The Merger IV
Alexander the Great.
After appearing in a spin-off novel of a game with a famous IP, he rose to fame as a quintessential "macho man" in subcultures. But truthfully, even as an adult, he never outgrew his chuunibyou tendencies.
"I want to erect a stela at the easternmost edge of the world."
"Why, Your Majesty?"
"To engrave my name on it. Doesn't that sound so badass? Isn't it cool?"
"...?"
In modern terms, this was akin to a mindless tourist leaving graffiti on ancient ruins. An upgraded version of ignorance, if you will.
Hercules had done something similar, and did it first. For those who don't know, he planted stone pillars at the westernmost edge of the world, the Strait of Gibraltar.
Given the starting points of these two, it's clear that reaching the east was a far tougher quest than the west.
Alexander embarked on this new challenge solely to declare, "Hercules? That guy's nothing but a paper rocket."
The problem with that?
"No, I don't want to."
"What?"
The soldiers accompanying Alexander had been "cured" of their chuunibyou during their ten years of military service.
They were exhausted. It was hard enough keeping up with their king's "son of a god" act, let alone doing the work to indulge his fantasies. Greek culture at the time already harbored a certain disillusionment with gods—capricious beings who behaved on whims and occasionally hurled lightning bolts when irritated.
If actual gods were a nuisance, then why tolerate someone claiming to be their son?
Thus, Alexander's ambitious eastward expedition to traverse the world from end to end met its untimely demise.
"But we can do it."
Back in the operations room of Ark City BusaN, I slammed my hand on the world map and made my declaration.
"Alexander's expedition failed only because he relied on the fragile muscles and flesh of mere mortals. But we're different. With steel and concrete, cutting-edge city management AIs, and the very embodiment of modern civilization in the form of BusaN, we can and will traverse the Eurasian continent!"
"Oooooh!"
"We shall name this the 'Alexander Project' and declare our intent to advance from Busan, the eastern edge, to Gibraltar, the western edge!"
Ji-won, Dok-seo, Ah-ryeon, and Ha-yul—the pro-Undertaker faction—cheered enthusiastically. However, as I had already described this scene once before, I'll skip the redundant details.
Do-hwa, a notable member of the anti-Undertaker faction, raised her hand. For this story, she bore the title of City Management Corps Leader rather than National Road Management Corps Leader.
"Speak, Leader Noh Do-hwa."
"I realize it's a bit late to ask, but why exactly do we need to cross the continent...?"
"Because it's cool?"
"..."
"Go with full speed ahead."
Do-hwa's responding expression resembled that of a Greek soldier conspiring against their king.
However, in this iteration, my death was not scheduled at Do-hwa's hands. If she intended to stab my back with a black dagger, she'd have to wait for the right historical moment. After all, the most famous rebellion in history didn't occur in Greece but in its successor, the Roman Empire.
BusaN advanced.
Limp, limp.
The colossal structure pushed forward despite its occasional wobbling, like a person hobbling on sore feet.
Once beyond the borders of the Korean Peninsula, Ark City first visited Mount Hua in China.
The hike up was easy. Mount Hua might have been infamous for its cliffs and treacherous terrain, but BusaN's height was nothing to scoff at.
"Oh, my goodness!"
One figure practically bounced with joy upon our arrival.
"To think I'd live to reclaim Mount Hua's roots! Not even in my wildest dreams!"
Sword Marquess, bursting with energy, danced a lively jig.
The old man had been forcibly dragged from Ulleungdo and sulked the entire way with a perpetually gloomy look on his face. Yet the moment we reached Mount Hua, he radiated the vigor that only came with 500 cups of caffeine.
"As the 261st Sect Leader, I welcome your visit! Come in, come in, make yourselves at home!"
"Welcoming us? Aren't we all technically riding the same ark?"
"H-H-Ha-yul, hush. Don't ruin the old man's fantasy."
"Okay, but where're the plum blossoms?"
"Hiiiik! H-H-Ha-yul!"
With the Sword Marquess as our guide, we took a leisurely tour of Mount Hua with packed lunches and picnic mats in tow for maximum enjoyment.
Compared to the 108th run, when only the Sword Marquess and I wandered the mountain by ourselves, this was far livelier.
The Sword Marquess would frantically try to plant plum blossoms, and Ha-yul in turn would quietly tease him with her stoic remarks, amusing the rest of the group.
"Disciples, listen well!"
A year later, after finally blanketing Mount Hua in plum blossoms, the Sword Marquess loudly declared thus:
"What is Mount Hua? Not a mere dot on the Earth, no. It is a single flower blooming in our hearts!"
"Whoooa!"
"Well said, Sect Leader!"
The ones cheering him on were our most recent additions to the ark's population and newest Mount Hua Sect disciples, the villagers from the Forsaken Villages surrounding Mount Hua.
The Sword Marquess, now encircled by his disciples, shouted his proclamation.
"Mount Hua is not merely a point on the map but a place that blooms within us! As of today, I declare that the seat of Mount Hua will move to the ark!"
"Mount Hua! Plum blossoms! The True Path! The Martial Gate!"
The Sword Marquess and his reborn disciples transplanted twenty-four plum blossoms, the first to bloom on Mount Hua, into the ark. They did this not with tools or metal, but with their bare hands, carefully preserving every root and stem.
And so it was that the spirit of Mount Hua was transplanted into the ark. A single, Eastern-style temple was erected to be the new headquarters of the Mount Hua Sect.
"It is done! Now I shall dedicate myself to ensuring the people of the ark are fed and cared for!"
The Sword Marquess, once riddled with melancholy, threw himself into farming with renewed vitality.
Yes, cultivating crops on Ark City was not only possible but necessary, and farmland was in abundance.
The ark embraced everyone.
Limp, limp.
The next destination was New Delhi.
"Ah... What is this?"
The mayor of New Delhi, Manav, stood in awe when the colossal Ark City came looming over the horizon, his expression wavering as the city shook the earth itself in its grandeur.
"Who... Who are you? Are you messengers of God? Or beings of calamity? How could you possibly ride atop such a wonder...?"
"Indians have always been renowned as exceptional talent. Ha-yul, take care of it."
"Roger that. Target secured."
"Huh?"
Manav and the remaining residents of New Delhi were promptly absorbed into the ark.
In fact, Ark City was gathering residents from every Forsaken Village it passed. By this point, BusaN was transforming into a bustling international city, floating somewhere between steampunk and cyberpunk aesthetics.
As the population grew and became more diverse, the administrative burden on Do-hwa's shoulders increased exponentially.
That was why we brought Manav aboard.
After all, in the midst of an apocalypse, this man had managed to feed and lead hundreds of thousands of citizens. Talent like his was rare, even in the best of times.
"Good heavens."
Manav, now an administrator under Do-hwa, flipped through the mountain of documents related to city management and shook his head in disbelief.
"You mean... all this work was done by a single person? Seriously? This much?"
"Noh Do-hwa is a god, and regressors are invincible."
"Oh, dear god..." Manav's hands trembled as he looked over the administrative files. "It looked impressive from the outside, but it turns out this city is nothing more than a skeleton held together by scraps of flesh. Still... this place is clearly destined to become humanity's final stronghold. I will help."
Even in a new environment, Manav's administrative skills shone. If anything, they improved.
In New Delhi, he had been forced to sacrifice more than 100 lives daily, playing trolley dilemmas to keep the majority alive. His unshakable faith in "utilitarian justice" had undoubtedly taken its toll on him.
Here, though the workload was heavy, his dark circles gradually faded.
Incidentally, we learned he was a fitness enthusiast. He joined the ark's gym club alongside me, Seo Gyu, and Ah-ryeon (who was dragged along unwillingly).
"This city is good."
One day, Manav stood atop the ark and murmured this:
"So long as one has a clear direction, life can be bearable. I've only just come to realize that."
The mayor of the city, who had been deferring death day by day, looked indifferent.
I asked, "Resources within the city have been running low lately. Will it be okay?"
"No." Mayor Manav smiled. "We'll have to make it okay. At least until we see the sea."
The ark accepts everyone.
Limp, limp.
The next stop was Naryan-Mar, where the last of the Nenets struggled to survive in the Arctic wilderness.
"Wow... Is this for real?"
