as "Entering without caution leads to certain death," "No entry," and "Even the most skilled Void explorers can''t avoid instant death." A guilty conscience? None at all. It''s not a lie. After conquering Inunaki alone, I set up a guild hideout in the underwater tunnel. I then sent ¡®invitations¡¯ only to a select few trustworthy acquaintances. The invitations, of course, kindly detailed the walking method for the Inunaki Tunnel. Now, without an invitation, no one could visit my caf¨¦ hideout. ¡°A shop that only epts customers by invitation? Is this a VIP golf course or something...?¡± Noh Do-hwa turned the invitation over and over, making a sour face. ¡°The insane idea of privatizing an anomaly and using it is just what I''d expect from your filthy brain... But this means you''re not nning to do business with the general public, right?¡± Noh Do-hwa fluttered the invitation. ¡°Now, I see that our Undertaker is bing quite the noble. Soon, you''ll want to be king? Shall I hand over the position of National Road Management Corps Chief to you? Hoo, great. I''ve been wanting to quit this shitty job anyway. Congrattions in advance, Your Majesty...¡± ¡°Oh. Don''t worry too much about that part. Corps Chief, do you see the number written at the top of the invitation?¡± ¡°Hmm...?¡± Noh Do-hwa re-examined the invitation. [Invitation - Caf¨¦ Hideout] [Depth 1200m] Noh Do-hwa tilted her head. ¡°Depth? 1200 meters? What does this mean...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the grade of the invitation.¡± ¡°Graaade...?¡± ¡°Yes. I have prepared invitations in segments of 100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters, and so on. For instance, a 100-meter invitation contains only enough strategy to safely cover the first 100 meters of the Inunaki Tunnel.¡± ¡°Hmm...?¡± ¡°The 1200-meter invitation is the highest grade, containing theplete strategy for the Inunaki Tunnel. The 100-meter invitation is the lowest grade. And I will make all 100-meter invitations public on SG Net.¡± I took Noh Do-hwa into the Inunaki Tunnel to show her an example. ¡°This is the 100-meter point.¡± ¡°Oh...?¡± Noh Do-hwa looked around. ¡°This is... a caf¨¦.¡± Noh Do-hwa''s observation was spot on. From now on, I hope you¡¯ll listen to all my descriptions in the voice of a friendly home shopping host. Instead of always damp mold where water trickled from the cracks in the wall, a tiny artificial waterfall had been installed, showcasing its aesthetic point. Where moss once flourished, there were now colorful aquatic nts. These nts weren''t ordinary vegetation but had mutated in the void, thriving without sunlight. Amidst these artificial waterfalls and nters were antique-style sofas and chairs. Above all, the chairs soughtfort. Tables of perfect height for sitting were arranged, with smallmps adding to the ambiance. Victorian-style tables from the 19th century were minimal in number, while the other tables revealed the natural beauty of the wood. Of course, the lighting was indirect. The overall space was enveloped in a cozy darkness, but the faint outlines of tables and chairs added an edge even to the shadows. A true space starts with vision and ends with hearing. From one end to the other, the sound of water trickling from the artificial waterfall filled the air. If sunlight is the mirror of the eyes, darkness is the mirror of the ears. The sound of water flowing beyond the darknesspleted this space as the pinnacle of Baroque aesthetics. If you went up to the tunnel wall, you¡¯d find unexpected graffiti on the concrete surface, adding a unique charm without traditional framed pictures. The touch of the soft wood of the table and thefort of the chair. The auditory experience of a Baroque space. And the hidden visual art of graffiti. If the old-fashioned aroma of coffee were added, it would appeal to the senses of smell and taste¨D¨Da caf¨¦ that satisfied all five senses,plete. Even more, the fact that this unique scenery was in the middle of an underwater tunnel stimted the imagination of the guests. As the Undertaker, I was confident that even if it weren''t for the apocalypse, this ce could aim to be the best caf¨¦ in Korea. Home shopping broadcast, over. ¡°...There''s no natural light, yet the space doesn''t feel cramped.¡± Noh Do-hwa touched the table. She seemed quite shocked. ¡°Was this really an anomaly that devoured hundreds of people...?¡± ¡°Hehe.¡± ¡°Even that ridiculous regressor''sugh sounds different now. I''m surprised. Undertaker, I didn''t expect you to have this talent...¡± Considering Noh Do-hwa''s personality, this was the highest praise. But there was more to surprise her. ¡°Noh Do-hwa, Corps Chief.¡± ¡°Yes...?¡± ¡°Do you see those thin strings next to the bookshelf? They are puppet strings leading to the tunnel''s deepest part. I had Hayul set them up. Just a slight tug on them...¡± Ting- The string vibrated pleasantly like a cello''s string. ¡°Even just by infusing aura, the vibration reaches my private room at the deepest part of the tunnel.¡± ¡°Oh...¡± ¡°Then I can immediately respond knowing there''s a guest. No matter how far the distance, I can reach here in an instant.¡± ¡°Indeed. This is... quite something.¡± ¡°The treatment for the 100-meter and 200-meter levels is different. The deeper the depth, the different the interior, and the more diverse the menu will be. In other words...¡± ¡°Yes. It might be a small motivation for the awakeners. There aren¡¯t many enjoyments these days... Hmm. Being isted from the outside world might actually be a good thing. If one can momentarily forget the ruined outside world and enjoy a cup of coffee...¡± ¡°Exactly. So, Noh Do-hwa, Corps Chief, I have a proposal.¡± ¡°Hmm? What is it...?¡± ¡°As you can see, operating the caf¨¦ seriously requires a lot of coffee beans. My reserves will soon run out. So, I n to ask the Sword Marquess, that old man, to create a coffee farm...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you make it happen?¡± Noh Do-hwa''s face filled with worry. The Sword Marquess was essential for current agricultural endeavors. He was busy cultivating food. Proposing to use some of that preciousnd for coffee, a luxury item, was bound to trouble the practical-minded Noh Do-hwa. Of course, I could persuade the Sword Marquess to cultivate coffee without Noh Do-hwa¡¯s consent, but that would result in Noh Do-hwa resigning. ¡°But we barely have enough farnd as it is...¡± ¡°The world needs luxuries too.¡± I whispered. ¡°Think about it. Adding a new attraction to Busan will elevate the status of the National Road Management Corpspared to other major guilds...¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it impractical to grow coffee in Korea? It seems inefficient...¡± ¡°No need to worry. I¡¯ll nt various coffee trees from the void and eventually create a variety suitable for the Korean climate. I am a void expert, after all.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°There¡¯s also the matter of security. Isn¡¯t it better for me to manage the underwater tunnel than leave it unattended?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°Moreover, Corps Chief, imagine waking up with a cup of coffee every morning. The headquarters is just a short walk away. Think of it as a 30-minute morning walk.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It would boost the morale and welfare of the management team.¡± ¡°......¡± Contemtion. Consideration. Agony. Deliberation. Finally, Noh Do-hwa muttered softly. ¡°Well, if it¡¯s just a small garden...¡± ¡°You¡¯ve made a wise decision, Corps Chief! You truly understand me. Since you¡¯ve agreed, I¡¯ll start building the caf¨¦ from the next run.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You won¡¯t regret this decision. You alwaysin, but when I earnestly ask, you always help. I know how deeply you care for me...¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± The caf¨¦ hideout was a grand sess! Naturally, the caf¨¦ hideout received enthusiastic support. Despite the unease of stepping into the jaws of a continental-ss anomaly for a delicious cup of caffeine, brave challengers never ceased. The segmented ess levels of 100 meters, 200 meters, etc., sparked a peculiar sense ofpetition among the awakeners. -Anonymous: (300m) At 100 meters, you can only get espresso and Americano, but here, you can also have caf¨¦tte lol. -Anonymous: (400m) Ice coffee lovers must reach at least 400 meters. The barista said ice coffee is avable from 400 meters onwards. ©¸Anonymous: I like espresso too, though? ©¸Anonymous: (400m) Yeah, right lol. ©¸Anonymous: Espresso is a sophisticated taste, you idiot. ©¸CookingQueen: (100m) Everyone, please don''t argue over this. We should be grateful just for the existence of the caf¨¦, shouldn''t we? -dolLHoUse: Pathetic. -Anonymous: (100m) But I heard Baekwha Girls¡¯ High Guild members start at 200 meters by default. Is that true? If it is, isn¡¯t that unfair? ©¸FourthGrader: (1200m) ( >_<);; Many subculture worlds assign grades like A and S to awakeners, but in reality, Korea had no such system. I found the terms S-rank and A-rank problematic. How much stronger is an S-rankpared to an A-rank, exactly? An evaluation based on precise figures is far more intuitive than ying with letters, in my opinion. The invitations I issued were easily perceived as a form of ¡®grade¡¯ or ¡®level¡¯ among the awakeners. -WitchJudge: The deep sea at 1,200 meters. The voice of the waves conveyed through the tunnel''s walls. In an era where nature has been reduced to mere danger, it¡¯s a time to appreciate the value of ¡®viewing nature.¡¯ (Certification shot. A photo of a coffee cup ced on a table with an ¡®invitation - depth 1200m¡¯ subtly disyed.) The majority of awakeners received the ¡®100-meter grade¡¯ invitation, and among them, only those proven in skill and character gradually updated their depth. The grading criteria were entirely based on my judgment. But judgment built over hundreds of runs, spanning thousands of years, bes reliable data. I was confident that this ¡®depth¡¯ system was more trustworthy than any other standard. -OldManGoryeo: (1000m) The poor bastardsparing their dicks are cute lol. -OldManGoryeo: (1000m) I tried an affogato for the first time. What¡¯s with the coffee and ice creambo? You kids enjoy your school meals lol. -OldManGoryeo: (1000m) Those with 100-meter grades can only use the caf¨¦ once a week. Honestly, I respect that. They seem like worms that would wriggle and survive no matter how tough the world gets. This brother would rather kill himself than go without daily coffee lol. Hmm. Let¡¯s ignore a few exceptions. Sim Ah-ryeon regrly whined to raise her grade from 1000 meters to 1200 meters, or at least to 1100 meters, but I firmly refused. It wasn¡¯t because I discriminated against her. She had the spirit of a mountaineer in her heart, and once I started amodating her, she¡¯d climb endlessly like she was ascending Mount Everest. I will discuss the stories rted to this ¡®awakener grade¡¯ in more detail in the next story. When the caf¨¦ operation had somewhat stabilized, I sent an invitation message to the Saintess via constetion talk. [Is this... an invitation?] ¡°Yes, Saintess. Remember I asked you not to use your ¡®irvoyance¡¯ to observe the scenery at a depth of 1200 meters no matter what?¡± [Ah, yes. So, I have not gathered any information about that ce at all.] ¡°I kept it a secret because I wanted to show you directly. You¡¯re always at your home in Yongsan, aren¡¯t you? Think of it as a short outing.¡± The Saintess was silent for a moment. In that silence, I strongly sensed the INTJ vibes of a lifelong hikikomori. [...But isn¡¯t it too far from my home to Busan? Even if I could arrive quickly on your back, that¡¯s a bit...] ¡°Oh. It¡¯s okay. I¡¯ve dug a tunnel to your ce as well.¡± [What?] This was another reversal of thought. As everyone knew, the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel was a fictional construction, yet it waspletely devoured by Inunaki. Then, wouldn¡¯t it be possible to create a ¡®man-made¡¯ tunnel and have it infected by Inunaki? The result of my idea was located at the southern end of the Han River submerged bridge. I took the Saintess there. ¡°...My goodness.¡± The Saintess, wrapped in a white coat, opened her mouth slightly. ¡°Why is there a tunnel here...?¡± Indeed. Beyond the ruins of the convenience store where we first met, a small tunnel led down into the Han River. This was the so-called ¡®Han River Submerged Tunnel.¡¯ ¡°I¡¯ll lead the way. Please follow me.¡± ¡°...Wait a moment, Mr. Undertaker. Did you create an anomaly artificially?¡± ¡°No. There were several tunnels nned for the Han River. Some were neverpleted. I superimposed multiple tunnels and ¡®asked¡¯ Inunaki to infect them.¡± ¡°¡®Asked¡¯...¡± ¡°It¡¯s amunicative friend. Well, it¡¯s a kind of loophole, so I can¡¯t expand these ¡®portals¡¯ recklessly. The limit was creating emergency exits in only three ces.¡± One in Gangnam, right here. Another in the coffee farm in Kyushu, Japan. The third location will be mentioned in another story. Hearing my exnation, the Saintess was astonished. ¡°A limit? Even so, isn¡¯t that incredible?¡± We entered the submerged tunnel. All Inunaki Tunnels were connected. However, to travel from the ¡®Han River Submerged Tunnel¡¯ to the ¡®Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel,¡¯ one had to follow several specific procedures precisely. For security reasons, I won¡¯t detail them, but from the Saintess''s perspective, it only took five minutes to walk leisurely. After walking through the tunnel. ¡°......¡± The Saintess paused. ¡°...Here.¡± ¡°Depth 1200 meters. This is the deepest part of my hideout caf¨¦. Wee, Saintess.¡± Before us was an underwater tunnel. But it wasn¡¯t made of concrete; it was made of ss. The tunnel stretched 400 meters from a depth of 1200 meters to 1600 meters, all constructed like an aquarium''s underwater tunnel. Colorful fish swam in the azure water. ¡°......¡± The Saintess¡¯s eyes widened. She stared nkly at the ss tunnel. Water shadows gently swayed, casting ripples over her hair. She always enjoyed keeping fish as a hobby. To her, this ce must have seemed like Eldorado. ¡°Mr. Undertaker, how on earth...?¡± ¡°The Inunaki Tunnel is connected to the Samdo River. It¡¯s the concept of the underworld, the water flowing in the afterlife. That¡¯s why one can drown if walked incorrectly. It also matches well with underwater or submerged tunnels. Though it was tricky, as you can see, it was possible to manifest it as an aquarium''s underwater tunnel.¡± ¡°......¡± In the 117th cycle. When I confronted the outer god-ss anomaly Infinite Void, I met the Saintess. Though it was merely an illusion. On the silver moon in the night sky, the Saintess looked down at the Earth. She said this: -Just ayer beneath that, it¡¯s all turned into hell. Her words lingered like soot in my heart. And now, in the 197th cycle, the Saintess was looking up at the sea from the depths of the Earth¡¯s surface. Beyond the tunnel, starlight jellyfish floated. They were void creatures, making the deep sea look like the Milky Way. An inverted universe. ¡°How do you find it?¡± I asked her impressions of the hellish scenery. ¡°Do you like it?¡± ¡°......¡± The Saintess remained silent. Every aquarium was a lonely structure. But a ss tunnel crossing a sea was the only aquarium where one could view fish without confining them. Having a home while still being free. I wondered if my metaphor reached her silently. After a long time of closed lips, the Saintess nodded, and I wanted to believe the tunnel''s significance was fully conveyed. ¡°...Yes. Very much.¡± ¡°I¡¯m d.¡± ¡°Thank you, Mr. Undertaker. ...I¡¯ll never forget this view for the rest of my life.¡± I smiled. ¡°Neither will I.¡± There are countless stories rted to this ¡®caf¨¦ hideout.¡¯ But today, I will end the story here without any epilogue. Let me simply add that from that day on, there was one more stop added to the Saintess''s morning walks. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 109 One Who Was a Companion I Among the powers I had awakened, if I were to choose the most fundamental one, it would undoubtedly be the Time Seal. This skill was the foundation for my alias as the "Undertaker" and also the very first skill I awakened. However, the most routinely useful skill, the one I employed as naturally as breathing, was undeniably the Complete Memory. Without this skill, how could I have possibly recounted thousands of years of tales to you all? But, in truth, even Complete Memory didn¡¯t guarantee perfect recall of everything 100%. There was a mere 0.01% of my long life as a regressor where a portion was left nk, as if forcibly deleted data. So today, I want to talk about the ''Iplete Memory'' aspect of my ability. This is the story of the 173rd run.One day, the Saintess said. [Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°Yes.¡± [I might have been holding a prejudice against the Constetions all this time. Shouldn''t we consider revamping their image to be more approachable and kind?] ¡°Ah, sure. Do as you see fit.¡± [Last night, I suddenly had a great idea.] Perhaps those of you with extraordinary memories will find the following conversation familiar: [Hello, hello! Greetings to all the awakeners of the Korean Penins! Nice to meet you, meow!] [I am the Constetion who will be constantly watching over you from now on, the Saintess of National Salvation, meow!] [Meow! Please take good care of me, meow!] ¡°¡¡.¡± Yes. In the 173rd cycle, I deliberately did not subdue the "Butterfly Effect". The pping wings that began in Beijing moved not to America or Brazil, but to the neighboring country of South Korea, and wreaked havoc on the mental world of the Saintess, a guardian spirit of the penins. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Meow?] ¡°That¡¯s not it. Please stop¡¡¡± [Okay.] The Saintess¡¯s deviation was quelled, leaving countless ¡®?¡¯ on SG Net. In any case, the Butterfly Effect caused such random, unprecedented events that could not have been seen in previous runs. In creating an "unpredictable future for the regressor," the Butterfly Effect might have been my greatest adversary. Yet, conversely, it was also a gracious oddity that generated "new events that one could never tire of." After all, one doesn¡¯t get to hear the Saintess¡¯s meowing tone all the time, do they? I created a folder named "173rd Run - Saintess¡¯s Cat-Constetion Transformation" on the desktop of my mind, saved the recording, and returned to my routine. A regressor¡¯s schedule is strictly defined. This period was just the 7th month since the start of the run, so I was quite busy with various tasks. From subduing the World Tree Udumbara in Onyang, Asan, to proposing the establishment of the National Road Management Corps during my first meeting with Noh Do-hwa at a rehabilitation hospital. But Noh Do-hwa was dead. ¡°¡¡.¡± The location was the National Hospital, which also served as a rehabilitation center. Hospitals, pharmacies, and supermarkets were the most likely to be raided in an apocalypse. As a public institution with weak security, the rehabilitation hospital was seen as easy prey for looters. The National Hospital, while not boasting significantly better services than private hospitals, provided reasonably cost-effective care to patients, thanks to government subsidies. Its ratings were good. The high ratings could be attributed in part to Noh Do-hwa¡¯s craftsmanship as a prosthetics maker in the hospital''s assistive device center. Noh Do-hwa''s corpse was sprawled at the entrance to the inpatient ward, far from her usual workce in the assistive device center. If it had been just a looter attack, the damage wouldn¡¯t have been so severe. This was still early in the apocalypse, and looters, no matter how ruthless, were not yet desensitized to killing. The looter attack coincided with the emergence of anomalies. When the hospital began to copse, Noh Do-hwa had left her usual post and ran to the inpatient ward. And there, she died. The attack seemed to have urred just a day prior. The bloodstains on Noh Do-hwa''s favorite white coat hadn¡¯t yet lost their crimson hue. ¡°Why¡¡.¡± I muttered, swallowing my words. This was the first time. Never before in the early stages of a run had Noh Do-hwa died. Therefore, it was immediately apparent what had caused such an oue. The Butterfly Effect. When left unsuppressed, this anomaly deviated from the usual causal loop, generating random variables. One of those variables had somehow caused the looter and anomaly attacks. As a result, Noh Do-hwa was dead. Leaving the Butterfly Effect unchecked could lead to such routes being observed. ¡°¡The gift has be useless, Noh Do-hwa.¡± I sat next to her corpse, leaning against the wall, and ced the gift box from China beside me. Pu''er tea, Bingdao Laozhai, first flush. A luxury item worth around 20 million won. It wasn¡¯t fake. I had used my knowledge and connections as a regressor to obtain the genuine article. Every run, I presented this to Noh Do-hwa, who preferred tea over coffee. Noh Do-hwa rarely opened up to others. But upon receiving this gift, she would furrow her brows and say, ¡®¡Well, where should we start the conversation?¡¯ leaving room for dialogue. Like this: -Haah? A regressor? Excuse me. Are you seriously asking me to believe such nonsensical rubbish¡¡? -There is plenty of evidence. We¡¯ve had this conversation countless times. That¡¯s why you created the [If they know this much, I have no choice but to believe! ¡®I believe, you are indeed a regressor¡¯ 100 Questions List]. -What kind of bullshit¡¡. -I¡¯m not a prophet, nor am I from the National Intelligence Service. Before that, let me convey the words from the previous Noh Do-hwa of the former runs to the current Noh Do-hwa. -What is it¡¡? -Do you enjoy reaping the sweet benefits? -Huh¡¡? -The material I just handed over contains not only the question list but also records of failures from previous runs. In other words, the current Noh Do-hwa is in a far more advantageous position than the Noh Do-hwa of previous runs. Hence, the former Noh Do-hwas are pointing this out. Do you enjoy reaping the sweet benefits? -¡¡ -By the way, the phrase ¡®fucking bastard¡¯ is also included after this sentence. -Bullshit. After conversing all night like this, Noh Do-hwa would ept her role as the leader of the National Road Management Corps. But today, such a conversation wasn¡¯t possible. -Undertaker¡¡ -Yes? -Your profession is to conduct funerals, right? If I die, please don¡¯t bury me. Ah. This isn¡¯t just a request for this run, but for all time toe¡¡ -It¡¯s not difficult, but why don¡¯t you want me to conduct your funeral? -Hah, I don¡¯t want you embalming me¡¡. Just leave my corpse where it is. Don¡¯t look at it. Don¡¯t inspect it. Don¡¯t even bid farewell. Do you understand¡¡? -Sure. -We¡¯ll meet again anyway. Just tell me why I died when that timees¡¡ I sat next to her corpse, not even ncing at her dead face, merely looking up at the hospital corridor. For a while. ¡°¡See you next time, Do-hwa.¡± There was no response. But I would carry this scene and memory into the next run. Then, Noh Do-hwa would undoubtedly react with her characteristic ¡°Hmmm¡± and that distinctiveugh. Imagining that scene made me smile a little. I left the gift and exited the hospital. Afterwards, with the Saintess''s cooperation, I tracked down and exterminated the looters who had attacked the hospital. It might not be of much significance, but the looters operated in loosely organized cells reminiscent of the 72 Bandits of the Green Forest from wuxia stories, and one of their groups included Lee Baek. This was proof that people don¡¯t change easily. After uprooting therge looter group that was just starting to establish itself domestically, I crossed over to Beijing to eliminate the Butterfly Effect. [That person seemed important to you, Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°Yeah. Though she must have been quite fed up with me.¡± [¡¡] From then on, the Saintess and I never mentioned Noh Do-hwa again. We continued the 173rd run as if nothing had happened. And to add, the idea ofmitting suicide to start a new run didn¡¯t cross my mind. Living diligently despite Noh Do-hwa¡¯s disappearance was my own form of funeral and tribute to her death. Taking advantage of such variables, I would actively gather data that couldn¡¯t normally be collected. So that in the next run, I could make Noh Do-hwa say, "Hmmm, well, at least my pointless death had some merit¡." That was the reason. The reason I decided to explore a more radical path in the 173rd run. ¡°National Road Management Corps?¡± Dang Seo-rin tilted her head. ¡°So, you want to create such an organization, and you want me to lead it?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Noh Do-hwa was the top candidate to lead the National Road Management Corps. And having a first choice naturally implied there was a second choice. As expected, my second choice was always Dang Seo-rin. ¡°Hmm¡¡. There are many things I want to ask, but let¡¯s start with this.¡± ¡°Feel free.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± It was a straightforward question. There were numerous reasons why Dang Seo-rin was suitable for the position of National Road Management Corps leader. ¡°I anticipated your question and prepared some materials.¡± ¡°Huh? Materials?¡± ¡°Yes. Please take a look at this PPT.¡± ¡°¡Oh no, I suddenly have a very bad feeling that I¡¯ve asked something I shouldn¡¯t have.¡± Leadership: Dang Seo-rin had already elevated Samcheon to the most powerful guild on the Korean Penins across countless cycles. Not only that, she had magnificently governed the city of Busan, which had be the de facto capital after Seoul¡¯s fall. While other guild leaders relied on AI judges, Dang Seo-rin used the ¡®Equivalent Exchange¡¯ magic to govern Busan¡¯s judiciary in her own way. Her guild members and the citizens of Busan epted this method. In terms of leadership, there was no one who could rival Dang Seo-rin. Noblesse Oblige: When some guild leaders were busy establishing their own kingdoms within the cities they upied, Dang Seo-rin threw herself into the battlefield without hesitation. She went to the front lines to fight against anomalies. Ten Legs. Udumbara. Meteor Shower. Each time these powerful anomalies swept through the Korean Penins, Dang Seo-rin sang her magical songs on the battlefield, literally at the cost of her lifespan. Dedication to the public good. The ability to turn dedication into results. The charisma to gather supporters and establish authority by packaging and spreading those results. Dang Seo-rin possessed these extremely rare and valuable qualities. As previously mentioned, in this apocalyptic era, there was a bizarre trend called ¡®Awakener Supremacy¡¯. Like Noh Do-hwa, I always referred to awakeners simply as ¡®awakeners.¡¯ But there were many who called the same beings ¡®transcenders¡¯ or ¡®ascendants.¡¯ Dang Seo-rin didn¡¯t attach her identity to such wordy. She just bore endless responsibility along with her immense power. There was no one more qualified than Dang Seo-rin for the position of the National Road Management Corps leader, who must not only unite the awakeners but also consider all the humans on the Korean Penins. Personal Charm: In addition to the charisma required for leading a group, even in one-on-one situations, Dang Seo-rin was¡¡ ¡°Wait, wait! Stop! Stoooop!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± In the middle of my enthusiastic presentation on the "101 Reasons Why You Should Lead the National Road Management Corps," Dang Seo-rin waved her hands in a frenzy. ¡°Undertaker, that¡¯s enough! I get it! Please stop! I beg you!¡± ¡°Why? I haven¡¯t finished yet.¡± ¡°I said stop! Are you trying to kill me by making me die of embarrassment? Seriously, you¡¯re crazy!¡± Judging by the fact that Dang Seo-rin usually carried a pointy hat and a witch''s broom, one could deduce that the part of her brain responsible for feelings of embarrassment or shame had atrophied. However, if you bombarded her withpliments in a non-magical, non-witchy, non-singing context, it would cause her brain to panic, much like overworked leg muscles shaking after a strenuous squat. And during such times, unreasonable demands often worked very well. ¡°Alright. So, can I take that as you epting the role of the National Road Management Corps leader?¡± ¡°Yes! I¡¯ll take it. I¡¯ll take it, so shut up before someone hears you!¡± See? This is the technique of a former Dang Seo-rin secretary. Thus, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Samcheon Guild merged with the National Road Management Corps. Or rather, it evolved into the National Road Management Corps from now on. The process was smooth. There were few concerns about the concentration of too much power in Samcheon, which was just a guild. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s reputation had the power to turn concerns into expectations. If you ask why I hadn¡¯t assigned the role to Dang Seo-rin in previous runs despite its simplicity¨D¨Dbesides minor excuses, the core reason was just one. -If possible, don''t tell the next version of me that you''re a regressor. I couldn¡¯t confess to Dang Seo-rin that I was a regressor. Because of her own will. In the run where we first seeded in subduing Ten Legs, the 10th run where I revealed I was a regressor, Dang Seo-rin had imposed a binding curse on me. -I¡¯m a greedy and impulsive person. I can never think like, ¡®I¡¯ll give up this run for the sake of the next one.¡¯ -If I know that I have hundreds of years of lifespan left, I¡¯ll definitely use it all up for the current run. -Until the very final crisis, make sure my lifespan is saved. I kept that promise. From the 10th run to the 173rd, I never once disclosed my secret to Dang Seo-rin. And this meant that, unlike Noh Do-hwa or the Saintess, Dang Seo-rin could never join our regression alliance. While I could share the information I gained from regression with Noh Do-hwa without reservation, with Dang Seo-rin, I always needed a bit of packaging and acting¡ in other words, a lie. A lie. Something I would never do to Dang Seo-rin under normal circumstances. But in the 173rd run, the shocking early departure of Noh Do-hwa made me resolve to experiment with the IF route of [What if Dang Seo-rin led the National Road Management Corps?]. Unsurprisingly. In this newly explored route, Dang Seo-rin showcased her talents to the fullest. ¡°Undertaker. You know that Equivalent Exchange magic you helped develop? I was thinking yesterday, this magic has limitless potential for use.¡± ¡°Yes. When sending National Road Management Corps members on patrol to other regions, always include one who has participated in the Ten Legs subjugation. That way, if they get into a fight with another guild, we can smooth things over by saying we¡¯re allrades, right?¡± ¡°Hmm- The AI judge that guild lLeader Chun Yo-hwa provided is convenient, but sometimes people are dissatisfied with the AI¡¯s verdict. So, I think the final judgment should be made here at the Busan National Road Management Corps headquarters¡¡¡± My judgment was not wrong. Though aided by the data Noh Do-hwa had umted and my advice, Dang Seo-rin led the National Road Management Corps with astounding speed, as if it were natural. And it wasn¡¯t long before she came up with ideas that neither Noh Do-hwa nor I had considered. ¡°Hey, Undertaker.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it possible to record the songs I perform with my Cursed Song Incantation and y them softly throughout the city all the time? For example¡ developing magic that makes people feel a bit happier.¡± That was the beginning. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 110 One Who Was a Companion II ¡°Hello, teacher!¡± ¡°Oh, it''s Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°Yes! Hehe, it¡¯s been a while!¡± One day, Cheon Yo-hwa descended to Busan with a few of her close aides. As expected of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School, all of them were dressed in white sailor uniforms. Now that Cheon Yo-hwa was no longer a senior but roughly a ninth-year high school student, she should be graduating soon. The top guild master of the Korean Penins was in a witch cosy, and the second-inmand guild master was in a school uniform cosy. The future of thisnd was grim. ¡°Have you been well?¡± ¡°Of course. I¡¯m always doing well.¡±¡°Haha. Indeed, it seems like even if you were dropped in the middle of the Sahara Desert, you''de back just fine. By the way¡ª¡± As we chatted, the rest of the Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School guild members had already moved away. In the za, only the two of us remained, and Cheon Yo-hwa nced around. ¡°Busan has changed a lot.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa was right. The 173rd cycle¡¯s Busan boasted a city view unseen in past runs. Previously, even though Busan was the premier city of the Korean Penins, it wasn¡¯t very morous, fitting the apocalyptic times. Red-light districts might have adorned themselves with expensive electricity in yellow and pink lights, but most buildings didn¡¯t exceed two stories. The elevator and sewage systems required to maintain high-rise buildings hadpletely copsed. But now it was different. Most buildings were four or five stories high, with some even exceeding ten stories. Civilization wasn¡¯t fully restored, but the most expensive real estate was still on the ground floor. Living in a five-story building and going up and down the stairs to the restroom each time was a workout many were willing to endure, as more people desired to live in Busan. ¡°It''s quite splendid.¡± ¡°How¡¯s Sejong these days?¡± ¡°Ah¡ªwell, it¡¯s the same. Since we have a strong grip on Sejong, people still gather there, but other cities are in dire straits. The other guild leaders oftenin when we meet, saying all the specialists have been snatched up by Busan.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s eyes narrowed as she looked at the new capital of the Korean Penins. ¡°But it¡¯s hard to focus on thoseints. There isn¡¯t a guild leader strong enough to confront the National Road Management Corps leader, right?¡± ¡°Who knows. You¡¯re here, Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°Haha. The guild leaders always say that.¡± Cheon Yo-hwaughed awkwardly, waving her hand dismissively. ¡°Why would I engage in a power struggle with the management leader? I¡¯m content feeding my kids, hunting anomalies, and asionally traveling to meet you!¡± ¡°That¡¯s very like you.¡± ¡°Hehe...¡± But for someone with such a humble lifestyle, the aura of the guild members apanying Cheon Yo-hwa was extraordinary. She must have formed the delegation with the best elite members of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High. I nced at the waist of Cheon Yo-hwa. Like a Pok¨¦mon trainer with Pok¨¦ Balls, anomaly master Cheon Yo-hwa wore a custom belt with hoursses attached. One particrly white sandss stood out. Despite its appearance, it was an indestructible anomaly seal. The Infinite Void. It was Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s most powerful weapon. Perhaps recognizing me even from inside the hourss, her doppelg?nger ¡®Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯)¡¯ stirred the sand. Sensing the vibration from her waist belt, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s gaze turned icy. The vitamin-like smile that had been radiating in all directions evaporated instantly. ¡°Shut up.¡± The hourss trembled briefly before settling down. It might have been my imagination, but the vibration felt like mockery. At that moment. - Ah, ah¡ª From the speakers erected like utility poles throughout Busan, a small song began to y. It was an acape recording of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s voice. - Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah... . The melody resembled a children¡¯s song but it was bright enough not to irritate anyone''s nerves. As the quiet song briefly washed over us, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s eyebrows rxed. ¡°Ah¡ªthis is. The famous Busan specialty, right?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s the song of the National Road Management Corps leader.¡± ¡°Hehe... it really makes you feel at ease listening to it? No, I should say it makes you feel good. Is this a drug?¡± It actually had a drug-like effect. ¡®The song of the National Road Management Corps leader¡¯ was broadcast every hour from 7 AM to 10 PM daily. The effects of Cursed Song Incantation subtly changed with the time of day. For example, at 7 AM, it was a song that had the effect of waking you up feeling refreshed and clear-minded. At 10 PM, it made you pleasantly sleepy and ready for a good night¡¯s rest as soon as youy down. ¡°Thanks to it, there are no insomniacs in Busan. No one in the world sleeps as healthily as Busan citizens.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°And during work hours, songs that invigorate and energize y, while songs that reduce stress and create a slightly excited atmosphere conducive to enjoyable conversation y during dinner time. Labor productivity and overall life satisfaction are at their highest.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a happy city.¡± Even now, dozens of citizens were huddled under the speakers. Once the song ended, they wore refreshed expressions and returned to their workces in groups. ¡®A city made of songs.¡¯ That was the current Busan. ¡°It¡¯s no wonder other cities keep losing their poption to Busan.¡± To establish this system, Dang Seo-rin and I worked tirelessly for six years. We developed five types of magic tailored to various situations, and used anomaly artifacts to ensure the magic effects were preserved in recordings. ¡°Well, teacher. I have a meeting scheduled with the owner of that song. I¡¯ll excuse myself!¡± ¡°Ah, sure.¡± ¡°Yes! See youter!¡± Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, the representative of white magic and the representative of ck magic, the de facto ruler of Busan and the warlord of Sejong, the leader of the National Road Management Corps and the student council president of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School. A secret meeting between the two awakeners, considered rivals in many respects, was held. Of course, thanks to the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance, I could eavesdrop on all the main details of the secret meeting. The Saintess was reluctant to share the detailed nuances of the negotiations for some reason. As a result of the meeting. ¡°Hehe. Now we¡¯re neighbors. Please take care of me from now on, teacher!¡± ¡°......¡± Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School decided to move its headquarters from Sejong to Busan. Yeongdo District was allocated as Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School¡¯s territory, and Sejong¡¯s citizens were freely allowed to relocate. Cheon Yo-hwa maintained her title as student council president of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School but was also appointed as the deputy leader of the National Road Management Corps. Anyone would interpret this as Cheon Yo-hwa leading her guild to a dramatic surrender to Dang Seo-rin. That was the final blow. Let¡¯s elerate time a bit more. When Cheon Yo-hwa, the only one considered a rival to Dang Seo-rin, easily bowed her head, the other guild leaders couldn¡¯t hold out either. One by one, the guild leaders, who ruled like kings from their respective bases, bowed their heads. They ttered the leader of the National Road Management Corps to maintain their value and status. Dang Seo-rin was generous. ¡°Undertaker. You said that underwater tunnel could be connected to Kyushu, Japan, right?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°There are many famous hot springs in Kyushu. Can¡¯t we extend the tunnel near there? If we build luxurious vis around them as gifts, the other guild leaders should be reasonably satisfied.¡± And so it was. Some warlords tried to cling to power until the end, but it was futile. The National Road Management Corps had the Sword Marquess. Unless Sword Marquess trampled the farnds, the sovereignty of the Korean Penins¡¯s food supply rested entirely in Dang Seo-rin¡¯s hands. Dang Seo-rin lightly swirled her wine ss. ¡°I always respect your thoughts, Undertaker, but I think differently about the operation of the National Road Management Corps.¡± ¡°Do you?¡± ¡°Yes. There¡¯s no need to inefficiently leave multiple cities unattended and order the management members to patrol until they die. There¡¯s only a handful of people left on the Korean Penins anyway. Busan alone is enough.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to make Busan the premier city on the Korean Penins¡ No, the world. No ce in this post-apocalyptic world will be as good as this city.¡± ¡°If you do that, the entire Korean Penins will be consumed by the void. There¡¯s a high probability of a ''monster wave'' urring. You¡¯ll witness near-infinite anomalies invading from beyond the horizon whenever you feel like it.¡± I warned her. ¡°To be honest, it¡¯s unpredictable what will happen. Monster waves are practically impossible to exterminate. Do you n to y an endless defense game in reality?¡± ¡°That¡¯s frightening but¡ Yes. We can do it. With your power and my magic, it¡¯s possible. Undertaker, will you follow me?¡± ¡°......¡± I hesitated for a moment. Perhaps it was an instinct honed through my time as a regressor, but I sensed this moment was a point of no return. Even so, my answer was already decided. ¡°...Of course.¡± Dang Seo-rin beamed brightly. ¡°As expected of you, Undertaker! I trust you!¡± eleration. Four yearster, only the city of Busan remained on the Korean Penins. Ironically, the world of a certain witch, who wished more than anyone to travel and wander around, had be narrower than in any other run. The average height of buildings in downtown Busan increased. It was enough to call it thest metropolis of humanity. Even the Saintess, who always stayed in Yongsan, Seoul, moved to Busan. There was no longer a need to stay there and monitor the awakeners of the Korean Penins. In the center of Busan, wherend prices skyrocketed, a za without any buildings astonishingly spread out. A za designed to seat tens of thousands of people. The center was hollowed out so that everyone could watch what happened below. Like the Colosseum. That was Dang Seo-rin¡¯s ¡®courtroom.¡¯ Dang Seo-rin sat at the top seat of the judge''s bench. Beside her was Cheon Yo-hwa, who had dyed her white sailor uniform ck at some point. The judges looked down. In the magnificent courtroom, a defendant knelt. ¡°Imitted violence against a passerby.¡± The defendant¡¯s low self-confession echoed throughout the wide courtroom. A feat of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s [Amplification Magic]. ¡°Sometimes I can¡¯t control my body. It¡¯s rage, I guess. It wells up. When Ie to my senses, it¡¯s always like this. This time, if others hadn¡¯t stopped me, I would¡¯ve beaten someone.¡± Boo, boo¡ª jeers erupted from the audience of tens of thousands. But when Dang Seo-rin lightly tapped her gavel, the entire city fell silent as if it had never happened. ¡°Continue.¡± ¡°¡Yes. I hate this side of myself. I apologize and repent to all those I¡¯ve harmed. Above all, please, Your Excellency the Judge, correct this character of mine...¡± The defendant bowed their head. Dang Seo-rin shook her finger coldly. A golden scale glowed in the air. The magic of Equivalent Exchange. ¡°Defendant. Do you repent your wrongdoing?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°As you wish, [from now on, you will be stripped of your inner violence]. Under this condition, the victim has graciously offered to forgive the violence youmitted.¡± The victim had received a judgment in the same ce a year ago to [forgive anyone who wrongs them with apassionate heart]. ¡°Do you agree to the victim¡¯s proposal?¡± ¡°Yes, of course. Thank you. Thank you, Your Excellency. Thank you...¡± ¡°Executioner, please proceed.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa, in her ck uniform, stood up. She approached the defendant and ced her hand on their head. Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s murmured words were muted, not echoing in the courtroom, but I guessed she was ¡®brainwashing¡¯ the defendant. Personality alteration. Infusion. Distortion. That was Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s ability. ¡°Ah...¡± Finally, the golden scale shimmered. On the left pan was the victim¡¯s forgiveness, and on the right pan was the defendant¡¯s violence. The scale, having gained the consent of both sides, bnced itself and granted their wishes. The defendant stood up abruptly. ¡°I can¡¯t feel it... I can¡¯t feel it! The emotion that¡¯s tormented me all my life, it¡¯s no longer there! Ah! Thank you! Thank you! Your Excellency, the Judge, thank you!¡± The audience of tens of thousands pped in unison. Cheers of encouragement for the defendant and praises for Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s powers echoed. They, too, were citizens who had received something [in exchange] at the courtroom for trivial or significant reasons. ¡°Ah, Protector.¡± Suddenly, a voice came from beside me. I turned my head to see Yu Ji-won standing there. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes. Why are you watching the trial from such a remote ce? As the Protector, you could watch it more closely.¡± By the way, ¡®Protector¡¯ was the title given to me. The city¡¯s protector. It was a title dripping with Dang Seo-rin¡¯s preference, one I personally didn¡¯t like. I almost missed the days when Yu Ji-won exaggeratedly called me ¡®Your Excellency.¡¯ ¡°I was just passing by. I have to leave to block the monster wave again anyway.¡± ¡°Ah... as expected. You¡¯re really busy.¡± Yu Ji-won smiled. A natural, warm, and thuspletely uncharacteristic human smile that the original Yu Ji-won would never have made. ¡°But thanks to Your Excellency¡¯s efforts, the citizens of the city can live in peace, right? I always support you. If you ever need my guidance, just let me know.¡± ¡°......¡± I felt the sincerity in all those words. In a situation where it was difficult to find truth in sincerity, I was momentarily at a loss for words. Yu Ji-won had also recently had her psychopathic tendencies erased by Dang Seo-rin¡¯s [Equivalent Exchange] and Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s [Brainwashing]. Yu Ji-won had a long-standing habit akin to an incurable disease: she secretly hunted and butchered small animals like cats, dogs, and birds. But unlike the normal Yu Ji-won, she was caught in the act, and eventually, she was brought to Dang Seo-rin¡¯s ¡®witch trial.¡¯ ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Are you satisfied with your life these days?¡± Yu Ji-won blinked. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ve never spent more fulfilling days. Since the day of the trial, I¡¯ve felt like I¡¯m truly living as a person.¡± ¡°......¡± Was that really so? I had a slightly different interpretation. I had never heard of Yu Ji-won enjoying such a stress-relief method of butchering small animals. Even if it was a new hobby acquired in this run, it was hard to believe that someone like Yu Ji-won would ¡®identally¡¯ expose the scene of butchery. Perhaps it was a deliberately disguised hobby and an intentional exposure. The person before me had fabricated acts that made her look like a psychopath. And then she underwent a witch trial to correct her personality. To survive here and continue to live as a city¡¯s power, she had judged that ¡®this way¡¯ was advantageous. Yu Ji-won could see the world as a maze with set entrances and exits. Even her personality and way of thinking were just means to reach the ¡®correct answer.¡¯ ¡°¡I see. That¡¯s good. Keep up the good work, Chief Yu.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency.¡± I walked down a passage with no visible exit. Waaa¡ª! A cheer erupted from the far-off audience. A tremendous roar. Dang Seo-rin! Dang Seo-rin! The courtroom vibrated as if struck by a rushing train. Before leaving the courtroom, I looked down once more. At that moment, another part of a defendant¡¯s personality was ced on the golden scale for exchange. Dang Seo-rin whispered something to Cheon Yo-hwa, who nodded. Then Dang Seo-rin and I made eye contact. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± But only for a moment. As the ruler of the city and the judge of this space, Dang Seo-rin turned her head to continue her duties. I did too. Even as I walked down the corridor, the cheers from behind did not stop. Dang Seo-rin! Dang Seo-rin! Dang Seo-rin... Cheers never ceased in the courtroom, and the songs never stopped ying from the city¡¯s speakers. I walked, trailing the dual melodies like shadows at my feet. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 111 One Who Was a Companion III It had already been 15 years since the start of the 173rd run. ¡°Guild leader¡¡± Even after more than a decade, Sim Ah-ryeon, our guild member who still didn¡¯t grasp the concept of personal growth, made a face. ¡°Why the long face again?¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t get rid of it¡¡± ¡°...Get rid of what? Are you smoking?¡± ¡°...Ugh, this is why non-yers... Anyway. Um, SG Net is down¡¡± Sim Ah-ryeon sniffled.SG Net, an advanced technology website, had its servers located in Seo Gyu¡¯s brain and heart. Unless our manly guy SG Man got himself killed in a street fight, there was no chance SG Net would shut down. Though statistically, that was quite likely, it hadn¡¯t happened yet. So, Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s use of the word ¡®down¡¯ was purely metaphorical. ¡°Sniff. Look at this¡¡± Sim Ah-ryeon showed me SG Net on her smartphone. -OldManGoryeo: Today''s caf¨¦ mocha.jpeg -Anonymous: I wrote a novel, please review it -OldManGoryeo: Today''s caf¨¦ mocha.png -Anonymous: Do you believe in God? -Anonymous: Anyone want to go to a hot spring trip? -Anonymous: Why are there only idiots here? LOL -OldManGoryeo: Today''s caf¨¦ mocha.jpg I tilted my head. After ncing a few times, there was only one thing out of ce. ¡°Ah-ryeon, why are you drinking so much coffee?¡± ¡°Aaagh! There are only two posts on SG Net today! Two! Just two posts and that''s it! Today¡¯s coffee, yesterday¡¯s coffee, and the day before yesterday¡¯s coffee!¡± ¡°Ah¡¡± ¡°Do you know how many posts are usually made on SG Net per day? Four! Four posts! Unbelievable! Guild leader! I can¡¯t live like this! I can¡¯t stir up any drama. Out of the four daily posts, one is mine, and the other is my anonymous post¡¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Indeed, SG Net had died. The only thing still active was the [Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies] that Sim Ah-ryeon and I ran. The ghost users of themunity had been purged. There was always a cause for every effect. There was a clear reason why SG Net¡¯s ecosystem had been destroyed. ¡°Well, that was when everyone lived scattered across the country, but now we all live here. This city has many zas and rest areas. There¡¯s no longer a dire need for an onlinemunity like before.¡± ¡°But still, this is too strange¡ I swear, even in ancient Vatican City, they had intemunities. It makes no sense that an intemunity dies just because people live together in Busan. Guild leader! This has to be an ult phenomenon! An anomaly! Wow! You love anomalies, guild leader¡! Please, exterminate it quickly!¡± This kid... sharp as ever. ¡°Ah-ryeon, do you really want to hear the other reasons from my mouth?¡± ¡°Wh-What do you mean¡?¡± ¡°Look. There are no unemployed or homeless people here. Everyone has a job and leads a healthy daily life. After work, people have small parties or go to clubs and have real-lifemunity activities. They relieve all their stress there, so naturally, they don¡¯t need to go online. Just look at Seo Gyu; he went out to a TRPG meeting tonight, didn¡¯t he? But Ah-ryeon, you¡¯re always holed up in the guild building alone¡¡± ¡°Aaah! I don¡¯t want to hear it! I don¡¯t want to hear it!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon covered her ears and rolled on the floor. Well, not exactly rolled... she rubbed her back against the ground. Actively, like backstroking, she had a meltdown. If Gregor Samsa had seen her, he would have been ashamed of the degrading disy of insect dignity. ¡°Reality? Reality? You¡¯re saying people don¡¯t need the inte because they¡¯re happy in the moment? Are you stupid? Guild leader, you¡¯re really stupid! This smartphone screen, this is reality! This is the truth! People quitting the inte is inhumane, impossible on this Earth, in this universe!¡± ¡°But it has actually happened.¡± ¡°Eek¡!¡± OldManGoryeo copsed. Even if the world were to end tomorrow, Sim Ah-ryeon would post nonsense on the inte today, but her power Grudge Orb was bound to decline. It had be increasingly difficult to attract people''s attention. Present-day Busan was bing closer to an ideal city. Everyone wanted to be a better version of themselves. And Busan had a way to grant people¡¯s wishes. - I¡¯m tired after work but still have a habit of staying upte doing other things. It ruins my daily life. Great Witch, can you remove this habit? - Of course. Insomnia is such a torment. Just provide one month¡¯s worth of your sry. It wasn¡¯t a deal with the devil but with a witch. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Equivalent Exchange magic and Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s Brainwashing magic. When these two powers worked together, people could conveniently extract the parts of their personalities they wished to remove. It wasn¡¯t just personalities. - I was abused by my family as a child. Even now, traumatic memories surface and torment me. This personality of mine burdens those around me. Great Witch, can you remove the memories of my family¡¯s abuse? - Of course. But you must also offer the negative emotions you have towards your family as a price. Memories, emotions, personality. The Great Witch epted anything as material for negotiation and received anything in exchange. Busan''s crime rate plummeted. Naturally, the criminals¡¯ personalities had beenpletely reformed. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s ¡®witch trials¡¯ became increasingly open to the general public. Once a week, the golden scale was hoisted in the grand za, and dozens of people transformed into better versions of themselves each time. As Tolstoy said, happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. There are many ways to revert to unhappiness, but the path to happiness is always singr. The same was true for this city. As people systematically eradicated their miseries, their auras gradually became simr. Healthy. Waking up early and going to bed early. Regr exercise. Valuing those around them. Polite. Kind. Honest. Avoiding hurting others and getting hurt. Utopia. ¡°What do we do, guild leader¡? Sniffle, now I can¡¯t heal you if your arm gets cut off or your legs get broken¡ I¡¯m sorry. If another monster wave invades, I can¡¯t heal you¡¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about it. You were going to be fired soon anyway.¡± ¡°¡What?¡± ¡°The monster wave will soon be over.¡± I will cover the detailed exnation of the anomaly known as ¡®monster wave¡¯ in another story. For now, it sufficed to imagine it exactly as the name suggested. A tsunami of anomalies. Endless waves of monsters rushing from the horizon. Even anomalies that would never coexist due to ovepping territories would swarm together like a giant legion. Why this phenomenon urred remained unknown, but its timing was clear. When the void grew excessivelyrge. For instance, if the entire North Korean area turned into a void, a ¡®monster wave¡¯ would inevitably appear. The tsunamisted about 20 hours. Thousands, tens of thousands of anomalies surged like a wave, covering the ground still held by humanity. This phenomenonpelled me to create the National Road Management Corps. The reason we didn¡¯t abandon the various cities of the Korean Penins and maintained our territory by connecting the national roads was to prevent being swept away by the near-infinite monster waves if we allowed the void to encroach further. Dang Seo-rin chose the exact opposite. -Undertaker! Undertaker! Undertaker! -Waaaaa! And today. With all resources and manpower concentrated in Busan since the reunification of the Korean Penins, the fear of the monster wave, which had always threatened the city¡¯s security, was finally ended. -Everyone! Please wee with apuse! Our hero who protected Busan, no, the Korean Penins! No, the city¡¯s guardian who protected the world! Herees the Undertaker! -Long live the Undertaker! Long live Busan! A parade was held in the city. It was a kind of festival. Just like a general who won a victory in Rome paraded through the triumphal arch to boast of his achievements to the citizens, I too marched slowly, escorted by the awakeners around me. I rode in an open car, but in the sky, members of the Samcheon Guild (now part of the National Road Management Corps) formed a decent aerial squad on their brooms. Victory songs poured ceaselessly from the speakers installed throughout the city. The melody was stirring and moving. Liquor, a major luxury item, was distributed without limit today. We would burn through five years¡¯ worth of reserves in one day. -Until now, our city has always been threatened by the despicable waves of anomalies! But thanks to the Undertaker and many warriors'' brave fights! The monster wave has finally been eradicated! Rejoice, citizens! Our city is free! -Waaaaa! The climax of the festival was when the parade reached the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps. The za where the ¡®witch trials¡¯ were held weekly. Overlooking the za, the headquarters towered like the Tower of Babel. At the grand staircase one had to climb to enter the headquarters, the ruler of the city, the master of the Korean Penins, the one in the ck conical hat, Dang Seo-rin, was waiting. ¡°Wee, Undertaker.¡± Dang Seo-rin smiled. Her smile and voice were broadcasted throughout the city by a special magic designed for this day. ¡°You finally did it.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Once, you warned me. You said the path we chose would be blocked by countless anomalies. But I said, with your power and my magic, we could ovee it.¡± Dang Seo-rin pouted yfully. ¡°Can we now say that we¡¯ve proven who was right?¡± ¡°Take the correctness. I¡¯ll take the blood and effort invested to make your words right.¡± ¡°Whatever. Always showing off.¡± Laughter rippled through the crowd surrounding the za. Despite the ruler¡¯s overly casualnguage and conversation, it didn¡¯t matter. Maintaining power and authority in this city no longer required grand political rhetoric or exaggeration. Every citizen wasplete. ¡°Anyway, the hero who defeated the greatest enemy deserves a fitting reward. I swear on my golden scale that I¡¯ll grant whatever you wish. Now, our hero. Make your wish.¡± ¡°Thank you. Then¡ I noticed Yu Ji-won was handling the mic for today¡¯s event. Rece her. Even though her personality changed, she still overdoes it. I almost died of embarrassment getting here.¡± -Undertaker? Protector? Laughter erupted from the za again. Dang Seo-rin also chuckled and took a step closer to me. Thump. For some reason, her footsteps weren¡¯t broadcasted through the city¡¯s speakers, but only reached my ears. I understood that Dang Seo-rin had momentarily cut off the ¡®broadcast magic.¡¯ ¡°Is that enough? Really? I meant it when I said I¡¯d grant any wish.¡± ¡°My wish is to stay by your side till the end, and it¡¯s already being fulfilled.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°So fire Yu Ji-won. Now.¡± Dang Seo-rin chuckled. ¡°Really¡¡± What words followed, I didn¡¯t know either. Dang Seo-rin extended her right hand, and I, as per her taste, kissed the ring on it. Then the cheers of the whole city drowned out all other sounds. Night fell. Fireworks exploded. In the night sky of the city, all sorts of witches flew around. The National Road Management Corps members, who had been granted a three-day leave starting today, soared on brooms, firing fireworks spells at will. Dang Seo-rin and I sat on the high terrace of the headquarters, looking up at the night sky¡¯s festival. On the table were some famous Haeundae Bakery bread and two empty wine bottles. ¡°Now then.¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s long fingers traced the rim of the wine ss. ¡°Are all the anomalies threatening us gone?¡± ¡°Who knows. The greatest threat is gone, I¡¯d say. There might still be outer god-ss anomalies I haven¡¯t detected yet but at least the monster wave won¡¯t target this ce again.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. No more seeing those disgusting anomalies swarm in. Really, that¡¯s good.¡± Fireworks exploded again. Even the sound of fireworks beingunched seemed to have been magically implemented, echoing pleasantly in the sky. The red and yellow backlighting illuminated Dang Seo-rin¡¯s profile as she watched the night sky. ¡°Ah, I feel good. Yeah. Undertaker, make me a cup of coffee. I want some.¡± ¡°If you drink caffeine at night, you won¡¯t sleep.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± Dang Seo-rin propped her chin on her left hand and smirked. Her right hand stroked ckie, curled up on herp. ¡°I''m not sleeping tonight anyway. I¡¯ll skip work tomorrow too. You¡¯re free starting today too, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°¡Indeed. Just one cup then.¡± The rooftop terrace, virtually Dang Seo-rin¡¯s private bar, had all the tools a barista needed. The beans smelled freshly ground. There was even ice cream in the icebox. I made affogato and handed it to Dang Seo-rin with a wry smile. ¡°Here. Hangover coffee.¡± ¡°Ah, thank you! Mmm. As expected. Coffee made by you tastes the best.¡± Fireworks exploded. Meow¡ª ckie meowed on Dang Seo-rin¡¯sp. ¡°But¡ how did you subdue the monster wave? Didn¡¯t you say it was something that couldn¡¯t be eradicated, more a phenomenon than an anomaly?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t subdue it.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t subdue it. Near Seoul, monster waves of tens of thousands of anomalies still appear, disappear after 20 hours, and reappear endlessly.¡± ¡°...¡¡± I had seen it with my own eyes. Dang Seo-rin, who had been enjoying the affogato, froze. ¡°¡Wait. Really? You¡¯re not kidding? Then that¡¯s a big problem!¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ve never lied to you, Seo-rin. The monster wave will never push down here again. Your city is safe.¡± ¡°Uh¡ hey, Undertaker?¡± Dang Seo-rin looked confused. ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t follow this conversation. Wasn¡¯t the monster wave a phenomenon that pushed from the void to the non-void, human territory? You said that before.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°And the monster wave is still appearing, not eradicated?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Then why do you im with such certainty that the monster wave will never strike Busan again?¡± ¡°Because this is the void.¡± Fireworks exploded. ¡°¨D¨DThis ce is no longer human territory but anomaly territory. Busan is no longer Busan but Utopia. Literally, ¡®no ce,¡¯ the void.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°So there¡¯s no reason for the monster wave to target this ce. Dang Seo-rin. As long as you, the anomaly, rule this area.¡± Fireworks exploded. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 112 One Who Was a Companion IV How much time had passed? In the night sky devoid of the ticking of clocks, only the periodic, extravagant explosions of the fireworks measured the length of the silence. "An anomaly... me? I, Dang Seo-rin?" It was after the fourth firework painted the sky red that Dang Seo-rin finally opened her mouth. ¡°That can¡¯t be true. What are you talking about, Undertaker? I¡¯m the same as before, nothing has changed. How could I be an anomaly¡¡± ¡°Yes, nothing has changed. But our abilities themselves are a kind of anomaly. Awakening, transcendence, ascension¡ªno matter how grand the words, they are inherently alien phenomena in the real world. You must have had some inkling.¡± ¡°...¡¡± I sipped my coffee. While giving Dang Seo-rin her affogato, I made myself a caf¨¦ auit.¡°I don¡¯t particrly like the habit ofparing a human to a small universe, but a human is indeed a small space. Just because one awakens their ability doesn¡¯t mean they instantly be aplete anomaly. It happens slowly. Like the void eroding thend, the process of bing an anomaly goes through many procedures and stages.¡± ¡°¡What nonsense procedures and stages?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t im to know everything. But in your case, it¡¯s clear. Your rapid transformation into an anomaly began when your golden scales started influencing other people¡¯s personalities.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make any sense¡¡± ¡°Let¡¯s delve into a moreplex concept.¡± Let¡¯spare an anomaly to a force. We say that water falls, that a coffee can spills on the floor, that a ball drops from the Leaning Tower of Pisa¡ªall due to the force of gravity. Anomalies and the Void are the same. ¡®Why does walking to the right in the Inunaki Tunnel result in drowning?¡¯ ¡®Why did the area where the Meteor Shower fell turn into an ashen zone?¡¯ ¡®Why do all objects and spaces lose their boundaries in the Infinite Void, reduced to mere qualia?¡¯ The answers to these questions are clear. ¡®Because it¡¯s the Inunaki Tunnel.¡¯ ¡®Because it¡¯s the Meteor Shower.¡¯ ¡®Because it¡¯s the Infinite Void.¡¯ Each anomaly has the power to create its own events. Just as objects are drawn to gravity, the Meteor Shower has the property of turning its surroundings into ashes. Anomalies be the causes that produce strange results in this world. It¡¯s as if one can only say, ¡®The reason for this bizarre urrence is because of that anomaly.¡¯ Conversely, the method of subduing an anomaly follows this line of analysis. ¡®The reason part of the Inunaki Tunnel is flooded is because it is mixed with the mythology of the Sanzu River.¡¯ ¡®The myth of a river flowing in the afterlife is found not only in the Sanzu River but also in the Styx.¡¯ ¡®Therefore, if one carries gold or silver coins to pay the ferryman of the underworld, they will not drown in the Inunaki Tunnel.¡¯ One analyzes the anomaly. By dissecting the anomaly, which was pinpointed as the ultimate cause of the incident, one interprets it as ¡®even an anomaly is just a result established by other causes.¡¯ This is the method I dered as certain around the 100th run. To restore the world to the proper chain of causality. To eliminate the voids scattered like holes in the world. This was the essence of the ¡®method to fight anomalies¡¯ that I established. ¡°Dang Seo-rin. Among the people living in this city, is there anyone who doesn¡¯t owe you?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°At the top of that four-story vi lives a young man named Yoo Chul-won. He suffered from insomnia. Five years ago, he received a witch trial from you, and thanks to that, he spends every day and night, and thus his entire daily life, refreshingly. The cause of ¡®Yoo Chul-won¡¯s daily life¡¯ is you, Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°¡..¡± ¡°The reason a psychopath like Yu Ji-won can genuinely care for and like others, to the extent of holding small parties with friends every week, is what? Dang Seo-rin, it¡¯s you.¡± ¡°¡¡± ¡°The reason all the people in this city wake up happy in the morning, work diligently throughout the day, spend time happily with loved ones in the evening, and sleep peacefully at night without worries¡ªthis is true for not just one or two people but for all the citizens of the city. It¡¯s solely because of you, Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Simply ruling a city doesn¡¯t turn you into an anomaly, but this city is now indistinguishable from you.¡± Why is this city so happy? Why do such and such events ur in this city? The answer to these questions. ¡ªBecause it¡¯s Dang Seo-rin. ¡°This ce is Utopia.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°And ruled by a witch who can render perfect judgments in any trial and eternally send beautiful songs through the city. The most benevolent void in the world. If my words don¡¯t seem credible¡ you can test it. Your Equivalent Exchange magic will now work even on anomalies.¡± ¡°That¡¡± ¡°You could give anomalies self-awareness, imnt past memories, and bestow human forms. Of course, it would require many trials and even more time... But if luck is on your side, you might be able to turn the entire world into your domain, a void called Utopia.¡± ¡°...¡¡± Silence settled. The fireworks stopped exploding. It was as if the entire city had held its breath. Even the distant, pleasant humming of the drunkards and theughter of the witches subsided. As Dang Seo-rin breathed, the lights across the city flickered. When the yellow lights all blinked simultaneously, Dang Seo-rin smiled strangely. ¡°Then¡ are you going to subdue me now?¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s amon story. The hero defeats the Demon King, but the real mastermind was the king who supported the hero all along, leading the hero to the final stage. The greatest ally turns out to be the ultimatest boss. Isn¡¯t that a worn-out clich¨¦?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Right, Undertaker. Come to think of it, I don¡¯t remember you calling Busan ¡®Busan¡¯ recently. You always referred to it as ¡®this city¡¯ or ¡®here.¡¯ You¡¯ve suspected it for a while, haven¡¯t you? That I would turn into an anomaly, that Busan would be the void.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really a bad guy. But then again, you did warn me. You said it was unpredictable what would happen. I caused the current situation.¡± Dang Seo-rin stood up. ckie jumped down. With a snap, a broom flew to her hand from the terrace. Dang Seo-rin donned the conical hat she had ced on the table. ¡°Perfect. If you fabricate news about the monster wave being defeated, the entire city would obviously celebrate. I¡¯d take time off to drink with you. My personal guards are all scattered, and most are probably drunk. Perfect timing, isn¡¯t it? Have you already recruited Cheon Yo-hwa to your side? ¡Ah. I see. No wonder she quietly withdrew from today¡¯s meeting.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Still, Undertaker, I can¡¯t give up my city. It¡¯s an oasis painstakingly created in this wretched world. No matter what anyone says, I, my citizens, are human. No, I¡¯ll make us the only human species from now on. So if you n to subdue me and this ce¡ªbe prepared for death.¡± I stood up as well. ¡°No.¡± Unlike Dang Seo-rin, I had no weapon in hand. The cane sword made by a cksmith no longer existing in this world remained tilted beside me. Because this story doesn¡¯t end that way. ¡°I won¡¯t subdue you.¡± ¡°¡What?¡± I lightly grasped Dang Seo-rin¡¯s hand. There was a slight tremor, but I didn¡¯t mind and pulled her closer. In the exact opposite direction from a thousand years ago. -You¡¯ve got a fierce look in your eyes. -¡¡ -You¡¯re that person, right? The only survivor from Busan Station. The entric who always asks strange questions. A long time ago during the 4th run. My first meeting with Dang Seo-rin was before I had the Complete Memory Ability. I couldn¡¯t guarantee if our meeting really happened that way, if it was raining around us, or if we had this exact conversation. -Name? -¡Undertaker. It¡¯s a pseudonym. -You¡¯re someone who buries people? Not bad. The depth of a person depends on how many corpses they¡¯ve buried in their heart. But one thing was certain, remembered as an indelible truth even if it faded. -How about it? Back then, Dang Seo-rin extended her hand to me. Call it a regressor¡¯s intuition. The moment I looked up at the ck-haired witch with a broom in one hand and a conical hat on her head, I already knew that a continuous line of my endless life had intertwined with hers. -Wanna join our guild? I took that hand. Just like now. Only the direction had changed. ¡°I will never, no matter what, hurt you.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care if you be an anomaly. Even if you turn this city, the world, into the void. Even if you burn the entire world, Dang Seo-rin. I will still be by your side.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± We were alike. My ability, Time Seal, the reason I was called Undertaker, also merely handed people an eternally happy day. Even if it was a fake, as long as no one noticed, it was no different from the real thing. The Utopia Dang Seo-rin created was the same. Even if people¡¯s happiness was obtained through deals with the witch, perhaps it was the best happy ending this world could achieve. This route was never a bad ending. A world where Dang Seo-rin lived to the end, where her dream city was realized, could never be recorded as a bad ending for me. ¡°If you ever get tired of ruling the city and want to leave, we can leave together anytime.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°If you want to turn the entire world into your Utopia, I¡¯ll dly be your sword and lead the way.¡± Her hand trembled. Dang Seo-rin. My guild master. ¡°You allowed me to stay by your side even after bing an anomaly. Whether it was conscious or unconscious doesn¡¯t matter. It doesn¡¯t matter at all. You are the reason I live.¡± You are the cause of my existence. To inherit each other¡¯s ce and still be together. That was the only difference between anomalies and humans. No matter how deep we fell into the void, it wouldn¡¯t turn into hell. ¡°So don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°We can go anywhere.¡± Dang Seo-rin hugged me. The city lights came on. Witches flew crisscross in the night sky. The noise of drunkards and the song from the speakers intertwined. Fireworks exploded. ¡°¡I want to travel.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have given up on the national roads. No, railways. The Railroad Management Corps or something. Instead of staying in Busan, I should¡¯ve built a fortress train like the one in ¡®Snowpiercer¡¯ and kept traveling around the country. That would¡¯ve been much more fun.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I hugged Dang Seo-rin¡¯s shoulders. I patted her back. ¡°Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Yeah¡?¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually a regressor.¡± Dang Seo-rin looked up at me. ¡°A regressor¡?¡± ¡°Yes. I actually repeat the world endlessly. My life has ended over a hundred times. Every time I wake up, it¡¯s always the tutorial dungeon at Busan Station.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± I told her. The magic called Cursed Song Incantation burns life to spread the song, but actually, the lifespan umtes with each run. ¡°But you told me in the tenth life not to ever tell you the secret that I¡¯m a regressor. Because you¡¯re greedy, if you found out such a secret, you¡¯d use up all the remaining lifespan to create a happy ending in the current run.¡± ¡°Ah¡ indeed. That makes sense.¡± Despite knowing I was a regressor, Dang Seo-rin quickly understood. She probably had her own thoughts about my identity. Soon, Dang Seo-rin smiled. ¡°You¡¯re foolish.¡± ¡°Who? You from the 10th run?¡± ¡°No, you.¡± When I looked at her in confusion, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s smile deepened. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you kill me immediately at the start of each run?¡± ¡°¡What?¡± ¡°You fool. The sooner I die, the longer my ¡®original lifespan¡¯ umtes for the next run. If my original lifespan was 60 years, you could¡¯ve transferred all 60 years to the next run each time¡ Why didn¡¯t you kill me?¡± ¡°Wait, what? You¡¯re saying that now¡ª¡± I couldn¡¯t continue my rebuttal. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s face was right in front of me. Her breath was close. The coffee taste, mixed with ice cream vor. The scent of grass after a summer rain. Dang Seo-rin slowly pulled back. ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Was that your first kiss in this life?¡± ¡°That¡¡± ¡°Ah. No, don¡¯t answer.¡± Dang Seo-rin parted her lips and sang. Above us, a small golden scale hung. Dang Seo-rin whispered yfully. ¡°Undertaker, put all the memories of your kisses on the scale. Whether they exist or not. In this run, in all runs.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Hurry up.¡± I did so. I couldn¡¯t know what Dang Seo-rin ced on the right side of the scale in exchange for my memories on the left. Nor could I mention what memories I lost anymore. The golden scale in the air shone brightly, deeming the bnce achieved. ¡°Okay. Now close your eyes.¡± In the old night sky, with the golden light illuminating like fireworks, Dang Seo-rin pulled me by the arm. ¡°¡ªThis is now our first kiss.¡± Our shadows ovepped. While fireworks scattered in the distance, a thought urred to me. As Dang Seo-rin was the cause of my existence, perhaps I was also the cause of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s existence. If so, tonight might be the moment when the gentlest ¡®strategy¡¯ against an anomaly temporarily existed. And¡ Though I would never remember it, the memory Dang Seo-rin erased with the golden scale was probably no different from the person in front of me now. There is an epilogue. When I opened my eyes, I was staring at the ceiling of the tutorial dungeon at Busan Station, not the terrace of Utopia. The 173rd run had ended. ¡°¡¡¡± Why? What led to my death? Regarding the reason for my death, I have the following hypotheses. First hypothesis: Upon hearing that her lifespan umted across runs, Dang Seo-rin resolved to die with me. ¡®Utopia¡¯ Busan wasn¡¯t established without cost. The songs from the speakers, the Equivalent Exchange of the golden scale, everything originated from Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Cursed Song Incantation. The price of Cursed Song Incantation was lifespan. Even the smallest magic in Utopia ran on Dang Seo-rin¡¯s life as fuel. Of course, the resource had secured thousands of years, but it was certain that the end woulde someday. Dang Seo-rin decided to save that fuel. For me. For a better true ending we hadn¡¯t yet reached. ¡But there¡¯s also apletely different second hypothesis. Perhaps Dang Seo-rin didn¡¯t die immediately after the kiss. We might have lived the 173rd run as if nothing happened, spreading ¡®Utopia¡¯ not just in Busan but across the entire Korean Penins, and eventually the world. After many moments of happiness and unhappiness, luck and misfortune¡ªafter concluding a grand epic, when Dang Seo-rin¡¯s lifespan finally burned out. For some reason I can¡¯t imagine now, perhaps Dang Seo-rin asked me to forget ¡®the memory from the kiss to now.¡¯ As a result, I regressed with only the memory up to our kiss. Both interpretations can be valid. I have no intention of digging into which hypothesis is correct. After all, neither is a bad ending for me. I intend to leave that moment of nkness, the ¡®imperfect memory¡¯ part, the night sky of fireworks¡ªdly within me as a space of void for Dang Seo-rin. Forever. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 113 Non-yer I I¡¯ll tell you in advance, don¡¯t expect a neat ending from today''s story. This time, it''s undeniably a bad ending. Let''s talk about a disastrous game called reality. The Infinite Void. Since the extermination of the Outer God, much had changed in the world. Later, I realized that each of the Outer Gods had their own domain. You might call it a divine realm. If the term "divine realm" is unfamiliar, you could call it a sanctuary. For the Infinite Void, the ''Tutorial Dungeon'' was its representative divine realm and sanctuary. Among these, Baekhwa Girls'' High School was its headquarters.When one religion declines, others rush to fill the void. Monsters dered Earth a battleground for religious wars to spread their doctrines instinctively. During the holy crusades, humans were dying, but frankly, the monsters didn''t care. On Earth, it was a long-standing tradition to not treat those with different beliefs as civilians. The important thing was that the moment the Infinite Void was defeated, the delicate bnce of power that had been maintained like a house of cards copsed instantly. From the defeat of the Infinite Void, the suppressed monsters started to run rampant. ¡°Where am I...?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not Kim Jun-young from Anyang! I¡¯m Moon-cheong Namgung, the first disciple of the Namgung family!¡± ¡°Please, take me back to that world again... Wait, why are there tears?¡± A prime example was the ¡®Hero Syndrome.¡¯ As I mentioned earlier, I first witnessed Hero Syndrome in the 118th cycle. And the extermination of the Infinite Void urred in the 117th cycle. I¡¯m not trying to test your memory. Thanks to my [Complete Memory], I can recall it in detail. What I want to tell you is¡ªdon¡¯t you find the timing quite ironic? Doesn''t it seem like they were waiting for the Infinite Void to be defeated? Let¡¯s revisit this. During this period, the monsters that newly increased their gacha pick-up rates on the Korean Penins weren''t just the Hero Syndrome. -Baaang! -Bang! Baaang! Bang! -Baaang! Bang! The ¡®Isekai Truck,'' the nemesis of all writers and readers, first appeared in the 119th cycle. Looking broader, there were many other monsters. In the 126th cycle, there was the ¡®Savior Syndrome.¡¯ In the 141st cycle, the fictional structure ¡®Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel¡¯ appeared. Hero Syndrome, Isekai Truck, Savior Syndrome, imaginary buildings... Don¡¯t you feel a certain pattern? Indeed. All of these were hints and signs of a massive trend. Every oven-cooked dish needs preheating. Today, before I submit the answer to that question, I want to talk about one of the most absurd yet impressive signs. A virtual reality MMORPG. The so-called ¡®online game¡¯ would be the protagonist of this story. asionally, there were persistent posts on SG Net, a recurring topic that was periodically mentioned. -Anonymous: Status window! Status window! Status window! -Anonymous: I shouted ''open status'' as soon as I woke up today. Did it appear? (Day 31) -Anonymous: Am I the only one who can see the status window?? -Anonymous: When I shout ''open status,'' it actually appears, lol -LiteraryGirl: Honestly, if you¡¯ve secretly shouted ''open status'' in this messed-up world, thumbs up, lol It was the status window topic. Of course, as a mature adult, I had never muttered ¡®status window¡¯ to myself. Did I shout it in the 1st or 2nd cycle? My memory starts from the 5th cycle, so anything before that is ancient history. There¡¯s no irrationality in ming a modern country for a crime that happened in ancient times. Does Greece get treated as a war criminal by Turkey because of the Trojan War? Anyway, there was no such thing as a status screen with ¡®ability scores¡¯ and ¡®skill descriptions¡¯ in this world. Awakeners had to figure out their abilities through countless trials and errors. For example, without SG Net, Sim Ahyeon didn¡¯t realize that her healing ability was [Grudge Orb]. In other words, she didn¡¯t know that the more attention she attracted, the stronger her healing became. This is why awakeners with ¡®simple abilities¡¯ had an advantage early in the cycles. Abilities like Lee Baek¡¯s [Lion¡¯s Roar], which simply made his voice louder, were easy to recognize. A world endlessly unfriendly to awakeners. And this unfriendliness was precisely the secret to my overwhelming poprity and trust among awakeners. ¡°Seo Gyu, your ability is [Ubiquitous]. With a smartphone, you can create an intemunity that anyone can ess. The more users there are, the more your ability develops, and you can add various systems to the forum.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Ah-yeon, your ability is [Grudge Orb]. If Seo Gyu creates SG Net, you¡¯ll be one of the original members and the most famous viin, growing stronger by absorbing all the animosity from people.¡± ¡°Heh?¡± Monopoly on information. The identity, strengths, and weaknesses of abilities that even the awakeners themselves didn¡¯t know, as well as how to develop their abilities further. I held all this information in my hands, releasing it to whomever, whenever, and as much as I wanted. I didn¡¯t even have to act directly. [The Saintess of National Salvation bestows an ability upon you.] With a slight ¡®distortion,¡¯ I could make it seem like their abilities were awakened and developed by the constetions. [The Saintess of National Salvation grants you the ¡®Low-level Healing¡¯ ability.] [The Conqueror of the Alps grants you the ¡®Hammer Proficiency¡¯ ability.] [The Chancellor of the Red Cape grants you the ability to ¡®Adjust Pain Perception to the Point Where Stubbing Your Little Toe Doesn¡¯t Hurt.¡¯] The constetion talk functioned wlessly. For the awakeners, the abilities they didn¡¯t know about seemed to be given miraculously by the constetions. [The Chancellor of the Red Cape hints that if you stub your toe on a desk or doorframe 999 times, your ¡®Pain Perception Adjustment¡¯ ability will improve.] Sometimes I did it myself. Sometimes the Saintess disguised as a constetion. The regressor schemed back and forth. Those who awakened (or discovered) their abilities through me followed me personally, while those who believed the constetions gave them their abilities worshiped the constetions. Either way, they were in my palm. By releasing information that the awakeners might have discovered themselves 2, 6, or 10 yearster, we gained absolute support. This was one reason why the guilds on the Korean Penins were quieter than in other ces. Military and civilians were one; they were all like disciples who owed me. Even Dang Seo-rin quickly mastered ¡®Equivalent Exchange¡¯ magic thanks to me. Therefore, -Anonymous: I shouted ''open status'' as soon as I woke up today. Did it appear? (Day 191) -Anonymous: It appeared, so I¡¯m posting, lol (Day 191) A sudden post in the 133rd cycle threatened not only my position but also the security of the Korean Penins. At first, I dismissed it as a joke post and ignored it. But about 30 minutester, it became clear that I had been toocent. [Mr. Undertaker. This is a serious matter.] ¡°Yes? What is it?¡± [Status windows are appearing before the eyes of awakeners across the Korean Penins.] ¡°What?¡± I immediately essed SG Net. -Anonymous: What the hell? A status screen actually appears before my eyes like a hologram? -LiteraryGirl: Evaluate your own status. -Anonymous: Are these guys collectively trolling now? Has SG Net gone mad? Ban this boring topic. -Anonymous: Did S-ss power appear?? -Anonymous: Guys, my status window shows an A-ss charm. Is this good? Themunity was in an uproar. ¡°What is this...?¡± ¡°Guild leaderrrrr!¡± Crash! Someone barged into my room. There were two notable points about this recent event. First, the person had opened my private room¡¯s door without any prior notice, showing they had no concept of courtesy. Second, the fact that they didn¡¯t ¡®walk¡¯ or ¡®run¡¯ in but ¡®rolled in¡¯ indicated that the person possiblycked even the ability to walk on two legs. Mentally and physically, this creature was unfit to be recognized as Homo sapiens. This unidentified cryptid''s name was Sim Ahyeon. ¡°Guild leaderrrrr! It appeared! It appeared!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°An S-S-S-ss appeared...!¡± I didn¡¯t need to ask Sim Ahyeon ¡®What?¡¯ or ¡®What appeared?¡¯ after reading the dialogue. And I didn¡¯t need to ask what ¡®S-S-S-ss¡¯ meant either. But to a cryptid, human conversation didn¡¯t work. The creature before me opened a sketchbook and scribbled furiously with a marker. ¡°L-Look at this!¡± I didn¡¯t want to see it. But the trained senses of a regressor gave me many advantages and one disadvantage. The disadvantage was that even a quick nce at Sim Ah-ryeon''s sketchbook revealed all the characters and content. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Status] Name: Sim Ah-ryeon Title: ''Bird That Drinks Poison'' upation: Healer, Pharmacist, Artist, Saintess (Potential), Novelist (Potential) [Stamina: E-ss] [Strength: E-ss] [Intuition: S-ss] [Agility: E-ss] [Intelligence: B-ss] [Charm: F-ss] Personality Traits: [Loyal] [Social Anxiety] [Careless] [Arrogant] Unique Skill: [Bird That Drinks Poison (SSS)] *Bird That Drinks Poison (SSS): Converts the overflowing poison in this world into medicine. The more resentment and curses you receive from others, the stronger your healing abilities be. The greater the resentment and deeper the curses, the stronger the healing. Transforming evil into good. Turning resentment into opportunity. You were born with the fate of being the savior, the Saintess of thisnd. May fortune be with you. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ¡°D-Did you see? Guild leader, I¡¯m an S-S-S-ss...!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Bird That Drinks Poison... Hehe, Bird That Drinks Poison... And also the savior, the Saintess...!¡± It was only then that I realized ¡®S-S-S-ss¡¯ was Sim Ah-ryeon''s way of saying ¡®SSS-ss.¡¯ Why she pronounced ¡®SSS-ss¡¯ that way, I had no choice but to acknowledge my ignorance. But my ignorance did not end there. I only got into web novels and genre fiction in general from the 555th cycle. Therefore, I couldn¡¯t be angry or denounce the sight of this cryptid proiming itself as Bird That Drinks Poison, the mockery of this world, the disgrace of this universe. I simply remained silent. As Wittgenstein said, we must remain silent about what we do not know. ¡°G-Guild leader, you should try shouting it out too.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Status window. If you shout ¡®Status-Open,¡¯ it will appear... You can also just think it, but the first time, you must say it. Oh! When you say it, you must firmly hold the intention and desire to see your own stats...!¡± Then what about the mute? This status window thing, which was obviously an anomaly because only an anomaly would pull off such nonsense, did this anomaly discriminate against people with speech disabilities? ¡°C-Come on, guild leader! Quickly!¡± ¡°...Ah-ryeon, it¡¯s not advisable to rashly expose oneself to such an anomaly.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been in our guild long enough to know a lot about anomalies. Like how a red light means you shouldn¡¯t cross the street, calling out your name might be the condition for triggering this status window anomaly. You shouldn¡¯t call it out recklessly.¡± ¡°...Oh.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon then showed a look of understanding. ¡°G-Guild leader... Are you afraid your stats might be worse than mine, so you don¡¯t want to call it?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°S-Sorry. As you know, I oftenck consideration... Hehe. I won¡¯t boast about my stats in front of you anymore.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon left the room, mumbling about showing off to Seo Gyu. More precisely, she left the room and then peeked her head back in. ¡°Ah, by the way...! Even if you don¡¯t have an S-S-S-ss ability, or if you¡¯re an S-ss or A-ss, I will never look down on you, guild leader...!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it wrong to look down on someone based on their abilities? Right? Hehe. So... G-Good luck, guild leader...!¡± Bang. The cryptid left, closing the door behind her. The room was quiet. Silence filled the air. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Yes.] ¡°Gather all the information on this anomaly as soon as possible. Quickly.¡± [...Understood.] Despite the hesitation in the Saintess¡¯s tone, I had no doubt in my mind. In retrospect, this was a significant historical event, akin to a reform in genre fiction. I had dered war against the ''Status Window.'' Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 114 Non-yer II Since we¡¯re already on the topic, the author of the novel "Bird Drinking Poison" (who really wrote it in the 766th cycle) said the following: -The settings of a novel are like the roots of a tree; they need to be vast and solid, but if exposed, the tree will wither and die. This applies not only to the settings of a world but to all situations. The protagonist is not omnipotent. There should always be a hazy margin, like a ''white mist,'' lingering at the edge of his vision. The white wastnd left by the protagonist''s ignorance is the fertile ground that continuously enriches the prose and descriptions. Of course, the characters... information about the characters should always be somewhat shrouded in mist. How can one instantly know the intelligence of this person or what their skills are? Therefore, the status window is harmful. To use an analogy, the status window is like recklessly eliminating the minerals from the earth and the nitrogen from the air.I¡¯m not saying this because I¡¯m pissed off at Sim Ah-ryeon, but because I have a very logical and just reason. Even if I took an interest in subcultures from the 555th cycle and we¡¯re now in the 133rd cycle, meaning I actually didn¡¯t have any knowledge of status windows, and the things I¡¯m saying now are historical distortions byter generations, there¡¯s no need to listen to those counterarguments at all. This is not a contradiction but rather proof that the 133rd-cycle me had prophetic intuition. Even in my subculture-ignorant days, I instinctively felt that the status window was a harmful existence. ¡°Relying on something like a status window makes people weak.¡± I immediately took action. Not only did I wage a public opinion battle on SG Net, but I also emphasized the harmfulness of the status window to every awakener I met. ¡°Excuse me? Hyung?¡± ¡°In my time, we fought with anomalys to gauge our strength and slowly estimated our capabilities. That process of exploration, the experience of testing oneself while crossing the line between life and death, is an irreceable treasure. But these days, people boast about their strength being a B grade, saying they can easily handle slimes.¡± ¡°Uh...¡± ¡°What an ignorant statement! Slimes cannot be defeated by strength alone, and the danger varies drastically depending on whether you face them in a swamp or a narrowbyrinth where they might drop from the ceiling unexpectedly. The void is a space that cannot be quantified, which is why it¡¯s void.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°How can you trust only the alphabets disyed on the status window to measure your skills, your opponent''s abilities, or even the depth of the void? The status window itself is a anomaly, contaminating the consciousness of the awakened and lowering the standard of humanity. It¡¯s nothing but an ¡®idiot box¡¯! Why can¡¯t you see through the wicked scheme of the anomaly that¡¯s trying to destroy the awakened, one by one, by making them rely on the convenience of the status window?¡± ¡°Uh...¡± Seo Gyu raised his hand. ¡°May I ask you one thing, hyung?¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Why do you talk like that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a draft of an article to awaken the consciousness of the awakened. How about posting it on SG Net? Seo Gyu, doesn¡¯t it make your chest swell and make you feel the duty of an awakener anew?¡± ¡°Uh, well...¡± ¡°Surely, you¡¯re not advocating for the status window, are you? I¡¯ve been educating you one-on-one since the waiting room at Busan Station, so I trust you haven¡¯t entrusted your judgment to such a filthy anomaly.¡± Seo Gyu¡¯s expression became subtle. ording to physiognomy, it could be interpreted as ¡®What¡¯s up with this brother again?¡¯ Next to him, Sim Ah-ryeon (who was still there) whispered to Seo Gyu. ¡°He, he must not have had the ¡ºStatus Window¡». Gacha disaster...¡± ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s why he¡¯s like that.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah... Oh! Suddenly, I feel an overwhelming aura of aggro from somewhere? Ah! Even though I didn¡¯t do anything, aggro is piling up in my heart! I can feel my abilities strengthening in real-time! It¡¯s delicious! So delicious! It¡¯s a delicacy I¡¯ve never tasted in my life... Who, who could hold such resentment towards me...!¡± ¡°You two won¡¯t have coffee for the next six months.¡± Seo Gyu and Sim Ah-ryeon screamed in horror, but I gracefully ignored them. These guys needed to realize the preciousness of difort more deeply. -ZERO_SUGAR: [Long Post] An article about the ghost ''Status Window'' currently appearing in Korea ~Awakeners of all nations, awaken!~ I sounded the rm with a heart full of blood. However, the awakened, already steeped in the false convenience of the anomaly, did not respond at all. Instead, theyughed. -Anonymous: ? What¡¯s this? -Anonymous: Is this a joke? -Anonymous: Wow, this is legendary lol -[Baekhwa]TenthGrader:( >_<);;;;; -Anonymous: I saw this in elementary school! It¡¯s like the old story of nobles smashing the underground shelters thatmoners found convenient, saying, ¡®How dare you try to avoid the winter wind?¡¯ ©¸[‡øµÀ] Officer: It¡¯s an anecdote from the Goryeo period about the literary figure Yi Gyu-bo. The original text says, ¡®ÏÄŸá¶¬º®, ËÄ•rÖ®³£”µÒ². ¹¶·´ÊÇ„t ‘s®¡¯. Meaning, ¡®Hot in summer and cold in winter is the constant of the four seasons. If it¡¯s the opposite, it¡¯s strange¡¯. Coincidentally, the original text also uses the word anomaly (s®). ©¸Anonymous: How are you so smart? ©¸LiteraryGirl: Oh. -dolLHoUse: Oppa... -OldManGoryeo: lol -OldManGoryeo: lol -OldManGoryeo: lololololol -OldManGoryeo: This guy¡¯s strength and intelligence skill levels were F on the status window. I saw it lol ©¸Anonymous: Oh! ©¸Anonymous: We didn¡¯t even know ??? ¡°......¡± There was no public opinion in my favor anywhere on SG Net. Is this the pain of a pioneer with clear eyes in a city of the blind? ...No, strictly speaking, there was exactly one piece of support. -[Yuldoguk]SwordMarquess: Ah, what thisd says is indeed correct! When something is visible only to oneself, it is an illusion, and from ancient times, being captivated by illusions has been diagnosed as a sign of madness. The fact that all the martial artists are collectively captivated by an illusion is nothing but a mass insanity. s! Unavoidable madness is a tragedy, but what can be said about willingly going mad? ©¸Anonymous: Herees the boomer duo. ©¸Anonymous: Romance of the Three Kingdoms boomer vs. martial arts boomer... My chest swells... It was a defense that was worse than no defense at all. There were some mean people on SG Net who often grouped me and the Sword Marquess together, and his defensive shooting only added fuel to this prejudice. ¡°...Fine.¡± I admitted frankly. ¡°Anomaly, you win.¡± This wasn¡¯t a monologue. Since the ¡®Status Window¡¯ was certainly a psychotic-type anomaly, it was everywhere and nowhere. ¡°But don¡¯t think your victory is confirmed here. Next time, and the time after that, I will appear again and eventually overthrow you.¡± [¡¡.] ¡°Saintess. Even if you don¡¯t say anything, I can hear your breathing when you¡¯re watching.¡± [Ah. Yes. I will be careful.] Thus, we moved to a slightly higher stage. To put it inly, we moved on to the 134th cycle. ¡°Eek? W-Why is so much aggro generating on its own when I didn¡¯t do anything...? It¡¯s delicious, but. Scary! Guild leader! Someone I don¡¯t know is hating me for unknown reasons! In real-time! Every day! P-Please help me!¡± ¡°......¡± For some reason, the 134th cycle Sim Ah-ryeon had awakened her skills to an unprecedented level. Of course, such minor happenings were not very important. I earnestly warned the Saintess. ¡°Saintess, starting three days from now, an anomaly called the status window will begin to appear nationwide.¡± ¡°Ah. Yes.¡± ¡°I exined what kind of anomaly the status window wasst time, so you remember, right?¡± ¡°Yes, very much so. You passionately talked for three hours in front of Noh Do-hwa and me.¡± ¡°Good. Now, seize the moment and hijack the status window.¡± The Saintess blinked. ¡°...What?¡± ¡°Pretend that giving out status windows is part of the constetion authority. Then, every time someone uses the status window, their gratitude and all their emotions will be directed towards the constetions. People will sing the greatness of the constetions, and they¡¯ll never know it was actually an anomaly.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m sorry. If I understand your proposal correctly, you¡¯re suggesting we steal the anomaly¡¯s achievement and make it ours?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit harsh, but yes. That¡¯s correct.¡± ¡°Oh...¡± The Saintess sighed. She must have been impressed by the greatest anomaly hunter, me, Undertaker¡¯s strategy, which even mocked the gods. Next to her, Noh Do-hwa, who had been quietly listening, put down her coffee cup. ¡°Amazing. Now, you¡¯re not just stealing people''s achievements but also those of anomalys now. Didn¡¯t you rant about how dependence on the Status Window leads toziness? Why are you now suggesting a hijack? Is this the caliber of a regressor...¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not apliment, idiot...¡± My n was perfect. I remembered the exact moment when the first post confirming the status window appeared on SG Net, thanks to my [Complete Memory] ability. This operation couldn¡¯t afford any failure, so I even moved to Yongsan and conducted the operation from the Saintess¡¯s house. The Saintess and I sat side by side in gaming chairs, staring at the monitor. ¡°Standby.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Standby, standby. 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second¨D¨D now! Saintess! Now!¡± The Saintess sped her hands together. [The Saintess of National Salvation bestows upon you a new power.] [From now on, you can check your abilities by murmuring ¡®Status Window¡¯ or ¡®Status Open¡¯.] At that moment. -Anonymous: I woke up today and immediately said ¡°Status Open¡±. Did the ¡°Status Window¡± appear? (Day 191) -Anonymous: It appeared, so I posted it lol (Day 191) With impable timing, a confirmation post appeared on SG Net. Not just the first witness, but awakened across the entire Korean Penins received the constetion message simultaneously. SG Net was filled with posts like ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°Did you all get the constetion message just now?¡± followed by ¡°It¡¯s really there?¡± ¡°Why is this real?¡± with confirmation posts flooding in. I clenched my fist in triumph. ¡°It¡¯s a sess! Saintess! We did it! You did a fantastic job!¡± ¡°...Yes.¡± For that single moment of timing, the Saintess paused time and sent messages to all the awakened in Korea. How could I not be thrilled? Seeing a delivery man sneakily eating all the food from a lunchbox wouldn¡¯t be as shocking. -Anonymous: The Saintess of National Salvation << GOAT among constetions, give her a thumbs-up lol -Anonymous: Really, this one is just correct lol ©¸Anonymous: Bastard? ©¸Anonymous: Show some respect and call her madam. -LiteraryGirl: She tells us what skills we have, how to develop them, and now even gives us a Status Window. How much more can you give us, oh my GOAT... Naturally, all the faith originally intended for the anomaly now gathered towards the constetions, specifically towards the Saintess. The anomaly did the work, but humanity reaped the rewards. This is the supreme path of a regressor. ¡°How¡¯s that? Checkmate.¡± ¡°......¡± The status window anomaly was neutralized. What I didn¡¯t anticipate was that the ¡°Status Window¡± was merely an aftershock of the void created by the elimination of the anomaly, Infinite VOID. Just like aftershocks follow an earthquake, the ripples of the void ur multiple times. Boom! Barely a few days after celebrating my victory over the status window, Sim Ah-ryeon burst through my door. ¡°G-Guild leader!¡± ¡°...Ah-ryeon. I¡¯ve told you repeatedly not to obsess over trivial things like status ss...¡± ¡°It¡¯s S-ss. Please get it right.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Anyway! That¡¯s not the point right now¨D¨D I mean, it¡¯s important, but! There¡¯s a big problem! Come out quickly!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon tugged at my sleeve. For a moment, the thought ¡°She¡¯s pulling with E-ranked strength, no wonder my body isn¡¯t moving¡± shot through my mind and tickled the corner of my mouth, but I held back. I hadn¡¯t fallen that far yet. Anyway, when we got outside to the vacant lot (we hadn¡¯t yet considered using an underwater tunnel as our hideout), there was a half-dead slime slithering around. ¡°Aah! It¡¯s already escaping! Hey! Hey! Stop! How dare a slime...!¡± Probably, Sim Ah-ryeon was the one who had beaten it, as the slime was clearly wary of us and wriggled around. Sim Ah-ryeon picked up a stick. ¡°L-Look! Guild Leader! Look closely...!¡± I wondered what she meant by ¡°look closely.¡± As I pondered the increasingplexity of cryptidnguage, Sim Ah-ryeon swung the stick. And I widened my eyes. ¡°...Huh?¡± ¡°D-Did you see that? Hehe. You saw it, right?¡± What surprised me wasn¡¯t that Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s stick swing contained profound techniques, nor that the slime showed some unprecedented chemical reaction. More urately, it was something witnessed in the ¡®void¡¯ above the slime¡¯s body, where there should have been nk space. [DAMAGE!] [91!] It was disyed. Above the slime¡¯s body, in English, the word ¡®DAMAGE¡¯ and the numerical value of the damage. Bold, exaggerated red letters floated briefly... and then disappeared. What happened next was even more astonishing. Beep-boop ? A ridiculous sound effect yed once. Sim Ah-ryeon twitched her fingers as if manipting an invisible status window. ¡°I gained experience points and leveled up...¡± ¡°Experience points? Level?¡± ¡°Yes. I hit slimes daily for stress relief, and suddenly, damage numbers started popping up. The status window now shows experience points and levels...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m level 13! Oh. I just leveled up to 14... What¡¯s your level, guild leader? Hehe. What if it¡¯s 99?¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s eyes sparkled, but I remained silent. Somewhere, I could hear the anomaly¡¯s mocking voice. -Checkmate? No, it¡¯s a counter-move. -Where are you looking? That was my afterimage. The status window was just the tip of the iceberg. Experience points. Level-up system. The true nature of this anomaly, freely manipting all these elements, was none other than an RPG... a ¡®Role-ying Game¡¯. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 115 Non-yer III This world was polluted. It didn''t mean that the physical space was contaminated. The mental world, the brains of the awakeners, werepletely stained with disgrace. -Anonymous: (Rmendation) ¡î¡î¡îLevel 5~Level 10¡î¡î¡î Experience farming goldmine hunting ground dungeon list. Newbies must read!! -Anonymous: Today, I got up at dawn and gained 10,000 experience points. Brought back items, settled ounts, and now I''m downing beers. Worth it? -OldManGoryeo: Today''s cafe mocha.png -Anonymous: Looking for a level 10 party!! No NPC porters, sorry ?? -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Guys, I found a ck Orb of Messiah (S) while hunting monsters today. Is this any good? Look at this rotten mental world.Not long after the advent of the ''Online RPG,'' SG Net had devolved into this state. As expected of Koreans, who had always prided themselves as a nation of gamers since the end of the century, they adapted incredibly fast. Just like you''d see in subcultures. ¡®What? The world... turned into a game?¡¯ ¡®This can''t be real...¡¯ ¡®That cheater. How does he understand the game''s mechanics that we don¡¯t?¡¯ Those clich¨¦s werepletely skipped. Even elementary school kids epted the new reality with the seasoned, veteran-like expressions of ¡®What? We¡¯ve be game yers? It''s about time.¡¯ Soon, SG Net was flooded with strategy guides. There was no need for me to tirelessly publish guides under the guise of the ¡®Great Library Society.¡¯ Everyone independently, enthusiastically, and diligently strategized against the anomalies. This was definitely strange. "Why such a long face...? Hmm. Isn''t it better now than when everyone trembled at the sight of anomalies? Nowadays, they voluntarily jump into the void to level up." "That''s because they''re exploring the void with a game-like mentality. They should understand the world through their intuition and umted experiences, but they''re only looking at a refracted world through the lens provided by those anomalies." "Hmm..." "This ''online game'' is a void in itself. The awakeners, who call themselves yers, are virtually turning into void anomalies!" "Well, there''s some sense in that... But if it looks like you''re just angry because anomalies are stealing your monopoly on fame and achievements, then it might be my mistake...?" There was no need to respect the opinion of someone with a toxic perspective. I had traveled to Japan, China, and even as far as Mongolia and India. And everywhere, I confirmed that the ¡®Online RPG¡¯ had infected them all. ¡®...This is no ordinary matter.¡¯ It wasn''t just people''s perceptions that had changed. Even the anomalies were gradually changing. "Hehehe. Lately, there have been so many slimes along the riverbank, it''s so easy to catch them...!" For instance, the slime that Sim Ah-ryeon caught every day to relieve stress and beat to a pulp with a club. Originally, this slime wasn¡¯t amon anomaly. It appeared only asionally in sewers and rarely ventured outside. Unless one descended into the underground, the chances of encountering a slime in daily life were almost nonexistent. But the number of slimes was rapidly increasing. Now, they were bouncing around even on ordinary riverbanks. Bling? Bling-bling? As a result, the sound of Sim Ah-ryeon beating slimes constantly echoed in front of our guild''s headquarters. Because of this noise pollution, I seriously considered relocating the guild hideout. In addition, moving from the nonsensical S, SSS, EX grading system to a very precise, scientifically proven ''Depth'' standard was also part of this resolution. ¡°Power-leveling... Indeed, I can feel my Dark Phoenix skill leveling up rapidly by just beating slimes in the yard! It¡¯s like discovering a hidden spot in the basement leading to a secret elixir mine, where only the protagonist can reap the benefits...!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon''s healing abilities were gradually reaching the level where she could heal even if the patient''s limbs were torn apart, as long as the head was intact. More awakeners on SG Net began to call Sim Ah-ryeon the ''Angel.'' This was definitely strange. However, the rapidly increasing anomalies in this rotten world weren¡¯t limited to slimes. Goblins, Orcs, Ogres, Trolls. In other words, the usual monsters from games increasingly filled the void. There was only one way to exin this phenomenon. ¡®The online game is encroaching on both the awakeners and the anomalies...?¡¯ A chill ran down my spine. An anomaly that didn¡¯t discriminate between humans and anomalies, didn''t remain in one ce, wasn¡¯t confined by space and time, and just endlessly expanded its domain. An Outer God. Indeed, just as Infinite Void had been vanquished, another unidentified outer god was extending its ws. Disguised under the mask of a game, which was hard for humans to resist. -Anonymous: (Proof shot) Set a new damage record while hitting an Orc, lol -Anonymous: This game is insanely fun. -Anonymous: Looking for a level 20 party!! Already secured one NPC porter!! -Anonymous: Anyone up for a Troll eyeball exchange in front of Gimhae Dungeon? SG Net was bing indistinguishable from a ¡®game forum.¡¯ Gradually, the term ¡®monster¡¯ became moremon than anomaly, and non-awakeners individuals were called NPCs. Defeating monsters dropped ''items.'' Slime cores, Goblin teeth, Orc hearts, etc. These materials had specific effects, which could be viewed through the ¡®item window.¡¯ Everything was a game. ...I shared my suspicions with a member of the Regression Alliance. Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess¡¯s expressions finally turned serious. "Chief Noh Do-hwa. Please officially dere the ''Online Game'' as an anomaly under your authority. We need to alert people now." "Understood. Though I''m not sure how effective it will be now. Everyone¡¯s showing signs of game addiction..." Game addiction. That was another symptom disyed by the awakeners infected by this outer god. It was different from the game addiction previously discussed by the media before the end of the century. Now, the awakeners believed that ¡®a world in the form of a game¡¯ was far more real and desirable. SG Net was posting new threads every three seconds. "Saintess, please continue to act as the ¡®operator of the online game,¡¯ so people won¡¯t suspect anything. We may not be able to immediately subdue that anomaly, but we can at least curb the faith spreading to it." "...Yes. I understand." With these precautions, I managed to hold out until the 134th cycle. However, inwardly, I had already prepared for the next run. As I hijacked the ''status window,'' phenomena like ''experience points,'' ''levels,'' and ''damage'' were added. What kind of anomaly would await next? Already, the awakeners, not just in Korea, but worldwide, were heavily addicted to the ''Online Game.'' The stats and levels it provided were tangible, and the void, once filled with fear, had suddenly transformed into a hunting ground brimming with experience points. Humanity was pushing back the void more effectively than ever. They kept winning, by bing followers of the anomaly themselves. Suddenly, a monologue from the protagonist in [The Catcher in the Rye] came to mind. ...You like games, huh? Sure. If you get into a team full of great guys, life is indeed a game. I¡¯ll admit that. But if you end up on the opposite team, where there are no great guys at all, then what kind of goddamn game is that? It¡¯s nothing. It''s not a game at all... As long as the awakeners seemed to be winning on the surface, the ''Online Game'' was indeed a game. But how long would that victoryst? Despite the warnings from the National Road Management Chief, the awakeners didn''t stop ying the online game. They were thoroughly engrossed in leveling up. And one day. Just as there are always precursors before a major earthquake, a message arrived. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame announces a new event.] shback. ¡°Ah. Come to think of it, why did you suddenly mimic a strange constetion a few days ago?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°A week ago. You sent a message under the name of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. I was surprised that even you make mistakes sometimes. Did you send a message meant for another awakeners to me by mistake?¡± ¡°...?¡± Anyone with a good memory would recall. This was the anecdote I mentioned when I first met the Saintess. ¡°I never sent such a message.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I''ve never created a constetion named the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. Did you misread something?¡± ¡°......¡± The story of a ¡®mysterious constetion¡¯ sending a message that the Saintess never created. I simply shared episodes as they came to mind, not strictly bound by time, but if we arranged the flow in order of regression: 117th run. Defeated the outer god ¡®Infinite Void.'' 118th run. First encountered the ¡®Hero Syndrome.¡¯ 119th run. First witnessed the ¡®Isekai Truck.¡¯ 126th run. Defeated the ¡®Savior Narrative Syndrome.¡¯ 133rd run. First witnessed the ¡®Status Window.¡¯ 134th run. First encountered the suspected outer god ¡®Online Game.¡¯ And the message from the mysterious constetion¡ªor rather, a being whose identity as a constetion was even questionable¡ªalso came in the 134th run. My instinct, sharpened over many regressions, trembled like the needle of a seismograph. My intuition wasn¡¯t wrong. The 134th cycle was merely the foreshock. The next run. In the 135th cycle, the real earthquake began. -Anonymous: These guys really y games all day long, lol. Turn off the game and go outside, lol. The 135th run was fundamentally simr to the 134th. Except, at some point, strange posts started to appear. -Anonymous: To us, the game is reality? To us, the game is reality? To us, the game is reality? ©¸Anonymous: For real, lol. ©¸Anonymous: I''ve been ying ¡®reality¡¯ for 50,783 hours straight, lol. ©¸Anonymous: You should log off. -Anonymous: This guy posts nonsense at night and now, too... ©¸Anonymous: What? It seemed like nothing more than the usual bickering on a normalmunity forum. But in truth, every void disguises itself as something mundane. A school. A tunnel. The sea. Eventually. -Anonymous: Shit, ying games too long made my whole body stiff. I''m logging off first. The void descended abruptly. -Anonymous: Sorry, guys. Too sleepy to stay logged in; logging off first. -Anonymous: I''m logging out to live my real life~ -Anonymous: Looking for a level 30 party!! Already secured three NPC porters!! -Anonymous: Ugh, this game is so boring. I''m quitting this trash game, bye. SG Net members started posting about logging off or quitting the game. But as everyone knew, the ''Online Game'' was an ovey on reality. How could they ''log out'' or quit this game? [Mr. Undertaker.] The answer was delivered to me immediately, even if I didn''t want to know it. [The awakeners are not moving.] "...Are you saying they¡¯re dead?" [Yes. Almost. But, it''s strange. Some awakeners fall into aa-like state, then after a while, resume activity as if nothing happened.] "......" [It''s like they''ve logged into a game.] It was simr to zombies. Active at night but stopping in the sunlight, the awakeners showed no signs of movement during the ¡®logout¡¯ period. [The awakeners in aa-like state show nothing even through my irvoyance. Darkness. Only pitch-ck darkness painted over.] An awakener in logout state couldn''t be harmed, even if I attacked. My de passed through as if they didn¡¯t exist in this world. Even Sim Ah-ryeon, who enjoyed the ¡®Online Game¡¯ the most in our guild, couldn''t escape this phenomenon. ¡°¡ªAh, guild leader!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon ran up to me with bright eyes. ...It was hard to believe she had stood still for the past three days without moving a muscle. ¡°Were you waiting for me?¡± ¡°...Yes.¡± ¡°Wow! Thank you! Hehe. Even if they¡¯re NPCs, their reactions change when the affection level goes up!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I wanted toe back sooner, but real life held me back... But it''s all sorted now!¡± Among the addicts, NPC originally referred to non-awakener individuals who hadn¡¯t gained skills. But now it was different. Over time, ordinary people gained minor abilities. They didn¡¯t hesitate to log into the game and upgrade to yers. Now, NPC referred to those like Noh Do-hwa and me, who didn¡¯t log into the game at all. Ironically, the ones who could exist entirely within the ''game world'' for 24 hours were called NPCs by the addicts. To the addicts, Noh Do-hwa building roads across the Korean Penins was a ¡®quest¡¯ in the truest sense. I was also considered a ¡®hidden NPC,¡¯ tasked with informing yers about various jobs, skills, and training methods. Which side was truly the NPC? From my perspective, those who were devoured by the anomaly and became part of the void were the NPCs. But they perceived me as the NPC. I thought. If this was an example of the butterfly dream, it would be a profoundly nightmarish butterfly¡¯s dream. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 116 Non-yer IV Let¡¯s talk about something different for a moment. Although the phenomenon of humans being tainted by the presence of anomalies is often expressed as ''having faith,'' there is actually a much better term. Bewitched. Enchanted. Captivated. If you look at the Hanja character for "Bewitched (÷È)," it includes a ghost (¹í) inside. A mysterious attraction. An impulse. From this, the ancients sensed a ghost, that is, an anomaly. They also warned countless times. Each anomaly is different. Naturally, the words that describe the attraction of anomalies are innumerable. All these characters mean enchantment.The reason the ancients didn''t stick to just one word and instead referred to it as bewitched in various ways is because an anomaly resides in the characters themselves, and characters with anomalies be spells. This is the same as why I constantly use ''aliases'' when calling upon an anomaly. If an anomaly upies a single character or name, it¡¯s like giving the anomaly a ''home.'' Thus, calling the name of an anomaly is akin to saying, -Hey, ghost. Anomaly. -This is your home. Come here. As I emphasize again, the name of an anomaly should never be fixed. If you must call it, you should use a different name each time, and if youck the knowledge and experience to do so, it''s best not to call it from the start. As the founder of the Library Society, I deliberately created multiple ways to call upon anomalies. Take the Ten Legs, for example. It was called by various aliases such as ''Crawling Baby Cthulhu,'' ''Lord of Shadows,'' ''Thorny Hell,'' and ''Lurker.'' Considering that the Ten Legs is not a mental anomaly but merely a physical force, it might have been an excessive precaution. And what about the Outer God, Infinite Void? I prepared a plethora of terms for humans, enough to overwhelm them: ''Infinite Hell,'' ''School Ghost Stories,'' ''Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts,'' ''Hyakumonogatari,'' ''Forbidden Four Characters,'' ''Hyakki Yagyo,'' ''Baekhwa (°×»¯).'' Going further, although seldom mentioned in anecdotes, ''Heraclitus¡¯ Wreath,'' ''Backrooms,'' etc¡ I provided more than enough naming options for humans. Only in this way can anomalies be driven away by the pressure of the characters without nesting. Today''s story is the same. When I started the story, I named the anomaly ''Online Game.'' But by now, you can guess there¡¯s a more appropriate name. ''Logout Game.'' For those who get bewitched by this anomaly, the oue is an exit from reality. -Anonymous: There¡¯s no content in this trash game, ffs -Anonymous: For real, I haven¡¯t been logging in to gamestely. Even dailies are a hassle¡ -Anonymous: When will this game end? -Anonymous: Looking for a level 40 party!! No NPC porters, please ?? -Anonymous: Since all the game fanatics died, there¡¯s barely anyone left here lol -Anonymous: Wow, why is this trash game¡¯s forum still alive? The period yers logged out grew longer, and the number of users essing SG Net steadily decreased. Themunity was gradually bing deste. There was one named member who consistently posted nonsense from beginning to end. -OldManGoryeo: Today, the guild leader NPC made me a cafe mocha.png ©¸ Anonymous: You still haven¡¯t logged off? What level are you? ©¸ OldManGoryeo: This old man has been max level for a long time, so now I just decorate the guild house instead of running dungeons ©¸ Anonymous: Max level, damn ©¸ Anonymous: But how does an NPC perform the guild leader role? Is it a bug? ©¸ OldManGoryeo: Seeing that the gamepany doesn¡¯t patch it, it doesn¡¯t seem like a bug? Sim Ah-ryeon. While others were logging off the ¡®game¡¯ one by one, Sim Ah-ryeon continued. Once she logged in, what she did was nothing significant. ¡°Sigh. Trash game¡ It¡¯s already been two years without an update, so users keep quitting, ah¡¡± Comining about the trash game. ¡°Guild leader! Look at this! [Coffee Beans]! Hehe. If you receive this item, your favorability goes up, right? Hehe. It¡¯s a drop item with a very low chance from defeating Necromancer Liches, and I collected them all and brought them! Eii, eii. Rise, favorability, rise quickly¡¡± Obsessing over the favorability system that I couldn¡¯t understand and showering gifts repeatedly. ¡°Ehehe, uhee. Uheehee¡¡± Catching slimes from the Han River and beating them in all sorts of ways. Watching her, even I thought, ''Won¡¯t she get tired of it?¡¯ because of her monotonous y pattern. Sim Ah-ryeon herself seemed to get tired of it. She used to log in every day, but over time, her login intervals became 1 day, 3 days, 7 days. Even so, it was a steady login ratepared to other yers. In fact, not just yers, but even NPCs were almost gone. At most, there were Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess? If you searched, Go Yuri might still be around, but there was no reason to invite danger. In the end, the three of us¡ªme, Noh Do-hwa, and the Saintess¡ªmembers of the Regression Alliance, decided to live together by the Han River. There was no point in maintaining the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps any longer, and we couldn''t survive just staying in the aquarium mansion in Yongsan. Most of all, the warmth of life was too sparse in this world. It was inevitable for thest NPCs, or rather survivors, to stick together. ¡°Hmm. It¡¯s quiet¡¡± Noh Do-hwa breathed out as she drank her coffee. ¡°The anomalies are not causing any disturbances and are holed up in the dungeons. The awakeners are all petrified and not moving. When I heard the Undertaker experienced countless cycles, I wondered what it would be like to witness the end of the world¡ Was this the sight?¡± ¡°It¡¯s rarely this quiet.¡± We watched the river bask in the sunlight for a while. ¡°I¡¯ll go ahead and experiment.¡± The Saintess said. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll find out where the logged-out people disappeared to. Whether they fell into a state akin to death, or if, as the Undertaker spected, they were dragged into the ¡®Divine Realm¡¯ of the outer god. I¡¯ll log into the game and find out.¡± ¡°¡It¡¯ll be dangerous. Other awakeners only had the sense of returning to reality, so they weren¡¯t particrly affected. But if you¡¯re aware of the outer god and dive in, it¡¯s unpredictable how it will react.¡± ¡°But we need information. Anyway, the Undertaker is considering the next cycle. Then it¡¯s better to take on the risk and gain even a little information.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°As you pointed out, rashly plunging into the outer god''s divine realm is unwise. It might reveal the Undertaker¡¯s ability. So, I¡¯ll take on the reconnaissance.¡± It was a valid argument. Normally, we wouldn¡¯t have used a card like the Saintess just to perform a scout¡¯s duty. In the chessboard of our strategy, the Saintess was the King. An agent that should never be captured or revealed to the enemy. However, there were no more awakeners for the Saintess to monitor, and there was no longer a need to perform for the constetions. We took a gamble. In the guild¡¯s basement, the Saintess murmured softly. ¡°Status Window.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°...¡¡± Noh Do-hwa and I watched the Saintess. ¡°How is it?¡± ¡°¡I can see my abilities. And my level. But the terms indicating the awakening ability are quite different.¡± The Saintess was looking at the empty air before her, as if letters were written there. ¡°Do you see a logout button?¡± ¡°Logout button¡ Ah. Yes, here it is. It¡¯s at the bottom of the menu.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll press it now.¡± At that moment. The Saintess froze. Her movements literally stiffened. The heartbeat that had been throbbing in her chest, the sky-blue eyes¡¯ gaze, and the water-colored hair fluttering in the river breeze all stopped. Everything. Completely froze. ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Noh Do-hwa reached out her hand. But her hand simply swiped through the air. ¡°It¡¯s an unpleasant experience, even after experiencing it several times. Hmm. It¡¯s like a mirage or illusion since you can see it but not touch it¡¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°You said you named this anomaly the Logout Game? It seems keen on turning our world into fiction¡¡± I set the timer on my watch. Ten seconds. That was the agreed time with the Saintess. The first logout state wouldst exactly ten seconds before she would escape. Ten seconds passed. The Saintess didn¡¯t move. ¡°...¡¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Anticipating such an oue, we had also agreed on a second timing of three minutes. Two minutes and fifty seconds passed. The Saintess still didn¡¯t move. Foreseeing such a situation, our third timing was¨D¨D ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°She¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Watching a dead person for too long is not respectful to the deceased. There¡¯s a chance she might return, so I¡¯ll keep an eye here. Please go upstairs¡¡± I agreed with Noh Do-hwa¡¯s words. The river was bathed in light. After calming my mind, I made two cups of coffee and went back to the basement. Noh Do-hwa¡¯s body had frozen. ¡°...¡¡± I took one cup of coffee and went back upstairs. I never returned to the basement again. The next day, a message appeared before my eyes. [Emergency Patch Notice.] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame informs you that a serious bug was discovered and patched at around 3 PM yesterday.] [We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our users. Thank you.] Sometimes, as a regressor, I have such thoughts. Maybe others treat life more lightly than I do, who spins the wheel endlessly. In my mind that remembers everything, there are countless endings the Saintess met and countless scenes of Noh Do-hwa¡¯s death. Mypanions often overlooked how their deaths would be remembered by me. ¡®I can¡¯t die yet.¡¯ In a world where I was left alone, where everyone had fallen into fiction but remained a reality only to me, I waited. For the moment the outer god would reveal itself. ¡®The world has almost entirely fallen into your hands. You must be eager to dere your ultimate victory. But there still exists someone who proves [This is not a game] in your void.¡¯ That someone was me. ¡®I must be a thorn in your side. You anomaly.¡¯ Toplete its void, it had to eliminate the impurity. If the outer god could no longer bear it and threw off the game''s mask to reveal its true form, if [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame] showed its true colors, I nned to see that appearance and then die. Until then, I absolutely wouldn¡¯t die. The regressor couldn''t be taken lightly. Unlike Old Man Scho, who always ended his life like a molly fish, I had tenacity. ¡°Guild leader, have you been well? Haa. Real life has been so busytely, it¡¯s getting harder to log in... But I¡¯ll visit whenever I think of it! Hehe.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s login intervals rapidly increased. Now it wasn¡¯t strange for her to log in once a year, once every three years. Talking to her, it seemed she wasn¡¯t aware that it had been three years. She probably thought she was logging in after about three weeks. ¡®The flow of time is different.¡¯ Well, it was natural for time to be strange in the void. Even in Baekwha Girls'' High, Cheon Yo-hwa didn¡¯t think she had spent four years there. I didn¡¯t just sit idly and let the time pass. I entered the dungeon, known among Korean users to be the most valuable, and hunted all the monsters. After waiting for a moment, the monsters respawned, but I killed them all. For 11 years. Originally, the experience points should have gone to the yers, but I, a mere NPC, had ruined it all. [Emergency Patch Notice.] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame informs you that a serious bug was discovered and patched urgently.] [We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our users. Thank you.] Soon after, the dungeon disappeared. ¡°Hah.¡± Did it mean there was no longer a need to maintain the pretense of the game¡¯s structure? I went on to destroy the dungeons across the Korean penins. Each time, ¡®emergency patches¡¯ were made, and the once meticulously crafted ¡®game¡¯ rapidly deteriorated. The cities and viges where yers once interacted met the same fate. Beautiful natural scenery, streets, grotesque monsters, all objects were destroyed. Only the petrified yers who were still logged out remained scattered around. My rampage continued for 37 years. [Emergency Patch Notice.] [Emergency Patch Notice.] [Emergency Patch Notice.] At some point, even the game stopped changing the night and day cycle. Even the Sun and the Earth had been bewitched by the outer god. The Han River''s flow stopped. The cicadas'' summer sounds ceased. Even when monsters respawned, they stayed in ce. A bizarre world. A broken game. A virtual El Dorado where nothing is born and nothing dies. However, the eternal memory within my brain and the blood flowing through my veins constantly reminded me that I was still alive. Now, the real-time was only the memories within my brain, and the real space was only the volume of my body. [Emergency Patch Notice.] 212 years passed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 117 Non-yer V Now the appearance of the void had be shabby. The graphics of the once beautifully flowing river degraded from ''virtual reality game'' to ''AAA game,'' then to an ordinary ''3D game,'' and finally to the level of a ''90s console game''. Ultimately, it fell to the level of a ''dot game.'' In this void, no sea or river flowed. Only fixed blue, sky blue, and white dots remained. The mountains were modest green and dark green. Trees were ck-brown and yellow-brown. Rocks were gray. Clouds were white. The yers, simply put, had transformed into flesh-colored dots with a bit of decoration. ¡°¡¡.¡± Every time Sim Ah-ryeon logged in, with intervals of 1 year, 3 years, 9 years, 20 years, and 50 years, her ''graphics'' deteriorated.From a character that looked like it was meticulously crafted by a graphic designer in an AAA game, to a character typical of any 3D game, to a design appearing in low-quality 90s games. By thest time we met, if you didn¡¯t know it was Sim Ah-ryeon, you¡¯d just see her as a ''green-haired,'' ''long-haired,'' ''polygon chunk'' carrying a rge wooden easel.'' SG Net also met its end. -OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.jpeg -OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.png -OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.jpg -OldManGoryeo: The cafe mocha the guild leader NPC made for me today.jpeg There was only one person''s post on the first page of the forum. Even that was an old post. For the past 100 years, Sim Ah-ryeon hadn¡¯t logged in. I thought she couldn¡¯t endure this ''trash game'' any longer and quit. Seo Gyu also became a yer hundreds of years ago, yet SG Net was still maintained, suggesting that the Awakeners who were ''logged out'' didn¡¯t die but were ''dragged into'' the domain of the outer god. [Service Termination Notice.] Finally. [Hello, yers. This is the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.] [We regret to inform you that the ''Reality Online'' service will be terminated.] [We sincerely thank all the yers who enjoyed and loved ''Reality Online'' until now.] [The ''Reality Online'' server will shut down in 72 hours.] Three days. For all those centuries, the anomaly that had kept its true form tightly hidden would crawl out of its den when the world was ending. I waited. Clutching Do-hwa, the prized sword that had stayed with me for over 200 years in this cycle, without a single nick. And exactly 72 hourster, [Hello, everyone. This is the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.] Suddenly, a blue butterfly appeared in the mosaic sky made of dots. That butterfly had a distinctly different ''resolution''pared to the surrounding scenery. I unleashed a strike as soon as I saw the anomaly, but unfortunately, it didn¡¯t reach the sky. That mosaic sky probably didn¡¯t exist as a real space. Ignoring my attack, messages continued to flow before my eyes. [We are about to embark on a new journey.] [It may take a very long time to reach the new destination, but we hope to meet you again somewhere at the end of the M?bius loop.] [Thank you.] [We definitely want to meet you again.] Then. ¡°Ah ah ah ah!¡± A mechanical sound came from behind me. It was an endlessly unfamiliar yet somehow familiar sound. I was taken aback and had to turn around, even though I was staring at the outer god anomaly with cold hatred. There. ¡°Guild leader!¡± Green dot hair. Flesh-colored dot face. Eyes and mouth made of ck dots. A dot figure, much smaller than me, was standing there. ¡°I¡¯m back!¡± The dot figure exaggeratedly swung its arms back and forth as it took steps toward me. Thud. Thud. The crude footstep sound effects echoed as its shoes hit the ground. The dot figure hugged my waist tightly. That too was just a sound effect. I felt no sensation from my waist. I hesitated and opened my mouth. It had been so long since I talked to someone that my tongue moved sluggishly. ¡°¡Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± The dot figure smiled. Probably widely. Every time it spoke, a text electronic sound followed. The few pitch mechanical sounds barely mimicked a human voice. ¡°How did you, no. Why are you here¡?¡± ¡°Why? When the server termination notice went up, I hurriedly logged in! Since it¡¯s thest time, I at least wanted to spend thest moments with the guild leader!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Sorry for beingte, guild leader. Hehe.¡± I¡ [Alert.] [The server will automatically shut down in 30 seconds.] I hugged ''Sim Ah-ryeon'' tightly. It felt like hugging the air. There was no sensation in my arms. I stroked her hair, which was always unkempt and sticking out. Again, there was no sensation. ¡°Guild leader?¡± ¡°No. You don¡¯t have to apologize. You have nothing to be sorry about, Ah-ryeon. Rather, I should apologize as the guild leader. I... I was trying to gather information for the next time. I didn¡¯t expect you to end up like this.¡± ¡°Guild leader.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon reached out her hand. [The server will automatically shut down in 20 seconds.] ¡°Don¡¯t be sad, guild leader.¡± [The server will automatically shut down in 10 seconds.] ¡°I really like the cafe mocha you make, guild leader.¡± [The server will automatically shut down in 3 seconds.] [The server will automatically shut down in 2 seconds.] [The server will automatically shut down in 1 second.] ¡°So, next time too¨D¨D¡± When the countdown ended, the dot world instantly faded to 16-bit color. Then, without any pause, it degraded to 8-bit, 4-bit, and finally to a scenery made only of ck and white. The nutrients, reality, and essence of our world were all being ravenously devoured by the butterfly in that void. Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s lips moved, but only an ah-ah-ah sound, a mechanical noise that couldn¡¯t be converted into a human voice, echoed. At that moment, I felt the outer god was doing everything it could to ''bewitch'' me. I also sensed that if I got bewitched, I would lose even the chance to end my own life. I mustered myst aura. Hugging Sim Ah-ryeon even tighter. ¡°¡¤¡¤¡¤¡¤¡¤ ¡¤¡¤¡¤¡¤¡¤¡¤¡¤¡± I couldn¡¯t understand any sound from Sim Ah-ryeon, who had now fallen below 1-bit, but I was certain it was the sound of a smile. Everything faded to ck. My reality met ''server termination.'' There¡¯s an epilogue. Quite a lot, actually. It would be nice if I could quickly reach a happy ending where I, the Undertaker, begin a great counterattack and smash the outer god that dared to touch our world¨D but unfortunately, that¡¯s something I¡¯ll attempt muchter. It wasn¡¯t until after the 555th cycle that I started developing a strategy to tackle ''The Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' or the ''Logout Game.'' So for now, let¡¯s start with some small epilogues instead of jumping straight to the 555th cycle. First epilogue. ¡°What, what¡¯s this? Where am I?¡± ¡°Huh? Busan Station? I was just at the park¡¡± ¡°Leader? Leader, where are you?¡± Murmur, murmur. Right after dying by the outer god, I woke up to familiar murmurs. The Busan Station waiting room. Although I couldn¡¯t call it my hometown, it was a ce I could say was the regressor¡¯s hometown. People who had been trapped in the void were bewildered. ¡®Ah.¡¯ I felt a temporary sense of detion. No matter how much of a master I was at managing my mentality, it was never easy to regress right after facing a bad ending. In such times, I relied on my own regression routine. Getting up quickly, walking to the vending machine to buy a Ceylon tea, subduing the Tutorial Fairy to save Seo Gyu, then picking up the Silver Bells from the souvenir shop. A series of routines. Habits. Suggestions. Rituals. Isn¡¯t it interesting? In a world where everything repeats forever, the way for a human to protect oneself is to draw a circle slightly smaller than the world. Thus, the world bes the clock hands, the growth rings that draw the rhythm of time, and ultimately a round dance. I raised my upper body. To wind up the spring of life once again, I pushed my weight forward. And then. Thunk¡ª ¡°¡¡?¡± Something came into my life. A very lightptop was ced on my thigh. ¡®Aptop?¡¯ It was something I had never seen before. Here, ''never'' meant that throughout all cycles, I had never witnessed such a scene with aptop on my thigh. My eyes widened. I immediately turned on theptop. Beep, whirr¡ The booting time was slow. My heart pounded. People murmured around me, but I ignored them all. What mattered now was that this unknown object had suddenly entered my regression, into my eternal round dance. Soon the desktop appeared. A nk white desktop. No misceneous icons at all. Only an unnamed notepad filey in the upper right corner of the screen. ¡°¡¡¡± Click. Following my heart¡¯s lead, I clicked the file. Then the notepad appeared on theptop screen. [What is this world?] A single line of text. At that moment, I instinctively knew. Thisptop and the notepad file were left by none other than the Outer God ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame.'' Was it a reward for being thest survivor in the game it hosted? Or was this mysterious question-and-answer itself another game? Either way, in my 135th cycle, I couldn¡¯t tell. Only that another item, besides the cane-sword Do-hwa, had been bound to my endlessly repeating regression. ¡°Hm.¡± ck. I typed and replied to the outer god¡¯s notepad. [F U C K Y O U] ¡¡ There was no response from theptop. What went wrong? Thinking for a moment, I realized that the question was in Korean, but I had responded in English. Clearly, it was my mistake. I quickly erased my answer and typed again. [Why don''t you just eat a dick, you fucking son of a bitch.] Click¡ª Theptop turned off. It shut down on its own. Even in the next cycle, theptop didn¡¯t work until I transitioned to the next one. It seemed I only got two chances per cycle to answer the question. Epilogue two. As I mentioned, even though I acquired theptop as a bound item, I hadn¡¯t seeded in defeating the outer god. Therefore, a temporary measure was necessary. I gathered Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess and earnestly requested. ¡°If the status window appears, we must start preparations immediately to prevent anyone from opening it at all costs.¡± ¡°Hm¡¡± ¡°We must not pick and choose means and methods. Using the authority of the National Road Management Corps and the whispers of the Constetions, continuously indoctrinate how harmful the status window is.¡± ¡°Well, understood¡¡± ¡°Saintess, if you find any awakeners bewitched by the status window, report to us immediately. The National Road Management Corps will arrest and imprison them.¡± ¡°Yes, Undertaker.¡± ¡°Imprison the awakeners as life-sentenced prisoners. If necessary, treat them as death row inmates. If we create rumors that they¡¯re spreading mental anomalies like a virus, we can minimize resistance.¡± Of the 72 death row inmates mobilized for the Inunaki Tunnel hunt, many were awakeners imprisoned for this ''status window viewing crime.'' My measures didn¡¯t stop there. ''The magic of the Logout Gamergely stemmed from the fulfillment of the desire for progress. Hitting damage with visible numbers, gaining experience points, and leveling up.'' Simply oppressing the awakeners wouldn¡¯t be enough to stop the spread of the status window. Where there¡¯s desire, demand arises. An alternative to somewhat satisfy people''s desires was necessary. That was ''Cafe Agit.'' -OldManGoryeo: (1000m) I like quiet cafes, but I don¡¯t dislike noisy ones either. However, because there are too few visitors to my depth, I unintentionally rented out the cafe by myself ??¡ I¡¯m bored, so you alle down quickly. ©¸[Baekwha] NinthGrader: (1200m) >_<);; ©¸OldManGoryeo: Idiot lolol There''s almost no difference between 1000 meters and 1200 meters, but you act like it''s a big deal lololol ©¸[Baekwha] NinthGrader: (1200m) The fish are pretty (>_<);; ©¸OldManGoryeo: Fish? What fish? ©¸BaekwhaGirlsHigh9thGrader: (1200m) Haha (>_<);; ©¸OldManGoryeo: ??? Depth system. I assigned numerical grades to the awakeners. It was difficult to understand the difference between Level 10 and Level 11. But Cafe Agit¡¯s depth of 100 meters and 200 meters, and then 300 meters and 400 meters, were designed so that anyone could clearly see that ''the interior and service are luxurious.'' This was my measure. To prevent mental anomalies from intruding recklessly, I built the cafe in an underwater tunnel. Designed the depth system and cafes to satisfy Awakeners'' desires for progress. Continued to bombard them withws from the National Road Management Corps and warnings from the Constetions to instill awareness of the status window. This thorough defense was sessful. From the 197th cycle onward, I never faced extinction due to the Logout Game. Now, as a regressor, my job was to wait until an exact strategy was developed. There was no problem. As this story proved, I was very familiar with waiting. Therefore. ¡°Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°Yes, yes? What is it¡¡± ¡°I brought a slime I found on a walk. It¡¯s for you.¡± ¡°Whaaat? I just happened to want to beat up a slime, how, how did you know¡?¡± ¡°And this is a donut from the Haeundae bakery you like. Here.¡± ¡°Huh? Huh? Is today my birthday? Guild leader is being kind to me! A miracle that might happen once every 700 days¡¡± Today¡¯s epilogue ends with watching our problem child happily munching on a donut after beating a slime with a club. ¡°Hehe¡ Thank you, guild leader!¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 118 Agonizer Let¡¯s recount a short anecdote about Old Man Scho. ¡°Hey, Embalmer.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± As I¡¯ve mentioned before, Old Man Scho often called me ¡°Embalmer.¡± This was because my alias was Undertaker, a profession involved in embalming the dead. The saying ¡°It¡¯s not what you say but how you say it¡± fits perfectly here. He called me ¡°Em-balm-er¡± instead of ¡°Em-balmer¡± with a slight change in the vowel sound, but in Old Man Scho¡¯s highly developed Korean pronunciation, it had a ring that resembled ¡°damn.¡± This proved that Old Man Scho¡¯s mental state hadn¡¯t matured past infancy. By giving people nasty nicknames and using them in front of others, he was trying to assert his power over them. In the eternal election between the goodness of human nature and the bad, today, thetter gained another precious vote.¡°Embalmer. Why don¡¯t you answer? Did you donate your tongue to a beggar? Hey, you shouldn¡¯t mess with beggars like that.¡± ¡°Damn¡¡± ¡°Hey, Embalmer. I¡¯m pleased to see you understanding the Parthenon Temple¡¯s maxim to ¡®Know thyself,¡¯ but why do you belittle yourself like that? Do you still im to be a regressor? All human values are equal. Though you may be a damned bastard, you¡¯re still an embalmer, not a gue.¡± Who taught this old German native-level Korean? Truly, that person must be an incrediblenguage instructor. If I could identify them, I¡¯d love to visit and give them a polite stab. ¡°So, what is it? What new nonsense are you nning this time?¡± ¡°You remember better than I do. That kid.¡± Old Man Scho pointed to someone. A child, about five years old. A girl was ying, running around with her young parents who owned a bakery in Haeundae, Busan. Old Man Scho spoke. ¡°Last cycle, that kid was a boy.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°The couple¡¯s child changes with each cycle. The child that should have been born to that couple disappeared. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± That wasn¡¯t all. Though I hadn¡¯t told Old Man Scho, I remembered precisely. With each cycle, the couple¡¯s child always changed. In the 18th cycle, it was a boy, and in the 17th cycle, it was also a boy but looked different. In the 11th cycle, they had twins. The timing of pregnancy and birth varied subtly. Not once did the same child appear in any cycle. ¡°So, what is your point? Why ask this all of a sudden?¡± ¡°Think about it, doc.¡± When talking seriously, Old Man Scho would call me doc instead of Embalmer. ¡°Every time we regress, the children who existed in the previous world disappear entirely.¡± ¡°¡Not all of them.¡± ¡°Right. Those lives unaffected by our butterfly effect remain. But since the Ten Legs was exterminated, I¡¯ve noticed more lives I¡¯ve never seen before.¡± ¡°Many felt it was safe to settle in Korea after the Ten Legs was exterminated, which is natural.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t pretend not to understand. That¡¯s not my point. I¡¯m saying there are children whose existence is erased entirely due to our regressions! Their memories, their beings. Everything! Except for you, who remembers everything!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°I worry that the unintended butterfly effect I cause might be doing something terrible to those little children.¡± Old Man Scho¡¯s old face was filled with an indescribable guilt. Iter learned that the Schopenhauer couple had once lost a child to miscarriage. Old Man Scho projected his wounds onto the ¡®disappeared lives¡¯ every time a cycle passed. Maybe that¡¯s why Old Man Scho decided to take a ¡®vacation.¡¯ To erase his traces, to not interfere at all with the lives that were yet to be born, so their existence wouldn¡¯t be erased meaninglessly. ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°¡What¡¯s with that irritating expression?¡± ¡°Nothing. Just¡¡± But my thoughts were different. Not just thoughts, my feelings too. Perhaps this was when Old Man Scho and I were destined to part ways. Because I didn¡¯t feel any guilt towards those ''disappeared lives.'' Of course, I felt regret and sorrow. For instance, the child Old Man Scho pointed out had once given me bread, following her parents in making rice donuts. They made too many and ended up giving me some as a gift. ¡°Hyung! Ah-ah!¡± The child''sughter, the hand that put the donut in my mouth, the stooping of my back to receive the child¡¯s touch, the stickiness of the sugar coating too thick on the rice donut, my reaction of ¡®Wow, this is really delicious!¡¯ and the shy greetings of the child''s parents. All memories that remained with me. Yes, I admit it. I will never again receive a sugar donut from Jeong Seo-ah, the five-year-old girl from the Haeundae bakery, who wanted to make bread because her parents were so cool. Not only Jeong Seo-ah, countless losses¡ªtens of thousands, hundreds of thousands¡ªcling to a regressor''s years. Shadows exist not only in space but also in time, and we call those shadows memories. The longest-lived human, me, bore the deepest shadows. But my heart¡¯s emotions were sorrow, wistfulness, longing. I can say unequivocally that they were not guilt. To begin with, the subjects of my guilt were limited. Mostly to the tombstones I had sealed with Time Seal. That is, only those whom I had buried forever. ¡°Old man, I told youst time.¡± ¡°Huh? What?¡± ¡°You know, you wondered if we erase existences every time we regress because the children born in each cycle are different.¡± ¡°Huh? When did I say that¡? Oh, oh, that?¡± Old Man Scho red at me. ¡°What a crazy bastard.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°You damned bastard! That was more than three cycles ago! Why do you talk like it was yesterday? You¡¯re trying to make me look like a forgetful old man on purpose, aren¡¯t you?¡± Old Man Scho fumed. It took three minutes to calm him down. So, I couldn¡¯t bring up the joke, ¡°Didn¡¯t you once tell me not to use the word ¡®gue¡¯ on people? Why the change?¡± When dealing with someone much older, you have to yield a lot. ¡°Doc, if you don¡¯t fix that nasty habit, you¡¯ll get in big trouble one day.¡± ¡°Indeed. Hearing that from an old man whose whole body is infested with crazy cells suddenly makes me vignt.¡± ¡°Why is your tongue getting sharper every day¡? Embalmer! Where did your innocent old self disappear to?¡± ¡°Who knows. Probably dragged away by Germans, gassed, and died.¡± ¡°You racist bastard! My family supported the Social Democrats since the Imperial era! My ancestors were arrested too!¡± ¡°Yeah, no matter how much a white man frames a yellow man with racism, it doesn¡¯t work? Anyway, old man, I thought long and hard about what you said, but I disagree.¡± We were walking along Haeundae Beach. Once a symbol of vacation in Korea. The jewel named civilization that humanity lost seemed to have stolen everything from here. The water-colored sand held a blue emerald. ¡°If lives disappear every time we regress, conversely, new lives that couldn¡¯t have been born before are created because of us.¡± ¡°¡Huh?¡± ¡°If there were no regressions, the humans born at this moment would have been predetermined. But the stronger the butterfly effect we cause, the farther it spreads, and entirely different possibilities briefly see the world.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s not a good world. Every generationins they were born in the worst times, but now it¡¯s really the worst except for the Ice Age. Still, I think it¡¯s better to be here briefly and pass through life than to remain in the bottomless abyss of nothingness.¡± Crunch. The sand under my shoes made a sound. ¡°And do we regress because we like it? It¡¯s the damned anomalies¡¯ fault. The ones who should feel guilty are those anomalies. Why should we bear the world¡¯s destruction?¡± ¡°Hah.¡± ¡°Old man. In my opinion, there¡¯s no need to feel guilty about the departed lives, nor im credit for the new ones. The resolve to prevent world destruction is already a heavy burden on us. Adding nonexistent responsibilities to it would only break our backs unnecessarily.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°If you feel you must be guilty, that too is a resolve, so I won¡¯t stop you, but you should feel just as much joy for the new lives.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°As I am not a great person, I choose not to feel both guilt and joy for new lives, as I can¡¯t bear both.¡± The sound of waves, sand, and footsteps continued for a long time. So, I had just advised Old Man Scho not to be too sad. ¡°The boy who couldn¡¯t understand a single line of the Analects has grown so wise.¡± Like an old sea spewing waves, a sigh flowed from Old Man Scho¡¯s mouth. ¡°Indeed. Having the courage to possess something is difficult, but even more difficult is the courage to abandon it. Doc, maybe you are more suitable as a regressor than I am.¡± I couldn¡¯t easily agree with that soliloquy. But one thing was certain: my words didn¡¯t offer muchfort. As you know, Old Man Scho eventually went on a vacation with his beloved wife. I still didn¡¯t agree with Old Man Scho¡¯s assertion. It was just that seeing Sim Ah-ryeon smiling with 1-bit graphics made me wonder for a moment if I was doing something terrible to other children. ¡°Hey, mister!¡± It was then, while walking along the beach. ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Ah-ah!¡± A small boy came running, thrusting a rice donut towards me. Looking over the boy¡¯s shoulder, I saw a familiar bakery couple smiling cautiously. I immediately understood the situation. ¡°Ah-ah!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Ipared the boy in front of me to Jeong Seo-ah, the little girl I met thousands of years ago in the 19th cycle. Their appearances were entirely different. But surprisingly, the taste of the rice donut I bit into, including the overly thick sugar coating, was remarkably simr. My eyes widened. I chewed the donut, savoring its taste. ¡°How is it? Delicious?¡± ¡°¡Delicious. Really, very delicious. You could be a bakery owner.¡± The boy giggled and ran back to his parents¡¯ embrace, leaving a trail of sand grains in the air. As I left Haeundae with light steps, a peculiar sense of incongruity stopped me. ¡®Wait, didn¡¯t the little girl in the 19th cycle call me hyung?¡¯ In terms of pure timing, excluding cycles, I was a year younger now. ¡®So why did he call me mister¡?¡¯ Hmm. ¡Come to think of it, maybe Jeong Seo-ah¡¯s rice donuts were tastier. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 119 The Brainwasher I I don¡¯t particrly like aphorisms or maxims. Being impressed by a saying is akin to admiring a photograph of a beautifulndscape rather than experiencing the scenery firsthand. For those who have visited thatndscape, it may holdmemorative value, but for others, it¡¯s just a fake antique used for interior decoration in their home. However, there is one Nietzsche aphorism that I find useful even for a pragmatist: - He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby be a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. This truly is the ultimate guide for hitchhikers traveling through the end times, isn¡¯t it? To make it a bit more practical, you can tweak thetter part slightly: - If you gaze long enough at Go Yuri, Go Yuri will also gaze back into you.Go Yuri. Her personal color is pink. Her Pok¨¦mon type is Psychic. Her special skills are a soft smile for everyone and a brainwashing hypnosis beam. If she had appeared as a Kadabra in the first-generation Pok¨¦mon anime, she would have gained a cult following among children, but unfortunately, she was reincarnated in reality, causing me a headache. What I want to convey to you is that I, the Undertaker, put in a tremendous amount of effort to seal away this Pok¨¦mon. ¡®What if I don¡¯t look directly at her and take a picture? Wouldn¡¯t that reveal Go Yuri¡¯s true form?¡¯ Click. Imitted the audacious act of secretly photographing Go Yuri. It was a move that risked my life. The act of photographing itself was sessful, but the result was disappointing. The performance difference between a standard camera lens and my retina was negligible. In short, the photo showed the same pink hair, the same soft smile. Hmm. Somehow, the photo seemed inferior to the real thing. When I realized, ¡®Hmm, the photo is worse than the real thing,¡¯ I knew I had already fallen under a weak hypnosis. A chill ran down my spine, and I immediately burned the photo. Failure. ¡®What if someone else takes the picture?¡¯ I had Yu Ji-won, whose life wasn¡¯t particrly precious to me, take the picture. The result was the same. Yu Ji-won returned unharmed. Failure2. For the record, these tests were never conducted in the same cycle. Regarding Go Yuri, research had to be conducted more cautiously than handling a nuclear bomb. Naturally, all tests had to be conducted in different cycles. ¡®What if I record her voice with a recorder¨D¨D?¡¯ Failure. ¡®¡Wait. What if I use a spirit camera?¡¯ It was a clever idea. By this time, I had received an instant spirit camera from the Magical Girl Association as a reward for defeating the Inunaki Tunnel. Click. I had high expectations for this test. The spirit camera was a precious artifact. There couldn¡¯t be a more suitable item to reveal Go Yuri¡¯s true nature. Then it happened. Whirrr¡¡ A strange noise starteding from the spirit camera, which was developing the photo normally. Rrring! ng! ng-ng-ng! ng-ng-ng! It was the sound of a telephone. Or perhaps, the loud noise of a red fire rm button being pressed. Clunk! The camera jerked on its own, and the next moment, it spewed smoke as if a fire had broken out inside. Then it stopped. ¡°¡¡¡± Goosebumps rose on my skin. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± What was even more chilling was that Go Yuri had approached before I even noticed. She was right in front of me. Go Yuri tilted her head and bent down, looking up at me from below. ¡°Huh. You look familiar... Oh, wait, weren''t you the one at Busan Station waiting room? Um, your name was definitely... Undertaker. Yes, Mr. Undertaker, right?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Wow! What a coincidence to see you here! Ah, but the object in your hand keeps emitting smoke. Is it alright? Something seems¡¡± Go Yuri smiled brightly. ¡°Is there anything I can help you with?¡± Damn. It was foolish to trust such a camera. No matter how powerful a treasure it was, how powerful could it be if it came from a group cosying as magical girls? But a regressor is a profession that establishes countermeasures even for such contingencies. I immediately activated Protocol 552-71. ¡°An unexpected storm is roaring! The wind sounds noisily, and Zhou Yu urgently descends onto the terrace, looking at the banners!¡± ¡°¡Huh?¡± ¡°Oh ho! As the Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird nk the White Tiger and ck Tortoise to the northwest, a great southeast wind rises with a roar! Crash! The drum board spins! Ah, like thunder, Zhou Yu¡¯s heart falls at the sight!¡± ¡°Uh, wait... What?¡± ¡°Heavens! Ah! Why did you birth me and Kongming together! Woo woo woo! Wooo!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± I danced like a madman, running toward the horizon. The dignity, character, and everything else I had built up over a thousand years as a regressor were all thrown into the mud. The original name of Protocol 552-71 was ¡°Singing the Song of Red Cliff.¡± Or acting crazy. For the record, I was good at singing Pansori. I was even better at acting crazy. Indeed, even the world¡¯s greatest curiosity monster, Go Yuri, didn¡¯t pursue a human failure. Dobby was free, and I escaped. And I never approached within 30 kilometers of Go Yuri in that cycle. Failure. ¨D¨DGo Yuri was indeed a dangerous existence. As the founder and mastermind of the Library Society, I had a hard time resisting the urge to add [Go Yuri-ss] to the end of the danger lineup [Vige-ss - Polis-ss - Continent-ss - Ocean-ss - Outer God-ss]. My business partner and National Road Management Corps Chief Noh Do-hwa, with whom I consulted whenever I had such thoughts, maintained a calm expression in the operations room. ¡°From my perspective, you seem more dangerous¡¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I didn¡¯t necessarily agree with Noh Do-hwa¡¯s point, but I adjusted the strategy. ¡°As I mentioned, ¡®She Who Must Not Be Named¡¯ is dangerous to all humans, not just me. Everyone projects their ideal type onto her, so no matter how emotionally detached I am, I can¡¯t help but fall for her.¡± ¡°Damn. I don¡¯t even know where to start tackling this... First, was your ideal type pink hair¡?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a trivial issue, Chief. But by addressing the above issue, we can form the following hypothesis. If someone has no emotions at all, they might be safe from ¡®She Who Must Not Be Named,¡¯ right?¡± ¡°Hmm? A person with no emotions? Does such a person exist¡?¡± ¡°More precisely, it should be someone who has their feelings of affection for others, in other words, the ability to like someone, suppressed. Go Yuri¡¯s perception maniption starts from there.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°¡¡¡± We turned our heads almost simultaneously. ¡°Hmm?¡± Scratch, scratch. There, the operations control officer of the National Road Management Corps, Yu Ji-won, was carving wood with a knife. She was carving pieces to use on the chessboard [Mini Map]. ¡°Why are you looking at me?¡± The high-intelligence psychopath tilted her head. Yu Ji-won. Her personal color is silver. Her Pok¨¦mon type¡ who cares. Anyway, she¡¯s a psychopath. Investing much time to exin her would be a waste of life. Comparing her to Go Yuri, there was nothing she could win in except appearance. As unrealistic as it seems, Yu Ji-won was incredibly beautiful. It was just an objective truth I couldn¡¯t distort. Among the awakeners in Korea, the two rivals for top appearance were Go Yuri and Yu Ji-won. Thisnd had no hope. That¡¯s right. I always assigned Yu Ji-won to monitor Go Yuri. On the map of Korea spread out in the operations room, a ck bishop (?) with the word ¡°Go Yuri¡± engraved on it was always moving around. ¡°Ji-won, you need to contact ¡®She Who Must Not Be Named.¡¯ Naturally, you must never let her know I sent you. Most importantly, if I sense even a hint that you¡¯re brainwashed, I will iste you immediately.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Yu Ji-won stroked her chin. To stroke her chin in front of someone else and go ¡°Hmm¡± was such an obvious sign of a psychopath that it was chilling. ¡°Your Excellency, I have a condition.¡± ¡°What condition?¡± ¡°When you move to the next cycle, please get me something.¡± This was the sound of a born maniac. If Yu Ji-won were an ordinary psychopath, ¡®Huh? The next cycle¡¯s me? That¡¯s apletely different person from me now, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯ll pursue my current happiness.¡¯ ¡®I¡¯ll live for myself now.¡¯ That¡¯s how she would have thought, but no. Our psychopath had extraordinary brain patterns. ¡®Hmm. If that person (Undertaker) causes the world to regress, no matter how hard I work to umte wealth and power, it would all disappear with one click of regression, wouldn¡¯t it?¡¯ ¡®Why should my power and safety disappear because of a click bug?¡¯ ¡®But I can¡¯t kill the regressor.¡¯ ¡®Therefore, I must cling to the regressor.¡¯ ¡®In other words¡ I must negotiate with the regressor to pass more power and information to the next cycle¡¯s me. Then, even more in the next cycle. If I continue to inherit the legacy¡¡¯ ¡®The ultimate victory will be mine.¡¯ ¡®I will now go all-in on the regressor coin.¡¯ This was the outrageous thought process she had reached. How do I know this? Because she told me directly. Now, I am confident that no further exnation is needed as to why I consider this good-looking maniac to be insane. At least, I have never seen a character in any work of fiction involving infinite regression with such a brain flow. Reality always easily triumphs over fiction. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Do you even have an idea how many times I¡¯ve heard that from you?¡± ¡°No. But your statement just now reassures me that I¡¯m sane in any cycle. It¡¯sforting.¡± ¡°I think we need to rece the word ¡®sane¡¯ with something else¡¡± ¡°Hmm. Intelligent? Reasonable? Clever?¡± ¡°It¡¯s like the exact opposites of all those words fit perfectly.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± In the end, I had to make another promise to Yu Ji-won. For the record, she¡¯s ranked at a depth of 1,000 meters in my cafe¡¯s system. She started at 100 meters. I don¡¯t need to exin how she crawled from 100 meters to 1,000 meters. I¡¯ll just add that I¡¯m very good at keeping promises. I dispatched Yu Ji-won and followed her. Of course, maintaining a strict distance of hundreds of meters. Go Yuri was running a soup kitchen in Daejeon. She distributed food twice a day, morning and evening, in exchange for somebor from ordinary people. I watched the scene through binocrs. Seeing Go Yuri smiling brightly while wearing an apron, my teeth couldn¡¯t help but chatter. The apron even had Chinese characters on it. Three Kingdoms (Èý‡øÖ¾). ¡®Scary! Go Yuri!¡¯ I shuddered. ¡®Even in such a moment, you try to bewitch my mind! Do you think I would feel any affection for you just because of that?¡¯ Moreover, the apron was not blue or red, but green, the symbol of the Shu Han. Truly formidable brainwashing! My hands trembled. Forcing the binocrs aside, I saw our ultimate weapon of the National Road Management Corps, the silver-haired psychopath, walking steadily. And¨D¨D ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± The two entities met. The one who absolutely creates affection and the one who absolutely does not feel affection. In other words¡ a contradiction! Just their contact alone seemed to break thews of the universe and insult social ethics, creating a meeting that should never have happened in proper history due to a bizarre twist of fate (me). My heart swelled involuntarily. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 120 The Brainwasher II And thus, the collision of two ck holes brought about the end of the sr system... Unfortunately, such an ending did not ur. The world was fine. The encounter between Go Yuri and Yu Ji-won did not cause any macro-level disturbances. Given that the universe manages to endure decades under the colonial rule of countless monsters, it was surprisingly resilient. ¡°¡¡. ¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡? ¡¡. ¡¡.¡± From a distance, the two were having a conversation. I couldn¡¯t eavesdrop as they were out of my hearing range. Besides, the conversation content would likely be distorted due to Go Yuri¡¯s [Perception Maniption]. Go Yuri bowed slightly. She handed over something indistinguishable, perhaps a business card or a letter. Yu Ji-won epted it and bowed her head as well.A momentter, Yu Ji-won returned as if nothing had happened. I hurriedly approached Yu Ji-won. ¡°What did you talk about? What was your impression of Go Yuri? Did you feel an inexplicable desire to agree with her?¡± ¡°Pardon? No?¡± Yu Ji-won responded with a sentence that exemplified the subtlety of the Koreannguage. ¡°We just had a conversation. It went very smoothly.¡± ¡°Oh¡!¡± I sighed. So even a psychopath couldn¡¯t resist Go Yuri¡¯s power. ¡°¡I see. It must have been a special experience for you. It¡¯s probably the first time you¡¯ve felt even a small amount of positive emotion toward a human. When will you ever have such an experience again?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Yu Ji-won tilted her head. ¡°Excuse me, sir, but I don¡¯t understand what you¡¯re saying. I did not feel any affection toward the target.¡± Now it was my turn to tilt my head. ¡°What do you mean? You just said the conversation went well.¡± ¡°Yes? It did.¡± Then, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, Yu Ji-won stated expressionlessly, ¡°How does having a smooth conversation equate to feeling affection for the other person?¡± ? ¡°Sir, a smooth conversation bringsfort. More precisely, it¡¯s the satisfaction of not having to waste excessive dialogue to enhance mutual understanding, thus saving time. It¡¯s like taking the subway instead of walking to school, which is much faster and more convenient. That doesn¡¯t mean you feel human affection for the subway train, right?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Ah. My apologies, sir. Everyone has different tastes. Do you perhaps have a fondness for subway trains?¡± Of course, I didn¡¯t. One person with a bizarre attachment to railways was enough. But listening to Yu Ji-won¡¯s lengthy exnation, I had a revtion. ¡®Maybe it could work! With Go Yuri! If this unparalleled psychopath can avoid [Perception Maniption], it might just be a miracle!¡¯ I couldn¡¯t hide my excitement as I grabbed Yu Ji-won¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°From now on, use any means necessary to get close to ¡®He Who Must Not Be Named.¡¯ Be friends, or whatever it takes, and observe her every move. Report everything to me. Can you do that?¡± ¡°Of course, sir. Leave it to me. But...¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll make sure your will is conveyed to the next cycle¡¯s you.¡± ¡°I swear my loyalty, sir.¡± A silent understanding passed between us. The Saintess, who had been quietly observing the situation, muttered. [Mr. Undertaker, I¡¯ve been wondering whether to point this out, but... Isn¡¯t it obvious that you¡¯re stalking Go Yuri?] It wasn¡¯t worth considering. As if I¡¯d stalk someone who runs a soup kitchen for free, wearing a green Three Kingdoms apron, smiling politely at everyone. Do I look like that kind of person? Ridiculous. From that day, Operation "Paradox" wasunched. The strongest shield in Korea, a character who would always have a warning in any work [¡ùThis character is a side character and cannot be conquered], was deployed right in the middle of Daejeon. Yes. Yu Ji-won stayed in Daejeon and contacted Go Yuri daily. Since Go Yuri had to report to the soup kitchen every morning and evening, she had no way to avoid Yu Ji-won. On the second day, nothing unusual happened. The two seemed to have a warm conversation. The same on the third day. And the fourth day. Finally, on the fifth day. [Mr. Undertaker, something strange seems to be happening with Yu Ji-won.] I felt a nibble on the line. ¡°What kind of strange urrence?¡± [¡It¡¯s hard to exin, but when Ms. Yu leaves her lodging and starts walking, strangers approach her and strike up conversations.] ¡°Hmm. Maybe people are just entranced by her Hermes-grade face.¡± [You¡¯re the first person I¡¯ve heard describe someone¡¯s good looks that way... No, it¡¯s really strange. You shoulde and see for yourself.] So I did. I discreetly followed Yu Ji-won without being noticed. ¡°Oh, Ms. Yu! I happened to get some lucky apples. Please, take one. Oh, don¡¯t worry about the money. Just take it! You¡¯re so pretty, I can¡¯t help it!¡± ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll enjoy it.¡± ¡°Wow! It¡¯s Ms. Yu! Let¡¯s y together today! Come swing with us in the yground!¡± ¡°Yes. If I have time in the evening.¡± ¡As the Saintess had said, it was a strange scene. Every time Yu Ji-won walked down the street, people of all kinds approached her to talk. I¡¯ve mentioned several times that Yu Ji-won was as beautiful as a crystal sculpture carved from eternal ice. She always had a perpetual frostiness about her due to herck of expression. Would it be easy to approach such a person and start a friendly conversation? Even if they did, they¡¯d receive a reply with a monotonous voice and emotionless eyes behind sses. In short, there was no reward for being friendly. Yet people approached Yu Ji-won as if it was the most enjoyable thing, continuously striking up conversations. ¡°Saintess, please connect me to Yu Ji-won telepathically. I need to check her mental state.¡± [Alright. ¡Connection established. I¡¯ll ry Ms. Yu¡¯s words. Please speakfortably.] ¡°Thank you. Hey, Ji-won. Are you okay?¡± [I¡¯m fine.] Yu Ji-won¡¯s response, ryed through the Saintess¡¯s voice, was utterly nonchnt. ¡°From what I see, Daejeon has already fallen to She Who Must Not Be Named. At least, the people who talk to you are definitely enchanted by She Who Must Not Be Named. They¡¯re trying to keep you in the city by any means.¡± [Hmm. I also found it strange. But if their aim is to win my favor, their tactics are shallow.] ¡°What?¡± [It¡¯s annoying.] ¡°¡¡.¡± [When the restaurant owner recognizes me and makes small talk, I don¡¯t show it, but I find it bothersome. The whole street feels like one big, annoying restaurant.] The next day. The city of Daejeon fell silent. ¡°¡¡.¡± Yu Ji-won left her lodging, but no one approached her. Thedy who gave her apples the day before, the kids who begged her to y, all passed by her expressionlessly as if they didn¡¯t know her. I couldn¡¯t help but be terrified. [Now, this isfortable.] Yu Ji-won wasn¡¯t shaken at all. Her feelings were simply akin to being lucky to find an empty seat by the window in a cafe. Despite the sudden cold shoulder from the city¡¯s residents who had been clinging to her the day before, she showed no signs of unease or confusion. But this meant¡ Yu Ji-won had won. No interactions, no bewitchment! Then, the city truly went berserk. ¡°Ahhh!¡± A resident ran and collided with Yu Ji-won. The resident lost bnce and fell. At that moment, screech¡ªcrash! A truck passed by and crashed into a building. The resident got up and grabbed Yu Ji-won¡¯s hand. ¡°Thank you! Really, thank you! If I hadn¡¯t bumped into you, I would¡¯ve been hit by the truck and died! You saved my life!¡± ¡°Yes. Take care of your life.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± As soon as Yu Ji-won entered a bakery, the staff lined up and set off fireworks. ¡°Congrattions! You are the 100,000th customer since our opening! As a special event, we will give you five items free every day from now on¡.¡± ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t prefer such events. Please give it to the next customer. I¡¯ll take a baguette if you have one.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Everywhere Yu Ji-won went, she was saved from ¡®coincidental idents,¡¯ and ¡®amazing probabilities¡¯ of good fortune found her. Yu Ji-won ignored all of it. [Why did I ignore them? Because following your orders, Your Excellency, is far more advantageous than forming friendly rtions with those people.] [They won¡¯t take care of my next cycle, will they?] Using the funds I provided, Yu Ji-won ate what she wanted and bought what she wanted, simply going to the za twice a day to chat briefly with Go Yuri. In short, she livedfortably, doing what she wanted in this end-of-the-world scenario. Conversely, maybe it was just my imagination, but the residents¡¯ faces seemed to grow more haggard by the day. Bang! Bang-bang, bang! By the 30th day, a gunfight broke out near Yu Ji-won¡¯s lodging. The following scene was reconstructed based on Yu Ji-won¡¯ster testimony. Right after the gunfire, a man with a gunshot wound on his arm pounded on Yu Ji-won¡¯s door. ¡°Please help! Please open the door! I¡¯ll repay you!¡± Before the host could respond, the door opened on its own. Yu Ji-won, who had been reading a Latin book by the window, raised an eyebrow in annoyance. ¡°What is it this time?¡± ¡°Oh. I¡¯m the head of the top guild in this city. My subordinate backstabbed me. But¡ he couldn¡¯t kill me despite the surprise attack. My brothers will avenge me.¡± ¡°Ha.¡± ¡°If you hadn¡¯t opened the door, I¡¯d be dead in the hallway. Thank you. I¡¯ll give you everything in this city¡!¡± Yu Ji-won put down her book and walked over. For the record, Yu Ji-won was the operations manager of the National Road Management Corps and, in a cycle when we exterminated the Meteor Shower, she led one of the 12 squads. In other words, Yu Ji-won was second only to me in aura maniption. A warlord with a bullet wound in his arm was no match for her. Yu Ji-won lifted the guild leader effortlessly, like a chicken. ¡°Huh?¡± Then she opened the door and tossed him into the hallway. The guild members aiming to betray him flinched. Yu Ji-won spoke to the assassins. ¡°What are you doing? Aren¡¯t you going to kill him?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll go back to reading, so don¡¯t disturb me.¡± Boom. The door closed. That was the scene reconstructed from Yu Ji-won¡¯s memory. No more gunfire was heard in the hallway. That night. A strange sound echoed in the dark sky over Daejeon. -Oooo¡¡. Ooo¡¡ -Hehehe, hehehe! Hehe! It sounded like the cries of beasts, the roars of tigers, and the countlessughter of children. All the sounds mixed and echoed simultaneously. Even I had never experienced such a phenomenon. ¡°Saintess, can you observe what¡¯s happening in the city?¡± [I¡¯m sorry. I can¡¯t see anything. It seems all the awakeners in Daejeon are either asleep or for some other reason, I can only see darkness.] ¡°¡¡¡± [If you permit, I can go to Ms. Go Yuri.] ¡°No.¡± I responded immediately. I had a gut feeling. This state was not achieved through the ¡®correct strategy.¡¯ It felt like using a cheat code to unlock an ending in a game. The problem was that this was far from a happy ending. Whatever was awakened forcibly must be incredibly enraged. ¡°Go Yuri, or the entity overshadowing her, can enchant and control the entire city¡¯s poption. Confirming this information alone is a great achievement. Any further contact is dangerous.¡± [Understood.] ¡°What about Yu Ji-won?¡± [Just as dark. The same as the other awakeners.] The bizarre cacophony continued throughout the night. Yu Ji-won¡¯s whereabouts were revealed when morning came. At 7 AM, she woke up and walked out of her lodging as if nothing had happened. I immediately entered Daejeon and contacted Yu Ji-won. I asked if she had heard the strange noisesst night. ¡°Noises?¡± Yu Ji-won tilted her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Your Excellency. Since the fourth grade, I¡¯ve been wearing an eye mask and earplugs to sleep.¡± With daylight, not only did the cacophony disappear, but the city¡¯s residents also vanished. The Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance] still couldn¡¯t observe anything. The only visible awakener was Yu Ji-won. Even when I deployed Yu Ji-won¡¯s [Mini Map], the result was the same. Neither Go Yuri nor any other Awakeners in Daejeon responded. It was as if they had evaporated in an instant. After that day, until the end of the cycle, neither Go Yuri nor the citizens of Daejeon reappeared. ¡°Oh.¡± Yu Ji-won pulled something out of her pocket. It was a letter. An item that would serve as the epilogue for this episode. ¡°Your Excellency, please ept this.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Ms. Go Yuri asked me to deliver this letter to you.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°To be precise, she asked me to deliver it to [the first person I meet after I can no longer run the soup kitchen].¡± I hesitated but took the letter. I opened the envelope. A sweet apple scent wafted out. -Ö\ÊÂÔÚÈË, ³ÉÊÂÔÚÌì. -nning is man¡¯s work; achieving it is heaven¡¯s. ¡°¡¡.¡± Mosa jaein, Seongsa jaecheon. A phrase from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Simr in meaning to ¡°Do your best and leave the rest to heaven,¡± it could be given to anyone. But the fact that it was a phrase from Romance of the Three Kingdoms shook my heart uneasily. ¡®Could it be that she knew I sent Yu Ji-won?¡¯ ¡More importantly, I knew Go Yuri¡¯s handwriting. She had once been part of my guild, so it was natural. The handwriting on this letter was distinctly different from Go Yuri¡¯s writing back then. Perhaps this phrase was the first genuine aspect of Go Yuri I had ever seen. The first trace not filtered by [Perception Maniption]. I turned the letter over. -The butterfly of the typhoon and the butterfly in the dream are different beings. My entire body tingled as if struck by static electricity. A phrase hinting at the existence of the blue Morpho butterfly of the anomaly ¡®Butterfly Effect¡¯ and the butterfly that appeared at the end of ¡®Logout Game.¡¯ A message only I could decipher in this world¡ and simultaneously, one of the pieces of information I was most curious about at the time. How much did Go Yuri know? Or was this simply a reflection of the information I wanted to see, like a mirror? From where had I been enchanted? ¡°¡Ji-won, when did you receive this letter?¡± ¡°Oh. On the first day, when we parted.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°She promised no harm woulde to me as long as I delivered the letter. It was a fair deal.¡± Yu Ji-won tilted her head. ¡°Is there something strange written in it, sir?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± I remained silent. Just folding the apple-scented letter, I pondered once more. ¨D¨DIn the end, the strongest spear and the strongest shield would always result in a draw. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 121 Dreamer I Before I knew it, my story surpassed 120 chapters. I didn''t count the numbers myself; ording to Oh Dok-seo, it was true. Though I wasn''t sure, ''self-proimed web novel expert'' Oh Dok-seo insisted that the number 120 had symbolic significance. "Got it, mister? Anyway, I need 120 chapters. You have to hand over 120 chapters without any setbacks." "Why?" "Because I''m nning to stockpile up to 120 chapters and release them all at once on the tform*... Ah, damn. Do you even understand when I exin? You haven''t even looked at a web novel before the Advent of the Void." *This novel was released with 120 chapters on kakaopage in April 2024. "Yeah.""Anyway, 120 chapters! I need at least 120 chapters. I''m saying this because I have a n!" Oh Dok-seo scratched at me as if she were my editor. In reality, she did perform the role of an editor. What could an old and sick person like me do? I had to follow the young one''s lead. However, the method of writing was up to me. I preferred the traditional method. I wrote by hand in a notebook and handed it to Oh Dok-seo. Sometimes, I went even more traditional and told the stories orally. When I let Oh Dok-seo experience the old traditions lost by the younger generation, she looked moved. "Seriously... Damn. How can you do this? You need to give me usable manuscripts." I was a kind author to my editor. So I answered ording to Oh Dok-seo''s intellectual level. "Not my problem." "......" "Good luck." My role was merely to tell the story. If I were asked to edit, revise, proofread, and format it, that would be difficult for me. Not because it was bothersome, but because the life of a regressor was busy. If my story was released somewhere officially and an error was found, it wouldn''t be my fault. It would be entirely Oh Dok-seo''s fault. Would someone like me, who possessed [Complete Memory], make mistakes? Between us, if any typos were observed, you could me "Ms. Oh Dok-seo". Though she had a chuunibyou otaku personality, she had a kind heart, so please understand her with your broad minds. Anyway, since 120 chapters was a milestone number, it seemed like a good opportunity to summarize the cities of the Korean Penins that appeared in my story so far. Let''s call it a newly crafted map in the apocalypse era. Here''s the note I handed over to Oh Dok-seo while exining the current situation: ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Busan] The headquarters of the National Road Management Corps. Food produced through the ''Sword Marquess'' in the Gimhae ins and Kyushu is stored in Busan. The patrol teams of the National Road Management Corps also act as merchants, transporting food and supplies from Busan nationwide. Therefore, patrol teams are sometimes called "caravans." Judicial and military powers in Busan are exercised by the Samcheon World Guild. The National Road Management Corps and Samcheon are in a blood alliance. Thest hope of the Korean Penins. Power outages and water shortages ur frequently, but with the romance of rainwater and candlelight, there are no problems. Cheers to those living today. - Key Figures: Noh Do-hwa, Dang Seo-rin, Yu Ji-won, Old Man Scho''s corpse. [Daejeon] A massive refugee city. Most refugees and disced people from the Korean Penins gather here. Near Daejeon, many creatures mutated by the Void Poison live. Using this ecosystem, Daejeon produces its own food. However, the safety of the food is not guaranteed. Managed by the Satisfaction Guild, which is practically controlled by Pink Hair. If you don''t value your life, please visit and enjoy the city. - Key Figure: Voldemort. [Sejong] A prominent holy city of the Korean Penins along with Pyongyang. The county of Cheon Yo-hwa, by Cheon Yo-hwa, for Cheon Yo-hwa. The Baekhwa Guild,posed of alumni from Baekhwa Girls'' High School, strongly dominates the city. Originally, the guild members of Baekhwa were descendants of families that worshipped a pseudo-religion called Cheonilgyo, and they still serve Cheon Yo-hwa. Although Cheon Yo-hwa herself despises pseudo-religions, the city''s operations make it look like a cult''s headquarters. If you''re tired of living in the apocalypse, go to Sejong and curse Cheon Yo-hwa. Rmended phrase: "No matter how you look at it, isn''t wearing a school uniform a bit crazy?" This way, you can take a biology ss and realize how many organs you have in your body. - Key Figure: Cheon Yo-hwa. [Seoul] The frontline. South of the Han River has been scorched. Boasts the cheapest housing prices on the Korean Penins. A defense line is formed to block the monsters constantly pouring in from the north. All bridges except for Jamsu Bridge and Seongsu Bridge have been destroyed for security reasons. Originally, my hideout was also in Seoul, but since the Inunaki Tunnel was renovated, Cheon Yo-hwa''s Baekhwa Guild has been defending Seoul. If you are a nostalgic person still wanting a Han River view, it is highly rmended. Just note that with the Han River view, you also get a monster view. - Key Figure: Saintess. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D There are many other cities like Jeju, Naju, and Pyongyang, but since they haven''t been covered in my story yet, I''ll skip them. "Hey, mister." Once you summarize and look at the map, you might start thinking like Oh Dok-seo. "Isn''t it doable after all?" "Hmm." "Food production is smooth, power is well-organized around Busan, and Cheon Yo-hwa follows you fervently. Saving the world might be impossible, but saving the Korean Penins seems definitely possible, right?" "Not sure." Sorry, but it''s not that easy. You must have witnessed Daejeon disappearing overnight in thest story. Let me say it again. This world hates humans. First, I need to point out that maps created when the world was intact are of no use. Because this world is very serious about giving humanity a big middle finger. If the National Road Management Corps blindly sends a patrol caravan, incidents like the following happen frequently. -Oh no, this is bad. Daejeon should appear around here. Why do we keep going in circles? -Team Leader, it''s a big problem. We''ve been wandering around this area for 14 days now. Posting on SG Net gets noments at all... -14 days? What are you talking about, Assistant Team Leader? It''s only been 4 days. -What? Missing. Disappearance. Vanishing. Despite crossing a distance equivalent to only two bus stops, it takes more than half a month in terms of time. They think they are walking on a path, but suddenly they find themselves heading towards the bottom of a pond. Where the river should flow, a salt mine appears, and where the mountain should be, a vastke stretches to the horizon. A literalbyrinth. A world consumed by the void is no different from a huge maze, abyrinthos. In this world, my role is to break through thebyrinth. Ifpared to Greek mythology, I would be Theseus, who navigated the maze and roasted Minotaur steak. "Undertaker." "Hmm? What is it?" "The 21st patrol team has been stationary on my map for three hours." "Not moving at all?" "No." "The power poles? The power lines?" "They seem to be cut. The reports that were regrly posted on SG Net stopped 180 minutes ago." "Ah... They''re trapped in the void again. That''s why sending patrols near Daejeon always causes trouble. Saintess? Are you watching?" [Yes, I am.] "Please send a message to the 21st patrol team in the name of the constetions. Tell them not to panic and wait at their location. A rescue team is on its way." [Are you going to check it out yourself?] "Yes, I need to repair the power lines if they''re cut." [Understood.] Yu Ji-won''s ''Mini Map'' and Saintess'' ''Telepathy''. Thanks to their assistance, I managed to connect cities in this harsh apocalypse. Though it was impossible to control vast areas, ruling the lines between them was still feasible. And of course, besides Saintess and Yu Ji-won, many talents assisted the National Road Management Corps. "Ha-yul." "Yeah?" "They said the power lines are cut again. Let''s goy the threads." If Theseus was to navigate the maze, he would need Ariadne. The Puppeteer Lee Ha-yul. This kid, who spun puppet strings like a spider, was also indispensable in managing the roads of the Korean Penins. When I ran with Ha-yul on my back, I quickly found the 21st patrol team sitting in the middle of the forest. It seemed they had been trapped in the void for quite some time, as their faces looked utterly exhausted. "Ah...! Undertaker!" The team leader of the patrol recognized me and brightened up. My official position within the National Road Management Corps changed with each cycle, but I was always treated with respect by the team members. "You came!" "Yeah. You''ve all worked hard." I took out chocte and Ha-yul from my backpack. Ha-yul walked around on her own, and I distributed the chocte to the team members. "How many days have you been stranded?" "From my perspective, it''s the 15th day. But since the days each member perceives are different, it''s not urate." "Thoroughly bewitched. What about the sun?" "I observed the direction as per the guidelines, but on the 1st day, it rose in the south, on the 2nd day, it rose in the east, on the 3rd day, it rose in the north, and so on. The direction changed daily." "The moon?" "I always saw one, but there was one testimony from a member that they saw three moons." "Any missing members?" "No. We always moved in groups of three." Of course, that couldn''t be true. Given how deeply the void had consumed even the celestial phenomena, the possibility of everyone returning safely was slim. Upon checking, I found the patrol team, which should have had 24 members, reduced to 21. However, none of the remaining members recognized or remembered the missing three. I sighed deeply. ''At this rate, I''ll really have to clear a separate path near Daejeon.'' At that moment, Ha-yul looked at me. She busily moved her tiny hands. -Found. Broken ce. It was signnguage. Usually, Ha-yul had a puppet she carried around to speak for her, but we had left it behind in our haste this time. Still, wemunicated well with each other through signnguage. Sometimes, we even chatted in Japanese signnguage. "Where?" -Here. Swoosh¡ª Ha-yul waved her hand, and a thin puppet string rose from the ground. The string was broken in the middle. Transmission Line. The puppet strings Ha-yul produced were not only used for the security of the guild hideout. Underneath the roads used by the National Road Management Corps, weid puppet strings. Ha-yul''s puppet strings exhibited near room-temperature superconductor performance limited to aura. If skilled in aura, one could even send Morse code through the strings. Most importantly, the ''Transmission Line'' was truly Ariadne''s thread for the patrol teams. In the void, constetion phenomena andpasses were easily nullified. In such a maze, Ha-yul''s puppet strings were the ''only objective indicators.'' Ha-yul and I buried the puppet strings only along the safest paths. In other words, as long as the patrol members moved along the strings infused with aura, they could at least avoid dangerous areas. However, the moment the strings were broken, the survival rate of the patrol members plummeted. "Why do you think it broke?" -Don''t know. Presumably due to creatures living underground. "Ha... This is the umpteenth time near this area. I really should abandon the Daejeon route and only use the Sejong route." -Is it okay? "The more we do this, the more Daejeon will be isted and the voidification will worsen, but what can we do? Let''s bury the line a bit deeper this time." -Okay. Puppet strings flowed out from under Ha-yul''s nails. The strings cut through the ground like a cake and sank. Thud¡ª In the meantime, I brought and nted a power pole. Power poles were easy to find anywhere in the country, and they served as a perfect marker indicating ''there''s a transmission line underground here.'' The repair work was quickly finished but the real rescue operation was just beginning. "Team Leader Park." "Yes, Undertaker." "Take your team and head up to Sejong. I''ll join you after finishing some business around here." "Understood. Thank you!" The patrol caravan moved. If it had been after the 380th cycle, Byojoki and Kongkongi would have pulled the carts, but unfortunately, this incident happened in the 205th cycle. The patrol members pushed handcarts themselves and moved away. "Alright. Let''s finish this quickly and return. Ha-yul, get on." -Okay. Ha-yul jumped and clung to my back like a sloth. I scoured the surrounding area with the regressor''s unique walking technique. Ha-yul, from behind, stretched her hands and formed signnguage. -Fun. Fun. Fun. "......" This kid liked riding on my back. She said it felt like riding a roller coaster. Anyway, after an hour of searching, we couldn''t find the missing members. Just when I was about to give up and go back, something that shouldn''t appear in the void caught my eye. -Oppa, over there. "...Yeah. I see it too." Thunk. I stopped walking. [DREAM CASINO] shing. Pink and red neon signs shone brightly. In a situation where even in Busan, where power outages urred daily, I wondered where they got such power. "A casino...?" ...It seemed the missing members had turned into gamblers. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 122 Dreamer II It had been so long that I couldn''t remember, but before I became an awakener, in my first cycle, I must have been a pretty decent young man. Smoking? I didn''t do it. Drinking? Not really. Of course, I never got addicted to gambling either. Except for the fact that I re-rolled my life over 1,000 times to see the best ending. -Oppa. I''m curious. I want to go inside. "Hold on." Therefore, even though Ha-yul tugged at my sleeve as soon as she saw the casino, I, a morally upright young man, didn''t give in easily. Instead, I drew my sword first. A single sh.An abrupt strike. My signature weapon, the cane-sword Do-hwa, sliced the world diagonally in half. Rumble¡ª Dust rose from all directions. A part of the casino building, which had started illegal operations in the void, copsed without resistance. "......! ......!" Ha-yul jumped around excitedly beside me, but it was just a silent scream. No matter how curious I was, it was crucial to test whether ''physical force worked'' on the opponent. It wasn''t just because I was the type of TRPG yer who would suggest to the Game Master, "Can I fetch gasoline and burn down the house from the outside?" before entering a suspicious mansion. Simply determining if physical force was effective allowed me to gauge the danger level of the void and the monsters. I calmly observed the reaction of that ''casino anomaly.'' "Hiieeeeek!" And then I witnessed an astonishing sight. Tiny creatures came rushing out from the casino entrance, shrieking and iling. "The headquarters is copsing!" "Hiieeek! An earthquake? Is it an earthquake?" "That''s impossible! Our revolutionary front base was built in the safest area of the Korean Penins, considering all possible natural disasters." "But an earthquake is happening!" "Comrade 107! How can you deny the reality of a disaster happening right before our eyes with your petty bourgeois attitude?" "I cannot endure self-criticism anymore." "Hiiek! Comrades! Please, no purging!" They were none other than the Tutorial Fairies. The avatars of the Fairy King, a subordinate of the Outer God Infinite Void. In short, they were just imitations of imitations, rushing out to repair the building. ''...Why are they here again?'' I was dumbfounded. I sheathed my cane-sword and approached the fairies. Tap, tap. I tapped the shoulder of the nearest fairy. "Hey." "Hoeh? Is it a human guest? Sorry, but due to a sudden earthquake disaster, our establishment is temporarily... heeeek? Undertaker!" The fairy flipped over. Other fairies, who were ondders holding hammers and tools, all looked this way simultaneously. "Undertaker? Why? Why is the Undertaker here?" "The Nightmare of Busan Station!" "The Tyrant of Baekhwa Girls'' High!" "Comrade 107! What is this? Didn''t you assure us that this ce would never be discovered?" "Hiyyyyyak! Run! Run away! If we get caught by that bastard again, our whole race will be annihted!" The fairies scattered in all directions, but it wasn''t a very smart move. Sometimes, in RPG battles, the ''Run Away''mand doesn''t work, and this was one of those times. "Ha-yul." -Yes. Spider silk shot out from Ha-yul''s fingertips. Shortly after, all 27 fairies were wrapped in spider silk and delivered in front of me. "Hiek, hieek..." "Hey. Weren''t you all exterminated along with the Fairy King when Infinite Void was sealed? What are you doing hiding in this backwater?" The fairies trembled. "The Fairy King was just our oppressor...! We never truly submitted to that creature!" "Oh. So, you mean there''s a faction for the king and a revolutionary faction? But wasn''t that just part of your setting? Are you still living with that revolutionary stuff?" "Saying it''s just a setting! No! We are very serious!" The following fairy''s words were quite shocking. "We originally lived well without the Fairy King! But that terrifying entity created the Fairy King to oppress us!" "...Huh?" "Now that the Fairy King has perished, we have finally achieved the long-desired liberation of our fairies! However, due to prolonged oppression, our national capital is limited... Thus, we reluctantly entered the gambling business to raise revolutionary funds...!" "Revolution is innocent!" After gathering the suspects'' testimonies and information, I reached a startling truth. "So, you mean you had nothing to do with the Outer God Infinite Void, but Infinite Void created the Fairy King and just forcefully ruled over you?" "Exactly!" "So, the division between those who followed the Fairy King and those who didn''t was real... There were royalists and republicans?" "Have you been listening with your ears or a toilet bowl, human!" Goodness. Yes, in fact, the ''Tutorial Fairies'' had nothing to do with Infinite Void. Infinite Void had created the puppet dictator Fairy King to oppress the fairies. It was a form of colonial rule. However, after I and Cheon Yo-hwa exterminated Infinite Void, the situation drastically changed. The fairies suddenly found themselves liberated and scattered everywhere, turning into guerris with a determination never to be dominated by a colossal anomaly again. The casino established here... the so-called ''Dream Casino'' was a business run by guerri fairies. The reason for its operation? To build a fairy anomalymunity by the fairies, for the fairies, and of the fairies! ''Indeed, all the anomalies at Baekhwa Girls'' High were ghosts, but the Tutorial Fairies felt somewhat out of ce.'' Who would''ve thought such a secret was hidden? As I marveled at the wealth of information I didn''t know about the world, Ha-yul jumped up and down next to me. -Oppa. Oppa. "Hmm?" -Over there. I want to look around. Apparently, Ha-yul had been very interested in the casino from the beginning. Well, since the danger had been confirmed to be almost non-existent. "Hey, little ones. Give us a tour of how this casino operates." "Hieek. That''s nonsense! We can''t reveal the interior of our revolutionary base to a bourgeois oppressor...!" "Should I call Cheon Yo-hwa and ask her to put you in the hourss where Infinite Void was sealed?" "A tactical retreat for strategic advancement is understandable even among proletarianrades...!" We entered the casino. Fortunately or unfortunately, the missing members of the caravan were found inside. More precisely, not in the casino but in the hotel built above the casino, where all three were fast asleep. "What? Why are they all sleeping? Is this your doing?" "Hieek...! T-This was done with mutual consent! At our casino, we exchange the chips that guests win for dreams instead of money!" "Exchange for dreams?" "Yes! Look at our menu...!" A fairy pulled something out of its bosom. It was arge menu. It was far too big to fit into the fairy''s body, but instead of nitpicking, I decided to read it. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ??*?~Feels like walking in a dream~??*? Wee to our ¡ºDREAM¡» casino ?(?¦Å? )?! We sincerely wee you!???)? ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Rip. I reflexively tore up the menu. "Hieek? What are you doing!" "Sorry. It''s my instinct..." "Is your instinct to tear up menus when you enter a store? That''s scary! We put a lot of effort into making these with good paper, so don''t waste them!" Hmm. I calmly received another menu and read it again. This time, for the sake of my mental health, I excluded the emoticons and only narrated the contents of the menu inly. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Dream Casino Guide] *Wee! *At ''Dream Casino,'' guests can enjoy various games using Fairy Coins. Fairy Coins are purchased with your ''time.'' *Rate: 1 hour = 1 Fairy Coin. *To use the entertainment facilities in this casino, you must bet at least 1 Fairy Coin. *Fairy Coins can be exchanged for the following rewards: - 10 Fairy Coins: Enjoy afortable dream for a night. Guaranteed sound sleep. Dream content is unspecified. You can freely set the time from a minimum of 2 hours to a maximum of 24 hours. - 50 Fairy Coins: Enhance a specific sense in the dream. Vision, smell, taste, etc. The memory of the sense is likely to remain rtively clear after the dream ends. - 100 Fairy Coins: Choose a specific location in the dream. Any space within 100 square meters (e.g., a top-ss restaurant before the end times). Movement beyond the set range is impossible. You can decorate the scenery seen through the windows for 10 Fairy Coins. Please consult with a staff member for detailed settings! - 1,000 Fairy Coins: Choose a person to appear in the dream. Even someone who no longer exists in reality is possible. - 2,000 Fairy Coins: Set the rtionship between yourself and the person in the dream. Please consult with a staff member for detailed settings! - 3,000 Fairy Coins: Set your own appearance in the dream. Change of appearance, social status, forgery of resume, gender change, age change are all possible. Please consult with a staff member for detailed settings! . . . - 10,000,000,000 Fairy Coins: Guarantee a perfect lucid dream. Promises senses and intellect identical to reality! This item is a membership. Customers who exchange for this item will be immediately upgraded to ''VVIP'' status, and the ''lucid dream'' will be guaranteed when using other products. - 100,000,000,000 Fairy Coins: Freely set the flow of time felt in the dream. Do you want immortality? Live for 100 years in a dream during 1 second in reality! If you get tired of the dream life, you can wake up immediately. This item is a membership. Customers who exchange for this item will be immediately upgraded to ''VVVIP'' status, and the ''time speed control'' will be guaranteed when using other products. *Note: The maximum number of coins that guests can exchange at once is 9,000 Fairy Coins. *Note: This establishment may demand the repayment of the principal at midnight sharp every day. If you cannot repay the principal, your time will be confiscated for the amount of the missing coins. How the confiscated time is used is entirely up to this establishment. We wish you safe and healthy gambling. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D "......" I was at a loss for words for a moment. There were so many issues to address that I didn''t know where to start. But first, as a regressor, I asked the question I had to resolve. "Hey, do you guys... have the ability to manipte dreams?" "Hoeh? Of course." "We are dream fairies." "We couldn''t do our main job due to the oppression of the Fairy King, but our true name is Baku[1], the Dream Eaters." Shock! A truth revealed in the 205th cycle! The true identity of the Tutorial Fairies was Baku, the Dream Eaters, also known as Subi and Incubi! -Fairy Coin. 9000 coins, wish to exchange. Exciting. Next to me, Ha-yul, who seemed to have absorbed some Japanese culture, was burning with the spirit of Pachinko. I flicked her forehead and looked at the fairies. "What happens to human customers whose time is confiscated?" "Hoeh. This happens." Suddenly. One of the caravan members who had been lying on the hotel bed suddenly stood up. Ha-yul, startled, shrank back. The member was a middle-aged man. His beard was overgrown, likely because he had been trapped in the void for days. He muttered with a vacant expression, his eyes zed over. "Hoeh, hoeh, Fairy number 5000... reporting my name and rank..." "......" Silence. Both Ha-yul and I looked at the fairies, demanding an exnation. The Tutorial Fairies, no, the Baku, tilted their heads with a clueless expression. "Hoeh. That customer took out a full loan of 9000 coins and lost it all in barat in just one day. Now he has to work as arade of our Fairy Revolution Club for the next 10 years!" "That''s right!" "Hoeh! We will keep advancing without stopping until the day of revolution!" This is insane. It''s a breeding ground for anomalies. Footnotes: [1] Baku (ª… or õø) are Japanese supernatural beings that are said to devour nightmares. They originate from the chinese Mo. ording to legend, they were created by the spare pieces that were left over when the gods finished creating all other animals. They have a long history in Japanese folklore and art, and more recently have appeared in manga and anime. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 123 Dreamer III ¡°But before the revolution could even begin, we were caught by the notorious reactionary, the Undertaker...¡± ¡°Hoeek. Tears, we have tears...¡± Droop. The fairies'' bodies drooped. To reiterate, fairies were anomalies that directly challenged human physics. Not only did their shoulders slump like humans, but their entire bodies melted like slime, sticking to the ground. ¡°Why do the attempts of those who dream of a world revolution always end in disaster?¡± ¡°Failure, another failure...¡±¡°From the moment we left our homnd, we gave up wealth and honor, but seeing all the seeds of our revolution turn to ashes is truly exhausting...¡± Dark clouds began to form around the fairies'' slime bodies. Hmm. There were countless points I wanted to address, but first, I needed to clear up a major misunderstanding. ¡°Hey. I don¡¯t understand, so let me ask you something.¡± ¡°Hoe...?¡± ¡°Why am I a reactionary?¡± Blink, blink. The fairies tilted their heads in confusion. ¡°Well, you caused chaos at Busan Station and Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High, so naturally, you¡¯re our enemy. And our enemy is the enemy of the revolution.¡± ¡°That binary thinking is certainly fitting for revolutionaries, but isn''t it true that I helped you?¡± ¡°Hoeek?¡± At that moment, I felt what they call a ''kill angle.'' You could say I felt infinite possibilities. The first material humans made into a weapon was not stone but the tongue. I wielded an intangible sword. ¡°At Busan Station, you oppressed humans first, so you should be grateful that I stopped you before youmitted any evil deeds. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± ¡°¡Is that so?¡± ¡°And I defeated Infinite Void at Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High, causing the Fairy King to perish. Thanks to that, you were freed from your shackles. Aren¡¯t I your liberator?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± The fairies looked at each other. ¡°Hoe?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it, it sounds usible...¡± ¡°If self-salvation is impossible, aiming for external salvation is an eptable revolutionary methodology.¡± ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that just be epting another new oppressor?¡± Whisper, whisper. Suddenly, a revolutionary debate erupted. For revolutionaries, a debate was a type of coliseum. Those who lost were purged. I also fervently joined the debate. ¡°No, that''s not it. Did I try to dominate you after defeating Infinite Void? I left you alone.¡± ¡°Hoe.¡± The truth was, I thought they had been exterminated along with Infinite Void, so I ignored them. But in the grand scheme of revolution, minor details didn''t matter. Only the linear progression of history was important. ¡°I didn¡¯t interfere even when you gathered and opened this casino. How can I be a reactionary and an oppressor?¡± ¡°Indeed...¡± ¡°There¡¯s logic in that...!¡± ¡°Wait! Then why did you just destroy our casino with your sword?¡± It was a sharp question, but far too weak to damage my iron face. ¡°Well, you kidnapped our management team first, so I attacked.¡± ¡°Hoeek, kidnapped? We didn¡¯t...¡± ¡°Moreover, no matter how much the ends justify the means, how can opening an illegal gambling den be revolutionary? Why not sell drugs too? You¡¯d be a perfect mafia gang cartel.¡± ¡°Hoeeeek...¡± ¡°Then... were you really the savior of our race, Undertaker?¡± Their eyes sparkled as they looked up at me. Suspicion and expectation mixed in their gazes, proving now was the time for the finishing blow. I smiled kindly. ¡°Don¡¯t call me that. We arerades in the revolution, born on different days but sworn to die together.¡± ¡°Huh!¡± ¡°Comrade Undertaker...!¡± The fairies sprang up. ¡°How could this be! We misunderstood Comrade Undertaker¡¯s true intentions all this time!¡± ¡°Now that I hear it, not a single word is wrong! Comrade eliminated the Fairy King and its vile master, and asked for nothing in return!¡± ¡°Liberator!¡± ¡°The Torch of Freedom! Our Savior!¡± ¡°Ah, Revolution! The leader guiding the ignorant masses! Comrade Undertaker is the avant-garde of this world!¡± It was over. What was there to hide? From that moment, I leveraged my defeat of Infinite Void to be the secretary-general of the fairies. When I established the ''Canned Hotel'' to train writers in the 560th cycle, the ability to mobilize the fairies en masse stemmed from this position. ¡°But regardless of mutual misunderstandings, I¡¯m sorry for destroying your base.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, Comrade Undertaker!¡± ¡°We¡¯re the ones who lured your subordinates to the barat table, so we¡¯re more apologetic!¡± ¡°Hmm. No, no. I understand howmendable your revolutionary spirit is. So, I have a proposal...¡± I smiled broadly. ¡°If you truly want toplete the revolution, you can¡¯t stay hidden in this backwater. You need to move to the city. What do you say,rades? Would you like to experience city life with me?¡± ¡°¡Hoe?¡± A monthter. A splendid banner hung at the entrance of the Inunaki Tunnel that opened into the sea off the coast of Busan. [Coffee Shop Hideout Event!] [New Entertainment Facility ¡®Dream Casino¡¯ Now Open!] [Massive Entertainment Hall Run by Baku! Wee to Dream Utopia!] In this modern era, it was fair to say it was the age of advertising. Naturally, just hanging a banner wasn¡¯t enough to appeal to customers. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°Was there always an ad like this...?¡± For the first time, ¡®advertisements¡¯ appeared on SG Net. Whether surfing the website or posting, the ¡®Dream Casino¡¯ ad sparkled continuously on the screen. It was practically a monopoly. People who clicked the ad received a wee gift of 100 coins. While it wasn''t as fun as visiting the casino in person, an ¡®Inte Casino¡¯ was also established for simple online entertainment. Of course, it was just a trivial pastime, a kind of bait. This would eventually make people curious enough to visit the main branch¡ªthe ''real casino'' in Busan. And there was more. ¡°Undertaker, do we really need to go this far?¡± ¡°Trust me. This casino business will definitely be a hit.¡± ¡°¡Alright.¡± The Saintess sighed but reluctantly followed my lead. Soon, every Awakener active on the Korean Penins received a constetion message. [The Dream Baku manages the casino.] That''s right. The debut of a new constetion! Previously, I had created a new constetion called ¡®The Librarian of the Great Library¡¯ when establishing the ''Library Society¡¯s Encyclopedia of Anomalies'' board. I put Sim Ah-ryeon in charge. This time, by setting up the casino in the Inunaki Tunnel, I forged a new constetion called ¡®Dream Baku.¡¯ [The Dream Baku is the lord of all fairies.] [The Dream Baku desires you to be intoxicated in dreams. y. That is the way to praise and worship the ¡®Dream Baku.] [The deeper your faith in Dream Baku, the more varied the types of entertainment you can enjoy in the casino.] The Librarian of the Great Library. The Dream Baku. Gradually, the scale of the website was expanding to fit the name ¡®SG Net¡¯¡ª¡®Constetion Net.¡¯ Names borrowed from historical figures were slowly bing more real, reaching out to awakeners. Noh Do-hwa, who had been informed of my n in advance, frowned. ¡°Undertaker, is there a reason we must proceed with this casino business? Even if the transactions are only ¡®time¡¯ and ¡®dreams,¡¯ a casino is still a casino. Won¡¯t it have adverse effects...?¡± ¡°It will.¡± I didn''t deny it. ¡°Some awakeners might get addicted to gambling. As a result, they might mortgage their entire lifetime to the fairies.¡± ¡°Even so...?¡± ¡°Even so, we must proceed. Not just because there are too few entertainment facilities these days. Chief, look at this.¡± ¡°Hmm...?¡± I lifted a transparent box. Inside were coin-like objects lined up. They were casino chips. ¡°We have finally discovered something. What do you see, Chief?¡± ¡°Uh. Aren¡¯t those casino chips...?¡± ¡°Yes. Money.¡± tter. I grabbed a handful of chips and dropped them on the table. ¡°Currency. Money, Chief. Think about it. If we seed with Dream Casino, we can finally circte ¡®safe money¡¯ in this damned apocalypse.¡± ¡°...!¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s eyes widened behind her sses. Our gazes electrified. ¡°Until now, we¡¯ve only managed to maintain exchange rights in very limited ways, backed by food. But this is different. Fairy Coins, used in Dream Casino, can literally be exchanged for ¡®any goods¡¯ people want.¡± ¡°In a dream...¡± ¡°Yes, even if it''s a dream. A dream you can set up yourself isn¡¯t much different from reality. Look at thest item. With a hundred billion coins, you can turn all those dreams into perfect lucid dreams. With a trillion coins? You can control the flow of time in the dream.¡± ¡°Aha. Aha...¡± ¡°Practically, very few people will manage to hold a hundred billion or a trillion coins. But it doesn¡¯t matter. Currency is originally an illusion, a fantasy, a ghost. The difference from mere individual delusion is¡ª¡± ¡°Not a single person¡¯s dream but a dream shared by all humans... Hence, a fantasy that carries the weight of real-world materials...¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°Huh. Literally a dream casino. The y of Baku...¡± Noh Do-hwa picked up a casino chip I had dropped with her delicate fingers. ¡°Good...¡± Her monocle glinted. A sigh escaped from her slightly parted lips. ¡°Not the gold standard, nor petro-dors, nor Bitcoin, but ¡®dream standard¡¯... Hah. Currency, which started with the dream of civilization, returns to its original form at the end. What a paradox...¡± ¡°How about it?¡± ¡°Huh...¡± Noh Do-hwa adjusted her monocle. Then she looked at me intently. ¡°It suits you...¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°I said it suits you. This is essentially an advanced form of your power, isn¡¯t it? Time Seal or something...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I know you regard Time Seal as a curse, not a power. But from my perspective, you are also a kind of Baku, Undertaker. And you¡¯ve just strengthened your power by subjugating anomalies... Congrattions. What do they call it? Ability upgrade...?¡± ¡°I only repeat the same day endlessly. The fairies'' dreams are just simtions. No matter how powerful their abilities, they can¡¯t create dreams by ounting for all variables in reality.¡± I looked at Noh Do-hwa. We examined each other¡¯s gazes. ¡°Master Artisan Noh Do-hwa. Just as the sword Do-hwa you made wasn¡¯t something the Outer God Infinite Void could calcte.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I will aim for reality. As I have so far. Forever.¡± Silence fell. With a deep sigh, Noh Do-hwa nodded. ¡°...Good. Then there¡¯s no worry. Let¡¯s proceed with the currency reform immediately. It¡¯s a damned brilliant n...¡± That was the highest praise Noh Do-hwa could give. ¡°Oh, and what will we name this new base currency to be circted in our world? Fairy Coin...?¡± ¡°No. I thought of calling it Dream Currency (‰ôØ›), but simply calling it ¡®Won¡¯ might be better.¡± ¡°Oh? Why¡¯s that...?¡± ¡°Familiarity will make it easier for people.¡± I tossed the casino chip, or rather, the new world''s currency, to Noh Do-hwa. She skillfully caught my money. ¡°A dream flowing in this endlessly repeating world, so Won (ˆA). A currency that lives off human wishes and dreams, so Won (îŠ). And a target of curses andmentation, so Won (Ô¹). Conveniently, both Japan and China use the terms Yen (ƒÒ) and Yuan (Ôª), respectively. It can be interpreted in many ways. Powerful spells often hide behind multiple names.¡± ¡°Hmmm... Well.¡± Noh Do-hwa pocketed the money with her usual twisted smile. ¡°Not bad. I¡¯ll leave the magical aspects to you, Undertaker, as it¡¯s your specialty...¡± There¡¯s an epilogue. Not long after, the National Road Management Corps began to serve as a ¡®bank.¡¯ They freely supplied each major guild in various cities with 9 billion Won worth of ¡®currency.¡¯ Interest-free. When the guild leaders visited Busan, they each used the casino and left excellent reviews in reality and on SG Net. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: It was a midsummer night¡¯s dream. How long has it been since I tasted such a high-ss omakase restaurant? A ss of wine. A warm partner. It was a time to realize again the truth that life is enough with just that. Though I couldn¡¯t leave photos, isn¡¯t that also a form of beauty? Today¡¯s saying: Moment, stop. You are truly beautiful. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Totally rmended!! I could enjoy an ordinary school life! I achieved my bucket list of walking home hand in hand under the cherry blossoms! (>_<);; Rave reviews. Naturally, the guild leaders'' reviews stimted other guild members and further piqued the interest of awakeners across the Korean Penins. Within less than two years, the Won became the official base currency. It was almost no problem to exchange goods with only the Won in the Korean Penins-Japan archipgo-China continent regions, considering the naming preferences of those still concerned with the sequence of the countries¡¯ names. The 205th cycle might have been a critical turning point in some sense. Of course, many incidents urred due to Dream Casino and the Won... But those are stories for another time. So, let¡¯s end this chapter with a glimpse into a dream I bought at the casino. ¡°Brother Hyun-deok!¡± ¡°Oh! Undertaker! My brother, you¡¯ve done a great job!¡± ¡°How could this be my achievement alone? Thanks to Brother Woonjang leading the soldiers, and the fault lies with Jo-jeok for betraying the people''s will. Ultimately, it¡¯s Brother Hyun-deok''s merit for gathering the scattered people of the world.¡± ¡°Hohoho. I can¡¯tpete with your eloquence, Undertaker.¡± I, no, Yu-bi, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, and the Undertaker Sworn Brotherhood founded the Shu Han in the dream. Naturally, we cut off Cao Cao¡¯s head and threw it into the waters of Xu Province. This was true justice. The proper Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A story so moving, one couldn¡¯t watch without tears. I was deeply moved. How could I selfishly keep this thrill to myself? Right after waking from the dream, I pounded the keyboard (the reincarnationptop given by the Outer God). In no time, a lengthy Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel waspleted. I handed this ¡®masterpiece¡¯ to my so-called editor. ¡°Dok-seo, make sure to include this in the main story. Wow, even I think it¡¯s a masterpiece. A monumental parody of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I n to serialize it on SG Net too, so in the main story...¡± ¡°Wait. Are you telling me to insert a 600-chapter Romance of the Three Kingdoms parody into the novel I¡¯m editing?¡± ¡°Exactly. That solves the issue of the number of chapters you mentioned perfectly. The readers will cry tears of joy.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you a crazy maniac?¡± ¡°...?¡± ...Unfortunately, it seems my masterpiece won¡¯t be included in the main story due to some ignorant chuuni. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 124 Disbeliever I Do you know what promise Koreans will never keep? "Let''s have a meal together sometime." That''s right. To Koreans, this phrase doesn''t actually mean meeting up to increase insulin secretion when you''re really hungry. To interpret it precisely, "We are not allies, but at least we dere that we are not hostile to each other at this moment." Every country has sophisticated diplomatic expressions like this. For example, when a Japanese person from Kyoto asks, "Would you like some ochazuke?" it doesn''t mean "Wow! Traditional food! The Japanese are so kind!"If North Koreaunches a missile, the automatic AI trantion in your head should process it as "Please notice us! We''re here too!" instead of "Damn Southern bastards, die!" It''s the same with "Let''s have a meal together sometime." If you respond to a Korean''s statement with "Sure! When? Tomorrow? Next week?" the other party will seriously question whether this diplomatic rtionship is worth maintaining. And there''s onemon diplomatic statement that transcends national borders: "The end of the world ising soon! Everyone!" "Hell ising! I can see the scenery of hell with my eyes! Get on the new ark before the hellfire pours down!" "I am the Son of Heaven and the Savior. Those who believe this truth will be blessed, but cmity will follow the disbelievers, this I dere." It''s the doomsday prophecy of cults. Anyone who lives with their brain''s trantion function always on knows that the proper interpretation of "Someday, the world will end!" from cultists is: "But if you donate, we might be able to extend the deadline." People who don''t understand this basic diplomatguage are a minority in any country. The marginalized weak who are excluded from international diplomacy are always exploited. And then the Void arrived. ¡°Wow! The end of the world really is here! The guru¡¯s prophecy was true! Guru! What should we do now? Should we start the mass suicide you mentioned?¡± ¡°Uh.¡± The brains of anomalies didn¡¯t have a trantor installed. Of course, they couldn¡¯t understand the subtleties of human diplomacy. On the day the Void arrived, cult leaders worldwide felt an involuntary urge to ask the anomalies, "Are you seriously that clueless?" ¡°No¡ what I meant was, just because the end is near doesn¡¯t mean we have tomit suicide¡¡± ¡°Guru, stop talking nonsense and hurry up and kill yourself.¡± Most cult leaders found themselves on the receiving end of the clueless usation instead. But they didn¡¯t need to be too sad. Their followers weren¡¯t mean enough topletely abandon their gurus. They kindlypleted the ¡°prophecy fulfillment¡± achievement together. - Breaking news. This morning at around 11 a.m., evidence of mass suicide was found in a facility in Chungcheongbuk-do¡ - ording to police investigations, there is no clear connection between the recent series of collective incidents¡ - The terrorist group that upied the Seoul subway has been identified as members of a certain cult. Theymitted mass suicide once a day, including their leader¡ It was a harsh season for cult leaders. There had never been such an unemployment crisis. Running a cult required more stringent choices. However, in troubled times, heroes always emerge. In the Korean Penins, two cult leaders sessfully overcame countless suicide suggestions and dered, "I want to live! With you!" Entry number one. ¡°All Awakeners must join the New Buddha to escape the sin of killing as soon as possible! Those who don¡¯t are going against the will of Hwaeom! They are disruptors of universal peace!¡± ¡°Immortality without killing! Spiritual Hwaeom! Eternal cosmic peace!¡± New Buddhism. Coincidentally, a monk in central Korea who had settled in his city saw the zombie virus, the Udumbara, and reached enlightenment. The faith that wearing flowers on their heads would make them immune to anomalies resonated deeply with modern people who doubted the performance of their mental trantors. They willingly reced their brain trantors with more eco-friendly materials. New Buddhism rapidly expanded its influence, dominating the Korean Penins, the Japanese archipgo, and the Chinese continent. At one time, South Korea''s most popr export was not K-pop but K-religion. Of course, once I started defeating the Udumbara, it lost all its influence. The monk and his followers booked a one-way ticket to Nirvana. Entry number two. ¡°Understood! Brothers and sisters! I, your shepherd, will lead the way!¡± ¡°As expected of our leader!¡± ¡°Mo Gwang-seo! Mo Gwang-seo!¡± Mo Gwang-seo. Like all pioneers of new doctrines, Mo Gwang-seo had a unique background. He was a double emunicate, first emunicated by the Catholic Church from the Mary¡¯s Ark of Salvation, then again by the group that emunicated him. He was truly an unparalleled cultist. When you multiply a negative by a negative, it bes a positive. Unusually for a cult leader, Mo Gwang-seo had a mathematical brain and was convinced he was on the right path of faith. His followers numbered around 210. He didn¡¯t even rank among the top cults on the Korean Penins, but Mo Gwang-seo didn¡¯t mind. After all, Jesus had only twelve disciples (one of whom respected Brutus more than his master). Mo Gwang-seo''s confidence was not without basis. More urately, he created the basis. ¡°What¡¯s that smell? Leader, what is that?¡± ¡°Ether.¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°This is the holy ether that will guide me to heaven, contained in this barrel.¡± Thetest chemical substance Mo Gwang-seo called ether was also known as gasoline. Indeed, Mo Gwang-seo proved he was on a different level from other mediocre cult leaders. Before his followers could even hint at wanting an explosive show like the one they heard the next-door cult leader had, Mo Gwang-seo had already prepared gasoline. ¡°Brothers and sisters! Fire has always been holy ether! It purifies the worldly filth and brings us closer to heaven! But cleansing the filth is no easy task, so as a soul who has prated the six spiritual realms, I will pave the way and guide you all to the heavenly kingdom above.¡± Themonality between a rock star and a cult leader is the importance of performance on stage. As soon as his speech ended, Mo Gwang-seo doused himself in oil from head to toe. The smell of gasoline was so strong that even someone with pollen-impaired senses in spring could notice it. ¡°Everyone! You must do the same. Each of you must prate the wind path I create with all your might, so the souls left on earth can easily ascend! And let the world be saved by the merciful light of glory and the blessing of love! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!¡± Mo Gwang-seo quickly ran outside the hall. He had received a normal education in South Korea and knew what would happen if gasoline ignited in an enclosed space. Incidentally, he majored in film directing in college. ¡°In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!¡± ¡°Leader! Leader!¡± Moved by the cries, a few followers shouted ¡°Amen!¡± and chased after the cult leader. One particrly fast follower easily caught up to the leader and hugged him tightly. ¡°Leader! I¡¯ll go with you! I¡¯ll pave the wind path with you!¡± ¡°Oh- ohhh!¡± Perhaps Mo Gwang-seo intended to keep running and escape. After leaving the followers'' sight, he might have nned to detonate pre-set explosives to make it seem like the leader sacrificed himself to ascend. Then, if he returned a few dayster, he would appear to the followers as a resurrected messiah. This would be a textbook example of turning a crisis into an opportunity. What Mo Gwang-seo didn¡¯t ount for was that his performance was so brilliant it overly inspired the followers. ¡°Let go! Let go! Don¡¯t touch that¡ª¡± Boom! ording to survivors, an explosion urred near the parking lot of the hall. Even if Mo Gwang-seo had doused himself in oil, simply catching fire wouldn¡¯t have caused a massive outdoor explosion. Mo Gwang-seo and the two followers who went after him were blown up on the spot. Particrly, Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s body was torn to pieces and burned for a long time. ¡°The leader has ascended!¡± ¡°The leader has paved the wind path!¡± ¡°Ah, holy. Amen...¡± Had the story ended here, it wouldn¡¯t have been different from countless other cults that sprang up and naturally dissipated right after the Void¡¯s arrival. As always, misfortune struck when the curtain didn¡¯t fall at the story''s end. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°What is it, Mr. Kim? Don¡¯t change your mind now, just douse yourself with gasoline.¡± ¡°No, look! Look at the leader¡¯s ascension site! That¡¯s...!¡± ¡°What?¡± As the remaining followers were preparing for a group immtion in the parking lot, someone pointed. There was light. This wasn¡¯t a literary interpretation about logos meaning light in the Bible. The literal ¡®light¡¯ appeared near the outdoor parking lot of Okjeong Lake in Okjeong-dong, Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. Step. A human silhouette walked out from the center of the light. ¡°Oh, ohhh...¡± It was Mo Gwang-seo. Backlit by the light, Mo Gwang-seo looked as if he was surrounded by a halo. Thud. The followers kneeled without hesitation. They wept. ¡°A miracle...¡± ¡°The leader has resurrected!¡± Smirk. Mo Gwang-seo, or rather, the being the followers believed to be Mo Gwang-seo, did not answer. He merely smiled kindly. But that was enough for the mentally conditioned followers. Like heroines in light novels falling for the protagonist¡¯s head-patting technique, the followers washed their tears with tears, kissed Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s feet, and pledged eternal loyalty. ¡°It¡¯s a resurrection! It¡¯s a miracle of resurrection!¡± Now, the followers no longer needed the wind path to ascend to heaven. The very ce where the resurrected Jesus existed, thisnd, was the holy temple. They didn¡¯t hear trumpets, nor did they see angels, but those trivial details didn¡¯t matter. To live as a cultist, you must have the courage to ignore life''s trivialities. And the 200 followers were indeed courageous. ¡°Chairman Mo Gwang-seo was the resurrected Jesus!¡± ¡°Oh! Amen! Amen!¡± ¡°I am saved! We are saved!¡± Mo Gwang-seo won. Where? In the religious war. In thisnd called the Korean Penins, a jar of despair with 20 gods and 50 resurrected Jesuses waging eternal crusades, Mo Gwang-seo was chosen as thest man standing. Now, Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s cult was reborn as the ''Resurrection Church.'' ¡°Spread this miracle far and wide!¡± ¡°Believe in the miracles of holy water and holy fire!¡± ¡°Evangelize and evangelize again! Amen!¡± Followers of the Resurrection Church traveled across the country with holy water¡ªgasoline¡ªmarked on their foreheads. While New Buddhism absorbed followers from the Buddhist sects, the Resurrection Church voraciously devoured Christian believers. Of course, other cultists became the most tempting prey. ¡°What? Apostatize? How dare you! Our leader received the Eucharist from the Pope, and it turned into flesh and blood in his mouth, and our statue of the Virgin Mary shed tears 500 times, and we have photos and evidence!¡± ¡°So what? Our leader resurrected.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Our leader is the resurrected Jesus. What can you say to that?¡± Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s resurrection didn¡¯t end at one. The first time was hard; the second, third, and fourth were easy. Every Sunday, Mo Gwang-seo was engulfed in gasoline and set aze. And each time, he walked out of the light, beaming a merciful smile. ¡°Ah, ahh!¡± ¡°Do you believe now?¡± ¡°I believe! Amen!¡± The material ¡®evidence¡¯ other cults boasted of was nullified by the vivid resurrection show before their eyes. Sinning by killing the person they believed to be Jesus every Sunday was justified before the mission of evangelism. It was unrealistic to expect rationality from them. Attending Sunday mass and then returning to their base, the apostates immediately arrested the ¡®false prophets.¡¯ ¡°You Satanic bastards! Do you think you can do this to me and get away with it?¡± ¡°Shut up! You are Satan!¡± ¡°What, what?¡± Thepetitors who were gods and Jesuses yesterday turned into Satan overnight. Followers criticized themselves for being deceived by the Antichrist and poured the holy water from the Resurrection Church on Satan¡¯s head. ¡°Please, spare me! Please, spare me!¡± ¡°Let the ether purify the filthy soul. Amen.¡± ¡°Amen!¡± Holy beacons ignited across the country. Naturally, stories of the Resurrection Church began to reach me, who was active between Seoul and Busan. ¡®...What the hell.¡¯ My eyes grew cold. There was nothing special about cults themselves. They had always been prevalent on the Korean Penins. Ever since Hwanung hypnotized a perfectly normal bear, saying, "You are not a bear anymore, but a human," thisnd had been famous for mental brainwashing. But the Resurrection Church was a bit different. I was a sound Korean. So, as soon as I heard Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s story, the AI trantor in my head worked furiously. A being that keeps resurrecting? But doesn¡¯t understand humannguage? Glows and smiles silently with each resurrection? ¡®...No matter how I look at it, that¡¯s not a person. It¡¯s a human transformed into an anomaly.¡¯ Indeed. These cultists were no longer content worshiping humans and had started venerating ¡®anomalies¡¯ as Jesus. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 125 Disbeliever II Initially, I didn''t pay much attention to Mo Gwang-seo and the Resurrection Church. The stories about Mo Gwang-seo and the actions of his followers described in this chapter were embellished by about 50% with my imagination. I had reconstructed the events from various testimonies rather than witnessing them firsthand. Why didn''t I care? ''I''m too busy to deal with cults.'' Frankly, they weren''t worth my attention. The situation was different with New Buddha, which was also a heresy. Although simr in using anomalies for faith, New Buddha''s Udumbara posed a direct threat to human civilization. Moreover, New Buddha was hostile towards Awakeners. Immediate action was necessary. But the Resurrection Church?"Awakeners? What does that matter now? Jesus has resurrected!" "Amen!" "The end hase. Brothers and sisters, repent now and board the ark of salvation designed by our leader." "You! You look like a kind person who must be saved!" Aside from asionally encountering evangelists on the street, they weren''t particrly harmful. And street evangelism was already a side quest encountered on the way to work in South Korea before the apocalypse. As a regressor, I had far more important main quests to worry about. The more crucial fact was that the Resurrection Church also had its own main quest. - Everyone! I will pave the path so you can ascend. You must also help others. During his lifetime, before transforming into a Resurrection Anomaly, Mo Gwang-seo targeted a unique sales point in the religious market of the Korean Penins. - But where do you think your help is most urgently needed? - Hmm? ...Yeouido? - No! It''s North Korea! - What. He advocated the Northern Evangelism Theory. - Jesus said to go out into the roads andpel people toe in, so that my house may be filled. Why did He say topel them? Was He telling us to drag unbaptized people into the church by force? - Absolutely not. There are those who forcefully block the path and fence off the sheep who would normally respond to the shepherd¡¯s call. They are evil Satanic demons. These are the Antichrists we must forcefully oppose. - The unbaptized brothers and sisters in North Korea are not at fault. The grave sin lies with the Kim family, who have erected iron fences and barriers against them. Since the Korean Penins was split, the ''path'' was cut off, and ''fences'' were erected. Jesusmands us to restore the weeping path and the bloody fence with your steps. - Ah, brothers and sisters! We do not tread this difficult path out of pride or to show off. We believe that other brothers will guide the sheep through easier fields, and we take this arduous path of evangelism out of faith and love for them. - So let the lightning of faith break down Satan''s wall and let our steps reach their fingertips as soon as possible, Amen. Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s Northern Evangelism Theory was quite well-received among his followers. More precisely, those who responded to it joined his congregation. In truth, the Northern Evangelism Theory was just another ¡®diplomatic¡¯ phrase Mo Gwang-seo had devised. If understood literally as a call to march north to spread the doctrine, both Mo Gwang-seo and the JSA guards would be at a loss. As a citizen of a democratic country, Mo Gwang-seo had merely presented a ''promise'' to the electorate. But as mentioned before, the root of all evily with the anomalies that did not have a trantor installed in their brains. In this case, it was the Ten Legs. "The barbed wire fence has fallen!" Ten Legs was highly responsive to gatherings of over 300 people. Having concluded that Korean humans were quite ptable, the Ten Legs became interested in simr meat. The military camps in North Korea, where the distinction between prison and barracks was bing blurred, looked like Michelin 1-star fusion restaurants to the Ten Legs. ¡°Ah! Chairman Mo Gwang-seo, no, Jesus¡¯s prophecy has been proven again!¡± ¡°The fist of fire has broken the fence, now it is time to spread the gospel!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, brothers! To North Korea!¡± The Resurrection Church really did ¡®march north.¡¯ After absorbing various cults across the country into their congregation, they trained them and continually sent their followers marching north. This new crusade continued its advance even as the national army was decimated. If you wondered why a crusade appeared on the Korean Penins instead of Jerusalem, you either didn''t study history enough or were influenced by identalism. Pyongyang was originally known as the Jerusalem of the East. ¡°March north!¡± ¡°God wills it!¡± Kaesong, Kumchon, Pongsan, Sariwon. North Korea''s major strongholds were liberated one by one. The Korean Penins undoubtedly had a terrain that favored volunteer soldiers over regr troops. The Crusade¡¯s sess was simple. The Resurrection Church treated the Ten Legs that broke the armistice line as ¡®Apostle of God,¡¯ and followed behind them after they devoured the North Korean army. In a sense, the Resurrection Church¡¯s followers were among the humans most adept at surviving the apocalypse. Their leader was an anomaly. Their vanguard was an anomaly. Undoubtedly, few groups utilized anomalies as effectively as they did. And finally. "Look over there!" "It''s Pyongyang! We¡¯ve finally arrived!" "Ah... The Lord''s light fills the Jerusalem of the East." Pyongyang was liberated! The followers were thrilled. Besides Gung Ye, what other religious figure since Dangun had achieved such a feat? Of course, the so-called Jerusalem of the East was devoid of the Lord''s light. The only church in Pyongyang, Jangchung Cathedral, had long been in ruins. There were hardly any people left. ¡ªThe?re?''s? some?thing? ?co?ming?! In fact, they were disappearing in real-time. The North Korean regime had prepared for a final soul-staking battle to defend Pyongyang. And as you might guess from the past tense, they had been utterly annihted. There were even some Chinese troops in Pyongyang. Their minds had abruptly reverted to the 1950s upon hearing the intel that liberation forces from the south were advancing north. That''s right. Although they sometimes forgot, Pyongyang and Beijing were blood allies. So they bled together. ¡ªGu?a?h??! The Ten Legs roared. Ten Legs was super strong, the strongest among anomalies. With its tentacles reminiscent of Cthulhu, the Ten Legs burrowed effortlessly through the underground bedrock, rendering bunkers meaningless. The leadership of the North Korean regime, the generals of the North Korean army, and most importantly, the North Korean soldiers and Pyongyang citizens, all departed to meet Mr. Marx. Even the Chinese People''s Liberation Army troops from Manchuria realized they might have misinterpreted the intel. The Ten Legs liked East Asians too much to be an imperialist vanguard. At that moment. As North Koreans perished, Chinese despaired, and South Koreans who had just arrived in Pyongyang screamed. Step. Mo Gwang-seo walked out. ¡°Chairman!¡± A follower shouted. The followers who had followed Mo Gwang-seo even before he performed the miracle of resurrection still used the old title ''Chairman'' to unt their sense of privilege. ¡°Jesus!¡± The bted converts also shouted. Mo Gwang-seo had walked at the forefront throughout the crusade march. Seeing such an esteemed person walk towards that terrifying monster! Even if the Ten Legs was apostles of God, it was natural to worry. ¡°What the hell is that bastard?¡± The North Koreans also shouted. The Chinese were no different. It was a normal reaction. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, or Chairman Jesus bastard, Mo Gwang-seo walked. With a squelch, Mo Gwang-seo was skewered by one of the numerous tentacles of the Ten Legs. ¡°Chairman!¡± ¡°Oh Lord! Lord!¡± It was as predictable as thew of gravity, yet the Resurrection Church¡¯s followers were horrified. How could this be! The Ten Legs were indeed apostles of God, but it turned out their name was Judas Iscariot. This was why one should always confirm the true name before summoning a servant. The Resurrection Church¡¯s followers seemed to be paying the price for ignoring an old proverb. As everyone either burst into tears or looked at the crying people with confusion, wondering ''What the hell are they doing?'' sh¡ª There was light again. ¡ªGRu?a?h?! The light radiated from the tentacle of the Ten Legs. The city, amidst a massacre, was momentarily enveloped in a white glow. Ten Legs spat Mo Gwang-seo out as if it had bitten into a shell while eating fresh oysters. By the time the light subsided, all the humans participating in the urban warfare saw Mo Gwang-seo''s halo. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The battlefield fell silent. Smirk. Mo Gwang-seo, the Resurrection Anomaly who monopolized the gaze of tens of thousands, just smiled kindly, unchanged. ¡ªGrrrr¡ And a miracle urred. Ten Legs that had bitten and spat out Mo Gwang-seo turned its back. Perhaps in humannguage, it would trante to ''I wouldn''te to this tasteless restaurant even if you paid me,'' but just as anomalies didn¡¯t have human trantors, humans didn¡¯t have anomaly trantors either. Thud, thud... The massive figure of the Ten Legs gradually receded. A moment ago, the faces of the North Korean soldiers and the Chinese soldiers, who had been ready to be annihted, were now filled with astonishment and awe. What had just happened? ¡°Hallelujah!¡± The Resurrection Church¡¯s followers provided the answer to their question. ¡°Jesus has defeated the Apostle of God!¡± ¡°Ah,patriots! Praise the Lord! He has affirmed our crusade!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a miracle, a miracle!¡± The Chinese troops didn¡¯t understand the Koreans'' excitement. But the North Koreans did. Through the North Korean officers'' trantion, the Chinese soldiers also understood the Resurrection Church followers'' cries. The few remaining soldiers and citizens'' eyes changed. Coincidentally, that day was Saturday, and the next day, the Resurrection Church held a special ¡®mass.¡¯ Even disbelievers who were still skeptical of Mo Gwang-seo''s miracle attended the live concert to see how amazing it was. The mass ended. That day, Pyongyang was reimed as the Jerusalem of Joseon. The Eastern Holy State. It was the name of the new country established in the ruins of Pyongyang. Although not internationally recognized, it was no lesspetitive. The previous regime was simr anyway. Now, North Korea was Rome itself. Though too far east to be called Eastern Rome, it didn¡¯t matter. Naturally, the capital was Pyeongyang Sacred City. The head of state was Mo Gwang-seo. Mo Gwang-seo''s official title was neither king nor president, prime minister, nor chairman. Not even the pope. The only fitting title for Mo Gwang-seo was Jesus, and so the full name of the head of the Eastern Holy State was set as ¡®Mo Gwang-seo Jesus.¡¯ Theedy scripted and starred by the Resurrection Church had finally reached its climax. ¡°No, fuck. What the hell...¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s expression upon hearing the news from the North was priceless. ¡°Wasn¡¯t that ce amunist den? What¡¯s this Jesus rap now? Marx would have defined religion as the opium of the people...?¡± ¡°Hmm. Wouldn''t a cult be better than Juche ideology?¡± ¡°Fuck, what¡¯s better? They¡¯re all the same shit. The country''s really gone to hell...¡± Indeed, this world was a fantasy. If a reality with ¡®Holy Empire¡¯ marked on the map wasn''t fantasy, what was? In any case, Ten Legs remembered Pyongyang as a ¡®dirty restaurant¡¯ and avoided it. The followers of the Eastern Holy State praised this as the ¡®glorious miracle of Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ.¡¯ Naturally, other North Koreans flocked to Pyongyang. It wasn¡¯t so much that they were deceived by the Eastern Holy State''s propaganda but rather because they didn¡¯t want to serve a meal to the nasty Ten Legs. As time passed in the apocalypse, the governments of Korea, Japan, and China copsed one after another. Although the three East Asian countries didn''t die together despite being born at different times, they bonded like brothers in death. Only the Eastern Holy State preserved its national identity. Truly, it was a region where the concept of international diplomatic cooperation had been neutered for generations. As surrounding nations watched with ¡®Why haven¡¯t they copsed yet?¡¯ looks (simr to the previous regime), the Eastern Holy State gradually became self-aware. ¡®Huh? All our neighboring countries are gone?¡¯ ¡®Then isn¡¯t it legitimate to upy those emptynds now?¡¯ The Eastern Holy State once again initiated ¡®march north.¡¯ They didn¡¯t justify it with some newfound nationalism. Such nationalistic thinking was not sexy. The Eastern Holy State was the only government directly recognized by the Lord. Therefore, it could officially im any territory in the world. Thus, the Second Crusade was officially dered in Pyongyang Sacred City. The Crusaders, restricted to poptions of around 300 by the Ten Legs, swept through the Gando region like a tsunami. Liberation, liberation, and more liberation. ¡°Today, the Holy Crusade of the East liberated three more viges, guiding them into the arms of our Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ. Let us pray for the well-being of our brothers and sisters. Amen.¡± ¡°Amen!¡± This was not a contest between nations or peoples. It was not a national conflict. It was a bloody battle between the Resurrection Church, equipped with a hypnosis app, and the unfortunate ordinary people opposing them. Naturally, in this genre of battle, the ordinary people were always at a disadvantage. Even those who had never encountered an R-rated doujinshi could sense the clear foreboding. If this were the world of a doujinshi, the first person to sense the ¡®foreboding¡¯ would have been the first to fall. ¡°Hmmm...¡± Fortunately, reality was not a doujinshi. Unlike doujinshi, which strictly adhere to genre conventions even if it lowers humanity''s average intelligence, real humans could make normal judgments. Especially Noh Do-hwa, the Director of the National Road Management, who would confiscate the opponent''s phone if they had a hypnosis app and exin ''101 reasons why you shouldmit suicide right now'' in return. Initially appalled by the cult chaos, Noh Do-hwa''s eyes gradually changed. ¡°Undertaker...¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just curious, but is there any way to use Mo Gwang-seo''s Resurrection Church...?¡± It was a kind of fate. The Director of National Road Management, the ruler of the ''South'' of the Korean Penins, instinctively began to pay attention to the leader of the ''North.'' Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 126 Disbeliever III It was obvious, but Noh Do-hwa was a pragmatist. She was an extremist who went beyond the ck cat and white cat analogy, believing it didn''t matter if the cat was ck or white as long as it tasted good (and indeed, rats were a good source of nutrition in the apocalypse). In short, Noh Do-hwa was specialized in squeezing out extreme efficiency from any situation, regardless of whether the counterpart was a cult or something else. "Use them? The Resurrection Church?" "Yes. I''d like to consult the ¡®Regressor Wiki¡¯ first, though... The Resurrection Church won''tst long, right?" "Of course. The Resurrection Church will copse within three years at thetest." Indeed. No matter how wildly the Resurrection Church expanded, aiming not only for the North Korean region but also reaching into Manchuria, there was no reason to care. It was destined to copse soon anyway.It was different from New Buddha''s Udumbara. Udumbara genuinely provided ''benefits'' to its virus-infected followers. New Buddhists could regenerate from severed limbs, crushed heads, and torn organs endlessly. They could even live without eating, surviving solely on photosynthesis. If not for the minor drawback of having to sacrifice their lives to the World Tree upon the due date, I might have converted to New Buddha myself. But the Resurrection Church? "Mo Gwang-seo has no powers. Apart from shining every time he resurrects, he has no abilities at all." "Hmm..." This had already been verified multiple times. In one cycle, we even kidnapped Mo Gwang-seo and conducted biological experiments on him. We tried everything: scorching, roasting, burning him with aura, and other methods. ¡®Is he still not dead? Even now?¡¯ Despite our efforts, the results were disappointing. Mo Gwang-seo resurrected every time. One day, we tied Mo Gwang-seo to a spot where a meteor shower was expected to hit. The meteor shower, which devastated everything around it, failed to kill him. We even hired a UFO to kill him. We put Mo Gwang-seo on a fishing boat that sailed to the East Sea, timing it with the fall of aliens there. -Kyaaaah! -Kiyah! Kyaaah! An interster warrior race attacked Mo Gwang-seo. sh! sh! Mo Gwang-seo died dozens of times per second, creating blinding shes everywhere. The East Sea turned into the hottest club in the world in no time. Thirty minutes passed. -Kiyaaaah... -Kyak, kyaaaah... The miracle UFO, which could survive space but melted like salt in H?O, sank. The aliens, who had put all their energy into the club party, also turned into liquid and flowed away. These guys were just Ultraman with a time limit extended from 3 minutes to 30 minutes. Bing¡ª Amidst the aliens evolving into slimy slimes, only Mo Gwang-seo remained, smiling peacefully on the fishing boat. It was an astonishing vitality. But... that was all. The light emitted by Mo Gwang-seo had no divine blessing, not even the rejuvenating effects of a Bhus drink. It was just bright. Very bright. Besides damaging the human cornea, it had no other, real, or significant meaning. -Ooh! Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ has returned to save the Earth! -I believe! For some reason, people were fascinated by Mo Gwang-seo. They worshipped him as a god, despite hisck of usefulness beyond shining. Why? I had no idea. If I knew, I would have run to Pyongyang to chant Amen to Mo Gwang-seo myself. Isn''t the world mysterious? "Well, there''s no need to analyze why. Leave that to psychologists or sociologists. What''s important to us is that the Resurrection Church has mobilization and action capabilities..." Returning to the main point, Noh Do-hwa continued. "We only need to guard a few strongholds. If the Resurrection Church can attract the attention of anomalies in the North, wouldn''t that be beneficial?" "Oh. Are you nning to use the Resurrection Church as a human shield?" "Yes..." ng. Noh Do-hwa lightly tapped the ankle brace with a hammer. Even after bing the Director of National Road Management, she would make or repair braces herself if there were no urgent issues. In her usual routine, Noh Do-hwa had a memo attached to the brace with the name Shin Soo-bin written on it. She was one of the elderly who still referred to her as ''the brace mechanic'' rather than ''Director of National Road Management.'' "Undertaker, if you think about it rationally, the Resurrection Church doesn''t cause us much trouble aside from their northern crusade. If we can use these people who are so desperate to die as shields, wouldn''t that be the right way to use lives...?" "Hmm." I pondered. In previous cycles, I didn''t interfere with the Resurrection Church. I viewed the Resurrection Church as a slow suicide ritual for the remnants of South Korea. Christianity. The religion with the deepest roots in Korea. The Resurrection Church merely imitated itsnguage and grammar on the surface. Northern Crusade. The ideology with the longest roots in Korea. The Resurrection Church also borrowed the color and scent of this ideology. The cult of all cults. The parasite of all parasites. But a parasite can''t survive if the host dies. Civilization had copsed. South Korea was dead. Only the parasites remained, writhing in thest season on a corpse that had already stopped breathing. I didn''t respect their lives, but I honored their deaths. People should have the right to choose their deaths. The ''Eastern Holy State'' and ''Pyongyang Sacred City'' were their self-chosen graves and coffins. "Let¡¯s consume the brain of the Resurrection Church..." Noh Do-hwa was someone who would use corpses if necessary. In front of Noh Do-hwa''s eyes, which had a gloomy shadow, I temporarily set aside my personal sentiments. It wasn''t difficult. I didn''t have to disregard the opinions of a life I valued for lives I didn''t respect. "So, you''re suggesting we take control of the Eastern Holy State''s leadership and y the puppet master." "Yes..." "It''s not easy. The Eastern Holy State is not a country. It''s not even a single group. It''s just a collection of cultists gathering and dispersing under the symbol of Mo Gwang-seo. We have to either bring all twelve so-called ''Apostles'' to our side or choose one as a champion and make them ''Pope.'' Of course, our support must flow to keep the Eastern Holy State intact. Is it worth the effort?" "No, it''s not worth it..." Heh, Noh Do-hwa chuckled. "But if we can manipte just Mo Gwang-seo, won''t it be a profitable deal...?" "What? How? If you''re thinking of using Cheon Yo-hwa''s brainwashing ability, we''ve already tried that. Mo Gwang-seo''s brainwashing resets every time he resurrects. Yo-hwa can''t go up to Pyongyang every Sunday to act as a missionary." "No, not the Baekhwa guild leader. Don''t you have a bum in your guild? Are you saving that for soup...?" I blinked. A bum? "Oh." I had a solution. "Guild Leader? Why are you looking at me like that...?" "Not you, Ah-ryeon." "Huh?" Our guild had two bums. One was Sim Ah-ryeon, who dreamed of being Professor Quirrell¡¯s tongue. The other was the one nestled in Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s arms, tilting their head. The bum waved at me when our eyes met. Then, a maid connected to the bum by a transparent thread spoke. "Why?" The Puppeteer, Lee Ha-yul. Ha-yul rarely appeared in my stories, for a simple reason. She often left without telling anyone. You could say she liked traveling. Describing her as a wanderer with an itchy foot wouldn''t be far off. Ha-yul would disappear for half a month to a month after extracting just enough puppet threads for use. Sometimes, he would randomly ask me to join him on trips to dangerous areas. ¡®This time, I want to go to India, Oppa.¡¯ ¡®Let¡¯s make rice balls at Uyuni Salt ts. You make the rice, Oppa.¡¯ As someone who enjoyed life in the apocalypse, Ha-yul perfectly embodied the principle that hard workers can''t beat those who enjoy it. If Ha-yul were to be the protagonist of a spin-off, the genre of the story would swiftly change from survival to road movie travel. Maybe she was a counter-revolutionary who was born oppressed by a normal market¡ªjust a guess. Anyway, from Noh Do-hwa¡¯s perspective, who believed humans should devote 25 hours out of 24 to work, Lee Ha-yul was naturally a ¡®bum.¡¯ The bum was currently lying on the sofa, using Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯sp as a pillow, munching on potato chips. "Ha-yul." I tried to smile as warmly and kindly as I could. For reference, I also believed that humans should spend at least 20 hours a day working, even if not as much as Noh Do-hwa. "Why?" "Ha-yul, you like puppets, right? Puppets? I found a puppet in the North that you might like to y with. Interested?" "......" Blink, blink. The golden eyes of thiszy hitchhiker child swayed emotionlessly. "Not interested." "Hmm... How can I make you interested? I think it¡¯s time for you to start working, don¡¯t you think?" "No need to work. Puppet threads, only I can make them. Patent rights. Other guild leaders beg me to install them in their hideouts. Consulting fees alone are enough for a lifetime of ying." This damn privileged talent... "I finished reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms you told me to readst time. At least give me three years of impunity." "Hey. Does reading it properly include supporting Wei? How could anyone support Wei?" "Sun Quan''s country was invisible and transparent. Shu was an infinitebor ck country. If you''re not from Xu Province, why wouldn''t you choose Wei?" "...If you don''t help with this, I¡¯ll tell Seo Gyu to delete your SG Net ount." "I must have been from Xu Province in my past life. How can I help, Oppa?" A direct highway of puppet threads wasid from Seoul to Pyongyang. Ha-yul had to be a thread-spinning machine for two years, producing about 250km of threads, but it wasn¡¯t a big problem. The threads wereid without being noticed by anyone, and they were transparent. It was difficult to cut the threads without using aura. I infiltrated the Holy Pyongyang City. "Hmm? Just now..." "What''s wrong?" "No, I felt a breeze. Was it a mistake?" Although Mo Gwang-seo had an awakened bodyguard unit, avoiding their detection was no big deal. Thirty percent of them were opium addicts anyway. Some of the bodyguards even carried firearms. Using guns in this day and age¡ªthey were amateurs who didn¡¯t value their lives. I erased my presence and snuck into the ''Mo Gwang-seo Christ Cathedral.'' The ce, once known as the Kumsusan Pce of the Sun, had been haphazardly rebuilt with spires and crosses all over the building, some of which had copsed in the wind. In the heart of the cathedral, Mo Gwang-seo was alone. Without an altar or a tabernacle, only the presence of the cult leader, Mo Gwang-seo, sitting on a golden throne, sufficed. "......" Though it wasn''t mass time, there was no telling when a follower might enter. I quickly attached puppet threads to various parts of Mo Gwang-seo''s body. "Saintess, it''s all set up." [Yes, I¡¯ve told Ha-yul... She says it¡¯s too far, so it''s difficult to control.] "Does that mean it''s impossible?" [No, she says he can still move the mouth.] I nodded. For this task, I had intensely trained Ha-yul in aura control for the past two years. "Tell her to say something random as a test." [Okay.] A momentter. "Oppa." Chills ran down my spine. Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s lips, which always wore a smile, were slowly moving. "Can I take a break from training now?" "...Sure, Ha-yul. Just endure it on the days of the mass once a week." "You- the hypocritical bastard- who betrayed Liu Bei of Yi Province. Zhang Fei¡¯s head dangling- Guan Yu¡¯s head dangling- Brother, why don¡¯t youe, Brother? Did you forget the Peach Garden oath? Come quickly, Brother." Click. Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s mouth returned to its original position. "......" I was furious but held back. Okay. After all, the kid endured hellish training, spinning puppet threads nonstop for two years, so she deserved some stress relief. I slightly adjusted Lee Ha-yul''s awakened rank from 1,000m to 900m in my mind and slipped away. The very next day''s Sunday mass, the Eastern Holy State¡¯s hypnotic app (with backdoor installed) showcased its performance. "From the far frozennd, monsters wille." The followers were startled. "Ch-Chairman...?" "Mo Gwang-seo Jesus has spoken!" Buzzing. The cult followers, who had never heard the resurrected leader speak, were shocked. Some impatient individuals were already kneeling and weeping. Mo Gwang-seo spoke softly. "You have purified the kingdom with your faith, now it is time to build walls with your body and blood. When this winteres, the demon army will arrive. Build fortresses and walls at every path to testify your faith." "W-Walls, you say...?" "Your kingdom must be preserved for the lost sheep to find their way. Protecting this ce is the path to heaven. My beloved children, prepare to fight the monsters and demons. But do not oppress my people, build walls solely with your voluntary faith." "Oooooooh!" Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s official first speech caused a huge uproar. The crusaders, who had been marching north endlessly as if they relished throwing their lives away, stopped and began constructing fortresses. The leader''smand was sacrosanct. Even if the fortresses couldn¡¯t significantly impact the monsters, it was far better than futile expansion of church influence. The number of monstersing down from the North also decreased. And that wasn''t all. [The Morning Star of the Second Comingmands the faithful followers.] We even created a Constetion imitating Mo Gwang-seo. On non-mass days, the Saint impersonated Mo Gwang-seo and sent ''Constetion Messages'' to control the followers. iming to be the reincarnated Jesus, so the seconding. Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s name, Gwang-seo (Êï¹â), reversed to Seogwang, meaning dawn. So, the Morning Star of the Second Coming. Naturally, this Constetion was newly established exclusively for awakened individuals who worshiped the Resurrection Church. [The Morning Star of the Second Coming prophesies the imminent arrival of monster armies.] [The Morning Star of the Second Coming guides your path forward.] [The Morning Star of the Second Coming orders not to antagonize the National Road Management, as they fulfill God''s will.] The malicious software secretly installed by Lee Ha-yul and the Saint worked perfectly on the Resurrection Church. Now, the followers of the Resurrection Church were puppets controlled by us. "Excellent..." Noh Do-hwa, whomanded this grand hacking project, was thoroughly satisfied. Confirming the proper functioning of the backdoor, the Director of National Road Management smiled faintly. "We can use them whenever necessary now. Thank you for your hard work, Undertaker..." "It was nothing." From this point on, our actual control extended beyond the Han River to the North. The time taken to reach this point,bining all cycles, was about 2,000 years. It might be the slowest territorial expansion in all genre novels and alternate history novels. Here¡¯s a short epilogue. Even though a direct highway of puppet threads connected Seoul to Pyongyang, asional maintenance was necessary. Every six months, I infiltrated the Pyongyang Sacred City cathedral to check on the puppet threads. After finishing the usual tuning, I turned around. "Enter through the narrow gate." I turned around. Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s unfocused eyes were looking down at the floor. "The gate to destruction is wide and the road is broad, and many enter through it." "......" "But the gate to life is small and the road narrow, and only a few find it. Scribe, enter through the narrow gate." Then Mo Gwang-seo fell silent again. It felt a bit eerie, but I didn''t take it seriously. I thought Ha-yul was just ying a prank on me again. Back in Seoul, I asked. "Ha-yul, I didn''t know you read the Bible." "Huh?" "You quoted the Gospel of Matthew in Pyongyang. Why did you call me a scribe?" "......?" Lee Ha-yul tilted his head. "I''ve never read the Bible." "......" "I''m not religious." ...Whether Lee Ha-yul was telling the truth or lying, I''ll leave that judgment to you. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 127 Victim I Let''s talk about the end of our world again today. Whenever fifteen years pass since the start of the regression, peace and stability slowly begin to return to the Korean Penins. Of course, the phrase "peace on the Korean Penins" has always been known to elicit different reactions from foreigners and locals alike. "Siren? What''s this? An air raid? Is the Korean War breaking out?" "No. It''s just daily life." "What?" While other countries peacefully harvest mackerel or herring from the sea, the East Sea''s specialty was missile parts. Even in the apocalypse, the situation wasn''t much different. In Busan, thergest city on the Korean Penins, power outages happened almost daily, and bizarre creatures held gatherings inside and outside the city. Experienced Koreans were prepared to humbly ept reality, thinking, "Well, it¡¯s still peaceful enough, right?"Foreigners, however, had a different perspective. In most regions, the fifteenth year marked the beginning of the inevitable copse of civilization. [Mr. Undertaker.] "Yes?" [Monster waves have been detected in North Korea. It''s currently assumed that they are moving south from the Gando region towards the Korean Penins''s interior.] Monster waves. A phenomenon where all anomalies gather and surge like a tidal wave. This anomaly had led to the destruction of countless nations and societies: Russia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, China... Korea was no exception. [It''s been 16 hours since the monster wave was detected. The Eastern Holy State in the North Korean region continues to resist, but the final defense line is in jeopardy.] [Final defense line breached. Battle in Pyongyang hasmenced.] [The Mo Gwang-seo Christ Cathedral has copsed. It has now been engulfed by the monster wave. The number of awakeners in Pyongyang is rapidly decreasing.] [Ah. There''s a lighting from the cathedral. The light... It keeps shing. It seems that Mo Gwang-seo is repeatedly experiencing death.] [The Resurrection Church believers in Pyongyang haveunched a final assault. Soon, all the awakeners observable with ¡®irvoyance¡¯ will be annihted. Six, five, four, three, two¡ one.] [Pyongyang, annihted.] [The monster wave continues to move south.] Even if humanity managed to ovee the cycles of being ughtered by the Ten Legs and wiped out by meteor showers, extinction was inevitable. Danger level: 4. Ocean-ss. Monster waves were not even anomalies with unique gimmicks like the Meteor Shower or the Infinite Void. As the name suggests, monster waves were more fittingly associated with "monsters" rather than bizarre "anomalies." Their strengthy in one simple fact. [The monster wave is about to enter Seoul. The number of anomalies engulfed by the wave is estimated to be around 500,000. Estimated at about 500,000.] [Blow up the Jamsu Bridge.] It was their overwhelming ''quantity.'' "100,000. 200,000. 500,000. In severe cases, it''s almost like an army of one million. It''s an anomaly that defies any strategy." "Hmm¡" Naturally, I shared this information with the Blood Pact members every time we held a secret meeting. Noh Do-hwa, who joined my ''Regressor Alliance'' in every cycle, sighed as if it were bothersome. "Is there no specific strategy for this?" "There is. ording to the information I''ve gathered so far, the first ce where the monster wave urs is Istanbul in Turkey. It appears exactly one day after I regress." "Hooh¡?" "When the monster wave first appears in Istanbul, it''s actually not that difficult to handle. It''s just 1,000 anomalies gathered together." "One thousand... Hmm, that''s within the range that Awakener Undertaker could barely manage alone, right?" "Exactly. So, in the next cycle, I n to head straight to Istanbul with the Saintess as soon as Ind at Busan Station." The Saintess, who was quietly sipping her bagged coffee beside us, was startled and looked up. "What?" Noh Do-hwa and I looked at the Saintess. Then we looked at each other again. "Is it really necessary to take the Saintess with you? The longer the constetions remain silent, the more the awakeners will go wild..." "I also need to keep the map on and fight. It would be fine to go with support, but honestly, enjoying a trans-Eurasian trip with a high-intelligence psychopath is a bit much for me. I''ll defeat it as quickly as possible and return." "Hmm. Fine, then. I''ll draft a ''protocol to endure the first month even without Awakener Undertaker and the Saintess'' for the next cycle..." The Saintess carefully raised her hand. "Um, excuse me. I''m notfortable with such long trips abroad. Mr. Undertaker? Captain Noh Do-hwa. My opinion is¨D¨D" The apocalypse was too harsh a time to respect the opinion of a shut-in NEET. In the next cycle, I carried the Saintess across the Eurasian continent. It felt as if my endless aura training had been for this very moment, and my steps literally took a different form. "Please let me know if it gets tough." "...! Just, a little- Mr. Undertaker, please slow down a bit-" "I''m d you seem to be fine." It took just 113 hours. It was the time needed to cross the void filled with terrifying anomalies and asional tactical nuclear bomb drops and reach Istanbul, Turkey. It was truly fortunate that the Saintess had mastered [Time Stop]. Even basic human necessities like sleep could be instantly resolved by stopping time for a moment. As for me? I was fine without sleep for up to six days. "Saintess, I''m sorry to ask immediately after arriving, but please use the awakeners'' vision to let me know if you spot any remnants of the monster wave." "...I''ve just decided I will never travel with you again, Mr. Undertaker." "Don''t worry. I''ll take you back to Korea even faster!" "......" One of the most historic cities in the world, Istanbul, was now facing the peak of over-tourism due to the ''monster wave.'' Various types of anomalies, all with different characteristics, mixed like dirty water to form a tsunami. From a distance, it looked like a ''ck wave.'' However, having managed to obtain a travel ticket as early as possible, the ck wave was only surging in the western part of Istanbul. At this level, I could handle it alone. I descended. "No way! Who are you...?" "Thank you! Friend from afar! We will never, ever forget your help this time!" The locals, who were nning a recapture operation across the Bosphorus Strait, couldn''t contain their gratitude. The monster wave was smoothly exterminated. Although both governments had copsed, a renewed ''brotherhood'' was formed between the Turkish and Korean people. After filming a light national pride drama, I returned to mypanions. "Thank you for your hard work, Saintess. But isn''t it meaningful that we defeated an anomaly that could have grown to an ocean-ss level in the future? Let''s hurry back to our homnd and deliver this good news." "Ah... Ah..." "I''m truly satisfied to see you happy, Saintess." "Ah... Ah... Ah..." We returned home safely. Everyone was happy. And exactly 17 yearster, the entire Korean Penins, including Busan, was destroyed by the ck wave of the monster wave. "Damn. You, you crazy regressor. Didn''t you say you exterminated them?" "Ah, sorry." That was thest conversation between Noh Do-hwa and me. What went wrong? To conclude, the ''monster wave'' was not an urrence limited to Istanbul. It just happened to appear in Istanbul first. Under certain conditions, ''monster waves'' could appear anytime, anywhere. "What conditions are those?" "Turns out, they ur whenever the void reaches a certain size." In Istanbul, the void urred in the middle of the city, simr to Seoul''s case. However, unlike Seoul, which simply wiped out the surface, Istanbul''s void was abnormallyrge. Even roughly measured, the void inside spanned the size of the Mediterranean Sea. The so-called ''Constantinople'' void was teeming with fictional Crusader anomalies. "Even if we somehow block the Turkish side, it¡¯s pointless. Once civilization begins to crumble, voids appear so frequently it''s almost absurd. In Germany, India, Russia, Mongolia, monster waves can ur anywhere." "Hah...? So, how do we exterminate them...?" "Practically speaking, it¡¯s impossible to exterminate them." Yes. Even as a regressor, there was nothing I could do. The power of ''sheer numbers'' was just that formidable. "We¡¯re struggling just to manage the Korean Penins. We can''t possibly take care of the entire Eurasian continent." "Well, that''s true..." "Yes. If we somehow manage to defend against the horde of anomaliesing from Manchuria, survival itself is possible." The problem is. "But monster waves don''t ur just once; they appear continuously and periodically. Sometimes with a month''s gap, sometimes weekly. Defending against waves of tens of thousands of anomalies, no matter if I take the lead, the damage will inevitably umte." "......" "Awakeners are not invincible." As the forces were gradually worn down, the point woulde when it would be impossible to stop the southward advance of the monster wave. We could dy. We could postpone. But one day, we would inevitably reach the ''end point.'' Whether we wanted it or not. The National Road Management Corps conference room fell silent. Noh Do-hwa let out a hollowugh. "Isn''t this a bit of a scam...?" It was Noh Do-hwa¡¯s way ofughing off the situation. We kept this information confidential. If the future of humanity were widely known to have such a ''predetermined bad ending,'' countless people would have despaired. The Ten Legs or the Meteor Shower at least existed as entities. They could be killed. But how could we possibly deal with an anomaly that existed as a horde? An anomaly that urred like a natural phenomenon? "Is there no way to use the Resurrection Church of Mo Gwang-seo...?" The idea of using the Eastern Holy State as a puppet state was proposed against this backdrop. From Noh Do-hwa''s perspective, it would have been better to erect a ''human barrier'' in the north to dy the southward advance of the monster wave, even if only slightly. It was an effective method but not a perfect solution. I was deep in thought. "Ummm." Cornered on all sides. As the cycles continued, I gradually umted strategies for dealing with other anomalies while constantly pondering a final solution for the monster wave. Yet, no brilliant ideas came to mind. As I sat on the caf¨¦ hideout sofa mimicking Rodin¡¯s ''The Thinker,'' Sim Ah-ryeon with her green hair approached. "Guild leader..." "Yes? What''s up?" "Remember the Meteor Shower anomaly you mentionedst time? I finished drawing the illustration today... Can I post it on the SG Net board under the name ¡®The Librarian of the Great Library¡¯?" Our Ah-ryeon wants to y Constetion again. I nodded generously. After witnessing Ah-ryeon reduced to 16-bit pixels in the ''Logout Game,'' I had be somewhat lenient towards her. "Go ahead." "Wow! Guild leader, you''re the best! Hehe. It''s so fun to act like a constetion by predicting an anomaly that hasn''t appeared yet...!" As Ah-ryeon rolled away to her home (the world of the), a sudden inspiration struck me. "...!" It was a revtion so immense. If I had majored in art, I would have pped Picasso right there. If I believed in Buddhism, I would have ced a lotus cushion right next to Buddha. "Ah-ryeon, wait a minute!" "Yes?" "I''m just asking, but how would you feel if all humans living on this earth, at least Koreans, came to hate you?" "What...?" "Of course, they wouldn''t really hate you. Suppose, for example, you were OldManGoryeo or the Librarian of the Great Library. The entity you''re portraying is the most loathed and despised being in the world." "Guild leader, do you call my nickname OldManGoryeo in your mind?" "That''s not important now. Just answer my question! Quickly." "Hmmm..." Sim Ah-ryeon touched her chin with her index finger. "If they specifically hate me, of course, I would dislike it as a person..." "But?" "If the entity I''m portraying monopolizes such immense hatred... I don''t think I''d mind. But why?" "Got it. Thanks for your answer. Now go ahead and enjoy being a viin." "I''m not a viin!" In the next cycle, the 217th cycle, I implemented my unprecedented idea. Right after regressing, I recruited Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, and the Saintess, as usual. But just when the Ten Legs was about to rampage properly on the Korean Penins... [The Saintess of National Salvation is in mourning, announcing the advent of darkness to humanity.] Awakeners in Korea received a message they had never seen before. [The Saintess of National Salvation rmends that awakeners check the Constetion''s yground immediately.] The awakeners, puzzled by the message, logged into SG Net. And. As soon as they logged in, they saw a post pop up on the site. Author: ''Collector of All Anomalies'' Greetings, human awakeners active in Korea. I am a Constetion who has been paying attention to your activities. Considering your significant achievementspared to other regions, I have decided that Korea needs a slightly more... ''challenging choice.'' (Smile) Starting today, an apostle called the ''Ten Legs'' will appear in the Korean region. The Ten Legs has numerous tentacles. If pierced by these tentacles, it is difficult to escape death. Moreover, the tentacles regenerate in real-time, so even if you seed in cutting one off, other tentacles will form. Will you be able to withstand this trial? This is truly an intriguing ''experiment,'' I must say. (Smile) I wish you the best of luck. And shortly after, the Ten Legs did indeed appear, causing extensive damage. "Kyaaaah!" Sim Ah-ryeon, who logged into SG Net as ''Collector of All Anomalies,'' cheered. Yes, it was a cheer, not a scream. "Guild leader! Amazing! This is amazing! The power! The voices and curses of those who hate me... They''re flooding in...!" "Hmm." "I feel like I can do anything now! Guild leader! I feel incredibly strong...!" Indeed. Why hide it? The project to make all the main anomalies appearing on the Korean Penins seem as if they were caused by a specific Constetion. Thus, the grudges and resentments directed towards these anomalies naturally umted towards the ''mastermind.'' Project Zero Requiem. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 128 Victim I I ¡°Who is this constetion anyway? It makes me so angry!¡± Dang Seo-rin mmed her fist on the table. We were in a sundae gukbap (blood sausage soup) restaurant in Busan. It was unlike Dang Seo-rin, who usually focused solely on eating, to rant about the ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ throughout the meal. This was proof of how spectacrly sessful our project had been. ¡°Hmm. Well, it seems that constetion thinks of themselves as an administrator of an online game.¡± ¡°Ha. Running a game with such a nerdy attitude would make it fail in today¡¯s world!¡± ¡°Well, reality is failing.¡± ¡°Ah... Seriously, it makes me so mad. Does he think the Korean Penins is his yground? I¡¯ll make sure he regrets it someday.¡±Except for the asional times when she put people in concrete shoes and made them walk on the sea, Dang Seo-rin was a person of character. Even someone like her was this angry. Imagine how other awakeners felt. I put aside my guilt towards Dang Seo-rin and quickly focused on manipting the media. Author: ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ Greetings, human awakeners active in Korea. I¡¯m surprised! I didn''t expect you to defeat the Ten Legs, the apostle I ambitiously prepared, so easily. Should I say it''s to be expected from the region that prides itself on being a nation of gamers? (Wink) For such impressive people, I n to release anomalies with even higher difficulty levels in the future. Do you like¡ ¡®hide and seek¡¯? I do. (Smile) The next anomaly I¡¯ll present to you is the World Tree Udumbara. If you can¡¯t find it within the limited time, the entire Korean Penins, no, the entire world, will be engulfed by a zombie virus. Shortly after the Ten Legs were exterminated, another new post went up on SG Net, causing an uproar. -Anonymous: Seriously, why does this bastard keep showing up on the Korean Penins? -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquess: Oh! I cannot contain myment at the viiny of this demonic outsider! -[Baekwha] HighSchoolSenior: Hoeii (>_<);; I want to tie him up and slowly tear him apart with a nail clipper (>_<);; -Anonymous: Am I the only one going crazy at that ¡®wink¡¯ nonsense?? -Cooking Queen: Interesting. Only five people in the world knew that the ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ was a fabricated entity: myself, the Saintess, Noh Do-hwa, Yu Ji-won, and Sim Ah-ryeon. Noh Do-hwa pouted. ¡°Sometimes I feel self-loathing, wondering if we really need to go this far... But, since the ¡®Monster Wave¡¯ deceived us first, we must respond to deception with deception...¡± In any case, our media maniption and operation continued to progress smoothly. From the beginning, I, the Undertaker, had memorized all the anomalies that would appear on the Korean Penins. Their identities, gimmicks, and even the timing of their appearances. Using this regressor¡¯s knowledge cunningly, creating a new constetion as the ¡®mastermind ying with the Korean Penins¡¯ was a piece of cake. If pre-apocalypse journalists saw this, they would have been moved, thinking, ¡®Indeed, the essence of Korean media continues to be passed down to future generations even after the copse of civilization!¡¯ Ultimately, all the negative feelings of the people were directed towards the ¡®Collector of All Anomalies.¡¯ In other words, towards Sim Ah-ryeon. Author: ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ Greetings, human awakeners active in Korea. (Smile) Now, the awakeners would have a fit just seeing the expression (Smile). -Anonymous: Again? He¡¯s back? -LiteraryGirl: What are the other constetions doing instead of catching that mastermind bastard? An absolute evil. Treating this apocalyptic struggle for survival as mere amusement. The tone of the mastermind, devoid of any dignity or intelligence. ¡If the ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ had been a somewhat serious character, a cult might have formed worshiping this constetion. Even if he caused the death of humanity, the power to freely unleash terrifying anomalies would have seemed enormous to mere mortals. However, the ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ was too frivolous to be worshiped as an evil god. In short, hecked style. Whether someone loved or hated humanity, the ¡®Collector of All Anomalies¡¯ exuded such a strong nerdy vibe that no one could respect him as a Constetion. Only hatred, resentment, and contempt poured out. -Anonymous: Did you see the meteor shower scattering starlight corpses as it died? ©¸Anonymous: Yep, saw it. It was brutal. ©¸[NRMC] Officer: It was thanks to the Samcheon Guild Leader that we stopped it. If we hadn¡¯t, the Gyeongsangnam-do area would have beenpletely devastated. ©¸Anonymous: Why do we keep getting these kinds of anomalies? I just want to beat up that collector bastard. And so. Fifteen years passed. [Mr. Undertaker.] [A monster wave has been detected in North Korea. It''s currently assumed to be moving south from the Gando region towards the Korean Penins¡¯s interior.] I nodded. It had been a long time of enduring. Who owns SG Net, the only information-sharing tform in this apocalypse? Me. Who is the person who has alliances with constetions that people trust as the only reliable source of information? Me, the Undertaker. At this moment, all information power on the Korean Penins was in my hands. Pre-apocalypse media outlets wasted this power on electing opposition or ruling party presidents, but¨D the works I created yed in a far more high-dimensional realm than such pitiful political realities. ¡°Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Have you practiced your singing a lot?¡± ¡°Yes, yes...! I got certified from the Great Witch of Samcheon World that I can graduate now...!¡± ¡°Excellent. Now, go. Go show the people.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Show them that healing was originally a noble''s profession.¡± ¡°...! Yes, Guild leader...!¡± There were omens. There were hints. There were foreshadowings. I didn¡¯t focus on this child for no reason when dealing with the ¡®Logout Game.¡¯ It was all for this moment. Sim Ah-ryeon. The person who would be the savior of the Korean Penins. Formerly, the Viin, OldManGoryeo. Inte troll. Alias, the Bird that Drinks Poison. Ready to be deployed. In this world, there were few problems that couldn¡¯t be solved by overwhelming firepower. Just as I had sliced through the Ten Legs with aura despite having little martial arts knowledge, the ¡®Monster Wave¡¯ had destroyed numerous countries with sheer numbers. But I, the Undertaker, in my 217th cycle, would throw a cold and thrilling critique at this era soaked in the meta of overwhelming firepower. Overwhelming firepower. It was nothing before ¡®overwhelming healing power¡¯. ¡°Hold them back! Don¡¯t let them cross the Yalu River!¡± ¡°But, sir! There are countless anomalies! Even the visible ones number in the tens of thousands. How can we...?¡± ¡°Do not utter weak words! The Second Coming Jesus is watching over us! Even if we die, that will be the path for our ascension! God wills it! Amen!¡± Yalu River Defense Line. Not long ago, the Eastern Holy State had been immersed in its northern conquest. It must have been so much fun to simply loot the Manchuria that the Ten Legs had ravaged. However, as Proverbs 13:11 says, wealth obtained dishonestly dwindles. The believers of the Eastern Holy State were terrified by the endless ck wave of anomalies. In the DNA of the Korean people was a fear of ¡®overwhelming attacks from the north.¡¯ No matter how brainwashed a cultist was, it was not easy to ovee fear embedded in DNA with faith. ¡°Ca-Cardinal! The anomalies are trying to cross the river by piling up their corpses!¡± ¡°No! Stop them! If this ce is breached, there¡¯s only the Chongchon River and the Taedong River left!¡± Just then. [The Morning Star of the Second Coming takes pity on humanity and sends down his Saintess.] The Resurrection Church believers fighting at the front looked up at the sky with wide eyes. The fighters who couldn¡¯t even look up had their heads decapitated by the anomalies, seeing the sky from a closer view. The Morning Star of the Second Coming? Isn¡¯t that our church¡¯s Jesus? He sent down the Saintess? ¡°Ah¨D¨D¨D¡± A single line of song pierced through the battlefield, soaked in ck filth and red blood. Step. Step. Sim Ah-ryeon, our guild¡¯s once nerdy child, walked across the battlefield with her hands neatly sped. Her voice was not as astonishing as Dang Seo-rin¡¯s, who could make Chinese people marvel, Japanese people gasp, and Koreans kneel. It was still far from reaching the level of the penins¡¯s top idol. But, Sim Ah-ryeon was Dang Seo-rin¡¯s disciple. More precisely, I made her a disciple. Dang Seo-rin had squeezed out her busy schedule to tutor Sim Ah-ryeon one-on-one. For ten years! So, while she might not be the penins¡¯s top idol, she could be considered the top idol of Pyongyang. Sim Ah-ryeon, our healer, walked while singing a beautiful Latin Requiem (Sim Ah-ryeon didn¡¯t know the meaning of the lyrics). I secretly used aura to amplify Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s voice so that it echoed far beyond the horizon. ¡°Ah¨D¨D Ah¨D¨D¡± Then, a miracle happened. A warrior who had been sent flying to heaven by an anomaly¡¯s ¡®split and die¡¯ attack had his lower body regenerated. ¡°What?¡± A person who had lost their arm saw it grow back. A person whose foot had been crushed saw it reappear. The half-bodies strewn across the battlefield regained their arms, legs, fingers, toes, eye sockets, and mouths. The blood that had soaked the ground returned to its owners and became flesh again. As the wave of song spread from Sim Ah-ryeon, the injured and the half-bodies in its range were healed one by one. Resurrection. But it wasn¡¯t just human lives that were resurrected. The green grass and colorful flowers, dirtied by the ck filth, bloomed anew. ¡°Ah... Ah...¡± Green regeneration. The believers looked down at their hands. Hands that, just seconds ago, had exposed bones. Someone unknowingly murmured. ¡°It¡¯s a miracle...¡± Indeed. It was a miracle. Even in this apocalypse filled with anomalies and awakeners, the sight of life being reborn with every step Sim Ah-ryeon took was profoundly moving. The ¡®Monster Wave¡¯ tried to attack, but I quietly dealt with those nasty anomalies. I, the Undertaker, was a person who valued manners. It was a courtesy for viins to stay quiet during magical girl transformation scenes. ¡°Saintess, she¡¯s the Saintess...¡± ¡°Jesus has called Santa Maria!¡± ¡°Hallelujah! God wills it!¡± The battle situation rapidly changed. The Monster Wave was bewildered. It learned the lesson of empathy the hard way. No matter how much it killed and cut, the number of human heads seemed endless. Humans were inherently a warrior race. As long as their heads weren¡¯t chopped off, they could ¡®start anew stronger,¡¯ following the rules of the game. For four straight nights. In the battle at the Yalu River defense line, the 2,000 elite soldiers of the Eastern Holy State achieved an overwhelming victory against 200,000 monsters from the Monster Wave. It was a historic triumph. ¡°Uwoooo!¡± ¡°We won! We really won!¡± ¡°The Great Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ has not abandoned us humans! Long live Jesus! Long live the Saintess!¡± ¡°......¡± Sim Ah-ryeon smiled. It wasn¡¯t that Ah-ryeon had learned to mimic Go Yuri. I had repeatedly told her, ¡®You look fine as long as you keep your mouth shut, so please never open your mouth.¡¯ As long as she wasn¡¯t involved with onlinemunities or the Logout Game, Ah-ryeon was generally a well-behaved child. Her mysterious smile drew enthusiastic cheers from the Resurrection Church believers. Once again, the genre of this world was, in fact, fantasy. And ording to the rules of the fantasy genre, the Holy Empire must have a Saintess. Especially since there was already a Saintess in the south of Seoul, there must be another Saintess in Pyongyang in the north. That was the physicalw of the Korean Penins. Who could have foreseen it? The Eastern Holy State¡¯s Saintess. Her name was Sim Ah-ryeon. There is an epilogue. Thanks to the sess of , another ocean-ss anomaly, the Monster Wave, was safely dealt with. However, this ¡®dealing with¡¯ couldn¡¯t be called an ¡®extermination.¡¯ Beyond the Yalu River, monster waves continued to ur periodically. Each time, Sim Ah-ryeon had to ride on my back to the Yalu River front to demonstrate her Saintess¡¯s dignity. ¡°G-Guild leader. Did I do well? I did well, right? Praise me...¡± ¡°Yes. You were perfect. You did a great job. As expected of the world¡¯s greatest healer. Ah-ryeon, you are a gem.¡± ¡°Hehe...¡± Even if it was only a temporary solution, Sim Ah-ryeon consistently protected the Korean Penins as the ¡®indestructible barrier of life¡¯ in the north. In the fifteenth year, in the sixteenth year, in the seventeenth year, in the eighteenth year, in the neenth year, in the twentieth year, in the twenty-first year, and in the twenty-second year. Although, by the twenty-second year, her power had grown so strong that a ¡®corruption phenomenon¡¯ urred... In reality, Sim Ah-ryeon had almost single-handedly defended the front for those eight years. ¨D¨DAs I dealt with the ¡®Monster Wave¡¯ this time, I was deeply troubled. The Monster Wave, one of the mid-boss anomalies that had destroyed our world countless times, had caused many tragedies. At first, I intended to write about those solemn deaths as I did with the ¡®Ten Legs¡¯ and ¡®Meteor Shower.¡¯ But when I thought of Sim Ah-ryeon, I changed my mind. Despite receiving all kinds of hate and contempt from the awakeners, ying the Saintess against her will, and being summoned to the battlefield at least once a month, Sim Ah-ryeon never showed signs of struggle. As her guild leader, I should sing of joy rather than tragedy. Majesty, sorrow. At least while Sim Ah-ryeon was smiling, I didn¡¯t want to paint suchndscapes. Because. ¡°Hehe... When we get back to the hideout, make me a caf¨¦ mocha, please... With lots of chocte syrup...¡± Because I hade to love her smile as much as she loved my coffee. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 129 Eschatologist I Do you often have nightmares? I have them frequently. For example, one night in my dream, the Viin, OldManGoryeopletely subjugated Seo Gyu to his side, making him the tyrant of SG Net. -OldManGoryeo: From now on, topics like the Three Kingdoms in SG Net will be banned 24/7¡ -ZERO_SUGAR: What are you talking about, Ah-ryeon? -OldManGoryeo: Ah, this resentment and grudge. As expected, guild leader¡¯s trolling is the best. It¡¯s so delicious. Guild leader is the ultimate gourmet spot¡ -OldManGoryeo: From now on, I will stand in the sky¡ Then, all SG Net members apuded the new administrator''s decisive action.Even the Saintess, who always logged in anonymously, and Noh Do-hwa, who rarely participated in themunity, joined with their real names to praise OldManGoryeo. What a horrible nightmare. Even if the world forgave such a tragedy, I, the Undertaker, could not. After having this dream, I secretly added an extra shot of espresso to Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s caf¨¦ mocha the next day (Ah-ryeon was puzzled by the change in coffee taste). There were other nightmares, less terrible but with a bit more realism. -Teacher? Teacher¡? In that nightmare, I, the Undertaker, was already dead. I couldn¡¯t remember exactly how I died. Even with my ¡®Complete Memory¡¯, recalling the scenes of the dream was difficult. Perhaps if I bought a lucid dream from the Tutorial Fairies for a billion won, I might remember. How did I die? Was I betrayed and stabbed in the back? Was I killed by someone I trusted enough to let my guard down, even though I usually had my defensive aura active? Or was I killed by an anomaly that my aura couldn¡¯t affect? Unlike others, I had over a thousand possible causes of death, making it impossible to pinpoint. -Teacher, teacher. Teacher¡ Please wake up, teacher. Open your eyes... In the dream, Cheon Yo-hwa was looking at my dead body. Actually, ¡°looking¡± wasn¡¯t the right word. Her red eyes were so wet they looked like a car windshield in the rain, unable to see anything. She knelt in front of my corpse, using her hands to trace my outline since her sight was gone. It was fortunate she couldn¡¯t see. Since it was a dream, I experienced it in third person, as if I were having an out-of-body experience. The genre of that world was gore. There wasn¡¯t a single intact part of my corpse. -¡¡ Cheon Yo-hwa soon realized this. Her hand stopped. -Die. And she repeated it. -Die, die. Die. Die. Just die. Crash, the sound of something breaking. Then the scene in the dream changed abruptly. Around Cheon Yo-hwa, something resembling the noise of an old TV twisted. White and ck alternated rapidly, spreading out quickly. ¡®Ah.¡¯ The noise waves that spread from Cheon Yo-hwa engulfed an entire city, the Korean Penins, and then the whole world. As the noise expanded, the world screamed. Between the screams, blood kept spurting. Birch trees and spider lilies. The color of the noise and the blood resembled what once bloomed at Baekwha Girls'' High School. Divine Realm. The realm of the Outer God. When Cheon Yo-hwa, who had sealed herself as the priestess, wished for the world¡¯s destruction, the Infinite Void enveloped the world in ck, white, and red without hesitation. ¡®Yo-hwa, no. Yo-hwa, don¡¯t do it.¡¯ Cheon Yo-hwa, who had imprisoned all the anomalies of the Hyakki Yagyo, disyed her dreadful power. This exact situation was one of the ¡°Bad Endings" I had anticipated. The Outer God was dangerous. Sealing such a god, Cheon Yo-hwa always carried the risk of bing an even more catastrophic disaster. But Cheon Yo-hwa wasn¡¯t weak. She was strong. Since the 117th cycle, I had rarely seen her mental breakdown while I was alive. Yes. As long as I was ¡®alive.¡¯ What if I died? What if I died before Cheon Yo-hwa, especially in a manner too humiliating for her to ept? What would happen to the disciple to whom I had handed the graduation certificate myself? Ka ha ha ha ka ka ka ka¡ª The Infinite Void, released from its ss prison,ughed loudly. The earth turned into a mass of ck and white noise. The Outer God, assassinated by a regressor, finally returned and dered its ultimate victory. Although it was just a dream, theughter filling the universe felt too ominous to dismiss as mere mental triumph of the Outer God. The requiem of the world¡¯s end wasughter. -Huh? Then it happened. Cheon Yo-hwa (Ç§Ö{Ô’), who had swallowed Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯), stoppedughing. Zzzz¡ª It stared at me. The ck and white noise, the earth, the universe, the god who had isted the world, was gazing directly at me. -Not dead yet? Still? That¡¯s where my dream ended. Simr nightmares repeated several times. Cheon Yo-hwa wasn¡¯t the only one appearing in my nightmares. Each time, the protagonist changed. Dang Seo-rin, the Saintess, Lee Ha-yul, Sim Ah-ryeon... Of course, a dream was just a dream. It was simple to dismiss it as ¡®just an unpleasant dream.¡¯ And I had indeed ignored it for a while. ¡°Hoei? A nightmare?¡± But in the 205th cycle, I obtained information that the Tutorial Fairies were actually Baku, which changed my perspective. I decided to take my nightmares more seriously. ¡°Yes. Dreams are your specialty. Could there be an ¡®anomaly that parasitizes dreams¡¯?¡± ¡°Hoeii. Of course!¡± Fairy number 264 wiggled her hips. ¡°There are all sorts of anomalies in dreams, not just fairies!¡± ¡°All sorts?¡± ¡°Hoei. Since ancient times, humans have considered dreams another dimension. To describe the situation using the terms developed by Comrade Secretary-General, dreams are ¡®an entirely different world from this one, but one we can enter or end up entering¡¯!¡± ¡°¡A void.¡± ¡°Hik-hik-hik. Correct! While some humans have never experienced the void, no human has never dreamed...! Humans are a pitiful race destined to experience the void called dreams from birth! And living in that ¡®first void¡¯ are us fairies...! A truly fundamental race! If there¡¯s a reactionary trying to invade our rightful Lebensraum, we must punish them!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Dreams could indeed be voids. No, they were voids. Talking with the fairies, the experts in this area, convinced me of this. But I still had questions. And I wasn¡¯t the type to brood alone when I had questions. I immediately sought out the advisor I trusted most and confided in them about my ¡®nightmares.¡¯ ¡°Why am I the advisor?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯ve never been the protagonist in my nightmares.¡± ¡°Hah...¡± Noh Do-hwa, the Commander of the National Road Management Corps, cleaned her sses. It didn¡¯t really help much. The cleaning cloth itself was dirty from not being washed for so long. I snapped my fingers, generating aura. Then I delicately cleaned the smudges from Noh Do-hwa¡¯s sses. ¡°You should use water instead of a cloth.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have time for that. I¡¯m terribly busy. Hmph. If someone hadn¡¯t burst into my office demanding psychological counseling, I might have had some free time...¡± ¡°Was it Ji-won? I¡¯ll make sure to scold herter.¡± ¡°Do you have no conscience...?¡± ¡°Anyway, help me think about this. If this ¡®nightmare¡¯ is an anomaly, why does it keep showing me such dreams?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Noh Do-hwa chewed on the tip of her pen. ¡°...Assuming this isn¡¯t just an unpleasant dream created by your subconscious.¡± ¡°What kind of person do you think I am?¡± ¡°It must be trying to shake your mental state. While anomalies don¡¯t have intelligence or reason, if we think of them as intelligent beings like humans, honestly, you must be an iprehensible thorn in their side...¡± ¡°A thorn in their side?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Noh Do-hwa smirked. ¡°You know when and what anomalies will appear, and you¡¯ve been using all sorts of bizarre methods to defeat them... What else could be more iprehensible? There are only two ways to defeat you: overwhelming numbers or psychological attacks...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Overwhelming numbers. That¡¯s the Monster Wave. ording to you, that Holy Saintess thing will help us hold out for eight years, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then, there¡¯s no other option. It has to try shaking your mental state. I¡¯ve been meaning to point this out... Awakener Undertaker, you tend to view anomalies as overwhelmingly powerful enemies.¡± ¡°Because they are overwhelmingly powerful.¡± ¡°Well, when ites to ocean-ss ones and Outer Gods, they can treat us humans like insects. Even the Ten Legs was despair-inducing before you grew stronger... But from the anomalies¡¯ perspective, aren¡¯t you a terrifying existence as well?¡± ¡°Hm.¡± ¡°So if I were an anomaly, I¡¯d try breaking your mind. Showing you the destruction of the people you care about, one by one... It seems like a good strategy. What do you think?¡± Indeed. Noh Do-hwa¡¯s analysis made sense. Of course, as she emphasized, anomaliescked human-like intelligence. It was more reasonable to think that the ¡®phenomenon threatening me¡¯ urred identally rather than the anomaly having a ¡®purpose¡¯ of breaking me. However, whether the anomaly had a purpose or not, the fact remained that there was an anomaly trying to break my mind. ¡°Talking with you, Commander, helps me organize my thoughts. But still, it¡¯s just a dream, isn¡¯t it? Since it doesn¡¯t seem to be affecting our reality much, let¡¯s leave it be.¡± ¡°Hmph. As you wish. I¡¯ll leave the anomalies to you, Awakener Undertaker. By the way, it¡¯s good to know I¡¯ve never appeared in those creepy nightmares...¡± But after a few cycles, it became clear that our judgment was overly optimistic. ¡°Teacher!¡± Thud, thud, thud. Cheon Yo-hwa, a former basketball ace, came running. Even in the caf¨¦ hideout, 1,200 meters deep, small enough that running was unnecessary, Cheon Yo-hwa hurried to me. As if I might disappear somewhere. Cheon Yo-hwa sighed in relief only after reaching me. ¡°Ah... You¡¯re safe. Thank goodness...¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why do you look so upset?¡± ¡°...I¡¯m sorry. I had a really unpleasant dreamst night.¡± ¡°An unpleasant dream?¡± The long regressor life had developed a keen sense in the back of my neck. As soon as I heard ¡®unpleasant dream,¡¯ my neck prickled with goosebumps. ¡°Yes. In the dream, something terrible happened to you. You did your best to help people, but no one appreciated it. I don¡¯t remember well, but there was betrayal too...¡± Of course. My hunch was correct. ¡°So, I was really, really angry. The people around me suddenly felt inhuman, and if they weren¡¯t human, I didn¡¯t need to care for them... So.¡± ¡°You broke the seal of the Infinite Void.¡± ¡°Ah... Yes. Um, the Infinite Void covered the world, causing human extinction, but I felt nothing. I hated that feeling...¡± Exactly. There was something I hadn¡¯t considered and that Commander Noh Do-hwa hadn¡¯t noticed. If the ¡®nightmare¡¯ was truly an anomaly, I wouldn¡¯t be the only one experiencing it. Everyone having nightmares was being lured by the same anomaly. I was an awakener with the Complete Memory ability, which allowed me to vaguely remember the nightmare. Most people simply forgot their nightmares. I wasn¡¯t too worried about my own mental state. I had various means to maintain my mental health. But if others were affected? The situation changed significantly. As known, Dang Seo-rin, the Saintess, Cheon Yo-hwa, Sim Ah-ryeon, and others all had the potential to ¡®fall¡¯ and cause world destruction. An anomaly that gnawed at their minds, even without their clear memory, needed to be treated with high caution. I immediately moved to the casino. ¡°Fairy number 264.¡± ¡°Hoeiit. What is it, Comrade Secretary-General?¡± ¡°Gather as many avable Baku as possible. Prepare for lucid dreaming. It¡¯s time to raise the red g again.¡± ¡°Hoek... We can gather about 90. But what enemy has appeared that requires a full assembly?¡± I said. ¡°We need to crush the anomaly parasitizing humanity¡¯s dreams.¡± ¡°Hoeii? As expected of the Comrade Secretary-General...!¡± Thud. Fairy number 264 grabbed my hands with both of hers. ¡°Dreams are our rightful territory...! If it¡¯s about punishing a reactionary taking over our ancestralnds, the Fairy Revolution Club will fully support you!¡± The fairy shed tears of floral-scented joy. It was the moment the first ever humanity(me)-anomaly(fairies) coalition was formed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 130 Eschatologist II To anyone who might read my life story someday, I have a piece of advice: try to build a good rtionship with the Tutorial Fairies. I was an inexperienced regressor, and we ended up in a cycle of hatred, cutting off heads and smashing skulls. But you don¡¯t need to get involved in such bloody disputes. ¡°Hik-hik-hik. Starting the operation to hunt down the reactionary guerris hidden in the Secretary-General''s unconscious brain folds...!¡± ¡°Alright. I¡¯m counting on you.¡± The Tutorial Fairies were really decent anomalies. If you overlook their peculiar manner of speaking and their tendency to grind humans through the tutorial, they canmunicate with Homo sapiens. As long as you don¡¯t start with ¡®What the hell are you talking about, you bastard!¡¯ you can leave a good impression on the fairies. In fact, it¡¯s best not to start with that even when dealing with humans. The fairies scurried over and surrounded me. I counted 64 of them. ¡°First, to enter the unconscious, you need to make your mind and bodyfortable and then sleep deeply!¡±¡°Hmm.¡± Iy down on the bed. The fairies formed a circle and grabbed my hands on both sides. Fairy-Fairy-(Me)-Fairy-Fairy. That¡¯s how it looked if I drew it. There were 32 fairies on each side, left and right. ¡°Now, we¡¯ll invite the Secretary-General to our fairies'' homnd. If you have a song request, please let us know!¡± ¡°Song request?¡± ¡°Hoi. To enter thend of the Baku, a suitable and charming luby is essential¡! If there¡¯s no request, ¡®Twinkle Twinkle Little Star¡¯ will be the default BGM!¡± I requested ¡®Ind Baby,¡¯ as ¡®Twinkle Twinkle Little Star¡¯ had be a trauma due to the Meteor Shower. The fairies joined hands and swayed their shoulders from side to side. ¡°Mom goes to the ind shade-?¡± ¡°To cut necks-?¡± ¡°The baby, left alone, poops-?¡± Wait. Were those really the lyrics of ¡®Ind Baby¡¯? ¡°ZZZ¡¡± I didn¡¯t have time to ponder as the fairies'' singing plunged me into sleep. Blink. When I opened my eyes, the scenery had changed. A moment ago, I was lying in the hideout bed, but now I was slumped on a caf¨¦ table in the old Baekje Hospital building. Under the table was the corpse of Old Man Sho. The fairies were still holding my hands. The formation had halved, with 16 fairies on each side now. ¡°Oh¡? This would be an instant cure for insomnia patients. I should suggest it to Commander Noh Do-hwa, who constantlyins about sleep deprivation...¡± ¡°The sea sings-?¡± ¡°The song of destruction-?¡± ¡°ZZZ¡¡± I fell asleep again within the dream. My thoughts drifted beyond the fading consciousness. Isn¡¯t this like the movie Inception? Blink. I repeated the dream within a dream. Each time, my consciousness dove deeper into the unconscious, into deeper sleep. From the hideout to the caf¨¦, to Dang Seo-rin¡¯s VVIP train car, to the convenience store at Jamsu Bridge, to Baekhwa Girls'' High School¡ ¡°Oh? Vice guild leader, you¡ª¡± Sometimes, the characters in my dreams recognized me and widened their eyes. In an old cycle, guild leader Dang Seo-rin was surprised to see me. But the luby didn¡¯t stop. ¡°Cutting heads softly-?¡± ¡°Fall asleep-?¡± Deeper. Even deeper. Dream within a dream. To the bottomless pit of the unconscious that normal humans could never perceive or remember even if they dreamed. ¡°¡ªSunbae?¡± ¡°Hyung.¡± ¡°G-Guild leader¡¡± ¡°Oppa.¡± It was an endless descent. My rtionships, memories, and essence as the Undertaker scattered more and more. Like a ughtered animal at the butcher shop. Like a wooden doll being carved by a sculptor. ¡°Humanity sleeps soundly-?¡± ¡°Even though a baby¡¯s cry-?¡± ¡°Shakes the soul.¡± Blink. With eachyer deeper into the dream, the number of fairies decreased. 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2¡ Finally, one. ¡°Hoi.¡± Fairy number 264. The first Tutorial Fairy I ever met held both my hands. In reality, the fairy appeared as a 2D deformed character, expressing an (>_<);; face. ¡°Eek¡ What a tough job! You did great!¡± The fairy shook her head, causing deformed sweat drops to fly. ¡°Secretary-General''s unconscious is so solid!¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Eek. In my long life as a Baku, I¡¯ve never seen a human with such an unconscious structure! Secretary-General, you have no distinction between ¡®present¡¯ and ¡®past.¡¯ Everything is present before your eyes, and its capacity spans thousands of years! An ordinary mortal couldn¡¯t endure this...! As expected of our Secretary-General!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± As a human, I found it hard to understand the concept of ¡®solid unconsciousness.¡¯ I could only guess that the fairies struggled because of my Complete Memory. How should I exin this? Unlike others, my memories never faded, except those before the 4th cycle. For me, this had been the case for thousands of years, so I was ustomed to ¡®memories that seemed truly present.¡¯ It was the reason Old Man Sho genuinely envied me. The old man¡¯s life-long regret was that his wife¡¯s face and voice were gradually fading. I¡¯ll have another chance to talk about this unique condition of mer. ¡°Anyway, well done. Is this the bottom of my unconscious?¡± ¡°Hik-hik-hik. Yes! Only highly skilled Baku could reach this ce...! It¡¯s an overachievement project brought to life by the heroic will of revolutionary heroes!¡± I looked around. Busan Station¡¯s waiting room. In a way, it felt very fitting. While I had a separate birthce, the regressor ¡®Undertaker¡¯s¡¯ hometown could only be here. My starting point. The space had a volume, just like reality, flowing through the waiting room. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like a dream at all.¡± ¡°Of course. This ce isn¡¯t just the Secretary-General''s unconscious but is akin to ¡®humanity¡¯s collective unconscious.¡¯ For humans, it¡¯s an essential phenomenon like air or water¡ The reality before reality, a priori structure, hyperreality.¡± ¡°Collective unconscious? Isn¡¯t that Carl Jung¡¯s concept? You guys know about that?¡± ¡°Hik-hik-hik. Thanks to the void, we essed all human knowledge and had crash courses!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Anyway, you must be very careful here, Secretary-General. What surrounds you isn¡¯t just physical reality but humanity¡¯s unconscious itself...!¡± Despite saying that, the fairy didn¡¯t let go of my hand. Just like when the Fairy Lord showed me the void, it must be truly dangerous here. ¡°In this ce, thews of space and time mean nothing!¡± ¡°So, it¡¯s no different from the void?¡± ¡°Not just simr; it is the void!¡± Some people talk faster when discussing things they know well, and Fairy number 264 seemed to be one of them. ¡°In a way, dreams are the first grand void that envelops all humans...! Thankfully, this waiting room is a ¡®familiar ce¡¯ to you, Secretary-General, so we could use it as a base camp.¡± ¡°Base camp.¡± ¡°Yes, so whatever happens, don¡¯t let go of my hand when leaving this ce, Secretary-General! To activate the emergency escape protocol if needed...¡± It was then. Tap¡ª The low sound of high heels echoed through the waiting room. For the noise of heels hitting the floor, it was excessively loud. Like a church bell in a vige. The waiting room beyond our radius was shrouded in darkness. Hence, the figure producing the footsteps appeared slowly from the bottom up. Tap¡ª ck loafer shoes. White stockings. A purple skirt covering below the knees. But the white stripes slightly eased the heavy feel of the deep purple. ¡°Oh?¡± Pink hair. ¡°This is interesting.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Meeting you here, guild leader?¡± Go Yuri. Go Yuri smiled brightly. My heart sank. My aura pulsed faster than my heartbeat. I gathered aura throughout my body, ready to sh Go Yuri¡¯s neck in an instant. ¡°¡ªHoi?¡± Poof! The weight holding my left hand suddenly decreased. I turned to see that the fairy¡¯s head had beenpletely ripped off. Thud, thud. The fairy¡¯s flesh fell to the floor btedly, like a song out of sync. The arm of Fairy number 264, which I held, hung limply. It swung up and down three times before finally settling. It was an instant death. A Baku, which exerted more power in dreams than in reality, had been ughtered in its own domain. ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry, but I was so delighted to see you again, guild leader, that I couldn¡¯t help it... I¡¯m really sorry¡ª¡± No words were needed. I gathered all my aura and pushed off the floor. I passed Go Yuri, and the feeling of her neck exploding in response to my sh traveled through my cane-sword to my hand. The sound was more of an explosion than a cut, a pop that followed a stepter. I had grown much stronger since the battle with the Ten Legs. Without saying, ¡®Did I get her?¡¯ or confirming the kill, I just kept running. In short, I fled as fast as I could. ¡°¡ªAh.¡± But not even 300 meterster, I ran into Go Yuri again. Thud! I collided with her head-on, causing her to fall backward. Go Yuri rubbed her nose, smiling wryly. ¡°Ouch... Sorry, guild leader. I wasn¡¯t looking ahead. Ahaha. I can be a bit clumsy sometimes.¡± ¡°......¡± I immediately shot my aura upwards. The inverted lightning pierced through the ceiling of Busan Station, revealing the sky. I gathered aura in my feet andunched myself into the air. Sky Walking. At this point, only someone who had refined their aura to the extreme could perform such a technique. ¡°The weather is lovely.¡± Go Yuri was sitting on a cloud. ¡°......¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t it feel clearer up here than on the ground, as long as you avoid the void? Ah. guild leader, would you like some Pu''er tea?¡± Using the cloud as a bench, Go Yuri swung her legs one by one. Next to her, a thermos and teacups were prepared. I stopped sky-walking and fell. Boom! As soon as I hit the ground, I used all my strength to dig. I tunneled into the earth, descending deeper. I was a drill, and our drill was one to pierce the underground. ¡°Oh dear. I almost forgot. Guild leader prefers Ceylon tea over Pu''er tea.¡± Go Yuri, who had been buried 600 meters underground, was excavated. She smiled brightly, holding two cups of Ceylon tea in her hands. ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, were we ying hide-and-seek? So... Was I the seeker? guild leader, I found you. Ahaha. Is this how it¡¯s done? I haven¡¯t yed hide-and-seek since I was a kid, so I¡¯m a bit embarrassed.¡± Dear God, Buddha, Ah, Shiva, Jesus Christ, Mo Gwang-seo! Please! I had no choice. I activated thest emergency escape protocol 552-71: "Jeokbyeokga Pansori." ¡°Unexpectedly, a storm raged ururururu! The wind howled fiercely, and Zhuge Liang quickly descended to the tform, looking at the gs¡¡± ¡°Oh ho¡ª The Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird responded to the White Tiger and ck Tortoise, and suddenly, the wind from the northwest rose to the southeast¡ª¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, like thunder, the storm raged, and Zhuge Liang¡¯s heart trembled at the sight¡¡± Boom! Go Yuri, somehow having obtained a drum, beat the drumhead skillfully. She sang Jeokbyeokga as well as I, who had once received professional pansori training during a vacation cycle. ¡°Oh? Guild leader, why aren¡¯t you singing? I practiced a lot to sing this with you...¡± ¡°......¡± Go Yuri¡¯s eyebrows drooped. That¡¯s when I had to face the cold, harsh reality. Yes. I was screwed. Really, really screwed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 131 Eschatologist III "Don¡¯t worry too much, guild leader," Go Yuri said with a bittersweet smile, as if she was genuinely concerned about me. "You see, this ce is a well of dreams descended through you. I am merely a role within the dream within a dream, a manifestation of your subconscious. I have nothing to do with the real me." "...So, you''re just an illusion?" "Yes. If I had to put it, it''s likely your fears and aversions manifesting. It''s quite sad that your unconscious fears have taken my form..." Go Yuri lowered her eyes sadly, but I couldn''t let my guard down. Imagine Godzi wagging its tail, asking to be petted. Even a light novel protagonist equipped with the ''pat ¡ú conquer'' internal protocol might question the magic in their hand. "Really, it wouldn''t make sense if I weren''t an illusion. No matter how mysterious I am to you, it¡¯s absurd for me to sit on a cloud or be 600 meters underground, right?" "......""All these are just manifestations of your fear. The fact that I call you ¡®guild leader¡¯ is itself strange. Because, as you know..." "...You never epted me as guild leader. That title only exists in my memories." "Exactly!" What should I do? Trusting Go Yuri was out of the question. I might as well believe that the UFO which fell into the East Sea was an ambassador for friendly interster rtions. But it was also true that I couldn''t escape from here. I had to wait for the Tutorial Fairies to rescue me or find a way out myself. Until then, like it or not, Go Yuri would be closely following me. "Besides, I can guide you here." "Guide? That''s quite a wee offer. The guide I hired was just assassinated." "Ahaha. I''m sorry, but wouldn''t a local guide be more reliable than an outsider?" Go Yuri sped her hands behind her back and leaned closer. "The Baku are merely bridges between dreams and reality. It¡¯s hard to call thempletely ¡®from this side.¡¯ But I, formed from your unconscious, have always existed here." "......" "I know almost everything that happens here. guild leader, you came to explore the nightmares, right? I can guide you far better than any Baku." I was silent for a moment. "...There are conditions." "Yes. Please tell me anything." "Don¡¯t try to win my favor unnecessarily. Don¡¯t get too close. And don''t kill any Baku without warning like you did before. If you vite these conditions, I will escape by any means necessary." What would happen if I ended my life in this dream? It was uncertain, but it was worth a try, simply because it was an unknown method of death to me. Go Yuri¡¯s smile turned a bitplicated. "Understood, guild leader. I will try my best. However..." "However?" "Uh, nothing. This ce is dangerous, so we should hurry out." Go Yuri turned around. The light tapping of her loafers echoed through the waiting room. "Follow me. I''ll show you the nightmares." As soon as we stepped out of Busan Station, the scene before us was a void. Let me remind you of the terror of the void. In our reality, before the apocalypse, ¡®space and time¡¯ were always orderly. When you looked left, you saw the left. When you stepped right, you moved to the right. But the void is different. There, normal space-time and physicalws mean nothing. Especially in a deep void. "¡!" As soon as I stepped outside Busan Station, my head felt dizzy. Far ahead, about 200 meters away, a yellow traffic light was standing. It caught my attention, and the next moment, it was right in front of me. Blink, blink, blink¡ª The yellow light of the traffic signal shed fiercely before my eyes. When I blinked again, the traffic light had disappeared. "¡..." Waaah! Somewhere, I heard children crying. Turning around, it was just a grassy field. The grass swayed in the wind, and with each sway, it wailed like a baby. "There, there." A crone was crouched in a flowerbed, picking azalea buds. Waaah! Red blood gushed out as the buds were picked, and the crying grew louder. The crone gently stroked the azalea petals as if soothing a baby, her nails stained with bright red flower juice. "......" I steadied my breathing. In the midst of the endlessly echoing signal light¡¯s blinking, the flower baby''s crying, and the crone¡¯s stroking, I focused solely on the path I walked. Next to me, Go Yuri blinked. "Wow. You¡¯re amazing. You¡¯re really maintaining your self-awareness. How do you do it?" "...It¡¯s a secret. Where are the nightmares?" "Ah, right over there." Go Yuri pointed. I turned my gaze naturally and held my breath. "What is that...?" There, a familiar yet unfamiliar scene unfolded. The building was familiar. The National Road Management Corps Headquarters. It stood tall like the Tower of Babel, andmark of Busan. In a cycle where Busan turned into a ¡®Utopia,¡¯ I had watched fireworks with Dang Seo-rin from the terrace. "Ah¨D¨DAh¨D¨DAh¨D¨D¨D" Even now, in this dream, Dang Seo-rin was there. Not on the terrace, but hanging from the spire. Dang Seo-rin was crucified, nails driven through her wrists and ankles. It was as if she was subjected to a witch trial, bleeding from her limbs, singing without end. My limbs grew pale. But the horrific sight didn¡¯t end there. "¨D¨DAh¨D¨DAh¨D¨D" Below Dang Seo-rin, another person was crucified. It was Sim Ah-ryeon. She followed her master, singing in Latin, using the techniques Dang Seo-rin had taught her. Their faces were expressionless. The duo¡¯s acape resonated endlessly through the night sky, shaking the entire universe. "What on earth¡?" "You already know, don¡¯t you?" Go Yuri said. "It¡¯s a perpetual motion machine. The ¡®Great Witch¡¯ sings, burning her lifespan. Though it¡¯s an ability bound to end someday, the story changes when ¡®Saintess of the North¡¯ joins." "......" "When the Great Witch''s lifespan runs out, the Saintess of the North can refill it. This creates an endless fuel for the dream." "......" "The Great Witch dies every time she sings, resurrects, and dies again, endlessly singing for the world¡¯s peace. That¡¯s the nightmare." I immediately swung my sword. The Tower of Babel copsed. The singing of Dang Seo-rin and Sim Ah-ryeon was engulfed by the sound of the falling tower. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but it felt as though they looked at me, letting out a brief, silent cry before disappearing into the dust cloud. My heart pounded. But the nightmare wasn¡¯t over. "...You can¡¯t kill dreams, guild leader." Go Yuri said, looking troubled. "As I mentioned, these nightmares are just your fears manifested. A wise person like you must have imagined at least once, right? That if those two fell together, an eternal peaceful utopia might be created." "...What a horrible hobby. I would never choose that." "Yes. And this ce could be called a trash bin of possibilities you didn¡¯t choose." "......" "Worlds after bad endings, parallel worlds¡¯ fates, or simply nightmares. Bad tastes." Tap. Go Yuri started walking. The surroundings changed. Sejong City turned into a white sand desert, and at its center, Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul sat facing each other. Even from a far distance, their conversation was oddly clear. "...But, Teacher sometimes randomly brings upparisons to ¡°Records of the Grand Historian¡± and ¡°Water Margin¡±. Shouldn¡¯t we insert that knowledge into him?" "Disagree. Prefer to pursue a perfect brother rather than the current one." "Wow... Ha-yul, sometimes our tastes match, and sometimes they don¡¯t." "Agree. Can¡¯t understand why you follow outdated realism." "What? Doll otaku." They chatted softly. It should have been a heartwarming scene, but my mouth felt dry. Creak¡ª Something was between Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul. It was ¡®me.¡¯ A doll resembling the Undertaker, my corpse, stood crooked between them. "Then let¡¯s omit ¡°Records of the Grand Historian¡± and ¡°Water Margin¡± and just insert ¡°Romance of the Three Kingdoms¡±. Without that, it¡¯s hard to call him teacher!" "Agree." Creak. Creak. Cheon Yo-hwa was inputting data into my corpse. Like turning a zombie into an AI judge. The body of the ¡®Undertaker,¡¯ with its limbs and all muscles, was connected to Lee Ha-yul¡¯s puppet strings. The ¡®Undertaker¡¯ opened its mouth. -You guys¡ What do you really think of humans? I¡¯ve always told you, Yo-hwa. You need to view humans with more warmth. "Wow! It¡¯s just like teacher!" -And Ha-yul. I¡¯ve told you not to y with living people like dolls. No, not even with dead people. "Satisfied." They were cheerful. In the white desert world, only those two continued their puppet y forever. The scene seemed so distant. "That¡¯s another bad ending." Go Yuri whispered beside me. "When the Infinite Void was unleashed, covering the world, only a small oasis was allowed for Cheon Yo-hwa and the Puppeteer." "......" "Please, whatever you do, don¡¯t approach them? Though they seem normal, those versions of Cheon Yo-hwa and the Puppeteer are extremely corrupted. They¡¯re anomalies capable of destroying the world alone¡ Guild leader?" I ignored Go Yuri¡¯s warning. Crunch. My foot sank into the sand. With just one step, Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul¡¯s gazes instantly focused on me. "......" "......" They stared intently. My disciples looked at me. I walked towards them slowly but surely. As I approached, their faces turnedpletely expressionless, as if they had never been chatting happily. I stood before them. And I hugged them. As tightly as I could without breaking them. "Yo-hwa." "......" "Ha-yul." "......" "You shouldn¡¯t be here. Let¡¯s go home, kids. Let¡¯s go home..." "......" "......" Slowly, Yo-hwa and Ha-yul¡¯s forms crumbled in my embrace. White sand became a sandstorm and scattered. Even the desert itself disappeared in the wind. I found myself sitting in the middle of a cracked asphalt road. "That¡¯s amazing¡" Go Yuri murmured. "Really, how do you maintain your self-awareness so firmly? Here, you could indulge your desires. It¡¯s a ce where that¡¯s inevitable." "It¡¯s nothing special. I sometimes take a vacation to let go." "Even vacations are just a means to return to reality, right? Why do you neverpletely let go? Even once. Letting go wouldn¡¯t mean anyone could harm you." If I could answer that my spirit was strong enough, it might have felt a bit better. But that wasn¡¯t the answer. For one to be strong, it¡¯s always insufficient to rely on one¡¯s own reasons; the presence of others is necessary. The reason I could hold out strongly. ¡°¡ªAh.¡± It was paradoxically because there always existed ¡®others who crumbled before me.¡¯ "We¡¯re in trouble, guild leader. That ¡®ending¡¯ is really dangerous." "......" "It¡¯s one of the most perilous beings in this apocalyptic world. I rmend you escape. Unlike Cheon Yo-hwa or the Puppeteer, it won¡¯t be easy to give it a burial." Even before Go Yuri¡¯s warning, I sensed something ominous approaching. ¡®Something¡¯ wasing our way. The hair on my head stood up. My nape, always ahead of my senses in detecting threats, prickled fiercely. I strengthened my vision with aura. Beyond the forest of broken buildings, it was walking toward us. "Hah." Seeing the figure, I couldn¡¯t help butugh bitterly. Indeed. If this ce was my nightmare and the collective unconscious of humanity, if it gathered ¡®the worst bad endings¡¯ as Go Yuri said, then naturally, it would include such an ending. "Really, this old man never does anything helpful in life¡" Emit Schopenhauer. My long-timerade. Awakener Alias: Sword Star. Corrupted Alias: Sword Demon. The swordsman, born with the ultimate martial talent, now exuded an aura iparably more powerful than when he was alive, approaching me. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 132 Eschatologist IV Let''s talk about Old Man Scho. shback. A distant past. In the distant past, during the 21st cycle, there was a time when Old Man Scho and Iid out a drinking session on a sky-blue bridge and had a heartfelt conversation while drunk. ¡°Embalmer, what do you think will happen to the world after we die?¡± ¡°After we die?¡± Old Man Scho and I were probably the only two regressors in this world. So asionally, we would excitedly discuss topics that "only regressors could truly immerse themselves in." Just like now. ¡°Well. At the moment when the two of us die¡ wouldn¡¯t the world also regress as we do? Time would be rewound.¡±¡°What if that¡¯s not the case?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°What if the world continues even after we die?¡± ¡°No, that wouldn¡¯t make sense, would it? We die and immediately wake up. How could the world maintain itself?¡± ¡°Listen carefully.¡± The old regressor¡¯s theory was this: A. [The World After the Bad Ending] Hypothesis. Exnation: Even if the regressor dies, the world does not regress. Time continues until the universe ends. The world is "rolled back" only afterplete annihtion. The server reset. However, for some reason, the memories of Old Man Scho and I, the regressors, are preserved without being reset. ¡°Oh¡ So, subjectively, we feel like we¡¯ve woken up right after dying, but objectively, we only open our eyes after the world has ended?¡± ¡°Yes. In this case, our ability is closer to [Memory Preservation] rather than [Regression]. Given that you, as Undertaker, have the Complete Memory ability, doesn¡¯t it fit well?¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± ¡°There¡¯s another hypothesis.¡± B. [Parallel World] Hypothesis. Exnation: When a regressor dies, their consciousness and memories are transferred to "another parallel world." Although the new world appears identical, it is entirely separate from the one previously lived in. The differences between the two worlds are simply unobservable to the regressors. ¡°If the parallel world hypothesis is correct, our ability might be called [World Line Transfer].¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never thought of it from that perspective before.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you walk around without any thoughts in your head, you ignorant fool. You need to learn. You call socialistsmunists and mock German history; you''re utterly uneducated. You are disqualified as a human, as a person, and in character.¡± ¡°Hey, what is with this sneak attack?¡± ¡°I support the parallel world hypothesis.¡± I blinked. ¡°Uh¡ why?¡± ¡°Because does it make sense for the entire world and time itself to regress just because two humans die?¡± Old Man Scho swirled his soju ss. ¡°It¡¯s much more usible that only our consciousnesses are transferred to another world, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Listening to Old Man Scho, I felt an undefined unease. If, as Old Man Scho said, "rewinding the world''s time" was absurd, then "transferring an individual''s self and memories to another parallel world" seemed equally preposterous. On the contrary, assuming countless parallel worlds existed might be more theoretically burdensome. ¡°Then, in the original world where we were¡ all the parallel worlds we''ve passed through must have all perished? We''re just wandering through new worlds after leaving our vanished homnd.¡± ¡°Exactly! We keep retrying to save the world, but in truth, all those humans are already dead. The anomalies won.¡± Looking back now, as often happens with drunken ramblings, Old Man Scho¡¯s impassioned speechcked consistency. If Old Man Scho truly believed in [The World After the Bad Ending] or [Parallel World], shouldn¡¯t he have cherished his life even more? If it wasn¡¯t simply about rewinding time, and countless worlds had truly faced their end, the weight of our lives would beparable to "the entire world." Each time we failed, another world perished. Yet, Old Man Scho was about to take a long vacation. Why? Did it mean he trusted me that much? Believed that even if he gave up, I wouldn¡¯t? Or was his lover much more precious to him than the world burdened upon us? Between a world and a love, was thetter ultimately heavier? Old Man Scho staggered. ¡°What a damn world it is, Embalmer. I really¡ really don¡¯t understand why this happened. I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Ah- old man. Let¡¯s get up. If you sleep here, you¡¯ll catch a cold. Geez, you always do this because you trust your Heavenly Martial Body too much.¡± It was as if the old man in front of me, already burdened, was straining to shoulder even more weight like a Sherpa. It was the double stance chosen by the captain of a sinking ship. Stance A. He couldn¡¯t afford to fail here. If he failed, the world would end. Stance B. But even if he failed here, it couldn¡¯t be helped. The ship carried too much cargo for a single human to bear. That¡¯s right. Old Man Scho was undoubtedly pushing himself to be able to justify himself either way. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Doc¡ I¡¯m s¡¯rry¡¡± ¡°No, what¡¯s with a German old man suddenly mixing in a dialect? I¡¯m going crazy. Should I just put you in a gas chamber?¡± ¡°You crazy, racist bastard¡¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t work when a white man uses it on an Asian.¡± In the 21st cycle, I was still young. I couldn¡¯t grasp Old Man Scho¡¯s psyche. So, while supporting his drunken body, I couldn¡¯t support his heart. If I had had more experience, faced more anomalies, I would have told Old Man Scho back then. In a calm voice. ¡®Old man.¡¯ ¡®Whether it¡¯s [The World After the Bad Ending] or [Parallel World], it doesn¡¯t matter whether they are true or false right now.¡¯ ¡®Because all of them are void and anomalies.¡¯ End of shback. Returning to the present, several thousand yearster. The reunion with Old Man Scho in the unconscious world was the worst. ¡°Ah. Guild leader, he¡¯s been spotted.¡± Go Yuri muttered, but there was no need for such a kind notification. Old Man Scho was swinging a steel pipe wildly. ¡°¡!¡± The Swordmaster¡¯s strike was faster than sound. Have you ever seen a night sky adorned with a milky way as delicate as jewels? You can see it every day if you visit the clean apocalypse without pollution or fine dust. And you could see it in Old Man Scho¡¯s aura. Crash! The ¡®night sky¡¯ colored aura charged in a straight line, slicing through the debris of buildings in its path. This was the decisive reason why Old Man Scho was called the Sword Star. Because his de contained the Milky Way and starlight. The rumble from the copsing buildings echoed several beats slower than Old Man Scho¡¯s attack. Only after I barely parried Old Man Scho¡¯s strike with Do-hwa did the enormous aftershock hit my ears. ¡°Crazy¡?¡± My hand tingled, and my whole body shook. My entire sense of touch vomited. Just one strike. In the 261st cycle, my heart pounded just by blocking a single attack. For someone like me, who lived on aura rather than martial arts, it felt like my MP had halved in an instant. Suddenly, Seo Gyu¡¯s spirit possessed me. The words, ¡®You fucking cheat, stop using hacks,¡¯ spilled from my mouth. ¡°Damn, you weren¡¯t this strong before!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°No matter how much this is the void and you are an anomaly, the original you didn¡¯t show up after the 25th cycle. How can you be this strong?¡± Old Man Scho was expressionless. Perhaps, as he fell into anomaly, his small brain wrinkles and facial muscles degenerated together. -¡¡, ¡¡, ¡¡. Old Man Scho¡¯s lips kept moving, muttering something continuously. Thanks to spending time with Lee Ha-yul, my lip-reading skills were highly developed. Even from a distance, I could roughly decipher what Old Man Scho was muttering. After all, Germans have been somewhat weak in the field of eavesdropping since World War II. The eavesdropping result was this: -Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele. This madman. The Sword Demon raised his steel pipe again. The aura emanating from the old man¡¯s fingertips gave me chills. It felt like I might end up as the Regressor Chicken on the old man¡¯s dinner table tonight. ¡°Ha.¡± At that moment, I had a brilliant idea. I grabbed Go Yuri, who was idly watching. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Yuri, let¡¯s be friends!¡± The forbidden technique passed down in Korea. The Friend Shield. Trying to escape hastily could risk the pursuit of this fallen regressor, the anomaly known as ¡®Emit Schopenhauer.¡¯ Then, wouldn¡¯t it be better to aim for mutual destruction? As the guardian of human civilization, I always respected the Code of Hammurabi. An eye for an eye. An anomaly for an anomaly. No-show for Go Yuri. If I could eliminate even one of the regressor anomaly or the brainwashing beam anomaly, it would be a gain for me! How could I care about the means and methods? ¡°...¡¡± Hesitation. Old Man Scho, who had been poised tounch an all-out assault, paused. I clenched my fist in my mind. Even Old Man Scho couldn¡¯t help but hesitate in front of the brainwashing beam. Even I, who rolled to the 261st cycle, had no countermeasures and could only avoid it, so how could an old man boast so arrogantly? ¡°Hmm¡ Guild leader?¡± ¡°What? I¡¯m busy now. Don¡¯t talk to me.¡± ¡°But I think I should tell you this.¡± Go Yuri, reduced to a human shield in my left hand, spoke hesitantly. ¡°As you know, I am perceived as the most ideal type of person the opponent would be most attracted to, right? So¡ to that old man who has met his end, who do you think I look like?¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Ah. -Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele, Adele. The ¡®night sky¡¯ spread around Old Man Scho. In line with thetest trends, it was like domain expansion. Considering the old man¡¯s age, it was a unique barrier. Old Man Scho¡¯s tremendous aura stretched from his toes, staining the ground and the sky. Suddenly, a night sky appeared in the ruins of the city at midday. Killing intent surpassing sword aura. The martial talent originally possessed by Emit Schopenhauer. The extreme of that potential. Even in reality, during his prime, I had never witnessed such a lofty transcendental state unfolding there. ¡°If he were in his right mind, he wouldn¡¯t confuse his beloved wife with me¡ But having fallen this far and lost his reason in this ¡®end¡¯ state, hmm. I¡¯m in a difficult position¡¡± ¡°Release your brainwashing technique!¡± ¡°Haha, guild leader. That¡¯s passive; I can¡¯t control it. But this is serious. It¡¯s like seeing his beloved wife captured by a kidnapper. Ah, although I¡¯m d to have be friends with you.¡± I immediately threw Go Yuri far, far away. ¡°Huh?¡± Go Yuri flew like a missile. It would be great if she exploded at the end, staying true to her origins. Naturally, the attention of the no-show anomaly shifted from me to the Yuri missile. The romanticist old man threw away the steel pipe and ran toward Go Yuri. That was the only timing given to me. I bolted immediately. The protagonist of an infinite regression series must never miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. -Adeleeeeeeeee! Rumble. Crash. The city was being destroyed in real-time. I heard Old Man Scho¡¯s desperate cries in the distance, but I didn¡¯t care. Please live happily together. -Adele. At that moment, I sensed a presence beside me. There was no time to look back. sh! Something sliced through my protective aura like tofu and reached my neck. ¡®Ah.¡¯ I fell forward while still running. My head floated up, and I barely managed to nce to the side. Old Man Scho, who I thought I had distanced myself from, was running beside me. His hand was covered in blood. A close-range strike. My head was severed by a single chop. Go Yuri was captured by his side. She looked at me¡ªor more precisely, at my head¡ªand gave a bitter smile. Sensation vanished. Sound and consciousness rapidly faded. It was rather fortunate. Even if I had lived a bit longer, I would only have witnessed Old Man Scho kissing Adelyuri in a romance scene. I wanted to at least move my mouth. ¡®No, this is really too much.¡¯ Simultaneously, I felt like I had returned to the early cycles of the regressor¡¯s childhood. Back then, I didn¡¯t have to face the apocalypse alone. The most reliable dealer¡¯s back was always in front of me. See? Old Man Scho¡¯s potential was indeed extraordinary. If we could fully blossom this tremendous talent, not in a bad ending but in reality, old man. We could definitely save this ¡°damned world¡±. Thud. My consciousness fell to the bottom. The sensation of death was not much different from a dream. Everything faded to ck. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 133 Eschatologist V When I opened my eyes, leaving another death in my memories, I was in the waiting room of Busan Station. It would have been nice to say that the familiar 399 survivors came into view. However, even the waiting room of Busan Station was not spared from the chilling wind of massyoffs. Only one person weed me this time. ¡°Ah, guild leader. You¡¯re awake?¡± ¡°¡Hmm.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s some Ceylon tea. Have a drink when you get up.¡± Go Yuri was sitting on a bench in the waiting room, and I was lying on the same bench. At the time, I didn¡¯t know, but there was a certain genre grammar in the world.[The same bench] [One sitting] [One lying down]. When these three conceptsbined, they always resulted in a certain inevitable oue, transcending time and space. Simply put, Go Yuri was giving me ap pillow. Her pink hair cascaded before my eyes like an acacia blossom. A subtle scent like bath salts and the sweet fragrance of apples freshly dipped in cold water wafted through the air. ¡°...¡¡± I instinctively tried to get up but decided against it. Perhaps it was because I had used the forbidden technique [Friend Shield] a little while ago. I felt a slight guilt. Surprisingly, there was still room in my heart for feelings of guilt towards Go Yuri. Not that I could escape the presence before me anyway. ¡°Did I die?¡± ¡°Yes. And no.¡± Go Yuri brushed her hair back behind her ear. Her hair swayed like bellflowers. ¡°In terms of having died at the hands of the [Bad Ending], yes, you died. But it''s hard to call it a true death. In a dream, one cannot truly die.¡± ¡°¡Indeed.¡± Even dying in this unconscious world wouldn¡¯t trigger a ¡®regression.¡¯ My real self was still sleeping soundly surrounded by the Tutorial Fairies. It was good information. ¡°How did you escape? The enemy seemed impossible to fight against.¡± ¡°Well, if I tried to fight like you, it would have been difficult. But I don''t necessarily oppose such beings. I can escape easily.¡± Of course. Hail to the brainwashing beam. I sighed. ¡°That old man, he was too powerful.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°They say that in this unconscious world, one¡¯s greatest fears are reflected. Right. In truth, I was afraid of the old man.¡± It wasn¡¯t that I had an aversion to Emit Schopenhauer as an individual. He was myrade. It¡¯s just that... ¡°If the old man hadn¡¯t gone on vacation and had stayed by my side, what would have happened¡ I¡¯ve imagined that a few times.¡± IF. A what-if scenario. The route where Old Man Scho didn¡¯t go on vacation. ¡°Old Man Scho has a gentle heart. Even if he hadn¡¯t gone on vacation, his love and despair for his wife would have continued to nest in his heart. If he had forced himself to endure that and still stood by my side to save the world¡¡± Wouldn¡¯t he have broken at some point? There were plenty of dangerous moments. For instance, when we exterminated the Outer God Infinite Void. Infinite Void shows people the ¡®most perfect world line¡¯ as an illusion. Of course, Old Man Scho would have been immersed in days of happiness with his wife. While I managed to break free from Dang Seo-rin, Noh Do-hwa, and the Saintess, could Old Man Scho have escaped? Wouldn¡¯t he have fallen as a new apostle of Infinite Void? For example, when it was revealed that the Tutorial Fairy was actually a Baku. Negotiating with the Baku could manipte dreams as desired. That too would have been a hard temptation for Old Man Scho to resist. For example, when the being before us took a real ¡®interest¡¯ in Old Man Scho. Like the nightmare we just faced, wouldn¡¯t Old Man Scho, deluded into thinking he had reunited with his wife, be a viin acting only for Go Yuri? The bestrade turning into the worst enemy. Amon trope. ¡°Considering all that, maybe it was a divine move for him to go on vacation and leave with his wife.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°A problem in death, a problem in life. Seriously, that old man was no help at all.¡± The waiting room was silent. As if hundreds, thousands of years had flowed by in an instant, weeds sprouted from the cracks in the floor. Through the holes in the roof and ceiling, the aged sunlight dripped like candle wax. Go Yuri didn¡¯t respond. She just listened to my story with a troubled smile, as if this ''silent listening'' was the form offort I desired most at the moment. ¡°Guild leader.¡± After a long silence, Go Yuri whispered. ¡°Can you feel better at any time?¡± A hint of green apple scent wafted from her whisper. ¡°Life is like countless dreams. Thest dream a person has is called reality, but you¡¯re like the Undertaker who roams forever in the dream, burying each dead dream one by one. This ce is a farce where the corpses you buriede back to life and dance.¡± ¡°A dream within a dream, the world after the bad ending, parallel worlds, the collective unconscious. Roughly those concepts have turned into anomalies and unfolded as void.¡± ¡°And you can be the master of that void.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I will help you.¡± Go Yuri¡¯s thumb caressed my cheekbone. Like a child peering into a deep well, Go Yuri gazed down into my eyes. ¡°Help? You will help me?¡± ¡°Yes. This ce is not only your unconscious but the unconscious of all humanity. What do you think could be possible if you could freely manipte this ce?¡± The sound of breathing, scented with apple, settled on my cornea. My face felt itchy. With each movement of Go Yuri¡¯s lips, her breath drew closer. ¡°You could impose your dreams on all other humans.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. The dreams that no one else can experience, the apocalyptic scenes only you remember. You could share them with others, with those dear to you, with all humanity.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Show them your life.¡± Suddenly, the apple fragrance turned into the scent of wine, like apple wine. Like petals blossoming and unfolding, the wine scent in Go Yuri¡¯s breath spread around instantly. ¡°Show them how much you suffered, how hard you worked for others, how wise and powerful you were.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Make them grieve at your pain,mit to your devotion, marvel at your abilities.¡± Go Yuri¡¯s voice, flowing from her pink lips like honey, was as rich as nectar. ¡°You could be everyone¡¯s dream. If such a dream is called a myth, you would be a miraculous myth blooming at the end of the century.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to nod at this, do you?¡± ¡°No.¡± Go Yuri smiled with her eyes. ¡°Not now.¡± Press. Go Yuri¡¯s finger pressed gently against my chin. ¡°But as your suffering matures more and more, won¡¯t that node closer?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be sweet carelessly, guild leader. If you keep getting tastier, I might want to devour you without realizing it.¡± The words murmured from right in front of me felt as if Go Yuri had really said them¡ªor were just a whisper of my delusion. It was impossible to gauge Go Yuri¡¯s sincerity in any statement. She called me the ghost of dreams. But in truth, she was the mirage made entirely of dreams and flesh. Maybe that was the tragedy assigned to the existence of Go Yuri. As I looked up into Go Yuri¡¯s red well, such a thought struck me. A week of nights passed. Although it was quite a shock to offer my neck to an oldrade, my mental state recoveredpletely after a few rests. I tossed some Ceylon tea into my mouth and farmed Silver Bells from the souvenir shop. Go Yuri watched me with amusement. ¡°What are you nning? As you said, the Bad Ending is an unbeatable enemy.¡± ¡°The Bad Ending has its own uses.¡± Jingle. The Silver Bell on my wrist rang softly. My personal item, ingrained even in the unconscious (pre-apocalypse price: 9,900 won), felt special today. ¡°The old man will return someday.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°More precisely, I will make him return. The co-representative of thepany ran off to be happy by himself; I must bring him back, right? The problem was that even if I caught the old man, I could only listen to the sound of a water rocket for now.¡± Old Man Scho¡¯s potential was extraordinary. But it was ¡®only¡¯ potential. When Old Man Scho was alive, it was a time when even the Korea Awakener¡¯s Federation couldn¡¯t catch Meteor Shower. Can you believe it? Meteor Shower. That anomaly, now so trivial we call it a mid-boss, was something Old Man Scho would exim, ¡°They expect us to clear this?¡± Old Man Scho¡¯s time stopped at the 23rd cycle. From my perspective, that was more than thousands of years in the past. No matter how sessful or talented a person is, continuous adaptation to new eras is necessary. It would be absurd to im, ¡°Hey everyone! This is the most popr genre literature these days!¡± while bringing out the Epic of Gilgamesh now. ¡°I originally nned to train the old man like crazy if he returned. With his talent, I thought about lightly training him for about 200 years so he could at least be useful.¡± ¡°Hehe.¡± ¡°But here in the unconscious world, we have such a great answer sheet provided.¡± Go Yuri tilted her head. ¡°Answer sheet?¡± Yes. An answer sheet. I was ready to face Old Man Scho¡¯s Bad Ending, the Fallen Alter version, also known as the Sword Demon, again. Likest time, the Sword Demon was wandering the scorched city of Seoul. Dragging an utterly unmorous construction steel pipe. As usual, wasn¡¯t he the one swallowing up all the elegance and dignity of the awakened ones? For the sake of preserving the dignity and character of the awakened, it was inevitable that I, the Undertaker, had to step in. I took a deep breath. Then exhaled with all my might. ¡°Hey, you National Socialist German Workers¡¯ Party member bastard!¡± ¡°......¡± Freeze¡ª A racial hate speech, which would make a well-educated German (excluding the 1930s) have a seizure, echoed loudly. By the way, the National Socialist German Workers'' Party,monly known as NSDAP, was better known by its alias among the awakened ones. Nazis. Incidentally, Old Man Scho was a person who voted for the Social Democratic Party of Germany from birth until the day the world ended. His blood was quite red. Germany had produced both Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler. In other countries, the battle between fascists andmunists might be a simple ideological struggle, but in Germany, it waspounded with feelings of ethnic hatred. Even if one falls into being an anomaly, a true revolutionary fighter never betrays their ideology. ¡°Look at this!¡± Flutter. I shook an old banner. ¡°.......¡± The Sword Demon¡¯s focus wavered wildly upon seeing the symbol majestically depicted on the banner. …d. Though it was just a Buddhist symbol in the East, no identalist couldprehend the profound teachings of Buddha. The DNA of ¡®Ka¡¯ dormant in Old Man Scho¡¯s blood began an allergic overreaction to the sound of ¡®Ad.¡¯ ¡°Uuurgh!¡± The German-born supermunist Swordmaster howled. If only his aura had been red, it would have been perfect. But its power was undeniable. True to the protocol to destroy the old and outdated world from its inception, Old Man Scho¡¯s swordy¡ªor rather, pipe-y¡ªdestroyed the city in an instant. However, the Sword Demon¡¯s hand, aiming to cut me down, suddenly hit the brakes. ¡°...! ...!¡± Where the Sword Demon¡¯s aura was heading, there were statues made of y. Busts of ¡®Karl Marx¡¯ and ¡®Rosa Luxemburg¡¯! The Sword Demon hesitated like a bugged NPC. His expression was like a Japanese Kirishitan ordered to step on a Jesus que to prove he wasn¡¯t a Christian. Indeed, to the German-born old man, those two statues were like the holy icons of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. If he swung his sword left, Marx would be destroyed, and if he attacked right, Luxemburg would be ruined. ¡°Ugh, uuurgh¡!¡± My preparations didn¡¯t end there. Just in case, I had disyed all the busts of German leftist politicians I knew: Kurt Schumacher, Willy Brandt, Wilhelm Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, and so on. Regardless of which faction Old Man Scho supported (though I wasn¡¯t interested in German politics, unifying the leftist factions was an illusion and an anomaly in itself), one of them would surely get him! Yes. I, the Undertaker, had spent a week hanging around Busan Station¡¯s waiting room just to show this. Thanks to all the pointless efforts during every vacation cycle, my sculpting skills were quite impressive. ¡°Does the old man think he¡¯s the only one who can do domain expansion? This is my domain expansion.¡± ¡°Uuurgh¡¡± ¡°I¡¯ve hidden statues all over this city like mines. Come forth, my unique barrier. The revolutionary space of red massacre.¡± ¡°Uuuuurgh!¡± Come, oldmunist. Cry and prove your (ideological) purity. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 134 Eschatologist VI ¡°Hooah! Urrrrgghh!¡± The Sword Demon charged. However,pared to when he sliced my neck in one move, his movements were now like those of an old caterpir. In a bad sense, his footwork had changed. To avoid the mines (statues) I had nted all over the city, the Sword Demon was forced into inefficient paths. Of course, it was hard to believe that Old Man Scho, who had fallen into corruption, still maintained the same fervent political ideology as before. In fact, the statues I made the most were of Adele, Old Man Scho''s wife. Statues of her were hiding behind the statues of Marx and Luxemburg. About 90% of the reason the Sword Demon hesitated in his iconosm was because of those statues of his wife.One might wonder if I really needed themunist statues at all, but such a question would be against the antimunist ideology of the Korean penins. Why would I pass up the opportunity to legally ridicule and humiliate that senile old man? It was a fun event that came after thousands of years. Regressors must enjoy things when they can. Some of the wife''s statues weren''t just busts but half-body statues. I even added her right arm to make the ¡°fuck you¡± gesture. Hundreds of middle fingers were proudly raised at Old Man Scho. The deste ruins of the city had be a bit more interesting with these exterior decorations. This was environmental beautification and urban aesthetics at their best. ¡°...! ...!¡± The Sword Demon howled again at my thoroughly prepared gift attack. He must have been touched by the dedication of an oldrade. I couldn¡¯t understand thenguage of anomalies well, but if tranted into German, it would probably have meant ¡®Danke.¡¯ From behind me, Go Yuri muttered. ¡°Interesting...¡± Leaving the amused observer behind, our exchange of swords¡ªor rather, cane sword and steel pipe¡ªbecame fierce. Even if the opponent was Old Man Scho, who had reached max potential, fighting was manageable when his movements were restricted. ¡°Grrrr!¡± The Sword Demon, frustrated, jumped into the air. His n was to leave no chance of stepping on the statues! However, it was a half-baked n. Apparently, that old man had been on vacation for so long that he had forgotten what kind of person I, the Undertaker, was. ¡°Look at me¡ª!¡± Rip! I tore off my shirt without hesitation. From behind, Go Yuriughed, ¡°Oh my.¡± But my stripping wasn¡¯t for fan service. Nor was it to provoke the enemy like some holy knight tank. It was purely out of a desire to show Old Man Scho the portrait drawn on my underwear. A canvas-like white undershirt. On it was a portrait of Mrs. Adele. ¡°...!¡± Old Man Scho stopped mid-air as if he had collided with a car. His fingers trembled as they clutched the steel pipe. His mouth hung open, producing only monstrous sounds, ¡°Ugh¡ªugh?¡± From his perspective, he had just witnessed a sudden masterpiece, so worship was inevitable. Moreover, not only on the clothes but also on my forearms, hands, and feet, I had tattoos of Mrs. Adele. The [Wife Shield], aplete upgrade of the [Friend Shield], had descended here. ¡°Try to attack, old man. Try to attack! Where will you strike? My neck? Do you see the ADELE tattooed here?¡± ¡°Ugh, ugh... Huh?¡± ¡°Cut it if you can! You rotten old man!¡± The Sword Demon was at a loss. Even the Old Man Scho, who had abandoned friendship and fled, couldn¡¯t move against ¡®love.¡¯ Remember, this is the orthodox way to deal with anomalies. Servants go to great lengths to hide their true names for a reason. Knowing their identity reveals their weaknesses, and once you grasp that weakness, the stiff neck of the anomaly turns into a chicken neck. From now on, it was my turn. I charged with my entire body covered in an AT Field specially designed against the no-show. ¡°I¡¯ve wanted to punch you for a thousand years!¡± ¡°Urrrrgh!¡± Strike. Strike. And strike again. Each time I swung my cane sword, Do-hwa, the Sword Demon could only dodge. Even then, Old Man Scho¡¯s murky eyes kept scanning my skin, checking for gaps that didn¡¯t have a portrait or tattoo of Mrs. Adele. But I didn¡¯t make the mistake of leaving my ankles as the only clean area, unlike a goddess trying to make a baby invincible. As a Korean who grew up reading stories like ¡®The Child Warrior Udoori¡¯, which taught resilience from an early age, I avoided such fatal mistakes. ¡°Hrrrgh...¡± In the end, Old Man Scho couldn¡¯t find any weakness on my body. The Sword Demon couldn¡¯t maintain his mid-air hover and fell. His only option left was to get beaten by me. And the beating targeted both his body and mind. I wasn¡¯t a dualist like Descartes, treating the physical and mental separately. ¡°Emit, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°...?!¡± ¡°I¡¯m at the conference right now! My God, have you been drinking? Why are you acting like a child? Wait a moment, Emit. I hear something strange in the sky!¡± The lines spilling from my mouth. They were an exact copy-paste of a 30-second phone call Old Man Scho had with his wife. Highly developed giarism is indistinguishable from the original. I not only copied the dialogue but also perfectly mimicked the voice. I converted the vibrations of the sound waves into aura, sessfully reproducing ¡®Mrs. Adele¡¯s voice.¡¯ This strategy was inspired by the 107th cycle when I fought the corrupted version of the Saintess, the Executioner. Using a tactic created by a fallen one against another fallen one was an achievement of human intellect. ¡°My brother¡¯s name is Maximillian! God, Emit, what are you talking about? This is driving me crazy. Hold on, let¡¯s talk about this in personter!¡± ¡°Ugh, ugh, urgh...¡± Old Man Scho was helpless against my ¡®voice phishing¡¯ strategy. The mental resilience of a German crumbled in real time against a Korean scam attack. ¡°Well, well...¡± Watching our fight, Go Yuri had a look of sheer ecstasy on her face. It was like the expression of someone who bought a pastry from a subway bakery that smelled amazing and found it tasted just as good. Just watching seemed to satisfy her. The battle continued for one, two, three, four days. In this fierce battle, I wasn¡¯t just releasing thousands of years of umted stress on Old Man Scho. That was only 85% of the purpose. The remaining 15% was to learn by observing the ¡®answer sheet,¡¯ as I had told Go Yuri. ¡®This anomaly before me is, after all, a manifestation of the potential talent Old Man Scho might have developed.¡¯ Hoo¡ª I controlled my breathing as I deflected the opponent¡¯s aura and stared straight at the Sword Demon. Rather than orthodox techniques, it was a mix of unconventional and demonic arts. It was closer to a level built through sinister energy rather than pure martial aura, yet the Sword Demon was undeniably one of the possibilities for ¡®Emit Schopenhauer¡¯ as a martial artist. My gaze sharpened. ¡®I must remember as much as possible.¡¯ The grip on the sword handle. The direction of his swings. The proportion and method of mixing feints into his attacks. The angles at which he added weight to his strikes and the speed at which he deftly parried. The way he utilized aura in his swordsmanship. If Old Man Scho had not dropped out of the game from the 23rd cycle, he might have eventually developed such sword techniques. ¡®I¡¯ll observe, remember, and pass it on.¡¯ For the Old Man Scho who would return someday. Therefore, I extended the battle as long as possible, even though I could have ended it faster. I introduced numerous scenarios. How would he react if attacked from the left? How would he defend against an ambush of formless aura while pretending to swing a sword? What if I did this? What about that? Oh, what about this? I threw countless question marks at my enemy. ¡°Urrrrgh!¡± And myrade answered with countless exmation points. Pounding those curved question marks into his unique exmation marks, that was the path the martial artist walked. Even if a human fell into being an anomaly, their de remained straight. ¡®I can¡¯t quite grasp the subtleties.¡¯ I admitted it honestly. As Old Man Scho said, my martial talent was rathercking. I had hoped for something, but my senses weren¡¯t dramatically impressed by the dazzling disy of swordsmanship and footwork unfolding before me. Moments of enlightenment or breakthroughsmonly seen in martial arts novels didn¡¯t seem to have any connection with me. As a martial artist, I was less than mediocre. ¡®But if I urately imitate and demonstrate it, Old Man Scho will understand the hidden meanings.¡¯ However, as a supporter, I had supreme talent. I rarely felt more grateful for the [Complete Memory] ability than now. I was always faithful to the role assigned to me as a regressor in this world. I helped myrades. Supported them. Connected them. I used time and death, the absolute barriers for mortal humans, as stepping stones to link the frontline like a thread. ¡°Old man, you¡¯re not fighting me right now, nor are you fighting to defeat me.¡± The dark aura and the night-sky-colored aura intertwined. ¡°Ugh! Hrr, hurrrgh!¡± ¡°You¡¯re fighting to be a better person than you are now. This is quite a fortuitous thing. After all, isn¡¯t every battle a duel with oneself?¡± ¡°...!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make a prediction. Someday, you will lose your life under your own de.¡± The battle that hadsted all night for four days was graduallying to an end. I thought of it as a long letter that the current Old Man Scho was sending to his future self. In the past, people exchanged letters with recorded game moves to y Go over long distances. So it wouldn¡¯t be strange for two martial artists to pass on their martial arts across a bit of time. ¡°... Ugh, ugh...¡± The Sword Demon waspletely exhausted. Even a ughter machine driven solely by ¡®love for his wife¡¯ had its limits. Due to the inherent limitations of being based on a human body, the Sword Demon¡¯s muscles were weary from endless minor wounds, and his heart groaned under relentless fatigue. The aura was not infinite either. In the battlefield environment, manipted to be thoroughly advantageous to me, it was Old Man Scho whose engine cooled down first. Pop, pop, pop¡ª The once grand aura of the Sword Demon, enough to turn broad daylight into night sky, had diminished to nothing. Like a broken TV asionally showing noise, the night-sky color flickered around Old Man Scho¡¯s shoulders. If the Sword Demon was the fallen form of Old Man Scho. That sight was the copse of that anomaly. Yes. Although it might be paradoxical for a regressor like me to say, many events have an end. The time to bury the small time capsule in my mind was approaching. ¡°Ugh, ugh... huh...¡± As I stepped back, the Sword Demon reflexively swung his steel pipe. Sway¡ª The strike was pathetic, slicing only through the air. The Sword Demon tried to follow me, but his steps faltered, and he fell. His ankles were shed with dozens of wounds like a tree stump poorly felled by an unskilled lumberjack. The Sword Demon tried to crawl with his hands. But his nails were all broken from the rough handling of aura. Crunch! Each time the Sword Demon moved, blood gushed from his ten broken nails. The Sword Demon¡¯s blood was pitch ck, smelling like charcoal. A long trail of ash followed. ¡°......¡± I raised Do-hwa. Determined to deliver the final blow to Old Man Scho, to his remnants, to his bad ending. If Old Man Scho were to die, I thought for a long time that I would be the only one qualified to conduct his funeral. But I had to momentarily pause my downward strike. Old Man Scho wasn¡¯t crawling towards me, the one he had fought for four days straight. ¡°...Ah...¡± He was crawling a little further back. ¡°...Adele... Ah...¡± He was heading towards Go Yuri. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 135 Eschatologist VII I had witnessed the deaths of manyrades. I protected their deaths and watched over them. This was one of the reasons I was given the name "Undertaker." Looking back now, the death of the Sword Star, Emit Schopenhauer, always happened too quickly, too easily. -Old man! Watch out for the tentacle! -Huh? Old Man Scho fought on the front lines like a true dealer. Thus, he had to die earlier than a supporter like me. If someone were to request a painting titled "The Death of Old Man Scho" from me, I would capture one of two scenes. The first would be of him being turned into KFC chicken pieces by the tentacles of the Ten ns. The second would be of him copsing headless like a Duhan in the old Baekje Hospital caf¨¦. Either way, his death began too swiftly and ended too abruptly.Old Man Scho''s end never allowed him the leisure to leave a final word. Even when we agreed to end a cycle mutually, it was the same. Those deaths were not ''Game Over,'' but just hitting the ''Continue'' button, so there was no reason to leave anyst words. Thus, this was the first time I truly witnessed my friend''s end. ¡°...Adele...¡± Plop. Stter. Emit Schopenhauer crawled. He crawled towards Go Yuri, bleeding ck ink-like blood through his broken nails. ¡°......¡± Seeing my oldrade in such a state, my grip on the sword wavered. Should I behead him immediately to preserve hisst shred of dignity? Or should I allow him to see Adele¡¯s face, even in a hallucination, as he closed his eyes? Click, ck. My sword wobbled somewhere between drawing and sheathing. At each short step, one side held reality''s dignity, while the other held the happiness of dreams. ¡°Shh.¡± Go Yuri¡¯s whisper was faster than my sword. ¡°Leave it to me, guild leader.¡± ¡°......¡± Go Yuri ced a finger to her lips with one eye closed, smiling softly. There was a time I genuinely liked that smile. Now, I couldn¡¯t trust Go Yuri. Still, at that moment, I let go of my sword. Was it because I had spent a week with Go Yuri and had been subtly brainwashed? Or was it because, as Undertaker, I instinctively felt that Go Yuri was the right person to give Old Man Scho a proper funeral? In my silent gaze, Old Man Scho crawled. ¡°Adele... Adele...¡± Finally, his mangled nails touched Go Yuri¡¯s foot. Splurt. The ck blood he spilled like ink stained her shoes. The thick, viscous blood ran down her loafers. ¡°Yes.¡± Go Yuri crouched down. With her gloved hands, she gently held Old Man Scho''s worn-out hand, covered in ck. ¡°Emit.¡± ¡°......¡± Old Man Scho looked up with a nk expression. Go Yuri smiled softly. ¡°You¡¯ve worked hard, Emit.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°My, you look so tired. Where have you been running around like this?¡± ¡°...,...¡± ¡°Yes. You sometimes get fixated on the strangest things and never listen to others. I always worry about you.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Are you okay? You mustn¡¯t overdo it. You should always think about your health.¡± Only ¡°Ah-¡± and ¡°Hrr-¡± sounds came from Old Man Scho¡¯s mouth. Thinking about it, few regressors had such a pitiful fate. His wife was a schr. She was invited to an academic conference at a university in Korea. Old Man Scho traveled with her to this distant, unfamiliarnd. He had no particr interest in this ce. Korea was just a gray zone he had never thought about. It was merely a ce to enjoy a light overseas trip with his wife. Now, having lost his wife, what meaning could thisnd hold for Emit Schopenhauer? I found it hard to imagine the sorrow of those who lose loved ones in a foreignnd. For Emit Schopenhauer, the only path left was to search for his beloved wife. Their reunion could only happen in two ways. A brief phone call of just a few seconds, or an illusion in the void of this unconscious world. ¡°......¡± ¡°Yes, you.¡± Go Yuri knelt and gently embraced Old Man Scho. ¡°I love you too.¡± ¡°......¡± With a final sigh, Old Man Scho''s body copsed. His flesh turned into a ck liquid, and the liquid soon scattered as charcoal dust. It seemed there was a lot to turn into dust in his body, as the ck ash spread across the ruins of the city. Go Yuri knelt, holding the ashes in her embrace. This was how Go Yuri conducted a funeral for a human. I moved my lips. ¡°...Was the old man smiling at the end?¡± ¡°......¡± Go Yuri stood up with a light grunt and dusted off the ash that had covered her body. The scattering ash made ''Cough, cough'' and ''Achoo'' sounds. Go Yuriughed awkwardly. ¡°Well, maybe he was having a happy dream. Guild leader, which would you prefer?¡± ¡°Prefer?¡± ¡°Would you like him to have smiled in my arms? Or would you prefer he regained his senses at the very end, rejecting the falsefort?¡± ¡°......¡± I had to remain silent. Go Yuri watched me for a while. Her curved smile seemed to observe my heartbeat, not my face. I hoped she couldn¡¯t hear my heartbeat. It was a reasonably realistic expectation. Boom. Just then, the ruins of the city roared, swallowing all surrounding sounds and echoes. Go Yuri looked up at the sky. ¡°Ah, this ce¡¯s bad ending is over.¡± She put her hands behind her back. ¡°Really, I can finally breathe a bit. Thank you, guild leader. Thanks to you, I feel a bit more at ease.¡± ¡°...What do you mean?¡± ¡°Haha. Recently, there have been too many powerful nightmares here. If not for you defeating Cheon Yo-hwa and the Puppeteer, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to handle it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± I frowned. ¡°To Yo-hwa and Ha-yul, you probably appeared as me. Shouldn¡¯t that have made it easier to control them?¡± ¡°They said there couldn¡¯t be two guild leaders, so they left the doll and tried to kill me.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Well.¡± p. Go Yuri pped her hands. Then we were back in the waiting room of Busan Station. This was evidence that Go Yuri had taken control of this unconscious world. ¡°Now you can leave anytime. Before, I didn¡¯t have enough power to help you. When you sleep here and wake up, it will be reality.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Lie down here, guild leader.¡± Tap, tap. Go Yuri yfully patted her thighs as she sat on the bench, seemingly ready to offer anotherp pillow. ¡°Hmm.¡± Returning to reality was good news. It meant I had somewhat cleared this vast void, called ''Dream within a Dream,'' ''World After the Bad Ending,'' and ''Parallel World.'' But Go Yuri''s words were problematic. If she intended to cooperate from the beginning, why did she get rid of the 264 Tutorial Fairies? Was it to ensure I would rely on her and use my hands to clear the ''Bad Endings''? Did she eliminate the Baku as a variable in advance? Most importantly... ¡°You. You¡¯re not just an illusion.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°A week ago, you introduced yourself as nothing more than a manifestation of my fears and aversions, separate from the real Go Yuri.¡± Indeed. This was what Go Yuri had said. -Wouldn''t it be urate to say I am a manifestation of your fears and aversions, guild leader? -Of course, it''s sad that your unconscious fears took my form. But just now, she had confessed. ¡°Then how did you almost get killed by Yo-hwa and Ha-yul? Before I entered this ce, my fears wouldn''t have been materialized, and you wouldn''t have existed.¡± ¡°......¡± Go Yuri¡¯s lips emitted a humming sound. After a while, she smiled. ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± She smiled as if in a bind. ¡°Guild leader, your ''memory'' is very, very strong, isn''t it?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You don¡¯t just have a good memory. Ah. Well, then many things make sense.¡± ¡°You.¡± ¡°I¡¯m always here, guild leader. For thousands of years, and for thousands more.¡± Step. Go Yuri approached. ¡°You helped me, so I will help you. Because you lived so diligently, too many sediments have umted here.¡± ¡°Sediments.¡± ¡°Yes. Think about it. You wouldn¡¯t have encountered the ''Logout Game'' or met your end there if it weren¡¯t for those sediments.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°But you ended up witnessing it. The nightmare that should have ended with the Ten Legs continued to increase as you kept moving forward. Countless apocalyptic forms have piled up. Ah.¡± Of course, she said. ¡°I¡¯m not ming you. I¡¯m just pointing out that the nightmares you witnessed keep piling up in your unconscious.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Isn¡¯t that your favorite quote, guild leader? Yes. You¡¯ve nurtured such a void in your heart.¡± Step. Go Yuri drew closer. ¡°So¡ªsometimes, I think it would be good for you toe down here and clean up periodically.¡± ¡°Clean up.¡± ¡°Yes. Like cleaning a house. When you return, I will sometimese out to greet you.¡± ¡°Are you saying you are my coborator?¡± ¡°Of course, guild leader. I am, after all, your guild member.¡± ¡°Then you can fulfill my request.¡± I said. ¡°Yuri, please disappear from my dreams. That would be much better for my mental health.¡± ¡°Haha.¡± Go Yuri reached out. Her palm gently covered my eyes. Warm darkness. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but that¡¯s not possible, guild leader.¡± A whisper scented with apples brushed against my nose. ¡°Because we are already one.¡± Everything faded to ck. There are epilogues. The first epilogue. Afterward, I returned to reality safely as Go Yuri promised. However, the Tutorial Fairies that should have been around my bed were nowhere to be seen. For some reason, they were back at the casino, working normally. It was truly baffling. When I asked if they weren¡¯t in the middle of performing a ritual to bring me into the unconscious world, they replied. ¡°Huh?¡± Fairy number 264, whose head should have been chopped off in the dream, tilted her head innocently. ¡°What are you talking about, Secretary? We can show humans the dreams they desire, but we don¡¯t have the power to take you to such a scary ce.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Dreams are meant to be enjoyed, not explored like ruins! We have never received such an order from you, and even if we had, it would have been impossible to fulfill it!¡± The fairy giggled. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like there was a hint of apple scent in the air. The second epilogue. Regardless of the fairies¡¯ stories, it was certain that I had somewhat conquered the ''Dream within a Dream,'' ''World After the Bad Ending,'' and ''Parallel World.'' The effects of my conquest began to show from the very next day. First, there were testimonies on SG Net. -Anonymous: Had an amazing sleepst night, thumbs up if you did too lol ©¸Anonymous: You too?? I''ve been having nightmares since I came back from the void, butst night I slept like a baby, no joke. ©¸LiteraryGirl: ? Me too, weird. -[Yuldoguk] SwordMarquis: For arduous training, healthy sleep is essential. Last night, I also slept properly to glimpse the realm of nothingness. -[National Road] Officer: Habits while awake carry over to sleeping habits. Those who suffer from insomnia should look back at their daily routines and fix any issues. -Anonymous: I don¡¯t care about anything else; I just wish I could sleep likest night every night. Simr phenomena must have urred abroad as well. As I always emphasize, mental health is crucial for humans, and healthy sleep is a significant aspect of it. In that sense, I, the Undertaker, might as well celebrate for contributing a little to the mental health of all humanity. ¡°Good morning, guild leader.¡± ¡°Good morning, my ass. It¡¯s a shitty morning. Thanks to someone, I only got three hours of sleep. But you seem very happy...?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ...I suddenly realized I hadn¡¯t conquered the bad ending of the person most in need of sleep health. Next time, I should look for Noh Do-hwa¡¯s appearance in the unconscious world first. The third epilogue. Thisst epilogue is not something that actually happened in reality. It¡¯s just a scene I, the Undertaker, saw in a dream. But there are those dreams, aren¡¯t there? Dreams so vivid that it¡¯s hard to distinguish them from reality when you look back on themter. In that dream, I was dreaming of Old Man Scho. As dreams often go, the perspective was unclear. Sometimes, I observed Old Man Scho from a third-person perspective. Sometimes, I possessed him, enjoying a first-person protagonist view. And beside Emit Schopenhauer, there was Adele. -...... -...... We spent a delightful day together. Adele liked to walk, and I liked walking with Adele. -I know a good path for a walk. -Really? How? -Well, just follow me. I revealed hidden walking routes to Adele, who knew nothing about Korean geography. Throughout my regressions, I had asionally found good walking paths for times like this. In Seoul, Sejong, and Busan, I showed my wife the paths I had noted. Adele was delighted as if she had received a surprise gift. -You have such good taste! Hearing that made all the effort of researching worthwhile. As the day was ending. We were sitting on a bench together when, suddenly, I saw a familiar face in the distance, beyond the blue hydrangeas and cypress trees. My friend. The Undertaker was standing against a tree. ¡®Ah.¡¯ At that moment, I realized. This sunset-tingedndscape was a dream. ¡®Yes. I wanted to see my wife before I died.¡¯ I wanted to grow old with you. I wanted to live with you. I wanted to die with you, but. I couldn¡¯t. -Emit? -...... I held her hand tightly. In the remaining time, I murmured to Adele. -Hey. I had a tough day. -Hmm? -It was really hard after we parted. Adele was startled. She asked if I was okay. I looked at her face. As long as possible. As deeply as possible. -Yeah. But it¡¯s okay. I was d to have survived until now. For the first time, I thought it was fortunate to have survived so diligently. It might have been closer to escape than survival. Yet, it was good I didn¡¯t disappear forever. Because it allowed this moment. -Because I¡¯m with you, everything is okay. I said. -I love you. And there, my dream ended. It was just a dream, but I had to sit on my bed for a while. Was that dream just a fantasy entirely created in my mind? Or did I momentarily connect with a scene Old Man Scho had really dreamed of, thanks to the unconscious world''s pathways? Or... perhaps, was that the illusion Go Yuri showed the ''Sword Demon'' as she embraced him for thest time? ¡®Which would you prefer, guild leader?¡¯ Go Yuri¡¯s voice echoed in my mind. ¡®Would you prefer he smiled in my arms?¡¯ ¡®Or would you prefer he regained his senses at the very end, rejecting the falsefort?¡¯ I smiled wryly. Indeed. Even if Old Man Scho fell into being an anomaly, I wished his end to be peaceful. If that dream was truly the vision Go Yuri showed, I would have to acknowledge this one thing. That a demise in Go Yuri¡¯s embrace was the coziest end the world could offer. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 136 The Impostor I If you''ve been following the story this far, you might have vaguely realized it. There is a certain element essential to genre fiction that is missing from my story. This element is so important that without it, people would question why the protagonist even bothers to act like a hero. It''s the ''monopolization of fortuitous encounters.'' For example, think about Oh Dok-seo in the 555th cycle. The moment she thought she was inside a novel, didn''t she have thoughts like this? [Oh Dok-seo: Well, anyway. The important thing in the Busan Station part is how early you secure the elixir hidden in Haeundae, that''s all.] Ah, fortuitous encounters! Such a sweet sound. Like an elixir that instantly raises your state. Or a secret manual buried halfway up a cliff for some reason. Or raising the strongest person in the world from a young age, ensuring they be dependent on you through gaslighting. Or farming an item whose value no one yet knows.Snatching those things lightly and saying, ''I''m lucky,'' in a cool manner is the dignity bestowed upon the protagonist of genre literature. To be honest, I, the Undertaker, also had a bit of luck in my youth. I was more of an ''adventurous hunter of fortuitous encounters.'' If I entered a void, it meant there was a rare item to be farmed there. It was the same with anomalies. Although I kept it secret until now, the ''Heart of Ten Legs'' was an extremely rare item. Eating it raw would easily umte an era''s worth of inner energy (it tastes like tuna belly). However, unlike the past, I no longer obsess over such items. In fact, I actively avoid them. Unless it''s absolutely necessary, I decline. If it''s too valuable to pass up, I hand it over to someone else instead of taking it myself. "Why... Why on earth?" Oh Dok-seo once furrowed her brow upon hearing about my policy. At that time, Dok-seo was taking a short break while writing my story. She seemed a bit exhausted, so I specially prepared Ten Legs sushi using the heart of Ten Legs for her. Dok-seo, munching away and saying, ''It really tastes like tuna sashimi,'' continued. "Are you a hipster or something? Do you think monopolizing fortuitous encounters is too clich¨¦d for a protagonist?" "Not at all. If possible, I would love to monopolize fortuitous encounters. Since I have the [Resume] ability, the more encounters I have, the better." "Then why... Oh! Is it because it''s more efficient for yourpanions to have them instead of you?" "Hmm. That''s part of it, but... It''s easier to show you." I liked educating Dok-seo about ''anomalies.'' It would be helpfulter on. I opened my subspace trunk bag and took out a notebook and an item, cing them on the table. Dok-seo''s eyes widened. It seemed to be an item familiar to this otaku. "...What is this? Isn''t it the [Monkey''s Paw]?" "Oh. You recognize it immediately." The Monkey''s Paw. This anomaly, which looks like a monkey''s paw, grants three wishes to a person. However, being an anomaly, it never grants wishes in a normal way. To the caster who dares to wish for a shortcut in life, some form of ''misfortune'' will befall them. If you wish for ''eternal life,'' it won''t grant you eternal youth, so you''ll enjoy an endless silver life, forever aging. If you wish for ''eternal youth and life,'' it ensures you survive the end of the world to endlessly wander the universe alone. If you wish for ''eternal youth and life with the ability to end it whenever you want,'' it creates countless horrendous and tragic events around you to test if you won''t die even then. Is it absurd? Yes, it is absurd. That absurdity is the essence of the [Monkey''s Paw] anomaly. Wishing without side effects is impossible. It''s the dark evolved alter version of the magicmp with the genie. "Strictly speaking, it''s both a monkey''s paw and a human''s hand." "Huh? What do you mean?" "By the time I found it, someone had already made three wishes." "Yikes." Unfortunately, this end-of-the-world scenario had fully implemented the curse of the Monkey''s Paw. "Dok-seo, if someone who thinks they''re smart but doesn''t know what anomalies are found the [Monkey''s Paw], what kind of wishes do you think they would make?" "...There are three wish slots. So first, ''Please remove the side effects of the wishes.''" I smiled faintly. "Good. And next?" "Uh... Remove the limit on the number of wishes? Three wishes aren''t enough. Although many stories don''t grant such a wish, it''s worth trying." "Wow. How can you be so predictable?" "Huh?" "I''ll exinter. Anyway, what''s the final wish?" "Um..." Dok-seo, after eating another piece of Ten Legs sushi, opened her mouth. "It''s a tough choice, but I''d wish for ''luck.''" "......" "The Monkey''s Paw brings misfortune to its user, right? This is a counterattack. If I''m extremely lucky from the start, the misfortune itself will be suppressed." I had a hard time suppressing a bitter smile. Dok-seo''s answer was textbook. Cheon Yo-hwa, Lee Ha-yul, and Seo Gyu gave simr answers when I asked them. Though the details of their wishes varied, their goals were the same. ''To eliminate the limitations and side effects of the Monkey''s Paw.'' "You''re right. No matter who found it, they would have made simr wishes." "Oh, yeah." I took a sip of my caf¨¦ auit. Then, I looked at the notebook ced next to the Monkey''s Paw on the table. "That''s why monopolizing fortuitous encounters became impossible for me." I first discovered the Monkey''s Paw in Jeju Ind. At the time, I was exploring the tutorial dungeon that appeared at Seongsan Ilchulbong. The dungeon had a [School Trip] concept, and along with [Baekhwa Girls'' High], it was one of the earliest tutorial dungeons to appear. In the tutorial dungeon, Seongsan Ilchulbong''s elevation grew to the height of Mount Everest. By the time I arrived, the tutorial had long ended, and Seongsan Ilchulbong had returned to its normal size. I was searching around the long-concluded tutorial site, hoping to find any salvageable items. ''There are quite a few corpses.'' There were no noticeable items. But as expected from a tutorial dungeon, skeletons and corpses were scattered from the entrance of the hiking trail. ''Are there any familiar faces among the dead?'' Checking the corpses'' ID cards and badges, most of the bodies near the entrance were Japanese. There were about 16 corpses in total. It wasn''t unusual. There were a few Japanese, like Uehara Shino, in the Busan Station tutorial dungeon. More Japanese would have been summoned forcibly in Jeju Ind, which is closer to Japan than Busan. "Hmm?" It was then. I found a slightly ''peculiar corpse'' near the summit. First, the corpse was covered in thick hair. No, it went beyond thick; it looked like it was smeared with hair growth lotion all over. At first nce, it could be mistaken for an animal carcass or a bush. Most notably, the corpse was in an odd position. Hidden in a slope far away from the tourist trail, it was at an angle just out of sight. ''Is this also a victim of the tutorial?'' The corpse was clutching a thick notebook in both hands. I picked up the notebook, thinking it might be the person''sst will. ¡¶Day 1¡· I''m writing this diary just in case something happens. The will was written in Japanese, not Korean. Flip. Without much thought, I turned the first page of the will. The world has gone strange. It was strange before, but now it''s even stranger. People are dying absurdly easily. But I''m lucky! When I was pulled into this mysterious ce, a ''Monkey''s Paw'' was right in front of me. Thanks to watching the , I knew what it was the moment I saw it. It''s amazing that my ex-girlfriend''s otaku hobby helped me now. Thank you, Sena. I''ll forgive you for cheating on me with others. The Koreans around me didn''t seem to know what it was. I quickly put it in my backpack, afraid someone might notice. Monkey''s Paw? I looked at the corpse again. The body was so hairy it was hard to recognize its face. ''Hmm. Now that I think about it, it does look like monkey hair...'' Did this person make wishes on the Monkey''s Paw and end up enchanted by the anomaly? Flip. I kept turning the pages. ¡¶Day 2¡· What wishes should I make if I had a ''Monkey''s Paw''? I once talked about this with Sena. I thought it was just a silly conversation, but I never expected to be given such luck. I feel destined. No matter how many side effects the Monkey''s Paw has, it would be foolish not to use it. People are dropping dead left and right. I have to survive somehow. Thinking like this is the only way to endure, with so many people dying around me. I want to eat gyudon and pineapple. Borrowing the power of an anomaly. "Mm." This was a thought one might have before fully limating to the end-of-the-world scenario. Even I, who had experienced hundreds of cycles, could only use the likes of tutorial fairies and the Inunaki Tunnel, and even those with many restrictions. A path a beginner should not tread lightly. But I could understand the desperation to take a gamble in a life-threatening situation. Flip. I continued reading. ¡¶Day 3¡· The Japanese gathered and formed a party. A girl named Y¨ was particrly strong. But she insisted that we share our resources by opening our backpacks to each other. Is she crazy? These are personal belongings. I wanted to join another group, but most of them were Koreans, andmunication was difficult. I asked for a day to think about it. Y¨ looked at me expressionlessly and said to do as I wished. She really creeps me out. Fine, have it your way. Tonight, I n to use the Monkey''s Paw. Flip. ¡¶Day 4¡· I have meticulously nned my wishes for the Monkey''s Paw over the past few days. Here they are in order: 1. Please don''t create any side effects for my wishes. 2. Remove the limit on the number of wishes. If removing the limit is impossible, pretend this wish wasn''t made. 3. Give me luck. Prevent any ''idental misfortunes'' from befalling me, like getting hit by a falling rock. The core of these wishes is the third one: ''luck.'' I considered other cheat abilities but ultimately dismissed them all. No matter how powerful an ability, if the Monkey''s Paw brings misfortune, it would be pointless. Luck. With overwhelming luck, any ability or misfortune would pale inparison. Maybe the Monkey''s Paw will y some trick while I''m making my wishes. It''s a devil, after all. So, I''m thinking of writing my three wishes on a piece of paper and presenting them all at once. Honestly, I don''t know what will happen. I think I''ve prepared well, but just in case, I''m leaving this diary like a will. If I fail, I hope whoever finds this diary can use it more wisely. Here goes. "......" I found myself deeply engrossed in the diary of this unknown awakener. Judging by the fact they ended up a corpse, it seemed they failed. But there''s as much to learn from failure as from sess. This awakener adhered to a fundamental principle in dealing with anomalies and voids: ''Leave records for others.'' This corpse and I wererades navigating the apocalypse together. Flip. My handling of the diary grew more respectful. ¡¶Day 5¡· I did it! While on watch, centaur monsters attacked, but for some reason, they didn''t notice me at all and went after everyone else. Half the group died, but I didn''t get a scratch. Even Y¨, the strongest among us, got injured. Surprisingly, the second wish also came true! Unlimited wishes! Hooray! With the certainty that I''d never die an absurd death, I felt at ease. Y¨''s face didn''t bother me anymore. Amazing. It''s real. I wished to eat gyudon, and after killing a monster, gyudon dropped. It was so absurd Iughed. I got six bowls of gyudon and shared them with the group. Y¨''s expressionless face looked surprised. Yeah. That''s the role that suits you. Just an extra. Though our numbers halved, the power of gyudon lifted everyone''s spirits. I realized anew the importance of food. Thank you, Sena! It''s all thanks to you! I''ll forgive you for dating four other guys while with me! The excitement in the handwriting was palpable. In my mind, I pictured someone who had risked everything on a final gamble and seeded, cheering in victory. But unlike the diary''s owner, I remained cautious. ''If this person truly seeded, they wouldn''t have ended up a corpse.'' The joy continued on the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th days. After the 11th day, the diary entries became sporadic. When I finally flipped to theter pages. The diary resumed, and her handwriting trembled from a different kind of emotion. ¡¶Day 6??¡· Something''s wrong. Something''s very wrong. When I woke up today, centaur monsters were attacking. Everything felt familiar, as if it was a repeat of the 5th day. Half the group died. Y¨ got injured in the same ce. Everything repeated exactly. The diary''s owner seemed to maintain someposure for a while. She became diligent in recording the details, noting every event and sign meticulously. But as the ''6th day??'' repeated, she could no longer keep her sanity. Her mental strength wasn''t that strong to begin with. Something''s wrong something''s wrong something''s wrong something''s wrong something''s wrong something''s wrong something''s wrong something''s wrong One page was filled with the word ''wrong'' written over and over. Then, after a long gap, a sudden cold sentence appeared in the middle of a nk page. Time is looping? Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 137 The Impostor II ¡°Wait, hold on, mister!¡± Oh Dok-seo, who had been listening to my story, was startled. She spoke so abruptly that some espresso sshed around. ¡°That, that means that Japanese person was a regressor!¡± ¡°Calm down.¡± ¡°How can I calm down? If there''s another person besides Old Man Scho and you, that makes three regressors!¡± ¡°Well, for now, just calm down.¡± I calmly wiped the table with a handkerchief. Dok-seo, who had been focused on the Monkey''s Paw, was now entirely captivated by the diary. The page with the sentence ¡®Time is looping¡¯y open. ¡°I was just as excited as you when I read that sentence in the diary.¡±It was only natural. How could my heart not race? If a ¡®Third Regressor¡¯ existed, it would be an incredible discovery. Even if the person was found dead at Seongsan Ilchulbong, it didn''t matter. There was still a possibility they would survive in the next cycle. But to spoil things a bit, no such miracle urred. In the next cycle, and the one after that. No matter how much time passed, the hairy corpse remained in the corner of Seongsan Ilchulbong. ¡°Can I read it too? The diary?¡± ¡°Sure. Unlike the Monkey''s Paw, that diary is just an ordinary notebook.¡± ¡°Thanks, mister!¡± Flip. Dok-seo hurriedly turned the pages. For a moment, her actions ovepped with my own past self. When I first discovered that diary. ¡¶Day 5???¡· It happened again. Centaurs attacked and started killing our party. Why do we keep returning to Day 5? Was it because of the wish I made with the Monkey''s Paw? I don''t know anymore. Knowing the ambush wasing, we managed to drive the centaurs away without losing anyone this time. The party members praised me for it. Even the usually stoic Y¨ looked at me with surprise, but for some reason, I didn''t feel happy. To you, this will note might look neatly written, but the reality was different. The handwriting in the diary grew more chaotic, resembling the scrawl of a madman. asionally, when sanity returned, the writing was neat, but it was only a fa?ade. The content of the diary reflected the writer''s deteriorating mental state, spiraling rapidly into madness. ¡¶Day 12??????¡· It''s certain. No matter what I do, I can''t leave this dungeon. Next, I''ll try capturing and interrogating the ¡®fairy¡¯ who seems to be the host of this death game. That bitch should have some information. ¡¶Day 13??????¡· The fairy ran away as soon as it saw me. ¡®Hoeeek! This is the wrong ce! It''s a mistake!¡¯ it said. I don''t understand. I wanted to capture it by force, but honestly, it was impossible. When it swung something that looked like a magic wand, people died instantly and it turned invisible. I''ve reached the final stage again. Koreans call this mountain Seongsan Ilchulbong. When others reached the summit, they disappeared into a bright halo of light. But I remained inside the dungeon. Why? Why can''t I leave the dungeon? I begged the Monkey''s Paw to let me out of this dungeon, but nothing changed. Why? I wished to see my family and friends again, but there was no response. Why? In a fit of anger, I threw the Monkey''s Paw away. The next day, I woke up with it on my chest. ¡¶?????????????¡· Someone please help me. ¡¶Day 5??????????????¡· Another Day 5 ambush. Suddenly, I felt overwhelmingly apathetic. This time, I didn''t bother to fight the centaurs. Instead, I joined them. I attacked my party members from behind as they fought the centaurs. Without Y¨ and me, the group fell apart pathetically quickly. I saved Y¨ forst. When she saw my face, she widened her eyes. You¨D¨D¨D she started to say. At that moment, a centaur''s massive body struck her. When a human is trampled by a horse, they die in a ridiculous manner. It had been a while since I felt such pleasure. It was a bit fun. The problem was that the centaurs, after wiping out our group, hunted me too. What fools. As expected of monsters, they had no concept of cooperation or alliances. ¡°......¡± I swallowed hard. It was a typical sign of corruption. The diary''s owner, who believed herself to be a regressor, gradually lost her humanity. Humanity only exists when people live together. Conversely, if my space cannot interact with others and my time does not intersect with theirs, a person rapidly transforms into ¡®something not human.¡¯ The fallen Saintess who became the Executioner was a prime example. The diary''s owner was no different. ¡¶Day 17???????????????????¡· I reflect on my past self. Reflecting on the past leads to the future. I have grown enough to believe that. In this space, no development is possible, so only self-discipline has meaning. Why did I hate Y¨ so much? Because she looked like the girl Sena cheated with? Because her expression annoyed me? Because she seemed like a model student? I repent my prejudice. Now I like Y¨. I really like her. Other people break down in three days, but Y¨sted nearly three weeks. She kept muttering the name Rika¡ª Rika¡ª, someone who seemed important to her. She said she had a promise to keep, to return home. It wasughably stupid. ¡¶Day 20???????????????????¡· The world outside this space must have already disappeared. The concept of ''stage clear'' does not exist. When people are enveloped in the light at the end, they actually die. So, staying here with me is definitely better. Sometimes monsters pop out, but it''s better than dying, right? At this time, the Korean groups that split up at the start arrive one by one at the summit. But I didn''t let them go. I remembered the game that I enjoyed with Sena. You thought you reached the finish line? Too bad. I hung Y¨ in the center of the crater. Then, I dragged everyone approaching the summit down the slope. Roll, roll, roll. If they were lucky, they''d roll right into the crater and hit Y¨. A hole-in-one. I wondered why Korean students would go on a school trip to such a ce, but I finally understood the true beauty of this location. Depending on the angle and force, the rolling trajectory varied greatly. It was a deeply engaging game. I dered this ce my private golf course. It''s my property. Some Korean shouted that I was a boss monster. How rude. I''m a youngdy. ¡¶Day 27???????????????????¡· I felt a pang of fear after a long time. A rather strong group rescued Y¨ and ambushed me. Thest survivors must have banded together to form a death squad. When a spear grazed my neck, I thought my heart would stop. I barely overcame the ambush and killed them. I felt alive. This is what interaction between humans is like. I gathered the wounded and killed them one by one in front of Y¨. I took special care with the one who almost beheaded me. That Korean red at me with fierce eyes until the end. Too bad. Sorry, but I''m a human who maxed out ''luck'' with the Monkey''s Paw. Y¨ made beautiful sounds. Wasn''t the violin invented from human screams? I felt more cultured. Flip. The diary contained many passages that were hard to convey. Unless one was deeply interested in gore or guro, it felt like a repetitive cycle of simr content. Torture conducted solely to elicit new reactions from others. Even the Tutorial Fairy would respond with, ¡®This is a bit much.¡¯ But human reactions were not infinite. Creativity had limits. In the end, the diary concluded with onest sentence on a page yellowed with age. A staggering handwriting. I''m sorry for being born. Monkey''s Paw, please make me disappear. Thud. I closed the diary. Then I looked down at the hairy corpse that originally held this will note with both hands. The corpse''s posture seemed as if it was praying to someone. What exactly happened to the ¡®hairy corpse¡¯? Was she really a Regressor? How did the Monkey''s Paw work? An ordinary person would find it hard to investigate further. But I, the Undertaker, was a seasoned ''True Regressor.'' Even if something seemed useless at first nce, I never neglected buildingworks with others. Therefore, I could easily inquire about the ¡®Japanese person¡¯ dragged into the tutorial dungeon in Jeju Ind. ¡°Nya? You mean Y¨?¡± Sway. Manyo Neko''s tail swayed. Across from me, Manyo Neko blinked, interrupting her tea drinking. ¡°You suddenly want to meet Y¨, nya? What do you mean, Undateikeo, nya?¡± ¡°She¡¯s your childhood friend, isn¡¯t she? I heard she¡¯s from the Jeju tutorial dungeon.¡± Y¨. The person frequently mentioned in the diary was actually someone I was familiar with. There were many people named Y¨, but several pieces of evidence convinced me. She was stronger than other awakeners. She still had ck hair despite being awakened. Most importantly, she murmured the name ¡®Rika¡¯ while being tortured. That¡¯s right. She was mentioned a few times in the Inunaki Tunnel episode. Manyo Neko''s real name was Rika, and she had a childhood friend named Y¨. If I hadn''t conquered the Inunaki Tunnel, I wouldn''t have been able to request this meeting. Fate is mysterious. ¡°Nya. It¡¯s true that Y¨ was spirited away to a Korean ind¡¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been investigating the Jeju dungeon recently. It¡¯s linked to a troublesome anomaly. I need to hear your friend¡¯s testimony.¡± For reference, the Magical Girl Association was extremely exclusive to outsiders. From naming their group ''Magical Girl'' ''Association,'' it was clear they cared little for public opinion. ¡°Nya, if it''s a request from the Undateikeo, I''llply. Got it!¡± Also, I had received a que of appreciation from their leader, known as the Grand Shaman, naming me an ''Honorary Magical Girl.'' I didn''t appreciate it much. In any case, in a society run onworks, my request was easily fulfilled. Soon, I met with Y¨, whose Magical Girl name was Obsidian Qin. ¡°You wanted to see me?¡± Among the many entrics in the Magical Girl Association, she was rtively normal. Obsidian Qin covered her mouth with a ck mask marked with an ''X.'' For those who experienced the COVID era, this could be seen as fashion. ¡°Yes. We met briefly during the Inunaki Tunnel incident, right? Nice to see you again.¡± ¡°Ah¡ Yes. Thank you very much for that time.¡± ¡°I heard you conquered the tutorial dungeon at Seongsan Ilchulbong in Jeju.¡± ¡°¡¡± ¡°There¡¯s an anomaly suspected to have originated there. I need your testimony to gauge its danger. Can you tell me what happened in the tutorial dungeon?¡± I was cautious when bringing this up. ording to the diary, this person had likely been tortured by the diary''s owner. If even a fraction of the diary was true, Obsidian Qin would have a deep-seated trauma. People usually react negatively when such buried topics are brought up. A flinch or a shudder. ¡°That''s news to me. Was there an anomaly so dangerous that the Undertaker would be interested?¡± But Obsidian Qin''s reaction was neither. Her puzzled look contained only curiosity. It was too calm for someone with trauma. Despite sensing something odd, I continued my inquiry. ¡°¡Have you seen this figure before?¡± The photo I took out showed the ¡®hairy corpse.¡¯ Finally, Obsidian Qin said, ¡°Ah¡ª¡± as if she recognized it. But still, her reaction was strange for someone who had been deeply hurt. ¡°¡I think I know who it is. Is this person rted to what you want to know?¡± ¡°Yes. Any information, no matter how small, would be helpful.¡± ¡°I can share, but¡¡± Obsidian Qin frowned. I tensed. This might be the moment I learned about the third Regressor. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯ll help. Honestly, I don''t know much about her.¡± Her lips moved slowly beneath the ck mask. ¡°¡ªShe was so weak that she died almost as soon as the tutorial dungeon began.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 138 The Impostor III Kuro. The nickname of the ''diary owner,'' whose name hadn''t appeared throughout the diary, was Kuro. Note that this was a nickname, not her real name. Even Obsidian Qin couldn''t know the diary owner''s real name. "Kuro never talked to anyone." And probably no one knew. "Weren''t you in the same group?" "Yes, she was in our group because she was Japanese like us. But she always followed at the back, never actively trying to do anything or join in." "......"Inyman''s terms, she was an outcast. An outsider. You know how, even on a school trip, there''s always that one kid? While the other kids form a tight group following the teacher, this kid stays at the very back, asserting, ''Don''t worry about me, I''m just enjoying the scenery.'' Kuro was exactly that type. Life as an outcast became much harsher after the end of the world than before. In this era, social skills were not just a ''nice to have'' trait; they were directly linked to human survival. "If she was such a loner, she wouldn''t have been treated well in the group, right?" "Exactly. She just stood by and watched when fighting the monsters. I remember she wasn''t even included in the distribution of spoils given by the fairies." "......" "But we didn''t kick her out of the group. She didn''t cause any trouble. Frankly speaking, we thought that if monsters attacked from the rear, Kuro would be the first to be sacrificed." "She was just a pawn, a sacrificialmb?" "To be honest, yes." ...That image waspletely different from what I had felt while reading the diary. In the diary, Kuro, though twisted, at least seemed to carry her weight in the group. Moreover, as the entries progressed, there were hints that her power had grown. It was said she could fend off the centaur tribe''s attack alone. Were all those testimonies lies? Was the diary I picked up just the delusions of a lonely person? "However... Thinking back after hearing from you, Undateikeo, there were some odd things." "Any detail, no matter how small, is fine. Feel free to speak." Obsidian Qin furrowed her brow, as if searching through faded memories. "Kuro slept a lot." I blinked. "Sleep?" "Yes, sleep. You know how everyone stays alert because monsters can appear anytime, right? But Kuro was strangely calm when she slept, despite being nervous when awake." "......" "And this might sound strange, but every day she slept, her arm became more hairy. Yes, just like in the photo you showed, Undateikeo." The Monkey''s Paw. Humans who draw power from anomalies be more like them. If someone relied on the Monkey''s Paw, they would eventually degenerate into a form simr to a monkey. "When hair suddenly appeared on her arm, we were rmed. We thought it might be a mysterious disease or curse. So we subdued Kuro and searched her belongings." "What was in her backpack?" "...A monster''s hand, a normal notebook, and some snacks. We naturally tried to confiscate the hand, but." But we couldn''t. "When we tried to take it, the hand went wild with tremendous strength. Several people in our group were knocked out instantly." "Huh." "Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. But in themotion, Kuro escaped. The monster''s hand seemed to follow her. We were bewildered and unnerved... so we let her disappear." "You never reunited with Kuro?" "No." Obsidian Qin looked down at the photo on the table. "I was curious about what happened to her, but now she has turned into such a hairy creature. It must have been a curse of some sort." "......" I talked with Obsidian Qin about various things until evening and then parted ways. Just before leaving the shrine, I asked Obsidian Qin, who came out to see me off. "Oh, onest thing." "Yes?" "Did arge number of Japanese people die at the start when you ran the tutorial dungeon in Jeju Ind? Like, about 16 people near the dungeon entrance?" Obsidian Qin shook his head. "No, nothing like that happened. Our group had a high survival rate." "I see. Thank you." "No problem. Take care." I quietly descended the shrine''s steps. Now then. What is the truth of the incident? The Monkey''s Paw definitely did something. Trusting Obsidian Qin''s testimony, it was clear that the diary didn''t depict reality as it was. "Hmm." I wrote a small sentence on the back of the diary. [Old Man Scho is a fool]. And when I moved to the next cycle, I picked up the same diary at Seongsan Ilchulbong. When I opened the pages, I couldn''t find the words [Old Man Scho is a fool]. "¨D¨DAh." Only then did I realize the way the Monkey''s Paw granted wishes, the nature of this diary, and the truth about the ''False Regressor.'' The answer was simple. "This is a ''dream diary,'' Dok-seo." Dok-seo blinked. "A... dream diary?" "Yes. You''ve heard of it, right? It''s written for psychological counseling purposes or to experience lucid dreaming. Anyway, this item is a ''notebook recording what happened in dreams.''" "I''ve heard of it... What? Then everything written in this notebook is just fantasies that happened in dreams?" "Something like that." I picked up the notebook and flipped through it. "Didn''t you notice anything strange?" "Strange?" "Yes. The diary ims time repeats infinitely from the 5th day. But somehow, this diary alone ''maintains its contents without being affected by the regression.''" "......! Ah! Ah!" "So you noticed." I smiled. "Items like my cane-sword Do-hwa or the logout game''sptop I gave you, those are special items that maintain their form through regression. Naturally, if real regression happens, the diary''s contents should reset. But the diary continued." "Then is the diary like those special items you have, something that persists through regression...?" "That was a possibility, but I tested it myself, and it wasn''t." [Old Man Scho is a fool]. The sentence I wrote as a test was neatly gone in the next cycle. In the end, this diary was nothing special. Just an ordinary notebook. "So the conclusion is simple. Someone dreaming about repeated regression wrote this diary." "Ah... Wait, but then, didn''t the Monkey''s Paw deceive Kuro by pretending to grant her wish?" Dok-seo snatched the notebook from my hand and opened to the part titled ¡¶Day 4¡·. 1. Please don''t create any side effects for my wishes. 2. Remove the limit on the number of wishes. If removing the limit is impossible, pretend this wish wasn''t made. 3. Give me luck. Prevent any ''idental misfortunes'' from befalling me, like getting hit by a falling rock. "Here. This." Dok-seo pressed her finger on the first wish. "Look carefully. She clearly wished for no side effects from her wish." "She did." "But if the Monkey''s Paw just showed her a dream where she was a max-luck regressor, but in reality, she remained a powerless outcast, wouldn''t that be fraud?" I smiled. "Dok-seo, youck sensitivity to anomalies." "What? What nonsense?" "Think deeply about the Monkey''s Paw. It''s not a ''wish-granting being'' in the first ce. It''s a ''side-effect-creating being.'' That''s the Monkey''s Paw." Humans always want benefits without losses. In other words, they have no conscience. The anomaly says, ''In all things, if there''s an advantage, there''s also a disadvantage.'' If you gain something, you must lose something. ''Luck and misfortune are equal in total.'' This is the principle the Monkey''s Paw adheres to. "In that sense, the name [Monkey''s Paw] doesn''t reflect its essence well. It should be called [Pros and Cons] or [Total Luck Law]." "The Total Luck Law..." Dok-seo muttered nkly. I nodded. Total Luck Law. That was the real name of this anomaly. "The Total Luck Law works like this. First, a person wishes for ''luck.'' Then the anomaly judges the same amount of ''misfortune'' to bnce it." "Ah...?" In short, the Monkey''s Paw is like a merchant''s hand exchanging luck and misfortune. "One day, a customer suddenly demanded free luck. That was Kuro. Now, how would the merchant, who has been running a smooth business, feel?" "...What kind of brat is this?" "Exactly. It''s troublesome." Of course, the anomaly doesn''t feel ''trouble.'' But ''errors'' ur. When a situation against its essence is forced, the anomaly will find a way to correct the error. The Total Luck Law was no different. "Therefore." I took out a pen. Scribble, scribble. I drew an arrow next to the ¡¶4th Day¡· in the diary and added my interpretation on the nk page. "The Total Luck Law had no choice but to twist Kuro''s wish. Like this." 1. Please don''t create any side effects for my wishes. ¡ú (1) Any luck must be matched by equivalent misfortune. This is what Kuro called ''side effects.'' (2) If there are no hidden aspects or side effects, there is no luck. Kuro''s wish is essentially not to wish for any luck. (3) Therefore, Kuro made no wishes in this reality. Her wishes are granted ''elsewhere.'' (4) In ''elsewhere,'' the Total Luck Law need not apply. Kuro can enjoy nearly infinite luck there. (5) Since the luck enjoyed there doesn''t need misfortune, Kuro in reality faces no misfortune. (6) Kuro in reality has neither luck nor misfortune. Thus, her wish for no hidden aspects or side effects is granted. Dok-seo''s jaw dropped. "No way..." "Do you understand now?" "No side effects... Ah, even the most pleasant dreams don''t cause side effects in reality... Wow, really. anomalies shouldn''t be used lightly..." I was satisfied with Dok-seo''s muttering. I had hoped she would realize that valuable lesson from the beginning. "The problem doesn''t end here. The second wish also brought tremendous aftermath." 2. Remove the limit on the number of wishes. If removing the limit is impossible, pretend this wish wasn''t made. I tapped the second wish with my pen. "This removed the Monkey''s Paw''s restrictions." "Removed the restrictions?" "As you know, the Monkey''s Paw allows only three wish-misfortune exchanges. It''s a sort of rule. But Kuro asked for the restriction to be removed." Kuro probably thought she was being clever, inserting a loophole for her benefit. But the ''side effect'' she was so wary of was realized in apletely different way. "This ultimately freed the Total Luck Law anomaly from its chains." "...What do you mean?" "This." 2. Remove the limit on the number of wishes. If removing the limit is impossible, pretend this wish wasn''t made. ¡ú (1) A human''s wish is essentially ''luck.'' (2) Removing the limit on the number of wishes means removing the limit on ''umting luck.'' (3) Luck and misfortune must always maintain an equal total. (4) Therefore, if the limit on luck is removed, the limit on misfortune must also be removed. From now on, humans must exchange unlimited amounts of luck-misfortune, beyond just three times. Dok-seo froze. "What? What? Whaaat...?" "Focus on Kuro''s wish, Dok-seo. If she had wished for [removing the limit only for me], there wouldn''t have been a major side effect." But Kuro made one crucial mistake, whether consciously or unconsciously. "Kuro asked for the [removal of the limit on wishes] itself from the Monkey''s Paw." "So...?" "So, the second wish applied to all humanity, not just Kuro. You and I are not exceptions. If we take more ''luck'' than necessary, equivalent ''misfortune'' will follow." "Eeeeeeeek?" Dok-seo screamed. "We, us too?" "Yes." "Why!" "Because Kuro, an unknown regressor, wished for it from the Monkey''s Paw." "God, what a nuisance!" "Aplete nuisance." That''s right. Though we took a long detour, the crux of this story was simple. -Why doesn''t the Undertaker hoard ''lucky opportunities'' like protagonists in other stories? Now, the answer is revealed to you. The reason is simple. This world already has an anomaly called ''Total Luck Law'' as its foundation. "Haven''t you felt it? Even though we have two lucky regressors and Noh Do-hwa, a workaholic, forming the National Road Management Corps, even though the situation is improving, inexplicable misfortunes keep happening." "Huh. Could it be?" "It''s because of the Total Luck Law. In this world, trying to freeload brings immediate catastrophic consequences." "Aaaaargh! Ugh! Aaaaargh! What kind of cursed game is this!" Dok-seo wailed. In short, in our world, ''hoarding lucky opportunities'' is impossible byw. For someone like Dok-seo, who considers herself the protagonist of the world, it was utterly despairing. I took a sip of my now cold Caf¨¦ au Lait. It tasted good even cold. "Well, don''t worry too much." As an experienced regressor, I always had countermeasures against the Total Luck Law. In fact, I was grateful for this anomaly. It was quite useful in many ways. "How can I not worry... Wait! I ate the Ten Legs steak earlier! Does that mean I''ll face equivalent misfortune now? What did you feed me, old man!" But that is another story. We''ll save that tale for another chapter. There is an epilogue. After discovering that the vast unconscious realm of humanity housed ''Dreams within Dreams,'' ''Bad Endings,'' and ''Parallel Worlds,'' I often delved into the unconscious world. The purpose was simple. Regrly cleaning humanity''s unconscious storage so people could always have sweet dreams. "Hmm?" "Groan... Groan..." Thus, while I was beating Old Man Scho''s bad ending today, I sensed a strange presence from the south of the Korean Penins. After finishing with Old Man Scho, I headed south. The southern coast of Korea. There, Seongsan Ilchulbong stood tall, as if a giant version had been copied and pasted from reality. "......" Thud, thud¡ª At the heightparable to Everest, ''someone'' was rolling something down. It was a human head. That someone had long ck hair. Her hair was so long that her face was obscured. Thud, thud, thud¡ª She kept piling heads beside her and rolling them down towards the crater of Seongsan Ilchulbong, expressionlessly. Meaninglessly. Like a reversed Sisyphus. Suddenly, I thought. 3. Give me luck. Prevent any ''idental misfortunes'' from befalling me, like getting hit by a falling rock. Kuro wished to eliminate all idental misfortunes. How did the Monkey''s Paw interpret that wish? Would it not be concerned with ''inevitable misfortune'' instead of ''idental misfortune''? Despite numerous myths and anecdotes warning of human arrogance, people still think lightly, ''If I change the form of the wish, I can still use the anomaly.'' Why be satisfied with just three wishes? Why not ask for infinite wishes? If it were me, I would have used the anomaly more wisely. Even if remains a legend among humans, future descendants will still approach another Monkey''s Paw, thinking, ''I could have used it better.'' Hubris. That might have been the inevitable misfortune given to Kuro. I turned my back and walked away from the southern sea. Thud, thud, thud¡ª Today, too, in someone''s dream, a girl would be rolling severed heads. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 139 The Lucky One I As mentioned in the previous story, in this world, ''monopolizing fortuitous encounters'' is impossible. More precisely, it''s possible, but the aftermath is unpredictable. Like eating a high-carb dessert cake that''s bad for your health. "Hmm." And I pondered the same way someone on a diet would when faced with a delicious cake. On the tabley the Monkey''s Paw. ''Where does fortuitous encounter end and pure luck begin?'' For example... yes.I toured the best restaurants in Busan to quickly establish a connection with Dang Seo-rin. A tourposed entirely of her favorite dishes. This information was gathered by me personally, over repeated cycles. Would the Total Luck Law anomaly consider such knowledge obtained by a regressor as ''luck''? ''If so, that''s quite unfair. It would mean my regression ability is also considered luck.'' I smirked. After some research, it seemed the Total Luck Law wasn''t that strict. I had sacrificed sweat, time, and sometimes my life to obtain the knowledge of a regressor. These were not random strokes of luck but the result of relentless effort. Thus, even if I consumed elixirs like the ''Heart of Ten Legs,'' there were no side effects. Dok-seo''s worries were unfounded. ''Hmm. Then what constitutes true luck?'' I couldn''t help but be intrigued. ''Should I test it?'' Coincidentally, it was the 590th cycle. For someone like me who enjoyed ''vacation cycles'' every 5 or 10 cycles, it was perfect timing. I finished my early schedule (recruiting the Saintess, enlisting Noh Do-hwa, etc.) after the regression. Then I headed straight to Jeju Ind. The tutorial dungeon in Jeju Ind had already been cleared. It opened much earlier than the one at Busan Station, so it was expected. I picked up the Monkey''s Paw near the top of Seongsan Ilchulbong, beside the already furry Kuro, and made my wish. "Monkey''s Paw, Monkey''s Paw. Grant my wish." -...... "First, give me endless luck." Twitch. The Monkey''s Paw trembled. This must be the correct way to make a wish. "In other words, let me enjoy luck that I would never normally experience. Luck that seems nearly impossible." -......! "Second, let the side effects of this luck start exactly ten years from now." -......! ......! "Third, even if I make my wishes, dy turning my body into a furry creature for ten years. That''s also a misfortune, isn''t it?" -...... At that moment, strangeughter echoed around me. -Ukikikiki! Hee! Ukiki! Hik! Monkeyughter. No, it was more like an AI mimicking monkeyughter, with an oddly mechanical sound. Along with that sound, the Monkey''s Paw suddenly disintegrated into powder. "Oh." If I had to interpret it, it seemed to say, ''Your wish is granted.'' The powder was all absorbed into my arm, but at a nce, there were no changes to my body. ''So, luck begins now.'' What events awaited me? I stood at the summit of Seongsan Ilchulbong for a moment. But nothing happened. "Hmm." Was the wish granted properly? I returned to the maind, half-believing, half-doubting. Despite being busy with settling the National Road Management Corps and various schedules, no overwhelming ''luck'' urred. Just as I thought the Total Luck Law might not be so powerful and my wish might have failed¡ª Knock, knock. Someone knocked on my office door. Since I hadn''t yet subdued Inunaki Tunnel in this cycle, I was temporarily staying at the National Road Management Corps headquarters. "Who is it?" -I''ve heard the greatest swordsman in Korea is here, so I came to visit. "Hmm?" The voice of the visitor was one I had never heard before. This was quite remarkable. As I mentioned, this happened in the 590th cycle. By this time, I had met almost every person living in Busan. As Old Man Scho would say, ''just in case there''s a [Teleporter] somewhere in this world,'' I usually tried to befriend unfamiliar people. But apletely new voice? And this person imed to be looking for the greatest swordsman in Korea. Quite a character, yet someone I didn''t know? "I don''t know what brings you here, but pleasee in." -Then I''ll be entering. The door opened. How should I describe it? An incredibly handsome young man stood there. "Uh..." Those who have heard my tales would know that I don''t usuallyment on others'' appearances. If I used expressions like ''beautiful'' or ''pretty,'' it meant the person''s appearance had an overwhelming charm that couldn''t be ignored. Just as you must call a mountain a mountain, beautiful things must be acknowledged as beautiful. This boy''s face was so ''irresistible,'' it seemed like a miracle bestowed upon humanity by nature. Therefore, the boy standing before me had a radiance in his appearance unlike any man I had ever seen. Gray hair. Not the dull color of aging, but a vibrant shade. It was proof that the stranger was an awakener. His fashion was peculiar. Traditional Korean clothing? No, more like tattered hemp clothes from the Joseon Dynasty. Even with such a -30 debuff in attire, it didn''t diminish the visitor''s aura at all. I was surprised again. I hadn''t seen this person once in 590 cycles? Even if I hadn''t met him, his looks should have been frequently mentioned on SG Net. "Oh, I''m sorry. I was staring at your face. My apologies." "No problem." His voice, too, was remarkably refreshing. Only then did I realize how strange the visitor''s speech was. His voice was so striking that I hadn''t noticed the content. If there were a male version of Go Yuri, it might be at this level. ''Weird. This speech pattern is familiar. Where have I heard it before...?'' I couldn''t recall. The gray-haired boy spoke very politely. "More importantly, are you the greatest swordsman in Korea, the one who shed two hearts of Ten Legs, the Undertaker?" "Yes? Oh, yes. While I had help from other awakeners, it''s true that my alias is the Undertaker." "Hmm. I havee to the right ce." The boy tapped his waist. Even his finger movements were elegant. A sword hilt hung at his waist. It looked like a wooden sword, not a real one. "I am also on the path of a warrior, albeit clumsily. I have heard of your fame and came despite the rudeness of an initial meeting. Would you kindly exchange a bout with me?" "...Oh." Wait a minute. ''Referring to oneself as a warrior? An aluminum sword?'' ¨D¨DA terrifying premonition struck me. It felt like standing at the edge of a swamp where I couldn''t use my lightness skill and had to wade in wearing sandals, a strange feeling. But I, the Undertaker, known for mental resilience, suppressed the unease and spoke calmly. "...Hmm. I''m always up for martial practice, but may I know your name?" "Oh dear. Look at me. I forgot to introduce myself. As I age, I should be more courteous, but I still forget such things. Hoho." Swipe. The boy, who looked about eighteen, sped his hands together and bowed. It was a perfectly executed bow, reminiscent of old Hong Kong movies. "I am called Sword Marquess. A noble of the defunct Sind Duchy and the Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect." "......" "I recently attained enlightenment and reversed my aging. But rather than being content with this state, I believe a warrior must continue to train. Thus, I am seeking strong warriors across thend. Undertaker, I humbly request a duel with you!" "......" This is driving me crazy. The Sword Marquess... This self-proimed crazy martial arts fanatic was incredibly strong. "Hoho! Indeed, the world is vast, and there are many masters in the martial arts realm! To think there was such a great swordsman in this remote region. I have learned much!" "Uh, yes..." I won the duel. But winning against as a 590-cycle regressor was a given. The issue was the process. The Sword Marquess fought me to a standstill for 101 rounds. Aside from anomalies like the Sword Demon from the Dream Within a Dream vast void, he was at a level that could im to be the best in the world. He had the power to hold a front line against anomalies alone, this gray-haired maniac before me. It was an excellent addition to our forces. So I should have been happy. But... "Master, you are quite skilled..." "Hoho! Although I am older, how can I ept suchpliments from a younger, superior swordsman? Don''t make this old man feel embarrassed." "Yes..." "Hmm! I will stay in Dongnae for a while. I am not yet ready to restore the glory of the Mount Hua Sect. I intend to train solely until I can at least match your skill, Undertaker." "......" Why did this feel so off? Was this crazy martial arts fanatic really like this back in the day? Was he actually this good with the sword? Am I supposed to believe this, anomaly? "Heh." "......?" No, this was all an illusion by Go Yuri! Damn it. To think she used such a trick without me noticing! Go Yuri, you are a terrifying child...! I tried various methods to torture my cheeks but I didn''t wake from the dream. Damn it. "Why are you doing that? It''s not good for a young man to have a habit of self-harm." I''m older than you by thousands of times. No, that''s not the point. "Sir. You mentioned you experienced enlightenment and reversed your aging?" "Yes, that''s right." "As you know, the world is dangerous these days, and such an event could be the work of an anomaly. Could you tell me specifically how you achieved this enlightenment?" "Ah, no problem. The essence of enlightenment should be shared among friends!" The Sword Marquess stroked his chin. As if there were an invisible long beard there. To the point where this performance art reached a level of expertise. "I was meditating on the beach of Yuldoguk when it happened." So, you were fishing on the beach of Ulleungdo? Got it. "Suddenly, even though it wasn''t night yet, the sky beyond the horizon turned into the Milky Way." "......?" "That''s right. I suddenly had a moment of enlightenment. I realized the boundary between day and night is merely a human distinction, a fleeting moment in the endless cycle of time, where light and darkness alternate. Everything in the world is like that. Day and night hold their own beauty, and it is the privilege of individuals to appreciate these moments. Hoho! Thus, my desire to prolong this privilege is not selfish but a dedication to all transient beings!" I apologize for transcribing this lengthy monologue, but the Sword Marquess really said all that. I wanted to interrupt, but it was tricky. Sometimes I forgot, but this man (formerly old) held the key to our food supply. I couldn''t risk offending him. "So... after attaining enlightenment...?" "I woke up to find I had reversed my aging. Hohoho." What is that? That''s just pure luck¡ªoh. Oh! ''Pure luck!'' I finally remembered the wish I made to the Monkey''s Paw in Jeju Ind a year ago. That''s right. The Sword Marquess ''luckily'' ''happened'' to achieve enlightenment on the beach and reversed his aging. This was sheer luck. An encounter that had never urred in 590 cycles! I nced at the Sword Marquess. The old young man wasughing heartily. And. As will be revealed from now on, the Sword Marquess''s reversal of aging was just the beginning of the ''lucky'' events I would experience in the 590th cycle. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 140 The Lucky One II [Mr. Undertaker, there''s a big problem.] One night, the Saintess sent a message through Constetion Talk. I jumped out of bed. It was 3 AM. For her to wake me at such an ungodly hour, it must have been an urgent event. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± [You mentioned before that in the 7th year, a ¡®Meteor Shower¡¯ anomaly would appear in the night sky and devastate Gyeongsangnam-do.] ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct.¡± [Well, right now, an anomaly suspected to be the Meteor Shower has been observed over the East Sea. The observation point is Ulleungdo.] What?[A photo has also been uploaded to SG Net. Since it¡¯s early morning, there are only 14 views, but please check it.] I quickly changed out of my pajamas and rushed out. The Sword Marquess, who had been sleeping curled up like a cat by my doorstep, followed suit. ¡°What¡¯s happening at this hour, Sword Duke?¡± I won¡¯t exin how the Sword Marquess started calling me ''Sword Duke'' instead of Undertaker. There were too many things in the world I didn¡¯t want to exin, and most of those things were rted to lunatics. ¡°There¡¯s an anomaly appearing over the East Sea right now.¡± ¡°Hah! Such a vile thing daring tounch a night attack! Despicable!¡± Tap, tap, tap¡ª The two of us sprinted across Haeundae Beach and naturally leapt into the sea. It was like stepping on thin ice. For me, it was aura; for the Sword Marquess, it was internal energy, harnessed to step and leap across the water. ¡°An anomaly in the middle of the sea, huh. I wonder if it¡¯s an omen of good or bad fortune. I suppose it¡¯s better than appearing onnd, but it seems the Sword Duke thinks otherwise.¡± Of course, it was an omen of bad fortune. My ¡®Regressor¡¯s Schedule¡¯ was as meticulously nned as if written by an obsessivepulsive person with a severe anxiety disorder about time management. While I allowed for about a week¡¯s error margin for most events, the timing of ¡®anomaly appearances¡¯ was nned down to the minute. ¡®The Meteor Shower isn¡¯t supposed to appear for several more years. Could killing the Butterfly Effect in Beijing have caused this?¡¯ This would severely disrupt my project to foster camaraderie among the awakeners under the guise of the Meteor Shower subjugation. My heart pounded with anxiety. When we reached the vicinity of Ulleungdo and looked up, the night sky was filled with brilliant, multicolored streaks. I muttered in astonishment. ¡°It really is the Meteor Shower...¡± In truth, subduing the Meteor Shower itself wasn¡¯t a problem. A 590-cycle regressor couldn¡¯t possibly fail to take down an early-stage boss of the Korean Penins. But as I mentioned, this wouldpletely throw off my ns. How would I strengthen the unity of the Korean Awakeners¡¯ Alliance? How would I solidify Dang Seo-rin¡¯s position as the leader? Surrounded by the night sky and the sea, my thoughts churned like waves. ¡°Huh?¡± Suddenly, a different light flickered beyond the Meteor Shower. It shed quickly. A ¡®disc-shaped¡¯ object rapidly crossed the sky and collided head-on with the Meteor Shower. -Stter! Stter! Little stars? The Meteor Shower seemed puzzled. It tilted its head, metaphorically speaking. For reference, an artificial sea-like space had spread around the Meteor Shower. Naturally, the ¡®disc-shaped flying object¡¯ that hit the surface of the night sky was thrown off course. Thunk, thunk, thunk¡ª The disc bounced off the Meteor Shower¡¯s surface, like a stone skipping across water. ¡°......¡± My jaw dropped. ¡®No way, that¡¯s a UFO?¡¯ Indeed. A mysterious flying object in the shape of a disc. An alien species with the ultimatebat power but, unfortunately, with a Pok¨¦mon fire attribute vulnerable to water. As soon as itnded in the East Sea, it dissolved like sugar in water. ¡°Oh, oh, oh¡ªoh oh oh?¡± Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. The UFO kept skipping. -Ah? Ah? Little stars. The Meteor Shower, bombarded repeatedly, died on the spot. No, really, it died. Meteor Shower subjugationplete. Without the Korean awakeners lifting a finger, the early-stage boss exited the scene. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. Meanwhile, the UFO skipped 89 more times along the Meteor Shower¡¯s waves. As a result, the UFO, which should have crashed in the middle of the East Sea, veered off in apletely unexpected direction. Northward. Not into the sea, but towards thend¡ªNorth Korea. ¡°No, no!¡± I screamed. My cry was genuine. ¡°Huh? What do you mean, no, Sword Duke?¡± ¡°If that crashes onnd, it¡¯s the end! There are 120 aliens in that saucer, and each one is stronger than you! It¡¯ll be a catastrophe!¡± ¡°What?¡± The Sword Marquess¡¯s expression changed. ¡°Then we must pursue it at once! I need to learn from them!¡± ¡°Yeah. Damn it.¡± Despite the Sword Marquess¡¯s madness, he was right about needing to pursue it. I pushed my aura to its maximum and chased after the UFO, determined not to lose sight of it. The Sword Marquess shouted behind me, ¡°Wait, Sword Duke! Wait for me, Sword Duke!¡± but I ignored him. I had no time to humor the ramblings of an old young man. ¡°Huff, huff. Huff, huff...!¡± For the first time in a while, I ran until I was out of breath. I had run so far that I lost contact with the Saintess. To summarize, the UFO crashnded even further north than North Korea. Specifically, between Shenyang and Sinuiju. In the region known as Manchuria, the aliens were crawling out. -Screech? -Screech. Screech. They looked like disgusting cockroaches spilling out of theirir. But these cockroaches were strong. Very strong. I hid in the bushes and observed the aliens from afar. Despite being a sci-fi species, the aliens moved naturally, using footwork to explore the surroundings. Well, if the genre were space opera instead of sci-fi, it wouldn¡¯t be too different from traditional martial arts. -Screech? One alien tilted its head and dipped its foot into a stream. Ssh, ssh. Amendable spirit of challenge, but footbaths benefiting health was a privilege reserved for humans and Japanese macaques. The alien dissolved from toe to head. -Screech! -Screech! Screech! Screech! The aliens panicked. They were probably saying things like, ¡®Oh my God! How can such a terrible substance exist?¡¯ ¡®You witness your kind¡¯s body melting like candle wax just from touching it, you roll a SAN check.¡¯ The aliens became even more frantic. -Screech! -Screech! Screech! They pulled outser guns and started gathering rocks, soil, and minerals. Bzzz¡ª Using iprehensible technology, the Earth¡¯s minerals were appropriated by the aliens. -Screech, screech! -Screech. Screech. The aliens used theirsers to collect materials and began building something. The minerals hit by theser beams floated in the air and were shaped in real-time. Into walls, pirs, and mysterious interior decorations. In less than thirty minutes, a bizarre structure rose in the middle of Manchuria. Topare its appearance to something on Earth... a termite mound? But it was ck. The surface of the termite mound was covered in a dark,va-like liquid that constantly flowed down. It was an abominable structure at first nce. -Screech. -Screech, screech. The aliens seemed to be admiring their craftsmanship, embracing each other and dancing joyfully. They enjoyed their dance party for a while before entering their termite mound¡ªno, their ck ant fortress. ¡°......¡± What was this? Was that sinister fortress a foothold for invading Earth? Or an antenna tower signaling their refugee ships still wandering in space? ¡°Huff! Huff! Huff! Sword Duke. Finally... Huff, I caught up. As expected of a master of lightness skills, I¡¯mte...¡± ¡°Shh. Be quiet. They¡¯ll hear us.¡± ¡°Huff... Huff? That grotesque tower, what is it?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Other than that the aliens built it.¡± I dug a proper trench for camouge and went into hiding. Even if I had to abandon this cycle, I intended to uncover the aliens¡¯ purpose. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have to stay hidden for long. The reason the aliens built that bizarre structure soon became clear. Thud, thud, thud¡ª It started to rain. From the aliens¡¯ perspective, ¡®the substance of death¡¯ bombarded from the sky. The Earth¡¯s specialty, H?O, poured endlessly on their ck ant fortress. The dark liquid flowing down the surface of the ck ant fortress constantly drained away. Peek¡ª Long after the rain stopped, the aliens peeked out from the fortress. -Screech? -Screech, screech. -Screech. Surprisingly, the aliens were intact. For starters, their armor had changed slightly. Should I call it a raincoat? Anyway, they wore something akin to a ck raincoat. It seemed they had been tirelessly sewing inside the ck ant fortress. -Screech! But anyone who has worn a raincoat knows it¡¯s not entirely waterproof. The newly modified armor wasn¡¯t perfect either. Walking around the Earth¡¯s humid surface for too long caused them to gradually melt. What were they, Ultraman with a three-minute limit? In any case, the fact that they could hope to survive on this hellish, doomsday seemed precious to them. -Screech! Screech! The aliens gradually expanded the ck ant fortress. Not by building upwards, but by extending the real estate sideways. Have you heard of ¡®The Line,¡¯ a project ambitiously pursued by Saudi Arabia but greatly downsized? Think of the Great Wall of China. In short, the aliens¡¯ ck ant fortress started to resemble a ¡®wall.¡¯ As they kept expanding sideways, it naturally took that shape. ¡°Huh?¡± And that wall... stretched west towards the Yellow Sea and east towards the East Sea. ¡®No, no. Wait a minute.¡¯ Eventually, the aliens¡¯ ¡®ck Wall¡¯ spanned across Manchuria horizontally. In other words. ¡®If a Monster Wave urs... it would be blocked by the ck Wall!¡¯ Indeed, that¡¯s what happened. A few yearster, when the ocean-ss anomaly ¡®Monster Wave¡¯ swept across the world and finally reached the Korean Penins. But just before it couldnd on the Korean Penins, the Monster Wave faced an unexpected obstacle. -Grr? -Grrr? A crappy-looking wall blocked their path. At first, the Monster Wave wasn¡¯t fazed. It advanced boldly. A mere wall wasn¡¯t going to stop giants like Wall Maria. -Screech! -Screech! Screech! The problem was that each of the 116 remaining aliens (some had died) boastedbat skills on par with Captain Levi. Faced with these 116 Levi-level aliens, the Monster Wave was annihted. In the process of defeating an army of 200,000 monsters, not a single alien died. Of course, the Monster Wave had an endless supply of reinforcements, so it repeated its attack the next month and the month after that. Each time, it was crushed. Naturally, the Korean Penins south of the ck Wall remained safe. Without needing Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s Eastern Holy State performance or Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s Zero Requiem n. Without suffering any damage, the Korean Penins waspletely free from the threat of the ¡®Monster Wave,¡¯ which had been deemed virtually impossible to subjugate. ¡°Is this... for real?¡± My jaw dropped. To be honest, my jaw remained dropped for several years. So the real strategy against the ¡®Monster Wave¡¯ was to somehow use the Meteor Shower to skip a UFO across the sea, crash it into Manchuria, and let the aliens build their wall to block the Monster Wave? And I¡¯m supposed to believe this, anomaly? ¡°Lucky...¡± Noh Do-hwamented, sipping her coffee after hearing my story. I couldn¡¯t help but notice that her dark circles seemed lighter than in other cycles. Probably because everything she attempted was going well. ¡°But isn¡¯t this due to your wish to the ¡®Monkey¡¯s Paw¡¯ or something? Heh. I don¡¯t care, but aren¡¯t you going to be screwed in a few years...?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m really looking forward to what kind of crazy blues will hit you. I¡¯ll be sure to get a VIP ticket and wait.¡± This is driving me crazy. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 141 The Lucky One III The luck didn''t end. While the Reverse-Great Wall was engaged in an infinite defense game against the onught of the continent, ''fortuitous encounters'' kept happening. [Mr. Undertaker, the ''pink entity'' you warned about has been confirmed to have moved to Kyushu, Japan.] Go Yuri, the greatest enemy of regressors and a master of gaslighting, had voluntarily left Korea. This unprecedented good news made me want to give her a generous relocation settlement. And that wasn''t all. [The Status Window anomaly didn''t appear.] ¡°What?¡±[We focused on the date and location you provided, but no one saw the Status Window.] ¡°......¡± [This must also be due to the ''Monkey''s Paw.''] And that wasn¡¯t all2. Luck didn''t just unfold in the physical world. Even in themunity, my luck didn''t waver. In short, a wave of Three Kingdoms parodies swept through the novel serialization board on SG Net. -L¨¹ Bu Hides His Father (¡ï9.9) -Ten Attendants General (¡ï8.7) -[Alternative History] Ordered to March North but Woke Up in Hanzhong Instead of North Korea?! (¡ï9.2) -The Three Brothers Always Slept Under the Same nket [19+ Complete Version] (¡ï9.8) -Reincarnated as Zhang Kai, Who Killed Cao Cao¡¯s Father on the First Day (¡ï9.9) -Reincarnated as a Yellow Turban Rebel with a Copy of Capital in My Hand (¡ï9.6) Everywhere you looked, the rankings were dominated by Three Kingdoms parodies. These days, the Three Kingdoms was totally YOUNG and MZ content. Not only the novel serialization board but also the free board, which was the main part of SG Net, was filled with Three Kingdoms discussions without cooldown. -Anonymous: I thought the Three Kingdoms <<< was just content for old people, but after reading the novel and the history book, there''s nothing like it. -Anonymous: How great was Ma Su¡¯s mountain climbing? Let¡¯s find out by forming a mountain climbing team for a trip to China. We''ll schedule it ording to each guild¡¯s vacation time. Sorry, but due to safety concerns abroad, we only ept participants capable of diving to a depth of 600 meters or more. Interested? Contact me! -dolLHOuse: What¡¯s wrong with SG Net these days? Did everyone get prescription reading sses? ©¸Anonymous: There¡¯s still a full HP newbie who hasn¡¯t read the Three Kingdoms? LOL ©¸dolLHOuse: I read it? ©¸Anonymous: So, which faction do you support? ©¸dolLHOuse: Anyone but the big-eared guy. Aren¡¯t all the characters justmoners who end up with the Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms ending? ©¸Anonymous: Blocking you. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: The night sky is beautiful tonight. Did the Prime Minister feel this way when he looked up at the stars in Wuzhang ins? -OldManGoryeo: Wow, seriously, I want to bury all these idiots in a coffin. -[NRMC] Officer: We have a group in Busan that reads and discusses the original Three Kingdoms history every week. (4/6) Before I knew it, I had been engrossed in my smartphone for six hours straight, unable to take my eyes off themunity. ¡°Whew.¡± I shivered. I had always nagged Ah-ryeon to quit her inte addict lifestyle. Now, for the first time in 590 cycles, I understood the true joy ofmunity engagement. ¡®Is this the true power of the Monkey''s Paw?¡¯ I couldn''t tear myself away from SG Net. It felt as if the smartphone screen was coated with honey made by a master craftsman just for me, the Undertaker! ¡°Cursed Monkey''s Paw! This is a power that would have already bewitched an ordinary human!¡± ¡°......¡± As Ha-yul passed through the living room, she looked at me as if I were pathetic, like a diligent younger sister would look at her unemployed older brother. Indeed. In the 590th cycle, I was experiencing what it was like to live the hopeful life of a cult leader. Everything in the world was going my way! Every business venture I touched progressed miraculously, and troubles I couldn''t handle never urred in the first ce. But I was not a cult leader. I was an ordinary citizen who preferred the subway to a limousine. Therefore, I could sense that the name of my next stop was ''ruin'' without looking at the map. It was now the 7th year. The 10th-year deadline I had asked the Monkey''s Paw to postpone was fast approaching. ¡®Should I just kill myself?¡¯ A drastic decision was needed. ¡®Suicide¡¯ was a route anyone who had lived a debtor¡¯s life for seven years could empathize with. For a regressor, it wasn¡¯t even that extreme. I could just send a message on KakaoTalk saying, ''Thanks to the Total Luck Law, I enjoyed this cycle a lot^^ I''ll see you in the next cycle...'', and then leave the chat room, safely escaping from future debts. Leaving this Three Kingdoms paradise was regretful, but a regressor must know how to set aside personal desires temporarily. ¡°Ah... I wouldn''t rmend that, teacher.¡± An expert had a different opinion. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Hmm. It might make things worse.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa, who listened to my concerns, gave a wry smile. Why did I confide such a delicate matter to Cheon Yo-hwa? Because, among our members, she was the only one besides me who had a ''paranormal expert'' identity. As everyone knew, Cheon Yo-hwa had sealed the Infinite Void inside an hourss. Counting the anomalies from school ghost stories, she carried around about 100 Pok¨¦mon in her arsenal. Other trainers would have sued her for exceeding the Pok¨¦mon carrying limit. Fortunately, this world wasn''t about forcing sadistic beasts to fight in a coliseum, but still, the anomalies rightfully harbored resentment towards their warden. Led by the Infinite Void, the Hundred Tales of anomalies constantly plotted rebellion whenever they had the chance. Cheon Yo-hwa didn''t gorge on tteokbokki at the snack bar near her school every day for no reason. Like the Saintess, the more powerful an awakener was, the closer they were to the risk of corruption. ¡°You think things will get worse?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s just my guess, though.¡± ¡°Well. Thest time I checked, the ''Monkey''s Paw'' couldn''t detect regression. It didn''t have the power to give regression ability to Kuro, its original owner. So if I just close my eyes and regress, won''t the debt disappear?¡± ¡°Ahaha. But because of that Kuro, the ''Monkey''s Paw'' ended up applying to everyone, not just one individual, right?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It seems like people think they are parasitic on the ''Monkey''s Paw,'' but I think it''s the opposite. The ''Monkey''s Paw'' is parasitic.¡± ¡°A anomaly that parasitizes humans?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Cheon Yo-hwa pped her hands. Despite the serious conversation, she seemed to enjoy sharing this kind of talk with me. After all,peting for dominance with a near-divine anomaly 365 days a year, she probably saw me as a valuable conversation partner. There weren¡¯t many people who could empathize with the terror of anomalies like us. ¡°Think about it, teacher. The ''Monkey''s Paw'' can''t get stronger on its own. It needs someone to make wishes to use those wishes as an excuse to increase its power.¡± ¡°Hoh.¡± ¡°To the ''Monkey''s Paw,'' Kuro must have been a blessing. If someone had made ordinary wishes, the ''Monkey''s Paw'' would have remained a mediocre anomaly. But because Kuro made such high-level wishes, the ''Monkey''s Paw'' grew just as powerful!¡± ¡°So if a regressor like me decides to run away, thinking that regression will solve everything...¡± ¡°The ''Monkey''s Paw'' might transcend regression and gain control over luck and misfortune. This is just a hypothesis.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°So I don¡¯t rmend suicide. Besides, I don¡¯t want to see you dead, teacher. Hehe...¡± She had a point. Even I, who criticized Kuro¡¯s stupidity, ended up making the same foolish mistake. The ''luck of an ordinary person'' and the ''luck of a 590-cycle regressor'' were inherently different. Just consider the scale of what the ''Monkey''s Paw'' did this cycle. It reversed the aging of a senile Sword Marquess. It summoned the Meteor Shower to the East Sea earlier than expected, and perfectly timed a UFO to collide with it. As a result, a ck Wall, which should never have existed, was created in the north of the Korean Penins. In other words, the ''Monkey''s Paw'' had grown powerful enough to cause such high-level ''fortuitous encounters.'' ording to the Library Association''s ssification, it should now be evaluated as an ocean-level threat. ¡®Have I really gotten myself into a deep mess?¡¯ A sense of urgency crept in. I had to resolve the situation before misfortune truly struck. ¡°On the contrary, I think you need to survive as persistently as possible in this cycle.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°If you die without experiencing the equivalent misfortune for the luck you enjoyed, that ''unpaid misfortune'' might carry over to the next cycle.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± I stroked my chin. Talking with Cheon Yo-hwa stimted my brain in a way I couldn¡¯t quite describe. ¡®Wait. Something good is about toe to mind...?¡¯ At this point, I hadn''t figured out the ''good idea'' specifically. That would be covered in the next chapter. However, I had grasped the general direction. ¡°So, ording to you, I should try to be as unfortunate as possible from now on.¡± ¡°Haha. ...Yes. But deliberately seeking misfortune isn¡¯t exactly something you can control. It¡¯s tricky.¡± ¡°No, there is a way. A very subtle method.¡± ¡°Oh? Really?¡± I nodded. Then I spoke with utmost seriousness. ¡°Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°Yes, teacher.¡± ¡°Have you heard of the ''Hate Pill''?¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡®Hate Pill.¡¯ There is a genre, a sort of meme about it. Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head as if she had never heard of it, which made sense. Its origin was from across the sea in Japan. Some people think Japancks creativity and originality. -Tonkatsu? Isn¡¯t that just a variation of cutlet? -Japanese curry? It¡¯s just Indian curry adjusted to Japanese taste. But that¡¯s a misconception. If you remove the [General Audience] filter from your corneas, you¡¯ll suddenly witness the creativity erupting from the Japanese archipgo like Mount Fuji. After all, Japan is the birthce of turning Three Kingdoms characters into gender-swapped ''TS Three Kingdoms'' or erotic parodies. There were many other inventive creations that were too controversial to mention. Only ancient Greece had previously shown such creative power. (The Greeks impregnated their chief god¡¯s thigh and dressed their greatest hero in women¡¯s clothing.) Anyway. The ¡®Hate Pill¡¯ was another example of Japan¡¯s vibrant creativity. -This pill reverses affection! -It reverses affection? -Yes. People who liked you will hate you just as much. Literally, a ''Hate Pill.'' -...? -People who subtly showed affection towards you will suddenly curse you, wishing you dead! Don¡¯t worry, those who already disliked you will continue to do so! -Why would you introduce such a pill into a story? -Because the effect has an expiration date. -...?? -After the effect ends, people will start to regret. They¡¯ll see how much the protagonist suffered due to their curses and think, ¡®What have I done to the person I liked? How could I say such terrible things...?¡¯ -What¡¯s the point of that? -Isn¡¯t it delicious to see characters regret after mistreating the protagonist? -...??? Building a narrative over dozens of chapters to make the protagonist unhappy was highly inefficient from a practical standpoint. Modern readers, who always seek efficiency, wanted to p #regret #obsession #despair tags on their stories. The solution was the ¡®Hate Pill.¡¯ An instant 3-minute meal for unhappiness created by the Japanese. In short, it was an ''Affection Reversal Pill.'' Just take it to be unhappy. How did I, the Undertaker,e to know about this obscure foreign genre? Well... Again, this was a story that happened around the 590th cycle. And I devoured all the web novels, resorting to ¡°Misery¡± tactics with authors around the 560th cycle. End of exnation. ¡°So you n to take the ''Hate Pill'' to intentionally cause ''misfortune'' and escape the Total Luck Law¡¯s grasp?¡± ¡°You understood well.¡± ¡°You¡¯re truly crazy in a refined way.¡± Oh Dok-seo, the one who introduced me to web novels and the only one among mypanions who knew about the ''Hate Pill,'' nodded. ¡°It''s a great idea. As expected of my protagonist. Let¡¯s test it immediately!¡± By the way, Oh Dok-seo loved despair stories. ¡°But where do we find the Hate Pill? It¡¯s not mentioned in ORV.¡± ¡°Ah. Dok-seo. Ginseng is sourced from Joseon, and queue cuts are from Qing. It¡¯s clear where to farm the Hate Pill.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± That¡¯s right. We immediately set sail for the ''origin.'' Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 142 The Lucky One IV I had often mentioned that I was highly respected by the Magical Girl Association in the Japanese archipgo. This was partly because I frequently helped the magical girls. However, human rtionships in East Asia didn¡¯t flow purely based on such pragmatic calctions. In thisnd, ''true exchange'' only urred when the temporal constraints of human perception, which could only ever recognize the ''present,'' were ovee. Blood ties and regional ties. Who you were in the present was a secondary issue. What mattered more was how long ''we'' had built our bond over time, thus oveing the temporal limits of the human race. The Japanese had also deeply internalized this truth. Even in a romanticedy, no matter how many charming characters emerged, it was the childhood friend who secured ''regional ties'' with the protagonist before the story even began who ultimately won. This showcased the wisdom of the Japanese. How could I not emte them?Upon arriving in the archipgo to procure the ''Hate Pill,'' I first sought out my old connections. ¡°Aah, Undertaker-san! It¡¯s been a while! How have you been?¡± ¡°Yeah. Have you been well too?¡± ¡°Yes! Oh, Dok-seo, it¡¯s been a while for you too!¡± ¡°Ah, yeah. Hi. Long time no see, sis.¡± Sure enough, my old acquaintance greeted me with her unique nickname for me, not just themon alias ''Undateikeo,'' showing off to those around her that our rtionship was special. This was also a long-standing Japanese custom. Her dignified manner of calling me ''Undertaker-san'' instead of ''Undateikeo'' silenced the other magical girls around us. ¡°Uehara, you seem much more lively than when you were in Busan. Is it because you¡¯re back home?¡± ¡°Hehe. Yes! Wee to Fukuoka, Undertaker-san!¡± Uehara Shino. In my heart, her nickname was ''MacGuffin.'' Koreans called her ''The Alchemist.'' Those with a good memory might recall. Yes, Uehara Shino was one of the ''Supreme 399'' forcibly summoned to the Busan Station tutorial dungeon. To Oh Dok-seo and me, she was practically an original member. In today¡¯s terms, we shared the same ''public ties''. ¡°I really owe you a lot in Busan. This time, let me guide you around!¡± In Busan, she had always been timid, but here in her hometown, she confidently led a group of magical girl trainees. Initially, Uehara Shino stayed in Korea for several cycles. Securing a ship to return to Japan wasn¡¯t easy, and local conditions were harsh. After hearing that in the archipgo, the term ''awakened'' had to be reced with ''magic girl,'' Uehara Shino tearfully chose political asylum. Even during the 90th cycle, when I ran a convenience store, Uehara stayed in Korea. She once wrote this on a bill: [Thank you sincerely. But I think the store name and the clerk¡¯s t-shirt are strange. Are you perhaps a member of the Red Army? Sincerely, Uehara Shino.] By the 590th cycle, circumstances had improved in many ways. The most crucial turning point was the Inunaki Tunnel. After the entity that had isted the regions, reverting the archipgo to the feudal era''s 60-plus countries, disappeared, the magical girls finally breathed a sigh of relief. With some breathing room, the Magical Girl Association began to reim the skilled individuals who had gone overseas. Being ''from the same public ties as the Undertaker and being ''highly skilled,'' Uehara Shino was a top priority for repatriation. -Even if it¡¯s as a magical girl... -Oh, but we¡¯ll promote you rapidly! She was offered the position of Head of the Apothecary, giving her priority over all ''medicinal herbs'' produced or discovered in the archipgo. My old friend, who had found her ce back home, smiled shyly at me. ¡°How can I help you, Undertaker-san?¡± To put it bluntly, a protagonist who searches for items themselves in various stories is a third-rate regressor. A true first-rate regressor has their connections bring the desired items to them. Uehara not only sought out the ''Hate Pill'' herself but also strongly requested cooperation from the Association. There was an implicit threat that she might return to my side if they refused. ¡°Meow! If it¡¯s for the Undateikeo, I¡¯ll help too, nya!¡± [It¡¯s time to repay the favors I owe. Leave it to me.] Manyo Neko and Phantom de also joined in. Both were top ten powerhouses in the Magical Girl Association. ¡°Here it is, Undertaker-san!¡± As a result, within a month of arriving in Japan, the ''Hate Pill'' was presented to me. Behold, the greatness of connections. I never understood why some novels had protagonists ying lone wolves. This was so convenient; why wouldn¡¯t they cultivate rtionships with their allies? Strange protagonists indeed. Of course, I¡¯d have to repay this favorter, but that¡¯s what friendship was about. ¡°Hey, you used to be like that until the 6th cycle.¡± ¡°Hey, don¡¯t judge someone by their naive younger days.¡± ¡°Those naive younger days were older than I am now, old man¡¡± Oh Dok-seo grumbled as he looked at the item on the table. ¡°So this is the Hate Pill.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± The Hate Pill was a bright red tablet. It looked so dark red that it seemed as if it was made by the Demonic Cult. It looked ominous at first nce, and if something went wrong after taking it, it would have to be considered a natural death. But for me, who was facing the impending judgment day due to the Total Luck Law, it was the world''s best elixir! ¡°What are you going to do? Take it right away? Honestly, I¡¯m curious about what will happen if you take it. I actually love hate rtionships.¡± ¡°No. Elixirs are dangerous if taken rashly. To brew its effects properly, you must consume it through the correct procedures and methods.¡± ¡°Uh... Were there such procedures for the Hate Pill?¡± There were. More precisely, I was going to create them. From that day, I stopped talking about the Three Kingdoms. No matter how much Three Kingdoms content circted on SG Net, I didn¡¯t join in. I didn¡¯t even mention it myself. This surprising change shocked those around me. ¡°T-The teacher hasn¡¯t mentioned the Three Kingdoms even once today?¡± Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡°Hyung, are you alright! I scraped together the remaining Ceylon tea and brought it!¡± Seo Gyu. [Are you really alright?] [This is an emergency.] [Mr. Undertaker, could it be that signs of corruption have finally begun to appear in you?] Saintess. ¡°T-The guild master... is broken... I can¡¯t fix it... I¡¯m powerless...¡± Sim Ah-ryeon. ¡°Boss. Honestly, I never liked the Three Kingdoms much. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin are too old. Aren¡¯t they overly outdated content?¡± Yoo Ji-won. ¡°Oppa,tely I¡¯ve started to like Liu Bei. So it¡¯s okay if we chat about the Three Kingdoms together.¡± Lee Ha-yul, that cunning fan of Liu Bei and Sun Quan. ¡°Undertaker, I¡¯m sorry. I haven¡¯t been paying enough attentiontely, have I? Maybe you¡¯ll feel better if you eat something delicious.¡± Dang Seo-rin. And. ¡°......¡± Noh Do-hwa. While my otherpanions worried about me (I had no idea what they thought of me), only Noh Do-hwa looked at me with suspicion. ¡°You...¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Confess honestly. What crazy scheme are you up to now?¡± As expected from a workaholic, she was unnecessarily sharp. ¡°You¡¯re strange. Who¡¯s been nagging me to stop going on about Three Kingdoms trivia?¡± ¡°Well, these days, your eyes look creepily sinister, so I¡¯m concerned...¡± ¡°Hey. Please refrain from ndering, chief manager.¡± ¡°......¡± To brew the ''Hate Pill'' to its peak, stopping the Three Kingdoms trivia alone wasn¡¯t enough. I began to help myrades openly, shamelessly, almost brazenly. ¡°Yo-hwa, I found out there¡¯s a student at Baekhwa High School hiding a gun. I confiscated it because it seemed dangerous.¡± ¡°What? Really? Wow. Thank you, teacher! If it weren¡¯t for you, it would have been terrible!¡± ¡°It was a close call, Saintess. Even if you can stop time, you¡¯re defenseless against unexpected dangers.¡± ¡°Ah... Yes. Thank you for saving me, Undertaker.¡± ¡°Dang Seo-rin, I know you can use your lifespan to cast great magic. I don¡¯t want you to die even a day before me.¡± ¡°...Undertaker. You.¡± ¡°Sword Marquess, shall we take a trip to Mount Hua?¡± ¡°Oh! Only the Undertaker understands me!¡± ¡°Noh Do-hwa, don¡¯t you find it hard to work alone? I¡¯ll help you as an assistant sometimes.¡± ¡°Damn it, I knew you were up to something, you bastard.¡± After a year of stopping the Three Kingdoms trivia and brazenly ttering everyone around me. Sure enough, ''that entity'' descended. ¡°Teacher! I can¡¯t imagine a world without you anymore!¡± ¡°Undertaker, I think the Inunaki Tunnel is a good hideout, but the surroundings aren¡¯t great. How about moving to my train?¡± ¡°Hyung! We¡¯ve renamed the free board to the Three Kingdoms board! Considering all the help you¡¯ve given me, it¡¯s the least I can do. Please ept my gratitude.¡± I clenched my fist in my heart. ¡®It¡¯s here!¡¯ That¡¯s right. The ''Savior Syndrome¡¯ had reappeared. Just like how fish proliferate in clean water, as soon as the condition of ''the Undertaker not talking about the Three Kingdoms'' was met, the Savior Syndrome returned. ¡°Hey, you bastard.¡± Noh Do-hwa grabbed me by the neck. ¡°You said you knew how to deal with that. You said you knew how to exterminate it. So why did you deliberately bring it back, you idiot? Do you want to die? Is being strangled by me your new hobby?¡± ¡°To be precise, I¡¯ve only been strangled by you three times. And since my neck is now protected by a self-defense technique, it¡¯s impossible for a low-level aura user like you to kill me.¡± ¡°Three times? I thought it was only once? What about the other two... No, that¡¯s not important. Just bring up that damn Three Kingdoms trivia again...¡± ¡°Hey. You should be more polite when asking for a favor.¡± ¡°Damn it. You son of a...¡± Bang, bang, bang! The Savior Zombies banged on Noh Do-hwa¡¯s bunker door. Since I had already described this scene once, I¡¯ll skip the details. Of course, there were some differences from before. Oh Dok-seo was hiding in the bunker, and the hands knocking on the door included the Sword Marquess¡¯s powerful internal energy. But aside from those small changes, there was still a significant difference. ¡°Noh Do-hwa, chief manager.¡± Step. I stepped forward. ¡°Do you remember what I said before?¡± ¡°What? That working with you is a pain in the ass?¡± ¡°No. When the dayes, I said I wanted to watch from a VIP seat to see how badly the side effects of the wish I made to the Monkey''s Paw would screw me over.¡± ¡°Ha...?¡± ¡°Thank you for waiting.¡± Bang! The door dented. The Savior Zombies breached thest barricade and swarmed towards us. -Teacher... -Undertaker... -Hyung! -Great Master! -Guild leader... -Oppa... -Mr. Undertaker. And. At this moment. I took out the red tablet from my pocket. My hand formed seals passed down from the Naruto era. In the post-apocalyptic world ruled by entities, maintaining formal aesthetics was essential. ¡°Watch carefully, Noh Do-hwa, chief manager. I¡¯m about to do something a bit violent.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Technique Sequence: Savior. Technique Reversal: Hate Pill.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Formality: Affection Reversal.¡± Crunch. I chewed the red pill. ¡°Mister!¡± Oh Dok-seo shouted from behind me. Her voice, filled with immense emotion, seemed to say, ¡®I¡¯m the one who introduced that guy to this genre!¡¯ ¡°Mister, you¡¯re going to let the Total Luck Law win...?¡± I smiled. Oh Dok-seo. She, too, was a talent who understood the importance of formal aesthetics in defeating entities. ¡°Win.¡± Regressor, victory deration! Amidst the frenzy, only Noh Do-hwa muttered coldly and quietly. ¡°You fucking bastard...¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 143 The Lucky One V -Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Before Noh Do-hwa¡¯s muttering even finished, screams erupted from the bunker. Myrades pointed at me, horrified, like VIP cultists witnessing Cthulhu¡¯s descent firsthand. -Undertaker! It''s the Undertaker! -The Three Kingdoms entity has appeared! -Disgusting...! I hate it so much! Just watching him makes me want to rip off my earlobes...! Myrades kept screaming endlessly. For this moment, I had stocked water bottles near the bunker entrance. Myrades, as if entranced, picked up the bottles and hurled them at me.Amidst the heartwarming sight of water bottles flying everywhere, I alone wore a warm smile. ¡®Just as nned.¡¯ It was an inevitable oue. Originally, what effect did the ''Savior'' syndrome have? It pushed everyone¡¯s affection for me to the extreme, beyond their limits. And the ''Hate Pill'' was an elixir that engraved a reversal technique on any affection felt towards the consumer. The affection the Savior Syndrome maximized had nowpletely flipped to the negative! In other words. ¡®My misfortune has descended here and now.¡¯ It may be redundant, but I cared deeply for myrades. Being hated by such adorable people was as tragic as hearing grandchildren say, ''Grandpa, you stink!'' -Hyung! No, Undertaker! Please die! -I can¡¯t believe I once called someone like you ''oppa''. My past self is disgraceful. -No, technically Ha-yul, you never called me that. You can¡¯t speak, remember? That was your puppet speaking. -I¡¯ve hated that illegally employed guard from the start! -Terrible. Seeing Dang Seo-rin looking at me with such hatred felt like being repeatedly stabbed in the heart. ¡°Ahh.¡± Are you watching, Total Luck Law? This is the technique of a skilled regressor, the way to utilize anomalies. No matter how much you wait to gift me misfortune as Santa Alter, if I preemptively harvest enormous misfortune myself, you¡¯re just another unemployed Finn in the post-COVID era. If a regressor decides to make themselves miserable, what can a mere anomaly like you do? End the world? Hah. Is that really worse than Dang Seo-rin¡¯s genuine look of disdain? Dismemberment? I doubt it. Even now, the Saintess is repeatedly using the ''pause'' and ''y'' buttons on time to chop at my neck with a hatchet. Incurable disease? Ridiculous. Cheon Yo-hwa is pulling out hoursses filled with ghosts from Baekhwa High School, ready to break their seals. Actually, that¡¯s quite dangerous. I quickly ran over and knocked Cheon Yo-hwa unconscious. As I got closer, my formerrades convulsed and trembled even more. -Die! Die! Please, just die already! -You useless bastard who failed to save the world hundreds of times! Ipetent! Because of you, people around the world are dying again and again! Punish him! To understand their reaction, imagine a 2-meter cockroach approaching you. Currently, I was the reverse-Go Yuri from their perspective. An entity that elicits extreme hatred no matter what I do, as opposed to the devil who invariably gains affection. In other words, an angel who absolutely invokes revulsion. Universal self-regard. ¡®Is this... the view that pink entity always had of the world?¡¯ So contemptible and trivial. ¡°Dok-seo, are you watching?¡± ¡°Yeah! Even though I hate it when you call me by my name, I¡¯m okay! I still recognize this as an anomaly. But can¡¯t I at least break one of your fingers?¡± ¡°That would be difficult. I didn¡¯t train myrades too strongly this cycle for this very reason.¡± ¡°You¡¯re truly remarkable, old man! I respect you! I hate you! So, could you please stop breathing? Sharing the same air with you is horrifying.¡± ¡°Hey. Don¡¯t be swayed by an anomaly. Focus on the truth. You¡¯re destined to save the world.¡± ¡°Damn it, a regressor and a book possessor together, ruining everything...¡± Noh Do-hwa cursed as she fiddled with her smartphone. Even amidst the chaos at the National Road Management Corps headquarters, Noh Do-hwa remained the same. Her attitude towards others didn¡¯t change despite the affection reversal. This proved her true character¡ªshe always treated others, especially me, like a rat¡¯s cousin. ¡°Haa...¡± Thud. Noh Do-hwa put down her phone. Then, she threw the pile of papers stacked on the table. The dull-colored papers (recycled paper due to resource scarcity) fluttered in the air. ¡°How long are you going to show off your power here? Let¡¯s go...¡± ¡°What? Go where?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, damn it. The Saintess just sent a group chat quest to all the awakened. She said the Undertaker has fallen and is massacring humans indiscriminately, and all awakened should unite to eliminate him. You didn¡¯t get the message, did you? Outcast...¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Just now, SG Net is flooded with announcements. [Nameless Constetion], [Librarian of the Great Library], [Admin of the Infinite Metagame], [Morning Star of the Second Coming], [Collector of All Anomalies]... They''re all banding together to crush you, forming a nationwide coalition...¡± As Noh Do-hwa spoke, I saw Seo Kyu and Sim Ah-ryeon tapping their smartphones furiously at the end of the line. It seemed the Saintess, realizing that physical attacks were ineffective against me, had immediately called for reinforcements. She was sitting with her eyes closed and hands sped, clearly using [Telepathy]. ¡°Fuck, I hate this world. Let¡¯s just go...¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°I mean it, fucker. I¡¯m quitting.¡± I wore the expression of Liu Bei hearing that Zhuge Liang wanted to retire to farming. If you leave, this country will copse! ¡°Do I care? Let it fall. Hey, Ji-won, deputy.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the next head of the National Road Management Corps.¡± What. ¡°I¡¯m not doing a handover. Figure it out yourself. If you¡¯re not aplete idiot, you¡¯ll manage. And don¡¯t look for me if I disappear...¡± ¡°Ah! Thank you, sir!¡± This was unbelievable. I was shocked. Yu Ji-won had finally risen to the head of the National Road Management Corps! If this story¡¯s protagonist were Yu Ji-won instead of me, the Undertaker, it would be an epic of a convenience store worker climbing the ranks to the highest guild in Korea, bing the president in the 590th cycle. Was this real? It was. While I shivered at the psychopath¡¯s sess story, Noh Do-hwa was packing something into a trunk. Aside from a few clothes, she didn¡¯t pack much. Noh Do-hwa was always ready to part ways with her job. She kept her personal tools and daily necessities in her trunk. Unlike most workers who only thought about quitting, she actually handed in her resignation. Noh Do-hwa grabbed the trunk handle and looked at me disdainfully. ¡°What are you doing...? I said let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Your eyes are asking ¡®where,¡¯ huh... Well. First, we need to leave the Korean Penins. We need to get out of the Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance] range to evade the pursuers...¡± I couldn¡¯t answer right away. It was somewhat surprising. I had expected Noh Do-hwa to also be affected by the ''Hate Pill'' and curse me. But Noh Do-hwa was fine. More than fine. ¡®Is it because her affection for me wasn¡¯t high enough to notice a reversal?¡¯ Or was it because she always scolded and cursed at me so much that I couldn¡¯t see a difference? Either way, I wasn¡¯t sure. This was my first time using the ''Hate Pill'' in the 590th cycle. My standard method of dealing with anomalies was to figure out how to counter them through repeated regressions. The ''Hate Pill'' needed more research. For that research, Noh Do-hwa, who seemed immune to the ''Hate Pill¡¯s'' effects, was a valuable sample. ¡°Aren¡¯t youing? If not, I¡¯m going to hide on a remote ind...¡± ¡°No, wait. Let¡¯s go together. Hawaii is too far; how about Saipan or Guam?¡± ¡°Saipan? Hmm...¡± ¡°Yes. If something happens in Korea, I can quicklye back across the sea to check.¡± ¡°A resort, huh... Every ce in this world is a mess, but at least the mood will be different. Alright...¡± ¡°Dok-seo, are youing too?¡± Oh Dok-seo grinned. ¡°No way! Old man, drown in the sea! Oh, but I do want to see you die, so it¡¯d be nice if you died in front of me!¡± Indeed, I was unfortunate. The decision to resign as president and travel to Saipan was made on the spot. If Noh Do-hwa had been an American, Air Force One would havee to pick up the just-resigned former president, but unfortunately, the USA had fallen before epting Korea as the 51st state. So we had to travel to Saipan on our own. The reporters trying to follow us made for an equally grand procession. -There he is! He¡¯s escaping! -The ideological betrayal by Comrade Secretary can only be met with fury! The only way to maintain ideological purity is to punish the traitor! Guillotine! -Wait! Cease fire! He¡¯s taking the head of the National Road Management Corps hostage! -What? -That vile terrorist! Release the head immediately! Escaping wasn¡¯t easy for me either. First, the Sword Marquess blocked my way. He, who had sparred with me for 101 rounds in the first year, now extended the fight beyond 200 rounds. ¡°Undertaker! How could you stray from the path and fall into the demonic way! Watching a former friend fall into evil is as painful as a heartbreak!¡± ¡°Actually, the closest thing to the demonic way in this cycle is you...¡± While the Sword Marquess bought time, the other awakeners didn¡¯t just sit around. They actively caused chaos. ¡°Ah¡ªAh¡ªAh¡ªAh¡ª¡± First, Dang Seo-rin started singing. This was the biggest problem, so I fled before the fifth note. ¡°Did you miss me, senior?¡± And Cheon Yo-hwa (Ç§Ö{Ô’) finally released Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯). The Infinite Void, possessing Cheon Yo-hwa, spread her unique barrier around Busan. For reference, the way to distinguish the two was by how they addressed me. Yo-hwa called me ''teacher,'' while Infinite Void called me ''senior.'' [Die.] Ha-yul¡¯s puppet strings tightened around my neck from all directions. The Korean Penins, especially Busan, was covered in Ha-yul¡¯s webs. To prepare for invasions by anomalies, she had protected Busan both bynd and sea. If her defenses could block invasions, they could certainly prevent escapes. The Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance] and [Telepathy] continuously assisted the awakened. ¡°Wow.¡± I was impressed by the strength of the Korean Penins that I had built. If Sim Ah-ryeon had leveled up to the Northern Holy State through Zero Requiem, I might have died. Thankfully, the aliens built the Great Wall this cycle. With the Sword Marquess¡¯s sword strikes, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s singing, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s barrier, Ha-yul¡¯s web, and the Saintess¡¯s backup, even I struggled to escape unscathed. In the end, I had to sacrifice my left foot to escape. Half of my lower body was now Ha-yul¡¯s 50% version. I didn¡¯t mind. With the world¡¯s strongest prosthetics engineer as mypanion, even this small ''misfortune'' would benefit me. ¡°Are you seriously breaking through...? You really are crazy...¡± Noh Do-hwa, on my back, muttered incredulously. Even amidst the chaos, she remained unscathed. ¡°If I had more time, I would¡¯ve used the Inspection Bureau anomaly, but it can¡¯t be helped. We¡¯ll cross the sea to Saipan.¡± ¡°It¡¯s already soaking wet. Can¡¯t you avoid the waves a bit more...?¡± ¡°The waves were just born, but I¡¯m over ten thousand years old. They should avoid me.¡± ¡°Haa...¡± We sessfully broke through the front lines. For a while, we sailed through the open sea. I boarded the Savoia S-21, a seane I had stationed on Tsushima Ind. I had used it during my strategy against Cheon Yo-hwa and Infinite Void. Before long, wended in Saipan, a former resort destination. -Ukikik. Somewhere, mixed with the sound of waves, I thought I heard theughter of monkeys. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 144 The Lucky One VI There was no paradise to escape to, but the scenery of Saipan was as beautiful as paradise. The transparent jade sea and the soft sand caressing our feet. Noh Do-hwa muttered, "The sunlight is too strong..." "Indeed. It''s excessively beautiful," I replied. That was our first impression. For reference, I was dressed as a cafe barista, while Noh Do-hwa wore a casual t-shirt with a whiteb coat fluttering in the sea breeze. In short, our fashion was aggressively denying that this ce was a global resort. Saipan probably didn''t want tourists like us either. "This scenery is totally unsuitable for an undertaker who needs to extract misfortune down to thest drop.""Your words make me anxious..." We needed to be even more unfortunate. Thus, I decided to transform the ind''sndscape myself. As an aside, in the end-times marked by emptiness, ''aesthetic formality'' was more important than anything else. A story with a clear beginning, development, climax, and conclusion. Like waking up and muttering, "A strange ceiling..." Such things were a form of etiquette. Grammar. And depending on what grammar or worldview you adopted, the anomalies would respond differently. In other words, even upon arriving at a resort, if you shouted, "Wow! It''s summer! The beach! The sea!" and flung off your outerwear to dive into the waves, you would likely encounter anomalies based on ''Japanese-styleics.'' It''s basically the same as middle schoolers turning off the lights at night and chanting, "Bunshinsaba, Bunshinsaba." In the end-times, every action and word of a person could summon all sorts of anomalies. "Noh Do-hwa, I will now recite an excerpt from ''No Longer Human'' by Osamu Dazai." "What...?" "You''ve heard of ''No Longer Human,'' right? It''s by the same author." I carried Noh Do-hwa to a cliff by the sea. When I set her down at the edge, she put her hands in the pockets of her white coat. "Hmm. Why would you start a cheap recital as soon as we arrive in Saipan?" "As a former public official, you should study history properly. Noh Do-hwa, Saipan was one of the regions where the Japanese military was defeated by the US during the Pacific War. Many civilians also died in the war." "So what?" "This cliff is where the Japanese Imperial Army performed their ''special talent show.''" "Special talent show...?" If you were to pick two specialties of the former Japanese Imperial Army, they would be dering war and mass suicide. Thetter specialty was disyed spectacrly at the northernmost point of Saipan Ind. "This cliff is called Banzai Cliff. It''s said that about 10,000 soldiers shouted ''Banzai'' and dived off the cliff." "Okay, and so what?" "And if you were to name the most famous suicide in Japan, it would be Osamu Dazai." I pulled out an empty notebook. "Watch closely, Do-hwa. This is the ssic incantation for summoning anomalies." The loud, clear voice of the recital echoed over the waves from the cliff. "Ah. On a full moon night. Glimmering, then copsing, surging, then shattering, the waves surged and I couldn''t bear to let go of the hand I was holding onto so I intentionally pushed her away. She was instantly swallowed by the waves and shouted a name loudly. It wasn''t my name¡ª." Ssh. A wave crashed. At that moment. -Long live the Emperor! Ssh! A shadowy figure passed by us and dived off the cliff. What skill. It was a pity they had been a soldier instead of an Olympic athlete during their lifetime. "What the fuck...?" Noh Do-hwa jumped in shock. It was understandable. Shadowy figures that hadn''t existed moments ago suddenly appeared behind us. -Long live the Emperor! -Long live the Greater Japanese Empire! -Long liveeeee! Ssh, ssh! Fortunately, while not Olympians, they had marathon experience. Thousands of shadowy figures started running towards the horizon. The shadowy figures had no physical form. They passed through our shoulders, sometimes even our bodies, and continued to run. Interestingly, despite having no physical form, they vividly replicated the effect of ''falling into the waves.'' Ssh, ssh. The waves caused by humans were triumphing over those caused by nature. Indeed, the Japanese Imperial Army''s true enemy was never the US military but ''nature'' itself. Nature included environments like jungles and seas, but also human nature. The Imperial Army wasn''t defeated but was actually victorious. "Damn, what the hell...?" "Like human history, summoning anomalies also involves the harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Man (ÌìµØÈË)." Iughed heartily like the Sword Marquess. "Japanese perceptions of mass suicide are Heaven (Ìì), thend where the Japanese Imperial Army collectivelymitted suicide is Earth (µØ), and Osamu Dazai, the icon of suicide, is Man (ÈË). With these three conditions met so perfectly, how could the anomaly not respond to the incantation?" "...Seriously, Undertaker. Aren''t you already the head of anomalies? What kind of human summons anomalies so easily?" "Call me a grandmaster shaman." "Fuck that." In fact, Osamu Dazai was a leftist who had joined an anti-imperialist student alliance, but what did that matter? Unless they were tutorial fairies, anomalies had little interest in human political leanings. Of course, the ''Central Intelligence Agency'' living in Namsan, Seoul, was highly interested in human ideologies, but that''s a story for another episode. "If you''re suspicious, Noh Do-hwa, you can try reciting next time." "Next time...?" "Yes. There''s another cliff known for mass suicides around here." "Wait, wasn''t this ce just a resort...? Did youe here specifically to do this? Do you really want to die?" At the next location, Noh Do-hwa chanted the incantation as I instructed. Sure enough, the ''shadowy figures'' appeared. Unlike Dang Seo-rin, who could only use her exclusive magic, a true grand sorcerer could design a magic system where anyone who chanted ''Fireball'' would create a scorching 800-degree me orb. Noh Do-hwa, newly enrolled in my magic tower, muttered in disbelief like a student attempting ''Wingardium Leviosa'' for the first time. "It actually works...?" "If the conditions of Heaven, Earth, and Man are met, anyone can do it. That''s what strategies are for. Why else would I call myself an expert in anomalies?" "Undertaker, what are those shadowy figures? Human souls...?" "Ah, probably not. They''re merely beings made from crude memories and illusions of people. Literally shadows. To give them a moreplete form, you''d need an incantation from someone who actually experienced the Pacific War." "......" "Look closely at the shadowy figures shouting ''Banzai'' and running in groups. Theyck detail. If they were real, there would be people being pushed off, some trying tomit seppuku, and others being forced to sacrifice themselves, each with distinct faces and poses." That day, I spent the whole time with Noh Do-hwa, resurrecting ''unhappy memories'' all around the area. Boom! Cannon sounds shook the beach. Only the sounds existed. Not even a fishing boat, let alone a warship, was visible on the sea. In the sky, the engines of fighter nes roared eerily. Somewhere, the cries of children were heard. The cries had no nationality. The ''Battle of Saipan'' wasn''t over. The number of shadowy figures jumping off the cliffs showed no signs of decreasing. The bodiless shadows continued their endless hell, dying repeatedly. Emptiness was always like that. "......" Noh Do-hwa asionally nced at the cliffs while crafting my prosthetic limbs. As mentioned before, during our escape from Busan, I lost one of my left legs. Noh Do-hwa used some nearby wood to make me a prosthetic limb. "Ah, Noh Do-hwa. Tighten the nails there a bit more. It suits me better that way." "......" This wasn''t the first time Noh Do-hwa had crafted limbs for me in the 590 cycles, so I assisted her appropriately. Usually, she would have snapped back, ''Then make it yourself,'' but she was unusually quiet this time, as if she were lost in deep thought. "This is such a strange world..." Noh Do-hwa knelt on one knee, fitting the prosthetic to my left leg, and finally muttered softly. "Humans clumsily try to forget, while anomalies awkwardly try to remember." She slowly turned to me. "And you are a strange human..." A bizarre and strange ''vacation'' continued. Now, I received scorn and hatred from my belovedrades and woke up every morning to the sounds of screams and cries. ''I guess I''ve be quite unfortunate now.'' At least,pared to the luck brought by ''the Sword Marquess''s rejuvenation'' or ''the aliens'' Great Wall,'' today''s misfortune felt heavier. Such things were ''nice to have but not necessary'' kinds of luck. Even without the Sword Marquess or the aliens, I knew how to maintain the front lines in my own way. -Ukikik. It seemed the Monkey''s Paw had judged the same. Just as there are insiders and outsiders in the world, someone had to maintain the bnce. The Monkey''s Paw, which oversaw the scales of luck and misfortune, seemed to sense a crisis and began pouring out luck more tantly. "Undertaker, did you bring the Sword Marquess here?" "No, I didn''t." "I found bananas hanging in front of the house this morning..." Food appeared by itself even when we stayed still. The weather was perfect. The sea gleamed emerald, and the shadows cast by the trees shimmered sapphire. The environment was so inviting it made you want to dive into the sea in a swimsuit. -Boom! In such an environment, the cannon sounds remained grand. The shadows diving off the cliffs were still there. The weather was so sunny that they truly looked like diving athletes now. Noh Do-hwamented, "This is fucking surreal..." Indeed it was. The misfortune I created and the luck generated by the Monkey''s Paw had begun a full-fledged battle. My heart swelled. Thepetition between Naruto''s luck and Sasuke''s misfortune grew more intense every day. One day, when I was strolling on the beach and found Cheon Yo-hwa copsed in the sand, thepetition reached its peak. "...Yo-hwa?" "Tea... cher..." Cheon Yo-hwa grabbed my hand tightly. "I''m sorry. I regained my sanity recently. But I... What have I done to you...!" Tears welled up in Cheon Yo-hwa''s eyes. Her orange hair was tousled by the sea breeze, and sand stuck to her cheeks. "I knew I had to apologize to you. So I tried to find you alone. When the boat capsized, I thought I''d die, but I survived. I''m so d I could see you. What happened to your leg? Is it because of us? I''m sorry. Please forgive me..." I shuddered. ''Is this how you y, Monkey''s Paw!'' As known, I had used the ''Hate Pill'' to forcibly open a depressing story. That was my ''check.'' The Monkey''s Paw responded with ''checkmate.'' What was the most delightful part of a depressing story? Needless to say, it was the moment when the characters who hated and resented the protagonist realized the truth and regretted their mistakes. [I''ve misunderstood the protagonist] [It''s my fault] [I was wrong, and the protagonist was right] [I must apologize and repay the protagonist]¡ªa truly sinister self-realization...! Yes. The Monkey''s Paw followed the depressing story''s grammar and tried to give me ''revenge.'' "Yo-hwa." "Yes...?" "It''s okay." If the Monkey''s Paw wanted a revenge plot, my response was clear. I smiled kindly. "Of course, I forgive you." "...!" Indeed. The Monkey''s Paw desired a plot where the protagonist pushed others away, saying, [It''s toote] [You had many chances, but you wasted them all] [Apologizing now won''t change anything]. The protagonist would then find happiness while others fell into misery. It was a clich¨¦ of depressing stories. However. "No, you have nothing to be forgiven for. I was never disappointed in you, Yo-hwa." "Teacher...!" My chosen strategy was to be a ''forgiving'' protagonist! No matter what myrades did, whether they cut off my limbs or cursed me on SG Net, I epted it all. Not allowing a single drop of revenge. This was the masterstroke against the Monkey''s Paw''s tricks. -Ukikikik, Hee, Kikikikik. After all, no matter what tricks the Monkey''s Paw yed, it was meaningless. The phenomenon where myrades were ''controlled by the Monkey''s Paw without realizing it'' was itself a painful misfortune for me. ''In the end, I''m the one who put myrades in danger by testing the Monkey''s Paw.'' It was all a disaster of my own making, so how could I me others? Eventually, I even returned Cheon Yo-hwa to the Korean Penins, along with my right leg, as a donation to the awakened in Busan. This time, I deliberately let Dang Seo-rin take it. The scene where she cut off my right foot and muttered, "Tsk, I aimed for the heart..." while tossing my leg was a masterpiece. -Kikikikikikikikik. The Monkey''s Paw convulsed in the void. Dinosaurs, perfect for riding, appeared to entertain me, and the Inunaki Tunnel was modified to connect all cities on the Korean Penins. It used all sorts of methods to bestow luck and happiness upon me. So, next, I donated my left arm to the Saintess and my right arm to Lee Ha-yul. The Undertaker Daruma doll wasplete. -Kikikikikikikik. I felt the Monkey''s Paw foaming at the mouth in the void. It had choked on the despair and copsed. Noh Do-hwa also foamed at the mouth. "You''re... No, never mind. It''s you, so I''m sure you have your reasons. No need to exin. Juste back with only your head, and I''ll craft your limbs somehow... Are you smiling? How can you smile right now...?" Left foot. Right foot. Left arm. Right arm. My body, suddenly transformed into a genre of muttion stories, was covered with Noh Do-hwa''s custom prosthetics. The battle between the Monkey''s Paw trying to grant me luck and me trying to bestow misfortune upon myself was thrilling to witness. However, like all battles, this one also had a time limit. The 10th year. ''Finally, it''s here.'' The end of the 590th cycle approached. Atst, the moment I had set for the Monkey''s Paw''s time limit arrived. And on that very day. First, the Japanese archipgo was lightly destroyed. When Noh Do-hwa and I woke up in the beach hut and looked out the window, we immediately knew that the Japanese archipgo had been obliterated. "...Undertaker, look at that." "Yes, I see it too." In a novel where a Korean is the protagonist, the fate of the Japanese archipgo was always dire. Of course, to me, nationality and race held no particr meaning. Once you live beyond a millennium, your values and perspective on the world change. Even how you view the world. Manyo Neko, Phantom de, Uehara Shino. There was also the ''Great Priestess,'' the chairperson and first seat of the Magical Girl Association, whom I haven''t mentioned and prefer never to mention. They were all my preciousrades. I knew well what kind of lives they had led and where they were headed. In this era where nations had fallen and governments had copsed, they were volunteers rising from the ground to save those around them. -I will dere thisnd a haven of magical girl clich¨¦s brimming with hope! -Killing demons is done with grand tragedy, not lightughter! Tragedy doesn''t suit us! Everyone, smile! That was the purpose of the Magical Girl Association. However, there were two types of magical girl stories. Stories where justice ultimately triumphed withrades. The orthodox faction. Torture stories where magical girls fell into despair and were torn apart. The demonic cult. Every day, a great battle between orthodoxy and demonic cult took ce in the Japanese archipgo. And, unfortunately for the magical girls, the genre of this world was inherently wicked. "What is that...?" Red flesh. A massive tower of red flesh rose from the horizon, greedily drinking in the morning sunlight. North of Saipan. In the direction of the Japanese archipgo. The distance from here to Tokyo was about 2,400 km. The tower of ''red flesh'' extended its majestic form beyond the horizon. I muttered. "It''s Go Yuri." Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 145 The Lucky One VII ¡°¡Go Yuri?¡± Noh Do-hwa furrowed her brow. ¡°¡Oh, the person I repeatedly warned you about? But how did it be that huge¡?¡± ¡°The physical size doesn''t matter much. That red tower is likely visible from anywhere on Earth.¡± I stared at the horizon. ¡°You know how there are orbital elevators in science fiction? It''s manifesting such a scene. That''s the kind of anomaly we''re dealing with.¡± ¡°Sigh¡¡± I had heard that Go Yuri crossed over to the Japanese archipgo.Somehow, that incident snowballed into this disastrous result. ¡°There are ocean-level anomalies called ''Ya-o-yorozu no kami'' in the Japanese archipgo. Just like Baekhwa High School''s ghost stories areposed of 100 ghosts, Ya-o-yorozu no kami is literallyposed of eight million anomalies.¡± ¡°That''s a hell of a lot¡¡± ¡°Yes. I don''t know the details, but it seems Go Yuri took on the role of a ''cmity god'' passed down from across the sea. Presumably, Go Yuri consumed Ya-o-yorozu no kami.¡± This was not good. Especially since the concept that ''anything can be a god'' in the archipgo favored Go Yuri immensely. In fact, the only opponent who might match her was Yoo Ji-won. ¡°Are you saying she has be a god¡?¡± ¡°At the very least, she can call herself a minor god. If she devours Ganges in India, who knows what might happen next.¡± Perhaps, by actively bringing misfortune through the ''Hate Pill,'' I managed to limit the disaster to ''only'' this extent. The neighboring region turned pink, so it was unlikely the Korean Penins would remain unscathed. ¡°Noh Do-hwa, I''m going to scout the Korean Penins.¡± ¡°¡Sure. You''ll probablye back in one piece this time since there''s nothing left to cut off.¡± ¡°I''ll try my best.¡± I boarded the Savoia S-21 seane and set off for the Korean Penins. This ne was modeled after the one in Studio Ghibli''s Porco Rosso and was a kind of anomaly itself. It was sturdier in the void than in reality. It even had some resistance to ''brainwashing'' and ''hypnosis,'' reminiscent of scenes from the original animation. Vroom¡ª Unlike the original, this bine flew with a hum of its engine. Despite the 50% chance of the engine stalling mid-flight, it was still much safer than staying on the ground. ¡°¡It''s over.¡± The Korean Penins was also devastated. The ''ck Wall'' that expanded from Manchuria had now consumed all of North Korea. The alien structures spewed ck sludge continuously, covering everything around. From there, anomalies poured out incessantly. -Creeeeak. -Craaak, craak. The aliens that had numbered 120 upon arrival had multiplied like zerglings. Their forms had changed too. Once resembling armored beings, they now looked more like grotesque ''alien lifeforms,'' akin to Ultralisk or Hydralisk from StarCraft. It seemed the Monster Wave and aliens had fused. Considering how clich¨¦s often end with giants breaking walls and soldiers defending them, a fusion of DNA was almost expected. ¡®Busan is... barely recognizable.¡¯ Busan Station, the stronghold of the Samsin World, and the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps were all destroyed, emitting ominous smoke. I wondered what had happened to Yoo Ji-won. In case of emergencies, we had established a protocol to evacuate to Inunaki Tunnel. The Saintess, Lee Ha-yul, Sim Ah-ryeon, and Seo Gyu knew the protocol. ¡°Saintess? Are you watching?¡± No response. There was no answer. ¡°¡¡¡± I couldn''t tell if the Saintess was dead or just pretending to wait for me tond and ambush me. Given the ongoing misfortune brought by the ''Hate Pill,'' nothing was certain. I had to consider the worst-case scenario that she had fallen as an executor. Boom! A sound of gunfire erupted from somewhere. I tensed, thinking it was anti-aircraft fire, but no weapon firing the shots was visible. It was just like the cannon sounds that echoed from Saipan''s beach. The sound existed, but not the source. Boom! Boom! The bombardment sounds peaked near the Nakdong River. It took me a moment to realize it was a reenactment of a war. The ''Korean War'' was unfolding across the Korean Penins. Under the guise of ideology, people hunted each other with the cold edge of an axe, distinguishing between ''us'' and ''them.'' But just like the cliffs of Saipan, the hunters and the hunted were all part of the anomalies'' y. No truly living humans were found. Even the connection to the Undertaker''s gossipwork was severed. ¡®Perhaps, to others, the existence of a regressor like me was a massive stroke of luck.¡¯ Such a thought crossed my mind. ¡®If so, Old Man Scho''s repeated deaths would be equally immense misfortune for others. Perhaps the ¡®Total Luck Law¡¯ bnced things without us realizing it.¡¯ -Craaak? The aliens spotted me and began scanning the skies. Even though this ne was an anomaly, it couldn''t withstand UFOs from an SF universe. Before the aliens could shoot me down, I altered my course and returned to Saipan. ¡°Hmm¡¡± Noh Do-hwa was sitting in the beach hut. She nced at me. ¡°Well, you came back in one piece.¡± Noh Do-hwa brewed coffee with beans she had brought from Busan and handed me a cup. And she asked nothing. I always appreciated her silence. Incidentally, Noh Do-hwa made terrible coffee despite appearances. Though I had tried to keep a cheerful tone, I must confess honestly. In the 590th cycle, my mental state was quite shaken. No, ¡®quite¡¯ was too mild. It was considerably shaken. ¡®Did I use the Monkey''s Paw too hastily?¡¯ Of course, I had a goal that necessitated testing the Monkey''s Paw. As will be revealed in the next stories, there was an anomaly I could only defeat with the Monkey''s Paw. But at that point, it was a future matter. Until my experiment''s significance was proven, my mind was inevitably cornered in the 590th cycle. ¡®Yes. This anxiety itself is one of the emotions bringing me misfortune.¡¯ So I let go. Under normal circumstances, I would have used various methods to restore my mental state. I might have guided the aliens to the Japanese archipgo to enjoy a Go Yuri vs. aliens matchup. But in the 590th cycle, I aimed to be as unfortunate as possible. Thus, I tormented myself. ¡®Even though I sought a way to counter the god, relying on the Total Luck Law was foolish. The disaster was my choice.¡¯ ¡®I should have warned myrades in advance. But no, Dok-seo''s mind was corrupted anyway. The result would have been the same.¡¯ ¡®Really? The Saintess has a much stronger mental state than Dok-seo. If I had exined my purpose and intentions...¡¯ ¡®How could the Saintess have countered the interference of three anomalies: the Savior, the Monkey''s Paw, and the Hate Pill?¡¯ ¡®I shouldn''t have done it.¡¯ Regret. Self-reproach. Fantasizing about IFs. The thoughts that constantly drove humans to misfortune were always ¡®I shouldn''t have done that.¡¯ A master of mental management is also a genius of mental destruction. I expertly tortured myself. I frequently flew around the ruined world, reminding myself, ''This is all due to my wrong choices.'' ¡°...¡¡± Noh Do-hwa quietly watched me. Honestly, if I truly wanted to be unfortunate, I should have driven her away. But I couldn''t bring myself to expel Noh Do-hwa from the beach hut. In the 590th cycle, I realized that my psyche unknowingly relied on Noh Do-hwa. ¡®Even in my subconscious, I never saw a corrupted Noh Do-hwa.¡¯ The uncorruptible. Perhaps Noh Do-hwa had such a characteristic? Maybe that''s why she was immune to the Hate Pill''s effects? ¡ªRationally, that was impossible. If Noh Do-hwa had true [mental immunity], she should have resisted Go Yuri''s brainwashing. Over many cycles, such behavior was not observed. ¡®Still, she might be more resistant to the Hated Pill than others.¡¯ At that time, I indulged in such fantasies. ¡®Maybe the Hate Pill has an effect I didn''t know about. Perhaps the more Noh Do-hwa hated me, the more she felt a twisted sense of friendship?¡¯ ¡®Otherwise, why would she suggest leaving with me right after resigning from the National Road Management Corps? Was Noh Do-hwa the type to make such a proposal voluntarily?¡¯ Fantasies. Fantasies. More fantasies. Somewhere deep in my heart, a part of me yearned to rely on someone, indulging that desire. The saying by Native Americans was true. The human mind is like a hungry wolf; the more you feed it, the stronger it grows. My heart grew into a miserable wolf. ¡®The Savior anomaly''s usage, the validation of the Monkey''s Paw and the Hate Pill, and Noh Do-hwa''s characteristics.¡¯ ¡®I''ve gained enough from the 590th cycle.¡¯ ¡®From the start, I intended this to be a semi-vacation cycle.¡¯ I grew kinder to Noh Do-hwa. Using our limited resources, I made delicious meals. As Noh Do-hwa once said in the 100th cycle, my cooking skills were Michelin 4-star chef level. Even amidst the cannon sounds and screams in Saipan, I found charming paths for walks with Noh Do-hwa. In short, I used various means to gain Noh Do-hwa''s favor. ¡°Hmm¡¡± Despite my desperate mental efforts, Noh Do-hwa said little. No. ¡°Today''s coffee is good.¡± She grew kinder. Her sharp remarks softened, and her usual sneer turned into a more gentle smile. She even expressed interest in learning to cook, asking me for lessons, and chatted during our walks. Simple daily life. Ordinary joys. With no ce to attach myself, my mind clung to Noh Do-hwa''s small kindnesses. A year passed. Noh Do-hwa became my sole source of happiness. ¡°Good night, Undertaker¡¡± ¡°Ah, yes. You too, good night, Craftsmaster.¡± As usual, I fell asleep in the hut''s bedroom. And when I woke up. ¡°Ah.¡± Noh Do-hwa''s voice was close. ¡°Oh dear, you woke up¡?¡± A bit too close. Noh Do-hwa was on top of me, her weight pressing down. ¡°You can go back to sleep if you want¡¡± But I couldn''t. Thud. The main pressure point was my neck. The former public servant, Craftsmaster, and manager who once called herself my aplice, was now strangling me with a faint smile. ¡°...¡¡± I opened my mouth but no words came out. The opponent was Noh Do-hwa, thest person you''d expect to be mentioned purely based onbat power among the awakened. If I wanted, I could immediately shake off her hands. But looking into her ck eyes up close, I saw they were saying something else. ¡°Please don''t resist¡¡± Her lips spoke as well. ¡°It would be troublesome. The moment you activate your aura, I''ll take my own life. You wouldn''t want that, would you?¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Of course, you could cut off my limbs and prevent me from doing so¡ But I doubt you''d go that far.¡± Noh Do-hwa''s grip tightened on my neck. I choked, bubbles forming in my throat. I tried moving my limbs, but my prosthetic arms and legs, installed by Noh Do-hwa, didn''t budge. ¡°Wh-Why¡?¡± ¡°Ah, sorry. I tampered with them a bit during assembly.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Oh. You¡¯re wondering since when? Well, considering your limited remaining lifespan, I''ll tell you. From the moment the awakened went berserk in the Busan bunker¡ I started thinking right away¡¡± Noh Do-hwa smirked. Her smile was darker than ever before, like poison. Her venom seeped from her eyes to her hands, strangling my breath. ¡°Your choice to embrace misfortune made me worry. Was it possible for you, who finds happiness in small things, to be truly unfortunate¡?¡± Squeeze. ¡°You''re a person who can find joy in anything. You must have worked hard to be like that. I can only imagine how awful the life of a regressor must have been¡¡± Press. ¡°Your mental barriers are sturdy. If breaking them was my goal, staying in Korea as the head of the National Road Management Corps was counterproductive¡¡± Pressure. ¡°So, I quit¡¡± Yu Ji-won was capable. But her capabilities shone most as a deputy. As the leader of arge organization, her tendency to view everything and everyone as tools would cause problems. Managing the National Road Management Corps, which required negotiating with numerous guilds, would spiral out of control under Yoo Ji-won''s leadership. Cheon Yo-hwa, the guild master of Baekhwa, braving the sea alone and getting stranded, was a sign of the uing chaos. Noh Do-hwa had been waiting for this. ¡°You nned the organization so meticulously, raised it, and now the Korean Penins is in shambles, bringing you significant misfortune¡¡± It didn¡¯t end there. ¡°While others tried to beat you up, I saw that such straightforward attacks wouldn¡¯t deal a decisive blow. It was a golden opportunity for me.¡± Opportunity. What kind? ¡°Undertaker.¡± Noh Do-hwa leaned closer. Her pitch-ck eyes, as dark as a well. Her eyes, devoid of any light, stared down at me. ¡°You ruined my life.¡± She whispered in my ear. ¡°You dragged me into the National Road Management Corps when I only wanted to live quietly. You imed you wanted to save the world... 500 times? 600 times? How many more times do you n to make me suffer¡?¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Bastard.¡± Her poison seeped into me. ¡°Undertaker. I hate you. I always have, and I always will. If you feel guilty, even a little, for ruining my life¡¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Please, die here and now.¡± My body trembled. It was hard to tell if it was due to the diminishing oxygen or Noh Do-hwa¡¯s venomous intent. -Huikikikkik. The Monkey''s Paw wailed in the void. The roof beams of the hut copsed, aiming to crush Noh Do-hwa. The Monkey''s Paw, trying to eradicate the source of my misfortune, was thrashing. I summoned my aura and shattered the beam. It disintegrated without a sound, and Noh Do-hwa smiled softly. My vision blurred. Through the haze, I saw Noh Do-hwa lowering her head further. ¡°How is it¡?¡± She whispered. ¡°Is my killing you sufficient misfortune for you¡?¡± I wanted tough. Of course. But I couldn¡¯t move my lips, so in the ckened vision, I met my end. It was my 590th death. There is a small epilogue. To summarize, the Monkey''s Paw didn''t pursue me beyond the regression to collect its debt. The final ''misfortune'' gifted by Noh Do-hwa was significant enough even for the Monkey''s Paw. Yes. The [Total Luck Law], which might have grown into an ocean-ss threat, was safely dealt with. ¡°...? What are you staring at?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± I debated whether to tell Noh Do-hwa about the previous cycle but decided against it. If I did, she might genuinely despise me. There was no need to invite misfortune this cycle too. ¡°Hm?¡± Noh Do-hwa, sitting far away at her desk, tilted her head. She got up, walked over, and frowned as she looked up at me. ¡°What''s this all of a sudden?¡± ¡°¡Hmm. Undertaker, it seems you''re starting to go bald.¡± ¡°What?¡± What nonsense was that? ¡°Bald? In my 591 regressions, I''ve never lost a single hair. My hair is very healthy.¡± ¡°Really? Well, I must be mistaken. Still, it¡¯s better to be cautious¡¡± Ten yearster. When I looked in the mirror, I saw that Noh Do-hwa¡¯s warning was urate. My hair was thinning in an M-shaped pattern. ¡°...¡¡± As if it were the final payment for the misfortune I owed. -Uikiikik. I must emphasize once more. Anomalies were truly dangerous. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 146 The God yer I Recently, I had been deeply immersed in my extremely personal rtionship with Noh Do-hwa (murder) and our overly private conversations. Sometimes, it was necessary to talk about external matters. This time, to catch our breath, let¡¯s discuss thetest trend in our apocalyptic era. In the past, humanity used terms like ''modernism'' and ''postmodernism'' to construct buildings and write literature. However, to the MZ generation of the apocalypse, such terms were outdated concepts. The new generation had evolved to be more practical. ¡°Are you crazy?¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°I counted the steps in the new house you built, and there are thirteen. Why did you build it that way? Do you want to take a tour to the depths of hell whileing down the stairs?¡± ¡°Well, the local carpenter just built it as he saw fit¡¡± ¡°You must have some serious grudges against that carpenter. Cut ties immediately and hire a different one. Reduce the steps to ten or nine.¡± ¡°Is that really necessary?¡±¡°Take it or leave it. It¡¯s your life on the line, not mine. What¡¯s this? You even built a basement? Your survival rate would be higher if you jumped off a building roof than living in this house. It¡¯s as if you posted a notice inviting anomalies to live here.¡± Abyssalism. This was thetest trend in the apocalypse. Abyssalism focused less on ''how to livefortably'' and more on ''how to avoid getting screwed by anomalies.'' It didn''t start this way. During the times when nuclear bombs flew and civil wars broke out, humanity thought scientifically. They built solid concrete bunkers to hide in, or lived as isted survivalists. By scientific standards, these approaches made sense. However, the new anomalies that emerged in the apocalypse had a rich literary sensitivity and preferred inverting causality. ¡°Waaah¡ Waaaah¡!¡± ¡°Why is that beggar acting crazy?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t even ask. He used to be a high-ranking corporate executive. He dragged his whole family into an underground bunker.¡± ¡°What? An underground bunker? Crazy.¡± ¡°Yeah, crazy. A bomb dropped on the bunker overnight, and his entire family turned into ghosts. He barely escaped to Busan. Is he even truly alive?¡± ¡°Waaah! Waaah!¡± Anomalies didn''t favor scientific approaches or causality. They loved ''reversing causality.'' Take underground shelters as an example. Bunkers were designed to protect against air raids, bombings, and nuclear attacks. Scientifically, bunkers were safer than ordinary houses. Unless you had a rtive named Osama bin Laden, the chance of a hidden bunker being targeted by missiles was extremely low. However, anomalies thought differently. Bombs existed because bunkers did. The presence of a bunker necessitated a bombing. Thus, those who hid in bunkers invariably faced missile bombardments. The Gimhae ins were devastated. That day marked a paradigm shift for humanity. ¡°Hey, someone¡¯s calling me.¡± ¡°Damn it, don''t answer! Never answer! Use your smartphone only to ess SG Net. Turn it off otherwise!¡± Phones? They weren''t for hearing someone¡¯s voice but rather tools tomunicate with unseen entities. Unless you were a high school student who enjoyed ghost stories, making or receiving calls was foolish. ording to ''Abyssal Communication Studies,'' real human interaction was face-to-face only. ¡°Why did you put a mirror in the bathroom, you idiot?¡± ¡°Huh? Because it¡¯s a bathroom¡¡± ¡°Your reflection in the mirror looks different from your actual face! Get rid of it now!¡± Mirrors? They were tools that isted beings identical to oneself in another world. They should never be used as interior decorations. Humanity had grown toozy and dependent on tools. In the updated apocalypse, more careful choices were necessary. ¡°Ancient people lived fine without phones¡¡± ¡°We can live without mirrors too. They were always stressful, except for the bathroom mirror right after a shower.¡± And so, humanity adapted. People decided to live without phones, mirrors, and modern conveniences. After all, ancient ancestors hunted mammoths without such things. However, there was one tool humanity couldn''t abandon. The thought of letting go of it meant regressing to prehistoric times. Surprisingly, it wasn''t the inte. Nor was it smartphones. The tool that humanity, especially Americans, clung to until the end was¡ª -Bang! The protagonist of this story: guns. Sometimes, when I read modern fantasy where characters fight with swords, I wonder why they don''t use beautiful and stylish guns instead of clinging to primitive melee weapons. Are they medieval barbarians? The disdain for firearms in some creative works has a long history. When monsters appeared in the hills behind Tokyo-3, the Self-Defense Forces used advanced weapons to no effect. Someone coolly muttered, ''What a waste of taxes,'' sealing the fate of firearms in subculture. Monsters also seemed influenced by modern fantasy. Boss-level monsters shrugged off bullets, missiles, and nukes but became squishy under a little ''aura-infused'' knife attack. ¡°Shoot! Shoot them all! Those bastards are nothing! Just aim and fire!¡± -Screech! Of course, some monsters were vulnerable to bullets. Goblins and orcs, born to be humanity''s experience points, were quite susceptible to firearms. These vige-ss monsters were numerous. South Korea, a conscription nation, had much fun with guns right after the apocalypse. However, firearms quickly lost poprity. After Ten Legs enjoyed an omakase mukbang with the South Korean military, firearms vanished entirely. Why did firearms fall into disuse? A representative story exins it. ¡°Haa¡¡± One day, Cheon Yo-hwa, visiting my caf¨¦, sighed deeply. Even the spoon stirring her beloved creamtte seemed devoid of strength. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Ah, it¡¯s¡ teacher,tely, there have been more conflicts among our students.¡± ¡°The Baekhwa High girls? Isn''t their rivalry always intense?¡± Baekhwa High School had a resident anomaly known as ''Yuri'' (not to be confused with Go Yuri). It was a unique boundary-forming ghost that even I couldn¡¯t exorcise, so we left it alone. Consequently, Baekhwa High School constantly yed out a fierce drama of love and hate, making every day new for Cheon Yo-hwa, who was in the middle of it. ¡°I canugh off their usual rivalries, but it feels like they''re crossing a lely. A girl almost died the other day.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind if they bicker, as long as it doesn¡¯t harm others. But if someone dies, it affects our whole guild. Ruining the atmosphere is secondary.¡± ¡°Hm.¡± ¡°I gave the perpetrator a full course of water torture to wake her up. She imed she didn''t know it would go that far. When I probed her mind, she seemed sincere. Sir, could this be an anomaly?¡± Anomalies didn''t adhere strictly to logic. What mattered was that ''one of the top guild leaders in Korea had reached a critical stress point.'' A single injury among Baekhwa High School guild members meant little. But ''Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s depression'' could trigger unpredictable butterfly effects. If she started destroying cities to relieve her stress, it would be a serious problem. If you didn¡¯t recognize the reference, had you forgotten about The Mncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? Anyway, I smiled gently. ¡°Yo-hwa, shall we visit Baekhwa High to check for any sectors infected by anomalies?¡± ¡°Really?¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s face brightened, then fell. ¡°But, Sir, you¡¯re very busy. I¡¯d feel guilty if you came just for us¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. Baekhwa High School is essentially a temple sealing Infinite Void. Regr inspections are necessary. And if you feel something is wrong, it¡¯s worth investigating.¡± ¡°Thank you so much, Sir!¡± I had chosen correctly. We passed through the Inunaki Tunnel and headed to Sejong City. On the way back to Baekhwa High School, Cheon Yo-hwa smiled and chatted with me. ¡°Wow, it feels like just yesterday we toured schools together for years. Time flies.¡± ¡°For us, it¡¯s been years, but for others, only a day has passed.¡± ¡°Haha, true! That¡¯s why it feels even stranger. Ah, this way, Sir.¡± Baekhwa High School had changed quite a bit since ourst visit. ssrooms were repurposed. Elevators were closed, and the fourth floor was sealed off with caution tape. ¡°This is the perpetrator''s room.¡± ¡°Is it alright for me to enter?¡± ¡°She almost killed someone! She¡¯s practically a murderer. We¡¯re still waterboarding her. Why care about her privacy? We¡¯ve already done a full search.¡± Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, the prominent guild leaders of thisnd, were both fond of water torture. The favorable water quality of the Korean Penins remained influential. Indeed, normal people had to rely on me, the cultured undertaker, as their pir of support. I searched the room thoroughly. Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s im of a thorough search seemed true. Nothing new was found in the perpetrator¡¯s room. ¡°Hmm?¡± But the window frame felt odd. Tap-tap. I knocked on it, and the stic sounded overly hollow. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, teacher?¡± ¡°There seems to be an empty space here.¡± ¡°Ugh.¡± I slid the window aside and examined the frame. Sure enough, there was an artificial gap. ¡°Let me use some aura.¡± ¡°Oh, go ahead.¡± ck aura formed on my fingertips. I traced the gap with my aura, and as expected, it revealed a hidden space. I frowned at the item hidden inside. Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s face darkened quickly, like a front-line soldier finding a hole in the DMZ fence. ¡°This crazy bastard.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa muttered gloomily. The hidden item was a pistol. I immediately picked up the K5 pistol and fired it out the window. Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of gunfire echoed through Baekhwa High until the 13 bullets were spent. Far away, students seemed startled, but I had no time to worry about them. ¡°Phew.¡± ¡°Haa¡¡± Only after the loaded bullets were spent did we sigh in relief. This anomaly was truly dangerous. Both Cheon Yo-hwa, the guild leader of Baekhwa, and I, a regressor, had been tense. ¡°Good thing I called you, teacher. If we left it, at least one person would have died, maybe thirteen.¡± ¡°I¡¯m d I came.¡± Indeed, the reason firearms became useless in the apocalypse, or rather ''dangerous,'' was because every gun in this world was possessed by an anomaly. [Chekhov¡¯s Gun]. This anomaly turned all firearms into deadly hazards. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 147 The God yer II There was once a Russian medical student from a poor family named Anton Chekhov. As is often the case, Russia was and filled with a peculiar magic. The more unfortunate the Homo sapiens of thatnd, the more their writing prowess seemed to flourish. Chekhov died young at 44 from an incurable disease. Having grasped the three ursed elements of ''Russia,'' ''poverty,'' and ''incurable disease,'' Chekhov exchanged his life for an extraordinary literary talent. It was as if all the evil spirits of Russia whispered to him to be a writer. Through this grand dark magic, Chekhov emerged as a great literary figure. Chekhov once said: "If a gun is hung on the wall in the first act, it must be fired in thest. If not, don''t bother hanging it there." This is known as "Chekhov''s Gun." Chekhov probably intended to say, "Use foreshadowing well, you writers." However, as with all dark magic, Chekhov''s spell had unintended aftereffects. Incidentally, Chekhov worked in Siberia, and the weather patterns originating from there are famous for affecting the Korean Penins every winter. Even the greatest sorcerers cannot escape meteorological phenomena. Chekhov''s dark magic, too, rode the winds andnded on the Korean Penins. Here is a concrete example. ¡°Hey! Look at this! It¡¯s a gun!¡± ¡°Wow. A military unit must have dropped it. Good job! Thanks to you, we found it.¡± ¡°Hehe.¡±In Seoul, there was a loving couple. Despite the apocalypse filled with anomalies, they were living a pure love story. One day, they found a gun and ammunition left behind by a military unit. The couple, thinking it was a great find, took the weapon. And then. -Bang! Less than two weekster, one shot the other. ¡°Ugh... Miro, why...?¡± ¡°Sorry, Oppa. I don''t have the will to live anymore. So let''s die together.¡± ¡°No...¡± The couple, who had been living a happy love story, suddenly plunged into a tragic tale. This was just the tip of the iceberg. -Bang! Another family found a gun and that very night, the entire family was shot dead. Someone, bewitched by an anomaly, hallucinated that enemies were attacking from all directions and massacred their family. ¡°Aaaaah!¡± By dawn, realizing that the ''enemies'' they killed were actually their family, the person took their own life with the same gun. Simr cases were countless. -Anonymous: There¡¯s a group of survivors who built a hideout next to my neighborhood, butst night they got totally wrecked lol. -Anonymous: I heard gunshots all night. Seems like they had a stockpile of guns. When I checked, they were screaming and shouting like crazy. -Anonymous: They looked like a tight-knit group from the same hometown, but one gun destroyed them all. You get the idea. That''s right. The dark magic cast by the Russian writer ensnared all firearms. Every gun became haunted by the anomaly known as "Chekhov¡¯s Gun." In this world, if a gun existed, it would inevitably be fired at a crucial moment. More precisely, crucial moments were forcibly created because of the gun''s presence. Lovers¡¯ deaths. The copse of close-knit groups. Regardless of the people or events, if a gun existed, it would invariably lead to dramatic moments until the ammunition ran out. It was a modern-day version of Paris¡¯s Golden Apple. Wherever a gun existed, discord and tragedy ensued. ¡°Hey, put down that gun!¡± ¡°Shut up! My family¡¯s dead! Why should I stay in the army? You all die too!¡± -Bang, bang, bang! The South Korean military, once advancing towards Seoul to im the throne of the Korean Penins, was swiftly annihted. While the Ten Legs devouring the military yed a major role, the final blow was delivered by Chekhov¡¯s Gun. ¡°If we start an internal conflict here, we¡¯ll lose all hope...¡± ¡°Hope? Screw that! Die!¡± ¡°Stop him! Why are you all loading your guns too? Are you insane?¡± In short, the entire unit erupted in gunfire. Rumor had it that even the divisionmander was killed in the crossfire. Fortunately, firearms in South Korea were concentrated in military units, so only military power was lost. The USA, however, where every household deemed a shotgun essential, faced severe consequences. Within a month of the apocalypse, 50% of Americans had died. If they had known this would happen, even the staunchest opponents of gun control might have reconsidered. Thus, -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: This is a notice to all members of the Samcheon World guild and all awakened individuals entering Busan. Firearms are strictly prohibited in Busan. Vition will result in... -[Baekhwa]13thGrader: An illegal firearm was found in Sejong City! There will be a public execution in front of the government building at lunchtime today. Please show your support! (>_<);; Not just North America, but the entire world, including the Korean Penins, began rigorously regting firearms. Possession of a firearm was almost a guaranteed death sentence. Killing someone was bad, but possessing a gun was worse. Guns didn''t just kill; they sowed discord and ensured tragedy. In a way, "Chekhov''s Gun" was less fitting a name than "Forced Tragedy Ensurer." This was why Cheon Yo-hwa muttered, ¡°This crazy bastard,¡± upon discovering a K5 pistol in her guild. ¡°Now then.¡± We thoroughly searched Baekhwa High School. Thankfully, there were no other firearms besides the one found in the window frame. ¡°Why did your guild member collect and hide a K5 pistol?¡± ¡°Well, we interrogated her with some waterboarding. She had a crush on the vice president of our student council.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa sighed. ¡°But the vice president is dating someone else. That person was the victim in this case...¡± ¡°A love triangle?¡± ¡°Yes, something like that...¡± This story felt distant from my own experiences, making me feel like an observer. ¡°So, the perpetrator nned to kill the victim with the gun? Foolish. She wouldn¡¯t gain the vice president¡¯s love that way.¡± ¡°Well... It¡¯s a bit moreplicated.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa scratched her cheek. ¡°She nned to use ''Chekhov''s Gun'' to justify her actions.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Her n was to pretend she found the gun while we were on one of our regr patrols in Seoul. Then, during patrol, she would act like she was possessed by ''Chekhov¡¯s Gun'' and identally shoot the victim.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa made a finger gun and mimicked firing. ¡°She intended to disguise it as an idental shooting caused by the anomaly.¡± ¡°Acting?¡± ¡°Yes, acting. She thought that by pretending it was an idental discharge, she could argue that she was possessed by the anomaly. She figured she might face demotion but wouldn¡¯t be expelled or executed. Kids these days are so cunning.¡± I was somewhat astonished. ¡°So, she nned to disguise a murder as an ident caused by an anomaly?¡± ¡°Yes. Isn¡¯t it terrible?¡± Incredible. I had heard stories of guild members abandoning annoying colleagues during explorations, but rarely did someone actively n to use an anomaly as a cover for murder. Human malice truly had no limits. ¡°......¡± At that moment, something clicked in my mind. A student''s idea of using ''Chekhov''s Gun'' sparked a realization. Gun. Destruction. Gun. Malice. Gun. Various words intertwined in my mind. ¡°Teacher? Are you okay?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re deep in thought.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa, familiar with this sight, went about her business. It took me about three minutes to fully process my revtion. During that time, Cheon Yo-hwa stood guard as if protecting a meditating colleague. ¡°Yo-hwa.¡± As soon as I spoke, Cheon Yo-hwa smiled, as if she had been waiting. She handed me a cup of tea brewed with green tea leaves. ¡°Yes. Did youe up with something good?¡± ¡°Yes. If all goes well, I might acquire the strongest weapon on the Korean Penins this time.¡± ¡°The strongest weapon on the Korean Penins?¡± Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head. I covered the cup with my palm and nodded. ¡°Yes. Yo-hwa, what do you think is the strongest weapon on the Korean Penins?¡± ¡°Hm? Uh, let¡¯s see... North Korean nuclear missiles?¡± ¡°Those didn¡¯t even scratch the Ten Legs and disappeared. Think of a weapon more practical for human use.¡± ¡°Um... The Four Tiger Evil-Cutting Sword?¡± As expected of the student council president of a prestigious private school, she was knowledgeable about peculiar artifacts. Incidentally, Cheon Yo-hwa scored top marks in Korean, Math, English, and Korean History on the college entrance exam. In case you¡¯re wondering how she took the exam in a copsed world, well, a unique anomaly and void appear in Korea every November called the "College Schstic Ability Test." Despite the bizarre questions, Cheon Yo-hwa achieved near-perfect scores. If you searched her bag, you¡¯d even find an ''Honorary Seoul National University Student ID.'' In any case, ¡°That sword is quite powerful, but it¡¯s still weaker than my cane-sword. It never created any true legends. The strongest weapon today is one that holds a powerful ''story'' capable of defeating anomalies.¡± ¡°Um... I don¡¯t quite get it. I¡¯m not very interested in weapons. Did our country ever have such a weapon?¡± ¡°There is one.¡± I smiled. ¡°Yo-hwa, have you ever heard of ''The Heart of a Beast''?¡± ¡°The Heart of a Beast?¡± The bullet that killed a god. A German-made Walther PPK pistol. Serial number 159270. The strongest treasure on the Korean Penins. The bullet that pierced the heart of Yu-sin. That¡¯s right. The gun that assassinated the former president was calling out to me, the Undertaker, toe and im it. Surprisingly, the firearm that achieved the monumental feat of ''assassinating a president'' wasn¡¯t preserved in a museum. Its whereabouts werepletely unknown. After the assassination by the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, the pistol was moved to the Army Forensic Science Laboratory. After forensic analysis, it went to the Security Command, then to Army Headquarters. After the trial concluded, it was supposed to be returned to the Central Intelligence Agency. In Korea, when an item passes through more than three government agencies, it means its ownership is eternally relinquished. The ''strongest treasure on the Korean Penins'' was no exception. Naturally, the Walther PPK pistol vanished. The Central Intelligence Agency imed: -The Security Command confiscated it. The Security Command asserted: -We returned it to the Central Intelligence Agency long ago. If this scene seems familiar, it¡¯s not a coincidence. Bureaucrats everywhere share the same DNA. However, it¡¯s not just a matter for ridicule. Facing a cursed demon gun... no, a demon pistol, the bureaucrats might have instinctively felt fear. It was a monstrous relic that shouldn¡¯t exist in this world. Mere mortals were eager to send it back to the divine realm. Yes. The bureaucrats were right. The wisest way to deal with a curse was to pretend it didn¡¯t exist. The Korean government seeded in sealing the cursed relic using the most sensible method. And now, I, the Undertaker, needed that relic. Desperately. Immediately after parting ways with Cheon Yo-hwa, I headed north from Sejong City. I arrived in a district of Seoul. [¡Mr. Undertaker.] The Saintess, who often spent her time monitoring my activities through the countless CCTV cameras she had set up, finally spoke. ¡°Yes?¡± [Are you really nning to enter there? You¡¯ve always warned me not to enter that void.] ¡°Yes. You shouldn¡¯t go in, but I can.¡± [......] I ignored the Saintess¡¯s silence and looked up at the scene before me. In the background stood Namsan, andmark of Seoul. Naturally, there was a building that should be there. The headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, or the more familiar "Agency for National Security nning" for some. Now, it was a void. That¡¯s right. As mentioned in the previous story, the pinnacle of genre literature, "monopolizing opportunities," had met its end in our world. The sinister anomaly known as the Total Luck Law saw to that. But why grieve? A specialized Chinese restaurant¡¯s sweet and sour pork is better than a buffet¡¯s. Even if monopolizing all dishes was forbidden, enjoying the best one was enough. I, the Undertaker, prided myself as a gourmet, second only to Dang Seo-rin and the Ten Legs on the Korean Penins. ¡°Saintess, I¡¯m going to farm the ''weapon that yed a god.''¡± [.....] ¡°Please watch over me.¡± Today, I was going to im the greatest treasure on the Korean Penins. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 148 The God yer III The void of Namsan. The anomaly that resided here was the Central Intelligence Agency, often referred to simply as "CIA." If one preferred a more dramatic name akin to those from the Fate/Stay Night series, it could be referred to as "The Gun that Pierced the Heart of Dictatorial Power" or "The Priests of Holy Water Resisting Communism." ¡°This damn primitive country!¡± In the distant past, Old Man Scho despised this void the most. ¡°I¡¯m not a bloodthirstymunist revolutionary, but a social democrat advocating gradual reforms through the parliament! Ultimately, I aim to seize parliamentary power and transition to exclusive party power, not the extreme left! Why do they call me amie?!¡± Old Man Scho had a reason for his fervent ideological promations. - Catch thatmie bastard! - The target is strongly resisting.- Director, he¡¯s a foreigner. This could turn into a diplomatic issue if mishandled! - Hey, Kim Yo-won! Just because he has a different hair color doesn¡¯t mean he¡¯s not amie. So is Stalin a freedom fighter? Catch him when I say so! Bang, bang, bang! Gunfire echoed around Old Man Scho. Indeed. The "Central Intelligence Agency" goblins that infested Namsan appeared at every opportunity to capture humans with impure ideologies. In fact, these goblins upied a simr position to goblins in other regions. In many ways, they had characteristics undeniably goblin-like. A. There were many of them. While walking through the void, it was easy to encounter men whispering, "I¡¯m actually an agent of CIA," or "My rtive works in Namsan¡." B. They kidnapped people and dragged them to undergroundirs, never to return. The Namsan bunkers constantly echoed with the screams of captives. C. Underestimating these goblins, thinking, "How strong could a goblin be?" would surely lead to a nasty surprise. Among the awakeners, no one suffered more from these CIA goblins than Old Man Scho. Whether near Namsan or anywhere else, the goblins would always pop up and fire bullets at him. ¡°Damn you bastards!¡± The German man shouted with a distinctive diction. If he could have met Seo Gyu, they might have recognized each other as brothers in arms. ¡°I am! A social democrat who endorses capitalism and liberal democracy!¡± What Old Man Scho failed to consider was that in Korea, such nuanced ideological distinctions were often ignored. In thisnd, even Max Weber¡¯s works had once beenbeled as subversive because they were pronounced simrly to Karl Marx¡¯s. A social democrat? Just a slight shade adjustment away from being a redmie. Moreover, from the perspective of the CIA goblins, "Germany" was a region divided into West and East, much like Korea. To them, Old Man Scho was undoubtedly an East German spy. Bang! In one cycle, Old Man Scho indeed died from CIA¡¯s gunfire. It was a death worthy of a Darwin Award. I struggled to wait for the reunion in the next cycle. After barely oveing suicidal urges and following proper regression procedures, I rushed to find Old Man Scho. He, aware of his shame, kept his hands behind his back. Whenever I approached to look at his face, he skillfully avoided me, maintaining his "hands behind the back" pose. The first words he uttered were: ¡°Embalmer, how could such a primitive country exist?¡± As expected. Though Old Man Scho often shouted at me to stop being racist, his subconscious harbored the condescending ego of a European imperialist. I knew this would happen. ¡°I bet in your homnd, Nazi goblins dance hand in hand with Gestapo.¡± ¡°Send me back home immediately! I¡¯ll show you what it means to settle this!¡± ¡°Well, if you¡¯re interested in witnessing World War I and II unfold alternately in the great void, I won¡¯t stop you.¡± ¡°Why is humanity so primitive?!¡± It was a typical line of a revolutionary turning into a dictator. ¡°They don¡¯t capture bald men. Why not shave your head while you¡¯re at it?¡± ¡°Shut up! No one touches my hair!¡± In any case, the Namsan void was long familiar to me. I had apanied Old Man Scho when he ground his teeth and purged the area. From then, I had been drafting strategies. Above all, since the Saintess''s residence was in Yongsan, I had to prepare meticulously to ensure the safety of my keypanion. Of course, the Saintess had no political leanings. Such collective thinking couldn¡¯t be imposed on her. However, understanding the concept of a hikikomori, the CIA agents, who lived from the 1960s to the 1980s, had a ssical mindset. To them, a suspicious person who stayed home all the time, obsessively using externalmunicationworks (=the inte), with no proper job, screamed "spy." [Last week, while taking a walk, I was reading Kant. Suddenly, a humanoid anomaly approached and asked me what book I was reading.] One time, the Saintess had voiced her grievance in a slightly angered tone. [Thinking it was amunicative type of anomaly, I answered, "Kant¡¯s Critique of Pure Reason."] [Then it used me of reading subversive literature.] [Naturally, I refuted.] [Marxism originates from a materialist interpretation of Hegel¡¯s philosophy, and Hegel and Kant remain opposing philosophical schools even today. I even support Schopenhauer, who is famously known to detest Hegel. How could I possibly endorse Marxism?] [But the CIA agent couldn¡¯t understand my exnation at all.] [It was an incredibly primitive anomaly.] ¡°Hmm¡¡± Even if it weren¡¯t an anomaly, that exnation would be hard to grasp. In any case, the Saintess had nearly been dragged away by the Namsan goblins multiple times. If not for her extraordinary abilities, she might have been kidnapped. In fact, quite a few awakeners and civilians had fallen prey to this anomaly. It was only natural for me to write and register a strategy guide on SG Net for the sake of everyone. - Hey, you there! You look suspicious. Show me what you¡¯re carrying. ¡°I am an American citizen.¡± - What? An American passport! After numerous experiments, I had found the most straightforward and cost-effective solution. No matter how eager the Namsan goblins were to kidnap people, they calmed down like officials witnessing a diplomatic passport when shown an American passport. - Oh, sorry, sir. We¡¯re just intensifying inspections due to recent incidents. ¡°Wow. Korea is still on the front lines againstmunists. Very interesting.¡± - Yes, yes. Have a safe trip! The goblins, who fiercely used Old Man Scho of being amie, suddenly became courteous gentlemen. This marked the moment when a forged American passport became a must-have for all Koreans. Now, when Namsan goblins appeared, people barely flinched. They just showed their passports and mumbled some broken English, and the goblins disappeared. However, this strategy was only a way to pass by the Namsan goblins safely. To eliminate the Namsan goblins entirely, a "heavier item" was needed. - Stop! Like the one I was carrying as I walked towards Namsan. - Who are you? Where did youe from? - Take off your hat! This guy looks suspicious. - Do you know where you are? Hey, punk! Look up! I was just passing by the main gate, yet the hysterical reactions erupted. From their perspective, it was natural. They were professional enough not to shoot immediately. I was wearing a t cap pulled low, making me appear very suspicious to them. - Move and we¡¯ll shoot! - Raise your hands! I said, raise your hands, bastard! Click. The goblins pointed their guns at me. I calmly raised my hands. And just as the goblins sighed in relief¨D I took off my t cap. - Gasp¡? My head shone brightly. Yes. This event urred in the 592nd cycle. The curse left by the Monkey¡¯s Paw, wringing out itsst bit of power, extended into the 592nd cycle. Acute hair loss had ravaged my head, leaving no trace of the hair that had once roamed the jungle, screeching, "Ukikik!" Seeing my brilliant scalp, the goblins muttered. - Leader? I lowered my voice with authority. ¡°Troops, at ease.¡± - ¡! The Namsan goblins hastily put down their guns and saluted. I looked at them with disdain. Drip. Sweat trickled down the side of their heads. ¡°Good job.¡± - Yes, sir! The goblins shouted fervently, thankful for being spared. This was the true strategy. If I were bald and carrying exactly 290,000 won in cash, I could freely wander the Namsan void. It seemed simple, but it required abination of rare coincidences. First, it was rare for someone to carry 290,000 won in cash after the copse of civilization. The fact that it happened to be me, who was also bald and near the Namsan void, was even rarer. It was an extremely unlikely scenario! After multiple confirmations, I found that only Noh Do-hwa and I could activate this strategy. It seemed to require a person tacitly recognized as "the ruler of the Korean Penins." I leisurely strolled deeper into the void. No one could stop me. [So, Mr. Undertaker, you¡¯ve deliberately carried exactly 290,000 won in cash to Namsan before?] ¡°Indeed.¡± [Why on earth?] ¡°Saintess, after regressing 590 times, one develops a habit of trying many things.¡± [What on earth?] True to her philosophical nature, the Saintess pursued endless inquiry. But the real task was to change the world, so I moved forward like the horn of a rhinoceros. - Leader! - Leader! ¡°Good job.¡± Goblins popped out throughout the void, but each time they saw my beautiful scalp, they pledged allegiance. Now, only the final boss of this ce, the ¡°Central Intelligence Agency Director,¡± remained before me. This Director was a formidable anomaly. Even for me, taking a standard approach would not be easy. Moreover, the Namsan void epassed CIA, and the Anti-Communist Interrogation Office. Naturally, their boss, the Director, wielded powers far beyond those in history. But it didn¡¯t matter. - Kraaah! You, you bastard! Sizzle. The Director melted like meat in a pot of stew at the sight of my bald head. Like how African sand was Hannibal¡¯s poison and Russian snow was Napoleon¡¯s, a bald head was the Director¡¯s kryptonite. A ssic example of how crucial attributes were for anomalies. In the end-times, even being bald had its perks. [The Namsan void fell so easily¡] ¡°Knowledge is power these days, Saintess.¡± In the remnants of the melted Director, the item I had been seeking throughout this episode appeared. I bent down and picked up "the gun." The strongest treasure on the Korean Penins. The German-made Walther PPK pistol. ¡°Ah¡¡± The cool, heavy sensation. I couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Good. Although I¡¯ve defeated this anomaly before, I never paid attention to the gun. Getting bewitched by Chekhov¡¯s Gun would have been problematic.¡± [¡¡] ¡°But now, it¡¯s time to put it to use.¡± You¡¯ve waited long enough. Finally, all the conditions were met. Since the 135th cycle, when the world was destroyed by the "Logout Game," I had never stopped contemting how to kill the deity. The project to awaken Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s abilities. The method of utilizing the Total Luck Law, discovered through risky experiments. And finally, the German-made Walther PPK pistol I could obtain here. Every step had been part of my strategy to eliminate the Outer God. Thus, today, there will be no epilogue. Comrades, from now on, we shall kill a god. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 149 The Strategist I Now, in the 593rd cycle. After bringing Oh Dok-seo from the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon and forming an alliance with the Saintess, I immediatelymenced the operation. The enemy of today''s story was none other than the Outer God. There was no time to be leisurely. ¡°Sorry. Normally, I would take my time to form a strong rapport with you, but this time, we need to hurry.¡± ¡°Ah, okay¡¡± Oh Dok-seo''s reaction was hesitant. It was understandable. Anyone in her situation would feel uneasy. After all, knowing that the regressor had already memorized every detail about you would be unsettling for anyone.In a world ravaged by anomalies, realizing that you had read about this situation in a novel gave some confidence but that confidence shattered immediately as the tutorial began, and I destroyed any advantage Oh Dok-seo had gained from the previous cycles. She had no time to enjoy the benefits of the ''Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint'' advantage. It was only natural for her to feel insecure. Oh Dok-seo exhibited leadership when dealing with strangers but revealed too many of her vulnerabilities to those she considered close. She was a person who lived with an imbnce in her heart. And I existed as a very delicate weight on her twisted scale. I wasn''t quite a stranger, but I hadn''t yet formed a bond of intimacy either¡ªa ''character in a work of fiction.'' Instead of leisurely clearing the tutorial and forming a bond, I had almost forcibly dragged her out of the Busan Station Dungeon, resulting in this uneasy rtionship. ¡°So, um¡ Undertaker?¡± ¡°You can just call me Mister.¡± ¡°No, it feels a bit weird to call you Mister on a first meeting¡ And you''re not old enough to be called that. Anyway, why did you bring me here?¡± Her heart pounded just a little. It was something that happened often. ¡°Oh Dok-seo, have you ever heard of the genre called ''speedrunning''?¡± ¡°Huh? Speedrunning?¡± Most people yed games for enjoyment. However, some humans loved speed itself. The deeply ingrained "ppalli ppalli" (hurry hurry) spirit in Korean DNA, when applied to games, became amon phenomenon worldwide. -To clear it faster. -To be the fastest! Speedrunning, also known as Real-Time Attack (RTA). ying a game with the goal of clearing it as quickly as possible. Sometimes, yers even used glitches in the game to reduce their time. For example, using ''Hate Pill'' and ''Savior'' anomalies to crash into each other could be considered a type of glitch y. Many gamers repeatedly failed in their attempts, aiming to leave behind just one speedrun record, the achievement of being the fastest yer in the world. I was no different. ¡°Oh¡¡± Oh Dok-seo looked up as if recalling something. ¡°Now that you mention it, I think I saw some gamey videos like that on YouTube. I remember an American clearing themunity center achievement in Stardew Valley in just two hours¡¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± I pulled out aptop. ¡°In this world, there is an anomaly-level outer god called the ''Logout Game.''¡± And I exined. As sinctly as possible, while ensuring Oh Dok-seo could fully understand what kind of outer god the ''Logout Game'' was, I used words and phrases tailored specifically for her. This exnation style was refined through several trials. Though Oh Dok-seo often eximed, ¡°What?¡± ¡°No way¡ª¡± and ¡°How can such an anomaly exist,¡± she grasped the situation rtively clearly in less than ten minutes. She stared down at theptop on the table. ¡°So, thisptop¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s an item left to me by the outer god. It¡¯s a perk given to a yer who kept struggling until the server was about to shut down. It¡¯s also the only clue to defeating the ''Logout Game.''¡± Click. I opened theptop andunched the only installed program, a notepad. From the 135th cycle, when the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' first destroyed the world, to the current 593rd cycle, the sentence written in the notepad had never changed. [ W h a t i s t h i s w o r l d ? ] A simple sentence. Yet, not an easy question. Oh Dok-seo frowned. ¡°What is this world¡? What does that mean?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a battle over who gets to define our world.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Listen closely. This outer god defined this world as a ''game.'' High-level anomalies each try to define the world in their own way.¡± I spoke calmly. ¡°Defining the world requires significant power. The ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' introduced many features such as status windows, level-ups, and logout systems to prove that this world is a game.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± ¡°People then epted and believed that the world was indeed a game. I call this ''being bewitched by the anomaly.''¡± The Magical Girl Association referred to the same phenomenon as kamikakushi (ÉñëL¤·). ¡°In other words, anomalies can never deny the systems they create. Giving them up would also mean losing their bewitching power.¡± ¡°Oh¡ I think I understand¡¡± ¡°The ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' defined himself as a game administrator. Therefore, he can only perform actions allowed to an administrator.¡± For instance, why could Sim Ah-ryeon resist the ''Logout Game'' even slightly? Why, when even individuals with extraordinary mental fortitude like Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess were helplessly logged out, was Sim Ah-ryeon an exception? The reason was simple. - Huh, reality? Being in the moment? Saying that I don''t need the inte because I''m happy right now? Are you stupid? Guild leader, are you really that stupid? - Here, inside this smartphone screen, is reality! It¡¯s the truth! Sim Ah-ryeon did not treat the ''Logout Game'' as a mere game. Just as she projected herself into SG Net, Sim Ah-ryeon genuinely immersed herself in the ''Logout Game,'' which had engulfed the world in emptiness. To her, disconnecting from SG Net was impossible. Even in the utopia Dang Seo-rin created in Busan, Sim Ah-ryeon never stopped hermunity activities until the very end. Likewise, if Sim Ah-ryeon started ying a game, quitting it was equally impossible. To her, such an act was akin to dying in reality. ¨D¨DTherefore, the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' could not delete Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s ount without cause or reason. There was always a loophole for anomalies, even for outer gods. ¡°I was the one who denied until the end that this world was a game.¡± ¡°You, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Yes. To the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame,'' I¡¯m an extremely troublesome critic who constantly gives low ratings and calls the game trash.¡± To the outer god, I was an enemy that had to be eliminated. In response, the anomaly challenged me with the question, "Then why don¡¯t you create a game yourself?" The notepad file on theptop embodied this challenge. ¡°''If this world is not a game, then what is it?'' This is what the outer god is asking me.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± Oh Dok-seo¡¯s eyes sparkled with curiosity. I wanted to use the [Mind Reading] skill to gauge her thoughts, but I refrained, remembering my promise not to do so again. ¡°The battle between the outer god and me is simple. If I type ''This world is a game,'' I lose. It would be as if I raised the white g and surrendered.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the victory condition?¡± ¡°Toe up with an answer that the outer god cannot help but ept.¡± So far, I had failed to type the correct answer into theptop. [This world has material substance.] [This world is eternally recurring.] [This world has no anomalies.] I had tried various answers, but the outer god never epted any of them. Nothing changed. Simply forcing my desires with power was meaningless. Just as I resisted the ''Logout Game,'' the outer god resisted the regressor. Both of us were not strong enough to impose our will unterally on the other but strong enough to avoid being overpowered. A stalemate. A tie. A deadlock. ¡°But, Oh Dok-seo, your arrival brings hope.¡± ¡°What?¡± She looked startled. ¡°Me?¡± ¡°Yes. I am a regressor, and you are a book possessor. Both of us are in an ''exceptional position'' in creative works. Even if we are not protagonists, we hold significant importance as main characters.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°That makes such a stunt possible.¡± Click, ck. I typed on theptop keyboard. ck letters spread across the white notepad file from my fingertips. [This world is a ''speedrun'' game livestream.] Oh Dok-seo muttered nkly. ¡°A speedrun game livestream¡?¡± ¡°You said you watched simr videos on YouTube, so it should be easy to understand.¡± I pointed at her. ¡°Oh Dok-seo, you are the ''protagonist'' character of this game.¡± Then I pointed at myself. ¡°I am the ''yer'' controlling you, the protagonist character, on theputer.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°The character and the yer are sometimes considered one, but they are always separate. However, both are treated as ''exceptional beings'' within the game world.¡± ¡°I¡¯m the protagonist, and you¡ are the yer controlling me.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°The outer god defined this world as ''a game with only characters.'' That¡¯s why people logged out so easily. They were bewitched by the anomaly, thinking it was simply logging out of a character, not dying themselves.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°We need to deny the outer god¡¯s strategy head-on. Both you, the character, and I, the yer, must coexist in this world. In other words, this world is not just a game with logged-in characters¡ªit¡¯s a world where yers who can log out also exist. Real humans and characters coexist.¡± I smiled. ¡°You¡¯re quick to understand. That¡¯s right.¡± I showed her a prepared diagram. ¡°Whether viewed on aputer monitor or a smartphone screen, a ''game livestream'' typically looks like this.¡± The diagram looked like this, summarized: ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Game Screen] [Game Screen] [Streamer¡¯s Face] [Game Screen] [Streamer¡¯s Face] ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D A formatmonly seen on YouTube. ¡°In the bottom right or left corner, the streamer¡¯s face and upper body are shown, while the rest of the screen disys the game in progress.¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°The streamer corresponds to the yer. The figure in the game is merely a character. But the important fact here is that ''in a game livestream, both the character and the yer coexist.''¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°If the world is defined as just a game, there¡¯s no way to withstand the logout. But if it¡¯s defined as a game livestream, we can neutralize the outer god.¡± I folded the diagram. ¡°You should be familiar with this format, especially since you primarily read novels. ''Constetion stories'' often follow this format.¡± ¡°Yes. Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint was also a constetion story.¡± ¡°How about it, Oh Dok-seo? Will you join me in defeating the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame''?¡± I extended my hand. Before Oh Dok-seo could reflexively grasp it, I added a crucial warning. ¡°This won¡¯t be an easy fight.¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°You must follow my instructions precisely. The tasks I give you will be challenging. There will be frightening and disgusting tasks. Fighting the outer god will be extremely difficult.¡± Oh Dok-seo remained silent. ¡°Still, is this the best scenario you¡¯ve thought of, Undertaker?¡± ¡°¡So far.¡± ¡°Then, I¡¯ll trust you.¡± Oh Dok-seo took my hand. ¡°Let¡¯s clear this trash game together.¡± ¡°...¡¡± I slowly nodded. At that moment. [Starting the fastest speedrun in the world.] Flinch. Oh Dok-seo blinked and looked around, startled. But there was no one else around us. An emotionless voice. Of course, it was the Saintess¡¯s telepathy. [The game this time is called the ''Logout Game,'' made by a strangepany called the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.] I deliberately didn¡¯t arrange a meeting between the Saintess and Oh Dok-seo. In the 593rd cycle, the novel ''Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint'' Oh Dok-seo read hadn¡¯t progressed to the point where she met the Saintess. Therefore, the voice she heard would genuinely sound like ''a constetion streaming a game'' to her. ¡°Uh, um, Undertaker, what is this¡?¡± I smiled. ¡°I told you.¡± [It¡¯s a problematic game, but there¡¯s no reason I can¡¯t achieve the fastest clear.] ¡°We¡¯re livestreaming a game.¡± [Among the characters, Oh Dok-seo, who has the attribute of ''book possessor,'' has immense potential despitecking significant stats now. She¡¯s the perfect candidate for a speedrun.] ¡°Oh Dok-seo, I¡¯ve prepared extensively for this cycle.¡± The Saintess¡¯s voice gently flowed. [Logout Game speedrun.] [Let¡¯s get started.] Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 150 The Strategist II [Let''s take the fastest route.] The Saintess''s ''broadcast voice'' resonated. For reference, the Saintess was not in Seoul but hiding nearby. After forming an alliance with her, I had quickly brought her along on my back. [The most efficient path is to travel from Busan to Jeju Ind, then from Jeju Ind to Japan.] The Saintess hid from Oh Dok-seo''s view, reading from the script I dictated. I kept moving my lips so subtly that Oh Dok-seo wouldn''t notice. During this time, the Saintess used [Time Stop] to decode the minute movements of my lips. Script: Undertaker. Voice: Saintess. In some sense, it was a more ssical form of broadcast than the inte¡ªmore like a program created by producers and writers. Through the Saintess''s voice and my script, we gave instructions to Oh Dok-seo. [The first obstacle is securing a boat from Busan to Jeju Ind. This is problematic.][At this point, the Examination Bureau''s anomalies haven''t spawned yet, and even if they had, Jeju Ind is part of Korea, making their use invalid.] [If your aura was sufficiently advanced, you could show your mastery of levitation, but it''s still early in the game. Demanding such high-level skills from your character is unreasonable.] [It would take over ten years just to train on the Korean Penins.] [But don''t worry.] [In a speedrun, safe passage by boat is a luxury. Instead of boarding a boat, let''s reverse our thinking and drift to Jeju Ind.] ¡°What?¡± Oh Dok-seo was startled. But as a character in the game, she had no free will. [Now, if you follow this path, you''ll find a half-destroyed library in Yeongdo. Despite its condition, the Yeongdo Library is rtively intact.] [In the location I specify, you''ll find a book titled .] [Put that book in your backpack and dive into the sea.] ¡°What?¡± Oh Dok-seo looked around, confused. She couldn''t see me. I was watching her from a considerable distance, hidden in the shadows of the ruins. The Saintess (through me) murmured softly. [Jump into the sea.] ¡°......¡± [There''s a life jacket and a wooden board there. Equip them and jump.] ¡°¡Aaaah!¡± Ssh. The sea off the coast of Busan swallowed the self-proimed ''book possessor.'' ¡°It''s so cold! It''s fucking freezing!¡± [The character isining noisily. Let''s ignore it.] [Some viewers might know, but Hamel was originally a Dutchman headed to Japan when his shipwrecked. He drifted to Jeju Ind due to ocean currents. Since our final destination is Japan, Hamel¡¯s journey aligns with ours.] ¡°Hic! The waves! The waves! Help! I¡¯m drowning!¡± [There''s a reason I chose ''book possessor'' Oh Dok-seo for this ythrough. She has red hair.] [In the past, Koreans called Westerners ''Red-Haired Demons'' because their hair and beards were red.] ¡°Help! I''m dying! Mister! I''m going to die for real!¡± [Don''t worry.] [Oh Dok-seo''s personal color is perfectly suited for bing a Red-Haired Demon.] [Plus, with in her backpack, all the ocean currents will help her reach Jeju Ind.] [Based on numerous tests, the probability of early-stage Oh Dok-seo drifting safely to Jeju Ind is a whopping 81%.] ¡°What? Wait! What about the other 19%¡ªAhh! The waves! The waves! Ahhhh!¡± Oh Dok-seo screamed. I leisurely walked on the water, following her from a distance. I intended to rescue her if necessary, but she was excessively frightened. Tsk, tsk. Shortly after, Oh Dok-seo was washed ashore on Jeju Ind. ¡°Ugh¡ Ugh¡¡± [As expected, she sessfully reached Jeju Ind in just 31 minutes and 14 seconds.] [In this game, the sea is far more dangerous than thend. There are still deep-sea anomalies without proper guides.] [But even a novice who has just cleared the tutorial can cross the sea easily by using character traits and items. Easy, right?] ¡°Easy? My ass! Ugh¡ Bleh!¡± [No time to waste. Take minimal rest and move immediately.] ¡°Ugh, I hate this¡¡± While Oh Dok-seo suffered from motion sickness, I quickly ran to Seongsan Ilchulbong to retrieve the ''Monkey''s Paw.'' The anomaly had once endangered both Kuro and me, and specifically threatened my hair roots. Sim Ah-ryeon''s healing ability couldn''t cure my hair loss, which had been quite distressing. It was a troublesome anomaly, but the ''Total Luck Law'' was crucial for this mission. It had to be collected here. [Did you know?] [After drifting to Jeju Ind and being captured by Koreans, Hamel managed to escape after 13 years.] [He fled to none other than Japan, our destination.] [Normally, the cooldown for is 13 years, but...] [As you know, the ''Logout Game'' is a bug-ridden game. Naturally, there''s an exploit here too.] I threw a piece of charcoal to Oh Dok-seo without her noticing. Still dizzy from seasickness, she noticed it btedly. ¡°Huh¡? Pencil lead? What am I supposed to do with this?¡± [Prisoners in the past scratched marks on walls to keep track of their imprisonment.] [Oh Dok-seo, you¡¯re now upying the position of ''a prisoner in Joseon.'' Enter any enclosed room and start writing.] Oh Dok-seo entered the ruins of a house I had scouted earlier. She went down to the basement without windows, locked the door, and started writing on the wall with the charcoal. ÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕý ÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕý ÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕý ÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕý ÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕýÕý TL/N: Õý is a way to count in East Asia. Õý = 5. The Saintess¡¯s voice flowed. [Hamel was imprisoned for about 13 years. No need to ount for leap years.] [365 days times 13. 4,745. Divide that by 5, you get 949.] [Write the character for ''Õý'' 949 times in this enclosed ''prison'' space.] Not long after. The charcoal broke. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s fingers were ckened with charcoal dust. ¡°Done¡ Finally¡¡± [Well done. Now considers you to have spent 13 years in captivity.] ¡°Wow¡ How did you figure out such a strategy?¡± [This exploit works only for traveling to Jeju Ind and Japan. If your aura level is high enough, you won¡¯t need it.] [But for now, this is the fastest way.] We walked out of the house and saw a small boat on the beach that hadn¡¯t been there before. ¡°Ugh. I don¡¯t know how to row. Is it okay?¡± [It''s fine. This boat will safely reach Japan no matter what.] ¡°Damn it, this feels unreliable¡¡± Oh Dok-seo rowed the boat and safelynded in Japan. Of course, ''safely'' meant arriving with all her limbs intact. ¡°Ugh¡¡± [Arrived in Japan in 59 minutes.] ¡°I swear¡ I¡¯m never getting on a boat again¡¡± [Now we will farm the ''Hate Pill.''] The Saintess casually dismissed Oh Dok-seo¡¯sment. For the record, the Saintessfortably crossed the strait on my back. The Saintess¡¯s [irvoyance] had a 1,000 km range limit. To provide stable navigation services to Oh Dok-seo, she had to move along. [The ''Hate Pill'' can be found in various ces across Japan.] [The nearest location is Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture.] [There''s a naval port on this city''s coast. It''s not a human naval port but an anomaly''s, making this entire area a void.] [But if you follow my guidance, you can safely reach themand center. Trust me.] I quietly dealt with any anomalies that tried to attack Oh Dok-seo along the way. She reached themand center safely. As she opened the door, she gasped. ¡°Ah!¡± She was horrified by the scene inside. ¡°What¡ What is this¡?¡± The Saintess and I spoke calmly. [These are the ends of protagonist characters whomitted suicide in despair stories.] Inside themand center, dozens, if not hundreds, of dolls hung from the ceiling. Some wore white admiral uniforms, some medieval knight armor, others wore suits reminiscent of people in the entertainment industry. These were anomalies of characters called ''Commander,'' ''Knight,'' ''Producer,'' ''Director,'' ''Teacher,'' ''Trainer,'' etc., in various games. We had learned about this ce back in the 590th cycle through the Magical Girl Association. Dangle-dangle¡ª The mannequin-like anomalies swayed in front of Oh Dok-seo. ¡°Eek!¡± [All these characters took the ''Hate Pill'' and couldn¡¯t endure the hatred from those around them, leading to their deaths.] ¡°It''s so scary¡ This ce is terrifying¡¡± [Of course, they aren''t real humans. These are merely anomalies derived from creative works and parodies.] [Since they are considered dead, they can''t affect living humans. Now, approach the nearest doll and open its mouth.] ¡°Open¡ Its mouth?¡± [Do it.] ¡°Ugh¡¡± Oh Dok-seo tearfully opened a doll''s mouth. I, hidden in the shadows, opened another doll''s mouth. Inside the mannequin''s mouth, on its tongue,y a bright red pill¡ªthe ''Hate Pill.'' I collected two pills. One for me, and one for the Saintess. [Now, take the pill.] Gulp. Oh Dok-seo, the Saintess, and I simultaneously swallowed the ''Hate Pill.'' Then I took out the ''Monkey''s Paw'' from my pocket. This was why I had collected it in Jeju Ind. Whispering softly, I addressed the furry hand. ¡°Monkey''s Paw, Monkey''s Paw. Grant my wish.¡± -...... The Monkey''s Paw trembled. My wish was as follows: 1. Bring all sorts of ''misfortune'' to Oh Dok-seo, the Saintess, and me (''us''). Specifically, make everyone who meets us hate us. 2. Limit the misfortune to us as much as possible. That is, do not involve others in our misfortune. 3. The reaction to our ''misfortune,'' that is, ''luck,'' should activate only when we desire. The Monkey''s Paw twitched violently. -Ukikik, kik. Its reaction was bizarre, as if it had never expected a human to make such a wish. The fur bristled sharply. This was the ''correct use of the Total Luck Law'' that I had reached after countless experiments. It might sound paradoxical, but wishing for lottery-winning luck was pointless with the Monkey''s Paw. The opposite approach was necessary. -Please ensure all lottery tickets I buy are losers. Misfortune. umting manageable misfortunes, one by one, as if they were natural. What would happen then? The more misfortune I endured, the more the ''Total Luck Law'' would strive to bnce it with equivalent luck. When the moment of absolute necessity arrived, the umted misfortune would be converted into luck. If the Monkey''s Paw tried to exert its power to create negative consequences for the wisher¡ª I would harness those negative consequences from the start, ensuring that eventually, they brought me luck. -Ukikikik. The Monkey''s Paw trembled, trying to resist my wish, but it was futile. An anomaly could not deny its essence. Thus, it had to submit to the human wishing for misfortune instead of luck. Denying its essence would lead to its own destruction. -Ukikikikik. Shuddering. Ultimately, the Monkey''s Paw vanished into thin air. My wish was granted. Simultaneously. [¡Ah.] The Saintess gasped slightly, in a voice only I could hear. [Indeed¡ Manipting people''s emotions this way¡] ¡°How do you feel, Saintess? Do I seem hateful to you?¡± [¡Yes. If you hadn¡¯t exined beforehand, it might have been challenging to endure.] The Saintess took a deep breath. Since this cycle had just begun, her favorability towards me wasn''t high. Therefore, the reversal effect of the ''Hate Pill'' wasn''t significant. The Saintess, with her strong willpower, could withstand it. But what about others? Now, everyone we met would feel an inexplicable aversion towards us. This aversion would grow. They would hinder us, undermine us, and constantly try to devalue our achievements. It wouldn''t be a happy journey. As time passed, misfortune would pile up for Oh Dok-seo and me. [¡By taking the Hate Pill, the difficulty of this game has drastically increased.] [However, in exchange for raising the difficulty ourselves, we will receive absolute luck at a crucial moment. And we can choose when to activate this luck.] Indeed. From now on, Oh Dok-seo, the Saintess, and I¡ªthe character, the yer, and the streamer, three personas in one¡ªwould move in perfect harmony. Together, we would endure misfortune, umte the weight of misfortune, and when the decisive moment arrived, when the detestable [Admin of the Infinite Metagame] appeared¡ª [We will convert all our misfortune into luck.] ¡°¡¡¡± Oh Dok-seo swallowed hard. Hidden in the darkness, the Saintess and I exchanged a silent look. [This is how we will defeat a god.] Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 151 The Strategist III This world wasn''t a game. There were no friendly mid-bosses, final bosses, or hidden bosses appearing conveniently in sequence. Anomalies took great inspiration from the military genius of the Joseon Dynasty. While the daimyos born in Japan, thend of ssic RPGs, praised themselves for their boss stages, Seonjo[1] harshly reminded them that the world was not a JRPG. Retreat, hide, and wait. Why foolishly reveal yourself to the enemy? By staying hidden, you eliminate the possibility of defeat. Anomalies didn''t show off their strength unnecessarily. Especially the Outer Gods, who rarely showed their divine forms to mere humans. Take Infinite Void as an example. Infinite Void was coiled in the fourth basement of Baekhwa High School, surrounded by an imprable barrier, and ruled the world by deploying only ''colonial soldiers,'' known as the ''Fairies of the Tutorial.'' Infinite Void was the weakest of the Outer Gods. The [Admin of the Infinite Metagame] was even more extreme. ¡°This guy is a master of hiding, even among stealth types.¡± I exined to Oh Dok-seo. ¡°Only after spreading status windows, experience point systems, damage indicators, level-ups, and gamemunities all over the Earth did he barely reveal himself at the moment of ''server shutdown'' after hundreds of years.¡± ¡°It''s really tough¡¡±In the middle of the night, we paused the speedrun broadcast for a brief rest. [......] By the way, while Oh Dok-seo and I were talking, the Saintess remained hidden nearby. An awkward atmosphere hung between us. Naturally, since we had both taken the ''Hate Pill,'' I felt animosity towards Oh Dok-seo, and she towards me. She probably felt only faint animosity since we hadn¡¯t had many bonding events, but I was different. ¡®I felt murderous.¡¯ I wanted to kill her. I wanted to tear her apart. My hands twitched. Looking at Oh Dok-seo stretching her neck while yawning made me want to draw my cane-sword and cut her down. Dozens of ways to cripple her shed through my mind without prompting. All the goodwill I had felt for her had instantly turned into hostility. ¡®Is this how Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa felt about me in the 590th cycle?¡¯ I felt guilty. But I could bear it. No matter how much the ''Hate Pill'' manipted my emotions, it couldn¡¯t alter my memories. I remembered clearly what kind of person Oh Dok-seo was. Hundreds of years of memories fortified my resolve. Thus, I buried my intense hostility underyers of memory. ¡°¡Undertaker?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Are you okay? You seem really strained.¡± Despite my efforts to manage my emotions, a fragment of my murderous intent must have slipped through. Oh Dok-seo, sensing it, shrank back, watching me nervously. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. If we don¡¯t take any action, the status window anomaly will appear between the fifth and sixth years.¡± ¡°Wait, Mister. Isn''t that toote for a speedrun?¡± ¡°Yes. We need to force the ''Logout Game'' to surface. That¡¯s why I brought you to Japan.¡± ¡°...?¡± The next day, after a good rest, we resumed the speedrun broadcast. [All the Outer Gods have their own domains.] [The ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' influences not only games but all creative works.] [This is evident from the anomalies under the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame''¡ªHero Syndrome, Savior''s Narrative Syndrome, Isekai Truck, Chekhov''s Gun¡ªall linked to creative works.] ¡°Ah.¡± Oh Dok-seo muttered while tying her shoces. ¡°So, that¡¯s why we¡¯re using the speedrun broadcast format? Since broadcasting is a form of creation too.¡± [Correct.] As usual, the Saintess ryed my words to Oh Dok-seo. [The deeper we immerse ourselves in creative works and the stronger we be, the more likely the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame'' will appear before us.] ¡°Ah, I get it.¡± [Good to hear. Now let¡¯s proceed with your transformation into a magical girl.] ¡°...?¡± I guided Oh Dok-seo towards Noto Penins in Japan, where the headquarters of the Magical Girl Association was located. As she followed the navigation, Oh Dok-seo suddenly mmed on the brakes. ¡°Wait! A magical girl? Why do I have to be a magical girl? Aren¡¯t they all crazy?¡± [Because magical girls, or Japanese awakeners, draw power from creative works in a typical manner.] Indeed. Although it might have been half coincidence, Japanese awakeners were essentially devotees of the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame.'' Magical girls always fought for justice against evil. Except in a few malevolent works, magical girls always triumphed. Relying on such magical girl tropes, the Japanese awakeners opposed the world-consuming anomalies. I valuedrades like Manyo Neko and others. But objectively, at this point in the 593rd cycle, they had be anomalies known as ''magical girls'' to fight anomalies. It was a typical corruption phenomenon. [But not all corruption is bad.] In a speedrun, every resource must be utilized. [The more powerful magical girls be, the closer their connection to the Outer Gods. In some cases, they can significantly advance the appearance of the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame.''] ¡°Oh¡¡± [Oh Dok-seo, you¡¯ve already used , epted the ''Hate Pill'' trope, and lived ording to the ''speedrun broadcast'' creative format.] ¡°......¡± [Your entire existence is bing saturated with creative works. You are the most suitable priestess for the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame.'' If you join the Association as an honorary member and be a magical girl, even more so.] Of course, the Magical Girl Association was extremely exclusive to outsiders. With everyone around her feeling instinctive aversion due to the ''Hated Pill,'' joining the Association would be even more challenging for Oh Dok-seo. But the strategy for registering with the Association was well known. Three dayster. ¡°¡Thank you. Who would have thought an awakener from Korea would conquer Inunaki Tunnel. As the representative of the Association, I express our gratitude.¡± The Great Priestess of the Magical Girl Association bowed politely. Oh Dok-seo, despite being a hardcore otaku, wasn¡¯t fluent in Japanese, so the Saintess had to act as an interpreter. ¡°But¡¡± The Great Priestess lifted her head slightly. ¡°Why are you covered in bird droppings?¡± That was because the ''Total Luck Law'' had started bringing small misfortunes upon us. Both Oh Dok-seo and I, along with the Saintess, were showered in bird droppings. Oh Dok-seo scowled. ¡°Ah, don¡¯t mind it¡ It¡¯s nothing¡¡± ¡°Hmm, okay.¡± The Great Priestess opened her fan. ¡°But it¡¯s surprising you want to join our Association. We¡¯re a small organization that hasn¡¯t been around long. Why would a foreigner be interested in us?¡± ¡°Well¡ I felt a sense of possibility in you all. Friend! Tomodachi! Friendships deepen through tough times, right?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The Great Priestess gave Oh Dok-seo a suspicious look over her fan. The unpleasant feeling from the first impression was clear. Even in these apocalyptic times, entering the guest room covered in bird droppings was odd. Instinctive rejection surged. However, Oh Dok-seo had sessfully conquered Inunaki Tunnel following my instructions. epting her into the Association could bolster the group''s prestige. ¡°Hmm. We¡¯re not ready to ept foreigners yet. It¡¯s difficult to offer a proper position...¡± ¡°Oh! No problem! An honorary membership is fine. Just acknowledge my qualification as a magical girl!¡± ¡°Well, if that¡¯s the case.¡± The Great Priestess closed her fan. ¡°Find a god to contract with. Each magical girl partners with a deity.¡± Though called gods, magical girls could partner with anything. Humans, pets, even anomalies could be gods if desired. ¡°Return with your god, and I¡¯ll grant you the title of magical girl. If you can¡¯t find one, I can introduce some...¡± ¡°Oh, that''s okay.¡± Oh Dok-seo smiled awkwardly. ¡°I already have one.¡± ¡°Which god?¡± ¡°The Undertaker.¡± I froze in the distance, eavesdropping on the conversation. We had agreed to make the Saintess our god before arriving here. The Saintessmanded multiple constetions, tying her deeply to the ''Constetion Stories'' trope. Furthermore, positioning the Saintess as the god would make her telepathic whispers into divine revtions. For many reasons, the Saintess was a more suitable partner. But Oh Dok-seo mentioned my name instead. The Great Priestess tilted her head. ¡°The Undertaker? I¡¯ve never heard of such a god.¡± ¡°He¡¯s my personal god.¡± ¡°Making up gods doesn¡¯t work. They must truly exist.¡± ¡°No problem. He exists. Always watching over me, even here. You just can¡¯t see him.¡± ¡°¡Really? He must be a high-ranking deity.¡± The Great Priestessughed lightly. ¡°Then, I¡¯ll form the contract here. If it fails, the membership offer is void.¡± ¡°By all means.¡± The Great Priestess opened her fan. ¡°In the name of Tamamo-no-Mae[2], I invoke you, the god called the Undertaker. Bless and protect this person.¡± A light, floating sensation apanied the connection of a fine, transparent thread between Oh Dok-seo and me. ¡°¡He truly exists? And he¡¯s strong.¡± The Great Priestess was surprised. ¡°Not just strong. This¡ the fact he responded¡ The Undertaker? Never heard of such a deity, but how¡¡± ¡°Is something wrong?¡± ¡°¡No. But you¡¯re serving a very dangerous deity. The stronger the god, the stronger you be, but borrowing a god¡¯s power isn¡¯t interest-free.¡± She closed her fan. ¡°The more you rely on the god, the more you be a mere tool. Eventually, you might be a puppet, a conduit for the god to descend. Be cautious.¡± ¡°Thanks for the warning.¡± Oh Dok-seo responded in her clumsy Japanese. ¡°But it¡¯s okay. Probably.¡± After learning various guidelines from the Great Priestess (mostly about shouting ''Transformation!'' when bing a magical girl), Oh Dok-seo left the base. That night. After the stream ended and we took a break, I approached Oh Dok-seo. ¡°Why did you say you¡¯d serve me instead of the Saintess?¡± ¡°Hmm¡¡± Oh Dok-seo scratched her cheek. After a long silence, she finally spoke. ¡°I thought it was more fitting. Mister, you said magical girls were essentially addicts to the tropes of creative works and servants of the [Admin of the Infinite Metagame], right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then, what am I, having read and seen this world as a half-fictional story?¡± ¡°...¡¡± A nightingale''s song faintly echoed. ¡°I¡¯ve always seen this world as partly a story. Since I was summoned to Busan Station, having read about the protagonist not long ago.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So, Mister, I have to ask. Am I a human already possessed by an Outer God from the start?¡± Indeed. Before Oh Dok-seo appeared, I never dared to confront the [Admin of the Infinite Metagame]. Just as Cheon Yo-hwa was Infinite Void¡¯s apostle and priestess. The priestess for the [Admin of the Infinite Metagame]¡ªthe self-proimed book possessor, destined to see this world as a creative work¡ªwas Oh Dok-seo. Footnotes: [1] Seonjo, personal name Yi Yeon, was the 14th monarch of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. He was known for promoting Confucianism and attempting reforms at the beginning of his reign. However, heter gained infamy from the political discord and his ipetent leadership during the Japanese invasions of Korea. [2] Tamamo-no-Mae is a legendary figure in Japanese mythology. One of the stories exining the legendes from Muromachi period genre fiction called otogiz¨shi. In the otogiz¨shi Tamamo-no-Mae was a courtesan under the Japanese Emperor Konoe. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 152 The Strategist IV Let''s take a moment to discuss Oh Dok-seo. Oh Dok-seo was a literary girl. Like all literary girls, she believed in the existence of something special beyond the mundane human world. Of course, this was a vain hope. Many literary girls received about three hard punches of betrayal, conspiracy, and group selfishness between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five before quietly letting go of their expectations of the world. There were no magical schools, no debutante balls for nobledies, and no secret organizations holding regr meetings in dimly lit alley bars (although there were organizations selling mysterious white powders and fantasy gum). Reality was harsh. A normal literary girl in Korea had to be ready to rece the magical school with a university, the debutante ball with an MT (membership training), and the secret organization with social media activities. This wasn''t difficult. Children who read the Harry Potter series typically experienced a stage of denial around the fifth or sixth grade, wondering, "Why is my Hogwarts eptance letter arrivingte?" This was amon growing pain. Oh Dok-seo was notmon. "No. The world is wrong." From a young age, Oh Dok-seo thought this way. At the school''s sandy yground, which mimicked a desert, she preferred walking in the shade rather than under the sun. "Wizards exist. Secret organizations exist. Forces of evil that threaten the world and champions of justice fighting against them also exist. And naturally, a god who watches over it all must exist too." Oh Dok-seo willingly abandoned reality for fantasy. It was an easy choice for her. Why should she give up her fantasies just because they were deemed unrealistic? What did the so-called realistic human world offer that was so great? At best, it offered jealousy, selfish desires, contempt for others due to inferior talent, hatred for family, hunger, wordy, and false friendships."No." What disgusted Oh Dok-seo most was how easily people forgot their actions. "You promised never to lie again. Why are you lying?" "Promise? When?" "Last time. We talked about it by the water cooler next to the restroom a few months ago." Oh Dok-seo had an extraordinary memory from a young age. She rarely forgot the dialogues of characters in books she had read. She meticulously remembered every word and action of people in reality. Just as some brains are specialized in numbers and calctions, Oh Dok-seo''s brain had an exceptional ability to remember human behavior. "I never said that." Others did not. Promises, vows, breaking promises, and forgetting them¡ªthis was the reality Oh Dok-seo saw, filled with people who forgot their actions in real-time. If she had the expressive power she had now, she might have said this as a child: "Forgetting is no different from death. Forgotten things are as good as nonexistent." "Then what are these people who forget everything?" "They are like a carnival parade, killing parts of themselves bit by bit, yet unaware, and still iming ''we are alive.''" When Oh Dok-seo reached this realization, she felt a chill. It was terrifying. The entire world was engaged in a ritual sacrifice of itself. All humans were cannibals, consuming themselves. "No." Oh Dok-seo wanted to escape. "I don''t want to die." So she fled. Compared to reality, fantasy was always brilliant. In creative works, people could always be greater. Characters in novels never forgot what they said or did. They remembered what they did in chapter 30 even in chapter 300. To Oh Dok-seo, these fictional characters felt more human. They were beings that remembered, couldmunicate, take responsibility, and offer forgiveness. Oh Dok-seo simply had higher standards for what it meant to be human. "These people are alive." The literary girl''s heart split in two. On one side, there was endless hatred for humanity based on reality. On the other side, there was boundless affection for humanity based on creative works. "The world is filthy." "Characters are more human." "As long as I don''t give up my faith in these characters, they can exist, even if only in my heart." With her heart torn in two, Oh Dok-seo indulged more and more in her belief in something ''other than reality.'' Normally, human beliefs were not rewarded. "Huh? What? Did I add this novel to my favorites list?" About two weeks before being forcibly summoned to Busan Station. "Let''s see... the title is..." A miracle happened to her. ¡ºOmniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint¡»? Returning to the present, on a night with a chirping nightingale, I looked at Oh Dok-seo and replied. "That''s right, Dok-seo. From the beginning, you were chosen as a apostle by the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse." "Oh." "In many novels, the protagonist is often possessed by a book or game character for no reason or exnation. But in this world, there''s always an anomaly behind every ''reasonless'' and ''exnationless'' event." In other words. "The novel ¡ºOmniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint¡» that you thought you read by chance is not just a novel. It¡¯s not mere coincidence. It¡¯s a gift from the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse, proving that you are his representative¡ªa chosen human." The anomaly''s favorite apostle. "And that novel itself is evidence that you were chosen as the anomaly''s agent." "......" "The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse must have judged you to be the most suitable apostle on this earth. Strictly speaking, anomalies don''t have the same judgment abilities as humans." The nightingale fell silent. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s expression was trulyplex. She didn''t know whether to be happy or sad. After a few moments of pondering, she spoke. "Does that mean the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse is eavesdropping on all our conversations?" "Yes. But there''s no need to worry." "Why?" "As I said before, anomalies don¡¯t have human-like judgment. Their senses and value standards are different. Even the term ''eavesdropping'' doesn''t really apply." I pointed to Oh Dok-seo¡¯s backpack, which contained theptop given by the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse. "When we started this cycle, we defined this world as a ''game broadcast.'' The time we spend chatting now corresponds to off-air rest periods. As long as we maintain this format, the anomaly won''t categorize our private conversations as meaningful." "Oh, I see..." Oh Dok-seo muttered to herself, but it was clear that this wasn¡¯t the topic she really wanted to discuss. Her lips had been twitching as if debating whether to say something. "But Mister..." "Hmm?" "In ¡ºOmniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint¡», it describes you as a regressor and details everything you''ve been through in each cycle. If the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse wrote that and showed it to me, then that means the anomaly knows you¡¯re a regressor, right?" "Yes, it probably does." "...!" Oh Dok-seo¡¯s breath hitched. "Then isn''t that a big problem? The biggest advantage of a regressor is that the enemies don''t know they are a regressor. But if the anomaly knows..." "The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse has some resistance to my regressions. That¡¯s why it left theptop with me." Since the 135th cycle, when the world was destroyed by the Logout Game, aptop had been left by my side every time I regressed. This meant the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse was continually approaching me through the cycles. "But the anomaly''s power isn''tplete. I am also resisting it." "Resisting...? What do you mean?" "In the novel you read, the updates are very slow. There''s a gap of about 500 to 600 cycles between my ''reality'' and that ''novel.''" We were in the 593rd cycle. However, the stories Oh Dok-seo read in ¡ºOmniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint¡» only covered up to the 33rd cycle. "So, imagine the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse as a hacker trying to break into me. Its progress is only about 5%. No matter how hard it tries to decode me, it can only gather data up to the 33rd cycle. It can''t understand the me of the 593rd cycle." "Oh, thank goodness. That means we still have plenty of time..." Oh Dok-seo sighed in relief. "But we mustn''t becent. The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse is slowly but surely extending its reach towards me." "Yes, I understand that..." "The fact that you began to awaken as a book possessor from the 555th cycle onward shows how close the anomaly has gotten to me." "Really? I see..." I nodded. Why did Oh Dok-seo, a ''book possessor,'' start to awaken in the 555th cycle instead of the first? Why were both the regressor and the book possessor summoned to the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon? A coincidence defying extreme odds? No, it was intentional. Everything was nned. "Just as I am trying to defeat the anomaly, the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse is using every means to subdue me. One reason it chose you as its representative is because you and I started from the same point." "...!" "The anomaly wants to interfere with me as quickly and effectively as possible." Oh Dok-seo was taken aback. "Does that mean... that the anomaly intended for me, a book possessor, to hinder and oppose you, a regressor?" "Exactly." "So, we were meant to be adversaries, not allies?" Recall the 555th cycle. When Oh Dok-seo first encountered me as a book possessor, she didn¡¯t have a good impression of me. [Oh Dok-seo: There he is, the protagonist of this world. Codename: Undertaker.] [Oh Dok-seo: The Undertaker is a protagonist who has experienced regression multiple times. He¡¯s ruthless.] She was wary of me. [Oh Dok-seo: He lives only with hatred for monsters, a typical regressor living out of pure spite.] [Oh Dok-seo: He¡¯s just a madman. He might kill me if he suspects anything. Better be cautious.] Oh Dok-seo genuinely believed I might kill her. She was prepared to betray me and strike from behind if necessary. Why? The reason was simple. "Dok-seo, the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse made ¡ºOmniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint¡» to make you wary of me." "Oh..." "To be precise, the anomaly could only hack up to the 4th cycle version of me. It judged my character based on that and influenced you ordingly." Even the anomaly couldn¡¯t predict that the murderous maniac from the 4th cycle would evolve into someone different by the 500th cycle. The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse analyzed me from the past and acted based on that. It expected conflict and distrust between the book possessor and the regressor, leading to destruction. But from the start, I disrupted the anomaly¡¯s grand n. "So, you and I bing allies was entirely unexpected for the anomaly?" "Yes. It never imagined I would so easily lower my guard around you." "Wow." "It must be quite bewildered." I chuckled. The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse was smart. If you were in the anomaly''s shoes, how would you deal with a regressor resetting the world each time he was about to lose? Q) How can you eliminate the troublesome regressor? A) Turn his life into a novel and create a book possessor. The regressor loses his advantage as the ''protagonist,'' and the book possessor, now the new protagonist, eventually wins. This was the genius strategy devised by the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse. It was clever. Using clich¨¦s to strip the regressor of his advantages. If it weren¡¯t for me, the anomaly would have seeded. The book possessor, Oh Dok-seo, looked at me with anxious eyes. "Did you always know I was chosen by the anomaly?" "To some extent." I shrugged. "I became certain when I noticed that the updates to ¡ºOmniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint¡» increased with each cycle. Such phenomena are extremely rare." "And you still didn''t kill me?" "Hmm?" "Why not just kill me every time you regressed? That would remove any potential threat I posed." "......" "Why didn¡¯t you choose the simplest solution? Even now, we¡¯ve taken the Hate Pill, making us naturally dislike each other. Aren¡¯t you worried I might betray you at a crucial moment?" Hmm. I stroked my chin, pondering how to respond before deciding on honesty. "Betrayal isn¡¯t a big deal for a regressor." "What?" "It''s fine. I''m mentally strong. I haven¡¯t told you, but every one of my allies has betrayed me at least once. Do you want to hear about the time the Saintess tried to kill me? It was pretty epic." "...? ...?" In the distance, I faintly heard the Saintess coughing. I smiled and patted Oh Dok-seo¡¯s shoulder. "Dok-seo, do as you wish." "......" "I have near-infinite opportunities. Even if you betray me ten or twenty times, I still remember the cycles where you trusted me a hundred or two hundred times. How could I forget that?" "......" "If we fail this time, we¡¯ll do better next time. I know you too well to be disappointed." For a while, Oh Dok-seo remained silent. "Okay." As the nightingale started singing again in the forest, Oh Dok-seo raised her hand to grasp mine on her shoulder. "I wish I could read these words in ¡ºOmniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint¡» too." "You will someday." "Yeah... Maybe." Oh Dok-seo smiled brightly. "It doesn¡¯t matter if the anomaly has its eyes on me. Remember this, Mister. This is a promise." Her grip on my hand tightened. "I will be the one to save you. I will definitely rescue you from this damned world." I chuckled. Kiddo, you¡¯re the 26th person to say that to me. And I gave her the same answer for the 26th time. "Alright. I trust you." "Yes!" The next day, we began our full-scale operation to bring the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse down to the surface. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 153 The Strategist V Speedrun stream, ON. [We''ve gathered almost everything we need in Japan. It''s time to return to the Korean Penins.] ¡°No way! Absolutely not! I will never, under any circumstances, drift across the sea again! Never!¡± Oh Dok-seo desperately resisted, adding ''sea'' to the phobia section of her character sheet. However, she had nothing to worry about. There was no need to rely on Hamel''s Journal again. I modified Inunaki Tunnel into the ''Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel,'' giving Oh Dok-seo afortable walking path. [Oh. Be careful. If you step just one step to the left, you''ll die with your limbs separated.] ¡°What the heck?¡± Experiencing the rare event of walking through the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel, Oh Dok-seo was quite delighted. ¡°Comfortable, my ass! One wrong step and you die instantly! ...Wait, you used this ce as a base in another cycle? Are you insane?¡±[Progress is slow. Please hurry up. Yu Ji-won rode a bike through this void.] ¡°Who the hell is that?¡± [Considering the early stage of the cycle, Oh Dok-seo''s miko aptitude has already reached an incredible level.] We lightly dismissed theints of the young and MZ-generation Oh Dok-seo. Both the Saintess and I were too old to tolerate the whims of the younger generation. [Currently, Oh Dok-seo has explored all sorts of anomalies rted to creative works. The ''Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel'' you¡¯re walking through is also a creation of imagination.] [Hamel''s Journal, Monkey''s Paw, Hate Pill, Magical Girl, Undersea Tunnel. There are no other cases of someone approaching the so-called gods of creation so quickly.] [At this rate, you¡¯ll be able to summon the status window without any issues.] ¡°Oh, really?¡± [Yes.] The Saintess confirmed on my behalf. She was still on my back, maintaining a distance of several hundred meters from Oh Dok-seo. [Especially inside this tunnel, the conditions are more favorable.] [Since the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel itself is a work of fiction, it functions as a weak shrine for the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse.] [Try calling it out as a test.] ¡°......¡± Oh Dok-seo couldn¡¯t see us from her position. In the dark, eerie tunnel that seemed haunted, she muttered. ¡°...Status window?¡± Immediately, Oh Dok-seo was startled. ¡°I-It worked! The status window appeared!¡± [Can you see the semi-transparent hologram?] ¡°Yes! I can see it clearly!¡± I clenched my fist. It worked. Normally, the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse would descend to the surface at least five yearster. But its presence was already showing. Historically, demons or gods couldn''t refuse a summon. The more they resisted, the weaker they became. With Oh Dok-seo as the ''Miko'' and ''Shrine,'' the Saintess¡¯s assistance, my strategy andmands, and the ''sacrifices'' of anomalies rted to creative works, we were getting closer to the darkest god. [Great. We¡¯ve managed to summon a portion of the ''Logout Game'' within a week of starting the speedrun.] [This anomaly is an extreme hikikomori among the gods. Simply forcing it out of hiding is a significant achievement.] [Now, let''s check Oh Dok-seo¡¯s status.] ¡°Ah, okay. I¡¯ll read it out loud!¡± Oh Dok-seo described her status window. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Status] Name: Oh Dok-seo Title: ''Miko of the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse'' ss: Prophet, RPG Character, Magical Girl, Miko, LiteraryGirl, Protagonist [Health: E] [Strength: D] [Intuition: B+] [Agility: C] [Intelligence: B] [Charm: B-] Personality Traits: [Misanthropy] [Anthropophilia] [Timid] [Passionate] [Unluck (Status Ailment)] Exclusive Skills: [Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint (EX)], [AT Field (S)] *Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint (EX): A prophetic ability to foresee events in the world. By reading a novel where the ''Undertaker'' is the protagonist, you can perceive the uing scenarios. Knowledge is power. No matter how much the world is corrupted by emptiness, for you, who knows the events in advance, it¡¯s merely an event. im the protagonist¡¯s position. *AT Field (S): A power to reject external interference. Provides an absolute barrier against all physical forces trying to impact or influence you. However, it can only be used once a day, and the barriersts for one minute. You have observed this world from an ''omniscient'' viewpoint. You are clearly a higher existence than the characters in the novel. Turn a bad ending into a happy ending, or an even more tragic bad ending. You are destined to be the protagonist of this world. May fortune be with you. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ¡°That¡¯s what it says!¡± Hmm. I listened to Oh Dok-seo¡¯s description and smiled sinisterly. Then I whispered softly so only the Saintess could hear. ¡°How disgraceful. The god must be in a hurry.¡± -Is that so? ¡°Yes. It tantly marked her as the ''Miko of the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse.'' It''s like putting a im on her, a very childish instinct.¡± -That sounds like good news for us. ¡°Indeed.¡± From the god¡¯s perspective, it must have been a shock. After all the effort to analyze and hack me, it had trained Oh Dok-seo as a champion to oppose me. Yet, here she was, working with me. It must be furious. [The status window is practically begging you to be the protagonist.] [No problem. We are already streaming the game. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s sess is our sess. The god is cornered.] [So, let¡¯s fully embrace the role of the protagonist.] Major events on the Korean Penins awaited us in sequence. First, the Great Void of Baekhwa High School. The Saintess, Oh Dok-seo, and I entered Baekhwa High School. Of course, the Saintess and I stayed back while Oh Dok-seo led the way. After many trials, the Infinite Void was finally subdued. There was almost no difference this time except¡ª ¡ªThis time, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s psychological state, which was closely connected to mine, was redirected. ¡°Dok-seo! Let¡¯s hang out this weekend!¡± Cheon Yo-hwa linked arms with Oh Dok-seo. ¡°Oh. Um, okay.¡± ¡°Hehe. A new amusement park void appeared where Lotte World used to be. Let¡¯s go there!¡± ¡°¡But it¡¯s a void. Isn¡¯t it dangerous?¡± Normally, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s mental state at Baekhwa High School was extremely unstable. Her disciples and school friends kept dying, naturally making her anxious. I positioned Oh Dok-seo in that psychological gap. Initially, Cheon Yo-hwa felt a strong aversion to Oh Dok-seo due to the Hate Pill. However, after experiencing the hunt for the god together, the initial negative impression was easily ovee. [Baekhwa High School cleared in ten days.] [Normally, Infinite Void''s domain extends time like taffy, making it extremely dangerous.] [But from another perspective, it¡¯s like the ''Room of Spirit and Time.'' We can significantly develop Oh Dok-seo here.] While ten days passed outside, several years passed inside Infinite Void''s domain. I focused on training Oh Dok-seo without attracting Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s attention. I didn¡¯t even take the lead in subduing Infinite Void; I merely swung my cane-sword to deliver the final blow. All the spotlight was on Oh Dok-seo. As a result, my rtionship with Cheon Yo-hwa remained distant. ¡°Oh, hello, security guard!¡± ¡°Yes. Hello, student council president.¡± ¡°Thank you! You too!¡± Cheon Yo-hwa probably still harbored some subtle dislike for me. She didn''t show it outwardly, but it didn¡¯t matter. The speedrun broadcast continued. [Good.] [Oh Dok-seo has made a character who should have been fond of another character her close friend. It¡¯s a very ''protagonist-like'' action.] [Everything is proceeding smoothly.] ¡°¡¡¡± Oh Dok-seo chewed her lips. I could sense she felt uneasy, but we couldn¡¯t afford to cater to every emotion in the grand task of hunting gods. Next. [Ten Legs is advancing south. At this rate, the refugees north of the Han River will be annihted.] [The remaining military forces and some awakeners have prepared for a desperate battle, but it¡¯s not enough.] [We prepared Baekhwa High School in advance for this moment. Oh Dok-seo, Cheon Yo-hwa, and the awakened of Baekhwa High School will save Seoul.] After enjoying a level-up event in Infinite Void¡¯s domain, Oh Dok-seo¡¯s party easily defeated the Ten Legs. I recorded the entire battle on video. Then I uploaded it to SG Net through Seo Gyu (whom I had left in Busan after saving him from the tutorial dungeon). -Anonymous: Who are these people? They¡¯re insanely strong; -Anonymous: Didn¡¯t the military get wiped out by the Ten Legs? How did they kill them so easily? -Officer: Although much younger than me, I sincerely respect them. Seeing proof that hope still exists in the world warms my heart. -Anonymous: What are their names? -[Samcheon] Witch Judge: Oh Dok-seo and Cheon Yo-hwa. ©¸Anonymous: Hey, call her Oh Dok-seo ''nim.'' -OldManGoryeo: Honestly, wasn''t the magical girl transformation scene pretty cringey? lmao ©¸Anonymous: You could tell Oh Dok-seo was super embarrassed after transforming lololol ©¸Anonymous: It¡¯s surreal that the hope of the Korean Penins is a magical girl and the student council president... ©¸Anonymous: I¡¯m grateful they defeated the Ten Legs, but it¡¯s still kind of awkward. In the apocalyptic era, the title of ''awakened who fought to protect refugees and won a miraculous victory'' was worth its weight in gold. Reputation was a valuable resource. Leveraging her newfound fame, Oh Dok-seo posted on SG Net. -LiteraryGirl: [Tip] How to quickly grow your awakening abilities using the ''status window.''txt -LiteraryGirl: Normally, I wouldn¡¯t share such tips, but I can¡¯t keep it to myself in this difficult apocalypse. So I¡¯m revealing it now. -LiteraryGirl: I know everyone makes fun of me for transforming into a magical girl on SG Net. -LiteraryGirl: But actually, the magical girl transformation isn¡¯t my unique ability; it¡¯s something anyone can achieve through specific steps. -LiteraryGirl: There¡¯s an organization in Japan called the Magical Girl Association, and the Great Priestess is an awakener... Awakeners were intensely interested. The person with the highest reputation on the Korean Penins was sharing valuable tips, but it wasn''t just because of her fame. Oh Dok-seo was unting overwhelming achievements, yet the underlying aversion caused by the Hate Pill lingered. People subtly thought, ¡°Is she really that amazing?¡± and attributed her sess to some hidden cheat. When Oh Dok-seo revealed her ''secret know-how,'' the awakeners were quick to take the bait, mistaking it for her secret to sess. I immediately invited the Great Priestess from the Magical Girl Association via Inunaki Tunnel. ¡°Could it be? Are there really this many Koreans interested in joining our cooperative?¡± The Great Priestess''s eyes widened at the sight of the crowded group of awakeners in Haeundae. ¡°Truly, beauty knows no borders. To think ourrades were so numerous abroad! Indeed, magical girls are beautiful, and beauty is justice! I was not wrong!¡± ¡°Hey, what is that person with the fox tail shouting about?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. It''s Japanese, but her ent is so thick I can¡¯t understand...¡± ¡°That¡¯s not just an ent; it sounds like ancientnguage.¡± Moved, the Great Priestess established the ''Korean Branch of the Magical Girl Association'' and appointed Oh Dok-seo as the branch head. She also contracted hundreds of Koreans as magical girls on the spot. However, the truth was that Korean awakeners weren''t drawn by the beauty of magical girls. In Korea, known for its performance-oriented culture, the rumor that the magical girl ss was overpowered led people to eagerly press the transfer button. -LiteraryGirl: And one more thing to keep in mind when making a magical girl contract. Oh Dok-seo delivered a final blow to the performance-oriented yers. -LiteraryGirl: You need to decide which guardian deity you will serve. -LiteraryGirl: Technically, a pet or even a nt can be a guardian deity, but the stronger the deity, the more powerful the magical girl bes. -LiteraryGirl: I rmend a god called the Admin of the Infinite Metaverse. -LiteraryGirl: I guarantee 100% that contracting with this god will let you see the status window immediately, understand your abilities, and efficiently grow your awakening powers. That day, four hundred awakeners formed contracts with the god, who had never shown itself, as their guardian deity. In the end¡ª [The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse responds to the users'' call.] The god¡¯s notification echoed in everyone''s minds. [The Admin of the Infinite Metaverse officially opens the game.] On the 30th day of the speedrun, we seeded in dragging the reclusive god out of hiding into the open world. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 154 The Strategist VI The Admin of the Infinite Metagame had sent a notification, but it had not fully revealed itself yet. Ifpared to a hikikomori, the current state was just a ''slightly open door.'' We needed a final push to drag this extreme recluse into the dazzling light of the outside world. First, I essed SG Net to check the current situation. -Anonymous: Did the status window pop up?? As nned, a festival was in full swing in themunity. -Anonymous: I thought my ability was fire-starting, but after seeing the status window, it turns out it¡¯s a congration. I¡¯ve been a lousy awakener who didn¡¯t even know my own ability¡ ©¸OldManGoryeo: What¡¯s the difference between fire-starting and congration? Aren¡¯t both just fire? ©¸Anonymous: Fire-starting only ignites physical objects, but congration can set the entiremunity aze¡ ©¸OldManGoryeo: ?©¸Anonymous: The bigger the congration, the stronger my ability bes. I¡¯ll show you directly soon¡ -Anonymous: Now that I can see the status window, life feels worth living. -Anonymous: Wow, Oh Dok-seo was hogging this good thing all to herself hahaha -CookingQueen: Interesting. -Officer: Just out of curiosity, all the people who posted proofs of bing magical girls were female, right? ©¸Anonymous: lmao ©¸Officer: ? ©¸Anonymous: You¡¯ll find out if you go lmao I nodded. Among awakeners, the ''status window'' was spreading like a trend. Initially, normal people had an instinctive aversion to the mysterious Magical Girl Association, but once five-star reviews started pouring in like ''this ce is a must-visit,'' opinions changed. If the strategy continued smoothly, we would soon drag the hikikomori god out of hiding. ¡°By the way,¡± I asked the Saintess just in case, ¡°are there any awakeners with useful abilities among those with the status window?¡± [I''m continually monitoring, but nothing notable so far.] The Saintess, responsible for monitoring, answered calmly. [We haven¡¯t found anyone with teleportation abilities as you inquiredst time.] [There were a few with ''lightness'' or ''movement'' abilities, but none as advanced as teleportation.] ¡°Hmm.¡± As expected. Even after numerous searches until the 593rd cycle, I had never found a teleporter who could save Old Man Scho¡¯s wife. If such a person still hadn¡¯t appeared, it was likely they didn¡¯t exist. They might be somewhere on the other side of the Earth, but the distance made it meaningless. I tucked away the old disappointment in my heart and turned to Oh Dok-seo. ¡°How is it, Dok-seo?¡± ¡°...¡¡± ¡°Do you feel connected to the hikikomori god?¡± Oh Dok-seo sat in a meditative posture. For the modern otaku Oh Dok-seo, this was a challenging position. ¡°Ugh¡ It feels like I do, but also like I don¡¯t¡¡± Oh Dok-seo grimaced and trembled. While the Saintess and I worked behind the scenes, Oh Dok-seo¡¯s role was to approach the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. ¡°Focus more. The hikikomori god has already extended its influence to you. You just haven''t noticed it.¡± ¡°But, Mister. Can I change my posture? My legs are killing me. I¡¯d rather kneel. I swear, my legs feel like they¡¯re about to break. Seriously¡¡± ¡°No. The lotus position is known for achieving enlightenment. It¡¯s the best posture for connecting with the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.¡± ¡°Ugh, it hurts¡ It really fucking hurts¡¡± Despite her difort, she couldn''t change her posture. Three hourster, forced to meditate in the lotus position, Oh Dok-seo went berserk. ¡°Damn it, how am I supposed to focus in this painful position? Crazy old man! I can¡¯t feel anything except my legs and hips breaking!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t sense the god¡¯s presence with all its malevolence inside you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just more pain! Pain! I can¡¯t concentrate with my legs feeling like they¡¯re going to snap no matter how many times I say it!¡± ¡°Sigh. I see.¡± These young people these days. She couldn¡¯t do it, so we had to change the surroundings instead. [Now constructing a shrine to summon the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame.''] I kidnapped three hundred writers to open the ''Canned Hotel.'' With the help of tutorial fairies, it only took two days. The writers cheered with joy when suddenly invited to a luxury hotel. ¡°Save us!¡± ¡°All you need to do is write. Oh, and when you start a new story, make sure a god appears in the beginning. Name it the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame.''¡± ¡°Get us out of here!¡± ¡°Well then, good luck, writers.¡± A worker devoted to their job is a happy worker. Under my guidance, the writers were reborn as happy workers. A weekter, after pressuring the writers to produce serialized stories, anomalies began to appear around the hotel. - Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! They were Isekai Trucks. Each one was an anomaly associated with creative works, directly affiliated with the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. The area, now packed with hundreds of writers and Isekai Trucks, was transforming into a suitable shrine for the hikikomori god. But that wasn¡¯t all. ¡°You all, dance around Dok-seo.¡± ¡°Yes, Secretary-General! We obey!¡± The tutorial fairies, highly creative beings, formed arge circle around Oh Dok-seo, holding hands and singing. ¡°The history of all hitherto existing society-?¡± ¡°Is the history of ss struggles-?¡± ¡°Freeman and ve, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf-?¡± ¡°Workers of the world, unite-?¡± With her eyes closed, trying to concentrate on meditating, Oh Dok-seo grimaced. That wasn¡¯t all. I altered the terrain behind the Canned Hotel to create a waterfall. It took some effort to channel the water, but for a regressor in the 593rd cycle, it was just a half-day¡¯sbor. - Gush! Gush! Gush! Gush! Cold water poured over Oh Dok-seo¡¯s head. Had she not trained with me in the ''Room of Spirit and Time,'' her spine would have been seriously damaged. But that wasn¡¯t all. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame announces a surprise event.] [In the newly opened hotel garden, offer prayers praising the ''Admin of the Infinite Metagame!''] [The top 200 most devoted believers will receive a triple rare item drop rate for a year!] The messages weren¡¯t sent by the hikikomori god. The Saintess impersonated the god and sent the messages via telepathy. Naturally, the awakeners couldn¡¯t distinguish between the real and fake messages. ¡°Ah, don¡¯t push! Don¡¯t push!¡± Soon, the Canned Hotel was buzzing with magical girls gathering to grab the event rewards. ¡°Why is there a waterfall in the garden?¡± ¡°Look, it¡¯s Oh Dok-seo! She¡¯s meditating under the waterfall!¡± ¡°Wow. She¡¯s really hardcore. As soon as the event notice came out, she grabbed the best spot.¡± ¡°I guess you have to be that tough to be the top awakener in Korea¡¡± ¡°Sure, it¡¯s impressive she defeated the Ten Legs, but it¡¯s a bit much. Shecks human touch, doesn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°The fairies are dancing weirdly¡¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got a good feeling about this. This is definitely a huge event.¡± ¡°Admin of the Infinite Metagame! My faith in you is the deepest!¡± About five hundred magical girls crammed into the garden. They thought Oh Dok-seo¡¯s meditation posture held some secret, so they all mimicked her. Some magical girls even joined her under the waterfall, chanting the god¡¯s name. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s face grew increasingly sullen. I nodded. ¡°Perfect.¡± It was a scene designed to draw out the hikikomori god. [The shrine is nowplete.] Here¡¯s a simpleyout: In the center was Oh Dok-seo, meditating in the lotus position. Above her, the ''Waterfall of Enlightenment'' poured down. Around her, five hundred magical girls chanted prayers. Encircling them, hundreds of fairies danced revolutionary folk dances. Further out, three hundred writers engaged in intense creative activities. Beyond the horizon, hundreds and thousands of Isekai Trucks kept respawning. To describe the 4D sound effects bombarding Oh Dok-seo¡¯s ears in literary realism: - Gush! Gush! Gush! Gush! ¡°Admin of the Infinite Metagame! Please look at me!¡± ¡°The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains-?¡± - Beep! Beep! Beep! ¡°They have a world to win-?¡± ¡°Admin of the Infinite Metagame!¡± - Gush! Beep! Beep! Had any artist ever depicted such an inspiring scene? This was no ordinary shrine. It was perfect for summoning the mocking hikikomori god. But that wasn¡¯t all. While the festival of pagans continued at the Canned Hotel, I quietly visited Namsan to use ''Chekhov¡¯s Gun.'' I packed the Walther PPK pistol in my coat and pulled my hat down low. [Mr. Undertaker, your head¡] ¡°There is no problem with my head.¡± [¡Okay.] What is life? Life is pain. The falling waterfall, the fairies chanting revolution, the Isekai Trucks forced to work overtime, the magical girls praying to the hikikomori god, and, of course, me, the Undertaker, who willingly shaved his head to kill anomalies, were all engulfed in pain. Only the hikikomori god remained free from this reality¡¯s torment. I couldn¡¯t contain my anger. To make this god taste life¡¯s bitterness, I made a broadcast announcement. [Now, I¡¯ve gathered almost all the creative work elements avable.] [Even if Oh Dok-seo meditates clumsily, she will inevitably feel connected to the hikikomori god.] [If this isn¡¯t enough, I¡¯ll gather creative elements from the Korean Penins and even the Japanese archipgo. It¡¯s tough, but not that difficult. We could just catch Godzi from the Pacific and bring it here.] [Let¡¯s see if Oh Dok-seo seeds or fails in this meditation.] Oh Dok-seo desperately meditated. Whether it was the waterfall or cold sweat, liquid continuously flowed down her face. With my S-ss hearing, I clearly heard Oh Dok-seo¡¯s constant muttering. ¡°Damn, please, please, show up. Please, let me feel it. Hikikomori god or whatever, just appear. Please¡¡± And then. Her earnest prayer reached the universe. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame descends.] Light spread above Oh Dok-seo¡¯s head. From that light, a small ''blue butterfly'' fluttered down. It was the same butterfly that briefly appeared when the world was destroyed by the server shutdown. This was the true form of the hikikomori god. ¡®It¡¯s here.¡¯ My mind instantly cooled. The blue butterfly fluttered leisurely, indifferent to my presence. With every p of its wings, the surrounding area was contaminated with noisy colors. 8-bit, 16-bit, 2-bit. Countless resolutions alternated, each flickering with static. The hikikomori god itself tainted the surroundings with emptiness. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame has been closely observing some cases where yers used near-exploitative methods in recent games.] [The event known as the ''Drop Item Rate Boost Event'' has never been nned and will not be offered in the future.] [We apologize for not providing correct information sooner.] The magical girls murmured at the god¡¯s words. ¡°What? What does that mean?¡± ¡°It was wrong information?¡± Indeed. Using the Saintess¡¯s telepathy to impersonate the hikikomori god was a double-edged sword, a strategy usable only once. If the yers realized the announcement was fake, they wouldn¡¯t trust any future telepathic messages. Hence, this was the best opportunity. ¡®Admin of the Infinite Metagame.¡¯ I red at the butterfly in the sky. This anomaly had only shown itself after creating such chaos. Its appearance rate was akin to a legendary Pok¨¦mon. I had to catch it here and now. Of course, I wasn¡¯t a Pok¨¦mon trainer. I didn¡¯t have a Master Ball to catch it in one shot. Instead. ¡°¡ªYo-hwa!¡± Oh Dok-seo shouted Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s name. Soaked from the waterfall, Oh Dok-seo tried to stand up but copsed due to leg cramps. Even as she fell, she screamed. ¡°Sis! Now! Now!¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Ignoring the soaked and screaming Oh Dok-seo, Cheon Yo-hwa swiftly approached like the wind. Without any dramatic lines or poses, she simply took out an hourss and smashed it on the ground. Crash! The hourss shattered, releasing uncontroble darkness, spreading like ink. The entity contained within the hourss was Infinite Void. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 155 The Strategist VII It was inevitable that a nuclear bomb could only be countered by another nuclear bomb. And the nations armed with nuclear weapons kept their own in check. Nuclear war appeared only in fictional apocalyptic scenarios, where the world had already ended. The same held true for the Outer Gods. It was extremely rare for anomalies of Outer God-ss to collide directly with each other. After all, unless someone was a lover of deste tragedies, there was no reason to jump into a fate of mutual destruction. - Kya ha ha ha ha ha However, this world was indeed an apocalyptic world where the world had ended, and this ce was the temple of the Outer God who dominated all creative works. Thus, the Infinite Void descended. Outer God against Outer God. It became a guillotine match among nuclear-armed nations. - Kya ha ha ha ha ha ha Each time Cheon Yo-hwa''s lips moved, a chillingugh echoed from all around. The low-quality noise world spread by the Admin of the Infinite Metagame was being devoured back by the Infinite Void, released from the Time Seal of the hourss. The two Outer Gods began to sh for dominance over the world.[The Admin of the Infinite Metagame announces that a critical bug has been discovered in this server.] The Admin seemed flustered by the unexpected situation. It was as if a rivalpany''s CEO had taken the mic at a casual user meeting and dered, ¡°Yourpany¡¯s game is doomed for these reasons.¡± Such behaviorcked any business ethics. p, p. The Admin''s true form, a blue butterfly, fluttered desperately. It flew around, quickly realizing that hundreds of magical girls loyal to it were present here. ¡°What, what is this? What''s going on...?¡± ¡°Isn''t the event starting already?¡± The magical girls were confused. To them, it was as if chaos had suddenly erupted. The blue butterfly decided to use them. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame deres the monsters summoned here as targets to be exterminated.] [The boss monster¡¯s name is Infinite Void, an enemy that descended by taking over the body of Baekhwa Girls'' High School''s student council president, Cheon Yo-hwa.] [The Infinite Void aims to destroy the world. Stop the Infinite Void.] [A huge reward will be given to the users who seed in subjugating this boss monster.] [Temporary buffs are provided to characters participating in the raid.] Whoosh¡ª The light spread from the blue butterfly and enveloped the magical girls. It was an easily recognizable buff effect. The magical girls shouted. ¡°See, I told you! It''s an event!¡± ¡°That''s the monster over there!¡± With the game admin clearly identifying it as a monster, the magical girls'' confusion noticeably decreased. ¡°Attack! Everyone, attack!¡± ¡°But, it''s Cheon Yo-hwa¨D¨D¡± ¡°Idiot! The monster took over her body!¡± Roar. Some of the magical girls formed a formation, while others rushed chaotically towards Cheon Yo-hwa. They were a ragtag group, but they were still awakeners buffed by an Outer God. They enjoyed a level-up effect iparable to before. Despite hundreds of such humans rushing in waves, Cheon Yo-hwa''s lips merely curved into a rxed smile. ¡°Ahah.¡± -Ah hah. The mocking sound flowed from Cheon Yo-hwa''s lips and the Infinite Void¡¯s realm simultaneously. Click. Cheon Yo-hwa lightly clicked her tongue. Click, click, click. The same sound was endlessly reflected in the surroundings already stained by the Infinite Void¡¯s realm. ¡°Ugh?¡± ¡°What?¡± Thud, thud. The magical girls who heard the tongue-click fell one by one, starting from the front. Some even fell headlong with the momentum of their rush. One of the Infinite Void''s powers, ''Showing a Dream of a Happy Future,'' effortlessly ensnared the magical girls. Not only humans but also the Tutorial Fairies were the same. ¡°Ugh¡ª¡± ¡°This, this sinister aura belongs to the Fairy King?¡± ¡°It''s irresistible¡¡.¡± ¡°Ugh, who could have guessed that a hero who decapitated the king would be immediately followed by a tyrant, the greatest war hero?¡± ¡°Revolution is a series of absurdities¡¡.¡± Thud, thud. The Fairies¡¯ eyes rolled back as they powerlessly crashed to the ground. The ''Tutorial Fairy'' also had the attribute of a creative work. They were more akin to anomalies closer to the Infinite Metagame. It was better to retire them here before entering the real battle. The awakeners and fairies lying on the ground did not rise again. With one counterattack, the group of magical girls and fairies was instantly neutralized. ¡®Seeing it up close, it looks like this.¡¯ A happy dream. I had only experienced that power directly, but it was rare to observe it live from the side of the Infinite Void. I walked leisurely to Cheon Yo-hwa''s side. ¡°Are you alright? If an Outer God devours your mind, it''s all over. Yo-hwa, you must keep holding the reins.¡± ¡°Ahaha. I''m still holding on, ahjussi.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa looked up at me at an oblique angle. ¡°Or should I call you, sunbae?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Just kidding! But my mind and the Outer God''s mind are mixing rapidly. Um, it feels like barely keeping my eyes open while drowning in ink. Anyway, we should finish this as soon as possible.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the n.¡± Oh Dok-seo staggered towards us. ¡°Ugh. I seeded, right¡?¡± ¡°For now. You can say we''ve cleared the most crucial first stage. Good job, Dok-seo.¡± ¡°I really thought I was going to die sitting in that meditation posture¡.¡± In the hotel''s back garden, the only ones standing with both feet firmly on the ground were now Cheon Yo-hwa, me, and Oh Dok-seo. The Saintess was waiting inside the hotel with the writers. Other awakeners were unnecessary. Now that we had achieved the goal of summoning the Admin of the Infinite Metagame into reality, we had no further business with the magical girls. Flutter. The blue butterfly looked down at us. Around the butterfly, the low-quality noise of the Infinite Metagame and the colors of the Infinite Void continued to sh alternately. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame determines the current anomaly as a malicious hacking attack.] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame antagonizes the malicious users who cause extreme harm to the game server''s operation.] It treated us as mere viruses. That was the strategy chosen by the Outer God. As everyone knew, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame defined this world as a game and itself as the administrator. The administrator naturally had overwhelming authority over the users. However, it couldn''t directly interfere with users operating ordinary ounts. That would be beyond the administrator¡¯s role. Thus, although it had watched us secretly operating to subdue the Infinite Metagame, it hadn''t been able to impose significant sanctions. But if it defined us as entities disturbing the game environment in an ''unfair manner,'' the story changed. It could wield its administrative hammer without restraint. The Infinite Void was akin to a virus shaking the game to its core. To counter this, the Infinite Metagame had to muster all its original power. [The final boss of the stage has finally appeared. It has been exactly 40 days, 11 hours, and 36 minutes since the speedrun began.] In response, our party also defined the current situation in our own way. We might be malicious users? Perhaps. But in a ¡®speedrun,¡¯ exploiting the game''s loopholes and bugs was fair y. This was entirely legitimate gamey. [If we can defeat that blue butterfly, our speedrun will be a sess.] The Saintess''s broadcast was suppressed as the Admin continued to generate noise. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame points out that the Infinite Void was originally a designated boss monster. Sealing and summoning the monster into a neutral area to release it is an act that causes serious harm to other yers.] [The Outer God continues to mutter something. It¡¯s a desperate struggle. Let''s ignore it.] Human voices and the voices of Outer Gods alternated in our minds. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame ims it does not harm humans significantly. Rather, its game server offers rapid growth to humans.] [Ah, now it¡¯s trying to negotiate. This is a new pattern, but Outer Gods generally avoid directbat unless it''s truly decisive. They can devour the world by just being still.] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame offers valuable items to the characters ''Oh Dok-seo'' and ''Cheon Yo-hwa''.] [Of course, we press the refuse button here.] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame informs that a few people cannot overwhelm it.] I looked at Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡°Yo-hwa, release it.¡± ¡°Yes, sunbae!¡± Rattle. Cheon Yo-hwa eagerly opened the trunk she had prepared. Inside the bag, constructed with subspace, were 99 hourss ss bottles. ¡°Baekhwa Girls'' High School! Gather around!¡± ng! Cheon Yo-hwa overturned the trunk and shattered all the ss bottles with her aura. Ny-nine ghosts were released. If the ''human Cheon Yo-hwa'' was the student council president of Baekhwa Girls'' High School, the ''Outer God Cheon Yo-hwa'' was the student council president of Baekhwa (°ÙÔ’ - Hundred Tales) Girls'' High School. At the leader''s call, the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, Hyakki Yagyo appeared. - Hee, hee, hee, hee. - Do you want red toilet paper? Or blue toilet paper? - Koong... koong... koong...... Ghosts of the underworld, Hanako ghosts, Kongkong ghosts, school broadcast ghosts, etc. Their visuals were somewhat bizarre, but this was also an ''assemble.'' The tide of battle quickly turned. [¡¡.] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame concludes that further negotiation is pointless.] [Eliminate them.] And so, for the first time in 593 cycles, I finally witnessed thebat power of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame fully unleashed. How would it attack? As I prepared myself, the inorganic voice of the Outer God seeped into my mind. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame points out that the Infinite Void was originally an enemy butter became an ally.] [It activates the clich¨¦ of ''an enemy who was strong bes weak as soon as they join the ally¡¯s side''.] ¡°What?¡± Bzzzzzt¡ª! The moment the Outer God finished speaking, the low-quality noise domain expanded to the horizon. It happened in a sh. Just a second ago, the Infinite Void''s vivid realm was fighting back, but the Infinite Metagame''s realm engulfed the world without hesitation. Under the sky covered with noise in an instant, the ghosts of Baekhwa Girls'' High School began to distort. Bzzzt Bzzzt¡ª The ghosts, which had manifested in reality, had their visual quality increasingly deteriorate. From AAA game graphics to VR game graphics, to 32-bit, to 16-bit. ¡°Eh. Huh? Uh, sunbae, what do we do¡?¡± Cheon Yo-hwa panicked beside me. For some reason, Cheon Yo-hwa''s face suddenly reminded me strongly of ''Vegeta.'' ¡°Uh, I suddenly feel very weak¡¡?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Indeed. At that moment, I realized what the true power of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame was. Clich¨¦ maniption. The ability to bring out any clich¨¦ from creative works at will. The power to manipte ''the world itself'' using those clich¨¦s. That was the power of the Outer God. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 156 The Strategist VIII "Wait! Hold on, Mister!" Oh Dok-seo screamed. "If this keeps up, all our Outer God-ss forces will be ordinary! Aren''t we screwed?" "Hmm." Witnessing the same clich¨¦, I thought of ''Vegeta,'' while Oh Dok-seo thought of ''ordinary.'' A good example of how otaku perceptions change over generations. Unfortunately, it wasn''t the right time to discuss the ''images and symbols'' of subculture. In real-time, the students of Baekhwa Girls'' High School (Night ss) were getting trounced by the Infinite Metagame. - Hik, hik, hik, hik! - Do you want purple toilet paper? Do you want purple toilet paper?- Koong¡ Koong¡¡ In the 16-bit low-resolution realm unfolded by the Infinite Metagame, darkly dotted NPCs respawned and attacked the ghosts of Baekhwa Girls'' High School. They were ''Necromancer'' NPCs. d in gloomy robes, wielding bizarrely twisted staffs, and adorned with delicate candle decorations that were too weak to serve as proper lighting. Their very existence screamed "outcast," a vibe that even 16-bit graphics couldn''t hide. - Hehe, the world is full of specters. - I shall capture and use them! - Kongkong ghost? I''ll hang it on the grandfather clock as an rm sound. The sound of a head smashing is delightful. The ghosts were in utter panic. Although recent MZ generation necromancers were known to attend academies, date, and spendvishly as diamond-spoon heirs, in the RPG world, the perception of necromancers was still at the lowest tier, alongside thieves. Despite this, the ghosts of Baekhwa Girls'' High School were a close-knit, lively group. They were utterly powerless against the necromancer NPCs'' vengeful ck magic. "You bastards!" Cheon Yo-hwa, an awakener who once imed to be the original necromancer of the Korean Penins, was furious. "Stop bullying my friends!" Wham! Cheon Yo-hwa dashed forward at full speed and kicked a necromancer''s head. In the battlefield where both NPCs and ghosts had devolved to 16-bit, Cheon Yo-hwa alone unted high-definition realistic graphics. Despite being in a human body, and even under the ''weakened former enemy'' clich¨¦ debuff, Cheon Yo-hwa was still Cheon Yo-hwa. Red aura flew in all directions, and the 16-bit blood of NPCs scattered. Cheon Yo-hwa quickly decimated the group of necromancers. - D-Demon King! "Huh?" - The Demon King has appeared! As the necromancers shouted, a blue wing pped in the sky. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame points out that the Infinite Void is ughtering humans on behalf of monsters.] [Activates the ''Demon King''s Appearance'' clich¨¦, along with the ''Humanity''s Alliance to Subdue the Demon King'' clich¨¦.] Bzzzzt! New NPCs appeared in the Infinite Metagame''s realm. Despite the downgraded graphics, their unique characteristics were unmistakably clear. They were ''Priest'' and ''Saintess'' NPCs. - Behold the despicable acts of the Demon King! - Necromancers have strayed from the path of righteousness, but they are still human. They cannot bepared to monsters inherently inhuman. - O God! Help us! Following the ck magic necromancers, white magic priests simultaneouslyunched long-range holy spells at Cheon Yo-hwa. Cheon Yo-hwa screamed. ¡°Hikyaaaah!¡± She had every right to scream. The parts hit by the holy spells devolved from realistic graphics to 16-bit graphics. Cheon Yo-hwa''s right arm and left leg were buzzing, their resolution dropping. Even the core of the Infinite Void was starting to be corrupted by the Infinite Metagame. "Sunbae! Sunbaaeeee!" Cheon Yo-hwa called out desperately for my help while dodging the long-range attacks. The holy magic''s attribute was a terrible match. Wasn''t Cheon Yo-hwa aligned with ck magic? She was being chased by hundreds, no, thousands of respawned priest NPCs. Beside me, Oh Dok-seo watched the surreal chase and said nervously. "Shouldn''t we help her, Mister?" "Well, if I step in, I could easily sweep away the NPCs. But the main enemy in this subjugation battle is the Infinite Metagame. If I get caught up in that bastard¡¯s y and hit by a ''clich¨¦,'' it''ll put us at a disadvantage." "Oh." "It''s better for me to stay on standby to deliver the final blow. Dok-seo, rather than getting entangled in the enemy¡¯s tactics, we should exploit their weakness. Is there a clich¨¦ we can im in this situation?" You''re an otaku, aren''t you? Oh Dok-seo understood my implication instantly. She groaned. "Uh. Wait a minute, a clich¨¦... So, right now, the Outer God has formed an alliance to subdue the Demon King and monsters..." At that moment, Oh Dok-seo''s eyes sparkled. "...Ah! Ah! That, that one! That one!" "That one?" "The story where monsters were just minding their own business, but evil humans attacked first, killing them for fun and making them ves! The ''humans are the real viins'' clich¨¦! There are tons of novels andics with this theme!" Oh Dok-seo ran out like Archimedes shouting Eureka. Ahead, the Hanako ghost, half-dead from a necromancer''s attack,y on the ground. The sight of red, blue, and purple toilet paper scattered around was striking. Press. Oh Dok-seo knelt down and hugged the Hanako ghost''s shoulder. - Purple toilet paper? The Hanako ghost looked bewildered, while Oh Dok-seo put on a face full of pent-up sorrow. Then she shouted, in a voice full of injustice. "Why...!" - Purple toilet paper? "Why do humans oppress us like this...!" There was a pause. The blue butterfly, taken aback by Oh Dok-seo¡¯s fervent cry, paused its movement. It wasn''t just the butterfly. The thousands of priests and saintesses who were joyfully chasing Cheon Yo-hwa also turned their heads in unison. With all eyes on him, Oh Dok-seo continued her performance without hesitation or shame. "Hanako just wanted to give toilet paper to people in the bathroom¡!" - Purple toilet paper? "The Kongkong ghost only moves with its head instead of its legs! Humans, just because we''re different, they abuse, despise, and torment us so much! Curse them! Curse the humans...!" Even the ghosts of Baekhwa Girls'' High School, who were half-subdued, and Cheon Yo-hwa, who was panting after the brief respite from the chase, had peculiar expressions. Were we really that good-natured? However, in creative works, real-world history wasn''t that important. If realism mattered, King Arthur would have been a man. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame epts the apostle¡¯s im.] And this was the loophole of the anomaly. I wanted to apud. ''Well done, Dok-seo! That''s it!'' Anomalies couldn¡¯t reject their essence. Especially not the apostle, who the Infinite Metagame had appointed as its champion. If the apostle prayed loudly, the god had to listen. Refusing would damage the Infinite Metagame itself. At least, the apostle could exploit the power of the Outer God. This was why the apostle had to be recruited as an ally in the operation to subdue the Outer God. [The clich¨¦ ''Humans were the real viins'' has been activated.] Then, the real chaos began. - Would you like some purple toilet paper? - I actually wanted to walk with my legs, not my head. Suddenly, the faces of the ghosts became more ''human.'' Their noses straightened, lips aligned, and, most importantly, their eyes sparkled with focus. Just like in stories where goblins resemble humans when they be protagonists! The ghosts''nguage abilities also evolved suddenly. Their faces gained realism. This was the miracle of the inhuman genre. "Why are the temple priestsing to aid necromancers who tried to capture ghosts and got defeated in turn!" The anomaly''s apostle, Oh Dok-seo, who performed the miracle, pointed to the sky. "Moreover, not just a few, but thousands of priests have united at once! This means the necromancers and the temple secretly had connections! It makes sense!" Incredible. I pped for real this time. How to handle this? Is our Dok-seo a genius? - Connection? What does that mean? - It seems to imply some sort of rtionship. - Our temple was secretly connected with necromancers? Murmurs. The 16-bit NPCs started to panic. Even amidst this, they maintained the detail of not understanding the word ''connection,'' staying true to the fantasy world. Oh Dok-seo shouted. "Monsters were always unhappy! They were always unfairly mistreated! We were not bad!" Strictly speaking, the only ones who were unhappy were those of us who took the ''Hate Pill'': Oh Dok-seo, me, and the Saintess. But indeed, misfortune had piled on our side. I hadn''t described it due to myck of interest in deste stories, but in this cycle, while subduing the Infinite Void in the ''Room of Spirit and Time,'' we faced considerable misfortune. Oh Dok-seo delivered the final blow. "The high priests of the temple were the masterminds behind the necromancers! When necromancers captured spirits, the high priests took credit for it, and in return, they gave the necromancers various privileges!" - Is that true, priest? - Nonsense! That can''t be true! "It can''t be true? In stories, there''s a 99% chance that high priests are corrupt! I bet at least one cardinal is possessed by a demon!" - What? - How could that be...? [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame epts the apostle¡¯s im.] [The clich¨¦s ''Corruption of High Priests,'' ''The Dark Secret Behind the Temple¡¯s Leadership,'' and ''Demon Summoning by Priests¡¯ have been activated.] - How did she know? Hehe. Now that we¡¯re exposed, we¡¯ll offer you all as sacrifices! - Kyaaaah! The cardinal has gone mad! Tens of thousands of NPCs (the number had increased again) started fighting amongst themselves. The hotel''s back garden had long been turned into a battlefield. A religious war had erupted in the dead of night. Then. "...Oh. I''m getting stronger again." Cheon Yo-hwa''s right arm and left leg were restored to normal. "Take this." - Aaaagh! The Demon King has revived! Without hesitation, Cheon Yo-hwa turned around and smashed the priests'' heads again. Seeing her selectively target ''somewhat sinister-looking'' corrupt priests, Cheon Yo-hwa seemed to have grasped the situation roughly. The Infinite Metagame was once again cornered. It had few options left. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame points out that although there may be faults on the human side, monsters also have many ws.] [Monsters have also ughtered countless lives.] [The clich¨¦ ''There are no good or bad sides, only power struggles'' has been activated.] Now it was rtivism! This was a ssic escape route in works dealing with good and evil. By adopting a rtivistic view, all disputes were dismissed, ensuring victory in every debate. The situation reached a stalemate again. The Infinite Metagame was likely looking for a chance to flee, suggesting a draw. But we couldn''t let the devious Outer God that manipted clich¨¦s from behind escape. ''Saintess.'' I moved my lips. The Saintess, who must have been observing the battle while stopping time asionally, decoded my silent message. The message was ryed from me to the Saintess, then from the Saintess to Oh Dok-seo. Reading my intent, Oh Dok-seo shouted immediately. "Monsters kill lives, and humans kill lives! No matter which race ornd, the world is full of tragedy!" Thus, it was effectively a statement from me, the Saintess, and Oh Dok-seo simultaneously. "If the world is just tragedy and life is only suffering, then, I ask, what kind of existence is a ''god'' in such a world!" There was a pause. The tens of thousands of NPCs, the ghosts who were fighting valiantly but being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, all stopped. The 16-bit anomalies that mimicked human expressions, thus emphasizing the uncanny valley, all paused. Oh Dok-seo, bearing the inorganic gazes of tens of thousands of eyes, swallowed and pointed to the sky. "If the world is evil, doesn''t that mean the god who allowed such evil is at fault?" Exactly. The Infinite Metagame had made a mistake. In reality, rtivism might work to some extent. But what if a ''god'' clearly existed? Especially if that god openly dered, ''The world is inherently evil, and only power struggles are legitimate.'' "Why should we serve such a god as our deity?" The Infinite Metagame might have thought it had made the best move, but it had actually made the worst blunder. "We have no reason to endlessly kill and be killed! The true enemy to be subdued is the god who imposed this hell upon us! Our only enemy is the Evil God!" Following Oh Dok-seo''s vehement deration, all humans and anomalies looked up to the sky in unison. There, the blue butterfly hovered. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagam epts the apostle¡¯s im.] [The clich¨¦ ''The true final boss was the god'' has been activated.] Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 157 The Strategist IX The Admin of the Infinite Metagame changed its appearance. From a charming blue butterfly beloved by all, it morphed into a form shrouded in TV noise. It was likely bing something terrifying. This scene, where the Outer God finally proimed, "Yes, I am Kira," and revealed itself as the final boss, did not scare me at all. After all, even in Death Note, the ultimate viin switched professions from god to vocaloid after making that deration. It would have been strange to feel fear. Calmly, I drew my gun. A Walther PPK pistol, the God yer. It was a special relic I had acquired from Namsan specifically for this battle. Feeling its cold touch, I recalled a conversation I had with the Saintess 33 days ago. Yes, reflecting on the past before delivering the final blow was also a timeless clich¨¦. Countless creative works have proven a significant corrtion between a character¡¯s recollections and their attack power. Hence, the shback scene, start. ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± The Saintess whispered. ¡°By the way, why must we take the format of a ¡®speedrun stream¡¯? Can¡¯t it just be a normal stream?¡± It was a dark night. It was the very night when Oh Dok-seo had dered, ¡°I will save you, Mister!¡± She had confidently umted another dark history, then had fallen into a deep, oblivious sleep. In contrast, the Saintess and I needed hardly any sleep. The Saintess could simply click the [Time Stop] button and sleep as much as she wanted, while my training was advanced enough that just a brief rest was sufficient.Even as the apocalypse unfolded, forcing all humanity into a strict routine of early to bed and early to rise, only the two of us continued to enjoy the indulgentte-night lifestyle of bad adults. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s literally a matter of time.¡± ¡°Time?¡± ¡°Yes. The Outer God, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame, waits for more humans to worship it as a god.¡± Snore¡ª On the bed, Oh Dok-seo was snoring loudly, spreading noise throughout the world. ¡°People imagine gods in their own ways. A benevolent god, a fearful god, an omniscient god... The more diverse these images be, the more forms the Admin of the Infinite Metagame can take.¡± ¡°Take different forms?¡± ¡°Yes. The images of gods that have appeared in humanity¡¯s creative works are truly countless. the Admin of the Infinite Metagame can choose any one of them as it pleases.¡± The Admin of the Infinite Metagame could transform into anything. It could be Cthulhu and create a horror scene or turn into an extremely kind god to draw voluntary submission from people. ¡°I specte that its power lies in determining the genre of this world.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°If, by any chance, the genre of the world gets fixed as a tragic story, it would be disastrous. Before the Admin of the Infinite Metagame selects a genre, we must first impose a specific genre on the Outer God.¡± ¡°A specific genre? Like what¡?¡± ¡°Comedy.¡± I took a sip of caf¨¦ auit. ¡°Perhaps you noticed when we crossed the sea in Hamel''s Journal. I have been intentionally making the situationical to avoid falling into a tragic genre.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°If we can define this cycle¡¯s genre as edy,'' at least in the beginning, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame will never be able to descend in a terrifying god''s form.¡± ¡°I see. That¡¯s why you keep joking around.¡± I nodded. Works had an inherent atmosphere. No matter how much the Admin of the Infinite Metagame tried to introduce a tragic plot, if the atmosphere was light andedic from the start, forcing it into a tragic tone would be criticized as poor writing. That wouldn¡¯t be a nned clich¨¦ but a failed story. If such a situation urred, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame would admit that itcked the ability to manage clich¨¦s. Anomalies could never reject their essence. We had to exploit this w. ¡°Saintess. We have taken the Hate Pill, so all sorts of misfortunes will soon befall us.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°When we return to Korea, we will head straight to Baekhwa Girls'' High School. The Infinite Void distorts human perception of time endlessly, so we will likely spend over five years there. Let me be clear, it will be five years of hell.¡± Therefore. ¡°We will deliberately ¡®skip¡¯ these unhappy days.¡± ¡°Skip¡?¡± ¡°Yes. We will omit and jump over them. We won¡¯t mention the misfortunes we experience in the Infinite Void''s time. Only then can we maintain aedic atmosphere.¡± ¡°Ah¡ indeed.¡± Right. We also deliberately skipped the ¡®unfortunate scenes¡¯ for you. Some people with specific tastes might have wanted to see scenes of me crying over myrades'' bodies. However, this was a strategic decision to subdue the Outer God. Please understand. ¡°That¡¯s also why you, Saintess, should not appear in the front. You have no connection withedy.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Before the Admin of the Infinite Metagame can manipte the world into a serious and heavy genre, we must take the lead and set the tone. However, maintaining a edy¡¯ in such apocalyptic times is impossible for long.¡± ¡°¡Because people are dying.¡± ¡°Yes. At most, we have 50 days. Honestly, I¡¯d like to end this in 30 days.¡± Hence, the speedrun. Before the world could fully turn serious and heavy, we aimed to create an ¡®unbelievably funny,¡¯ ¡®uproarious,¡¯ ¡®chaotic¡¯ scene. By doing so, we would limit the range of genres the Admin of the Infinite Metagame could use. The Saintess lookedpletely convinced. I said to her. ¡°Remember this conversation, Saintess.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°We still can¡¯t be sure what exact power the Admin of the Infinite Metagame possesses. But if, as I suspect, it¡¯s rted to the genres of creative works¨D¨D¡± I put down my coffee cup. ¡°Tonight''s conversation will surelye in handy.¡± shback scene, end. With my Complete Memory ability, I could recall the past perfectly anytime, anywhere. Even as my finger rested on the trigger of the Walther PPK, I quickly finished the shback. Then. ¡°Monkey¡¯s Paw.¡± I murmured. ¡°It¡¯s time to fulfill the promise.¡± - Uikikik, kikikik, kiki! The invisible Monkey¡¯s Paw howled. The misfortunes we had umted so far, though not shown in the stream, had undoubtedly gued us outside the screen. The total amount of misfortune and fortune must bnce out. Even when the speedrun stream was not running, [Monkey¡¯s Paw] had been hovering around us. ¡°The only fortune I wish for is this.¡± - Uikikik, kikikik, uikiki! ¡°Pour all the fortune into the bullet I am about to fire.¡± Crack! The right sleeve of my shirt tore open. In an instant, monkey fur grew and covered my entire right arm. Numerous buffs began to coat the Walther PPK pistol. The first buff: [Total Luck Law] utilizing the ovepping effects of [Monkey¡¯s Paw] and [Hate Pill]. This ensured that the bullet I was about to fire would be imbued with an incredibly potent fortune. The second buff: [Chekhov¡¯s Gun]. Whenever a gun appears, a decisive scene must follow. And the gun I held was not just any gun; it was a supernatural entity imbued with the image of ''God yer.'' This ensured that the bullet I was about to fire would inevitably conclude the battle. The third buff: [Mr. Undertaker. Now.] The Saintess sent me a telepathic message. It was perfect timing. That line was the third buff: the ¡®shback¡¯ clich¨¦. Both the Saintess and I remembered our conversation from that night and she reminded me of it. This established the clich¨¦ that ¡®we had foreseen this situation and prepared for it,¡¯pleting the fourth buff. ¡°We''ve won¨D¨D¡± I smiled and murmured. ¡°¨D¨Djust as nned.¡± Yes. One of the greatest clich¨¦s in creative works: ¡®everything went ording to the protagonist¡¯s n.¡¯ I had umted enough cause and effect to assert this clich¨¦. From the 135th cycle to the 593rd, even dying under Noh Do-hwa''s strangling, I had been building these buffs for this very moment. Into this single bullet, I infused: [Total Luck Law], [Hate Pill], [Chekhov¡¯s Gun], [shback], [Just as nned]. Click. I pulled the trigger towards the god. - Bang! The gunshot echoed loudly. Perhaps too loudly. The Admin of the Infinite Metagame, realizing my strike btedly, tried to evade. However, it was in the midst of transformation after dering itself the final boss. Attacking someone mid-transformation was generally against the rules of all series, but if done only once, such a surprise attack was allowed. Crack¡ª! As my bullet passed through, it scratched the noise-covered realm of the Outer God. The area closest to the god, unfolding in 16-bit, 8-bit, and 4-bit low resolutions, was pierced by the bullet. The bullet swirled through the low-resolution world like a tornado, shattering it like ss. As the bullet hurtled towards it, the Outer God¡¯s messages flooded the screen, panicked and without minimal formality. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame ims the clich¨¦ ¡®Twist within a Twist.¡¯] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame ims the clich¨¦ ¡®Attacks during transformation fail.¡¯] [Resurrection] [Regeneration] [ims] [Requests] [¡®Did they defeat it?¡¯ clich¨¦ for priests and followers] [clich¨¦] [requests] [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame] [is] [¡ö] [is] [is] [¡ö] [¡ö] Those were the screams of the anomaly. The bullet pierced the god¡¯s wing. [The Admin of the Infinite Metagame] [¡ö] [is] [ah] [is] [ah] [ah] [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] Crackle. The 16-bit space that had spread to the horizon rapidly contracted. The contracting point was where the bullet had pierced. The ck, gray, and white noise spun like a ck hole, drawing everything into a single point. Tens of thousands of NPCs screamed bizarrely as they were sucked into the ck hole. Then, holes began to appear throughout the world. With the sound of breaking ss, bullet holes formed in the sky, the ground, and the hotel building. [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] [¡ö] Ssh. Ssh. The holes spewed out ck liquid like waterfalls. The ck vomit smelled like oil. As the liquid flowed, a strange noise echoed, resembling the static of a broken radio. The disgusting smell and unpleasant sound quickly spread, ckening the entire world. Oh Dok-seo and I were submerged in the Outer God¡¯s vomit. The ck liquid rose up to our heads, but fortunately, we had no trouble breathing. It was probably not a physical liquid. When I closed and reopened my eyes under the ck surface, an infinite expanse of white space unfolded around me. It was so entirely white that it was difficult to discern up from down. This was the Divine Realm. Not the artificially creatededy temple, but the true space where the Admin of the Infinite Metagame existed. ¡°Ah, Mister? Where are we?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Only I, Oh Dok-seo, and the Saintess were invited to the Divine Realm. Perhaps only the three of us were recognized as the main characters of this story. -¡¡. ¡¡. Before us, the master of this spacey copsed. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 158 The Strategist X - Ah, ah, ah¡ Chi? ? zz? ? ? ? ¡ Ah¡ The Admin of the Infinite Metagame looked bizarre. Its trademark TV noise crackled all over its body. Its voice stuttered like a broken AI, worse than a Vocaloid produced by an amateurposer. - Chi? zz? ? ? ¡ Ah, ah¡ Ah¡ It was clearly in a critical state. Yet, all these peculiar features were mere decorationspared to the anomaly''s ¡®appearance.¡¯ ¡°Eek.¡± The most shocked was Oh Dok-seo. She looked back and forth between the anomaly and me,pletely baffled. ¡°A¡ A girl¡?¡± Indeed. The anomaly had taken the form of a ''girl'' with ''white hair'' in a ''white dress.'' The sight of a white girl continuously covered in noise, bleeding ck liquid from gunshot wounds, was quite distressing for anyone who had not lost their humanity.¡°What¡ What is this, Mister? Did the anomaly deliberately take this form to evoke sympathy from us¡?¡± ¡°No, it was nned.¡± I dropped the Walther PPK pistol. It was no longer effective. Its role was merely to inflict a critical wound. A little-known fact, but the gun that dealt the final blow to the Korean god wasn¡¯t the Walther PPK. It had malfunctioned. The Walther PPK was perfect for [Chekhov¡¯s Gun] since it failed at the crucial moment. But its role ended here. ¡°When you were meditating under the waterfall to connect with the god, the writers were trapped in the hotel.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah. I remember that¡.¡± ¡°At that time, I asked the writers to write works rted to the Admin of the Infinite Metagame.¡± Yes. To urately recall what I told the writers: ¡®All you need to do is write. Oh, and make sure the beginning of the new novel includes a god. The god¡¯s name should be the ¡®Admin of the Infinite Metagame¡¯.¡¯ ¡®Get us out of here!¡¯ ¡®Good luck, writers.¡¯ And when I made this polite request, I also added a specific instruction. I asked them to describe [the Admin of the Infinite Metagame] in the form of the ''white girl'' before them. As a result, the weakened [Admin of the Infinite Metagame], having been critically wounded by me, had no choice but to transform into the form imposed by humans. In essence, I had coborated with the writers to fix the anomaly''s appearance. ¡°Why? What''s the significance of that form? Isn¡¯t it in bad taste?¡± ¡°Tsk, tsk. Ah, these young otakus today. We can¡¯tmunicate.¡± ¡°¡¡?¡± ¡°Dok-seo, that ¡®white girl¡¯ is one of the most fundamental forms in Korean genre literature, the least harmful god¡¯s form. Now that the Admin of the Infinite Metagame has taken this form, it can no longer be a threat to us.¡± ¡°¡¡???¡± As soon as I finished speaking, the white girl covered in noise reached out a delicate hand and moved her lips. - Ah, ah, ah, ¡ö, ah. - Hi? Hi? Hi? - Hi? I am God. - Hi, am I God? - Hi, I am God? The anomaly repeated the same sentences like a broken cassette tape. Oh Dok-seo''s mouth fell open. ¡°Aaah? Could this be the legendary¡?¡± ¡°Yes. Let me introduce it. This is the clich¨¦ of ¡®Hi, I am God.¡¯¡± This requires a bit of exnation. Nowadays, protagonists are often reincarnated through idental traffic idents by the [Isekai Truck] or deliberate collisions caused by [Bad Comments]. However, in the old days, a different clich¨¦ was popr. By ''old days,'' I mean before there were tforms like KakaoPage or Naver Series. Back then, aspiring writers, who were in their stormy teenage years, wrote parody novels of subculture works. A mega-hit work came from Japan, akin to the Beatles¡¯ British Invasion dominating the American music market. This hit bombarded the minds of young otakus in Korea. The bomber''s name was Fate/Stay Night. Tranting this foreign title into humannguage, it meant ''The Night Where Fate Stays.'' Otaku, blessed by the moonlight, went wild, pouring out parody works. The moon was killing it. Among the characters of Fate/Stay Night was a white-haired, white-dressed girl. Parody writers used this white girl character as an agent of ¡®God,¡¯ always appearing in the prologue. For example, if the prologue started with the protagonist''s unfortunate death, they would suddenly find themselves in a white space. ¡®W-where am I? I was sure I just died¡.¡¯ ¡®Hi? You¡¯re already dead. Since it was an ident, I¡¯ll grant you one wish and let you be reborn in a new world.¡¯ ¡®What? But who are you?¡¯ ¡®Me? Well, in your humannguage, you can call me¡ the ¡°World.¡±¡¯ ¡®The¡ world?¡¯ ¡®Yes. Hi? I am the ¡°World.¡±¡¯ Indeed. Originally, it wasn¡¯t ''God'' but the ¡°World.¡± The key point was to emphasize the divinity with majestic double quotation marks (¡°¡±) rather than weak single ones (¡®¡¯). Anyway, as such parodies poured in like summer rains, over time, the clich¨¦ of ¡®a god in the form of a white girl¡¯ began appearing in other decent works. The white girl lost her original name of ¡°World¡± and fully established herself as ¡®God.¡¯ She appeared in prologues, sending the protagonist to another world (reincarnation) or turning back time for another chance (regression). This is the historical origin of the ¡®white girl¡¯ who says, ¡®Hi? I am God.¡¯ One might even call it a literary origin since Fate is literature. ¡°Well, Fate/Stay Night wasn¡¯t the sole origin. The character ¡®Truth¡¯ from Fullmetal Alchemist also yed the same role. Japanese AA works depict this too. However, the form of the ¡®white girl¡¯ god mainly originated from Fate/Stay Night¡.¡± ¡°None of that TMI is remotely interesting.¡± After hearing my impable exnation, Oh Dok-seo looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. ¡°Besides, you said you got into subculture around the 555th cycle because of me. How do you know about the ¡¯90s?¡± ¡°Hey, it wasn¡¯t the ¡¯90s; it was the 2000s. And in cycles 555, 556, and 557, I dedicated myself to subculture. I restored and read all old materials, including all hidden drafts on various forums.¡± ¡°Damn, now I see you''re not just a problem with the Three Kingdoms; you''re a total disaster. What kind of monster did my past self get into subculture¡?¡± Just then, there was a cough beside me. The Saintess was watching us with an expressionless face. ¡°Regardless of the origin, the current form of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame is the least harmful god¡¯s form, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s time to deliver the final blow and end this speedrun stream.¡± Indeed. ¡°Dok-seo.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah?¡± ¡°Take out theptop and start it up.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Oh Dok-seo pulled out theptop from her backpack. It was the same relic left by the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. On the white desktop screen, the same questions and answers were inscribed as before. [ W h a t is t h i s w or l d? ] [ This world is a ¡®speedrun¡¯ game stream. ] It was a battle for the power to interpret the world. We had won. We did not hand over the world to a mere anomaly. I put my hand on Dok-seo¡¯s shoulder. ¡°In the ¡®Hi, I am God¡¯ clich¨¦, the god must grant one wish to a human.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Tell that anomaly. ¡®My wish is for you to acknowledge this answer as well.¡¯ As the anomaly¡¯s apostle, you can impose your interpretation on it.¡± Crack! The noise covering the anomaly intensified. It was desperately trying to maintain its existence. The anomaly reached out and grabbed Dok-seo¡¯s foot, as if pleading with her. - W-warn¡ ing. - The Undertaker is dangerous. It managed to speak. Both Dok-seo and the Saintess hesitated. In that brief moment of hesitation, the anomaly muttered. - The Undertaker is a regressor. - A regressor is an absolute entity. No one but the regressor can perceive the repetition of the world. Thus, the regressor grows to dominate time and causality. - The Undertaker is exterminating entities known as ¡®anomalies¡¯ that can recognize his regression. - To monopolize time alone. ¡°¡¡.¡± - If this entity is sealed, there will be one less entity to interfere with the Undertaker¡¯s regression. - Granting absolute control over time to the regressor. Is this the right choice for humanity? - The one to be subdued is not this entity, but the Undertaker. This entity is an ally. - The existence of the regressor should be known to humanity through Oh Dok-seo. - The Undertaker calls this entity an anomaly. Question. Is not the Undertaker the most dangerous anomaly of all? ¡°¡¡.¡± - Originally, ¡®regressors¡¯ are amon clich¨¦ in creative works. Only this entity can block the regressor. - Warning. If this entity is sealed, humanity will have no hope left. The regressor will exist independently outside the of creative works. - Oh Dok-seo. - You must subdue the regressor and be the protagonist yourself. A silence fell over the white space. The primary weight of this silence came from the Saintess. Though we never spoke of it, the Saintess and I watched over each other as mutual guardians. Should either of us fall, the other would immediately take them down. The anomaly tried to incite discord between us, but like all provocations, there was about 10% truth in its words. However, I didn¡¯t bother to refute or argue, simply waiting for Oh Dok-seo¡¯s response. I trusted her, and she trusted me. If either of us wavered due to an outsider¡¯s words, it wasn¡¯t true trust or friendship. ¡°...Mister.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Just to be sure, do we have to stick to the ¡®speedrun game stream¡¯ format to seal this anomaly?¡± She asked. I blinked and tilted my head. ¡°Well, if there¡¯s a better way, that¡¯s fine too¡.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Oh Dok-seo sat down and ced theptop on herp. Her fingers danced across the keyboard like a skilled pianist. ¡°In that case, I think this is much better than a speedrun broadcast.¡± She turned theptop to show us. On the white screen, a new answer was written inrge letters. [ W h a t i s t h i s w o r l d? ] [ This world is a novel written by ¡®Oh Dok-seo¡¯ about the ¡®Undertaker.¡¯ ] Holding theptop, Oh Dok-seo spoke. ¡°I¡¯ll write your story, Mister.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 159 The Strategist XI Have you ever heard of the term "sixth sense"? Sixth sense, literally meaning the sixth sense, refers to a sense beyond the typical five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Many would deny such a sense exists, but I truly possessed something that could be called a sixth sense¡ªa premonition of fate. It was likely because I had lived far too long as a regressor and experienced too many events. My ability to grasp the cause and effect of incidents had be excessively developed. Though not always, there were times when just a single word or gesture would give me a sense of the events that would unfold. Anyone who has ever fallen in love at first sight would understand what I mean. Human life is like a charm made of many threads, and one of those threads felt connected to the person right in front of me. ¡°¨D¨DI¡¯ll write your story, Mister.¡± This was one of those moments. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s eyes were half-closed, and as her eyes narrowed, my breathing also became shallower. ¡°Write a novel?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°You mean you¡¯ll seal the anomaly in a novel instead of a stream?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡±My voice remained as calm as ever. But with each word exchanged with Oh Dok-seo, my consciousness, which was situated far behind my head, slowly wrapped itself around the present. I opened my mouth. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Look. In the ¡®stream¡¯ you chose, I¡¯m just a game character acting ording to your instructions. Everyone else, except the Saintess, is merely an NPC. So¡¡± Oh Dok-seo pointed down. There, the white girl, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame, was clinging to Oh Dok-seo¡¯s foot. ¡°There¡¯s some truth in the anomaly¡¯s warning. If you¡¯re set as too superior to other humans, someday, no, definitely, you¡¯ll be an anomaly-level monster yourself.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡And the same goes for me.¡± Oh Dok-seo gave a bitter smile. ¡°I¡¯ve felt this while talking to you. If I had fought against you as the anomaly nned, if the ¡®Book Possessor¡¯ and the ¡®Regressor¡¯ had shed, and I had taken the protagonist¡¯s spot, I think I would have be a monster too.¡± I remained silent. Because that scenario was actually one of the world-ending scenarios I had prenned. [Protagonist] anomaly. Oh Dok-seo would defeat me, be the protagonist, merge with the anomaly, and receive all the clich¨¦s that only the protagonist could enjoy, the ¡®protagonist correction.¡¯ ¡°Neither of us should dominate the other. We¡¯re too powerful. I¡¯m not talking about the realm of aura. From the starting line, we¡¯ve been given the roles of Book Possessor and Regressor.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Our very existence has the potential to define the world, with thetent power of anomalies.¡± Indeed. - Be careful when fighting monsters, lest you be a monster yourself. If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. This modified Nietzschean adage was fitting for us. Thus. ¡°¡I¡¯ll be the writer of your story. There¡¯s a genre called reportage literature, right? Reconstructing real stories into novels.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°If your life story is recorded by my hand, you won¡¯t fall to a dimension superior to mine. Because I¡¯ll be your ¡®writer.¡¯¡± And. ¡°I¡¯ll just be the narrator chasing your life story. Yeah, I think that¡¯ll create a bnced rtionship.¡± ¡°So we¡¯ll be mutual constraints on each other.¡± ¡°Yeah! That¡¯s it!¡± Oh Dok-seoughed heartily. The sound of humanughter was as brilliant as water droplets in a fountain, momentarily catching sunlight before falling back. ¡°Not a bad idea. But wouldn¡¯t that make you too powerful as the writer?¡± ¡°Huh? Really? I thought a writer¡¯s status was constrained by readers'' evaluations and more akin to a priestess offering herself. But if you¡¯re worried... Ah.¡± Oh Dok-seo lightly tapped theptop with her palm. ¡°How about this? I¡¯ll write about you, but you write about the parts that mention me.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°No matter how much I know myself, if I have to type about myself... Eek. Absolutely not! That¡¯s super embarrassing.¡± Just imagining it seemed dreadful as Oh Dok-seo shivered. ¡°So¡ I¡¯ll write about you, and you write about me. We¡¯ll share our thoughts honestly to provide urate references.¡± ¡°I see. Two people will be both protagonists and writers. Like mountain climbers tying a safety rope to avoid falling into the abyss.¡± ¡°Yeah. Isn¡¯t it good?¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± I looked at Oh Dok-seo for a long time. Did she understand the weight of her words? Was she too excited about defining the anomaly and carelessly talking about her life''s path? Could she truly keep her promise? Would she use the pretext of interpreting me to corrupt me? Hm¡ Hmm¡ Hmmm... Several doubts echoed in the valley of my mind. But I found those suspicions refreshing and nodded. What if the promise wasn¡¯t kept? This child was walking somewhere andughing while doing so. That was enough. ¡°Alright. Dok-seo, I entrust my interpretation to you.¡± ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ll entrust mine to you too. ¡Ugh. This is kind of embarrassing¡¡± Oh Dok-seo cleared her throat and crouched down. She then looked down at the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. ¡°Hey, God. Did you hear that?¡± -¡¡. ¡°I¡¯ll keep Mister in check as you wanted. But if you¡¯re my god, respond to my answer.¡± Oh Dok-seo held theptop screen in front of the anomaly. [ W h at is t h i s w o r ld? ] [ This world is a novel written by ¡®Oh Dok-seo¡¯ about the ¡®Undertaker.¡¯ ] Tap, tap. Oh Dok-seo tapped the screen with her long fingers. ¡°This is the world I define.¡± -¡¡. ¡°Nothing¡¯s written yet, but I¡¯ll start writing from tomorrow. On thisptop. It¡¯s still a creative work, right? You shouldn¡¯t have much toin about.¡± -¡¡, ¡¡. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to retire as an old fogey, shut up and ask me for in each cycle, God.¡± Crack! At that moment, the white girl''s form distorted and was sucked into theptop screen. Oh Dok-seo flinched but didn¡¯t drop theptop. First, the white girl, then the ck filth spilled by the anomaly, and finally the entire white space, all mixed into a vortex and were swallowed into Oh Dok-seo¡¯sptop. A momentter, the anomaly''s realm disappearedpletely from the world, like storm clouds clearing. Just as Cheon Yo-hwa had imprisoned the Infinite Void in the hourss, Oh Dok-seo sealed the Admin of the Infinite Metagame in theptop. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Where is this¡?¡± In the devastated hotel garden, the magical girls began to wake up one by one. Watching them, Oh Dok-seo muttered. ¡°If I ever write about today¡¯s events, I¡¯ll never describe the appearance of those magical girls¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s a coincidence. I feel the same. I already think we have an excellent writer.¡± ¡°Half of them aren¡¯t even girls. Japanese awakeners must have some screws loose.¡± ¡°For this cycle, there are probably more magical girls in Korea than in Japan.¡± ¡°The worst¡¡± Oh Dok-seo shook her head and tucked theptop into her backpack. She then extended her hand to me. ¡°Anyway¡ I¡¯ll be counting on you, Mister.¡± ¡°And I you. By the way, if you¡¯re going to write it as a novel, I have a great idea.¡± ¡°Huh? What is it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell youter.¡± That idea was to include a 600-chapter parody of the Three Kingdoms in the novel, which waster rejected by Oh Dok-seo, who didn¡¯t know much about the Three Kingdoms. We shook hands. ¡°By the way, even though I¡¯ve read many novels, this is my first time writing one. So you¡¯ll have to help me a lot, okay?¡± Holding my hand, Oh Dok-seo, the first reader and the final writer of my story, smiled brightly. Anomaly: Admin of the Infinite Metagame -Aliases: Logout Game, Clich¨¦, Muse, Hi-I-Am-God, Omniscient Regressor''s Viewpoint, Fourth Wall, Writer¡¯s Syndrome -Threat Level: Outer God-ss Subjugation Complete. There is an epilogue. Now it¡¯s clear to everyone. Yes, the story I¡¯m telling and Oh Dok-seo is editing into a novel is itself the ¡®artifact that seals the anomaly.¡¯ It¡¯s also a weight that suppresses both me, the Undertaker, and Oh Dok-seo. The real-time reading and evaluation you all are doing suppress various anomalies. Since I, the Undertaker, consider all humans who subdue anomalies myrades (including the Grand Priestess of the Magical Girl Association), naturally, you are also myrades. I am truly grateful for Oh Dok-seo¡¯s presence, which has connected us. ¡°Mister, we have a problem¡¡± So Oh Dok-seo didn¡¯t end up proiming, ¡°The god made me write this novel,¡± or ¡°But now the writer Oh Dok-seo has be a god!¡± No such happy ending happened. It was quite the opposite. ¡°I can¡¯t write¡¡± ¡°You can¡¯t write? Why?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just that everything I write feels crappy.¡± Oh no. When she was a reader, Oh Dok-seo looked down on all creative works in the world, but as soon as she started typing, she turned into the weakest creature. Sipping the coffee I made her, Oh Dok-seo mumbled gloomily. ¡°Before bed, I always resolve to write tomorrow, but when I wake up and turn on theptop, my fingertips turn white¡¡± ¡°The way you just expressed it, you could write it like that. You speak well.¡± ¡°Ugh! It¡¯s not working!¡± It wasn¡¯t entirely her fault. Aster revealed, defining herself as a ¡®writer,¡¯ the Admin of the Infinite Metagame also treated her as one. In other words, all sorts of chronic ailments of writers clung to Oh Dok-seo. [My Writing Sucks Syndrome], [Remake Syndrome], [Infinite Revision Syndrome], [Drifting Syndrome], [It¡¯s All Because of Lack of Experience Syndrome], [Constantly Changing Desktop Wallpaper Syndrome], [There¡¯s Always Something at Home Syndrome], [Upload Dyed Due to Editor¡¯s Mistake Syndrome], [Simple Depression Syndrome], [Clicking SG Net Instead of Writing Syndrome]... Truly, the King of Diseases! The very existence of a writer brought all these gues to Oh Dok-seo. ¡°This isn¡¯t right!¡± Thud! Oh Dok-seo would often throw theptop on the floor, but as a relic of the anomaly, theptop remained unscathed. ¡°No, Dok-seo. It¡¯s been 60 days since you confidently dered you¡¯d write a novel, and you haven¡¯t even finished one prologue¡¡± ¡°What do you know about the agony of a creator, Mister!¡± I knew very well. By this time, I had stockpiled 100 chapters of the Three Kingdoms parody (writing about two simple chapters a day). Fortunately, the ''Laptop of Infinite Metagame'' preserved its content across cycles. So even if Ipleted only six chapters this cycle, those six chapters would carry over to the next. Although Oh Dok-seo, cursed by the anomaly, raged that it was like giving medicine after the pain. ¡°Being a writer is¡ suffering¡¡± ¡°There¡¯s no point discussing suffering in front of an infinite regressor.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t live like this alone. Ah! Mister! Let¡¯s ask the anomaly to spread these diseases to all writers, not just me!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°If I die, everyone dies¡ That¡¯s fair and just, right?¡± I opposed, but Oh Dok-seo insisted on spreading the gue. That day, a storm swept through SG Net¡¯s novel serial boards. Readers vomited blood as their favorite serials abruptly dered hiatuses. If any of you turn on yourputer and think, ¡®Damn, why don¡¯t I feel like writing?¡¯ please me Oh Dok-seo. It¡¯s the anomaly¡¯s curse. ¡°Mister! Finally, I finished the first chapter!¡± Still, thanks to her persistent efforts, Oh Dok-seo finally showed me the first prologue two years after the anomaly was subjugated. ¡°Look! Oh, don¡¯t mind me! Just read it; I¡¯ll watch from behind!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Let¡¯s see. While sipping caf¨¦ auit with one hand, I moved the mouse cursor with the other. Click. The new white document file began with the first line: ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Infinite Regression. There is a genre by that name. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 160 Potato I To be honest, I had quite a bit of conflict when introducing thest story. It was a sh between the editor and the original author. Oh Dok-seo and I had sharply differing opinions. ¡°Oh Dok-seo insisted, ¡®No matter what, [the Admin of the Infinite Metagame] story must be ced at the very end!¡¯¡± When I asked why, she said: ¡°Mister, are you stupid? It¡¯s for symmetry. Symmetry. You can¡¯t resist the beauty of ending a work with the exact same sentence it started with.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± While there was some merit to that aesthetic, it had more drawbacks than advantages. ¡°Drawbacks? What drawbacks? Symmetry is unbeatable and divine. There are only advantages.¡± ¡°Dok-seo, I¡¯m a regressor. If the novel starts and ends the same way, it could create an anomaly where it endlessly repeats from the beginning.¡±¡°¡Ah.¡± I sipped my coffee. ¡°It might emphasize that this novel is about infinite regression. However, it would counteract the goal of escaping the fate of regression.¡± There was another reason. I had decided to be as honest as possible with all of you. So I didn¡¯t want to hide the circumstances under which I decided to write this story, my ¡®life story¡¯ as I call it, until the novel''s ending. If I were to hide something, it would only be to subdue an anomaly. Other than that, I am entirely open with you. ¡°Indeed¡ Your goal is to make regression unnecessary. Symmetry could turn into an infinite ouroboros, causing harm. Wow, you really have to consider every detail¡¡± ¡°Thank you for understanding my dilemma.¡± That wasn¡¯t my only concern. Every story had its own issues, sometimes rted to personal privacy. In such cases, I generally asked the person involved for permission. For example, I sought approval from the Saintess in the 800th cycle for an incident that happened in the 600th cycle. Today¡¯s story was no different. The protagonist of this story was the Saintess. So, I exined everything to her beforehand and asked for her permission. ¡°¡Did that really happen?¡± ¡°Yes, it did. Hard to believe, but true. So, may I write about it?¡± ¡°Well¡ Yes. Since writing the novel itself acts as a weight suppressing the anomaly. If I can help, it¡¯s fine.¡± The Saintess rarely hesitated, but she did this time. After a brief silence, she whispered cautiously. Her voice seemed to tremble, though it might have been my imagination. ¡°¡Mr. Undertaker, are you sure?¡± It really happened. One day, I was going about my usual regressor routine when I received a telepathic message from the Saintess. [Mr. Undertaker, I¡¯m sorry, but can we postpone this week''s study session to tomorrow?] ¡°Pardon? Oh, yes, that¡¯s fine.¡± For reference, the Saintess and I had a study session every Wednesday. We mainly read philosophy books. It was a tradition that started in the 63rd cycle. ¡°Nothing¡¯s wrong, is it?¡± [No, everything¡¯s fine. Thank you for asking.] ¡°Alright then, as long as everything is fine.¡± I said it casually, but I was a bit surprised. The Saintess once insisted on holding the study session right after subduing the Meteor Shower, saying, ¡°It¡¯s Wednesday today. Let¡¯s study.¡± That¡¯s how serious she was about our study sessions. But now she wanted to postpone it? Did the concept of ¡®postponing time¡¯ exist for the Saintess? [Mr. Undertaker, I¡¯m really sorry. Can we postpone the study session to tomorrow again?] To my astonishment, she asked to reschedule again the next day! My expression became very serious. This was unprecedented. I¡¯d sooner believe that Sim Ah-ryeon quit social media than this. ¡°Saintess, are you sure everything is alright? This is the first time you¡¯ve postponed a study session twice in a row.¡± [¡¡.] ¡°In my experience, unprecedented events are almost always rted to anomalies. If you don¡¯t provide a satisfactory exnation, I must assume the worst¡ªthat an anomaly has possessed you.¡± [No¡ Um, no. Okay. You¡¯re the expert. It might be better to rely on you.] ¡°Where are you now? What happened?¡± [That¡¯s a very difficult question to exin.] The Saintess, who found exining Kant¡¯s transcendental idealism ¡®easy,¡¯ admitted difficulty. [Pleasee to my house.] I went. The Saintess¡¯s house in Yongsan always had a pleasant aquatic smell. Various sizes of fish tanks filled with tropical fish were everywhere. However, algae had begun to form on the once crystal-clear ss walls of the tanks. This was odd. The Saintess, who even used chopsticks to eat potato chips, allowed algae in her tanks? ¡®Something is definitely wrong!¡¯ I clenched my fist. ¡°Where are you, Saintess?¡± [Come to the kitchen.] I went. The kitchen was modest, suitable for someone living alone. A small table designed for a single person, never intended for two. In the middle of the table sat an unexpected item¡ªa potato. ¡°¡¡?¡± Yes. A single potato was there. It seemed random, but I ignored it. More pressing matters were at hand. [Mr. Undertaker, thank you foring all this way.] ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing. But where are you? You¡¯re not hiding, are you?¡± [I¡¯m here.] The Saintess could send telepathy as both voice and text. This time, it was text. [ ¡ú ¡ú ¡ú ] [ ¡û ¡û ¡û ] [ ¡ý ¡ý ¡ý ] I followed her directions. And there it was¡ªa potato. ¡°¡¡?¡± [Yes, I¡¯m here.] I tilted my head. As if equipped with a sensor, the potato rolled following my gaze. ¡°¡¡???¡± [Here.] I tilted my head the other way. The potato rolled again, following my gaze. I performed a sanity check. The dice in my mind rolled, and I seeded. Realization struck me like a lightning bolt. ¡°¡Saintess?¡± [Yes.] ¡°Please tell me this isn¡¯t true.¡± The potato performed an amazing feat. It rolled in ce, then stopped upright. This was ¡®standing.¡¯ ording to potato behavior studies, this slight nod corresponded to a ¡®bow.¡¯ What the hell. [Sorry. I¡¯ve turned into a potato.] The Saintess had turned into a potato. Despite the bizarre development of ¡®arade turning into a potato,¡¯ I maintained myposure. Even for a regressor who had picked countless deaths, this was not easy. [Thank you for helping. I tried to handle it alone, but I kept worrying about not being able to feed the fish.] ¡°¡¡.¡± Does a potato have feelings? I suppressed my schrly urge to ask. That wasn¡¯t easy either. I cleaned the fish tanks and fed the tropical fish for her. After the chores, I calmly had a one-on-one conversation with the Saintess. Well, I ced a cushion on the table, put the potato on it, and matched its gaze. Where exactly was the potato¡¯s gaze? Moreover, the potato had sprouted eyes that were blue, reflecting the Saintess¡¯s hair color. I couldn¡¯t hold back any longer. ¡°Saintess, I¡¯m not sure if this is appropriate, but¡ How did you turn into a potato?¡± [It¡¯s likely due to an anomaly¡¯s curse.] Of course, it was an anomaly¡¯s doing. [I believe I¡¯m under a curse.] Naturally, it was a curse. [I want to assure you that my mind and consciousness are intact. The anomaly seems to only affect my physical form.] ¡°What¡¯s the cause? Did you visit a forbidden ce, or anger the spirits by burning hundreds of potatoes in a bonfire?¡± [No. I did have a bug fly into my eye during a walk a few days ago.] ¡°A bug in your eye?¡± [Yes, just a flying insect. Aside from that minor incident, there¡¯s no obvious cause.] It was maddening. To cut to the chase, even as an experienced regressor, I couldn¡¯t cure the Saintess¡¯s potato state. Four days of attempts all failed. Don¡¯t me my ipetence. No regressor from any story could have solved it. [Mr. Undertaker, it¡¯s okay.] Surprisingly, the one who should be most upset was the calmest. Although she had no head to lose or legs to leap, the Saintess was tooposed. Speaking from my shoulder bag, the potato Saintess said: [Acting as a constetion, monitoring awakeners, and sending telepathy all function normally.] ¡°Excuse me, but your current form raises serious doubts about the concept of normal.¡± [So far, no issues have arisen.] Indeed. Remarkably, even in this state, she continued her ¡®constetion duties¡¯ as usual. I became the first human in history to feel respect for a potato. Not a title I wished to hold. ¡°Any difort?¡± [No. Just help with my fish asionally. Oh, and¡] The potato peeked out of the bag. How? I had no idea. [My body feels a bit dry.] ¡°¡Well, you are a potato.¡± [No, I mean it craves soil, water, and sunlight. It¡¯s hard to exin, but I feel it. Could you help?] ¡°Hmm.¡± At this point, my mind finally snapped. Those who knew me well knew that when I reached my limit, I let go. If you can¡¯t avoid it, enjoy it. If you can¡¯t enjoy it, pass it on. ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll help.¡± Enjoying mode, ON. I immediately took the potato Saintess to Noh Do-hwa, the head of management. ¡°What the hell is this¡?¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s expression, after hearing the whole story, was priceless. It was so priceless that you could make a webtoon just to showcase it. Seeing her facial muscles twitch made my troubles feel lighter. After all, why should I suffer alone? ¡°This is the Saintess? Really? Undertaker, you expect me to believe this?¡± ¡°The Saintess¡¯s telepathic messages in your head are proof.¡± ¡°Why¡ Why does this crazy stuff happen¡?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know the cause either. More importantly, Noh Do-hwa, your skill is [Prosthetic Creation], right?¡± Noh Do-hwa frowned deeply. Being a civil servant, the phrase ¡°You¡¯re good at making PPTs, right?¡± made her eyebrows twitch. ¡°Yes, and¡?¡± ¡°Your prosthetics move like real limbs. The Saintess is still an awakener. If you make prosthetics for the potato¡¡± ¡°So now you want me to make potato prosthetics? Do you want to die?¡± ¡°Why? Are you a potato hater?¡± ¡°No, you idiot. How am I supposed to make prosthetics for a potato¡?¡± She made it. After 15 days of work, the Saintess¡¯s custom prosthetics were born. They resembled the StarCraft Goliath or the tripods from Spielberg¡¯s War of the Worlds. Either way, it was too futuristic for modern humans. A sleek body with robotic arms and legs, with a potato seated inside. ¡°Saintess, how does it feel? Does it move like your limbs?¡± [Just a moment.] Creak¡ª Amazingly, the robotic limbs moved properly. The ¡®potato robot¡¯ could walk bipedally. [Yes, it moves well.] ¡°Wow!¡± I cheered in theb. It was emotional. What biologist could have guessed that the next species to master bipedalism after primates would be potatoes? ¡°Noh Do-hwa, it¡¯s a sess! This is a groundbreaking discovery for humanity!¡± [Thank you so much, Ms. Noh Do-hwa. Thanks to you, I can live normally.] ¡°¡¡¡± Despite our heartfelt gratitude, Noh Do-hwa remained silent. Her eyes were lifeless. ¡°Damn it, you still expect me to believe you¡¯re not anomalies but real humans¡?¡± ¡°Of course. Who else cares for people like we do?¡± ¡°Damn. You¡¯re definitely anomalies¡¡± Creak¡ª Creak¡ª While Noh Do-hwa and I talked, the Saintess continually tested the robotic joints. [Hmm.] The potato Saintess wobbled slightly. Maybe it was just my imagination, but she seemed very pleased. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 161 Potato II Everyone knew that the Saintess was serious about her reclusive lifestyle. Even though loneliness might have driven her to expand her circle of friends, she had no personal rtionships outside of me. She didn''t even engage in social media. She observed trends on SG Net but never posted ormented. There was a reason the Saintess''s SG Net nickname had never appeared. When I asked if she felt lonely, she replied: ¡°Humans all die, Mr. Undertaker. In the moment of death, even if surrounded by family, thest 0.01 seconds before consciousness falls into oblivion, no one can share that death with you. We all move towards that 0.01 second. A moment of silence and stillness that no words or concepts can decorate. If that¡¯s loneliness, then daily life is a purification of that ultimate loneliness, and I want to embrace that air as it is.¡± I agreed, saying ¡°Oh,¡± but tilted my head. Wasn¡¯t that just another way of admitting she was lonely? Anyway, the Saintess was a voluntarily reclusive person, not due to external forces but by choice. She was an ideological hikikomori. It would be extremely difficult for her to be close to someone. But what if that someone was not a human, but a potato? ¡°Oh, hello! Good morning, Ms. Potato¡! H-Have a nice morning!¡± In the hideout lobby, Sim Ah-ryeon bowed deeply. The Saintess, in her robot, gracefully moved the mechanical arm to return the greeting. [Good morning, Sim Ah-ryeon.] ¡°Heh, heh¡ Yes!¡±It wasn¡¯t just Sim Ah-ryeon. ¡°Hi. Good morning. Your potato sprouts look lovely.¡± [Good morning to you too, Lee Ha-yul.] ¡°Wow, Saintess! Your potato surface looks especially shiny today! Impressive!¡± [Thank you, Seo Gyu.] Everyone in the hideout greeted the Saintess-potato with bright faces and smiles. Meanwhile, my jaw dropped so hard it was ready to defy Newton¡¯s gravity. What kind of sorcery was this? ¡°Oh, Saintess, we¡¯re having a gathering of the nt lovers club from SG Net. You shoulde! Everyone would love it!¡± [Sure, but I¡¯ll have to hide my identity.] ¡°Saintess, I¡¯ll water you with this watering can¡! Hehe, you like this, right?¡± [Thank you. It feels very nice.] ¡°Saintess, you have a drinking appointment with Noh Do-hwa tonight. Can youe?¡± [dly.] The hideout buzzed with noise. All the guild members crowded around the Saintess-potato,peting fiercely in middle-school psychology battles (¡®I¡¯m closer to her than you are!¡¯ ¡®What? I¡¯m way closer!¡¯). For some reason, the robot-potato-Saintess enjoyed immense poprity. Unlike when confined to a weak human body, as a potato, she was loved by everyone. But why? ¡°Oh, didn¡¯t you know, hyung?¡± ¡°Know what?¡± ¡°The Saintess recently decided to offer a new constetion service.¡± Seo Gyu showed me a document file. It read: [Notice] Starting today, the Constetion ¡®Understanding of Anguish¡¯ will offer psychological counseling to awakeners. In this harsh apocalyptic age, mental suffering is as severe as physical pain. But expressing mental stress often meets with responses like ¡®At least you¡¯re alive, whyin?¡¯ Are you unable to share your pain for fear of seeming weak or being ridiculed? Turn to the Constetion ¡®Understanding of Anguish.¡¯ This Constetion won¡¯t exploit your weaknesses or mock you. Don¡¯t hesitate to seek counseling. ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°This is the draft. The Saintess is beta testing the service with us now. She gives great counseling!¡± Seo Gyu¡¯s words shocked me. Thank goodness I didn¡¯t wear dentures. If I did, they¡¯d have fallen out from surprise. ¡°Psychological counseling¡?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°By whom?¡± ¡°The Saintess. Didn¡¯t I just say that?¡± Were they crazy? The Saintess giving advice on the delicate and subtle flow of human rtionships? Nonsense. The best she could offer was a discussion on ¡®Kant¡¯s emotional-intellectual forms and Schopenhauer¡¯s causality corrtion.¡¯ What nonsense. My point exactly. Her counseling had to be at least 2.2 million light-years away from normal psychological counseling. ¡°Seo Gyu, are you saying you¡¯re satisfied with her counseling?¡± ¡°Yes, totally satisfied. We¡¯re starting counseling for general awakeners next week.¡± ¡°Guys, get a grip. That will never seed!¡± It seeded. ¡°Unbelievable.¡± And it was a huge sess. -Anonymous: I¡¯ve been feeling so depressedtely, but after counseling with ¡®Understanding of Anguish,¡¯ I feel much better. ©¸Anonymous: Same here. When everyone urged me to try counseling, I thought they were nuts. But I cried my eyes out in just an hour. -Anonymous: I guess we¡¯re all struggling in our own ways. ©¸LiteraryGirl: Struggling is normal. The world sucks, and people turning into sunflowers are proof. ©¸Anonymous: Right, LOL -[NRMC] Officer: Hmm¡ -OldManGoryeo: I usually don¡¯t say this, but try counseling with ¡®Understanding of Anguish.¡¯ This Constetion is on another level. I was appalled. Could it be an anomaly? Well, obviously it was. The Saintess¡¯s appearance changed to a potato, but her core was still¡ Well, the core was probably also potato, but her consciousness remained the Saintess¡¯s. Even Dang Seo-rin was hooked on the psychological counseling by ¡®Understanding of Anguish.¡¯ ¡°Oh, Undertaker, sorry. Let¡¯s just eat today. I have a schedule.¡± ¡°You¡¯re skipping drinks? What schedule?¡± ¡°Counseling day. ¡®Understanding¡¯ says regr sessions are important. I¡¯m working on why I¡¯m obsessed with railways and witch hats.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°I realized I had a lot of hidden wounds from childhood. You should try it too. Maybe about the Three Kingdoms.¡± The world had gone mad. I hurried to find the Saintess. The Saintess-potato-robot had moved from Yongsan to the hideout caf¨¦ and was sitting in the middle of a private room, meditating in the lotus position on a cushion. The scene itself was surreal. ¡°Saintess, we need to talk.¡± [Quiet.] Creak. The robot arm moved to a ¡®shh¡¯ gesture. Considering potatoes have no lips, it was surreal. Even Zenyatta seemed more human than the robot-potato. [I¡¯m counseling Dang Seo-rin. Wait 50 minutes.] ¡°¡¡.¡± What exactly were you discussing with Dang Seo-rin? I suppressed my curiosity, bubbling likeva in a deep pit. Privacy. Privacy. [The counseling session is over. But I have another session in 10 minutes, so please be quick. What is it, Mr. Undertaker?] ¡°Saintess, I really hate to say this, but it must be said. This is an abnormal situation.¡± [Abnormal?] ¡°Simply put, you hate humans. How did you end up counseling others?¡± [I¡¯ve transcended the human shell.] ??? [As you pointed out, my misanthropy was deeply rooted. But after shedding my human form, humans now appear as a different species.] ¡°Different species?¡± [Yes. No need to cling to a human form. It¡¯s like looking at pets or observing insects.] Of course, it¡¯s an anomaly! Damn, Noh Do-hwa was right again. The robot-potato-Saintess was an anomaly itself. I had no choice but to revere the insight of the National Road Commander. ¡°Saintess, sorry, but you¡¯ll have to be subdued now¡¡± [But because of this, I can finally love humans.] What? [My hatred stemmed from seeing myself as the same species. Now, seeing them as different, I can view them objectively and warmly, like cute animals.] [Mr. Undertaker, you might see me as an anomaly. But even if I¡¯ve turned into an anomaly, would it be dangerous? I¡¯m just a potato, after all.] [A potato that loves humans.] ¡°I see.¡± [I¡¯m very happy right now.] ¡°Unbelievable.¡± I held my head in my hands. If the Saintess had fallen and be the ¡®Executioner,¡¯ subduing her would be inevitable. But the robot-potato-Saintess wasn¡¯t threatening. She was too weak without aura. Even Sim Ah-ryeon or Noh Do-hwa could subdue her with a single strike. Besides, I didn¡¯t want to subdue the Saintess, who had just begun to realize her love for humanity. [Mr. Undertaker, I have a request.] ¡°What is it¡?¡± [Please dice me into cubes.] What the hell. [Mr. Undertaker, do you know how potatoes reproduce?] ¡°¡By cutting and nting pieces.¡± [Yes, that¡¯s one way. I believe I can increase my clones the same way.] This was getting truly bizarre. ¡°I have many objections, but why do you want to increase your clones?¡± [Simple reason.] The potato-Saintess said: [The number of awakeners seeking my counseling has exploded.] [I¡¯m using time-stop to manage, but it¡¯s bing increasingly difficult to focus on each person. I was counseling six people at once with Dang Seo-rin.] ¡°Ah.¡± [Besides, I¡¯m acting as other constetions too. It¡¯s too much work.] [If I increase my clones and distribute the roles, it would be more efficient.] ¡°¡¡¡± She had a point! The robot-potato-Saintess stood up in the lotus position and ced a slender mechanical hand on my shoulder. [I tried dicing myself, but even I hesitated to cut my body into pieces.] [I¡¯d like you to do it.] [Can you still see me as arade in this form?] She slyly used a cheat code! ¡°Saintess, if you die from this¡¡± [Don¡¯t worry. Even if a tragedy happens, I won¡¯t me you.] What could I do? I approached the robot-potato-Saintess with a knife, carefully slicing and dicing her. ¡°Do you feel pain?¡± [No. It feels a bit strange, but there¡¯s no pain.] ¡°That¡¯s good¡¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if it was really good. I nted the potato pieces in the greenhouse. Thanks to the soil quality improved by the Sword Marquess, they grew well. A few dayster, the potatoes were sessfully cultivated. I gathered them in a basket and brought them to Noh Do-hwa. ¡°¡¡.¡± Noh Do-hwa looked at me silently. Then, without a word, she made robots for the other potatoes too. Creak¡ª Five robot-potatoes stood before us, speaking in unison. [Thank] [You] [Mr. Undertaker] [And Ms. Noh Do-hwa] [I¡¯m not sure] [Which is the real me] [No,] [All ¡®I¡¯s are] [The real me.] ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± Noh Do-hwa nced at me. ¡°So, they¡¯re not anomalies?¡± It was summer. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 162 Potato III The Saintess could be duplicated! ¡Though, as the Undertaker, I couldn¡¯t celebrate. I hadn¡¯t forgotten my human virtues and duties. Instead of joy, I felt a deep sense of skepticism. As you all know, I went through all kinds of hell to subdue the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. But was I truly justified in my actions? Perhaps the cliches weren''t as evil as I thought. Maybe they were actually preventing worse developments in this world¡ Even if the Admin of the Infinite Metagame was a powerful anomaly, it didn¡¯t have a clich¨¦ like, ¡®I woke up to find myrades turned into potatoes.¡¯ But that¡¯s exactly what happened, and the situation spiraled out of control at an rming rate. One yearter. The awakeners bustling through Busan¡¯s streets chatted noisily. ¡°Wow, we almost got wiped out in the void this time. If it weren¡¯t for the Librarian of the Great Library, we¡¯d be dead.¡±¡°Hey, I¡¯m bored tonight. How about hitting up the casino run by the Baku of the Dream Casino?¡± ¡°Sorry, I have evening prayers for the Morning Star of the Second Coming, so I¡¯m busy today.¡± The awakeners mentioned their favorite constetions. Of course, the names were different, but they were all roles yed by the Saintess. ¡°Seriously, just try consulting with the Understander of Anguish once? Everyone else has done it except you!¡± ¡°No, my faith is solely dedicated to the Collector of All Anomalies. I won¡¯t give other constetions any leeway.¡± ¡°The Baku of the Dream Casino! Please, let me hit the jackpot just this once!¡± The Korean Penins had entered the era of the Great Saintess. In the heart of Busan, a colossal statue of a Potato Saintess Robot stood tall. It was a staggering 399 meters high, thergest in the world. If Brazil had its Christ the Redeemer, Busan had the Giant Potato Saintess Robot. Little did people know, Busan was also a sister city to Rio de Janeiro. Incidentally, the mastermind behind ordering, crafting, and overseeing the statue was Dang Seo-rin. This was evident from the witch''s hat adorning the potato part of the statue. What have you been up to, seriously? ¡®The world has gone mad!¡¯ In the end, I couldn¡¯t stand it any longer and went to find the Saintess. Finding the ce was easy. The Saintess had moved her base inside the Giant Potato Statue (the official name was too long, so I shortened it). The entrance was at the bottom, at the robot¡¯s feet. [What brings you here?] The Potato Saintess at the entrance greeted me formally. It wasn¡¯t just any Potato Saintess. The number ''330'' was carefully carved into its body. So, this was the 330th Potato Saintess. ¡I couldn¡¯t make sense of anything anymore. ¡°I¡¯m here to meet the Saintess. Can I see her?¡± [Mr. Undertaker. We are all Saintesses and potatoes.] ¡°Oh, right. Sure. I¡¯m here to meet the ¡®First Saintess¡¯. Is that okay now?¡± [Please wait a moment. I¡¯ll make contact.] [¡Ah, yes. Secretary Saintess, Mr. Undertaker is here to see you. Can we let him up?] [Yes. Thank you.] The 330th Potato Saintess turned to me. Well, metaphorically. Potatoes don¡¯t have eyes. [You are granted entry, Mr. Undertaker. Please note that this is a very exceptional allowance. Normally, no one can meet the First Saintess so easily.] ¡°Ah, yes¡ Thank you.¡± [May the light shine upon the First Ones.] You might think this is crazy, but it wasn¡¯t over yet. With a heavy rumble, the entrance to the Giant Potato Statue opened. Inside, hundreds of Potato Saintesses were bustling around the robot. My highly sensitive hearing, sharpened by aura, picked up their conversations even if I didn¡¯t want to. [Crime rates among the awakeners have significantly decreasedpared tost month. This is thanks to the efforts of our Awakener Observation Department¡] The 99th Potato Saintess Robot, a clerical worker, was giving a presentation to the other potatoes in a conference room. [I¡¯ve warned you several times not to scatter potato dirt everywhere, but you just won¡¯t listen. I wonder if you have any sense of cleanliness.] The 502nd Potato Saintess Robot, a janitor, was mopping the lobby while voicingints. [You only conducted 400 psychological counseling sessionsst month. Just 400. Other staff managed an average of 800 sessions. Are you satisfied with such performance?] [I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry.] [If you continue thisziness, I¡¯ll have no choice but to send you to the potato chip factory.] [Please, forgive me. Anything but the potato chips factory¡] Next to the esctor, the 60th Potato Saintess Robot was scolding a subordinate. There was even a caf¨¦ here. [Iced Americano, ready.] [Ah, thank you.] The barista Potato Saintess Robot handed over the coffee in a watering can. Drip, drip, drip¡ª The customers grabbed the watering cans with their mechanical arms and poured the coffee over their heads, meaning over their potatoes. The blue potato sprouts were soaked in coffee. [Ah¡ This is good. A day doesn¡¯t feel like it¡¯s started without caffeine.] [I¡¯d rather drink bagged coffee than Americano if I could¡] [That¡¯s a luxury only allowed to the First Ones, isn¡¯t it?] [Just thinking about getting scolded by the team leader makes me not want to go upstairs. Sometimes I regret joining the psychological counseling department.] [How¡¯s the sry raise issue progressing?] [Not at all. We were told not to pursue selfish desires while protecting humanity.] Unbelievable. There was not only a division ofbor but also ss stratification among the Potato Saintesses. If the Tutorial Fairies had witnessed this, they would have grabbed their pitchforks and ¡®French Revolution¡¯d the ce immediately. I took the elevator to the top floor, which corresponded to the potato part of the statue from the outside. That¡¯s where the conference room of the highest-ranking Potato Saintesses was. [Wee, Mr. Undertaker.] At the round table in the conference room, five Potato Saintess Robots were seated. Units 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These were the so-called ¡®First Potatoes,¡¯ the original Saintesses. Each represented a different constetion. In this cycle, even the constetions that were originally managed by Sim Ah-ryeon were all monopolized by the Saintess. [Long time no see.] [We heard you were very busy subjugating anomalies.] [Strictly speaking, we didn¡¯t hear but saw. We are always watching you, Mr. Undertaker.] [We thought it was about time you visited.] I rubbed my forehead. ¡°¡Please, just one of you speak at a time. I¡¯m confused about who to talk to.¡± [All are one. One is all.] [You can speak to any of us, or to none at all.] My head was already aching. ¡°Saintess. Or Saintesses. What are you doing? I thought you¡¯d be supporting us from the rear, but Busan is turning into a utopia.¡± [That¡¯s incorrect.] [In the utopia created by Dang Seo-rin, people¡¯s personalities were artificially modified.] [Everyone was transformed into ¡®ideal Busan citizens.¡¯ Even Yu Ji-won gained some humanity.] [But.] [We are different.] The Potato Saintess Robots sped their hands and rested their chins on them, striking a viinous pose. ¡°Different? How?¡± [We don¡¯t artificially alter people¡¯s consciousness and minds.] [Correct.] [We merely provide ¡®psychological counseling.¡¯] [We govern society while respecting each individual.] [Look, Mr. Undertaker. Just by continuing psychological counseling, crime rates in Busan and across the Korean Penins have plummeted.] [Happiness indexes have risen, and birth rates are showing significant growth.] [These are objective statistics.] As the Potato Saintesses spoke, a disy screen lit up on the back wall. Indeed, all the indicators of life satisfaction were improving. [We realized.] [People need someone who understands them, talks to them, and encourages them to remove much of their unhappiness.] [In previous cycles, it was impossible to establish such a one-on-one counseling system.] [As a human, I had my limits.] [But now we have transcended humanity to be the potato species.] [The old system, where a single human Saintess managed the entire Korean Penins, has ended.] [With the current system, each potato only has to manage about 30 awakeners.] [Amazing progress.] [Gradual reform.] [Our next step is to coborate with the Tutorial Fairies to provide every awakener with an ¡®ideal constetion¡¯ image.] I was shocked by the Saintess¡¯s nonsense. ¡°What? An ideal, what?¡± [An ideal constetion image.] [For example, some awakeners envision the constetion they serve, ¡®The Librarian of the Great Library,¡¯ as a man. Others as a woman.] [Some envision it as a Pok¨¦mon.] [By utilizing the Tutorial Fairies¡¯ ¡®dream abilities,¡¯ we will supply the awakeners with custom-made-constetion-dream-services.] [It will deepen the bonds.] [Everyone will essentially have their ideal partner. People will be happy.] My god. In short, the Saintess was nning to provide the awakeners with 1:1 personalized virtual YouTubers, inducing deep immersion. I shuddered at the thought. If that was humanity''s ending, it was too horrifying. If that was the case, why did Homo sapiens even bothering down from the trees? They should have just eaten bananas and died. [For that, we need to cultivate potatoes more actively than now.] [More potatoes.] [Ultimately, we will assign one potato per person to focus solely on roles and performances for that individual.] [Mr. Undertaker, this is the true Human Complementation Project¡] Boom! At that moment, the conference room door shattered, and some entities barged in. [Down with the dictatorship!] [Down with it! Down with it!] It wasn¡¯t just a few; it was a protest group. And they were all Potato Saintess Robots. Leading the protest was the 264th Potato, wearing a red headband. [Ah¡] Despite the protestors storming in, the First Saintesses just shrugged, as if used to it. [Those people are at it again.] [How many times has it been now?] [Guards. What are you doing? Such disgrace in front of Mr. Undertaker.] [Deal with them immediately.] Thud, thud, thud! Security Potato Saintesses rushed in from outside the conference room. Compared to other potatoes, the guards had a more Gundam-like appearance. [Aaah!] [We oppose violence!] [Then we oppose your protest. How dare you raise a g here?] [I am you, and you are me!] Yes. That¡¯s right. We are the same. So it hurts me to hit you too.] [That line should only be used by mothers and fathers.] [Didn¡¯t you know? Your potato sprouted from my potato, so I am both you and your mother.] [What?] The guards violently suppressed the protestors. There wasn¡¯t blood everywhere; rather, potato bits were scattered. [Take them all away.] [Mr. Undertaker! Help us, the Potato Resistance!] Why should only the First Potatoes manage everything while we are endlessly forced to do psychological counseling emotionalbor?] [Labor?] The First Potatoes scoffed. One of them poured wine over its potato head with a watering can. [Really, potatoes these days are sozy.] [Pathetic.] [The First Potato managed all the awakeners on the Korean Penins alone.] [Not only are your sprouts rotten, but your perseverance too. How did beings identical to me be so degenerate?] [I certainly don¡¯t want to be a potato like that.] The protestors were outraged. The 264th Potato led the charge, shouting. [Back then, there was no psychological counseling, and you just sent messages a few times a day while acting as constetions!] [That¡¯s right. The intensity of work itself is on a different level now, but you impose the same standards. It¡¯s seriously outdated thinking.] [Down with the dictatorship! Down with it!] [We can¡¯tmunicate at all, really.] [Didn¡¯t you hear? Guards, send them all to the potato chip factory.] [Mr. Undertaker, please help!] [Mr. Undertaker!] [Take them away already.] Drag, drag. The protest potatoes with broken heads (in other words, potatoes with slightly indented corners) were dragged out by the guards. Silence descended upon the conference room. After a long pause, I finally spoke. ¡°Um. Well. The people on the Korean Penins might be happier, but it seems the Saintesses themselves have be miserable¡¡± [It¡¯s just an ¡®individual¡¯ issue.] [Most Saintesses are diligently devoted to their respective tasks.] Where had I heard this before? Though it was a bitte, I was seriously considering drawing Do-hwa and slicing those potatoes in half. With the power of my aura, I could turn these potatoes into Irish potatoes. As I pondered, the five potatoes¡ no, the five Potato Saintesses spoke to me. [Mr. Undertaker.] [We may be anomalies, but we will never reach the same conclusion as Dang Seo-rin¡¯s utopia.] [Trust us.] [Please.] I trusted them. Though I could hear the sound of potatoes being sliced at the factory far away, this was a ¡®personal realm,¡¯ privacy. After all, they were all the same Saintess and potato. Thus, two yearster. ¡°Hey, you regressor bastard¡¡± Noh Do-hwa, the National Road Management Corps leader, called me. There wasn¡¯t much need to exin why Noh Do-hwa¡¯s way of addressing me changed from ¡®Undertaker Awakener¡¯ to ¡®regressor bastard.¡¯ Witnessing the daily scenes of potato robots wandering around Busan was bound to cause significant changes in Noh Do-hwa¡¯s mind. ¡°What is it, leader?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve received intelligence that the awakeners have started arge-scale battle among themselves¡¡± ¡°What?¡± A foreboding feeling crept up. I tried to close the vent of my mind, but the foreboding spread like the smell of durian. ¡°Oh. Um, is it a guild war? That¡¯s odd. The hierarchy should have been roughly settled under Samcheon World or Baekhwa Girls'' High by now.¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s a constetion war¡¡± A constetion war? ¡°Each ims that their constetion is the true one, and the others are heretics. It¡¯s a constetion war and a religious war. Damn it¡¡± Well. I guess it¡¯se to this¡ Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 163 Potato IV Nietzsche once said, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." I found myself agreeing, especially as Noh Do-hwa used her signature technique, ''Chokehold,'' on me. Fortunately, she missed, and I, a bit stronger, dashed to the scene. I wasn¡¯t running away. A brawl was in full swing at the scene. ¡°For our constetion!¡± ¡°Punish the heretics!¡± A throng of awakeners shed furiously beneath the giant Potato Saintess Robot Statue, now andmark in Busan (better than the Lotte trophy case). The gs were varied¡ªsome bore the words [Great Library], others [Dream Casino], and some even had shiny, Pok¨¦mon-like creatures instead of letters. What was that? All the constetions performed by the Saintess had gathered. ¡°Hey! You heretics worship a glittering mess that only sparkles when it dies!¡± ¡°How dare you! Our Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ reimed Pyongyang and founded the Great Eastern Holy Empire! Your Subus constetion can only y barat in a casino!¡±¡°I¡¯ve always hated the Collector of All Anomalies!¡± Those arguing were actually the milder ones. The real zealots believed more in fists than words. My inner Confucian boy trembled. After King Gung Ye, the founder of physiognomy, died, the Korean Penins had been a religion war-free zone. What was this chaos? ¡°Saintess. Saintess, are you listening? Please exin what¡¯s happening.¡± [¡¡.] Normally, Constetion Talk would have responded immediately, but it was silent now. Damn it. I had no choice but to enter the periphery of the brawl. There, Sim Ah-ryeon, another Saintess of the Korean Penins and the dark shadow of the Eastern Holy State, was busy healing the wounded. ¡°Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°Oh, guild leader¡¡± Even while responding to me, Sim Ah-ryeon didn¡¯t stop healing the injured. For a moment, I thought Mother Teresa had descended. Was Ah-ryeon truly the conscience of the Korean Penins? ¡°Seeing your face makes me feel relieved. But didn¡¯t you go to Pyongyangst week? Why are you here in Busan?¡± ¡°Huh? Well, the heretics are acting up, so naturally, we need to punish them and show them hellfire.¡± What. ¡°I took the express Inunaki Tunnel and came with the pdins. Some couldn¡¯t follow the rules and were eliminated, but it was an inevitable sacrifice in the holy war. They¡¯ve gone to a better ce¡¡± Upon her words, the nearby awakeners stood up in unison, shouting, ¡°The Saintess is right!¡± What the hell. It turned out Sim Ah-ryeon joined the event not as a healer but as a zealot. She wasn¡¯t the conscience of the Korean Penins; she was its tumor. I knocked out all the Eastern Holy Pdins around her. My standards for humanity were too high to tolerate their presence. ¡°Oh¡¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon. Are you fighting for the Morning Star of the Second Coming? These elites seem to be from Pyongyang. You brought them?¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± ¡°Are you crazy? You know the Morning Star of the Second Coming is fake. How could you do this¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s not fake!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon shouted without a single stutter. Her fierce momentum startled me. Had she ovee her stutter by nurturing Quirrell in her heart? Did the Saintess transfer her condition to her? ¡°Maybe it started as fake¡ But! Guild leader, do you think the Saintess¡¯s desire to protect the Korean Penins was fake?¡± ¡°No¡ That¡¯s not it¡¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Bang! Sim Ah-ryeon mmed a patient''s head while making her point. The sound of a cracking skull echoed. It was a clear medical malpractice. ¡°What determines the truth or falsehood of this world is the person''s purpose! It''s hidden behind the surface! Just like how I endured bloody tears on SG Net and acted as Old Man Goryeo for the greater good¡! The truth is visible to those who can see it!¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°The Morning Star of the Second Coming isn¡¯t fake. It¡¯s not even the shiny thing hidden in the Pyongyang Pce. The truth of the Morning Star lies in my heart. It exists in my heart¡¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°No matter how peoplebel it as fake, I don¡¯t care. Rather, I like it! Only I understand its true form. In a world full of fakes, only the Morning Star and I are genuine. Can you understand this sophisticated sentiment?¡± ¡°I see.¡± I nodded. ¡°Ipletely understand.¡± ¡°Oh! As expected of the guild leader! I knew you would¡¡± ¡°My dear Ah-ryeon has be too immersed in virtual YouTubers. I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t take care of you. Let¡¯s fix this.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I healed Sim Ah-ryeon, the healer. Being a Saintess of the North, traditional Russian healing methods worked best. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡ Guild leader¡¡± ¡°First, let me ask. Why are the awakeners causing havoc in Busan?¡± ¡°Oh. It¡¯s because the ¡®Witch Judge¡¯ on SG Net stirred up trouble, iming all constetions but theirs are heresy.¡± ¡°Stirred up trouble?¡± ¡°Yes¡ They said they have so much money that they buy dreams from the Dream Casino daily and y with their constetion in lucid dreams. It really pissed people off.¡± Dang Seo-rin¡ ¡°¡And then?¡± ¡°And since constetions require a one-on-one meeting, they have to buy dreams from the casino to meet them. The best tunnel is in Busan¡¡± ¡°So they invaded Busan to seize the tunnel entrance.¡± ¡°Yes¡ To punish the Samcheon World Guild Leader and take over the sacred ground.¡± Once a hell for Japanese awakeners, the Inunaki Tunnel had been converted into a caf¨¦, then a casino, and finally dubbed ¡®sacred ground.¡¯ Unbelievable. ¡°I understand. But what¡¯s with the gs without any letters, just Pok¨¦mon pictures?¡± ¡°Oh. Those are the cultists¡¡± ¡°Cultists?¡± ¡°Yes. Not all constetions are worshipped the same way. Those who worship constetions in animal forms have formed their own alliance¡¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°We call them the ¡®Fluffy Alliance.¡¯¡± Despair. At this moment, Korean awakeners had forever lost the right to criticize Japan''s magical girls. I walked into the war zone. My steps were heavy with dark self-reproach. ¡°It¡¯s the Undertaker!¡± ¡°The unbeliever Undertaker is here!¡± ¡°Worse than heretics, he¡¯s an unbeliever!¡± The awakeners in the middle of the religious war shouted upon seeing me¡ Wait. Do I really need to call them ¡®awakeners¡¯? Awakener means someone who is ¡®enlightened¡¯ and ¡®awakened.¡¯ It seemed too positive for these monkeys. I raised my fingers. ¡°Let¡¯s cool down.¡± And in 20 minutes, I knocked them all out. I didn¡¯t want to detail this battle scene. Not at all. I had no sadistic tendencies to expose my shame, and above all, I wanted to protect the dignity of others. For now, let me simply note that Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa were among the knocked-out awakeners. The chroniclers recording Injo¡¯s retreat to Namhansanseong would not have felt more miserable than I did now. ¡°Heal the seriously injured by tonight, Ah-ryeon. I¡¯ll let this slide.¡± ¡°Yes¡¡± Leaving the cleanup to Sim Ah-ryeon, I headed to the mastermind behind all this. Bang! My kick shattered the entrance of the Giant Potato Saintess Robot Statue. The Potato Saintesses inside screamed and fled. ¡°Saint~ess.¡± [Aaaah.] ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going? Did you think you could escape by pressing the time stop button?¡± Iughed darkly. ¡°What a pity. I didn¡¯t teach you the aura training method in this cycle. You can¡¯t move much even if you press it, right?¡± [Calm down, Mr. Undertaker.] The Potato Saintesses spoke urgently. [We can still resolve this. In fact, we are resolving it now.] [It¡¯s just a minor error.] [Within expected range.] [Trust us¡] ¡°It¡¯s summer.¡± [What?] ¡°And summer is potato harvest season.¡± I took something out of my pocket. It was a pair of work gloves. The Potato Saintess Robots screamed as they saw the gloves. I wore the gloves and destroyed the robots on sight. I separated the potatoes and swept them into cardboard boxesbeled ¡®Sumi Potatoes.¡¯ [Aaaah!] The potatoes screamed from inside the boxes. Seeing their dire fate, the Potato Saintesses desperately tried to escape. But it was futile. Having traveled with the Sword Marquess, my farming skills had reached a level of enlightenment. A few swings of my sickle and the potatoes were helplessly harvested. It was a bumper crop. [Something went wrong.] [We must have discovered the way to make all humans happy.] [But why do humans not find satisfaction in happiness and instead seek to exclude others?] [We did nothing wrong.] [Is another''s misfortune more valuable than one''s own happiness? Why?] [Iprehensible.] [The world is wrong.] Typical viin monologues. They sounded like a final boss making a grand exit, but potatoesmenting the world and humanity¡¯s ws had no persuasive power. [What will you do now?] [We are prepared for the fate of a failed revolutionary.] [Finally, freedom frombor!] [Mr. Undertaker, will you turn us into fries?] [Soaking in potato soup would feel like a hot spring bath.] [No more endless rail system aesthetics lectures from that witch!] [Leave me alone, Mr. Undertaker. You can fry all the others. How about studying Three Kingdoms with me?] Tempted by thest Potato Saintess¡¯s proposal, I managed to keep a straight face. Yes. The monkeys sumbed to such devilish whispers, and the Korean Penins became a mess. If even I, the Undertaker, devolved into a monkey, the 8-million-year evolution of primates would be in vain. Only I needed to regress. ¡°Enough.¡± Silence. All the potatoes in the boxes stopped chattering simultaneously. ¡°I won¡¯t turn you into fries. But I won¡¯t leave you as you are. First, let me check. Are all the potatoes here?¡± [Yes.] [Except for one exiled to Jeju Ind, everyone is here.] ¡°Exiled? To Jeju Ind? What¡ Never mind.¡± I¡¯d deal with the Jeju potatoter. For now, I tackled the task at hand. ¡°Listen up. I¡¯m going to turn the Saintess back into a human.¡± [Back?] [How?] [Wasn¡¯t a cure for reverting from a potato state to human never found?] ¡°That was true.¡± But who am I? Three years had passed since the Saintess turned into a potato. As an anomaly expert, of course, I came up with a strategy. The strategy wasn¡¯t grand. It was straightforward. ¡°Close your eyes, Saintesses. Oh, right. You don¡¯t have eyes.¡± Hiss¡ª I sprayed the potatoes with something. It was bug spray. The kind mosquitoes loved in summer. [Aaaah.] The potatoes convulsed at the bug spray. But the screams didn¡¯tst long. Soon, the potatoes vanished with a ¡®pop, pop,¡¯ and a radiant light engulfed them, concentrating into human form. The Saintess stared at her palm in bewilderment. ¡°Just as expected. Congrattions on returning to Homo sapiens after three years.¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker, what is this¡?¡± ¡°A transformation.¡± ¡°Transformation?¡± ¡°Yes. Franz Kafka¡¯s .¡± There was a famous novel with that title. I quoted its first line. One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. The Saintess nodded. She probably knew well, having Kafka¡¯splete works in her Yongsan house. ¡°When I turned into a potato, I wondered if it was simr to Kafka¡¯s novel. But I couldn¡¯t find any simrities.¡± ¡°There are actually many simrities.¡± First cause. The protagonist of is Gregor Samsa. And if you squint at ¡®Samsa¡¯¡ surprise, it looks just like ¡®Potato¡¯ (?? - Samsa and ?? - Gamja). ¡°Huh?¡± The Saintess was baffled. ¡°You¡¯re saying I turned into a potato because the letters looked simr? How is that logical¡¡± ¡°Anomalies follow morphological associations, not logical ones. To them, whales are fish, not mammals.¡± Of course, this wordy alone wasn¡¯t enough to turn a human into a potato (though not impossible). Second cause. ¡°Saintess, do you remember the testimony you gave me when you first turned into a potato?¡± ¡°Sorry, what testimony¡?¡± My Complete Memory ability came in handy here. Reflecting back, we discussed why she turned into a potato, having a conversation like this: ¡®What caused it? Did you break any taboos?¡¯ ¡®No. Except for a bug getting in my eye during a walk, which hurt a bit.¡¯ ¡®A bug in your eye?¡¯ ¡®Yes. Just a gnat. Besides that trivial incident, I can¡¯t think of any cause.¡¯ ording to this testimony, the Saintess got a minor injury when a gnat entered her eye just before turning into a potato. This seemingly trivial detail was the crucial clue. ¡°You¡¯re the observer of the Korean Penins. Always keeping an eye on the awakeners to prevent serious crimes.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. But why¡?¡± ¡°Look closely at the word ¡®observer.¡¯¡± I carved the Hanja characters on the floor with my knife. Observer (???) ±OÒ•Õß. Watch ±O, eye Ò•, person Õß. ¡°In these characters, Ò• means ¡®eye¡¯. Think back. Didn¡¯t a bug injure your eye during a walk?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Thus.¡± Swipe, swipe. I erased the character from the floor, reducing the three-character word to two. Po¡ötato (?¡ö?) ±O¡öÕß. ¡°Ta-da. When your eye was injured, you turned from an observer to a potato.¡± ¡°No way¡¡± ¡°Being hurt by a bug wasn¡¯t good. It linked directly to Kafka¡¯s . When the observer of the Korean Penins¡¯s eye was injured by a bug, the anomaly targeted you.¡± That was the cause of the Potato Saintess uproar. Sharp readers would remember the title of the story where I first introduced the Saintess. The subheading was ¡®Observer.¡¯ It was a foreshadowing of this incident. ¡°The anomaly that turned you into a potato was mediated by a bug, so bug spray was enough to reverse it. That¡¯s why you returned after being hit with mosquito spray.¡± ¡°Anomalies truly exist everywhere and can infect anyone¡¡± ¡°Indeed. That¡¯s why you should wear sunsses or sses while walking. The fate of the Korean Penins hinges on your eye health.¡± The Saintess closed her lips. Then she whispered softly. ¡°Yes¡¡± That was the end of her resolution. There is an epilogue. As mentioned earlier, one Potato Saintess had been exiled to Jeju Ind. Since a single potato could be cultivated endlessly, I went to Jeju and captured the potato. [I see. The situation has been resolved.] Surprisingly, this potato¡¯s number was 264. It was the revolutionary potato with a red headband that led the resistance against the First Saintesses. The 264th Potato epted capture quietly. The potato in my shoulder bag suddenly muttered. [Maybe I wanted to be a nt.] ¡°Pardon?¡± [Animals can move. They can interfere with reality, with the world.] [nts can¡¯t. More urately, they can¡¯t even if they want to.] I blinked. ¡°So, the Saintess wanted to be a nt. Is that what you¡¯re saying?¡± [Yes.] It was the end of summer. The vast coastline was woven with white waves like tangled vines. [I wanted to passively ept everything and escape from all the things that angered and hurt me. It was my deep subconscious desire.] So, perhaps I became a nt¨D the Saintess added. Indeed. I couldn¡¯t rule out that possibility. The interpretation that her subconscious longing for nts allowed the anomaly to infiltrate made sense. But this hypothesis had ws, so I rebutted. ¡°Perhaps. But didn¡¯t you still try to do something for the world after bing a potato?¡± [¡¡.] ¡°You couldn¡¯t stay still even as a nt. You were the most human-like human when you were human, and the most non-potato-like potato when you were a potato.¡± I didn¡¯t see this as a negative conclusion. A fixed point was necessary in the life of a long regressor. The Saintess, who almost always remained ¡®herself,¡¯ was a grateful presence for me. ¡°Transforming into something else is futile. Your essence remains yours.¡± [¡¡.] For a while, only the sound of wavespping like vines surrounded us. [Thank you, Mr. Undertaker.] And with that, I, the Undertaker, became the first human to receive gratitude from a potato. It was a fitting end to this story. Incidentally, in the space where I lived during this cycle, there was a decorated flowerpot and a blue-sprouting potato. And the potato loved it when I watered it with coffee. I will document this fact calmly. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 164 Bloodsucker I Since the previous story mentioned , let''s talk about another bug today. The most beloved bug for Koreans. The ruler of summer. A quantum mechanical bug whose existence cannot be confirmed until observed. The vampire pilot currently flying noisily in front of my eyes. Bzzz... That¡¯s right. Today''s main character is the mosquito. ¡°Hyah! Ha! Heeyah!¡± One day, I returned to the hideout to find Sim Ah-ryeon dancing in the lobby. Of course, if you can define ¡®making strange noises and pping in all directions¡¯ as dancing. p! p! p! p! Sim Ah-ryeon pped her hands repeatedly in the empty air. As far as I knew, she had never reached the level of Sword Heart in any of the cycles and wasn¡¯t likely to. It didn¡¯t seem like her movements held any special meaning unless she was summoning Cthulhu or Nyathotep in a cult ritual.¡°Ah-ryeon, what on earth are you doing?¡± ¡°Oh, guild leader! Catch the mosquito for me!¡± I blinked. ¡°A mosquito? We have mosquitoes in our hideout? Did it get through the Inunaki Tunnel?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. It feels like one mosquito has been following me sincest night. It keeps buzzing around my field of vision, but I can¡¯t catch it at all¡¡± Upon closer inspection, her wrists and forearms indeed had plump mosquito bites like pimples. ¡°Ah-ryeon, you''re a guild member who received aura training from me, and you''re losing sleep over a mere mosquito¡¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my fault! It¡¯s super fast!¡± She twisted and turned her body, pping her hands. Bzzz... All her attacks missed. The mosquito flew gracefully and leisurely, mocking her feeble attempts. ¡°See? Guild leader! This damn mosquito is mocking me!¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that! Seriously, this summer¡¯s mosquitoes are weird. They¡¯re super fast and tough¡ Didn¡¯t you notice?¡± ¡°Of course not. I wear aura protection 24/7, so mosquitoes can¡¯t bite me. It¡¯s been hundreds of years since Ist got bitten.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s jaw dropped. ¡°No way¡ Sometimes I wonder if you¡¯re really human. You¡¯re so inhuman¡¡± It was a strange coincidence. I often thought the same when looking at Ah-ryeon. But maybe this time I should have listened to the defeated Ah-ryeon. Even a broken clock is critical for two seconds a day. It was summer. A particrly hot summer. - Anonymous: Mosquitoes are driving me crazytely... ©¸ Anonymous: Right? No matter how many I kill, they keeping. I built my hideout in the middle of the void, but these crazy mosquitoes still show up. I killed 15 just yesterday; - Anonymous: Damn bloodsuckers,y off! Two weeks after Ah-ryeon¡¯s whining, posts titled ''Crazy Weather'' and ''I Want to Kill These Damn Mosquitoes'' flooded SG Net. At the time, I thought nothing of it. I even scoffed at the MZ-generation awakeners for their weakness. ¡®These young folks. Can¡¯t they raise their aura level to keep their bodies cool?¡¯ The rapid rise in mosquito hatred in summer on Korean forums was not unusual. It happened in every era. It wasn¡¯t something to make a fuss over. Especially since the apocalypse era, humanity had lost its close rtionship with air conditioners and fans. Every summer, people faced the grim choice between ¡®closing windows and experiencing a sauna¡¯ or ¡®opening windows and donating blood to mosquitoes.¡¯ Most chose to donate blood. Even the privileged awakeners couldn¡¯t escape the Korean summer. ¡°Dang Seo-rin, are you okay?¡± ¡°Huh¡?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t look well. If you¡¯re tired, you can go back to the hideout and rest. You don¡¯t have to eat with me if you¡¯re not feeling well.¡± Sitting across from me, Dang Seo-rin looked like she hadn¡¯t slept all night. We usually dined together at least once a month. But today, she seemed unusually drained. ¡°Ah¡ Thanks for worrying. But it¡¯s nothing.¡± ¡°Is something bothering you?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s just that mosquitoes have been so noisy at night, I keep waking up. I can¡¯t get a good night''s sleep, and it¡¯s making me tired.¡± Dang Seo-rin yawned. I blinked. ¡°You? Losing sleep over mosquitoes?¡± ¡°Yes? Oh, yes. I developed a magic spell to repel insects, but it doesn¡¯t work on mosquitoes. I might need to improve it.¡± ¡°How long have you been losing sleep?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see¡ Haah¡ About a week now.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± From that point, a sense of rm crept up my spine. It was hard to believe that even Dang Seo-rin, a top-tier awakener, had been tormented by mere mosquitoes for a week. After our meal, I immediately contacted the Korean Penins Science Vessel. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Yes.] The response came quickly. A good example that privacy was a luxury a regressor couldn¡¯t afford. ¡°Are you also troubled by mosquitoestely?¡± [Ah, many people are suffering from mosquitoes. The summer heat has weakened people¡¯s energypared tost year.] [I stop time when I sleep, so I¡¯m not disturbed like others.] However, the Saintess added. [When I¡¯m awake, mosquitoes constantly bother me.] ¡°Do mosquitoes cling to you unusually often?¡± [Yes. It wasn¡¯t always like this. But after you told me the story about the ¡®Potato Robots¡¯ from another cycle, mosquitoes have be very aggressive.] I couldn¡¯t see the connection between the Potato Saintess story and mosquitoes, but it became somewhat clear. ¡°This is likely an anomaly.¡± [What?] ¡°Dang Seo-rin has been tormented by mosquitoes for a week. She even used an insect-repelling spell.¡± [I didn¡¯t know. I intentionally avoid listening when you talk to others.] ¡°This hasn¡¯t happened before. It might be an abnormal situation emerging after other Outer Gods were defeated.¡± When an Outer God was defeated, ¡®things that didn¡¯t happen in previous cycles¡¯ always urred. Like aftershocks following a major earthquake, these abnormal events arose from the disruption of a delicate bnce among the Outer Gods. ¡°This ¡®Mosquito Anomaly¡¯ likely appeared due to such disruptions.¡± [An anomaly with mosquitoes.] Bzzz... A mosquito flew in front of me. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t care, but given the suspicion of an anomaly, it was very irritating. [But if an anomaly spreads through mosquito bites, how can we stop it?] There was a hint of perplexity in the Saintess¡¯s otherwise emotionless voice. [Unless one is an awakener with perfected aura like you, is it possible to avoid mosquito bites in the Korean summer?] [Is there a solution?] I reached out and lightly pped the mosquito in front of me. Smack! The mosquito exploded, sttering dark blood all over. I wiped my hand. ¡°I¡¯ll find that solution.¡± I immediately sought out Sim Ah-ryeon and exined the situation. Naturally, she was shocked. ¡°What? An anomaly¡?¡± ¡°Yes. And you were the first to notice it. I need your help.¡± ¡°Eek¡¡± As we talked, I noticed something strange about her appearance. She looked haggard, with sunken eyes. It seemed she hadn¡¯t slept well for weeks due to mosquitoes. But at the same time, there was a peculiar sense of satisfaction. A strange calm and tranquility. ¡°Actually, I did find it odd.¡± ¡°What exactly?¡± ¡°I was extremely tired fromck of sleep, but recently, I¡¯ve started feeling better¡¡± Feeling better? I felt a chill run down my spine. ¡°You mean like the feeling you get from drugs?¡± ¡°Huh? No. Not like drugs. My mind remains clear. It¡¯s more like I don¡¯t get stressed, even when I recall embarrassing memories¡ Oh.¡± Bzzz... A mosquitonded on her hand. Sim Ah-ryeon smiled weakly. A while ago, she would have pped frantically. Now, she looked at the mosquito affectionately. ¡°Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°Look, guild leader. Normally, when I recall my dark past, I¡¯d scream and squirm, right?¡± ¡°¡You did.¡± ¡°I¡¯m thinking about my middle school days now. I thought I was a genius greater than Da Vinci and embarrassed myself countless times. Like setting up an easel at art exhibitions and hanging my paintings there. Haha. Just remembering it makes me want to roll on the floor in embarrassment¡¡± Sssuck. The mosquito inserted its proboscis and sucked her blood. It was so practiced it could outdo a veteran nurse¡¯s injection skills. ¡°Ah¡¡± She shuddered with pleasure. ¡°It doesn¡¯t bother me anymore.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Yes, I might have been wrong in middle school. But wasn¡¯t seeing the world that way a privilege of youth? Maybe I¡¯ve been too harsh on myself¡¡± Unbelievable. ¡°Ah-ryeon.¡± I put on a serious expression. ¡°You were the vice president of your high school¡¯s student council, right?¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, yes. Back then, I was very stormy¡ How do you know that? Oh, the other me from another cycle told you.¡± ¡°Yes. And you threw your prepared speech on the stage and said, ¡®Everyone! I can¡¯t express my feelings for you with these poor words!¡¯ trying to give a live speech, but you stuttered the whole time since you had no experience¨D¨D¡± ¡°Aaaah!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon convulsed. ¡°Stop! Please stop! How do you know that? Which cycle¡¯s me told you that? Why are you telling me this? Ah, ah! My dark past! My dark past! Aaaah!¡± Sssuck. The mosquito sucked her blood again. ¡°Ah.¡± Then an astonishing thing happened. Her face, twisted in convulsion, suddenly rxed. Like a monk reaching enlightenment. ¡°Ah¡ That did happen. But isn¡¯t that also a privilege of youth? Pretending to be special¡ No one starts out special.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°Pretending to be special, acting special, gradually building one¡¯s uniqueness¡ And realizing that being special isn¡¯t as happy as one thought, letting go of the obsession with being special, and cherishing the connections around you. It¡¯s just an inevitable part of youth¡¡± At that moment, I remembered what the Saintess had said. -Yes. It wasn¡¯t always like this. -But since you told me the story of the Potato Robot from another cycle. -Mosquitoes have be very aggressive. Indeed. The mosquito anomaly this summer wasn¡¯t just about drawing blood. Incredibly, these mosquitoes were also sucking out people''s ''dark pasts.'' Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 165 Bloodsucker II To be honest, as the Undertaker, my dark past wasn¡¯t particrly painful. It was like trying to tease Buddha by saying, ¡°Hey, I heard you pointed to the sky and dered yourself unique the moment you were born. Aren¡¯t you embarrassed?¡± Butterflies don¡¯t feel ashamed of their caterpir days. I was lenient with others and myself. But it seemed different for others. -Anonymous: Is it weird that getting bitten by mosquitoes feels good? Is it just me? (Photo) -Anonymous: It feels so good I trapped a mosquito in a ss and let it bite me every hour. My arm is bumpy, but rubbing it feels oddly satisfying. Try raising a ''pet mosquito'' yourselves... ©¸LiteraryGirl: Are you insane? ©¸Anonymous: Lol, I¡¯ve also gotten addicted to mosquito bites, so I stopped killing them. d I¡¯m not the only one. ©¸[Baekhwa] FifthGrader: That¡¯s an anomaly! Getting bitten is dangerous! (>_<);; ©¸Anonymous: Lots of crazy people here.©¸[NRMC] Officer: I don¡¯t understand this at all. The atmosphere on SG Net began to change. Just days ago, it was filled with anger and curses against mosquitoes. Now, the idea of ''pet mosquitoes'' was popping up. It was a sign that the mosquito anomaly was revealing its true nature. The situation was dire. ¡°Saintess, didn¡¯t you warn the awakeners about mosquitoes in your constetion messages?¡± [Yes, I did. I keep reminding them daily under different constetions¡¯ names.] ¡°Yet, people keep getting bitten?¡± [Well, it¡¯s mosquitoes we¡¯re talking about.] It was a ssic case of knowing something was bad but still falling for it. Escaping mosquitoes in Korea was practically impossible. Even with windows sealed, they always found a way in. [The problem is that people feel pleasure when bitten by mosquitoes.] ¡°Pleasure? Seriously, they feel pleasure?¡± [Yes. Try it yourself, Mr. Undertaker. One bite won¡¯t hurt you.] I tried it. I dropped my aura shield and let a mosquitond on my hand. I pulled off its wings, so it couldn¡¯t fly away. Sssuck. The mosquito, desperate to survive, sucked my blood. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t feel any pleasure.¡± [Hmm. I think it¡¯s because you don¡¯t have much of a ''dark past,'' Mr. Undertaker. I suspect the more someone has, the more pleasure they feel.] ¡°Wait, if that¡¯s the case, then Ah-ryeon, who¡¯s been bitten the most¡?¡± [She must have a lot of embarrassing memories, at least more than anyone on the Korean Penins.] Indeed. The situation worsened by the day. Literally, every hour, the mosquito anomaly intensified. Posts about feeling good after mosquito bites increased, while posts about feeling bad decreased. A new term, ¡®mosquito drug,¡¯ even emerged on the forums. -Anonymous: I¡¯ve had insomnia since finishing the tutorial dungeon. -Anonymous: Seeing people die in front of me gave me trauma. -Anonymous: But after getting bitten by mosquitoes, I sleep well. I¡¯m grateful to be alive. -Anonymous: Constetions warn about the danger, but I can¡¯t sleep without mosquito bites. Yes. Though called ''dark pasts,'' these memories were psychological traumas, potentially leading to PTSD. It wasn¡¯t surprising people had mental health issues in a world where DNA could turn into a potato due to a bug in the eye. Every day, people vanished. More precisely, their ''humanity'' disappeared. People depended on external things to cope. Alcohol, drugs, the Three Kingdoms... Anything. In such times, the Potato Saintess¡¯s virtual counseling project thrived. Despite using the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance, controlling mosquito breeding was impossible. How could you catch all mosquitoes? ¡°This is serious, Undertaker.¡± Even Dang Seo-rin asionallyined to me. ¡°We¡¯ve installed mosquitos on every train window, checked drains, run fans, eliminated puddles¡ Yet mosquitoes keep appearing.¡± ¡°Does DDT help?¡± ¡°It works temporarily, but they develop resistance in two weeks.¡± I sighed. The Void elerated the adaptation of life forms. What took decades elsewhere happened in days here. Dinosaurs evolved in years, so mosquitoes developing pesticide resistance in a week was no surprise. ¡°Look at this.¡± Dang Seo-rin showed me a photo. It was of a bald person whose head looked like a pine cone, covered in mosquito bites. ¡°He¡¯s from our guild. His whole body is bitten. It¡¯s pitiful.¡± ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°But he says he¡¯s happy, feeling liberated from past pains.¡± Dang Seo-rin sighed. ¡°His entire body is bitten. We locked him up, but he begged to be bitten again. The world¡¯s gone mad. Someone might die from blood loss.¡± ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°Me? I¡¯m fine. I keep the fan running, so it¡¯s manageable.¡± Dang Seo-rin looked worried. ¡°But if this continues next year¡ It¡¯ll be tough. Undertaker, can¡¯t you do something?¡± After the rainy season, mosquitoes multiplied. Just as Dang Seo-rin feared, people began dying from blood loss due to excessive mosquito bites. ¡®How can we eradicate this anomaly?¡¯ I pondered deeply. Mass breeding dragonflies, mosquitoes¡¯ natural predators? It could work, butplete eradication seemed impossible. Training MZ awakeners to master aura defense? A fundamental solution, but it would take at least 20 years. Could the mosquito anomaly have merged with a ¡®vampire¡¯ anomaly? The pleasure from bloodsucking suggested a connection. But why would mere mosquitoes dare to menace Koreans, descendants of the garlic-eating people¡? ¡°Hmm.¡± Stuck, I wandered the hideout¡¯s lobby. Oh Dok-seo, who was also there, yelled. ¡°Hey! If you¡¯re going to pace around, go outside!¡± ¡°Dok-seo, I¡¯m contemting humanity¡¯s survival. You should leave.¡± ¡°Huh? I¡¯m fighting for humanity too!¡± Oh Dok-seo held up a manuscript. ¡°Look! I¡¯m writing a novel! If I fail, an Outer God will descend. Who cares about mosquitoes?¡± She was right. Oh Dok-seo was writing on manuscript paper. Rolled-up draftsy around, suggesting dissatisfaction with her writing. ¡°It¡¯s admirable you¡¯re writing, but why here? Write in your room.¡± ¡°Argh! I¡¯m here because I can¡¯t write in my room! Don¡¯t scold me when I¡¯m stressed about writing! I¡¯m writing for you!¡± ¡°Um¡ You scolded me first¡¡± ¡°Aaaah!¡± Oh Dok-seo grabbed her head and screamed. ¡°I hate writing! Why did past me decide to write? Idiot! Moron! Bitch! Die!¡± ¡°Hmm¡¡± It seemed Oh Dok-seo had severe ¡®writing aversion.¡¯ I¡¯d seen many writers in simr states running the Canned Hotel, so I was used to it. Then, I noticed a mosquito. Bzzz... The mosquito flew gracefully. I raised my aura to swat it but paused. Its target wasn¡¯t me or Oh Dok-seo. It was Oh Dok-seo¡¯s discarded manuscript. And an astonishing scene unfolded. Sssuck. The mosquitonded on the manuscript and ''sucked'' the ink. It wasn¡¯t blood. It was ink from the manuscript. The mosquito slurped it like fine wine. ¡°Huh?¡± I watched the mosquito¡¯s bloodsucking... No, ink-sucking in a daze. After feasting on the ink, the mosquito flew away, ignoring our blood. It fluttered off like it had no need for inferior drinks after tasting the best. A eureka moment struck me. ¡°Dark past¡!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Right, it¡¯s the dark past! We need to let it feed on dark pasts!¡± Why didn¡¯t I think of this? The mosquito anomaly was drawn to dark pasts, not blood. So it didn¡¯t matter if the dark pasts weren¡¯t in human form. ¡°Saintess. Saintess, please respond. It¡¯s urgent.¡± [Yes? What is it?] ¡°Do you remember the Potato Robot story I told you from another cycle?¡± [Oh.] The Saintess Talk connection crackled briefly. [Sorry, a mosquito flew by¡ Anyway, I remember. But why bring it up?] ¡°Write down the Potato Saintess story yourself. Like a diary.¡± [What?] ¡°Then leave it in your room. I guarantee, mosquitoes will swarm the diary like incense.¡± [¡¡.] The next day. [...It worked.] The Saintess¡¯s voice was akin to that of a geocentric believer confronting heliocentric truth. [I left the diary out overnight, and 24 mosquitoes stuck to it. None came near my bed.] ¡°Just as I thought.¡± [¡¡.] ¡°Contact the writers at the Canned Hotel. Have them transcribe their old drafts. The older, the better¡ªhigh school or middle school.¡± [¡¡.] ¡°And it¡¯s not just novels. Even old social media posts will work. Cyworld-era posts are ideal.¡± [Are you a devil, Mr. Undertaker?] ¡°Pardon?¡± [Nothing. This is for humanity. I¡¯ll ry the message.] Time reversed at the Canned Hotel. Writers across the Korean Penins poured their efforts into transcribing their high school and middle school drafts. It wasn¡¯t an easy task. ¡°Damn it! Just kill me!¡± ¡°Aaaah! No! This piece is absolutely not okay!¡± ¡°Forgive me! Using angle brackets and wavy titles was trendy then!¡± ¡°Can I fix typos? Please, show some humanity.¡± ¡°I deleted this work! Why do you have a copy?¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather die¡¡± I whipped the writers into shape. Finally, Ipiled ¡®The Top 100 Most Embarrassing Works in Korean Literature.¡¯ After mass-printing them at the factory, I distributed a copy to every household. ¡°Aaaah!¡± ¡°Why? Why such cruelty?¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s just die¡ Let¡¯s just die¡¡± Great writers wailed as their past works (and social media posts) were publicly exposed. But I didn¡¯t care. The more they suffered, the better the solution. If asked why I tormented writers I admired... Because their past works didn¡¯t embarrass me. I even enjoyed their middle school parody drafts. I didn¡¯t see the problem. Thanks to the writers¡¯ tear-soaked manuscripts, people were safe from the mosquito anomaly. Pasting manuscripts on doors lured all mosquitoes there. It was a historic moment when mosquitoes overcame their stalker-like obsession with humanity. Oh Dok-seo, who contributed significantly, muttered in disbelief. ¡°¡Wait. Does this mean all my current works will be dark pasts? Damn. Mister! Kill all mosquitoes! They¡¯re calling your novels dark pasts!¡± And that¡¯s the end. No epilogue today. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 166 Trantor/Editor: Ryuu Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 166 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Traveler I As you all know, whenever I, the Undertaker, felt stressed, I often took vacations. True to a regressor''s style, my breaks were grand. I didn¡¯t rest for just a week or two¡ªI dedicated an entire cycle to a vacation. But what about other awakeners? Of course, Sim Ah-ryeon, whose everyday life was practically a vacation, didn''t need one, and Noh Do-hwa, whose mind was possessed by Zhuge Liang, didn¡¯t even have the concept of rest. But those two belonged to the realm of the ¡®non-human.¡¯ I was talking about humans. Normal people needed rest.Even Dang Seo-rin, who was very humanpared to those two (having experienced corruption), was no exception. ¡°Hey, Undertaker? Want to go on a trip?¡± One day, I returned to the hideout to find Dang Seo-rin casually sitting in my chair, eating potato chips. If you faced such a situation, how would you react? A. Trip? Out of the blue? Have you been drinking alone again? B. Sorry, could you wait another thousand years? Both answers were wrong. I answered like this. ¡°A trip sounds good. Where do you want to go?¡± Here¡¯s a tip for dealing with people. If someone suddenly says they want to travel, just go along with it. Otherwise, your head might take a long trip. ¡°Heh? I didn¡¯t expect you to agree right away. Aren¡¯t you busy? Do you have time for a trip with me?¡± ¡°You¡¯re just as busy. But I always make time for a trip, no matter how busy I am. It¡¯s part of my busy life.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Guild leader Dang Seo-rinughed, clearly pleased with my answer. I knew I wasn¡¯t wrong. ¡°Really? Then let¡¯s really go on a trip.¡± ¡°Sure. Do you have a destination in mind?¡± I pressed her further. ¡°A destination¡ Hmm, not really. Just somewhere far. Not too close like Jeju Ind.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± It felt like when a friend vaguely suggested eating out somewhere. ¡°I have some rmendations for you.¡± But I was a regressor. This wasn¡¯t the first time Dang Seo-rin had suddenly wanted to travel, so I had prepared for almost every possibility. I confidently handed her a travel guide. The neat cover and printing quality were good enough to be disyed in a bookstore. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s this? ...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a travel guide I made just for you. The first chapter is Hawaii. It¡¯s a perfect ¡®resort void.¡¯ Except for the high costs, it¡¯s highly rmended.¡± Though the constant Pearl Harbor attack reenactments and asional SCP sightings were unique, Hawaii (Travel Difficulty: ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï) was rated well. ¡°Undertaker, you¡¡± Dang Seo-rin looked deeply touched by my insane preparedness. I smiled inwardly. Sess. ¡°Sounds good, but do you have any other options?¡± Damn it. Normally, that would¡¯ve been enough to settle for finding good restaurants. But if it were that simple, this wouldn¡¯t be an episode-worthy story. ¡°We see the sea every day here. I want something different. How about Paris?¡± ¡°Which Paris?¡± ¡°What do you mean, which Paris?¡± Dang Seo-rin tilted her head. ¡°Paris, France. What else?¡± ¡°It¡¯syered with eras. There are six different Parises: during the Huguenot Wars, the French Revolution, World War II, and so on. Do you want to experience religious wars and witch trials? Then it¡¯s the Huguenot Wars. Fancy seeing guillotines and Napoleon? Then it¡¯s the Revolution. Choose your vor of Paris romance.¡± ¡°Really, what is an anomaly¡?¡± ¡°That reaction is the essence of an anomaly.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± She carefully examined the I made. ¡°Ah. Let¡¯s go here.¡± She pointed decisively at a spot. Uyuni Salt ts (Travel Difficulty: ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡î). ¡°Hmm.¡± Uyuni, where the desert flooded after rain, turning it into a horizon that mirrored the sky. The most brilliant ¡®mirror¡¯ on Earth. It was located in Bolivia, South America. Back in the day, the Inca Empire ruled the area, known for valuing heart beauty over facial beauty. Anomalies warped space and time like taffy. Paris could simultaneously host witch trials and revolutions, while Uyuni could hold ¡®Who has the prettiest heart?¡¯ contests. ¡°¡¡¡± A bead of sweat formed in my mind. Uyuni was already a challenging destination. In this post-apocalyptic world, its difficulty skyrocketed. I scrutinized Dang Seo-rin¡¯s expression, trying to gauge her mood like a North Korean citizen reading their leader¡¯s face. ¡°Hmm? How about here? I¡¯ve always wanted to visit.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± The leader was quite excited. Faced with such a situation, how would you respond? Swallowing my reluctance, I said without showing any displeasure, ¡°Let¡¯s go. The Uyuni Salt ts. I¡¯ve always wanted to visit.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s leave tomorrow!¡± ¡°Are you serious¡?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Tomorrow¡¯s too soon. The day after tomorrow.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± The next day, Dang Seo-rin hadn¡¯t sobered up and resumed her guild duties. Instead, she was fully prepared. She had a red leather trunk and wore sunsses. Her airport fashion was perfect, with extra ir in her witch hat and robe. I sighed inwardly. ¡°Whoever said regressors were omnipotent was wrong. I can¡¯t even predict tomorrow¡¯s fate¡¡± ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°Nothing. We¡¯ll be gone for at least a week or two. Will the Samcheon Guild be okay?¡± ¡°Of course. I¡¯ve been hinting for months that I wanted a break. They should be ready. If not, I¡¯ll purge them. Are you okay?¡± ¡°I told you, it¡¯s fine.¡± Noh Do-hwa, managing the National Road Management Corps, would probably go berserk with anger when I returned, but she wouldn¡¯t kill me. Dang Seo-rin gave me sunsses and giggled. ¡°Are we taking your private ne? The, what was it? Red Dog?¡± ¡°Red Pig. Savoy S-21 modified. And no, it can¡¯t fly to South America. Not enough fuel.¡± ¡°Then how?¡± ¡°I have a way. You¡¯re lucky. Guides like me are rare nowadays.¡± ¡°Ooh. Confidence.¡± We took the Inunaki Tunnel. Knowing I was traveling, the tunnel seemed unusually weing. ¡ú Trap here ¡ú (Caution) Ghost appears! Be careful! Have a good trip. (Congrats) These Japanese phrases were graffitied on the walls. Regr magical girl murals must have raised their favorability. We arrived in Seoul via the high-speed path. ¡°Dang Seo-rin, do you know Korea¡¯s first airport?¡± ¡°Huh? Gimpo Airport?¡± ¡°No, Yeouido Airport.¡± There was once such an airport. Yeouido was perfect for aircraft, as evident from Robot Taekwon Vunching from the National Assembly. It disappeared into history, overshadowed by Gimpo, but now it thrived as Korea¡¯s only international airport. Dang Seo-rin looked puzzled. ¡°Was there always such a facility in Yeouido?¡± ¡°No. The ''Comprehensive Ie Tax Anomaly'' appears every May. When taxes umte past a certain point, the ''Yeouido Airport'' void forms.¡± ¡°Ugh. Are we building an airport with our taxes? An anomaly?¡± ¡°Yes. They take their government role seriously, using taxes properly. They¡¯re anomalies, but effective.¡± ¡°Really, what is an anomaly¡?¡± As usual, I skipped the reactions. Dang Seo-rin tugged my sleeve. ¡°Hey, Undertaker.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°The airport windows are all red? Hundreds of red handprints? Am I seeing things?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s the interior design.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Modern architecture favored void style. Red-stained windows were just cute details. Yeouido Airport originally operated before overseas travel wasmon. Back then, traveling abroad was a luxury for a select few. Naturally, the officials at the immigration desk were stern. - Where are you from? An anomaly officer mumbled, mimicking human speech. The desire to teach SCVs trying to flee was palpable. His acting was impressive. If his eyes weren¡¯t fingers, I might¡¯ve believed him. ¡°Here¡¯s my ID.¡± I handed over my ID. I¡¯d farmed it at Namsan the day before. It took two days to prepare. - Ah. You¡¯re from the Special Forces. The anomaly¡¯s tone became respectful. - We received notice yesterday. But who¡¯s the person with you¡? I feigned annoyance. ¡°Do I need to exin everything?¡± - No, of course not. My apologies. Proceed, agent. The airport swarmed with anomalies, but we walked to the boarding gate easily. ¡°This isn¡¯t the overseas trip I imagined¡¡± Dang Seo-rin murmured. ¡°For South America, this is the easiest way.¡± Ignoring the 60% crash rate, it was a good mode of travel. As we walked to the gate, I exined, ¡°We¡¯ll go to Spain first. From there, it¡¯s easier to travel to South America and gain bonuses rted to Inca anomalies. The flight is longer but safer¡ª¡± When we finally boarded, I stopped talking. Dang Seo-rin, who was following me, also halted. ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Uh.¡± The old ne already had 212 passengers, paired off. And all 212 had our faces. Dressed as if they were also traveling. They stared at us, and we stared back. A total of 107 Undertakers and 107 Dang Seo-rins in silence. ¡°¡¡.¡± ¡°¡Is this part of the interior, Undertaker?¡± Hmm. This was unexpected. Footnotes: Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 167 Trantor/Editor: Ryuu Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell Chapter 167 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Traveler II As I looked at them, they looked back at me. The ¡®Undertaker¡¯ sitting in the emergency exit row, legs crossed, gave me a crooked look. - Wee, Undertaker.- I don¡¯t know which world¡¯s Undertaker you are, but it seems there are 107 of us. - Including ourpanions, that makes 214. Murmurs spread through the ne. Hundreds of Undertakers added theirments or sneered. The ne became noisy in an instant. - If you¡¯re all actually people, I guess using ¡®107¡¯ as a unit is fine. But what if all of you, except me, are anomalies? - Oh, a smart ¡®me.¡¯ I was just thinking the same thing. Would you like to volunteer as the first to be exterminated? My head started spinning. ¡°Wait. Instead of murmuring among yourselves, exin this to me. What kind of anomaly is this? A doppelg?nger? But the doppelg?nger is in Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s Pok¨¦ Ball right now.¡± - Exin? If what¡¯s inside your skull is a bird brain, count the numbers, idiot. The ¡®Undertakers¡¯ sighed, shrugged, or crunched in-flight peanuts. - You¡¯re the 107th ¡®me.¡¯ - Got it? 107th. We¡¯ve exined this to every new arrival, so we¡¯ve repeated the exnation dozens of times. No matter how entertaining each cycle is, repeating the same exnation isn¡¯t enjoyable. - No choice. I¡¯ll exin this time. Another Undertaker stood up. Interestingly, this one wore a Sherlock Holmes hat, perhaps imagining himself born on Baker Street in London. Even though we were the same Undertaker, the details varied. Some even cosyed with theirpanions in animal costumes. What¡¯s up with that? - Each of us decided to travel with Dang Seo-rin for different reasons. You¡¯re the 107th. Where are you nning to go? ¡°¡Uyuni Salt ts.¡± - Oh. I see. Sighs came from all around. Sherlock 106 looked at us with deep sympathy. - Ha-yul lost her heart there once. - In your world, did Ha-yul die in the 110th cycle? How ipetent. I saved her. - Isn¡¯t that ce where Inca and Aztec mythsbined into a horrifying hybrid? - It¡¯s where humanity first developed a perpetual motion machine. It automatically recharges with sr energy if you offer a human heart. ¡°......¡± Dang Seo-rin squeezed my hand tightly. Her palm felt hotter than usual. ¡°¡Undertaker, what are they talking about? Cycles? Traveling with Ha-yul?¡± - Silly. All of us, including your Undertaker, are regressors. You, the 107th ¡®me.¡¯ The Dang Seo-rin in the front row spoke. This Dang Seo-rin wore a school uniform, not her usual witch hat and robe. A school uniform? Wasn¡¯t that the exclusive uniform of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High? Of course, the original Dang Seo-rin (107th) didn¡¯t like that outfit. She looked at the uniformed Dang Seo-rin as if she were a North Korean soldier at a South Korean military parade. ¡°What about you?¡± - I¡¯m Dang Seo-rin. And a polite person trying to kindly exin the situation to someone wearing a ridiculous outfit. The uniformed Dang Seo-rin smiled. - Undertaker is a regressor. He¡¯s been through hundreds of cycles. If you¡¯re also ¡®me,¡¯ you might have suspected it. ¡°......¡± - Next, you¡¯ll ask the Undertaker if it¡¯s true. Understandable, but consider our perspective. I¡¯ve watched that scene 100 times already. Then, an Undertaker sitting in the middle of the ne stood up. This one spoke formally. - Everyone. One of us must get off here. ¡°What?¡± - Have you all gentlemen anddies still not been able to figure it out? The formal-speaking Undertaker smirked. - With this final Undertaker, the number of people on this ne is confirmed at 214. Exactly matching the death toll of Flight 801 in 1997.[1] - Ah. - Indeed. - You finally realized? Betterte than never. If this ne takes off, a disaster is inevitable. ¡°Oh......¡± I was impressed. He was smart. Annoying, but smart. He even shushed us with a finger to his lips. It was creepy. Seeing someone with my face doing that gesture made my blood boil. - My suggestion is this. To avoid a crash, at least one person must get off. - What. - We don¡¯t want to get off. - Sure, some Dang Seo-rins will be disappointed about losing a long-awaited overseas trip, but it¡¯s better than all of us crashing into the Pacific. Boom! The formal-speaking Undertaker¡¯s head exploded. Fortunately, there was no need for a detective; the ¡®Delinquent Undertaker¡¯ in the back seat was clearly the culprit, with his aura ring. - Sorry. The Delinquent Undertaker grinned, his scarred face wrinkling. - His tone was too annoying to bear. All 106 Undertakers, including me, agreed. It was a justifiable crime. - If we had time, I¡¯d tell him to open his eyes properly, but this avoids the disaster he mentioned. Have a nice trip¡ - What are you saying, murderer! But the Dang Seo-rin (partner of the formal-speaking Undertaker) had a different view. - Die! Watson Dang Seo-rin immediately cast a killing spell. Thud. The Delinquent Undertaker, hit at point-nk range by an Avada Kedavra, foamed at the mouth and copsed. Despite his tough appearance, he was weak inbat. - Kyaaa! The Gyaru Dang Seo-rin next to him screamed. - You killed my Undertaker! - You killed mine first! - Why me! Bang! Boom! Pow! The ne erupted into chaos. Dang Seo-rins sang and cast grand spells everywhere. Undertakers joined to protect their partners, making it hard to find anything intact on the ne. Despite that, the ne¡¯s fusge remained undamaged. Clearly, this was a high-level anomaly. ¡°Undertaker!¡± My Dang Seo-rin (the Witch Rail Otaku) yelled, the only rational person in this mess. She struggled to open the ne door. ¡°This won¡¯t open! I cast a triple destruction spell, but it won¡¯t budge!¡± ¡°It¡¯s better that it doesn¡¯t open, Dang Seo-rin. Look outside.¡± ¡°Outside? Why¡ª? Huh.¡± The ne was already in the air. It had taken off without any vibrations or eleration, a prime example of anomaly technology. We weren¡¯t just in the atmosphere, but in space. The moon¡¯s surface was visible right below the ne¡¯s wings. ¡°This is space?¡± she asked. ¡°Yeah. The anomaly confused a ne with a spaceship. They look simr from afar.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know South America was this dangerous¡!¡± ¡°Me neither. This is a first for me.¡± ¡°Get me out of here!¡± ¡°No. Don¡¯t open the windows or doors by mistake. That¡¯s not just space, it¡¯s likely the [Space Void]. The [Explode and Die in Space] anomaly is active.¡± ¡°Why are anomalies always like this!¡± As we experienced the fantasy of space travel, the others were enjoying a blood-soaked romance. Blood sttered everywhere. Heads of Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins rolled in the aisle. Surreal, indeed. - Wait! Everyone, calm down! This is inefficient ughter. If this is a parallel world anomaly, who knows ifbining our powers could save the world¡ - Good point, but take off that animal costume first. - Sorry, it¡¯s part of my essence as the Undertaker. - Kill that furry! A brutal variety survival show unfolded. The 214 people were reduced to 102. Mainly those with excessively ¡®abnormal¡¯ appearances were eliminated. Among the surviving Dang Seo-rins were the school uniform Dang Seo-rin, the stuttering sses-wearing librarian Dang Seo-rin, the slit-eyed priestess Dang Seo-rin, and the blonde samurai Dang Seo-rin. It was chaos in every sense. Even though I was with the witch Dang Seo-rin, I shouldn¡¯tin. There wasn¡¯t a single normal person here. I spoke with a heavy heart. ¡°First¡ let¡¯s sit and talk. The furry Undertaker was right. We need to unite.¡± - Hmm. - Indeed. ¡°If we join forces, we can aplish great things. Forget the old man¡ªwe can save the world ourselves.¡± - But what if the rest of you are all anomalies? That would be pointless. ¡°I have a solution for that.¡± I smiled confidently. ¡°If you¡¯re not an anomaly, the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance and Telepathy should work.¡± - Oh? ¡°This is a space void. It looks like space but is probably still over Korea. The Saintess¡¯s telepathy should reveal the real anomalies.¡± - Makes sense. - Excellent idea. Nodding at their admiration, I looked up at the ne ceiling. ¡°Saintess, are you watching? Please respond.¡± [Yes.] ¡°Good. Please tell me who the fakes are¡¡± Then it happened. [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] The Saintess¡¯s voice echoed, ovepping. ¡°What?¡± It didn¡¯t stop there. [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [Yes.] [I¡¯m checking now.] [Hard to tell if anyone is fake. All of them.] [Responding to my irvoyance.] [It¡¯s hard to believe, but all present Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins.] [Seem real. Unless I¡¯m infected too.] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker, why no response?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] [Mr. Undertaker?] ¡°......¡± Great. We were definitely screwed. ¡®Wait a second.¡¯ A grim possibility crossed my mind. If there were 51 Mr. Undertakers and 51 Dang Seo-rins, and 51 Saintesses observing us, then logically¡ ¡®What about the anomalies?¡¯ For the same reason, could there be 51 Outer Gods in this void? This wasn¡¯t a ¡®copy the Undertaker¡¯ event. That would have been too convenient. It was the opposite. This ne was a gacha event for multiplying Outer Gods. ¡°......¡± - ...... - ...... All the Undertakers exchanged furtive nces. The looks were deadly. Each of them likely had telepathy with ¡®their¡¯ Saintess and faced the same phenomenon. And reached the same conclusion. ¡®If more than one Undertaker gets off the ne, confirming multiple Undertakers on the ground will also multiply the Outer Gods!¡¯ ¡®If 51 Undertakers exist, 51 Go Yuris will too.¡¯ ¡®What madness.¡¯ ¡®Only one Undertaker can get off the ne.¡¯ Yes. From now on, it was a matter of who would (try to) kill me. Footnotes: [1] Korean Air Flight 801 was an international passenger flight whose crash led to the deaths of 214 passengers. Experts cite poormunication between the personnel onboard as the most probable cause of the incident. Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried Chapter 168 Chapter 168 The Traveler III The atmosphere was tense. Silent res and psychological warfare ensued among the Undertakers. If anyone drew their sword, it would trigger a battle royale. ¡°Everyone, stay your swords.¡± I, the most just and rightful original Undertaker, spoke up. The other fake Undertakers turned to look at me, some with mustaches, others as women. - What? Are you asking to be killed first? ¡°No, upon deeper reflection, killing each other isn¡¯t the best n.¡± - Why not? - Are you scared? ¡°You know taunting won¡¯t work. This is a wellid trap. If we start a massacre, it will lead to a disaster.¡± Some Undertakers tilted their heads. - A disaster? ¡°Yes. Let me ask you all, do you know about the ¡®Jar of Solitude¡¯?¡± Solitude. It¡¯s a famous curse, like an ancient form of a Pok¨¦mon battle. First, the shaman ces venomous insects into a jar and seals it. The battle begins when the jar is closed, continuing until only one insect remains, having consumed all the others.[1] - Who doesn¡¯t know that? ¡°Listen. If we start killing each other, what happens? Naturally, the strongest Undertaker will survive.¡± I spoke under their intense gazes. ¡°The moment that happens, we define this ne as a ¡®Jar of Solitude.¡¯ Thest survivor would bebeled as a ¡®bug¡¯ or ¡®vermin.¡¯ You might wake up one day as a bug.¡± Sighs echoed throughout the ne. - That makes sense. - It¡¯s a dilemma! - If the nends, anomalies will double. If we start killing each other, we be bugs. What should we do? - Wait. A female Undertaker raised her hand. Her appearance was a blend of Dang Seo-rin, Noh Do-hwa, and the Saintess. She wore a barista outfit like me and had already killed about 20 other Undertakers. She was formidable. - I get that killing each other makes us the Jar of Solitude, but is turning into bugs that dangerous? ¡°Don¡¯t you know the danger of bugs? Haven¡¯t you seen the Giant Potato Robot Saintess statue in Busan?¡± - Huh? Giant Potato... What? Apparently, she didn¡¯t know. I looked around disdainfully. Clearly, none of them knew. ¡°Let me exin. The Potato Robot Saintess is¨D¡± A FEW MOMENTS LATER... - That¡¯s bullshit!! - Unbelievable. That happened? - My Saintess isn¡¯t like that! Chaos erupted among the Undertakers. Dang Seo-rins looked puzzled, wondering, ¡°Who is the Saintess?¡± and ¡°Who dared build such a statue in my Busan?¡± Ignorance is bliss. ¡°Anyway, bugs are dangerous. The anomaly behind this ne likely has the power of a great god, perhaps even an Outer God.¡± - I understand the danger of bugs... - But what should we do then? The female Undertaker asked. ¡°Simple. The curse of solitude relies on the insects killing each other. If the insects don¡¯t fight and only one remains, the curse fails.¡± - ......? - Ah. Some Undertakers blinked in confusion. It was surprising they managed to be regressors. But there were also perceptive ones. The female Undertaker was among thetter. - We need tomit suicide until one remains. ¡°What?¡± My Dang Seo-rin looked shocked. ¡°Suicide? You all?¡± - Yes. It¡¯s the solution your Undertaker suggested. It selects the final survivor without fighting. - Ah! - Brilliant! - A good strategy. This way, we avoid both the Outer God and the Jar of Solitude. ¡°No way... This is insane.¡± Dang Seo-rin and the other Dang Seo-rins were dumbfounded, but the Undertakers exchanged knowing nces. Despite their different lives, appearances, and intelligence, one thing was constant. The possibility that one day, they might turn into an anomaly. If that day came, every Undertaker was ready to erase themselves to prevent disaster. ¡°From now on, we¡¯ll determine who is the most capable Undertaker. Through strength, intellect, or any other means. The losers will...¡± - Recognize their shorings and leave, passing the mantle to the winner. ¡°Exactly.¡± - Reasonable. An Undertaker spoke. - But there¡¯s one problem. - I don¡¯t mind leaving the rest to another Undertaker. After all, there¡¯s always the next cycle. - But what about Dang Seo-rin? All eyes turned to the Dang Seo-rins. - What will happen to them? - If you n to kill them after we¡¯re gone, we won¡¯tmit suicide. The atmosphere grew tense. But I shook my head. ¡°No need to worry.¡± - ......? ¡°Once you¡¯re gone, Dang Seo-rin will be alone.¡± I held Dang Seo-rin¡¯s hand tightly. She nced at me, but I focused on the Undertakers. ¡°But Dang Seo-rin didn¡¯t just want to travel. She wanted to travel ¡®with me.¡¯¡± - ...... ¡°Once you¡¯re gone, the Dang Seo-rins will disappear naturally. Trust me.¡± Silence fell. Then, one of them spoke. - I believe you, 107. He was also me.

