Chapter 4
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Watcher II
Shin Noa
"...."
"Am I correct?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised. At the same time, my interest was piqued.
There had been times when I openly revealed myself as a regressor. However, there had only been one person who figured it out on their own before I said anything—Old Man Sho, and him alone.
"Why do you think that?"
"I thought a regressor would come find me someday. You also disposed of monsters at an absurd speed. But... seeing you ask that question, it seems this is the first time we've met in 'this iteration'?"
I leaned forward slightly. Creak. The convenience store's green plastic chair scraped against the floor.
At first, I was simply curious about the existence of the Constellations themselves. But now, my interest was shifting toward the human before me.
"You're correct. While I've been curious about the Constellations' true identities, this iteration is the first time I've seriously started investigating them."
"If you... if you really are a regressor, Undertaker, I believe we must establish a cooperative relationship from here on."
"Cooperation?"
"Yes. However, right now I still can't be certain whether you're a regressor or not. From my perspective."
The woman spoke carefully.
She seemed very tense, but her tone held no wavering.
'At least she has some backbone.'
My eyes narrowed.
"That's interesting. Why exactly can't you be certain I'm a regressor?"
"Because if you possessed prophetic abilities rather than regression, or mind-reading techniques to peer into my thoughts, the same situation could be created. So..."
The other person lowered her head.
"I'm sorry you came all the way to Seoul. I can't yet reveal everything about what the Constellations really are, how much I know, or what my abilities are."
"Hmm."
Proper manners and appropriate caution.
Perhaps a lottery ticket worth scratching.
"Very well. If it becomes certain that I'm a regressor, will you answer all my questions?"
"...Yes."
"Then there's a simple solution."
The other person raised their head.
I turned on my smartphone.
"We set passwords between us."
"Passwords?"
"Please designate words or sentences that I would never know unless I'm a regressor. It doesn't have to be keywords—a specific action would work too."
A method Old Man Sho and I had used before.
It was already verified in the 7th iteration.
"Anyway, if you set those up, I'll execute them exactly in the 'next iteration.'"
"Ah."
The other person immediately understood my words.
"That's a really good method. Hmm. Then in the next iteration, please come here and spread out a red T-shirt on the table. Just stay still for 10 minutes, no, 15 minutes. And write [Moral Law] in large letters on the T-shirt."
"Hmm."
"If you do that, I'll contact you first."
A clean method.
"Understood, Saintess."
"Ah... I'm sorry, but that nickname is a bit..."
"Anyway, awakeners' nicknames are all childish. I also ignored it thinking they'd give me a cool name later, but I just got stuck with 'Undertaker.' Saintess is actually pretty decent."
"How on earth did you become an undertaker...?"
Oh dear. I quickly stood up from the table.
To say it again, I absolutely detest my epithet. There will be opportunities to explain how I got this nickname, but I hope those opportunities come later, in the very distant future. Or better yet, never.
"I'll be going first, Saintess. See you next time."
"Ah, yes. See you next time. It was nice meeting you, Regressor."
There was a gap of about one world between the 'next' I spoke of and the 'next' the other person was thinking of.
We parted like streams of water that easily meet and easily separate.
After that day, the Constellations' messages no longer appeared for me.
Honestly, it was a bit disappointing.
Someone who had reacted to my every action was gone. That empty space felt larger than I expected.
Of course, my purpose wasn't to curry favor with the Constellations but to prevent the world's destruction. I quickly reorganized myself and threw myself into the 35th iteration.
And I failed miserably.
If I had succeeded in the first place, I wouldn't have reached the 1183rd iteration.
'Did she say a red T-shirt?'
The 36th world, the 36th life began.
I immediately fulfilled the promise from the previous world.
First, I quickly cleared the Busan Station Gate.
[The 'Saintess of Salvation' is appalled by your exploits!]
[The 'Lord of the Red Horse' feels competitive toward your power!]
[The 'Conqueror of the Alps' pays attention to your movements!]
