Chapter 210

Chapter 210

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The Antagonist VII

I bit my lip. “...The anomaly is rushing because I caught on.”

“Wh-what?”

“What you’re seeing in Guduk Mountain is the Mountain of Knives Hell, and in the plaza, it’s the Boiling Oil Hell. After pulling out Valhalla from the Crystal Tombstones, now it’s summoning Buddhist hells.”

Even as I explained it to my comrades, my mind conjured countless strategies to overcome the situation, only to dismiss them just as quickly.

‘It’s moving too fast.’

Barely a day had passed since I first observed the anomaly in Kim Joo-chul’s dream, and now, the Outer God was launching an all-out assault like it had been preparing for this very moment.

Of course.

That was exactly why the Outer God had hidden inside the Crystal Tombstones for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. It had been waiting for this.

Just as I, a regressor, had spent lifetimes honing the perfect strike to take down anomalies, the Outer God had taken this life to execute a flawless ambush on me.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“H-hyung, something’s wrong.”

Even Seo Gyu, who usually put on a tough front, couldn’t hide the tremble in his voice. The sight of people melting and screaming in boiling liquid right beneath the headquarters building was enough to shake anyone.

“The people aren’t dying. They should be dead after falling into molten metal, but... they keep healing.”

“It’s hell,” I answered. “The Outer God has declared this world a hell. And in hell, no one dies.”

“N-no one dies?”

“Right. Because hell is a place for the dead. All they do is suffer, endlessly. From now on, no one will be able to die―”

At that moment, a bolt of realization struck me.

Ah. Ahhh!

That’s it.

That’s why!

“No one can die, which is why this world has become a hell!”

“What?”

“Think about it, Seo Gyu! I’m a regressor! Because I keep resetting the timeline, everyone in this world has been stuck in a state where they can’t truly die. For hundreds, even thousands of years!” I clenched my teeth. “The Outer God used that very state against us! It defined this world as hell, where people live a life of eternal suffering because they can’t die. It’s not just some anomaly. It’s reshaping the world to fit its own interpretation!”

“......!”

Exactly.

It was a complete reversal of thought. A Copernican shift in perspective.[1]

To anomalies, regressors like me are the ultimate challenge. No matter how powerful they are, I can always reset time and continue my hunt. No matter how hard they struggle, they are bound to lose to a regressor in the end.

But what if they turned the power of regression against me? What if they didn’t stop at saying that the world repeats endlessly because of the regressor, but instead claimed that time loops because the world is an eternal hell where people can’t die?

It was just a shift in perspective, a different interpretation. All the Outer God had to do was define this world not as reality, but as hell, and it could fully exploit my Regression.

Rather than denying my ability, the Goddess of the Night had accepted and twisted it to her advantage.

As long as I continued to use my regression, this world would never stop being hell.

‘Unbelievable.’

A chill ran down my spine.

Shock. And awe.

‘She used me! Instead of trying to destroy me, she planted the seeds of evil within my abilities to corrupt the world!’

Seeing the look of horror on my face, Ah-ryeon and Seo Gyu grew even more unsettled. They were both heavily reliant on me.

The cold, rational voice of the Saintess broke through the ringing in my ears.

“Mr. Undertaker, can’t you just reset the timeline and try again later?”

“...I don’t think so. I already explained it to Noh Do-hwa earlier, but this Outer God has latched onto my very abilities.”

Nut had burrowed into the Crystal Tombstones, feeding off the souls trapped within, and leveraged the fact that regression exists in this world to manifest the concept of hell.

“Even if I reset the timeline, nothing will change. In fact, things will probably get worse,” I summarized.

“Why is that?”

“Right now, at least we’re united as the Regressor Alliance. But if I reset the timeline, all of our relationships would be reset to zero. Meanwhile, Nut’s hell...”

“...would remain intact, because the Crystal Tombstones, sealed with Time Seal, aren’t affected by regression.”

“Yes. And as you can see, it took Nut less than a day to summon hell into this world. But rebuilding our alliance would take far longer than that.”

“...So what was once an advantage for us—regression—has now become a tool for the enemy. When going against this Outer God, regression is actually a detriment to us.”

“That’s right.”

Checkmate.

There was only one way out.

“The only way is...” I hesitated.

“What is it?”

“I need to reset and immediately travel to Onyang to become infected with the Udumbara virus.”

Udumbara. The virus that was called the New Buddha. Once infected, an Awakener would lose all of their abilities.

“If I do that, I’ll lose all of my abilities, including Time Seal and Regression.”

“......”

