The Nameless One III
Let's pause for a moment to clarify—between me and the Infinite Void, there exists a perfect hierarchical relationship. Put simply, there's no cliché 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 claim 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 vocabulary 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 exceptional computational ability.
"That's exactly it."
Each Outer God has a specialty—a strength. Naturally, they also have weaknesses. Compared to the others, Infinite Void was particularly 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 penetrate 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 sudden command, 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 black.
It was a black sailor uniform—completely 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 similar situations in previous cycles. There was no way I could mistake Infinite Void for a human—at 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 plan, 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—250th, 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.
"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 IIIjust fine."
Isn't that good enough? You're asking for too much.
We both lay down on the bench.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't together. I lay down on the bench, while Infinite Void offered me a lap pillow.
A white hand, wrapped in a black sleeve, tapped my forehead like a compass point.
"By the way, sunbae, you're hilarious. 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 claw, 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 dangerous combination 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—The 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-black pupils had no shine whatsoever. No matter what angle the sunlight hit, they didn't reflect even a glimmer. His eyes were like black 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 claim I'm a figment of the dream? Interesting theory. Fine, if you're the real Undertaker, tell me the password."
"Café au lait."
"And?"
"Schopenhauer, that bastard."
"And?"
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.
――――!
The surface of the Han River rippled beyond the Jamsu Bridge.
The wave was restrained. Despite the clash of our auras, the surrounding objects were relatively undisturbed.
It was because my aura had overwhelmed his, dramatically dampening its power.
"You're real." The Undertaker, whose blade 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 black, 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 class 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 had come to an end, leaving behind absolute void.
"Infinite Void. For just one question, I'll allow you to access 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—void. 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 black 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.
"―Bleeeegh."
The problem was Infinite Void.
The deeper we delved into earlier cycles, the worse its expression grew, and by the 50th cycle, it collapsed 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 platform, 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—its 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 had completely missed—it 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 black uniform, Infinite Void glanced 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's completely 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—identical to the Undertakers I had killed across the dream cycles.
Footnotes:
[1] Both thought experiments deal with the idea that our beliefs or memories, respectively, are false and, thus, that our place in the world we live in is not at all what we perceive it to be.
-x-X-x-
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 upcoming 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 Island, and the original owner of the Monkey's Paw.
In short—
"I do dream something similar 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. No complaints there—actually, 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. The last point where my Complete Memory fully preserved my memories from start to finish.
As we approached, the Undertaker—busy handling Samcheon World guild matters at a train station in Busan—turned 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.
"What are you two?"
The shadow spoke, its mouth just as pitch-black as its eyes.
I smirked wryly. The funny thing was that this was the result after becoming 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 blankly.
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—I'm far stronger than you could ever imagine."
"And what does my future self seek? Do you plan to tell me how to hunt down the Ten Legs?"
"Heh!" Beside me, Infinite Void snickered.
I squeezed the finger interlaced 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 available."
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..."
Slash.
With a single stroke, I severed the Undertaker's head. The moment it rolled off, the dreamscape of the 5th cycle collapsed.
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 manipulated by an anomaly is highly unlikely."
"Yeah."
In that case, there was only one conclusion left.
"I've come 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 Seal completely vanishes from memory—as if their existence itself had been erased. Only one person, the one who used Time Seal—in this case, me—remains 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 clashed."
"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 clash, 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.
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—you 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 relationship 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 collapse. 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—the 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 become someone without any connections in this world—an "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."
After a moment, I opened my eyes again.
"Someone must have been standing beside me—or beside Dang Seo-rin—when 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've completely 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 unexplained."
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 birthplace.
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 glanced at it with a suspicious look, wondering what trick it was about to pull. Infinite Void, mimicking Cheon Yo-hwa's laugh, 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 simulate 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—looking exactly like Cheon Yo-hwa—snapped its fingers. Suddenly, the error-filled [404] scenery around us shifted into the hallway of a hospital. It was a place 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 would later become 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—her face and clothes completely unrecognizable—lay 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 relationships, 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—my supposed mother—didn'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 place 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 glanced 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—every movement perfectly on beat. Even the way it tapped the floor with its toes, waiting for my response, was flawlessly 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.
-x-X-x-
The Slanderer I
"These days, people's moral compasses 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 particularly 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 Peninsula to die young, now, could I?
