Chapter 1474 - IR 56.

The Skeptic XVII

Who was the very first Awakener?

No, what even is an Awakening in the first place?

Is it a type of Anomaly? Is it stubborn pride, determined to keep its human shape, even though it's already infected with Anomaly?

Previously, I had no way to answer any of those questions. The solution to all of them ultimately lay in the beginning called the "first run", a deep abyss place beyond my memory's reach. Sure, I'd reconstructed bits of the past through Cheon Yo-hwa's power and I learned I'd once been a tutor for the twin sisters, but that was about it.

And then, there was now.

"Ji-won, you... What are you...?"

I found myself witnessing the exact moment when the first Awakener started to open her eyes.

Yu Ji-won.

Water droplets hovered around her, wriggling like bugs. Gravity, the physical law that acts most directly upon this world, was being scorned by these watery creatures, as though they found it laughable. The sight was bizarre, no matter how you looked at it.

"Please answer me, Mr. Matiz."

It seemed Ji-won herself couldn't see this eerie phenomenon at all. Or maybe...

Perhaps...

In her current state, she considered it not abnormal but normal.

"If humans, if the entire world, were defective from the start, why shouldn't I smash this broken kingdom of machinery?"

The water-bugs squirming in midair scuttled onto Ji-won's hair. And then, a shocking event took place. Only seconds prior, her hair was black as ebony, polished to a glossy shine. But it was now turning... white.

Awakening!

Or perhaps, Ascension.

The water-bugs wedged themselves one by one among her strands of hair, as if hanging themselves.

Pop, pop—whenever the mucous-like membrane of a water-bug burst, her hair became dyed.

A color more transparent than pure white that could only be called silver was infecting the ends of Ji-won's hair.

"I can't trust other people's words anymore. Even my mother's final reply was, in the end, nothing but a lie."

Splash.

"But if it's you, Mr. Matiz..."

Ji-won stepped closer.

Right up to my face.

"If it's your answer, I think it's worth deliberating."

Her eyes gazed upward at me as a water-bug wriggled in. The droplet broke open, and like mixing a chemical solution in a transparent beaker, her dark irises gradually changed.

"Mr. Matiz, you always charged me for rides and claimed it was profitable for you. But I realize you actually had another reason for helping me."

Purple and blue. Two layers of color swirled like chasing each other's tail, finally interlacing as one.

"You pity me."

An aroma drifted out from the swirling pools of her eyes. The scent left behind by the dying water-bugs wrapped once around Ji-won's hair and then reached my nose.

A faint, grassy smell. Like a wild plant, fresh and green, that grew randomly along an alley and might be crushed underfoot and die come winter.

It was the body scent inherent to the newly Awakened Yu Ji-won.

Compared to other Awakeners, it might be considered an unimpressive smell. Far in the future, adult Yu Ji-won would confess she disliked her own natural scent. It felt too lacking in dignity for someone holding the rank of Operations Team Leader in the National Road Management Corps, so she deliberately covered herself with strong perfume, with special preference for one with a hint of strawberry.

However, this 14-year-old Yu Ji-won was letting her unvarnished essence show unfiltered.

"From the very beginning, you matched yourself to me. You made that 'perfume' you claimed was your natural scent because of my disability, right? You always approached with a reason I could accept, asking only for expenses I could cover."

At that moment, the girl's hair, eyes, and scent all fully merged with what I recognized from her future self—the Operations Team Leader of the NRMC.

"That's the relationship I dreamed of."

I took a moment to formulate my response. "When you get older and stronger, you'll find far more people willing to connect with you on those terms."

"Yes. Probably." She gave a curt nod, face still impassive. "But no one in my 14-year-old life, first year, class 2 of Shinseo Middle, did that for me... On the very night I killed my parents and tried to bury them, you were the only one who helped me with no strings attached."

She clasped my hand.

"Would you die with me?"

In that instant, the torrential downpour that had been slamming the earth seemed to freeze.

What first appeared around Ji-won as a little circle of stillness expanded rapidly. It spread over the graveyard where we buried the bones, across the swamp where we tossed their flesh, over this lonely mountain, beyond the town leaning against the slope... across the city, across Seoul itself.

The rain held its breath.

"If I'm with you, Mr. Matiz, then dying here and now seems like the right answer to me."

She might not perceive it, but I did, crystal clear. That monstrous phenomenon wriggling around and through her.

Later on, people would call it "Leviathan." It now blanketed all of Seoul, maybe the entire world.

Whether my self at this point in time, the younger ■■■, could see it, I had no idea. Perhaps, like Yu Ji-won, he never realized what was really happening around him, obliviously carrying on a conversation in the rain.

I couldn't know, but to find out, I opened my mouth.

"Why... Why do you want to die right here?"

"Because, even if I keep living, assuming I achieve the greatest success, my life only proves whether my own answer was right or wrong."

And then, she whispered.

In this halted downpour, her voice was transparent, as though echoing across the entire nighttime sky of the city.

"And I've just found my answer."

Ji-won pulled my hand toward her throat.

"I've found my 'wrong answer.'"

She gently laid her left hand on my neck.

"Ji-won..." I said, hesitating.

"I haven't made a mistake. I don't regret killing my parents. Nor do I regret sparing my grandmother. I firmly believe I made the optimal choice."

The wet, herbal odor clung to the air.

"And likewise, Mr. Matiz, you exist."

I had no response.

"You didn't approach me out of physical attraction. I tested that possibility many times, but you never showed interest."

One by one, her fingers pressed against my neck. First the little finger, lightly nudging the side. Then the ring finger.

"You had no interest in my wealth, either. Half my bank account is gone, and the other half is locked out by a password error. You were indifferent to the most valuable things I owned."

"No, that's not—"

"You're no idiot. At first I doubted you, but after spending this night together, I've confirmed it. Mr. Matiz, you're an adult whose intellect surpasses mine."

Her middle finger curled.

Though her strength was puny, she was indeed compressing my windpipe, bit by bit. If I decided to reject her, those fingers would retreat without resistance.

"Hence, you are my 'wrong answer'... How strange a person you are."

Her index finger joined.

"Yet I'm sure that even if I live a life of success, I'll never find a 'wrong answer' more significant than you."

Her thumb.

Her entire left hand clutched one side of my neck. All that remained was her right hand, idle.

"It's the same as how I could live a thousand times over and never find a 'right answer' beyond myself. Please. Die here with me."

Far away, the raindrops stood still. The entire city, clad in night and mist, seemed to wail in unison.

v | v | || 雨

v v | vv | | |

v | 雨 v v

| v | |

雨 | || | v |v

v vv | v |v |

| | v | v 雨 |

| v |v v | v | v |

v | | | v v| | v v

v | v v v v ||

v | | | vv

| | | 雨 | | v v |

v v v | v v | v |

| 雨 | v v |

v v v

It sounded like the howl of a dragon, or the growl of an Anomaly, or maybe just the roaring downpour.

I knew at once.

If I said yes here, it wouldn't be just us but the entire world that got swallowed.

I didn't know how or why. Maybe the 776th cycle Leviathan had chased me even into Cheon Yo-hwa's illusions. Maybe Leviathan already had the power to submerge the world from the distant past and merely delayed the apocalypse until the 776th cycle. The one sure thing was that now, if Ji-won carried out her own suicide with me, she intended the world to fall with her.

A choking noose: five fingers around my neck, and invisible droplets around billions of humans.

v | v | || 雨

v v | vv | | |

c | 雨 v v

| r | |

雨 | || | v |v

v ov | v |v |

| | a | t 雨 |

| v |v k | i | v |

v | | | v v| | v v

v | v v v b ||

v | | | vv

| | | 雨 | | b v |

v v v | v i | v |

| 雨 | v v |

v r v

Just then, in the dragon's roar...

v | v | || 雨

v v | vv | | |

c | 雨 v v

| r c |

雨 | || | r |v

v ov | v |v |

| | a o v 雨 |

| v |v k | a | v |

v | | c v v| | k v

v | v r v v ||

v | | | vv

| | | 雨 o | v v |

v v v | a v | v |

| 雨 k v v |

v v v

...a bizarre frog croak swam through the pounding rain.

It was the water-bugs calling out.

v croak || 雨

croak v v v

| r croak |

v ov | v r |v |

| | a o v 雨 |

| v |v k | a | v |

v | | croak v| croak v

雨 | r | r vv

croak v o | v o |

v v v | a v | a |

| croak croak |

They soared above the graveyard and the swamp, singing at the pitch of the night sky.

'Ah.'

A flash of realization struck me like lightning inside since the actual night sky had frozen in place.

When Leviathan first invaded Busan, or boarded the Ark Fleet, I'd sometimes hear a frog-like cry. Why? Up to now, I'd assumed it was because the Chinese character for "frog" (蛙) and the character for "insect/bug" (虫) were visually similar, but that wasn't it.

Think about it, there's a particular story strongly linked to the theme of a frog: the Tale of the Green Frog.

Long ago, there was a frog that was different from all the others. Whenever all the "normal frogs" cried "croak," that frog cried "ribbit." Whenever others loved the rain, she despised the rain.

Everything was reversed.

Her mother, who bore a child so different from her kin, fell into despair. At the end of her life, anticipating the daughter's contrarian ways, the mother left a will in reverse.

"When I die, don't bury me in the mountains. Bury me by the stream."

