Chapter 85
──────
The Accomplice III
The final resistance team included not only awakened ones but also a large 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 welcome...."
The desolate 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 occasionally 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 Café 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 the last 8 years clinging to a late 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's coming this way."
"Oh…?"
The sound of footsteps grew clearer. But there was something strange about the sound. Step, clack, step, clack, like footsteps overlapped with another sound.
It was the sound of a cane.
"Ah."
I stood up from the bench to welcome 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 planning...?"
"...."
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 since last 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—"
"And if the brace is misaligned, you should come 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.
Clang- 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 black 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 becoming the surface, the light was turning into mucus, the clouds into blades, 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–-"
"Assistant."
I turned around. Noh Do-hwa was coming out of the workshop with the patient.
Our eyes met.
A pair of black islands floating in a white sea stared at me.
"Please take Mr. Shin Soo-bin back home."
"...."
A brief exchange of glances 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 collapsed 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 the last 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 first lane 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 to land 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 the last 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 gladly drink."
"Hmph."
The red liquid, resembling the wine-colored sunset of today's sky, poured into the glass.
"A toast. To something, anything...."
"To a toast."
Clink.
The glass rang pleasantly. The wine in the glass looked like a flower bud of a bleeding heart suspended in the air.
We stared at the sky over the city through our wine glasses. The sky, which had also turned into transparent glass, gave the feeling of looking through glass beyond glass.
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 blacksmith. 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 ones come 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 blade of a guillotine, the black 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..."
Clang-
From the rooftop, a sound of something breaking came from near the traffic light intersection. The sound was like steel being crushed.
It sounded almost comically absurd, but the result was not funny. The entire 'scenery' on the other side of the traffic light was swallowed by the night sky.
Clang, clang. Clang-
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 black night sky devoured the space voraciously from all directions.
The world had shrunk to the point where it could only accommodate our breathing.
"Assistant."
"Yes."
"Thank you――"
Crash.
The last sound I heard was the sound of the wine glass Noh Do-hwa was holding. Or perhaps it was my wine glass shattering as it was bitten by the night sky.
A crescent moon formed on the glass.
And the world closed its eyes.
-x-X-x-
The Accomplice IV
Clang—!
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 village… 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—
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.
There lay the hoe that Noh Do-hwa had dropped.
"Hmm...?"
The dwarf picked up the hoe and examined it, slowly, like a video playing at 0.5 speed.
-..., ....
Whoosh—
Wind blew out from the pitch-black 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 adding layer after layer of watercolor, the dwarf anomaly added a final touch to the hoe with its breath.
Clatter.
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 village a long time ago, I've never delved into it."
"Ah. Even after 100 regressions, you couldn't figure out one village? Isn't that negligence of duty...?"
"I'm sorry. If someone hadn't strangled me to death in the last run, I might have figured it out."
Noh Do-hwa blinked.
"It hasn't disappeared…"
"Pardon?"
"Originally, anything created in this village 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 blacksmiths."
"A training ground...?"
"Yes. You could call it a place 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 blacksmith dwarves in the mining village. 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 blade of the adamantium hoe bore strange letters.
An unfamiliar script. An unintelligible language. 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 blacksmith 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 classified the remaining six dwarf blacksmiths by the difficulty level of the items they were making.
A dwarf making a small kitchen knife was level 1. A dwarf making a large 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."
Clang!
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 black.
-..., 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 its language, an unrecognizable name, on the knife before vanishing.
"...."
How did these anomalies come into existence? Even with countless regressions, I could only speculate about their secret, never arriving at the answer.
I cooked, prepared bathwater, secured our sleeping quarters, and stayed vigilant against surrounding anomalies, allowing Noh Do-hwa to focus on the 'slaying 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 blacksmith's gate. The term "talent" must have been coined for people like her.
Yet, for some reason, her expression grew worse with each level she completed. She frowned deeply as she glared 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."
Clang.
Noh Do-hwa tapped the hilt of the sword lightly with her hammer—clank, the misaligned notches fitted perfectly.
Level 6. The greatsword was complete.
-..., ....
She finished making the greatsword and the dwarf immediately turned its head, like a salaryman smelling freshly baked bread at a subway bakery.
Then, it reached out to infuse eternity into the master's piece—
"Ah. Hold on…"
But its hand only swiped the air.
Noh Do-hwa had suddenly tilted the greatsword back.
-...?
"Hmm."
-...?
The black 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—hoes, kitchen knives, daggers, sickles, pitchforks, longswords, and greatswords—into the smelter.
The smelter in the mining village quickly melted the tools back into adamantium. Noh Do-hwa's hammer immediately struck the softened mass.