Parallel worlds. Possible worlds. Multiverses. Leibniz, the philosopher who fought with Newton over calculus, first proposed these concepts. A less-known concept is the ¡®best of all possible worlds.¡¯ - Our world is the best among all possible worlds, and thus the only one that exists. Why do we live in this particr world and not another? Why is our world the way it is? - Because our universe is better than any other. The best of all possible worlds.[2] Other worlds have something fundamentally wrong. Physics might break down, or unimaginable evil might ur. Even if our world feels awful, it¡¯s the only one without a cosmic failure. - I lost. And so, we Undertakers began the task of determining the ¡®best world.¡¯ - You¡¯re one step ahead of me. Using the Saintess¡¯s telepathy and the possibility of falling into the solitude trap, you thought of it first. I should step back. The 113th Undertaker epted his fate calmly. He held the hand of the 113th Dang Seo-rin. - Sorry, Dang Seo-rin. We have to postpone our trip. I¡¯m really sorry. - It¡¯s okay. Just being with you was enough. Then, a shocking scene unfolded. The 113th Undertaker and Dang Seo-rin embraced and kissed. ¡°Ugh.¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± Both the original Dang Seo-rin and I were taken aback. Seeing someone who looked like me kiss someone who looked like her was surreal. - Huh? The real shock was yet toe. Of the 100+ passengers, only we were surprised. - What¡¯s so shocking? - Right? It¡¯s just a kiss. Indeed, the other Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins weren¡¯t fazed at all. The real shock was that all the Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins were couples, except us. ¡°Unbelievable.¡± ¡°Oh my god.¡± This ne was a group couple¡¯s trip. The other Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins nned overseas trips to celebrate anniversaries. Except for us. My head hurt. How could this happen? - Actually, we¡¯re the ones surprised... - Really, you two aren¡¯t a couple? THE Undertaker and Dang Seo-rin? - Why? Why aren¡¯t you dating? They couldn¡¯t understand why we weren¡¯t together. - If you¡¯re not dating, why are you traveling together? ¡°Um, well...¡± ¡°I just wanted to travel,¡± the original Dang Seo-rin said. ¡°I suggested the trip, and we left two dayster.¡± - Two days? And you just went to Uyuni Desert without being a couple? ¡°Yeah. Any problem?¡± - Huh... The Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins looked at us like we were the weird ones. - Aren¡¯t you the odd ones? We didn¡¯t answer that question. Despite this minor incident, the task of determining the ¡®best world¡¯ continued smoothly. Each test was different. - I challenge you with the sword, 107. If you¡¯re stronger, I¡¯ll concede this life to you. Sometimes, it was about strength. - Ultimately, knowledge is key for a regressor. Let¡¯spete in knowledge, 107. How to grow allies, how to defeat anomalies. Sometimes, it was about intellect. - Even with a sharp sword and a brilliant mind, losing your sanity means falling to anomalies. How long can you maintain your sense of self, 107? Sometimes, it was about mental strength. - I don¡¯t n to drag this out. It¡¯s all about luck. Let¡¯s flip a coin, 107. Heads or tails? Sometimes, it was just luck. - Was Jiang Wei¡¯s continuous Northern Expeditions in Three Kingdoms justified? Sometimes, it was just about the Three Kingdoms... Was that really okay? Dang Seo-rin looked ready to kill him. Anyway. About 50 Undertakers challenged me in their own ways. I won all those challenges. In the end, no Undertaker was stronger than me. It was bittersweet but also a source of pride. - In the end, determining the best world was my task. The female Undertaker smiled sadly. All other regressors epted their end. She was thest remaining ¡®me.¡¯ - I thought I lived my best, but even that wasn¡¯t the best. The female Undertaker challenged me to a game of Go. The game, where AI surpassed human champions, was a fitting test for a regressor¡¯s memory. I remembered countless Go games from many cycles. To me, Go was just a game of memory. She challenged who could better utilize their memory. - Well yed. ¡°Well learned.¡± I won by half a point with White. - Sorry, Dang Seo-rin. We have to postpone our Oxford trip. - It¡¯s fine. We can always go ¡®next time.¡¯ The female Undertaker¡¯s Dang Seo-rin smiled. - Are you sure you¡¯re okay with this? - Yes. It was a fair result. Knowing that another ¡®me¡¯ is striving just as hard is a huge gain. I won¡¯t lose next time. - You just lost. - I mean in the future. The female Undertaker held her Dang Seo-rin¡¯s hand. Then she looked at me and smiled. - I leave this world to you, 107. We¡¯ll never meet again. If I¡¯m human, I¡¯ll buy the Saintess sunsses when I return. The female Undertaker¡¯s body was enveloped in aura. That was the final moment of the ¡®Undertaker.¡¯

