Chapter 26
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Prophet III
Shin Noah
4
From the day the regressor coming-out took place, the relationship between Oh Dok-seo and me developed rapidly.
I too became comfortable after dropping the pointless cool guy act (though it was fun), and Oh Dok-seo also became at ease since she no longer needed to be wary of a time-bomb-like psychopath who might go crazy at any moment, 24 hours a day.
"Kid. Let's go."
"Huh? Suddenly go where?"
"Gangnam."
Some time later, I went out for a walk in Seoul with just Oh Dok-seo.
Originally, the area south of the Han River had few parks, making it a neighborhood without many suitable places for strolls. But after the citizens moved their residences from this world to the next, it became quite pleasant.
-Grrrk?
A Ship-jok was standing blankly among the empty abandoned buildings. It was a model of a true management office director guarding the apartment even after the residents disappeared.
-Grrrrrr!
It seemed the management director saw us as suspicious individuals. It immediately swung its tentacles and charged toward us. With times being so suspicious, it couldn't help but show an excessive reaction.
Actually, the Ship-jok's judgment wasn't wrong. If a person who had regressed hundreds of times and someone who had read this world like a novel beforehand weren't suspicious individuals, then what would be?
Oh Dok-seo shrieked "Eek!" and hid behind my back.
"W-wait, mister, are you crazy? That's a Ship-jok! At a time when we'd need to round up every single awakened person active in Korea, why would you alone......!"
"Secret Technique, Octopus Slicing."
I swung my sword.
The reason Ship-jok subjugation was difficult was because its regeneration was annoyingly excellent. No matter how much you cut the tentacles, they regenerated instantly. The condition of having to destroy both hearts simultaneously was also no easy feat.
In other words, from the moment I learned sashimi-slicing faster than its regeneration, the Ship-jok was nothing more than live octopus on a cutting board.
With about five or six swings of my blade, the Ship-jok and the abandoned buildings positioned around it collapsed with a rumble. The scream the Ship-jok let out was barely audible, buried under the roar of the collapsing buildings.
After the buildings all finished collapsing, silence fell all around.
"Whoa......"
Oh Dok-seo muttered with a sour expression.
"What is this. It's over? Really over?"
"Yeah. The guy you called the final boss died, so now the world is at peace. Go have a celebration drink."
"Crazy...... Mister, you really got strong."
Oh Dok-seo looked at me with eyes mixed with respect.
"But even with this kind of power, you can't prevent world destruction?"
"I can't. That Ship-jok just has excellent regeneration. It doesn't have physics immunity or magic immunity or any of those trash-tier characteristics. I told you it's really the weakest of the weak."
"But still......"
Oh Dok-seo's expression stiffened.
Oh Dok-seo already believed my words, but with this day's incident as a trigger, she now came to trust me completely.
Oh Dok-seo disbanded the party she had worked so hard to cultivate. I wondered if that was really necessary, but unexpectedly, Oh Dok-seo was firm.
"No matter how much I grew my forces, I wouldn't have been able to fight even against the Ship-jok. But mister, you handled that guy all by yourself. Then my party and stuff has no meaning. Right? It makes sense to change strategy to support mister as much as possible."
Setting aside whether Oh Dok-seo's judgment was right or wrong, thanks to that, I gained a justification to part ways with Ko Yori.
Ko Yori, upon hearing the party disbandment order, wore an extremely disappointed expression (at least, that's how it appeared to my eyes).
"I wanted to stay with the party leader and the undertaker...... Do we really have to part like this?"
"Ah. If it's Yori unnie, then we could go together... ack!"
I firmly pinched Oh Dok-seo's forearm as she tried to mutter something strange. I had explained countless times how terrifying a existence Ko Yori was when the two were alone. But now that the moment to pronounce farewell had arrived, she got brainwashed again.
Only then did Oh Dok-seo come to her senses with a "Huh."
"S-sorry! Yori unnie! I've arranged to enter as mister's disciple for the time being! This mister insisted he only takes one disciple, so I don't think I'll be able to move together with you, unnie!"
"Hm."
Oh Dok-seo even bowed her head as if she was truly sorry.
Ko Yori quietly looked down at that. Then she turned her gaze to look at my face. Would it be an overreaction if I said I glimpsed the shadow of red flesh in those bright red pupils?
"It can't be helped. The relationship between master and disciple is as important as the bond between parent and child. An outsider cannot meddle in that."
So saying, Ko Yori spoke words that were extremely agreeable to my ears, while continuously looking at my face. Her gaze didn't waver even a bit.
"Then I'll take my leave."
"R-really......?"
