Episode 22.
A workshop thick with the smell of formalin.
Swish, swish—
In the darkness-shrouded space, a small sound echoed.
A figure toiled diligently, relying on a faint candlelight.
In the candlelight, that hand was covered in wrinkles.
Yet that frail hand moved without rest.
Stab!
The needle in hand pierced through flesh.
Swish.
The thread attached to the needle passed between pieces of skin.
What the wrinkled hand was doing was suturing.
Arms and legs, connecting each part to make one complete body.
What it was, nothing could be certain due to the thick darkness and the feeble candlelight.
However.
"Urg…"
Around him, something standing as if guarding him could be glimpsed.
The flickering candlelight illuminated them. And what they were could be discerned.
"Uuugh…"
What let out those strange cries were corpses with blue-tinged skin.
Several corpses that could emanate neither life nor energy stood up, surrounding and protecting the undertaker's work as if guarding him.
*
A mountain.
And quite a rugged one at that.
Perhaps it felt like the mountain gravesite I used to climb holding my parents' hands when I was young?
Already two hours.
If it were me from not long ago, I might have already collapsed from exhaustion.
"Hoo—"
But now, simply exhaling my heavy breath lightly was enough to restore vitality to my body.
Training that pushed the body to its limits, tearing and recovering muscles in a short time to build maximum muscle—that Hero bastard's regimen had certainly been effective.
Because it had changed this flesh body, which had only ever immersed itself in games and anime, into something worth using.
'If not for this method, I wouldn't have been able to condition my body in such a short time.'
Of course, it was a method I couldn't have even attempted in the first place without the special power known as Strengthening.
"By the way…."
I scanned the surroundings, completely encircled by trees.
I had heard of his location through Chairman Kang.
I had memorized the photos and terrain, but the surrounding mountainscape was so rugged that finding the place wasn't easy.
It was while I was continuously circling the mountain like that.
Zing—
A sense of disorientation, like vertigo, came over me.
It was a phenomenon both familiar and yet somewhat unfamiliar now—something I had felt often during the End.
"…."
I immediately stopped in my tracks.
And scanned the surroundings once more.
It was just ordinary terrain with trees planted densely enough to be suffocating.
Screech—
I left a mark on the giant tree before me with a sharp rock.
And to investigate the surroundings once more, I walked and walked again.
I wondered how much time had passed like that.
"Hah!"
I let out a hollow breath without realizing it.
Before my eyes was the giant tree I had marked just moments ago.
The deep X carved into it was definitely the mark I had made.
This familiar phenomenon indicated only one thing.
"A barrier?"
It was a barrier.
Something that deployed mental-type attacks such as illusions and confusion to hide or protect something.
"Why?!"
For the first time since my regression, I felt flustered.
Barriers were a power that could only be manifested after awakening one's trait—that is, only after the End had begun.
But now, of all places, a barrier was deployed right where I was headed?
'Could it be?'
Was there another regressor like me?
It was a thought that suddenly struck me.
But.
'Like hell!'
The Stone of Regression was a treasure that all the final survivors had barely managed to obtain by joining forces.
And someone other than us had obtained it?
Preposterous.
I might not know about other things, but there was no way the Stone of Regression had fallen into another's hands.
Then, what was thinkable was.
'…Or has the Awakening Ritual begun?'
Half a year before the End, those who had manifested their traits began to appear.
Some called it a blessing from God, others a curse from the Devil, but what was clear regardless was that great chaos had erupted because of it.
It might have been better if everyone had awakened all at once.
But just as if there were some chosen ones, those who awakened first appeared, and even the abilities and effects of their traits varied greatly.
Those who believed themselves chosen sometimes performed good deeds, but most used that power to trample others.
This was just my guess, but perhaps whoever planned the End had aimed for such chaos.
'That's not what's important right now.'
I shook off my thoughts.
No matter what was what, the most important thing right now was to identify the cause of this barrier, this unexpected phenomenon. Of course, breaking the barrier was extremely easy.
'The type is one that distorts the surrounding space.'
It was the most common type of barrier.
Which meant that the trait or power of the one who deployed the barrier wasn't that great yet.
'Probably Jeong Dohwan.'
If a barrier had manifested near his residence, I couldn't help but suspect him.
That was a bit of a big problem.
One who had risen to the ranks of the strong called the Ten Lords without help from any other force.
If it was true that he had awakened early, I had to proceed with matters as quickly as possible.
'It's a beginner barrier. Breaking it is simple.'
To activate a beginner barrier, one needed a center that could emanate that power—in other words, a core that had to be destroyed.
Surely, a symbol capable of manifesting that power had been placed nearby.
"This is it."
The symbol was found immediately.
A stone cairn built artificially.
That suspicious-looking pile of stones, no matter how you looked at it, was kicked down by my foot.
Clatter.
Along with the stones rolling haphazardly across the ground.
Ziiing—
I could feel it.