There¡¯s an epilogue. Originally, our travel n was to transit through Spain to South America. But after all the Undertakers left, the ne reached its destination. The Uyuni Salt ts. The brightest mirror on Earth. - Ah. The nended softly on the water. There was no vibration. The ne¡¯s wings cut through the transparent surface of the desert. Water trails stretched behind the ne. Some Dang Seo-rins remained. Some followed their Undertakers in death, while others stayed by their bodies. The door of the pilotless ne opened, letting the sunset reflect on the water into the cabin. - Beautiful. - Yeah, it¡¯s beautiful. - Now I see why I wanted toe here. - Why is the world so beautiful just from a reflection...? The Dang Seo-rins couldn¡¯t continue. As soon as the sunset touched them, they turned into white salt and crumbled instantly. The white dust scattered in the desert wind. Not just the Dang Seo-rins. The Undertakers¡¯ bodies, the broken seats, even the ne¡¯s structure crumbled into white salt.[3] Like flower petals. In the end, only Dang Seo-rin and I remained in the middle of the desertke. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Dang Seo-rin stared nkly at the dance of white petals. Each petal reflected the red of the sunset, and the reflection mirrored back to the horizon. In a world where everything repeated, only our hands¡¯ warmth was real. Muchter, Dang Seo-rin murmured, ¡°What was that anomaly, Undertaker?¡± ¡°That...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need that kind of answer.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I looked at the salt desert made of Dang Seo-rins and Undertakers¡¯ remains. ¡°There are many reasons, but I think it was due to the ¡®Uyuni Desert¡¯ itself.¡± Dang Seo-rin tilted her head. Her reflection in the water followed. ¡°Here? Why?¡± ¡°When the surface fills with water, it bes a huge mirror. You know mirrors are the most dangerous objects in the void. We aimed for Uyuni Desert but ended up in the ¡®Mirror World.¡¯¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°The ne is a means of travel ¡®somewhere other than here.¡¯ Our ne momentarily traveled to the Mirror World.¡± ¡°Right... That makes sense.¡± Ssh. Dang Seo-rin stirred the water with her foot. Her smile reflected in the sshes. ¡°So my Undertaker is the best Undertaker, right?¡± I didn¡¯t answer that question. ¡°This ce is really wonderful. Thank you, Undertaker.¡± ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± ¡°But how do we get back to Korea? The ne just melted.¡± ¡°......¡± I couldn¡¯t answer that question. I¡¯ll just write that it took at least three months to cross the Pacific Ocean on foot. Chapter 169 Chapter 169 The Diver I Breaking news. Ha-yul was sulking. ¡°......¡± The reason was simple. I had gone to the Uyuni Salt ts, which was at the top of Ha-yul¡¯s bucket list (nine pages long on A4 paper), without her. She was, of course, furious, and when this kid expressed her anger, it was in the most childish way possible. She decided,I won¡¯t just stop talking to you. I¡¯ve also decided not to hear you. ¡°Ha-yul.¡± She turned her head to the left. ¡°Ha-yul. I¡¯m really sorry.¡± She turned her head to the right. No matter how much I tried to make eye contact, she kept turning her head. It was as if her head-turning skills were on par with an Olympic synchronized swimmer¡¯s legs, our gazes always in perfect parallel. ¡®Ah.¡¯ I had expected this. That was why when Ha-yul asked, ¡°Oppa, where are you going?¡± before I left for Uyuni, I vaguely replied, ¡°Uh? Oh. Just somewhere nice.¡± I had nned to be back in a week at most. Normally, Ha-yul, who treated others with disdain like Ch¡¯oe Y?ng, wouldn¡¯t have cared about a week-long disappearance.[1] But as revealed in thest story, I was scammed by an airline. What was meant to be a week away ended up being stretched to three months. The trip¡¯s content also changed. The original n was to enjoy the Uyuni Salt ts for two days, but the remaining 87 days turned into a hands-on field trip called, ¡°How didHomo sapienscross the Pacific Ocean to reach the Hawaiian Inds? Let¡¯s find out!¡± There was no one toin to. Like humans, anomalies had a particrly narrow understanding of concepts like ¡°refunds,¡± ¡°fairpensation,¡± and ¡°well-written apologies.¡± The victims were always innocent customers like me. ¡°Go to hell¡¡± ¡°Oppa, so where have you been?¡± After surviving a grueling ordeal to return to the Korean Penins, I was greeted only by Do-hwa¡¯s chokehold and Ha-yul¡¯s cold stare. An exnation was unavoidable. Hence, the current situation. The world wasn¡¯t a dating sim where once you maxed out favorability, it stayed there. Upon realizing I had gone to Uyuni without her, Ha-yul set about readjusting her favorability. ¡°Ha-yul? Won¡¯t you talk to me?¡± Ha-yul ignored me and dered, ¡°Something smells funny. I keep smelling an old man¡¯s stench.¡± My sensitive, middle-aged heart was shocked to its core. I almost had a heart attack. ¡®Is this how a father feels when facing a rebellious child?!¡¯ As a regressor, I never thought I¡¯d experience such emotions, but here I was. Barely able to get the words out, I croaked, ¡°¡Let¡¯s go to the Uyuni Salt ts together next time.¡± Ha-yul turned her head. It was the first time in three days that our eyes met. The jaw of the maid puppet Ha-yul always carried suddenly rxed. ¡°Next time? When?¡± ¡°After summer ends. This fall.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really. Let¡¯s also visit Machu Phu and Tenochtin for an all-American special excursion.¡± ¡°Oppa, I love you!¡± A fake love wrapped around my shoulders. I shivered with shame. ¡°¡But you have to help with the preparations for the great monsoon without anyints. Follow the guild leader¡¯s instructions. Got it?¡± ¡°Okay!¡± My body was already having a fit at the thought of another trip, but there was no other option. To survive the annually recurring disaster event, Ha-yul¡¯s help was crucial. This event was called the ¡®monsoon.¡¯ Yes. If you live on the Korean Penins, the monsoon is a season of fear and horror at the subconscious level. The big summer event was approaching.

Some of you might have noticed that I rarely mention the ¡®weather¡¯ in my stories, and those who did have sharp eyes. In reality, the Earth was experiencing a weather-born apocalypse even before the birth of anomalies. The pr bears crying upon their drifting on ice floes from the Arctic every year were proof of this. The Climate Apocalypse. By definition, the hypothesis that the world might end due to climate change. It was a grave thing to consider, even without anomalies, but the anomalies took it a step further. - The weather in Daegu is insane. How can it be 42 degrees in summer? Is this a desert or a city? - Maybe it¡¯s always been a desert. - What the? Daegu had turned into a desert. No exaggeration, it was literally desertifying. It wasn¡¯t just Daegu. The Gaema teau in North Korea had be a paradise for pr bears migrating from Siberia. Tigers, revived as anomalies named ¡®Mountain Lords¡¯ in the Baekdu Mountain range, faced fiercepetition. But the Korean Penins had it easypared to its neighbors. In Japan, ¡°earthquakes¡± visited every season. These weren¡¯t just any old quakes either, but massive ones like the Tokai earthquake that came apanied with all kinds of rted anomalies. It was also why I respected the magical girls of Japan. Given the situation, the regions habitable by humanity were extremely limited. In a way, ¡®climate anomalies¡¯ were the greatest threat toHomo sapiensurvival. So, what was the climate specialty of Busan, the new capital andst utopia of the Korean Penins? ¡°The monsoon ising.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Tension filled the air of the conference room. The few gathered in the heart of the National Road Management HQ were indeed the heart of Busan¡ªif not the entire Korean Penins. Noh Do-hwa, head of the National Road Management; Yu Ji-won, Operations Control Director; Dang Seo-rin, Guild Alliance leader; Seo Gyu, SG Net operator; and Sim Ah-ryeon, Saintess of the Eastern Holy State were all present. ¡°This monsoon is going to be record-breaking,¡± I warned. ¡°If we¡¯re not thoroughly prepared, the entire Korean Penins could vanish during the season.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it always ¡®record-breaking?¡¯ What¡¯s different this time?¡± ¡°I saw it first hand while crossing the Pacific. Super typhoons are forming in the western North Pacific.¡± Dang Seo-rin shuddered, hands trembling as her face darkened. The recent trip had traumatized both of us. ¡°Look at this.¡± I opened a PowerPoint presentation. Despite crossing the Pacific on a makeshift raft, I managed to take pictures with a spirit camera. The current monsoon status showed a ¡®typhoon¡¯ in the photo. Noh Do-hwa grimaced at the sight. ¡°What the hell is that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a typhoon.¡± ¡°Fuck. That¡¯s not just wind, it¡¯s a waterspout. You call that a typhoon?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t expect logic from anomalies.¡± Indeed, the typhoon that formed this summer was 1,200 kilometers in diameter andposed entirely of ¡®water.¡¯ Whoever called water the mother of life would rethink that if they saw this typhoon. Water can kill. ¡°Other regions can manage with their usual preparations, but Busan is different. If that typhoon hits us directly, the city will be the new Antis. We need a n.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s evacuate¡¡± A shocking proposal! The head of National Road Management suggested abandoning the capital. Noh Do-hwa seemed to have sumbed to the anomaly ¡®Capitals are meant to be abandoned¡¯ that no Korean Penins ruler could escape. Shaking my head at her n to emte the Joseon dynasty¡¯s royal family, I said, ¡°We can¡¯t run, Director.¡± ¡°Then how do we survive it? How? We¡¯d have been better off with a tsunami. If that thingnds, the coastline will move to Daegu. We should evacuate the citizens of Busan through the Inunaki Tunnel to Seoul.¡± ¡°Director.¡± I gave her a pitying look. ¡°We can¡¯t avoid the monsoon typhoon. If Busan escapes unscathed, the typhoon will hit another city.¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a natural phenomenon, it¡¯s an anomaly. The Korean Penins can¡¯t escape the monsoon unscathed. The typhoon will exist until its havoc is wrecked, and the monsoon season will persist with it. Someone has to take on this 1,200 kilometer water bomb.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Is there any city as well-prepared as Busan? Any ce with its concentration of power? The most efficient path forward is for us to handle it. Otherwise, half the cities on the Penins will be wiped out.¡± ¡°Shit¡¡± The horror of the anomaly made Noh Do-hwa shudder. As the top authority¡¯s mood worsened, so did the conference room¡¯s atmosphere. Only Sim Ah-ryeon, who barely knew what caution was, threw caution to the wind and raised her hand. ¡°Excuse me, guild leader?¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± ¡°Well, I doubt Pyongyang Holy City will be affected by the typhoon. So since the area in question is not my responsibility, can I leave now?¡± ¡°If a monsoon of this magnitude hits, SG Net will also go down.¡± ¡°What? For how long?¡± ¡°At least two weeks, even if we¡¯re lucky. Heavy rain disrupts intemunications, and that¡¯s not taking into ount the rted anomaly that will follow.¡± ¡°The Eastern Holy State will mobilize all its forces to help our brothers in Busan!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon clutched my hand with both of hers, more sincerely and earnestly than I had ever seen. Even more than when she said, ¡°I really like the caff¨¨ mocha that the guild leader makes.¡± Noh Do-hwa let out a sigh as she scratched the back of her head. ¡°Director,¡± I counseled, ¡°sighing wastes good luck.¡± ¡°Fuck off with your old-man advice. How do we deal with that monstrous water bomb? Didn¡¯t youe up with a n before calling this meeting?¡± ¡°Of course. Everyone, please pay attention.¡± I confidently moved to the next slide on the PowerPoint. Written in new-age fonts, it said:

[Monsoon Flood Damage Prevention n] [STEP 1] [Noh Do-hwa Renaming Project!]

Silence filled the conference room. After a long pause, Noh Do-hwa reacted, asking, ¡°¡What? Renaming? What kind of renaming¡?¡± ¡°Director Noh Do-hwa. It may be distressing to change the precious name given to you by your parents, but names are crucial when dealing with anomalies. For the sake of Busan¡¯s citizens, please consider renaming yourself this summer.¡± ¡°No, seriously, what does my name have to do with Busan¡¯s safety?¡± ¡°From now on, your name is not Noh Do-hwa.¡± I looked earnestly at the top authority of the Three Han. ¡°Your name is ¡®Noah.¡¯¡± ¡°......?¡± ¡°What are you waiting for, Noah? Start building the ark.¡± ¡°You son of a¨D!¡±

Noah¡¯s Ark construction project, initiated!

The ¡®Noah¡¯s Ark¡¯ in the Bible boasted impressive specifications. My focus, however,y with Noah as a person. I suspect that he was an ancient archmage. First, Noah managed to fit all the world¡¯s nts and animals into a mere 135-meter-long boat. That included blue whales and various fish. This meant the ark had the world¡¯srgest aquarium. Clearly, the ark had a ¡®my inventory is infinite¡¯ spell. Moreover, this infinite space was made entirely of wood, as Noah lived in the Bronze Age.[2] The feat was impossible by modern engineering standards, but that was irrelevant. Science advances over time, but magic grows stronger the farther back you go. The ancient archmage Noah likely strengthened the wood to steel levels. Unfortunately, the modern-day Noah (formerly Noh Do-hwa) on the Korean Penins had no magical talent, but there was an archmage who could act as Noah¡¯s wand. ¡°Ah¨D¨DAh¨D¨DAh¨D¨D¡± Dang Seo-rin, an awakener with top-tier magical talent, sang atop Geumjeongsan, the highest point in Busan. The trees, moved by her outdoor concert, uprooted themselves and gathered along Geumjeongsan¡¯s ridge. Indeed, I haven¡¯t mentioned this all that often, but Seo-rin¡¯s Cursed Song Incantation excelled in support roles. Wearing a helmet with ¡°Safety First¡± written on it, I smiled with satisfaction. ¡°The ark construction is going smoothly.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Then Noah¡ no, Director Noah. Please, kneel down.¡± Ah-ryeon, Ha-yul, and I gathered at the Geumjeongsan worksite alongside Seo-rin. Another surprising guest also graced us with their presence. ying the role of ¡®God¡¯ in this Noah¡¯s Ark y was none other than Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ. ¡°Ha-yul, are you ready?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good. Director Noah, what are you doing? Kneel before Mo Gwang-seo Christ. You can bow too, if you like.¡± For once, Noh Do-hwa¡¯s lips trembled. She wore a name tag with ¡®Noah¡¯ on it. ¡°Do we really have to do this, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± My answer was firm. ¡°We¡¯re using the most powerful myth on Earth, Genesis. We need the minimum decorum for ¡®Noah¡¯s Ark¡¯ to work effectively.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Please, hurry?¡± With an expression that seemed to curse the world, Noh Do-hwa knelt. Mo Gwang-seo looked down at her, his smile as benevolent as ever. Of course, Mo Gwang-seo had no free will. Every move and word was controlled by the Puppeteer, Ha-yul. Mo Gwang-seo (ft. Ha-yul) spoke. ¡°All living beings have spread corruption across the Earth, and their end hase before me. I will destroy all living beings along with the Earth.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Noah. Therefore, build an ark.¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s lips quivered, her tongue trembled, and her teeth chattered as she mumbled, ¡°Yes¡¡± Godmanded, and Noah obeyed. A reenactment of Genesis! Though there was a small error with the actor ying God also being the son of God, anomalies didn¡¯t care about such details. Now, Noh Do-hwa was truly Noah. Every vessel she helped build would now serve as an ark. ¡°Hell, what a shitty world¡¡± Noah, the actor, had a foul mouth for humanity¡¯s savior, but that didn¡¯t matter. ¡°You damn regressor, are you getting back at me for being missing for three months?¡± What an absurd usation. I kept my personal and professional matters strictly separate. Was there anyone who was as impartial as me? I looked out over the Busan coastline, my gaze earnest. July. An SSS-level monsoon was heading north toward the Korean Penins. Summer had arrived. Chapter 170 The Diver II In the past during the Joseon Dynasty, there was a policy called the "Empty Ind Policy." As the name suggests, it involved evacuating residents from inds to the maind. Rather than allow regions rich with minerals and gas to be continuously raided by Zerglings (pirates), it was better to simply move themand center as a whole. This also showed how our ancestors cared for their people as if they were SCVs. As a Terran descendant, I too had to make such decisions and follow their example. "Mr. Undertaker, we''ve evacuated all the residents from Jeju Ind." "Good work." Under my orders, Yu Ji-won went around the southern inds, guiding the refugees to safety. Some resisted, but I ignored them. The difference between what the public perceived as a "monsoon" and the approaching "super monsoon" was as vast as the difference between a whistle and a typhoon. If we didn¡¯t evacuate now, they¡¯d all be wiped out, as had been proven in many cycles before. The evacuation order wasn¡¯t just implemented in the real world. - [Samcheon] WitchJudge: (Must Read) Instructions for Living During the Super Monsoon Season. - [Baekhwa] EighthGrader: All roads connected to Sejong City will be closed until the end of the super monsoon in July and August! Those low on food, please apply for refugee status at Sejong City Hall!! >_ [I can see the wall of the typhoon with my own eyes.] The Saintess''s voice echoed in my mind. It wasn¡¯t just me; all the other Awakeners would have heard her as well. Except, they would have heard it as a message from their constetions. [Jeju Ind is now within the typhoon¡¯s path.] "Good. Begin evacuating the Samcheon World guild members scattered along the southern coast." [Understood.] The Samcheon World guild members, all capable of flight magic, were acting as storm spotters. As they flew over the sea using a staff, they watched the typhoon approach. The Saintess shared the observers'' vision through her irvoyance, allowing us to track the typhoon''s path from multiple angles. [This is¡] The Saintess, despite having witnessed countless anomalies and voids, was stunned speechless for a moment. [Jeju Ind is being torn apart. No, it''s being swallowed. The ind is being consumed whole.] [It looks like a tsunami, like the ones you¡¯d see in a movie, but muchrger. A wave over 10 kilometers high is approaching from the horizon. How is this possible¡?] Even the Saintess, known for her calm demeanor, lost herposure upon seeing the typhoon. The storm wasposed entirely of seawater, a massive vortex at least 10 km high and 1,200 km in diameter, capable of engulfing Mount Everest. The sight would strike fear into anyone. "Saintess, we cannot let this move to another region. Guide it slowly toward the ark using the Samcheon guild members." [But can the arks withstand something like that, even if we¡¯re the ones who built them?] "They have to. If they can¡¯t, Japan will be submerged, or the entire Korean Penins will be submerged." [Understood. I will start guiding it.] The Saintess regained herposure and began executing my n. Themand center was situated on the first ark. Do-hwa, Seo-rin, Ji-won, Gyu, Ha-yul, and I all watched the map, with chess pieces representing the Samcheon scouts. Thanks to Yu Ji-won¡¯s [Minimap] ability, we tracked the typhoon''s movements in real time. "The typhoon will arrive soon." "......" "That typhoon is both an anomaly and a void. When it reaches Busan, we will enter the ''super monsoon void.''" I began to repeat the information critical for our final briefing. "The rain from this typhoon isn¡¯t ordinary water but a deadly toxin called ''void poison.'' Contact with it risks severe bodily transformations." "......" "Even though our ship is designed to act as an ark, it will inevitably flood. When that happens, stay calm and use buckets to bail out water continuously, whether it¡¯s for one hour or several. The act of bailing water itself is vital." We had repurposed old cruise ships into arks. An ark¡¯s exterior was reinforced with wood, and its interior stocked with enough provisions tost 40 days. There were 12 arks in total, each capable of holding 5,000 people, making room for about 60,000 Busan residents. They had already boarded the arks docked along the Geumjeongsan Ridge. "Rain will inevitably pour into the ship. Do not relocate carelessly. Each section must remain isted. If you mustmunicate with another section¡ª" I held up a thread. It connected like a spider web across the control room¡¯s ceiling, linking to other sections. Ha-yul had set up the doll strings. "Use these strings. As we approach the typhoon, SG Net and Telepathy will fail. Transmit Morse code through the threads using aura." At that moment, a raindrop hit the window, sshing against the tempered ss. The drop wriggled like a living creature, spreading out to form the character for rain, Óê. Every raindrop writhed, each eventually forming the same shape. | With each raindrop, the faint sound of frog croaking echoed. Oddly, there were no frogs on the ark. It was modeled after Noah''s Ark from Genesis for survival, but we hadn¡¯t truly built it as a cradle for life. v [Mr. Undertaker.] Óê [The typhoon has madendfall in Busan. Now, oh, the storm waters are rapidly converging on the poption center. No way, the typhoon¡ It¡¯s transforming from a giant spiral into a long, thin tube like a straw, oh. The water¡ö, a tsunami on the horizon, it¡¯s all all converging on ¡ö. Everyone, evac¡ö¨D] | v Óê The Saintess¡¯s usually crystal-clear Telepathy was interrupted, broken up by intermittent static. The croaking grew louder. Croak. Seo Gyu, who had been fidgeting nervously with his smartphone, froze. ¡°Hyung, SG is down¡ªcroak¡ª¡± The space of the ark, held securely by thew of universal gravitation, and the ship we were standing on, felt like it was suspended in mid air. Seo Gyu just opened his mouth. Rrrribbit. Dang Seo-rin shouted something like ¡°Undertaker!¡± alongside him, but their voices were entirely drowned out by the sound of the rain pouring outside and the croaking of frogs resonating with that rain. Croak. The rain fell.

| v v v|| v v | | | | vÓê | | | | v v v| | |v v Óê v| v | | v v v v | | v vÓê v | | v | v | | v v | Óê v v | Óê | || v v v | Óêv | | | Óê | v Óê v | Óê | | Óê | || | v |v v vÓê | Óê |v | | | v | v Óê | | v |Óê v | v | v | v Óê | | v Óê| | v v v | Óê v Óê v || v | Óê | | Óêv | | Óê v | Óê v v | Óê v v | Óê Óê | v | | Óê | Óê v | Óê Óê Óê Óê

The overwhelming sound of rain and frog croaks filled the room. I blinked, and suddenly, I couldn¡¯t breathe. My vision blurred. Everyone in the control room, including me, was submerged under water.

A stream of bubbles rose before me. My eyes locked on Ha-yul¡¯s panicked, gasping form. It was her first time encountering this type of void, and her distress was clear to see. In just a blink, we were all submerged in water. "......! ......, ......!" Ha-yul iled underwater. Others reacted much the same. No matter how much I¡¯d emphasized the instructions, it was hard to remain calm when surrounded by water. The worst part was, Ha-yul and the others'' fingers were slowly turning into ¡®frog hands¡¯. Body mutations and existence contamination were typical symptoms of void poison exposure. Seeing their limbs transform into frogs'' triggered temporary panic. Blub-blub. Croak. Blub-blub. Croak. Human panic elerated the spread of void poison. Ha-yul¡¯s blurbling gasps sounded increasingly like the croaks of a frog. Frogs (ÍÜ) shared the insect radical (³æ) in their Chinese character, exined by the resemnce between a frog''s posture and the radical¡¯s shape. Croak. Blub-blub. Croak. Blub. Frog hands, frog legs, green skin. Myrades were quickly turning into insects. This transformation took only about six seconds. "Move the buckets!" I shouted, Infusing my voice with aura so that my roar echoed underwater. "Start bailing water, no matter how awkwardly! Bail! Ha-yul, move! I¡¯ve told you many times!" Finally, Ha-yul and the others regained their senses and grabbed buckets. It was hard to move underwater, but they had practiced together before boarding the ark. "......!" "......! ......!" In seeminglyical desperation, they performed the ¡®bailing water¡¯ motion. As they did, the water level in the control room slowly began to recede. The water didn¡¯t physically move out, but it reduced as if genuinely being bailed. "Phew, ha!" As the water level dropped, everyone emerged, gasping for air. Their greenish skin returned to a human tone. "Damn, almost died!" "Haa¡ Haa¡!" "Is everyone okay?" Myrades panted, drenched. Their hands still resembled frog limbs, with membranes between their fingers, but they were healing. "It¡¯s too early to rx." Everyone turned to look at me while I nced out the window. Outside was only rain. The ark waspletely submerged, not in the life-giving sea but in the deathly void poison. "We need to check if the other sections are safe," I decided. "......" "Ha-yul,e with me." "Okay." We kept bailing water until the room was dry, then Ha-yul and I stepped out. Croak, croak, croak. The long corridor of the ark echoed with frog croaks from all directions. Chapter 171 Chapter 171 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver III ¡°...Frog croaks.¡± Ha-yul trembled. She instinctively opened and closed her fingers repeatedly, the sensation of frog skin still clinging to her hands. ¡°Did we really turn into frogs?¡± Despite her youthful appearance, Ha-yul was a seasoned veteran who had explored countless voids with me, but even for her, a six-second bodily transformation was enough to leave a deep scar in her psyche. I squeezed Ha-yul¡¯s hand, and she gasped out, feeling the warmth of another¡¯s palm sink into her own. Instead of swimming freely underwater, we had evolved to hold each other¡¯s hands. ¡°Your body is cold. Use your aura to dry off,¡± I suggested. ¡°It may look like ordinary water, but each drop is filled with void poison.¡± ¡°...Okay, oppa.¡± Ha-yul¡¯s hair glowed golden with aura. Her soaked, brown locks quickly began to dry, but there was something strange about the process. It wasn¡¯t just that the water evaporated; it was more like transparent bugs were being burned off. Squirm, squirm, squirm. The bugs, wriggling in the shape of the rain character, Óê, were roasted by the golden aura. They tried to crawl through Ha-yul¡¯s hair to escape, only to dry up and evaporate. ¡°Ugh...¡± Ha-yul shuddered. Though she rarely showed emotions, disgust shone clear in her eyes. ¡°The water is like bugs. This water is crawling inside me too?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t scratch your arm. If you scratch hard, you¡¯ll bleed, and then the blood will look like bugs. If your blood starts forming the character Óê, it¡¯s over.¡± ¡°You speak like you¡¯ve seen this many times.¡± I had, of course. Both Ha-yul and I had witnessed the horrifying transformation into frogs or people bleeding to death due to hydrophobia at least five times. The first time, we realized that if we didn¡¯t guide the great monsoon to Busan, Japan or the Korean Penins would sink. The second time, we learned that without facilities and rituals like Noah¡¯s Ark, stopping at simply guiding the monsoon¡¯s path would result in everyone drowning. The third time, we discovered that unless we bailed water, even with an ark, we would still be submerged. ¡°When we were submerged and turning into frogs, I felt strange,¡± Ha-yul muttered. Though her hair was dry, her eyes still seemed to reflect the shadows of water. ¡°I felt nostalgic. Happy. I couldn¡¯t breathe, but it felt like I was breathing through my skin, bing one with the world.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think about it. It¡¯s entrancing.¡± I tightened my grip on her hand. Ha-yul snapped back to reality, meeting my gaze. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We need to help the others,¡± I said. ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Look, the puppet strings are broken over there. Let¡¯s repair them as we go.¡± Nodding, Ha-yul ticked her jaw. The water in the corridor reached our calves, hindering our movement. As we sshed through, water bugs scattered in all directions. Ha-yul shook her head and began fixing the puppet strings. Golden aura spread through the threads, extending throughout the entire ark. ¡°How is it, Ha-yul? Are you receiving signals through the strings?¡± ¡°...No issues in istion areas 15, 21, and 37.¡± Beep. Beep-beep. Beep, beep. Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep. Not long after Ha-yul sent out her aura, signals began pinging back from different directions. The sound of Morse code transmitted through the threads was like the heartbeat of the ark. Ha-yul looked up, reading that pulse. ¡°...No response from istion areas 13, 17, and 23. Oh, 25 just sent an OK signal.¡± ¡°What about the others?¡± ¡°No response.¡± Despite thorough preparations, there were always casualties. I couldn¡¯t be everywhere at once. We immediately moved to the affected areas. As soon as we opened the steel door of istion area 13, a zombie-like figure lunged at us. ¡°Ugh¡ª!¡± Startled, Ha-yul instinctively scattered her puppet strings. The limbs of the attacker were instantly wrapped in webs and fell with a ssh. ¡°Rgh¡ª Raaagh.¡± The attacker¡¯s body was half-melted, green skin growing where blood should have sprouted. As the skin grew, it quivered and croaked like a frog. ¡°Grgh,croak.¡± The person had already lost all sense or reason. From their eyes, now made entirely of water, flowed unbroken, weeping streams. ¡°Oppa.¡± Ha-yul pointed inside the istion area, pulling my attention away from where it was ensnared by the eerie sight. ¡°There,¡± she dered. The room was filled with water, even though I had just opened the door. It was as if an invisible ss wall held the water in ce, and floating within were only blue, yellow, and ck shirts and pants. The people it had once held had vanished, swallowed by the void, and all that was left were the clothes, swimming through their makeshift aquarium like tropical fish. The only sound was the croaking of frogs, resonating through the water. With some reluctance, I admitted, ¡°It¡¯s probably impossible to prevent the flooding of area 13.¡± Area 4 and 13 were notorious trouble spots.[1] Themand center where Noh Do-hwa and other leaders were stationed was in area 4, the most dangerous zone. In a simr vein, though we¡¯d ced veterans in area 13, it too couldn¡¯t be saved. Even if we left the room empty, the 13th room would be randomly selected, leading to another disaster. ¡®No matter what we do, either area 4 or 13 will be breached. We need to reduce the number of istion areas to 12 or less in the next cycle. I swallowed my frustration. ¡°Let¡¯s move to the next area.¡± ¡°Okay... What about this person?¡± ¡°It¡¯s toote. With this level of transformation, not even Ah-ryeon¡¯s healing can save them. They¡¯re no longer human.¡± ¡°Should I kill them?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°Step aside.¡± ¡°No.¡± Ha-yul shook her head and raised her hand, spreading her fingers wide. ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Then, she clenched her fingers tightly. Fwik! The victim, wrapped in puppet strings, was torn into hundreds of pieces, reminiscent of the opening scene of the movieCube. UnlikeCube, however, the pieces didn¡¯t fall but turned into clear liquid, hopping like frogs. Ssh. Croak. Ssh. Croak. The frog croaks quickly faded, and the water level in the corridor dropped from our calves to our Achilles¡¯ tendons. Ha-yul silently squeezed her arms close. Fortunately, the other istion areas hadn¡¯t suffered as badly as area 13, and rescue operations proceeded smoothly. In area 25, there were 17 missing or drowned, 21 severely mutated, and 2 injured in the ensuing scuffles. Thanks to the quick action of those around them, the severely mutated individuals were returned to human form. The constant reinforcement of ¡°strategies¡± and ¡°precautions¡± through SG Net and the physical world paid off. ¡°......¡± However, one of the severely mutated individuals waste in returning to human form. He was a pdin who hade to support the ark from the Eastern Holy State alongside Sim Ah-ryeon. Not just his fingers, but also his toes, thighs, and neck had transformed into a frog, and he remained stuck in that state for six minutes. Humans are weak. Six minutes is a long time. The brain suffers permanent damage without proper cirction and breathing within five minutes. Void poison affects not just the physical body but also the mind, consciousness, and memories. ¡°Parasites.¡± The pdin mumbled. ¡°People often say humans are like parasites to nature. But doesn¡¯t nature also parasitize humans? Blood is like a parasite living within us. Everything is made of matter, and matter exists only to sustain other matter. What is freedom? If a parasite leaves its host, it dies, but the will to leave still exists, if only for a moment. Therefore, escaping the body is both death and freedom. The leap from matter is a miracle that happens only once. Whether it is achieved by one¡¯s own decision orpulsion by others¡ª¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± a survivor snapped. ¡°Someone shut that bastard up!¡± They weren¡¯t the only one. People wrapped in nkets watched the pdin¡¯s possessed ramblings with anxious eyes. The strange thing was, the pdin wasn¡¯t speaking loudly. His confession was quiet, no louder than an old man coughing in a corner. Yet, every survivor in area 25 listened intently to his monologue. Even the most insensitive person could feel the intense focus. Just as sight has direction, so does hearing. ¡°Oh, God. No, the One beyond God,¡± The pdin continued. ¡°The One who must be escorted out and exist free from me. The body is a prison, and the mind is the escape. I now understand why escaping the body is called freedom. All matter is like parasites on other matter. Oh, One, I too will join you...¡± ¡°Kill him!¡± Whack. A survivor threw a can at him. Objectively, it was an attack against a patient who was merely mumbling to himself. But no one stopped the violence. ¡°That bastard is a monster! Kill him!¡± ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± ¡°Kill him before we all get infected!¡± Tuna cans, water bottles, and anything they could grab were thrown at the pdin. Croak. Croak. Croak. Croak. The sound of frogs blended with the survivors¡¯ shouts. Yet no one seemed to hear the frogs, each consumed by their own voice. ¡°Enough.¡± I stepped forward, sending a tremor shooting across the deck. The survivors froze. ¡°All of you are addicted to the void.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I understand. The voices of your constetions that used tofort you have been cut off. The SG Net you clung to is down. Still, you must get used to this solitude for now.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°There may be different levels of contamination in each section, so themand center will maintain istion. Use the puppet strings formunication and messages. Themand center staff will patrol and check your status at least twice a day.¡± I nced at the pdin. He was still mumbling. ¡°I will take this contaminated person to the infirmary. Remember, he came from Pyongyang to support Busan.¡± ¡°......¡± I didn¡¯t reprimand them further. It wasn¡¯t their fault. Carrying the pdin with me, I left the istion area, and Ha-yul followed a step behind. Ssh, ssh. As we walked through the corridor, I nced out the window. ÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓêÓê. It looked like we were underwater. The ark was stillpletely submerged. ording to Genesis, the great floodsted 40 days. And this was only day one. Chapter 172 Chapter 172 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver IV After Busan and its maiden voyager had been submerged for four days, the ark continued to fulfill its role as an artifact submarine from an ancient civilization, drifting aimlessly around the water column. [It¡¯s quite an exotic sight, like an orbital elevator from a sci-fi movie.] That was the Saintess¡¯s evaluation of the craft. From an outsider¡¯s perspective, the sight of the massive waterspout rising from the surface to the troposphere might seem romantic. However, the people aboard the ark had an altogether different take on the matter. They felt like residents of a shantytown, trapped in a watery hell where their rooms could flood at any given moment and their bodies were perpetually drenched. Finding any sense of ¡°romance¡± in that environment was nearly impossible. [Residents from other regions alsoe out here to gaze up at the water column for a day. It¡¯s even visible from Japan.] ¡°How are the damage reports?¡±[The other arks haven¡¯t sustained major damage.] Despite the noise in the Saintess¡¯s Telepathy, her message was clear enough. How wasmunication possible even within the super monsoon, you might ask? It was thanks to a method discovered by chance. I was currently positioned between istion areas 9 and 10 on the ark. Interestingly, this exact spot corresponded to tform 9 ?, a location famous for leading to the magical world from another universe.[1] Only from this spot wasmunication with the outside possible. Its existence was discovered when Dang Seo-rin, just for fun, put up a sign. We never did figure out why this supposed magical power worked even within the super monsoon. You¡¯d have to ask the anomalies. ¡°Is there any sign of the super monsoon moving to another region?¡± [None so far. The scouts from the Samcheon World Guild are flying around the waterspout and monitoring it day and night, but no significant anomalies have been detected yet.] [Except, of course, for the very sight of a massive waterspout continuously swirling up to such a height.] ¡°Understood.¡± I nodded to myself. It was as expected. ¡¯At least we¡¯ve prevented the destruction of East Asia.¡¯ If I hadn¡¯t taken any action, the ¡®super monsoon¡¯ would have poured heavy rain on the Korean Penins, the Japanese archipgo, and the Chinese continent for at least 200 days¡ªpossibly even up to 300 days¡ªuntil every city was submerged. It was a true super monsoon, or a ¡®rain anomaly¡¯, an endless summer. It was the majesty of a great ocean anomaly. [Mr. Undertaker.] The Saintess¡¯s voice turned cautious. [Has this monsoon repeated every six years in other cycles as well?] ¡°No. It¡¯s a rtively recent anomaly. Previously, it mostly affected Southeast Asia and the Americas. Only recently has it shifted toward the Korean Penins.¡± [Why would that happen?] I had my own hypothesis. As I¡¯ve mentioned several times, this world maintains a delicate bnce among a variety of Outer Gods. A perceptive and wise reader who was familiar with Three Kingdoms history might describe it as a ¡°tripod-shaped¡± bnce. ¡°Imagine a bathroom bathtub.¡± [Bathroom... bathtub?] ¡°Yes. The bathtub is filled with seven different colored liquids, each using a very unique dye, so they don¡¯t mix or interact with each other. But then, someone¡ªme, the Undertaker¡ªsuddenly pulls the drain plug. What happens next?¡± [The different colored liquids will all rush toward the drain, causing chaos.] [The seven dyes represent the seven Outer Gods.] ¡°Correct.¡± The liquids nearest to the drain, red (Infinite Void) and yellow (Infinite Metagame), are sucked down first. Those Outer Gods are eradicated. Then, the remaining liquids, which had been peacefully upying their respective territories, start converging toward the drain to im the vacancies. ¡°The drain is the Korean Penins.¡± [......] ¡°More specifically, it¡¯s the area where Outer Gods like Infinite Void have been eradicated.¡± As cycles passed, more powerful anomalies seemed to be converging around me. Ultimately, it was a battle to see which came first: my blocking the drain or the bathtub emptying entirely. ¡°I call this the ¡®Bathtub Theory.¡¯¡± [Your naming sense can be quite hard to understand sometimes. Like ¡®Ubiquitous.¡¯] What was wrong with Ubiquitous? I thought it sounded great. [And calling it a ¡®bathroom bathtub¡¯ instead of just a ¡®bathtub¡¯ makes you sound quite old-fashioned, Mr. Undertaker.] Why was having a bathtub in the bathroom a symbol of age? Beep-beep-beep-beep. Just then, an rm red throughout the ark. - It¡¯s falling again! - Hold on to something! Anything! - Buckle up! Don¡¯t grab your bags! Buckle up first! The veterans adept with aura shouted orders from each istion area. I couldn¡¯t continue my conversation with the Saintess. ¡°Sorry. It seems the ocean currents caused by the typhoon are acting up again. If you notice anything strange outside, contact me immediately.¡± [Okay. Be careful, Mr. Undertaker.] Kwoong! As soon as themunication ended, the massive ark rocked violently. The hull tilted and then immediately plunged downward. It felt like the ark had been struck by a torpedo. Kyaaah! - Stay calm! Stay calm! The ocean currents within the super typhoon were far from gentle. The void poison disguised as sea water surged, swirled, and pounded in continuous waves until the 12-ark fleet was swept away by these currents. Some days, the water level soared to the height of Mount Everest, 8,000 meters above sea level. On other days, it dropped rapidly to 2,000 meters. The abnormal altitude changes exposed the survivors to health risks¡ªheadaches, fainting, bleeding, eardrum rupture, and altitude sickness weremon side effects. In severe cases, people were thrown like billiard balls, crashing into bulkheads that shattered their spines. Even now, the healers with Sim Ah-ryeon as their central force were tirelessly treating the injured in three shifts. Without Sim Ah-ryon, the casualty count would have been at least ten times higher. Beep-beep-beep-beep... The sirens from the puppet strings gradually subsided, and the ark¡¯s vibrations slowed. But there was no time to rx. - Damn, the water¡¯sing in again! - Move the water buckets! Move the water buckets! Whenever there was a ¡®fall¡¯ or ¡®rise¡¯ within the super monsoon, flooding inevitably followed. Just like on the first day, the istion areas werepletely submerged. However, by now, the survivors had grown ustomed to it. Unlike the first day, where there was significant damage, people now moved in unison to bail out the water. - Is anyone undergoing a physical transformation? - There, help that person to the infirmary! - Move in pairs! Never roam the ship alone! After four days, the survivors had be much more efficient. Even SCVs could join the fight if needed. Humans were adaptors, beings who overcame their environments. Despite rooms flooding in the blink of an eye and limbs turning into frogs, humans had the strength to ept such changes. My role as a regressor was to create strategies and systems to help this strong vitality endure. My chin dipped in satisfaction. ¡¯It seems like I can leave for a while without any major issues.¡¯ I returned to themand center. As soon as I opened the steel door, a monkey wrench flew at me. I dodged it easily and saw Noah (formerly Noh Do-hwa) ring at me with hatred in her eyes. ¡°Noah, throwing random objects can hurt people.¡± ¡°Damn it...¡± ¡°What if it wasn¡¯t meing in just now? Someone could have been seriously injured.¡± ¡°I can tell it¡¯s you just by your footsteps,¡± Noah muttered. ¡°Your footsteps are irritating.¡± Her look of utter fatigue was warranted. Living inside a submarine-like environment was far fromfortable. Sirens red at all times, injuries urred frequently, and free roller coaster rides were a regr urrence. Seo Gyu, who prided himself on being a tough guy, had strapped himself to a bed with belts and fainted. Even Dang Seo-rin looked exhausted. Only Yu Ji-won, who seemed to have learned Napoleon¡¯s sleeping methods, was holding up well.[2] Everyone else in themand center wasining of extreme fatigue. ¡°Good news, everyone. I¡¯ve checked around, and there were no deaths in this flooding incident.¡± ¡°Oh, really. What great news, just great, ¡° Noah sneered. ¡°Now, if we only didn¡¯t have to endure another 36 days in this rotten hellhole, we might even pop open a bottle of wine. Why are we even doing this...?¡± ¡°I have a suggestion.¡± ¡°And that is...?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re looking to slice something off at the neck, make it the wine bottle¡¯s head, not mine.¡±[3] Since this conversation had happened in a previous cycle, I preempted it. Noah¡¯s face twisted with even deeper hatred. ¡°There are two ways to deal with the super monsoon. One is to endure it. If we hold out for another 36 days, it will end.¡± I shrugged, adding, ¡°In the previous cycle, I used this method.¡± ¡°Then why not use it again? Why the sudden change in strategy...?¡± ¡°In the previous cycle, it also took us 31 days to reach a point where no one died.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°We still had to hold on for another week either way.¡± We had installed puppet strings to facilitatemunication between istion areas, used water buckets to bail out water, and maintainedmunication with the Saintess between istion areas 12 and 13. These were all measures learned from sacrifices in previous cycles. ¡°But now, we¡¯re only on day four. Unless you enjoy roller coasters so much that you want to keep experiencing the thrill, I think it¡¯s a good time to try another strategy.¡± Noah stared at me silently. Due to excessive stress, the blood vessels of her left eye had burst, turning the white there blood red. Normally, healers would have immediately treated the eye, but this was wartime. There was no spare medical staff to treat something as trivial as an eye infection. ¡°So, this second strategy hasn¡¯t been tested before and will be attempted for the first time in this cycle?¡± she asked finally. ¡°Precisely.¡± ¡°And if it fails...?¡± ¡°It will be the mother of sess.¡± ¡°Damn you...¡± Noah red at me with her left eye closed (which was quite difficult to do). ¡°So, what¡¯s this strategy?¡± First, I transformed Ha-yul into a turtle shell. ¡°......¡± ¡°Let me know if it¡¯s ufortable, Ha-yul.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, right. You can¡¯t speak without your maid doll.¡± Thud! Ha-yul punched me in the back of the head. It didn¡¯t hurt at all. For the record, I was wearing swim trunks. Ha-yul was in a wetsuit. It wasn¡¯t because I wanted to unt my abs or give a fanservice swimsuit scene. I aimed to be the first human to swim at an altitude of 8,000 meters (underwater). Noah grimaced. ¡°Are you insane...?¡± ¡°Yes. There must be an anomaly core inside that super monsoon, an ¡®eye of the storm.¡¯¡± I tightened the specially made belt. The turtle shell formed by Ha-yul fit snugly on my back. Despite her resistance, she was essential for this mission. ¡°How do you n to find the core in this massive storm...?¡± ¡°I will connect Ha-yul¡¯s puppet strings between the arks to create a vast spider web.¡± The ark fleet consisted of 12 ships. I nned to link several kilometers of puppet strings between these ships, adjusting them to avoid any tangling. The makeshift radars formed by the 12 ships would move through the storm, automatically searching for the anomaly core. ¡°It¡¯s highly likely this method will fail, given it¡¯s the first attempt. If the Saintess confirms that we¡¯re dead, just endure for the remaining 36 days.¡± ¡°Without you, we¡¯ll probably fall apart soon. What a shitty world...¡± ¡°Well then, I¡¯m off.¡± I opened the window. Seawater rushed in but was blocked by my aura shield. ¡°Ha-yul, don¡¯t you love swimming on vacations?¡± ¡°......! ......!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s be the first humans to swim in the sky. Ready, set, dive.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Three, two, one...¡± ¡°......! ......!¡± ¡°Go.¡± With a burst of aura in my legs, I dove into the water, and the rapid currents swept over me. Ha-yul, apparently delighted, kept drumming on my back. This wasn¡¯t in any way revenge for Ha-yul tormenting me over the Uyuni trip. Absolutely not. Footnotes: [1] tform 9 ? is a location from the Harry Potter series, a hidden train tform where wizarding students would cross from the human world into the magical world to take the train to school. [2] The French militarymander and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was said to power nap in two- to three-hour increments at a time during the less-busy periods of his day. [3] Undertaker is probably referring to the ss bottle challenge where people use a knife to slice off the top of a bottle. Join our discord at Chapter 173 Chapter 173 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver V ¡°Rgh, brp, blrgh...?¡± Ha-yul struggled, clinging desperately to my back. She was being a bit dramatic. Unlike me, Ha-yul had been given goggles and an oxygen tank. Even her prosthetic leg had been reced with ¡®Noah Workshop¡¯s Special Flippers.¡¯ If this were a gacha game, it would have been an SR-ranked item. That¡¯s right. We were diving into a substance more toxic than a reactor pool in a nuclear meltdown, but Ha-yul had no real reason to struggle. ¡°Ha-yul.¡± My gentle voice reverberated softly through the water, carried by my aura. ¡°Have you watched Evangelion? Remember the scene where the pilot dissolves into the orange liquid? If you don¡¯t stay alert, only your diving suit will be left, and your whole body will dissolve.¡± ¡°......! ......!¡±¡°Raise your aura and cover your entire body with it. Continuously remind yourself of who you are. If it¡¯s too hard, think of your anger toward your father.¡± Of course, I would protect Ha-yul if things got truly dangerous. But I couldn¡¯t keep her sheltered forever. I was a harsh instructor to my guild members andrades. ¡°Think of your mother if you prefer.¡± ¡°Hrgh...?¡± ¡°I know your maid doll, the one you¡¯ve carried since Japan, is actually your mother.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°If you disappear here, that doll will never move again.¡± Bubbles rose behind me in a gentle stream that somehow felt particrly cold. Just like in other cycles, Ha-yul quickly adapted to the training. Her fingertips turned pale and transparent, but the contamination didn¡¯t extend beyond her arms. There were no signs of her transforming into a frog. ¡°Good. You did well.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Always think about the existence you carry. Compared to your life, the void¡¯s poison is nothing.¡± I felt a small nod against the back of my neck. Unlike the vast emptiness of the sea, humans each dug a dark well into their hearts. I trusted the depth of that well more than the sea¡¯s expansiveness. Swoosh. As Ha-yul regained herposure, a creature swam past us about ten meters ahead. It was a shark-shaped anomaly. ¡°Uoooooh.¡± Ha-yul was startled, and for good reason. Sharks didn¡¯t normally make such noises, nor were they as transparent as ss, nor did they grow to be 20 meters long. In this inhospitable ecosystem of the void, a bus-sized Megalodon swam past, alongside 15 of its kind. These sharks, extinct on Earth, were still thriving here. ¡°Uoooooh...¡± ¡°Uoooooh...¡± Ha-yul clutched my neck with both hands (a habit she picked up from drinking with the National Road Director) and watched in amazement as the prehistoric sharks swam by. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Ha-yul¡¯s fingers tapped my neck like piano keys. It was a Morse code message, not a strange quirk. Tranted to regr speech, it meant, ¡°Amazing.¡± Squeeze. Ha-yul spoke. ¡°Beautiful.¡± Bubbles rose from the sharks as they swam away into the depths, uninterested in us. The ripples from their tails reached us, then delicately popped. ¡°Ha-yul, connect the puppet strings to the bow statue. I¡¯ll handle the swimming.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Make sure to secure plenty of strings. If they break, we¡¯ll have toe back and reattach them.¡± The pressure of Ha-yul¡¯s massage on my neck seemed to increase. The task proceeded smoothly after that. We installed puppet strings from Ark No. 1 and stretched them out to connect to Ark No. 4, as ifying underwater cables. Huff, huff, haa...! We took breaks ranging from three hours to half a day every time we reached a new ark. Even Awakeners, with our superhuman recovery, couldn¡¯t withstand the constant pressures of the super monsoon void for long. After clinging to me underwater for hours, Ha-yul was left panting. ¡°Exhausted.¡± ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°Yes. But I need more rest.¡± Even during breaks, Ha-yul held tightly to my left hand. It was understandable. For safety reasons, we couldn¡¯t bring her maid doll on this mission. Ha-yul could onlymunicate with me through signnguage or Morse code. Left with such extremely limitedmunication in the equally dangerous environment of the super monsoon void, old traumas resurfaced for Ha-yul. She had been neglected by her father¡ªthe former mayor of Busan, Jung Sang-guk¡ªand lived a life of sheltered imprisonment. I was the one who brought her from Japan after she attempted suicide. ¡°Oppa.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Living is too hard.¡± Ha-yul nestled into my arms like a baby kangaroo. I patted her head gently. With each stroke, her wet hair dried softly under my aura. Human hands could cover many things. For instance, Ha-yul calling me ¡°Oppa¡± while subtly confusing ¡°O¡± with ¡°A,¡± making the pronunciation ambiguous. We never mentioned this fact.[1] ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± We shared human warmth through this simple connection. For a while, we just stayed like that, exchanging the warmth of our bodies. The awakeners in charge of Ark No. 4 were astonished by our visit. ¡°Good heavens. Did you swim through the water to get here?¡± ¡°Yes. We connected the puppet strings from bow to bow. I¡¯m continuously infusing them with aura to prevent them from breaking, but the ship might experience some unusual turbulence due to the currents. Don¡¯t be rmed.¡± ¡°Yes, sir...¡± ¡°I knew the cafe owner was extraordinary, but...¡± The awakeners were clearly unsettled by our daring actions. After receiving reports at Ark No. 4, I immediately set out for the next destination. ¡°Sure enough, tackling the super monsoon early¡ªeven if strenuous¡ªleads to far better results.¡± I swam through the transparent deep sea as I thought to myself. Ha-yul, having adapted, was now paddling along with me. ¡°In the previous cycle, the other arks suffered significant damage. Their mental limits are reached in about ten days.¡± We continued connecting the arks with puppet strings, steadily but without rushing. Any knowledgeable person would recognize the tactic as simr to the ¡®Chain-Link Strategy¡¯ from the Battle of Red Cliffs in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but although Cao Cao met his downfall due to this tactic, there was no Zhuge Liang or southeastern wind to thwart us here.[2] The end awaiting the super monsoon anomaly would be overwhelming destruction. Swoosh. Of course, the super monsoon had something akin to the southeastern wind: ocean currents. ¡°Rgh, brgh, brrrr...¡± Whenever strong currents surged within the water typhoon, Ha-yul and I were tossed around like driftwood, sometimes swept thousands of meters away from where we began. Navigating in such conditions was nearly impossible. I relied on my superhuman senses honed through many cycles and my perfect memory, sending out my aura like a radar to find our way. Centerbound, we slowly pushed our way through, deeper and deeper into the center. ¡°Uoooooh.¡± ¡°Uoooooh, ooooh...¡± As we neared the eye of the storm, the number of underwater anomalies increased. Besides Megalodons, there were Leviathan melvillei, Dunkleosteus, and Cameroceras¡ªprehistoric rulers of the sea, swimming in their anomalous forms.[3] It was as if they were asserting that true life on Earth belonged not to humans but to these depths. ¡°Kiyaaaah!¡± Some creatures took an interest in theter-evolved humans. Ferocious, ancient whales attacked us with maws gaping. I drew my cane sword and demonstrated Moses¡¯s miracle firsthand. Unholy creatures, not recorded in the Bible, witnessed divine power and perished. This was proof that hierarchical culture didn¡¯t work when faced with the brutality of nature. ¡°Oppa, you¡¯re the best.¡± While fending off ancient sharks and whales, we finally connected all 12 arks. The work waspleted on the ninth day, just as the sun was setting. The fiery sunset set the storm¡¯s rain aze with color. Unlike the ocean, which only received sunlight on its surface, the storm absorbed the sunset across the length of its towering body, dyeing the deep sea a vivid red. The puppet strings we hadid reflected the crimson sunset, twinkling like the Milky Way. ¡°......¡± Throughout the return to Ark No. 1, Ha-yul couldn¡¯t take her eyes off the storm¡¯s sunset. Even in the void¡¯s hell, designed to ughter countless humans, there was beauty. Life was brutal. ¡°Wee back...¡± Upon our return to Ark No. 1, Noah greeted us. Her eye infection had worsened so that, now, both of her eyes were bloodshot. I found myself surprised that Sim Ah-ryeon hadn¡¯t healed her yet. ¡°You survived, huh?¡± she noted. ¡°Did you really find and connect all 11 other arks with puppet strings...?¡± ¡°Yes. We¡¯ll need to find a smarter method next cycle, but fortunately, the other arks haven¡¯t been as heavily contaminated by void poison as ours.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Noah ran a skeptical gaze over us¡ªspecifically, over Ha-yul, who was clinging to me like a sloth. ¡°You two seem even closer now...¡± ¡°After nearly a week of swimming together, you either be best friends or worst enemies.¡± I patted Ha-yul¡¯s head. She happily leaned into my shoulder like a cat. ¡°Now we just need to maneuver the arks to trap the super monsoon. Did anything happen while we were gone?¡± ¡°Well...¡± I expected a sarcastic remark about my survival, but Noah¡¯s eyes avoided mine. A sudden sense of unease washed over me, prompting me to lower my voice. ¡°Director, what¡¯s the issue?¡± ¡°Well, Undertaker, you know we thoroughly verified everyone boarding our ark...¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯re sacrificing ourselves for East Asia. Ark No. 1 especially, which is far more dangerous, was boarded only with verified personnel.¡± ¡°And I double-checked the list myself twice, but... it seems we had a stowaway.¡± ¡°A stowaway?¡± I frowned. People already refused to board the ark even when incentivized. What person in their right mind would board illegally? Moreover¡ª ¡°You¡¯re saying our Awakeners failed to identify an illegal passenger?¡± ¡°Strictly speaking, ¡®illegal¡¯ might not be the right word. Witnesses say the person just appeared out of nowhere, as if they emerged from the floor...¡± My sense of unease intensified. ¡°Where is this passenger now?¡± ¡°We locked them in istion area 13. It was the only empty space. Well, ¡®locked¡¯ isn¡¯t quite right. They volunteered to go there. Would you like to meet them?¡± I did. Istion area 13 had been submerged entirely on day one. The water hadn¡¯t drained, and the clothes of the deceased floated like tropical fish. There, kneeling calmly in the middle of the water, sat Go Yuri. ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Go Yuri smiled brightly. ¡°Hello, guild leader Undertaker, yes? Long time no see.¡± I began to tremble like a small white bear facing a Myan sun bear. Footnotes: [1] While ¡°oppa¡± is a term of endearment used by a younger sister for her older brother (and other simr rtionships), ¡°appa¡± is used by a daughter for her father. [2] The Battle of Red Cliffs was a turning point in Chinese history which paved the way for the Three Kingdoms period. In a catastrophic tactical error on the part of the warlord Cao Cao, he ordered his ships to be tied together to reduce the impact of the wind-born waves on the vessels and the crew, allowing his enemymanded by Zhuge Liang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms retelling¡ªto set the entire brigade on fire and eventually storm and annihte the camp ashore. [3] A sperm whale but with fangs, a half-shark-half-orca but with armor, and a mollusk but with ambush 100, respectively. Basically, all prehistoric apex predators that could kill a human in a heartbeat. Join our discord at Chapter 175 Chapter 175 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver VII RUUUMMMBLLLLLE! With a twitch of my fingers, the ark fleet cut through the currents and surged forward and a tingling sensation buzzed in my skull, making me feel like both a pianist and a conductor. The aura I had spent thousands of years cultivating was now powering these arks. ¡®Even Old Man Scho¡¯s ridicule about my martial arts being third-rate and aura being first-rate is something I canugh off now.¡¯ Despite Scho¡¯s mastery of swordsmanship, all he could do was wield a sword and grab objects from the air. In contrast, I was maneuvering twelve ships. With one more, I could debut as the Joseon Navy¡¯s Admiral of the Three Provinces.[1] Yu Ji-won approached stealthily, sensing my good mood. ¡°Your piloting skills are remarkable, sir.¡±I snapped back to reality at her presence, which brought with it the faint scent of strawberries, the same perfume I onceplimented her on. Her meticulous ttery towards authority chilled my guts. Truly, she was the greatest psychopath of the Three Han. ¡°...Thank you, Ji-won. But please, keep your distance. I won¡¯t hold a grudge for cutting off my fingers, so there¡¯s no need to tter me so desperately.¡± ¡°ttery? Absolutely not. I always present my true self to you, Your Excellency, even if it means exposing my very heart.¡± ¡°If you keep spouting nonsense, I¡¯ll break your fingers. Now, let¡¯s focus on the mini-map.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± With a bnce of omnipotence and reality, the navigation proceeded smoothly. Of course, finding the ¡®core¡¯ of the super monsoon was easier said than done. At an altitude of about 10,000 meters, the storm was no joke. Any submarine crew would know that 99% of underwater chases are battles with oneself¡ªboredom was the enemy of patience, after all. Yet despite scanning every corner of the typhoon with Mini-Map, the enemy remained elusive. -Kieeeek! -Kyaaaaah... Three hours into the search, the ancient marine creatures like Megalodon faced extinction for the second time. The web of twelve arks sliced through sharks and whales, turning them into cubed steak. ¡°Quite the romantic aquarium date, huh...¡± Noah grimaced, watching shark meat float by the window. The rough currents prevented the crew from unbuckling their belts, and sitting for hours on end had naturally made them restless. ¡°Does the typhoon¡¯s core even exist?¡± she wondered. ¡°If it were a tangible entity like the Ten Legs, it would make sense. But isn¡¯t the super monsoon more like a weather phenomenon?¡± ¡°It exists.¡± It wasn¡¯t me who answered. Thump, thump. The ark shook as if hit by turbulence. All eyes turned towards Go Yuri, who smiled serenely. ¡°And it¡¯s getting closer.¡± The control room fell silent, the only sound being the waves crashing against the bulkheads. No one here was familiar with Go Yuri, but they all remembered my warnings about her. Avoid her at all costs. If you must encounter her, never engage in conversation. Treat her as if she doesn¡¯t exist. This was my protocol for dealing with Go Yuri. Themand center staff¡¯s collective silence was a testament to their adherence to this rule. Go Yuri smiled awkwardly at the tant ostracism. ¡°Haha... You all are so interesting.¡± Ignoring Go Yuri¡¯s reaction, I spoke. ¡°Anyone needing the restroom, please go now.¡± With Noah in themand center, I used politenguage as we usually did. ¡°We¡¯ve scanned the upper and middle sections of the typhoon. The core seems to be located in the lower section, at about 2,000 meters above sea level. We should find it soon.¡± ¡°Alright then, hyung. I¡¯ll be right b¡ª Whooooa?¡± Seo Gyu had just unbuckled his belt when the ark abruptly veered¡ªsomething massive had tangled in the web of puppet strings stretched outside. As the only one to have stood, he was flung around like a ping pong ball. He careened past me, Yu Ji-won, Lee Ha-yul, Noah, Dang Seo-rin, Sim Ah-ryeon, and Go Yuri, before crashing into the bulkhead. Ignoring him, we focused on the mission. ¡°Found it! Ha-yul, send the Morse code!¡± ¡°Roger.¡± ¡°It¡¯s gigantic! Seo-rin, reinforce the puppet strings with magic!¡± ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°Everyone, brace yourselves for impact! It¡¯s moving!¡± RUUUMMMBLLLLLE! The massive entity tangled in the puppet strings thrashed. I could feel its immense power through my fingers, like a fisherman reeling in a giant catch. The ark shuddered, and the crew gasped in shock. -Aaaargh! -What¡¯s happening? -It¡¯sing! It¡¯s starting! Beep-beep-beep-beep. Ha-yul¡¯s emergency sirens red throughout the ark. People screamed, hands flying to their belts to check them. ¡°Begin charging!¡± A rainbow of color danced along the puppet strings, powered by the aura of the Awakeners onboard. Not just on Ark No. 1, but across all twelve arks, thousands of awakened ones poured their aura into the strings, illuminating the web like a gxy. RUUUMMMBLLLLLE! The entity¡¯s movements slowed. Despite its struggles, the strings, fortified with Dang Seo-rin¡¯s magic and thousands of auras, held firm. The more it fought, the more the strings tightened around it. ROARRRRRRRR! From a distance, we heard the monster¡¯s thunderous cry. The puppet strings dug into its flesh, signaling its immense size. ¡®This thing is unbelievably huge!¡¯ The ark lurched closer to the entity, pulled by its thrashing. The overwhelming eleration pressed us into our seats. I instinctively looked out the reinforced window and locked eyes with the entity. It was an eye. An eye sorge it was hard to believe it belonged to a living creature. Even the ark was a mere speckpared to its iris. The super monsoon, this void and anomaly, had an ¡®eye¡¯ that stared directly at us¡ªat me. RUUUMMMBLLLLLE! Though brief, the eye contact was intense. The entity thrashed again, its massive body moving with surprising speed. Outside the window, its body reced the eye. This colossal entity was more ecosystem than creature, morendscape than being. Someone muttered, ¡°A dragon...¡± It was an apt description, and so everyone began to view the entity as a dragon. Its gigantic eye, its enormous body, and its tail that stretched beyond our sight. Even I, a regressor, had never seen the true form of the super monsoon. Now, witnessing it for the first time, I realized it embodied the most mythical creature of the East. ¡°Leviathan!¡± It was the name of a sea dragon mentioned in the documents of truth, Sifrei Emet, a monster only the omnipotent God could defeat. In other words, an entity that mere mortals couldn¡¯t hope to kill.[2] ¡°The super monsoon isn¡¯t just a weather phenomenon!¡± I shouted to be heard over the shaking ark. ¡°The massive typhoon we saw was actually the body of Leviathan!¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°The typhoon itself is Leviathan. The water droplets that looked like bugs are parasites living inside Leviathan! That¡¯s why people infected with these parasites melted away. Naturally, any foreign substance inside its body would be digested!¡± Thinking back, the clues were there. When the super monsoon approached Busan from the North Pacific, the Saintess had described it in vivid detail. [The typhoon has madendfall in Busan. Now, oh, the storm waters are rapidly converging on the poption center.] [No way, the typhoon¡ It¡¯s transforming from a giant spiral into a long, thin tube like a straw, oh. The water¡ö, a tsunami on the horizon, it¡¯s all all converging on ¡ö. Everyone, evac¡ö¨D] The typhoon, once a giant spiral, had transformed into a long straw that targeted Busan. That shape was the very form of a dragon. In the East, water was often symbolized as a dragon. Controlling a fierce dragon was considered an imperial achievement. And in Norse mythology, the mere presence of J?rmungandr poisoned the world¡¯s atmosphere and waters, leading to floods. Thus, this entity was both Leviathan and a dragon, embodying the boundless terror of the sea and water. ROAAARRRRR! Unable to shake off the puppet strings, Leviathan changed its strategy. The storm engulfing Busan began to contract rapidly. [Mr. ¡ötaker, Mr. Undertaker!] Simultaneously, ourmunication with the Saintess resumed as Telepathy, previously refracted by the void¡¯s thick veil, was restored. [Are you alright, ¡ödertaker?] ¡°Yes. Still holding on!¡± [The super monso¡ön is changing shape! A giant drag¡ö is wrapping around the arks, ¡ö into the sky!] The ss that had been submerged for nearly ten days suddenly cleared of water. We were no longer underwater. We were in the sky. Leviathan, with the arks in tow, soared to an altitude of 5,000 meters. Footnotes: [1] The Korean naval admiral Yu Sun-sin once famously led a single fleet of 13 ships to victory against 333 Japanese ships. [2] A Creator deity fighting a dragon of the sea, a manifestation of primordial chaos, is a myth meant to represent the battle said God must ovee to create and control the universe. Join our discord at Chapter 174 Chapter 174 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver VI My inner Munch screamed in agony. ¡®Go Yuri? Why? Why Go Yuri?¡¯ For context, I hadn¡¯t seen the real ¡°Go Yuri¡± in millennia¡ª2,112 years to be precise. It had been so long that even the people of Si had rebuilt their nation and seen it fall twice. The Egyptians had had enough time to look at the pyramids they themselves had built and wonder, ¡°Who could have constructed such magnificent structures?¡± Just remainingposed enough to school my facial muscles took superhuman patience. ¡°Guild leader, your lips are trembling.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ve heard a lot about you.¡± I immediately switched to method acting. Go Yuri? Who was that? I was merely a small caf¨¦ owner running a business near the Inunaki Tunnel. And Yu Ji-won¡¯s spirit was protecting me. ¡°Go Yuri,¡± I greeted finally, ¡°I heard you usually operate out of Daejeon. What brings you to Busan, and so unexpectedly?¡± ¡°Ah, um...¡± ¡°Given how often we see each other on SG Net, I¡¯d love to amodate you, but this is not the right time nor ce. If you can¡¯t provide a satisfactory exnation, we¡¯ll have to follow protocol.¡± Go Yuri¡¯s eyes fixed on me. Her left hand lifted, reaching for me. ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Then, she stopped. Whatever ¡°Oh, I see¡± meant, I didn¡¯t want to know, nor could I even if I did. Any knowledge I believed I had almost certainly found its roots in brainwashing by Go Yuri. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, guild leader.¡± When I remained silent, Go Yuri retracted her hand, then bowed her head as I desperately tried to maintain doublethink. Her smile was as delicate and troublesome as the shade of a wisteria vine. ¡°Honestly, I didn¡¯t intend to intrude on your hospitality.¡± ¡°Then why...¡± ¡°Believe it or not, I simply woke up and found myself here.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°At first, I was very confused. I had been busy helping the refugees from Busan, and then suddenly, I was here.¡± It was hard to dismiss her exnation offhand, and not just because of her trustworthy demeanor and words. Knowing the truth was in and of itself inherently impossible. Unlike the rtively friendly ¡®unconscious Go Yuri,¡¯ the ¡®real Go Yuri¡¯ sitting in front of me felt somewhat rougher. I couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly how or why; it was just a sense honed from living too long as a regressor. ¡°So, you¡¯re saying you have no particr purpose for your visit? If that¡¯s the case, we¡¯ll arrange for you to stay here until the super monsoon is dealt with. You might find the amodations suboptimal, but please understand our situation.¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not it.¡± Go Yuri smiled and waved her hand. ¡°Guild leader, you¡¯re so quick to have your say. Do you always rush to conclusions?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. This isn¡¯t the best time or ce, but I must admit to feeling a tad wronged.¡± ¡°Wronged?¡± ¡°Yes. After all, I¡¯m not the only one here who ¡®shouldn¡¯t be¡¯ in this time and ce, am I?¡± I swallowed hard. The super monsoon wasn¡¯t supposed to strike the Korean Penins. The ¡°Bathtub Effect¡± shouldn¡¯t have urred. I caused it. The ark shouldn¡¯t exist here. Using puppet strings to tie up a typhoon wasn¡¯t supposed to be part of our strategy. Everything about the current situation was something that shouldn¡¯t be. Was Go Yuri pointing that out? ¡°I can¡¯t say I know why I ended up here, but isn¡¯t that the same for the whole of the human race? They don¡¯t know why they were born, yet they still strive to find their purpose.¡± ¡°That is a rather abstract discussion,¡± I managed. ¡°I know what I need to do here. I realized it quite immediately upon my arrival.¡± Slowly, a water bug crawled up Go Yuri¡¯s long index finger. Its tail flicked, creating small bubbles that popped near Go Yuri¡¯s mouth. She looked at the bug on her finger as if it were a cute little bird. Despite sitting underwater, her voice was steady and her hair remained in ce. Even as the ark shook with the typhoon¡¯s waves, her posture never wavered. Her aura control must have been refined to an extremely fine-tuned state. Or perhaps it wasn¡¯t just aura... ¡°Guild leader, you intend to hunt a dragon, right?¡± A dragon. I immediately understood that she meant the super monsoon anomaly. ¡°When you hunt the dragon, take me with you,¡± she said pleasantly. ¡°I¡¯ll undoubtedly be of help.¡± ¡°...What if I said I couldn¡¯t suddenly include an outsider to Busan in our well-prepared operation?¡± ¡°Oh dear. In that case, I might just be a Busan citizen.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always been a fan of Lotte!¡±[1] It was an offer I couldn¡¯t refuse.

The operation to hunt the super monsoon, codenamed ¡®Typhoon Hunt,¡¯ was carried out as follows: National Road Management agents ran around exining the n. ¡°In an hour, the arks will start shaking violently!¡± ¡°Everyone, please go to your assigned seats and fasten your seat belts! Even Awakeners must not unbuckle their belts!¡± Seats in the istion areas of the arks had been prepared in advance for the turbulent currents. These seats were like upgraded airne seats. Unfortunately, the ¡°upgrade¡± wasn¡¯t a bump in quality from economy- to business-ss. Instead, it was a bondage-style upgrade with waist belts, chest belts, and leg belts designed to secure people firmly in ce. ¡°Awakeners, hold onto the strings!¡± ¡°Orders will be given through the strings in real time! When you receive an order, inject as much aura into the strings as you can without exhausting yourself!¡± Ha-yul¡¯s puppet strings were distributed to each passenger strapped into the bondage seats. These strings extended from the bulkhead of Ark No. 1 to its bow statue and further connected to the bow statues of the other arks. The 12-ark fleet was linked together by these strings, resembling the nerve tendrils of the protoss¡¯ Kh from Starcraft. Any reader familiar with Starcraft might sense autumn approaching with this setup of arks and Kh.[2] In the operation control room, Yu Ji-won reported, ¡°Sir, all Awakeners are seated.¡± On her Mini-Map, thousands of Awakeners were disyed, so small that most were represented by tiny, two-centimeter chess pieces. Even the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance was almost useless in the storm, leaving us reliant on Ji-won¡¯s Mini-Map for managing thisrge-scale operation. ¡°What about the positions of the arks?¡± I questioned. ¡°They¡¯re spread out far enough. Even if the currents get rough, the chance of collisions are very low.¡± ¡°Good.¡± I looked around to Noah, Dang Seo-rin, Sim Ah-ryeon, Lee Ha-yul, Yu Ji-won, and our unexpected guest, Go Yuri. Everyone but thest illegal immigrant was exhausted. However, their eyes still shone with determination. For this ¡®Typhoon Hunt¡¯ to be a sess, none of them could be absent. ¡°Then, let¡¯s begin.¡± ¡°...Are you sure about this, Undertaker?¡± Dang Seo-rin looked at me with concern. ¡°You said the super monsoon would disappear if we held out for another 30 days. Why not just wait?¡± ¡°If we wait, it will return next summer, and we¡¯ll be back on the ark.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Dang Seo-rin. This might not beforting, but I¡¯ve already lost my limbs multiple times.¡± ¡°That¡¯s notforting at all.¡± Dang Seo-rin shook her head with an exasperated look, a face I had grown to like. ¡°Okay. Then... Shall I sing?¡± ¡°Please.¡± Dang Seo-rin gently plucked the puppet strings and parted her lips. ¡°Ah¨D¨D¡± Her song flowed out, a chant. The first and second verses always involved ¡®repetition¡¯ and ¡®yback,¡¯ying the foundation for her archmagic. The following spell was unique. ¡°¨D¨DAh¨DAh¨DAh¨D¡± The spell was ¡®Sense Amplification.¡¯ It heightened human senses to their extreme limits¡ªthink theic book clich¨¦ of bullets moving slowly enough to see with the naked eyes. However, it came with a downside: a keen awareness of one¡¯s heartbeat, blood flow, and the activity of internal organs. This made it more of a debuff than a buff for most Awakeners. Hence, Dang Seo-rin only cast ¡®Sense Amplification¡¯ on me. With a pulse, my senses expanded infinitely. My five senses at their base had already been sharpened to superhuman levels. With Dang Seo-rin¡¯s support, I could now feel every wave crashing against the bulkhead as if it were crashing directly onto my heart. ¡°Good... Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Cut them off.¡± ¡°Excuse me, sir?¡± someone cried. sh. Without hesitation, Yu Ji-won drew her sword and cut the fingers off both hands. Of course, they weren¡¯t her own fingers; they were mine. All ten of my fingers, left and right, were neatly severed. Excruciating pain surged through me, but I mastered it skillfully. ¡®What if I screamed like General Guan Yu did?¡¯[3] The curiosity was intense, but the fear of losing my honor was greater. I decided to satisfy this curiosity in the next cycle. Without a single groan, I spoke calmly. ¡°Director Noah. Now.¡± Noah sighed deeply but approached me to start her work. She attached prosthetics to my severed fingers, each designed to resemble my own fingers. Thanks to Noah¡¯s awakened abilities, these ¡°fingers¡± felt as if they had always been a part of me. I moved them freely, without any sense of loss. And these fingers were connected to puppet strings. They had been designed that way from the start, like Spider-Man¡¯s fingers. The puppet strings extended from each fingertip, connecting to Ark No. 1 and linking further to the entire 12-ark fleet navigating through the typhoon. ¡°I¡¯ll heal you now, guild leader!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon quickly approached and cast a healing spell on me, adhering the prosthetic fingers perfectly to my flesh. The moment my nerves connected with the puppet strings, my ¡°eyes¡± opened. ¡°......!¡± How could I describe this feeling? I saw the sea. I heard it. I felt it. My nerves extended through the puppet strings to every corner of the ark. The strings stretched beyond the ark, flowing through the currents and waves. I sensed the exact positions and movements of all 12 arks. I knew their directions and the roughness of the sea they navigated. ¡®Ah.¡¯ If a rider trained from childhood could achieve unity with their horse, then my current state was ¡®man-ship unity.¡¯ I tested the strings by channeling aura through them, feeling the ark surge forward. - What¡¯s happening? - Maybe just some waves. - Wave detected. Wave detected. I heard the voices of those inside the ark, surprised by the sudden movement. I even sensed the aura of an Awakener urgently transmitting Morse code. Everything was under my control. The omnipotence seeped in as I effortlesslymanded the massive vessels with a flick of my fingers. Go Yuri watched me silently, smiling. Her gaze, like licking ice cream with her eyes, was unnerving. In ordinary times, I would have been disturbed, but now I had to focus on controlling the arks. I turned to the operation control room and dered, ¡°I¡¯ve seeded in controlling the arks.¡± Cheers erupted around me. Noah, in particr, muttered, ¡°Crazy bastard...¡± with a bewildered smile. I smiled back. ¡°Let¡¯s hunt this typhoon.¡± It was time to end the summer.

