Chapter 13
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The Identity Unknown Ⅰ
Shin Noah
1
Regressors are human too. Human.
I was far from being an almighty god.
One need only look at Sim A-ryeon's case to understand. How was I supposed to know that a Japanese web novel-style title like "【Web Serialization Begins】I thought I was just a trash awakened one, but it turns out I'm a historic-level healer in this iteration~After saving patients from the brink of death, everyone's calling me an angel~Hey everyone, how do you all feel now after treating me like a fool?~【Released 11/11】" would unfold?
In other words, being a regressor doesn't mean knowing all secrets.
Every now and then, events that could be called unsolved mysteries or ghost stories come my way.
Events that make me think "By the way, what on earth was that?" while sipping Mr. Sho's café au lait in retrospect.
Today, I'd like to introduce one such mystery.
2
Do you believe balance exists in the world?
For example, if there are trash among humans, there are also angels.
If villains appear in internet communities, conversely, popular stars that many people want to befriend also emerge.
-[Satisfaction]CookingQueen: Do you seek peace of mind? Join the Satisfaction Guild! Our main base is in Daejeon!
CookingQueen was always popular on SG Net.
I had only heard good things about this person.
"CookingQueen? I haven't observed her for very long, but she wasn't a bad person. She takes good care of her guild members, even does volunteer work every Sunday. Personally, I think there's no awakened one as reliable and virtuous as CookingQueen."
Witness 1. Saintess.
"Ah, CookingQueen. Of course I know her. She's an amazing member. I've seen all sorts of things while running SG Net, but I've never once seen CookingQueen cause trouble. But is she boring? Not at all. She writes lots of funny humorous posts, doesn't show off. Sigh. If only all members were like CookingQueen, I wouldn't have to suffer like this……."
Witness 2. Seo Gyu.
-[Satisfaction]CookingQueen: Goryeojang-nim. I believe in the goodness planted like a seed within your heart. Why do you continue to repeat actions that hurt yourself? If you have worries, please consult with me.
-Goryeojang: Please……. Stop……. I was wrong. I'm trash, I'm a bad person, so please don't talk to me like that…….
Witness 3. Sim A-ryeon.
Awakened ones with vastly different personalities all testified in unison. That CookingQueen was a person of rare character in this day and age.
Especially the Saintess, famous for being picky when evaluating people, didn't spare her praise. Since she could observe awakened ones directly through [Thousand-Li Eye], her testimony was particularly trustworthy.
Of course, I, the one and only infinite regressor (the other one has cut their long-term vacation pass), the Undertaker, also had a good impression of CookingQueen.
-LiteratureGirl: This ZeroSugar person… has a terrible nose.
└[Satisfaction]CookingQueen: Speaking ill of others is actually an act of lowering oneself. All humans are mirrors reflecting me, and I am the mirror of all humans. Please respect and consider each other.
When those despicable ones hiding in the shadows slandered me, CookingQueen alone defended me.
I knew better than anyone how difficult it was to insist on goodness alone while everyone else committed evil.
Thus, the 89th iteration.
During this period, encouraged by the fact that "unscratched lottery" Seo Gyu had hit the jackpot, I used to recruit a different awakened one each iteration as a comrade. CookingQueen, who had proven her integrity and uprightness through previous iterations, was also one of my targets.
It wasn't because she privately took my side that I approached her.
"Hello?"
"Yes, hello."
Recruiting CookingQueen wasn't difficult. Like Seo Gyu, she was located very close by.
Right at Busan Station waiting room, where my regression always began.
CookingQueen's real body was among the 399 people summoned there.
"I thought it would be safer to move in a group. I'm organizing a party. If it's not an imposition, would you like to accompany me at least until we escape Busan Station?"
"Ah. Yes, that sounds good."
She was a woman with pink-dyed hair.
While her hair color was flashy, her demeanor was calm in contrast. The serenity of someone who had experienced many things in life but ultimately hadn't lost themselves.
There was an unbalance between her color and expression. But that awkwardness wasn't strange; rather, it was crafted into her unique charm.
"Thank you. You can call me Undertaker, or just Doctor for short. May I ask your name?"
"Go Yori."
The woman who would have been active on SG Net under the name CookingQueen in previous iterations smiled brightly, calmly, and politely.
"Please just call me Yori comfortably. Doctor."
3
To conclude, Go Yori had absolutely no combat-type abilities.
No, not just combat-type abilities—no useful abilities were discovered at all. At most, she had only awakened [Presence Concealment].
If Go Yori had talent as a sniper or assassin, [Presence Concealment] would have been a good ability. But Go Yori truly had zero talent for fighting.
"Eek. Eek! Ugh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Go Yori made a tearful face as she got hit, thwack, thwack, by slimes belonging to the weakest monsters.
Sim A-ryeon (she was also recruited to my party starting around the 51st iteration) approached and roughly tore apart the slimes.
"Unni……. You're really fucking weak……."
"Yes. It seems I have no talent."
"I-it's okay. I'll protect you!"