"Yes. Even if we part ways this time, I have a feeling our connection won't be severed. Surely a day will come when we meet again. I hope you both find happiness, even in a world that has become like this."
Ko Yori took two steps backward, then bowed gracefully like a noble young lady. And without adding a single word, she went down the hill path alone.
Soon, Ko Yori's retreating figure sank below the downhill path and disappeared.
"Hwaaaah-"
Perhaps because the tension released, Oh Dok-seo melted limply. Even her cap, which was her main body, came half off.
"...Mister was telling the truth. What was that? Until I brought it up, I had no thoughts, but once I started talking to her, suddenly I thought 'why am I being so cold to Yori unnie?'"
"That's just how she is. I'm glad she accepted the explanation that the master-disciple relationship is important."
"Huh? What did you say? She said even though it's a master-disciple relationship, it could be dangerous for a man and woman to wander around alone together, so she told me to definitely be careful?"
"......?"
"......?"
We looked at each other's faces, then quickly turned our heads. Toward the hill path Ko Yori had gone down. Since we had just seen her going down, we should now see her figure coming up the opposite hill.
Cicadas cried.
No matter how long we waited, Ko Yori's retreating figure never came up.
5
We wandered through the crumbling world.
I didn't want to describe that crumbling in great detail. Some sharp-eyed readers may have already noticed that I was intentionally avoiding such descriptions.
Of course, thanks to the Saint's efforts, Korea's public safety was relatively okay. But the range the Saint's fingertips could reach was only the awakened ones. The Saint also couldn't control the general public who made up the absolute majority of the world.
Looting, arson, violence, and the person who committed that violence being a human who lost their companion, simultaneously raising a pet dog that lost its owner to fill the empty space, the warlord-ization of political forces and the politicization of military units, the fingertips of the poor and weak, or the first patient of a historically severe epidemic—misfortunes were endless when listed.
I deal only with misfortunes I can bear.
The weight of misfortunes I couldn't bear is supposed to transfer to another person's heart, but I didn't become a regressor to become a host for epidemics.
"Hmm. The novel I read...... So, [Omniscient Regressor's Viewpoint] where mister is the protagonist had just been serialized up to chapter 30."
One day, Oh Dok-seo said. While roughly wiping something like blood splatter from her face. Actually, it wasn't blood but red flower petals called Udambara, which were parasites of a virulent epidemic. There will be an opportunity to mention this in the next episode.
"Chapter 30?"
"Yeah. No matter how interesting a novel looks, I absolutely don't read it if it has fewer than 30 chapters. You never know when the author might stop serializing. Two or three days before the Gate exploded in Seoul? I think I started reading around then."
Oh Dok-seo had a similar tendency to me. Rather than discussing misfortunes, we often chattered about each other's hobbies.
"Where did you come across that novel?"
"Just? It was bookmarked on the web novel platform I usually use...... Hmm, bookmarking is the same as adding to favorites. Anyway, when I opened the novel app, it was already bookmarked."
"...Does that mean there's an author creating [Omniscient Regressor's Viewpoint]?"
"Well. I don't know that either."
Oh Dok-seo chewed her gum.
"Actually, I don't remember bookmarking 'Jeon-hoe-si.' But my favorites list easily exceeds 200, so I thought I just forgot. But looking back now, maybe it got bookmarked without me knowing...... Ah."
We were walking through Onyang city when a large dog that appeared to have lost its owner approached. Oh Dok-seo hugged the dog.
One more head was added to the party that had only two members.
"In my view, that's your ability."
"Ability?"
I said one day when we secretly infiltrated a department store occupied by some guild to sweep up pet food. Fortunately, the pet supplies corner had lax security.
"There's a person named Seo Gyu. He has the ability to create and operate internet communities. Awakened abilities really vary widely, so it wouldn't be strange if your ability manifested in the form of 'reading novels.'"
"No, but my ability was already revealed to be [Barrier Creation]?"
"Then you're a dual-ability user."
"Huh? Heh? Isn't that incredibly rare in the setting?"
"It is rare. But living through this, I found that 1% probability is more common than you'd think."
"Hooh, I see...... Hmm. So I actually have one more ability, and it manifested in the form of reading novels......"
"For convenience, I'm calling your ability [Serialization Nudging]."
"Serialization Nudging......"
Woof, Darkness (that's the pet dog's name) barked. The sound laid low in the darkening department store.
Oh Dok-seo said "Shh!" to quiet it, but we had already been caught by a patrol.
"Ah, dangerous......"
"Let's run."
Wiping out the guild occupying the department store would have been easy, but these were candidate allies who would later join the front lines fighting for humanity and play a major role. We ran away quickly. Woof! Woof! Darkness, held in Oh Dok-seo's arms, was excited.