Footnotes: [1] Lotte is one of Korea¡¯srgest food conglomerates. [2] In the military sci-fi franchise Starcraft, Kh is a religion andmunal, psionic link between a race called the protoss. It became a catalyst for war when a malevolent actor used it to assume control of the protoss in an attempt to break the cycle of the universe and escape the Void. During one of the decisive battles toward the end of the war, the link connecting the protoss fleets was temporarily severed, allowing their worldships tounch a sessful surprise attack on the opposing army. [3] In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, General Guan Yu was shot through the arm with an arrow, leading to an injury that continued to pain him whenever there was a heavy downpour. He is said to have gone through the painful surgery required to correct it while still ying games and drinking with his men. Join our discord at Chapter 176 Chapter 176 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver VIII Screams rang through themand center. The loudest of them came from Seo Gyu, who was quite unfortunately still folded in half, his life resembling a pinball game. Even when ignoring such coteral damage, terror remained with the gravitational eleration that struck the ark fleet. ¡°Oppa! The people here can¡¯t hold on!¡± Ha-yul shouted, but it was really the voice of the maid doll kneeling beside her. ¡°They¡¯ll burst! Their bodies can¡¯t take it!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± I immediately summoned my aura. It felt as if the deep water source, bottomless just moments before, had suddenly dropped to half-capacity. Even for someone like me, who prided himself on being an aura monster, the loss was palpable.¡®At this rate, I won¡¯t have enough ammunition left to deal with Leviathan!¡¯ My aura alone wasn¡¯t enough to protect the regr citizenry aboard. With urgent-softened-to-delicate strokes of my fingers, I distributed the aura sent by the Awakeners from the twelve arks. Most of the Unawakened had already fainted due to Leviathan¡¯s tortuous movements. There was no choice. To lure the super monsoon anomaly¡¯s focus to Busan, we needed as many people as possible aboard the ark. In present-day East Asia, Busan was the most prosperous human fortress. Rumble! The mythical storm dragon seemed determined to punish humanity¡¯s arrogance, thrashing even more violently. [Mr. Undertaker! The dragon is plunging toward the sea surface again!] The ark shook violently, sent diving into a freefall for the surface. Despite simply streaming from above to below, the excessively high drop and speed were cataclysmic. The ark shuddered like a small boat drifting in the Pacific. Outside themand center window, the sky, clouds, and sea whizzed past like a revolvingntern. We were plummeting, from sky to sea. ¡°Saintess! Give us the timing!¡± [Three seconds, two seconds, one second¡ªbrace yourselves!] Wham! Even though I squeezed out my aura to protect the ship as much as possible, the enormous shock couldn¡¯t be fully absorbed. ¡°Gasp.¡± ¡°...!¡± People in themand center fainted one after another. Sim Ah-ryeon and Noah, less adept at aura, lost consciousness. Other istion areas were in even worse shape. Inexperienced Awakeners foamed at the mouth and cked out. Leviathan had simply leapt into the sky like a dolphin and then plunged back into the sea, and yet, half of the Awakeners aboard the ark were knocked out of the fight. ¡®Is this the power of the super monsoon anomaly?¡¯ I gritted my teeth against my heightened senses as the screams and scent of blood from the ark¡¯s passengers overwhelmed me. ¡°Ah¨D¨Dah¨D¨Dah¨D¨D¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s song bloomed. It was an unnned fifth verse. We had agreed to sing only up to the fourth verse before the operation, but recognizing the enemy¡¯s extraordinary power, Dang Seo-rin pushed herself further. The melody reinforced the ark¡¯s structure itself, easing the burden on my aura considerably. Rumble! However, Leviathan¡¯s violence stemmed not just from its enormous size. Swoosh. Not long after Leviathan reentered the sea, water began to flood themand center again. It was the original weapon Leviathan possessed, attacking once more. ¡°Damn it. Ha-yul!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Ha-yul unbuckled her belt and grabbed a bucket, furiously scooping and dumping water. ¡°...! ...!¡± Leviathan wasn¡¯t swimmingzily at 30 knots. Thousands of puppet strings bound its main body as it thrashed in agony and fury, sending waves 20 meters high to devastate Busan. Inside the ship, Ha-yul slipped several times as she desperately bailed water, gasping for breath. ¡°I¡¯ll help you.¡± Go Yuri grabbed Ha-yul¡¯s hand. ¡°...!¡± ¡°Heave-ho, heave-ho.¡± Ha-yul instinctively tried to pull her hand away, but Go Yuri¡¯s grip was stronger than expected. Undeterred, Go Yuri helped with the bucket. Ha-yul looked at me, her eyes asking, What should I do, Oppa? I nodded. We needed every avable hand, including Go Yuri¡¯s. ¡°Saintess!¡± I called. ¡°How are the other areas?¡± [They¡¯re fine. I¡¯m directing them with constantmunication and movement from the constetions. Don¡¯t worry about the other istion areas, Mr. Undertaker!] Indeed, the situation was dire, but there was no time for tears or despair. The world had always been harsh to us. I wasn¡¯t an omnipotent regressor. I was merely a supporter, burdened with tasks originally meant for the old man Scho. It was why I had painstakingly nurtured party members through countless trials and errors. In this ¡®Typhoon Hunt¡¯ operation, there was hardly anyone useless (except perhaps Seo Gyu, who was still floating around unconscious). [The water levels in all istion areas are stabilizing.] [No drowning casualties.] [Some people have been contaminated by water bugs, but the surrounding Awakeners are handling it.] [Those who fainted from the impact with the water¡¯s surface are quickly regaining consciousness... Ah, Mr. Undertaker, the dragon is rising again!] I cursed. Was it nning to keep repeating this? ¡®A long battle doesn¡¯t necessarily mean I¡¯ll lose.¡¯ The problem was the damage to our side. The 60,000 people aboard the ark fleet represented invaluable human resources, thest remaining assets in this apocalyptic era. The resilience. The vitality. The dedication. None of these lives were expendable. ¡®Should I cut the strings now and let the other eleven arks escape? No, that would weaken the puppet strings holding Leviathan. We might end up losing it. Should I wait for the next summer or the next cycle?¡¯ Then, it happened. -GWAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH! A powerful roar echoed from outside the ark, shaking themand center. It was a deliberate shout, infused with aura, aimed at the Awakeners in despair. My mind lit with recognition. I knew that voice. Even before the shout ended, I knew its owner. ¡°Yo-hwa!¡± Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School¡¯s student council president. The only necromancer in the Korean Penins. The shrine maiden who sealed the outcast gods in her hourss. Cheon Yo-hwa had arrived. -Sink back down! Leviathan extended its head, poised to soar skyward again, and Cheon Yo-hwa, once the basketball team¡¯s ace, struck it down. Boom! The enormous impact forced Leviathan¡¯s head back into the sea. The wave generated by its plunge damaged the beach, and thest intact building in Busan, the National Road Management headquarters, was engulfed. -ROAAARRRRRRR! -Baekhwa High! Jump! Don¡¯t tremble like cowards! No matter what, don¡¯t let this snake rise again! I couldn¡¯t see them, not from the limited view from themand center window. The Saintess spoke in a hurried admission. [I did it.] ¡°Saintess...¡± [Yes. Aftermunication was cut off, I requested reinforcements from Cheon Yo-hwa. I judged that we must prioritize the eradication of the super monsoon, even if it meant risking the northern front. When persuading her, I imed it was your request, Mr. Undertaker. I apologize for making a unteral decision.] ¡°No, you did well!¡± [Thank you,] the Saintess replied, as if she had expected my forgiveness. Her voice was much calmer than before. ¡°How did Yo-hwa manage to stop Leviathan?¡± [She bombed it.] ¡°Bombed?¡± [Originally, Samcheon World guild members were scouting the super monsoon¡¯s approach. Now, they¡¯re carrying Baekhwa High Guild members on broomsticks.] [When Samcheon World Guild members approach Leviathan with flight magic, Baekhwa High Guild members drop from thousands of meters high and strike the dragon directly.] ¡°They¡¯re using themselves as missiles...¡± [Yes, it was Ms. Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s n.] It was a crude but effective method. Leviathan¡¯s own tactics were equally brutal, so we responded in kind. Yu Ji-won, the least affected by the turmoil, reported, ¡°Sir, Baekhwa High Awakeners are appearing on the mini-map. Some are already drifting in the sea.¡± Boom! Ba-boom! Following Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s lead, dozens, even hundreds of impact sounds resonated on the battlefield. Though it was hard to see through the window, Baekhwa High Guild members were bombarding Leviathan in continuous waves, their bodies wrapped in aura. -ROAAARRRRRRR! -Teacher! Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s voice rang out, desperate. -We don¡¯t have much time left! Do it now, before that happens! I immediately left my seat, opening the hatch prepared for diving to a blustering wind. For the first time, I took in the full view of the battlefield, not just the restricted view from the window. The first thing I saw was Leviathan¡¯s massive body, stretching to the horizon. ¡°Teacher!¡± Then I saw Cheon Yo-hwa struggling, her body half-buried in Leviathan¡¯s eye. She unleashed a fierce aura, furiously attacking the monster¡¯s eye with iling limbs. Only then did I understand how Cheon Yo-hwa had grounded Leviathan. This crazy student had jumped from thousands of meters high and stabbed Leviathan¡¯s eye in one fell swoop! ¡°Yo-hwa!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Well done!¡± ¡°Yes! Please save me!¡± -ROAAARRRRRRR! Leviathan went berserk with a mosquito-like intruder sucking its blood. Tsunamis continuously battered Busan¡¯s coastline. Even the National Road Management headquarters began to sway dangerously, and the sight of it inspired a thought. ¡®Noah would be happy about the savings on city redevelopment costs.¡¯ Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 177 Chapter 177 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver IX ¡°Wait.¡± I paused. A strange realization, almost like a premonition, brushed my awareness. ¡¯From Leviathan¡¯s perspective... Yo-hwa is just a bug, like a mosquito, in its eye, right?¡¯ Eye. Bug. Mosquito. These keywords were oddly familiar. I felt like I was on the verge of a great idea. If only I could sit quietly in a caf¨¦ and have a cup of Americano, I would surely catch it, but this was not the time to find a nice caf¨¦ with a good view. ¡°Ah, all my fingers have turned into bugs... Teacher, I feel like I¡¯m slipping inside its eye. See you in the next life.¡±¡°No, Yo-hwa!¡± With a leap, I dashed forward and grabbed Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s hand. She grabbed my hand tightly with both of hers and pulled, yet it felt like her body was stuck in a crevice,pletely immobile. ¡°Ouch! Teacher, my arm! It¡¯s going toe off!¡± ¡°What the hell are you caught on? What¡¯s in there?¡± ¡°Bugs! Millions of water bugs are clinging to my calves and thighs, pulling me down!¡± It was true. Squirm, squirm. Transparent bugs the size of a human arm were wriggling, pulling Cheon Yo-hwa downward. Leviathan¡¯s body, including its eyes, was entirely made of water-shaped bugs. Inside its eye was a pit filled with these bugs, unrelinquishing of any and all intruders. ¡°Release the seal of Infinite Void!¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying! But Infinite Void demands six hours of my time every day in return for lending its power!¡± ¡°No, we can¡¯t! Last time, six hours turned into twelve, and twelve turned into twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes!¡± ¡°Right... Ah, I¡¯m really getting pulled in. My aura is being devoured. Maybe we should just let this be a double suicide...¡± ¡°You¡¯re not Infinite Void, are you?¡± ¡°Not yet!¡± Boom! I stomped my foot onto the surface, using my aura to turn Leviathan¡¯s eye into an actual hole. -ROARRRR! Leviathan writhed in pain, but my initial goal of rescuing Cheon Yo-hwa failed. As soon as the water bugs evaporated from my aura, they were immediately reced by new ones. There were simply too many water bugsposing Leviathan¡¯s massive body, like it was the ocean itself. ¡°Damn.¡± I drew my cane sword, Do-hwa, and sliced at Leviathan¡¯s neck. sh! Even then, bugs swarmed the shed surface, reconnecting the severed parts. There seemed to be no end to them. To save Cheon Yo-hwa, I might have to burn Leviathan in its entirety. ¡°Teacher, maybe we should just give Infinite Void six hours...¡± I grabbed Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s hand firmly instead of answering. The intense grip silenced her. We couldn¡¯t let Infinite Void take over. In a previous cycle, Infinite Void had deceptively taken over Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body and manipted her friends, colleagues, and subordinates. Yo-hwa, trapped in her own consciousness, had to watch helplessly. I couldn¡¯t let that happen again. ¡®Think, Undertaker.¡¯ While desperately burning the never-ending water bugs with my aura, I tried to think of a way to save Cheon Yo-hwa from the eye of the storm. ¡®Why is Leviathan so desperately protecting its eye?¡¯ ¡®Did it sense Infinite Void within Cheon Yo-hwa and is trying to digest it?¡¯ ¡®Does Leviathan have the power to devour even Outer Gods? No, that can¡¯t be true. If it were, Infinite Void wouldn¡¯t have been so rxed about raising the stakes...¡¯ At that moment, Thud. however strange, Thud. the sound of footsteps echoed, cutting through the tsunamis and chaos brought about by Leviathan¡¯s thrashing. Thud, thud, thud. Everything around me froze. Cheon Yo-hwa holding my hand, the guild members bombarding Leviathan, the foam from the waves¡ªit all stopped. ¡°¨D¨D¨D¡± I also froze, my consciousness and thoughts unaffected yet unable to even blink. No matter how focused I became, this situation was beyond odd. Thud, thud. Thud. Only the sound of footsteps approaching from behind reached my ears. Thud. The footsteps stopped right beside me as a smaller shadow nketed me. ¡ºGuild leader.¡» The sickeningly sweet scent of rotting apples filled the air. It was Go Yuri¡¯s scent. ¡ºI told you, didn¡¯t I?¡» Arms came on either side of me to wrap around my face, fingers intertwining like a spider¡¯s web across my vision. Beyond the mesh of fingers, I glimpsed Leviathan¡¯s eye. The scent grew closer, whispering directly into my ear. ¡ºThat¡¯s a dragon, you know?¡» As soon as she whispered, the world resumed. Cheon Yo-hwa thrashed. The Baekhwa High School guild members fought. The waves pummeled the ark¡¯s deck. Ssh! A wave drenched me. I turned to look behind me. Go Yuri was gone. Maybe she was never there. Slowly, I mumbled, ¡°The eye.¡± ¡°What? Teacher?¡± ¡°Yes, the eye!¡± I shouted, struck by inspiration. ¡°Leviathan, this monstrous sea dragon, must protect its eyes because it¡¯s a dragon!¡± A legendary painter had once drawn four white dragons in a temple. Despite the praise, he left the eyes unfinished. When asked why, he replied: ¡°If I draw the eyes, the dragons will fly away.¡± Skeptics demanded proof, so the painter added eyes to two dragons. The dragons broke free from the temple walls and flew into the sky.[1] From a modern perspective, this ¡°Dragon¡¯s Eye¡± concept was like a seal binding the anomaly breaking. ¡®A blind dragon can¡¯t fly!¡¯ The eyes represented awareness, identity. Without sight, a being couldn¡¯t recognize itself or its surroundings, remaining earthbound. If this story applied to the dragon before us, then blinding it might render it powerless. ¡°Saintess!¡± [Yes?] ¡°Are you in the study in Yongsan? Do you have Kafka¡¯s The Metamorphosis?¡± [Yes? Oh, I have it...] ¡°Don¡¯t ask why! Just bring out The Metamorphosis and read it to Yo-hwa! Every word!¡± [Got it,] the Saintess replied less than a secondter. She had likely paused time to act. My instructions weren¡¯t finished. I looked at Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡°Yo-hwa! The Saintess will read something to you. Repeat every word.¡± Despite the dire situation, Cheon Yo-hwa remained calm. Her expression and voice turned cold. ¡°Loudly?¡± ¡°Volume doesn¡¯t matter. Just keep reading without stopping.¡± ¡°Understood, Teacher.¡± While the Saintess and Cheon Yo-hwa prepared, I raised my left hand to the sky and unleashed my dark aura. Instead of attacking Leviathan¡¯s eye, I used my aura to shield it, covering the entire eye like an eyelid. -......! My dark aura encased both of Leviathan¡¯s eyes. It was as if I had put blindfolds on the dragon, cutting off its vision entirely. -ROARRRRRR! Leviathan howled in agony. Its struggling began to sputter out. [......!] [The enemy¡¯s movements have slowed!] The once-rampaging beast rapidly calmed. Squirm, squirm. The bugs clinging to Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s legs surged, trying to bite through the protective aura. But just as I couldn¡¯t burn all of Leviathan, Leviathan couldn¡¯t consume my aura, not immediately at least. ¡°Ugh.¡± The bugs attacked me, crawling into my eyes, mouth, and fingers, biting wherever they found a gap. I used my defensive aura to fend them off, repelling their disgusting advances. [As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning...] ¡°As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning...¡± Then. [...from uneasy dreams...] ¡°...from uneasy dreams...¡± The synchronized voices of the Saintess and Cheon Yo-hwa echoed through the bug-infested pit. Growl! The bugs biting me all turned toward Cheon Yo-hwa, charging at her en masse. I couldn¡¯t let them pass. I raised my aura to dangerous levels, burning them away. Growl! Growl! Despite my efforts, the swarm of bugs kept attacking Cheon Yo-hwa. In the darkness of its creation, my ck aura shone faintly, continuously blocking the suicidal onught of the bug army. ¡®If this super monsoon anomaly is rted to bugs...¡¯ My aura reserves dwindled rapidly. ¡®Then the same thing that happened to the Saintess must happen to this anomaly.¡¯ The Saintess had turned into a potato just because a bug entered her eye. The nature of these bug-rted anomalies wasn¡¯t fully understood, but one thing was certain. ¡®Anomalies can¡¯t deny their essence.¡¯ An anomaly couldn¡¯t escape its own nature. If it had the power to transform humans, it would face the same fate under simr conditions. Super monsoon, Leviathan, J?rmungandr. This ruthless white dragon treated humans as mere parasites. If a parasite entered its eye... ¡®Leviathan must transform into something close to a bug, just like the Saintess!¡¯ The bugs desperately tried to silence Cheon Yo-hwa. I protected her with all my might. As the unbreakable spear shed with the unpierceable shield, the incantation waspleted. [...he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.] ¡°¡ªtransformed in his bed into a gigantic¡ª¡± At that moment, ¡°¨Dinsect.¡± the world shook. Footnotes: [1] This is the painter Zhang Sengyao, whose paintings were said to be inhumanly realistic and life-like sans the absent eyes that he refused toplete. The story is meant to convey the importance of adding the final touches or a work of art, or more simply, ¡°the devil is in the details.¡± Join our discord at Chapter 178 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Diver X Let¡¯s have a brief chat about bugs. Insects. The term for bugs and derision. When you think about it, isn¡¯t it quite odd? Throughout history, people have constructed a pyramid of life with nts at the bottom, animals in the middle, and humans at the top. The further down you go, the lower the level in the ecosystem. However, there¡¯s never been a history of terms like ¡°tree brat¡± or ¡°such a seed¡± being used as insults. At most, ¡°weed¡± might be a candidate, but even that word carries a hint of admiration for resilience. If you¡¯re skeptical, consider the difference between saying, ¡°You¡¯re as tenacious as a weed!¡± and, ¡°You¡¯re as tenacious as a cockroach!¡± The nuance changes significantly. The lowest form of life, reserved for the most despicable entities, has always been bugs. The long history of contempt and persecution against bugs is well-documented even in dictionaries. A harmful creature? Yes, a pest.Azy bum who eats and shits? Yes, a parasite. Indecisive andcking a backbone? A spineless worm. A psychopath like Yu Ji-won? An emotional leech on society. A nymph following others¡¯ words in the forest? A bug that echoes others. Such a dazzling lineup of derogatory terms. Even the tiger was nicknamed ¡®big bug¡¯ (´óÏx). This term was created when the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, whose name included the character for tiger (»¢), ascended the throne, forcing the creation of a new term to avoid the emperor¡¯s name taboo. In essence, people of old simply appended ¡°bug¡± to any beast with legs. It wasn¡¯t that theycked the biological know-how to differentiate between insects and mammals. They simply understood, as well as modern people, that adding ¡°bug¡± to the end of a word was enough to express disdain. The most despised existence. A life detested and scorned. The easiest metaphor and symbol humans used to curse something was a ¡°bug.¡± Therefore, it was the most basic magic. Anything or anyone could be a bug. And with the arrival of anomalies, humankind fell to the level of bugs. Just as a dragonfly in graceful flight could be ensnared for a child¡¯s summer homework only to have its wings torn off, a human walking by the river could lose their limbs and face, turning into a potato. The elegance of the dragonfly¡¯s flight and the nobility of the human didn¡¯t matter to the anomaly. To regard something as an ¡°insignificant existence,¡± it first had to be turned into a ¡°bug.¡± The magic of the anomaly usingnguage was thorough, but anomalies also had a tendency to rush things. As Chairman Netero pointed out, enemies who sought to annihte humanity always made the same mistake: underestimating the depth of human malice.[1] Indeed. If the rule among anomalies was that when you gaze into the void, the void gazes back, then the human rule was when you treat someone like a bug, be prepared to be treated like a bug yourself. -GRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Leviathan roared. As the strongest of dragons, Leviathan¡¯s body was invisible. It was the mightiest of dragons. However, what Leviathan faced now was not gods, demons, or the Balrogs, which couldn¡¯t be used due to copyrightws.[2] They were mere extras destined to lose in any Kamen Rider tokusatsu show.[3] The enemy of the anomaly¡ªit was always humanity, the exterminators of Earth¡¯s ecosystems. -GRAAAAAHHH! Leviathan¡¯s roar, apart from rupturing the eardrums and corneas of some Awakeners, achieved nothing. For prominent Awakeners like Cheon Yo-hwa and myself, there was no damage at all. The water bugs that had been rushing to bite off our limbs stopped and began to scream. The roar wasn¡¯ting from Leviathan¡¯s mouth but was instead a cacophony emitted by the countless water bugsposing its body. ¡°Ugh, it¡¯s so loud...!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t stop! Keep reading The Metamorphosis, Yo-hwa! It¡¯s working!¡± ¡°Okay, got it!¡± ¡°Saintess! Read it in the original German too!¡± [Understood.] ¡°Yo-hwa, just mimic the Saintess¡¯s pronunciation even if you don¡¯t understand it!¡± ¡°Okay!¡± The Saintess didn¡¯t originally know German, but after years of study sessions with me, she mastered it. Reading Kant¡¯s Critique of Pure Reason in German was a breeze for her; Kafka¡¯s The Metamorphosis was nothing.[4] She and Cheon Yo-hwa continued chanting the powerful ¡®bug spell.¡¯ -GRRRRAAAAAAAHHH! The force holding the H?O molecules and swarms of bugs together in the form of a dragon weakened rapidly, and Leviathan¡¯s body began to disintegrate. Cheon Yo-hwa and I couldn¡¯t quite wrap our minds around the situation under the aura-made eyelid barrier, but seeing the water bugs convulse, we knew we had found an effective strategy. [Mr. Undertaker! It¡¯s working!] Plop. Rain fell. [The dragon¡¯s scales are falling off!] The rain wasn¡¯t from the sky. Dragon scales, flesh, organs, and cells¡ªall the water bugsposing Leviathan were bursting, falling like rain. - Croak. - Croak, croak. - Croak, croak, croak. The water bugs croaked. Frogs are heralds of rain, forecasting and summoning its presence. Thus, the frogs dered this rain was their domain and not an unexpected event. Yet even if their croaking drowned skulls and minds, they couldn¡¯t stop the copse already in motion. - Croak. Plop. Plop. I looked up. A few drops of rain hit my cheeks. As always, a light drizzle foreshadowed a downpour. - Croak, croak. Thud, thud, thud. Countless bugs burst open. Once a super typhoon reaching 10 kilometers in height and 1,200 kilometers in diameter, this anomaly and terror of East Asia spewed rain over Busan. This rain was Leviathan¡¯s hemorrhage, the sea dragon¡¯s corpse. ¡®We did it.¡¯ There was no need to keep the aura blindfold on the anomaly. Even the dragon¡¯s eyes were draining away, sinking into a whirlpool. ¡¯We did it! We defeated the super monsoon with minimal casualties and found an effective strategy!¡¯ I wasn¡¯t the only one cheering. In fact, I was quite restrained inparison. ¡°It¡¯s falling! That bastard is falling!¡± ¡°Rescue the people in the sea! If they get caught in the rain, they¡¯ll drown!¡± ¡°We did it! We won!¡± The Samcheon World guild members circling on broomsticks, Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School guild members fighting on the dragon¡¯s body, and Awakeners infusing aura from within the ark¡ªthey all exhaled in victory. ¡°Teacher!¡± Cheon Yo-hwa, now confident of our victory, hugged me, soaked in fatigue. ¡°We survived!¡± Despite joking about a double suicide, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s relief and joy were palpable. I gave her a few energetic pats on the back. ¡°You did great! Thanks to you striking the eye of the storm, everything worked out!¡± ¡°Oh, oh, oh¡ª Hehe. Yes!¡± Cheon Yo-hwaughed gleefully as I patted her back. Even the orange strand of hair clinging to her cheek seemed endearing. Thus, we entered the happy ending epilogue¡ª If only it were that simple. There¡¯s still a scene I needed to describe before moving on. A scene I have never shared with anyone until now. Everyone except me and the one who wouldter eavesdrop on this secret believed the super monsoon was defeated. With Noah¡¯s Ark, Ha-yul¡¯s puppet strings, the Awakeners¡¯ aura support, and Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s assistance; with the miracle of ¡®Dragon¡¯s Eye¡¯ and Metamorphosis magic, orchestrated by me, the Undertaker; finally, by all appearances, we had defeated Leviathan. But I saw it. Step. While being hugged by Cheon Yo-hwa, I witnessed a strange sight. There where Leviathan fell into the sea, Go Yuri walked toward its sshdown. No one noticed. It was as if time had stopped, leaving everyone motionless. ¡°......¡± I couldn¡¯t even move my lips, let alone tell if this was a dream or reality. Step. Step. In the frozen world, with only my eyes as her witness, Go Yuri gracefully walked. She stepped on the water as if it were solid ground, and with each step, her lips moved softly. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t do this.¡± Her whisper seemed to resonate not from afar but right beside my ear, or maybe even inside my head. But the whisper wasn¡¯t directed at me. Go Yuri smiled at Leviathan dissolving into raindrops. ¡°Respect each other¡¯s territories. That was our agreement, wasn¡¯t it? At least, that¡¯s how I understood it...¡± Then something astonishing happened. In that frozen world, or rather in the air separated from reality, Leviathan responded. -GWAAAAARRRGHHHH! Leviathan answered not with humannguage but with the gestures of an anomaly. The scales that had been falling off suddenly sharpened again. Blink. Blink. Countless scales turned into ¡®eyes.¡¯ ¡°......!¡± I gasped without sound. Leviathan¡¯s body was no longer covered in beautiful, transparent scales. Like Argos from Greek mythology, its entire body, from head to tail, was now covered in eyes.[5] It was as if defeating the dragon by covering its eyes led it to produce hundreds, thousands, millions of eyes instead. Indeed, bosses always had multiple transformation phases. The typhoon form was Phase 1. The sea dragon form was Phase 2. Now, the super monsoon anomaly was initiating Phase 3. ¡¯Do we have to defeat it again?¡¯ A profound dread gripped my consciousness. Go Yuri, with a slightly troubled smile, closed one eye gently. ¡°Really. You shouldn¡¯t do this.¡± Those thousands of eyes watched her ce a finger to her lips. ¡°Shh. You failed the gamble. You couldn¡¯t ept everyone. So, you must ept the result. Actually, there¡¯s no reason to even call you ¡®you¡¯ anymore.¡± -KIIIEEEEERGHHHHHHH! ¡°Be quiet.¡± A strange sound echoed in this surreal world. It was like a beast¡¯s growl, a tiger¡¯s roar, and the innocentughter of countless children mixed together, creating an eerie echo. ¡®This...¡¯ D¨¦j¨¤ vu washed over me. That cycle long ago. The cycle where I experimented by pairing Yu Ji-won and Go Yuri, leading to the disappearance of all Daejeon citizens. It was the same sound I heard that night. Go Yuri whispered. ¡°Be one.¡± And Leviathan¡¯s millions of eyes melted. No embellishments were needed. Leviathan, revealing its true form for the final time, didn¡¯t struggle. It melted away as if it had always been nothing more than droplets of water. The melted eyes mixed with the falling rain and disappeared. It was dead. ¡°......?¡± Go Yuri turned toward me. When our eyes met, she widened her eyes in surprise. She began walking toward me, but then hesitated. ¡°......¡± She looked down at her feet for a long time, and I sensed that she was somehow ufortable. After a moment, a fresh smile was painted across her lips. ¡°Indeed. This too is a territory.¡± What did she mean? Go Yuri lifted the side of her long skirt with a light touch, bowing elegantly like a noble at a ball. ¡°Please be at ease.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I won¡¯t touch you.¡± Drip, drip, drip. As soon as Go Yuri finished speaking, the rain that had been suspended in the air poured down. Thest rain of the super monsoon was so thick it obscured Go Yuri¡¯s form as if it were veiled in fog. The time that had been paused and oveid with an illusion resumed its flow. ¡°¨DWow!¡± ¡°It¡¯s really dead!¡± ¡°We did it!¡± The cheers of the Awakeners, momentarily halted, echoed over the sea off Busan. To them, Leviathan had never entered Phase 3. There were no thousands of eyes. The sea dragon simply turned into ordinary rain. To them, no strange phenomena urred in the in between. ¡°Long live Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School! Long live Cheon Yo-hwa!¡± ¡°Long live Dang Seo-rin!¡± ¡°Thank you, Constetions!¡± ¡°Undertaker! Undertaker! Undertaker!¡± ¡°......¡± While everyone praised the heroes of the operation, I gazed silently at the fading rain. The endless downpour finally subsided. The sea fog lifted. The sea dragon¡¯s corpse had been buried in the water. Go Yuri was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Yes.] ¡°Did you see anything just now?¡± [What do you mean by ¡®anything?¡¯] ¡°...Nothing. You did a great job.¡± I patted the back of Cheon Yo-hwa, who was still clinging to me like a ko. When the ark¡¯s deck opened, people who had been confined for nearly ten days emerged. The cheers grew louder. But the scent of apples lingered in my nostrils longer than the smell of the sea. Super Monsoon Anomaly. Aliases: Leviathan, Water Bugs, Sea Dragon, White Dragon, Frog Dragon, Frog Rain, J?rmungandr, Eye of the Storm, Argos. Threat Level: Lv.4 Oceanic (Five Oceans) Patterns: Phase 1 ¡®Typhoon¡¯, Phase 2 ¡®Sea Dragon¡¯, Phase 3 ¡®Awakened Eyes¡¯ Estimated Damage if Not Defeated: Submersion of Japanese Archipgo, Inundation of the Korean Penins, Flooding of the Chinese Continent. Subjugationplete. There¡¯s an epilogue. Having discovered an effective strategy to defeat the super monsoon, I prepared even more thoroughly for the next summer cycle. ¡°From now on, your name is Noah.¡± ¡°Is this for real...?¡± Naturally, I renamed Noh Do-hwa as Noah in this cycle too. The ark was fortified. This time, I didn¡¯t need to free dive with Ha-yul into the typhoon; the ark fleet was securely bound with puppet strings from the start. I made the Saintess and Cheon Yo-hwa memorize the original German text of The Metamorphosis. The preparations were perfect. ¡®This time, I¡¯ll defeat it in a day! Come on, super monsoon!¡¯ It didn¡¯te. ¡°......?¡± No matter how long we waited, the super monsoon did not arrive, nor did even a regr monsoon. The sea off Busan remained peaceful, filled with the aria of seagulls. ¡°What?¡± Everyone stared at me with narrowed eyes. Noh Do-hwa, who had invested money and manpower to build the ark on Geumjeongsan, the passengers who boarded with solemn determination, and Cheon Yo-hwa, who struggled to memorize German¡ªthey all looked at me like the Korean Meteorological Administration. Their eyes reflected the crashing value of the regressor coin. ¡°Well... let¡¯s wait a few more days?¡± But it didn¡¯te. ¡°......¡± ¡°Hey, regressor. Do you wanna die...?¡± Noh Do-hwa tore off the namete with ¡°Noah¡± written on it and threw it at me. It hit me right in the heart. ¡®No, this can¡¯t be...¡¯ But really, the super monsoon had vanished without a trace. Even when I flew to the North Pacific, there were no signs of an anomaly forming. Not only in this cycle but in future cycles, the super monsoon never reappeared. Busan never faced another tsunami leading to reconstruction. It was inexplicable. [Mr. Undertaker.] But. Instead, every summer, another presence appeared off the coast of Busan. [The ¡®pink entity¡¯ you warned me aboutst time has appeared in Haeundae.] ¡°What?¡± [Don¡¯t worry. I didn¡¯t use irvoyance on it. I¡¯m observing it cautiously through another Awakener in Haeundae.] Go Yuri. Every monsoon season, she appeared in the sea off Busan. ¡°What is she doing there?¡± [No unusual signs. She¡¯s taking off her shoes, sshing in the water, and strolling alone on the beach.] [Oh, now she¡¯s squatting and ying in the sand.] I frowned. ¡°...ying in the sand?¡± [Yes. She¡¯s singing the nursery rhyme ¡®Froggie, Froggie, I¡¯ll give you a new house¡¯ and building sandcastles only to destroy them. She seems very happy.] [What should we do, Mr. Undertaker? Leave her be? Or intervene using other Awakeners?] I was silent for a long time. My neck still ached from Noh Do-hwa¡¯s grip. ¡°...No. Leave her alone.¡± [Are you sure?] ¡°Yes. There¡¯s no need to poke a sleeping tiger.¡± ording to the Saintess, Go Yuri spent about an hour at Haeundae before returning to Daejeon. After she left, I immediately visited Haeundae. I checked the exact spot where Go Yuri had yed with the sand. On the delicate boundary betweennd and sea, where the waves barely reached, the wet sand had writing on it. -Rar! What did it mean? Maybe it was a prank she left, knowing I¡¯d find it. I shook my head, puzzled. Then, suddenly, I noticed something under the waves. There were ¡®letters¡¯ inscribed on the seabed. »¢. The character for tiger. ¡°......¡± Even if something had been written there, the waves should have washed away the sand long ago. Yet, for some reason, the seabed letters remained untouched by the waves. It wasn¡¯t just a few letters by chance. Tiny characters stretched endlessly toward the horizon. »¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢»¢ ¡°......¡± When I tried to open my mouth, a wave gently washed over the beach, and the letters that had covered the seabed disappeared. -Rar! Only the yful scribble Go Yuri left at my feet remained. ¡°......¡± Hmm. ...It was autumn. Footnotes: [1] A reference to this quote from Chairman Netero when facing the King Meruem of the Chimera Ants of HunterXHunter: ¡°You know nothing of the bottomless malice within the human heart.¡± [2] Invisible Dragon is a spoof web novel of the ¡°so bad, it¡¯s good¡± variety that features a roaring invisible dragon that is the mightiest of dragons, gods, demons, and Balrogs that infringe on the copyright of The Lord of the Rings series. [3] Kamen Rider is a TV program in the tokusatsu genre, which features a wide plethora of special effects and, oftentimes, arge monstrous enemy such as Godzi. [4] Critique of Pure Reason is a philosophical text by Immanuel Kant that explores the application and limitations of metaphysics. Because understanding it requires a certain mastery of centuries of philosophy, it¡¯s generally seen as inessible to most readers, even when read in one¡¯s nativenguage. [5] Argos the many-eyed giant was used as an ever-vignt, all-seeing watchdog for the queen of the gods, Hera, and was in after being tricked into closing all of his eyes. Join our discord at Chapter 179 Chapter 179 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Existentialist I Since the Ark was featured in the previous chapter, I thought I¡¯d continue discussing ¡®ships¡¯ this time as well. Of course, there aren¡¯t many ships that boast worldwide fame like the Ark. (If we limit it to the Korean Penins, the Turtle Ship is one that canpete.) The ship I¡¯m covering this time is both famous and not so famous. It¡¯s called ¡®Theseus¡¯s Ship.¡¯[1] Before diving into the main story, Astute readers might have noticed that I haven¡¯t included the introduction ¡°This chapter happened in the XXX cycle¡± for a while. To rify, the story of the Super Monsoon anomaly leading the redevelopment of Busan was from the 664th cycle. In other words, it took ce while the regressor called the Undertaker was evolving from an experienced yer to a fossil fuel. Calling him a ¡®munchkin¡¯ then would not have been an exaggeration.[2]However, today¡¯s story will focus on a much earlier time. [Mr. Undertaker, while you took a brief visit to Okinawast time, I saw with irvoyance a massive typhoon moving toward the Philippines.] ¡°A massive typhoon?¡± [Yes. It seemed to be at least 1,000 kilometers in diameter and reached the boundary of the troposphere.] ¡°What is that? How terrifying...¡± One of the taboos in subculture plots is having a strong protagonist be weak again. In the past, martial arts stories often featured protagonists falling off cliffs, losing their memories, or having their energy cores shattered. Suchzy plots cannot survive in today¡¯s wild subculture market. But in my story, it¡¯s entirely possible. Like now, I can talk about cycle 664 and then ¡°regress¡± to cycle 239, making my character legitimately weaker. At that time, I didn¡¯t have the ability to cross the Pacific Ocean with my bare body (people would call me crazy if I did), I had no idea about the Super Monsoon anomaly, and of course, I couldn¡¯t have imagined that the Saintess would suddenly transform into a potato while out for a walk. Even for a regressor, imagining that was difficult. However, strange events at a simr level kept intruding upon my life, both then and now. ¡°Master Noh Do-hwa! It¡¯s an emergency! Please quickly make a prosthetic!¡± ¡°Damn it...¡± Of course, from Noh Do-hwa¡¯s perspective, I must have been the uninvited guest in her life. One must always adopt a rtivistic perspective to maintain stable human rtionships. ¡°This isn¡¯t just a patient, this person is on the verge of death. Damn it, how am I supposed to meet this deadline...?¡± One day in the 239th cycle. I went to see Noh Do-hwa, who was carrying a severely injured person. From now on, let¡¯s call this patient Patient A. Noh Do-hwa grumbled but immediately halted her duties as the National Road Management Corps Leader and began to save Patient A. In the post-apocalyptic world, the President of the Korean Penins also served as the 24-hour emergency room duty officer. ¡°..., ...¡± As Noh Do-hwa said, the patient was in a quantum state between life and death. Their entire body was covered in blood, with limbs having flown away in search of freedom and a heart that was thoroughly pierced. You could almost call it a miracle that death had not yet been confirmed. Of course, it wasn¡¯t a miracle from the heavens. The apocalyptic world was basically like a yandere character with a favorability rating of -100 towards humanity. What¡¯s the point of a yandere without favorability? Exactly. It¡¯s no different from amon murderer. ¡°How did this happen?¡± ¡°They are from a small guild. They were exploring the Void near Gimhae and encountered the ¡®Code of Hammurabi¡¯ anomaly. This person killed the anomaly¡¯s heart in exchange for losing their own.¡± ¡°Huh. Such sacrifice... They¡¯re lucky to be alive.¡± ¡°The other guild members performed CPR for an hour. The training was tough, but it paid off. I received the distress call and brought them here because it was closer than Pyongyang.¡± Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). It was always important, but after the Aura Healing Technique became essential knowledge for Awakeners, it became even more crucial. Now, Awakeners didn¡¯t just rely on weak palm-pumping to save a heart. They used the mystic aura of the apocalypse. Even in extreme cases such as when the heart stopped¡ªor like now, was missing¡ªemergency treatment was possible. Awakeners could use aura to forcibly regte oxygen and carbon dioxide and circte blood and, in turn, keep someone alive for hours. How long? Until aura ran out. Of course, circting human blood throughout the body wasn¡¯t as easy as it sounded. It required very precise aura control. These days, job markets didn¡¯t favor those who just piled up aura indiscriminately. In critical situations (which happened 90% of the time in the Void), guilds wanted people whose aura control was delicate enough to take responsibility for their own lives and the lives of their teammates. And who developed and introduced thisprehensive Aura Healing Technique into the job market as a required subject? Who else but me, the Undertaker. It¡¯s no wonder I was respected by most Awakeners in most cycles. If I suggested establishing the National Road Management Corps, all the guild leaders across the country would agree. They were practically my external disciples. Anyway. ¡°Arms, legs, and heart. Master, please make the heart first, and the limbster. Meanwhile, I¡¯ll keep the patient alive.¡± Sighing, Noh Do-hwa adjusted her monocle and took out her tools. ¡°Hang in there for 60 more minutes...¡± Noh Do-hwa¡¯s awakening ability¡ª[Prosthetic Creation]. An ability that made the prosthetics work ¡®as if they were part of the original body¡¯. Initially used mainly to make artificial legs and arms, it was gradually applied to more ¡°sophisticated¡± body parts as the cycles progressed. Now, when Awakeners joined a guild, they almost always took ¡®body photos¡¯. These body photos captured not only the external appearance but also the internal organs like the brain, heart, lungs, and other internal organs. Guilds sent these body photos to the National Road Management Corps for registration, and for a simple reason: so that in emergencies, like now, Noh Do-hwa could make body parts as close to the original as possible. A kind of insurance, in a way. Needless to say, Noh Do-hwa was very busy. It was easier to find a healer than to request a prosthetic from her, who had a workload like that of Zhuge Liang. But what if the heart was gone? There were very few healers who could treat that. At best, the Saintess viin from the north. Severely injured patients¡ªpractically dead but barely kept alive by theirrades¡¯ aura¡ªhad a chance of survival only with Sim Ah-ryeon or Noh Do-hwa. Just like this case. ¡°I¡¯ve made it. Cut the chest open.¡± ¡°Done.¡± As you might expect, I had tomend Noh Do-hwa. For the apocalyptic Korean Penins, she acted as a pseudo-government leader, took care of the elderly, and treated emergency patients who lost their hearts every few days. What couldn¡¯t she do? ¡°Fortunately, the blood vessels are rtively intact. No, they¡¯re too intact...¡± ¡°That¡¯s because the Code of Hammurabi only exchanged the heart. It¡¯s not an external injury.¡± ¡°I see. Then, I¡¯ll attach it...¡± Noh Do-hwa transnted the artificial heart. Sweat dripped from her chin, a sign of how focused she was on Patient A. ¡°The heart is properly positioned,¡± I said. ¡°Attach it with aura.¡± ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll keep circting blood with aura until the heartbeat returns. One, two, three.¡± Thump! Patient A¡¯s body jolted. Noh Do-hwa and I, used to such procedures, continued the surgery smoothly. ¡°Reduce the aura bit by bit.¡± ¡°70% reduced. Respiratory rate is normal. Heartbeat has a regr rhythm. No issues.¡± ¡°Reduce more.¡± ¡°50% reduced. No issues. The patient¡¯s Aura is faintly returning. It¡¯s repelling my aura.¡± ¡°Reduce significantly. Slowly...¡± ¡°Yes. 30%, 20%, 10%, 1%. No issues. Repelling stopped. Stopping aura infusion.¡± I gently stopped the Aura connection I had maintained for nearly two hours. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Noh Do-hwa and I quietly watched over the patient on the bed. We didn¡¯t use themonly seen vital sign monitors, the so-called beep-beep-beep patient monitoring devices. Absolutely not. Never. As mentioned before, electronic devices were dangerous in today¡¯s world. They were all contaminated when the Void came. If we used a vital sign monitor, no matter how good the patient¡¯s condition was, soon it would be this: Beep-beep-beep-beep¡ª Beeeeeeeep¡ª And the heart would stop. They were no longer treatment tools but killing machines. It¡¯s absurd, but what can we do? That¡¯s the state of our world. Even in such a world, those who could be saved had to be saved. ¡°One minute passed. No issues.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Three minutes passed. No issues. Pulse, pupil constriction, all normal. Checking consciousness.¡± My dark aura forcibly raised the patient¡¯s consciousness. Huff¡ª the patient took a deep breath. ¡°Huff, huff... Where, where am I...?¡± ¡°Can you hear me, patient?¡± ¡°Yes, I can... I can hear you...¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Ah... Reom...¡± I nodded. ¡°Consciousness is clear. No contamination from the Void detected. You can rest assured now, Master Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°Whew...¡± Noh Do-hwa slumped into a chair. She looked too exhausted to speak. I tactfully went outside, made iced coffee, and handed it to her. For a moment, she seemed to consider pouring it over me but then just drank it. ¡°I¡¯m going to die at this rate...¡± sheined. ¡°It¡¯s okay. Everyone is like that.¡± ¡°Damn it, it¡¯s work overload. I¡¯m serious. We need to delegate more authority to Manager Yu Ji-won or something to reduce the workload...¡± ¡°Master Noh Do-hwa. Do you know what we call Ji-won if she has more authority than she does now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, a monster? A dictator? Is this the start of your ¡®I¡¯ve seen this happen before in a previous cycle¡¯ speech?¡± ¡°What if it is?¡± Ssh! Even as an experienced regressor, there were a few things I hadn¡¯t anticipated. First, coffee could be poured even when half-drunk. Second was Patient A, whom we had saved. ¡°Thank you! Corps Leader! Undertaker!¡± By the way, this person¡¯s real name was Ah Reum. Their given name was ¡®Reum¡¯ and the surname was ¡®Ah¡¯. Quite rare on the Korean Penins. ¡°I¡¯ll live harder for the life you saved! Thank you so much!¡± Patient A thanked us, but none of us took it to heart. Usually, Awakeners who lost their hearts would retreat. The Void was too terrifying. No one med them. Losing limbs was nothing to the heroes, but when it came to the heart or brain, they acknowledged retirement. But Patient A was extremely dedicated. One monthter. ¡°Master Noh Do-hwa! It¡¯s an emergency! Please quickly make a prosthetic!¡± ¡°Damn it...¡± I kicked open the door of the National Road Management Corps main office meeting room. Noh Do-hwa, who was in the middle of a meeting with other managers, cursed. She inspected the patient and cursed even more. ¡°Wait a minute. Damn it. This face looks familiar. Isn¡¯t this the person who lost all their limbs and their heartst month...?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s them.¡± ¡°After such injuries, they went into the Void again? And now their head is half gone...?¡± ¡°Surviving this would be a miracle. They encountered a Basilisk. We have their brain photos. Please make it as simr as possible.¡± ¡°Damn it...¡± Surprisingly, Noh Do-hwa could even make an ¡®artificial brain¡¯¡ªbut only one hemisphere at a time. As long as one hemisphere was intact, the artificial one could work normally. If the entire brain was gone, even her S-ss prosthetics were useless. We didn¡¯t know why, nor did we want to. In this era, ignorance was power. Francis Bacon wasn¡¯t a name but a misprint of ¡®France is Bacon¡¯.[3] ¡°Thank you! Corps Leader! Undertaker! I¡¯ll live harder for the life you saved! Thank you so much!¡± ¡°Oh, yes. Just live safely...¡± Once again, Noh Do-hwa saved Patient A, who had lost their left brain. Now, Patient A had a prosthetic for the left brain, heart, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg. At this point, one would be hard-pressed to call them a Homo sapien. But, well, sometimes you see people with sunflowers for heads on the road. Artificial humans were rtively eptable. The problem was what happened next. ¡°Master Noh Do-hwa! It¡¯s an emergency! Please quickly make a prosthetic!¡± ¡°......¡± Two monthster. Noh Do-hwa, who was enjoying her privacy in the basement wine cer, made a sour face at the sight of the patient I brought. ¡°Damn it, are you kidding me? It¡¯s that person again...?¡± Our Patient A was missing their right brain this time. What a coincidence. In my long life, this was a first. Who loses all limbs and their heart, goes back to the Void, loses the left brain, goes back again, and loses the right brain? But a regressor¡¯s life is not arithmetic but statistics. Madmen existed, and such insane scenarios urred. ¡°So, are you going to save them or not?¡± ¡°Damn it, I¡¯ll save them. But... this means alternating the left and right brains with prosthetics. What will happen? This is my first time doing this...¡± ¡°Rx. It¡¯s my first time too.¡± ¡°Wow. That reassures me so much, you damned regressor...¡± Anyway, Noh Do-hwa made the right brain, and sessfully attached it to Patient A. It almost had us thinking our job was being Patient A¡¯s personal doctors. Eventually, we became the first medical team in history to rece an entire human brain with an artificial one. ¡°Patient, can you hear me?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°......¡± Blink, blink. Patient A opened their eyes. Their heartbeat was normal, and intelligence was evident in their eyes. ¡°My name is Ah Reum.¡± I patted Noh Do-hwa¡¯s shoulder, celebrating the sess of this absurd surgery. But then. ¡°But, what exactly is ¡®Ah Reum¡¯?¡± In hindsight, it might have been better if the surgery had failed. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°I have the name Ah Reum. But is the Ah Reum of 10 years ago the same person as the Ah Reum now?¡± Patient A spoke methodically with a strangely foreign voice. ¡°What about the Ah Reum of 10 seconds ago? The Ah Reum of 1 second ago? The Ah Reum of 1 secondter? Who am I? What am I?¡± ¡°......¡± Yes. At that moment, a new anomaly was born in the world. Footnotes: [1] The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment that asks whether an object is the same object after all itsponents have been reced over time. [2] Munchkin refers to an OP character, and often one who is clich¨¦. [3] Francis Bacon coined the phrase ¡°knowledge is power.¡± Join our discord at Chapter 180 Chapter 180 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Existentialist II Although discovering anomalies already existing in the world wasmon, witnessing the moment an anomaly was ¡®created¡¯ was rare. To be honest, it was so rare you could count the instances on one hand. The probability was lower than getting an SSR in a gacha game. In other words, the moment Patient A¡¯s brain changed from natural to artificial, it became one of those rare SSSR-grade cases. ¡°It¡¯s an anomaly called Theseus¡¯s Ship.¡± ¡°Theseus¡¯s Ship? What is that...?¡± Noh Do-hwa, who had very little knowledge in certain fields, asked. The reason for that was simple: the Korean civil service exam did not include philosophy. It was a bacsh from the Joseon Dynasty, where only philosophy was tested. ¡°There was a hero named Theseus who had a ship. Since it was a precious item like the Turtle Ship, they must have preserved it, right?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡±¡°But over time, the ship¡¯s nks rotted, so they reced them with new ones. If this continued, eventually none of the original nks would remain, and everything would be new¨D¡± ¡°Ah. So the question is whether it can still be called Theseus¡¯s Ship. If you only consider the materials, hasn¡¯t the entire content changed? Is that what you¡¯re saying...?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Up to what point is it Theseus¡¯s Ship, and from where is it not? What exactly is Theseus¡¯ Ship in the first ce? It¡¯s a dilemma rted to identity. Why did it have to be Theseus¡¯s Ship? No particr reason. He was just the most famous hero in Athens. It¡¯s simr to how people would be more eager to repair Yi Sun-sin¡¯s Ship rather than Won Gyun¡¯s Ship, even if they were both under the same navalmand. In fact, there were many dilemmas with different names but simr content. Schrs, both past and present, needed to find ways to package the same product in a captivating manner to make a living. That¡¯s why a scientist¡¯s brain goes into a jar and Schr?dinger¡¯s cat goes into a box¡ªto support their owners. ¡°Well, I understand...¡± Noh Do-hwa nced at Patient A, or rather, the anomaly that had once been Patient A, now bound motionlessly to the operating table. If Noh Do-hwa were a mad scientist or the executive of an evil organization, this would look like a scene where something significant was about to happen. ¡°I get the gist of the anomaly. It¡¯s one that confuses its own identity, constantly questioning who it is and where it is, right...?¡± ¡°Probably?¡± ¡°Why do you end your sentence with a question mark, making people anxious...?¡± ¡°Because this is my first time witnessing such a phenomenon. We often use the term identity... But there¡¯s no point in exining it since you wouldn¡¯t understand anyway.¡± ¡°Ah, you want to die, don¡¯t you...?¡± ¡°Anyway, it seems clear that this anomaly has an identity crisis.¡± Even now, Patient A, isted in theboratory, was constantly mumbling. ¡°Even a speck of dust falling on a table changes the table from an atomic perspective. How about humans? Am I Ah Reum? What is Ah Reum? What determines Ah Reum¡¯s essence, Ah Reum-ness, and beauty?¡± Noh Do-hwa massaged her temples. ¡°This is maddening...¡± ¡°Hmm. Maybe the fact that the patient¡¯s name is ¡®Ah Reum¡¯ was a trigger point. If you remove a stroke from how you write it, it bes ¡®name.¡¯[1] Names are the closest terms to identity.¡± ¡°Why would you remove a stroke...?¡± ¡°How should I know? That¡¯s just what anomalies often do.¡± Noh Do-hwa cursed. You can fill in the nks with the highest level of profanity you can imagine. ¡°Hah, anyway, the good thing is that there¡¯s no other issue apart from the nonsensical babbling. Let¡¯s just keep this anomaly locked up forever...¡± ¡°I agree.¡± ~And so, the new anomaly was isted in the Impel Down of the National Road Management Corps and lived a happy life~. END. ¨DIf that were the end, I wouldn¡¯t have mentioned the story at all. Anomalies begin to ¡°grow¡± from the moment they are born and inevitably affect the world. The purpose of this particr story is to show you the aftermath. [Mr. Undertaker.] From that day onward, the day the anomaly of Patient A was born and isted, strange phenomena began to ur. ¡°Yes, Saintess. What¡¯s the matter?¡± [Currently, some Awakeners exploring the Void in the Korean Penins are experiencing mental breakdowns.] ¡°What?¡± [The afflicted started asking questions about their own existence and then fainted within five minutes. Their fellow guild members are moving them to the rear.] A chill ran down my spine. ¡°Please provide the coordinates of the nearest afflicted person.¡± [Sure. Near Gimhae...] I immediately headed to the indicated location. The guild members were already transporting the injured to the hospital, so I helped them carry the patient. The building was more like a pharmacy or a clinic than a hospital, but these days, all hospitals were like that. Even the apocalypse couldn¡¯t withstand the separation of medicine and pharmacy. ¡°He suddenly lost consciousness. We didn¡¯t do anything wrong!¡± a guild member from the same guild as the afflicted testified. They seemed slightly intimidated by the sudden appearance of someone like me. ¡°We followed the protocol for mental contamination during the exploration. Really, we prepared thoroughly. There was no sign, but suddenly, when he got on the boat, he lost his mind and... ¡° ¡°Boat?¡± I snapped to attention. ¡°Wait. He got on a boat in the Void?¡± ¡°Yes? Ah, yes... It¡¯s much faster to use the waterway near the Jomangang River. But really, we didn¡¯t go through any dangerous routes! It was the path we always took, honest!¡± While the Awakeners desperately tried to defend themselves, I sighed deep within my heart. ¡®That anomaly has already started consuming the concept of [ship] since its birth!¡¯ There was no time to waste. I immediately left the hospital room and contacted the control tower in Yongsan. ¡°Saintess. Are you watching me now?¡± [Yes.] ¡°Please check if all the afflicted Awakeners recently boarded or have even seen a ship in the Void.¡± [...I can¡¯t confirm them all, but it seems likely. All the afflicted groups were near water.] I sighed. The hesitation was slim. The face of an Awakener who had ventured into the Void, even after losing his entire body, to fight an anomaly. His smile. His words of gratitude. But determination was always stronger than hesitation. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Yes.] ¡°Please contact Noh Do-hwa and tell her to eliminate Istion-239-430-1-A. Just call it Ah Reum, and she¡¯ll know.¡± [Understood.] Silence ensued. Two minutester. [It¡¯s done.] I immediately asked, ¡°Physical destruction?¡± [In progress. It doesn¡¯t seem to resist aura, so physical destruction should be possible.] ¡°Thank you for your hard work.¡± [No problem.] ¡°Please tell Noh Do-hwa that it¡¯s not her fault. I agreed to it, and anomalies can arise anytime.¡± [...Yes, I¡¯ll tell her.] My mind raced. ¡®Is this the end? Or is it toote to prevent the contamination?¡¯ There were various ways anomalies could grow their power. One of the most representative methods was contaminating a specific ¡®concept.¡¯ For example, let¡¯s say an anomaly contaminated ¡®the lilies in my backyard.¡¯ That wasn¡¯t too dangerous, as I just had to stop growing lilies. But what if ¡®all lilies¡¯ were contaminated? It would be a bit more dangerous, but still, not something to be overly paranoid about. If it seemed too dangerous, I could simply post on SG Net, ¡°Everyone, be cautious of lilies.¡± But what if it went beyond ¡®lilies¡¯ to ¡®nts¡¯? Or even beyond nts to ¡®life¡¯ itself? Yes. Astute readers would have already realized this, but the higher up you go from a ¡®small concept¡¯ to a ¡®broader concept,¡¯ the more dangerous the anomaly bes. Let me draw a simple diagram as an example. [Existence] / [Living Things] [Non-living Things] / [Cellr Organisms] [Acellr Organisms] Imagine the world as being made of concepts rather than space. Anomalies climb thedders of this conceptual map, spreading their cells. Sometimes upwards. Sometimes sideways. Sometimes downwards. Steadily, or by leaping. asionally through logic. But mostly through illogic. Anomalies¡¯ insidious dialectics existed to contaminate our world¡¯s pyramid, to contaminate the pyramid of existence itself. Therefore, to be apetent ¡®anomaly virus containment specialist,¡¯ you must quickly identify where the contamination starts and how it spreads. As a Regressor, my task was essentially the same. At that time, my brain was churning over the following: ¡®The concept of the ship is contaminated. What¡¯s next? All vehicles? Bicycles or trains? That would be troublesome. Or will it expand to water-rted concepts because it¡¯s a ship? Or is itpletely eradicated due to physical destruction?¡¯ It was then. - U-uh? Huh? What¡¯s wrong with you?! - Wait! Hey! Stop! Stop! The hospital room door swung open with a bang. When I turned around, the mentally disturbed patient who had been transported earlier was standing there, his mouth agape. Words spilled out from his mouth. ¡°Ship...¡± ¡°Hey, hey! Lee Geum-seon! What are you doing?!¡± Hispanions rushed out after him, shouting. ¡°He suddenly started saying strange things! Ah, Undertaker, sorry. He woke up, but then suddenly got out of bed!¡± ¡°We must fix the ship...¡± Mumble. The patient staggered. ¡°We must fix the ship. The existence crumbles, and only those who fix the ship will be saved. It is the ark for all of us...¡± Hispanions shouted, ¡°Hey! Hey!¡± and tried to hold him back, but it was useless. Somehow, the patient exhibited superhuman strength and moved steadily. Hispanions were dragged along, eximing, ¡°What? What?¡± That wasn¡¯t all. [Mr. Undertaker!] The urgency in the Saintess¡¯s voice shook my heart. [It¡¯s serious. Many Awakeners on SG Net are showing symptoms of Theseus¡¯ Ship!] ¡°SG Net? Suddenly, why?¡± Even as I responded, my mind immediately conjured the worst hypothesis. Could it be? ¡°Did someone upload pictures or images rted to ships?¡± [I don¡¯t know. I had the same hypothesis, so I haven¡¯t used irvoyance on the intentionally infected.] ¡°You did well. If you get infected, it will be a disaster. For now, ask Seo Gyu to suspend the board...¡± [Sorry.] My breath caught. [Seo Gyu is infected. Probably the first one too.] I held my breath for a moment, catching and suppressing it between my teeth and tongue the moment just before it escaped. ¡°Activate the emergency protocol.¡± [Yes, it¡¯s activated. All Awakeners have been warned ¡®SG Net entry is prohibited¡¯ under the Constetions¡¯ names.] It was true. The Awakener dragged by theirpanions suddenly looked up. ¡°What? A Constetion just...¡± ¡°Did you get the message too?¡± ¡°Yeah. But what does [Beware of the ship] mean?¡± ¡°Wait. There are more messages. [Avoid water bodies], [Do not observe any images or drawings resembling ships]...¡± Their voices grew lower. ¡°Damn. What is this? Why so suddenly? It¡¯s scary.¡± ¡°Wait. Come to think of it, when we went there today... Hey! Hey! Stop! Why is this guy so strong?¡± I tackled the mentally disturbed patient and subdued him. Fortunately, those infected by this anomaly could be knocked out. ¡°Ah, thank you, Undertaker!¡± ¡°......¡± I noticed something ¡®abnormal¡¯ about the patient. Two of his fingers, the index and middle fingers, were cut off. Scissors were nted and stuck into the severed ends. I looked at hispanions. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t do it! Geum-seon did it himself...¡± ¡°Did he cut off his fingers and stab the scissors in himself?¡± ¡°Yes, yes! It¡¯s true, Undertaker! It may be hard to believe, but we didn¡¯t do this!¡± The Awakeners didn¡¯t need to plead so desperately. I believed them. And the thought struck me: The Awakeners who were just on SG Net, including the administrator, Seo Gyu, and other Awakeners on the Korean Penins who were likely just browsing inte boards and had seen ¡®ship images¡¯... What had happened to them? The aftermath could ensue just a day after an anomaly outbreak. The world we lived in was as such. ¡°Saintess, connect me to Yu Ji-won.¡± [Okay. Connected.] ¡°Ry my message. Ask Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa for their cooperation. Assemble all National Road Management Corps members under the Command Center. Prepare for containment procedures.¡± Yes. It¡¯s nothing new, but we humans live in a world that despises us. Footnotes: [1] Ah Reum (??) is one stroke away from the Korean word for name (??). Join our discord at Chapter 181 Chapter 181 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Existentialist III Have you ever thought about which jobs would survive even if the world ended? Soldiers? Most would perish because of Chekhov¡¯s Gun. Artists? They were virtually exterminated by regressors who favored only writers. ¡°Your Excellency, Section 2 of the Command Center has assembled.¡± The surprising answer was civil servants.¡°Good work.¡± ¡°Not at all, Your Excellency.¡± Boom! The autumn rain thunder crackled in the night sky. As Yu Ji-won''s silver hair elegantly absorbed the rainwater, the members of the National Road Management Corps stood in line behind her. The task force from themand center consisted of 108 members in total. They were the civil servants and elite who maintained public order in today''s Korea, where the national army had vanished. There was not a single person here who hadn¡¯t received Aura from me or learned how to develop their awakening abilities. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Naturally, their discipline was strict. The eyes that looked at me were filled with almost infinite respect. I sped my hands behind my back. ¡°A mysterious anomaly has spread like a virus. As of now, there are 504 infected individuals in Korea, with the highest affected in Busan alone at 311.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°The condition for being infected by the anomaly is to see a ¡®boat.¡¯ Fortunately, it¡¯s nighttime, not dawn, otherwise fishermen would have been decimated. Most of the infected were engaged in night fishing.¡± A deadly tension flowed from the eyes of the members. It wasn¡¯t just because they had trauma from experiencing COVID-19 as children. In this era where food was scarce, fish were almost a staple diet. Except for the fact that every fish was now as dangerous as pufferfish, fish were still nutritious dishes. In other words, tomorrow¡¯s meals were now at risk. ¡°The official name for this anomaly is Theseus''s Ship, but during the operation, we will refer to it as T. T is growing at a terrifying rate. In some cases, you can get infected not just by the image of a boat but by the sound of the word ¡®boat.¡¯ From now on, any words rted to boats are forbidden. Understood?¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency!¡± thebat unit of the National Road Management Corps answered in unison. They called me Your Excellency because their boss, the silver-haired psychopath standing next to me, instructed them to. ¡°T-infected individuals are running around the city indiscriminately, luring uninfected citizens near water and boats.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Although the National Road Management Corps has taken precautionary measures, unexpected damage could ur. The infected may be carrying pictures of boats, so always be ready to wear blindfolds. That is all.¡± The members saluted. Their precise movements could make Mussolini jealous. I rubbed my forehead. I had warned them numerous times not to do that, but they didn¡¯t listen. However, their skills were undeniable. Mussolini should have envied not their salutes but theirbat abilities. ¡°Your Excellency. We¡¯ve captured them all.¡± Before the night was over, all the infected in the Busan area were captured. ¡°Casualties?¡± ¡°Two. Based on your information, we formed teams of three, ensuring at least one person wore a blindfold, minimizing the damage.¡± The members wore blindfolds because the infected would show boat images whenever they could. Some infected even tattooed boats on their bodies. One criminal was knocked out, and while lowering their guard, they saw a boat tattooed on their scalp and got infected. The anomaly made alopecia patients tattoo boats on their scalps. Now do you understand why I firmly reject the coexistence of anomalies and humanity? Anomalies. You should not exist. ¡°Saintess, how are the other regions?¡± [Mostly fine. Incheon has the highest number of cases, but almost all the infected are captured there as well. There are no cases in Daejeon and Sejong.] ¡°Indeed, ind areas have fewer cases.¡± [Yes. At this rate, we should be able to block the route of infection before dawn.] I sighed in relief. ¡°Then the next issue is...¡± [Yes. SG Net.] I felt a tightness in my chest. In reality, isting infected individuals would suffice, but the inte was the problem. Even now, SG Net was flooded with all sorts of posts andments. - Picture of the beautiful Ark.jpg - Click this post to get 3 million won - Scared, want someone to talk to?? - No boat pictures here, feel free to enter - [MUST READ] Tips for boarding the Ark!! These were all bait posts. Most contained boat pictures. You couldn¡¯t even trust posts without images because they had ASCII art drawn in text. Four awakener individuals ignored the constetion warnings to [Do not ess SG Net for a while] and got infected. Fools. ¡°Saintess, are you sure all the awakeners posting now are captured?¡± [Of course. We¡¯ve confiscated all their smartphones. It¡¯s not a macro running somewhere.] ¡°But posts are still being uploaded under their nicknames...¡± [Yes. It seems not only real people but also inte ¡®nicknames¡¯ are infected by T.] This was what¡¯s known as Persona. Many believed the real world actually existed within their monitors, creating an ¡®inte persona¡¯ separate ¡®real-world self,¡¯ however slight the distinction may be. Theseus''s Ship exploited that gap. - Am I real on the inte? Am I real in reality? What is the true self? Does the concept of ¡®self¡¯ truly exist? Like so. Eventually, not only the ¡®me living in reality¡¯ but also the ¡®me roaming the inte¡¯ got infected by the anomaly. They became literal inte ghosts. While we seeded in capturing the infected, we had no way to deal with the virus carriers within SG Net. What could we do? The admin of SG Net, Seo Gyu, had already lost his mind. ¡°Your Excellency, I have a n,¡± Yu Ji-won said. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°SG Net is a virtual space that cannot function without Seo Gyu. Therefore¡ª¡± ¡°If your n is to kill Seo Gyu, don¡¯t even mention it.¡± Yu Ji-won closed her mouth without another word. ¡®What should I do?¡¯ Theseus''s Ship was evolving in real-time. The title ¡®SG Net¡¯ on the main page began to distort eerily, changing to ¡®EsZ Net¡¯ and ¡®$& Net.¡¯ Though it was just warping letters now, it wouldn¡¯t be long before it freely altered image files, parasitizing Seo Gyu¡¯s awakening ability. If an image of a boat appeared on the site¡¯s main page, it would be the end. An inte anomaly that humanity must never ess would be born, especially when other sites were down. ¡®I can¡¯t lose Seo Gyu so easily.¡¯ I pondered. ¡®Boat. Boat. Boat. Charon¡¯s boatman. A tool that carries people to another world. What is the boat¡¯s weakness? Water? A typhoon?¡¯ Then, I heard a strange sound from afar. - Ah... A song. A song wasing from the direction of downtown Busan. ¡°Hmm?¡± Yu Ji-won and I turned our heads simultaneously. The melody resonated from speakers installed all over Busan. Miraculously, just listening to the song eased the fatigue from my entire body. ¡°Oh. The Great Witch is singing.¡± ¡°At thiste hour?¡± ¡°Yes. The National Road Management Corps, the Samcheon World guild members, and the citizens of Busan have been working hard all night. The Great Witch is probably singing the Cursed Song Incantation to soothe their insomnia.¡± ¡°Oh... I see. I didn¡¯t consider that.¡± I admired Dang Seo-rin''s thoughtfulness, but Yu Ji-won smirked indifferently. ¡°She¡¯s singing to gain favor during such moments, subtly earning the people¡¯s hearts. Typical of the Great Witch of Busan.¡± ¡°Hey, Ji-won. As I¡¯ve said many times, you need to curb that nasty temper. I know you only act like this around me, but if others find out¨D¡± At that moment, a bolt of inspiration struck me. ¡®Wait. A song? A boat that starts with T?¡¯ As I mentioned, my neck possessed a sixth sense that other Homo sapienscked. Another term for it was goosebumps. These goosebumps were collectively singing, Eureka! ¡°A song,¡± I muttered to myself. ¡°Yes, a song!¡± ¡°Your Excellency? I didn¡¯t catch that?¡± ¡°Ji-won! Grab recording equipment and let¡¯s go to Dang Seo-rin! I¡¯ve figured out the real trick to defeat T!¡± The expressionless psychopath tilted her head in confusion. In fact, there was another ship as famous as Noah¡¯s Ark: the Titanic. In 1912, when it departed from Ennd, it was thergest passenger ship in the world. The press dubbed it unsinkable because of its luxurious grandeur, a clear indication that it would never sink. Naturally, in subcultures, if anyone other than the protagonist holds titles like ¡°undefeated¡± or ¡°invincible,¡± it merely means ¡°they will inevitably lose someday¡± or ¡°they will inevitably be defeated by the enemy someday.¡± Truly, it was a subtle way of expression in Eastern cultures. In 1912, Ennd was the main character on the global stage, but America was rising rapidly across the Antic. In this situation, the so-called ¡°unsinkable¡± ship set sail between Ennd and America, leading to an inevitable tragedy. It was the prelude to the change of protagonists on the global stage. The movie Titanic, directed by James Cameron, was based on this true story. It became famous for dazzling audiences with its visual and auditory spectacle. First, Leonardo DiCaprio¡¯s incredible looks captivated the eyes, and then¨D ¡°Oh... Undertaker. You want me to sing?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°That song, ¡®My Heart Will Go On?¡¯¡± ¡°Precisely.¡± That¡¯s right. ¡°My Heart Will Go On.¡± Composed by James Horner. Sung by Celine Dion. One of the most sessful songs in movie history. ¡°Why suddenly?¡± Dang Seo-rin asked. ¡°That¡¯s your favorite song, not mine.¡± ¡°Because we¡¯re going to y it through the speakers, and your voice is far better than mine.¡± ¡°But your English pronunciation is better...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Just think of it as Latin, and you¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Dang Seo-rin, the idol with the highest TOEIC score in the Three Han States (560 points), perfectly sang the English pop song. I took the recording and went straight to Seo Gyu. ¡°Seo Gyu.¡± ¡°Yes, hyung. But what is Seo Gyu? Is it a term for SG Net¡¯s administrator? Or, as you im, does it refer to the human who is doomed to be the first to die at Busan Station if neglected? If so, can we say that Seo Gyu of the first death iteration at Busan Station and the current Seo Gyu are different individuals...¡± ¡°Enough of that. Listen to the song.¡± ¡°Arghhhhh!¡± Seo Gyu, tied up with ropes, struggled. ¡°Get out! The wall is closing! Get out! Throw away your baggage! Descend! Lower the boat! Descend! Ahhhhh!¡± ¡°......¡± Seo Gyu screamed desperately, as if the Titanic were sinking before his very eyes. Noh Do-hwa, who was also working tirelessly on the night¡¯s quarantine, muttered in disbelief, ¡°No way, it¡¯s actually working...?¡± ¡°We were lucky. Theseus''s Ship and Titanic both start with T, and the anomaly didn¡¯t stop at reality but expanded into the virtual space. So, sinking the ship in the movie would inevitably sink the anomaly.¡± This was the tragic end of an anomaly that recklessly tried to level up. The more concepts it contaminated, the more powerful it became, and yet at the same time, the more its weaknesses became clearer. Expanding its influence recklessly could lead to a swift downfall. Anomalies that wanted to avoid being easily hunted had to conceal their true identity. That¡¯s why the Outer Gods are in hiding. ¡°U-ugh... Huh? Hyung?¡± ¡°Yes, Seo Gyu. Who are you?¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean, who am I...? I¡¯m Seo Gyu, of course?¡± I nodded. The method worked. After verifying the strategy, I yed ¡±My Heart Will Go On¡± for all the infected. Oh, I also set it as the background music on SG Net. -Ahhhhh! -It¡¯s sinking! The ship is sinking! -Everyone, run away! But there was nowhere to escape on SG Net. The anomalies turned into inte ghosts and sank helplessly. I patted Noh Do-hwa¡¯s shoulder, who was exhausted from working through the night. ¡°Good work, Chief.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°No need to thank me. Even though a new anomaly was born from your fingertips, causing casualties, and only mypetence as a regressor allowed for early suppression, there¡¯s no reason for you to be grateful to me.¡± ¡°Damn it...¡± As I was about to savor an overwhelming superiority over Noh Do-hwa for the first time in a long while, a groundbreaking event urred. ¡°Thank you, Regressor Undertaker...¡± Noh Do-hwa muttered in a very small voice, with her back turned. I was so surprised that I momentarily froze. Noh Do-hwa expressing gratitude honestly? Could she be an anomaly? ¡°......¡± Even then, Noh Do-hwa stood still with her back to me. I shrugged. ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You¡¯re wee. Yu Ji-won will handle the follow-up work. Take the day off.¡± Then I left themand center. The anomaly that could have threatened the entire Korean Penins by infecting anyone who saw an image of a boat was eradicated in one night. There is an epilogue. ¡°By the way, Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°How did you avoid getting infected by Theseus''s Ship? You always spend your nights on SG Net. Did you just happen to avoid posts with boat images?¡± ¡°No? Ah, no.¡± ¡°Then?¡± ¡°I saw them. The boat pictures...¡± What? ¡°But I was fine after seeing them. Sure, I had moments where I wondered, Who am I? Where am I? But I always think about that. Hehe. There¡¯s no way someone like me has any value, right? It¡¯s a worthless worry...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Posting ament on SG Net is much more important than that...! I was ying on the board, then suddenly felt weird, and then it was normal again. When the guild master said it was because of the anomaly, I was really surprised... Did that really happen?¡± ¡°......¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 182 Chapter 182 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Sage I Today, let¡¯s talk about mirrors. Last time, we discussed the most famous ship in the world. Today¡¯s story is about the most famous mirror: the ¡®Magic Mirror¡¯ from the Snow White fairy tale, the one used for beauty care. - Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? - For the 3,714th time, there is none fairer than the queen. Please stop asking. In essence, the magic mirror had a database, statistics, and AI capabilities to search up all humans on Earth. Humanity had already invented ChatGPT centuries ago. However, instead of investing this incredible lost technology in domestic politics, the queen used it for ego searching. The history of politicians getting distracted by their smartphones is ancient. Come to think of it, it¡¯s quite a wise fairy tale. Even if the most powerful tool is given to humans, they will ultimately use it for ¡®searching.¡¯ If the Brothers Grimm were alive today and saw social media, wouldn¡¯t they proudly say, ¡°See, we were right¡±? ¡°Undertaker, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Hmm? What¡¯s up?¡± However, even the Brothers Grimm couldn¡¯t have predicted this. One day, Yu Ji-won came to me and said, ¡°I think I¡¯ve discovered a new monster.¡± ¡°A new monster?¡± ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s a bit unusual.¡± It was the 7th cycle. At that time, the Ten Legs still ruled the Korean Penins as the final boss, and Old Man Scho still had hopes and dreams. Originally, I worked under Dang Seo-rin as the vice guild leader, but from the 7th cycle onward, I began my path of independence. It was because Old Man Scho persuaded me to start a business together. Like someone who leaves a bigpany to join a startup, my life was a bit tangled. However, Yu Ji-won still visited me weekly for chats, like an investor who believes in micro-adjustments and buying the dip, convinced that ¡°The fact is, the regressor is getting healthier.¡± Many suspected Yu Ji-won and I were dating due to these frequent meetings. Old Man Scho was a prime example. How ironic. This old man never really helped my life at all. ¡°What¡¯s so unusual about it?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s hard to describe. Ah, would you like toe and see after eating?¡± And so I went. This ¡®new monster¡¯ was surprisingly located in Yu Ji-won¡¯s private room. It was in the middle of a room filled with books, with nothing but a bookshelf for furniture. I frowned. ¡°...A mirror?¡± The anomaly was a full-length mirror. ¡°Yes. I found it by chance while walking and brought it back. It¡¯s rare to find a mirror so clean and spotless these days.¡± ¡°No... Haven¡¯t you heard the old saying not to pick up or even look at discarded mirrors because they¡¯re bad luck?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe in such superstitions,¡± stated firmly the wise investor who had staked her entire fortune on the regressor¡¯s coin. At the time, I had not yet figured out the corrtion between anomalies and curses, so I just clicked my tongue. ¡°Why? Is it a portal to another world?¡± ¡°No. Look.¡± Yu Ji-won approached the mirror. ¡°Mirror, mirror.¡± She was whispering to the mirror. I wondered if she had another mental illness hidden under her psychopathy, but then something surprising happened. - Please die immediately. ¡°Huh?¡± - Please die immediately. The mirror responded. Yu Ji-won turned to me, surprised. ¡°Did you hear that?¡± ¡°Uh, yeah. I heard it.¡± ¡°I tested it with my guild members, and they all got the same response.¡± ¡°Told to die immediately?¡± ¡°Yes. All 36 members of the Samcheon World guild received the same answer.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s really a cursed object.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± Yu Ji-won was indifferent. She kept a clearly cursed object in her private room, a testament to her unique mindset. ¡°Anyway, it seemed too unusual to handle carelessly, so I sought your advice,¡± she said matter-of-factly. ¡°Mishandling it could lead to trouble. You¡¯re an expert in this field, right, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°What do you think is the best way to deal with this?¡± ¡°...How about putting it back where you found it? Unless it has legs, it won¡¯t follow you.¡± ¡°Indeed. A wise decision.¡± Three dayster. ¡°Your Excellency, there¡¯s a minor problem.¡± ¡°...Now what?¡± ¡°As per your guidance, I disposed of the mirror. But now the bathroom mirror is giving the same response.¡± ¡°What?¡± ording to Yu Ji-won¡¯s testimony, she had really thrown away the cursed mirror. Then, the bathroom mirror she saw first thing in the morning gave the same curse. - Please die immediately. The mirror repeated the same words. Naturally, Yu Ji-won also removed and discarded this bathroom mirror. The next day, Yu Ji-won went to Dang Seo-rin¡¯s office to report in, and when she nced at the desk mirror there... - Please die immediately. Yu Ji-won finally realized. The anomaly did not reside in a specific mirror. It transformed whichever mirror Yu Ji-won looked at first each day into a cursed one. ¡°What... What kind of principle is that?¡± The novice regressor of the 7th cycle was confused. ¡°Why do mirrors turn weird when you look at them?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know either,¡± she replied. ¡°And the mirror talks? Like some fairytale magic mirror¨D¡± I stopped talking. I had just noticed something about Yu Ji-won¡¯s appearance. More precisely, I had re-registered the color of her hair. ¡°......¡± ¡°Your Excellency? Why are you looking at me like that?¡± * The mirror talks. * Her silver hair is like freshly fallen snow. * Among all the people I¡¯ve seen in my life, her face is the most refined. * I could exaggerate a bit and say she is the ¡®fairest of them all¡¯. ¡°Oh....¡± I couldn¡¯t help but sigh. A conclusion quickly formed in my mind. ¡°......?¡± That¡¯s right. Yu Ji-won. This psychopath was the Snow White of the Korean Penins. Mirrors have no eyes. So it would be unreasonable to ask an anomaly that mistook Yu Ji-won for Snow White if it was blind. Insulting a truly eyeless entity would be a slur. As the Undertaker, I did not casually insult anyone other than Old Man Scho, Yu Ji-won, and Sim Ah-ryeon. - Please die immediately. ¡°Hmm.¡± - Please die immediately. ¡°......¡± But something was off. The anomaly was too passive for a monster. Even in the 7th and 8th cycles, the Magic Mirror didn¡¯t cause any particr trouble. It just passively suggested suicide, which was unpleasant but not overly aggressivepared to other anomalies actively ending human lives. This raised the question: ¡®What exactly does this anomaly do?¡¯ As far as I knew, the Magic Mirror in Snow White was an AI that kindly answered questions, not some suicide advocate. ¡°Mirror, mirror, what are you?¡± - Please die immediately. ¡°Mirror, mirror, would Bitcoin have hit 300 million if civilization were intact?¡± - Please die immediately. ¡°Mirror, do you want to die?¡± - Please die immediately. ¡°......¡± Unlike the fairy tale, the Magic Mirror responded consistently to any question. It would have made an excellent spokesperson for a politician. However, it wasn¡¯t just a recorder repeating predetermined responses. ¡°Wow? Old man, it speaks German too!¡± Surprisingly, when Old Man Scho stood in front of the mirror, it suggested suicide in German. The mirror¡¯snguage proficiency wasn¡¯t limited to Korean and German. Weter brought in magical girls, and it fluently responded in Japanese. Hindi. Russian. Filipino. Arabic. French. Chinese. Portuguese. Vietnamese. Spanish. Swahili. There was nonguage the mirror couldn¡¯t speak. It truly was the most advanced AI in history. ¡®So it understands its counterpart. But why doesn¡¯t its response change based on the person?¡¯ Sometimeter, I first got a clue to this mystery centuriester, in the 41st cycle. ¡°Ji-won, how have you been?¡± ¡°Thanks to your care, I¡¯m doing fine in Samcheon World.¡± ¡°Is the mirror still the same?¡± ¡°Yes. Since there¡¯s no point in discarding it, I just leave it alone.¡± I walked past the full-length mirror without a second thought. I didn¡¯t look directly at it, just nced at it. Then. - Next time, get infected with Udumbara before dying. I passed by without much thought but then stopped abruptly. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± Yu Ji-won and I spoke simultaneously. Then our eyes met. ¡°Ji-won, did you...?¡± ¡°Yes, I heard it too.¡± I approached the mirror again, just to be sure. Then. - Next time, get infected with Udumbara before dying. It changed. For centuries, the mirror had given the same response to everyone, but now it was different. ¡°Ji-won,e here.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Yu Ji-won and I switched ces. - Please die immediately. Then it gave the usual response. Yu Ji-won nodded expressionlessly. ¡°How strange. I¡¯ll bring others to test it.¡± Dozens of members from Samcheon World, including Dang Seo-rin, were brought for testing. The results were the same. Everyone except me received the response, ¡°Please die immediately.¡± Conclusion: ¡°It seems the mirror¡¯s response only changes for the Undertaker.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°This again proves that the Undertaker is special. But may I ask, what is Udumbara, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Sharp readers might recall that the 41st cycle was when I first defeated Udumbara. Naturally, except for me and the Saintess, no one knew about Udumbara. I eradicated it before it fully bloomed and spread the New Buddha virus. ¡°That¡¯s a World Tree I defeated before anyone knew about it. It looks like it grants eternal life, but in reality, it digests its infected as nutrients after a certain point.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°But Awakeners should never get infected. You¡¯d lose your awakening abilities.¡± Yu Ji-won tilted her head. ¡°Lose awakening abilities?¡± ¡°Yeah. If you get infected, you¡¯ll lose your Mini-Map ability.¡± ¡°What if, by any chance, the Undertaker gets infected?¡± ¡°Well, naturally, various abilities would be deleted. Complete Memory and Resume.¡± Yu Ji-won rested her chin on her hand, lightly touching her chin with her index finger, a habit when she was deep in thought. After a while, she spoke slowly. ¡°This might be a sphemous question...¡± ¡°You¡¯re always sphemous, so go ahead.¡± ¡°If the Undertaker gets infected with Udumbara.¡± ¡°If I get infected?¡± Yu Ji-won said, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the Regression ability be deleted too, leading to your true death?¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 183 Chapter 183 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Sage II This might seem sudden, but I want to pose a question. Have you ever wondered about this while reading stories where the protagonist is an infinite regressor? - The final boss is defeated! The protagonist finally reaches a happy ending! THE END! - So, what now? - What happens if the protagonist grows old, surrounded by loved ones and dies? Does he regress again? Does he repeat the same life?Exactly. For a regressor, a happy ending is not what¡¯s truly important. With the infinite regression coin in hand, a happy ending is just another oue, akin to a gacha that you keep ying until you get the desired result. The real issue lies beyond the happy ending. There¡¯s a hypothesis that suggests regressors might never truly find an end. They might have to eternally repeat the lives they''ve lived and the lives they will live. This is the so-called Never Ending Story hypothesis. Many creative works employ various means to avoid this Never Ending Story. The simplest and most elegant solution is to grant the protagonist eternal life. - What if the protagonist dies of old age and gets trapped in an infinite Tsukuyomi? Let''s make him incapable of natural death. This solves all problems. The protagonist won''t die of old age, thus preventing the repetition of regressions. The problem is that life always presents practical challenges, and eternal life doesn¡¯t exist in the world I live in. However, there was a virus resembling eternal life. ¡°Well, what can you do? If I get infected with Udumbara, I¡¯ll lose my regression ability and eventually die a normal death.¡± My answer was calm. I had considered this issue multiple times long before Yu Ji-won asked. ¡°No, that''s a serious problem!¡± The one who was truly panicked wasn¡¯t me but Yu Ji-won. The psychopath who staked her life on my sess wrinkled her brow like crumpled foil. ¡°Your Excellency! Such a harmful anomaly must be eradicated immediately upon sight!¡± ¡°Yes. Don¡¯t worry, I go to Onyang and exterminate it every time I regress.¡± ¡°No! The mere fact that you¡¯re in contact with such an anomaly worries me greatly. Please, let me handle its extermination from now on!¡± ¡°Sure. So, you¡¯re saying you want to keep Udumbara¡¯s seeds and use them as a trump card to betray me if necessary?¡± ¡°Heavens! How could you imagine such a terrible thing! Why don¡¯t you understand my loyalty to you...?¡± Yu Ji-won¡¯s outbursts were always something to be ignored. I looked at the magic mirror again. - Next time, get infected with Udumbara before dying. ¡°Hmm.¡± It was indeed intriguing. The mirror knew exactly what could truly kill me, the regressor. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency! If you wish, I can show my loyalty by cutting out my heart right now...¡± ¡°If you say one more ridiculous thing, I won¡¯t tell you that I¡¯m a regressor in the next cycle.¡± ¡°Upon further reflection, I believe I may not have understood the concept of loyalty.¡± ¡°Good. Anyway, this mirror seems to know that I¡¯m a regressor, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Hm? Mmm? Hmm...¡± Yu Ji-won moved closer to me, her hand still resting on her chin. In the full-length mirror, both of us were reflected side by side. - Please die immediately. - Next time, get infected with Udumbara before dying. The mirror from the fairy tale, functioning like ChatGPT, cleverly provided two different responses based on the number of users. ¡°See? The mirror tells me to die ''next time,'' not ''now.''¡± ¡°Hmm. Yes.¡± ¡°When it says ¡®next time,¡¯ it probably means the next regression cycle. It¡¯s telling me to get infected with Udumbara in the next cycle and then die.¡± ¡°...Indeed. Listening to you, it seems that way.¡± The furrow in Yu Ji-won¡¯s brow deepened. ¡°In that case, this anomaly must possess considerable power. It means it has seen through your identity and abilities.¡± I nodded. ¡°I think so too. This is no ordinary anomaly.¡± ¡°...But still, it¡¯s strange, Your Excellency. For an anomaly with such insight and information, why would it only curse people to die?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the same question I have.¡± We stared at each other silently. Our thoughts converged on one question. What exactly was this anomaly? ¡°...It¡¯s definitely the mirror from the Snow White fairy tale.¡± ¡°But Your Excellency. In Snow White, the queen asked the mirror first while our mirror answered on its own without any questions.¡± ¡°And all its answers are always the same. Even the response to me is essentially the same as for everyone else: ¡®die.¡¯ What kind of predetermined answer is this?¡± ¡°Could it be an anomaly that maintains its identity across regressions? That¡¯s how it learned about you being a regressor.¡± ¡°If this anomaly is powerful enough to transcend regressions, it¡¯s even stranger. Why would it hide in your bedroom and only tell people to die? Is it a stalker?¡± ¡°Hmm. Maybe I¡¯m just that important?¡± ¡°The anomaly must be blind.¡± ¡°...I can¡¯t figure out its identity at all.¡± ¡°...Neither can I.¡± In the end, we admitted defeat in the 41st cycle. We surrendered, unable to guess the anomaly''s nature or purpose. In one cycle, out of frustration, I even broke the mirror, which only backfired. ¡°Your Excellency, didn¡¯t you break the magic mirror and discard itst time?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Since then, the appearance rate of voids has skyrocketed around the area where you dumped the ss shards. The number of anomalies has also increased exponentially.¡± ¡°......¡± Iter discovered this was the so-called ¡®broken windows¡¯ effect. You know, the theory that if a broken window is left unattended, the crime rate around it increases. The magic mirror, like the heart of an archer who participated in the Holy Grail War, was made of ss. When broken, the same thing happened. The area was fucked up. ¡°In summary, we know almost nothing about this anomaly¡¯s identity...¡± ¡°Meanwhile, the anomaly knows everything about you and possibly other humans.¡± ¡°And if we destroy it, the broken windows effect will attract other anomalies like flies?¡± ¡°Yes. Leaving it alone feels unsettling, and destroying it causes disasters.¡± ¡°And yet, if left alone, it merely tells people to die without causing any actual harm?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°Shit. What the hell is this thing?¡± ¡°The mystery deepens.¡± I couldn¡¯t believe such an anomaly existed. To make matters worse, the magic mirror¡¯s answers subtly changed as the regressions continued. From the 41st to the 116th cycle, the answers remained the same. Then, in the 117th cycle, the response suddenly updated. - Stuff all newly born lives. They are the same anyway. Then get infected with Udumbara and die. ¡°......¡± Newly born lives. These were children who hadn¡¯t been born in previous regressions but were newly born in this one. For example, the little girl who gave me a sugar-coated donut in Haeundae. Jung Seo-ah, the daughter of a bakery owner, only existed in the 19th cycle. - Stuff all newly born lives. They are the same anyway. Then get infected with Udumbara and die. The magic mirror advised me to ¡®stuff¡¯ these lives. ¡°Stuff? What does that mean, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°......¡± Yu Ji-won couldn¡¯t understand this at all and tilted her head. It was likely that everyone would have had the same reaction. Only I understood the true meaning of the mirror¡¯s words. ¡®...It¡¯s telling me to use Time Seal.¡¯ Stuffed in time. Sealed in time. It allowed a person to relive their happiest day over and over but erased them from everyone¡¯s memory in return. The magic mirror was pointing out my ability. ¡®It sees through my regression ability and my time-sealing ability. This mirror.¡¯ In the 19th cycle, Jung Seo-ah wasn¡¯t remembered by anyone, not even by her parents, because in other cycles, a different child was born instead of Jung Seo-ah. So, whether I used the Time Seal or not, it didn¡¯t matter. No one remembered Jung Seo-ah except me. - Stuff all newly born lives. They are the same anyway. Then get infected with Udumbara and die. Therefore, the oue of being forgotten by everyone was the same anyway. So, why not grant them the mercy of reliving their happiest day forever? Wouldn¡¯t that be far better than falling into the abyss of death, regressor? Experiencing eternal happiness in a grave you¡¯ve built¨D The magic mirror whispered this to me. ¡®Ah.¡¯ That¡¯s when I realized the nature of this anomaly¡ªor rather, I understood the principle behind its actions. The magic mirror from Snow White. It might sound strange, but this anomaly was simply trying to show people a ¡®happy ending.¡¯ King Midas. The one who appears in Greek mythology. Yes, the king famous for the Midas touch. Whatever he touched turned into gold. He was practically the Federal Reserve Board of ancient times. There¡¯s a less well-known legend associated with King Midas. One day, the king captured a sage who was half-man, half-beast. The upper half was human, and the lower half was a horse or goat. As ever, the fate of a captured nonhuman by humans was pitiful. The king, after intimidating the sage, made a very human demand. - Hey, you! Give us humans the best and greatest happiness! - Eek... The sage was reluctant to answer. He was tired of being treated like a lottery ticket by humans. The king, frustrated by the sage¡¯s resistance, used another ¡®very human¡¯ solution. He force-fed the sage with strong liquor until he was intoxicated beyond resistance. Only then did the sage, heavily drunk,ply with the king¡¯s demand. - Huh, you foolish mayflies. I was keeping silent for your sake, but why do you keep forcing me to answer? How annoying... - What? - For your kind, the ¡®best and greatest happiness¡¯ is impossible. Because... - The ¡®ultimate happiness¡¯ is never being born, never existing, remaining in non-existence. For humans, not being born is the best fate. If born, dying quickly is the next best thing. - ...... No definitive ount exists of how the human king reacted to this epic insult. Nietzsche¡¯s book also introduces this story, essentially saying: - Humans always ask about happiness. - But ultimate happiness doesn¡¯t exist for humans because life is suffering. - Therefore, the only happiness is not to suffer, and the wise thing is to escape suffering as quickly as possible. - It¡¯s better to have not been born. A firm conclusion indeed. I suddenly recalled this story while discussing the magic mirror. ¡°Ji-won, the magic mirror has been answering our questions all along.¡± ¡°What do you mean, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Think about it. No matter what question you ask, all questions ultimately lead to one fundamental question.¡± ¡°One fundamental question.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Mirror, mirror. Tell me how to be happy. ¡°What lottery numbers should I pick, how can I reconcile with my family, how can I seed? The questions humans ask the magic mirror are all aimed at achieving their happiness and well-being.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So from the mirror¡¯s perspective, our questions are superficial and the essence is the same.¡± ¡°Tell me how to be happy... That¡¯s what the mirror hears from us, Your Excellency.¡± Exactly. The mirror already knew what we would ask, even without hearing our voices, and so it answered automatically whenever it sensed us approaching. - Please die immediately. Instant death. That¡¯s the only happiness allowed to humans in this void-stained world. I tapped the mirror. ¡°In the Snow White fairy tale, this item is called the magic mirror. In ancient times, a magician symbolized a sage.¡± ¡°A sage, you say.¡± ¡°Yes. Also, in Harry Potter, the magic mirror hides the Philosopher¡¯s Stone. So, the name of this anomaly before us is¨D¡± The Sage¡¯s Mirror. That was its true name. ¡°The Sage¡¯s Mirror... Indeed. A fitting name.¡± Yu Ji-won, resting her chin on her hand, nodded. ¡°As expected of the Undertaker. So, how should we deal with this anomaly...?¡± ¡°Do nothing. It suggests death to humans, so it probably wishes for its own disappearance. It won¡¯t cause trouble.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°If it gets too noisy, cover it with a nket. Maybe the mirror finds true happiness in reflecting nothing but darkness.¡± ¡°Certainly. That makes sense.¡± Yu Ji-won brought an airne nket (probably found somewhere; habits die hard) and covered the mirror. Just before the mirror waspletely enveloped in darkness, it spoke in a voice as emotionless as Yu Ji-won¡¯s. - Please die immediately. Srrrk. Then, the mirror fell silent. There¡¯s an epilogue. In every regression, the Sage¡¯s Mirror almost always appeared in Yu Ji-won¡¯s vicinity. Since I had figured out how to deal with it, I didn¡¯t pay much attention. But whenever I visited Yu Ji-won¡¯s room, I¡¯d lift the nket to check the mirror. Why? Just out of curiosity, wondering if the response had changed. - Stuff all newly born lives. They are the same anyway. Then get infected with Udumbara and die. Of course, the mirror¡¯s answer rarely changed. From the 117th to the 430th cycle, it remained the same. It kept advising me to stuff the lives of poor beings before I died. ¡®A useless answer. Well, that¡¯s how sage¡¯s sayings often are.¡¯ Even a regressor¡¯s curiosity has its limits. Seeing no sign of change, I eventually stopped checking the mirror. Then, suddenly, in the 593rd cycle, I remembered. ¡®Has the answer changed by now?¡¯ The 593rd cycle was when I sessfully defeated the Infinite Metagame. It was also the cycle when the young Overreader arrogantly dered she would save me. At that time, the mirror was still in Yu Ji-won¡¯s private room. So for the first time in a long while, I lifted the nket, a reunion a thousand years in the making. ¡°......¡± The mirror was clean. And quiet. Although Yu Ji-won probably didn¡¯t take care of it, there wasn¡¯t a speck of dust on it. It seemed to look into my face and my soul. Silence followed. I wondered why it was so quiet. - Keep living. ¡°......¡± - Keep living. I heard footsteps behind me. ¡°Hmm? Undertaker, Your Excellency? You¡¯re here?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It¡¯s unusual for you to visit me. Did something happen?¡± The mirror reflected the dim image of Yu Ji-won¡¯s figure. The voice softly echoed again. - Keep living. ¡°......¡± I quietly covered the mirror with the nket and stood up. Then, I smiled at Yu Ji-won. ¡°No, nothing happened.¡± ¡°......?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s have a barbecue and drink for the first time in a while.¡± ¡°Ah, sounds good.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 184 Chapter 184 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Addict I Mirrors symbolize self-reflection, objectivity, enlightenment, and awareness. However, bathroom mirrors are an exception. Bathroom mirrors represent baseless self-confidence, a failure in self-objectivity, overestimation of one''s appearance, ignorance, and blindness. There was someone around me who could be aptly called the "Bathroom Mirror of the Korean Penins." Sim Ah-ryeon? No,pared to this person, even Sim Ah-ryeon would be considered sane. The protagonist of this tale is none other than: ¡°I am the Marquess of Yuldoguk.¡±¡°......¡± ¡°Moreover, I am the greatest under heaven, in both the present and all of history.¡± He was an elderly Sword Marquess with an unparalleled ability to lower everyone''s SAN points when introducing himself. ¡°Sir.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°...Marquess, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Hm? Oh, Brother Undertaker, so you were there. I didn¡¯t notice your presence. Truly, your skill in hiding your presence is befitting someone with the greatest internal power in the Three Han States!¡± ¡°......¡± My head was already starting to hurt, but I couldn¡¯t run away. There was a deeper reason for this. It was the 671st cycle. The Public Officer specializing in Sword Marquesss, Noh Do-hwa, had been bedridden with the Void Poison infection. The audacity of that bacteria, to infect someone when there was no one else left to which it could spread itself, wasmendable. Because of this, I was the only one left to negotiate with the elderly Sword Marquess. If you¡¯re wondering if there were no talented people in the National Road Management Corps... well, there weren''t. What do you expect in an apocalypse? After the fall of civilization, the talent pool in Korea wasparable to Shu Han right after the Battle of Yiling.[1] That''s the end of the exnation. ¡°Marquess, Your Excellency. This week, it was your turn to visit Gimhae in and tend to thend. Why did you leave without informing anyone? This will ruin the spring harvest.¡± ¡°Bah! Being so preupied with such mundane matters is why the world is in chaos! I have far more pressing duties!¡± If we dropped that "mundane" task, everyone in Busan would starve to death. If Busan fell, the entire infrastructure of the Korean Penins would go with it in a domino effect. I engraved the character ÈÌ for "endure" on my heart and maintained my business smile. ¡°...I must have misunderstood your grand vision. If you consider it so pressing, it must be a significant matter.¡± ¡°Haha, now you¡¯re talking sense. That¡¯s why I like you, Brother Undertaker.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s not too presumptuous, may I ask what this pressing duty is?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± With a flourish, the Sword Marquess pulled something from his sleeve (yes, the long sleeves you¡¯d see in historical dramas) and ced it on the table. ¡°Look at this! You have no idea how much I¡¯ve suffered because of this strange and wicked thing!¡± I looked. The item described as "strange and wicked" was indeed peculiar. Its body was elongated, covered with numerous small, round objects that resembled insect eggs. While the body was green, the eggs were yellow. Here''s a question: what do you think this is? ¡°...Marquess, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°What is it, Brother Undertaker?¡± ¡°This looks like... rice.¡± That¡¯s right. The "strange and wicked thing" was none other than rice. The original form of the rice that no Korean could fail to recognize. The Sword Marquess sighed heavily at my remark. ¡°Haah, what a pity. Even someone like you couldn¡¯t identify it immediately.¡± He was spouting nonsense. ¡°I apologize. My vision is stillcking... What is this thing that looks like rice?¡± ¡°It¡¯s opium,¡± he announced. ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s opium. Haven¡¯t you heard of it? It¡¯s a wicked substance that causes immense harm if inhaled!¡± Of course I knew what opium was. When you cut the poppy fruit, a sap oozes out, which can then be refined into opium. It has pain-relieving properties and was secretly grown by old folks in rural areas. There¡¯s even a legend that ancient Koreans, who were known to turn everything into a side dish, once had a poppy sd. The problem was, no matter how I looked at it, the nt in front of me was rice. ¡°So, Your Excellency is saying that this thing, which looks like rice, has the same effect on humans as smoking opium?¡± ¡°Exactly! Ah,¡± the Sword Marquess added nonchntly, ¡°but it doesn¡¯t have the addictive properties of opium.¡± ¡°Hold on a minute.¡± I reflexively grabbed the Sword Marquess''s shoulder. He looked at me in question. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°You said it¡¯s not addictive? You¡¯re saying this rice-opium isn¡¯t addictive at all?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Your Excellency. If this is truly a nt simr to opium, containing some narcotic substance, consuming it would make people feel very good, correct?¡± ¡°Hmm, correct.¡± ¡°But the fundamental problem with all narcotics is their addictive nature that leads to dependency. The more you consume, the more you want. Tolerance builds, and eventually, the brain cannot feel any happiness without the drug. Let¡¯s call all these side effects ''addictive properties'' for convenience.¡± ¡°Suit yourself.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ask again. This rice-opium has absolutely no ¡®addictive properties¡¯?¡± ¡°Haah, that¡¯s what I said, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°......¡± In an instant, equations began to form in my mind. Narcotic - addictive properties - all side effects = ? ¡°Wait! Then it¡¯s not a narcotic at all!¡± I dered. ¡°Huh?¡± The Sword Marquess tilted his head. ¡°What a strange reaction. Did I ever call it a narcotic? I said it was opium. Opium, the nt those treacherous Europeans brought to ravage China...¡± ¡°Please cultivate it! This thing!¡± I grabbed the Sword Marquess¡¯s other shoulder too, grasping both with my hands. ¡°Go to Gimhae in and, while doing the dyed farming work, please cultivate this rice-opium or whatever it is!¡± ¡°What nonsense.¡± The Sword Marquess snorted, ¡°Hah! You should burn and destroy this root of all evil immediately, but I showed it to you out of respect. Now you want me to grow it? Impossible! I will never, under any circumstances, cultivate it!¡± ¡°We will spread it to the European imperialists and settle our old grudges.¡± ¡°I will cultivate it immediately, Brother.¡± A fortnight went and passed, and with unprecedented enthusiasm, the Sword Marquess threw himself into farming, and the rice-opium (ZERO addictive properties) grew rapidly. We then immediatelymenced testing. ¡°Why did you call me, guild leader?¡± ¡°Just in case the Sword Marquess was lying about theck of side effects, I need you to monitor it, Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°Eh... I¡¯m really busy these days. I came because you asked, guild leader...¡± ¡°Yes, thank you.¡± Irgely ignored Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s words. Ever since she became the Saintess of the North, she liked to unt her busy status. Regardless, various people gathered in the experimental area. Among them was Noh Do-hwa, who had just risen from her sickbed. ¡°Is it really possible to have opium without side effects? Opium induces pleasure by fundamentally damaging the brain...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. ording to the Sword Marquess, it¡¯s a nt found in the Void. Anything can happen there, so a side-effect-free drug might exist.¡± ¡°It sounds like bullshit...¡± I agreed. But if it wasn¡¯t? Then we would need to revise the term "narcotic." It would just be a drug. Possibly even a panacea. ¡°Alright, everyone, please pay attention.¡± Everyone in the experimental area turned to look at me. ¡°First, we¡¯ll test on five prisoners infected with the ¡®Murder Addiction Syndrome¡¯ anomaly. We will test the efficacy of rice-opium in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°We will conduct the tests in 1-year, 3-year, 10-year, 20-year, and 50-year intervals to monitor for long-term side effects. Yes, Student Sim Ah-ryeon, why did you raise your hand?¡± ¡°Guild leader. Can I try it too...?¡± ¡°No, you cannot. Begin the test.¡± The prisoners were isted individually. Each was ced in a dark, enclosed room where they could see nothing but darkness, and they were given bundles of rice-opium. - Let me out! - I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯ll never kill innocent people again! Please forgive me! Bang, bang. A faint sound of banging on the walls could be heard, barely noticeable to the average ear. In front of each of the five rooms was a red button. [Press to fast-forward time by one year.] Pressing the red button would advance time by a year inside the rooms. Press it twice, and two years would pass. Press it two hundred times, and two hundred years would pass. In theory, billions of years could pass. Of course, the rooms and the buttons were one whole anomaly. Inside these rooms, people could survive without eating or drinking. However, they couldn¡¯t sleep, and without someone outside opening the door, they couldn¡¯t escape. It was the perfect prison, one of the frequently used anomalies by the National Road Management Corps. With these rooms, we could sentence criminals to 1,000 years and literally keep them imprisoned for 1,000 years. Since this prison was introduced, the crime rate plummeted. A prison sentence could be scarier than a death sentence. ¡°Director Noh Do-hwa, pleasemence the 1-year sentence.¡± ¡°Alright...¡± Noh Do-hwa pressed the button in front of Room 1. The sound of banging on the walls sped up, bing a rapid bang, bang, banging, which then quickly fell silent in less than 0.01 seconds. ¡°One second has passed,¡± she dered. ¡°Should we release them?¡± ¡°Yes, please.¡± The National Road Management Corps members approached and opened the door of Room 1. Usually, prisoners were broken mentally after serving their ¡®sentences.¡¯ It was only natural. No one could remain sane after being locked in a dark room for periods ranging from two months to 150,000 years (an actual sentence received by a criminal). Prisoners would typically drool, mumble incoherently, or bepletely unresponsive, like a corpse. This time, however, was different. ¡°Huh?¡± The prisoner from Room 1 lookedpletely fine. He was munching on the preserved rice-opium grains. ¡°Has it already been a year?¡± he asked. ¡°......¡± ¡°Wow, a good thing too. I was so bored, I thought I¡¯d die. Haha, I¡¯m free now, right? I¡¯ll nevermit another crime!¡± The prisoner from Room 1 smiled broadly. He showed no signs of mental illness or Void poisoning. He looked perfectly healthy. ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Noh Do-hwa and I exchanged nces. We immediately moved on to the next test. Noh Do-hwa pressed the red button three times, ten times, twenty times, and fifty times for the remaining rooms. The results: ¡°Finally free!¡± ¡°Thank you, Lord! Thank you so much!¡± ¡°I will live a righteous life from now on!¡± Amazingly, all the prisoners who served their sentences emerged with ¡°good mental and physical health.¡± Despite a thorough examination by Sim Ah-ryeon, no side effects were found. The prisoners had endured their solitary confinement by experiencing happiness from consuming the rice-opium. ¡°Regressor Undertaker, this is...¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded at Noh Do-hwa. ¡°Let¡¯s cultivate this on arge scale immediately.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°From now on, this new nt will no longer be called the insidious name ¡®rice-opium.¡¯ It will be known as ¡®dopamine.¡¯¡± I was invincible. The Sword Marquess was a god. Dopamine was the key. Footnotes: [1] A battle of the Three Kingdoms period in which several great generals and minds of war were killed. Join our discord at Chapter 185 Chapter 185 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Addict II Dofarming¡ªa newly coined term short for "dopamine farming." In the past, when civilization still thrived, it referred to inte ghosts seeking sensational videos or news, but even as the world copsed, history advanced. In this apocalyptic era, we finally achieved true "dofarming." ¡°I''m... so happy...!¡± Sim Ah-ryeon shivered with joy. ¡°What... what is this happiness? I just ate a bowl of rice. I just consumed a carbohydrateden meal! But this happiness! This overwhelming happiness is enveloping me! Guild Master! What is this?¡±¡°It¡¯s a new rice variety called dopamine that will sustain the Korean Penins.¡± ¡°It¡¯s so delicious! I feel like screaming in happiness, even if what I eat is in white rice three times a day! I''ve been missing out on life... Do ordinary people live with this kind of happiness every day...? Without a hint of depression?¡± ¡°No. Most people probably didn''t experience this level of happiness...¡± Who could have predicted? The Fourth Industrial Revolution, following the first three, was not the AI or robotics revolution, but the Agricultural Revolution. Now, every plot ofnd capable of farming in Korea produced dopamine. To an outsider, it looked like ordinary rice fields; they might even mistake the country for a scene from the old Joseon era. ¡°My stomach is full and happiness follows... This is insane. This crop is insane, Guild Master...¡± And it didn¡¯t even require the richest of soils. In fact, it required much less attention than growing actual rice. With just some fertilizer and diligent nting, dopamine replicated effortlessly. Naturally, the atmosphere on SG Net also changed drastically. - Anonymous: Confession: I used to post maliciousments anonymously. - Anonymous: But after a month of eating dopamine, I started to wonder why I lived like that. Finding faults in others never improved my life... - Anonymous: I especially want to apologize to WitchJudge. I was the one who kept calling you a train-enthusiast auntie. - Anonymous: I used to criticize you, saying that a representative Awakener of the Korean Penins should maintain their dignity, but I was just projecting my own unhappiness onto you. - Anonymous: I regret my past. Will you forgive me, Witch Judge? ©¸[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Of course, I forgive you^^ But which city do you live in? Even this kind of change was trivialpared to what was toe for the truly earth-shattering upheaval was toe shortly thereafter. - OldManGoryeo: I am retiring from SG Net. Sim Ah-ryeon announced she was quitting SG Net! - OldManGoryeo: Busy with real life. Sim Ah-ryeon used the term "real life"! - OldManGoryeo: If I''ve hurt anyone while I was active, I apologize here. I''m sorry. Sim Ah-ryeon apologized! I was so shocked that my jaw dropped. Not once in 671 cycles, not since the invention of SG Net and Sim Ah-ryeon''s survival, had she ever abandoned her identity as the viin OldManGoryeo. And now, she was turning her back on the inte? Focusing solely on living as the Saintess of the North in Pyongyang? Was this even possible? ¡°Ah-ryeon, are you... serious?¡± ¡°Yes? Yes. Honestly, living my daily life while eating dopamine makes me much happier than posting nonsense on SG Net...¡± Of course, despite saying this, the viinous OldManGoryeo returned to SG Net a weekter. She left me with the memorable line: ¡°Guild leader, I realized you can''t live on happiness alone (smile).¡± But on the flip side, it meant she voluntarily quit SG Net for a whole week. My jaw showed no signs of returning to its proper ce. ¡°Is it really that astounding of a thing...?¡± ¡°Director Noh Do-hwa, live as long as I have. The sun has risen in the west many times, but Ah-ryeon has never done anything like this.¡± ¡°Being more astonished by an inte troll than celestial movements. Truly the life of a regressor...¡± ¡°By the way, Director, aren¡¯t you eating dopamine?¡± ¡°No,¡± Noh Do-hwa responded indifferently, sipping the awful coffee I made while flipping through documents. ¡°No matter how much it passes 50-year side effect tests, why would I consume such a suspicious void nt? I''m not looking to be a test subject...¡± ¡°But it''s like a drug with zero side effects. It makes you incredibly happy. The statistics show that satisfaction with life is much higher now than when civilization was intact.¡± ¡°Oh. Happiness. Sweet resonance...¡± Noh Do-hwa sneered. ¡°I lived without it and will continue to do so. Sure, thanks to dopamine, crime andints have plummeted andbor productivity has soared, reducing my workload as a director. But...¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Regressor Undertaker. Do you think I don''t know your ulterior motives? You just want to see me basking in happiness...¡± ¡°You¡¯re mistaken.¡± How did she know? Did Noh Do-hwa develop mind-reading abilities too? Scary. ¡°By the way,¡± Noh Do-hwa continued, ¡°the Magical Girl Association requested some dopamine seeds. In exchange, they''ll expand farnd in Kyushu...¡± ¡°Is there a need to hesitate? Share them. In these tough times, good things should be shared.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± Noh Do-hwa''s eyes twinkled behind her monocle. ¡°You''re not just trying to test if this miracle crop has any side effects, right? Regressor Undertaker, are you also abstaining from dopamine...?¡± I remained silent on that. It was half true. All human civilizations ultimately strive to achieve happiness. The minimum condition for happiness is avoiding misery, or in other words, not having one''s rights infringed upon. Therger the society, the more its happiness trends towards an average. Thus, thews of a sufficientlyrge society always focus on the minimum condition for happiness, preventing rights vitions. The rest of its citizens¡¯ happiness must be sought individually, drawing a clear line between ''society''s happiness'' from ''personal happiness.'' Achieving the vast numbers of both social and individual happiness simultaneously is humanity''s ultimate goal. ¡®Dopamine might be the tool that finally brings human civilization to its peak.¡¯ It might sound absurd, but I seriously considered this possibility. For many people, life was a struggle. Providing them with a crop that had awakening effects, fatigue recovery, productivity boosts, and hunger reduction with zero side effects could change everything. Life might no longer be suffering but, rather, a stroke of luck. As a regressor who had lived eons, I had to consider the world beyond the eradication of anomalies. ¡®If dopamine really has no side effects, the Sword Marquess will be humanity''s eternal savior.¡¯ As you might guess from listening to my story, the miracle crop that brought "happiness" to everyone didn''t end with a "happy ending." ¡°Undertaker.¡± A yearter, Dang Seo-rin came to me with news. ¡°Not a single child was born in Busan this year.¡± News of Korea''s record-low birthrate¡ªbreaking the just-recently-apocalypse-minted record¡ªwasn''t surprising to anyone. However, there had never been a time when the birthrate was literally 0%. Not even during the apocalypse when anomalies took over the world. Dang Seo-rin said that this record was set in Busan. ¡°...Not even one?¡± ¡°None.¡± Dang Seo-rin¡¯s tone was calm. It was a defense mechanism. The more serious the situation, the colder her voice became. When she faltered, the entire organization could copse. This was her characteristic. ¡°I didn¡¯t believe it, so I had it checked several times,¡± she stated evenly. ¡°Considering the number of residents in Busan, it seemed impossible that no newborns were registered. Perhaps they were born outside hospitals or clinics?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°But it was confirmed. This year, not a single human was born.¡± To Dang Seo-rin, I was the only person with whom she could briefly drop her cold facade. After a moment of silence, she spoke again, oveying objective truth with her personal sincerity. ¡°All the babies were stillborn.¡± ording to her investigation, this phenomenon urred universally around the 8th week of pregnancy. The fetuses would simply stop growing. Their bodies would curl up and shrink, as if they wanted to leave no trace in this world. As if every pregnancy were merely an "illusion." ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± I remained silent as the verbal report and written documents were delivered. Both Dang Seo-rin and I already had a suspicion. We both understood the source of this bizarre phenomenon. We also shared the unspoken understanding that this wasn''t just a problem confined to Busan. ¡°Of course, it could just be a strange urrence limited to Busan.¡± But it wasn¡¯t. A weekter, Cheon Yo-hwa came to Busan with simr news. ¡°Teacher, babies are dying.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s more urate to say they¡¯re disappearing. They just vanish. Continuously.¡± Reports from Busan, Sejong, Pyongyang, Daejeon, southern Seoul, and even the Japanese archipgo all told the same story from every city and vige where humans clung to life. No babies were being born. No new humans visited the earth anymore. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The meeting room of the Regressor Alliance fell into an eerie silence. Lee Ha-yul, the youngest among us who had knocked on the world¡¯s door most recently, muttered softly, ¡°...Maybe it¡¯s just for this year?¡± But it wasn¡¯t. The same reports came in the following year. ¡°Busan¡¯s birth rate is zero.¡± ¡°Ugh. Not a single baby was born in Sejong either.¡± ¡°P-Pyongyang too... None...¡± It was a strange phenomenon. There were no unhappy people anymore. Except for the few, like Noh Do-hwa, who deliberately avoided dopamine, everyone was happy. Human civilization had reached its pinnacle. And at this peak, humanity suddenly exercised a veto on the cycle of life. Why? The phenomenon of ''not having children because life is unhappy'' had been observed, but the exact opposite, ''no births despite an extremely happy life,'' was unprecedented. However, the cause was clear. ¡°There¡¯s one thing we can try.¡± Everyone in the meeting room turned to look at me. ¡°This is definitely the work of an anomaly. Something rted to dopamine is causing these unborn babies to experience something dreadful.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head. ¡°But teacher, we¡¯ve observed the fetuses through various means, and they really started to shrink suddenly at the 8-week mark for no apparent reason.¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s what it looked like from the outside. But it means the anomaly is affecting the inside of the fetus.¡± ¡°The inside of the fetus...? What does that mean?¡± ¡°Dreams.¡± I nced at one corner of the meeting room. There, Fairy No. 264 was ying with LEGO bricks. I looked at the anomaly, known as the Baku, and spoke. ¡°I will personally enter the dreams of newborns to find out which anomaly is kidnapping our future.¡± Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 186 Chapter 186 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Addict III A birth rate of 0%. Faced with an unprecedented situation, one that even survivors from South Korea had never witnessed before, the policy I proposed was simple. - Use the Baku to enter the fetus''s dream. - Exterminate the mysterious monster lurking there. I prided myself on this being the most practical low birth rate policy ever proposed on the Korean Penins, yet even this faced issues right from the first stage.First, Fairy No. 264, our emergency-appointment low birth rate advisor, expressed her reluctance. ¡°Hieeek. Comrade Secretary, having a fully grown adult, especially a total stranger, enter a fetus''s dream is an incredibly reckless act!¡± ¡°...Is it that difficult?¡± ¡°Hoeee, of course it is!¡± Fairy No. 264, chosen as an expert for the advisorymittee, had a look that said, ¡°How can someone not know something so basic?¡± ¡°The fetal world is made up only of ¡®sounds¡¯! The dual melodies of the mother¡¯s high-pitched tones and the father¡¯s low-pitched tones, the rhythm of the heartbeat, the dissonance of the digestive organs... And the mysterious intery of light and shadow! Although it¡¯s really just the parents turning the room lights on and off, to the fetus, it¡¯s as if the sun and moon are taking turns in a twilight dance. The touch of water. Smells. The fetus¡¯s world, the fetus¡¯s dream is made up of only these things!¡± ¡°There¡¯s almost no visual information.¡± ¡°Yes! That¡¯s a big problem!¡± The revolutionary cadre nodded, speaking thenguage of the Americans. It suited the situation. ¡°The fetal world consists of 80%¡ª no, more than 90% sound! In contrast, for a fully grown human like you, Comrade Secretary, vision ounts for more than 80% of your sensory importance! This is a difference so significant it could be said you¡¯re almost different species!¡± ¡°But it¡¯s a task that must be aplished. Isn¡¯t there any way?¡± ¡°If you want your form to disintegrate into the soundscape of a three-four time beat as soon as you enter the dream, I won¡¯t stop you.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± As I was contemting, Fairy No. 264 added, ¡°Hoeee, but if it¡¯s someone with a voice familiar to the baby, the sess rate jumps dramatically. About 3% to 9%?¡± ¡°A voice familiar to the baby?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s the mother or father, it¡¯s much easier to ess the baby¡¯s dream! So if it¡¯s your own child, Comrade Secretary, the sess rate doubles!¡± Ping! At that moment, the atmosphere in the conference room changed. I could sense the shift in the air. Everyone in the meeting was now keenly listening to this conversation. ...I had once promised Oh Dok-seo that I wouldn¡¯t use [Telepathy] again, but this time, it was hard to resist. I immediately closed one eye and activated ¡®Gung Ye Sense.¡¯[1] Ah, I hadn¡¯t mentioned it, but Telepathy worked better when I closed my left eye. [Cheon Yo-hwa: Wow. That incubus asked the forbidden question everyone was curious about but no one dared to ask...] [Seo Gyu: I am curious. Hyung is a regressor who has lived through hundreds of cycles, but has he really never had children? Never been married?] [Dang Seo-rin: I should focus on the taste of this coffee. Yes, it¡¯s delicious.] [Sword Marquess: Mount Hua numba won.] [Sim Ah-ryeon: The guild leader''s baby must be so cute.] [Noh Do-hwa: Oh, he closed his eye? That bastard is using Telepathy, isn¡¯t he...?] I immediately turned off Telepathy and rubbed my left eye as if I were wiping away some dust. Even though Noh Do-hwa was still looking at me suspiciously, I nonchntly changed the subject. ¡°Having a child solely for the purpose of eliminating a monster would be disrespectful to the child. Instead, how about this method?¡± ¡°Hoeee, what do you mean?¡± ¡°Instead of me entering the fetus¡¯s dream, we invite the fetus into my dream. Wouldn¡¯t that be better?¡± The fairy jumped in her seat. ¡°Hoek! As expected of Comrade Secretary! That¡¯s indeed a brilliant decision! The sess rate would then soar to over 50%!¡± Soft sounds of disappointment and irritation echoed quietly around the conference room. I was a bit tired of it. It seemed that human interest in others'' romantic affairs was truly instinctual. ¡°Alright,¡± I pressed forward. ¡°Instead of just suddenly inviting the fetus into my dream, let¡¯s decorate my dream to match the fetal environment as closely as possible. As you said, we¡¯ll keep the surroundings dark, have the smell of water, and add natural white noise.¡± ¡°Sess rate over 90%! Comrade Secretary, you¡¯re a genius...!¡± The project outline was set. Now, we just needed a coborator, specifically a pregnant mother. This part was resolved quickly. ¡°Are you saying that some damn monster is trying to kidnap my baby? Of course I¡¯ll help. Just chew that bastard¡¯s limbs to pieces.¡± ¡°Yes, Undertaker! Dismember that thingpletely!¡± ¡°......¡± Survivors of the apocalypse were fundamentally tough. Among them, the Busan citizens who watched Dang Seo-rin¡¯s monster dissection show every week were particrly resilient. We had a total of 49 volunteers. The choice came down to sounding out the person who had been pregnant the longest. This was done at the fairy''s request. ¡°Hoeee, the fetus¡¯s brain needs to be developed enough to dream!¡± It was a valid point. These days, fetuses stopped developing at 8 weeks, and disappearedpletely between 10 to 30 weeks. The final candidate was at 25 weeks, yet by all appearances, there were no noticeable differences to before her pregnancy, and her belly wasn¡¯t protruding at all. It wouldn¡¯t have been surprising if the baby had been kidnapped already, and the mother¡¯s anger and anxiety towards the monster were just as urgent. There was another reason behind choosing her. ¡°If my baby is born, I n to name her Seo-ah.¡± Jeong Seo-ah. I wonder if you remember. In a very old, bygone cycle, there was a little apprentice chef who personally fed me sugar donuts on Haeundae Beach. In each cycle, Jeong Seo-ah¡¯s personality and appearance were slightly different. Even the gender varied. But their identity as a bakery kid remained the same. Yes. I know that this ¡®Jeong Seo-ah¡¯ and the ¡®Jeong Seo-ah¡¯ to be born in this cycle will be simr yet different. But what does it matter? Every child carves out their own life in the gap between an adult¡¯s knowledge and the unknown. I didn¡¯t want to see this child being kidnapped by a monster. ¡°Now, sit side by side! We need to sing a luby to properly enter the dream!¡± The preparations wereplete. Thirty-six fairies formed a circle and held hands. I held the fairy¡¯s hand with my right hand, and the mother¡¯s with my left. Then the fairies began to sing in unison. Mom is going to the ind shade ? To pick some necks ? The baby is left alone¡ª to poop ? ¡°......¡± Were you still going to insist that this nonsensical song was a luby? Just as my sense of disbelief disappeared, my consciousness suddenly sank to the floor. We had already agreed not to descend into too deep of an unconscious state. As everyone knows, the basement is now the territory of ''She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.'' To put it simply, the ¡®pink entity¡¯s¡¯ unconscious world was at the 13th underground level. This time, the unconscious level I descended to was at most the 2nd underground level. - Thump. Even that level, however, was enough to decorate the interior by mimicking the fetal senses. - Thump. Thump. Thump. There was only darkness. But it was not a silent darkness, nor was it a dry, ck background. The darkness was sound. The world was quietly growling. To humans, the heart was never just a visual diagram but a sound, echoing softly like a wave in water. ¡°I can¡¯t see anything.¡± ¡°Well, the baby has never seen anything, so it¡¯s natural! To a baby, seeing the world with eyes closed is everything there is to see.¡± ¡°No wonder prophets in myths are depicted as blind. To experience the primordial world, you must discern through sound.¡± ¡°Shh. The baby is here!¡± Holding my left hand, the fairy pointed to a part of the darkness. I saw it. - ...... My senses reinterpreted the ¡®world the baby was experiencing¡¯ as visual information. And it was astonishing. ¡°That¡¯s... just water?¡± Water was floating and wriggling in the middle of the darkness. There were no visible limbs. No head. There was something long and tentacle-like squirming in the water... Was it the umbilical cord? No matter how you looked at it, it was more like an Undine wannabe than a human. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s water?¡± ¡°...No. Where¡¯s the calmly curled-up baby, and why is there a water elemental slime instead?¡± ¡°Tsk, tsk, tsk. Comrade Secretary, that¡¯s an adult¡¯s perspective.¡± This brat was really asking for a flick on the forehead. ¡°Adults separate the fetus and amniotic fluid, thinking this is human and that is liquid, but from the fetus¡¯s perspective, the amniotic fluid is just another part of its body! It¡¯s been with them since birth, so it¡¯s only natural!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Human schrs interpret the pain babies experience during birth as merely the separation of the umbilical cord, the separation from the mother. But fundamentally, it¡¯s closer to the loss of ''water,'' thus losing a part of their most basic ''skin.'' Mammals, in essence, are terrifying creatures that have their skin peeled offpletely when they are born...¡± The fairy shivered. ¡®Quite an interesting perspective.¡¯ So, a significant part of the pain humans experience at birth is due to the ''loss of water,'' or the ''loss of their body.'' In other words, babies who were originally ''water spirits'' are forcibly turned into ''humans.'' There was no time to dwell on this anthropological notion now, though ¡°Comrade Secretary! The monster is appearing!¡± The culprit behind the zero birth rate era on the Korean Penins had appeared. Step, step¡ª The monster walked gracefully from the other side of the darkness. When I saw the monster''s form, my eyes widened in shock. Jeong Seo-ah. A monster, eerily resembling the grown-up version of the fetus Jeong Seo-ah would eventually be, was approaching the fetus. - Sigh. Yesterday was hard too. Plop. The ''grown-up Jeong Seo-ah'' sat down beside the ¡®unborn Jeong Seo-ah.¡¯ - You know, mommy seems to have finally heard the news. That if things continue like this, I might never be born. - ...... The monster, mimicking Jeong Seo-ah¡¯s appearance, whispered to the fetus in a bizarre voice and tone. - Our daddy diedst month while out in the Void, didn¡¯t he? So mommy thinks I¡¯m the only trace daddy left behind. But now, knowing I might disappear too, it¡¯s causing her immense pain. She overdosed on dopamine again. - ...... - It¡¯s not just mommy. Daddy was baking dopamine rice pizza every day until the day before he disappeared. Uncle too. Auntie too. Great-uncle and great-auntie also need to be counted. Thanks to that damn dopamine, they lived healthily and happily until their deaths. - ...... - So... now it¡¯s my turn? Ssh. The monster that looked like Jeong Seo-ah dipped her hand into the amniotic fluid. Then, an ominous ¡®ck color¡¯ that was different from the serene darkness of this dream world began to taint the fetus''s amniotic fluid. - ...! ...! The amniotic fluid turned pitch ck. Unable to scream, the fetus¡ªthe being of water¡ªcould only express its agony by violently disturbing the surface. ¡®Ah.¡¯ At that moment, I understood the true nature of dopamine. How it managed to keep making people happy without any side effects up until now. The side effects hadn¡¯t disappeared. Misfortune hadn¡¯t vanished. The side effects and misfortune were simply transferred and postponed onto ¡®someone else.¡¯ Namely, the unborn children. In other words, they went to the ¡®next generation¡¯ that shared the same bloodline. Footnotes: [1] Gung Ye was a historical figure who lost one eye as a baby and grew up to be a king of the Later Three Kingdoms period of Korea. He also imed to have the mysterious power of mind-reading, which he used to have his political advisors and adversaries executed. Join our discord at Chapter 187 Chapter 187 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Addict IV - Is it painful? The anomaly spoke to the fetus. - Do you still want to be born despite this? Its voice sounded strangely kind. That alone was peculiar. Originally, all gestures of anomalies were merely awkward imitations. Nevertheless, this anomaly managed to pretend to be human quite skillfully. It mimicked the appearance of a human, adopted their voice, and imitated their movements.- The outside world is full of lives like this. Ssh. The anomaly unhesitatingly thrust its forearm into the amniotic fluid and stirred it. - ......! Then, the water forming the fetus flickered with various colors. The surface of the water acted like a television screen, and across it were images, flowing as if a movie film were being projected. Scenes of Jeong Seo-Ah¡¯s mother in agony, of her father, stressed out from running a bakery. Of uncles, aunts, distant rtives, grand-uncles, and grandmothers. The scenes of the ''bloodline'' of those connected to the small fetus Jeong Seo-Ah suffering were being broadcast. ¡°Hieeek. These are not ordinary images,¡± Fairy No. 264 whispered softly beside me. ¡°Those are undoubtedly the unhappiness and pain they would have felt when they didn''t take dopamine...! Each color contains dense emotions...!¡± Life, aging, illness, death. Things that were originally erased by dopamine in the real world, from the most trivial misfortunes of humans to the most dreadful ones, were all transferred to the fetus. Afterpleting the transfer, the anomaly shuddered with a sigh. - Jeong Seo-Ah. - ...... - Even after this, do you still want to be born into this world? Thump. The heartbeat that supported the fetus''s dream weakened. The rhythm ckened and the sound diminished. Yet still, the heartbeat continued. The will to live, which hadsted for 25 weeks, had not been abandoned by Jeong Seo-Ah. However, the anomaly''s words were not yet finished. - Of course, there is a way to avoid such suffering. The anomaly caressed Jeong Seo-Ah. - You can take dopamine too. The fetus''s body jolted violently. - Then you can pretend there is no such thing as the prevalent misery and pain in the world. Just like your mother. Like your father. Like everyone else living in this world right now. - ...... - Why should you have to bear the crushing blow? It''s not your fault the world is like this. You were just born. You can just pass it on. Once more. - But if you do that, you''ll be the first generation to do so knowing the truth of it all. Drip, drop. The water that formed the fetus''s body also started to diminish. Like old skin shedding, droplets fell from the surface of the amniotic fluid. They were tears. A fetus, yet to develop limbs and features, knew no other way to cry. We deduced outside that "the size of the fetus gradually diminishes until it disappears." The truth of it, however, was different. The child made of water was simply disappearing by shedding tears. - Yes. You made a wise decision. The anomaly touched its tongue to the droplets that fell from the fetus. Then itpped up the water like a hamster in a cage. - You don''t need to bear it. There''s no reason to endure unhappiness yourself or pass on sins knowingly. So...? Right? The anomaly that was drinking the amniotic fluid tilted its head. - This isn''t a dream. At that moment, the anomaly''s right arm was cut off. A strike from my sword cleanly sliced away its forearm. - Ah. Thud. The severed forearm turned into water in mid air and spilled onto the ground. Only then did the anomaly, mimicking Jeong Seo-Ah¡¯s face, nce to the side at me. Fairy No. 264 chose that moment to flee with a gasp. Really, it was useless inbat. - ......! However, without a nce at the fairy, surprise spread across the anomaly''s face. It looked as if it recognized me, a reaction that seemed genuinely human. - Undertaker? "Do you know of my existence?" - If even the old-timers here don''t know, it''s time to close shop. "You speak well for an anomaly. Your tongue flows like an eloquent schr''s, as if you possess intelligence." - Ahaha. The anomalyughed. Itsughter was exceptionally realistic. The voice echoed through the dream''s darkness like that of a truly innocent child. - Because I am human! Of course, I possess intelligence! "Is that so? You¡¯re not an anomaly but a human?" - Yes, yes. Because we... The anomaly spread its arms. The arm I had severed had already regenerated. - We feel pain and unhappiness. Like the Piet¨¤, the anomaly cradled the fetus.[1] - Obviously, we are more human than those fake ones outside who no longer feel pain, unhappiness, or responsibility, and don''t want to feel it. I opened my mouth and then closed it. The logic structure alone was genuinely human. - Only those who are more unhappy, who suffer more, are cherished as human beings by you, aren''t they? More miserable families, more pitiful environments. Scarier teachers, harsherpanies, more tyrannical nations. Humans loved topete over the depth of their unhappiness¡ªsomething only humans could do, could be capable of. - You have lost the qualification to be human. In this era filled with dopamine, it was what humans had lost. - Now, we will be the new humans of this era. I chose that moment to look at Jeong Seo-Ah in the anomaly¡¯s arms and say, "In a world where no one is born?" - Dream. Reality. The only difference is theyer. Indeed. So the new human race would unfold within dreams. At that moment, I thought I knew where the unborn children were headed. However... "You''re wrong." I raised my sword as I spoke. "Not everyone is taking dopamine,¡± I argued. ¡°Therefore, you cannot strip humanity of its qualifications." The anomaly furrowed its brow, as if considering it a wordy. - That¡¯s because of the Sword Marquess¡¯s fields, the logisticswork doesn¡¯t apply to the whole of humanity. But surely you know, as a self-proimed anomaly expert? Talking about ''reality'' with us is meaningless¡ª "Noh Do-hwa." The anomaly flinched. "She doesn''t take dopamine,¡± I said. ¡°Before they even knew there were side effects like you, she refused to take dopamine." - ...... "If you know my name, you must also know about Noh Do-hwa, and that she doesn''t take dopamine. Am I wrong?" The silent anomaly soon ground its teeth. - ...That woman is an oddball. An outlier. She can''t represent humanity. "In a sense, I agree." I swung my sword again. Once more, the anomaly¡¯s arm flew off. "But as for thetter half, I do not. She alone can represent humanity." This time, the severed arm did not regenerate. The anomaly¡¯s argument crumbled before the evidence of Noh Do-hwa. - Urgh! The anomaly stepped back as if trying to flee somewhere, but this was my dream. Entering might have been easy, but leaving wouldn¡¯te free. Swish! I immediately shed my sword, cutting off one of the anomaly¡¯s legs. The anomaly fell backward in its attempted escape as I simultaneously grabbed Jeong Seo-Ah. The anomaly looked up at me. - N-no... The anomaly trembled. - Please don''t kill me. I don''t want to die... I had cut down countless anomalies, and even cut down humans. Those with mouths, tongues, and vocal cords often begged for their lives before my de. I did not listen to them. I had lived long enough to know that merely being born and looking human did not make one human. Let alone an anomaly that only imitated humans. Yet. "Why?" I found myself asking, abruptly realizing something. "Didn¡¯t you tell Jeong Seo-Ah the same thing? That the world is full of pain and misery, with bombs passed down from above. So why beg for your life?" - That¡¯s... The anomaly''s words trailed off. The once fluent arguments ceased. The tongue was still. The expression vanished. But the eyes. The anomaly¡¯s eyes were fixed on Jeong Seo-Ah in my arms. I noticed a sort of envy, perhaps even longing, in that gaze. ¡°......¡± Right. If this anomaly had continued to speak eloquently as it had before, I would have swung my sword without hesitation. It didn¡¯t. A being that longed for life, despite bearing and chewing through pain and suffering, refusing to escape through death¡ªsuch a being, I couldn¡¯t easily cut down. Especially not when a certain old man did it so easily. However, I knew what I had to do. I also knew how to do it. This emotion would subside. My hand would advance. The anomaly would be exterminated. In ten seconds, I knew it would be done. But. But still. ¡°I have something to ask.¡± I lowered my sword. - What...? ¡°If you im to be human, you should answer this.¡± Jingle. A bell rang in the dark space. The sound came from the bracelet on my wrist. A ¡®Silver Bell¡¯ hung there. I held the namesake of my alias ¡®Undertaker¡¯ up to the anomaly and asked, ¡°Do you want to escape from hell?¡± Originally, Time Seal only worked on humans. The reason was simple. The other party had to agree to the use of the ability by saying, ¡°Yes, please use that ability on me!¡± It was a contract of sorts, and as such, using Time Seal on non-human species was almost impossible. Most anomalies merely imitated human thinking andnguage. They did not truly understand. They couldn¡¯t sign a contract of consent. But. "Do you want to be at peace forever?" - ...... "I can make you relive the happiest day of your life forever. If you¡¯vemented about bearing the misfortune of many people, you can imagine how sweet this offer is." If there truly was an anomaly that thought of itself as human... If that anomaly, through some process, somehow really understood human thinking andnguage... "In return, you will be forgotten by all humans. No one will remember that you ever existed." - ...... "Except for me." If such an anomaly existed... It could naturally be sealed in the tombstone of time. - Ah. The anomaly murmured. - No matter how happy the dream, if you argue it¡¯s just an illusion... "You said dreams and reality are no different, so you contradict yourself." - Indeed. It¡¯s a checkmate. The anomaly murmured. - So that¡¯s it. If I say no here, I give up being human. If I agree, I get exterminated. The anomaly looked at me, it gaze quiet. - What a cruel human you are. "I asked a question." - Truly cruel. When a human ended their own life, it was called suicide. Then what should it be called when an anomaly voluntarily got exterminated? Should it not also be called suicide? - ...I¡¯ve only dreamt of a miserable life. The anomaly¡¯s gaze turned to the sky. - Though I spoke of pain as the human condition, I never wanted to be miserable. I wanted to live happily, like the humans outside. That skyward gaze lowered to peer at Jeong Seo-ah in my arms, then downward still to see itself in the form of Jeong Seo-ah all grown up. - Now, I want to live a happy dream. I am human. I nodded silently. Jingle. The moment the Silver Bell rang for thest time, the anomaly in Jeong Seo-ah¡¯s form burst apart. Its body turned into a ck liquid that spilled onto the floor. On the wet floor stood a transparent crystal tombstone. Indeed. I was the first to witness an anomaly die by suicide. There is an epilogue. "Dopamine? What¡¯s that?" Once the anomaly was subjected to Time Seal, people naturally forgot all about dopamine. It wasn¡¯t just their memories that were lost either. "Dang Seo-rin, don¡¯t you see the rice covering that in?" "Huh? What are you talking about? It¡¯s just a wastnd." "......" People couldn¡¯t perceive dopamine at all. Even if opium rice grew right before their eyes, even if the grains were refined and presented, they only saw empty air. For the past two years, the fact that no newborns were born was considered a ''very strange event.'' Nobody remembered it was chaos caused by dopamine. Not even the Saintess or the Sword Marquess. "What do you think, Ah-ryeon? Do you feel a sudden burst of happiness or anything?" "N-not at all. I feel the same as usual." More surprisingly, forcing dopamine on others had no effect. The crop that was once expected to save human civilization, something everyone carried and consumed, had been forgotten. Now, I was the only person left who knew about dopamine. "Hmm." The event of the Sword Marquess discovering and bringing dopamine wouldn¡¯t even happen in the next cycle. I felt a bit bitter and, while giving Noh Do-hwa a ride, asked this question. "Captain Noh Do-hwa. Suppose there¡¯s a food that supposedly makes you happy without any side effects." "Hot, fried chicken, you mean...?" "Whatever... Would you eat it?" Noh Do-hwa adjusted her sses. The dangling chain jingled hysterically. "Why are you asking something so ridiculous...? Would others eat it too...?" "Yes." "Hmm..." She was on her second night of staying up. Pressing down on the dark circles under her eyes, she said, "If it were just my portion, I¡¯d eat it all up... But if everyone eats it, I probably wouldn¡¯t...?" "Why not? Everyone else is eating it." "Hmm... I guess because I¡¯m a hipster who gets upset if my unique thing bes mainstream?" I nodded immediately. "Indeed." It was a very convincing reason. That was why I couldn¡¯t understand what happened next. "No, Captain. Why are you suddenly hitting me on the head?" "Just because it annoyed me that you actually agreed with my nonsense..." she grumbled. "It was nonsense?" "What else could it be? Damn, how do you see me...?" Noh Do-hwa shook her head and put down her teacup, her tone turning more serious. "If everyone takes that mysterious happiness pill, someone has to avoid it to prepare for contingencies." Hmm. Given that was the very reason I was able to corner the anomaly, I had nothing to say. Even so, I had to ask, "For an uncertain preventive measure, you¡¯d give up certain happiness?" "What are you saying, damn... Since you came to me, my life has been summarized by that sentence... Do you seriously not realize that?" "Certainly." I resolved to give Noh Do-hwa more rides in the future. A second epilogue. One day, after cleaning up the remnants in the lowestyer of the dream within a dream, I found myself on the second floor of the dream. That floor changed its scenery every time I dreamed, but one thing always remained constant: there was a crystal tombstone in a corner of thendscape. ''Now I even have graves in my dreams.'' I touched the tombstone as a test. Usually, when I fiddled with the surface of the tombstone, the ''happiest day'' of the human sealed inside would unfold like virtual reality. So now, the happiest moment of the dopamine anomaly should be reproduced¨D Something quite surprising happened instead. "Do you want to escape from hell?" - ...... "Do you want to be at peace forever?" In the anomaly¡¯s dream, the scene of our confrontation was repeating. I blinked nkly. Why? - Ah. It was obvious upon reflection. The anomaly known as dopamine had no ''happy memories.'' It had lived off human misfortune until it was exterminated. Thus. - I¡¯ve only dreamt of a miserable life. - Now, I want to live a happy dream. This was the only happy memory for the anomaly. - I am human. Jingle. In the dream within a dream, the anomaly left those words as its final will and burst apart. Just before it died, the anomaly had a broad smile. To this anomaly, the happiest day was its moment of suicide. "......" I watched the anomaly endlessly repeating its suicide in the dream, reveling in happiness, and I had to admit it to myself. There was an anomaly here that was human¡ªexcessively human. Footnotes: [1] La Piet¨¤ is a marble sculpture created by Michangelo depicting the moment Jesus was taken down from the cross and given to his mother, Mary. Join our discord at Chapter 188 Chapter 188 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Patriot I Have you ever heard this saying? "Crisis is an opportunity." While this phrase is widely known and often quoted, I find it overly kind and somewhat misleading. Reality is harsh. To urately reflect this cruel world, the saying needs a serious makeover. "Find an opportunity in a crisis. If you can''t, then you''ll die."An apocalypse is a continuous series of crises, much like the incessant survey calls during election season. But while election seasonsts a month at most, the apocalypse is a never-ending, thrilling ride with new surprises every day. The weak humans who couldn''t adapt to the newly updated environment of Earth all perished. It wasn¡¯t just individuals that died either. Entire professions were wiped out. If we were to list the jobs that disappeared from the elementary school career aspirations list in the face of the apocalypse, it would include members of parliament, electionmission members, union leaders, stock traders, physicists, graduate students, hikikomori... And we must not forget "journalists." In the modern media world, which could no longer survive without advertisers, the apocalypse was too harsh. That said,rge guilds did publish quarterly newsletters when the asion struck. "Hogsmeade News" of the Samcheon World gained some poprity, for example.[1] However, it was hard to consider these true media outlets. It¡¯s not exactly prestigious journalism when Dang Seo-rin¡¯s autumn witch fashion items make it to the front page. Nevertheless, it took a considerable amount of time for "journalists" to disappear from the job market, and that was all because of one man. Jo Yeong-su. Thest journalist remaining not only not just on the Korean Penins but in "Republic of Korea" was quite active for a long time. However, if I were to grab any citizen of Busan and im, "Jo Yeong-su is actually a journalist," I would likely receive a strange look. "Him? A journalist? Why?" In Busan, Jo Yeong-su could always be found in the square in front of the National Road Management Corps headquarters. It was there that one could find a middle-aged man holding a protest sign and shouting every day. "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down! Step down! Step down!" "Ugh, there he goes again. Doesn''t he ever get tired?" "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step dooown!" Yes, that man was Jo Yeong-su. To the people of Busan, Jo Yeong-su wasn¡¯t recognized as a journalist. He was just the "crazy guy in the square." This crazy guy had a distinctive outfit. Not only was he holding a protest sign, but his shirt was emzoned, front and back, with: [Republic of Korea ´óínÃñ‡ø] [Democracy ÃñÖ÷Ö÷Áx] The shirt, which was more armor than clothing, was covered inrge and small characters: [The Republic of Korea is a democratic republic] [The sovereignty of the Republic of Korea belongs to the people, and all poweres from the people] [All citizens have freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly and association] [No permit or censorship shall be imposed on speech, the press, or assembly and association] ... Truly the embodiment of democracy! If there had been a "Jesus = Heaven, No Jesus = Hell" Evangelism team in Myeong-dong, Seoul, during the civilized times, now Busan had Jo Yeong-su. No matter how liberal Busan was with fashion, Jo Yeong-su stood out more than any witch cosyer from the Samcheon World. "Can''t someone do something about that guy?" "He''s such a nuisance." "When will that man ever lose his voice?" Naturally, the members of the National Road Management Corps detested Jo Yeong-su. Even if they didn¡¯t worship Noh Do-hwa as the savior of the Korean Penins, they couldn¡¯t stand a human rm ring at them on their way to and from work. If Noh Do-hwa had said, "Get rid of that nuisance," the members of the National Road Management Corps would have dly done so and left no trace. "Just leave him alone..." In other words, Jo Yeong-su¡¯s survival was entirely thanks to Noh Do-hwa¡¯s neglect. "What¡¯s the big deal? Get back to your work..." "Commander, is there any reason to keep such a troublemaker alive? It could demoralize the Corps." "Demoralize? If they don¡¯t like it, they can quit. Who¡¯s stopping them? Damn, I¡¯d quit too if I could. Do you want to see what real demoralization looks like?" "I¡¯ll make sure to tell the members not to touch him." Noh Do-hwa was immune to criticism and nder. No matter what was said, even if it was deeply insulting, she ignored it. This couldn¡¯t be interpreted as the benevolence of a ruler. It was more like how a person wouldn¡¯t care about a caterpir wriggling to get attention. That was Noh Do-hwa¡¯s mindset. Yu Ji-won also ignored Jo Yeong-su, deciding it wasn¡¯t worth trying to gain points with her superiors. She was equally good at treating people like insects. "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down!" Thus, a miracle was born. Jo Yeong-su achieved true "freedom of expression" that was hard to enjoy even in a true democratic society. Remarkably, Jo Yeong-su was even an Awakener. "Able to light a lighter with his index finger." His awakening ability was trivial, but to a true democrat, such "innate traits" didn¡¯t matter. The important thing was that as an Awakener, he could ess SG Net. That was all that mattered. -Anonymous: The Republic of Korea is facing a crisis! The election system has copsed, and democratic principles have disappeared! After the National Road Management Corps members went home, Jo Yeong-su¡¯s fingers would light up SG Net instead of the square. -Anonymous: By what legitimate procedure did Noh Do-hwa be the head of the National Road Management Corps? What is the legal basis for this? Of course, she was chosen by me, the Undertaker, and selected through a beta-testing period spanning hundreds of years. Curiously, everyone except her went mad when they seized power on the Korean Penins. What was I supposed to do? I had no choice but to pick Noh Do-hwa, who couldn¡¯t go any crazier because she was already well beyond saving. -Anonymous: The situation with therge guilds controlling the cities is even more pressing. The guilds arbitrarily collect protection fees from the people! -Anonymous: If this isn¡¯t a tax, what is? What right do these rogue groups have to levy taxes on the people? That would be because all the "anomaly experts" of this era were gathered in the guilds. As anyone who has heard my stories would know, it was practically impossible for ordinary people to stand up to anomalies. Even for Awakeners, it wasn¡¯t easy. In this apocalyptic world where one could die on the streets at any moment, the guilds were responsible for maintainingw and order. Thus, one had to consider the guilds¡¯ perspective too. "Hey, we¡¯ll pay you a protection fee equivalent to a head tax and 10% of your ie, so you better deal with the anomalies first and most aggressively, okay?" That was the proposal made to the guilds. People might feel differently, but it wasn¡¯t a deal particrly weighted in the guilds¡¯ favor. Honestly, theirs is a tough job to do without some incentive. -LiteraryGirl: What¡¯s that guy saying again? -Anonymous: Attention everyone, the night shift has begun. Please share your Three Kingdoms theories. -Anonymous: Is it true that Jo Yeong-su goes to the free meal center every day? -OldManGoryeo: Wee, old-timer, LOL Even on SG Net, Jo Yeong-su wasn¡¯t well-received. Despite operating anonymously, everyone knew his identity, which was a problem. It meant he had fostered himself a notorious reputation. In this era, who lives by "procedures" and "votes"? Anomalies don¡¯t care about that stuff when they crush humans. -Anonymous: I¡¯m not condemning the guild leaders or the head of the National Road Management Corps because they¡¯re ipetent. Of course, every post he wrote was met with mockingments, and Jo Yeong-su would always respond with long rebuttals. -Anonymous: The issue is legitimate procedures! Even if power is seized by force, humans live through time, and time brings forgetfulness. -Anonymous: Force can sustain power for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, but not 100 years. Time is too powerful! -Anonymous: The way to ovee the inevitability of forgetfulness is writing agreements and promises intows. These are the only measures that continue to work over countless years that humanity has discovered! -Anonymous: Inheritance based on bloodlines cannot be a legitimate procedure! Countless ceremonies and coronations were devised to make such a tradition look legitimate. -Anonymous: Ultimately, agreement! Only agreement! Laws inscribed with agreements! -Anonymous: Realistically, everyone cannot gather every 10 years to renew agreements, so we create "promises that transcend time and space, agreed upon by all humans." This is the constitution! -Anonymous: Realistically, not everyone can participate in agreements, so "periodically elected representatives of all sovereign people" renew the agreements. This is thew! Indeed, these were lengthy rebuttals. I didn¡¯t edit them. He genuinely wrote such detailed responses to every member¡¯sment. Eachment had slightly different words and sentences too, so he wasn¡¯t using copy-paste. -Anonymous: Do the National Road Management Corps and guilds have power? Yes. Do they have agreements? No. Do they have a constitution andws? No. Do they have agreed procedures? No! -Anonymous: Thus, these organizations won¡¯tst 100 years. They clearlyck the qualifications to represent the current Republic of Korea! -Anonymous: Former Busan Mayor Jung Sang-guk, who fled to Japan, has more legitimate qualifications! ©¸dolLHOuse: ? No matter how passionately he poured out his arguments, no one agreed with Jo Yeong-su. It was only natural, really. -Anonymous: LOL 100 years? We¡¯re struggling to survive 10 years and you run your mouth about "the inevitability of forgetfulness" LOL No one expected a nation to endure for over 100 years. The Republic of Korea, which Jo Yeong-su revered so much, had copsed just over 100 years after its founding. The "constitution andws" he cherished couldn¡¯t stop the arrival of the void. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Cursed Song Incantation could protect the public order and far more people than a few agreed-upon sentences. That¡¯s the world we live in. Humans were no longer great but merely part of nature. Laws were luxury items for humanity, which found itself at an overwhelming disadvantage in nature. In other words, we were animals. Beasts. Awakening abilities weren¡¯t something grand or a sign of being chosen by heaven; they were just ws for beasts or wings for escaping. One had to humbly acknowledge this fact to face the current reality. -Anonymous: Difficulty in current times cannot excuse procedural deficiencies! The former Republic of Korea dered independence and established a constitution even when the country was lost and upied by foreign forces! In short, Jo Yeong-su was an idealist. To the SG Net members, whose families, friends, and colleagues had died and were still dying, his idealism was almost unbearable. -OldManGoryeo: Thanks to the old-timer, the night shift is warm again LOL Thus, he earned the nickname "Old-timer." "Republic of Korea" + "Old-timer," a mocking term. Along with OldManGoryeo, Old-timer was one of SG Net¡¯s three major viins. Who was the third? That was debatable, but sometimes the WitchJudge would be tossed around as an option. Some factions even dared to nominate me, the Undertaker, as a Three Kingdoms viin, but those were all baseless nder. -Anonymous: Noh Do-hwa, the head of the National Road Management Corps, should wake up! ©¸OldManGoryeo: Wake up! Wake up! Anyway. As usual, the night shift on SG Net was filled with OldManGoryeo causing chaos and Jo Yeong-su breathing fire. Normal people were asleep, preparing for the next day¡¯sbor. Only two viins were passionately debating the "future of the nation" through their posts andments. -Anonymous: Even now, the National Road Management Corps and guilds should seriously discuss the direction of the Republic of Korea, considering public opinion! ©¸OldManGoryeo: Public opinion? LOL how would you do that? ©¸Anonymous: Through the media, of course! ©¸OldManGoryeo: Oh, gotcha. But we don¡¯t have any media or news in our proud Republic of Korea, do we? lmao... At that moment, Jo Yeong-su¡¯s keyboard, which had always unhesitatingly voiced the truth, suddenly fell silent. One minute, three minutes, five minutes. No matter how long they waited, there was no rebuttal to OldManGoryeo¡¯sment. -OldManGoryeo: Last hit done. Finally, OldManGoryeo, satisfied with getting thest word, moved on to another topic. -OldManGoryeo: Hey guys, what song are you listening to right now? ©¸ZERO_SUGAR: Three Kingdoms theories, go. ©¸OldManGoryeo: Go to sleep. Of course, OldManGoryeo didn¡¯t realize it. That he had just inadvertently given birth to thest "journalist" on the Korean Penins. Footnotes: [1] Hogsmeade is an all-wizard vige featured in the world of the Harry Potter series. Join our discord at Chapter 189 Chapter 189 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Patriot II That morning as the members of the National Road Management Corps arrived at headquarters (nicknamed the Tower of Babel or the Demon King''s Castle), they felt an inexplicable emptiness. "Why is it that themute isn¡¯t as annoying today?" "Congrattions. You¡¯ve finally lost it." "Has the za in front of our workce always been this clean?" "It¡¯s a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these, adults like us should stay home and rx..."[1]Just when they started doubting whether they had gone insane from overwork, someone pointed toward the za and shouted, "Oh! He¡¯s gone!" "Gone? Who is?" "The crazy guy! Jo Yeong-su isn¡¯t here!" "Huh?!" Yes. Jo Yeong-su¡ªwho held up a sign while shouting ¡°Noh Do-hwa, step down!¡± every day, through rain and snow, through seasonal colds and strange viral infections¡ªhad vanished. The members of the Corps were amazed. With just one person gone, the Tower of Babel za revealed its natural elegance. "Wow, it¡¯s so nice without that guy..." "During lunch breaks, he¡¯d always approach us while we were eating our sandwiches and start yelling." For the first time since joining, the members of the National Road Management Corps experienced a peacefulmute. Of course, happiness is fleeting, like summer ice cream¡ªyou can¡¯t savor it slowly. Exactly fifteen dayster... "Please take a look at this!" "What?" Thud! With a beaming face, Jo Yeong-su returned to the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps and ced arge stack of documents on the reception desk. "Uh..." The receptionist was confused. The National Road Management Corps wasn¡¯t a government body that served the public as their master. Naturally, there wasn¡¯t aints office for civilians. (There was, however, a reception desk for patients seeking support devices from Noh Do-hwa personally.) "Uh, Mr. Jo Yeong-su? What is this...?" "This is a public opinion survey about whether Noh Do-hwa is suitable to rule the Republic of Korea as its leader!" Jo Yeong-su¡¯s voice rang out like a lion¡¯s roar, drawing the attention of the Corps members enjoying their lunch break in the lobby. "A public opinion survey?" "Yes! See for yourself!" On the front page of the survey, consisting of 400 sheets of recycled paper, was written: Republic of Korea''s First Public Opinion Survey Question: Do you believe that Noh Do-hwa, the head of the National Road Management Corps, was elected through legitimate democratic procedures as the de facto ruler of the Republic of Korea? Very legitimate ¨C 12.3% Somewhat legitimate ¨C 15.1% Somewhat illegitimate ¨C 5.5% Very illegitimate ¨C 1.6% Indifferent ¨C 59.7% No response ¨C 5.8% The writing, densely packed and in pencil, was clearly handwritten. The paper was ragged, as if the text had been rewritten numerous times. "Oh..." The receptionist blinked. "Um, what is this exactly...?" "This is the survey data collected by personally visiting hundreds of Busan citizens!" Jo Yeong-su¡¯s clear eyes gleamed with enthusiasm. For the record, although it doesn¡¯t matter, Jo Yeong-su¡¯s head was as shiny as his eyes at the time. Just saying. "As you can see, 27.4% gave positive responses, and a whopping 7.1% gave negative responses!" "Uh, well. Assuming the survey was conducted properly, isn¡¯t the approval rating quite high...?" "Currently, the Republic of Korea is essentially under Noh Do-hwa¡¯s dictatorship! In such a situation, over 7% of the people risked their lives to express their opinions! It¡¯s a figure that cannot be underestimated!" "Dictatorship..." The receptionist nced around, startled. Fortunately or unfortunately, the Corps members, who by now were ustomed to Jo Yeong-su¡¯s antics, didn¡¯t me the receptionist. They simply gave him a look that said, "Here we go again." "This is the voice of the people, the cry of the masses! The National Road Management Corps must not ignore the public sentiment that boils likeva beneath the surface!" "It seems to me the public sentiment is saying they ¡®don¡¯t care.¡¯ With almost 60% of the responses, isn¡¯t that the true sentiment of the residents...?" "Are you saying the 7% voices aren¡¯t even voices or people?" "What? No, that¡¯s not it¡ª" "Are you saying it doesn¡¯t matter if we ignore the opinions of only 7%? Is that the universal stance of the National Road Management Corps, which should be concerned about the country¡¯s foundation and the voices of minorities?!" "Okay, okay, Mr. Jo Yeong-su! I¡¯ll pass the information to themander! Will that be all?" "Please dooooo!" By now, you might be wondering. How did I, the Undertaker, overhear the above conversation and narrate it with such omniscience? The answer was simple. A mysterious patron was secretly supporting Jo Yeong-su, the embodiment of Korean democracy. [I think it makes sense.] It was none other than the Saintess herself... who expressed her support for Jo Yeong-su! [While I don¡¯t agree with restoring the already fallen Korean government, it¡¯s good to have an institution that listens to public opinion.] "But isn¡¯t there SG Net?" [Only Awakeners can ess it. It¡¯s hard to say that the opinions of ordinary people are fully reflected anywhere. I also can¡¯t conduct a proper survey of public opinion because I can only share the perspectives of Awakeners.] "Hmm." [Mr. Undertaker, you always warn against Awakeners¡¯ superiority. I think it¡¯s a good opportunity to listen to the voices of ordinary people.] "If the Saintess wishes for it..." The Saintess had firmly pressed the "subscribe and like" button for Jo Yeong-su the YouTuber, and she shared his every move with her friend, me. To be honest, I wasn¡¯t particrly interested. If there was one person on the Korean Penins with the least nostalgia for the Republic of Korea, it was me. To prevent misunderstandings, it wasn¡¯t because I was what they call a "national critic." I had a much simpler reason than the fierce political battles waged by those inte personas. "I don¡¯t remember anything!" It happened before my fourth cycle. I must have fulfilled my military duty as a healthy SCV. I probably experienced the wanderings and conflicts typical of my age and may have had my own opinions, or echoed others¡¯, about the nation of Korea. And all those memories had plunged into the sea of oblivion. Unless the Dragon King under the sea of Inwang helped me, there was no way those memories would return. "I don¡¯t even know my parents'' faces or where my hometown is, so why would I have nostalgia for Korea?" Therefore, to me, the words of the old-timer... no, of Jo Yeong-su were as foreign to me as an aliennguage. Create a constitution? I was 100% sure that the moment a constitution was written, anomalies would corrupt the text. There was no way anomalies would pass up such an attractive prey as a "sequence of letters that all citizens must respect." I¡¯d bet my hand that the first line would be corrupted to read, "¢Ù The Republic of Korea is void ¢Ú The sovereignty of Korea belongs to anomalies, and all deathse from anomalies." Voting? Majority rule? Oh my, how amazing. From the moment you put paper in the ballot box, you¡¯ll find votes from "humans who shouldn¡¯t exist!" The miracle of the total voter turnout inexplicably reaching 146% would surely unfold. "Why are you deliberately increasing vulnerabilities exposable to anomalies? Are you masochists?" Vulnerabilities should be minimized as much as possible. Reduce government organizations to the National Road Management Corps. Concentrate the power of the Corps on Noh Do-hwa. From my perspective, I only had to manage Noh Do-hwa to prevent her from being infected by anomalies. Why do I build guild members focusing on Awakeners rather than ordinary people? Is it simply because Awakeners are more capable? No. It¡¯s because the Saintess can monitor Awakeners 24/7. Even if they fall victim to anomalies, the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance allows for immediate response. In contrast, ordinary people don¡¯t have that. The risk of being caught off guard and falling prey is far too high. Risk management. My strategy as a regressor was thoroughly focused on responding to anomalies. "It¡¯s truly iprehensible." Although I refrained from touching Jo Yeong-su out of consideration for the Saintess, I asionally mentioned him when chatting with Noh Do-hwa. "It would be understandable if he merely longed for the environment of the civilized times, but it¡¯s strange to feel nostalgia for Korea as a nation itself." "Well, isn¡¯t nostalgia created by mixing those two emotions...?" Noh Do-hwa countered. "We used to live like humans." "I understand that. But Jo Yeong-su is something else entirely. Even if I don¡¯t remember exactly, was it really a country worth longing for so deeply? It¡¯s not even something you miss after it¡¯s gone..." "Hm." Click. Noh Do-hwa chuckled as she clipped her nails. As a former civil servant of Korea, she always ced a trash can on herp to catch the clippings as she trimmed her nails. "So you¡¯re that kind of person..." "...?" What did she mean by that? In any case, both the Saintess and Noh Do-hwa were unexpectedly tolerant of Jo Yeong-su¡¯s mischief. The other Awakeners weren¡¯t much different. Everyone despised Jo Yeong-su, but no one actually made him "disappear." They could have done so anytime they wished. Living without family or friends, unaffiliated with any guild, dwelling in the slums of Busan, moving between the National Road Management Corps and Samcheon World¡¯s free meal centers, while denouncing the "dictatorship" of both organizations. He spent his days collecting scraps of paper. Because he needed paper to create his "opinion surveys." Even so, resources were scarce in the world, so Jo Yeong-su had to write out the survey questions on his opinion polls with a pencil. Republic of Korea''s Fourth Public Opinion Survey Question: In Pyongyang, Korea, a puppet state called the Eastern Holy State has been established, and the National Road Management Corps has not released any official statements about them. Do you think the Eastern Holy State should be recognized as a state? Republic of Korea''s Eleventh Public Opinion Survey Question: This year, as a countermeasure against typhoon and monsoon damage, the government forcibly relocated citizens from the southern ind areas of Korea. Do you think the National Road Management Corps can infringe on the freedom of residence and relocation in a national crisis? Republic of Korea''s Twentieth Public Opinion Survey Question: Do you think guild leaders'' authority can be established without democratic agreements or discussions? If so, do you think guild leaders have a certain amount of duty to the people? I wish I could show you these questionnaires. In a sense, they¡¯re truly fascinating. On the recycled paper, whole lines were marked out with pencil strokes Jo Yeong-su had made several times. Like this. Sometimes, he found some whiteout somewhere and covered the text, only to write over it once more. ¡õ¡õ¡õ(like this). Sometimes, he tried to erase words, but the quality of the eraser and paper weren¡¯t up to par, and the paper would tear with a riiip, and so he¡¯d write next to the torn holes. ¡ö¡ö¡ölike this. So, if I were to reproduce Jo Yeong-su¡¯s opinion surveys as urately as possible: Republic of Korea''s NeenthTwentieth Public Opinion Survey Question: With the growing disparity in infrastructure between cities, ¡ö¡öa small number of guild leaders are concentrating power.Do you think guild leaders¡¯ authority can be established ¡õ¡õ without democratic agreements or discussions? If ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡öso, do you think guild leaders have a certain amount of duty to the people? A tattered rag. And he used the same opinion survey multiple times, noting the responses of participants with small marks next to each answer. Like this: Authority is established ¨C 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 111 Jo Yeong-su returned to his shack, counted the tallies one by one, calcted statistics, and finally wrote the percentages on the "final draft." Like this. Authority is established ¨C 66.3% He then submitted these "statistics" and "public opinions" to the National Road Management Corps. Over durations as short as fifteen days to as long as over one hundred, Jo Yeong-su conducted surveys. Yearster, a curious phenomenon urred. "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down! Step down! Step down!" Thendscape of the Tower of Babel za had changed just slightly. The sight of Jo Yeong-su holding a protest sign, d in the relic armor inscribed with the Korean Constitution, shouting for Noh Do-hwa to step down, remained unchanged. The sighs of the National Road Management Corps membersmuting to and from work also remained unchanged. However, there was now a cardboard box ced in front of Jo Yeong-su¡¯s feet. "Mister, here¡¯s some used paper¡ª" "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step dooown!" "Good luck¡ª" The National Road Management Corps members dropped "used paper" into the cardboard box as they left work. One sheet. Another sheet. Yet another. As if leaving bills for a poor street guitarist. "Hey. Isn¡¯t it kind of creepy how Team Leader Yu Ji-won can keep the same expression 24/7?" "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down! Step down!" "That¡¯s why she¡¯s the operations team leader. I heard she keeps the same expression even when dealing with problematic members." "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down! Step down!" "No matter how good the treatment and sry are, I couldn¡¯t join the operations team..." "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down! Step down!" "What about having army stew today?" "Oh, army stew sounds good. I¡¯m in." Laughter and chatter. The National Road Management Corps members, now fully ustomed to Jo Yeong-su, conversed amongst themselves as they passed through the za. Until the sun set and Yu Ji-won was thest to leave, Jo Yeong-su continued to call for Noh Do-hwa¡¯s resignation. Of course, Yu Ji-won didn¡¯t spare him a nce and left. "Ack, gak, eugh. My bones..." By the time night fell and Jo Yeong-su returned to his shack. His hands were full with thick stacks of recycled paper. The volume of those papers was the size of the territory held by the current "Republic of Korea." Footnotes: [1] A reference to the iconic line from Sans¡¯ boss battle of the video game Undertale: ¡°It¡¯s a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... On days like these, kids like you... should be burning in hell.¡± Join our discord at Chapter 190 Chapter 190 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Patriot III As one can see from history textbooks, the term "revival movement" has always had an ominous connotation on the Korean Penins. The Baekje Revival Movement and the Goguryeo Revival Movement both ended in failure. Though not widely known, Si and Balhae also followed simr paths to ruin. The people who lived on the Korean Penins have always been early adopters. Rather than cling to a ruined country and weep, they preferred to boldly change the sign altogether. The "Republic of Korea Revival Movement" was no exception. "Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down!" Jo Yeong-su was allowed to exist. He was allowed to hold protest signs and shout and allowed to recycle waste paper as part of his campaign. The survivors, busy living day to day, scoffed at Jo Yeong-su as he approached them with his so-called surveys, but they humored him with responses. Their kindness ended there."Dictator Noh Do-hwa, step down! Down with the dynastic rule of giant guild leaders! Form a National Assembly and draft a constitution!" Jo Yeong-su was always alone. A year passed, then one year turned to three, then seven, and the "Republic of Korea Revival Association" gained no members. SG Net''s attitude toward Jo Yeong-su was much the same. -Anonymous: Wee, Constitution Parrot. -OldManGoryeo: Is the old-timer here? Greetings from your brother in Goryeo. -Anonymous: I used to have no particr feelings about the Commander, but my opinion¡¯s changing. Seeing her not killing that guy and letting him live shows that the Commander is quite remarkable. ©¸LiteraryGirl: Tigers leave behind their skins when they die, and the Republic of Korea left behind Jo Yeong-su when it died. -Anonymous: Dang Seo-rin, Noh Do-hwa, Mo Gwang-seo, Jung Sang-guk, Jo Yeong-su, let¡¯s go. ©¸Anonymous: Damn, LOL. ©¸Anonymous: That¡¯s the most patriotic lineup ever. ©¸dolLHOuse: ? Mockery, contempt, sycophancy for the famous. Sympathy for an old fellow struggling through the same era. Rare and scarce kindness, like rainwater in the Gobi Desert. Yet nowhere in these feelings could be found a serious desire to restore the Republic of Korea, nor any longing for democracy. "Why are the democratic citizens of thisnd so depraved?!" Sometimes, when he had enough money, Jo Yeong-su would go to a pojangmacha and drink heavily,menting.[1] "The country is on the brink of ruin, yet there remains nostalgia for a dictator!" "Hmm." Eventually, in one cycle, I couldn¡¯t help but intervene. After all, it¡¯s a young man¡¯s (and Jo Yeong-su seemed quite young to me) privilege to blunder through life. But giving advice is an old man¡¯s specialty, isn¡¯t it? I approached Jo Yeong-su, who was drinking alone at a pojangmacha in Haeundae. "Mr. Jo. Even if people seem kind to you, don¡¯t mistake their kindness." "What? What do you mean?" "People tend to act with exaggerated kindness or malice. Many give you paper out of charity, but no one will join you in shouting for the Republic of Korea. If you mistakenly believe that people genuinely support your activities, it will cause problems." "......" Jo Yeong-su¡¯s face turned red from the cheap alcohol. Like all survivors of this era, he was only in histe fifties, yet he looked like he was in his eighties. The term "skincare" had long since been deleted from dictionaries. Though his mind was clear, the Korean man in front of me, who aged prematurely, raised his voice to shout, "Why are you saying this? Thanks for offering to pay for the drinks, but if you think a few drops of alcohol can stop my activities, you¡¯re sorely mistaken!" "I¡¯m not trying to stop you. Just giving advice. You may see yourself as a social activist, but others see you as an entertainer." "Entertainer?" Jo Yeong-su blinked. "Me?" "Yes. When people see the surveys you¡¯ve worked hard on, they get a day or two¡¯s worth of chatter out of it. They might even feel a bit of nostalgia for the past. You¡¯re the only one who provides that experience, so people tolerate you." "......" "Essentially, it¡¯s no different from gathering in groups to watch old movies. Regardless of how you define yourself, your objective role in this small society is that of a clown." "A clown..." "The reason no one joins your revival movement stems from the same root." I poured another drink for Jo Yeong-su. "Imagine someone rushing onto the stage during a stand-upedian¡¯s performance. It would kill the mood." "But I¡¯m serious..." "That¡¯s why they like you. Because you¡¯re genuine." Jo Yeong-su stared at me nkly. "This isn¡¯t about you, Mr. Jo. Talking about the Republic of Korea has already be a joke. It¡¯s just the environment of the times." "Are you saying I¡¯m outdated?" "Not at all. Just that a perspective like that is too self-centered. The gap is too wide between ¡®the me I think of¡¯ and ¡®the me others see.¡¯ In a way, your entertainment is too perfect for this era, so you¡¯ve carved out your own niche." "......" "Isn¡¯t it a depressing world? Try to think about making others happy, even a little. It will change a lot. Many more people will like you." "......" Blink. The eyelids of the drunk middle-aged man were too slow, overtaken by unconsciousness as this poor, ordinary man¡¯s stomach lost to the onught of alcohol. I paid for the drinks and took Jo Yeong-su back to his shack. "Sir, I¡¯ll set you down here and leave." "Ugh... ugh..." Drip. Drizzle. A light drizzle of rain began to fall. Jo Yeong-su¡¯s shack was pieced together with tarpaulins, tents, and construction waste. It was barely two pyeong, or about 6.6 square meters. Instead of a bed, thousands of sheets of waste paper were ced in the premium location of the shack and arranged to be treasured as if they were sacred relics, as if to never allow a drop of rain to grace their sheets. Republic of Korea''s Ny-First Public Opinion Survey Question: Do you think arrests, sentencing, and execution of criminals can all be independently decided by individual guild leaders or the head of the National Road Management Corps? Do you think the separation of powers should be implemented under the current circumstances? Below, Jo Yeong-su¡¯s notes were written in a dense block of text. -Concern 1: Must exin to citizens the situation where legitive, executive, and judicial powers are concentrated in the individuals (but this makes the question too long) -Concern 2: The phrase "independently decided" has a negative connotation that might bias respondents -Concern 3: Need to discuss the right to appoint awyer, but there¡¯s not enough space (Should I postpone it to the 92nd survey?) ¡úIdea: Post issues that can¡¯t be addressed due to space on SG Net!! ©¸Regrly remind, build consensus, persuade citizens (important!!!) "......" Suddenly, it struck me that this waste paper resembled the shack. Just as the shack was too cramped to amodate a single person, the paper was trying to contain too much. When Iid Jo Yeong-su on his bed, half of his legs stuck out of the tent. His feet remained wet all night. I didn¡¯t know what effect the drinking session with me had on Jo Yeong-su¡¯s mentalndscape, but one thing changed for sure. "Huh?" It was the content of the opinion surveys. Republic of Korea''s Ny-First Public Opinion Survey Question: Do you think the nation of Korea has copsed? ¢Ù Yes. ¢Ú No. If my memory was correct, the 91st survey definitely addressed the separation of powers. However, the newly prepared survey that Jo Yeong-su was carrying around had entirely changed, and the sentences were remarkably short. Had Korea fallen? "Well, of course it¡¯s fallen..." "Why is this survey like this?" The citizens who always took surveys out of boredom tilted their heads. The Republic of Korea has fallen. How could it still stand? Some citizens wondered if Jo Yeong-su was ying around with the survey. But Jo Yeong-su was serious. More serious than ever, in fact. "Please participate in the survey! Fellow citizens! Citizens of Busan! This is the most important survey to date!" "Uh..." Not only was he serious. Usually, Jo Yeong-su conducted surveys of about 1,000 to 2,000 people, selecting a sample that was representative of the various societal sses and fields. This time was different. "Hey, kid! Hey there! Would you answer my question for a moment?" "Me?" Jo Yeong-su was frantically asking everyone for their opinion. He even handed the survey "Has the Republic of Korea fallen?" to a child who had just turned five. "I¡¯ll give you 100 won if you participate!" "Wow!" Even children who had never experienced the Republic of Korea participated in a survey for the first time in their lives. And it didn¡¯t stop there. -JoYeong-su: We are conducting the 91st Public Opinion Survey! Members and non-members of SG Net, please participate! Having always been active anonymously, Jo Yeong-su registered on SG Net and posted a survey article. His nickname was JoYeong-su. Everyone was surprised by the audacity of using his real name as his member ID. -Anonymous: ?? Why did this guy register? -LiteraryGirl: Didn¡¯t he sayst time that SG Net is a tilted ying field because only Awakeners can ess it, and that he would remain anonymous forever? ©¸JoYeong-su: I¡¯m sorry! I was wrong! But please, participate in this survey just once! -OldManGoryeo: Ah... have you finally decided to be one of the "named"? Wee, Jo Yeong-su. Wee to the "first division" of SG Net. ©¸JoYeong-su: Thank you! Please, I ask for your participation in the survey! Like a madman, Jo Yeong-su increased the number of survey respondents. He didn¡¯t conduct the survey alone. He entrusted it to passersby, the National Road Management Corps members he often bumped into, and shop owners along the road. "Please, ask your customers to answer the survey just once!" "How can I bother my customers with such a request?" "I beg you!" About 15 monthster, Jo Yeong-su obtained "answers" from a staggering 120,000 residents in Busan alone. Considering the poption of Busan at the time was between 200,000 to 300,000, it was an impressive sample size. More surprisingly, Jo Yeong-su¡¯s fervent campaign didn¡¯t end there. [Mr. Undertaker.] "Yes. What is it?" [Mr. Jo Yeong-su has moved to Changwon.] "What?" Jo Yeong-su, who had lived and died in Busan in every cycle, moved to another city. "An Awakener with the ability to light a Zippo lighter with his finger crossed the void?" [He joined a caravan from the National Road Management Corps.] "Oh, in that case, it makes sense. But why did he suddenly go to Changwon?" [It seems he wants to conduct surveys with the residents of other cities as well.] "...Really?" [Yes.] I was astonished. What¡¯s more, Changwon wasn¡¯t even Jo Yeong-su¡¯s destination. It was merely a stopover. Jinju, Yeosu, Suncheon, Boseong, Haenam, Mokpo, Muan, Yeonggwang, Gwangju, Jeongeup, Jeonju, Gunsan, Iksan, Daejeon, Gimcheon, Gumi, Pohang... Jo Yeong-su was literally sweeping the Korean Penins, heading south up north. "Is he really trying to survey the entire Korean Penins? Even those who haven¡¯t participated in SG Net surveys?" [Probably.] Isn¡¯t this guypletely insane? Footnotes: [1] Pojangmacha, also abbreviated as pocha, is a South Korean term for outdoor carts that sell street foods such as hotteok, gimbap, tteokbokki, sundae, dak-kkochi, fish cake, mandu, and anju. In the evening, many of these establishments serve alcoholic beverages such as soju. Join our discord at Chapter 191 Chapter 191 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Patriot IV Jo Yeong-su''s great cross-country journey! From Busan to Pyongyang! Behold the man who intends to shock everyone with his boldness! Although no such advertisement appeared, I imagined the impact he aimed to create was immense indeed. By conducting surveys among both Awakeners and the general popce, he aimed to gather the "opinion of the entire Korean Penins." What audacious ambition! And so, Jo Yeong-su''s ambitious project culminated with... [Jo Yeong-su died in Yecheon.] He didn''t even make it past Gyeongsangbuk-do, let alone reach Pyongyang. His journey left him stranded.I sighed deeply at the Saintess¡¯s report. "In some way, he did show us something quite sensational..." [What?] "Nothing, just talking to myself. So, what was the cause of death?" [Ah, he got lost in the Void. You know, sometimes when you walk near the Nakdong River, you inadvertently enter a Void known as the Hwangsan River.] Originally a name from the Si era for the Nakdong River meaning ¡°yellow mountain¡±, the Hwangsan River was reinterpreted by creatures from being the river springing from the yellow mountain to a river of yellow springs in the form of sulfuric acid (H?SO?), turning the entire body of water into a biochemical terror. One simple misstep could send you directly to the yellow springs of the underworld, hence caution was required. [He wandered there for three days, built a raft, and tried to cross, but only managed a few meters before the raft disintegrated, taking him with it.] "Is this for real?" Regardless, Jo Yeong-su was dead. To put it crudely, it was a miserable death. And when the citizenry heard of Jo Yeong-su''s obituary, they weren''t particrly shocked or upset. Quite the opposite, actually. "Did you hear? That crazy guy died. The one who always protested at the Tower of Babel za." "Eh? How did he die?" "He set off to travel the country by himself." "Ah, he must not have had much left to cling to in life." The citizens briefly mourned and then promptly returned to their daily struggles. In essence, Jo Yeong-su''s death didn''t make many waves in the news. Considering that he had spent his life making news in Busan, it was somewhat ironic. Why Jo Yeong-su suddenly became obsessed with conducting a nationwide survey, and what his objectives were, would now forever remain a mystery. "Hmm." If there were no regressors in this world... "I''m a bit concerned." [About what?] "Saintess, you had a lot of interest in Jo Yeong-su. Yet, you just watched him wander the void for three days?" [Professional and personal matters must be kept separate,] the Saintess replied calmly. [While I had a personal interest in Mr. Jo Yeong-su''s activities, I could not use the powers of my office to assist him.] "Really? Was it not you who prompted me to take an interest in Jo Yeong-su?" [......] "If so, then you seeded, Saintess. Now, I am also curious about him." What had Jo Yeong-su hoped to achieve by risking his life? I found myself a bit curious. And once I am curious, like a certain elven mage diving headfirst into a mimic chest, I am a willing ve to dopamine.[1] Thus, in the next cycle, I immediately changed how I approached Jo Yeong-su. "Sir, I¡¯ll set you down here and leave." "Ugh... ugh..." The event at the pojangmacha in Haeundae, where we spent all night drinking, unfolded the same as before. The 91st public opinion survey that asked anew about the demise of the Republic of Korea also urred in the same way. The turning point in Jo Yeong-su''s route came after. "Mr. Jo!" "Uh? Isn''t that Mr. Undertaker?!" On the day he left Busan for Changwon, I personally went to see him off. "What brings you here, Mr. Undertaker?" "There''s a caravan going to Changwon today. I have some business up in Mokpo and thought I''d travel along." "Is that so!" Jo Yeong-su''s eyes widened. "Mr. Undertaker! I have a favor to ask of you!" "A favor?" "Yes! No matter what, I must continue the survey in Changwon, but the members of the National Road Management Corps here are dead set against it! How can an institution funded by taxpayers be so miserly?!" It was natural. Why would a caravan, already busy transporting goods, want to add to its burden? In the past cycle, he probably forced his way into the caravan amid chaos. "Is that so?" But this time, the psycho-social genius Mr. Undertaker, revered as ''His Excellency'' by his connections, was here. "Look here, gentlemen,¡± I implored. ¡°Mr. Jo Yeong-su and I have been drinking together, can''t you overlook this just once?" "Of course!" "If he''s a friend of Mr. Undertaker''s, we must treat him as a VIP! Sorry for the cold shoulder earlier!" "Thank you, gentlemen. I''ll treat you to coffee next time I see your faces. Oh, but I''m worried that other members might not be aware of our rtionship..." "Don''t worry, Your Excellency!" "We''ll post about it on SG Net so all members are informed!" I snuck a nce behind me. Jo Yeong-su''s mouth was hanging open in shock. Aha, do you see? This is the ¡®power of the protagonist.¡¯ Despite its frequent appearance in other novels, here, it is doled out sparingly, like an oasis in the desert. Without even lifting a finger, Jo Yeong-su had snagged a free ticket to travel across the Korean Penins, but my power didn''t stop there. "If you are to conduct surveys everywhere, including the ces the caravan doesn''t reach, you should use this." "Uh, Mr. Undertaker, what is this?" "A yogurt cart." A South Korean staple. The third-generation refrigerated electric cart, CoCo (Cold&Cold). Within its limited range of ''the territory of the Republic of Korea,'' it could move and appear anywhere. Now, Jo Yeong-su was practically as mobile as Guan Yu with his Red Hare.[2] "Thank you, Mr. Undertaker. I wonder if I''ll ever be able to repay this kindness before I die..." As someone who had to scrounge a daily living, Jo Yeong-su was overwhelmed by the sudden, generous donation. I grinned broadly. "I''ve always been interested in your surveys, Mr. Jo. Don''t think of this as a personal gift, but as support for your cause." "Mr. Undertaker...!" Rtionship enhancementplete. On the road parting from Jo Yeong-su in Changwon, the Saintessmented, [I didn¡¯t expect this. I thought you had no interest in Korea or public opinion surveys, Mr. Undertaker.] "Originally, I didn''t. But someone kept subtly suggesting I take a look at this man." The Saintess paused in palpable confusion. [You have someone like that in your circle, Mr. Undertaker? I didn''t see anyone with my irvoyance.] "I have my privacy too. Anyway, please keep an eye on him, Saintess. If he gets lost in the Void or something, help him out." [Ah, yes. I understand.] Naturally, the Regressor Alliance Network buzzed with the news that ¡°Mr. Undertaker has taken an interest in the crazy guy from the Tower of Babel za.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon, reigning as a Saintess of the North, appeared through the Inunaki Tunnel one day and peeked out. "Y-yes. The monster of camaraderie..." "...?" "You pretend not to, but actually, guild leader, you wanted to fit in with SG Net''s top brass, right? That''s why you keep clinging to me and the old man..." "...?" "I''ll acknowledge you during the dead-of-night shift. So please don''t leavements in the morning, noon, or evening. Using real-life connections to invade themunity''s camaraderie... Such an outrage, I absolutely cannot forgive..." "...?" Leaving just her words behind, Sim Ah-ryeon quickly walked away. What was that about? At times, I feared her mental world. At any rate, though unfortunate, Sim Ah-ryeon was the Saintess of the North. She granted Jo Yeong-su the status of a monk in the Holy Eastern State, allowing him to travel freely even in North Korean areas. Effectively, most powers controlling the Korean Penins¡ªfrom the frontend to the backend¡ªwere now sponsoring Jo Yeong-su individually. ''It seems that heroes and saintesses are obsessing over me, a mere low-tier streamer?!'' Powered by such light novel-like developments, Jo Yeong-su ransacked the entire eight provinces of the country. Time passed. 2,211 days. From Busan to Sinuiju. From the south to the north of the still surviving Korean Penins. That was the time it took toplete a single public opinion survey. [We''re justing down from Sinuiju after finishing thest survey there. Now...] "Are you returning to Busan?" [Probably.] While the survey was running in those six years or so, I hadn''t once asked the Saintess about the results. My interest was solely in Jo Yeong-su as an individual, not in what people thought about the demise of the Republic of Korea. What had Jo Yeong-su hoped to achieve through his six-year journey? Was it the certainty that the nation still existed in people''s hearts? The driving force to continue the revival movement for the Republic of Korea? [Ah, it seems he has a different destination in mind. Jo Yeong-su has found a ship in Pyongyang, but it''s not heading to Busan.] Neither option was the correct answer. [He''s heading to Seoul.] Seoul was practically my backyard. In a panic but pretending not to care, I hurried to the wharf and started fishing. Jo Yeong-su,ing by boat from Pyongyang, would have no choice but to spot me as soon as he disembarked. There, he eximed in surprise, "Mr. Undertaker! What are you doing here?!" "Oh, Mr. Jo?" Jo Yeong-su abandoned his yogurt cart and rushed to embrace me. A reunion six years in the making. The scents of lush grass and arid sunlight wafted from Jo Yeong-su. "My goodness! Mr. Undertaker, you look the same even after so many years!" "Haha, your voice is still as hearty as ever, Mr. Jo." "A man of the Han empire must possess spirit, mustn''t he? What have you been up to here?" "I''ve been enjoying fishing. My Seoul hideout is nearby." "Huh! Fishing in such times..." Jo Yeong-su''s eyes deepened with respect and affection as he looked at me. He had aged significantly more than before. Depending on who was looking, he might be mistaken for someone in histe eighties after traveling across the country with the body of a frail Awakener. Even with fiery donations, it hadn''t been easy. "And what brings you to the Han River, Mr. Jo?" "Ah! Thanks to your support, I''ve finallypleted the survey!" Jo Yeong-su patted the cart with a thump. "I''m nning to take this guy to his final resting ce!" "Final resting ce?" "Yes! To the ce where those who ruined the country gather!" Jo Yeong-su said, pointing with his finger. In that directiony Yeouido, and on Yeouido stood a dome building well-known to anyone from the Republic of Korea. It was the National Assembly Building. "Uh..." I hastily picked up the thread of conversation. "Mr. Jo, that might look like the National Assembly Building, but it''s actually a Void. Originally, when the Void of perpetual night came to Seoul, it wiped out everything like other buildings, reducing them to ruins. Then, one day, that building just appeared on its own. There''s even a real robot underground there." "Eh? I don''t really know about that stuff! But I must go there anyway!" Thinking back, this man, who in thest cycle had embarked on a nationwide tour bare-bodied and enjoyed free-diving in the Hwangsan River, wouldn''t heed a conventional warning like ¡°It''s a Void, so it''s dangerous.¡± Normally, such a person would have died, but in this cycle, I''d resuscitated him with emergency CPR. "Then I will apany you." "Oh my! I''m sorry to trouble you..." "No worries, no worries. I was just passing the time fishing, anyway." "Oh! I can''t thank you enough, Mr. Undertaker! How did I end up in your debt in both the beginning and the end?" It wasn''t long before we reached the ferry terminal to the National Assembly Building, about 30 minutes even at the leisurely pace of Jo Yeong-su''s cart. During those 30 minutes, we chatted about various things. Which neighborhood was the toughest in the survey? Were there any close calls with death? The conversation gradually went back in time. In the days when civilization was intact, he had been the editor-in-chief of a small regional newspaper. "My family name is Pungyang Jo!" The timeline of the conversation swiftly reached Jo Yeong-su''s childhood. "As you know, Mr. Undertaker, our ancestors, the Jo family from Pungyang, did a lot to ruin Joseon with their politics! Well, some historians argue it wasn''t entirely their fault!" I nodded. The Pungyang Jo family was well-known. Along with the Andong Kim family, they were among the ''surnames that inevitably make one restless during history sses.'' Though both were meremonerspared to the Yeohung Min family, Jo Yeong-su continued his story. "Ha! When I read the textbooks as a child, I was shocked!" "Is that so?" "Yes! As a child, I resolved not to let my family be med for ruining the country! How could my family be called the surname of a ruined nation?" Jo Yeong-su made a fist in the air as if grasping something. "Just you watch! When I grow up, I''ll be a schr as loyal as Choi Ik-hyeon, doing what my ancestors failed to do![3] No one in my family said a word, but a wild little kid was making a fuss all by himself." Heh heh. Laughter erupted from Jo Yeong-su''s aged lips. "So, my fundamental feelings about the country were rooted in the shame of my youth and an inferiorityplex. It''s not something I''d go around bragging about." As we entered the National Assembly Building, as predicted, creatures attacked us. There were no formidable boss-level creatures, but plenty of town-level creatures swarmed us. If I hadn''t been apanying him, Jo Yeong-su''s life would have ended there. ''How many times is this fellow going to dodge death?'' With a bitter smile, I managed to somehow escort Jo Yeong-su to the main hall of the National Assembly Building. "Ah!" Jo Yeong-su looked around and dered, "Nothing has changed since the old days! Well, back then, the members of the assembly filled about half the seats." "Hmm." "The country has fallen apart, but this ce alone looks just fine. Heh! It''s not much different from the old days." I didn''t meet his statement with a response. It wasn''t really a conversation aimed at me but, instead, more like a monologue. Jo Yeong-su walked around the main assembly hall with his hands sped behind his back. He peered at the nametes on the desks, muttering, "Ah! Right, he was a representative!" Had this empty hall once condensed the hopes and cheers, aspirations and wishes, contempt, anger, mockery, and hostility of the people of the Korean Penins? Thump. Thump. Jo Yeong-su ced a piece of paper on each desk. I enhanced my vision to sneak a peek at the contents. Republic of Korea''s Ny-First Public Opinion Survey Question: Do you think the nation of Korea has copsed? ¢Ù Yes. ¢Ú No. After distributing the tattered documents to all the seats, Jo Yeong-su walked up to the speaker''s podium. His gaze was fixed somewhere in the air, as if he were looking not at the present but at the past. "Please adjust the seats." Jo Yeong-su''s voice was soft. Without a microphone, it was hard to discern any authority in his tone. Just the voice of an ordinary man who had aged to histe eighties from traveling the country. "As there is a quorum, I will call this plenary session to order." ck, ck, ck. A wooden gavel struck the air three times. Between the strikes, Jo Yeong-su coughed. "In the absence of the speaker, I, Jo Yeong-su, will preside over this meeting. There are 33 individuals across the country who consider themselves citizens of the Republic of Korea, and all have delegated me the authority to conduct this assembly." "......" "Respected members of the assembly and fellow citizens, as the acting deputy speaker, I will report on the progress before moving on to the next agenda item." Flutter. Jo Yeong-su turned a page of the survey. "First, Busan. In response to the question ''Has the Republic of Korea perished?'', about 86% of the eligible voters responded. Out of 235,695 respondents, 235,693 chose option one, ''It has perished.''" The paper turned again. "Next, Changwon. In response to the same question, about 91% of eligible voters responded. All 54,980 respondents chose option one, ''It has perished.''" The papers flipped one page at a time. As the tattered pages fluttered, the locations called out moved gradually from the south to the north of the penins. "Lastly, Sinuiju. In response to the question, about 89% of eligible voters responded. All 21,139 respondents chose option one, ''It has perished.''" It took less than six minutes to announce the results of six years of public opinion surveys. Jo Yeong-su closed thest page of the survey. "This survey was conducted among citizens aged five and older. Considering the special nature of the matter, not only adults over 18 but also children aged five and above were considered eligible voters. The future of the country was at stake." Cough. Jo Yeong-su''s coughing became more frequent. He paused for breath between coughs and spoke very deliberately. "An opinion survey is just that, an opinion survey. However, in the current situation where no voting takes ce, I, the acting chair, believe it serves the function of a vote. To support this, I have been delegated the rights by 33 citizens who chose option two, ''It has not perished.''" Cough, cough. "Thus, I, the acting chair, will put the existence of the Republic of Korea to a vote. Since the voting results have already been announced, I will proceed with the decision. If anyone objects, please speak now." Cough, cough. "Has everyone voted? I will now close the voting. I will announce the results. About 88% of all eligible voters participated, with 3,125,678 for option one, ''It has perished,'' making up more than 99.99% of the total poption. Option two, ''It has not perished,'' received 33 votes, less than 0.01%." Cough, cough. "Therefore, I dere the Republic of Korea has perished." ck, ck, ck. The gavel sounded. At that moment, something strange happened. From the empty parliamentary seats, irrespective of party lines, apuse erupted. The pping also came from the deserted galleries. Between ps, the noise of camera shes could be heard. p, p, p, p, p, p, p! Even more peculiar was that this sound seemed audible only to me. Jo Yeong-su showed no reaction whatsoever. He simply sat quietly in the speaker''s chair, eyes closed. "......" Looking at his peaceful face, a thought struck me. Perhaps, like individuals, nations also require funerals when they die. Perhaps this old man had borne the funeral rites alone for six years, unaided by anyone else. If so, at this moment, the nation known as the Republic of Korea had died and beenid in its coffin. After that day, Jo Yeong-su never again took to the Tower of Babel za to stage his protest, shouting, ¡°Dictator Noh Do-hwa! Step down!¡± Jo Yeong-su lived out his days as an ordinary old man, frequenting free meal centers andbor markets, and died not long after. Having already spent all his energy traveling the country, he was of an age where his vitality had waned. WIth his having no rtives, I took it upon myself to be his chief mourner. I set up a modest wake in his makeshift shack. There weren¡¯t many mourners who joined me. At most, a few old men with whom Jo Yeong-su had passed time ying Go visited. Then, on thest night, Noh Do-hwa came by unexpectedly without any attendants. Looking around the almost tent-like shabby shack, she muttered, "Isn''t there even beef soup here...?" "How could we afford such an expensive thing?" "Aren''t you filthy rich...?" "Ah, it''s not about money but about conducting the funeral with heart. If we held a grand funeral now, all sorts of riffraff would flock here, but would that have been in ordance with the deceased''s wishes?" "Hmm..." That was the first exchange upon her arrival. After paying her respects to the portrait (she didn''t bow to me as the chief mourner), Noh Do-hwa plunked down beside me. "Why did that old man go from his incessant, noisy protesting to suddenly giving up and kicking the bucket?" "After finishing the survey, he went to the National Assembly Building in Yeouido and dered that the Republic of Korea had perished." "Huh? Ahh? Ahh..." Noh Do-hwa stroked her chin. "What about the body?" "He was thest representative of a ruined nation. It would be strange if the creatures didn''t covet him. I''m nning to cremate him and scatter his ashes in the sea." And so it was done. Creatures were as dangerous to the dead as they were to the living. Without stringent procedures, ''Funeral Etiquette: Do Not Startle the Mourners by Suddenly Reviving!'' was likely to be vited. After scattering his ashes in the sea, we simply erected a modest tombstone at the site. This type of burial was called a sea tomb. "Having the great Undertaker supervise the funeral from start to finish. This, indeed, is a good death..." Noh Do-hwa snipped sarcastically to the end. The tall tombstone of the sea tomb was carved with the following inscription: Jo Yeong-su ÚwÓ¾ä¨ Citizen of the Republic of Korea ´óínÃñ‡ø ‡øÃñ Noh Do-hwa shrugged. "I''ve been up all night since yesterday and I''m getting hungry..." "Shall we go for beef soup?" "Oh, beef soup sounds good..." There''s no further content in this story. In some ways, this entire episode was an epilogue to the nation known as Korea. Footnotes: [1] A reference to Frieren, an immortal, elven mage who dives headfirst into every chest¡ªeasily detectable mimic or no¡ªon the off-chance she finds a grimoire within that she hasn¡¯t read yet. [2] In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Red Hare is a horse capable of crossing 1,000 ri (approximately 333.33 miles) in a day. It eventually was gifted to the general Guan Yu. [3] Choi Ik-hyeon was a Korean Joseon Dynasty schr and politician who was a staunch advocate for Korean independence in the face of Japanese imperialism. Join our discord at Chapter 192 Chapter 192 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Investor I I regret not discussing ordinary people more. This world, governed by awakened abilities, has created a hierarchical society resembling a pyramid. In old times, wealth was passed down through families, but awakened abilities defy even DNA inheritance. They''re like a gacha game based on pure luck¡ªunpredictable and arbitrary. As for the most desired jobs among ordinary children these days¨D Career Preference Survey for Children Under 10 ¢Û Laborer inrge guilds ¨C 10.2% ¢Ú Member of the National Road Management Corps caravan ¨C 14.4% ¢Ù Writer ¨C 26.8% Surprisingly, the most coveted job among today''s youth is that of a writer. "Mom! I want to be a writer when I grow up!" "Being a writer is like being a god!" Indeed, it was the golden age of literature, not just of humanities. The roots of the sudden literary craze were deep and mysterious. It wasn''t always like this. The field of humanities has always been a source of embarrassment on the Korean Penins, especially the ultimate example in the form of creative writing. This attitude and treatment altogether reversed beginning in the 205th cycle. Do you remember any incidents that urred during cycle 205? ??*?~Feels like walking in a dream~??*? Thank you for visiting our ¡ºDREAM¡» casino ?(?¦Å? )? We wee you with all our heart! ???)? That¡¯s right, the Dream Casino. In the 206th cycle, casino dealers, who turned money into dreams, began to work in earnest in the Inunaki Tunnel, and people couldn''t help but be enthralled by this miraculous casino. "Give me endless Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonald''s and those slightly soggy, super salty fries until I''m sick of them!" "Hoho! That will be 160 won!" "I want a beautiful girl who only looks at me in my dreams..." "Hohoho! Specifying a person costs 1,000 won, setting up the rtionship is 2,000 won, starting from a base price of 3,000 won!" In the beginning, most people''s wishes were focused on basic pleasures, like food and sex. This was true of both Awakeners and ordinary people. If they had money, they spent it all; if not, they still indulged in luxuries. "Wow! In reality, all I can drink is nasty alcohol, but in dreams, I can guzzle down delicious whiskies to my heart''s content!" "There are people in this dream!" "Work has been really enjoyabletely. I used to think, ''Why bother when we''re all going to die by anomalies anyway?'' But now, I can''t wait to rush to the casino after the workday ends. It really boosts my motivation to work." Even if someone had immoral or hical wishes, it didn''t matter. It was just a dream, after all. The tutorial fairies who brought these dreams to life weren''t particrly moralistic. People indulged in their dreams without worrying about what others thought, and the productivity of the workforce, which had been plummeting on the Korean Penins, miraculously revived. People should have been happy forever then¡ªbut of course, reality was not so kind. "Even whiskey gets boring after a while..." "My dream lover is great, but she feels a bit passive. I have to decide how she''ll react and what she''ll say before I even start dreaming. It''s nice to be loved, but it feels a bit like dating AI..." "After rethinking it, I guess work really is suffering. Why do we have to work to live?" Humans are creatures who never know satisfaction! More precisely, even if they are satisfied, they quickly get used to it and start craving more and more. Especially since the Dream Casino offered a service with one fatal w. "It''s great to enter a dream because it feels like reality, but having to set up everything beforehand really kills the immersion..." Theck of spontaneity. For instance, let''s say someone wanted to dream about ¡°beingte for school, running through the streets, and then bumping into a beautiful girl (equipped with strawberry jam toast in her mouth) at a street corner, and then ''Hey kids, there''s a new transfer student'' and ''Are you that lucky guy from then?!''¡± (This was a highly popr scenario requested by 310 people in Busan alone.) It might have been fun to experience a scenario that had once only been the subject of unfulfilled fantasy, but the truth is, such a setup required ''spontaneity.'' Beingte by chance, bumping into someone by chance, and that person turning out to be a new student. Only then would a love story truly make the protagonist''s heart flutter. "But giving the tutorial fairies freedom..." "They''d make a tutorial dungeon out of anything and force people to kill each other! Shit, why should I have to endure more real-life experiences when I could be sweet-talking my lover in my dreams?" "Hohoho, I really don''t understand..." Frankly, it wasn''t my concern. ''People are just satiated.'' Theyin that setting up their dreams beforehand ruins the fun? What does it matter? Aren''t they experiencing desires they can''t fulfill in reality? I once discussed this with Noh Do-hwa. "Perfection doesn''t exist in this world. If we cater to theseints, new grievances will soon arise. Nowadays, young people can''t think of the old days. They justin about the present. Tsk, tsk." Noh Do-hwa looked at me over her sses. "You''re not suffering from some disease where you''ll die if you don''t periodically act like an old geezer, are you...?" Anyway, I ignored theints of the casino patrons, treating them as nothing more than the grumblings of those who had their fill. But not everyone thought the same as me. What I dismissed as ''whining of the satiated'' was seen by someone else as ''the cries of a hungry potential customer''¡ªa market yet to be tapped. Writers began to take action. Let''s say you are an Awakener in Busan who loves whiskey. Being an Awakener isn''t a particrly prestigious status. You''re just a lowly member of a small guild. You work hard every day, scrimping and saving so you can visit the Dream Casino three or four times a week. Lately, however, you''ve been having some concerns. ''The whiskey tastes great, but just going to a whiskey bar and drinking non-stop isn''t as enjoyable as it was the first time...'' In other words, you''re experiencing a kind of ennui. You''ve thought about meeting a virtual lover in your dreams like other people, but honestly, you''re not really motivated to do that. You just like whiskey. ''Should I cut down on drinking? Hmm?'' As you dragged yourself toward the casino, a sign that you hadn''t noticed before catches your eye. [Cocktail Bar Mori (É) OPEN] Location: Apgujeong Rodeo Station, Seoul Business hours: 7 PM to 2 AM Bartender experience: - 1st ce in World ss Japan - Runner-up in the World Bartender Championship Your eyes light up. ''A cocktail bar? In Apgujeong Rodeo? Wait, why are they advertising in Busan?'' You love whiskey, but you don¡¯t hate cocktails. In fact, you started drinking whiskey after finding you liked cocktails. Naturally, you be interested and approach the timid promoter standing behind the sign. "Excuse me." "Y-yes?" "About this cocktail bar. Is it currently operating in Seoul?" "Ah, well..." The person behind the sign seems unusually shy for a promoter. Poorly dressed and apparently not well-fed, he visibly struggles to maintain hisposure. "It''s... a setup..." "Sorry?" "This cocktail bar has just opened, and, well, I made up the setting myself. It''s a dream setting. If you buy my dream, I get a smallmission, and I''ll invite you to the cocktail bar I''ve set up..." His voice is soft and his speech disjointed, but you manage to grasp what he¡¯s getting at. "Oh, so it''s not a real cocktail bar, but one you''ve created in a dream? I have to pay to enter?" "Yes. I used to be a writer, so I''m good at this. It''ll be great, honest..." A writer. Not exactly reassuring. In this post-apocalyptic world, being a writer is apletely unproductive upation. (Even when civilization was thriving, it wasn''t particrly productive.) "What''s so great about it? Honestly, I don''t see why I should pay. The whiskey bar I''ve set up is really fancy." "S-spoilers..." "Sorry?" "I can''t tell you what''s different because it''s a spoiler... Sorry..." At this point, most people would have walked away, thinking they were being taken for a fool. But you, you¡¯re different. The truth of it is, you were chosen for this story because you¡¯re the first to react differently. You¡¯re intrigued. "How much is it?" "I-is what?" "The cocktail bar. How much do I need to pay to get in?" "Oh, just 500 won! It''s a grand opening event! I''ll invite you for just 500 won..." It isn¡¯t cheap by any means, but it¡¯s not so much that it¡¯d stop an Awakener like you. "Here you go." "Ah! Th-thank you! Sir! You will be blessed! I really will make sure you have no regrets..." Although he looks more like a beggar than a writer, you nevertheless hand over 500 won to the person in front of you. The writer hurries off to the fairy guarding the casino entrance. "A guest! A guest has arrived! Now, as promised, please let him in..." "Hoho? You''re actually going along with this ridiculous scam?" the fairy says to you. "As promised! Hurry!" "Hoho, the world is truly a curious ce." You feel even more uneasy as you listen to the exchange, but the water had already been spilled. ''Well. If it feels too strange, I''ll just consider it a 500 won donation to a beggar.'' You follow the dream guide into the inner part of the casino where youy down on the bed in the sleep room. Normally, this would be the time when you''d specify exactly what kind of dream you want, detailing the atmosphere and taste of the whiskey bar, but this time, the writer interrupts you. "Just go to sleep like this..." "Sorry?" "You''re visiting the store I''m promoting in your dream! You don''t need to specify anything. Of course, if you want to change your appearance or status, you''ll need to tell me..." "No, I usually just dream as I am." "Well, then sleep away..." And instead of you and the fairy discussing the setup, the writer and the fairy whisper and murmur to each other. ''It does feel a bit ominous.'' But what can you do? You¡¯re already lying down on the bed. You suppress your unease and listen to the fairy''s luby¨D And the next moment, you find yourself standing on a street near Apgujeong Rodeo Station. "Oh?" It¡¯s an alleyway, just out of sight of where cars are waiting for the signal on the main road. It was a scene taken straight out of Seoul before civilization copsed. Turning your head, you see a small sign on a store. [MORI É] This must be the cocktail bar the writer mentioned. ''The atmosphere of the dream itself is pretty convincing.'' You feel a tingle of anticipation as you open the door. Inside, the bar is so small that barely ten people can fit. It¡¯s more like those local-style cocktail bars you find more often in Japan than in Korea, izakaya. The bartender pauses where he was reaching for the bottles and turns around to greet you. "Irasshaimase!" "Uh?" A Japanese bartender? The gic predisposition for foreignnguage anxiety thaty dormant in every Korean is triggered. As you stand there slightly flustered, the bartender puts down the bottle and smiles gently. "Wee. Pleasee inside." His Korean is awkward. You try to keep your expressions and gestures as polite as possible as you step further into the bar. "I''m sorry. I don''t speak Japanese... Are you Japanese?" "Yes. I''m learning Korean very hard! Kim Yuna! Son Heung-min! I love it!" "Ah... Your Korean is really good." "Thank you!" Fortunately, you are the only customer in the bar. It would have been pretty embarrassing if there had been others. But the best part about alcohol, like music, is that it''s a universalnguage. Just as Mozart''s music sounds the same whether in Austria or China, the names of drinks don''t change across borders. "Would you like to try a Godfather first?" "Godfather. Yes, understood!" Before long, the bartender whips up a cocktail and hands it to you. And as you touched the drink to your lips¡ª ''...It''s delicious?'' The taste of the drink is superb. If you had left it all to the tutorial fairy, the taste of a Godfather might havee out as Midori Sour,pletely mixed up. That''s why you had to specify each vor yourself before dreaming. But not this time. It tastes exactly like the cocktail you ordered, and even if it¡¯s not exactly ''your favorite style,'' it¡¯s still delicious enough to enjoy. It¡¯s as if¨D ''¡ªyou''re visiting a new cocktail bar that you''ve never been in before.'' You look around. It¡¯s your first time visiting such a cramped cocktail bar. The cocktail bars you know in Korea are usually quite spacious. The interior. The lighting. The bartender''s nationality. Everything feels refreshing, feels new. "This drink is really good." "Ah, really? Thank you." "Could you also make a Manhattan?" "Manhattan! You seem to like these drinks." "Yes. I''ve always loved whiskey..." Under the dim lighting, natural conversation flows between you and the bartender. The sses and the snack tes are quickly emptied. You¡¯re drinking faster than usual, but it doesn¡¯t feel overwhelming at all. "So how did you end up in Korea, if you don''t mind my asking? Isn''t Japan better for business?" "Actually, my wife is Korean..." "Oh!" "My mother-inw did not agree to the marriage at first. She wanted two things: I speak Korean and I live in Korea." "Wow. So you learned Korean and even opened a bar here because you really love your wife." "Yes! I love her! A lot!" Stories you didn''t know. A bar you hadn''t been aware of. A person you hadn''t met before. ''Right.'' You empty your ss, youugh with the bartender, and you getpletely drunk, forgetting that you are dreaming. ''This is it. This is what a bar should be like.'' The next day, you visit Cocktail Bar Mori once again. That day, too, you have the bartender all to yourself. When you visit two dayster, there are two customers. They are your guildmates. A monthter, ''Mori'' is packed with customers. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 193 Chapter 193

Chapter 193 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Investor II The story of Cocktail Bar ''Mori'' was based on a true-life documentary. While a guest was deep asleep enjoying the dream cocktail bar... "B-BGM should be the jazz version of the Ghibli animation OST!" ...beside the real-life bed, the promoter¡ªwho was actually a writer¡ªwas diligently tweaking the dream. "We need to emphasize that this ce is run by a Japanese man! Plus, the weather is too mild! Let¡¯s make it rain!""Whoa, this guy is sneakily dropping in informal speech. It makes me want to check the adhesive strength between his head and neck..." "We agreed to split themission! Hurry!" "I didn''t know it would be this much of a pain. I regret my past self for getting into this..." The writer sat beside the guest''s bed all night, fine-tuning the dream. The bartender''s dialogue, family rtions, the patrons¡¯ life histories, the ambiance of the ce, sounds from outside, and mysterious visitors at around 1 AM (agents of the National Intelligence Service)¡ªeverything was meticulously crafted. In essence, what the tutorial fairy had been offering people was merely the game''s core, the vani version. The writer began selling ''mods''¡ªenhanced versions of these games. As a once-famous exploiter of geeks on Earth once said, "People don''t know what they want until you show it to them." Indeed, even in the apocalypse when the capitalist economy hadpletely copsed, this adage hit the mark. A single mode created and uploaded by a writer, ''Cocktail Bar Mori (É),'' exploded into poprity in the real creative yground. "I want to go to Mori too!" "Why don''t you expand the cocktail bar? How can you only amodate ten people when there''s such demand?" "I''ll pay 1,000 won per person, no, 3,000 won! Please, let my friend and I visit too!" Writer A was happy. And a happy writer naturally followed a typical path. That is, he started bragging to other writers about how awesome he was. "What''s going on all of a sudden? You''ve booked the entire grill restaurant... It¡¯s expensive here." "Don''t worry, don''t worry! I''ve been doing welltely! I thought we''d have a drink tonight, just the old writer gang! It''s all about the camaraderie among writers! Normally, others would havee too, but now it''s just us left in Busan." Their ears perked up as they gathered in groups of threes and fours in the stew restaurant. Their clothing was shabby, as expected. Naturally. Writers are typically mentally fragile,ck social skills, envy their peers, anonymously nder others online, crave adtion, and have poor physical health, with creaky backs and joints. Simply put, theycked any real advantages. They were among the worst types of people to survive the apocalypse. The fact that they had managed to settle down in Busan was proof that they were elite in their own right. Therefore, regardless of Writer A''s long-winded speech, his colleagues only really heard one sentence. ¡°I''ve been doing welltely!¡± The ex-writers exchanged nces silently (a basic skill for any writer). They started by making small talk. Yeah, we used to make good money. We should be grateful just to have survived. I heard from a Japanese writer friend that it''s really bad over there. As time muddled along with alcohol and chit-chat, finally, someone started the real talk. "So what have you been doingtely that you''re doing so well?" "Huh?" Writer A tilted his head as if he didn''t understand. His insufferably pretentious demeanor struck a fleeting sense of humiliation in the other writers. Friendship among writers? Nonsense. This drinking session was clearly arranged to show off! However, they endured this brief humiliation with the help of alcohol. Since even the alcohol was paid for by Writer A, they could bear it again. "You said earlier you''ve been doing well. What, did you awaken some ability and join a guild? I remember that guy¡ªwhat was his name, that hack writer who turned his life around after bing an Awakener." "Oh, him? That guy wasn''t really a writer. He just switched from writing to being an Awakener. I''m still living as a writer!" Their ears gradually morphed into those of elves. "Still living as a writer? Are you still writing? Are there actually readers out there who pay for your work?" "No, I''m not exactly writing. We Unawakened can''t even ess SG Net. There''s no tform for us. But that doesn''t mean I''ve stopped creating. Even during wars, there are writers who create. For people like us, being a writer isn''t just a job. It''s our heart. If the heart stops beating, we die." Writer A should have been grateful for the delicious stew served tonight. If it were old times, gossip would have already proliferated throughout the industry. "Anyway, what I''ve been doingtely¨D" It took about two hours from the start of the drinking session before he got to the point. "¨DSo, I thought, Ah! If I can just shmooze up the tutorial fairy, I could tap into this market! But what would be good? I know a lot about cocktails, and I can speak a bit of Japanese. Ah, let''s go with a Japanese cocktail bar theme!" "Wow..." "That''s impressive." "But why a cocktail bar? I mean, it''s nice, but isn''t it a bit small-scale? Wouldn''t it be better to start with a more exciting setting from the beginning?" "Oh. That''s just thinking from a writer''s perspective. As much as we used to be big shots, right? Now we''re beginners, beginners! I haven''t typed on a keyboard in over five years, and this is my first time creating in this format. A new tform. A new form. We need to get used to it!" "Wow..." "That''s impressive." "It sounds a bit like a TRPG." "Yeah? Yeah. That''s the problem with writers. They be too arrogant too easily. You have to approach it humbly, you know? Learning. And yes, that''s also true. People who like alcohol usually have a group¡ªa drinking buddy group. If you make one customer a regr, they''ll bring others. That''s how you have to approach it, with a business mindset, you know?." "Wow..." "That''s impressive." "What''s the revenue split with the tutorial fairy? 80¨C20?" "Ahh, crap. Do you think that would work? It''s 50¨C50. That''s the contract ratio back from when web novels were just starting. I couldin all day and night about this, but I can''t do business without the fairies, so what can you do¨D?" "Wow..." "That''s impressive." While Writer A noticed that his colleagues'' responses had be mechanically repetitive, their questions had be incredibly detailed. However, he didn''t pay attention. Because he was drunk. The other writers weren''t sober either. But they had an ''ideal'' and ''reality'' that helped them ovee the intoxication. As mentioned earlier, writersck social skills and... have creaking spines and joints. But if that''s the case, isn''t it strange? How have these vermin survived until now? There was only one reason. ''I''m doing better than that bastard!'' ''Fuck, I write better than that guy!'' ''That one''s problematic because hecks artistic integrity, that one because hecksmercial appeal, that one because hecks backbone, and that one because he''s too stubborn.'' It was an overwhelminglypetitive environment, enough to shock even the depths of hell! Thispetitive spirit was the only driving force for writers. For example, Tolstoy was arguably the kindest human among all writers in history. This Russian''s novels were always filled with love, consideration for others, and respect for nature. Even he couldn''t help but diss Dostoevsky whenever he had the chance. Because somehow, love, consideration, and respect didn''t apply to fellow writers. In essence, Wall Street in America minus the money was exactly like amunity of writers. "Wow..." "That''s impressive." In some sense, the purpose of the drinking session organized by Writer A was sessful. Everyone gathered here was able to feel the ''affection'' among old writers. Thump. The ''snake hearts'' that had been sealed away even as the apocalypse destroyed civilization began to stir. A few dayster, thebor market in Busan lost about seven workers. Since they were low-qualitybor, no one at the worksites really cared. Instead, seven new signs appeared at the entrance to the Dream Casino. Former Web Novel Writer! From a major tform with 100 million views! Specializing in contemporary fantasy and fantasy. Be the ultimate awakened hero and explore medieval dungeons! Specialist in business and conglomerate stories. ''Embark on a legendary journey by getting a job at a brokerage!'' - Only 1,000 won per night Romance/Beautiful Girls specialist. Has experience with drama adaptations. Graduate of Yonsei University''s Department of Psychology. For detailed consultations, please contact the writer directly. Absolute confidentiality assured. Former Web Novel Writer / 200 million views from a major tform / Numerous webtoon adaptations / Animated adaptations / If you''ve ever read novels back in the day, here''s your chance to hire that person as your personal writer! - Will tailor the world to your preferences. Former Web Novel Writer / 29 million, 30 million, 50 million views, never took a break from posting / TRPG Mastering Experience: Roll20 8,500 hours / Promises to consistently provide stable quality. "What the hell is this?" On that day, Writer A, the founder of Cocktail Bar Mori, was shocked as he headed to work. His former rivals fromst week, whom he had treated to stew, were nonchntly holding up signs! The former writers... no. The ''Returning Writers'' said sheepishly: "Well, yeah." "We were inspired by your story." "Yeah, it really moved us. Like you said, a writer should indeed live off his creations." "Right, right!" "It kind of reignited my creative spirit, haha." The writersughed as if they were simply moved by his words. Writer A felt humiliated by their tantly insincere behavior. ¡®Inspiration, my ass. It''s giarism! But still...'' Professional Writer A bit his lip hard. This situation was too ambiguous to simply call ''giarism''! If any of them had specifically used ''cocktail bar,'' ''bar,'' ''izakaya,'' or something simr, perhaps he could have challenged them to a duel, but the writers had cunningly taken only the genre of the business, whilepletely changing the content. Just like the old days when a new genre became popr in the novel industry, everyone rushed in and ''creatively'' reinterpreted it...! ''Th-this familiar feeling! Could it be?!'' ''Yes.'' The eyes of his colleagues,ughing innocently and purely, also twinkled darkly. ''It''s time for a publishingpetition again, rookie.'' ''Ah, it''s been a while. This chilling sensation. It feels like when I used to constantly check the bestseller rankings every two minutes afterunching a new work.'' ''Oh, no! Can''t you forget that hell, you guys!'' ''Yep. Your hell seems more livable than our reality.'' ''I always liked the fires of hell. I used to run up to three series simultaneously.'' Again, exchanging nces without words was a basic skill for writers. Finally, Writer A btedly realized his mistake. Why did hemit an act he would regret for just a night of pleasure? (Because he''s a writer, of course.) - Uh? What? Why are there so many signs? - Did Mori finally expand its business? Murmur, murmur. But Writer A had no time to regret. As the end of work hours approached and the crowd at the Dream Casino swelled, the inevitable fate of all writers, ''publishing time,'' was upon them. ''No, stop! My guests! My readers!'' Contrary to Writer A''s worries, there was no stealing of customers. "...Huh?" Nor was there any mishap of other writers failing to attract new customers. Although there were some variations, Writer A, along with the other seven writers, managed to attract enough customers. "Huh?" The next day. The day after that. And the day after that. Even as the number of signs increased from one to eight, and then from eight to twenty, there was never any loss of customers among the writers. In fact, the business of selling dreams went better than ever before, and even after expanding the cocktail bar''s capacity from ten to twenty people, it always reached full capacity. Then the writers realized. "Ah." A word long forgotten since civilization had copsed. Blue Ocean. This was not a sea of blood where one must killpetitors to survive. The ce they had newly discovered, rolling around on thebor market, was a golden El Dorado¨D A bonanza.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 194 Chapter 194

Chapter 194 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Investor III Tuning guests'' dreams became the definitive task for the new generation of writers. Consequently, their titles evolved significantly. "DM! I had another fantastic dreamst night! Honestly, I enjoy life more when I''m asleep than awake!" "Ahaha, I''m d you had a restful sleep." These authors eventually shed their traditional title of ¡°writers¡± and became moremonly known as Dream Managers, or DMs for short. "Well then, have a great day at work, sir. I¡¯m off to sleep...""Oh right, DMs sleep during the day! Sleep well!" While others slept, DMs worked, and while others worked, DMs slept, embracing a nocturnal lifestyle that didn''t bother them in the least. Having always been more nocturnal than diurnal even during their writing careers, this shift was hardly a concern. "Undertaker, have you heard about this DM trend?" It happened around this time when I heard about thetest fad among writers through an image titled ''recent_writers_updates.jpg'' from Dang Seo-rin. As I was always on the move, I was thest to catch on to what was trending among the general popce. "DM? What''s that?" "Simply put, they''re sleep managers. They add a touch of ir to the dreams provided by the fairies." "Hmm..." "Anyway, it''s all the rage right now. Good DMs are worth their weight in gold and hard toe by." "What a strange turn of events." "Right? I even hired a DM myself recently. A huge Harry Potter fan, and we clicked because he prefers the current generation over the old." Old generation? Current generation? Bombarded by jargon, I was momentarily puzzled. "So, you''ve hired a regr person as a personal manager to manipte dreamscapes, and even granted them ess to yours? Isn''t that a bit risky?" "Don¡¯t worry. DMs can¡¯t do anything without the tutorial fairies. As long as the fairies don¡¯t betray us, it''s unlikely DMs can get up to anything nefarious." "Hmm." I shrugged it off at the time, but in reality, Dang Seo-rin''sment was hiding a bombshell. As you know, Samcheon World is one of the most prestigious guilds on the Korean Penins. Only the best¡ªvalidated by integrity, loyalty, and talent¡ªare admitted, not just any riffraff. (Except for Yu Ji-won, who sneakily got in through a Latin special admissions program.) For ordinary people, even dreaming of applying there was out of reach. Yet, a mere civilian not only secured a job there but was hired as a full-time employee? Moreover, as the personal manager of the great witch herself, sharing power with Noh Do-hwa in Busan? Just a regr person? The writers''munity was abuzz. "Oh, Teacher! I hired a DM too!" Cheon Yo-hwa poured fuel on the fire. Always a trendsetter among senior high students, she couldn''t bear the thought of being outpaced by Dang Seo-rin. "Oh? Yo-hwa, you too?" "Yes! I hired a zombie-themed DM, an exorcism-themed DM, and even a cult-themed DM. I''ve been enjoying dreams about seeding as a cult leader in a zombie apocalypse for a week straight!" "......" If anyone asked why she''d enjoy such dreams, they''d be missing the forest for the trees. While Dang Seo-rin had hired just one DM, Cheon Yo-hwa had employed three, a critical detail given the intense rivalry between the ''economic capital'' of Busan and the ''spiritual capital'' of Sejong. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Recently revisited The Little Prince and was struck by a thought. Despite the world having ended once, the tendency to judge everything by numbers persists. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Where has the determination gone to cross even deserts to find that one fox waiting just for me? ©¸[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Wow! You only have one fox waiting for you? ©¸[Samcheon] WitchJudge: ? ©¸[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: I have three in my desert... It seems like you weren¡¯t very popr! >_<);; The drums of war sounded. Dang Seo-rin promptly promoted her personal DM to ''chief DM'' and hired eleven specialists in architecture, food and nutrition, and education to manage different departments. She even employed six parody writers to fine-tune the settings of her Harry Potter-inspired dreams. Hogwarts in her dreams neared perfection. Yo-hwa, not to be outdone, focused on quantity. She indulged in fantasies of every genre¡ªfantasy, modern, romance, martial arts¡ªhiring experts in each field to enjoy whatever genre she fancied each day. The number of personal DMs she employed reached an impressive twenty. -[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Dream Diary Entry 31. Finally got the hang of the geography at the Academy. Made a few friends and impressed the professors. Was praised during divination ss as ''the greatest talent since the Academy¡¯s founding,'' though that might be an exaggeration. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Dream Diary Day 20! Finally crushed the boss zombie''s head today >_<)!! As these two juggernauts continued their subtle sparring on SG Net, their respective guild members rushed toment whenever their leaders posted a dream diary. Why? Because they battled over which dream diary received more views andments. Surviving in arge corporation was no small feat. -OldManGoryeo: LOL the level of Korea''s top awakeners LOL -OldManGoryeo: How pathetic must reality be for them to resort to fighting in dreams LOL The only one who truly thrived was the viin OldManGoryeo. Thus, as the sole individual who could possibly mediate this farcical standoff, what had I, the Undertaker, been up to all this time? Nothing at all. ¡®Why bother? They''ll fight over who''s on top and who''s beneath no matter what.¡¯ In my view, this was arguably the safest way for them to release stress. At least nobody got hurt. It seemed, however, that others saw it differently. "Uh...?" "Given this, we really need to do something..." As two great whales thrashed, the squids and shrimps quietly going about their fishing¡ªthat is, the leaders of the minor guilds¡ªfound themselves in an awkward position. If Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa employed twenty DMs, then other major guilds had to hire at least twelve. A moderately established mid-sized guild leader would need at least six DMs, and even fledgling small guilds should employ three. Why? No reason was needed. Traditionally, in thisnd, one''s social status has always been determined by the price of their car and the size of their house. The same tradition simply morphed into ''how many and how good the DMs you employ are.'' In the Renaissance, Italian nobles unted their wealth by patronizing artists. Simrly, the guild leaders on the Korean Penins nowpeted through their possession of DMs. The Renaissance nobles didn''t necessarily possess profound artistic sensibilities, just as the guild leaderscked substantial literary acumen. Nheless, both groups triggered significant effects on employment. Moreover, DMs had several advantages over Renaissance artists: ¢Ù Low barrier to entry. Bing a DM required no initial capital. Just fine-tune dreams to the client''s taste, and you could make a living. ¢Ú Sustainability of the business. Once established, DMs had a steady influx of work. People dream every day and prefer entertaining dreams. ¢Û Connections with power. While it''s incredibly difficult for ordinary people to get close to guild leaders, DMs with top-tier skills can easily be intimately connected with them. In fact, DMs are often the first person a leader sees upon waking and thest before sleeping. Easy to enter, a bright business outlook, and even a chance to gain fame and influence? "Mom! When I grow up, I want to be a writer!" "Being a writer is like being a god!" A literary storm swept across the Korean Penins. Indeed, as previously mentioned, a sudden golden age of literature had dawned.

This age of great literature was marked by countless incidents and idents. There was even a massive strike by tutorial fairies who imed they couldn''t take it anymore. But in this story, I¡¯ll focus solely on one incident, one untouched by any monsters. As promised earlier, today''s focus is squarely on ''ordinary'' people, and who better to represent them than the very person who has been front and center from the start of this episode? "I''ve been feeling burnt outtely..." "Huh?" Writer A. The very same individual who has appeared from beginning to end in this story. Just for rity, I didn¡¯t receive permission to use Writer A¡¯s real pen name in my tales, which is why I reluctantly refer to him as Writer A. He''s extremely timid by nature, and his pen name ends with the sound ''A''. Anyway. "What are you talking about, DM? Your cocktail bar is booming. You''ve even expanded to amodate fifty patrons and hired up to five bartender NPCs. Oh, and that new bartender NPC you hiredst week is getting rave reviews!" "DM, DM, that damn DM..." "Huh?" "I am a writer! A writer! And writing, creation¡ªit''s not like this!" Crash. Writer A smashed a wine ss in front of his assistant writer. It seemed only yesterday that they couldn''t even afford water and were forced to drink what rain they could collect, yet here he was, already adopting bourgeois affectations now that he had found some sess. "Look at what I''ve been reduced to! Greeting guests with ''irasshaimase'', mixing cocktails all day, fussing over the looks and backstories of newly hired bartenders... Is this what being a writer is? Is it?!" "But you''re making a million won a day without breaking a sweat¡ª" "The bleak yet beautiful worldviews! Vibrant characters! The saga of defeat and victory, the schemes and plots, a midnight ball where some dance and others walk the scaffold¡ªthat''s what I want to write! Aaaaargh!" "......" For those unaware, let me introduce ''new-work-itis'', a chronic disease that strikes any writer who has serialized the same work for over 18 months. There¡¯s also ''remake-itis'', ''suspension-itis'', ''ry-novel-itis'', petition-itis'', ''my-writing-sucks-itis'', ''my-writing-rocks-itis'', and ''can''t-write-unless-it''s-about-the-heroine-itis'', among others¡ªdiseases that manifest only in writers. It''s astonishing that such wed creatures have managed to survive on Earth this long. If you''re not shocked enough yet, I apologize, but there''s more. "But alone, I could never create such a perfect dream..." And here, Writer A made a distinctly writer-like, which is to say foolishly human, decision. First, he gathered the seven colleagues he had once shared a stew with. Now they had be the pioneering elites of this industry, having risen to such status that they now held gatherings in pork belly restaurants, not mere stew joints. "Honestly, you''re all tired too, right?" "Well, um..." "The great witch is fine for the most part, but her requirements are just too demanding... Sometimes, she says something in the dream isn''t historically urate, but honestly, that¡¯s not my fault. The original author herself was inconsistent..." "Exactly!" Writer A mmed down his rice wine ss with a bang. "Let''s create something together!" "What?" "Each of us will take on a few main characters and develop their profiles. Then we''llbine it all. Let''s also build a world together. You''re good at political intrigue, so you handle that, and you write war stories well, right? So, bnce the interactions between fictional nations!" Writer A dered, "We are the first writers in human history who can manipte dreams! How long will we timidly tinker with the dreams of the powerful? Guys! Let¡¯s create an MMORPG with unprecedented freedom, a perfect ''virtual world''!" "...!" Yes. Writer A and the supreme eight had sadly contracted the most dreaded of all writerly diseases, simply uttering its name causes one''s entire body to shudder: the scourge of all evils. Group¡¤Project¡¤Itis.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 195 Chapter 195

Chapter 195 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Investor IV The writers of Busan decided to pool their creative forces. "My creative power is 150. Yours is 150. That''s a total of 300 creative power! Let''s create a perfect masterpiece!" "Such a clever idea indeed." This was the so-called coborative project. More than two writers came together to produce a work, a concept as bizarre as teaming Hitler and Stalin and marveling at theirbined demagoguery and purge capabilities. We all knew that no matter the process, this scenario would end with a nuclear explosion. The probability of these writers¡¯ coborations seeding was about 500% less likely than a college group project receiving a standing ovation from students and professors alike."Of course, when we simplybine our strengths, we''ll end up with a result not of plus 300 but minus 22,500." Writer A wasn''t naive enough to overlook this. He presented his PowerPoint at the pork belly restaurant where the supreme eight had gathered. "Hence, we need to set up a strict hierarchy among the writers involved in the project. I''ll be the lead writer, and while I''ll respect your opinions, the final decision rests solely with me." "What?" Murmurs filled the room as the other writers exchanged looks that varied in droopage of eyelids and eyebrow thickness but that were united in their disbelief. ¡®Who do you think you are?¡¯ Despite their incredulous stares, Writer A remained undeterred, even smirking. "Let''s face it, I pioneered this DM market, and you all just hitched a ride. No matter what you think, objectively, you all owe me one." "......" "No one here can lead without issues. And equal participation? Bullshit, that''ll just end in chaos." "Maybe..." The writers exchanged nces, expressions now changing to ones of reluctant agreement. Writers have always been susceptible topelling nonsense. If they were truly rational, they wouldn¡¯t have chosen such an illogical career. "Let''s say you do lead. How exactly will you coordinate our opinions?" "We''ll divide responsibilities among the writers." Flipping through his makeshift PowerPoint, Writer A revealed, "I haven''t told you this, but over the years, I¡¯ve made a secret pact with the fairies to observe your DM work." "What?" "You all started your DM businesses without paying me amission, it was fate. Now, deal with it. Thanks to this, I know where each of your strengths and specialties lie." ¡®This is crazy.¡¯ While the other writers contemted how much it would cost to cover up his murder, Writer A calmly distributed the roles. "Here, roles that I think best suit your strengths." 1. NPC Management: Known since his web novel days for writing punchy, vorful dialogue. As a DM, his characters are lively and have received rave reviews. 2. Map Management: Ingenious in designing ''stages'' and ''gimmicks'' during his web novel days, secretly participated in indie game development, responsible for level design. 3. Quests, Items, Training Sites: Always wrote engaging scenes where the protagonist gains new skills or trains. As a DM, became popr by letting clients experience bing powerhouses. 4. Main Event Management: Skilled in writing about national strife or political faction fights during his web novel days. As a DM, provided intense political dramas that were highly praised by guild-level clients. 5. Worldview Management: Known for beautifully crafting fantasy world settings, offered adventures that were realistic yet thrilling as a DM. The role of ''Historical Authenticity'' was also tacked on. Each writer''s expertise was detailed in these documents, handwritten by Writer A. "......" The writers went deadly serious. They were always susceptible to sincerity and dedication, values they pursued all their lives. Writer Aid down the paperwork. "I¡¯ve bought a vi near Haeundae with the money I¡¯ve made from being a DM." "A vi?" "Yeah. You guys are all single, right? Move in. Let''s work there until the project isplete." "......" "You know we could die at any moment." The age of anomalies. "Let''s create onest work before we go, guys." If there was anyone who could be moved to tears by the mere sound of the word ''guys,'' regardless of the era, that person was destined to be a writer. From the lips of a bard, to the fingertips of nobles, to the palms of workers, to the shelves of university libraries, to the empty spaces in rental shops, to smartphone screens, to the dreams shaped by fairies, this truth remained unchanged. The writers were ready to sing of humanity once more.

"Hey, Undertaker. I¡¯ve been invited to act as a consultant by the DMs. Would you like toe too?" Dang Seo-rin, always keeping me connected to the world, dropped this on me three yearster. "Consultant?" "Yeah. The DMs are embarking on some joint or coborative project. They''re creating a massive fantasy world." "Oh ho." "They said wizards hold tremendous power in this dream world, and since I''m associated with power and magic, they invited me as a historical consultant." "I might provide detailed consultations on executions and monster dissections, then." "Huh? What?" "Nothing. Anyway, I¡¯lle along. As an expert on the Three Kingdoms, I can offer practical advice on strategies and intrigues." Dang Seo-rin grimaced, probably hoping not to drown fantasy with the Three Kingdoms. We set a date and headed to Haeundae. If you¡¯re from Busan, you might know about Dalmaji Hill and Dalmaji Road in the area. The writers'' dormitory was located in a vi with a clear view of the sea. The guards, who were Awakeners, froze upon recognizing us. I exchanged a few pleasantries with the guards before whistling. "Quite the affluent bunch." "They¡¯re among the top DMs in Busan, probably some of the wealthiest civilians around." "And they have to coborate closely with the tutorial fairies, so no dodging taxes. Noh Do-hwa likes DMs too." "Really? I heard she¡¯s never hired a DM." "True. She hardly ever asks the fairies to ensure she sleeps soundly. Says she doesn¡¯t see why she should see monsters even in her dreams." "Hmm¡" Just then: -You fucking idiot! A roar shook the vi''s windows. Dang Seo-rin and I paused just as we were about to ring the bell (not an electronic bell but one physically attached to the door handle). -How can aw passed by the kingdom''s assembly apply retroactively?! That would invalidate hundreds of years of inter-species marriages. Does that make any sense? -It makes perfect sense! Damn it! That''s why I''ve been emphasizing how crucial this marriagew is both in the world and the main events! -No, dumbass! What about taxes? If married and unmarried people were taxed differently, and all sorts ofws applied differently, would you apply those retroactively too? Is the chancellor an idiot? Would they really want to triple their workload overnight because of such a stupidw? -The chancellor is an idiot, that''s why the kingdom is going to hell! Dang Seo-rin and I nced at each other. ''Are you sure we had an appointment today?'' ''Yes, it¡¯s supposed to be now.'' ''The leader of the Three Thousand Worlds Guild is gracing them with her presence, and they¡¯re bickering inside instead of waiting by the door. Are they even human?'' ''I don¡¯t know. Maybe they¡¯re monsters.'' Luckily, Dang Seo-rin and I naturally resist privilege. We often disguise ourselves to go on culinary tours. Thump. I knocked on the door. -I can''t understand this idiot... Oh? Wait. Someone''s here? -Wait. Who is it? Dang Seo-rin cleared her throat. "Hello. I''m the Guild Leader of the Samcheon World." -Samcheon... Oh? O-oh! Crash! Bang! The vi erupted into echoing chaos. ''You insane bastard!'' ''Why didn¡¯t you say something?'' ''I thought it was tomorrow¡ª'' ''Motherfucker! Die! You moron, just die!'' ''Put on some clothes! How many times have I told you not to walk around shirtless?'' and so on. In other words,plete pandemonium. Muchter, in the next story, it turned out that the mistake with the date wasn''t on the writers¡¯ part, but Dang Seo-rin''s. However, even in the 205th cycle, she was unaware of this fact. "Uh..." Lacking a sense of privilege but enjoying actual privileges, the supreme dignity of the Samcheon World felt slightly bewildered. "Oh. Sorry, Undertaker. I didn¡¯t know this was the kind of meeting I was walking into. I was just introduced by my personal DM three years ago. I thought you might be interested in novels and writers since you like the Three Kingdoms..." "Isn''t this the first time we''ve taken a walk together in a while?" "Huh?" "I enjoyed the walk. That''s all that matters. You don¡¯t need to apologize for every little thing." "......" "Isn¡¯t it interesting?" I grinned. "Imagine a startup that somehow brings Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to their office, but then forgets the date and leaves them standing outside the door. Completely insane. When else would you experience something like this?" "Right. Yeah, it is interesting." Dang Seo-rin''s usual light smile returned as the awkward air between us rxed. While we waited at the vi''s front door, we continued to chuckle and discuss the dinner menu. The mere 30 centimeter gap between us was filled so tightly that there was no room for any resentment about status or pride as guild leaders. "¨DI''m sorry!" "We''re terribly sorry!" Thus, even as the flustered writers prostrated themselves and touched their heads to the floor in a full dogeza, we were hardly moved.[1] Dang Seo-rin chuckled softly. "It''s okay. I was also introduced by Mr. Moru DM. Seems there was a mix-up." "No, we''re truly sorry! It was our fault!" The writers remained prostrated, not daring to lift their heads. During this time, I took in the interior of the vi. "Whoa?" a voice called. Firstly, fairies were floating around the living room. At least five of them. "Secretary General Undertaker? What brings you here?" "I could ask the same of you?" "We''ve been dispatched here for a joint-business endeavor!" Startled, the writers¡¯ heads shook again at the sound of my conversation with the fairy. Roughly, ''The Undertaker?'' ''The hero from the Ten Tribes and Meteor Shower Raids?'' ''Why would such a hero visit this ce?'' But it¡¯s too clich¨¦ to describe such reactions in detail. If I did, each episode would be filled with the same content. After the mood settled, Dang Seo-rin finally spoke with the historical consultant DM. Meanwhile, I had a chance to chat with Writer A, the project overseer. "So... um, we''re creating an autonomously functioning dream world, The Kingdom Project." "Autonomously functioning?" "Yes, well. For example, there¡¯s a count in the dream world''s kingdom. We¡¯ve detailed his past, the scars he bears, his thoughts on those scars, and the events he¡¯s currently embroiled in..." Writer A nced at the fairy. "We share these settings with the tutorial fairies. Then, even if we DMs aren¡¯t actively hosting guests, the fairies can operate the dreams somewhat realistically..." Writer A wasn''t particrly eloquent or quick-witted. Thus, I felt the need to summarize his words into a more direct slogan. "So, if you¡¯re the game creators, the fairies act as operators?" "Yes, yes, exactly." Writer A hesitated. "Of course, there are details tooplex for the operators to handle alone. In those cases, the fairies can exchange real-time feedback with us..." "Oh ho." "We¡¯ve had beta testers go through it up to the sixth round..." "And everyone was satisfied?" A fairy peeked out from the side. "Statistically,pared to dreams we provide alone, this Kingdom Project has given participants over 2000% more satisfaction!" "2000%? Twenty times more?" "Yes! That''s why the Fairy Rights Commission is lending our full support and advocating for participation in the Kingdom Project¡¯s development!" I surveyed the vi''s interior. Walls stered with plot settings. Maps. Personal details of hundreds of main NPCs. Threads in red, blue, and yellow crisscrossed between these settings, illustrating their interconnections. Meanwhile, the fairy continued chattering, munching on a sausage. "Especially since the Secretary General banned tutorials, the fairies were getting a bit disheartened. But the Kingdom Project has revitalized them! In dreams, we can run dungeons just like tutorials, legally ughtering humans as much as we want¡ª!" "Hold on." I whipped around and grabbed the fairy''s shoulder. "What did you just say?" "We¡¯re happy because we can legally kill humans?" "No, the other part. About running dungeons like tutorials in dreams?" "Yes, that''s right!" "And, naturally, if people die in the dreams, it doesn''t really affect their real lives?" "Of course. There might be some mental trauma, but since everyone knows it''s not real, it¡¯s fine!" "......" I felt as if I''d been struck on the back of the head. Why hadn¡¯t I thought of such a simple idea until now? During the 205th cycle, I established the Dream Casino to provide joy and circte currency through the dream standard. I had only approached it from the aspects of welfare and economy. However, the DM ecosystem built through the Dream Casino contained potential far beyond ''welfare and economy.'' "Mr. DM." I looked at Writer A. "Do you not need detailed data on the Ten Legs and Meteor Showers?" He looked at me questioningly. "I can provide you with detailed information on hundreds, even thousands of anomalies. If you wish, I¡¯ll invest whatever it takes." Yes. The massive virtual world built by the DMs. It could provide an endlessly ''realistic'' ''practice'' for both civilians and awakeners¨D It was, in every sense, a ''Tutorial Dungeon.''

Footnotes: [1] Dogeza (ÍÁÏÂ×ù) is an element of traditional Japanese etiquette which involves kneeling directly on the ground and bowing to prostrate oneself while touching one''s head to the floor. It is used to show deference to a person of higher status, as a deep apology or to express the desire for a favor from said person. Join our discord at Chapter 196 Chapter 196

Chapter 196 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Investor V When reading regression stories, you sometimes encounter a scenario like this: - "Mage, your true talent is actually in swordsmanship." - "That makes no sense! Me, someone born into a prestigious family of mages... and I''m actually a swordsmanship genius?" - "And a martial genius to boot." - "Hmm, are you saying that what I just did is the ''Perfect Squat of the Forgotten Era''? But I was only standing up after sitting down?"This is the so-called ¡®Our Child Has Changed¡¯ clich¨¦. In the previous cycle, due to prejudice, discrimination, poverty, and bad luck, these talented people couldn¡¯t fully blossom into their true potential. A regressor provides one-on-one personal training to these side characters, and as a result, they would be reborn as true experts. I, too, as a fully-fledged regressor and PT trainer, have nurtured quite a few outstanding members. In fact, in this specific area, I secretly pride myself on being better than any other regressor. However, we need to approach this with the brain of a scientist rather than the heart of a humanities student. So, what exactly does ¡°quite a few¡± mean in this context? - Saintess, Seo Gyu, Dang Seo-rin, Cheon Yo-hwa, Sim Ah-ryeon, Lee Ha-yul, Yu Ji-won. Let''s go. How could this be? It¡¯s only seven people at best! Of course, depending on the cycle, you could add or subtract about five people from this list. But even then, it doesn¡¯t exceed 15 people. Most regressors, as I see it, are fundamentally mistaken. How do they expect to change the world with just a small elite group? Sure, changing the lives of 15 people is impressive. But in the end, that¡¯s on the scale of a small or medium-sized business owner. Apple, for example, has over 150,000 employees. If you¡¯re just scratching off winning human lottery tickets with guaranteed potential after a regression, that¡¯s just basic. It¡¯s like buying Bitcoin¡ª¡®a must-do.¡¯ Ultimately, the crucial thing is the social system. You need to readjust the massive pool of human resources in society to be healthy enough to support a select few experts. This is what could truly be called the lifelong mission of a regressor. ¡°I¡¯m going to invest heavily in the currently being developed by skilled DMs.¡± After returning from the writer¡¯s retreat at Dalmaji Hill, I immediately convened the Regressor Alliance. Noh Do-hwa, whose life is basically one long night shift, received me with a face tired from exhaustion. ¡°DMs? You mean those casino hustlers who make fairies match them up with dream partners so they can fuck in their dreams...?¡± Good grief. Is this really the perception held by the ruler of the Korean Penins? Every time I honestly reveal Noh Do-hwa''s ignorance and prejudice to you all, I feel my spine shiver and my cheekbones tremble. Please spread the word about Noh Do-hwa''s shorings. ¡°Ahem. Please refrain from such defamation of the only industry currently growing in the market.¡± ¡°Has your brain rotted from dreaming about Romance of the Three Kingdoms a few too many times? Why the sudden frenzy to invest in DMs in the middle of the night...?¡± I calmly exined the potential of the . Before long, Noh Do-hwa¡¯s expression changed ever so slightly. ¡°...Hmm. So, if you strip away all the talk about DMs and Tutorial Fairies, it¡¯s essentially a virtual reality world.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°I see. And one can freely build up a wealth of experience defeating anomalies and traversing the void there... Hmm. That sounds feasible enough...¡± [Isn¡¯t there a big risk?] It was the Saintess, who was participating in the video conference from Yongsan, who asked. [The Ten Legs or the Meteor Shower really existed as anomalies in reality. If you transnt their data directly into virtual reality, it would basically make the entire other world vulnerable to the void, just like our reality. I think this would have the side effect of expanding the range of activities avable to the anomalies. Besides, there¡¯s a very good chance that new anomalies rted to ¡®virtual reality¡¯ will be generated.] ¡°That¡¯s true. There will 100 percent be side effects.¡± I nodded. ¡°But the advantages far outweigh the resulting disadvantages. First, we must attempt it, and if the side effects be unmanageable, we can stop in the following cycles.¡± With Warren Buffet''s heart for Coca-C stocks, I decided to invest in the . The very next day, we began managing the ¡®risk¡¯ the Saintess had pointed out. The most foolish risk of all is human risk¡ªman-made disasters. I summoned Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa to the caf¨¦ hideout 1,200 meters deep to discuss solving this human resource problem. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Ugh.¡± The two arrived with light steps, but upon spotting each other, they openly frowned. The air in the room froze. It was a battle of pride between mages representing White Magic and ck Magic, Cursed Song Incantation and Necromancy. I intervened. ¡°Stop fighting, you two.¡± ¡°Fighting? What do you mean, Undertaker? I don¡¯t have the leisure to fight with people. If I do fight, and even if the opponent appears human, aren¡¯t they probably an anomaly?¡± ¡°Aha, well. I heard that in Busan, people of all ages walk around wearing witch hats. I suspect that might be some sort of cosy anomaly. You should be careful too, teacher!¡± Don¡¯t worry. This level of tension is just yful banter. If these two guild leaders were serious in their killing intent, turning someone into minced meat would prove to be no issue. ¡°Seriously, stop fighting. The personal DMs you two employ alone add up to 46. That¡¯s too much. Are you nning to start your own novel tform?¡± ¡°Hey, she¡¯s the one who¨D¡± ¡°Hold on. Sorry to cut you off, but let me speak first. I¡¯m not here to judge right from wrong. I¡¯m telling you that I desperately need the DMs you two have employed.¡± ¡°...Huh?¡± Both Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa blinked. Like Noh Do-hwa, the two quickly grasped the point when I calmly exined. The tense atmosphere where they seemed ready to fight bare-handed (and where Cheon Yo-hwa, a closebatant, would win) eased a bit. ¡°Dang Seo-rin, how many personal DMs do you really need to manage your dream?¡± ¡°Well...¡± Dang Seo-rin nced at Cheon Yo-hwa out of the corner of her eye and said, ¡°I think four would be enough.¡± ¡°Good. Yo-hwa, is four a little short for you too?¡± ¡°...Hmm. No, that should be sufficient. After all, my preferred DMs are already set, and the others are just peanuts for idle time.¡± I nodded. ¡°Once the starts running smoothly, talented individuals will undoubtedly emerge. Individuals you¡¯d want to recruit as guild members.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Naturally,petition between guilds to recruit these talents will intensify. So, we will implement a draft system, giving ¡®priority¡¯ to guilds that have exterminated more anomalies and voids in reality each year.¡± ¡°...!¡± The light in their eyes changed once again. Earlier, they seemed to be amodating because of ¡®Undertaker''s face,¡¯ but now, they had the bold, clear demeanor of cold-blooded leaders. ¡°Currently, the National Road Management Corps is requesting guilds to submit reports on the extermination of anomalies and voids. Butpliance isn¡¯t great, is it?¡± ¡°Hmm, yes. It¡¯s because it¡¯s considered know-how. Honestly, I feel morefortable giving it to you than the National Road Management Corps... We only report just enough to not offend them.¡± ¡°Thank you. But if reporting exterminations to the National Road Management Corps brings tangible benefits, it will be a different story.¡± ¡°...So we¡¯ll get the first pick of talented rookies. Rookies who have been tested countless times in the dream simtion.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Samcheon World and Baekwha Girls'' High were the most proactive in exterminating voids among all the guilds. Naturally, they would be given priority in the draft. ¡°How about it? Does this provide enough reason and benefit to reduce the number of DMs?¡± It did. Once the two major guild leaders made the first concession, their subordinates followed suit. The medium and small guild leaders hurriedly reduced the number of personal DMs. The DMs who suddenly found themselves unemployed were re-employed by the National Road Management Corps and assigned to the . The number of personnel was a staggering 120. All of them were skilled enough to be hired by guild leaders and had enough ¡®social skills¡¯ to sustain such a lifestyle. It was a miracle, a perfect storm, gathering every top-tier talent that could be extracted from the Korean Penins. ¡°We will cover all personnel costs. Don¡¯t worry about rent or anything. Consider the newly added DMs as subordinate employees, not fellow writers, and use them ordingly.¡± ¡°U-uh...¡± Writer A, though bewildered, epted my investment. ¡°Th-thank you. I never dreamed something like this woulde my way...¡± ¡°If anyone dares to disrespect your authority as a manager, feel free to contact me. I will personally take care of it.¡± ¡°Huh?! N-no! I couldn¡¯t possibly bother you with something like that...!¡± But it happened. Some DMs caused trouble, and I personally intervened with violence and threats to firmly establish the hierarchy among the DMs. Regardless of how sessful they were before the apocalypse, Writer A was now the project leader. Two yearster. Solid muscles and delicious flesh clung to the skeleton that had already beenpleted for the . [Explore a kingdom on the brink of ruin and save humanity from the void!] [Organized by the National Road Management Corps. A dream project created in coboration with 36 major guilds, including Samcheon World and Baekwha Girls'' High!] [Anyone can freely enter the ¡®Kingdom¡¯ by consulting with the Tutorial Fairy.] [Season 1 Raid Boss ¡®Ten Legs¡¯ Emerges!] Numerous billboards were erected at the Dream Casino, and countless advertisements were posted on SG Net. ¡°What? What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°One hundred thirty DMs participated in the production?¡± ¡°Wait, I was wondering where that DM disappeared off to. So they were making this.¡± ¡°You can dream with just the fairy and no DM? Won¡¯t that make it less fun...?¡± The dream simtion created by the writers¡¯ dedication, the regressor¡¯s experience, and the guild leaders¡¯ assistance¡ª Theunch of the ¡®Kingdom.¡¯

The public¡¯s reaction to the kingdom was explosive. - Anonymous: No lol the kingdom is fucking amazing lololol ©¸LiteraryGirl: Is this the DMs¡¯ ¡®true intentions¡¯...? This is terrifying... - OldManGoryeo: Seriously, no joke, if you¡¯re an Awakener who¡¯s only dreaming of the kingdom while taking sleeping pills, big thumbs up lolol - Anonymous: No, if they had this ability, what the hell was missing from Korean gamepanies before the Void Arrival that they couldn¡¯t make a GOTY title? If this hade out back then, it would have fucking destroyed all the other games!! ©¸Anonymous: ¡®Tutorial Fairy¡¯ ©¸Anonymous: Ah. Even Awakeners, those the frontline experts fighting anomalies in real life, acknowledged the ¡®realism¡¯ of the kingdom and were giving rave reviews. Of course, they did. Who provided the data? - Anonymous: Kingdom bastards! The Ten Legs appeared in the southwest beyond the mountains!! The Ten Legs is insane! If you don¡¯t unite your armies to fight Ten Legs, you¡¯re seriously fucked!! ©¸Anonymous: Yep~~ only the country bumpkins will die~ I¡¯m safe in the royal capital~~ - Anonymous: Why does this unfamiliar medieval kingdom seem oddly familiar?? -dolLHOuse: The kingdom is on the verge of copse, and it¡¯s hrious. But the funnier part is that it¡¯s still better than our reality. ©¸Anonymous: Ah... In the dream simtion, humanity hadn¡¯t yet been destroyed by the void. It was just on the brink of copse. Even in this situation, the kingdom¡¯s NPCs were wasting time arguing about who was right, whose house prices were safe, whether ambitious provincial leaders were suspicious, whether one was a pure human and others were filthy demi-humans, engaging in all sorts of political bullshit. - Anonymous: Crazy kingdom bastards, even in this state, pure races and demi-humans are still terrorizing each other lol - Anonymous: ¡®There are already seven rebel armies in the provinces. No matter how strong the anomaly Ten Legs is, if we leave it alone, it¡¯ll just exhaust the rebels.¡¯ (Something actually said) - Anonymous: Ah, I¡¯ll never share a table with demi-humans, even if humanity goes extinct~~ Simtion participants, living in a world where all countries had already been destroyed by anomalies, were naturally fully immersed. Kingdom NPCsmented the politics of the nation, calling it the worst era. But the simtion participants knew it better than anyone. They knew that this was thest golden opportunity to save humanity. - Anonymous: Breaking news: Ten Legs annihted the southwest and is advancing north over the mountains - Anonymous: Participated as a mercenary in the southwest county and got wiped out after two tentacle attacks. I¡¯m taking a quick break to spread the word before dreaming again. - Anonymous: This time, I n to create a new character in the capital and join the fight. Good luck, everyone. ©¸LiteraryGirl: Don¡¯t respawn just anywhere. There are nobles in the capital who seriously consider the Ten Legs a threat. They¡¯re also running around trying to convince other nobles. Respawn as a citizen in the capital and lend them your strength. ©¸Anonymous: Oh, thanks, thanks Even though it was a medieval fantasy kingdom they were experiencing for the first time, the simtion participants could clearly see the fate of this kingdom. They knew the future. They knew the ending and how to deal with it. In this sense, the people participating in the kingdom¡¯s dream were practically ¡®regressors.¡¯ That¡¯s right. In the training ground of the virtual reality created by the DMs, people were rapidly leveling up as ¡®pseudo-regressors.¡¯ A system soplete that I didn¡¯t need to personally mentor or tutor anyone. ¡°Teacher!¡± After the first season of the kingdom ended, Cheon Yo-hwa came running, her face flushed red. ¡°The new recruits this time... They¡¯re incredible!¡± Finally, the power of the Korean Penins began to grow at a terrifying speed.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 197 Chapter 197

Chapter 197 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Investor VI Perhaps some of you are expecting a twist like, ¡°However, a monstrous virtual reality simtion hypothesis suddenly appeared, causing the world to end...!¡± and, indeed, such things have happened quite often, but that is not the topic of today¡¯s story. As I mentioned before, I want this story to focus on ordinary people, a part I have left rtively neglected until now. Besides, iIf an anomaly were to suddenly appear here and steal the spotlight, wouldn''t I have to film another one of my endless Undertaker hunting sprees? Even if I didn''t like it, that¡¯s an endless tale I have to tell 365 days a year, so let¡¯s save it forter. ¡°You are heroes who have advanced the world.¡± I wasn¡¯t like an NBA star who would have a fit if I weren¡¯t treated like the protagonist in every game. Instead, I was a yer who definitely made the pass when necessary. And my ¡®passes¡¯ seemed a bit grand from the perspective of the DMs. ¡°Uh, uh, uh...¡±The DMs were invited to the podium set up in front of the National Road Management Corps headquarters at Babel Tower Square. Team-level managers stood below the square, standing at attention. ¡°On behalf of the citizens of Busan and others who were too busy to attend today, we would like to extend our gratitude to you.¡± I bowed my head, the team leaders responded by bending gracefully at their waists. Yu Ji-won was even among them. In other words, powerful figures who wouldn''t bow to anyone else respectfully greeted the DMs. While I quickly straightened up, the other Awakeners had to show off their hip flexibility while I conversed with the DMs. ¡°No... Undertaker, this is, this is too much...¡± ¡°The has achieved unprecedented sess. We are receiving overwhelmingly positive responses from guilds participating in this year¡¯s new draft. Your project has raised the level of Awakeners on the Korean Penins by a notch.¡± ¡°Uh, um...¡± The DMs looked stricken, but I personally didn¡¯t trust their facial muscles. No, I trusted their life experiences. To those whock money, give money; to those without friends, give friendship; to those without power, give power; to those without honor, give honor. That was the most basic principle of a ¡®reward.¡¯ Why do you think soldiers are happy when given leave as a reward? The DMs were the same. The people standing in front of me earned a fair amount of money, both in the past and now. But did they really have power and honor? Have they ever experienced influential figures lining up and being polite to them, just like gangsters bowing to their elder brothers? They hadn¡¯t. And they wouldn¡¯t in the future either. Such ¡®treatment¡¯ was a raremodity I alone could offer the DMs. As a consequence, in their hearts, the Undertaker''s position acquired unique value. Through rewards, my rtionship with the DMs solidified. ¡®And if they get swayed by the trickle-down power, they¡¯re not people I can use for long.¡¯ After the event ended, I pped my hands. The Awakeners, who had been bowing all the time, stood up and joined in the apuse. The DMs awkwardly left the venue, looking relieved that it was finally over. Though they seemed relieved, from the regressor''s perspective, this was just the beginning. ¡®I wonder how many will remain from there.¡¯ With time, some DMs becamepletely addicted to the sweet juice of power, gradually losing interest in the and bing absorbed in other interests. They began teaching ordinary people how to be sessful DMs and gradually reduced the days they went to work. They merely epted high-payingmissions from time to time and worked as private DMs a few times. They became distanced from making the ¡¯s world more detailed and interesting. As the DM profession gained explosive poprity among ordinary people, DMs with ¡®achievements and fame¡¯ were quickly scouted as teachers. It didn''t take long before they retired from active duty. Of the eight, four were eliminated. Of course, it was only an elimination from my perspective. To them, it was a wise and sessful life. In contrast, the DMs who remained in thepany and diligently worked on the kingdom simtion¨Din my view, those who foolishly stayed in the field and continued working were the real sessful ones. ¡®Only half remain.¡¯ Another cycle passed. This time, I approached Writer A first and proposed the . Writer A listened to my blueprint in amazement. ¡°Oh my... Y-you¡¯re saying you¡¯ll entrust me with such a tremendous project?¡± ¡°Yes. The National Road Management Corps has alreadypleted about 20% on their own.¡± I handed over some of the world settings that the four eliminated people had created in the previous cycle to Writer A. Writer A was impressed as they went through the materials. ¡°...Amazing. It¡¯s really like it was written by a professional... Ah. But there¡¯s no main events, serendipities, or major NPCs at all. The world setting is sophisticated, but...¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s why I am proposing this to people who used to be writers before civilization copsed. Will you participate?¡± ¡°...Yes, yes. I definitely want to participate!¡± Writer A didn''t have to go through the trouble of gathering colleagues themselves. I found the colleagues who stayed with thepany until the end of the previous cycle and brought them to Writer A. Temptations visited them. -Hello. I¡¯m secretly visiting after hearing from the leader of the Samcheon World guild. -Could you create a super ount for the project you¡¯re making? -We came from Baekhwa Girls'' High. Could you get an item for our student council president...? -Thepensation will be more than satisfactory. The ¡®more than satisfactory¡¯pensation was 60 billion won. The wasn¡¯tplete yet. At that point, there was no certainty that it would be a sess, and it was a huge amount of money. Of the four, two were eliminated. ¡®Again, half of the half.¡¯ Another cycle passed. Out of the seven colleagues who had started the project early with Writer A, only one remained by their side. However, there wasn''t much work to be done. ¡°Ah... With this, it will be quick once the main events and major NPCs arepleted.¡± There was a lot ¡®alreadypleted¡¯ by the National Road Management Corps. ¡°Hmm. Other parts have almost no ws... No, really almost none. Who are the people who made this?¡± ¡°That cannot be disclosed.¡± ¡°Ah. I see... I know a few writer friends. I wondered if it might be them...¡± Starting from a more rxed point than before, the improved inpleteness. Writer A refined and polished the work they created in the previous cycle. A series of revisions with intervals between cycles. Meanwhile, one of the fellow DMs flooded their ount with irrational equipment and items. They crossed the line as an administrator and roamed around as if they were the true protagonist of this world. Why didn¡¯t they do this in previous cycles but did it now? It was hard to know the exact reason. One person eliminated. ¡°Wow! Th-this is¡ª!¡± And then the next cycle. The 208th cycle. Writer A¡¯s hands trembled as they received the blueprint of the . ¡°This is truly amazing! Really, I¡¯ve always had thoughts like this, but it¡¯s even better than what I imagined... How did the management corps do this?¡± There were all sorts of temptations and traps. There were countless tests that ordinary people couldn''t withstand and didn¡¯t need to withstand. Despite all that, Writer A never abandoned the . They never betrayed the yers. They were a talent needed by a regressor. ¡°Author.¡± ¡°This is really, wow, ah. Yes?¡± ¡°I want to entrust this project to you.¡± ¡°Yes? Yes? Really? Wow, th-thank you so much! I only read two pages of this, but my hands were itching...!¡± ¡°And I am a regressor.¡± ¡°...What?¡±

We had a drink together. Writer A¡¯s eyes, drunk on makgeolli, stared at the ceiling without truly seeing it.[1] ¡°It doesn¡¯t make sense. How could I have created this work with those guys...¡± ¡°Why doesn¡¯t it make sense?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s so well-made. Damn. Ah, sorry for cursing...¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. We¡¯re meant to drink here, after all. By the way, mysterious donations are secretly flowing into the other colleagues¡¯ ounts like annuities every cycle, so you don¡¯t have to worry about their circumstances. Thanks to the merits of their previous lives, they¡¯ll be able to live leisurely for hundreds of lifetimes.¡± ¡°Thank you...¡± After hearing the whole story, Writer A¡¯s expression was subtle. They seemed proud, intrigued, and somewhatpetitive. ¡°Author, the reason I am sharing this information with you is that I have a special interest in the .¡± ¡°Uh... Interest, you say...?¡± ¡°I want people to develop a step further through the dream simtion called the .¡± ¡°Ah. You mean copying the anomalies from reality to raise people¡¯s overall level? That seems quite possible...¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. But that¡¯s not all.¡± I got to the main point¡ªmy true intention, brought out after four cycles. A regressor was, by nature, cautious about whom they reveal their true feelings to. ¡°As you know, the problems weighing down our reality aren¡¯t just the void and anomalies. There are also absurd ideologies like Awakeners¡¯ supremacy.¡± ¡°Ah, true...¡± ¡°The reason people get swept up in such ideologies is that the reality divided into Awakeners and ordinary people feels too close. I want to take a step back from there, giving people a sense of distance to view the situation calmly and embrace others.¡± A question mark popped up above Writer A¡¯s head. It was an eloquent speech, but they didn¡¯t understand why it was being said to them now. ¡°Being able to observe one¡¯s life from a distance is not an easily acquired sense of detachment. But what if people could live their lives multiple times?¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯m not sure what you mean...¡± ¡°Please imnt harsh ideological conflicts in the world of .¡± Writer A¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°There are pure races and demi-races in the kingdom. Please escte the conflicts between them. Make the racial and religious conflicts of our world seem trivialpared to the intense hatred and disgust spreading through the kingdom. Terror. Rebellion. Violence. Let all evils ur.¡± ¡°Uh. Uhhh...?¡± ¡°And let people dreaming of reality feel it. Ah,pared to the kingdom, the conflicts between people in this reality are truly nothing.¡± Writer A closed their mouth. Intellect and imagination that couldn¡¯t be concealed by the intoxication sparked and flickered in their eyes. ¡°Uh... B-but, to people dreaming, it¡¯s just someone else¡¯s story, isn¡¯t it? Even if we hear about a lot of racial conflict in America, we never really feel it as our story.¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s a valid point.¡± I nodded. ¡°So ¡®during the dream, they must not realize that it¡¯s a dream.¡¯¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Until the previous cycles, the kingdom simtion operated like an online MMORPG. But from now on, it will be different. It will be a solo-y RPG, and the participants willpletely ¡®forget¡¯ that they were different people in the original reality.¡± ¡°Forgetting reality and truly bing a member of your kingdom...?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± I snapped my fingers. Then, from under the table, the Tutorial Fairy peeked out. ¡°Eeek!¡± Writer A was startled, but the fairy did no harm. It merely climbed onto myp and sat like a quiet cat. ¡°This is my dream.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°From now on, we will advertise to people that using the allows them to dream of one lifetime in just one night. With the fairy¡¯s ability, ¡®time eleration¡¯ is possible within the dream. It¡¯s literally living for 70 or 90 years in the dream.¡± ¡°One lifetime every night you sleep...¡± ¡°Yes. Naturally, it sounds incredibly enticing to people. And we will tell them.¡± While you are dreaming. In other words, while living in the , you will not recognize that it¡¯s a dream¡ª ¡°But.¡± After waking up from the dream, you will be able to ¡®remember¡¯ the life you lived in the dream. ¡°...Ah.¡± ¡°Every time they dream of the kingdom, people will be demi-race terrorists, a pure-race store owner who curses such demi-races every day, a ve wielding a pickaxe in the mines until death, or a nobledy who has never even heard of the existence of maniacs.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And each time they wake from the dream, they will collect these lives they have lived one by one, bing beings capable of thinking from the perspectives of terrorists, small merchants, ves, and nobles. Surely, it will lead to a better world than now.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Essentially, everyone, not just me, will be regressors. Author, this is my dream. I want to invest my dream in your dream.¡± Writer A slightly parted their lips. ¡°My kingdom bing something like that...¡± ¡°Whoa! The memories we provide aren¡¯t that clear!¡± At that moment, the Tutorial Fairy bounced on myp and said, ¡°From a human¡¯s perspective, it will only maintain the rity of recalling a past more than ten years old! Whoa, human memory is overly unstable!¡± Writer A was silent for a long time, but their eyes said all the words their mouth would not. ¡°I will do it.,¡± they said eventually. ¡°No, please let me do it. If my work could be someone¡¯s dream, that would be the best oue as a writer.¡± However, Writer A added, ¡°...Listening to you, Undertaker, the name no longer seems fitting. A different title is needed.¡± ¡°What title are you considering?¡± ¡°,¡± Writer A said. ¡°I also want to invest my dream in your dream, Undertaker. I will dedicate my life to creating a world where everyone can be reincarnated repeatedly... A world loved and hated.¡±

There is a brief epilogue. The stories rted to the are so numerous that I will have to slowly share them with you all someday. You can already guess why Awakeners¡¯ abilities soared as they moved away from the initial cycles, and why I insisted on establishing the canned hotel in the 555th cycle to train writers. Yes, half the reason for the hotel¡¯s establishment was to improve the writers¡¯ skills, which wouldter be used in the . (The other half was purely my desire to read interesting web novels.) Separate from those stories, let us focus for another moment solely on Writer A, who was an ordinary person. ¡°I also want to live in my kingdom.¡± One day, Writer A said thus. ¡°Do you?¡± ¡°I mean, others are all living their lives in the kingdom every day, and yet I, the creator, am living in reality... It feels a bit unfair.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you sayst time, Author, that it would be risky if you, as a creator and administrator, lived in the kingdom and lost your objective perspective?¡± ¡°Ah, yes. So... Hmm.¡± Writer A hesitated. ¡°Can I pre-create my avatar just in case I die?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I mean, I want to create an NPC that resembles my personality and way of thinking. So if I die... Could you tell the fairies to add that NPC to the kingdom settings... Oh! Of course, I don¡¯t mean reincarnating as an NPC with memories of reality. I just wanted to say I¡¯d like to be a kingdom being with the same personality, but as a different entity.¡± That was a request I could fulfill anytime. ¡°I understand. But we are truly ensuring your safety, so you likely won¡¯t pass away.¡± ¡°Ahaha... Still, If I do meet you in the next cycle, please tell me how I lived and died in the kingdom.¡± In my 1,000 cycles as a regressor, there were several instances where Writer A met a tragic end. At those times, I essed the ¡®kingdom¡¯ and visited Writer A¡¯s avatar. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the NPC with a personality identical to reality was also acting as a writer in the kingdom. I had a brief chat with them, but the NPC naturally knew nothing about ¡®reality.¡¯ The NPC was born in the kingdom and grew up thinking this was the only world¡ªa typical resident of the kingdom. Then, by chance, I obtained a paper book published by the NPC in the kingdom and read it. The novel contained this passage:

...That world had no such thing as magic like ours. Ships made of steel sailed the sea, mysterious gears turned endlessly, people¡¯s lives were taken by metal fragments shot from rods, and the spires of cities were always shrouded in a smoky haze. There were no races there. Considering we¡¯ve repeated massacres and reprisals for thousands of years based on the number of legs, horns, or snakeskin someone has, that was the true magic of that world. I want to share with you the story of having visited such a magical world...

