Infinite Regressor, Chapter 437 - I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

1. There is an epilogue. 2. The White Night failed to ignite. The great void that had reduced everything south of the Han River to ashes thousands of times without fail, vanished without a trace. Most people probably won't even realize such a phenomenon occurred. "Come on, come on. Everyone, gather here and take a shot of Udumbara!" Of course, that's only referring to 'most people'. "You're moving too slow over there! Hurry up!" *Beep—!* Oh Dok-seo blew her whistle. Despite the grumbling, the awakened ones completed the containment measures under her leadership. "Meow. Once you take this, you'll lose the cat ears, the magical girl costume, and even the condition of ending your sentences with 'meow' will disappear...." "Don't you like that?" "No, it's freaking great, meow." For a long time, awakening equated to power. It was a privilege of those who wielded their wounds inflicted by the world as a means to reign over others. No matter how noble their claims to protect humanity, giving up the power they held was incredibly hard. "Well, let's start with me...." Noh Do-hwa managed what was difficult for others. While some awakened ones hesitated, she was the first to step forward, extending her arm. "Oh." Oh Dok-seo gave a mischievous smile. "Are you sure about this, Captain? Once you take this syringe, Udumbara will bloom in your stomach and turn into plum blossoms in a few days, digesting away. Installing any biological prosthetics for patients will be a permanent 'bye-bye'." "It doesn't matter...." Noh Do-hwa chuckled. "They'll find their own way to live, I guess...." "The captain is truly something! Alright then, just a little prick— here it comes!" The nation's road management captain set an example by going first. Next, the saintess of the north smiled brightly and administered the shot herself. Nobody else dared to act out of greed. 'And though the previous memories are still somewhat hazy...' Those who have wished for peace more than anyone. They faintly recollected the thousands of deaths in the past. And now, if the only poison left in the world was their own extraordinary abilities, they were willing and ready to return to their normal lives. After every awakened one took their preventative shot, my turn finally came. “…….” However, when it was my turn to receive the shot, Oh Dok-seo's expression was a bit suspicious. Just as I was about to ask why the odd face, Oh Dok-seo quickly lifted her head and announced to the awakened ones around us. "Alright! This closed school is a place I borrowed from Mayor Jeongsang-guk for the whole week! Inside the school, there's a buffet and lots of drinks prepared for our victors, so go and enjoy to your heart's content!" "Ooooooh!" "That's Oh Dok-seo for you! I knew we could trust you!" "Author, we love you!" The party began. The June temperature was neither too hot nor too chilly. If it got warm, the breeze cooled things down, and if it was cold, the booze warmed us up. The party continued into the night. There were just so many stories to share. "Hey, let's record our talks on video before we forget them!" "Oh, that's a brilliant idea!" Everywhere the awakened ones busily created their small time capsules of memories. As the night air filled with the sounds of laughter and the scent of alcohol, the dreamlike memories that had momentarily tinged their minds began to fade. Truly, it was like a midsummer night's dream. If they could ever step back into such a dream again, those memories might return vividly―― but that abyss had already disappeared. "Saintess Sim Ah-ryeon! We really owe you so much, and thinking we'll forget it like this... sniff, tears fill my eyes...." "Please just remember that our sincerity was true, Saintess!" "Ah. Yes, yes...." Over in a corner of the sports field, former holy knights of the Eastern Divine Nation were sobbing. When they spotted me approaching, they quickly stopped their crying. "Undertaker! Please, come over!" "You need to have a drink with us!" "Ugh, ugh... Guild Leader, these guys are too hot-blooded.... P-Please save me." I smiled as I shared a drink with them. "Thank you for welcoming me. But are you sure about this, everyone?" "Huh? What do you mean, sure?" "The Eastern Divine Nation, led by Mo Gwang-seo the Christ, was ultimately a satellite nation that I orchestrated from start to finish. Even if you're angry at me for deceiving you, I have nothing to say." "Aah." One of the holy knights nodded. When Seok-hwa the monk once offered himself in self-immolation. This was the same holy knight who guided him and used the nickname [The Kind One] on SG Net. "Well, we may have been zealots, but the grace bestowed upon us by the saintess was also the result of your deeds, Undertaker, wasn't it?" "Until the saintess arrived, the north was a forsaken land of death anyway." Another holy knight chimed in, a native of North Korea. "Though the memories are now blurred, I remember. The