Chapter 416 |
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The Regressor II
The world had ended.
It was the 2,230th destruction.
‘So this is the life Go Yuri has walked.’
Each time the world fell, I was born as a different person, with a different status, to a different family.
However, the landscape of ruin was always similar.
In a world where the Outer Gods sang their songs and harvested screams, where rainwater and dampness rose from the underground to soak everything, I stared blankly at the gray sky and let out a single breath.
“Ah, this isn’t easy... really.”
Snip. My head was severed by an anomaly.
This was a world where a regressor did not yet exist, a world that still had to endure a number of apocalypses equal to the sands of the Ganges before one could even try to exist.
It was the end of the ‘first cycle,’ a conclusion I had already repeated for the 2,230th time.
A regressor and a reincarnator.
What is the biggest difference between the two?
As the Undertaker, the first witness in human history to have experienced both, I could answer with confidence.
‘The boundary of the self is blurry for a reincarnator.’
How should I put it?
For a reincarnator, the boundary stone between ‘me’ and ‘others’ trembled like transparent jelly.
“Um, excuse me. Leader...?”
“Yes, Ms. Sim Ah-ryeon.”
“Why are you being so kind to me? O-of course, I’m grateful for the food you brought me. Really, truly grateful... But why for me?”
Take, for instance, Sim Ah-ryeon before me now.
During the nights of the One Thousand and One Nights, which already felt like a distant past, I had also experienced a ‘reincarnation’ where I was born as Sim Ah-ryeon's younger brother, just as Go Yuri had told me in a corner of the exhibition hall.
Perhaps that was why.
I just couldn’t feel like Sim Ah-ryeon was a stranger.
“Hm. It’s because you don’t feel like a stranger to me.”
“E-excuse me?”
“Ms. Ah-ryeon. When I look at you, I feel at ease for some reason.”
A smile.
I smiled to convey my feelings just as they were.
“Uh, uhehe... W-wow. That’s... kind of embarrassing.”
Sim Ah-ryeon, though flustered, nibbled on the digestive cookies I had secretly brought from the stockpile, like a hamster.
And it wasn't just Sim Ah-ryeon.
“All clear.”
The soldier who saluted me as I walked down the corridor of the underground bunker built on the Final Defense Line.
“Leader!”
The woman who cautiously approached to hand me a piece of fruit while I was patrolling the civilian sector.
“We have finished preparing the ship to set sail for Jeju Island. We can begin the operation anytime upon your command, Your Excellency.”
The executives of the Final Defense Line with whom I held strategy meetings.
‘They are all my family.’
Others did not feel like others.
And they, in turn, did not feel that I was a stranger to them.
‘Ah.’
That was it.
‘A regressor is ultimately an individual who endlessly relives their own single life.’
‘On the other hand... a reincarnator is a being who becomes a different person each time, destined to live and interact with other people.’
Here is a hypothesis.
There is a person A and a person B. The two were originally different people.
But let’s assume that one day, person A gains a strange ability. They are conceived at the exact same moment as B, are born to the same parents in the same environment, walk the same path in life, and live the exact same route.
In that case, is A a different being from B? Or are they the same person?
‘You can’t distinguish them.’
A reincarnator, especially an infinite one like Go Yuri, was such a being.
The inseparable one.
Her personality changed with every reincarnation. The way she treated people changed as well. It was only natural. How could one maintain the exact same personality when everything, down to their DNA, was different?
I had no choice but to accept it.
This process of becoming less of an ‘I’ and more of a ‘we’ the more I lived, the more I died.
To accept my existence as the ‘Red Flesh’.
“...Ahaha. I see now.”
In the deepest part of the bunker.
‘I’, who had already become the one and only dictator of the Human Allied Forces and the head of the Final Defense Line, muttered alone in my private room.
“It wasn’t that she desired to become one. It was because they were one from the beginning, and she was simply returning to that original state.”
Rumble!
At that moment, the underground bunker shook.
The meteor shower that the Outer God ‘Hecate’ had spread across the night sky had simultaneously bombarded the Earth’s surface.
Feeling the vibrations that were literally turning the planet to ash, incomparable to any nuclear explosion, all over my body.
My current life came to an end.
The hours of destruction passed.
‘Now, I think I can finally, completely understand Go Yuri’s thoughts.’
I had already gone through hundreds of thousands of reincarnations.
In that time, Go Yuri must have already had a faint, yet somewhat certain conviction.
‘I will one day, inevitably, transform into an anomaly.’
It was a constant.
What final conclusion this world would reach was still a mystery. Whether it would be a bad ending for humanity, a normal ending, or a happy ending they had never even dreamed of.
However, regardless of where humanity’s route was destined to lead, the ending for Go Yuri, the reincarnator who was ‘one person and everyone’s person,’ was already decided.
‘The worst Outer God.’
When the ‘Red Flesh’ eventually arrives, people will not feel disgust. Nor will they harbor any hostility.
