Infinite Regressor, Chapter 428 - I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

4. [Dok-seo-mon’s Intimidating Stare Attack!] [It was immensely effective!] Startled by Oh Dok-seo’s unusually intense gaze, I hastily scrambled for excuses and fled without looking back. A sigh escaped my lips. “Life truly isn’t easy, is it…?” “Haha. You’re breaking into a cold sweat. Perhaps the guild leader is overreacting a bit,” Go Yuri commented. To reiterate, Go Yuri was currently equipped with a 24-hour stealth feature. She was, quite literally, ‘one’ with me in this world, visible only to me. “Think about it. Dok-seo consistently had flirting loaded on her tongue. Mentioning things like, ‘I’ll save you’ or ‘Only I can truly understand you’ without any shame, didn’t she?” The face smiling gently in front of me and the voice humming with apparent interest—both were merely the composite of millions of Go Yuris steeped into my memories. In some senses, I could deduce that I was currently experiencing the ultimate form of dissociative identity disorder or, colloquially, multiple personality disorder. Though a trivial detail was that communication between these personalities happened in real-time. “Then why? If Dok-seo was her usual self, where did this ominous feeling of mine come from? Was my intuition just acting up?” “It’s obvious.” Yuri chuckled. “If Dok-seo hasn’t changed, then the inevitable conclusion is that the guild leader has.” “What?” “The guild leader, with Dok-seo.” She pronounced each word meticulously, as if erasing any doubt. “There’s a chance that if you keep spending time together, you might develop feelings quite different from before, so you instinctively ran away before that happened.” “……” Yet no matter how artfully uttered, such nonsense couldn’t suddenly evolve into a self-evident truth. “Are you implying… that I almost fell for Dok-seo, that little kid??” “Yes.” “You’ve finally lost it, Go Yuri!” “But think about it from the other side. Those who fell for the guild leader were in hopeless situations when you helped them, weren’t they?” Yuri’s face didn’t show any signs of abandoning its cheerful expression. “So isn’t it the same for you? You had resigned to finish things off, and then Dok-seo, who you never even considered, went out of her way to help you across hundreds of iterations.” “……” “When you save someone, they save you in return. Ah, what a timeless old adage coming from the void…” “I’ve never heard of such an adage!!” I would never, under any circumstances, admit it! ‘Me having feelings for Dok-seo? Ha! This so-called sister must be delusional. Oh Dok-seo? Ooooooh Dok-seo?! I’d rather date the Inunaki Tunnel or a meteor shower!’ “Guild leader, I’m parasitizing your brain, so I can hear all your thoughts.” “Respect my privacy for once!” “Hmm. I wonder. From the moment you decided to seal your entire life story into a novel and unearth it for the world, didn’t your private life already disappear?” “……” “Moreover, the Inunaki Tunnel’s essence is a young girl, and the meteor shower’s essence a nurturing married woman. Wow. I never knew the guild leader’s preferences were so diverse.” “I was just speaking metaphorically! I meant I’d hold hands with monsters before getting heart palpitations over Dok-seo!” “Just holding hands? Oh my.” “I really can’t have a single conversation with you!” Yuri chuckled quietly. “I’m sorry. But it can’t be helped. Brothers and sisters are meant to tease each other to death by picking at faults…” “Eh, Undertaker-san?” Then, someone called me from behind. Japanese. I turned around to see a person with black hair, carrying boxes in both arms and wearing an apron. “Ah, it’s Kurosawa.” “Yes, good evening.” Kurosawa Touka, an acquaintance better known to me by her nickname Kuro (黒), hurriedly bowed her head. The work apron she was wearing had four characters printed on it. [Dang Ga-hwan]. Despite her slightly confused appearance, this girl had surprisingly ventured alone into Dang Seo-rin’s flower shop not long ago to present her ‘108 reasons why you should hire me’ PR speech. Dang Ga-hwa-won, a business steadfastly adhering to a K-family-run model, was moved by the passion of this new generation. Consequently, Kurosawa succeeded in becoming their first foreign worker. “Are you working this late?” I smiled. “It’s quite late. That’s a lot of work for just a part-time job.” “It’s not just a simple part-time job. I genuinely, truly wish to learn many things in this flower shop. Um, eto.” “Hmm?” Kurosawa put down the boxes. Despite having just greeted me, she felt that wasn’t enough and bowed—once again—at a 90-degree angle. “Thank you very much for bringing my mother to this village recently!” “Oh.” I gave a wry smile. “Didn’t you already come by with her to thank me last