I had always made sure to take down Udumbara right after resetting, and it was for one very simple reason: Udumbara had the potential to kill a regressor.

The Saintess stared at me with her clear, blue eyes. “Then what happens?”

“I don’t know. In all likelihood, I’ll no longer be able to reset the timeline. The world might be left as it is, only to be destroyed by some anomaly and stay that way forever.”

“......”

“The worst-case scenario is that even after I lose my powers, the world continues to reset.”

“What?” The Saintess blinked. “Ah. You mentioned someone called Schopenhauer. You said he was a regressor too, right?”

Exactly.

There were two regressors in this world. If regressors act as a switch for the timeline reset, even if I were to disappear, there would still be another switch. And right now, that switch was stuck in the ‘on’ position.

I snuck in another point. “Perhaps regression and the world’s cyclical resets aren’t connected at all.”

In fact, I had been keeping this theory in the back of my mind for a long time.

“Maybe it’s not really ‘regression’ at all. Maybe it’s more like the world is caught in a cycle of repetition.”

Imagine the world coming to an end. Then it starts over again. The universe forms from the Big Bang, the first galaxies are born, Earth forms, and life emerges from the oceans to crawl onto land. Eventually, humans are born, civilization rises, and cities are built. Then one day, a person called the Undertaker is born and heads for Busan Station.

As you know, I possess Complete Memory. In the scenario I just described, what if my Complete Memory wasn’t about experiencing multiple lives but rather receiving memories from a certain point? Wouldn’t that essentially be the same as Regression?

“...But didn’t you say you only awakened your Complete Memory in the 4th cycle?”

“The abilities of Awakeners evolve. Maybe my Complete Memory wasn’t fully unlocked until the 4th cycle.”

And the truly terrifying part of this theory was something else.

“Let me summarize.”

I finally voiced it.

“If I become infected with Udumbara, all the people sealed by Time Seal will be released, and I will lose all memories of previous cycles, starting anew from the Busan Station tutorial dungeon.”

Time would pass.

“Time will go on, and eventually, Schopenhauer will return from his vacation. A series of events unknown to me will unfold.”

Time would pass.

“And one day, Schopenhauer might lose his regressor abilities, either by being infected with Udumbara or by encountering an anomaly that surpasses his Regression. The world will eventually be destroyed.”

Time would pass.

“And finally, in some distant future, when the concept of regression is long forgotten, I might once again awaken my powers at Busan Station.”

In other words, everything would start over.

“I would recognize that as the 1st cycle.”

And then. And then. And then.

“The 2nd cycle, the 3rd cycle, and eventually, in the 4th cycle, I’d unlock my Complete Memory and meet Schopenhauer...”

And one day.

“I would once again reach what I recognize as this very moment—the 267th cycle.”

“......”

“...For all I know, I might have already repeated these cycles countless times.”

For so long—ever since I discovered that Udumbara could erase an Awakener’s powers—I had been carrying this fear, silently tormented by the thought. The possibility that the 267th cycle might actually be 267×2, 267×3, 267×267, or even 267×267² or 267×267³. The fear that my entire existence could be nothing more than one colossal failure. It was the deepest fear of any regressor.

If this theory was correct, then yes. The Goddess of the Night, Nut, had been right all along.

This world was indeed hell.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“I don’t want to live anymore! Kill me!”

“Someone, please, just kill me!”

Below the headquarters, hundreds of people continued to melt in the boiling metal. Their screams echoed out to any eardrum with the vicinity, reverberating against the translucent, glass-like barrier that all humans were born with.

The hell that had descended on this world was spreading rapidly. All of Busan’s trees and flowers had turned into swords, and the plazas and alleys were flooded with molten metal.

The Buddhist hells had no end.

Mountain of Knives, Boiling Oil Hell, Frozen Hell, Sword Forest Hell, Tongue Ripping Hell, Snake Hell, Dismemberment Hell, Iron Bed Hell, Storm Hell, Darkness Hell, and beyond these came the Eight Burning Hells, the Black Victory, Intermediate Fusion, Great Roaring, Minor Burning, Major Burning, Avici, and finally, the Eight Cold Hells: Icy Stab, Frostbite, Chilling Wind, Hoo-Hoo Hell, Ho-Ho Hell, Blue Lotus, Red Lotus, and Great Red Lotus.

Those who fell into the Great Red Lotus Hell would spend 25 aeons and 6,000 quintillion years in torment before they could be reborn.

25 aeons and 6,000 quintillion years.

Infinity.