On the contrary, they would surely welcome it.
‘A longing for a lost existence. A nostalgia for the happiest life. An end for all of humanity that is far, far happier than this hellish world...’
That kind of conclusion.
‘The One.’
Despite knowing full well that such an ending awaited, the reincarnator could not stop reincarnating.
‘Because the moment I stop, humanity loses its one and only chance to stand against the anomalies.’
Therefore.
‘I must separate my human self from my anomaly self in advance, only then can I cleverly avoid the catastrophe foretold in the ending.’
A clear realization dawned.
‘But how do I separate the [human Go Yuri]?’
It was simple.
‘...If there was someone who could [remember] all the memories of my life as a human, every single sorrow and every footstep.’
Complete Memory.
‘If I could find such a person. Create one. Become one with them, and make them experience a life as me—’
The Undertaker.
“...”
Myself, and at the same time, another.
“That’s right.”
A smile spread across my lips.
“It’s what I’m doing right now.”
The process of the operation.
Phase 1: Reincarnation.
Repeat reincarnations until this world becomes strong enough, until humanity can stand against the anomalies, and create awakeners.
Phase 2: Corruption.
At this point, Go Yuri is already suffering from the side effects of reincarnation to an irreversible degree.
She falls into the form of the Red Flesh and becomes ‘a single Outer God’ that collects all of her families, corrupting into The One.
Phase 3: Murder.
In that state, spray Go Yuri with the [Udumbara] virus. Eliminate the ability of reincarnation.
Furthermore, use [Time Seal] to completely erase the existence known as Go Yuri from this world.
Phase 4: Replacement.
However, the memories and experiences of Go Yuri’s life as a human are transferred directly to the ‘regressor’ Undertaker.
The Undertaker possesses Complete Memory. Even if he experiences hundreds of millions, or billions of reincarnations, he can still maintain his humanity, and remember.
Thus, the regressor Undertaker, having experienced the entirety of the Reincarnator Go Yuri’s life...
‘Can remain a Go Yuri who is more human than Go Yuri herself, an even more human Go Yuri.’
Shudder.
My shoulders trembled.
A light thrill.
‘From a being fated to become an Outer God to save humanity... I will remove the parts that have been corrupted into an anomaly, and leave only the humanity.’
Like a rocket jettisoning its booster.
After eliminating the void that drags humanity into hell, restore a world where humans can live as humans.
There will be no more anomalies there.
Including the final fate of the Red Flesh, the reincarnator herself.
“Aha.”
What a magnificent plan.
What an... elaborate suicide.
‘Go Yuri, and at the same time, the Undertaker.’
‘The Undertaker, and at the same time, Go Yuri.’
Indeed.
‘The declaration to become one was not an empty boast.’
Now, only one question remained.
‘And so, I, who will inherit all of the memories and personality of the reincarnator Go Yuri, and also continue to possess the existence of the regressor Undertaker...’
In a world where humanity has finally achieved victory, how should I live?
“...”
I didn’t know.
There was no way to know.
Because even the reincarnator and the regressor, who had lived countless lives, had never lived a life ‘after the happy ending.’
An unknown territory.
“...For now, I must focus on living out Go Yuri’s lives.”
After all, that in itself was no easy task.
As I spoke my monologue, the surface world was once again turned to ash by Hecate, the price for failing to control the variables this time.
The 93,248,578th death.
The 93,248,579th life.
‘What if I try to reverse my thinking?’
Hecate was brutally powerful.
To not only command all the celestial bodies of the solar system as if they were her own limbs but also to be able to summon a meteor shower at any time and call down a meteor strike. The power balance was insane.
‘But the me of now can construct a strategy with much more flexible thinking.’
Because I had lived as Go Yuri.
Because she was the very person who had worried more than anyone about her own future of falling into an anomaly and how to pass on her human self, I was able to reach a certain idea.
‘I’ll deceive Hecate.’
If I deceive her, then how?
‘By making her mistake herself for a human!’
A shocking reversal of perspective.
It was an idea that, had the other reincarnated selves heard it, they would have clapped their hands wildly, saying, she’s crazy, isn't she insane.
‘Hecate is, in the end, a shooting star.’
‘That’s why Hecate has the property of responding to people's wishes. Let’s use this property.’
‘By selecting one [sacrifice] who wishes to live as a human and die as a human more than anyone else.’
A sacrifice.
Later, the term would be changed to ‘miko’ because it sounded bad, but to be perfectly honest, the expression ‘sacrifice’ was more fitting.
‘Make that sacrifice wish. If I can make them pray to the stars in the sky, to let them live as a human and die as a human...’
‘Wouldn’t that work?’
My heart pounded.
‘That terrifying Outer God. Hecate. I’ll make her mistake and misunderstand herself as a mere human, and what’s more, make her believe it herself!’
It was a kind of experiment.
Go Yuri, I, feared the conclusion of becoming an anomaly more than anyone. So it was only natural to attempt the humanization of an anomaly.
