Infinite Regressor, Chapter 431 - I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

"Ah, you’re here?" "Ah, you’re here?" The sixth station. It was a flower garden. A place where only the rustling of fallen petals could be heard—an ephemeral garden of fallen blossoms, emitting fragrance even in death. And the Tang family garden where Dang Seo-rin spent time with her family. The two landscapes overlapped. "……." Of course, there was quite a divergence from reality. This was the sixth layer of the depths. Now, only one layer remained before reaching the depths of dreams. If this place, bound to be soaked deeply in void poison, resembled reality too closely, it would be a cause for concern. "……Dang Seo-rin?" Yet the scene before me seemed to transcend the mere notion of ‘strangeness in space.’ "Yes." "Yes." Dang Seo-rin—no, two Dang Seo-rins answered simultaneously. The situation was thus: two different Dang Seo-rins were settled in my right and left retinas, cleverly overlapping at the center. “It’s a bit disorienting, isn’t it? I feel the same way.” On my right, Dang Seo-rin was tending to a violet bowing its head in the garden of fallen blossoms. The shadow cast by the sunlight through the window caressed the withered petals, turning them into a new shade of violet. “It’s a bit disorienting, isn’t it? I feel the same way.” On my left, Dang Seo-rin was touching a body pierced by branches in the Tang family garden. The roof of the crumbled building allowed starlight to pour in profusely, as if she were holding a funeral under the galaxy of the night sky. “…….” Overlapping yet distinct. It didn’t take long for me to realize the meaning of these “two overlapping landscapes” existing simultaneously. “The human Dang Seo-rin, and... the coexisting Hecate as Dang Seo-rin?” “That’s right.” “That’s right.” The violet cast its shadow and the body shed blood droplets. “Originally, the choice that Oh Dok-seo had always made was to erase Hecate and leave only the human Dang Seo-rin.” “But that little rascal, even at the very end, seems to have had a change of heart this time.” “Doesn’t it seem like it’s only right to give you the choice?” I let out a wry laugh. “That’s just so... typical of Dok-seo.” Dang Seo-rin laughed as well. “Honestly, isn’t she just too eccentric? Sometimes when I talk to her, I find myself tilting my head thinking, ‘Huh? Did I hear that wrong?’” “Ahahaha.” I laughed along with her, but how could I not grasp Oh Dok-seo’s true intentions? Leaving one connection on each step down the stairs of dreams within dreams. This was more than just handing over a choice to me. ‘A gift for me, indeed.’ Indeed, this situation was nothing less than a dream for someone like me, a regressor. No matter how diligently I clad my soul in armor to protect my psyche, how could I remain completely unaffected by repeatedly resetting my memories with comrades every regression? I deemed it foolish to delve into uncontrollable sorrow repeatedly. Thus, I only applied ointment to prevent any wounds from fester. “Dok-seo’s and your idea... I get the gist. Basically, it’s the ‘Golden Axe, Silver Axe’ strategy.” “Hm?” “Here, I have to decide whether the Dang Seo-rin I truly liked was the one whose personality was inherited by the Outer God Hecate, or the human Dang Seo-rin. And then I just have to decide which hand to take, right?” “Ahahaha, that’s it!” Day and night mingled in the zenith. “Actually, Dok-seo suggested the idea first, but I wasn’t sure if it meant anything. No matter how I looked at it, all I could see was you choosing both of us.” “The cliché of folktales.” “Well, I’m confident. Whether I’m a Outer God or not, I believe you’ll see me as Dang Seo-rin as I am.” Her confidence was well-founded. The path we walked, the countless cycles, the conversation logs we shared—they all substantiated her confidence. “Then you understand as well.” I smiled. “Dang Seo-rin. The choice isn’t up to me—it’s up to you.” “Hmm?” Dang Seo-rin tilted her head. “What do you mean?” “Seo-rin.” I looked at the Dang Seo-rin on the right. Still wholly human, tainted with the memories of the Outer God, yet not entirely unified with the Outer God. A Dang Seo-rin who would survive beyond June 17th. “The memories you’ve regained now are in fact the past of an outer Outer God, not yours.” “…….” “You don’t have to unconditionally accept them as your own life. In fact, it wouldn’t be strange to find them disconcerting.” “…….” “Targeted for the massacre of your entire family by the entity known as Go Yo-il. Forced to make a wish, and by some bizarre Outer God responding to that wish, your entire life was mortgaged.” I spoke calmly, ensuring no exaggeration clouded her perspective. “You have the right