Clang—!
The mineral that originally didn't exist in this world began to take shape beautifully. Clang! Clang! 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— Noh Do-hwa drew the blue blade 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 most common 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 blade. Screech, the sound of metal sliding.
[Dicentra Spectabilis]
It was the name believed to belong to the dwarf blacksmith who had once breathed life into the hoe.
Noh Do-hwa opened her notebook and carefully engraved the characters from [Dicentra Spectabilis] onto the blade, 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 (渡河).
The characters pronounced the same as Noh Do-hwa's name, and the same meaning as her workshop, flowed onto the white blade 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 village vanished. The adamantium ore, the smelters, the stone buildings, and the anvils the dwarves used—all 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 village. Instead, she was handing me the sword.
Evening. The blazing 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 slaughters, this sword will play a significant role. Do you understand? Regressor Undertaker. From now on, part of your achievements, your feats, your successes and failures, your killings—half of them will belong to this sword. In other words, by taking this sword, you are accepting it as your accomplice..."
"...."
I nodded.
I grasped the sword.
"I will name the sword Do-hwa (渡河)."
"…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 claiming 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 place of the original void of the 'dwarf mining village', the sword Do-hwa seemed to be fixed in time, immovable like a fixed coordinate.
Perhaps the 'mining village' had truly come from another world. And the flow of time in that other world was different from ours, causing 'Do-hwa' to be fixed in place, outside the normal flow of time.
Or, instead of the mining village, the sword Do-hwa itself had become a void and an anomaly.
In any case, the mining village 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-hwa 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 blacksmith 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 slave for life."
How could I not burst out laughing at this?
Noh Do-hwa frowned deeply at my laughter. A pair of twin black islands, no longer lonely, glared at me.
"Hah? You're laughing? 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―"
-x-X-x-
The Breakdown I
They mocked me, calling me a decrepit old monster over a thousand years old, but their assessment was utterly mistaken.
Originally, Noh Do-hwa was the type to describe raindrops falling beautifully in autumn from a stormy sky as, "Huh, these H₂Os are committing mass suicide (she actually said this)." She'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 Noh Do-hwa 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 Noh Do-hwa 'teacher'!
Oh, what a pity.
How can I not lament? That scum being called a teacher? Even in this land once called the country of courtesy, the three bonds and five relationships 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 Peninsula, who insists on wearing a white sailor uniform like the white-clad folk rather than black.
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!"
Occasionally, 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 Peninsula, 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 Peninsula, 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 villainy, Infinite Void was a cut above Moriarty.
Unlike Moriarty, whose demonic nature was immediately exposed by Sherlock Holmes' clairvoyance, 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, villains of villains.
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 alumni network. 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 Peninsula... 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, come on, sunbae. There's no such thing as fairies in the world. You're teasing me too much—."
"...No, what are you talking about. In Baekhwa Girls' High School, the tutorial dungeon occurred. 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 clairvoyance.
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—!"
"...."
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!" using language, 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 manipulated by Infinite Void.
Indeed, a true mastermind, unlike those attention-seeking pseudo-villains 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.
The land size was 14,990 square meters. The mansion was nestled on the slopes of Mount Wonsu, overlooking the government complex 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 'young lady' 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.
"One last question, Yo-hwa. I briefly investigated your family. Your father's surname is Cheon (千), but you use the surname with the other Cheon (天). 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 human laboratory.
Like other laboratories, the tutorial dungeon also strictly controlled external access to prevent incidents that would raise a graduate student's blood pressure, such as virus infiltration, computer theft, or data loss.
Therefore, the tutorial dungeon remained closed until it was cleared.
Even the 'clairvoyance' of the Saintess couldn't inspect this closed space. It was impossible for an external person to forcibly open and enter the lab.
Yes, 'a person' could not.
"Let's go, fairy number 264."
"Hooey! Yes, following the Comrade Leader's orders...!"
Even if the lab 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 revolutionary comrades and opened softly.
(Congratu) Seo.,; University 2 Admitted! (lations)
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 place. Not only the banner but also various parts of the school gate were destroyed.
The name plaque, which should have been elegantly inscribed with the school name in Chinese characters, was partially damaged, leaving only '■■女子高等學校'.
"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 will lay 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! Beings can only be distinguished by ideology...! That one is surely a lackey 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 bourgeoisie lackey, 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―"
"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 same combat power.
When fairies decide to fight each other, the outcome 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 surveillance 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 welcomed the visitor.
This place was no longer Baekhwa Girls' High School.
'School Ghost Stories'.
Whether it's toilet ghosts or the seven mysteries, all the anomalies related to the 'school' were realized in this labyrinth.