In her final moments, the mother tried to adapt to her daughter's twisted logic.

Then a miracle happened. The daughter, who had never once obeyed others, complied this time, fulfilling her mother's final wish—which meant the mother's real wish went unfulfilled.

Even in that single chance of a perfect crossing, they ended up getting their wires crossed.

croak 雨

ribbit

croak croak

croak 雨

croabbit croak

雨 croak ribbit

The whole world wept rain, droplets born and died from that freshly-dug grave and that waterlogged marsh, from the saddest soil and filthiest water.

Taking the place of Ji-won's impassive face and voice, substituting for the psycho who saw people as faceless bugs, standing in for the child who killed her parents—

The entire world lamented.

ribbit ribbit ribbit ribbit ribbit ribbit

"...Ji-won."

I pulled the girl into a hug, shielding her with my back to cover her from the water-bugs' baptism, from the downpour she might be seeing.

"I'm sorry," I said earnestly.

"I don't understand. Why apologize?"

"Please... wait a little longer."

I couldn't see her face, pinned as she was against me, but I felt a slight tremor in her eyelids brushing my cheek in a blink. "Why should I wait?"

I don't know what words the younger me, ■■■, used. Surely they were his own answer. Even though I can remember everything, I can't recall him. However, I do know the outcome.

Yu Ji-won didn't die here.

On the same night she killed her parents, she survived. The young man living across the street survived too.

We did not choose a double suicide.

■■■ must have done everything he could to force her to live, so I had no choice but to do the same.

"The world ends regardless. It collapses... To a shocking degree, too. No matter how solid the world looks to you right now, you'd be surprised how easily it can vanish."

"Is that... true?"

"Yes."

She turned her head, holding my cheeks in both hands. Her purple-blue eyes stared at me. Ignoring that intense gaze, I went on.

"Humans don't get to choose their world, but they canchoose to throw the world away. And quite often. They choose it a lot more often than you'd think, Ji-won."

Croak croabbit croabbit croabbit croabbit croabbit croak

v

雨

One raindrop finally fell.

"You might have thrown it away already, maybe you've done it many times. And maybe you caused someone even more misery. Someone's child, who ended up just like you right now, black hair and swampy eyes... You might have earned the right to be thrown away yourself."

Croak ribbit croabbit croak

v |

雨 v

雨

The second one followed.

"So don't think it can only happen once. Just a little longer. If last time you made it this far, let's live a bit further this time."

"Until when?"

"I... Well..."

Croak ribbit ribbit

v |

雨 v |

雨 v

雨

"We spent a lot of money tonight."

"Yes."

"We need to make more."

"Correct."

"And you want to study abroad in the states, right?"

"Yes."

"So I might... have to leave for a while. But not too far. I'm just going to Sejong. It's close. I've... got a really good offer waiting for me there."

"You're leaving our neighborhood?"

"A little while from now, yeah."

Croak

雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨ribbit雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨

croak

"I still have a few years before I really move to Sejong, and it's summer break anyway. Let's take a break from extra classes, maybe go traveling?"

"Traveling."

"Yes. By bicycle."

"Bicycle? I've never been interested. Our neighborhood's too steep. It's fine on the way down, but uphill is brutal."

"I bet you'll like it."

The silence cried.

"We'll bike around the country. Even go to Japan next vacation. Of course we should be frugal—convenience store meals, that sort of thing."

Croak

雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨

croak

"Then, if I leave for a bit... Could you wait? Until we meet again?"

雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨

And the rain fell.

-x-X-x-

The Skeptic XVIII

The saddest rain in the world is the rain that falls on a forgotten graveyard.

A young girl, not yet dead, listened to that rain and looked at me.

"You're asking me to wait, but that will be hard," Ji-won whispered. "As you know, Mr. Matiz, I can't remember people's faces. Even distinguishing voices is tough... So the only thing my memory can rely on is your scent. Would you please stay like this for a moment?"

I did as she asked.

She still hadn't moved her palms from my cheeks. From there, she gently adjusted the angle, pulling me closer to herself to press her nose against me.

"I'll try my best to memorize it."

A voice. A deep breath. Another voice.

"I don't believe in prophecies, even less so in cults. But when you spoke of the world's end, for some reason, I found you strangely trustworthy."

A breath. A quiet voice. Another breath.

"So I'll try to survive."

Although she always faced the world with a blank expression, Yu Ji-won's breathing wasn't entirely devoid of color or odor. No, she was the type who always confronted the world head-on, just at a slightly different angle from others. In that small, hidden corner, she worked fervently—as she did with everything—to memorize my scent.

"My memory isn't extraordinary. I expect that after seven or eight years, I might forget the smell."

"...I'll be back before then."

"Okay. I'll stay alive until then. Even if the world perishes again and again, as you say, I will endure."

Her voice was calm as she spoke.

"I find you... interesting. Your kindness to me is unusual and special. But from what I've heard, a person's malice can last for over fifteen years, whereas kindness tends to evaporate more quickly. I wonder if you'll really treat me the same way when we meet again."

Ji-won drew back slightly, tilting her head up with my face still held in hand, and let a faint smile curl on her lips.

Hers was an unnatural, forced smile. That very abnormal expression was her normal.

"I have a reason to keep living now."

And then, the downpour of water-bugs that threatened to swallow the entire world abruptly wrapped around my neck, like a noose on a condemned prisoner. The same transparent noose of water was looped around Ji-won's neck.

Rain.

We both looked like convicts whose execution had merely been postponed.

We went down the mountain, that transparent noose still hanging around both my and Ji-won's necks even after we made it out of the graveyard alive.

'...I have no idea what this is,' I thought to myself, tapping at the noose.

My fingertips touched nothing, even as the watery loop wriggled. It was definitely there—I could see it with my own two eyes—but I didn't feel anything that confirmed it.

'Ji-won doesn't even notice it at all.'

What was this suspicious noose?

To be honest, up until we disposed of that secondhand car near Dobongsan, I wasn't too worried. I had assumed coming in that Yu Ji-won must have some Awakener ability beyond Mini-Map, something I hadn't known about.

But then...

"Huh?" I breathed.

By the time night ended and dawn arrived, I saw people outside the car window. And that changed things.

"What's wrong, Mr. Matiz?"

They all had a noose around their necks.

Early-morning commuters headed to work, and every single one of them wore a transparent water-bug noose without exception. It was the same no matter where I looked. The people stepping out of a convenience store for a smoke, the bus driver standing beside them on the asphalt, the dozing college student nodding in the bus seats—all of them had that noose around their neck.

No one even realized.

"...No, it's nothing."

"Is that so?" Ji-won asked with a tilt of her head.

I swallowed as I turned the steering wheel.

This was happening because of Ji-won—I was sure of it. Before her "connection" to Leviathan, none of this had been visible. It started after we buried her parents' remains, stood in the rain, and decided to live. From that moment onward, people—potentially the entire human race—wore nooses.

'Leviathan... Was it already affecting humanity this far back?'

I had theorized Leviathan was based far from the Korean Peninsula, only growing strong in tandem with my repeated runs and taking an interest in the peninsula only much later. But then, how would I explain this?

Three days later, Ji-won reported her parents missing to the police, saying she believed they'd disappeared.

The local station was already quite familiar with her household. The father's gambling had long been one of the lesser concerns. Countless noise complaints had been filed against them, and that was before mentioning their ties to a cult that was causing headaches not just in our neighborhood but all over Seoul.

From those facts alone, the police drew an easy conclusion:

"Maybe they ran away in the night?"

It was the very rational deduction.

"They stole the daughter's bank account by messing with the password. And the other one's locked out entirely."

"That college student living next door reported his Matiz stolen, too."

"Wow, those scammer parents, unbelievable."

CCTV wasn't much help either. Rain poured heavy into the night, and the car took deserted roads. It was hard to track down any witnesses from that stormy dawn.

"Sergeant! We found that cultist's car!"

"Where?"

"In Incheon. The daughter's phone was also there."

"Ugh. Damn it..."

"We also found some clothes in the trunk that must've been used for changing outfits on the run."

The police, wearing exasperated faces, headed for Yu Ji-won's home again. There they found a straight-faced middle-school girl caring for her grandmother, who had dementia.

They felt solemn. The local officers were already conscious of how they'd been neglecting this girl, letting her suffer family abuse for so long.

"So, Miss Ji-won, we're trying to track your parents, but it's not easy. Have they called you or anything since that day?"

"No. I lost my phone."

"Ah, oh... Right, yeah... That's tough."

The police turned to the grandmother.

"Ma'am, do you remember anything about where your son and daughter-in-law might've gone?"

"Huh?" She blinked. "Where'd the kids go?"

"Yes, Grandma, it's already been half a month, right?"

"The kids went somewhere? Where?"

The officers exchanged glances. They could only do so much.

"Well, Miss Ji-won, if your parents call again, let us know. And if you need help with anything, just say the word."

"Okay. Thank you."

They left, gripping at the sorry state of the world as he did.

"How can parents like that even exist these days?"

"That poor, good child. She's so polite."

"Honestly we shouldn't say this," one half-whispered, "but at least the neighborhood's quieter."

"True. Might actually be better for her."

"Hey! Enough, that's rude!"

Gossip sank into the cracks of cheap concrete in that hillside slum.

