# Chapter 28
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Buddhist II
Shin Noah
## 3
In the 17th round, Elder Sho and I were running an academy. Elder Sho was the principal, and I served as the vice principal. It was one of our schemes to more easily attract and cultivate awakened prospects from various nations.
For a while, I genuinely operated this academy, and thanks to that, we were able to accumulate abundant data on awakened individuals. There will come a time to discuss this academy separately later.
"Gather all the graduating class and faculty members!"
"I've already gathered them, you rascal! You're the last one!"
Elder Sho had lied. In our pajamas, we had to roam the dormitories waking up all combat team members.
After finishing preparations, we deployed. To a location we had pre-arranged with other guilds to assemble when emergencies occurred.
"Guild Master Samcheon!"
"Ah, Undertaker. The Sword Saint is here too?"
On the way, we continued to merge with other guilds.
Samcheon Segye, one of Korea's two top powers, had also quickly brought only their elites. The sight of sixty awakened individuals all wearing conical hats and gripping canes was comical, but their military strength was no laughing matter.
"What in the world is this commotion?"
"We're still determining the exact cause. The Constellations are telling me this and that, but we need to see it with our own eyes first. That enormous tree there was first observed at 2 AM today."
"Did it suddenly bloom?"
"Yes. They say it grew to that size in less than an hour? It only started glowing red like now after it had fully grown. So the report was slightly delayed."
"...How ominous."
"I agree."
At that moment, a Samcheon guild member approached and whispered to Dang Seo-rin.
The guild masters gathered at the rendezvous point, including us, all looked at Dang Seo-rin. Though the Ten Races had already been subjugated, Dang Seo-rin was still expected to fulfill her role as alliance leader. She sighed.
"Well, everyone needs to see it. Bring it here."
"Yes."
The guild members dragged something over. Bound tightly with rope, it was a human—or more precisely, a human dressed in attire that was definitely that of a New Buddhist follower.
And to be even more precise, it was a human biting and tearing at their own forearm while endlessly muttering.
"Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry."
Even bound by rope, the biting didn't stop. Forcing their neck to bend unnaturally, twisting their elbow backward, somehow devouring their own flesh.
It was dark so I hadn't noticed, but now I could see both legs and the left arm were already eaten away.
The guild masters' faces hardened.
"...What the hell is that bastard doing? Is it a zombie?"
"Pretty well-behaved for a zombie. Eating their own flesh instead of other people."
"Maybe it's a particularly humble zombie."
"What's it muttering anyway?"
The sight of human flesh being torn away in real-time was quite grotesque, but the courage of the guild masters who had survived this far was no joke. Though their expressions were all rotten, they observed the zombie with sharp eyes.
"Based on observations so far."
When Dang Seo-rin spoke, the guild masters quieted down.
"All New Buddhists are showing identical symptoms."
"All of them!"
Shock rippled through the surroundings.
"Truly all of them?"
"Yes. Ah, I misspoke. Not just New Buddhists, but everyone infected by the New Buddha is the same. Whether awakened or ordinary person."
"I knew this would happen."
Elder Sho grumbled.
"Nothing good ever comes from getting involved with cultist bastards. What? Get infected and get a free extra life stack? Like such a lucky story would ever exist. Hmph! I was suspicious from the start."
"......"
At the German old man's obstinacy that knew no time or place, the guild masters shot him resentful looks. I cleared my throat and subtly took the floor.
"Guild Master Samcheon. Is this the extent of the zombie's symptoms? Eating themselves like the Tam monster? It's certainly interesting, but I don't understand what connection the World Tree has with these zombies."
"Hm? What's Tam? Anyway, just watch a bit longer. Something amazing will happen."
Even while we talked, the zombie didn't stop its feeding.
"Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry."
Before long, the right arm—the last remaining limb—fell away. Then the zombie stood upright like a matryoshka doll.
"......"
The zombie raised its head to look up at the night sky. The direction where the World Tree stood. The zombie's mouth slowly opened, and instantly, a red flower grew from inside.
The guild masters each swallowed their breath.
"Heavens."
"Fuck, what the......"
Then someone muttered.
"It looks just like cordyceps......"
A fungus that parasitizes the host's body and eventually sprouts mushrooms.
Except in this case, it wasn't a mushroom but a flower—and a red flower of such bewitching beauty.
The red flower used the zombie's body as a flowerpot. And in the blink of an eye, it grew to the height of a one-story apartment. A speed as if the flow of time itself had broken. We looked up at the red flower's crown, lost for words.
Pop—like popcorn popping, the petals burst.
The red flower bloomed and fell as if 10 seconds were a season. However, unlike other trees, it didn't shed its flowers downward.