winters were terribly cold. I'd never been so hungry during winter before...." "It was hell. Even if others might hold grievances, we can't possibly be angry at either the saintess or at you, Undertaker!" I paused for a moment, then silently held up my glass. The holy knights clinked their cups together, smiling. "Cheers!" "Haha... G-Guild Leader. Please save me. These folks keep drinking from daylight... buuurp." "The saintess is throwing up!" "Fetch some water! Water!" People were in a panic. Since vomiting heroines were an outdated fetish well beyond my tastes, I quickly escaped to another location. "Oh, Undertaker." "Huh—? Isn't it Teacher?" However, there's no paradise for the escaped. The place I happened to flee to was where Dang Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, with others from Samcheon's World and Baekhwa High School, were sprawled out. It was truly a tragic sight. Not one or two, but more than a dozen were swimming on the ground. "What on earth are you doing?" "Us? Uh, dueling." Dang Seo-rin replied nonchalantly, her hiccup echoing through the dim light. Only then did I notice her face, flushed with drink, and the unmistakable whiff of alcohol emanated from her. “Dueling... suddenly?” "It’s not sudden at all, teacheeer. Hic. As everyone's memories start fading awaaay, the rivalries we've had for tens of thousands of years will vanish toooo. And that's— that's—." "Regrettable?" "No! We have to score the last hit!" Cheon Yo-hwa's eyes sparkled with determination. "The capital of Korea should be Sejong City! It's a given, official! How can Busan ever pretend to be our equal!" “Excuse me? If you count all the past iterations, the period when Busan was the capital surpasses that of any other capital in the entire Korean peninsula! Hic.” “…….” They were in the midst of the most pointless argument imaginable. "Teacher, which side do you..." "Oh dear. Oh Dok-seo called me over, and I completely forgot. I better not be late, so I'll head over first." “Teacher?!” Lingering any longer would have meant getting dragged into their verbal chaos without a doubt, so I made a quick exit. There was a clamor from behind as they shouted my name, but I ignored it. It was likely the noise from the ongoing bickering between Samcheon’s World and Baekhwa High School. Yep. Without a doubt. “Hmm?” At least, I hadn't been lying about having a late-night appointment with Oh Dok-seo. However, it was on the stairs leading up to the school rooftop—the most fitting otaku-esque location choice for Oh Dok-seo—where I encountered someone unexpected. It was Yu Ji-won. "Oh my. Mr. Matiz. I would have thought you'd be enjoying the wild party on the sports ground, but where are you hurrying off to?" "You have some time alone here, huh? I thought the road management crew would be drinking over there." "I am savoring some time to myself." She swirled a paper cup in her hand. “Of course, until a moment ago, I wasn't alone. There were two of us.” Looking over, there was a lone, ownerless paper cup left on the windowsill where she leaned. I was intrigued. “Were you having a drink contest with someone? Just the two of you?” “Yes.” "That's a rare sight. I don’t recall you having drink-offs with anyone other than me. Who was it?” “It was Ji Soo.” “…….” "Yes. My own adopted daughter." Yu Ji-won held up a wine bottle. "How about it? Care for a drink?" "Certainly." She poured me some wine. We exchanged a silent toast, our cups meeting more like a gentle, lingering embrace than a clink. "Ji Soo joined the final raid too, yet she didn't fight directly. She simply observed me the whole time." "…I see." “Yes. And a little while ago, before the memories from our previous lives started fading, she came to find me.” I kept quiet. The relationship between Yu Ji-won and Kim Ji Soo was something only the two of them could resolve. My involvement had ended a long time ago, and I was no longer in a position to meddle or offer guidance. Whether they chose to share how their story concluded—that decision lay entirely with them, not me. And so I waited. For Yu Ji-won's words. Or her silence. “…….” Reading my intention, Yu Ji-won faintly smiled. That singular smile seemed to reverse the passage of time between us from June 17th to a slightly older summer. “She told me she was thankful.” "Thankful…" It was a completely unexpected sentiment. