I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell-Chapter 326

Editor: echo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

◈ I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell

Chapter 326

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The Skeptic XIX

The scenery receded into the distance.

Through the wide-open front door, I could see Go Yuri laughing like a broken radio. Behind her stood Ji-won, who had momentarily paused while carrying containers of side dishes.

All of it moved away from me at high speed.

– Mr. Matiz?

– Mr. ■■■.

– Sun■■.

The farther I got from the front entrance, the faster time accelerated.

A small hill. A scene of me riding side by side on bicycles with Ji-won. A blue convenience store sign written in Japanese, where we bought oolong tea and split it half and half.

– Mr. Matiz.

– Sunbae...

A view of me leaving Ji-won’s hometown, a hillside shantytown. Then a shot of me leaning against an intercity bus, dragging a single trunk suitcase, arriving in Sejong City.

The moment I first met the twin sisters.

I got on a train heading to Busan, but... I definitely wasn’t alone.

Someone was in the seat next to mine.

– Mr. ■■■.

Someone’s lips moved.

“Sunbae!”

I opened my eyes, and right in front of me was a girl wearing a black sailor-style uniform with bright orange hair gathered into a long side-ponytail.

“Hurry, snap out of it, sunbae!”

It was the older of the twin sisters, Cheon Yo-hwa.

“Yo-hwa...” I breathed. “What— What’s going on?”

“Aha! Good, you’re back!”

Cheon Yo-hwa pressed one hand onto my shoulder and used her other to firmly push down on the back of my right hand, which was linked with the sleeping Ji-won’s left. In other words, the three of us were all stacking our hands together.

“Make sure you don’t let go,” Cheon Yo-hwa said, her voice urgent. “The past you just witnessed, those were reconstructed memories drawn from this silver-haired girl’s mind. If you let go of her hand now, she’ll be lost forever.”

“Cheon Yo-hwa, you...”

My lips moved. They were still moist with the ghost of a kiss.

Subjectively, I’d spent months in that flashback. In reality, only a split second must have passed. Even so, I couldn’t even begin to focus on what Cheon Yo-hwa was telling me. Something far more critical had suddenly filled my sight.

“The noose around your neck...”

“Huh? A noose?” She frowned and said, “Sorry, I have no idea what you mean. Anyway, forget about that. We’re in trouble right now.”

She truly had no idea, yet around her neck was a transparent water-bug noose, exactly like the one I’d seen in that past illusion. If that noose wasn’t something Cheon Yo-hwa herself had reconstructed, then...

“Look out the window, sunbae.”

By reflex, I turned my head. My eyes shot wide open.

“Tentacles...?”

This was the Four-Seasons Classroom, the place where Cheon Yo-hwa had been subjected to Time Seal. It was a sanctuary that no one could enter by conventional means, especially since Cheon Yo-hwa, who had devoured the powers of two Outer Gods, was living here. Calling it a divine realm wouldn’t be an overstatement.

Ordinarily, the four classroom windows should each show a scene of spring, summer, fall, and winter. But now, beyond the windows, bloodstained tentacles were writhing. The birch trees outside had all been snagged by those tentacles. They each shuddered in torment, emitting a pained moan.

Thump! Thump!

Some tentacles splattered against the glass, hurling the whole of their weight against the windows. Each impact made the windows tremble.

Red-flesh tentacles. I’d seen them a few times before.

“Those are... It’s Go Yuri’s...”

“Yep, the pink entity.” Cheon Yo-hwa stared out the window with me. A irritated tsk clicked off her tongue. “This is bad. I’m blocking them for now, but it was a real close call. There’s no way that pink one should’ve tracked this place down...”

“Oh, right. I forgot to mention. When I cut through Leviathan’s rain to get here, I had some help from Go Yuri.”

“What? Seriously, sunbae. What were you thinking—?” Cheon Yo-hwa cut herself off and frowned. “No, actually, I guess that’s the only way you could’ve managed it. I understand. But that doesn’t make this any less dangerous, sunbae.”

I didn’t disagree. “Still, it’s strange. Usually, Go Yuri only brings out that fleshy pink form in a confirmed world-destruction scenario. Why now?”

“Sorry, I really don’t know.”

Thump!

The tentacles rose in numbers and mass, joining the others as a singular force to slam against the windows. Oddly enough, the glass where the tentacles struck was smeared with blood, as though a fingerprint had been left behind. That crimson fluid pulsed and wobbled, forming the shape of a hand.

Splish. Splosh. Slap, splat. Splish. Splosh.

