IR 73 - The Terror of Option

The Regressor I

When do you all experience déjà vu?

Is it when the sunlight pours down on the street, causing the asphalt's outline to crumble into a hazy mirage?

Is it when a red peony falls, its petals scattering in every direction?

Is it when you climb the stairs of some old public office or school, only to find the hallway completely empty?

I will confess first. I, the Undertaker, experience déjà vu 24 hours a day, for all 1,440 minutes and 86,400 seconds.

『Oppa, please wake up. It's morning.』

『...Hey. I'm genuinely curious. Why do you insist on that same greeting every single morning? I'm already awake, you know.』

『I'm sorry, brother, but I have my own aesthetic principles. They say learning begins by imitating the masterpieces.』

『?』

Therefore, even when a scene that should have been a 'nonexistent memory' suddenly flowed by like a dream, and even when an intense sense of déjà vu washed over me, I was not particularly flustered.

I was used to the feeling.

Of course, perhaps it was not simply a matter of familiarity.

Squeeze.

The warmth of Go Yuri, who was holding my hand tightly beside me, soothed my heart.

"This place is..."

"As you can see. It's the time when we were siblings."

"Is this inside your dream? Did you invite me into your dream?"

"No, Guild Leader. For beings like us, there is no such thing as a 'dream'. There is only a void I artificially created in imitation of a dream, a place called the 'world of unconsciousness'."

"You too…?"

"Yes. We are already anomalies. We only imitate humans, love humans, and act for the sake of humans."

"..."

The scenery before my eyes transformed rapidly.

The landscapes scattered into pieces, each flowing at its own arbitrary speed. Each one held a lifetime of Go Yuri, contained within frames made not of space, but of time.

That's right. The two of us were walking alone through an exhibition hall titled 'Her'.

"The 'red flesh' that you occasionally witnessed, Guild Leader, is the conclusion where my identity as an anomaly completely devoured my identity as a human."

"The conclusion."

"Yes. It's because I lost my family every time I was reincarnated. Because I wanted to become someone precious to them again. It is a mass of flesh, consumed by desire, that merely struggles to become 'one' with whatever it comes across."

Go Yuri murmured.

"My ugly and filthy end. An anomaly known by the name of Reincarnator. A forgotten god of false happiness."

"..."

"Everyone swallowed by the red flesh remembers me and becomes my family. Within the flesh, they each dream their own separate dreams of being with me for all eternity."

Then, something came to mind.

"That's just like my ability, [Time Seal]."

"That's correct."

Hehe, Go Yuri let out a small laugh.

"You, Guild Leader, can only grant people a single day of happiness. But I can make them dream of their happiest lifetime, an entire life spent with the one being who filled the emptiness in their heart more than anyone else and made their life happier."

"A superior version, is it?"

"Perhaps."

The scenery within the frames changed again.

In those scenes, the 'Go Yuris' were continuously dying. After becoming someone's precious person, they would deliberately orchestrate the most harsh and miserable deaths for themselves.

"Guild Leader. You may have noticed by now, but my 'human self' barely exists anymore."

"..."

"Even now, Guild Leader, you are taking the countless, echoing screams from thousands upon thousands of paths, and from within that noise, you are barely managing to connect words and sentences to create 'my voice'."

It was true.

"Every human is like that to me."

"Yes. I'm happy. That you continue to treat me as a human even after knowing what I am now."

Go Yuri smiled brightly.

"It was because I knew you were that kind of person that I decided to entrust myself to you."

"Entrust yourself?"

"Hup."

There was no answer.

Instead, there was a hand pushing me.

Into the frame of a dream within a dream. Into that well of the abyss, where Go Yuri's lifetimes were swirling in pieces.

"…?!"

It was a blow I took while completely off guard.

I desperately reached out my hand. Though I had already been pushed and had fallen into the massive frame, I somehow succeeded in grabbing its edge.

Just like a castaway hanging precariously from the edge of a cliff.

"You…?!"

"Ahaha. You were fooled, Guild Leader. This is the price for neglecting the precious people around you and letting your heart be captivated by an anomaly like me."

Unlike me, who had tumbled completely inside the frame, Go Yuri was looking down at me from above.

Smiling cheerfully. In a squatting posture.

"You could have chosen to subjugate me after hearing my story, Guild Leader. You could have treated me as a monster, then simply urged me to commit suicide by getting infected with Udumbara."

"..."

"You're a greedy one, Guild Leader. But I don't dislike that kind of greed."

It makes me feel a sense of kinship.

Go Yuri added.

She reached out her hand and began to peel my fingers off the edge of the frame.

One by one. One by one.

"You can still back out now, you know? If you fall into my dream like this, truly, truly terrible things will unfold."

"...'No matter what happens,' is what my past self swore. For what it's worth, I pride myself on being a man who keeps his promises."

A smile lingered on Go Yuri's lips.

She lowered her head.

"You are even more foolish than I am."

My ring finger, the last one clinging to the frame, was gently bitten between Go Yuri's front and bottom teeth—and she pulled it away.

"Have a good trip."

With those last words, I fell into the abyss.

My surroundings grew dark. Rapidly. The only light was from far above, seeping out from beyond the frame where Go Yuri's shadow flickered.

A small whisper echoed in the darkness.

"My precious."

And then, hell began.

Go Yuri's life unfolded.

"Ah."

The first life.

Confirming that the life of the reincarnator she had told me about in reality as a 'story' was being reproduced exactly as it was, I sensed that I was seriously screwed.

Even that castaway on Mars, who famously declared something along the lines of 'I'm screwed, and then I'm even more screwed,' would surely offer me some unwitting sympathy if he saw the situation I was in now.[1]

"You want me to live it, from the very beginning? The life she walked as a reincarnator…?"

My head felt dizzy.

The situation was so absurd that a laugh escaped my lips.

Humans often let out a laugh as a defense mechanism when faced with a disaster they can't possibly resist. Laughter was a form of human magic, as ancient as language itself.

"...A life worth hundreds of millions, billions of years. This is a problem on a whole other level than when I lived Cheon Yo-hwa's life. This is…"

"Hey, Ms. Su-yeon! What are you doing over there! The monsters will be swarming in tomorrow. Get a move on and carry those sandbags!"

"..."

A foreman at the Final Defensive Line ordered me, and I had no choice but to obey.

In an instant, that foreman achieved the feat of imprinting his authority upon a reincarnator and regressor.

'To think that the phrase, 'let's become one' meant something like this.'

The years flowed by.

Sometimes quickly. Sometimes slowly.

The end came easily and swiftly. In 'this world,' which could truly be called the first round, or rather, the round before the first round, the Final Defensive Line was breached with laughable ease.