"Then isn't my ability more like [Prophecy] than serialization nudging?"
A few months later, on the way back from a meeting with the Guild Alliance, Oh Dok-seo said.
"Prophecy?"
"Yeah. Knowing mister's biography is basically the same as prophesying the future. In novels, prophets observe the future in movie-like images and stuff, but in my case, prophecy manifested in the form of web novels I'm most familiar with. How's that? Sounds plausible?"
"Hmm."
It was certainly plausible.
But if Oh Dok-seo's ability was [Prophecy], a question remained unanswered.
"Then why didn't any abnormalities appear until the 555th iteration?"
"Huh?"
"You might not know, Dok-seo, but from my perspective, this iteration is very special. Borrowing your expression, it's as if a character I thought was merely an extra suddenly awakened the [Prophecy] ability."
"No, the way you put it...... But it is strange."
Oh Dok-seo rested her chin on her hand.
"Maybe it just happened to awaken in the 555th iteration? It's a number that looks special. 555. My name is Oh Dok-seo too."
"Regression isn't a numbers game. How could that be?"
"Hmmm. What is it then, really? Why didn't I approach mister until the 555th iteration......?"
Oh Dok-seo tilted her head.
Our question was resolved on a day that was both far and near.
When, as usual, the 555th iteration ended in failure and the 556th iteration began.
[Oh Dok-seo: Wow. Busan Station waiting room. I saw this in the novel! Soon the tutorial fairy will appear and blow off the head of a man cursing...... Huh? Huh? What? Why is the protagonist suddenly approaching me?]
This time, I approached Oh Dok-seo first. Of course, it was to completely block Ko Yori's intrusion.
Oh Dok-seo was quite flustered by the sudden event. But as in the previous iteration, when I showed her the sight of defeating the Ship-jok in a single stroke, she quickly trusted my words.
And we learned an amazing fact.
"But, mister. Is it okay to wander around with me like this?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"That, what was the name...... Schopenhauer? Anyway, don't we need to join up with that sword master or whatever grandfather?"
My eyes widened wide.
"You know about Old Man Scho? You do?"
"Huh? Of course. He appears in the novel."
In the previous iteration, Oh Dok-seo had never mentioned Old Man Scho. The fact that there was actually one more regressor was something I told her, but from Oh Dok-seo's perspective who only read the novel up to 'Chapter 4,' it was just someone else's story.
I first met Old Man Scho in the 6th iteration.
But now Oh Dok-seo mentioned Old Man Scho first.
The meaning of this fact was clear.
'The novel Oh Dok-seo read...... was serialized further?'
I looked at her seriously.
"Dok-seo. The 'Jeon-hoe-si' you read, up to what chapter was it serialized?"
"Huh? Oh, um...... 32? 33? Around that."
"......!"
It became certain.
As iterations progressed, Oh Dok-seo's 'novel' had more serialized content. In the previous iteration, the novel had only progressed to chapter 30, but this time at least 2 more chapters had been added.
The standard for this 'increasing serialization' was completely arbitrary.
Sometimes only 1 chapter was added to Oh Dok-seo while I lived through 60 iterations, and sometimes 2 chapters were added even though I only lived through 1 iteration. It was truly random.
More investigation was needed to find out exactly what determined the increase in serialization.
However, one thing became clear right now.
'This child is following the rails of my life.'
I trembled.
6
With somewhat slow footsteps.
At a slightly delayed speed compared to my life.
But with a definite flow, Oh Dok-seo was following me.
Probably, Oh Dok-seo didn't read the novel until the serialization reached 30 chapters. She herself said she doesn't even look at works with fewer than 30 chapters.
Therefore, only after 30 chapters accumulated did Oh Dok-seo read the novel for the 'first time.' That was what happened in the previous 555th iteration.
Oh Dok-seo's prediction was correct. Her ability was [Prophecy].
She just didn't even know she had awakened the ability and let it rot for 555 iterations.
'But it's not a perfect prophecy ability.'
According to Greek mythology, the god and prophet named Prometheus had one younger brother.
Epimetheus.
Unlike his older brother whose name meant 'the one who thinks ahead,' the younger brother Epimetheus was 'the one who thinks after.' The brothers became the etymology of prologue and epilogue respectively.
Oh Dok-seo was an Epimetheus who realized her prophecy ability.
Her prophecy was never fast. She was a prophet slower than any other. Following the rails I had trodden long ago, very belatedly, with a time difference of about 5,000 years.
But nevertheless, Oh Dok-seo was following behind me, step by step, steadily.