Nenet stared slack-jawed at Ark City as it approached. His astonishment only deepened when he saw Julius, my and Ha-yul's dual-pilot ace mech.
"In the middle of an apocalypse, they still have giant robots? Are we living in an anime? What even is this world?"
Initially, Nenet had no intention of joining Ark City. However, after I gave him a crash course in Aura techniques, enabling him to take revenge on the reindeer that had killed his uncle, his attitude shifted.
Or perhaps it was the moment when he was nearly gored to death by a reindeer, only to be saved by Ha-yul's puppet strings, that ultimately changed his mind.
Life is better than death, even in an apocalypse. Accomplishing one's goals can make life even sweeter. As Manav had put it, if a task that must be done is transformed into one that can be done, the outcome becomes much more bearable.
I made him a proposal.
"We'll set up a signal fire at the top of the ark. Nenet, you can tend to it. It will be your job to keep the flames burning."
"..."
"This way, as we traverse the continent, any survivors in the vicinity will see our beacon."
Nenet asked for a day to consider.
The next day, carrying all his worldly possessions in a single backpack, the last scion of his people climbed aboard the ark.
"Well... If it's just tending a fire..."
From that day onward, Ark City gained a lighthouse keeper—a solitary figure who maintained the signal fire atop its highest point. Though he kept his distance from others, his beacon was a constant, visible to anyone in the city.
The ark embraced everyone.
Limp, limp.
Years passed.
BusaN journeyed across countless Forsaken Villages and dozens of cities.
Even with the former Outer God, Admin of the Infinite Metagame, serving as the city's AI administrator, incidents occurred almost daily. It took the combined efforts of Ha-yul, Do-hwa, and the rest of the crew to keep things running smoothly. The haunting songs recorded by Seo-rin played on loop to assist their efforts.
"Undertaker."
"Hmm?"
"We're almost out of supplies. If we don't restock somewhere, we won't survive the winter."
"Got it. If we find a city predator, we'll take it down and salvage the remains."
"Understood."
Avoiding the path of monster waves wasn't easy, but it was something we had to attempt.
From Korea, we traversed China and Siberia, scaled the Himalayas and the Urals, crossed the Bosphorus, and finally ascended the Pyrenees.
In city after city, our mechs battled colossal Anomalies. Our land-based aircraft carrier fortress conquered every foe and from the ruins of abandoned settlements, scoured clean by monsters, we scavenged scrap metal to repair our ark, over and over again.
The ark's original exterior plating, emblazoned with the words Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress: Humanity's Final Defense Ark City, was worn and battered.
By the time it reached its destination, the lettering was so faded it could hardly be read. One last plate fell off, hitting the ground with a resounding clang.
"Ah."
At 4:56 a.m., when the stars still kissed the night, the ark finally came to a halt. Its massive frame trembled as its titanic feet ceased their relentless march.
Standing at the helm of the control room, Ha-yul, who had stayed awake all night, whispered two words:
"The sea."
We had arrived at the world's western edge—Gibraltar.
-x-X-x-
The Merger V
There is a short epilogue.
After arriving in Gibraltar, the mood across Ark City remained festive for some time.
Resources were scarce and food wasn't abundant, but the citizens brought out all the items they had hoarded like precious treasures and splurged with reckless abandon.
"Well, it's impossible to move any further, so might as well. What a heap of scrap..."
Do-hwa tapped the tip of her foot against BusaN's forepaw. The hollow sound of metal echoed with a thunk.
"In just a few days, the monster wave will reach us, I hear? Hah, we put up a good fight fending them off until now, and when that was impossible, we dodged them. But they still catch up in the end."
The reverberating metallic sound rang on, scattering over the ocean as it faded into the blue.
"And so, a festival. Even a sated ghost glows brighter. We may as well enjoy our final banquet..."
Despite her words, Do-hwa did not actively participate in the festivities. Still, she didn't seem particularly displeased by them either.
Was it just my imagination? Though the workload hadn't differed much from previous cycles, she appeared to be in unusually good spirits this time around.
When asked why...
"Hah. When surrounded by clowns pouring their hearts and souls into foolishness, what good does it do to act serious by myself...?"
With that, she lightly kicked my shin. Unsurprisingly, no metallic sound reverberated from my leg.
"Hm," Do-hwa mused quietly. She tilted her head, her slightly grayed hair slipping gently to the side. "Strange. It's made of actual flesh and bone."
Her muttered words, too, scattered into the ocean, sinking beneath the waves.
That was it.
Do-hwa wandered off somewhere, sipping wine.
I briefly considered following her, but her stride carried an air of firm refusal—a message that if I insisted on following, there'd be due resolve and payment. Eventually, I turned and wandered the festival grounds instead.
Once again, my life in this cycle was not destined to intertwine with hers.
As I walked, I passed by various people.
"Disciples of Mount Hua! This great calamity will surpass any tribulation we've faced before. We are now positioned at the edge of the sea, with no further ground to retreat to!"
The Sect Leader of Mount Hua spoke passionately, drawing fervent responses from the disciples.
"Oh! Truly! Just like the ancient general who made his last stand against Zhao!"
"And we are Mount Hua! This Ark is named BusaN! With the vast sea behind us and Twin Peaks before us, our position is truly one of a Heavenly Sanctuary—protected by mountains and water!"
"Ding! Heavenly Sanctuary effect activated: The morale of Mount Hua disciples has increased! All disciples' critical hit rate rises by 30%."
"Ding! Mount Hua's Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Formation – Last Stand Mode activated: Mount Hua disciples' combat prowess has surged! Their attack power increases by 75%."
"No, no..."
I passed by the Sect Leader (who had reverted to his rejuvenated, youthful form) flailing his arms in baffled flagellations while the disciples kept chanting ding noises and applying self-buffs.
"Are you sure it's fine to use up all this firewood?"
"Yes. We saved it precisely for a day like this."
"Hah. Normally, you act so frugal..."
"When climbing mountains, it's better to avoid drinking too much water."
At the signal fire pit, I overheard Nenet chatting as I walked past.
"Ugh, this... This might be my final masterpiece... Huff, phew... Huff... A latte, to calm my nerves while I finish it..."
At the edge of the breakwater, I passed Ah-yeon, who had set up her easel and was sipping café au lait.
"Done! Yes! Babel 200kg No Aura Challenge complete!"
"President, I've admired you for a long time!"
"Where did this fish come from...?"
"Can you at least tell me where this train was made?"
Faces passed, and I moved forward and onward.
After following wherever my feet led for some unknown amount of time, I eventually spotted a familiar back at a coastline.
"Ha-yul?"
"Ah..."
Ha-yul turned to look at me. Her golden eyes were as shadowy as the full moon reflected in the night sea.
"Undertaker."
"Hey, Ha-yul."
This cycle—our 690th, where we operated as a duo—Ha-yul had called me "Undertaker" more often than "oppa."
Why had her habit of clinging with half-pronounced, affection-starved tones like "oppa" or "Dad" stopped this time around? Could it be that the barren wasteland deep in her heart had finally absorbed a bit of rainwater?
I hoped so.
"Night stroll?" she wondered then, interrupting my thoughts.
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Where's everyone else?"
"I followed the shadows wherever my feet led and found you."
"Oh."
"Mind if I sit beside you?"
"Go ahead."
I sat down beside her with a plop and only then did I notice something unusual.
Ha-yul's lower body seemed frail. She was using an ordinary artificial leg where Do-hwa's custom prosthetics should have been. Even a pair of crutches, unused for over a decade, lay neatly beside her.
"Hmm? What about your prosthetics? Are they in for repairs?"
"Mm." Ha-yul shook her head. "I just... wanted to try walking without them."
"Feeling sentimental?"
"Something like that."
The waves surged and receded.
For a while, we sat silently, side by side, gazing at the ocean under the night sky.
"Underta... Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"When this world ends, do we just move on to the next one and start over?"
"That's right."
"You'll find me in Fukuoka again, talk to the same me who's trying to kill Jung Sang-guk, teach me how to use puppetry strings and master Aura, and..."
"..."
"I don't want that," Ha-yul said. She curled in on herself just slightly, wrapping her arms around her waist. "I don't want that. After everything... After all we've been through together, after all the laughter... To forget it all, meet you again, and ask, 'Who are you?' To be wary of you, to start from scratch... That's too cruel."