The guild masters' mouths fell open.
"Uh, uh. That......?"
"They're going up?"
Not falling flowers, but ascending flowers.
The red flower's home seemed to be not the earth but the sky. They scattered yearning not downward but upward. Like slightly lighter wind, slightly lighter fireflies, slightly lighter cherry blossoms.
It wasn't just here.
In the dark night sky, countless red lights twinkled. Far more delicate than starlight, yet far closer than starlight. From abandoned buildings, from empty lots, from all directions, red petals spread like the Milky Way and returned to the heavens.
"It's beautiful......"
That too was someone's murmur.
The World Tree, having harvested all the red from the earth, grew even more luscious. The light emanating from the World Tree was so brilliant that starlight and moonlight had no choice but to hold their breath.
"Hmm."
Elder Sho let out a low sound.
Turning my head, I saw Elder Sho was staring intently not at the night sky but at the zombie.
Gaunt flesh. No, rather than flesh, it was like the bark of a tree that had long since rotted away. The human corpse, having had all its red stolen, now left only traces. When Elder Sho tapped it with his scabbard, the zombie-flowerpot crumbled with a dry sound.
"Doctor."
"...Yes, old man."
"Looks like we're fucked, isn't it?"
I nodded. I didn't want to agree, but it was the correct diagnosis.
A boss-level monster that reappeared after the Ten Races were subjugated.
No—actually, it had appeared before the Ten Races but had hidden its power for years, parasitizing hosts until finally revealing itself.
The World Tree—the arrival of the individual named 'Udumbara'.
## 4
Udumbara.
A spirit creature treated as a legendary flower in Buddhism. A phantom flower that didn't exist in reality.
But now it existed.
There was truly no countermeasure for a legend that had descended to earth. Dangerous enough to be more so than the Ten Races.
Above all, unlike the Ten Races, Udumbara was extremely cunning. It didn't simply parasitize hosts—it made the hosts welcome this parasite. Thus quietly expanding its influence, then suddenly detonating all its power at once.
By the time Udumbara revealed itself, it was already game over. If enough hosts infected by the virus accumulated for the red World Tree to fully bloom, world destruction was confirmed from that point.
"Oh my, what to do......"
"Indeed."
Elder Sho and I put our heads together and groaned.
For reference, this was now the 18th round. Asking what happened to the 17th? Well...... Weeds sprouted from Elder Sho's beard and grass grew from my eyebrows.
Thinking it was the final blow, I dragged the entire guild alliance and tried chopping at the tree, but it was futile. What could we do? Elder Sho and I cleanly mixed poison in soju glasses and toasted.
Ultimately, even after Elder Sho left on vacation, no fundamental countermeasure could be established against Udumbara.
Being careful not to let the cult spread and suppressing awakened supremacy?
That was like pissing on frozen feet. Even if we controlled things domestically, how could we manipulate overseas? Whatever measures we took, it only delayed the timing of Udumbara's blooming.
But time passed, and in the 36th round.
"The Constellations... don't exist."
"Neither the Saintess of National Salvation nor the Conqueror of the Alps—they're all characters I created alone."
—From the moment I met the Saintess, the situation changed instantly.
A clue emerged for the World Tree strategy that had seemed hopeless.
From the rounds after forming a blood alliance with the Saintess, I launched full-scale Udumbara subjugation. The core of the subjugation operation was the request I made to the Saintess.
"Saintess, from now on, please use [Thousand-Mile Eye] to intensively observe the awakened in Jeju Island for a while."
"Jeju Island?"
The Saintess tilted her head.
"Is there a reason it must be that way?"
"Yes. If left alone, from the third year, a cult called New Buddhism will begin to emerge in earnest......"
I explained the zombie virus and the rampant spread of New Buddhism, awakened supremacy and the hatred of awakened that would boil over as a reaction to it, and above all, the red World Tree blooming as the final touch.
The Saintess quietly listened to my story from beginning to end. Then she spoke softly.
"I see. I understand. Undertaker, you intend to find who the initial infected person is."
"Correct."
The initial infected person who had been a mystery until the previous rounds. The first domino that caused the virus incident.
I could never have discovered it with my power alone, but with my regression ability combined with the Saintess's [Thousand-Mile Eye], it was fully possible.
"This round, Jeju Island. Next, Gyeongsangnam-do. Then Gyeongsangbuk-do, Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do...... I will intensively search one region of the country each time a round begins. Sweeping up the Korean peninsula from bottom to top. Then——"
"At some point, we'll be able to witness the moment the initial infected person is born."
The Saintess nodded.