"Thank you, A-ryeon……."
Comradery between colleagues was visible, truly beautiful. Except for the fact that Sim A-ryeon saying this also belonged to the lowest combat power.
Nevertheless, we didn't expel Go Yori from the party.
Not because I feared the story's genre would change to an expulsion story composed of #regret #obsession #angst, but for entirely rational reasons.
"Ah. Guild Master."
5 AM. The quiet blue hour before daily life began. As I was drinking café au lait in the guild dormitory kitchen, Go Yori came down the stairs with quick light steps.
Having lived as a regressor for a long time, I still wasn't used to the title 'Guild Master.' That title was somewhat special to me.
But without showing it outwardly, I naturally returned the greeting.
"You're up early?"
"Yes. At this hour, I just naturally wake up."
Go Yori scratched her cheek with a heh-heh.
Plus 10 points.
Humans waking up early after sleeping early was the foundation of sound and healthy living. In the 100th iteration and the 1000th iteration, this principle remained unchanged.
Go Yori wandered around the kitchen.
"Guild Master, you always brew your own coffee every morning? Our guild name also has 'café' in it. Is it perhaps a hobby?"
"Yeah. It wasn't originally a hobby, but an old friend was deeply versed in this area. Somehow I ended up getting into it too."
"That's wonderful!"
Go Yori pressed both hands together to form a slanted triangle shape, then tilted her head slightly while smiling radiantly.
"I think performing a set pattern early in the morning is itself proof of sincerity. How should I put it. A declaration of will not to let time just flow away as it pleases? And yet Guild Master drinks warm coffee. Mental and physical tension releases. It's a very good pattern!"
A smile spread across my lips.
I had separate reasons for coming to like dawn, but Go Yori's words weren't wrong either.
"You and I are on the same wavelength. Are you about to water the flower bed now?"
"Yes. The hydrangeas bloomed beautifully! I was worried about how they'd take to the soil, but the blue color came out so bright, I was happy!"
Plus 30 points.
Lazy humans spray laziness-virus around them, while diligent humans emit effort-vitamins.
Cultivating the flower bed without anyone asking was already excellent. She spoke so logically and prettily that just watching made my heart feel pleased.
Even though when I said things like this in front of party members, the response was somehow lackluster.
"Um, hyung-nim."
"What is it, Seo Gyu."
"Hyung-nim, the age difference between us isn't that big, but when I hear you speak, you sound exactly like some company department head……."
Heh.
When I furrowed my brow, Seo Gyu glanced away.
The Saintess, who received the coffee I handed over (a masterpiece I brewed to taste as similar to bagged coffee as possible), nodded.
"I think Undertaker-ssi's opinion is correct. All virtues stem from habit, and habit begins from sincerity. Any virtue, without sincerity, tends to degenerate into dilettantish self-display."
"Right? Exactly. Seo Gyu, you should learn from Go Yori or the Saintess-nim too."
Seo Gyu made a subtle expression.
"…Strange. Our guild's average age is almost the lowest in the industry, so why is the atmosphere like this……?"
Though he grumbled like that, affection for Go Yori wasn't limited to me but applied to all party members.
"Go Yori-ssi! Let's have a beer after training! The shop we frequent got stock this week!"
"Um, Go Yori-noona. Regarding SG Net management……"
"G-Go Yori-unni. Would you like to have lunch together today……?"
Party members famous for having personalities as tricky as wild horses became docile as donkeys when standing before Go Yori.
Actually, this was exactly why I decided to keep bringing Go Yori along.
To say it now, awakened ones generally had nasty personalities. This wasn't 100% an inevitable rule, but there were definitely cases where the more twisted one's nature, the stronger their ability became.
Our guild was composed of S-class and A-class prospects. That much emotional instability was tremendous. Even Seo Gyu, so well-behaved in front of me, was the crazy bastard who'd cursed out the tutorial fairy with "Hey you fuck!" without backing down.
The Saintess… I trust her enough to entrust my life to her, but it's hard to say she has a normal personality. She only occasionally talks with Seo Gyu regarding SG Net management. The Saintess sent more messages to people than anyone, but paradoxically hated communicating with people.
In a guild full of such troublemakers, getting along amicably with everyone was absolutely no easy feat.
'The party members' mental state is much more stable than in previous iterations.'
Plus 200 points.
Affinity Lv.7 breakthrough.
Even if Go Yori was a trash awakened one who had only mastered [Presence Concealment] and had nothing but a nose hair poking out from being an ordinary person, it didn't matter.
As I've said repeatedly, there aren't many things as important to humans as mental state. What's the use of having the strongest combat abilities? If your mind crumbles like Mr. Sho, you just transition from Mr. Sho to No-Show.
"Yes, everyone. Let's have lunch together then."
Go Yori served as a bridge connecting all the guild members.
She even mediated between awakened ones who would have growled at each other in previous iterations, so my burden was significantly reduced.
I watched that scene from afar and whispered to the Saintess.
