Infinite Regressor, Chapter 413 - I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

6 Snap- The thousand-and-one nights of the reincarnated being was abruptly cut off there. The midnight exhibition hall, showcasing a thousand deaths, was once again enveloped in silence. Like a portable radio that had suddenly lost power because the battery died. “Go Yuri? Why did you stop talking all of a sudden?” “……” Go Yuri raised her head. A serene smile was drawn across her lips. “No, it's just that Ah-ryeon seems to be having a nightmare in the doctor's arms.” “Ah.” “This place is a shrine built for you, doctor. Thanks to that, you succeeded in receiving my voice. If you've heard 'this much' of my story, from now on, you should have better reception outside too.” “Reception?” “Yes. You could call it a way to tune into my radio channel.” Her purple skirt flowed down. Go Yuri stood up. Like a diver just emerging from water, she shed droplets of night air instead of water. “This is where the prologue ends.” She looked down at me. “Doctor, please take Ah-ryeon to her lodging. After curating such a splendid art exhibition, it’s sad to let her sleep on such a hard floor.” “You are……” “I'll be waiting.” Shh. Go Yuri placed a finger across her lips, winking playfully with one eye. “Please don’t ask me where. We’ll meet again at the place we must meet.” “…Even after hearing all this, you’re telling me to wait patiently?” “Yes. I'm sorry. Honestly, I'm not trying to torment you. But for what comes next, you need to have your own resolve, doctor.” Resolve. I always considered myself strong when it came to resolve. But the person before me was a reincarnated being who had lived through billions of lives. I couldn't help but hesitate at the weight that word might carry. “When we meet next, there's no turning back. No retreat, no stepping back.” “……” “So, doctor. Please, enjoy your ‘vacation’ thoroughly. Until there’s no regret left.” “What’s going to happen to me?” “My salvation.” Her eyes smiled. “The promise will be fulfilled.” “Promise…?” “Enjoy your last vacation. Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m quite used to waiting.” “How can you expect me to—” “Ha ha. Please believe me. Ah, even though, looking at absolute numbers, you’ve just barely passed a thousand, and can’t compare to me, I still think you’re the only one on earth who can understand what I’m used to.” “……” “Goodbye then. Until we meet again.” Tap. Go Yuri took a few steps back, and like a noble lady, elegantly lifted the edge of her skirt and bowed. Then she left the exhibition hall without a single word. Tap, tap, tap... tap. I carried Sim Ah-ryeon and immediately followed Go Yuri’s path. Really immediately. If I turned the corner in the gallery, her figure would still be within reach. It wasn’t. Neither in the corridor of the exhibition hall nor at the exit. No matter how much I searched under the darkening night sky of the city, Go Yuri was nowhere to be seen. Only the sounds of crickets and other creatures broke the silence. “……” “Mmm.. Guildmaster…” A child's soft, sleepy murmuring crept into my embrace, as if instinctively seeking refuge there—fitting perfectly into the hollow nook. Around me were children whose seasons were always winter. I gently patted the child's head. 7 Go Yuri had vanished. Even inquiries with the saint revealed no trace of where she went. [I'm sorry. Following the undertaker’s instructions, I avoided peeking over at that side just in case, so I deliberately diverted my gaze.] [It seems she's disappeared from the free meal stations maintained in the previous warzones too. There are no witnesses. I have no face to show.] “No, it's fine. Wasn't it I who originally instructed not to monitor Go Yuri at all? I'm sorry for suddenly causing confusion.” Where could she have disappeared to? Could I find her if I searched the entire world? 'No. It's impossible.' Go Yuri was a reincarnated being. I was a regressor. For us, ‘disappearance’ didn’t only hold a spatial meaning. Temporal disappearance was entirely possible. ‘The next round.’ I'll be waiting, she said. Until when? ‘Until I'm satisfied. Until I've enjoyed this world without a single regret and can shake it off.’ Even if it takes a hundred years, that's fine. Even if it takes a thousand, it probably wouldn't matter. 