'A world where not a single Awakener exists, aside from the reincarnator.'

What kind of hard mode was this?

The 'monsters' that pierced through the Final Defensive Line were not merely the infinite horde of the Monster Wave.

Ah———ah—ah-ah-ah———

Above the battlefield.

A single 'witch' was singing there. At a glance, she looked human, but the reality was completely different

——Ah-ah—ah—ah——ah——

What looked vaguely like a witch's hat was made of living, squirming hair.

All over her body, 'eyes' and 'fingers' bloomed and snapped off repeatedly, as she spewed forth songs stained with curses and resentment that a person's ears could not dare to contain.

I couldn't help but mutter unconsciously.

"Dang Seo-rin..."

"It's Hecate! The witch! Hecate has appeared!"

But the soldiers who participated in the battle, the civilians classified as support personnel, and the boy soldiers were different.

They did not know the name 'Dang Seo-rin'.

'Hecate?'

Just as I did not know the name of that anomaly.

"Retreat! Retreat! Don't listen to the song! You must not listen to the song!"

"Ah, ahhh..."

One of the soldiers exposed to 'Dang Seo-rin's' song suddenly opened his mouth with a blank expression. From that opening, the same rhythm as 'Dang Seo-rin's' scream began to play out a cappella.

Bang!

A discipline officer pulled out a pistol without hesitation and shot the soldier. The soldier fell immediately.

–Ah, ah, ah.

However, only the soldier's body had fallen.

The soldier's head remained, suspended by itself in 'mid-air', singing the a cappella chorus.

"Hyaaaaargh!"

A comrade next to him, horrified, swung his sword, struck the head, and sliced it off, and only then did the song stop.

"Don't listen! Do not listen! Keep muttering anything in your mouths! You bastards! Mix in some noise! Don't focus on the song!"

"Ah ah ah ah ah."

"Ah ah-ah ah-ah ah."

Bang! Bang!

The discipline officer's pistol spat out sharp reports all across the battlefield.

I, who was there as a combat support personnel, could only stand there, aghast.

The final form of 'Dang Seo-rin', called by the name Hecate, was shocking enough, but an even more detailed point struck me with horror.

'They're using guns!'

Chekhov's Gun. It was one of the anomalies that had inflicted the most damage upon humanity.

If a gun so much as appeared once, that gun would someday be used, creating a 'decisive scene'.

For most humans, the most decisive scene was a moment when their own life was on the line. In other words, if one were to use a firearm, the user's life would inevitably be put in grave danger.

'No... But, it's true. In a world this broken, they're not in a position to be picky about using firearms or anything else.'

In the first place, the soldiers seemed to know nothing about Chekhov's Gun.

'The experience points.'

They were desperately lacking.

'Strategies against the anomalies. Knowledge. No, even the Awakeners who could use that knowledge to change the tide of war... are gone.'

There was nothing.

– Ahahahahahahahaha.

At that moment, the soldiers who had just lost their heads and fallen began to rise up from all over the front line.

– Ahahahaha.

– Ahahahahahaha.

– A ha ha ha ha.

Just like zombies.

– A thing, formless yet complete.

– Born before heaven and earth.

– The way that follows nature.[2]

The resurrected zombies danced and pranced, forming their own circle dance. If their neck was broken, they chanted the Tao Te Ching with a broken neck, and if they had no head, they struck their own corpses with a sword, keeping rhythm with the surrounding zombies. You might know them as the Jiangshi.

– The way that follows nature.

– Man follows earth, earth follows heaven.

– A ha ha ha ha ha.

In an instant, dozens of circle dances formed on the battlefield. Strangely, the endlessly surging horde of monsters never touched those circle dances.

Mixed in with the other soldiers, I retreated, glancing back.

"...Yo-hwa."

In the middle of the ever-growing circle dance.

Someone dressed like a shrine maiden was there, letting out an endless stream of laughter—A ha ha ha ha—and conducting the procession of corpses.

Next to me, a soldier muttered bluntly.

"Fucking necromancer..."

"..."

"Platoon Leader. We have no more room to retreat from here. The other units are probably in a similar situation."

"For now, just evacuate the civilians."

"To where, sir?"

"Back. Unconditionally back."

"Understood."

A soldier grabbed my shoulder and pulled me.

"Go. Quickly."

"..."

I tried to hold my ground, but I was pushed away too easily by the soldier's grip.

It couldn't be helped. The current 'me' was too weak.

The moment I stepped back like that, Splash.

"…?"

I heard the sound of water.

I looked down, and a puddle had formed even though it had not rained.

No. That was not a puddle.

"Ah."

From the entire ground, the 'water level' was steadily rising.

Leviathan.

Yu Ji-won.

"..."

But the soldiers, who were busy fighting a bloody battle to hold the front, and the civilians, who were moving to the rear even as they foresaw their own deaths, paid no mind to the puddle soaking their feet.

They did not know.

The fact that this water, too, was an anomaly.

"...No way."

"What? Ms. Su-yeon?"

The foreman moving with me asked with a tired face, but I couldn't bring myself to answer him.

It wasn't as if the foreman was expecting a proper conversation either. For that to happen, even the civilians were rarely in good shape.

Humanity was exhausted.

In the face of an annihilation that offered not a sliver of hope.

Ah—ah-ah—ah———

In the sky of the battlefield, a song that tore people's sanity to shreds rang out endlessly.

A ha ha ha ha ha.

On the ground, corpses formed circles as if holes had been punched here and there, endlessly dancing a circle dance that insulted life.

Splash. Splash, splash.

And even on the ankles of the humans who retreated to escape them, an anomaly that mimicked 'water', an anomaly that mocked the most fundamental 'life' of this planet, seeped in.

No Awakeners existed.

Only the Fallen Ones, no.

Only the Outer Gods who borrowed the bodies of the Fallen existed.

"..."

That was the first cycle.

Not the epilogue, but the prologue.

Humanity's starting point.

Footnotes:

[1] Direct reference to the protagonist of Andy Weir's novel The Martian and his famous opening lines.

[2] The phrases chanted by the zombie-like soldiers are lines from the Tao Te Ching, a classic Chinese text. They are philosophical verses describing the nature of the Tao/Dao (the Way). In order, they are:

-x-X-x-

The Regressor II

The world had ended.

It was the 2,230th destruction.

'So this is the life Go Yuri has walked.'

Each time the world fell, I was born as a different person, with a different status, to a different family.

However, the landscape of ruin was always similar.

In a world where the Outer Gods sang their songs and harvested screams, where rainwater and dampness rose from the underground to soak everything, I stared blankly at the gray sky and let out a single breath.