The waves surged once more.
The seawater lapped at the foot of her artificial leg, but with no body heat of her own to supply it, she wouldn't have felt the wave's temperature.
Born under the shadow of Jung Sang-guk, a man who juggled power and double lives, Ha-yul had learned to walk through life dragging the weight of an emotional prosthesis.
Pretend it exists when it doesn't.
Pretend it doesn't exist when it does.
Do-hwa's prosthetics supported her body, but they couldn't heal the limp in her heart.
"If it's all going to vanish... If it's all going to disappear anyway, I'd rather you Time Seal—"
"Ha-yul."
I softly patted her shoulder.
It was a signal that had been established long ago between us. Ha-yul opened her eyes wide, then slowly stretched out her arms toward me.
I picked her up and placed her on my lap. Luckily, I was still large enough to shield her small frame from the world, even for just a moment.
"There's a philosopher named Plato."
"...?"
"He once told an interesting story. That humans weren't always what they are now. Originally, we were 'merged beings.'"
"Merged beings?"
"Yeah. For instance, imagine you and me, locked in an embrace like this, but fused together as one."
"Ew."
"Two heads, four arms, four legs. Back then, humans didn't walk on two legs like we do now. They rolled around like boulders, tumbling on all fours."
"Ewwww." Her usually impassive face scrunched up in distaste. "That's gross."
I chuckled. "Right? But one day, humans became so powerful they started to challenge the gods. So Zeus, the king of gods, struck them with his lightning and split them apart."
"..."
"Every merged being was divided into two."
Instead of splitting the heavens or shattering the earth, the god's lightning merely divided humans.
"Some were split into two men, some into a man and a woman, and some into two women. Those who were separated became wanderers, destined to roam the earth in search of their other half for the rest of their lives."
"For their whole lives?"
"For their whole lives. Humans who once dared to challenge the gods were reduced to this: creatures born incomplete, devoting their existence to mending the loneliness of their separation."
"..."
"I'm not lonely, Ha-yul."
I hugged her tightly.
"Truly lonely people are those who don't know where their other half is. Or those who know but can never meet them again. But I'm not like that."
"..."
"No matter how fragmented my heart becomes, I'll always have my companions. Ten pieces, ten friends. You're one of them, Ha-yul. No matter when, no matter where, I can knock on the door of that house in Fukuoka and know there's a puppeteer with chestnut-colored hair inside. Isn't that a blessing?"
"But..."
Ha-yul rarely moved her lips or tongue to speak. Having lost her voice, she used the vibrations of her Aura instead.
The sound wasn't natural, it carried the awkward cadence of a limp.
"But I can't pass it on. None of it. The fact that I had such wonderful days... that you, as the Undertaker, the man who scolded me for being suspicious when we first met in the basement, used up countless cycles to stay with me... I can't convey that to the next me. None of it."
"That's not true." Gently, I rested my cheek on the top of her head and said, "Every expression you made, every smile, every breath—they're etched into my soul with perfect clarity."
"..."
"When you choked Jung Sang-guk in a fit of rage and killed him, I'll still remember how beautiful your smile could be."
"..."
"I'll remember how hard you worked to master Aura, how brightly you laughed at my pranks, how proud you looked when you took your first steps on your own, every bit of it. Not a single thing will be forgotten."
"..."
"So even if, by some chance, you set the world on fire, no matter what happens, I'll always be on your side."
"..."
"Forever."
The waves surged again.
I wanted to tell Ha-yul how grateful I was. To tell her that my heart, worn down by endless cycles, had healed slightly during our adventures across the world.
After Infinite Void confessed to me in the language of "I love you," I found my heart kept searching for answers.
What could Infinite Void have meant when speaking of love?
Was it the love one feels when gazing at something beautiful? Was it agape, the devotion one offers to another? Was it erotic love? Perhaps it was love indistinguishable from friendship, or perhaps a possessive desire to leave an indelible mark on the other person?
Does the distinction even matter?
The definition of love—whether it is shocking, pleasant, or transcendent—always converges on one conclusion:
When for the sake of love, humans are willing to set aside their lives, if only for a short while. It was a bygone conclusion from the moment the feeling took root, for human nature is love itself.
You were me, and I was you.
The reason I was born as an infinite regressor must have been to place countless lives on hold for love.
"Ha-yul, I love you."
"..."
For a long moment, only the waves spoke into the air.
"Undertaker."
"Yes."
"Oppa."
"Yes."
"Dad."
Ha-yul clung tightly to me.
"When I'm reborn... Mm. Even if I'm reborn, I want to ride on your shoulders, see the sea like this, and... and play with you again."
The ocean lapped gently against my chest.
At the edge of the world, a single breath was all it took for the waves to travel from one end to the other.
"So... tell the next me."
Ha-yul (夏律).
A child whose name meant "the rhythm of summer," smiled faintly.
"Tell her... I was truly the happiest person in the world."
And as always, I was the happiest regressor in the world.
-x-X-x-
The Counselor I
For all the chattering we've been doing these days about the aftermath of the Mastermind's defeat—a change akin to an aftershock—we've yet to discuss the greatest inflection point.
"Hey, mister."
"Hmm?"
"I've got something I want to talk about."
The red-haired Oh Dok-seo, the instigator of many changes in my otherwise monotonous loop of a life, approached me one day with the true earth-shaking revelation.
Feigning a warm smile, I replied, "You want to take a break from serialization? That's fine. Go ahead and rest."
"No, it's not about taking a break. Although... hearing you casually assume that 'Oh Dok-seo must be taking another break' has hurt my feelings. This wound is so deep that I doubt I'll be able to tap away at my typewriter until it heals. So it's not because of my laziness but solely because of your insensitivity that I'll be taking a hiatus."
"I feel like the reputation of authors everywhere is plummeting as we speak, but sure, what does it matter?"
"Anyway, my concern is about something else."
With more hiatuses than serialized days, Dok-seo might better label herself as a "break-taker" rather than a "writer." Some might even say she had reached the realm of the inhuman.
"I've been having strange dreams lately."
"Dreams?"
I straightened up immediately. Since the spread of the Void Poison throughout the world, dreams had become humanity's most vulnerable weak point—a gateway through which psychological viruses could come and go.
For someone like Oh Dok-seo, a Miko of the Infinite Metagame, her dreams couldn't simply be dismissed.
"What kind of dreams?" I demanded.
"Well, don't laugh when I tell you."
"I won't laugh."
"In my dream, I'm the Saintess."
"Pfft."
"..."
"No, I wasn't laughing. It's just, a sneeze caught me off guard. Please, go on."
"...Anyway, I'm the Saintess, you know."
"Pfft."
"Ah, damn! You wanna die, mister?!"
I hurriedly calmed my mind. Even for someone like me, who had trained in meditation techniques for a long time, it wasn't an easy task.
"Anyway, I'm the Saintess. But when I look around, everything is frozen— No, not frozen. It's more like everything's stopped moving."
Huh?
"No one moves, no matter where I go. There's this building, it kind of feels like the Tower of Babel. And on its rooftop, you're just standing there."
Wait.
"I mean, as the Saintess, I call out to you, but you don't even breathe or move―"
"Hold on," I interrupted finally.
"Hmm?"
"You don't need to explain further."
For reference, this occurred during the 689th cycle, right after we defeated the Mastermind. It was also before I'd explained to Dok-seo how the Saintess had sealed the Goddess of Night, Nut.
Despite that, she had dreamt about what had occurred in 267th cycle, which meant...
"It seems you've... Awakened a new ability."
Dok-seo tilted her head in confusion. "A new ability? Me?"
"Yes."
Side Story Creation.
Among the spoils gained from defeating the Mastermind, this ability was both the most valuable treasure and the most harrowing consequence.
Regrettably, our world lacked the convenience of something like a status window. Or, to be more precise, there had been one briefly, before it was obliterated.
Thus, Awakeners had to figure out their abilities on their own.
"Can't we just ask the Infinite Metagame?"
"And trust that thing? Really?"
"Oh."