'Go Yuri has already waited until I could receive her voice.' Could my entire life have been a waiting period for someone? “……” “Huh? What’s with the face, mister? Why are you looking at me like that?” “Nothing.” “Aha. You’re falling for my fatal charm? Well, it can't be helped if you're fascinated by the grand author's allure. But please don’t get too close? You might melt like Icarus’s wings.” It was a strange emotion. Until now, I had always been the one waiting for others, never the one being waited upon by someone else. Because I was a regressor. I was semi-omniscient about who they were and what would unfold in their future. That’s why I knew well. “Oh Dok-seo.” “Hmm?” “How’s the writing going?” At the word ‘writing,’ Oh Dok-seo covered her ears with her hands and dashed off somewhere. She had already assumed the readiness of a cheetah by the time I pronounced it. I gave a wry smile. 'I can wait. As long as it takes.' Still. ‘I’d be happy if you could catch up a bit sooner.’ Of course, I was strong. I could wait endlessly. I had built the resilience to endure such waiting. But no matter how well-constructed a building might be, it still rusts. And even if one claims that the rust adds a certain charm, the fact that the iron silently corroded cannot be denied. ‘Go Yuri was waiting for me.’ She was right. On this earth, the only person who could truly empathize with the soul-deep waiting of a reincarnated being was undoubtedly a solitary regressor. “Alright then, Dok-seo.” “Ahhh! I can’t hear you! I hear nothing! Respect writers' rights! Rights, rights! Writers are not public property; we are private individuals! Individuals! Individuals!” Normally, I might have teased her, saying, “Aren't readers private individuals too?” but... This time, I merely patted Oh Dok-seo on the back of her head. “...?” Peeking out from the hedgehog-like defensive posture she had assumed, Oh Dok-seo looked up at me. “Oh, mister?” “Hmm.” “What's up?” Her expression grew more anxious as she looked up into my eyes. Her crimson eyes trembled, unable to settle. “Where... are you going?” As expected, she was quick-witted. I crouched to meet her eye level and smiled. “I don’t really know myself.” “......” “I’ve lived for so long, yet there are still many things I don’t know. But you know I care deeply for you, right, Dok-seo?” “Don’t go.” “Please take care of Ha-yul.” “......” “And Ah-ryeon. And Yo-hwa. And the other kids too. If I’m not around, I need you to be the anchor for them. Can you do that?” “Why are you saying things like that? You’re not really going to disappear, right?” She was just a child. Yet even those as young as her had died over 1,000 times. Perhaps billions of times. Perhaps billions more times. I had to save the children. It wasn’t an extraordinary task. More often than one might think, there are people who risk their lives to save a child in danger right in front of them. ‘To give these kids a continuation beyond the epilogue.’ My work wasn’t fundamentally different. 'Even in a world full of grudges, it doesn’t matter. That’s something to think about then. But meaningless deaths... by the void, or by anomalies.' ‘They shouldn’t die like that.’ Such things plagued the world excessively. ‘In that case, the world is what’s wrong.’ People called such a world nature, logic, the way, or the path. Namely, the route. I could now fully understand what Go Yuri had left behind in words for me. -Where lies the reason a single person cannot change the path? I agreed wholeheartedly. So, the next round. The 1,085th round. Go Yuri was not at Busan Station. Immediately after clearing the tutorial dungeon, I cast off contact with the saint and headed to Onyang, Asan in Chungcheongnam-do. Go Yuri was there, in an old inn at Onyang, standing in room 202 on the second floor, where the faded, dimly painted walls were peeling like old scales. “...” Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me entering through the open door. In that inn room, where a nameless mother and her son had withered away like old trees, Go Yuri had just been looking up at a crimson flower. “Oh dear.” Her voice genuinely surprised. “How did you figure it out in just one round?” “When I thought about it, considering both you and me, the solution was simple. Being a reincarnator, you chose me, and my alias happened to be the 'Undertaker.'” “......” “In the end, you were contemplating a way to end yourself. Yet, for beings like us, death isn’t a mere conclusion. To truly reach the end, to see the end of the route, our abilities themselves must be erased.” “Remarkable.” Go Yuri smiled. “Yes. Exactly. So, Udumbara. You need a ‘reset button’ that can erase the abilities of the awakened completely.” “So you deliberately sought out Ah-ryeon during the art exhibition. She possesses the same ability as Udumbara. Just visiting the exhibition itself was a sort of clue.” “Oh, how splendid.” Her smile broadened. “No matter how quick, I thought it would take you at least three rounds. Honestly, I expected you to miss it perhaps for about ten rounds. Who would’ve thought you’d reach the answer in just one. Indeed, you are amazing, doctor.” Go Yuri crouched down. She reached out and stroked the wrist of the child who had starved to death. A slightly larger string of prayer beads than a newborn’s wrist clung there. Clatter. Clatter. “They were twins originally.” “......” “I was one of them.” Red flowers, bright as hellish poppies, were scattered over the bodies of the mother and child. Like the banks of the river in the underworld. “Our mother tried to feed us both equally, of course. But I was aware even as a baby, so I refused adamantly.” “......” “Then at least the other child had to eat, didn’t they? Reluctantly. Yet I kept fussing, hoping that at least a little would be taken in, but the child only acted like it was necessary to sacrifice self so the two of them might live, and ultimately... they were the first to die.” “I see.” “Yes, as you can see, even if I wasn’t there, it was a fate of inevitable death.” Go Yuri stood, lifting her knees. “Isn't it fascinating? If she'd just eaten something, anything. If gruel isn’t palatable, if milk isn’t favorable, if tap water isn’t liked, eating at least the mother’s thoughts—love and worry—would have been wonderful.” “......” “Then a tree was born that could devour life and abilities. The reason it was a tree, well, perhaps it envied a life that could survive on just sunlight and water.” Speaking as though revealing the entire backstage of a play, Go Yuri held a bittersweet yet satisfied smile. Like an examiner scoring a perfect paper for a candidate who reached the destination without making a single error. Like a professor reading a flawless graduation thesis. However. “From the beginning.” “……?” “There’s been a peculiar point that’s baffled me.” My explanation wasn’t over yet. “I don’t know if you remember, but when I first met Oh Dok-seo, you were also part of our party.” “Oh, yes, I remember. It’s not too distant a past, is it? Though I can't recall it with your level of perfection.” “At that time, I just barely persuaded Oh Dok-seo to expel you from the party.” Go Yuri chuckled softly. "Expelled from the party—what a classic trope. Now it's your turn to regret and obsess over driving me away, doctor." "It was a hillside." "Pardon?" "After being expelled from the party, you walked down a hillside. It was a single path. So, I expected to see you climbing the next hill shortly after, but you didn’t." "......." "Once you went down the hill, you vanished. There was nowhere else to go. Like a mirage." The last time was the same. Sim Ah-ryeon's exhibition hall was located right in the center of Busan, at the Babel Tower Plaza. It was impossible for me not to be familiar with the geography there. Yet, just by turning a single corner of the gallery, Go Yuri had evaporated into thin air. How? Was it because Go Yuri is a creature of dreams? Or because she's an anomaly capable of making humans unable to perceive her? But Go Yuri wasn't a mind-controller. As I understood, she was simply someone who had lost everything humanly possible. Go Yuri was human. Which made the conclusion simpler. "You are—a teleporter, aren't you? Go Yuri." "......." "That's why you vanished down the hill and evaporated from the exhibition hall. It’s also why the saint’s clairvoyance occasionally fails to find you. You teleported beyond the range of her sight." The inn grew silent. "I ran here as soon as I cleared the tutorial dungeon at Busan Station. But you were here before me." "......." "There’s only one possible answer. The person Old Man Scho was searching so desperately for, the teleporter—it's you." Silence. "Perfect." Go Yuri's lips slowly parted. "Yes, doctor. I'm the awakened teleporter you've all been searching for."