"Ah, this isn't easy… really."

– Ah ha ha ha ha ha.

Snip. My head was severed by an anomaly.

This was a world where a regressor did not yet exist, a world that still had to endure a number of apocalypses equal to the sands of the Ganges before one could even try to exist.

It was the end of the 'first cycle,' a conclusion I had already repeated for the 2,230th time.

A regressor and a reincarnator.

What is the biggest difference between the two?

As the Undertaker, the first witness in human history to have experienced both, I could answer with confidence.

'The boundary of the self is blurry for a reincarnator.'

How should I put it?

For a reincarnator, the boundary stone between 'me' and 'others' trembled like transparent jelly.

"Um, excuse me. Leader…?"

"Yes, Ms. Sim Ah-ryeon."

"Why are you being so kind to me? O-of course, I'm grateful for the food you brought me. Really, truly grateful… But why for me?"

Take, for instance, Sim Ah-ryeon before me now.

During the nights of the One Thousand and One Nights, which already felt like a distant past, I had also experienced a 'reincarnation' where I was born as Sim Ah-ryeon's younger sister, just as Go Yuri had told me in a corner of the exhibition hall.

Perhaps that was why.

I just couldn't feel like Sim Ah-ryeon was a stranger.

"Hm. It's because you don't feel like a stranger to me."

"E-excuse me?"

"Ms. Ah-ryeon. When I look at you, I feel at ease for some reason."

A smile.

I smiled to convey my feelings just as they were.

"Uh, uhehe… W-wow. That's… kind of embarrassing."

Sim Ah-ryeon, though flustered, nibbled on the digestive cookies I had secretly brought from the stockpile, like a hamster.

And it wasn't just Sim Ah-ryeon.

"All clear."

The soldier who saluted me as I walked down the corridor of the underground bunker built on the Final Defense Line.

"Leader!"

The woman who cautiously approached to hand me a piece of fruit while I was patrolling the civilian sector.

"We have finished preparing the ship to set sail for Jeju Island. We can begin the operation anytime upon your command, Your Excellency."

The executives of the Final Defense Line with whom I held strategy meetings.

'They are all my family.'

Others did not feel like others.

And they, in turn, did not feel that I was a stranger to them.

'Ah.'

That was it.

'A regressor is ultimately an individual who endlessly relives their own single life.'

'On the other hand… a reincarnator is a being who becomes a different person each time, destined to live and interact with other people.'

Here is a hypothesis.

There is a person A and a person B. The two were originally different people.

But let's assume that one day, person A gains a strange ability. They are conceived at the exact same moment as B, are born to the same parents in the same environment, walk the same path in life, and live the exact same route.

In that case, is A a different being from B? Or are they the same person?

'You can't distinguish them.'

A reincarnator, especially an infinite one like Go Yuri, was such a being.

The inseparable one.

Her personality changed with every reincarnation. The way she treated people changed as well. It was only natural. How could one maintain the exact same personality when everything, down to their DNA, was different?

I had no choice but to accept it.

This process of becoming less of an 'I' and more of a 'we' the more I lived, the more I died.

To accept my existence as the 'Red Flesh'.

"…Ahaha. I see now."

In the deepest part of the bunker.

'I', who had already become the one and only dictator of the Human Allied Forces and the head of the Final Defense Line, muttered alone in my private room.

"It wasn't that she desired to become one. It was because they were one from the beginning, and she was simply returning to that original state."

Rumble!

At that moment, the underground bunker shook.

The meteor shower that the Outer God 'Hecate' had spread across the night sky had simultaneously bombarded the Earth's surface.

Feeling the vibrations that were literally turning the planet to ash, incomparable to any nuclear explosion, all over my body.

My current life came to an end.

The hours of destruction passed.

'Now, I think I can finally, completely understand Go Yuri's thoughts.'

I had already gone through hundreds of thousands of reincarnations.

In that time, Go Yuri must have already had a faint, yet somewhat certain conviction.

'I will one day, inevitably, transform into an anomaly.'

It was a constant.

What final conclusion this world would reach was still a mystery. Whether it would be a bad ending for humanity, a normal ending, or a happy ending they had never even dreamed of.

However, regardless of where humanity's route was destined to lead, the ending for Go Yuri, the reincarnator who was 'one person and everyone's person,' was already decided.

'The worst Outer God.'

When the 'Red Flesh' eventually arrives, people will not feel disgust. Nor will they harbor any hostility.

On the contrary, they would surely welcome it.

'A longing for a lost existence. A nostalgia for the happiest life. An end for all of humanity that is far, far happier than this hellish world…'

That kind of conclusion.

'The One.'

Despite knowing full well that such an ending awaited, the reincarnator could not stop reincarnating.

'Because the moment I stop, humanity loses its one and only chance to stand against the anomalies.'

Therefore.

'I must separate my human self from my anomaly self in advance, only then can I cleverly avoid the catastrophe foretold in the ending.'

A clear realization dawned.

'But how do I separate the [human Go Yuri]?'

It was simple.

'…If there was someone who could [remember] all the memories of my life as a human, every single sorrow and every footstep.'

Complete Memory.

'If I could find such a person. Create one. Become one with them, and make them experience a life as me—'

The Undertaker.

"…"

Myself, and at the same time, another.

"That's right."

A smile spread across my lips.

"It's what I'm doing right now."

The process of the operation.

Phase 1: Reincarnation.

Repeat reincarnations until this world becomes strong enough, until humanity can stand against the anomalies, and create awakeners.

Phase 2: Corruption.

At this point, Go Yuri is already suffering from the side effects of reincarnation to an irreversible degree.

She falls into the form of the Red Flesh and becomes 'a single Outer God' that collects all of her families, corrupting into The One.

Phase 3: Murder.

In that state, spray Go Yuri with the [Udumbara] virus. Eliminate the ability of reincarnation.

Furthermore, use [Time Seal] to completely erase the existence known as Go Yuri from this world.

Phase 4: Replacement.

However, the memories and experiences of Go Yuri's life as a human are transferred directly to the 'regressor' Undertaker.

The Undertaker possesses Complete Memory. Even if he experiences hundreds of millions, or billions of reincarnations, he can still maintain his humanity, and remember.

Thus, the regressor Undertaker, having experienced the entirety of the Reincarnator Go Yuri's life...

'Can remain a Go Yuri who is more human than Go Yuri herself, an even more human Go Yuri.'

Shudder.

My shoulders trembled.

A light thrill.

'From a being fated to become an Outer God to save humanity… I will remove the parts that have been corrupted into an anomaly, and leave only the humanity.'