No one imagined a 14-year-old had killed her parents, buried them overnight, then calmly constructed a fake alibi.

No one in that neighborhood had enough imagination or ruthless cunning to guess.

Her environment itself proved that gap in imagination, the real void in her reality.

The case was closed.

Ka-tok.

[Leaving tomorrow, are you?]

Ka-tok.

[Mr. Matiz, is it really true that we have to take our shoes off when boarding the plane?]

[I want to believe that, but the internet says otherwise.]

[Anyway, I've packed indoor slippers just in case.]

Ka-tok.

[Looks like we'll have some leftover soybean-paste stew. Once Grandma finishes her meal, I'll drop by with the leftovers.]

After that night, time moved quickly.

It wasn't just a feeling. Time literally seemed sped up, like watching a video at 5× speed and skipping through parts.

It must mean that all the crucial events at this point in the past are already resolved, I realized. There was nothing else for me to learn. Or to be more precise with it, this was all the information available about Yu Ji-won's past.

It felt like a silent hint from Cheon Yo-hwa, the one orchestrating this illusion.

'I guess the me in this era didn't have Complete Memory, so he wouldn't remember each day's trivialities in real-time. Only major events would stand out.'

I turned off the group chat that kept vibrating with ka-tok notifications and skimmed through the phone's address list.

[Friends: 611]

[■. ■■■]

[■. ■■■]

[■■■]

[■■■ ■■■]

[■■■(■■)]

[■■■]

[■]

[■■■]

[■■■~■]

[■■■]

·

·

·

They were all anonymous. No matter how far I scrolled, I couldn't see a proper name. Everyone was ■, just like me.

I sighed.

'I have so many connections, yet I'm completely blocked from tracing my past.'

I could call or receive calls, but that was pointless. I couldn't understand anything the other side said, nor could they hear me. They'd just get "whatever this era's me would have said."

For instance...

Ka-tok.

A new message arrived. This time, not from Yu Ji-won but from someone else. I checked out of curiosity.

.

------------>

.

"I have no clue who this is," I muttered.

On the screen, it looked like we were chatting just fine, but in reality, nothing close to that happened. They sent a text and soon enough, my "reply" auto-appeared. If I tried typing my own text, it didn't matter, a "predetermined script" would override it.

'At least with them, I can see the conversation in normal text. With others it's just static. I was hoping to learn more about my other acquaintances while investigating Ji-won's past, but no luck.'

Cheon Yo-hwa must be enforcing that rule she mentioned: "A single sheet of canvas can hold only one painting."

A wry smile tugged at my lips.

'I already blacked out for a bit, and six months flew by. This illusion is probably about to end, sending me back to her classroom.'

I'd hoped to at least stick around until she and I went on that bike trip to Japan, but...

'I guess it can't be helped.'

Just then...

Ding-dong.

A doorbell rang from the entryway.

Not only was this building old, but so was the door chime, so there was an off-pitch mechanical hum beneath the tone.

'Ah, that must be Ji-won. She did mention leftover stew.'

Recently, Ji-won had started cooking dinner. It was partly because her parents vanished and partly to rescue her collapsing finances. However, a novice always struggles with portion sizes, so she often made too much and gave me the extras.

Ding-dong.

There was a second urgent chime.

"Yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming."

I hauled myself out of my chair and headed for the door.

With each step, the illusion wavered. At the start of summer, it felt so lifelike. Now it was so unstable, as if about to disconnect at any moment.

'So I'll probably just get her homemade food and exit the dream?'

That wouldn't be so bad. At least I'd say a parting word to her, and maybe give her a final warm smile. Pity I wouldn't get to ride bikes together, though. That would be left to my "past self."

It didn't matter. Once the illusion ended, I could reunite with her anytime in the present.

I...

Ding-doooooooong...

I scraped open the door.

"Hah... Oh dear."

At the sight of the visitor through the gap, my entire body froze.

"What do I do? I only pushed the doorbell, but the button jammed. It keeps ringing."

"..."

"It happened before too. Anyway, sorry, it's been so long since I last came... Huh?"

It wasn't Yu Ji-won.

She never spoke that way. She didn't fuss like that. Her gestures weren't that natural.

She didn't...

"■■■?"

...have pink hair either.

"■■■, are you okay?"

Chhhzzzz.

She had no face.

"..."

"■■■?"

Chhhzzzzzz...

Where her eyes and expression should have been, there was only TV static.

.

--------------->

.

Chhhzzzzzz...

Occasionally, through the noise, a voice slipped between the lips.

I was not as tone-deaf as Yu Ji-won. Even if the static interfered, I could recognize the speaker's identity just from fragments of their voice.

A groan escaped my lips.

"Go... Yuri...?"

And at that moment, the static elongated, churned, then tore.

Ding-dooooonng, ding-dooooong.

Ahahahahahaha— Vzzt!

Like an old TV smashing, the power to this world shut off.

-x-X-x-

zygis200

－ QR code has actual meaning: "I'm s■rry, sunbae. I tried to ho■d on. I couldn't s■op it.". I wonder if the QR code in the messaging app has any hidden text as well.

-x-X-x-

The Skeptic XIX

The scenery receded into the distance.

Through the wide-open front door, I could see Go Yuri laughing like a broken radio. Behind her stood Ji-won, who had momentarily paused while carrying containers of side dishes.

All of it moved away from me at high speed.

– Mr. Matiz?

– Mr. ■■■.

– Sun■■.

The farther I got from the front entrance, the faster time accelerated.

A small hill. A scene of me riding side by side on bicycles with Ji-won. A blue convenience store sign written in Japanese, where we bought oolong tea and split it half and half.

– Mr. Matiz.

– Sunbae...

A view of me leaving Ji-won's hometown, a hillside shantytown. Then a shot of me leaning against an intercity bus, dragging a single trunk suitcase, arriving in Sejong City.

The moment I first met the twin sisters.

I got on a train heading to Busan, but... I definitely wasn't alone.

Someone was in the seat next to mine.

– Mr. ■■■.

Someone's lips moved.

"Sunbae!"

I opened my eyes, and right in front of me was a girl wearing a black sailor-style uniform with bright orange hair gathered into a long side-ponytail.

"Hurry, snap out of it, sunbae!"

It was the older of the twin sisters, Cheon Yo-hwa.

"Yo-hwa..." I breathed. "What— What's going on?"

"Aha! Good, you're back!"

Cheon Yo-hwa pressed one hand onto my shoulder and used her other to firmly push down on the back of my right hand, which was linked with the sleeping Ji-won's left. In other words, the three of us were all stacking our hands together.

"Make sure you don't let go," Cheon Yo-hwa said, her voice urgent. "The past you just witnessed, those were reconstructed memories drawn from this silver-haired girl's mind. If you let go of her hand now, she'll be lost forever."

"Cheon Yo-hwa, you..."

My lips moved. They were still moist with the ghost of a kiss.

Subjectively, I'd spent months in that flashback. In reality, only a split second must have passed. Even so, I couldn't even begin to focus on what Cheon Yo-hwa was telling me. Something far more critical had suddenly filled my sight.

"The noose around your neck..."

"Huh? A noose?" She frowned and said, "Sorry, I have no idea what you mean. Anyway, forget about that. We're in trouble right now."

She truly had no idea, yet around her neck was a transparent water-bug noose, exactly like the one I'd seen in that past illusion. If that noose wasn't something Cheon Yo-hwa herself had reconstructed, then...

"Look out the window, sunbae."

By reflex, I turned my head. My eyes shot wide open.

"Tentacles...?"

This was the Four-Seasons Classroom, the place where Cheon Yo-hwa had been subjected to Time Seal. It was a sanctuary that no one could enter by conventional means, especially since Cheon Yo-hwa, who had devoured the powers of two Outer Gods, was living here. Calling it a divine realm wouldn't be an overstatement.

Ordinarily, the four classroom windows should each show a scene of spring, summer, fall, and winter. But now, beyond the windows, bloodstained tentacles were writhing. The birch trees outside had all been snagged by those tentacles. They each shuddered in torment, emitting a pained moan.

Thump! Thump!

Some tentacles splattered against the glass, hurling the whole of their weight against the windows. Each impact made the windows tremble.

Red-flesh tentacles. I'd seen them a few times before.

"Those are... It's Go Yuri's..."

"Yep, the pink entity." Cheon Yo-hwa stared out the window with me. A irritated tsk clicked off her tongue. "This is bad. I'm blocking them for now, but it was a real close call. There's no way that pink one should've tracked this place down..."

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention. When I cut through Leviathan's rain to get here, I had some help from Go Yuri."

"What? Seriously, sunbae. What were you thinking—?" Cheon Yo-hwa cut herself off and frowned. "No, actually, I guess that's the only way you could've managed it. I understand. But that doesn't make this any less dangerous, sunbae."

I didn't disagree. "Still, it's strange. Usually, Go Yuri only brings out that fleshy pink form in a confirmed world-destruction scenario. Why now?"

"Sorry, I really don't know."

Thump!

The tentacles rose in numbers and mass, joining the others as a singular force to slam against the windows. Oddly enough, the glass where the tentacles struck was smeared with blood, as though a fingerprint had been left behind. That crimson fluid pulsed and wobbled, forming the shape of a hand.

Splish. Splosh. Slap, splat. Splish. Splosh.