to deny this future, this past, as something that belongs to another, not you.” “…….” Then I turned my gaze. To the Dang Seo-rin on the left. Still the Outer God, yet foreseeing her end being demoted to human, precisely because she can reject that ending. Hecate, who still retained her name past June 17th. “Seo-rin.” “……Yes.” “Guild Leader.” “……Yes.” Hecate hesitated before speaking. “……Vice Guild Leader.” “Well, I don’t know what it feels like for a Outer God to transform into a human. For an entity that merely responds to wishes to become the wish itself—that’s a bit too abstract for someone like me, originally a Homo sapiens.” “Ahaha, what are you saying? For someone more bizarre than a Outer God.” “Wow, so the multiverse is essentially a gathering of bizarre beings. Starting from guild leaders to vice guild leaders. Actually, even Yu Ji-won is the Leviathan’s priestess, isn’t she?” “Wow, did such a guild dominate the Korean peninsula? And even the rival Baekhwa Girls’ High is the same? Korea is truly doomed.” We laughed together. “There’s still time to refuse.” “…….” “To you who existed as a Outer God, humans might just seem like insignificant creatures. I have no right to obstruct your choice to refuse.” “Why?” "In the end, I'm an accomplice of Go Yo-il. Because I'm one of those responsible for dragging an outer Outer God like you to the surface." "……." She remained silent. I waited until the silence melted into day and night, then posed questions to the sun and moon. "Will you accept the Outer God?" I first asked the sun on the left. "Will you accept the human?" And then the moon on the right. "……I, well, I think." Dang Seo-rin, stained by the shadow of the sun, parted her lips. "I don't think it's a particularly important question. After all, why? People say all their cells eventually get replaced, right? Whether it's something bizarre or not, if it's part of my personality, then it's me." Is she treating the Outer God as just mere cells? Well, even cancer cells are cells after all. It wasn't wrong, so an unintentional smile crept onto my face. Dang Seo-rin gazed directly at me. "If I deny these memories, I lose every trace of having walked with you and the paths we would have walked. I don't want that." That was the human's answer. I nodded and looked to the other side. "……." Hecate, under the starlight of the night sky, spoke. "Your claim that human beings are insignificant compared to an Outer God’s powers is wrong." There was a faint smile on her lips. "Outer Gods have only themselves. Even most humans are like that—. At least, the life I've lived and continue to live is different." Hecate reached out. A firm grasp on my left hand. "Undertaker! I'm really glad I got to know a human like you!" "……." "I'm sorry for dying first. Thank you for always keeping your promises with me. Thank you for always trying to stay by my side... Thank you." A firm grasp on my right hand. "Go Yo-il." "Undertaker." The two Dang Seo-rins, who had been slightly apart, tugged at me simultaneously. "You’ve always been like magic to me!" The sun and the moon overlapped. The decayed blossoms embraced the red hue and blossomed fully, and the branches holding corpses were adorned with petals, blooming in splendor. "When the latecomers arrive, I'll follow." Smiling, the earliest bloom a human could muster graced her lips, and Dang Seo-rin whispered softly as she stood close. A song was always flowing in my heart. "For the record, I think Ha-yul is really pretty! Although Oh Dok-seo is a bit... and Sim Ah-ryeon too." The deadline. 20 seconds. "When today ends, let’s talk!" Dive. And then. To the next stage. "……." Silence. The seventh station. The terminal. A place where time and space should be more tangled than anywhere else, but surrounding me was only the Babel Tower plaza, wrapped in quietude. "Hmm?" Clang—. Noh Do-hwa turned around from whatever she was working on with a tool. Her black eyes, unaffected by dark circles, scanned my face. "You’re here? Took your sweet time, didn’t you?" "Noh Do-hwa, Head of Security." "I suppose you’d address me like that. In this current cycle, I haven’t even founded anything related to traffic management, so it's a bit awkward…." "Where are the other strategy team members? What about Old Man Kwon? Seo Gyu?" I approached her, surveying the surroundings. "And why is Noh Do-hwa, the Head of Security, guarding the most perilous seventh layer?" "You bombard me with questions simultaneously. That's tough, damn it." "……." Definitely Noh Do-hwa. "For the time being, rest assured that the other members are snoozing peacefully inside the Babel Tower…." Clang—. Noh Do-hwa struck her work once more with a hammer. "As for the next question, even I’m not entirely