Like a rocket jettisoning its booster.

After eliminating the void that drags humanity into hell, restore a world where humans can live as humans.

There will be no more anomalies there.

Including the final fate of the Red Flesh, the reincarnator herself.

"Aha."

What a magnificent plan.

What an… elaborate suicide.

'Go Yuri, and at the same time, the Undertaker.'

'The Undertaker, and at the same time, Go Yuri.'

Indeed.

'The declaration to become one was not an empty boast.'

Now, only one question remained.

'And so, I, who will inherit all of the memories and personality of the reincarnator Go Yuri, and also continue to possess the existence of the regressor Undertaker…'

In a world where humanity has finally achieved victory, how should I live?

"…"

I didn't know.

There was no way to know.

Because even the reincarnator and the regressor, who had lived countless lives, had never lived a life 'after the happy ending.'

An unknown territory.

"…For now, I must focus on living out Go Yuri's lives."

After all, that in itself was no easy task.

As I spoke my monologue, the surface world was once again turned to ash by Hecate, the price for failing to control the variables this time.

The 93,248,578th death.

The 93,248,579th life.

'What if I try to reverse my thinking?'

Hecate was brutally powerful.

To not only command all the celestial bodies of the solar system as if they were her own limbs but also to be able to summon a meteor shower at any time and call down a meteor strike. The power balance was insane.

'But the me of now can construct a strategy with much more flexible thinking.'

Because I had lived as Go Yuri.

Because she was the very person who had worried more than anyone about her own future of falling into an anomaly and how to pass on her human self, I was able to reach a certain idea.

'I'll deceive Hecate.'

If I deceive her, then how?

'By making her mistake herself for a human!'

A shocking reversal of perspective.

It was an idea that, had the other reincarnated selves heard it, they would have clapped their hands wildly, saying, she's crazy, isn't she insane.

'Hecate is, in the end, a shooting star.'

'That's why Hecate has the property of responding to people's wishes. Let's use this property.'

'By selecting one [sacrifice] who wishes to live as a human and die as a human more than anyone else.'

A sacrifice.

Later, the term would be changed to 'miko' because it sounded bad, but to be perfectly honest, the term 'sacrifice' was more fitting.

'Make that sacrifice wish. If I can make them pray to the stars in the sky, to let them live as a human and die as a human…'

'Wouldn't that work?'

My heart pounded.

'That terrifying Outer God. Hecate. I'll make her mistake and misunderstand herself as a mere human, and what's more, make her believe it herself!'

It was a kind of experiment.

Go Yuri, I, feared the conclusion of becoming an anomaly more than anyone. So it was only natural to attempt the humanization of an anomaly.

"Who would be most suitable as the sacrifice?"

Go Yuri thought.

'…'

I, the Undertaker, living the life of Go Yuri, could already guess the conclusion of this project.

"The desire to live as a human is an exceptionally tricky one. Ordinary people don't really feel such a desire. Hmm. On the contrary, when does one become captivated by such a peculiar desire…"

It would be when their humanity has been desecrated.

"They would have to be brutally killed by an anomaly."

And they couldn't die instantly.

"As slowly as possible. Yes. They must die slowly, so they can fully realize what an insulting death they will meet."

Dying alone would not be enough.

"Ah. And their family must also die in the same way. Because sometimes, people become more enraged by what happens to their family than by what happens to them."

The candidate for the sacrifice must be a more brilliant human than anyone.

"It must be someone who lives with a more harmonious family than anyone. From now on, whenever I reincarnate, I must always remember this point. If I see an angle, I'll attempt it."

…

"Hmm, this person is a little."

…

"This person too. A failure. As I thought, perhaps the human heart is bound to flow more towards simply wanting to get stronger and take revenge, rather than the desire to survive as a human."

…

"Ah."

…

"Found her."

Dang Seo-rin.

"Her taste is… Harry Potter? That's perfect. As it happens, Hecate's manifested form resembles a witch. Hmm. I think the compatibility will be good!"

I see.

"Now let's set up the plan. I'll aim for a reincarnation where I am born as the youngest in that person's family, and pioneer a route."

So that's how it was.

"I'm confident in my ability to die tragically. The only question is whether Hecate will fall for my trap—"

Time passed.

"Success!"

Go Yuri cheered.

"Success…. It's a success! My god. No way. I… I did it! Ahhh, ah! I! I! Hecate! That, that cursed Outer God of the night sky! The destruction that masqueraded as merely granting humanity's wishes! I! Ahhhhh!"

Go Yuri lamented.

"I… did it. Everyone. Mom. Dad. Everyone! I…. N-no, it's not. Now. I must research the methodology more thoroughly, so that this miraculous route can be reproduced again."

Dang Seo-rin was already a dead existence.

The Lesser Anomaly known as 'Nut' that I knew was merely a remnant of the shattered pieces of the Outer God Hecate.

The living hell where the night sky would unfold and a meteor shower would fall whenever a human, consciously or unconsciously, made a wish, was no more.

Now, only a void meteorite would occasionally fall to the surface on a cycle of 7 years, or 1 year at the shortest.

Compared to the hell that Hecate had created, a meteorite 'or something' that fell here and there like a regular event was nothing.

"Ah. Hmm…. I see. The fact that the family runs a flower shop was an absolutely essential condition. It makes sense. A state where the family's dream has come true would be far more ideal and fitting for a harmonious scene. This is a problem I can always solve by secretly manipulating the variables."

Time passed.

"The wish only becomes stronger when Ms. Dang Seo-rin has at least two younger siblings. A sense of responsibility as an older sister? I'm not sure… but this is also fixed."

Time passed.

"—It's done."

Time passed.

"June 15th. The family of Ms. Dang Seo-rin, who runs a flower shop in Busan, will be massacred. The family composition will be as it is. Ms. Dang Seo-rin will die last. Wonderful."

The reincarnator had pioneered the route.

"From now on, no matter who I am born as, or what life I live, I must absolutely make this 'June 15th' incident happen."

Dang Seo-rin's death was confirmed.

"…"

The reincarnator, Go Yuri, felt a slight sense of unease for some reason.

It wasn't a feeling of guilt towards Dang Seo-rin. Feelings like apology were like the wallpaper that constantly lined her heart.

"Aha."

Rather than that.

"So now, no matter what person I reincarnate as, I must… absolutely protect the timeline related to Ms. Dang Seo-rin?"

The route was fixed.

The reincarnator's schedule, which had been virtually free to do anything, had become bound by a slight lack of freedom, as if wrapped in a weak chain.

Just as a certain regressor's calendar had been packed solid for a full seven years.