When I crossed the 555th iteration, she stepped on the 5th.
When I cross the 560th iteration, she will step on the 11th.
'Then someday—— in the truly distant future, won't the day come when Oh Dok-seo herself steps on the 555th iteration?'
That this story is by no means a fictional novel.
That the content she thought was a story from another world was actually a story of this very world she lives in.
That she meets the protagonist, me, and wanders the world together, handles warlords, and adopts a pet dog.
All these facts would someday be serialized in Oh Dok-seo's novel, and Oh Dok-seo would read them.
I realized that future and trembled slightly. I even had the illusion that a ray of light had fallen on a world where destruction couldn't be prevented no matter what.
"...Mister, why are you suddenly like that?"
At my reaction, Oh Dok-seo tilted her head.
Suddenly my right forearm felt itchy.
Over the expression of not knowing the reason, Dang Seo-rin's last words overlapped and flowed.
—You have a similar dream to me.
—You're going forward, repairing the broken rails of this world one by one. The rails the Ship-jok destroyed. The abandoned lines other monsters broke. If you keep fixing them one span at a time, someday tracks will connect from station to station.
—Other people will be able to walk that path too.
That's right. In the end, Dang Seo-rin was right.
What Dang Seo-rin muttered back then was probably nothing more than hope, and I simply accepted her last words in the sense of harboring the same wish.
But now, after more than five thousand years had passed, finally, reality caught up with our wish.
'In that case.'
I embraced the trembling in my heart.
'What I need to do is wait for this child to catch up to me.'
Until when? Until Oh Dok-seo arrives at the train station named the 555th iteration.
That iteration was like Pandora's box. When Oh Dok-seo realizes that the 'novel' she read was actually rails unfolded in reality, this world will definitely change decisively.
One more joyful waiting was added to my life as an infinite regressor.
Therefore, I waited.
The 556th iteration ended.
The 557th iteration ended.
"Hey! Mister! You can't just abandon Old Man Scho like that!"
When we reached the 581st iteration, Oh Dok-seo shouted.
She must have read the scene in the latest serialization where Old Man Scho left on an indefinite 'vacation.'
I chuckled.
"Abandon, you say. Who did I abandon?"
Nothing was more unjust than this. Me, abandon Old Man Scho? Old Man Scho abandoned me. And I never once gave up on Old Man Scho.
It would be troublesome to mix up the chronology and the perpetrator and victim.
But reading and interpreting the novel and leaving comments was always the reader's role.
As the latest serialization updated, as iterations progressed, Oh Dok-seo left 'comments' on me each time.
"Wow. How do you攻略 this Udambara boss mob?"
"That makes no sense! Were all the Constellations lies?"
"Community creation ability? What kind of trash ability is that......"
"Sim A-ryeon, she's just a crazy aggro artist...... I really don't get along with people like this."
"Online game anomaly? Wow, seriously. This kind of gimmick existed? It was never mentioned in the original."
"......? What's with Ko Yori? Is she human? Not a monster?"
Oh Dok-seo screamed or poured out complaints like a reader leaving comments for an author.
Even though I wasn't the author.
But I generously accepted Oh Dok-seo's comments. Though I was over five thousand years old and still childish, at least I knew how to allow others to step onto the boundary lines of my life.
'Follow me. Dok-seo.'
Come quickly.
Even if you're slower than me, your footsteps are faster than anyone.
Walk over the failures I experienced, the strategy guides I created, my biography.
My life was originally for others, but from now on it's also for you.
Of course, this waiting didn't have only joy.
Finally, Oh Dok-seo read up to the 52nd iteration, the part where I founded the International Convenience Store with the fairies.
From then on, Oh Dok-seo's gaze toward me changed decisively.
"Mister."
"What?"
"You know what? Mister, you're totally crazy."
"......"
"And cut back on SG Net. Talk about Romance of the Three Kingdoms in moderation too."
"Dok-seo. I have my own reasons for bringing up the Romance of the Three Kingdoms topic. If I don't talk about Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a certain anomaly......"
"Ah, enough. You reek of middle-aged man vibes, not matching your age at all. No wait. Is this actually behavior matching your age? How old are you now?"
"......"
I exercised my right to remain silent and quietly drank my coffee.
Since I knew better than anyone that struggling would be useless for an image that now had only rock bottom left to fall.
Right.
It might sound a bit cheeky to say this, but sometimes, very sometimes, I missed Oh Dok-seo who used to tremble, mistaking me for the world's coldest cool regressor.
How mean.
You try living as long as I have, you brat.
- Prophet. End.
An infinite regressor telling stories.