Anyway.
I silently approached Do-hwa, squatted down, and placed 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, come 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 reacting lately 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 high combat 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.
"But lately, people unrelated 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 pretty common occurrence), 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 accident, 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—a stream of bullshit. I heard about it from my subordinates, but apparently, posts like these have been popping up regularly."
"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 Peninsula. Even the regional warlord guild leaders knew that, as did the common citizens. In these times, unity was more critical than ever. Spreading slander 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 relationships, nothing. They were complete strangers who just happened to start trading comments online."
I blinked again.
So, was it just a coincidence?
I had no intention of over-regulating every little thing just because of some random incident. After all, venting on the internet had been a daily occurrence even before civilization collapsed.
"But there's more. Ah... something just grabbed my ankle..."
"Just a Water Ghost, nothing serious. Keep talking."
"Right..."
We continued our conversation, completely 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, slander.
- 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 regular guild members from the Samcheon World were killed last 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 were completely 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 related to a fish..."
"Hmm."
"Anyway, that's how things have been this week. It feels just like the old days before civilization collapsed..."
"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 black 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 slack 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 conversations lately, even in reality.]
The Saintess's abilities were reliable as ever. She immediately provided the information I needed.
[The people involved don't seem particularly 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 places 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 accusations. Others, despite having doubts, still chime in and agree with the accusations. The accusations are then accepted as fact, with remarks questioning the character or integrity of the accused. 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 parasitizes language itself."
[How do you plan 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 Constellations Librarian of the Great Library and Collector of All Anomalies. Not only that, but she also had numerous anonymous accounts 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 slander 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 playing 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 Constellation 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—
└Anonymous: That's not me!
Naturally, the forum exploded. The tide of public opinion rapidly shifted, with commenters now siding with Samcheon and berating Cheonghae Guild.
I watched this all unfold with a cold expression.
'So, we've turned the slander around. Now let's see how the anomaly reacts.'
At that moment—
- Anonymous: I always knew Cheonghae Guild would cause trouble someday, lol.
- Anonymous: That guild has always been shady, using anonymous accounts to promote themselves while badmouthing rival guilds.
└Anonymous: For real??
└Anonymous: Apparently, the guild leader even assigned an SG Net officer to manipulate 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 the comments.]
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 simply latch onto the next, continuing its cycle of destruction.
-x-X-x-
The Slanderer II
At some point, the "Witch Hunt" anomaly began sweeping across the Korean Peninsula. If it had just been limited to a few stupid posts on the internet, 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 plan. 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 this coming.'
'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 such common 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 when completely 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 internet's strongest power source. "Ah-ryeon, good work."
"Ah, y-yes."
"I don't think responding to every bit of slander is worth the effort anymore. You did great, now stop."
"Ah... Yes, guild leader. Haa... I-I knew it would come 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 becoming 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's completely different." Ah-ryeon rubbed the bump on her head.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, it's happening not just on the internet, 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 Émile Zola's J'Accuse famous."
"Oh, right... I know about that. The, uh, famous 100k subscriber YouTuber, Emile Zola..."
...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 Villainous 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 Constellations. 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 Peninsula? 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 villain 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 a comment 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 the comment. "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-proclaimed and internet-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 was completely 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 glance... 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 'internet 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! Flatten 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 spectacular, 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 that coming!' 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 internet 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 it comes 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 planet! 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 it coming."
"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 it comes to something important, you lose your composure 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—it 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 pillars using my Aura. Whether this anomaly was better defined as pseudo-intellectualism or witch hunting, this temple had now become 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 and complaints started to rise. The people who had been kidnapped and bound by me were now making a racket.
"Even in this lawless age, this is too much! I knew it was coming!"
"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 Peninsula. 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 Clairvoyance? 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 busy complaining about my actions, proudly proclaiming 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 slash 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 Peninsula managed to maintain some semblance of law 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.
―――!
The dark aura swallowed all sound as it pierced the heavens.
The clouds torn asunder by the Aura were dyed black, 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.
"..."
"..."
Clap.
Clap, clap, clap.
Slow clapping broke the silence.
There was no need to turn around to check. It was Ji-won, clapping with a blank expression.
Ignoring her flattery, 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 in combat 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 plan."