That was the source of the discomfort.

"…Hmm. Well, if it can prevent Hecate's living hell, it's a price I must naturally pay."

The reincarnator treated the light chains on her wrists and ankles as a trivial obstacle, no.

Rather, she treated them as a medal for the great achievement of tearing apart the Outer God Hecate.

And…

"…"

Splash.

Go Yuri looked down at her feet.

Leather boots. Because Go Yuri knew full well that what looked like a puddle was in fact the blood of an Outer God, and because she hated to be touched by even a single drop of muddy water, she always wore leather boots.

"Leviathan…"

Looking at her reflection in the puddle, Go Yuri's, my lips, muttered.

"Couldn't I offer a sacrifice for this one too, in the same way?"

Clink. Clank.

It seemed as though the sound of chains could be heard from somewhere.

-x-X-x-

The Regressor III

Clank.

I infiltrated the cult and adjusted the timeline so that the 'Cheon Yo-hwa' twins would be born.

After the twins were born, I periodically approached them and influenced their way of thinking.

So they would function as sacrifices offered to an Outer God, yet still yearn to be free humans.

This route required 13,160 lives.

Clank.

The separation of the Outer God Taeguk was complete.

The Outer God could no longer manifest its original form or exert its power. This phenomenon, in which an Outer God was alienated from its own self, was concisely named an Outer God.

This route required 214,734 lives.

Clank, creak.

I grasped the nature of the Outer God, Monster Wave. It was a legion that endlessly swallowed death to expand itself.

From this anomaly, I separated the 'ability to endlessly recover,' the so-called 'Heal' ability. Severed it. Made it independent. I separately conceived an anomaly called 'Udumbara.'

This route required 3,478,238 lives.

"…"

I looked down at my own hands.

"There isn't enough time."

One might ask how a being who is both a reincarnator and a teleporter could be short on time, but it was the truth.

'A newly reincarnated life, at its longest, is only about 40 years. Usually, it's between 20 and 30 years.'

'In a mere 30 years, I have to implement every single strategy I've uncovered so far into reality.'

There was a limit to being overworked.

'On Monday, I have to infiltrate the cult and gain the trust of the leader as a follower. On Tuesday, I need to go to Turkey and lay the groundwork so that Monster Wave and Udumbara can be separated…'

'On Wednesday, it's tutoring for the Cheon Yo-hwa sisters again. I have to cancel Seo Gyu's trip to Japan so he doesn't get caught in an accident. And if I leave things alone, Noh Do-hwa will die in a traffic accident next Thursday.'

And, and, and.

"I can't save everyone."

The butterfly effect of the optimal route.

When I, when Go Yuri, chose a specific route, it affected the world in one way or another.

As a consequence, children who would have been born in other routes were not born in the current one.

Like Jeong Seo-ah.

"…I have to discard what must be discarded."

I had to save what must be saved.

And so, it was decided that tens of billions of beings who once were, and could have been, born on this earth would be erased from history.

"…"

Then one day, when I encountered the Monster Wave, I was faced with a bizarre scene.

– Ugh, uh, uh, uh, uh.

– Su-yeon unni! It's me, unni!

– So there you were?

The Monster Wave, a mixture of the dead.

And there, I saw the faces of people who had certainly never been born in the current timeline, my younger siblings and relatives.

"Ah."

I let out a bitter smile.

The candidates who had been dropped from the reincarnator's ark of time. The traces of past lives.

"So those people also appear as anomalies."

No wonder.

I had thought that the number of anomalies was greater than the number of humans.

Now I saw that even the lives from past incarnations that failed to be born in the 'current world' were turning into anomalies.

"The more I repeat this life, the number of souls falling into that procession of the dead will grow exponentially."

But if I quit reincarnating, the probability of humanity's victory itself would become slim.

Could there be a shittier game than this?

"Ah, this shitty game! I'm not playing!"

Whoosh.

A girl threw her gaming console. She was the girl who had become my older sister in this reincarnation.

Her name was Oh Dok-seo.

"Unni."

I said gently.

"That console is expensive, you really regretted it last time when you threw it and it broke."

"I don't care! It's not fun!"

Little Oh Dok-seo threw a tantrum.

I laughed emptily in my heart.

'My god. To think the day would come when I'd be born as Oh Dok-seo's younger sibling.'

Regardless of my thoughts, the work Go Yuri had once undertaken proceeded as planned.

"Hey! Read this!"

Oh Dok-seo had a talent. A talent for writing.

"Ah, damn it. Why isn't anyone reading this…!"

Oh Dok-seo had no talent. She had no talent for selling her writing.

"It's because your writing always makes the characters miserable, they only interact through twisted emotions, things don't get better even when they do interact, and in the end, they all fall to ruin together?"

"Th-that's what makes it good! That's it!"

"I guess it's not to people's taste."

"Hmph."

If Go Yuri had not been born as her younger sister.

That is, if the reincarnator did not exist in the world.

Oh Dok-seo would have given up her dream of being a writer around the age of 20. Despite preferring works that were darkly twisted, the person Oh Dok-seo herself was not that gloomy.

Decent social skills. Quick-witted. Above all, the tenacity to see her tasks through to the end.

She would have found a job that suited her and continued her life as a reader, simply enjoying works that fit her niche hobby.

"But I like it. Your writing, unni."

"Huh?"

"Your writing. When I read it, it's so transparent, it feels like I'm looking at beautifully carved ice."

"…"

But Oh Dok-seo's life was twisted.

It was decisively altered from the moment she met Go Yuri, the reincarnator, me.

"R-really? Then… Should I submit it to a contest?"

"Yes! Unni. I'll help you as your most dependable reader and editor!"

"Uh, oh. Um, uh…. Okay!"

Oh Dok-seo had a younger sibling.

"Wow! This character, the Count, is amazing! Hmm. For sure. There's a cliché in novels that a beautiful girl deserves to be saved, but this novel asks if that cliché can be ethically permissible when pushed to its absolute limit! That's the theme."

"Ah, uh-huh. Yeah… That's right."

Her sibling was so beautiful and kind, and so smart, that she understood the lines Oh Dok-seo wrote exactly as Oh Dok-seo intended—or perhaps even more deeply and broadly than Oh Dok-seo's own desires.

"Unni, I also love the parts in your novel where you describe the scenery! Hmm, it's like the objects are alive and squirming like tentacles."

"T-tentacles?"

"Yes. In the novel, the characters are like dead objects, and the objects are like living characters. Describing them that way adds a special flavor to the reading experience!"

"Oh…. Y-you really get it."

Her sibling was so considerate that she elevated the 'techniques' Oh Dok-seo had attempted, consciously or unconsciously, in her writing style into a firm 'method.'