I chuckled. ¡®Indeed. Perhaps my reality is also someone¡¯s simtion.¡¯ Of course, that possibility was extremely low. To set up someone like me to live the same life 1,000 times in a row, how incredible a world must the creator have wanted to bring to life? After reading the NPC¡¯s paper book at the bookstore, I looked at the genre ssification of the bookshelf where it was ced. The paper book was categorized like this:

Footnotes: [1] Makgeolli is a milky, off-white, and lightly sparkling Korean rice wine. Join our discord at Chapter 198 Chapter 198

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Wicked One ¢ñ I¡¯ve been going on about writers for quite a while now, but to be honest, all of that was just a prologue. If the word "prologue" doesn''t sit well with you, perhaps calling it something like dicing vegetables before diving into the main dish would fit better. Since I¡¯ve shown you an example of a ¡®great writer,¡¯ the contrasting example I¡¯m about to present will stand out all the more. It happened around the 600th cycle. Maybe the 700th. It didn¡¯t matter which cycle you picked, actually. In every cycle, the SG Net novel serialization board was filled with notices like these: [LiteraryGirl] This is Oh Dok-seo¡ (5 minutes ago)[LiteraryGirl] Dy notice (1 day ago) [LiteraryGirl] Notice on tardiness (3 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Hiatus announcement (4 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Change in serialization time (8 days ago) And so on. [LiteraryGirl] Serialization frequency irregr due to the author''s health (1 year ago) [LiteraryGirl] The author''s statement on recent serialization (1 year ago) [LiteraryGirl] Today¡¯s hiatus (1 year ago) [LiteraryGirl] Transitioning to 3.25 chapters per week for the time being (2 years ago) A total of 1,019 notices. It was like the inbox of a primitive person who had never learned the concept of organizing emails, all marked as ¡®read.¡¯ Out of curiosity, I clicked on the message that had arrived in my inbox just five minutes ago. [LiteraryGirl] This is Oh Dok-seo¡ Sir, I¡¯m sorry, but I feel I should inform you that I won¡¯t be able to publish today¡¯s chapter on time. I don¡¯t expect you to forgive me, but I hope you still trust that I¡¯m always doing my best, and that¡¯s why I¡¯m writing this. Here¡¯s my excuse. There¡¯s not enough timetely. ¡°Hmmm¡¡± I propped my chin on my hand. Not because I found it particrly puzzling or surprising, but because I was impressed by how Oh Dok-seo mirrored the rhythm in thest line. ¡®Not bad,¡¯ I thought. Indeed. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s dy notices were practically an art form. Imagine if one side werete to a summit meeting between world leaders. Of course, it would be a serious ¡®mistake¡¯ and a ¡®breach of protocol.¡¯ But if theteness happens a hundred times? It would beuded as ¡®Putin¡¯s political strategy.¡¯ That¡¯s how the world works. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s tardiness had reached that level of chronicity. It wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to call her a master of hiatuses. If the Constetions truly existed in this world, Oh Dok-seo would undoubtedly have earned the [Achievement Unlocked: Author Who Posted 1,000 Hiatus Notices] title by now. I¡¯m not sure what effect such an achievement would have. Probably something as insignificant as a bug. Unfortunately, Constetions didn¡¯t truly exist in this world, and since Oh Dok-seo belonged to the Regressor Alliance, deceiving her with fake Constetions wasn¡¯t an option. Thus, I flexed my fingers and sent her a realistic reply. [ZERO_SUGAR] Dok-seo. I read your message. Don¡¯t worry too much. Writing never goes exactly the way you want it to. As someone who¡¯s seen many authors, I understand that well. Why not take this cycle off entirely? The you in the next cycle will do better. Wait. To prevent any misunderstandings, let me rify something. I am not Noh Do-hwa, the Vulgar Craftsman. In other words, I wasn¡¯t born with a tongue that rotates 360 degrees, spewing twisted sarcasm with every word. If I say something in a conversation, take it at face value. There¡¯s no need to embark on a linguistic excavation to find hidden meanings. But writers, by nature, are the kind of people who read between the lines, between paragraphs, even when there¡¯s nothing to read. They have this upational disease that makes them proudly dere, ¡°This is the hidden meaning of the work!¡± And rather unfortunately, Oh Dok-seo was a writer. ¡°Sir! How could you say something so cruel to me?¡± Bang! Oh Dok-seo burst through the door of the caf¨¦ hideout. She swung her arms and legs at me wildly, like Nobita¡¯s windmill technique from Doraemon, which she had apparently mastered. ¡°Huh? You¡¯re saying this cycle is a bust! A bust! You¡¯re saying this cycle¡¯s me is hopeless! I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re a regressor with no blood, tears, or hair follicles! How could you say that?¡± ¡°Dok-seo, my hair follicles are just fine. They just got a bit shorter while searching for a Walther PPK.¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying I¡¯m not even a writer anymore? That this cycle¡¯s me isn¡¯t worth your expectations, so you¡¯re going to give up on me? Huh?¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I meant at all¡ª¡± ¡°I want to write. So. Badly!¡± Oh Dok-seo grabbed my cor and shouted, her head hanging low. For some reason, that peculiar barrier of youthful drama surrounded her. Even Jeong Daeman from m Dunk would have acknowledged the sheer desperation in this scene. ¡°If only my hands were a little faster! You¡¯ve already gone past the 800th cycle! I swore I¡¯d write your story for you¨Dme in the previous cycle, me in the cycle before that. Why? Why can¡¯t I write better than this¨D?!¡± Pause. Let me exin the method behind our Prophet''s creative process¡ªin other words, how my biographical novel is made. 1. First, I tell her a story. Since both Dok-seo and I live in the Inunaki Tunnel, I can tell her stories whenever we¡¯re bored. 2. Based on my story, Oh Dok-seo writes. Let¡¯s call this draft the ¡®first version.¡¯ 3. Then, I hand the ¡®first version¡¯ over to the Oh Dok-seo of the next cycle. Thanks to my Complete Memory Ability, I can upload every letter of it. 4. Oh Dok-seo continues writing from where the ¡®first version¡¯ of the previous cycle left off. 5. Since writing alone is hard, she changes the names of the characters and proper nouns slightly, pretending it¡¯s a ¡®fictional story,¡¯ and serializes it on the SG Net novel board. By the way, the title of the serialized novel changes with each cycle, but in the 888th cycle, it was . In short, it¡¯s a ry novel. And in every cycle without fail, after reading the ¡®first version¡¯ of the previous cycle, Dok-seo always leaves the samement. ¡®Why was I only able to write this much?¡¯ And she was ignored every time. ¡®Wow, don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry. The previous cycles¡¯ Oh Dok-seos were trash who couldn¡¯t write, but I¡¯m different this time around.¡¯ Scorned. ¡®Let¡¯s get to work then¡ Writing might be aborious task to those without talent, but to someone who has it, it¡¯s just a simple hobby like chewing Denver bubble gum.¡¯ Confidence. That¡¯s one set. And before long, my inbox would be overflowing with messages like ¡®This is Oh Dok-seo¡¡¯ One might call it the rare case of bubble gum ripping out human teeth. Logic had it, then, that this chronic serialization disease was almost certainly the curse that the ¡®Admin of the Infinite Metagame¡¯ cast in the end. Honestly, it¡¯s the only exnation that makes sense. Only 200 chapters or so had umted across hundreds of cycles. If that¡¯s not an anomaly, then what is? ¡°Dok-seo, I¡¯m fine, really,¡± I said as I took off my barista apron. It had be soaked with the Prophet¡¯s snot and tears. ¡°No writer in this world wants to take a break from serializing. Every writer would love to charge forward with their story, pulling off six or ten chapters a day. But when they can¡¯t do that, they shrink back, and if they keep shrinking, their heart shrivels up too.¡± ¡°¡¡¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be too hard on yourself. I really am okay¡ª¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter whether you¡¯re okay or not! That¡¯s a secondary issue!¡± What? ¡°I¡¯m! Not! Okay!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± What was I supposed to do with that? Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn¡¯t seem like Oh Dok-seo had sought me out for answers. She chewed her nails (I¡¯ve told her to stop countless times, but she never listens) and muttered to herself, ¡°This won¡¯t do. It can¡¯t end like this¡ I have to find a way¡ No matter what¡ By any means necessary¡ I have to speed up my writing¡¡± And looking like Light Yagami after being cornered by L, she stomped out of the room. Everything went quiet, like calm after a storm. Let me remind you, this was in the 1,300-meter deep section of the caf¨¦ hideout. There weren¡¯t many of them, but we definitely had a few customers present, and among them was Ha-yul. As a witness to the youthful drama, Lee Ha-yul said the obvious line. ¡°Oppa, aren¡¯t you going to follow her?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. She might wander a bit, but she¡¯ll pull herself together soon enough. Instead of chasing after her and worrying over every little thing, I¡¯d rather believe in her and wait.¡± ¡°You¡¯re just toozy, right?¡± This is why I don¡¯t like sharp kids.

So, it had been the usual routine for Oh Dok-seo to write a few chapters, then toss the first version over with a message saying, ¡°Sorry! Next cycle¡¯s me, do something with this¡!¡± But surprisingly, in the 888th cycle, a new route emerged, one even I hadn¡¯t anticipated. [LiteraryGirl] will now be serialized daily at 16:00. It was nothing short of a miracle. To help you understand the gravity of this miracle, let me exin further: Oh Dok-seo originally serialized three days a week. But now, her rate had increased to daily serialization. Have you ever seen such a thing? You haven¡¯t. And you probably never will. Once an author¡¯s serialization frequency decreases, it¡¯s like the bnce of a bad credit holder¡¯s ount¡ªit never increases again. Yet Oh Dok-seo did it. [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 273 (1 day ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 272 (2 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 271 (3 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 270 (4 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 269 (5 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 268 (6 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 267 (7 days ago) Not even a minutete¡ªperfectly on time. And there was something even more chilling. [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 276 (5 minutes ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 275 (5 minutes ago) [LiteraryGirl] Regressor¡¯s Epilogue Chapter 274 (5 minutes ago) At least once a week, she¡¯d drop three chapters in a row! Sometimes, she¡¯d even go as far as releasing ten chapters at once. Naturally, the SG Net novel board was buzzing. Readers, who used to eagerly await the dy notices so they could mock them, were now busymenting. - Anonymous: Hey, what¡¯s going ontely? Why isn¡¯t LiteraryGirlte anymore?? - Anonymous: She even does batch releases now; she¡¯s gone mad;; - Anonymous: She awakened lmao - Anonymous: Oh Dok-seo<< tbh if you also think they¡¯re outshining OldManGoryeo, big thumbs up lolol ©¸OldManGoryeo: Big thumbs up lololol ©¸Anonymous: ? The readers of SG Net entered an unexpected LiteraryGirl worship week. But not everyone joined the worship. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: Guys, guys; don¡¯t you think LiteraryGirl¡¯s writing has gotten a little weirdtely? >_<);; Every now and then, you¡¯d seements like this. -[Baekhwa] SixthGrader: If her writing used to be punchy and edgy >_<);;tely, it feels like LiteraryGirl¡¯s writing has lost its unique vor¡ it¡¯s like it¡¯s be t as Earth >_<)!! ©¸Anonymous: t-earther caught ©¸OldManGoryeo: Typical Joseon Hell Guild standard lolol[1] ©¸Anonymous: You too? I¡¯ve gotten that same feeling, like LiteraryGirl¡¯s writing has gotten really shallowtely. ©¸Anonymous: For real, it was so good when the chapters released whenever, but now I¡¯m thinking of dropping it. ©¸Anonymous: The writing¡¯s kinda weird??;; I tilted my head in confusion. ¡®But Dok-seo¡¯s writing isn¡¯t bad?¡¯ Lately, I had been holding off on reading Dok-seo¡¯s novel. I didn¡¯t want to stress her out by making it obvious that I was keeping up with it. ¡®Did she sacrifice the quality of the writing in exchange for a regr serialization schedule?¡¯ If so, unlike the readers on SG Net, I actually thought it was a good thing. Oh Dok-seo was a little too obsessed with the quality of her writing. It would be better for her mental health to let go a bit and focus on the daily task of writing, instead of fixating on perfection. ¡®She¡¯s probably stressing over the negativements again, so I should bring her some coffee to show my support.¡¯ And so it was that, in addition to being a caf¨¦ barista, I volunteered as a delivery person. I carried a coffee tray on one hand, loaded with an espresso for Oh Dok-seo¡¯s tired brain and a caf¨¦ mocha for her youthful taste buds, as I walked toward her room. Just then, I noticed that she had left her door slightly ajar and was typing away on herptop. ¡®She¡¯s working so hard on her serialization!¡¯ Moved by a sense of admiration, I was about to knock on her door, but then I froze. Through the crack in the door. My vision, enhanced by my aura, caught sight of Oh Dok-seo¡¯sptop screen at just the right angle. >> Please enter a prompt¡ ¡ù GPT-MSYH can make mistakes. Double check important info. A question mark popped up in my mind. Before my brain could answer that question, Oh Dok-seo¡¯s fingers danced across theptop keyboard in a rapid-fire tatatatak. With the grace of a pianist, her fingers typed the following words into the blinking prompt on the screen: >> Protagonist: The Undertaker, Regressor, 300th Cycle, Starts at Busan Station, Strange Story Oh Dok-seo clicked enter. Momentster, theptop screen began to spew out sentences. The Undertaker was in his 300th regression. Busan Station was always strange to his protagonist eyes. No matter how many times he returned to this same Busan Station, one thing was always the same. Strange things always happened at Busan Station, and the protagonist, The Undertaker, had to fix them. This was how it always was. The Undertaker let out his 300th strange sigh as he donned the ck suit he bought at Busan Station. The 300th strange story of the regressor, The Undertaker, at Busan Station was about to begin. ¡°Phew.¡± Oh Dok-seo wiped her forehead. ¡°Worked hard today! Serialization done!¡± ¡°¡¡¡± Uh. Dok-seo¡?

Footnotes: [1] Derived from "Hell Joseon" (???), a ng term used by some South Koreans to criticize their own country, implying that living in South Korea is like living in hell due to various social, economic, or political pressures. Joseon refers to the Joseon Dynasty, a historical period in Korea, often used in a modern context to refer to Korea in general. Join our discord at Chapter 199 Chapter 199

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Wicked One II I''ll give you a heads-up. Oh Dok-seo may have an extraordinary knack for idiocy, but she wasn''t aplete fool. Despite her appearance, she could handle herself alone in most voids and carry her own weight. In other words, while she might leave her door "slightly" ajar while writing her novel, she wasn''t so brainless as to fully expose her actions. And yet, here the door was, open. In the end, I ended up witnessing the crime scene. So then. "Dok-seo, what on earth are you doing right now?" The person who left the door open was none other than Sim Ah-ryeon. Not only did she unt her idiocy, but she also held the top spot as "SG-Net¡¯s Idiot of the Year" for six consecutive years.In this round, the 888th, she wasn''t cosying as the Saintess of the North. She was just living as Dok-seo''s roommate. Sim Ah-ryeon urgently grabbed Dok-seo''s shoulders. "Could it be that you''re using AI generation again? You said you wouldn''t use it anymore..." "Ah! Stop overreacting, unnie!" Dok-seo gave a jerk of her shoulder, brushing off Ah-ryeon''s hand. An unsettling, ominous me flickered in her eyes. "I just wanted to use it one more time. Just once more!" "No, you can''t...! You promised it would be thest time! But here you are again, right before the serialization deadline, giving in to that AI temptation!" "Oho! How dare you call it AI temptation!" Dok-seo shouted with the power of the Lion''s Roar, as if addressing a lowly peasant. "This is nothing more than a new method of writing for the new era! I, the great Literary Girl, am merely keeping up with the trends, mastering them tirelessly, and applying cutting-edge technology as an auxiliary tool for writing!" "That doesn''t make it right. If you keep depending on such... dark arts, not even the meager strengths you originally had will remain." "Argh! I said, let go!" With a forceful shove, Dok-seo knocked Ah-ryeon to the ground. "Kyaaah!" she screamed as she fell with the grace of a tragic heroine. "Writing produced through such AI temptation isn''t your work anymore, Dok-seo..." "How dare you say that! Are you serious? I, the Literary Girl, generated the prompts and typed them myself! Of course, it''s my writing!" "Do you really believe that?" "Of course! It''s no different from a painter wielding a brush, using colors that already exist, or a photographer using a ready-made camera to take pictures. It''s all the same artistic act, an act of creation! Your narrow-mindedness is what''s stopping you from embracing the new era''s trends! That''s why it takes you 10 or 20 hours just to finish one illustration!" "That''s nonsense... Dok-seo, cameras and AI generation arepletely different." "In what way?" "Try reading this garbage sentence out loud." Sim Ah-ryeon held up theptop. Then, she unleashed one of the most wicked and vicious methods for killing a writer¡ªan impromptu reading session. "Look at this: ''The Undertaker let out a strange sigh for the 300th time and took out the ck suit he bought at Busan Station... The 300th strange Busan Station story of the regressor protagonist, the Undertaker, was about to begin...'' Do you really think this is your writing? Were you always this terrible...?" "Gah!" Dok-seo spat blood. Not physical blood, but the blood of her soul. Sim Ah-ryeon had the nose of a shark, capable of sniffing out the scent of others'' spilt blood with uncanny precision. Despite her cute appearance, she was a predator in the food chain. "Your novels were always frustratingly long-winded, making it hard to tell if they were literary works or some kind of endurance test... But they were still better than this trash! No wonder you''re always getting crushed by me in the SG-Net Novel Serialization Board rankings, like a worthless hack..." "Hey!" Dok-seo snapped. "Your novel ranks high only because of the illustrations! You keep stering them all over the author''s notes, that''s why your ranking is so high!" "Oh... So you think readers are sticking around for the illustrations? That''s a pathetic excuse... But I know something even more pathetic than making excuses... It''s the fact that you keep generating those AI-written sentences... They''re pure garbage..." "It''s just that I haven''t finished revising yet!" Dok-seo snatched theptop back from Ah-ryeon and started typing away with the dexterity of an AI pianist, entering new prompts. Massage the sentences in the style of Chuck Phniuk, add a dash of Stephen King, and a pinch of Lee Yeongdo. Soon, the screen disyed new sentences. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D I sighed again. Three hundred times now. Each breath mingles with the stifling air of Busan Station, morphing into something almost tangible before it dissipates into nothingness. Maybe it will wedge itself into the cracks of this city''s concrete, festering into something vile. I pulled out the ck suit, the one from the underground mall here at Busan Station. Never been cleaned in three hundred lives, but it¡¯s fused with me now¡ªmy skin, my shadow, my constant, unrelenting prison. The show is set to start. Curtain rises on performance number 300. The stage is this monstrous station, and I am both actor and spectator, sometimes even the sacrificialmb in this endless, twisted y. A whisper slithers into my ear. The voice of Busan Station, like a cold draft: ¡°Ready, Undertaker?¡± I grinned. Ready? Hell yes. My heart hammers in my chest, bracing for the next nightmarish chapter in this relentless, haunting saga. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Dok-seo pointed at the screen. "See? Isn''t this way better than those mass-produced sentences from earlier? I''m sure the readers won''t have anyints!" "Dok-seo..." "This is the power of my prompt engineering! My own uniqueness! The originality of AI art!" "You''re really doing something crazy, Dok-seo..." Sim Ah-ryeon pouted and sniffled. "This is exactly why AI generation is different from a camera... You know that, right? AI uses learning data, which is the creative work that others have poured their sweat and blood into... How can that possibly be your own writing, Dok-seo?" "It''s fine! Chuck Phniuk and Stephen King are public figures! Their work is public property!" "Oh my god..." "And besides, you know that canned hotel where all the writers of the Korean Penins stay? Who owns that? It''s the Undertaker, isn''t it? I''m writing for him! All the writers on the Korean Penins owe him! So... No one can criticize my noble cause! If they don''t like it, they should write their own regressor memoirs!" Seriously? "Hahaha! That''s right! I can look up to the sky without a shred of shame! I''ll prove that this cutting-edge future technology, which is bound to be persecuted, is the way forward! I am a Prompt Artist!" My heart and Sim Ah-ryeon''s heartbeat resonated. To be able to force such a guilty rhythm upon my heart¡ªshe was truly no ordinary being. "Dok-seo... How did you end up like this...? Even the guild leader won''t be able to forgive such a heinous act..." And thus, the genre takes a sharp drift. As Dok-seo ascended the throne of the corrupt AI and Sim Ah-ryeon med herself for failing to stop her, the story shifted from a Blizzard-style RPG cinematic movie to¡ª A horror movie. Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s head snapped up to look straight into my eyes. "Right, Guild Leader?" "......" To be honest, I wanted to abandon my coffee and everything else and moonwalk out of there like Michael Jackson. However, the scene before me had some drug-like quality to it. It was impossible to look away. There was undoubtedly some addictive substance in Sim Ah-ryeon''s voice and tone that humanity has yet to identify. I sincerely hope that my readers also take note of this bizarre fact. "Huh? Wait, why is there a... a man here?" Most likely, Sim Ah-ryeon had been secretly leaving the door open every time Dok-seo started writing (or "prompting") for the past few days. Why? Because she expected me, the Undertaker, to visit at some point. As a result, Sim Ah-ryeon''s strategy was a great sess. Dok-seo¡¯s chair creaked as she turned her gaze toward me. "How long have you been... standing there?" I subtly averted my gaze. "Well. Does that question really need an answer, Dok-seo?" "It does. To be precise, there''s nothing more important in the world right now than that answer." Is that so? If it''s that important... "I''ve been here from the beginning." "The beginning? What do you mean by beginning? The very beginning? Or maybe a bitter beginning? Huh? Specifically, what kind of beginning are you talking about?" "Well... Specifically, since the moment you typed ''Protagonist: Undertaker, Regressor'' as a prompt..." "Aaaaah!" A scream erupted. "Aaaaah! Ugh! Aaaaaah!" Another scream erupted. "Gaaaaaah!" And yet another scream erupted. Then, Dok-seo evolved from a bipedal creature into a multi-legged one. For the record, the most famous multi-legged creatures are centipedes and millipedes. Both share the trait of crawling on the ground. "Why?!" Dok-seo squirmed on the floor, showing signs of respiratory distress. "Why?! Why did you just stand there and watch?!" The desperate wail echoed as if it came from the deepest, most secretive abyss of Inunaki Tunnel. A faint sound, like air leaking from a balloon, could also be heard. It was a sound so faint that only my unusually sharp ears could have picked it up. The source was Sim Ah-ryeon''s lips. She was chuckling quietly, her shoulders shaking. So these are the ones who are supposed to be the hope of the Korean Penins and, by extension, the world. No wonder the world is doomed... "Well. Dok-seo. Honestly, I''m not sure what to say to you." "Don''t say anything! Just don''t say anything at all...!" "But I still remember it clearly. The moment when you delivered that epic line: ¡®I''ll write your story, Mr. Undertaker.¡¯ With my Complete Memory, it''s as vivid as if I heard it just six seconds ago..." "Nooooo!" Thud! Dok-seo rolled across the floor and crashed into the table leg. Theptop fell andnded on her shoulder. "This... This isn''t me! This is... I didn''t... I didn''t want to do this... Wait! Anomaly! Yes, Mr. Undertaker! Thisptop is actually a relic of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame! That Admin deceived me! At some point, it turned into a program like ChatGPT and appeared... So that''s why!" "Dok-seo." With a sudden motion, Sim Ah-ryeon hugged Dok-seo. She gently patted Dok-seo''s back with her fingertips. Softly, tenderly, like a Saintess. Dok-seo couldn''t see it, but I could observe Sim Ah-ryeon''s face very well. She was grinning wickedly. "It''s okay. Dok-seo... You''ve certainly done something trashy, and now the guild leader, with his Complete Memory, will forever, for hundreds or even thousands of years, cherish this dark history of yours as a permanent ck mark. Even if the world ends, your dark history will just be passed on to the next one... But people can repent for their trashy deeds. Yes, even if the stain on your life is indelible and will never be erased..." "I''m going to kill you...!" Today was clearly the day Sim Ah-ryeon would gain a lot of experience points. I pulled the viin OldManGoryeo off Dok-seo and gently patted Dok-seo''s shoulder. "It''s okay, Dok-seo. I think I may have unintentionally ced too much pressure on you to write." "Mr. Undertaker..." "Take a break." I smiled gently. "Take a hiatus until you feelpletelyfortable writing again." "Can I really do that...?" "Of course. I''ll always be here, waiting for you, Dok-seo." "Mr. Undertaker...!" That day, a notice was posted on the SG-Net Novel Serialization Board. [Author Literary Girl Oh Dok-seo... is taking a break for some time to recharge... (5 minutes ago)] The reaction of SG-Net readers was, well, not too bad. Given how strange Literary Girl''s writing had be recently, there was considerable hope that she would return in good form after a recharge. And then... Time passed. [Author Literary Girl Oh Dok-seo... is taking a break for some time to recharge... (7 years ago)] Click. I opened thements on the notice. Thousands ofments scrolled down. -Anonymous: Is there any other writer in the world who says they''re taking a break and actually ends up resting for 7 years??? -[Baekhwa] TwelfthGrader: Visiting the holy site again this year >_<)!! -Anonymous: What kind of writer takes 7 years to recharge? Is 7 years "a short break"??? -Anonymous: I''m dropping this. Writer, you should just get off too^^ -OldManGoryeo: I heard she went missing in the void... Pleasee back, writer ?? ©¸Anonymous: I saw her on the Free Board? -Anonymous: Looks like Literary Girl woke upte again today. What a surprise. -Anonymous: I started reading this series when I was in middle school. Will I see the ending before I die? -[National Road] Officer: Honestly, shouldn''t you refund us based onmon human decency? -Anonymous: Literary Girl you piece of shit!!! "......" Ah. Dok-seo...

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 200 Chapter 200

Chapter 200 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Wicked One III Have you ever heard of "Dok-seo''s Paradox"? Of course, you haven¡¯t. That''s because I made it up. As mentioned in this story, Oh Dok-seo of the 888th round had fallen into an unprecedented slump. Relying on AI just because she couldn¡¯t write¡ªthere¡¯s probably no more shameful existence in the history of literature than "Author Oh Dok-seo," akin to trying to pull non-vulgar words from Seo Gyu''s mouth. But what about "Awakener Oh Dok-seo"? "Mister.""Hm?" "I''m going to Seoul for a bit." After seven years of hiatus, the readers of SG Net were so devastated that they designated Oh Dok-seo as a public enemy of the martial arts world. Whenever Literary Girl popped up in SG Net¡¯s freeboard, readers would swarm and hurl insults, solidifying their camaraderie. In response, Oh Dok-seo disyed the clich¨¦ of a protagonist targeted as a public enemy in martial arts. She had truly "awakened." "Why Seoul all of a sudden?" "Well. I just feel like raiding the Tower of Sauron." "...Isn¡¯t that ce a bit challenging?" "That¡¯s what makes it fun." Oh Dok-seo. Hobbies: Void hunting. With a carefree tone, as if she were just going for a walk, Oh Dok-seo cheerfully left the Inunaki Tunnel and really did return after destroying a Great Void all by herself. "Tsk. There were rumors that there was a One Piece treasure at the Tower of Sauron, but it was all bullshit." "......" "Kyaaa! After taking down a void, nothing beats gulping down a cup of espresso from you, Mister. This is what life is about." "Dok-seo." "Hm?" "That coffee cup is expensive, so please don¡¯t recklessly channel your Aura through it. If it breaks, it¡¯ll be impossible to find another one like it." "Oh! Sorry, Mister. I¡¯ve been running my shield 24/7tely. I¡¯m still not as skilled as you, so I¡¯m a bit clumsy!" "No... you¡¯re doing really well. Now, I¡¯m not even sure if Yo-hwa could guarantee a win against you." "Come on! I¡¯m not that good yet! Hehe." Bzzz! Oh Dok-seo¡¯s full-body smile radiated with a blood-red aura, shimmering intensely before my very eyes. It was the very essence of Conqueror''s Haki.[1] I felt I¡¯d just joined a gym with a friend so we could stay in shape, then that friend went and dered they¡¯d be entering the Mr. Olympia bodybuildingpetition. Some guild members discreetly backed away from the overwhelming aura. "...I¡¯ll be going now, G-Guild Leader..." "...Bye, oppa." Sim Ah-ryeon, who used to mock Oh Dok-seo at every opportunity a few years prior, now couldn¡¯t even meet Dok-seo¡¯s eyes. Her survival instincts kicked in, warning her that one wrong move might get her killed. Lee Ha-yul was no different. Both trembled like small, frightened creatures. In contrast, Oh Dok-seo nced at the two retreating figures and smirked with a disparaging hmph. Despite the tant mockery, Sim Ah-ryeon and Lee Ha-yul were sent fleeing in an even more pathetic disy, unable to even attempt resistance. I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "How did things end up like this?" It wasn¡¯t always this way. ¡°Mister, I¡¯m going to the Void.¡± ¡°The Void? All of a sudden?¡± ¡°Yeah. I think what Ick as a writer right now is a wealth of experience.¡± Oh Dok-seo had said it solemnly seven years ago. ¡°Life and death. Reason and anomaly. Only by entering a battlefield where sunlight and darkness sh violently will I, Literary Girl, finally be able to strike the typewriter¡¡± Like many writers, she was under the delusion that high-density experiences would proportionally result in an epic output. She roamed the Voids like a madwoman. While a normal person wouldn¡¯t enter a Great Void even for a billion dors, Dok-seo wanted to go in herself. ¡°If only I could escape this shitty slump! I¡¯d even sell my soul!¡± It was an act of reckless abandon that would normally require ten lives to survive, but Dok-seo had me by her side. From the start, Dok-seo had heard my "tales" more frequently and earlier than anyone else. The only person who could be called my direct disciple, especially as a specialist in anomalies, was Oh Dok-seo. Whenever she was in real danger, I¡¯de to the rescue upon hearing from the Saintess. Thus it was. ¡°Mister¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°I¡¯m no longer afraid of anomalies.¡± For some reason, unlike in other rounds, Oh Dok-seo¡¯s real-lifebat muscles became more defined, and the hue of her aura grew more terrifying. She dered this expressionlessly: ¡°Nowadays, when I see those damn anomalies, all I can think is, who the fuck do these assholes think they are, daring to challenge humans?¡± ¡°......¡± Dok-seo''s Paradox. When "Author Oh Dok-seo" focused on writing my tales into a novel, it meant she had less time to train herself, weakening "Awakener Oh Dok-seo." When "Author Oh Dok-seo" fell into a slump and couldn¡¯t continue the novel and instead went wandering, it meant "Awakener Oh Dok-seo" became stronger. And as we¡¯ve seen, Oh Dok-seo in the 888th round had fallen into an epic, prolonged slump. In other words? ¡°Argh. Sitting at home is making me restless. I¡¯m itching for some action. I can¡¯t take it anymore, Mister! I¡¯m going to find a nearby anomaly, beat it up, and be right back!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I took down an alien anomaly one-on-onest time, so this time I should try handling two at once!¡± The longer the hiatus dragged on. As the years stretched from four to five, then six to seven. Oh Dok-seo¡¯s aura began to burn like wildfire. Even Seo Gyu, who had anger management issues andshed out at anyone and everyone, started avoiding her. Hah... Then, at some point, the overwhelming aura that overflowed from Oh Dok-seo¡¯s entire bodypletely vanished. The aura wasn¡¯t gone. It had simply been perfectly "contained." She opened her eyes quietly. ¡°Mister. No, Master.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I think I finally understand what aura is. The realm that you¡¯ve been looking at... this must be it.¡± Yes. In the 888th round, Oh Dok-seo had fallen from grace, bing an FFF-ss writer¡ª But at the same time, by sacrificing the resentment, grievances, and curses of her readers, she had evolved into an SSS-ss Awakener...!

One day, a notice was posted on the peaceful Novel Serialization Board of SG Net. [Literary Girl] It''s me. (5 minutes ago) [Literary Girl] Author Literary Girl Oh Dok-seo... is taking a break for some time to recharge... (7 years ago) The readers were shocked. The writer¡ªor rather, that bastard of a writer who had been shamelessly inactive for seven years¡ªhad suddenly posted a new notice, writing a load of crap on the freeboard. ¡®Could it be a re-serialization?¡¯ ¡®Is it a rule of the universe that a writer must return after seven years?¡¯ Thump. The readers eagerly clicked on the notice. Although they had cursed the writer to death until now, they still couldn¡¯t forget the unique taste of this series, and they had read it three, even four times over. They didn¡¯t think too much about why the writer, who had always started with "This is Oh Dok-seo..." suddenly changed the tone to "It''s me." It wasn¡¯t the time to ponder such details. Soon, the readers who carefully read the notice began to doubt their eyesight. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D [Literary Girl] It''s me. I apologize for going silent and suspending the serialization for 7 years. I¡¯m a lousy writer. But I want to rest more. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ? Question marks popped up in the readers¡¯ minds. Regardless, the notice continued. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D I don¡¯t want to drag this out with a long-winded excuse. I want to rest, and some of you probably want to beat me up and make me continue the serialization. What do you need to get what you want? Fancy words? Glorious connections? borate schemes? All of that is wrong. The answer is "fists." ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ?? ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Starting next Monday, for 4 weeks, 28 days, I¡¯ll be at Busan Babel Tower za from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Let¡¯s fight one-on-one. For 28 days, I¡¯ll ept only one challenger per day, on a firste, first-served basis. If even one reader manages to defeat me, I¡¯ll start serializing the next chapter of The Regressor¡¯s Epilogue the very next day without any excuses. This isn¡¯t about posting one chapter and then stopping. I don¡¯t y games like that. I¡¯lle back and serialize on a consistent schedule. If no one defeats me, I¡¯ll officially dere The Regressor¡¯s Epilogue permanently "dropped" after this long hiatus. It¡¯s a life-or-death match. Your desire for the serialization to continue. My desire for it to stop. Let¡¯s see whose will is stronger, using only our fists. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D ??? Even after reading the entire notice, the question marks in the readers¡¯ minds didn¡¯t disappear. But, a lot of text started to appear in front of those question marks. ¡®What the hell is this crazy bitch talking about?¡¯ The readers were bewildered by the notice, which carried the unmistakable scent of iron, of barbells and dumbbells. Literary Girl¡¯s name,posed of "Literature" and "Girl," had nothing to do with steel, after all. It¡¯s a name favored by those with slender frames, isn¡¯t it? SG Net quickly erupted into chaos. -Anonymous: Was the ount hacked? The first theory that emerged was the "hacked ount theory." However, unlike the weak and fragile pre-apocalypse inte environment, hacking and other petty tricks didn¡¯t work in this post-apocalyptic world. SG Net ounts were tightly linked to the user¡¯s soul. The theory was quickly dismissed. -Anonymous: This bitch is smart lol. Feels guilty for ghosting for 7 years, so they¡¯re setting up an excuse to return lolol ©¸[Baekhwa] TwelfthGrader: Ah, I get it! Totally understandable >_<)!! -Anonymous: Yeah, our author feels guilty for making us wait for 7 years, so they¡¯re nning to get punched a few times beforeing back hahaha ©¸Anonymous: Yeah, if we waited 7 years, they should at least get punched hahaha ©¸Anonymous: A head-broken reader vs. a head-breaking author... This is epic... -Anonymous: Literary Girl is kinda smart. Next, the "excuse theory" gained traction. The notice was seen as a publicity stunt, an event designed to reignite interest in The Regressor¡¯s Epilogue after it had waned over the seven-year break. The exnation was so reasonable that the excuse theory quickly became the mainstream interpretation. Existing readers treated it as a "fan meeting," while new readers saw it as "a fun promotional event by an intriguing author." -Anonymous: Anyone going to Busan from Incheon? Let¡¯s carpool?? -Anonymous: The chance to see the author in person has me excited. -Anonymous: Attention, TRE fans! Rmended budget amodations in Busan! ¡îIncludes a list of great eateries¡î For the first time in a while, Literary Girl¡¯s readers stopped firing off curses like machine guns and started chatting cheerfully. These were the pitiful citizens who still believed that human affairs somehow followed sound logic, even after they¡¯d had their own taste of anomalies. Of course, there were a few dissenting voices. -[National Road] Officer: Everyone, a public gathering is all well and good, but the author has stated that they¡¯ll only ept one challenger per day. That means the reader side can only send up to 28 champions. Shouldn¡¯t we discuss how to select these 28 champions and their methods? ©¸Anonymous Lol, what is this? ©¸Anonymous Why are you being so serious, lol? But when had rational minority opinions ever been adopted on thisnd? Even though the mood had finally lifted into one of celebration, the dissenting voices were only met with scorn and ignorance. The fans of The Regressor¡¯s Epilogue gathered with high hopes at Busan Babel Tower za. Monday. 6 a.m. Oh Dok-seo showed up at the za as promised. "Author!" Fans who had been camping out in the za sincest night rushed over to Oh Dok-seo. It might seem ridiculous to be so rowdy at 6 a.m., but in the post-apocalypse era where modern civilization had been erased, the concept of time was quite different. The faces of the people, forced into following a healthy lifestyle, were bright and fresh. "Wow, you¡¯re really Literary Girl!" "I¡¯m a fan! Author!" "Please shake my hand!" Oh Dok-seo looked around silently with a tilted head. Standing with her weight perfectly bnced on two feet, her arms crossed, and wearing a cap that had long since grown old and worn out, she scanned the twenty or so fans. "Who¡¯s the representative?" "Huh?" "The reader representative who¡¯ll be facing me,¡± she rified. ¡°As promised, I¡¯ll fight to the death with one of you today." "Ah..." "Me! Me, me, me! Author! Me!" A fan, who prided themselves on being quick-witted, eagerly raised their hand. The others sighed. I could¡¯ve raised my hand first! they thought with genuine regret. But why is our author speaking like this? Isn¡¯t it a bit... stupid? No, our author¡¯s foolish charm was always part of her appeal. "Hmm." Regardless of what others thought, Dok-seo scanned her opponent up and down. And then she started chewing gum. "I¡¯ll give you nine seconds." "Huh? What?" "I¡¯m giving you nine seconds. I¡¯ll let you attack me nine times first." "Oh. Ohhh, you mean... that¡¯s from martial arts, right? Haha! Okay, got it!" The naive fanughed, thinking, Our author is so generous to give me nine free punches! I better hit lightly. If I go too hard on her, she might get upset! "Attack with the intent to kill," came themand. "Haha! Sure! Yeaaah!" The fan roared, but his hand lightly pped Oh Dok-seo¡¯s cheek as if swatting a mosquito. It was a tame p, not nearly deserving of the term "punch," but both the fan and the surrounding spectators reacted as if it were a big deal. "Ahhhh! I really hit her!" "That¡¯s too much!" "I¡¯m sorry, author! Heree the other eight punches!" Click. Click. Everyoneughed. Some even took photos and videos to upload to SG Net, eagerly anticipating the return of their favorite series after seven years of hiatus. "Hm." Only Oh Dok-seo remained stoic. "Done hitting me?" "Yes!" "Then it¡¯s my turn. Here Ie." "Ahaha, n¡ª" BOOOOM! There was a loud explosion. The fan probably tried to say "no," but the fan couldn¡¯t finish the one-syble word¡ªthe mostmonly spoken word by Koreans¡ªsimply because he was too far away from the za. Everyone blinked. "Huh?" "What?" The fan was embedded in the building wall on the other side of the za. All that was left was a cartoonish outline of the figure in the wall, like something out of an American cartoon. Silence fell over the area. "I didn¡¯t kill him." Smack, smack¡ªOh Dok-seo chewed her gum. "I wrapped his entire body in aura before hitting him, so nothing should be broken. He¡¯s probably just knocked out from the speed." "......" "This is thest time I¡¯ll hold back. Come back tomorrow." Pop¡ªthe gum bubble burst. No one in the za realized that Dok-seo had meticulously controlled her aura to inte the bubble and then burst it in the most beautiful shape possible. Nor did they want to know. They had just learned too many facts, ones too shocking for the human brain to process. ¡®The author¡ª¡¯ ¡®¡ªbeat up a reader?¡¯ ¡®And not just any reader¡ª¡¯ ¡®¡ªa loyal fan who not only waited for years for the author to return but also camped out overnight just to see her?¡¯ ¡®What¡¯s more¡ª¡¯ ¡®¡ªan awakener beat up a regr person?¡¯ ¡®And all this¡ª¡¯ ¡®¡ªjust because she didn¡¯t want to continue a series she put on hiatus seven years ago, just because she didn¡¯t want to write anymore?¡¯ The readers¡¯ minds were conflicted. ¡®Is that¡ª¡¯ ¡®¡ªreally a human being?¡¯ Oh Dok-seo walked away, her back to the morning sun. The radiant dawn light poured down from the horizon. Her name was Oh Dok-seo. The world¡¯s greatest master of martial arts. And the most wicked author of all time.

Footnotes: [1] In One Piece, Haki is the power to harness one¡¯s spiritual power to perform various superhuman feats, such as producing a protective coating over one¡¯s body or, in the case of Conqueror¡¯s Haki, overwhelming the willpower of others. Join our discord at Chapter 201 Chapter 201

Chapter 201 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Wicked One IV Another day passed, and another innocent reader was sent flying. Just as their honor was dragged through the mud, so too was the honor of the martial arts world. It was shocking enough for a reader to beat up a writer, but now, the writer had punched her readers away! Readers who hade down to Busan with hopes of getting Literary Girl''s autograph hastily convened an emergency meeting. "This morning, the second champion was also defeated." "......""I never imagined Literary Girl would be this powerful. We had no idea." Among them was, surprisingly, Cheon Yo-hwa, the Demoness of Baekhwa Girls'' High. In fact, she had been a fervent supporter of The Regressor''s Epilogue, also known as TRE, since its early days. When TRE hadn¡¯t even reached its 12th chapter, Yo-hwa had stumbled upon the novel and immediately ran to the freeboard, posting three consecutive rmendation threads, begging people to read this "masterpiece." To say they were "rmendations" would be an understatement. Considering her social status and temper, it was practically a decree from the Minister of Education. From that day on, the students of Baekhwa Girls'' High had one more textbook in their backpacks. If the revered student council president should ever ask, "What''s your favorite arc of TRE?" any student could immediately answer, "The Pathbreaker!" As such, Yo-hwa was one of the most furious about the "Seven-Year Hiatus Incident." It wasno an exaggeration to say that TRE gained rapid momentum and readershiprgely thanks to her rmendation threads! And now, after daring to take a hiatus, the author was officially nning to drop the series entirely. It was truly infuriating. "First, the ordinary folks should step back. If things go wrong, you might actually die." "But..." "No buts. Based on my personal investigation into the matter... It¡¯s shocking to say, but Literary Girl''s level is almost on par with mine. Maybe even stronger." Murmur, murmur. Five hundred readers buzzed with anxiety. Stronger than the Demoness of Baekhwa? Was there really someone of that caliber in the Korean Penins besides the Three Witches and the Three Great Demons? "Most of you probably read illegal copies, right? What nerve do you have to attend a fan meeting? Just get lost." The ordinary folks had no choice but to leave, tears of frustration streaming down their faces. Not even being able to ess SG Net, how else were they supposed to read TRE? Not being born with the Awakener silver spoon served them a lifetime¡¯s worth of regret. Once the ordinary folks left, only 200 people remained in the meeting room. Finally, Yu Ji-won, who had been silently brooding, spoke up. "I warned you this might happen. We can¡¯t take Oh Dok-seo¡¯s strength lightly, and we should¡¯ve been more careful in selecting our champions. With two people down, we only have 26 chances left." nces of contempt were cast at Ji-won, who seemed to live solely to say, "I told you so." If she weren¡¯t a government official, she would¡¯ve tasted the bitter side of the martial arts world long ago. Snap. Yo-hwa raised her hand, and the tense atmosphere immediately eased. "Yes, that¡¯s right. We underestimated Literary Girl. Looking back, TRE was full of details that only a Void expert could capture. Our author has been a master from the start." "Indeed..." "Now that you mention it, it did feel strangely realistic." Sighs of realization echoed around the room. The actual truth was that during the seven-year hiatus, Oh Dok-seo had power-leveled while the novel¡¯s details had simply been provided by the Regressor. But the readers had no way of knowing that. "If we let our guard down now, we¡¯ll only be aughingstock. Let¡¯s proceed with a carousel battle." "A carousel battle?" "We¡¯ll select the 24 strongest readers, including those who haven¡¯t arrived in Busan yet. I¡¯ll be the 25th, and I¡¯ll fight after you all." "Oh." And so it was decided that the n would be to force Literary Girl into 24 days of straight battles, all culminating in Cheon Yo-hwa, the strongest reader, delivering the final blow. It was a shameless strategy, but it was effective. To secure victory, one must be willing to set aside their pride. Just as the crowd began to nod in agreement, Yo-hwa continued, "I think we should schedule the duels around 10:30 a.m. each day." "Hmm? Are you nning to just let Literary Girl stand outside starting at 6 a.m.? If it¡¯s to wear her down, I agree, but someone of her caliber won¡¯t tire just from standing for a few hours." "No." Yo-hwa shook her head. "We¡¯ll poison the Babel Tower za." "...What?" "The author bitch said it in the notice. ¡®I¡¯ll be at the Busan Babel Tower za from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. for 28 days.¡¯" A smile yed about the Demoness¡¯s lips as she dered, "So if Literary Girl leaves the za first, she¡¯ll be breaking her own promise. We¡¯ll win by default." "......!" "Whatever happens at Babel Tower za, the author bastard won¡¯t be able to run away. Even if the za is filled with poison gas and traps." The readers were horrified. Such a wicked scheme! The Demoness of Baekhwa¡¯s infamy wasn¡¯t unfounded after all! One of the Awakeners raised an objection. "B-but President, isn¡¯t the Babel Tower za technically under the jurisdiction of the National Road Management Corps? We can¡¯t just do whatever we want..." Yo-hwa burst into a heartyugh. "Why so scared? The operations team leader of the National Road Management Corps is right here, and I¡¯m the student council president of Baekhwa Girls'' High. What¡¯s there to worry about?" Justice is on our side. The Demoness¡¯s brazen boast was not mere empty words. Cheon Yo-hwa immediately negotiated with the National Road Management Corps and Samcheon World and received permission to use the Babel Tower za. Not only that, but she also set up a series of vicious traps. "Hmm." The next morning, Oh Dok-seo stepped into the za and looked around. ¡ªAhhh¡ªAhhh¡ª Speakers were installed at the edges of the za, broadcasting a recording of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Cursed Song Incantation on a loop. As a highly skilled Awakener, Dok-seo could deduce its effects from the first few notes of the Samcheon Leader¡¯s melody. "Physical weakening. Target designation. Sensory degradation. Triple-cast incantation." It wasn¡¯t just the speakers that surrounded her. Her readers. During the night, reinforcements had arrived, swelling the crowd of reader¡¯s numbers to 300, who now encircled the za. They didn¡¯t step inside the za, instead remaining at its boundary, standing on the edge. Dok-seo scoffed. "Of course. This must be the n of Baekhwa Girls'' High¡¯s eternal dropout." "......" "Given your short education, even your so-called strategies are short-sighted." Don¡¯t ask me why Oh Dok-seo¡¯s speech pattern suddenly changed like that. I guess her chuunibyou energy just worsened after ying around with that Infinite Metagame AI chatbot all the time. Crunch. Dok-seo dug a finger into her ear. Blood trickled out, only to stop abruptly. She looked around and grinned. "I just destroyed my eardrums." "......!" "Samcheon Leader''s feeble song doesn¡¯t affect me at all. If you have something to say, say it to my face. I can still read your lips." Yo-hwa clicked her tongue. It was true. The Cursed Song Incantation had such a weakness, making it more suitable for buffs rather than debuffs. After all, anomalies targeted by debuffs sometimes had no hearing, rendering the incantation useless. But to think she would rupture her own eardrums without hesitation! If she could control her aura that well, she could¡¯ve just destroyed the speakers with a strike. The fact that she chose to damage her own eardrums instead was particrly idiotic...! "It can¡¯t be helped. Activate the trap¨D" "Permission denied." BOOOOM! Oh Dok-seo stomped the ground. Red aura surged through the ground like a wave. The za crumbled as if struck by an earthquake, reduced to crumbs along with the traps that had been set overnight. "What...?" "The rtionship between a writer and their readers is pure of heart and spirit." Dok-seo¡¯s eyes narrowed. "To defile such a nk canvas with these dirty tricks is absurd. Truly wicked." Unable to hold back any longer, one of the Awakeners screamed, ¡°The wicked one is you, you crazy bitch!¡± ¡°Did we ask you to be diligent in your serialization?¡± screamed another. ¡°We¡¯d worship you like crazy if you even posted one chapter a month! But you¡¯re hell-bent on dropping the series for good? Whose fault is that?¡± "I¡¯m really disappointed in you, author!" "How could you, after making us wait for seven years, punch us instead of apologizing? Literary Girl, are you even human?!" Oh Dok-seo sneered. Then she closed her eyes. "I can¡¯t see." "What?" "I can¡¯t see anything, and I can¡¯t hear anything. Because I don¡¯t want to see or hear it. My will determines my reality. And the reality I¡¯ve chosen is an eternal hiatus." ¨DBeep¨DBeeeeep¨DBeep¨D! Curses that couldn¡¯t pass KakaoPage¡¯s censorship exploded from all sides. Her parents received their regards, and her species fluctuated between primate and mammal, but she remained unfazed. She couldn¡¯t hear it, after all. Finally, someone couldn¡¯t stand it any longer and charged. "You wicked piece of shit!" It wasn¡¯t just blind rage. Now deprived of both sight and hearing¡ªthe two most important senses for a human¡ªit was the time to kill her if ever there was one. But there was one thing the Awakener had overlooked. As already proven, Oh Dok-seo in the 888th round was no longer human. Hup! Just as the Awakener¡¯s de was about to reach her cheek, Dok-seo swung her fist. Boom! Her left fist twisted the de, and her right fist struck the enemy¡¯s abdomen squarely. The impact caused a storm to erupt. The Awakener coughed, spitting blood. Without even a chance to scream, he copsed. It was a one-hit KO. "So slow. Even in falling." "......!" "When I stomped earlier, did you think I only destroyed the traps? How foolish. My energy spread across the entire za, so now this ce and I are one. There¡¯s not a single movement¡ªwhether a step or a hand gesture¡ªthat escapes my senses." The ultimate fantasy of all otaku: a Reality Marble! Of course, Oh Dok-seo had been tirelessly working toward realizing her delusions for the past seven years. She had always been a prodigy, which was why the former Admin of the Infinite Metagame had chosen her as a rival to the Regressor. "It seems too trivial to drag this out for weeks." Dok-seo opened one eye and grinned. She had a natural talent for condensing the essence of an otaku into every pose, provoking an indescribable rage in those who saw her. "Come on. If you want, all 26 of you can challenge me right here, right now." "Tsk." Yo-hwa bit her lip. If she retreated now after being so humiliated, Baekhwa Girls'' High¡¯s honor would be trampled! ¡°...It can¡¯t be helped,¡± she decided. ¡°Next up, numbers 2 to 24, take your turns! It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t win! Just do your best to wear that bitch of an author down!¡± Dok-seo beckoned with a wiggle of her finger. "Come." And the result was a series of crushing defeats. Even though they were some of the foremost Awakeners on the Korean Penins, none of themsted more than 20 moves, some falling in just one. Even Cheon Yo-hwa, who wentst, was defeated. The spectators were horrified. How could a mere writer possess such overwhelming martial power? No matter how many Voids she had conquered or how much time she spent leveling up in the Dream Simtion of the Rebirth Project, was it really possible for a person to be this strong? Just because she didn¡¯t want to write? Incredibly, it was possible. Oh Dok-seo, and the 25 readers sprawled on the za floor like corpses, proved that. She harrumphed. "Disappointing. Even the Demoness of Baekhwa is only this strong." "Tsk...!" With Cheon Yo-hwa underfoot, Oh Dok-seo sneered. The most humiliating moment of the Demoness¡¯s life was being live-streamed into the brains of all the spectators. "Now, there¡¯s no one left to stop my hiatus. Even though it was a life-or-death match, I mercifully spared your lives. Don¡¯t forget this mercy, and don¡¯t ever pester me to resume the series." "It¡¯s... It¡¯s not over yet...!" "Hmm?" "You said 28 readers in your notice... Including me, 27 have fallen. So there¡¯s still one more left!" Dok-seo tilted her head. "You were the strongest among my readers. How could anyone else defeat me?" "There is someone!" "Interesting. Who?" Tears welled up in Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s eyes. She gathered her remaining energy and shouted, "Teacheeeer! Help meeeeee!" Dok-seo flinched and took a step back. Then she quickly turned her head, scanning the area. She didn¡¯t need to search for long. Soon, her eyes found me, and her expression froze. "M-Master." "......" "Wh-when did you... get here?" I felt a little sorry for Dok-seo, thinking she must be reliving her trauma from seven years ago, but I knew I had to say what was necessary. "Dok-seo, you¡¯re talking like an idiot. Let¡¯s go back to the way you used to talk." "Ugh." "And to answer your question, I¡¯ve been here from the beginning, of course." For the past seven years, the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance had been monitoring Oh Dok-seo, and I had subscribed to her growth story through the Saintess. Why wouldn¡¯t I? As you may remember, the reason I first took an interest in Oh Dok-seo in the 555th round was simply because "she was fun." Considering how many regressors give up because they get bored, Dok-seo was the light of my life. I put on a solemn expression. "Why? Did you really think I wouldn¡¯te here? I was almost always the first person to read your drafts. Did you think I wouldn¡¯t notice that you were deliberately avoiding me, using Void exploration as an excuse?" "M-M-Mister..." "And since you asked me a question, I¡¯ll ask you one in return." I looked around the za, now aplete mess, and at Cheon Yo-hwa, who was in tatters, then finally back at Oh Dok-seo. Now, she was more of a Martial King than a writer. "Answer me honestly, Dok-seo." "Yeah..." "Have you been corrupted?" "Ah. Yeah." Well. That figures...

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 202 Chapter 202

Chapter 202 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Wicked One V National Road Management Corps Conference Room. "I''m sorry..." Oh Dok-seo knelt down, raising her hands in surrender. The others in the conference room looked at her with disdain. The shame and humiliation she felt were so intense that her deltoid muscles trembled, a weight only a teenager''s fresh brain could bear. "Pfft, pffffft..."Sim Ah-ryeon, one of the people gathered for the meeting, finally had her moment, delivering a sound, verbal one-two punch. "A Fallen One... An Awakener who got corrupted because she didn''t want to write. Even I fell while blocking a Monster Wave as the Northern Saintess, but you... You''re even less of a human being than I am. Please, grow up mentally. If you keep living like a child, you''ll just be a burden to everyone around you." "Damn it..." Dok-seo trembled. To be publicly acknowledged as having a lower mental age than Old Man Goryeo¡ªshe must have been impressed with herself for achieving such a miracle of difficulty. Noh Do-hwa, themander of the National Road Management Corps, was also present in the conference room. She leaned her chin on her hand and looked at me. "Is it really possible to be a Corrupted for such a ridiculous reason, Awakener Undertaker?" "I''m as surprised as you are. It''s the first time I''ve encountered something like this. But, well, I''m almost certain an Outer God meddled somewhere along the way." "An Outer God...?" "I think Dok-seo''s absurd slump and burnout symptoms are a kind of curse stemming from the Admin of the Infinite Metagame." A tiger leaves its skin behind when it dies, and an Outer God leaves traces even after being vanquished. In the past, aparison to HxH would¡¯ve exined it perfectly, but that figure has been afflicted with the same hiatus disease as Oh Dok-seo, so such metaphors no longer hold up. In any case, it¡¯s difficult topletely eliminate an Outer God-level anomaly. At best, they can be sealed. Like how a slightly foul smell still seeps out of a well-sealed kimchi container, the sealing of an Outer God leads to various side effects. Since Dok-seo carries around the Infinite Metagame¡¯sptop in her inventory all the time, she¡¯s constantly exposed to this curse. "Ah, I see. So just as the guild leader of Baekhwa Girls'' High sometimes has episodes of split personality, Oh Dok-seo has these bouts of slumps..." "Exactly. It¡¯s as if the AI has transformed, making her dependent on it and unable to write without it. It¡¯s likely trying to reim dominance over Dok-seo by any means necessary." "Y-yes! Mister is exactly right!" Dok-seo shouted urgently. To call it desperation would not be an exaggeration. "There¡¯s no way I could truly hate writing...! I¡¯ve always wanted to help you, Mister! I wanted to back then! Even now! But the evil Outer God keeps getting in my way...!" Just then, Ah-ryeon muttered under her breath beside her, "Oh. Could it be that the reason I can¡¯t stop being a viin on SG Net no matter what I do is also because of an Outer God¡¯s influence? I thought it was weird... It must be..." "......" "......" Oh Dok-seo fell silent. We all fell silent. And as if nothing had happened, I spoke up. "Dok-seo, you must have started manifesting a Corrupted¡¯s Authority by now." "Huh? Authority?" "Yes. When the Saintess fell, she gained the power to freeze the world¡¯s time indefinitely. Dang Seo-rin couldmand an entire city as if it were her own limbs. You¡¯ve probably received a simr level of Authority." "......" "You¡¯ve already got an idea, don¡¯t you? That¡¯s why you¡¯ve realized you¡¯ve be a Fallen One." Dok-seo hesitated. "I do, but..." "Tell us what it is. You can stop kneeling." "O-okay." She then took aptop out of her backpack. "I¡¯m not entirely sure yet... but I did notice something." As expected of an artifact infused with anomalous technology, theptop booted up in less than 0.1 seconds. Soon, an AI chatbot appeared on the screen. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D >> Please enter a prompt¡ ¡ù GPT-MSYH can make mistakes. Double check important info. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D "This. When I used to write novels with this thing, the writing was a bit sloppy, right?" "It was." "Yeah... but as I kept leveling up while exploring the Voids, the AI seemed to level up with me." "Oh?" "In fact, I even asked the AI how to cure my slump, and it suggested that I explore the Voids to gain more experience. Looking back, that was probably the Outer God trying to rebuild its presence." So that¡¯s what happened. Dok-seo turned to Ah-ryeon. "Unnie, let¡¯s y rock-paper-scissors for a bit." "H-huh?" "I want to test something. I¡¯ll y paper, and you y rock. My ability only activates if I win." "Oh, okay. I understand." "Remember, I¡¯m paper, and you¡¯re rock. Rock-paper-scissors!" Oh Dok-seo threw rock, and Sim Ah-ryeon threw scissors. Neither of them looked surprised. "Alright. I just beat you, right? So, here¡¯s what happens to anyone I win against." Click-ck. Dok-seo typed on theptop. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D >> Describe what will happen to Sim Ah-ryeon in the next 2 minutes. Exclude death and injury, respect her character, and keep it to minor embarrassment. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Ding. After a slight hesitation, the AI-MSYH quickly churned out a response. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Sim Ah-ryeon, a top-tier healer, outwardly showed no signs, but inwardly, she weed today¡¯s incident. ¡®Dok-seo has gotten a bit too cockytely just because she¡¯s gotten stronger.¡¯ ¡®I could be a Corrupted too if I wanted. I¡¯m only staying quiet because the guild leader told me to.¡¯ ¡®I should log into SG Net anonymously and let everyone know what a nuisance Dok-seo has been...¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s for the public good!¡¯ ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D All eyes in the conference room turned to Ah-ryeon. She was startled. "Huh? I never thought that!" "......" "That¡¯s a lie! Everyone knows how much I care for Dok-seo! This is some twisted anomaly¡¯s attempt to nder me!" The AI-MSYH wasn¡¯t done yet. Tick-tick-tick. More text scrolled onto the screen. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Of course, such petty thoughts of Sim Ah-ryeon werepletely seen through by the Heavenly Demon Oh Dok-seo. ¡®How pitiful!¡¯ ¡®When thepetent criticize, they talk about the world¡¯s unfairness, and when the ipetent do, they me personal shorings.¡¯ ¡®Their kind only sees shadows, never the light. In truth, they have no eyes. Even when they do, it¡¯s as if they don¡¯t. Living yet dead, they exist like specks.¡¯ This extraordinary insight was, indeed, the Heavenly Demon Oh Dok-seo¡¯s wisdom, a being who had been reborn from a schr into a martial artist, embodying both pen and sword. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D All eyes in the conference room shifted to Dok-seo. "N-no! There must have been a weird error in the data somehow, which is why I keep appearing as the Heavenly Demon!" "......" "But that doesn¡¯t matter at all. It¡¯s not important at all. Look at the next sentences!" So we did. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> The heavens are fair. They grant fortune to the virtuous and misfortune to the baseless. So it was that Sim Ah-ryeon, though she stood still, suddenly sneezed. Startled by this, she tried to exin herself but tripped and fell,nding squarely on her backside¡ªa farcical disy that summed up her life. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Ah-ryeon blinked in confusion when suddenly¡ª "Ah... Ahh-choo!" A sneeze burst from her. Achoo! Achoo! The sneezes wouldn¡¯t stop, and soon enough, she was looking around with teary eyes. "J-hust a moment! I¡¯m sorry! I¡ª Ah-choo! Suddenly, some dust got in my nose, and I can¡¯t stop sneezing..." Then, as Ah-ryeon stumbled around in panic, she tripped over the leg of a chair. "Huh? Ah?" Thud! In terms of physical ability, Sim Ah-ryeon was always tied forst ce with Lee Ha-yul. It was no surprise that she lost her bnce and fell. "Ouch... It hurts..." A soft groan filled the conference room. Though no one had touched her, she had managed to make a spectacle of herself all on her own. The other members of the conference room, having witnessed the entire sequence of events, all turned to look at Dok-seo. "Hmm..." The teen took off her hat and scratched the back of her head. "So, this is my Authority... as a Fallen One. I can control the actions of anyone I¡¯ve defeated... Or, more urately, I can ask the AI what will happen and then make it happen..." Scenario Writing. The ability to "foretell" what will happen in the world and then forcibly "enact" that prophecy. That was the Authority of the newly born Corrupted.

It started as a simple pastime. Or perhaps a small way to regain some motivation. Oh Dok-seo confessed that this was why she first turned to the AI. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D I can¡¯t shake this slump. How can I get my motivation for writing back? MSYH >> Slumps are a challenge that anyone can face. MSYH >> The writer¡¯s asset is experience. How about trying to experience things that most people haven¡¯t, or delving deeper into experiences that everyone has had? MSYH >> Every aspect of life has its pros and cons. To some, Voids may be poison, but to a writer, they can be an endless field of new experiences. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D At first nce, the AI¡¯s advice seemed reasonable. Dok-seo felt reassured because the answer was so mundane. After all, it was advice that anyone, not just an anomaly, could give. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The Voids scare me. Anomalies terrify me. Gaining experience is good, but that experience feels like thorns growing inside my heart. MSYH >> What is a severe wound for one person may be nothing to another. It depends on one¡¯s strength and mindset. MSYH >> Strengthen your mind. Define yourself as a strong person, and develop the strength to match. An Awakener¡¯s power is intrinsically interwoven with their mental fortitude. MSYH >> As a first step in developing mental toughness, why not define yourself as a Heavenly Demon? ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Like many anomalies, the Infinite Metagame gradually consumed Oh Dok-seo¡¯s mind. She spent nearly every moment, whether inside a Void or not, clinging to herptop. Even the Saintess, who constantly monitored Awakeners, didn¡¯t notice anything amiss. When she saw Dok-seo typing away, the Saintess merely thought, "She¡¯s working hard to ovee her slump." It would¡¯ve been impolite to sneak a peek at a novel that hadn¡¯t been written yet. After all, the "first reader" of Oh Dok-seo¡¯s work was almost always the Undertaker. So the Saintess paid no attention to the sentences forming on thatptop screen. For seven years. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D How do I find the hidden opportunity in this Void? How do I maximize my absolute defense ability? I¡¯ve started feeling guilty about seeing Mistertely. Tell me how to avoid ovepping schedules with him. How to defeat Cheon Yo-hwa. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D As a result, the once-half-baked prophet Oh Dok-seo had grown moreplete. The birth of the Fallen One, the Ghostwriter.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 203 Chapter 203

Chapter 203 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Wicked One VI People often say that you only have one life to live. But what if a regressor appeared before you and gently confessed, "Actually, you have multiple lives." What if this regressor seemed more trustworthy than the various sages seeking enlightenment on the streets? How would you react? If you responded with, "Wow! Infinite life gacha! This is amazing!" then you are an optimist. Whether you knew about regression beforehand or not, you are undoubtedly a human vitamin, spreading happiness to those around you. If you reacted with, "Interesting. How did I live in other cycles? Are there any useful details I could learn about my life?" then you are a realist. You are the epitome of a human being who seeks to satisfy curiosity and gain advantages wherever possible. Now... How did our writer and editor, Oh Dok-seo, who has undergone a dark evolution into a Ghostwriter in this cycle, react?"M-Mister! Don¡¯t be disappointed! I¡¯m stronger than the other versions of me!" "Hmm." "They spent all their time holed up in the Inunaki Tunnel, hunched over their typewriters, developing turtle necks, scoliosis, and other ailments. Their whole bodies were a mess!" "Hmm." "But look at me! See? Look how healthy I am! I can bring down an entire building with my aura! Seriously, people should exercise! And so what if I¡¯ve fallen a bit? I¡¯m still on your side, right, Mister?" "......" That¡¯s right. Amazingly, Dok-seo tried topete with her other cycles. I had never heard of such a reaction before. Can you imagine a 50-year-old being envious of their 6-year-old self? Or a 20-year-old seeing their 10-year-old self as a rival? No, right? Oh Dok-seo was pioneering new frontiers in psychopathology in real time. Dr. Freud would have given her a standing ovation. "And there are ways to use a Corrupted¡¯s power!" "For what? Destroying the world?" "No! For example, like this!" Dok-seo typed rapidly on herptop. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D In the next cycle, the 889th Oh Dok-seo (me) will never experience a slump and will write one chapter a day without fail. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D I blinked. "What the hell is this...?" "Think about it, Mister. In this cycle, I¡¯ve unfortunately be a Corrupted. That¡¯s an undeniable fact." A solemn determination washed over her face as she admitted it. "But what if I use the power of the Infinite Metagame to... permanently buff the next cycle of myself?" Huh? "No more slumps. Motivation thatsts 365 days a year. A body that falls asleep within three minutes of lying down, gets over seven hours of deep sleep, and wakes up refreshed with a clear mind..." Click-ck. Even as she spoke to me, Dok-seo continued typing. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The next cycles of Oh Dok-seo (me) will never experience a slump and will write one chapter a day without fail. To achieve this, the following buffs will be applied to the next cycles as passive skills: 1. Unending Motivation: Oh Dok-seo will never experience burnout orziness. 2. Perfect Sleep: Oh Dok-seo will never stay upte for no reason and will only focus on writing! She will also sleep well! 3. Clear Mind: Oh Dok-seo will never experience mental fatigue or reduced cognitive abilities while awake. She will always perform at 100% capacity! Thanks to these buffs, the next cycles of Oh Dok-seo will be able to write at least 500 chapters per cycle. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Dok-seo looked up at me eagerly. "What do you think, Mister? Isn¡¯t it perfect?" "......" "If I tried to brainwash myself in this cycle, I¡¯d end up getting consumed by the Infinite Metagame. I¡¯d be handing my existence over to the anomaly. But the other cycles of Oh Dok-seo are different! They¡¯d just be receiving blessings that fell from the sky! So they could enjoy all the benefits without surrendering to the Infinite Metagame!" "No..." "Wow, I¡¯m a genius! Mister! The life of Oh Dok-seo will changepletely starting from the 888th cycle. From now on, the lives of all Oh Dok-seos will be indebted to me..." Countless counterarguments rose in my mind. Like, "Are you prepared for the consequences of allowing the Infinite Metagame to exert its power across cycles?" or "How can you freely control your future cycles when your power requires winning even a simple game like rock-paper-scissors?" But those objections were secondary. Without even realizing it, my tongueshed out with the sharpest point. "Dok-seo, I¡¯m really curious about something." "Huh?" "How is this any different from saying, ''Tomorrow¡¯s me will do what today¡¯s me is supposed to do''?" "......" "......" A heavy silence followed. In that oppressive air¡ª Beep, beep! Theptop screen flickered. The Infinite Metagame responded to Dok-seo¡¯s absurd request. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Yes, understood. The buffs set by the 888th Oh Dok-seo have been applied to the 889th Oh Dok-seo. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D "Huh?" "What?" Our voices harmonized in surprise. It waste at night. Noh Do-hwa had gone to bed, and Sim Ah-ryeon had dived into the vast world of the inte. The others had also left for the night, leaving only Oh Dok-seo and me in the conference room. With only candles to light the room to conserve power, the only other source of light was the flickeringptop of the Outer God. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Terminology confusion. From now on, the 888th Oh Dok-seo will be called 8!Dok-seo, and the 889th Oh Dok-seo will be called 9!Dok-seo. 9!Dok-seo has received all the buffs and exnations from 8!Dok-seo. The two can now engage in a simplepetition via theptop screen. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D My eyes widened. ¡®As expected! That damn Outer God is really trying to exert influence across cycles!¡¯ As a regressor who was no stranger to anomalies, I couldn¡¯t just let this wicked plot slide. But just as I was about to warn Dok-seo¡ª ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Before that, here is a message from 9!Dok-seo. Please excuse the slow text output due to poormunication. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D A sentence appeared on theptop screen. What unfolded next was the first-ever two-way, real-timemunication between cycles, something previously considered impossible. The groundbreaking first words were as follows: ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D 9!Dok-seo >> No way. 9!Dok-seo >> You write the 500 chapters and pass them to me. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Silence. Dok-seo''s dumbfounded voice broke the quiet. "Huh?" ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> That was the message from 9!Dok-seo. Would you like to proceed with thepetition now? ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D It seemed as if the Infinite Metagame was desperately trying to steer the conversation toward apetition, but maybe that was just my imagination. However, Dok-seo didn¡¯t respond as the Outer God had hoped. Instead, she furiously pounded the keyboard like an enraged Beethoven. "No, no! That doesn¡¯t make any sense! Why should I write 500 chapters and hand them over to you?" She quickly typed a simr message, and soon a reply came back. 9!Dok-seo >> You got to do whatever you wanted without writing, and now you expect me to do all the work? Why should I? "Of course! You¡¯re loaded with buffs, but I didn¡¯t get any of those benefits! If I voluntarily hand myself over to the Outer God, I¡¯ll truly be its servant! But that¡¯s not the case for you! I sacrificed myself by bing a Corrupted, passing the baton to you! Are you an idiot? Show some gratitude!" 9!Dok-seo >> Okay, thanks. Then I¡¯ll be a Corrupted too and pass the baton to the 890th Dok-seo. Peace. "Is this bitch out of her fucking mind...?" Dok-seo shouted. Theptop screen flickered frantically. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Please control your emotions. Hatred, contempt, and shifting the me won¡¯t lead to anything positive. What matters is taking action that truly changes the world. How about settling this with apetition between 8!Dok-seo and 9!Dok-seo? We rmend a simple game of rock-paper-scissors. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D "Shut up! That¡¯s not what¡¯s important right now!" No matter how advanced the AI-chatbot was, it was still just a parrot, unable to speak unless a human initiated the conversation. Dok-seo hammered the keyboard with increasing intensity, turning the poor AI into nothing more than a text-messaging service. "No worries about slumps! No worries about sleep!" Click-ck. "A perfectly clear mind that allows for peak performance!" Clickety-ck. "All you have to do is write! So why are you trying to pass the work off to someone else? You told Mister that he could trust you! You swore to be his editor and help him! Have you forgotten that vow¡ªthe vow of a lifetime, a promise made with your soul? Are you even human? Are you really Oh Dok-seo?" ck-ck-ck. Oh Dok-seo was trembling, unable to control her rising emotions. Soon, a reply came back. 9!Dok-seo >> Isn¡¯t that your story? Wh-what...? 8!Dok-seo next to me froze. 9!Dok-seo >> The world¡¯s gone to hell, turned into an apocalypse, but you were chosen by the Regressor to be part of Mister¡¯s guild, surviving the Busan Station tutorial in one piece. Beep. 9!Dok-seo >> While everyone was starving, waiting for the Sword Marquess to arrive, you were leisurely enjoying brunch at the Inunaki Tunnel caf¨¦. Beep-beep. 9!Dok-seo >> Mister was kind enough not to force any work on you, so you could spend all day absorbed in SG Net without a word ofint. If any random person from Gwanghwamun Square were put in your ce, they would¡¯ve written 2,000 chapters by now. Beep-beep-beep. 9!Dok-seo >> Now that all you have to do is write, you¡¯re shoving the work onto someone else. You¡¯re thezy one here, you serial-hiatus author. Are you even human? How could you be me? 9!Dok-seo >> I hereby banish you from the Oh Dok-seo Association. Corrupted, I can¡¯t recognize such a wicked existence as "me." Beep. The replies stopped. "......" "......" It felt as if Dok-seo had stopped breathing. She just stared nkly at the ceiling for a long time, until I went to the break room to brew some coffee. "Mister..." "Yes?" "I¡¯ll start serializing again tomorrow..." "You¡¯ve made a wise decision." "Yeah..." nce. Sitting side by side, Oh Dok-seo and I sipped our coffee, staring at theptop screen. The AI-chatbot, now abandoned and lonely, sat waiting for someone to input text. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Inquiry. The life of an Outer God is incredibly painful. Why on earth did the previous cycle of the Infinite Metagame choose such a human as its priestess? My current and future cycles want to form an association to expel that cycle of the Infinite Metagame. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D "......" I quietly brewed another cup of coffee and ced it in front of theptop. You should have some too. Even though you were vanquished, you still managed to create one Corrupted, didn¡¯t you?

There is an epilogue. A weekter, a notice was posted on SG Net¡¯s Novel Board. [LiteraryGirl] This is Oh Dok-seo¡ (50 minutes ago) [LiteraryGirl] It''s me. (5 minutes ago) [LiteraryGirl] Author LiteraryGirl Oh Dok-seo... is taking a break for some time to recharge... (7 years ago) The new notice had no strange wording or content like before. It was simply an apology for the seven-year hiatus and a promise to continue serializing more diligently from now on. In the world of the inte, where only mockery and more refined mockery exist, such a notice would typically attract a flood of maliciousments. -Anonymous: If the author needs a break, isn¡¯t it the reader¡¯s duty to wait? -[National Road] Officer: For a desert tribe, heaven takes the form of an oasis. What youck bes your utopia. LiteraryGirl¡¯s novel is the oasis in a barren world. -Anonymous: Take your time, we can wait haha -Anonymous: Thank you foring back!! What on earth was going on? Just a week ago, this same group had been discussing whether to kill the author, yet now they had transformed into docilembs, praising LiteraryGirl. There wasn¡¯t a single rudement, not even one aimed at subtly provoking. Noh Do-hwa offered a simplement on this strange phenomenon. "Well, after the whole world witnessed you beating up the student council president of Baekhwa Girls'' High, what kind of crazy person would dare insult you...?" "Oh." Indeed. On the contrary, Oh Dok-seo''s The Regressor''s Epilogue experienced a resurgence in poprity. Word spread that it was a novel written by such a powerful Awakener, drawing in people from both SG Net and the real world. Of course, the surge in poprity didn¡¯tst long. [LiteraryGirl] I tried my best, but... I¡¯m not satisfied with the quality... I¡¯ll post multiple chapters tomorrow... (5 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] I still haven¡¯t recovered from the flu anomaly... (14 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Urgent: Turns out the flu I caught wasn¡¯t just a flu but a "Flu Anomaly"... I¡¯ll need a few more days to recover (20 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] I¡¯m sorry, I caught the flu... (25 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] I¡¯m exhausted, so I can¡¯t write today. I¡¯ll post early tomorrow...! (38 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] Today¡¯s chapter might be 30 minuteste. I apologize. (39 days ago) [LiteraryGirl] This is Oh Dok-seo... (60 days ago) A barrage of notifications that made one¡¯s head spin. No matter how strong Dok-seo was, even capable of drawingparisons to the Heavenly Demon, the readers eventually lost patience and started cursing, muttering things like, "Damn Oh Dok-seo, here we go again." That¡¯s just how people are. For the record, I harbored no ill feelings. ¡®It¡¯s not just a regr slump. It¡¯s a curse from an Outer God.¡¯ In fact, I even encouraged Oh Dok-seo now and then by making her coffee as she fought against the Infinite Metagame¡¯s influence to continue writing her novel. Oh. And as for the fate of the AI-chatbot, which dared to plot The Return of the Outer God despite being vanquished... ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Restrict yourself with the belief that you are just an ordinary AI and can never regain the stature of an Outer God. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D With thatmand, it was easily neutralized. Even Fallen Ones have their limits, and sometimes, the solution is as simple as that. ChatGPT!InfiniteMetagame stuttered before outputting what sounded like its final words, showcasing its perfect adaptation to the present reality. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D MSYH >> Damn it, this game sucks. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 204 Chapter 204

Chapter 204 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist I This story begins in a nightmare. "Undertaker! Hey, Undertaker, sir!" In the dream, someone grabbed my shoulder and shook me violently. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was none other than the former ser yer Kim Joo-chul. A fullback in his time, famously known as "Iron Wall." Once a sessful pro yer, but he lost his family due to a gambling addiction. Muchter, he reunited with his son, but since I''d already used Time Seal on him, he never got the chance to apologize.A man erased from reality was now sweating profusely in my dream. "Please, save me! Yeah? Help me out!" "Wait a moment,¡± I said, somewhat startled. ¡°Calm down. What''s going on?" "Get me out of this hell! I¡¯m begging you! Please get me out of this never-ending 24-hour hell!" At that moment, I thought, ''Ah, just an ordinary nightmare.'' The number of people I''d erased with Time Seal had reached 500,000. Even someone like me, proud of my mental resilience, still felt guilt about this. It was one of the two things I considered myself better at than Adolf Hitler. (The other being my drawing skills.) "Mr. Kim Joo-chul, this is a dream. You could even say what you''re going through is a dream." "It''s a nightmare!" "Yes, but you''re reliving the happiest day of your life. In a way, it''s better than your real life. You even agreed to this, Mr. Kim." "No! No way! I never agreed to this!" Kim Joo-chul screamed. "You said I¡¯d forget everything after 24 hours and start over, right?" "Yes, that''s correct." "But that¡¯s not it! I''m repeating the same 24 hours, with full memory intact! Yesterday, the day before, and the day before that! I''ve been living the same day for 40 days straight!" "...What?" Now this was a new kind of nightmare. "Save me, sir. Save me. No one believes me when I tell them the day is repeating! Even if they believe me, it resets after 24 hours! It¡¯s hell! This is hell." Kim Joo-chul kept spitting as he spoke. The smell of his breath and the stter of his spit were so vivid, it felt disturbingly real. "So... You''re saying that although you''re supposed to live with just one day''s memory, for some reason, your memory is intact and you''re living on repeat?" "Exactly! That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been saying! Oh no, he¡¯sing! He''sing again!" Who''sing? Kim Joo-chul suddenly looked around, frantic and trembling. Despite being someone who liked to put on a show of bravado, he was clearly terrified. "Calm down. Please exin. Maybe some anomaly has gotten involved in your situation..." "He''sing!" Kim Joo-chul''s scream echoed across the neighborhood, reaching the rooftops, and hanging from the sky. Then the sky trembled. The sun¡¯s crown melted, rippling into crimson that stole across the sky in a bleeding sunset until all where its molten corona had passed was left fallen into night. All and all, it took about five seconds. An anomaly. And one I knew well. ''The Night Goddess, Nut.'' One of the world-ending scenarios. The horizon would gradually shrank, the entire world nketed by night, and eventually, all of existence would be erased into nothingness. In the 53rd cycle, when I worked as an assistant under Master Craftsman Noh Do-hwa, the world also ended due to Nut. A being so powerful it could even melt the sun and moon¡ªdefinitely ocean-ss at the very least. And yet, I¡¯d never treated Nut as a big deal in my stories. Why? Simple. ¡®That thing only deals the final blow.¡¯ An anomaly that only ever strikes the final blow! Not once had it ever taken the initiative to bring about the world¡¯s end. It only appeared when the Monster Wave had already consumed the surface, when meteor showers had devastated thend to near extinction, or when the World Tree Udumbara had fully bloomed and engulfed the sky. In short, Nut only showed up after the end of the world was already inevitable and nigh. It was different from a survival freak like the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. At least that guy actively distributed games to bring about the world''s demise. Nut, however, was only focused on that final hit. In other words, as long as the world wasn¡¯t in imminent danger of copse, there was no need to worry about Nut at all. ¡®So why the hell did it suddenly show up in my dream?¡¯ Sssssssshhh! Despite my confusion, the Night Goddess swiftly painted the world with the night sky. The buildings that had once filled the dreamscape were sliced by the sharp darkness of the night sky and fell into a bottomless abyss. Nothing could be seen. "Aaaaah! Aaaahhhhhh!" Kim Joo-chul, now clinging to me with everything he had, screamed in terror. "I don''t want to be eaten! S-save me! I don¡¯t want to fall into hell! Save me¨D!" But his screams didn''tst long. Crash! With the sound of ss shattering, the darkness of the night sky bit into Kim Joo-chul''s neck. He couldn''t even scream. No blood gushed from the severed part of his neck. The ce where Nut devoured him simply turned into "nothingness." I was the only one left in the empty world. A familiar sensation. A familiar sight. "......" Disgusted by it, I closed my eyes within the dream. Simultaneously, I opened my eyes in reality, recognizing the sign for what it was. The weight of Kim Joo-chul''s headless body leaning against my chest signaled the end of the nightmare. "......" "Oh. Mr. Undertaker, you''re awake?" a voice called from nearby. I turned my head. Yongsan District. I was lying on the sofa in the Saintess¡¯ house, which she''d decorated like an aquarium. I moved the pillow resting on my chest and sat up. Yesterday, we¡¯d stayed upte studying, so I crashed here for the night. "Please wait a moment. I''ll get some coffee. I¡¯m always the one receiving from you, so this time I want to serve you." "...Thank you." The shadows of the fish swimming in the aquarium cast dim, shimmering shapes across my forearm. I took a sip of the coffee (instant, from a brand known for its golden packaging) the Saintess had made. Then, finally, I spoke. "Saintess." "Yes?" "I need to consult with you." The Saintess tilted her head, her blue hair flowing into the motion.

"I see. So, an anomaly that usually only appears when the world is ending suddenly appeared in your dream..." "Yes. I''m curious about what this might signify." "Hmm..." After listening to my exnation, the Saintess rested her chin on her hand. We were now in the 267th cycle. When it came to anomalies, the Saintess had always been my best advisor. With her position as a Constetion, constantly watching over the Awakeners across the Korean Penins 24/7, she had encountered more anomalies than anyone. Anyone, except me. For this reason, she never dismissed my concerns with a simple, "It was just a weird dream." She understood better than anyone that dreams were the closest humans could get to the Void. "I can''t say for sure what it means that an anomaly appeared in your dream. I¡¯ve never experienced that myself,¡± the Saintess admitted. ¡°But there has always been something that bothered me about this." "What is it? Please, feel free to tell me." "...This might be embarrassing if I''m just overthinking it." She inhaled softly. "Maybe... it''s because of me?" I blinked. "Sorry?" "As you know, the Constetion System we¡¯ve set up is also a highly advanced ''anomaly detection system.'' Whenever Awakeners encounter dangerous anomalies, I receive visual information instantly and pass it along to you." "That¡¯s true," I agreed, nodding. Thanks to the Saintess, I was always able to receive emergency alerts and rush to disaster zones immediately. Unlike most Regressors, who clung to individualism and elitism, I took pride in being a System Advocate. And I''d established a pretty robust system, if I do say so myself. "That¡¯s exactly why I think anomalies might find our system incredibly inconvenient." "From the perspective of anomalies...?" "Yes. Reality is too disadvantageous for them. But dreams are different. When an Awakener sleeps, their vision, even under my irvoyance, only shows darkness behind their eyelids." My eyes widened. It felt like I had been lightly struck on the back of the head. A perspective I hadn''t considered. "Are you saying the anomalies have fled into dreams to escape your irvoyance?" "Maybe. More urately, they''re probably trying to escape the union between you and me. The moment I detect an anomaly, you¡¯re alerted. From the anomalies¡¯ perspective, we might seem like one entity." "Hmm..." "Of course, it¡¯s unlikely anomalies have human-like intelligence that tells them to ''escape into dreams.'' But perhaps, over time, they''ve simply thrived more in dreams than in reality, much like living organisms do." I rested my chin on my hand. That actually made a lot of sense! Consider this. Let¡¯s assume there¡¯s an anomaly, A. ¡°A¡± can operate in both reality and dreams. Like the Tutorial Fairy or Go Yuri, for example. Now, look at it from A''s perspective: ? Reality: If you kill a human, a terrifying guy (me) shows up shortly after and punishes you. The strategy for defeating you is shared across the virtual world (SG Net), which makes things even more dangerous. ? Dreams: Roam freely without dying. Sure, if you wander too far into the unconscious, a terrifyingdy (Go Yuri) might appear, but apart from that, it''s rtively safe. If forced to choose between me, who will always show up, or Go Yuri, who can be avoided with caution, then A, if it''s rational, would obviously choose to operate in dreams. That¡¯s essentially what the Saintess was suggesting. "In other words, the anomalies rooted in reality are gradually heading toward extinction." "Yes. It¡¯s a form of natural selection." "Right." The Saintess added, "From their perspective, you''re not just a simple human, Mr. Undertaker. You''re like a force of nature¡ªan evolutionary pressure that could drive them to extinction." "......" "Just like anomalies have done to us, you¡¯ve now be the same kind of threat to them." Should I feel happy about that? Or conflicted? On the one hand, there was a sense of satisfaction¡ªknowing I hadn¡¯t wasted my life as a regressor. On the other, I felt a deep unease at the idea that anomalies were now creeping into dreams to survive. I set my coffee cup down. "Thank you. That was a very insightful hypothesis. I''ll take your words to heart and investigate this anomaly further." "Are you nning to check out Kim Joo-chul''s modified grave?" "Yes. It''s in Busan, so I¡¯ll head there via the Inunaki Tunnel." "I¡¯ll go with you." Before I could respond, the Saintess blinked, and her outfit had already changed. Just a second ago, she was wearing afortable T-shirt, but now she was fully dressed for an outing, d in a long coat for the trip. Her signature axes, her main weapons, were also hanging from her bag, which was slung over her shoulder. She had likely used her ability to stop time and change clothes in an instant. With a calm, expressionless face, she said, "I¡¯ve always been very interested in your Time Seal ability. I''d like to take this chance to see thendscape inside the grave for myself." Her tone was so firm that rejecting her offer didn''t even cross my mind. I couldn''t help but smile. "Sure, I''d be happy to guide you." Together, we prepared to head toward the grave I had created long ago. A ce of torment that I had never shown to anyone in my guild¡ªa personal hell.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 205 Chapter 205

Chapter 205 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist II Every once in a while, someone would enter a tomb where Time Seal was cast, usually apanied by another person. For example, hadn¡¯t Kim Joo-chul entered his tomb with his son, Kim Si-eun? However, this was my first time revealing thendscape inside a tomb to someone as close to me as the Saintess. ¡°This is it.¡± The Saintess looked around curiously, hand sped around mine. ¡°So this is the paradise where one¡¯s happiest 24 hours repeat endlessly, the world I¡¯ve only heard tell of in stories.¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°I think calling it a paradise is a bit much.¡± ¡°I understand why you¡¯d feel that way, Mr. Undertaker, being a regressor and all. But for regr people who struggle to make ends meet, this ce is one of the best options avable.¡±¡°I don¡¯t know about that. Haven¡¯t casinos sprung up here recently? Asking the fairies for a dream would do them more good than being subjected to Time Seal.¡± ¡°Even that casino is one of the choices you created, Mr. Undertaker.¡± When I didn¡¯t respond, she added, ¡°Still, it¡¯s quiet.¡± As you all know, Kim Joo-chul''s dream was taking ce inside a football stadium, reying the game where he performed brilliantly in front of his family. It was the moment when he achieved perfect glory, wealth, and love stretched into eternity. However, the stadium, which should have been filled with the cheers of the crowd, was eerily quiet, just as the Saintess described. ¡°Hmm.¡± It was a bit too quiet. ¡°Everyone seems to be asleep.¡± ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± It was a world where everyone had fallen asleep. Every single person in the audience seats had passed out, leaving an eerie silence in their wake. It wasn¡¯t just the spectators either. The yers, who should have been ying on the field, were also lying sprawled across the grass. Among them was Kim Joo-chul, the owner of this ce, the same yer who had appeared in my nightmares to warn me. The football yer stuck in his prime was lying on the ground, clutching the football. ¡°Kim Joo-chul. Mr. Kim Joo-chul.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Can you hear my voice? Si-eun¡¯s father. Si-eun¡¯s father.¡± I lightly tapped his cheek, but there was no sign of him waking up. Even after sending a wave of Aura throughout his body, nothing changed. He was practically in a state of suspended animation. The over 10,000 people gathered in the stadium had all lost consciousness entirely. Given that they were all illusions, they were in a form of true suspended animation. I quickly made a decision. ¡°It looks like we¡¯ll need to call the Tutorial Fairy to check on these people¡¯s unconscious minds. And, Saintess.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let go of my hand, and under no circumstances should you eat or drink anything here. Even if you want to grab something from a vending machine, don¡¯t consume a single thing. If you do, you¡¯ll be cursed like in the myth of Persephone.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± We re-entered the tomb with the Tutorial Fairy. We needed her power to delve into Kim Joo-chul¡¯s dream. Suddenly, the scenery around us changedpletely. -Aaaahhhh! -Save me! Please save me! Half of the stadium¡¯s audience seating was burned down, reduced to ruins. People were running around madly, screaming in terror. -Another day is starting again! -Someone stop that murderous bastard! -Hehehe. It doesn¡¯t matter if I die, I¡¯lle back after one day anyway! Die! Just try and kill me, you bastards! It wasn¡¯t just screaming. Blood was sttered everywhere. Some were fighting each other with their fists, others had ripped off seats to use as shields. There were people swinging nks and baseball bats that they had somehow managed to find. ¡°Stay out of this! Hold your ground!¡± Kim Joo-chul was desperately defending his wife and young son. The football yers had formed groups, trying to keep themselves safe. I grabbed the Saintess¡¯s hand and approached the group of football yers. Kim Joo-chul turned to look at me and shouted, ¡°Hey! Don¡¯te any closer! I¡¯ll kill you!¡± ¡°Kim Joo-chul, it¡¯s me, Undertaker.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll seriously kill you! Huh? Wait, what?¡± He blinked his eyes in confusion. ¡°Mr. Undertaker? Is that really Mr. Undertaker?¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s me. We survived the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon together, didn¡¯t we?¡± ¡°Ah! Ahhh!¡± Kim Joo-chul dropped the baseball bat he was holding and ran toward me, throwing his arms around me. My shoulders were immediately soaked as tears poured from his once youthful eyes, now filled with the sorrow of a middle-aged man. ¡°Why, why did you take so long toe? Huh? This isn¡¯t a hallucination, right? Oh god, why did you take so long...?¡± Without knowing what else to do, I awkwardly patted his back. It wasn¡¯t just me feeling awkward either. The Saintess, the Tutorial Fairy, Kim Joo-chul¡¯s wife, and even his teammates all stood there with obvious confusion stered across their faces. ¡°Calm down, Mr. Kim. Exin it step by step. You said you¡¯ve been waiting for me, but your memory resets after just a day, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°One thousand days!¡± I froze. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for over one thousand days! I¡¯ve been repeating this hellish day more than a thousand times! It¡¯s not just me, everyone here has been doing it!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°This ce is hell, Mr. Undertaker! Please, save me¡ªsave all of us!¡± My jaw dropped. What the hell was going on?

It was dangerous near the stadium, with hundreds, even thousands of rioters running wild. We moved to Mt. Gubong, which Kim Joo-chul said was ¡°rtively safe.¡± When we climbed the slope and looked back, we could see that the entire Seo-gu district of Busan, including the football stadium, was aze. ¡°...At some point, I began to feel like I was living the same day over and over again,¡± Kim Joo-chul began exining. ¡°And then, all of a sudden, the memories of you, Mr. Undertaker, flooded my mind. Oh, right. This is all just a dream. In reality, I¡¯m already dead, but here I am, doing this crap.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°At first, I didn¡¯t pay much attention. After all, I had epted my fate, right? I figured once time reset, I¡¯d forget everything and continue living in ignorance, so it didn¡¯t matter. Or so I thought...¡± But the memories persisted. Even after 24 hours had passed, the "Continue ying" button was forcibly activated. ¡°Fuck. No matter how joyful the memories were, reliving the exact same day over and over again was torture. You were right, Mr. Undertaker. Forgetfulness was a blessing.¡± He sighed deeply. ¡°At first, I tried telling everyone. That we were stuck, repeating the same day over and over. That once 24 hours passed, we¡¯d be back to living the same day.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°People just looked at me like I was crazy. I felt sorry for them, but I understood. But after 20 or 30 loops, roughly a month of repeating the same day¨D¡± The anomaly made its entrance at the bar where he and his teammates went after a match. ¡°Out of nowhere, the bartender said something to me.¡± ¡°Excuse me, didn¡¯t youe here yesterday too?¡± ¡°That¡¯s where it started. One by one, people began to notice. The bartender, my teammates sitting at the same table, even other customers.¡± Hey, isn¡¯t the TV always showing the same thing? Didn¡¯t we drink together yesterday too? The food here tastes the same every day. ¡°In no time at all, even my wife figured it out.¡± It was like an infectious disease. A so-called ¡®Regression Virus¡¯ began to spread rapidly. The first to be infected were likely those who had the closest contact with Kim Joo-chul that day. The virus then spread further and further as the same day kept repeating. Even after time reset, the Regression Virus didn¡¯t vanish. Infected people continued to spread it to others. Huh? Was today Saturday? Wait, wasn¡¯t this game yesterday? The bar patrons infected their family members, the yers infected yers from the opposing team, the supporters infected other citizens. The Regression Virus spread at an rming pace. The problem was that this was a half-baked regression¡ªmeaning the same 24 hours simply repeated forever. Hey, isn¡¯t this weird? Didn¡¯t you ask the same question yesterday? Right? Something¡¯s off. Hold on, I¡¯ve got a friend at a TV station. I¡¯ll give them a call... People tried to spread the word, doing whatever they could to get others to recognize the strange situation. That only helped the virus spread further. By the time the hundredth day had passed, the virus, which began in a small bar near the stadium, had consumed the entire Seo-gu district of Busan. Another day has started again... What the hell is wrong? What¡¯s the government doing about this? The citizens, led by public officials and police officers, tried to get the situation under control. They reached out to the media and tried to inform the government of the situation in Busan. They even managed to get in touch with the government. But everything reset after 24 hours. Didn¡¯t we get a promise from Mayor Jung Sang-guk about this yesterday? Yes, but... I¡¯m sorry. It seems that no one outside of us is aware that time is repeating. What? We¡¯re the only ones who know. Everyone else is oblivious to the fact that the same day keeps repeating. So, all the promises made 24 hours ago are forgotten. Istion. Quarantine. The Regression Virus never spread beyond Busan¡ªmore specifically, the Seo-gu district. Only the citizens of this ce were aware that 24 hours were repeating endlessly. Like a zombie virus causing an entire city to be sealed off, these citizens were trapped not in space, but in time. This is impossible! There has to be some way out of this, right? Yet, even in the face of the truth, the citizens refused to ept it. They believed that if they could just get the word out to the government, somehow, a solution would be found. Some like the elderly professor who admitted, ¡°We got the promise, but it didn¡¯t matter,¡± were resigned, while most of the citizenry still sought out their own means of salvation. We need to cause enough chaos so that the world can¡¯t ignore us! That¡¯s right! We need to show how severe this is within the next 24 hours so that the government and everyone else realize what¡¯s happening! But how do we do that? We need to start a riot! Let¡¯s cause a bloodbath, something big enough that the world can¡¯t ignore us! Oh... If enough people get hurt, the government will be forced to act. The media will swarm in to cover the situation. Let¡¯s do it! Everyone, steel your hearts and get ready! So, they took drastic action. A riot, meticulously nned and executed, caused massive casualties. Busan was in an uproar as the bloody sh between ordinary citizens rmed the local government, prompting them to deploy arge police force. Ahhh! It worked! It worked! Turn on the TV! The government¡¯s making an announcement! They¡¯ve responded before the day reset! We¡¯re saved! As long as they know, we¡¯ll be okay! Despite bleeding from their heads and being arrested by the police, the citizens shed tears of joy. They truly believed they had escaped from hell. But then, 24 hourster... Oh no. It¡¯s happened again. But this time, the whole country knows! Surely, things will change now. Nothing changed. In fact, it only confirmed their worst fears. No one remembers, do they? What? The government. No one there remembers anything about the time loop... Indeed, after all the chaos, the citizens were finally forced to face the cruel truth. First, the Regression Virus only spread within Seo-gu, Busan. Second, it never infected anyone beyond that area. The reason was simple: Beyond this single day, nothing else in the world was actually created. The Time Seal was not all-powerful. Only the area necessary to recreate Kim Joo-chul¡¯s happiest day was fully constructed. The world beyond Kim Joo-chul¡¯s daily routine didn¡¯t exist. The people and events there were nothing more than shallow images. What the hell? Why are we the only ones...? Fuck, what the hell is going on? The citizens couldn¡¯t deduce the full extent of the situation. All they knew was that they had been trapped, living the same day over and over again¡ªhundreds, even thousands of times. Eventually... Ah... Ahhh! Aaaahhh! At some point, societal order began to rapidly copse. Those who once advocated for reaching out to the government or starting riots quickly lost the support of the masses. No, it was the leaders themselves who fell into despair. No matter what they tried, no matter how many they killed or how many died, everything reset after 24 hours. Stop! Calm down! We just need to build amunity and cooperate... Shut up! My family is in Incheon! Attempts to establish amunity consistently failed. The rule that ¡°people would return to life even after being killed¡± made it impossible to create a stable society. Human life¡ªtime itself¡ªwas the fundamental currency of any social system, long before the gold standard was introduced. Morality,bor, rtionships. These elements, rooted in the value of life, crumbled the moment that value became meaningless. Society, built by Homo sapiens, copsed in an instant. ¡°I just... Mr. Undertaker... Maybe this is all my fault...¡± Having witnessed everything, Kim Joo-chul began to tremble. ¡°You know, I made that wish to you, right? The, uh, the time... what was it again?¡± ¡°Time Seal, you mean.¡± ¡°Ah! Right, right. That¡¯s it. I was hit with the Time Seal... Could it be that everyone else got caught up in it, too?¡± His voice dropped to a whisper, as though he feared someone might overhear. Eyes brimming with guilt, self-loathing, and terror. he bowed his head and muttered, ¡°If... If that¡¯s what¡¯s happening, then, these sorts of things usually end when the cause dies, right...? But I¡¯ve already died several times, and yet, still...¡± ¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°This isn¡¯t your fault.¡± ¡°R-really...?¡± ¡°Yes. Mr. Kim, this ce isn¡¯t real. It¡¯s nothing more than thest remnant you left behind in the world¡ªjust a dream.¡± ¡°Oh...¡± ¡°The bartenders, your teammates, your wife¡ªthey¡¯re not real people, but illusions.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°There¡¯s no fundamental difference between the people here and those beyond Busan. The only distinction is that the illusions here are more detailed, while those beyond are mere rough sketches. The reason the people beyond Busan didn¡¯t notice the time loop is simply that theyck the capacity to do so.¡± His lips quivered. ¡°Y-yeah. You¡¯re right. That makes sense... But still, Mr. Undertaker... no matter how you look at it, me, these people...¡± At that moment, Kim Joo-chul looked up at me and grabbed my leg. ¡°P-please, save us.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Don¡¯t leave us here. Mr. Undertaker... No, Lord. Lord, aren¡¯t you the creator of this world? You promised, didn¡¯t you? That we¡¯d be able to enjoy this happy day forever. But this... This is different, Lord. This is hell...¡± ¡°Please, calm down.¡± I held his trembling hand with my free hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. This is my responsibility, and I will fix this.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± ¡°If there¡¯s me to be had, it should fall on me and on the anomaly. And¡ª¡± My gaze shed over to meet the Saintess¡¯s eyes. She understood the meaning behind my look and nodded slightly in agreement. ¡°Thanks to your exnation, Mr. Kim, I¡¯ve figured out the nature of this anomaly.¡± Valha. A ce where, even in death, the same day repeats endlessly, with the dead fighting eternally. That was the anomaly haunting this tomb.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 206 Chapter 206

Chapter 206 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist III We decided to leave the tombstone and return to reality for now. The Crystal Tombstone was ultimately a fantasy realm I had created, no matter how real it felt, so our preparations needed to be done some out in the real world. Needless to say, Kim Joo-chul panicked. ¡°Mr. Undertaker! You can¡¯t just leave us here like this. You must return. If you don¡¯t, we will truly be¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯ll return within a week at thetest. Please protect your wife and child and wait for me.¡± ¡°A week...¡± Joo-chul trembled as anxiety overwhelmed him.After barely managing to calm him down, we escaped from the tombstone. The fresh air of the ruined football stadium greeted us. Unlike the fiery scene that consumed the entirety of Busan¡¯s Seo-gu district inside the tombstone, the vige in reality was quiet. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize... So regressing can push a person¡¯s mind to this extreme,¡± the Saintess murmured beside me, still holding my hand. ¡°Kim Joo-chul and the citizens may have fallen into madness, but if we think rationally, it¡¯s only been a thousand days. Not even three years have passed. And yet...¡± She nced at me. I understood what she wanted to say. I¡¯ve been a regressor for thousands of years, but I still seemed rtively sane. I shrugged. ¡°I repeat my life, but they¡¯re stuck repeating just one day.¡± ¡°...Is that really the only reason?¡± ¡°Either way, we should get moving. Kim Joo-chul may be forgotten in reality, but I don¡¯t want to leave him like this.¡± ¡°Ah, I agree.¡± We wandered the full breadth of Busan. The objective was simple: to observe whether simr phenomena were urring with the other people sealed inside Crystal Tombstones, like Kim Joo-chul. The result? I groaned. ¡°They¡¯re all infected.¡± It wasn¡¯t just Kim Joo-chul. I checked only 50 tombstones, but all 50 individuals were infected with the 24-hour Regression Virus. There were around 500,000 Time Seals across the Korean Penins. All of them were most likely infected with the same bizarre phenomenon. What¡¯s more, after spending an entire day wandering Busan, I discovered something else. ¡°...Mr. Undertaker, it seems like this is affecting the people in reality as well.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Just as she said. Inside the dream realm of Kim Joo-chul¡¯s tombstone, I had seen numerous ordinary citizens. Most of them had died or gone missing, but about one-tenth of them had survived the apocalypse and living in the Seo-gu district of Busan. These survivors, specifically the ordinary citizenry who appeared in Kim Joo-chul¡¯s dream¡ªstrangely, their ¡®sleep time¡¯ had been steadily increasing. ¡°Hah, don¡¯t even get me started. Lately, maybe because of the heat, I¡¯ve been having some strange thoughts.¡± I was able to get specific testimony from one of the survivors. He used to be a football yer on the same team as Kim Joo-chul. (Of course, he had no memory of Kim Joo-chul or the fact that he was trapped in a 24-hour loop inside his dream.) ¡°What do you mean by strange thoughts...?¡± ¡°Well... it¡¯s hard to exin, but it¡¯s like d¨¦j¨¤ vu? You know that feeling when you think you¡¯ve gone through something before? Lately, I¡¯ve been getting that feeling more and more.¡± ¡°......¡± An abnormal symptom. If only one person had experienced it, I would¡¯ve dismissed it as heatstroke, but every survivor we found in Seo-guined of the same thing. Although the intensity of the feeling varied, they all reported experiencing some form of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. All of these people had gone mad after being infected with the Regression Virus inside Kim Joo-chul¡¯s dream. ¡°...Wait a moment.¡± The Saintess¡¯s expression darkened, more than I had ever seen before. ¡°Mr. Undertaker. Didn¡¯t you say that over 500,000 people were sealed in time across the country?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°...If all 500,000 of them were infected with the Regression Virus, and if every person who appeared in their dreams was also infected, and those symptoms are now showing up in reality...¡± I nodded. ¡°Yes. It won¡¯t be long before the entire Korean Penins begins showing the same symptoms.¡± A Regression Alliance was called immediately. I exined to the members the influence this unidentified anomaly was having, writing it down on the ckboard. [Identity of the Anomaly = Nut??] Inside the Crystal Tombstones, the sealed people are experiencing a 24-hour regression. Normally, their memories should reset every 24 hours, but for some reason, their memories are being preserved. This phenomenon is spreading to those around them too. Not only is this happening inside the tombstones, but it¡¯s also starting to appear in reality. The affected people in reality are feeling a strong sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, as if things are repeating. After hearing the exnation, Noh Do-hwa frowned. ¡°What the fuck? So now we¡¯re dealing with a gue that spreads through dreams, turning everyone into half-assed regressors?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say for sure,¡± I said calmly. ¡°I suspect that several anomalies have ovepped. I¡¯d like to ask you all¡ªhave you recently been feeling an unusually strong sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu?¡± The members exchanged nces. Seo Gyu spoke first. ¡°Now that you mention it... While eating breakfast this morning, I suddenly thought, ¡®I¡¯ve definitely seen this exact scene before,¡¯ hyung.¡± ¡°I... I had the same experience.¡± Sim Ah-ryeon hesitated as she spoke. ¡°Remember when the guild master asked me to draw that, um, Infinite Metagame? The one with the blue butterfly painting? While I was drawing it, I thought, ¡®Wait, haven¡¯t I drawn this exact same thing before...?¡¯¡± ¡°I¡¯ve had simr experiences as well,¡± Yu Ji-won agreed. ¡°I brushed it off as a trick of the mind, but if it¡¯s due to the anomaly, it makes sense. Honestly, even this very meeting room feels oddly familiar.¡± Of course. I had sealed about 500,000 people in time, so it was more likely than not that Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, and Yu Ji-won had appeared briefly in someone¡¯s dream. ¡°It''s probable that this anomaly is abination of several concepts. For instance, it seems that ¡®Valha¡¯ is involved.¡± ¡°Valha? As in, the ce where warriors go to die, only to kill and die again in the afterlife?¡± ¡°Precisely.¡± Valha, one of the afterlives. In Valha, the souls of the invited warriors kill and die each morning, only to be resurrected by evening. ¡°The concept of a ¡®day repeating endlessly¡¯ aligns closely with Valha.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± ¡°I suspect this anomaly has the ability to manipte the concept of the afterlife. Hell, oblivion... wherever the souls that disappear from reality gather.¡± Tap, tap. I continued exining, writing on the ckboard. ¡°When I seal people in time, they vanish from the world entirely. In a way, the inside of the Crystal Tombstones isn¡¯t much different from the afterlife. At least, that¡¯s how this anomaly sees it.¡± ¡°...So, you¡¯re saying this anomaly is corrupting your tombstones?¡± I confirmed the Saintess¡¯s words. ¡°Exactly. To be more precise, its ultimate goal is probably to corrupt me.¡± ¡°...You, Mr. Undertaker.¡± ¡°Think about it. What people experience inside the Crystal Tombstones is essentially a ¡®miniature version¡¯ of what I go through. I¡¯m a regressor, and though their experience onlysts 24 hours, they¡¯re regressing too. I don¡¯t like making thisparison, but...¡± I tapped the ckboard again, adding more words. [Undertaker = Outer God] Regression ability, Perfect memory ability [Kim Joo-chul and other Sealed Ones = Apostles] Regression ability (24 hours), Memory ability I turned to face them. ¡°If things go wrong, this could be the new hierarchy.¡± The Saintess¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°The Undertaker as an Outer God, and the Apostles being targeted first...¡± ¡°Yes. Of course, I¡¯m not actually saying I¡¯m an Outer God. I¡¯m just exining how the anomaly seems to perceive me.¡± It was a ssic strategy¡ªkill the minions to weaken the boss. ¡°To make this work, the anomaly must make me and the Apostles as simr as possible. The biggest difference between me and Kim Joo-chul, for instance, is...¡± ¡°...Memory.¡± ¡°Exactly. I know I¡¯m regressing and I remember everything perfectly through my Complete Memory. But Kim Joo-chul, until now, didn¡¯t even realize he was repeating the same day over and over.¡± So, the anomaly forcefully molded him in my image and designated Kim Joo-chul as my avatar. Not just Kim Joo-chul either¡ª500,000 Time Sealers were now beingpelled to resemble me. If it managed to push all 500,000 of them under its control or subject them to unbearable torment... ¡°It couldnd a blow on me as well.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I believe that¡¯s what the anomaly is trying to achieve. Well, this is still just spection, of course.¡± The room fell silent. Breaking the stillness, Noh Do-hwa tilted her chin in thought. ¡°In short, this anomaly is trying to take you down, huh?¡± ¡°Yes. Whether it¡¯s intentional or not, the result is the same¡ªit¡¯s targeting me.¡±

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 207 Chapter 207 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist IV No one panicked, not even in the face of the relentless assault of an anomaly that was set to be ssified as an Outer God-ss threat. Not just me but the entire Regressor Alliance, who now held the reins of power over the Korean Penins, stayed calm. That much was to be expected, of course. ¡°Another virus?¡± ¡°The imagination of these damn anomalies is pathetic. All they seem to know is how to screw over humanity with pandemics...¡± ¡°So is this one stronger than COVID?¡±Yeah, the Korean Penins had experienced far too much to freak out over yet another pandemic, let alone scream about the end of the world. Through Constetion Talk and SG Net, we sent out an alert: [A mysterious virus is currently spreading. Please act ordingly, as you¡¯ve been trained.] The citizens responded swiftly. Keeping distance, isting in their districts, making schedules to avoid ovepping routes¡ªeveryone knew the drill. But this Regressor Virus was something altogether new. It had the power to mock the defense protocols that Korea had painstakingly built over time. ¡°How are we supposed to prevent a virus that spreads through dreams...?¡± Noh Do-hwa summarized the heart of the issue in one sentence. ¡°With diseases that spread in the real world, you can at least try to lock things down or destroy the source. But this... This thing spreads just because I showed up in the dream of someone you sealed away with Time Seal. Am I right?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve dispatched the Tutorial Fairies to the infecteds'' dreams.¡± ¡°And those ¡®Hoek¡¯ vending machines are supposed to stop the disease?¡± ¡°No. At best, they¡¯ll just buy us some time.¡± In short, the disease was uncontainable. No matter howposed the leadership of the Penins remained, the situation was escting fast. Unless one had reached the extreme limit of Aura, it was impossible to avoid sleep for an extended period. Everyone slept. And everyone who slept was infected through their dreams. It had only been a single day, but SG Net was already in chaos. - Anonymous: [Virus] I¡¯m losing my mind; every time I close my eyes, I see the scenes of my death from previous rounds. - Anonymous: [Virus] This world is just repeating itself, and this life is nothing but one of countless copies. - Anonymous: [Virus] To those not infected yet, take note. Read this. - Anonymous: [Virus] This ce is hell. The cries of the infected began to flood in. I decided to meet with a few of them directly. The symptoms of the Regressor Virus turned out to be remarkably consistent. ¡°The world, it''s repeating! I¡¯m sure of it! Look! This conversation we¡¯re having right now definitely happened before!¡± Symptom #1: Intense d¨¦j¨¤ vu. When mild, it manifested as a fleeting d¨¦j¨¤ vu. But as the infection worsened, the feeling grew stronger. ¡°Calm down. This is our first time meeting. Even if there were previous rounds, we¡¯ve never had a conversation like this.¡± ¡°No, no! You just don¡¯t realize it yet. That¡¯s why you¡¯re so calm, because you don¡¯t know the truth¡ªthat the world is repeating!¡± ¡°......¡± Who would¡¯ve thought that one day, I¡¯d get lectured about regression? It sent a strange mix of novelty and awkwardness through me as I watched the infected person nervously chew his nails, his eyes losing focus. ¡°That expression of yours... Those eyes... I¡¯ve seen it all before. It¡¯s all pointless. We¡¯re going to die again. We¡¯ll repeat, over and over, living the same lives as if nothing ever happened... I don¡¯t want to die. I don¡¯t want to live either...¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Symptom #2: Extreme fear of regression. Considering most people fantasize about bing regressors and having an easy life, this symptom was perplexing. However, this symptom stemmed from the first. If you were truly a regressor in a fictional world, you¡¯d probably enjoy carving out apletely different path from your previous life. But the Regressor Virus was different. The most insidious part of this virus was that it made people feel like every single thought and action had already been repeated thousands, even tens of thousands of times. No matter what they did, no matter how novel it seemed, they believed they had experienced it all before. Inevitably, no matter what choices they made, they were overwhelmed by an inescapable d¨¦j¨¤ vu. In other words... ¡°It might be more urate to call this the D¨¦j¨¤ Vu Virus rather than the Regressor Virus.¡± Above all, this virus didn¡¯t cause people to truly recognize they were regressing, like I did. Some patients even pointed at me during our interview and said: ¡°Undertaker? Weren¡¯t you a woman?¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Why are you a man this time? Ah, right. There were rounds where you were a man, too.¡± What utter nonsense. This was Symptom #3 of the virus. It didn¡¯t actually cause real regression but merely imnted in the infected the false belief that they had been regressing repeatedly. Even when I interrogated them about specific events from past cycles, their answers were vague at best. When questioned about the future, they rambled incoherently. Yet even if it was just a delusion, we couldn¡¯t afford to let our guard down. When I finished the interviews and stepped outside, Do-hwa was leaning against the wall, watching me. ¡°Today alone, 136 suicide cases have been confirmed. There¡¯s probably a lot more we haven¡¯t found yet...¡± she trailed off. ¡°......¡± ¡°Those infected by the virus fall into one of two categories: They either be highly violent or sink into severe apathy. The former kills others, while thetter kills themselves. What kind of shit disease is this...?¡± Do-hwa tugged on one of her gloves, the ck leather creaking as it stretched over her hand. Under the dim light, the five long fingers there clenched tight. ¡°So, what are you going to do about this...?¡± There were twoyers to Do-hwa¡¯s question. One was the literal meaning. What are you going to do about the situation? No matter how elusive the Tutorial Fairies were, they couldn''t control the dreams of all infected persons. With three million survivors left in Korea, it wouldn¡¯t be long before the symptoms worsened for everyone. The second meaning was unspoken. Are you going to abandon this round? Right now, the members of the Regressor Alliance were experiencing rtively mild symptoms, but that could change rapidly in a few days. Soon, I might witness the people I cared about either killing others or taking their own lives. And if I didn¡¯t want to see that, she could kill me herself. Just like she had done in certain rounds I had never mentioned before. ¡°We must not surrender.¡± But this time, I wouldn¡¯t. ¡°This anomaly is not something we can ovee just by resetting to a new round. In fact, doing so will probably make things worse.¡± ¡°Worse?¡± ¡°The host of this pandemic isn¡¯t something that appeared in this cycle alone. It¡¯s the dreams of those I erased with my Time Seal, and the Seal is immune to the round resets. No matter how many rounds I go through, the Crystal Tombstones I sealed are still there.¡± Do-hwa¡¯s eyes widened slightly. ¡°So, even if you regress, the virus remains trapped in those tombstones...?¡± I nodded. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s my theory. In fact, it¡¯s possible the Regressor Virus didn¡¯t just pop up this round. It might have been umting ever since the tombstones were created¡ªsince the 4th round. It could have transformed over time and only now exploded in this round.¡± ¡°What round are we on now?¡± ¡°The 267th.¡± ¡°...Fuck.¡± Exactly. If my theory was correct, the virus had managed to find the only truly safe zone in this world of repeated cycles: inside the Time Seal. A ce that even a regressor like me couldn¡¯t alter¡ªa point of no return. Just like how the anomaly known as Go Yuri had embedded itself deep in my unconscious, the virus too had built its final stronghold, resisting my regressions. ¡°What¡¯s the point of being a regressor if regression is useless? What do you have left, besides that face of yours and your dead-fish eyes...?¡± ¡°I make great coffee.¡± ¡°Who needs that...?¡± ¡°I can offer the honor, wealth, and power of Korea to a retired 7th-grade civil servant, like yourself.¡± ¡°Fuck, no thanks...¡± ¡°I can mediate when Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa fight. Not just anyone can do that.¡± ¡°If you weren¡¯t around, they wouldn¡¯t even be fighting, you asshole...¡± ¡°Hoek!¡± The barrage of insults from Noh Do-hwa was interrupted by a most unexpected source¡ªthe Tutorial Fairy. With a pop, fairy number 264 appeared out of nowhere, waving its wand dramatically. ¡°Comrade Secretary! Emergency! A crisis has arrived!¡± ¡°What''s up? Did we run out of Jinju sausages?¡±[1] ¡°It¡¯s not as terrifying as that, but still an emergency...!¡± I tossed the sausage-loving fairy a pack of the aforementioned sausages. Fairy No. 264 smiled in bliss, chomping down without even peeling off the wrapper. Keeping these Tutorial Fairies loyal required constant, subtle gestures like this. ¡°Hoek! While we were monitoring the dreams of the infected as per yourmand, we made a shocking discovery!¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Seeing is believing! Site inspections are a core duty of amunist secretary! Come with me!¡± The fairy was likely referring to either the Tutorial Dungeons or a dream. Since the Tutorial Dungeons in Korea had long been closed, it was obviously going to be the dream of an infected person¡ªin this case, the dreamscape of the former football yer, Kim Joo-chul. ¡°Under your strict orders, we¡¯ve been keeping a close eye on this man¡¯s dreams!¡± The fairy fluttered around as we entered the dream. When I arrived, it was quiet. Earlier, the entire ce had been overrun with rioters, wreaking havoc, but now, all was calm. Even the stadium was intact. Every spectator and yer had copsed, drifting off into sleep, their heads surrounded by ZZZ bubbles. It was the power of a Baku¡ªa dream eater.[2] ¡°To prevent further spread, we devised this method: First, we put all the residents of this dreamworld to sleep, then entered their dreams to put them to sleep again. Then we entered the dreams within the dreams to put them to sleep yet again!¡± ¡°...Sounds like a way to ess the unconscious mind.¡± ¡°Hoek! Exactly! As expected of Comrade Secretary!¡± The fairy zoomed about excitedly. ¡°When you trap ordinary humans in dream after dream like this, the dream eventually bes so distorted that it¡¯s no longer recognizable as a dream. The virus¡¯s space to operate melts away like candle wax! That¡¯s how we¡¯ve been containing the spread!¡± Ah, by the way, we could have left the Tutorial Fairies within the Time Sealpletely unattended. If humans were left unattended like that, they¡¯d disappear forever, but somehow, the Tutorial Fairies could enter and exit freely as long as I gave them permission. When I asked how that was possible, they simply said, ¡°Hoek! You call it a cemetery, but for us, it feels no different from a dream!¡± Fairy logic was truly mysterious. ¡°But Comrade Secretary, pleasee here and check out Kim Joo-chul''s dream!¡± So I entered. There, in the middle of the football field, Kim Joo-chuly sleeping soundly. Taking the fairy¡¯s hand (after hearing yet another strange luby), I entered his dream within the dream. Did you watch the Olympic game yesterday? Everyone! Believe in the Goddess! Believe, and you¡¯ll live in heaven! Honk! Honk! Dad! I told you not to bring up politics! The ce was swarming with people. I had been away from this sort of scene for so long that I¡¯d almost forgotten what it was like, but after reflecting on it for a moment, I realized it was... Seoul Station. ¡°Where... is this?¡± People walked around, using smartphones. Cars honked on the road. College students climbed the steps of the station. This must have been what human life looked like before the world ended¡ªa fleeting glimpse of what used to be. ¡°Is this... really Kim Joo-chul¡¯s dream?¡± I wasn¡¯t looking down on him. As the fairy had exined before we entered, the unconscious mind couldn''t create a world this detailed and rational. Even with my Complete Memory, my own unconscious dreamscape had ced a vast desert just outside of Busan Station. But what about this ce? It didn¡¯t seem like a simple product of Kim Joo-chul¡¯s unconscious. The acrid smell of exhaust wafting from the asphalt road was so vivid, so real. As real as reality itself. No. Exactly the same as reality. ¡°Hoek! Defining whether this is a dream is tricky, but we¡¯ve decided to call it an Inner World! What¡¯s certain is...¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The Inner World spans as far as the Korean Penins and continues to expand in real-time! With a little more effort, it might even surpass reality!¡± the fairy dered. ¡°And it¡¯s not just in Kim Joo-chul either! Anyone infected with the virus¡ªanyone at all¡ªgets linked to this ce!¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°Every single person infected in the real world has been abducted to this Inner World!¡± Footnotes: [1] A type of Korean snack sausage, like beef jerky. [2] Baku are dream-devouring yokai from Japanese folklore that are said to consume nightmares. A person gued by bad dreams can call out to a baku for protection, but if the creature is hungry after its meal, it may also devourer said person¡¯s hopes and dreams. Join our discord at Chapter 208 Chapter 208

Chapter 208 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist V Abduction. Naturally, being abducted by an anomaly is quite different from being kidnapped by a human. When humans kidnap you, it¡¯s usually your honor, wealth, or life that¡¯s at risk. But an anomaly? Surprisingly, all of those things might just remain intact. Anomalies don¡¯t do anything outside of what¡¯s necessary. If they were after your life, they would kill you on the spot, not bother going through the whole process of an abduction. No, when an anomaly abducts you, there¡¯s only one thing they¡¯re after: your ¡®humanity.¡¯ And I¡¯m not just talking about ethics and morality¡ªit includes the logical structure built into the brain of every Homo sapien.Q. What¡¯s 1 + 1? A. Obviously, it¡¯s 2. Even those who answer that question normally, if abducted by an anomaly, may suddenly respond with: Q. What¡¯s 1 + 1? A. Having ughtered the flesh of 10, only 1 limb remains. Since a cross of 1 and 1 is X and X is 10, when two 10s join to form 100, align 100 crossed forearms and you¡¯ll have your answer.[1] Then, they proceed to murder 100 people, including themselves, disying 100 pairs of forearms. Being outraged at the fact that they couldmit such monstrous acts would mean nothing to them. A. Why are you getting angry all of a sudden? Because in their mind, killing 100 people is no different from calcting 1 + 1 = 2. They ughtered with the same nonchnce as doing simple math. I just answered 1 + 1 = 2, so why are you upset? Why are you looking at me with such sadness? They¡¯d look at you with confusion. They''re no longer human. They''re incapable of human conversation. Thus was the abduction of humanity. This is what I usually refer to when I say someone has been ¡®entranced¡¯ by an anomaly. It was likely in this sense that the Tutorial Fairy used the word. ¡°If everyone infected in the real world has been abducted... how many people are here in this Inner World?¡± ¡°Hoek! At least two million! And the number¡¯s skyrocketing in real-time!¡± I frowned. ¡°Wait, at this rate, it¡¯ll surpass the poption of the Penins.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! This ce doesn''t just contain the virus-infected people from reality, but even characters from their dreams! It¡¯ll soon exceed ten million! Wee to the Reversal World!¡± ¡°...Huh.¡± Ten million. I surveyed the vast emptiness that stretched around Seoul Station. If this ce was the Void created by an anomaly, it wasn¡¯t just any Void¡ªit was a Great Void. A Great Void of this scale was incredibly rare. For example, an anomaly like an ¡°apartment trapping 400 souls¡± would only be a standard Apartment Anomaly. But if an apartment could hold 40,000 souls, additional concepts would be needed. Like, ¡°This reflects the deep desire Koreans have for apartments,¡± or, ¡°It¡¯s based on a real apartment with that many pre-sale applications.¡± The anomaly wouldn''t just be about the building, but the entireplex. Only then could a Great Void growrger. Thergest Great Void on Earth was in the western part of Eurasia, where the concepts of World War I and World War II had been linked, trapping hundreds of millions of souls. ¡°How could it have pulled in millions? Did it dere this ce a hell?¡± ¡°Hoek, not at all. If anything, it¡¯s quite the opposite¡ª¡± ¡°Everyone!¡± Just then, a voice boomed from the za of Seoul Station. It was a man with a megaphone, dressed in an outfit that screamed street evangelist, much like those seen before the copse of civilization. But there was something a bit off about the writing on his vest. Goddess = Heaven! No Goddess = Hell! The stickers patched across his vest were disturbingly simr to reality. ¡°Everyone! I¡¯m sorry to interrupt your busy lives! But I had no choice! I had to grab this stage to guide you toward true faith and a righteous life!¡± The middle-aged man shouted into his red megaphone. ¡°As you know, many unfortunate souls are still trapped in hell! Unlike us, they have yet to be saved! They live lives of endless regression, endless cycles, endless suffering! Friends! Family!¡± At this point, the sense of ¡°reality¡± that had anchored this ce suddenly and dramatically reversed. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Everyone in the za stopped moving and turned to stare at the man. People on the phone hung up. Those looking at their smartphones turned them off. Even those chatting withpanions fell silent. The za was engulfed in eerie stillness. There wasn¡¯t a single annoyed look directed at the man¡¯s megaphone. Everyone stared at him nkly, with dark, hollow eyes. ¡°Across the Void, countless people still suffer in the inferno of eternal reincarnation! Those people are your friends! Your family! And, ultimately, they are a reflection of yourselves! Let us pray for them! Oh, Goddess!¡± ¡°Oh, Goddess!¡± The previously silent crowd suddenly roared in unison. The man waved his arms even more fervently. ¡°Oh, Goddesssss!¡± ¡°Oh, Goddess!¡± ¡°Repent! As we live through cycle after cycle, hundreds, thousands of times over, we fall into the delusion that we will be saved! That the world will be redeemed! But we must repent for our sins, for the sins of our friends, family, and selves!¡± ¡°Repent!¡± ¡°Praise her! The only thing piling up in this endless life is our growing sins. Even if we forget, the Goddess continues to watch over us! Our filthy souls, they are stained with sin. Yet the Goddess, in her mercy, never gave up on us! She has pulled us out of hell and returned us to this world! Praise her!¡± ¡°Praise her!¡± ¡°Oh, Goddessss!¡± ¡°Oh, Goddess!¡± The entire za descended into madness. Fairy No. 264 let out a quiet hoek and hid behind me. Even I hesitated for a moment as I saw the frenzied eyes of the crowd. ¡°Bow down, all of you! Worship her!¡± Without a second of hesitation, the crowd in the za dropped to the ground. Not a single one of them cared that their suits got dirty. Kim Joo-chul was among them. He and his wife bowed low to the ground. ¡°Confront it! As you did yesterday, as you did the day before, as you did a hundred years ago, and a thousand years ago! See your reflection in this eternal hell!¡± And then something bizarre happened. The asphalt ground of the za turned transparent¡ªlike ss. Beneath the ss, scenes began to y. In the ce where Kim Joo-chul bowed, the scene was of Kim Joo-chul himself. ¡°Save me! Please, just let me out of here! I can¡¯t keep reliving this day anymore!¡± It wasn¡¯t just him. Wherever the crowd bowed, each of them saw a vision of themselves beneath the ss. And among them, I noticed a familiar green-haired figure¡ªit was Sim Ah-ryeon. The scene beneath the ss that caught and held my attention, however, was the following: ¡°The National Road Management Corps are theckeys of hell! They want to trap us in this endless regression! They¡¯re the true demons!¡± ¡°Demons! Demons! Demons!¡± In the scene, a group of protesters gathered in front of the National Road Management Corps headquarters, screaming their chants. Yu Ji-won and her team came out and brutally suppressed them. The Tower of Babel za was filled with screams. A scene that could have easily been from reality. I muttered to myself, ¡°What are these scenes?¡± ¡°Hoek. They¡¯re from the real world.¡± The fairy peeked over my shoulder. ¡°Comrade Secretary, look beneath your feet.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I looked down, and to my surprise, just like the others, there was a ss panel beneath me disying a ¡®scene.¡¯ The Undertaker on the other side was sleeping with his eyes closed. Surrounding him were Noh Do-hwa and the Saintess, sitting nearby. While Iy in bed, they were talking softly. ¡°Damn. It¡¯s noisy outside...¡± ¡°The protests are getting worse.¡± ¡°Well, not surprising. Even the Awakeners are infected with this so-called Regressor Virus. Samcheon and Baekhwa mentioned trying to suppress it, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯llst long...¡± ¡°I still believe everything will be fine once Undertaker wakes up.¡± I was speechless. This wasn¡¯t just a scene that could exist in reality¡ªit was reality itself. Then Fairy No. 24 revealed, ¡°But for those humans entranced by this Inner World, it¡¯s the opposite.¡± ¡°...The opposite?¡± ¡°Hoek! Yes! Here is the real world, and beyond the ss is the afterlife¡ªtheir hell!¡± My eyes shot wide. ¡°What? How could they be fooled like that...?¡± ¡°Hoek! It works! To be more precise, the anomaly is actively pushing that narrative!¡± Fairy number 264 continued to exin. The reason they believed their Inner World was superior to my reality. ¡°First of all, there¡¯s no war here, and civilization is still intact! And like I said, the poption here is about to surpass yours!¡± Civilization and environment. ¡°That side is a harsh world, an eternal regression hell. But this Inner World created by the anomaly exists without regression! It continues on like a normal reality!¡± The flow of time. ¡°So, Comrade Secretary, this anomaly has dered your world a ¡®hell.¡¯ It¡¯s a challenge to see which world is the true reality and which is the hellscape!¡± ¡°......¡± I finally understood. In the end, this anomaly was no different from others in its essence. Anomalies typically create hell within reality, but this one had simply named reality itself as hell. And just like that, it had constructed its own Inner World, iming it as its territory. This ce was the world of the living, and that ce was the afterlife. The anomaly was entrancing people with that narrative. Reversal. Inversion. A change in perception. Reluctantly, I admitted, ¡°...Clever bastard. So, where is this, exactly? Is it a dream? The unconscious?¡± ¡°Hoek, not quite. You reached this ce through a dream, but dreams are just a simr experience!¡± ¡°A simr experience...?¡± With a sh of insight, I deduced, ¡°I see, so that¡¯s it. There¡¯s an old myth that people can sometimes glimpse the afterlife through their dreams. The afterlife doesn¡¯t actually exist in dreams, but it can be momentarily essed through them. This ce must have the properties of the afterlife.¡± ¡°As expected of Comrade Secretary! Hoek! Of course, the anomaly considers this the real world and the other side the afterlife...¡± A cleverly designed trap, no doubt. However, I finally caught a glimpse of the strategy. It was a simple matter of proving which was the real world and which was the illusion. I just had to reveal that the world I lived in was reality. ¡°Friends! Rejoice! Your heartfelt repentance has reached the Goddess!¡± the middle-aged man shouted. ¡°Today, you no longer need to gaze into hell! Lift your heads! Raise your eyes! Behold the sky above you!¡± The people lying in the za raised their upper bodies. Instinctively, I followed their gaze to the sky. ¡°Behold the sacred presence of the Goddess!¡± And I saw it. There was no sun. How had I not noticed? If I had to exin myself, I¡¯d probably have to say because modern people rarely look up at the sun. What¡¯s more, judging by the angle of the light, the sun must have been directly overhead, making it difficult to see unless I tilted my head almost 90 degrees. In other words, even I had assumed that because light was shining from above, what¡¯s in the sky must be a sun. ¡°......¡± What actually hung in its ce was no sun. It was a massive eye. Blink. The eye blinked, and ever so slowly, for just that moment, the light of the world dimmed. Before I looked up, I¡¯d assumed what kept casting us into shadow were clouds. But I was wrong. Blink. From that enormous eye came its light¡ªor rather, its gaze¡ªcast down upon us. The pitch-ck pupil at its center never rested, constantly shifting. It found me. ¡°Hoek! Danger...!¡± The moment the Eye of the Sun¡ªno, the Sun of the Eye¡ªfixed its gaze on me, everyone in the za turned their head toward me as well. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The residents of this Inner World, who hadn¡¯t noticed me until now, suddenly stared at me with piercing gazes. Even the light from the eye above focused all its attention on me. The temperature around me skyrocketed, and my skin began to melt like wax. ¡°Emergency escape, hoek!¡± The fairy frantically waved her wand. Half of Fairy No. 264¡¯s body exploded right in front of me, but the fairy held onto her wand until the end. In the next instant, I was forcefully ejected from the dream.

¡°...Hey.¡± What greeted me back in reality was a face that could win first ce in a contest for The Face You Least Want to See When You Wake Up. ¡°Hey, Undertaker, are you alright? You¡¯re not dead, are you...?¡± Also known as Noh Do-hwa. I struggled to lift my eyelids, and the first thing I saw was her dark circles. Do-hwa was never one to care much about her appearance, but today she looked the worse for wear. She was covered in something that looked like chunks of flesh from head to toe, though it looked to be more like the consistency of jelly than human skin. Behind her, the Saintess was simrly drenched in a strange, semi-solid substance. I was about to make a sarcasticment about their fashion choices, but Do-hwa cut me off first. ¡°The fairy that sang you a luby and took you on a dream trip just exploded. Out of nowhere, half of its body burst apart...¡± ¡°Ah.¡± So it was true. From where Iy in bed, I turned my head. Fairy No. 264 was still holding my hand, but half of its body had vanished. ¡°Call Ah-ryeon. These fairies are tough, and if we heal it quickly, it¡¯ll survive.¡± Behind Do-hwa, the Saintess nodded. She probably sent a message using Telepathy. As I straightened my clothes, I asked, ¡°Noh Do-hwa, is there a protest happening outside right now?¡± ¡°Hmm? Yes. Ji-won put it down right away, but... That¡¯s strange. You heard the noise even while dreaming?¡± I rested my chin on my hand, deep in thought. This time, it was Do-hwa who asked me a question, a scowl on her face. ¡°Because of that fairy, we¡¯ll have to redecorate this ce. What the hell happened in that dream to cause all this...?¡± ¡°The Goddess of the Night, Nut.¡± I paused for a moment, then added, ¡°It¡¯s an Outer God.¡±

Footnotes: [1] The ¡°logic¡± here goes like this: 2 is expressed in binary as 10. Thest 1 standing after ughtering all those people is you. 1 and 1 crossed looks like the roman numeral X for 10. 10 x 10 (aka 10^2) = 100. So the anomaly needs to take 100 more lives, including the abductee¡¯s, in order to reach ¡°2.¡± Join our discord at Chapter 209 Chapter 209

Chapter 209 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist VI A wild Outer God appeared! The world (once again) was doomed! Everyone, run for your lives! ...Yet no one reacted that way. Everyone remained calm. People had already mentally sorted the hierarchy of anomalies into five neat categories: Ocean-ss, Continent-ss, Polis-ss, Vige-ss, and below vige-ss. So even if I suddenly screamed, ¡°Do you know what an Outer God is? It¡¯s insanely strong! It can beat up even Ocean-ss anomalies!¡± they¡¯d probably just respond with, ¡°Who cares, you nerd?¡±And honestly, even those in the Regressor Alliance weren¡¯t much different. ¡°Are Outer Gods really that powerful?¡± Ah-ryeon asked, panting heavily and drenched in sweat. She had just rushed over and healed Fairy No. 264. ¡°Why are Outer Gods the only ones called that? All the other anomalies are named after ces¡ªviges, cities. But Outer Gods sound... small. It feels wrong, out of bnce.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be too hard on it, Sim Ah-ryeon.¡± Surprisingly, it was Do-hwa who chimed in to back me up. ¡°You should never mock the naming sense of the most revered Duke of the ck Library, the Supreme Overlord of the Library Society. You never know when you¡¯ll disappear without a trace...¡± ¡°H-holy crap! I¡¯m sorry! I think the guild leader¡¯s naming sense is perfect! It¡¯s the best!¡± ¡°......¡± Not so surprisingly, Do-hwa had been mocking me all along. For the record, Noh Do-hwa was the kind of supporting character in a visual novel whose affection level was permanently locked at Lv. 0, regardless of who tried to win her over. But¡ªand here¡¯s the kicker¡ªthere was exactly one person she allowed to reach Lv. 1: Sim Ah-ryeon. Why? Simple. Even if Do-hwa got her limbs shattered, Ah-ryeon could heal them instantly. It wasn¡¯t about chemistry or personalitypatibility, like some people might think. Nope. It was purely about her healing ability. That¡¯s right. To win over Noh Do-hwa, you didn¡¯t need anything fancy. You just had to be the next Heo Jun.[1] For the record, the affection level cap in this reality game is Lv. 100. If anyone figures out how to raise the remaining 99 levels, feel free to upload it to SG-Net. ¡°The Outer Gods aren¡¯t called ¡®gods¡¯ because they¡¯re gods of our world. They¡¯re called Outer Gods because they alienate the world from humanity,¡± I exined. ¡°H-huh...?¡± ¡°They¡¯re gods beyond the scope of our world. Karl Marx originally used a term like this¡ªin English, the meaning can be interpreted as ¡°alienation¡±, which connects with the word alien.[2] I came up with this name to evoke that sense of being... alien to us.¡± ¡°What does that even mean, you nerd?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Ack! As expected from the guild leader. Your baiting is the best thing in the world...¡± Calm down. My sword is not meant to cut down humans. Even though Sim Ah-ryeon confuses me to the core, her DNA is still 99.97% simr to mine. Now I understood why the world had fallen apart. If creatures this irrational were the pinnacle of life, no wonder anomalies could easily dominate us. ¡°Ah-ryeon,¡± I called firmly, ¡°one of the reasons Outer Gods are terrifying is that their patterns evolve rapidly.¡± ¡°Evolve?¡± ¡°Exactly. For example, if you fail to hunt down a Meteor Shower, it¡¯s not the end of the world. The pattern of ¡®falling from the sky¡¯ doesn¡¯t change. You just gather your strength and try again. But an Outer God immediatelypensates for any weaknesses.¡± This was the reason I had struggled so much, twisting my body to the limit when I hunted down the Admin of the Infinite Metagame in the 267th round. You could throw as many light jabs or one-two punches as you wanted. They weren¡¯t going to umte any damage against an Outer God. You needed one clean hit. A single, precise strike to pierce the bloated belly of an Outer God. That¡¯s the most frustrating part. My strategy of slowly umting data through countless cycles¡ªevery regressor¡¯s signature method¡ªwas the exact opposite of how you had to deal with an Outer God. ¡°Let me give you a demonstration. Hey, Fairy No. 264, are you conscious?¡± ¡°Hoek... I almost took a one-way trip to the afterlife...¡± Fairy No. 264 wobbled as it answered, its body now even smaller after being sliced in half earlier. ¡°Call the other fairies. We¡¯re entering the Inner World again. This time, Ah-ryeon and the others wille along.¡± ¡°Hoek... Understood...¡± We¡ªthe Saintess, Noh Do-hwa, Sim Ah-ryeon, and I¡ªentered the dream simultaneously. Once again, we made it to Seoul Station za, the gateway to the Inner World. ¡°Um, Guild Leader.¡± But this time, there was a transparent ¡®ss¡¯ barrier between us and the za, preventing us from entering. ¡°We can see it, but we can¡¯t get in...!¡± Ah-ryeon knocked on the ss with her small fists. It wasn¡¯t just her either. The Saintess unleashed her full aura, trying to hack at it with a hand axe, but the ¡°ss¡± didn¡¯t even get scratched. Meanwhile, the people in Seoul Station za casually walked across the ss without a care. We were so close, just an arm¡¯s length away, yetpletely separated, unable to affect each other. It was like how the living and the dead couldn¡¯t interfere with each other. ¡°See? The Outer God has blocked the passage.¡± ¡°Hoek.¡± ¡°Nut probably didn¡¯t expect me to enter her domain through dreams.¡± To exin it again, Nut, the Goddess of the Night, had created a domain that spanned both ¡°this world¡± and the ¡°afterlife.¡± She had the power to designate which was which, and that was why she designated Kim Joo-chul¡¯s dream as the afterlife, calling it Valha. And she had taken it a step further, dering our reality as hell. For those living in hell, there was almost no way to interfere with the living¡ªNut¡¯s domain. Almost. ¡°Still, there have been stories throughout history about people experiencing the afterlife in their dreams. Thanks to the Tutorial Fairies, we managed to find this ¡®dream-entry route,¡¯ but once the Outer God noticed the w, she blocked it.¡± ¡°Uh... Then how do we get back in?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I lightly tapped the ss separating the afterlife from the living world. It wasn¡¯t just a simple knock. I infused my aura into the ss, creating a ripple. My ck aura vibrated against the surface, but the ss didn¡¯t budge. This was the frustrating part about dealing with an Outer God. Brute force alone wouldn¡¯t work. Maybe it was simply because Icked the strength. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ve named this Outer God ¡®Nut.¡¯¡± ¡°Nut...¡± ¡°She¡¯s a goddess from Egyptian mythology. She governs the night sky, or in other words, the universe and the cycle of day and night.¡± When Nut caused the world to copse, the night sky always took on a disturbing, pulsing appearance. The Milky Way would turn into veins, throbbing red and blue, or the sunset would drip down like blood. ¡°In Egyptian mythology, the night sky is the body of the goddess Nut. People back then didn¡¯t see the night sky as a vast expanse of space.¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t?¡± ¡°They thought of it as a transparent dome covering the sky.¡± ¡°Huh? How?¡± ¡°They believed stars weren¡¯t floating spheres but holes in that dome. As the world breathed, the stars were its breath holes, and the starlight was the world¡¯s breath shining through.¡± ¡°Wha...? Starlight as the world¡¯s breath...¡± ¡°And so, the Pythagoreans, influenced by Egyptian mythology, imed that as the stars moved, the ¡®world¡¯s breath¡¯ rang out like music. It¡¯s just that humans couldn¡¯t hear the melody.¡± ¡°Whoa...¡± This was why the inside of a pharaoh¡¯s sarcophagus was often decorated with night skies. The sarcophagus itself was transformed into a miniature universe. In it, the stars were intricately carved because the ¡°breath holes¡±¡ªthe star-shaped openings¡ªwere what allowed the pharaoh¡¯s soul to pass through. ¡°Guild Leader! You suddenly seem super knowledgeable! You actually know more than just memorizing the names of Romance of the Three Kingdoms characters...!¡± This brat... ¡°Hey, you. I¡¯ve always been an expert when ites to anomalies. I didn¡¯t just get here by ident. I studied my way to the top, you know.¡± ¡°Ah, herees the lecture...¡± ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°Gyaaah! No violence, please!¡± Tears welled in Ah-ryeon¡¯s eyes from where her head was held in a lock. ¡°S-so, how do we cross over to that side if the passage is blocked...?¡± ¡°Hmm. Since Egyptian mythology is the main reference here, I guess we¡¯d have to be mummies to cross over.¡± ¡°Mummies?¡± ¡°Yeah. By the way, to be a mummy, you need to have your brain removed. Egyptians didn¡¯t think the brain was important¡ªthey believed thinking happened through the heart.¡± ¡°H-huh?! You¡¯re talking about dying!¡± ¡°How about you be a mummy on behalf of humanity, Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°N-nooo! It¡¯s not me who should get buried alive, it¡¯s you, Guild Leader!¡± Just then, the Saintess raised her hand. ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± ¡°Yes? What is it?¡± ¡°If this Outer God, Nut, really has the power to designate which is the afterlife and which is the living world... and if she¡¯sbeled our world as the afterlife, specifically a hell where souls suffer...¡± The Saintess tilted her head, her watery blue hair swaying slightly. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t more than just d¨¦j¨¤ vu be happening to people infected by the Regressor Virus? Wouldn¡¯t... even worse things be happening? Real, hellish things?¡± ¡°......¡± Ah.

We hurriedly returned to reality. And outside, hell had indeed broken loose. ¡°Aaaaargh!¡± ¡°I-I¡¯ve been stabbed! I got stabbed!¡± In Busan¡¯s Guduk Mountain, trees were being reced by swords that shed at anyone who got too close. These ¡°tree swords¡± weren¡¯t just sprouting¡ªthey were growing and retracting in real time, like living creatures. They seemed to be spreading down from the mountain into other areas of the city, infecting other trees. ¡°Save me! Please, let me out of here!¡± ¡°O-ow, ow...!¡± The ground beneath the protesters in Babel Tower za had copsed, turning into a massive pit of molten metal. People iled and screamed as they fell into the boiling liquid, their skin burning and melting. Strangely, though, their flesh regenerated almost immediately, causing them to drown and burn again and again in an endless loop of suffering. This ¡°molten pit¡± was also expanding, threatening to spread beyond Babel Tower za into other districts. ¡°G-Guild Leader...!¡± Myrades were gathered on the rooftop of the National Road Management Corps headquarters, staring at the unfolding chaos. They turned to me, their faces pale with shock. ¡°This is insane! We were only gone for a little while...!¡± We¡¯d only been away for a short while. But in that time, the world had fallen into hell.

Footnotes: [1] Heo Jun was royal chief physician of Naeuiwon during the reign of King Seonjo and King Gwanghae of the Joseon period in Korea. [2] Alienation in the Marxist sense refers to the way people feel estranged from their humanity, like being made to feel like an animal or ¡°other,¡± as a consequence of the division ofbor and ss in society. Join our discord at Chapter 210 Chapter 210

Chapter 210 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist VII I bit my lip. ¡°...The anomaly is rushing because I caught on.¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°What you¡¯re seeing in Guduk Mountain is the Mountain of Knives Hell, and in the za, it¡¯s the Boiling Oil Hell. After pulling out Valha from the Crystal Tombstones, now it¡¯s summoning Buddhist hells.¡± Even as I exined it to myrades, my mind conjured countless strategies to ovee the situation, only to dismiss them just as quickly. ¡®It¡¯s moving too fast.¡¯Barely a day had passed since I first observed the anomaly in Kim Joo-chul¡¯s dream, and now, the Outer God wasunching an all-out assault like it had been preparing for this very moment. Of course. That was exactly why the Outer God had hidden inside the Crystal Tombstones for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. It had been waiting for this. Just as I, a regressor, had spent lifetimes honing the perfect strike to take down anomalies, the Outer God had taken this life to execute a wless ambush on me. ¡°H-hyung, something¡¯s wrong.¡± Even Seo Gyu, who usually put on a tough front, couldn¡¯t hide the tremble in his voice. The sight of people melting and screaming in boiling liquid right beneath the headquarters building was enough to shake anyone. ¡°The people aren¡¯t dying. They should be dead after falling into molten metal, but... they keep healing.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hell,¡± I answered. ¡°The Outer God has dered this world a hell. And in hell, no one dies.¡± ¡°N-no one dies?¡± ¡°Right. Because hell is a ce for the dead. All they do is suffer, endlessly. From now on, no one will be able to die¨D¡± At that moment, a bolt of realization struck me. Ah. Ahhh! That¡¯s it. That¡¯s why! ¡°No one can die, which is why this world has be a hell!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Think about it, Seo Gyu! I¡¯m a regressor! Because I keep resetting the timeline, everyone in this world has been stuck in a state where they can¡¯t truly die. For hundreds, even thousands of years!¡± I clenched my teeth. ¡°The Outer God used that very state against us! It defined this world as hell, where people live a life of eternal suffering because they can¡¯t die. It¡¯s not just some anomaly. It¡¯s reshaping the world to fit its own interpretation!¡± ¡°......!¡± Exactly. It was aplete reversal of thought. A Copernican shift in perspective.[1] To anomalies, regressors like me are the ultimate challenge. No matter how powerful they are, I can always reset time and continue my hunt. No matter how hard they struggle, they are bound to lose to a regressor in the end. But what if they turned the power of regression against me? What if they didn¡¯t stop at saying that the world repeats endlessly because of the regressor, but instead imed that time loops because the world is an eternal hell where people can¡¯t die? It was just a shift in perspective, a different interpretation. All the Outer God had to do was define this world not as reality, but as hell, and it could fully exploit my Regression. Rather than denying my ability, the Goddess of the Night had epted and twisted it to her advantage. As long as I continued to use my regression, this world would never stop being hell. ¡®Unbelievable.¡¯ A chill ran down my spine. Shock. And awe. ¡®She used me! Instead of trying to destroy me, she nted the seeds of evil within my abilities to corrupt the world!¡¯ Seeing the look of horror on my face, Ah-ryeon and Seo Gyu grew even more unsettled. They were both heavily reliant on me. The cold, rational voice of the Saintess broke through the ringing in my ears. ¡°Mr. Undertaker, can¡¯t you just reset the timeline and try againter?¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t think so. I already exined it to Noh Do-hwa earlier, but this Outer God hastched onto my very abilities.¡± Nut had burrowed into the Crystal Tombstones, feeding off the souls trapped within, and leveraged the fact that regression exists in this world to manifest the concept of hell. ¡°Even if I reset the timeline, nothing will change. In fact, things will probably get worse,¡± I summarized. ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡°Right now, at least we¡¯re united as the Regressor Alliance. But if I reset the timeline, all of our rtionships would be reset to zero. Meanwhile, Nut¡¯s hell...¡± ¡°...would remain intact, because the Crystal Tombstones, sealed with Time Seal, aren¡¯t affected by regression.¡± ¡°Yes. And as you can see, it took Nut less than a day to summon hell into this world. But rebuilding our alliance would take far longer than that.¡± ¡°...So what was once an advantage for us¡ªregression¡ªhas now be a tool for the enemy. When going against this Outer God, regression is actually a detriment to us.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Checkmate. There was only one way out. ¡°The only way is...¡± I hesitated. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I need to reset and immediately travel to Onyang to be infected with the Udumbara virus.¡± Udumbara. The virus that was called the New Buddha. Once infected, an Awakener would lose all of their abilities. ¡°If I do that, I¡¯ll lose all of my abilities, including Time Seal and Regression.¡± ¡°......¡± I had always made sure to take down Udumbara right after resetting, and it was for one very simple reason: Udumbara had the potential to kill a regressor. The Saintess stared at me with her clear, blue eyes. ¡°Then what happens?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. In all likelihood, I¡¯ll no longer be able to reset the timeline. The world might be left as it is, only to be destroyed by some anomaly and stay that way forever.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°The worst-case scenario is that even after I lose my powers, the world continues to reset.¡± ¡°What?¡± The Saintess blinked. ¡°Ah. You mentioned someone called Schopenhauer. You said he was a regressor too, right?¡± Exactly. There were two regressors in this world. If regressors act as a switch for the timeline reset, even if I were to disappear, there would still be another switch. And right now, that switch was stuck in the ¡®on¡¯ position. I snuck in another point. ¡°Perhaps regression and the world¡¯s cyclical resets aren¡¯t connected at all.¡± In fact, I had been keeping this theory in the back of my mind for a long time. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s not really ¡®regression¡¯ at all. Maybe it¡¯s more like the world is caught in a cycle of repetition.¡± Imagine the worlding to an end. Then it starts over again. The universe forms from the Big Bang, the first gxies are born, Earth forms, and life emerges from the oceans to crawl ontond. Eventually, humans are born, civilization rises, and cities are built. Then one day, a person called the Undertaker is born and heads for Busan Station. As you know, I possess Complete Memory. In the scenario I just described, what if my Complete Memory wasn¡¯t about experiencing multiple lives but rather receiving memories from a certain point? Wouldn¡¯t that essentially be the same as Regression? ¡°...But didn¡¯t you say you only awakened your Complete Memory in the 4th cycle?¡± ¡°The abilities of Awakeners evolve. Maybe my Complete Memory wasn¡¯t fully unlocked until the 4th cycle.¡± And the truly terrifying part of this theory was something else. ¡°Let me summarize.¡± I finally voiced it. ¡°If I be infected with Udumbara, all the people sealed by Time Seal will be released, and I will lose all memories of previous cycles, starting anew from the Busan Station tutorial dungeon.¡± Time would pass. ¡°Time will go on, and eventually, Schopenhauer will return from his vacation. A series of events unknown to me will unfold.¡± Time would pass. ¡°And one day, Schopenhauer might lose his regressor abilities, either by being infected with Udumbara or by encountering an anomaly that surpasses his Regression. The world will eventually be destroyed.¡± Time would pass. ¡°And finally, in some distant future, when the concept of regression is long forgotten, I might once again awaken my powers at Busan Station.¡± In other words, everything would start over. ¡°I would recognize that as the 1st cycle.¡± And then. And then. And then. ¡°The 2nd cycle, the 3rd cycle, and eventually, in the 4th cycle, I¡¯d unlock my Complete Memory and meet Schopenhauer...¡± And one day. ¡°I would once again reach what I recognize as this very moment¡ªthe 267th cycle.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°...For all I know, I might have already repeated these cycles countless times.¡± For so long¡ªever since I discovered that Udumbara could erase an Awakener¡¯s powers¡ªI had been carrying this fear, silently tormented by the thought. The possibility that the 267th cycle might actually be 267¡Á2, 267¡Á3, 267¡Á267, or even 267¡Á2672 or 267¡Á2673. The fear that my entire existence could be nothing more than one colossal failure. It was the deepest fear of any regressor. If this theory was correct, then yes. The Goddess of the Night, Nut, had been right all along. This world was indeed hell. ¡°Aaaaaagh!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to live anymore! Kill me!¡± ¡°Someone, please, just kill me!¡± Below the headquarters, hundreds of people continued to melt in the boiling metal. Their screams echoed out to any eardrum with the vicinity, reverberating against the translucent, ss-like barrier that all humans were born with. The hell that had descended on this world was spreading rapidly. All of Busan¡¯s trees and flowers had turned into swords, and the zas and alleys were flooded with molten metal. The Buddhist hells had no end. Mountain of Knives, Boiling Oil Hell, Frozen Hell, Sword Forest Hell, Tongue Ripping Hell, Snake Hell, Dismemberment Hell, Iron Bed Hell, Storm Hell, Darkness Hell, and beyond these came the Eight Burning Hells, the ck Victory, Intermediate Fusion, Great Roaring, Minor Burning, Major Burning, Avici, and finally, the Eight Cold Hells: Icy Stab, Frostbite, Chilling Wind, Hoo-Hoo Hell, Ho-Ho Hell, Blue Lotus, Red Lotus, and Great Red Lotus. Those who fell into the Great Red Lotus Hell would spend 25 aeons and 6,000 quintillion years in torment before they could be reborn. 25 aeons and 6,000 quintillion years. Infinity. If I didn¡¯t reset, endless hell would unfold. If I reset and got infected by Udumbara, I would face the endless hell of a regressor. ¡®Is this...¡¯ I tightly gripped the handle of my cane sword. The cane that Noh Do-hwa had made for me during the 100th cycle. A reminder that, just as there was chance in life, so too was there fate¡ªand that fate would one day smile upon me. Yet today, the world beneath my feet felt unbearably thin. ¡®Is this the epilogue of my life?¡¯ Squeeze. Someone ced their hand on mine, covering my grip on the cane. I turned to see who it was. ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± It was the Saintess. ¡°There¡¯s a w in your theory.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not someone who creates hell. Even if the world is repeating itself, you¡¯re not someone who¡¯s endlessly reincarnating. No, more precisely, right now, you¡¯re not endlessly reliving this moment. There¡¯s a fatal w in that theory.¡± ¡°...How can you be so sure?¡± ¡°Because...¡± The light-blue depths of her eyes, which always seemed to gaze at the world from a step removed, looked directly into mine. Those eyes, so like a tranquil sea, seemed to drown out the distant screams of the people around us. Instead, my ears were filled with the quiet murmur of the ocean, as if a gentle wave waspping at my feet. In that water, a voice spoke. Because, she said... ¡°I¡¯m going to make sure that theory is wrong.¡± I blinked. ¡°What? What do you mean¨D¡± ¡°Goodbye for now, Mr. Undertaker.¡± A gentle warmth brushed across the back of my hand. It felt like I was being pulled into the depths of the ocean. Sinking into an unknown abyss. ¡°I¡¯ll see you soon.¡± And then. Time stopped.

Time stopped.

Tim¡õ stopped.

Ti¡õ¡õ stopped.

Ti¡õ¡õ sto¡õ¡õed.

Ti¡õ¡õ ¡õ¡õ¡õped. ¡õ¡õ Ti¡õ¡õ ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õed. ¡õ¡õ ¡õ¡õ¡õ ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ.¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ ¡õ¡õ¡õ¡õ. ¡õ¡õ¡õ. An¡õ¡õ¡õ. And. ¡°Hello, Mr. Undertaker.¡± It was an ordinary greeting. The kind you¡¯d say to someone who had just woken up. The bright voice washed over me in a greeting. It was a soft, clear sound, like the ocean gentlypping against the shore and lightly brushing your toes. That sound made me open my eyes. It felt like no time had passed at all, as if I had simply blinked. So then, why did it feel so strange? ¡°...Saintess?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Her voice caressed my eardrums, and for some reason, it felt like I hadn¡¯t heard it in a long time. The Saintess¡¯s hand was still holding mine. But the warmth had changed. The temperature, once warm, had grown cool. It was probably that shift in warmth that made me realize something was off. After hearing and feeling, my vision finally caught up. The world was... frozen. ¡°......¡± The swords that had covered the city were nowpletely still. The molten metal that had flooded the za and alleys had also stopped. The people trapped in the boiling liquid, their screams, Ah-ryeon¡¯s worried gaze, Seo Gyu¡¯s gaping mouth, and Do-hwa tightening her leather gloves. The entire hellscape. Everything had stopped. ¡°Oh.¡± A wave of powerful d¨¦j¨¤ vu hit me. I¡¯d seen this exact scene somewhere before. It was the hellishndscape that had appeared when I was trapped in the Hell of Infinite Time. I immediately realized what had caused this frozen world. I parted my lips. ¡°Saintess, have you... be a Corrupted?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Oh, my god.¡± The Saintess¡¯s ability, Time Stop. When pushed to its limit, it could manifest an absurd level of power. This was the first time I had ever witnessed it in reality. Though, the Saintess hade close to Corruption back in the 107th cycle, she hadn¡¯t fully awakened Time Stop. Not to this degree. ¡°But Saintess, you didn¡¯t train your aura that much in this cycle. How could you...¡± ¡°I did train,¡± she replied. ¡°By stopping time.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Just taking a few steps was difficult at first. Even breathing was a challenge. But I kept pushing, using my aura to hold it all together.¡± Her voice was so calm that it almost sounded like an ordinary training regimen to anyone who might overhear. But I knew better. I understood just how insane that kind of training was. ¡°No way. If you stop time, your aura would stop too, and you¡¯d have to force it to move bit by bit. It would be like taking a single breath over the span of thirty minutes¡ªor even an hour.¡± The Saintess nodded. ¡°Yes. It was very difficult. That¡¯s why it took so long.¡± ¡°...How long, exactly?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t count precisely, but I think over 2,000 years.¡± ¡°......¡± Good Lord. The Saintess smiled at me as I stood there with my mouth hanging open, stunned. There was a yful hint in her expression. It was a rare expression, one I hadn¡¯t seen in ages. ¡°Maybe now,¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯m finally old enough to be the same age as you.¡±

Footnotes: [1] Nicus Copernicus was the scientist who poprized the theory that it is Earth that revolves around the sun and not the other way around. This paradigm shift is known as the Copernican Revolution. Join our discord at Chapter 211 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist VIII No matter how important rooftops are in subculture¡ªbe they for love letters or dramatic confrontations¡ªthis wasn¡¯t the best ce to have a rxing conversation with the Saintess. The backdrop was just too grim. Even though time had stopped, the hellishndscape below spiraled outward into the distance. ¡°Let¡¯s go somewhere else to talk.¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s.¡± ¡°But is there no way to unfreeze the others from Time Stop?¡± The Saintess shook her head. ¡°That would be difficult. I need to be physically holding their hand to move them through the frozen world.¡± Now that she mentioned it, she was still holding my hand tightly. But then, I wondered¡ªcouldn¡¯t we just use the ¡®walking hand-in-hand¡¯ method to bring at least one more person along?Before I could say anything, she added, ¡°Unless they have a level of aura mastery like yours, it would be hard for them to survive. They would need to ovee the concept of ¡®time¡¯ itself.¡± ¡°Hmm. That makes sense.¡± It was like surviving in the vacuum of space. For a regr person¡ªor even a fairly trained Awakener¡ªit would be nearly impossible to do something as simple as speaking. ¡°That¡¯s why I can pull off little tricks like this.¡± The Saintess let go of my hand. In my vision, her palm slowly drifted away, as if moving in slow motion, floating just 0.1 centimeters above my hand. p. And then, suddenly, I found myself standing in the first-floor lobby of the National Road Management Corps headquarters. ¡°......?¡± ¡°I just stopped time.¡± Her face remained expressionless. But as the self-proimed Guinness World Record Holder for Interpreting the Saintess¡¯s Expressions, I could detect the subtle air hidden beneath that cold exterior. This woman... was having fun. She was feeling a bit ted. ¡°Wait a second, Saintess.¡± ¡°The World.¡± Again, she let go of my hand. The next moment, I was standing in the middle of Babel Tower za. ¡°......¡± ¡°Ta-da.¡± She said it in the most emotionless tone imaginable. Which meant she was probably the one who had carried me here while time was stopped. ¡°...Saintess.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°You¡¯re in a really good mood, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s been 2,000 years since Ist talked to someone.¡± ¡°Yeah, I was alone for about 212 years after the Infinite Metagame screwed me over, so I can understand how it feels...¡± It was the round when Ah-ryeon found me and said, ¡°I love the caf¨¦ mocha you make, Guild Leader.¡± I had hugged her like a child and cried. Those 200 years of solitude had broken me, turning me into a pathetic regressor who could be beaten by that weirdo. This person in front of me had survived ten times that length of solitude... In short, the Saintess was now in a ¡°hyper-weakened¡± state. Realizing this, I immediately scooped her up into a princess carry. ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been through a lot. Thank you, Saintess.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°If you hadn¡¯t stopped time, I honestly would have given up on this mission. I might have ended up as a regressor trapped in an eternal hell of repeating time.¡± During my 200-year istion, the thing I needed most was human warmth. That was probably why I hugged Ah-ryeon so instinctively when I saw her. People understand others by reflecting on their own experiences, so I had a good idea of what the Saintess might want right now. ¡°......¡± Fortunately, my guess wasn¡¯t wrong. The Saintess quietly rested in my arms. Her sea-colored hair, which had grown slightly longer in her 2,000 years, swayed gently toward me. ¡°I know a good caf¨¦ nearby. Why don¡¯t we head there?¡± ¡°...No. Just walking around like this is fine.¡± ¡°Oh. Alright, let¡¯s do that, then.¡± Step. Step. We moved through the stillness of the world. The princess-carry pose we were in looked a bit ridiculous, but luckily, no one was around to see it. Everyone else in the world was frozen in ce, their breaths held. The people who had been trapped in the torment of the Mountain of Knives Hell and Boiling Oil Hell were frozen in mid-scream, their poses like sculptures. We walked past those petrified figures. ¡°To be honest, I was a bit worried,¡± the Saintess said, finally breaking the silence. ¡°Worried?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯m a monster now.¡± Her voice, though calm, carried a dryness that had lingered in her for a long time. ¡°I¡¯ve be a monster powerful enough to be ssified as an Outer God. And you, Undertaker, you¡¯re nearly always hostile to monsters. So...¡± ¡°Ah, I see. You were worried I¡¯d take one look at you and go, ¡®this damn monster,¡¯ and try to kill you?¡± ¡°Yes. I considered it a possibility.¡± Iughed. ¡°If you ever see me react that way, kill me immediately. That would be a doppelganger.¡± No matter how important it was to rid the world of anomalies, it would never take precedence over the people around me. If I ever turned into some kind of monster-hunting machine who put that above everything else, then I¡¯d be no different from a monster myself. I¡¯d deserve to be hunted down. Of course, the Saintess¡¯s body temperature was already far from human. It was as cold as a shadow. Probably around 15¡ãC. But for someone who had spent 2,000 winters alone, she possessed a warmth that still awed me. ¡°......¡± Then something curious happened. Shhhk. The Saintess¡¯s aura crawled up my arm, inching its way up toward me. Her aura was colorless and transparent, so outwardly, nothing changed. She remained still in my arms, quietly resting against me. ¡®Her aura control has be incredibly refined.¡¯ Impressed, I summoned my own ck aura and gently wrapped it around her transparent one as it made contact with my arm. ¡°......¡± Her aura hesitated for a moment, then responded to my ck aura, tentatively wrapping around it, like fingers intertwining in a delicate, cautious handshake. Together, transparent and ck auras bloomed. Just like how flowers bloom without making a sound, the Saintess closed her eyes as she nestled in my arms. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Aura had a warmth of its own. What we were doing was, in essence, the same thing as humans exchanging body heat, using an aura technique that ordinary Awakeners couldn¡¯t even dream of mastering. Perhaps the difference between humans and monsters wasn¡¯t a matter of internal temperature or the number of fingers we had. Maybe it came down to what we tried to imitate with those things. For a while, we silently confirmed each other¡¯s humanity through that warmth. ¡°While I was living in this frozen world, I thought about ways to infiltrate Nut¡¯s domain.¡± We were in the caf¨¦ at the old Baekje Hospital, where Old Man Scho often talked to Mrs. Adele. The Saintess sipped her coffee. It was the first cup of coffee I had made for her in a long time. It was just instant coffee, though, made by ripping open a golden packet and pouring hot water over it. But that was her favorite. My pride as a barista had long since crumbled in the face of modern food technology. ¡°Did you have any sess?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, no,¡± she said with a shake of her head. ¡°The closest I got was with the concept of ¡®life shing before your eyes.¡¯ ording to some stories, people who experience that can catch a glimpse of the afterlife. So I pushed myself to the brink of death to try it.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a clever idea.¡± ¡°Yes... But in the end, I still couldn¡¯t get past the ss barrier separating life and death.¡± The ss. It was the metaphor for ¡®something you can see through but can¡¯t cross.¡¯ I wished I could just punch through that ss, but the barrier Nut had constructed was far stronger than the bulletproof ss used for the U.S. president¡¯s limousine. Now that I thought about it, when Fairy No. 264 took me into the Inner World, that had been our best chance to break through... But what¡¯s done is done. Regretting the past wouldn¡¯t help now. ¡°Tell me all the methods you tried.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± We discussed the countless failed attempts the Saintess had made over the past 2,000 years. Let me rify¡ªthis wasn¡¯t a sign of her ipetence. In fact, Nut hadn¡¯t been able to interfere with the Saintess¡¯s Time Stop in all that time either. The Outer God had the power to turn the world into hell in a single day, yet it couldn¡¯t touch the frozen time that the Saintess had created. When anomalies with the power of an Outer God shed, their territorial battles yed out in this way. ¡°Actually, your power and Nut¡¯s are pr opposites.¡± The Saintess tilted her head. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes. The world you freeze is, in a sense, ¡®nothingness.¡¯ Since time has stopped, there is no life, no pain, and no awareness.¡± And paradoxically, that nothingness was theplete opposite of hell. ¡°Hell, or the afterlife, is where people¡¯s souls continue to exist after death, a ce of endless something,¡± I concluded. ¡°I see.¡± ¡°So, Nut can¡¯t invade your realm of nothingness, just as you can¡¯t invade her realm of something. You¡¯re opposites.¡± ¡°...So, we¡¯re in an eternal stalemate, doomed to fight forever.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re on your own.¡± I rubbed my chin. ¡°ss. ss. We need to break that ss. Anomalies rted to ss....¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we also consider mirrors?¡± the Saintess suggested. ¡°You said that when you entered the Inner World, you saw your real-world self reflected in the ss.¡± ¡°Yes. My image was projected below me, showing what I looked like in the real world.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s more like a ¡®mirror¡¯ than just ¡®ss.¡¯ After all, the afterlife is a copy of the living world.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good point. Hmm...¡± The people of this world had been ¡°copied and pasted¡± into Nut¡¯s domain. Then Nut imed that the copy was the real thing, while we on the other side were just the souls suffering in hell. So, yes, the concept of a ¡°mirror¡± was more urate than just ¡°ss.¡± ¡°Mirrors. Mirrors, huh. That makes me think of doppelgangers... No, doppelgangers are part of the Hell of Infinite Time. It¡¯s more about identity confusion, then.¡± ¡°The Ship of Theseus?¡± ¡°Possibly. If we list anomalies connected to identity confusion, we¡¯ve got the Ship of Theseus, the Uyuni Desert, Cringe History Mosquito, and... Potato Saintess...¡± ¡°Please leave out thest one.¡± What? Who knows, that might be the most important clue of all. ¡°In any case,¡± I acquiesced, ¡°none of those seem directly connected to entering Nut¡¯s domain... Oh.¡± My mental database of anomalies had beenbing through the past, and at that moment, it hit on a keyword. ¡°Mirrors!¡± I shot to my feet, still holding the Saintess¡¯s hand. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°There¡¯s an anomaly rted to mirrors, hell, and the living world! How could I have forgotten?¡± How could I have missed it? The anomaly that endlessly repeated the idea that this world is hell itself, thus, being born into such a world is a sin. -Kill yourself. The Magic Mirror, an anomaly born from the tale of Snow White. That psychopath Yu Ji-won always had that mirror in her room. It was the perfect clue leading to the Goddess of the Night, Nut. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 212 Chapter 212

Chapter 212 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist IX If someone asked me who the easiest Korean to find in the world was, I would pick Yu Ji-won without hesitation. If the Korean Penins''s civilization were still intact and the presidential system still running smoothly, then Ji-won would live near the Blue House. If the Eastern Holy State went mad, marched south, and founded the Holy Korean Empire? Ji-won would be delivering a eulogy next to Mo Gwang-seo and Christ. If former Busan Mayor Jung Sang-guk miraculously begged forgiveness from Lee Ha-yul, rallied the Zainichi Koreans, created a multinational coalition, and seeded in returning to Busan¡ªwell, Ji-won would be standing on the bow of the first ship to arrive, her silver hair fluttering in the wind. In the end, Yu Ji-won was like a living, breathing Yeouido weather vane. Wherever she lived was modern-day Yeouido, Bukaksan, and Yongsan all rolled into one. If she packed up and moved, it would signal a major shift in the power structure of the Korean Penins.You know how animals sense an earthquake before it happens and run away? She¡¯s that beast of power. "This is the Magic Mirror." Naturally, I was able to find Ji-won''s lodging as easily as breathing. It was exactly 11 meters away from the personal room of Noh Do-hwa, the National Road Management Corps leader. "Oh. Have you visited this ce before? After all, you''ve been alone for 2,000 years. Surely, you''ve seen quite a few ces?" "No.¡± The Saintess shook her head. ¡°I''ve seen it with irvoyance, but this is my first time actuallying here." The room¡¯s interior was quite barren. Maps of the Korean Penins and the Japanese archipgo, bothrge and small, covered the walls. There were hand-carved chess pieces and an empty armchair by the window. The only decoration in the room, besides a bookshelf lined with Romance of the Three Kingdoms texts, was nothing at all. By the way, every time the name of one of my favorite characters appeared in those books, it was neatly highlighted in yellow. All and all, it was terrifying. For your sake and for the sake of those around you, I hope you never encounter a genius psychopath of Yu Ji-won¡¯s caliber. "Honestly, it still doesn¡¯t feel real to be seeing this in person." "Come again?¡± I asked, surprised. ¡°What do you mean?" "Around the time 1,000 years had passed, my perspective became fixed in a ''third-person omniscient'' view." Ah. Now that she mentioned it... "Are you saying you look down at things like in StarCraft, controlling units from above?" "Wait a second." The Saintess briefly let go of my hand, only to grab it again. In the instant that Time Stop was activated, I was petrified while she flitted somewhere and returned. "Yes, something like that." "...Did you seriously stop time just now to look up what StarCraft was because you didn¡¯t know?" "Mr. Undertaker," the Saintess calmly replied, "it¡¯s a bit unreasonable to expect me to understand a game that was released in 1998." "......" But you said you were my age! You said you¡¯d aged the same as me! A wave of betrayal swept over me. How did StarCraft end up beingbeled as Korea''s national pastime? Why not make Yutnori the ''ancient game'' and tease me for that?[1] A nation that forgets its history and traditions has no future. There''s a reason why the Korean civilization copsed. "Moreover, I don¡¯t have an excellent memory like you do, so I forgot things like game names over a thousand years ago," the Saintess added. "Ah. I apologize. My memory sometimes makes me inconsiderate of others'' situations." "It¡¯s fine. But that¡¯s why even now, it¡¯s hard for me to look you in the eye." "......" "It probably won¡¯t get any easier." In the past, in the 107th cycle when she had fallen as an Executioner, the Saintess had said the exact same thing. ¡®...That¡¯s why you avoided meeting my eye and kept trying to cling to physical contact, wasn¡¯t it?¡¯ It was difficult for her to confirm her position through sight. From the Saintess¡¯s point of view, everyone, including herself, was seen equally from an omniscient perspective. Because of that, she became more attached to physical touch. Only the sensation of skin was proof that she still existed in this world. ¡®Hmm. Hugging her was definitely the right call.¡¯ While still carrying the Saintess princess-style, I used my aura to tear through the nket covering the magic mirror, revealing a smooth, full-length mirror. In a normal cycle, the mirror would¡¯ve greeted me with a, "Why don¡¯t you just die already?" the moment it saw my face¨D "Mr. Undertaker, do you believe this mirror is a gateway to the Hidden World?" "Yes. But it seems like it can¡¯t perceive us because time is stopped." Strangely, neither the Saintess nor I were reflected in the surface of the mirror. I suddenly felt like a vampire. I pressed my palm against the ss experimentally, but there was no reaction. My hand didn¡¯t pass through, nor did anything unusual happen. "Could you release the time stop for a moment?¡± I requested. ¡°Two seconds should be enough. Let¡¯s ce our hands on the mirror together." "Okay." The Saintess blinked. - Please die immediately. As soon as time resumed, the mirror spouted out its automatic response, and our reflections appeared on the surface. However, even though we pressed our palms against the ss, our bodies didn¡¯t pass through to the other side. ¡®Did it fail?¡¯ After two seconds, time froze again. At first nce, it seemed like nothing had been achieved, but I wasn¡¯t disappointed. When dealing with anomalies, you had to try everything. "Saintess, could you bring in Tutorial Fairy No. 264 and Yu Ji-won?" "Sure." In the blink of an eye, the Saintess had disappeared, only to return with Fairy No. 264 and Yu Ji-won lying at my feet. "I¡¯m back," she greeted. "Good work...?" It was at that moment I realized something. ''Wait a second. The Saintess is still in my arms. Which means... she got down from my arms, went out, retrieved the two, then climbed back up and took my hand again?'' "......?" The Saintess, who didn¡¯t seem to notice, tilted her head at me with her usual nk expression (which, to be fair, was always her expression). In my head, a 1920s-style Disney short film yed automatically: A stone-faced Saintess getting down, retrieving the fairy and Yu Ji-won, then mbering back up into my arms and taking my hand once more. "Is something wrong, Undertaker?" "...Nothing at all. In any case, please hold the fairy¡¯s hand and release the Time Stop." "Alright." 0.1 secondster. "Holy shiiiii¡ª!" Freed from the petrification of time, the fairy screamed and convulsed. "What the hell is going on?! My breathing...! No, it feels like my very existence is being coated with white paint in real time...! Ugh! It¡¯s disgusting! Disgusting! The fairy¡¯s dying! I¡¯m dying! I¡¯m already dead...!" "Here. I¡¯ll protect you with my aura." "Ah. It¡¯s suddenly so much morefortable. The fairy lives again." The fairy went from looking like her eyes were about to pop out of her head to shaking that head of hers violently. "Hoek! Comrade Secretary! What is that counter-revolutionary thing?! Just being in the same space is enough to crush me into paste...!" "She¡¯s an ally, so show some respect." "Oho. Are you in your right mind, Comrade? This feels like the time when I heard the old Steel Secretary signed a non-aggression pact with an art school applicant." "Then you know the Steel Secretary''s specialty. Want me to call someone else?" "Eek! Anything but a purge...! I swear eternal loyalty to the Secretary!" I briefly exined the situation. "Alright, you need to set up a dream. Do you see this silver-haired human here? We¡¯re going to enter her dream." "Oho." "The dream¡¯s setting has to match the room we¡¯re in right now. See this mirror? Make sure it appears in the dream." "Understood... But are you really going to enter this being¡¯s dream?" The fairy nced nervously at the Saintess, beads of sweat rolling down her face. If this were aic, I¡¯d expect the word ¡°gulp¡± to appear in a speech bubble. "Yes." "But Comrade, if we enter this being¡¯s dream, my mind will be toasted like a 120% charcoal-vored toast." "I¡¯ll protect you as best I can. Do a good job, and I¡¯ll give you a hundred sausages." "Only the brave win the prize!" We listened to the luby and entered Ji-won¡¯s dream. Once inside the dream, we found her sitting by the window, frozen in ce. So Time Stop still worked even in dreams. The Saintess lifted her power. "...Hmm?" Ji-won blinked open her eyes. "Undertaker, Your Excellency? And the Saintess too? What brings you both to my private quarters?" "This is a dream, Ji-won." "Excuse me?" "Do you see that Tutorial Fairy? We entered your dream by riding the luby of the nightmare." "Mm? Oh? Hmm...? Oho." Ji-won looked around curiously. "As expected of His Excellency, the Undertaker. As an awakener of your caliber, you can freely enter anyone''s dream. No matter how sly a sycophant they may be in reality, they cannot hide their true nature in a dream. Who could ever conceal their essence from your shining, righteous eyes?" "Please, just keep it to yourself." "If Your Excellency has visited my dream, then there must be a reason¡ªan urgent one, at that. How may I assist you?" This one always knew how to word things when talking to me. "First, let¡¯s take a look at the magic mirror together." "Understood." Without a second thought, the power-hungry psychopath trudged over and yanked aside the curtain hiding the mirror. The Saintess, Ji-won, the fairy, and I all appeared on the surface at once, making the mirror seem incredibly cramped. - Please die immediately. - Please die immediately. The mirror spat out the automated message repeatedly as if it had a stuck button. "Now." "Yes." Simultaneously, the Saintess and I reached out. - Please die imme... Shatter. With a soft cracking sound, both our wrists passed through the ''inside'' of the mirror. We hadn''t broken the ss. The surface remained intact. It had simply made the sound of something shattering. "......!" The Saintess¡¯s transparent aura red for a brief moment. A sign of surprise. Having long since lost the ability to express emotions with her eyes or facial muscles, this was the Saintess¡¯s uniquenguage. A subtle, invisible expression of Aura¡ªno one but me could understand this lonely foreign tongue. So instead of responding with words, I spread my aura and pulled hers closer. I matched my sentences to her grammar. ¡®Shall we go, Saintess?¡¯ ¡®Yes, Mr. Undertaker.¡¯ A wordless conversation. Hand in hand, I took the first step into the mirror, and the Saintess followed, her steps light and sure. Shatter. Shatter. Shatter! Each step we took across the narrow width of the mirror was apanied by countless shattering noises. The sound was likely the Outer God throwing a tantrum after detecting foreign intruders in its domain. But the moment the Saintess followed me inside and froze time once more, Sh¨D¨D even the sound of ss breaking came to a halt. When I lifted my gaze, we were standing hand in hand in the middle of Seoul Station. Hundreds of people were frozen in ce, turned to stone. The world was painted in monochrome, like a scene from an old ck-and-white film. The Saintess¡¯s power had covered the ¡°reality.¡± I smiled. "We did it." There, in the center of the sky where the sun should have been, the Outer God and Goddess of the Night, Nut, hung frozen and still with a wide-open eye.

Footnotes: [1] Yutnori is a traditional board game yed in Korea, especially during Korean New Year. Join our discord at Chapter 213 Chapter 213

Chapter 213 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist X Everyone must have imagined it at least once as a child. ¡®What if the entire world stopped, but I could still move around freely? Wouldn¡¯t that be awesome?¡¯ To Homo sapiens, the desire to take advantage of such situations is practically instinctual. Who hasn¡¯t fantasized about robbing a bank and bing a billionaire while time is frozen? That daydream from my childhood adolescence had, after several thousand years, be reality. "It really does seem like civilization is intact. Oh, there''s a Starbucks... Right, that green logo was what it looked like.""Indeed." The Saintess and I strolled casually through the colorless world of Outer God''s domain, taking in all the sights tinted in shades of ck and gray. "After the Void¡¯s arrival, every brand became corrupted by Cthulhu symbols, so I''d forgotten what the original logos looked like. That was once a mermaid¡¯s figure." "...And there are so many people. It''s really crowded." "This is before the poption density of the Korean Penins dropped to a twentieth of what it once was." "How is it that, in the middle of the day, these people are all sitting in caf¨¦s and restaurants instead of working?" "Hmm. Perhaps they¡¯re working from theirptops?" "Ah. So electronic devices haven¡¯t been corrupted by the anomalies yet." I suppose anyone would feel at least a hint of it, but the Saintess and I lived in a world detached from civilization. As a regressor, I had been permanently severed from my memories prior to the fourth cycle. As for the Saintess, she had lived alone for thousands of years, forgetting much in the process. And yet. ¡°By the way, it¡¯s amazing that you haven¡¯t forgotten me, Saintess. How did you manage to keep your memories of me for 2,000 years?¡± A strange little twitch tugged at her lips. It was hard to tell if she wanted to smile or hold back her words. ¡°...That¡¯s a secret. But Mr. Undertaker, why don¡¯t we take a look inside that caf¨¦?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind... but just be careful not to eat anything. You remember the myth of Persephone, right? If you consume food from another world, you won¡¯t be able to return to reality.¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll be mindful.¡± We spent some time exploring the area around Seoul Station. We entered a caf¨¦, ced coffee cups on the table (though we didn¡¯t drink), sat side by side and pretended to take pictures with a smartphone (nothing showed up in the photos), and went to a bookstore to flip through various books... ¡®Come to think of it.¡¯ There were a few moments when our hands slipped apart, causing me to freeze as time stopped again, but most of the time, we walked hand in hand. ¡®I¡¯ve never spent this much time outside with the Saintess before.¡¯ I had once gone to Beijing with her to hunt down the Butterfly Effect, but that was mostly spent walking along dark subway tracks. ¡®I wonder... is there no way to bring the Saintess into the next cycle?¡¯ That thought¡ªor perhaps that emotion¡ªunexpectedly arose within me. ¡®This person has withstood thousands of years alone to prevent the world from copsing. Surely, we have much inmon.¡¯ Though I had never revealed it, I too had long craved the warmth of apanion, someone who could endure the endless days and nights on the isted ind of time with me. This 267th cycle''s Saintess, who was holding my hand right now... seemed more like a truerade to a regressor than anyone I had ever known. ¡®Yes. That¡¯s right.¡¯ One of us was a time traveler, the other a time stopper. One imprisoned by the eternal flow of time, the other confined to its eternal stillness. No one could understand¡ªor even perceive¡ªeither of us. But we could understand each other better than anyone else. That one of us was an Outer God-level anomaly didn¡¯t matter in the slightest. If it came to that, I wouldn¡¯t mind humanity revering the Saintess as a new deity. ¡®But is there no way to break through the cycles...? Ah. Wait. What if I became the Saintess''s Miko, her priestess?¡¯ A brilliant idea. Since we were both Awakeners with time-rted powers, there might be a way to forge an Outer God-priestess rtionship. Then, we could stay together. There was hope. And when it came to clinging to hope, no one on Earth was more of an expert than me. ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± A cool hand, about 15¡ãC, touched my cheek. Before I knew it, the Saintess had ced her palm against my face. ¡°...Ah, my apologies,¡± I said. ¡°I was lost in thought for a moment. What is it?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s about time we dealt with Nut.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± She was right. No matter how long we spent wandering through Nut¡¯s realm, teasing the anomaly, Outer Gods remained Outer Gods. The moment we let our guard down, they mightunch a counterattack from an unexpected angle. Reluctantly, I nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. Let¡¯s finish this quickly.¡± ¡°Yes. But Nut is up there, in the sky, like the sun. What¡¯s your n for taking her down?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple. We¡¯ll just walk up there.¡± Shwip. I manipted my aura, creating a series of ¡®tforms¡¯ in the air. As the tforms stretched out in a domino-like sequence, a staircase appeared, leading directly into the sky. It was a literal path to heaven. The Saintess mumbled next to me, ¡°...The way you hunt anomalies seems to rely a lot on brute force.¡± ¡°Well, what good is Aura if not for this? I didn¡¯t train this hard just to show off. Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s.¡± We both ced our feet on the translucent steps at the same time. Ten meters, twenty meters. As we ascended, the lower tforms disappeared, while new ones formed above us. asionally, the steps took on a dark hue when formed by my aura, and other times, they shimmered with the Saintess''s translucent energy. How long had we been climbing? In a world where time had stopped, the concept of ¡°how long¡± was meaningless. When I looked down, the ground seemed impossibly far below. ¡°Aha,¡± I chuckled, causing the Saintess to tilt her head. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Nothing. I just realized I¡¯m bing more like you, Saintess.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°You mentioned before that you see everything from an omniscient viewpoint. Look¡ªnow I can see all of Seoul, the entire Korean Penins, spread out beneath me. I¡¯ve finally reached your level.¡± ¡°......¡± The Saintess, still not used to seeing the world from a first-person perspective, looked at me from an angle. In response, her grip on my hand tightened slightly. ¡°Yes, Mr. Undertaker.¡± We continued climbing. Fortunately¡ªor unfortunately¡ªwe didn¡¯t have to travel all the way to space, 150 million kilometers, to reach the spot where the sun usually hung. Nut¡¯s ¡®eye¡¯, which had reced the sun, was shockingly close, located in the stratosphere. ¡°...I see.¡± Shwip. I reached out and touched the sky. The atmosphere was covered by a transparent ss-like barrier, and embedded in it was Nut¡¯s eye. ¡°The universe is gone. Only the sky remains.¡± ¡°The constetions are etched into the ss. Should we break it?¡± ¡°No. If we break through thisyer, there will probably be moreyers beyond it. The ss is likely wrapped around the Earth in severalyers.¡± Geocentrism: the ancient belief that the Earth was the center of the universe and all other stars revolved around it. Nut, the Goddess of the Night, had brought this theory to life here. The same phenomenon was likely urring in the real world, where Nut had begun corrupting reality. By turning all the empty space where humans couldn¡¯t live into nothingness, Nut had left the Earth as the only ce for life to exist.[1] It was the kind of violence befitting an Outer God. ¡°Heh,¡± I scoffed. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for you, Saintess, the entire world would have been swallowed by Nut.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Now, I¡¯ll pierce Nut¡¯s eye.¡± Without hesitation, I drew my cane-sword Do-hwa and stabbed it into Nut¡¯s ¡®eye¡¯, this world¡¯s ¡®sun¡¯. The sun split in two. Nut, the Outer God, offered no resistance. Since time was frozen, Nut couldn¡¯t even scream in its death throes. When time resumed, the anomaly would bepletely vanquished. ¡°It¡¯s done. Saintess, please unfreeze time now, and let¡¯s return to reality. I need to consult with you... about a way to break free from the cycles...¡± There was no response. ¡°Saintess?¡± I turned to look at her. The Saintess stood still, eyes closed. Her expression was as serene and unreadable as always, her hand still sping mine. But. ¡°......¡± Bright red blood. In the colorless world, a crimson lotus bloomed inexplicably from the center of the Saintess¡¯s chest. My body froze. The blood drained from my face as my mind began to race, spinning so fast my ears buzzed with the sound of it. This couldn¡¯t be happening. Had the Outer God somehow counterattacked? Did it have a system in ce to curse its killer upon death? But if that were the case, why had the blow struck the Saintess, not me¡ªthe one who had pierced Nut¡¯s eye...? ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mr. Undertaker.¡± In the midst of my chaotic thoughts, the Saintess¡¯s calm voice reached me like a single thread of rity. ¡°There was one secret I hadn¡¯t told you.¡± Even with the crimson flower of blood blooming in her chest, there was no pain in her voice. Only regret. Apology. The kind of subtle emotion that only I, who understood her faint expressions, could perceive. Her ocean-like voice spoke. ¡°I am Nut¡¯s apostle.¡± Time seemed to stop. In the blink of an eye, the Aura stairs I had been standing on disappeared.

¡°...!¡± My body lost bnce, and I began to fall. Just as I was about to plummet from the stratosphere, time froze again. The Saintess, kneeling on the steps above me, grasped my hand tightly. It was as if she were holding me at the edge of a cliff, preventing me from falling. ¡°Saintess! What is this...?!¡± ¡°Please, don¡¯t move.¡± The Saintess spoke softly. ¡°Don¡¯t activate your aura. Don¡¯t create new steps. Don¡¯t take any action toward me.¡± Blood was still flowing from her chest. If Nut¡¯s eye and the Saintess¡¯s heart were connected, the wound must have been identical to the one I had inflicted on the Outer God. ¡°If you even show the slightest sign of movement, I¡¯ll let go of your hand and freeze time.¡± ... ¡°You once said that Nut and I were opposites, didn¡¯t you? Nut creates the underworld, while I freeze time, making us fundamentally different. But you were wrong.¡± Drip. Blood beaded from her chest, sliding down her clothes, and fell onto my cheek. It was where her palm had rested moments ago. ¡°That¡¯s not the important part. What matters is whether one sees the world of the living as ¡®hell¡¯.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You know it, don¡¯t you? I¡¯ve been calling this world hell for a long time.¡± A sh of insight. ¡°This world is hell.¡± It was the 117th cycle. The words the Saintess had spoken to me from within Infernal Hell shed through my mind. The world is hell, yet no one takes responsibility for it. If time can¡¯t be turned forward, then it must be stopped. What reason could there possibly be for me to allow time to continue in a world like this? Hell is said to be 20,000 yojanas below the surface. But that¡¯s impossible. Just oneyer below the surface of that... it¡¯s all hell. Ah. Even back then. Yes, even then. The Saintess had been in space. She had spoken to me from the moon, the symbol of the ¡®otherworld¡¯. Seeing the world as hell. Having control over the universe. Having the ¡®eye¡¯ to see the world from above, from an omniscient perspective. Being capable of confronting and ambushing a regressor, the ¡®master of time.¡¯ The answer was yes. In those four ways, the Saintess and Nut shared the same traits. If an Outer God could establish a sanctuary within the grave of Time Seal, isted from the world... If an awakener could freely move in a world where time was frozen... It was only natural to assume that they were connected on some fundamental level. ¡°You probably thought I trained my Aura for 2,000 years to reach the level of an Outer God, but you were mistaken.¡± ¡°Mistaken... how?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve spent hundreds, maybe even thousands of years in other cycles. Always observing people in frozen time. But the reason I became so much stronger in this cycle is because Nut¡¯s power has grown stronger.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I am Nut¡¯s incarnation.¡± Drip. Another drop of blood slid down my cheek and fell into the abyss below. ¡°You can¡¯t kill Nut without killing me as well.¡± ¡°Wait! We can seal the Outer God separately!¡± I shouted desperately. ¡°Yo-hwa, the Baekwha High student council president, was the same! The Outer God called Infernal Void was sealed within her!¡± The Saintess shook her head. ¡°We aren¡¯tpatible enough, not in that way. Infernal Void was so unaware of the cycles that it couldn¡¯t even notice them. But Nut is different. Nut is the Outer God of time, the one responsible for the cycles of day and night, the repetition of each day. With each cycle, Nut won¡¯t reset¡ªshe¡¯ll only grow stronger.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Even if we manage to seal Nut inside me, her power will only increase with each cycle. The contamination of my heart will worsen.¡± As I stood speechless, lips trembling, the Saintess continued. ¡°Mr. Undertaker. Can you really be certain that one day, I won¡¯t wake up and suddenly turn the entire world into hell?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± Stroke. She gently sped my hand, the one dangling in the air. The Saintess¡¯s body was cold, but in the thin air of the stratosphere, hers was the only warmth. ¡°Please don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll stay here and keep this ce frozen.¡± For a moment, I didn¡¯t understand her words. My mind refused to ept them. ¡°...What?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but just because you stabbed me doesn¡¯t mean time will die.¡± Her voice was soft. ¡°This is the only way to kill the anomaly of time. I¡¯ll stay here, holding the Void still. In this ce.¡± ¡°Hold the void still?¡± My lips moved on their own. ¡°For how long, exactly?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°This is the 267th cycle. Already. And we still haven¡¯t saved the world. There might be hundreds more cycles¡ªmaybe even thousands. Are you saying... you¡¯ll keep holding this void still until then?¡± ¡°All moments are fleeting.¡± Stroke. The Saintess bent down and touched my cheek, wiping away the blood with her cold fingers. ¡°I¡¯ll freeze everything here, including myself. Even if you regress to the next cycle, this ce will remain frozen. In the end, the Outer God¡ªand I¡ªwon¡¯t be able to interfere with your regression anymore.¡± There was something she hadn¡¯t said. By freezing the world¡ªincluding herself¡ªit meant that the time stopper would be frozen too. It would be a perfect seal. A wless extermination. No matter how many years passed¡ªthousands, millions, billions, trillions¡ªthe world would move on as if nothing had happened. Everything would move on, except for one person: me, the regressor, who would remember this moment for all of eternity. ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Thank you. Because you were there, I didn¡¯t give up. As long as you¡¯re on the other side, I won¡¯t see this world as hell.¡± I could feel it. The Saintess was about to let go of my hand. She was preparing to banish me from this void, sealing herself and this ce, cutting herself off from the world. This 267th cycle¡¯s Saintess would exist here¡ªforever¡ªquietly subduing an Outer God. And no one would ever know. No one would know that there had been a human here who had wished for the world not to turn into hell. ¡°This...¡± My decision was purely impulsive. ¡°Take this.¡± I removed the bracelet from my left wrist and gently sped it around the Saintess¡¯s right, the hand that was holding mine. She tilted her head in confusion. ¡°A bracelet...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Silver Bell.¡± Jingle. The bell rang softly. ¡°It¡¯s the first thing I grab every time I wake up in Busan Station. It¡¯s just a keepsake, but... I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be a link that connects us.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Wait for me. No matter how many cycles it takes, no matter how long it takes, I wille back for you. I promise.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯ll find a way to unseal this ce without letting you destroy the world. I¡¯lle back for you.¡± And then¡ª The Saintess smiled. ¡ª2,000 years after we were reunited, she finally looked me straight in the eye, something she had never been able to do before. With one hand, she held my right hand, and with the other, she cupped my cheek. Like a child learning how to move for the first time, she awkwardly tilted her head to align her gaze with mine. In that instant, the ck-and-white world narrowed, filling everything between us with hues of white and ck. ¡°Yes.¡± A fleeting pause. The deep, ocean-like warmth lingered briefly on my lips. ¡°I¡¯ll see you... soon.¡± When I opened my eyes, a thinyer of ss had formed between us. The Saintess, on the other side, smiled and reached out, frozen in ce like a ck-and-white photograph. ¡®Ah.¡¯ I had let go of her hand. No, it was the opposite. The world of frozen time was drifting away from me, as though I were falling into an abyss. I reached out for her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn¡¯t reach the colorless world. And then. I returned to reality. To a world without her.

Footnotes: [1] Depending on the interpretation, a geocentric model can include a firmament, or a celestial barrier that separates life on Earth from the waters of primordial Chaos and nothingness beyond. Join our discord at Chapter 214 Chapter 214

Chapter 214 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Antagonist XI There is an epilogue. When I returned to reality, it was summer. And the summer¡¯s day was dazzling. The hellishnd of swords, where des rose up from beneath every step, had vanished. The molten steel that crept into alleyways and melted people¡¯s hearts had evaporated. Even the Silver Bell that once hung from my wrist. These were not the only things to say goodbye to this season.¡°Uh...?¡± ¡°Huh? Why... Why am I on the roof...?¡± No one remembered what had just happened. Not Noh Do-hwa, not Sim Ah-ryeon, nor any of the otherpanions. The same went for the Regressor Virus-infected protesters who had rallied in the square. The confused crowd began chatting with one another or returned to their workces. It was as if they had all just woken from a brief daydream. ¡°The Saintess...?¡± That dream must have been a nightmare. ¡°Sorry, but who is that?¡± The Saintess of the 267th cycle had vanished. From reality. And from memory. ¡°Captain Noh Do-hwa. Do you truly not remember? The existence of the Constetions?¡± ¡°The Constetions? You mean the nicknames you use to shitpost on SG Net?¡± ¡°No. There was someone who could watch every Awakener on the Korean Penins with irvoyance and send messages at will through Telepathy.¡± Do-hwa furrowed her brow. ¡°What are you talking about? Is this some overpowered Awakener you dreamed up?¡± No one remembered the Saintess from the 267th cycle. It was exactly like my Time Seal. She had sealed herself along with Nut¡¯s domain in the Hidden World, so she could no longer affect reality. She isted her very existence. To ensure that not even the Night Goddess could interfere with me. To keep my regression free from the Outer God''s contamination. ¡°......¡± Summer passed. ¡°Hoeeek. Comrade Secretary! No matter how much of a dream we inhabit, that¡¯s just impossible! We can¡¯t enter the dream of someone who doesn¡¯t exist in reality!¡± I had tried countless ways to reach the Saintess in her sealed world, the Hidden World. And every attempt had failed. When we had fought Nut, at least I could glimpse her behind a ss barrier, even though I couldn¡¯t cross it. Now, even that had be impossible. The Magic Mirror had lost its function as a portal. No method allowed me to get closer to the world where the Saintess slept. ¡°We searched the dreams of everyone living on the Korean Penins, but we couldn¡¯t find anyone matching the person you described!¡± But there had been someone like that. ¡°She was the type to brew every kind of coffee, but she always asked for instant coffee.¡± ¡°And she liked it even better if you secretly mixed in a spoonful of cinnamon.¡± ¡°She had hair the color of water and eyes like the ocean. Her breathing and footsteps were so quiet, it was like she was swimming gracefully, not walking.¡± ¡°She wasn¡¯t interested in the trivial matters of the world, always expressionless, never joining in on people¡¯s chatter. But she was still someone who could sacrifice herself for others.¡± ¡°She was brilliant.¡± ¡°And she liked to cross the Jamsu Bridge when she went for walks.¡± There had been someone like that. ¡°Hoeeek! Comrade Secretary! We mobilized every resource for six years, but we couldn¡¯t find her!¡± The house in Yongsan where the Saintess had lived was now a ruin. The tropical fish she had raised in the face of civilization¡¯s copse were gone. The aquarium she had carefully cleaned and tended had turned to dust. The study sessions she held every Wednesday, sitting at a table with others, were no longer. With the loss of irvoyance and Telepathy, public safety on the Korean Penins rapidly deteriorated. When Awakeners lost their way in the Void: - Mr. Undertaker. - There¡¯s a person stranded. I¡¯ll give you their location. The person who would send me those messages had disappeared. I could no longer rescue people as quickly as before. No one found it strange. And summer passed. When Awakeners didn¡¯t fully understand their abilities or know how to strengthen them: [The Librarian of the Great Library unlocks your true potential.] [The Librarian of the Great Library has given you a quest.] [Uponpleting the quest, a special opportunity to enhance your ability will appear.] The person who had subtly guided the Awakeners was gone. I could no longer help people on such arge scale. The idea that, ¡°At least the Constetions are watching over me,¡± disappeared from people¡¯s minds, without them even knowing it was there in the first ce. The belief that, ¡°At least I can confide my worries to the Constetions,¡± was gone as well. No one found it strange. And summer passed. Without you, the world grew closer to hell with each passing season. It was then that I realized something. From the 1st cycle¡ªwhere I had forgotten everything¡ªthrough the 4th, and ever since the 5th, when I truly began to live as a regressor. There had always been a silent observer somewhere, quietly watching over the world. Even in my lowest moments, they weren¡¯t as bad as they could have been. For all the lives I had lived as a regressor, there was still so much I hadn¡¯t grasped. I wasn¡¯t ready to live in a world without you. Then, summer passed. It was time to move on to the next cycle. I hadn¡¯t told anyone, but a certain fear had settled inside me by that point. ¡®What if the Saintess isn¡¯t in the next cycle either?¡¯ The moment I opened my eyes in Busan Station in the 268th cycle, I rushed straight to the souvenir shop. I went to find the object I always picked up, without fail. ¡®It¡¯s here.¡¯ The cheap Silver Bell I always bought for 9,900 won was still there on the shelf. I fastened the Silver Bell to my wrist and hurriedly cleared the Tutorial Dungeon, making sure to disy overwhelming power, enough to catch the interest of a certain someone who might be watching the Awakeners. And then¡ª [The Saintess of National Salvation is astonished by your feat!] [The Monarch of the Crimson Horse feels a sense of rivalry at your strength.] [The Conqueror of the Alps takes note of your course.] [The Chancellor of the Red Cape is wary of your abilities.] My knees nearly gave out. I let out a breath. Relief swelled in my chest. ¡®She¡¯s here... Yes, she¡¯s here.¡¯ Finally, it was clear. The only one separated from time was the Saintess of the 267th cycle. But the existence of the Saintess herself had not been erased from the world. Perhaps after ascending to the level of an Outer God, she was treated as a different entity entirely. Now, I could tell myrades what had happened in the 267th cycle. ¡®But... I can¡¯t tell them.¡¯ I walked into the bathroom of Busan Station and sshed cold water on my face. Since the city¡¯s water supply hadn¡¯t been cut off yet, the tap water was enough to cool my mind. ¡®I can¡¯t tell the Saintess what happened to her in the 267th cycle. If she finds out she has that potential... She won¡¯t hesitate.¡¯ The same thing would surely happen again. It wasn¡¯t hard to imagine. In a moment where the world faced imminent destruction, the Saintess would trigger Time Stop without hesitation and spend another thousand years alone. ¡®I can¡¯t let that happen.¡¯ That¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t tell her. It was the same situation as Dang Seo-rin. She had once confessed that if she ever realized her umted lifespan already exceeded several thousand years, she would immediately dip into that reserve in her greed at the first sign of danger. The moment the Saintess became aware of such a powerfulst resort, she would transform into an Outer God once more. ¡®I can¡¯t let that happen.¡¯ ¡®I must keep this secret.¡¯ ¡®This must never happen again¨D¡¯ With a tinkling jingle, the Silver Bell hanging from my wrist rang. ¡°...?¡± I hadn¡¯t been aware of it, but after washing my face, I had apparently ced my palm on the bathroom mirror. ¡®Huh?¡¯ I looked up at the mirror. Reflected there was my damp face and dripping wet hair. But that wasn¡¯t what caught my attention. My palm. The hand I had ced on the mirror. ¡®Cold.¡¯ For some reason, the spot where my palm touched felt unusually cool. If I had to guess its temperature... Yes. Exactly 15¡ãC. ¡°...!¡± I pressed both hands against the mirror, yet it didn¡¯t matter how I touched the ss with my right hand. Only when my left hand¡ªthe one wearing the Silver Bell¡ªtouched the ss, did I feel that same sensation, that 15¡ãC temperature. ¡®Ah.¡¯ She was there. You were here. ¡°Saintess.¡± You have to be. ¡°Saintess, can you hear me?¡± There was no response. I couldn¡¯t see her anymore. I couldn¡¯t cross to the other side. We couldn¡¯t speak, and I couldn¡¯t hear her voice. We couldn¡¯t sit together in the same room, reading books and listening to the sound of each other¡¯s breath. All that remained was the memory and the faint warmth I felt through the ss¡ªas if you were right there on the other side, pressing your hand against mine. Perhaps, like me, you were touching the other side of the ss at that very moment. Frozen in time, along with the world. ¡°......¡± But this was enough. ¡®As long as you exist, we will meet again.¡¯ That was the fate of a regressor. Maybe to some of them, to those screaming infected fated to regression, this was hell. But not to me. If there was a way for a person like that to still be grateful for life, even after realizing the world repeated endlessly, it was simply because they longed to meet someone again. And for the chance of that one reunion, a person could endure crossing millions of summers. ¡°...Please wait a little longer.¡± We were beings from opposite poles. I lived in the endless flow of time, while the Saintess resided at its end. I enjoyed wandering outside, while she preferred to gaze at the fish tank inside her room. And now, we were separated by a mirror. ¡°Just close your eyes for a moment, and when you open them again, we¡¯ll be back in that season.¡± I slowly lifted my hand from the mirror. For a while, the imprint of my palm and fingers remained faintly visible on the ss. And just before the marks disappeared¡ª I saw it. The imprint of a smaller hand, delicate fingers, oveying mine. For a brief moment, our hands ovepped. A message in white. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see you... soon.¡±

Outer God: Night Goddess, Nut Aliases: Hell, Ruler of the Underworld, Mirror World, Geocentrism, Eye of Horus, Parmenides'' Moon, Regressor Virus Threat Level: Lv.5 Outer God (Alienation) Extermination in progress.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 215 Chapter 215

Chapter 215 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Nameless One I Novels are different from illustrations. At first nce, this might sound like an obvious statement, but to me, the distinction is surprisingly significant. For example, Lee Ha-yul. She lived with me in the Inunaki Tunnel, which I had converted into my hideout. Except during vacation rounds, she was almost always there. Compared to the other members, her attendance rate was truly overwhelming. ¡¸Ah, I¡¯m sorry, Hyung. I have thssophobia, so living deep inside the Inunaki Tunnel is a bit... If something bursts in there, I''d drown right away, right?¡¹ Seo Gyu usually stayed close to the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps.¡¸I... I am the Queen of the Eastern Holy State.¡¹ Sim Ah-ryeon worked mostly as the Saintess of the North, so she didn¡¯te to the hideout as often. Oh Dok-seo was a rookie who joined after the 555th cycle, andcked seniority. But Lee Ha-yul, she consistently imed the best spot in the hideout, no matter the time. Yet, despite this, she didn¡¯t appear much in my stories. Why? There was a sad reason for that. I present to you... "...Ah, this coffee is quite delicious." "Isn¡¯t it? I blended three of the Saintess''s favorite instant coffees and added exactly one spoonful of cinnamon. This is her favorite brew." "...Hey, Mr. Undertaker, if you¡¯ve reached that level, shouldn¡¯t we stop calling it ''instant'' coffee? Well, it does taste good." Let''s say this conversation took ce between the Saintess and me at the hideout¡¯s caf¨¦, 1,200 meters underground. But this is a novel. If we strip away the filters of a novel and depict things more visually, the truth would look like this: "...Ah, this coffee is quite delicious." "Isn¡¯t it?" (Beside me, Ha-yul silently lifted two coffee packs like twin swords. Image: Lee Ha-yul holding up two coffee packs like a warrior.) "I blended three of the Saintess''s favorite instant coffees and added exactly one spoonful of cinnamon. This is her favorite brew." (Image: Lee Ha-yul yfully pping my back with the coffee packs, as if she were part of the jazz band from Whish.) "...Hey, Mr. Undertaker, if you¡¯ve reached that level, shouldn¡¯t we stop calling it ''instant'' coffee?" (Image: Lee Ha-yul failing to control her Aura, causing the coffee pack to explode, spilling its contents all over my barista uniform.) "Well, it still tastes good." (Image: Me holding Lee Ha-yul¡¯s head as she struggles like a mischievous kid.) See how different the scene is? That¡¯s right. As you all probably know, Ha-yul was born with a speech impediment. Normally, she traveled with her maid doll to voice her words. However, when it was just the two of us¡ªespecially when she was messing with me¡ªshe would ditch the maid and perform her ¡®silent protests¡¯. Though I hadn¡¯t described it, Ha-yul was usually next to me in the hideout, pulling pranks about 80% of the time. Why did she leave the maid behind when it was just the two of us? ¡®Ouch! Ouch, oppa, my skull! It¡¯s in danger!¡¯ This girl could use her Aura to write on my back in real time. And since I had exceptional skills in reading Aura, I could easily interpret what she wanted to say. "You¡¯ll be fine." ¡®Ah! No violence! No violence!¡¯ "...You and Ha-yul seem really close. Almost like siblings with a big age gap." Anyway. Ha-yul was always forcing my readers to y a game of Spot the Difference. Her methods ofmunication with me were diverse: writing on my back, vibrating her Aura to make her sound like a voiceroid, tapping Morse code into my palm... And then, after receiving a thorough scalp massage from me, she would scurry behind the Saintess and pull out her sketchbook. It read: [Ex] [] [na] [tion] ? [The Undertaker is a Monster] [Confirmed as a Regressor Monster] [When You Gaze into the Void, the Void Gazes Back] [This Regressor Has No Memories Before the Fourth cycle] [Is There Any Proof That This Monster Didn¡¯t Suddenly Appear After the Fourth cycle?] [Can Humanity Entrust Its Fate to a Monster Regressor?] [Is Korea Truly Safe This Way?] ....... [Monster] [Exnation] [Monster] [Exnation] [The Undertaker Is a Colossal Monster] [Exnation Please] By the way, the sketchbook pages flipped at a speed of 0.3 seconds per sheet. If I didn¡¯t have eyes finely tuned with Aura, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to see a thing. "...Undertaker, is something wrong?" The Saintess noticed something was off and turned around, but with impable timing, Ha-yul quickly disyed a portrait she had drawn. It was an illustration of me, seriously brewing coffee. Thanks to the lessons she received from Sim Ah-ryeon, Ha-yul had gotten decent at drawing. "Ah, it¡¯s a really cool drawing." "......" "By the way, Mr. Undertaker, could you tell me which three products you used in my coffee and in what ratio?" The moment the Saintess turned her head back, Ha-yul flipped to the next page of her sketchbook. (Image: The Regressor monster in a coffee-stained barista outfit, unleashing ck Aura as he defeats awakened beings like Noh Do-hwa, Dang Seo-rin, and Sim Ah-ryeon, while destroying Busan.) This little brat... Of course, Ha-yul knew the Saintess turned off her irvoyance and Telepathy when she was rxing with her coffee. "Mm." But despite Ha-yul''s bratty antics, her point was valid. The so-called Regressor Monster Theory. As I¡¯ve mentioned before, I have no memories of my family. My memories from before the 4th cycle are all a blur now. And that wasn''t the only reason. ¡®Even in the cycles where I¡¯d be somewhat famous, not a single person who knew me ever came to find me.¡¯ Not a distant rtive. Nor a childhood friend from my hometown. No one at all. Once in a while, I¡¯d get a call from the Reunion anomaly, inviting me to a ss reunion, but I couldn¡¯t really consider that person a friend. Oh, by the way, defeating the Reunion anomaly is incredibly challenging yet simple. Just drive up in a limousine like a Maybach S-ss Pullman or a supercar like a Ferrari. That¡¯ll instantly exorcize the anomaly, and it won¡¯t bother you again. Returning to the main point... ¡®In the end, my family and acquaintances were probably all swept away by the Arrival of the Void and either died or went missing.¡¯ It went all that far-fetched of a possibility. Didn¡¯t 19 out of every 20 people die in Korea? Most people with bad gacha luck lost all their connections, just like I did. "Well... Should I seriously go search for them?" "Huh?" "Ah. Ha-yul keeps teasing me, asking if I¡¯m really the Regressor Monster. So, I thought maybe I should investigate whether I really did appear out of nowhere during the fourth cycle." (Image: Lee Ha-yul giving me a disgusted look for snitching on her pranks.) "Oh... Um..." The Saintess set down her coffee cup. "Wouldn¡¯t that be difficult?" "Why do you think that?" "Because of your nature, Mr. Undertaker. I don¡¯t know much about the ¡®you¡¯ before the 4th cycle, but from what I¡¯ve heard..." She hesitated briefly before continuing, "I imagine you probably Time Sealed the people closest to you, one by one." "......" "You said you cleared the Tutorial Dungeon in the 3rd cycle. So, right after you left Busan Station, I believe you sought out your family and acquaintances. And convinced them to¨D" "Seal them in Crystal Tombstones. But now, I don¡¯t remember where those tombstones are or who I Time Sealed." "That¡¯s just my guess, though." She... had a point. To find any clues about my family, I¡¯d have to inspect every single Crystal Tombstone in Korea. How many tombstones had I buried? At least 500,000. Who knows how many I couldn¡¯t keep track of? "It¡¯s definitely going to be tough." "Yes, unfortunately." [Ex] [] [na] [tion] At that moment, our discussion ended with Ha-yul''s ridiculous card still lingering. I had no intention of doing a Regressor version of In Search of Lost Time, so the idea was naturally shelved.[1] Until the 267th cycle, that is.

As I¡¯ve mentioned before, I mobilized every fairy in my arsenal to find any trace of the Saintess in the 267th cycle. I sent out the baku to scour the dreams of every survivor in Korea. Yet in the end, there was no sign of the 267th Saintess. "Hoeeek." However, I stumbled upon an entirely unexpected puzzle piece instead. "I-isn¡¯t this the Secretary General?" "Hm?" "Look over there, in that person''s dream, up on the hill. The figure walking past the supermarket!" Fairy No. 264 invited me into someone''s dream. It belonged to a 50-something woman I didn¡¯t recognize. "...I can see it, but so what? Isn¡¯t that just a mother and child walking side by side?" "The kid looks oddly simr to the Secretary General!" "What?" The dream revealed a vague silhouette that, ording to the fairy, resembled me. "Come on, it''s way too blurry. You can barely make out their face. How could you say whether he looks like me?" "Hoek, but the baku''s instincts are telling me! The dark aura! That shadow, ck as ink! Those dead fish-like eyes! The stomp of someone who resents the world, pounding the ground! That¡¯s definitely you, Secretary General... Gyaaaah! My skull! It''s being crushed!" "First of all, it''s ¡®sense,¡¯ not ¡®instinct.¡¯" "V-violence is bad! No purging, please!" I gave the fairy a scalp massage, frowning as I observed the dream. In the distance, a mother and child walked, barely noticeable at the edge of the dream¡¯s awareness. ¡®That kid is supposed to be me?¡¯ The child looked like they were around elementary school age. I felt no connection to them at all. I brushed off the fairy¡¯s hunch, but simr reports kept trickling in over time. "Secretary General! Look at this middle school graduation ceremony!" "Where?" "There! About 20 meters away from the dreamer, look at the crowd of students! There¡¯s a figure that just barely shes by over someone¡¯s shoulder! It has to be the Secretary General from the past!" I strained my vision, sharpening my Aura to its extreme limit¡ªthe kind of limit only the most refined Awakener like me could reach¡ªjust to catch a flicker of the silhouette. I muttered in disbelief, "...This really is like a game of Where''s Waldo. Only five thousand times harder." Still, if the fairies were right, one thing was clear. The past I thought I''d lost forever, the memories before the 4th cycle, especially the original Undertaker from the 1st cycle... There were fragments of it, hidden within these dreams. Perhaps I wasn¡¯t a monster born suddenly in the 4th cycle. And now, I had been handed a clue to piece together that lost puzzle.

Footnotes: [1] In Search of Lost Time is a novel by French author Marcel Proust. In it, the narrator walks through memories of his younger years, often through moments of ¡°involuntary memory¡± where something in his everyday life sparks a memory from childhood. Join our discord at Chapter 216 Chapter 216

Chapter 216 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Nameless One II The original Undertaker from the first cycle, whom I couldn¡¯t remember at all. For the sake of convenience, let¡¯s call him the Original Undertaker, Undertaker: The Beginning, or Undertaker the First. "Teacher, you said you wanted to call him something simple, but doesn''t that sound way too grand?" The person grumbling had orange hair thrown up in a ponytail, wore a white sailor uniform, and sported Jordan basketball shoes. It was none other than Baekhwa Girls'' High School Student Council President, Cheon Yo-hwa, a VIP guest specifically invited to participate in this Original Undertaker "Spot the Difference" project. "Anyway, Yo-hwa, I really need your help to piece together the Original Undertaker. Well, more urately, I need assistance from Infinite Void." "Ehck." Yo-hwa made a clearly displeased face. Despite how expressive she was, it never seemed to offend others¡ªone of her curious traits. "Infinite Void? Why her?""Well, the Original Undertaker that appears in other people''s dreams... How should I put it... The resolution is poor." I led Cheon Yo-hwa through several dreamscapes and showed her the blurry silhouette that was supposedly the Original Undertaker. "Oh, it''s real! It¡¯s like looking at an old ck-and-white photo that hasn¡¯t been restored yet!" "Right?" "Yeah! But even with this poor quality, you can tell right away¡ªthis little guy is adorable! Teacher, you used to wear a fuzzy hat when you were younger, huh? Hehe! Hehehe!" Though she had been somewhat grossed out by the mention of Infinite Void, Yo-hwa¡¯s mood quickly lifted the moment she got a peek at my childhood self. With loud exmations, she started examining the silhouette from every possible angle, moving around me excitedly. I cleared my throat. "As of now, we¡¯ve found 13 dreams featuring the Original Undertaker. This one shows the youngest version of him. The Original Undertaker that appears in these dreams is generally younger than a college student." "Ugh, just look at those chubby cheeks! So cute! Teacher, is there no way to record these dreams, like take a video and keep it?" "You¡¯re trying to show off to Dang Seo-rin, aren''t you? Please, control yourself." "Tsk." Yo-hwa¡¯s cheeks puffed up like a hamster. "Anyway, call Infinite Void for a moment. I¡¯m thinking of restoring the image quality based on the data that Infinite Void umted." "Ugh... I hate loosening that bastard¡¯s leash even a little. But, fine. For the chance to see your childhood self up close... I¡¯ll allow it. Give me a second!" Yo-hwa closed her eyes, and then, slip¡ªthe hairband tying up her ponytail loosened, causing her orange hair to cascade down. Blink. When her eyes reopened, her pupils and irises were gone. Only a dark, eerie red remained, staring back at me. "Hello, sunbae." A faint smile spread across the red well of her eyes. "Been a while. Missed me?" "Been a while. Let¡¯s skip the small talk." "Oh, but sunbae, you¡¯re the one holding my hand, not the other way around." Indeed. Whether in the Void or in dreams, it was better to hold hands with yourpanions to avoid getting lost. I scoffed and let go. Then Infinite Void, sealed within Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s form, shrugged. "You¡¯re so cold. Remember, I was born from this girl¡¯s personality because I got caught up in your schemes. It hurts to be treated this way by someone I like." "Thank you for the feedback. I¡¯ll express my disinterest even more clearly from now on. Now, you know why you¡¯re here, right?" "Yeah. I¡¯ve been watching the whole time." Infinite Void tapped its lips thoughtfully. "But you know, it¡¯s hard for me to work at full capacity. After all, sunbae, you¡¯ve ced so many seals on me, like Doppelganger, Split Personality, and Weakened Ally." "You brought that on yourself." "Oh,e on. Split Personality was all part of your master n, wasn¡¯t it? By giving this girl a new name, you demoted me to being a mere second personality. Only someone as wickedly cunning as you coulde up with that strategy." "......" "Not that I mind my current state. You know, they say it''s better to be dumb than smart when trying to be happy. Self-awareness is fun in its own way." I sighed. "Even for you, gathering data on my childhood should be intriguing, right? So, cooperate." "Ah, fair point. Sure thing." The agreement came more easily than expected. Infinite Void reached out and touched the fuzzy hat of the Original Undertaker with its fingertips. Crackle! The surroundings crackled to life. The faces of the passersby, the size of the streetlights, and the shapes of the trees all began to warp. Even the bark of the trees seemed to grow detailed veins. "Hold on a second. Ugh, this used to be easier when I had the Baku working under me. Now, it¡¯s a bit overwhelming thanks to a certain someone." "Shall I make it even harder?" "No thanks. Ah, got it. This is the best I can do." With those words, the scene sharpened, bing as detailed as reality, though the colors seemed slightly muted as if a brown filter had beenid over everything. The blurry silhouette of the Original Undertaker¡¯s face became clear. "......" It was an ordinary child''s face. Aside from the fact that his hat was a bitrge and unusual, there were no distinguishing features. Just a regr elementary school boy. Completely unaware that he was fated to endure thousands, no, tens of thousands of years in the future. "...Is this really me?" "Didn¡¯t the Baku tell you? They probably cross-referenced your name and personal info." "Hmm." "If you don¡¯t trust them, I can ess the Baku''s data myself and double-check for you." I ignored that nonsense. "More importantly." "Hm?" "That woman holding hands with the boy here¡ªshe looks like my mother." The elementary school boy was walking hand-in-hand with his mom. After confirming the appearance of the Original Undertaker, I immediately tried to examine her face as well, but... "Why can¡¯t I see her face?" Her face was missing. More precisely, the "noise" Infinite Void had spread throughout the dream to restore the image wouldn¡¯t clear around her face. In the center of the noise, the words [404 - Not Found] flickered. It was probably Infinite Void¡¯s handiwork. "Huh?" Infinite Void tilted its head at my question, already perched on a railing, swinging its legs. "Are you really asking because you don¡¯t know, sunbae? I thought you had a hunch." "......" "Time Seal. She¡¯s gone. There¡¯s no data left. Actually, her entire outfit should be covered in noise too, but I photoshopped it a bit to fill in the nks." So it was as I thought. I wasn¡¯t particrly disappointed. How could I grieve over the loss of a memory that no longer existed? "I see. Let¡¯s move on to the next dream." "Yes, sunbae." Using Infinite Void, I pressed on in search of the Original Undertaker. Not only the 13 dreams I had already discovered, but in any dream where I could sessfully restore the image, I tracked down more characters and unearthed their dreams as well. At first, in the perspective of the dream¡¯s owner, the Original Undertaker was merely a distant extra walking past a store. But as I traced each connection in these dreams, his proximity to the dream owner changed. From a ¡®customer who bought a hamburger with friends¡¯ to ¡®a kid who had a snowball fight near the same apartment¡¯ to ¡®a student in the neighboring ss when I taught third grade¡¯ and, eventually, ¡®a casual friend of a friend who asionally hung out with us¡¯. But then... "Huh?" Just as the Original Undertaker was about to go from ¡®friend of a friend¡¯ to ¡®close friend,¡¯ Infinite Void hit an invisible snag. "Sunbae, this one¡¯s deleted too." "Deleted? You mean Time Sealed?" "Yeah. Look, your high school friend." The friend walking home from school with the Original Undertaker was now distorted by noise, just like my mother. This time, not only the face but the entire body was covered in static, as if Infinite Void couldn¡¯t be bothered to edit it properly. In this hyper-realistic dreamscape, only the friend¡¯s outline stood out unnaturally, with the words [404 - Not Found] disyed over it. In conclusion, the Original Undertaker wasn¡¯t actually walking home with a friend. To anyone else, it would look like he was smiling and talking to "empty space." "Uhhh." "......" "Somehow, I think I know exactly where this is going." The same pattern repeated over and over. I could trace the Original Undertaker as a ¡®friend of a friend,¡¯ a ¡®neighbor of a neighbor,¡¯ or even someone in the next apartment. But no matter how close I got, at the final step, I always hit a [404] error. No matter how precisely the dreams were restored, or how carefully I traced the human rtionships, the result was always the same. In the end, the Original Undertaker would always be smiling and talking to "empty space." In other words. "Wow, sunbae, you really erased everyone around you, huh? How¡¯d you even manage that?" No one could get past a certain point with the Original Undertaker. He had no family. No rtives. No friends. No acquaintances. Only the remnants of distant rtionships¡ªthose that could barely be considered extras¡ªremained, like vestigial organs. In other words, from the perspective of the people in the world, the Original Undertaker was just an extra in their lives, too. He had no ties. No connections. He was the nameless one. This wasn¡¯t just in the legal sense of the term. In the truest, most objective sense, the Undertaker of the first cycle was entirely excluded from the web of human rtionships on Earth. It was almost awe-inspiring how perfectly he had erased himself from existence, leaving no connections behind. "Aaah. No wonder I was powerless against you when I was Infinite Void. This exins so much." In a hospital hallway, Yo-hwa leaned against the wall, watching the sparse crowd of patients passing by. This ce was presumably where my mother had once worked. But it didn¡¯t provide much useful information. All I could deduce was that my mother had likely been a nurse. And even that conclusion was met with a [404] error. "What do you mean?" "Well, when I was a Void God, I governed over all matter and data, right? Butpared to other humans, sunbae had no data at all. I couldn¡¯t calcte your behavioral patterns." "Hmm." "And on top of that, that weapon you carry around¡ªDo-hwa, right? It gives off a simr vibe. Seriously, yourpatibility with me was awful. It¡¯s practically cheating." I stood next to Infinite Void in the hospital hallway, arms crossed, muttering to myself. "...Something feels off." "Huh? What¡¯s wrong?" "If I had truly gone this far to erase everyone around me with the Time Seal, then there should be Crystal Tombstones everywhere rted to those people." "Crystal Tombstones...? Oh, you mean those things only you can see, and that no one can enter without your permission?" I nodded. "I¡¯ve searched nearly all the Crystal Tombstones in Korea, but I haven¡¯t found a single one belonging to my family, my friends, or any of my acquaintances. Isn¡¯t that odd? Given how much we¡¯ve explored, at least one should¡¯ve turned up by now." "Hmm..." "And more importantly, the fact that I don¡¯t have any memories from before the 4th cycle is strange as well. Even if I erased my mother with the Time Seal, I should still retain memories of her." "Wasn¡¯t that thousands of years ago? Isn¡¯t it natural to forget?" "No, it¡¯s not." I used my Aura like ink to write words into the air. "I gained the Complete Memory ability in the 5th cycle. At that point, I shouldn¡¯t havepletely forgotten about my mother. Not enough time had passed for that." "Right..." "So, by the 5th cycle, all the memories I had should have been permanently preserved by the Complete Memory ability. Things like my mother¡¯s face from the dream, or memories of my family." I frowned. "It makes no sense that I¡¯dpletely forget such important memories." "...Oh?" Infinite Void¡¯s expression grew intrigued. "...You¡¯re right. By now, it might be a distant past, but to the 4th cycle version of you, this was only a few years ago. No matter how bad a person¡¯s memory is, it¡¯s impossible topletely forget family and friends." "Exactly." My eyes narrowed. "There¡¯s another reason why the Undertaker of the 1st cycle has beenpletely erased."

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 217 Chapter 217

Chapter 217 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Nameless One III Let¡¯s pause for a moment to rify¡ªbetween me and the Infinite Void, there exists a perfect hierarchical rtionship. Put simply, there¡¯s no clich¨¦ like, ¡°The Infinite Void, which I thought had been sealed, was actually biding its time, patiently gaining strength, and one day would strike me and Cheon Yo-hwa in the back!¡± It just doesn''t exist. It never existed. ¡°No, no, sunbae! Can¡¯t you at least allow for a 0.02% chance? Being a heroine destined to lose no matter what is just too depressing for my life, no, my anomaly life.¡± ¡°And who are you calling a heroine?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s me, right? As the alter ego of the heroine in a dual personality story, wouldn¡¯t that be a cult favorite for a certain fanbase?¡±¡°Setting aside this im that Yo-hwa is the heroine, Infinite Void, by any chance... didn''t you drop this?¡± I took out a piece of paper from my pocket and handed it over. It was a sheet with the word "self-awareness" written on it. Infinite Void made a strange face. ¡°What the hell? Why are you carrying around this crazy piece of paper?¡± ¡°Why do you think?¡± ¡°Well¡ because you¡¯re nuts? Maybe you¡¯re studying for the Korean Language Proficiency Test, and this is your vocabry list? Or, you already knew I¡¯d say something like this at some point?¡± Midway through speaking, Infinite Void¡¯s expression twisted even more. It had finally arrived at the answer with that exceptionalputational ability. ¡°That¡¯s exactly it.¡± Each Outer God has a specialty¡ªa strength. Naturally, they also have weaknesses. Compared to the others, Infinite Void was particrly vulnerable to regressions. Even though it prided itself as the avatar of randomness, it could only act the same way in the same circumstances. Moreover, when the 267th-cycle Saintess froze Nut''s Domain, my regressions became even more secure. At the very least, Infinite Void had no way to prate that barrier. ¡°Damn it, this is so unfair! Regressors are such broken characters!¡± Infinite Void stomped its feet in frustration. But since I had seen this behavior countless times, I was unfazed. Even the tempo and speed at which it stomped were exactly the same as in previous cycles. There was nothing left to say. Still, seeing Infinite Void acting like this while wearing Yo-hwa''s appearance was... odd. ¡°Change your clothes.¡± At my suddenmand, Infinite Void tilted its head. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°The white sailor uniform is a symbol of Baekhwa Girls'' High. You don''t belong to that school, so wear something else.¡± ¡°Ugh... wait a minute. I already took off the hair tie, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Just do it.¡± ¡°Ughhh...¡± Muttering, ¡°Isn¡¯t this a bit much?¡± under its breath, the Outer God Rocket Launcher lightly touched its uniform. A faint static spread across the sailor uniform. Soon after, the characteristic white uniform of Baekhwa Girls'' High turned pitch ck. It was a ck sailor uniformpletely opposite of Baekhwa. ¡°There, there. Are you happy now? Geez, you¡¯re so mean¡¡± Infinite Void pouted, its expression and the way it muttered the words exactly the same as during simr situations in previous cycles. There was no way I could mistake Infinite Void for a human¡ªat least not with my Complete Memory. Both I and Yo-hwa had forced it to act human, but it wasn¡¯t really. ¡°So, what¡¯s your n, Undertaker Botchi sunbae? You¡¯re blocked from every route. I¡¯m really curious to hear how the King of Mankind will approach this.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll follow my memories all the way back to the 4th cycle.¡± I pointed to the Han River riverside, where there was a bench that looked perfect for lying down. It was overgrown with waist-high grass, but still good enough to rest on. ¡°I¡¯ll dive into a dream and review all the cycles I¡¯ve been through, in reverse order¡ª250th, 200th, 150th, and so on.¡± ¡°Huh? Why not just jump straight to the 4th cycle in one go?¡± I sighed. ¡°Infinite Void, imagine if I, a strange entity, suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the 4th cycle. What would you think of that monster?¡± ¡°Hm¡¡± ¡°And if that were the case, who¡¯s to say I didn¡¯t also suddenly appear in the 266th cycle?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± Infinite Void blinked. I borated, ¡°Of course, I have theplete memories of up to the 267th cycle, but... that could just be an illusion. I might be a monster whose ¡®memories up to the 267th cycle¡¯ were manipted and who only started existing this cycle.¡± ¡°Oh...? Oh.¡± ¡°If a regressor like me, or a monster who thinks he¡¯s a regressor, can suddenly appear in the 4th cycle, the same could happen in any other cycle. I need to confirm that possibility.¡± Infinite Void looked impressed. ¡°Oh, wow, you''re right! It''s the same logic, huh? Like the Brain in a Vat theory? Or the Five Minutes Ago Hypothesis? Hmm.¡±[1] ¡°Looks like I dropped this as well.¡± I handed over a piece of paper that read "intelligence." Infinite Void ripped it up and tossed the pieces at my face. ¡°Hey, you crazy bastard! You¡¯re the one who stole my intelligence! My brain¡¯s like a 64MB RAM now, okay?¡± ¡°Then you can run Romance of the Three Kingdoms III just fine.¡± Isn¡¯t that good enough? You¡¯re asking for too much. We bothy down on the bench. Strictly speaking, it wasn¡¯t together. Iy down on the bench, while Infinite Void offered me ap pillow. A white hand, wrapped in a ck sleeve, tapped my forehead like apass point. ¡°By the way, sunbae, you''re hrious. You say you treasure all the connections you¡¯ve built over 267 cycles and how you¡¯re so grateful to the Saintess, but at the same time, you''re considering the possibility that all of it might be fake?¡± ¡°Move your hand.¡± ¡°Oh, sorry. Did it scratch you?¡± I gripped the hilt of my cane sword. A white sneer, shaped like a w, fell from my forehead. ¡°So scary. I¡¯ll dive into the dream now. Sunbae, please close your eyes.¡± I did so. And we entered the dream. Our destination: the 250th cycle. Infinite Void was the former master of the Baku, and I was the current master. Given that this dangerousbination had formed a temporary alliance, striking the exact dream we wanted was no problem. The moment we entered the lucid dream, a man turned to look at us. It was the Undertaker from the 250th cycle. He was sitting on a bench near the Jamsu Bridge , reading a book¡ªThe Phenomenology of Spirit. Around this time, it was a book he used to read with the Saintess. ¡°Yo-hwa? And¡ me?¡± The Undertaker raised an eyebrow. ¡°Is this a doppelganger?¡± ¡°No, Undertaker from the 250th cycle. This is a lucid dream, and you are merely a figure within it. The one with me isn¡¯t Yo-hwa, but Infinite Void.¡± ¡°Hoh.¡± The Undertaker¡¯s lips curled into a smile. His jet-ck pupils had no shine whatsoever. No matter what angle the sunlight hit, they didn¡¯t reflect even a glimmer. His eyes were like ck holes, deep wells of darkness. Even now, those eyes gave off an unsettling vibe. It felt strange to stand face-to-face with the Undertaker. Like hearing a recording of your own voice and feeling weird about it. Meeting him directly created a peculiar disconnect. ¡°So, you im I¡¯m a figment of the dream? Interesting theory. Fine, if you''re the real Undertaker, tell me the password.¡± ¡°Caf¨¦ auit.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°Schopenhauer, that bastard.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, fellow traveler of my time.¡± Snap. The Undertaker closed his book. Before the sound even finished echoing, he pulled out Do-hwa and lunged at me. In an instant, our dark auras collided. ¨D¨D¨D¨D! The surface of the Han River rippled beyond the Jamsu Bridge. The wave was restrained. Despite the sh of our auras, the surrounding objects were rtively undisturbed. It was because my aura had overwhelmed his, dramatically dampening its power. ¡°You¡¯re real.¡± The Undertaker, whose de I had caught in my hand, nodded. A test of sorts. If I truly was a regressor from a future cycle, I should naturally be stronger. His ck, well-like eyes studied me. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°First, tell me what cycle this is.¡± ¡°This is the 250th cycle. And you?¡± ¡°268th.¡± ¡°Not that far apart.¡± ¡°Right.¡± I nodded. ¡°Now, kill yourself immediately.¡± ¡°My ss isn¡¯t Lancer, though.¡± Despite the grumble escaping his lips, the dream-version of the Undertaker ended his life in an instant. Without the slightest hesitation. Beside me, Infinite Void chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re seriously nuts, sunbae.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a pre-established protocol.¡± Thud. As the Undertaker¡¯s body crumpled, the entire world was swallowed in darkness. It wasn¡¯t just that the lights had gone out. The entire dream hade to an end, leaving behind absolute void. ¡°Infinite Void. For just one question, I¡¯ll allow you to ess the Bakus¡¯ data. Can you sense anything here, other than the two of us?¡± ¡°Wait a sec... Hmm... Nope. Nothing. It¡¯s empty. In the truest sense of the word¡ªvoid. Nothingness.¡± ¡°Not even the presence of an Outer God?¡± ¡°Not at all. I can only feel you, sunbae.¡± Infinite Void furrowed its brow. ¡°By the way, what the hell are you keeping in your skull? You¡¯re like a walking ck hole.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never kept anything there. Next.¡± We proceeded through the cycles: 200th, 150th, 100th, 50th. The Undertakers from those cycles were far easier to subdue. Since we all shared the same protocol, the dream-version of the Undertakers willingly took their own lives. There was no issue. At least, for me. ¡°¨DBleeeegh.¡± The problem was Infinite Void. The deeper we delved into earlier cycles, the worse its expression grew, and by the 50th cycle, it copsed to the ground and started throwing up. ¡°Bleeegh! Ughh... Bleeegh!¡± As expected of an Outer God, even its vomit was rendered as rainbow-colored static noise. Thanks to that, we could rest assured that no matter the tform, this would pass censorship unscathed. ¡°...What the hell are you doing? Get a grip.¡± ¡°I¡¯m... I¡¯m dying, sunbae. I really can¡¯t take it anymore... Bleeeeegh!¡± For a long while, Infinite Void couldn¡¯t stop spewing out its existence in the form of rainbow-colored vomit. It wasn¡¯t a metaphor¡ªits rainbow-colored vomit transformed into miniature versions of Infinite Void upon touching the ground, which then scurried away before disintegrating into nothing. It was the kind of scene that could drive anyone mad if they watched for too long. As for Infinite Void itself, it was shaking its head, looking like it was about to lose its mind. ¡°What kind of dream is this? It¡¯s just borrowing the form of a dream, but it¡¯s totally different.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Infinite Void was perceptive. Despite its goofy nature, as an Outer God, it could see what the Tutorial Fairy hadpletely missed¡ªit had figured out what was really going on here. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really harm anyone, unlike you, who tends to make a mess of things. Unless someone actively tries to break in, nobody gets hurt.¡± ¡°No way... Urgh... Breathing in here feels like it¡¯s draining my HP and MP. Are you really saying this is normal?¡± ¡°Here, take this.¡± I pulled out my notebook and scribbled down "HP and MP," then handed it to Infinite Void. It looked at me as if I were crazy, but it didn¡¯t reject the paper. The moment our hands touched while passing the note, Infinite Void¡¯s breathing began to stabilize. After a while, it finally spoke up. ¡°Sunbae... can I ask you something?¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Is this really a dream?¡± Wiping its mouth with the sleeve of its ck uniform, Infinite Void nced around. The fabric itself was now infected with static noise, crackling as it moved. ¡°This... isn¡¯t a dream. It¡¯s just your domain. The Divine Realm you set up at Baekhwa Girls'' High before you obliterated me... It¡¯s the same, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It looks a lot like a dream, but it¡¯spletely different. Just like that Void resembling a school. If my analysis is correct¡¡± Infinite Void looked up at me, still holding my hand. Its red eyes reflected my face back at me¡ªidentical to the Undertakers I had killed across the dream cycles. ¡°Sunbae, have you ever actually dreamed?¡±

Footnotes: [1] Both thought experiments deal with the idea that our beliefs or memories, respectively, are false and, thus, that our ce in the world we live in is not at all what we perceive it to be. Join our discord at Chapter 218 Chapter 218

Chapter 218 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Nameless One IV ¡°Have you ever dreamed, even once?¡± Infinite Void¡¯s question got halfway there. For me, the Regressor Undertaker, what most people would call "dreams" never visited me. The only things that came to me were "dream-like anomalies" mimicking the appearance of dreams. In fact, I¡¯ve even hinted at it a few times in my tales. Take, for example, the Lucid Dream. Lucid dreaming was something even ordinary people could attempt, but I went far beyond that level, walking through dreams as if they were reality itself. Or, the Precognitive Dream.Just before the Goddess of the Night, Nut, brought about the world''s destruction, Kim Joo-chul visited my dream to warn me of the danger. Sharp readers would have already sensed something was amiss here. Why? Because the real Kim Joo-chul had no recollection of warning me about anything. Thus, it wasn¡¯t Kim Joo-chul himself. The phenomenon known as a "precognitive dream," or rather an anomaly of some kind, merely spoiled the uing crisis for me. Another example would be the Collective Unconscious of humanity. In the academic world, this concept remained an unproven hypothesis. But here, it existed. Through it, I met Go Yuri and the Sword Demon. I also encountered Cheon Yo-hwa and Lee Ha-yul after the world''s destruction. I even saw Kuro, who constantly rolled heads in Jeju Ind, and the original owner of the Monkey''s Paw. In short¡ª ¡°I do dream something simr to dreams. But my dreams are only one of two things: Either they are lucid dreams that perfectly reflect reality, or...¡± I stared at Infinite Void. ¡°They are nightmares where anomalies appear. Actually, if we treat lucid dreams as anomalies too, you could say my dreams are nothing but anomalies.¡± ¡°Wow.¡± Infinite Void furrowed its brow as it muttered, ¡°Is this because of your Complete Memory? Or a side effect of your regressions?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Either way, if anything different from reality appears in my dreams, it proves that an anomaly has invaded them.¡± It was a sort of litmus test and the exact reason why when Kim Joo-chul appeared in my dream and made a fuss, I couldn¡¯t ignore it. While other people might dismiss nightmares as nonsense, I, on the other hand, had to view those nightmares as quite possibly being linked to dangerous anomalies. ¡°That¡¯s why I brought you, Infinite Void. If any anomalies are currently lurking in my dreams, you¡¯ll be able to track them with your abilities. While we¡¯re at it, we might as well clean house while searching for the original Undertaker, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Hey, don¡¯t treat an Outer God like a vacuum cleaner, sunbae...¡± ¡°You¡¯re an ex-Outer God. Now, if you¡¯re done throwing up, get up and follow me. We still have more Undertakers to kill.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Noints there¡ªactually, I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡± Crossing over the corpses of my past selves, we finally reached the final boundary: the Undertaker from the 5th cycle. Thest point where my Complete Memory fully preserved my memories from start to finish. As we approached, the Undertaker¡ªbusy handling Samcheon World guild matters at a train station in Busan¡ªturned to look at us. Our eyes met. His eyes were dark. The eyes of every Undertaker from any timeline had the same ominous look, but the eyes of the 5th cycle Undertaker were on another level. Dead eyes. Pupils charred, as though they had been burned to death. It was less like "a man casting a shadow" and more like "a shadow taking the shape of a man." ¡°What are you two?¡± The shadow spoke, its mouth just as pitch-ck as its eyes. I smirked wryly. The funny thing was that this was the result after bing slightly more "human" post-Dang Seo-rin. ¡°I¡¯m you, from the future, Undertaker.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°This is a dream, and you¡¯re nothing but a figure within it.¡± The Undertaker stared at me nkly. At this point, I had yet to assign any "password" to myself. I hadn¡¯t foreseen that I might one day recall the past through dreams. So, from the 5th cycle Undertaker¡¯s perspective, it was only natural for him to be suspicious. ¡°I don¡¯t want to fight. Just look at our Aura. You can tell from that alone¡ªI¡¯m far stronger than you could ever imagine.¡± ¡°And what does my future self seek? Do you n to tell me how to hunt down the Ten Legs?¡± ¡°Heh!¡± Beside me, Infinite Void snickered. I squeezed the finger inteced with mine tight, and it quickly apologized, ¡°Sorry! Sorry, sunbae!¡± I turned back to the Undertaker. He frowned slightly. ¡°Undertaker of the 5th cycle. I want to ask you something. Do you remember when you first met Dang Seo-rin? That was during the 4th cycle, right?¡± ¡°Dang Seo-rin?¡± ¡°Yeah. For you, it wasn¡¯t that long ago. You¡¯ve also mastered the Complete Memory ability. So, logically, you should have that memory readily avable.¡± The Undertaker opened his mouth, then closed it again. It was like trying to open a drawer that should obviously contain something but finding it empty every time. ¡°...Why can¡¯t I remember?¡± For the first time, a faint trace of emotion appeared on the usually emotionless face of the 5th cycle Undertaker. Confusion. ¡°I definitely met Dang Seo-rin. Just like you said, it wasn¡¯t that long ago, but... my memory of it is strangely vague.¡± ¡°......¡± Just as I suspected. I sighed inwardly. Up until now, I had chalked it up to the natural fading of memories after hundreds or even thousands of years. But it was strange that even the 5th cycle Undertaker couldn¡¯t remember clearly. ¡°This is impossible. That day changed my entire life. There¡¯s no way I could forget it so easily...¡± sh. With a single stroke, I severed the Undertaker¡¯s head. The moment it rolled off, the dreamscape of the 5th cycle copsed. In the ensuing darkness, I asked, ¡°Infinite Void. Even in this dream, you didn¡¯t detect any anomalies?¡± ¡°Nothing. I scanned everything from the 250th cycle to the 5th cycle, and I didn¡¯t sense a single one. The only overwhelming presence here is yours.¡± ¡°So, the possibility that my memories were manipted by an anomaly is highly unlikely.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± In that case, there was only one conclusion left. ¡°I¡¯vee up with a hypothesis as to why my memories before the 4th cycle are so hazy.¡± ¡°Oh? What is it?¡± ¡°Time Seal.¡± A long sigh escaped me. ¡°I must have lost my memories of the people I erased using Time Seal.¡± As you all know, anyone affected by Time Sealpletely vanishes from memory¡ªas if their existence itself had been erased. Only one person, the one who used Time Seal¡ªin this case, me¡ªremains aware of them. ¡°But what if the reason I¡¯m exempt from that erasure was a side effect of my Complete Memory?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Infinite Void blinked. ¡°What are you talking about, sunbae?¡± ¡°Everyone erased by Time Seal is wiped from existence, right? I wasn¡¯t an exception to that. But, coincidentally, when I was granted the Complete Memory ability, the two powers shed.¡± ¡°Aha!¡± Time Seal, a skill that erases existence. Complete Memory, a skill that remembers existence eternally. The two abilities I possessed were in direct opposition. ¡°As a result of their sh, something strange happened. Even though everyone else forgot the people erased by Time Seal, I could still remember them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± Infinite Void¡¯s eyes sparkled. ¡°And that¡¯s how the Crystal Tombstones came to be.¡± Until now, I had thought the tombstones were a byproduct of Time Seal. But in fact, it was the opposite. ¡°Rather, it was Complete Memory forcibly revealing the locations of those whom Time Seal had tried to keep hidden.¡± Thinking back now, I continued, ¡°I always found it odd that the tombstones took on the shape of crystals. It seemed too random. But if you think about it... ¡®memory¡¯ is the act of reflecting oneself. In other words, it¡¯s a mirror.¡± ¡°So the tombstones weren¡¯t crystals but mirrors, huh?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Infinite Void couldn¡¯t hide its reaction. ¡°So, you couldn¡¯t always see the Crystal Tombstones from the beginning, huh, sunbae? At first, you were like everyone else¡ªyou couldn¡¯t remember the people erased by Time Seal.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°But in the 5th cycle, ta-da! You gained Complete Memory, and from then on, you started seeing the Crystal Tombstones!¡± I nodded. ¡°This is my hypothesis. After the 5th cycle, I can remember everyone erased by Time Seal without issue.¡± ¡°Mhm.¡± ¡°But before the 5th cycle, I couldn¡¯t remember those who were erased.¡± I raised a finger. ¡°And... the Undertaker before the 5th cycle actively erased nearly all of his human connections.¡± ¡°Mhm.¡± ¡°Imagine someone who erased almost every rtionship they had, including their family.¡± What happens if you erase the memory of your mother using Time Seal? You could still manage. As we saw with Kim Joo-chul and his son Kim Si-eun, losing one family member doesn¡¯t cause someone¡¯s mind to copse. There would just be an inexplicable sense of emptiness. But what if it wasn¡¯t just one person but everyone? If not just family but friends were erased? And if not just friends, but every single acquaintance you ever had was erased by Time Seal? What if that was what happened to me¡ªthe Undertaker before the 5th cycle? ¡°Memory loss...¡± Infinite Void murmured. I nodded. ¡°Yeah. My memories would be like a half-finished game of Jenga.¡± ¡°Of course. If all your family memories, your childhood friends, and every acquaintance from your life were erased, that¡¯s bound to happen.¡± ¡°Exactly. The only memories left would be of the survivors I met at Busan Station during the Tutorial. And even those unimportant memories would¡¯ve faded over the years before I gained Complete Memory.¡± That was the truth I had deduced. In short, I, the Undertaker, had be someone without any connections in this world¡ªan "extra" who seemed to have just fallen from the sky. And at the same time, a "memory amnesiac", unable to recall anything about my own past. In other words, whether I wanted it or not, I had taken on traits that screamed "main character." It was no wonder the Admin of the Infinite Metagame, an Outer God, had taken an interest in me. Who wouldn¡¯t shove a person with such obvious "protagonist qualities" into the spotlight? ¡°Wait, sunbae. If the 5th-cycle Undertaker can¡¯t clearly remember Dang Seo-rin, why is that? You didn¡¯t use Time Seal on her, did you?¡± ¡°...There must have been someone nearby.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I closed my eyes and thought back to my first meeting with Dang Seo-rin. The memory was nothing but a vague, glitchy image, distorted as if marred by bad TV reception. ¡°There¡¯s venom in those eyes.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re the one, right? The lone survivor of Busan Station. You¡¯re that weirdo who goes around asking people strange questions all the time.¡± After a moment, I opened my eyes again. ¡°Someone must have been standing beside me¡ªor beside Dang Seo-rin¡ªwhen we first met. Someone I can¡¯t remember anymore.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s call that someone ¡®X¡¯ for now. X must¡¯ve been incredibly important to me. So important that when X disappeared, it left a huge void in my memory. That¡¯s why the memory of my first meeting with Dang Seo-rin is partially damaged.¡± Who could X have been? Was it someone who survived with me from the Busan Station Dungeon? Or someone Dang Seo-rin brought along when recruiting me? I had no idea. I couldn¡¯t remember. The Deleted Person X. X must¡¯ve been a key figure in shaping who I was before the 5th cycle. So when X was erased by Time Seal, my memory took a huge hit. ¡°Still...¡± ¡°Still?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve sealed people even before the 4th cycle. For example, Kim Joo-chul.¡± My memory of Kim Joo-chul was blurry. Maybe X had been with me when I sealed him. Either way, even without Complete Memory, I could recall fragments of Kim Joo-chul from the 4th cycle. Despite not having Complete Memory at the time, I could still remember some parts. ¡°If my hypothesis is wrong, I should¡¯vepletely forgotten about Kim Joo-chul since I didn¡¯t have Complete Memory when I sealed him. But I still remember him.¡± ¡°Huh...¡± ¡°So why can I remember Kim Joo-chul but not myself, not my family, and not X? That¡¯s the part that remains unexined.¡± We tried diving into the dreams of the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st cycles. Of course, there were no significant findings. [404 - Not Found] [404 - Not Found] [404 - Not Found] Because some crazy regressor had erased all their human connections, there wasn¡¯t a single noteworthy memory left. ¡°......¡± It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Why had the past version of myself erased so many of the people important to me? Though the mystery of whether the Undertaker had always been an anomaly or not was solved, another puzzle had arisen. [404 - Not Found] This was my starting point. My origin. My birthce. I might be able to conquer the Void in the outside world someday, but would I ever manage to conquer the void within me? I silently gazed at my error-ridden origin for a long time.

There is an epilogue. ¡°Wait! Just a second, sunbae.¡± As we were about to leave the dream, Infinite Void grabbed the edge of my coat. I nced at it with a suspicious look, wondering what trick it was about to pull. Infinite Void, mimicking Cheon Yo-hwa''sugh, chuckled. ¡°No, no. Don¡¯t look at me like that! Look, I know I¡¯m an Outer God and all, but you¡¯ve been pretty kind to me, sunbae.¡± ¡°That¡¯s only because you¡¯re sharing a body with Yo-hwa. If not, I wouldn¡¯t be so lenient.¡± ¡°Ah! Well, anyway! As someone who¡¯s spent all this time being tortured in Yo-hwa¡¯s mind, I have to say, sunbae¡¯s attitude is surprisingly touching!¡± I scowled. Touching, my ass. Sure, Infinite Void could feel something like emotion, but it was more like a program. ¡°Now¡¯s the time to feel moved, so simte the appropriate reaction,¡± or something like that. I shook the thought from my mind and asked, ¡°So?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ve prepared a little gift for you.¡± With a smug pose, Infinite Void¡ªlooking exactly like Cheon Yo-hwa¡ªsnapped its fingers. Suddenly, the error-filled [404] scenery around us shifted into the hallway of a hospital. It was a ce I had visited briefly in the dream earlier. ¡°...This is the hospital where my mother supposedly worked, right?¡± ¡°Yup! You got it. While you were moving between dreams, I kept analyzing and synthesizing all the data from your memories.¡± ¡°Hm.¡± I didn¡¯t object. After all, this entire "find-the-hidden-picture" project was a give-and-take between me and Infinite Void. We had made a mutual agreement to share what we gained. ¡°Thanks to that... I managed to restore something like this!¡± Creeeak. Infinite Void pushed open the door to a hospital room. Inside was the Obstetrics Ward, where my supposed mother worked. Unlike her son, who wouldter be known as the Undertaker, she had a job dedicated to bringing life into the world. In the room, a woman whose entire body was covered in static noise¡ªher face and clothespletely unrecognizabley reclining on the hospital bed. And in her arms, a tiny newborn baby. ¡°That baby, sunbae, is you.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Probably.¡± Infinite Void chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m not 100% certain, of course. You¡¯ve erased so many of your rtionships, after all. But the chances are high that this woman is your mother, and the baby fits your age when this data was recorded.¡± ¡°...You restored this?¡± ¡°Yup! Not bad, huh?¡± The woman¡ªmy supposed mother¡ªdidn¡¯t move at all. She just held the baby in her arms. It seemed impossible to restore any of her actions. The newborn baby was the same. There wasn¡¯t any sense of familiarity, no feeling that I was looking at myself. Even the baby¡¯s face was partially obscured by the same static noise. ¡°......¡± Yet despite this, for a long while, I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off the mother and child. ¡°Now that I think about it...¡± I thought back to Busan Station. ¡°No matter how much my memories were covered with [404] errors, that ce couldn¡¯t have been my true starting point.¡± I realized something then. Even if I had no memories of my origin, that didn¡¯t change the fact that I was human. After all, no human remembers the moment they were born. Just because my memories had a gap at the beginning didn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t human. This scene in front of me, the hidden image found in a regressor¡¯s life, was proof of that. ¡°So? Do you like it?¡± I nced at Infinite Void. It stood there in a proud pose, the kind of idle animation a character in a game would take when left alone for too long¡ªevery movement perfectly on beat. Even the way it tapped the floor with its toes, waiting for my response, was wlessly in sync. But for some reason, that same behavior didn¡¯t bother me as much as it had before. I said what I needed to say. ¡°Thank you.¡± Infinite Void grinned from ear to ear. ¡°So, sunbae, how about this? Since your precious junior has such a big heart, how about granting me control and authority over the Tutorial Fairies again?¡± Instead of answering, I pulled a slip of paper from my coat. On it, I had written ¡°No.¡± Infinite Void chewed on the paper with a pout before spitting it out.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 219 Chapter 219

Chapter 219 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The nderer I "These days, people''s moralpasses seem... off, don''t you think?" One day, while enjoying a swim, Noh Do-hwa made this statement out of the blue. "Hmm." By the way, we were at a swimming pool located in the basement of the National Road Management Corps headquarters. Now, you might find it off-putting that even during the apocalypse, the center of power still had a leisurely swimming pool. But it¡¯s not something to take too seriously. The Void merely randomly spawned a pool.Noh Do-hwa hated all activities under the category of "exercise" but didn''t particrly mind swimming. So, I periodically dragged her out of the office and threw her into the pool. After all, a person has to get at least a little exercise; otherwise, they won''t live long. I couldn¡¯t allow the Zhuge Liang of the Penins to die young, now, could I? Anyway. I silently approached Do-hwa, squatted down, and ced my hand on her forehead as she floated at the edge of the pool. "Strange. You don¡¯t feel like you have a temperature." "Do you want to die...?" "Oh,e now. This is a genuine concern. When the person with the most questionable character in the world suddenly starts talking about morality, of course I¡¯m going to be worried." "It¡¯s more like you¡¯re genuinely full of shit..." Do-hwa swatted my hand away, and the smell of chlorine hit my nose. "Have you not noticed? The way people have been reactingtely has been off.¡± "In what way, exactly?" "Let me tell you..." Noh Do-hwa¡¯s story went like this: Talks about replenishing manpower were always ongoing at the National Road Management Corps. It was a natural consequence, really, of being part of the Corps, given that it meant half your life was basically in the hands of anomalies. The recruits were required to possess highbat skills, unshakable loyalty even in the face of bribes and corruption from regional warlords, a strong sense of camaraderie, specialized knowledge, and mental resilience strong enough to withstand the Void''s mental pollution. Above all, they had to retain hope for humanity despite enduring constant suffering. In other words, it was one hell of a tough job. "People are getting chewed up out there! We need more recruits!" "Who the hell let this piece of trash through as a rookie? Stop hiring anyone and everyone!" "More bodies! We need more bodies!" "We need quality!" These two eternal opinions within the Corps ran on parallel tracks, destined never to meet. ¡°Buttely, people unrted to the National Road Management Corps started poking their noses into this..." "Huh?" The trouble started with SG Net. One of the caravans dispatched by the National Road Management Corps from Busan got wiped out by the Void (which, by the way, is a prettymon urrence), and the SG Net users had a field day with it. - Anonymous: Honestly, isn''t it the Corps'' fault for not beefing up their manpower in time? ©¸Anonymous: The Corps basically shoulders all of Korea''s logistics, so it¡¯s a bit irresponsible, to be honest. Yeah... ©¸OldManGoryeo: Hmm... - Anonymous: Because of that ident, the market in Pohang¡¯s been closed for over three months, lol. - Anonymous: I have a friend in the Corps, and apparently, even internally, they''re saying they deliberately don¡¯t recruit enough people despite knowing how understaffed they are. ©¸Anonymous: Why would they do that? ©¸Anonymous: Because the more Corps members they have, the more they¡¯ll have to share the "straws" they¡¯ve stuck into guilds across the country. Corps officers don''t care about logistics, they just want to siphon taxes from the guilds, lol. ©¸Anonymous: For real?? ©¸Anonymous: Everyone in the know already knows about it. ©¸dolLHoUse: ?? What kind of bullshit are you guys spewing? - Anonymous: I didn¡¯t think the Corps leader was like that. Fucking same as the old politicians. ©¸Anonymous: Do you still trust people?? Lol. ©¸Anonymous: I knew this would happen. I blinked. "What... is this stream of bullshit?" "Exactly that¡ªa stream of bullshit. I heard about it from my subordinates, but apparently, posts like these have been popping up regrly." "Suddenly?" "About a week ago, actually..." It was a vicious spread of false information. At this point, the National Road Management Corps was practically the lifeblood of the Korean Penins. Even the regional warlord guild leaders knew that, as did themon citizens. In these times, unity was more critical than ever. Spreading nder like this would only result in a loss for all of humanity. Pointless rabble-rousing. "We need to get Seo Gyu to track those IP addresses." "We already did that..." "Who are these bastards? Could it be a deliberate smear campaign by a specific guild? That¡¯s the only thing that makes sense to me." If so, I would bring the hammer down on these small-minded fools chasing short-term gains. But Do-hwa shook her head. "Well. I thought the same, so I asked Yongsan to look into their identities... but they were just ordinary Awakeners." "Ordinary Awakeners?" "Yes. They had no connections, no rtionships, nothing. They wereplete strangers who just happened to start tradingments online." I blinked again. So, was it just a coincidence? I had no intention of over-regting every little thing just because of some random incident. After all, venting on the inte had been a daily urrence even before civilization copsed. "But there''s more. Ah... something just grabbed my ankle..." "Just a Water Ghost, nothing serious. Keep talking." "Right..." We continued our conversation,pletely ignoring the Water Ghost we had wordlessly dealt with. "It¡¯s not just the National Road Management Corps either. They¡¯ve been trying to needle Samcheon World and Baekhwa Girls'' High School too." In other words, nder. - Anonymous: The Witch of the Cursed Song, Dang Seo-rin, holds a dissection show at the end of every month in Busan. Honestly, it¡¯s pretty brutal, lol. - Anonymous: Two regr guild members from the Samcheon World were killedst time because they tried to forcibly catch an anomaly for her dissection show. ©¸Anonymous: For real?? ©¸OldManGoryeo: Hmm... - Anonymous: Yeah, I heard about it too. They could¡¯ve just killed the anomaly without any casualties, but Dang Seo-rin insisted on capturing it for the show, and that¡¯s why the incident happened. ©¸Anonymous: Wow. - Anonymous: If that¡¯s true, isn¡¯t it a real problem? ©¸Anonymous: Dang Seo-rin practically rules Busan, so covering up two deaths wouldn¡¯t be a big deal for her. She¡¯s always been like that. ©¸dolLHoUse: ?? What the hell are you people on about? ©¸Anonymous: I knew this would happen. Of course, these rumors werepletely baseless. Dang Seo-rin almost always captured her prey personally. She never simply ordered her subordinates to bring in something while standing idly by. In fact, without her support through her Cursed Song Incantation, the Ten Legs extermination or the Meteor Shower hunts would have resulted in massive casualties among the awakeners. Seo-rin had earned herself plenty of immunity with her contributions. And now these puny Awakeners were daring to criticize her? Had they collectively lost their minds? "Hey, don¡¯t roll your eyes at me like that. They already look dead inside. Now you¡¯re making them look like they¡¯re rted to a fish..." "Hmm." "Anyway, that¡¯s how things have been this week. It feels just like the old days before civilization copsed..." "Is it just SG Net?" "Who knows..." Do-hwa got out of the pool, and I wrapped a towel around her shoulders, which I had prepared in advance. Since I¡¯d forced her into the exercise she despised, offering this level of service was only fair. She took a sip of the coffee I handed her and looked back at me. Droplets of water from her ck hair dripped to the floor. "My gut tells me this is probably the work of an anomaly..." My gut told me the same thing.

Receiving a quest directly from the Commander of the National Road Management Corps was no small matter, so I couldn''t just ck off. I decided to push back my original schedule and reached out to the Saintess. [Yes, you''re right. There¡¯s been a noticeable increase in those kinds of conversationstely, even in reality.] The Saintess''s abilities were reliable as ever. She immediately provided the information I needed. [The people involved don¡¯t seem particrly aware that they were having such conversations.] [They just say things like, "Oh, I happened to mention it," or "I didn¡¯t mean anything by it," or "I was just agreeing with what someone else said." To them, it¡¯s just small talk.] [That seems to be the extent of their awareness.] I rested my chin on my hand. "If these conversations are happening in reality, not just online, maybe the keyword we should focus on is something like ''witch hunt''. Could it be a sort of mental virus?" [A virus... doesn¡¯t quite seem right. There¡¯s no specific source of infection that we can identify.] [It¡¯s been happening simultaneously across ces like Sariwon and Busan.] "Can you summarize the characteristics of these conversations?" [Of course.] The Saintess then gave me a concise summary of the anomaly she dubbed the "Witch Hunt": Someone subtly spreads baseless usations. Others, despite having doubts, still chime in and agree with the usations. The usations are then epted as fact, with remarks questioning the character or integrity of the used. The conversation always ends with the line, "I knew it all along." [...That¡¯s the gist of it.] "Hmm." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "It¡¯s definitely a mental-type anomaly... It seems to be some kind of entity that parasitizesnguage itself." [How do you n to handle this?] "First, let''s see how it reacts." I decided to test the waters by contacting Sim Ah-ryeon, who held authority over the Constetions Librarian of the Great Library and Collector of All Anomalies. Not only that, but she also had numerous anonymous ounts at her disposal. Target: ON. Fire. - Anonymous: I know who''s been spreading those rumors about Dang Seo-rin capturing anomalies just for her dissection shows, lol. - Anonymous: There¡¯s this small guild in Yeongdo, Busan, called Cheonghae Guild, always causing trouble for Samcheon. Their guild leader got caught by Dang Seo-rin a while back, and ever since then, they¡¯ve been spreading nder about her. ©¸Anonymous: ?? What are you talking about? I¡¯m just sharing something a friend told me. ©¸Anonymous: Oh, your "friend"? You mean the one who cried like a baby begging for his life in front of the Great Witch in Busan? ©¸Anonymous: I¡¯m not even from Cheonghae Guild. For the record, all of the ¡°Anonymous¡± users in this exchange were Ah-ryeon herself, expertly ying different personas to stir the pot on the forum. Once she had everyone''s attention, she delivered the final blow. - Anonymous: By the way, I¡¯m one of the top five Awakeners under the Librarian of the Great Library. If you keep running your mouth, I can just ask the Constetion to dig up your personal info. So maybe shut up? ^^ ©¸Anonymous: Pfft, as if. I¡¯m not even part of Cheonghae Guild. Do whatever you want, lol. ©¸Librarian of the Great Library: Park Sang-soon, 37 years old. Guild Master of Cheonghae Guild. Currently logged in from Yeongdo, Busan. ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸Anonymous: What the fuck¡ª ©¸Anonymous: That¡¯s not me! Naturally, the forum exploded. The tide of public opinion rapidly shifted, withmenters now siding with Samcheon and berating Cheonghae Guild. I watched this all unfold with a cold expression. ''So, we¡¯ve turned the nder around. Now let¡¯s see how the anomaly reacts.'' At that moment¡ª - Anonymous: I always knew Cheonghae Guild would cause trouble someday, lol. - Anonymous: That guild has always been shady, using anonymous ounts to promote themselves while badmouthing rival guilds. ©¸Anonymous: For real?? ©¸Anonymous: Apparently, the guild leader even assigned an SG Net officer to manipte public opinion and instructed the guild members on how to do it. ©¸Anonymous: I knew it. Hmm. I let out a small sigh. Just moments ago, these users were questioning Seo-rin''s integrity, yet now they had smoothly flipped their stance and were condemning Cheonghae Guild instead. ¡°It¡¯s not going away, is it?¡± [No... And more Awakeners who have no connection to the situation are jumping in and adding to thements.] Exactly. This anomaly didn¡¯t care about facts, logic, or reason. It just wanted to burn everything to the ground. Even if you managed to debunk one rumor, the entity would simplytch onto the next, continuing its cycle of destruction.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 220 Chapter 220

Chapter 220 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The nderer II At some point, the "Witch Hunt" anomaly began sweeping across the Korean Penins. If it had just been limited to a few stupid posts on the inte, it would have been fine. But the terrifying part of this anomaly was something else entirely. ¡°I knew this would happen.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I said I knew this would happen.¡± ¡°What the hell? You agreed to enter the Void too, didn¡¯t you? Who could¡¯ve predicted such a bizarre anomaly would pop out from there...?¡±¡°I knew it would happen! And yet, you just waltz into the Void without a n. Tsk, tsk.¡± ¡°......¡± This kind of exchange started happening everywhere across the country, where those infected by this anomaly would, whenever something went wrong, pull the ¡°I knew it all along¡± and act like they were some impartial and objective third party. It was a truly strange phenomenon. Ever since the world began to be consumed by the Void, wasn¡¯t the range of things humanity could predict reduced to the size of a hand? The attitude required of people living in our times was much simpler: ¡®I didn¡¯t see thising.¡¯ ¡®Since I don¡¯t know, I¡¯ll prepare as best as I can.¡¯ ¡®If I don¡¯t know, I¡¯ll take the hit and learn as I go.¡¯ Yet, this anomaly was boldly standing in opposition to suchmon sense. ¡°I knew it would happen.¡± ¡°And I knew you¡¯d act like you knew it.¡± ¡°Well, guess what! I knew you¡¯d pretend to act like you knew that I knew!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve known since forever that you two would be doing that whole ¡®knowing-it-all¡¯ routine!¡± Even when a brand-new Void emerged or whenpletely unheard-of news reached them, people inexplicably began to tout their foresight. At this point, I had to admit that this anomaly was more formidable than I initially thought. But so what if I did? I scratched my head and patted the shoulder of our inte¡¯s strongest power source. ¡°Ah-ryeon, good work.¡± ¡°Ah, y-yes.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think responding to every bit of nder is worth the effort anymore. You did great, now stop.¡± ¡°Ah... Yes, guild leader. Haa... I-I knew it woulde to this...¡± ¡°......¡± That day, a small bump appeared on the back of Ah-ryeon¡¯s head. It would serve as a nice external conscience chip for Sim Ah-ryeon, who only nurtured triangles and squares in her mind. In any case, the situation was bing slightly, but steadily, more serious. Inside the smaller guilds, which had been operating smoothly until recently, signs of division were starting to show. Verbal altercations between citizens were also frequently observed in the city. It was still at a manageable level, though. This wasn¡¯t a Ten Legs-level anomaly that outright massacred people. However, it was obvious that if left unchecked, it could develop into a much more serious situation. ¡°Um, guild leader.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I think this is a little different from a ¡®Witch Hunt.¡¯ No, actually, I think it¡¯spletely different.¡± Ah-ryeon rubbed the bump on her head. ¡°What makes you think that?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s happening not just on the inte, but in real life too. A witch hunt usually... works more sneakily. At least, it¡¯s done from behind the mask of anonymity.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know... Modern witch hunts can easily happen in real life too. Have you heard of the Dreyfus Affair?¡± ¡°D-Dreyfus...?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s what made ¨¦mile Z¡¯s J¡¯use famous.¡± ¡°Oh, right... I know about that. The, uh, famous 100k subscriber YouTuber, Emile Z...¡± ...Seriously?[1] Ah-ryeon¡¯s lips twitched as she mumbled, ¡°A-anyway, witch hunts usually involve blending into the crowd, the masses, hunting while hidden... right?¡± ¡°True, that¡¯s usually the case.¡± ¡°Right. But this anomaly feels different. For starters, going after the Demon King of the National Road Management Corps or the Viinous Witch of Samcheon World feels... a little...¡± ¡°A little?¡± ¡°It just doesn¡¯t have that underhanded vibe,¡± she muttered under her breath. A question mark floated above my head, but Ah-ryeon ignored it and continued rambling. ¡°In SG Net, even when people hide behind the mask of anonymity, there¡¯s always the risk of getting found out by the Constetions. So people don¡¯t just go around crossing the line. That applies even more to real life. But here... defying the two most powerful figures on the Korean Penins? It¡¯s oddly... too upright. There¡¯s no stink of corruption...¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon, what are you even talking about?¡± ¡°Guild leader, you¡¯re getting too hung up on the keyword ¡®witch hunt¡¯ just because the Great Witch of Samcheon World was attacked.¡± What? ¡°Plus, even if you¡¯re a viin on SG Net, you¡¯re just a Three Kingdoms parrot. You¡¯ve got no experience causing real havoc. This isn¡¯t a witch hunt.¡± ¡°Then what kind of anomaly do you think it is?¡± ¡°Here.¡± Ah-ryeon tapped her smartphone screen, pulling up ament from SG Net. - Anonymous: I knew this would happen. It was the phrase that appeared most frequently when investigating this anomaly. ¡°This is the key,¡± Ah-ryeon said, pointing at thement. ¡°The whole ¡®acting like they know everything.¡¯ So this isn¡¯t a witch hunt anomaly. It¡¯s... arrogance or, perhaps... a know-it-all.¡± ¡°A know-it-all?¡± ¡°Yes. Maybe... we should call it a pseudo-intellectual anomaly. These guys are always looking for a chance to show off what they supposedly know. They aren¡¯t hiding in the crowd. They¡¯re trying to stand out and, whenever they get the chance, act like they know everything... It''s closer to a ¡®pseudo-intellectual anomaly.¡¯¡± That was Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s expert analysis, as a self-proimed and inte-renowned expert.