time?” “Well… Still, I haven’t repaid Undertaker-san’s kindness yet. Before I do, no, even after I return the favor, I’ll continue to be grateful…” Kurosawa’s speech wasn’t particularly fast. She didn’t seem the kind of person naturally skilled at socializing. Perhaps her life had taught her to ferment her feelings rather than open up about them. Nonetheless, before our encounter felt spontaneous, Kurosawa was stitching together each word, ones she had likely rehearsed countless times in her head. “After arriving in Busan, I heard about the chaos that erupted in Tokyo shortly after. It was overwhelming. I was terrified of something happening to my mom.” "But when I heard that the Undertaker went to Tokyo and settled various matters... I cried, a lot." "Did you hear that from Dang Seo-rin?" "I heard it from Dok-seo!" "...I see." Of course, my trip to Japan wasn't primarily to rescue Kurosawa Touka's mother. It was more about making connections with key figures who would later form the Magic Girl Consortium. In other words, it was a quest to build goodwill. Bringing Kuro's mother to Busan was merely a 'side' quest achieved along the way. However, even a sidestreet is still the front door to someone's home. Even my side quest was a main quest to those involved. "Thank you so much! Th-thank you!" The first thanks came in Japanese, while the second one, still slightly clumsy, was in Korean. Under the night sky, next to Kurosawa. Suddenly, beside her―――――――――― Grant me luck, let me avoid all 'accidental misfortunes' like being crushed by a falling rock. ―――――――――― Appeared a corpse, covered in black fur like a monkey. This too was a vision visible only to me. In the distant past, in the 444th cycle, when I found the 'Monkey's Paw' at the entrance of Seongsan Ilchulbong on Jeju Island, it was the fate of the girl named Kuro. ―――――――――― I'm sorry for being born. Monkey’s Paw, please make me disappear. ―――――――――― The girl vanished, leaving such words as her last will in her diary. And now, before my eyes, there wasn’t an ominous hairy corpse but a hardworking girl, her hair dusty and smelling of grass, bowing her head after a long day’s work. “It’s a relief.” “…? Pardon?” “Hurry home. I’ve kept a busy person for too long. Send my regards to your mother.” “Oh. Yes, yes! Have a good night!” Even as Kurosawa left, she kept looking back repeatedly, bowing extensively several times. Once her retreating figure melted beyond the seventh streetlight into the darkness, Yuri spoke up. “She’s a good person.” “…Yeah.” “The landscape reached by the synergy of a possessor and a regressor. I think it’s not bad.” The situation had improved immensely from before. Amidst a relentless schedule, Oh Dok-seo managed to deliver the Udumbara to as many awakened individuals as possible before June 17th. This Udumbara itself was a subspecies refined by the Sword Empress. Originally, it parasitized the user’s body, providing life that was only superficially immortal, but this Udumbara-Plum Blossom would eventually transform into a plum blossom on its own after a certain period. “Most of the monster waves have also been repelled.” Go Yuri, naturally picking up on my thoughts, chimed in. “Although there are minor issues remaining, those will resolve themselves once the Great Void is completely eradicated.” "And the remaining Great Void is…" “One arrived not long ago in Seoul, the White Night.” Yuri smiled faintly. “And the other is in the Dream of Dreams (몽중몽). The unconscious underground, where I freely lease out everyone’s dreams.” “….” “It is my last shrine.” 5. “As everyone knows, the regressor’s reset point is June 17th at around 13:59.” Babel Tower. Once again in this cycle, the meeting room of the National Road Management's headquarters served as the venue. The members of the Regression Alliance each bore solemn expressions. The presider of the meeting was Oh Dok-seo. “And the White Night of Seoul. The culmination of an advent of voids that ravaged south of Han River began precisely at 14:00 on June 17th.” “……” “In short, there’s only a one-minute difference.” All members of the Regression Alliance were attentively listening to Oh Dok-seo’s words. It was an unfamiliar scene to me, but for the other members, this was the norm. 'Just like.' Glancing aside. In a corner of the meeting room, ignored by everyone but me, stood a reincarnated being with pink hair, silently observing. ‘Just as I, the regressor, took the baton from the reincarnated who once represented humanity’s frontline.’ The epochs flowed like a river. Ravenously; devouring the souls of the reincarnated and sipping the blood of the regressors. It licked clean the wounds of all, leaving not a trace of blood, only the faint scent of blood wafting through the air. Thus, time was a stream—constantly a river of blood, not water. “So the role foreseen by me, who preceded you in understanding this world’s truth, is simple. To pave the way before you regress.” Nonetheless, this old man still had one final mission before his exit from the stage of time. “One minute. We must stop the White Night from erupting in Seoul within just one minute.” Sealing all voids at their source. Only then would the world return to its original state, untarnished by the monstrosities. “Not just Seoul. We need to conquer the Dream of Dreams as well—that final foreign god—. Go Yuri, who has hidden herself in everyone’s dreams.” □. “Only by conquering it will our world truly be liberated from the monstrosities.” “……” “The billions of years for the reincarnators. The tens of thousands of years for the regressors. My decades—all this labor hinges on this one-minute conquest.” “I have a question.” Yu Ji-won raised her hand. “We’re aware of a large void emerging in Seoul, known as the White Night. But what exactly is it that necessitates its conquest in conjunction with Go Yuri’s Dream of Dreams?” “It was incineration,” Responded the very subject, Go Yuri. However, Go Yuri’s words could not reach the meeting; she could only participate through my voice. It was not strange. That was originally the role of the exorcist (ZERO_SUGAR), the bridge between the celestial realm and the human world. “The guild leader is a regressor.” Spoke the remnants of Go Yuri, the first human to reach the celestial realm. “The world constantly undergoes resets based on the regressor’s perspective. But it’s not as if everything gets impeccably reset.” “……” "Time always leaves remnants. Even if one isn’t consciously aware that the world is repeating due to regression—a faint. Occasionally, very faint echo remains." "I see." Yu Ji-won nodded. "If likened to anomalies, it's like the Joys of All Ages or the Hidden Figure. In humans, it would be like prophets or possessors. The fact that the regression leaves residues means they can sense it as cycles repeat." "Yes." Go Yuri smiled softly, looking around at her 'sisters.' "Even a regressor who’s lived only tens of thousands of years develops such residues. How much more so for someone like me, who's been reincarnated repeatedly over billions of years?" "……." "For beings like the Sword Empress, anomalies and awakened ones have occasionally sensed my reincarnation. However, these occasional moments have accumulated over billions of years until it became bewilderment." For Yuri, it posed significant challenges. The first issue was the secret of her reincarnation being uncovered by anomalies. The second was the risk of awakened people deducing the identity of the hole in her heart, the '□', potentially weakening the powers she painstakingly awakened. "And so, I decided to gather all this residual time debris and incinerate it at once." "Incinerate..." "To erase every trace of the reincarnated person herself. So that anomalies and humans alike could never notice. Thus achieving my victory over the anomalies and leaving humanity with nothing but empty scars. That was the purpose of the incineration." The location of this incineration. "South of the Han River." The name of this funeral pyre. "The White Night." Yuri smiled. "It was the pure white night laid out as the first step to bring the world I dreamed and dreamt of, the Dream of Dreams (夢中夢), down to earth." Dreams and Night. Therefore. "If the White Night fails, my entire plan collapses. Rather than being a mere echo remaining in dreams, I would be demoted to a single human who once actually lived in this reality." "……." A quiet atmosphere settled over the meeting room. Everyone momentarily paused, contemplating the reincarnator's elaborate and ruthless mental gears, put forth for the success of her plan. "Right." Oh Dok-seo nodded with her unchanging tone. "So we have to prevent the White Night from occurring, and simultaneously, we need to vanquish the Dream of Dreams’ Great Void. Both are devices sealing the entity known as Go Yuri." "In the next cycle?" "Yes. In the next cycle." Oh Dok-seo met my gaze. "And this will be your last regression." "……." "There will be no more regressions. No more reincarnations. Humanity toyed with by anomalies and a land tainted by void will no longer exist." However, Oh Dok-seo added. "I hope for an ending where, in the place devoid of all Void Poisons, remains a human known as Go Yuri and Go Yo-il." "……." "Can you do it?" "To eliminate both of the double-faced Great Voids left by the first and last alien god in one minute." "Yes." "That seems simple enough." I smiled. "I will show you the prowess of your senior, Dok-seo." Present time. Cycle 3,558. The regressor embarked on their final regression. ---TL NOTE: The Perfect Run.---