It was simple advice from a being who was both a reincarnator and a regressor.

And it was more than enough advice to sharpen the tip of a young child's pen.

Oh Dok-seo was rejected from the first contest. But there were five hundred readers in the world who were disappointed by her rejection, genuinely disappointed.

It was a feat accomplished at the tender age of 14.

"Unni. Don't you think this sentence would have more flavor if you fix it like this?"

"Ooh! You're right! Kyaaa, as expected of my little sister. There's really no editor like you."

"It's because your writing is beautiful, unni. I can't help but get interested and keep looking into it."

"Hee-heehee! You're so sweet with your words, too! Hwaa, how did such a pretty sister get born into my family…? My friends' siblings seem totally different. I'm the chosen one…"

"Ahaha."

Oh Dok-seo's talent began to bloom.

Oh Dok-seo became happy.

The flower that had never been able to bloom in other timelines, in hundreds of millions of past lives, blossomed magnificently under the care of the reincarnator-regressor.

Oh Dok-seo became happy.

Her work was published. The desolation melted into Oh Dok-seo's lines was a potent poison, but humanity's stomach had always been good at gulping down even opium and mercury, calling them medicine.

She became famous in an instant.

An older high school sister as the author and her younger sister as the editor, I mean, what kind of crazy combination was that?

It was a combination that reporters, if they were in their right minds, couldn't possibly ignore.

The conscientious reporters who did raise an issue, asking if they weren't exposing the children to the media too much, were gifted with single-digit page views for the day.

"Ms. Author!"

"Praise me more."

"Legendary Writer-nim!"

"More."

"The grace and blessing of humanity in this era, to whom Shakespeare is but a mere mortal, the Great Author Oh Dok-seo-nim!"

"Uhehe."

Author Oh Dok-seo produced a great number of readers.

Among them, there were three stalker fans who could be definitively labeled as villains.

The three were originally separate individuals who would have never crossed paths.

But for some reason, perhaps because someone had adjusted the 'route,' the three met. And upon meeting, they realized they could share their own evil.

"Huh?"

Evil was fast.

Perhaps if evil hadn't been so fast, the world would never have become like this.

"My… sister?"

She lacked a sense of caution.

It was because of the whispers of someone who had always grown up right beside her.

"Th-that's… a lie, right?"

The criminal group of three stormed the author's home.

But 'by chance,' the author was not at home. 'By chance,' the beautiful younger sister, who had been widely reported in all media as having lived as an irreplaceable reader and editor since childhood, was at home.

A bit of coercion. Resistance. An argument. Insults.

The criminals lost their reason at the provocations that seemed to pierce right through all three of their psyches and subconscious minds.

And so, Oh Dok-seo lost her sister.

"…"

Oh Dok-seo lost her only editor. She lost a teacher who was younger than her. She lost a friend. She lost a family member who would always play new games with her when they were released.

Oh Dok-seo lost the very first reader of her writing.

By the hands of the readers of the outside world who had made her happy, by anonymous readers.

"…"

Oh Dok-seo should have stopped writing.

However, Oh Dok-seo's resentment was far too complex. To hate the novel itself, the most precious being to her was also connected to the novel.

She resented the readers. But to resent the readers, the most precious being to her was also a reader.

She didn't want to write.

But she knew that only while she was writing did her sister's trace remain in her sentences.

Oh Dok-seo's soul was torn.

A gap formed in her torn soul.

It was a gap like a ravine.

This world is made of wind, and each and every human is a ravine hanging on the edge of a cliff, so whenever the wind blows, a unique scream rings out from the crumpled place on the cliff.

That scream was called an Awakening.

"Hey, you."

"…?"

To Oh Dok-seo, writing was a wound. And Oh Dok-seo came to regard beings she could only meet through that wound as true humans.

The reason was simple.

"You're my sister, right?"

"…"

Because the most precious person to her was always found not in her current life, but in the lines of an epilogue that had already passed.

"How…?"

"I can read it. It's a completely absurd story. But for some reason, when I read it, I can feel that this really happened."

Even though they had never met in this life, the other person was staring at me with conviction.

"What are you?"

"…"

Go Yuri had been flustered.

I, too, was flustered.

'Didn't Dok-seo originally read my life story as a novel? But… at first, she read Go Yuri's story, not mine?'

I was about to ask myself why when I suddenly realized.

'Ah.'

The Admin of the Infinite Metagame.

The Outer God that must have squeezed into the gap created in Oh Dok-seo's soul.

'From the very beginning, that The Admin of the Infinite Metagame thing… confessed that it couldn't distinguish between Go Yuri and me.'

A cold chill ran up the back of my neck.

'Just like, the me of now.'

'Is Go Yuri, and at the same time—'

'The Undertaker who has inherited Go Yuri's dream, her humanity.'

If so, then naturally.

'Dok-seo can read not only the life story of the Undertaker but also the life story of Go Yuri, earlier than anyone, like a prophet.'

Not right now.

Oh Dok-seo's prophetic ability was slow.

The Oh Dok-seo staring at me now had only read the connection from a past life, the timeline where we were born as family just once, as a 'novel.'

'But…. if enough time passes?'

She would be able to read all of these events as a story.

No.

She would one day be able to seal all of these events in the form of a story.

-x-X-x-

The Regressor IV

Tick.

The time had come.

The time was finally ripe to pose a certain question to all of you, a question that I had kept endlessly hidden throughout this entire story.

Who is the 'I' in this story?

You all have likely considered 'I' to be the 'Undertaker' this whole time. That was only natural, since the Undertaker was the protagonist.

However, at the same time, you are all aware that the one who refined the Undertaker's tale into written sentences was, in the end, 'Oh Dok-seo'.

– Writer: Undertaker.

– Editor: Oh Dok-seo.

If the agreement Oh Dok-seo and I had made beforehand had actually been carried out, our respective roles would have been revealed right from the novel's description.

In this story, 'I' was the Undertaker.

And, at the same time, 'I' was also Oh Dok-seo all along.

Every story is an imitation of a dream. It was the act of dreaming a dream someone else had, but in the form of a book.

Just as I was currently dreaming Go Yuri's dream, Oh Dok-seo was peeking into the dream of the regressor known as me.

"Dok-seo."

"What's this, why the sudden change in your tone."

"There is something I must tell you right now."

I firmly grasped both of Oh Dok-seo's hands.

She flinched, startled. As the one experiencing Go Yuri's reincarnation, I was the young daughter of a European noble family in this life.