In an instant, dozens—no—hundreds of "red handprints" were plastered across the long row of classroom windows. Then the handprints raised their claws.

Screeeech! Scrape, screech, screeee!

The nails of those crimson handprints began scraping the glass all at once, at every angle, with all weights of force.

Cheon Yo-hwa's face darkened. "This is bad, bad, bad... I'd rather get devoured by that weird Infinite Metagame data thief than be eaten by this pink thing!"

"No way to stop it?"

She whined, pursing her lips in frustration. "It's all your fault, you know, sunbae!"

"Huh?"

"At that stupid Mastermind Simulation Lab, you messed around with those pink entities. If you hadn't, none of this would be happening! They must've analyzed part of me back then!"

What the hell? I was at a loss for words.

We'd wiped out that Mastermind in the 688th cycle. Now it was the 776th. Almost two thousand years had passed, so long that it felt like ancient history to me. Any country's legal system would say the statute of limitations had long since expired.

"Excuse me, O Great Regressor? Hate to break it to you, but from my point of view, that was only a few days ago!"

Screeeeech!

"Kyaaaa! It's cracking! It's cracking! The glass is cracking! Sunbae, we can't hold out much longer! Three minutes, tops!"

I swallowed. Just up until we'd headed to the Tower of Babel, Go Yuri had been docile, or at least seemed so. I couldn't figure out why she'd suddenly turned hostile right after reconstructing Ji-won's past.

"If we really have no way to escape that sea of tentacles..." I said quietly.

"Yeah."

Cheon Yo-hwa turned to look at me. Her red irises settled into a grim calm.

"Please die here, sunbae. Reset the cycle. If you let yourself get devoured by that thing, and only afterward regress, it'll be too late. I can't really put it into words, but... I've got a gut feeling that something truly irreversible would happen."

I felt the same.

Way back in the 89th cycle, when I was killed by Go Yuri, another "Go Yuri" had appeared in the deepest depths of my subconscious. Luckily, that subconscious Go Yuri never seemed too hostile toward me... but there was no guarantee I'd be lucky again. If I died at her hands once again...

Who knew what permanent damage could deal?

There was a shattering crackon either side of me.

A spiderweb of fractures spread across the glass. Simultaneously, thin fissures began to take form on Cheon Yo-hwa's skin and her black sailor uniform.

I stared at her, unable to speak.

"Sorry, sunbae. I wanted to discuss all the info you've learned, but there's no time." Cheon Yo-hwa squeezed my hand a bit more tightly. "Without me, you'll still be able to figure out a lot of truths on your own."

"Yo-hwa..."

"Remember, sunbae. As I told you before, the memories you lost from your 1st through 4th cycles are each a blank canvas."

Crack! Ka-creeeeak, crack!

Hairline fractures continued erupting across Cheon Yo-hwa's body. Blood-red handprints followed in their wake on her pristine black uniform—one on her knee, one on her shoulder, then another.

"Once you successfully gather all four canvases, your past will finally be restored. You've already inscribed not just me onto your canvas, but also this silver-haired one... That leaves two more pages."

Splat.

A bloody handprint stained half of Cheon Yo-hwa's white face. Its red fluid slithered downward, and the fingers formed claw tips that dug into her neck.

They tightened around her throat.

"I love you, sunbae. And... I'm sorry I can't be of more help."

Crash!

All the windows of the classroom shattered. The glass that had held the memories of spring, summer, fall, and winter burst into shards and scattered.

The red tentacles and handprints, having finally broken the barrier, charged inside with a sense of exultation.

"Till next time... See you then."

A spurt of red erupted from Cheon Yo-hwa's neck.

Just before those red handprints could choke her to death, she took her own life. I did the same.

Cheon Yo-hwa's head fell at nearly the same speed that my own vision blurred. Yu Ji-won's silver hair also tumbled to the floor.

All three of us, everyone present in that classroom, died at the same time.

"Give... back."

The red flesh tried to envelop us, but...

It missed by a hair's breadth. The instant we died, the red flesh lost its prey, and it began thrashing wildly, smashing the classroom in rage.

My field of view tinted red.

"...■■ give back. That... return ■■■. ■■■ ■? ■■■ ■. ■ ■■."

Then I closed my eyes.

Thus ended my 776th life.

Tick.

A clock was ticking.

June 17th.

[13:59]

Busan Station's concourse.

The clock there silently declared midday in early summer.

Yes. No matter what I tried, I could never rewind past this point, the absolute limit of time. My starting marker.

The beginning of a new cycle had safely arrived.

"Wha— What? What is this place?"

"Huh? Busan Station? But I was just in the park a second ago..."

"Reverend? Reverend, where are you?"

Murmurs spread through the crowd, just like usual. Before long, the Tutorial Fairy would appear and herald the beginning of the slaughter.

But before that...

I took out my smartphone and used the camera as a mirror. There, in the reflection of a corner of the concourse, the phone also caught Go Yuri standing at a distance.

She... looked normal. LIke she always did, tilting her head curiously, chatting with the people around her.

'Good.'

The regression had succeeded.

Go Yuri's monstrosity hadn't managed to latch onto me. She'd missed me by a fraction of a second. More than likely, Cheon Yo-hwa's last-ditch resistance against the intrusion of that red flesh had made all the difference.

'Still, it's dangerous to keep watching her for long.'

I pressed the power button and turned the phone off. Everything seemed the same as previous cycles, so I presumably just needed to stick to the usual plan, rescue Seo Gyu in the optimal way, recruit Sim Ah-ryeon, then arrange to approach the Saintess.

And yet—

"Huh?"

I froze.

The waiting hall had changed in a decisive way. This wasn't a subtle spot-the-difference puzzle. It was blatantly obvious, happening before my very eyes.

'The noose—'

Everyone who'd been dragged into the station had a transparent noose around their neck.

That by itself didn't shock me—ever since I saw Cheon Yo-hwa's noose, I'd suspected that all of humanity wore them too. After all, each person lived with a ticking clock above their head, a designated moment of strangulation.

No, the true cause of my surprise was something else entirely.

'The nooses are... leaking color?'

I looked toward Ah-ryeon in the crowd.

"Uh, wh-what's... Ahh... Ugh..."

Perhaps she'd been painting when she got summoned because her coat was covered in splattered paints. And at that very moment, Ah-ryeon's hair was turning green. She was undergoing an Awakening on the spot.

In previous cycles, I had assumed that changes to hair color and eye color were just a by-product of Awakening, but the scene playing out before me was nothing like I had expected.

Slosh... Squirm...

The water-bug creatures that formed Ah-ryeon's noose wriggled. Translucent droplets scattered, some burrowing into her hair, others into her eyes. When a droplet burst, a wave of "green" spread out.

Ah-ryeon's hair and eyes both changed. Her plain black hair turned bright green, her ordinary brown irises now a vivid shade.

Pop, pop!

It wasn't just Sim Ah-ryeon. All around the waiting hall, the same phenomenon was happening. Whoever Awakened, their noose's water-bugs would shift and stain their body with a unique color.

My mouth fell open as I stared, dumbfounded.

'What... What is all this? So it wasn't just that Awakeners mysteriously changed their hair and eyes. The water-bugs from Leviathan... From Yu Ji-won's noose... They were actually painting over everyone?'

A shockwave of realization rattled my brain. However, I had no time to let confusion crystallize into comprehension. There was no breather for me.

"Ah, hello there, everyone! Surprised to be summoned like this so suddenly?"

The Tutorial Fairy appeared.

"Oho? The head count's a bit low... Anyway! You must be startled to find yourselves in a place like this, yes? But have no fear! My fairy self is here to be your friendly guide from start to finish!"

Very soon, the Tutorial Fairy would try to kill Seo Gyu. Ordinarily, I'd gather up my Aura, the unique strength some call inner energy or qi, and abduct Fairy Number 264 in the blink of an eye so that no one would notice. I'd drag the fairy someplace secluded and force her to talk. She'd initially resist, but seeing my overwhelming power would quickly deflate her.

"Th-that means you'd be a local collaborator, right? Indeed, colonial rule always needs local allies... Hweh! I designate you as our comrade!"

Then, she'd bow her head.

That was my plan, as always, so I began summoning my Aura...

And had to stop in shock.

'What...?'

My heart pounded.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

'Why...? Why?'

My Aura appeared around my body, the same exact deep, inky black as always.

Everyone's Aura had a distinctive color. It was something I'd taken for granted.

'But why are there water-bugs from this noose painting my Aura black right now?'

On that day, my old assumptions were turned upside-down.

Human "Awakenings"... The coloring of one's hair, eyes, scent, and even one's Aura... They weren't one and the same phenomenon. Those changes were separate from Awakening itself.

The real culprits behind all the varied colors of Awakened humanity were the transparent water-bugs of the nooses that hung around everyone's necks.

The very ones summoned by a 14-year-old girl named Yu Ji-won.

-x-X-x-

The Skeptic XX

Mr. Matiz. Is it really necessary for me to learn self-defense in such a systematic way?

Yes. I told you before, didn't I? A few years from now, the world's going to end. We need to build up your muscles and nervous system in advance.

I see. So it wasn't a metaphor, but something you meant quite literally.

Exactly. And don't worry about your joints or anything, if you get some bone disease, we'll have a way to fix it down the road.

...?

.

.

.