In an instant, dozens—no—hundreds of “red handprints” were plastered across the long row of classroom windows. Then the handprints raised their claws.

Screeeech! Scrape, screech, screeee!

The nails of those crimson handprints began scraping the glass all at once, at every angle, with all weights of force.

Cheon Yo-hwa’s face darkened. “This is bad, bad, bad... I’d rather get devoured by that weird Infinite Metagame data thief than be eaten by this pink thing!”

“No way to stop it?”

She whined, pursing her lips in frustration. “It’s all your fault, you know, sunbae!”

“Huh?”

“At that stupid Mastermind Simulation Lab, you messed around with those pink entities. If you hadn’t, none of this would be happening! They must’ve analyzed part of me back then!”

What the hell? I was at a loss for words.

We’d wiped out that Mastermind in the 688th cycle. Now it was the 776th. Almost two thousand years had passed, so long that it felt like ancient history to me. Any country’s legal system would say the statute of limitations had long since expired.

“Excuse me, O Great Regressor? Hate to break it to you, but from my point of view, that was only a few days ago!”

Screeeeech!

“Kyaaaa! It’s cracking! It’s cracking! The glass is cracking! Sunbae, we can’t hold out much longer! Three minutes, tops!”

I swallowed. Just up until we’d headed to the Tower of Babel, Go Yuri had been docile, or at least seemed so. I couldn’t figure out why she’d suddenly turned hostile right after reconstructing Ji-won’s past.

“If we really have no way to escape that sea of tentacles...” I said quietly.

“Yeah.”

Cheon Yo-hwa turned to look at me. Her red irises settled into a grim calm.

“Please die here, sunbae. Reset the cycle. If you let yourself get devoured by that thing, and only afterward regress, it’ll be too late. I can’t really put it into words, but... I’ve got a gut feeling that something truly irreversible would happen.”

I felt the same.

Way back in the 89th cycle, when I was killed by Go Yuri, another “Go Yuri” had appeared in the deepest depths of my subconscious. Luckily, that subconscious Go Yuri never seemed too hostile toward me... but there was no guarantee I’d be lucky again. If I died at her hands once again...

Who knew what permanent damage could deal?

There was a shattering crack on either side of me.

A spiderweb of fractures spread across the glass. Simultaneously, thin fissures began to take form on Cheon Yo-hwa’s skin and her black sailor uniform.

I stared at her, unable to speak.

“Sorry, sunbae. I wanted to discuss all the info you’ve learned, but there’s no time.” Cheon Yo-hwa squeezed my hand a bit more tightly. “Without me, you’ll still be able to figure out a lot of truths on your own.”

“Yo-hwa...”

“Remember, sunbae. As I told you before, the memories you lost from your 1st through 4th cycles are each a blank canvas.”

Crack! Ka-creeeeak, crack!

Hairline fractures continued erupting across Cheon Yo-hwa’s body. Blood-red handprints followed in their wake on her pristine black uniform—one on her knee, one on her shoulder, then another.

“Once you successfully gather all four canvases, your past will finally be restored. You’ve already inscribed not just me onto your canvas, but also this silver-haired one... That leaves two more pages.”

Splat.

A bloody handprint stained half of Cheon Yo-hwa’s white face. Its red fluid slithered downward, and the fingers formed claw tips that dug into her neck.

They tightened around her throat.

“I love you, sunbae. And... I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

Crash!

All the windows of the classroom shattered. The glass that had held the memories of spring, summer, fall, and winter burst into shards and scattered.

The red tentacles and handprints, having finally broken the barrier, charged inside with a sense of exultation.

“Till next time... See you then.”

A spurt of red erupted from Cheon Yo-hwa’s neck.

Just before those red handprints could choke her to death, she took her own life. I did the same.

Cheon Yo-hwa’s head fell at nearly the same speed that my own vision blurred. Yu Ji-won’s silver hair also tumbled to the floor.

All three of us, everyone present in that classroom, died at the same time.

“Give... back.”

The red flesh tried to envelop us, but...

It missed by a hair’s breadth. The instant we died, the red flesh lost its prey, and it began thrashing wildly, smashing the classroom in rage.

My field of view tinted red.

“...■■ give back. That... return ■■■. ■■■ ■? ■■■ ■. ■ ■■.”

Then I closed my eyes.

Thus ended my 776th life.

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: echo

https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

Tick.

A clock was ticking.

June 17th.

[13:59]

Busan Station’s concourse.

The clock there silently declared midday in early summer.

Yes. No matter what I tried, I could never rewind past this point, the absolute limit of time. My starting marker.

The beginning of a new cycle had safely arrived.