[The 'Red-Cloaked Chancellor' is wary of your skills!]
Just like last time, the Constellations' messages appeared one after another.
It was nice to receive messages after so long, but I ignored them for now.
Using the route Old Man Sho had developed, I headed north to Seoul as quickly as possible. I also didn't forget to stop by a clothing store that hadn't gone out of business yet to buy a shirt.
[The 'Saintess of Salvation' questions your actions!]
Even while moving, the Constellations kept trying to talk to me.
The moment I arrived at the convenience store near the Submersible Bridge, sat at the parasol table, spread out the shirt, and wrote the words 'Moral Law' with a marker.
[....]
[....]
The Constellations, who had been so noisy, fell silent all at once.
I leaned back in the chair and drank convenience store coffee. This convenience store hadn't been looted yet, so the products were intact.
Not long after, someone approached the convenience store.
A woman with a hiking backpack on her back. In terms of iterations, it was the 'Saintess of Salvation' I had met in the previous iteration, or 20 years ago by time measurement.
Fresh joy didn't well up. To live long as a regressor, one had to become very accustomed to partings and reunions.
The only difference from last time was that this time, I was the one waiting for her.
"Excuse me, sorry but could you perhaps..."
The other person examined my expression very cautiously.
I nodded.
"Yes. I am indeed a regressor, Saintess of Salvation."
"...!"
The Saintess inhaled sharply.
She stood rooted to the spot, clenching her fists. What thoughts occupied her, I couldn't know.
After a long while, the Saintess opened her mouth with difficulty.
"Please follow me."
Finally, the truth about the Constellations was about to be revealed.
4
The Saintess's residence was in Yongsan.
With Yeouido and the entire Gangnam area evaporated at once, Yongsan was effectively the frontline bordering the Gates. It was currently one of the most dangerous places in Korea.
"You can come in."
It was an old row house with a copper doorbell.
I looked around. Unlike its shabby exterior, the inside was neat.
No, to be more precise, it was beyond neat—it was bleak.
In the dark living room, four computer monitors emitted bluish light.
The monitor light faintly illuminated the outlines of cardboard boxes scattered everywhere. Canned food boxes. Water bottles. All bathed in the blue monitor light, they looked more submerged underwater than sitting on solid ground.
A large steel bookshelf stood against the wall. However, only a few books were sparsely placed. What occupied the spaces where books should have been were 15-cube and 20-cube aquariums.
Glass containers filled with water were densely lined up by the dozens.
Aquarium. Aquarium. Aquarium.
This space was surrounded on all sides by walls built of water rather than brick, and so it looked like an underwater temple.
"It seems you've been preparing for this situation for a long time."
"Yes."
The Saintess sat me on the sofa and brought over a computer chair for herself.
"Should I call you Regressor?"
"Call me whatever's comfortable. My epithet is Undertaker."
"Yes, Undertaker. How many times have we met, including this time?"
"This is the second time."
"The second time."
The Saintess murmured quietly.
"Then this is effectively close to our first meeting. In the previous iteration, I wouldn't have explained anything to you. Correct?"
"Exactly."
"I suppose I have a lot to explain... Where should I start?"
"First, I want to ask about the Constellations. What exactly are they? Are they truly existent transcendent beings? Are you their proxy?"
"...."
The Saintess moved her lips. Not because she was reluctant to answer, but because she seemed to be choosing her words carefully.
Finally, she spoke.
"The Constellations... don't exist."
"They don't exist?"
"No. The Saintess of Salvation, the Conqueror of the Alps—they're all just characters I created alone."
I was somewhat surprised by this.
I had fully considered the hypothesis that the Constellations might be virtual beings. But I hadn't expected that the person before me was single-handedly orchestrating all those Constellations.
I thought at least five or six people would be working as a team.
"Why did you do such a thing?"
"...."
The blue lamp light of the monitors scattered hazily through the living room. Fish gaped in small aquariums.