Mr. Matiz. There's something I've been curious about for a while, so let me just ask you directly.

Sure. You always ask directly, anyway.

Would you like to date me?

...

If by extending your kindness to me you're trying to secure private benefits or desires, specifically, a romantic relationship, then please, I beg you to stop. You cannot expect any romantic interest from me.

Hey... look. Sorry, but that's not it at all. If I died and came back to life 775 times, I still wouldn't end up going out with you.

That's a strangely specific number.

Yep.

Is it because I'm a minor, so having a romantic connection with me would be illegal? Frankly, that would seem contradictory for a man who's already conspired to commit murder.

No, no. I just don't want to date you.

Pardon?

How are you not getting this? Yu Ji-won, your age isn't the problem. Even if you were an adult later on, I absolutely, seriously, never, ever would date you.

...

I'd rather date the Inunaki Tunnel than be with you... Wait, what are you doing with that hand mirror all of a sudden?

Hmm. My apologies, Mr. Matiz.

For what?

If this isn't too forward... I'm wondering if you might be suffering from erectile dysfunction.

You little piece of...

.

.

.

If someday in the future, I become the president of the entire world...

That's not an actual job, Ji-won.

My apologies, allow me to correct that.

Right.

If I start World War III, wipe out every existing nation on Earth, establish the one and only legitimate government, and become a new dictator under the banner of the Three Han Bloodline...

...

I'd make it mandatory for all citizens to wear perfume every day.

...Why?

Because the world is too messy. People blur together immediately. We need an anchor to fix our own positions. Not just smells, but hair color, eye color, even nametags should be used more aggressively so we can tell one another apart.

If you go that far, wouldn't it be more of a headache? Perfumes are so strong that they give me headaches if everyone's wearing a different scent.

That's fine. Keep someone with no scent closest to you, and it'll have the effect of a tranquilizer.

...?

.

.

.

Mr. Matiz. Do you have any plans to dye your hair?

Huh? Why ask out of the blue?

We're heading to Japan soon, aren't we? It'd be easy to lose track of you in an unfamiliar street if you keep your current look.

Ah, so if I go blond or something, I'll stand out, which is convenient for you?

Yes, though blond is too common and doesn't mean much. For instance... how about splitting your hair in half and dyeing one side red and the other blue?

So you want me to look like a walking Taeguk symbol?

.

.

.

I walked.

I carried out the usual routine: formed alliances with my comrades, cleared the Busan Station dungeon, and defeated the Void in Baekhwa Girls' High.

That's what my feet were doing. But inside my head...

'Dyeing.'

That single word played on loop, again and again.

So everything—human hair, human scent, and even Aura—was actually the result of being "dyed" by these water-bug creatures. Meaning that Leviathan—or more specifically, the Outer-God-connected Yu Ji-won—wanted this world to be colored in the first place.

My mind repeated the same steps over and over, stuck in a rut and weighed down by countless thoughts.

'She wanted to tell people apart.'

Prosopagnosia, or face blindness.

Ever since she was born, Yu Ji-won had struggled to recognize people's faces.

I'd go so far as to say that as a young girl, she called anyone with a similar build "Mom" or "Dad" no matter who they really were.

I walked.

"That brat can't even recognize her own parents!"

In those flashbacks, I'd sometimes hear her parents yelling that from a nearby apartment building.

To Ji-won, people were indistinguishable lumps of matter—not fixed solids but fluid liquids. Less like rational humans, more like mindless bugs.

Water-based insects.

Just some wiggling, squirming things.

When congenital face-blindness was paired with a psychopathic nature, it forced the young girl named Yu Ji-won to see the world in that kind of warped way.

But if that child ever found someone she wanted to remember...

If, instead of lumping everyone into nameless crowds, she resolved to distinguish certain meaningful individuals, to truly see them...

Then what kind of wish would that girl have made upon the "Anomaly" that descended into her life?

I walked, entering a shopping mall.

The interior had been ravaged, the mark of looters who had long since come and gone. Scavengers had ignored things unrelated to survival, so some perfumes were still lying around, though luxury brands like Chanel and other high-end names had been snatched up.

Even in the post-apocalypse, the shopping mall remained a showcase of how human greed stratifies everything.

I wandered among the ruins, gathering seven different kinds of perfume.

Mr. Matiz.

Could it be that humanity itself... or the world that harbors humanity... was fundamentally flawed from the start?

Human beings have always been poorly engineered. We have no way to mentally cope with a situation like the ground splitting open while we sleep, swallowing our home and killing our entire family in one stroke. We have no way to write off a horrifying "accident," like a luxury cruise or passenger plane destroyed by a freak event, as just something that happened to occur.

This world contained far too many things, and humans themselves had far too many deficiencies.

What we call "God" was simply a name for the void that has existed from the start between humans and their world.

'...Okay. I've got them all.'

As for how to bridge that void, I couldn't be sure I ever explained it properly to a 14-year-old child like her.

'Let's see. These perfume brands... Yes, that's them.'

Ji-won. 地圓. "Earth is round."

A child was born into this world bearing that name, a name that described the round, flattened surface of the Earth.

I made my way to that child.

There was a convenience store. If one took the shortest route from Sejong City, they'd inevitably pass it.

"Hmm?"

From behind the store's cash register, someone turned to look at me. A head of silver hair fell across her shoulders.

It had been seven years for her. For me, it had been tens of thousands of years since we last met.

Yet in that single moment, there we were again—separated by a counter—passing through an instant and an eternity simultaneously.

"How curious."

But the 14-year-old girl from seven years ago didn't recognize me at all.

"I set up a fairly elaborate booby trap at the entrance. How did you get in without triggering it?"

I inhaled. "So... are you the owner of this shop?"

"Yes, I'm the proprietor."

"I spotted two corpses outside. I'm guessing they were the store owner and a part-timer?"

"Hmm, you have a keen eye." Ji-won nodded. "Yes, but they attacked me the moment I entered. I merely exercised my right to self-defense. Whether they were the original owner and employee... I have no proof."

"I see. Don't worry, I have no intention of interrogating you over murder. I have no right to do so."

"You're rather reasonable...?" She blinked. "Hmm. Since I'm supposedly the shop owner, I should greet my customer, yes? Is there something you want? If it's not crucial for survival, I can give it to you."

"Two packs of Marlboro Red, please."

"Cigarettes are precious luxuries these days, but..."

"I'm prepared to pay you properly."

"Well, if that's the case... All right."

She grabbed the packs from the display. At the same moment she handed them over, she whipped out a small hatchet from her waistband, swinging it down at my wrist.

Or she tried to.

Her eyes widened. Halfway through her swing, the hatchet came to a stop when I'd caught it in my hand.

Yes, it was something that had happened hundreds of times across countless cycles. But only in this 777th run did I finally see something clearly:

'They're exactly the same.'

The hatchet Ji-won was holding was the very one I once gave her as a "present"—back when I was driving a car with her onboard. The motion by which Ji-won swung it was precisely the same as the swing she'd used the night she killed her parents, when I opened the door of that third-floor apartment.

One of us was holding the handle of the ax, the other gripping the blade. For a moment, our gazes locked without speaking.

I let go. She did not complete the swing.

"You know... in the old days," I began quietly. "I used to think Leviathan was just some Anomaly representing the state."

I pulled seven bottles of perfume from my pocket, placing them on the convenience store counter.

Then I took out a few tools and began mixing them together, piece by piece.

"Because the further my life went on, the more infrastructure got built up. And that made me assume Leviathan's power was growing stronger, like a 'state' that accumulates strength over time."

Spritz, spritz— and raw scents began drifting through the air.

The "one and only body fragrance in the world" I'd created once upon a time was made of relatively cheap perfumes. Each had some harshness when taken as an individual, a scent body of rough edges left unpolished.

"But now I realize it wasn't just the land's infrastructure growing as my life went on."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, customer."

"Yu Ji-won... You grew stronger too, in step with my turning of the wheel."

I thought back to the distant past back in the 5th cycle, when Yu Ji-won was with me in the Samcheon World guild.

"Vice Guild Leader."

"Yes?"

"Could you get me passage on a ship bound for Japan?"

I had assumed she wanted to escape the hellscape of the Korean Peninsula and flee overseas. But maybe... Maybe she simply realized that no matter how far she roamed throughout Korea, she'd never find "the person" she was searching for. So she had to broaden her search to another country.

"Vice Guild Leader, please kill me."

"Hold my funeral with your power. I beg you."

I had interpreted that as a sign of total despair with the world, or that she wanted to use Time Seal to prolong her final moments. Could it be, though, that she just wanted to relive a "certain day" that had almost vanished from her memories? That she wanted to recover it in its entirety, even if it meant a brief extension of life?

"Vice Guild Leader, Your Excellency! I will serve you faithfully like a loyal dog until the day this world ends. So please, promise me this."

"Of course, in the next cycle, I in my foolishness might not recognize your greatness, O Savior."

I'd concluded that she was just a psycho obsessed with personal survival and power, turning traitor the moment she discovered I was a regressor, wanting to stay on a "fast track" to success across every cycle.

"When that time comes, just say this: 'I know you killed someone at fifteen and dumped the body in a minari swamp on Mt. Bukhansan.'"

"What? You killed someone in middle school? Wait, that's not the point... Hey! Quit clinging to my pants!"