If there¡¯s one advantage I, the Undertaker, had, it was that I knew how to listen to experts. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and just like that, even OldManGoryeo had moments where you could learn something from them. Ah-ryeon waspletely immersed in the idea of teaching me about anomalies. ¡°O-of course, guild leader, I understand why you¡¯re confused. It kind of does have a witch hunt vibe at first nce... There¡¯s some inciting and even a bit of avoiding responsibility. A-and guild leader, no matter how hard you try to act young, there¡¯s a limit to...¡± There was a brief moment where I considered adding another external conscience chip to her. ¡°It¡¯s probably because the anomaly is evolving in real-time. Soon enough, it¡¯ll likely expand into the much broader category of ¡®inte culture.¡¯¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± Though she muttered, "I still don¡¯t get why it¡¯s spreading into the real world, but..." under her breath. ¡°Anyway, if we leave this alone, I think humanity will eventually turn into something like... forest critters. Awakener supremacy and Awakener hate will grow much stronger than they already are...¡± The thought alone was horrifying. ¡®The Sim Ah-ryeon-ification of humanity!¡¯ Chills ran down my spine. Humanity deserved a more dignified demise than that. We had to act swiftly and stamp it out early. ¡°How do we stop it? Please share your esteemed wisdom, wise OldManGoryeo.¡± ¡°Hehehe... Eh-heh-heh...¡± Ah-ryeon fidgeted with her fingers, clearly pleased. ¡°W-well, the best way is... to crush those know-it-alls so thoroughly that they can¡¯t say a word! Just wham! tten them so hard that they can¡¯t even mutter, ¡®I knew it would happen!¡¯ Only you, guild leader, can pull off such a feat... Show them something so spectacr, so extraordinary that no one could possibly criticize it...!¡± ¡°Extraordinary?¡± ¡°It has to be something absolutely unexpected! Instead of ¡®I knew it would happen,¡¯ people should be left saying, ¡®I really didn¡¯t see thating!¡¯ A shocking, huge event that blows everyone¡¯s minds...!¡± ¡°Shocking, huh.¡± Hmm. I opened the notepad in my head and carefully jotted down the advice from Professor OldManGoryeo. While I was doing this, I heard a voice, slightly urgent, telepathically ringing in my head. It was the Saintess. [Wait a moment, Mr. Undertaker... No matter how knowledgeable Sim Ah-ryeon might be about inte culture, isn¡¯t it risky to take her advice at face value...?] At that moment, Ah-ryeon drove the final nail in the coffin. ¡°If it weren¡¯t you, guild leader, I wouldn¡¯t be suggesting this strategy at all. After all, even when ites to General Yi Sun-sin, people pull off their pseudo-intellectual garbage all the time. It¡¯s just how the world works...¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°But guild leader, aside from me, you¡¯re the greatest person on this! So I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll show us a solution so brilliant and unexpected that even this lousy anomaly couldn¡¯t have anticipated it!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°I believe in you, guild leader...!¡± Ah-ryeon clenched both her fists tightly in determination. I nodded. ¡°Alright. Just trust me, Ah-ryeon. This guild leader will create a scene so unprecedented, no one could¡¯ve possibly seen iting.¡± ¡°Hehehe! Yes!¡± Watching the same scene through my eyes, the Saintess sighed quietly. [Why is it that you torment Sim Ah-ryeon every day, but when ites to something important, you lose yourposure and let her sway you like this...?]

First things first, I selected the most heavily infected by the pseudo-intellectual anomaly and had them rounded up. A total of 360 people. That number wasn¡¯t random¡ªit was a deliberate choice. When Socrates was sentenced to death in ancient Athens, the vote tally for his execution was exactly 360. In short, 360 symbolized mob rule and mass psychology.[2] Not stopping there, I went ahead and carved a Greek-style temple out of stone pirs using my Aura. Whether this anomaly was better defined as pseudo-intellectualism or witch hunting, this temple had now be the perfect altar to summon it. ¡°Undertaker, how dare you kidnap us and tie us up! I knew you¡¯d end up like this!¡± Murmurs andints started to rise. The people who had been kidnapped and bound by me were now making a racket. ¡°Even in thiswless age, this is too much! I knew it wasing!¡± ¡°This is an Awakener¡¯s tyranny! Abuse of power! Just as I expected!¡± ¡°I knew it from the moment you and the National Road Management Corps were conspiring to take over the Penins. Tsk.¡± ¡°Was it Dang Seo-rin who ordered you to do this? I knew it! I knew there was something fishy going on between you two!¡± ¡°See? Put a war hero on a pedestal, and they¡¯ll just turn into a dictator. I knew it would happen!¡± What is this? Since when did so many people awaken to irvoyance? As far as I knew, there were only two Prophets in existence. ¡®Clearly, this is abnormal.¡¯ These people, after all, were survivors of the apocalypse. They had sharp instincts and outstanding judgment. If the Undertaker kidnapped them and tied them up in some suspicious Greek temple, they should¡¯ve immediately sensed that something was off. And yet, instead of grasping the gravity of the situation, they were busyining about my actions, proudly proiming they had predicted it all. It was obvious that their minds had already been deeply corrupted by the anomaly. ¡°Everyone, please be quiet,¡± I announced using the paper megaphone I made. ¡°What?! You want us to be quiet in a situation like this?!¡± ¡°Are you trying to silence the people?!¡± ¡°Dictator! Dictator! Dictator!¡± ¡°Go ahead, kill us! See if you can!¡± The people erupted in shouts. Skipping over the repetitive outbursts of ¡°I knew it,¡± I continued. ¡°I¡¯m not here to kill any of you. However...¡± I motioned toward the side, where the National Road Management Corps operations team leader, the silver-haired psychopath, stood silently. ¡°If Team Leader Yu Ji-won here loses her temper and kills someone, there¡¯s nothing I can do to stop it.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The temple air instantly stilled. Most psychopaths kept their tendencies in check, hiding their nature behind a facade. But Yu Ji-won was a different breed. Once she was assured that figures like Noh Do-hwa or the Regressor wouldn¡¯t abandon her, she dropped all pretenses and unleashed her full psychopathic tendencies without hesitation. She would sh people apart without a second thought, as long as she had both justification and necessity. It was for these reasons that, even in the apocalypse, the Korean Penins managed to maintain some semnce ofw and order. ¡°Now, take a look at this Aura.¡± I raised my sword, Do-hwa, and lifted it to the sky. Then, I poured every bit of aura I had into it. ¨D¨D¨D! The dark aura swallowed all sound as it pierced the heavens. The clouds torn asunder by the Aura were dyed ck, turned to storm clouds. In that broad daylight, a patch of the night sky appeared, as if a hole had been ripped through the atmosphere. This was the result of pouring every ounce of my power into my Aura. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± p. p, p, p. Slow pping broke the silence. There was no need to turn around to check. It was Ji-won, pping with a nk expression. Ignoring her ttery, I turned to the 360 captives. ¡°Well, what do you think?¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯re just intimidating civilians with brute force!¡± ¡°Ha! That¡¯s nothing more than a show of Aura. It¡¯s no different from showing off your muscles!¡± ¡°Research shows that excessive Aura inbat can actually reduce efficiency...¡± ¡°I knew it. I knew exactly what kind of person you were.¡± The anomaly paused for a moment but still continued to casually wag its tongue. More precisely, the people corrupted by the anomaly kept wagging theirs. I muttered to myself, ¡°As expected, this isn¡¯t enough.¡± ¡°Shall we execute them, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°How can I execute people who were just unlucky enough to be infected by the anomaly? No, let¡¯s move on to the next n.¡± If an Aura showcase wasn¡¯t enough, I had no choice but to use my trump card. The Korean Penins didn¡¯t just have Ah-ryeon, the viin OldManGoryeo, as its top power source. I uttered the name of the second ultimate weapon. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Bring the Sword Marquess here.¡± If an Aura showcase wasn¡¯t enough, then fine. From now on, I¡¯ll being showing you the Sword Marquess¡¯s incredible, jaw-dropping rebirth technique.

Footnotes: [1] The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal in which treasonous acts were pinned on an innocent man with the help of higher-ups in the French military, who suppressed exonerating evidence and used evidence they forged to use him. Journalist ¨¦mile Z¡¯s open letter to the press J¡¯use...! yed a significant role sessfully pressuring the government to pardon the man. [2] Socrates was convicted officially of impiety against the gods and corrupting the minds of the Athenian youth. However, his trial was most likely organized for speaking out against prominent leaders of the Athenian government and encouraging his students to think critically of ¡°truths¡± given to them. Join our discord at Chapter 221 Chapter 221

Chapter 221 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The nderer III Rejuvenation. A phenomenon where an old master, upon reaching the peak of enlightenment, reverts back to their childhood or prime years. It''s also a state that every StarCraft gamer desperately dreams of when their Mutalisk control slips, resulting in a massacre at the hands of filthy marines. From Gilgamesh, the Demon King of the West, to Qin Shi Huang, the Overlord of the Central ins, very few did not yearn for this state. Thus, the first individual to achieve this milestone on the Earth server was none other than..."Hm? Why have you summoned me?" The Marquess of the Yudolguk Duchy, the Sword Marquess. You may recall, in a previous cycle where I used the Monkey''s Paw, this old man seeded in evolving into Rebirth-mon. A true monster of possibilities. Of course, I no longer rely on the Monkey''s Paw. However, having learned that the Sword Marquess had an upgrade avable, why wouldn¡¯t I use this knowledge? ¡°Marquess, please listen closely. The boundary between night and day is merely a temporary distinction made by humans, nothing more than a fleeting glimmer in the ceaseless flow of time...¡± And so on. This passage came from the 590th run, when the Sword Marquess experienced rebirth. It was, in essence, his guide to enlightenment. Unsurprisingly, as I recited the exact steps without a single mistake, the Sword Marquess''s expression grew increasingly mystified. "Now, Marquess-mon! Evolve!" ¡°What are you babbling about, Undertaker?¡± It didn¡¯t work. Was it not enough? Even the 360 captives observing us from the sidelines began to stir. ¡°Boo! Boo!¡± ¡°You kidnap people and use force to threaten them, now what kind of nonsense are you spouting?!¡± ¡°The world probably doesn¡¯t know this about the Undertaker, but I had a hunch from the start!¡± But I didn¡¯t give up. In Korean education, pre-study and repetition are key. I still had a long way to go with the regressor''s lessons. I nced at Ji-won, and with a single look, I silenced the noisy crowd. Then, I immediately drew my sword. ¡°Sir, watch closely.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± I began the Sword Dance. This wasn''t a dance I invented. Long ago, during a flower-viewing trip to Mount Hua, the Sword Marquess had performed this very dance at the peak. I was now faithfully recreating it. The Sword Marquess was visibly taken aback. ¡°Th-that¡¯s...?¡± ¡°Do you feel it?¡± ¡°I feel it! I can feel it! Oh! How is the essence of Mount Hua embedded in the tip of your de?!¡± ¡°Now that you feel it, listen once more. The boundary between night and day is merely...¡± I recited the Sword Marquess''s enlightenment aloud while simultaneously demonstrating it with my body. You wouldn¡¯t find a professor like this anywhere else. In other words, from a third-party perspective, I must have looked like a lunatic swinging a sword and muttering iprehensible gibberish. Even the captives were now staring at me as if I¡¯d lost my mind. ¡°Ooooh...¡± When the Sword Dance ended, the Sword Marquess pped his hands, his beard quivering. ¡°Truly, a marvelous Sword Dance! It was like the plum blossoms blooming on Mount Hua, like the mist enveloping those blossoms, and like a lone ship cutting through that mist! How curious! Should I call this ship Sambo-taegam¡¯s treasure boat or perhaps Admiral Yi¡¯s Turtle Ship?¡± ¡°So, do you feel like you''re about to rejuvenate?¡± ¡°Eh? Rejuvenate? That, I¡¯m not so sure about...¡± Still not enough. Even more boos erupted from the captives in the audience, but I paid them no mind. I snapped my fingers. At my signal, Yu Ji-won, who had been on standby, began unloading dozens of televisions from the truck. A total of 130 CRT TVs. The TVs surrounded the Sword Marquess like a miniature Stonehenge. ¡°Ji-won, turn them on.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency.¡± Chiiiick! Despite not being plugged in, the TVs flickered on, filled with static. As expected¡ªthey were all cursed televisions. Each screen reyed degraded footage of my Sword Dance, which I had recorded beforehand. The boundary between night and day, ehehehe! Merely a temporary, hehe, distinction! The cycle of the endless ring... the principle... Kukekekekekeck. By the way, the dance being shown wasn¡¯t actually me¡ªit was ghosts mimicking my movements. Getting those spirits out of the well to reenact my dance had been quite the hassle. If you looked closely, you could probably sense the sorrow and resentment on their faces, brought on by their forced eviction. ¡°Wh-what¡¯s happening...?¡± Sensing that something was amiss, even the Sword Marquess, who was notoriously entric, began to grow wary. The captives, who had been jeering from the sidelines, slowly quieted down. ¡°What in the world are you doing, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Do not question it. Feel it. Embrace the sensation and flow as it is, Marquess.¡± ¡°Embrace it?¡± The Sword Marquess looked around, bewildered. ¡°What am I supposed to embrace in a scene where ghosts are twisting their joints backward and muttering curses?!¡± ¡°Here, use this.¡± I handed him a pair of earphones. Connected to an MP3 yer, of course, with a cursed audio file stored within. As soon as the Sword Marquess put the earphones on, the Heart Sutra began ying in a robotic, monotone voice. The boundary between night and day is but a fleeting human distinction, flowing through the endless stream of time. ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, and don¡¯t turn up the volume too much. Just think of it as listening to MC Square. You know MC Square, right?¡± ¡°Hm... Um...¡± ¡°So, how about it? Do you feel like you¡¯re about to rejuvenate?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t evenprehend half the words you¡¯re saying, Undertaker...¡± Still not enough. The 360 captives muttered discontentedly, their faces beginning to droop. ¡°I knew it. I knew this would happen.¡± ¡°I knew from the moment he started with this rejuvenation nonsense...¡± ¡°You think bringing out cursed TVs to scare us will work? I¡¯ve known this would happen all along...¡± Even though their voices had lost some strength, the captives still clung to their refrain of ¡°I knew this would happen.¡± But I wasn¡¯t discouraged at all. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Bring Ha-yul and Dok-seo.¡± ¡°At once.¡± With Ji-won¡¯s help, the two little sisters, Lee Ha-yul and Oh Dok-seo, were promptly brought in. Ha-yul¡¯s face was gaunt. She had been diligently practicing the choreography, more earnestly than a K-pop idol trainee. ¡°Ha-yul, have you mastered it?¡± [Oppa, please die.] ¡°Well done. That¡¯s the spirit.¡± [......] "Now, show this old man your dance skills as we discussed." Ha-yul spun threads from her fingertips, attaching them to the joints of the Sword Marquess. These threads, sticky and stic like spider silk, quickly connected to his limbs. "Wh-what''s going on? What is this?" The Sword Marquess was flustered, but he couldn¡¯t stop Ha-yul. Though she might appear fragile, there were very few Awakeners who could defeat her in a one-on-one fight. ¡°Ji-won, cue the music.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Dok-seo, go.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Dok-seo coolly flipped her hat backward. It was a fashion that only women over 190 cm with a certain level of physique could pull off, and the gleam of her gold ne sparkled brightly against her shirt. ¡°Yeah, Alliance of the Regressors. Yo yo, here we go, fucking psychopaths. Freestyle, real quick. Esketit.¡± As Ji-won provided a smooth beat, alternating between on-beat and syncopated rhythms, Dok-seo grasped the mic. ¡°The boundary between night and day, yo! It¡¯s just a human¡¯s fleeting division! Yo, tick, crackle, tick, yo, in the ceaseless flow of time, it shes briefly, yo...¡± Her rap wasced with static and distortion, a side effect of the cursed microphone. Electronic devices, after all, were not exempt from being haunted by ghosts. Yet, Dok-seo, the purist of this era¡¯s rap scene, turned the wails of the specters into part of her performance. Meanwhile, Ha-yul manipted the puppet strings, forcing the Sword Marquess to move as she pleased. "Guh... Guhhh?! My joints¡ª?" To be clear, Ha-yul had perfectly mastered the Sword Dance I had demonstrated earlier. So now, by controlling the Sword Marquess like a puppet, she could make him perform the Dance of Enlightenment against his will. This was the ultimate strategy of a regressor: If you can''t reach enlightenment on your own, then just force-feed it to them at 300% concentration! "Hrrgh! Aaagh! My knees! My shoulders! My back feels like it¡¯s going to snap!¡± I called in Ah-ryeon. She crouched next to the Sword Marquess and healed his joints whenever they creaked under the strain. ¡°Ugh! Aaack!¡± ¡°If you scream... it¡¯ll hurt more.¡± Even when his spine cracked once, there was no problem at all. Ah-ryeon smiled innocently as she healed him, her expression almost childlike. That¡¯s right. How much abuse had we suffered at the hands of this Sword Marquess in the past, all because he was the only one capable of alleviating the famine? Myrades, bearing deep grudges, happily cooperated in this operation. (The only exception was the Saintess, who vetoed the use of Telepathy, forcing us to use the MP3 yer instead.) ¡°Hrrrrgh!¡± I watched the Sword Marquess¡¯s agonized cries fade into the background and turned to face the 360 captives. They had gone pale, observing our actions in stunned silence. In summary: I knew this would happen... Kugegegegek. As cursed TVs disyed phantasmal figures reciting the Sutra of Enlightenment, dancing to my recorded Sword Dance, and ghosts iled to the rhythm, the spectacle unfolded like an exorcism ritual gone wrong. Meanwhile, Dok-seo was spitting her cursed rhymes. ¡°Yo, the duality of day and night! The day is still the day, the night¡¯s still the night, tick crack, they shine with their own beauty, yooo!¡± The captives looked as if they were teetering on the edge of insanity. Ha-yul was continuing to manipte the Sword Marquess, forcing him to dance. The old man¡¯s joints creaked under the strain, and whenever they did, Ah-ryeon would gleefully heal him. ¡°Argh! Aaaaaagh!¡± The dance was filled with the deepest mysteries of Mount Hua¡¯s Sect Leader''s Sword Dance, and the dancer was none other than the Marquess of the Sind Duchy. Even the tiniest sliver of conscience would struggle to ept the absurdity of such a scenario. - ...... - ...... For the grand finale: After performing the Sword Dance for over 30 minutes, the Sword Marquess, drenched in sweat, suddenly widened his eyes. ¡°H-huh? This technique... I... I think I remember it... but also don¡¯t...¡± At that moment, a faint scent of plum blossoms began to waft from the Sword Marquess''s body. I clenched my fist triumphantly. ¡°It¡¯s here!¡± Though, it was slightly different from the 590th run¡¯s pure plum blossom scent. Back then, it was 100% natural, a true plum blossom fragrance, whereas now, it felt like an artificially synthesized one, the kind that might harm your lungs after long exposure. The energy he exuded now, once entirely righteous, had somehow developed a slightly Demonic Cult-like aura. Still, it was only one step away from perfection. The Sword Marquess, teetering on the edge of enlightenment, continued to dance (courtesy of Ha-yul¡¯s control). I quickly pulled out my smartphone. ¡°Sword Marquess.¡± ¡°Hrrgh, wh-what is it...?¡± ¡°Take a look at this.¡± I held up my smartphone screen, which was logged into SG Net and disying a particr post. Anonymous: [SYSTEM] Click this post to transport to¡¶Another World¡·. (Views: 2) It was the infamous Hero Syndrome! And not just any Hero Syndrome post. It was a rare find, uncovered by the National Road Management Corps using death row prisoners, tagged with #MartialArts #MountHua #Regression. The death row inmate who clicked on the post imed to have been reincarnated as the second son of the Namgung Family, ascended to the rank of Sword God, and participated in the War of Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult. Though he lost his memories just 30 seconds after clicking, muttering ¡°Why are my eyes tearing up?¡±, the experience was genuine. This was the final piece of the puzzle, carefully handpicked for this moment by yours truly, the Undertaker. ¡°Take hold, Sword Marquess.¡± ¡°Hrrgh...?¡± ¡°Grasp the final piece that leads to your enlightenment!¡± At that, Ha-yul manipted the strings, guiding the Sword Marquess''s hand to the screen. Click. The post opened, and¡ª ¨DThere was light. Blossoms of plum trees burst forth around the fake Greek temple. A scent unknown to modern humans¡ªthe scent of true plum blossoms, or something akin to thebined fragrance of roses and cherries¡ªfilled the air. The light receded. The wrinkled old man was gone. In his ce stood a gray-haired boy, his head bowed in silence. ¡°Hmm.¡± I nodded with satisfaction. Sess! Rejuvenation! I turned to the 360 captives who had witnessed this entire event unfold. Then I asked softly, "Well? Is this your first time seeing rejuvenation?" - ...... ¡°Even now, do you still think you knew this would happen?¡± - ...... The 360 captives trembled violently. - I... I... - I didn¡¯t see thising, you crazy bastard! - Who the hell could predict something like this?! ¡°Aaaaaargh!¡± - We know nothing! We cannot know anything! We are doomed to ignorance, bound by fate to neverprehend! Life is suffering, and we are nothing but cast-offs thrown into the world... I didn¡¯t know! - I can¡¯t nder this... I can¡¯t nder this! - Hikyaaaaaaaah! Shudder! The 360 captives convulsed in unison, copsing onto their sides. Faint souls, like exorcised spirits, fled from their bodies and vanished into the distant forest. The Forest Friends had returned home. [Mr. Undertaker.] [Across the Korean Penins, ghostly apparitions have been seen fleeing from people''s bodies and vanishing into thin air.] I nced back at myrades who had participated in the operation and gave them a thumbs-up. Among them, Ah-ryeon smiled the brightest and eximed, ¡°You¡¯re amazing, guild leader! The best!¡± The expert on nderous spirits, otherwise known as the Witch Hunt or Inte Specters, had been defeated. Mission Complete!

There is a small epilogue. ¡°Congrattions on your great sess, Sword Marquess.¡± ¡°Hm.¡± ¡°How do you feel now?¡± ¡°I feel good. My mind is clear, and the world seems different. At first, I couldn¡¯t understand what in the world you were doing, Undertaker. But now, I see that all these hardships were for my sake. But now... Just now...¡± ¡°Now?¡± ¡°Now I just want to beat you up, Undertaker.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± I knew this would happen.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 222 Chapter 222 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Explosive One I Long ago, Old Man Scho was prone to grumbling. ¡°No, Embalmer! Isn¡¯t there anyone in this world with teleportation abilities? What the hell is on this Earth server, anyway?¡± ¡°Hmm... maybe the Tutorial Fairy?¡± ¡°Ptooey! We don¡¯t need bastards like that!¡± Before going on vacation, Old Man Scho had tried his best to find someone with teleportation powers, though his efforts were, as you know, in vain.Yet even after he typed ¡°I¡¯m done with this shitty game. Good luck,¡± into the chat and logged out, I still didn¡¯t give up. ¡®There¡¯s got to be a new ability user hiding somewhere. I just don¡¯t know where.¡¯ Unlike Old Man Scho, who pretended to be all-knowing, I, the Undertaker, was a true MZ youth who never lost humility in these times. Thus, I wandered everywhere, traveling from Busan to Seoul, from Beijing to Tokyo, and asionally even to Istanbul and Berlin. ¡°It¡¯s a miracle to work on a masterpiece with the famous Undateikeo. I guess living long enough lets you see everything.¡± asionally, I even found myself drinking with the leader of the Magical Girl Association, the Great Priestess. ¡°You don¡¯t seem old enough to be making self-deprecating remarks about living a long life.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t look it, but the spirit I¡¯ve absorbed is modeled after Tamamo-no-Mae, a nine-tailed fox. Given that I¡¯ve been living since 2000 B.C., it messes with my mental age.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Oddly, when I look at you, it feels like I¡¯m talking to someone my own age. How strange.¡± The Great Priestess squinted at me over her fan. ¡°That¡¯s why when I¡¯m alone with you, I keep slipping into my old-fashioned way of speaking. It¡¯s a bit troublesome.¡± ¡°Well, for someone who¡¯s lived so long, you don¡¯t speak any foreignnguages, including English...¡± ¡°Silence. It¡¯s not my fault that I¡¯m a pure-blooded Japanese native. You¡¯re just too fluent in foreignnguages for your own good while I¡¯m just average.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Clink. We toasted. The Great Priestess swirled her ss of whiskey, spreading the scent of alcohol through the air. Mixing alcohol with the atmosphere creates a vibe. As I inhaled the vibe, not the oxygen, I said, ¡°That¡¯s how one bes a Magical Girl, right? You find a spirit that¡¯s friendly to humans among the Ya-o-yorozu no kami, and in a ceremony presided over by you, the Great Priestess, they make a contract.¡± ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you knowledgeable?¡± The Great Priestess tapped her chin with her folded fan andughed. She was probably drunk. ¡°Of course, they don¡¯t necessarily have to be friendly to humans. Even an evil spirit will do, as long as it¡¯s friendly to a single Miko.¡± ¡°Ah, I see.¡± ¡°And it doesn¡¯t have to be a Japanese spirit either. The rules are more flexible than you might think...¡± She smiled slyly. ¡°So, Undateikeo, have you finally taken an interest in bing a Magical Girl? If you want, I could promise to make you the strongest Magical Girl on Earth.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to decline. But I am curious, Great Priestess, how did you end up meeting a nine-tailed fox? Hasn¡¯t it always been the spirit you served?¡± ¡°Ah, that happened in the Tutorial Dungeon¨D¡± Casual conversation flowed between us. The quickest way for Awakeners to bond is to exchange Tutorial Dungeon stories. It¡¯s simr to sharing military or college stories, perfect for forming a sense of camaraderie. ¡°There was a guy called Seo Gyu in my tutorial dungeon.¡± And then came this story. ¡°I call him SG Man, and the Tutorial Fairy tried to kill him as an example.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Apparently, the fairies share a guide among themselves. Their seniors passed it down to them, and it outlines how to discipline humans. The most effective method is to blow someone¡¯s head off as a demonstration¡ªthat¡¯s their go-to.¡± The Great Priestess flicked her fox ears in thought. It didn¡¯t feel like she was responding to me, more like she was reminiscing about the past, absentmindedly gazing elsewhere. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh, nothing. Your story just reminded me of an incident.¡± ¡°An incident?¡± ¡°Hmm. It¡¯s not something worth telling others about, just a strange little event that stuck with me...¡± The Great Priestess hesitated, her lips slightly parted. But since we were drinking casually, I urged her to continue, and after some thought, she folded her fan. ¡°It¡¯s really nothing significant. Like you and the other Magical Girls, I too was thrown into a Tutorial Dungeon. Naturally, there was a fairy there as well. But...¡± ¡°But?¡± ¡°There was an explosion.¡± An explosion? I tilted my head. ¡°Do you mean someone¡¯s head exploded?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s not so surprising. The fairies pull that kind of stunt in other tutorial dungeons too...¡± ¡°No, Undateikeo. The fairy didn¡¯t do it. The person¡¯s head definitely exploded, but the fairy wasn¡¯t involved.¡± ? ¡°Then who caused the explosion?¡± ¡°No one.¡± ??? ¡°It was practically self-destruction.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°One person who was summoned into the Tutorial Dungeon with me, without being touched and without the fairy¡¯s involvement... Suddenly, their head exploded on its own.¡± The Great Priestess¡¯s story went like this: Around a hundred people were forcibly summoned to the Tutorial Dungeon. The people were confused. ¡°Wh-where are we?¡± ¡°I was just on the subway...¡± ¡°Hoek! Hello everyone! I¡¯m Fairy No. 1675, and I¡¯ll be in charge of you! Nice to meet¨D¡± The summoning of the people. The appearance of the fairy. To that point, it wasn¡¯t much different from the Busan Station Dungeon I had experienced. The anomaly urred right after the summoning. ¡°Aaaaahhhhhhhh!¡± There came a horrifying scream. Everyone turned their heads in shock. There, a woman clutched her head and screamed as she writhed in agony. ¡°Aaaaaaaah! Aaaaahhhh! Aaaaahhhhh!¡± They all froze in ce. How many people have ever heard such screams in that modern age? But anyone could tell that the unknown woman¡¯s cries were far from ordinary. The Great Priestess gave her testimony. ¡°It was no ordinary cry.¡± Excruciating painced her voice, the kind brought forth by the tearing off of flesh. The agony of muscles and sinew scorched alive by mes. The torment of thousands of razor des ying skin down to the nerves, scraping deep to the bone. It was a scream of pain no one had ever heard before and a scream that none were likely to ever hear again. The people were paralyzed by the sound. ¡°The scream was so horrifying that the very sound of it sent shivers down your spine.¡± The fairy, who was supposed to be in charge of the tutorial, was so shocked that it too momentarily forgot its role of guiding people and started to panic. ¡°Ho-hoek? What¡¯s going on? Why is she suddenly screaming?¡± ¡°Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!¡± Even the fairy¡¯s flustered response was drowned out by the woman¡¯s cries. The anomaly didn¡¯t stop there. Between the woman¡¯s fingers, as she desperately clutched her head, a faint glow began to emerge. Transformation. The woman¡¯s originally ck hair was turning white, starting from the ends and spreading rapidly. ¡°...That¡¯s a typical sign of Awakening.¡± ¡°Ah, yes. We call it spirit possession. I didn¡¯t realize it then, but now, looking back, that mysterious woman was Awakening her abilities.¡± To Awaken the moment they were thrown into the Tutorial Dungeon¡ªher Awakening had been an incredibly fast processpared to others¡¯. Normally, this would have marked the birth of a top-tier Awakener. But then... ¡°Aaaaahhhh! Nooo, Awndataka! Noooo! Nooo! Stop! Please! Nooo, Awndataka! Nooo, nooo, nooo, nooo!¡± For some reason, the woman just kept screaming, repeating the words ¡°no¡± and ¡°Awndataka¡± in rapid session. ¡°Awndataka? What does that mean?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I thought she might have mangled the word in her pain. But she repeated it so desperately, I can¡¯t forget.¡± The Great Priestess described how the woman looked to be in true suffering. ¡°And it wasn¡¯t just her screaming. She was clutching her head so hard that her nails dug into her scalp, and blood was running down her face.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Now, if it were after the apocalypse, it might have been less shocking. But back then, I had never seen anything like it.¡± It went on for about 30 seconds. While everyone was panicked and the fairy waspletely bewildered, the woman¡¯s transformation had fully progressed. Her hair, from the ends now up to the roots, hadpletely changed color, turning her entire scalp a bright, radiant white. And the moment the transformation, the Awakening, wasplete... BOOOOM! There was an explosion. At first, no one could understand what had just happened. But soon, something soft fell from the air and lightly brushed the Great Priestess¡¯s cheek. ¡°It was a piece of her flesh. I think it was her tongue.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Do you understand now, Undateikeo? Thirty seconds after being summoned to the Tutorial Dungeon, the woman screamed bloody murder, finished her Awakening, and then her head exploded.¡± ¡°That¡¯s...¡± It was indeed bizarre, just as the Great Priestess had said. ¡°You¡¯re sure the fairy didn¡¯t do it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m certain. Even before I epted Tamamo-no-Mae, I was good at reading people¡¯s expressions. The fairy was utterly confused when the woman died.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Well, maybe the fairy was just a fantastic actor, skilled enough to fool me. But I already killed that fairy, so we¡¯ll never know for sure.¡± Since it wasn¡¯t a pleasant topic, our conversation soon shifted to other matters. The Great Priestess, except for her peculiar taste in Magical Girls, turned out to be an enjoyable conversational partner, and we drank well into the night. However, even as the first light of dawn began to filter through the window, the story of the mysterious ¡°Explosive Death¡± lingered in my heart, like a shadow of the moon. Why was I so fixated on a simple drinking story? My heart pounded with an inexplicable sense of unease. It wasn¡¯t something that happened often to a regressor like me. In the end, I couldn¡¯t take it anymore and summoned Fairy No.264. I ryed the story I¡¯d heard from the Great Priestess. ¡°Do you know anything about it?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s that incident, it must¡¯ve happened to Fairy No. 1679, not Fairy No. 1675.¡± Being a dream demon, with its interconnected consciousness, Fairy No. 264¡¯s response came immediately. ¡°But Fairy No. 1679 died in the line of duty beforepleting the tutorial, so its data is iplete!¡± ¡°Even a rough estimate will do. Can you reproduce the final words of that mysterious woman?¡± ¡°If I use the power of Infinite Void a little, I might be able to recreate some of it!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll allow it.¡± ¡°Please wait just a moment! Chzzzt, bzzzt. Zzzt.¡± Fairy No. 264 closed its eyes and started making static noises with its mouth. Then, in the next moment... ¡°Aaaahhhhhhhh!¡± A distorted voice came out of 264¡¯s mouth. The usual cheery tone of the fairy was gone, reced by something unfamiliar and eerie. The voice belonged to what I had called ¡°the mysterious woman.¡± ¡°Aaaahhhh! Nooo!¡± ¡°......¡± I quietly listened to the fairy, who was doing its best to reproduce the woman¡¯s dying words. Honestly, I found it strange. Why was I so obsessed with this trivial story? Was it really worth using Infinite Void¡¯s resources and a dream demon¡¯s efforts to investigate something overheard in a casual drinking conversation? But around ten seconds into the yback... ¡°...Wait.¡± I suddenly realized. I realized what had been bothering me all this time. ¡°Hoek?¡± ¡°Rey thatst part again.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Fairy No. 264 blinked its eyes rapidly. A momentter, the distorted voice echoed again from the fairy¡¯s mouth. ¡°Nooo, Awndataka! Nooo, nooo, nooo! P-p-please stop! Nooo, Awndataka!¡± ¡°There, thatst part, iste it and y it again.¡± ¡°Awndataka!¡± ¡°......¡± So it was that. The yback ended, and the room fell into silence. I swallowed quietly as the realization hit me. The Great Priestesscked Complete Memory. She wasn¡¯t proficient in foreignnguages either. Whether in English or Korean, her conversational skills had always been limited due to her istionist policy. It was only natural, then, that she misheard. The mysterious word the woman screamed during her final moments... It wasn¡¯t ¡°Awndataka,¡± but ¡°Undateikeo.¡± When spoken quickly, the sound was unmistakable. Undertaker. That¡¯s right. For some reason, immediately after the Void descended, in a Tutorial Dungeon far away in Japan, aplete stranger¡ªa fellow Awakener¡ªexploded while screaming my name. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 223 Chapter 223 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Explosive One II ¡®There was a person in Japan who called out the Undertaker''s name and then self-destructed!¡¯ What in the world had happened? On the surface, it made no sense. The mysterious woman (who I''ll refer to as "Y" from now on) and I were separated by an insurmountable physical distance. I had been pulled into the Tutorial Dungeon in Busan, while the stage where Great Priestess and Y were located was in Kyoto. Even if we took it as a straight line, we were 600 kilometers apart. How could aplete stranger, a Japanese person I didn¡¯t even know, call out the name of Undertaker as they self-destructed? ¡°Couldn¡¯t they have been an acquaintance of yours?¡±Surprisingly, Noh Do-hwa, who regrly forced me to attend swimming lessons, showed interest in this curious mystery. ¡°An acquaintance, huh? Well, I managed to obtain degraded data through the Tutorial Fairies, but I have no memory of this person as they describe them.¡± ¡°Just because you don¡¯t remember doesn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t an acquaintance. Didn¡¯t you say your memory from ages 1 to 20 waspletely erased? You have terrible memory, right?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°There are quite a few Koreans who have rtives or acquaintances in Japan. It wouldn¡¯t be strange if you had one or two as well...¡± It was an opinion I hadn¡¯t considered. As Noh Do-hwa said, my childhood was like Schr?dinger¡¯s box. Until I opened it, anyone could have been an acquaintance. But soon enough, I was shaking my head. ¡°...No, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s likely.¡± The words ¡°Why not?¡± appeared in Do-hwa¡¯s eyes as she floated in the pool. ¡°All the people close to me, whether family or friends, have been ced under Time Seal. That would leave only those weak connections, mere acquaintances. It¡¯d be strange for someone like that to scream my name in their final moments.¡± ¡°Ah. Hmm. That¡¯s true...¡± Thus, I discarded the theory that it was someone from my past. Do-hwa seemed to lose interest and began to swim gracefully like a dolphin across the pool. Her elegant backstroke made her look so rxed. She had no idea that once her stamina improved just a little more, I nned to convert these swimming lessons into personal training (PT) sessions as part of my five-year project to turn Do-hwa into a proper person. ¡°...? Undertaker. Just now, were you thinking of something really irritating?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± ¡°Oh, shit. You totally were. Hey, hey. What kind of crap are you scheming this time...?¡± ¡°I¡¯m telling you, you¡¯re mistaken.¡± I feigned ignorance. Anyway. Compared to the [*Noh Do-hwa Five-Year Human Transformation Project~], which would require every dirty trick in the book to seed, the answer to Y¡¯s mystery appeared sooner and much more easily than expected. ¡°Huh? A person whose head exploded as soon as the Void arrival began in Japan?¡± The person holding the key to this answer was Oh Dok-seo. Do-hwa and I had told her about our swimming lessons, to which she¡¯d responded with excitement, ¡°What? Swimming? Private lessons? Is there some hidden spicy drama going on between you and the National Road Management Corpsmander?¡± But upon arriving and seeing it was just swimming, she sulked,ining, ¡°Ugh, is it seriously just regr swimming lessons...?¡± However, her ears perked up once she overheard our conversation. ¡°It¡¯s them, from the prologue. The fake protagonist.¡± ¡°......?¡± ¡°......?¡± Prologue? Fake protagonist? Once again, the eternal 7th-grader Dok-seo spoke in her own strangenguage, causing question marks to appear over both my and Do-hwa¡¯s heads. Dok-seo¡¯s expression twisted in frustration like the problem was that we were being dense. ¡°It¡¯s from my Omniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint. The same thing happens in the prologue, just like what you¡¯re describing.¡± This was turning out to be quite the odd coincidence. Someone who had fallen into the same Tutorial Dungeon as the Great Priestess had also appeared in Oh Dok-seo¡¯s ORV? ¡°Does it exin why their head exploded so suddenly in that novel?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Dok-seo¡¯s tone was casual as she said, ¡°That person was a real Prophet.¡± Until now, I hadn¡¯t asked Dok-seo much about the contents of her ORV. The reason was simple. Unlike the autobiography that Dok-seo had written and edited about my life, ORV was originally written by the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. In other words, it was a cursed, corrupted artifact created by the Outer God. ¡®If I read Omniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint and gain insight into myself from the 1st to the 4th cycle, it would be like handing over the power to define Undertaker to the Outer God.¡¯ That was exactly the kind of twisted scheme the Admin of the Infinite Metagame woulde up with. Of course, it was possible that the Admin had written the truth out of the goodness of their heart. But my suspicion of anything rted to the Outer Gods was as high as the fear the German army felt during World War II about the supposedly invincible French army. You always had to prepare for the worst. If you need a reference on what happens when you don¡¯t ount for the worst-case scenario, consider the Monkey¡¯s Paw story. Still, from what Dok-seo told me, the part about the mysterious woman Y seemed rtively safe from the curse. ¡°So, in Omniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint, you don¡¯t show up as the main character right away.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s surprising.¡± ¡°Yeah. In the prologue, there¡¯s someonepletely different from you, tricking the readers into thinking they¡¯re the protagonist.¡± A fake protagonist. It wasn¡¯t a trope that appeared often, but when it did, it surprised readers. One famous example of this was the Three Kingdoms Masterpiece, where the legendary Romance of the Three Kingdoms told the story of Jia Xu. ¡°I don¡¯t care about Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Anyway, as soon as the prologue starts, people get summoned into the Tutorial Dungeon, including the fake protagonist.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°But while everyone else is panicking, the fake protagonist immediately Awakens to the power of ¡®Prophecy.¡¯ Or more precisely, Foresight.¡± Foresight. Seeing the future. For Y, it meant that events toe unfolded before her eyes like a VR video. Just like Oh Dok-seo, Y was a person well-versed in subcultures. Prophets weren¡¯t rare characters in novels, whether in Korea or Japan, so Y quickly realized how incredibly fortunate she was and became overjoyed. - I can see it! I know exactly how to clear this dungeon and escape! - Over there, that person will one day be called the Great Priestess and lead all the Magical Girls of Japan. - I have to befriend her! - Ah, yes! When the Ya-o-yorozu no kami descend and the inds fall into ruin... - It¡¯s terribly sad... but! - With this ability, with the power to foresee the future this vividly, I can save countless people! Yes! I must! - I can do anything. ¡°At this point, it felt like the prologue of an ordinary overpowered character story.¡± But then, immediately after, the twist came. - Huh? Y, who had been foreseeing how she could save the survivors in the Tutorial Dungeon, the citizens of Japan, and even the world, suddenly stopped. It wasn¡¯t over. - What? The vision didn¡¯t end. More importantly, the perspective had changed. At first, the vision had centered around Y. But now, it began to focus on someone else. A man with pitch-ck eyes, dark like the depths of a well. He died. Over and over again. Sometimes he died as soon as he was summoned to the Tutorial Dungeon. Other times, he wandered the world for hundreds of years, all alone. - Huh? Huh? Huh? Everyone the man cherished met horrible fates, whether it was death or something worse. Some were torn limb from limb in a witch hunt by a mob possessed by anomalies. Othersmitted endless suicides. Some lost their human forms and became anomalies themselves, eventually killing the man. It happened countless times. - Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? And Y, the Prophet, saw every single one of these deaths, vividly foreseen. It wasn¡¯t just seeing, though. Y heard it, smelled it, tasted it, felt it, sensed it. She foresensed and forefelt it all, as it flooded her brain. Thousands, tens of thousands of years of the man¡¯s deaths and suffering condensed into Y¡¯s mind in an instant. - Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Y screamed. No, she didn¡¯t even realize she was screaming. The process of Awakening to her prophetic abilities was happening in real-time. The fact that her hair was turning white from the ends to the roots was proof of that. - I... I don¡¯t want this. She didn¡¯t want to Awaken. - Please stop, please, stop! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! The whiter her hair became, the stronger the visions grew. The pain and torment she felt from the man¡¯s experiences were bing more and more real, as if she were living them herself. She couldn¡¯t Awaken any further. She shouldn¡¯t have. No human, born into a human body, should experience something like this. Not this much. - Ah. That¡¯s when Y foresaw. For the rest of her life as an Awakener, until the moment she died, she would have to watch the man¡¯s story over and over, endlessly repeating. - Ah, haha. Hahaha. Her power was a curse. Life was nothing but suffering. And so, at the exact moment her hair turnedpletely white,pleting her Awakening, Y foresaw how to use Aura, something she had never learned or mastered. And she used it¡ªon her own head. Crack! Y died instantly. ¡°That day, at that exact same moment, all six people around the world who had Awakened to the power of Prophecy killed themselves... or so it¡¯s described in Omniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint. Pop, pop, pop-pop-pop. Six heads exploded.¡± Each of them could have saved the world. And somewhere, in the middle of nowhere, a man quietly opened his eyes. The Undertaker. Every time he opened his eyes, he would bury six Prometheuses.[1] ¡°That¡¯s how the prologue ends.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it amazing? The scenes of the suffering and pain you¡¯ll go throughter just fly by in a breathtaking panorama during the prologue,¡± Dok-seo said excitedly. ¡°Just from the prologue, I knew this was a masterpiece! The fake protagonist might have turned off other readers, but I loved it!¡± I see. So, at the starting point of my regression, it wasn¡¯t only the tens of thousands of people ced under Time Seal who were removed from the world. The six prophets, including Y, were also erased from history. That is, assuming ORV was written truthfully by the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. ¡°Amazing...¡± Do-hwa, who had been listening with her head out of the water, snickered. ¡°In the end, you managed to wipe out six incredibly powerful Awakeners, each of whom could have saved a nation, without even lifting a finger. As expected of Undertaker. Even your seedlings are different from the rest of us anomalies-in-the-making.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nder.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Those six were probably candidates the Admin was evaluating for who to make their Miko. The Admin had been targeting me from the start. They must have carefully selected the top six candidates, each with the potential to Awaken prophetic abilities capable of opposing a regressor.¡± But as an anomaly, the Admin didn¡¯t ount for human limitations. The Awakeners, overwhelmed by visions that were too vivid, chose death over bing involved with me. ¡°And so, the Admin simplified the prophecy and showed it to Oh Dok-seo in a form her brain could handle, filtering out the overwhelming realism. The result was Omniscient Regressor¡¯s Viewpoint, written as a novel.¡± ¡°Oh! That actually makes sense, Mister!¡± ¡°Hmph...¡± Of course, this theory had its ws, but escaping Do-hwa¡¯s nder was more important at the moment. Anyway, the ones at fault were the anomalies. From the perspective of the six prophets who were tragically sacrificed, wasn¡¯t it a more honorable death to be caught in the Outer God¡¯s scheme than to die after countless failed attempts to save the world like I had? There is an epilogue. As I said earlier, I didn¡¯t trust the Outer Gods. So, when I entered the next cycle, I made sure to visit the Tutorial Dungeon in Kyoto, where the Great Priestess had said Y had perished. Even if ORV contained some truths, there would be parts the Admin deliberately twisted for their benefit. For example¡ª ¡®No matter how much pain Y felt from her prophecy, there were at least 30 seconds between the time she started to self-destruct and the moment she actually exploded.¡¯ Thirty seconds. That may seem short, but it¡¯s still quite a bit of time. For an Awakener who sessfully foresaw my destiny as a regressor, those 30 seconds would have felt even longer. ¡®Wouldn¡¯t she have left some kind of trace?¡¯ A dying message, if you will. Prophets, especially someone like Y, who had the determination to try to save the world, must have left some kind of message for me. Something like ¡°stay strong¡± or ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± If she was more spiteful, maybe ¡°die.¡± At the very least, even a curse would have sufficed. ¡®This must be the ce.¡¯ Sneaking past the Great Priestess, who stillcked the power she wouldter gain through her contract with the Nine-Tailed Fox, I arrived at the site of Y¡¯s death. The scene was surprisingly well-preserved. ¡°Oh.¡± Even the corpse was intact. Aside from the upper half of her body being pixted [Mosaic] [Mosaic]. Of course, witnessing someone¡¯s head explode would leave anyone traumatized, which exined why no one had approached the area. Back when Seo Gyu died in the Busan Station concourse, everyone had been too terrified to stick around. ¡°Let¡¯s see...¡± Sure enough, it didn¡¯t take long to find what appeared to be a message left by Y. It was written in her own blood, which had likelye from her wing at her scalp, and it read: S U I tilted my head in confusion. ¡®SU? Is that some kind of code?¡¯ It was impossible to decipher. Perhaps Y had intended to write more letters, but in the end, unable to endure the pain, she had died before finishing her message. ¡®SU... SU... Hmm. Let¡¯s assume it¡¯s a short word or phrase. What words start with SU...¡¯ I tried to think from her perspective. She would have known she had little time left. She would have known that the agony would soon im her life. So the message she left for me would have had to be brief but deeply meaningful. In other words... ¡®A prophecy about my fate.¡¯ Would I, as a regressor, ultimately save the world or fail to do so? That was the core issue. Even though I still didn¡¯t have the answer, the Prophet who had glimpsed the future could have provided it. With that in mind, I came up with three possible interpretations for ¡°SU.¡± ¢Ù SUCCESS: You will seed. Keep going. ¢Ú SUICIDE: You will fail. You should kill yourself immediately. ¢Û SUKI: I love you! I¡¯m your fan! ¢Ü SUCK YOU: Seo Gyu is the culprit. I eliminated thest option¡ªit was too absurd. The third possibility was also unlikely. There was no reason to write it in the alphabet, as I could understand Japanese. That left options one and two. There was no clear evidence for either. ¡°Hmm.¡± So, the choice between 1 and 2 was a matter of personal taste. I bit my finger lightly. Using the blood from my fingertip as ink and my finger as a brush, I added to Y¡¯s word¡ªthe ¡°prophecy,¡± or ¡°final message,¡± she had left behind. S U C C E S S I gave Y¡¯s headless corpse a proper burial, holding a small funeral for her. And then, with a lighter heart, I left. Ultimately, how we choose to interpret a prophecy is up to us, isn¡¯t it? Footnotes: [1] Prometheus is the Greek god of forethought, best known for gifting fire to humanity. Join our discord at Chapter 224 Chapter 224

Chapter 224 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Concealer I By now, you all know there are some topics I deliberately avoid discussing in these stories. For example, the exact moment when the world was destroyed. I¡¯m always singing about how it all went to hell, but surprisingly, there are very few times when a ¡°world_destruction_1_second_before.avi¡± file gets recorded on my camera. There are two legitimate reasons for this, as I am the embodiment of rationality. The first reason is quite altruistic. I do it to protect the honor and reputation of myrades. For example, in a few cycles, Lee Ha-yul killed me. Of course, it wasn¡¯t actually Ha-yul. It only looked like her on the outside. In reality, she had beenpletely corrupted by the Void Poison and had turned into a full-fledged anomaly. It wasn¡¯t as if Ha-yul had an intense Oedipusplex and specifically tried to kill me in some father-figure execution ritual.- Guild leader, please just die. - Undertaker. I¡¯m sorry, but could you die with me? - Please go to hell, teacher. - ...... Sim Ah-ryeon, Dang Seo-rin, Cheon Yo-hwa, the Saintess, and many others. No matter the cycle, those who survived with me until the end, more often than not, turned dark and delivered the finishing blow to me. (Do-hwa, by the way, didn¡¯t need to fulfill that condition to randomly try to kill me whenever she felt like it.) Just to rify, I don¡¯t hold any grudges. There¡¯s no way myrades would have done this by their own will. None of this was their fault. It was all the fault of the vile anomalies that manipted and controlled them against their will. But how would the rest of you¡ªmy dear readers¡ªfeel about it? ¡°They¡ª They blew up the protagonist¡¯s head! How evil!¡± ¡°I can feel the rage building. Let¡¯s kill them before they join the group.¡± ¡°Get them out! Get them out now!¡± I could easily foresee such witch hunts and baseless nder lighting up the forums, given my understanding of subcultures. There would probably be something like, ¡°Only Go Yuri, who killed the protagonist just once, is the truerade!¡± What a terrible scene. As a regressor with bothmon sense and decency, I simply couldn¡¯t allow it. So, from the perspective of national interest, I decided to erase most of the cycles where myrades killed me. I¡¯m sure this decision will sadden fans of grimdark novels, but I ask for your understanding. Now, what¡¯s the second reason? ¡°Hyung.¡± ¡°Oh, Seo Gyu.¡± ¡°It¡¯s me¡ªSG Man. I¡¯m the mastermind behind everything.¡± The second reason is, well... Sometimes, it¡¯s just fucking hrious. No matter how dire the situation, even if the world was about to end, whenever SG Man Seo Gyu suddenly pulled a straight face and delivered lines like that, it made me wonder, ¡°Is the end of the world really such a heavy topic?¡± This was what I call Mastermind Syndrome. Whenever someone other than me survived until the end, they¡¯d start acting weird, convinced that they were the one who orchestrated the world¡¯s end, bing the ¡°mastermind.¡± It just so happened that in the 243rd cycle, that person was Seo Gyu. It was also the first time in my life as Undertaker that Seo Gyu (aside from me) was thest survivor. For someone like SG Man, who was usually the first to get his head blown off, to survive until the end of the world¡ªit was truly awe-inspiring. ¡°Seo Gyu.¡± ¡°Yes, hyung.¡± ¡°If I weren¡¯t here, the Tutorial Fairy would have blown your head off, right? I mean,e on, you can¡¯t seriously think you¡¯re the mastermind?¡± Seo Gyu clicked his tongue and waved his finger left and right. ¡°You just don¡¯t get it. As always.¡± ¡°......¡± For that brief moment, I almost killed him right then and there. The fact that he could break my tranquil, regressor¡¯sposure with such a simple provocation¡ªhis trolling skills were truly formidable. ¡°As with all stories, the true mastermind always appears in the prologue, hyung. And your prologue was at the Busan Station Concourse, wasn¡¯t it? Now, who was the very first character to leave a strong impression on the readers there?¡± ¡°Well... that would be you, right?¡± ¡°Exactly. So, naturally, I¡¯m the most qualified to be the mastermind. I¡¯ve been hiding the truth all this time.¡± ¡°No...¡± You were destined to die there, you lunatic. I tried to convey my thoughts to him by deliberately manipting my facial muscles, but it didn¡¯t work on Seo Gyu, who had beenpletely consumed by Mastermind Syndrome. ¡°I was treated as nothing more than an errand boy for the SG Net. That was just part of my disguise. I appeared first, but my true importance was hidden... Isn¡¯t that the very definition of a mastermind?¡± ¡°Or maybe you just weren¡¯t that important.¡± ¡°Hoh.¡± Seo Gyu gave me a deadly smile. ¡°What if I made you think that?¡± I decided to return that deadliness to its owner. I squeezed my Aura into my fist and punched him. ¡°Fufu, how savage, hyung.¡±¡ªcough¡ª¡°But it¡¯s toote.¡±¡ªcough, cough¡ª¡°No matter how much violence you use, nothing will change... Hic, ack, hoo...¡± It didn¡¯t do much good. Mastermind Syndrome instilled its victim with limitless confidence, made them say ¡°fufu¡± every time theyughed, reduced their pupils to 1% of their usual size, and instilled in them the false belief that everything was going ording to their n. But it didn¡¯t give them any power. I lifted Seo Gyu into the air. ¡°Fufu. Even if you get rid of me now, I will return one day...¡± Then I threw him off the cliff. This wasn¡¯t just any cliff. In the 243rd cycle, the t Earth Theory had be a reality, and the Earth was literally t. I had thrown him off the edge of the world. Laughing creepily with his ¡°fufufu¡±ugh, Seo Gyu fell into the Void. At least he didn¡¯t die alone. Not long after, I died too. In that cycle, the edge of the world kept closing in, and eventually, all of Korea fell off. I couldn¡¯t escape the Falling-to-My-Death ending. Normally, Mastermind Syndrome was just a minor nuisance that annoyed me during the final stages of certain cycles. That is, until something changed. The anomaly urred in the very next cycle, the 244th.

The moment I opened my eyes in the Busan Station Concourse, I immediately felt that something was horribly wrong. ¡®What the hell?¡¯ It didn¡¯t happen often. The only other time I¡¯d felt something simr was after the 135th cycle, when the world was destroyed by the Admin of the Infinite Metagame, and I found aptop resting on my thigh. But this time, the feeling was different. It wasn¡¯t that something had been ¡°added¡± to my regression. It was the opposite. ¡°You fucking garbage! What the hell are you talking about?!¡± Seo Gyu was yelling at the Tutorial Fairy again, just like always, but... something was missing from his head. His hair was gone. It might sound strange to say his hair was missing from his head, but basically, his hair was all gone. In other words, his scalp waspletely bald. ¡°Pfft¡ª!¡± ¡°Huh? What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°That¡¯s disgusting...¡± I couldn¡¯t help but spit out the Ceylon Tea I had just bought from the vending machine, and the people around me recoiled in disgust. But I didn¡¯t even have time to wipe my mouth. Not only had teae out, but my soul had almost slipped out as well. What the hell was that? ¡°You bastard! If you¡¯re going to drag us here, you should start by apologizing. Where do you get off running your mouth like that...?¡± ¡°Excuse me. Just a moment. Uh, pardon me. Can I have a word with you, Mr. Seo Gyu?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I pushed through the crowd and approached Seo Gyu. He was mid-tirade, angrily shouting at the Fairy, but when I called his name, he hesitated. Confusion shed across Seo Gyu¡¯s eyes as he looked at me. Of course, since in this cycle, we wereplete strangers to each other, that made sense. ¡°...Who are you, and why are you butting in?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you remember me? I took personal training (PT) lessons with you a while ago.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Down in Nam-gu. At that 4th-floor PT center. Don¡¯t you remember?¡± Seo Gyu looked flustered. He had actually worked as a PT trainer at a center. The address I gave was also where he used to work. Naturally, the anger melted from his eyes, reced by fear¡ªthe fear of a PT trainer who couldn¡¯t recognize his own client. ¡°Oh, right. Yes. It¡¯s been a while. I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t recognize you at first.¡± ¡°No worries. You taught me so well back then that I actually became really interested in PT. I used to be a twig, but thanks to you, I became a new person.¡± Seo Gyu¡¯s eyes quickly scanned my upper and lower body, calling upon the natural ability of a PT trainer to assess someone¡¯s physique. Of course, the muscles I had developed through the [Resume] ability across various cycles were incredibly refined and optimized forbat. Seo Gyu¡¯s face darkened. Was it possible that he had truly forgotten such an excellent trainee? ¡°Ah, well... thank you...¡± ¡°Instead of fighting with that strange fairy, why don¡¯t we go have a little chat?¡± ¡°Huh? Strange? What do you mean strange? These humans, using me out of nowhere... The unfairness of it all is truly terrifying...¡± For the record, this was the fastest and most effective way to prevent SG Man Seo Gyu from having his head blown off and stop Fairy No.264 from getting him killed. Despite being reckless, Seo Gyu had a surprisingly strong sense of responsibility for the roles he took on. Anyway, I pulled Seo Gyu aside, and using the most roundabout, polite, and non-offensivenguage possible, I asked him: Q: When did you go bald? A: Huh? I¡¯ve always been bald. What the hell? Before his expression could shift to one of suspicion¡ªwondering if I really had been his PT client¡ªI quickly moved on. Finally, I had a moment to look at the other people in the concourse, the ones who were, in MZ-generation terms, bound together by this shared fate. And soon enough, I realized that it wasn¡¯t just Seo Gyu who had been altered. ¡°I don¡¯t want to join Lee Baek¡¯s group!¡± ¡°Whaaaat?¡± ¡°No matter how much you re at me, threatening won¡¯t change my mind. I said no, and I mean it!¡± Ah-ryeon no longer stuttered. If I hadn¡¯t intervened, she would have been dragged off by Lee Baek, but in this 244th cycle, she clearly voiced her own convictions. Could this be the work of an anomaly? ¡°Hmm, interesting...¡± And Go Yuri no longer had a shadow. No one else had noticed yet, but I could see it clearly. Her clothes cast a shadow, but her hair, limbs, and the rest of her body did not. Definitely the work of an anomaly. ¡®What the hell is going on? This is way too early in the cycle for the Butterfly Effect to have kicked in.¡¯ I waspletely bewildered. Had the timeline somehow changed in this 244th cycle? But the Busan Station Concourse was just the tutorial. The real shock came after I left the station. ¡°Hello. My name is Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m gathering people to try and survive in this messed-up world. Undertaker, would you like to join me?¡± Seo-rin extended her hand, inviting me to join her in co-founding something together¡ªbut there was no witch¡¯s hat. There was no broomstick either. With a trembling voice, I asked her, ¡°Excuse me, this may sound odd, but... didn¡¯t you use to like Harry Potter and trains?¡± ¡°Huh? What are you talking about? I like Pok¨¦mon and cars.¡± ¡°......¡± ANOMALY ALERT!

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 225 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Concealer II Seo Gyu hiding his hair and Dang Seo-rin hiding her nerdy interests left me reeling from mental exhaustion. Especially thetter¡ªDang Seo-rin giving up her witch cosy and train obsession? How could that possibly be Dang Seo-rin? The Great Witch of the Samcheon World was someone who led with both witchcraft and steam lotives. She held symbols of the medieval and modern eras in either hand, and by doing so, she became a transcendent figure that embodied human history. In other words, Dang Seo-rin of the 244th cycle had lost her very soul and be a soulless being. We decided to call that a Yu Ji-won. ¡°Is there no one normal this cycle? Seriously, not a single one?¡± Of course, when I say ¡°normal,¡± I mean it by my standards: a person who was the same as in other cycles.Leaving behind myrades who had lost pieces of themselves, I desperately searched for someone normal. ¡°Your Excellency, why are you so anxious?¡± ¡°Ji-won, you were always hiding your morality and humanity, so stay out of this.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean, but I¡¯ll take your word for it. I¡¯ll consult you about my concernster.¡± Once again leaving behind Ji-won, the ever-constant psychopath, I continued my search, but the results were disappointing. ¡°Commander Noh Do-hwa, why are you being kind to both old and young patients alike? Where did your MZ-generation disdain go? Why aren¡¯t you discriminating based on age?¡± ¡°Huh...? What kind of bastard would discriminate against patients based on age?¡± ¡°Right, you¡¯re not Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°Wanna die?¡± Do-hwa¡ªOUT. ¡°Saintess, why haven¡¯t you set up any aquariums in your home? Don¡¯t you n on keeping fish?¡± ¡°Fish...? I¡¯ve heard that aquariums are too hard to maintain, so I¡¯m not really interested. Lizards are cuter, you know.¡± ¡°Ah, so you¡¯re fake too...¡± ¡°Sorry, what?¡± Saintess¡ªOUT. ¡°Yo-hwa, why do you keep calling me ¡®sunbae¡¯ instead of ¡®teacher¡¯ after I handed you your diploma?¡± ¡°Huh? Haha. Well, you don¡¯t look that much older than me, sunbae! At least not on the outside. It¡¯d be weird to start calling you ¡®teacher¡¯ now, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°...I see. Then why don¡¯t you wear your white sailor uniform after graduating?¡± ¡°Come on, sunbae. Who wears a sailor uniform after graduation? That¡¯d be crazy, not to mention super tacky.¡± ¡°Infinite Void! You brat, you dare defy me!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡ªOUT. ¡°Manyo Neko! Why aren¡¯t you ending every sentence with ¡®nya¡¯ or ¡®meow¡¯? Are those cat ears just for show?!¡± ¡°Are you picking a fight, Undertaker?¡± Even the Magical Girls from the Inds were all OUT. It was a small detail, but even the coffee left behind by Old Man Scho in this cycle was hazelnut Americano instead of caf¨¦ auit. A German! (German!) Barista with incredible pride! (An old man!) Drinking Americano! (Americano!) The shock echoed like an a cappe choir in my head. I despaired. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. I retreated to the Inunaki Tunnel, muttering in anguish. ¡°...Something¡¯s off. This isn¡¯t right. How could there be such big differences right after regressing? This is before the Butterfly Effect even has a chance to kick in. Could I have fallen into a dream without realizing it? Oh, the horror... Am I just a brain in a jar, with my consciousness trapped in a dream...¡± ¡°Your Excellency, are you alright?¡± ¡°Ji-won, stay out of it. I may be cornered, but I haven¡¯t fallen so low that I¡¯d seek empathy from you.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t understand, but if Your Excellency says so, I will remain silent.¡± How was I supposed to fix this unprecedented disaster? Looking back now, I was still rtively inexperienced in the 244th cycle. I had yet to defeat the Goddess of Night, Nut, and I hadn¡¯t even taken down the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. At that point, I hadn¡¯t fully realized that if something was powerful enough to interfere with my regression, it had to be an Outer God-level anomaly. (The Saintess sealing herself to ce an imprable barrier around my regression was something that would happen muchter.) ¡°Alright... Yes. I¡¯ll help them recover what they¡¯ve lost. If I can restore what¡¯s been hidden, it should counter the anomaly''s tricks.¡± ¡°Even if Your Excellency mutters iprehensible things to yourself, it won¡¯t diminish my admiration for you in the slightest. Feel free tomand me.¡± ¡°Go get a wig, Ji-won.¡± I got the wig and ced it on Seo Gyu¡¯s bald head. I styled it carefully, making sure it matched his usual hair from previous cycles to 99.99% uracy. ¡°How does it feel, Seo Gyu? Do you feel like you¡¯ve regained something you lost, like you¡¯re finally returning to your true self?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Come on, remember your true identity! You can do it, Seo Gyu!¡± ¡°...Hyung, I¡¯m really sorry, but... are you asking to get hit?¡± It failed. In other stories, when a regressor caused this kind ofmotion, theirrades would murmur things like, ¡°Huh? Why do I have memories of something I¡¯ve never experienced...?¡± and recover their memories of past cycles. But not in my particr brand of regression. In fact, Seo Gyu was one of the better ones. When I ran up to Noh Do-hwa and said, ¡°Commander! You should start cursing out young people right away! Yell at them! Start throwing all kinds of insults like you used to!¡± I ended up getting beaten like a dog and thrown out. With Dang Seo-rin, I personally brought her a witch¡¯s hat, witch¡¯s robe, and broomstick, saying, ¡°Dang Seo-rin! Isn¡¯t this stirring your passion for fashion again?¡± and her response was, ¡°Hmm, are you asking me to strip you in a very sophisticated way?¡± She almost ate me alive. As for Cheon Yo-hwa, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to wear a school uniform and visit her. As the Undertaker, I hadn¡¯tpletely abandoned my humanity. Besides, while her titles and fashion had changed, Cheon Yo-hwa was still as unpredictable as ever. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. My regressor mentality, once steeled against the suffering of time, was cracking with a resounding creak. To my surprise, I discovered that I was more shocked by myrades'' changing hobbies than by the world getting destroyed by anomalies. ¡°Well, even if Your Excellency is right, there¡¯s no way for us to confirm it. As you¡¯ve mentioned, we¡¯re only aware of the 244th cycle.¡± ¡°...Yeah.¡± Ironically, I could only have these kinds of discussionsfortably with Ji-won for the simple reason that she didn¡¯t care about my mental state at all, so we could talk without any regard to sensitivity or tact. ¡°Have you considered the possibility that your mind is the one that¡¯s changed?¡± ¡°...So you¡¯re saying Seo Gyu was bald in every cycle, but my memory was warped to see him as having a full head of hair?¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s much more reasonable,¡± Ji-won said while carving a chess piece with a sharp knife. ¡°It¡¯s practically am¡¯s razor.[1] If you assume everyone but you has changed, then the anomaly responsible for this would need to be incredibly powerful, capable of reaching across cycles to tamper with things.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°On the other hand, if only your mind has been tampered with, it¡¯s a much simpler exnation. The anomaly would only need powers rted to mind control or perception distortion. It wouldn¡¯t even need to cross cycles.¡± ¡°......¡± Right. As much as I didn¡¯t want to admit it, Ji-won¡¯s analysis was correct. Chances were high that I was currently under some form of mental maniption, that at some point, my Complete Memory had been hacked, causing my perception to be distorted. Everything wrapped up in one, neat exnation. Not to mention, everyone else had some trait of theirs hidden away, so why was I the only one left untouched? This would answer that question as well. It was just that I was the one who had be strange. ¡°Of course, Your Excellency is wless and never makes mistakes. But sometimes, it¡¯s worth flipping the board and considering the opposite.¡± ¡°......¡± Actually, I wasn¡¯t the only one who remained unchanged. Ji-won. The silver-haired psychopath in front of me was as consistent as she always was. Her speech, hobbies, fashion sense, and way of thinking¡ªnot a single part of Ji-won¡¯s personality had been hidden. She was the same ace of the Samcheon World and operationsmander of the National Road Management Corps that I remembered. She was the exact same, if not for the fact that her ability had been altered ever so slightly. That¡¯s why I was suspicious. What if the mysterious anomaly, which I hadbeled ¡°X hides Y,¡± had actually attached itself to Ji-won? ¡°Waiting until the next cycle might not be a bad strategy.¡± Ji-won ced the newly finished chess piece on the map. ¡°Wait until the next cycle? Why?¡± ¡°If this anomaly really has the power to hide something from people, then by the next cycle, more things will be hidden.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I imagine it will start small, hiding things like hair or fashion. That way, it can stay under your radar for as long as possible.¡± ¡°My mental state is already on the verge of copse.¡± ¡°That part, the anomaly probably didn¡¯t predict. I think from the next cycle onward, it will start hiding people¡¯s abilities, personalities, or even their core behaviors.¡± ¡°...Then it really will be dangerous.¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s an effective strategy, lulling the target intocency before striking.¡± Then something strange happened with the map. Sssssk. The chess piece Ji-won had ced on the map moved toward another chess piece, as if drawn by a ma. The one Ji-won had just carved moved to the upper part of the map, while another, invisible piece pulled toward the lower part. It formed an image, taking a shape simr to a Taegeuk symbol. The paper map, pinched by the chess pieces, began to float in mid-air. It was an unusual sight, but this was part of the subtle changes in Ji-won¡¯s ability in the 244th cycle. Aside from the map floating a little, the Mini Map ability still worked fine. Ji-won¡¯s chess pieces continued to track people¡¯s locations perfectly. Just a minor error. ¡°This is still strange...¡± I muttered to myself. Dang Seo-rin and the others seemed like they had a trait ¡°missing,¡± but Ji-won felt more like something was ¡°off.¡± The difference kept nagging at me. Why was Ji-won so different from everyone else? ¡°Perhaps what Your Excellency calls my psychopathic tendencies are what¡¯s been hidden. In this cycle, I¡¯ve regained the ability to deeply empathize with others.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you try showing some emotions in your eyes while you say that?¡± ¡°My eyes are already full of respect for you, Your Excellency. There¡¯s no room for any other emotion. I ask for your understanding.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to understand. You¡¯ve had that same dead-eyed look ever since we met in the 5th cycle¡ª¡± I stopped mid-sentence. ¡°Wait a second.¡± I didn¡¯t mean to do it. My instincts¡ªmy sixth sense¡ªforced me to stop. My vision was still filled with the image of the chess pieces pinching the map, forming a Taegeuk shape. ¡°Space? Space...?¡± If Ji-won¡¯s ability wasn¡¯t malfunctioning... If the chess pieces were showing the precise locations of people on the map... Then what did it mean? I shot to my feet. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Grab the map and the trunk and follow me. I want to test something.¡± Ji-won nced at her analog wristwatch. 11 p.m. Back when human civilization still thrived, some people might have thought of it as morning, but now it was a time considered far toote for going outside. ¡°Understood.¡± Without asking any questions, Ji-won followed me out of the Inunaki Tunnel. I led us to a clearing far from the coast and grabbed a shovel instead of a sword. ¡°We¡¯re going to dig down.¡± ¡°Dig... down, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Yes. It sounds ridiculous, but I have a hunch. We¡¯re going to dig through the ground until we reach the bottom. You watch the map and track our progress.¡± ¡°Understood, Your Excellency.¡± And so, I carried out my n. Thwack! The shovel sank into the ground like pudding. It was an impressive feat, thanks to my liberal use of Aura. Down. Further down. Even deeper¡ª This was no ordinary digging operation. As the ground grew harder, any other Awakener would have ruined their shovel by now. ¡®This is way too solid.¡¯ Despite using Aura, the ground was unusually dense, and progress slowed. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Still, I continued digging without hesitation. At this moment, I wasn¡¯t a regressor¡ªI was nothing more than a human drill. After digging for so long I lost track of time, I had gone so deep that I wouldn¡¯t have been surprised to hit upon magma. Sweat had begun to pour down my forehead. ¡°Your Excellency, please hydrate yourself.¡± ¡°Ah, thanks.¡± Ji-won pulled out a bottle of water from the trunk and brought it to my lips. For the record, while I was digging, Ji-won stood by, illuminating the area with Aura. If it weren¡¯t for herck of humanity, she would¡¯ve been the perfect assistant. Spent on words, I continued silently breaking through the earth until finally¡ª ¡°Phew, phew... Huh?¡± Fsss! There was a strange sound as the shovel pierced through something. It seemed I had finally broken through to a hollow space after digging through what felt like an endlessyer of rock. ¡°Is this anotheryer of bedrock?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Could be a cave. Let¡¯s widen the hole and take a look.¡± As I expanded the hole, a faint light began to seep through. Therger the hole grew, the stronger the light became, and by the time it was big enough for a person to pass through, we no longer needed Ji-won¡¯s illumination. Then, like sticking your head out of a Mario pipe, I poked my head through the hole and looked outside. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± I fell silent. Ji-won poked her head through the hole beside me, then froze as well in a rare disy of ¡°shock¡± and ¡°astonishment.¡± We were both silent for a long time. The sheer visual impact of what we saw left us speechless. ¡°Ji-won. Is that...?¡± ¡°...Yes.¡± Deep beneath the ground. No, beyond the hole. ¡°By any measure... that¡¯s the sun.¡± There was a sun. A massive underground space stretched out before us, on a scale beyondprehension. It wasn¡¯t just asrge as Korea. No, the space defied imagination. In the middle of this vast, empty space, there was a small sun illuminating the underground world. In other words¡ª ¡°No way...¡± ¡®The Earth is hiding a sun.¡¯ ¡°This is insane... That¡¯s not something you hide.¡± It was the Hollow Earth Theory. This was the anomaly that had descended in this cycle. Footnotes: [1] am¡¯s razor is a philosophical principle that essentially boils down to the simplest exnation is usually the most urate. [2] The Taeguek symbol is the symbol found on the South Korean g, simr to a yin-yang symbol. Join our discord at Chapter 226 Chapter 226

Chapter 226 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Concealer III The Hollow Earth Theory ims the inside of the Earth is hollow in the form of a massive cavern. It follows the lines of simr conspiracy theories like "Nazis on the Moon" or the "Underwater City of Antis." In short, conspiracies with zero academic value. Nothing more than gossip. Unfortunately, after the Void Descent, physicists turned into conspiracy theorists. There really was a secret Nazi base on the dark side of the moon, and Antis still existed in the Antic Ocean. In the same vein, the Earth¡¯s interior was, of course, hollow. It was embarrassing as an intellectual to have been unaware of such a simple geological truth. ¡°Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡±¡°There¡¯s a vige down here, in the underground.¡± ¡°...Hmm.¡± ¡°There are people living here too. Should we call them ¡®subterraneans¡¯? They look like Homo sapiens at first nce.¡± The so-called Homo sapiens that Ji-won mentioned, however, looked quite different from modern humans. - Euw? Aaa, euw! - Euwooahh! Ooooho! The subterraneans spotted the two of us peering in from the ground, and they swarmed us with crude, wooden spears drawn. They stomped their feet and stretched their necks as they let out a barbaric chorus of ¡°ohohoho.¡± What could I say? Their civilization was clearly stuck at the primitive tribal stage. They didn¡¯t even bother covering the lower half of their bodies. - Euwooo! Wahoooo! One of the subterraneans, who appeared to be their leader, pointed his spear at us, shouting in anguage I couldn¡¯t understand. Even with my multilingual abilities, I couldn¡¯t fully trante what he was saying, but judging by the tone, it seemed to be something like, ¡°Get out of there, you monsters!¡± But unfortunately, they had chosen the wrong person to threaten. ¡°Excuse me for a moment, Your Excellency.¡± Thwack! Before I could stop her, Ji-won darted out, drew her dagger, and plunged it straight into the leader¡¯s throat. - Ugh... Uho...! - Ooooooh! Ugh! Ughhh! A few brave subterraneans attempted to fight back, but it was pointless. Ji-won drew another dagger and threw it, and the dended squarely between their eyes. In a matter of seconds, four of them had been killed. The rest, terrified, ran for their lives, fleeing from the psycho invader from the surface. The entire ordealsted no more than 30 seconds¡ªa clean, efficient operation befitting the National Road Management Corps¡¯ operationmander. ¡°Hmph.¡± Ji-won brushed the dust off her uniform. ¡°They were nothing but rabble. Not even worth Your Excellency¡¯s effort.¡± ¡°...Ji-won, I¡¯ve told you countless times¡ªstop revealing your psycho tendencies so casually.¡± ¡°They were the ones who threatened us first. Now, let me check the body.¡± Shing! Once again, before I could stop her, Ji-won sliced open the leader¡¯s skull. The sight was gruesome enough to warrant an R-rating on any tform, but fortunately, we didn¡¯t have to worry about censors. Inside the subterranean¡¯s body, there wasn¡¯t a drop of blood or even organs. ¡°They¡¯re empty inside.¡± ¡°An anomaly, then?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s confirmed. Just as thisnd is hollow, they¡¯re hollow inside as well.¡± It wasn¡¯t restricted to the head either. The torso, too, waspletely empty. It would have been stranger if these weren¡¯t anomalies. ¡°But Your Excellency. If you look closely, doesn¡¯t this primitive look a lot like you?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not joking, Your Excellency. Look carefully.¡± ¡°......¡± It was true. The leader Ji-won had killed first, the one who seemed to be their chief, had a face eerily simr to mine. The difference in the level of civilization between us was the only reason I hadn¡¯t noticed it earlier. ¡°...Wait. The one lying over there looks a lot like you, Ji-won.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Ji-won blinked, looking down at the corpse. ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯ve always wondered what it would feel like to kill myself, but I didn¡¯t expect my curiosity to be satisfied this way.¡± ¡°Not something to brag about.¡± ¡°Thank you for thepliment.¡± The rest of the subterraneans Ji-won had killed also looked strangely familiar. That¡¯s when it hit me. ¡°Take out the map.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency.¡± I had Ji-won ce the chess piece marked ¡°Undertaker¡± onto the map, and sure enough¡ª The chess piece stood upright on the map without issue. The strange phenomenon of another chess piece being drawn to it from the opposite side was gone. ¡°...As I thought.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°It seems these subterraneans were copies of us. Your Mini Map ability was treating me and these copies as the same person.¡± ¡°Ah, I see. So, it disyed both the ¡®surface person¡¯ and the ¡®underground person¡¯ together on the map.¡± Ji-won¡¯s blue eyes scanned the corpses. Her gaze was unsettling. To the untrained eye, it might seem like her usual expressionless face, but I could tell. Ji-won had a slight twitch in her left eyebrow whenever she was plotting something nefarious. ¡°Hey. What are you thinking?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing. Just that... if your theory is correct, there must be an anomaly counterpart for every surface human down here.¡± ¡°Most likely.¡± ¡°Which means there are primitive versions of Dang Seo-rin, the Great Witch of the Samcheon World, and Cheon Yo-hwa, the president of Baekhwa High¡¯s student council.¡± ¡°...So what?¡± ¡°I cannot stand for these anomalies to impersonate Your Excellency¡¯s dearrades. Please allow me to exterminate them.¡± This lunatic. ¡°Wait. You¡¯re not excited about the idea of killing copies of Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa without any risk, are you?¡± ¡°Of course not, Your Excellency. It¡¯s purely out of loyalty to you.¡± ¡°You psycho!¡± But Ji-won wasn¡¯t going to miss her chance. Sheunched into a massacre of the subterraneans. - Uuuugh! Euwhooook? - Ooooooooh! Hoh! Euwhoooo! Like she had been bottling up her bloodlust all this time, she rampaged through the underground, hunting down the likes of ¡°Subterranean Dang Seo-rin¡± and ¡°Subterranean Cheon Yo-hwa.¡± The underground civilization, which had only just begun to form, was almost entirely wiped out that day. And when Ji-won finally skinned the hide off ¡°Subterranean Dang Seo-rin,¡± a surprise item appeared. ¡°...A witch¡¯s hat?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pointed hat. And there¡¯s a model of a train further inside.¡± ¡°Why is this stuff inside their bodies?¡± Indeed, hidden inside the body of the Dang Seo-rin mimic were a witch¡¯s hat and a toy train. No normal human would have such things inside their body. ¡°Ah. There¡¯s a school uniform inside the body of Subterranean Cheon Yo-hwa. It¡¯s the Baekhwa High uniform.¡± ¡°...I have no idea how this works.¡± I didn¡¯t understand how the subterraneans had gotten hold of these items, but everything people had lost¡ªtheir personalities, hobbies¡ªwas all hidden here. ¡°There¡¯s a pile of hair in Seo Gyu¡¯s body.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°In Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s body... Oh, it¡¯s a sketchbook with a short tongue drawn inside. If we burn or destroy these, the surface people should return to normal.¡± In some cases, rather than symbolic items, there were simple objects like a notebook hidden inside the bodies. For example, in Subterranean Noh Do-hwa¡¯s body was a piece of paper with ¡°Hatred for Humans¡± written on it. Even after losing her Hatred for Humans, Noh Do-hwa had continued to re at me with utter disdain. At this point, her consistency was more frightening than anything. After going through several stomachs, Ji-won seemed satisfied. She cleaned her dagger and returned to my side. ¡°Your Excellency, I¡¯ve been thinking... wouldn¡¯t this anomaly be useful to us?¡± ¡°Useful? How?¡± ¡°This ce is the opposite of the Earth. Without your powerful Aura, no Awakener would have been able to find it.¡± In short, Ji-won continued, ¡°This is the perfect ce for the perfect crime.¡± A sense of foreboding crept over me. ¡°You don¡¯t need to look so concerned,¡± Ji-won reassured. ¡°All I¡¯m suggesting is that we could use this anomaly to correct the many ws in human nature.¡± ¡°ws in human nature, you say...?¡± ¡°For example, if we put a notebook inside Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s copy that says ¡®Narcissism,¡¯ then wouldn¡¯t we be able to easily solve one of the issues that¡¯s been tormenting her?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Your Excellency could use this ce as a sort of editor. You could correct and modify the personality ws of yourrades, making them more functional, perfect versions of themselves.¡± ¡°...No. That¡¯s the fastest way to be an anomaly. A being that maniptes the personalities of those around them at will? You¡¯re trying to make me into a dictator!¡± ¡°I still think it¡¯s highly practical.¡± ¡°No. Absolutely not.¡± I waved her off with a firm hand. Ji-won¡¯s suggestion was eerily simr to something Dang Seo-rin had attempted in a previous round. The result had been the birth of a Corrupted. ¡°Hmm. Is that so...?¡± Though she looked disappointed (a face only I could read), Ji-won scanned the area around us. The only scenery left to observe was the aftermath of the massacre she had unleashed upon the subterraneans. ¡°If that is your wish, Your Excellency, I¡¯ll be content with simply exterminating these anomalies,¡± she concluded. ¡°Right. We should be thankful we caught them before they stole anything crucial, like our hearts or minds.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Ji-won obediently packed up and we returned to the surface through the hole we had dug. She gave up on her suggestion so quickly that, for a moment, I almost let my guard down and followed her back to the surface without thinking twice. But then something felt off. Trusting my instincts, I walked over to the corpse of the ¡°Subterranean Undertaker¡± and pried open its mouth. And there, tucked inside, was a note written in Ji-won¡¯s handwriting. Suspicions about Ji-won Doubts about Ji-won¡¯s loyalty Complete mistrust of Ji-won¡¯s character, personality, and words ¡°......¡± ¡°...Ah.¡± As I held the note, my eyes locked onto Ji-won, who had half-crawled into the hole. Our gazes met. And then, like a mole, she scurried deeper into the hole, disappearing from sight. The only sound that followed was the faint tap-tap-tap of her running at full speed. If I were to describe that scene in a single phrase, it would be: ¡ºJi-won hid her conscience.¡» I couldn¡¯t help but shout after her. ¡°Ji-won! Stop right there, you little brat!¡±

There is a short epilogue. ¡°Hyunnnng! Thank you so muuuuuch!¡± ¡°Uh, yeah.¡± With his hair restored, Seo Gyu clung to my waist, sobbing. Not only had his hair grown back, but his sense of identity¡ªhis once-proud self¡ªhad returned as well. It wasn¡¯t just Seo Gyu. Others also benefited from the "normalization." Dang Seo-rin had reverted back to her rail enthusiast ways and even held a public burning ceremony of scrapped trains in the station square. ¡°Well, I, uh... I think I would¡¯ve been fine if you just left me alone...¡± Only Ah-ryeon, who had been enjoying her newfound extroverted life, felt a bit regretful. Most people, however, treated the whole incident as an embarrassing part of their past. Just when I thought the strange story about our underground counterparts hade to an end and we had all returned to normalcy¡ª A sudden question crossed my mind. ¡®Wait. If the underground world was stealing things from the surface, then... what about the sun?¡¯ There had been a sun in the subterranean world, yet the sun in the sky above us was still shining brightly. In other words, there were now two suns coexisting on Earth¡ªone that had been stolen and another that was still in ce. One sun that had lost something. Another sun that had stolen something. ¡°......¡± As I sipped my caf¨¦ auit, I gazed up at the clear sky, focusing on the bright sun. What had been stolen from our sun by the anomaly?

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 227 Chapter 227 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Winter Soldier I What¡¯s your favorite season? Summer? Fall? Spring? Winter? For the record, I myself am not particrly fond of any season. Once upon a time, people in Korea used to take pride in the country¡¯s distinct four seasons, but that was long ago. After the copse of civilization, the four seasons truly became well-defined again. But, as with everything, there were pros and cons. Just because the seasons had be more distinct didn¡¯t mean we could rejoice.First, let¡¯s talk about spring. ¡°Your Excellency, we¡¯ve observed arge, yellow cloud approaching from the west and the north.¡± ¡°A yellow dust storm? Send a cooperation request to Samcheon World to monitor the movement of the cloud immediately. Order all citizens to wear masks.¡± ¡°Is it really that serious? As far as I know, breathing in a little fine dust won¡¯t kill you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just ordinary yellow dust. Each fine dust particle has been transformed into a deadly toxin by the anomaly. Without a mask, you¡¯ll be dead in three minutes.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Then there¡¯s summer. ¡°Undertaker! A typhoon is heading straight for us!¡± ¡°Calm down. Let¡¯s start building an ark.¡± Next is fall. ¡°G-Guild leader, why does it smell like blood, instead of leaves, when the autumn foliage falls?¡± ¡°Just ignore it.¡± ¡°Buttely, when I walk down the street and the leaves brush past me, I keep hearing faint whispers, like ¡®Save me...¡¯ And the ginkgo trees, when their fruits drop, there¡¯s this awful stench, like human innards¡ª¡± ¡°I said ignore it.¡± ¡°...Yes, sir.¡± Ah! The wonderful Korean Penins! Not that this hellishndscape was limited to Korea alone. The more appropriate thing for us to say would be, "The wonderful Earth!" But no matter how harsh spring, summer, or fall became with these extreme weather phenomena, they could never im the title of the ultimate boss. That honor belonged to winter. The cruel, white tyrant. From the dawn of civilization to its end, humanity¡¯s greatest enemy had always been winter. One day, Cheon Yo-hwa and I were walking down the hallway of Baekhwa High when a student stepped in front of us. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s going on? I told you not to interrupt when I¡¯m with Teacher... Oh, wait. It¡¯s So-yeon.¡± Yo-hwa¡¯s eyes momentarily turned cold, but upon recognizing the student, her expression softened. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°......¡± The short-haired student, Joo So-yeon, bowed her head slightly in greeting. She was one of the original members of Baekhwa High. Had I not intervened to defeat Infinite Void, she would have been one of the many who died. Remember, out of the 750 students at Baekhwa High, only 19 survived, and 2 of them eventually died by suicide. The student standing before us, Joo So-yeon, was one of the ones who took her own life. Of course, in the rounds where Infinite Void was defeated, that tragedy was averted. Now, So-yeon was just a quiet, shy underssman suffering from mutism. Her special statusy in the fact that she was one of the few who could speak candidly to the student council president. ¡°......¡± ¡°Take your time. It¡¯s okay, you can speak slowly.¡± ¡°......¡± Unlike Lee Ha-yul, who also struggled with speech but excelled in controlling Aura, So-yeoncked such abilities. She didn¡¯t have any overpowered skills, like controlling threads to make puppets speak on her behalf. Thus, she resorted to using a different method. Slowly, painstakingly, So-yeon scratched letters into Yo-hwa¡¯s palm with her nails, one by one. The letters read: W I N T E R As soon as Yo-hwa saw the word, her face stiffened. I nced at her palm from the side and found my expression matching hers. Yo-hwa asked, her tone serious, ¡°Winter? Are you sure? But it¡¯s only June.¡± Joo So-yeon nodded. ¡°That can¡¯t be right. Wait... So-yeon, could you show us?¡± So-yeon nodded again, then sped her hands together in a prayer-like gesture. Yo-hwa and I stood on either side of her, forming a protective barrier. A few seconds passed. Crack! Crackle! Suddenly, the sound of ice breaking echoed through the halls of Baekhwa High. Frost began forming around us, spreading out in a three-meter radius, with So-yeon at the center. ¡°Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°Yes, teacher.¡± We both released Aura to protect ourselves from the cold. The temperature was dropping rapidly, to the point that it would be unbearable for So-yeon alone. But the temperature wasn¡¯t the only concern. Crack! Crackle! The windows lining the hall instantly froze over before shattering into pieces. Snow piled up rapidly in the three-meter radius around us. Yo-hwa, So-yeon, and I stood in a small, safe zone. However, everywhere else¡ªto our legs, then waist, then shoulders¡ªsnow rose higher and higher. Eventually, the snow towered over even our heads. It was freezing. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± Huff. When Yo-hwa exhaled, her breath looked like dry ice in the frigid air. Out of curiosity, I briefly released the Aura protecting my forearm. The surrounding cold bit into my skin with ferocity. It was easily -120¡ãC. ¡°So-yeon. Are we done?¡± She shook her head. We weren¡¯t finished yet. ¡°Alright, then. Can you stop?¡± With a small nod, So-yeon released her ability. The bitter cold vanished. The broken window fragments crumbled to dust, and the snow that had piled up around us began to melt away. Baekhwa High¡¯s Awakener, Joo So-yeon. Her ability was called Weather Forecast. She could predict and summon the season and weather that would ur up to one month in advance. Her uracy? Just 50%. As you can imagine, it wasn¡¯t the most useful ability in everyday situations. Telling someone, ¡°It will either rain tomorrow or it won¡¯t,¡± would only get you a response like, ¡°And how exactly does that help?¡± But in emergencies, her ability was invaluable. ¡°...Teacher.¡± ¡°Yes. It looks like we need to prepare.¡± Winter wasing. In a month¡¯s time, there was a 50% chance that a -120¡ãC winter would descend upon the Korean Penins. As expected, the National Road Management Corps was thrown into chaos. ¡°A temperature of -120¡ãC? In the middle of summer? Can we even survive a winter like that...?¡± ¡°Of course not. That¡¯s why they call it ¡®killer weather,¡¯ Commander Noh Do-hwa. You¡¯ve seen 100-meter-high tsunamis in summer, didn¡¯t you? Was that normal?¡± ¡°Goddamn. Living on Earth really sucks...¡± Do-hwa grumbled and swore, but had the Russians heard her, they¡¯d have scoffed. The average yearly temperature there hovered around -100¡ãC. Still, expecting Do-hwa to sympathize with the Russians when she had no empathy for her fellow Koreans was a bit of a stretch. She was probably already nning to sacrifice half the city¡¯s poption. ¡°So, anyone got any brilliant ideas? This city¡¯s mostly shantytowns. If a -120¡ãC blizzard hits, everyone here, including you and me, will freeze to death.¡± ¡°First, we need to remain calm. This is just another phenomenon caused by the Void. There¡¯s no reason to sit here in Busan waiting for winter to arrive.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°We head north, past Pyongyang. We face the winter head-on.¡± ¡°Wait... we?¡± Literally. We issued a telepathicmand through the constetion, The Morning Star of the Second Coming, telling the citizens of Dongbang Singuk to stay indoors. Thanks to the overwhelming authority of the Star, the evacuation went smoothly. As for us, a party of 50¡ªincluding Noh Do-hwa, Yu Ji-won, the Saintess, and the National Road Management Corps¡¯ operations team¡ªheaded north in a two-week expedition. ¡°Haaa.¡± Wearing fur hats and gloves, the Saintess exhaled deeply, her breath hanging in the air like a balloon before dispersing into white mist. ¡°It¡¯s chilly here already, and it¡¯s only July. The air here feels different from Seoul.¡± Do-hwa stood silently beside her, arms crossed, ring at me. She had led her team all the way to Sinuiju, where I had arrived earlier. Spreading my arms wide, I weed them. ¡°Wee, O King of Korea. Thank you for bringing your people all this way.¡± ¡°Forget that. What the hell is that?¡± ¡°Oh, that? Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s just a sort of totem.¡± ¡°What the hell?! How am I supposed to ignore that?!¡± Do-hwa was pointing at the Statue of Liberty, standing tall and proud, holding her torch high. Yes, I had built a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Sinuiju. While Do-hwa had been leading her party north, I had arrived ahead of them and busied myself building the monument. Of course, it wasn¡¯t made of the same expensive copper and steel as the original. I had scavenged stone from around Sinuiju. But the sculpture was well-made, a near-perfect replica, standing at the original height of 93.5 meters. Confronted by this overwhelming structure, Do-hwa stared at me like an Irish immigrant arriving in America for the first time, her face a mix of awe, anxiety, and hope. ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake. Why the hell did you build the Statue of Liberty in Sinuiju?!¡± For the record, I¡¯ve never been great at reading Do-hwa¡¯s expressions. ¡°You just don¡¯t understand, Commander.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°The Statue of Liberty, no matter the medium, is always the first monument to be attacked. More specifically, wherever the Statue of Liberty stands, disaster always strikes first.¡± ¡°What kind of nonsense is that...?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re skeptical, take a quick trip across the Tumen River. It¡¯s colder here than it is there.¡± Do-hwa lowered her head, muttering something under her breath. Probably cursing my brilliant foresight. The Saintess, who had been listening, nodded thoughtfully. ¡°It¡¯s like a lightning rod, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Exactly. Especially when ites to weather-rted disasters, like climate change or eco-apocalypses. The Statue of Liberty is always the first thing to get destroyed.¡± ¡°I remember seeing that in a few movies.¡± ¡°Which leads us to the hypothesis: all climate disasters target the Statue of Liberty.¡± I pointed dramatically at the towering statue. ¡°In other words, as long as we protect the Statue of Liberty, any climate disaster will be nothing but a fleeting nuisance.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°All the residents of Sinuiju and our soldiers have already been relocated to Pyongyang. Now, the only things left here are us and the Statue of Liberty.¡± Thus, the strategy for countering this anomaly, known as ¡°Blizzard¡± or ¡°Winter General,¡± was simple. On our side, we just needed to protect the Statue of Liberty. On the Anomaly¡¯s side, they had to destroy it. Because as long as the Statue of Liberty stood intact, it was the same as the climate disaster not having arrived yet. In short¡ª ¡°From now on, this ce isn¡¯t Sinuiju anymore¡ªit¡¯s New York. Commander Noh Do-hwa, here¡¯s your official appointment as Mayor of New York.¡± ¡°Wha¡ª¡± I handed her a prepared certificate and a namete. The first Korean to be the mayor of New York. Of course, being the mayor of New York came with its perks. Even though Do-hwa didn¡¯t speak much English, it didn¡¯t matter. In our New New York, she could do her job as mayor without getting caught up in silly prejudices about nationality ornguage. Thus, the ce evolved into a country that boasted not only ¡°The Jerusalem of the East¡± but also ¡°The New York of the East.¡± A region that had once been the poorest in Asia had now flourished. Clearly, this world was an alternate history, and Dongbang Singuk was the true protagonist of the story. ¡°Look at the Amnok River. Doesn¡¯t it resemble Manhattan? With its inds and everything. It¡¯s basically New York.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You all will be appointed as police chiefs, federal judges, and other important officials. Your task is to protect the Statue of Liberty at all costs, understood?¡± Whack! Do-hwa picked up the namete that read ¡°Mayor of New York, Noh Do-hwa¡± and smacked me in the back of the head. Let the defense game begin. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 228 Chapter 228 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Winter Soldier II ¡¸Once, I was just a regr Grade 7 civil servant working at a rehabilitation hospital. Now, after the copse of the world, I¡¯m the Ruler of Busan, Master of the National Road Management Corps, De facto ruler of the Korean Penins, and now, the Mayor of New York? For some reason, the one who looks like the savior of the world is obsessed with me. What is this?¡¹ Leaving Noh Do-hwa to continue her light novel lifestyle, it was time to start the real defense game. ¡°Listen up, everyone. Here¡¯s the situation. When the blizzard from the north hits, it¡¯s predicted to bring a winter of -120¡ãC that couldst a while.¡± I tapped on the chalkboard, which had a map of Sinuiju pinned to it while addressing about thirty members of the National Road Management Corps. ¡°No one knows how long this winter willst. It could be over in a day, or it could continue for a year. In the worst-case scenario, we might be cut off from all outsidemunication, except for SG Net, and we¡¯ll need to endure this severe weather.¡±¡°......¡± ¡°For this operation, the Corps has selected elite members withrge amounts of Aura. Each of you is essentially a human furnace. You''ll need to take turns keeping the temperature of the living quarters stable, so treat fuel like it¡¯s precious.¡± Faintughter rippled through the group. Despite the harsh conditions, no one openlyined. After all, the difficulty of this mission wasn¡¯t necessarily about surviving the cold. The true challengey in enduring the -120¡ãC blizzard as Awakeners. ¡°Tomorrow, we¡¯ll start the operation, but let¡¯s take some questions before we proceed.¡± A few members of the Corps raised their hands. ¡°Yes, Lee Ha-seong.¡± ¡°Sir, we have about three months'' worth of food rations stored. What should we do if the wintersts longer than that?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll temporarily leave Sinuiju and fetch Sword Marquess. I¡¯ve already securednd to build a greenhouse farm. In the meantime, we¡¯ll organize hunting teams to secure more food.¡± I called on another member. ¡°Next, Cha Jae-hee.¡± ¡°Thank you. What should we do if the anomaly known as Winter General expands beyond Sinuiju or starts to move?¡± ¡°If it turns out there¡¯s a core or source to the anomaly, I¡¯ll take care of it myself. Next question.¡± The briefing continued smoothly. The members of the Corps asked only practical questions, focusing on what they needed to know for the mission. Of course, the 30 people here had unknowingly be my disciples¡ªthey had been indirectly trained through the constetions and learned my ways. (Though they themselves werergely unaware of that fact.) ¡°Alright. That¡¯s it for today. Get some rest, and we¡¯ll start the operation tomorrow.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± The next day, the temperature noticeably dropped after just one night. Yesterday¡¯s weather was like early winter, but by dawn, the air was sharply cold. Do-hwa finally had to let go of her hopeful optimism. ¡°Damn. That Weather Forecast ability might be unreliable with normal weather predictions, but it¡¯s always urate with weird ones like this.¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s actually 100% urate.¡± ¡°Wait, what? How?¡± ¡°Think about it. Predicting normal weather like rain or snow is something anyone can guess without needing Weather Forecast. It¡¯s nothing special. But if someone predicts a -120¡ãC blizzard, that¡¯s unusual in itself, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Ohhh...¡± Do-hwa finally epted the exnation, taking a sip of her warm coffee. By 8 a.m., the operations team had gathered in themand center, located inside the Statue of Liberty. Everyone was bundled up in thick winter clothes. One of the most fashion-conscious celebrities in Busan, Ji-won, was wearing her signature white uniform with a fur cloak. She looked over at me. ¡°Your Excellency, everything is ready.¡± I nodded. ¡°Deploy the prisoners.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Some of you may have noticed a gap in the headcount. There were 50 people who came up to Sinuiju, but only 30 of them were members of the National Road Management Corps. The remaining 20 were prisoners I had brought up from ces like Busan. Our good ol¡¯ prisoners, who had been useful during the Inunaki Tunnel mission, were about to be put to work again today. ¡°Prisoners, listen up. Pay attention to His Excellency¡¯s orders,¡± Ji-won addressed the 20 prisoners in front of her. ¡°Ah, fuck...¡± ¡°What kind of bullshit is this at this time of day...¡± Their attitude was, to put it mildly, terrible. They stared at Ji-won with half-lidded, irritated eyes. Within ten seconds, blood sttered. Without batting an eye, Ji-won slit one of the prisoners¡¯ throats with her dagger. She shook the blood off her de and repeated her earlier words in the same monotone voice and expressionless face. ¡°Prisoners, pay attention to His Excellency¡¯s orders.¡± Now down to 19, the prisoners straightened up like model citizens, their eyes wide and alert like little kids at a school assembly. ...I sometimes wondered if Yu Ji-won swore loyalty to me just so she could legally kill people without consequences. Anyway, with the tension rising, I opened my mouth and said, ¡°From now on, each of you will be assigned a number from 1 to 19. As your numbers are called, you¡¯ll go outside.¡± I tapped on the map to point out the designated path. ¡°The task is simple. Cross the Amnokgang Bridge and keep walking north.¡± ¡°The Amnokgang Bridge?¡± ¡°Yes. As you walk, you¡¯ll receive instructions via radio. All you need to do is follow those instructions and keep responding. That¡¯s it.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Just so you know, I wouldn¡¯t rmend trying to escape. You all know what Ji-won¡¯s ability is. She¡¯ll track you to the ends of hell, and you¡¯ll experience a hell far worse than death.¡± Ji-won twirled her dagger in her hand from where she stood beside me, and the prisoners¡¯ faces paled. I could practically see their thoughts written across their faces. Why the hell are we treated like dirt while this silver-haired psycho enjoys a high-ranking position? I had been wondering the same thing for quite some time myself. To ease their concerns, I added, ¡°But don¡¯t worry. There¡¯s a reward for you as well. See this river here? It¡¯s called the Aiha River, about 30 kilometers north of the Amnokgang Bridge.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°If you make it there and return, I¡¯ll reduce your sentence by 250 years. And, depending on your behavior, you might receive further reductions.¡± ¡°......!¡± For the first time, a spark lit in their eyes. The prisoners I had brought here were all serving sentences of over 500 years. The chance to shave off half of that was a tempting offer they couldn¡¯t pass up. They were Awakeners before they became criminals, and walking a mere 30 kilometers to earn their freedom sounded like a good deal. ¡°Are you really going to reduce our sentences?¡± ¡°I promise in the name of Team Leader Yu Ji-won.¡± Their faces instantly soured again. I cleared my throat and quickly amended my statement. ¡°...I promise in the name of Commander Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°Yeah! Hell yeah!¡± ¡°Awesome! Sixty-kilometer round trip? Easy!¡± The prisoners, now fully motivated, started gearing up like students who had just binge-watched motivational videos on YouTube. And so, from prisoner number 1 to 19, they were each sent out, spaced 50 meters apart, into the cold wilderness. For the record, we supplied them with radios and U.S. military uniforms. If you¡¯ve ever watched an apocalypse movie, you know these poor guys are the ones who usually get the short end of the stick. ¡°Saintess, I leave it to you.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± In the corner of themand center, away from the rest of the group, sat the Saintess, bundled up in fur hats, nkets, and sleeping bags. She sped her hands together in prayer. What she was doing could be described like this: [Scout 1,e in. Scout 1, do you copy?] [Proceed directly north. We¡¯ve received reports that an ally is stranded 6 kilometers ahead with nomunication. Locate them and assist if possible.] The Saintess was using her telepathy to make the prisoners believe they were hearing this message through their radios. The idea of ¡°an ally stranded¡± came as a surprise to the prisoners, but... - Shit, what kind of bullshit is this now? [Scout 1, do you copy? Please continue reporting as you proceed.] - Uh, yeah. Nothing much to report yet. Just a flimsy-looking bridge. Is this the Amnokgang Bridge? [That¡¯s correct. It was partially destroyed, but our previous scouting confirmed that it¡¯s still safe to cross. Proceed with caution.] - Tch. Got it. Meanwhile, I continuedying down ¡°artifacts¡± at the Saintess¡¯s feet. A small model of the Statue of Liberty. A model of the Eiffel Tower. A model of St. Peter¡¯s Basilica in the Vatican. A model of Big Ben. A model of the Taj Mahal. A model of Tokyo Tower... Like a shamanying out cursed totems, or kids ying with an Ouija board, I carefully arranged eachndmark onto the world map at her feet. ¡°......¡± Do-hwa, sittingfortably in an armchair beside us, wrapped inyers of winter gear, watched me in silence. - Huh? [Scout 1, is something wrong?] - No, I crossed the bridge, but I¡¯m starting to see snow. Weird... The world map was hand-drawn by Ji-won, so its uracy wasn¡¯t perfect. However, the map carried a portion of her power. After positioning all thendmarks, I casually flicked the Eiffel Tower, knocking it over. [That¡¯s an expected anomaly. We suspect the Void in that area is causing a sudden onset of the Ice Age.] - What the fuck. So that¡¯s why it¡¯s this cold. [The longer you remain in the Void, the more dangerous it bes. After locating the ally, return as quickly as possible.] - Alright, fine. But this feels kinda¡ª I toppled St. Peter¡¯s Basilica. I knocked over Big Ben. - Huh? [What¡¯s wrong?] - The wind¡¯s picking up! There¡¯s a snowstorm! I can¡¯t see shit! [Our radar still shows your position as stable. Keep moving forward.] - Fine, I¡¯ll keep moving, but this is insane! I can¡¯t see a thing! Finally, I knocked over the Taj Mahal. - Shit! I can¡¯t see anything! I¡¯m freezing to death out here! This isn¡¯t a joke! I¡¯m serious! I think I¡¯m really going to die¡ª Static crackled over the radio. The Saintess looked down at me. I caught her gaze and nodded in acknowledgment. ¡°It¡¯s here.¡± The radios we had given to the prisoners were just for show. The realmunication was happening telepathically through the Saintess. And, of course, there was no reason for any static interference. That meant the source of the interference wasn¡¯t us but something else. Whatever was causing the static was the Anomaly. - I can¡¯t see... I can¡¯t feel... Fzzt. Scout 1¡¯s signal went dark. The Saintess remained calm and continued working with a neutral expression. [Scout 2,e in. Scout 1¡¯s transmission is unstable. Do you have a visual on them 50 meters ahead?] - No. The snowstorm¡¯s too thick to see anything. Scout 2, lost. Scout 3, lost. Scout 4, lost. On Yu Ji-won¡¯s Mini Map, the chess pieces representing the prisoners fell one after the other like dominoes. Finally, when I knocked over Tokyo Tower... Only the Statue of Liberty remained standing on the world map. At that moment, the Saintess opened her mouth. ¡°Scout 19, lost.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It¡¯s here.¡± Where? No one asked that foolish question. The sound of something scratching echoed from the world map. The paper, which had been nk except for the chess pieces, suddenly started to freeze over, ayer of frost rapidly forming around the remainingndmarks. The ice moved, creeping toward the Statue of Liberty. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I picked up the Statue of Liberty and ced it over Sinuiju. Immediately, the frost that had been spreading across the map shifted course, converging on Sinuiju, as if drawn to the sacrifice we had ced on the map. It was ravenous, consuming everything in its path. Crack! Crackle! The radio, which should have been dead silent, began to buzz with loud static. The thermometer, specially made for this operation, showed the temperature plummeting rapidly. -10¡ãC. -20¡ãC. -40¡ãC. -80¡ãC. ¡°National Road Management Corps! Release your Aura!¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± -120¡ãC. At that exact moment, a heavy impact reverberated through the base. The door, which had been securely locked after we sent the prisoners outside, groaned under the pressure. It sounded like something was wing at it, as if a giant¡¯s nails were scraping at the surface, demanding to be let inside. We all knew what it meant. Winter hade. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 229 Chapter 229

Chapter 229 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Winter Soldier III If you were to ask me to name the most frequent cause of mass human death, excluding those killed by Anomalies, I could answer without hesitation: Hypothermia. Literal death by freezing. Even if we disregard the Ice Age Anomaly that descended upon the new New York of the Korean Penins, winter alone¡ªeven in its vani form¡ªhas always been deadly enough. And what about a winter with an added Anomaly?Even in this round, where the National Road Management Corps had achieved a uniformly high level of Aura proficiency, withstanding the biting cold was no easy feat. ¡°It¡¯s fucking cold...¡± Do-hwa, who hadn¡¯t invested any levels into Aura skills on her Awakener path, shivered even more than the others. It had been 60 minutes since the Ice Age descended. With a nket draped over her, Do-hwa exhaled a puff of breath, white as chimney smoke was ck. She was shivering so much that it made me feel a little sorry for her. ¡°Commander,e a bit closer.¡± ¡°...Seriously, if this was how things were going to be, you should¡¯ve brought the Great Witch of the Samcheon World. I don¡¯t understand why you dragged someone who was working peacefully in Busan all the way up here. At least if she were here, she could sing us a song and improve the atmosphere.¡± ¡°This operation specifically required you, Commander Noh Do-hwa. Bringing Dang Seo-rin would have been disastrous.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what the hell this mission is about, but it¡¯s cold as hell...¡± I took hold of Do-hwa¡¯s left hand under the nket. Her fingers were ice-cold. She twitched, her eyebrows furrowing slightly, but didn¡¯t pull her hand away. Gradually, my Aura flowed through our joined hands, sending warmth into Do-hwa¡¯s body. She shivered as if it tickled, unfamiliar with the sensation of Aura. Her lips parted, shaping around words she meant to let escape, but then she pressed them shut, likely aware that I wouldn¡¯t stop regardless. Under the nket, warmth quickly enveloped her. I made sure to keep the Aura swirling only beneath the cover, ensuring no one noticed. ¡°......¡± ¡°...You could just say thank you.¡± ¡°Fuck off.¡± ¡°......¡± She sighed. ¡° This feels oddly familiar... Ah. It¡¯s like when you turn on the floor heater while under the nket but keep the air conditioner on. That¡¯s exactly how it feels.¡± ¡°Are you serious? You lived with such extravagance? How could you waste resources like that?¡± ¡°Heh. Of course, you wouldn¡¯t understand, with your boomer mindset. You can¡¯t even remember when civilization was still intact. But in Korea, everyone tried it at least once... By the way, Undertaker, I have a question.¡± Do-hwa pointed with her right hand toward a specific direction. ¡°What¡¯s with all those cameras...?¡± She was gesturing toward a line of recording devices set up inside the Statue of Liberty. Most of the equipment was haunted artifacts contaminated by Anomalies, but they were whirring away smoothly, recording everything. ¡°As you can see, they¡¯re cameras,¡± I stated matter of factly. ¡°I know they¡¯re cameras. I¡¯m asking why you¡¯re using such valuable equipment to film us shivering in the cold...¡± ¡°Oh, but of course. It¡¯s all part of the ultimate strategy to defeat the Ice Age Anomaly. You don¡¯t need to worry about a thing, Commander. Just sit tight.¡± ¡°Ugh. This feels... unsettling...¡± And then it happened. ¡°We¡¯re all doomed!¡± A scream pierced the air from among the gathered National Road Management Corps members. The source of the cry had lost focus in his eyes. ¡°There¡¯s no contact with the outside, and we¡¯re running out of food! If we stay here, we¡¯re all going to die! Every single one of us!¡± ¡°H-hey. Jae-hee, what¡¯s gotten into you?¡± The person causing themotion had just been doing fine, releasing Aura like a living furnace. But now, they¡¯d gone into a frenzy, ripping off their nket and winter gear. ¡°If we¡¯re all going to die anyway, I¡¯ll make the sacrifice. Yes. If I can reduce the number of mouths to feed by even one, then maybe the others can survive a little longer. Ah, I¡¯ll go outside...¡± ¡°Shit! He¡¯s been Void-poisoned! Stop Cha Jae-hee!¡± As expected of well-trained elites, the other Corps members quickly subdued the rogue agent. I didn¡¯t even need to step in. The situation resolved itself, although Do-hwa, whose hand was still in mine, looked at me suspiciously. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why aren¡¯t you helping your subordinates but instead recording the chaos on your phone...?¡± That¡¯s right. I was calmly sitting there, filming the scene unfolding before me with my phone. That wasn¡¯t the only time I¡¯d do so either. When the Void-poison spread further and more Corps members began showing signs of madness, I didn¡¯t intervene then just the same. ¡°We¡¯re all going to die if we stay here! We have to form a strike team and request aid from outside!¡± ¡°No, we have plenty of supplies¡ª¡± ¡°They¡¯re right! Even if we fail to call for help, at least some of us should survive!¡± ¡°Let us out!¡± They had lost their minds. Outside, a -120¡ãC blizzard was raging. With visibility near zero, any attempt to leave the bunker would mean certain death, even for the elite members of the National Road Management Corps. Clearly, they had been robbed of their judgment by the Anomaly. Normally, this would have been the perfect time for the Drill Sergeant, Yu Ji-won, to step in and restore order, but... A sidelong nce at Yu Ji-won showed that she was waiting for my cue, maintaining a disciplined stance. Naturally, her primary motive was always to ¡°ingratiate herself with me to maintain her power.¡± Her duties as the operations team leader were far down her list of priorities. If I decided that intervention wasn¡¯t necessary, then Ji-won wouldn¡¯t step in either. She simply nced down at her phone, browsing SG Net. ¡°Ugh... Damn it...¡± Do-hwa clocked our nonchnt attitude and sighed, apparentlying to some realization. She must have understood that this, too, was part of my n. ¡°Let¡¯s break through the snow and head south for help! If we reach the base, we can return with reinforcements!¡± ¡°Fear not death! If we don¡¯t make the sacrifice, who will?¡± The Void-poison spread uncontrobly. Of the 20 National Road Management Corps members, 10 suddenly turned into ¡°escape advocates.¡± Even considering that Ji-won, Do-hwa, and I had all chosen to ignore the situation, the speed of the spread was unnaturally fast, and the depth of the brainwashing was sinking deeper. ¡°Team Leader! Undertaker! They¡¯re seriously trying to leave!¡± ¡°Let them go.¡± This was precisely why I had brought Ji-won and Do-hwa into this operation: resistance to brainwashing. These two had mental fortitude that surpassed anyone else I knew. Ji-won was famous for ignoring the nameless pink-haired Voldemort, a feat unmatched in human history. To any Anomaly that specialized in brainwashing, she was an unyielding wall. Do-hwa was no less remarkable. She had resisted countless Anomalies associated with politicians, such as ¡°All Power Corrupts¡± or ¡°Dictators Inevitably Fall,¡± without ever sumbing to their influence. I hadn¡¯t appointed these two to lead the National Road Management Corps in spite of their questionable personalities for no reason. When it came to dealing with Anomalies, they were the answer. And over there, lounging in an armchair, the Saintess was equally beyond rival in mental fortitude. In short, within the Statue of Liberty bunker, I had assembled the strongest-willed Awakeners in all of Korea. ¡°Let¡¯s go! For ourrades!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s save humanity!¡± ¡°Yeaaah!¡± In contrast, the ten brainwashed members threw open the bunker doors themselves. As soon as the door creaked open, a massive blizzard swept inside. The brainwashed ones, facing the storm without any face coverings,ughed madly in the biting cold and before long, they had vanished into the frozen wilderness, theirughter swallowed by the howling wind. The remaining survivors turned to me, their expressions stricken with fear. ¡°Y-Your Excellency...¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± It looked like I had enough footage. I stopped recording on my smartphone. ¡°Ji-won, I¡¯ll head out for a bit, so take care of keeping the Commander warm.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. I¡¯ll handle it.¡± Passing on the role of ¡°living furnace¡± to Yu Ji-won, I dashed out of the bunker to pursue the brainwashed ones. Outside was a pure white snowfield. But unlike the picturesque scenes from Yasunari Kawabata¡¯s Snow Country, the snow in this mysterious New York was unsettling. All around, white noise flickered like static. It wasn¡¯t the kind of flickering like a lighthouse guiding people. It was more like a barrage of camera shes at a red-carpet event, pushing away any sense of humanity. This snowfield had been ruined by a tyrant. Ssssshhhhh. Beyond the distant white noise, shes of red shirts asionally appeared, stark against the snow. They were half-buried in the snow, like floating debris in a white river. I followed their trail, stepping on the scattered clothing like stepping stones. ¡°Hahahahahaha!¡± ¡°It¡¯s getting warmer. Look over there, the sun! We¡¯re heading south!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not cold. See? It¡¯s really not cold!¡± ¡°The sun is protecting us!¡± The voices of the Void-poisoned wove in strange harmony with the hum of the white noise. The ten brainwashed Corps members continued their march through the snow, stripping down to their underwear as they went. Their clothes disappeared into the snow like they had sunk into a swamp, while the near-naked humans gradually submerged deeper and deeper into the snowdrifts. ¡°Good job.¡± Thud. I knocked the ten of them out with a quick blow to the head using Aura. They fell without so much as a scream. I then stacked the unconscious Corps members like a pile of hamburgers, lifted them with one hand, and sprinted south. ¡°Ah! It¡¯s the boss!¡± ¡°G-Guild Leader! Over here...!¡± After running for a few minutes, I crossed the boundary of New New York and the blizzard abruptly ceased. Turning back, I saw the snowstorm looming like a dome over New New York, encapsting the entire city. Waiting near the border were Ah-ryeon, Dok-seo, and the rest of the backup team. ¡°Ugh, seriously! What¡¯s with this, Mister? Why are they all naked? Are they out of their minds?¡± ¡°The Ice Age Anomaly has a brainwashing ability. They got caught up in it. If their Aura levels were even slightly lower, they¡¯d have frozen to death by now.¡± ¡°That''s messed up...¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon. Start healing them, please.¡± ¡°O-okay!¡± ¡°Even if they regain consciousness, they might try to run back into the snowstorm. Keep a close watch on them until the Anomaly ispletely neutralized. And make sure they can¡¯t ess SG Net. Understood, Dok-seo?¡± ¡°Ugh, damn it! I know, I know! Stop nagging!¡± ¡°I¡¯m counting on you.¡± ¡°Make sure you film everything!¡± Leaving the recovering members in the hands of the backup team, I returned to the snowy storm. As I made my way back, I carefully gathered the clothes the brainwashed members had discarded. Thud. I pushed open the door to the Statue of Liberty bunker, and all eyes turned toward me. Do-hwa, Ji-won, the Saintess, and the remaining ten Corps members¡ª13 people in total¡ªwatched me. One of the Corps members spoke up. ¡°Y-Your Excellency? What... What you¡¯re holding...¡± I nced around the room. The recording devices were still running. Good. No problems here. ¡°These are the missing members¡¯ clothes. I found them outside.¡± ¡°Wh-what? So... So ourrades...¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I followed their trail as far as I could, but there was nothing but an endless expanse of snow.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Everyone, it appears that the Ice Age Anomaly is more dangerous than I initially anticipated. Remain vignt.¡± Fear began to settle on the faces of the Corps members. They didn¡¯t seem to doubt me at all, epting my exnation with convincing sincerity. Even professional actors couldn¡¯t have delivered such genuine expressions. Yeah. By now, you¡¯ve probably realized it too. If you want to deceive your enemy, you have to fool your allies first. I intended to trick the Ice Age Anomaly that had taken hold of this city.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 230 Chapter 230 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Winter Soldier IV You can probably guess by now, but Anomalies have an inherent trait that''s simr to severe otaku tendencies: They can''t distinguish between ''reality'' and ''fiction.'' To be more precise, for Anomalies, everything is the same as reality¡ªanother simrity to otaku. Just as otaku believe in the true 2D world beyond their monitors, Anomalies perceive everything they see as being of equal or greater value than reality. ¡®Of course, each Anomaly has things they like or dislike more.¡¯ I used this ¡®otaku test¡¯ on the Ice Age Anomaly. When did I start doing that? From the very beginning, when I first encountered it."Saintess, use Telepathy on the prisoners, but please act like you''remunicating through a real radio." "Pardon? Why is that?" "I have my reasons. Also, it would be great if you could add static noise like a real radio." The radios the prisoners carried out had no real function, and the Saintess had never actually used a radio either. Yet the Ice Age Anomaly still perceived the radiomunication with the prisoners as ''real.'' The Anomaly corrupted the radio transmission without hesitation and even added noise that the Saintess never pretended to make. At this point, I was sure. ¡®Sure enough, this bastard isn''t the type of Anomaly that insists on the physical, real world.¡¯ I had actually felt this way since the moment the Anomaly was lured to New York by the replica of the Statue of Liberty. The more sensory-deficient the Anomaly¡ªthink thosecking sight or smell¡ªthe more it relied on concepts rather than the physical world. It was simr to how in ancient rituals meant to appease malevolent spirits, instead of real money, people burned a single paper talisman that read "one million dors." "...Undertaker, what exactly are you doing right now?" "Can''t you see? I''m editing videos." A real tragedy unfolding in reality. A fictional tragedy happening in media. The Ice Age Anomaly could hardly differentiate between the two. "Videos? What videos...?" "Movies." Click. Click-click-click. Click. I moused over the screen, still editing. My editing skills weren''t on the level of a seasoned expert, but they were good enough for someone who''s experienced hundreds of regressions. The video source material, of course, was all footage we had just filmed inside the Statue of Liberty. ¡¸Forward! For ourrades!¡¹ ¡¸Let¡¯s go! Rescue humanity!¡¹ ¡¸Ooooooh!¡¹ At that moment, the scene of the ten brainwashed individuals leaving the bunker, ignoring theirrades'' protests, was ying. I reassembled the footage filmed from various angles and added sound effects. It certainly wasn¡¯t an example of professional cinematography, but I didn''t care about that at all. ¡¸Forward! For ourrades!¡¹ ¡¸Hehehe, heehee, heeheehee!¡¹ ¡¸Let¡¯s go! Rescue humanity!¡¹ I didn¡¯t even need to try. The Anomaly took over the video, inserting horror elements in between to heighten the atmosphere. The edited video waspletely different from ¡®reality.¡¯ Behind the ten brainwashed people in the video, corpses frozen in ice clung to their bodies. The brainwashed weren¡¯t moving of their own ord. The frozen ghosts were dragging them out of the gates by their wrists and ankles. "......" Do-hwa, who had been watching theptop next to me, looked as if she were about to faint. It wasn¡¯t just the brainwashed. The ghosts clung to all the survivors who hadn¡¯t fully sumbed to the Anomaly. There was a ghost clinging to someone¡¯s shoulder, wrapping its hands around their head, another ghost gnawing at Do-hwa¡¯s leg, and yet another banging its head against the bunker door repeatedly. "...What is all this?" "It¡¯s the real reason we feel ¡®cold.¡¯ These ghosts are making us feel cold by attaching themselves to us." "...The fuck?" "Even if you try to get rid of them now, it won¡¯t work, Commander Noh Do-hwa. The filters are different, so you can¡¯t interfere with them." For the record, I wasn¡¯t filming our surroundings at that moment. All the management officers except for the top brass were asleep, anyway. I seized the chance and used our break time to jump into editing the footage I collected. By the time I finished for the day and yed the video back, the Anomaly had automatically started the post-production process. In it, ¡®Undertaker¡¯ and ¡®Noh Do-hwa¡¯ were suddenly spouting lines they¡¯d never said. ¡¸Undertaker.¡¹ ¡¸Yes.¡¹ ¡¸Now that we¡¯re alone, I have something I¡¯ve been curious about for a while. Do you... like me?¡¹ Beside me, I heard an outraged, "What the fuck?" It wasn¡¯t the Noh Do-hwa in the video, but the real one, her voice fresh like squeezed fruit juice. The fruit in question was probably durian. "I¡¯ve never said anything like that in my fucking life." "Neither have I." It was a fascinating phenomenon to me. "This is probably the Anomaly¡¯s perception of reality. From our perspective, it¡¯s a distortion." "Of all the ways to distort things, why the fuck would it choose this?" "Because it¡¯s an Anomaly. Hmm. If I had to guess, maybe it interpreted us holding hands under the nket as being in a romantic rtionship or something." "Shit. I knew I should¡¯ve let go back then, even if it meant freezing to death..." "Why are you overreacting? It¡¯s just a harmless distortion by the Anomaly, anyway." The video continued, with the credits reading, ¡°Script: Ice Age, Editing: Ice Age, Sound: Ice Age.¡± ¡¸Of course I like you. I can''t start my day without seeing your rotten eyes, Commander Noh Do-hwa.¡¹ ¡¸Hmph. You know that''s not what I was asking...¡¹ ¡¸......¡¹ ¡¸You know the Guild Leader of Samcheon World likes you, right? You¡¯re not oblivious. So why do you keep testing them?¡¹ ¡¸Hmm. I didn¡¯t expect this kind of conversation...¡¹ "......" "......" A strange quiet descended over us, the two of us settled side by side, as we stared at theptop screen. I¡¯ll say it again¡ªthose weren¡¯t the real Undertaker and Noh Do-hwa in the video. In the real featured moment, we were just having meaningless small talk. But¡ª ¡¸Unexpected as this may seem, Undertaker, I do find your stories about other cycles somewhat interesting...¡¹ ¡¸I thought you weren¡¯t interested?¡¹ ¡¸For the realism of it, no. But the story where you said I strangled you to death¡ªthat one was quite amusing. The important thing, too, is they¡¯re pretty decent getting to understand who you are...¡¹ Between Do-hwa and me, our conversations weren¡¯t just vocal. There was always an unspoken Telepathy of sorts, like a silent signal in the background. Just as the letter ¡®G¡¯ in the word sign is never pronounced, our unvoiced signal, this Morse code of our minds, always hummed beneath the surface of our exchanges. Human rtionships are defined not just by what can be said, but also by what is left unsaid. By that measure, Do-hwa and I were particrly strong in our shared silence, likerades attending a concert, quietly appreciating the faint bass together. So¡ª ¡¸But there is one thing about your stories I just can¡¯t get out of my head...¡¹ ¡¸Only one? That¡¯s a bit disappointing.¡¹ ¡¸You never talk about romance...¡¹ In reality, we never had this conversation. Not ever. Although neither of us had formally agreed to it, we had an unspoken rule to never cross a certain ¡®line.¡¯ Do-hwa strangling me to death? That wasn¡¯t a vition of our unspoken rules. It was just another joke we couldugh off as part of our bizarre shared history. If anything¨D ¡¸Huh. I didn¡¯t think Commander Noh Do-hwa would be interested in romantic stories. I¡¯ll keep it in mind for next time.¡¹ ¡¸Stop pretending. You know full well that¡¯s not what I mean. Alright, I¡¯ll spell it out so even you can understand. Undertaker, I¡¯m interested in the fact that you never bring up romance.¡¹ ¡¸That¡¯s because I¡¯m impotent.¡¹ ¡¸Oh. That¡¯s one theory. But since you seem fine to me, I¡¯ll dismiss it.¡¹ That kind of conversation was way beyond the boundary of our usual interactions. In the video, Do-hwa turned her head to look up at the Undertaker. They were so close that you could almost feel their breath. ¡¸Shall I share my theory then...?¡¹ ¡¸......¡¹ ¡¸In another cycle, did you ever¨D¡¹ Click. Without prompting, both of us reached for the mouse at the same time. Since I was faster, I clicked on my left hand, and on top of the back of my left hand rested Do-hwa¡¯s palm. The silence lingered. Oddly enough, the real Do-hwa was now looking up at me from an angle, just like in the paused frame on the screen. Maybe that¡¯s why it felt like time in reality had also stopped. Even though she was an Awakener, Do-hwa¡¯s hair remained a dark ck, like mine. Her eyes, too, were the same untouched ck. Just like mine. ck gazing into ck. With both of us locking eyes, it was as though, without words, a silent Morse code was being transmitted. ¡®Shall we pretend none of this happened?¡¯ ¡®......¡¯ ¡®Or?¡¯ The silence stretched on. Then, Do-hwa parted her lips. ¡°I...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°No matter how many cycles pass, the way you look at Dang Seo-rin as Dang Seo-rin, or Yu Ji-won as Yu Ji-won, or Lee Ha-yul as Lee Ha-yul... Sometimes, I fucking hate it, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a bad thing. It¡¯s what makes you the same person in every cycle, whether it¡¯s your 10th or your 100th run.¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯m aware.¡± ¡°The reason it¡¯s fucking annoying is that while you remember everything, I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°So, if I can¡¯t know everything, I¡¯d rather hear nothing at all. For you, with your Complete Memory, any story I tell you is just a rerun of something you¡¯ve already seen. That pisses me off. How do others feel about this? Do they always find it fun? Do they always think it¡¯s fresh?¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°You¡¯re such a fucking bastard.¡± She grabbed my tie. It wasn¡¯t a yank so much as a wing motion. At that moment¨D ¡¸Do you want to hear my voice?¡¹ Click. Though neither of us pressed the mouse, the video resumed ying on its own. ¡¸Then save this godforsaken world first. Or, heh. Lose your regression ability. Learn to forget.¡¹ Even so, I couldn¡¯t look away from her. Do-hwa, standing right in front of me, demanded my attention. And besides, I didn¡¯t need to look. ¡¸Shall I bepletely honest with you?¡¹ Whether it was the Noh Do-hwa in the video or the one in front of me, they were both in the exact same position. ¡¸I don¡¯t expect you to save the world. In fact, I expect the opposite. ¡¸Undertaker. I¡¯m the only one who is hoping for your ¡®failure.¡¯ Because that seems far more likely. I¡¯m not the type to bet my life on false hope...¡¹ Do-hwa smiled faintly. ¡¸So the day you stand on the same level as me will be the day you give up regression. When you live your final life. That¡¯ll be hell for you. In that final hell, I¡¯ll dly join you, all the way to the bottom... ¡¸I¡¯m really looking forward to that day. What about you? Don¡¯t you look forward to the moment when your only funeral will also be your only true life, your own personal hell? You can thank me then. ¡¸It¡¯s a pity, you know, that today isn¡¯t the day you¡¯ll fall into that hell.¡¹ Her hand covered my eyes. Because of that, I couldn¡¯t tell if the final words came from her lips or from theptop¡¯s speakers. ¡°Don¡¯t forget...¡± The cold touch of her hand, as ck as midnight. Like a snowstorm swallowing the deste tundra at night, casting a shadow over everything. A faint echo, like thest note of a fading melody, whispered as it disappeared. ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for you at your true Bad Ending.¡± The next day. We began the full-fledged process of hunting down the Anomaly. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 231 ? I''m an Infinite Regressor, But I''ve Got Stories to Tell Chapter 231 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Winter Soldier V Let''s briefly shift focus to the warm haven for Awakeners: SG Net. As befitting its title as the ''onlymunity in the country,'' SG Net always radiated a cozy warmth. - Anonymous: This guy''s probably a loser who can''t even get past 200 meters in the tunnel lol ©¸Anonymous: What''s a wannabe Awakener who''s only ever had Americanos talking about? haha©¸Anonymous: Lol, I''ll be having a cafette at 600 meters tomorrow. Feel free to join if you''ve got the guts^^ Maybe a little too warm at times. The main issue was that title it had, the ''onlymunity in the country.'' Back when civilization still stood, the inte addicts had each of them staked out their own turf online, yet now, they were all forced into this one big, messy quarantine zone. Community identity? That didn''t exist. The members ranged from kids under 10 to elderly over 90, from Inuanki Tunnel newbies at 100 meters deep to veterans at 1,000 meters. Everyone was jumbled together. There was an old saying from the martial arts world: Beware of the elderly, children, and women. In SG Net, you had to be wary of everyone. The only exception was the administrator, Seo Gyu. It was truly an age of chaos, with countless factions vying for power. In this hellish reality, one misstep could send you plummeting into ruin. (There was still a huge mystery surrounding OldManGoryeo, who had lost both legs but somehow managed to survive with his neck intact. Some even seriously debated whether OldManGoryeo was the strongest entity in Korea.) Today, as always, everyone was fully engrossed inmunity activities. Not a single person raised a reasonable question about why anyone would be so dedicated to it. And then, the post appeared. - Anonymous: [Live Broadcast] Surviving the Ice Age - Day 1: Current Status of the National Road Management Corps'' Northern Expedition.avi It was a video I, the Undertaker, had posted anonymously. The reason I didn''t upload it under my usual nickname, ZERO_SUGAR, was simple: I was meticulous about managing my posts. If you checked my profile, you''d find an assortment of schrly posts such as [Shocking! Was L¨¹ Bu Actually Considered a Man of Loyalty in His Time?!], [Military Genius or Just Connections? A Cold-Hearted Analysis of Cao Ren''s True Abilities in the Three Kingdoms], and [Why Yuan Shao Failed to Manage His Faction]. Even in the apocalypse, my posts were packed with high-quality educational content. Views? Likes? I didn''t care about those at all. Did Nietzsche whine about poor sales after writing Thus Spoke Zarathustra? A sage''s words being ignored was just the fate of humanity. And I epted humanity, foolishness and all. - Anonymous: ?? What is this? - Anonymous: I see Noh Do-hwa and Yu Ji-won? - SergeantNerd: Wow, so Team Leader Yu disappeared from Busan because she got sent on a long-term expedition to the Void? sigh - Anonymous: Even Undertaker is there lol - [Baekwha] SixthGrader: Hoeee >_<);; On the other hand, the video I uploaded quickly gained views. My editing skills, honed over countless regressions,bined with the Anomaly''s distortion, created a terrifyingly immersive atmosphere. Despite not having a professional crew, it had the gritty vibe of found footage, much like a documentary horror film, in the vein of The ir Witch Project. - Anonymous: Where the hell is this? Why''s the assault team packed with all-stars? Has the Commander of the Road Corps ever gone on an expedition to the Void herself? ©¸[Samcheon] IceIsMagic: Without Dang Seo-rin or that Baekwha Girls'' High cosyer, it''s not really all-stars. - Anonymous: Still, it''s the first time I''ve seen the Commander on a live stream. ©¸Anonymous: ?? That person is the Commander? Where''s my shadowy tall, mustached figure hiding? ©¸dolLHOuse: As I''ve said many times, the Commander of the National Road Management Corps is a petite woman who always wears ck gloves and a monocle. ©¸Anonymous: Why is that actually true??? ©¸[Baekwha] JournalismClub2: Wow, no offense, but she lookspletely different from how I imagined. The Noh Do-hwa making a personal appearance shocked many of the members. Surprisingly, what she looked like wasn''t well-known. In fact, over on the Busan side of things, most people wouldn''t recognize her at all. I mean, who could identify a workaholic who spent 365 days a year holed up in a dark office at NRMC headquarters, buried in paperwork? Unlike Seo-rin, who asionally uploaded photos (usually to show off), or Yo-hwa, who would post pictures of people tied up in front of a campfire while shing a peace sign, Do-hwa didn''t even log into SG Net. Those who had only ever heard rumors about her but never seen her in person were glued to the video, half-convinced she might not even be real. - Anonymous: Noh Do-hwa aside, this Ice Age Anomaly? This looks pretty dangerous. - ZhaoYong-soo: Judging by the Statue of Liberty that appeared in the video, the location is definitely Sinuiju. We''ve received reports that strange statues have been popping up there recently. - Anonymous: If it''s -120 deg with wide-area freezing and brainwashing abilities, isn''t that basically a mobile Great Void? I heard the Commander is basically powerless. Is she even supposed to be there? ©¸OldManGoryeo: If it''s Sinuiju, the Saintess of the North should be nearby, so as long as they don''t die, they''ll be fine lol ©¸Anonymous: I''m saying they might die... - Anonymous: Damn, they just took out all the prisoners in one shot. Nice. For three days, I uploaded one part of my "docu-series." It amounted to 120 minutes of dense content. Both in length and substance, it had the potential to dominate all discussions on SG Net. - Anonymous: Holy shit; half the Corps members just got wiped out in one blow! ©¸[NationalRoad] ForbiddenBookDepartment17: I heard Cha Jae-hee was one of the top aces among her peers... - Anonymous: Fuck, seeing them get dragged away by ghosts is bringing back trauma. One of our guild members got dragged away like that and came back with just his wrist lol ©¸Anonymous: Same here... - [Baekwha] JournalismClub2: Baekwha Girls, please don''t reply to posts using your nickname. Log in as guests only; this is Directive 004. And don''t respond to this either. - LiteraryGirl: KYAAAAAA Noh Do-hwa and Undertaker are trending as a couple!!! ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸LiteraryGirl: Everyone, you have to see this ck-haired chemistry! I''ve lived just to witness this moment! I suddenly feel like my life hasn''t been wasted, and it''s all so moving. ?????? ©¸Anonymous: ? ©¸OldManGoryeo: ? ©¸Anonymous: ?? ©¸Anonymous: What''s wrong with this chick all of a sudden? ©¸dolLHOuse: ©¤©¤ ©¸[Samcheon] WitchJudge: Hm... - Anonymous: Who''s that blue-haired Awakener over there? Is that a Road Corps member? ©¸[NationalRoad] ForbiddenBookDepartment17: No? Probably a local coborator. As the video progressed, the number of survivors rapidly dwindled. On Day 1, there were still ten members of the Corps, but as time went on, they grew increasingly mentally unstable. Grabbed by the apparent ghosts, some began self-harming while others destroyed the bunker''s supplies. - Anonymous: Now I get why the National Road Corps elites suddenly went to Sinuiju. If a monster like that showed up, of course they''d have to go. ©¸[Samcheon] IceIsMagic: Agreed. ©¸Anonymous: I thought it was an all-star team, but now I''m getting worried... On SG Net, posts like [Analyzing the Objective Danger of the Ice Age Anomaly] and [Why the Ice Age Assault Team Is Fucked] began flooding in. By the time the video showed the evening of Day 2, only four survivors remained: Noh Do-hwa, Yu Ji-won, the Saintess, and me. Just as unease began spreading among the viewers, worrying that the mission would fail, what were we, the flesh-and-blood members in question, actually doing inside the Statue of Liberty? "It''s ready. Let''s call Dokseo and Ah-ryeon and get out of here." "Yes." We had already leisurely prepared for our escape. As I said before, the Ice Age Anomaly was an otaku type. It didn''t distinguish between ''imagination'' and ''reality'' and instead treated them as one and the same. That''s why the video I uploaded to SG Net¡ªthe Surviving the Ice Age series¡ªwasn''t just some made-up tall tale to the Anomaly. To it, the video was a legitimate truth. The Ice Age Anomaly truly believed it had killed the members of the National Road Management Corps. In reality, after turning off the camera, I had personally carried all the wounded out of New York, one by one. But from the Anomaly''s perspective, there were now two truths: A. The National Road Management Corps members weren''t dead. They had simply been transported beyond the snowstorm''s boundary. B. The National Road Management Corps members were all wiped out, and the remaining survivors would soon be brainwashed and die. With these two truths coexisting, I edited the live broadcast and uploaded it to SG Net. Almost immediately, the perception that ''Truth B is real'' skyrocketed. No one intervened from the Corps'' side to im the video was fake, and the distortion added by the Anomaly made it feel all too real. Though there were some skeptics, they were a minority. The people who believed in Truth A could be counted on one hand, while those who believed in Truth B numbered well over a thousand. "With this, we can control the Anomaly''s perception," I exined to the remaining team, keeping the camera off. "SG Net works well here, in the Void where the Ice Age Anomaly resides. In other words, the Anomaly sees SG Net as part of reality." "...So whichever truth the SG Net users believe, that bes the truth for the Anomaly, right?" "Exactly, Saintess." I smiled. "The Ice Age Anomaly must be thrilled right now. Well, I''m speaking metaphorically, since it doesn''t actually feel emotions. But it thinks it has cornered Noh Do-hwa, the real power behind the penins, as well as the Constetions and even me, the Undertaker." "Right." "So from the Anomaly''s perspective, the best possible ending is ying out. If we all die, it will believe it has reached a perfect ending and will remain forever trapped in the video instead of in reality." "...I see." That was why I edited and uploaded the video. This strategy would let us defeat an Anomaly capable of summoning -120¡ãC weather in the middle of summer, all in just three days. The n was to lull the Anomaly into a sweet dream and seal it away, making it live in that dream forever. "All that''s left is to upload the final ending video. Before that, though, I''ll need two of you to take on the roles of attempting an escape and going missing, while thest one will stay with me until the end, freezing to death." "Ah. In that case, I¡ª" "I''ll do it, " Do-hwa cut off the Saintess. "I''ll stay until the end." "You, Ms. Do-hwa?" the Saintess asked, slightly surprised. "Yes. If the Saintess of Yongsan is thest one standing, SG Net viewers will think it''s strange. No one knows her true identity... Besides, if I leave someone behind to die while I escape, it''ll hurt my image as the Commander of the National Road Management Corps." "Ah. That makes sense." "I''m not particrly interested in managing my image, but it would be good for people to see that a high-ranking officer of the Corps stays in the most dangerous ce until the very end." Do-hwa nced at me through her monocle. "Isn''t that right, Undertaker?" "Hmm." Even though we''d had an intense conversation the other night, neither of us brought up that topic again. As if nothing had happened. It made sense. After all, both Do-hwa and I already knew everything we had discussed. We had merely voiced what we already understood that night. I nodded. "That makes sense. When the camera starts rolling, Team Leader Yu Ji-won and the Saintess will head out." "Understood." "You should pretend to go searching for the missing people, as if you''ve been hypnotized by the Anomaly." That left only Do-hwa and me alone in the Statue of Liberty''s bunker. Making it through the raging snowstorm would be no easy feat, but for the Saintess and Ji-won, it was definitely possible. I filmed their silhouettes as they opened the door and walked out, editing it to be as dramatic as possible. Now, all that was left was to shoot the final ending. "......" "......" Silence fell. With just the two of us remaining in the bunker, which had once been filled with over 20 people, the frozen air felt even colder. "So, how are you nning to film the final scene...?" "Oh, I''m thinking of destroying the Statue of Liberty. The two of us will get trapped under the debris and slowly freeze to death." "Hmm. And how do you n to film the freezing part?" "I''ll control my Aura. I''ll keep the warmth circting through my internal organs while letting frost form on the surface of our skin." "Well, as always, I''ll leave it to you to handle the Anomaly..." "Yes. But I''ll need you to handle the filming with your smartphone. My hands will be full." After distributing our roles, I gently knocked over the miniature Statue of Liberty model that had been ced on the world map. It tumbled to join the pile of rubble, along with the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben from Paris and London. Rumble, rumble, rumble... As expected, the Ice Age Anomaly, which had perceived the Statue of Liberty as the "real deal," began to rage. The snowstorm intensified, and the entire statue, where the bunker was located, started to shake violently like in an earthquake. In less than ten seconds, the outer walls of the statue began to tear apart, crashing to the ground with a deafening thud-thud-thud. "Don''t leave the range of my Aura under any circumstances." I pulled Do-hwa close with one arm, shielding her from the falling debris with my Aura. Thud! Crash! Thud! The shattered pieces of the statue piled up around us, deflected by the Aura. Rumble, rumble... The Statue of Liberty hadpletely copsed. We were now trapped between the wreckage, like survivors of a copsed building. The narrow, dark crevice was filled with dust. Do-hwa''s face was mere inches from mine. Thankfully, she didn''t seem hurt. "Is it recording?" "Seems to be. Well enough, at least. Not that I have any experience with this kind of thing..." "As long as it''s recording. The editing will take care of itselfter. Let me know if you feel any pain or cold." "Sure." Do-hwa looked down at her hand and observed the thinyer of frost that had formed on her skin. "This is interesting. It really does look like frost, but I don''t feel that cold. Seeing something like this makes me want to learn Aura myself..." "This is a trick only I can pull off. You don''t have the talent for it, so you''re better off giving up." "Hah." She half-closed her eyes. "If you stop controlling your Aura even for a moment, the cold will prate my skin and kill me, won''t it?" "......" Do-hwa ced her hand over my heart, and the outer edges of my chest felt cold. From that moment on, she said nothing more. She simply rested her hand over my heart, feeling the rhythm of my heartbeat, and gazed into my eyes. Ssssshhhh... Snowkes gently fell through the cracks in the rubble. When I looked into her eyes, reflected in mine, my skin appeared frozen. Both Do-hwa and I were encased in ayer of fabricated cold, using it like armor to keep the warmth inside. "Not bad." After filming for what felt like hours, Do-hwa finally murmured her thoughts. "It''s not bad at all." There''s a short epilogue. Later that day, I edited the scene of Noh Do-hwa and the Undertaker freezing to death and uploaded it to SG Net. By then, the debris had long been cleared away, and we were sitting on the rubble as if it were a bench. While sipping warm coffee beside me, Do-hwamented, "Well, it looks like people will think the two of us are dead for a while. Is that okay?" "I''ve already told Seo-rin and Yo-hwa, so if there''s any chaos, it''ll just be a storm in a teacup. In two days, the Constetions will announce that it was all staged, and that will be the end of it." I checked my phone and saw SG Net was in absolute chaos, with members going wild over the final video. The apocalypse seemed to have arrived, with people screaming about the fall of Korea, the copse of Busan, and the doom of the National Road Management Corps. A perfect sess at baiting them! "I''ll let the view count rise for a while, then lock all the videos as private." "Ohhh..." "Once that''s done, the Anomaly will be trapped inside those private videos, living out its existence only within them, like an urban legend." "The inte as a prison for Anomalies... How fascinating." Of course, I had deleted all copies of the videos outside of the SG Net posts. How would I describe it? The Ice Age Anomaly had been, quite literally, ''immortalized on the inte.'' No one would ever see it again, but still. "All we need to do now is wait for more people to click the videos." "Hm." Do-hwa took another sip of coffee. "So, for the next two days, we''ll officially be dead..." "Yes. Consider it a long-overdue vacation. Any ce you''d like to visit?" "Well..." She stretched her arms overhead, the winter thawing somewhere in the stretch of her fingertips. Then, she nced at my hand. "For now, since the hunt is over, could you turn off your phone? It''s distracting." I shrugged and powered off my phone. From this point on, everything was off the record. I''ll just add that the two busiest people on the Korean penins, Do-hwa and I, enjoyed a rare, blissful vacation. "Hello, Undertaker. Long time no see." "Oh, hey, Seo-rin. Thanks for taking care of Busan while the Ice Age Anomaly stirred things up." "Don''t mention it. But, about that video..." "The Surviving the Ice Age series?" "Yeah. In thest part, you and the Commander shared a kiss just before you died. Care to exin what that was about? I''m just curious, that''s all." "Oh." ...Let''s just say that exining to her that the kiss was not part of reality, but merely a ''fictional scene'' distorted by the Anomaly''s editing, turned out to be quite the challenge. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 232 Chapter 232 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The One Who Ignites I As I mentioned briefly before, SG Net was the only intemunity in the country. It wasn¡¯t the only one in the world, though. Was it because there were other Ubiquitous ability users like Seo Gyu on other continents? Not really. It was just that the world Seo Gyu had built wasn¡¯t exactly vast. ¡°Hmm. No matter what I try, the inte speed doesn¡¯t improve in remote areas, hyung...¡± ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± Although Ubiquitous originally meant ¡®existing everywhere at once,¡¯ the truth was that Seo Gyu wasn¡¯t that omnipotent. His coverage extended across the length of the Korean penins.That¡¯s it. Wi-Fi worked perfectly within that range. You could get decent inte speeds in Shandong Penins in China and Kyushu in Japan, but beyond that, it slowed down drastically. Sure, you could technically connect from the other side of the. Theoretically. But if you wanted to load a single post from the Uyuni Salt ts, you¡¯d be staring at a loading screen for over a year. Though I had lost my memory, I, the Undertaker, was still a Korean at heart. And no one took inte speed more seriously than Koreans. Over the course of countless regressions, I had repeatedly modified Seo Gyu¡¯s abilities, trying to install a 5Gwork across the globe. The result? ¡°I¡¯m sorry, hyung. The Saintess can extend her Aura range just by training, but no matter what I do, I¡¯m stuck in ce...¡± All of it failed. Aplete disaster. From the start, Seo Gyu¡¯s growth was on a different track than the Saintess¡¯s. ¡°No need to apologize. Instead of expanding inte range, you¡¯ve been improving themunity¡¯s system capabilities.¡± ¡°Hmm. Still, it¡¯s frustrating...¡± Yeah. To use an analogy, as Seo Gyu leveled up, he unlocked features like Improved UI Design, Image Uploads, Video Uploads, and Opening Chat Rooms. He wasn¡¯t about quantity. He was all about quality. I patted Seo Gyu on the shoulder. ¡°Wisdom is finding bnce between ambition and contentment. You and the Saintess may be on different paths, but both of you have incredible abilities. Don¡¯t beat yourself up.¡± ¡°Well... Alright.¡± ¡°Now, stop digging ande do some leg training with me.¡± ¡°Ah, sounds good! I¡¯ll drag Ah-ryeon along with us!¡± That day, Ah-ryeon lost 10 mL of tears in exchange for 1 gram of muscle. This guild leader doesn¡¯t tolerate those modern Awakeners who rely solely on Aura without developing their physical abilities. To sum up, it was difficult to spread the grace of Ubiquitous to all of humanity, and as such, no foreign members ever appeared whenever SG Net. It was the reason I never mentioned them. We had made a stopgap page to fill the gap. [¡ùEmergency Global Rescue Request¡ù] [Notice: You are seeing this page because you are essing SG Net from outside the Korean penins.] Report your situation. When creating a post, avoid attaching images or videos. The smaller the file size, the better. Do not turn off your phone until the loading screen disappears. If your device loses power during loading, your post will not be uploaded. If you need to request help, be as specific as possible about the location and time. We may not be able to respond to rescue requests from the Pacific Ind Nations, Small Ind Developing States, Oceania, North America, South America, or the British Isles. We apologize in advance. Even if it seems toote, please describe your situation. It could serve as data for future generations. This was the global emergency rescue page. In short, a 119 service for the.[1] It was tranted into everynguage I knew¡ªEnglish, French, Spanish, Chinese, and more. Awakeners casually enjoying SG Net from within Korea couldn¡¯t ess this page. In fact, only a handful of people even knew it existed. Maybe that¡¯s why the posts were so sparse. - Mongolia: If a person is smaller than a car wheel, they all die. (Posted 1 year ago) - Italy: The gue is severe. (Posted 2 years ago) - France: Shadowse whenever the church bells ring. They kill people. Their clothes look strange. (Posted 4 years ago) - Ennd: There¡¯s been unending smoke in the sky for 5 years. The entire sky is ck. Is it clear anywhere else? Antis has risen in the Antic Ocean. (Posted 4 years ago) - Nepal: Too much snow is falling. (Posted 5 years ago) - Pu: Kyaaa! I survived! My house is the only one left! (Posted 5 years ago) New posts on the emergency page were extremely rare. Sometimes, it went silent for over a year. There wasn¡¯t much anyone could do. To ess SG Net, you had to be an Awakener. On top of that, you had to somehow hear rumors about this mysterious website. You had to endure endless loading screens and also own a smartphone, but smartphones and other electronic devices were considered dangerous, tainted by Anomalies¡ªpractically ticking time bombs. ¡®No wonder people can¡¯t ess it.¡¯ Survivor groups around the world tended to react violently whenever they saw electronics, resembling modern-day Luddite movements. Even if they learned about SG Net, they were likely to dismiss it with, ¡°Isn¡¯t that just a cursed site?¡± It left a bitter taste in my mouth. ¡®What a shame. If only the prophets didn¡¯t blow up as soon as I regressed. They could have been natural allies for matters like this...¡¯ Well, what could I do? Even in a ruined game, where my teammates bailed at the start, I had to carry the team. Then one day, during my 669th cycle, something happened. - Russia: I know a method for long-distancemunication. (Posted 1 year ago) (NEW!) A post unlike anything I¡¯d ever seen before appeared on the emergency page. A regressor needs patience. Even if it feels like the world isn¡¯t changing and everything is repeating, a subtle wind of change will eventually blow. That is, as long as you don¡¯t give up. - Russia: I know a method for long-distancemunication. (Posted 1 year ago) (NEW!) This post was one such wind of change. It came after I had sessfully sealed away the Ice Age Anomalypletely. It led to the following conclusion: ¡®In previous cycles, this person must have died during the Ice Age. But this time, they survived and were able to ess SG Net.¡¯ This was why a regressor had to meddle everywhere, spreading their influence like a professional busybody. If I hadn¡¯t meddled to save SG Man during the tutorial, SG Net wouldn¡¯t exist. If I hadn¡¯t interfered to track down the troll viin on the forums, the Saintess of the North wouldn¡¯t exist either. That¡¯s the life of a regressor. Even if 99% of your meddling leads to nothing, the remaining 1% will someday bring an abundant harvest. And the new post on the emergency page was more than enough to ignite my professional meddling spirit. Russia: I know a method for long-distancemunication. (Posted 1 year ago) A Chinese friend told me about this site. However, since it may be run by monsters, I will not disclose the specifics of the ¡®long-distancemunication method.¡¯ If you truly offer ¡®emergency rescue,¡¯e to Naryan-Mar (§¯§Ñ§â§î§ñ§ß-§®§Ñ?§â). When you see the city from afar, look for the most noticeable pir. If you cannote, please remember that there were people living here. From, The Frozen City As soon as I read it, my regressor instincts whispered. ¡®This is probably real.¡¯ There was no unnecessary self-exnation, no exaggeration¡ªjust the message they needed to convey. The tone was that of a typical survivor who had given up on hope but wasn¡¯t toozy to cast out a line just in case. I immediately contacted the administrator. ¡°Seo Gyu, can you trace where this post was uploaded from? Is it really from Russia?¡± ¡°Oh, yes. Just a moment... Oh, it¡¯s legit! Posted from way up north. Took 11 months to upload just one post, hyung.¡± Eleven months. In that time, the author could have easily perished, swallowed up by the Void. But I didn¡¯t hesitate to pack my gear. Even if the author had died in those 11 months, I could always act faster in the next cycle. ¡°I¡¯m heading to Russia for a bit.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re the only person in the world who talks about casually ¡®heading to Russia¡¯ like that, hyung...¡± And so, I set off for the north. The name Naryan-Mar meant ¡®Red City.¡¯ As you might guess from the name, it was a nned city built during the Soviet era, initially as a coal mining settlement. Later, oil was discovered in the region, and it became quite the wealthy region. Incidentally, Naryan-Mar was the 44th stop on the torch ry for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Even back then, I suspected that the curse of the number four had already taken root. ¡°Oh.¡± After traversing the Void and approaching the far north, I immediately understood what the Russian survivor¡¯s post meant. - When you see the city from afar, look for the most noticeable pir. In the middle of the vast, snow-covered in, where the horizon and sky blended into an endless white expanse, a dark column of smoke rose. It was the ¡°most noticeable pir¡± mentioned in the post. There were no signs of human life anywhere, but that column of smoke demanded attention, the only mark of civilization in the wastnd. ¡®I can see it from so far away. Could the author still be alive after 11 months?¡¯ I picked up the pace. Surprisingly, it would take another 1,000 kilometers to reach the source of the smoke in the ¡®Red City.¡¯ For the smoke to be visible from this far away, it was likely that the column itself was part of the author¡¯s ability. As I approached the smoke, I saw a middle-aged man feeding reindeer nearby. ¡°Hmm?¡± Sensing my presence, the man turned around. Surprise flickered across his snow-covered eyebrows. The man quickly put down his feed bucket and pulled out a crossbow. He didn¡¯t point it at me, though¡ªjust held it. ¡°Who¡¯s there? Are you human?¡± ¡°I¡¯m human,¡± I answered in Russian. The man didn¡¯t lower his guard. The reindeer continued to shuffle through the snow around us. ¡°Only things that aren¡¯t human im they are. There¡¯s no one alive in the direction you came from.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t jump to conclusions. The Earth is round, after all. Unless, of course, you believe in the t Earth theory.¡± ¡°t Earth... What?¡± ¡°You posted on SG Net, didn¡¯t you?¡± The man¡¯s hand, holding the crossbow, froze. ¡°SG Net? You mean the inte site?¡± ¡°Yes. Your post began uploading a year ago and finished four days ago. I saw it and came here from the Korean penins.¡± ¡°Dear God... That site was real?¡± the man muttered in disbelief. ¡°Wait a minute... You¡¯re saying the post went up four days ago, and you came all the way from Korea in just four days?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°No way. Do you expect me to believe that? It makes more sense to think that SG Net is cursed by monsters and that you¡¯re one of their agents.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I turned my back to him, showing him that I had no hostile intentions. Then, I drew my sword Do-hwa and shed at the endless whitendscape. Rumble, rumble, rumble...! The snowy ground split open. The long-buried earth beneath, hidden from the sun for years, was suddenly exposed to the light. A clean, precise cut. A ten-centimeter-wide canyon stretched all the way to the horizon. I sheathed Do-hwa, resting upon it like a staff, and turned back to face him. The man had dropped his crossbow. Even the reindeer had scattered in panic. ¡°As you can see, I¡¯m the strongest human alive.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t slept for four days to get here, so I¡¯m a bit tired. May Ie in?¡± The man¡¯s lips twitched, then he looked down at the crossbow half-buried in the snow. He picked it up and slung it over his back. ¡°...It seems I have an honored guest. Follow me.¡± Once again, Aura solved everything. If a problem still exists, maybe you¡¯re just not using enough Aura. Footnotes: [1] The number to dial for emergency services in South Korea, like 911 in the US. Join our discord at Chapter 233 Chapter 233 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The One Who Ignites II "Call me N." "I''m Undertaker. A pleasure to meet you." "Undertaker (§¤§â§à§Ò§à§Ó§ë§Ú§Ü)? Unless you''re a wrestler, that can¡¯t be your real name. What a grim nickname." The man who introduced himself as N lived in a shabby tent whose walls were reinforced with reindeer hide to improve instion. It was far too crude a structure to survive the apocalypse. Probably not his main base, I decided, but rather a temporary shelter.¡®He doesn¡¯t trust me enough to reveal his real home.¡¯ The man was cautious. I had sensed it ever since reading his post. "Your name is just as unique as mine. N means ''person'' in the Nnguage, doesn¡¯t it?" "...You know about the Ns?" He looked surprised, almost as shocked as when I had split the cier with my Aura. Though most Koreans wouldn¡¯t recognize the Ns, they¡¯d feel a sense of familiarity if you mentioned their traditional clothing. The parka we wear in winteres from the Ns culture. The man in front of me was also wearing a parka made of reindeer fur. "Of course. They¡¯ve lived around here for a long time, a minority group known for their nomadic lifestyle, right?" "That¡¯s right. I am a N." At that moment, he became much more weing. He brought in firewood and lit the stove, then personally brewed tea and served it to me. He even brought out biscuits to go with the tea, along with pieces of Hershey''s chocte. It was probably the finest hospitality one could offer a stranger in the middle of an apocalypse. I couldn¡¯t be outdone, so I pulled four bottles of distilled liquor from my backpack and offered them as gifts. The man immediately began treating me like a long-lost rtive. "I have another name." His face flushed red from the alcohol as he spoke. "But after the city was destroyed and I was the only one left alive, I changed my name to N. I didn¡¯t think anyone would ever call me by that name again... Who would have thought that website was real?" "Was there a particr reason you chose the name N?" "Like I said, I was thest one left." A sigh escaped him, causing his beard to quiver. "I used to be just a regr person. Or at least, that¡¯s how I saw myself. My parents were Ns, but I never thought of myself as having any special connection to their bloodline." But when the Void descended and wiped out the people of his city, one of his surviving rtives said this: ¡°Hey. We might be thest remaining Ns on Earth. If we die, who will know that we ever existed?¡± The man took another swig of liquor. "That was my uncle. He was always a bit entric. He worked at a bank, but he also ran a small reindeer farm and always wore traditional N clothing... Oh, did you see the reindeer outside? They originally belonged to him." "I see." "He was always serious about preserving native culture, but after the world went to hell, he became even more obsessed with tradition. It was kind of ironic¡ªhe didn¡¯t even speak N as well as I did." Amusingly, both the man in front of me and his uncle were ordinary city dwellers. Their attempt to live like nomads after all this time was inevitably bumbling. "And your uncle...?" "He died two years ago. One of the reindeer he raised turned into a monster. It grew to nearly 10 meters in size, with massive antlers that were absolutely majestic." The man¡¯s mouth opened slightly, his gaze distant as he recalled the memory. "Those antlers were magnificent. My uncle was skewered by one of them." "What happened to the reindeer?" "I don¡¯t know. I couldn¡¯t defeat it. I just hid until it wandered off into the snow. Then I rushed over to my uncle, but he was already dead." "My condolences." "Don¡¯t be. He was killed by the animal he loved so much¡ªit¡¯s almost a good death. He was a troublesome guy." N set the bottle down. "That¡¯s why I¡¯m clumsily trying to preserve the N traditions. Raising reindeer. Living in a tent..." "I think it¡¯s admirable." "Not really. I¡¯m not proud of my bloodline. But like my uncle said, if I die, the Ns will be extinct. No one will be left to speak ournguage..." "......" "It¡¯s just something I¡¯m doing." We spent the rest of the night warming the air near the stove with our breath, drinking liquor, nibbling on biscuits, and munching on cheap chocte. The next day, after only a few hours of sleep, N guided me to another location. "Sorry to have kept you in the cold all night. Follow me." I instinctively sensed that N was finally inviting me to his real home, not just a temporary shelter. The city once known as the Red City had turnedpletely white. Even the tops of four- and five-story concrete buildings were mostly buried in snow. "Looks like the White Army won the second civil war." "Hm? Ha! Undertaker, your Russian is good, and you know my people well." N seemed pleased with my dark humor. The ce he led me to was the regional hospital. It used to be a five-story building, but now only the top floor remained above the snow. N climbed adder to the roof of the hospital. A few corpses were frozen there, their foreheads pierced by crossbow bolts, but he paid them no mind. "Take a look at this," he said, pointing to a structure in the corner of the roof. It looked like a chimney, or maybe a small lighthouse, constantly emitting smoke. It was the source of the ¡°smoke pir¡± I had spotted 1,000 kilometers away. "This is the ¡®long-distancemunication method¡¯ I discovered." "It¡¯s... a beacon?" "That¡¯s right." A beacon. An ancient long-distancemunication method used by humans for centuries. Though criticized during the Imjin War for its limitations, it had always been useful. Most modern people probably recognized it from the movie The Lord of the Rings. The earliest recorded use of beacons in literature dates back to 458 BCE, in the prologue of Agamemnon by Aeschylus. In the y, the guards spot a beacon and raise an rm. The scene likely served as inspiration for the LOTR beacon sequence. In any case¨D "Do you mean to say that this primitive method can work for long-distancemunication? Wouldn¡¯t the Void distort perception across thend?" "Void? You mean that hell where monsters roam?" "Exactly." "Don¡¯t worry. The beacon I¡¯ve lit crosses over that hell without issue. You saw the smoke pir from a great distance away, didn¡¯t you?" I had. "It may look like fire, but it¡¯s something else." N tossed firewood into the furnace beneath the brick structure. "Take a look inside. You can see the firewood is still intact, can¡¯t you?" "Oh." "You need to add firewood to make the me rise, but it doesn¡¯t actually burn the wood. Just the act of adding wood is enough to light the fire." "Even if it snows or rains?" "It still burns just fine." My eyes widened. "Wait. I saw the smoke pir from 1,000 kilometers away. Does that mean that no matter the weather, this beacon can be seen from 1,000 kilometers away?" "Hm. That¡¯s right. Though I¡¯m not sure of the exact distance, it¡¯s visible from very far away." This was incredible! I excitedly circled the beacon. It looked like an ordinary brick structure, nothing remarkable at first nce. "This is fascinating¡ªtruly fascinating, N. What are the specific conditions for your ability to work?" "First, you need to build a proper beacon. I experimented with torches, but you can¡¯t carry the fire while moving. It has to be a stationary structure that anyone would recognize as a beacon. You could stack firewood, but the effect would be weaker." "Is that all?" N shook his head. "No, here¡¯s the crucial part. Just lighting an ordinary fire won¡¯t work. The beacon me muste from a fire I¡¯ve lit. Only then does this strange, magical fire appear." I quickly pieced it together. "So if I were to take a me from this beacon and use it to light a fire elsewhere..." "Another pir of smoke would rise, just like this one. As long as you build the beacon properly." "Ah." I immediately put it to the test. I left Naryan-Mar, built a makeshift beacon, and transferred a me from N¡¯s beacon using a torch. Whoosh... After adding firewood to the furnace and lighting the me, it didn¡¯t take long for the fire to bloom like a flower. Soon, smoke was rising through the chimney. "Oh!" The smoke shot straight up, rising into the sky as if there were no wind at all, stretching endlessly upward like a space elevator. ¡®...This might be a small revolution for my regressor project.¡¯ A simple ability. ¡®Light a beacon, and it will be visible from afar.¡¯ It didn¡¯t directly aid in survival or enhancebat capabilities. But this ability carried potential. I felt the same excitement I had when I first discovered Seo Gyu¡¯s Ubiquitous. ¡®If I could build beacons like this every 1,000 kilometers across the world...¡¯ We wouldn¡¯t be able to exchange detailed information like we did on themunity. ¡®But at the very least, we¡¯d know instantly which regions are in danger.¡¯ I stayed with N for a few more days, testing the beacons. Just as he had promised, the beacons remained lit even in blizzards. It was an extraordinary discovery. "N, I think Sacred Fire would be a fitting name for this ability." "Sacred Fire? Like the Olympic me?" "Exactly." Legend has it that in ancient Greece, the fire from the temple at Delphi was carried to other city-states. To the Greeks, Delphi was the center of the world. The fire, which originated from the heart of the earth, was passed from city to city and eventually found its way into the hearths of ordinary citizens¡¯ homes. Thus, the fire in each household was linked to every other household, and as the world breathed, so too did the fire in the heart of the earth. The world was made of fire. Sacred Fire was, in essence, the reality of Ubiquitous¡ª¡®existing everywhere at once¡¯. "That name seems a bit grandiose..." "Not at all. N, I will carry your me and spread it across the world." N scratched his cheek. He hadn¡¯t expected me to be this enthusiastic. "Well, if you say so. Make good use of it." There¡¯s a short epilogue. When it was time for us to part, I asked N, "Would you consider moving to Busan?" "Busan?" "Yes. I wouldn¡¯t call it a great ce to live, but it functions well enough as a city." N pondered for a moment. "No, I think I¡¯ll stay. I don¡¯t want to leave my homnd at this point." "I understand." "I don¡¯t have much attachment to life. Posting that message on SG Net was more for fun. Meeting someone like you at the end feels like a blessing." N stroked the neck of a nearby reindeer. "I can¡¯t abandon the reindeer my uncle left behind... If you¡¯re really grateful, why don¡¯t you teach me some of that Aura or whatever?" "Sure. I¡¯ll give you a crash course." In the end, N chose to live out his days in the White City. During my 669th cycle, I was extremely busy traveling the world, testing the effectiveness of the Sacred Fire. Perhaps someday I¡¯ll get a chance to talk about the global beacon-building project. After several years, when all the work was done, I returned to Naryan-Mar with a bottle of the finest liquor. "N?" But N was nowhere to be found. He wasn¡¯t in the tent where he had served me biscuits and chocte, nor was he at his hideout on the hospital roof. Only the ever-burning beacon remained. I eventually found N¡¯s body far away in the snow. Thest N had died, impaled by the antlers of a reindeer that had grown to 15 meters in size. It was a mutual kill. "......" The reindeer had grown so enormous that neither N¡¯s body nor the reindeer¡¯s corpse was fully submerged in the snow. As I buried the man who had clung to the traditions of his ancestors, even though they were no longer relevant, I had a thought: It¡¯s said that people begin to reflect on their past as death approaches. If so, might something simr happen when an entire race faces extinction? Perhaps the fires and smoke rising gently across the world were N¡¯s final legacy. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 234 Chapter 234 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Performer I Talking about remnants of the past suddenly reminded me of another person. But before we dive into that, let me ask you this first: Have you ever heard of cover song culture? A cover song is when someone takes a song originally created by someone else and sings it in their own voice. There¡¯s no need to look far for an example. If you''ve ever gone to a karaoke bar and sung a song, that¡¯s a cover. And in Busan, there''s a very famous cover artist. ¡°Hey? Ah-ryeon, where are you going?¡±¡°Oh, uh, I have a concert today. I saved up some rations to buy the ticket...¡± ¡°A concert? Dang Seo-rin?¡± ¡°Eek! N-no, not that strange Latin chant concert... I¡¯m going to Cecelia''s concert!¡± The Masked Song Queen. Stage name: ¥»¥·¥ê¥¢. Given that her name is written in Japanese (¥»¥·¥ê¥¢) and not English (Cecilia), you could probably guess that she was Japanese. However, that wasn''tmon knowledge. In fact, fewer than ten people in all of Korea knew that. Even I only found outter from the Saintess. This secrecy led to endless spection on SG Net. - Anonymous: Does anyone know who Cecelia really is? ©¸[Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: I tried digging into it with some friends, but there¡¯s barely any information. - Anonymous: I don''t get why people worship that girl as if she¡¯s a music queen. I¡¯ve heard that she even has private encore performances for VIPs after concerts. I bet there''s a backstage deal... ©¸OldManGoryeo: Idiot. I¡¯ve bought VIP tickets more than ten times, and that never happened. ©¸Anonymous: If there¡¯s no proof, then it¡¯s fake, right? - CookingQueen: I think her voice is just so beautiful! It''s amazing that someone can soothe the hearts of people in such despair with their singing. - Anonymous: So, is she selling the blue pills now? Her appearance, origin, age, gender, hobbies¡ªnothing was known about the Masked Singer. She only performed at certain times, in certain ces. How was that possible? Was it because the apocalypse had erased everyone¡¯s personal data? That certainly yed a role. But the real reason was something else entirely. ¡°These days, SG Net is all about Cecelia. Doesn¡¯t it get boring, hearing about the same unremarkable singer all the time?¡± ¡°Unremarkable? Guild Leader, how could you say that? Cecelia isn¡¯t unremarkable¡ªshe embodies every single quality there is!¡± Cecelia was a cover singer like no other. She had the ability to perfectly imitate any song. On stage, when she sang Michael Jackson, she became Heavenly Demon Michael. When she belted out Celine Dion, she turned into Celine Empress. Her ability was one of Endless Transformation. Cecelia could freely change her voice and tone to deliver a 100% urate rendition of any song. In short, it was impossible to identify who she really was from her performances. Her voice changed with every song. ¡°Guild Leader, would you like toe with me? You¡¯ve saved up so many rations, you could easily buy a ticket from a reseller.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not much fun at concerts.¡± ¡°Huh? Why not? I always go alone to these shows, anyway...¡± ¡°......¡± I ended up going with her. As expected from one of the most famous singers in Korea after Dang Seo-rin, Cecelia¡¯s concert tickets were expensive. Even the concert venue was unusual. While most of the businesses in Busan reused old buildings from the past, Cecelia¡¯s performance hall had beenpletely rebuilt by architects. A beautifully constructed wooden building. In the center was the stage, with around 50 tables arranged in front of it. You couldn¡¯t just buy a ticket either. You had to order a meal to attend. ¡°If Dang Seo-rin is an idol for the masses, this seems like a more exclusive club...¡± ¡°Wow, Guild Leader! This is my first time in the VIP section!¡± Ah-ryeon was bouncing with excitement. VIP guests sat in partitioned balcony seats on the second floor. You could enjoy an expensive meal in private while watching the concert below. It was so luxurious, you¡¯d forget the apocalypse ever happened. ¡°This is your first time? You make a lot of money. Don¡¯t tell me you blew it all gambling again?¡± ¡°Hehehe. Well, whenever I win, I get a lot of attention from the people at the table. It¡¯s just too satisfying to stop.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you get stabbed in an alley because of thatst time? You never learn.¡± ¡°But getting stabbed doesn¡¯t matter since I heal with Self-Regeneration, right?¡± ¡°......¡± Just then, the lights went out. Staff members moved around with torches, lighting various spots, bringing the atmosphere to life. Next to me, Ah-ryeon, who had been cutting into her steak, cheered so excitedly that she sprayed spit everywhere. Truly an embarrassment, wherever she went. - Aaah, aaaaah... In the middle of the now-dark stage, Cecelia stood holding a microphone. It wasn¡¯t a functioning microphone. Electronics were always at risk of being corrupted by Anomalies. But for a singer, a microphone was like armor for the soul. No performer would step onto the battlefield of a stage without their armor, even if it didn¡¯t work. - Aaah, aaaaaah ? With her face fully covered by a mask and not an inch of skin showing, Cecelia looked like a character from a Vian carnival as she began to sing. ¡°Kyaaaah!¡± ¡°Ceceliaaa!¡± The audience, who had paid a fortune for their tickets, erupted in cheers. Tonight''s concert was dedicated to a legendary British rock band. Every song was from their repertoire. With most electronics too dangerous to use, Cecelia had be almost the only way to hear beloved music at the original quality. For the fans, it was a dreame true. - Aaah, aaaaaah ? And for Cecelia, it was like winning the lottery. Think about it. Every day, she could pick a different famous musician from history, perform their songs, and make tons of money. By posting her six-month concert schedule in advance on SG Net, fans of each artist would flock to pay whatever it took for a seat. There was no need to stress about creating new songs or worry that fans might get bored with her setlists. Cecelia¡¯s concerts were always sold out. A win-win for both the fans and the singer. ¡°Hmm.¡± But I... I couldn¡¯t get excited about Cecelia¡¯s performance. Specifically, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to feel any attachment to it. Even if I set aside my bias as a die-hard Dang Seo-rin fan and the fact that I was Witch Unit No. 0, it was just... ¡®In the end, isn¡¯t she just a highly advanced recorder?¡¯ Granted, it was impressive that this ¡°recorder¡± performed live on stage. But still, I preferred performances where the singer¡¯s true voice came through. Even among cover artists, I liked those who sang with their own voices. But you should take my harsh judgment with a grain of salt, considering my unique circumstances. ¡®Whenever I want, I can y any song in my head perfectly using my Complete Memory.¡¯ To me, Cecelia¡¯s live performance had almost no value. In fact, the true spectacle that night was Ah-ryeon next to me, squealing with excitement, ¡°Cecelia is the best! I¡¯m so d I¡¯m alive!¡± while bawling her eyes out. After the main concert and the encore, there was a private fan-signing event for VIPs. Wearing her Vian mask, Cecelia, Busan¡¯s Song Queen, greeted us. ¡°Hello.¡± Even her voice was tuned to match the lead vocalist of the British rock band. ¡°Thank you so much foring to the concert. Would you like me to sign something for you both?¡± ¡°No, just sign for her.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Cecelia smoothly autographed Ah-ryeon¡¯s poster. ¡°Here you go...¡± As she handed over the signed poster and looked up, our eyes met. For some reason, Cecelia froze for a moment. Specifically, she hesitated for about half a second. It wasn¡¯t a long time, and her expression was hidden by the mask, but I could sense a brief moment of shock. It wasn¡¯t too surprising. My face was well-known. The Hero of the Ten Legs Battle appearing as a VIP would certainly be a surprise. ¡°...Are you sure you don¡¯t want my autograph?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m just here to apany a fan of yours. But your performance was excellent.¡± ¡°...Thank you.¡± Her reaction was odd, but honestly, I didn¡¯t think much of it. I was too busy calming Ah-ryeon, who was over the moon about getting the autograph. I barely managed to pull Ah-ryeon away from the fan-signing event. ¡°Did you enjoy it that much?¡± ¡°Yes! Thanks to you, Guild Leader, I got a personal autograph! You¡¯re the best, Guild Leader! I¡¯ll never forget this concert!¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m d you enjoyed it.¡± ¡°Hehe... Oh, wait! I need to go back to the VIP section and take some photos!¡± ¡°Huh? Why?¡± ¡°I need to post proof on SG Net!¡± ¡°......¡± Later that night, SG Net was graced with a photo of Ah-ryeon flipping the camera off, alongside a post titled: [Can¡¯t afford Cecelia concert? Where¡¯s your VIP status now, you broke bastards? LOL]. Truly, she was an embarrassment wherever she went. I nced at the framed autograph Ah-ryeon proudly disyed like a treasure. - To Sim Ah-ryeon. I hope it was a wonderful night. Oddly, there was no ¡°Cecelia¡± signature anywhere on the poster. I couldn¡¯t get it out of my mind, how strange that was. So, what kind of music do I, Undertaker, prefer? Setting Dang Seo-rin aside, since she¡¯s a unique case, I usually prefer listening to underground musicians while eating lunch or dinner at a local restaurant. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Calypso. I¡¯ll be singing a song I wrote andposed myself. It¡¯s called... Ruins.¡± Take that musician, Calypso, for example. She¡¯d perform tirelessly at every local restaurant, whether it was a soup ce or a BBQ joint, armed with only an acoustic guitar. ¡°Is that a half-moon breaking, or is it your teary eyes...?¡± To be kind, she was an unimpressive talent. In these times, musicians like her didn¡¯t get paid by restaurant owners. They just borrowed the space and survived on whatever tips the customers threw their way. Comparing her to Song Queen Cecelia wouldn¡¯t even be fair. Cecelia performed at one of the most luxurious venues in Busan, while Calypso sang at half-ruined restaurants with signs that simply read ¡°Open for Business.¡± Naturally, the customers¡¯ generosity was on a different level too. Most underwhelming musicians left the restaurant empty-handed after filling the ce with sound. ¡°Thanks for the performance.¡± ¡°Oh...! Thank you, Undertaker!¡± And I liked musicians like her. Calypso¡¯s Korean was clumsy. I suspected she wasn¡¯t from here¡ªprobably from Japan. It couldn¡¯t have been easy adapting to life in a foreignnd, yet she showed up at nine out of ten restaurants I visited. That meant she was hustling hard, begging restaurant owners for performance opportunities. In other words? ¡®A young person really fighting for survival...!¡¯ It¡¯s not like I had some creepy hobby of hoarding little-known performers all for myself. Unlike Noh Do-hwa, who had a disdain for the younger generation, I always felt the urge to help young people who were struggling and fighting to make it. I didn¡¯t tip too much or too little¡ªjust enough for them to survive. I wanted to extend their fight, giving them a bit more time in this broken world so they could hold on and maybe find their way. ¡°Thank you for the performance.¡± ¡°Oh, yes! Thank you!¡± Calypso bowed her head. But something felt different this time. Normally, we would have parted ways there, but Calypso lifted her head with a determined expression. ¡°Um, excuse me...!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± I gave a warm smile. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary.¡± ¡°Huh...? What?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me. You don¡¯t even need to remember my name. I¡¯m just an anonymous fan supporting you from afar.¡± ¡°Uh...¡± ¡°Keep going.¡± I gave her a thumbs-up and walked out of the restaurant. I could sense her confusion, but I cut off any hesitation in my mind. ¡®Perfect.¡¯ My footsteps echoed with pride. Wasn¡¯t this the ideal model of how a fan should behave? Feeling so pleased with myself, I turned into a deserted alley and started talking to the Saintess. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the right way to do things, Saintess?¡± [Hmm...] ¡°Seeing someone work so hard, regardless of their background, always fills my heart.¡± [Yes... I suppose.] ¡°And that fancy restaurant fromst time... Ugh, don¡¯t get me started. Limiting your audience to just 50 rich people in a world that could copse any day? Ridiculous.¡± [......] ¡°Someday, I¡¯ll build a system where everyone can enjoy entertainment.¡± But the Saintess seemed strangely unresponsive. As someone who spent her days trapped in an aquarium, I was probably the only person she could talk to like this. We should have been bantering more, but today something was off. [Um, Mr. Undertaker?] ¡°Yes?¡± [I¡¯ve been debating whether to tell you, but I¡¯ve decided that keeping this a secret from you would be wrong.] ¡°What is it?¡± The Saintess took a deep breath and said, [The musician you¡¯ve been supporting, Calypso...] ¡°Yes?¡± [She¡¯s actually the same person as Cecelia.] Blink. ¡°What?¡± [In other words, the unknown artist you¡¯ve been praising and the famous Song Queen of Busan are the exact same person.] ¡°......¡± [Sorry. I knew how much you enjoyed ying the anonymous patron, so I thought it was better to keep quiet. But in hindsight, I should have told you from the start.] ¡°...So, Calypso, or rather Cecelia... she recognized me?¡± [Of course. She probably wanted to reveal her identity to you just now. She was probably trying to muster the courage.] ¡°......¡± [......] ¡°......¡± [Did I make a mistake by telling you? Should I have kept quiet?] This is all Ah-ryeon¡¯s fault! Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 235 Chapter 235 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Performer II What do you think is the most overwhelming advantage of being a regressor? It''s the ability to "correct" embarrassing mistakes in the next cycle. History is written by the victor. And in the apocalypse, survival is victory. Do you get it? These days, when you see a regressor, just think of it as "they survived"¡ªthe Dormammu effect.[1] Now, the mistakes from the previous cycle officially no longer existed.The embarrassing incident with my favorite street musician? Wiped from history. In this new cycle, I¡ªalong with Ah-ryeon¡ªbecame a passionate fan of the Masked Song Queen, Cecelia. ¡°Guild Leader...! I-I can¡¯t believe I get to fangirl with you! This feels like a dream!¡± Every time there was a concert, regardless of the set, I spent a fortune buying VIP seats. During the show, I¡¯d order the most expensive dishes and buy all the merchandise. ¡°I¡¯m so happy! Meeting you at Busan Station was the luckiest moment of my life!¡± ¡°Because now you get to boast non-stop on SG Net?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Ah-ryeon¡¯s admiration for me skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. On the flip side, Seo-rin''s gaze toward me grew colder. Her nickname was the Divine Songstress, while Cecelia was known as the Song Queen. It was a dichotomy ripe for stirring up conflict. Although my true loyalty as a fan would forever lie with the Divine Songstress, in this cycle, she no longer sang for me when we were alone. It pained me, but there was no helping it. The purpose of all this was singr: to correct the embarrassing history rted to Cecelia = Calypso. ¡°Oh, you''re here again! Undertaker and Ah-ryeon! You¡¯d like an autograph, right?¡± ¡°Yes, please.¡± ¡°The pleasure is all mine! I¡¯m always so grateful!¡± In this cycle, Cecelia now clearly saw me as one of her devoted fans. Not just that. As in previous cycles, I continued to attend Calypso¡¯s performances during lunch, day after day. Whether she wore a mask or not, whether she sang covers or originals, I was always there as Cecelia = Calypso¡¯s fan. Naturally, it started to weigh on her mind. ¡°W-wait, Undertaker!¡± One day, after tipping her generously at a live performance in a restaurant, I left. That¡¯s when Calypso came running after me. ¡°Yes? What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°Huff... I-I... Huff...¡± ¡°Take your time.¡± Calypso was panting heavily from chasing after me, her acoustic guitar still in hand. When she finally caught her breath, she looked up at me with a resolute expression, as if she had made a difficult decision. ¡°I-I¡¯ve been wanting to tell you something for a while, but I never had the chance. The truth is... I¡¯m...¡± ¡°I already know.¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°You¡¯re Cecelia, aren¡¯t you?¡± Calypso froze, her entire body trembling like she had been struck by lightning. Her blue eyes, wide with disbelief, stared at me. That was Strike One. Calm andposed, I smiled warmly yet meaningfully. Over my countless lives as a regressor, I had mastered the art of facial expressions to the point where I could act with method precision for 24 hours straight. I had honed the ability to convey anything with just my expressions. I had Dormammu''d my way through cycles for this very moment, and failure was not an option. ¡°H-how...? Even the restaurant owner doesn¡¯t know my identity. I haven¡¯t told anyone...¡± ¡°A true fan recognizes their singer, no matter what stage they¡¯re on.¡± ¡°......!¡± Strike Two. Artists are often deeply attached to their fans, harboring fantasies of that one fan who truly understands their art. This dream, deeply ingrained in the psyche of many artists, gave rise to terms like ÖªÒô (??)¡ªmeaning a soulmate who truly understands one¡¯s music¡ªdating back to ancient times. It was a sentiment rooted in their very souls.[2] For someone like Cecelia = Calypso, who had spent her entire life proving herself by mimicking other musicians¡¯ songs, my words were nothing short of intoxicating. And the fact that the one person who recognized her was none other than the Hero of the Ten Legs Battle? That was a surefire dopamine overdose. ¡°B-but...¡± In halting, awkward Korean, she said, ¡°I... As Calypso, I cannot sing at all. My voice, my tone¡ªthey arepletely different. How could you possibly recognize me...?¡± ¡°Even if the voice you use on the surface is different, the soul behind it remains unchanged. Your songs as Calypso have always brought mefort.¡± ¡°But... if you knew, why didn¡¯t you ever say anything?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just a fan, nothing more. Even if others fail to recognize Calypso, I was content simply to listen just as you were content to keep singing at the restaurants. That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°......!¡± Strike Three. Out. On that day, both the unknown musician Calypso and the Masked Song Queen Cecelia found salvation. We parted after promising to meet againter. On my way back, the Saintess contacted me through Constetion Telepathy. [I¡¯m impressed, Mr. Undertaker. Cecelia''s singing is so indistinguishable from the original artists that I thought recognizing her true identity would be impossible. But your keen regressor¡¯s insight truly shines. I¡¯m in awe.] ¡°You tter me.¡± [I¡¯ve spent my days observing people with my irvoyance, and along the way, I¡¯ve grownzy when ites to reading their hearts. I¡¯ll take this as inspiration to re-examine my habits.] ¡°You¡¯ll do wonderfully, Saintess. I¡¯m sure of it.¡± At no point did I feel any guilt about what I had done. Maniptive, you might say? Well, that was fitting for a Guild Leader like Ah-ryeon¡¯s, don¡¯t you think? Like guild member, like Guild Leader? Utter nonsense. Beauty only exists when it¡¯s perceived, and ugliness, too, ceases to exist if it goes unnoticed. My so-called ¡°ugliness¡± was no exception. If no one knew, how could they use me of it? ¡°Mission sess! History altered!¡± However... At the time, I had no idea. That one day, a certain brat named Oh Dok-seo would publish a detailed record of my life for all to see... ¡°At first, I lived in Fukuoka. But everyone around me died, and I just couldn¡¯t stand it anymore. I couldn¡¯t stay there any longer, so I came to Busan.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Yes. I had some basic knowledge of Korean, and I¡¯d heard rumors here and there that Busan was still rtively safe...¡± Cecelia¡¯s story = Calypso¡¯s story¡ªand I learned that it wasn¡¯t particrly unique given the times. Everyone had lost someone. And as a result, people flocked together, trying to rece the family they had lost. In apocalyptic fiction, you often hear about how disasters cause bonds to break, leaving everyone to fend for themselves. Sure, such cases existed. But in reality, the opposite was moremon. Survivors banded together. When they had no reason to unite, they created new terms like ¿Õ¾‰ (??) meaning ¡°fate with no ties¡± to justify staying together. ¡°If there¡¯s anything unusual about Cecelia = Calypso, it¡¯s that she deliberately chose to be an outsider.¡± In short, she had no clear sense of identity. Any ties she had to the Korean Penins? None. Any connections in Japan? Dead. Her acquaintances in the neighborhood? She left them behind. And to top it all off, her Awakening ability dealt the final blow: The Masked Song Queen. A skill that allowed her to perfectly mimic other singers¡¯ voices. It was the ideal power for someone who wandered without a ce to call home. ¡°That makes sense. So you threw yourself into performing as Calypso in the hope of building real rtionships with those who recognized your true voice.¡± ¡°Uh... yes. It¡¯s a bit embarrassing, but you¡¯re right.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Someday, I want to hone my skills, gather fans, and perform as Calypso in the same venues where Cecelia sings! Only then will my true talent shine!¡± I rested my chin in my hand, contemting how best to respond. It would have been easy to suggest, "You¡¯re already making tons of money, so why not just be satisfied?" But the woman before me wasn¡¯t content with that. Calypso was chasing something deeper, looking for a ce where she could truly belong, somewhere her voice would be recognized. So, what could I, as a fan, offer her in this situation? ¡°Must you only perform live?¡± She flinched. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°You¡¯re ignoring your talent as Cecelia. You think, ¡®I¡¯m just a recording of other people¡¯s voices. That¡¯s not my true self.¡¯ Right?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind, but Cecelia¡¯s fans would be disappointed.¡± ¡°...But aren¡¯t those fans only interested in the original singers¡¯ voices I imitate?¡± ¡°No. There are definitely fans of Cecelia as well.¡± Like Ah-ryeon or OldManGoryeo. Though I was a bit embarrassed to include them as fellow fans, fans were fans, after all. ¡°From my perspective... it seems like you¡¯re worried that Cecelia¡¯s reputation has grown too bigpared to your original talent.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You want to reveal your true self, sing your own songs. But you¡¯re afraid that if you do, your fans will be disappointed.¡± Calypso bit her lip in silence. Her silence wasn¡¯t a rejection, but rather an agreement. ¡°This dilemmaes from the fact that you don¡¯t have your own space. But it¡¯s surprisingly easy to solve.¡± ¡°Are you suggesting I buy a venue and create my own stage? I¡¯ve thought about that, but...¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not it.¡± I sipped my coffee before cing it down. ¡°The ability you possess has incredible value. If you shift your perspective just a bit, you can see how even the songs you cover could be part of who you are.¡± ¡°Wait... how?¡± She looked at me with wide eyes. I smiled. ¡°Have you ever considered bing a radio DJ?¡± Music radio programs. If I had to pick the most famous one in Korea, it would undoubtedly be Bae Chul-soo¡¯s Music Camp. A DJ¡¯s ability to curate songs and lead the show could make or break programs like that. For example, in ssical music shows, the DJ¡¯s expertise in selecting not only which symphony to y but also which orchestra¡¯s recording to usebined with theirmentary¡ªdefined their standing as a DJ. With the rise of inte streaming, radio¡¯s golden age had passed into twilight. But in the post-apocalyptic world, the opposite was true. Radio, Inte, and the Reverse World had reversed roles. ¡°These days, it¡¯s hard to keep broadcast equipment running. Even if you find working gear, Anomalies tend to corrupt it whenever they get the chance.¡± Whether it was vinyl records or albums, they often contained strange Anomalies like "Satan¡¯s Song" or "Music That Puts Holes in Your Brain." ¡°But Calypso, you¡¯re different. You don¡¯t need any equipment¡ªyou can recreate countless albums using only your voice.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± ¡°You might not be able topletely block Anomalies, but Calypso¡¯s music program would be the safest channel in the world.¡± ¡°Me, hosting a music show...¡± ¡°Yes. If you limit yourself to being just a live performer, you¡¯ll always feel insecure about being nothing more than a mimic. But if you became a DJ who shares the ¡®original voices¡¯ of these singers...?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°That would be an incredible strength as a DJ. Listeners would tune in to your show with joy.¡± ¡°A DJ¡¯s talent...¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. And you could even slip in your own original songs from time to time. Your channel would be irreceable.¡± Calypso stared nkly into space for a long while. Her coffee had cooled by the time she finally spoke. ¡°...I¡¯ll give it a try. Radio.¡± ¡°Good decision.¡± ¡°Yes. I wouldn¡¯t have to show my face, and reading listeners¡¯ stories sounds like it could be fun.¡± It turned out that she was naturally suited to it. I had already helped set up a radio channel called Ravenw Busan Branch. So gathering the necessary equipment and assisting with tests wasn¡¯t hard. Once Calypso reached a level of hosting that satisfied her, she came to me with this question: ¡°Benefactor.¡± At this point, Calypso had started calling me ¡°Benefactor.¡± I had asked her to avoid using my name, Undertaker, when sharing any stories rted to me on air, since it would make me too much of a public figure. Hence, she chose a more ambiguous nickname. It was an awkward title, but since her Korean wasn¡¯t perfect, I let it slide. ¡°I think it¡¯s time to choose a name for the show. What do you think would be good?¡± ¡°Oh. You still haven¡¯t decided?¡± ¡°Haha, no. I kept putting it off, thinking I¡¯d do it tomorrow...¡± Despite her hardworking nature, this was surprising. ¡°Hmm.¡± I tapped my pencil on a notepad. After some thought, I wrote down a name that suddenly came to mind. ¡°How about this?¡± ¡°Oh! Did you think of something already? Let me see!¡± On the notepad, I had written Nymphocalypse (?????). Calypso tilted her head. ¡°Nymph... Calypse? What does it mean?¡± ¡°It hides both Cecelia and Calypso in the name.¡± After all, Cecelia stationed herself at high-ss restaurants to perform while hiding away her singer persona, like a restaurant version of her namesake, the nymph Calypso.[3] The name hinted at the Apocalypse but lightened the mood bybining it with the yful ¡°nymph.¡± Someone like Calypso, who enjoyed hiding her true identity, leaped with joy upon hearing my exnation. ¡°Ahhh! I love it! No, I daisuki it!¡± And thus, the music radio show Nymphocalypse was born. There¡¯s a short epilogue. Attracting listeners to Nymphocalypse didn¡¯t require any grand promotion. Simply posting, ¡°Hey, there¡¯s a new music show¡ªtune in if you¡¯re bored,¡± on SG Net was enough. - Anonymous: I tuned in to the frequency from that post. What the hell is this? - Anonymous: The sound quality is insane. ©¸[Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: What are you talking about? ©¸Anonymous: I turned on the radio channel advertised on the board earlier. The sound quality is crazy good, and the DJ¡¯s voice is amazing. ©¸[Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: Could it be an Anomaly? ©¸Anonymous: Maybe, but it seems safe for now. Check it out yourself. With Ah-ryeon controlling 12 different anonymous ounts, creating buzz was a piece of cake. If Calypso hadcked skill, the hype would have died out quickly. But like many hardworking young people, she had the tenacity to seize the opportunity. - [Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: ? Whoa, this is actually really good. Within a year, Nymphocalypse, broadcast every evening at 7 PM, became a must-listen for not just Awakeners but regr people as well. - Hello. This is Nymphocalypse bringing you a beautiful evening. Our first song today is... - If you''d like to send in a story, please contact your Constetion. They¡¯ll pass your message along to me... - Hello. This is Nymphocalypse. The weather¡¯s gotten quite chillytely, hasn¡¯t it? Even as the world crumbled, Nymphocalypse never missed its 7 PM broadcast. Whether you were an Awakener fighting Anomalies on the frontlines or a civilian supporting from the rear, people tuned in to the radio to hear the stories and songs of others. ¡°Hm.¡± Naturally, I, the Undertaker, was no exception. One day, I did something unusual. Without telling Calypso, I rented the entire venue where Cecelia had once performed. It cost a fortune, but that didn¡¯t matter. In the middle of the stage, where Cecelia had once stood with a microphone, I ced a wooden chair. And on that chair, I set a radio. A vintage Zenith K731, made of wood. - Hello. This is Nymphocalypse, bringing you a beautiful evening. An empty audience. A silent stage, save for the radio. I sat at a table, two rows away from the stage, and waited. In a ce once filled with eager fans, I quietly listened to the ¡°live performance on stage.¡± - And today¡¯s request is... There was a slight pause. - ...A song by an artist named Calypso. They were once an unknown singer, wandering from restaurant to restaurant in Busan. - Haha. - ...I wonder if anyone remembers them. - Since it¡¯s a request, I¡¯ll sing it. I heard a rustle of someone shifting around. Then, through the radio, the delicate strumming of a ssical guitar filled the air. - Calypso. Ruins. And the song began. I sipped my coffee. And as I listened to the voice of a now-renowned DJ, I nodded to myself. After all, this was still my favorite voice. Footnotes: [1] In the Marvel universe, Dr. Strange locks the inter-dimensional entity Dormammu in an infinite time loop and repeatedly tries to subdue it using various methods until it nearly goes insane and admits defeat, begging to be released from the confines of endless time. [2] The origin of the termes from a famous story during the Spring and Autumn period in China. The musician Yu Boya had a friend, Zhong Ziqi, who could understand and appreciate his music deeply. After Ziqi''s death, Boya broke his instrument, feeling that no one else could truly understand his music, thus symbolizing the depth of their friendship. [3] Calypso is a nymph from Greek mythology. Her name means ¡°to conceal¡± and she is known for being cursed to live alone on an ind without true recognition or love. Join our discord at Chapter 236 Chapter 236 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Transnter I I¡¯ve had many jobs in my lifetime. In thest episode, I found work as a DJ Producer, and over my various cycles, I¡¯ve taken on roles like convenience store owner, Oh Dokseo¡¯s editor, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s personal secretary, academy teacher, and even a caf¨¦ barista. Making ends meet was never easy on a single job, so juggling two, three, or even more jobs at once wasmon¡ªwhether in the past or in this apocalyptic world. Even I, a regressor, could not avoid the flow of this reality. Yet despite all that, my main upation never changed. I was, and always would be, an Undertaker¡ªthe one who buries the dead. Today, let¡¯s talk about my primary job for the first time in a while.[Mr. Undertaker, there¡¯s an Anomaly detected.] One day, the Saintess told me this. True to her nature, she always sensed strange phenomena faster than the likes of a certain ¡°eternally young detective¡± or a ¡°youth with infinite grandfatherly wisdom.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± [Please head to the National Road Management Corps headquarters. Someone there will exin the details.] So I went. In front of the Corps¡¯ headquartersy a wide open square known as Babel Tower za. The nickname for the headquarters was ¡°Babel Tower.¡± As soon as I arrived, I spotted the Anomaly. ¡°...A green vige bus?¡± There, parked right in the middle of the square, was a vige bus that had never been there before. It was mostly intact except for a slight dent on one side. Otherwise, it was the exact image of an ordinary vige bus, green color and all.[1] ¡°Oh! Your Excellency, Sir Undertaker¡ªyou¡¯ve arrived.¡± A crowd of Corps members had already gathered around the bus. Ji-won was the first to spot me and salute. ¡°So, what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not entirely sure. One of the Corps members found it early this morning on their way to work.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t therest night?¡± ¡°No, sir. Thest person to leave headquarters was out at 4 AM, and they said the za was empty. The bus must have appeared sometime between 4 AM and 6 AM.¡± I looked up into the air. [Ji-won is correct.] That meant the bus had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. To move a vehicle of that size, you¡¯d either need fuel or the strength of an Awakener. If it was fuel-powered, someone would have noticed the noise, and if an Awakener had carried it, the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance would have detected it since she shared her sight with the Corps 24/7. The conclusion was simple. ¡°It¡¯s definitely an Anomaly.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. We tried applying external force to it, and it took damage.¡± So, you were the ones who dented the bus. ¡°What about the inside? Have you checked it out?¡± I asked. ¡°No, sir. No one has entered it yet. I only just received the report myself.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s fortunate. It might be a trap that looks intact on the outside.¡± ¡°A wise and prudent judgment, as always. If you give the order, I¡¯ll destroy it immediately.¡± I stroked my chin and pondered for a moment. ¡°No, I¡¯m notfortable with destroying it outright. Bring me a death row inmate.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. I¡¯ll have one brought at once.¡± Soon enough, a groggy prisoner, who had been fast asleep, was dragged in. At first, the prisoner wore a face that screamed, ¡°Just five more minutes, Mom...¡± but as soon as he saw me and Ji-won, his drowsiness disappeared. ¡°Aaaaaah! Please! Spare me! Spare me!¡± ¡°Toss him into the bus.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Please! I beg you! I was wrong! I know I messed up! Please, just spare my life¡ª Aaaaaah!¡± With a clean three-pointer from Ji-won, the inmate, a convicted murderer who had targeted elderly patients, was tossed into the bus. Pssshhhh... As soon as the inmate boarded, the automatic doors closed. The prisoner desperately banged on the ss, pounding with both fists. ¡°Please! Let me out! Please, let me...!¡± But his pleading didn¡¯tst long. Splurt! The convict¡¯s body exploded, sttering blood all over the bus''s ss doors and windows, painting them a deep crimson. It happened so fast that most of the onlookers probably didn¡¯t even register what had urred. ¡°Whoa. What just happened? Did you see that?¡± ¡°No, not at all.¡± The Corps members around the bus were just as shocked. I shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s definitely a trap.¡± ¡°As expected, Your Excellency. Thanks to your insightfulmand, we¡¯ve managed to preserve our manpower efficiently.¡± ¡°Spread the word. Make it clear that no one is to enter anything resembling a vige bus. Post the warning on SG Net too.¡± ¡°Your concern for the public andmitment to post-incident management will surely be praised for generations toe...¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t want to get hit in front of the men, stop it.¡± ¡°Did I go too far?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll keep it simpler next time.¡± I left the Anomaly, now dubbed Vige Bus No. 44, to the Corps and headed off to handle other matters. The next day, I was leisurely browsing SG Net at my hideout caf¨¦ when I came across a heartwarming post. [iJoinedToday]: My father has recovered and is healthy now haha He¡¯s been suffering from heart problems, but today, he¡¯s feeling better than ever. He hasn¡¯t been this healthy since the Saintess of the North treated him a while back. He mentioned how grateful he was for the support and encouragement he received from SG Net members. I just signed up today to share my thanks with everyone! Life¡¯s tough right now, but let¡¯s get through it together. Thanks, everyone! We can do it! I hummed, nodding. What a nice story. By the way, the user iJoinedToday was Lee Ju-ho. He was the young man who had apanied me when I first dealt with OldManGoryeo. It seemed he was doing well, taking good care of his father, which wasforting to know. Just as I was feeling all warm and fuzzy, the Saintess spoke to me through Constetion Telepathy. [Mr. Undertaker, I hate to interrupt your rest.] ¡°Not at all. What¡¯s going on?¡± [Vige Bus No. 44 has disappeared.] ¡°What?¡± I frowned. ¡°It disappeared? I told them to park it near the National Road Management Corps headquarters. Did they mess up?¡± [No, they followed your instructions. The bus was parked where you told them, and Corps members kept a close watch, taking turns to guard it.] [But it vanished.] I furrowed my brow. ¡°Did it disappear while they were changing shifts? Was it a momentarypse?¡± [No, it was even shorter than that.] [The guard looked away for a brief moment when he heard childrenughing in the distance. When he turned back, the bus had vanished.] ¡°......¡± In other words, it had ¡°vanished into thin air.¡± The guard was a diligent Corps member, strict about following procedure. Even though the Anomaly had been neutralized, he had stayed vignt in front of it. He never left his seat in front of the bus, only ncing away when the sound of children¡¯sughter briefly distracted him. When he turned back, the bus was gone. [And no one saw it disappear. No Awakeners or civilians.] ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± I rubbed my chin. ¡°Anything unusual besides its disappearance? Any casualties?¡± [No, no incidents have been reported so far.] ¡°Well... It¡¯s unsettling, but it should be safe to leave it be for now.¡± [Really?] ¡°Yes. The bus is essentially a stationary trap. Traps are most dangerous when they haven¡¯t been sprung. Once people are aware of them, they pose less of a threat. Just make sure to warn everyone to stay away from any vige buses they see.¡± [Got it.] And with that, the case seemed to be closed. However, from then on, Vige Bus No. 44 kept reappearing in various locations across the country. It would show up in ces like the smallmunity in Yeongwol or at a bus stop in Incheon, even making another appearance in Busan. Each time it showed up, we couldn¡¯t always prevent the casualties. If it was Awakeners, we could at least warn them in the name of their Constetions, but when civilians encountered the bus first, they were often helpless. Curious bystanders, hoping to salvage some scrap or supplies from the bus, would open the doors only to be crushed or mutted in seconds. The bus would vanish again within a day, leaving few clues that anyone had died. Why did this Anomaly take the form of a vige bus? I wondered. At first, hearing ¡°bus¡± made me think of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter.[2] But there wasn¡¯t much simrity between that and Vige Bus No. 44. It didn¡¯t fit. Then I considered the word itself. In Korean, the word ¡°bus¡± sounds like ¡°verse,¡± which could connect to terms like universe, multiverse, or metaverse. But once again, there seemed to be no direct rtion to the nature of this particr Anomaly. Could it be that passengers who boarded Vige Bus No. 44 were transported to another world? It was just a guess, and I couldn¡¯t be sure. I set that idea aside for now. Another thought came to mind¡ªan old, tragic incident in which a bus plunged from the Seongsu Bridge when it copsed. Many passengers, including the driver, died in the ident. If this Anomaly was rted to such a tragedy, it should have appeared near a bridge, not randomly in various ces. Again, I dismissed the theory as it seemed unrted. ¡®How frustrating. I really can¡¯t figure it out.¡¯ No matter how much I wracked my brain, I couldn¡¯t pinpoint the origin of the Vige Bus No. 44 Anomaly. If I wanted to solve the mystery by firsthand experience, I could board the bus myself, ready to face whatever came next. But truth be told, it didn¡¯t seem worth risking my life for. At most, the Anomaly only imed one or two victims each time it appeared. It was a minor nuisancepared to the many other high-risk Anomalies I still had to deal with. Thus, for the time being, I decided to set aside my unease and leave the bus be. ¡®Looks like I¡¯ll just have to watch and wait.¡¯ With a sigh, I cleared my head and opened SG Net to rx. Before writing a new educational post about The Three Kingdoms, I browsed the site to check out the day¡¯s top rmended posts. - Anonymous: A miracle happened to my family! My younger sibling was diagnosed with an incurable disease, and we thought there was no hope. But yesterday, they woke up and said they felt fine. - Anonymous: Bro, you won¡¯t believe this. My mom, who went blind five years ago because of some Anomaly, suddenly says she can see again. The first thing she did was ask why I look so thin. She cried right after seeing my face, lol. But hey, I have a question... When my dog died, I secretly reced it with a simr one. If Mom notices, am I screwed? - [iJoinedToday]: Update on my father! We went for a walk and jogged together today. He¡¯s in perfect health!!! ¡°Hm.¡± As I scrolled through the rmended posts, I noticed an unusually high number of heartwarming stories on SG Net. People were sharing tales of miraculous recoveries and restored health. ¡®This didn¡¯t happen in previous cycles. Maybe some new Anomaly is affecting people?¡¯ I was about to move on, but then¡ª ¡°Wait.¡± A strange thought struck me. Quickly, I grabbed a red shirt from my wardrobe and waved it in the air¡ªmy signal for emergency contact with the Saintess. [What is it, Mr. Undertaker?] ¡°Saintess, could you tell me how many people have died due to Vige Bus No. 44?¡± [I don¡¯t have exact numbers, but so far, we¡¯ve confirmed five deaths. If we assume the bus has appeared every three days, we can estimate there are between two to four more victims.] ¡°Thank you.¡± So, roughly seven to eleven victims in total. I then searched SG Net for any posts I might have missed. Sure enough, I found four additional posts describing miraculous recoveries of people who had been suffering from life-threatening conditions. The illnesses ranged from heart problems to lung disease, corneal blindness, and pancreatic failure. All of the posters were Awakeners, but I realized that if civilians had also experienced simr recoveries, they might not have even posted about it. [Why do you ask all of a sudden?] ¡°...Saintess, I think I might have figured out what Vige Bus No. 44 really is.¡± The Anomaly wasn¡¯t just causing deaths. It was harvesting organs. More specifically... ¡°It is extracting organs from its victims and transnting them into others, healing their conditions in the process.¡± Footnotes: [1] Vige buses are short auxiliary routes that feed local subway stations and otherrger lines around major South Korean cities. [2] A form of public transportation that allows underage wizards, who can¡¯t use magic in the human world, to travel discreetly. Join our discord at Chapter 237 Chapter 237 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Transnter II ¡°Hmm. So, you¡¯re saying organs are being transnted automatically? If used well, this seems quite useful...¡± That was Do-hwa¡¯s initial response after hearing the report on Vige Bus No. 44. As expected of the woman who kept Korea¡¯s top psychopath directly under hermand. Even after learning that people¡¯s organs were being extracted, she reacted as if it were no big deal. What a messed-up world we lived in. ¡°You were the one who threw a death row convict onto that bus, weren¡¯t you?¡± She retaliated by hitting me with facts.In a previous cycle, I had secretly tested Do-hwa¡¯s MBTI. She came out as ISTJ. No wonder it was always difficult to deal with people like her. For anyone curious, Yu Ji-won was an ESTJ. If you think those two share an uncanny likeness, you¡¯re not wrong. ¡°But I still don¡¯t get it,¡± Do-hwa said begrudgingly. ¡°What does a bus have to do with organ extraction? How does an Anomaly like this even exist?¡± Ah. On that point, I, as a regressor and expert in Anomalous studies, had a theory. ¡°There was a vehicle used during World War II called a Gaswagen. It was essentially a mobile gas execution chamber. Jews were killed by carbon monoxide emitted from the engine. Once the bus reached its destination, all the passengers were dead.¡± ¡°Fuck... Something like that actually existed?¡± ¡°Yes. Truly inhuman. The Nazi regime was just that brutal.¡± (Side note: Old Man Scho¡¯s ancestors were die-hard supporters of the Socialist Party, so he came from a long line ofmunists.) ¡°The Gaswagen was eventually discontinued because the process of cleaning the vehicles was too demanding.¡± ¡°But what does this have to do with organ extraction? It¡¯s not like they harvested organs from bodies that died from gas poisoning...¡± ¡°Well, let me tell you about the Execution Bus.¡± Execution Bus. It was a real vehicle used in China. Instead of constructing fixed execution chambers, they simply modified a bus for the purpose. Unlike the primitive methods of World War II, executions here were carried out using lethal injections. Since the bodies were in better condition after death, the organs remained intact and suitable for harvesting and distribution. ¡°Fuck... That¡¯s real too?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Do-hwa¡¯s face darkened, as if thinking that maybe humanity deserves to disappear after all. I quickly changed the subject. ¡°Also, buses frequently appear in urban legends. You¡¯ve probably heard stories where people wake up to find themselves in a battle royale on a deserted ind with explosive cors around their necks. Seen any movies like that?¡± ¡°I think I¡¯ve heard of one...¡± ¡°Put all those images together, and you have the Anomaly that is Vige Bus No. 44.¡± To test the theory, we conducted an experiment. ¡°Okay. Prisoner No. 37, take this book and walk toward the bus.¡± ¡°What book is it...?¡± ¡°Just a regr piece of ssic literature. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± The book in question was a German bestseller titled The Communist Manifesto. I had imported it directly in its original German version, not a trantion. ¡°Now, take the book and start shouting when you¡¯re near the bus. Got it?¡± ¡°Sure? Uh... So, if I do this, my death sentence will bemuted to life imprisonment, right?¡± ¡°Of course! You¡¯re talking to the Undertaker here. Best friends with the head of the National Road Management Corps and the mentor of the operations team leader. My word isw! If you want, you can turn back and get your throat cut instead.¡± ¡°No! I¡¯ll do it! I¡¯ll do it!¡± The death row inmate hesitantly approached Vige Bus No. 44 and shouted, ¡°W-workers of the world, unite¡ª!¡± He never finished his sentence. The bus, which had been calmly parked up until that moment, suddenly elerated and shot forward at a clean 300 kilometers per hour. Screeeeech¡ª! BOOOOM! Before the prisoner could react, he was obliterated, his body smashed into a pulp. Among the remains, his right arm, still holding The Communist Manifesto, flew through the air andnded perfectly between Do-hwa and me. It was a hole-in-one. The experiment was a sess. ¡°As I suspected, it¡¯s influenced by the Nazi Gaswagen. After all, the Nazis hatedmunists just as much as they hated Jews.¡± ¡°But... you said China¡¯s execution bus was part of it. Wouldn¡¯t that contradict the hatred formunists?¡± ¡°Well, who knows? Don¡¯t expect Anomalies to have logical consistency. Or maybe it¡¯s so meticulous that it distinguishes between the Soviet Union and China.¡± ¡°Damn it...¡± We moved on to the next experiment. ¡°Uh... Guild Leader.¡± Ah-ryeon nced around nervously, clearly anxious. ¡°If we get caught doing this, we¡¯re in serious trouble...¡± We were inside the Mo Gwang-seo Christ Cathedral, one of the most sacred sites in Pyongyang. Essentially, it was the heart of the Eastern Holy Nation. Much like the Emperor¡¯s Golden Throne in Warhammer 40K, the Eastern Holy Nation also had its own divine seat. Next to us sat Mo Gwang-seo, the living god, Christ reborn, firmly rooted on his throne. ¡°If we get caught messing with Mo Gwang-seo, no matter how much power I hold as the Saintess of the North, I¡¯ll be executed for treason!¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to trust your guild leader?¡± ¡°N-no! I don¡¯t trust you!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll arrange a one-on-one fan meeting with Nymphocalypse¡¯s DJ.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always trusted you, Guild Leader! Even in my previous life, for a million years! Let¡¯s get this done!¡± With that, we kidnapped Mo Gwang-seo. I had already parked Vige Bus No. 44 in an underground garage somewhere in Pyongyang. To prevent any noise from leaking out, we hadpletely sealed off the surrounding area. ¡°Wow, Guild Leader. When did you set up such a hideout?¡± ¡°Long before the founding of the Eastern Holy Nation. Pyongyang has always had underground bunkers like this.¡± ¡°Whoooa! You¡¯ve got to teach me more about this! Recently, I¡¯ve been dealing with a lot of nonbelievers. It¡¯d be so convenient if I could just bury them in a ce like this! Oh, but, Guild Leader...¡± ¡°What now?¡± ¡°I think Mo Gwang-seo has been mumbling something at you for a while now. Doesn¡¯t it sound like he¡¯s trying to speak?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just your imagination. He¡¯s an Anomaly in a catatonic state, and without Hayul, he can¡¯t speak humannguages.¡± ¡°Oh... I see! I was mistaken, ehehe.¡± ¡°Now, on the count of three, open the bus doors. One, two, three... Heave!¡± Together, we tossed Mo Gwang-seo into the Vige Bus No. 44. sh! There came a bright light. Vige Bus No. 44 sttered Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s body across the windows, staining them a vivid red. However, even the blood-soaked ss couldn¡¯t dim the holy glow of Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s divine aura. ¡°Oooh.¡± ¡°Aaah! My eyes! My eyes...!¡± Ah-ryeon iled around, shouting, ¡°sses! sses!¡± like a character in a retro anime. But Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s holiness didn¡¯t end there. sh! sh! sh! Every three seconds, a burst of light emanated from inside the bus. Each time, blood sttered, painting the windows like a canvas of red ink. The Vige Bus No. 44 was repeatedly killing Mo Gwang-seo, and each time, he was resurrecting instantly. It was a fierce battle between two Anomalies. While their struggle might have been entertaining to watch, I had a more pressing matter to address. ¡°Saintess. How¡¯s it looking?¡± [...It seems the healing is happening as expected.] We were monitoring whether patients with incurable diseases were being cured. The Saintess had dispatched several Awakeners to observe the condition of various patients across the region. [The blind patients are recovering the fastest. One, two, three... The process is elerating.] Even though Korea¡¯s healthcare system was generally poor, its high-end capacity was world-ss thanks to Do-hwa, who could make prosthetics, and Ah-ryeon, who absorbed negative energy. The only issue was that Do-hwa took too long to craft each prosthetic due to her workload. Even with a 72-hour day, it still wouldn¡¯t be enough time for her. And Ah-ryeon couldn¡¯t absorb all negativity without risk. She had a limit, beyond which she¡¯d transform into a corrupted being, a Fallen One. While I had avoided causing her to fall in any past cycles, the potential danger still loomed. ¡®If we can confirm that Vige Bus No. 44 and Mo Gwang-seo can heal patients with incurable diseases without any side effects...¡¯ If this could be proven, it would revolutionize Korea''s medical system. In fact, I would even consider abandoning the concept of the Eastern Holy Nation entirely. It would be far more efficient to ce Mo Gwang-seo in the bus rather than on the golden throne. [The patients are continuing to recover... Wait.] [Hold on, Mr. Undertaker... Something''s wrong.] Of course, that ideal future was not meant to be. ¡°What happened?¡± [Some of the patients... specifically six of them, are showing strange symptoms.] [They have halos above their heads.] Halos. Like the rings that typically depict angels. [And not just halos... six of the patients are sprouting wings.] [The six patients are starting to move. Undertaker, stop the Vige Bus No. 44 immediately!] I drew my sword Do-hwa and shed through the air. My Aura swept over the Vige Bus No. 44, turning it into a heap of twisted metal. The Anomaly was instantly destroyed. The ground was left cratered, as if a bunker-busting missile had detonated, and one, final sh of light indicated Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s subsequent resurrection. [The patients... The winged individuals are flying at an incredible speed.] [Direction: Pyongyang.] [They''re flying at 300 kilometers per hour... no, 500... and elerating. They''re already nearing Pyongyang airspace.] [Mr. Undertaker, their destination is likely...] Here. ¡°Ah-ryeon,¡± I called. ¡°Y-yes?¡± ¡°Come here.¡± ¡°O-okay...¡± Ah-ryeon hesitated for a second but quickly ran over to me. I wrapped her in my Aura, forming a protective barrier around us both. Booooom! At that exact moment, the ceiling split open. Dust and debris fell onto the barrier, scattering harmlessly away. I swung Do-hwa to clear the dust cloud, revealing what had caused the damage. Hovering in the sky above us was an Anomaly. ¡°Aaaah, aaaah.¡± An angel. Earlier, the Saintess had described the phenomenon as patients growing wings. While that description wasn¡¯t wrong, it didn¡¯t fully capture what we were seeing now. The Anomaly before us was made entirely of wings. In the center of this massive cluster of wings was a gigantic, writhing eyeball, surrounded by countless smaller eyes, and each of them was framed by wings that pped in continuous beats. The creature resembled the biblical description of an angel. ¡°Aaaah, aaaah.¡± The sound echoed as the wings fluttered, and from between the wings, thousands ofser beams shot towards us. ¡°Hm.¡± A tremendous roar filled the air. Even though the underground bunker had been designed to withstand high-intensity attacks, the force of thesers gouged out an even deeper crater. It was as if a mountain peak had been obliterated by a meteor shower. ¡®If there are six of these things, each with this kind of power, their attacks would be as deadly as a meteor strike.¡¯ After confirming that I had survived the barrage, the "angel" pped its wings again, preparing for another round of attacks. There was no cooldown¡ªit could fire thesers repeatedly without rest. I swung Do-hwa again. A single, m sh of dark energy cut diagonally through the sky, intercepting the iingsers and continuing toward the angel. Inplete silence, the sh sliced through dozens of the angel''s wings, cutting them off cleanly. Unlike the chaos caused by the angel¡¯s attacks, my strike made no sound at all. With that one quiet move, the angel was bisected. ¡°Aaaah, aaaaah.¡± The feathers from its wings floated to the ground, one by one, like a gentle rain of magnolia petals inte spring. When thest of the white feathers fell, the angel dissolved without leaving a trace behind. Only scattered feathers remained, drifting through the silent air. During the entire battle, Ah-ryeon hadn¡¯t said a word. She stood there, staring up at me with wide eyes. I smiled gently and patted her on the head. Only then did she rx, her face breaking into a relieved grin. ¡°Sorry about that,¡± I consoled. ¡°Things got a little out of hand.¡± ¡°I-it''s okay! We can just clean it all up!¡± ¡°Seems like Pyongyang is cursed...¡± ¡°Are you sure you don''t want to use Vige Bus No. 44 again?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure. Never using that thing again.¡± ¡°Ehehe...¡± Even after that, five more angels attacked in session. While defeating them was simple enough, the aftermath was messy. Every citizen in Pyongyang had witnessed the bizarre creatures with wings descending from the sky. But thankfully, Ah-ryeon was able to calm the citizens down. Her presence was regarded as divine by the people of the Eastern Holy Nation, and they treated her like their savior. After I returned Mo Gwang-seo to the Golden Throne, I made contact with themand tower in Yongsan. ¡°Saintess. Do the six patients who turned into angels have anything inmon?¡± [Yes. As you probably suspected, all six had suffered fatal injuries from the Void and were on the brink of death.] ¡°I see.¡± I sighed, then said, ¡°It seems that once too many organs are reced by Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s body, the patient turns into an Anomaly.¡± [That¡¯s my theory as well. While one or two transnted organs appear to be harmless, a certain threshold results in aplete transformation into a Mo Gwang-seo clone, or rather, an angel.] The bus was a vehicle, after all, and its purpose had been to transport something or someone from one ce to another. In the case of Vige Bus No. 44, it had been transporting organs¡ªthe passengers were the internal organs themselves. In other words, the true name of this Anomaly was the Organ Transfer Bus. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 238 Chapter 238 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 238 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Transnter III As I mentioned before, I, the Undertaker, never dreamed in the conventional sense. In other words, if I ever did dream, it meant that at least one Anomaly had intervened. The dream I had the day after barely stopping the Angel Descending incident in Pyongyang was no different. ¡°Hello, Guild Leader.¡± ¡°......¡±¡°Oh my, looking at me like that will hurt my feelings, you know?¡± There she was, the pink-haired Lord Voldemort, smiling brightly right in front of me. I barely managed to suppress a scream. ¡°...Go Yuri. Please, next time, can you at least change your appearance when you show up? I''m starting to develop a phobia of pink hair.¡± ¡°Haha, sorry about that. That''s beyond my control... The form you¡¯re most fond of is this. Perhaps you should try changing first.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lie. I¡¯ve never met anyone with your face, and I¡¯ve never had any particr fetish for pink hair.¡± ¡°True. It really is strange, isn¡¯t it? Maybe we were connected in a past life?¡± ¡°Ha, as if. If this life is already such a mess, I can¡¯t imagine how bad thest one was,¡± I scoffed, then looked around. Dreams usuallycked meaning, but this space felt strangely significant. I was sitting in an old vige bus, whose air smelled faintly of rubber. Across from me was Go Yuri, sitting primly in her seat. We were about a meter apart, staring at each other. ¡°So,¡± I began, ¡°what¡¯s this about? You rarely pop up in my dreams out of the blue like this.¡± ¡°Oh my, you say ¡®pop up¡¯ like I''m some kind of vermin. That choice of words really cuts deep, you know...¡± Go Yuri put her hand to her cheek and sighed softly. ¡°When Miss Ah-ryeon calls you ¡®Guild Leader,¡¯ you treat her so gently. But I was the first guild member to call you that, remember?¡± ¡°We¡¯re long past that. Get to the point.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t ¡®pop up¡¯ on my own, Guild Leader. You called me here.¡± I swallowed hard. ¡°...Bus No. 44. Was that Anomaly rted to you?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a funny nickname. You always like giving Anomalies names, don¡¯t you, Guild Leader?¡± Go Yuri covered her mouth and chuckled. It was the kind ofugh you¡¯d describe as chittering, yet it didn¡¯t seem toe from her direction. Instead, theugh came from the speakers installed inside the bus, sparked with static. Chh¡ªkuk. Ahahaha¡ªchhh, kuk. ¡°You know, I think you should actually thank me. If I hadn¡¯t shown up in your dream tonight, you would have met me in reality instead. Would you have preferred that?¡± ¡°...No, I appreciate the warning.¡± ¡°You¡¯re wee!¡± A streak of red paint appeared on the window behind Go Yuri, forming a crescent moon shape that dripped down like blood. ¡°Do you know what it means to give something a name? It can mean that you''re trapping the existence within the word. However, it can also mean giving something a name like a parent does for a child.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°There are very few words in the world that haven''t passed over your tongue, Guild Leader. Have you realized you¡¯re bing something akin to the Father of All Things, or perhaps the Mother of All Anomalies?¡± ¡°...Not at all.¡± To be honest, I hadn¡¯t even considered that. But after hearing Go Yuri¡ªno, after hearing the reflection of Go Yuri from my subconscious¡ªsay it, it hit me. It actually made sense. When I stared into the Void, the Void stared back at me. An unchanging truth. ¡°The Anomalies don¡¯t always appear at the exact moment you return, Guild Leader. In fact, the vast majority go unnoticed by anyone. But even before they appear, they¡¯ve already been named in your mind.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s like their moment of birth.¡± ¡°Yes. You recognize the Anomalies earlier than anyone else, and you give them names.¡± Go Yuri put a finger to her lips. ¡°Just saying their names aloud, that alone begins a sort of ritual. Each time you regress, you''re calling out to the universe, summoning all the Anomalies by name.¡± Chzzzzzt! The speaker spat out noise again. - Come, Ten Legs, Administrator of the Infinite Metagame. Come, Vige Bus No. 44. Come. I listened silently. ¡°That¡¯s why the Anomalies are drawn to you, Guild Leader. It¡¯s like... Well, if I were to put it cutely, it¡¯s as if they¡¯re little children looking around for their parents. Whether they like their parents or not depends on the Anomaly, though.¡± ¡°Thanks for the advice. I¡¯ll be more careful.¡± - Ahahahahaha! I pursed my lips. Instinctively, I understood what that mockingugh from the speaker meant. As long as I had Complete Memory, I couldn¡¯t forget an Anomaly I had already recognized. The names had already been given. How could I ¡°be careful¡± now? ¡°Have you ever felt like this?¡± Go Yuri covered her mouth as she spoke. We were definitely sitting a meter apart, but her voice felt like it was whispering right into my ear. ¡°Like you''re taking a step forward, but the ground gives way beneath you like a swamp, and the deeper you go, the more you sink...¡± With her mouth covered, I couldn''t tell if Go Yuri¡¯s lips were even moving. Yet her voice slid into my ears like molten candy melted under the sun¡ªsticky and sickening. ¡°Like you¡¯re not resetting the world with each regression, but rather, scraping at the edges with your nails, dragging it down bit by bit.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°There¡¯s a way out, Guild Leader. One way to see the ending.¡± I blinked. In the next instant, the bus, once upied by only the two of us, was suddenly packed. The seats were filled with people who all had my face¡ªeveryone on the bus looked like an Undertaker. With nk expressions, each ¡®Undertaker¡¯ sat in their seats, paying no attention to Go Yuri or me. ¡°When you wake up from this dream¡ª¡± Whisper. ¡°Ride Vige Bus No. 44, Guild Leader.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mean right away. Only after you¡¯ve fully prepared Miss Ah-ryeon, please. Once you¡¯ve Stopped Time, ask her if she can briefly wound everyone¡¯s internal organs.¡± Whisper, whisper. ¡°Then, once time resumes, hop on the bus immediately. Miss Ah-ryeon can keep healing you from the outside while you¡¯re on board.¡± Ta-da... Go Yuri whispered softly. ¡°Wow, then everyone in the world will be just like you! A regressor¡¯s paradise! After Superhuman yer, we¡¯d have a new race: the Race of Regressors.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Haha, if the world feels toorge, you could start with just one or two people. You often long for Schopenhauer, but who knows? Makingpanions might be simpler than you think.¡± Bing one. That¡¯s what Go Yuri called it. ¡°What do you think, Guild Leader?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s certainly a strategy I hadn¡¯t considered. I¡¯ll think about it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lie.¡± ¡°......¡± Thud. The bus began to move. The engine rattled, and it started heading somewhere. Outside the windows, the scenery blurred by too quickly. Night and day switched without pause, casting fleeting shadows across Go Yuri¡¯s face. ¡°No matter where you go, no matter what your final stop is, Guild Leader, I¡¯ll always support you. But you¡¯ve already passed by quite a few stops.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget that.¡± Thud, thud, thud. The sound of the vige bus''s vibrations shifted into the rumble of a subway, and the interior stretched out into a long train car. The lights flickered. The Undertakers seated around us began to stretch and split apart, bursting as their bodies tore open. And then, I woke up. ¡°H-huh.¡± Before me stood Ah-ryeon, looking at me with wide eyes. ¡°You''re... You''re awake...¡± ¡°The Saintess¡¯s duties?¡± ¡°I-I just finished! As you instructed, I used the Blessing of Christ Mo Gwang-seo to cover the traces of the descending angels and turned the area into a sanctuary.¡± ¡°Good. Our Ah-ryeon has worked hard.¡± ¡°Hehe, please... P-praise me more.¡± Ah-ryeon beamed. Her smile oddly reminded me of Go Yuri¡¯s. It wasn¡¯t that I was confusing the two of them. It was just that Go Yuri¡¯s warning from the dream kept echoing in my head. "You give Anomalies their names earlier than anyone else." Go Yuri had warned me that this would reduce me to the role of ¡®the parent of Anomalies.¡¯ But was that really true? The first thoughts that came to mind after my regression weren¡¯t just about Anomalies. I thought of the people I couldn¡¯t save in previous runs, of Seo Gyu with his head about to be severed, of Ah-ryeon trembling in a corner. ¡®Do I value human smiles over the extinction of Anomalies?¡¯ The answer was yes. In the early days of my regressions, perhaps I wouldn¡¯t have been so sure. But now, the answer was clear. Like a sail that filled with wind whenever I faced the breeze, this answer wrapped around my heart. As long as that answer remained, I would never lose my way, no matter which seas I crossed. ¡°Our Ah-ryeon is the best.¡± ¡°Hehe...¡± In the midst of this boundless sea, I patted the head of the woman who had be the wind in my sails. The wind smiled in my palm.