certain. It seems that I possess a [trait] that prevents me from getting contaminated by void poison, even when thrown into this dream within a dream…." "Pardon?" "You didn’t know? Well, considering we recently acquired this information while coming and going, I guess your updates are lagging…." The corner of Noh Do-hwa's mouth twisted up. "Oh Dok-seo said something about it. Perhaps the fact that [I’ve never fallen] throughout all cycles became a trait in itself, making me immune to the effects of the dream within a dream…." "Huh." A sigh of admiration escaped my lips. Genuinely, I was surprised. Noh Do-hwa continued hammering as she spoke. "Thanks to that, be it the sixth or seventh layer, I remain unaffected no matter how long I stay in the dream. So Team Leader Yu Ji-won, who is somewhat similarly immune, handles the [entrance] of the passage, while I take care of the [exit]…." Looking back. Almost everyone in the regression alliance was either an Outer God or the miko of an Outer God, yet Noh Do-hwa always played the role of the chairperson. All the while, she never once abandoned her humanity. '…If something remains unchanged despite thousands of world repetitions, it’s no different from a rule. Has it become a law that doesn’t collapse in the deepest void?’ An astonishing achievement indeed. Though paying my respects would likely earn a dismissive look from her, I shifted the topic. "What have you been making from earlier?" "Ah, this… Hmm." Noh Do-hwa picked up her work to show me. It appeared to have two arms, two legs, and a head. In simple terms, it was a doll. "It's you…." ? "What?" "You. You, the Undertaker. Your real name is... well, some kind of day? At any rate, your alias and real name are downright troublesome." "That's defamation of character??" "My life was demeaned; aren’t such statements permissible at least? Damn you." "Regardless. Me? This doll?" I couldn’t help but stare back with an expression of pure bewilderment. "And not just one doll—two, three, four, five, six, seven… How many are there? Why so many dolls?" "It’s a request from Oh Dok-seo…." From Dok-seo? "She said that if this quest ends successfully, your body would split into at least six parts. So, she wanted me to prepare in advance by crafting puppet clones of the Undertakers…." "………." "So, I made them, in collaboration with your daughter, the Puppeteer. Of course, there's still a philosophical consideration of whether these truly represent the Undertaker, but worry not. We can just attach the limbs neatly..." "Excuse me??" "My ability involves creating prosthetics, after all. It's originally about replacing lost limbs, but it seems the reverse is possible as well. By attaching limbs, extremities, heads, and necks in sequence, it can create the genuine 'person'..." I was at a complete loss for words. "Oh, no. Hold on. There's just so much to critique here. First off, my legs? I have two legs. I am not some centipede." "I'm aware of that...?" "To replace all these dolls’ legs with my real legs, I’d need to evolve into a human centipede; how on earth would you gather enough materials for that?" "Sim Ah-ryeon…." I flinched. "You just cut them off, heal them and regrow, cut them again, heal and regrow, and repeat. Isn’t that enough…?" Silence. "No way. Focus on the arms and legs, but what about the brain?" A desperate rebuttal. "The head? No matter how exceptional Ah-ryeon's healing ability is, regenerating a beheaded head is extremely challenging." "Oh please. Who said anything about extracting the entire head at once? I’m not an idiot." "What??" "Just slightly cut the brain, heal it, then slightly cut again, heal, and piece it together slowly…" Silence. "This plan came from Dok-seo?" "Ah, yes. She boldly proclaimed, [I’ve found the only happy ending!] with such confidence..." "Dok-seo!" I cried out. I could feel the gratitude and respect I'd accumulated for Oh Dok-seo melting away like ice cream in the summer heat of Daegu. "So then…" Noh Do-hwa chuckled. "Where would you like to start cutting...?" "……." "An arm? A leg? Or if you have the habit of eating the tasteless bits first when eating curry, do you want to go for the head...?" "……." "Still, rest easy. At least there’s no doll made for me." Noh Do-hwa whispered coyly. A bead of cold sweat trickled down my neck without pause. "Since we have some time before the others come down from the upper level, I’ll cut it as neatly as possible. Decide which part you’d like to start with..." "……." Alias, Undertaker. Real name, Go Yo-il. Perhaps, quiet/yo/il. It was a crisis of a lifetime. And in this moment, I realized that having many lifetimes also meant having many crises of a lifetime. Though it was not a realization I welcomed.