Maybe, just maybe, she had some vow or promise that couldn't be fulfilled that cycle, so she needed to try again in the next. She had to succeed eventually, no matter what.

And along the way, Yu Ji-won steadily became stronger. From my aide-de-camp, to Dang Seo-rin's secretary, to a member of the National Road Management Corps, to a team leader, to the Corps' second-in-command, to the regressor's most trusted right hand. Across the entire span from the 5th cycle to the 776th.

It wasn't just the Korean infrastructure that developed in tandem with my wheel of time. Yu Ji-won herself had advanced alongside it.

"In retrospect, it's strange... You were always smart enough to hide your ambition for power if you wanted to. Yet you flaunted it, every single time, like you were deliberately feeding into people's assumptions that 'a psychopath thirsting for survival and power is only natural.'"

When she was 14? She was different then. She did have ambition, but no particular desire for happiness. If she decided on something, if she found a certain "answer" or encountered a certain "failure," she was willing to end her own life without hesitation.

Above all, her highest priority was meeting "Mr. Matiz" again.

"You hid your true aim. Because the moment others discovered what you really wanted, that knowledge could become a weakness. Not even I, your regressor, was an exception."

For thousands of years.

For tens of thousands more.

She kept her deepest secrets, all while shadowing me.

She pretended to be nothing more than a "power-hungry" subordinate who was cold-blooded yet never betrayed me, quietly leeching off my regressor's life. All the while, I wandered Korea, then Japan, then China, eventually crossing the Eurasian continent so that the entire world would be mapped out, with every Void discovered, every person added to her Mini-Map.

All to find that single, solitary "one person" she sought.

"I'm sorry... For thousands of years—far more than ten thousand—you kept searching without fail, but I selfishly went and forgot everything."

Inside a transparent perfume bottle swirled the mixture of seven distinct scents, an aroma only I knew how to create. I picked up the bottle and lightly spritzed it behind each ear.

A hush settled over us as my personal scent spread through the air.

"It may be late, but... I'm alive and back again, Ji-won."

Finally, she spoke.

"Do you recall what happened on Dobongsan that day?"

"Sure. Even though there was no such mountain."

Under her silver hair, a smile formed.

The same smile that a 14-year-old girl had once worn so many thousands of years ago, one sweltering summer day.

"Welcome back, Mr. Matiz. I've been waiting."

-x-X-x-

The Skeptic XXI

"Mr. Matiz, you can just follow me from here on out. I've stockpiled plenty of supplies for the apocalypse."

"Mm."

"I've also marked potential hideouts in various parts of the country. Oh, by the way, my skill is a sort of mapping ability that lets me see people's locations, but it has some unique requirements, so I traveled all over the country right before the transportation infrastructure collapsed."

"I see..."

"I've also spent years honing my hand-to-hand combat skills to a decent level in three different self-defense styles. In short, I can be the one carrying you this time, Mr. Matiz."

"Uh, Ji-won."

"Yes?"

"I appreciate how hard you've worked to prepare for this apocalypse, but... most of what you've done might not be all that necessary."

"Pardon?"

"Like I said earlier, I'm a regressor."

"That term rings a bell. I've heard you say strange things before, and guessed as much. But what exactly does 'regressor' mean?"

"Well, a regressor is—"

(Some details have been omitted.)

"So to put it simply, Mr. Matiz, you already know countless ways to secure supplies, you have ideal hideouts chosen, and you've cultivated combat strength that's basically the most humanity could possibly hope to achieve?"

"Yes."

"Which also means that the resources I've spent seven years gathering, along with all those locations I scouted, don't mean very much?"

"Uh... Not exactly..."

"Between you and me, there's no need for polite phrasing. What you're implying is that, even if it's not totally meaningless, it was pretty much a waste of time."

"...Yes."

"Hmm." Ji-won nodded. "All right. I understand."

There was an awkward silence.

"Ji-won?"

"Yes, dear regressor."

"...Are you upset?"

"How could I be? 'Being upset' usually means you feel someone didn't show you enough consideration or respect. How could I possibly say I haven't been shown overflowing amounts of consideration and respect by you, my regressor?"

Her face was perfectly blank.

"If you hadn't warned me of the apocalypse in advance, I might've been swept up in society's collapse, facing all kinds of hardships."

"Oh, right. Exactly."

"Indeed. Though if you knew the world would collapse, it might have been even more helpful had you told me to just train my combat ability instead of gathering resources to the point my tailbone nearly fell off. A small question arises as to why you didn't offer that little bit of advice... but it's just a minor curiosity."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What are you doing, Lord Regressor? Since the stockpiles I've saved here at this convenience store amount to little more than a firefly before the full moon or a matchstick before a forest fire, you can disregard them and move along to the next stage of your plan, right?"

"..."

"Oh, by the way, I also found a car similar to the old Matiz we used to drive. But I guess it's useless, so I'll leave it here. And this hand-ax I've been using, I'll return it to you. Its blade is a bit dull now, so I doubt it'll be of much use. Anyway..."

"..."

"Shall we get going?"

Breaking news:

The psychopath is sulking.

Vroooooom.

"Wow, these potato chips are so good! It's been ages since I've had any. Once I started hitting the gym, I pretty much quit junk food. But now, thanks to you, Ji-won, I can stuff myself with chips. Feels like such a luxury!"

"..."

"Oh, and look, digestive biscuits with chocolate! They're my favorite cookies! I can't believe you stocked up on them. Even as a little kid, you always were scarily good at planning!"

"..."

"Wow, you even grabbed some high-end whiskey! Plus cocktail ingredients! Ji-won, have you tried drinking yet? If you haven't had anyone teach you how to serve drinks, we could do a little—"

"Please. You're being too loud. I need to concentrate on driving."

"Right."

Ji-won was driving the Matiz with impressive skill. At this point in time, the main roads hadn't collapsed yet, so she skillfully picked roads that were still intact and sped along them.

Clearly, she'd done her homework in advance. It was an impressive level of preparedness.

Back when I approached her only as the "Undertaker," she never gave me a ride in this little Matiz or anything like that. Most likely, she'd arranged all this as a kind of event for when she reunited with "Mr. Matiz" so that she'd show off her competence and readiness.

TheYu Ji-won. The silver-haired National Road Management Corps operative, a team leader, had gone so far as to prepare an entire apocalypse "event" for someone...

It was hard to wrap my head around. If the person in the driver's seat turned out to be not Yu Ji-won but some "Yu Ji-won Anomaly," I might even have nodded along like that made more sense.

There was something else odd too.

Pitter, patter.

Light rain fell outside the window. In every cycle before this, it had never rained at this time or place.

The route had changed.

My life as a regressor was nearly identical each time. From the perspective of a reader following my "story", currently around the 328th chapter, it might feel fresh and new every day. But from my vantage point, it's been tens of thousands of years. And the story has only advanced 328 times.

The unspoken hours. In a game, it would be that part labeled: [You've already read this. Skip?] That's what consumed the vast bulk of my existence as the Undertaker.

And yet, once I met the 14-year-old summer girl as "Mr. Matiz" rather than the "Undertaker," it suddenly started raining in a location and time it never had before.

Saintess.

Avoiding Ji-won's gaze, I scribbled a note on my right thigh with my finger.

[Yes, I'm listening.]

Please check the Awakener's vantage points who are not too far from the road we're on. Say, a radius of about 10 km. Let me know what they're seeing.

[Understood. I see 16 individuals so far.]

Currently, we were in the early days of the 777th cycle. I had only formed a blood pact with the Saintess a few days earlier, so she was still a newbie at apocalypse life and was also new to the way we secretly communicated via writing. She was probably using Time Stop for a second or two whenever she noticed my script, carefully deciphering the letters. Thus, I slowed my writing to spare the newbie from being overwhelmed.

Is it raining where you are?

A short pause.

[No. I've checked all directions out to five kilometers, and there's no rain. But...]

But?

[I can't be certain, but it looks like the path you and Yu Ji-won are driving along is the only area where it's raining. Wherever you go, it rains in that exact place, following the road. Just behind you, around the convenience store you visited, there's rainfall, but a little farther away it's sunny—like magic.]

Rain along the roads.

Not rain from clouds, but rain that was Leviathan itself. It was following the path of it Miko and apostle, Yu Ji-won.

From a satellite's perspective, as we snaked around different highways, Leviathan's shadow would look like a giant dragon...

Or a huge centipede-like insect creeping behind us.

Rumble... Whoooosh!

Rain pelted the windows, and a faint roar, somewhere between the sound of rushing water and a dragon's cry, resounded in the distance.

"Mr. Matiz."

"Uh— Yes?"

"Haven't you noticed that something's changed?"

My mind went blank.

Her words were the classic, "I'm upset, and I'm about to double down on being upset. Consider this your warning."

I gulped. Forcing a serious expression, I ventured a guess.

"Well, you've changed in lots of ways. Your hair is lovely. You've always been smart, but now you're downright reliable, Ji-won..."

"Hmph." She stared at me for a moment. "It seems your eyesight has severely deteriorated, Mr. Matiz."

"Huh...?"

"Look at me more closely... You still don't see it?"

If only I had Time Stop...

I had plenty of time in general, as a regressor, yet ironically had no time to figure this out calmly, like a student facing the last five minutes of a final exam.

Sweating bullets, I examined her carefully—like filling in testing bubbles, but with my eyes.