But I cast aside the speech patterns of this life. I cast aside its facial expressions too. For the first time, I completely ignored the rule of strictly adhering to the reincarnation of 'Go Yuri'.

"Uh, huh?"

"You probably won't understand right away. But, someday, you will inevitably read my diary in the form of a novel."

"I've already read that..."

"No."

I shook my head.

"Living as your younger sibling was, from my perspective, no different from an extremely brief flicker. I will spend hundreds of lives with you, and I will spend billions of lives without you."

"..."

"I am living this present moment to console a certain lonely person."

I told her the story.

It was a very long story, but I knew Oh Dok-seo well, and I also knew how to prepare the tale in a form she could easily digest.

It took several weeks for Oh Dok-seo to devour the entire story, suffer from indigestion, and finally, with difficulty, open her lips.

"From me, what... are you hoping for?"

"I am in the process of carving out and severing the only humanity from the vast anomaly named Go Yuri."

Separation. Isolation.

Fundamentally, it was the same as the strategy Go Yuri had employed against the Outer Gods.

"I'm sorry, but it seems I must entrust the same task to you."

"..."

"There is no need for an anomaly called the Undertaker to exist in this world."

I said.

"He has grown too immense. He was already a being where hundreds of regressions' phantoms coexisted with every step he took. Now, billions of reincarnations are mixed in as well. For humanity to treat him as just another human, he has come too far."

"Then?"

"Please leave only the traces of the Undertaker's life as a human in this world."

That is my end.

"Go Yuri handed herself over to me. I, too, will hand myself over to you."

"..."

"Please remember the Undertaker as a mere human. Remember him as a strange man who was just a bit mentally tough, had an extraordinary memory, and liked old classics like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

That's right.

The writing process of recounting the stories one by one and embedding the character for person (者) in each subtitle was, in itself, the process of sealing the regressor known as the Undertaker.

It was a measure for someone who could fall into being an anomaly at any moment to desperately be remembered as a human.

"How you will describe me as a person. I will leave the judgment of me entirely to you."

"To me...?"

"Yes."

Go Yuri had said.

That for beings like us, the important thing is how much of yourself you are prepared to discard.

The anomalies discarded nothing.

They forced themselves upon this world. They crushed even the universe's physical laws with their own rules. The anomalies were beings who always cried out 'me', 'me', 'me'.

Therefore, the way to not become an anomaly was simple.

It was to not monopolize the way you understand yourself, but to hand it over to others as well.

Mugan stopped being an anomaly the moment I began to call her Cheon Yo-hwa. Go Yuri went beyond a name and handed her very life over to me.

"It might sound strange right now. But that's because you are, in fact, my shamaness."

I smiled and patted Oh Dok-seo's shoulder.

"Gods exist to be swayed by their shamanesses."

"..."

With this, the outline of the plan for how to seal myself after isolating Go Yuri was revealed.

Of course, there was a prerequisite.

'Admin of the Infinite Metagame.'

That unprecedented last-hitter, always eyeing an opportunity to bewitch Oh Dok-seo and snatch the fully prepared meal.

'I have to make sure to subdue him and get a declaration of surrender. That's the only way he won't be able to interfere with Oh Dok-seo's sealing process.'

Fortunately, the role of subduing Admin of the Infinite Metagame had been taken care of by the 'future Undertaker' and the 'past me'.

The repeating time of the world.

Everything was inevitable.

'Go Yuri must have planned it this way, for this route to come to be, even before my first regression began.'

A three-legged race.

'And from now on... I'll have to adjust things so that the prologue of the novel Oh Dok-seo will read begins not with Go Yuri, but with the Undertaker's story.'

It was an easy task.

'All I need is for the Admin of the Infinite Metagame to judge that the Undertaker is a much more dangerous element worth paying attention to than Go Yuri.'

In other words.

'After adjusting all the schedules and entering the main route in earnest, Go Yuri will refrain from intervening in the world's destruction as much as possible.'

It was a kind of camouflage tactic.

I'm not actually dangerous.

No, I am dangerous, but as long as you don't provoke me directly, I don't plan on acting out from now on.

But if you do touch me, smack! I'll have to punish you?

Then Admin of the Infinite Metagame's attention would naturally be drawn to the regressor rather than the reincarnator.

Because it's wiser to focus on eliminating the regressor, who is an immediate thorn in the side, than the reincarnator who has no intention of making a move right away.

"Ha."

A laugh escaped me without me realizing it.

'Isn't that the exact position I remember Go Yuri being in?'

Thinking about her grand strategy also provided the answer to why Go Yuri had reacted so sensitively to the arrival of Leviathan.

'I, the Undertaker, must one day cast aside my aura and find my own method of conquest.'

'But the 664th cycle is too early. The Undertaker is somewhat lacking in experience to decide to abandon his aura.'

'Until he has gained enough experience, it's inevitable that he will have to rely on his aura to survive.'

Go Yuri's so-called [Regressor Maker].

The nurturing of the regressor needed to proceed step by step.

It would have been problematic if he realized the truth of Leviathan too early, and troublesome if he realized it too late.

'For one person?'

I faced the next lives.

'Could she have been this devoted?'

I lived everyone's lives and watched over everyone's lives.

I experienced silence through a groaning throat in the lowest basement, and I spoke with a commanding voice from the highest skyscraper.

I lived as a beggar, sitting on the edge of a roadside ditch, relying on a single bowl to beg. To a legless beggar, the depth of that ditch was a valley.

On a street where dust had swallowed the air, I held out my hand toward tourists.

All lives were wretched in the face of destruction.

'The reincarnator was not a being who was merely sad.'

I walked on, firmly grasping the hands that rose like prayers in each and every one of those lives.

'Humans are strong.'

I saw a flower that bloomed in the ditch. I saw the red of its petals, unerased even though it was covered in dust.

'Behold. Even when the Outer Gods who insult the world cackle and make a mess of everything, a single reincarnator and a regressor from among humanity have walked this far.'

Let's go.

'Dok-seo I know you will be sad.'

Let's keep walking.

'I am sad too, for it feels like I am leaving and burdening you with this entire story and all its regrets.'

The Cheon Yo-hwa sisters were born.

I was the sisters' mother's childhood friend. That mother died early, and before she died, she left me with the words to please take good care of her children.

These children would later be possessed by Outer Gods and end up slaughtering countless people.

But these children, smiling before my eyes right now, would come to love a certain man, and eventually come to accept even the world in which that man existed.

'But you are a strong child.'

Dang Seo-rin was born.

The human who originally possessed Dang Seo-rin's body had died. However, an Outer God who inherited Dang Seo-rin's memories accepted being human, without even knowing that it was an Outer God itself.