"Remember during the Mastermind raid? We borrowed its power once, and not only did it demand compensation, it was also vying for the chance to stab me in the back." I let out a wry laugh. "Expecting altruism from an Anomaly is the surest way to get screwed over, Dok-seo. You probably feel an instinctive affinity for the Infinite Metagame because you're its Miko. But keep that feeling in check whenever possible. Being a Miko isn't a role just anyone can handle."
"Alright," she agreed reluctantly. "I'll keep that in mind."
We began investigating her newfound ability in earnest.
"Let's start with something simple. Besides the dreams, have you experienced any auditory or visual hallucinations recently?"
"Oh. Yeah, I have."
We were conducting the session at our hideout in the Inunaki Tunnel, 1,200 meters underground. To set the mood, I'd stolen Noh Do-hwa's doctor's coat to wear. Sharing was caring in the apocalypse, after all.
(I got scolded for that later.)
"What kind of hallucinations?"
"There's no specific pattern," Dok-seo answered. "Sometimes it's your voice, sometimes it's Yo-hwa's. It just happens out of nowhere, usually while I'm walking."
"Can you recall the exact words you heard?"
"Hmm... Oh, yesterday I heard Seo-rin's voice. It went something like this."
Then, in an exaggerated impression, Dok-seo she recited, "Hello, Undertaker? Let's go on a trip. Really? Then I'll plan the itinerary."
I tapped my pen against my lips. "That's..."
"What? What is it?"
"It's an actual conversation I had."
The dialogue had taken place during a cycle where I'd traveled to the Uyuni Salt Flats with Dang Seo-rin. The phrasing wasn't identical, but the difference was nothing worth putting into writing. Likely a result of Dok-seo's memory being less precise than mine.
"Anything else?" I prompted. "Other hallucinations or visions?"
"Hmm... Sorry, I can't recall anything specific."
"That's fine. This is going to be a long-term process anyway. If you encounter more hallucinations, try to remember the details and tell me."
"Got it."
From that day on, I made a conscious effort to spend more time with Dok-seo.
Her hallucinations weren't alarming at first. As she'd mentioned, most were fleeting and barely memorable. However, as the 689th, 690th, and 691st cycles passed, the hallucinations became increasingly vivid.
"Ah."
"What's wrong?"
"Over there... I just saw Seo Gyu's head explode."
"..."
Occasionally, while on one of our walks together, Dok-seo would stop to describe "events that didn't occur this cycle"—past incidents she could never have personally experienced.
"Whoa! What the hell?!"
"What is it now?"
"Potatoes! Potatoes with legs! They're walking around calling you 'Mr. Undertaker' in this creepy tone! Shit, this is definitely a hallucination!"
"..."
Up until that point, she could still clearly distinguish reality from illusion. But after the 692nd cycle, her condition began to rapidly deteriorate.
"Ugh, damn it! Ah-ryeon unnie! I'm doing fine with serialization, so why are you tattling to him?!"
"Dok-seo. Ah-ryeon isn't here."
"Huh?" She blinked in confusion. "What? That's weird. I swear she was just standing there, whispering something to you."
"..."
Her auditory and visual hallucinations had escalated into what could only be described as hyper-realistic manifestations. Worse, she seemed to struggle more and more to separate these from reality, or, more accurately, from my past.
She was reliving experiences I'd had in previous cycles as hallucinations in the present.
During one particularly bad episode, she burst into tears for no apparent reason while drinking coffee.
"Dok-seo?" I asked cautiously. "What's wrong?"
"Just now... Seo-rin unnie was standing under a white pine tree, talking to you so happily..."
"..."
"And then she collapsed. You spoke with her one last time in the hospital room before she died. Afterward, you became the pallbearer at her funeral, and your face..." She trailed off, tears streaming down her cheeks.
It wasn't something I could brush off any longer.
I discussed her condition with the other members of the Regression Alliance.
[Since this trend emerged after the Mastermind's defeat, I believe it must be related to that event,] the Saintess theorized.
She often provided the most plausible explanations.
[According to you, Mr. Undertaker, both the Infinite Void and the Infinite Metagame played significant roles in the Mastermind raid. The Infinite Void devoured the Mastermind entirely.]
"Exactly."
[Then wouldn't it make sense if the Infinite Metagame also absorbed some of the Mastermind's powers, though perhaps to a lesser extent?]
She presented her theory in the form of a hunting analogy.
I was the hunter, and the Mastermind was the prey. My two hounds, the Infinite Void and the Infinite Metagame, had torn the prey apart. The Infinite Void was the star player, but the Infinite Metagame had hacked the system, biting into the prey's hind legs.
As a result, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame had consumed part of the Mastermind's essence. Consequently, the backlash extended to Oh Dok-seo, its Miko.
"It makes sense," I said grimly. "Infinite Metagame has always been keen on uncovering my past, running simulations to learn more. It's likely still doing so even now."
[Exactly.] The Saintess continued, saying, [If we assume that, it also explains why Dok-seo's ability has blossomed over time instead of all at once. It's developing progressively as the cycles continue. It's a direct reflection of what the Infinite Metagame is doing.]
I sighed. "Frankly, investigating my past isn't all that interesting, but so be it."
The Saintess, ever humorless, didn't react to my grumbling lament.
"I suppose this is a good reminder that no matter how desperate the situation, we should avoid relying on the aid of Outer Gods. I'll make a note of that for the future."
[Agreed. But for now, we should focus on alleviating Dok-seo's symptoms.]
"Do you think it's serious?"
[Very.]
Unlike me, the Saintess could monitor Dok-seo around the clock. Her observations carried weight.
[Even when she's alone, she seems to be holding conversations with illusions, manifestations of people you've interacted with in past cycles.]
[For instance, right now, she's writing a novel in her room while mumbling incessantly to herself.]
[Her roommate, Sim Ah-ryeon, is watching her very closely.]
[In fact, she's not just watching, she's drawing a comic about it. She seems to find it entertaining.]
[Knowing Ah-ryeon's thought process, I suspect she's planning to immortalize Dok-seo's antics on SG Net as a gag panel.]
Ah-ryeon...
As her guild leader, I wanted to remember her at her best. Yet moments like this tested my patience.
Even guild leaders are human, I'm afraid.
[Above all, over the past few days, Dok-seo has been holding conversations with a phantom version of me. Watching that feels strangely— Oh?]
Then, the telepathic link faltered.
I frowned. "Saintess?"
[...]
"Saintess, what happened? Is something wrong?"
It was a highly unusual occurrence. The Saintess, meticulous to a fault, never faltered like that. Before speaking, she even froze time to rehearse her lines.
She never suddenly stopped talking or stuttered like she did just then.
She claimed it was because she wasn't eloquent, but from other people's perspectives, she had always been an effortlessly fluent speaker who had never once stumbled over her words.
Yet now, her telepathic voice wavered.
[No... It's nothing.]
"Are you sure?"
[Actually, I'm beginning to think we don't need to worry so much about Dok-seo.]
"What do you mean?"
[Let me refrain from giving away spoilers. I suggest you observe her yourself for the time being.]
Her tone was evasive, leaving me perplexed. Nevertheless, I complied.
If the requirement was patience, I had no equal on this planet.
The very next day, Dok-seo appeared at my door, dark circles under her eyes and a laptop in hand.
"Hey, mister. I wrote something. Can you read it?"
"Huh. You've been looking tired lately. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. I got into the zone yesterday and pounded it out in one sitting. Honestly, I haven't felt this refreshed in ages."
"Well, if you say so..."
"Hurry up and read it," she said, shoving the laptop toward me.
I hesitated, then scrolled through the document. Barely a few lines in, my eyes widened in shock.
"What the... Dok-seo, what is this?"
"It's exactly what it looks like."
Her expression was unusually serious.
The story she had written wasn't her usual fare. It wasn't a fictionalized account based on the anecdotes I'd shared with her.
This was something I could never have told her.
A tale that unfolded entirely beyond my awareness, scenes that transpired when I was absent, events I could never know.
"You mentioned the 267th cycle, right? The one where time was frozen to stop the Goddess of Night, Nut."
"..."
"This is the story of what happened during that frozen time... told from the Saintess's perspective."
It was, without a doubt, a side story.
-x-X-x-
The Counselor II
267.
To some, it might have been a simple sequence of numbers, but to me, the Undertaker, it was an invaluable identifier.
There in that eternally frozen world, the Saintess had confined an Outer God, and in doing so locked away any and all possibility of reuniting—at least for now.