“Wha— What? What is this place?”

“Huh? Busan Station? But I was just in the park a second ago...”

“Reverend? Reverend, where are you?”

Murmurs spread through the crowd, just like usual. Before long, the Tutorial Fairy would appear and herald the beginning of the slaughter.

But before that...

I took out my smartphone and used the camera as a mirror. There, in the reflection of a corner of the concourse, the phone also caught Go Yuri standing at a distance.

She... looked normal. LIke she always did, tilting her head curiously, chatting with the people around her.

‘Good.’

The regression had succeeded.

Go Yuri’s monstrosity hadn’t managed to latch onto me. She’d missed me by a fraction of a second. More than likely, Cheon Yo-hwa’s last-ditch resistance against the intrusion of that red flesh had made all the difference.

‘Still, it’s dangerous to keep watching her for long.’

I pressed the power button and turned the phone off. Everything seemed the same as previous cycles, so I presumably just needed to stick to the usual plan, rescue Seo Gyu in the optimal way, recruit Sim Ah-ryeon, then arrange to approach the Saintess.

And yet—

“Huh?”

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I froze.

The waiting hall had changed in a decisive way. This wasn’t a subtle spot-the-difference puzzle. It was blatantly obvious, happening before my very eyes.

‘The noose—’

Everyone who’d been dragged into the station had a transparent noose around their neck.

That by itself didn’t shock me—ever since I saw Cheon Yo-hwa’s noose, I’d suspected that all of humanity wore them too. After all, each person lived with a ticking clock above their head, a designated moment of strangulation.

No, the true cause of my surprise was something else entirely.

‘The nooses are... leaking color?’

I looked toward Ah-ryeon in the crowd.

“Uh, wh-what’s... Ahh... Ugh...”

Perhaps she’d been painting when she got summoned because her coat was covered in splattered paints. And at that very moment, Ah-ryeon’s hair was turning green. She was undergoing an Awakening on the spot.

In previous cycles, I had assumed that changes to hair color and eye color were just a by-product of Awakening, but the scene playing out before me was nothing like I had expected.

Slosh... Squirm...

The water-bug creatures that formed Ah-ryeon’s noose wriggled. Translucent droplets scattered, some burrowing into her hair, others into her eyes. When a droplet burst, a wave of “green” spread out.

Ah-ryeon’s hair and eyes both changed. Her plain black hair turned bright green, her ordinary brown irises now a vivid shade.

Pop, pop!

It wasn’t just Sim Ah-ryeon. All around the waiting hall, the same phenomenon was happening. Whoever Awakened, their noose’s water-bugs would shift and stain their body with a unique color.

My mouth fell open as I stared, dumbfounded.

‘What... What is all this? So it wasn’t just that Awakeners mysteriously changed their hair and eyes. The water-bugs from Leviathan... From Yu Ji-won’s noose... They were actually painting over everyone?’

A shockwave of realization rattled my brain. However, I had no time to let confusion crystallize into comprehension. There was no breather for me.

“Ah, hello there, everyone! Surprised to be summoned like this so suddenly?”

The Tutorial Fairy appeared.

“Oho? The head count’s a bit low... Anyway! You must be startled to find yourselves in a place like this, yes? But have no fear! My fairy self is here to be your friendly guide from start to finish!”

Very soon, the Tutorial Fairy would try to kill Seo Gyu. Ordinarily, I’d gather up my Aura, the unique strength some call inner energy or qi, and abduct Fairy Number 264 in the blink of an eye so that no one would notice. I’d drag the fairy someplace secluded and force her to talk. She’d initially resist, but seeing my overwhelming power would quickly deflate her.

“Th-that means you’d be a local collaborator, right? Indeed, colonial rule always needs local allies... Hweh! I designate you as our comrade!”

Then, she’d bow her head.

That was my plan, as always, so I began summoning my Aura...

And had to stop in shock.

‘What...?’

My heart pounded.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

‘Why...? Why?’

My Aura appeared around my body, the same exact deep, inky black as always.

Everyone’s Aura had a distinctive color. It was something I’d taken for granted.

‘But why are there water-bugs from this noose painting my Aura black right now?’

On that day, my old assumptions were turned upside-down.

Human “Awakenings”... The coloring of one’s hair, eyes, scent, and even one’s Aura... They weren’t one and the same phenomenon. Those changes were separate from Awakening itself.

The real culprits behind all the varied colors of Awakened humanity were the transparent water-bugs of the nooses that hung around everyone’s necks.

The very ones summoned by a 14-year-old girl named Yu Ji-won.