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Yu Ji-won's actions had shattered Kim Ji Soo's life. And here was gratitude? "In iterations where I didn’t run the Misfortune Workshop, Ji Soo would die silently, without a whisper, at the hands of anomalies. It seems memories of those deaths flashed before her in the depths of that dreamscape." “…….” “But the gratitude she expressed was half genuine, and half an affirmation. Do you happen to know what kind of affirmation?” I pondered briefly before responding. “...Before demanding an apology from you, Ji Soo probably chose to offer gratitude first. If someone seeks genuine sincerity from another, unless they’re a fraud, they need to show sincerity themselves.” “Exactly.” A breeze wafted by. Yu Ji-won brushed her long hair back with the back of her hand. “So I expressed my apology, too.” “…….” “It wasn’t out of sheer guilt. Neither was it a calculated move to smooth things over to my advantage….” She murmured. “It’s just that I hadn’t been for Ji Soo what Mr. Matiz had been for the younger me. And I apologized for that.” “…….” “I thought I was handling things perfectly. As Ji Soo pointed out, I only ever chose children destined for gruesome deaths without my intervention to run the Misfortune Workshop.” Yu Ji-won continued. "Whatever hardship they faced, if only they could awaken, if they could escape their unjust deaths, wasn't that enough rationale?" Her logic was, indeed, formidable. There was a seasoned caution in her plans, wary of failure, ensuring she wouldn’t be easily caught the moment things went wrong. "But in hindsight, it wasn’t any different from what the world inflicted on me during my childhood." “…….” “In that respect, I could sincerely apologize. I consider it a grievous mistake. And so, I did apologize.” “I see.” “Yes.” “What did Ji Soo say?” “She listened and replied that she understands. Then she nodded, thanked me again, and departed.” “…….” "She’s a strong and upright child. Even if her memories fade, she’ll carry on with that strength of character." "Yes. She surely will." Another gust of wind blew by. All these stories had transpired wherever I stood. No, it was more like I couldn’t help but be present wherever stories unfolded. For I was a regressor who had experienced countless lives. "There will now be stories emerging that I do not know." If defining someone as 'you are such-and-such' is a narrative—a regressor's power and authority—then, indeed, the days have come when my authority has let go of itself. "But still..." There existed stories not just told by me, but shared together. I patted Yu Ji-won on the shoulder. She blinked and then quietly rested her head against my shoulder. "Hmm." "What are you thinking?" "I think that the sound of [Mr. Matiz] suits me best." Yu Ji-won looked up at me. "Thank you for always waiting until I made mistakes. Mr. Matiz." "……I'm sorry for often burdening you with the role of the Priestess of Leviathan." "No." A small shake of her head. "That was the second fortune given to my life." "Second? What was the first one?" "Being born." Yu Ji-won smiled. A smile reserved only for me. "I am happy to have been born into a world where you exist, Mr. Matiz." 3. After sharing various stories with Yu Ji-won and bidding farewell, I ascended the stairs. When I opened the door to the promised rooftop— "Oh, Mister, good night. Good night. Welcome." Oh Dok-seo had taken over the entire spacious rooftop as if it were her own. Though, just like with Yu Ji-won's situation moments ago, it couldn’t fully be considered her solitary space given the circumstances. "…Why do you have a can of beer in front of the laptop? Infinite Metagame can’t drink, after all." "Hmm? No? She's drinking." "What." Oh Dok-seo turned the laptop screen to show me. Indeed, there on the screen, a pixelated girl with white hair was holding a can of beer. -Why? What's wrong? The cheap, low-quality speaker crackled and spluttered. -Am I not allowed to drink or something? "…No. I mean, never mind." -Your eyes aren't very pleasant, you know. "As long as you're happy, that’s all that matters." If she can call a cyber 2D pixel beer "drinking" and feel good about it. "Oh boy." Oh Dok-seo leapt from the rooftop garden. Not content with a simple jump, she soared through the air, executed a double spin, and landed gracefully like a gymnast. I couldn't help but applaud. "Wow. Our Dok-seo. I can clearly see you've reached a different level from the days I knew you." "I'm quite something. So... do you have any guess why I called you out here in the dead of night?" "For starters, having a secret conversation in a school rooftop setting would be half the reason, I’d wager." "Ah. That's indeed an important reason. You're right." Oh Dok-seo giggled. "And the other half?" "…The Udumbara-Plum Blossom vaccine you developed with the Sword Empress and Ah-ryeon. Since I’ve received it, it’s normal for me to lose my awakening abilities and for my complete memory ability to fade." "Yep." "Yet, I still vividly see the memories of your deaths. Even though it's past midnight. While other awakenees are gradually losing both their abilities and memories." "That's correct." "……." "What you're thinking right now is also correct." I fell silent. The moonlight and clouds played a game of tag with the shadows on the rooftop. Slowly, I spoke. "The shot given during the day—it was fake." "Yes." Oh Dok-seo nodded. Ever so lightly. "More precisely, only ‘fake’ shots were given to you and the core members of the Regressor’s Alliance." "……." "Do you understand what that means, Mister?" Oh Dok-seo smiled. "Now, the only awakened ones left in this world are us."