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 to commit 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 Peninsula.
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 man compared to Baekhwa Girls' High students, can exploit in 'School Ghost Stories'?
What disguise should I use to navigate this place 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 the last 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 nameplate reading 'Guard Undertaker' pinned on the chest.
Disguise complete.
"...Ah, this cold and heavy feeling. It's been a while."
Lastly, I held the must-have item for a guard, a 'flashlight,' 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.
-x-X-x-
The Breakdown II
Once you have identified an anomaly's weak point, what becomes important next?
It's the spirit.
In refined terms, it's 'vitality' or 'mental strength,' and in common 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.
"Welcome, custo――"
-Uwooooh...
"――mer. Hmm, take your time browsing."
A stench of rot wafted through the air.
A pitch-black ghost approached, dripping shadows. Its gait was so distinctive that I wondered if I had laid out a red carpet in the convenience store.
'Damn.'
A highly rational judgment was made.
Do you know the Pokémon 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 slammed 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 black 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 balance the world.
"What? Stomach? Kidney? Heart? You gotta be kidding me, customer bastard. Pay up. Cleaning fee for making the floor dirty. Mop replacement fee for using the mop. Compensation for the spoiled food corner. And above all, laundry fee for your stench on my uniform. It's your existence fee, bastard."
-Uwooo...
"No money? You have no money but come 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 claiming 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 flashlight, 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 Lü 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 village.
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."
Splash-
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 too late 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 the latter.
"Oh. I almost forgot. In some versions, just knocking isn't enough to trigger the appearance conditions."
-....
"Alright. Let's start spinning now?"
Clack. I locked the bathroom door and began to spin in place 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 play. 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. Exorcism complete.
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's combined with the red paper blue paper ghost. Not that rare."
-Purple paper...?
"Oh."
The anomaly proposed a compromise.
According 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 porcelain fragments flying everywhere.
Water overflowed, but it wasn't just H₂O. 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 anomalies compared 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 village 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 place. 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 talismans completely. 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.
死. 死. 死. 死.
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 '亡' but rarely '死.'
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 place 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 place for humans, but still avoided because it's considered dirty.
This is why 'places to urinate,' along with 'places to eat' and 'places to sleep,' always hold significant ritualistic meaning in voids.
One of the core pillars of 'School Ghost Stories.'
In contrast, dismissing ghosts in the science lab, 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 flashlight swept across the pitch-black 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 glass, 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.
-x-X-x-
The 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 brain completely 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—those third-person narrators or the first-person-rewrite method.
Imagine it. How delightful it would be to slander and defame Noh Do-hwa from an omniscient perspective!
Unfortunately, I lacked 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 is coming! The guard is coming!
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 Peninsula! But our ace members are being annihilated without resistance?
-Enemy shadow, approaching! It's coming this way! Ah! The flashlight! That light! Our eyes!
-Stop it! Hold the line at any cost!
-The guard is coming! The guard is coming!
-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 classroom after school' ghost on the 3rd floor, I set up a notice board on the stair landing 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 place 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 doppelgänger-type anomalies.
But if you had pre-arranged countermeasures, you could intentionally keep murmuring to bait the doppelgängers.
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 collar 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 'a completely different voice, recorded at a different distance or quality, played back through the earphones'? It would be proof that a mental-control-type anomaly had appeared nearby.
And the method to exterminate doppelgängers 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 doppelgänger 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 collapsed.
"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 played 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, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
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 glanced at the school speakers on the wall, but they were silent too.
Extermination complete.
This meant most mind-control-type anomalies had been cleared.
"Hmmm."
From the silent stair landing, I glanced upstairs.
The 4th floor.
The 4th (死) 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' (사) meaning 'death' (死) could lead to having your brain dribble out of your nose like an Egyptian mummy.
'Wordplay in this world'. This linguistic act is the essence of being human.
Wordplay using homophones forms the basis of comedy and poetry. For the human race, which tries to dominate the world with language, 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.
I laid 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—"
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 (死) 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 placed on the altar included not only banknotes but also coins from various countries, including Greek silver coins and Venetian 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 welcome 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――
-...
――but 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 accepting 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 accept 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 gets later."
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 been completely 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—
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—!"
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 black-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.
"――A, human? Ah? An adult?!"
Instead of slamming the opponent into the floor, I gently landed 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've come 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 would later grow into the strongest necromancer on the Korean Peninsula.
A former runner-up in the last 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 (天寥化).
Heaven (天), Lonely (寥), To become (化). A child with solitude hidden in her name.
Finally, I had encountered my target in the worst tutorial dungeon.