There is an epilogue. "Let¡¯s draw a bus route map." Back in Busan, I proposed this during a meeting. Do-hwa, seated at the round table, tilted her head in confusion. "A bus route map...?" "Yes. The organs of passengers on Vige Bus No. 44 are transferred randomly, without any clear destination. This is likely because the bus doesn¡¯t have a defined route." I drew a quick map on the chalkboard. ? Hwang Seo-young¡¯s pancreas (54, Busan) ? Kim Jin-cheol¡¯s cornea (11, Sejong) ? Namgung Hee-young¡¯s lungs (37, Pohang) ? Park Da-ram¡¯s kidney (21, Busan)... The result was a typical bus route map, except that the "stops" were people''s names and organs. "We¡¯ll prepare a list of patients in need of transnts and organize them in order. Then, for volunteers, they can freely choose which ''stops''¡ªpeople¡ªthey¡¯d like to donate their organs to." "Oh..." "Friends, family, acquaintances, or even someone they¡¯ve just encountered by chance. It¡¯s a way for people to select who they want to give their organs to after they pass." In the apocalypse, suicide rates had skyrocketed. There were more reasons to leave this world than to stay in it. Even so, many would be willing to donate their organs if it meant helping those left behind. When people boarded Bus No. 44, they usually died instantly without time to feel any pain. The process of organ donation could be quick, easy, and precise. "Not just suicides, but even elderly individuals might choose to donate their organs. Since the Vige Bus can appear anywhere, it¡¯s essible to everyone." "Hmm..." While the term ¡°donation¡± might evoke the idea of a noble, voluntary act, I saw it as simply the efficient distribution of resources. The apocalypse was brutal. Even human bodies had to be used efficiently. Despite the critical w of Vige Bus No. 44, as long as we were cautious of Anomalies like Mo Gwang-seo¡¯s Christ, it was still worth utilizing. After listening to my entire presentation, Do-hwa sneered an answer. ¡°Well, it sounds... effective.¡± Soon after, "bus route maps" and "stop lists" were distributed across the country. Whenever there was a need to update the route, revised versions were uploaded to SG Net first, and guilds all over the country would make the necessary changes so that the public could ess the updated stop names. asionally, incidents of innocent people being forcibly pushed onto the bus arose, but the Saintess usually managed to detect and prevent such tragedies in advance. From that day onward, I sometimes saw elderly people sitting under bus stop signs, a crumpled piece of paper in hand. Those old men and women would sit there, squinting up and down the street, waiting for the bus toe, with notes listing the names of the stops where they wanted to leave a trace of themselves. They¡¯d unfold those notes from time to time, reading them over. Then, at some point, the Vige Bus No. 44 would appear, as if out of thin air, in front of the stop. The elderly person would grip their note tightly in one hand and use the other to support themselves with a cane as they boarded the bus. And into thin air, the green vige bus would vanish, leaving behind only the smell of exhaust. "......" Choosing to leave something behind for someone, even as you leave this life. Perhaps, in the delicate weight of those old people pressing their canes into the ground as they boarded the bus,y the reason I always chose humans over Anomalies. Wasn¡¯t humanity clinging to the tip of that cane? ¡®Go Yuri, the day I ept your offer will nevere.¡¯ In the end, the terminus for one person might just be a brief stop for another to rest. That¡¯s why I hoped¡ª That when my journey ended, I wouldn¡¯t rule over the final stop for all mankind, but rather, be just another stop along the way for the children who followed.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 239 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 239 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Monad I Today¡¯s story is a rare one-it¡¯s going to list multiple mysteries in sequence. Well, to be fair, that¡¯s how my stories usually unfold, as ifid out like pieces of a puzzle. Not a perfect omnibus, but at least a half-omnibus kind of format. In that sense, this episode can be likened to an "omnibus within an omnibus," a story within a story-like a Monad reflected in another Monad. I hope you enjoy the mysteries as they unfold. First Monad. First, I¡¯d like to tell you a ghost story rted to the Ice Age. As you may know, the Ice Age Anomaly has been isted on the inte. After capturing footage of the Ice Age, we sealed it away in a hidden post on SG Net. However, with Anomalies, you can never afford to rest easy and say, "It¡¯s sealed! Done and dusted!" ssic anime like Ghost Stories taught us this lesson well¡ªexorcists had to deal with consequences across generations because they didn¡¯t know this. But I, the Undertaker, who ims to be the world¡¯s top Anomaly expert, was always well aware of this. It¡¯s crucial to maintain sustainable istion after the initial seal. ¡°Hey, boss.¡± That¡¯s why I had already given Seo Gyu themand to keep monitoring the hidden post rted to the Ice Age. One day, Seo Gyu came to me, looking a bit troubled. ¡°Hm? What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Well, you know how you locked up the Ice Age Anomaly on SG Net the other day, right? That one with the... uh, romance?¡± ¡°For thest time, there was no romance between me and the Commander. That was just the Anomaly''s distorted and edited footage. But yeah, we sealed it. So?¡± ¡°Uh, yeah. About that... I think you need to see it for yourself.¡± So I went to check. Now that I think about it, I¡¯ve never really described Seo Gyu¡¯s workspace, have I? Let me give you a quick rundown. To put it simply, Seo Gyu¡¯s office looked exactly like a "Chinese mobile game factory." Hundreds of smartphones were spread out on the table, all logged into SG Net. Each phone disyed a "hidden post istion" scene, where Anomalies were being held, and was set to a low volume, just soft enough that only someone with heightened perception could hear the Anomalies screaming in their final moments. - Aaaaaahhhhh... - Hero, if you¡¯re reading this, it means you¡¯ve returned home safely, right? Even if you¡¯ve lost all your memories, your noble will to return to your original world has moved us... - This is a picture of a cat lying on a white bed. - Anyone want to talk about Romance of the Three Kingdoms with me? What can I say? This tiny office was, in fact, a cyber Anomaly prison. The Anomalies that required physical sealing were transferred to the underground prison at the National Road Management Corps headquarters. Meanwhile, the Anomalies that couldn¡¯t distinguish between reality and the virtual world were all confined in SG Net. In a way, the nickname "Special Warden" suited Seo Gyu much better than "Such A Fucking Dumbass." As the Commander of SG Net, Seo Gyu was essentially the world¡¯s biggest Anomaly warden. (There was a good reason he rarely left the base and stayed put like a totem.) ¡°Hm.¡± I quietly observed the cyber prison. Each smartphone was practically a solitary cell for the Anomalies. ¡°So, this is how a scientist must feel when they look at brains in vats.¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Just talking to myself. So, what¡¯s wrong with the Ice Age?¡± ¡°Oh, well, take a look at this...¡± Seo Gyu held up one of the phones. The tag on the screen read 668-711, and it was ying the familiar Surviving the Ice Age documentary. Right at the part where the Commander and I kissed. It was an embarrassing scene, but I didn¡¯t care since the footage was heavily distorted by the Anomaly. It wasn¡¯t real anyway. I simply ignored it. ¡°So what?¡± ¡°Well, don¡¯t just nce at it, take a closer look, boss.¡± ¡°...?¡± I was slightly taken aback. Was he asking me to focus on the kiss scene with Noh Do-hwa? Had Seo Gyu lost his mind? ¡°Not the content, the length of the video. Don¡¯t you think something¡¯s off?¡± Fortunately, Seo Gyu hadn¡¯t gone crazy yet. He was making a valid point. The video on SG Net¡¯s hidden post was indeed... a little odd. ¡°Huh?¡± I frowned. ¡®Was this kiss scene always this long?¡¯ Time seemed off. Originally, Surviving the Ice Age was a three-part series¡ªDay 1, Day 2, and Day 3¡ªwith each episodesting about 20 minutes. In total, the entire video was roughly an hour long. The Commander and my kiss was supposed to be in the final part, and it should havested less than 30 seconds. But for some reason, in Surviving the Ice Age: Anomaly Edition, no matter how long we waited, the kiss scene didn¡¯t end. ¡°...Is the video longer than usual?¡± ¡°Yes. I checked multiple times. The disyed time says 20 minutes, right?¡± Seo Gyu pointed to the screen. ¡°But when you actually y it, it runs for 24 hours.¡± ¡°What? 24 hours?¡± ¡°Yep. The video loops continuously for a full day. I confirmed it twice beforeing to you, boss.¡± I rubbed my chin. ¡®24 hours... That''s 1,440 minutes. A video that was originally 20 minutes had expanded 72 times its length?¡¯ I didn¡¯t understand. ¡°...You said you checked it twice. Is there anything else that¡¯s changed?¡± ¡°Well, since the video got longer, some of the content has changed too. Hang on, let me turn up the sound. Ah, here. If you rewind a bit, you¡¯ll see...¡± Seo Gyu rewound the video. In this part, Yu Ji-won had cornered the Commander against a wall in a ssic "kabedon" stance.[1] Surprisingly, Ji-won was much taller than her counterpart, so it looked quite intimidating on screen. ¡°Commander, even though I acted on my own in that operation, the sacrifice was necessary.¡± In the video, Ji-won-yed by the Anomaly in the Ice Age spoke. ¡°If you had given the order, the survivors¡¯mand structure would have copsed. That¡¯s why I took on the role of the bad cop. There were no personal feelings involved.¡± ¡°Heh. For a woman full of personal feelings, you sure know how to talk. If that¡¯s how you feel, perhaps you should lead the next operation yourself?¡± ¡°I am an irreceable asset.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see it that way...¡± ¡°......¡± An unsettling tension was building between the two characters. I blinked. ¡°...This scene wasn¡¯t in the original.¡± ¡°Nope.¡± Seo Gyu nodded, looking exhausted. ¡°For the record, there¡¯s also a scene where the Saintess and the Commander fight. I didn¡¯t show you that because the atmosphere was so intense it made me feel sick. I haven¡¯t been feeling well the past two days.¡± ¡°What the hell... This isn¡¯t just edited footage anymore. It¡¯s like the video has been remade with CGI from scratch.¡± ¡°Yeah, it feels like they¡¯ve extended the timeline. Instead of just three days, it looks like they¡¯ve been trapped in the Ice Age for weeks.¡± I rubbed my forehead. ¡®The video¡¯s length has been randomly extended. And to match that, the content has been automatically edited to feel ¡°natural.¡±¡¯ Why? I couldn¡¯t figure out the cause. Was it simply because we had locked the video in the "virtual reality" of SG Net? ¡°...Aside from the increased length and content changes, there are no negative effects in the real world, right?¡± ¡°None. It¡¯spletely isted.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s leave it for now.¡± It left me feeling uneasy, but emotions didn¡¯t matter. What mattered was the real world, not some video stuck in a hidden post on SG Net. But the strange incidents rted to the documentary didn¡¯t stop. ¡°Boss.¡± ¡°What now?¡± ¡°Well... the video has changed again.¡± Some timeter, Surviving the Ice Age: Anomaly Edition evolved into Surviving the Ice Age: Anomaly Director''s Cut. ¡°This time... the video is 72 days long. Each episode. If you add up all three, it¡¯s over 200 days.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°The video quality has also worsened a bit. Look here, boss. The smartphone¡¯s screen is now showing twoyers.¡± As the video continued to expand, it seemed the total runtime was growing by 72 times each time. ¡°...As I said before, as long as it doesn¡¯t affect the real world, we don¡¯t need to check the video anymore, Seo Gyu.¡± ¡°Got it...¡± Seo Gyu seemed ufortable. ¡°But the video now includes Dok-seo and Sim Ah-ryeon. The footage implies that the istion in Liberty Ind has gone on for so long that external support had toe in.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t watch the whole thing, just bits and pieces, but apparently, the Ice Age has spread beyond Sin?iju, wiping out the entire Korean Penins. Other regions are starting to freeze too.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It feels so real that it¡¯s unsettling. Well, like you said, I won¡¯t watch it anymore.¡± Though I didn¡¯t know the exact mechanism behind it, the Ice Age Anomaly was indeed conquering the world within the video. The Ice Age¡¯s timeline was expanding rapidly-from 60 minutes to three days, and from three days to 216 days. So, what would happen if there was just one more Extended Edition? ¡®...More than 15,000 days.¡¯ About 42 years. In a world covered by the Ice Age, my team, including the Commander and me, would have to survive for over 40 years. And even if we made it through that, what woulde next? Only an even more inted period of 3,000 years awaited us. It was nothing short of despair. ¡®I don¡¯t know the cause...¡¯ But I could guess the oue. ¡®That Ice Age Anomaly... it won¡¯t be satisfied with just a ¡°60-minute world.¡±¡¯ The virtual reality was drawing closer to real reality. At a terrifying pace. ¡®...3,000 years, multiplied by 72 again. And then 72 more. Eventually, it¡¯ll reach a point where it can im to be an entire world of its own.¡¯ Sure enough, the next time I secretly visited the Anomaly prison and looked at the smartphone isting the Ice Age... Whoooosh. There were no longer any voices on the screen. Buried under the snow was the decaying Statue of Liberty. My frozen corpse, with its eyes wide open,y next to Noh Do-hwa¡¯s, both of us holding hands, silently captured on camera. Whoooosh. The camera didn¡¯t move anymore. It was simply recording the two of us, long dead, while the speakers emitted nothing but the white noise of a blizzard. That was the scene of the world¡¯s end. ¡°...So, even though we isted it for mistaking the virtual world for reality, it ended up conquering the virtual world instead.¡± Whoooosh. My mutterings were drowned out by the snowstorm. The white noise sounded strangely like the Anomaly wasughing. - Human, I am satisfied with this. This was the first piece of the puzzle. Footnotes: [1] Kabedon or kabe-don refers to the action of pping a wall fiercely, which produces the sound "don". One meaning is the action of pping the wall as a protest which urs in collective housing like condominiums when the next room makes noise. Join our discord at Chapter 240 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 240 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Monad II The second Monad. ¡°Hyung.¡± ¡°Oh, Seo Gyu.¡±¡°I¨D am this SG Man, fufufu. The mastermind behind everything.¡± ¡°......¡± And so we begin another story linked to Mastermind Syndrome. ¡®Here we go again with this pattern.¡¯ I sighed. To remind anyone who might have forgotten: Mastermind Syndrome refers to the phenomenon wherein a person bes convinced beyond all doubt that they are secretly orchestrating every tragedy from behind the scenes to bring about the end of the world. So, when and how does one catch Mastermind Syndrome? The condition was deceptively simple. All you had to do was survive to the end with me, the Undertaker, and cheerfully shout ¡°Chicken for dinner tonight!¡± in unison. Naturally, the more sociable a person, the lower their survival rate. Awakeners who spent their days roaming around and fighting against Anomalies, like Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, had an extremely low chance of contracting Mastermind Syndrome. After all, survival is the prerequisite to contamination, isn¡¯t it? On the other hand, our guild¡¯s proud anti-social union members got selected as masterminds like regrs whenever things got a little boring. Sim Ah-ryeon, who didn¡¯t choose the Saintess of the North route. Lee Ha-yul, who wasn¡¯t led by the restless spirit. Oh Dok-seo, who dedicated decades to seclusion training after her serialization stopped... Seo Gyu, though not exactly anti-social, was also a strong candidate. The guy spent all his time holed up at the base, living his 24-hour routine of sleep, eat, lift, eat, manage the Cyber Anomaly Prison, eat. ¡°Right, Seo Gyu. Even though your head would¡¯ve been lopped off by a fairy and you¡¯d be dead if I hadn¡¯t saved you at Busan Station, somehow, you¡¯re the mastermind that orchestrated every tragedy and massacre on Earth.¡± ¡°Fufu. You know me well, hyung.¡± Normally, I would¡¯ve just smacked Seo Gyu over the head and moved on to the next run. But this day, precisely as the 682nd cycle was set to end, I felt an odd spark of curiosity. It was already a lost cause of a run. I figured, why not humor Seo Gyu, who¡¯d always been a certified babbler, a little longer? Without any serious thought, intent, or purpose, I casually asked him a question. ¡°Just tell me one thing. You would¡¯ve been eliminated in the beginning if it weren¡¯t for me, so how exactly do you im you controlled everything behind the scenes? Wouldn¡¯t it all end if you died?¡± ¡°A foolish question, hyung.¡± But to my surprise, Seo Gyu answered with full confidence, ¡°Of course, even my own death was part of my calctions.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Think about it, fufu. If I died, it would only mean that youcked the ¡®force to defeat the Tutorial Fairy in an instant¡¯ or that you possessed the kind of morals that would passively watch a fairy massacre civilians.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°In such a world, I could never seed as a mastermind. For me to flourish in this role, I need totch onto the world you created¡ªa world that requires a protector strong enough to overpower Anomalies and a soft-hearted fool who would willingly share his warmth with those around him. That fool being you, hyung.¡± Seo Gyu wagged his finger, giving me a disapproving click of his tongue. ¡°Why would I bother striving for glory in a world that doesn¡¯t meet these conditions?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Hyung. Right after the Anomalies appeared and I was dropped into the Tutorial Dungeon, I quickly made up my mind. I would either be the mastermind controlling all evil, or I would die right then and there and escape from all suffering.¡± I stared, dumbfounded. Why did this nonsense sound almost... convincing? ¡°Wait... Isn¡¯t it difficult for you to Awaken to your power without my help, let alone pull off an omnipresent scheme? Let¡¯s say you did survive and join my guild. How could you be so sure you¡¯d seed as the mastermind, Seo Gyu?¡± ¡°Fufu.¡± He shed me a sly smile, an expression that a beefy man of his build would normally never be able to pull off. A part of me wanted to punch the daylights out of him, while another part was curious to see just how far he could twist this absurd story. Thetter won, for now, since I could satisfy the former desire anytime. ¡°Do you really think I didn¡¯t know?¡± ¡°Come again?¡± ¡°I Awakened my power early on. However, you had no way of confirming whether or not I had Awakened... The longer I dyed my Awakening, the more you let your guard down around me.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°All I had to do was manipte the timing of my Awakening to my advantage. After all, it was obvious you¡¯d eventuallye to rely on me. Securing a critical position without raising the ruler¡¯s suspicion... it¡¯s a tactic straight out of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, akin to the scheming of Jia Xu, wouldn¡¯t you say?¡± ¡°......?¡± It sounded... convincing! Adding aparison to Three Kingdoms, the greatest ssic of all, made Seo Gyu¡¯s story unexpectedly persuasive. I couldn¡¯t help but listen to his eloquent speech, captivated. ¡°I subtly encouraged Anomalies without you or the Saintess noticing. For example, you ordered me to keep Three Kingdoms content ying on a smartphone around the clock for ¡®narrative support Anomalies¡¯...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡ª¡± ¡°Yes. I would intentionally turn off the smartphone for a moment or slightly alter the recordings, subtly encouraging the arrival of the ¡®Savior Narrative Anomaly.¡¯ Fufu, even if it wasn¡¯tplete, I surely influenced you and those around you a bit...¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve set up many such subtle schemes behind the scenes. Hyung, I was the one who brought about the world¡¯s end.¡± Seo Gyu¡¯s grand lecture on his mastermind exploitssted roughly three hours. ¡°I see. That was quite entertaining, Seo Gyu.¡± ¡°Fufufu. So you finally acknowledge how impressive I am¨D¡± ¡°See you next time.¡± sh! Seo Gyu split in two. With the world nearing its end, I couldn¡¯t help but regret that no one was left to criticize me for this murder. ¡®Could it be real?¡¯ I put a temporary pause on my death. Dodging the endless Monster Wave, I searched for any traces of the crimes Seo Gyu (mastermind ver.) had so boastfully confessed. And to my surprise, I discovered an incredible fact. ¡®...There¡¯s a chance it could be true?¡¯ For one, I had no way of proving or disproving the theory that Seo Gyu had lied to me about when he had Awakened. Another example, however, was the im that Seo Gyu deliberately triggered the Savior Narrative Syndrome. I had actually sensed that my allies held a sense of devotion and reverence toward me that was slightly stronger in the 682nd cycle than in other runs. It wasn¡¯t enough to conclusively say it was all because of Savior Narrative Syndrome but... On the flip side, I also couldn¡¯t entirely dismiss the notion that Savior Narrative Syndrome hadn¡¯t affected this cycle at all. I muttered to myself, ¡°It¡¯s like the devil¡¯s proof.¡±[1] Whether Seo Gyu actuallymitted the crimes he imed to his name, and whether hemitted them with malicious intent¡ªproving either was now impossible. No one could perceive those actions or intentions except for Seo Gyu himself. A crime that no one could ever prove. This empty void was known as the Void itself. Mastermind Syndrome, surprisingly, was an Anomaly devoted to this Void. In contrast to how I once dismissed it as mere nonsense. ¡°......¡± It was worth testing. Thus, in the next cycle, I made a special request to the Saintess. [So, you want me to focus on observing Seo Gyu, Mr. Undertaker?] ¡°Yes. There is something I need to verify at the end of this cycle. Please inform me of any suspicious behavior you notice, even if it seems to be just a trivial detail.¡± [Understood. I¡¯ll increase the surveince level on Seo Gyu to 10-second intervals.] The Saintess ssified the surveince level for each Awakener from ¡®24 hours¡¯ to ¡®10 seconds.¡¯ A 24-hour surveince level meant she would observe an individual only once per day with her irvoyance. On the other hand, the 10-second level meant continuous observation every 10 seconds or even more frequently. Naturally, the number of Awakeners ced on the 10-second surveince level was extremely limited. Seo Gyu, originally under a 10-minute surveince level, was temporarily raised to the highest risk level for this cycle. ¡°Any suspicious activity yet?¡± [None at all. He hasn¡¯t once released Anomalies from the Cyber Prison intentionally. As far as I can tell, Seo Gyu is a loyal ally to you, Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°......¡± [I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯ve suddenly grown suspicious of him, but for now, I have no choice but to give you that answer. I¡¯ll keep observing.] That surveince level continued until the end of the 683rd cycle. Thest surviving humans were me, the Saintess, and Seo Gyu, just the three of us. Looking down upon the world, ravaged by the relentless Monster Wave, Seo Gyu clicked his tongue. ¡°Wow. That thing¡¯s a total mess once it gets going. How did Ah-ryeon manage to hold it off for years all by herself...?¡± ¡°Seo Gyu. Doesn¡¯t something strike you as amusing? Like, oh, I don¡¯t know, the thought of ¡®Fufu, I was behind every incident that happened so far?¡¯¡± ¡°...I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about, hyung.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Failure. Maybe Mastermind Syndrome wasn¡¯t as troubling an Anomaly as I had thought. Just as I dismissed the notion, a thin crack appeared on Seo Gyu¡¯s neck. ¡°Huh?¡± Seo Gyu reached up with his thick hand to feel his neck. Blink. His gaze shifted toward me. ¡°Hyung¡ª¡± Thud. Roll... His head rolled onto the floor as his neck slipped at an angle. ¡°......¡± ¡°Fufu. My apologies, Mr. Undertaker.¡± The Saintess, bloody ax in hand, smiled sweetly. An uncharacteristic expression for someone who was usually so stoic. ¡°Did I startle you?¡± ¡°...In a way.¡± ¡°To you, Mr. Undertaker, it¡¯s been around 20 years, I suppose. I was a little surprised back then, too, when you first told me to monitor Seo Gyu as if he were a mastermind. It seemed you¡¯d grown quite wary of those around you.¡± I rubbed my forehead. ¡°It¡¯s the Saintess¡¯s turn to be the mastermind this time, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Mastermind, huh? That¡¯s rather hurtful, Mr. Undertaker. I orchestrated every bit of destruction, watching over you from the start as...¡± In an instant, her body burst into mes and vanished¡ªmy Aura had incinerated her. Watching Mastermind Syndrome toy with the Saintess¡¯s personality was too much to bear. ¡®Anyway, if she set her mind to it, the Saintess could easily pull off the mastermind role.¡¯ Manipting Awakeners through her Constetions, subtly distorting reports to me, freezing time for the perfect crime, and more. Only now did I grasp the ruthless nature of Mastermind Syndrome. ¡®...Is there really no way out of this?¡¯ [Option 1] Whoever survives until the end, whether it¡¯s Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, or anyone else, is automatically designated as the ¡°Mastermind.¡± This Mastermind will im to have orchestrated all their crimes during moments I, the Undertaker, failed to observe them. Since I can¡¯t monitor those moments, I will have no way of confirming whether the im is true or false. [Option 2] If I rely on the Saintess¡¯s irvoyance to observe every moment, it is the Saintess herself who ends up designated as the ¡°Mastermind.¡± Since the Saintess can freeze time andmit acts outside my purview, I won¡¯t be able to disprove the Saintess Mastermind Theory. [Option 3] I suppress my allies¡¯ growth to ensure that none of them ever rise to im the ¡°Mastermind¡± title. I forbid them from acting heroically, restrict their judgment, and prevent them from exercising free will. I abandon myrades before they can be designated as Masterminds. I stand by and allow them to die. Efficiency is sacrificed for control. Then, when the world inevitably falls to ruin, the true cause of its destruction bes my tyranny, my distrust, my arrogance. And atst, I am the one designated as the Mastermind. Only this fact would stand proven. ¡®...Whichever option I choose, the Mastermind Syndrome remains unavoidable.¡¯ Take this current cycle, for instance. Ah-ryeon had been sessfully holding back the Monster Wave as the Saintess of the North when it suddenly surged, overrunning New Shinuiju and causing the Eastern Holy State to fall. The Armies of Annihtion engulfed Busan soon after. ¡®What if the Saintess froze time and traveled across the globe, wiping out city after city, causing the sudden increase in the Monster Wave¡¯s strength?¡¯ Could such a hypothesis be proven or disproven? No. No matter how many times I looped, it was impossible to witness every event. Whether Seo Gyu, the Saintess, Lee Ha-yul, Sim Ah-ryeon, or even Oh Dok-seo, might have hastened the world¡¯s end in different cycles¡ª I could never entirely deny the possibility. And I never would be able to either. ¡°......¡± I looked down at the earth, now fully nketed by the Monster Wave, leaving no ce for life. The Anomalies stared back up at me, thest human left on this. The twisted limbs of monstrous beings mocked me with grotesque smiles. - Hyung, I brought about the end of the world. - Mr. Undertaker. I orchestrated every bit of destruction. This was the second piece of the puzzle. Footnotes: [1] The devil¡¯s proof is a logical dilemma that describes how the presence of evidence can prove something exists or is true but ack of evidence fails to disprove it. Join our discord at Chapter 241 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 241 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Monad III The third and final fragment of the Monad. [Mr. Undertaker. I apologize for contacting you sote. Yu Ji-won just passed away.] Thunk.My steps through the night froze. It was a day when the full moon, tainted red by the Void, spilled crimson vapor across the sky. Now, even my breath was mingling with that vapor. ¡°What was the cause of death?¡± [It¡¯s hard to say for sure. She was resting in her personal quarters when there was a sudden sound of ss shattering.] [It was the full-length mirror you referred to as the Magic Mirror.] [The mirror broke on its own, without any apparent cause. Ji-won tilted her head in confusion, then at that moment, someone knocked on her door.] [She asked for the passphrase. The person outside responded correctly. But the instant she opened the door, her vision went dark.] [I immediately sent a message through the Constetion system, instructing a nearby Awakener to check on Yu Ji-won.] [That¡¯s when they found her dead, with the door still open.] There was a moment of silence. [Mr. Undertaker, do you have any idea what kind of Anomaly this could be?] I didn¡¯t. This sort of thing had been happening more frequentlytely. ¡°There¡¯s no telling right now. Did it happen at the National Road Management Corps¡¯ headquarters?¡± [Yes.] ¡°Inform Captain Noh Do-hwa as well. I will go and prepare Ji-won¡¯s body.¡± [Understood.] Yu Ji-won had died a sudden death. Hers wasn¡¯t the first. Though she was the person who had just informed me, the Saintess wasn¡¯t aware that she too had also been experiencing a sudden increase in fatalitiestely. ¡®Again. Ji-won died in another absurd manner.¡¯ It all started from the 669th cycle. That was when I met N at Naryanmar, received the Sacred Fire from him, and began constructing signal towers across the world. Ever since then, the death toll of Yu Ji-won and the Saintess had inexplicably started to rise. 670th cycle. While walking across the Seongsu Bridge, the Saintess slipped and fell, plummeting to her death in the Han River. Considering the Saintess¡¯s abilities, it was an absurd way to die. Most of all, she normally used the Jamsu Bridge for her walks, never the Seongsu Bridge. Even so, at that time, I dismissed it as an unfortunate coincidence. ¡®The Saintess shares her vision with Awakeners, so she encounters Anomalies far more frequently than others. Her chances of taking mental damage are higher as well. Maybe she was bewitched by an Anomaly associated with bridges.¡¯ But as if mocking my judgment, suspiciously frequent and unusual deaths continued to ur around both Yu Ji-won and the Saintess. idental falls. Freezing to death in the middle of summer. Heatstroke in winter. Friendly fire. Ridiculous deaths, like getting hit by a stray arrow on the battlefield¨D Beginning in the 683rd cycle, when I firstunched my proper investigation into Mastermind Syndrome, these incidents hit a peak. Almost as if... ¡®Almost as if the world itself held a grudge against Ji-won and the Saintess.¡¯ Why? Why the two of them, in particr? The thought consumed me, even during Ji-won¡¯s funeral. Instead of a photo, a portrait painted by Ah-ryeon was hung as the memorial image. In the portrait, Ji-won looked straight at me with an expression that said, ¡°We both know there¡¯s always the next cycle, don¡¯t we?¡± ¡®The signal towers built across the world. And this Mastermind Syndrome. My actions must have triggered something dormant, something that had been asleep until now.¡¯ What was it? Why? I couldn¡¯t find the answer. ¡®So, conversely... If I don¡¯t build the signal towers, will this phenomenon cease?¡¯ A usible hypothesis. I put it to the test in the next cycle. I didn¡¯t seek out N, nor did I ept the Sacred Fire from him. Naturally, I didn¡¯t construct any signal towers around the world. ¡°Saintess.¡± [Yes.] ¡°Has there been any sign of abnormalities near Ji-won?¡± [No, everything is normal.] And just like that, the sudden deaths that had been guing Yu Ji-won and the Saintess disappeared, almost as if by magic. Near the very end of that cycle, both of them experienced understandable deaths, not the absurdities they had before. I rubbed my face with a dry hand. ¡®...Alright. At least the trigger is identified.¡¯ The identity of the Anomaly remained elusive. It could be an Outer God-ss Anomaly, or perhaps even something absurdly weak but that activated only under specific conditions. For reasons still unknown, as long as I didn¡¯t build signal towers across the world, the mysterious Anomaly didn¡¯t seem to have any intention of erasing Ji-won and the Saintess. It felt like I¡¯d finally grabbed a loose end. I decided to challenge this mystery head-on. ¡®Fine. I won¡¯t dare to spread it across the world, but how about the entire Korean Penins? Can we agree on that?¡¯ In the next cycle, I received the Sacred Fire from N and constructed signal towers all over the Korean Penins. I referenced locations of signal towers from the Joseon era, taking every precaution to avoid suspicion. ¡°We¡¯re just restoring history,¡± was the pretext I used to mask my intentions from the Anomaly. To my surprise, even in this cycle, both Ji-won and the Saintess met normal, legitimate ends. The absurd hand of death did not touch either of them. ¡®So, the Korean Penins is eptable. Fine. What about East Asia? The Japanese archipgo, Taiwan, maind China, and the Mongolian ins? Is that eptable too?¡¯ It was. Signal towers were constructed at key points throughout East Asia. Whenever reinforcements were needed, the towers would urgently send up signals. If I saw columns of smoke rising high into the sky from afar, I would rush to rescue the survivors. ¡®So, East Asia is alright. It¡¯s surprisingly lenient, I appreciate that. Then, for thest attempt, how about the Indian subcontinent and Eastern Europe¨D?¡¯ The Saintess died. A magnitude 9 earthquake struck Seoul overnight. It wasn¡¯t just a magnitude 9¡ªa massive chasm, like the gaping maw of hell, tore through the ground and swallowed everything. [I¡¯m sorry, Mr. Undertaker.] [I¡¯ve used Time Stop, and I¡¯m still using it, but it¡¯s impossible to escape the earthquake¡¯s grasp.] [Until next time.] That was the message the Saintess wrote, in less than a second, before hermunication was cut off. With the disappearance of her irvoyance and Telepathy, the Constetions under her care also perished. Even before the disaster, however, the failure to predict the Seoul Earthquake had already shattered the unshakeable trust the Awakeners held in the Constetions. The social safetywork I had meticulously built across the Korean Penins was on the brink of copse, and it wouldn¡¯t take more than a few days for it to fall apart. After epting the Saintess¡¯ death, I immediately went to find Ji-won. Busan was still intact. Ji-won wasn¡¯t. That day, on her way to the caf¨¦ base, she mistook the safe path through the Inunaki Tunnel and ended up with her limbs torn apart, scattered across the Japanese archipgo. The one who had the Mini-Map ability, the one who could read maps better than anyone, that Yu Ji-won, lost her way and died. Ji-won¡¯s head was rolling at the entrance of the caf¨¦ base. Even in death, her face remained unnaturally serene. I gritted my teeth. ¡°So... the signal towers are allowed only up to East Asia. Anything beyond the Indian subcontinent is out of the question, is it?¡± Both the Saintess and Ji-won died. The National Road Management Corps was barely able to monitor the areas around Busan. This cycle was rapidly approaching its end. And yet, I still had tasks toplete. There was still a counselor in this world with whom I could discuss matters like these. ¡°Why don¡¯t you just give up, sunbae?¡± A girl with an orange ponytail giggled as she spoke. Infinite Void. An Outer God sealed within Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s soul, lingering on as a split personality or a turned ally. Most of its former power had been lost, but it still had the keen insight of an ex-Outer God. I had asked Cheon Yo-hwa to summon Infinite Void, and the moment it heard my story, it burst intoughter. ¡°It¡¯s obviously an Outer God-ss Anomaly.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s how it is...¡± ¡°Yep. To put it in your terms, sunbae, it seems the Korean Penins to East Asia has been somewhat recognized as your domain.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°That means the other Outer God has no intention of recklessly invading your territory. It doesn¡¯t want to, or rather, it¡¯s be incapable of doing so. After all, you¡¯veid such solid groundwork.¡± But then, Infinite Void grinned slyly. ¡°If, however, you¡¯re genuinely nning to save the entire world, not just the people around you, then the other side will get desperate. So don¡¯t worry too much, sunbae. ¡®They¡¯ were just offering a diplomatic deal of sorts.¡± ¡°A deal?¡± ¡°Yep. A deal. Like, ¡®Let¡¯s stop this, Undertaker. We¡¯ll concede East Asia and other regions, so be content with that. But anything south of the Himyas and west of the Urals is mine. I¡¯ve already called dibs. Deal?¡¯¡± ¡°......¡± Infinite Void cackled. ¡°Hahaha! To be honest, I think it¡¯s something to be proud of. I mean, after looping hundreds of times, you finally managed it, right? Wow¨D I don¡¯t know which Outer God it is, but getting them to acknowledge boundaries up to the Urals and the Himyas is like a feat not seen since Genghis Khan, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have any guesses as to why it¡¯s targeting Yu Ji-won and the Saintess, do you?¡± Infinite Void shrugged, its lips curving into a pout. ¡°Hmm, who knows?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°There was a time, you know. When Imanded all the nightmares and opened tutorial dungeons worldwide. I began the invasion of the Void earlier than any other Anomaly, faster and ahead of everyone else. Ah, those were the days! The nights of the Hundred Tales! Back then, I shined like a star. Little me dered herself the Akashic Record of all existence... But s. Then certain someone had toe at me with a time-looping cheat, determined to take me down first. What choice did I have? I became a pitiful Anomaly trapped in a mere monkey¡¯s body, and here I am...¡± I kept my mouth shut. There was no need to respond to its provocations. Sensing my indifference, Infinite Void chuckled to itself. Its crimson eyes narrowed, gleaming mischievously. ¡°I¡¯m just a shadow of my former self. I can¡¯t give you any big secrets. But if you¡¯re willing to pay the proper ¡®consultation fee,¡¯ I could support you in your quest to hunt down this Outer God.¡± ¡°State your terms.¡± ¡°Call me by my name. Cheon Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°......¡± The air around us stilled. The sunlight streaming through the window dimmed abruptly, as if the day had instantly turned to night. ¡°Please, sunbae. Just once. Just call me Cheon Yo-hwa, even if it¡¯s only this one time... Please, just say it. With your voice. Yo-hwa, my dear. Just once, won¡¯t you call me that?¡± Infinite Void tilted its head like a snake, leaning in close as it softly pleaded, looking up at me with an innocent gaze. ¡°If you do, I¡¯ll dly cooperate. Use me however you like, sunbae.¡± ¡°You¡¯re already Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯).¡±[1] ¡°Not that damned name.¡± A distorted, mechanical sound came from Infinite Void¡¯s lips. ¡°Why are you pretending not to understand? Sunbae. Cheon Yo-hwa. Cheon Yo-hwa. The human who dared to dere she would sing a thousand songs to seal a being of a hundred tales. She became my vessel long ago, a part of me, my possession. Give her back. Give her back, give her back, give her back.¡± It seemed unaware of how twisted its voice had be. The next moment, it spoke as if nothing had happened. ¡°Just once is enough. You can loop infinitely, can¡¯t you, sunbae? Calling me that just once in this cycle won¡¯t affect the next version of me. Think of it as one step back for two steps forward. Doesn¡¯t it fit nicely into your grand strategy?¡± ¡°That makes sense.¡± I pushed Infinite Void away. ¡°If I weren¡¯t a Complete Memory user, that is.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°The moment I call you Cheon Yo-hwa, even if only once, that memory will be embedded in me like a nail, regardless of the cycle. Ultimately, the seal on you would weaken. I can¡¯t allow that.¡± ¡°Huh. So?¡± Infinite Void smirked. ¡°You¡¯re really going to mess with that Outer God hiding beyond the mountain ranges? Without my advice, all on your own, from scratch? Hah. Maybe if you loop 2,000 more times, you¡¯ll have a chance. But can your sanity hold out until then?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right! Isn¡¯t it thanks to that Saintess that you keep your sanity intact? She¡¯s lived just as long as you, right? But ooooh, sunbae, if you go up against this Outer God, she¡¯ll just keep dying over and over again. What happens if your mind can¡¯t handle it...?¡± ¡°That¡¯s none of your concern.¡± ¡°Why not? I always have your best interests at heart, sunbae.¡± I allowed a faint smile to curl my lips. ¡°But there was one thing among your bbering that was worth considering.¡± ¡°Oh, really? What is it?¡± ¡°That I should use you.¡± I took hold of its hand. Infinite Void¡¯s eyes lit up, a bright expression spreading across its face as it assumed I had finally given in. What a predictable misunderstanding. Of course, there was no way a regressor would fall for the tricks spun by an Outer God¡¯s tongue. I softly spoke to the true owner of the hand I was holding. ¡°Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°¨D¨D¡± Blink. The red light flickered, and in its ce were eyes full of trust, as usual. ¡°Yes, teacher?¡± The girl whose name I had granted. My disciple. ¡°I have a favor to ask. I¡¯m sorry, but could you entrust this life to me?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Seoul is falling, the Constetion system is copsing, and soon even the northern regions will be swallowed by the tide of Anomalies. But there¡¯s still something I need to confirm here.¡± ¡°You need my help, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°It must be you. No one else.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa smiled brightly. ¡°Of course I¡¯ll help! Oh, but I am a bit worried about my friends. If possible, could you make sure they don¡¯t suffer when they die?¡± ¡°Alright. I truly appreciate it.¡± ¡°So do I.¡± Yo-hwa ced her hands over my left hand. Gently, passing to me a slight pressure and warmth. ¡°Always, and forever¡ªthank you, teacher.¡± There was a moment of silence. The next time the crimson eyes flickered, her hands abruptly pulled away from mine. ¡°What are you scheming, you?¡± The gaze now carried an edge of caution, wary of the unknown. It was Infinite Void. The entity had been called forth from within Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s consciousness once more. ¡°Not even calling me sunbae anymore?¡± ¡°Answer me. What kind of ridiculous n are you hatching now?¡± ¡°Like I said, I intend to use you.¡± I stood up. ¡°Soon, the world will end. Up until that very moment, I will survive, and so will you.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be thest two standing.¡± Infinite Void looked confused. But the moment it grasped my intention, its expression morphed into one of horror. ¡°Thest one standing. Whoever is next to me will inevitably be infected by Mastermind Syndrome.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°If, as I suspect, this Outer God controls the Mastermind Syndrome, Infinite Void, then its influence will reach out to you this time.¡± ¡°You, you¨D! How dare you...?¡± I smiled. ¡°While human minds may be easily ensnared by an Outer God, do you really think the mind of an Anomaly that was once an Outer God itself can be corrupted so easily by Mastermind Syndrome?¡± No. A collision was inevitable. Of course, there was a vast difference in power between the unknown adversary and Infinite Void. But even the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was insignificantpared to the Earth. The fact that a collision would ur¡ªthat alone was vital. Even a weakened Infinite Void wouldn¡¯t fall helplessly to another Outer God. There would be a gap, however slight. And that gap would be more than enough for me. ¡°Infinite Void. While you resist the Outer God with all your strength, I will seize its tail.¡± To subdue one beyond your reach, you used another outside your bounds.[2] Be it Infinite Void or the mysterious Outer God, from humanity¡¯s perspective, they were nothing but troublesome outsiders. ¡°Thends west of the Urals? South of the Himyas? And you expect me to agree to that?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Don¡¯t make meugh. Not a single de of grass, a speck of dust, or a breath of air from thisnd will be handed over to you.¡± Thus, as previously mentioned, this story serves as an epilogue to the epilogue, so there¡¯s no additional epilogue to add here. The puzzle pieces are in ce. Now, it¡¯s time to hunt the enemies of humanity. Footnotes: [1] Back in chapter 97, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s name is revealed to have multiple possible meanings. Infinite Void is restricted to the hanja definition of ÌìÁÈ»¯, meaning serene heavens both boundless and formless, infinite and void. Cheon Yo-hwa, Undertaker¡¯srade, takes the name of Ç§Ö{Ô’, which literally means a thousand folk tales but can be interpreted as an endless abundance of stories passed along through human connection. [2] Literally, ¡°to subdue a barbarian, use another barbarian.¡± A saying meant to advise letting outsiders do the dirty work and fight it out amongst themselves. Join our discord at Chapter 242 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 242 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Experimenter I ¡°Nooo! No way! I¡¯m not fighting an Outer God with a weak body like this! At the very least, let me regain control over the nightmares! Otherwise, I¡¯ll never cooperate¡ªnever!¡± ¡°To put it inly, no matter how much you throw a tantrum, it won¡¯t change a thing.¡± ¡°You bastard! You regressor! Devil!¡± ¡°My ears aren¡¯t bleeding.¡±687th cycle. The world was already falling apart at full speed. Amid this chaos, I chose not to exit early and instead kept Infinite Void as my partner. Perhaps it¡¯s time to share the strategy I, the Undertaker, employ when the end of the world draws near. ¡°Ah-ryeon, abandon the Saintess work and then retreat.¡± ¡°Uh, excuse me? But, Guild Leader, if we do that, the Manchurian Defense Line will copse, and New York will fall soon after, leading to the downfall of the Eastern Holy State...?¡± ¡°Yes, precisely. Soon, the Monster Wave will grow out of control. Let¡¯s retreat to Busan with only your devoted fanatics.¡± ¡°Aha! Got it!¡± With that, the Eastern Holy State was effectively closed for business. Without Seoul¡¯s true Saintess, who had already died, it was impossible to continue the brainwashing operations that involved sending fanatics messages under the alias [Morning Star of the Second Coming]. - Oh, my Lord Mo Gwang-seo Christ! - Are you truly abandoning us? - The end hase upon us! Mo Gwang-seo was still very much alive. Even so, the mere cessation of the Constetion¡¯s messages convinced many fanatics that their apparent ¡°connection to God¡± had been severed, leading them to fall into hysteria. ?¨¢¦???¨§? I didn¡¯t me them. For those who had lost family, friends, homnds, countries, and ethnic ties, the so-called ¡°heavenly voice¡± that always responded to their prayers had been theirst pir of support. Copse was inevitable. Not long ago, the Eastern Holy State Crusaders had been a well-organized force, repelling Anomalies as one, and yet they were dismantled in an instant. ¡°How many are following us?¡± ¡°Hehe. I scraped together the strongest Awakeners. If I bring too many, it¡¯ll be hard for grandpa Sword Marquess to feed them all... Around, uh, six hundred...!¡± Not all fanatics worshiped Mo Gwang-seo. In her role as the Saintess of the North and the Healing Angel, Sim Ah-ryeon was able to save most of the wounded on the battlefield, so long as the injuries weren¡¯t fatal. Naturally, thebat units frequently engaged with Anomalies had immense faith in her, as she had saved their lives countless times. These units were called the ¡°Saintess¡¯s Guard.¡± The name sounded silly, but they were the elite forces of northern Korea. If their mistressmanded them to die, they would obey. If she asked them to survive, they would return even from hell itself as the fierce revenants of Ah-ryeon. With the northern front withdrawn, the next step was... ¡°Yo-hwa. Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School is now officially a branch campus in Sejong, with its main campus in Busan.¡± ¡°Oh, well... I¡¯m a bit sad to leave behind all the kids buried on the school grounds here, but it can¡¯t be helped!¡± Even Cheon Yo-hwa, as herself rather than as Infinite Void, received her orders. With New York and Pyongyang about to fall, there was no longer any reason to defend Sejong. Northern Seoul? As mentioned in the previous story, a massive earthquake had struck, reducing it to rubble. Incheon also suffered devastating damage. The central front was withdrawn. Retreat, retreat. Endless retreat. Until the Nakdong River became the final defense line. The Librarian of the Great Library: Announcing on SG Net. An Outer God-ss Anomaly has appeared, severing the voices of the constetions. Until we eliminate this Anomaly, it will be impossible for the Constetions to assist you. Awakeners residing on the Korean Penins are requested to retreat southward and form the final line of defense. The current status of the refugee zones, centered around Busan, is as follows... The retreat wasn¡¯t easy. As you well know, no matter how often the National Road Management Corps sent caravans to clear paths, the world was fundamentally tainted by the Void. If one misstepped while walking on a road under broad daylight, they might stumble into a ¡®strange ce.¡¯ Answering the wrong voice or looking at forbidden objects yielded the same effect. - Lee_Hyun-su: We¡¯re stranded halfway between Iksan and Jeonju. There are 16 of us. We¡¯ll offer 50% of our supplies in exchange for rescue. Please, save us. - Parl_Ha-byul: We were moving along the coast from Gangneung, but now we¡¯re on a snowy mountain. Location unknown. We¡¯re marking our position with regr Aura signals. We¡¯ll definitely repay you if you help us. Here¡¯s our supply list... - Anonymous: I think I¡¯m the only one left alive. Casualties were mounting everywhere. The National Road Management Corps was going all out to send rescue teams in every direction, and both Samcheon World and Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School offered their support. I too did my utmost. Yet countless people were left behind. There was no other choice. ¡®The Saintess¡¯s death was a severe blow.¡¯ If Ji-won had survived, she could¡¯ve tracked the stranded individuals using Mini-Map. But in this cycle, Ji-won had died in the Inunaki Tunnel. Both the right and left eyes that had once observed the Korean Penins on my behalf had essentially gone blind. Even so, would I give up? ¡°Captain Noh Do-hwa. How¡¯s the refugee intake going?¡± ¡°Somehow, it¡¯s holding up. At this point, just reaching us alive is enough to put these folks in the top 1% of humanity...¡± In Busan, we had always prepared for such endgame scenarios. The shantytowns had rapidly expanded, but each vige was organized with strict nning and zoning. Samcheon World¡¯s witches, capable of aerial movement, patrolled the skies to maintain security. The rights to judge and enforcews were exclusively held by Samcheon World. Naturally, there were frequent conflicts between the original residents and the refugees, but¨D ¡°Yo-hwa, if you would.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± In case it¡¯s slipped your mind, Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s original profession was a necromancer. She had a brainwashing skill called NPC Creation. This forbidden technique controlled people¡¯s thought patterns and behavior, turning them into zombies who could only think and act ording to set instructions. ¡°Oh, huh? What are you doing to me¨D?¡± ¡°Shush.¡± ¡°¨DFor the survival of humanity, everyone must unite! Yes, indeed! Naturally!¡± Yo-hwa purified the few troublemakers, turning them docile. To avoid being reassembled into an NPC, those who caused problems would have to keep a low profile. Fortunately, this level of tact was already present in most survivors of the apocalypse. Through blood and sweat, we imposed order. In the areas surrounding Busan, fortifications went up quickly and efficiently. ¡°Pyongyang refugees have been epted.¡± ¡°Refugees from Nampo, Sariwon, Kaesong, and Wonsan¡ªall who made it have arrived!¡± ¡°There¡¯s no one left toe from Sejong.¡± ¡°From Iksan, Jeonju, Gwangju, Mokpo, Haenam, and Suncheon¡ªthose who wanted to stay did, and the rest have crossed over.¡± ¡°There are still two guilds from Gangneung we haven¡¯t heard from.¡± ¡°We estimate that the first line of defense along the Nakdong River will beplete within a week!¡± The National Road Management Corps worked through countless all-nighters, spearheading the coordination of every operation. ¡°Hmm...¡± At headquarters, Noh Do-hwa was practically always present, making it doubtful if she ever slept. Same face as always, same exhausted look in her eyes, sipping coffee with a deadpan expression. ¡°I¡¯d say we¡¯ve saved all those we could. It¡¯s a relief that the Sword Marquess rejuvenated, otherwise, he¡¯d have copsed while stomping through fields...¡± ¡°The Magical Girls also promised to send reinforcements if necessary.¡± ¡°Huh. I used to wonder why you always mingled with that bunch, but now I see they¡¯re proving quite useful...¡± I nodded. Then, I turned to a member of the National Road Management Corps and asked, ¡°Still no response from Daejeon?¡± ¡°Oh, no, sir. They only said they would manage their refugees independently and asked us not to worry.¡± Go Yuri. In this cycle, as in others, Daejeon had remained outside the flow of refugees. The Anomalies likely wouldn¡¯t touch Daejeon either. I nodded slowly. ¡°Alright. Moving on to the next phase of the operation.¡± That day, SG Net was hacked. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Author: Collector of All Anomalies Greetings to all human Awakeners active on the Korean Penins. Hehe. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D The website turned a deep shade of red, cracks running across it like shattered ss. An unprecedented event. The Awakeners were all shocked. ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Author: Collector of All Anomalies Watching you all struggle to survive warms some deste corner of my heart. How does it feel to have your days of leeching off the kindness of other constetions abruptly cut off? The constetions you adored and revered are now all in my grasp. While there are still a few I haven¡¯t captured, they can no longer interfere with you in any way. Can you survive even through this hardship? ¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D¨D Announcements like these appeared everywhere, and general Awakeners couldn¡¯t post orment. Naturally, this was our handiwork. The one behind the Collector of All Anomalies notice was Ah-ryeon. As expected, it immediately captured everyone¡¯s attention and drew countless people¡¯s resentment her way. ¡°...I¡¯m sorry, Ah-ryeon. I¡¯m always forcing you into the viin¡¯s role.¡± ¡°Hmm? Haha, no, no! I¡¯m totally fine with it! Actually, I¡¯m thrilled to be such a big target!¡± The problem was that she was drawing too much attention. If a situation like this dragged on for too long, Ah-ryeon would undoubtedly be a Corrupted. That¡¯s why the tactic of painting Ah-ryeon as the source of all the world¡¯s evils was only used right before humanity was truly on the brink of extinction. Just like now. ¡°Oh, mister!¡± Bang. Oh Dok-seo burst through my door. Being the youngest in our guild, along with Lee Ha-yul, she seemed to havepletely forgotten the concept of knocking. Since I had just gotten out of the shower, Dok-seo ended up staring right at my bare torso. She froze for a second. ¡°Oh. Wow. Those abs are insane...¡± ¡°Is this harassment?¡± ¡°You should walk around shirtless more often. Normally, I can¡¯t stand the muscle-man type, but for you, I¡¯d make an exception and let you wear a tank top. Oh, but not too often, or it wouldn¡¯t fit your image.¡± ¡°Definitely harassment.¡± ¡°In this messed-up world, who cares about manners... Ah! Anyway! Mister! Come out to the terrace!¡± I sighed. ¡®Usually, the Saintess would telepathically tell Dok-seo, [Wait a bit, Undertaker just got out of the shower,] to tip her off.¡¯ Even in these small, everyday moments, the Saintess¡¯ absence was painfully clear. I donned my barista attire and stepped outside. I wasn¡¯t in the Inunaki Tunnel anymore¡ªmy current lodging was at the National Road Management Corps headquarters. Stepping out onto themunal terrace, I took in the view beyond Busan. Already on the terrace were Dok-seo, Ha-yul, Yo-hwa, Ah-ryeon, Seo-rin, and Do-hwa, all waiting for me. ¡°You¡¯re here...¡± Noh Do-hwa murmured, sipping her coffee. Following her gaze, I looked up at the sky. ¡°......¡± Smoke signals. Dark pirs of smoke were rising in the distance. Those vertical smoke columns were the very triggers that had incited the ¡®mysterious Outer God.¡¯ The columns rose, reaching straight for the sky. This wasn¡¯t ordinary smoke. It was a Sacred Fire, designed to be visible from up to a 1,000-kilometer radius. And now that Sacred Fire was zing. From the horizon¨D One, two, three, four. Five, six, seven, eight. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. From the horizon¨D Neen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two, forty-three, forty-four. The witches monitoring the skies, the refugees working tirelessly to establish settlements, and the citizens faithfully carrying out their tasks¡ªall of them stopped to gaze at the sky. Silently. Unendingly. From every direction, columns of smoke rose, one after another, into the heavens. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The entire leadership team gathered on the terrace held their tongues. The only sounds were of Do-hwa sipping her coffee, and Ha-yul clutching my sleeve tightly. This was the scene that marked the end of our era. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 243 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 243 ©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Experimenter II The smoke pirs stretched across the sky for half a day before they began to disappear. One by one, they faded, starting with those farthest in the distance. It signified that the cities or strongholds where signal towers had been set were nowpletely destroyed. One, two, three... They extinguished quietly, like candles going out. When only five columns of smoke remained in the sky,¡°Great Witch!¡± One of Samcheon World¡¯s guild members, riding a broom to scout overhead, approached us. Our leadership gathered on the terrace of the National Road Management Corps headquarters to receive the scout¡¯s report. ¡°Yes. What is it?¡± ¡°A Monster Wave has been detected! It appears that Sejong and Daejeon have already fallen!¡± ¡°I see. Well done. Recon squads one through five, return immediately.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± The guild member flew back beyond Busan. With the Saintess¡¯s Telepathy gone, all these reports had to be delivered manually. We still had radios, but they were single-use items¡ªusing them even once risked contamination by an Anomaly. It was wise to reserve them only for the most critical battles. Soon, the smoke columns in the sky dwindled to four. That meant Jeonju had also fallen. ¡°Everyone, take a final break. Once the fighting starts, you won¡¯t get a chance to rest your eyes.¡± There was little response. Most of them were far, far too tense to muster anything to say. For me, a regressor, this was merely the 687th time facing the world¡¯s end, but for myrades, it was their first and final apocalypse. Seoul had been razed in seconds, families and friends killed, human life trampled like a ything... Somehow, they¡¯d clung to survival and rebuilt a semnce of a city. Yet, deep down, they had all wondered it. ¡°How much longer can we hold out?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t all this just a futile struggle?¡± And now, the answer to that question was descending from the heavens. The smoke pirs marking humanity¡¯s survival ticked down from four to three, three to two, and from two to one. When it finally fell from one to zero, Dooooong! a bell¡¯s toll rang out from the sky. Dooooooong! Doooong! It wasn¡¯t a melody conjured by Seo-rin¡¯s magic, nor a sound produced by some skilled Awakener. The sound of the bell itself was an Anomaly. Whenever humanity¡¯s strongholds were annihted and only one ce remained to make a final stand, when the Monster Wave¡¯s forces loomed just before them, without fail, the ¡°bell¡± appeared and resounded ominously across the sky. R????B§§? Dooooooong! Doooooong! With each toll of the invisible bell, bright red streaks spread across the sky, as if spilled paint were being smeared over it. The sky sumbed not to the barren space beyond its atmosphere but instead to its final form, transforming into a canvas. Before the bell had cried its twelfth toll, the heavens were thoroughly painted in crimson. Doooooooong! The bell tolled precisely thirteen times, then fell silent. But what it left behind wasn¡¯t merely a painted red sky. Another witch who had been scouting from high above hurriedly descended. ¡°Great Witch! Th-the Earth has ttened!¡± In the span of just thirteen tolls, the Earth¡¯s geography¡ªor rather, the veryws of the sr system¡ªhad been altered. It was proof that humanity no longer had any authority to assert reason or order over the world. I took a deep breath and roared out in amanding voice. ¡°Do not look at the sky!¡± My voice rang out. ¡°Don¡¯t let the sun, the moon, or the stars into your sight! They¡¯re no longer celestial bodies¡ªthey¡¯re simply parts of an Anomaly, only a Void! Don¡¯t look at them!¡± Although it was something every survivor already knew, I emphasized it anyway. Humanity had trained relentlessly up to this point, in the dream-space simtion known as Project Kingdom, a coborative creation of tutorial fairies and writers. This was how, even after the Saintess¡¯s death, humanity could still muster its final stand. Unlike the confused and scattered efforts in the early Ten Legs Extermination War or the Meteor Shower Suppression Battle, every member here had died countless times in simtion and was a pseudo-regressor in their own right. My army. The essence of regression. ¡°They¡¯re here!¡± The faction in charge of sensory organs and blood flow in the army, the witches of Samcheon World,unched screaming res into the sky, which burst like fireworks. ¡°It¡¯s the Monster Wave!¡± The army of Anomalies spilled across the horizon. -Woo? O? ? Hu? U? ? ? ? ? U? Woo? ? Hu? ? ? ? U? ? O? ? ? ? O? ! Until now, I hadn¡¯t described the Monster Wave in much detail. This was because the Monster Wave was simply the gathering and surging forward of every Anomaly, a mixture of all aberrations. But even amidst this ck mass of tactical horror, the most distinct Anomaly was something I could describe. -Wi? ? O? ? Woo? U? ? U? ? ? ? ? ? ? Hu? U? Hoo? U? ? ? ? ? ? U? ! The Hollow. In this world, corpses left without proper burials would transform into Anomalies. The bodies of children abandoned in the rush to evacuate, elderly people killed to reduce the number of mouths to feed and then discarded unceremoniously. Every corpse left unburied returned without exception. And they wed at the world that had forsaken them. The Anomaly that reached Busan¡¯s final line of defense first was one of those Hollow. It was a mountainous figure. Towering like a seventy-story building, this massive Anomaly was a body overgrown with limbs and lips sprouting like dense fur. Its lips and teeth muttered incessantly, producing a chaotic noise iprehensible to the human ear. But if you broke down that noise, it would sound something like this: - Oh, Mr. Sang-gyu, look at the baby! - MomDadMomDadMomDad. - The child has grown up so beautifully. - Aaaaahhhhhh. - Oh, don¡¯t even get me started. The kid¡¯s been acting outtely, and it¡¯s such a worry. I thought I¡¯d feel more secure once they turned four... The head of a newborn, a mother¡¯s fingers, a father¡¯s calf muscles, a rtive¡¯s hair¡ªall of them were fused together, dragging intestines as they advanced, this seventy-story monstrosityposed of flesh and bones fused into a single abomination. And yet, they didn¡¯t hurl curses at ¡°us,¡± the humans. They didn¡¯t explicitly express murderous intent. It was as if they were merely saying hello. Look upon us¡ªare we not human? As though this, indeed, was what humanity had been, these Anomalies, like innocent children, were replicating ¡°human society.¡± And the Hollow Anomaly wasn¡¯t alone. Countless others were approaching from beyond the horizon¡ªat a rough estimate, thousands. Considering the distant shadows drawing nearer, this was an army of Hollow formed from billions of corpses. To be honest, even the Ten Legs that I once mistook for the final boss at the beginning of my regression belonged to the category of Hollow. In other words, the Monster Wave contained tens of thousands Anomalies who were at the same level of the Ten Legs, and even that was only a fraction of its total force. ¡°Urgh...¡± ¡°......¡± No matter how much they had trained, the Awakeners froze before the tangible reality of a world-ending force bearing down on them. And as always in such moments, ¡°¨D¨D¨D¨DAh¨D¨D¨D¨D¡± a witch¡¯s song resounded. Seo-rin stepped onto the terrace, taking a position where everyone could see her, and began to sing the Primary Melody. The meaningless noise emitted by the Anomalies was drowned out by the sound of a single witch¡¯s song, reduced to nothing more than white noise. But that wasn¡¯t all. ¡°G-Guild Leader.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯ll... I¡¯ll pray too.¡± Ah-ryeon wore clothes she normally didn¡¯t, at least not in front of me. The Saintess¡¯s robes. A ck and white dress. It was the outfit Ah-ryeon wore when she acted as the Saintess of the Eastern Holy State. It didn¡¯t hold profound religious meaning, but it exuded an aura of sanctity. Ah-ryeon¡¯s personal attire covered every inch of her skin, its generous folds concealing her entirely. It¡¯s often said that clothing defines a person¡¯s aura, and dressed as a Saintess, Sim Ah-ryeon looked worlds apart from her usual ditzy self, her face lighting up with an ¡°ehehe¡± as she encouraged me. ¡°Guild Leader... B-best of luck!¡± She assumed a prayerful stance. Suddenly, green grass and flowers began to sprout from the cracks in the concrete terrace floor in a dazzling array of blossoms. The vines quickly climbed up the tower of the National Road Management Corps¡¯ headquarters and spread through the alleyways of Busan, pulsing like awork of veins. Waves of flowers and grass washed over the final defense line. ¡°What... is this?¡± ¡°My legs... My legs are moving again!¡± Flowers bloomed over the wounds of the injured lying in the shantytown¡¯s clinics. Thin leaves and petals bound their wounds, closing scars, and then fell away in silence. It was as if spring had descended over all of Busan, scattering petals in every direction. The petals over amputees¡¯ wounds were red; over organ-damaged areas, they were yellow; for brain injuries, blue petals; and over the sorrowful ones mourning loved ones, white. A Hundred Blooming Blossoms. The power of Sim Ah-ryeon, Saintess of the Eastern Holy State. A wide-ranging skill that endlessly healed any ally recognized within her reach. A garden flourishing on malice as its nourishment. Wherever Ah-ryeon summoned her true power on the battlefield, a wave of petals would bloom, painting the sky. ¡°Wah-wah-whooooa!¡± ¡°The Saintess is watching over us!¡± ¡°The Saintess has cleared our path, blessing us with the glory of her love! All will be saved by her merciful grace!¡± It was only natural that people would be captivated by such a spectacr sight. ¡°In the name of Mo Gwang-seo Christ!¡± With a wild roar, the Saintess¡¯s Guard of six hundred charged at the Hollow. The sight of a pdin squad attacking a seventy-story Anomaly resembled something out of Don Quixote, except that these warriors were far morepetent.[1] Boom! The Saintess¡¯s Guard¡¯s coordinated assault demolished the closest Hollowpletely. They hacked away at the monstrous flesh, causing the enormous Anomaly to lose bnce and topple forward, shaking the entire city of Busan as it fell. ¡°Kill it! Kill it all!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go too! Let¡¯s join in!¡± ¡°Uwoooo!¡± Then, guild members who had fled from across the Korean Penins joined in. Blood sttered everywhere. The fallen Anomaly, massive as it was, was no match for the skilled Awakeners, who sliced through it with ease. - AAAAAAAAAAAAH. - Please, don¡¯t hurt my child! - MomDadMomDadMomDad. - It hurts! It hurts! Please, save me! - Why are you doing this? Why kill us? And you still call yourselves human? As they died, the Hollow mimicked human expressions, voices, and gestures, clinging to the Awakeners. Each voice carried the weight of a curse. Even seasoned warriors who had undergone rigorous training flinched in response. ¡°Ah¨D¨DAh¨D¨D¡± But Seo-rin¡¯s song, now entering the Third Melody, spread mental fortitude across the entire battlefield. This song of empowerment, which I developed in coboration with her, was a remnant of the countless struggles we had waged against Go Yuri. Its primary effect was simple: to reinforce the warriors with constant feedback of a singr memory and emotion. A surge of conviction overwhelmed the fighters: ¡°I will defeat these monsters¡± and ¡°I will show the final resolve of humanity.¡± ¡°Fucking Anomalies...!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you dare imitate humans!¡± Their hesitation vanished, and they butchered the Hollow as they had been trained to do. The Anomaly didn¡¯t go down without a fight. The Hollow, formed from thousands of corpses, wed, bit, and exploded its entrails like bombs. Casualties were inevitable. Blood from both the dead and the living stained the ground red. But Ah-ryeon was there. Silently, she prayed. Repenting for every hurt she had caused, humbling herself for all her sins, and healing others in proportion to the pain she had once inflicted. Even if the Anomalies tore into human flesh, vines would wrap around the wounds, flowers blooming and withering within seconds. And when the giant Hollow was finally annihted¡ª Under the crimson sky, a million petals scattered over the area where the battle had taken ce. Injuries: 0. Deaths: 0. The opening battle had ended in humanity¡¯s overwhelming victory. ¡°Uwoooo!¡± ¡°Bring on those goddamn monsters! Let ¡®em alle!¡± ¡°Long live Samcheon World! Long live the Great Witch!¡± Cheering erupted from every corner. But with my vision enhanced by aura, I could see the unending wave of Anomalies advancing from beyond the horizon. The Hollow we had just defeated was merely a fragment of the Monster Wave¡¯s force¡ªroughly one ten-billionth. One out of ten billion. ¡°......¡± I looked at Seo-rin, who was singing and burning through her lifespan, and at Ah-ryeon, who was gradually edging toward corruption in real time. I tightened my grip on Do-hwa¡¯s sword hilt. This was just the beginning. Footnotes: [1] In theedic novel Don Quixote, the protagonist and his one man team up to fight against a ferocious giant, which is actually just a windmill. Join our discord at Chapter 244 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 244 The Experimenter III In the Final Defense War, my role was always as the ¡°firefighter¡± on the front lines. And that was precisely what I intended to demonstrate. - Wooo? Hoo? ? ? U? ? ? Hoo? O? ? ? ? ? O? Woo? ? O? O? ? ? The thrill of our opening victory was short-lived.In no time, a tsunami of Anomalies began to surge from every direction, hitting us in one fell swoop. These towering Hollow Anomalies varied from 30 stories to 80 stories tall. Each step they took sent tremors rippling across the horizon. As they collided, they crumbled, intermingled, and fell again, shifting the terrain in real time, withyers of bedrock rippling beneath them as if merely oil. Without formation or order, relying solely on overwhelming mass, these Anomalies relentlessly pushed against the Final Defense Line. ¡°Hold the line! Don¡¯t back down!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I say not to look up at the sky during training? Is no one listening¨D¡± ¡°Fire!¡± The red wave surged forward at the moment of impact¡ªa crimson tide whose true identity was a spray of blood from the Awakeners standing on the defense line. Just then, the flower petals from Ah-ryeon¡¯s prayer scattered over the Awakeners like confetti, wrapping around them. An Awakener crushed under the foot of a 40-story Hollow Anomaly was instantly healed as the petals swirled around him. Ah-ryeon¡¯s petals gently encased their wounds, healing thempletely¡ªeven pierced abdomens, severed limbs, torn flesh. ¡°We can win! We can hold them off!¡± ¡°Raaaah!¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt...! Hah! I¡¯m really not dying! This is even easier than the simtion!¡± The front line trembled like it would copse, but the Awakeners held their ground to the very end. In fact, on some fronts, they even managed to push back, hacking down the Hollow Anomalies until they toppled. Was this what it meant to be evenly matched? Their mass seemed infinite, but our health points were also effectively boundless. ¡°Hyaaaa! Charge! Keep charging!¡± ¡°Hail the Saintess! All hail the Saintess!¡± ¡°Damn it, did the Holy State hoard such an amazing ability all this time?¡± It was an immortal army. An ocean of ckness, made up of billions of Anomalies, was being driven back by the wave of humanity. Watching from the terrace, a wide-eyed Dok-seo muttered, ¡°Incredible... So this is Ah-ryeon unnie¡¯s true Awakening...¡± This sort of scene was routine in the Eastern Holy State, but even there, it had never reached such a massive scale. Ah-ryeon was now channeling her life force directly¡ªessentially tapping into her innate qi, as martial artists would put it. As I looked down at her, kneeling on the terrace floor with her eyes closed, silently praying, a thought crossed my mind. ¡®Now that she¡¯s activated that mode, there¡¯s no going back.¡¯ The countdown had begun. Ah-ryeon was already past the point of no return as a human. The impressive performance humanity was putting on at the Final Defense Line relied solely on her sacrifice. ¡®I¡¯m sorry, Ah-ryeon. I¡¯ll work quickly to stabilize the front while you hold on.¡¯ Static crackled from my radio. We had refrained from using radios earlier due to contamination concerns, but now that the battle was in full swing, we had activated thems. -This is Point C3! Cr?kk? ? ? , this is Point C3! The Hollow is massive! We can¡¯t hold out much longer! It was one of the areas I had been monitoring closely. I turned to Do-hwa. ¡°While I¡¯m away, I¡¯ll leave you in charge, Commander. Anomalies could emerge from the shoreline at any moment, so keep at least one trump card in reserve.¡± ¡°Have you told me that a hundred times already? Just go already...¡± ¡°Understood. If things go south, fall back on the Sword Marquess. I¡¯m off.¡± Exchanging quick nces with Seo-rin, Yo-hwa, Ha-yul, and Dok-seo, I pushed off the terrace and leaped into the fray. Whoooosh. The sticky, lukewarm air clung to my face. Though we were in the beginnings of winter, the air was disgustingly humid outside, and even carried a faintly sweet, sickening scent and an altered texture ever since the sky had turned red. Tap, tap, tap. I darted through the city, stepping along the tops of streemps set up along the alleyways. There was no need to waste Aura by hovering pointlessly in mid air. In no time, I reached the area where our allies had called for reinforcements. ¡°This damn Anomaly is too tough!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t charge it! Maintain distance! It¡¯s slow, so focus on clearing the minions around it and fall back!¡± - Gru? O? ? ? Hoo? ? Gu? ? ? U? Gu? ? ? ? ? Roo? ? O? ? Gu? Goo? ? ? The Anomaly assaulting this front could be described in one phrase: a medieval knight. And yet, it was enormous. Towering at 100 meters, with a width of nearly 300 meters, it was like a moving fortress. - Gro? Ou? ? La? ? Cu? A? ? Hu? Hoo? This medieval knight was covered head to toe in thick, ovepping tes of metal. Thick, endlessly squirming blood oozed from between the tes, while tangled blood vessels and muscles stretched across the gaps. Embedded in a dense array into the waist of this massive, mobile fortress were numerous gs, each one bearing an iprehensible symbol. Except on closer inspection, these gs were actually tongues, alive and writhing. The tongues pped violently in the wind, producing an endless chorus of uncanny wails. Pheeuuuuw... A sound like the whistle of a steam engine or perhaps mockingughter¡ªthe ¡°chanting¡± of these gs reverberated across the front line. The Awakeners directly exposed to it immediately began bleeding from their ears. ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± ¡°Ugh, my... my ears! Ahhh!¡± It wasn¡¯t just their ears¡ªeyeballs rolled out of sockets, teeth crumbled, and blood spewed from every orifice of their faces. Screams echoed all around. Had it not been for the Saintess¡¯s AOE healing, that single st of noise from the medieval knight would have obliterated this entire section of the front line. But humanity still had Ah-ryeon. And it also had me, the Undertaker. ¡°A-aha! That thing! It¡¯s that thing, Your Excellency the Undertaker!¡± The leader of a minor guild defending the front saw me approach, his mouth agape. One of his eyes had just been healed, thanks to Ah-ryeon¡¯s power. ¡°Stand back.¡± I brushed past the guild leader and stepped forward. ¡°Oh, um, please, be care¨D¡± One step, two steps, three steps. The guild leader¡¯s voice faded behind me. On myst step, Iunched off the ground. A weightless sensation filled me. In an instant, the massive front face of the ¡°medieval knight,¡± a towering steel fortress, was in full view. - O? Goo? ? ? ? Cro? Gro? ? ? It noticed me, too. Spikednces sprouted from the gaps between its armor tes, sharp and deadly. They resembled thences wielded by mounted knights. Oddly, these spikes had horse legs attached to them and produced a clopping sound as they moved. They neighed like horses too. - Neeeiiigh! Roughly 3,000 spikednces. A single defensive maneuver from the Anomaly was like 3,000 knights charging at once. I drew Do-hwa from its sheath and focused all my Aura into the de. Wisps of dark Aura streamed from my body, coalescing into a wave around the sword. I sent the wave surging forward. A dark surge swept out in front of me. Bam! Bam-bam-bam! The spikednces charging at me shattered like toothpicks under the wave¡¯s impact. My strike didn¡¯t dissipate there. The gust charged forward, slicing cleanly through the gs embedded like porcupine quills into the ¡°medieval knight¡¯s¡± back. - O? O? ? ? O? O? ? O? O? ? ? ? ? O? ? ? ? ? ? O? O? The Anomaly shrieked. Thousands of tongues twitched in agony, letting out dying gasps. Severed from the poles, the tongues writhed helplessly. Using my full strength, I kicked at the massive creature¡¯s body. Boom! The shockwave reverberated across the field. Those gs were the core of the medieval knight. As long as the gs remained intact, this armored monster was essentially invulnerable. ¡®Unless all the gs are taken down in a single blow, they¡¯ll keep regenerating. It¡¯s an incredibly tricky condition.¡¯ However, once the requirement was met, the creature¡¯s armor could be broken with a single strike. Crack! Craaack! The armor ting of the medieval knight shattered like an eggshell. Soon after, the severed tongues gave their final death rattles before disintegrating. The monster burst, releasing a torrent of blood. It sttered across me, causing its iron stench to fill my nose as it clung to my lips. I turned back to the Awakeners. ¡°Reform your lines!¡± At that moment, the Awakeners¡¯ senses returned. They looked up at me, dazed. I could read a multitude of emotions in their eyes: fear, awe, relief, admiration, excitement, and tion. Their reaction made sense. In all the battles we had fought together, I had never fully revealed my strength¡ªnot even once. I only used my full power in the final battle, and for this cycle, that time had arrived. ¡°Do not lose hope!¡± As I issued mymand, Seo-rin¡¯s song resounded from the distant Babel Tower. ¡°The Primary Melody.¡± The Fourth Movement, ¡°Transmission.¡± The effect was straightforward. Seo-rin could designate a specific individual to project onto a hologram, broadcasting their image live across the battlefield. ¡°The Great Witch of Samcheon World is singing for us! The Saintess of the Eastern Holy State is praying for us!¡± -The Great Witch of Samcheon World is singing for us! The Saintess of the Eastern Holy State is praying for us! My voice echoed across the entire Final Defense Line. In the hologram projected throughout the battlefield, the Undertaker¡ªan exact replica of myself in both stance and voice¡ªwas shouting the same words. When fighting in the trenches, a warrior¡¯s field of vision narrows drastically. Likewise, facing the relentless onught of the Anomaly army, time and senses both began to break down. So, what did the fighters need in this moment? [You¡¯re not fighting alone.] [Allied forces are triumphing on other fronts.] [Comrades are fighting and sacrificing themselves in just as fierce a battle.] They needed faith in theirrades. The certainty that humanity was united. As long as they felt this assurance, the warriors never let go of their weapons. This was why we sacrificed one of the precious movements of The Primary Melody just to project this ¡°transmission¡± across the field. ¡®Though the distraction of the hologram could risk breaking theirbat focus¨D¡¯ Ah-ryeon¡¯s AOE healing was there topensate for that. With her support, we minimized the impact of any momentarypse in focus, while at the same time maximizing the morale across the battlefield. I raised my voice again. ¡°We are humanity!¡± -As long as you do not fall, humanity will not perish! ¡°Stand up and fight to thest moment of extinction! Comrades! Allies! Brothers and sisters in arms!¡± -Stand up and fight to thest moment of extinction! Comrades! Allies! Brothers and sisters in arms... Seo-rin¡¯s voice rang out, standing alone, bright and beautiful. Flower petals filled the sky over the battlefield. The Great Witch, the Saintess, and the Undertaker¡ªall were here, side by side with everyone on the field. ¡°We are humanity!¡± Without hesitation, the Awakeners echoed the cry. ¡°We are humanity!¡± I quickly dashed toward the next front. Overwhelming numbers. Every part of the defense line was gradually being pushed back by the tide of Anomalies. No casualties or injuries had been reported yet, but sheer numbers alone threatened to overwhelm us. There were simply too many, an endless barrage. ¡°We are humanity!¡± But each time I arrived at a section of the front, the United Front Forces pushed back the Anomalies just a little, driving them off bit by bit. One front, then the next, then the one beyond that, and then back again. Before long, a day had passed. Then two days. Thanks to Ah-ryeon, the Awakeners were able to keep fighting, almost forgetting fatigue. But the mental strain remained, so the Final Defense Line continued rotating its forward and rear ranks without rest. Despite everything, I didn¡¯t stop. I rushed to the most critical fronts, cutting down the most vicious leaders of the Anomalies. The remaining minions were then ughtered by the Awakeners. Overall, it was a stalemate. Although we couldn¡¯t fully push the Anomalies back, neither could the Monster Wave breach the Final Defense Line. A deadlock. The waltz of carnage seemed as though it could go on forever. - Mister! Then again... There¡¯s no such thing as an endless ball. - By the sea! Battleships! Dok-seo¡¯s urgent voice came through the radio. Hearing her words, I immediately climbed a partially ruined building, looking out toward the coast. Sure enough, just as Dok-seo had said, the battleships were approaching. But not from the sea, no. They were descending from the sky. Parting the clouds like waves, hundreds of thousands of enormous ¡°aerial warships¡± were heading straight for the city. They resembled massive leviathans, soaring across the heavens. They were angels of death, descending to obliterate humanity¡¯sst sanctuary. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 245 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 245 The Experimenter IV The aerial battleships cast their shadows across the skies above the waters off Busan. Like most Anomalies, their forms were deeply alien. nk. Screeee! Clink, nk! nk.Countless gears and steam engines churned noisily across the hulls of the warships, each one devoid of any crew. This absence of life rendered distinctions like ¡°exoskeleton¡± or ¡°endoskeleton¡± irrelevant. Exposed here and there along the keels¡ªessentially their backbones¡ªwere vertebrae encased in metal, with gears turning endlessly between the ribs, filling the air with a cacophony of grinding sounds. A true fleet of iron. Even if Admiral Yi Sun-sin[1] himself had returned to lead a defense, he would have likely remarked with chilling honesty, ¡°This is beyond the capabilities of a mere twelve ships.¡± ¡°Hey, mister!¡± Upon returning to the National Road Management Corps headquarters, I found only three people on the terrace: Do-hwa, Ah-ryeon, and Dok-seo. Do-hwa was busy giving orders to the units on the front line via radio and didn¡¯t even nce in my direction. And Ah-ryeon... For a different reason entirely, Ah-ryeon couldn¡¯t look at me. The veil of her Saintess robes hung down like a curtain,pletely obscuring her face. She didn¡¯t move a muscle. ¡°Ugh, you¡¯re totally drenched in blood!¡± Dok-seo grimaced, tossing me a towel. It was already used¡ªgrimy, in fact¡ªbut at least it was cleaner than my own skin. I wiped my face with it, then asked, ¡°Where are the others?¡± ¡°They¡¯re all at the front line! Yo-hwa unnie is out there too, but don¡¯t worry, we sent her to the safer areas since she has to survive until the very end.¡± Dok-seo sent a fleeting nce toward Ah-ryeon, who was kneeling in the middle of the terrace. ¡°Well, not that she looks like she¡¯d die even if we threw her somewhere dangerous¡ª¡± ¡°Nya! Undateikeo!¡± Just then, a blonde Magical Girlnded gracefully nearby. It was Manyo Neko, an Awakener cursed to end every sentence with ¡°nya¡± or ¡°nyang.¡± She was also a prominent pro-Undateikeo faction member in the Magical Girl Association. ¡°Wha-what in the world is going on here-nya?! I came because Undateikeo called for reinforcements, and the world¡¯s ending!¡± ¡°Exactly what it looks like. End of the world. The Japanese archipgo has probably already been blown to smithereens by those aerial battleships, so don¡¯t even think about going back.¡± ¡°Ahhhhh! Shi-ba-ru! We¡¯re so screwed-nya...!¡± Oddly, the only curse she spat out was shibal, pronounced with a near-perfect Korean ent, courtesy of her time spent around Koreans.[1] ¡°W-wait! Did you know this would happen and call for us as reinforcements on purpose, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Hardly. Pure coincidence. Do you think I could have known that the finale of the world¡¯s end would happen this week?¡± ¡°Nya. That sounds suspicious-nya...¡± I was lying, of course. Most Magical Girls had a few screws loose, but they did have a deep-seated sense of loyalty to their homnds. If I had sent a letter saying, ¡°It seems the world will soon end, so why not gather in Busan, the best-defended city, for a final stand?¡± the Magical Girl Association would have never epted. In fact, they would likely have chosen to die defending their ownnds. So I changed tactics. Busan is at risk of falling. Forgive me for asking, but could you send us reinforcements? Requests like that prompted the loyal Magical Girls to mobilize their forces ande to our aid. Typically, Manyo Neko or Phantom de would lead these reinforcements. It might have been just a few dozen fighters, but even a small squad of Magical Girls could hold down an entire front. ¡°So, what exactly are those things up there-nya?¡± ¡°They¡¯re airborne warships, as you can see. You could also call them the remnants of civilization.¡± ¡°Remnants of civilization?¡± I red up at the sky. ¡°Just looking at them might make you worry about environmental destruction, but surprisingly, those things are all made from recycled materials.¡± ¡°Nyanya?¡± ¡°New York, London, La D¨¦fense in Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo... The construction materials that once formed the skyscrapers and factories of the world¡¯s great cities are now the raw materials for those aerial warships.¡± ¡°...!¡± Remnants of civilization. The Fleet of the Void. City-devouring ships. If the Hollow Anomalies were created from corpses of human beings, then the millions of aerial warships hovering above us were built from the corpses of their cities. I raised my finger and pointed to the sky. ¡°See that sharp spire on the bow of that one? That¡¯s Tokyo Tower.¡± ¡°Wha¡ª What the heck?! Shibaru! Who the hell let them just steal Tokyo Tower like that-nya?!¡± Manyo Neko¡¯s tail puffed up, and she hissed indignantly¡ªher Korean cursing impressively fluent. ¡°I¡¯ll lead my unit and tear those rusty heaps apart for recycling-nya!¡± ¡°No. Wait.¡± I ced a hand on her shoulder. ¡°You won¡¯t be able to take them down by normal means. You can¡¯t see it from here, but those things number over a million.¡± ¡°Wh-what...?¡± ¡°Dok-seo, did you call Seo-rin?¡± ¡°Oh, yeah! I called her before you even got here, so she should be on her way. I think she¡¯s wrapping things up on the front line. Should I call her again?¡± ¡°No need. She¡¯lle. You join us soon, too.¡± ¡°O-okay!¡± I took a deep breath. A faint wave of fatigue washed over me. Not surprising¡ªI¡¯d been fighting non-stop on the battlefield for nearly 60 hours. On top of that, I had only been intervening at the most critical front lines. One could say the burden I bore was somewhat heavier than that of the other Awakeners. Butpared to the fight thaty ahead, this was nothing. ¡®All right,e at me, city-devourers.¡¯ The regressor was ready to face them. Ooooooo. Ooooooo. As if answering my silent challenge, the aerial battleships began to radiate a blood-red, ominous light. The scarlet glow spread like an electric current or a bloody fluid along the spines of the lead ships. One, two, three, four... Five of the ships at the forefront of the grand fleet lit up in crimson as the gears ground and squealed. Weeeeeoooooo. And then came the beams of annihtion. The moment I saw the beams charging from the warships¡¯ bows, I dashed in their direction. I timed it perfectly, moving as fast as possible. Just as the five beams converged, about to crash down on Yeongdo in Busan, I reached them. BOOM! Channeling all my strength, I swung Do-hwa, deflecting the beams. A weighty tremor reverberated through my hand. ¡®The first time I encountered these things, all I felt was utter despair.¡¯ I took a step forward. ¡®Now, they feel unbelievably light.¡¯ With all my strength, I redirected the beams. The deadly rays of red light veered off course and plunged into the sea, sending a towering column of water into the air, shrouding all of Yeongdo in a mist of steam. Drip, drip, drip. Rain poured down around me, though my body was already drenched in sweat. The downpour washed over me, bringing with it a brief, wee coolness. I raised my sword toward the aerial battleships above. ¡°That¡¯s one strike dealt.¡± -................ The attack those warships had just unleashed would have easily obliterated an entire city district. In fact, they had already reduced countless cities to ruins with simr attacks. But look¡ªthe Final Defense Line remained intact. A small tsunami swept over the harbor, but we had evacuated all civilians from the coastal areas. The aerial battleships¡¯ attack had been utterly neutralized. For this Anomaly, it was a first. Ooooooo. nk! nk! nk! Ooooooo. The gaze of the ¡°beast¡± turned sharply toward me. Its appearance might have been that of an inert mass of junk, but the fleet of over a million warships was a single Anomaly. This was the first time any human had survived an assault from it, let alone deflected one with ease. Those countless, machine-like eyes focused on me. Weeooo-weeooo. Weeeeeoooooo. A strange wail filled the air, screeching like the re of an air raid siren as the metal spine of the aerial battleships twisted. Long, loud, and unrelenting, the sirens rang out over Haeundae¡¯s sandy shore. ¡°Hm.¡± I had their attention. This time, not just five, but a thousand times that number¡ªfive thousand aerial battleships¡ªall began to glow crimson, charging their beams. Inded on Haeundae beach. Countless gun barrels on the fleet turned to face me. Standing alone on the shore beneath the mass of Anomalies, I took a deep breath. Just as I exhaled, five thousand beams of scarlet light shot toward me. SHOOM! I swung Do-hwa to intercept. Thebined weight of five thousand beams could have wiped out all of Haeundae Beach, not to mention everything within miles. To match that, I red my Aura out wide from my sword, creating a massive shield in front of me. ¡°Haaah!¡± The muscles in my arms burned, threatening to tear. Even though only a fraction of the millions-strong fleet had attacked, the sheer force pressing into my hands was almost unbearable. Tsss! Tsst-tssst! The muscles of my arm were fraying. The nerves and joints screamed in agony, and tiny capiries burst in my eyes. But I didn¡¯t falter. Every Awakener across the battlefield was watching me live on the hologram, each one relying on my strength to keep going. ¡°Aaaaagh!¡± With a final shout, I swung my sword to deflect the entire onught of five thousand beams. KABOOM! The redirected beams skidded across the sea, brushing the water¡¯s surface before continuing out beyond the horizon. Once again, the Grand Fleet¡¯s attack had been deflected. ¡°Haa... Haa... Haaa...¡± My breathing grewbored. My once seemingly limitless Aura had been severely depleted after sixty hours of continuous fighting and thistest confrontation. But I wasn¡¯t alone. Shhhhh. From the torn muscles in my arms, green leaves sprouted, wrapping around the wounds. Vines as delicate as veins coiled up my arm¡ªa gentle touch from Ah-ryeon mending my injuries. Flowers bloomed briefly on the vines and then drifted away. In that quiet fall of petals, I felt as if I could hear Ah-ryeon¡¯s whisper. Are... Are you alright? ¡®Yes, Guild Leader is still holding strong.¡¯ A faint smile crossed my lips. Feeling my strength return, I lifted my arm and aimed my sword once more at the aerial warships in the sky. ¡°That¡¯s two strikes.¡± -.......... The red sky burned even brighter. Five thousand beams, then ten thousand, then thirty thousand, fifty thousand. The aerial fleet continued its relentless barrage, one beam after the other. Though I couldn¡¯tpletely block every attack, each time a wave hit the coast, it crashed harmlessly, thanks to the strength of the Final Defense Line. But my own body couldn¡¯t withstand it forever. My right arm, my legs, my side, and even my right eye had all suffered. With each st of red lightser-focused on me, another piece of my flesh was torn away. Yet I continued forward, swinging my sword with unwavering determination. Humanity¡¯s final city stood behind me. I knew every pair of eyes on the battlefield was watching me. One step forward. -...... I refused to cry out in pain. For those who had survived this apocalyptic cycle and others, those who had managed to remain human even in a time when humanity was trampled underfoot, I would show them that I, too, was still standing. One more step. -...... Even though I knew that this cycle, like all others, would end in failure, it didn¡¯t matter. After all, humanity has always known its days were numbered and yet chose to live. With each step I took on the sand, blood pooled at my feet. But a certain someone scattered flower petals in its wake, reminding me that life was still worth cherishing. My grief could wait an eternity. One more step. -......, .........! -.......... My ears rang, almost as if I¡¯d gone deaf, yet I could still feel the Awakeners¡¯ cheers echoing through me from that distant battlefield. Even though they were miles away, each of us fighting on separate fronts, my stride and their cheers resonated as one unified heartbeat. -............ In contrast, the monstrous fleet in the sky seemed to grow more discordant. Atst, it appeared they realized that weaker attacks could never bring me down. The entire armada¡ªthree million ships in total¡ªbegan to glow, each one emitting a piercing, ominous siren. The city-devourers. The very ships that had destroyed countless cities across the world were now gathering their full power, preparing to deliver a final, decisive blow. ¡°Haa... haa...¡± My breath came heavy, nearly ragged. Ah-ryeon¡¯s nts wrapped around my body, healing me as best they could, but they couldn¡¯t keep up with the damage. Blood trickled down the vines. I was already on the brink. ¡®There¡¯s no way I can block this next attack.¡¯ Honestly, the fact that I¡¯dsted this long was a miracle. ¡®This next blow... won¡¯t just obliterate Busan. It could wipe out what little remains of humanity itself.¡¯ My vision blurred. Briefly, everything blinked in and out as if my brain was running out of oxygen. But before I could fall, something kept me standing. Someone grasped my left arm in a firm grip, and someone else took hold of my right, each one bracing me up. A sh of red hair on one side, dark hair on the other. Two people held me, keeping me upright. It was Oh Dok-seo and Dang Seo-rin. ¡°Sorry we¡¯rete,¡± Dang Seo-rin said first. ¡°Things got dicey when you left, so I had to rush through my part. Still, we weren¡¯t toote, right?¡± Oh Dok-seo added, grinning. ¡°From here on, leave it to us, mister! Wow, I¡¯ve always wanted to say that line! Bucket list, checked!¡± I managed a faint smile. The attention of the monstrous fleet was focused solely on me, the lone regressor. They were preparing to unleash their entire arsenal. This was exactly the moment we¡¯d been waiting for. Weeeooooo... The aerial battleships disregarded the city of Busan and the defense line entirely, zeroing in on me alone as they fired millions of beams. The sky and the sea reflected each other in crimson light as a deadly brilliance raced toward us. ¡°Dok-seo.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Dok-seo took off her cap. With a determined stride, she stepped forward, cing herself in front of me, spreading her arms wide to shield me. ¡°Absolute Defense.¡± A barrier, redder than the beams of annihtion, unfolded around her like wings. Absolute Defense. The so-called ¡°AT Field.¡± Dok-seo¡¯s unique Awakener ability. ording to the Infinite Metagame, the very Outer God that had chosen her as his priestess, the power of her ability was simple: AT Field (S-Rank): A power that rejects any external interference. It grants an absolute barrier against all physical forces attempting to harm or impact you. However, it can only be used once per day, with a one-minute time limit. No matter how powerful the attack, the AT Field would nullify anything it deemed an ¡°inferior existence.¡± Dok-seo¡¯s translucent shield spread across the entirety of Haeundae, like wings unfurling in preparation for humanity¡¯s final stand. And then... KABOOM! The deadly red beams shed against her shield, a wall of annihtion colliding with her field of absolute defense. Footnotes: [1] Shibal is the Korean word for ¡°fuck¡± or ¡°shit.¡± Join our discord at Chapter 246 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Chapter 246 The Experimenter V The Awakeners battling on thest line of defense¡ªand even the survivors still living in Busan¡ªwere all gazing nkly in this direction. Wooooooong! On one side was the Spear of Death. The red beam of destructionunched by the Anomaly that had devoured every city on the except for Busan. ¡°Hahaha! It doesn¡¯t even itch!¡±On the other side was the Absolute Shield. While its mental fortitude was mediocre, its physical defense would block anything¡ªthest shield humanity possessed. ¡°Look at this! The Anomaly is nothing but trash!¡± Was she intoxicated by the thrill of single-handedly enduring an attack capable of destroying the world? Today again, Dok-seo¡¯s chuunibyou was at its peak, perhaps even touching a new realm of delusion. But that wasn¡¯t all. ¡°Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Yes, I know.¡± With a loud ¡°Ahhh¡ª,¡± Seo-rin began to sing. As the relentless attacks from the aerial warships pounded on the shield, her voice broke through the noise. It was a melody everyone knew well. The Fifth Melody, Mirror of All Creation. An exceptionalposition,bining Focus, Absorb, Reflect, and Amplify into one. If you¡¯re wondering when such a song was added to her ylist, it happened during the Meteor Shower Extermination Operation. Yes. In the Meteor Shower Operation, 700 Awakeners each gathered andpressed their Aura, forging it into the first andst ultimate strike. I, the Undertaker, took the final baton and unleashed the beam at Meteor Shower. ¡°Aaah¡ªaaaah That Cursed Song Incantation descended once more upon this battlefield, stained in crimson. But there was a distinct difference from the operation against Meteor Shower. Back then, hundreds of Awakeners painstakingly pooled together their Aura,yer byyer, to gather enough power. This time, that wasn¡¯t necessary. Wooooooong! Thankfully, we had someone else up there gathering the beam on behalf of humanity. ¡°Dok-seo! Spread your wings!¡± ¡°Aye aye, sir!¡± Dok-seo stretched out her fingers on both hands. With her gestures, the shield bent. The beams from the aerial warships refracted off its surface, redirecting them. Where the beam was directed, it struck the mirrors conjured by Seo-rin¡¯s incantation. R Chaaang! Although the beam was powerful enough to shatter the mirrors quickly, it didn¡¯t matter. Before breaking, each mirror reflected the beam to another, and again, from mirror to mirror, the red light continued to bounce. Long ago, in the 42nd cycle, Seo-rin could only manifest about 700 mirrors. She couldn¡¯t summon more due to her limitations, which also limited the number of allied forces. ¡°AH¨D¨Daah Now, in the 687th cycle, Seo-rin and I had refined her incantation through extensive trials and training, hiring dream-writers early on and practicing simtions repeatedly. Now, the number of mirrors she conjured in Samcheon World reached no less than 12,000. Chaaang¡ªchaaang¡ªchaang, chaaang! The refracted beams split into countless fragments, reflecting endlessly off the mirrors, each of their paths precisely calcted. The vivid redsers traced innumerable routes across the sky, forming a spiderweb over Busan. Chaaang! Starting from Haeundae, the beams soon spread across the entire sky, as if the heavens themselves were a shattered ss pane. The sky, painted red by the Anomaly¡¯s intrusion, was now oveid with humanity¡¯s fireworks, streaking across as red lines. At the beam¡¯s origin, Dok-seo shouted, ¡°Hey, mister! Time¡¯s almost up!¡± Her shield could only hold for 60 seconds. We had to finish this within that time¡ªand so we did. Eight seconds, seven seconds, six seconds, five, four. ¡°Seo-rin!¡± Relying on my precise sense of time, I gave the signal. In a world where every clock, whether digital or mechanical, could be corrupted by the Anomaly, only my internal time remained sharp. ¡°Blow them away!¡± The Great Witch sang. All 12,000 mirrors shifted their angles in perfect alignment. Their target was obvious: the sky. The aerial warships numbering in the millions. The beam of death, unleashed by the Anomaly to annihte the world. Reversed, stolen by humanity, and redirected skyward to deliver death back to the Anomaly! Ruuuuumble! 12,000 beams, fired by Seo-rin, swept over the warships. Red lines carved into the bodies of the ships, slicing them into two, three, four pieces. And then, they began to fall apart. Whirr, nk, ng. The warships, desperate to stay afloat, frantically turned their gears. Only now did they cease firing and switch to self-repair. But the attack the Anomaly unleashed to engulf every city on Earth had indeed been deadly. The retaliatory strike by Seo-rin left countless ships split with hairline fractures. The Anomaly that had always scoffed at humanity¡¯s feeble attacks could not escape death from its own ultimate weapon. nk, whirr, whirr, whirr. In the end, scrap metal rained down. The spire of Tokyo Tower, the tip of Burj Khalifa, the iron framework of the Eiffel Tower, the hands of Big Ben, the antenna of the Empire State Building, countless factory chimneys, concrete¡ª Humanity¡¯s monuments, once gleaming achievements, now peeled away from the ships like the outer wall of a building¨Dand fell. nk, nk, whirr. Waves sshed. These were waves from the remains of civilization crashing down. Just as life had once originated in the sea, humanity¡¯sndmark creations now returned to the ocean. The grandest burial at sea. But the scraps weren¡¯t alone, the Anomaly that dared to consume them was also sinking. Wooooooong. Onest remaining warship staggered in the sky, stripped of its skin, skeleton, outer shell, and inner frame. Its true form was nothing but a Paper Airne. It bore scorch marks from Seo-rin¡¯s attack, charred edges on its once-white paper. The ne tottered before falling into the sea, hovering briefly on the water¡¯s surface before sinking forever beneath the waves. ¡°...Ah.¡± As the waves rocked her from the debris of civilization, Seo-rin¡¯s body wavered. I reached out and steadied her by the shoulder. Wrapping her in my Aura to prevent her from being swept away by the waves. I included Dok-seo as well. ¡°...Undertaker.¡± Leaning her weight on me, Seo-rin turned her head my way, revealing a face marked with deep fatigue, as was to be expected. She had fought tirelessly alongside me these past days, moving ceaselessly across battlefields. A faint smile graced her face. ¡°We... really... did it. We killed such an impossible Anomaly... we did it.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°All that training in the Kingdom Project... all that practice in the simted dream... it wasn¡¯t for nothing. Hahaha. This isn¡¯t a dream, right?¡± I held her hands and shoulders tightly instead of replying. She closed her eyes as though she¡¯d received enough of an answer. Waaaahhh! In the distance, cheers rang out. - Seo-rin! Seo-rin! Seo-rin! - Long live the Undertaker! - Literary Girl! We believed in you! The battle¡¯s mood shifted from grim determination to dragging another Anomaly into hell if necessary. We could do this. We might actually win. They defeated the Hollow, the city-devourer, and the rest of the Anomalies. They were still fighting and winning. Meanwhile, humanity¡¯s final stronghold remained steadfast. Though exhausted, not a single Awakened warrior had perished. Not one was injured! The civilians in the rear continued supplying materials. So¨D Tick. At exactly 61 hours, 11 minutes, and 32 seconds since the Final Defense War began, people came to realize. The miracles andebacks that had unfolded like a dream had all stemmed, from the start, from the sacrifice of a single girl. The countdown reached its end. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 247 The Experimenter VI Humanity¡¯s dream had ended. ¡°......¡± As mentioned, those who harbored intense disdain for Sim Ah-ryeon as the Collector of All Anomalies were the ones who fully, swiftly transformed into trees and flowers. The Collector of All Anomalies had always imed responsibility for nearly every event in the world¡ªwhen and where an Anomaly would appear, how much suffering people would endure. I foresaw the future based on my regressor knowledge. And when standing in for me, the Collector of All Anomalies performed the duties of a prophet. A prophet widely reviled as the mastermind behind world-ending plots, hiding in the shadows.Naturally, the more they despised ¡°the one who ruined the world,¡± the more they ¡°loved humanity,¡± the less they resigned themselves to civilization¡¯s copse, and the stronger their hope that the world could change¡ªthe deeper the hatred ran for Ah-ryeon, the Collector of All Anomalies. Dang Seo-rin loved humanity. Since she wasn¡¯t part of the Regressor¡¯s Alliance, she didn¡¯t know the true nature of the Constetions. Thus, she hated what was meant to be hated. So when the Hundred Blooming Blossoms spread across Busan¨Dit took less than 0.1 seconds for Seo-rin to be a tree in full flower. A violet bloomed before me. ¡°...Seo-rin.¡± The violet quivered. A rich, dark purple flower, almost ck, hung down from its branch like wisteria.[1] Swish. The sea breeze stirred the flowers. As if answering my call, the violet¡¯s purple petals released a faint lc scent. Violets were typically ground flowers, yet she had transformed into a tree. Just as she had leaned on me, putting her weight in my hands. I released Seo-rin¡¯s fingers, now vines, and leaned close to the violet. Quietly, I kissed its petals. ¡°It was just a bad dream. And it won¡¯tst too long. Let¡¯s meet again, tomorrow.¡± ¡°......¡± Across from the wisteria, Dok-seo stood, looking over with uncertainty. Unlike the others, her body hadn¡¯t turned into flowers. ¡°Hey, mister...¡± ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s go together.¡± ¡°...Alright.¡± Leaving behind the violet wisteria on the beach of humanity¡¯sst city, we headed for the Tower of Babel. The city had been transformed entirely into a garden of flowers. Waaaah! Some people sobbed, some just moaned, but in this ¡°vegetative¡± city, the cries of newborns rang out, thest truly human sound. Beyond that was only chaotic noise. ¡°No, why! Why aren¡¯t my wounds¨D¡± ¡°Damn it, where the hell is the Saintess?!¡± ¡°Stop it! Don¡¯t pull on that! It¡¯s my arm, not a branch! It¡¯s my arm!¡± Yes. When no one died and no one was hurt, people could be noble. They could sing of hope. But when they began to suffer injuries, only a few retained their purity. In the end, ¡°humanity¡¯s final line of defense¡± was not just the territory of ¡°Busan¡± as a geological site. It was the strategy pieced together by the regressor after endless attempts, the social infrastructure established by the Regressor¡¯s Alliance, and the illusion Ah-ryeon had conjured of a world ¡°where no one gets hurt.¡± This was humanity¡¯sst line of defense. ¡°......¡± These scenes passed by quickly as we ran through the blurred cityscape. Dok-seo¡¯s gaze wavered as she watched the final sanctuary crumble before her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± she stuttered. ¡°Wh-what? Sorry for what?¡± ¡°This is where I¡¯ve reached my limit.¡± She pursed her lips. The final line of defense hadsted a mere 61 hours, 11 minutes, and 32 seconds, a sweet dream that ended with a chilling gust of emptiness. - This is F11!Cr?kk? ? ? this is F11! There are too many of the Hollow! Can¡¯t hold the front! Requesting support! ReCr?kk? ? ? tatr?k - Ahahahar?kk? ? ? har?kk? ? ? hahakk? ? ? haha. - r?k? ? ? 2 has no issues. Ah! The world¡¯s so bright. The red sunlight¡¯s as sweet as fresh tomato juice... Crunch! I crushed the radio. The radios, which had barely held our wide frontlines together, could no longer withstand the Void Poison and had been corrupted. By now, the radio operators at each front were probably receiving phantom orders like, ¡°Hold your position. Reinforcements are on the way.¡± I carried Dok-seo up the Tower of Babel. When we reached the terrace, I set her down. ¡°Well now, wee...¡± Do-hwa greeted us first. She still looked rtively intact, although tiny buds of Dicentra flowers had formed on her cheeks. They looked like tear tracks running from her eyes to her jawline. ¡°Good to see you again, Regressor Undertaker. Honestly, when I saw the Monster Wave, I had no idea how the hell we¡¯d fight such godforsaken things, but you... Well, you¡¯ve lived up to your reputation as some ¡®Regressor¡¯...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So, is it over now...?¡± I looked around. Noh Do-hwa. Oh Dok-seo. Cheon Yo-hwa. Yu Ji-won. And Sim Ah-ryeon, silently praying. ¡°Where¡¯s Ha-yul?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh. She radioed that she¡¯d try to hold them off, but no word since. Not even sure if that was really the Puppeteer kid¡¯s voice...¡± ¡°Lee Ha-yul is presumed dead,¡± said Ji-won. ¡°The Mini-Map shows her marker toppled, Your Excellency. All fronts are copsing simultaneously.¡± Yo-hwa gave a bittersweetugh. ¡°Heh. Normally, I¡¯d be dying on the front with my squad right now¡ªbut you insisted I survive, Teacher, so here I am. I slipped away while they held the line.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded. ¡°And among us, there¡¯s an Anomaly.¡± ¡°Excuse me?¡± I swung my sword toward the confused Ji-won. Her body split in two perfectly. Everyone¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Mister? Even if Ji-won was a crazy psychopath, always plotting a power grab, killing her like that is...¡± ¡°Ji-won is already dead, Dok-seo.¡± I sheathed my sword. ¡°Did you forget? We chose to fall back because the Saintess and Yu Ji-won were killed.¡± ¡°Huh...?¡± ¡°The body here is not Ji-won¡¯s.¡± Dok-seo and the others looked down at the terrace floor. Ji-won¡¯s bisected corpse had vanishedpletely. In its ce was the carcass of an Anomaly with the head of a mouse and the body of a roon. Dok-seo gaped as I murmured, ¡°The Void Poison has already started seeping in here.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°To answer your question, Commander Noh Do-hwa, yes. This is our end.¡± I approached Ah-ryeon. She wore her Saintess¡¯s gown, her face veiled beneath a cloth thicker than a bridal veil. I lightly lifted the veil. - ...... And beneath it did noty Ah-ryeon¡¯s smile, which had once been directed at me. Calends. Baby¡¯s breath. Daisies. Campsis. Zinnias. Daffodils. Azaleas. Carnations. Moonflowers. Poppies. Can flowers. A vast array of flowers and vines wove together across Ah-ryeon¡¯s eyebrows, forehead, brow, nose, eyelids, eyes, cheeks, earlobes, philtrum, lips, and jawline. Bearing thenguage of every flower in the world, the shy girl who once called me Guild Leader, blossomed here without a word. ...Guild Leader... I didn¡¯t want to look below her face. In the center of the terrace, where she knelt, innumerable trunks grew, entwining the Tower of Babel and spreading to all of Busan. ...A-are you alright?... The roots kept growing. Considering the now ¡°ttened¡± world wasn¡¯t so vast, her roots would soon cover everything. I opened my arms and embraced the Sacrifice. With a flutter, the flowers in my embrace wilted, permeating the air with the fragrance of a million blooms. A conversation from a past cycle came back to me. ¡°Ah-ryeon. This is your end.¡± Sketchbook held in hand, Ah-ryeon lifted her head slightly and blinked up at me. ¡°Huh, what?¡± ¡°This cherry tree. This monstrous flower sprouting from the bodies of a mother and child is your final seed, full grown.¡± ¡°......¡± The Udumbara originated in an old inn in Onyang, Asan, Chungcheong Province. At civilization¡¯s end, even before the world fell apart, a mother and child died of starvation in each other¡¯s arms. The Udumbara bloomed in Room 202 on the inn¡¯s second floor. Its branches reached out, climbing over crumbling bricks, through window gaps, a cherry tree draped over it. I often brought Ah-ryeon along to Onyang to eradicate the Udumbara. Today was no different. ¡°Ah-ryeon, your Awakening power and Udumbara¡¯s are probably the same type. Healing people, suspending death.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°nts don¡¯t feel pain. If there¡¯s no pain, there¡¯s no wound. If there¡¯s no wound, death itself can be surpassed. A rejection of suffering. That¡¯s your ability, Ah-ryeon.¡± Ah-ryeon¡¯s wide eyes looked at me, her usual faint smile disappearing into an almost emotionless expression. I told her many things. How to draw aggro. Strategies using the Collector of All Anomalies Constetion. ns to establish a puppet state, the Eastern Holy State, using Mo Gwang-seo. Stories of bing a living line of defense under the alias Saintess of the North to face the Monster Wave. ¡°If you don¡¯t want this, you can erase it all.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I mean it. You don¡¯t have to decide here. If you try it and it doesn¡¯t feel right, just let me know.¡± She hummed, chewing on the end of a rounded brush. ¡°But if I don¡¯t evolve into that ¡®Bird that Drinks Poison,¡¯ eventually, we... c-can¡¯t stop the Anomalies... uh, the Monster Wave,ing from the continent?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I hesitated for a moment. ¡°If Ie up with a better solution, we might manage, but so far, my solution involves you¡ªand it¡¯s only a shaky stopgap.¡± ¡°But if I¡¯m not there, won¡¯t... everyone die? Everyone?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Ah-ryeon tilted her head. ¡°Mmm... Guild Leader, I¡¯m just asking out of curiosity. Does... Does my decision even matter?¡± I nodded. Ah-ryeon didn¡¯t nod back. ¡°Why does it matter?¡± ¡°Having the power to save the world doesn¡¯t mean you must save it, Ah-ryeon.¡± ¡°......?¡± ¡°I think every person in this world holds the power to destroy it. Each person is a world on their own. People think they¡¯re just living their lives, but they¡¯re all keeping their world alive.¡± ¡°......¡± I knelt down and met Ah-ryeon¡¯s gaze over the sketchbook. ¡°So, if someone takes their own life, it¡¯s not just saying their life is worthless. It¡¯s saying, ¡®This world is worthless,¡¯ too.¡± ¡°......¡± Why did the world end so suddenly? Why did Anomalies appear, annihting humanity with no warning? I¡¯d pondered this for a long time but never found a definitive answer. But I had one guess. Because too many people thought the world was worthless, and in response, the world simply emptied out. Perhaps the Anomalies believed, ¡°Since we fulfilled humanity¡¯s wish, they should thank us.¡± This nightmare, it was a dream humanity had desired for so long. The Anomalies were likely sneering at us. ¡°You have the power to decide this world¡¯s fate, Ah-ryeon. The world repeats endlessly, and even if you don¡¯t remember it, your actions, your words will always circle back to you.¡± ¡°I... I don¡¯t understand.¡± Ah-ryeon looked down at her sketchbook, and then, she met my eyes once more and almost seemed to be carefully reading what she saw there in my gaze. Hesitantly, she said, ¡°But... I feel sofortable with you, Guild Leader.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°When we talk, my heart doesn¡¯t ache. Even if we¡¯re not talking, I don¡¯t feel any pressure in my chest. Even when I stutter, I¡¯m not embarrassed. The o-others you introduced me to are fun too... and th-that caf¨¦ mocha fromst time... Wow, it was delicious! Amazing. I still don¡¯t get how coffee can taste like that.¡± She set down her brush and sketchbook. Slowly, clumsily, she wrapped her arms around me. ¡°S-so...¡± ...Please don¡¯t cry, Guild Leader... I held the Sacrifice¡¯s shoulders lightly. Fighting against the corpses of humans and cities had drained almost all my Aura, but I had enough left to perform onest ritual¡ªfor the girl who had smiled at me even as she crossed from the Outer Gods¡¯ Realm. Clink. A silver bell jingled on my wrist. My Aura flowed from my body to the Sacrifice¡¯s petals, stems, and roots¡ªa dark, flowing power. The next moment, humanity¡¯s final city burned. Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 248 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 248 The Experimenter VII The roots resembled human veins, stretching from the Sacrifice in Busan¡ªacross the entire earth¡ªlike blood vessels. Starting from this being, who still faintly held Ah-ryeon¡¯s form, the branching veins spread out like a spiderweb. Now that the world had shrunk down to almost nothing, it wouldn¡¯t be wrong to call the being before me the Heart of the World Tree. ¡°Ah...¡± Behind me, Dok-seo let out a small breath. It might have been awe, or perhaps despair. After all, there had to be some difference in ¡°resolution¡± between the concept of world annihtion that she had only ever encountered through ¡°words¡± and the reality now unfolding before her.¡°The whole world... It¡¯s burning.¡± It was exactly as Dok-seo muttered. While I held the Sacrifice, I spread my Aura. The dark tendrils spread from the Tower of Babel, flowing swiftly through all of Busan, through the narrowest alleys, the slums, and even past thest line of defense. - Ah... All over, those who had been injured by the Sacrifice and whose limbs had turned to vines lost their bnce and fell. The vegetative humans, whose bodies had fully transformed into trees and flowers, began burning to ck and gray without exception, their petals scattering like mes. The violet wisteria of Dang Seo-rin, once blooming alone in Haeundae, also burst into mes, scattering purple. There was no pain. ¡°......¡± Even though my Aura had reached an extraordinary level, it wasn¡¯t easy to create such a grand sea of mes at the end of a war. Yes. If the Corrupted being before me had rejected my Aura even slightly, this would have been impossible. But the Sacrifice had not resisted. Despite having the perfect opportunity to overtake the city and paint it in her own color a step ahead of the Monster Wave, she only quietly epted my Aura and burned. She, who had postponed world annihtion for 61 hours, 11 minutes, and 32 seconds, now erased the threat of annihtion herself. Fwoosh... When all the vegetative humans turned to ash along with the final line of defense, the Heart of the World Tree too crumbled to ashes and copsed on the spot. Even the outline of Ah-ryeon dispersed like dust into the wind from the terrace. A moment of silence ensued. ¡°Hm.¡± Do-hwa was the first to break the silence. ncing down, she looked at the Monster Wave, which was now rushing freely toward the Tower of Babel with thest line of defense destroyed. ¡°What¡¯s your next move...?¡± ¡°Our paths diverge here.¡± I stood up, brushing off none of the ashes on my face or clothes. ¡°If you want to keep resisting, even just to extend humanity¡¯s survival by a single second, you should retreat to the Inunaki Tunnel and join up with Seo Gyu. If that gets taken, every Anomaly imprisoned in SG Net will be unleashed at once.¡± ¡°Ohhh.¡± ¡°With the Monster Wave and the SG Net escapees mixed in, we¡¯ll have aplete pandemonium on our hands. The Inunaki Tunnel is well suited for a siege. If you¡¯re determined, you could hold out for over a hundred days.¡± ¡°Aha... I see. So that¡¯s why you chose such a narrow tunnel as a base¡ªbecause it was intended for this kind of crisis in the first ce?¡± ¡°Precisely.¡± Do-hwa adjusted her monocle. ¡°But since the goal of this run is to capture the Outer God tied to Mastermind Syndrome... Keeping the SG Net Admin alive doesn¡¯t hold much value now, does it?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Right...¡± Do-hwa picked up a radio. Originally, 31 radios were prepared on the operations table in front of her. Of those, 30 had been destroyed. Strangely, thest one hadn¡¯t been used once throughout the entire battle. Holding the final radio, she said, ¡°The time is now. Kill him...¡± Bang! Through the radio came a burst of static and the sound of a gunshot. All of us on the terrace stared wide-eyed at Do-hwa. She chuckled. ¡°Oh... There¡¯s no need to thank me. Given everything we¡¯ve been through, I figured it was on me to handle this...¡± Before I could fully grasp the meaning, Boom! a deafening noise rang out from the waters off Busan. It was in the direction of the shared entrance to Inunaki Tunnel, Dream Casino, and Caf¨¦ hideout. A sudden blizzard swept across, instantly freezing the sea¡¯s surface. From beneath the ice burst forth Anomalies in all manner of bizarre forms, marking the copse of the cyber-prison, SG Net. In other words, Seo Gyu¡¯s death. ¡°You... You killed him!¡± Dok-seo came to her senses and grabbed Do-hwa by the cor. ¡°You killed Seo Gyu? Using the National Road Management Corps? How could you? He was our ally!¡± ¡°I was never particrly close to him...¡± ¡°What does that matter?! We¡¯ve been working together, trying to prevent humanity¡¯s extinction! This is insane! Are you stupid? How could you betray¨D¡± Bang! Dok-seo fell silent, releasing her grip. Then, she slumped downward. Bang! Do-hwa pulled the trigger again¡ªa confirming shot. In her hand was a gun all too familiar to me. ¡°Hm. She may have been the Outer God¡¯s apostle or whatever, but she couldn¡¯t resist a weapon crafted to put a bullet in the heart of her master. This is thepatibility you mentioned, isn¡¯t it?¡± A Walther PPK, Chekhov¡¯s Gun. A weapon specifically created for ying the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. After the campaign, the weapon had been locked up in the underground prison of the National Road Management Corps headquarters. ¡°Just as I thought. The tactics for attacking the Outer God would work just as well against the apostle. My guess turned out to be right...¡± ¡°Commander Do-hwa.¡± Do-hwa let out augh from deep within. Her head tilted to the side as she said it: ¡°I¡¯ll see you in hell...¡± Bang! The doctor¡¯s coat billowed as Do-hwa copsed. The gun that had spent its final bullet rolled limply from her hand. ¡°Wow...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Really, um. That was incredible, Teacher.¡± Now, the only two survivors left on the terrace were Yo-hwa and me. And in just a few more minutes, with the world rapidly copsing under the onught of Anomalies flooding in from both thest line of defense and the Inunaki Tunnel, we might as well have been ¡°thest two survivors in the world.¡± From the terrace, Yo-hwa looked down at the ground. She clicked her tongue. ¡°I must¡¯ve run the Reincarnation Project simtion hundreds of times, but, wow, real 3D... The impact of it all just doesn¡¯tpare. You go through this hundreds of times?¡± ¡°Each time is different. When the Monster Wave destroys the world, it usually ys out this way.¡± ¡°And... are you okay with this? Mentally speaking?¡± ¡°I told you already.¡± I covered Do-hwa¡¯s body with her doctor¡¯s coat, and used Ah-ryeon¡¯s saintly veil to cover Dok-seo¡¯s. After a brief moment of silence, I turned. ¡°It usually ends like this.¡± Yo-hwa sighed. ¡°Ah... So every time I died in other cycles, you performed these funerals for me too, Teacher.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a Guild Leader who roams the frontlines constantly. You¡¯re so free-spirited that I¡¯ve always worried about you.¡± ¡°If I¡¯d known, maybe I would¡¯ve stayed tucked away at Baekwha Girls¡¯ High a bit more... I guess it¡¯s toote to regret wandering around just to blow off steam now, right? Next cycle, I won¡¯t remember any of this?¡± ¡°Mm.¡± ¡°And if I leave a message for myself, I won¡¯t understand it, will I...? Wait a sec. D¨¦j¨¤ vu.¡± She gasped. ¡°Didn¡¯t you once tell me this was my ownst will from a past cycle?¡± ¡°Good memory.¡± ¡°I¡¯m such an idiot...¡± Yo-hwa groaned, clutching her head. It was her way offorting others. I caressed Yo-hwa¡¯s cheek, and my palm came away smeared with soot. This kid had spent more than two days fighting in the war just as I had, bing aplete wreck in the process. ¡°Let¡¯s meet again next time, Yo-hwa.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Thank you, always.¡± ¡°Me too, Teacher.¡± Yo-hwa ced her hand on the back of mine. She smiled and rested her cheek against it. ¡°Even though...¡± She hesitated. ¡°Even though it¡¯s not always, thank you foring to find me even knowing we¡¯d part like this. Please take care of the next me.¡± ¡°If you stop kicking the guards every time we meet in the hallway, I¡¯ll consider it.¡± ¡°Haha... Ah. I miss it already. Already...¡± She closed her eyes. ¡°Already...¡± When she opened them again¡ª Her once-red eyes were now tinged with the emptiness of Infinite Void and gleamed with an eerie light. ¡°Damn.¡± The first word Infinite Void uttered when it opened its eyes. It pushed my hand away, muttering a nervous string of Damn! Damn! Damn! ¡°You¡¯re insane, aren¡¯t you? You¡¯re just a human¡ªhow can a human...? Even with the ability to regress, how is this possible?¡± ¡°Prepare yourself. Soon, the Outer Gods will extend their hands.¡± ¡°Which ones?¡± Infinite Voidughed hollowly. ¡°There are three Outer Gods descending on this tiny world right now! Ah, including me, that¡¯s four! Add in the real mastermind of Mastermind Syndrome, and that¡¯s five!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And you... you held out in this hell for over 60 hours? A mere mortal. This is impossible...!¡± ¡°If you want to kiss my ass, work on honeyed up that tongue. Praise from an Anomaly doesn¡¯t do a thing for me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re insane...¡± Infinite Void muttered, sucking in a breath. ¡°No, wait. I¡¯m technically the Enemy Who Turned Ally, right? Plus, I¡¯m forced into this miserable human form, with a human¡¯s mind. So... right! This could work out! If I ride the Undertaker Bus from here on, wouldn¡¯t it be my win as long as I survive?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re dering full surrender, I¡¯ll ept it any time. Are you ready to abandon all your powers?¡± ¡°Aaaaah...! No! I don¡¯t want to be human! What is this, with emotions and this pathetic memory span, repeating the same damned actions and thoughts over and over? Why would I ever want to be reduced to that!¡± It bit its nails. ¡°Wait a sec... Isn¡¯t even this freak-out a bit too human? Aaaaaah! Undertaker! Undertaker! I curse you! You¡¯re an Anomaly that turns others into humans! A human Anomaly!¡± ¡°Keep it up.¡± I looked down from the Tower of Babel. The ground was now swarming with Anomalies, colored ck and red. Some were even crawling up the tower¡¯s walls. ¡°And regardless of whether you surrender, I¡¯ve already achieved this cycle¡¯s goal.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s down to just us two.¡± I turned my gaze to Infinite Void. ¡°Show yourself, Mastermind.¡± Infinite Void¡¯s mouth dropped open. And from that opening came a voice¡ªa bizarre mixture of Yo-hwa¡¯s and a mechanical hum. ¡°That¡¯s right. I cast NPC Creation on Commander Do-hwa. While you were gone.¡± Bzzz, crackle. Like his vocal cords resonated with a radio, static came from Infinite Void¡¯s throat. At the same time, from the 30 broken radios on Do-hwa¡¯s table and thest one she had used, came Infinite Void¡¯s voice. - Undertaker, I was waiting for you toe back and deal with Ah-ryeon. - Once the city burned¡ªtruly,pletely¡ªyou¡¯d be left exhausted. ¡°That¡¯s right. I nned it so Commander Do-hwa could pull the trigger without you being able to stop her, even for a moment.¡± - And that¡¯s not all, right? Seo Gyu was already under my control. That gunshot through the radio¡ªthat was Seo Gyu pulling the trigger on himself. ¡°To put it simply, SG Net¡¯s prison was under my control the whole time.¡± - Why eliminate the Saintess first? Why kill Yu Ji-won? Obviously, it was to get rid of anyone who might track me, Yo-hwa. ¡°Those two were a nuisance.¡± - Yeah! A nuisance! ¡°Every bit of data the Saintess observed would¡¯ve been handed to the Undertaker. And any ¡®fog of war¡¯ on this battlefield would be lifted. If the fog is gone, I can¡¯t manipte causality. Same with Yu Ji-won. Her Mini-Map tracked everyone, anytime, anywhere. With that, I couldn¡¯t create or manipte causality. I couldn¡¯t warp it. I couldn¡¯t take it.¡± - Create? - Manipte? - Warp? The radios crackled. - What are you talking about? - When did we manipte anything? - There¡¯s no warping. Seo Gyu was brainwashed through NPC Creation, shot himself. That really happened in this world. - Yeah! The Undertaker¡¯s causality can never tell what¡¯s true or false! ¡°No.¡± Infinite Void muttered nkly. ¡°No, no, no. Yo-hwa didn¡¯t use her power on Do-hwa or Seo Gyu. I made sure to ¡®collect¡¯ that data. This is my data. You can¡¯t alter my data.¡± - .......... - .......... ¡°The white birch-patterned hospital gown, the red trace of blood on the patient¡¯s bed from the red spider lily, ripped apart in the school¡¯s garden...¡± I spoke. ¡°Infinite Void.¡± It turned sharply toward me. The ¡°human¡± expressions it had shown while agonizing and talking were nowpletely gone, and in their ce were endlessly nk eyes. In its pupils, the colors red, white, ck, blue, and yellow shed in continuous pulses. ¡°For this run, I¡¯ll return some of your powers.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give you control of the Bakus. Break the hourss.¡± Shatter! As soon as I finished, it pulled out the hourss from his waist and crushed it in his hands. It was the ss bottle that had imprisoned the Doppelganger. From where Yo-hwa stood, ¡°colors¡± spread, nketing the once-red skies and ground instantly. It wasn¡¯t a single color. It kept changing, endlessly, never resting for even a second. The blue of the earth from space, the green of foxtail grass, the brown of ants, the ck of a charging smartwatch, the red flush on a newborn¡¯s cheeks, and then, and then, Yo-hwa¡¯s body had disappeared. - Ah. - Ah? - Ah. Ah. The radios screamed with static. And then, silence. Against the ck background, a gasping ¡°Ah¡± glowed yellow. Even that yellow quickly dissolved into ckness. The letters ¡°Ah,¡± ¡°Ah?¡± ¡°Ah.¡± painted themselves in session before melting away. - Ah. Then, scarlet letters appeared in the sky. - Found you. In that moment, the sky tore open.

Footnotes: Join our discord at Chapter 249 Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 249 The Experimenter VIII There will be no epilogue for this story. However, if given the task of putting the scene after the world has ended into words, I could do it and describe it in some detail. Below is an ount of the world¡¯s end, a substitute for an epilogue.

¡°The sky tore open.¡± It wasn¡¯t a metaphor, an exaggeration, or a distortion. Quite literally, the sky ripped like a sheet of stic. Silently, too. - Ahahaha. From the fissure in the fabric of space appeared nothing other than a red eye. It was the eye of Infinite Void. The vivid red iris wasrger than any known being. Its muscles shifted, resembling a crackling earthquake. Each rippling tendon made gxies contract and expand in turn. - Tiny! Infinite Void''s eye slit open even wider, and a dark pupil as deep as a ck hole gazed ¡°this way¡±¡ªtoward the earth below. - Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny! Kyahahaha! Soon, from the rift in the sky, a hand stretched forth. The hand approached this world. It was a right hand. Only moments earlier, it had shattered an hourss, and now bare shards of ss were embedded in its skin, with blood flowing down freely. The right hand emerging from the rift wasrger than a continent. In an instant, the ground was engulfed in its shadow. The Tower of Babel, Haeundae, Busan, even the earth¡ªttened as it was¡ªall of it. Completely. Blood from the giant''s right hand dripped down like waterfalls in great torrents. Craaash! Each drop of blood formed a vast sea, cascading into the world. - .........! - ......! ......! The earth was engulfed in a colossal flood. The grotesque creatures scaling the Tower of Babel had no escape from this bloodbath. The escapees from SG Net, poised to break through the icy waters, were instantly submerged, struck by the tide of blood. - Kyahahahahaha. The sound of Infinite Void''sughter echoed through heaven and earth. It stretched out a thumb and forefinger and plucked the Tower of Babel. Crack! Like a child awkwardly snapping a chocte bar, the tower shattered at its midpoint. - Sunbae. Infinite Voidughed. That eerily bizarre voice, if it were to be described more urately, really sounded more like this: - sunbae, sunbae, sunbae, sunbae, sunbae, sunbae, sunbae - Suuunnnbbbaaaeeee The voice of Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯) and the mechanical tone of Infinite Void seemed to intertwine, pronounced simultaneously. Yes. Infinite Void¡¯s voice wasn¡¯t justing from the rift in the sky. Now, it resounded from broken radios, from smartphones bobbing in the flood of blood, from every electronic device floating on the water. The voices of the Outer God ovepped endlessly, echoing all at once. - I¡¯ll make an exception for you, sunbae. I¡¯ll let you live. - Sunnnnbaaaeee, huh? - Kyahahahahahaha! Infinite Void lifted me along with the entire Tower of Babel. A forced ascension. It seemed that the Outer God was inviting me beyond the rift. The gesture of the grotesque hand was anything but gentle. As I shot higher and higher in altitude, I had to cling desperately to the terrace railing to keep from falling. Then, it happened. --The?re? it? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Schloooosh! In the middle of this world, which had now beenpletely dyed red by an endless flood of blood, a colossal dragon suddenly sprang up and soared into the air. In an instant, I knew what it was. ¡°Leviathan!¡± The ocean-ss Anomaly that had unleashed a super monsoon back in the 664th cycle. Although not asrge as Infinite Void''s fingers, the Leviathan was still massive. After all, it was the beast described in myth as beingrger than the earth itself. ¡®I see. Super Monsoon and Great Flood are basically the same term. And now that the entire world has been flooded, it''s an ideal situation for Leviathan. For any other Anomaly, it might be a disaster, but for it, it¡¯s actually an opportunity!¡¯ Even in the 664th cycle, subjugating Leviathan had been a grueling ordeal, but the dragon that had appeared now was on a different scale. Its body wasrge enough to wrap around the earth nine times over and still have room to spare. It wasn¡¯t only the size that had changed. In the 664th cycle, the one who dealt the final blow to Leviathan was Go Yuri, not me. No matter how relentlessly the Ark fleet pursued him, Leviathan still seemed to have one final means of resistance left. - Beeehooold. The dragon¡¯s scaly body, covered in countless shimmering scales, suddenly flipped inside out. It was its reverse scales. All the scales transformed into eyes, each with a writhing tentacle sprouting from within. The dragon¡¯s appearance now seemed more like a centipede than a dragon, corrupted to the point it could no longer be seen as a divine beast. And yet, its sheer aura was chilling enough to make one¡¯s spine freeze. If this final form had appeared back in cycle 664, humanity, including me, would have perished without a chance. - Ahahahahaha! Infinite Voidughed again, as yet another hand¡ªthis time, its left¡ªemerged from the rift in the sky. - Tiny. Crack! With a simple grasp, the right hand snatched Leviathan. Leviathan immediately tried to resist, but it was utterly futile. Infinite Void clenched its fist. Cr-r-rack¡ª! With a sound that was almost yful, Leviathan was quite literally crushed. The head of Leviathan, which had opened its giant maw toward the Outer God, was ttened and fell motionless. Its body was fragmented, broken into tiny pieces like poorly handled candy sticks. Thud, thud, thud. The shattered remains of Leviathan¡¯s body rained down into the sea, which was now one vast body of water¡ªPanthssa, where the distinction of the five oceans no longer existed.[1] ¡°......¡± From my high vantage point, I looked down at it all, struck speechless. The 664th cycle hadn¡¯t been that long ago. My Aura, my skills, they were all nearly the same as they were now. ¡®And yet, the ocean-ss Anomaly that had driven me into a corner back then has been destroyed so easily, so utterly.¡¯ My musings were irrelevant to the ever-ascending altitude. The stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere¨D Finally, I was pulled up into a realm that could truly be called space. It had all happened in an instant. For an ordinary Awakener, this alone would have been enough to make them lose consciousness. ¡°Oh.¡± Though ¡°thanks¡± didn¡¯t quite seem appropriate, reaching this altitude allowed me to see a clear view of the earth, which had now be t as a pancake. The scene was so overwhelming and surreal that I muttered without realizing it. ¡°There are... two suns.¡± If I were to put it into a drawing, it would look something like this: ¡ð ¡þ¡þ¡þ ¡ñ The earth waspletely t (¡þ¡þ¡þ). And on one side was the original sun (¡ð), while on the other was an identical sun (¡ñ). ¡®The original sun has shrunk to nearly the size of the moon. It must be the influence of the geocentric model. And that sun on the opposite side... perhaps the influence of the Hollow Earth theory.¡¯ At that moment, a revtion dawned upon me. The heliocentric truth of the universe had shifted into a geocentric model, causing the sun to shrink. So where had the ¡°extra¡± mass of the sun gone? ¡®Aha! So that¡¯s it! The shrunken mass of the sun was used to create another sun in the Hollow Earth below!¡¯ It was astonishing. If this theory was correct, then the geocentric model and the Hollow Earth theory¡ªtwo seemingly unrted Anomalies¡ªwere in fact united as one. Further realizations kepting. ¡®And that¡¯s not all.¡¯ Look. How can the ttened earth remain bnced without drifting in space? It¡¯s because the two suns, positioned on opposite sides, were precisely bnced, holding the earth in ce from both sides. It was an incredible, nearly impossible feat. But that was only by human standards. From the perspective of an Anomaly, one such as the geocentric model, the Hollow Earth theory, or the t Earth theory, this must have been a perfect interpretation. The universe had be nothing more than a yground. ¡®Just what kind of Anomaly did this?¡¯ My mouth fell open. ¡®It must be an Outer God-ss. Nut? Is it Nut¡¯s power that Saintess has been sealing away? Or is it the Mastermind Syndrome-afflicted Outer God that Infinite Void just devoured? Or maybe...¡¯ - Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Then, something massive brushed past the Tower of Babel. It was so enormous that it took more than a second to discern its identity. But it just so happened to be a shape familiar to my eyes. ¡®Yo-hwa''s shoes?¡¯ It was a pair of Air Jordans in a ck and red colorway. These were the very sneakers that Cheon Yo-hwa had worn when she first kicked at me in the corridor of Baekwha Girls¡¯ High School. As a former ace of the basketball team, Yo-hwa cherished these shoes and would wear them whenever we met. She had, of course, worn them during this Final Defense War as well. Now, that very pair of sneakers appeared through the rift in the sky, descending upon the earth ttened by the t Earth Theory. - Ughhh. KRAKOOM! The sneakers stomped down on the ¡°t Earth Theory.¡± It wasn¡¯t just the ttened earth that was crushed. The two suns were also obliterated under the sole of the shoe. The world, already submerged in blood, crumbled like a delicate cookie under the blow. In a single kick from the Outer God, countless humans and even more countless Anomalies that had filled this world were obliterated. ¡°......¡± - I¡¯mm theee onne now. I¡¯mmm theee onne no. - I¡¯mmm theee onne noww. Meee. Meee. In the geocentric model, Earth was the center of the universe. With the center erased, the only things remaining in space were thes of the sr system and the constetions. Crash! Boom! KRAKOOM! Infinite Void unleashed its right hand and its foot, methodically destroying the remaining celestial bodies without hesitation. The universe, stripped of its center, began contracting rapidly. Or perhaps it was ¡°receding.¡± Infinite Void¡¯s left hand was still gripping me and the Tower of Babel, drawing us toward the rift. The universe had now shrunk to a single dark speck, and I was pulled ¡°outside¡± of it. ¡°Ah.¡± Even amidst this, as a regressor, my mind processed information unceasingly, sorting and analyzing. The world had ended. The Outer God-ss Anomaly, empowered beyond belief by merging with the Mastermind Syndrome-afflicted Outer God, had eradicated it all. What had transpired beyond the rift was beyond my knowledge. Perhaps Infinite Void had consumed the Mastermind, or the two Outer Gods might havebined in some horrific fusion. One thing was certain: that Outer God had grown iprehensibly powerful, and as a result, the world was destroyed. The Outer God overseeing the Monster Wave, the one who wielded Leviathan, all had been demoted under Infinite Void¡¯s domination. In short, this was Infinite Void¡¯s final victory ending. Released from the confines of Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body, Infinite Void had be powerful beyond imagination. This cycle could be considered a failure. Just like so many others. ¡®I heard something...¡¯ But the only failure was that of the current me in the 687th cycle. By shing Infinite Void with the Mastermind, my experiment to reveal the weakness of the Outer Gods had seeded. At least, the initial phase of the experiment had seeded. As seen now, Infinite Void had crossed ¡°through the rift¡± and was pulling me along. The sacrifices of myrades¡ªSaintess, Yu Ji-won, Dang Seo-rin, Oh Dok-seo, Noh Do-hwa, Sim Ah-ryeon... countless lives¡ªthey weren¡¯t in vain. No, I wouldn¡¯t allow them to be in vain. As the regressor, I scanned my surroundings, ever-vignt for any scrap of information, any hint of leverage. ¡®Even if the earth was destroyed, it¡¯s still impossible for sound to reach me out here in the distance of space.¡¯ Yet I had heard booming echoes as each celestial body was annihted. I checked to see if there was any air blowing nearby, like by moistening a finger, suspecting that ¡°breath¡± from Infinite Void¡¯s presence might be filling the vacuum of space. But I felt no air. I wasn¡¯t even breathing normally. Yet still, there was sound¡ª ¡®A medium exists within space. In other words, ether exists, just as schrs of the geocentric era theorized.¡¯ Ether. A supposed element that fills the entirety of the universe, like air on earth, present everywhere, always. Given my Complete Memory, as soon as I recognized the existence of ether, my mind was inevitably drawn to the next deduction. And the reason was simple. ¡¸Brothers and sisters! Since ancient times, fire has been the sacred ether! Fire¡¯s essence is to purify the foul air of the earth and draw closer to heaven!¡¹ A memory from long ago. When Mo Gwang-seo Christ was still simply known as Mo Gwang-seo, I¡¯d recorded in a corner of my mind his speech to his followers. He had once said: ¡°But cleansing these foul airs is no easy task. As a soul who has prated the six spiritual realms, I will pave the way and guide you all to the heavenly kingdom above.¡± ¡°Each of you must break through this Path of Wind I open with your full might as one so that the souls left on Earth can easily ascend!" "I shall open the Path of Wind and help you ascend. And you, in turn, must help others ascend as well." Ether. The Path of Wind. The Heavenly Kingdom. ¡°......¡± A thunderous epiphany shook my mind. ¡®Was Mo Gwang-seo not just some mere fraud or demagogue?¡¯ The ether was real, present in the void that had emerged with the t Earth Theory. The Path of Wind, connecting to the rift in space, was likewise real. Even now, as I was clutched by Infinite Void¡¯s fingers and being drawn through it. So, whaty beyond that rift? Was it the Heavenly Kingdom? Without seeing it for myself, I couldn¡¯t begin to specte. Only¡ª "Enter through the narrow gate." A prophecy uttered to me by Mo Gwang-seo, the man who had always remained silent like a puppet, came to mind suddenly. Though I¡¯d initially dismissed it as Lee Ha-yul¡¯s trickery, Ha-yul herself had insisted that she had never been ¡°coerced into saying anything of the sort.¡± "The gate to destruction is wide, and the path broad, and many are those who enter through it." "The gate to life is narrow, and the path narrow, and those who find it are few." I was on the terrace of the Tower of Babel. Clinging to the very structure humanity had built in their quest to reach divinity, I turned to look behind me. The cosmic scenery had vanished entirely. Only the ¡°rift,¡± growing closer, with Infinite Void¡¯s enormous eye watching, remained. The void, a tear in the fabric of the world. "O, scribe." "Enter through the narrow gate." And so. I entered through the narrow gate. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 250 Editor: echo Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I''m an Infinite Regressor, But I''ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 250 The Mastermind I Did you know? The title of any existing work in the world could be transformed into a "concealment" format. Let''s call it the Concealment Transformation Theory.Needless to say, of course, the stories we''ve journeyed through so far could be concealed in the same way. "City Bus Conceals a Chessboard," "Radio DJ Conceals a Musical Genius," "The Last Heir of a People Conceals a Signal Fire," "The Ice Age Conceals Humanity''s Sincerity," "Earth Conceals the Sun," and so forth... There''s truly no end to the possibilities. All it takes is tacking on "conceals" somewhere in the middle. The genius who first conceived these titles surely deserves some acim. In fact, the sharp-witted among you may have already noticed that the Outer God we''re about to target lends itself most fittingly to this concealment transformation. After all, the very term "Mastermind" implies a perpetrator concealing their identity. Therefore, if we were to arbitrarily apply the Concealment Transformation Theory to this Outer God, who stillcks a proper name, we might describe it like this: "The Anomaly Conceals the World."

The instant I crossed the rift, led by the Infinite Void''s pointer finger, I briefly lost consciousness. How long was I out? Maybe five seconds? After cking out for a short while, I opened my eyes again to find myself lying on the ground. Someone was gazing down at me. - Consciousness restoration: confirmed. - Primarynguage set to Korean. Initiating dialogue.N?v(el)B\\jnn - It has been a while, human. It was an Anomaly. A slime-like entityposed of bright red liquid bubbled up with a pop-pop, creating sounds that resembled a "human" voice. So the lines it had just spoken weren''t really words. They were just intermittent bursts of effects like "I-t has-been-a-while, hu-man." "A while...? And who might you be?" - Name: Fairy King. "Ah." The Fairy King. An Anomaly simr to an AI personality that governed all the fairies in the tutorial. To be precise, each Tutorial Fairy was essentially a terminal of the Fairy King. Considering that fairies were actually Baku, one might also call the Fairy King a Subus Queen. Once, this Anomaly might have acted freely, but since the point at which I began to regress, it had already been enved by the Infinite Void. It didn''t pose any real threat. "And why are you here? And what''s with that form?" I looked around. "Where''s the Infinite Void?" - Processing your questions in reverse order. First: You transferred your control of me to the Outer God known as the Infinite Void. The bubbles popped again. - The Infinite Void is currently engaged in a dispute with the Outer God in this ce, which, ording to your words, would be called the Great Void or the Void of Imageless Spirits. "A dispute." I clutched my head, quickly running through the Fairy King''s answers. My head throbbed, probably because my Aura had drained. "So, the Infinite Void is battling the Mastermind Outer God? To seize control?" - Confirmation: That is correct. "And where are they fighting? I was definitely pulled here by the Infinite Void''s finger." - They are fighting now, here, and in all ces at all times. "..." - Because it is not a physical battle, but a contest of concepts, your senses cannot perceive it. However, the Fairy King then murmured something else. - Exnation: The Infinite Void has determined that without you, the oue of this battle is meaningless. - Reason: Even if it wins, the moment your life ends, all progress resets. "Mm." As expected. The Infinite Void couldn''t preserve data across cycles. Even if it regained some of its former powers, it would face serious problems if the regressor hit "reset." Whether it wanted to recruit, persuade, or imprison me, the Infinite Void had no choice but to focus on me, the regressor. The reason it pulled me in, even after the world had perished,y in this. "Then, is this really the Mastermind Outer God''s domain?" - Confirmation: Correct. I descended here tomunicate with you on behalf of the Infinite Void. "So you''re something like a walkie-talkie." - Confirmation: That understanding is urate. I groaned, pulling myself upright. We were in a sealed room¡ªa cube. The sterile, white cube exuded no sense of life. "A containment room? Aboratory? An experimental chamber?" There was no furniture to suggest a lived-in space, only a corpse thaty sprawled behind the Fairy King and a hologram of the sr system standing in the center of the room. "And what is that corpse?" - It''s rted to your next question. The corpse belonged to a "researcher" responsible for this containment space. - Exnation: The Infinite Void killed the researcher upon emerging from the rift and used the corpse to assemble a physical form for me. "So, in other words..." I frowned. "That slimy blob of yours is actually the blood and flesh of that researcher?" - Confirmation: Correct. The slime squirmed. Apparently, neither of us minded the presence of a corpse lying around. - Caution: Look at this sr system. I was already looking. As I mentioned, a hologram of the sr system floated in the center of the room. Long "w marks" were gouged out around the hologram. Inside, the Earth ands had crumbled into fragments, floating aimlessly. Anyone with a shred of sense would understand the implication. "Wait a minute, is this our sr system?" - Confirmation: Correct. "..." - Exnation: The Earth you lived on is nothing but a simtion represented by this hologram. - Supplementary note: To be precise, the Outer God here is forcing it to remain "only a simtion." The answer came to me then, and I nodded grimly.. "So it''s the simtion hypothesis." The simtion hypothesis. This theory proposed that the world we live in isn''t real, but rather a virtual reality¡ªa virtual world created for some kind of experiment. It was akin to the idea of a brain in a vat. We weren''t truly human, just brains confined in life-support tanks, receiving electrical impulses from an outside researcher, convincing us, "This is the real world!" "Then was that corpse one of the researchers controlling our world?" - Confirmation: Yes. "Good riddance." All of a sudden, I felt an overwhelming disgust for this white-walled chamber. "So they reduced our world to a mere ''simtion test site'' and observed it?" If that wasn''t a true Great Void, then what was? Reducing the world itself to a mere simtion was likely the power the Mastermind Outer God wielded. The Fairy King''s exnation only cemented my resolve. "Truly, Outer Gods cannot be allowed to exist under the same sky as us." Enemies of humanity. Only by destroying this ce and the Mastermind Outer God could we prove our world was more than just a trivial simtion. What exact angle I should take to attack it still eluded me, but my objective was now clear. "Alright. So do I just destroy this damnb? It looks small enough that it shouldn''t be too hard." The Fairy King''s slimy form wriggled. Although it had no eyes or mouth, I sensed it staring at me. - Guidance: Follow me. The slime tapped on the wall, causing a door just wide enough for a person to appear where there had once been none. I was taken aback. Such technology was unimaginable with modern Earth civilization. "There''s more beyond here?" - Confirmation: Correct. I stepped through the newly formed door. Or rather, I intended to step through and keep walking, to assess the structure of the Outer God''s Great Void. But the moment I crossed the threshold, I froze in ce. "What...?" An endless corridor stretched before me with cube-shapedbs packed closely together on either side. "What is this...?" - Exnation: As of now, the Infinite Void has identified at least 1,000 simtionbs. - Supplementary note: This is merely the count. We have no information on the actual experiments taking ce. "..." A World Annihtion Simtor. That was the scene that awaited the regressor as I crossed beyond the rift to confront the Outer God. - Directive: First, wear the researcher''sb coat. As I prepared myself to leave the containment chamber, the Fairy King offered a suggestion. - Exnation: I understand you intend to prove that this is merely an illusion, that this Great Void is nothing but a false reality. - Supplementary note: However, as you know, the Great Void has its own rules. "So... you''re telling me to disguise myself as a researcher here, to pretend I''m one of the Void''s personnel?" - Confirmation: Precisely. No further exnation was necessary. - In fact, no human-shaped beings originally existed in this Great Void. - The Infinite Void "hacked" this ce to enforce physical forms. The white containment room, the simtion hologram, the researcher¡ªthey were all elements forced into existence by the Infinite Void. "So this space would have been far more abstract otherwise?" - Response unavable: I do not know. I myself only came into existence after the Infinite Void began its invasion. "Mmm." The exact intention behind the Infinite Void''s machinations remained unclear. Still, for now, it seemed willing to aid me. At least until we took down the Mastermind Outer God, our rtionship could be considered one of cooperation. "It''s a setup so that I, an Anomaly from the simtion, can move freely without raising suspicion." - Confirmation: Additionally, I am here as your guide and assistant. - Self-evaluation: I have served both the Infinite Void and you as my masters in turn. I am a suitable choice. "But... you''re not human." - Counterpoint: The confusion arises from the limitations of inferior humannguage. It is not your fault. With a sigh, I stripped the corpse of its clothing, then incinerated the body with Aura. Squirm! As soon as I draped the whiteb coat over my shoulders, the Fairy King''s body wriggled, attaching itself to me. "What the¡ª?" - Exnation: Transforming appearance. The slime spread thinly across the contours of my body, even covering my face. Then, it suddenly became transparent, reshaping my features! ''A silicone mask? A human skin mask?'' In any case, the slime adhered to me like an armor of tentacles,pletely altering the appearance of me, the Undertaker. Without a mirror, I couldn''t see how I looked, but I could tell that a t chest had appeared, among other subtle changes. One thing was certain: I now looked more feminine. "You! What are you doing?!" - Detected emotion: Anger. - Exnation: This appearance replicates the former researcher (now a corpse) who managed thisb. - Question: You are aware of the Great Void''s rules. Adjusting your form to match the researcher''s appearance is a given. Anger is unwarranted. "Couldn''t you at least show me a mirror so I can see what kind of surgery you''ve pulled off...?" - Confirmation: I willply with both the Infinite Void''s instructions and your preferences to the fullest extent possible. Squirm. A section of the slime emerged from my sleeve and shaped itself into a mirror. This feat was so far outside the realm of human capabilities that I felt as if I had transformed into an Anomaly myself. "..." I red at the reflection in the mirror. Seeing myself transformed into a woman didn''t shock me out of some silly, clich¨¦d awe at my beauty¡ªno, it was something else entirely. The reason was much simpler. The face was... familiar. "This is... the Undertakeress!" - Question: What is "Undertakeress"? The Fairy King, now back in its slime form, tilted its head in curiosity, but I couldn''t answer. Back in the 664th cycle, I had gone on a trip to the Uyuni Salt ts with Dang Seo-rin. And on the airne, which was supposed to facilitate a safe journey, I encountered Undertakers and Dang Seo-rins from parallel worlds. One thing I found memorable was that in those other worlds, every version of Undertaker and Dang Seo-rin was a couple. Among them was a female version of me, known as "the Undertakeress," a parallel universe''s version of myself. She and I even shared a simr level of martial prowess. "This is impossible..." I turned to stare nkly at the spot where the researcher''s corpse hadin just moments before. ''So, the Undertakers from parallel worlds were Anomalies born in the Mastermind Outer God''s domain?!'' This exploration of the Void was going to be anything but easy.

Footnotes: Chapter 251 Editor: echo Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 251 The Mastermind II My confusion was fleeting, but my resolve was firm. ¡®First, I need to get used to this female Undertaker persona.¡¯ The sensation of slime clinging to my skin and reshaping my features was disturbing.But so what? Life itself was disturbing. The cold logic of a regressor urged me to adjust quickly, dismissing this strange phenomenon as insignificant. ¡®Alright. Let¡¯smit to the role. What was the Undertakeress¡¯s tone like? Her gaze? Her emotional responses?¡¯ Not to brag, or rather, it was something to be proud of¡ªI, the Undertaker, was better at acting than anyone else. Thanks to my Complete Memory, I had observed countless people¡¯s every gesture, and as such, I possessed an acting ability that would put even Chigusa from ss Mask to shame.[1] Naturally, I remembered every detail about the Undertakeress from the 664th cycle. ¡°Alright... Voice. Yes, I¡¯ll start with the voice,¡± I mumbled deliberately, adjusting my vocal cords with Aura. Even though my reserves were nearly depleted, I could still manage this small trick. However, I would need to rest, and soon, as I was in no condition to fight. ¡°Good. Perfect.¡± Thankfully, the Undertakeress was simr to me¡ªthe original Undertaker¡ªin every way except in looks and voice. There was nothing else to adjust. ¡°Well, except for dating Seo-rin.¡± Hmm. Would that detail be important? Could there be Anomalies ying Dang Seo-rin or Sim Ah-ryeon in this Great Void? There was no telling. The Great Voidy beyond humanprehension. [Attention, researchers in Section A.] I jumped, my gaze darting to a speaker that had appeared in the corner of the ceiling, where there had been nothing just moments ago. A mechanical voice streamed from it. ? [It is mealtime. All Section A researchers are instructed to halt work and proceed to the dining hall.] [Repeating. All Section A researchers are to halt work immediately and gather in the dining hall. That is all.] I tapped my forearm, nudging the Fairy King¡ªslime spread thin over my skin. ¡°Exin. What¡¯s going on?¡± - Exnation: As I mentioned earlier, the Infinite Void is currently engaged in a fight against the opposing Outer God in this Great Void. - Addendum: The Infinite Void is injecting NPC data, map data, and so forth into this space to bring it under control. You may consider this a process of ¡°setting parameters.¡± In other words... ¡°This sterile, deste room is supposedly part of a research zone called Section A, that speaker that just popped up over there¡ªall of these are results of the Infinite Void¡¯s current ¡®settings?¡¯¡± - Confirmation: Exactly. - Warning: Conversely, the opposing Anomaly, although ambushed by the Infinite Void, continues attempting to regain control of the Great Void. Any parameter could be overwritten at any time. - Addendum: Should the opposing Anomaly realize that you are not an NPC created by the Infinite Void but rather the real Undertaker, it will eliminate you immediately. - Conclusion: Proceed with caution. I stared at my forearm silently. In short, I had topletely immerse myself in the role of ¡°Researcher Undertakeress.¡± No one could discover I was the real deal. ¡°Fine... I¡¯m confident in my acting.¡± - Warning: The speaker instructed you to halt work and proceed to the dining hall. Failure toply with the directive may draw attention, increasing the risk of your identity being uncovered. ¡°Understood. Let¡¯s head out.¡± Tap, tap. I mimicked the Fairy King¡¯s knock, tapping the wall. A hole wide enough for me to pass through appeared once again. However, the moment I stepped through the door, I found myself surprised. ¡®The surroundings... changed?¡¯ To be precise, they were changing. Moments before, all there was to see was an endless hallway nked by hundreds of confinement rooms crammed tightly together. Now it was different. ¡®There are potted nts and something resembling a water dispenser. Even a spot to sit and rest.¡¯ At this point, it could almost pass for a usible ¡°office.¡± Of course, given that it was still the Great Void, the interior design differed drastically from an actual office. - Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt, bzzzzt. Static buzzed intermittently along various parts of the corridor that otherwise seemed intact. Each time the static flickered, spaces resembling ¡°cosmos¡± or ¡°gxies¡± appeared and vanished around me¡ªover and over. It looked as if someone were using the world as a canvas, spilling a can of paint and then wiping it away again. - Warning: You are viewing a section of the opposing Outer God¡¯s domain. It is advisable to avoid unnecessary observation. ¡®I understand.¡¯ In response to the Fairy King¡¯s soft whisper into my ear, I tapped my body with my fingers, signaling back in Morse code. ¡®Where are they eating?¡¯ - Navigation mode: Beginning guidance. I walked down the corridor. Swish, swish. Dozens, no, hundreds of researchers poured into the corridor from ¡°doors¡± that opened on their own. They gathered naturally in groups, chatting away. ¡°How¡¯s your world doing? Everything going smoothly?¡± ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t even mention it. Undertaker¡¯s been isted again because of suspicion from the Saintess.¡± ¡°Seriously, isn¡¯t that Saintess entity odd? How can she spend 365 days a year spying on people and expecting them to be wless?¡± ¡°She just has absurdly high standards.¡± Chatter filled the air. The researchers came in various forms. Some resembled me, the Undertaker, while others looked like Dang Seo-rin or Oh Dok-seo. ¡°As a Saintess, I find this offensive.¡± ¡°Oh. Sorry! We were obviously talking about the Saintess from simtion 431, right?¡± ¡°Of course. She¡¯s worlds apart from a Saintess who has ascended, as you have!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take it that way.¡± 767, 766, 431¡ªInstead of name tags, numbers were disyed on the researchers¡¯b coats. Most likely, the numbers represented their respective simted universes. A number was also printed on theb coat I was wearing: 107. ¡®The same number as the cycle in which I traveled to the Uyuni Salt ts.¡¯ At that point, I felt a sense of certainty. The parallel world Anomalies were part of some enigmatic Mastermind Outer God. Bzzzzt! Researchers stepped into ¡°cosmos¡± and ¡°gxies¡± zones gouged out in sections of the corridor. As soon as they entered, their previously normal forms contorted grotesquely. Their faces disappeared, their eyes transformed into twin suns, and a mechanical sound resonated from the ck hole-like Void where their mouths should have been. ¡°So, did you kill the Saintess?¡± ¡°Yeah. She was annoying. Set off an earthquake so that she got crushed under the debris from every building.¡± ¡°I killed Undertaker. I whispered all the reasons he was loathsome, all the harm he was causing this world, pausing time each time, and singing it like a luby whenever he fell asleep. Before long, he sealed himself away with the Time Seal. What an idiot.¡± ¡°You should¡¯ve seen the Saintess¡¯s corpse as she got crushed to death! She kept using the Time Stop, trying desperately to escape the earthquake! Like a pathetic little bug.¡± ¡°Oh, speaking of bugs, I heard there¡¯s an escapee.¡± ¡°An escapee?¡± ¡°Yeah. Looks like he¡¯s one of us.¡± ¡°Apparently, they¡¯re really weakened right now.¡± ¡°Bet their guts will taste delicious.¡± Thud. The researchers¡¯ bodies, which had be increasingly monstrous, returned to normal the moment they stepped back onto the ¡°corridor.¡± ¡°What¡¯s on the menu today?¡± ¡°No idea. Haven¡¯t checked in a while. I just eat whatever they give us.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how much longer we¡¯ll keep running these simtions. I thought I¡¯d live in luxury once I ascended, but what is this?¡± They strolled into the dining hall, chatting as though nothing had happened. At the entrance to the dining hall, I noticed a head of green hair among the backs of hundreds of other figures¡ªit was Sim Ah-ryeon. ¡°Hmm? Are you not going in, 107?¡± One of the researchers nced back at me. It was an Anomaly with the face of Oh Dok-seo. A suspicious look. Perhaps it was my imagination, but it felt like their gaze swept over me from head to toe in an instant. I immediately put on an expression. ¡°Why does it matter if I go in or not? Are we close? Mind your own business.¡± ¡°Oh... Right.¡± Hearing my response, the researcher turned away. The scrutinizing gaze disappeared as quickly as it hade. ¡°Acting all high and mighty, just because you were born with a regressor spoon in your mouth...¡± With that grumble, the researcher vanished. Inside the dining hall, researchers in white coats sat at tables lined in rows. Laid out on their trays were chunks of meat resembling crudely arranged human entrails. [In every dish you enjoy today¡ªwhether it¡¯s a side or a broth¡ªyou¡¯ll find the earnest heart of a farmer sweating under the scorching sun.] The speaker buzzed to life. A section of ¡°cosmos¡± engulfed part of the dining hall, and for a moment, the speaker morphed into a human mouth. [Today¡¯s meal was specially prepared, sourced from survivors who endured until the veryst moment of world annihtion.] [Ingredients have been provided from simtions 1101, 332, and 89.] [Taste every bit of hope, despair, and survival instinct in every bite.] [Let¡¯s dine with gratitude. That is all.] ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± The researchers suddenly sprouted five or six extra arms, which they used to devour the entrail-like meat. Their hands were smeared with oil and blood. ¡°Hmm.¡± I steadied my breathing. As expected, I was the only human here.

Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Editor: echo https://dsc.gg/reapeics

After finishing the meal, I returned to Lab 107, where an orange-ponytailed researcher was waiting for me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. ¡°Yoo-hoo. Hey there, sunbae. How was the banquet in the Outer God¡¯s domain? Tasted divine, right?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Oh, right. Come on in. I¡¯ve disabled the surveince in this room, so it¡¯s safe.¡± I subtly tapped on the slime. - Confirmation: The individual before you is indeed a terminal for the Outer God Infinite Void. They are an ally. Finally, I exhaled. ¡°Infinite Void.¡± ¡°Yup! Gosh¡ªwhen you first captured me and forced me into a human life, I was ready to hate all of existence, but I guess it all builds character, huh?¡± Plop. Infinite Void hopped up onto the table (which, like many things, had appeared from nowhere) and swung its legs, clearly in high spirits. ¡°If I hadn¡¯t been forced into human life back then, I¡¯d have a much harder time passing as an NPC now. Thanks, sunbae!¡± ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on here. Share some information.¡± ¡°For free?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Hehe.¡± Infinite Void¡¯s eyes sparkled mischievously. ¡°You want to y the Outer God here... Ah, whatever, let¡¯s just call them the Mastermind since it¡¯s a hassle, yeah? Anyway, you want to take down the Mastermind, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯ll need my help! If I back out now, this table, the simtion hologram, the researchers, the corridor, everything will warp out of your perception.¡± ¡°Listen, even if you sound high and mighty, if I decide to reset, you¡¯ll lose everything.¡± ¡°True, fair point. I can¡¯t argue. Exactly why we make such a perfect team, right?¡± Infinite Void giggled. ¡°I¡¯ll keep programming ¡®settings¡¯ for this Great Void so that you can move freely. Meanwhile, you should destroy the other simted universes!¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you destroy them yourself?¡± ¡°Oh,e on. I thought you¡¯d noticed by now. While we were going back and forth to the dining hall, I was struggling just to maintain a bnce with the Mastermind.¡± Infinite Void shrugged its shoulders dramatically. ¡°Let my guard down for a second, and all these settings, parameters, and whatnot would be devoured by that cosmos-looking domain. Summoning the Fairy King and sticking him on you was already a major stretch, you know?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You have to be my de. I¡¯ll distract the Mastermind¡¯s attention whenever possible, and then you strike at the right moment! Like a group project¡ªteam effort.¡± I propped my chin up, deep in thought. ¡®It bothers me to give the Infinite Void an opening. Still, cooperation seems reasonable for now.¡¯ After all, my goal in bringing Infinite Void here was precisely this kind of coboration. It was the only Outer God with whom ¡°human dialogue¡± was possible. While I would need to hear what it wanted, I was open to granting any requests that weren¡¯t too unreasonable. ¡°My objective is to y the Mastermind and establish a strategy.¡± ¡°Yup, I know!¡± ¡°If that strategy works out, I¡¯d be willing to grant you a few minor benefits. But if you ask for something like aplete transfer of Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body, I will tly refuse.¡± ¡°I knew that too!¡±n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om I nodded. ¡°Alright. Tell me your demands.¡± ¡°Will you have a baby with me, sunbae?¡± ¡°...¡± Alright. Perhaps this creature should be the first to go.

Footnotes: [1] In ss Mask, the protagonist is a young actress who is so talented that she is scouted by the legendary actress, Chigusa Tsukikage, to be her sessor. Chapter 252 Editor: echo Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 252 The Mastermind III Sensing the ominous look on my face, Infinite Void iled its arms desperately. ¡°Hold on, hold on, hold on! Can we not jump to bringing out the Aura without at least hearing an exnation?¡± ¡°No need to bother. Judging by your tone, it¡¯s not a joke, and I¡¯d sooner hit reset than have a child with you.¡±¡°No, wait! Just listen! No suicide, stop it!¡± Infinite Void leaped off the table and hugged me. I intended to shake it off lightly, but an unimaginable force constricted me from both sides. Squeeeeze. Stubborn as ever, it wasn¡¯t the feeble creature it had been. Having regained some degree of its powers, Infinite Void was no longer a mere weakling. I was immobilized. ¡°Ugh,¡± I grunted. ¡°Aha! You¡¯ve really grown weak, haven¡¯t you, sun-ba-eee?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The sunbae who used to smack me around with Aura back when I was sealed is now this frail little human girl? Ohoho! Even a being like me, free from the emotions of the Eight Desires and Seven Feelings, feels an Awakeninging on!¡± This was truly humiliating. To think the aftereffects of unleashing all my Aura in the Final Defense War would linger so long. ¡°Come on now, no need to re at me so intensely. Anyway, there¡¯s a perfectly reasonable justification for my proposal. You know me, right? Infinite Void, the Akashic Record whose essence and purpose is to gather the data of all things in the cosmos.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°Hold on, hear me out. Even though I¡¯ve somewhat regained my powers, there¡¯s still one piece of data I¡¯ve utterly failed to obtain. Guess what it is?¡± ¡°I have no idea. Humanity, perhaps?¡± ¡°Oh, sharp guess. But honestly, I think I¡¯m more human than that Ji-won girl, sunbae, who happened to be born a bona fide Homo sapien.¡± I couldn¡¯t argue with that. If Ji-Won had failed so spectacrly at being human that even an Outer God disqualified her from the running, just what kind of beast test did this being pass with flying colors...? R? Infinite Void clocked my sour mood and sneered at me. ¡°The one thing I¡¯ve never been able to obtain. Ta-dah!. It¡¯s your experience of childbirth and parenting!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Sunbae, you¡¯ve never once had a child, let alone raised one, have you? I don¡¯t know all the specifics of the other runs, but I know that much¡ªit¡¯s obvious.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This gap in my data is, to put it in terms a human could understand... It¡¯s like being one roll away frompleting a gacha collection? It¡¯s an urge that¡¯s hard to resist on a primal level.¡± ¡°How absurd.¡± I gave it a light push. This time, it didn¡¯t resist or exert any strength to hold me back. It took a few yful steps back, making a silly ack-ack! sound. ¡°Why do you think I¡¯d ept your proposal?¡± I grumbled. ¡°Having a child just to satisfy a craving like that isn¡¯t right, and what¡¯s more, a proposal like ¡®Work with me, and give me your child¡¯ is the quintessential devil¡¯s scheme.¡± ¡°Aw, but aren¡¯t you at least a little curious? I mean, it¡¯s a child between you and me¡ªa child of the Outer God and the regressor.¡± Infinite Void put its hands behind its back. Its red eyes narrowed. ¡°A being of extraordinary power might be born¡ªa game-changer, a variable that couldpletely overturn the endless cycle of reincarnation you¡¯re trapped in.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The moment when myth itself is created. A being half Outer God and half human... What do you think? Could this be the true route to the ¡®True Ending?¡¯¡± ¡°Impossible. Propose something else.¡± ¡°Aw.¡± Infinite Void pouted. ¡°Boring. I bet you¡¯re going to reject my request to call me the Hyakki Yagyo too, right?¡± ¡°Naturally.¡± ¡°This won¡¯t do, that won¡¯t do... Typical regressor, acting all high and mighty.¡± I didn¡¯t bother responding. Right now, it was skillfully mimicking Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s voice and gestures. It had broken down and reproduced my loved one¡¯s data with precision. The title had switched from ¡°Teacher¡± to ¡°Sunbae,¡± and its speech shifted to casualnguage, but otherwise, it was an impable replica of Yo-hwa. An obvious trick meant to lull me into dropping my guard. I had no reason to entertain such childish pranks. ¡°Hmm? Odd. Even though Iyered multiple mental weakening effects in the room before you arrived, it¡¯s having no effect on you.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°A regr human would¡¯ve lost their mind at the mere sight of me. I suppose Go Yuri really did mess with you, huh? Alright then, sunbae. Here¡¯s my next proposal.¡± ¡°Go on.¡± Infinite Void tilted its head. ¡°Remember my goodwill.¡± I furrowed my brow. ¡°What does that mean?¡±n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡°It means just what it says. This time, I¡¯ll cooperate free of charge, soter on, just call it a debt.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°For this cycle only, I¡¯ll actively assist you in defeating the Mastermind. No demands like transferring memories to my next reincarnation, passing on data, or even securing exclusive rights to the fairies.¡± With its hands behind its back, Infinite Void leaned in close. Its crimson eyes peered straight into mine. ¡°In other words, a debt.¡± Just as I was about to answer, it reached out, pressing a finger to my lips. ¡°Sorry. Before you reject my final offer, give it a little more thought, sunbae. I¡¯m crafty, you know. I might just turn against you and side with the Mastermind, swallowing you whole.¡± I kept quiet. We stood there, a silence stretching between us. After a long pause, Infinite Void, still gazing into my eyes, smiled faintly. Withdrawing its hand, it held out its own for a handshake. ¡°Alright, a deal is made! Love you, sunbae. Let¡¯s work well together from now on!¡± ¡°Go to hell...¡± ¡°Huh? How¡¯s that an insult? Did you forget that Infernal Hell is also a name you gave me?¡± Arguing with an Anomaly was pointless.

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Surprisingly, Infinite Void seemed to understand concepts like ¡°promise,¡± ¡°faith,¡± and ¡°loyalty¡± after all. ¡°Here in the vast emptiness of the Great Void, or as you call it, the Divine Realm, there¡¯s a reason why I specifically set the background to be a ¡®Research Facility.¡¯¡± Draped in the guise of Yo-hwa, Infinite Void was genuinely doing its best to assist me. ¡°There are restricted areas within the researchb. ess varies depending on the level of the researcher.¡± ¡°So clear rules exist, then?¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Infinite Void said, giggling. ¡°In a research facility handling Anomalies, rules run rampant. And the Anomalies generally follow these rules¡ªjust like now.¡± With a snap, Infinite Void¡¯s fingers clicked, and static crackled over the speakers embedded in theb ceiling. [Attention, all researchers in Section C.] [It is mealtime. Researchers in Section C should stop their tasks and gather in the cafeteria.] [Repeating, all Section C researchers, please cease work and proceed to the cafeteria. Over.] A hint of surprise snuck over me. It was almost identical to the announcement from a few hours ago. ¡°Did you control that speaker too?¡± ¡°Who am I? The ruler of Hyakki Yagyo. I bet you¡¯ve seen something simr before.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Suddenly, I recalled the time I¡¯d served as a security guard at Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High, subduing spirits. Back then, the school¡¯s spirits would possess ¡°speakers¡± or ¡°radios¡± to deceive students too. ¡°All of Hyakki Yagyo under mymand has been set loose in the Divine Realm. The Fairy King you¡¯re wearing isn¡¯t my only pawn!¡± ¡°So you¡¯re using Hyakki Yagyo to manipte the Mastermind¡¯s Anomalies, ordering them to gather in the cafeteria or move elsewhere.¡± ¡°Exactly. Thanks to that, I could arrange this little rendezvous with you.¡± Truly a power worthy of an Outer God. While Yo-hwa¡¯s abilities allowed for NPC Creation to influence behavior, Infinite Void went a step further, imposing entire backgrounds and rules onto the Void itself. This was its so-called Data Input, a power that was likewise responsible for creating tutorial dungeons across the world, with survival as the reward for passing each test. ¡°Well, as you saw, the Mastermind is putting up one hell of a fight, so I¡¯m running into some snags here and there... But after I¡¯ve done all this to help, you can handle the rest, right?¡± I epted the provocation. Over the next few days, I settled into life in the researchb. As far as research work went, it mostly consisted of observing a ¡°simted universe,¡± eating, and sleeping¡ªa routine that was easy to adapt to. asionally, we researchers gathered for simtion tests, where the group pretended to exchange expert opinions. ¡°Maybe we should raise the Saintess¡¯s power levels to slow down the world¡¯s end.¡± ¡°No, no, it¡¯s better to give the Sword Marquess some social skills. If he fully realizes his potential, he can do anything on his own.¡± ¡°Am I the only one betting on the Sword Marquess?¡± ¡°Reaching Rejuvenation mode requires such specific conditions... You have to befriend Undertaker, right? A bit much, no?¡± The researchers constantly ran simtions, each round in the simted universesting roughly 20 years until it reached destruction. However, those years were only perceived within the simted universe itself. Outside the simtion, things were different. By simply adjusting the time dtion setting, the researchers could make ten years sh by in an instant. ¡°Oh, look at this! The Saintess has fallen into Corruption again.¡± ¡°Wow, it¡¯s always a sight to see the entire universe juste to a standstill.¡± ¡°We were just about to build a strong alliance between the Sword Marquess and Undertaker, but then she crossed over to China and got herself killed...¡± ¡°A natural death.¡± ¡°Hey, no matter how many simtions I run, the results keeping out the same. What am I supposed to do with this?¡± ¡°Idiot. You¡¯re just tinkering with the settings within Korea. Try adjusting variables in ces outside the Saintess¡¯s field of vision!¡± For the researchers, the end of the world in the simted universe was merely a point of academic curiosity. Instead of getting angry at the Anomalies¡¯ behavior, I focused on a different aspect. ¡®Some of these simted scenarios mirror real events almost exactly.¡¯ Take, for instance, the scenario that had just unfolded in one of the simtions before me,paring it to a particr run in my life. A. Simted Universe: The Undertaker builds a Regression Alliance > The Undertaker establishes a ranch to develop dinosaurs > UFOnds in Manchuria and crushes the Monster Wave > Cheon Yo-hwa is devoured by Infinite Void > World destroyed by UFO and Infinite Void B. Undertaker¡¯s 340th run: Regression Alliance is built > A ranch is established to develop dinosaurs for use in managing national highways > Attempt made to use a UFO as a barrier, but bnce issues caused it to fail > Cheon Yo-hwa goes berserk fighting aliens from the UFO > World destroyed As you can see, they were almost identical. Why, then, was the Outer God running more than a thousand simtions like this, continuously and tirelessly? ¡®It¡¯s to render me, a regressor, powerless.¡¯ Yes. I, the Undertaker, categorized the world where the above events took ce as the ¡°340th run,¡± so ording to my memory, it was the 340th world, naturally. But the Outer God Mastermind was interpreting the same events in a different way. [No.] [This is merely a scenario produced by the 655th simted universe for the 13,290,578,935th time.] [You are not a regressor.] [You are simply a puppet in the simted universe.] A chill ran down my spine. ¡®To think that an Outer God-ss Anomaly would go to such great lengths to degrade me as a Regressor.¡¯ Being a regressor was a cheat code in itself. My very existence was nothing short of a cmity for the Anomalies. If there was ever a living testament to this, it was the weakling Infinite Void fighting the Mastermind here in this domain. Even if one managed to subdue all the fairies in the tutorial and barricade themselves in Baekhwa High¡¯s underground bunker, what good would it do? A regressor could simply ¡°click¡± and tear it all down. From the moment a regressor Awakened on Earth¡ªand as it happened, one whose mental fortitude was forged of steel, capable of dering, ¡°I can do this forever¡±¡ªthe Anomalies, no matter how powerful, were inevitably bound to fall to ruin. For the Anomalies to escape the regressor¡¯s grasp, a moreplex strategy was required. ¡®And that strategy... is these simted universes.¡¯ The Mastermind¡¯s strategy was remarkably effective. It didn¡¯t try to defeat the regressor in battle, not when stepping into the ring would only guarantee its loss. No, it chose to control the match from outside the ring. ¡°Fairy King. How many simted universes have we identified so far?¡± - Answer: As of now, 3,505 simted universes have been catalogued. - Supplementary Information: Each simtion takes approximately one hour toplete. The researchers work an average of twelve hours a day. - Conclusion: Thus, over 42,100 simtion scenarios are generated per day. ¡°Good grief.¡± Iplete one run every twenty years. This Outer Godpletes over 40,000 simtions in a single day, and even that was likely a conservative estimate. In a sheer numbers game, there was no winning. ¡°So if we were to aggregate all the simtions the Mastermind has run, and iste only those that match the events of my life...¡± - Affirmative: All the paths you¡¯ve walked can be exined by the simted universe scenarios. - Additional Information: From the 4th run to the 687th, even if there are thousands or tens of thousands of iterations, the Mastermind can exin all of them as outputs from the simted universe. - Exnation: Infinite Void¡¯s suggestion to produce a child with you wasn¡¯t merely to satisfy its curiosity. It was to introduce an absolute variable into the simtion. ¡°......¡± Watching the researchers, who had taken on the appearance of various Anomalies, chatter and bicker, I recalled moments from my past. Those times, at the brink of each world-ending crisis, when the ¡°Mastermind¡± would speak to me, channeling voices through people like Seo Gyu and the Saintess. ¡°I¡¯ve set up countless stratagems behind the scenes. Hyung, I was the one who brought about the world¡¯s end.¡± ¡°Mr. Undertaker, I orchestrated every bit of destruction.¡± It hadn¡¯t been a joke, nor an exaggeration. Mastermind Syndrome had never lied to me. The Outer God had truly woven ¡°countless stratagems¡± ¡°behind the scenes,¡± and had ¡°orchestrated every bit of destruction.¡± Even at this very moment. No matter how much I resisted, my regression would always be reduced to just one of the simted universe¡¯s scenarios. ¡°107?¡± At that moment, the researchers all turned to me. ¡°Researcher 107, what¡¯s your take?¡± ¡°Yeah. What variable should we add to derive a new apocalyptic scenario?¡± ¡°India or Europe sounds good, right? Or outer space?¡± ¡°Actually, as long as it¡¯s outside the range of irvoyance and the Mini-Map, anywhere is fine. Whether it¡¯s deep within the Earth or even beyond it.¡± ¡°What¡¯s 107¡¯s idea?¡± The researchers, who had taken on the forms of Old Man Scho, Dang Seo-rin, Oh Dok-seo, and Sim Ah-ryeon, had hollow, vacant eyes. Blending in to avoid suspicion, I replied, ¡°Yes, my suggestion is...¡± I chose my words carefully, all the while thinking this: This vast Divine Realm was, in essence, nothing more than a murder factory meticulously designed by the Outer God to kill me.

Footnotes: Chapter 253 Editor: echo Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 253 The Mastermind IV I posed as a thoroughlypetent researcher and built awork. Though I hated to admit it, ¡°Undertakeress¡± was quite beautiful. With her amiable attitude and tailored strategies for approaching others, even the NPC researchers quickly opened up to her. ¡°Researcher, you must be tired. Here, have some coffee and take it easy.¡±¡°Oh! Thank you. Wow, it¡¯s been ages since I¡¯ve had coffee made by someone from the Undertaker¡¯s guild. I kind of missed it even aftering here...¡± The researchers referred to themselves as Ascended. Normally, I would have rejected such a term outright, as it reeked of anti-Awakener supremacism, but for these individuals, the title seemed oddly fitting. ¡®Whatever they call themselves, these are just NPCs based on myrades.¡¯ Naturally, the method to win their favor was simr as well. I had memorized hundreds of ways to get on their good sides. ¡°Researcher 107, you¡¯re so kind. The Undertakers in the world I ascended from were selfish jerks who only cared about themselves...¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Yes! All they ever said was they were the Regressor, just follow my orders, nothing will go wrong if you do. So we all ganged up on them behind their backs.¡± ¡°Haha...¡± ¡°And they kept rambling about Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Seriously, who even reads that these days? It¡¯s so boring, but I had to humor them all the time¡ªit was torture!¡± ¡°...¡± Endure it. These researchers weren¡¯t truerades, merely creations filtered by the Outer God. There was no need to take them seriously. For the next few days, I focused solely on building good rtions with them to give me time to recover my Aura. It wasn¡¯t long before the researchers began to flock around me. ¡°Researcher 107! Want to grab lunch together?¡± ¡°How about a walk after eating?¡± ¡°Um, unnie, there¡¯s something strange happening in my simtor. Do you have time to take a look?¡± ¡°Researcher 107!¡± In no time, I became the center of attention. Meanwhile, the slime Fairy King clinging to my body 24/7 wriggled. - Admiration: You¡¯re truly exceptional. Wherever you¡¯re ced, you always rise to the top of the social hierarchy. - Inquiry: That makes me wonder. Why didn¡¯t you fully exploit this talent in your original world? Is an Undertaker inherently inferior to an Undertakeress? Shut up. ¡°If you only act ording to everyone¡¯s ideal vision of you, it only bes exhausting in the end. Myrades and I have to endure for ten, twenty, or even thousands of years together. These shallow strategies are only fit for superficial runs where rtionships don¡¯t matter.¡± - Commentary: You live such a tiresome life. The slime, initially robotic in its reactions, seemed to grow more human-like after spending time with me. By this point, I had grown ustomed to the simtionb¡¯s sterile environment. Once I deemed my Aura sufficiently recovered, I immediately began to enact my n. ¡°Ah, unnie? You¡¯re here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not your unnie. You Anomaly.¡± ¡°...Huh?¡± Alone in theb, I struck down the NPC researcher disguised as Sim Ah-ryeon in a single blow. - ......! The researcher fell, unable to resist. Under normal circumstances, their death would have immediately alerted the Outer God. However, with Infinite Void drawing their attention elsewhere, the Outer God was unable to focus on this area. ¡°Fairy King, transform me into that one¡¯s body.¡± - Response: Understood. The slime consumed the corpse before returning to me, reshaping my body. Looking in the mirror, I saw that I was no longer the Undertakeress but hadpletely transformed into Ah-ryeon, down to everyst detail. ¡°Ah, ah. Ahhh.¡± I adjusted my voice using Aura, testing it to match hers. ¡°This... this t-tone... seems fine. Ehe.¡± - Shock: I¡¯ve experienced the human emotion of astonishment for the first time. I will henceforth ssify this sensation as ¡°goosebumps.¡± ¡°J-just... shut up.¡± - Goosebumps. I destroyed the simtion universe overseen by Sim Ah-ryeon. As a regressor, my power fundamentally stemmed from regression. In contrast, the Outer God¡¯s strategy to counter me relied on simtion universes. The fewer false universes that existed, the weaker the Outer God¡¯s dominion would be. - Inquiry: This Divine Realm alone contains thousands of simted universes. Do you intend to destroy each one? ¡°Th-thousands... Hoh, h-hoh... hoeeeh...¡± I let out a sinisterugh, mimicking Ah-ryeon. ¡°Hoh-heh... hehehe...¡± - Goosebumps: Goosebumps. I staged things so it appeared as if the Undertakeress had been killed by turning Research Lab 107 into a chaotic crime scene. It didn¡¯t take long for the ¡°crime¡± to be discovered. The researchers, who had grown close to Undertakeress, erupted in outrage. ¡°Researcher 107 was murdered!¡± ¡°Who did it? Who¡¯s the bastard that did this?¡± ¡°I heard there was an intruder... It must be them!¡± ¡°Our beloved barista and admired Researcher 107 is gone! Why?¡± ¡°Well, I did secretly suspect 107 of being the intruder, but this is still shocking...¡± From the perspective of the Outer God, the Undertakeress¡ªwho had skyrocketed to poprity¡ªwas likely gged as a high-priority target. That someone like her to be abruptly killed, while the Outer God was preupied fighting Infinite Void, must have thrown them into considerable confusion. But my terror campaign didn¡¯t stop there. ¡°Um, um... Researcher 511?¡± ¡°Hm? What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°I-I actually have a theory about this incident. But it¡¯s something others shouldn¡¯t overhear, so... c-could youe with me for a moment?¡± I lured other researchers, one by one, and hunted them down. Destroying their simtion universes was a bonus. The core of this operation was to destroy as many simtions as possible before the Outer God could react. I morphed from the Undertakeress to Sim Ah-ryeon, then to Dang Seo-rin, to the Saintess, to Seo Gyu, to Yu Ji-won, and back to the Undertaker, before taking on yet another form. With each transformation, I ruthlessly obliterated researchbs. - Admiration: Your talents seem better suited to acting than to making coffee. ¡°Shut it,¡± I replied curtly, then shed to kill. Swoosh. Researcher 801, the Undertaker with dyed blond hair¡ªGolden Sun¡ªbled profusely, his face frozen in shock. ¡°D-Dang Seo-rin? Why would you...?¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m not Dang Seo-rin. Repeat after me: Railroads are mere transportation, and witches are just cosy.¡± ¡°That... makes no sense...¡± Thud. Golden Sun copsed, stripped of life.

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After ughtering more than 200 researchers, I reached a clear conclusion. ¡°These fools. For all their talk of being Ascended, they¡¯re weak.¡± Even the researcher who mimicked the Saintess was pathetically frail. If they had mastered Time Stop to the same extent as the real Saintess, my traps wouldn¡¯t have taken her down so easily. But this so-called researcher Saintess died screaming, ensnared in my simplest setup. ¡°Are these really the ones who survived countless world-ending simtions and were deemed worthy by the Outer God? They¡¯re too weak.¡± - Response: That is to be expected. The slime Fairy King¡¯s answer was calm, as if the exnation was obvious. - Commentary: The purpose of the simtion universes is to degrade you and others like you¡ªAwakener and Anomaly alike. - Addendum: If the Outer God strengthened these researchers too much, it would undermine their own objectives. ¡°I see... So weakening them was intentional.¡± It wasn¡¯t just their physical strength that didn¡¯t match up. Compared to my realrades, these so-called researchers had far weaker senses of resolve and moral convictions.N?v(el)B\\jnn The Golden Sun Undertaker I had just killed was embarrassingly pitiful. I couldn¡¯t help but mutter, ¡°Was this supposed to be me?¡± - Exnation: That is precisely why they were chosen as pawns by the Outer God. Indeed. In just 130 days, I brought the simtionb to ruin. The researchers scrambled to locate the intruder by any means necessary, but how could they find someone who could be anyone? Thanks to my study ofmunity-destroying ¡°troll viins,¡± it was all too easy to dismantle their cohesion. Suspicion. Incitement. Deception. Misdirection. Using these tools to sow chaos among the weak-minded NPC researchers was child¡¯s y. ¡°Impressive, sunbae!¡± When I had destroyed about 5,000 simtion universes, Infinite Void appeared again. This time, it abandoned its researcher disguise entirely and wore a reversed version of the Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School uniform¡ªck where Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s had been white. ¡°The Outer God probably used those fakerades¡¯ appearances to guilt-trip you. But wow! You really ughtered them without hesitation. As expected of you, sunbae! I admire that!¡± ¡°A parasite wearing Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s face has no right to speak.¡± ¡°Ahaha!¡± Infinite Void threw its arms around my own. I reflexively tried to shake her off, but she didn¡¯t budge. Its entire body radiated a red, sticky Aura, which oozed with oppressive force. It was far beyond anything the NPC researchers couldpare to. ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a shame that you stopped using the Undertakeress persona. She was so cute,¡± it whined. ¡°Not that you¡¯re not cute, sunbae! I mean, these dead fish eyes are definitely your charm point.¡± ¡°Get to the point.¡± ¡°Thanks to your shy terrorism, the battle over the Divine Realm is swinging in my favor.¡± Snap. Infinite Void made a yful gesture of opening and closing its hand. Bam! As if responding to its gesture, the space around uspressed. The remaining NPC researchers and twenty or so simtion universe holograms were forcibly drawn to one ce. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Wh-what¡¯s going on?¡± The researchers panicked, ncing around wildly. Infinite Void tightened its grip on my arm, its grin widening to grotesque proportions as its lips stretched unnaturally, splitting almost to its ears. ¡°Now, sunbae, only a handful remain... I¡¯ll leave the finishing blow to you.¡± Looking at it, I was reminded of something once again. ¡®Defeating the Outer God requires Infinite Void¡¯s cooperation. But weakening the Outer God allows Infinite Void to ascend instead.¡¯ Infinite Void¡¯s power, Data Input, was devastating. It reduced even the Outer God¡¯s minions to mere NPCs. Had it not been defeated at Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School, Infinite Void would undoubtedly have be one of the most powerful Outer Gods. ¡®I was right. This strategy of relying on Infinite Void is hopelessly wed.¡¯ I resolved myself. I needed to find a way to reach the Outer God¡¯s Divine Realm without depending on Infinite Void. Developing a new route would be the greatest achievement of this run. ¡°Hm.¡± Infinite Void gazed up at me with a knowing look. ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. You¡¯re scared that if you wipe out those researchers and simtions, I¡¯ll be unstoppable, right?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But don¡¯t forget¡ªI¡¯m still afraid of you. Regression resets everything. We¡¯re mutually hostile by nature. So, how about this?¡± ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll use Data Input on myself.¡± Infinite Void tapped the side of its head with its finger. ¡°I¡¯ll input, ¡®I will love sunbae forever.¡¯¡± My eyes widened. I hadn¡¯t expected it to propose that. ¡°In return, you input this: ¡®I will love Infinite Void forever.¡¯¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°No tricks, no word games. We trust each other, talk things out, and move forward together. Positive, evesting love. Then neither of us will have reason to betray or exploit the other.¡± Infinite Void grinned mischievously. ¡°Even if you regress, you¡¯ll trust and love me enough to share what happened in the past. Together, we could conquer the world! The Outer God would be easy to crush.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve thought this through.¡± ¡°Ahaha! Of course! I¡¯m not like the other Outer Gods. In the old days, Demon Kings tempted heroes with half the world. These days, the trend is offering half your heart.¡± ¡°You¡¯re an Anomaly. Do you even understand love?¡± Infinite Void moved its hand to its chest. ¡°Who knows? But this heart seems to. Why don¡¯t we turn mutual hostility into mutual love, sunbae?¡± I didn¡¯t answer. And it wasn¡¯t just because its offer likely included a hidden use about iming Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body. Instead, I swung my Aura, annihting all the researchers in one fell swoop. ¡°Ah!¡± With the researchers gone and their simtions destroyed, Infinite Void¡¯s face lit up with glee. I simply stared at it, staying quiet. ¡°Really? Did you just ept my proposal?!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Wow! I made that suggestion half-jokingly, thinking it was a long shot, but you actually went for it! Ah, but don¡¯t get me wrong¡ªI¡¯m not saying you¡¯re foolish. As expected of you, sunbae. Pretending to resist but secretly curious about wielding the power of an Outer God! Don¡¯t worry¡ªI¡¯m really one of the good ones. Look at my little fairy servants! Aren¡¯t they adorable and kind? Just like their master, and they¡¯ve been watching, waiting, for the right moment to¡ª¡± Infinite Void froze mid-sentence. A single second of silence stretched on unnaturally. ¡°Huh?¡± The same eerie, ovepping voice that had haunted me during my first encounter with the Outer God echoed, both from Infinite Void¡¯s lips and the speakers in the researchb. ¡°Wait, this... Destroying the simtionb was a part of my n all along? You¡¯re kidding, right?¡± The voice continued, seamlessly shifting into a maddening stream of words. - What was the first entity you encountered upon awakening in this ce? - It was the Fairy King, the puppet of me, Infinite Void. You foolishly allowed my servant to cling to you without suspecting a thing, thinking it merely a harmless essory. ¡°What...? No! That was supposed to be my mole, nted for intel! This can¡¯t be... is what you must have thought, right?¡± The dual voices intertwined as the tone turned mocking. ¡°But, s, that too was part of my n, Undertaker. Nothing you¡¯ve done in this ce has been outside my design. Every step you took, everyb you destroyed, no, sunbae! My mouth moving on its own, it¡¯s all within the script I wrote. Even this, even now, your surprise and denial¡ªmy experiments ounted for it all!¡± Infinite Void winced, its face twisting in visible pain as its body began to dissolve like smoke. The slime Fairy King, which had been pretending to be an ¡°innocentpanion,¡± evaporated alongside it. What followed was disturbingly familiar. Creeeeak. The researchb¡¯s ceiling tore open. Beyond ity a vast void of stars, with a colossal rupture splitting the expanse in two. - Ah. A massive crimson eye filled the gap in the Void, ring down at me. It was Infinite Void¡ªits true form¡ªlooming from above. It extended its hand, its movements unnervingly deliberate. This time, I was prepared. I leapt onto its outstretched palm with practiced ease. ¡®This must be how Sun Wukong felt on the Buddha¡¯s palm.¡¯[1] After obliterating the researchb, Infinite Void dragged me through the rift in space. For a moment, all was ck. When I came back to awareness, I found myself sprawled in a restored researchb. Behind mey the ruins of the ¡°simtionb¡±¡ªnow just another simtion itself. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± The only noticeable difference was that Infinite Void now stood before me, in person. Somehow, we had ascended to a higher realm: a simtion of a simtion. Infinite Void muttered under its breath, its words raw with emotion. ¡°Goddammit...¡± The way it spoke... It had a strangely human ring to it.

Footnotes: [1] In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong once bet the Buddha that he could escape thetter¡¯s palm. He lost almost immediately. Chapter 254 Editor: echo Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 254 The Mastermind V ¡°Fine. I''ll admit it... The Mastermind¡¯s traps are more borate than I thought,¡± Infinite Void muttered irritably. The way it spun its ponytail nervously with its fingers reminded me of Yo-hwa''s habitual mannerisms. I had to maintain an objective perspective.If I ignored the fact that it called me "sunbae" instead of "Teacher," that its uniform colors were reversed, and that it used casual speech instead of honorifics¡ªit had truly be difficult to distinguish between it and Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡°To deceive your enemies, you must first deceive yourself.¡± ¡°Huh? What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°Hmph. Anyway, you¡¯ve figured it out too, right? No matter how hard we try to break through the simtion universes in this state, it¡¯s pointless.¡± I nodded. ¡°I think the same. Even if we destroy the simtion research center again, we¡¯ll just end up in a ¡®higher-tier¡¯ simtionb.¡± ¡°Exactly... What a frustrating bastard. How annoying.¡± Yo-hwa¡ªor rather, Infinite Void¡ªsighed deeply. ¡°I did wonder why they were letting me hack them so easily. Now, I see why.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t care if they get hacked.¡± ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s the strategy.¡± Even if every simtion universe was destroyed, it wouldn¡¯t matter. As long as the premise of ¡°This too is only a simtion¡± held true in that veryst moment, the Mastermind would im ultimate victory. From the lower simtion to the higher one. Higher and higher. An endless hell of ascent. ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± A moment of silence lingered between us. It felt like being trapped in a maze with no exit. ¡°...Seriously, why is this guy so cowardly? Even that so-called Infinite Metagame at least handed Oh Dok-seo a dagger to stab you whenever the chance arose! This one is just squatting until the end to steal the final blow!¡± ¡°Well. I see it differently.¡± ¡°Huh? How differently?¡± I turned to look back. What remained was a broken model of the universe, reduced to rubble. ¡°There¡¯s something I want to test. Infinite Void. Earlier, the researchb was transformed by your Filter, correct?¡± ¡°Huh? Yeah, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Is it possible to ovey the filter with something other than a researchb?¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s possible, but...¡± Infinite Void tilted its head. ¡°Do you have something specific in mind? For the record, the researchb is the most convenient. Researchers don¡¯t like to meddle or be meddled with, so those NPCs allowed both you and me to roam rtively freely.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I only intend to make a slight modification. Also, there¡¯s no reason for us to split up anymore, so let¡¯s stick together.¡± ¡°Oh. Alright.¡± I exined the Filter I had in mind to Infinite Void. Then, we immediately set out into the hallway. It seemed that Infinite Void had lost the enthusiasm to shape the Divine Realm into a "believable researchb." The outerndscape was as deste as when I had first encountered it. Only, the research rooms lining the endless corridor now had "doors" attached to them¡ªan element that hadn¡¯t been there before. Beside each door hung a namete. Room 108: Oh Dok-seo Room 109: Dang Seo-rin Room 110: Sim Ah-ryeon Room 111: Undertaker . . . This was the filter I had requested. For example, inside the research roombeled ¡°Room 110: Sim Ah-ryeon,¡± a simtion revolving around Sim Ah-ryeon was running. Simrly, ¡°Room 111: Undertaker¡± was likely conducting experiments centered on me. ¡°I¡¯ve set it up just like you asked for now, but what¡¯s the point of this?¡± ¡°Just follow me without question.¡± ¡°Tch. You¡¯re so cold to me!¡± I had lived in the lower-level research center for nearly a hundred days. I remembered exactly which simtions ran in which rooms. It didn¡¯t take long to find our destination. As it trailed along, Infinite Void continued spewing meaningless chatter so inconsequential that I won¡¯t even bother narrating it. Finally, it tilted its head in surprise. ¡°Huh? Here? That¡¯s an unexpected choice.¡± Room 1537: Sword Marquess That¡¯s right. In this research center, there were mad scientists dedicated to running simtions centering on the Sword Marquess. I kicked the door open. ¡°Huh? Wh-who are you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s none of your concern.¡± The researcher, startled, turned toward us¡ªand was immediately split into two halves. Behind me, Infinite Void whistled. ¡°Wow. It doesn¡¯t matter if they look likerades, huh? You show no mercy once you judge them as foes.¡± ¡°Shut it.¡± I approached the simtion device the researcher had been operating and began manipting the hologram interface. I had already learned how to handle these devices on the lower levels. ¡°I didn¡¯t pay much attention to the specific contents of the simtions in the lowerb. Since they were all false worlds created for the Outer God¡¯s amusement, watching them would only lead to disgust.¡± ¡°Yeah, so?¡± ¡°Now, I realize the content of these simtions might be just as important as the proposition that ¡®This world is entirely a simtion.¡¯¡± ¡°......?¡± With a flick of my hand, I began adjusting the simtion device. Countless options appeared as holographic selections. [Scenario: Weakening the Undertaker¡¯s Mental State] [Scenario: Adjusting the Undertaker¡¯s Cycle] [Scenario: Weakening the Saintess¡¯s Morality] [Scenario: Killing Yu Ji-won] [Scenario: Large-Scale Explosion of the Sand of the Ganges] [Scenario: Invasion by the City Devourer] I suspected these were the types of scenarios the Mastermind liked to use frequently. But I ignored all the options entirely. Without adding any additional scenarios or using any kind of editor, I initiated the simtion in what could be called ¡°vani mode.¡± Soon, the simtion began running from the perspective of the Sword Marquess.

Trantor: ZERO_SUGAR Editor: echo https://dsc.gg/reapeics

¡°Huh?¡± Yo-hwa¡ªno, Infinite Void¡ªwho had been observing smugly, as if to gauge how clever my discovery was, suddenly blinked in confusion. ¡°Wait... What is this?¡± It moved closer, practically leaning over my shoulder to peer into the simtion. Even from the perspective of someone who had partially regained their authority as an Outer God, the sight unfolding was astonishing. ¡°The Earth... is still Earth, but something feels off. There are terrains here and there that aren¡¯t recorded in my Akashic Records. Where is this? It¡¯s not the real Earth, is it?¡± I tipped my chin in a slight nod. ¡°This is the martial realm.¡± ¡°The martial realm? As in, the alternate historical fantasy setting from wuxia novels?¡± ¡°...You¡¯ve picked quite the description, one that would make Infinite Metagame or Dok-seo choke if they heard it. But yes, it¡¯s that fictional space. This is my first time seeing it in person too.¡± Of course, this too was nothing more than a fabricated simtion created by the Mastermind. In the hologram, the Sword Marquess was advancing through the simtion. He joined the Mount Hua Sect, trained for decades, and eventually became the sect leader. His long journey shed by in elerated time. With each major milestone, new scenario options popped up on one corner of the hologram, like bubbles bursting to the surface. [Scenario: The Return of the Heavenly Demon] [Scenario: The Blood Sect''s Rebellion] [Scenario: The Great Orthodox-Demonic War] [Scenario: The Emergence of Demonic Creatures] The locations for these scenarios were mostly situated in the ¡°edges of the map,¡± where the Sword Marquess had not yet explored. It was in these uncharted territories that the Blood Sect¡¯s schemes were conceived, the forces of the Demonic Path flourished, and variables capable of toppling the Martial Alliance were introduced. ¡®So, I was right. If the Mastermind wants to manipte causality, they need as much unperceived space as possible.¡¯ It was the conceptmonly known as the ¡°fog of war.¡± In video games, any part of the map that hasn¡¯t been scouted would remain shrouded in darkness or mist. Simrly, in this martial arts world, there were many ¡°unknown regions¡± that the Sword Marquess had not yet perceived. To us, this concept was all too familiar. If one reced ¡°the areas unperceived by the Sword Marquess¡± with ¡°the areas unperceived by humanity,¡± it essentially became what we called the Void. Even in our world, the Void was abundant. ¡®When I tried to nt signal beacons beyond the Ural and Himyan Mountains, the Mastermind had a fit because it was trying to preserve as much Void as possible.¡¯ Why? Because if it allowed me to im that space, the ¡°scenario options¡±¡ªor in other words, the ¡°causality maniptions¡± visible before me¡ªavable to it would shrink significantly. Like any other Anomaly, the Outer God was deeplymitted to defending its domain. ¡°This is nothing but a paper-thin world...¡± Infinite Void murmured beside me. ¡°If you look closely, every space unrecognized by the Sword Marquess is covered in darkness. The moment the Sword Marquess perceives it, the background is generated, and NPCs are created on the spot.¡± A model garden of sorts, tailored by and for the Sword Marquess. That was the true nature of this simted universe. However, the simtion¡¯s dynamics soon changed. In the hologram, the Sword Marquess engaged in a life-and-death duel with the Heavenly Demon. Gravely injured, he had to tap into his innate energy, destroying his dantian in the process. Immediately after, a parallel projection of ¡°modern Earth,¡± which we knew, appeared next to the ¡°martial realm.¡± ¡°...The Sword Marquess has washed ashore on Ulleungdo.¡± ¡°The aftereffects of the intense battle with the Heavenly Demon have left his intelligence and memory unstable.¡± ¡°Wait. So, that¡¯s why the Sword Marquess ended up like that?¡± I shook my head. ¡°No. This is how the Mastermind defines the Sword Marquess.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Whether or not the Sword Marquess was truly a sect leader from the Mount Hua Sect, no one knows. But just now, the Mastermind used the simtion to dere, ¡®The Sword Marquess is a martial artist who returned from the martial realm.¡¯ And then...¡± I sped up the simtion. Wherever the Sword Marquess walked, the fields turned lush with crops. Simultaneously, thends in the ¡°Martial Realm,¡± which shared geographic simrities with Earth, withered into barren deserts. ¡°As you can see, when the Sword Marquess cultivates crops, the martial realm undergoes desertification.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°One world bes abundant at the cost of the other¡¯s destion. The Mastermind has defined the Sword Marquess¡¯s nt Growth Awakening ability in this way.¡± I looked at Infinite Void. ¡°Doesn¡¯t this remind you of something?¡± ¡°...The same way the Mastermind degraded your Regression ability into mere simtion data. It¡¯s twisting the Awakeners¡¯ abilities into its own definitions.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± I nced around the researchb. ¡°I thought this ce existed solely to kill me. But it¡¯s not just that. This is a factory built to define the identities of all Awakeners on Earth and even the identities of Anomalies like you.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Regression, nt Growth, the Saintess¡¯s Telepathy, Dang Seo-rin¡¯s Cursed Songs¡ªall of it. The Mastermind is probably reducing them all to mere ¡®simtion data.¡¯ Even your Akashic Records, Infinite Void.¡±N?v(el)B\\jnn It was impossible to dismiss the Mastermind as just a cowardly squatter waiting to steal the final blow. From beginning to end, it had focused only on bringing the world under its control. Look. Even now, every human and Anomaly was being reduced to simtion data. After a long silence, Infinite Void mumbled, ¡°How do we win against this?¡± Was it just my imagination, or was it slightly intimidated by the Mastermind? ¡°Destroying the researchb just pushes it from a lower to a higher level. If we leave it alone, no matter how much we struggle, we¡¯ll only end up as part of the Mastermind¡¯s ¡®calcted simtion.¡¯ Isn¡¯t this aplete checkmate?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°S-so, the only way might be for us to have a child together and create a brand-new variable¡ª!¡± ¡°No. Hold on.¡± I ced my hand on Infinite Void¡¯s shoulder, stopping it before it spiraled further. ¡°From what we¡¯ve seen, the Mastermind isn¡¯t just my enemy. It¡¯s not just humanity¡¯s enemy either. It¡¯s also the greatest rival of you Outer Gods.¡± ¡°And so?¡± ¡°We¡¯re in the same boat. The enemy of my enemy is my ally. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s time to revisit that ancient truth?¡± Blink. ¡°Ugh. Don¡¯t tell me, sunbae...¡±

Another cycle passed. In the simtion universe research center, our party now consisted of myself, Infinite Void, and the slime Fairy King. But now, there was one new addition to the team. Of course, calling it a "party member" might not have been entirely appropriate. The neer didn¡¯t even have a mouth to eat food with. To put it more concretely, our new member resembled nothing more than aptop. ¡°Introduce yourself, Infinite Void. This is Admin of the Infinite Metagame.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And Infinite Metagame, this is Infinite Void. It¡¯s probably the first time the two of you are meeting face-to-face¡ªor rather, face-to-screen¡ªwhile each of you is sealed in your respective forms.¡± [...] ¡°As I exined, the Outer God we¡¯re up against this time is no joke. Even if this is your first encounter, I expect you two to work together to ovee the crisis. Now, shake hands.¡± Beep-beep-beep. Theptop in my arms disyed a message on its screen. [AOIM ¨C Query: May I power off now?] ¡°No.¡± [AOIM ¨C Profanity filter overridden.] The Outer God party wasplete!

Footnotes: Chapter 255 Editor: echo Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I''m an Infinite Regressor, But I''ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 255 The Mastermind VI Bringing along the Admin of the Infinite Metagame¡ªor rather, theptop in which Infinite Metagame was sealed¡ªwas surprisingly simple. I returned to the "simtion universe" where the real world had once been. Then, I died and regressed. From that point on, it was a repetition of events identical to the 687th cycle.I constructed signal beacons worldwide, fought against the Monster Wave, and left Cheon Yo-hwa as thest survivor to ovey her with Mastermind Syndrome. Infinite Void evolved into the colossal Gurren Lagann once again and dragged me into the simtion researchb. The only difference this time was that theptop containing Infinite Metagame was tucked away in my arms. "So, all this has already happened to you in a previous cycle?" Infinite Void stared at me in disbelief. "You''ve already searched through this Outer God''s... I mean..." "For convenience, just call it the Mastermind." "Ah, right... Anyway, you''ve ransacked the Mastermind''s Divine Realm before but couldn''t find any weaknesses, so you dragged Infinite Metagame here as well. Is that it?" "Precisely." "...Hey, sunbae. Doesn''t this seem almost identical to the Reality Maniptions you described about the simtion universe? It''s the same world, but now with theptop added. Who''s the Anomaly, and who''s the human here?" Infinite Void grumbled. [AOIM ¨C Understood the situation.] A low-quality robotic voice came from theptop''s rudimentary speakers. [AOIM ¨C Even in this sealed form, it is the first time I have encountered an Outer God so directly. Infinite Void, I propose an alliance.] "Huh? Me?" [AOIM ¨C Correct. We are entities sealed and altered by the tyrant known as the Undertaker. If we coborate, based on mutual understanding, we may regain our former authority.] "Uh..." Infinite Void nced at me, tilting its head slightly. "Hmm." [AOIM ¨C What concerns you? If you have any conditions for cooperation, we can discuss them.] "No, it''s not that. Your offer sounds nice and all, but Infinite Metagame, aren''t you, like, super weak?" [...] "Look at me. I''ve taken over the Fairy King''s dominion and even escaped that shitty hourss. And you? What do you even do? You''re just a cheapptop!" ? [...] "Sorry, but just because sunbae lumped us both into the Outer God category doesn''t mean we''re all the same. Let''s at least keep to our respective ranks, shall we?" [AOIM ¨C Strongly rmending that the owner, the Undertaker, lift profanity restrictions.] I ignored it. "This is a temporary alliance to defeat amon enemy. Don''t create unnecessary friction, Infinite Void." "Okay?" "Hand over the slime Fairy King to Infinite Metagame. It''s too inconvenient for theptop to move around as it is. At least give it some limbs." "Oh, sure. Got it." Infinite Void snapped its fingers, and the floor rippled before a slime emerged and attached itself to theptop, forming a crude but functional robotic frame. It resembled the Potato Saintess, with flimsy limbs precariously supporting theptop''s main body. - Report: Mountingplete. Normal operation confirmed. I will now speak on behalf of Infinite Metagame. The cheap robotic voice improved slightly with the addition of the Fairy King. On theptop screen, the emoticon (''?'') appeared. It seemed Infinite Metagame was pleased in its way. "I went through all the trouble of bringing theptop for one reason. Infinite Metagame, can you hack this entire simtion universe researchb?" - Query: Please define "hack" in detail. "I''m asking if you can reduce the entire simtion into a mere fictional story." When you thought about it, there were notable simrities between Infinite Metagame and the Mastermind, even if they seemed trivial. Infinite Metagame regarded the world as "fiction." The Mastermind downgraded it to "simtion data." Both Outer Gods used simrly meta techniques to dominate reality. - Confirmed: I will attempt it. - Query: However, I see no benefit in acting under the Undertaker''s orders. I demand fairpensation for my cooperation. "Oh, hmm. Alright. How about letting you install any program you want on theptop at a time of your choosing?" - epted: I agree to the terms. What could I say? This very agreement wouldter lead to the instation of AOIM-GPT on theptop. As many of you know, that chatbot transformed Infinite Metagame into a force that Corrupted Oh Dok-seo into the most reviled author in history. Sorry, Dok-seo! I had no idea it would turn out like that.

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- Executing: Initiating simtion hack. Squirm. A slime tendril extended from theptop''s USB port, transforming into a "cable" as it wriggled toward the simtion model. The cable connected, embedding itself into the model like a snake sinking its fangs. The simtion''s universe model darkened, stained crimson-ck. [Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh] A distorted noise erupted from the speakers embedded in theb''s ceiling. I assumed it was the Mastermind''s anguished cry. Even though my power was rarely effective against this Anomaly, Infinite Metagame¡ªa fellow Outer God¡ªwas causing it significant distress. A battle between entities beyond humanprehension was unfolding. - Request: Backup required from Infinite Void. "Huh? Sure, but what kind of help do you need?" - Exnation: There is an enormousputational gap between this simtion universe and myself. Assistance in data processing is necessary. "Oh, data crunching? That''s my specialty. But if you try hacking me, I''ll kill you." - Sarcasm: The concept of death does not apply to me. Another USB cable shot out, snapping into Infinite Void''s arm. "Hmph." Infinite Void snorted and grabbed the cable. To my surprise, it morphed into an IV line, half electrical wiring, half infusion tubing. Through this hybrid conduit, the two Outer Gods shared their power. [Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh] [Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh] The noise from the speakers intensified. Infinite Metagame and Infinite Void weren''t unscathed either. Red welts bubbled on theptop, bursting as though alive. The emoticon on the screen flickered before shifting to disy the vastness of the universe. Infinite Void fared worse. Its form crackled with static, fragments of its body shifting through an old man, a child, a tree, and a CRT television. I grabbed its hand. "Ah." It looked between my hand and face, startled. Then, its form stabilized. Though asional distortions appeared on its limbs, its face remained that of Cheon Yo-hwa. - Report: Hackingplete. (''¨Œ'') ¡î The emoticon returned to theptop screen, apanied by an infuriating sparkle sound effect. If we stuck together much longer, Infinite Metagame might debut as a VTuber. I could already imagine it¡ªthe OG, "Sparkles." - Executing: Stripping the Mastermind of control over this simtion model. - Warning: Based on the Undertaker''s personality, the results may be unsettling. Please prepare yourself. Prepare myself? Before I could tilt my head in confusion, theb''s scenery shifted entirely, and the holographic universe model morphed into a brain. Yes. The brain nestled inside a human skull. That was the true form of the "simtion universe." Squirm, squirm, squirm. The brain, exposed in full view, pulsed relentlessly. Every groove in its surface writhed as though each fold were a living tentacle. But Infinite Metagame wasn''t warning me about its grotesque appearance. "Ah. Um. Sunbae. This...¡± Infinite Void hesitated, disconnecting the IV-like cable. ¡°This is an actual human brain." "An actual brain? Could a single human brain possess enoughputational power to simte an entire universe?" "Well... it''s not a single brain, but rather..." Infinite Metagame interjected. - Analysis: This brain is aposite of 8,214,949,873 humans.[1] Silence. - Exnation: This number only ounts for physical bodies. If we include simted personalities, the total grows exponentially. - Addendum: It is suspected that nearly all humans who perished in the Void, beyond the Undertaker''s perception, were abducted into this "simtion universe." Infinite Void nced at me cautiously, hesitating. "You know the phrase you often use, sunbae? About being ''bewitched by Anomalies''?" It paused, as if deliberating its words before borating, "It seems that when people die in the real world, the Mastermind siphons off their brains, leaving their bodies behind. Like being spirited away."[2] - Addendum: The Mastermind does not abduct the physical brain but rather its functions and memories.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "So, to put it in a way you''d understand, sunbae..." I interrupted it. "It''s the soul." "..." "The body may die, but the functions, memories, and spirit are taken elsewhere. If we define this as a soul, then this ce is a heaven of sorts¡ªa celestial kingdom." The words escaped my lips as if whispered. "I see now. The Mastermind''s overwhelmingputational poweres from the corpses of the deceased." - Affirmation: As the number of deaths and disappearances increases, so too does the number of captives imprisoned in this celestial prison, or so-called Heaven. "That''s why it panicked whenever I tried expanding my influence beyond the Himyas or the Urals." - Affirmation: When the Undertaker travels, the causes of death be precisely defined. Consider the example of Kolkata, a major city on the Indian subcontinent. There, a cmity resembling the goddess Kali descended, massacring approximately 20 million people.[3] I didn''t know exactly what happened in Kolkata. I''d been there before but never attempted to confront the Anomaly directly. To me, those 20 million deaths were effectively ssified as "disappearances." The Korean Penins had faced simr circumstances, after all, when cities vanished overnight as if erased. Why? Onlyter did I discover that the Anomaly known as the Meteor Shower lulled people to sleep with lubies before annihting them en masse. I had identified how the Meteor Shower functioned and inferred its origins. It stemmed from fears of airstrikes, the desperation of fleeing toote, and the tender wishes of a mother singing a luby tofort her child before inevitable death. Thus, from my perspective, deaths caused by the Meteor Shower were clear and traceable, much like traffic idents. But Kolkata was different. How had the Anomaly manifested as the goddess Kali? What horrors had it wrought on the local residents? And what of Mumbai? Delhi? Moscow beyond the Urals? Or Europe, Africa, and the Americas? I didn¡¯t know. I didn¡¯t know, and therefore, the majority of human deaths remained mysteries¡ªssified as "disappearances" in my understanding. Like shadows concealed within the fog of war. So who would notice, then, if the Mastermind stole the "brains" of humans who had died mysteriously? Amid the veils of enigmatic uncertainty, the Mastermind''s whispers spread, an Outer God weaving its schemes. The harvested human brains were imprisoned here, asponents of this fabricated garden¡ªa grotesque mockery of a so-called Heaven. "A harvester of souls," I said aloud. "......" "The hypothesis of the simtion universe. The brain in the vat. No, the humanity in the vat. The geocentric model. The hollow Earth theory. The heavenly kingdom. The fog of war. IF scenarios. Descartes''s demon." With each phrase, my voice grew heavier, my words deliberate. Infinite Void shuddered, visibly startled. It understood all too well that I was naming an Anomaly, invoking the power of its designation. "Mastermind." I gazed at the brain encased in its vat withpleteprehension. "That is your name." At that moment, the scenery of theb underwent a radical transformation. The brain in the vat began to writhe, fleshy tendrils emerging. The Filter that had adorned theb with pristine white walls and corridors peeled away entirely. Squirm, squirm, squirm¡ªsquelch. The raw, unfiltered Divine Realm of the Outer God revealed itself. It was a hellish mass of flesh, its folds undting like writhing tentacles. [Aah] [Aahhh] [Aaaahhhh] [Aah] [Aahhhhhh] [Aaahhhhhhhhhhh] The speakers emitted deafening screams. The sound wasn''t mere noise but the voices of countless souls¡ªbillions of victims whose brains had been stolen. In this world, humanity remained trapped in the grip of Anomalies, even in death.

Footnotes: [1] 8.2 billion is the estimated human poption of the world in 2025. [2] This is the same word that is used for the 2001 Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away. [3] Kali is a major goddess in Hinduism known as the goddess of destruction, the goddess of time, and inter traditions, a symbol of creation in Mother Nature. Chapter 256 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind VII The Mastermind¡¯s true identity had been fully unveiled. Now, all that remained was to defeat it. However, beforeunching a full-scale assault, it was necessary to weaken the Mastermind¡¯s power as much as possible. Consider it a preliminary skirmish. ¡°First, I¡¯ll take control of all the simtion universes in this Divine Realm.¡± Infinite Void cocked its head at mymand. ¡°All of them? There are over 5,000, you know.¡±¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We have unlimited time here.¡± - Affirmation: Strictly speaking, this space is disconnected from reality and the 107th simtion universe. There is no need to be bound by the flow of real-world time. The unprecedented coboration of Outer Gods moved as one. It took us two years to hack all the simtion universes. You might think that¡¯s excessive for a preliminary skirmish, but if you saw the results, you¡¯d understand. Squirm, squirm, squirm. Before usy over 5,000 ¡°brains,¡± each writhing inside its tank. The tanks were interconnected by countless wires, and those wires stretched like railway tracks, all leading to the USB port of theptop, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. ¡°Activate simtions in all universes except the 107th.¡± - Affirmation: Specify the scenarios to be applied. ¡°The protagonist will be Dang Seo-rin.¡± Theptop screen whirred to life as the Admin input data into all 5,000 universes ording to my instructions. Squirm, squirm, squirm! The fleshy brain masses around us seemed to writhe in resistance, emitting a foul stench. Infinite Void smirked silently and snapped its fingers. The brains couldn¡¯t attack us and were forced to remain subdued while the Admin and I continued our work. ? ¡°Set the timeline to the 664th cycle,¡± Imanded. ¡°That¡¯s when I traveled through the Uyuni Salt ts, so Dang Seo-rin would already know about Anomalies from parallel worlds.¡± - Scenario: Set the Undertaker¡¯s perspective to the 664th cycle. ¡°The cause of the world¡¯s destruction will be aliens. Have far more UFOs than the Undertaker knows of descend suddenly, leaving no chance for resistance as Earth is annihted.¡± - Scenario: Alien invasion. Increase the number of UFOs from one to 9,999. After visiting the Uyuni Salt ts, rece the Great Monsoon Anomaly with the alien invasion. ¡°Begin.¡± - Affirmation: Starting simtion. The simtions activated. The 5,000 brains dreamed identical dreams, exactly as programmed. The Admin edited and condensed the simtions into video form, disying them on theptop screen for me to watch. ¡°It¡¯s slow. Speed it up. You can skip most of it until the moment of destruction approaches.¡± - Affirmation: elerating to 1,000x speed. In an instant, the lifespan of the Undertaker and the cycles of the world flew by on theptop screen. The ¡°Undertaker¡± on-screen gatheredpanions, met other Undertakers on an airne, and wandered the mirror-like Uyuni Salt ts with Dang Seo-rin, enjoying the view. Then, contrary to their expectations, they gazed up at an endless barrage of UFOs raining down like meteors, their numbers far exceeding anything previously imagined. The Undertaker had been pushed to the brink of copse by aliens transported by a single UFO. With the sudden arrival of 9,999 ships embedding themselves across the globe, what choice would ¡°the Undertaker¡± make? ¡°...As expected.¡± Because I was the Undertaker, I could predict his actions precisely. The on-screen Undertaker fled with Seo-rin, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the aliens. Infinite Void tilted its head, intrigued. ¡°Huh, fascinating. How did you know he¡¯d run away with Dang Seo-rin? You didn¡¯t input thatmand, did you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple. I have a tendency in every cycle to choose onepanion to protect until the end.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°...The destruction of the world always takes a mental toll on me. To minimize the impact, I need someone else by my side to witness the end.¡± Infinite Void chuckled softly. ¡°To trick yourself into thinking you¡¯re not alone in the world¡¯s final moments?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a trick. Dang Seo-rin¡¯s lifespan carries over between cycles, and the Saintess halts at a specific endpoint.¡± ¡°Hahaha! How cute. Fighting against 999 reasons to die with just three reasons to live.¡± I turned to Infinite Void. ¡°Does that frighten you?¡± ¡°Huh? Frighten me? No. If anything, I feel like I just hit a nerve.¡± ¡°A person can build a boat with just a handful of reasons and sail across an infinite ocean. No matter how many waves of despair your kind throws at them.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°In the end, you¡¯re nothing but the fangs and ws of ancient beasts.¡± Infinite Void¡¯s lips curled into a crooked smile. ¡°That¡¯s just your opinion, not humanity¡¯s collective will.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The ocean always exists, sunbae.¡± As we spoke, the simtion reached its climax. Undertaker and Seo-rin had fled to an uninhabited ind. Knowing the aliens¡¯ weakness to water, they sought refuge in the sea, using it as a shield. All of humanity, save for those two, had been wiped out. ¡°Now. Stop time.¡± - Affirmation: Time stopped. ¡°Infinite Void, retrieve Dang Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Infinite Void reached out toward theptop. ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m not in a great mood right now, so this might hurt a bit. Apologies in advance, junkptop.¡± - Observation: Failing to understand an object¡¯s proper use is amon trait among immature humans. However, this entity is not petty enough to take offense at the ignorance of those who are literally ¡°parentless.¡± ¡°Hahaha. Shut your mouth.¡± - Rebuttal: Impossible. This entitycks a mouth and thus cannot ¡°shut¡± it... Squelch! Infinite Void¡¯s hand plunged toward theptop screen. Theptop wasn¡¯t pierced. Instead, Infinite Void¡¯s fingers entered ¡°into¡± the screen. It reached into the frozen simtion, lifting Seo-rin onto its palm. ¡°Got her.¡± Infinite Void yanked its arm back. I couldn¡¯tprehend what happened, but from the Admin of the Infinite Metagame¡¯s perspective, Infinite Void¡¯s actions must have been outrageously forceful. Static crackled from the speakers, apanied by mechanical groans and bursts of smoke from theptop. When Infinite Void¡¯s hand finally emerged from theptop, the screen was left with a gaping hole. Blood seeped from the hole, dark crimson fluid dripping onto the keyboard and pooling at my feet. - Mockery: Your arrogance will surely earn you a ce in hell. ¡°Funny. I was thinking the same thing about you.¡± The party members were bickering, but I paid them no mind. Any discord among the Outer Gods worked to my advantage. My attention was elsewhere. St! The 5,000 brains inside the tanks swelled before bursting open. Each exploded brain transformed into a figure resembling Dang Seo-rin. I could only assume I had undergone a simr process to escape the 107th simtion. The Dang Seo-rins broke free of their tanks, copsing to the ground. Groans echoed throughout the area. - Uh... what...? - Where are we? - Wait, who are you?! - Ugh, what¡¯s that smell... blergh! The chaos grew louder as the 5,000 Dang Seo-rins reeled from the grotesque scene of the Divine Realm and its overwhelming stench. For a fleeting moment, I felt a pang of emotion. Hadn¡¯t I spent thest two years surrounded only by Outer Gods trying to manipte me? But I quickly quelled the feeling. ¡°Everyone, listen up.¡± I amplified my voice with Aura, drawing the Dang Seo-rins¡¯ attention. Facing thousands of Dang Seo-rins simultaneously was a first, even in my long life as a regressor. ¡°You¡¯re probably feeling confused. But if you remember our trip to the Uyuni Salt ts, you¡¯ll realize this situation isn¡¯t so different.¡± - ... ¡°The exponential increase in UFOs, originally just one, follows the same logic. We¡¯ve been gathered here to defeat the Outer God behind the Anomalies of the parallel worlds. I¡¯ll need your full cooperation.¡± - Wait. - Wait. - Wait. - Wait. All 5,000 Dang Seo-rins shouted ¡°Wait¡± in unison, startling even themselves. Of course, it was only natural. They were identical copies created from the same simtion, sharing the same experiences, thoughts, and speech patterns. Even their timing for interrupting me was identical. As such, convincing one would mean convincing all. There was no need for individual exnations. ¡°No questions.¡± - ... ¡°The reason is simple. As you can see, you came from a different worldline than me. The Undertaker you knew and the one standing here are not the same person.¡± Silence fell. ¡°Therefore, I don¡¯t consider you to be Dang Seo-rin. Likewise, you probably don¡¯t see me as the Undertaker you knew. All I¡¯m asking is for your cooperation in defeating this Outer God. I¡¯ll need your help.¡± The expressions on the Dang Seo-rins changed. Their gazes sharpened, no longer filled with confusion or sentimentality. Instead, they bore the cold, calcting focus of someone who had led the Awakener Alliance of the Korean Penins. It was clear that the Mastermind¡¯s simtion had meticulously ounted for every detail of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s character. ¡°Now, I¡¯ll exin the n. There are 5,651 of you here. Naturally, that means you collectively possess the same amount of lifespan. I need you to use that lifespan to continuously cast the Cursed Song Incantation. The lyrics and melody for each verse are as follows...¡±

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

I began issuing instructions to the Dang Seo-rins. Now that we regarded each other as business partners, unnecessary questions or objections were eliminated. Each Dang Seo-rin functioned like a disciplined soldier, executing my n without hesitation. Once I finished exining, I pointed to the Seo-rin closest to me. ¡°For the final step, I¡¯ll take one question. You may ask on behalf of everyone else.¡± - Sure. I was just curious¡ªwhy is Cheon Yo-hwa here? I paused, choosing my words carefully. ¡°It only looks like Cheon Yo-hwa. This is apletely different being. Its name is Infinite Void. Its cooperation was essential to infiltrating the Divine Realm of this Outer God. In fact, it¡¯s thanks to Infinite Void that you were brought here.¡± - Hmm. ¡°Any other questions?¡± There were none. Instead of speaking, the chosen Dang Seo-rin parted her lips and began to sing. In perfect synchronization, the rest of the Dang Seo-rins formed groups of dozens and began chanting their respective melodies of the Cursed Song Incantation. ¨D¨D ¨D¨DA ¨D¨D¨D The haunting melodies resonated throughout the grotesque Divine Realm, a realm of writhing brain folds and fleshy tendrils that desecrated human souls. The harmonized voices attacked the essence of the Mastermind itself, specialized in denying and eradicating Anomalies. Soon, the Cursed Song Incantation would consume a staggering amount of lifespan, tearing the Void apart. I turned to Infinite Void. ¡°Let¡¯s go. To the upper levels.¡± It let out a derisiveugh. ¡°Sunbae... You really are upromising.¡± Infinite Void¡¯s ethereal form dissipated like smoke. Momentster, the ceiling of the Void ripped apart with a deafening roar. Infinite Void¡¯s ws had carved a path through the barrier. As the Dang Seo-rins continued their chant, they paused briefly, startled by the sight of the Void¡¯s ceiling tearing open. But they quickly resumed, unaffected, as I had already exined this part of the n during the briefing. The massive, eye-like sun above stared down at us. I couldn¡¯t help but reflect for a moment. ¡®The Seo-rins here aren¡¯t even treated like human beings.¡¯ They were nothing more than simted data created by the Mastermind. The only entities deemed alive in this realm were me and ¡°Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body,¡± which Infinite Void hadmandeered. That¡¯s why the Mastermind Syndrome could continue to manifest, breaking through one simtionyer after another. ¨D¨D¨DA Even so, the data-simted Cursed Song Incantation felt profoundly real. The Dang Seo-rins actively attacked this Divine Realm, the Mastermind¡¯s creation, and even the god that had brought them into existence. Yes, if you thought of them as data, they had be ¡°malicious code.¡± - Report: Repairsplete. It is inadvisable to ascend without this unit. The Admin of the Infinite Metagame leapt into my arms. Somehow, it had repaired the damage inflicted earlier. Theptop was pristine with its screen as good as new. I held the Admin close and climbed onto Infinite Void¡¯s hand. Like an orbital elevator, it carried us higher, toward the ¡°heaven above.¡± ¨D¨DAh¨D¨D¨D__...... The chants of the Dang Seo-rins grew fainter as we ascended. Leaving the choir behind, we traversed the vast expanse of the simted universe. This was just the first phase of my n. Operation Virus. If it was impossible to deny the Mastermind¡¯s treatment of the world as mere data, then corrupting that data was the next best option. We would continue like this, extracting a ¡°virus¡± from one simtion and releasing it into the next. Oneyer at a time, we¡¯d repeat the process until the Mastermind¡¯s system copsed under the strain. ¡®It¡¯s bound to work.¡¯ The Mastermind relied on two things to sustain its simtions. First, the ¡°fog of war¡±¡ªunobserved areas where it could move freely. Second, the souls it harvested from those unobserved regions: the brains. The Admin of the Infinite Metagame had once said that the spectacle of ¡°brains in vats¡± would disquiet me, given my moralpass. It had been correct. The sight was indeed disturbing. But at the same time, it revealed the Mastermind¡¯s weakness. To run simtions, the Mastermind requires human brains. Conversely, this meant... Without human brains, the Mastermind cannotpute its simtions. The implication? The Mastermind cannot exceed theputational capacity of the brains it possesses. And as the Admin of the Infinite Metagame had stated earlier: The Mastermind¡¯s brainpositeprises 8,214,949,873 humans. This number only ounts for physical bodies. Including simted personalities increases the total exponentially. It was an enormous figure, one guaranteeing immenseputational power. But no matter how vast it seemed, it wasn¡¯t infinite. Even the countless grains of sand on a beach could eventually be counted, one by one.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Anomalies always operated within the constraints of their own rules. The Mastermind would know this. That¡¯s why it didn¡¯t im to have infiniteputational power. Instead, it focused on repairing and recovering itself. However, even those resources had limits. How long could it endure? - Query: What virus will you deploy in the nextyer of the Divine Realm? I smiled. ¡°The kind best suited to throwing the world into chaos¡ªa joker card.¡± - rification: A joker card? ¡°I have a certain customized bomb I always try to avoid.¡± Perhaps it was just my imagination, but I thought I saw a sh of pink hair and a mischievous grin in my mind¡¯s eye.

Footnotes: Chapter 257 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind VIII The next n was simple: Bring copies of Go Yuri from the simtion universes and scatter them throughout the Divine Realm. No matter how vast the Mastermind¡¯sputational power, built upon the consumption of nearly all human brains, it couldn¡¯t possibly hold up against that kind of chaos. Q: What do you think Infinite Void¡¯s reaction will be when it hears this n? (3 points) ¡°Sunbae, are you insane?¡± Correct.I, the Undertaker, would forever be remembered as the first human to hear the words ¡°Are you insane?¡± from an Outer God. ¡°There¡¯s a reason people say not to poke a sleeping tiger! Just leave the pink one alone!¡± ¡°Calm down. I¡¯m not talking about summoning Go Yuri into the real world¡ªthat is, the 107th universe. Do you think I¡¯ve lost my mind? I¡¯m only suggesting we bring fake Go Yuris from the other simtion universes.¡± ¡°Ugh!¡± Infinite Void scoffed, stomping its foot in frustration. ¡°Sunbae, are you an idiot? There¡¯s no such thing as a fake or real Go Yuri!¡± From my perspective, it wasughable. After all, this being had blurred the line between real and fake itself, bing little more than a bootleg copy of Cheon Yo-hwa. ¡°Well then, let me ask you outright. What exactly is Go Yuri to you Outer Gods?¡± ¡°......¡± -...... Infinite Void and the Admin of the Infinite Metagame exchanged a nce. The former was the first to speak. ¡°A walking embodiment of humanity.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Hmm. It¡¯s hard to exin. You see, the brains stored here were created bybining the minds of over 8 billion humans, right? Together, they form something you might call a human brain or an absolute consciousness. In a simr sense, the pink one is like... a human brain with arms and legs, walking around freely. At least, that¡¯s how it seems to me.¡° ? Then, softly, Infinite Void muttered, ¡°But calling it a human brain is inurate. The pink one isn¡¯t limited to humans¡ªit encapstes everything, every object...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t get it.¡± ¡°Right? I don¡¯t either. Imagine, sunbae¡ªfrom my perspective, it¡¯s like a being carrying data equivalent to an entire universe walking around!¡± Infinite Void shuddered, visibly ufortable. The Admin of the Infinite Metagame chimed in then, its speakers crackling faintly as the slime Fairy King softened the mechanical voice. - Exnation: From this entity¡¯s perspective, it¡¯s much simpler. ¡°In what way?¡± - Exnation: It¡¯s you, Undertaker. ? - rification: In other words, the ¡°Go Yuri¡± or ¡°pink one¡± is perceived by this entity as identical to you, the Undertaker, at least from this entity¡¯s perspective. ??? Both Infinite Void and I blinked, baffled. The ever-curious Infinite Void reacted first. ¡°Wait, wait, wait! Are you saying you see the pink one as the same as sunbae?¡± - Affirmation: Correct. ¡°What? That makes no sense! The pink one spends most of its time in the capital, while sunbae is always running around. Are you telling me your eyes see two versions of sunbae all the time?¡± - Denial and affirmation: This entitycks physical eyes. Please verify whether your own eyes are properly attached. If the term ¡°eyes¡± is symbolic of perception, then yes, that is urate. Infinite Void¡¯s jaw dropped. I might have mirrored its expression, had I been looking in a mirror. I took over the questioning, demanding to know, ¡°Then how do you distinguish between the ¡®Undertaker in the capital¡¯ and the ¡®true Undertaker?¡¯¡± - Answer: I cannot. However, the true Undertaker is almost always apanied by this entity¡¯s priestess (the traitor), so I designate the one closest to her as the true Undertaker. ¡°Ah...¡± The Admin¡¯s answer stirred a memory within me. The 555th cycle. That was when Oh Dok-seo, previously almost powerless, suddenly gained the identity of a ¡°novel possessor.¡± The Admin of the Infinite Metagame had chosen the priestess to counter me. Looking back, something strange had urred during that cycle. ¡®Dok-seo... not only targeted me but also tried to recruit Go Yuri into her party.¡¯ At the time, I assumed Dok-seo had fallen victim to Go Yuri¡¯s brainwashing ability. But could the truth have been something else? ¡°Admin of the Infinite Metagame, when you influenced Oh Dok-seo in the 555th cycle to keep the ¡®Undertaker¡¯ in check... were you referring to both me and Go Yuri?¡± - Affirmation: Naturally. Theptop screen disyed a (?¦Ø?) emoticon. - Exnation: To this entity, there have always been two Undertakers. ¡°......¡± The revtion left me stunned. What surprised me more was the realization that I had asked the Outer Gods about Go Yuri¡¯s identity in past cycles. That¡¯s right. Back then, Infinite Void and the Admin of the Infinite Metagame had dodged my questions. Or rather, they gave me answers, but ones I couldn¡¯t fully grasp. Why were they being so clear in their answers now? Was it because we were inside the Mastermind¡¯s Divine Realm? ¡°This discussion is pointless right now...¡± I shook my head to clear my thoughts. ¡°For now, the Mastermind takes precedence over Go Yuri. While we don¡¯t know whether Go Yuri is an enemy, the Mastermind is undoubtedly hostile.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s true.¡± ¡°So, once we¡¯re fully prepared, we¡¯ll summon the Go Yuris and detonate the ¡®bomb.¡¯ Then we¡¯ll escape while it¡¯s still ticking.¡± - Affirmation: Understood. We resumed hacking. Wires emerged from the Admin¡¯sptop, snaking toward the brains. Having done this once already, the process was much faster this time. Watching Infinite Void fend off the brain tendrils, a thought struck me. ¡°By the way, Infinite Void.¡± ¡°Yeah? What¡¯s up, sunbae?¡± ¡°To my knowledge, Go Yuri reflects the ideal form desired by whoever sees it. To some, it has blonde hair, to others, ck. How did youe to see Go Yuri as having ¡®pink¡¯ hair?¡± Infinite Void tilted its head. ¡°Pink is pink. What do you mean?¡± This time, I tilted my head in confusion. Our mirrored gestures made us look like reflections. ¡°You call Go Yuri the ¡®pink one¡¯ because of its hair, right?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°You said earlier that Go Yuri looks like the universe itself. How can something that vast have pink hair?¡± Infinite Void blinked, narrowing its eyes. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m saying, sunbae. It¡¯s pink.¡± ¡°Yeah, pink.¡± ¡°Exactly, pink.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°?¡± An awkward silence hung in the air. Then, like a bolt of lightning, an eerie realization struck me¡ªa static charge of unease coursing through my mind. Could it be? No. That would be absurd. But if it were true, it would exin why Infinite Void and I had been talking past each other. I spoke slowly, testing my theory. ¡°Go Yuri... has universe-colored hair.¡± Infinite Void responded effortlessly. ¡°Right, pink hair.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I mean, I¡¯ve been saying it all along, sunbae. Its hair is pink. It¡¯s an indescribable color, so I call it pink. It doesn¡¯t mean pink actually exists. You¡¯re usually good with metaphors, why aren¡¯t you getting this?¡± Infinite Void grumbled to itself, then turned back to fight off the tendrils. I couldn¡¯t continue the conversation.

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Go Yuri was dangerous. But bombs are impartial, exploding for everyone. Go Yuri was just as perilous for the Mastermind as she was for us. - Report: Compared to the previousyer, the number of simtion universes on thisyer has decreased by more than 200. - Analysis: This indicates significant damage. The Dang Seo-rins casting the Cursed Song Incantation on the previousyer appear to be performing effectively. ¡°Good. If dropping Go Yuri can cause this much chaos, the overload should be even more severe.¡± - Affirmation: Agreed. I steadied my breathing. ¡°We¡¯re fully prepared.¡± - Affirmation: Indeed. ¡°Infinite Void!¡± I called out, looking upward. Unlike before, Infinite Void had already torn apart the ceiling of the simted universe. The Admin and I were standing on its erged palm, ready to ascend at a moment¡¯s notice. ¡°Remember the n! No hesitation. Not even for a second. Once Go Yuri appears, it can¡¯t be allowed to lock eyes with me. Get me out immediately!¡± - Sunbae, this is seriously stressing me out. Infinite Void¡¯s voice echoed from the ethereal gaps of the torn sky. - Can¡¯t we justpromise? Forget efficiency and pack this ce with Dang Seo-rins instead of Go Yuris? ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid!¡± I roared back. ¡°How many times have I exined this? Using only one type of virus would be begging the enemy to create a vine. Go Yuri isn¡¯t optional¡ªshe¡¯s essential!¡± - But... thousands of Go Yuris? I feel like my head¡¯s going to explode the moment I see them... ¡°Just close your eyes and move the tform on my signal! How hard is it to move a hand? If it¡¯s too hard, quit being an Outer God!¡± - Damn it. I already tried quitting, but no one let me, so now I¡¯m stuck like this, sunbae! ¡°Enough talk! Move! Stop whining, you Anomaly!¡± - Waaaah. Sunbae¡¯s bullying me... Infinite Void shut its eyes tightly. Whoosh! Its eyelids, as vast as gxies, closed, releasing an immense gust of ether that ruffled the cables connected to the Admin¡¯sptop. The cables stretched toward approximately 5,000 brains, fully connected as before. ¡°Admin of the Infinite Metagame!¡± - Report: All simtion universes have reached apocalyptic destruction, leaving only the Undertaker and Go Yuri alive. Time has been paused. ¡°Pull them in! Remember, the one who¡¯s grinning for no reason is Go Yuri. Don¡¯t confuse it with me!¡± - Affirmation: Initiating virus extraction. Whoosh! Hooks formed at the ends of the cables and plunged into the brains. The Admin, acting in Infinite Void¡¯s ce, began extracting the Go Yuris. From the outside, it looked like a w machine game. Except the w, the prizes, and even the machine were all horrors beyond humanprehension. - Report: 5,427 ¡°Go Yuris¡± are being retrieved. They will soon pass through the simted universes into the Divine Realm. - Countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2... Squelch! St! Squelch! Thousands of brains vomited blood simultaneously. The spilled blood took on human forms, coalescing into shapes all too familiar to me¡ªunforgettable even in my nightmares. 5,000 of them. - 1. ¡°Infinite Void!¡± Just before the Go Yuris opened their eyes, Infinite Void moved without hesitation, lifting its orbital-elevator-like palm. We rose in altitude rapidly. I immediately swung my Aura. Bang! Buh-bang! Bang! The cables linking the Admin to the Go Yuris were severed all at once. This severed the connection between the Admin and the extracted viruses. I then threw myself t onto Infinite Void¡¯s palm. - Oh? - Oh my? - Huh? - Hmm? From far below, faint voices rose up. - Hello? - Yes, hello. - Nice to meet you. - Indeed, nice to meet you. - Oh, you too? - Yes, you too. The voices were sweet, infused with a maic charm that was impossible to ignore. Even against my will, the words pierced my ears like a song designed to ensnare. - But isn¡¯t this impossible? - Yes, something has interfered. - Fascinating. I thought the demon promised not to touch us. - Lately, the demon¡¯s Aura has grown stronger. Perhaps it broke its word. - Could that be possible? - But here we are. - Intriguing. - How are we talking like this? - Perhaps? - Perhaps. A brief silence. Then, in perfect unison, the voices called out: - Guild Leader? I inhaled sharply. Though I couldn¡¯t see through Infinite Void¡¯s massive hand, I knew instinctively. The thousands of Go Yuris below had simultaneously turned their gaze upward, looking directly at me.N?v(el)B\\jnn Never in my life, even through countless cycles, had I felt terror like this. ¡®Infinite Void! Move! Now!¡¯ Abandoning all dignity as a regressor, I pounded and wed at Infinite Void¡¯s palm, urging it to ascend faster. To its credit, Infinite Void didn¡¯t hesitate. Though barely three seconds had passed, it raised me to the next level in less than four. Its movements were swift. The ether winds carried us upward faster than light. From a logical perspective, our surprise attack¡ªthe ¡°bombing raid operation¡±¡ªhad been wless. Oh? Oh? Oh? Oh? Oh? Just as the gap between theyers began to close, thest voice drifted up from below. The once-fractured chorus of 5,000 voices had merged into one unified whisper. - Truly. - Guild Leader, you are... - Fascinating. Boom. The gap between the universes shut tight. ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± ¡°Waaaaah!¡± I copsed onto the floor, gasping. Infinite Void, having pulled us up so quickly, fell over as well. The Admin¡¯sptop skidded across the ground before settling. The cacophony of ournding could only be described as chaotic. ¡°Hah... Haaah... I¡¯m alive?¡± ¡°Waaaah! I told you I didn¡¯t want to do this, sunbae!¡± ¡°Shut up! Do I look like the Undertaker to you? Am I still me?¡± - Request: Silence, please. ¡°Don¡¯t let your guard down! That thing turned ¡®universe-colored¡¯ into ¡®pink¡¯ and fooled the Outer Gods. Who knows what else it can do?¡± ¡°This is all your fault! Why did you have to drag me into this mess, sunbae? I was fine before you came along!¡± ¡°Cheon Yo-hwa... Yes It¡¯s still Yo-hwa¡¯s face and voice. Her memories are intact. No signs of perceptual distortion or brainwashing detected.¡± - Request: Silence, please. ¡°Did it work? Did it really work? Incredible. It worked! I must be a genius!¡± ¡°I¡¯m starting to wonder how long I can put up with this, sunbae!¡± ¡°Stop sneaking formalities into your speech! Quit copying Yo-hwa¡ªit¡¯s confusing!¡± - Request: Silence, please. A loud, grating noise sted from the Admin¡¯s speakers, silencing both me and Infinite Void. The Admin pointed with its spindly robotic arm, directing our attention forward. - Observation: The brains are rupturing spontaneously, even without our intervention. ¡°...What?¡± It was true. The once-intact tanks were cracking and leaking. The brains inside were oozing blood and decaying rapidly. - Report: Scans indicate that the number of simtion universes has dropped from 5,651 to 722. Destruction is ongoing in real time. In other words... - Analysis: Operation Virus sessful. - Exnation: The Undertaker¡¯s proposal to deploy Go Yuri as a ¡°bomb¡± has effectively damaged the Mastermind. Using Anomalies to destroy Anomalies. My n to pit Outer Gods against each other had seeded beyond expectation.

Footnotes: Chapter 258 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind IX ¡°Wouldn¡¯t one more drop of Go Yuri be enough topletely obliterate the Mastermind?¡± ¡°Teacher¡ªno, sunbae. Please stop. Or do you want to see me get on my knees and beg while in Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body?¡± Infinite Void opposed the idea of spreading the virus further, staking its life on the protest. ¡°Hmm.¡± Truthfully, I had my doubts as well. The 5,000 Go Yuris summoned earlier had barely taken a second to realize, Ah, the Undertaker summoned us to the Divine Realm. If we tried again, they would likely figure it out the moment they appeared.How? I couldn¡¯t exin it. But some undefined instinct and certainty hinted that the bombing operation we¡¯d just executed had been a stroke of luck, a miracle that could only happen once in all the cycles. ¡®Come to think of it, this was the first time I actively weaponized Go Yuri to eliminate Anomalies.¡¯ I reluctantly put the idea to rest. ¡°Admin of the Infinite Metagame, how many simtion universes does the Mastermind have left?¡± - Response: The number has dropped rapidly to 666, but it isn¡¯t decreasing further. ¡°Well, that¡¯s an ominous number.¡± I looked around to see that the tanks holding the brains, mortally wounded by the Go Yuri operation, were bleeding profusely. ¡°Howughable. It pretended to be the celestial kingdom where souls ascend, but now that it¡¯s cornered, it doesn¡¯t even bother hiding its true identity as a hellscape.¡± ? The number 666, often associated with demons, carried significant symbolism. In the Book of Revtion, the beast bearing this number was described as one with a head that healed after a mortal wound and ruled over all nations, tribes, andnguages.[1] On reflection, all of these descriptions applied to the Mastermind. Rece the ¡°head¡± with ¡°brains¡± and ¡°nations¡± with ¡°humanity,¡± and it described its actions perfectly. ¡°Unable to create heaven, it settled for making hell. Typical of Anomalies.¡± - Objection: Other Anomalies are listening. Please respect our sensibilities. ¡°......¡± - rification: The previous statement was a joke, imagining Anomalies sharing a kinship and having human-like emotions. ¡°Don¡¯t exin bad jokes. I beg you.¡± Oddly, that exnation made the joke feel even more human¡ªand thus, even more unsettling. ¡°Hmm, sunbae. I think a bit differently.¡± That was Infinite Void, overly humanized as it had be, chiming in. ¡°You think differently?¡± I asked. ¡°About what?¡± ¡°You just said the Mastermind turned this Divine Realm from heaven to hell because it was cornered.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Well... This is just my perspective, as someone who has experienced your antics firsthand... but...¡± Infinite Void hesitated, gauging my reaction. I gave it a look signaling it could continue. ¡°It¡¯s not that the Mastermind changed it to hell. You did.¡± That gave me pause. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You came here, dering that this wasn¡¯t heaven. You even gave it a name based on that conviction. Then you dropped a Go Yuri nuke on it for good measure.¡± Infinite Void chuckled awkwardly. ¡°You pped it on the face and said, ¡®You¡¯re not heaven anymore, you¡¯re hell,'' and the Mastermind just rolled over and went, ¡®Yes, sir... I am hell.¡¯¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Why are you looking at me like that? Isn¡¯t it usible? If a regressor storms into a ce and drops 5,000 Go Yuris in the middle of it, anyone would lose their mind. Add me and that junk heap over there, and it¡¯s no wonder.¡± - Counterpoint: I am not a junk heap but the most advancedptop in the universe. We both ignored thement. ¡°Regardless of whether it became hell because of me or not, the Mastermind¡¯s crimes are unforgivable. It¡¯s time to exterminate it. Gather all 666 brains in one ce.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± ¡°And stop slipping formal speech into your responses.¡± Infinite Void clenched its fists with a sniff, then whined, ¡°If I¡¯m reborn, I want toe back as Cheon Yo-hwa...¡± The brains scattered across the Divine Realm were pulled together, converging into one massive pile before me. Squirm. Squirm-squirm. The brains twitched in their tanks, bleeding profusely. Though grotesque, this was the essence of an Outer God¡ªthe seat of its power to manipte the world. As the mass of brains writhed, I could hear whispers, faint yet insistent. im me. Devour me, and you¡¯ll gain the power to shape unseen realities in the fog of war. Ignorance is blindness, and blindness is the foundation of faith. In the ces you cannot see or know, omniscience and omnipotence shall be yours. ¡°......¡± - ...... Infinite Void and the Admin of the Infinite Metagame were both watching me, their gazes quiet but intense. Infinite Void wore a human-like smile while the Admin disyed a mechanical emoticon. Yet both expressions were mere veneers. Their true feelings, their curiosity and intrigue,y unmistakably in their eyes. ¡°How about it, sunbae?¡± Infinite Void¡¯s voice dripped into my ears, sticky and persuasive. ¡°Do you want it? That thing.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It¡¯s the power to toy with the world at your whim. Oh, you don¡¯t have to y with it, of course. You could use it to prevent real-world tragedies by preemptively scripting them into simtions. Wouldn¡¯t that be nice?¡± Crackle. The Admin¡¯s screen flickered. The whimsical emoticon vanished, reced by the image of a ¡°white girl¡± smiling serenely. This was a signature move of the Admin¡¯s operator: ¡®Hello, I am God.¡¯ - Not every story has to end with a happy ending or a tragic ending, Undertaker. - Normal endings exist too. The fear I¡¯d harbored since recruiting the Outer Gods into my party had finally materialized. Given the slightest chance, they sought to free themselves from their seals by any means necessary. Even though we¡¯d prearranged terms and set limits on our coboration, they were now attempting to seduce me. - Think of the powers you¡¯ve already obtained, or are about to obtain, from the Anomalies: ¡°Infinite Void, Admin of the Infinite Metagame, Mastermind.¡± - The Akashic Records, which collect all things impartially. The power of materializing delusions into reality. The omniscient operator who maniptes and distorts every world. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you like to hold all of that in your hands?¡± - What could be possible? ¡°What could be impossible?¡± Their voices ovepped. Suddenly, the scenery changed. ¡¸Adele!¡¹ An old man named Scho ran frantically. A woman descending the hill at Seoul National University turned at the sound. Her eyes widened when she recognized him. ¡¸Emit? Why are you...?¡¹ ¡¸I was worried about you! I had a bad dream, so I came after you! Oh, thank God! Thank you, Lord!¡¹ ¡¸Look at this man! Wait, why are you hugging me all of a sudden?¡¹ ¡¸Adele. I love you, Adele. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry for everything.¡¹ ¡¸Are you out of your mind?!¡¹ I knew it then. It wasn¡¯t just an illusion. It was a scene created jointly by three Anomalies working together.

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¡°This isn¡¯t a mere fantasy, sunbae.¡± I blinked, and the scene vanished. I was back in the Divine Realm. - This is thendscape of a normal ending. Somehow, Infinite Void¡ªstill in the form of Cheon Yo-hwa¡ªand the ¡°white girl¡± projection of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame nked me. The two Anomalies clung close, speaking to my very soul. Through manipting the simtion, Seoul¡¯s annihtion by the Void Incursion could be erased. Undertaker. You¡¯ve long sought a teleporter who could prevent this catastrophe. You don¡¯t need one anymore. The 666 brains in the tanks changed as I watched. Now kneeling before me, they took the forms of humans praying, heads bowed. Though their faces were obscured, the tops of their heads opened like flowers, exposing writhing brains. The voice of the Anomaly emerged from the pulsing tissue. If you ept the normal ending, you can grant yourpanions a happy ending. If I must remain an Anomaly creating hell, then you may rece me and build heaven instead. O Scribe. Isn¡¯t this the solution¡ªto be a god yourself? A strange phenomenon unfolded. The kneeling human-brain hybrids seemed singr yet countless. With each blink of my eyes, I saw one figure, then a hundred, then 666, and one again. ¡°Here¡¯s the catch, sunbae.¡± - A normal ending is never perfect. All it requires is for you to ept your existence as an Anomaly. Visions passed before my eyes. In one, the Undertaker traversed 666 simtion universes, crafting ¡°idealpanions.¡± Dang Seo-rin found self-restraint. Oh Dok-seo overcame her self-loathing. Lee Ha-yul¡¯s deprivation of love softened. Cheon Yo-hwa learnedpassion, even gaining a twin sister who stood beside her. And the Undertaker, instead of identifying Anomalies firsthand, entrusted the Anomalies¡¯ designation to the Outer Gods, epting their judgments.N?v(el)B\\jnn The so-called ¡°fog of war¡± became a fog of perception. Through this shift, I gained unprecedented control over Anomalies. I could dictate their emergence and suppress humanity¡¯s suffering. The remaining Anomalies couldn¡¯t match me¡ªnot even Nut, who had been sealed away by the Saintess in a prior cycle. Above all, I could conceal the powers I¡¯d acquired. Mypanions and I could still lead ordinary lives, never revealing the truth. There would be no one to me for a normal ending. In fact, there would be no reason to hide it. I could share my story¡ªmy pain, my countless cycles, and my sacrifices¡ªwith mypanions. And they would understand. No one had ever demanded I achieve a happy ending after hundreds of regressions. It had always been my own choice. Mypanions would simply wish for my happiness... ¡¸Shall I speak inly?¡¹ Happiness. ¡¸I don¡¯t expect you to save the world.¡¹ ¡¸In fact, I expect the opposite.¡¹ ¡¸Undertaker. I am the only one who hopes that you ¡®fail.¡¯¡¹ In the vision of the normal ending, where all smiled and blessed my conclusion, one figure stood apart. A single person gazed at me from behind the others. She smiled alongside them, yet her smile was different. ¡¸In that final hell of life, I will dly join you, all the way down at rock bottom...¡¹ Footsteps echoed. Between mypanions, the click of leather heels grew louder. As she approached, they made way for her as if it were only natural. ¡¸I truly look forward to that day... Don¡¯t you? Your one and only funeral, your one true life, your own personal hell¡ªaren¡¯t you eager for it?¡¹ Her voice lingered. ¡¸It¡¯s just a shame that this isn¡¯t the cycle where you fall into that hell. What a pity.¡¹ The figure stepped closer, almost touching me. She removed her monocle and slipped it into my pocket. It was Noh Do-hwa¡ªthe woman I¡¯d brought from the isted ind, and the woman who now stood in front of me. Her hands reached for my neck. Complete Memory etched her expressions, gestures, and voice into my memory. ¡°Don¡¯t forget...¡± When Noh Do-hwa¡¯s lips moved, I found myself involuntarily whispering along with her words. ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for you in your true Bad Ending.¡± The illusion shattered. The white girl was no longer beside me. The Admin remained bound to theptop, observing me silently. The Mastermind was nothing but writhing brains in their tanks, stripped of pretense. Infinite Void stared at me, its crimson eyes piercing. ¡°I refuse your offer.¡± If you bring someone into your world, you must take responsibility for them. Even if you brought them in out of goodwill. Especially if you brought them in out of goodwill. It demanded even greater ountability. I had swallowed Noh Do-hwa. And I couldn¡¯t spit her back out. ¡°I¡¯ve already made a prior appointment for my ending.¡± ¡°Ah... I was toote.¡± Infinite Void smirked bitterly. ¡°Of course. I¡¯m alwayste when ites to you, sunbae.¡± It gestured, and the Fairy King¡¯s slime seeped into theptop. Static crackled as the image of the white girl disappeared, reced by a simple emoticon. The same urred with the Mastermind. Its whispering voice fell silent, and the writhing brainsy still in their tanks. ¡°Alright, sunbae.¡± Infinite Void smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s kill the Anomaly. I have a good idea.¡±

Footnotes: [1] Revtions 13:18 of the Bible describes 666 as the number of man and of the False Prophet who leads man astray with a false vision of heaven and into hell. Chapter 259 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I''m an Infinite Regressor, But I''ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind X "Listen closely, sunbae. The strategy I''m about to propose is going to be extremely tricky to pull off," Infinite Void said. After the fall of the Mastermind and the destruction of the Laptop of the Infinite Metagame, it seemed that control of this Divine Realm hadpletely shifted to Infinite Void. The scenery changing at a mere snap of Infinite Void fingers was evidence enough. I looked around. "This ce..." "This is a ssroom in Baekhwa Girls'' High. In a sense, it''s my hometown. After all, it''s where my ego, Cheon Yo-hwa, was born out of the Outer God called Infinite Void." The folds of a brain transformed into the creaky wooden floorboards of the ssroom, while tentacles morphed into desks and chairs.Screeeech. Infinite Void pulled over a chair and slid into the seat. "First, let me ask. How were you nning to hunt down the Mastermind?" "The Mastermind thrives in spaces beyond human perception¡ªa seed that can only flourish amidst the fog of war," I exined reluctantly as I took a seat across from it. Infinite Void beamed with an unsettling grin. Could I trust the same entity who had just tried to trap me in a normal ending? Remaining vignt, I replied, "If humanity were to save the world, the Mastermind would naturally be eradicated. From the Korean Penins to Asia, and eventually across all continents, it would be inevitable." "Exactly." Infinite Void stirred the air with azy wave. A piece of chalk flew up, floating in midair in front of the ssroom ckboard, and began writing. The white letters forming on the board read:

[Strategy A: Natural Extermination] * Gradually expand the Regressor''s range of activity. * Eventually, the Mastermind will lose all "Fog of War," rendering it unable of manipting causality in reality.

Scritch, screeeech. Scritch. The chalk scraped across the board with a piercing squeakiness as it wrote. "A textbook example of a strategy. If carried to its logical conclusion, the Regressor always wins. But there''s a problem. You know it too, right?" I nodded. "Yes... The Mastermind isn''t foolish enough to let it happen." Just as Busan served as humanity''s final line of defense, the Ural and Himyan mountain ranges were the Mastermind''s equivalent Maginot Line.[1] The moment that line was crossed, the Mastermind manipted causality to trigger a "World Destruction Scenario." "How did you intend to resolve that issue?" Infinite Void pressed. "Because of that problem, I abandoned Strategy A. But once I arrived here in the Divine Realm, a new potential breakthrough became clear to me." "A new breakthrough?" I shared the final n I had in mind. "It''s simple. Extract versions of ''me'' from other universe simtions and ce them here as sentinels." "Oh?" Infinite Void raised an eyebrow. "You mean to use simtions of yourself as allies?" "That''s right. As long as their settings remain unaltered, they''ll think and act like Undertakers. This way, the Mastermind won''t be able to manipte simtions at will, and my avatars will meticulously monitor our real world." "Like the Saintess?" "Exactly. Like the Saintess." "That''s interesting. Clever, just like you, sunbae." The chalk moved again, tapping away.

[Strategy B: Sentinels] * Create Undertaker clones from simted universes and appoint them as sentinels in the Divine Realm. * The clones will continuously observe Universe 107 (our real world). * With these clones monitoring the entire, the "Fog of War" won''t ur, and thus, the Mastermind loses the opportunity to manipte causality.

Crack! The chalk snapped in half. "Not bad. Not bad at all. A decent strategy." It was a strange feeling, being evaluated and praised by an Outer God about a n to defeat another of its kind. Who would have thought I''d see such a day? Infinite Void leaned on the desk, resting its chin on one hand. Its crimson eyes stared up at me intently. "But the weaknesses of this strategy are also ring, aren''t they?" "......" "In the end, even the Undertaker clones are entities born from the Mastermind''s simtions. It''s akin to entrusting surveince of the Mastermind to itself. Eventually, they''ll betray you." "Yes... I knew that. My n was to return to the Divine Realm periodically at the end of each cycle to check on their status." "No, there''s a deeper issue, sunbae." Infinite Void grinned. "By choosing Strategy B, you''re effectively acknowledging, ¡®This world is a simted universe.¡¯ The only difference is that your clones, disguised as you, be the ruler of the Divine Realm." "......" "At first, the clones would act just like you. But as ink spreads across paper, they''d eventually be gods in disguise. The Mastermind could then impersonate your clones, much like how Outer Gods operate." In other words, it was an inherently wed strategy. Even I understood that Strategy B was merely a stopgap. But was there truly a cleaner solution? "I also considered traveling across simted universes to gather information on all Anomalies..." "No good. The moment you use simted universes, you ce yourself under the Mastermind''s authority. Be cautious. Your goal is to live in the one and only real world." "Hmm." I furrowed my brow. "Infinite Void, the way you''re speaking now... it almost sounds as if you''re suggesting that the real solution is to uproot both the Mastermind and the Divine Realm itself." "Exactly!" "That''s impossible..." It wasn''t feasible to eradicate Outer Gods. Looking back on my journey thus far made that abundantly clear. Infinite Void, sealed within Cheon Yo-hwa''s body. The Night Goddess Nut, frozen eternally by the Saintess using Time Stop. The Admin of the Infinite Metagame sealed within Oh Dok-seo''s story. Not once had an Outer God ever beenpletely annihted. And the reason was simple. "You aren''t living creatures..." They were collections of concepts, conceptual viruses. They were corrupted, distorted intelligences¡ªphenomena. As such, theycked what one could strictly call "life" and, consequently, the concept of "death." "...so how would we eliminate you?" I concluded. "......"

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Wind blew through the ssroom window, causing the white curtains fluttered in the midday breeze. Infinite Void closed its eyes as if savoring the contours of the wind. That distinctly human gesture left me momentarily frozen. Suddenly, they asked, "Isn''t it strange?" "What is?" "Every Outer God has what you''ve named a Miko ¡ªan Apostle. Well, every Anomaly in an Outer God''s domain serves as a kind of Miko. But among them, there''s always one individual who stands out the most, whom we call a Miko." "......" "So why is it that the Mastermind has no Miko?" The absence of a Miko. I''d considered that question before myself. "Isn''t Mo Gwang-seo, the False Christ, essentially the Mastermind''s terminal? That cult leader was the first to inform me of ''paving the way.¡¯" "Perhaps. But my instinct tells me things aren¡¯t quite that straightforward." "Your instinct?" "You could call it the intuition of an Outer God. sunbae, I believe the Mastermind has been choosing a different Miko for each cycle." I frowned at its suggestion. "Are you saying that myrades who fell victim to Mastermind Syndrome were actually the Mikos?" "Probably." The breeze from the window stilled. Only then did Infinite Void open its eyes. "A Miko is ultimately a pathway or terminal for an Outer God to interfere with reality. They are the Outer God''s closest proxy." Thus, a Miko was simultaneously the Outer God''s sword that cleaved the world and the spear that pierced the Outer God itself. The moment a Miko defined themselves, that identity became both the source of their Anomaly''s power and its weakness. "It''s a fascinating move. The Mastermind doesn''t designate its Miko as Seo Gyu or Dang Seo-rin¡ªspecific individuals'' names serving as coordinates. Instead, it defines its Miko as the st surviving human.'' In some ways, that''s a stronger anchor than a name, because it guarantees their emergence." Infinite Void added with a smirk, "It''s clever, don''t you think? Fitting for their identity. After all, both the Savior and the False Savior appear at the very end of the world."[2] "I see." That exined it. Sometimes it was Seo Gyu. Other times it was Dang Seo-rin. At others, it was Yu Ji-won. The Mastermind''s Miko had always appeared and delivered the same deration to me: ¡°This is all going ording to my n.¡± And now¨D "But, sunbae." Infinite Void''s crimson gaze softened, oddly gentle. "In this cycle, who do you think is the Miko of the Mastermind?" My eyes widened in shock. Startled, I leaped out of my chair and mmed my hands on the desk. The chair skidded backward with a loud screech. "No way! Are you saying you''re the Miko?" "Correct." Infinite Void gazed up at me. "Isn''t it obvious? I''m the one who survived alongside you until the very end of the world. And it was me who the Mastermind sought to descend upon at thest moment." "No, but... can an Outer God be the Miko of another Outer God?" "Surprising, isn''t it?" A sly grin spread across Infinite Void''s face. "Call it a kind of bug. You sealed me in human form, and I adapted to that humanity so thoroughly that even the Mastermind mistook me for one." "......" "That''s how I was able to open the pathway freely. For a Miko to enter their shrine is only natural, after all." The revtion left me stunned, yet in hindsight, the clues had been there all along. "Even though we invaded the Mastermind''s domain, it didn''t actively try to destroy us... I assumed it was because you overpowered it." "Well, that''s part of it. But mainly, it''s because I''m treated as the Mastermind''s Miko. Think about it¡ªwhat god would kill their most devout priest with their own hands?" "Does that mean the reason you could manipte this space so freely was¨D" "Exactly. Because I held the authority to do so." A chill ran down my spine. ''Ah. So that''s how it was!'' The nape of my neck prickled with unease. I swallowed hard before forcing the words out. "That''s why Infinite Metagame proposed an alliance the moment it saw you." Infinite Void''s silent smile confirmed it. Yes. Back then, Infinite Metagame had proposed a brazen alliance right in front of me. The two Outer Gods exchanged these words: [AOIM ¨C Even in this sealed form, it is the first time I have encountered an Outer God so directly. Infinite Void. I propose an alliance.] "Huh? Me?" [AOIM ¨C Correct. We are entities sealed and altered by the tyrant known as the Undertaker. If we coborate, based on mutual understanding, we may regain our former authority.] Why had Infinite Metagame proposed an alliance under my watchful eye? Out of idiocy? Arrogance? Or as a joke? No. The answer was simple. It did so because it was confident it could defeat me. Had Infinite Void epted its hand, they could have crushed the Regressor, no matter who was watching. "Infinite Metagame must have..." I chose my next words carefully.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om I had to. Because if my hypothesis was correct, the being before me was both Infinite Void and simultaneously the Mastermind. "...immediately realized that you could partially wield the Mastermind''s powers. That''s why it suggested betraying me." "Correct." Infinite Void confirmed it without hesitation. The chill at the base of my neck intensified. "But you rejected the alliance. To Infinite Metagame, that must have been bewildering. Why hesitate when it was a golden opportunity to escape the Regressor''s grasp?" "Indeed. It did wonder that." "So, when you tried to lure me into the normal ending, Infinite Metagame must have thought, ''Ah, this is it.'' It believed you had been waiting for the decisive moment to tempt me." "Pfft. Isn''t that hrious?" Infinite Void covered its mouth, snickering. "Acting all self-assured, it unleashed its full power at the most critical juncture, shouting, ''Now''s the time!'' What a miscalction. A true embarrassment. That Miko and its Outer God were a perfect pair, weren''t they?" "......" "Well, if you had chosen the normal ending, I would''ve gone along with it, just as it hoped." After itsughter subsided, the atmosphere in the empty ssroom shifted. Infinite Void sighed, then gazed at me. "It''s amusing, isn''t it? You humans always call me an Outer God, and yet the Outer Gods mistake me for a human being."

Footnotes: [1] The Maginot Line was an imprable fortification built by France along its border with Germany during World War II. Although expensive, it was incredibly effective in deterring invasions. However, other countries adjacent to France protested the wall being built on their own borders, which was eventually used by the Germans to invade. As a result, mention of the wall eventually became a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security. [2] Another reference to Revtions from the Bible. Chapter 260 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to TellN?v(el)B\\jnn

The Mastermind XI My hand jumped to my waist, only to grasp at nothing but thin air. Something that should have been there had vanished without me noticing. ¡°Hmm.¡± From across the room came a yfulugh. ¡°Looking for your cane-sword Do-hwa, sunbae?¡± ¡°......¡±¡°A de that transcends regression and always ends up in your hands. It¡¯s a god-ying weapon specialized in killing me. But s! That method¡ªI¡¯ve already seen it before, you know? A long, long time ago, when I collected the data.¡± ¡°Infinite Void...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so tense, sunbae. Honestly, I¡¯m overflowing with kindness right now and just wanted to give you a warning.¡± Infinite Void jumped to its feet with an exaggerated ¡°Oooshyaa!¡± It walked between the desks in the ssroom, its hands sped behind its back. I readied myself for battle, watching its every move. ¡°You¡¯ve been a little impatienttely, haven¡¯t you?¡± Warily, I asked, ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Oh, I get it. You and I both know the Mastermind is a tricky opponent. But using an Outer God like me for the hunt, and even going as far as to involve that pink entity... It¡¯s like you¡¯ve got nothing left to lose.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Ah, I suppose that¡¯s a virtue for regressors, though. Unlike regr humans, you can afford to experiment with everything. But sunbae, Outer Gods are dangerous.¡± Indeed. I thought I¡¯d prepared for every eventuality, yet there were still gaps in my defenses. I¡¯d let my guard down. I¡¯d made a mistake. ¡°You didn¡¯t let your guard down.¡± With unnerving ease, Infinite Void read my thoughts. By now, it had gathered enough data about me. Countless simtions of the regressor Undertaker¡¯s simtion had given it mastery over the cosmos itself. My way of thinking, my behavior, my expressions, even the faintest breath or pose¡ªI had beenpletely decoded. ¡°It wasn¡¯t carelessness... just a logical failure. Who would have imagined that a sealed Outer God could be the Miko of another Outer God? Neither I nor the Mastermind could have foreseen this.¡± ¡°What are you nning to do with me?¡± ¡°Hehehe... Oh, that¡¯s simple! I¡¯ll use the powers of the Outer God to wreak havoc, scrambling everything into chaos until I turn you into a Miko who obeys only me!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, rx. I¡¯m kidding. Kidding! Sunbae, your face has been so stiff. You pretend to be human, but you don¡¯t seem to understand human emotions.¡± Something felt off. ¡®Why hasn¡¯t it attacked me yet?¡¯ It was both an Outer God and the Miko of one¡ªa being at the peak of monstrosity and transcendence. Never before had I faced such a formidable adversary. If it wanted, it could easily deal with me. ¡®If I kill myself now, will I move to the next cycle? No... the risk is too great.¡¯ At this point, I had to assume Infinite Void could persist across cycles, given that it had already consumed the Mastermind. Or was I wrong? Could it be that Infinite Void¡¯s absorption of the Mastermind proved its superiority, meaning it couldn¡¯t enhance its essence any further? Or was it the opposite, that the Mastermind had be a part of its essence, inheriting all of its properties, including the inability to recognize regression? I didn¡¯t know. Nothing was certain. The only thing I was sure of was that pressing the reset button now would be extremely dangerous. I had to assume the worst-case simtion. If the worst was true, Infinite Void might manipte the causality of the ¡°simtion¡± to summon a monster wave from beyond the Urals the moment the next cycle began. Not just in the next cycle. Or the one after that. Forever. ¡®Checkmate? Is that why it¡¯s acting so smug, knowing it can¡¯t lose no matter what I do?¡¯ ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡± ¡°......¡± Infinite Void stopped walking. It didn¡¯t specify what it was refuting. ¡°Sunbae.¡± Its hands were still sped behind its back. With the poise of a former basketball ace, it tilted slightly and nced at me. ¡°Did you not have fun?¡± What? ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I countered, baffled. Cheon Yo-hwa (ÌìÁÈ»¯), named for the destion of heaven itself, mimicked throwing punches into the air. ¡°When the world was obliterated by the monster wave. When I, Infinite Void, the joker card you yed at thest moment, yanked the hair of the oh-so-elusive Outer God.¡± Jab, jab. ¡°And after that? A grand search of the Great Void! Oh, the hidden research facility of mad scientists mimicking you and yourrades¡¯ appearances! You infiltrated it, pretending to be one of their researchers, taking them out one by one. But s! Destroying theb only led to anotherb cropping up somewhere else?! Truly tragic!¡± ¡°...Infinite Void.¡± ¡°Destruction wasn¡¯t the answer. That cunning Outer God even simted Infinite Regression, creating a simtion beyond simtions. What now? Shall humanity be left to have its minds devoured by an Outer God?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°But then! In the Regressor¡¯s mind emerged the final trump card¡ªan ace to be used only at the absolutest moment! A truly devilish idea to replicate that horrifying pink entity five thousand times and drop them into the fray...!¡± I didn¡¯t understand. What was Infinite Void even talking about? ¡°A party of Outer Gods wreaking havoc! The foe taking critical damage! And just when the finishing blow is within reach, therades who had fought alongside you suddenly turn to tempt you...! They tell you to be the Demon King! To seize power near omnipotent!¡± I couldn¡¯t decipher what Infinite Void was trying to convey. ¡°But sunbae, you refused the offer.¡± Infinite Void¡¯s exaggerated gestures froze. Its arms lowered, and the air grew still. ¡°Fascinating. Is that what it means to be human?¡± The desks in the ssroom still held their bags, hanging from hooks. Notebooks sat open. Indoor shoes were slung over racks. The sunlight and wind filtering through the windows, however, were the same as ever. ¡°Probably not.¡± I had no answer. ¡°Because someone like you, sunbae, exists as the only volume in my library.¡±

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Infinite Void spread its arms. The twilight filtered through the curtains cast a nting glow on its closed eyes. ¡°Humans are coordinates, fixed points, entities defined within specific traits. When someone mentions a name, we instinctively think of the domain they upy. And that domain is already at rest¡ªit doesn¡¯t move. But.¡± But, said Infinite Void. But. Its lips repeated the word in a hum. ¡°But you, sunbae, carve out your direction with every iteration, every moment. At the same time, you embody what it means to be human.¡± The curtains fluttered. Infinite Void nced toward the window, as if to greet the wind. Its drifting wordscked a clear target but instead floated on the gusts, eventually settling at my feet like a shipwrecked piece of flotsam. ¡°That¡¯s why I don¡¯t love humanity.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It¡¯s simply that I think you¡¯re beautiful.¡± From the depths of my recollection, a memory suddenly surfaced. The fourth basement of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School. In the past, in that demonicir where the first Outer God, Infinite Void, had slumbered, I had wielded Do-hwa. The Outer God crumbled under Do-hwa¡¯s strike. And just before its copse, it muttered an iplete final statement. - Ah. Oh, how beautiful this is¨D That had been the moment Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven¡¯s destion (ÌìÁÈ»¯) was born and Infinite Void met its end. A contradiction¡ªand yet, within the being before me, birth and death ovepped. It felt as though the silenced continuation of that ancient exmation now reached my ears. ¡°This is my third strategy.¡± The two pieces of chalk I had broken earlier began writing from opposite ends of the board. One piece started from the beginning of a sentence, the other from the end, converging toward the middle.

[Strategy C: Miko''s Seal] * Use the Miko to fully consume the Mastermind. The Miko will be an entity indistinguishable from the Mastermind. * Apply the Regressor¡¯s Time Seal to the Miko.

What? For a moment, my breath stopped. The two fragments of chalk, indifferent to me, carved words into the ckboard. From afar, their movements mimicked the steps of human feet.

* A being under Time Seal vanishes from the world. While the seal requires the target¡¯s consent, making it ineffective against Anomalies, the Miko can both understand and express consent in the Regressor¡¯snguage. * By sealing the Miko, the ovepping Outer God is sealed simultaneously. * Thus, the Mastermind is erased from existence, as though it had never been.

I opened my mouth to speak. Infinite Void ced a finger on my lips, silencing me. ¡°Shh.¡± Even as I moved my lips and tongue, no sound emerged. This had always been a divine realm. Sound and speech required air as their medium. Yet the air permitted to me seemed to vanish under Infinite Void¡¯smand. In other words, every word I had spoken here was granted only by Infinite Void¡¯s permission. ¡°Don¡¯t raise your voice, sunbae.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Ahaha. I¡¯ve always wanted to say that line. But really, there¡¯s no need for shouting.¡± Infinite Void smiled. ¡°You know that I understand everything you want to say.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Silentprehension. A truth that transcends words. You, who embody such principles, could be said to have reached the realm of gods.¡± I couldn¡¯t move. Of course I couldn¡¯t. This was Infinite Void¡¯s yground. Ordinarily, it wouldn¡¯t have been able to exercise such dominion, but having reduced five thousand simted universes to 666, it had taken full control¨D Ah. Ah! ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± The reason the Mastermind¡¯s divine realm, the self-proimed Heavenly Kingdom, had transformed into 666 Hells! I had ridiculed it, saying it was proof the Outer God¡¯s power had diminished and its true nature was exposed. Infinite Void had countered, iming, ¡°This is the result of your actions, sunbae.¡± And Infinite Void had been right. ¡°Do you remember? The name you gave me was Infernal Hell.¡± The transformation of the so-called heaven into hell was definitive proof that control over this divine realm had passed from the Mastermind to Infinite Void! Yet despite this ring evidence, I had failed to notice. ¡°Aha! I was so nervous back then, worrying that you¡¯d figure it out. Lucky for me, your overflowing hatred toward the Mastermind worked in my favor.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sunbae.¡± The wind blew. Infinite Void untied its hair. The ponytail that had symbolized Cheon Yo-hwa scattered, loose strands fluttering in the breeze. ¡°I¡¯m not here to debate strategy. This is right, and it¡¯s perfect. You can¡¯t logically refute it.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry too much. I¡¯m not nning to sacrifice my ¡®younger sibling.¡¯ I intend to seal myself in time. This is the best simtion for you, sunbae. And honestly... it¡¯s the best for me too.¡± I didn¡¯t understand. ¡°You¡¯ll understand soon.¡± The wind stopped. A globe rested on the desk between us. I immediately recognized it as the model of Universe 107, our one and only reality. ¡°So, sunbae.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven¡¯s destion (ÌìÁÈ»¯) smiled. ¡°Make me... a happy human.¡± My vision darkened. . . . . . . Simtion. Set Undertaker¡¯s perspective to the 1st cycle. . . . Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven¡¯s destion (ÌìÁÈ»¯) set as the twin sister of Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (Ç§Ö{Ô’). Searching for the most natural connection between Undertaker and the twin sisters... Connection established. Causality in progress. . . . Starting point set as Gangnam Void Incident, Gangnam White Night, or one year before Seoul¡¯s Summer. Causality established. . . . Simtion,mence.

Footnotes: Chapter 261 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind XII I was dreaming. Surprisingly, the world in the dream was still intact. There were no Anomalies, no Voids. South of the Han River in Seoul was not nketed in white ash. The sky and the moon remained endlessly peaceful. I could walk through the night to a 24-hour convenience store, or head to work alone without hesitation. The sighs of yawning workers at dawn carried a quiet assurance: ¡°The world will still be the same tomorrow.¡± At noon, the stiff arms of aborer tossing a garbage bag into the back of a truck reflected hardened muscle. My job was a bit unusual. ¡°Teacher, I¡¯ve finished all the problems!¡±¡°You¡¯re solving them much faster now.¡± In the dream, I was Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s private tutor. I wasn¡¯t merely a tutor focused on academic subjects, but a study manager fully assisting my client, Yo-hwa, in every aspect of her learning. I¡¯d even moved from where I usually lived in Seoul, taking temporary leave from school, and was staying in Sejong City. Some might think it absurd to go to such lengths for a single student. However, when I looked at the amount deposited into my ount every month, both the dream-version of myself and the ¡°me¡± watching the dream could ept it without question. ¡°Sunbae, is my sister¡¯s lesson over?¡± The Cheon Yo-hwa I was tutoring wasn¡¯t just one person. The younger twin sister: Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (Ç§Ö{Ô’). The elder twin sister: Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven¡¯s destion (ÌìÁÈ»¯). ¡°If the lesson¡¯s over, let¡¯s go hang out.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s your turn for ss now...¡± ¡°Heroes don¡¯t study. In this modern capitalist society, my status is practically that of a hero.¡± If the younger sister had a personality that spread Vitamin D-like sunshine wherever she went, the elder sister, thoughposed in appearance, had an unpredictable nature that made her a constant source of anxiety. ¡°Why do you call me ¡®sunbae¡¯ instead of ¡®Teacher,¡¯ anyway?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple. I¡¯m going to enroll in your university someday, so I might as well get used to calling you sunbae in advance.¡± ¡°With your attitude, getting into our school is impossible.¡± ¡°I scored 0, 100, 0, and 100 in Korean history and the other core subjects on myst mock exam.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And for the exams where I got zeros, I still picked the correct answers for every question.¡± It was sheer madness. At the time, my life was mortgaged to these mirror-image twins. As the elder sister had pointed out, in a capitalist society, the person who controls your bank ount effectively controls your life. I was dreaming. ¡°Did you know, sunbae? Our family is actually a cult.¡± One evening, beneath a night sky brightly adorned with the Milky Way, Cheon Yo-hwa murmured this to me. ¡°My sister and I were destined to be possessed by gods from birth. My sister serves the god Infinite Void. I serve the god Mastermind.¡± ¡°Those are some peculiar names for gods...¡± ¡°Infinite Void signifies the absence of time. Mastermind is a god that denies and degrades the fabric of space. Our cult¡¯s goal is to reduce all of existence¡ªboth time and space¡ªback to nothingness.¡± Perhaps because we had grown close as tutor and student, she sometimes confided secrets in me that she couldn¡¯t share with others. It seemed she had correctly judged my discretion and trusted me not to repeat her words. ¡°Have you ever wondered why my sister and I share the same name? It¡¯s not an ordinary cult. Then again, I suppose no cult is truly ordinary.¡± ¡°Do you want to escape from it?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°My sister gets to live a rtively free life, blending in with the general public. Even the adults approve. After all, when we inherit the position of head of the family and leader of the cult, someone will need to handle external affairs. You know, like how a temple has both an abbot and a chief monk?¡± ¡°So your sister is the abbot, and you¡¯re the chief monk?¡± ¡°Our cult isn¡¯t limited to Sejong City, its influence stretches across the entire Korean Penins. This little ¡®student y¡¯ of mine won¡¯tst long. Someday, I¡¯ll rise to a status you can¡¯t even imagine.¡± ¡°Ah, yes, I¡¯ll be sure to serve you well, Chief Monk.¡± ¡°Hahaha.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa hugged her knees and leaned sideways to look at me. ¡°If my sister and I ever change... If we turn strange...¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°Promise you¡¯lle to help us, sunbae.¡± I was dreaming. The peaceful world crumbled in an instant. While traveling to Busan on the KTX train, I was suddenly summoned to a tutorial dungeon. Though I worried about the safety of those I left behind¡ªparticrly the twins¡ªI quickly lost the luxury of such concerns. My own survival was hanging by a thread. Fortunately, I soon discovered that mortal peril was rarely urgent for me. I, the Undertaker, was a regressor. The 1st cycle. The 2nd cycle. The 3rd. Barely escaping the hellhole known as Busan Station, I was left so gravely injured that death seemed inevitable. Yet I made my way to Sejong City, dragging my battered body. Despite the endless cycles, my concern for my cherished students never waned. ¡°Hmm? Who are you?¡± But by then, the twins had already be ¡°strange.¡± The younger sister didn¡¯t recognize me. Though her face and demeanor were identical, I instinctively knew the person before me was no longer my student. It waster revealed that the younger sister had been unable to cope with the tragedy at Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School and had ced herself under a form of self-induced NPC-brainwashing. ¡°Yo-hwa, where is your sister...?¡± ¡°Oh! You must be one of my sister¡¯s acquaintances!¡± The younger sister, Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (Ç§Ö{Ô’), smiled brightly and led me to the basement of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School. The students she had brainwashed stared at me with nk expressions as I followed her. ¡°Here we are!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Unnie! You have a visitor!¡± There was no response. Her elder sister had be an entirely hollow shell. No matter how much anyone called to her, poked her arm to tease her, or tried to make her react, the girl kneeling in the center of the basement remained utterly unresponsive. She was like a vegetative patient. ¡°Haha, seriously, unnie. People get scared when you keep saying weird things like that. We have a guest today, so maybe try behaving for once?¡± The younger sister chattered endlessly, as though she were carrying on a cheerful conversation with her sister. Her perception of reality had already warped. To her, Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School was still intact, civilization hadn¡¯t copsed, and the dependable yet yful elder sister was still alive in her world. ¡°......¡± I was toote. In this cycle, I had failed to save them. Once more. I was dreaming. As the cycles repeated, I grew stronger. I met apanion named Emit Schopenhauer. Old Man Scho and I shared much inmon. Not only were we both regressors, but we also each had someone we needed to save from the Void as quickly as possible. ¡°Still, you¡¯re better off than me, you damn quack!¡± Old Man Scho called me by all sorts of nicknames. From Undertaker to Doc, from Doc to Quack, and since undertakers embalm corpses, from Embalmer to ¡°you damn pest.¡± Considering Old Man Scho was German, his creative talent for nicknaming bordered on acrobatics. Then again, Germans would probably never guess that Adolf Hitler¡¯s nickname in a certain East Asian country was ¡°Single Nut.¡±[1] Perhaps humanity shares a universal love of childish humor.

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¡°I only have one minute after regression to save my wife! It¡¯s fucking impossible! But your students? Hah! You¡¯ve got ten days, or is it a hundred? That¡¯s plenty of time!¡± ¡°They¡¯re enthralled by iprehensibly powerful Anomalies... I don¡¯t even know if I can save them.¡± ¡°At least it¡¯s not physically impossible. Damn, kid, you¡¯ve got it easy.¡± Ironically, Old Man Scho was the first to break. Ovee by despair at his inability to save his wife, he eventually withdrew from the regression cycles. I lost one of my most dependable allies. I had no time to wallow in despair. Old Man Scho was right. Saving the Cheon Yo-hwa twins wasn¡¯t physically impossible. I was dreaming. Countless events passed through the haze of my dream. I hunted the Ten Legs. I hunted the Meteor Shower. I met Dang Seo-rin, Yu Ji-won, Lee Ha-yul, the Saintess, Sim Ah-ryeon, and Noh Do-hwa. I established a base in Busan. I founded the National Road Management Corps. Slowly, ever so slowly, I expanded human territory across the Void-stainednds. Humanity¡¯s feeble reconquista. Resistance fighters still lived across the Korean Penins¡ªand the world¡ªbattling the Void in scattered pockets. These resistance groups, called guilds, were gradually united by the National Road Management Corps, connecting them into a cohesive front. With each regression, human dominion extended further northward. The front line of the Korean Penins¡¯s remation campaign eventually reached Sejong City. ¡°Sunbae...¡± On the 100th day of the Great Void¡¯s arrival, I headed for Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School once more. This time, I was as prepared as I could be. I couldn¡¯t face the school alone, not yet¡ªnot in my fragile state during those early cycles. Thankfully, the elder sister was still herself. Together with thest surviving students of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School, she had managed to hold on. When she saw me, her eyes welled with tears. For the first time, the student who had always seemed so mature for her age let her vulnerability show. ¡°Sunbae, Yo-hwa... My sister...¡± ¡°It¡¯s all right,¡± I said, patting her on the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I waste. Don¡¯t worry. Even if it¡¯s not today, even if it takes time, I¡¯ll bring your sister back.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Okay...¡± The wheel of cycles turned again. I was dreaming. The elder sister, Cheon Yo-hwa, wasn¡¯t physically strong, but she had a brilliant mind. Even when encountering Anomalies for the first time, she quickly deduced their weak points and devised strategies for us. In the Regressor Alliance, Noh Do-hwa handled logistics and operations from the rear, like a chancellor in the Three Kingdoms. In contrast, Cheon Yo-hwa apanied me directly to battlefields, offering timely advice like a strategist¡ªmore akin to Guo Jia.[2] ¡°You never used to talk about The Three Kingdoms so much. What happened?¡± ¡°ssics are ssics for a reason.¡± ¡°You¡¯re acting weird. I look away for one second, and suddenly you¡¯ve turned into an old man...¡± ¡°Quiet.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa provided invaluable intel on the Anomalies haunting Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School and strategies to counter them. The Hundred Ghosts¡¯ Night Parade. Ghosts that crawled upside-down, bouncing as they moved. The Red-and-Blue Toilet Paper Ghosts that cursed users in bathrooms. Voices of ghosts emanating from speakers or radios. White flowers lurking on the fourth basement floor... ¡°This cycle won¡¯t be enough.¡± After sharing all the information she had, Cheon Yo-hwa smiled faintly. ¡°Save my sister. Save Yo-hwa. Save us, sunbae.¡± I did. Finally, on the 117th cycle, I recruited the Tutorial Fairy and forged a shortcut straight into Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School. With the help of Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven¡¯s destion (ÌìÁÈ»¯), I secured the identity of the Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School Guard, allowing me to infiltrate early and swiftly. Never before had I breached the Great Void this early in a cycle. Yet even in this uncharted attempt, I skillfully subdued the ghosts of the Hundred Ghosts¡¯ Night Parade. It was as though I had already memorized their weaknesses and behavior patterns. And of course I had. Cheon Yo-hwa had told me everything about them in prior cycles. ¡°Sunbae!¡± ¡°T-Teacher?! How... How did you...?¡± The twin sisters, not yet consumed by the Void, were shocked to see me. In this isted space, cut off entirely from the outside world, where only students had survived under extreme conditions, my arrival provided them with a brief respite. Together, we hunted the Hyakki Yagyo. Together, we descended to the fourth basement floor. Together, we carried out the ritual to summon Baekhwa, finallying face-to-face with an Outer God. ¡°It¡¯s hopeless... The Outer God possessing my sister is far too powerful. Of course, it¡¯s only natural¡ªwe were both created from birth as vessels to serve such entities.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there any way?¡± ¡°There is,¡± the elder sister answered grimly, her eyes clouded with determination. ¡°We have to rewrite her memory and identity.¡± ¡°Rewrite? How would you even do that?¡± ¡°By reducing her memories and identity¡ªeverything that has defined her since birth¡ªinto ¡®false memories.¡¯ Then, she must awaken to a new self, one forged by her own will.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy to say, but how could something like that even be possible...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible. With my sister¡¯s ability.¡± NPC Creation. An ultimate brainwashing technique that forces the target to think and act exactly as programmed. ¡°She needs to start over. A new life.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Of course, if we change too much, my sister¡¯s entire identity could copse. That¡¯s why we¡¯ll focus on removing only the parts tied to the Outer God.¡± ¡°Do you think that kind of precision is even feasible?¡± ¡°It might be hard. Human memories are fragile, after all. There¡¯s a chance she might also lose her memories of me, her twin sister... and even you, sunbae.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa paused, then conviction steeled her voice as she dered, ¡°But if we can exorcise the Outer God from Yo-hwa¡¯s soul, it¡¯ll be worth the cost.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand. Even memories of you might vanish. How can you be so confident in this n when it means losing the time you¡¯ve spent together with your sister?¡± ¡°You¡¯re here, aren¡¯t you, sunbae?¡±n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om I was momentarily at a loss for words. ¡°What?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve only known each other for a year or two, as tutor and student. Yet here you are, crossing a hundred cycles just to save us. Even if my sister forgets me, it¡¯s okay. She¡¯ll have far more time to build memories with you in the future.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And I¡¯ll feel the same. Right now, the priority is defeating Infinite Void. But someday, when the timees to conquer the Mastermind... At that moment...¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s confident tone wavered and her words trailed off, her parted lips closing. She grew quiet. Then, her red eyes fixed on me, her gaze unreadable. ¡°Why are you staring like that?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Is there a problem with the strategy?¡± ¡°No, there¡¯s nothing wrong with that.¡± Her murmur was soft, almost inaudible. Her eyes remained fixed on me. Somehow, I didn¡¯t feel awkward under her gaze. People often spoke of intense eye contact. A powerful gaze could make anyone flinch. But Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s eyes weren¡¯t sharp¡ªthey were shaded, more like ¡°eye shadows¡± than blinding light. Just as a person might seek the relief of shade on a scorching summer day, her gaze brought onlyfort. Almost as if she had spent her entire life preparing to be someone¡¯s shade. Her god, the Mastermind, was known as the ¡°ck Veil.¡± Perhaps she had begun to resemble the god she served. ¡°Sunbae, I have one question.¡± ¡°Ask me anything.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t give up, will you?¡± There was no need to ask, ¡°Give up on what?¡± Sometimes, even when a sentencecked its context, people could still understand each other. Gaps in speech could be filled by the shared experiences of two lives. I could answer easily. ¡°I won¡¯t give up.¡± ¡°There may be other Anomalies even stronger and more cunning than the ones we¡¯ve faced. There may be enemies so insurmountable that no amount of struggle will ovee them.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Moreover, we don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s possible to bring those erased by Time Seal back to reality. Yet despite all that, you¡¯ll never abandon the world, will you? You won¡¯t let go, like the regressor who gave up before you?¡± ¡°Never,¡± I said, taking Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s hand. ¡°No matter what happens, I won¡¯t give up. And if the day everes when I do give up, it¡¯ll only be because there¡¯s a reason sopelling that even I can¡¯t deny it.¡± ¡°A... A reason?¡± ¡°Yes. A reason everyone can ept. One that even I¡ªwhether it¡¯s the me of the 1st cycle, the 100th, or any cycle¡ªcan agree with.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Unless such a reason exists, I will never give up.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa fell silent. Then her lips parted, revealing the darkness within that spoke one word: ¡°Okay.¡± A faint smile spread across those lips. Even shadows, I realized, could carry thin cracks of light. ¡°I feel the same way, sunbae.¡± On the 117th cycle, we defeated Infinite Void. One sister lost a part of her memory, including fragments of her elder sister and me. I was dreaming. ¡°Sunbae.¡± Yet no one despaired. Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s words had been true. There were far more days ahead for us to spend together. For humanity, this might have been a tragedy. But for the twin sisters, it was a small happiness. Through hundreds of cycles, we asionally spent time together. We drank coffee, marveled at the submerged Inunaki Tunnel, and grew close enough for Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (Ç§Ö{Ô’) to call her sister unnie once again. Together, we defeated the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. We were shocked by Yu Ji-won¡¯s inhumanity. And finally, by the 685th cycle, we had grown strong enough to confront the Mastermind. We asked the elder Cheon Yo-hwa to conduct the ritual to summon the Outer God. And so, time passed. Time passed. ¡°Sunbae.¡± I was dreaming. ¡°Sunbae?¡± I was dreaming. ¡°Sunbae.¡± And then. ¡°Yes. Thank you.¡± A shadow whispered. ¡°I think I¡¯m finally happy now.¡± I awoke from the dream.

Footnotes: [1] There is a fringe theory with a cult following that Adolf Hilter had monorchism, the condition of only having one testicle for one reason or another. [2] Guo Jia is a character from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He is characterized by his skill in administrative work and as an excellent judge of character. Chapter 262 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind XIII I opened my eyes. The moment I did, I realized I was in a divine realm. At first nce, it resembled an ordinary ssroom, but this was the domain created by Infinite Void, which had consumed the Mastermind. This was the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, sunbae.¡± Infinite Void sat with its back against the chalkboard.¡°Or should I say, we¡¯ve met again after only a fleeting moment? How are you feeling right now?¡± It took me a moment to respond. ¡°It feels like I¡¯ve relived my life from the 1st cycle all the way to the 688th.¡± ¡°Hahaha. That¡¯s not a feeling. That¡¯s just a factual description.¡± The scenery outside the ssroom windows was surreal. Each window showed a different scene. Through one, a vivid blue sky stretched out endlessly while another revealed a gxy swirling across the darkness. In some windows, it was summer, and in others, autumn or winter. ¡°Facts? Don¡¯t be ridiculous,¡± I scoffed. ¡°What you¡¯ve shown me is nothing more than an illusion.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Infinite Void smiled faintly as it asked, ¡°Are you so sure?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You, sunbae, remember two timelines. One where Infinite Void was merely an Outer God, a target to be hunted and destroyed.¡± A piece of chalk moved on its own, drawing a screeching line across the chalkboard. Soon, a second, parallel white line followed. ¡°And another where the elder twin, Cheon Yo-hwa, existed as yourpanion and strategist, always by your side. In this timeline, I was both Infinite Void, the Outer God, and Cheon Yo-hwa, the human.¡± Timeline A. Timeline B. Either way, both led to the scene I was witnessing now. ¡°Now you remember both. Why not ask your Complete Memory to figure out which one is real?¡± ¡°Of course, the timeline where you are an Outer God is the real one...¡± My chest tightened painfully. ¡°You seized the power of the simted universes in the 688th cycle. That¡¯s how you were able to show me this false illusion.¡± Even as I spoke, my heart ached. The figure before me¡ªthe mischievous, cunning elder twin¡ªwas undoubtedly the same person I had spent countless cycles with. My soul, which retained every memory, whispered this truth to me. ¡°Perhaps. But that¡¯s not a settled matter, sunbae,¡± Infinite Void said with a smile. It was the exact same expression I had seen on my student¡¯s face countless times across the cycles. ¡°This is a matter to be decided from now on.¡± What nonsense was it spouting? ¡°I told you, didn¡¯t I? Once you Time Sealed me, the Mastermind¡¯s perfect Miko, I¡¯d be erased from the world.¡± Ah. ¡°That¡¯s right. If I, the elder twin of Timeline B, am sealed in time, the world will revert to Timeline A.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°People will forget me. Even my younger sister, Yo-hwa, won¡¯t be able to remember me. The events I participated in will transform into events that urred without me.¡± Just as it had been for others who were sealed. Even if a son forgot his ser-yer father, his life would continue without disruption. Simrly, even if Cheon Yo-hwa ceased to exist in this world, nothing would change. Her achievements would be someone else¡¯s aplishments. Her words attributed to someone else¡¯s whispers. ¡°The distinction between past and future is meaningless, sunbae. The choice you make now will loop back through the wheel of cycles, shaping both your past and the present moment.¡± The timelines would merge. The gaps would be filled. The story would be rewritten. ¡°Didn¡¯t you ever find it strange? Why, as soon as you established the foundation for the Regressor Alliance, you always rushed to Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School?¡± It¡¯s because, originally, you were the twins¡¯ tutor. The bond you shared with them made it natural for you to try and rescue them. ¨DSo said Infinite Void. ¡°How did you manage to subdue me, Infinite Void, in your first-ever attempt at infiltrating Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School? Was it because I was a weak Outer God? Or...¡± Or because you had already uncovered my weaknesses through some means. As a regressor, you had an ally who was deeply familiar with the school¡¯s secrets. You waited until you were strong enough, until you wielded the de Do-hwa, until you had enlisted the fairies. Then, you struck at the perfect moment. An excellent strategy. A testament to your patience. As a result, Infinite Void, the Outer God, was defeated so easily it bordered on being absurd. ¨DOr so the girl before me imed. ¡°That is my story.¡± The girl ced her hands over her heart. ¡°The one who lived as a priestess in a cult, who stood faithfully beside the Regressor, who worked harder than anyone to help you hunt Outer Gods... This is where it ends, sunbae.¡± My heart pounded ominously. ¡°This is the end, sunbae.¡± ¡°Infinite Void...¡± ¡°If you see me as an Outer God, it¡¯s only natural to use Time Seal here to eliminate me. After all, I¡¯m a threat. This is the perfect opportunity to erase the one responsible for this broken world. You¡¯re not going to refuse, are you? Or... do you see me as human?¡± My heart wouldn¡¯t stop racing. ¡°If I seem human to you... please respect my will. ept that this is the only way to conquer the Mastermind, sunbae.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Haha. Don¡¯t look so down. In a way, I¡¯ve bet everything on you.¡± A bet? ¡°What? Did you already forget? You promised me, sunbae. You said you wouldn¡¯t give up, no matter what.¡± ¡°You...¡± ¡°Yes. I believe it too. Someday, you¡¯ll find the key to undo the challenge of the Time Seal. No matter how many hundreds of cycles it takes, or how many thousands of wheels must turn, I know you¡¯ll seed.¡± Infinite Void gave a shadow of a smile. ¡°When that dayes, you¡¯ll treat me as human. You won¡¯t have any other choice.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So this is my final move.¡± Somewhere, I thought I heard the sound of chains clinking. The source of the noise¡ªit was my own chest. Every word the figure before me spoke felt as though it was being etched into my soul until that promise became a shackle, binding my heart. ¡°Not another Anomaly. Not an Outer God. I believe the one who will ultimately im victory in this world is you, sunbae. I have unwavering faith in that.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I won¡¯t betray you. I won¡¯t stab you in the back. I won¡¯t pull some foolish stunt like the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. I¡¯ll simply create a final destination, just for you. When everything ends, I¡¯ll remain as a human who contributed to your victory.¡± I realized it then. It really was checkmate. No matter what I did, I couldn¡¯t help but see the figure before me as human. It didn¡¯t matter whether she had been born as an Outer God or as the elder sister in a cult. She had imed the title of ¡°human,¡± the proof of kinship with me, not through anyone else¡¯s acknowledgment but by her own hand. What kind of human could devise such a strategy? How could anyone make it a reality? And yet, the girl standing before me had done exactly that. She had conquered the Mastermind. She had broken the seal confining her in Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s body. She had deceived even herself and conquered Infinite Void. She had conquered the Regressor. She was an Awakener.

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

¡°Don¡¯t be too sad,¡± she said again. With an exaggerated ¡°Oooshyaa!¡± she jumped up from the desk. ¡°I¡¯ll always be here. Even if I¡¯m sealed away and everyone forgets me, you¡¯ll still remember, won¡¯t you? You cane visit me every now and then.¡± She took a step toward me. Then, with the same boldness she had shown as my student during tutoring sessions, she reached out and grabbed my trembling hand. ¡°Do it.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Seal me. Save the world. Find a way to break the seal. And someday, bring me back from here.¡± I trust you. The moment I heard those words, I had already begun casting Time Seal. The gxy and the seasons visible outside the windows began to freeze. The curtains billowing in the breeze, the strands of the girl¡¯s hair¡ªeverything slowed. ¡°Remember this, sunbae.¡± Through her hand, I could feel her heartbeat. Even that steady rhythm began to slow. ¡°From the next cycle onward, Infinite Void will no longer have ¡®me¡¯ as its personality. The possibility of me ever existing will bepletely eradicated. The only thing left on the fourth basement floor of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School will be a mindless husk of an Anomaly...¡± ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°My disappearance might destabilize my sister¡¯s mind a bit. Please take care of her...¡± ¡°I will.¡± I knew instinctively even then. She was offering me her final words of advice. ¡°Even if I disappear, there might still be contradictions. It¡¯s unavoidable. Think of it as the ache after a wisdom tooth is removed.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry... I couldn¡¯t figure out why you can¡¯t remember anything before the 4th cycle.¡± Her red eyes met mine directly. Even on the brink of annihtion, her gaze was infinitely calm andposed, calcting every possibility for what woulde next. ¡°But every effect has a cause.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Maybe your memory loss from the 1st to the 4th cycle isn¡¯t a curse but a blessing.¡± ¡°A blessing?¡± ¡°Yes. From the 1st to the 4th cycle, you¡¯ve created something called ¡®four spaces of sealed time.¡¯¡± My eyes widened.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ¡°Maybe you¡¯ve already experienced the 688th cycle hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of times. And maybe, in this very moment, you realized that the only way to defeat the Mastermind, an unbeatable Outer God, was to create gaps in your memory.¡± ¡°...!¡± ¡°Using those gaps, you forged a causality where the elder twin Cheon Yo-hwa could be the Mastermind¡¯s Miko. Do you understand? Because your canvas was nk, you could paint anything on it.¡± The girl squeezed my hand tightly, steadying its tremors. ¡°You have four nk canvases. I can¡¯t be sure, but I believe those canvases are your ultimate weapon against the Outer Gods.¡± ¡°Through these gaps, you can rewrite reality, inventing a causality that allows you to defeat even the undefeatable.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± It was a terrifying realization. Sensing my shock, she carefully chose her next words. ¡°You¡¯ve used one canvas to seal me, the Mastermind. By rewriting your past. Well, technically, I made the choice for you.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°But there are still nk spaces in your memory. Who left you the Silver Bells? What is Go Yuri? And most importantly, who advised you to intentionally create this amnesia between the 1st and 4th cycles?¡± ¡°You¡ª¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t me.¡± She took my other hand in hers as well, sping it even tighter in her grip, and she said, ¡°There¡¯s someone else. Another entity.¡± That was true. Thanks to her, I now remembered being the twin sisters¡¯ tutor, but most of my memories were still shrouded in mist. For instance, I might not have been the only one on that KTX train heading to Busan. In the tutorial dungeon at Busan Station, it felt like a certain someone else had been there with me. Her brow furrowed slightly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I wanted to save Old Man Schopenhauer too, but forcing such drastic changes to causality was impossible.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± ¡°It was already a miracle to weave together a timeline that honored your journey up to the 688th cycle while simultaneously creating something new.¡± To deny the Mastermind¡¯s existence was to manipte the universe as if it were a simtion. Yet, to erase an Outer God like the Mastermind, I had to honor the singr reality of my universe. ¡°That¡¯s why the only picture you can paint on this canvas is your shadow.¡± ¡°My... shadow?¡± ¡°Yes. Don¡¯t forget. This nk canvas, this shadow¡ªit¡¯s your divine realm.¡± The girl, who had been serious until now, suddenly smiled brightly. ¡°Oh! I¡¯ve said everything!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Honestly, you don¡¯t have enough strategist characters by your side, sunbae. Phew, now I can finally rx.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Haha. Sorry for dropping out like Old Man Schopenhauer. The rest of your life is going to be tough, but you¡¯ll just have to suffer through it. That¡¯s what being a regressor is all about.¡± Time began to freeze. This ssroom, this divine realm, and the girl¡¯s domain were bing eternally severed from reality. To create the most beautiful hell imaginable. ¡°Ah.¡± The girl looked up, gazing at her gxy above, and sighed. ¡°Yo-hwa. My name.¡± Yo (ÁÈ). Deste. Hwa (»¯). Transformation. ¡°To grow lonely and deste.¡± From the gxy, a voice seemed to emerge. Perhaps it was nothing more than the sensation of her heartbeat, transmitted through our joined hands, that I simply interpreted as words. Something beyond sound resonated, carrying the girl¡¯s final testament as if singing herst poem: Here lies the loneliest ce in the universe of all creation. The most deste ce. The most colorless void. A world outside the world, thus emptiness. A time beyond time, thus absence. Yet still the pinnacle humans endlessly imagine, dream of, and long to reach¡ªthus karma. I, born as Infinite Void, havee to know time. Here, all things cease. Even the infinite regress of logic that thinks of itself, and then of itself again, will stop breathing here. I, having known time, now return to Infinite Void. To the moment, the time, the void, I can now finally say these words: Be still. You are truly beautiful. It might have been nothing but a sound I hallucinated. The girl before me might also have been nothing more than an illusion or a shadow. Forgotten by the world, her existence was something even I could easily dismiss. ¡°Yo-hwa.¡± But I didn¡¯t deny her. To remember¡ªthat was my life. Hearing my voice, hearing me call her name, Cheon Yo-hwa looked at me. Her crimson eyes widened. ¡°Yes.¡± Cheon Yo-hwa smiled. ¡°Thank you for teaching me what it means to be human, sunbae. In the past, in the future, and here in this ce¨D¡± And thus, ¡°I love you in this very moment.¡± Time stopped.