There was only one exception: hanging a Silver Bell around my wrist and pressing my palm against the mirror to feel her 15°C warmth emanating from the other side.
It was the only connection left to us.
"How could this happen?" I muttered in shock.
In my hand was the anthology of the Infinite Metagame's side stories, including one such tale which described in delicate, if brief, prose how the Saintess of the 267th cycle endured nearly 2,000 years after halting time.
I won't detail the content here. The manuscript contained far too much sensitive information for that.
"Dok-seo. Did you... Could you have seen it? In your hallucinations, what the Saintess went through in previous cycles?"
"Yeah," she confirmed with a nod. "But it was hazy, like a dream. At first, it was pure torture. Voices that I couldn't control banging and knocking away on my eardrums, like the worst kind of uninvited guest. But when I really stopped and focused, it turned out to be the opposite."
"The opposite?"
"Yeah. The uninvited guest wasn't them—it was me."
I took the moment to hand over the laptop, and Dok-seo readily accepted it, hugging it tight to her chest.
"The visions were looping events from past cycles, just like a video auto-replaying after you get to the end of the recording, except that video has been privated and locked away from all viewers. But for some reason I don't understand, I, an uninvited guest, managed to sneak a peek into those recordings."
When I didn't respond, she continued on.
"At first, it hurt to watch."
Divine Illness.
The suffering of a Miko when possessed by a god.
"No matter how much I slept, I never felt rested. Awake or asleep, my muscles constantly ached, like I had the flu. It would move me to tears, too, watching the ghosts of the past. Probably because of how often you, mister, showed up in those tragedies."
There was nothing to say.
"But like you said, it's probably some kind of newly Awakened ability of mine, right? So I figured: 'Fine, then. I'll see it through to the end.' I made up my mind that I was gonna take it all in, relive your story through those hallucinations—and then I wrote about them."
That was when something miraculous occurred.
"Then the pain stopped."
Dok-seo took tormenting visions and transformed them into the written word.
Writers are blacksmiths, born with hammers attached to all ten fingers. By relentlessly hammering the visions and voices into shape, straightening and bending them into written forms, they finally bowed their heads and orderly settled into pages.
"At least while I was writing, I was freed from the pain. Not that I got any sleep last night, though. After finishing it at dawn, I took a walk outside the tunnel and honestly? That was the first good breath of fresh air I've gotten in weeks."
Slowly, carefully, I told her, "You've been through a lot."
"Yeah. And after completing this short story, I realized something else."
Dok-seo closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, then exhaled it slowly over eight seconds.
The laptop screen flickered and—
"Dok-seo?"
When Dok-seo opened her eyes again to face me, I couldn't help but furrow my brow, sensing some inexplicable dissonance.
"Mr. Undertaker."
A static-like chill brushed the nape of my neck.
The person standing before me was Dok-seo, yet not. The angle of her eyebrows, the curve of her lips, her attire. It all pointed to her being Dok-seo and yet simultaneously...
"Ah."
"It's been a while, Mr. Undertaker."
The noise had escaped me before I could shut it away. Thoughts raced in my mind, flashing like a fast-forwarded signal.
"I never imagined this could happen," not-Dok-seo said. "Do you recognize who I am?"
Relying on intuition and evidence, I ventured a guess.
"Saintess?"
Silence.
I tried again.
"Could you be the Saintess of the 267th cycle?"
"Yes."
The figure wearing Dok-seo's face smiled faintly—a smile so subtle that only someone with a deep connection to her might recognize it.
"Good to see you, Mr. Undertaker... It seems that this ability Dok-seo has Awakened can be described as 'possession' or perhaps more accurately, 'empathy.' It's the ability to possess the protagonist of the side stories she has written."
My god.
[My god.]
The Saintess in Seoul, observing this scene through Clairvoyance, let out a sigh identical to mine.
It was an uncanny coincidence.
Side Story Creation. Possession. Empathy.
This was the newfound ability of our LiteraryGirl.
As demonstrated before our eyes, Dok-seo could "possess" the perspective of another character.
"Not just anyone, though."
Of course, there were conditions.
"For one, I can only possess someone I've written about in a side story. And to write their story, their life has to flash through my mind like a vision."
"Can you... tell me who else has appeared in your hallucinations besides the Saintess of the 267th cycle?"
"Sure."
It turned out that figures like a far-future version of Dang Seo-rin or Cheon Yo-hwa, who contributed to defeating the Mastermind, had shown up in her visions. Quite a number of characters, actually.
"Unbelievable," I exclaimed, unable to hide my astonishment. "How could this...? No, it's impossible that previous-cycle figures could actually be possessed. Most likely, Dok-seo, you're interpreting them in a way that recreates their personas."
"Hmm. I mean, I guess so?"
"No, it must be so."
This was undoubtedly the machination of the Admin of the Infinite Metagame. Having consumed the simulated universe of the Mastermind, the Admin must have gained a much higher "resolution" in analyzing the people around me.
As a result, the Admin's Miko, Dok-seo, now had an elevated understanding of these characters. To the point where she could immerse herself in their roles without any sense of dissonance or self-doubt.
"But even so... The fidelity is astounding. Even I, who knew those people firsthand, could be deceived."
"Right? Even during the possession, I lose myself in it and don't remember being 'Dok-seo.' It's like I'm dreaming the Saintess's dreams. And, oh!" Dok-seo gushed. "Thanks to this, writing stories has become much easier! I can vividly feel what the characters—oops, I mean the people in your stories—felt. It's so clear!"
She beamed.
"It feels like I could write stories forever!"
For the record, that was a lie.
Dok-seo's dictionary defined "ongoing serialization" as a word that encompassed the past, present, and future tense. She had abandoned serialization, was abandoning it, and would continue to abandon it.
Even so, the astonishment lingered.
"Anyway, great job, Dok-seo," I said.
"Heh."
"This ability has countless potential uses. For now, there's one experiment I need you to conduct immediately."
"What is it?"
"Among the people in your visions, is Noh Do-hwa, the Director of the National Road Management Corps, one of them?"
She was. Specifically, the Noh Do-hwa of the 668th cycle, who had endured the Ice Age with me.
"I ask this with full sincerity, Dok-seo. By any means necessary, write a side story about the Noh Do-hwa of the 668th cycle. I'll grant you anything you want."
"Anything, huh? You mean it?"
"Yes."
"Deal."
Dok-seo succeeded in writing IF Side Story: Noh Do-hwa of the 668th Cycle in a single night. Her speed was on par with Gevanni from Death Note.[1]
If only she'd write my story that fast. But that wasn't the point here.
"Noh Do-hwa, Director of the National Road Management Corps!"
With Dok-seo in tow, I burst into the Corps Headquarters.
As usual, Do-hwa was sipping an energy drink (a luxury item) while leafing through documents. She glanced up at us and took her time responding.
"What is this? Just looking at the two of you makes my stomach churn. My esophagus is burning with the acid reflux..."
"We've discovered something amazing. So amazing that we couldn't not share it with the ruler of the Korean Peninsula. We came all this way without hesitation."
"Damn, this reeks of bad luck..."
Do-hwa instinctively reached for the security call button to have us thrown out.
Her intuition was as sharp as ever. Too bad it was useless since I obliterated the button with a burst of Aura, causing Do-hwa's face to darken as if burdened with the weight of all the world's evil.
Ignoring her despair, I shouted, "Dok-seo, transform!"
"Roger!"
Dok-seo, clutching her laptop, struck a Kamen Rider pose. The laptop screen flashed, and in the next moment, the weariness of a civil servant possessed her face.
"...?"
"...?"
Noh Do-hwa tilted her head. Dok-seo-as-Do-hwa mirrored her.
"The fuck is this?"
"The fuck is this?"
"..."
"..."
"No, but really—what the fuck is this?"
"No, but really—what the fuck is this?"
"..."
"..."
The two Noh Do-hwas turned their gazes toward me.
Spreading my arms wide, I exclaimed, "Two Noh Do-hwas! Korea is victorious!"
"..."
"..."
"And that's not all."
I quickly turned off the office lights. Dok-seo's hoodie gleamed with a fluorescent glow.
"Behold! Glow-in-the-dark Noh Do-hwa!"