If an Aura showcase wasn't enough, I had no choice but to use my trump card. The Korean Peninsula didn't just have Ah-ryeon, the villain 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 accuse him. Journalist Émile Zola's open letter to the press J'Accuse...! played a significant role successfully 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.
-x-X-x-
The Slanderer 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 Plains, 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 succeeded 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 available, 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 glanced 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 blade?!"
"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 incomprehensible 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 clapped 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—they were all cursed televisions. Each screen replayed 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—it 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 eccentric, 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 player, of course, with a cursed audio file stored within.
As soon as the Sword Marquess put the earphones on, the Heart Sutra began playing 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 even comprehend 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 elastic 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 necklace 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 flashes briefly, yo..."
Her rap was laced 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 manipulated the puppet strings, forcing the Sword Marquess to move as she pleased.
"Guh... Guhhh?! My joints—?"
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? My comrades, 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 player 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 displayed phantasmal figures reciting the Sutra of Enlightenment, dancing to my recorded Sword Dance, and ghosts flailed 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 manipulate 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 Sirland Duchy.
Even the tiniest sliver of conscience would struggle to accept 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 displaying a particular 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 claimed 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 manipulated the strings, guiding the Sword Marquess's hand to the screen.
Click.
The post opened, and—
―There was light.
Blossoms of plum trees burst forth around the fake Greek temple.
A scent unknown to modern humans—the scent of true plum blossoms, or something akin to the combined fragrance of roses and cherries—filled the air.
The light receded.
The wrinkled old man was gone.
In his place stood a gray-haired boy, his head bowed in silence.
"Hmm."
I nodded with satisfaction.
Success!
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 this coming, 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 never comprehend! Life is suffering, and we are nothing but cast-offs thrown into the world... I didn't know!
- I can't slander this... I can't slander this!
- Hikyaaaaaaaah!
Shudder!
The 360 captives convulsed in unison, collapsing 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 Peninsula, ghostly apparitions have been seen fleeing from people's bodies and vanishing into thin air.]
I glanced back at my comrades who had participated in the operation and gave them a thumbs-up.
Among them, Ah-ryeon smiled the brightest and exclaimed, "You're amazing, guild leader! The best!"
The expert on slanderous spirits, otherwise known as the Witch Hunt or Internet Specters, had been defeated.
Mission Complete!
There is a small epilogue.
"Congratulations on your great success, 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.
-x-X-x-
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 occasionally 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."
Occasionally, 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 foreign languages, including English..."
"Silence. It's not my fault that I'm a pure-blooded Japanese native. You're just too fluent in foreign languages for your own good while I'm just average."
"Thank you."
Clink.
We toasted. The Great Priestess swirled her glass 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 becomes 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 and laughed. 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 becoming 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―"
Casual conversation flowed between us. The quickest way for Awakeners to bond is to exchange Tutorial Dungeon stories. It's similar 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—that'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―"
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 occurred 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 place.
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 pain laced her voice, the kind brought forth by the tearing off of flesh. The agony of muscles and sinew scorched alive by flames. The torment of thousands of razor blades flaying 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 black 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—her Awakening had been an incredibly fast process compared 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 succession.
"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 was completely bewildered, the woman's transformation had fully progressed. Her hair, from the ends now up to the roots, had completely changed color, turning her entire scalp a bright, radiant white.
And the moment the transformation, the Awakening, was complete...
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 accepted 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 relayed the story I'd heard from the Great Priestess.
"Do you know anything about it?"
"If it's thatincident, 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 before completing the tutorial, so its data is incomplete!"
"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, replaced 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 playback...
"...Wait."
I suddenly realized.
I realized what had been bothering me all this time.
"Hoek?"
"Replay that last part again."
"Understood."
Fairy No. 264 blinked its eyes rapidly. A moment later, the distorted voice echoed again from the fairy's mouth.
"Nooo, Awndataka! Nooo, nooo, nooo! P-p-please stop! Nooo, Awndataka!"
"There, that last part, isolate it and play it again."
"Awndataka!"
"..."
So it was that.
The playback ended, and the room fell into silence. I swallowed quietly as the realization hit me.
The Great Priestess lacked Complete Memory. She wasn't proficient in foreign languages either. Whether in English or Korean, her conversational skills had always been limited due to her isolationist 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, a complete stranger—a fellow Awakener—exploded while screaming my name.