"Go Yori is truly a gukbap-like person. Organization management has become ridiculously easy. You know Ha-yul, right? The quiet kid. Even she follows Go Yori around. At this rate, I think we could expand the guild scale to 20 or 30 members even if we push it a bit."
"……."
"Hm?"
When there was no answer and I turned around, the Saintess's expression was somewhat dazed for some reason. Her always clear eyes were slightly clouded.
"Saintess-nim?"
"Ah. Yes. Sorry. What did you just say?"
"It wasn't anything important. Perhaps you're suffering from heat? Shall I bring you some cold water?"
"…No, it's fine."
The Saintess murmured.
"I just found it amazing that there's someone who really gets along intimately with everyone. As you know, I'm very far from that kind of disposition."
"There are pros and cons to every personality, aren't there? Go Yori-ssi might have stress she can't tell others about."
"That's true. That's correct advice."
In many ways, the 89th iteration felt good.
SG Net management was smooth sailing. Sim A-ryeon, the Goryeojang villain, also changed jobs from drinking aggro like before and successfully transitioned to an A-class healer.
The Saintess's backup was always perfect, and thanks to Go Yori's affinity who maxed out charm, the guild's internal cohesion became stronger than any iteration. We even captured all the fairies and gained nationwide support from awakened ones.
An iteration where power became solid in both overt and covert ways.
'Perhaps……. This time, we might actually be able to stop the world's destruction?'
Looking back now, it was nothing but nonsense, but at that time, I genuinely believed so. What could I do?
After spending such a satisfying day, I went to bed.
The next day, I opened my eyes and tried to get up.
Because getting up immediately without lazing in bed upon waking was my ironclad rule.
"……?"
But this day, I floundered in bed for the first time in a very long while.
It wasn't because I suddenly attained the way of laziness.
I just blankly looked up at the ceiling.
At the ceiling that had been clean with nothing on it before I went to sleep.
[Don't trust the pink hair.]
An unfamiliar sentence was carved into the familiar ceiling.
4
Infinite regression gave me countless lessons.
One of those lessons was named 'doubt.'
Mr. Sho, who was a regressor just like me, was the same. Hadn't he said long ago?
-Don't trust these guys called Constellations too much.
Everyone naturally believed in the Constellations' existence. But Mr. Sho pointed out that the Constellations 'favor Koreans' and never let go of the thread of doubt.
In the end, Mr. Sho was right. The Constellations were a masquerade the Saintess played targeting the entire nation.
'German.'
I thought about the sentence I had seen in my room earlier while eating breakfast with the guild members.
'It was carved using a blade tip, not writing instruments. Then.'
I took out a dagger from my pocket and looked down at it.
A self-defense weapon I never separated from my body even when sleeping.
Checking the blade, minute dust and particles were stuck to it. I'd need to commission Uehara Shino for detailed component analysis, but even looking roughly, it was the same material as the ceiling.
In other words.
'Someone took the dagger from my pocket, carved a sentence on the ceiling in German that only I could understand, and in that entire process, not only did they avoid detection by me, but they also breached all the security in my bedroom.'
Is that possible?
'It's impossible.'
Moreover, my guild hideout had asked 'Puppeteer,' a base-building specialist, to install microscopic 'spiderwebs' in various places on the building's ceiling.
Except for Dang Seo-rin's guild train, there was no other headquarters with this level of security. At least, among our guild members, there was no such talent who could pierce through security and perform such a feat.
If it were Mr. Sho, it might be possible……. But that's also impossible. I had already confirmed the old man's corpse right at the start of the 89th iteration.
Ultimately, there was only one suspect.
'It's me.'
Oneself.
I looked at my face reflected in the water glass.
If I were the culprit, I could commit the act simply while ignoring all those adverse conditions.
The problem was… no matter how much I racked my brain, I had no memory of carving such a sentence on the ceiling.
'Brainwashing? Sleepwalking? Split personality? Memory loss? Hypnosis?'
Countless possibilities arose.
Whichever it was, it was one of two things.
'Either to drive a wedge between me and Go Yori, or to genuinely warn me about Go Yori.'
Softly.
When I turned my head to the side, my eyes met Go Yori who was eating a sandwich with both hands.
"……?"
Go Yori smiled brightly and continued eating her sandwich.
…My heart settled calmly.
I too finished my meal ordinarily as if nothing had happened.
'To think such a troll event would occur in the 89th iteration that I thought would be historic.'
In this urgent situation, the only colleague I could consult was ultimately the Saintess. She knew I was a regressor, and she could view the situation more objectively than anyone.
"By the way, haven't the Constellations stopped talking lately?"
"Huh? You too? Mine hasn't shown messages since yesterday."
"Doesn't it feel a bit unsettling when they suddenly go quiet after always talking to you?"
Hesitate.
At the casual conversation from the dining table, I inadvertently looked in that direction.
"The Constellations' messages aren't appearing?"
"Ah, yes. Guild Master."
"It's probably being discussed on SG Net right now?"
An ominous premonition struck me.
An infinite regressor telling a story.