Even the gleam in their eyes sparkled.
"You insane, fucking lunatic―"
"You insane, fucking lunatic―"
I almost died.
But it was a sight worth risking death for.
This moment would forever be etched in the deepest part of my heart, a jewel-like memory that would sparkle whenever despair threatened to overwhelm me.
[Is that all?]
"Of course not, Saintess. For your reference, glow-in-the-dark Cheon Yo-hwa, glow-in-the-dark Dang Seo-rin, and glow-in-the-dark Yu Ji-won are also in the works. It's only a pity that implementing a glow-in-the-dark Go Yuri proves challenging."
[That's quite enough...]
Incidentally, Seo Gyu's reaction was priceless too. Pairing up two people with anger management issues resulted in an escalating cacophony of screaming, a spectacle worth savoring.
What's the point in hiding it?
I was utterly hooked on this "possession game" with Dok-seo.
It wasn't just about creating doppelgangers to mess with our allies, though that was undeniably part of the fun. That was merely a secondary amusement. No, the true essence of Side Story Creation lay elsewhere.
"Seo-rin."
"Yeah?"
"Lately, the public safety in Busan has been deteriorating. I believe it's a side effect of the influx of outsiders. I wanted to ask how you would handle this situation."
The answer lay in consultation.
While my allies were already competent, certain cycles stood out with extraordinary individuals who had fully bloomed into their potential.
For instance, the Dang Seo-rin of the 173rd cycle was one such case.
During that cycle, she had Fallen and become a judge, transforming Busan into a utopia.
Though it didn't end happily, her experience maintaining and governing a city was invaluable. Being able to consult with such a ruler at any time was a tremendous boon to me.
The ultimate brainstorming partner, wasn't she?
And it wasn't just her.
The Saintess of the 267th cycle, the Infinite Void from the 688th cycle, and countless others—figures I thought I would never converse with again—became accessible through Dok-seo's Side Story Creation.
My consultations with these wise allies grew longer and more frequent. There were even days when I abandoned eating and drinking to immerse myself in dialogue with them.
Time passed in this manner.
[Mr. Undertaker.]
"Yes?"
[Shouldn't you step outside every now and then?]
[No matter how enjoyable it is to converse with 'me' or 'others,' it's been over a week since you've holed up in the tunnel. That seems... unusual.]
Wait.
A week? Has it really been that long?
"You're right. I've gone overboard. I'll just have a quick chat with you, Saintess, and then head out."
[You said the exact same thing yesterday.]
"But Saintess, there's no one else―"
[Mr. Undertaker.]
The telepathic voice of the Saintess was laden with sorrow.
[No offense, but seeing you like this reminds me of a washed-up internet streamer or a V-tuber addict.]
"..."
[Please, just go outside and get some fresh air.]
Undertaker, confirmed to be addicted to Dok-seo!
Footnotes:
[1] In Death Note, Gevanni is tasked with replicating the death-list notebook of an incredibly prolific user, and doing so in one night.
-x-X-x-
The Counselor III
There was a time when TV programs struggled to capture the attention of dopamine-hungry viewers. A figure who appeared in one such program left a timeless quote, years before the VTuber boom swept the world:
"Do you think I played the game because I wanted to? The people are inside the game!"
Indeed. People lived within the screen, and friends existed only on the internet. Those who couldn't comprehend this undeniable truth were nothing but outdated relics of a bygone era.
Especially for someone like me, who had lived for thousands of years, it was imperative to stay on top of the daily comings and goings of trends.
"Therefore, I am not addicted. Addicted, you say? Preposterous! It is nothing more than a process of honing myself by using Dok-seo's side stories as a whetstone."
[Are you being serious?] the Saintess whispered gloomily through her Telepathy.
I felt a sudden pang in my chest, but I did not let it show. Today, I planned to enjoy some small talk with the Saintess from the 267th cycle all day long. Could I really abandon a schedule I had prepared days in advance?
"Saintess, please. Look closely. Right here, the person sitting in front of me may appear like Oh Dok-seo through the physical eye, but through the eyes of the heart... Ta-da!"
"You seem to be having a Telepathic conversation." The Saintess of the 267th cycle, who wore Oh Dok-seo's face through Side Story Creation, gave a faint smile. "Nice to meet you, the future me."
[...]
"Addressing myself is rather hard. For convenience, may I call myself senior, while addressing you as junior?"
[...This really isn't okay.]
Faint emotion crept into her Telepathy, and to my surprise, I realized she seemed slightly angry. It was rare for the Saintess, who spent her entire life priding herself on her emotionless, expressionless demeanor to stoop to such a reaction.
[I exist here. The person sending Telepathic messages to you in real time is none other than the real me, located in Seoul, Yongsan.]
[The person you have been speaking with for the past week, Mr. Undertaker, is nothing but an illusion implemented through data by an Outer God.]
"But, Saintess..."
[Yes?]
"Yes?"
Both the true Saintess and Dok-seo Saintess answered simultaneously.
Then, something astonishing happened.
[..., ...]
The Saintess didn't add another word, but an ominous aura of silence carried over through her Telepathy. To put it bluntly, I felt her rage.
I was taken aback. Unless something truly dangerous was occurring, the goosebumps on the back of my neck (my sixth sense) wouldn't usually tingle like this.
"Ah, hmm," I stammered. "If this makes you uncomfortable, I'll use this tool instead."
For such moments, I had commissioned Ah-ryeon to prepare a special illustration.
It was a portrait of the Saintess!
I carefully cut out the portrait to make a mask. Then, I placed it on Oh Dok-seo's head and used a marker to write "267" on the forehead.
Perfect!
"How about this? Now, there's absolutely no risk of confusing the original Saintess and the 267th cycle Saintess."
[Mr. Undertaker... Am I being mocked right now?]
Huh? For some reason, the rage deepened.
"Mr. Undertaker, you understand, " Dok-seo Saintess, now equipped with a nameplate, said calmly. "This cycle's version of me hasn't even lived for a thousand years yet. Therefore, I may not have overcome the uniqueness of the self. When one faces a doppelganger of themselves, it's only natural to respond with hostility rather than understanding. It's an extremely common psychological phenomenon."
"As expected, Saintess. Wisdom flows from your every word."
"It's only what I learned secondhand from you, Mr. Undertaker. You flatter me."
Dok-seo Saintess patted me on the shoulder. Then she whispered words so kind, they were almost tear-inducing.
"You've really endured a lot, Mr. Undertaker. To think I struggled so much with just two millennia... Imagining the hell you've walked through makes me shudder. If speaking with me gives you any encouragement, I'll join you in conversation as much as you like. If you're happy, then I'm happy too."
This couldn't be real.
I was moved. Could the Saintess be an angel? Then again, she was always more than just human.
[Indeed,] the true Saintess muttered through Telepathy. [So this is what others perceive me to be like. I've learned something. It was quite an educational experience. In exchange, I shall prepare an excellent lesson for you, Undertaker.]
"An excellent lesson?"
The Saintess did not respond. She was an Awakener who could cut off communications at will.
The next day, in the depths of the Inunaki Tunnel where I'd built a personal hideout solely for enjoying Dok-seo's side stories, an unexpected group burst in.
"G-Guild Leader!"
The door trembled violently with a great bang, bang, bang!
"I-I heard from the Constellations! They said you put an illustrated mask on Dok-seo on and giggled with a previous version of me?!"
"Teacher! Do you know who my twin sister was supposed to be before she was erased from existence while fighting Anomalies?!"
"Oppa, I'm really disappointed."
"And I told Do-hwa about this, too! She said she's quitting and returning to her hometown because of it...!"
"Gross."
"Why are you hanging out with a side story version of my nonexistent twin sister?! Teacher! Teacher! There's only one Cheon Yo-hwa!"
"Hehe. I also told Dang Seo-rin. She's such an outsider she didn't even know about regression stuff, so I explained everything except that! I did a good job, right?"
"I even posted it on SG Net."
"I mobilized 31 accounts and made it trend! Haha. I'm still manipulating it right now... You must be watching, right, Guild Leader? You're so popular."
"Teacher! I'm your only student! I'm an only child! Wake up, Teacher!"
"..."
Moral of the day:
If you make the Saintess angry, you risk being socially buried. Proceed with caution.
