Chapter 127
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Sacrifice I
Shin No-Ah
1
Let's talk about the end of our world again today.
2
Always, after regression begins and exactly fifteen years pass, peace and stability gradually come to the Korean Peninsula.
Of course, regarding the word "peace on the Korean Peninsula," foreigners and locals have famously had different reactions since long ago.
"Siren? What is this? An air raid? Did the Korean War break out?"
"No. It's daily life."
"What?"
Even when other nations peacefully harvested mackerel and herring from the sea, the specialty of the East Sea was missile parts.
The apocalypse, where the world was dyed by the Void, was no different. Even in Busan, the undisputed largest city on the Korean Peninsula, power outages occurred every other day whenever people got bored, and monsters held family reunions both inside and outside the city.
Experienced Koreans were prepared to humbly accept reality, thinking, "Hmm, still seems pretty peaceful compared to usual?"
Foreigners were different.
For most regions, the "15th year" was the point when civilization began to meet its end with no way to turn things back.
[Mr. Undertaker.]
"Yes?"
[A monster wave has been observed in North Korea. Currently, it is estimated to be moving south from the Gando region toward the Korean Peninsula interior.]
Monster waves.
A phenomenon where all monsters gather and surge in like a tsunami.
Countless nations and societies perished due to these monsters. Russia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, China……
The Korean Peninsula was no exception.
[16th hour since monster wave observation. The Eastern Holy Kingdom continues to resist in North Korea, but the final defense line is in danger.]
[Final defense line fallen. Pyongyang urban warfare has begun.]
[Mogwang-seo Christ Cathedral has collapsed. Just now, it was swallowed by the monster wave. Number of Awakeners in downtown Pyongyang rapidly decreasing.]
[Ah. Light from the cathedral. The light... keeps flashing. It is estimated that Mogwang-seo is repeatedly dying.]
[Believers of the Resurrection Church in downtown Pyongyang have launched their final charge. Soon, all Awakeners observable through "Clairvoyance" will be annihilated. Six, five, four, three, two... One.]
[Pyongyang, annihilated.]
[Monster wave continues southward.]
Even skipping past playthroughs where they were torn apart by the Ten Legs or swept away by meteor showers, even overcoming those, humanity ultimately could not avoid destruction.
Danger Level 4. Ocean-class.
Monster waves weren't even monsters with unique gimmicks like meteor showers or Avici.
True to their name, monster waves suited simple "monsters" better than bizarre "anomalies."
The reason these creatures—no, this creature—was powerful was simply one thing.
[Monster wave entering Seoul imminently. Number of monsters swallowed by the wave approximately 500,000. Estimated at about 500,000.]
[Jamsu Bridge. Detonating.]
Overwhelming "numbers."
3
"100,000. 200,000. 500,000. In severe cases, it's tantamount to an army of a million. It's just a monster with no countermeasures."
"Hmm……."
Naturally, whenever I held secret meetings, I shared this information with the Blood Alliance members.
In every playthrough, No Do-ha, who always got recruited into my "Regression Alliance," groaned as if annoyed.
"Is there no separate strategy……?"
"There is. According to the information I've gathered so far, the location where monster waves first appear is here, Istanbul, Turkey. It appeared exactly one day after I regressed."
"Oh……?"
"The monster wave when it first starts appearing in Istanbul isn't actually that troublesome. Only about 1,000 monsters gather, you see."
"A thousand. Hmm, then isn't that a range the Undertaker Awakener could defeat barely on his own……?"
"Exactly. So next playthrough, I plan to grab only the Saintess and head straight to Istanbul as soon as we drop at Busan Station."
The Saintess, who had been quietly sipping bagged coffee beside us, looked up in surprise.
"What?"
No Do-ha and I looked at the Saintess. Then at each other again.
"Is it necessary to bring the Saintess? The longer the Constellations stay silent, the more the Awakeners will run wild……"
"I need to fight with the map turned on too. It'd be fine to go with support, but even so, crossing Eurasia with a high-IQ psychopath is a bit much even for me. I'll defeat it as quickly as possible and return."
"Heh. Well, I understand. Then I'll prepare a 'protocol that can withstand at least the first month even while the Undertaker Awakener and Saintess are away' for the next playthrough……."
The Saintess cautiously raised her hand.
"Um. I'm sorry. I, overseas travel that far is a bit... Mr. Undertaker? Chief Manager No Do-ha. My opinion is――."
The apocalypse was too harsh a time for a hikikomori homebody's opinion to be respected.
Next playthrough. I carried the Saintess on my back and crossed the Eurasian continent.
As if the endless aura training had been for exactly this moment, my footwork was literally on another level of movement technique.
"Tell me anytime if it's too difficult."