"I awakened about 20 days ago. That's when my hair color changed, and in my dreams, I started having nightmares about monsters. Dreams that were too vivid... to dismiss as mere illusions."
I nodded.
That was an experience countless awakeners around the world had just before Gates erupted everywhere. A kind of prophetic dream, perhaps.
"For some reason, I had a conviction that it would actually happen. So I thought about what I could do. Not just buying canned food or collecting water bottles, but something only I could truly do."
The Saintess looked straight at me.
"Regressor. No, Undertaker. Will awakeners really maintain social order after gaining their powers?"
"Excuse me?"
"Awakeners' abilities are tremendous. Even I alone gained two, no, three powers that defy common sense. Will humans granted such power easily cooperate with each other, do good, and at least refrain from committing crimes?"
Fish shadows flowed across the living room floor.
Her voice seeped into the shade.
For a moment, I felt something similar to when I had foolishly held my breath in a bathhouse as a child. With that gaze, she was lowering the water depth of this place.
"I concluded they wouldn't."
"...."
"If some person with enormous power appeared and gathered the awakeners, that would be fine. But that takes countless trials and errors and time. Until then, awakeners would factionalize by power, and ordinary people would be swept up in power struggles and sacrificed without a second thought. Naturally, the more humanity divides, the worse their ability to respond to Gates becomes."
That was a correct prediction.
In reality, most nations had followed that exact process to destruction.
Korea was an unusually long-lasting case.
'Wait.'
At that moment, a certain hypothesis flashed through my mind like lightning.
I looked directly into the Saintess's pitch-black eyes.
Pupils that wouldn't blink even if submerged in water.
"Surely?"
"...."
She nodded slightly.
"Undertaker. When does a person hesitate from committing evil acts? It's exactly when they think someone is watching them."
"...The Constellations."
"Yes."
I opened my eyes wide in shock.
The Saintess continued speaking.
"If people are confident they can hide or cover up their crimes, they easily violate order. But if the thought that a transcendent being is watching them anytime, anywhere takes root, even awakeners have no choice but to hesitate from evil deeds."
"My god."
"That's why I created the Constellations."
It felt like taking consecutive mental punches.
The Constellations who had watched over me through the long years up to the 36th iteration, especially the 'Saintess of Salvation' being fake was surprising enough, but the fact that it all emerged from one person's thorough planning was absolutely astounding.
"But how exactly did you create the Constellations?"
"Thanks to my abilities. I can use [Clairvoyance] and [Telepathy]."
The abilities she explained could be summarized as follows:
1. Clairvoyance: Can observe any awakener within a 1,000km radius whenever desired. Can also hear the other person's voice.
2. Telepathy, or text transmission: Can transmit voice to targets she's aware of. Can also send as text. However, in this case, the text is limited to 140 characters.
...Both were abilities with infinite applications.
I looked at the human before me with new eyes.
If conditions were met, she had the leadership qualities to lead guilds like [Samcheon] or [Baekhwa] that would become the most prominent in Korea in the future.
"That's amazing. If you awakened such abilities, you could have stepped forward more to gather awakeners."
"I thought about that too... but I'm really not good at standing before people and doing things."
"Ah."
"I thought it was the best among the things I could do. I don't know what will happen in the future... but I intend to continue as much as possible. As long as I don't die."
Hearing that, I recalled.
The memories of previous iterations.
Until the world was on the verge of destruction, the Constellations never stopped sending messages to awakeners in Korea. For 4 years, 7 years, 10 years, the Constellations remained intact.
I thought about the hardships this awakener before me must have endured to maintain that facade of being intact.
There must have been countless difficulties. [Clairvoyance] and [Telepathy] were good abilities, but they were hard-pressed to help directly in combat.
Moreover, Yongsan was a combat zone with a super-large Gate right in front of it. It was a location where numerous forces would wage fierce battles in the future.
"...How is it? Regressor."
The awakener who must have overcome all those hardships and survived until the very end looked at me with eyes mixed with anxiety and nervousness.
"Did I fulfill my role to the end?"
"...."