"Your Excellency. May I ask why you are kneeling outside Commander Noh Do-hwa's office with both hands raised?"
"If I don't, Commander Noh Do-hwa said she'd really submit her resignation and leave..."
"Ah."
Ji-won glanced back and forth between me and Dok-seo. Then she lowered her head and whispered quietly into my ear, "If you desire rebellion, please give the order immediately, Your Excellency. Loyal members, including myself, are stationed everywhere, ready to reclaim the National Road Management Corps from Commander Noh Do-hwa's clutches."
"Don't. You'll get us all killed."
"Understood."
Ji-won marched away.
In the end, the commotion settled as nothing more than a week-long incident. However, considering that even someone like me fell so easily into such a spiral, it was undeniable that Dok-seo's Side Story Creation possessed a terrifying level of power.
"I think you must've been more exhausted than you realized, mister," was Dok-seo's common on the matter.
"Exhausted? Me?"
"Yes. You always treat me the same, whether I'm from the 500th cycle or the 600th cycle. But in reality, there are subtle differences between each version, aren't there?"
She massaged her arm, muttering ouch and ow under her breath. She had just finished serving the 24-hour penalty imposed by Commander Noh Do-hwa.
"You act so we never notice any disconnect, but at the end of the day, you're still human. Sometimes, don't you want to talk to a comrade from the 500th cycle instead of the one from the 600th?"
"That's..."
"Sometimes. Just sometimes. I'm not saying always. But even occasional feelings accumulate when you've lived thousands of years, right?" Dok-seo grinned mischievously and said, "So if you ever have worries you can't share with anyone, just come find me. I'll use Side Story Creation to embody someone appropriate and chat with you until you're completely satisfied."
"..."
"Ah, wait. No, that's not quite right."
She propped her chin on her hand, contemplating.
"It's strange, though," she mused eventually. "Whether it's the Saintess or Cheon Yo-hwa from previous cycles, everyone seems to enjoy talking to you."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. I can faintly feel the emotions they experienced, so I know. You're really lucky, you know? Their feelings are so sincere." Dok-seo's playful tone softened as she gazed somewhere far away. "Affection. Regret. Joy. Worry. Yearning. Acceptance. Consideration. Concern... A mixture of emotions so tangled it made my head spin."
"..."
"It was fascinating, really. They're someone else's emotions, but they felt like my own. From a writer's perspective, it was an amazing experience."
It seemed Dok-seo had her own share of enjoyment.
Well, it was a miraculous experience, to live through someone else's heart.
"Oh, right, mister. So I was thinking... Can I add side stories to my novels about you?"
"Hmm?"
"You know, side stories. Like writing from 'another character's perspective.' I mean, it feels like a waste to use this ability just to play the role of your personal counselor."
"Well, you're both the writer and the editor, so if it motivates you, I don't see why not."
"Yay! But let's not overdo it. Hmm... How about this?" Dok-seo grinned widely. "For every 100 chapters written from your perspective, I'll write one side story. In exchange, since it's a side story, I'll post it without you reviewing it. Is that okay?"
"One hundred chapters for one side story, huh...?" I trailed off.
I wasn't all that concerned by it, but Dok-seo seemed very particular about this ratio.
"Sure. Do whatever you like."
"Yay! Thanks, mister! You won't regret it!"
Yet even now, at chapter 274, Oh Dok-seo still hadn't written a single proper side story. Technically, she already had the rights to two side stories, purely based on the numbers.
I still didn't know what kind of side story she wanted to write.
There is an epilogue.
Much later, in another cycle, I made a peculiar request to Dok-seo.
"Can you embody me from the 5th cycle, just once?"
Dok-seo agreed readily.
To embody someone, a side story must first be written. However, for the 10th cycle version of myself, no such writing preparation was needed. She had already written it.
"...Are you seriously claiming to be me?"
And so, I found myself face-to-face with the 10th cycle version of the Undertaker, wearing Oh Dok-seo's face—Dok-seo Undertaker.
"Yes, kiddo. For the record, it's the 700th cycle now."
"What?" Dok-seo Undertaker's face twisted into a grimace. "Seven hundred? You've looped seven hundred times and still haven't succeeded? Are you even human? How incompetent do you have to be—"
"Here's a list of all the absurd Anomalies you'll have to slay in the future."
At first, Dok-seo Undertaker regarded me with nothing but scorn. But as I recited a list of horrors and their descriptions, his expression gradually darkened.
Being exposed to spoilers about one's own life was bad enough. If said life resembled a tragedy, it was much worse.
"Why are you even telling me this?" he demanded in the end. "To make me despair? To impress me? Either way, it confirms you're just as immature as I am."
He really was insufferable. It seemed that in the early cycles, I was truly a twisted piece of work.
"Well, no."
"Then what is it?"
"I was simply curious." I set a cup of café au lait on the table with a soft thud. "Since I have Complete Memory, I can be certain myself. But I wanted to hear it directly from you, too."
"Hear what?"
"You're my childhood self, the youth of a regressor. So tell me. From your perspective, do you think I've grown into an adult I can be proud of?"
Dok-seo Undertaker fell silent. He remained quiet for a long time, then finally picked up the coffee cup and took a sip.
"The coffee is good."
I waited for more, but to my surprise, Dok-seo Undertaker said nothing else. He severed the possession immediately after that.
He had run away.
"Huh," I huffed with an incredulous chuckle. Then I picked up the half-drunk café au lait he left behind and downed it.
It tasted exceptionally special.
-x-X-x-
The Preacher I
Remember when I led the Mobile Land-Based Aircraft Carrier Fortress City 『BusaN』 and traveled freely around the world?
I've mentioned this before, but the Eurasian continental area was full of Forsaken Villages, scattered like Go stones on a board after a game had ended. We had seen countless of them during our journey.
Forsaken Villages. Places where people, in one way or another, fell under the thrall of Anomalies and struggled to survive.
Of course, the residents themselves didn't call these places Forsaken Villages, but instead referred to them as Pioneer Villages.
"Is there any need to struggle and preserve the vague concept of humanity?"
"It's better to accept the Void as Earth's new environment and adapt to it. That's the only solution!"
"Humankind's true strength lies in adaptability. Give it thousands, tens of thousands of years, and the next generations will adapt seamlessly to the Void environment."
That was the logic of Forsaken Village residents.
Like all ideologies, it sounded plausible at first. The purpose was noble. The original concepts and words themselves weren't at fault.
The fundamental problem was that the Void itself was entirely incompatible with the idea of "adaptation."
Adaptation. Evolution. They're nice words, sure. But how exactly could any group truly adapt to the Void?
Let me give you a simple example.
Knock, knock.
Late one night when I was working alone, I would sometimes hear that distinct knocking sound at my door.
"Who is it?"
- It's me, oppa.
"Oh, Ha-yul."
It was Lee Ha-yul's voice.
- Can I come in?
"Sure."
At that point, I wasn't particularly worried. Ha-yul often struggled with insomnia and couldn't sleep alone. When that happened, she would lie crookedly on the sofa or bed in my room, talk endlessly through the night, and eventually doze off peacefully.
I assumed it would be the same this time.
"...?"
But seconds passed, and the door never opened.
That's when I looked up and stared at the door.
Knock, knock.
The sound echoed again.
Even though there was a sound, the door remained perfectly still. There should have been the faintest vibration, but it didn't even twitch.
Only the sound of knocking had occurred.
"Ha-yul?"
- It's me, oppa.
"..."
- Can I come in?
I rose and approached the door.
In case Ha-yul was playing a prank, I cautiously turned the handle, making the door creak as it opened.
There was no one there.
The hallway, without lights to save energy, stretched into complete darkness.
It was then.
Knock, knock, knock.
Knocking echoed in the Void.
- Can I come in?
These phenomena were commonplace in this world.
Even in BusaN, a human stronghold, the Knock Anomaly occurred.
What about Forsaken Villages, then?
...When someone opened the door to their family's room, an unfamiliar old woman might suddenly appear. It turned out that time had warped, and their daughter had aged into a grandmother.
...Yesterday, there had been four people in the family, but today, one person was missing. And yet, no one could recall who that person was.
...At some point, the food on the table, those hard-earned rations, started to feel unbearably disgusting. Meanwhile, the stench from the sewers below smelled disturbingly appetizing.