“Who would be most suitable as the sacrifice?”
Go Yuri thought.
‘...’
I, the Undertaker, living the life of Go Yuri, could already guess the conclusion of this project.
“The desire to live as a human is an exceptionally tricky one. Ordinary people don’t really feel such a desire. Hmm. On the contrary, when does one become captivated by such a peculiar desire...”
It would be when their humanity has been desecrated.
“They would have to be brutally killed by an anomaly.”
And they couldn't die instantly.
“As slowly as possible. Yes. They must die slowly, so they can fully realize what an insulting death they will meet.”
Dying alone would not be enough.
“Ah. And their family must also die in the same way. Because sometimes, people become more enraged by what happens to their family than by what happens to them.”
The candidate for the sacrifice must be a more brilliant human than anyone.
“It must be someone who lives with a more harmonious family than anyone. From now on, whenever I reincarnate, I must always remember this point. If I see an angle, I’ll attempt it.”
...
“Hmm, this person is a little.”
...
“This person too. A failure. As I thought, perhaps the human heart is bound to flow more towards simply wanting to get stronger and take revenge, rather than the desire to survive as a human.”
...
“Ah.”
...
“Found her.”
Dang Seo-rin.
“Her taste is... Harry Potter? That’s perfect. As it happens, Hecate’s manifested form resembles a witch. Hmm. I think the compatibility will be good!”
I see.
“Now let’s set up the plan. I’ll aim for a reincarnation where I am born as the youngest in that person’s family, and pioneer a route.”
So that’s how it was.
“I’m confident in my ability to die tragically. The only question is whether Hecate will fall for my trap—”
Time passed.
“Success!”
Go Yuri cheered.
“Success.... It’s a success! My god. No way. I... I did it! Ahhh, ah! I! I! Hecate! That, that cursed Outer God of the night sky! The destruction that masqueraded as merely granting humanity’s wishes! I! Ahhhhh!”
Go Yuri lamented.
“I... did it. Everyone. Mom. Dad. Everyone! I.... N-no, it's not. Now. I must research the methodology more thoroughly, so that this miraculous route can be reproduced again.”
Dang Seo-rin was already a dead existence.
The Lesser Anomaly known as ‘Nut’ that I knew was merely a remnant of the shattered pieces of the Outer God Hecate.
The living hell where the night sky would unfold and a meteor shower would fall whenever a human, consciously or unconsciously, made a wish, was no more.
Now, only a void meteorite would occasionally fall to the surface on a cycle of 7 years, or 1 year at the shortest.
Compared to the hell that Hecate had created, a meteorite ‘or something’ that fell here and there like a regular event was nothing.
“Ah. Hmm.... I see. The fact that the family runs a flower shop was an absolutely essential condition. It makes sense. A state where the family’s dream has come true would be far more ideal and fitting for a harmonious scene. This is a problem I can always solve by secretly manipulating the variables.”
Time passed.
“The wish only becomes stronger when Ms. Dang Seo-rinhas at least two younger siblings. A sense of responsibility as an older sister? I’m not sure... but this is also fixed.”
Time passed.
“—It’s done.”
Time passed.
“June 15th. The family of Ms. Dang Seo-rin, who runs a flower shop in Busan, will be massacred. The family composition will be as it is. Ms. Dang Seo-rin will die last. Wonderful.”
The reincarnator had pioneered the route.
“From now on, no matter who I am born as, or what life I live, I must absolutely make this ‘June 15th’ incident happen.”
Dang Seo-rin’s death was confirmed.
“...”
The reincarnator, Go Yuri, felt a slight sense of unease for some reason.
It wasn't a feeling of guilt towards Dang Seo-rin. Feelings like apology were like the wallpaper that constantly lined her heart.
“Aha.”
Rather than that.
“So now, no matter what person I reincarnate as, I must... absolutely protect the timeline related to Ms. Dang Seo-rin?”
The route was fixed.
The reincarnator’s schedule, which had been virtually free to do anything, had become bound by a slight lack of freedom, as if wrapped in a weak chain.
Just as a certain regressor’s calendar had been packed solid for a full seven years.
That was the source of the discomfort.
“...Hmm. Well, if it can prevent Hecate’s living hell, it’s a price I must naturally pay.”
The reincarnator treated the light chains on her wrists and ankles as a trivial obstacle, no.
Rather, she treated them as a medal for the great achievement of tearing apart the Outer God Hecate.
And...
“...”
Splash.
Go Yuri looked down at her feet.
Leather boots. Because Go Yuri knew full well that what looked like a puddle was in fact the blood of an Outer God, and because she hated to be touched by even a single drop of muddy water, she always wore leather boots.
“Leviathan...”
Looking at her reflection in the puddle, Go Yuri’s, my lips, muttered.
“Couldn’t I offer a sacrifice for this one too, in the same way?”
Clink. Clank.
It seemed as though the sound of chains could be heard from somewhere.
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