If I didn’t reset, endless hell would unfold. If I reset and got infected by Udumbara, I would face the endless hell of a regressor.

‘Is this...’

I tightly gripped the handle of my cane sword.

The cane that Noh Do-hwa had made for me during the 100th cycle. A reminder that, just as there was chance in life, so too was there fate—and that fate would one day smile upon me.

Yet today, the world beneath my feet felt unbearably thin.

‘Is this the epilogue of my life?’

Squeeze.

Someone placed their hand on mine, covering my grip on the cane.

I turned to see who it was.

“Mr. Undertaker.”

It was the Saintess.

“There’s a flaw in your theory.”

“What?”

“You’re not someone who creates hell. Even if the world is repeating itself, you’re not someone who’s endlessly reincarnating. No, more precisely, right now, you’re not endlessly reliving this moment. There’s a fatal flaw in that theory.”

“...How can you be so sure?”

“Because...”

The light-blue depths of her eyes, which always seemed to gaze at the world from a step removed, looked directly into mine. Those eyes, so like a tranquil sea, seemed to drown out the distant screams of the people around us. Instead, my ears were filled with the quiet murmur of the ocean, as if a gentle wave was lapping at my feet.

In that water, a voice spoke.

Because, she said...

“I’m going to make sure that theory is wrong.”

I blinked. “What? What do you mean―”

“Goodbye for now, Mr. Undertaker.”

A gentle warmth brushed across the back of my hand.

It felt like I was being pulled into the depths of the ocean. Sinking into an unknown abyss.

“I’ll see you soon.”

And then.

Time stopped.

Time stopped.

Tim□ stopped.

Ti□□ stopped.

Ti□□ sto□□ed.

Ti□□ □□□ped.

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Ti□□ □□□□ed.

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An□□□.

And.

“Hello, Mr. Undertaker.”

It was an ordinary greeting. The kind you’d say to someone who had just woken up.

The bright voice washed over me in a greeting. It was a soft, clear sound, like the ocean gently lapping against the shore and lightly brushing your toes.

That sound made me open my eyes.

It felt like no time had passed at all, as if I had simply blinked. So then, why did it feel so strange?

“...Saintess?”

“Yes.”

Her voice caressed my eardrums, and for some reason, it felt like I hadn’t heard it in a long time.

The Saintess’s hand was still holding mine. But the warmth had changed. The temperature, once warm, had grown cool.

It was probably that shift in warmth that made me realize something was off.

After hearing and feeling, my vision finally caught up.

The world was... frozen.

“......”

The swords that had covered the city were now completely still. The molten metal that had flooded the plaza and alleys had also stopped.

The people trapped in the boiling liquid, their screams, Ah-ryeon’s worried gaze, Seo Gyu’s gaping mouth, and Do-hwa tightening her leather gloves.

The entire hellscape.

Everything had stopped.

“Oh.”

A wave of powerful déjà vu hit me.

I’d seen this exact scene somewhere before. It was the hellish landscape that had appeared when I was trapped in the Hell of Infinite Time.

I immediately realized what had caused this frozen world.

I parted my lips. “Saintess, have you... become a Corrupted?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, my god.”

The Saintess’s ability, Time Stop. When pushed to its limit, it could manifest an absurd level of power. This was the first time I had ever witnessed it in reality.

Though, the Saintess had come close to Corruption back in the 107th cycle, she hadn’t fully awakened Time Stop. Not to this degree.

“But Saintess, you didn’t train your aura that much in this cycle. How could you...”

“I did train,” she replied. “By stopping time.”

“......”

“Just taking a few steps was difficult at first. Even breathing was a challenge. But I kept pushing, using my aura to hold it all together.”

Her voice was so calm that it almost sounded like an ordinary training regimen to anyone who might overhear. But I knew better. I understood just how insane that kind of training was.

“No way. If you stop time, your aura would stop too, and you’d have to force it to move bit by bit. It would be like taking a single breath over the span of thirty minutes—or even an hour.”

The Saintess nodded. “Yes. It was very difficult. That’s why it took so long.”

“...How long, exactly?”

“I didn’t count precisely, but I think over 2,000 years.”

“......”

Good Lord.

The Saintess smiled at me as I stood there with my mouth hanging open, stunned. There was a playful hint in her expression.

It was a rare expression, one I hadn’t seen in ages.

“Maybe now,” she said, “I’m finally old enough to be the same age as you.”

Footnotes:

[1] Nicolaus Copernicus was the scientist who popularized the theory that it is Earth that revolves around the sun and not the other way around. This paradigm shift is known as the Copernican Revolution.

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