No matter how much you tried, you couldn't adapt. Coexistence with the Void was impossible. The only way to "adapt" was to give up being human.
And so, the fate of Forsaken Villages was sealed.
People justified their actions, claiming they had "pioneered the Void" in their own way. But in truth, their methods were simply hundreds of variations on the theme of "abandoning humanity."
The universal traits of humanity. Their bodies. Their minds. What parts would they sacrifice?
Is cannibalism a sin? Is incest taboo?
Would they maintain the concept of family? Or would they discard the idea of blood ties entirely?
The Forsaken Villages dismembered humanity piece by piece, dissecting them in a perverse surgical operation. The skill of the proverbial surgeon leading the charge determined the survival of their fellow man. Many Forsaken Villages perished under the amateur scalpel of a quack doctor, while a select few survived.
"You just have to give up being happy."
Among them, one group stood out.
"Stop trying to be happy. Don't pursue the good fortune of happiness in a world where happiness is unattainable."
"Unhappiness. Unhappiness is the only realistic goal that can be achieved in this age. Become realistic beings."
The Church of Unhappiness.
"When everything is heading toward destruction, there's nothing left for humans who pursue happiness."
"Can you eat what you want? No."
"Can you live as you wish? No."
"Can you love the person you want to love? No."
"The more you seek happiness, the more trapped you become. You only realize your own incompetence."
"But unhappiness?"
"Oh, we can still be much more unhappy."
The blossom of evil that bloomed in the apocalypse.
"Eat something even more repulsive. You can do it."
"Live an even more horrific life. You can do it."
"Hate more, slander more, grow more arrogant, and tear yourself apart even further. We still have enough flesh left for that."
The teachings of the Church of Unhappiness, which had already been spreading underground before civilization's collapse, fully bloomed with the apocalypse.
Unlike the Eastern Holy State's Mo Gwang-seo Faith or New Buddhism, this cult was of a different breed.
Those other two cults at least involved Anomalies. Mo Gwang-seo, the Anomaly of Resurrection Christ, and Udumbara, which bore the World Tree. Even when taking their successes into account, Anomalies still made up half of their identity.
The Church of Unhappiness was different.
"Failure doesn't matter. In fact, fail over and over again."
"When others despair at failure, we see failure itself as success."
"The effort to become more unhappy is the only freedom we have."
The Church of Unhappiness was purely, entirely a creation of humanity.
This meant it wasn't a target I, the Undertaker, needed to exterminate. And yet, my ties with the Church of Unhappiness were anything but trivial.
Long before I crossed the Ural Mountains and explored countless Forsaken Villages, I was already well-acquainted with this particular branch of humanity.
The 500th cycle? No. Even further back.
The 200th cycle? Earlier still.
The 10th cycle? Unbelievably, even before that.
[Seo Gyu: Damn it, what the hell is this? This is fucking garbage.]
[Lee Jae-hee: My phone's not working?]
[Uehara Shino: Too many people. Can't breathe.]
[Park Ye-dam: I need to contact my boss...]
Back in the concourse of Busan Station, my point of origin, I turned on Mind Reading a couple of times and peered into the thoughts of the people around me. If your memory serves you well, you might recall the following characters from those moments:
[Lee Baek: What's going on? Where'd everyone go?]
[Go Yuri: O̷̹͑h̴̢̞͊͂ ̴̧̌͝m̶̘̍̾y̴̢͖̿̓.̴̝̈́̍.̷̦̽͠.̶͖̈́̈]
[Jung So-hee: Reverend? Where did you go, Reverend?]
[Sim Ah-ryeon: Where am I? Who am I?]
Let's pause here.
By now, I'm sure you know quite a bit about Seo Gyu, Go Yuri, and Sim Ah-ryeon.
I've also shared snippets about Lee Baek and Uehara Shino. Lee Baek was a thug who rallied survivors using his Lion's Roar ability, and Uehara opened an alchemy workshop after moving to Japan, she was a former comrade of mine.
[Jung So-hee: Reverend? Where did you go, Reverend?]
And now, let's talk about today's focus: Jung So-hee.
From the way she called out for a "reverend" the moment she landed in the Tutorial Dungeon, it was clear she was deeply immersed in a cult. Specifically, she belonged to the Church of Unhappiness.
Her job class was Zealot.
There's no point in hiding it now.
Before the 5th cycle, Jung So-hee was one of my "Original Party Members."
My original party members had one thing in common: at first, they seemed competent, but as time went on, they became utterly useless.
The same went for Jung So-hee.
"I'm a water-type ability user."
"Oh? So, like a water jet that shoots out? Or maybe you summon water spirits, like Undine?"
"No. It's... just tap water."
Drip.
When Jung So-hee raised a finger, water trickled down from thin air.
By today's standards, her ability would be laughed off as pathetic. It wasn't all that different from what an ordinary person could do. But in the early days, things were completely different. Back then, Jung So-hee was absolutely essential to our party.
Why? The answer was simple.
"By the way, it's clean, first-grade water. It even tastes good."
"Wow, that's incredible, So-hee!"
"Yes! With this, we don't have to worry about drinking water anymore!"
In the Tutorial Dungeon, there wasn't even enough water to drink, let alone bathe.
Fire wasn't much of an issue. Many people brought lighters when they were summoned into the dungeon, and there were lighters for sale in the station's souvenir shops.
But drinking water? That was a different story.
Without my intervention, it took the girls from Baekhwa Girls' High over five years to clear the dungeon—five years by the dungeon's internal time flow, anyway.
The Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon was no different. If anything, it was even harder than Baekhwa High's dungeon.
Without me, a regressor, there would have been zero survivors. Not a single one. The dungeon was essentially impossible to clear.
"W-water... Wateeer..."
A true hellscape.
From the outside, only a week passed. But inside the Tutorial Dungeon, three months might go by.
In an environment completely cut off from the outside world, finding a stable supply of food and water was impossible. Starvation and dehydration were rampant. The only way to survive was to clear the quests given by the Tutorial Fairy and receive rewards—at the risk of your own life, of course.
"Here's today's water supply."
Under those circumstances, Jung So-hee's Tap Water ability was a lifesaver for our party.
"Thank you, So-hee."
"It's nothing. This is my role, after all. Undertaker, you should drink first."
"Are you sure?"
"If something happens, you and Jae-hee are the only ones who can fight. I'll drink last."
Jung So-hee could produce about four liters of water per day, roughly two bottles' worth. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep us alive.
At the time, our party consisted of four members: myself, Uehara Shino, Lee Jae-hee, and Jung So-hee—
[404 - Not Found]
No. There were five of us.
Someone else had been with us. ■■■, the person erased from my memory by Time Seal, was likely my very first comrade.
But now, I couldn't remember them.
Even my memories of Jung So-hee were incomplete. The memories I'm recounting now only surfaced faintly after the 688th cycle, when I defeated the Mastermind.
After Infinite Void tampered with my mind, implanting memories of me teaching the Cheon Yo-hwa twin sisters, I began to recall fragmented pieces of my past.
[404 - Not Found]
[404 - Not Found]
The static of those missing pieces blocked me from truly recalling them. As a result, even these memories might have been manipulated by Infinite Void.
"I can drink later. It's fine."
In those memories, Jung So-hee was always someone who put others before herself. Not to say she came off as "pathetic." It was more of a natural aura that radiated from her, as though she had consciously chosen to lower herself.
In the Tutorial Dungeon, where trust was a luxury and betrayal was rampant, her selflessness was incredibly rare.
"Thank you... Really."
"You're welcome."
Even the twisted version of myself from back then couldn't help but feel grateful to her.
With time, most of the raiders—those who risked their lives to clear the quests—had perished. The support groups that helped them from the rear were also torn apart, fighting like mad dogs over the few remaining resources.
We hit rock bottom. The lowest of the low.
"Undertaker."
"Yeah?"
"Are you unhappy right now?"
It was then that Jung So-hee made her move.
As if she had been waiting for this very moment—for this hell to unfold.
With a smile carved from kindness, she approached me.
"Would you like to hear the 'good word' from me, just for a moment?"
I found out later.
From the very beginning, Jung So-hee had joined our party with the intent of spreading the misfortune of unhappiness to me.