"Understood. Originally, I used [Thousand-Mile Eye] mainly for prominent awakened like you, Undertaker. But if I push myself a bit...... Even if observing all of Korea's awakened in real-time is impossible, one region is. Somehow."
"Should I assign Yoo Ji-won to assist you?"
"No. It's fine."
The Saintess joined both hands and closed her eyes as if praying.
"This is something I can do alone."
I couldn't know specifically how she observed such a vast number of awakened at this time. That fell under the 'secret' the Saintess didn't reveal.
I merely guessed inwardly that perhaps she cooperated with awakened working for the Korean government (or rather, the government's remnants) or figures like Noh Do-ha.
I assigned the quest to the Saintess, and on another front, I handled the cult leaders who played the most central role in establishing New Buddhism. Even if they disappeared, similar faiths emerged anyway, but at least we could buy one to two more years.
Thus, the 36th round.
"Not Jeju Island."
37th round.
"There's no initial infected in Gyeongsangnam-do."
38th round, 39th round, 40th round.
Finally, in the 41st round.
"...Found it."
The Saintess opened her eyes.
"Chungcheongnam-do. Asan. Onyang."
More precisely, an old inn in Onyang.
An old downtown area that had once prospered reasonably well but had declined as the city center shifted. The inn was rotting precariously against sidewalks where weeds thrived more than people due to lack of foot traffic.
No human presence was felt from the inn. The dull beige paint had peeled off in patches.
In room 202 on the second floor of the inn building, loosened because there was little to take, a mother and son lay dead.
"......"
The bodies of mother and child were intact, as if they had just closed their eyes.
Discovering this place was close to a miracle. An employee at the local community center here was awakened, and he patrolled houses and lodgings intensively, worried there might be residents who hadn't evacuated (perhaps the Saintess, imitating a Constellation, had put the awakened to work).
The moment the community center employee discovered the bodies, the Saintess was witnessing the exact same scene.
The center employee moved on to the next patrol location without much thought. It was a time when just tending to living residents was overwhelming. But the Saintess's gaze didn't leave, and today, I had come.
There was a reason my epithet was 'Undertaker.'
"Hmm."
The mother was leaning against the wall, holding the child tightly. The child was an infant. And on the mother's shoulder, very tiny—almost like young spring ferns—red flowers had bloomed.
The child was wearing prayer beads slightly too large for their wrist thickness. It wasn't hard to imagine whose possession it was or who had put it there. I thought briefly about the mother's heart when she placed her prayer beads on her child.
Had she hoped that when crossing to the other shore, at least her child wouldn't fall into hell?
For a while, I stared blankly at the scene before me like a Buddhist facing a Buddha statue.
[Undertaker.]
The Saintess spoke through telepathy. Unlike when dealing with other awakened, she didn't act as a Constellation with me. She used her own voice directly.
I nodded.
"I know. Don't worry."
I flowed aura into my sword and swung. A few red petals fluttered in the small single room, too small to call a world.
Udumbara was a phantom flower.
## 5
There's no afterword for this story.
However, since that day, one more item was added to the schedule I had to do immediately after each round began.
Pick up Seo Gyu and Sim A-ryeon at Busan Station. Go to the Baekje Hospital building and drink Elder Sho's café au lait. Contact the Saintess and form an alliance. Then come up to Chungcheong to see the red flower.
It was a fact I only learned later, but no matter how many times I regressed, saving the mother and child was impossible. By the time the Gate incident occurred in Seoul, the mother and child were already dead.
The cause of death was starvation.
The world's misfortunes were always in season.
"Whoa......"
Sometimes, because the schedule was slightly delayed, I would arrive at the inn several days later. In those cases, the Udumbara, which had been the size of young ferns, had already grown to the size of a small cherry tree.
"Wow, it's so pretty......"
Each time the round changed, I brought one companion for flower viewing. For example, the companion in the 96th round was Sim A-ryeon.
"Is this really the monster the Guild Master mentioned? The one you said should be registered as a continental-level danger rating on SG Net......"
"Yes."
"Wha, what an amazing sight. It makes me want to paint it."
Not just words—Sim A-ryeon actually brought an easel here and set it up. Taking out her paints, she said "Ah" and spoke.
"So what kind of flower is that, Guild Master......?"
A flower that has destroyed the world countless times.
Instead of telling her that, I brushed aside a flower branch and said.
"It's a flower that blooms once every season I die."
"Hwoek."
Sim A-ryeon marveled at my sophisticated expression.
"Chu, chunibyo......"
"......"
"Chunibyo at the Guild Master's age is a bit......"
Hmm.
Next time I go out with her, I should only take her to scary ghost spots.
- Buddhist. End.
A infinite regressor telling stories.