"……! W-wait, a little- Mr. Undertaker. Just a little slower, hee-"
"I'm glad you seem fine."
Just 113 hours.
That was the time it took to skip across the Void, where all sorts of terrifying monsters swarmed and tactical nuclear bombs poured down whenever bored, and arrive in Istanbul, Turkey.
It was truly fortunate that the Saintess had mastered [Time Stop]. Even essential human desires like sleep could be satisfied in an instant by "clicking" time to a stop.
Me? I was fine without sleep for up to six days.
"Saintess. I'm sorry to ask this right after we arrive, but please use the Awakeners' sight to check if any monster wave remnants are found and tell me immediately."
"...I just decided I'm never traveling with Mr. Undertaker again."
"Don't worry. When we return to the Korean Peninsula, I'll drive you back even more quickly!"
"……."
Istanbul, one of the most fundamentally rich cities in the world, was facing overtourism thanks to the "monster wave."
Monsters of different personalities and types mixed together like filthy water to form a tsunami. It wasn't just a metaphor—from a distance, it really resembled a "black-colored wave."
However, it was worth pulling the travel ticket as quickly as possible; the black wave still undulated only west of Istanbul.
At this level, I could handle it alone.
Myself, Kang Lim.
"No! How can this be. Who on earth are you……?"
"Thank you! Friend who came from afar! I will never, absolutely forget that you helped us this time!"
The locals, who had been planning a recapture operation across the Bosphorus Strait, couldn't contain their gratitude.
The monster wave was successfully subjugated. Although both governments had collapsed, it was a moment when "brotherhood" was forged once again between Turks and Koreans.
I lightly filmed a national pride drama, then returned to my comrade.
"You worked hard, Saintess. Still, we've defeated a monster that would have grown to Ocean-class, so isn't the meaning profound? Let's return to our hometown quickly and share this joyful news."
"Ah……. Ah……."
"Seeing the Saintess rejoice as well, my heart is truly satisfied."
"Ah……. Aah……. Ah……."
We safely returned home.
Everyone became happy.
And exactly 17 years later, including Busan, the entire Korean Peninsula was covered by the pitch-black wave of monsters and perished.
"Hey. What the, fuck, you crazy regressor bastard. You said you subjugated it……?"
"Ah, I'm sorry."
Those were No Do-ha's and my last words.
4
What was the problem?
To start with the conclusion, "monster waves" weren't a phenomenon that occurred only in Istanbul.
It just happened to appear in Istanbul first by chance. As long as certain conditions were met, "monster waves" could appear anytime, anywhere.
"Conditions... what kind of conditions……?"
"It turns out, once the Void becomes larger than a certain size, it occurs unconditionally."
In Istanbul, a Void occurred right in the middle of the city. A similar case to Seoul.
However, unlike Seoul which simply swept the surface, the internal size of Istanbul's Void was abnormally huge.
Roughly estimated, an area the size of the Mediterranean Sea spread inside the Void. Inside the Great Void named "Constantinople," virtual Crusader monsters swarmed.
"Even if we somehow block the Turkish side, it's useless. Once civilization starts breaking down in earnest, Voids become as common as things you'd trip over. Germany, India, Russia, Mongolia, monster waves can occur anywhere."
"Haah... then how do we subjugate it……?"
"We should consider it virtually impossible to subjugate."
Right.
This was something even I, a regressor, couldn't do anything about. The power of "simple numbers" was that formidable.
"It's impossible to worry about the entire Eurasian continent when just handling the Korean Peninsula region is already overwhelming."
"Well, that's true……."
"Yes. Of course, if we somehow defend against the massive monster army pouring in from Manchuria, survival itself is possible."
The problem was.
"But monster waves don't end after occurring once—they continue to appear periodically. Sometimes a month. Sometimes at weekly intervals. When defending against waves of monsters numbering in the hundreds of thousands... no matter how much I lead from the front, damage is bound to accumulate."
"……"
"Awakeners are never invincible, after all."
As military strength gets chipped away bit by bit, eventually a point comes when it becomes too burdensome to block the monster wave's southward advance any longer.
You can buy time. You can delay.
But someday, you will definitely reach the "terminus." Whether you want to or not.
The National Road Management Bureau meeting room fell silent.
No Do-ha let out a hollow laugh.
"Isn't this a bit rigged……?"
It was only bearable because No Do-ha laughed it off.
We kept this information secret. If the fact that such a "guaranteed bad ending" awaited humanity's future spread widely, countless humans would have despaired.
The Ten Legs or meteor showers at least existed as individuals. They could be killed.
But monsters that only existed as a collective—appearing like a natural phenomenon anytime? How could anyone possibly endure such an existence?
"Is there no way to use Mogwang-seo's Resurrection Church somehow……?"