That the barrier spread around the surroundings had disappeared.
I looked dead ahead.
Where only trees had stood densely packed, a narrow mountain path was now visible.
"…."
I moved forward.
I wondered how far I went like that.
I could confirm a thatched house, rarely seen these days and impossibly shabby.
'As expected!'
It was exactly like the photo Chairman Kang had shown me.
What had been hidden by the barrier was, in fact, Jeong Dohwan's house.
Holding my breath, I slowly approached the house.
Though it was only a beginner barrier, there was no knowing when he had awakened.
No matter that I had regressed, I couldn't help but feel nervous facing one who had reached the ranks of the Ten Lords alone.
As I was slowly approaching the house.
"…A rather charming proposal…."
"…Will become a great power…."
From inside, the sound of conversation could be heard.
Someone who arrived before me?
Could I not obtain some clue? It was when I stopped there and strained my ears to listen to the conversation.
"…You rat!"
Together with the voice that suddenly rang out.
Boom!
Something came crashing through the wall.
Having already predicted the movement.
I pulled my body back and opened distance.
"…."
I stared straight ahead.
A man with slitted eyes and a sleek body, wearing a comfortable black tracksuit as if he had just come out for a stroll around the neighborhood, was visible.
"Hoo. You dodged that?"
His already half-open, drowsy-looking eyes narrowed even further.
"Are you a Prophet too?"
Prophet?
What the hell kind of nonsense was this now?
"…Huh? You look like you have no idea?"
Mid-sentence.
Swoosh!
His body disappeared.
If I were an ordinary person, not a regressor, I would have panicked.
However.
Swish!
The moment that bastard disappeared, I quickly raised my right arm to cover my face.
Thwack!
A kick came crashing down toward that spot.
Feeling a numbing sensation in my wrist, I retreated back once more and opened distance.
"I knew it. You are a Prophet!"
His convinced gaze sharpened.
"Strange. I'm sure that person said there was only one Prophet here…."
The bastard stroked his chin, sinking into thought.
He was acting relaxed with me, his opponent, right in front of him.
'An Awakened.'
And not Jeong Dohwan at that.
No matter how many strange phenomena occurred during the End, you couldn't turn a man in his twenties into an old man in his sixties.
'This is definitely….'
One of the traits that immediately came to mind.
'Swiftness'
While it didn't rank among the hundred cheat-grade traits, it was one with quite a lot of utility.
Its ability was simple.
It granted movement speed beyond the limits a human could normally achieve.
This speed was useful in many ways.
Escape, attack, defense—it was truly applicable in many areas, so from an efficiency standpoint, it was quite a decent trait.
And the slit-eyed bastard before me was displaying it.
'The Awakening Ritual has begun!'
Now I could be certain.
That the Awakening Ritual, which should have begun half a year before the End, had started a whopping five months early.
"…Prophet?"
Together with an unfamiliar voice, figures emerged from the house with a hole in it.
Not one, but two.
One in his mid-thirties, neatly dressed in a gray suit.
'Jeong Dohwan!'
A face I still couldn't forget.
His hair had turned completely white, and his sharp features gave off a crotchety impression.
He was Jeong Dohwan, born with the destiny to become one of the Ten Lords in the near future, specifically the Fourth Lord.
"Elder. Do you know him?"
The middle-aged man in the suit asked Jeong Dohwan.
But he shook his head.
I knew him, but there was no way he would recognize me.
"Who are you guys?"
So I asked.
Because I was curious about the identities of these extremely suspicious bastards.
"What? Us?"
The slit-eyed man and the middle-aged man.
Their gazes intertwined in the air.
"Prophets who will open a new era."
"Prophets?"
"That's right. Prophets."
"Your purpose?"
"An interrogation?"
"If you want to think of it that way."
"There's no reason we can't tell you. We, the Prophets, exist to prepare for the great upheaval and the End that will soon arrive."
"…."
The End.
I never thought that word would come out so early, and from someone else's mouth at that.
"You won't believe it. But it's true. Before long, the world will undergo a great change—the End. It is a trial that current humanity cannot endure."
I could see it.
The pride dwelling in the middle-aged man's eyes.
"But we are different. Prophets. We are chosen beings. That is why the End is not a crisis, but an opportunity."
"…An opportunity?"
Rather grating words.
"An opportunity to lead humanity—to rule over these weaklings!"
Wow, this was a bit shocking.
That people who had already undergone the Awakening Ritual and manifested their traits were trying to band together?
Nothing like this had happened in my past life.
'Strange. Something is changing.'
What the cause was, was obvious.
Me.
The butterfly effect caused by a life turned back through regression.
I had a feeling that this life would not unfold into the same future I had experienced in the past.
The evidence was right before my eyes.
These two suspicious bastards calling themselves Prophets and trying to gather those who had manifested their traits.
I could bet my life that these bastards were undoubtedly forming a specific faction.