'But she looks exactly like she does in every other cycle!'

Silver hair. Slightly arched brows. Eyes so pale they were almost transparent, a mix of purple and faint blue. A steady, expressionless gaze in my direction.

Wait... A gaze?

Yes. Even though Ji-won was in the driver's seat, she had turned completely to watch me, as if steering the car purely with her peripheral vision.

"Did you finally notice?"

On closer inspection: She was only pretending to grip the steering wheel. In fact, her palms were not actually touching it. Instead, a stream of energy from her palms, her Aura, extended to the wheel, steering in her place.

"How...? How do you already have such advanced Aura control?"

"Aura? Hmm. An English-style pronunciation of 'Aura'? That's what you call 'this'? So that's news to me."

Ji-won withdrew her hands entirely, yet even then, the faintly bluish Aura trailing from her fingertips remained. Far from dissipating, it snaked around the steering wheel even more freely, controlling it effortlessly.

My eyes and mouth fell open in shock.

"That's impossible. At this point in time, you shouldn't have such mastery of Aura. Aura normally requires absurd amounts of training."

"Does it?" she asked with a calm tilt of her head. "Yet I can do it. I used to call it prāṇa,[1] but I like the word 'Aura' better. At some point, I realized I could move it however I wanted."

In truth, Ji-won had always been an absolute genius in Aura. In any given cycle, she was the undisputed #2 in Aura usage, second only to me—save for the times when Ha-yul might rarely surpass her.

What if...?

A terrifying hypothesis flashed through my mind: What if she had intentionally hid her true prowess with Aura all this time?

Pieces of a puzzle began clicking together at high speed.

She managed to keep her entire "Mr. Matiz" objective a secret from everyone for thousands of years. Feigning weaker power to blend in? That would've been child's play.

Just weak enough to pass muster... That standard would be slightly below the regressor, who was assumed to be the absolute best with Aura. Then there was Ha-yul, who was like an adopted daughter to that regressor. If Yu Ji-won realized the significance of Ha-yul, she'd adjust her skill so they'd appear to be competing for second place, occasionally letting Ha-yul gain an edge.

Yes... That lined up perfectly. Like a jigsaw puzzle morphing into 3D construction, logic built itself into a complex shape in my head.

Could it have started all the way back then?

I recalled an ancient era, buried like a fossil in my memory.

The 42nd cycle. Back then, the Meteor Shower Anomaly was the de facto final boss that threatened to destroy the world, in what now felt like a comedic misunderstanding. I had become the first to defeat it.

But how exactly did we beat it?

Meteor Shower brought ashen destruction wherever it fell, lulling people into a dreamlike sleep so they'd die painlessly. And the method we used to conquer it was mirrors.

Yes. We teamed up with Dang Seo-rin to develop a "reflection" spell. Then a 700-person strike force flew into the sky to challenge Meteor Shower.

"Team 12, final charge complete!"

"Team 11, fully charged!"

"Team 6, good to go! No major losses so far!"

"Team 4, minimal energy leakage, about 3%! Within expected range. Passing it forward!"

"Team 3, got it!"

We had arranged ourselves in 12 units. Each group faced a large mirror to which they funneled their combined powers using...

Aura.

"Team 2, done! Barely made it!"

"Keep going, keep going!"

"Team 1 is fully charged!"

And the leader of Team 1, naturally...

"Undertaker, Your Excellency!"

...was the one we all believed to be second only to me in using Aura, my one-time adjutant.

"Undertaker, Your Excellency! Now! We've transferred the energy!"

"Less than 1% loss!"

Yu Ji-won.

"Mr. Matiz," she said, interrupting my revelation. "Earlier, when you told me you were a regressor, you also said something about a great monster called Leviathan. That it is infrastructure itself, a national entity, and my deity... That it grew in power with each cycle, correct? However, there's a simpler, more direct measure of that."

I used to think "Aura" was merely a typical Awakened power. It was something you'd see all the time in stories, so surely it was no big surprise in a world flooded with Anomalies. But if it were truly that common, then why wasn't it sealed away when we defeated the Admin of Infinite Metagame, an Outer God from so many fictional tropes? If it was purely some made-up or "fantasy" power, one might assume it would vanish along with the illusions.

But it didn't. Which suggests...

The power that fights Anomalies might itself be an Anomaly. What we called Aura wasn't strictly a human privilege.

"Allow me to ask one thing... Across hundreds of cycles, hasn't your 'Aura' grown stronger right along with you? Did you, by any chance, create your own so-called 'Aura training method' and spread it to other Awakeners?

I didn't respond.

"If so..."

Her light-blue eyes, like a mirror for humanity, fixed on me.

"That means I'm not Leviathan's only follower."

Rain fell.

"That would make you, Mr. Matiz, and every Awakener who wields Aura complicit in empowering Leviathan."

In other words, Yu Ji-won was not only the Miko of Leviathan, the monstrous rain entity.

She was also the apostle of Aura itself.

Footnotes:

[1] Prāṇa is a Sanskrit word that has a number of interpretations in English, including "life force," "energy" and "vital principle." The term is used in Hindu and yogic philosophy to refer to all the manifest energy in the universe, present in both living beings and inanimate objects.

-x-X-x-

The Skeptic XXII

Come to think of it, the first of my comrades ever to accept my regressor "coming out" wasn't Old Man Schopenhauer (Scho), surprisingly enough. Scho first knocked on my timeline in the 6th cycle. And I'd met Dang Seo-rin in the 5th cycle, but... she never did learn that I was a regressor.

In the end...

"Vice Guild Leader, Your Excellency. You mentioned this was your 5th cycle?"

The first colleague who learned I was a regressor was none other than Yu Ji-won, my secretary and adjutant.

"Vice Guild Leader, Your Excellency! I will serve you faithfully like a loyal dog until the day this world ends!"

By that point, she was Leviathan's Miko, whether she realized it or not. She had already achieved a level of mastery over Aura that dwarfed normal comprehension. Hers was a strategy of concealment, hiding one's true potential in the shadows. Even if I or Dang Seo-rin had fought her at full strength, it's likely neither of us could withstand Ji-won's onslaught if she were to take it seriously.

But what if I hadn't told 5th-cycle Yu Ji-won that I was a regressor? Granted, she was astute. She always hid her power, weaknesses, and even her strengths whenever possible. However, if she'd never known a regressor existed and genuinely thought her 5th-cycle life was her only one, then...?

– G̴̛̝̊r̸̥̘̈́r̵̩̪̓͊r̶̢̤̎o̵͍̟͘o̵̹͊o̴̥͊͆ͅó̴͉͝o̴̼͌̆ò̸̖ơ̸̪̍͜a̵̘̎̊ä̷̫̣́̒r̸̳͇̈́̑!̶̣͇̂

Then perhaps she would have revealed her true might while fighting off Ten Legs's invasion, showing the entire world the depth of her Aura as she sliced through those tentacle monsters with a single blow.

"Vice Guild Leader, look out!"

But that's not what she did. She chose to die, throwing herself into the jaws of a monster far weaker than she was, almost like suicide.

Why?

"Next cycle..."

She wanted a promise from the regressor.

"Your Excellency... promise..."

Yes.

By chance, in that 5th cycle, I had personally revealed my identity as a regressor. Thanks to that, Ji-won managed to hide her full strength until the very end. Indeed, she succeeded in never revealing it. She could've called it sheer luck.

But what about the 6th cycle? Or the 7th? The 8th?

Could she keep withholding her power all the way to the end of those future lives too? If she had never learned that man was the regressor, might she accidentally expose her own threat level before him?

That was exactly what the silver-haired psychopath dreaded most. It would be a fate worse than death itself.

Yu Ji-won agonized over it. She did the math and acted accordingly.

"Next cycle... Your Excellency, promise..."

And so, she decided to "throw away" the 5th cycle.

She needed the regressor's trust, no matter the cost of any minor side concerns. Only one promise mattered. So long as the next cycle's Yu Ji-won could be assured that Undertaker = Regressor, she could keep her claws hidden indefinitely. Thus, she would sacrifice her life in this cycle, and in exchange, she'd gain hundreds more cycles of survival.

A formula of life and death. Once that equation balanced out, she, Yu Ji-won, could gain an almost infinite return on investment.

Mathematically speaking, it was outrageous. Good grief, trading one single death for dozens or hundreds of guaranteed futures? Only a fool wouldn't take that deal.

Not dying would have been the foolish choice, so she was all too willing to die. She bet her life like a poker chip, risking it all in a single round of high-stakes gambling.

"I see. I understand that you claim to be a regressor, and that you possess the ability known as Time Seal."

And it worked.

"Damn it, I even know you killed someone when you were fifteen and dumped the body in a minari swamp on Mt. Bukhansan. Believe me, you psycho!"

"Oh."

At that instant—the moment she saw the man before her, who claimed to be a regressor, and heard about this "last will and testament" that her previous cycle supposedly left behind—Ji-won understood. She had never once met or spoken to that older version of herself, yet with that single clue, she deduced everything.

"Understood. I will come with you."

This man was a regressor.

This man had once been her superior.

He was—

"The last cycle's me eventually left this place and ended up joining your guild, yes? If I'm going to leave anyway, I might as well head over sooner rather than later so I can rise through the ranks faster."

"D-don't come, you creep! Screw off!"