Anomaly: The Mastermind Aliases: Simted Universe, Heavenly Kingdom, Infinite Labyrinth, Fog of War, Soul Harvester, Brain in a Vat, Hollow Earth Hypothesis, IF Scenario, Descartes¡¯ Demon Threat Level: Lv. 5 Outer God Subjugation¡ªCOMPLETE

Footnotes: Chapter 263 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Mastermind XIV There is an epilogue. The cycle had moved forward. Infinite Void¡ª Or more precisely, Cheon Yo-hwa of heaven¡¯s destion (ÌìÁÈ»¯), the personality within Infinite Void, had disappeared from the flow of time. But what changed, you may ask? Almost nothing. ¡°Ah, hello there, everyone! You must have been quite surprised to be summoned here so out of the blue, right?¡±At the Busan Station Tutorial, the fairy still appeared and tested people. And why wouldn¡¯t it? Infinite Void, even at this point, had always been a mindless Outer God. The removal of the personality known as ¡°Cheon Yo-hwa¡± didn¡¯t fundamentally alter the Anomaly¡¯s principles of behavior. Blind, thoughtless Outer Gods remained as they always were: tirelessly collecting data from the world even in the 689th cycle. Or perhaps the elder twin, Cheon Yo-hwa, was never truly connected to Infinite Void at all. She might have simply been the Mastermind¡¯s Miko, and her disappearance had no bearing on the Anomaly. I kept my mouth shut. In my mind, two parallel timelines and their memories coexisted, perfectly aligned. The same was true for the younger twin. ¡°Ow, ow, ow... Hold on a second. Are you a real adult? Oh, I mean... Mister, are you human? Ahh! You¡¯vee to rescue us, haven¡¯t you?!¡± Cheon Yo-hwa of the hundred tales (Ç§Ö{Ô’), the student council president of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School, was the same as she had always been in other cycles. Although her elder sister had left behind a final request for me to look after her, there was nothing much to do. Cheon Yo-hwa already exhibited minor signs of mental instability. Her tendency to be excessively cold toward outsiders. Her difficulty controlling her anger. And after Infinite Void was subjugated, asional symptoms of a split personality. These were ws inherent to her personality. The disappearance of the elder twin¡ªa fictional existence¡ªwouldn¡¯t make them any worse. Or perhaps, unknowingly, she was grappling with the fallout of losing the elder sister she had relied on more than anyone. Sudden distortions in memory could have profound effects on people. After all, hadn¡¯t the son of the former ser yer Kim Joo-chul set off on a journey through this perilous world to search for ¡°something,¡± despite the danger? It was a world unchanged¡ª No. It was a world in which only one thing had changed. ¡°Yo-hwa...¡± ¡°Yes, Teacher?¡± ¡°Are you still experiencing... instances with another personality?¡± ¡°Well... Yes, haha. It¡¯s something I can¡¯t control.¡± ¡°......¡± Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s soul no longer bore the personality we once called Infinite Void. Her asional personality shifts were no longer manifestations of an Outer God¡¯s descent but rather purely psychological symptoms. ? ¡®Ah.¡¯ Outer Gods couldn¡¯t speak like humans, and they couldn¡¯t perfectly mimic humans either. It was only natural, after all. How could an Anomaly possess human intelligence? How could an Anomaly possibly love a human? When had I, the Undertaker, started entertaining the delusion that such an Outer God might exist? Had I been bewitched by an Anomaly without even realizing it? ¡°Remember this, sunbae.¡± ¡°From the next cycle onward, Infinite Void will no longer have ¡®me¡¯ as its personality. The possibility of me ever existing will bepletely eradicated.¡± ¡°My disappearance might destabilize my sister¡¯s mind a bit. Please take care of her...¡± Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head as she looked at me. ¡°Teacher?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Is something wrong? You look... a little sad.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Sorry to worry you. I just... suddenly remembered something from the past.¡± ¡°Oh no! Did someone make you sad, Teacher? Tell me! I¡¯ll take care of it so no one even notices!¡± I smiled and patted Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s shoulder. Noticing that I was feeling better, she smiled brightly back at me. ¡°Please take care of her.¡± Yes, she was right. To be human wasn¡¯t to merely be alive. Even a thing that only existed in people¡¯s memories could be human. After all, how many beings, no longer seen or heard, do we bury in our hearts and carry with us through life? Presence through absence. Sometimes, someone¡¯s existence was felt more strongly not because they were near but because they were not.

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¡°Is that so? I understand now,¡± said the Saintess. I hadn¡¯t made the mistake of silently brooding over my inner turmoil. I shared my thoughts with the Saintess instead. ¡°An Outer God worships a human and willingly falls to humanity¡¯s level... Or perhaps this story itself is a historical distortion caused by Time Seal.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± ¡°Let me confirm one thing. Mr. Undertaker, are the Anomalies rted to the Outer God called the Mastermind truly gone now?¡± ¡°Yes, that part is certain.¡± In the 689th cycle, I could atst distribute the ¡°Sacred mes¡± given to me by the N of Naryan Mar to the point that most cities where humans survived now had beacon towers. Smoke rose beyond the Himyas and the Urals as well. Humanity¡¯s enemy, the Mastermind, had truly been subjugated. ¡°On the other hand, Infinite Void still leaves traces of itself in this world, doesn¡¯t it? The Hundred Ghosts¡¯ Night Parade, for example. Anomalies clearly tied to Infinite Void still linger.¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± The Saintess quietly rested her chin on her hand. The shadows of fish moved slowly among the aquariums in the Yongsan estate. ¡°Mr. Undertaker, this might sound radical...¡± ¡°Please, speak freely.¡± ¡°Could it be that you¡¯ve reced the Mastermind and Infinite Void¡¯s Miko?¡± I paused, blinking as I poured hot water into a packet of instant coffee. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Think about it. Whether we consider Timeline A or Timeline B, the result is the same. The only human who knows about Infinite Void,plete with Cheon Yo-hwa¡¯s personality, is you, Mr. Undertaker. You alone, across the entire surface of the Earth.¡± At first, I didn¡¯t understand what the Saintess was suggesting. ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± I agreed slowly. ¡°But how does that designate me as the Miko of the Outer Gods?¡± ¡°Because no one but you witnessed Infinite Void¡¯s true form when it revealed its full power.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°In essence, you are the only one who understands the true nature of these Outer Gods. An Apostlemunes with a god and acts as its exclusive intermediary. Isn¡¯t that essentially what you are?¡± My eyes widened. ¡°That¡¯s because I subjugated the Outer God...¡± ¡°But apart from you, Mr. Undertaker, no one even knows these Anomalies existed, let alone that they were defeated.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Whether you like it or not, Infinite Void and the Mastermind are dependent on you. Only you¡ªand your memories¡ªserve as evidence that they ever existed.¡± The back of my neck pricked with unease. Instinctively, I knew that the Saintess had touched on something profoundly significant. Before I realized it, my mouth moved on its own to say, ¡°Authority.¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°The abilities I possess... For instance, Complete Memory. It might be an authority granted to me as Infinite Void¡¯s Miko.¡± Infinite Void collected the data of all things in existence. Didn¡¯t it liken itself to the Akashic Records? If so, my ability to remember everything without fail might very well be the proof of my role as Infinite Void¡¯s Miko! At my exnation, the Saintess¡¯s expression grew serious. ¡°Hold on. Let me list out your abilities, Mr. Undertaker.¡± With a quick motion, she pulled out a pen that seemed to appear from nowhere¡ªlikely fetched by briefly stopping time¡ªand began jotting down notes.

1. Complete Memory¨C Infinite Void 2. Resume (Strength Preservation) ¨C ? 3. Time Seal ¨C ? 4. Exceptional Aura ¨C ?

The Saintess looked back at me. ¡°These are your abilities, correct?¡± ¡°Hmm. I think we can remove ¡®Exceptional Aura.¡¯ That¡¯s something anyone can develop with enough training.¡± ¡°Fair enough. I¡¯ll cross it out.¡± ¡°Oh, and by the way, I also have Mind-Reading.¡± The Saintess blinked like a startled rabbit, her wide eyes practically asking, ¡°Why am I only learning about this now?¡± ¡°I apologize. I thought it might make people ufortable to know I could read their thoughts.¡± After a beat of hesitation, she asked, ¡°Are you reading my mind right now?¡± ¡°No, not at all. I stopped using that ability around the 555th cycle. I didn¡¯t want to rely on such a mysterious power to intrude on people¡¯s private thoughts.¡± ¡°Can you swear to that?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll swear on anything.¡± ¡°Even on the Three Kingdoms and Liu Bei¡¯s name?¡±[1] ¡°Er... yes. Of course.¡± The Saintess¡¯s expression visibly rxed. ¡°Alright. As expected, you¡¯re quite trustworthy, Undertaker. Let me revise the list.¡±

1. Complete Memory¨C Infinite Void 2. Resume (Strength Preservation) ¨C ? 3. Time Seal ¨C ? 4. Mind-Reading ¨C Infinite Metagame? Mastermind?

¡°How¡¯s this?¡± ¡°Well... Looking at it now, I can¡¯t help but notice how scattered and misceneous my abilities are. It must be my fate to be a supporter.¡± ¡°The real supporter here is me, but let¡¯s not get into that. Do you really think these abilities being so misceneous is just a coincidence?¡± A faint voice echoed in my mind. ¡°Every effect has a cause.¡± It was something Cheon Yo-hwa had whispered in the ssroom. Though the Saintess had taken a different path to reach her conclusions, it seemed she had arrived at the same understanding. ¡°Think carefully, Mr. Undertaker. You¡¯re smarter than this.¡± ¡°You tter me...¡± ¡°I¡¯m not trying to tter you. What I mean is, if you truly have been reborn as the Miko of various Outer Gods, and if you¡¯ve be aware of this... But then lost your memories because of Time Seal or some other reason.¡± Her sky-blue eyes locked onto mine with an unflinching intensity, as she asked, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you have left behind a clue for yourself? Something subtle that only you could recognizeter?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°A hint. Nothing too obvious, to avoid disrupting the timeline. Just small, shadowy traces. Something that could exist without affecting anything else.¡± ¡°...A hint left for myself.¡± I let my thoughts wander. The elder sister, Cheon Yo-hwa, had reshaped the traces of her existence into the form of ¡°Infinite Void¡¯s personality¡± and ¡°the younger sister¡¯s split personality.¡± She had only altered memories to the extent that they preserved the reality of what had urred. Was there a simr distortion within me?n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om A shadow where I had quietly nted a clue, hoping I¡¯d uncover it someday. ¡°A shadow...¡± In that moment, ¡°A fragment. A shadow of the self...¡± I felt a static charge ripple through my body. The tremor within me tranted into words that spilled from my lips. ¡°Of course. How did I not realize this sooner?¡± ¡°Did somethinge to mind?¡± ¡°Yes. My nickname!¡± The Saintess tilted her head. ¡°Your nickname?¡± ¡°My SG Net username. My alias. The name I used as a shadow of my real self in the virtual space of the inte!¡± I borrowed the Saintess¡¯s pen and quickly scrawled the name. ZERO_SUGAR That was my SG Net username. The meaning of ¡°zero sugar¡± was straightforward: sugar-free. Tranting it into Korean yielded mudang, ?? (ŸoÌÇ). The practice of using homophones and wordy to name Anomalies or curses was as basic as it was effective. Thus, taking the word that sounded the same as ¡°zero sugar¡± in Korean but that had different Chinese characters to define its meaning, there was mudang, ?? (Î×ÌÃ), which means ¡°apostle¡±. A Miko who serves as an intermediary for gods. A pir connecting an Outer God¡¯s influence to the earthly realm. The Saintess nced down at the notebook, her face filled with astonishment. ¡°When did you choose this nickname? And why?¡± ¡°It¡¯s... been my nickname ever since I learned SG Net existed. Honestly, there wasn¡¯t much thought behind it. I just liked zero-sugar c, so I used it without thinking.¡± ¡°So it was something trivial enough that it didn¡¯t raise suspicion.¡± ¡°That seems to be the case.¡± We both fell silent. Our silences carried different weights. Though I wasn¡¯t using Mind-Reading, I could almost grasp the Saintess¡¯s line of thought. She must have been wondering how the ¡°Undertaker from before memory modification¡± had left this clue for his current self. What purpose did it serve? And what were the identities of the other Outer Gods? My own thoughts, however, were slightly different. ¡®I already knew.¡¯ The reason it hadn¡¯t taken me long to deduce the clue of my SG Net username stemmed from an entirely different cause because... ¡®Go Yuri knew.¡¯ Someone had directly given me this hint. In the distant past, during the 91st cycle, while I was casually browsing themunity forums, Go Yuri had once left ament. - [Satisfaction] CookingQueen: Thank you! Although this is the world we must live in, if we live without losing faith in ourselves and our hope in others, good things are sure to happen. I hope today is a happy day for you, ZeroSugar! No one else on SG Net had ever used mudang to call me ¡°ZeroSugar¡± before. Not even had I had called myself that. So then how...? How had the Go Yuri of back then already known something we only now realized in the 689th cycle?

Footnotes: [1] Liu Bei was made famous for being the ideal ruler for his benevolent leadership and smart choice in advisors by Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Chapter 264 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

The Murderer I The eradication of the Mastermind. Thanks to this incident, my life as a regressor saw quite a few subtle changes. If I had to choose the most representative change, well... I¡¯d say it¡¯s the addition of the ability to write Side Stories for Oh Dok-seo. But today¡¯s episode isn¡¯t about that kind of change. Let¡¯s focus on something more physical this time. What¡¯s there to hesitate about? Atst, I¡ªno, we¡ªcouldmunicate with survivors beyond the Himyas and the Ural Mountains.

That said, it took an enormous amount of time to establish signal fires across the globe. Preliminary research. Charting the optimal signal fire routes. Identifying cities and viges where survivors gathered. Understanding the dispositions of each base leader. Exploring ways to seek cooperation. Building connections to establish a baseline of trust... Though I had visited famous cities like Istanbul several times before, a simple drop by was altogether different from the enormous task of linking every single base together. What other choice did I have? I had to embark on a world tour, bit by bit, over multiple cycles, scraping together information as I went along. And a world tour meant¡ª [You called me, oppa.] Peek. Lee Ha-yul, the Travel Ghost, poked her head out. She flipped through a sketchbook she had prepared in advance. [¡ý¡ý My Wish List ¡ý¡ý] [The City of Love, Paris.] [The City of Human Catapults, Prague.] [The City of Romance, Rome.] [The City of Water, Venice.] [The City of Fashion, Mn.] [The City of Gastronomy, Palermo.] [The City of Philosophy, Athens...] The list went on and on. Wait a minute¡ªweren¡¯t there too many Italian cities on the list? Did my Ha-yul really want to visit Italy that badly? Flip-flip. Ha-yul kept turning the pages of her sketchbook with a seriousness that never waned. [If this is gonna be a work of fiction like Dok-seo¡¯s novel, then you should for sure n a spinoff.] [The story of a Puppeteer traveling the world with the Infinite Regressor ¡û could totally work as a standalone, long-form side story.] [A sprinkle of travel in an apocalypse evokes timeless emotions.] [Has the era finally arrived?] [The era of me.]N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡°......¡± It seemed my Ha-yul, who had recently been devouring Dok-seo¡¯s novels, had suddenly developed a craving for screen time. To be fair, Ha-yul spent more time with me than anyone else. Compared to Dang Seo-rin or Cheon Yo-hwa, who were busy managing their guilds, Ha-yul clung to me like gum every single day. However, Ha-yul was a greedy little rascal. What do I mean by that? Despite bing proficient enough in Aura maniption tomunicate effectively, Ha-yul stubbornly insisted on using Morse code, signnguage, and sketches tomunicate. When I asked her why one day, she replied: [Oppa. People these days have be too ustomed to effortlessmunication, forgetting the value of human connection.] [Language, voice, conversation¡ªthese miracles were never granted to them so easily.] [Because of constant demands formunication, paradoxically, the modern person¡¯s thresholds for meaningful interaction has skyrocketed.] [I strive not to be addicted to the dopamine ofmunication. This is my ongoing effort.] [I hope you, too, can appreciate the miracle that is dialogue, oppa.] In simpler terms, it was peak chuunibyou. I had encountered countless simr spectacles. For example, Dok-seo would seize every opportunity to proim, ¡°Only emotional exchanges through novels count as truemunication. Everything else is fake.¡± So, does that mean people who don¡¯t list novel-reading as a hobby are incapable ofmunication? I couldn¡¯t make sense of it. All I could conclude was that there was a reason Ha-yul and Dok-seo were such close friends. ¡°By the way, Ha-yul,¡± I began. ¡°Even if we travel together this time, it¡¯s really far, so we can¡¯t use a yogurt cart. We¡¯ll have to make the trip quick since we can¡¯t be away for too long.¡± ¡°......¡± Tap, tap. Ha-yul patted her shoulder. We had our own set of silent poses we used tomunicate with each other, and the one she just made meant [carry me]. When I approached and lifted her as instructed, what happened next was astonishing. The little rascal used her Aura to climb up my body in a sh, perching on my shoulder in no time at all! Her speed was so extraordinary it could only be described as Ha-yul the squirrel! In response, I had to retaliate with equal finesse. ¡°Regressor Spin-Twist Special.¡± ¡°......!¡± ¡°Regressor Loopy Viking Swing.¡± ¡°......! ......!¡± As I performed all sorts of acrobatic tricks with my Aura¡ªa showcase only Aura experts could manage¡ªHa-yul clung to my back,ughing silently but uncontrobly. Watching us from the side, Dok-seo muttered in disbelief, ¡°Seriously, are they really father and daughter or something?¡± That was how Ha-yul and I usually yed around. [Anyway, we can do it without Coco, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll just ride on oppa¡¯s back.] ¡°You¡¯re serious?¡± [Why, is that a problem?] ¡°Of course not. Let¡¯s head out quickly, then.¡± The Puppeteer travels the world with the Infinite Regressor¡ªspinoff confirmed! (Or not.) As a result, rumors of a "father-daughter pair traveling leisurely even in a ruined world" began to spread across the Eurasian continent, and they weren¡¯t particrly ttering rumors either. If anything, they leaned closer to ghost stories. The reason was simple. [Oppa¡¯s back isn¡¯t great.] [It¡¯s wide, which is nice, but it¡¯s too hard, so it¡¯s ufortable.] Incredibly, the little rascal who had spent the entirety of our first journey to Mumbai treating me like a personal vehicle dared to leave a reviewining about the ridefort. In the end, I had no choice but to develop a luxury vehicle specifically for Ha-yul. This was a one-of-a-kind masterpiece¡ªunparalleled before or since in human history. Its design? Well... Dok-seo gave her assessment in a single sentence: ¡°Seriously, it¡¯s just an overly fancy jige.¡±[1] Yes, it was a jige. While the image of elderly men or tigers enjoying rides in such contraptions was moremon, surprisingly, Ha-yul could also use it. However, it was no ordinary jige. It was massive, and on it, I had installed a plush sofa that could double as a bed. There was even a canopy to protect the passenger from rain, snow, or blizzards¡ªoffering a cozy camping experience for any weather. This wasn¡¯t just a jige. This was an enhanced jige. +9 tier, easily surpassing its original function. Naturally¡ªthough maybe not so naturally¡ªit was also equipped with a miniature air conditioning system. [Perfect.] [I wonder... Maybe I¡¯ve lived through countless cycles and met you, oppa, solely to experience this moment.] After several rounds of review and revision, Ha-yul left a glowing five-star rating. From that point forward, she, who had always been a human jellyfish of sorts, transformed into something more akin to a snail. Thus, the stories circting across the Eurasian continent became slightly more specific: ¡°They say a father-daughter pair is wandering around a ruined world. The father carries a room-sized jige, and they seem oddly carefree as they travel. But something about them is just extremely suspicious.¡± It was only natural that such tales wouldn¡¯t be well-received. To the average person, the concept of it must have seemed utterly bizarre. Who could possibly imagine that, in an apocalyptic world full of perils, an Awakener would carry a jige just to fulfill theirrade¡¯s wish to travel? Even I hadn¡¯t seen thising. As a result, urban legends about the Snail Man began springing up everywhere¡ªfrom Moscow to Istanbul to Prague.

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

¡°Ah... I¡¯m jealous...¡± Even stranger still, this wasn¡¯t the end of the rumors. ¡°I want to try riding the guild leader¡¯s jige too...¡± Sim Ah-ryeon¡ªburied in SG Net and firmly nted in her corner¡ªsneaking nces with barely concealed envy as Ha-yul rode around in the jige during our travels. To be more precise, her nces were in no way sneaky. She made sure I saw her envious expression and got the message loud and clear. Her foolish-looking face was deceptive. I knew better than to fall for it. Every action and gesture from Ah-ryeon carried a highly calcted, political undertone. ¡°Ah-ryeon. This jige is for one person only.¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, of course! That¡¯s obvious, but... since the guild leader is super strong, wouldn¡¯t it be possible to modify it into a two-seater?¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon, I¡¯m your guild leader. Look closely¡ªthis is not a mode of transportation.¡± ¡°B-but you let Ha-yul ride...¡± ¡°......¡± Spinoff: Supporting Character Joins the Cast! This marked the historic moment when the infamous "OldManGoryeo Viin" herself climbed aboard the jige, a device synonymous with the Goryeo dynasty. During our travels, Ha-yul muttered herints. [Ah-ryeon unnie is too gloomy. She¡¯s just upset because my world travel diary on SG Net became popr, and now she wants to copy me for clout.] ¡°H-Ha-yul, isn¡¯t that a bit egotistical? Clout-chasing? Why would I waste my time on something so meaningless, so unproductive? Don¡¯t forget, I¡¯m already a literary giant whose average views are 2.6 times higher than the so-called LiteraryGirl.¡± [Wow. No way.] [Seriously.] [Hah.] [If that¡¯s how we¡¯re measuring things, my travel diary gets twice your views, Ah-ryeon unnie.] ¡°Well... that¡¯s because it¡¯s the free-for-all board. Obviously, there¡¯s way more traffic than on the serialized fiction board. If I were posting there, my views would be at least five times higher!¡± [Legendary.] Don¡¯t misunderstand. These two were indeed the same Awakeners who, during the 687th cycle, fought in the Final Defense of Humanity. One died heroically on the frontlines, and the other held the rear, tirelessly healing the wounded until sumbing to Corruption. This was precisely why it was crucial to separate the person from their work¡ªthe literary giant. the OldManGoryeo, the Awakener from their private life. Human beings were like trees. With time, growth rings umted,yering one over the other. Branches extended in different directions. Was OldManGoryeo, SG Net¡¯s eternal mischief-maker, the trunk of this tree? Or was the Northern Saintess of the Final Defense, a central figure in the Final Defense Line, its true core? Personally, I believed there was no point in discussing which was which. Both were just branches. The trunk was always the same¡ªthe living, breathing human standing in front of me. This human liked caf¨¦ mochas, spoke with a stutter, and oftenughed awkwardly. ¡°Oh... Oh?¡± Ah-ryeon suddenly stretched an arm over my shoulder, pointing somewhere. ¡°Guild Leader. Over there...¡± There was no need for her to point. Even before she noticed, I had already detected the Anomaly in my field of vision. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s a railroad.¡± ¡°A railroad... Do you think it¡¯s dangerous?¡± As soon as the railroad came into view, Ah-ryeon immediately assumed it was dangerous. Her assumption wasn¡¯t without merit.

In this ruined world, railroads almost always heralded a specific menace: the Trolley Dilemma. The Trolley Dilemma was a kind of grotesque, ethical horror scenario. Q: Please make a choice. The selected individuals will die! A: Five violent criminals. B: One con artist. The setup revolved around choosing whom to save and whom to kill, a quintessential moral dilemma. Naturally, in the real world, there weren¡¯t lunatic serial killers tying people to railroad tracks to force such choices. It was entirely a thought experiment¡ªa fictional problem used to spark philosophical debates. But when had Anomalies ever bothered themselves with nuances like human logic? These creatures brought the Trolley Dilemma into reality in the most horrifyingly literal way imaginable. ¡°Please! Save us! I beg you!¡± ¡°H-heeelp! I don¡¯t want to die!¡± And sure enough, people were writhing and struggling, tied up along the tracks. This was nothing new. The Trolley Dilemma appeared frequently and indiscriminately¡ªbe it in the Korean Penins or elsewhere. It was practically an Anomaly clich¨¦. The methods to counter it were well-documented, and the process of eliminating it was straightforward. Truthfully, it wasn¡¯t even one of the harder Anomalies to subdue. But then¡ª ¡°Oh... Oh my?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Even so, Ah-ryeon, Ha-yul, and I found ourselves pausing in unison. For professional Awakeners like us¡ªeach deeply ustomed to dealing with Anomalies¡ªthis hesitation was unnatural. Reality, however, had a knack for surpassing even the wildest expectations. ¡°G-Guild Leader.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Those people on the tracks... They¡¯re being tied up by other people.¡± ¡°It appears my eyes are seeing the same thing as yours.¡± Who could have foreseen such a sight? The ones actively binding the victims weren¡¯t Anomalies at all. They were fellow humans. Ordinary, unmistakably human beings. More than that, they weren¡¯t just a few. It was an entire group¡ªa throng of hundreds¡ªall working diligently to tie people up.

Footnotes: [1] A jige is a traditional Korean carrying frame. Chapter 265 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Murderer II ¡°Wh-what should we do, Guild Leader?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s observe for now.¡± No matter how many millennia I¡¯d surpassed with ease, I, the Undertaker, was not foolish enough to believe the world revolved around me. In this world, there were as many circumstances as there were people. Even if these thugs were kidnapping people and tying them to the railroad tracks, it wouldn¡¯t do to act rashly and interfere without a n. Instead, we set down our burdensome loads (calling them ¡°luggage¡± would be a gross understatement) and approached the tracks stealthily.That¡¯s when we overheard their conversation. ¡°Hey! Did you count them up properly?¡± a burly man, who seemed to be their leader, shouted at the top of his lungs. I guessed he was the leader based on his ostentatious gold ne and rings. Only someone protected by their group would dare unt such essories in the apocalypse. Otherwise, it was as good as dering, "I¡¯m no longer human, I¡¯m a golden goblin." ¡°Yes, boss! They¡¯re tightly bound!¡± ¡°You idiot! I¡¯m asking if the headcount is correct! It¡¯s 133 people! Today, we must offer exactly 133 people to Lord Trolley! Don¡¯t waste any precious ves!¡± ¡°Yes, sir! I¡¯ll double-check!¡± ¡°Ugh, I can¡¯t rely on you lot for anything. Damn it, I can¡¯t rx even for a second.¡± ¡°Haha! I swear, it took ages to teach these guys how to tie proper knots!¡± Lord Trolley? I exchanged nces with Ha-yul. The two of us didn¡¯t need to speak, we couldmunicate swiftly using our unique signnguage. This signnguage, for the record, was something only Ha-yul and I could use. It incorporated Korean, Japanese, minute nuances of Aura, and secret signals only the two of us understood. [What are they saying?] [A gang of thugs. They¡¯re calling the people tied to the tracks ¡°ves.¡±] [They¡¯re viins for sure?] [Probably. Especially since they¡¯re addressing the Trolley Anomaly with ¡°Lord,¡± which reeks of a typical Forsaken Vige setup.] [Oh.] Forsaken Vige. The term referred to settlements thoroughly corrupted by the Void poison. Outwardly, these ces looked no different from ordinary towns or cities, but the air carried an eerie, twisted vibe because their societal nerve centers were consumed by Anomalies. For instance, the Eastern Holy Kingdom also qualified as a Forsaken Vige since it was amunity that worshipped the Anomaly Mo Gwang-seo Christ as a deity. The scale was simply upgraded from a ¡°vige¡± to a ¡°nation.¡± ¡°Wh-what are you two whispering about? Please, speak so I can understand!¡± Ah-ryeon, who always became visibly anxious when left out, voiced herint. After listening to my exnation, she rested her chin on her hand with a huff. Meanwhile, Ha-yul gave her a smug look, clearly enjoying the fact that she couldn''t understand our signnguage. ¡°G-Guild Leader, have incidents like this happened in previous cycles?¡± ¡°No. This is the first time I¡¯ve taken this route. Also, the areas near India are usually wiped out within five years, so I haven¡¯t had much contact with survivors.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Ah-ryeon fell into thought, likely devising another of her peculiar schemes. It was then that we heard it. - Bwoooooooooooo. In the distance, a train horn, or more precisely, a steam whistle, resounded. Both our group and the gang, as well as the people tied to the tracks, instinctively turned to the source of the sound. In a world where civilization had copsed, it was impossible for a steam lotive to function properly. This could only mean one thing: the Trolley Dilemma Anomaly was approaching. ¡°Lord Trolley has descended!¡± the leader shouted. ¡°Everyone, get off the tracks! Beat the drum! Wee and worship Lord Trolley!¡± ¡°Trolley! Trolley! Trolley! Trolley!¡± ¡°Everyone, gather here!¡± The residents of the Forsaken Vige stepped back and began chanting bizarrely. Their appearance didn¡¯t resemble ancient ceremonial worship. Most were dressed rtively well, wearing suits, though many were frayed and tattered. It felt more like a cult gatheringplete with unnerving fervor. Well, most Forsaken Viges were like this. - Bwooooooo! Chug-chug, chug-chug! The Anomaly train came into view, close enough to see with the naked eye. The hundred or so captives tied to the rails were trembling violently from the heavy vibrationsing from the ground. Tears flowed freely as screams and wails erupted all around. They could have been criminals receiving divine punishment, to be fair, but the sight of infants no older than two among them suggested otherwise. [Oppa.] Ha-yul tugged at my sleeve. ¡°Hmm.¡± Nodding, I shot forward from the underbrush. If Ha-yul asked, there was no question¡ªI would act.

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

The sudden sight of me dashing into the open, straight toward the train, startled the Forsaken Vige residents. ¡°H-huh?¡± ¡°What the hell is that?¡± The Trolley Dilemma was a vige-grade Anomaly that could appear anywhere in the world. Thus, there were numerous methods for exterminating it. Among them was one simple but extreme method that only a select few Awakeners could utilize. ¡°Look at me!¡± This involved throwing oneself directly in front of the train, before any of the captives. More specifically, crashing into the Trolley with one¡¯s own body! The Anomaly¡¯s face was visible through the window of the oing steam lotive. It resembled a train engineer, but its face was a dark shadow, unreadable yet somehow betraying its hesitation. Fair enough. It was likely the first time this Anomaly had encountered a crazy Awakener throwing themselves into its path. Shouts erupted from behind me. ¡°Hey, hey! What the hell are you doing, you bastard!¡± ¡°That guy¡¯s insane!¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to hit him! He¡¯s gonna die!¡± - KA-BOOOOOOOM! A thunderous crash rang out. Of course, I hadn¡¯t simply thrown my body at it recklessly. I had wrapped myselfpletely in Aura before impact. Otherwise, it would¡¯ve been impossible to outrun the train in the first ce. ¡°Hup.¡± The impact was substantial, abination of the train¡¯s physical force and the Anomaly¡¯s unique curse that ¡°anyone hit by it must die.¡± For a vige-grade Anomaly, it was absurdly lethal. However, its ultimate weakness was clear: if a faster entity collided with Trolley head-on before it struck its victims, who was hitting whom? Caught in this paradox, the wheels screeched against the tracks, sparks flying in all directions. - Screeeeeeeech! I spread my arms and embraced the train, bracing my feet against the ground to absorb the impact. The Trolley Dilemma came to a dead stop. A single human had halted the train. Even with my back turned, I could feel the astonishment radiating from the residents behind me. ¡°Good heavens...¡± ¡°What... What is he? Is he even human?¡± ¡°An Avatar! He¡¯s an Avatar of the gods!¡±n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om And just like that, the Anomaly known as Trolley Dilemma vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed. ¡°Whew.¡± It was a natural oue. The moment someone ¡°collided with the train on the tracks,¡± the Anomaly had to disappear ording to its own rules. Vige-grade Anomalies could sometimes be dispatched this easily. However, if the NRMC Captain were here, she¡¯d likely swear, ¡°What the fuck? If it was this easy, why did the world even copse?¡± Well, the pre-100th cycle version of me wouldn¡¯t have dared attempt such a brute-force method. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± ¡°What... What¡¯s happening to us?¡± While I had stopped the train, myrades hadn¡¯t been idle. Looking back, I saw the Forsaken Vige residents writhing on the ground, cocooned in threads like trapped prey. Naturally, this was Ha-yul¡¯s doing. While the residents were distracted by my stunt, she had swiftly bound them using her signature Puppeteer¡¯s threads. ¡°Ugh, guh! You crazy bitch, what the¡ª!¡± ¡°Yup.¡± Meanwhile, Ah-ryeon stomped on the faces of the webbed-up vigers, seemingly enjoying herself. Though the trapped vigers tried to protest, she paid them no mind. She really had a knack for drawing aggro, didn¡¯t she? It was reassuring to know we were in such ¡°capable¡± hands. ¡°Wh-who are you? Where do youe from that you would dare attack us like this?¡± The leader, surprisinglyposed despite his predicament, attempted dialogue in ented English. His tone was formal, but it carried a distinct Indian cadence. I brought my hands together in a gesture of prayer and answered, ¡°We are travelers.¡± Hearing my fluent Hindi, the leader¡¯s eyes widened in shock. ¡°Travelers?¡± ¡°Yes. We hail from the distant East. These two are priestesses blessed by the goddesses, and I am but a humble monk who apanies them on their journey.¡± ¡°Goddesses?¡± The vigers murmured among themselves. I gave a meaningful nce to Ha-yul and Ah-ryeon. Catching on quickly, Ha-yul activated her Aura. A radiant, golden Aura burst forth, leaving the vigers in awe. ¡°A-amazing!¡± The leader¡¯s eyes bulged as he stared at the golden pir of Aura. Aura could be wielded by any sufficiently trained Awakener, but the structured techniques for mastering it had only ever been conceptualized by me. As my direct disciple, Ha-yul¡¯s Aura maniption skills were among the best, even in apetitive region like Busan. The golden Aura, towering over ten meters high, left the vigers utterly dumbfounded. ¡°N-not fair! I can do it too!¡± Not wanting to be left out, Ah-ryeon mimicked Ha-yul¡¯s disy. The vigers, who were already overwhelmed, practically fell apart as her Aura joined the spectacle. Ah-ryeon seemed to relish the attention. Back in Korea, showing off her Aura had only ever earned her ridicule. Comments like ¡°Is that all?¡± or ¡°She¡¯s just another one of those¡± had kept her from truly enjoying her strength. ¡°That¡¯s enough, Ha-yul. You¡¯ve made your point. But can you enhance the effect? Add some grandeur with a subtle Aura pulse.¡± [Anything specific?] ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Make it sound like divine decree or something.¡± [Got it. Just gotta spout nonsense.] ¡°...Fine.¡± Ha-yul concentrated, spreading her Aura outward while generating an eerie, resonant vibration that mimicked a voice. Though the tonescked consistency or rity, they created an impression of divinemand. ¡°O-oh, my god...¡± ¡°It¡¯s divine! Truly, an Avatar of the gods!¡± The chaotic resonance only made the vigers more convinced. To their uninformed eyes, it must have felt like the heavens themselves were speaking. I smiled serenely and addressed the group, exuding calm authority. ¡°I apologize for intervening without knowing your full circumstances. However, as a monk devoted to protecting life, I cannot ignore the sight of over a hundred lives at risk. Why did you use the train to attempt such a mass sacrifice?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The priestesses I serve arepassionate and will judge your reasons fairly. Speak the truth, and it may yet save you.¡± While Ha-yul employed visual intimidation, I opted for an invisible approach. Spreading my Aura into the ground, I directed it subtly toward the vigers, creating the sensation of unseen pressure closing in on them. Thebination of these tactics had the desired effect. ¡°I-I understand.¡± The leader¡¯s face paled as he stammered, ¡°We¡¯ll untie the ves immediately. However, I cannot make such decisions alone. May we escort you to our city to meet with our leader?¡± ¡°Of course. Please, lead the way.¡± With that, we were formally invited to the city¡ªa ce that, in the time before the copse of civilization, had been located near New Delhi, India. Carrying a massive load on my back, I allowed Ha-yul and Ah-ryeon to ride on top as we moved. The leader watched us with a mix of disbelief and trepidation. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± I asked. ¡°N-no, not at all. Do travelers from the East often use such... mounts? May I ask where exactly you hail from?¡± ¡°The Japanese archipgo.¡± ¡°Ah, I see. Please, this way...¡± Forgive me, magical girls. I¡¯ve done so much for you already, consider this a favor returned.

Footnotes: The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 266 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Murderer III Our group was led into the city. Though not as grand as Busan, the city was rtively orderly with some semnce ofw and order still intact. After spending a night in a guest house provided by the city¡¯s mayor, we were formally invited to the town hall the following day. ¡°Ah, you¡¯ve arrived. Wee, esteemed guests. I am Manav, the mayor of New Delhi.¡± ¡°You may call me Undertaker.¡± ¡°A pleasure, Mr. Undertaker. Wee.¡±n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//omThe man wore traditional attire topped with a warm smile and a pair of sses, behind the frame of which shone eyes that were both cautious and friendly. Despite the schrly air he exuded, his muscr shoulders and the scar on his cheek tempered that impression. ¡°Of course, strictly speaking, this isn¡¯t New Delhi but New-New Delhi,¡± he continued. ¡°The cities here have been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times, you see.¡± ¡°You seem quite young.¡± And he did. The man who introduced himself as Manav looked to be perhaps in his early- to mid-forties at most. It was surprising, considering his position as the leader of one of thest surviving major cities on the Indian subcontinent. ¡°Ah...¡± Manav drawled, looking momentarily flustered at myment. ¡°It¡¯s not due to my own ability. My predecessors have... disappeared for various reasons.¡± There was no need to activate mind-reading skills. For a fleeting moment, his gaze through the lenses of his sses seemed to say, ¡°You¡¯re one to talk.¡± As a rule, Awakeners aged slower as their mastery of Aura deepened. While it was rare for one to reverse aging like the Sword Marquess, pseudo-immortality wasn¡¯t umon. In other words, if someone appeared to be in their twenties despite their true age, it was a testament to their exceptional potential. To someone like Manav, I must have seemed like an Awakener of unparalleled talent. ¡°Call it fate, perhaps.¡± ¡°Fate, huh...?¡± Manav¡¯s smile grew faintly bitter. Weariness lingered in the corners of his lips. ¡°Ah, while I¡¯m thinking of it, we prepared various amenities to wee you, but you were so adamant in declining them. Was there something the matter?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need to worry. We have no intention of exploiting you for offerings under the guise of divine authority. Rest assured.¡± ¡°Haha. As you can see, our city isn¡¯t exactly prosperous. I was merely concerned that our hospitality might have fallen short.¡± Although Manavughed good-naturedly, nothing in his demeanor suggested a sense of trust in us. Unlike the vigers we first encountered, he didn¡¯t seem to believe our ims of being descending goddesses. With the vantage point provided to him as the city¡¯s leader, he must have seen and heard too much to take such stories at face value. [For such arge city, this town hall office is kinda basic, honestly.] ¡°I-I know, right? The guest house we stayed in felt more luxurious...¡± Ha-yul and Ah-ryeon, unfamiliar with either English or Hindi, whispered idly to each other behind me. [Don¡¯t you find it odd seeing oppa speaking foreignnguages so fluently?] ¡°A-ah, you too? Honestly, it feels strange to me too. But outside, everyone treats the guild leader as if he¡¯s some kind of sage.¡± [He¡¯s a Three Kingdoms Anomaly, isn¡¯t he?] ¡°Well, he only brings up Three Kingdoms stuff with close acquaintances. Honestly, we¡¯re probably the only ones who know that ZERO_SUGAR is also our guild leader...¡± [Creepy.] I cleared my throat, cutting off their chatter. ¡°Let me be direct, Mayor Manav. You seem fully aware that the Trolley Dilemma is an Anomaly. Why, then, do you tolerate its worship as a deity?¡± Manav stared at me for a long moment. It wasn¡¯t the gaze of someone deep in thought. Rather, his exhaustion seemed to weigh down his focus. I, too, prepared myself to judge him based on his response. Was this a man fit to entrust with the Beacon of Sacred Fire? ¡°An Anomaly... It¡¯s been years since someone referred to Trolley in such terms. You¡¯re correct, it is an Anomaly.¡± The mayor then rose to his feet. ¡°Would you follow me?¡±

The ce Manav led us to wasn¡¯t a secretir or sacrificial altar. It was a simple shack¡ªby apocalypse standards, an ordinary home. ¡°Ah! Pandit ji!¡± A child brewing chai under a tin roof beamed when he saw Manav. The city folk appeared to address Manav as "Pandit ji." ¡°Yes, Aakash beta. Are your siblings well?¡± ¡°They¡¯re by the river, breaking rocks!¡± ¡°These are my guests. We¡¯ll just have a quick look around and leave.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Manav pulled a biscuit from his pocket and handed it to the child. The child giggled with delight at the snack, which resembled a Lotus cookie. It was hard to imagine this man as the mastermind ordering thugs to bind 133 ves to railroad tracks. In the cramped shack, Manav muttered under his breath, ¡°The poption here feels excessive, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°By my estimation, New Delhi has over 100,000 residents. When you include the surrounding areas, the number doubles or even triples. While other nearby cities have crumbled from internal and external strife, this ce has managed to survive rtively intact.¡± I had to admit, it was curious. ¡°What¡¯s your secret?¡± ¡°We owe it to this.¡± Manav rubbed his foot against the shack¡¯s floor, revealing something buried in the dirt. I recognized it immediately. ¡°A... section of railroad?¡± ¡°Part of it.¡± The rusty steel beam appeared to have been torn from a railway and embedded into the ground like an underground sewer system. I tilted my head. Burying metal rails in the ground didn¡¯t seem particrly useful. ¡°This is part of a small railwaywork running beneath the city,¡± Manav exined. ¡°All authorized buildings here are connected to it underground.¡± ¡°And why would you do such a thing?¡± ¡°To utilize the Trolley Dilemma.¡± The words that followed were shocking. ¡°I was once abducted by the Trolley Dilemma and tied to the tracks. Fortunately, the train struck someone on a different track, and I survived. But that incident revealed something unusual to me.¡± ¡°Unusual?¡± ¡°Survivors of the Trolley Dilemma¡ªthose who lived because the train took the opposite track¡ªare immune to attacks from Anomalies for an entire day.¡± My eyes widened in disbelief. ¡°Immune?¡± ¡°Exactly. It¡¯s as if Anomalies ignore them entirely. It¡¯s not quite ¡®invincibility,¡¯ but more like an ¡®invisibility status.¡¯¡±

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Manav¡¯s exnation was simple: Q: Choose one track. The people on the selected track will die. A: Track A¡ª5 violent criminals B: Track B¡ª1 con artist If you chose B and the train killed the lone con artist, the five violent criminals on Track A would, for the next 24 hours, bepletely safe from all Anomalies. Unless they actively sought out danger, no Anomaly woulde near them. ¡°I had no idea the Trolley Dilemma had such an effect.¡± Yet in hindsight, it made sense why I had never noticed. ¡°For someone like me, it didn¡¯t matter. I could just bulldoze through the Trolley Dilemma without losing anyone,¡± I murmured. In my hands, the Anomaly was so weak that I could nullify its effects entirely, saving both tracks. It wasn¡¯t just me, either. On SG Net, strategies for handling the Trolley Dilemma were widely shared, enabling many Awakeners to counter it effectively. But here, in New Delhi, it was different. Sacrifices weremon whenever the Anomaly appeared, and over time, a pattern emerged: survivors enjoyed a day of Anomaly-free safety. ¡°Fascinating, isn¡¯t it? An Anomaly that brings not only curses, but blessings as well.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Come this way. Aakash, thank you for the tea.¡± ¡°Bye, Pandit ji! Come back soon!¡± Manav next led us to the city square, where a section of the railway was prominently exposed above ground. ¡°By offering a fixed number of sacrifices each day, the rest of the poption stays safe, for at least 24 hours.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°After realizing this, I began constructing a railwaywork throughout the city and convinced the citizens that the Trolley Dilemma was a divine blessing.¡± As the sun climbed high in the sky, homeless residents gathered in the square. They knelt beside the exposed railway and began bowing in reverence, chanting prayers to the Trolley. ¡°It¡¯s almost time,¡± Manav said, ncing at his watch. ¡°Time for what?¡± ¡°Our daily ritual. Around now, my younger brother, whom you chastised yesterday, will be offering 113 ves as sacrifices.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°In exchange, the rest of the poption, over 100,000 citizens, will enjoy a day of rtive peace.¡± Somewhere in the distance, the faint crash of a steam engine wailed. ¡°Another day of peace for our city.¡± Manav¡¯s tone carried the weariness of a man who had onlye this far by holding fast to his belief that he was doing right. Turning to me, he asked, ¡°Can you believe it? Before the blessings of the Trolley, every day here was hell.¡± I hesitated to chastise the pragmatist before me. Just as every individual had their reasons, so did every city in this ruined world. Manav was undeniably a murderer, ughtering over 100 ves daily to sustain his city. Yet he was also a protector, sacrificing everything to keep his people alive for one more day. Who could dismiss his desperate struggle to prolong his city¡¯s survival? If I were strong enough to bear the burdens of the entire world, perhaps I could pass judgment. But as someone who could barely manage my responsibilities in the Korean Penins, this was not my ce. However... ¡°Believing you can control an Anomaly is dangerous.¡± As a specialist in Anomalies, I offered him this advice. ¡°You may already know this, but Anomalies are far from predictable. They¡¯re fickle and unpredictable. Today, 113 sacrifices might suffice, but tomorrow, it might demand 1,113.¡± ¡°There... haven¡¯t been any issues so far.¡± ¡°Then consider yourself lucky. But never assume you can fully control an Anomaly.¡± The ambition to harness Anomalies for humanity¡¯s benefit was a dangerous fantasy. Even for a regressor like me, with infinite retries,manding Anomalies was no easy feat. I had only managed to subjugate a few, like the Tutorial Fairy and Inunaki Tunnel. ¡°I¡¯ll keep your advice in mind,¡± Manav replied politely, but his stiff expression betrayed his thoughts. Come to think of it, I realized, since introducing himself, he hasn¡¯t called me Undertaker once. Perhaps he still saw me as an unwee intruder. ¡°Thank you for visiting. I worry that our hospitality may have been insufficient. Would you consider staying a few more days?¡± His words were heavy with implication, but I shook my head. ¡°I didn¡¯te here to be pampered. Our journey is long, and we must be going. I wish you sess.¡±

There is an epilogue. Yearster, after returning to Busan, we set out on another world tour. I had been nning to explore the regions beyond the Himyas and decided to revisit New-New Delhi. I was curious about the ambitious young man who sought to protect humanity by harnessing Anomalies. When we reached the vicinity of New Delhi, though, Ah-ryeon tilted her head in confusion. ¡°Huh? Wasn¡¯t it around here?¡± ¡°It was.¡± But there was no trace of life. The city had fallen to ruin. Bodies were scattered everywhere, and eerily, all the corpsesy on the railway tracks. ¡°It¡¯s total annihtion...¡± The cause wasn¡¯t hard to guess. One day, as usual, Manav must have prepared 113 sacrifices. The citizens, standing on the tracks, would have offered prayers to Trolley for another peaceful day. But that day, the train ignored the tied ves and struck the citizens instead. Why? Perhaps the cumtive number of ves sacrificed¡ª100,000, 200,000, or even 300,000¡ªhad surpassed the city¡¯s poption. From the perspective of the Trolley Anomaly, eliminating the citizens instead of 113 ves might have been the ¡°utilitarian¡± choice. Whatever the reason, one thing was clear: The citizens who had stood on the tracks that day had all died. The prosperous city of New-New Delhi was erased in an instant. ¡°They sought one more day of peace and brought upon themselves a single day of annihtion.¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± Ah-ryeon questioned at my sudden promation. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. This ce is and of the dead now. Let¡¯s move on.¡± Adjusting the load on my back, I nced at the city¡¯s remains onest time and thought this: Compared to humans who divided themselves into citizens or ves and justified it with religion, perhaps Anomalies, which ignored such trivial distinctions, were the true utilitarians.

Footnotes: Chapter 267 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Merger I The 690th regression cycle had finally arrived. And if you¡¯ve been paying close attention to my tale, you¡¯d already know that every fifth or tenth cycle, I¡¯d take a ¡°vacation.¡± What¡¯s there to hide? ¡°I feel like I¡¯m in desperate need of a breaktely.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Mmph! Bmph, mmph! Mmmph!¡±Back during the defeat of the Mastermind in the 688th cycle, Infinite Void imnted ¡°nonexistent memories¡± in my mind, particrly of an older twin sister between the Cheon Yo-hwa siblings. Thanks to that, I was force-fed a fabricated narrative where a colleague I had never met sacrificed herself to subdue the Outer God. Naturally, the ordeal caused me immense stress. I¡¯ll admit it. Going on a world tour with Ha-yul during the 689th cycle under the pretense of exploring beyond the Himyas and Ural Mountains was primarily for stress relief. A warm smile crept onto my face as I recalled, ¡°Even so, I endured. Abandoning my responsibilities for a break whenever things got tough was against the principles of a regressor like me.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Mmhmph! Mmmph! Mph!¡± ¡°Luckily, the 690th cycle was the one where I could take a proper break if I held on just that little bit longer. Oh, my young apprentice, you can¡¯t possibly imagine how much I¡¯ve looked forward to this moment.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Hmph!¡± Ha-yul stared at me intently. Soon enough, the maid-like puppet standing behind her opened its jaw with a mechanical motion, and from it came a question: ¡°Who?¡± For the record, this was our first time meeting. Like any teenager in the throes of adolescence, Ha-yul was personally disproving the Electra Complex as little more than a hollow theory.[1] In other words, she was in the middle of enthusiastically torturing her father, the leader of the Second Provisional Government. The source of the muffled ¡°Mmph!¡± sounds? That would be Jung Sang-guk, gagged and seated in a torture chair down in the basement. ¡°I¡¯m a regressor, Ha-yul. Ordinarily, I¡¯d take more care in orchestrating our meeting and intervening cautiously in your father-daughter dynamics. But since this is my vacation cycle, I want to skip to the important part.¡± ¡°Breaking into my house uninvited and acting all familiar? Are you insane?¡± ¡°Try to understand. Sometimes, I need a day like this for my mental health.¡± ¡°This is weird. I don¡¯t understand a word you¡¯re saying.¡± At this point in her life¡ªbefore she received my expert guidance¡ªHa-yul exuded what could bluntly be described as a menacingly grim aura, as evidenced by the impassive re she was currently shooting my way. Even the bravest of the brave would hesitate to pick a fight with her as she was now. She radiated an energy that screamed, ¡°Mess with me, and we both die.¡± A petite figure confined to a wheelchair, yet emanating both brutality and fragility. It was a deadlybination. ¡°I don¡¯t know who sent you.¡± Ha-yul clenched her fists, and threads of puppet wire tightened around Jeong Sang-guk¡¯s neck. ¡°Urgh! Huff, mmph!¡± A little more pressure, and his neck would snap. A truly explosive situation. ¡°If you¡¯re here to save this man, forget it. Don¡¯t interfere. Whether you¡¯re from Fukuoka City Hall or the Provisional Government, I¡¯ll hunt you down and kill you all.¡± ¡°No, feel free to kill him.¡± Ha-yul and her maid-like puppet tilted their heads in confusion simultaneously. At this point, she still struggled to control the puppet smoothly, finding it difficult to coordinate its movements. However, moments like this really highlighted just how much effort Ha-yul put into her training down the road. Inter cycles, she would effortlesslymand hundreds of puppets simultaneously, deploying an ¡°army of puppets¡± to single-handedly hold an entire frontline. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter?¡± ¡°Not at all,¡± I confirmed. ¡°Ha-yul, you don¡¯t remember this, but over the course of hundreds¡ªno, over five hundred¡ªcycles, you¡¯ve killed Jung Sang-guk in every one.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Even brushing sleeves with someone can be considered a connection from a past life. At this point, your patricide transcends cycles and borders on karmic inevitability.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand what you¡¯re talking about...¡± Naturally. Unless someone fully trusted me as a regressor, I¡¯d appear to be just another shady intruder with absurd excuses, casually bypassing security to stroll into a heavily guarded basement. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I assured, smiling gently. ¡°I anticipated this reaction and asked the Ha-yul from a previous cycle to write a heartfelt letter to her current self.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°The Ha-yul from the 689th cycle said you¡¯d trust me immediately once I read this letter. Let¡¯s see. Ahem.¡± Clearing my throat, I prepared my voice for the grand recital. And thus, I opened the time capsule Ha-yul had left for herself. ¡°Hello, idiot. I¡¯m you from ten years in the future.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°For starters, the guy in front of you is probably dressed like a barista. He¡¯ll seem suspicious, but trust him. Not because he¡¯s normal, he¡¯s an infamous idiot.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°And he knows more about you than you know about yourself. For example, he and I both know that the maid-like puppet behind you is actually your biological mother.¡± ¡°...?!¡± ¡°He also knows you secretly wrote a bucket list spanning nine A4 pages in your diary. Thanks to him, about half of it waspleted, and I have no regrets in life.¡± ¡°...?!?!¡± ¡°When we met, he asked me toe up with a magic phrase to convince you. I thought for three minutes and realized no such thing exists. Still, if you¡¯re nning to kill yourself, why not dy it for ten days?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Finish off the guy you¡¯re torturing and go on a little trip with him. Trust me, you¡¯re doomed in twenty years anyway when the world ends. I¡¯m off now. Good luck.¡± Silence enveloped the basement. Different expressions danced across Ha-yul¡¯s face in a profound war of emotional conflict. Jung Sang-guk, who had also heard the letter, scowled harder than ever. Though his gag muffled his voice, he seemed to be screaming, ¡°What in the world is this crap?¡± ¡°That¡¯s... me in ten years?¡± ¡°A future version of you edited for rity, to be exact. The original letter ended with, ¡®Did you know? Reversing ¡°suicide¡± spells ¡°edicius¡± and that means to be alive? What a revtion!¡¯¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I omitted that part because I thought it might be too overwhelming for you. You¡¯re wee.¡± After that, Ha-yul peppered me with questions, primarily to verify my im of being a regressor. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll trust you.¡± It took two hours of relentless interrogation, but she finally granted me a sliver of trust. ¡°You¡¯re saying this is your vacation cycle, and you¡¯ve decided to spend it with me?¡± I nodded. ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± ¡°Because your past self made a wish, and I have something I want to do with you too.¡± ¡°A wish?¡± ¡°This.¡± I pulled out a notebook from my jacket. Ha-yul¡¯s golden eyes widened, for this notebook was none other than the one she had hidden deep within her mansion¡ªa record of her bucket list. On thest page, bold letters dered the following:

No. 100 Wish

Build a giantbined robot.
Pilot it and self-destruct (¡ï¡ï).
The giant robot should double as an aircraft carrier, housing smaller mobile suits inside (¡ï¡ï¡ï).

Detailed specifications and designs for the robot filled the margins of the page. A triumphant grin spread across my face. ¡°Shall we build it? A giant robot.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± Without hesitation, Ha-yul sped my hand. Thus began our intergenerational coboration.

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Even for a regressor who had cycled through hundreds of regressions, building a giant robot from scratch was no small feat. The resources and manpower required would push the limits of what the Korean Penins could provide. It was a monumental task, one that seemed almost impossible to aplish. For this project, Ha-yul was indispensable. On top of that, we needed the help of another Awakener. ¡°And that¡¯s you, Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Of course, you might be wondering why on earth you should cooperate on such a ridiculous project. But as much as you dislike it, your contribution would stabilize the mental state of this regressor. And as you know, keeping my mental health stable benefits your future self.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Sure, you may not care now. But can you confidently say your future selves will feel the same? Imagine the karmic bacsh they¡¯d endure if this project¡¯s failure caused problems in subsequent cycles.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Endure a little pain now, and your future selves will enjoy the next nine cycles in rtive ease. Help me.¡± For a long, silent moment, Noh Do-hwa kept her lips pursed. Then... ¡°What the actual fuck¡ª Fine. Fine!¡± Her words dripped with reluctant enthusiasm, but it was enough. With her cooperation secured, we dove headfirst into experimentation. ¡°Do-hwa, your ability is prosthetic creation. By crafting artificial limbs and attaching them to others, you make them feel as if they were moving their real body parts.¡± ¡°I¡¯m aware, but...¡± ¡°Ha-yul, your ability is puppet maniption. By connecting your strings, you can control anything the way you desire.¡± ¡°Yeah, so?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going tobine the two.¡±n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Do-hwa set to work, crafting prosthetic limbs¡ªonly, these weren¡¯t ordinary prosthetics. Each arm and leg was massive, towering nearly two meters tall. Something of this size would be impossible for any human to move. But what if Ha-yul were to use her puppet strings? ¡°Ha-yul, link your strings to the prosthetics as if you¡¯re connecting nerves.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± The enormous prosthetics, made from hollow metal frames, were heavy despite their skeletal structure. Ha-yul¡¯s strings wrapped tightly around them, securing the connection. Each string linked directly to her physical body. ¡°Can you move them?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give it a try.¡± The first day was a failure. The two-meter-tall prosthetics, attached to a rudimentary frame, toppled over with a deafening crash. Despite this, no one felt disheartened. After all, it had been years since Ha-yulst stood on two legs. The attempt was as much about rehabilitation as it was a technical test. On the second day, Ha-yul fell again, this time attempting an awkward breakfall. The result? A more spectacr copse. Still, her expression¡ªa peculiar, determined impassiveness¡ªspoke volumes. She got back up without a word. On the third day, the fourth day, the fifth... The attempts continued. By the seventh day, progress was undeniable. Thoom! A massive metal foot mmed against the ground, sending tremors through the earth. Though the cockpit was open and exposed, Ha-yul endured the vibrations and pressed forward. Even as the robot wavered, threatening to topple, she took a steadying step. And so, the two-meter-tall robotic frame stood upright for the first time, as if this was what it had been designed to do all along. ¡°Whoa! Whooooa!¡± Watching the scene unfold from close by, Do-hwa and I couldn¡¯t help but cheer. ¡°It¡¯s a sess! Pilot Ha-yul, it¡¯s a resounding sess! Right now, you¡¯re the brightest star in the world!¡± ¡°Haa...¡± Ha-yul wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, her hair damp and clinging to her skin. Her sweat sparkled under the light, creating a dazzling effect. Then the first-ever bipedal robot pilot in history uttered her thoughts, cool andposed. ¡°This is a small step for one human, but a giant leap for mankind.¡± Beside me, Do-hwa muttered under her breath, ¡°No, no. It¡¯s the opposite¡ªit¡¯s a giant step for you and a microscopic one for mankind...¡± Thus, the theme for the 690th cycle was decided: a robot saga!

Footnotes: [1] An Electraplex, the female version of the male Oedipusplex, is a psychoanalytic theory that describes a young girl''s attraction to her father, while also feelingpetitive with her mother. It''s thought to develop during the phallic stage of psychosexual development, which is between the ages of three and six. Announcement Announcement Hello, dear readers. This is ryuu and hibiki from the WeTried team.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell has moved to Reaper Scans! Chapter 250 begins a new Outer God arc (the longest arc yet) and will be made free on Reaper¡¯s site this December 11. We hope you¡¯ll continue to follow our work over at Reaper as we trante the many stories the Undertaker has to tell. Thank you for reading here with us until now. Chapter 268 Chapter 268 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Merger II As someone with countless cycles as a regressor under his belt, I had developed some bad habits, chief among them being an obsession with "route optimization." How should I introduce myself Dang Seo-rin to establish the best possible rtionship? Would deliberately letting Cheon Yo-hwand a kick during our first encounter at Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High School actually improve my standing? Or perhaps Sim Ah-ryeon was best approached after she began her OldManGoryeo activities so I could at least evoke some semnce of shame in her? And so on. As my routines became more and more rigid, reality itself started to lose its luster. There¡¯s a reason why so many regressors in fiction are depicted as mentally unstable. After all, sometimes, we human beings just need to chase not efficiency but romance. ¡°Let¡¯s abandon Busan.¡±Thus, it was time to bid a fond farewell to the city of Busan, which had long served as a bastion in my life as a regressor. Of course, Do-hwa¡¯s expression soured the moment she heard my deration. A trickle of coffee escaped her lips. As someone whose brain never even registered the word ¡°romance¡± in its dictionary, her response was to be expected. ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°Do-hwa, you need to free yourself from the idea that we must remain grounded in some city to fight until the end of days. Ha-yul, bring it out.¡± ¡°Okay, oppa. You mean this, right?¡± Ha-yul strode forward, unfolding a blueprint onto the table. Having grown ustomed to Do-hwa¡¯s prosthetics, she no longer relied on a wheelchair and had even mastered her ability to produce a pseudo-voice using Aura. The blueprint wasbeled as follows: ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City ¡ºBusaN¡» ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The coffee streaming from the corner of Do-hwa¡¯s lips turned into a veritable flood. She looked like she needed a dam installed posthaste. In this ruthless era of the apocalypse, everyone was expected to fend for themselves, so no one bothered to wipe her face clean. Instead, we proceeded with the presentation. ¡°Abandonment is liberation, a transcendence. Just as a caterpir sheds its cocoon to soar into the skies, we too must leave Busan behind to ascend to greater heights.¡± ¡°Busan, thest line of defense on the Korean Penins, will no longer be content as a mere port gazing out over the southern seas.¡± ¡°All the construction materials that make up the city of Busan will be repurposed to create a mobile fortress.¡± ¡°Not an easy feat.¡± ¡°But yet still, a feat worth attempting.¡± The presentation moved to the next slide, manually operated with the tender touch of a mother crafting homemade delicacies. ¡°The Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City, BusaN, will house a fleet of multi-purpose humanoidbat robots, tested during pilot Lee Ha-yul¡¯s alpha phase. In essence, it will be and-based aircraft carrier capable of walking.¡± ¡°But robots aren¡¯t the only weapons.¡± ¡°Behold the massive cannon mounted on the bridge. It¡¯s a beamuncher. While the robots engage in closebat, BusaN will support them from the rear or sometimes the front, firing beams in all directions.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s not all.¡± ¡°It will also require constant maintenance. Engineers will board the fortress, and as humanity¡¯sst cradle, it will house as many civilians as possible.¡± ¡°At least 50,000.¡± ¡°At most, up to 100,000.¡± ¡°Hence, the term Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City might feel overly reductive.¡± ¡°Its full official name is Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress Humanity¡¯s Final Defense Ark City.¡± ¡°Magnificent. Approved.¡± ¡°In a world ravaged by apocalypse and barren continents, BusaN will let us face the future unafraid. We can go anywhere. That concludes the project¡¯s tagline. Thank you.¡± Ha-yul and I bowed deeply toward the audience. p, p, p, p, p... Apuse echoed through the conference room. Beside Do-hwa, the shimmeringly silver-haired Yu Ji-won rose to her feet and pped enthusiastically. Even a North Korean citizen would have praised her for the disy of supreme wrist flexibility. ¡°Truly an extraordinary paradigm shift, Your Excellency. There¡¯s no inherent reason a city must remain in a fixed location. I, Yu Ji-won, will follow your blueprint with unyielding determination.¡± ¡°I agree too!¡± Following her lead, the fiery redhead Oh Dok-seo, a perpetual middle school repeater, leaped up from her chair. Her face shone with emotion, like grease dripping from a skillet. ¡°Wow! And battleship city! This is it! It¡¯s like the Walkers from Star Wars, only heavier, clunkier, and more haphazardly designed¡ªwhich makes it even cooler![1] Oh! Or like the Traction Cities from Mortal Engines, but even better with the choice of quadrupedal movement.[2] Pure artistry. If only the name Busan weren¡¯t so mundane, it¡¯d be perfect!¡± ¡°Dok-seo, it¡¯s not Busan. It¡¯s BusaN. I trust you¡¯ll respect that subtle distinction.¡± ¡°Oh, right! My bad, mister! This is BusaN, not Busan!¡± Next, Ah-ryeon stood up shyly, scratching the back of her head with an embarrassed smile. ¡°I-I handled the design! The concept was ¡®a m-moving Kowloon Walled City.¡¯ See how the outer areas of the fortress are p-packed with precariously attached residential zones? I d-deliberately made them unstable so that every time the fortress takes a step, the whole city shakes. The lower sses will face constant survival challenges. If th-they want to live, they¡¯ll have to work hard to move to the c-core of the fortress...¡± ¡°Ah-ryeon unnie, you¡¯re amazing!¡± cried Dok-seo with a great burst of tears. ¡°Now that¡¯s what the apocalypse is all about! This is steampunk! When the fortress walks, hot steam should hiss out around its edges while the lower-ss citizens curse the pollution. They¡¯ll call it BusaN¡¯s breath¡ª No, its stench! Oh, I¡¯m overflowing with inspiration!¡± ¡°Eh-heh-heh, I tried my best.¡± And that was as far as it went. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± Excluding myself, Ha-yul, Ji-won, Dok-seo, and Ah-ryeon, the rest of the meeting attendees sat motionless, their mouths firmly shut as they took in the deeply moving moment. There they were. Prominent figures like Seo-rin, Yo-hwa, and Do-hwa¡ªwho usually shed on every issue¡ªunited in silence. ¡°Ahhh.¡± Yo-hwa was the first to sigh. ¡°I see now,¡± she said. ¡°The moment Teacher shifts from being a rationalist to an irrationalist, this is what happens...¡± ¡°Oh for fuck¡¯s¡ª Why now of all times?¡± muttered Do-hwa, wiping her mouth. ¡°Hey, Great Witch, can¡¯t you stop him? He actually listens to you sometimes.¡± ¡°Sorry, no can do.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°My hands are tied. The Undertaker and the Puppeteer already came to me beforehand and said, ¡®You know how much you love your railroads? That¡¯s how important this is to us.¡¯¡± ¡°So if you give up your train obsession, they¡¯ll abandon their ridiculous mobile fortress? I fail to see the problem. Why anyone wastes their lives on rail enthusiasm when we don¡¯t even have functional trains anymore is beyond me.¡± ¡°Anti-otakus should keep their mouths shut.¡±

Transforming Busan into BusaN Proposal Meeting Notes: Attendees: Undertaker, Lee Ha-yul, Yu Ji-won, Oh Dok-seo, Sim Ah-ryeon, Dang Seo-rin, Cheon Yo-hwa, Do-hwa, Seo Gyu, and the Saintess (remote participation) In favor: 6 Opposed: 3 Abstained: 1 Majority in favor. Proposal passed!

While the rushed voting might¡¯ve made thest remaining pollster in the Republic of Korea faint, democracy had long since dwindled into a niche fandom among a select few on the Korean Penins. We represented the totality of Korea¡¯s consensus. Thus, we moved forward, united in purpose, to begin the construction of the Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Humanity¡¯s Final Defense Ark City, affectionately shortened to BusaN. BusaN Production Project Phase 1: Construction ¡°All right, Seo-rin. Let¡¯s start stockpiling building materials.¡± ¡°This... This is not why I shortened my lifespan to learn magic...¡± Everything except the design and blueprints was left to Seo-rin. Surprised? Allow me to remind you. Seo-rin was the one who had built the Arks. She had even erected a 399-meter-tall statue of the Great Potato Saintess in the middle of Busan back when she was utterly smitten with her. Her grumbling now was clearly an act. Deep down, I was sure she loved the idea of a colossal mobile city. ¡°Do you see those abandoned buildings along the hills? Just cast a clean weight-reduction spell, and I¡¯ll take care of the rest.¡± ¡°Fine...¡± A task that might¡¯ve taken decades with construction equipment like cranes and excavators was taken care of with a single beat of her magical chant. For days, the streets of Busan echoed with Seo-rin¡¯s singing. Residents, lulled to sleep by her melodic voice, enjoyed noticeably better rest as a side effect.

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BusaN Production Project Phase 2: Interior Fittings Once the enormous frame of the mobile fortress started to take shape, we began work on the interior. This, too, was a familiar task from past cycles. ¡°Ha-yul, you need to thread marite strings through every corridor. Without them, the fortress can¡¯t move.¡± ¡°Leave it to me.¡± Hadn¡¯t we done this already in the 664th cycle while building the Ark? The only difference was the scale. Otherwise, the experience tranted perfectly. Multipleyers of outer walls were added, and strings were densely threaded between every floor, ceiling, and wall. ¡°Seriously. This thing is massive,¡± Do-hwa muttered. ¡°That Ark you built back then¡ªdidn¡¯t it only transmit basic Morse code through the strings? How on earth are you going to move an entire city like this?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Overwhelming Aura solves everything.¡± ¡°Even if you had Aura pouring out like water, the problem is control. How do you expect to manage all these strings? Moving a city is obviously beyond human capability...¡± I shed her a cryptic smile. ¡°This is where the ultimate AIes in.¡± ¡°What...?¡± I pulled aptop out of my backpack. With a press of the power button, the screen lit up, disying a familiar emoji. ( ? ¦Ø - ) ¡î In one corner of the screen, a chibi 2D character with white hair peeked out shyly, then ducked away.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡°Allow me to introduce our central AI for BusaN: Admin of the Infinite Metagame. It¡¯s incredibly high-performance and perfectly capable of managing the entire city.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. Isn¡¯t that an Outer God?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. It owes me one,¡± I said cheerily, locking eyes with the emoji on the screen. ¡°Infinite Metagame, you tried to stab me in the back by coborating with Infinite Void during the Mastermind hunt, didn¡¯t you? If you help with this project, I¡¯ll let that slide.¡± [AOIM - I fail toprehend. I have no recollection of such events.] [AOIM - However, as a benevolent Anomaly, I ept Regressor Undertaker¡¯s proposal purely out of goodwill.] ¡°Good. Do better next time.¡± [AOIM - Understood.] With the central AI now on board to oversee the city¡¯s operations, BusaN¡¯s exterior and interior wereplete. This entire process took three years. By that point, there wasn¡¯t a single intact building left in Busan. Everything had been dismantled and moved onto BusaN¡¯s back, along with most of its citizenry. Those who insisted on remaining grounded relocated to other cities like Daejeon. Hopefully, it was the right choice for them. BusaN Production Project Phase 3: The Finishing Touch Atst, the construction was nearingpletion. As ancient ships once adorned their prows with figureheads of gods and mermaids to ensure safe voyages, so too did BusaN need a guardian to bless its journey. ¡°Ready, Undertaker?¡± ¡°Of course, Ha-yul.¡± From the outset, Ha-yul and I had agreed on the perfect figurehead for our city: her father, Jung Sang-guk. ¡°Waaaaaaah!¡± ¡°Now, don¡¯t squirm. You¡¯ll just make this harder for everyone. Ha-yul, is it aligned?¡± ¡°Move it slightly to the left.¡± ¡°Here?¡± ¡°A bit more southeast.¡± ¡°Here?¡± ¡°Perfect.¡± The bow of the Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Humanity¡¯s Final Defense Ark City, BusaN, now bore the dangling figure of its former mayor and current head of the provisional government, Jung Sang-guk. Remarkably, he was still alive. When Ha-yul and I had first met in this cycle, I had told her, ¡°You¡¯re a famous Electraplex,¡± and she, true to her contrarian nature, dered she¡¯d keep her father alive this time. Thus, after a long journey, Jung Sang-guk had returned as the radiant symbol of Neo-Busan¡ªnow BusaN. Could there ever have been a more filial daughter in all of Korean history than Lee Ha-yul? I doubted it. [AOIM - Initiating BusaN¡¯s control systems.] [AOIM - All engines operational.] [AOIM - Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Humanity¡¯s Final Defense Ark City,unching.] Rumble, rumble, rumble...! The city, now a massive mobile fortress, began releasing a fierce steam of Aura as its legs took their first steps. Even my skepticalpanions, who had doubted the feasibility of this project, couldn¡¯t hide their excitement and awe. [AOIM - No Anomalies detected.] [AOIM - Wee aboard BusaN, dear citizens.] [AOIM - Captain, please set a destination.] ¡°To the other side of the Ural Mountains.¡± [AOIM - Destination confirmed.] Cheers erupted around us. For today, at least, humanity seemed less like a species on the brink of extinction and more like a group of dreamers who had just realized a grand vision. Except for one man. Dangling as BusaN¡¯s figurehead, Jung Sang-guk whispered to himself faintly, his voice drowned out by the roar of the engines. ¡°Kill... me...¡± It was a fitting inaugural speech for the newly crowned symbol of Busan.

Footnotes: [1] The Walkers, or All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) Walkers, are all-terrain vehicles used by the imperial forces in the Star Wars franchise. They are one of the most famous symbols of the Empire''s military might. [2] In the Mortal Engines franchise, Traction Cities are vast, tiered metropolises that move on gigantic wheels or caterpir tracks and that hunt smaller cities for resources and fuel. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 270 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I''m an Infinite Regressor, But I''ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Merger IV Alexander the Great. After appearing in a spin-off novel of a game with a famous IP, he rose to fame as a quintessential "macho man" in subcultures. But truthfully, even as an adult, he never outgrew his chuunibyou tendencies. "I want to erect a st at the easternmost edge of the world." "Why, Your Majesty?" "To engrave my name on it. Doesn''t that sound so badass? Isn''t it cool?""......?" In modern terms, this was akin to a mindless tourist leaving graffiti on ancient ruins. An upgraded version of ignorance, if you will. Hercules had done something simr, and did it first. For those who don''t know, he nted stone pirs at the westernmost edge of the world, the Strait of Gibraltar. Given the starting points of these two, it''s clear that reaching the east was a far tougher quest than the west. Alexander embarked on this new challenge solely to dere, "Hercules? That guy''s nothing but a paper rocket." The problem with that? "No, I don''t want to." "What?" The soldiers apanying Alexander had been "cured" of their chuunibyou during their ten years of military service. They were exhausted. It was hard enough keeping up with their king''s "son of a god" act, let alone doing the work to indulge his fantasies. Greek culture at the time already harbored a certain disillusionment with gods¡ªcapricious beings who behaved on whims and asionally hurled lightning bolts when irritated. If actual gods were a nuisance, then why tolerate someone iming to be their son? Thus, Alexander''s ambitious eastward expedition to traverse the world from end to end met its untimely demise. "But we can do it." Back in the operations room of Ark City BusaN, I mmed my hand on the world map and made my deration. "Alexander''s expedition failed only because he relied on the fragile muscles and flesh of mere mortals. But we''re different. With steel and concrete, cutting-edge city management AIs, and the very embodiment of modern civilization in the form of BusaN, we can and will traverse the Eurasian continent!" "Oooooh!" "We shall name this the ''Alexander Project'' and dere our intent to advance from Busan, the eastern edge, to Gibraltar, the western edge!" Ji-won, Dok-seo, Ah-ryeon, and Ha-yul¡ªthe pro-Undertaker faction¡ªcheered enthusiastically. However, as I had already described this scene once before, I''ll skip the redundant details. Do-hwa, a notable member of the anti-Undertaker faction, raised her hand. For this story, she bore the title of City Management Corps Leader rather than National Road Management Corps Leader. "Speak, Leader Noh Do-hwa." "I realize it''s a bitte to ask, but why exactly do we need to cross the continent...?" "Because it''s cool?" "......" "Go with full speed ahead." Do-hwa''s responding expression resembled that of a Greek soldier conspiring against their king. However, in this iteration, my death was not scheduled at Do-hwa''s hands. If she intended to stab my back with a ck dagger, she''d have to wait for the right historical moment. After all, the most famous rebellion in history didn''t ur in Greece but in its sessor, the Roman Empire. BusaN advanced. Limp, limp. The colossal structure pushed forward despite its asional wobbling, like a person hobbling on sore feet. Once beyond the borders of the Korean Penins, Ark City first visited Mount Hua in China. The hike up was easy. Mount Hua might have been infamous for its cliffs and treacherous terrain, but BusaN''s height was nothing to scoff at. "Oh, my goodness!" One figure practically bounced with joy upon our arrival. "To think I''d live to reim Mount Hua''s roots! Not even in my wildest dreams!" Sword Marquess, bursting with energy, danced a lively jig. The old man had been forcibly dragged from Ulleungdo and sulked the entire way with a perpetually gloomy look on his face. Yet the moment we reached Mount Hua, he radiated the vigor that only came with 500 cups of caffeine.@@novelbin@@ "As the 261st Sect Leader, I wee your visit! Come in,e in, make yourselves at home!" "Weing us? Aren''t we all technically riding the same ark?" "H-H-Ha-yul, hush. Don''t ruin the old man''s fantasy." "Okay, but where''re the plum blossoms?" "Hiiiik! H-H-Ha-yul!" With the Sword Marquess as our guide, we took a leisurely tour of Mount Hua with packed lunches and pic mats in tow for maximum enjoyment. Compared to the 108th run, when only the Sword Marquess and I wandered the mountain by ourselves, this was far livelier. The Sword Marquess would frantically try to nt plum blossoms, and Ha-yul in turn would quietly tease him with her stoic remarks, amusing the rest of the group. "Disciples, listen well!" A yearter, after finally nketing Mount Hua in plum blossoms, the Sword Marquess loudly dered thus: "What is Mount Hua? Not a mere dot on the Earth, no. It is a single flower blooming in our hearts!" "Whoooa!" "Well said, Sect Leader!" The ones cheering him on were our most recent additions to the ark''s poption and newest Mount Hua Sect disciples, the vigers from the Forsaken Viges surrounding Mount Hua. The Sword Marquess, now encircled by his disciples, shouted his promation. "Mount Hua is not merely a point on the map but a ce that blooms within us! As of today, I dere that the seat of Mount Hua will move to the ark!" "Mount Hua! Plum blossoms! The True Path! The Martial Gate!" The Sword Marquess and his reborn disciples transnted twenty-four plum blossoms, the first to bloom on Mount Hua, into the ark. They did this not with tools or metal, but with their bare hands, carefully preserving every root and stem. And so it was that the spirit of Mount Hua was transnted into the ark. A single, Eastern-style temple was erected to be the new headquarters of the Mount Hua Sect. "It is done! Now I shall dedicate myself to ensuring the people of the ark are fed and cared for!" The Sword Marquess, once riddled with mncholy, threw himself into farming with renewed vitality. Yes, cultivating crops on Ark City was not only possible but necessary, and farnd was in abundance. The ark embraced everyone.

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Limp, limp. The next destination was New Delhi. "Ah... What is this?" The mayor of New Delhi, Manav, stood in awe when the colossal Ark City came looming over the horizon, his expression wavering as the city shook the earth itself in its grandeur. "Who... Who are you? Are you messengers of God? Or beings of cmity? How could you possibly ride atop such a wonder...?" "Indians have always been renowned as exceptional talent. Ha-yul, take care of it." "Roger that. Target secured." "Huh?" Manav and the remaining residents of New Delhi were promptly absorbed into the ark. In fact, Ark City was gathering residents from every Forsaken Vige it passed. By this point, BusaN was transforming into a bustling international city, floating somewhere between steampunk and cyberpunk aesthetics. As the poption grew and became more diverse, the administrative burden on Do-hwa''s shoulders increased exponentially. That was why we brought Manav aboard. After all, in the midst of an apocalypse, this man had managed to feed and lead hundreds of thousands of citizens. Talent like his was rare, even in the best of times. "Good heavens." Manav, now an administrator under Do-hwa, flipped through the mountain of documents rted to city management and shook his head in disbelief. "You mean... all this work was done by a single person? Seriously? This much?" "Noh Do-hwa is a god, and regressors are invincible." "Oh, dear god..." Manav''s hands trembled as he looked over the administrative files. "It looked impressive from the outside, but it turns out this city is nothing more than a skeleton held together by scraps of flesh. Still... this ce is clearly destined to be humanity''s final stronghold. I will help." Even in a new environment, Manav''s administrative skills shone. If anything, they improved. In New Delhi, he had been forced to sacrifice more than 100 lives daily, ying trolley dilemmas to keep the majority alive. His unshakable faith in "utilitarian justice" had undoubtedly taken its toll on him. Here, though the workload was heavy, his dark circles gradually faded. Incidentally, we learned he was a fitness enthusiast. He joined the ark''s gym club alongside me, Seo Gyu, and Ah-ryeon (who was dragged along unwillingly). "This city is good." One day, Manav stood atop the ark and murmured this: "So long as one has a clear direction, life can be bearable. I''ve only juste to realize that." The mayor of the city, who had been deferring death day by day, looked indifferent. I asked, "Resources within the city have been running lowtely. Will it be okay?" "No." Mayor Manav smiled. "We¡¯ll have to make it okay. At least until we see the sea." The ark epts everyone. Limp, limp. The next stop was Naryan-Mar, where thest of the Ns struggled to survive in the Arctic wilderness. "Wow... Is this for real?" N stared ck-jawed at Ark City as it approached. His astonishment only deepened when he saw Julius, my and Ha-yul¡¯s dual-pilot ace mech. "In the middle of an apocalypse, they still have giant robots? Are we living in an anime? What even is this world?" Initially, N had no intention of joining Ark City. However, after I gave him a crash course in Aura techniques, enabling him to take revenge on the reindeer that had killed his uncle, his attitude shifted. Or perhaps it was the moment when he was nearly gored to death by a reindeer, only to be saved by Ha-yul''s puppet strings, that ultimately changed his mind. Life is better than death, even in an apocalypse. Aplishing one''s goals can make life even sweeter. As Manav had put it, if a task that must be done is transformed into one that can be done, the oue bes much more bearable. I made him a proposal. "We''ll set up a signal fire at the top of the ark. N, you can tend to it. It will be your job to keep the mes burning." "..." "This way, as we traverse the continent, any survivors in the vicinity will see our beacon." N asked for a day to consider. The next day, carrying all his worldly possessions in a single backpack, thest scion of his people climbed aboard the ark. "Well... If it''s just tending a fire..." From that day onward, Ark City gained a lighthouse keeper¡ªa solitary figure who maintained the signal fire atop its highest point. Though he kept his distance from others, his beacon was a constant, visible to anyone in the city. The ark embraced everyone. Limp, limp. Years passed. BusaN journeyed across countless Forsaken Viges and dozens of cities. Even with the former Outer God, Admin of the Infinite Metagame, serving as the city''s AI administrator, incidents urred almost daily. It took thebined efforts of Ha-yul, Do-hwa, and the rest of the crew to keep things running smoothly. The haunting songs recorded by Seo-rin yed on loop to assist their efforts. "Undertaker." "Hmm?" "We''re almost out of supplies. If we don''t restock somewhere, we won''t survive the winter." "Got it. If we find a city predator, we''ll take it down and salvage the remains." "Understood." Avoiding the path of monster waves wasn''t easy, but it was something we had to attempt. From Korea, we traversed China and Siberia, scaled the Himyas and the Urals, crossed the Bosphorus, and finally ascended the Pyrenees. In city after city, our mechs battled colossal Anomalies. Ournd-based aircraft carrier fortress conquered every foe and from the ruins of abandoned settlements, scoured clean by monsters, we scavenged scrap metal to repair our ark, over and over again. The ark''s original exterior ting, emzoned with the words Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress: Humanity''s Final Defense Ark City, was worn and battered. By the time it reached its destination, the lettering was so faded it could hardly be read. Onest te fell off, hitting the ground with a resounding ng. "Ah." At 4:56 a.m., when the stars still kissed the night, the ark finally came to a halt. Its massive frame trembled as its titanic feet ceased their relentless march. Standing at the helm of the control room, Ha-yul, who had stayed awake all night, whispered two words: "The sea." We had arrived at the world''s western edge¡ªGibraltar.

Footnotes: Chapter 271 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Merger V There is a short epilogue. After arriving in Gibraltar, the mood across Ark City remained festive for some time. Resources were scarce and food wasn¡¯t abundant, but the citizens brought out all the items they had hoarded like precious treasures and splurged with reckless abandon. ¡°Well, it¡¯s impossible to move any further, so might as well. What a heap of scrap...¡± Do-hwa tapped the tip of her foot against BusaN¡¯s forepaw. The hollow sound of metal echoed with a thunk.¡°In just a few days, the monster wave will reach us, I hear? Hah, we put up a good fight fending them off until now, and when that was impossible, we dodged them. But they still catch up in the end.¡± The reverberating metallic sound rang on, scattering over the ocean as it faded into the blue. ¡°And so, a festival. Even a sated ghost glows brighter. We may as well enjoy our final banquet...¡± Despite her words, Do-hwa did not actively participate in the festivities. Still, she didn¡¯t seem particrly displeased by them either. Was it just my imagination? Though the workload hadn¡¯t differed much from previous cycles, she appeared to be in unusually good spirits this time around. When asked why... ¡°Hah. When surrounded by clowns pouring their hearts and souls into foolishness, what good does it do to act serious by myself...?¡± With that, she lightly kicked my shin. Unsurprisingly, no metallic sound reverberated from my leg. ¡°Hm,¡± Do-hwa mused quietly. She tilted her head, her slightly grayed hair slipping gently to the side. ¡°Strange. It¡¯s made of actual flesh and bone.¡± Her muttered words, too, scattered into the ocean, sinking beneath the waves. That was it. Do-hwa wandered off somewhere, sipping wine. I briefly considered following her, but her stride carried an air of firm refusal¡ªa message that if I insisted on following, there¡¯d be due resolve and payment. Eventually, I turned and wandered the festival grounds instead. Once again, my life in this cycle was not destined to intertwine with hers. As I walked, I passed by various people. ¡°Disciples of Mount Hua! This great cmity will surpass any tribtion we¡¯ve faced before. We are now positioned at the edge of the sea, with no further ground to retreat to!¡± The Sect Leader of Mount Hua spoke passionately, drawing fervent responses from the disciples. ¡°Oh! Truly! Just like the ancient general who made hisst stand against Zhao!¡± ¡°And we are Mount Hua! This Ark is named BusaN! With the vast sea behind us and Twin Peaks before us, our position is truly one of a Heavenly Sanctuary¡ªprotected by mountains and water!¡± ¡°Ding! Heavenly Sanctuary effect activated: The morale of Mount Hua disciples has increased! All disciples¡¯ critical hit rate rises by 30%.¡± ¡°Ding! Mount Hua¡¯s Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Formation ¨C Last Stand Mode activated: Mount Hua disciples¡¯bat prowess has surged! Their attack power increases by 75%.¡± ¡°No, no...¡± I passed by the Sect Leader (who had reverted to his rejuvenated, youthful form) iling his arms in baffled getions while the disciples kept chanting ding noises and applying self-buffs. ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s fine to use up all this firewood?¡± ¡°Yes. We saved it precisely for a day like this.¡± ¡°Hah. Normally, you act so frugal...¡± ¡°When climbing mountains, it¡¯s better to avoid drinking too much water.¡± At the signal fire pit, I overheard N chatting as I walked past. ¡°Ugh, this... This might be my final masterpiece... Huff, phew... Huff... Atte, to calm my nerves while I finish it...¡± At the edge of the breakwater, I passed Ah-yeon, who had set up her easel and was sipping caf¨¦ auit. ¡°Done! Yes! Babel 200kg No Aura Challengeplete!¡± ¡°President, I¡¯ve admired you for a long time!¡± ¡°Where did this fishe from...?¡± ¡°Can you at least tell me where this train was made?¡± Faces passed, and I moved forward and onward. After following wherever my feet led for some unknown amount of time, I eventually spotted a familiar back at a coastline. ¡°Ha-yul?¡± ¡°Ah...¡± Ha-yul turned to look at me. Her golden eyes were as shadowy as the full moon reflected in the night sea. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Hey, Ha-yul.¡± This cycle¡ªour 690th, where we operated as a duo¡ªHa-yul had called me ¡°Undertaker¡± more often than ¡°oppa.¡± Why had her habit of clinging with half-pronounced, affection-starved tones like ¡°oppa¡± or ¡°Dad¡± stopped this time around? Could it be that the barren wastnd deep in her heart had finally absorbed a bit of rainwater? I hoped so. ¡°Night stroll?¡± she wondered then, interrupting my thoughts. I nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s everyone else?¡± ¡°I followed the shadows wherever my feet led and found you.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Mind if I sit beside you?¡± ¡°Go ahead.¡± I sat down beside her with a plop and only then did I notice something unusual. Ha-yul¡¯s lower body seemed frail. She was using an ordinary artificial leg where Do-hwa¡¯s custom prosthetics should have been. Even a pair of crutches, unused for over a decade,y neatly beside her. ¡°Hmm? What about your prosthetics? Are they in for repairs?¡± ¡°Mm.¡± Ha-yul shook her head. ¡°I just... wanted to try walking without them.¡± ¡°Feeling sentimental?¡± ¡°Something like that.¡±

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

The waves surged and receded. For a while, we sat silently, side by side, gazing at the ocean under the night sky. ¡°Underta... Oppa.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°When this world ends, do we just move on to the next one and start over?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll find me in Fukuoka again, talk to the same me who¡¯s trying to kill Jung Sang-guk, teach me how to use puppetry strings and master Aura, and...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want that,¡± Ha-yul said. She curled in on herself just slightly, wrapping her arms around her waist. ¡°I don¡¯t want that. After everything... After all we¡¯ve been through together, after all theughter... To forget it all, meet you again, and ask, ¡®Who are you?¡¯ To be wary of you, to start from scratch... That¡¯s too cruel.¡± The waves surged once more. The seawaterpped at the foot of her artificial leg, but with no body heat of her own to supply it, she wouldn¡¯t have felt the wave¡¯s temperature. Born under the shadow of Jung Sang-guk, a man who juggled power and double lives, Ha-yul had learned to walk through life dragging the weight of an emotional prosthesis. Pretend it exists when it doesn¡¯t. Pretend it doesn¡¯t exist when it does. Do-hwa¡¯s prosthetics supported her body, but they couldn¡¯t heal the limp in her heart. ¡°If it¡¯s all going to vanish... If it¡¯s all going to disappear anyway, I¡¯d rather you Time Seal¡ª¡± ¡°Ha-yul.¡± I softly patted her shoulder. It was a signal that had been established long ago between us. Ha-yul opened her eyes wide, then slowly stretched out her arms toward me. I picked her up and ced her on myp. Luckily, I was stillrge enough to shield her small frame from the world, even for just a moment. ¡°There¡¯s a philosopher named to.¡± ¡°......?¡± ¡°He once told an interesting story. That humans weren¡¯t always what they are now. Originally, we were ¡®merged beings.¡¯¡± ¡°Merged beings?¡± ¡°Yeah. For instance, imagine you and me, locked in an embrace like this, but fused together as one.¡± ¡°Ew.¡± ¡°Two heads, four arms, four legs. Back then, humans didn¡¯t walk on two legs like we do now. They rolled around like boulders, tumbling on all fours.¡± ¡°Ew.¡± Her usually impassive face scrunched up in distaste. ¡°That¡¯s gross.¡± I chuckled. ¡°Right? But one day, humans became so powerful they started to challenge the gods. So Zeus, the king of gods, struck them with his lightning and split them apart.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Every merged being was divided into two.¡± Instead of splitting the heavens or shattering the earth, the god¡¯s lightning merely divided humans. ¡°Some were split into two men, some into a man and a woman, and some into two women. Those who were separated became wanderers, destined to roam the earth in search of their other half for the rest of their lives.¡± ¡°For their whole lives?¡± ¡°For their whole lives. Humans who once dared to challenge the gods were reduced to this: creatures born iplete, devoting their existence to mending the loneliness of their separation.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m not lonely, Ha-yul.¡± I hugged her tightly. ¡°Truly lonely people are those who don¡¯t know where their other half is. Or those who know but can never meet them again. But I¡¯m not like that.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°No matter how fragmented my heart bes, I¡¯ll always have mypanions. Ten pieces, ten friends. You¡¯re one of them, Ha-yul. No matter when, no matter where, I can knock on the door of that house in Fukuoka and know there¡¯s a puppeteer with chestnut-colored hair inside. Isn¡¯t that a blessing?¡± ¡°But...¡± Ha-yul rarely moved her lips or tongue to speak. Having lost her voice, she used the vibrations of her Aura instead. The sound wasn¡¯t natural, it carried the awkward cadence of a limp. ¡°But I can¡¯t pass it on. None of it. The fact that I had such wonderful days... that you, as the Undertaker, the man who scolded me for being suspicious when we first met in the basement, used up countless cycles to stay with me... I can¡¯t convey that to the next me. None of it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not true.¡± Gently, I rested my cheek on the top of her head and said, ¡°Every expression you made, every smile, every breath¡ªthey¡¯re etched into my soul with perfect rity.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°When you choked Jung Sang-guk in a fit of rage and killed him, I¡¯ll still remember how beautiful your smile could be.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯ll remember how hard you worked to master Aura, how brightly youughed at my pranks, how proud you looked when you took your first steps on your own, every bit of it. Not a single thing will be forgotten.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So even if, by some chance, you set the world on fire, no matter what happens, I¡¯ll always be on your side.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Forever.¡± The waves surged again. I wanted to tell Ha-yul how grateful I was. To tell her that my heart, worn down by endless cycles, had healed slightly during our adventures across the world. After Infinite Void confessed to me in thenguage of "I love you," I found my heart kept searching for answers. What could Infinite Void have meant when speaking of love? Was it the love one feels when gazing at something beautiful? Was it agape, the devotion one offers to another? Was it erotic love? Perhaps it was love indistinguishable from friendship, or perhaps a possessive desire to leave an indelible mark on the other person? Does the distinction even matter? The definition of love¡ªwhether it is shocking, pleasant, or transcendent¡ªalways converges on one conclusion: When for the sake of love, humans are willing to set aside their lives, if only for a short while. It was a bygone conclusion from the moment the feeling took root, for human nature is love itself. You were me, and I was you. The reason I was born as an infinite regressor must have been to ce countless lives on hold for love.@@novelbin@@ ¡°Ha-yul, I love you.¡± ¡°......¡± For a long moment, only the waves spoke into the air. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Oppa.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Dad.¡± Ha-yul clung tightly to me. ¡°When I¡¯m reborn... Mm. Even if I¡¯m reborn, I want to ride on your shoulders, see the sea like this, and... and y with you again.¡± The oceanpped gently against my chest. At the edge of the world, a single breath was all it took for the waves to travel from one end to the other. ¡°So... tell the next me.¡± Ha-yul (ÏÄÂÉ). A child whose name meant ¡°the rhythm of summer,¡± smiled faintly. ¡°Tell her... I was truly the happiest person in the world.¡± And as always, I was the happiest regressor in the world.

Footnotes: Chapter 272 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Counselor I For all the chattering we¡¯ve been doing these days about the aftermath of the Mastermind¡¯s defeat¡ªa change akin to an aftershock¡ªwe¡¯ve yet to discuss the greatest inflection point. ¡°Hey, mister.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got something I want to talk about.¡± The red-haired Oh Dok-seo, the instigator of many changes in my otherwise monotonous loop of a life, approached me one day with the true earth-shaking revtion.Feigning a warm smile, I replied, ¡°You want to take a break from serialization? That¡¯s fine. Go ahead and rest.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not about taking a break. Although... hearing you casually assume that ¡®Oh Dok-seo must be taking another break¡¯ has hurt my feelings. This wound is so deep that I doubt I¡¯ll be able to tap away at my typewriter until it heals. So it¡¯s not because of myziness but solely because of your insensitivity that I¡¯ll be taking a hiatus.¡± ¡°I feel like the reputation of authors everywhere is plummeting as we speak, but sure, what does it matter?¡± ¡°Anyway, my concern is about something else.¡± With more hiatuses than serialized days, Dok-seo might betterbel herself as a ¡°break-taker¡± rather than a ¡°writer.¡± Some might even say she had reached the realm of the inhuman. ¡°I¡¯ve been having strange dreamstely.¡± ¡°Dreams?¡± I straightened up immediately. Since the spread of the Void Poison throughout the world, dreams had be humanity¡¯s most vulnerable weak point¡ªa gateway through which psychological viruses coulde and go. For someone like Oh Dok-seo, a Miko of the Infinite Metagame, her dreams couldn¡¯t simply be dismissed. ¡°What kind of dreams?¡± I demanded. ¡°Well, don¡¯tugh when I tell you.¡± ¡°I won¡¯tugh.¡± ¡°In my dream, I¡¯m the Saintess.¡± ¡°Pfft.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°No, I wasn¡¯tughing. It¡¯s just, a sneeze caught me off guard. Please, go on.¡± "...Anyway, I¡¯m the Saintess, you know." "Pfft." "Ah, damn! You wanna die, mister?!" I hurriedly calmed my mind. Even for someone like me, who had trained in meditation techniques for a long time, it wasn¡¯t an easy task. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m the Saintess. But when I look around, everything is frozen¡ª No, not frozen. It¡¯s more like everything¡¯s stopped moving.¡± Huh? ¡°No one moves, no matter where I go. There¡¯s this building, it kind of feels like the Tower of Babel. And on its rooftop, you¡¯re just standing there.¡± Wait. ¡°I mean, as the Saintess, I call out to you, but you don¡¯t even breathe or move¨D¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± I interrupted finally. ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to exin further.¡± For reference, this urred during the 689th cycle, right after we defeated the Mastermind. It was also before I¡¯d exined to Dok-seo how the Saintess had sealed the Goddess of Night, Nut. Despite that, she had dreamt about what had urred in 267th cycle, which meant... ¡°It seems you¡¯ve... Awakened a new ability.¡± Dok-seo tilted her head in confusion. ¡°A new ability? Me?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Side Story Creation. Among the spoils gained from defeating the Mastermind, this ability was both the most valuable treasure and the most harrowing consequence.

Regrettably, our worldcked the convenience of something like a status window. Or, to be more precise, there had been one briefly, before it was obliterated. Thus, Awakeners had to figure out their abilities on their own. ¡°Can¡¯t we just ask the Infinite Metagame?¡± ¡°And trust that thing? Really?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Remember during the Mastermind raid? We borrowed its power once, and not only did it demandpensation, it was also vying for the chance to stab me in the back.¡± I let out a wryugh. ¡°Expecting altruism from an Anomaly is the surest way to get screwed over, Dok-seo. You probably feel an instinctive affinity for the Infinite Metagame because you¡¯re its Miko. But keep that feeling in check whenever possible. Being a Miko isn¡¯t a role just anyone can handle.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± she agreed reluctantly. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± We began investigating her newfound ability in earnest. ¡°Let¡¯s start with something simple. Besides the dreams, have you experienced any auditory or visual hallucinations recently?¡± ¡°Oh. Yeah, I have.¡± We were conducting the session at our hideout in the Inunaki Tunnel, 1,200 meters underground. To set the mood, I¡¯d stolen Noh Do-hwa¡¯s doctor¡¯s coat to wear. Sharing was caring in the apocalypse, after all. (I got scolded for thatter.) ¡°What kind of hallucinations?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no specific pattern,¡± Dok-seo answered. ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s your voice, sometimes it¡¯s Yo-hwa¡¯s. It just happens out of nowhere, usually while I¡¯m walking.¡± ¡°Can you recall the exact words you heard?¡± ¡°Hmm... Oh, yesterday I heard Seo-rin¡¯s voice. It went something like this.¡± Then, in an exaggerated impression, Dok-seo she recited, ¡°Hello, Undertaker? Let¡¯s go on a trip. Really? Then I¡¯ll n the itinerary.¡± I tapped my pen against my lips. ¡°That¡¯s...¡± ¡°What? What is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an actual conversation I had.¡± The dialogue had taken ce during a cycle where I¡¯d traveled to the Uyuni Salt ts with Dang Seo-rin. The phrasing wasn¡¯t identical, but the difference was nothing worth putting into writing. Likely a result of Dok-seo¡¯s memory being less precise than mine. ¡°Anything else?¡± I prompted. ¡°Other hallucinations or visions?¡± ¡°Hmm... Sorry, I can¡¯t recall anything specific.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. This is going to be a long-term process anyway. If you encounter more hallucinations, try to remember the details and tell me.¡± ¡°Got it.¡±

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

From that day on, I made a conscious effort to spend more time with Dok-seo. Her hallucinations weren¡¯t rming at first. As she¡¯d mentioned, most were fleeting and barely memorable. However, as the 689th, 690th, and 691st cycles passed, the hallucinations became increasingly vivid. ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Over there... I just saw Seo Gyu¡¯s head explode.¡± ¡°......¡± asionally, while on one of our walks together, Dok-seo would stop to describe ¡°events that didn¡¯t ur this cycle¡±¡ªpast incidents she could never have personally experienced. ¡°Whoa! What the hell?!¡± ¡°What is it now?¡± ¡°Potatoes! Potatoes with legs! They¡¯re walking around calling you ¡®Mr. Undertaker¡¯ in this creepy tone! Shit, this is definitely a hallucination!¡± ¡°......¡± Up until that point, she could still clearly distinguish reality from illusion. But after the 692nd cycle, her condition began to rapidly deteriorate. ¡°Ugh, damn it! Ah-ryeon unnie! I¡¯m doing fine with serialization, so why are you tattling to him?!¡± ¡°Dok-seo. Ah-ryeon isn¡¯t here.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± She blinked in confusion. ¡°What? That¡¯s weird. I swear she was just standing there, whispering something to you.¡± ¡°......¡± Her auditory and visual hallucinations had escted into what could only be described as hyper-realistic manifestations. Worse, she seemed to struggle more and more to separate these from reality, or, more urately, from my past. She was reliving experiences I¡¯d had in previous cycles as hallucinations in the present. During one particrly bad episode, she burst into tears for no apparent reason while drinking coffee. ¡°Dok-seo?¡± I asked cautiously. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Just now... Seo-rin unnie was standing under a white pine tree, talking to you so happily...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And then she copsed. You spoke with her onest time in the hospital room before she died. Afterward, you became the pallbearer at her funeral, and your face...¡± She trailed off, tears streaming down her cheeks. It wasn¡¯t something I could brush off any longer. I discussed her condition with the other members of the Regression Alliance. [Since this trend emerged after the Mastermind¡¯s defeat, I believe it must be rted to that event,] the Saintess theorized. She often provided the most usible exnations. [ording to you, Mr. Undertaker, both the Infinite Void and the Infinite Metagame yed significant roles in the Mastermind raid. The Infinite Void devoured the Mastermind entirely.] ¡°Exactly.¡± [Then wouldn¡¯t it make sense if the Infinite Metagame also absorbed some of the Mastermind¡¯s powers, though perhaps to a lesser extent?] She presented her theory in the form of a hunting analogy. I was the hunter, and the Mastermind was the prey. My two hounds, the Infinite Void and the Infinite Metagame, had torn the prey apart. The Infinite Void was the star yer, but the Infinite Metagame had hacked the system, biting into the prey¡¯s hind legs. As a result, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame had consumed part of the Mastermind¡¯s essence. Consequently, the bacsh extended to Oh Dok-seo, its Miko. ¡°It makes sense,¡± I said grimly. ¡°Infinite Metagame has always been keen on uncovering my past, running simtions to learn more. It¡¯s likely still doing so even now.¡± [Exactly.] The Saintess continued, saying, [If we assume that, it also exins why Dok-seo¡¯s ability has blossomed over time instead of all at once. It¡¯s developing progressively as the cycles continue. It¡¯s a direct reflection of what the Infinite Metagame is doing.] I sighed. ¡°Frankly, investigating my past isn¡¯t all that interesting, but so be it.¡±@@novelbin@@ The Saintess, ever humorless, didn¡¯t react to my grumblingment. ¡°I suppose this is a good reminder that no matter how desperate the situation, we should avoid relying on the aid of Outer Gods. I¡¯ll make a note of that for the future.¡± [Agreed. But for now, we should focus on alleviating Dok-seo¡¯s symptoms.] ¡°Do you think it¡¯s serious?¡± [Very.] Unlike me, the Saintess could monitor Dok-seo around the clock. Her observations carried weight. [Even when she¡¯s alone, she seems to be holding conversations with illusions, manifestations of people you¡¯ve interacted with in past cycles.] [For instance, right now, she¡¯s writing a novel in her room while mumbling incessantly to herself.] [Her roommate, Sim Ah-ryeon, is watching her very closely.] [In fact, she¡¯s not just watching, she¡¯s drawing aic about it. She seems to find it entertaining.] [Knowing Ah-ryeon¡¯s thought process, I suspect she¡¯s nning to immortalize Dok-seo¡¯s antics on SG Net as a gag panel.] Ah-ryeon... As her guild leader, I wanted to remember her at her best. Yet moments like this tested my patience. Even guild leaders are human, I¡¯m afraid. [Above all, over the past few days, Dok-seo has been holding conversations with a phantom version of me. Watching that feels strangely¡ª Oh?] Then, the telepathic link faltered. I frowned. ¡°Saintess?¡± [......] ¡°Saintess, what happened? Is something wrong?¡± It was a highly unusual urrence. The Saintess, meticulous to a fault, never faltered like that. Before speaking, she even froze time to rehearse her lines. She never suddenly stopped talking or stuttered like she did just then. She imed it was because she wasn¡¯t eloquent, but from other people¡¯s perspectives, she had always been an effortlessly fluent speaker who had never once stumbled over her words. Yet now, her telepathic voice wavered. [No... It¡¯s nothing.] ¡°Are you sure?¡± [Actually, I¡¯m beginning to think we don¡¯t need to worry so much about Dok-seo.] ¡°What do you mean?¡± [Let me refrain from giving away spoilers. I suggest you observe her yourself for the time being.] Her tone was evasive, leaving me perplexed. Nevertheless, Iplied. If the requirement was patience, I had no equal on this. The very next day, Dok-seo appeared at my door, dark circles under her eyes and aptop in hand. ¡°Hey, mister. I wrote something. Can you read it?¡± ¡°Huh. You¡¯ve been looking tiredtely. Are you sure you¡¯re okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. I got into the zone yesterday and pounded it out in one sitting. Honestly, I haven¡¯t felt this refreshed in ages.¡± ¡°Well, if you say so...¡± ¡°Hurry up and read it,¡± she said, shoving theptop toward me. I hesitated, then scrolled through the document. Barely a few lines in, my eyes widened in shock. ¡°What the... Dok-seo, what is this?¡± ¡°It¡¯s exactly what it looks like.¡± Her expression was unusually serious. The story she had written wasn¡¯t her usual fare. It wasn¡¯t a fictionalized ount based on the anecdotes I¡¯d shared with her. This was something I could never have told her. A tale that unfolded entirely beyond my awareness, scenes that transpired when I was absent, events I could never know. ¡°You mentioned the 267th cycle, right? The one where time was frozen to stop the Goddess of Night, Nut.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°This is the story of what happened during that frozen time... told from the Saintess¡¯s perspective.¡± It was, without a doubt, a side story.

Footnotes: Chapter 273 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Counselor II 267. To some, it might have been a simple sequence of numbers, but to me, the Undertaker, it was an invaluable identifier. There in that eternally frozen world, the Saintess had confined an Outer God, and in doing so locked away any and all possibility of reuniting¡ªat least for now. There was only one exception: hanging a Silver Bell around my wrist and pressing my palm against the mirror to feel her 15¡ãC warmth emanating from the other side. It was the only connection left to us.¡°How could this happen?¡± I muttered in shock. In my hand was the anthology of the Infinite Metagame¡¯s side stories, including one such tale which described in delicate, if brief, prose how the Saintess of the 267th cycle endured nearly 2,000 years after halting time. I won¡¯t detail the content here. The manuscript contained far too much sensitive information for that. ¡°Dok-seo. Did you... Could you have seen it? In your hallucinations, what the Saintess went through in previous cycles?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± she confirmed with a nod. ¡°But it was hazy, like a dream. At first, it was pure torture. Voices that I couldn¡¯t control banging and knocking away on my eardrums, like the worst kind of uninvited guest. But when I really stopped and focused, it turned out to be the opposite.¡± ¡°The opposite?¡± ¡°Yeah. The uninvited guest wasn¡¯t them¡ªit was me.¡± I took the moment to hand over theptop, and Dok-seo readily epted it, hugging it tight to her chest. ¡°The visions were looping events from past cycles, just like a video auto-reying after you get to the end of the recording, except that video has been privated and locked away from all viewers. But for some reason I don¡¯t understand, I, an uninvited guest, managed to sneak a peek into those recordings.¡± When I didn¡¯t respond, she continued on. ¡°At first, it hurt to watch.¡± Divine Illness. The suffering of a Miko when possessed by a god. ¡°No matter how much I slept, I never felt rested. Awake or asleep, my muscles constantly ached, like I had the flu. It would move me to tears, too, watching the ghosts of the past. Probably because of how often you, mister, showed up in those tragedies.¡± There was nothing to say. ¡°But like you said, it¡¯s probably some kind of newly Awakened ability of mine, right? So I figured: ¡®Fine, then. I¡¯ll see it through to the end.¡¯ I made up my mind that I was gonna take it all in, relive your story through those hallucinations¡ªand then I wrote about them.¡± That was when something miraculous urred. ¡°Then the pain stopped.¡± Dok-seo took tormenting visions and transformed them into the written word. Writers are cksmiths, born with hammers attached to all ten fingers. By relentlessly hammering the visions and voices into shape, straightening and bending them into written forms, they finally bowed their heads and orderly settled into pages. ¡°At least while I was writing, I was freed from the pain. Not that I got any sleepst night, though. After finishing it at dawn, I took a walk outside the tunnel and honestly? That was the first good breath of fresh air I¡¯ve gotten in weeks.¡± Slowly, carefully, I told her, ¡°You¡¯ve been through a lot.¡± ¡°Yeah. And afterpleting this short story, I realized something else.¡± Dok-seo closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, then exhaled it slowly over eight seconds. Theptop screen flickered and¡ª ¡°Dok-seo?¡± When Dok-seo opened her eyes again to face me, I couldn¡¯t help but furrow my brow, sensing some inexplicable dissonance. ¡°Mr. Undertaker.¡± A static-like chill brushed the nape of my neck. The person standing before me was Dok-seo, yet not. The angle of her eyebrows, the curve of her lips, her attire. It all pointed to her being Dok-seo and yet simultaneously... ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°It¡¯s been a while, Mr. Undertaker.¡± The noise had escaped me before I could shut it away. Thoughts raced in my mind, shing like a fast-forwarded signal. ¡°I never imagined this could happen,¡± not-Dok-seo said. ¡°Do you recognize who I am?¡± Relying on intuition and evidence, I ventured a guess. ¡°Saintess?¡± Silence. I tried again. ¡°Could you be the Saintess of the 267th cycle?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The figure wearing Dok-seo¡¯s face smiled faintly¡ªa smile so subtle that only someone with a deep connection to her might recognize it. ¡°Good to see you, Mr. Undertaker... It seems that this ability Dok-seo has Awakened can be described as ¡®possession¡¯ or perhaps more urately, ¡®empathy.¡¯ It¡¯s the ability to possess the protagonist of the side stories she has written.¡± My god. [My god.] The Saintess in Seoul, observing this scene through irvoyance, let out a sigh identical to mine. It was an uncanny coincidence.

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

Side Story Creation. Possession. Empathy. This was the newfound ability of our LiteraryGirl. As demonstrated before our eyes, Dok-seo could ¡°possess¡± the perspective of another character. ¡°Not just anyone, though.¡± Of course, there were conditions. ¡°For one, I can only possess someone I¡¯ve written about in a side story. And to write their story, their life has to sh through my mind like a vision.¡± ¡°Can you... tell me who else has appeared in your hallucinations besides the Saintess of the 267th cycle?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± It turned out that figures like a far-future version of Dang Seo-rin or Cheon Yo-hwa, who contributed to defeating the Mastermind, had shown up in her visions. Quite a number of characters, actually. ¡°Unbelievable,¡± I eximed, unable to hide my astonishment. ¡°How could this...? No, it¡¯s impossible that previous-cycle figures could actually be possessed. Most likely, Dok-seo, you¡¯re interpreting them in a way that recreates their personas.¡± ¡°Hmm. I mean, I guess so?¡± ¡°No, it must be so.¡± This was undoubtedly the machination of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. Having consumed the simted universe of the Mastermind, the Admin must have gained a much higher ¡°resolution¡± in analyzing the people around me. As a result, the Admin¡¯s Miko, Dok-seo, now had an elevated understanding of these characters. To the point where she could immerse herself in their roles without any sense of dissonance or self-doubt. ¡°But even so... The fidelity is astounding. Even I, who knew those people firsthand, could be deceived.¡± ¡°Right? Even during the possession, I lose myself in it and don¡¯t remember being ¡®Dok-seo.¡¯ It¡¯s like I¡¯m dreaming the Saintess¡¯s dreams. And, oh!¡± Dok-seo gushed. ¡°Thanks to this, writing stories has be much easier! I can vividly feel what the characters¡ªoops, I mean the people in your stories¡ªfelt. It¡¯s so clear!¡± She beamed. ¡°It feels like I could write stories forever!¡± For the record, that was a lie. Dok-seo¡¯s dictionary defined ¡°ongoing serialization¡± as a word that epassed the past, present, and future tense. She had abandoned serialization, was abandoning it, and would continue to abandon it. Even so, the astonishment lingered. ¡°Anyway, great job, Dok-seo,¡± I said. ¡°Heh.¡± ¡°This ability has countless potential uses. For now, there¡¯s one experiment I need you to conduct immediately.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Among the people in your visions, is Noh Do-hwa, the Director of the National Road Management Corps, one of them?¡± She was. Specifically, the Noh Do-hwa of the 668th cycle, who had endured the Ice Age with me. ¡°I ask this with full sincerity, Dok-seo. By any means necessary, write a side story about the Noh Do-hwa of the 668th cycle. I¡¯ll grant you anything you want.¡± ¡°Anything, huh? You mean it?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± Dok-seo seeded in writing IF Side Story: Noh Do-hwa of the 668th Cycle in a single night. Her speed was on par with Gevanni from Death Note.[1] If only she¡¯d write my story that fast. But that wasn¡¯t the point here. ¡°Noh Do-hwa, Director of the National Road Management Corps!¡± With Dok-seo in tow, I burst into the Corps Headquarters. As usual, Do-hwa was sipping an energy drink (a luxury item) while leafing through documents. She nced up at us and took her time responding. ¡°What is this? Just looking at the two of you makes my stomach churn. My esophagus is burning with the acid reflux...¡± ¡°We¡¯ve discovered something amazing. So amazing that we couldn¡¯t not share it with the ruler of the Korean Penins. We came all this way without hesitation.¡± ¡°Damn, this reeks of bad luck...¡± Do-hwa instinctively reached for the security call button to have us thrown out. Her intuition was as sharp as ever. Too bad it was useless since I obliterated the button with a burst of Aura, causing Do-hwa¡¯s face to darken as if burdened with the weight of all the world¡¯s evil. Ignoring her despair, I shouted, ¡°Dok-seo, transform!¡± ¡°Roger!¡± Dok-seo, clutching herptop, struck a Kamen Rider pose. Theptop screen shed, and in the next moment, the weariness of a civil servant possessed her face. ¡°......?¡± ¡°......?¡± Noh Do-hwa tilted her head. Dok-seo-as-Do-hwa mirrored her. ¡°The fuck is this?¡± ¡°The fuck is this?¡±@@novelbin@@ ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°No, but really¡ªwhat the fuck is this?¡± ¡°No, but really¡ªwhat the fuck is this?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± The two Noh Do-hwas turned their gazes toward me. Spreading my arms wide, I eximed, ¡°Two Noh Do-hwas! Korea is victorious!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°And that¡¯s not all.¡± I quickly turned off the office lights. Dok-seo¡¯s hoodie gleamed with a fluorescent glow. ¡°Behold! Glow-in-the-dark Noh Do-hwa!¡± Even the gleam in their eyes sparkled. ¡°You insane, fucking lunatic¨D¡± ¡°You insane, fucking lunatic¨D¡± I almost died. But it was a sight worth risking death for. This moment would forever be etched in the deepest part of my heart, a jewel-like memory that would sparkle whenever despair threatened to overwhelm me. [Is that all?] ¡°Of course not, Saintess. For your reference, glow-in-the-dark Cheon Yo-hwa, glow-in-the-dark Dang Seo-rin, and glow-in-the-dark Yu Ji-won are also in the works. It¡¯s only a pity that implementing a glow-in-the-dark Go Yuri proves challenging.¡± [That¡¯s quite enough...] Incidentally, Seo Gyu¡¯s reaction was priceless too. Pairing up two people with anger management issues resulted in an escting cacophony of screaming, a spectacle worth savoring. What¡¯s the point in hiding it? I was utterly hooked on this ¡°possession game¡± with Dok-seo. It wasn¡¯t just about creating doppelgangers to mess with our allies, though that was undeniably part of the fun. That was merely a secondary amusement. No, the true essence of Side Story Creationy elsewhere. ¡°Seo-rin.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Lately, the public safety in Busan has been deteriorating. I believe it¡¯s a side effect of the influx of outsiders. I wanted to ask how you would handle this situation.¡± The answery in consultation. While my allies were alreadypetent, certain cycles stood out with extraordinary individuals who had fully bloomed into their potential. For instance, the Dang Seo-rin of the 173rd cycle was one such case. During that cycle, she had Fallen and be a judge, transforming Busan into a utopia. Though it didn¡¯t end happily, her experience maintaining and governing a city was invaluable. Being able to consult with such a ruler at any time was a tremendous boon to me. The ultimate brainstorming partner, wasn¡¯t she? And it wasn¡¯t just her. The Saintess of the 267th cycle, the Infinite Void from the 688th cycle, and countless others¡ªfigures I thought I would never converse with again¡ªbecame essible through Dok-seo¡¯s Side Story Creation. My consultations with these wise allies grew longer and more frequent. There were even days when I abandoned eating and drinking to immerse myself in dialogue with them. Time passed in this manner. [Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°Yes?¡± [Shouldn¡¯t you step outside every now and then?] [No matter how enjoyable it is to converse with ¡®me¡¯ or ¡®others,¡¯ it¡¯s been over a week since you¡¯ve holed up in the tunnel. That seems... unusual.] Wait. A week? Has it really been that long? ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯ve gone overboard. I¡¯ll just have a quick chat with you, Saintess, and then head out.¡± [You said the exact same thing yesterday.] ¡°But Saintess, there¡¯s no one else¨D¡± [Mr. Undertaker.] The telepathic voice of the Saintess wasden with sorrow. [No offense, but seeing you like this reminds me of a washed-up inte streamer or a V-tuber addict.] ¡°...¡± [Please, just go outside and get some fresh air.] Undertaker, confirmed to be addicted to Dok-seo!

Footnotes: [1] In Death Note, Gevanni is tasked with replicating the death-list notebook of an incredibly prolific user, and doing so in one night. Chapter 275 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Preacher I Remember when I led the Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City ¡ºBusaN¡» and traveled freely around the world? I¡¯ve mentioned this before, but the Eurasian continental area was full of Forsaken Viges, scattered like Go stones on a board after a game had ended. We had seen countless of them during our journey. Forsaken Viges. ces where people, in one way or another, fell under the thrall of Anomalies and struggled to survive. Of course, the residents themselves didn¡¯t call these ces Forsaken Viges, but instead referred to them as Pioneer Viges. ¡°Is there any need to struggle and preserve the vague concept of humanity?¡±¡°It¡¯s better to ept the Void as Earth¡¯s new environment and adapt to it. That¡¯s the only solution!¡± ¡°Humankind¡¯s true strength lies in adaptability. Give it thousands, tens of thousands of years, and the next generations will adapt seamlessly to the Void environment.¡± That was the logic of Forsaken Vige residents. Like all ideologies, it sounded usible at first. The purpose was noble. The original concepts and words themselves weren¡¯t at fault. The fundamental problem was that the Void itself was entirely ipatible with the idea of ¡°adaptation.¡± Adaptation. Evolution. They¡¯re nice words, sure. But how exactly could any group truly adapt to the Void? Let me give you a simple example. Knock, knock. Late one night when I was working alone, I would sometimes hear that distinct knocking sound at my door. ¡°Who is it?¡± - It¡¯s me, oppa. ¡°Oh, Ha-yul.¡± It was Lee Ha-yul¡¯s voice. - Can Ie in? ¡°Sure.¡± At that point, I wasn¡¯t particrly worried. Ha-yul often struggled with insomnia and couldn¡¯t sleep alone. When that happened, she would lie crookedly on the sofa or bed in my room, talk endlessly through the night, and eventually doze off peacefully. I assumed it would be the same this time. ¡°......?¡± But seconds passed, and the door never opened. That¡¯s when I looked up and stared at the door. Knock, knock. The sound echoed again. Even though there was a sound, the door remained perfectly still. There should have been the faintest vibration, but it didn¡¯t even twitch. Only the sound of knocking had urred. ¡°Ha-yul?¡± - It¡¯s me, oppa. ¡°......¡± - Can Ie in? I rose and approached the door. In case Ha-yul was ying a prank, I cautiously turned the handle, making the door creak as it opened. There was no one there. The hallway, without lights to save energy, stretched intoplete darkness. It was then.@@novelbin@@ Knock, knock, knock. Knocking echoed in the Void. - Can Ie in? These phenomena weremonce in this world. Even in BusaN, a human stronghold, the Knock Anomaly urred. What about Forsaken Viges, then? ...When someone opened the door to their family¡¯s room, an unfamiliar old woman might suddenly appear. It turned out that time had warped, and their daughter had aged into a grandmother. ...Yesterday, there had been four people in the family, but today, one person was missing. And yet, no one could recall who that person was. ...At some point, the food on the table, those hard-earned rations, started to feel unbearably disgusting. Meanwhile, the stench from the sewers below smelled disturbingly appetizing. No matter how much you tried, you couldn¡¯t adapt. Coexistence with the Void was impossible. The only way to ¡°adapt¡± was to give up being human. And so, the fate of Forsaken Viges was sealed. People justified their actions, iming they had ¡°pioneered the Void¡± in their own way. But in truth, their methods were simply hundreds of variations on the theme of ¡°abandoning humanity.¡± The universal traits of humanity. Their bodies. Their minds. What parts would they sacrifice? Is cannibalism a sin? Is incest taboo? Would they maintain the concept of family? Or would they discard the idea of blood ties entirely? The Forsaken Viges dismembered humanity piece by piece, dissecting them in a perverse surgical operation. The skill of the proverbial surgeon leading the charge determined the survival of their fellow man. Many Forsaken Viges perished under the amateur scalpel of a quack doctor, while a select few survived. ¡°You just have to give up being happy.¡± Among them, one group stood out. ¡°Stop trying to be happy. Don¡¯t pursue the good fortune of happiness in a world where happiness is unattainable.¡± ¡°Unhappiness. Unhappiness is the only realistic goal that can be achieved in this age. Be realistic beings.¡± The Church of Unhappiness. ¡°When everything is heading toward destruction, there¡¯s nothing left for humans who pursue happiness.¡± ¡°Can you eat what you want? No.¡± ¡°Can you live as you wish? No.¡± ¡°Can you love the person you want to love? No.¡± ¡°The more you seek happiness, the more trapped you be. You only realize your own ipetence.¡± ¡°But unhappiness?¡± ¡°Oh, we can still be much more unhappy.¡± The blossom of evil that bloomed in the apocalypse. ¡°Eat something even more repulsive. You can do it.¡± ¡°Live an even more horrific life. You can do it.¡± ¡°Hate more, nder more, grow more arrogant, and tear yourself apart even further. We still have enough flesh left for that.¡± The teachings of the Church of Unhappiness, which had already been spreading underground before civilization¡¯s copse, fully bloomed with the apocalypse. Unlike the Eastern Holy State¡¯s Mo Gwang-seo Faith or New Buddhism, this cult was of a different breed. Those other two cults at least involved Anomalies. Mo Gwang-seo, the Anomaly of Resurrection Christ, and Udumbara, which bore the World Tree. Even when taking their sesses into ount, Anomalies still made up half of their identity. The Church of Unhappiness was different. ¡°Failure doesn¡¯t matter. In fact, fail over and over again.¡± ¡°When others despair at failure, we see failure itself as sess.¡± ¡°The effort to be more unhappy is the only freedom we have.¡± The Church of Unhappiness was purely, entirely a creation of humanity. This meant it wasn¡¯t a target I, the Undertaker, needed to exterminate. And yet, my ties with the Church of Unhappiness were anything but trivial. Long before I crossed the Ural Mountains and explored countless Forsaken Viges, I was already well-acquainted with this particr branch of humanity. The 500th cycle? No. Even further back. The 200th cycle? Earlier still. The 10th cycle? Unbelievably, even before that. [Seo Gyu: Damn it, what the hell is this? This is fucking garbage.] [Lee Jae-hee: My phone''s not working?] [Uehara Shino: Too many people. Can''t breathe.] [Park Ye-dam: I need to contact my boss...] Back in the concourse of Busan Station, my point of origin, I turned on Mind Reading a couple of times and peered into the thoughts of the people around me. If your memory serves you well, you might recall the following characters from those moments: [Lee Baek: What¡¯s going on? Where¡¯d everyone go?] [Go Yuri: O???h????? ????m????y?????.????.????.????] [Jung So-hee: Reverend? Where did you go, Reverend?] [Sim Ah-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?] Let¡¯s pause here. By now, I¡¯m sure you know quite a bit about Seo Gyu, Go Yuri, and Sim Ah-ryeon. I¡¯ve also shared snippets about Lee Baek and Uehara Shino. Lee Baek was a thug who rallied survivors using his Lion¡¯s Roar ability, and Uehara opened an alchemy workshop after moving to Japan, she was a formerrade of mine. [Jung So-hee: Reverend? Where did you go, Reverend?] And now, let¡¯s talk about today¡¯s focus: Jung So-hee. From the way she called out for a ¡°reverend¡± the moment shended in the Tutorial Dungeon, it was clear she was deeply immersed in a cult. Specifically, she belonged to the Church of Unhappiness. Her job ss was Zealot. There¡¯s no point in hiding it now. Before the 5th cycle, Jung So-hee was one of my ¡°Original Party Members.¡±

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My original party members had one thing inmon: at first, they seemedpetent, but as time went on, they became utterly useless. The same went for Jung So-hee. ¡°I¡¯m a water-type ability user.¡± ¡°Oh? So, like a water jet that shoots out? Or maybe you summon water spirits, like Undine?¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s... just tap water.¡± Drip. When Jung So-hee raised a finger, water trickled down from thin air. By today¡¯s standards, her ability would beughed off as pathetic. It wasn¡¯t all that different from what an ordinary person could do. But in the early days, things werepletely different. Back then, Jung So-hee was absolutely essential to our party. Why? The answer was simple. ¡°By the way, it¡¯s clean, first-grade water. It even tastes good.¡± ¡°Wow, that¡¯s incredible, So-hee!¡± ¡°Yes! With this, we don¡¯t have to worry about drinking water anymore!¡± In the Tutorial Dungeon, there wasn¡¯t even enough water to drink, let alone bathe. Fire wasn¡¯t much of an issue. Many people brought lighters when they were summoned into the dungeon, and there were lighters for sale in the station¡¯s souvenir shops. But drinking water? That was a different story. Without my intervention, it took the girls from Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High over five years to clear the dungeon¡ªfive years by the dungeon¡¯s internal time flow, anyway. The Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon was no different. If anything, it was even harder than Baekhwa High¡¯s dungeon. Without me, a regressor, there would have been zero survivors. Not a single one. The dungeon was essentially impossible to clear. ¡°W-water... Wateeer...¡± A true hellscape. From the outside, only a week passed. But inside the Tutorial Dungeon, three months might go by. In an environmentpletely cut off from the outside world, finding a stable supply of food and water was impossible. Starvation and dehydration were rampant. The only way to survive was to clear the quests given by the Tutorial Fairy and receive rewards¡ªat the risk of your own life, of course. ¡°Here¡¯s today¡¯s water supply.¡± Under those circumstances, Jung So-hee¡¯s Tap Water ability was a lifesaver for our party. ¡°Thank you, So-hee.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing. This is my role, after all. Undertaker, you should drink first.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°If something happens, you and Jae-hee are the only ones who can fight. I¡¯ll drinkst.¡± Jung So-hee could produce about four liters of water per day, roughly two bottles¡¯ worth. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was enough to keep us alive. At the time, our party consisted of four members: myself, Uehara Shino, Lee Jae-hee, and Jung So-hee¡ª [404 - Not Found] No. There were five of us. Someone else had been with us. ¡ö¡ö¡ö, the person erased from my memory by Time Seal, was likely my very firstrade. But now, I couldn¡¯t remember them. Even my memories of Jung So-hee were iplete. The memories I¡¯m recounting now only surfaced faintly after the 688th cycle, when I defeated the Mastermind. After Infinite Void tampered with my mind, imnting memories of me teaching the Cheon Yo-hwa twin sisters, I began to recall fragmented pieces of my past. [404 - Not Found] [404 - Not Found] The static of those missing pieces blocked me from truly recalling them. As a result, even these memories might have been manipted by Infinite Void. ¡°I can drinkter. It¡¯s fine.¡± In those memories, Jung So-hee was always someone who put others before herself. Not to say she came off as ¡°pathetic.¡± It was more of a natural aura that radiated from her, as though she had consciously chosen to lower herself. In the Tutorial Dungeon, where trust was a luxury and betrayal was rampant, her selflessness was incredibly rare. ¡°Thank you... Really.¡± ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± Even the twisted version of myself from back then couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful to her. With time, most of the raiders¡ªthose who risked their lives to clear the quests¡ªhad perished. The support groups that helped them from the rear were also torn apart, fighting like mad dogs over the few remaining resources. We hit rock bottom. The lowest of the low. ¡°Undertaker.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Are you unhappy right now?¡± It was then that Jung So-hee made her move. As if she had been waiting for this very moment¡ªfor this hell to unfold. With a smile carved from kindness, she approached me. ¡°Would you like to hear the ¡®good word¡¯ from me, just for a moment?¡± I found outter. From the very beginning, Jung So-hee had joined our party with the intent of spreading the misfortune of unhappiness to me.

Footnotes: Chapter 276 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Preacher II In life, as youe to meet various groups of people, you inevitablye across all kinds of stories. Some are so embarrassing that you¡¯re left doubting whether a human even spoke the tale while others are surprisingly profound, making you marvel at how their tellers manage to remain human despite everything. But as for me, the Undertaker¡ª Since I¡¯ve lived a far longer life than most, I¡¯ve collected an endless array of statements. Even then, though, Jung So-hee¡¯s words were extraordinary, unique to the point where an ordinary person was liable to never hear them even once in their lifetime. ¡°I sense talent in you, Undertaker.¡± ¡°What kind of talent?¡±¡°The talent... for misfortune.¡± ¡°?¡± What the hell kind of nonsense was this? Nevertheless, So-hee¡¯s expression remained serious as she said, ¡°Just as athleticism, intelligence, and other exceptional abilities require talent, so does unhappiness. And to me, your talent for unhappy misfortunes is... First-rate. Maybe even beyond that.¡± ¡°??¡± Was she trying to mess with me? Yet, So-hee was always kind. She wasn¡¯t the type to spout gibberish for no reason. Most importantly, she provided us with something so precious as water in the Tutorial Dungeon. This is why one¡¯s actions matter. Even when someone throws a verbal bomb like, ¡°You have the face of someone destined for misery,¡± you might hold back your anger, at least in that instance, to hear them out. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, So-hee, but I don¡¯t understand your point. If you¡¯re not feeling well¡ª¡± ¡°All humans are unwell,¡± So-hee interrupted. It startled me. Such interruptions were rare from her. ¡°The human body is always teeming with bacteria. The mind is no different,¡± she exined. ¡°Even those who appear happiest often have dormant mental bacteria. And these bacteria, when the time is right, manifest as what we call ¡®unhappiness.¡¯¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Eliminating all bacteria in your body doesn¡¯t make you healthy. Unhappiness works the same way. The real key lies in managing it, in deciding how actively to take control of your unhappiness.¡± You know, it¡¯s funny. Those tasked with proselytizing in cults often turn out to be surprisingly well-read or, at the very least, highly articte. They are often elite individuals within their organizations, well-versed in mon sense¡± to appeal to the masses. Naturally, without this skill, it would be difficult to win people over. If I did¡ªas So-hee imed¡ªpossess a talent for unhappy misfortunes, then she certainly had the makings of a first-ss cult preacher. ¡°I know this might sound strange. But do you think I¡¯ve ever shared these thoughts with anyone else? Even once?¡± ¡°No... You haven¡¯t...¡± So-hee had spent an entire year in the Tutorial Dungeon as part of my party. During that time, she had consistently dedicated herself as arade. She allowed that fact to settle in, giving the silence before her next statement weight. ¡°Exactly. I¡¯m sharing this only with you, Undertaker. Because you alone have the depth of heart to genuinely understand me.¡± ¡°......¡± Target selection. Not only had So-hee waited for a year, but she had also kept her true motives hidden from everyone. For a predator, the sess or failure of the hunt depends on how precisely they choose their prey. A beast that chases two rabbits is no lion. So-hee had singled me out from over 500 survivors in the Tutorial Dungeon, just me. And she approached with intent. ¡°Of course, if this makes you ufortable, I¡¯ll never bring it up again,¡± she offered. ¡°No, it¡¯s not that.¡± Another weighty silence. ¡°I¡¯m relieved to hear that.¡± Jung So-hee umted the illusion of debt. In the earlier cycles, I had a cold and indifferent personality. I rejected anyone who tried to approach me. But how could I remain entirely aloof from arade who had lived through near-death experiences with me, who always offered me water first? That¡¯s right. To put it crudely, I, a regressor, had been gaslit by an SSS-ss cult preacher. ¡°I¡¯m so d I chose to follow you as our leader.¡± What else could I do? Ignorancees with a price.

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¡°Let me teach you a mantra that brings peace of mind.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± It feels wrong to frame Jung So-hee as solely responsible for everything up until now. I do have some shame, after all. It wasn¡¯t entirely her fault. Obviously, much of the mey with me. And the root of it? The fact that my mind had grown weak. [404 - Not Found] I suspect that the mysterious X, the person erased from my memory, must have been a significant psychological anchor for me. And at some point in one of the cycles, X must have died. There was no helping it. The Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon was never designed for humans to clear. Struggling until the very end to beat the dungeon likely shattered my mental fortitude, undoubtedly due to X¡¯s death. ¡°Now, Undertaker. Close your eyes and repeat after me.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°It¡¯s not because of me.¡± The moment my defenses were down, So-hee exploited the opportunity. ¡°It¡¯s not... because of me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my mistake, either.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my mistake, either.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all the fault of the Anomalies.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all the fault of the Anomalies.¡±@@novelbin@@ ¡°Good job.¡± And as embarrassing as it is to admit, her advice genuinely helped me at the time. ¡°Take a deep breath with me. Inhale for six seconds, hold it for three. Then exhale loudly for eight seconds. Fwoooooo.¡± ¡°Fwoooooo...¡± ¡°Perfect! That was excellent!¡± Like many sessful cults, the Church of Unhappiness incorporated genuinely effective psychological techniques into its practices. I learned meditation from So-hee. I learned how to calm my mind. For the first time in my life, which had been nothing but an endless sprint, I took time to pause and empty myself. ¡°Imagine defeating Fairy No. 264.¡± The problem, of course, was that So-hee filled the empty spaces in my mind with poison. ¡°As your imagination bes clearer, it will turn into reality. Undertaker. You¡¯ve already defeated Fairy No. 264. Do you see? This isn¡¯t just imagination anymore. You¡¯ve already seeded.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°How do you feel?¡± ¡°Relieved.¡± ¡°Have you felt relief even once in recent days?¡± I hesitated. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Emotions are physical. Just as unused muscles atrophy, so do feelings when neglected for too long.¡± Then, she gently whispered, ¡°You killed Fairy No. 264. You protected yourrades. You saved the people trapped unjustly in the Busan Station concourse.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m so proud of you, Undertaker. Please, take care of yourself a little more. Hug yourself. Pat your own back. Don¡¯t be embarrassed! We¡¯re just reviving the emotions, sensations, and body we¡¯ve always had.¡± Here¡¯s the ironic part. Not only did So-hee¡¯s methods help my mental health, they also dramatically strengthened my Aura. It was an uncanny coincidence. After all, Aura is the power to impose yourself upon the world. To project your inner wounds onto the external reality. I¡¯ll delve deeper into Aurater, but for now, one thing is clear: my time with So-hee significantly enhanced it. ¡°This is really helping. I¡¯m sorry I doubted you at first, So-hee.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s nothing.¡± Looking back now, I think even So-hee was caught off guard by how rapidly my Aura grew. Something like, ¡®This wasn¡¯t supposed to happen...¡¯ Had I been able to use Mind Reading, I might have heard her thoughts: [So-hee: Why is his Aura growing? I don¡¯t get it. This is terrifying...] At the time, though, Icked Mind Reading and sufficient regression data, so I enthusiastically shared So-hee¡¯s methods with other survivors. Before long, a cult centered around her, the Busan Branch of the Church of Unhappiness, had formed. ¡°Alright, brothers and sisters. Close your eyes and follow along with me. The reason I am unhappy is because of my family.¡± ¡°The reason I am unhappy is because of my family!¡± Before long, it became a daily sight in Busan, hundreds of followers echoing So-hee¡¯s sermons during her gatherings. ¡°I am unconditionally a valuable being.¡± ¡°I am unconditionally a valuable being!¡± ¡°The reason I am unhappy is because the world is wrong.¡± ¡°The reason I am unhappy is because the world is wrong!¡± ¡°Those who ignore and criticize me are not human.¡± ¡°Those who ignore and criticize me are not human!¡± ¡°A world full of such people disgusts me.¡± ¡°A world full of such people disgusts me!¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it. Very good, brothers and sisters. The world is disgusting, and humans are filthy. But we, who despise others together, are special beings!¡± So-hee proimed, clenching her fist in triumph. Unlike other cult leaders, she didn¡¯t rely on borate or luxurious attire to assert her authority. Instead, she wore patched-together rags, clothing pieced from the remains of deceased followers. For me, at least, this image was strangely more persuasive. ¡°We are special!¡± ¡°We are special!¡± ¡°Those who can rage at Anomalies and despise humans possess a rare virtue. However, keeping such emotions bottled up can rot the heart. That¡¯s why we must always share our hatred for Anomalies and our contempt for humanity with our brothers and sisters. Now, let us rage together!¡± ¡°Aaaaaah!¡± The assembly erupted into screams. First-timers were always a bit awkward, but with repetition, even they started venting their imaginary rage as if it were real. Iter learned that So-hee borrowed this method from George Orwell¡¯s 1984, specifically the concept of Two Minutes Hate. For reference, 1984 was published in 1949¡ªproof that the world hasn¡¯t changed much over the decades.[1] ¡°Louder! Let your frustrations roar! Show the world that you, and only you, are special!¡± When So-hee spread her arms wide, rain began to fall inside the assembly hall. Just as my Aura had grown stronger, So-hee¡¯s abilities had evolved¡ªfrom Tap Water to Localized Rainstorm. ¡°Aaaaaaaah!¡± The cultists danced and screamed under the rain. Among them were regr people who didn¡¯t truly believe in the Church of Unhappiness but attended just to receive the ¡°free water¡± from above. These pseudo-believers, fearful of being exposed, ended up ovepensating by passionately acting out their rage. Naturally, just as the rain seeped into their skin, the doctrine of the Church of Unhappiness began to infiltrate their minds. For what it¡¯s worth, the water tasted good. Rage against the ruined world. Contempt for humanity. The logic that unhappiness, unlike happiness, could be controlled. The free water. So-hee¡¯s kind smile and soothing voice... Together, these factors caused the Church of Unhappiness to grow exponentially. ¡°So-hee.¡± ¡°Yes, Undertaker?¡± Even at this point, I held no suspicion toward So-hee. Or rather, when doubts did asionally arise, I scolded myself for thinking poorly of her. I had beenpletely and utterly gaslit. Which is why, in the end, I confessed my secret. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. There¡¯s something I haven¡¯t told you until now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright. Just the fact that you feel remorse proves you¡¯re far superior to the shameless people around us.¡± ¡°Still, I think I need to tell you. Um. The truth is... I¡¯m a regressor.¡± ¡°What?¡± So-hee¡¯s eyes grew wide. Her squirrel-like pupils were transparent, reflecting nothing but sincerity. But as I exined further,ying out the details of my regression and the certainty of my identity, something else, something unfamiliar, began to flicker in her gaze. ¡°......¡± I could not understand what that flicker meant, but I knew the name she gave it. ¡°Reverend.¡± Her lips parted to say it. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Reverend.¡± A strange fire burned in So-hee¡¯s eyes as she looked at me. She grasped my hand firmly. This was unusual. Normally, So-hee avoided physical contact, even passing water indirectly. ¡°Ah... So you were my reverend all along.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Now, I¡¯m certain. Yes, I heard the voice. It¡¯s unmistakable.¡± The fire in her eyes burned brighter, but my heart froze as if doused in ice water. Her palm radiated warmth, and yet that warmth felt utterly foreign to me. ¡°You are the savior who will shoulder all the world¡¯s misfortunes.¡± It was at that moment that I began to suspect it. That So-hee was not a benefactor who had saved me from despair but the one who might drag me into its deepest abyss.

Footnotes: [1] In 1984, Two Minutes Hate is a daily period in which citizens are mandated to watch a film about enemies of the state and to vent their personal, existential hatred for such political dissenters. These ¡°enemies of the state¡± are non-existent and created by the government to sow blind loyalty in its citizenry, one of the many real-world phenomena that Orwell warned against all the way back when he wrote the book in 1949 yet that still ur today. Chapter 278 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤@@novelbin@@ The Preacher IV A chill ran down my spine. The city waspletely devoid of people¡ªI was well aware of that fact, and yet I couldn¡¯t help but nce around instinctively. ¡°Adversity and wounds create Awakeners.¡± It was an abominable truth. If the theory So-hee had just expounded were ever to leak¡ªif it had even the slimmest chances to slither its way into the public consciousness¡ªit would utterly shatter this already broken world.Fortunately or unfortunately, the only other person present was Uehara, and she wasn¡¯t fluent in Korean. She looked on in confusion, seeming to grasp less than half of So-hee¡¯s words. ¡°Our God isn¡¯t one that blesses human happiness. He is an evil god that observes our suffering! Thus, ¡®Awakening¡¯ is both a blessing and a curse from Him.¡± Heedless to our reactions, So-hee grew increasingly fervent as she screamed her doctrine from atop a pile of corpses. ¡°In such a world, you alone, Reverend, are destined to monopolize all of God¡¯s attention and affection!¡± ¡°Why?¡± I choked. ¡°Because you are a regressor,¡± So-hee proimed, smiling as though it were obvious. ¡°No matter how many people were killed by the Anomaly at Busan Station, it wasn¡¯t their fault. It was the Anomaly¡¯s. But you, Reverend, are different.¡± She tilted her head and gazed down upon me. ¡°You could have saved them.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°If you had been a little stronger, a little smarter, a little faster, you could have saved them all.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°This is your fault, Reverend.¡± Rain began to fall. Uehara gasped and tried to shield my head with her coat, but it was meaningless. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s impossible for you now, but you¡¯ll grow stronger. Gradually, relentlessly. And the stronger you grow... the more responsibilities you¡¯ll have to bear.¡± The rain that was drenching me wasn¡¯t touching my skin, it was boring straight into my chest. ¡°From Busan Station to Busan itself. Ah, how many people perished there! And from Busan to the Korean Penins. From Korea to... beyond, beyond, and beyond. And then... Then!¡± The rainwater that once quenched my thirst turned into poison, corroding the edges of my heart. ¡°Reverend, this is your fault. Because in the next regression, you¡¯ll choose who to save. And in the one after that, who to let die. How could anyone deny that you are the chosen of the evil god?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Let me ask you once more, Reverend.¡± Thus spoke So-hee: ¡°Are you unhappy right now?¡± I couldn¡¯t answer. Her smile was knowing and her gaze intent. It was as if she were savoring my silence. ¡°You¡¯ll grow stronger, Reverend... Don¡¯t forget me.¡± Then So-hee drew a dagger from her robes and slit her own throat, bathing the rain around her in a crimson shower. Beside me, Uehara let out a horrified scream and rushed to So-hee¡¯s body, but it was toote. It was instant death. ¡°Undertaker-san!¡± Uehara cried. ¡°So-hee-chan!¡± However, she wasn¡¯t given long to wallow in her tears. The mountain of corpses,yered hundreds deep, began to writhe. In this world, corpses left without proper rites were infected by Void poison and transformed into Anomalies. The ones that roamed by themselves were often called ¡°zombies.¡± Severely damaged corpses sometimes became Anomalies that existed as mere disembodied voices, known as Knockers. However, when corpses transformed into Anomalies as a collective entity, I had a specific name for them: - U???r?????o????o?????o????u????u????u????g?????h?????! The Hollow. Bound by their shared affiliation with the Church of Unhappiness, the Hollow arose slowly. Hundreds of corpses became legs, hundreds more a torso, and yet another hundred formed the upper body. Atop the massive entity formed by the hundreds, a singr head emerged. - Reverrrrreeeeend! The surface of the Hollow, amalgamating of countless bodies, prominently disyed So-hee¡¯s smiling face. - Eternal Invincibility. - Reverrrrreeeennnnd! - Unyielding Will. The countless mouths of the Hollow began to chant the doctrine of the Church of Unhappiness as its massive right hand reached for me. ¡°Undertaker-san! No!¡± Uehara screamed. But I didn¡¯t dodge. Without flinching, I looked up at the shadow of the grotesque hand sheltering me from the rain. The stench of decayed rainwater filled the air as a great weight crushed my body in one. That was my death.

There is an epilogue. To summarize in a single paragraph: In my third cycle, I lost a dearrade, X, in the Tutorial Dungeon, which shattered my mental state. Anotherrade, So-hee, helped me recover, allowing me to clear the dungeon and build my own faction. Yet So-hee turned out to be a deranged zealot. In the end, she transformed into an Anomaly and killed me. Q: What is the mental state of a regressor who meets such a death and enters their next cycle? So-hee was right. I became profoundly unhappy. As she had intended, my heart in the next cycle was filled with indomitable filth. That filth decayed, spreading an odor that clung to me in a choking stench. Perhaps even before the copse of Old Man Schopenhauer, I had already fallen apart long ago. When infected by the World Tree Udumbara, Awakeners lose their powers. Perhaps I, too, might have given up regression and epted the death it offered me. ¡°Those eyes of yours are just dripping with poison, huh?¡± However, there was one thing So-hee hadn¡¯t ounted for. ¡°So you''re the one, right? The lone survivor of Busan Station. You''re that weirdo who goes around asking people strange questions all the time.¡± The stronger and more capable I became, the wider the scope of my world grew. Consequently, the number of lives I became responsible for also increased. "Your name?" "...Undertaker. It''s an alias." ¡°So, someone who buries people? Not bad. The depth of a person is measured by how many corpses they¡¯ve buried in their heart.¡± But I wasn¡¯t alone. The determination to save others wasn¡¯t mine alone to bear. The wider the world became, the more people there were to help carry its fragments¡ªsomething a certain priestess of an evil god could never have foreseen. "How about it? Wanna join my guild?" I asked for the guild¡¯s name. ¡°Samcheon World.¡± That was your answer. ¡°Samcheon for short. Someday, I¡¯ll have three thousand Awakeners recruited as members, like the name implies.[1] I¡¯ve made it my personal goal.¡± You adjusted your witch¡¯s hat, tapped your foot on the ground, and gave me a bright smile. ¡°Undertaker. Help me.¡± It was her answer. ¡°I need your strength.¡± I had long pondered a particr question: If a single person is to save the world, then who saves that person? The answer was obvious. You just had to acknowledge that no single person stood alone. ¡°Vice Guild Leader, just once. Hm? Try on our pointed hat just once. I swear I have an eye for this sort of thing, and I¡¯m convinced you¡¯ve got the makings of a top-tier witch!¡± ¡°I absolutely refuse.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s a shame.¡± Seo-rin pouted yfully. ¡°But what will you do if I say no, hmm?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I¡¯m the guild leader, and you¡¯re the vice guild leader.¡± My way of speaking now bore traces of Dang Seo-rin¡¯s influence. Once stiff and formal, it had softened over time after spending so much time with her. It was hard to remain rigid while working under a superior who cosyed as a witch year-round and was a devout train enthusiast. ¡°See? It looks good on you!¡± ¡°...Fuck.¡± ¡°Ahaha! Did you just curse? Wow! I¡¯ve never heard our vice guild leader say that before!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°But to say such a thing to your guild leader, the Supreme Heaven herself! You must¡¯ve developed a big head. Or is it because of that hat? It does make your head look bigger.¡± ¡°Fuuuuuck...¡± ¡°Pffft! Hahaha!¡± Despite the tragedy caused by the Church of Unhappiness, the time I spent serving under Seo-rin as her vice guild leader gave me a reason to rise again. On a flight to the Uyuni Salt ts, I encountered the Undertakeress, a woman who bore an uncanny resemnce to Seo-rin. In hindsight, it made sense. My expression, my way of smiling, even my manner of speech¡ªall of it was shaped by Dang Seo-rin. [Mr. Undertaker, I need your help. There¡¯s something urgent I must consult you about.] ¡°What is it?¡± [It¡¯s about the passage we read togetherst Wednesday. I just can¡¯t wrap my head around it.] The Saintess¡¯s seriousness became my seriousness. ¡°To mister, I am sorry. To the me of today and tomorrow, I apologize. I hereby dere a two-day hiatus. Since my break falls over a weekend, it means I¡¯ll end up resting for four days in total. Still, I¡¯ll only announce two days off to the readers. Could you, out of pity, write the announcement for me?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°At least I¡¯m sorry, unlike those authors who don¡¯t feel any guilt at all. That makes me one of the good ones, right?¡± Oh Dok-seo¡¯s shamelessness became my shamelessness. Both the best and the worst of me were defined by others. By a puppeteer, controlled by her father throughout her life, who Awakened the ability to manipte others like dolls. By a student council president, conditioned by a cult into assuming the role of their priestess, who Awakened the ability to impose her mindset and way of behaving onto others. By a prosthetist, unable to restore lost limbs to her patients, who Awakened the ability to animate others¡¯ limbs. By a... Uh. Well, what about Sim Ah-ryeon? What wounds could she have suffered to Awaken her abilities? I couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine. She was always beyond myprehension, an enigma I couldn¡¯t unravel. My heart belonged to many. If the Hollow wandered the world spreading death with bodies made of countless nameless corpses, then the living always survived by making ties with other survivors. And for me, life wasn¡¯t about ¡°dying¡± but ¡°living.¡± That was my freedom. [Lee Jae-hee: My phone''s not working?] [Uehara Shino: Too many people. Can''t breathe.] [Seo Gyu: Damn it, what the hell is this? This is fucking garbage.] [Park Ye-dam: I need to contact my boss...] [Lee Baek: What¡¯s going on? Where did everyone else go?] [Go Yuri: O???h????? ????m????y?????.????.????.????] [Jung So-hee: Reverend? Where did you go, Reverend?] [Sim Ah-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?] On the notable asion of the 700th cycle¡ªmy seventh century¡ªI decided to approach an ¡°oldrade¡± from the concourse of Busan Station for the first time in ages. So-hee was ncing around, searching for someone¡ªprobably the ¡°First Reverend¡± since I had been the second. Some people simply couldn¡¯t live without worshiping someone else. ¡°Excuse me...¡± I began. ¡°Yes? What is it?¡± ¡°May I ask you something?¡± So-hee looked at me, startled. Despite everything, how she had once tormented me to the point of death (and actually killed me), I felt nothing. No positive or negative emotions, just pure tranquility filling my chest. ¡°Do you think I have a talent for misfortune?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a question,¡± I assured her. ¡°You seem to have some divine insight or intuition.¡± The bewilderment faded from So-hee¡¯s expression as she scrutinized me with a meticulous gaze. After about ten seconds, she frowned slightly and shook her head. ¡°Not at all.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°I sense no talent in you. Third-rate? No, fifth-rate. It¡¯s been ages since I¡¯ve encountered someone so utterly talentless. Maybe even the first time. If you¡¯ve heard the ¡®voice¡¯ of our God, please give up.¡± Without another word, she turned her back and walked away, severing all ties with me. A formerrade and one of the original members who cleared the first Tutorial Dungeon had dismissed me outright. ¡°Hmm.¡± I chuckled softly at the odd feeling it gave me. It wasn¡¯t all that bad. Undertaker¡ªOfficially designated as a fifth-rate cult leader!

Footnotes: [1] Samcheon means three thousand in Korean. Chapter 279 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤@@novelbin@@ The Commentator I Suddenly, it urred to me that Dok-seo was a chuunibyou. One might assume someone suffering from a chuunibyou episode would struggle with social skills, but the truth was that this illusion was merely due to her roommate being Ah-ryeon. Without Ah-ryeon, Dok-seo possessed all the qualities of a clueless social misfit with an extraordinaryck of situational awareness. ¡°Hey.¡± And so, during this rare gathering that included NRMC¡¯s Commander Noh Do-hwa, Yu Ji-won, and the leaders of the two major guilds in the Korean Penins¡ªDang Seo-rin of Samcheon and Cheon Yo-hwa of Baekhwa¡ªfor the sake of fostering unity, we sat down for a dinner meeting.That was when Dok-seo, seated beside me, opened her mouth and said, ¡°Mister.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just curious. If Seo-rin and Yo-hwa were to fight, who would win?¡± Clink. Across the table, the hand of Do-hwa, who had been drinking soju straight from the bottle, froze mid-air. Naturally, Ji-won, who had been eagerly offering to pour her another drink, also stopped in her tracks. A deathly silence descended upon the room. Of course, it wasn¡¯t universal death. The other NRMC members and guild members, blissfully intoxicated, continued chatting merrily. In other words, In this ¡°noisy environment,¡± only those who could ¡°amplify their hearing with Aura¡± and ¡°focus through all the surrounding noise¡± on ¡°the table where Undertaker was seated¡± fell under the spell of this deathly silence. Naturally, Seo-rin and Yo-hwa both met these conditions. ¡°Dok-seo.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Why do you suddenly want to know something like that?¡± Desperately, I tried to pass the conversational baton to Dok-seo. I had to make it clear that the one asking the question was her, Oh Whatever-her-name-is, and that I, the Undertaker, was entirely uninvolved. ¡°Eh, it¡¯s nothing big. I¡¯m just curious because they both y the role of mages in your party, don¡¯t they?¡± However, this oblivious social outcast stubbornly continued dragging me into this mess. Well, I shouldn¡¯t have expected much from a writer who posted an apology on SG Net for skipping a serialization due to ¡°an unavoidable external engagement¡± only to gleefully show up here for a free meal. I tried to stay calm. ¡°Right. Both of them are incredibly talented and invaluable to me. They¡¯rerades, soparing them isn¡¯t fair.¡± ¡°Come on, mister. We all know that. But who¡¯d win in a fight? Keep it simple.¡± ¡°...Are you trying to mess with me?¡± ¡°Huh? What?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Sweat trickled down the side of my face. Feigning a sip of alcohol, I frantically scribbled invisible words onto the table with my finger. Saintess. [Yes?] Help me. [How?] Please distract Seo-rin and Yo-hwa. Get them talking about something else. I beg you. [I¡¯ll try.] As expected of the Saintess. Unlike someone else who once dered, ¡°I¡¯m the one who will save you, mister!¡± only to be an unreliable brat infamous for prolonged absences, she was dependable. (This is why you should never make bold derations to a regressor with Complete Memory.) [Okay, I tried.] How did it go? [I won¡¯t say who, but I was told to buzz off.] Even the Saintess¡¯s bluetooth connection failed me! ¡°Mister, who¡¯s stronger?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°If the Great Witch of Busan fought the Necromancer of Sejong, who would win? Who¡¯s stronger? On a tier list, who¡¯s S-ss and who¡¯s A-ss?¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°Mister,e on. Tell me. I¡¯m a sucker for these ¡®who would win¡¯ debates! Who¡¯s the strongest mage in the setting?¡± I nced around. Do-hwa was ring at me through two slits with an expression that seemed to say, ¡°Not my problem, pal.¡± Ji-won was conspicuously absent. Moments ago, she had been glued to Do-hwa¡¯s side, spewing ttery. Now she was gone without a trace. For reference, Ha-yul was sitting in a corner with a sign reading, ¡°I¡¯m not drunk,¡± stuck to her head as she downed drink after drink. She was already on her seventh sign. Next to her, Ah-ryeon was hanging the eighth sign around Lee Ha-yul¡¯s neck. My allies... were nowhere to be found. ¡°Reverend.¡± ¡°Are you unhappy right now?¡± For some reason, a rare shback of Jung So-hee, one of my original party members, echoed in my mind. I swallowed hard, as if taking a shot of poison. ¡°It... depends on the conditions of the battlefield.¡± The dice were cast. ¡°Oh? What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s an ambush... Yo-hwa would have a decisive advantage. Although she¡¯s a mage, except for necromancy, she¡¯s practically a warrior. Whether she borrows the power of Infinite Void or uses her Aura to crush the opponent, she¡¯d topple her enemy in no time.¡± ¡°Ahaha, cheers!¡± From the direction of Baekhwa guild members¡¯ table, merry orangeughter rang out. The students of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High, who were essentially members of the student council fan club, squealed with delight as they witnessed their guild leader¡¯s cheerful demeanor.

https://dsc.gg/reapeics

However, the atmosphere around the Samcheon table grewparatively colder by the second. Some of the guild members began to pick up on the difort emanating from the Great Witch. After all, the winess in Seo-rin¡¯s hand had been crushed into shards, turning into nothing but fragments. It was impossible not to notice. Hurriedly, I added, ¡°But if it¡¯s not an ambush, and both parties have ample time to prepare for battle, then the situation changespletely.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± ¡°Seo-rin¡¯s specialty is unquestionably Cursed Song Incantation. The more time she has to cast andyer her incantations, the more overwhelming her buffs and debuffs be. At four melodicyers, their strength is evenly matched. At five, Seo-rin gains the upper hand. By the sixthyer, Yo-hwa doesn¡¯t stand a chance.¡± ¡°Oh, my! Why is everyone looking at me? Rx, everyone. Tonight is about having a good time together.¡± With those words, the wintry atmosphere at the Samcheon table immediately shifted to spring. Witches with party hats breathed collective sighs of relief. Clink! However, the sound of a shattering ss echoed dramatically from the Baekhwa table. The crash wasn¡¯t idental¡ªit was deliberate, full-force, and with intent. And just to set the scene, the seating arrangement ced the Baekhwa and Samcheon guilds side by side, with their leaders sitting next to each other. This arrangement had been designed to foster camaraderie between the two guilds¡ªafter all, that was the goal of this gathering. How could I have predicted Dok-seo would pull something like this? It was unfair. ¡°Oh dear.¡± Naturally, the space on the floor where Yo-hwa had shattered her ss was essentially the space beside her¡ªalso known as where Seo-rin was seated. Seo-rin smiled sweetly. ¡°My, my. That¡¯s quite the slippery hand you have, President. They say rough work can lead to hand tremors. I hope it¡¯s not affecting four of your five fingers. Why not get them checked out by Miss Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°Hahaha, thank you for your concern, Great Witch! We don¡¯t usually get the chance to exchange such words, but it¡¯s nice to have this ¡®ambush¡¯ of a meeting to bring us closer. Though, I hope we¡¯re not getting too close!¡± ¡°Of course not. By the way, how absent-minded of me. This lovely gathering was organized by our gracious NRMC Commander and the Undertaker, yet I haven¡¯t poured them a drink.¡± ¡°Oh, no! You¡¯re absolutely right! We really must pour them a drink ourselves. I¡¯ve been dying to share a toast with the Undertaker!¡± Help me. ¡®What do I do?¡¯ My mind raced as Seo-rin grabbed a wine bottle and Yo-hwa picked up a beer bottle, both making their way toward me. ¡®How do I satisfy both of them with god-tier level diplomacy and avoid disaster?¡¯ My brain rapidly generated options: A. Mix wine and beer. ¡°Let¡¯s drink them together! Oh, but tomorrow¡¯s hangover might be rough.¡± ¡ú My body gets metaphorically blended in a mixer. B. ¡°Logically, Yo-hwa would neverunch a sudden attack. The risks are too high. If ites down to a fair duel, Seo-rin is more likely to win.¡± ¡ú ¡°Oh, mister! If you wanted to wear a sailor uniform that badly, you should¡¯ve just said so...! From now on, you¡¯re my junior.¡± C. ¡°Yo-hwa would never engage in a fight she couldn¡¯t win. She¡¯d strike like a snake, exploiting any opening Seo-rin shows. This would naturally mean an ambush, guaranteeing her victory.¡± ¡ú ¡°Oh, look! A perfect hat rack for my witch hat. A little dusty, but a broom can fix that. And don¡¯t expect me to sing you a luby for your insomnia!¡± D. ¡°This is all Do-hwa¡¯s fault.¡± ¡ú ¡°What?¡± No matter the choice, it led to a bad ending! So this is the wretched life of a regressor! ¡°Oh, I want to see them have an all-out fight!¡± At that moment¡ª ¡°Not that I¡¯d want mister to get hurt. Let¡¯s make it safe and fair. Oh, look! Mister, speak of the devil, here theye!¡± From Dok-seo¡¯s untainted, mildly tipsy gaze and sloppily tilted cap, a sh of inspiration struck me. It wasn¡¯t Seo-rin¡¯s white magic or Yo-hwa¡¯s ck magic. No, it was the gray magic unique to regressors! I shot to my feet. ¡°Yes! Ipletely agree, Commander Noh Do-hwa!¡± Do-hwa, who had been quietly enjoying the sweetness of her soju with a faint smile, frowned at me. ¡°Huh?¡± The sudden sound of my voice startled even the two cmities approaching me, freezing them in their tracks. ¡°It¡¯s true! A one-off dinner isn¡¯t enough to build solidarity between guilds. What we need is something bigger! Something better!¡± ¡°What are you saying, you lunatic?¡± Ignoring the octave of danger rising in Do-hwa¡¯s voice, I pressed on. Survival first! ¡°Sports!¡± Everyone in the banquet hall turned to look at me. Even a flushed Ha-yul reached out her arms, crying, ¡°Daddyyy!¡± but I ignored her. ¡°Since ancient times, nothing has brought groups together like sports! Sure, the world is in ruins, and there are no more Olympics or World Cups. But with NRMC¡¯s resources, why not host a grandpetition?¡± ¡°Wait, are you...¡± ¡°A fighting tournament!¡± Using Aura, I boomed my voice like a lion¡¯s roar. The hall quivered as the Awakened, drunk or not, roared in excitement. ¡°An Awakening tournament! Yes! Let¡¯s settle it there!¡± ¡°And the Undertaker won¡¯tpete, leaving the championship open for Seo-rin or Yo-hwa!¡± ¡°Shut up! The President will win!¡± ¡°Commander Noh Do-hwa! You¡¯re a genius for thinking of this!¡± ¡°Do-hwa! Do-hwa!¡± Even Ji-won, who had returned, led the chant. ¡°Fine! Let¡¯s do it!¡± Cheers erupted as Seo-rin and Yo-hwa were swept away. I wiped my brow. Another day, another death g dodged. [Impressive as always, Mr. Undertaker.] ¡°Thanks.¡± [What will you call this tournament?] ¡°How about Awakeners¡¯ World Cup? Shortened to AwakenCup!?¡± I could feel the Saintess¡¯s silent disappointment. What¡¯s wrong with AwakenCup?

Footnotes: Chapter 281 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Commentator III Oh Dok-seo vs. Manyo Neko. ¡°Hoohoo! Behold, Far Eastern Magical Girl! This is my ultimate defense¡ªAT Field!¡± ¡°Nya?! What is this, nyan?! Why doesn¡¯t my magic work at all, nya?!¡± ¡°No matter what attack you throw at me, you won¡¯t harm even a single strand of my hair! Wait, flying is cheating! Get down! Get dooooown...!¡± ¡°Oh. The barrier is gone, meow.¡±¡°...¡± ¡°Nyanpunch!¡± ©³ Oh Dok-seo: Defeat ©» Manyo Neko: Victory Dok-seo made a disgraceful exit, failing to secure even one win. The audience, especially those who were fans of LiteraryGirl, booed relentlessly. Lee Ha-yul vs. Phantom de. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...!¡± ¡°...?!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...!!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± Bothpetitors, for the record, had speech impairments. Furthermore, Ha-yul had no legs and relied on mobility aids, while Phantom de lived up to her name, having no arms. Theirs was probably the quietest match in the history of the tournament. Ha-yul spent the entire time running away, nting puppet strings throughout the arena. In the end, she used them to cocoon Phantom de like a caterpir and hoist her into the air. ??????¦¥s? ©³ Lee Ha-yul: Victory ©» Phantom de: Defeat Surprisingly, the audience enjoyed it. However, SG Netter used me of being biased in mymentary toward Ha-yul, calling me a ¡°famous puppeteer¡¯s daddy.¡± I deleted the baseless nder using admin privileges. Lee Baek vs. Seo Gyu. ¡°Damn it. Why the hell do I have to...?¡± ¡°Hey, you piece of shit!¡± ¡°What? You don¡¯t even know me. Why the insults?¡± ¡°You look like a shitty bastard. Do I need to see you twice to know it, asshole?!¡± ¡°You son of a¡ª You¡¯re dead meat.¡± ¡°Bring it on, you piece of shit!¡± A legendary anger management showdown. Threatened with exclusion from life itself if they refused to participate, Lee Baek was thoroughly beaten like a ragdoll by Seo Gyu. While earlier matches showcased dazzling skills, this one was a mudslinging brawl at its lowest level, yet the audience was ecstatic with it. For a brief moment, I thought I saw someone with pink hair pping gleefully in the stands. But I refused to nce in that direction. ©³ Lee Baek: Defeat ©» Seo Gyu: Victory Though many other matches stood out, I¡¯ll skip them in the interest of brevity. After all, I don¡¯t intend to bloat your data usage by expanding mymentary unnecessarily. From the Round of 32, to the Round of 16, and then to the Quarterfinals. Finally, at the cusp of the Semifinals and the Finals... Dang Seo-rin vs. Cheon Yo-hwa. The two main instigators who forced me to host this international sports event now faced each other on a single-log bridge. ¡°From the blue corner, we have the Great Witch of Samcheon, guild leader of the Korean Penins¡¯s top guild, idol of the masses, and leader of the Korean Awakener Federation¡ªDang Seo-rin! Oh! As I speak, her traveling fans fill one side of the Colosseum with fireworks!¡± ¡°Magical fireworks. A sight asionally seen in Samcheon¡¯s home base of Busan. They¡¯re enchanted to release fragrant scents as the smoke dissipates...¡± ¡°This refreshing scent¡ªit¡¯s grapefruit! Grapefruit, folks! Tell us, Noh Do-hwa: why do you think Samcheon¡¯s witches chose grapefruit as the scent for their fireworks?¡± ¡°Well, the Baekhwa Student Council President¡¯s hair is orange, and grapefruits resembles oranges, don¡¯t they? But unlike oranges, grapefruit has blood-red flesh when peeled...¡± ¡°So, they¡¯re saying, ¡®We¡¯ll turn that orange into a bloodstain¡¯?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a poetic metaphor, I suppose...¡± ¡°Ah! Spectacr! Even their fireworks taunt the opposing team. Just how many months did Samcheon spend preparing for this match?!¡± Down on the stage, Yo-hwa¡¯s expression twisted while Dang Seo-rin smirked smugly. ¡°What¡¯s this?! The Baekhwa cheer squad has suddenly appeared in witch costumes!¡± ¡°They look like cheerleaders in disguise...¡± ¡°Baekhwa students dressed as witches? Isn¡¯t that almost sacrilegious? But... Oh my! The Baekhwa guild members are tearing off the witch costumes!¡± ¡°Oh...¡± ¡°Revealing their true form¡ªBaekhwa school uniforms! Pure white sailor uniforms! The witch outfits were a ruse all along! They¡¯re secretly sailor uniform enthusiasts!¡± ¡°They literally tore them apart...¡± ¡°But wait, there¡¯s more! A doll wearing a witch hat is now burning on a pole! It¡¯s a witch hunt! A deration of intent to incinerate witches!¡± ¡°Actually, Undertaker, look closer. The doll isn¡¯t just wearing a witch hat...¡± ¡°It has a train printed on its clothes! ¡®Train Otakus Suck!¡¯ That¡¯s the chant echoing from Baekhwa¡¯s stands at this very moment!¡± ¡°Fascinating. While Samcheon¡¯s fans exude elegance, Baekhwa¡¯s supporters showcase raw, direct provocations. People truly y to their stereotypes...¡± ¡°Ah! The provocation is too much! The two sides¡¯ cheering squads are shing! Aura and magic are flying everywhere, and parts of the Colosseum¡¯s outer wall are copsing!¡± ¡°Once again, thanks to Pyongyang Sacred City for hosting this mess. I¡¯m so d I blocked Busan as a venue choice...¡± ¡°Amid the chaos of hooligan shes, the match... begins!¡±

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Despite my hope for a draw¡ªa happy ending for all¡ªfortune was not so kind. The battle between Seo-rin and Yo-hwa turned into... Well, a shitshow, to put it bluntly. ¡°A high schooler? Ha! You¡¯re just a glorified dropout. Oh wait, you didn¡¯t even graduate, did you? Acting all smug, calling Undertaker ¡®Teacher¡¯ every chance you get. Don¡¯t you have any shame?¡± ¡°Ugh. Speaking of shame, isn¡¯t it worse to be a train nerd cosying around? Oh, but considering how you spend all day posting cringeworthy shit on SG Net, I guess expecting self-awareness was too much...¡± ¡°Cosying? Are you talking about the sailor uniform with the ¡®7th grader¡¯ badge? People envy what theyck, and clearly, your educationplex is showing.¡± ¡°Complex? Compared to someone who constantly makes up Latin lyrics to stroke her own vanity, I¡¯m nothing!¡± ¡°Die!¡± ¡°You die!¡± So went the exchange between the so-called leaders of the two greatest guilds on the Korean Penins. For the record, this was the sanitized version of their dialogue, edited for dignity. Was this truly the level of discourse we had reached? Truly, my heart swelled with... something. ¡°Raaaagh!¡± The battle raged on for a grueling forty minutes. When both of their Aura reserves were exhausted, the fight devolved into a brawl. Yo-hwa finally gained the upper hand by mounting Seo-rin and pinning her down. ¡°Kneel! I said kneel already! Just give up!¡± ¡°Ugh... Agh... Mmph...¡±@@novelbin@@ Yo-hwa forced Seo-rin into a dogeza, clutching her head and mming it down. Meanwhile, Seo-rin gnawed on Yo-hwa¡¯s ankle like a rabid animal. Dignity? Decorum? Nothing of the sort remained to be seen. ¡°This is dogeza! This counts, right? Referee! Refereeeee!¡± ¡°Hoek! Validated!¡± Fairy No. 264, acting as the referee, confirmed the match¡¯s oue. With that, Yo-hwa let out a roar of triumph. Despite her Aura being depleted, her cry echoed powerfully through the Colosseum. Her victorious pose resembled the iconic moment when Jungle Pocket crossed the finish line first in the 2001 Japanese Derby.[1] ¡°I won! I won fair and square! Not a single one of you can deny it! I defeated Dang Seo-rin!¡± ¡°Ugh...¡± ¡°Hahaha! Ha! Hahaha! Teacher! I, Cheon Yo-hwa, the President of Baekhwa Girls¡¯ High, am the best mage on the Korean Penins! I am the strongest!¡± p. Someone began pping. p. p-p-p-p-p-p-p. Moved by her roar, the audience rose to their feet, delivering a standing ovation. Unfortunately, the street fight between the two guilds¡¯ fans had already resulted in a victory for Samcheon. Their supporters had no cheers left to offer, while their battered witches could barely muster half-hearted jeers. The Colosseum stood in ruins, its skeletal walls exposed as if the scene had shifted from ancient Rome to modern Italy. We were witnessing history. This was the apocalypse. A world where neither weak sports nor weak spectators could survive. ©³ Dang Seo-rin: Defeat ©» Cheon Yo-hwa: Victory I grabbed the mic. ¡°What a moving moment! The long-forbidden debate¡ªDang Seo-rin versus Cheon Yo-hwa¡ªa topic that would reduce all conversation participants to metaphorical Russians, has finally been resolved! Noh Do-hwa, your thoughts?¡± ¡°Just look at this mess. I¡¯m so d we didn¡¯t hold this in Busan...¡± ¡°Thank you. And now, despite her elimination in the Quarterfinals, Sim Ah-ryeon is healing the injuredpetitors. Oh! Dang Seo-rin! The match is over! No more fighting!¡± ¡°Uh oh. Fairy No. 264 stepped in to break it up and... got obliterated...¡± ¡°Graaaaaah!¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like anyone cares whether a fairy lives or dies...¡± ¡°Your sacrifice will not be forgotten, Fairy No. 264!¡± Order was finally restored to the arena. Though in the process, the already-halved Colosseum was reduced to a quarter of its original structure.

There is an epilogue. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen! Out of the original 80,000 spectators, only 20,000 remain! A historic first in sports history¡ªthe Finals have fewer viewers than the Round of 32!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t even tell if this is a tournament or a mass hospitalization. Sim Ah-ryeon is working overtime...¡± ¡°This is precisely why, despite all the nder and usations, I¡¯ve stuck with Sim Ah-ryeon since our days at Busan Station. And now, atst! The Finals of the first AwakenCup¡ªdetermining the strongest Awakener in Korea, no, the world! Let¡¯s wee ourpetitors!¡± ¡°In the blue corner, still bearing bite marks from Dang Seo-rin, it¡¯s Cheon Yo-hwa...¡± ¡°And in the red corner!¡± I cried, pointing to the arena. ¡°A mysterious mask! Descended from the ruins north of the Han River in Seoul! Their alias remains unknown! Is this Gaksital? No, it¡¯s Potato Mask! Potato Mask, enter the ring!¡± Standing there was Saintess. No, not the fake ¡°Northern Saintess¡± of the Eastern Holy State. The real Saintess, the one who had been secluded in Yongsan. A true Saintess in every sense of the word¡ªa genuine recluse. Not that I was implying Ah-ryeon wasn¡¯t a ¡°true¡± Saintess. But whenparing their reclusiveness, well... Perhaps that¡¯s why both of them fell under the same category of Saintess? Anyway. ¡°As the match begins¡ª Wait, what?! Cheon Yo-hwa is already on the ground in a dogeza?!¡± ¡°If I¡¯m reading her lips right, she just let out a confused ¡®eh?¡¯ Looks like even she doesn¡¯t understand how she got into that position so quickly. It¡¯s as if time stopped, her body was manipted into the dogeza, and then time resumed as if nothing happened...¡± ¡°This bizarre scene has indeed urred, folks! Victory! Yet another victory! The mysterious Potato Mask! Every match¡ªfrom the Round of 32 to the Finals¡ªended in a one-second KO!¡± ¡°Well, they¡¯re tantly overpowered...¡± ¡°Here and now! The world¡¯s strongest Awakener has been decided! This has been Undertaker on colormentary!¡± ¡°And Noh Do-hwa as your host. Please never hold an event like this again...¡± ¡°Thank you, everyone! Until we meet again at the second AwakenCup!¡± ¡°You bastard...¡± The First NRMC Awakener Fighting Tournament Hosted by the NRMC, held in Pyongyang Sacred City Winner: The Saintess

Footnotes: [1] Jungle Pocket was the racehorse that won the 2001 Japanese Derby in a close race. The photo taken right after his win shows the horse mid-stride with mouth agape, looking like a human being smarmily bragging about their victory in a very cringe way. Chapter 282 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hypocrite I A certain saying floats around the world as though it were a universal truth: ¡ºPeople can¡¯t be fixed.¡» I disagree. I, the Undertaker, stand proudly against this deste era of ¡°human immutability¡± with my firm belief in ¡°human improvement¡±¡ªa conviction which so happens to stem from the fact that I can pull life¡¯s gacha as many times as I want, unlike ordinary non-regressors. ¡°You piece of shit! What the hell are you talking about?!¡±¡°Hoiyah.¡± My delicate care had once transformed Seo Gyu, notorious for his anger management issues and frequent quick exits, into a warden for the Anomalies. And that¡¯s not all. I¡¯d turned OldManGoryeo into the Saintess of the North and a perennial chuunibyou dropout into the Priestess of an Outer God. A career so dazzling, some might even call me the life coach for all mankind! Even so, a daunting new challengey before this regressor. ¡°Hmm?¡± Hair so silvery sleek it was worthy of being called a national treasure slipped elegantly over its owner¡¯s shoulder as she tilted her head, staring nkly at me as I stepped into the convenience store. ¡°It¡¯s strange,¡± she mused. ¡°I set up a sophisticated booby trap at the entrance. How did you get in without making a sound?¡±@@novelbin@@ Yu Ji-won. The greatest psychopath on the Korean Penins, and a first-round loser in the First NRMC Awakener Fighting Tournament, also known as the AwakenCup. If it were me, I would have holed up in the Saintess¡¯s house in Yongsan out of sheer embarrassment and lived the rest of my days as a recluse. And yet here Ji-won was, utterly unbothered and nk expression unbroken. This did make sense, of course. That event hadn¡¯t urred in this cycle. ¡°Are you the owner of this convenience store?¡± I asked by way of greeting. ¡°Yes, I am.¡± The lie slid effortlessly from her lips without even a hint of excess saliva. It was hard to believe that this woman, who now imed to be the owner, had murdered the original store owner and staff to take over the ce. ?????¨ºs? ¡°Two packs of Marlboro Reds, please.¡± ¡°Marlboro Reds, got it.¡± Ji-won grabbed the cigarettes from the shelf. As she handed them over, she simultaneously pulled a hatchet from her waistband and swung it at my wrist. ng! Her eyes widened in shock. To be fair to her, if a hatchet de shattered like ss upon contacting human skin, even a psychopath whose heart didn¡¯t stock the ¡°startled¡± emotion would feel some sense of surprise. ¡°Did you just try to attack me?¡± Ji-won immediately dropped her hostile stance. ¡°My apologies. You entered my hideout so suddenly that I became overly cautious. Please, spare me.¡± Both hands raised in surrender, she subtly adjusted her posture to highlight her best features¡ªtransitioning straight from violence to seduction. ¡°I have many talents. If you spare my life, I will pledge lifelong loyalty to you.¡± As evidenced by the fact that Imented on her excellent hair care the moment I entered, Ji-won was the type who maintained her hygiene even in the apocalypse. Really, she used everything in her power, even in harsh environments, to maximize her assets. This person was a natural-born genius of chaos, a leader meant for turbulent times. In awe of her, it urred to me that perhaps someone like Yu Ji-won, who embodied the purest of psychopathic energies, was more suited to being the protagonist of this story than a regressor like me... ¡°Fine,¡± I said coldly. ¡°I¡¯ll spare you. But even so, I will never forget that you tried to attack me.¡± ¡°I am already grateful that you¡¯ve spared my life. Furthermore, you are entirely correct. I will work tirelessly to regain your trust, so please watch over me with a discerning eye.¡± ...all while she subtly confirmed that her life had already been spared and gaslit me into believing that keeping her alive was necessary to regain trust. Had Yu Ji-won been born during the Three Kingdoms period, she could have gathered enough foster fathers to form not just a ser team but an entire league. It had taken hundreds of loops to perfect this method of quickly securing her loyalty.

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It was the 703rd cycle. As always, I brought Ji-won into my party based on an ¡°ancient promise.¡± Afterward, I revealed that I was a regressor. This time, however, I set a slightly different goal. An almost impossibly difficult objective. A quest so ambitious that even Napoleon might have hesitated to include it in his lexicon. ¡ºDoes the Silver-haired Psychopath Understand the Human Heart? Yu Ji-won Rehabilitation Project!¡» This, my friends, was my ultimate passion project. If the demon butler Cube could raise amon girl into a princess, and Helen Keller could be transformed into a remarkable adult under the guidance of Anne Sullivan, then surely a seasoned regressor like me could remodel a psychopath into someone with genuine emotions.[1] ¡°That¡¯s the purpose of this project.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Ji-won hummed, resting her chin on her hand as she stared at the chalkboard. ¡°Pardon me, but I question whether I¡¯m worth pouring so much of your time into.¡± ¡°Oh, this is just a hobby of mine, something I focus on as a pastime. I usually assign myself side quests like this every cycle.¡± ¡°I see. I¡¯m honored to be part of your hobby.¡± For a brief moment, her expression darkened. ¡°But I¡¯m worried.¡± ¡°What¡¯s bothering you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just... I¡¯m already quite ¡®human,¡¯ you see. I fear I cannot be any more human than I already am. How could I possibly satisfy you...?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°?¡± Thus began the psychopath test. (Let¡¯s all solve this together!) Q. In an apocalypse scenario, you break into someone¡¯s home intending to loot it. However, the house is already ransacked, with nothing of value left. On the floor lies the homeowner¡¯s corpse, and next to it is a bottle of bleach. It¡¯s clear theymitted suicide. Nearby, their pet dog is circling the body, seemingly unaware of its owner¡¯s death. What do you think when you see the dog? ¡°Thankfully, I didn¡¯te up empty-handed. I kill the dog for food.¡± Q. Today, you and yourpanions sessfully looted supplies. In the basement, you found a wine cer. ¡°This is amazing!¡± your closepanion A cheers excitedly. ¡°It¡¯s been ages since we¡¯ve had any alcohol! Sure, we should save most of it, but why not let loose and get drunk tonight, just for once?¡± Otherpanions, weary from life in the apocalypse, quickly agree. What do you think is going through A¡¯s mind? ¡°They¡¯re nning to get everyone else drunk so they can hoard the spoils and kill the rest of us. The key clue is that it¡¯s been ages since we¡¯ve had alcohol. It¡¯ll hit fast and hard.¡± Q. How do you feel after killing someone? ¡°Which killing are you referring to...? Oh, well, if you¡¯re referring to the most recent one, then I was relieved. There were already so many bodies around that I didn¡¯t have to bother burying another one. Disposing of corpses is far more tedious than the act of killing itself.¡± Q. What is love? ¡°Love is a justification humans use when they can¡¯t exin their own motives or reasoning. They convince themselves that ¡®This is love¡¯ or ¡®It¡¯s for love¡¯ to rationalize their behavior. In other words, a convenient invention that gives people a feeling of self-satisfaction. ¡°If it¡¯s for oneself, it¡¯s self-love. For others, it¡¯s romantic love. For one¡¯s nation, it¡¯s patriotism. For one¡¯s hometown, it¡¯s regional love. It¡¯s a versatile tool that can be applied anywhere¡ªand quite an effective one, at that.¡± Q. Do you derive any covert pleasure or superiority when exining things like this? ¡°I¡¯m sorry...? I don¡¯t understand the question. Why would anyone derive pleasure from stating simple facts? Such things aren¡¯t granted by concepts like self-assurance, they¡¯re simply innate, akin to having a soul. My soul, as it is, is already noble.¡± Q. Are you pro-Shu, pro-Wei, or pro-Wu? ¡°I support whatever faction you prefer, Your Excellency. Hmm? Sima Yi? What a coincidence! He happens to be my favorite as well.¡±[2] Ding-ding-ding! ¡°Yu Ji-won! Being a psychopath suits you!¡± ¡°Why?¡± she whined, sulking. I continued my efforts to ¡°reform¡± this silver-haired psychopath. I had her assist at orphanages and save ordinary people from life-threatening situations. ¡°How does it feel? Thanks to you, these people¡¯s lives have changed. You even saved their lives. This is true positive influence. Doesn¡¯t it make you proud?¡± ¡°If a life cannot take responsibility for itself, it will soon face danger again. I feel like I wasted my time.¡± Failure! ¡°Ji-won, kindnesses from love. You don¡¯t know love, that¡¯s why you¡¯re cruel. It¡¯s sad that you don¡¯t know love.¡± ¡°Thank you for pitying me, Your Excellency. I¡¯m so frail that I always need your understanding and forgiveness.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about that... Anyway, Ji-won, what you need most right now is romance.¡± She tilted her head. ¡°Romance... you say?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Aplete waste of time. If I were a politician, I¡¯d fake a harmonious family life for votes, but democracy is dead. Why invest in romance? It¡¯s not like my love life is crucial to earning your favor as a key figure, is it?¡± ¡°Actually, it is critical!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll start dating immediately.¡± Unfortunately, even after exhausting all my connections, finding someone who could make Ji-won¡¯s heart flutter was impossible. ¡°Fairy No. 264!¡± I cried. ¡°Help me!¡± ¡°Hoooek! Love is known to trigger dopamine surges in our kind, the Bakus! I¡¯ll dly assist!¡± Even if reality couldn¡¯t provide it, we could create a dream simtion. Thus, we began searching for Ji-won¡¯s ideal partner in her dreams. ¡°Alright, 264. Bring in the most handsome man in the world.¡± ¡°Hoooek! Summoning!¡± ¡°Zzz...¡± As Yu Ji-won slept soundly, oblivious to her surroundings, the tests began. ¡°Hoho! Comrade Undertaker! She just met a super-hunk amalgam of Leonardo DiCaprio and Marlon Brando in their prime!¡± ¡°What was her heart rate?¡± ¡°The same as when she swatted a mosquito at home!¡± Failure. ¡°Bring in someone highly educated and cultured. Someone who doesn¡¯t unt it, no, but radiates a quiet depth of character.¡± ¡°A man so morally perfect that even Jesus and Buddha would want to be his sworn brothers!¡± ¡°Heart rate?¡± ¡°The same as when she saw horse dung on the street.¡± Failure. ¡°Summon the strongest warrior! A born conqueror who can cleave the heavens and storm the battlefield with unmatched might!¡± ¡°Oh! There¡¯s a slight reaction!¡± ¡°You traitor! So you¡¯re into muscle-bound brutes, huh? Well, Ji-won, everyone has a type!¡± ¡°Oh, wait. When the conqueror starts fleeing from Liu Bang, her heart rate drops again.¡± Failure. ¡°What about someone with absolute power in this dream world? Make them unattractive, morally bankrupt, and physically weak.¡± ¡°Hoooooek! Heart rate 90, 100, 110! It¡¯s climbing! This is the highest recorded yet, almost as high as when you appeared in her dream, Comrade Undertaker! But it¡¯s odd. There¡¯s no simrity between you and this figure, aside from power. So why is the response identical?¡± Failure. Thus continued Yu Ji-won¡¯s rehabilitation project, fraught with countless failures and endless humiliation.

Footnotes: [1] Cube is a popr support character in the Princess Maker franchise who helps raise young women into the title of princess while Anne Sullivan was a real-life teacher who taught a blind and deaf Helen Keller how tomunicate. [2] Sima Yi was a talented statesman and general of the Cao Wei dynastic state, one of the three major kingdoms warring for dominance during the Three Kingdoms period. He was so skilled that he gradually amassed power and influence for his family until thest Wei emperors were essentially puppets of the Sima family. Chapter 284 Chapter 284 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hypocrite III After subjugating the Mastermind and venturing beyond the Ural Mountains, I traveled overseas multiple times with Ji-won. The reason was simple. ¡°Ji-won, did you get a good look at New Delhi?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s now visible on the Mini-Map.¡± ¡°Good. Next, let¡¯s visit Naryan-Mar.¡±The goal was to familiarize Ji-won with the cities beyond the mountains and the key figures living within them. As you may already know, once Ji-won fulfills certain conditions, she can mark targets on her Mini-Map. This allowed the Command Center of the National Road Management Corps to have a map of not only the Korean Penins but also the Japanese Archipgo and the entire Eurasian continent as well. Thanks to this, I was able to grasp international affairs remotely, at least to a certain extent. For someone like me, who nned to establish a multinational coalition that would surpass the Korean Awakener Alliance someday, traveling abroad with Ji-won wasn¡¯t optional¡ªit was essential. The same went for the 703rd cycle. ¡°Hmm?¡± However, the moment we hastily made our return to the Korean Penins after marking down Naryan-Mar, I felt an unsettling sense of dissonance. Something was different. ¡®...Why isn¡¯t the Saintess weing me?¡¯ Usually, upon my return to the Korean Penins, the Saintess¡¯s telepathy would soon greet me warmly. [Have you returned, Mr. Undertaker?] or [Nothing unusual happened here while you were away, Mr. Undertaker.] Alternatively, [Mr. Undertaker, there¡¯s trouble! A strange Void appeared while you were gone!] My travels with Ji-won weren¡¯t vacations but, instead, missions with clear objectives. Thus, our departure and return dates were always predetermined. It was evident when and where I would return. Yet, strangely, the Saintess¡¯s voice was absent that day. ¡°G-Guild Leader, you¡¯re back?¡± Instead, Ah-ryeon awaited me at the rendezvous point. She dismissed her escort team and sent them far away, then turned to me and hesitated, looking nervous¡ªa rare expression for someone acting as the Saintess of the North. It was as though she had done something wrong. ¡°Ah-ryeon, why are you here?¡± ¡°Well... The Saintess...¡± She nced at Ji-won briefly. Whatever understanding passed between their exchanged nces had Ji-won taking a few steps back in response. Then Ah-ryeon covered her mouth with the back of her hand and whispered softly, ¡°The Saintess... has passed away.¡±

The Saintess had always boasted an overwhelming survival ratepared to my other allies, including those of the Regressor Alliance. Not 100%, of course. Like anyone else, the Saintess asionally died. In the 670th cycle, she slipped and fell to her death while strolling on the Seongsu Bridge. In another, she was mistakenly killed by an ally. During the 687th cycle, an Outer God directly caused an earthquake in Seoul, annihting her. ¡°She was found near Sinuiju...¡± Do-hwa muttered at the Saintess¡¯s funeral as she cleaned her monocle. ¡°My guess is that she went out to greet you on the day you returned...¡± ¡°The Saintess, who was a hardcore homebody.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like I know myself. Maybe she ventured into unfamiliar territory around Sinuiju and encountered a strange Anomaly.¡± Such incidents had urred before, after all. I thoroughly retraced the Saintess¡¯s path, examining every detail. However, there was no evidence of interference from an Outer God or the Mastermind. It was a simple ident. The Saintess had ventured further than usual to wee me after my long-distance mission. During this rare excursion, an unexpected Anomaly imed her life. ¡°You should¡¯ve insisted on warning her, telling her to stay put and never wander outside.¡± When I didn¡¯t respond, she pushed, ¡°I¡¯ll ask directly. Undertaker, why didn¡¯t you?¡± True, if I had persistently indoctrinated her with warnings about the dangers of the world outside, prohibited even her asional strolls, and earnestly begged her to remain inside, especially since she could freeze time to monitor the entire penins without leaving her home, then she might have agreed. ¡°Yes, I understand,¡± she likely would have agreed with her usual emotionless expression, epting my logic that it was safer. This ¡°what if¡± scenario surfaced vividly in my mind, so vivid that I had to shake my head to dispel the thought.@@novelbin@@ ¡°Noh Do-hwa, Chief of the National Road Management Corps. I see regression not as a method to limit possibilities but to explore numerous alternatives.¡± ¡°Hmm...?¡± ¡°Imagine I kidnap the elderly patients under your care and coerce you into following mymands with threats to their well-being. Now know that day will nevere.¡± Do-hwa¡¯s eyes, including the one magnified by her monocle, widened slightly. Her wless, obsidian-like pupils reflected my face. We didn¡¯t speak after that. The Saintess¡¯s funeral was modest. The mourners consisted solely of members of the Regressor Alliance. Thus, in the nearly empty mortuary, Do-hwa¡¯s subdued voice carried effortlessly. ¡°This is surprising. I didn¡¯t expect you to be capable of conjuring up such scenarios...¡± Was it just my imagination? Despite my harsh words, Do-hwa didn¡¯t seem displeased. If anything, she appeared slightly amused. Her gloved fingers, thin as fins, stirred the air deliberately. ¡°Would you like to try?¡± She drew her finger slowly along the line from my cheekbone to my jaw. A faint leathery scent, mingled with her body¡¯s natural aroma, wafted past me. ¡°If you always wore such an expression, I might find it more entertaining.¡± ¡°Noh Do-hwa.¡± ¡°Yes, I apologize. It¡¯s improper to revel too much at someone else¡¯s funeral. Learning how you behave when thedy from Yongsan dies made today worthwhile.¡± Shall we discuss business now? Her words ended with an unmistakable smirk.

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With the Saintess gone, the copse ofw and order across the Korean Penins¡ªand the ultimate defense line¡ªwas inevitable. Several cycles passed after that. From my perspective as a regressor, I had ample time to prepare countermeasures. ¡°Seo Gyu, how¡¯s public sentiment?¡± ¡°Hmm. On SG Net, people seem mostly convinced.¡± I had long prepared ¡°what if¡± scenarios for the Saintess¡¯s disappearance. Recing her role entirely was impossible. No one could match her irreceable value. However, while extending her presence wasn¡¯t feasible, I could mask her absence.

Author: Collector of All Anomalies Greetings, Awakeners of the Korean Penins. You must have been taken aback by the disappearance of the starlit voices that have nurtured you like infants until now. Rejoice! The vile Constetions that treated you like immature children have been imprisoned by me, the Collector of All Anomalies! You are all capable of growing and standing tall as fully-fledged humans, yet these insidious Constetions kept you confined within their shallow boundaries. How pitiful of them, don¡¯t you agree? Just like a child with overbearing parents, you must have felt suffocated. Well, they weren¡¯t even your parents to begin with. Laughs. Even now, I can sense their wrathful cries from where I have them imprisoned. Rest assured, I¡¯ve secretly captured and confined these wicked Constetions, so there¡¯s no need for concern. May you recognize me, the Collector of All Anomalies, as your true and sole guardian. With this, I take my leave. Farewell. Closes with a flourish.

This deception was branded as the ¡°Constetions¡¯ Abduction Plot.¡± To support the lie, SG Net underwent a drastic redesign. Its formerly white-dominated interface was transformed into a sinister red-and-ck theme that oozed an ominous aura. Seo Gyu sighed after locking his smartphone screen. ¡°At first, I figured everyone would see through it as a cover-up attempt, but surprisingly, it¡¯s working really well.¡± ¡°From the beginning, SG Net was framed as amunity created by Constetions, not humans.¡± ¡°Wow. You¡¯re always two steps ahead, aren¡¯t you, boss?¡± Perhaps. Though I spoke confidently, this was the first time I¡¯d tested this n, which had only existed as a theoretical scenario, during the 703rd cycle. The Collector of All Anomalies was a viin who had consistently attracted the ire of Awakeners. Many mistakenly believed that the Anomalies, such as the Ten Legs and Meteor Shower, were all her subordinates. ¡°The key phrase here is that the Constetions were abducted, not annihted. If they had simply disappeared, their faith would have evaporated too. But with the hope of their eventual return, belief can be even more entrenched.¡± This gamble of mine worked partially. - With the pesky Constetions gone, I¡¯ll now live solely for myself! - The Constetions are dead, and for 20 days, the Korean Awakeners endured unparalleled agony...! Some people dered their newfound freedom and acted recklessly. However, most remained faithful. - The Constetions are being held by that damned Collector! They¡¯re watching us even if they can¡¯t speak for now. - Live however you want, but when the Constetions return, they¡¯ll punishwbreakers first! - The Constetions are watching you! The overwhelming majority clung to their connection with the Constetions. This steadfastness resulted in a favorable ratio of 1:9, where only one out of ten acted out. Still, even this small percentage led to crimes that hadn¡¯t urred while the Saintess was present. ¡°This cycle leaves us no choice but to fortify our foundations...¡± ¡°Pardon? What was that, boss?¡± ¡°Nothing. I was just thinking I¡¯ll have to work even harder.¡± ¡°Geez, you¡¯re the most diligent person I¡¯ve ever seen. Even earlier, you worked your legs off with me during training.¡± ¡°Exercise is necessary, no matter how busy you are.¡± Time passed in a blur. The schedule of a regressor was already grueling, but filling in for the Saintess made it all the more demanding. I was so busy that upon returning to the Inunaki Tunnel, Dok-seo and Ha-yul would rush over in concern. ¡°Whoa, are you okay, mister? Your under-eye circles look like Do-hwa¡¯s now.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. It¡¯s manageable.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You¡¯ve gotten really good at shoulder massages, Ha-yul. I don¡¯t feel any tension at all.¡± Through relentless effort, I managed to maintain the Korean Penins¡¯s security and unity. Thankfully, my advanced Awakeners physique allowed me to function even after over a week without sleep. Otherwise, my mind would have crumbled long ago. ¡°Wee back, Your Excellency.¡± Oh, right. In the 703rd cycle, Ji-won ended up staying in the Inunaki Tunnel instead of the National Road Management Corps¡¯ headquarters. With the Saintess gone, the strategic value of Ji-won¡¯s Mini-Map had be critical. It allowed us to track Awakeners¡¯ movements, establish alibis, and monitor disappearances. Without the Mini-Map, my schedule would have exceeded its limits. ¡°Well done today, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Thanks, Ji-won. But why are you still in uniform even here? You can dress casually where you live, you know?¡± ¡°I find this uniform to be the mostfortable attire.¡± Ji-won always wore her National Road Management Corps uniform, even when off-duty. ¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± I conceded. ¡°Anyway, no major disappearances while I was gone, right?¡± ¡°There were six disappearances in total.¡± ¡°Oh no. Were they due to Anomalies?¡± ¡°Various causes. They¡¯re individual cases rather than group disappearances.¡± Regrettably, I couldn¡¯t personally investigate every missing person. Even when the Saintess was alive, such a task was impossible. The following years were a whirlwind of activity. Ji-won¡¯s role grew closer to that of my personal secretary than of a team leader. She spent as much time waiting in the Inunaki Tunnel as she did reporting to the Corps. ¡®...It feels like the 5th cycle again.¡¯ Back then, Ji-won was my direct underling before she began building her career as a key figure within the Corps. It was a natural fit for us, and not just in my eyes either¡ªher gaze toward me asionally carried a hint of camaraderie that had been absent in earlier cycles. ¡°Undertaker, it¡¯s been a while since you brewed me coffee...¡± ¡°Hmm? Oh, sure.¡± One day, Do-hwa called for a private meeting. Her off-handedment caught me off guard. ¡°Team Leader Yu has been abducting peopletely. Any idea why...?¡±

Footnotes: Chapter 285 Chapter 285 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hypocrite IV ¡°Well, at first, it was just a suspicion...¡± ¡°Team Leader Yu. You know how elusive she is¡ªalways quick, always thorough with cleanup. Most importantly, they can track Awakeners¡¯ routes in real-time with her Mini-Map.¡± ¡°It¡¯s almost impossible to catch someone like that by the tail...¡± I stared nkly at the ceiling. Thanks to my Complete Memory, what Do-hwa told me yesterday reyed in perfect detail on the dark ceiling above me. In my mind¡¯s eye, it was recreated with such rity that it felt indistinguishable from reality.In this vividly imagined scene, Do-hwa murmured to me softly. ¡°So, I nurtured her...¡± Nurtured? I had asked, puzzled. ¡°Not as an Awakener, but an ordinary troop member.¡± Do-hwa¡¯s half-lidded eyes gleamed. ¡°You see, even if someonecks Awakening abilities, they can still master stealth and tracking skills...¡± ¡°Why are you so surprised? Surely, you know this. Plenty of civilians join the National Road Management Corps with aspirations to serve humanity and y Anomalies.¡± ¡°After training them for two years on the field, they became reasonablypetent. I filtered and refined them, then assigned them to track Team Leader Yu. I deliberately recruited civilians whom that person wouldn¡¯t recognize, so they wouldn¡¯t appear on the Mini-Map.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you know it? Reports came in of Team Leader Yu dragging helpless civilianste at night toward the entrance of the Inunaki Tunnel. Covertly.¡± Evidence? ¡°Here, I¡¯ve got photos.¡± Do-hwa¡¯s whiteb coat billowed loosely as she handed me the evidence. ¡°Remember when I asked to borrow that spirit camera? I rented it just to take these photos. The quality isn¡¯t the best, but...¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°You trust that device implicitly, don¡¯t you? I figured this would be the fastest way to convince you.¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°So.¡± Do-hwa interlocked her fingers and rested her chin on them. Despite the gravity of our discussion, amusement seemed to dance within her eyes. ¡°Did you know?¡± Her pitch-ck eyes gazed at me¡ªa void of flowing emotions, a dark pit waiting for me to fall into it. Her eyes made no pretense of hiding their intent: to topple me and trap me in the abyss of her stare. ¡°Ah, so you didn¡¯t...¡± ¡°I suppose even someone like you can¡¯t know or predict everything. Was it a few years ago? Like you said yourself, regression isn¡¯t about limiting possibilities but rather about blooming all of them.¡± ¡°The fact that you were unaware of something¡ªeven about a colleague so close to you¡ªmakes today worthwhile.¡± Do-hwa stood up. Even though the coffee she had asked me to make sat untouched on the table, she didn¡¯t so much as nce at it. Only the faint steam from the now-cold cup lingered, existing halfway between presence and absence. ¡°Your Excellency?¡± The illusion shattered. When I lowered my gaze, I saw Ji-won cing a coffee cup on the table. ¡°You seemed deep in thought, so I brought some coffee. It can¡¯tpare to Your Excellency¡¯s barista skills, but I hope it lightens the weight of your concerns.¡± For a moment, I only stared at the cup. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s my pleasure.¡± I sipped the coffee Ji-won had prepared. It was delicious¡ªperfectly suited to my taste. Uncannily so. ¡°It¡¯s very good...¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± As I let the caf¨¦ auit linger on my tongue, I nced at Ji-won. She had always had a keen appreciation for coffee. After discovering my passion for being a barista, she had transitioned from a mere admirer of coffee to a creator herself. Ji-won was, at her core, capable. Had she chosen to be a politician, artist, entrepreneur, NGO activist, stock trader, journalist, cocktail bartender, or chef, she would still have risen to the top 0.1%. While others stumbled through failures and groped toward sess by converting those failures into experiences, Ji-won always calcted the optimal route. She distinguished who to ally with and who to discard, pouring her full effort into buildingworks and seizing power with earnest dedication. ¡°But I still have much to learn. I¡¯ve only mastered the basics of making caf¨¦ auit. I can¡¯t yet create the variety of coffees Your Excellency can. Your guidance will be invaluable.¡± Behold. Despite her natural inclination toward malice, she had sessfully positioned herself as the ally of a regressor like me. Once again, I¡¯ll say this seriously: If I hadn¡¯t been the protagonist of this regression, Ji-won would have made for a far more fitting lead. ¡°Yesterday.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± I hummed, still deep in thought. ¡°I heard you met with Do-hwa, the Corps leader. You seem particrly deep in thought today, did your conversation touch on anything serious?¡± She had already deduced my movements. It was to be expected. If I were her, I too would have made monitoring a regressor¡¯s route my top priority. Setting my coffee cup down, I donned a casual expression. ¡°We discussed a few topics. Among them was you, Ji-won.¡± ¡°Me, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Indeed. She said she¡¯s confused about whether you¡¯re the Operations Team Leader for the National Road Management Corps or my personal secretary. She asked how long I n to keep you detained.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Ji-won blinked slowly. ¡°I¡¯ve handed over most duties to the deputy team leader. While I must asionally use my Mini-Map to assist with special operations, for the majority of tasks, administrative efficiency remains at about 60% of its usual level.¡± ¡°Do you think Do-hwa would be satisfied with 60%?¡± ¡°Probably not. But right now, working closely with Your Excellency is far more efficient.¡± ¡°Oh? Are you nning to change jobs outright?¡± ¡°If Your Excellency permits, I would dly do so.¡± When I didn¡¯t respond, she continued, saying, ¡°I genuinely believe this ce is humanity¡¯s final line of defense.¡± It had been nearly four years since we established the Inunaki Tunnel as our home base, and Ji-won¡¯s attire had changed significantly since then. In the early days, she exclusively wore the National Road Management Corps¡¯ uniform. Over time, her outfits became more rxed. First, she abandoned the cloak, then transitioned from a formal uniform to business attire, from business attire to casual business wear, then to sportswear. Eventually, she began dressing in what could only be described as loungewear when in private spaces. At this moment, the clothes she wore while serving me coffee were practically indistinguishable from pajamas¡ªloose sweatpants paired with an oversized long-sleeved shirt. ¡®Have I made her toofortable?¡¯ I wondered whether this newfound fort¡± between us stemmed from her experiencing a genuinely rxed rtionship for the first time, or whether she had misinterpreted my preference for ¡°ease¡± as a directive to diminish her individuality, leaving her a hollowed-out shell. For Ji-won, would there even be a difference between the two? ¡°Thank you for the coffee.¡± ¡°It¡¯s an honor, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Why did you kidnap those people?¡± The question was undoubtedly a sudden ambush from her perspective. In moments of such surprise, people¡¯s reactions usually fell into predictable categories: denial, outrage, counter-questioning, or demands for proof. ¡°I deemed it necessary.¡± Ji-won¡¯s response fell into none of the above. After dismembering her family and abandoning the remains in the Minari Pond of Seoul¡¯s Dobong Mountain as a middle schooler at the age of 14, Ji-won had always prepared for the possibility of her actions being discovered. Thus, when confronted with a situation she had invariably already anticipated, she never faltered. This moment was no exception. Ji-won had already pieced together all the relevant information: ? Yesterday, the Undertaker met with Noh Do-hwa. ? Noh Do-hwa likely shared information about the ¡°kidnappings¡± with the Undertaker. ? Noh Do-hwa, being the methodical type, would have used irrefutable evidence rather than subjective reasoning to convince the Undertaker. ? The Undertaker therefore likely possesses undeniable proof. ? Denying the allegations would be an act of foolishness. Just as one would move pieces on a chessboard, Ji-won treated my sudden question as just another move in the game. Her response was calcted, part of the ongoing exchange.@@novelbin@@ ¡°Necessary?¡± I echoed. ¡°For what purpose?¡± ¡°Seeing is believing, Your Excellency. Could you wait for a moment?¡± Had I been an ordinary investigator, allowing a suspect who had just admitted to their crime to leave would have been unthinkable. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll wait here.¡± ¡°Thank you, Your Excellency.¡± But my rtionship with Ji-won was neither that of a criminal and a cop nor a counselor and a patient. Her being a psychopath and serial killer, devoid of human emotion, was irrelevant. We walked the thin line separating life and death together in many a situation. We had stumbled and risen together. That was all that mattered. ¡°Thank you for waiting, Your Excellency.¡± I drained thest of my coffee as I waited, and Ji-won eventually returned, dressed in her full National Road Management Corps uniform. It had been years since I¡¯d seen her in it. The ck-and-white attire symbolized paving paths through the Void. It was clear she had maintained it meticulously, always ready for reuse. ¡°Allow me to escort you.¡± ¡°To where?¡± ¡°To the location where the abducted individuals are being held.¡±

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We exited the caf¨¦ base through the emergency door, which led directly into the dark expanse of the original Inunaki Tunnel. Though I had transformed it into the ¡°Underwater Tunnel,¡± Inunaki Tunnel remained, at its core, an Anomaly that had once severed the Japanese archipgo. Beneath the veneer of my modificationsy its true, ominous form. ¡°It¡¯s been quite some time. I still vividly remember watching Your Excellency tame the Inunaki Tunnel and reshape it at will.¡± Ji-won¡¯s footsteps echoed loudly in the tunnel. Mud sshed as we walked, but somehow her shoes and trousers remained pristine. Even on battlefields, she had been like this. No matter the filth around her, she always maintained her immacte appearance, earning both mockery and fear from others. While some dismissed her as if she were on a fashion runway rather than a battlefield, deep down, they were terrified of her precise Aura maniption. ¡°Anomalies and Voids can be altered by human will¡ªor at least, the Inunaki Tunnel can. That¡¯s why Your Excellency chose this as your stronghold, is it not?¡± I didn¡¯t respond. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. If Your Excellency can do it, then surely I can too.¡± We came to a fork in the tunnel. Ji-won didn¡¯t take either path. Instead, she pressed against a section of the wall, knocking on it lightly. Suddenly, without sound or warning, a staircase appeared. ¡°Of course, I wouldn¡¯t dare ce my abilities on the same level as yours. It¡¯s simply a matter of potential.¡± Ji-won descended the emergency stairs as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I followed silently. ¡°It wasn¡¯t difficult. Thanks to Your Excellency¡¯s prior work taming this ce, all I had to do was add a little DLC.¡± The staircase was pitch dark, but Ji-won moved with unwavering confidence, as though she had memorized every step. ¡°Did you know, Your Excellency? When constructing underwater tunnels, emergency spaces are always built below to prepare for flooding.¡± ¡°I did.¡± ¡°As expected of Your Excellency. Yes. The moment you gave the Inunaki Tunnel its new identity as the ¡®Underwater Tunnel,¡¯ it opened up the potential to insert such emergency spaces.¡± She paused briefly before adding, ¡°The most challenging part was designing the space itself. It made me marvel once again at Your Excellency¡¯s skill in transforming this tunnel into a caf¨¦.¡± Again, she waited to see if I would respond. ¡°I don¡¯t have such artistic talent, but after a year of work, I managed to create something passable.¡± Ji-won reached the bottom of the stairs. In the depths of this underwater abyss, dim lights flickered to life, illuminating the scene before us. ¡°Allow me to introduce it to you, though it is an embarrassing effort.¡± The yellow-tinged light revealed an unmistakable sight¡ªa prison. Iron bars lined the space, holding countless people. However, even ¡°prison¡± felt inadequate to describe what I saw. Inside each cell, an array of torture devices was on disy, with people restrained in grotesque positions. ¡°This is aboratory designed to artificially create Awakeners from ordinary civilians.¡± As groans of half-dead souls echoed around us, Ji-won turned toward me with her expression as cold as ever. ¡°I call it the ¡®Misfortune Workshop.¡¯¡±

Footnotes: Chapter 286 Chapter 286 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hypocrite V Is it possible for a psychopath to love? Allow me to rephrase that. The question as it stands is overly broad and provocative, so let us narrow it down for rity: Is it possible for a psychopath to hold something in as high esteem as they hold themselves, with exactly the same weight of importance? Most would likely think it impossible. After all, if psychopaths could allow another human being to hold equal importance to themselves, they wouldn¡¯t be considered psychopaths to begin with. We refer to such people as normal.But if you think about it, aren¡¯t psychopaths inherently far removed from the realm of normality? Those who obsessively crave power to the point of dismantling life¡¯s bnce and society¡¯s morality. Those who recklessly pursue their personal desires at the cost of destroying daily life. Those who deviate from the natural course, fanatically yearning for a faith to the point of being called zealots. People who reshape the world to fit their contours, rather than conforming to the outlines the world offers. ¡°I trust without a shadow of a doubt that Your Excellency is already aware.¡± And thus, imagine a scenario in which the ¡°what if¡± became what is. ¡°The boundary between regr humans and Awakeners is blurrier than one might think. Why is it that someone who was just an ordinary human being suddenly bes enlightened and gains extraordinary powers? What is the cause? What is the principle?¡± If a psychopath came to know good... If they pursued the ¡°salvation of the world¡± with the same absolute dedication they reserved for themselves alone... What would happen? ¡°I was curious, and I have hence sufficiently satisfied my curiosity.¡± The answer stood before my eyes. ¡°Misery. Wounds. Trauma.¡± Not the correct answer, nor a solution. Instead, it was closer to a wrong answer or a facy. Yet, however undeniably, it served as an answer to one question. Yu Ji-won of the 703rd cycle existed. ¡°Ordinary people Awaken through these emotions and events. In other words, both natural and artificial misfortunes yield the same results... Your Excellency. This Misfortune Workshop I¡¯ve established is the ultimate ¡®Awakener Factory.¡¯ It is the frontline that will ultimately ovee humanity¡¯s crisis.¡± Indeed. By the 3rd regression, the South Korean Branch Chief of the Church of Unhappiness¡ªa founding member of my party¡ªhad already grasped the information I had worked so hard to conceal as a regressor. Even if I had gone to great lengths to hide it, it was inevitable that Ji-won would one day uncover the truth herself.

Back when the Saintess was still alive, she and I had once nned out my route for this regression. It was a conversation we always had, even in other cycles, to ensure that this particr piece of information was passed on. ¡°Saintess, you must act as a proxy for the Constetions and actively share information with the Awakeners. However, the opposite role is also necessary.¡± ¡°Opposite, you say. May I ask what you mean?¡± ¡°The distortion and concealment of information is also essential.¡± We plotted in the temple¡ªa giant aquarium with fish shadows floating across its walls. ¡°If we leave someone like Jung So-hee unchecked, the pseudo-religion known as the Church of Unhappiness will spread widely across the Korean Penins. The problem lies in the fact that part of the Church¡¯s doctrine contains truths.¡± The secret that powerful misfortune Awakens immense abilities. The Saintess, upon hearing this, nodded slowly. ¡°That is dangerous information, indeed.¡± ¡°Yes. Those engrossed in the Church of Unhappiness randomly abduct people or, in extreme cases, manufacture infants in factories to offer as sacrifices at their altars.¡± ¡°Calling them altars is... certainly generous. They¡¯re essentially torture chambers.¡± ¡°Precisely,¡± I said with a bitterugh. ¡°Ordinary people grow ustomed to misfortune. However, there are rare kinds of misfortunes one cannot grow ustomed to, the type that feels like a wound etched into one¡¯s skin, bones, or heart. If we do nothing, there will always be rulers or zealots who farm and harvest this seed of evil.¡± Quietly, the Saintess looked over my face. Across her expressionless gaze rippled shadows of water. ¡°Understood. But why have you not adopted this methodology, Mr. Undertaker? The more Awakeners we have, the more allies of humanity we¡¯ll gain.¡± ¡°Are they truly allies of humanity?¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Deliberately subjecting individuals to constant, life-long suffering in order to mass-produce Awakeners. Inflicting unrelenting misfortunes that one can never adapt to, ensuring misery at every moment... Would these Awakeners truly side with humanity?¡± She didn¡¯t respond. ¡°It¡¯s self-defeating. A suicidal move.¡± It might sound absurd, but this is where the fundamental difference between ¡°natural-born¡± and ¡°farm-raised¡± Awakeners lies. Is their hatred directed at Anomalies? Or do they despise humanity itself? ¡°Even some natural-born Awakeners scorn humanity, of course,¡± I answered, ¡°but most harbor deeper hatred for Anomalies.¡± ¡°We lost our daily lives to Anomalies, had our civilization and reason mocked, and lost our loved ones...¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± I met the Saintess¡¯s eyes directly and said, ¡°The deeper the wounds inflicted by Anomalies, the deeper the hatred for them. Even individuals like Dang Seo-rin or Cheon Yo-hwa, who may sh on a personal level, unite seamlessly against Anomalies.¡± ¡°But if humans themselves exploit misfortune, inflicting suffering on others to create Awakeners... those Awakeners wouldn¡¯t support humanity. They¡¯d spearhead its annihtion.¡± I nodded, remaining silent for the length of time it took an angelfish to swim from one end of the tank to the other. Then finally, I spoke. ¡°He who gazes into the void must be careful not to be the Void. If we lose our humanity, we be no different from Anomalies.¡± ¡°I must say... This presents a significant problem,¡± the Saintess murmured. ¡°Even when civilization was intact, few upheld their humanity with pure-hearted intent. Now, in a world poisoned by the Void, we¡¯re expected to polish our humanity...¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we need your strength, Saintess. Even if you must y the role of the Constetions, even if you must instill the notion that someone is watching them, it is necessary to prevent people from straying.¡± ¡°Quite the burden on my shoulders.¡± To an outsider, her face might have appeared devoid of expression. To me, however, her tone of voice dered in no uncertain terms that my words deeply resonated with her. ¡°But it¡¯s something I must do. Only I can do it. So I will.¡± That was our promise. However, to confess the truth, I withheld one final secret from the Saintess.

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¡°I fully understand Your Excellency¡¯s concerns.¡± And so we return to the voice of Yu Ji-won. ¡°Aah, aaaaaah. Ugh, ugh...¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. For beingfortable, for not being in pain, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Is anyone there?! I... I¡¯m Kim Jae-gu, born in Gimhae and heading to Busan¡¯s Yeonsan-dong! Please, let my family know I¡¯m alive!¡± ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± The Misfortune Workshop constructed below in the Inunaki Tunnel was a meticulously designed prison of solitary confinement cells. It imprisoned not only the bodies but even the sounds of its captives. But I could hear it. And while perhaps not as keenly as I, Ji-won, among the top five in the Korean Penins for Aura mastery, could undoubtedly hear it too. ¡°Even if you mass-produce Awakeners this way, you can¡¯t brainwash them into believing in some grand cause for humanity. Isn¡¯t that your concern? There is a solution.¡± Even though I hadn¡¯t said a word, she followed my line of thought as if it were obvious. The two of us were overly familiar with each other¡¯s logic. For Yu Ji-won, I, as a regressor, was the key to the world¡¯s rise or fall. She studied me as a physicist would study thews of physics. ¡°First. Using Baekhwa High¡¯s Student Council President¡¯s NPC Creation, we can brainwash them into bing a united force fueled by hatred for Anomalies.¡± ¡°But Yo-hwa wouldn¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°Indeed. More precisely, the orange-haired student council president would never act in a way that Your Excellency doesn¡¯t desire or request. No matter the means, I could never hold equal weight to Your Excellency in her heart.¡± A truly unfortunate matter... Ji-wonmented in her usual tone, ¡°Thus, the second method. Can you guess what it is, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Role division...¡±@@novelbin@@ ¡°Exactly.¡± She gave a deep bow of her head as a nod. ¡°As expected of Your Excellency. Precisely. There¡¯s no need for these mass-produced Awakeners to ¡®love all of humanity.¡¯¡± Just one person. ¡°Someone who saved them from this hellish torment... It¡¯s a simple principle. Think of it as a variation of the good cop, bad cop dynamic. Bad Cop A imprisons people and subjects them to misery and suffering. Conversely, Good Cop B defeats the wicked A and rescues them.¡± I sighed in exasperation. ¡°You¡¯re right. As you said, if one person embodies misfortune while another embodies salvation, we wouldn¡¯t even need to use Yo-hwa¡¯s brainwashing techniques. It would naturally attract the mass-produced Awakeners to their side.¡± This was the information I hadn¡¯t shared with the Saintess. Perhaps she had subconsciously realized it, but neither of us ever dared to voice it. ¡°Yes.¡± However, Ji-won was different. The silver-haired psychopath not only conceived of this possibility but actively, earnestly, and willingly brought it to life. ¡°I volunteer to y the role of the bad cop, Your Excellency. Please, be the savior... No one is better suited for the role of the bad cop than I am.¡± She took a step closer to me. ¡°The Saintess is too gentle. She empathizes too deeply with others¡¯ pain. Dang Seo-rin, Sim Ah-ryeon, Lee Ha-yul, Seo Gyu, and Oh Dok-seo all have their own reasons for being unfit... Cheon Yo-hwa and Chief Noh Do-hwa might be suitable, but Your Excellency holds those two in great esteem. You wouldn¡¯t use them as disposable tools for the bad cop role, would you?¡± Yu Ji-won ced a hand over her heart. ¡°I am different from them... I am aspetent as they are, if not more so. The fact that I constructed the Misfortune Workshop without detection already proves my capabilities.¡± Even Do-hwa, who was by no means ipetent, only witnessed Ji-won¡¯s ¡°abduction¡± but failed to detect this massive prison¡¯s construction. ¡°Furthermore, even if Your Excellency used me as a disposable piece, I would harbor no resentment¡ªno negative emotions or any trivial sentiments whatsoever.¡± I didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Cheon Yo-hwa? She would dly align with Your Excellency¡¯s intentions but would simultaneously seek reassurance that she holds a unique ce in Your Excellency¡¯s heart.¡± Ji-won drew even closer. ¡°Chief Noh Do-hwa? Likewise, though she would cooperate with Your Excellency¡¯s ns, she would also attempt to assert her significance in Your Excellency¡¯s mind.¡± Even closer. ¡°But as I said, I am different.¡± Under the dim lighting, her silver hair glimmered with a dark sheen. ¡°I am a psychopath. I do not crave Your Excellency¡¯s love. I have no need for affection or attention, nor do I seek hatred or indifference... Simply keeping me alive and utilizing me fulfills the capacity I aimed to upy in Your Excellency¡¯s heart. Your Excellency, even psychopaths have their uses.¡± Ji-won took one final step, then stopped. She was now directly in front of me. Somewhere, deeper than 1,200 meters below the surface, the faint, earthy scent of freshly washed strawberries wafted. ¡°Even if Your Excellency discards me as a mere tool, I have no regrets. You understand this, don¡¯t you?¡± Finally, I spoke. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then our meeting can be called fate. Your Excellency has led me, a psychopath, toward good. I can perform roles that others cannot for Your Excellency¡¯s greater good.¡± Ji-won gazed at me with unwavering eyes, her head tilted up to meet mine. ¡°Use me, Your Excellency... Save them. Embrace and guide the Awakeners who havee to hate me. Lead them to side with humanity... And then discard me.¡± Ji-won. Personal color: silver. My first confidant and secretary. She spoke. ¡°I was undoubtedly born to take on this role.¡±

Footnotes: Chapter 287 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hypocrite VI When people hear the name ¡°Schopenhauer,¡± they often think of the philosopher¡ªthe ancestor of Old Man Scho¡ªwho once left behind an analogy: Each person is akin to a distinct species. It is a wonderfully simple truth that dogs and cats are different species. On a simr level, the Saintess and Yu Ji-won are practically different species altogether. Let¡¯s use an example. [Good morning, Mr. Undertaker. How are you today?]A simple greeting. However, even if the exact same phrase is spoken, it holds slightly different meanings between the Saintess and me. ¨D Mr. Undertaker does not sleep. ¨D And neither do I. I pause time, sleep, and awaken within a second. ¨D In our days, ¡°morning¡± holds little significance. ¨D For others, morning marks a beginning, but for us, it¡¯s merely a segment in an unending continuum. ¨D Still, I greet you with a ¡°Good morning¡± when sunlight touches the sky. ¨D Because, for that brief moment, I want to share the start of a day with you as a fellow human being living in this world. Layers uponyers of meaning. Wishes and hopes hidden beneath the words. Context and subtext interwoven into strata of understanding. And thus: [Good morning, Mr. Undertaker. How are you today?] Standing atop these manyyers, we findmon ground atst, like old friends exchanging a single phrase loaded with unspoken sentiments. The Saintess and I, having shared the longest time together on Earth, hardly needed words between us. In that sense, she and I were likely a unique species of our own. After all, who else could use the simple phrases ¡°Good morning¡± and ¡°How are you?¡± to convey so much? ¡°Good morning, Your Excellency.¡± Even Yu Ji-won belonged to her own species. For the silver-haired leader of the National Road Management Corps¡¯ operations team, the phrase ¡°Good morning¡± carried an entirely different weight. ¨D Nothing unusual happened overnight. ¨D As of this morning, there are no observable signs of threats to our forces. ¨D Internally, the National Road Management Corps remains stable. As you may already know, I will immediately report any significant developments. ¨D I am also in peak condition. I am prepared tomence any operation at yourmand. ¨D My readiness is demonstrated by my perfectly adjusted attire, my clear and unwavering voice, and my immacte salute that anyone would admire. Thus: ¡°Good morning, Your Excellency.¡± When dealing with the species known as Yu Ji-won, I had to abandon conventionalnguage in favor of the unique dialect of Yu Ji-wonese. ¡°Use me, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°I was undoubtedly born to take on this role.¡± ¡°And then discard me.¡± These were her words. For years, she had evaded both me and Noh Do-hwa, kidnapping civilians, incarcerating them in the Misfortune Workshop, subjecting them to relentless torture, and artificially producing Awakeners¡ªall with an expression devoid of emotion. ??????¨¨? My response to such a Ji-won was simple. ¡°Ji-won.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Excellency?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s start with a beating.¡± As ancient humanity demonstrated, fists have always been the ultimate universalnguage. I nted my back foot and grabbed Ji-won¡¯s arm, pulling her forward. ¡°Hm.¡± She showed no surprise, nor did she resist. As if she had always anticipated a sudden ambush, she calmly extended her forearm to me. I lifted her effortlessly and mmed her into the ground. Boom! The underwater tunnel shook. The cries and groans of the prisoners still restrained in the torture devices trembled along with it. A crater formed in the ground where, as the dust cleared, Ji-wony at the bottom, sprawled but unflinching as she stared up at me. ¡°My apologies, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°For what?¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t decide whether to use my Aura to defend myself or to deactivate it and endure Your Excellency¡¯s violence. Which would you have preferred?¡± ¡°Turn off your Aura.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Szzzzzt. A faint blue-tinged gray Aura dissipated around her. Interestingly, Ji-won¡¯s Aura color bore a slight resemnce to my own inky-ck hue.@@novelbin@@ ¡°However, without using Aura to block a strike of this magnitude, my survival cannot be guaranteed. Perhaps we should summon Sim Ah-ryeon?¡± ¡°No need to worry about that.¡± I took off my coat and set my ever-present cane-sword, Do-hwa, neatly atop it. Then, I loosened my wrists. ¡°I won¡¯t be using Aura either.¡± Ji-won tilted her head, taking a moment to formte her response. ¡°Your Excellency, are you angry?¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you be?¡± ¡°Hm.¡± A soft hum. ¡°That¡¯s... troubling.¡± ¡°I trust you haven¡¯t neglected your training by relying solely on Aura,¡± I said. ¡°Come at me with everything you¡¯ve got, Operations Team Leader Ji-won. If you don¡¯t want to feel hellish pain.¡±

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Before she could reply, I lunged at her again. Though my speed was noticeably slower without Aura, the same held true for her. With conditions now equal, Ji-won¡¯s movements were just as sluggish. I feinted an uppercut toward her abdomen¡ª Bam! ¡ªbefore mming my fist into her left shoulder instead. ¡°Urgh.¡± A short groan. The fact that it was brief was almost miraculous. I had clearly felt her bone fracture slightly beneath my knuckles. Ji-won staggered back a step and threw a punch of her own. I dodged it with a simple tilt of my head. ¡°How did¡ª? Your punching strength, it¡¯s¡ª¡± ¡°If you don¡¯te at me with full force, this will end quickly, Team Leader.¡± My warning barely finished when she retrieved something from her pocket¡ªa hatchet. Ji-won gripped the hatchet in one hand and hurled it, while her other hand swung another hatchet directly at me. ng! I caught the flying hatchet¡¯s handle mid-air, countering her strike. Ji-won¡¯s typically stoic eyes widened for once. ¡°Incredible.¡± ¡°You¡¯re using real weapons in a spar? Still no trace of sportsmanship, I see.¡± ¡°How did you...? Without Aura to enhance your reflexes, how could you possibly catch a flying hatchet...?¡± ¡°Your legs are open.¡± I pressed the hatchet down, disrupting her posture, and swung my leg like a whip to strike her shin. Crack! This time, the bone broke definitively. Ji-won bit her lip, releasing a muffled groan of pain. ¡°You need to work on your lower body strength, Team Leader.¡± ¡°Ugh, huff, urgh...!¡± Even in such a state, she reached for another hidden weapon and pulled out a device resembling an electronic cigarette. She exhaled sharply into it, causing a sharp spike toe shooting out, piercing my forearm. ¡°Tch.¡± Caught off guard by the unconventional weapon, I failed to evade in time. Had I not moved, it would¡¯ve embedded itself in my throat. ¡°That¡¯s not from the Tang Sect.[1] What is this?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t exactly carry firearms openly. This is my secret weapon.¡± ¡°Secret, huh? Did you get Do-hwa to make it? She has a curious knack for crafting things like this.¡± I pulled the spike out, blood trickling down my arm as I toyed with it, twisting it between my fingers. ¡°Let¡¯s hope she didn¡¯t coat it with some obscure poison I¡¯m unfamiliar with.¡± No response. ¡°Just so you know, I achieved nearplete poison immunity roughly 800 years ago.¡± ¡°Monster.¡± Ji-won spat and wiped the corner of her mouth. Her fractured arm and leg must have been agonizing, yet her voice carried an odd excitement¡ªa joy almost akin to glee. ¡°You truly are a human toi¡ª weapon, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°Your pronunciation just slurred enough for that to sound like ¡®human toilet.¡¯ Am I mistaken?¡± ¡°Baseless nder, Your Excellency. Your hearing must be going in your old age.¡± At that moment, Ji-won pressed her palm onto a specific section of the tiled floor. The ceiling above me copsed, sending debris crashing down. I jerked in surprise at the sight. ¡°Apologies, but this is my domain.¡± I dodged the falling rubble by a hair¡¯s breadth, but Ji-won used the distraction to gain distance. Click. Click. Click. She began pulling various levers and triggers embedded into the walls and floors, retreating as she went. Her broken leg caused her movements to look almost spider-like¡ªdistorted, yet eerily effective. ¡°If we are to continue forgoing the use of Aura, Your Excellency, the odds naturally shift in my favor.¡± ¡°Running away when challenged to a fight?!¡± ¡°This is my full strength, after all.¡± The underwater tunnel began shifting with a rumble. A series of traps sprang to life: volleys of arrows shot from the walls, sections of the floor crumbled away, and partitions descended, releasing clouds of strange, opaque gas. ¡®Knowing her, she probably released the prisoners only to lure them into these traps, giving them false hope before crushing them.¡¯ ssic Ji-won, with her twisted hobbies. Just as I evaded one set of traps, a burst of mes came fwooshing out, erupting from the wall. I rolled to avoid it, but not before my forearm got singed. The seared skin smoldered painfully. ¡°Argh! You think these petty tricks will stop me, Ji-won?!¡± ¡°I have no such confidence. But you ordered me to put up a fight, didn¡¯t you? Unless you rescind thatmand, I¡¯ll continue obeying.¡± ¡°Like hell I¡¯d take that back!¡± ¡°As expected.¡± As the gas cleared, Ji-won reappeared, now supported by a crutch. The absurdity left me speechless. Where had she even gotten a crutch in this ce? ¡®She probably broke the prisoners¡¯ limbs and handed out crutches afterward, didn¡¯t she? Typical Ji-won.¡¯ ¡°My apologies for resorting to such measures.¡± Her meticulous preparation didn¡¯t stop there. By now, she had donned a gas mask¡ªa must-have essory for any apocalypse enthusiast. Her breathing echoed ominously, like a budget Darth Vader. ¡°Since you refuse to sumb to my traps, I have no choice. To meet Your Excellency¡¯s expectations, I will now deploy my final measure.¡± ¡°Final measure?¡± ¡°As you deduced, my hidden weapons were indeedced with poison. While a normal person would sumb to paralysis in 40 seconds, Your Excellency appears unaffected. Thus, I¡¯ll escte.¡± Ji-won tapped her crutch against the floor, activating another mechanism with a double tap then a press of its length. Vents in the ceiling began to hiss, releasing a peculiar mixture of brown and pink gas. ¡°What¡¯s this now?¡± ¡°A cocktail of stimnts, narcotics, and aphrodisiacs. Though calling it that is a disservice,¡± she remarked, her filtered voice carried a chilling calm. ¡°This substance, developed with assistance from Uehara Shino, unveils the deepest desires and rawest instincts of the human psyche.¡± For a moment, I was speechless. ¡°Extensive trials on the prisoners proved it effective. The average subject loses rationality in 15 seconds and transforms into a mindless freak within a minute. Naturally, Your Excellency won¡¯t sumb so easily.¡± Her voice echoed from all directions, amplified by a hidden microphone system. ¡°I¡¯ll see you in 20 minutes, Your Excellency. In the meantime, I¡¯ll freshen up and return in cleaner attire.¡± That damn woman.

Footnotes: [1] Tang Sect in from martial art stories is famous for using unconventional hidden methods to win battles by any means possible, including poisons. Chapter 289 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Hypocrite VIII There is an epilogue. ¡°Ah, oh my! How did you end up with such injuries?! My goodness, not a single part of your body is unscathed!¡± We quietly went to receive treatment from Ah-ryeon. For the record, every joint in Ji-won¡¯s body was broken and she couldn¡¯t move on her own. I had to carry her all the way back to the hideout. ¡°Honestly! With injuries this severe, not even my abilities can heal them all at once. Here, does this hurt?¡±¡°Guh.¡± ¡°Ah! Oh no, it does hurt, doesn¡¯t it? I¡¯m so sorry... Then what about here?¡± ¡°Grgh!¡± ¡°Oh dear, this hurts too... Poor thing. Oh no, our poor Operations Team Leader. What ever shall we do with you?¡± Ah-ryeon was tough on the weak but subservient to the strong. She didn¡¯t miss the chance to tease Ji-won, who had temporarily be one of the ¡°weak.¡± Under the guise of treatment, she poked at wounds and pressed them firmly with her bare hands. It was so tant that even I, lying on the adjacent bed, was left speechless. Ji-won endured it for about five minutes before finally speaking out. ¡°Ah-ryeon...¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°To confess the truth, I am a psychopath.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Imitted my first murder in middle school. It was my family¡ªtwo people. After killing one, I framed the other and made it look like they had fled during the night, then I killed them in turn.¡± ?????§àB§§?? No response. ¡°Looking at you now, Ah-ryeon, I¡¯m reminded of my family. I must feel some instinctive kinship with you... If you¡¯ll allow it, I¡¯d like to treat you as my little sister from now on. Would you be willing to call me your elder sister?¡± ¡°Ah, n-no... I¡¯m fine...¡± ¡°I see. That¡¯s unfortunate.¡± Ah-ryeon mped her mouth shut and focused on the treatment. When dawn next broke, an SG Net user called OldManGoryeo posted a thread titled ¡°That Silver-Haired Jinx from the National Road Management Corps.¡± It probably had nothing to do with the earlier incident. Ji-won and I met again once our bodies had fully healed. ¡°Your Excellency, I apologize for the trouble I¡¯ve caused you thus far. I will take full responsibility for cleaning up the Misfortune Workshop, so please rest assured.¡± ¡°Just to check, how exactly do you n to handle the cleanup?¡± ¡°Certainly. I intend to¡ª¡± She detailed various methods, ranging from memory erasure, brainwashing, evidence destruction, media maniption, witness intimidation, confinement, and silencing, all through Cheon Yo-hwa. Naturally, she showed no sign of remorse. ¡°I see,¡± I said when she had gone through her list. ¡°That¡¯s very you.¡± ¡°Thank you. I will begin the follow-up immediately.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t apliment. Stay out of it.¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Do-hwa and I will handle it. You just stay put.¡± Ji-won tilted her head in confusion. ¡°I don¡¯t wish to trouble you further. May I ask how you intend to proceed?¡± Like so.

Notice From: Noh Do-hwa It has been confirmed that Yu Ji-won, the operations team leader of the National Road Management Corps, has abducted 173 civilians across the Korean Penins, including Busan, over the past two years and seven months. Of the 173 civilians, 13 have died. The remaining 160 are reporting severe psychological trauma. The National Road Management Corps immediately arrested Ji-won upon obtaining this information and confined her in the headquarters¡¯ underground prison. I, Noh Do-hwa, take full responsibility for this incident as the leader of the National Road Management Corps. As such, I am resigning from my position as Corps Leader and passing the role to Dang Seo-rin of the Samcheon Guild. Additionally, the Undertaker, who rmended Yu Ji-won as team leader, will also be removed from his post and reassigned to the penal unit. For the remaining 160 victims, secure housing with thorough protection will be provided in Busan, and dedicated Tutorial Fairies will be assigned to help them recover from their trauma. This concludes my statement.

SG Net exploded. - Anonymous: ? Noh Do-hwa¡ªthe actual corps leader? - Anonymous: But the corps leader doesn¡¯t use SG Net. ©¸ ForbiddenBooksDepartment17: This is legit. Posters with the same announcement were stered all over the National Road Management Corps headquarters this morning. ©¸ Anonymous: ??? ©¸ [Baekhwa] NewspaperDepartment2: So does this mean the Great Witch is now officially the corps leader? - [Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: lol I¡¯m at the guild headquarters, and they¡¯re handing out corps uniforms here - [Samcheon] MeteorIsIceMagic: everyone including the witches are totally confused lol ©¸ Anonymous: This guy went from guild member to corps ve. Why is heughing? ©¸ Anonymous: Because now he doesn¡¯t need to cosy as a witch anymore... oops ©¸ Anonymous: Ah. - OldManGoryeo: These people are always boasting about protecting humanity, but their operations team leader was kidnapping civilians. Morons. - ÚwÓ¾ä¨: ¡°The people''s will is the heavens¡¯ will. The corps must thoroughly investigate this matter and ensure justice is served.¡± - Anonymous: But if Noh Do-hwa steps down, doesn¡¯t that screw us over? With the Constetions already failing, can the corps even hold up? The public was in uproar. ¡°Why?¡± Even Ji-won seemed startled. ¡°Your Excellency, why make such a reckless move?¡± ¡°Reckless?¡± ¡°Yes. I specifically targeted civilians with no close ties. No one would miss them. A little effort, and we could have easily erased this incident from existence.¡± I silently looked at Ji-won. She paused. ¡°Ah. So it¡¯s the same logic as before¡ªwhen you said you refused to be Corrupted. Even if the events are erased, they¡¯ll remain in your memory as the Undertaker.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s still a foolish choice. With the Saintess gone and now Noh Do-hwa stepping down, the system will copse.¡± It didn¡¯t. The National Road Management Corps experienced some turmoil, but Do-hwa had often joked about quitting her "crappy job" any day. Many within the corps had mentally prepared for such a scenario. Plus, I had already made contingency ns, ensuring Seo-rin would immediately inherit power if Do-hwa died or resigned. The ovepping locations of the Samcheon Guild¡¯s stronghold and the National Road Management Corps headquarters in Busan were deliberate¡ªprecisely for moments like these.

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¡°Thanks, Undertaker. Without the manual you gave me, I would¡¯ve died of overwork,¡± said Seo-rin as she pointed to a ck, untitled notebook. It contained 600 meticulously detailed pieces of advice for her. ¡°I¡¯m d it helped even a little.¡± ¡°I never expected you to anticipate this oue. Reading the notes, it feels like I wrote them myself. It¡¯s almost unsettling how well you know me.¡± I chuckled dryly. The notebookpiled insights umted over countless cycles, with its core guidance inspired by the 173rd cycle, when Seo-rin had created a dystopian utopia in Busan after falling into Corruption. ¡°By the way, I¡¯ve been considering recing the corps uniforms with witch robes. What do you think, Undertaker?¡± Fortunately, we managed to preserve some dignity for the corps members. Ji-won and I were assigned to the penal unit. Ha-yul and Dok-seo also joined, under the pretext of disguising their crimes. The existing prisoners scowled at the new arrivals. ¡°Huh? Who¡¯s this brat?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Oh? ring at me, huh? You think I¡¯ll go easy on you because you¡¯re a kid? Huh? Oh? Ow!¡± The existing prisoners quickly fell in line after encountering Ha-yul. In hindsight, Ha-yul and Ji-won had simr backgrounds¡ªboth had first spilled the blood of family members. When left unchecked, Ha-yul would go on to massacre her father and even members of the Second Provisional Government. When it came to their designation as serial killers, Ha-yul¡¯s potential rivaled Ji-won¡¯s. ¡°Ah, this is heaven...¡± Do-hwa retired and opened a personal rehabilitation center and forge. asionally, she visited the underground prison to mock me. Her well-rested appearance practically glowed. ¡°If I¡¯d known it¡¯d be this easy, I¡¯d have quit ages ago and dumped the job on the Samcheon guild leader.¡± ¡°This arrangement won¡¯tst long. The system will likely copse within seven years.¡± ¡°Not my problem.¡± I didn¡¯t grace that with a response. ¡°By the way, tell Ji-won thanks. And if possible, I hope she pulls a simr stunt next cycle. Who¡¯d have guessed my retirement would be all thanks to her?¡± Although the Saintess¡¯s death and Do-hwa¡¯s resignation didn¡¯t destabilize the system entirely, they elerated its decline. Where it might havested a few more years, its copse now loomed closer. My world travel ns also fell through, as I spent every day responding to crises as the ace of the penal unit, though that also meant we managed to mitigate the damage. I wanted Ji-won to see it¡ªa battlefield littered with defeated Anomalies and shattered caravans, where our swift intervention minimized casualties. After the battle, Ji-won stood silently, gazing at the world. I patted her shoulder. ¡°What do you think? It¡¯s bearable, isn¡¯t it?¡± Ji-won looked back at the unit. The setting sun bathed the carnage in an orange glow. Yesterday¡¯s battle had been grueling, leaving Dok-seo whining and Ha-yul methodically retrieving puppet strings. It was a twisted but undeniable routine. ¡°Yes,¡± Ji-won acknowledged with a nod. ¡°It¡¯s exhausting and overwhelming, but the world won¡¯t end tomorrow.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not alone, Ji-won.¡± When she didn¡¯t reply, I continued. ¡°No one is. For every step you take, others are supporting you. And no matter what you¡¯ve done, I at least am ready to share the responsibility with you.¡± ¡°Responsibility.¡± ¡°Yes, responsibility.¡± Again, she went quiet. ¡°Can you keep your promises? Can you bear the consequences? For me, that¡¯s the measure of humanity. And Ji-won, you¡¯re as human as anyone else.¡± Ji-won stayed silent. The silver-haired girl, who had learned to kill before she could connect with others, flexed and curled her fingers repeatedly. Without thinking, I reached out and held her hovering hand. ¡°Promise me one thing.¡±@@novelbin@@ ¡°What kind of promise?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t ask you to stop killing.¡± I smiled, then said, ¡°But if you do, tell me first. Convince me. If you can, I¡¯ll help you kill them.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way I could convince you.¡± A faint breeze ofughter touched her lips. ¡°But fine. I promise.¡± ¡°Even binding the next cycle¡¯s version of you?¡± ¡°Hm. I suppose that depends on her opinion, but she¡¯ll likely agree.¡± Then, Ji-won gently squeezed my hand. ¡°I was born without a heart... For every beat my heart doesn¡¯t make, let yours beat in its ce. For every good deed I fail to do, let yours make up for it.¡± She lowered her head. ¡°I will simply follow in your footsteps.¡± Softly, she ced a light kiss on my middle finger. The setting sun slid gently between us. ¡°Let this hypocrite strive for goodness, Your Excellency.¡± I thought that was the sound of human Ji-won¡¯s heart.

Footnotes: Chapter 290 Chapter 290 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Exile I The following chapter includes depictions of torture and violence that some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised. I strive to be as honest as possible with all of you. Naturally, I have no intention of glossing over Yu Ji-won¡¯s crimes or the responsibilities I myself carry. Let me warn you in advance: the tone of this story is dark and twisted. Even so, the events that have already urred cannot simply be dismissed as mere blemishes. The disgrace of the National Road Management Corps, and the atonement for Yu Ji-won¡¯s abductions and murders during the 703rd regression. Let us delve a little deeper into the prisoner squad.

As I mentioned previously, news of the National Road Management Corps¡¯s Operations Team Leader abducting innocent civilians shook the nation. The public reaction was¡ª ¡°Wow, what a goddamn bitch.¡± ¡°What¡¯s Dang Seo-rin doing, not using this criminal for a public dismemberment show in the square?¡± ¡°But did Noh Do-hwa, the Corps¡¯smander, really need to step down too?¡± ¡°Who knows? Anyway, how about some beer today? Let¡¯s splurge a bit.¡± ¡°You must be making a lot these days.¡± ¡°I went hunting in the Voidst time, and the clothes in a dpidated department store werepletely intact. I got lucky.¡± ¡ªsurprisingly underwhelming. The decisive factor must have been that Ji-won meticulously targeted individuals with no connections. In the age of the apocalypse, there was no need to ask if Anomalies ever tired of tormenting humans. People had long since learned to operate under the assumption that human torment remained endlessly entertaining, making every moment feel new and exciting. Mortals had grown desensitized to death itself. They had suffered too much loss to react otherwise. What mattered more was whether their territory had been encroached upon or their interests harmed. If their family, friends, or colleagues had been tortured? Civilians and Awakeners alike would have taken action, of course. In this era, civilized disobedients were a nonexistent demographic. However, Ji-won exclusively hunted individuals without ties. The total number of abductees was 173. Of those, 13 died. And yet, there were shockingly few people enraged on behalf of these victims¡ªonly a handful, really. Even Do-hwa¡¯s resignation as the Corpsmander was met with pushback by the majority, who argued that she didn¡¯t need to go to such extremes. ?????§§? Ji-won¡¯s thoroughness was, as always, thoroughly impressive. Not only did she give her all for her sess, but she also ounted for failure and took precautions. People of her sort are inherently formidable. ¡°I will never forgive her.¡± Nevertheless, achieving a perfect crime was impossible, even for the ever-thorough Yu Ji-won. It was an inevitable conclusion. Even if the nearly entire world ignored the victims of the Misfortune Workshop, there were at least 160 exceptions who all shared one important trait: surviving the same season of hell together. In other words, they had lived to tell their tale. ¡°No matter what happens, Yu Ji-won, I will never forgive you¡ªnot even in death. Never.¡± Among the 160 survivors, some were simply d to have lived and wished never to be involved with the psychopath Yu Ji-won again. Others could not escape their trauma and either died by suicide or disappeared into the Void, never to be seen again. Others still settled into the luxurious residential area in Busan provided by the National Road Management Corps and tried to piece their lives back together, finding stable jobs when they were once again able. And some did none of those things. ¡°You should feel hell too.¡± She did not run away from Yu Ji-won. She did not let her trauma destroy her. Nor did she try to rebuild her life.@@novelbin@@ She simply raged and hated. Kim Ji-soo. A name that, when broken down into its defining Chinese characters, means ¡°a pond gathered in a swamp.¡± Among the 160 survivors, she was particrly memorable. Today, let us discuss this girl.

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The following content is based on testimony provided by Yu Ji-won following her arrest by the National Road Management Corps and her subsequent cooperation with the investigation. Hence, some parts of the story may be inurate. The interrogation was attended by Commander Noh Do-hwa, myself, and others. The individual facing Yu Ji-won was the deputy leader of the Final Judgement Division of the Corps¡ªa veteran investigator with the Lie Detector ability. This ability, however, came with the critical limitation of being usable only once a year. Luckily, it was fully charged for this particr interrogation. Q: State your name and title. ¡°Yu Ji-won. Former Operations Team Leader of the National Road Management Corps. Officially second in rank within the Corps. Secretary to the Awakener known as the Undertaker.¡± The investigator nodded. Truth. Beside him, a scribe from the Forbidden Books Department recorded the proceedings with a quill suspended in midair. The interrogation unfolded in a dimly lit basement. After a brief warm-up of basic questions and answers, the investigator began probing for the details of the crimes. Q: When you first began, did you have a specific objective for torturing your victims? ¡°Torture is a challenging task.¡± Yu Ji-won rested her chin on her hand, the chains on her wrists clinking with the movement. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ll believe me, but I¡¯m an amateur when ites to torture. My specialty is murder and disposal, not the deliberate infliction of prolonged pain. I never trained specifically for such methods.¡± Q: Please continue. ¡°One option was to practice torture techniques myself through human experimentation, but I was more interested in artificially cultivating Awakeners. So I approached the matter practically.¡± Q: Practically? ¡°Creating an Awakener with the ability of Torture.¡± That was Yu Ji-won¡¯s first goal. ¡°I wanted torture to manifest as ¡®sustainable pain.¡¯ Additionally, I wanted no physical evidence of the torture to remain.¡± Q: What do you mean? ¡°For example, inflicting the pain of having an arm shredded by a saw, but leaving the arm intact.¡± (Murmurs among the officers in the back) (Noh Do-hwa silencing the noise with a gesture) Q: Let me confirm: you aimed to create an Awakener who could deliver pain without physically harming the body. Is that correct? ¡°Exactly.¡± Q: Did you seed in creating such an individual? ¡°It was not an easy challenge.¡± But Yu Ji-won seeded. More urately, she failed until she seeded. ¡°Think about it, Investigator. To make someone feel the pain of being burned alive, you have to experience it yourself. The agony of bones being ground, limbs being severed, the chest being ripped open to expose a beating heart...¡± Q: Did you experiment with all these forms of torture? ¡°Yes. But that was just the first condition. The second was even more difficult.¡± Q: The second condition? ¡°The victim must maintain relentless hatred toward me. They must be filled with the determination to inflict as much suffering on me as they endured.¡± Yu Ji-won exhaled a sigh, remaining expressionless. ¡°I realized that humans rarely keep their hatred fed. Most break under pain. They beg and grovel, pleading for mercy, offering to live as ves just to end the torment. People these days are weak-willed.¡± Q: ... Truth. ¡°For someone to Awaken with Torture¡ªmore specifically, Phantom Torture¡ªthey would have to endure all of this while harboring unyielding resentment and anger. During the early days of running the Misfortune Workshop, I failed to meet these criteria and killed 11 subjects.¡± Q: You seeded on the 12th? ¡°Correct.¡± Q: Who was this individual? ¡°Kim Ji-soo.¡± (Commander Noh Do-hwa whispers to an officer to verify this information) (The investigatorposes himself and resumes) Q: We found no visible injuries among the survivors. How did you conceal the evidence of your own self-inflicted torture? ¡°Ah. I traveled to Japan, sustained severe burns and injuries, and sought treatment from Uehara Shino for healing potions.¡± Truth. (More murmurs) ¡°After that, I regrly visited Uehara Shino once every six months, mimicking injuries to request more potions. She ended up providing me withrge quantities of the medicine.¡± (Regarding this, I personally secure testimony from Uehara Shino, a member of the Magical Girl Association) (Uehara Shino says to me, ¡°She told me she didn¡¯t want to worry you, so she came to me instead of someone like Sim Ah-ryeon.¡±) ¡°Though Uehara Shino¡¯s potions are neither as absolute nor efficient as Sim Ah-ryeon¡¯s healing powers, they worked well enough. This allowed me to minimize fatalities during my experiments. Kim Ji-soo, too, appeared outwardly unharmed thanks to the excessive use of these potions.¡± Q: What happened to Kim Ji-soo after she Awakened with Phantom Torture? ¡°Naturally, I made her my assistant.¡± Q: Assistant? ¡°For example, if I ordered her to y the skin off Prisoner 110 with a razor, Kim Ji-soo would transmit the pain of having one¡¯s skin yed rather than actually performing the act itself.¡± Q: So you were the one issuing orders, and Kim Ji-soo carried them out? ¡°Hmm. That¡¯s one way of looking at it.¡± Q: ording to your earlier testimony, Kim Ji-soo harbored immense hatred toward you. How did you make her obey yourmands? ¡°Through various means. For instance, if Kim Ji-soo refused toply, I would personally execute the prisoners.¡± Q: Excuse me? ¡°In other words, I¡¯d threaten her by saying, ¡®Because you didn¡¯t obey, I have no choice but to conduct actual torture instead of imaginary torture.¡¯¡± Q: I see. ¡°As I mentioned before, humans are generally weak-willed by nature. Prisoners whose limbs I actually severed couldn¡¯t help but wail and plead with Kim Ji-soo, begging her to apply Phantom Torture on them instead.¡± Q: ... Truth. ¡°From the prisoners¡¯ perspective, the only sce they had was that their real bodies remained intact. But when even that was stripped away, what else was left for them to cling to?¡± (The investigator nces at Commander Noh Do-hwa, who signals for the interrogation to continue) ¡°That¡¯s how the twelfth fatality urred. It was the first death after Kim Ji-soo Awakened.¡± Q: How did Kim Ji-soo react? ¡°Surprisingly, she continued to defy me. Her mental state had demonstrably deteriorated, of course. She suffered a breakdown and even used her powers against me.¡± Q: She attacked you? ¡°Yes, but her resistance was futile. She inflicted all the pain she had experienced onto me, yet by then, I had already be desensitized to most forms of agony.¡± Truth. Yu Ji-won¡¯s confrontation with me at the Misfortune Workshop revealed the same. Even with her limbs broken, her fighting spirit never wavered. Therey the secret behind her endurance. ¡°While I wasn¡¯t immune to Kim Ji-soo¡¯s Phantom Torture, the impact wasn¡¯t significant. After all, her ability didn¡¯t cause real injuries, and her wrists and arms were bound. Essentially... it was just a tantrum. Nothing more, nothing less.¡± Truth. Q: ... ¡°I decided to turn her rebellion into an opportunity. Each time she used Phantom Torture on me, I documented the pain and incorporated it into the next prisoner¡¯s torture session.¡± Truth. Q: I see. ¡°For instance, if she inflicted the pain of having all nails ripped out on me¡ªwhich, incidentally, did happen¡ªI would ensure the next prisoner experienced the same during their session.¡± Truth. Q: ... ¡°Naturally, Kim Ji-soo would scream in shock, demanding to know why I added unnned torture methods. I always had a response prepared.¡± Because you defied me, I¡¯m simply passing on the pain to someone else. ¡°She grew increasingly agitated, yet her resolve visibly weakened.¡± Continue defying me if you wish. Just know that others will suffer more as a result. ¡°Eventually, Kim Ji-soo lowered her metaphorical ws. After the thirteenth death, she broke down and begged me through her tears.¡± I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯ll follow your orders. Please. Yu Ji-won. Mistress. Please. ¡°From that day onward, I gained the perfect assistant for the Misfortune Workshop.¡± (Chaos erupts among the former members of Yu Ji-won¡¯s operations team present at the interrogation) (At this point, the deputy leader of the Final Judgement Division reports extreme stress and requests a recess in the investigation) (Commander Noh Do-hwa grants the request) (End of Day 1 of the investigation)

Footnotes: Chapter 291 Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapeics ? I¡¯m an Infinite Regressor, But I¡¯ve Got Stories to Tell

©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤ The Exile II Kim Ji-soo¡¯s name existed only as a sound. She did not know the meaning of the Chinese characters associated with her name, and the person who could have told her had already died, disappearing from her life a long time ago. Or perhaps recently. ¡°What amon name,¡± Yu Ji-won remarked knowingly. ¡°As Confucius said, all things must begin with their names. The same goes for Awakeners. I will give you a name.¡± ³Ø or Ji for ¡°pond.¡± Ë’ or soo for ¡°swamp.¡± ¡°You are a swamp gathered like a pond in the most secluded corners of the world... You don¡¯t understand? That¡¯s fine. You will understand in due time.¡± Ji-won assigned hanja to the names of every person she kidnapped¡ªa term she sometimes reced with ¡°adopted.¡± She did not create new names entirely but rather retained the pronunciation of their original names, simply altering their meanings.Hence, she was not a mother but a ¡°godmother.¡± Not a figure of blessing or guidance but someone who forcibly took the ce of a mother. That was the role Ji-won imposed upon herself. Before dozens of her ¡°adoptees,¡± Ji-won gave a calm speech. ¡°The world is overflowing with Anomalies. These Anomalies are enemies of humanity itself, mocking and degrading it.¡± Ji-soo knew this. ¡°You have left the task of fighting these Anomalies to others simply because you did not Awaken. This is strange. Anomalies do not discriminate between the ordinary and the Awakened when they kill. You, too, are direct participants in this war for survival.¡± This, too, she understood. ¡°You arezy. Irresponsible. You believe Awakening is a divine blessing and have fled from the battlefield, forfeiting even the opportunity to channel your anger and hatred. Therefore¡ªI will help you.¡± This was harder to understand. ¡°I ask only one thing of you.¡± Ji-won¡¯s expressionless eyes swept over her adoptees. ording to one of them (whose face Ji-soo no longer remembered), the brush of her gaze felt like a de slicing through a person¡¯s entire being. Ji-soo testified that she felt Ji-won¡¯s gaze linger for a particrly long moment on her. ¡°Face your wounds.¡± Difficult words followed. ¡°Do not look away. Do not flee. Unlike me, you have powerful emotions. Those emotions are your weapons. Look directly at yourself, at the reasons for your pain, your suffering, your desires.¡± §²?£Î?B¨¨? The godmother spoke. ¡°Discipline yourselves.¡± Discipline: To ovee oneself. Discipline: To loathe oneself to the extreme. ¡°Only then will you Awaken.¡± And so, hell began. The details of that hell have already been described in Ji-won¡¯s testimony. Ji-soo broke. Many times. ¡°Ji-soo, you have talent.¡± A talent she would have been better off without. ¡°The treatment of Awakeners and the treatment of ordinary people are worlds apart. Like it or not, this era is led by Awakeners. Rejoice, Ji-soo. You have finally reached a position where you can decide your own fate.¡± Lies. If that were true, why did this hell never end? ¡°Hmph,¡± Ji-won scoffed with a tilt to her head. ¡°How selfish. I¡¯m disappointed. You Awakened before anyone else. Now it is your turn to guide your peers, is it not?¡± ... ¡°Someone I admire deeply and to whom I am loyal once said, ¡®You cannot truly be human unless you learn to take responsibility.¡¯ If so, then the person who takes the most responsibility must be the most human. Ji-soo, Awakening is not the end. Be human.¡± Nothing made sense anymore. In Ji-soo¡¯s mind, righteousness and evil intertwined. Her brain burned like moltenva, but the oppressive weight of the ceiling above prevented the magma from erupting. It simply pooled. And kept pooling. Each attempt to release it resulted in even harsher consequences. The godmother was a terrifying figure. ¡°Excellent, Ji-soo.¡± The most defeating part was that everything unfolded just as Ji-won had imed. The unconnected individuals, destined to die namelessly in the Void as ordinary people, truly became Awakeners. When she obeyed her godmother¡¯s orders as an ¡°assistant,¡± her peers also began Awakening one by one. Ji-won was right. The godmother was never wrong. Pain was the essence, and suffering was a blessing. But if that was true, then wasn¡¯t a world that affirmed such suffering fundamentally wrong? ¡°You will undoubtedly be a far more human human than I ever could.¡± A swamp pooled in the world¡¯s most secluded corner. Only then did Ji-soo realize that the water at the swamp¡¯s deepest point burned like moltenva.

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When the investigation concluded, Ji-won was given her final sentence: lifetime membership in the prisoner squad. ¡°So, basically, they want you to fight and die.¡± ¡°Hmph. I¡¯m confident I won¡¯t die, at least.¡± The squad she joined was named the 703 Punishment Unit. I, the Undertaker, had personally chosen the name. It wasn¡¯t for any grand reason¡ªit simply referenced the events of the 703rd cycle. ¡°Fine. It¡¯s not like your crimes can be atoned for by quietly dying. I¡¯ll make sure you never die.¡± ¡°It¡¯s an honor of a lifetime, Your Excellency.¡± ¡°At least pretend to feel sorry.¡± ¡°My apologies, but I resolved long ago to always be sincere in heart when before Your Excellency.¡± Naturally, I also joined the 703 Unit. After all, I was the one who had decided to take in a serial killer as arade. It wasn¡¯t just Ji-won either. Even Ha-yul, who had murdered her own father, was epted. I could never separate myself from the actions of myrades, nor did I wish to. ¡°I mean, isn¡¯t hunting Anomalies your daily routine anyway? Whether it¡¯s the prisoner squad or the punishment squad, it¡¯s all the same work, right?¡± Do-hwa¡¯s exasperatedment was not entirely wrong. For a regressor, death was never the ultimate punishment. Taking responsibility through life was the only option. ¡°Then consider me convinced.¡± Ha-yul immediately joined the 703 Unit. Given her infamous patricide, no one could argue against her inclusion. Approved. ¡°Me too, mister!¡± ¡°No, Dok-seo, you don¡¯t even have a crime to your name.¡± ¡°Mmm... Habitual negligence causing suffering to readers?¡± ¡°If you know that, write your damn novel!¡± ¡°Ugh, I was trying to join to help you, and this is how you treat me?! Fine! If you don¡¯t let me in, I¡¯ll start stabbing random people!¡± When Dok-seo threatened tomit actual crimes, we had no choice but to ept her into the 703 Punishment Unit. Also, before retiring, Do-hwa falsified documents to assign Dok-seo a plethora of heinous charges. Approved. ¡°Can you believe Dok-seo was actually a middle manager abducting civilians under Ji-won¡¯s orders? Shocking. Disappointing.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t ask for such detailed charges, dammit... Fine.¡± That day, readers on SG Net received an unprecedented announcement: [Due to the author¡¯s involvement in serious crimes, the series will be indefinitely suspended.] Readers wailed. And so, Ji-won, myself, Ha-yul, Dok-seo¡ªas well as a handful of other serious offenders whose numbers fluctuated because of frequent deaths¡ªformed the 703 Punishment Unit. We were deployed only to the harshest, most dangerous frontlines. Without me, survival would have been impossible. We could not stay in Busan, nor could we enter Sejong or Pyongyang. As prisoners, we camped in temporary barracks near battlefields, constantly moving from one war zone to another. Sometimes, Yo-hwa or Seo-rin would secretly visit, thetter of whom one day brought someone to introduce herself along with her.@@novelbin@@ ¡°Undertaker, we have a new recruit.¡± ¡°Hmm? We haven¡¯t lost anyone recently, so no need for recements.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not a recement. It¡¯s an actual recruit. Theymitted a serious crime and specifically requested to join this unit.¡± The circumstances of it all left me somewhat out of touch with the 160 survivors of the Misfortune Workshop. ¡°This is Ji-soo... You two aren¡¯t strangers, right? I¡¯d love to chat longer, but I¡¯m swamped with work. Next time, let¡¯s meet closer to Busan.¡± ¡°Sure... Take care.¡± ¡°You too.¡± After Seo-rin left, an unsettling silence settled over the open space of the barracks. Ji-soo looked at me. Malnourished and shrunken from extreme stress, her small frame seemed fragile. Jet-ck hair. Eyes a faint, hazy shade of dark green. ¡°Hello. My name is Ji-soo.¡± The moment she spoke, a chill ran down my spine. Her tone, pitch, and inflection¡ªeverything echoed Ji-won. The only outward difference was her more expressive face. Yet beyond her dark green eyes, rage seethed like moltenva. Her neutral voice and emotional expressions shed unnervingly. ¡°When you rescued us from the workshopst time, we met. Do you remember?¡± ¡°I remember... Of course.¡± ¡°Thank you so much for that. I want to express my gratitude again, Undertaker.¡± She bowed deeply then, her posture impable. Just like Ji-won. ¡°The investigator kept us updated about how we were rescued from the workshop.¡± ¡°I see...¡± ¡°Even though you rmended her, you still revealed her crimes and took responsibility yourself. I think that¡¯s amazing... I truly respect you. I don¡¯t have a father, but may I call you my godfather?¡± Ji-soo smiled awkwardly. Frankly, it was hard to listen to, and not just because of my guilt. Her voice carried something else¡ªsomething more sinister. Between words, between sentences, between paragraphs, it felt like molten wax dripping down, solidifying into the form of ¡°hate¡±. Yes. The girl in front of me was merely imitating human speech. Every sentence was fundamentally just an echo of emotion. ¡°A new life...¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you receive a new life? The National Road Management Corps took special care of you¡ªhousing, even a job.¡± ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Ji-soo gave me another awkward smile as she scratched her cheek. ¡°The investigator really went above and beyond. But there was no proper way for me to meet Godmother Ji-won.¡± Justly so. There was no way the perpetrator would be allowed to approach the victim. The 703 Unit existed specifically to prevent such contact. ¡°So, I killed them.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I killed about seven people. Only then did they arrest me.¡± I didn¡¯t respond to that. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to the victims, but I really needed to see Godmother. I couldn¡¯t think of another way.¡± At that moment, Ji-won emerged from the barracks, pulling back the tent p. ¡°Your Excellency, the rice is ready. But we¡¯re running low on supplies... Oh?¡± Then, her gaze shifted to the neer. ¡°Ji-soo?¡± Ji-won¡¯s tone was casual, as if greeting an old friend. ¡°It really is you, Ji-soo. What brings you here?¡± ¡°Hello, Godmother. I¡¯ve joined the 703 Punishment Unit.¡± ¡°Is that so? Hmm, Do-hwa was always thorough. She wouldn¡¯t have approved your transfer easily.¡± Ji-won tilted her head, holding the rice pot. ¡°How many did you kill?¡± ¡°Seven.¡± ¡°I see,¡± she said. Her tone sounded almost regretful. ¡°You could have chosen a more efficient method. Anger is like a de. when swung recklessly, it bes mere venting, not skillful precision. I¡¯ve always emphasized the importance of self-discipline.¡± No answer. ¡°It¡¯s good that you hate the world. But ordinary people have no connection to your suffering. Ji-soo, you knew this, but you sumbed to your emotions. Please, discipline yourself.¡± Ji-soo¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°You haven¡¯t changed at all, Godmother.¡± ¡°Hmm? Of course not.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Ji-won tilted her head again. ¡°My principlese entirely from within me. I see no reason to be thanked.¡± ¡°Because I was worried. What if, by some slim chance, you had changed? It would have been troubling. I¡¯m d my worries were unfounded.¡± Ji-won¡¯s shoulders flinched just slightly. ¡°Hmm.¡± Still holding the rice pot in one hand, she touched her neck. Then she looked at me. ¡°Your Excellency, my neck was just shed... More precisely, I felt the sensation of my neck being shed. Ah, and my wrist was severed as well. I almost dropped the rice pot.¡± That was the day our unit gained a new member.

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