I unconsciously clenched my fist. Various thoughts soaked my mind.
After a moment of silence, I answered.
"Yes. Perfectly. Even I, a regressor, was completely fooled."
"...."
"Thanks to you, this country had an exceptionally low crime rate among awakeners. It was also relatively easy for awakeners to cooperate with each other and respond to Gates. Your efforts were not meaningless, Saintess."
Ultimately, we couldn't prevent the world's destruction.
But even then and now, I never mentioned to the Saintess the hundreds of ways our world met its end.
At least because the Saintess existed, awakener supremacism didn't run rampant in this land. There were also relatively few pseudoreligious heresies like Shinbul (New Buddha) or the Resurrection Church causing trouble.
"...Thank goodness."
Hearing my answer, the Saintess sank deep into her chair. A small sigh of relief reached my ears.
That sigh sounded to me, for some reason, like a goldfish that had swum underwater for a very long time finally blowing bubbles on the surface—bloop.
After that, we consulted closely about how we would cooperate.
I think our relationship was already largely established at this point. From the 36th iteration to the 1183th iteration, the Saintess was almost always a reliable ally watching my back.
"What should we call each other? If I call you Regressor... your identity as Undertaker might be revealed."
The Saintess rested her chin on her hand.
"Hero?"
I immediately waved my hands.
"No, Hero is a bit... Just call me Undertaker."
Regardless of whether the title Hero is embarrassing or not, there was a mental illness associated with it that I couldn't help but detest. I'll talk about this bizarre mental illness later.
"Yes, I understand. Then I'll call you Undertaker from now on."
"That's more comfortable and good. Oh."
Just as we were about to part, I asked.
"By the way, isn't it impossible to act as the Constellations with only Clairvoyance and Telepathy? You have to observe multiple people simultaneously while sending messages. Do you perhaps have other abilities as well?"
"Ah, that's..."
The Saintess hesitated, then smiled small.
"That's a secret. I'll tell you later."
The 'later' the Saintess spoke of unfortunately didn't mean on the timeline of the 36th iteration.
Many more iterations were needed for me to uncover her final secret.
5
This story has an afterword.
Starting from the 36th iteration, forming an alliance with the Saintess immediately after regression became my basic tech tree—like an opening formation in Go.
Now, except for the early period right after regression, the Constellations virtually stopped sending me 'countless hand-shaking requests' like before.
Feeling slightly regretful about that fact, I spent my days.
Around the 134th iteration, a message window floated before my eyes for the first time in ages.
[The 'Operator of the Game of All Things' announces the occurrence of a new event.]
I blinked.
Because the Constellation's name was very unfamiliar.
Game of All Things (萬象)? If I interpreted it, did it mean 'one who operates the pleasure of all things'?
'The Saintess must be playing a prank out of boredom.'
Thinking what a rare occurrence this was, I passed over the message without much thought. Anyway, the message came only once and that was it.
A few days later, when I met the Saintess, I asked.
Not because I was seriously curious, but just as an ice-breaker during our strategy meeting, I lightly tossed out a question.
"By the way, why did you suddenly impersonate a strange Constellation a few days ago?"
"Huh?"
"A week ago. You sent a message under the name 'Operator of the Game of All Things.' I was a bit surprised thinking even the Saintess makes mistakes. Did you send a message meant for another awakener to me by mistake?"
"...?"
The Saintess tilted her head.
"I never sent such a message."
"Excuse me?"
"I never created a Constellation called 'Operator of the Game of All Things' in the first place."
A chill current ran down my spine.
Whether she knew my state or not, the Saintess's expression was indifferent. At least it wasn't a face that was lying.
I had the illusion that the surrounding temperature had dropped for some reason.
"Maybe you saw it wrong, Undertaker?"
"...."
Suddenly, I had the illusion that a deep sea spread beneath my feet and a massive shadow swept past below.
...It seemed there were still many unknown mysteries in this world that I didn't know about.
- Watcher. End.
A regressor telling a story.