He never saw through her true nature.

All that information about him being a regressor was just surface-level. The critical fact that the previous cycle's Ji-won had "successfully kept a secret" remained hidden.

So the 6th cycle's Yu Ji-won, the 7th's, the 70th's, even the 700th's... They would keep passing along that baton in an endless relay.

Thus did the poker-faced, silver-haired psychopath become a parasite on the regressor's timeline.

Occasionally, the regressor took a "vacation." During those so-called vacation cycles, he would still hang out with his companions and thus often upheld Ji-won's final request. However, every now and then, he severed all ties from the start, forging a new path alone. In those cases, Ji-won never obtained the info about her previous cycle's last testament from me.

Which might explain this:

This shop's coffee is top-tier!

—Samcheon World, Dang Seo-rin

The Sword Marquess of Yuldoguk

Thanks for all the good times. Lee Ju-ho.

My sincerest gratitude. But no matter how I think about it, the store's name and the clerks' shirts are kind of odd. Are you a member of the Red Army?

—Uehara Shino

Visiting on a school trip! Baekhwa Girls' High ♡ May our love last 10,000 miles forever

—Cheon Yo-hwa (天寥化)

Damn, the road here is too rough. Nearly died lugging the wine bottles over.

—NDH

Long live the Sixth International!

—Sim Ah-ryeon

If you had just sold me one carton of cigarettes, you'd've been the GOAT... Y

Your first customer.

For example, back in the 90th cycle, that time I opened a Sixth International convenience store, Ji-won was nowhere to be found.

In hindsight, it was strange. Surely she was active as a member of Samcheon World. Yet she never once visited that convenience store, the hottest spot for Awakeners. Everyone else came by—the Sword Marquess, Uehara Shino, even Noh Do-hwa despite her trust issues—yet there wasn't a single trace of Yu Ji-won.

Maybe the moment she confirmed Mr. Matiz wasn't in Korea, she left for Japan, or China, or even farther.

'All to keep her promise.'

I let out a bark of laughter that was somewhere between amazed and bitter.

'That's truly absurd... but it fits her. No wonder she was once the regressor's adjutant.'

Just like me, my silver-haired adjutant possessed a singular, infinite determination that fueled her through seemingly endless time.

"We've arrived."

The car came to a stop. Ji-won climbed out first and opened an umbrella, then she opened my rear door for me—a courtesy fit for a VIP.

"Please step out," she requested.

Rain pelted down outside. "Here?"

"Yes."

Looking up at the sky, I could see fleeting glimpses of a great dark shape in the swirling black clouds, probably Leviathan's silhouette. Yet even in that downpour, I recognized the scenery with ease.

"This is a familiar neighborhood, isn't it?"

We stood along a run-down hillside. Half-collapsed villas, a supermarket sign left on the ground. Dilapidated tile-roofed houses and small apartment buildings clinging like poisonous mushrooms along the slope, their expiry date long past. It was a shantytown that once barely survived on the warmth of the people living there and that now lay deserted as a habitat for bugs and rainfall.

Yes, this place...

"This is my home. And yours," I answered. "I left here seven years ago, saying I was going to tutor the children of local aristocrats. Have you been by since?"

"No. This is my first time."

"I see."

Ji-won popped open the trunk. Inside were raincoats and the items she'd looted from the convenience store. "Let's carry them in."

"All right."

Without further conversation, we carried the supplies inside as our clothes got damp from the rain. We could have used Aura to keep the raindrops off, but both of us chose to stick with umbrellas instead.

Surprisingly, the front door to the third-floor villa still worked. Actually, the building was practically the only structure in the ghostly hillside that wasn't wrecked by time.

5555.

I punched in a familiar code and stepped inside, with Ji-won following behind, dripping with rainwater. I stepped onto the yellowish floorboards and looked around.

"Where's your grandmother?"

"She passed away six months ago."

"...I see."

"I mummified her and stored her in the bedroom wardrobe. You may offer your respects if you like."

"Are you crazy?"

"I'm just a filial granddaughter."

When she lifted a corner of the floorboards, a secret storage space appeared, clearly packed with extensive supplies.

"Huh, so the building never collapsed?"

"It partially did, but I repaired it," she replied. "Fortunately, the old man downstairs had evacuated, so there was no neighborhood dispute to worry about."

"Was it a neighborly homicide?"

"Please wait a moment here."

She busied herself for a while. Before long, a delicious aroma drifted in from the kitchen along with her voice.

"It's ready. Dinner."

The spread on the table was hardly luxurious, yet more than splendid enough. She'd cooked using a portable gas burner and limited stock from long-frozen ingredients, but no one could have guessed it was the apocalypse from the quality of the meal.

I clamped my mouth shut, then opened it once more. "Thanks for the food."

"Yes. Let's eat."

Chopsticks and spoons clinked together.

Outside the window, Leviathan's rain continued to fall in pitter-pattering streams. Water-bugs latched onto the glass, writhing softly.

Yet as we ate like this, it felt unreal that civilization had already collapsed.

"So then," said Ji-won from across the table, "how was it, living tens of thousands of years?"

"...It was tough. No cakewalk."

"Want to die together tonight?"

The rain drummed outside. "No."

"I see."

Warm, freshly cooked rice sent up steam mingled with the scent of pork.

"Did I... kill a lot of people?"

"You did."

"Was I a competent subordinate?"

"...Unparalleled."

"Did you sacrifice your life for me?"

"...More than once."

"I see."

Clink.

The child who first tried her hand at cooking at age fourteen. The neighbor girl who would pack leftovers for me, saying she miscalculated portions.

Now, the meal we shared was nearly flawless.

She'd always been good at anything she tried.

"To defeat or weaken Leviathan is simple. I'm sure you've already realized it, Mr. Matiz."

"...We'd have to give up Aura. We can't use it at all."

"Yes."

Clink. Squirm.

A single water-bug had crawled up the table leg, presumably following us in from outside. Ji-won squashed it under a napkin with a firm press. Croooak! The water-bug popped like a frog.

"In the end, Leviathan only grew this powerful because of you, Mr. Matiz. If you were to give up Aura yourself, and refrain from spreading your Aura training method to other Awakeners, Leviathan would calm down... In other words, no matter what plan you cook up, as long as you, and countless others, keep relying on Aura, Leviathan will never weaken."

Rattle.

"Don't use it. Don't depend on it. Don't get addicted. Refuse to become a cultist of that monster god... That's all there is to it."

Something was being rattled.

"It's also the simplest strategy in the world."

'And the hardest.'

I silently sipped the hot seaweed soup.

'Give up... Aura.'

Thump.

Rain battered my heart.

The sounds of water-bugs crawling on the window seemed to wriggle through my veins.

'Humans must renounce the easiest way to gain power. They must ban themselves from using Aura.'

For me, that was akin to being told to cast aside my sharpest sword, the paddle blade that had helped me navigate so many rough waters to get here.[1] Because apparently, that blade had never been a fine blade at all.

It was a cursed demonic sword... A warped and twisted weapon.

'Was Aura... just a drug all along?'

I'd thought of it as my lifeline. Ever since I lost Old Man Scho, I believed it was the reason a mere support-class like me could still fight on my own. But if I stopped and thought about it rationally, it was obvious that Aura was something beyond the scope of normal human powers.

Then—

"Maybe," I said unconsciously.

"Pardon?"

"Maybe to truly prevent the end of the world, we'll have to abandon not only Aura, but all superhuman abilities, one by one."

Suddenly, like a turbulent current, intense emotion surged inside me. It was hard to describe. Excitement, maybe? The water-bugs that had seemed to swarm in my veins were driven back by the pulse of my bloodstream, that bright red tide coursing from head to toe like an electric jolt.

'Yes. Starting with the Tutorial Fairy.'

Then Ten Legs.

Then Meteor Shower.

Then Udumbara.

Then Butterfly Effect.

Inunaki.

Trolley Dilemma.

UFO aliens.

The Hollow.

City Devourers.

Monster Wave.

Infinite Void.

Nut.

Infinite Metagame.

Leviathan.

'And every Outer God that still hides in the shadows. Without Aura, relying only on human power.'

It would feel awkward at first. We might slip into using Aura at times. We'd often need powers. But we'd try our best to hold back.

Step by step, we'll erase inhuman abilities from this world. We won't rely on demonic artifacts. Instead, we'll turn the Anomalies themselves against each other. We'll leverage this towering edifice of knowledge gathered over tens of thousands of years.

'With nothing but these two hands, we'll hunt down every last Anomaly.'

That was the only method.

A hidden route to the hidden ending.

It was the single precarious trail that might lead to truly saving this world, one you could only reach after near-infinite tries. A decisive formula that rejected the Outer Gods' manipulations and proved that this world could stand on its own two feet.

Feeling my blood boil, I thought, 'Is it possible? Really possible?'

And I answered myself.

'Yes. Absolutely.'

So I steeled my resolve.

Thus, in the 777th cycle, a massive turning point had arrived in my long journey as a regressor.[2]

Footnotes:

[1] A paddle's blade can be used to create stability when crossing a river by triangulating with the river bottom. This technique helps keep the paddle fixed to the river bottom, which allows the wader to move laterally in the water. What Undertaker means here is to give up on his weapon which got him through thick and thin.

[2] The number 7 is associated with good luck and prosperity in Korean culture.