The plan to utilize the Eastern Holy Kingdom as a puppet state was proposed against this background as well.
From No Do-ha's perspective, he probably wanted to set up at least a "human barrier" in the north. A means to delay the monster wave's southward advance even a little.
It was an effective method, but it didn't become a perfect solution.
I also sank into deep thought.
"Mmm."
Surrounded on all sides.
As playthroughs accumulated, I steadily gathered strategies against other monsters, while always pondering the ultimate solution for monster waves. But brilliant ideas just wouldn't come.
Drip drip—
As I sat on the sofa in the café hideout, imitating Rodin's "The Thinker," Sim A-ryeon with green hair approached.
"G-guild master……."
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"T-the meteor shower monster you told me about before. That. I finished drawing the illustration today……. I want to post it on the SG Net board under [Librarian of the Great Library], i-is that okay……?"
Our A-ryeon wants to play Constellation again.
I readily nodded. Ever since witnessing A-ryeon fall into a 16-bit dot in the "Logout Game," I had become a bit soft toward this child.
"Go ahead."
"Wow— G-guild master is the best! Hehe. It's so fun acting like a Constellation by prophesying with monsters that haven't even appeared yet……!"
Just as Sim A-ryeon was rolling away to dash toward her hometown (the world of the net).
——A certain inspiration flashed through my mind.
"……!"
It was an enormously profound realization.
If I had majored in art, I would have slapped Picasso's cheek right then and there; if I believed in Buddhism, I would have immediately laid out a lotus cushion right next to Shakyamuni.
"A-ryeon, wait a moment!"
"Yes, yees?"
"Just asking. If all humans living on this earth, or at least the people of the Korean Peninsula, came to hate you, how do you think you'd feel?"
"What……?"
"Of course, it's not that they really hate you, A-ryeon. Let's say, well. The forced-exposure villain. Or [Librarian of the Great Library]. The being you're acting as receives the most vicious hatred and contempt in this world."
"G-guild master. Did you just call my nickname 'forced-exposure villain' in your head?"
"That's not important right now. Just answer my question! Quickly."
"Hmm……."
Sim A-ryeon tapped her chin with her index finger.
"I-if they specifically hate me... that's naturally unpleasant as a human being……."
"Unpleasant but?"
"But for something I'm acting as to monopolize that kind of immense hatred... I think it's n-not bad. But why?"
"No, I understand. Thanks for answering. Now go and immerse yourself in your villain acts."
"I'm n-not a villain!"
In the next playthrough, or rather the 217th playthrough, I realized my unprecedented idea.
After regressing, recruiting Seo Gyu, Sim A-ryeon, and the Saintess as comrades was no different from previous playthroughs.
But right at the moment when the solitary gourmet Ten Legs was about to run rampant in earnest on the Korean Peninsula.
[The 'Saintess of National Salvation' is in sorrow and announces that darkness has come to the humans of this land.]
The Awakeners of the Korean Peninsula received a completely new message they had never witnessed before.
[The 'Saintess of National Salvation' advises all Awakeners to check Constellation Net immediately.]
The Awakeners, puzzled by the ambiguous message, connected to SG Net.
And.
The moment they connected, they witnessed a certain post appearing as a "popup window" on the site.
――――――――――
Author: 'Collector of All Monsters'
Hello. Human Awakeners active in the Korean Peninsula.
I am a Constellation who has been paying attention to your activities.
For you who are achieving significant results compared to other regions, I have judged that a slightly more... "troublesome selection" is necessary for the Korean Peninsula. (Laughter)
Starting today, an apostle of this Constellation called 'Ten Legs' will appear in the Korean Peninsula region.
Ten Legs possesses countless tentacles. If pierced by these tentacles, it will be difficult to avoid death.
Moreover, the tentacles regenerate in real-time repeatedly, so even if you succeed in cutting one tentacle, other tentacles will simply be created.
Will you be able to safely withstand this trial as well?
This is truly, a very interesting "experiment" that I've conceived. (Laughter)
I wish you good luck.
――――――――――
And some time later, the Ten Legs really did appear and cause numerous casualties.
"Kyaaaaah!"
Sim A-ryeon, who had been connected to SG Net under the nickname [Collector of All Monsters], rejoiced. Yes. Not a scream, but jubilation.
"G-guild master! Jackpot! Total jackpot! Power! The voices and curses of people who h-hate me... are flowing in this much, this much……!"
"Mm."
"I feel like I could do anything right now! Oh my! Guild master! I feel completely stronger……!"
That's right.
Why hide it?
A project to make all the major monsters that would appear on the Korean Peninsula in the future appear as if summoned by a specific Constellation.
And thus, a system to naturally direct the grudge and resentment held toward those monsters toward a "mastermind."
Operation name