She would one day sing a lullaby that puts other anomalies to sleep, despite being an anomaly herself. Walking alongside a single man.

'Don't collapse from sadness.'

Yu Ji-won did not commit suicide.

Originally, Yu Ji-won had ended her own life after murdering her parents and her grandmother, who had dementia, on a terribly rainy day one summer.

She had courage. In addition to the courage to treat every being in this world as an insect, she had the courage to dismiss even herself as one.

I was once born as Yu Ji-won's younger sibling, but surprisingly, the young Yu Ji-won at that time secretly strangled her newborn sibling to death, avoiding their parents' eyes.

It was because there was no need to add one more person to this hell.

'It's alright if you forget everything. That would be one kind of ending too. But if you cannot forget, if you absolutely cannot accept it. Become strong.'

To prevent Yu Ji-won's suicide, another's breath was needed under the night sky of the monsoon rains.

'You must become so abundant that you can still be you even after giving yourself away.'

I could see the path.

On this route, there was Dang Seo-rin, and there were the lives that died to allow Dang Seo-rin to be born, and there was Jung Ye-ji, and the souls sacrificed to bring about Jung Ye-ji, and there was Noh Do-hwa, Cheon Yo-hwa, Yu Ji-won, Lee Ha-yul, Sim Ah-ryeon, Yu Ji-won, so many people.

"..."

Go Yuri looked back at me as she walked.

A smile. Her face was smiling.

I was the same.

'What I want to leave you is not sadness, but the strength to keep walking even while reading all these wounds.'

Go Yuri believed in me.

I believed in Oh Dok-seo.

And…

"Abeub, abububu, bueeeh."

Now, it was my turn to believe in myself.

"Oh? Oh, oh, she smiled! She smiled!"

Tick.

Looking up at the 'I' who was looking down at the 'I' born as their younger sibling.

I opened my tender lips.

Yes, Mr. Undertaker.

Welcome. It's good to see you again. I'm sure the current Mr. Undertaker understands that it's also always possible to say, nice to meet you for the first time.

I will be erased from this world.

It's the fulfillment of the wish you once so desperately wanted, so please be happy.

Ah. No. I'm joking! It's just a joke.

I've lived a strange life. I ended up living it.

Before you entered my dream. Hmm, yes. It wasn't that you entered, but that I tripped you into it. But please forgive me, as that was my own way of hiding my embarrassment.

Anyway.

Before entering that place, you asked. Why I didn't save Mr. Schopenhauer.

I'm sorry.

Actually, it was on purpose! Of course, everything is the result of my deliberate choices.

Mr. Undertaker, you were a perfect candidate in many ways. To the point that I was inwardly convinced that I had finally found a shaman just for me.

...However, humans can't always be strong.

Even Kafka, whom you like, said it. The reason Alexander the Great could advance was thanks to the existence of the walls of India that he could point to with the tip of his sword.

If you can't see it, you don't aim for it. You give up.

Humans have a sad nature, so it seems they often don't even try to take on a challenge if the goal isn't vividly visible right in front of them.

That's why I created a milestone for you named 'Schopenhauer'.

From now on, or rather from hundreds of millions of years ago, from the very moment you met me, Mr. Undertaker, your destiny as a regressor was sealed, and you will walk a single, long route.

It will be hard. You will be sad.

But, if the goal is visible before your eyes. You possess enough strength not to give up.

Yes.

The corpse of Schopenhauer, who just committed suicide because you couldn't save him, is precisely the milestone I have gifted you.

A mark you can never turn away from, showing you why you started walking this path and what must be waiting at the end of this route.

Emit Schopenhauer.

Please save my father one day.

I expect you will pour out complaints that this is harsh and cruel. I will accept them.

In return, I will be subjugated by you.

Stained by the red flower of the Udumbara.

And if necessary, through the Time Seal that I created for you for this very moment.

I will be erased. Leaving behind billions of family members here, along with a soul deleted from billions of routes.

In this world, only you will remember me.

And to walk this entire path, to pierce through the un-washable wound in your heart, the void, there is just one. A condition is needed.

Please love me desperately.

And, please forget me.

Please love other people who are not me.

The fact that you loved me, and the fact that I loved you.

The memory of you hurting me, and the memory of me hurting you, forget it all.

Forgetting even the fact that you have forgotten.

Please continue to live.

...At the end of this ending, there are bound to be aftereffects.

This world, having avoided destruction, will find it a little more... difficult to remember other precious beings.

Memories will become a little more unstable.

It will become a little more difficult to properly look at someone.

Of course. Because the existence known as 'me' has punched a hole in people's hearts.

But, if that is the price.

If this is the only price that must be paid to stop this absurd destruction, I will gladly bear it.

I have been very rude.

Please understand that this was the best that a child who suddenly died one day, only to open her eyes and find herself living another life, could do.

I love you.

Mother. Father. Everyone.

Did I do well?

Did I choose… the right person.

I loved.

I gave up many things. I lived a life where I had no choice but to give up. But still, there was one thing I did not discard until the very end.

That it was good to have been born, even into a world like this, I can now be grateful for it from the bottom of my heart, sincerely.

Farewell.

Tick.

June 24th, 12:00. The regressor encounters 'Hecate' Dang Seo-rin at an intersection in Busan.

An exodus of refugees from all over the country to Busan.

Worldwide daily death toll: 51,956,792.

June 22nd, 14:20. The regressor reunites with Yu Ji-won at a roadside rest stop in Seocho-gu, Seoul.

The main forces of the Korean Peninsula's military are annihilated by the Ten-Legs.

Worldwide daily death toll: 124,956,792.

June 21st, 13:00. The regressor encounters prosthetic doctor Noh Do-hwa, who was evacuating patients against attackers at the National Rehabilitation Hospital.

Worldwide daily death toll: 319,956,792.

June 18th, 20:00. The regressor enters the Baekhwa Women's High School Tutorial Dungeon. Encounters Cheon Yo-hwa on the distorted timeline of Infinite Void.

Worldwide daily death toll: 771,221,328.

June 17th, 16:00. The regressor makes contact with the one known as the 'Saintess'. The Regression Alliance is formed.

June 17th, 14:10. Emit Schopenhauer dies in a cafe in Busan.

June 17th, 14:00. A large-scale Void White Night occurs south of the Han River in Seoul, on the Korean Peninsula.

June 17th, 14:00. Small-scale Voids, so-called 'Tutorial Dungeons', occur simultaneously all over the world.

Worldwide daily death toll: 1,649,857,026.

June 17th, 13:59.

The regressor regresses.

April 29th, 16:00.

Oh Dok-seo awakens.

Tick.